Description

Cheng Yan travels through time, only to end up becoming an honorable prince in the Middle Ages of Europe. Yet this world was not quite as simple as he thought. Witches with magical powers abound, and fearsome wars between churches and kingdoms rage throughout the land.

Roland, a prince regarded as hopeless by his own father and assigned to the worst fief, spends his time developing a poor and backward town into a strong and modern city, while fighting against his siblings for the throne and absolute control over the kingdom. Join Roland as he befriends and allies with witches and, through fighting and even farming, pushes back invaders from the realm of evil.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Becoming a Prince
Chapter 2 - The Witch Named Anna (Part I)
Chapter 3 - The Witch Named Anna (Part II)
Chapter 4 - Flame
Chapter 5 - Reasons
Chapter 6 - Training (Part I)
Chapter 7 - Training (Part II)
Chapter 8 - Months of Demons (Part I)
Chapter 9 - Months of Demons (Part II)
Chapter 10 - The Stonemason
Chapter 11 - Princess Garcia
Chapter 12 - Firing the Cement
Chapter 13 - The City Wall
Chapter 14 - The Ability
Chapter 15 - Misconceptions
Chapter 16 - The Road Ahead
Chapter 17 - The Ambassador (Part I)
Chapter 18 - The Ambassador (Part II)
Chapter 19 - The Lecture
Chapter 20 - Nightingale
Chapter 21 - I'm Not Going Anywhere
Chapter 22 - The Declaration
Chapter 23 - The Source of Power
Chapter 24 - The Development Plan
Chapter 25 - The Militia
Chapter 26 - The Experience Learned from History
Chapter 27 - The Past
Chapter 28 - Fierce Scar
Chapter 29 - Brian's Anger
Chapter 30 - Coming from the Mist
Chapter 31 - [Our] Friend
Chapter 32 - The Knight
Chapter 33 - The Gunpowder
Chapter 34 - The Trial Blasting
Chapter 35 - The Home
Chapter 36 - The Negotiation
Chapter 37 - Tigui Pine's Family History
Chapter 38 - The Era of Firearms
Chapter 39 - The Winter
Chapter 40 - A Family Letter
Chapter 41 - Demonic Beasts Appear
Chapter 42 - An Accident
Chapter 43 - Be Strong
Chapter 44 - The Unspoken Answer
Chapter 45 - The Conspiracy (Part I)
Chapter 46 - The Conspiracy (Part II)
Chapter 47 - The Market and Cycle
Chapter 48 - The Assembly
Chapter 49 - The Demonic Hybrid
Chapter 50 - The Wall of Flame
Chapter 51 - Her Majesty the Queen
Chapter 52 - The Flame of the Heart (Part I)
Chapter 53 - The Flame of the Heart (Part II)
Chapter 54 - The [Bad News]
Chapter 55 - A Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity
Chapter 56 - In the Mountains
Chapter 57 - [Snake Witch] Cara
Chapter 58 - Escape
Chapter 59 - An Explorer
Chapter 60 - Arrangements
Chapter 61 - The Return
Chapter 62 - The Oath
Chapter 63 - The Story of Nightingale's Past
Chapter 64 - Curiosity
Chapter 65 - The Inauspicious Omen
Chapter 66 - The Battle of Hermes (I)
Chapter 67 - The Battle of Hermes (II)
Chapter 68 - The Funeral
Chapter 69 - Producing Cannons
Chapter 70 - The Spy (Part I)
Chapter 71 - The Spy (Part II)
Chapter 72 - The Palace Discussions in the King's City
Chapter 73 - The Cannon Test
Chapter 74 - The Shipbuilding Program
Chapter 75 - The Holy Mountain (Part I)
Chapter 76 - The Holy Mountain (Part II)
Chapter 77 - The Holy Mountain (Part III)
Chapter 78 - The Companionship
Chapter 79 - The Answer
Chapter 80 - The Artillery Squad
Chapter 81 - The Artillery Training
Chapter 82 - The Initial Sail of The Littletown
Chapter 83 - The Cart Driver from the Northern Region
Chapter 84 - Hermes' Underground Castle
Chapter 85 - The Road of Thorns
Chapter 86 - The Choice of the Witches
Chapter 87 - The Winter Twilight (Part I)
Chapter 88 - The Twilight of Winter (Part II)
Chapter 89 - The Celebration (Part I)
Chapter 90 - The Celebration (Part II)
Chapter 91 - The Heart Prison
Chapter 92 - The Regrouping of the Platoon
Chapter 93 - The Corps Framework
Chapter 94 - No Reason for the Demolition
Chapter 95 - The Encounter
Chapter 96 - Leaf
Chapter 97 - New Witches, New Abilities (Part I)
Chapter 98 - New Witches, New Abilities (Part II)
Chapter 99 - The Night Chat
Chapter 100 - The Ancient Book and the Relic (Part I)
Chapter 101 - The Ancient Book and the Relic (Part II)
Chapter 102 - The Honeysuckles and the Elks (Part I)
Chapter 103 - The Honeysuckles and the Elks (Part II)
Chapter 104 - The Planning and Recreation
Chapter 105 - The Military Music
Chapter 106 - A Different Reason
Chapter 107 - Will You Marry a Witch?
Chapter 108 - Echo (Part I)
Chapter 109 - Echo (Part II)
Chapter 110 - The Battle of Eagle City (Part I)
Chapter 111 - The War of The Eagle City (Part II)
Chapter 112 - The War of Eagle City (Part III)
Chapter 113 - An Alert
Chapter 114 - The Sound of Thunders
Chapter 115 - Defending Border Town (Part I)
Chapter 116 - Defending Border Town (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 117 - The Pursue and Attack (Part I)
Chapter 118 - The Pursue and Attack (Part II)
Chapter 119 - The Ransom (Part I)
Chapter 120 - The Ransom (Part II)
Chapter 121 - The Looting
Chapter 122 - The Father and The Son
Chapter 123 - The Offer of the Church
Chapter 124 - Returning to the Town
Chapter 125 - The Municipal Construction of Border Town
Chapter 126 - The Transformation of Wheat
Chapter 127 - Wendy
Chapter 128 - The Pill Test
Chapter 129 - The Course Reopening
Chapter 130 - An Evolved Ability
Chapter 131 - The Forms of Magic Power
Chapter 132 - The Knight of the Elk Family (Part I)
Chapter 133 - The Knight of the Elk Family (Part II)
Chapter 134 - Morning Light
Chapter 135 - Starting from the Basics
Chapter 136 - The Predicament
Chapter 137 - The Secret Talk
Chapter 138 - Setting up the Ministry of Agriculture
Chapter 139 - A Demon's Authority
Chapter 140 - The Plant Seeds
Chapter 141 - A Kiss
Chapter 142 - The Tramroad
Chapter 143 - The Migrants
Chapter 144 - The Real Feelings
Chapter 145 - The Quest of Pursuit (Part I)
Chapter 146 - The Quest of Pursuit (Part II)
Chapter 147 - The Emissary Delegation
Chapter 148 - A Merchant from the King's City (Part I)
Chapter 149 - A Merchant from the King's City (Part II)
Chapter 150 - A Stone Tower
Chapter 151 - The Negotiation (Part I)
Chapter 152 - The Negotiation (Part II)
Chapter 153 - The Alchemy (Part I)
Chapter 154 - The Alchemy (Part II)
Chapter 155 - The New Visitors
Chapter 156 - The Puzzles
Chapter 157 - Ashes (Part I)
Chapter 158 - Ashes (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 159 - The Most Powerful Persuasion
Chapter 160 - The Confrontation
Chapter 161 - Alchemy and Chemistry
Chapter 162 - The Pistol Drills
Chapter 163 - The Witch Maggie
Chapter 164 - Acid Preparation
Chapter 165 - The Chase
Chapter 166 - The Night before the Final Battle
Chapter 167 - Victory or Defeat
Chapter 168 - Ashes' Past
Chapter 169 - The Farewell
Chapter 170 - A Gift from an Avenger (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 171 - A Gift from an Avenger (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 172 - A New Play
Chapter 173 - Irene's Wish
Chapter 174 - The Industrial Park
Chapter 175 - The Hot Air Balloon Tour
Chapter 176 - The Answer in Her Heart
Chapter 177 - The Will of the Church
Chapter 178 - The Pivotal Secret Temple
Chapter 179 - The Incarnation Ceremony
Chapter 180 - The Census
Chapter 181 - Soraya's [Painting]
Chapter 182 - The Shaft Furnace
Chapter 183 - The Construction Plan of Border Town
Chapter 184 - Self
Chapter 185 - The Star of the Theater (Part I)
Chapter 186 - The Star of the Theater (Part II)
Chapter 187 - The New Merchants Group
Chapter 188 - [The Play Begins!]
Chapter 189 - The Star and the Flower
Chapter 190 - The Victory and Defeat
Chapter 191 - The Teeth of the New King
Chapter 192 - Under the Curtain of Night
Chapter 193 - The Castle Toilets
Chapter 194 - Lily
Chapter 195 - The Answer
Chapter 196 - The Church Disaster
Chapter 197 - The Preparation for Engaging the Enemy
Chapter 198 - The Unexpected Opening
Chapter 199 - The Battle of Chaos
Chapter 200 - The Hunter and The Prey
Chapter 201 - Back to Longsong Stronghold
Chapter 202 - The Road to Development
Chapter 203 - The Home
Chapter 204 - Tilly Wimbledon
Chapter 205 - The Microscope
Chapter 206 - [A Swarm of Worms]
Chapter 207 - Parent Population and Clones
Chapter 208 - [I Am an Idiot.]
Chapter 209 - The Convenience Market
Chapter 210 - To Leave or to Stay
Chapter 211 - The Light Industry
Chapter 212 - The Caravan and News
Chapter 213 - A Plan on Paddle Steamers
Chapter 214 - A Trip to the King's City
Chapter 215 - The Skeleton Fingers
Chapter 216 - The Demonic Plague
Chapter 217 - The Origin of the Disease
Chapter 218 - Lucia
Chapter 219 - Sisters
Chapter 220 - Assembly and Disassembly
Chapter 221 - A Rescue Plan
Chapter 222 - A Long-anticipated Victory!
Chapter 223 - The Premeditation
Chapter 224 - Launching the Rescue
Chapter 225 - The Avenger
Chapter 226 - The Action in the City
Chapter 227 - The Informer
Chapter 228 - Faceless
Chapter 229 - The Eve of Returning Day
Chapter 230 - The Assassination (Part I)
Chapter 231 - The Assassination (Part II)
Chapter 232 - The Shadow Islands
Chapter 233 - The Ancient Ruins
Chapter 234 - [The Door]
Chapter 235 - An unexpected Letter
Chapter 236 - The Chemical Accident
Chapter 237 - The Invitation
Chapter 238 - How Could I Regret?
Chapter 239 - The Midnight Snack
Chapter 240 - The Honors Ceremony
Chapter 241 - The Liberation
Chapter 242 - Constructing New Area
Chapter 243 - The Establishment of Intelligence Bureau
Chapter 244 - The Identity Registration
Chapter 245 - The Tools of Transportation
Chapter 246 - The New Gunpowder Plan
Chapter 247 - The Graduation Ceremony
Chapter 248 - The Mutation
Chapter 249 - The New Clearwater
Chapter 250 - The End of Midsummer
Chapter 251 - Fly Again
Chapter 252 - A New Round of Purchasing
Chapter 253 - The Hot Air Balloon Trade
Chapter 254 - The Alliance
Chapter 255 - The Welcome
Chapter 256 - The Prologue to a New Life
Chapter 257 - The Mystery
Chapter 258 - The Witches from the Sleepy Island (Part I)
Chapter 259 - The Witches from the Sleepy Island (Part II)
Chapter 260 - The Scented Soap and Liquor
Chapter 261 - The Gift
Chapter 262 - The Bridge over Redwater River
Chapter 263 - [The Wheat Is Ripe]
Chapter 264 - A Bumper Harvest
Chapter 265 - The Last Enemy
Chapter 266 - The Determination
Chapter 267 - A Predestined End
Chapter 268 - The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 269 - The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 270 - High Pressure Tanks
Chapter 271 - The Elements
Chapter 272 - The North Slope Mine
Chapter 273 - The God's Stone of Retaliation
Chapter 274 - The Test
Chapter 275 - Lucia and Nightingale
Chapter 276 - The Research and Development of New Cannons
Chapter 277 - The Conflict in the Theater
Chapter 278 - The Operation Plan
Chapter 279 - The Battle Line
Chapter 280 - The Ambush on Redwater River (Part I)
Chapter 281 - The Ambushes on Redwater River (PartⅡ)
Chapter 282 - The Stage
Chapter 283 - The Hydrogen Balloon Delivery
Chapter 284 - The Company
Chapter 285 - The Answer
Chapter 286 - [Transformation]
Chapter 287 - Building a Soap Plant
Chapter 288 - Mentor and Student
Chapter 289 - The West of the Western Region
Chapter 290 - The Investigation Plan
Chapter 291 - The Notice
Chapter 292 - The Precise Guided Bomb
Chapter 293 - The Night Before
Chapter 294 - The Demon Attack
Chapter 295 - Spread Your Wings
Chapter 296 - The Demons
Chapter 297 - The Blazing Heart
Chapter 298 - The Dream
Chapter 299 - The Intelligence and The Messenger
Chapter 300 - The Witch Building
Chapter 301 - The Bomb and The Wine
Chapter 302 - The Battle Horn
Chapter 303 - Preparation for Aerial Attack
Chapter 304 - The Unexpected Surprise
Chapter 305 - The Chemical Breakthrough
Chapter 306 - In the Castle Backyard
Chapter 307 - A Knell from the Sky
Chapter 308 - Terror
Chapter 309 - An Exploration of Knowledge
Chapter 310 - The Pure Witches
Chapter 311 - Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 312 - Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 313 - Battle of Souls
Chapter 314 - Total Annihilation
Chapter 315 - A Celebration Party
Chapter 316 - The Second Exploration into the Stone Tower
Chapter 317 - [The Frozen Coffin]
Chapter 318 - The Unknown
Chapter 319 - Snow in Fall
Chapter 320 - Sleeping Spell
Chapter 321 - The Laws of Border Town
Chapter 322 - Western Territory Security Bureau
Chapter 323 - The Public Security Team
Chapter 324 - The Omen from the Seas
Chapter 325 - The Arrow of Light
Chapter 326 - The Contact
Chapter 327 - The Reason
Chapter 328 - The Formal Talks
Chapter 329 - Sounding of the Horn
Chapter 330 - Farewell
Chapter 331 - The Key of Art
Chapter 332 - Experiences
Chapter 333 - The Defensive Battle on the New City Wall
Chapter 334 - Distressed
Chapter 335 - The Drastic Change
Chapter 336 - Worm Stomach
Chapter 337 - Rescue
Chapter 338 - Police
Chapter 339 - The Assassins
Chapter 340 - The Reason of Employment
Chapter 341 - The Transportation Corridor
Chapter 342 - Strategy
Chapter 343 - Hope to Restore Order
Chapter 344 - Bygones (Part I)
Chapter 345 - Bygones (Part II)
Chapter 346 - Bygones (Part III)
Chapter 347 - Confusions
Chapter 348 - Mortals and Extraordinaries
Chapter 349 - Passing On (Part I)
Chapter 350 - Passing On (Part II)
Chapter 351 - Illusions (Part I)
Chapter 352 - Illusion (Part II)
Chapter 353 - The Quest Society
Chapter 354 - The Magic Stone
Chapter 355 - Miracles
Chapter 356 - 「152！」
Chapter 357 - Unfinished-work
Chapter 358 - Invitation
Chapter 359 - Different Choices
Chapter 360 - Ice
Chapter 361 - Expansion
Chapter 362 - Predicament
Chapter 363 - New Trading Route
Chapter 364 - Double Image
Chapter 365 - The Journey to the West
Chapter 366 - Paper
Chapter 367 - The First Step to Building the City
Chapter 368 - Filling in the Gaps
Chapter 369 - Changes
Chapter 370 - Rhythm
Chapter 371 - The Heart of the Forest
Chapter 372 - Leisure
Chapter 373 - A Clue at the Market
Chapter 374 - Returning Home
Chapter 375 - Last Wish
Chapter 376 - The Castle's new facilities
Chapter 377 - Under Low Temperatures
Chapter 378 - Oxygen and Nitrogen
Chapter 379 - Attack
Chapter 380 - Flesh and Blood
Chapter 381 - Evelyn's Resolution
Chapter 382 - Final Exam
Chapter 383 - The Bite
Chapter 384 - Sin and Redemption
Chapter 385 - Cause and Effect
Chapter 386 - A Different Story
Chapter 387 - Inheritance
Chapter 388 - The Sigil of God's Will
Chapter 389 - Entrust
Chapter 390 - Winter
Chapter 391 - The Sigil's Secret
Chapter 392 - Determination
Chapter 393 - New Boats Entering the Water
Chapter 394 - The Seed of a Navy
Chapter 395 - Deep down inside the Winter Forest
Chapter 396 - The Fierce Battle
Chapter 397 - A Close Study
Chapter 398 - Puzzle
Chapter 399 - Contact
Chapter 400 - Alliance Agreement
Chapter 401 - Winter in the Fjords
Chapter 402 - Organizational Structure
Chapter 403 - Student and Teacher
Chapter 404 - The Journey to Magnetoelectricity
Chapter 405 - Accompany
Chapter 406 - The Limitation of Magic Power
Chapter 407 - Tilly's Questioning
Chapter 408 - The Conundrum
Chapter 409 - A Reliable Ally
Chapter 410 - Expectations
Chapter 411 - The Vow
Chapter 412 - Sneaking into the Fallen Dragon Ridge
Chapter 413 - The Incident
Chapter 414 - The Conspiracy
Chapter 415 - The Fight
Chapter 416 - Retreat
Chapter 417 - Strike back
Chapter 418 - Finish the Fighting
Chapter 419 - Faith
Chapter 420 - The Lord's Response
Chapter 421 - The Interrogation
Chapter 422 - Public Trial
Chapter 423 - The Connection
Chapter 424 - The Dawn I
Chapter 425 - The Utilization of Energy
Chapter 426 - The Shining Starlight
Chapter 427 - The Aftermath
Chapter 428 - An Exploration of Magic Power
Chapter 429 - Element Separation
Chapter 430 - [The Star of Steel]
Chapter 431 - From the Kingdom of Dawn
Chapter 432 - An Encounter
Chapter 433 - Unrequited Love
Chapter 434 - The Birthday Gift
Chapter 435 - Arrested
Chapter 436 - The Indeterminable Appointment
Chapter 437 - A Silent Farewell
Chapter 438 - Electricity and Light
Chapter 439 - The Crime Scene
Chapter 440 - The Court Trial
Chapter 441 - Storm Clouds
Chapter 442 - The Approval of God
Chapter 443 - The Conspiracy
Chapter 444 - The Intelligence
Chapter 445 - Ready to Strike
Chapter 446 - Here Comes the Giant Beast
Chapter 447 - The Reaper
Chapter 448 - A Hail of Bullets
Chapter 449 - The Course of War
Chapter 450 - Old Friends
Chapter 451 - Aspirations
Chapter 452 - The Unification
Chapter 453 - Dealing with the Aftermath
Chapter 454 - Pensions and Punishment
Chapter 455 - The Second Step of City Construction
Chapter 456 - The Differences
Chapter 457 - The Music of Fantasy
Chapter 458 - The Song of Resonance
Chapter 459 - Snaketooth (Part I)
Chapter 460 - Snaketooth (Part II)
Chapter 461 - Respective Beliefs
Chapter 462 - The Determination
Chapter 463 - The Elimination of Bloodyhand Gang
Chapter 464 - The Changes
Chapter 465 - Inner Peace and Disturbance
Chapter 466 - Reappearance
Chapter 467 - You're Irreplaceable
Chapter 468 - The Return
Chapter 469 - Don't Make Her Wait Forever
Chapter 470 - The New Warship
Chapter 471 - A Reunion
Chapter 472 - A Pledge of Love
Chapter 473 - The Third Step of City Construction
Chapter 474 - The Killing Machine
Chapter 475 - The Light
Chapter 476 - The Victory Day
Chapter 477 - Love and Affection
Chapter 478 - Witnessing the Establishment of the New City
Chapter 479 - Choice of Nightingale's Heart
Chapter 480 - The Wedding
Chapter 481 - The City of Neverwinter
Chapter 482 - Zero's Will
Chapter 483 - The Distance to God (Part I)
Chapter 484 - The Distance to God (Part II)
Chapter 485 - The Day of Leaving
Chapter 486 - A Call for Help
Chapter 487 - The Guarding Shield
Chapter 488 - The Breeding Ground for Evil
Chapter 489 - Tracking down the Criminal
Chapter 490 - The Real Target
Chapter 491 - An Assassination Story
Chapter 492 - Reality & Illusion
Chapter 493 - The Gem Mine
Chapter 494 - New Resources
Chapter 495 - On Top of the Sealine
Chapter 496 - Under the Deep Sea
Chapter 497 - A Chaotic Departure
Chapter 498 - The Roland Gunboat
Chapter 499 - Prelude to the Spring Offensive
Chapter 500 - Body of Steel (Part I)
Chapter 501 - Body of Steel (Part II)
Chapter 502 - Body of Steel (Part III)
Chapter 503 - The Battle of King's City (Part I)
Chapter 504 - The Battle of King's City (Part II)
Chapter 505 - The Battle of King's City (Part III)
Chapter 506 - No One Could Escape
Chapter 507 - The Wind-up
Chapter 508 - The Game
Chapter 509 - To Become a King
Chapter 510 - The Flower of Revenge
Chapter 511 - Whispers at Nightfall
Chapter 512 - An Old Friend and a New Friend
Chapter 513 - [Magic Hand] Yorko
Chapter 514 - The [Hypothesis of the Spirits]
Chapter 515 - The Magic Painting
Chapter 516 - The Music of Recovery
Chapter 517 - The Real Alchemy
Chapter 518 - The New Journey of Magic Hand
Chapter 519 - The Secret within the Stars
Chapter 520 - The Star of Extinction
Chapter 521 - The Star Watcher
Chapter 522 - A Drastic Change in the Northern Region
Chapter 523 - The Blood Pearl
Chapter 524 - A Night of Bloodshed
Chapter 525 - Return to King's City
Chapter 526 - The Alchemist Workshop
Chapter 527 - The Ultimate Goal of Alchemy
Chapter 528 - Turning Stone into Gold
Chapter 529 - The Returned Witch
Chapter 530 - Lotus' Concerns
Chapter 531 - The Romance
Chapter 532 - A Tempting Idea
Chapter 533 - An Unexpected Incident
Chapter 534 - The Value of Witches
Chapter 535 - The Gun of a Protector
Chapter 536 - The Dream (Part I)
Chapter 537 - The Dream (Part II)
Chapter 538 - The Wheel of Time
Chapter 539 - The Melting Ice
Chapter 540 - Different Concerns
Chapter 541 - The Mists of Bloodfang Association
Chapter 542 - The Wicked Journey
Chapter 543 - The Turning Point
Chapter 544 - A New Source of Power
Chapter 545 - Battle Rehearsal
Chapter 546 - The Mystery of God's Stones
Chapter 547 - Operation [Melting Point]
Chapter 548 - Ensnaring the Demons
Chapter 549 - Agatha's Decision
Chapter 550 - The Slaughter
Chapter 551 - The Senior Demon
Chapter 552 - The Magic Slayer
Chapter 553 - The Trophy
Chapter 554 - Reaching the City of Neverwinter
Chapter 555 - The Beginning of the Negotiation
Chapter 556 - The Bottom Line
Chapter 557 - Damage Testing
Chapter 558 - Beauty
Chapter 559 - A Discussion about the System
Chapter 560 - Uncovering the Truth
Chapter 561 - The Magic Power of Blood
Chapter 562 - The Witnesses
Chapter 563 - Joan
Chapter 564 - The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Graycastle
Chapter 565 - A Delay
Chapter 566 - A Promise and A Mission
Chapter 567 - Explosive Shells
Chapter 568 - The Dry Distillation Tower
Chapter 569 - Power Threatened
Chapter 570 - Edith's Reasons
Chapter 571 - The Duke and Father
Chapter 572 - The Song of Praise
Chapter 573 - The Battle of Fallen Dragon Ridge
Chapter 574 - The Expansion of Education
Chapter 575 - Wendy's Expectation
Chapter 576 - Deep Inside the Palace
Chapter 577 - The Silent Massacre
Chapter 578 - A Life-or-death Report
Chapter 579 - Two Incoming Letters
Chapter 580 - The Tooth Extraction Campaign
Chapter 581 - Late Night Talk
Chapter 582 - Military Strategy
Chapter 583 - Anna's Secret
Chapter 584 - The Estuary
Chapter 585 - The Day of Embarkment
Chapter 586 - The Battle of Redwater City
Chapter 587 - A Nameless Victim
Chapter 588 - A Knight and You
Chapter 589 - The Storm in the Fjords
Chapter 590 - The Witches War
Chapter 591 - The New Journey
Chapter 592 - An Unexpected Change
Chapter 593 - The Blackstone Forest
Chapter 594 - Shallow Beach and Reunion
Chapter 595 - Germination
Chapter 596 - Home of the Free
Chapter 597 - Blood and Fang
Chapter 598 - The End of Her Dream
Chapter 599 - A Retrospection of Magic Power
Chapter 600 - A Shocking Event
Chapter 601 - The Stargazer
Chapter 602 - Star Omen
Chapter 603 - Prelude to Battle
Chapter 604 - Anna's Determination
Chapter 605 - Exchanging Promises
Chapter 606 - Father and Daughter
Chapter 607 - Lighting the Beacon
Chapter 608 - Coldwind Ridge
Chapter 609 - Entering the Battlefield
Chapter 610 - The Hunter
Chapter 611 - Protected
Chapter 612 - Battle's End
Chapter 613 - Interrogation
Chapter 614 - Agatha's Prediction
Chapter 615 - Wavering Faith
Chapter 616 - The Violent Tide Rises
Chapter 617 - The Rose of Coldwind Ridge
Chapter 618 - A Posthumous Child
Chapter 619 - An Unstoppable Path (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 620 - An Unstoppable Path (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 621 - Sleepless Night
Chapter 622 - The Flames of Thunder
Chapter 623 - Battle to the death
Chapter 624 - Devastation
Chapter 625 - The Decisive Battle
Chapter 626 - Battle of Fate (I)
Chapter 627 - The Intertwined Battle of Fate (II)
Chapter 628 - The Intertwined Battle of Fate (III)
Chapter 629 - After the Decisive Battle
Chapter 630 - The Captive Pure Witch
Chapter 631 - Promises Then and Now
Chapter 632 - Out of Deep Sleep
Chapter 633 - [Welcome Back]
Chapter 634 - Nothing to Fear
Chapter 635 - The Apartment of Souls
Chapter 636 - Illusory Reality
Chapter 637 - Development Plan
Chapter 638 - The Temptation of the Periodic Table of Elements
Chapter 639 - Isabella
Chapter 640 - Dream World Hypotheses
Chapter 641 - The Door to the Fragment
Chapter 642 - First Exploration
Chapter 643 - How to Make a Fortune
Chapter 644 - Diplomacy in the New Era
Chapter 645 - Farewell and Promise
Chapter 646 - Hotpot
Chapter 647 - A Confession
Chapter 648 - Otto's Request
Chapter 649 - [Black Money]
Chapter 650 - A Special Slave
Chapter 651 - The Auction
Chapter 652 - The Witch and Accident
Chapter 653 - An Unexpected Guest
Chapter 654 - The Compensation of [Black Money]
Chapter 655 - In the Depth of the Limestone Cave
Chapter 656 - The Oracle and the Chosen One
Chapter 657 - A Secret Shared by Two Girls
Chapter 658 - Dreams and Steel
Chapter 659 - Rules of the Dream World
Chapter 660 - Manifestation of Power
Chapter 661 - The Star Cyclone
Chapter 662 - The Defensive Line
Chapter 663 - The Spectacle
Chapter 664 - The Mystery Moon Detective Squad
Chapter 665 - Chaos
Chapter 666 - The Good and Bad News
Chapter 667 - Chaos Drinks
Chapter 668 - Dispersion Star Astrologer
Chapter 669 - Diplomatic Turmoil
Chapter 670 - The Sad Ambassador
Chapter 671 - A Turbulent Situation
Chapter 672 - Hero
Chapter 673 - A Sacrifice
Chapter 674 - No. 76
Chapter 675 - Last Hope
Chapter 676 - The Pursuit
Chapter 677 - The Promised Reunion
Chapter 678 - The New Orders of the Fjords
Chapter 679 - A Generous Return
Chapter 680 - The Joint Chamber of Commerce
Chapter 681 - The Preparation of Sleeping Island
Chapter 682 - A Never Lonely Road
Chapter 683 - The Desert Plan
Chapter 684 - The First Winter Snow
Chapter 685 - Overwhelming Disaster
Chapter 686 - The Legacy of Deities
Chapter 687 - The Secret of the Relic
Chapter 688 - Arrival at the Western Region
Chapter 689 - First Contact
Chapter 690 - Witches vs. Witches
Chapter 691 - The Path into the City
Chapter 692 - A New Hope
Chapter 693 - The Ideal Place
Chapter 694 - "Beams of Light"
Chapter 695 - The Encounter
Chapter 696 - Victory of the Wise
Chapter 697 - Meeting Garcia at Night
Chapter 698 - Nightingale's Suspicion
Chapter 699 - An Unappeasable Mood
Chapter 700 - The First Senior Witch
Chapter 701 - A Hundred Years of Evolution
Chapter 702 - Someone Impossible to Meet
Chapter 703 - Coming from the Past
Chapter 704 - A Cross-era Talk
Chapter 705 - The Hand
Chapter 706 - The Formal Meeting, the Before and After of the Dispute
Chapter 707 - The Queen Of Starfall City's Path
Chapter 708 - Testing the Light Beams
Chapter 709 - A Different Key
Chapter 710 - Elimination and Innovation
Chapter 711 - Bare Heart
Chapter 712 - Parade Plan
Chapter 713 - A Better Performance
Chapter 714 - A New Life
Chapter 715 - The Feelings of Combat Witches
Chapter 716 - Seeing Annie Again
Chapter 717 - Hunting Competition
Chapter 718 - Loyalty to Her Belief
Chapter 719 - "The New Union"
Chapter 720 - The Competition Results and Admission Ceremony
Chapter 721 - Artillery Exercise
Chapter 722 - Resplendent Blaze
Chapter 723 - Power to Shake the Sky
Chapter 724 - A Higher Level of Power
Chapter 725 - Bet And Promise
Chapter 726 - Tide of Demonic Beasts
Chapter 727 - The Instrument of Divine Retribution
Chapter 728 - A Surprising Communication
Chapter 729 - Recasting the Broken Sword
Chapter 730 - News from the Mountains
Chapter 731 - The First Contact
Chapter 732 - An Ideal Beginning
Chapter 733 - The Time Before the Past
Chapter 734 - The Root of the Divergence
Chapter 735 - Legacy of the Civilization
Chapter 736 - The Giant Paintings and the Divine Will
Chapter 737 - The Leader
Chapter 738 - Only One Leader
Chapter 739 - The Handshake
Chapter 740 - A Beautiful Night
Chapter 741 - The Art of Sound Transmission……
Chapter 742 - Love From a Distance
Chapter 743 - The Desert Mission
Chapter 744 - One Who Seeks a Revenge
Chapter 745 - Furious Thunder
Chapter 746 - A Burning Night
Chapter 747 - The Sniper
Chapter 748 - A New Osha Clan
Chapter 749 - Osha's Present
Chapter 750 - An Unexpected Thunder
Chapter 751 - [Devourer] Fran
Chapter 752 - Detective Group, Another Strike!
Chapter 753 - The Truth Reappears
Chapter 754 - The Master of Worms
Chapter 755 - Crisis Management
Chapter 756 - Magic Power Tide
Chapter 757 - Sharon
Chapter 758 - Inherited Belief
Chapter 759 - Second Transformation
Chapter 760 - Land of Fire
Chapter 761 - Holy Duel
Chapter 762 - Music, Rapid Fire, and Strength!
Chapter 763 - The Female Lycanthrope
Chapter 764 - The Miracle Route
Chapter 765 - The Last Battle
Chapter 766 - Ashes Against Lorgar!
Chapter 767 - Extraordinary Training Method
Chapter 768 - Bloodbathed Battle
Chapter 769 - Unyielding Will
Chapter 770 - Echo and Drow Silvermoon
Chapter 771 - Desert Promise
Chapter 772 - The Arrival of the Relics
Chapter 773 - The Third Border City
Chapter 774 - "Divine Domain"
Chapter 775 - Hello, World
Chapter 776 - Contrary to Common Sense
Chapter 777 - Question and Answer
Chapter 778 - Commandeering a Meeting
Chapter 779 - The King's Decision
Chapter 780 - Edith's Little Game
Chapter 781 - Sand Road, Wolf Heart
Chapter 782 - Say Goodbye
Chapter 783 - Where I Belong
Chapter 784 - Together with Worms
Chapter 785 - An Intruder
Chapter 786 - The First Dreaming Experience
Chapter 787 - Go! To the New World!
Chapter 788 - Gourmet Journey
Chapter 789 - A Guess on the Soul Transfer
Chapter 790 - A New Fallen Evil
Chapter 791 - A Coming Crisis in the Dreamland
Chapter 792 - The Reason Behind the Decision
Chapter 793 - The Ancient Witch's Discovery
Chapter 794 - A Sweet Dream
Chapter 795 - A Kind Heart
Chapter 796 - First Action of Pioneering Team
Chapter 797 - Body of Magic
Chapter 798 - The Will of the World
Chapter 799 - Changes
Chapter 800 - The Revived Harbor
Chapter 801 - Endless City
Chapter 802 - Ironwhip Discipline
Chapter 803 - "Festivity"
Chapter 804 - An Accident at the Snow Mountain
Chapter 805 - Down the Abyss
Chapter 806 - An "Egg"
Chapter 807 - Inside the Ruins
Chapter 808 - Close Quarter Combat
Chapter 809 - The Moment of Crisis
Chapter 810 - A Dilemma
Chapter 811 - Battle in the Mist
Chapter 812 - Segmentation
Chapter 813 - "Monster"
Chapter 814 - Impartial person
Chapter 815 - Discoveries and Decisions
Chapter 816 - [Deep Sea Demons]
Chapter 817 - Meeting Ashes Again
Chapter 818 - The Neverwinter Power Rankings
Chapter 819 - A Graceful Lady
Chapter 820 - The Journey
Chapter 821 - A Meeting
Chapter 822 - Traitors
Chapter 823 - Dark Clouds over Hermes
Chapter 824 - The Symbol of the Fall
Chapter 825 - Dusk Tolls
Chapter 826 - Conference of Agriculture Mobilization Movement
Chapter 827 - War Supplies
Chapter 828 - Nightingale's Secret Plan
Chapter 829 - Findings at the Snow Mountain
Chapter 830 - The Function of the Mutated Bug
Chapter 831 - A Decision with No Regrets
Chapter 832 - An Encounter with the King
Chapter 833 - An Unexpected Conversation
Chapter 834 - Let's Drink and Celebrate
Chapter 835 - Multiple Ways of Selling Chaos Drinks
Chapter 836 - Signs of Change
Chapter 837 - Letter to the Sleeping Island
Chapter 838 - A Special Day
Chapter 839 - Hero's Tears
Chapter 840 - Black Blood
Chapter 841 - The Application of Blackwater
Chapter 842 - Chicken-and-duck Knight
Chapter 843 - The Conduct of A Loyal Official
Chapter 844 - Messages Arriving at the Same Time
Chapter 845 - Eye of the Branch Nest
Chapter 846 - Factional Conflicts
Chapter 847 - Now Is the Time
Chapter 848 - Mission Pure Witch
Chapter 849 - The King's Orders
Chapter 850 - A Lone Wolf
Chapter 851 - An Invitation from the Neverwinter Exploration Group
Chapter 852 - A Like-minded Friend
Chapter 853 - Preparing for the Battle
Chapter 854 - An Unexpected Invitation in the Dream World
Chapter 855 - Power and Responsibility
Chapter 856 - Prism City
Chapter 857 - The Nature Of the Erosion
Chapter 858 - The Membrane Overlaid
Chapter 859 - Two-Pronged Attack
Chapter 860 - Their Respective Journeys
Chapter 861 - The Redwater Plot
Chapter 862 - Obstacles
Chapter 863 - A Prelude
Chapter 864 - An Announcement
Chapter 865 - Mind Reading
Chapter 866 - Smashing a Glass
Chapter 867 - A Meaningful Smile
Chapter 868 - The Black Pearl
Chapter 869 - The Eastern Front Offensive
Chapter 870 - Siege
Chapter 871 - An Extraordinary “Cannon”
Chapter 872 - The Last Charge
Chapter 873 - Nobles and Prisoners
Chapter 874 - Men of Sin
Chapter 875 - Objective History
Chapter 876 - Silver City
Chapter 877 - The Long-Forgotten Hometown
Chapter 878 - Nightingale's Investigation
Chapter 879 - Excuse For Betrayal
Chapter 880 - Destitute
Chapter 881 - A Hundred Times Yes
Chapter 882 - The Return of the King
Chapter 883 - A New Generation of Officials
Chapter 884 - The Impact of War
Chapter 885 - The Unlucky Tradesman
Chapter 886 - Weapons and Arts
Chapter 887 - Bomber Action
Chapter 888 - Heavenly Divine Retribution
Chapter 889 - A Key Person
Chapter 890 - Your Holiness... Isabella
Chapter 891 - The Cloister's Bitterness
Chapter 892 - The One Well Received
Chapter 893 - Fate Passes On
Chapter 894 - Worthy To Save The World
Chapter 895 - Reflections of The Past
Chapter 896 - Dust-laden Secrets
Chapter 897 - Jungle Fiesta
Chapter 898 - Dark Tide
Chapter 899 - The Witches From Afar (Part I)
Chapter 900 - The Witches From Afar (Part II)
Chapter 901 - The Witches From Afar (Part III)
Chapter 902 - An Ominous Sign
Chapter 903 - "The Demons Are Coming"
Chapter 904 - Battle Alert (First Half)
Chapter 905 - Battle Alert (Second Half)
Chapter 906 - Unveiling The Mystery (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 907 - Unveiling The Mystery (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 908 - A Bloody Road
Chapter 909 - A Problem in Dreamland (Part I)
Chapter 910 - A Problem in Dreamland (Part II)
Chapter 911 - The Gleaming Star of Doom
Chapter 912 - An Idealist (I)
Chapter 913 - An Idealist (II)
Chapter 914 - Anna's Prediction
Chapter 915 - To the End of the World
Chapter 916 - A Second Trip to the Ruin
Chapter 917 - Ashes' Plan
Chapter 918 - The Only Definite Thing
Chapter 919 - Repay the Great Chief's Kindness
Chapter 920 - The War Plan
Chapter 921 - The Locomotive Era (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 922 - The Locomotive Era (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 923 - A Deliberate Provocation
Chapter 924 - An Old Trick of the Demons
Chapter 925 - The Air Defense System
Chapter 926 - Quitting Math for Dummies
Chapter 927 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part I)
Chapter 928 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part II)
Chapter 929 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part III)
Chapter 930 - A Letter from the City Hall
Chapter 931 - Your Name
Chapter 932 - Someone Impossible to Meet
Chapter 933 - The King's Orders
Chapter 934 - Rise of The Glowing City
Chapter 935 - A Glimpse of Hope in the Dark
Chapter 936 - Close Combat
Chapter 937 - The Sting
Chapter 938 - The First Shot
Chapter 939 - Andrea the Marksman
Chapter 940 - Fading Past
Chapter 941 - Baring his Soul
Chapter 942 - Only A Mortal
Chapter 943 - The Spread Blackflame
Chapter 944 - The New Witch Group Part I
Chapter 945 - The New Witch Group Part II
Chapter 946 - The Payment Problem
Chapter 947 - Return of the Eastern Front Army
Chapter 948 - Unexpected Punishment
Chapter 949 - The Future of Witches
Chapter 950 - The Art of Persuasion
Chapter 951 - Red and White (Part 1)
Chapter 952 - Red and White (Part 2)
Chapter 953 - The Invited Explorer
Chapter 954 - New Great Wheel
Chapter 955 - An Unexpected Reunion
Chapter 956 - Thunder and Lightning
Chapter 957 - A Challenge from Mystery Moon
Chapter 958 - A Heartbreaking Friendship
Chapter 959 - Witnessing History
Chapter 960 - New Enemies Spotted
Chapter 961 - Two Plans
Chapter 962 - The Invisible Supply Line
Chapter 963 - The Ultimate Form of a Gun
Chapter 964 - Birth
Chapter 965 - Secret in the Forest
Chapter 966 - Operation Summit
Chapter 967 - The Dreamland Book
Chapter 968 - A Piece of the Mystery Unravels
Chapter 969 - Into the Abyss
Chapter 970 - Demon City
Chapter 971 - A Frightful Experience in a Demon's Memory
Chapter 972 - Going to War
Chapter 973 - Combat Beyond Visible Range (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 974 - Combat Beyond Visible Range (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 975 - A Night in the Wild
Chapter 976 - The Way to Transcendence
Chapter 977 - Gliding Wings
Chapter 978 - Flight
Chapter 979 - Another Kind of Genius
Chapter 980 - Ordinary People
Chapter 981 - Unexpected Start
Chapter 982 - Unplanned War
Chapter 983 - A Fierce Attack
Chapter 984 - A Furious Roar
Chapter 985 - The Shadow of the Dragon
Chapter 986 - Fiery Red Lotus
Chapter 987 - A Duel
Chapter 988 - The First Victory on the Plain
Chapter 989 - After the War
Chapter 990 - Behind the Soul
Chapter 991 - Burdened by Destiny
Chapter 992 - Future Direction
Chapter 993 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅰ)
Chapter 994 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅱ)
Chapter 995 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅲ)
Chapter 996 - Fight with Pain
Chapter 997 - Suppression
Chapter 998 - A Real Strong Power
Chapter 999 - Witness the Glory
Chapter 1000 - Sisters
Chapter 1001 - Unusual Stone Fragment
Chapter 1002 - A Race against Time
Chapter 1003 - New Progress
Chapter 1004 - The World in Her Eyes
Chapter 1005 - A Letter from the Desert
Chapter 1006 - A "Magic Movie"
Chapter 1007 - The Sigil of Recording
Chapter 1008 - The Wolf Princess
Chapter 1009 - Commitment
Chapter 1010 - A Legitimate Heir
Chapter 1011 - Making a Big Splash
Chapter 1012 - Olivia
Chapter 1013 - The Future of the Northern Region
Chapter 1014 - The Day of Adulthood
Chapter 1015 - Soaring Through the Skies (Part I)
Chapter 1016 - Soaring Through the Skies (Part II)
Chapter 1017 - Derivative Skill
Chapter 1018 - Spread of News
Chapter 1019 - The Secrets of the Witches
Chapter 1020 - Release Day
Chapter 1021 - Graycastle Weekly
Chapter 1022 - Divergence
Chapter 1023 - Divergent
Chapter 1024 - The Dispute over Ideas (I)
Chapter 1025 - The Dispute over Ideas (II)
Chapter 1026 - Staging of a New Play
Chapter 1027 - An Absurd Viewing Experience (Part I)
Chapter 1028 - An Unusual Theatre Experience (II)
Chapter 1029 - A Person Back Home
Chapter 1030 - The Coronation Ceremony
Chapter 1031 - The King of Graycastle (I)
Chapter 1032 - The King of Graycastle (II)
Chapter 1033 - The King of Graycastle (III)
Chapter 1034 - Subtle Hints at the Ceremony
Chapter 1035 - An Obscure and Wonderful Night
Chapter 1036 - Regime of the New Kingdom
Chapter 1037 - Massacre On the Snow-covered Plains
Chapter 1038 - Enemies from the Abyss
Chapter 1039 - Decisions On Incoming Letters
Chapter 1040 - Victor's Plan
Chapter 1041 - A Strange Wound
Chapter 1042 - The Magic Curse
Chapter 1043 - A New Challenge
Chapter 1044 - An Unsteady Mind
Chapter 1045 - A Black River on the Plain
Chapter 1046 - A New Recruitment Notice
Chapter 1047 - Tests
Chapter 1048 - The Surprising Presiding Officer
Chapter 1049 - The Princess's Reward
Chapter 1050 - A Difficult Puzzle
Chapter 1051 - Azima's Discovery
Chapter 1052 - Protective Measures
Chapter 1053 - The Source of Light
Chapter 1054 - Sacrificial Ground
Chapter 1055 - Shocking Scene
Chapter 1056 - The Captive
Chapter 1057 - An Ancient Treasure
Chapter 1058 - No More Regret
Chapter 1059 - Puzzle And Battles
Chapter 1060 - Bidding Farewell
Chapter 1061 - Sport Event
Chapter 1062 - Wildflame's information
Chapter 1063 - The Game Began!
Chapter 1064 - Ten Years of Persistence
Chapter 1065 - The Champion
Chapter 1066 - The Prewar Speech
Chapter 1067 - The Person Pursuing Miracles
Chapter 1068 - A Torch Run
Chapter 1069 - In the Name of the Aerial Knight
Chapter 1070 - The Glider (I)
Chapter 1071 - The Glider (II)
Chapter 1072 - Underground Breeding Farm
Chapter 1073 - Gelled Fuel
Chapter 1074 - An Unexpected Letter
Chapter 1075 - A Young Heart
Chapter 1076 - The Power of “Worms"
Chapter 1077 - The Front on the Fertile Land
Chapter 1078 - Gunshots on the Plains
Chapter 1079 - The Demons' Intentions
Chapter 1080 - A New Station
Chapter 1081 - A Quiet Night
Chapter 1082 - A Battle in the Darkness
Chapter 1083 - A Black Apparition
Chapter 1084 - In Battle Fumes
Chapter 1085 - Attack and Defense
Chapter 1086 - A Sharp Confrontation
Chapter 1087 - Loss and Victory
Chapter 1088 - Just a Beginning
Chapter 1089 - The Deity of Gods
Chapter 1090 - An Unexpected Visitor
Chapter 1091 - Hopeless Love
Chapter 1092 - An Arrest Warrant
Chapter 1093 - To the New World
Chapter 1094 - A Power of Attorney
Chapter 1095 - An Account of the Past
Chapter 1096 - His Expertise
Chapter 1097 - Friend and Old Acquaintance
Chapter 1098 - The Guardian
Chapter 1099 - I Like You and Everybody
Chapter 1100 - Afternoon Tea in the Forest
Chapter 1101 - The Controller of the Forest
Chapter 1102 - The Demons' Blade (I)
Chapter 1103 - The Demons' Blade (II)
Chapter 1104 - The Demons' Blade (III)
Chapter 1105 - Leaf's Heart
Chapter 1106 - A Universal Strategy
Chapter 1107 - Yes! RPG
Chapter 1108 - More than Enough
Chapter 1109 - The Past
Chapter 1110 - A Complete Version of the God's Punishment Warriors
Chapter 1111 - Until Death Do Us Part
Chapter 1112 - The Truth
Chapter 1113 - A Third Wheel
Chapter 1114 - A Return
Chapter 1115 - An Epochal Missile Test
Chapter 1116 - An Underground Laboratory
Chapter 1117 - The Light of the Cursed
Chapter 1118 - Experiment Records
Chapter 1119 - A Real Researcher
Chapter 1120 - A Cape City
Chapter 1121 - The Most Genius Invention
Chapter 1122 - To the Sea
Chapter 1123 - Underground Coffins
Chapter 1124 - A Lair
Chapter 1125 - An Exit
Chapter 1126 - The Status of the War
Chapter 1127 - Preparation for the Final Battle
Chapter 1128 - The "Unicorn"
Chapter 1129 - "The Mysterious Stone"
Chapter 1130 - A Presumption
Chapter 1131 - The Third Academy
Chapter 1132 - The Effect of the Reward
Chapter 1133 - Shadow Tides
Chapter 1134 - Plunge into the Sea
Chapter 1135 - A Drastic Change
Chapter 1136 - Sea and Sky
Chapter 1137 - The Banished Senior Demon
Chapter 1138 - Interception
Chapter 1139 - Celine's Request
Chapter 1140 - Dream World's "Illegal Immigrants"
Chapter 1141 - Trust and Misunderstanding
Chapter 1142 - Different Roads Lead to the Same Castle
Chapter 1143 - The Difference between Martialists
Chapter 1144 - A Stronger Person
Chapter 1145 - A Deal and A Strange Phenomenon
Chapter 1146 - In the Name of Rose
Chapter 1147 - A Picture Underneath the Sand
Chapter 1148 - Camilla's Return
Chapter 1149 - A Challenger under the Sky
Chapter 1150 - The Ambush Plan (I)
Chapter 1151 - The Ambush Plan (II)
Chapter 1152 - Persuasion
Chapter 1153 - A Real Monster
Chapter 1154 - A Repeated Fate
Chapter 1155 - The Battle of Taquila (I)
Chapter 1156 - The Battle of Taquila (II)
Chapter 1157 - The Battle of Taquila (III)
Chapter 1158 - The Defeat
Chapter 1159 - The Ambush
Chapter 1160 - A Trap
Chapter 1161 - A Slim Hope
Chapter 1162 - The Last Struggle
Chapter 1163 - Transcendent
Chapter 1164 - A Destiny without a Choice
Chapter 1165 - The Eye of A Storm
Chapter 1166 - The Victor
Chapter 1167 - Woe
Chapter 1168 - Recovery
Chapter 1169 - A Parliament of Holy See
Chapter 1170 - A Shocking Statement
Chapter 1171 - The Double Plan
Chapter 1172 - A New Population Policy
Chapter 1173 - I Want All of Them
Chapter 1174 - A Permanent Currency Solution
Chapter 1175 - Ursrook's Letter
Chapter 1176 - A [Flaw]
Chapter 1177 - Before the Storm
Chapter 1178 - Being a Grown-up
Chapter 1179 - Tri-tank Magic Power Unit
Chapter 1180 - Rose Café
Chapter 1181 - The Best Team Combination
Chapter 1182 - Infiltration
Chapter 1183 - Sacrifice
Chapter 1184 - Corruption
Chapter 1185 - A Warning of Destruction
Chapter 1186 - Reconstructing the Final Battle
Chapter 1187 - The So-called Upgrade
Chapter 1188 - Post-war Analysis
Chapter 1189 - The Radiation Project
Chapter 1190 - " An Important Task"
Chapter 1191 - Rare Element
Chapter 1192 - A Wind Chaser
Chapter 1193 - A Wind Chaser (II)
Chapter 1194 - The Only Request
Chapter 1195 - Things I Want to Do
Chapter 1196 - The Reason to Fly
Chapter 1197 - The Torch of Civilization
Chapter 1198 - A Foreigner
Chapter 1199 - The Commotion in the Kingdom of Wolfheart
Chapter 1200 - The Will of the King of Graycastle
Chapter 1201 - Proof
Chapter 1202 - A Thunderous War
Chapter 1203 - A Black Present
Chapter 1204 - The Ridge of the Continent
Chapter 1205 - A Dangerous Signal
Chapter 1206 - Just A Breath Away
Chapter 1207 - A New Idea
Chapter 1208 - Van'er's Gun
Chapter 1209 - Testing Result
Chapter 1210 - A Cube-Powered Vehicle
Chapter 1211 - A Farming Tractor
Chapter 1212 - Rainbow Stone
Chapter 1213 - The Beginning of an Enterprise
Chapter 1214 - The Second Magic Movie
Chapter 1215 - The Reoccurence of the Legend
Chapter 1216 - A Chain Reaction
Chapter 1217 - Doomsday (I)
Chapter 1218 - Doomsday (II)
Chapter 1219 - The Investigation of the Abnormal Phenomenon
Chapter 1220 - The Origin of the Story
Chapter 1221 - The Nonexistent Bloody Moon
Chapter 1222 - The Promise of the Divine Will
Chapter 1223 - Lan
Chapter 1224 - The Remedy
Chapter 1225 - The Remedy (II)
Chapter 1226 - The Prison of the Heart
Chapter 1227 - The Fall of Prism City
Chapter 1228 - God's Enmity
Chapter 1229 - The Red Mist
Chapter 1230 - An Emergency Meeting
Chapter 1231 - Hope
Chapter 1232 - Brother
Chapter 1233 - Being Trapped
Chapter 1234 - A Strange World
Chapter 1235 - The Cloud School
Chapter 1236 - Striking Similarities
Chapter 1237 - Observation
Chapter 1238 - An Army of One Person
Chapter 1239 - Two Options
Chapter 1240 - The Witches' War
Chapter 1241 - God's Eye
Chapter 1242 - Departure from the Northernmost Port
Chapter 1243 - Rescue
Chapter 1244 - Change Over Time
Chapter 1245 - The Great Immigration
Chapter 1246 - The Ship to the South
Chapter 1247 - The Heart of A Knight
Chapter 1248 - The Use of the Core
Chapter 1249 - Civilization
Chapter 1250 - Anna's Plan
Chapter 1251 - Partner
Chapter 1252 - The Design Bureau of Graycastle
Chapter 1253 - Things of A Wrong Age
Chapter 1254 - A Currency Reform
Chapter 1255 - Graycastle "Yuan"
Chapter 1256 - Reception and the New Plan
Chapter 1257 - A National Machine
Chapter 1258 - Air Combat Maneuver
Chapter 1259 - A Battle in the Air
Chapter 1260 - Passion
Chapter 1261 - A City Beyond Understanding
Chapter 1262 - A Conflict in the New City
Chapter 1263 - Future Work
Chapter 1264 - Persuasion
Chapter 1265 - The Witches' Life
Chapter 1266 - The Past
Chapter 1267 - The Invitation
Chapter 1268 - Party
Chapter 1269 - The Eye of Time
Chapter 1270 - A Battle at the Front
Chapter 1271 - The Fiery Sky
Chapter 1272 - Beneath the Flames
Chapter 1273 - The Demons' Guile
Chapter 1274 - Ambition
Chapter 1275 - The Pharmaceutical Industry in Neverwinter
Chapter 1276 - An Overlooked Ability
Chapter 1277 - Out of Darkness
Chapter 1278 - A Historical Moment
Chapter 1279 - Conspiracy
Chapter 1280 - Disguise
Chapter 1281 - A Deadlock
Chapter 1282 - The Battle Is to the Strong
Chapter 1283 - The Source of Information
Chapter 1284 - Infiltration
Chapter 1285 - Five Pairs of Road Wheels
Chapter 1286 - The Other World
Chapter 1287 - Uneasiness
Chapter 1288 - Intertwined Fate
Chapter 1289 - The Origin of the World
Chapter 1290 - Achievement
Chapter 1291 - Reunion
Chapter 1292 - A Person in Need and A Person Who Needs
Chapter 1293 - An Uncertain Future
Chapter 1294 - An Isolated Island
Chapter 1295 - Guardian
Chapter 1296 - A Visitor from the Sky
Chapter 1297 - Arrive at the Front!
Chapter 1298 - The Arrival of the Demonic Months
Chapter 1299 - A Swift Attack
Chapter 1300 - A Ferocious Fight
Chapter 1301 - A Battle in the Snow
Chapter 1302 - Perspicacity
Chapter 1303 - Hints and Clues
Chapter 1304 - Hints and Clues (II)
Chapter 1305 - Lurking
Chapter 1306 - The Bloodstained Message
Chapter 1307 - Flaw
Chapter 1308 - The Great Evacuation of Archduke Island
Chapter 1309 - Thunder
Chapter 1310 - Trapped Beast
Chapter 1311 - Loss
Chapter 1312 - Countermeasure
Chapter 1313 - The Information Age
Chapter 1314 - Dilemma
Chapter 1315 - First Direct Contact
Chapter 1316 - History
Chapter 1317 - Battle of the Legacies
Chapter 1318 - A Fifty-fifty Decision
Chapter 1319 - Free Will
Chapter 1320 - High-energy Experiment (Part 1)
Chapter 1321 - High-energy Experiment (Part 2)
Chapter 1322 - The Light That Breaks the Darkness
Chapter 1323 - Flaw
Chapter 1324 - New Dream
Chapter 1325 - Territory
Chapter 1326 - Request
Chapter 1327 - Scroll's New Clothes
Chapter 1328 - The Human Legacy
Chapter 1329 - The Grand War Begins
Chapter 1330 - Battle of Wills
Chapter 1331 - The One That Vanished
Chapter 1332 - The Cause of All Mankind
Chapter 1333 - The 'Battlefield' At The Rear
Chapter 1334 - The Only Compensation
Chapter 1335 - Morale Boosting Song
Chapter 1336 - Starting The Counterattack
Chapter 1337 - Road Transportation Line
Chapter 1338 - Attack From Multiple Fronts
Chapter 1339 - Furious Flames of Counterattack
Chapter 1340 - Hunters At The Rear
Chapter 1341 - Pride
Chapter 1342 - Unceasing Advantage
Chapter 1343 - The Grand Lord's Decision
Chapter 1344 - Fate’s Decision
Chapter 1345 - Forced Redemption
Chapter 1346 - Tilly's Letter
Chapter 1347 - Producing the Silent Message
Chapter 1348 - Coma
Chapter 1349 - Time
Chapter 1350 - A Newcomer
Chapter 1351 - Crushed
Chapter 1352 - I Will Protect You
Chapter 1353 - Enemy of the World
Chapter 1354 - "You have to work slightly harder"
Chapter 1355 - The Second Scene
Chapter 1356 - "Creator's Promise"
Chapter 1357 - Combined Rescue
Chapter 1358 - The Creator's Proof
Chapter 1359 - Convincing
Chapter 1360 - Convincing (2)
Chapter 1361 - A change of mind
Chapter 1362 - Reversal
Chapter 1363 - A Long Time Ago
Chapter 1364 - Cooperation
Chapter 1365 - The new Design Bureau
Chapter 1366 - A Fork in the Story
Chapter 1367 - The Essence to Upgrade
Chapter 1368 - Going Hand in Hand
Chapter 1369 - Overlord of the Sky
Chapter 1370 - Returning Home
Chapter 1371 - The Structure of the World
Chapter 1372 - Torturer
Chapter 1373 - Smell of Blood
Chapter 1374 - Worthiness of the Strong
Chapter 1375 - One Strike
Chapter 1376 - Witnessing a Miracle
Chapter 1377 - The Converging Crisis
Chapter 1378 - Rewards and Punishments
Chapter 1379 - Special Goods
Chapter 1380 - Wings of the Phoenix
Chapter 1381 - Extreme Racing
Chapter 1382 - What One Sees
Chapter 1383 - Sending a Message over a Thousand Kilometers
Chapter 1384 - Taking a Step Forward
Chapter 1385 - Establishing a Basic Agreement
Chapter 1386 - The Breakthrough Point
Chapter 1387 - Wireless Transmission
Chapter 1388 - Conflict
Chapter 1389 - Mystical Secrets
Chapter 1390 - Right Thing To Do
Chapter 1391 - Obstructing the Miracle
Chapter 1392 - Coordinated Combat
Chapter 1393 - Trump Card
Chapter 1394 - The Stars amongst the Mountains
Chapter 1395 - Close Proximity Interception
Chapter 1396 - Silent Disaster
Chapter 1397 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (1)
Chapter 1398 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (2)
Chapter 1399 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (3)
Chapter 1400 - One's Conduct
Chapter 1401 - The Bottomless Land
Chapter 1402 - Cradle
Chapter 1403 - A New Battlefield
Chapter 1404 - Undetected Capabilities
Chapter 1405 - Plan II: From the Sky
Chapter 1406 - A Night in the Kingdom of Dawn
Chapter 1407 - Setting Out
Chapter 1408 - Different People
Chapter 1409 - Bomb (I)
Chapter 1410 - Bomb (II)
Chapter 1411 - An Unexpected Package
Chapter 1412 - The Third Act
Chapter 1413 - Beyond the Western Region
Chapter 1414 - Useless person
Chapter 1415 - The Unexpected Attackers
Chapter 1416 - Trapped In A Dangerous Situation
Chapter 1417 - Not Too Bad
Chapter 1418 - The Fused King
Chapter 1419 - Dual Identity
Chapter 1420 - A New Extraordinary
Chapter 1421 - Return
Chapter 1422 - Plan B
Chapter 1423 - Probe
Chapter 1424 - Valkries's Speculation
Chapter 1425 - "Close your eyes"
Chapter 1426 - Converging
Chapter 1427 - Going Or Staying
Chapter 1428 - Criteria For Balance
Chapter 1429 - Surpassing the Limit
Chapter 1430 - The Irrecoverable Situation
Chapter 1431 - Born For War
Chapter 1432 - Hunter-Killer Fire Control
Chapter 1433 - The Three Big Wigs of the Western Front
Chapter 1434 - Gambling on Fate
Chapter 1435 - Capturing the Deity of Gods
Chapter 1436 - Super Ego
Chapter 1437 - Silver Lining
Chapter 1438 - Not Alone
Chapter 1439 - The Last of the Three Chiefs
Chapter 1440 - Respective Responsibilities
Chapter 1441 - Consensus
Chapter 1442 - A Powerful Current
Chapter 1443 - Eleanor
Chapter 1444 - The Riddles of the Consciousness
Chapter 1445 - The Island That Will Never Fall
Chapter 1446 - Skycarrier
Chapter 1447 - The Unfulfilled Promise
Chapter 1448 - The Black Giant Bird
Chapter 1449 - Journey Together
Chapter 1450 - Taquila Street Battle
Chapter 1451 - The Secret to Having Good Aim
Chapter 1452 - The Deviating Sky-sea Realm
Chapter 1453 - Shadow of Blackstone Region
Chapter 1454 - Take Off
Chapter 1455 - Pioneer
Chapter 1456 - A Future with You
Chapter 1457 - The First Battle of the Floating Island!
Chapter 1458 - A Defense Line Held Single-handedly
Chapter 1459 - The Complete Form of the Skycruiser
Chapter 1460 - Under the Mask
Chapter 1461 - Before Dawn
Chapter 1462 - Night of Endless Toss and Turns
Chapter 1463 - High Altitude Drop
Chapter 1464 - Daybreak
Chapter 1465 - Battle of Struggles
Chapter 1466 - Chaos
Chapter 1467 - Different Fates
Chapter 1468 - Ignition
Chapter 1469 - The Fall of a City
Chapter 1470 - Fracturing
Chapter 1471 - Blood-colored Dawn
Chapter 1472 - Celebration and the Unforeseen
Chapter 1473 - Quarantine
Chapter 1474 - Representative
Chapter 1475 - Change in Sky City
Chapter 1476 - Reaching Straight to the Core
Chapter 1477 - The Final Deadline
Chapter 1478 - The Lights Soon Extinguish
Chapter 1479 - A Marvel
Chapter 1480 - Bugle Horn for the End of War
Chapter 1481 - Landing on the Island For Battle Begins
Chapter 1482 - Pincer Attack from the Air and Ground
Chapter 1483 - An Unexpected Encounter
Chapter 1484 - Revelation
Chapter 1485 - "Jump"
Chapter 1486 - Project Gateway
Chapter 1487 - The Omniscient Custodian
Chapter 1488 - Origins
Chapter 1489 - Once Again, Battle of Souls
Chapter 1490 - Fighting God
Chapter 1491 - The Meaning of Existing
Chapter 1492 - The Final Outcome
Chapter 1493 - Origins
Chapter 1494 - Destination
Chapter 1495 - Different Paths
Chapter 1496 - The Moment for Reunion
Chapter 1497 - An Entirely Different Scenery
Chapter 1498 - A Brand New Road
Chapter 1499 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 1)
Chapter 1500 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 2)
Chapter 1501 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 3)

Chapter 1 - Becoming a Prince

Cheng Yan felt as if someone was calling him.

"Your Highness, wake up…"

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

"Your Highness, my Royal Prince!"

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

"Where on Earth is this? Wasn’t I working urgently on my blueprints?" Cheng Yan’s mind was vacant, perhaps caused by three consecutive days of working overtime that had pushed him to the limit mentally and physically. All he could remember was when he finally broke down, his heartbeat began to palpitate unsteadily, and he wanted nothing but to lie on the office table for a brief rest…

"Your Highness, please announce your verdict soon."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She was a ’witch’.

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

"Your Highness?" ‘Gandalf’ urged cautiously.

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

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

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

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

Well, what should I do next?

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

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

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

The members of the noble who sat with him seemed unsurprised, but a tall man wearing a suit of armor stood up and argued. "Your Highness, this isn’t a joke! All witches should be put to death immediately upon being identified, or else, what can we do if other witches attempt to save her? The Church will get involved if they know of this."

"Carter Lannis. This handsome man is my Chief Knight." Cheng Yan frowned and replied, "Why? Are you scared?" His voice, which was full of blatant mockery, sounded natural. "How could a man, whose arms were thicker than a normal person’s body, be worried about witches breaking into our prison? Does he really think that witches are the mouthpiece of the Devil?" "Won’t it be better to catch a few more witches?"

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

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

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

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

Roland Wimbledon was sent here to contend for the throne.

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

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

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

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

Furthermore… so what if I become the king? There isn’t Internet or other comforts of modern civilization. Like the locals, the only fun thing I’ve to do is burning witches. And living in a city where shit is excreted and dumped anywhere and everywhere, won’t I eventually die of the Black Death?

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

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

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

Chapter 2 - The Witch Named Anna (Part I)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just three months into his leadership of Border Town, the noble had already stopped concealing their disdain and contempt towards him. It was evident that the Fourth Prince wasn’t cut out to be a leader. Fortunately, when he left King’s City, he was accompanied by two assistants—one for civil issues, and one for military issues—who were provided by the king, or else it would have been a much bigger mess.

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

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

Indeed, novels were all fiction.

Barov was waiting restlessly in the drawing room. The moment Roland appeared, he immediately hurried towards him and asked, "Your Highness, why didn’t you order the execution yesterday?"

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

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

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

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

Barov looked bewildered. "What rumors?"

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

Barov was shocked. "But… witches are really…"

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

The Assistant Minister remained silent for a moment, as if he was guessing whether the prince was purposely making fun of him, "Your Highness, this problem can be discussed later. I understand that you don’t like the Church, but this way of causing conflict is counterproductive."

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

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

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

Barov accepted the cup of milk from Roland but didn’t drink. He anxiously said, "Your Highness, we have a problem. Three days ago, guards reported that a camp suspected to be inhabited by witches has been discovered in the western forest. They left in a hurry and didn’t clean up their traces. A guard found this in the camp."

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

"What is this?" Roland asked.

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

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

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

Neither did Barov expect Roland to have any knowledge about this. He continued, "Your Highness, you haven’t seen a real witch before, so it’s understandable that you’re unimpressed. Like us, they can be hurt. They bleed, and aren’t any harder to kill than the rest of us, but that’s only for witches who don’t have resistance. The lifespan of witches who receive the Devil’s power would shorten greatly, but they would obtain a terrible amount of power which ordinary people are unable to rival. Once the witches are fully developed, our armies will suffer greatly. Their appetite for disaster is extremely difficult to restrain or suppress, and they’ve already degenerated into the devil’s minions. The Church therefore formed a Punishment Army, which would arrest and execute any woman who was discovered to have the slightest chance of transforming into a witch. The King has approved of this decree, and in fact, these measures have been highly effective and the incidents of witches wreaking havoc have greatly declined in comparison to a hundred years ago. Rumors about the Holy Mountain, or rather, the Gates of Hell, were derived from an ancient book of that era."

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

Unaware of Roland’s thoughts Barov continued, "It’s recorded in ancient books that witches can only find real peace in the Holy Mountain. There, they wouldn’t be reverse bitten by their magic powers, and wouldn’t be troubled by burgeoning desires. There’s no doubt that the so-called Holy Mountain is the birthplace of evil and an entrance from the human world to Hell. I think that only Hell won’t punish this bunch of degenerates."

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

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

Chapter 3 - The Witch Named Anna (Part II)

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

"It's as Your Highness says." Barov stamped his feet and exclaimed. "I hear that they're in a hurry and probably on their way to somewhere. Had that prisoner died, and then it can't be helped, but she's still alive! If those witches are crazy enough to steal babies, I'm afraid that they won't forsake a degenerated companion."

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

The woman who's to be executed is a witch, right? She's so thin that even the wind seems like it can blow her off her feet. If she truly possessed frightening power, why would she be standing there and awaiting her death? No, she wouldn't even be caught. According to the Church's explanation, she's a Devil incarnate, and therefore the Punishment Army and other military troops would suffer losses if they fought her. Yet, she was caught by the normal citizens of Border Town, and was tortured by every means possible up until she was led to the gallows, but there was still no sign of her frightening power.

"How did she get caught?" Roland queried.

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

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

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

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

Roland frowned as he asked, "Aren't you able to investigate the situation properly?"

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

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

"The head and a large part of the body were spread out on the ground, as if they were melted. They reminded people of burnt-out black candles." Barov's face was filled with disgust. "Your Highness, you wouldn't want to see such a scene."

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

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

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

Then how did she do it?

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

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

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

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

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

"What?"

Roland reiterated his question, "Why the gallows? Shouldn't witches be burned at the stake?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Your Highness, you're risking too much by doing this. Even though she's sealed with God's Locket of Retribution, it isn't completely safe."

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

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

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

"No, Your Highness, I mean …" Carter stammered.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Anna," she replied.

Chapter 4 - Flame

"Can you clearly describe what happened when the mine collapsed?" Roland asked.

Anna nodded and began talking.

Roland was surprised because he expected her to stay silent or to angrily curse at him, but she responded to all of his questions cooperatively.

It wasn’t a complicated story. Anna’s father was a miner and was working when the mine collapsed. Immediately after they heard about the accident, Anna and the other miners’ families went to rescue their loved ones. The North Slope Mine area was rumored to be an abandoned monster lair with many forked pathways extending in all directions. Since the volunteers were all acting on their own accord, they separated at the mine entryway, and only Anna’s neighbors Susan and Ansgar were by her side when she found her father.

Her father’s leg was crushed under a cart filled with ore, rendering him motionless, but at his side was another miner patting him down for money. When the looter saw them, he rushed at Ansgar with a pick and knocked him to the ground, but as he was about to strike her, Anna killed him first.

Anna’s neighbors vowed to keep her secret and helped Anna rescue her father. However, early next morning, Anna’s father went out on his crutches and reported to the patrolling guards that his daughter was a witch.

"Why?" Roland couldn't help but ask.

Barov sighed and answered, "Probably he could receive a reward. Discovering and reporting a witch can get you 25 gold royals. For a man with a crippled leg, 25 gold royals would take care of him for the rest of his life."

After a moment of silence, Roland asked, "Your opponent was a strong adult man, so how were you able to kill him?"

Anna laughed, and the flames of the torches began shaking like waves on a lake surface.

"Just as you think, I used the power of the devil," Anna said.

"Shut up! Vile sorceress!" shouted the prison warden, but everyone could hear his voice trembling.

"Is that true? I want to see it," Prince Roland said unwaveringly,

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

Roland stepped out from behind his knight and walked towards the cell. "If anyone is afraid of her, I won’t ask them to stay here."

"Don’t panic, she has a ‘God’s Locket of Retribution’ around her neck!" shouted Barov to comfort everyone, but probably mostly himself. "No matter how powerful the devil is, he cannot overcome God’s protection."

Roland stood in front of the cell bars, an arm’s length away from Anna, and could clearly see her dusty and bruised face. Her soft facial features showed that she still was a minor, but her expression contained no trace of childlike innocence. There wasn’t even anger in her face, giving her an unsettling feeling Roland had only seen on TV. It was the face of a wandering orphan who had suffered from poverty and hunger, but it was also not exactly the same. Those children always stood with a bent and broken body and a lowered head in front of cameras, but Anna did not.

Up until now, she had tried to stand straight with her vision raised and calmly looked into the prince’s eyes. "She does not fear death," Roland realized, "and she is waiting for death."

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

"If you really had the devil’s power, you would be able to kill with a glance," Roland responded. "If that were true, it is not I who should fear death, but your father."

The prison torches suddenly dimmed, which was definitely not an illusion, as the flames seemed to be smothered into small sparks. Roland heard the panting and prayers of the men behind him, as well as the thuds of people who had tripped while trying to run away.

Roland’s heartbeat sped up and he felt that he was at the border between two worlds. On one side was the world of common sense, which was in exact accordance with the laws and constants that he knew. On the other side was an incredible new world, which was full of mystery and the unknown. He was standing in front of this world.

"Was the thing around her neck God’s Locket of Retribution? What a simple and crude locket," Roland thought. It was a red iron chain with a sparkling and translucent pendant, which seemed easy to destroy if the witch hadn’t been handcuffed.

Roland glanced at the crowd behind him, who were still mouthing prayers in panic. He quickly reached into the cell, grabbed the pendant, and tugged on the locket, snapping the chain—the move startled even Anna.

"Come on." Roland whispered.

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

Roland then heard a crackling sound, the noise of water vapor expanding in heat. Their surroundings began to heat up rapidly, and the water on the ground was turning into steam.

Roland saw a blazing flame rise from beneath Anna, and the ground she was standing on was set on fire. The torches behind them exploded at once, as if they had received pure oxygen, giving off a blinding light. At that moment, the whole cell was as bright as day, causing the onlookers’ terrified screams.

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

Roland backed up instinctively from the biting and painful heat. In just a few seconds, he felt that he was back in summertime, but this was a different kind of heat, which was solely generated by a flame, rather than an enveloping summer heat. One side of his body was facing the flame’s heat, and the other side was still chilly. Roland could even feel cold sweat trickling down his back.

"She really does not fear fire," Roland thought.

Roland remembered the Assistant Minister’s words. Only now did he really understand what he meant.

If she is an actual flame, how could she fear herself?

Soon, the iron bars turned from crimson to a light yellow and began to melt. This meant that they were being heated to over 1,500 degrees Celsius, a temperature that seemed practically impossible to Roland to achieve without insulating measures. Like the others, he backed away from the cell, holding himself firmly against the furthest wall.

If he had not done this, the heat of the melting iron would cause his clothes to combust even without direct contact—even Anna’s clothes were reduced to ashes and replaced with a ball of flames.

After what seemed like eternity, the flames disappeared.

All that was left were a couple torches quietly burning on the wall as if nothing had happened, but Anna’s burned clothes, the hot air, and the twisted prison bars all proved that this wasn’t an illusion.

Besides Roland and the Chief Knight, the other men had all collapsed to the ground, and the prison warden was so scared that he soiled his pants. Anna now stood naked outside the cell, and her arm shackles were gone. She did not hide her naked body, her hands hanging naturally at her side and her blue eyes appearing as peaceful as before.

"Now that I have satisfied your curiosity, my Lord," she said, "can you kill me now?"

"No." Roland stepped forward, wrapped his coat around her, and said with a forcedly gentle tone, "Miss Anna, I want to hire you."

Chapter 5 - Reasons

"The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Heat can never pass from a colder to a warmer body without causing other effects, or it is impossible to convert heat from a single source into work without causing other effects, or entropy always increases in an irreversible heat reaction."

Roland carefully wrote this down using the language of this world. At a glance, the text resembled a moving earthworm, and he really didn’t understand how the locals could learn so many complicated characters.

If asked which of the physical laws was the most depressing, Roland would definitely choose the second law of thermodynamics. It states that heat will always pass from high to low temperatures, thus adding chaos to order and increasing entropy. Eventually, everything will become nothing and the universe will become morbidly silent.

Somehow, this world was exempt from the issue of increasing entropy. It could produce magic power out of nothing, which was much more impressive than a perpetual motion machine! "The forces of evil?" Roland scoffed to himself. "The people here don’t see the nature of this power, which could possibly change the entire universe."

Of course, he could start by changing this small border town.

Roland hummed a tune, tore up the paper he had written, and threw it into the fireplace, where it was reduced to ashes, feeling a sudden joyous freedom.

The Assistant Minister was confused by Prince Roland’s actions, but fortunately for Roland the old prince had always acted this strangely, and Barov could see that the prince was in a good mood.

"It’s been done. The ‘witch’ was hanged at noon," reported Barov.

"Good, could anyone tell?" Roland asked while writing, "All of the condemned wear hoods anyways."

In order to prevent trouble with the Holy Church and the Witch Cooperation Association, Roland ordered the prison warden to find a death row criminal with a similar figure and use her to replace Anna at the gallows. Besides the Chief Knight and Assistant Minister, everyone who was with him in the dungeon was given 20 gold royals of hush money, which was a huge amount for them.

Barov even suggested killing all of the witnesses to ensure total silence, but Roland rejected this. He knew he couldn’t prevent this secret from spreading, but this didn’t matter because he actually wanted someone to spread the word—just not now. He would clash with the Church sooner or later, since he couldn’t tolerate those idiots would waste such valuable resources! If other witches heard there was a town where they could live freely and even get special treatment, what would they think?

No matter the era, talent and human resources were the most important.

"Good," Roland said, "and next I need you to give me a summary of the past year’s trade, taxes, and expenditures. I would also like you to record the numbers and sizes of steel, textile, and pottery workshops in the city."

"I’ll need three days to prepare these records, but…" Barov first nodded, but then fell short of words.

"What is the matter?" Roland asked, knowing that his ability to lie was about to be tested. Barov undoubtedly had questions about what happened yesterday, since although a scoundrel would always be a scoundrel, having a bad character didn’t also mean being brainless. In the eyes of the Assistant Minister, harboring a witch was akin to declaring war on the world.

"Your Highness, I don’t understand…" Barov wrestled with his words. "Although you’ve caused trouble in the past, it was always harmless, but now… risking so much only to save a witch? It was the Church that passed the law to hunt them, but even your father, his Majesty Wimbledon III, supports it."

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

"Uh, this…" Barov didn't understand what this question had to do with the problem, but eventually answered truthfully, "Not really."

"It’s awful. Compared to Valencia or the Port of Clearwater, what do you feel my chances are against my siblings of gaining the throne?"

"…" The Assistant Minister opened his mouth but didn't answer. "Almost zero. So, I can only choose another path." Roland watched expressionlessly as Barov walked into his trap. "A path that would even impress my father."

He did not argue that witches were not inherently evil, because it would be useless. Barov had been the Assistant Minister of Finance for twenty years and was a pretty competent politician. For politicians, personal gain was more important than moral law. Also, if Roland recalled the previous prince’s actions correctly, using emotion wasn’t typical of him because he wasn’t considered as a righteous person. So, he chose to use the eternal conflict between religious and secular authority, as the expanding power of the Holy Church was a constant issue for Wimbledon III.

The Church claimed that the world worked under the will of God and that the Pope was the voice of God. If the people found what he said was full of lies, the dominance of the Holy Church would be greatly undermined.

It would be hard to convince the Assistant Minister by saying, "Witches are not evil, so I want to save them," but replaced with "witches are not evil, and I can use them to attack the church," Barov could easily be persuaded.

"No matter how the territories of my brothers and sisters flourish, everything will eventually be in the possession of the Church. They had already declared the divine right of kings, which states that rightful rulers must be blessed by the Pope, so are we even the real rulers of this land?" Roland paused and said, "My father will see a new hope in me: a leader who isn’t suppressed by the Church and who holds all the exclusive rights of a royal king, and his choice will be very clear then."

Changing the "enemy of the entire world" into "enemy of only the Church" was easier to accept, especially since Barov himself stood on the side of the royal family.

"Similarly, if he realizes that witches have extraordinary powers that could aid in fighting the Church, the execution orders will be nothing more than a joke. While there is no possibility to guarantee success, it’s not impossible either. Do you think it’s worth the risk?" Roland stared at the Assistant Minister as he said, "Don’t doubt me, Barov. You’ve been an assistant minister for twenty years, right? If I can become Wimbledon IV, I could remove the assistant part, or even make you… Hand of the King?"

…

Watching Barov leave, Roland felt relieved. It was obvious that he didn’t think much of this promise, which was normal, since even Roland himself did not believe that this hasty and bold plan could be achieved. However, it was more important to convince Barov of his seriousness. This simple plan thought up by a sheltered noble son reflected Prince Roland’s hatred towards the Church and paved the way for attracting more witches.

As for his real thoughts? Even if Barov knew, he wouldn’t be able to understand them.

Roland summoned the maid. "Tell Miss Anna to come to see me."

"Now back to business," Roland thought happily.

Chapter 6 - Training (Part I)

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

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

"How are you? Did you sleep well?"

Roland turned around and asked Anna, who seemed confused.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next was her clothing, and Anna didn’t expect that someone would help her get dressed. She also never knew that clothes could be so comfortable that they laid gently on her body and created no friction at all.

Finally, a bearded old man entered the room, and after he ordered everyone else to step out, he placed a contract in front of her. At this moment Anna realized that the man who said he wanted to hire her in the dungeon was actually Prince Roland of this kingdom, and that he wasn’t joking. The contract clearly stated that if she worked for the prince, she would be paid a gold royal every month.

Anna knew how much a gold royal was worth. Her father’s pay as a miner was determined by the amount of ore he mined, but even his best haul was only worth one silver royal. One hundred silver royals were equal to a gold royal, and this still depended on the purity of the silver royals. So, was her job to sleep with the prince? Anna had heard the maids whispering this while she was bathing, but she didn’t think she was worth this price. Her blood was tainted by the devil, so anyone who knew of her identity avoided her at all costs. Even if the prince’s curiosity was so compelling that he didn’t fear the devil, he didn’t need to pay her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You mean the devil’s…"

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

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

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

"I didn’t use my power to hurt anyone else," she murmured, "except that looter."

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

"You’re not afraid," Anna said.

"Because I know your power belongs to you." Roland laughed. "But if that looter had such incredible strength, I wouldn’t be able to stand so calmly in front of him."

"Well, let’s get started," he said.

Chapter 7 - Training (Part II)

The fire rose up from her feet but quickly dispersed.

That had been her twenty-third attempt.

And she had failed again.

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

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

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

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

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

This wasn’t the first time this had happened, but whenever it did Roland would look away. He would stare off into the distance, even if Anna herself didn’t care.

In fact, if it weren’t for Roland’s strong objections, she would probably have taken off all of her clothes and practiced in the nude, in broad daylight! But even if Roland would look at her, he wouldn’t be able to work well with a naked girl, especially when that girl burst into flames and her body gave off an entirely different kind of energy.

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

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

Anna looked startled, but she gave no other response.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Roland proudly observed Anna’s expressions; she looked stunned, but also slightly frightened. Although the strawberries on the cream cake were marinated in sugar and didn’t even taste fresh, Anna ate the whole thing.

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

Well, these strong feelings were also very important.

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

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

In fact, even now he still didn’t have it. Roland needed only to read two lines of text before he began to feel dizzy, and he told Barov, "You’ll read it to me."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Unless what?"

"Unless the person who goes to the Gates of Hell is a witch. Only a witch would be able to travel to the Gates of Hell because they have fallen from grace and become the devil’s minions. Naturally, they don’t need to fear the evil forces," Barov said, glancing in the direction of the backyard.

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

"Well, I personally haven’t see them. Like you, this is my first time I have ever been to the kingdom’s borders. In the capital, only a few people there have encountered real demons."

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

"Since we can hold of the demonic beasts at Longsong Stronghold, and since they aren’t invincible and they can be killed, then why can’t we defend this Border Town as well?"

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

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

Chapter 8 - Months of Demons (Part I)

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

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

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

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

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

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

The minerals the town exported weren’t paid for with the kingdom’s gold royals, but instead they were traded for the foodstuffs that arrived. It seems reasonable that, since the gems were a high-priced luxury, in these last five years the Border Town should have saved a surplus of food, but there was nothing left.

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

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

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

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

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

The three of them bowed simultaneously.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The sun?" Roland asked doubtfully.

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

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

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

"Why, shouldn’t be the grain reserves in Longsong stronghold large enough to support the town for more than one month?" Roland asked.

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

"So that is what happened... I understand."

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

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

"You said you killed the beast?"

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

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

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

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

"Yes, they are, but they aren’t the most terrible kind of enemy," the hunter said. He swallowed his saliva before he could speak further, "The worst ones are the demonic hybrids."

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

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

Chapter 9 - Months of Demons (Part II)

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

"Well, you are very observant." Roland noted. He ordered the man to stand up and asked, "What’s your name? You don’t look like you are from my Kingdom of Graycastle."

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

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

For the moment, those stories weren’t important; everyone was welcome in Border Town regardless of their background.

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

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

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

Roland didn’t express any opinion, but instead asked, "What do you think?"

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

"You already saw what a witch is able to do, so why can’t you think positively?" Roland sighed.

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

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

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

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

"Your Highness, do you understand what you are saying?" The knight honestly didn't know whether to be angry or to laugh. "Even your nonsense should have a limit. If you don’t stop, you’ll have to excuse my lack of manners."

"We still have three months, don’t we? I looked at Border Town’s records, and the first snow usually falls then."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What happened to you?"

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

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

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

Chapter 10 - The Stonemason

The weather had been bad all week, and the sky was always gray. Karl van Bate’s mood was just like the weather: gloomy to the extreme.

As he walked down the wet stone street, people greeted him from time to time—Karl ran a school in this town. Unlike the Kingdom of Graycastle, where only the children of noble could go to school, here he taught r the children of ordinary people. Therefore, he had a very high reputation in Border Town. "Hey, Mr. van Bate, good morning."

"Sir, is my son doing all right?"

"When are you free, Karl? Let’s go fishing together."

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

He had just witnessed Anna’s hanging, so in his eyes there was a crack in the once-perfect world—or this crack had begun to form since his departing from Graycastle , but he deliberately turned a blind eye. He used his busy work to numb himself, and to a certain extent, he even used the innocent smile of the students to mend this crack.

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

His memories of Anna stopped at half a year ago. She didn’t stand out of her class of more than thirty students with her normal appearance and few words, but there was something about her that impressed Karl deeply.

It was her passion for knowledge. No matter what he taught, whether it was characters or history, she could always remember it on her first try. Even if it was the boring history and evolution of the religion, she could read about it all day. He had also seen the young lady help to take care of her neighbor’s sheep--sitting down in the sun, Anna would carefully brush the sheep’s hair, like someone would with a baby. He still remembered her sweet smile very clearly, and no matter how, he could not think of her as a sinister and evil person.

Then, after the fire on Anna' street and her mother unfortunately passed away, Anna never came back to school. He never saw her again until a week ago, when she was proved to be a witch and hanged in the town square.

"Tempted by the devil? An unclean person? Evil? All lies!" He began to doubt the Holy Church and the knowledge they imparted for the first time in his life.

He didn’t know if Anna had been a witch or not, but she was never evil! If a teenage girl, ignorant of the world and full of curiosity, could be called evil, and then the administrative officials of the Kingdom of Graycastle were from hell and possessed by the devil too! In order to save several hundred gold royals, they deliberately switched out the stone material used to build a theater, leading to its collapse and the death of more than thirty stonemasons.

But were they hanged? Not even one! The judge finally ruled that the leader of the stonemasons was unsuitable for his job, and he was punished into exile, while the Mason Guild was forced to disband. Karl, who knew the true story, fled the Kingdom of Graycastle, followed the road to the West, and eventually arrived in Border Town.

He managed to establish a school with a lot of students, got to know his new neighbors, and find new friends, but the Graycastle officers’ crime was always engraved in his mind. Now, he felt the world was mocking him once again. - Could the Gods in Heaven really recognize what was evil?

The last straw for Karl was Nana.

Nana and Anna were so different that one could even say they were the complete opposite. After class you could always see her playing with birds or rolling around in the grass. If you asked what she was doing, she would giggle for a while before answering that she was looking at a fight between a grasshopper and ants.

Nana was always smiling; it seemed to be in her nature. She was completely oblivious of the world’s sorrows, and at least at school, she could continue smiling without a care. Karl was even curious if she had ever cried since she was born.

Two days ago, Nana suddenly came to him with tears in her eyes and asked, "Teacher, will I be hanged like Anna?"

This told him that his student, Nana Pine, had become a witch.

"Ah, isn’t that Mr. van Bate? Come over here and help us read what it says."

Karl felt someone pull his sleeve and looked up to find that he had arrived at the town square. Many people stood around the bulletin board, and when they heard van Bate’s name, they all made a path for him.

"You came just in time, sir. Please help us read it."

"Yeah, Meg was supposed to read this to us, but he got a stomachache and had to go to the toilet, but he still isn’t back yet."

Usually, he would have nodded with a smile and explained in detail the contents of the bulletin board to everybody who listened. However, Karl found this impossible—the smiles and enthusiasm of these people were earnest, but this made it even more difficult to bear than if they were all pretending.

The notice about Anna’s hanging had also been placed here, and everyone had also discussed it this cheerily. "In a sense, you were all her murderer," he thought, "and your ignorance and fear had killed her."

Karl suppressed his emotions, took a deep breath and walked in front of the announcement list.

"The prince calls for hands to help with the construction of new buildings for Border Town, and a variety of different kinds of jobs are available," he said.

"But I’m also one of her killers, so why do I deserve to blame them? Wasn’t I the one who taught them that witches were evil?" Karl had a bitter taste in his mouth. "Look at what I’ve taught these children. I followed every word of the Church’s doctrine, and I thought I was teaching them well, damn it!"

"Stone grinder, male, 20 years to 40 years old, strong and healthy, salary is 25 bronze royals per day."

"Mud craftsmen, no gender limitations, over 18 years old, must have experience in masonry, salary is 45 bronze royals per day."

"Handyman, male, over 18 years old, salary is 12 bronze royals per day."

"…"

No, he had to do something. If Anna’s death was irreversible, at least he couldn’t let Nana die. Karl heard his inner voice shout, "When the Mason Guild collapsed, you didn’t do anything; when Anna was hanged, you didn’t do anything. Are you also not going to do anything and watch this lovely child being dragged up to the gallows?"

But what could he do? Could he escape with Nana out of Border Town? He had his own family, a family who traveled with him from Graycastle. Would he make them leave again just when their lives were getting better? Would Nana herself, who was born into a rich family, be able to leave her comfortable life?

"Stonemason, no gender limitations, no age limitations, long-term position for anyone who has participated in construction for the government, salary is one gold royal per month."

"Additional Term: People with rich experience and excellent performance may be granted an official position."

After hearing the notice, the people became even noisier, "One gold royal per month is even better than the salary for the stronghold cavalry!"

"But can you do it? If you can’t even build a mud pile, can you build a fortress?"

"Don’t just stare at it. Even the first few positions aren’t bad. If you get paid every day, you’ll earn the same amount as a hunter."

"Indeed, hunting is a life-threatening job, and the Misty Forest is a really dangerous place."

Karl van Bate did not pay attention to this chatter and only concentrated on the seal and signature at the foot of the notice. It was the autograph of Roland Wimbledon, the Fourth Prince.

Did the prince not know that the Months of the Demons were already coming? Whatever he wanted to build, it was not a good time to start now. It seemed His Highness knew nothing about constructions, so if he could become a stonemason and catch his attention… Karl had suddenly an idea. Perhaps through this recruitment, he could meet the prince himself, Border Town’s highest ruler.

Karl gulped in fear. Could he convince the prince that witches were not evil? There were rumors of His Highness’ unique ideas, so he should be different from ordinary people, and he also hated the Church deeply. "Maybe I can do it!" he thought. "Although Anna’s hanging was ordered by Prince Roland, everyone could tell that he was not willing to do it."

The prince himself was still in his early twenties, which should make it easier to understand, that these young girls were incapable of being evil.

Of course, there was a possibility that Karl would be branded as a Witch Helper and have to go to the gallows with the witches. The Church’s law stipulated that anyone who protected a witch or begged for leniency should be regarded as the devil’s minion.

He could only hope that the prince’s hate for the Church also extended to its laws.

Karl prayed in his heart.

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

For the sake of the dead Anna, for the sake of Nana, who was still alive, and for the sake of his own heart to stop breaking, he decided to take the risk.

Chapter 11 - Princess Garcia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Your Highness, there's something I don't understand." Ryan closed the door, cutting them off from the whistling wind.

"Go ahead." She smiled and nodded.

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

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

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

"But..."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Our spies must have been killed by my brothers. It's unsurprising. These people were just pawns that we placed in order to win some time, and had no weight on the actual situation. Nonetheless..." She changed the topic of the conversation. "It's normal that other plans have failed, but I didn't expect the fourth Prince to remain safe. To tell you the truth, I'm a bit disappointed."

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

"A failure is a failure, and I don't need an explanation." Garcia interrupted. "The Months of Demons are around the corner, our fourth Prince will go to Longsong Stronghold for refuge. When demonic beasts invade Border Town, Stronghold will be in chaos for a while. Write to her and tell her to take this chance. Will the goddess of luck continue to stay on my brother's side?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

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

Ryan nodded his head.

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

Chapter 12 - Firing the Cement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Looks like it." Roland flattened the powder and tested the temperature with his fingers. "I wouldn't know for sure until we use it."

"What's the use of this thing?"

"To build houses and bridges and to repair roads. There are too many uses for this thing. If it succeeds, people won't have to worry about the cold or the rain and snow damaging their houses." Using his other hand, he patted the girl on the head. "It's all thanks to you."

Anna lowered her head. He wasn't sure if it was just an illusion, but the girl's breathing seemed to have sped up a notch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 13 - The City Wall

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Professor... Karl?"

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

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

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

"What's the matter? Aren't you a stonemason?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 14 - The Ability

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"When did you find out that you've become different?"

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 15 - Misconceptions

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

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

"Of course you haven't. That is just one of the church's lies, and your teacher was deceived as well," Roland comforted.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After eating the pastries, Roland sent Nana away. Anna asked in confusion, "Why didn't you make her stay? She's like me, we're both witches, right?"

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

"Anna whispered," It's just a matter of time."

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

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

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

Hearing this, she blinked her eyes and nodded quickly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 16 - The Road Ahead

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

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

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

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

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

"Your Highness, recently you've had a lot of expenses from recruiting the craftsmen and the manual laborers. If we continue such expense, we won't be able to last until next spring." Barov held a pile of parchment while reporting the recent financial situation to Roland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then, things started to change.

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

Barov had considered that Roland was possessed by the demon, or maybe he was controlled by another witch. But this was a slim possibility. If demons and witches had such ability, would they look for Prince Roland? Wouldn't it make more sense to control His Majesty or the pope? What further dispelled his suspicions was the fact that he saw the prince hold God's Locket of Retribution.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 17 - The Ambassador (Part I)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Why is there no ore in the storage yard?" Pointing toward the clearing, the assistant said, "Shouldn't they stack the ore before we arrive?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Mr. Ambassador, please take a seat."

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

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

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

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

"Of... what?" The ambassador was lost.

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

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

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

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

Chapter 18 - The Ambassador (Part II)

Petrov tossed aside his complaints and enjoyed the feast.

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

When the prince told the maid to serve the dessert, Petrov tentatively said, "Your Highness, according to the previous practice, today should be the day when the ores are delivered. However, I didn't see any on the dockyard."

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

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

"Then... what about the ore from the past two months?"

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

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

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

"It's worse," said Roland with a sigh. "I'm afraid we only have enough for two months if we trade wheat the way we used to. My people can't survive winter with so little food. The ways of the past must be abolished."

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

"If I sold the ore to Willow Town, I won't need to repay the food so slowly."

"But..."

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

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

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

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

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

"But my people can't wait that long. You should know that it often takes forever for nobles to reach an agreement."

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

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

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

"You mean…"

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

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

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

"City... wall?"

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

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

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

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

"As for the sales of the ore, I can slash the price by half from next year, my good sir. But I won't sell all of them to Longsong Stronghold, for you won't need so much ore. I think, compared to the low profits the ores make, you'll prefer metal products like spades, shovels, and things like those." He paused for a moment, seeming to wait for Petrov to absorb his words. "As for the raw gemstones, they'll be sold to the highest bidder through an auction. I'd like to sell them at a good price after the gem is cut, but unfortunately no one in Border Town has that ability."

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

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

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

Chapter 19 - The Lecture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Your Highness, I don't understand, since they all look the same, how can you tell that they're different gases?" Carter expressed his doubts.

"I can prove it to you"

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

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

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

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

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

Nana nodded repeatedly.

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

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

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

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

"If there was nothing in the glass, we wouldn't see any bubbles or changes on the water surface. This proves that the air contains at least two different kinds of gases. In reality, burning a candle consumes only a part of the air, while the other part doesn't take part in the burning process. ''Though they are both colorless and odorless, their nature is the complete opposite.''

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Right after he lit the candle in his room, he heard the sound of applause behind him, and then someone spoke, "It was a spectacular lecture. I didn't expect Your Highness was actually a learned man."

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

Chapter 20 - Nightingale

"Don't be frightened, Your Highness. I don't intend to hurt you. I only wish to talk to you."

"Damn, what sort of talk is this?" Roland swallowed and slowly turned around. Under the threat of a dagger, he could only wait for the other side to speak.

In the shadow of candlelight, Roland saw the other person. She was sitting on his bed, her body hidden under a robe, and a hood hiding her face, so he could not see her clearly. Candlelight cast her shadow over a large part of the wall.

"Who are you?"

"I have no name; my sisters call me Nightingale." She stood up, pulled up her robe, and made a curtsy as properly as any lady. "First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude to you, Your Royal Highness Roland Wimbledon."

"Gratitude?" Roland noticed that the pattern on her robe shimmered peculiarly in candlelight. Three parallel triangles with the shape of an eye. Where had he seen this before?

"The pattern on the coin... is the insignia of the Sacred Mountain and the Magic Eye. It's the emblem of the Witches' Cooperation."

What Barov had told him flashed in his mind. "You, you're a witch!?"

"Haha." She let out a string of chuckles. "Your Royal Highness is quite knowledgeable."

After recognizing the identity of the other party, Roland was silently relieved. It seemed that she was not an assassin sent by his siblings. "So, you've come to this distant town for the sake of the witch in the North Slope Mine area? Although I have no idea how you received this information, you came much too late. If I had wanted to hang her, she'd be long dead."

"I'm aware of that. And if you had done it, I'd have no wish to speak to you." Nightingale sat back down on the bed. "The Witch Cooperation Association prefers not to intervene in secular affairs, especially with royalty. But I prefer not to listen to them. It may be improper to kill a prince for a witch, but it's still within my power to leave a deep enough impression on you."

It was an explicit threat but Roland regained his composure. "She's alive and well."

"I'm also aware that there is another girl, Nana." She nodded. "I visited this place a week ago, but I didn't meet you. I've been watching all that you've been doing, and while I don't understand why it's that you don't have the typical hostility against us witches, I'd like to thank you on behalf of the Witches Cooperation Association."

"You've been here for a week." Roland wiped his forehead. "She's seen everything?" This had been going on for a week and he did not notice anything. "So, tell me. Did you come here to talk, or just to thank me?"

"Isn't it tiring to stand while speaking to me?" She said as she lowered her hood. "Come here and talk. I'm not ugly. My appearance won't scare Your Highness."

She was more than not ugly. In fact, one could almost say that she was pretty. With her hood now lowered, Nightingale's golden wavy hair fell down like a cascade, dancing under the candlelight. Her nose was long and her eyes sparkled. Unlike Nana and Anna's childish faces, hers showed an air of maturity. Though in the dark one could not fully perceive her face, the delicate and well-proportioned shadows on her face could serve as enough proof of her beauty.

Roland slowly walked across the room, and sat next to her on the bed. He was doing so not because her beauty made him forget possible dangers, but rather because he simply believed that she was not malicious.

"You can talk now."

"Sure enough, you're not afraid of me." The woman sounded happy. "I can see now that you're different from those people. They hate us because they're afraid of us, and I can see the fear in their eyes. But as for you..." She could not help reaching out her hand to gently stroke Roland's cheek. "You're only curious."

Roland made an awkward little cough and turned his head. He really wasn't sure what to think about this change in character. Just a moment ago, she was a deadly assassin, but now she was an overbearing master diplomat.

Fortunately, the woman quickly suppressed her emotions. "I came here to tell you that I'd like to take Anna and Nana with me."

"No way!" Roland said without thinking, his heart pounding. Fearing that his sudden exclamation might annoy Nightingale, he added, "They're well cared for here, and no one can hurt them. Besides, where do you want to take them? This is the safest place."

"I'll bring them to the Witches Cooperation Association, and that's their destination." Nightingale was not brought down by the refusal, and kept a calm tone. "The members of the community are their companions, there's no discrimination, no persecution. There's no need for them to hide who they are."

"And where exactly is the Witches Cooperation Association located? Or is it that you have no fixed location? A month ago, my guards found your camp in Misty Forest, and now the signs show you've been traveling north. What's in the north other than endless mountains!?"

"You're right. We're currently hiding in a place in the mountains, where witches can be completely safe from harm."

"And just how safe is it to live like a savage in the mountains over winter? Will they have clean drinking water? Enough food? A warm dwelling place? And with the Months of Demons coming, the whole northwest will be dangerous. What in the world are you thinking..." Roland stopped short. What had Barov said, exactly? "Witches travel to Holy Mountain with the intent of finding true tranquility. The Witches Cooperation Association was launched in order for witches to travel together to Holy Mountain." No way, were they.... "Are you going to the Impassable Mountain Range to try and find Holy Mountain?"

"I have nothing to say on this subject." Nightingale smiled, but her look told Roland clearly what to think regarding his speculation.

"That being the case, I can never let them go with you," Roland said. "In just two months the demonic beasts will prevail outside the domains, and even if you can avoid humans in the mountains, you won't be able to avoid the demonic beasts. Holy Mountain can be found at any time. You should come to Border Town for winter, and stay here until it has passed."

It was Nightingale's turn to be stunned. "Stay here? You really are a funny man." She thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "Your Highness, you aren't afraid of witches, but yet this doesn't mean that everyone else is the same. As soon as we're exposed to the crowd, the church will soon come knocking at the door."

"As long as the witches can help ease the burden of the Months of Demons, my people will realize that they're not evil." Before Roland could open his mouth to speak, Nightingale stopped him. "Besides this, we have another thing to consider. Anna is about to reach adulthood."

"Adulthood?"

"Yes." As if seeing through Roland's doubt, Nightingale calmly explained, "Adulthood is the first hurdle all witches need to cross. Usually the sooner one becomes a witch, the harder it's to cross the hurdle. Your highness, do you know why we're seen as the embodiment of the devil?"

Chapter 21 - I'm Not Going Anywhere

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Thank you for your understanding, it seems I didn't misjudge you," Nightingale said as she stood up to give her regards.

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

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

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

"I'm not going."

Roland was stunned. "What did you say?"

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

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

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

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

Roland nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

"The demonic torture won't kill me," said Anna, "and I'll beat it."

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

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

"No, I'll stay here," she said, pulling on her hood and standing up. "Regardless, the camp won't move until the end of the Months of Demons."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Fool."

Chapter 22 - The Declaration

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

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

When it approached noon, Roland mounted the elevation stand.

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

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

Roland waved his hands and the people became quiet immediately.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There was a burst of cheer in the square.

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

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

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

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

Petrov didn't know how his Highness Prince Roland maligned him. When he delivered the message to the six nobilities of Stronghold, they all laughed uproariously.

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

"The bravery of Your Highness is without equal and known to all. However, Prince Roland isn't equipped with this boldness. He is just ignorant!"

"Sure, he doesn't even have any stonecutters. He just piles up those unpolished stones, and add wet mud in between. Be careful they don't all fall down after a certain height."

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

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

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

"What is the key point?"

"If he is able to guard Border Town, that would be nice for Stronghold. We don't need to spend too much effort on fighting against demonic beasts, which could save us a lot of money. Besides, the wide land between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town would belong to us. It would be a good choice to cultivate or migrate, which can relieve the condition of population congestion." Stronghold demonstrated his thoughts one by one. "Besides, Prince Roland won't stay in Border Town forever. Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince just lasts for five years. We are going to obtain a more prosperous Border Town. Longsong Stronghold will be the third largest domain of kingdom with the joining of Border Town. Thus, my advice is..." He peeked at Duke, cautiously saying, "Stronghold needs to send hands to repair the city wall and coordinate to guard Border Town."

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

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

Chapter 23 - The Source of Power

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's this? An iron... bucket?"

"No, it's a cylinder." He corrected.

"Cylinder?" Anna repeated confusedly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You'll find out soon!"

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

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

"Isn't this boiling water? Didn't expect it to be a stove," Carter muttered.

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

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

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

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

His heart gradually became a little uneasy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Oh damn, can't I get any privacy? You come and go as you wish, do you think this is your home!" Suppressing his displeasure, he said blankly, "It's a design, but without Anna's help, it's just a sheet of paper."

"What is it for?"

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

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

"Hang on..."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Did you steal this from her?"

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

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

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

Chapter 24 - The Development Plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Carter nodded, bowed and left.

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

"Did you manage to find out anything?"

"Nothing, she committed suicide when she saw me," Nightingale said, with some frustration. "It was too fast, she didn't hesitate at all."

"You didn't try to stop her?" Roland went round the other side of the desk, and sat back on the chair.

"I had tied her up," said Nightingale, leaning over, "but I didn't know she had poison in her teeth. So I had to set it up like an accidental fall."

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

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

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

"That's probably the case as the sea can't be seen in the domains of your two brothers. I guess Princess Garcia Wimbledon must have taken Tyre's sister as a hostage, and used Tyre as a hidden pawn. From Tyre's decisive style of suicide, it's unlikely to be a coincidence. That means before she was arranged to be by your side, she had received at least two to three years of professional training."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With a large bundle of files in his arms, the Assistant Minister began to report nearly a week of government affairs right after he came in. Roland also cleared his thoughts, and concentrated on his report. After more than a month of contact, he found himself familiar with Barov's working style, rather than being completely confused and puzzled like in the beginning.

In general, the finance of Border Town had a certain degree of improvement. This was mainly due to the ore and gemstones being sold to Willow Town in exchange for nearly 200 gold royals. After being used to purchase food and pay wages, there were still 90 royals remaining.

Barov was also in a good mood, now that there was some extra money, surviving this winter would not be too difficult.

But Roland was determined to not let him be idle. "I want to pick a group of people from the subjects to fight demonic beasts. And from now on they must be gathered to receive training. The instructor will be my chief knight, and I'll give him the specifics later on. You need to make a purchase plan, as these people must have solid leather armor and a gun, but also two sets of winter clothes."

"Your Highness, this... according to the convention, isn't this a temporary recruitment of subjects for war?"

"Fighting on the battlefield without proper training makes them but a group of mobs. Can we scare off demonic beasts by relying on sheer masses? It's more troublesome if they break up."

"Don't tell me you really want to stand by Border Town?" Barov hesitantly asked.

"If we really can't protect it, of course, I'll retreat. But I don't think we can't defeat even a few mutated beasts.

"If we go according to your plan, you'll need more money."

Barov's miserly face made Roland laugh. "These're necessary expenses, go take care of it."

There were still more than 300 pieces of gold royals in his own vault, mainly used to pay for the cost of building the city wall. He also paid the blacksmith shop for the steam engine materials and components. The first machine cost him almost 20 gold royals, and he needed at least three more.

The steam engine triggered the first Industrial Revolution, but it did not mean that the steam engine was equal to the Industrial Revolution. At that time, the United Kingdom urgently needed a new power to replace people and livestock in order to satisfy mine production. After Watt improved the steam engine, massive orders were immediately received from overseas, and the new power quickly spread to various industries.

At this time, Border Town did not have the foundation for the Industrial Revolution, and industrialization did not even exist. So Roland did not expect to sell steam engines to make the first pot of gold. He just wanted to invest the machine in the Northern Slope Mine Area for mining and gravel. When the mine production increased, then he would expand the steam engine's scale of usage. This was the equivalent of promoting industrial development from top to bottom.

Chapter 25 - The Militia

"These are the men you recruited?" Roland asked. Looking at the crowd of folks in rags, he had to hold back the urge to turn about and get away immediately.

"Your Highness, these men were chosen according to your requirements," Carter replied, counting his fingers. "Male, no criminal record, above 18, under 40 years old and not disabled... I have checked over everyone carefully."

Alright, Roland knew that he could not expect too much. After all, the productive forces of this world were so low that it would be difficult even to fill the people's stomach, not to mention to dress decently. His identity as a prince prevented him from seeing that refugees who had no clothes on their backs and begged for a living were a common sight out of the castle. As a matter of fact, even in the capital of Graycastle, there existed the profession of corpse collecting. These people dragged away the corpses of the starving who dropped dead in the streets and burned them.

[So what's warfare like in this world?] Roland closed his eyes and contemplated. It seems... it was only a little more elegant than gang fights. Generally speaking, when a lord decided to wage a war, or rather, had a fight, since Roland did not think what they were doing had anything in common with warfare, he would convene all the noble families in his domain, whom in turn convene the lower noble families in their respective domains. For example, a duke would convene his earls, while an earl would convene his viscounts, and a viscount his barons, and so on and so forth.

These noble families usually had a bunch of knights and mercenaries as their own forces. These men were the main forces in a fight, and they were well armed and equipped. At the same time, they recruited common men and peasants in their domains to join the fight. To be honest, their purpose was to carry provisions for the troops and to fight in the frontline. The ones who suffered most in battle were those groups of "cannon fodder". As for the warriors from the noble families, as long as they did not die on a battlefield, they would be captured and then treated well so that they could be traded for ransom.

Roland would not count on those few noble families in Border Town to fight for him. In fact, they had nothing to do with Border Town. Instead, their titles of baron were mostly granted by the Lord of Longsong Stronghold, and their territories also belonged to the domain of Longsong Stronghold.

In this age, a platoon completely composed of common men required some imagination to understand. They were too ignorant to read documents or understand orders. Not to mention that they never had any professional training. How could they be compared with knights who started practicing sword fighting since the age of ten?

Carter approached Roland and said softly, "Your Highness, this method has never been acceptable. Look at them. Which one of them can hold a sword? I'm afraid that they'd soon disperse at the sight of demonic beasts. This would instead disturb the line of defense and have a negative effect. I suggest that we should recruit professional mercenaries from Willow Town or other places to defend the city wall. These men could be kept for sundry duties."

"No, I'll use them," Roland said, refusing Carter's suggestion. He did not like those mercenaries who fought for money. Besides, he was not only building this army to defend against demonic beasts. He knew from history that a powerful and dynamic army must be built from the people, and there were countless feudal, modern, and contemporary armies that had attested to this rule.

"Okay, we'll do as you say," said the knight with a shrug. "Then should I train in swordplay? Though it may not be of much use..."

"Swordplay? No. You should instruct them to stand in formation and run." Roland held back his words after this, as it suddenly occurred to him that the chief knight himself might have never had such an experience. He said instead, "Call the hunter whom you approached last time. You both should pay attention to what I'll do."

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

The unimaginable things Van'er experienced today were more than those of the past 20 years combined.

He saw Prince Roland with his own eyes! The prince walked past him and even smiled to him. God, was the prince drunk?

Three days ago, when Prince Roland gave the lecture at the square, he knew that this winter would be different from before. They would not head for Longsong Stronghold, but would instead stay and pass the long winter in Border Town. Most of what the prince said was incomprehensible to him, but yet he agreed wholeheartedly with this decision. Van'er's brother died two years ago in Longsong Stronghold slum. For a whole month there had been no food supply of any kind. He shared the dark bread he bought with the few coppers he had earned unloading cargo at the pier with his brother. But that winter was too cold. Wind came in through every crack of the shack in which they lived, and what they ate could hardly keep them warm. His brother lost consciousness with an ailment and never woke up again.

In Border Town, he at least had a house built by the earth, in which he did not have to fear a heavy snow that lasted long. He also saw wheat transported from elsewhere that piled up on the pier and then was transported to the castle in heaps. So Van'er came as soon as he heard that Prince Roland was recruiting for the militia.

Of course, what had enticed him to give up his quarrying work for enlistment was the pay, which was as high as 10 silver royals per month. It was comparable to the pay of an experienced mason! He was no longer young and planned to marry Sheryl, the tavern waitress the next spring, so it would be wise to start earning money.

As for what the notice said about the militia's duties, he took no notice of it. It was either to carry things for their lordships, or to facilitate the patrol. After all, they couldn't possibly be ordered to fight the frenetic demonic beasts on the city wall.

The selection was strict. The eyes of the knight in shiny armor made Van'er a little nervous. Fortunately, he passed the selection with his rather stout figure, though the knight eliminated many bony fellows through selection. At the end, there were only about 100 people left.

But it had never occurred to Van'er that it was His Highness himself that trained them.

Those who passed the selection were brought to a meadow west of Border Town. Behind them the city wall was being built, while in front of them stretched the endless Misty Forest.

The prince commanded all to stand in formation and then rested aside. It had rained a few days ago and the ground was still mushy. Moisture penetrated his shoes from the water-logged ground, making his whole body uneasy. Not to mention that the posture the prince demanded from them was quite unusual. They had to stand with hands down close to the sides of their thighs and keep their backs straight.

It only took a quarter of an hour to make Van'er exhausted. It was more taxing than hammering stones during the quarrying. But he grinded his teeth and persisted, because His Highness had said the one who moved during the training would not have any egg at lunch. God knew how long it had been since he had last tasted an egg. It was obviously what others thought as well, for they all persisted with all their effort.

It was not until the prince declared that everyone could rest on the spot that Van'er found himself soaked in sweat, despite the fact that he had only stood for half an hour. On the other hand, those who had not made it until the end regretted losing their egg.

Yet Van'er could not think of the use of this training. Could they carry a few more packs of solid food, if they stood like this?

If it was not for the fact that His Highness trained them himself, he would have cried out in doubt much earlier.

But after the rest, the second order His Highness made was even stranger. He commanded that everyone should continue standing in formation. If no one moved this time, each one would have one more egg at lunch. However, this time if even one person gave up, everyone would lose their chance of adding one more egg to their meal.

Van'er heard the sound of someone swallowing.

Hell, was this the new joke of the nobles? With a carrot and a stick, the prince had led everyone on! But Van'er would never consider himself a dumb donkey.

But what if everyone could do it? Then later on he could have two eggs for lunch.

The appeal was too great. Drooling over the eggs, Van'er decided to try his best.

Chapter 26 - The Experience Learned from History

"Your Highness, what's the meaning of this?" Carter thought Prince Roland was arbitrary before, but now he thought the prince had become divorced from reality.

With regard to how to train a soldier, the chief knight thought that no one would be more professional than himself. His family had a complete set of training method, where a boy of 10 years old could be trained as a soldier, and would master all kinds of weapons in five years. If the soldier was further trained for five years, he would then be a top soldier, a knight who knew all rituals of upper class—of course, the trainees could not come from a civilian family.

[Look at these idiots! They only think of eating eggs!] Carter thought, [Besides... the eggs are so expensive!]

Roland responded casually, "Just watch them, and remember they must be trained in this way for the next few days. Of course, I'll make some changes, and I'll list down the details on paper."

During the cold war era, it was impossible to train a group of qualified soldiers in two or three months. And Roland had never thought of that, as he did not need that kind of Spartan warriors who were strong enough to tear a beast apart with bare arms. The individual soldiers did not have to be strong, but they had to be disciplined and execute every order without fail.

The power of a unit was usually much stronger than individual strength. This was decided by social norm and acceptance. So he needed to form them into a unit quickly. The modern military training, with some modifications to suit the current situation, was a good choice. In his personal experience of military training, it took only half a month to integrate students from all over the country into a cohesive unit. The effect was very obvious regardless of the process.

Only when this group of people completely understood the importance of discipline, could Roland implement the next step of his plan.

Van'er still failed to get the second egg at the end.

They had to stand twice as long as the previous round, and it did not end until someone's legs went weak and trembled.

Just then, Prince Roland announced to have a rest and ordered the attendants to serve lunch. People's anger at the weakling was successfully transmuted into the eagerness toward food. Of course, Van'er began to suspect that His Highness probably had never intended to let them get a second reward.

Lunch was packed in four large pots, which was transported by carriages to the outside of the town. In addition to food, they also brought a lot of wooden bowls and spoons.

Van'er licked his lips, ready to rush to the carriages with the others, but was held back by the chief knight.

His Royal Highness ordered all the people to line up in four rows and come forward one by one for bowls and spoons. Whoever dared to disturb the order would be forced to be the last one to get his food.

The crowd hustled and squeezed, and lined up into four rows. Van'er was lucky enough to stand in the forefront of the outermost row. Of course, some people were not satisfied with their positions. The sound of quarrels and fighting was heard in the rows. Soon the knights and several guards rushed into the crowd and kicked the troublemakers out.

[Fool,] thought Van'er when he glanced at the man who started the riot. That was Insane Fist, the most aggressive street fighter in the town. He used to stir up trouble everywhere with his brute force, but now he had to squat in the corner with swords pointed at him. Look how pitiful he was now.

He felt that he had already figured out what His Royal Highness liked.

He liked order.

They had to stand upright in a straight line, line up to get food, and always follow orders... Van'er had heard from some knowledgeable businessmen that some of the noble had a strange habit: they could not tolerate disorder and once something was out of place, they could not help rearranging things.

In Van'er's mind, this kind of person was purely bored and had nothing better to do. So they would deliberately create some trouble to occupy their mind.

He did not expect that His Royal Highness was such a person.

When the lids of the pots were opened, Van'er smelled the strong flavor of food.

When the flavor spread in the wind, he almost lost himself in it. The crowd also became restless, but soon the knight roared to keep them quiet. [We probably have to line up again,] Van'er thought.

Sure enough, Prince Roland required them to line up for their portions of food just like before.

Their mouths were watering and their stomachs were growling. But thinking of what happened to Insane Fist, they had to line up and wait patiently.

The pots were filled with hot oatmeal. To Van'er's surprise, there was even dried meat in the porridge! Even if he only got one thin slice, but that was meat! In addition, he even got an extra egg like he wished for.

Van'er gobbled down the porridge, even licking the bottom of the bowl once. He swallowed the entire egg without biting. Since he ate so fast and carelessly, his tongue blistered quickly.

After putting down the pot, Van'er patted his belly and made a satisfied hiccup. He had not enjoyed such delicious food for a long time. And what was even more incredible was that he even felt a sense of satiety. Compared with brown bread, the sweet meat porridge tasted like heaven. He even thought, if he could eat such food every day, what would it matter if he had to fight against the demonic beasts in the front?

After lunch, they had a long period of rest. They were brought back within the city wall, walking all the way to the camp of the battalion. A burly man of foreign nation came out and began to teach everyone how to set up tents.

Van'er knew him—nearly everyone in the town knew Iron Axe. With regards to his superb archery skill, he even far surpassed the most experienced old hunters in the town. [Wait a moment, so now Iron Axe is serving Prince Roland? It seemed that I saw him by the side of the knights before.] Van'er frowned and thought, [What's His Highness planning? Iron Axe is a man of Sand Nation.]

"Do you really intend to appoint a man of Sand Nation as captain?" Carter had the same question. "He doesn't belong to Kingdom of Graycastle. And he isn't even from our continent."

"The witches don't belong to the Kingdom of Graycastle either," Roland said, "but they all belong to Border Town. Besides, aren't you watching them for me?"

"But, Your Highness..."

"Don't worry." Roland patted the knight's shoulder. "The origin of a person doesn't matter in Border Town. As long as they don't violate the law of the kingdom, they're still my subjects. If you're really worried, you can choose two more excellent captains. Anyway, the team will continue to expand in the future, and you can cultivate some promising ones now. I have written down the training regulations. Compared to the people of Sand Nation, I think you'd better be more concerned about this."

Carter took the parchment roll from Roland's hands. Skimming through the contents from beginning to end, he got a nasty shock. The training contents were almost unheard of. For example, they needed to run laps around Border Town in the afternoon from 2 p.m. till sunset. The regulations emphasized that everyone had to complete this, and they were allowed to help each other on the way. If they persevered and no one gave up, they would get an extra egg for dinner. Another example, when the whistles were blown at night, everyone had to get dressed and fall in as soon as possible. With these kinds of training exercises, Carter was afraid that most people would quit in a few days.

The first few rules were already hard to understand, and the last one completely confused him.

"Every day after dinner, they're required to go to Mr. Karl's college for cultural training."

"Your Highness... What do you mean by cultural training? Do you want to teach them to read and write?"

"I hope so, but the time is too limited. Karl could only teach them some simple words and numbers so that they can read and write orders. I'll personally explain this part to Karl. You just need to send them over."

"But, why do you want to do this? It's of no use in fighting against the demonic beasts."

"Who said so?" Roland yawned. "A unit good at fighting must also be well educated. That's the experience learned from history."

Chapter 27 - The Past

The weather was getting colder day by day, and Roland was waking up later and later.

As the ruling class, he certainly had the right to sleep late. Especially with his large bed and three layers of velvet blankets, his whole body would fall into the soft encirclement when lying down. This made it much harder for him to get up early.

After washing up, Roland stepped into his office and found Nightingale had been waiting there for a long time.

"Well, here is your breakfast. I ate half when it was hot, but now it's cold," she said, with her lips protruding. She nodded her head in the direction of the remaining bread on the table, as if she was the lord of the domain

"Hasn't anyone taught you to be humble before the prince?" asked Roland, as he pushed away the plates and sat at the desk. "I remember you were very polite at first."

He sighed inwardly. He had not realized that she made friends instantly, and she would always be accompanying Anna or him. She had kept hidden at first, but now as long as there was no outsider present, she would stroll around his office and not even wearing a hood.

"Like this?" She jumped off the table and bowed in the style and etiquette of a flawless noble. "You've been getting up later and later recently. Since the breakfast remained unconsumed, I wanted to do you a favor by helping myself to some of it, Your Highness." She walked toward Roland and said, "You don't care, do you? I can see that you don't like the tedious etiquette."

"Did she have a third eye?" Roland wondered silently. "She could see even this."

He sighed. "As you like, but you'd better finish the breakfast once you start it in the future. I'll order another portion if I want to eat it."

"Yes, Your Highness!" She smiled and picked up the plate, moving quickly to one side.

Roland rolled out a blank parchment. He was ready to complete the design drawing, left unfinished from yesterday.

If he wanted to defend Border Town, he should not pursue a win with an almost equal loss in the first battle of winter. Since a corp that had not experienced war was not a qualified one, Roland feared that if there was any major loss, his soldiers who had only been trained for a short time, would not have the courage to stand on the city wall.

He needed epochal weapons in order to have an absolute advantage over the demonic beasts.

There was no doubt that he needed the flintlock.

The era was equipped with all the conditions for the emergence of the flintlock. The alchemists often produced something they called snow powder for palace celebrations. It was essentially gunpowder but with the wrong formula and could burn slowly. When put into the copper tube, it mostly just made a small sound.

In about one century, the prototype of the flintlock, the harquebus, would appear. The firearm had a complicated operation, which relied on the cooperation of two people doing the loading and shooting. In general, it could only be used as a single-shot weapon. As for its speed and power, it was no match for a trained archer.

Roland, of course, was not interested in repeating history. It was better to make use of the witch's ability and create a flintlock with practical value, just like he had created the steam engine.

"I had looked at the order on the table before you came," Nightingale swallowed the last piece of bread and asked casually, "What are you going to do with so many ices? It's winter now, and if you want to drink cold ale, why not directly put it outside for one night?"

The noble liked to use ice during summer, namely, the ice made of saltpeter. Then they could cool their milk, wine or juice for enjoyment. Thanks to winter's blessing, the current purchasing price for saltpeter was very low.

"To make iced cheese, the temperature is not low enough yet. It doesn't work well without freezing," Roland replied precariously.

Although the woman in front of him was not his enemy, he did not know her as well as he knew Anna. Unlike the steam engine, there were not so many technical barriers to the flintlock. Once it became popular, it would obviously be unfavorable to his farming project. Until he learned more about her, it was better to keep some things from her. Thinking of this, he tentatively asked, "Does the Witch Cooperation Association help to train killers in addition to searching for Holy Mountain?"

"No, they're only a group of poor people coming together for a dream," Nightingale waved and said, "and I joined the Witch Cooperation Association only two years ago."

"In other words, you were working for someone else?" She could not have gained such perfect dagger-throwing skills without someone's guidance or years of hard work. Roland was pretty sure about it. "Other than me, is there anyone else willing to take in a witch?"

"Take in?" Nightingale looked a bit strange. "How could it be. If he had known that I would become a witch, he wouldn't have even let me through his door. As for later on, if I had not proved my usefulness to him, I'd have been secretly killed."

"Oh? Can you elaborate?"

Nightingale shook her head with a smile, which contained slightly inexpressible moods this time. "Your Highness, I'll let you know when the time is right. I know what you're worried about. Please rest assured that I have been free for the last five years, and no longer work for others."

Negotiations failed, it seemed that he was not charming enough... However, her answer indirectly confirmed his speculations. At least five years ago, she had secretly done something for someone. Fortunately, the person had only used Nightingale by chance, instead of recruiting large numbers of witches like he intended to.

Roland did not ask more. He bowed his head and went on with the drawings.

To his surprise, Nightingale, who had always liked being around him, became quiet, only leaving the sound of furnace fire burning in the room. When Roland lifted his head to stretch his limp, numb neck, she had left the office.

"She didn't say goodbye," he muttered, folding the parchment and putting it into the inner pocket of his underclothes.

He worked for a few days. He finished all the work, including the drawings, and the designs of the weapons, or the copies.

He was planning to make the famous flintlock, which was time-tested and similar to the harquebus in terms of the technique level, with the ignition charge loaded into the rear, and the lead ball loaded into the front. Its rate could be nearly three shots per minute. So more than sufficiently, it could be used to cope with the unintelligent mutant beasts.

Most animals would not be able to climb the wall, so the shooting distance was approximately equal to the distance from the top of the city wall to the ground, approximately four meters. Within this distance, it was hard to miss the target and the initial speed of the bullet would hardly decrease. As long as the demonic beasts had not evolved with a skin harder than steel, they could basically be killed in one shot.

The disadvantage of the flintlock was its long production time. At first, like the harquebus, it was made by craftsmen's repeated beats with a hammer. From the barrel to the trigger, it took about three months to make the whole gun. Among all the parts, the barrel was the most time-consuming. The craftsman had to beat the iron sheet into a thin and cylindrical shape, seal it with iron powder, and then engrave the rifling. Although there was no need for precise instruments, the craftsman must be skilled in order to make qualified barrels.

This was why Roland had produced the steam engine first.

With the steam engine available, he could directly drill a barrel into a solid iron bar with the steel drill. So, the production speed would be greatly improved, without any more reliance on the operation by the skilled craftsmen. The only thing he needed would be a table on which he could fix the iron bar.

Chapter 28 - Fierce Scar

But when Roland operated it himself, he realized the actual situation was not as simple as he had expected.

After slogging in the backyard for four or five days, the harder drill bits were completed successfully though. With the use of Anna's flame at a high temperature, he could easily get molten iron at over 1,500 Celsius degrees. Without any temperature constraint, he could quickly and easily produce small quantities of steel with the conventional wrought-steel method. By stirring the molten iron with an iron bar, the excessive carbon and other impurities in the pig iron would oxidize in the air, and after repeating the operation several times, the premium steel appeared as the molten iron cooled down.

The problem lay in the first steam engine.

When this primitive machine was working, it created loud noise and high-frequency vibration. As a result, the drill could not stably finish drilling the entire solid iron. In rough labor, this degree of tremor did not matter, but this clearly would not work with the processing of the barrel.

To improve this situation, he had to create a centrifugal governor to control the output power of the steam engine, and then use the gear assembly to reduce the vibration, and adjust the bit rotation rate. Plus, the machining gears required a simple lathe. By the look of things, Roland found himself unable to achieve his goal before the arrival of the Months of Demons.

Eventually, he could only apply the old method of asking the blacksmiths to gradually hammer it out. The plan to mass produce flintlocks did not succeed. According to the number of blacksmith shops in Border Town, a maximum of three to four barrels could be produced monthly, which should be on the condition that the production of the second steam engine was stopped.

The only consolation was that there was no need to worry about the pass rate of the barrel. The blacksmith just needed to beat the approximate shape of round tubes. Anna would do the pipe linking. The effect was close to the seamless tube cut out by the boring tool, and basically eliminated the risk of the gun-barrel explosion.

Roland had no choice but to revise his previous plan. He had intended to recruit hunters from Border Town to set up a Flintlock Squad—they were mostly proficient in archery and both the bow and crossbow were their handy weapons. Plus a firearm training was not time-consuming, so they could be ready for combat very soon.

But from now up till the Months of Demons, only four flintlock guns could be made. In this way, only the most outstanding of the hunters could form an elite team. Roland decided to entrust this matter to Iron Axe to carry out. He had stayed in Border Town for 15 years, and was also generally recognized as the best hunter.

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

Brian was unhappy this past half month.

Especially when he met the militia team in the street, his unhappiness doubled... He even could not reconcile himself to what had happened.

He felt that he had been forgotten by His Highness.

A month ago when he was summoned by the chief knight, he was full of excitement. Being in close contact with Prince Roland and questioned by His Highness himself was a very fortunate and glorious matter.

He was born in an ordinary hunting family and grew up in Border Town. By virtue of his own abilities, he became Patrol Leader. He knew he could not rely on his background to become a knight, but could only wait for the opportunity to make a merit, and accept the conferral by the authorities.

His Highness' inquiry made him sense the opportunity had come. Apparently Prince Roland did not want to give up his domain and was trying to find ways to fight the demonic beasts. Later on, the massive construction of the city wall proved without a doubt that this year they would be spending the Months of Demons in Border Town.

If His Highness wanted to prevent the invasion of demonic beasts here, he had to set up a platoon brave enough for a face-to-face combat. Brian thought he himself was the best choice for the role, as he was proficient in investigation, swordsmanship and equestrian skill. Every year, he would remain till the time for the garrison duty to ignite the beacon-fire to prove his courage. But he never expected that His Highness would plan to choose a platoon from the populace to fight with the demonic beasts!

Yes, it was a platoon of civilians. Furthermore, the whole patrol team of ten people, including him, did not pass the review by the chief knight. This was simply incredible. Did His Highness felt that these civilians who had never held swords would be better than him in battle? It was more likely they would disperse once they saw the fiendish faces of the demonic beasts.

But His Highness seemed to be serious... He was not only training this group of mobs but also gave them uniforms. Every afternoon, Brian could see this group of people wearing brown and gray leather armor, filed in two lines running on the streets. At the beginning, the platoon was messy, but recently it became much neater.

But every day, he could only carry out boring tasks, without any hope of promotion.

At night, while he was tossing and turning, there was a loud noise next door. The door was pushed open, and someone came in quietly.

"Hey, get up! All of you," he whispered. Brian recognized his voice; he was a member of the patrol team and nicknamed Fierce Scar.

There were five people in his room. Other than Greyhound and himself, the other three quickly got up, as if they had already been preparing for this as they slept with their coats on.

"Captain, get up quickly. I have something important to tell you."

Fierce Scar had a noble relative in Longsong Stronghold, who was said to be a great noble. Hence his position was very high in the team. Brian could not ignore him, so he got up and asked, "What happened?"

Greyhound was also awakened. "It, it's so late, don’t you guys... go to bed?"

"I have a good job for you, do you want to be conferred as a knight?"

"Wh-What? Knight?" Greyhound exclaimed.

Brian's heart skipped a beat and quickly asked, "What's the job exactly?"

"You all know my uncle Hirte. He's the earl conferred by the duke, and also the duke's confidant. He personally told me this." Fierce Scar lowered his voice. "Prince Roland is ready to cast off Longsong Stronghold and this has displeased the duke greatly. The duke has decided to let the prince know that only he is the master of the Western Region."

"D-D-Don't tell me... you intend to, to assassinate..." Greyhound stuttered once he got nervous, and could not complete his sentences.

"How could it be," Fierce Scar said, tittering. "He is a prince after all. If he's dead, even the duke cannot protect us. As I said, it's a good job."

Brian subconsciously felt that the deal was not as simple as he claimed. But the temptation of being a knight was so great that he could not help but reply, "Tell me more."

"Grain. If there's no food, he'll have no choice but come back to Longsong Stronghold. The duke promised that as long as we can successfully burn the grain bought by Prince Roland, he'll make us knights. And even give us a piece of land in the eastern Longsong Stronghold. It's a golden opportunity. Captain, what do you think of it?"

"You, you're crazy. His, His Highness has already said, this y-year, the Months of Demons is likely to last f-for more than four months. If you b-burn the grain, what will we eat!" Greyhound shook his head repeatedly. "Have we a-all forgotten what happened two, two years ago?"

"What does that have to do with us?" The other man remarked with disdain. "Anyway, I didn't intend to stay here. After finishing Duke Ryan's task, I'll be able to live a good life in Longsong Stronghold."

"That's right. Do you want to stay in this dump and eat furnace slag forever?" The others echoed the view.

"Damn, they were in cahoots." Brian's heart sank. Only Greyhound and him grew up in Border Town, the rest came from all parts of the country and did not have any special feelings towards the town. Sensing it pointless to stop them, he changed the subject. "But the wheat has already been transferred to His Highness' castle. With the entrance guarded by personal knights, how could you enter it?"

"That's why I've asked you to join," Fierce Scar laughed confidently, "You've stayed in this dump since you were young, so no one knows this environment better than you. I remember you once said the well at the back mountain, was connected to the waterway at the bottom of the castle. Through it, you can quietly access the castle garden. You even crawled through it when you were a child. So if you join me, you can become a knight in the future—and even personally conferred by the Duke."

No... Knights should be courageous and fight unfairness. They should not be afraid of powers of coercion, but should protect the weak! Just for the sake of the duke's personal grudges, why should we expose the town residents to the threat of hunger and death? Such a knight is just an empty shell, without any glory at all!

As he was about to refuse, Greyhound shouted.

"A, a group of madmen! You, you, actually dare to mess with the grain. I'll never let you leave h-here! I want to r-report to..." Greyhound was in mid-speech when the sound solidified. He turned around in disbelief, as a former teammate stood behind him, sneering. A black dagger thrust into his back and entered the body completely. He trembled twice, opened his mouth trying to say something, but could only utter a hoarse breathing sound.

The attacker swiftly moved the dagger twice, and then violently pulled it back. Greyhound suddenly lost the support like a lifeless doll, and collapsed softly to the ground.

"And so?" Fierce Scar came close to Brian, who could even feel the stench of his mouth. "I think you have decided. Right, Captain?"

Chapter 29 - Brian's Anger

The lord's castle in Border Town had not been originally built in its current position.

Whilst burying the foundation of the stone wall, an underground cave was uncovered. The ground suddenly collapsed, so there was no choice but to move the position of the castle.

The waterways that had already been dug were mostly destroyed during the collapse. Even those that were intact were abandoned because of the reconstruction.

When Brian was young, he often played in these tunnels, and one day he accidentally found that the route from an abandoned well led to the well of the castle garden. Brian told his father, and was severely beaten. His father warned him that the punishment for trespassing the castle was death. Once found guilty, he would be sent straight to the gallows.

Brian was terrified and naturally did not walk through the waterway again. But at times when everyone got together to drink and chat, he had more than once boasted that he knew a direct access to the castle. Now he regretted his remarks.

Excluding Greyhound, there were a total of nine people. In other words, the entire patrol team had been persuaded by Fierce Scar—being able to serve Duke Ryan, the lord of the Western Region, with such a lucrative return, was a temptation few people could resist.

The abandoned well was located at the outset of the collapse, and now it remained a wasteland. Held by Fierce Scar's sword and caught in the middle of the platoon, Brian went down the well. What was once a spacious waterway, was now very narrow. No one had passed through in years, plus the water direction had changed. Many vines had sprouted all over the cave.

The bloke who had stabbed Greyhound was in front holding the torch and bowed. He held a short axe and used it to remove obstacles.

Brian pretended he was trying to remember the road, but in fact, he was thinking about getting away.

Obviously in such an inconvenient place, he had no possibility of escaping. He could only wait till he got to the castle, before getting a chance. What should he do once he got there? Shout to attract the personal knights of His Highness? No. Fierce Scar would raise his hand and finish him off. He had to lengthen their distance first, otherwise he would end up like Greyhound.

Thinking about Greyhound, Brian's eyes became bleak again.

He and Greyhound had lived in Border Town before it was even established. The two had spent their childhood together and joining the patrol team was also Brian's idea. He had not expected that Greyhound would be elected as the patrol team leader.

Brian was happy for him for a long time. Because of his stutter, Greyhound had always been despised by others. Now, he had finally gotten the opportunity to be recognized. At least at the time, it was what Brian thought.

But when Greyhound fell and Brian screamed, Fierce Scar told him the real reason they had been elected captains.

"Fool, patrol leaders have to stay until the Months of Demons, to ignite the flames and warn everyone. If you two didn't do it, did you expect me to do it myself?"

The sentence was like a sharp knife piercing Brian's heart.

All those compliments and congratulations were false, and the real reason was actually so ugly. He showed a look of shock and despair to cover up his raging anger. It was simply unforgivable. Brian secretly clenched his teeth. Someone had to pay the price!

After walking through the dried-up waterway for half an hour, they finally heard the sound of water.

This meant that they were not far from their destination.

After turning a corner, it suddenly became more spacious, and could accommodate two people standing side by side. The person walking at the head of the platoon said, "There's no way forward, just a shaft."

"What's happening?" Fierce Scar nudged the sword and asked.

"Ask him to look up," said Brian. "We have arrived."

The abandoned waterway was connected to the middle of the castle backyard's waterway. Perhaps it had not been sealed shut due to negligence. Fierce Scar stuck to the wall and looked up, three feet below him was gushing water, and above his head he could see a small circle of the night sky.

He let people guard Brian, while he pulled out a rope from the backpack, tied the hook, and gently threw it up. When a "dang" sound was heard, the hook was firmly stuck in the edge of the well's head.

Fierce Scar followed the rope, and carefully climbed up. Soon, he tugged the rope several times above, indicating that the rest of the people could come up.

The line of people took almost half a day's efforts to climb out from the well. The castle which was originally far from sight now stood erect in front of them.

Fierce Scar grabbed Brian and shouted, "Hurry and take us to the warehouse."

Brian had only come here once. Though the memory of the castle was obscure, he quietly led the crowd, pried open the nearest wooden door and slipped into the castle.

At this hour, most people inside the castle were asleep, and the lamp lights along the corridor walls were completely extinguished. In the pitch-black darkness, someone from the platoon lit a fire. Faint fire could only illuminate a few feet, and Brian knew his chance had come.

When the platoon went to a crossing leading to the basement, he aimed at the bottom of the ladder, and suddenly rushed over. Although the person who held Brian had been paying attention to his movements, but the leap was too fast. Before he could react, he collided and began rolling down with Brian.

Down the ladder, the two instantly came out of the fire's range, and disappeared in the darkness.

"Oh, damn!" Fierce Scar immediately pulled out the dagger, and chased after them. He thought Brian would use the dark to play hide and seek with him. But not only did Brian not escape, he was also quietly standing under the stairs, as if waiting for him.

Fierce Scar saw that the associate who collided with Brian was lying on the ground motionless. And Brian was holding the man's weapons in his hand.

"Fool, do you think you'll have a chance to win?" Fierce Scar held his attack stance, waiting for the others to come down, and then said, "There are seven of us, and only one of you."

Brian did not answer, and he no longer needed to suppress his anger. He swung the sword, and swiftly struck the peak of Fierce Scar's sword, with sparks flying. Without waiting for the next stance, he stabbed the sword into Fierce Scar's shoulder!

Fierce Scar roared and fell backwards. Another one stepped forward, blocking the pursuit of Brian.

This was an excellent place to strike, as the narrow aisle gave the opponents hardly any advantages. He just had to stand in the middle of the aisle facing the enemy, and the opponents could not do anything. It was just too narrow here to accommodate two people waving weapons.

With regards to swordsmanship, Brian was confident he would not lose to anyone of the patrol team.

When this group of scum was lazing around, gambling, and indulging in the bar, he was honing his fighting skills. Regardless of wind, frost, rain or snow, years went by and his routine was never interrupted. This was also why he did not choose to immediately shout for help.

He wanted to personally avenge Greyhound's death.

Chapter 30 - Coming from the Mist

The enemy only blocked Brian's two strikes before his weapons were knocked down.

[They're more like a bunch of hooligans than members of the patrol team.] Brian thought angrily. [Other than blackmail and extortion, what else have they done? Greyhound and I meticulously performed the tasks given by the lord, but ended up being the weird ones out of the team.]

But... it just so happened, this group of scum, in order to join Longsong Stronghold, did not care about what happened to the town, and used despicable methods to kill Greyhound.

Unforgivable!

He wielded the sword, aiming toward a frightened opponent's neck...

At this moment, a shadow emerged from the target, and swiftly stabbed close to Brian's heart. This blow was too concealed, so when he detected it, it was already too late.

In desperation, he crashed backwards to the ground, his body popping up, and felt a stabbing pain at his chest.

After rolling a few laps, Brian immediately stood up and put on a defensive stance. That sword attack only pierced his coat and skin, and there was no serious harm done. But the main point was who did the attack! He did not know any guy in the patrol team with such a fencing skill.

"Huh? You actually dodged the attack." The man pushed away his teammate and came forward.

By the firelight, Brian found he did not know that person—he was not tall, and yet his hands were very long, hanging down almost to the knees. His face was unfamiliar, and Brian vowed he had never seen this face before.

"You're not from the patrol team... Who're you exactly?"

Despite having few dealings with the five people next door, but at least he recognized them. This guy obviously replaced one of them, followed the team in and infiltrated the castle. It was not surprising that he did not discover him in the middle of the night, but it was impossible that Fierce Scar did not notice as well. Since they did not seem surprised, then there was only one explanation that this guy was deliberately arranged by Fierce Scar.

"You already know the answer, so why asking me?" He smiled indifferently. "Anyway, you're going to die."

"Damn, he's injured me!" Fierce Scar shouted hatefully. "Viper, chop off his hands and feet, and I want to slowly drain his blood!"

"Unfortunately, Mr. Kihls, I have to first complete the tasks of the earl."

Without much pause, the guy known as Viper continued attacking. His movement was swift and mysterious, plus his abnormally long arms, forcing Brian into a bitter struggle. Brian was forced to retreat, and simply could not find an opportunity to counterattack.

[Too careless!] Brian began to feel anxious. [We've fought for so long, surely the people above would have noticed, right?]

He wanted to personally revenge Greyhound's death, but yet now he only wished he could hold on a little longer, till the guards of His Royal Highness came to ambush this group of villains.

"You seem to be expecting something." Viper suddenly paused attacking. "I guess you're waiting for the prince's men to save you? Unfortunately, this stone castle is different from your usual pubs and hotels. In those wooden houses, the floors would creak when people were entertaining. But here, as long as the door was closed, you could shout at the top of your lungs, and no one would hear any movement upstairs."

After Brian's thoughts had been exposed, he could not help but hesitate, and Viper was waiting exactly for this opportunity. He kept the sword pointing down to dull the opponent while slightly raised the other hand to trigger the hand crossbow in the sleeve.

A bolt with just a finger's length was shot from the cuff, and once Brian heard the light buzzing of the machine, the bolt was already thrust in his lung.

Unbearable pain suddenly exploded in his chest. Brian threw the sword at Viper, and turned back to run. But the blood from the lung exuded quickly into the trachea, making it difficult for him to breathe. He did not run far, before he tripped over the threshold, with a staggering heavy fall to the ground.

Viper caught up with him, and wanted to terminate his opponent, but was stopped by Fierce Scar.

"Let me do it," he said gnashing his teeth. "I want this guy to know what happens to those who stab me!"

A trace of cool flashed across Viper's face, but he eventually moved aside. "Do it efficiently, and don't forget our main business."

Fierce Scar grabbed Brian's hair and shouted at him, "Believe me, you'll die a very painful death."

Brian wanted to spit some blood on his face, but his whole body's strength was draining away, and he knew he did not have long to live. Past regrets surged to his heart, such as the wife he had not yet met, and the dream to be a knight. But the most regrettable was... being unable to avenge Greyhound.

Wait, what was that?

He blinked, and there was a woman sitting on top of a box. Although under the dim light, her look was not clear, that exquisite body proved clearly that she was without doubt a woman.

Hell, was this an illusion... When he fell into the room, he did not see anyone inside. Did the deities in heaven hear his complaints, and deliberately created a fantasy to comfort him?

"Hey, you guys are not only fighting in other people's territory, and even intend to kill right in front of me. Don't you think that's inappropriate?"

Brian could feel Fierce Scar's hand tremble, and let loose his hair. He could hear sounds of weapons bursting out of the sheath, and some shouts. "Who are you!?"

[Their reaction is just too... Wait!] Brian was thinking hazily. [Isn't this an illusion?]

"Of course I'm from here." The woman jumped from the barrel, and patted the dust from her robe. In the dim firelight, Brian saw her gown was embroidered with a strange pattern—three juxtaposed triangles, and a huge eye in the center. The silhouette of the eye shone golden bright under the firelight.

"What about you guys? Rats that come from the gutter?" Her voice was crisp and sweet, yet without any emotion. This was unreasonable... Anyone who saw a murder scene would not behave so calm.

Viper was also aware of this. He looked somber, walked slowly around the other's side, and suddenly stabbed her.

The woman did not even turn her head, but casually waved her hand. Viper did not even see her weapon, but just felt a burst of cold wind blowing through his body.

There was a scream. Fierce Scar stared incredulously, and he saw Viper rush forward and retreat quickly. But the original site of the sword was now an empty space.

His arms fell to the ground, as well as the sword.

Fear suddenly strangled Fierce Scar's throat. The others might not know, but he was very clear about Viper's bottom line—vicious, dangerous and cunning when attacks. This was the earl's evaluation of this person. Someone who could be chosen and recruited by the earl, only meant his strength should not be underestimated. Even Brian would have difficulty in resisting his attack for more than half a quarter. But now, he was nonchalantly attacked by a woman, and his whole arm severed.

"What're you guys waiting for, hurry and kill her!" Viper shouted, holding his wound.

After having lost a lot of blood, Brian's vision began to blur. He heard chaotic sounds of footsteps, weapons, collision, and muffled sounds when bodies fell to the ground. What had happened exactly? He tried to turn his eyes, looking forward...

And then the patrol leader saw an image he could not understand.

That woman's figure was like a ghost, and she strolled amongst the crowd, disappearing and appearing at times. Every attack would penetrate the enemy's vital point. It did not seem like a fight, and it looked more like a dance. He had never seen anyone use weapons with such a sense of rhythm. The sword shadow was flying up and down, and drawing an incredible orbit. The people around seemed like clumsy clowns, compared to her. They futilely counterattacked, and then fell in vain... In the end, she was the only person proudly standing.

That was also the last sight Brian saw before losing consciousness.

Chapter 31 - [Our] Friend

Roland was sitting at his desk dumbfounded. He had never expected that someone would dare to commit murder in his castle. If Nightingale had not found the assassins in time, they would have killed him.

Who had plotted the assassination attempt this time? Was it his third sister? Or the other siblings? Why were they so anxious? The Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince would last for five years, and it was only a few months that had passed. Roland slammed the desk in growing agitation. [How outrageous! Can't they just let me get through the winter?]

Footsteps sounded from outside the door. Chief Knight Carter Lannis swung the door open and entered. "Your Highness, the identity of the bodies has been clarified. Seven of the eight corpses were former members of the patrol team, and one person's identity is still unknown. Of the two who're still alive, one is still unconscious after being healed by the witch, I mean, by Miss Pine. Another has been cast in a cell and is being cautiously guarded.

"Patrol team?" He knew that this team, trained by the former lord, was unreliable. Roland gnashed his teeth in vexation. Eight out of ten members were disloyal. It was truly the right decision to forbid these bastards from joining the Militia.

"Warn the guards to watch the one that's locked up in jail carefully. Don't let him poison himself like the last time!"

"The last time?"

"Umm, never mind." Roland shook his head. Nightingale had woken him up at midnight and his mind was a blur. "Anyway, I have to hear everything from his mouth. The chief plotter, the primary contact person, and the buyer, we need to find these people."

"Yes, Your Highness," Carter responded but did not depart at once. Instead, he got down on one knee. "It was my dereliction of duty that allowed the assassins to sneak into the castle. Please punish me, Your Highness."

"Enough. You were not in the castle at the time. This assassination attempt had nothing to do with you."

"Then..." Carter hesitated for a moment. "Would you tell me, Your Highness, who prevented this assassination attempt? From what I saw at the scene, they..." The knight gulped. "They seemed to have been killed by the same person, and they did not have even the slightest chance to fight back."

"You can decipher all that?" Roland's curiosity was aroused.

"If the two sides were well-matched in strength, the scene would not be so neat and clean, and there would have been all kinds of wounds on the assassinators' bodies," Carter said this in a low voice. "But all the assassinators were lying on the floor of the warehouse. There was not a single broken item. On the huge boxes where we store meat, there's not even a trace of sword cuts. This means that the person who prevented this assassination attempt was able to move swiftly in a limited space without using any coverage. In my humble opinion, Your Highness, this is incredulous."

"I see." Roland nodded. He understood what Carter meant. In theory, even the strongest man on earth would fall into a predicament, if he was surrounded by enemies. Real battles were not comparable to movies or shows where the hero would fight one after another. Attacks from blind spots were most fatal. That's why, in a one-to-many situation, the correct countermeasure was to utilize the surrounding environment, to face the enemies.

However, Nightingale was not ordinary.

"No matter how, you shall do what you have to do. I won't reveal this individual's identity yet. I'll acknowledge you when the time comes."

Even though, the chief knight was loyal, dependable, and was aware of the fact that Anna and Nana were both witches, Roland still decided to conceal the existence of Nightingale for now. Different from the other two witches, Nightingale was not affiliated with Roland's party. She stayed in Border Town only for Anna. She was a member of the Witch Cooperation Association and would leave the town someday eventually.

Carter left with apparent signs of disappointment on his face.

Roland could understand his thoughts. As a swordsman who had been working to enhance his swordsmanship through learning the doctrines of his predecessors, he had always viewed those doctrines as the axioms of swordsmanship. He would naturally doubt himself when seeing such a disbelieving scene. If someone's swordsmanship could be exquisite to that extent, of what heritage was he so proud of?

"I thought you would have sold me out." Nightingale revealed herself. She was still sitting in the corner of the desk with her legs crossed.

"I thought so too. Why don't you just live here? Work as my shadow guard and you'll receive two gold royals every month, double the amount of Anna's pay. Would you consider my offer?" Roland began. He pushed his enticement. "You'll have a garden house, two days off per week. Every year, you'll have paid leaves. Well, I mean, you'll still get your salary on vacations."

What surprised him was that this time Nightingale did not refuse immediately. She smiled and stated with firm determination. "I can't leave my sisters behind."

"Then tell them to all come to the town. Once winter has ended, Border Town will be comprehensively renovated. The town will be able to fit as many residents as you could imagine. Also, witches will be able to walk in the streets without discrimination. No one will consider you folks as the wicked."

"Well, inform me once you have accomplished this." Nightingale shrugged.

Alright, so solicitation needed to be presented with the actual product. Roland diverted the subject. "Nana has been safely escorted?"

"Uh-huh, she was quite frightened."

The prince sighed. It had been midnight when Nightingale woke him up. He nearly threw up after seeing the battle scene. She briefly accounted the things that had happened. Roland ordered her to get Nana secretly. The young girl who previously had only treated chickens almost fainted when she saw the soldier covered with blood.

In order not to disturb Nana's family, Nightingale had to escort Nana back home as well.

It was almost dawn when everything had finally been settled.

"What do you think about this incident? Would you be able to predict which of my dear brothers or sisters schemed this?"

Nightingale shook her head. "They were all the members of the patrol team. The only exception did not carry any identification documents. Anyone could have hired those assassins. But I believe perhaps this assassination attempt has nothing to do with your siblings."

"How come?"

"They were too careless. They went through internal conflicts for this one-time group mission. None of the assassins attempted suicide once the mission failed, leaving at least two of their members alive. Also at the time, they were not professional at all, almost like a street gang. That doesn't seem to be their usual behavior. It's more like a scheme plotted by amateurs. I believe even if I hadn't shown up, this assassination attempt wouldn't have had the slightest chance of success. Don't forget Anna was sleeping right downstairs."

Nightingale picked up Roland's cup, took a sip nonchalantly, and continued, "Anyway, your knight is heading to the cell for interrogation as we speak. I bet soon enough he'll find out the truth. Compared to the tactics that your sister plotted, this guy is so much more inferior. He even begged me not to kill him."

"As for the heavily injured patrol leader, I seem to remember calling him in before."

"Really?" Nightingale tilted her head. "I think you should sincerely applaud him. If he hadn't detained the other guys, I wouldn't have discovered those rats sneaking into the basement so quickly. I'm not sure why he did it, but an enemy's enemy is our friend, right?"

Right, Roland thought. However, his focus was not whether the patrol leader was a friend or a foe; it was the phrase that Nightingale had just used:

"Our" friend.

Chapter 32 - The Knight

When Brian woke up, the first thing he saw was the off-white ceiling.

The dazzling sunlight shone through the window. Brian slightly closed his eyes and opened them again, but the glare of the sun remained unchanged.

[It's not a dream,] Brian thought, [I'm... still alive?] He tried to move his body but found that all he could do was to wag his fingers a little bit. Brian felt as if all his strength was drained.

Then Brain heard someone call out. "He has awoken. Report to His Highness immediately."

[His Highness?] Brain felt his mind was in such a muddle that it was much duller than usual. [By the way, how did I faint?] Brian could vaguely remember that Viper pierced through his chest. He felt so close to death, but a ghostly woman showed up at the very end and defeated all the enemies in an inconceivable way.

Very soon, there came maids who assisted him to lean against the bed. Another maid brought a basin of water to clean his feet. Brian apparently had never experienced such a thorough service, plus, they were all young maids, which made him felt quite helpless.

Fortunately, such awkwardness did not last too long. When Prince Roland walked into the room, everyone bowed.

Brian sensed his fervent heart pumping in his chest. Brian had too much to ask, but when he opened his mouth, he did not know where to begin. Instead, Roland nodded and said, "I've heard about your contributions, Brian. You're the well-deserved hero."

Once the word "hero" was said, Brian felt a sourness in his eyes, and his voice even started to choke. "No... Your Highness, my mate is the real..."

Roland patted Brian on the shoulder to comfort him.

Just like Nightingale's speculations, Fierce Scar divulged everything as soon as he was dragged into the interrogation room. The prison warden did not even need to work him over.

The chief plotter of this group was not Roland's siblings. Instead, it was the Elk Family from Longsong Stronghold. Earl of the Elk Family contacted his distant relative Kihls Medde, which was Fierce Scar, and controlled a majority of the patrol team through enticement and segregation. Besides that, the earl also replaced one of his elites into the patrol team as the insurance to prevent any accidents in his plan. The purpose of these people was not to kill Roland but to burn all the storage food so that Roland would have to return to Longsong Stronghold.

This conspiracy caused the death of an innocent member—Greyhound. He tried to stop the criminal plan of Fierce Scar's group, but he was killed by a patrol team member with a dagger. The whereabouts of patrol team member, which Viper replaced, was unclear. He probably escaped after he noticed that their scheme had failed since the castle did not catch fire and Fierce Scar did not promptly return either.

Roland waited until Brian calmed his emotions and said, "Your friend Greyhound will receive a decent funeral. His family will also be properly taken care of so that his family shall not worry about food anymore."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Brian took a deep breath. "May I ask... whether Fierce Scar is dead?

"He's still alive for now."

The patrol leader closed his eyes in agony. He would rather drag Fierce Scar into hell with him than be saved alone. His hope, however, had become almost impossible... Undoubtedly, Fierce Scar was guilty, but a crime by the noble could be lessened with monetary exchanges.

Roland certainly noticed Brian's thoughts. "Kihls Medde, or Fierce Scar in your tongue, is a member of the Elk Family from Longsong Stronghold. The family is in the charge of Luke Medde, an earl anointed by Duke Ryan and also Fierce Scar's distant uncle..." Roland paused for a moment. "But all of these shall not affect the final jurisdiction, and Fierce Scare has been sentenced to death by hanging. He'll be executed in three days. If you're recovered by that time, you could probably take a look."

Brian suddenly opened his eyes wide. "But, but Your Highness, the noble could be atoned with gold royals. Your jurisdiction will probably infuriate the..."

Roland waved his hands, and gestured Brian to compose himself. "The noble? Perhaps for you guys, Fierce Scar who was born in the Elk Family hold the social status that was distinctly different from yours. But in fact, he's hardly a noble, for he has neither title nor lands. Besides, even if he's a noble, there's no way to spare his life for what he has done—intruding the quarter of the prince, attempting to burn down the grains and disregarding the life of over 2,000 people living in Border Town."

Roland had a bit of hesitation when he ordered death sentence to Tyre, but Fierce Scar will definitely not be excused from his wrongdoings. If Fierce Scar's plan had succeeded, Roland's foundation in Border Town would be destroyed. Roland would have no chance to turn the situation around. This was even more abominable than killing Roland.

Would his jurisdiction infuriate Longsong Stronghold? Who cared?! Since the earl was unwilling to have peaceful business transactions with Roland and decided to harm Border Town, Roland would not give in for sure. This assassination attempt also gave Roland a warning—the political struggles in this world were far different from that of Roland's former world. In Roland's former world, the political leaders preferred to keep the fights in the shade. In this world, people were more inclined to confront one another.

"Rest well. You lost too much blood, so you'd better not leave the castle." I've assigned your work in the patrol team to someone else. I'll hold the canonization ceremony for you after the Months of Demons ends.

"Your Highness." After hearing the last sentence, Brian looked at the prince incredulously. "You mean..."

"Yes, you'll be my knight, Mr. Brian," Roland answered with a smile.

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

"Ready, stab!"

Van'er thrust out his long wooden pole, using the same strength from last time and also a similar angle.

This was the 100th time that he thrust out his wooden pole.

His arms turning sore, Van'er thought that he would not be able to stand such exercise anymore. Even though he already felt like that when he thrust out his weapon for the 50th time, but the conditioned reflex after a week's training made him obey the order. Van'er himself was surprised that he was able to go this far.

"Everyone, rest!"

The moment when Iron Axe called out the instruction, he heard heavy breathing from all around him. Van'er was relieved too. He put down his pole and slumped down onto the ground.

Until now, Van'er finally understood that the Militia to which he belonged was not an insignificant troop that was only responsible for running errands for soldiers or knights. After a week's peculiar training, their training mission became more and more official. Like now, they were standing upon the city wall thrusting out and withdrawing their spears—although these spears were replaced with wooden poles, Van'er soon understood his role and responsibility in his troop.

Logistics team would never do such training. This means that Van'er and the other members would actually confront and fight against the demonic beasts on the city wall. It was such a frightening thought. Van'er originally planned to sneak away, but after seeing the other members who went through the same training with him, and also thinking about the palatable meals and lucrative salary, Van'er could not make the decision.

Chapter 33 - The Gunpowder

"Everyone stands up. Prince Roland is coming." They had not rested for 15 minutes when Iron Axe clapped and yelled.

Van'er soon returned to his position; the previous special training caused him to have reflexes towards conforming commands. Almost subconsciously, he held up his wooden pole and assembled himself in the preparation posture for thrusting.

Prince Roland and his retinues walked upon the city wall and passed the troop from behind. Through the corner of his eyes, Van'er noticed that His Highness slowed down when passing himself.

Roland groaned in his heart. It was truly the axiom that "getting up late will ruin your morning while getting up early will ruin your whole day." He just finished dealing with the aftermath of the raid on the castle, and then he had to come to inspect the recent training results of the Militia. The poor guy did not sleep all night, and now he was sleepy. But he had to come, for the team had been in the training stage. As the commander, his prolonged absence would lead to a diminished sense of existence and the morale of his team would also become unstable.

[Umm... What do people usually say when inspecting the troop?] Roland pondered for a moment. "Hi, comrades! Good job, comrades! If nobody responded, it would be very awkward after I called out that phrase. Or perhaps it'll be better to have casual conversations with someone. That would help me to express my kindness and also raise my reputation."

He thought to implement his plan and patted a muscular young fellow on the back.

"You were laborious. Did you feel tired? Did you like the meals?"

Depended on the past experiences from reading the news, Roland was expecting the young fellow to answer his questions with a loud and excited response such as "Not tired at all, I feel excellent!" However, the young fellow was so excited that he immediately knelt down on his knee after he turned to Roland, which surprised Roland quite a bit.

Van'er felt that he was being blessed by the heaven that Prince Roland was asking him if he was tired with the training in such a kind tone. Not to mention the royal family, even the ordinary nobles were normally reluctant to talk to plebeians. Almost by reflex, he imitated knight's salutation to honor Prince Roland. He did not care whether if he was appropriate to do such practice. Van'er only had one thought in his mind that after he returned to his hometown, he would be regarded as a substantial figure.

Van'er felt the chaos in his mind after Roland asked him to stand up. Van'er could not even remember how he replied to Roland's questions.

At last, His Highness asked if Van'er had any opinions about the training. Van'er suddenly cleared his head. [This is a great opportunity! If I could make Your Highness believe that the Militia alone wouldn't be able to bear the responsibility of defending the city walls, then perhaps I won't need to worry about whether to stay or sneak away.]

He carefully cogitated his word choice. "Your... Honorable Highness, the number of the members of the Militia is small. If we continue the current alignment training method, when the demonic beasts attack, we at most can only defend one third of the city wall. Will you consider..."

Even if Prince Roland recruited more members, there would not be enough time for training, Van'er thought. Besides, there would be a huge expense for their weapons. It would be arduous to gather enough spears for 300 members within two months in Border Town. It would be difficult to assemble even a hundred spears, therefore, they were still training with wooden rods.

If Prince Roland could realize that, then perhaps he would recruit mercenary from other towns as the primary defense force. At least the mercenary would be able to go on the battlefield without training. They would have their own weapons and armors, except that the price would be a bit high.

Roland pondered for a moment and nodded. "You have good points. It's unrealistic to have the Militia alone guard entire city wall."

Van'er felt delighted. His Highness meant... to agree with his thoughts?

However, Prince Roland did not say what Van'er was expecting to hear. Instead, he called Iron Axe. "In a sense, demonic beasts are just mutated beasts and that they don't have the ability to think, right?"

"Yes, Your Highness. The normal demonic beasts are no different from those wild beasts, and even their habits are almost the same... As for the demonic hybrids, I haven't seen many so I'm not sure."

"That'll be okay. Even though it's almost 600 meters from the Redwater River to the foot of North Slope Mountain, we can lure the demonic beasts to attack the specific areas."

"You mean setting up traps?" Iron Axe asked.

"It's a trap, but not the kind that hunters would typically use. Standard traps capture preys by concealing themselves. Well, I want to do the opposite. I'll set up roadblocks from places far away from the city wall, such as fences, earth slopes, ditches to force the unintelligent demonic beasts to detour. The continuous roadblocks will lead the preys to assigned locations, and at the end gather at the defense area that we prepared." Roland looked at the Iron Axe. "As for how to lure those beasts, I think no one knows better than you do."

Iron Axe thought for a moment. "It'll be fine to guide then, and demonic wolves don't like water, demonic boars are afraid of light, and all the other demonic beasts have their own habits. But Your Highness, in this way, we'll have all the demonic beasts gathered within this area of 600 feet, wouldn't that be too dangerous?"

"It's true if we only have spears and arrows as the weapon," Roland said confidently, "but now, we have a new weapon."

When it was about the time to leave, the prince once again came to Van'er and patted on his shoulder. "You have a good observation. What's your name?"

"Van-Van'er, Your Highness."

"I'll propose to my chief knight to appoint you as the Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad. Mr. Van'er, I'm looking forward to seeing your more achievements."

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

Roland built a flat house in the yard of the firing room to produce snow powder—in other words, the gunpowder.

This 300-square-meter house only had one entrance and was heavily guarded. There were two knights guarding the entrance. To prevent anyone from bringing flammables to the room, all visitors were required to register and go through the security check.

"This is the new weapon that you talked about?" Carter, who was summoned by Roland, pinched the black powder with his fingers, and sniffed it. "Isn't it the snow powder?"

Perhaps Iron Axe did not know, but Carter often attended the royal ceremonies, and of course, he knew that snow powder was something that people place in the ceremonial barrels. It was the proudest production of the alchemical workshop and its prescription was a confidentiality to outsiders. However, the prince could get whatever he wanted.

"It's snow power, but not entirely the same," Roland said, "and it's the newest modified product of the alchemical workshop. I call it the gunpowder."

Gunpowder was known as the secret weapon for mass production. Its ingredients were easily accessible. The prescription required three ingredients: sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter. Gunpowder would be made by just mixing these three ingredients at a 1:1.5:7.5 ratio. It could be easily produced without any technical barriers.

The snow powder in this age consisted of 60% of charcoal, 20% of sulfur and saltpeter, and 20% of other bizarre, inferior ingredients (such as mercury, butter, honey, etc.). It could not function as gunpowder due to its slow combustion speed and insufficient gas release. However, Roland knew that the alchemists were trying to test other prescriptions. In at most 30 years, a prescription similar to the standard gunpowder prescription would be developed.

In history, after the invention of gunpowder, it still took a long time for people to forgo the usage of cold weapons. The reason rooted in the prescription of gunpowder and also the stagnation of the related armament manufacture industry.

However, many people overlooked the fact that gunpowder itself could be an extremely formidable weapon even without relying on firearms.

Chapter 34 - The Trial Blasting

Right when the firing room for cement was built, Roland had already assigned labs for the several follow-up projects. Most of the labs were being built around the North Slope Mine area so that the labs could be efficiently guarded—the construction of the labs was speedy due to their simple composition of adobe walls and wooden roofs. And their construction would not intervene with the construction of the city wall.

The saltpeter purchased from Willow Town was delivered to the nearby warehouse to be stored. It would be ground, measured, and sent to the labs when it was time to use them. Charcoal and sulfur would go through the same process. The transport and mixture of the three ingredients would be completed by different groups of people. This way, Roland could eliminate the risk of the plan being leaked out.

Roland took 20 pounds from the pre-made gunpowder, and slowly poured it onto a cropped sheepskin.

The gunpowder all went through the process of soaking, compressing, drying, grinding, and screening. They were all in similar sizes and extremely inflammable. To prevent any accidents due to the collision of sparks, the entire manufacturing process did not use any metal products. Instead, they used ceramics or wooden products.

After pouring the gunpowder, Roland folded the sheepskin to three folds and tied it with string.

"That's all I need to do?" Carter asked. This object in front of him could also be called a weapon? Although it was the modified version of the snow powder, it would not do any damage just by its loud noise. Perhaps it would be effective to farmers who had never been to the battlefield, but it certainly would not frighten the trained soldiers and mercenaries. However... the chief knight pondered cautiously, although the things that His Highness had been doing seemed unreasonable, they all turned out to be extremely efficient. If the demonic beasts had similar intelligence to ordinary beasts, perhaps this gunpowder thing would actually work? For example, a sudden loud noise could make them flee in startle. That way, the stress on the troop could be lessened.

Roland gave the wrapped up gunpowder to Carter and took a bag of the inflammable gunpowder that had been ground. "It's almost the time, let's head to the outside of the city wall. Iron Axe should already be prepared."

About two miles from the city wall to the west, the vacant space between Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range would be the area to do the trial blasting.

Iron Axe and the other hunters had already been waiting here for a long time. Besides Iron Axe, everyone was local and also the ones with the best archery skills. Hearing that Prince Roland had a mission to assign them, they immediately followed Iron Axe over.

Everyone knew now that the new Lord of Border Town was generous about giving remunerations.

Following Roland's command, they set up long wooden poles on the four corners, tied up strings, and enclosed a watch circle for half of a mile. Roland assigned knights to scout near the city wall in case anyone approached by accident.

Roland examined around the watch circle, and nodded. "Did you bring all the preys?"

"Your Highness, the preys are here." Iron Axe came up with a cage. Carter noticed the hens and rabbits in the cage.

"Very well, put them on 5 steps, 10 steps, 15 steps, and 30 steps away from the center and tie one on every wooden pole."

Carter shook his head and suggested, "Your Highness, I'm afraid the preys you selected could hardly have any test effect. These animals are timid by nature. They will flee if there're any noises nearby. Even if the noise could scare them, but it wouldn't be able to startle the demonic beasts."

"To startle the demonic beasts?" Roland paused for one moment and realized. "I'm not planning to scare them, even though this thing is astonishing when it explodes."

Roland brought the chief knight to the center of the circle, dropped off a bag of gunpowder, and tore an opening in the bag to allow some powder to leak out. Then Roland pulled out the leather bag with gunpowder, and continued to sprinkle the gunpowder from the opening while stepping backward.

It was a windless day, perfect for such a primordial explosive method.

Roland retrieved the leather bag only when they retreated to 100 meters away.

"That's enough, let's ignite it here." He repeatedly estimated the distance, making sure it was errorless, and then said to Carter, "Bring all the hunters here."

At this moment, Roland was quite excited. He had done a smaller scale of the explosion test so he was not that concerned with the outcome of the experiment. What he really cared about was that this moment would be a moment of great invention. The thermal weapon would officially step on the stage and Roland would be recorded into history as the chief leader.

After everyone gathered, Roland ignited the gunpowder.

Carter lay on the ground. He felt uneasy as he watched the spark furthering away.

With such a long distance, plus it was not even put in the bronze barrel, the exploding noise of snow powder might not even be reached here. It was unnecessary for Prince Roland to demand that everyone had to lie on the ground. However, there was nothing left to say since Prince Roland took the lead himself.

The ground was freezing cold during winter. Carter could felt the chill even if he was wearing chain armor. Carter moved a bit; an astonishingly loud sound broke out as he was about to lie on his side.

Because the distance was too close, the exploding noise and the shock arrived at the same time. He felt a sudden buzzing in his ears and the world became quiet. The shaking of the ground continued momentarily. He lifted up his head and saw a black cloud rising into the air, followed by the falling of stones and mud.

The shock that Roland received was much less than the chief knight's. As someone that would cover his ears even for firecrackers, Roland promptly prepared protection for himself. The explosive point was unlike in movies, where there would be huge fireballs; the glaring light of flame flashed, multitudes of mud were blasted off the ground, reaching a height of 10 meters in the air. When everything settled down, the only thing that Roland felt was this noise was much louder than firecrackers.

Regarding Iron Axe and the other hunters, they were flabbergasted by what they just saw and heard. Only Iron Axe knew that this experiment was to test a new weapon, but he also did not expect the momentum of the weapon to be so groundbreaking.

Only the thunder of God's Punishment could be comparable to this!

Roland stood up. He led the group to the center of the explosion. There was a half-meter deep hole on the ground. The bunny that was closest to the center had utterly disappeared, leaving only a short stake on the ground.

Roland examined every other prey. The hens that were placed on the 10 step point and 15 step point were lying on the ground, apparently dead. Although there were no physical damages on them, Roland knew that they died of the shock from the explosion.

The only survivor was the gray bunny that was placed on the 30 step (about 15 meters) point. There were drops of blood from its ear, and it even gave up struggling when people walked near it. It seemed like that the massive blast of the explosion had deprived its soul.

Carter swallowed. The buzzing in his ears was gradually recovering. Until now, he finally understood what Prince Roland meant by "not planning to scare them away." Was that the outcome of the modification of snow powder? With such accomplishment, the power of alchemists would be much superior to the power of astrologers.

The way Iron Axe looked at Roland had changed. "Your Highness, if the Militia could utilize such a weapon, then Border Town would no longer be threatened by the demonic beasts. Could this weapon be mass produced?"

Roland shrugged. "Probably not, we would only be able to produce 20 to 30 of them before the Months of Demons." The key issue was the saltpeter. The manufacture in this age was still quiet primordial. The only way of manufacturing was to collect the nitric acid crystals separated out by the lime mixture of human and livestock' waste. Other than the alchemists and the upper nobles that had a demand, there was almost no other uses. So there were few refining fields, if they were all used to do explosives, they would soon be exhausted.

As the ultimate weapon, it had to be used along with flintlock and crossbow bolts.

Chapter 35 - The Home

Nightingale walked in the Mist.

In it, she could see the world had only two colors, black and white.

The outline of all things turned vague, and the lines that used to be straight were folded, and curved, as incomprehensible and abstract as doodles painted by children.

The feeling was hard to get a sense of, and it took her a long time to distinguish the different types of lines. If she handled them well, there was nothing that would restrain her, and she could travel unimpeded in the Mist. Though the wall seemed to link up into one stretch, with a little change of the angle, she could see a gate to the real world, a gate that never existed in reality.

In the Mist, the concepts of up, down, forward, and backward were not consistent, and they would shift and even overlap. Now she did this again and sneaked into the castle under guards' noses, following the changeable lines. Step by step through the void, she went through the ceiling and entered Anna's chamber.

For Nightingale, it was an absolutely free world.

The Mist was the only place where she truly felt at peace. Quiet and lonely as it may be, she enjoyed the safe, unthreatened feeling it gave her.

Mostly, it was black and white, but sometimes she could see other colors.

Such as the color of Anna who was in front of her.

Different from ordinary people, the witches were an aggregate of magic power which was the only color in the Mist, and Nightingale could see how the power flowed and faded.

However, she had never seen colors as strong and rich as Anna's. There was a dark green light glittering on her that led to a dazzling bright white core. Nightingale was confused. Generally, the color of magic power was connected to the owner's performance of ability, and for the witches that she knew in the Witch Cooperation Association who had the power to control fire, the light that shone out of them was dark red or orange and shaped like a fireball. Whether in size or radiance of light, Anna's fire was far above theirs.

In addition, there was something even more miraculous.

How was she still alive with so much powerful energy converging on her?

Of all the witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, no one had power as strong as Anna, not even the adults. And when Anna became an adult...

Nightingale sighed. She knew that Anna no longer had any hope. The bite grew with power, and she was afraid to even imagine what horror would come to Anna when the Demonic Torture began. She knew the feeling too well. From your skin to your guts, the constant sharp pain tore at you, keeping you conscious until the moment you gave up and accepted death.

Stepping out from the Mist, she restrained the depressed mood and braced herself up, greeting, "Good morning, Anna."

Anna, who had been used to Nightingale's abrupt and uninvited visits, nodded. She did not reply but continued practicing with her fire.

Rubbing her nose, Nightingale headed to the girl's bed and sat down.

She had seen Anna practice many times, from the beginning when she set fire to her own robes accidentally and had prepared a full bucket of robes in a shed in the backyard garden till later when she could easily make the flame dance on her fingertip, and Roland had to dismiss the supervision and take down the shed to make room for afternoon tea and sunbath.

Even so, Anna still followed the old instruction of Roland and kept practicing two or four hours every day in her own chamber.

"I've brought some fish cake, do you want some?" Nightingale took out a little bag and unfolded it, handing it over.

Anna smelled it and nodded.

"Go and wash your hands." Nightingale smiled, feeling lucky that Anna did not hate her but was simply bad at talking. In fact, Anna barely even talked to Nana who she cared about so much. She scarcely talked to anyone except Roland.

In contrast, Roland talked too much of his endless principles. Even for dinners, he had many rules, like washing hands before eating, eating slowly, and never putting anything that dropped on the floor into your mouth, etc. He could go on and on about every principle.

Though Roland's sermon sounded annoying to her at first, she had to listen and obey because Roland, the fourth Prince of Graycastle and the lord of this land, had accommodated her under his roof. Now, she actually formed those habits and somehow, felt a sense of odd fun when competing with Roland and Nana to be the first one to wash hands.

Anna washed her hands in a pail and lit a little fire to dry them before she pinched a fish cake and returned to her table and ate it slowly.

"Did you really make up your mind not to return with me?" said Nightingale, trying to start a conversation. "We have a lot of sisters there and they would take care of you."

"Over here, the castle is the only place you can stroll and roam. It's quite boring, isn't it?"

"Indeed we don't have much food or goods, but we're a family having joined together for the same purpose."

"A girl like you who has such power will be most welcome."

"I'm afraid that you'll not make it through this winter..."

Nightingale's voice lowered. "Maybe it's too late," she thought. Even if she went back to the camp, Anna's power was so strong that she would never survive the adulthood. All Nightingale could do was to watch her die.

"Where did you live before joining the Witch Cooperation Association?" Anna asked.

Nightingale waited for a little while, for Anna barely asked her anything. "I... used to live in a big city in the east, near the capital."

"Were you happy?"

"Happy? No." It was a piece of memory she would never recall. It was when she had to depend on others for a living, being despised and mocked. And things turned worse when she found out she was a witch. She was watched and chained around the neck, just like a cat or dog, forced to follow their commands. Nightingale shook her head and asked softly, "Why are you asking?"

"I used to live in the Old District." Anna briefly went through her story. "My father sold me for 25 gold royals to the church. It was His Highness who released me. I'm very happy here."

"But you cannot get out of this castle. Except for Roland Wimbledon, everyone still hates witches."

"I don't really care about it, and he promised that he would change them all, didn't he?"

"As long as the church stands, witches will always be treated as evil, and that will make the change extremely difficult."

Anna did not contradict her and was quiet for so long that Nightingale thought she would never speak again. Then she asked suddenly, "What place makes you happier to live in, the Witch Cooperation Association or here?"

The question caught Nightingale unprepared, and she was flustered. "What, what're you talking about? O-of course, it's..."

The Witch Cooperation Association? Honestly, she did not have much interest in searching Holy Mountain, but in the association, she had some friends who she would never leave behind.

Border Town? She would not have been here if she hadn't heard the news of endangered witches!

The answer was obvious, so why was she hesitating?

This time, a smile appeared on Anna's face, the smile that Nightingale had hardly seen. Her eyes were as clear as water in the lake twinkling in the early sun, and brought her a feeling of odd relief – even though she did not walk in the "Mist". "Roland used to tell me that you girls are looking for the Holy Mountain among the northern mountains, and I've found mine if it's the safe and home that you want to find there."

Nightingale realized Border Town was Anna's Holy Mountain. However, death was coming upon her, and her spirit would approach the next world earlier than most witches.

There were hurried footsteps outside the door. Listening carefully, Nightingale figured out it was from Nana.

The door was flung open before Nana dashed in.

She ran into Anna's arms, weeping, and said, "Anna, my sister, wh-what should I do? My father has found out I'm a witch."

Chapter 36 - The Negotiation

Roland was dragged out of bed by Nightingale.

He was taken aback when hearing the news that Nana Pine's father was waiting for him in the hall. But he realized it was a good opportunity—in order to have the girl's support in the fight against the Months of Demons, he must persuade the Pines to spend winter in Border Town.

It had been a tricky situation for Prince Roland, as his reputation and popularity had hit rock bottom among the noble. Even his relations with Longsong Stronghold had turned strained. He would not stand a chance to keep the nobles at Border Town in winter, as their business lay mostly in the east of Longsong Stronghold. From the very beginning, Roland had not thought of cooperating with the nobles, who were good at winning power and possessions, rather than fighting side by side.

He got dressed quickly and briefly cleaned himself, before heading to the hall.

Being left alone for so long that he could no longer hide his rage, Tigui Pine stood up and asked as soon as he saw the prince, "Your Highness, where is my daughter?"

This was the first time Roland saw Nana's father. He was strong and sturdy, not very tall, and had a thick beard that made him tough looking. From his attire of the waisted cotton garment and leather pant attached with big pockets, he looked like more a huntsman than a noble.

"She's fine, Mr. Pine..."

"Why did your guards let her in but yet bar me outside?" Tigui interrupted loudly. "I need an explanation, Your Highness! Please take my daughter to see me!"

Roland did not expect this and got stunned for a little while. He had pictured a scene that a father, who knew that his poor daughter was a witch, would beg his prince to hide the news, or ask him for help to deal with the problem. However, a father who was so pushy and discourteous without his noble manner, did surprise Roland.

Certainly, he knew why the guards allowed Nana in, for they were under his command. They became familiar with Nana who had been coming here for Anna from time to time.

After a moment's thought, he summoned the maid to take Nana here.

[However rude he is, Tigui Pine is Nana's father. Let's see what'll happen when they meet each other. If he has any plans to send the girl to the church or abandon her, I'll intervene and take action,] Roland thought.

Following Anna, Nana stepped in the chamber.

Seeing his daughter, Tigui Pine's anger died away at once. He opened his arms and called Nana, "Come here, my daughter."

The young girl did not move. Hiding behind Anna, she popped out half a head and asked, "Will you sell me to the church?"

"Nonsense... what are you talking about? Silly girl, the church doesn't want a girl as silly as you. Come home with me now."

Roland was confused about what was happening. Nightingale told him that after Nana's father bumped into her when she was doing magic, she ran to the castle for Anna in panic. Her father was after her, his face murderous.

But all he could see from Tigui was how he cared about and loved his daughter, unlike ordinary people who loathed the witches.

[Do I have my facts wrong?]

Roland hesitated for a little while and decided to be frank. "Mr. Pine, I believe you've already known that your daughter is a witch."

"Pardon me, Your Highness, I don't understand," said Tigui, as he stepped over and tried to grasp Nana's hand, but was blocked by Anna.

"Father, I'm a witch now... sorry," Nana whispered.

Tigui became anxious and said, "Nonsense! Witch? Must be the teachings from the damn guy Karl. I shouldn't have sent you to the school because what you've learned is nothing but bullsh*t!"

These words hit Roland's mind, and he realized that all the concealing Tigui had done for Nana might be due to his misunderstanding of him.

Therefore, he was so anxious and worried before seeing Nana.

"Anna." He winked at the witch, and she nodded. She reached out her right hand to Tigui who tried to bypass Anna and get Nana. Fire burst from her palm, flying pass his top.

Tigui's eyes widened, flustering backward to dodge the fire. Nana held Anna's arm in alarm. "Sister Anna, No!"

"Your Highness, what's..."

"As you see, she is also a witch, like your daughter." Roland extended his hand and said, "Maybe you've misunderstood the reason why Nana is free to walk in the castle. Shall we have a real talk now?"

Tigui seemed awakened. "Ha! Ha!" he said, "Your Highness, I..."

"Take a seat." Roland pointed to the table and said, "Let's begin our talk with some nice tea."

He sighed secretly. [Now I see now how notorious my reputation is. They even think I'll put my claw on little girls. Now, I've understood everything from Tigui's ungracious behavior. What will a father, who loves his daughter so much, think when he sees his girl running into the castle where the guards are accustomed to her?

If I'm the father, I'll bring down the castle on my own.]

The words Tigui used to cover up the truth that his daughter was a witch had proved all things clearly—worrying that the prince would threaten him with some excuse that Nana had fallen into depravity, and only cleansing could save her. He personally did not care much about whether his baby daughter was a witch or not.

Tigui hesitated for a long while before taking the seat. He drank up a cup of tea, dried his lips with his sleeves, looked awkward, and said, "My apologies, I've been rude. Please tell me when did you know my daughter was a... witch?"

"It was before winter, and it was not me but her teacher Karl Van Bate who found her awakened. He entrusted me to protect Nana because of Anna, his friend." Roland explained explicitly. "In this half month, she came to the castle to practice her power when she was available. By the way, she has the power to heal."

"Has she?" Tigui scratched his head and said, "That was why the cat started to run and skip again."

"Cat?"

"Er... Nothing special. When I came back home, I found her sitting on porch and carrying a cat wounded by a carriage. I was about to scare her from her back, but when she spotted me, she ran away immediately. The cat had broken legs, but suddenly it recovered." He gazed at Nana and Anna and asked, "You two are friends?"

Nana nodded quickly before Anna could make any response.

Tigui's face turned gentle.

Seeing this, Roland asked, "It seems that you don't trust the rumor that the witches are the evils seduced by the demon."

"Certainly, my daughter is no evil!" he said firmly, "and whatever she turns into, there's no doubt about that."

Roland was touched by Nana's father who was much different from Anna's father. He finally understood the reason why Nana was always so sweet and innocent, wearing a smile on her face almost every day. This family was like a warm cradle for a kid to grow up in.

"I have no doubt either, Mr. Pine." The prince was straightforward. "Your daughter has a marvelous power to heal the wounded. I hope she'll stay in Border Town, assisting me to fight through the Months of Demons."

Tigui was indecisive. "Your Highness, forgive me, I have no choice but to refuse. When the Months of Demons come, Border Town will be deadly dangerous, and I'd never allow her to stay in danger."

[Tigui Pine's land is beyond Border Town's governance, I can't command him directly even in the name of a prince.] Still, Roland believed that nothing was impossible when they were willing to sit down and talk.

Chapter 37 - Tigui Pine's Family History

"Danger is relative, Mr. Pine, yet opportunity comes with danger," Roland said, as he read over the relevant materials collected by his assistant minister in his mind. "You inherited the title from your father, am I right? He had been a knight and was rewarded the name and land for his valor in battle."

"Exactly," Tigui said, nodding.

"The battle also started in the Months of Demons, and it was an honorable battle fought for the innocent. At that time, a small number of demonic beasts accidentally crossed our stronghold defense through the Redwater River into the hinterland of the Western Region. Your father came across those beasts when he was in his patrol duty. Considering that the town behind him had no fortifications, though it was not in his governance, he chose to attack the beasts. Rather than avoiding and retreating for support, which most man would have done under the same circumstances," Roland stated, watching Tigui. "I believe you're clearer about what happened afterward than me. Together with the men who he gathered in town and his squire, your father marched on the beasts and defeated them."

"Indeed," Tigui said, his voice trembled with excitement, apparently admiring this glorious history. "One of the monsters, dreadfully huge, looked like either a stage or an ox or the combination of both. Its leg was thicker and sturdier than my father's trunk and shook the ground when it ran. I could never defeat this kind of monster if I were there."

"But he did it. Standing near a shallow groove, my father lured the angry beast to him, and when it sped up to strike, he lay down in the shallow groove, holding the sword on a stone with the tip right up. The seemingly invincible beast was too foolish to dodge the sword tip which ripped open its belly, and the guts poured out, covering all over my father. By now, above my hearth still hangs the reward from that battle—a large horn from a demonic beast."

Roland drank some tea and said calmly, "The battle was worthy of admiration. Your father had kept his faith, compassion, and bravery of a knight. Joe Kohl, who gave your father the title and the land, was an earl in Longsong Stronghold back then. 25 years ago, he was promoted to a duke by my father, King Wimbledon III. He was appointed as the Guardian of the Southern Border with his governance extending all over the Southern Territory. It was a pity that with no one staying in Longsong Stronghold to back the late Pine. After Joe Kohl had received the new appointment, he became a thorn in the eyes of the Duke of Longs Stronghold, when he stayed at the east of Longsong Stronghold."

"You know it all too well." Tigui exhaled, looking a little helpless. "Lord Joe doesn't get along well with Duke of Longsong Stronghold and didn't obtain his earl's title from the duke, either. With a bloodline tracing back to the branch of the crown, he's not beneath Duke Ryan, whether by family or blood."

"This is politics", Roland thought secretly, a trick played by King Wimbledon III that would balance two powers.

In order to fully understand the complicated relations between these two families, he had spent a whole day with his assistant minister.

The lands and governance among the noble are extremely complicated. In theory, the superiors were able to command juniors within his land. But it turns out that was far more complex to carry out. As we could see from Joe Kohl and Duke Ryan, though having his land in the Western Region, Joe Kohl, who was an earl named directly by the king, was as respected and beloved as Duke Ryan by the subjects.

After Joe had been titled the Duke of the Southern Territory, the crown would surely arrange new spies on his land, which was the usual means to keep political stability.

"Therefore, when the land was passed to you, the trade and farm had turned bad gradually, and the property was no longer as prosperous as it had been," Roland said slowly. "Now, here is a new chance for you."

"A new... chance?"

"I suppose you heard the famine that happened two years ago. Longsong Stronghold detained the food supply of the next month in the name of insufficient ores trading. This year we have the same trouble. The unexpected collapse that happened in the Mine of Northern Slope has backed my people into a corner, and we have to ward off demonic beasts with the help of our newly built city wall. The war will be tough and hard, but yet chances come with danger, as I said before."

"..." Tigui knew what the prince meant. He frowned and said nothing.

"It seems to me that you're not a general noble." Roland smiled. "For no nobles dress like you when they're out and no high-borns get their palms full of horns. Mr. Pine, you haven't left behind your father's legacy, have you? The fighting skill of a knight."

It was certain that he did not leave behind the skill, Roland thought, or he would never spend so much time on the Misty Forest. From the information offered by Barov, he spent at least three days every week in the Misty Forest during his days in Border Town. Each time he was fully equipped and brought hunters with him because he could not afford to keep squires. Some people liked fighting and apparently, Tigui Pine was one of them.

"I'll offer you this chance to win back the honor of your father—to fight for them with your sword and courage. I'll reward you a piece of land in the east of Border Town, an appropriate piece of land for the viscount if you're doing well in battle."

Though it rarely happened, the offer was valid. When a prince had come of age, he had the power to name the viscount, baron, and knight according to law. However, he barely did it to the men who were under other lords' authorities. He was afraid of either being inappropriate to poach from other lords or being awkward to be rejected. But in Roland's eyes, manners meant nothing compared to Nana's healing skill, neither did he worry about being rejected by Mr. Pine. Since Joe did not bring Tigui's father with him when he was the Guardian of the Southern Border, it seemed that Joe had given up the Pines.

Finally, Tigui said, "Your Highness, may I send Nana back to Longsong Stronghold? No one has ever defeated the demonic beasts here, and I don't want my daughter to perish here in case we lose the battle."

"I've told you from the very beginning, Mr. Pine, that the danger is relative. Have you ever thought what if anyone in Longsong Stronghold finds out Nana is a witch? Unlike here, the church has its root deep and long in Longsong Stronghold. With disciples and spies everywhere, I can't even save her, once her identity is revealed."

Roland paused for a moment and added, "Border Town will not fall, for I'll fight with my people side by side on the city wall when the Months of Demons comes. Our enemies are mutated beasts not unbeatable demons. You father defeated them on a plain without any cover, and we have more now, an unsurpassable wall that stands between the beasts and us. If... I mean, if we're truly in danger, I'll send Nana away to secure her safety." He paused. "And Anna, too. I'll prepare a boat on the dock in case. I promise they'll be safe."

"Then... I lay my trust on you, Your Highness," said Tigui Pine, and he stood up and kneeled, his chest straight up and his belly flat, before he saluted the prince with a knight courtesy and pledged. "I'll fight for you."

...

After Tigui and Nana had taken their leave, Anna rolled her eyes to Roland.

"What're you dreaming of?" she said, "I'm not going anywhere."

Chapter 38 - The Era of Firearms

Iron Axe knew that he was under surveillance.

The hunters involved in the trial blasting were gathered in a two-story building near the castle. Looking through the window, one could see the stone walls enveloping the castle and the guards stationed at the entrance.

It didn't bother him. Rather, he felt that it was reckless for His Highness to send only two guards to watch over them.

Even now, the roar of the trial blasting echoed in his mind. There had never been a weapon that left him in so much shock. In the Southernmost Land, he had witnessed orange fire erupting from within the earth, which burnt for decades. He had also seen the monstrous winds and waves at the Endless Cape... However, those were the immeasurable prestige of the Heavens, the will of the Mother Earth or the Sea God, as well as the iron whip of the deities used to punish all creatures.

Yet His Highness alone had usurped the power of the three gods and obtained God's strength to punish all creatures. His power was still lacking compared to the Heavens' thunderbolts, but it was already in a realm untouchable by mere humans.

If the participants in Iron Sand City proved to be still useful, their tongues would generally be cut off. Of course, that was not the safest practice to keep their secrets. Only the dead would carry their secrets to grave. As for the foreigners, even just the sight of them was considered blasphemy. It was impossible for any of them to assimilate into the core class of the Mojin Clan.

Even though the prince was aware that he was from a different race, he still allowed him to witness the Fire of God's Punishment. The prince even intended for him to form the Hunter Squad. His trust roused Iron Axe's spirits and set his blood boiling.

After being betrayed and framed countless times in Iron Sand City, he fled to the Southern Territory in the Kingdom of Graycastle. But he still suffered discrimination there due to his mixed blood of Sand Nation and Graycastle Nation people. Dispirited, he came to Border Town with the intention to work as a hunter for the rest of his life. Yet he unexpectedly won the prince's favor here.

He had no doubts that this new weapon would pave the way for Roland Wimbledon's victory in the Selection of Crown Prince.

Iron Axe was thrilled to know that he would have an opportunity to serve the future king.

"Everyone, gather downstairs!"

Hearing the shout, Iron Axe looked out. The voice belonged to Carter Lannis, Prince Roland's Chief Knight.

He finished dressing up and hurried downstairs. He walked towards Carter and stood upright in front of him. He had participated in the training of the Militia, so he knew that His Highness favored disciplined and well-organized troops. The other hunters, however, were much slower. The six people spent about half a quarter just to line up.

"The same old place. Follow me." Unconcerned, Carter headed straight to the city wall with everyone.

It was the same site for the trial blasting, but without cordons this time.

Other than Roland, there were four knights with him; all of them Carter's subordinates. Iron Axe noticed that the prince was fiddling with an oddly-shaped long metal stick as he explained something to the knights.

Noticing the arrival of Iron Axe and the others, Roland approached them and asked, "Have you all got used to living in your new place?

"Thank you for your concern, Your Highness." Everyone bowed and answered that their new houses were very comfortable.

Iron Axe thought that the new houses were much better than the old ones. At least, they did not leak. The roofs were not covered with thin straw blankets, but neatly lined with tiles instead.

"That's great." Roland nodded and added, "The current arrangement is for security reasons. You can return to your old houses after the Months of Demons ends. I've also distributed your first month's salaries to your families. You can meet them on weekends, accompanied by guards of course."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness." The hunters' replies were cheerful.

This came as a surprise to Iron Axe. Never mind the law of Sand Nation, even the military management of the Kingdom of Graycastle should not be this lax. Was this His Highness's benevolence towards them? He became a little worried. If the prince wanted to fight for the throne, he must be merciless. That Iron Axe knew all too well, having lived in Iron Sand City.

However, when Prince Roland said that they would test a new weapon based on gunpowder next, Iron Axe immediately threw his worries behind. He stared without blinking at the prince as he showed them two oddly-shaped iron sticks.

"They're called flintlocks," said Roland. "I'll tell you how to use them next."

...

It took Iron Axe only half an hour to learn how to use the new weapons.

Put gunpowder—that was, the black powder which would cause the Fire of God's Punishment—into the barrel, put a lead pill, and poke it until it reached the end. Then pour the gunpowder into the flash pan at the rear, aim at the target, and pull the trigger.

He believed he had a talent for killing and were skilled in all kinds of weapons, whether it was the sword, knife, hammer, axe, or spear. But that was due to years of training and combat experience. To master a weapon in only half an hour, this learning speed could only be comparable to that of the hand crossbow.

The other flintlock was handed to Carter.

Chief Knight was also intrigued by the novel weapon and was unwilling to put it down.

After several rounds of simulations, Roland let them test the power of the weapons with live ammunition. The target was already prepared. It was a plate armor propped up by a wooden stick, held up by two knights standing about 30 feet away.

Following the shooting method the prince demonstrated, Iron Axe and Carter aimed and pulled the trigger.

The loud noise coming from the first fire startled everyone present. Iron Axe was no exception. But very soon, everyone's faces were colored with astonishment.

There was a small hole on the plate armor. The lead shot had cleanly penetrated the thickest part of the armor.

Iron Axe had carefully observed the armor before they began shooting. It was evidently not some shoddy product from a handmade workshop. The mark of the hammer and anvil on the neck showed that it was a standard armor from the Blacksmith Society in the Kingdom of Graycastle. The thickest part of the armor was half the thickness of a finger, strong enough to withstand a direct hit from a crossbow at a close distance. The wiser choice to deal with this kind of armor would be to use a heavy crossbow, war hammer, or halberd.

Therefore, the flintlock was equally easy to operate as the hand crossbow, but far stronger in power. Its loading speed was also equivalent to that of the hand crossbow. As for the accuracy... A target 30 feet away would be nothing.

"Your Highness, the output of this weapon..." Carter said.

"There are only two at the moment. We can produce two more at most until the Months of Demons."

Iron Axe saw that Carter was visibly relieved. He could roughly guess his thoughts. If this weapon could be manufactured easily, it would take only a few days to train a large number of "quick warriors" with the flintlocks. There would be no restriction in age, occupation, or even gender. Even a fragile woman could pose a great threat to the knights.

Although it was not as shocking as Fire of God's Punishment, it was still a good weapon. Iron Axe thought it would be easy to kill the giant pachyderm demonic beasts outside the city wall with this power. If he had a flintlock when he was facing the demonic hybrids back then, the outcome might not have been so pathetic.

At the scene, Roland alone understood the true meaning of this weapon.

With his own hands, he had unveiled the curtains to a firearms war.

Chapter 39 - The Winter

Roland stood on the city wall and looked out toward the north. In the past month, he repeatedly inspected the castle, the mine, and the city walls, checking every possible detail that might have been neglected.

The Militia became increasingly skilled at handling the weapons. Under Carter's repeated drills, they had been able to stabilize their spears until the captain who was in charge of the observation gave the order to attack.

Standing behind them was the Hunter Squad. The hunters who stayed in Border Town that were skilled in bows and crossbows were absorbed into this squad. These experienced hunters were the main force to kill the demonic beasts. Standing on the 4-meter-high city walls and shooting at the corner, it was almost impossible for them to miss the target.

The last squad, which was comprised of Iron Axe, Carter, and other two elite hunters, was the Flintlock Squad. It used four pre-installed flintlocks that were forged by the Blacksmith Society and welded and assembled by Anna. Their job was to kill tough monsters whose skins could not be penetrated with crossbow bolts or demonic hybrids. In that 200-meter section, they would be anywhere if there was a need for them.

As for the explosive packages, they were stored in a tightly guarded warehouse next to the city walls. They would be separately transported to the city walls when needed—after all, if there was an accident, the explosive packages might cause greater destruction than the demonic beasts did. The demonic beasts could not bite the cement or the rubble, while the explosive packages could send the whole city wall to heaven.

So far, Roland had organized two actual combat exercises, including the use of explosive packages. Thanks to these two exercises, the Militia was not so scared of the noise of the explosions that they would throw their weapons away. The other benefit was that the team morale suddenly rose up when it was discovered that the prince held such powerful weapons.

"Your Highness," Barov tightened his collar and said, "we've spent half of the income of the ore trade. If the Months of Demons are as long as the astrologers said, I don't think we can get through the winter."

"Then use mine to fill up the vault," Roland said without hesitation, "and continue to trade with Willow Town. The first steam engine has been transported to the mine, and the cleaning of the collapse has almost been completed. So we'll still get a little yield in winter. Especially the rough gemstones, they should be sold as soon as possible and you don't have to consider too much about the price. Storing more food, especially jerky, is always right."

Barov nodded. "I will, Your Highness. But... "

Seeing the hesitant look on his assistant minister's face, Roland surely understood what he wanted to say. "Don't worry, I've arranged a boat. If we're totally defeated, I'll leave."

"Then I'm relieved," Barov said.

Roland smiled at him. "You can go and do your work. I'll have a look again."

When Barov left, the prince slowly went up into the watchtower. It was the highest point in the center of the city wall. Standing here, he could overlook the vast jungles and rolling hills ahead. The cold wind whistled, but he did not care. Only in this open and high platform could his tense mood in the face of a war calm down.

"You lied to him," said someone around him. "You don't intend to leave at all."

"Since life is so hard, some things are better hidden."

"I don't understand what you're talking about. If you think it's difficult being a prince, imagine how hard it is for us?" Nightingale appeared. "Even if you won't become a king, as long as you get through the five years of the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince, you'll become a lord. Instead of worrying about this, you'd better accompany Anna. I'm afraid... she won't live long."

Roland was silent for a moment. "I don't think she'll die during the Months of Demons."

"Why do you think so?"

"She said she wouldn't lose to the Demonic Torture." He paused. "And I believe her."

"You even believe a witch," said Nightingale shaking her head. "We are cursed by the demons."

"Really? I believe you, too."

"..."

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

Brian wore casual clothes and stood in front of Greyhound's grave.

He gently touched the brand new stone, and looked at the line of words engraved on the pure white surface: "Nameless but long-living. In memory of the hero of Border Town."

"Greyhound."

[I've realized my dream. At the end of the Months of Demons, Prince Roland will hold a canonization ceremony for me.]

[But I don't want to sit on the bed waiting.]

[My wounds have healed, so the city wall is where I should be.]

[The Months of Demons are coming soon. The demonic beasts may be terrible, but they'll be held back by the line of defense we built together and they can't move a step further.]

[I'll wield the sword to guard the town, for you, and for myself.]

[This won't be the end.]

[The man who framed you is still alive... but he won't live long. It's His Highness' commitment to me.]

[Next time I come to you, I'll bring good news.]

Brian bent down and placed a bunch of flowers at the grave.

"So, goodbye, my friend." Brian silently said to Greyhound.

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

"Sister Anna , aren't you scared?" asked Nana lying on the bed with her legs crossed.

"Scared of what?"

"The Demonic Torture. Nightingale said it would be in winter. I became a witch in autumn this year, so it'll be my first time... "

"The first time," Anna said, "will really hurt, and sometimes you even wish to die at once."

"Ah!" Nana shouted and immediately covered her mouth.

"But you'll survive, just like me."

"I don't know... " Nana whispered. "I'm not as strong as you."

"I'm not that strong." Anna closed her eyes and envisioned the scene when she met Roland for the first time. It was in the dark and cold dungeon that he put his clothes on her body and softly said he would hire her. Until now, she still felt it unbelievable. "You'll encounter some things that make you want to live on, even if you have to struggle to survive."

"Such as…?"

"Such as a steak with sauce." She sighed. "How can I know what you want, huh?"

Seeing Nana staring at herself, Anna wiped her face with her hand and asked, "Is there something dirty on my face?"

"No... " Nana shook her head. "I'm just a little surprised, you never talked to me so much before... Sister Anna, you were so beautiful when you were thinking with your eyes closed."

Anna rolled her eyes, jumped out of bed, and went to the window.

Nana followed her. "What are you looking at, the Misty Forest?"

"The Forest is in the west," Anna said sourly. "I can only see the Redwater River here."

"Sister Anna, look!" The girl pointed at the sky.

Anna was startled, and then pushed open the window. A cold wind mixed with little snowflakes poured into the room.

She stretched out her hand and squeezed the crystal-clear snowflakes. A chill came to her fingers.

"It's snowing."

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

"..."

After a long silence, Nightingale said, "You didn't lie."

"Of course." Roland laughed. "I rarely lie."

Nightingale did not say anything. She tilted her head, with some unknown look in her eyes.

Suddenly, she felt cold on her neck and could not help shrinking. She looked up and found that snowflakes were floating over the city wall. It seemed that there were countless white spirits in the gray sky. They danced in the north wind and flew around, accompanied by the slogan of the Militia.

... The Months of Demons had begun.

Chapter 40 - A Family Letter

The firewood burned, but Gerald Wimbledon felt little heat.

The tent was large and made from leather, with its bottom rim running flush to the ground. There should be no air leakage. Nevertheless, he still felt cold, especially his toes, which were frozen almost to the point of being numb.

"Even your piss will freeze in this damned place." He spat and stood up, placing his hands on either side of the table, with the veins on his hands bulging as he lifted upwards and the six-square-foot, solid wooden table was lifted off the ground.

Releasing the table near the edge of the fire, Gerald felt a wave of comfort. He took off his shoes and put his feet over the fire to warm himself. Then he unrolled some parchment, and continued to write the unfinished letter.

"Dear Olivia,

I've been in Hermes for more than a month, even though the men in the church like to call it the 'New Holy City'. Were it not for the Agreement on the Months of the Demons, I still wouldn't wish to stay here. All I want is to return to your home and share a warm bed with you.

Thanks to the agreement, the corps monitoring the church became their allies. Very ironic, isn't it? Speaking of the church, I have to admit that what they have done is truly amazing. 20 years ago, Hermes was nothing but mountains and stones, and the church's towns lay at the bottom of the mountain. But now they have paved the way for carriages to go up the mountain, and have also built a large fortress city at the top of the hill.

If it were summer, you should have come with me to see this place. The so-called New Holy City is even more magnificent than Graycastle. And do you remember the theatre in Graycastle? We went together and saw Hamlet. Then you sighed with emotion about how clever the theater was, and the interior was so spacious.

But if you see the Hall of Military Affairs in New Holy City, you'll find that the theater in Graycastle isn't even comparable. I would consider it to be an exquisite work of art instead of a building. Even though the theater is so large, it doesn't have even one pillar to support it. Rather, eight things like demon's bones stretch out to the outer walls. Then, many branches and hemp rope are attached to these curved bones, and the roof is suspended in the air. How did they figure it out?

And as for those bones, if they were in fact taken from demonic beasts, then the demonic beasts must have been more than 33 meters tall. Only in Hermes would one encounter such a creature. But my dear, please don't fear. Even if the demonic beasts are huge, they are no more than minions of demons. And no evil can escape the sanctions of God, neither demonic beasts, witches or demons themselves. Rather, they'll turn to ashes."

At this point, Gerald Wimbledon put down his pen, and shook his tingling hands. It was weird that he felt relaxed swinging around a 15-pound, two-handed sword all day, while he felt tired when he wrote for a short time. He laughed at himself, "I'm really suitable for some rough work."

Speaking of demons, I suddenly remember that my brother was assigned to some sort of poor places like Border Town. I'm afraid that he's already fled to Longsong Stronghold, even though the demons there cannot be compared to those in Hermes. I cannot blame him. If I had gone to such a place, I would have also sought refuge. Therefore, you can see how unfair my father is. Did he intend that my second brother inherit the throne just due to his intelligence? Father has forgotten that he himself didn't win the throne of Graycastle by intelligence. Since the death of my mother, I've had more and more difficulty figuring out his thoughts."

Gerald did not know how to continue, for he did not know whether or not he should tell Olivia the truth. He paused for a moment, and decided to keep writing. If the plan went well, he should have already arrived at Graycastle Palace when the letter was received.

"My dear, Astrologer Ansger is right. If I don't do anything, the throne will definitely not belong to me. He's read this in the star image, 'The Apocalypse Star is moving away from the sun. It'll completely deviate from its orbit in at most four months." As the astrologer has told me this, there must not be much time left. I cannot remain idle.

After today's battle, I'll secretly return to the king's city with my loyal knights. Coldwind Ridge is far behind Valencia in terms of wealth. But they aren't lacking in courageous warriors. As long as gold is promised, they'll seek the given goal like hungry wolves. Of course, that isn't my ideal method. All I want is to ask father in person the reason he issued the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince. In the end, what makes him forget that I should have the right to inherit the throne?

Astrologer Ansger has already arranged everything. Olivia, my love, you won't wait much longer. The day I become King, I intend to marry you and make you my Queen. If I should fail... you have no need to return to the king's city, and you should live a good life in Coldwind Ridge.

Gerald loves you."

He carefully placed the folded letter into an envelope, and sealed it with wax oil. After checking it a number of times, he knocked on the table, and a bodyguard quickly entered the tent.

"This letter shall be sent to Rose in Coldwind. You needn't travel all day and night, and don't have to ride a horse. You'll be dressed as an ordinary traveler, and should travel between the two places on a business trip. Most importantly, this letter must be sent personally."

"Yes, Your Royal Highness!"

"Good, you may leave." Gerald waved away the guards and simply sat down on the table, his feet hanging over the fiery pit.

There was no way back.

He closed his eyes and recalled his childhood. At that time, he played hide and seek in the garden of the king's city with Timothy and Garcia. When Garcia fell down, he and Timothy went to accompany her. When did the three of them become so distant?

Gerald shook his head and put away the confusing thought. Such sentimental things did not suit him. After all, he knew when the confusion would end—when he was on the throne.

Just then, the dull sound of a horn came through the tent.

"Waaawaaawaaa—!"

"They're here!" He jumped up from the table and put on his shoes. Outside the tent, the battalion was already on the move. Running soldiers and flags came together to create a torrent, heading for the battlefield. The sound echoed over the distant mountains, never-ending.

Demonic beasts were coming.

"Come with me!" He rode his warhorse and came to the top of the city wall.

Only when you stood on the walls of New Holy City could you feel its magnificence. It was like an insurmountable natural moat, standing in the foothills of the Impassable Mountains. The top was flat and wide, so that dozens of people could stand side by side. In front of it lay natural glaciers, and its rear was a plateau.

This was the reason that the church so desperately wanted to build New Holy City on top of the mountain.

With this harsh terrain, it was almost impossible to break the lines of defense.

Gerald Wimbledon had a long-term vision. The strength demonstrated by the church in the creation of Hermes was staggering. They established it in just 20 years, taking timber and stones from the foot of the mountain to its peak.

But even though he was no longer disgusted by the church scoundrels, there was something Gerald had to admit. If they did not support the holding of Hermes, all the countries on the continent would face a catastrophe, which was the basis for signing the Agreement on the Months of the Demons.

When the Months of the Demons came, the four kingdoms bordering Hermes had to send troops to aid the church and fight with the church's Judgement Army.

The four banner flags flew in the wind, the Kingdom of Dawn's serpent scepter, the Kingdom of Wolfheart's knife shield crossing, the iceberg rose of the Kingdom of Everwinter...

and the tower and spear of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Looking at the black spots in the distant sky, Gerald Wimbledon clenched his sword.

Chapter 41 - Demonic Beasts Appear

As Brian said, when it started snowing in Border Town, it did not stop.

The town had been wrapped in a layer of white yarn overnight. In the morning, the amount of snow lessened with only a few snowflakes falling every so often, while the sky remained gray. Roland felt incredulous at the fact that it would be a few months before the sun would be visible once again.

"It was simply unreasonable," he thought. "It was hard enough to find sense in a world with witches and magic power, but how could demonic beasts affect the heavens?" Unfortunately, he had no meteorological tools to help him know about the world's current cloud distributions.

Walking along the road to the city wall of the Western Region, Carter could not help but exclaim. "The town seems deserted, and with that, there are some people leaving with the noble families."

"At least this way, they won't drag us down," said Roland. "I've arranged Barov for a population census this winter."

"What's that?"

"That means, you need to go door to door and record how many people are left, their name, and career they're engaged in, and then register it," Roland explained. "In this way, we can quickly and effectively allocate human resources during war and distribute pensions after war."

"Uh... human resources?" Carter blinked and then laughed. "Your Highness, you really have changed."

"Why?"

"In the past, you would also say some things I didn't understand and act strangely. At that time, some of what you did didn't match a prince's behavior, but now... " Carter paused for a moment, and seemed to look for his words. "Whether it's your quirky training regulations or the alchemical tests, the results are surprisingly effective. Perhaps this is what my grandfather said that what made someone extraordinary was that they can see what normal people ignored. I'm beginning to think maybe you really could become the next king."

"... Is that so?" Roland's heart felt warm. Was there anything more fulfilling than being approved by heelers for men? For a time he felt that his hands and feet were full of strength, and the dark sky was not so oppressing.

Along the city wall, the militia team was cleaning up the aisle of snow. When they saw the prince, they all bowed and gave a salute.

"They should be taught a proper salute," Roland thought. "How was the situation last night?"

"There was no trace of the demonic beasts." It was Iron Axe who answered him. "Your Highness, according to previous experience, there'll be a relatively stable period after the first snow. During this period, the number of demonic beasts is small. And mutated animals are small and weak."

Roland nodded. "Then keep alert."

The rear section of the city wall had been transformed into a battalion. When all was quiet, most people would rest in the battalion to save energy. For the guards, a rotation system was implemented. Due to the low winter temperature, each warning patrol only stayed out for two hours before being replaced.

It was Roland who laid these measures into place. When asking Brian, he found out that Longsong Stronghold had no experience in the fight against the demonic beasts. The most unlucky recruits would be sent to monitor the evil creatures for a whole day on the city wall. This meant that each winter saw 20 to 30 people being hung for the dereliction of duty or the violation of military orders.

When the demonic beasts appeared, it was a mess. The defense was not put into divisions, and as such, responsibility was not specified. Thinking of the level of war in that era, Roland understood. There was an extreme emphasis on personal bravery, honor, and pillaging. Even the knights would charge forward in person out of impulse, and one could not expect too much.

Roland toured the walls once again. It seemed that all was going smoothly, but Roland found himself ignoring a problem.

That was the guidance of the roadblocks.

At the moment, these obstacles clearly led the demonic beasts to the center of the city wall, but if what Brian said was true, snow would cover these obstacles within two to three months. If that happened, they could have to defend from the beasts in a line as long as 600 meters. His staff could not take such wide range into consideration.

He could not send a platoon to remove the snow as a few demonic wolves were enough to make the team suffer heavy losses.

Perhaps he would have to rely on the power of the witches once again.

For example, let Nightingale sneak out of the city with Anna and melt the snow with fire, and then sneak back—that was similar to how she stole Nana from the Pine's.

At that moment, the observation alarm on the left side of the city wall was sounded.

"Look ahead!"

Roland and Carter looked at the position he was pointing to, and a small shadow came out of the snow and moved slowly toward the city wall.

"Your Highness, do you...?" a hunter responsible for defense turned around and asked.

"According to the previous exercise, you should judge whether or not to blow the horn," Roland said, "and at this point, you're more experienced than me."

He hesitated, and ultimately decided to pull on the strings of his crossbow and continued to observe from the city wall.

Roland nodded with satisfaction. For the moment, the order on the city wall was still well maintained. He just did not know if the defense would swiftly organize according to their drills when a large number of demonic beasts attacked Border Town.

The shadow gradually approached. When it came to about 50 meters in front of the city wall, Roland was able to see its appearance.

Was it just a variant of fox?

Its fur was gray and black, and its eyes were flushed. It panted as it reached the city wall.

"This creature seems to have been just attacked, and it's no threat to us," Iron Axe said as he aimed his bow.

"You said they were all infected with the breath of hell, and exiled to the west?"

"Not only to the west," said Carter. "When the Gates of Hell open in Barbarian Land, any place beyond the protection of the Impassable Mountain Range will be attacked by demonic beasts, especially in the north. There, the Impassable Mountain Range seems to be cut off, and the gap is about 5,000 meters. It's also the main direction of the attacks by the demonic beasts."

The manic monster wandered around the city wall for a while. Then it raised its head and grinned at the soldiers on the city wall. When it leaped, Iron Axe released his bowstring, and the arrow penetrated its neck, nailing it firmly to the ground.

Roland noticed that the blood flowing from it was black.

"Why could a witch stay conscious after their awakening, but a beast became frantic and alienated when they were ambushed by the same demonic power? If there was ever the chance, I should go to the rear of the Impassable Mountain Range and take a look for myself," he thought. From the prince's memory, the Gates of Hell was located in a place where humans could not reach. However, as no one had ever gone there, the information found in the ancient books was all rumors and speculations, and not verified. That was questionable.

Chapter 42 - An Accident

"If someone is bitten by a demonic beast," asked Roland, "will he turn into something like the beast?"

He hoped that this was not some otherworldly version of Resident Evil. They could not extract virus antigens with the current technology.

"Of course not," said Iron Axe, making a confused face. "Humans will simply turn into corpses."

"Can we eat the flesh of the demonic beasts?"

Carter exclaimed. "Your Highness! How can you eat these beasts? They're all tainted by the touch of hell!"

Roland turned to Iron Axe, who nodded. "Your knight is right. Once I tried to cut off a piece of flesh from the beasts and feed it to a hound, but it died soon after."

"Is that so? What a pity." Roland sighed. Food was so scarce in this era, so if demonic beasts could be eaten, then they could have a huge harvest in the winter. Just imagine, with all the crazed beasts running from the forest to Border Town, they would not even need any hunting tools.

Once he finished patrolling the city wall, he decided to pay Nana a visit.

He had expropriated a nobleman's house, which was the closest to the city wall, and transformed it into a field hospital. Of course, it was simply a normal hospital to others. Just to be safe, the place was the most heavily guarded place except the city wall.

When the house owner escaped to Longsong Stronghold, he took all of his properties with him. Border Town was a place where one could give up at any moment. Even though the house was large, there were no frescoes, carpets, or porcelain to decorate it. If it were not neatly cleaned, it would just look like a house that has been abandoned for a long time.

Roland tore down the wooden partition on the first floor to make one large room, leaving only the hallway and entrance intact. He then placed 10 beds to form a simple hospital. There were no nurses, no doctors, and even these 10 beds were unlikely to be occupied. After all, Nana's treatment did not require bed rest. It was immediately effective.

During the day, she was on the second floor of the hospital on standby. Anna accompanied her whenever she had spare time. Tigui Pine and Brian were in charge of the first floor, with two more guards posted at the entrance. It was foolproof.

However, Roland did not expect that the first patient that the hospital received would be a worker from the North Slope Mine, rather than some soldier defending the city wall.

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

Nail felt his hands shaking.

When he heard Iron Head's hoarse screams, he once again quickened his pace. He wished he could fly to his destination.

Everything was a result of his negligence, he thought. He really deserved to die. How could he forget the veteran knight's warnings?

He knew that he should not have agreed to operate the large machine alone.

Ever since the big, dark machine was installed at the entrance of the mine, work had become a lot easier.

In the first place, the most tiring job was removing the ores from the mine. When the basket was filled with ores, it would take three to four people to drag it. Usually two people pushed in the back, with the others pulling from the front. After years of mining, the uneven surface of the tunnel would become flat due to the repetitive transporting of the baskets. The iron pads under the baskets also had to be changed frequently.

A week ago, Chief Knight ordered Iron Head and his men to haul some oddly-shaped metal pieces up the mountain. After a few days, they assembled the pieces in a furnace. Nail did not expect that the furnace would come to life and start moving on its own. It was both powerful and dynamic.

The veteran knight said it was an invention by His Highness called a "steam engine".

As long as they tied the mining basket to the machine with a hemp rope and ignited a fire, the machine would let out a cry. Then it would turn the winch to pull the basket to the entrance of the mine.

It sounded incredible!

The veteran knight demonstrated it a few times, and then asked Iron Head to select a person to operate the steam engine. Nail's heart soared when he was selected. As long as he stood in front of that machine, he would never have to dig in the mine or push the basket. That was what he thought, but he had been terrified ever since the landslide accident.

He kept the veteran knight's words firmly in his mind.

Making the contraption work seemed easy. All he had to do was to lift the green rod and press the red rod down. The veteran knight said that the green rod was connected to the air intake valve, and the red rod was connected to the exhaust valve. And the steam would enter the cylinder through the pipeline. When the basket was pulled up, he would stop the machine by lifting the red rod and pressing the green rod down. Then steam would come from the side of the boiler into the tube. After each cycle, the boiler must be filled with water. Although Nail did not understand the meanings of the valve and cylinder, he promised to operate it step by step.

But the veteran knight stressed two points. Firstly, he should not mess up the order. He must start from the green then to red rod, and end with the red rod followed by the green rod. If he did this incorrectly, he would probably damage the machine. Secondly, he had to clear out the surrounding miners before emptying the exhaust, and continue shouting out to remind others what he was doing, until the red rod was completely lifted.

Nail was sure that he absolutely could not mess up the first point. As for the second, he had some problem.

Today, when he turned off the machine as usual, there was no one around. He felt like a fool calling out to an empty room, so he proceeded to pull the red rod silently. The rod was tight, and it took quite an effort for him to lift it.

He did not expect Iron Head to appear right then in front of the boiler. Nail swore that he did not see him approach, and the loud roar of the machine masked his footsteps. White steam screeched from the exhaust port and headed straight at Iron Head's face!

Nail was frozen in horror, seeing Iron Head fall to the ground. Iron head clutched his face, rolling around. The mournful screams that he let out gave Nail goose bumps.

Soon other miners gathered around. They held down Iron Head who was still rolling, and forcibly removed his hands. His face was a mess, with blood oozing from the cooked flesh of his skin. His eyes were mere white beads. Everyone there knew that it was the end for him.

Behind them, tears welled in Nail's eyes. Iron Head had always taken care of him. Considering his young age, Iron Head assigned him less work than others, but never reduced his pay. But now this happened because of his negligence.

Caught in his grief and anxiety, Nail recalled what the veteran knight had said. If someone was accidentally injured in the mining area, they could bring them to the new medical hospital near the city wall.

He knew that there was little hope to mend such a serious injury. The wound was too serious and herbs would do little to help. Iron Head's skin would continue to rot, and he would soon fall into a coma because of his fever. Nonetheless, Nail put Iron Head on his back. Clenching his teeth, he ran, ignoring the surprise of the people around him.

He knew if he did nothing and simply watched Iron Head die, he would not be able to forgive himself in this lifetime.

Chapter 43 - Be Strong

"Where's Anna?"

Nana heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and ran to the door to see who it was. She was disappointed to find that it was His Highness.

"She's still working. She may come later."

"Work?" Nana heard the prince say that word often these days. "Do you mean she's burning that gray powder?"

"For the time being, yes."

Nana pouted and went back to the table. "I also have work," she thought. "I stay here and treat those who are injured while defending the town."

"What is it? Are you bored when Anna is away?" Roland smiled. Taking a chair, he sat down by the fireplace.

"Well..." Nana looked down. Honestly, she did not want to help the injured. It was just… too terrible.

She remembered the scene when she first treated Brian. He was soaked in blood, and the reddish-brown clots solidified in his chest. Red and white blood bubbled out of his dry lips. Upon seeing this, she fainted...

She was so ashamed.

Nana looked up and stared at the prince, only to find he was snoring in his chair. "He seems exhausted, too," she thought, "he must have been constructing the city wall and training soldiers to protect Border Town from the demonic beasts."

When he invited to come to the castle, she had hesitated for a long time, but in the end she agreed.

"You'll also encounter something that you want to live for, even if you have to struggle." Nana did not understand the meaning of these words, but when she closed her eyes, she could see Anna. Her blue eyes were like a lake, gently enveloping her. It was because of her that she agreed to help Roland.

She wanted to be as strong as Anna.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps downstairs. Nana jumped up from her chair to see if it was Anna. However, she was stopped by an invisible hand.

"Wait, there's more than one person."

Nana patted her chest, unnerved. "You scared me, Nightingale."

The door was pushed open, and Brian, who was in charge of the first floor, came in. "Miss Pine, please come down. Someone was burned."

This is my work, isn't it?

Nana closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Alright, I got it."

She went downstairs. The two guards were busy placing a man who was moaning painfully on the bed. Next to them stood a small man, looking anxious. Brian came forward and tied the wounded man's hands and feet to the bedside. The guards then sent the small man out of the room and drew the curtain.

"What happened?" Roland went downstairs, rubbing his eyes.

"Your Highness, this man came from the mine of the northern slope. He seems seriously burned."

The prince looked the man over. "These are steam burns. Is there any problem with the first machine? Who brought him here?"

"He's in the hall." Brian pointed at the door.

"I'll go and ask about the situation. You stay here," Roland said as he left the room.

Nana slowly went closer and glimpsed at that man from the corner of her eyes. She saw that his face was melted into a ball. His original ruddy skin became pale with dehydration and was hanging onto his face like a rag. On his neck were blisters as large as bowls, some of which had been broken. Mucus with blood wetted the pillow. In the flickering light of the fire, his appearance was more terrible than a demon from a nightmare.

She retreated a few steps and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw her father was watching her with care.

"Are you alright?"

Nana nodded and thought about what Roland had told her: "It's best to think of treating the wounded like treating a small animal." With this in mind, she went back to the bed and stretched out her hands.

An incredible feeling emerged from her body, and she gathered a small part of this power into her palm. She saw a ray of green light flowing out of her palm and onto the injured man's face. Although this green light was so visible to her, others could not see it. The wound then changed. The scalded skin fell off and new skin grew quickly underneath it.

The painful moaning of the wounded man gradually stopped. His breathing became even as if he had fallen asleep.

Nana exhaled. She performed better than she did the last time, didn't she?

"My God, is this the healing power His Highness mentioned? This is the first time I've seen it," said Tigui Pine. "My dear daughter, you're amazing!"

"It's the power of the deities," said Brian. "I'm so grateful that Nana helped me when I was injured."

"Ah, this fool." Nana clutched her face and thought. "Didn't he know that Nightingale helped me sneak out to cure him?"

"When was it?" Tigui said, surprised, "Why don't I know?"

"Well... Her strength has nothing to do with the deities. It belongs only to the witch herself." Roland opened the partition and coughed as he joined the two men's conversation. "How's the injured man now?"

"Basically healed," said Brian excitedly. "It's like he was never injured! Your Highness, with Miss Nana's, everyone will have a chance to survive the Month of Demons!"

"As long as you don't die on the spot, it's not a problem to keep you alive." The prince nodded, motioning Brian to wake up the man. "You're Iron Head, am I right?"

Iron Head sat up. He said in confusion, "Is, is this a dream?"

"No," said Roland. "You're still alive."

"You're... I've seen you in the square!" The man suddenly realized the identity of Roland. He abruptly got down from the bed and fell to his knees. "Prince Roland, did you save me?"

"Tigui Pine's daughter saved you. She's a witch with healing powers."

Nana tensed and wondered if it was okay to say that she was a witch so directly. Sure enough, the look in the man's eyes changed. "A... witch? Your Highness, aren't they demons...?"

"What the hell are you saying!" Tigui stood up and shouted unhappily. "My daughter doesn't have anything to do with demons. She did save your life. Do you think a demon would lend you a helping hand?"

"No, no! Please forgive me for my rudeness." Iron Head lowered his head. "You saved my life. Thank you, Miss Pine."

Nana was overwhelmed by her feelings. She wanted to run out of the room. Still, there was a voice repeating in her head, reminding her to "be strong".

When Iron Head was sent away, Tigui asked with concern, "Is this really alright, Your Highness? If you do this, I'm afraid my daughter won't be able to live a normal life."

"Think about the positive side, Mr. Pine," the prince said. "If we take advantage of this period to break the ice, Nana may be able to have a future where she's truly free. Otherwise, as time passes, she'll one day be exposed. When that day comes, I'm afraid I can do nothing but hide her."

Truly... free? Nana did not know, but right now she felt like she was free. But if what His Highness said became true, then Anna could also leave the castle on her own. Would she return to Teacher Karl's college?

Chapter 44 - The Unspoken Answer

When Roland returned to the castle, it was already dark and snowing heavily again.

He went into the bedroom and removed his coat. He shook off the snow at the collar, and hung it on the hanger beside the fireplace.

"Your Highness, don't you think this matter was handled too hastily?"

Nightingale appeared in front of the prince.

"Nana?" Roland poured a glass of ale for Nightingale and himself. Although the wine was much bitterer than the beer he was used to in his past life, he had gradually become accustomed to its taste.

Nightingale took the cup and held it in her hand but did not drink—she was waiting for the prince's answer.

"There's no better time than now." Roland downed his wine and refilled his cup. "If we want to develop Nana's power before the Months of Demons, we can't conceal her identity as a witch. She can instantly heal fatal injuries in a way more efficient than the ordinary herbal medicines or bloodletting therapy. I'm sure people will realize this."

"It's a blessing that this small town is outside the border of the Western Region, therefore, the church has very limited influence on it—if I were them, I would not be willing to spend gold royals on this unimportant place either." Roland went on. "The town didn't even have a chapel, and the missionaries returned with the noble to Longsong Stronghold a long time ago. What do you think of Border Town now? It's an island cut off from the outside world."

"... you planned this long ago?" Nightingale asked.

Roland nodded. "The snow will bury the road leading to Longsong Stronghold, and the docking of the ships at the port is controlled by me. We have at least three months to correct the wrong idea that "witches are evil". If we depend just on publicity, the effect is very limited. So we need to rely on close contact, in order to quickly eliminate this layer of misunderstanding."

That was why he wanted to keep Nana at all costs. He wanted to create a Florence Nightingale in this world.

Due to this legendary nurse's dedicated efforts to take care of the wounded, the casualty rate was reduced from 42% to 2%. She was conferred the title of "The Lady with the Lamp", and she raised the reputation of nurses.

And Nana's ability was even more magical. Through magic power, she could cure trauma and revive lives as long as it was not death on-the-spot. This was probably better for the morale of the Militia than any weapon.

Moreover, thanks to her father's identity as a noble in decline and his association with hunters and farmers, he had a peaceful attitude towards civilians, and even allowed Nana to attend Teacher Karl's college. As compared to the other nobles, even the lowest ranking baron, would not be happy to allow his daughter to mix with civilians—in their eyes, these people were so-called lowlifes.

"Can these... really be done?" Even if it were Nightingale, when faced with the powerful authority like the church, she would still appear particularly weak.

"If we don't try, we'll never know the answer."

Roland did not expect the whole town to change their view, but at least this new platoon he formed had to be firmly grasped in his hands. Later on, he would rely on these people, who came from the civilians, to promote his ideas.

Three months were enough to change a lot of things.

Nightingale was silent for a moment, and then whispered, "Why are you doing this for the witches?"

In order to liberate productivity, become more powerful and have a place in the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince—of course, these answers were not suitable to be said at this moment. Even though Roland was a mechanical engineer, he had also played a variety of GALGAME. So it could be said he had also seen many battles. Two decades of experience reminded him that this time he was facing a key question.

He pondered the right words to say, and then slowly replied, "I've already told you a long time ago, that Border Town doesn't care about your background. I hope that one day, even a witch, can live like a free man in my domain."

This time Nightingale was silent for a long time. Only the crackling of charcoal burning could be heard in the room. Her side profile shone like a beautiful picture under the bright firelight.

When she spoke again, Roland felt time had regained movement. "In fact, you don't have to do this." Her voice was remote yet gentle. "Please forgive me for lying to you earlier on... My sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association have been drifting around for a long time. They don't have many expectations. Just a place to settle down would satisfy them, even if it was in the castle."

"How would that be different from a cage." Roland shook his head. Then suddenly it dawned upon him. He stared at Nightingale. "Hang on... are you saying that you now allow them to come over?"

Nightingale sighed and avoided eye contact with the prince. "In that case, you'll become an enemy of the church."

"They had gone too far," Roland said nonchalantly. "Once the divine right of kings becomes a slogan, the conflict between the church and the mainland countries will break out sooner or later. As for Border Town, as long as we can live through these three months, the church can't do much harm to us. We're far from the base of the church. Will the bishop bring the Judgement Army across the entire Kingdom of Graycastle to capture me? My father won't allow such a thing to happen. This would be a serious provocation of the royal majesty."

"..."

After Nightingale bowed and left, Roland lay in the bed, and let out a sigh of relief.

He did not tell her all his thoughts, such as the church was far away, and according to the speed of communication in that world, they probably would not respond until early summer. Plus the long distance and his identity as a prince, it meant the church would probably only send envoys to investigate the situation.

It would take half a year to carry out a round trip. By then, he would have the ability to break the ties with them.

Therefore, the biggest danger was not the church, but the witches themselves.

This point was noticed only by Roland.

Although the witches were now at a disadvantage, the situation would not last forever. Witches did not rely on blood heritage, but instead a random awakening, which meant witches could not be exterminated, and they would only increase in numbers.

The church relied on God's Stone of Retaliation to maintain their advantage over the witches, but this could only be used to offset the magic power. By the look of things, the witches' awakening not only gave them a variety of abilities. Even their physical qualities, thinking agility, and their appearance were superior to ordinary people.

They were in essence, considered "New Mankind".

The more brutal the oppression was, the more intense the resistance would be. When a riot led purely by the witches arose, how much damage would that cause to the Kingdom of Graycastle? The hatred caused by the church, once uncontrollable, could very likely be transferred to the same hate toward the kingdom and its people.

Roland did not wish to see that happen.

So he needed to start from Border Town. He first had to frame a structure to accommodate both parties, and promote this to the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, and even the mainland kingdom.

He wanted to build a world where witches and ordinary people could coexist.

Chapter 45 - The Conspiracy (Part I)

When the moon started to set, Gerald Wimbledon saw the flickering silhouette of the city wall of the king's city.

After a few months, he was finally back. Thinking of that, he felt the fatigue of the long journey diminished greatly. But he still remained vigilant, and tightly pulled his horse, beckoning his assistant to go ahead and inquire about the situation.

If the plan did not change, Astrologer Ansger should have already replaced the city guards with Gerald's men. After the assistant shot out the signal, Ansger would let down the side drawbridge.

Gerald kept his eyes wide open, as if he was afraid to miss the faint fire.

He did not have to wait long, but Gerald felt like time had stopped. When his eyelids became too weary, he finally saw the distant flickers—twice under the city wall, and thrice above, just like it was planned. He took a deep breath and waved his troops forward.

By the look of things, he was only one step away from the throne.

Gerald rode through the side door of the city wall, with the assistant by his side.

Behind him were more than twenty cavalries. They were all silently pulling the reins, and controlling the mount to inch forward slowly.

The city walls of the king's city were made of materials obtained from Fallen Dragon Ridge. The gray-colored stone had a dark red luster under the torch as if it was soaked in blood. The whole city wall was about 6 meters wide. And in order to build this wall that was out of this world, more than 1,000 slaves and masons died on the site.

An army of 10,000 could not overcome this impregnable wall, but yet he was sliding through it so easily. Gerald thought to himself that any loophole must have started from the inside. All of a sudden, he recalled New Holy City. Would their seemingly more magnificent and indestructible wall be destroyed from the inside as well?

"Your Highness, I've been awaiting your arrival for a long time." Marching through the gates, he saw Astrologer Ansger and a small platoon waiting. Seeing Gerald appear, Astrologer Ansger quickly dismounted, bowed and saluted.

Gerald cast his distractions aside. He was probably so excited that he unwittingly let his imagination run wild. "You did well. Have you also swopped the palace guards?"

"Your Highness, the plan had a small mishap. Silver Knight who promised to serve you, was transferred to the Southern Territory three days ago. So now there's only time to replace the palace chamber guards."

Gerald frowned, as this meant that he could not bring all the 20 people into the palace. The guards would not attempt to stop him, but would also not allow so many armed men to enter the royal premises.

"Oh well, assign me two guards from the chamber platoon. The rest can stay the entrance, and ensure outsiders don't come in and bother me." He hesitated for a second before confirming. Although the plan had changed, the situation was still under control. Father's guards would generally stay overnight in the outer rooms. As long as someone could hold them off for a moment, he was confident that he could obtain victory.

Entering the inner city, he saw everything he used to be familiar with. Although it was night, he could still recognize every street. This was his territory without a doubt. Everyone jumped off their horses, and advanced quickly toward the palace. As they arrived at the door, the cavalry spread out according to the new plan, forming an ambush outside the palace. Just like Astrologer Ansger said, although the guards were surprised as to why the prince returned at night to the king's city, they still let him enter as Gerald lied that he had something important to report.

After all, he was the eldest son of the Kingdom of Graycastle, first in line to the throne.

The prince and Astrologer Ansger went through the garden and the hall, and right in front was King Wimbledon III's residence. The astrologer lifted the torch in his hand and shook it from left to right. Immediately, guards walked out of the darkness, and knelt down to the two men. "Your Highness, please come with me."

Gerald sniffed his nose and smelled a bloody odor.

Had not the chamber guards been completely replaced? He looked at the guard by firelight, and it was someone familiar—a knight of the earl who supported his succession plans. This made him feel a little more at ease.

"Did someone get into the castle?"

"Your Highness, His Majesty summoned a maid in the evening. And when she came out, she saw our exchange," replied the other. "Please rest assured. We've dealt with it."

[A maid? Father has not touched a woman for a long time—ever since Mother died.] Gerald felt a little surprised, but now it was not the right time to bother about such a minor thing. He nodded and did not say anything more. He followed the guards into the castle, and the others followed behind them.

Gerald knew the castle like the back of his hand, and he could walk from one end to the next with his eyes closed. He had lived here for more than 20 years, and he knew exactly where the secret tunnels or hidden doors were. But his purpose now was to persuade his father to pass the throne to himself. Sneaking into the chambers was meaningless. He also had to get rid of the guards outside, so that his father could completely understand his situation. Then they could sit down and talk seriously about the attribution of the inheritance.

If he could not convince his father...

Gerald Wimbledon took a deep breath, reached out and beckoned everyone to stop. He then pulled out the hand sword at his back.

The bronze door at the end of the corridor was the only entrance to the palace chambers. Behind the door was the outer chamber, but also the last line of defense. Two to three guards were usually stationed there, so that they could rush into the chambers to protect His Majesty at the first sign of danger.

Gerald first pushed the door to open a small slot. Then he used his shoulder to bang the door, fleeing quickly into the room, whilst holding his sword in an attacking stance, but the outside chamber was silent, without a single soul. At the same time, a strong bloody stench covered his nose.

His heart flashed an unknown premonition, and he ran straight toward the bedroom.

Shortly after, Gerald witnessed a scene that he could hardly believe...

King Wimbledon III was sitting on his bed in his robes, and his upper body leaning against the pillow. His robe was open, and a hilt was inserted into his chest. Blood dripped down his raised stomach and soaked the quilt.

Standing beside his father was his younger brother, Timothy Wimbledon.

"How, how could this happen?" Gerald stood motionless.

"Just like you, my elder brother." Timothy sighed. "I didn't want to do this."

He clapped his hands, and a number of armored warriors quickly poured through the door to surround the royal prince. "This is a chess game, and I originally wanted to follow the rules. Brother, did you know? Garcia did not respect the rules from the start, of course... you too. If not, why would she rush to the king's city after hearing the astrological prophet of Astrologer Ansger? Seriously, if you didn't show up, I wouldn't know what to do."

"Astrologer!"

He gritted his teeth and looked back. Astrologer Ansger stepped back and said, "I didn't lie to you. 'The Apocalypse Star is far away from Blaze day' is a metaphor that the lost has strayed from the right path, but it also has the meaning of destruction."

Now Gerald finally understood. He had fallen into a well-designed trap from the very beginning. The stench of blood at the door of the castle was not left by some maid and Silver Knight had not been transferred away. But the most disappointing fact was, Astrologer Ansger, who had taken care of him for more than a decade, and taught him to read and write from an early age, still chose the 2nd Prince—just like his father.

"Timothy Wimbledon! We're both his sons, but he devoted so much effort to you and assigned the best territory to you. Yet you were the first to lay your hands on him! You're a demon from hell!"

Anger flashed in Timothy's eyes but quickly disappeared. "Do you really think so? Dear brother, if you failed to persuade him to let you inherit the throne, would you really walk away quietly? Don't deceive yourself."

Chapter 46 - The Conspiracy (Part II)

"..." Gerald knew that he was now backed into a corner, and all he could do was to drag his younger brother together to hell. At this moment, he was actually calm, "Do you just want to get rid of me?"

"Get rid of you? No, that's of no help to me, my dear brother. I had no choice but to resort to this." Timothy's tone was still calm as if he was stating a fact. "If I had patiently waited for five years, I would probably end up having to face Garcia's pirate army. Do you know what she has been up to recently?"

Gerald shook his head and estimated the distance between himself and the 2nd Prince. He remembered his younger brother was very smart since childhood, but he was not good at riding and battle. As long as he could find the opportunity to rush forward to cut off...

"She is forming her own army, Brother. Really, I admire her. She did this even before the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince. Even I, did not expect this from her. When we were children, we all got along so harmoniously. How did we end up here, planning to kill each other?" He said, and then retreated two steps." For example, I'm afraid now you just want to split me into two halves with your sword, right?"

"..."

"I know it, Brother. You are still the same as before. When you want to kill, your eyes have a horrific stare," Timothy sighed. "Let me tell you honestly. I want to terminate the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince. If not, the fleet of Garcia would be waiting for me five years later. She had already controlled the Port of Clearwater a few years ago. And Valencia was suitable for creating businessmen, but not for raising fighters."

"I need an army that can resist Garcia's fleet, and this can't be achieved by a trade city." Gerald Wimbledon, tomorrow you'll be judged because you left your domain and assassinated the king. I have to return to Valencia tonight to make preparations before the bad news spreads to the Eastern Region. I'll be deeply sad, and step up rightfully as the second successor. And you'll be sent to the guillotine on the charges of killing the king."

"You..!" Gerald screamed and rushed toward his younger brother, but the distance was too great. His sword was intercepted by two armored guards. Then his calf numbed, as a dagger pierced his calf. Gerald suddenly lost his balance and fell crooked to the ground. The crowd swarmed forward, and he was tightly pressed to the ground, bound and unable to move.

"Judge? Do you think you're qualified to judge me? I'll divulge all of this, and let the people who support you know what kind of monster you are!"

"Of course you won't, my brother," said Timothy patiently. "The Alchemic Workshop has a medicine called 'Forgotten Language', which is made up of mixed lizard venom and horse's milk from the sandy land of the Southern Territory. After drinking it, you won't be able to make any sound. Rest assured you won't feel any pain. Instead, the taste is sweet, smooth and quite intoxicating. If you want to blame someone, then blame our talented sister. If not for her, I would not have to do this."

He waved to the leader of the guards, and the latter also nodded in reply and saluted. The royal prince was pulled out of the palace. The other armored guards also filed out. Finally, only the 2nd Prince and Astrologer Ansger were left.

"Your Highness, your throne is now secured, so I should call you Your Majesty," Astrologer Ansger said bowing.

"You did really well, and when I get on the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle, I will fulfill our arrangement. But...seeing my brother's tragic appearance today, I feel certain promises should be accompanied by a guarantee clause."

The astrologer's expression immediately changed. "Your Highness, you mean..."

"Don't worry. I just don't want to be betrayed." Timothy pulled out a wax pill from his arms. "You must have seen this quite often. The wax pill's shell takes seven days to completely dissolve, about the same time it takes for me to return from the king's city to Valencia. I've used the position of Chief Astrologer as the price for your collaboration, and I don't wish for others to pull you away at a higher price."

"Your Highness... you must be joking." The astrologer's face turned white blank. Yet he still bit the bullet and swallowed the wax pill in the end.

"Smart choice," said Timothy nodding with satisfaction. "Now you can go."

...

When the palace was empty, the 2nd Prince's face was gloomy.

He grabbed the porcelain on the bedside table and thrashed it on the ground. The porcelain was smashed into pieces. A guard came in immediately. "Your Highness?"

"Get out!" He roared.

"Yes." The latter quickly headed out of the room and shut the door.

[Damn it! Things shouldn't be this way!]

His plan did not include killing his father. By virtue of the king's preference, he just needed to highlight Garcia's actions to the king and stop her. Plus he had Prince Gerald Wimbledon as bait.

Timothy thought that his plan was infallible. He used the position of Chief Astrologer to lure Gerald's enlightenment mentor—the low ranking Astrologer Ansger in the Astrologers Association, into writing a letter to Gerald. And Gerald got hooked quite quickly. This was also in line with Timothy's judgement. His elder brother was stronger at fighting than thinking, whilst not willing to hand over the throne.

The next few letters stirred up the ambition of the first Prince Gerald, and Timothy also finished preparing the next step. When the last letter with the astrological prophecy was issued, he secretly returned to the king's city, to reveal the news that the first Prince Gerald might be planning a takeover. There was no doubt that once the matter was confirmed, his father would fly into a rage and send the first Prince Gerald into prison. He would face either imprisonment to death or exile.

Then, his father would look upon the other children, and Garcia who was expanding her army rapidly, would certainly be a natural choice.

But... why did it turn out like that? Father heard his news, smiled strangely instead, pulled out a dagger, and pierced his own chest!

Everything happened so fast that Timothy could not react in time, and could only watch his father die in front of him.

He sat down feebly along the bedside. For the first time, he felt he was also a pawn in a game of chest. Father's last smile was like a nightmare, making him feel creepy. He went over the whole thing repeatedly, and even examined the body, but still, could not find a clue—why would father do that?

He also suspected that this person was a fake. But he could find no evidence, and even the hidden wound at the back was a match.

Knowing Gerald was about to arrive at the king's city, he had to pretend to be calm, and replace the whole program. He would blame the death of King Wimbledon III onto Gerald, and then use his position as second heir to succeed the throne ahead of time. As long as the coronation was smooth, he would no longer be subject to territorial restrictions. This meant he could directly mobilize the power of the Duke of the Southern Territory to threaten Garcia and force her to give up the Port of Clearwater.

So it seemed that the outcome was not bad either, but Timothy could not help but feel uneasy... as if there were an invisible hand, that had unsuspectingly joined the struggles at the Kingdom of Graycastle. However, he was completely ignorant about it.

At the moment, other than firmly grasping the throne, he had no choice. Timothy Wimbledon swore to himself. If he found out who was behind this, he would be sure to let the culprit know the consequences of annoying a king!

Chapter 47 - The Market and Cycle

Border Town had been fairly peaceful over the week.

According to Iron Axe and Brian, the strength and the number of demonic beasts would gradually increase as the Months of Demons continued. Taking advantage of the current defensive pressure, Roland sent a sloop loaded with ores to Willow Town.

Due to the use of the steam engine, the number of workers in the North Slope Mine had been reduced by half, while the output increased steadily, allowing it to the level it had been at before it collapsed. The use of machines greatly lowered the manpower required.

Meanwhile, Roland carried on a preliminary reform of the mining system, turning the fixed compensation into a floating salary. He set a daily average output tallied by Barov as a standard, and going above by a certain amount would end in additional remuneration. In addition, anyone who found gemstones or mineral veins could claim extra rewards. This measure effectively promoted the workers' enthusiasm, and lively scenes could be seen everywhere in mining areas.

Roland naturally would like to do something now that the ore was in his hands.

Besides the steam engine, he also planned to manufacture a series of machine tools.

Machine tools had a long history, and generally speaking, they were tools used to produce other tools. So an anvil, which was manually fixed and forged, could be regarded as the most original machine tool.

Making tools by hand was not all that bad, however, the issue lay in the ungainly positioning of the tools. Thus, people added clip or groove on the tool stand to fix the parts that were processed. The early harquebus and flintlock were both handmade on anvils with grooves.

As time went on, merely depending on manpower could not meet the demand of processing, and then the machine tools evolved and expanded. The machine tool applied different fixed methods and toolings according to different usages. In addition, the linkage of handwork and machinery could effectively improve the efficiency of process.

Roland considered making the manual milling machine.

Although the milling machine had versatile functions, he would simply use it to produce involute gears and its frame could be simplified. All it needed was a pair of card slots and a rotatable steel mill. With the help of Anna, a specific molding mill specialized in cutting gears could be easily produced. The top of grinding tool was polished into the shape of a trapezoid and was heated to a hot red state. Then marks were drawn with iron bars, followed by a quench hardening treatment in water. That was how a customized mill was produced.

After solving the key problem, Roland immediately called Carter to hire two carpenters to forge the milling machine base, while Anna continued to make other metal parts in the castle backyard.

There was no doubt that metal processing had become as easy as making pottery with the help of Anna, especially after she grew skilled in controlling her flames. The initial production of small parts all depended on her. Seeing her melting iron ingots into a fluid iron liquid and kneading it, Roland marveled unceasingly.

Without the witches, it would have taken over 10 years to achieve what he had imagined.

Two days later, the first simplified milling machine was placed in the backyard.

Recently, Roland had been busy designing a set of gears, which would be used to regulate the speed and stabilize the output of the steam engine. The relevant fluted discs were in the molding process. Once the milling machine was finished being assembled, the process of gear milling would be carried out.

Gears were nothing new for Chief Knight Carter. The drainage of water in most of the mines in the world was achieved by livestock pulling wooden gears with a winch mechanism. Carter was satisfied this time. He was able to understand what the prince was doing.

Roland told him to bring three blacksmiths and their apprentices to learn how to operate the milling machine in the backyard. It was unlikely that Roland was going to operate these machine tools, so he had to train some skillful workers.

After their respectfully saluting, Roland started to demonstrate how to use the milling machines to produce gears.

Roland did not mind serving as the demonstrator at all. Actually, he just would seem like a type of prince that had various hobbies. Besides, being considered as half-assed, it was easy for him to operate the machine tools.

Carter was responsible for pouring warm lard on the side. In that era, it was a waste to replace oil lubrication by lard. However, something was better than nothing. The lard fell down into a ceramic bowl after soaking the mill, and it could be used repeatedly.

Roland firstly carved an indentation on the fluted disc according to the designed angle. Then he set the fluted disc upright and fixed it on the working table. Next, he pulled the mill above the fluted disc, aiming at the inscribed line, then pressing the pedal. The belts transferred the power generated by pedal's wooden wheels to the mill shaft.

Later on, Roland held fast to the mill handle and pulled down slightly, and then the rotating mill cut the fluted disc slowly at an angle of 90 degrees.

As the material of the fluted discs was pig iron, it was not hard to carve the indentation, despite the fact that the mill was working the rolled steel after the quenching process. The air was thick with the fragrance of lard, causing the blacksmiths and apprentices who did not eat meat for a long time to swallow their saliva.

After the demonstration, it was time to sign the contract. The business in Border Town had just begun, and the industry was even more recent. Therefore, neither steam engines nor machine tools would get popular immediately. At this time, the majority of people could hardly understand the huge power those things represent or their potential. As a result, Roland had to promote the machines by himself.

The contract said that the smithy using milling machines had to process one set of gears every week. All the needed materials should be provided by the castle and the processing fee was ten silver royals. Besides, the machine tools were not free, and the process functioned more like renting. The smithy had to pay two silver royals to use the tools.

During the Months of Demons, the business in the smithy was not as prosperous as before. It was an order from the prince and it could also benefit the smithy. Thus, nobody went against this order. At the same time, Roland told them that it was the first milling machine and there would be more milling machines being produced constantly. Anyone who was interested could apply at the City Hall.

"Your Highness, why don't you directly make the processing fee eight silver royals?" Carter asked, confused, after the blacksmiths went away.

"The amount is the same, but the meanings are different," Roland explained. "This is probably the first commercial lease contract in Border Town. I need to set an industry standard."

Carter wiped his forehead, knowing that His Highness was talking nonsense. He had experienced this situation. The prince would carry on talking if he pretended to listen carefully.

"A good start can lead to a virtuous cycle. At present, only I need to buy gears, so I provide machine tools. They get rewarded for their labor. Later, when others also need them, the blacksmiths will realize that they can get more commissions from buying the machine tools than renting them." Roland paused, "Thus, whenever they confront new things, they would consider applying the method of alternative production to avoid the risks. I can get rewards by renting the tools out and the subsequent development of new things will be decided by the market. That's a virtuous cycle."

Chapter 48 - The Assembly

With high spirits, Roland was about to give a long harangue on how to establish a reasonable market when there came the hum of horn.

This was unusual as only when the patrol team could not handle the issue would the alarm signal sound out.

Roland and Carter looked at each other and then rushed to the castle's backyard. Roland mounted the horse which had been prepared by the guards and headed for the city wall with Carter and his heelers.

When they boarded the city wall, the Militia was already in place. To Roland's relief, there was suddenly an array of guns on the top of wall. It seemed that the eggs did work.

Roland looked northwesterly, finding a group of demonic beasts approaching Border Town. Roland guessed there were about 20 evil beasts.

Iron Axe ran to Roland from his guarding position, giving a salute and reporting to Roland, "Your Highness, there is something weird about those demonic beasts."

"Weird? Do you mean that they generally don't take collective action?"

"No," Iron Axe explained, "colonial animals would forever be colonial animals. Take wolves for example. Their habitual nature won't be changed. However, these demonic beasts are not the same kind, and they are not supposed to take actions together. Some hunters even witnessed them fighting with each other before."

Demonic beasts were often mutated. They had a burning desire to hunt, were prone to be infuriated and did not know how to avoid risks. In a sense, they had lower intelligence than beasts.

Roland carefully observed for a while, finding different sizes and species of beasts, including demonic wolves and demonic bison. Roland thought it didn't mean that they knew the importance of collective actions.

Because they were still guided by the barriers and traps furnished by Iron Axe. All the beasts had been gradually getting close to the front of the city wall.

Van'er was so nervous that his wet palms could not grip his gun tightly. While nobody was noticing, he secretly wiped the sweat using his clothes.

The hunters who were responsible for observation repeatedly said, "Relax and take a deep breath." Van'er did as what the hunters said over and over. However, his could not cease to be nervous because he had heard so many rumors about how fierce the demonic beasts were for the past ten years when he lived in the Western Region. Since the start of Months of Demons, the Hunter Squad had killed some scattered demonic beasts under the city wall, which had eased his fear for them a little and he had thought he could be brave enough to face the fierce beasts. The fact was, he was not that brave.

Being picked out by His Highness to be Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad, Van'er tried to keep his expression calm, maintaining the appearance of an armed guard.

The beasts were getting closer to Van'er and he could recognize what they looked like. At the head of the beasts was a demonic bison, whose two shiny black embolons were as thick as his arms. Its fur was just like a cloak, fully covering its body. Van'er felt the ground was quaking while the demonic bison was about 70 meters away from the city wall. He licked his dried lips, waiting for the "thrust" order from the hunters.

A loud noise was heard.

The demonic beast did not slow down and directly ran into the city wall, shattering its brain and splashing its black blood.

Before Van’er could catch his breath, two demonic wolves swooped down.

"Stab!"

Hearing the order from the hunters, Van'er subconsciously raised his gun and tried to stab the wolves even though they were not in his attack range. The effect was not as good as they trained: Some thrust their guns immediately after the wolves jumped up, and some failed to react in time after receiving the order.

As a consequence, there was only one demonic wolf being pushed back, while another one fell down on the top of the wall.

"Stay in formation!" the hunters shouted loudly.

Although he was wondering which side the demonic beast would attack, Van'er still remembered what Iron Axe had warned them. When you focused on the things behind you, the danger would come from the front. He kept closely staring at the oncoming beasts, holding fast to his gun.

The Hunter Squad was obviously more experienced than the Spear Squad.

Before the demonic wolf fell down, the hunters had pointed their machetes at the beast. Iron Axe was pretty nimble; he directly dashed to the beast, smashed at its waist with his gunstock and then watched it roll a few circles in the air.

The demonic beasts were great in both physical stamina and defensive ability. Thus, such attack would not cause it too much damage. Alter falling down, the beast got up instantly and showed its sharp fangs.

Iron Axe had already pointed his gun to its forehead.

Then came a gunshot!

The skull of the demonic beast flew into the air and its body retreated back, collapsing and trembling.

"The damn beast was dead now. You need to continue keeping your position."

"Ah, my stomach." Someone was screaming.

Van'er glanced at him from the corner of his eye and saw a member of the platoon team sitting beside the city wall, hands stained with blood.

"His tharm was out!"

"It was scratched by the claws of demonic wolves."

"Please help me..."

"Damn it! Bind up with a cloth!"

The scene was chaotic. A few demonic boars with rough skin rushed at the city wall and were hit by crossbows of the hunters.

"Calm down!" Roland shouted loudly. He was blocked by Nightingale just now and arrived at this moment, "Don't you remember what to do if someone get hurt during the training? Follow the rules!"

What prince said reminded Van'er of his responsibility. As Deputy Force Commander of the city wall's defense team, there should be someone organizing the rescue when there was an injury.

He named his two teammates and said, "You take him to the hospital quickly!"

According to his previous experience, there was no chance that this man could survive. His Highness, instead, considered it to be more important to follow the orders and regulations, especially for the member of the Militia.

After the wounded were carried away, the order was restored on the city wall. The demonic beasts seemed to be of numerous quantities, only a few could impose threats on the people atop the city wall.

The Hunter Squad shot the left demonic beasts one by one and Van'er eventually took a deep breath. He felt he had use up all of his energy during this half an hour's battle.

At this moment, the hunters on the alert in the watchtower of the city wall shouted again, "My gosh, what's that..."

Van'er also saw it.

Although it was a long distance from the city wall, it must be a buster from its silhouette. Van'er firmly believed that it would be larger than ten cattle together.

Only Iron Axe recognized what that monster was at once.

He sucked in a breath. There was no doubt that it was a demonic hybrid and that this would bring them big troubles.

Chapter 49 - The Demonic Hybrid

Roland could not believe his eyes. [What the hell is this? If the mutation of demonic beasts is at least biologically sensible, this monster is so incredible that it seems to have come out of a horror film.]

From a distance, it looked like a gigantic tortoise with two heads. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to have two wolf heads.

[Is this the guinea pig of Dr. Frankenstein?] Roland thought to himself. The gigantic demonic beast was as high as the city wall and almost six meters long, with six short and thick feet in the shape of rhinoceros' legs. The size of each leg was equal to that of an adult human's body. As for its heads, the two wolf heads were unlike those of the common two-headed monsters in films, which either let out howls in turn or snapped at each other. Instead, the two heads sank low, with their eyes dimmed and their movements like zombies.

The most eye-catching thing about it was the shell on its back. The shell's surface had a dim grayish brown color and was covered with moss. With one glance one could tell that it was incredibly hard. This shell was similar to that of a tortoise, it covered the monster from head to tail. If the monster could retreat into its shell like a tortoise, it would definitely be hard to kill it.

But Roland was not worried since a demonic beast that moved so slow was destined to be a target. Even if firearms could not penetrate its shell, it would be easy to hit a wolf head outside the shell. If it hid in the shell, they could blow it with dynamite.

"Your Highness, this is a demonic hybrid." Iron Axe approached him with a grave face. "Now I understand why there has been a collective action of demonic beasts of different species. They were all driven by this demonic hybrid."

[Just like a lion that drives a herd of sheep?"] Roland thought and nodded. "This one is rather different from the one you saw last time."

"It's also the first time that I've ever seen a demonic hybrid of this kind. Though it looks clumsy, you shouldn't underestimate it. Any of the demonic hybrids would be hard to tackle."

"It's almost within the range," Roland said, "and let the archers try first."

It snowed lightly, while the wind blew rather unpredictably from the northwest. The weather was not good for archery. But the two huntsmen chosen by Iron Axe seemed confident enough.

They ascended the lookout tower and shot their arrows according to their judgement of the instantaneous wind direction.

The two arrows behaved like a pair of eyes. After they rose to a vertex, under the influence of both wind and gravity, they fell and landed almost vertically on the targeted shell.

Just as expected, the arrows were repelled and this action even sounded off an attention tone like a game in Roland's mind.

The two huntsmen continued to shoot their arrows calmly for another two rounds.

The last round was successful because the arrows landed at the anterior of the monster. One arrow landed right onto a wolf head, while the other stuck into the neck of its target.

However, it did not screech angrily or increase its attacking speed. It stopped for a moment, and then hid its heads and feet into the shell while moving on.

This incident baffled everyone.

The beast looked then like a tank with its chassis lowered. The ridge of the shell almost touched the ground. In this way, even the best archer could not shoot their arrows into its body.

"Use flintlock." Roland commanded.

Now the target was about 17 meters away from the city wall. Even a flintlock without rifling could not miss it.

Carter and Iron Axe came to the parapet quickly, mounted their guns, aimed, and fired.

While the smoke was dispersing, Roland could see clearly how the bullets hit the shell and made tiny fragments sputter. A small section of the shell cracked. Yet the demonic hybrid was unaffected and maintained its speed.

[The hardness of the shell still corresponds with that of a carbon-based organism,] he thought to himself. It was a pity that the lead bullets were too soft and prone to deformation. They were unfit to penetrate the thick shell. It would be unrealistic to attempt to shatter the hybrid's shell with these four guns. They would have to resort to the explosive packages.

Iron Axe made the same judgement like the prince. He commanded Deputy Force Commander of the Spear Squad to carry the dynamite, while the beast was already butting the city wall. When it found it could no longer advance, its shell began to vibrate with such an unbelievable speed and hit the wall with high frequency like a rotary hammer. Stone chips instantly splattered and several cracks spread quickly along the weak spots.

The rubble wall had a high compressive capability, but yet its tensile and shearing strengths were extremely low. To be more specific, it was almost defenseless against vibration. The people on the city wall all felt it. Soon, a loud friction noise pierced the ears of everyone and informed them that the hybrid's shell had cut a slit into the wall.

Yet the crashing did not stop. The beast moved again until the whole anterior of its body was embedded into the city wall.

The Militia fled from the part of the city wall that was covered with cracks, while the invisible Nightingale carried the prince in her arms and jumped from the wall—if anyone had stared at the prince at that moment, he would find the prince had descended like an apparition.

When Van'er arrived carefully with a pack of dynamite, he found that the middle part of the city wall had an almost three-meter-wide opening. The demonic beast who had crossed the wall then stopped vibrating and continued to advance with its previous speed.

"Hurry up!" Iron Axe said loudly, "Light the dynamite and place it under the beast!"

Though his hands were shaking, Van'er retained the clearness of mind. He remembered every detail of the training about how to use an explosive package. Unlike the packages used in training, each of these explosive packages contained less dynamite and was sealed with wooden planks. Fragments of mining waste were stuffed between the packages and planks. Its firing equipment was also optimized with an extractor of flint and copper wire. When this part failed, at the end of the package there was still a normal fuse. He tore the cloth soaked with oil at the outermost layer in a flurry and pulled at the copper wire with all his strength. From the wooden box there soon came a short buzzing sound. Then smoke appeared—that was a sign it had been successfully lit.

The fuse that had been soaked in salt burned rather slowly and would take about 30 seconds to burn. The world turned quiet for Van'er when he saw the white smoke that came out of the box. He had seen how powerful this thing could be. If it exploded in his hand, not even a fragment of his corpse would remain.

27 seconds.

Van'er listened to his pumping heart and silently counted. He walked up to the demonic beast and placed the lighted explosive package on its path.

15 seconds.

Then it crushed the package. Nothing could stop its advancing movement.

9 seconds.

Van'er turned around and ran.

6 seconds.

3 seconds...

There came a boom. Van'er felt the ground beneath his feet vibrated. Then the world continued its hustle and bustle.

He turned and saw white airflow gush from beneath the shell—it was the snow on the ground that had been blown up by the explosion and looked like a misty flower. The demonic beast stopped advancing at last, as if it was unable to withstand the burden it was carrying. Its gigantic shell fell rumbling to the ground. Black blood gushed out from beneath the shell and soaked the ground.

"Ooh..."

There was a burst of cheer in the crowd.

Van'er fell and sat on the ground. Only then did he realize that cold sweat had soaked through his clothes.

[It had finally ended.]

When everyone thought so, the horn sounded loudly again on the border.

Another herd of demonic beasts emerged from the horizon and came toward Border Town.

Chapter 50 - The Wall of Flame

"Do you feel better?"

Anna patted Nana on the back. She also felt like throwing up, but she restrained herself.

A wounded man was brought to them and while he was still conscious, he repeated, "Save me, save me..." The despair and plea in his eyes was heart-wrenching to watch. When she saw the bowel hanging out of his body, Nana vomited.

Even so, she made up her mind to complete the healing. After Brian placed the bowel back to the wounded man's body, Nana reached out her hand and healed the wound with her eyes closed.

"Um..." The little girl seemed a little dispirited. She leaned on Anna and said softly, "Today is the first time I heard the sound of the horn. Did His Highness get into trouble?"

"I don't know." Anna shook her head. She wanted to take a look at the city wall so much. But she was also worried that she might only make things more troublesome for Roland. She was now a little envious of Nightingale's power of invisibility, for that power would make going out very convenient.

At that time, there was a booming sound from the city wall. Everyone felt a slight vibration.

Brian stood up and walked to and fro impatiently in the room.

"Take it easy, lad." Baron Pine was wiping his sword. "Losing patience before going to the battlefield would only make bad things worse. Not to mention, now things are still far from bad."

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency," Brian answered. "I just can't calm down. I just don't want to sit here wasting my time while others are fighting on the city wall at the cost of their lives. Defending this little town should have been my duty."

"Perhaps." Pine shrugged his shoulders. "But the duty of defending the town doesn't belong to you alone. I've heard that His Highness will grant you the title of knighthood. Then you should understand that a knight's foremost duty is loyalty. If he asked you to protect Anna, then it would be your duty to obey."

"You're right." Brian returned to his seat after a moment's hesitation.

But soon, they heard the second horn blow—more desperate than the first and rumbling like a thunder in everyone's heart.

Pine frowned.

"Anna!" Nana cried out in surprise.

When he turned his head, he saw the witch walking directly to the door. Brian caught up and stood in front of her.

"Didn't you say that you wanted to defend the city wall? Now it's time," Anna said calmly. "As long as you come with me, you aren't disobeying the order of His Highness."

Brian became bewildered. He turned his gaze to Pine.

[That was clever,] the Baron thought to himself. [What she said makes sense. The prince didn't make it a rule that she should only stay at the hospital. According to Nana, she can summon fire. If things are really urgent, the participation of a witch might turn the situation around.]

Finishing his thought, he nodded. "Take care of her."

"Yes, I will," Brian became spirited instantly and replied cheerfully.

Seeing the two leaving, Nana asked, "Father, will you go to the battlefield?"

"My battlefield is right here, my sweet one." The baron smiled. "Whether they're demonic beasts or demons, I'll never let them hurt you."

The city wall was not far from the hospital. Anna and Brian ran eastward on the flagstone pavement along the wall. When they came to the central lookout tower, they realized things had escalated for the worse.

The city wall had then a huge opening. Roland's guards were defending the opening with shields, but still, a few of them were knocked down. Among the demonic beasts, there was one with the look of a boar that was particularly ferocious. The guards at the front who got hit were almost sent flying with their shields.

"Hey, it's dangerous here. You should leave right now!" Someone warned when he saw Anna in her strange outfit.

Anna acted as if she had heard nothing. She walked directly to the opening. When the demonic beast made its way through the crowd, it turned and headed for Anna. Brian the guard came to the side speedily, lowered his body and waved his sword horizontally—the frenetic beast did not dodge, and one of its forelegs hit the blade and sent the sword flying, while the force of its own body weight severed the leg.

It fell down shrieking and struggled like a fish out of water. No one dared to come close. Anna walked near it and placed her hands on the ground. Soon fire rose from under its body and quickly burned it into charcoal.

Roland also noticed the flame that emerged all of a sudden. When he found that it was Anna who did it, his heart almost leaped out of his chest.

That was never in his plan!

He had planned to make Nana win the affection of the Militia first. After most of the people had accepted witches as one of them, he would slowly make Anna known to them.

But now it was too late. He said immediately to Nightingale, "Pay no more attention to me now. Protect her first!"

[No harm must come to Anna. She's the key in the development of industrialization. If she was injured, the loss would be immeasurable,] thought Roland.

"Got it," Nightingale replied. "Take care of yourself as well."

Anna walked to the opening. Roland's guards made way for her since they had all seen this girl in the strange outfit many times. She stood right in a wall of shields, stretching her arms out horizontally. Flames grew from her hand like vines and climbed onto the surface of the city wall where the opening lay.

Everyone who saw this wonderful scene was dumbfounded. They could not believe their eyes when they saw a wall of flame rise unhurriedly and fill the opening in the city wall. This, however, could not be an illusion, because the high temperature of the flame made the guards step back involuntarily and the snow around melted instantly, giving rise to dense white mist.

The demonic beast also felt the heat of the flame wall. They fled from it, though a few still darted into the flame before they soon burned in it.

"Everyone, get to the top of the city wall!" Roland grabbed the chance and shouted, "Spear Squad, resume your formation! Hunter Squad, fire!"

After saying this he grabbed Carter's flintlock and ascended the wall, shooting at the demonic beasts which had no way out.

The prince's action inspired everyone. After all, in this era, the noble and the royal members hardly fought in the front. When Prince Roland chose to fight with the Militia whom he had selected from the common people, it seemed inspiring indeed.

Everyone shouted "Defend Border Town! Fight for His Highness" and resumed the defensive formation as if the city wall had never been damaged.

The fight lasted till dusk. There was eventually no more demonic beasts alive in front of the city wall.

The flame gradually dimmed and vanished. Anna wiped the dampness from her forehead and walked out of the opening.

Then Roland saw an incredible scene.

The guards all touched their chest and nodded respectfully to her. The Militia, as if affected by the guards, watched her quietly. No one shouted "demon" or "sorceress". Peace prevailed at the moment on the border.

An unknown power was dreadful indeed. But when the owner of it stood by the people's side and fought against the evil with them, trust and gratitude would gradually replace fear.

Roland tried to suppress his excitement and walked over to Anna, only to find her pale and staggering. It seemed she would collapse any minute.

"Are you okay?" He held the maiden's shoulders worryingly, while the latter gave a faint smile, passed out and fell in his arms.

Chapter 51 - Her Majesty the Queen

Through the narrow and high window on veranda, the setting sun shone its scarlet light on the floor and imprinted vermilion strips on the wall.

In the whole kingdom, there were only a few places left, where one could still see sunsets, and Port of Clearwater was one of them. It was rumored that the Months of Demons in which heavy snows and storms prevailed had almost no influence on this place. Apart from the fact that Blacksail Fleet couldn't sail forth from the harbor, the whole city was as busy as usual.

The lord of this harbor city, Garcia Wimbledon, was sitting at the table below the window and reading the letter in her hand attentively. Her gray hair had a tinge of gold in the setting sun. And the play of shadow and light on her face made her features even sharper, lending it even more charm and audacity.

Ryan had stood beside her for quite a while.

Though the letter had occupied the queen longer than usual, Ryan chose to wait quietly aside, for he doesn't want to be the one who disturbs the peace in this room.

At last, Garcia let out a sigh and put down the letter.

"My father died."

Ryan was dazed for a moment until he said: "What?"

"My father, Ayling Wimbledon, the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle, has died."

She seldom repeated what she had said, he thought to himself. She would have ignored his question if she had reacted according to her usual manner. But couldn't she be joking? Could the king really be dead?

"..." Ryan opened his mouth in attempt to comfort her, but his words turned to a question: "how did he die?"

Fortunately, Garcia took no notice of all this psychological activity — she was Princess Garcia, Lord of the Port of Clearwater, the Supreme Commander of Blacksail Fleet, and cared for no one's comforting, "The letter said, it was my brother Gerald who killed the father and was later caught by the guards. He didn't commit suicide to escape punishment, so the Hand of the King and a few other ministers made him go through a public trial and sentenced him to decapitation."

"This couldn't be the case," replied Ryan subconsciously.

"Of course this couldn't be the case," said Garcia impassively, "My brother was stupid, but not stupid enough to court his own death. Without someone else's instigation, he couldn't have done this."

"Did someone set him up?"

"Let me guess..." Princess Garcia closed her eyes in contemplation, "Maybe someone made a detailed proposal to him, saying that they could help him to take the throne — to bring assassins into the King's City is impossible unless careful arrangements are made, including killing, swapping, and buying off personal. But that has never been what Gerald is good at, or rather, he doesn't care to deal with these trifles. So it's not hard to conclude that the ones who made the arrangements had all his trust, yet betrayed him at the last moment."

Ryan didn't reply, for all was just speculation. How things happened no longer mattered. It was the result that mattered the most. He believed that Princess Garcia was of the same opinion.

As expected, Garcia opened her eyes and continued, "There were so many stupid men around my big brother, every one of them a muscular beast. No wonder they were all duped. It was only..." Her voice was then tinged with anger, "Timothy's ways were far too cruel."

"Are you saying that it was Timothy Wimbledon who did this?"

"Who knows Gerald better than he does? Who will benefit the most from this state of affairs?" Garcia said, knocking her fingers unconsciously on the table, "A blind man can see that! But he didn't have to do this, for he had been father's favorite."

Ryan realized that Her Highness was upset. It was unusual for her to put on such an expression. Much as she complained about King Wimbledon III's excessive partiality, she would have never wanted her father to have such an end.

Ryan could understand her feelings more or less. It was exactly how the younger generation felt towards the elder in a big family — the elders are like a mountain to cross, arousing respect, awe and loathing. If she had been right and Prince Timothy had done all this, then the prince could be called cruel.

"But... why did he have to do this?"

"Because he was afraid of me," Garcia took a deep breath and seemed to be gathering herself together, saying "He was afraid of the Blacksail Fleet."

Seeing that Ryan didn't reply, she continued to explain: "Timothy have informers in the Port of Clearwater. There's nothing strange about that, just like I have arrange informers in Valencia and King's City. When he knew about the existence of Blacksail Fleet, he could easily guess what was my next plan. However, Valencia doesn't have an army that can resist Blacksail Fleet. So he used the most stupid way, making Gerald his stepping stone to get what he wants."

"Do you mean that he wants an army?"

"He wants the crown," said Garcia, "When Gerald dies, he will be the first in line of succession. Now that my father had died, he must have been on the way to King's City." "As long as Timothy becomes Wimbledon IV, he can muster the forces of feudatory and army beyond the limit of domains," She continued, shaking her head, "But as I have said, he didn't have to do this as father's favorite son."

"Isn't this the worst situation?" Ryan said worriedly, "What if Prince Timothy is successfully crowned, declares that Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince has come to an end, and then summons you to King's City?"

Garcia replied scornfully: "This step of his was much too blunt. My father's partiality doesn't entail the support from most ministers. The murder of the king is no trivial matter — though Timothy has shifted the blame to Gerald, he could only fool the commoners. It would take him a long time before he could seize the power of Kingdom of Graycastle completely. So..." She turned to look at Ryan, "I may have to change my plan a little."

Ryan at once went down on one knee and said: "I'm all at your service."

Garcia stood up and walked to the window, her back to Ryan, "He would take on me as soon as he were crowned. But what he could think of could only be ordering Joey Kohl, Duke of the Southern Territory, to exert military pressure on me. Yet the latter would probably take the mourning of the latest king as an excuse to hold back his troops — the old man's too sly to take any risks. The most Joey Kohl would do might be mustering his feudatories and making a show of it next to the border Port of Clearwater." Princess Garcia made a little pause, "But these possible movements might bring unnecessary troubles to us, so we shall sail forth tomorrow."

"Sail forth? Your Highness, would you want to..."

"As it lies at the heart of the kingdom, Eagle City has been a city almost without defense. It is possible to arrive at Town of Clear Spring by the tributary of Sanwan River, and from there one can reach Eagle City within a day. After taking over Joe's city, the whole Southern Territory will be in my command. There will be such an interesting time lag: when he sits on the throne and wants to command Joey, he will find that the whole Southern Territory has been seized by m. I'd love to see his face then."

"But as you have said, King Wimbledon III has just passed away. In this way —"

"What then? Shall I shed tears first?" Garcia turned, while the setting sun on the sea surface cloaked her with magenta gossamer. Her face was hidden in the dark, yet there was still some flickering light in her eyes. "Her eyes are so firm," Ryan thought, "though there could be anger or pain in them, but there should be no place for sadness."

Sadness is not for Her Highness.

"No, you shouldn't," he answered earnestly.

Garcia nodded satisfactorily, "Go and gather the captains here for me. Now that Timothy wouldn't wait until five years later, I'd certainly not disappoint him. The whole Southern Territory will be declared independent, after I seize the Eagle City."

"It doesn’t' matter to her if it was done by Timothy," Ryan thought, "she can always find her way in the most turbulent situation and head for her goal once a decision is made. This is where her charm lies and the reason why I've followed her."

"I'll do as you bid, Your Highness...No," Ryan answered respectfully, "Your Majesty the Queen."

Chapter 52 - The Flame of the Heart (Part I)

Roland knocked on the door and pushed it open after he heard Nightingale's consent.

The heavy drapes hung in the room would only be pulled apart in the early morning and evening, to let in some fresh air. At other times they were down for warmth and shade.

The only source of light came from the two candle stands at the end of the bed. The candles burned in silence and projected two crossing shadows on the objects in the room.

He walked to the bed and watched the still unconscious girl buried in soft pillows and quilts. He let out a little sigh.

"Everything is okay at the border front line?" Nightingale came to hand him a glass of warm water.

"Everything has gone on well." Roland took a sip and handed the glass back to her. "After that day we didn't encounter any more large groups of demonic beasts. When the injured Militia members returned to the army, they were... inspired."

"What about the opening in the city wall?"

"Karl moved the shell of that hybrid demonic beast to the damaged spot by rolling logs, and attached it to the city wall with hangers and winches." Roland knew that Nightingale was trying to divert his attention to keep him from worrying too much. But ever since he stepped into the room, all his attention could not help but be on the girl in slumber.

The person who contributed the most to the last victory against the demonic beasts was Anna. If she had not blocked the damaged spot on the city wall with her flames, what would become of the battle was hardly imaginable.

But she collapsed in his arms and had not woken up since.

"It's been a week," Roland said softly.

Theoretically speaking, if someone was in a coma and did not eat, drink or get nutrition through other means (for example, by injection) in more than a week, the body function would then deteriorate until the brain died gradually in the process. But Anna did not show any signs of serious illness or even weakness—her look was at least much better than when she fainted off. Her cheeks were rosy. Her breath was smooth. The temperature one felt by touching her forehead was normal. All indicated that Anna was healthy, yet... unable to wake up.

"It's also the first time that I'm faced with such a situation." Nightingale, who stood aside, shook her head and said, "The magic in her has been emptied during the battle. But now it's almost saturated and even thicker than before. If my estimation is right, she'll have her Day of Adulthood this middle night.

"Do you mean that she'll come to adulthood in the coma?"

"No, she might die in the coma." Nightingale spoke frankly, "One has to undergo the pain on the Day of Adulthood with the utmost willpower. As soon as one gives up resisting the pain, the magic power will bite a witch's body and destroy it irreversibly."

Roland took a chair and sat beside the bed. "However, I remember you told me that when Demonic Torture happens, no matter how painful it is, one will retain clear consciousness until one either overcomes this crisis or dies."

"Yes, indeed. In the Witch Cooperation Association, some witch had hoped to pass the Demonic Torture in a coma. It was not even Day of Adulthood pains... but less severe pains that happened once a year." Nightingale hesitated for a moment, and then said, "She sank into unconsciousness with the aid of alchemical potion, but that attempt was meaningless... The magic power bit her body and made her awake yet defenseless."

"Does the pain increase gradually?"

"No. When the time comes, the pain strikes like a thunder. But as for how long the pain lasts, it varies from one person to another. My sister was not weak. It was only..." Her voice lowered.

Roland understood what she meant. The uncertainty was a trial in itself as one did not know how long one had persisted, and how much longer one would still have to persist—this felt like a lonely boat in the stormy sea, thereby making one lose hope even more quickly.

In the silence, he felt a hand upon his shoulder.

"I've seen too many deaths in my many years of vagrancy. The witches have been treated like animals—hanged, burned or tortured to death by the noble who take pleasure in their pains. The fortunate witches that survived could only distance themselves from the crowd and live in isolation, while Holy Mountain, a place that is nowhere to be found, serves as a feeble hope for them." Nightingale's voice became softer than usual. "But Anna is different. It's the first time that I've seen someone outside the Witch Cooperation Association who cares so much for the witches. She's needed, respected and treated like a normal person... Your Highness, even if Anna doesn't come to adulthood successfully, she has found her own Holy Mountain."

But this would not be the ending that he wanted. Roland closed his eyes and recalled the first time he met her.

Her feet were bare and her clothes were ragged, but yet she did not show any fear in a prisoner's cage. Her eyes were like unsullied lakes, serene and clear.

She was the flame, yet not so flippant like the flames.

Pictures flashed quickly in his mind.

"Now that I've satisfied your curiosity, Sir, could you kill me now?"

"I've never used my power to hurt anyone."

"I only hope to stay by your side, Your Highness. That's all."

"The demonic torture won't kill me. I'll beat it."

"What are you thinking of? I'm not going anywhere."

...

Roland suppressed his emotions and said softly, "I'll be at her side until the last moment."

"Me, too, and... thank you."

After dinner, Nana came as well. When she heard that Anna would come to adulthood, she insisted on staying. Roland had to arrange a room on the second floor for Tigui Pine who had accompanied her.

So just like that, Roland and the other two witches sat by the bed and waited quietly for midnight to arrive.

Nightingale and Nana had to undergo the demonic torture in this winter as well. Fortunately, the awakening time was different for every witch. Otherwise, Roland thought he could not have acted so calmly if the three witches had to undergo their trials of life and death all at the same time.

There was no belfry in the little town. The passing of time became unnoticeable in the dimly lit room. From time to time there was a shrieking sound of the wind current that passed through the window gap. Just when Roland began to feel drowsy, Nightingale observed. "It's started."

Only she could see the magic in Anna that then became active. The green flame became thicker and thicker, and its center turned from bright to dark. The restless magic gradually converged to the center, as if dragged by something. It struggled and seethed, but yet its effort was in vain.

Roland did not see this change, but he still felt that something was different.

The flames of the candles flickered, though there was no wind in the room at the time. The flames became darker and darker as if devoured by the shadows around. Then the color of the flame changed from red to green.

He turned his gaze to the girl in bed. Anna was still in slumber without the slightest change of expression on her face, as if nothing in the room that happened was relevant to her.

Then the candlelight became almost invisible—the flame was not out, but the green part of the flame was nibbling away at the red part until all light vanished and darkness prevailed.

But soon light returned to the room, while the flames of the candles remained pure green. In the green light, the three looked at one another in confusion.

Then Anna's groan pulled their attention back to her.

She slowly opened her eyes.

"Anna..." Roland was in a daze and thought, [Is she waking up?]

The girl blinked and smiled, and then reached out her right palm to the prince.

Green flame leaped from her palm and burned quietly.

Roland understood her intuitively. He placed his finger into the flame after a second's hesitation, but the expected burning pain did not come. Instead, what he felt was only gentleness and warmth, as if he had placed his finger in lukewarm water.

Chapter 53 - The Flame of the Heart (Part II)

The next day after Anna woke up, Nightingale came to bid farewell to Roland.

"Though we don't know why, Anna is probably the first witch to have spent the Day of Awakening without pain," Nightingale said excitedly before leaving. Having lived with Roland for a long time, she got used to the word "awakening" to describe the transformation of witches. "I'll bring my sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association to Border Town. I hope you'll accept them, just as you have accepted Anna."

That was exactly what Roland prayed for. Anna's ability alone helped the town to improve the hot forging process so that the town could see the dawn of the Industrial Age, let alone the ability of a bunch of witches? Of course, considering Nightingale's safety, he asked her to stay, hoping that she could go to the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons.

But Nightingale was obviously too eager to wait. "Many of my sisters will face the difficult period during the winter. If I could tell them the news earlier, maybe more of them can survive the awakening. Don't worry, few demonic beasts can sense my whereabouts."

"Then, when is your Day of Awakening?" Roland finally asked.

Nightingale mounted her horse and said, "The end of the winter or early spring." She waved to Roland and rode off. "Don't worry about me. That pain becomes lighter and lighter these years."

Her reply made Roland lost in thoughts.

He had been thinking about the reason why Anna got through the Day of Awakening successfully. After all, Anna said after awakening that she did not feel the slightest pain, which was a total reversal of Nightingale's notion—"A witch gains her power from the demon, and thus she is tainted and evil." Such notions were rooted in people's mind, as they saw the witches would suffer terrible pain on the Day of Awakening. And when the witches died in the awakening, their blood and flesh would be dried and their skin would be burnt, which became the irrefutable evidence of their depravity.

However, Roland never believed in that notion.

He had probed the memory of the real Prince Roland, but yet failed to find any evidence of the existence of God or demon. Since power was not endowed by God, then it should not be regarded as a standard to distinguish between good and evil. In fact, even if the gods existed and frequently interfered in the secular world, believers should be endowed with power after they chose their camp, and not the other way around.

According to the description of Nightingale, the magic power gathered in the witches' body. Then was it possible that the vessel was damaged because the magic power could not be released? Roland thought it was quite possible, as the witches, faced with most people's hostility and oppression, had to hide their ability and pretend to be normal. Therefore, they had few opportunities to use their magic power before they reached their adulthood.

Of course, Roland would not think that his castle happened to be a wonderland. He had already talked to Anna, knowing that she experienced insufferable pain before. If anything was different during this year, then it was the fact she used her ability almost every day since she came to the castle.

And what Nightingale said before she left implicitly confirmed his assumption—Nightingale often used her ability of invisibility as it was hard to be noticed, and she had also been forced to train her ability; what's more, she could use her ability without any misgivings now. And that was why the bite on the Day of Awakening had little effect on her.

After Roland returned to the castle, he immediately asked Nana to strengthen her training. If no one was hurt while defending the town, she would have to heal a variety of small animals. If the assumption was proved through Nana's training, it would have an earth-shattering effect on the witch community, as the curse of demon would change into the endowment of God. As long as he could ensure that his domain was safe and open to the witches, they would come here endlessly.

Anyhow, everything got back on track after this incident.

Roland urged the production of Steam Engine II, which could also help Anna to familiarize herself with the new ability.

Another shed was put up in the castle backyard, but to shelter snow this time. He felt that it would be safer to build his experimental base in his own territory.

According to what Nightingale said, a witch's ability would be stable in her adulthood, and she might generate new derivative skill. Though he had not seen Anna's new skill yet, her way of controlling flame was completely different now.

No, whether it could be called as a flame was uncertain now, Roland thought. If the former flame could be barely understood with common sense, the green flame now was utterly unexplainable.

He named it as "Heart Fire".

Because it could exist away from Anna, and change its shape at Anna's will, just as what she was doing now.

A flicker of flame stood on the iron plate two meters away from her, swinging slightly back and forth, as if it was saluting. But Roland knew that it was controlled by Anna. Normally, it kept a temperature close to that of the body; once Anna wanted to heat it up, it would instantly rise to a higher temperature and the color would change from green to dark green. Similarly, it could also change into a large cluster of flames; in addition, it could move at a slow speed.

Unfortunately, it could not be far away from Anna; through repeated testing, it was confirmed that the Heart Fire would disappear if it was five meters or more away from Anna.

Another feature of Heart Fire was that Anna could summon a lot of flames, though she could barely control two flames simultaneously until now.

Recently the border was quite calm. Demonic beasts still appeared outside the wall, but without demonic hybrids, it was hard for them to break through the defense line. As Roland said, the beasts became stronger and quicker, but they were just beasts. The demonic beasts were led to the middle section of the wall, so that the Militia of about 100 soldiers could cope with the situation.

So in addition to the daily routine inspection, Roland spent a lot of time on construction.

He had set aside a site on the south of the castle, and planned to build houses on it for the arriving witches. As the investor of the project, he appointed Karl to be in charge to build a number of two-story brick houses. A reasonable and pleasing layout, easy entrance and exit, convenient drainage system and other issues had to be taken into consideration, as he strove to create a well-planned neighborhood.

He even considered distributing the witches to live in the old and new area of the town, so that they could live together with the common residents. Later he thought it over and deserted the plan. That might be helpful to speed up the common residents' understanding of the witches, but it might cause irreparable consequences, before the misunderstanding was cleared up. After all, the different view of witches only existed within the Militia right now.

What's more, Roland could not guarantee that all of the witches brought by Nightingale would be pure and harmless—most of them had suffered the pain and torture of the world, so Roland was afraid they were much more sophisticated. After all, witches like Anna and Nana were rare.

Therefore, if the witches lived together, it was more convenient for centralized management. Relevant rules and regulations had to be drawn up before their arrival. Roland had no experience to refer to. After all, he was neither the personnel of Superpower Office of National Security Agency, nor was he the founder of the Avengers, how could he know how to manage a group of people with super powers! He had to work out a temporary system by referring to the personnel management system used in companies, and planned to modify it slowly while putting it into practice.

Of course, Roland knew that this plan was full of flaws. Anyhow, as a pioneer, who else could he rely on? If he chose to hide and be conservative in Border Town, maybe he could touch the threshold of industrialization in decades. But being a mortal man, how many decades could he afford?

If he wanted to lead the town to the next era and be the pioneer of the reform, he had to have an adventurous spirit.

Just when he was writing his thoughts on the parchment, Barov opened the door and walked in.

Shaking the snow off his coat and saluting to the prince, Barov said, "Your Highness, a messenger of Longsong Stronghold has come."

Chapter 54 - The [Bad News]

Petrov never thought that he would return to Border Town so soon.

He was unwilling to leave his warm house in such a cold winter, especially when the demonic beasts were raging on the continent. Nevertheless, Duke Ryan designated him to place the tricky document in the hands of Prince Roland.

Certainly, he knew what was said in the document—in fact, the entire nobility of Graycastle was discussing the alarming news: the king died in a murder and the murderer was Gerald Wimbledon, the king's eldest son. Subsequently, the king's second son rushed to the king's city and declared that he would succeed to the throne as the second-in-line, since the kingdom could not survive without a king.

However, his action was not accepted by all. It was claimed that Gerald's trial was rather strange, as he was exposed only a few times during the whole interrogation, with his mouth sealed and his hands tightly bound. Therefore, some people were hoping to investigate the murder thoroughly and then decide who should inherit the throne.

Besides, it was rumored that Timothy Wimbledon, the 2nd Prince, was the man who pulled the strings behind the murder. As the real murderer of the king, he pretended to be sad, but could not wait to ascend the throne.

Regardless of the controversies, the 2nd Prince temporarily took over the position of the king, thanks to the full support of Prime Minister. At the same time, he issued recall orders to all his competitors—the battle for the throne had come to an end, and the princes and princesses, after receiving the orders, had to return to the king's city before the end of the winter. The new king would confer domain and titles on them, based on their ruling of territories over the past six months.

Of course, Petrov could sense the eagerness behind the command.

Through this, Timothy Wimbledon could know his siblings' reaction and know whether he could sit on the throne firmly. If they chose to give up the battle for the throne and return to the king's city, then Timothy Wimbledon would become the undisputed Wimbledon IV.

All the documents to Border Town would be transferred through Longsong Stronghold first. When Duke Ryan read the recall order, he was fairly disdainful of it. The last king had controlled the lords well before he died; as for the 2nd Prince, his ascending to the throne was already controversial. Moreover, since Gerald was beheaded on the guillotine, it was highly doubtful that anyone would be willing to return to the king's city.

Anyway, in the eyes of the six noble families in Longsong Stronghold, this command came at a good time.

About two months ago, Earl of the Elk Family made an unauthorized scheme, which made the duke unhappy, especially when he knew the scheme failed. The prince also gave a fierce response, and he directly sentenced Kihls Medde to be hanged. With this, both sides came to an open rupture.

The duke had originally planned to calm the troubled waters after the end of Months of Demons. But now with this document, he had a more legitimate option. After Roland Wimbledon returned to the king's city, Border Town would naturally be owned by the duke again. And if the prince refused, the duke could force him to leave—in the name of the new king.

The duke did not care much about who would inherit the throne in the end.

But as a messenger, Petrov did not feel very comfortable. Last time he promised that he would bring back a new trade agreement, but the scheme of the Elk Family came first. Now he visited Border Town again, but he brought bad news again—whether it was the death of King Wimbledon III or the recall order of the new king, neither would be welcomed by Prince Roland, Petrov believed.

The sail to Border Town was quite smooth. As Kingdom of Graycastle lay in the south of the continent, the river did not freeze even in winter.

From time to time, Petrov looked outside the window. He did not see any people being starved to death or fleeing from the town, which indicated that Border Town did not fall to the demonic beasts.

That surprised him slightly. After all, he witnessed how the city wall was built when he visited Border Town last time. Truth be told, he had little confidence in the stone wall plastered by mud.

What he saw next surprised him more. A sailing ship with the banner of Willow Town slowly passed them on the right side of the river—he had seen such a scene before, but never in the Months of Demons! [Border Town is doing business, even when they are fighting against the demonic beasts? How could they resist the brutal beasts without summoning all miners to the defense line?] he thought.

Three days later, the ship arrived at the dock of Border Town.

The wooden dock was still old and shabby, but beside it, a simple wooden shed was newly built. Once the ship was ashore, two guards walked out from the shed, staring at every move of the boatmen.

Petrov immediately understood the meaning of setting sentries here.

Prince Roland apparently did not want anyone to leave the town secretly through the waterway.

Petrov jumped off the ship and showed his identity to the guard. Then a man brought a horse for him and accompanied him to the castle.

Just like last time, Prince Roland Wimbledon met him in the living room. What's more, the prince ordered his attendant to prepare a sumptuous meal, although it was not the normal dinner time.

The attendants served grilled ham, dried fish slices, an unknown salad of wild vegetables, as well as butter bread, and vegetable soup that could be seen at any dinner party.

It seemed that the prince liked to talk business after dinner.

Petrov thought, while his hands were busy with the forks. After all, he had not had much of a chance to enjoy a good meal. Even his Honeysuckle Family, except having dinner with guests, would just eat potato and bread with bacon.

When the dinner was finished, the dessert was served. Petrov respectfully handed over the document.

Roland took the document and opened the sealing wax with his dining knife. He flattened the document and took a quick glance. Then he was stunned.

[The king was dead?]

Roland had no feeling toward his nominal father. He was already in Border Town when he woke up as Prince Roland, and he had never seen the king face to face, plus he only found complaints and resentment toward his father in Prince Roland's memory. Because of this, he thought he was caught in an embarrassing situation—should he have a sorrowful look on his face?

He could sense it was a conspiracy when reading the following contents. [The eldest son murdered King Wimbledon III? The 2nd Prince, under his new authority as the new king, announced the end of the battle for the throne, and commanded all his siblings to return immediately to the king's city?] He doubted that.

Roland coughed and raised his head, and caught the regretful look in Petrov's eyes.

[So that's it,] Roland thought, [Duke of Longsong Stronghold must be happy to see this. Whether I obey the order or not, I'm in a dilemma.]

[Instead of bringing the promised agreement, Petrov brought a piece of bad news which might cause my death. He must be feeling guilty at this moment,] Roland thought. He secretly smiled, folded the document again and said, "I got it."

"Uh, Your Highness, what do you intend to..."

"Even if I intend to leave, I have to wait until the end of the Months of Demons. If I leave, what will the people of Border Town do in the heavy snow?"

To someone else, Petrov would certainly say things like "Don't worry, Stronghold will help you handle the situation", or any other diplomatic words. However, faced with Prince Roland who he had only met twice, he could not speak so readily. For the first time, Petrov detested his own identity as a messenger. In the end he merely nodded. "I understand. Should I deliver a reply for you?"

Roland called the attendants to bring over a pen and paper. He soon wrote a document and covered it in sealing wax and his personal seal. Petrov glanced at the envelope when he got the document from Roland. It was clearly written to Timothy Wimbledon, the second Prince of Graycastle instead of King Wimbledon IV.

[He has showed his attitude,] Petrov thought.

Chapter 55 - A Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity

Roland pushed open the door to his office, where Barov had been waiting for him for quite some time.

He tossed the document to Assistant Minister Barov, settled back in his chair and put his feet on his desk.

If outsiders had not been present, he would have wanted to hum a tune.

"Your Highness, please restrain your grief," said Barov. He read the letter, frowning and frowned. "The king has unfortunately passed away; the first prince is the murderer. It is a tragedy. I don't know what Your Highness intends to do next."

"Gerald's death was so peculiar. I want to see how Garcia and Tilly react before deciding," said Roland, "but in any case, we should be taking precautions."

Barov looked at the prince, waiting for him to continue.

"With this change in royal power, the king's city may become turbulent. The first thing to do is to vacate your beloved ones and family members." It was important to prevent the Second Prince from taking these people to threaten his personal ministers. Right now, Assistant Minister Barov was indispensable for maintaining the administrative and normal financial operation of Border Town. Roland sipped his tea and continued, "You, Carter, and your subordinates, need to write letters to your family members. I'll entrust the guards to go to the king's city with the letters and arrange shelter for them in other towns."

"No need to come to Border Town?" Barov was not a fool. After 20 years of experience in politics, he immediately understood the prince's deliberate intention.

"No." Roland neither wished for the adversary to use the families to threaten his subordinates, nor did he want his subordinates to think he was trying to use the families to threaten them. So he chose a compromise, relocating them to other safer towns first. When things settled down, he could bring them to Border Town.

"I understand. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness." Barov nodded his assent. Roland sighed with relief. He really had too few talented employees.

"And about the ore trade, the recent export of iron ore will be suspended. We'll only sell raw gemstones to Willow Town," he commanded. "I need to keep the iron ore for my own use."

"This will reduce revenue, Your Highness."

"But it won't go down too much. The miners have found a new gemstone deposit that can make up some of the gap," Roland said. And there would be no business during the winter. No one was willing to go out any time the demonic beasts might be hanging out. As a result, there would likely be only two or three transactions for the next four months. For the lightweight barge, obviously the transport of gemstones was a more cost-effective choice.

"Understood." Barov jotted everything down.

After Barov had left, Roland called on Carter Lannis. "I need to expand the size of the Militia. After the recruitment release, please arrange to transfer a few members with quick response and high ability, to the new platoons to become captains. The training must be based on the same method that was implemented last time."

"Your Highness, if you follow the old training method, it will probably be a long time before the new platoon is ready."

"That's still stronger than a rabble," said Roland, waving him to do what he had said. The platoon trained thus far was far from being able to be called an army, he was afraid that they were at the level of college students after military training. But sometimes the measure of fighting capacity had to be compared to the opponent. In addition to the demonic beasts, they were also likely to encounter a group of private corps, mercenaries, and "mixed platoons" temporarily put together by serfs. As long as they were equipped with cross-era weapons, college students would be almost adequate.

After Carter had left, Roland could not help laughing.

He had not expected such a coincidence! It was a timely benefit, just like the passing of a pillow when sleep beckoned.

Was it bad news for him? A dilemma? Wrong! He knew little about Garcia Wimbledon, but she was not the kind of person to be trampled upon at will. The first prince had been sentenced to death in such a short period of time. Even if there was no insider, she would probably not return to the king's city easily.

He was just to follow suit. As long as he could guard Border Town without moving elsewhere, someone would certainly jump out, and the Duke of Longsong Stronghold was likely the first person to feel uneasy. Otherwise he would not have been so anxious about the documents and delivered them to him in such bad weather.

For the Duke, the sooner he saw it, the sooner he would sleep and eat in peace.

If Roland chose to stay in Border Town, it was equivalent to defying the new king's will. He would wait until the Months of Demons were over. The duke would then probably want to give him a profound lesson under Timothy Wimbledon's banner. But this was exactly what Roland needed.

If anyone were to ask what industrialization lacked the most, the answer would definitely be people.

It required a large number of people to join in this large-scale production, turning the public into individual parts of a huge machine to drive it into operation. It was no exaggeration to say that with the "sheep eating men" enclosure movement in Britain, a large number of farmers were deprived of their land, making them free laborers, which then laid a solid foundation for the later industrial revolution.

The industrial age was so harsh, as long as educated workers were put into this furnace continuously, the exchange in return would be huge. The smaller the industrial classification, the larger the population needed to be.

Roland had been troubled constantly by the problem of population.

There were just over 2,000 inhabitants in Border Town. Even if it was a new era of machinery, it was still only workshop-style production. Without a large number of people, many projects could not be launched. Where could he swindle so many people to come to this town?

Could he buy slaves? There was no mention of where to buy thousands of slaves at once. Adult slaves were expensive, and did not have much significant training. Younger slaves, under the age of ten, would take too long to train. Even if child labor was employed against conscience, the waiting period would still be too long.

Could he recruit talents? How many people would be attracted to Border Town? This would result in more costs than buying slaves.

Could he encourage people to give birth to more children? Forced marriages? Forget it...

He had also considered Longsong Stronghold. But since the kingdom was in a stable state, if he were to attack the surrounding lords, it would simply be gambling with the future. Duke Ryan would also not dare to confront him blatantly, he would rather secretly try to put a spoke in his wheel.

However, the situation was different now. Now that Timothy had ascended the throne, he was eager to see all his competitors disappear. This recall order reflected his eager mood. Duke Ryan had obviously been able to understand this. Once released from the old king's constraints, it would be strange for him, as the ruler in the Western Region, to do nothing.

This was the opportunity Roland had been anticipating for a long time

Longsong Stronghold, as the border of the kingdom, was a century-old city with nearly 10,000 permanent residents. Behind Longsong Stronghold, there were towns with large tracts of land and no defense ability. If it was possible to defeat Duke of Longsong Stronghold and win the city, he would be able to get a large number of free people, while completing the original accumulation of wealth in the meantime.

What easier way was there to gain population than annexation? What else could accumulate wealth faster than plunder?

The news was like a lighthouse dispelling the mist, illuminating the direction of Roland's progress.

He would never miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Chapter 56 - In the Mountains

Nightingale stepped slowly along the mountain trail.

The path under her feet was only as wide as her shoulders. To one side was a huge stone cliff. Opposite were steep rocks. The two apart was about three meters wide. Below was a bottomless ravine. She carefully followed the stone cliff to avoid slipping.

When she looked up, she saw that in the sky, there was only a thin ray of light, like a hanging silver thread. But she knew that it was noon. Even in the daytime, she had to carry a torch. The light coming through the rock was not bright enough to illuminate the road ahead. The long path gave the illusion that she was inside the mountains.

The only advantage here was that despite the cold wind whistling and snow swirling in the mountains, the gap between the cliffs remained unaffected. Occasionally a few snowflakes fell from overhead down the cliffs and paths, quickly turning into water vapor. The temperature here was different from outside. Occasionally she could see warm gas rising from the abyss.

Had it not been so, she would not have dared to go alone through the Impassable Mountain Range in the Months of Demons. The Mist could hide her body, but could not isolate the temperature. She would have frozen to death if she had walked in the cold wind for less than two hours.

But Nightingale was unwilling to stay here for more than a moment, for she always felt something in the dark staring at her. It gave her the creeps.

If she could, Nightingale would have wished to walk through the Mist. Unfortunately, she did not have enough strength to do that. Prolonged usage of strength would quickly exhaust her.

Nightingale lifted the torch. On the opposite, rocks were flickering in and out of sight. In the faint firelight, she could occasionally see shadows of different sizes on the opposite cliffs. Nightingale knew that they were caves, so deep that light could not shine, and they looked like a cluster of shadows. In the same position as the cliff close to her, there was also a corresponding deep hollow.

This reminded her of the hearsay about the mine on Northern Slope. It was said to be the demons' underground den. From there, there were many byroads in all directions supposedly dug by monsters. Northern Slope was only one corner of the Impassable Mountain Range. Were these caves connected to the mine?

The idea made her shiver.

West of the Impassable Mountain Range was the uninhabited Barbarian Land. Who could dig numerous caves inside these mountains stretching hundreds of kilometers? Perhaps nobody but the monsters, who had survived in Barbarian Land, could do that.

She did not dare to contemplate further, and instead she concentrated on walking forward.

Finally, the path in front changed. The shoulder-wide path was divided into two, one slightly upward and the other straight down, extending deep into darkness. Nobody knew where it led to. At the turnoff, she had stronger feelings of being watched as if countless pairs of eyes were gazing at her in the darkness. It made her mouth go dry and her scalp tingle.

Nightingale gritted her teeth, opened the Mist and hurried upwards. Soon the strange sensation vanished.

With the altitude rising, the surrounding temperature was gradually falling. The silver thread overhead was growing wider and wider. After half an hour, a huge cave appeared on her right. The entrance of the cave was slightly higher than the road. She stepped into the cave and could see faint lights of fire deep within.

It was the hideout of the Witch Cooperation Association.

Nightingale stepped out of the Mist and was immediately discovered by the guarding witch. A black gas wall blocked her way, but soon disappeared into the invisible. In the darkness, the companion's voices cried pleasantly. "You're back!"

"Finally back," she thought, but when she noticed her companion's arms wrapped with two pieces of white cloth, Nightingale's mood, which had just leaped, sank again. "Two more sisters..."

The other person's voice paused for a moment. "Uh... ah, they were Airy and Abby. They died five days ago and didn't make it to adulthood," she said, forcing a smile. "This often happens, doesn't it? Don't say this. You can go to the camp. Wendy has been talking about you for a long time."

Airy and Abby, a pair of twins born to an affluent family of Fallen Dragon Ridge, had at last ended their lives in this deep mountain. Nightingale sometimes wondered whether she had done a right thing. If she had not taken the two away, at least they could have enjoyed the rich and healthy life, not having to drift away with the others, before death.

But at the thought of Wendy, a warm current surged in Nightingale's heart. If Wendy had not helped her, she would still be a puppet, used as a tool and possibly discarded at any time. Nightingale wanted to tell her the news as soon as possible. And she wanted to tell all the sisters that they did not have to hide like rats, here and there. Some people were willing to accept them. And they could spend their Day of Awakening every year in peace!

Entering the camp, Nightingale saw a familiar figure squatting at the side of the campfire, handling the food. The other witches had not arrived yet. She could not help crying out. "Wendy, I'm back!"

Wendy was startled. She raised her head, revealing a smile with which Nightingale was familiar. "Veronica, welcome home."

Wendy was a very kind-hearted woman, and also one of the earliest members of the Witch Cooperation Association. She was 30 years old, but there was not one wrinkle on her face. Her reddish-brown straight hair was almost waist length. She had mature facial features, full of charm like a big sister. She cared about every sister in the association. It did not matter whether it was daily life or psychological enlightenment, and she was ready to do whatever she could to help. Had it not been for Wendy, the association would not have been able to gather so many witches so quickly.

It was because of her that Nightingale had decided to get away from her family and embark on the journey looking for Holy Mountain. Wendy was also one of the few people who knew her original name.

"How many times have I told you that I'm no longer that cowardly little girl," said Nightingale, shaking her head with a smile. "I'm now a powerful witch, and Veronica has ceased to exist."

"Your history still belongs to you. To rid yourself of the bad nightmares of the past doesn't mean to sever the links," Wendy said softly, "Of course, it's OK as long as you like to do so. I've been waiting for your return. You have experienced a hard journey."

"Well." Nightingale stepped forward and hugged. "Thank you."

After a while, Wendy asked, "What happened to the girl? You couldn't save her?"

Speaking of this, Nightingale was suddenly excited. She grabbed Wendy's arm, and excitedly said, "No, she did not need me to save her. Instead, she saved all of us!" Then she recounted her experience in Border Town. "The lord, called Roland Wimbledon, is the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He's willing to have us in his care. Besides, he promised that in the future he would let the witches in his territory live as free people."

Chapter 57 - [Snake Witch] Cara

Yet Wendy did not seem as thrilled as her. Instead, she asked suspiciously, "Did he really say that?"

"He did, and he had already saved Anna and Nana before I even got there. The prince has never believed that our power is given by demons. On the contrary, he said the power belonged to our own..." Nightingale stopped abruptly, realizing that they did not believe what she was saying.

Well, she thought, it was not Wendy's fault. Neither was she convinced of the subsequent new life by merely one witness. Long had they been bullied and oppressed during their journey from the Eastern Region to the Impassable Mountain Range. It was not rare for them to be sold and discarded, and with the bloody samples in front of them, they had long ago lost their trust in people.

She calmed down at the thought. Things had turned a little more complex than she had expected.

"Wendy, you know that my derivative skill, besides being able to see the flow of magic power, it enables me to tell if people are lying," Nightingale said seriously. "I asked him why he had risked so much for the sake of witches, and 'we don't care about what you're at Border Town' was the answer he gave to me. He hopes that all witches will have freedom."

"If he did what he said, he would be targeted by the church." Wendy frowned. "Granting that the prince hasn't realized what it means to protect witches, you've known no better."

Nightingale could not hold back her smiles and said, "At first I had almost the same opinion, and you know how he answered me when I asked him 'can you really do that?'." She paused and stated word by word, "He said 'you'll never know the answer if you don't try.'"

"He wasn't lying?"

"He wasn't lying." Nightingale assured.

"That sounds incredible." Wendy softened her voice. She could not think of any reason that Nightingale, an old friend, would lie to her.

"It is." Nightingale shared her feelings. She would have never made up her mind so quickly without witnessing with her own eyes. And it was proven by her power. In retrospect, Roland barely lied, as he had said to her when they were on the wall. During the two months that she had spent with him, Nightingale had been very pleased. The only thing he had hidden from her was the actual use of the ice.

She hardly cared about the hiding. It would be weird if Roland unveiled all his secrets to a witch he had just met.

"I'll share the news with everyone tonight when they're all back at the camp!" She looked at Wendy and said in a deep voice, "I hope you'll help me to persuade them."

When night fell, the witches who had spent all day working outside returned to the camp. Seeing that Nightingale had come home safely, they were extremely glad and surrounded her to ask all about her journey. The white bandages tied around their injured arms weighed heavily on her heart. After answering a few questions thoughtlessly, she raised her hands to silence all witches.

It took her some time to tell them everything. She began by telling them about the time she snuck into Border Town, the acquaintance of Roland, Anna, and Nana, then the construction of the wall, the assembly of the steam engine, the fighting against the demonic beasts, and finally Anna who had just passed through to her adulthood. Nightingale even took out the design of the steam engine to convince others that it was true.

Most witches had been cocooned in an isolated world since they joined the Witch Cooperation Association, so it was hard for them to imagine the outside world. They seemed charmed by the stories, and when Nightingale came to the part about Anna passing through the Day of Adulthood unscathed, they were abuzz. The Demonic Torture had haunted them all their lives. All these years they had suffered from hunger and cold, leaving behind the secular world and secluding themselves to the Impassable Mountain Range in order to seek the legendary Holy Mountain. If what Nightingale had said was true—a land where the lord would accept them and a method that would protect them from Demonic Torture, Holy Mountain seemed less worthy to pursue.

Just then, the audience moved to clear a path for a green-haired witch who had half her face tattooed with serpentine. She walked towards Nightingale.

"Hello, my respected mentor," said Nightingale, as she bowed to the witch, "Snake Witch" Cara, founder of the Witch Cooperation Association. The witches in the association addressed her as mentor.

"I've heard your stories," she said with a hoarse and hollow voice, "and you mean to tell us that all we have done is wrong?"

"No, mentor, they aren't just stories. I mean..."

"Enough." She waved her hand impatiently. "I don't know what adventure you have been through, weaving your stories. A highborn prince who pities the poor witches? It's as silly as pitying a frog." She sneered as she turned around. Spreading her arms, she shouted, "Sisters, don't forget all of what the common people have done to you!"

She went on without waiting for Nightingale's explanation. "There's no doubt that the common people, the incompetents, have targeted us with blades and whips in the name of gods. Without God's Stone of Retaliation, they have no authority to oppress us. It's deities who grant us the power, not the evils. It should be us who work on the behalf of deities, not the church. It should be us, the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association! Holy Mountain, told in old books, refers to the quarters of deities."

What?! Nightingale could not believe her ears. She had known that the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association was kind of eccentric, and although she was hung up on searching for Holy Mountain, she was far from mad. Despite not being as approachable as Wendy, Cara still sincerely cared for them. What Nightingale had not expected was that she would have such hostility toward ordinary people.

Had Cara secretly buried her anger and hatred all these years? And what she had claimed, about being detached from worldly affairs, was this really a way to save power for striking vengeance without warning one day? What had made her uncover her disguise now? Maybe...

"We've found the clue to the opening in Holy Mountain, the same as what we read from the old books! All we have to do is wait. In twenty days, when the blood moon rises in the sky, through a huge gate emerging from underground, we shall reach our final realm." She turned back, looking straight at Nightingale. "The common people have deceived you, and we've lived in a big fraud since we were born. What we've suffered in the Day of Adulthood is the test given by deities. One who is determined and resilient will obtain the true power. The church..." She sneered. "It's just a gang of common people who want to work in the name of deities. Sooner or later, all of them will go to hell."

"And you, child. There's time for you to stop this." Cara paused. "I'll forgive your ignorance and fault if you forget your stories. We'll retake you as one of us, and together we'll find peace in Holy Mountain."

Nightingale's initial excitement had cooled. The suffering was a test? The ones who did not make it through the torture on the Day of Awakening were simply worthless losers? The statements were exactly what the church was advocating. But no one stood out against these ideas, and instead, they wore a face of agreement. Even Wendy did not make a comment. Suddenly all turned dull and boring to her. Standing in front of her, the witch who was the founder of the Witch Cooperation Association and the leader of the witches seemed so unfamiliar.

She shook her head. "In that case, I'll take those who're willing to go, and good luck with those who decide to stay."

Just as Nightingale was about to take her leave, she felt a faint sting on her leg. She looked down and found a black snake with sparkling blue stripes biting her flesh. The Snake of Magic, which bore various venoms and was able to strike the target in silence, was often used by "Snake Witch" Cara.

The paralysis struck her hard and quickly. Nightingale moved her lips and struggled to say something, but the darkness overwhelmed her.

Chapter 58 - Escape

Nightingale did not know how long she had been here, but when she woke up, she found her hands were bound behind her against a stake along with her waist and legs. She struggled to move, but yet she was bound so tight that her body was attached to the stake and got stuck.

When she tried to use her power, she could not sense the familiar feeling that she felt every time she induced power—the magic power was disconnected. Nightingale looked down and caught the sight of a crystal prismatic stone hanging around her neck hangs.

"You've woken," said Cara, as she walked over. "How do you feel about Petrifying Venom? Nightingale, you know I reposed great hopes in you, and I meant it. Yet, you've disappointed me."

"..." Nightingale drew a deep breath and said, "You kept the God's Locket of Retribution from us. Cara, do you actually know what you're doing?" Their respected mentor chained her own people with the exact lock that was used by the church to hunt down the witches. What made her angrier was those who stood aside and showed no hint of dissent. [Damn it!] Nightingale cried out in her mind, [haven't you found you've turned into those whom we hate the most?]

"It's just a way to punish some kids who're out of control," Cara said with no regards, "and Nightingale, you're the one who needs to be punished. Or... shall I call you Veronica? A girl who fell from a noble and became a witch, yet still dreams of reclaiming her nobility."

"I don't understand what you're saying."

"You've disappointed me. I thought you'd stand on our side when Wendy saved you from the chains of the noble. Now, take a look at what you've done. You mean to gut our foundation when Holy Mountain is within our reach." Cara shook her head and sneered. "Take your sisters to a prince? Either you have been chained too long to live without a master to enslave you, or... you plan to sell them to the nobles for your nobility."

"All I've done is for my sisters." Nightingale damped down her rage, for she knew that curses and abuses made no difference here. "All I want is they'll suffer no more tortures on the Day of Awakening and live a better life, in warm shelters and with enough food. I don't mean to interrupt your plan, and yet they deserve a chance to choose their own life. Many things are changing in Border Town now, and the design of the steam engine that I showed you is one of them. The engine could run itself and hold the enormous power that'll save us from the labor of fetching water from the mountain stream.

Cara sneered and said, "This is what you mean?" She turned and pulled out a wad of parchments from hands of a witch who stood behind her, waving in front of Nightingale. "I admit the drawing is too difficult for me to understand, but a lifeless thing built by a pile of cold irons could run itself? You take us for ignorant kids!"

Walking towards the brazier, she tossed the parchments into fire.

"No!" Nightingale cried out in vain, witnessing the drawings turning into ash in the brazier.

"You've run out of my patience, I'll give you one last chance," said Cara as she pulled out an iron spike with a hot red tip. "If you confess in front of all sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association that you've been deluded by nobles, I'll spare your life and punish your gullibility with whipping. Otherwise, I'll drive this spike through your heart and nail your body on a stake as a warning," she said word by word, "and don't waste my last bit of mercy. State your decision."

Nightingale watched the spike moving towards her, along with the hot wave from the tip. She knew that she was no longer the young girl that she used to be. The girl who had been too weak and coward to stand up and resist. She was Nightingale, a witch with great power that even death would not be able to make bend her knees.

She closed her eyes, waiting for the last moment. Somehow, Roland appeared in her mind.

"Stop it!" The shouting surprised her, and she opened her eyes, seeing that Wendy walked out of the crowd and said to Cara, "Mentor, please have a look at the bandage bound on your arm. We've seen so many departures over the years, and you want to add one more with your own hands?"

"Why, did she deceive you too? Wake up, Wendy, those stories are lies."

"I don't know." Wendy shook her head. "I'm not intending to leave for Border Town with her, but I think she's right in that we deserve a chance to choose our own life."

She turned to the crowd and asked loudly, "Is there anyone who wants to go with her?"

There were no replies and the crowd fell into silence.

"So let her go by herself," Wendy said. "She didn't undermine the Witch Cooperation Association, and I won't watch you kill her and do nothing."

By now, Nightingale had fully understood what Wendy meant. Wendy did not believe her words either. That was why she stood aside as Nightingale wanted her to persuade other witches. Though disapproving her idea, Wendy who was a kind and caring person would never let her friend die under such circumstances.

The crowd started whispering together about what Wendy had said before some other witches stood out.

"That's right. If she wants to go back to the outside world, let her."

"Too many lives have been taken by the church and pains. Respected Mentor, please reconsider."

"Shut up! All of you!" Cara's rage soared. "What if more girls follow her after we let her go with impunity? What if she betrays us and sells our location to the church? There'll be nowhere to run!" Hardly did she finish speaking before she shoved the spike towards Nightingale. But Wendy was faster, she wove a strong wind that blew Cara away.

Then she tossed out a coin, and with a wave of her hand, she cast a rapid airflow that wrapped the coin and dashed to Nightingale. The airflow disappeared instantaneously when it neared Nightingale, and yet the inertia of the coin carried it further, hitting right on the God's Stone of Retaliation that hung on her neck.

The hit broke the crystal prismatic stone into pieces.

"Traitor!" Cara struggled to her feet and screamed. She extended both her hands pointing at Wendy and Nightingale, and out of nowhere two snake shadows appeared, one of which opened its mouth and bit hard on Wendy's hand, but yet another that aimed at Nightingale missed.

The ropes slipped onto the ground, keeping a shape of binding, but Nightingale was nowhere to be found.

Cara broke out in a cold sweat at the thought of the opponent's ability, and instantly she aroused all her power to summon demonic snakes. Glittering with various colors, the snakes poured out from her chest, forming a wall of snakes from which she retreated hastily.

Yet Nightingale was faster.

Taking one step... only one step forward, she emerged right behind Cara, holding out both of her hands, she put the spike that would have been driven into her heart by Cara, directly through Cara's body.

Chapter 59 - An Explorer

Seeing Cara fall down, all the witches surrounded her in a panic. "Respected Mentor!".

"Idiot!" Cara coughed with pain, her hands clamping to the wound. She could no longer feel her legs. "Hurry, go kill that traitor!"

However, at that time, Nightingale had already disappeared into the Mist with Wendy.

Back at the crossroad, Nightingale found that Wendy was still in a coma. Her forearm had turned black, and the poison was obviously spreading through her blood. She could not hesitate any longer. She took a deep breath, rolled up the sleeve of Wendy's injured arm and bound the upper arm as tightly as possible. Then she drew a dagger from the sole of her boot, and cut deep into the arm.

It took her nearly a quarter of an hour to amputate Wendy's arm completely. She carefully wrapped up the removed arm with her cape and tied it steadily on her back with two straps. As long as she could bring Wendy back alive to Border Town, Nana would be able to heal her and reattach up her arm.

But... could Wendy bear such pain for so long?

It took her three days to come here alone, and she would be slower when carrying Wendy on her back. If she walked too fast and accidentally slipped off the cliff, she was unsure whether she would be able to climb back up again.

Wendy's arm was still bleeding and she might die in three or four days. But Nightingale had no other option. She would never leave Wendy behind. After all, Wendy was wounded because of her.

"Do you need a hand?"

Startled by the random voice, Nightingale released the Mist and simultaneously looked around in a defensive position.

But there was no-one in front of her.

"Don't be nervous, I won't hurt you."

Nightingale looked up and saw a girl flying in the air. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lightning. I just joined the Witch Cooperation Association recently. I usually wander around, so it's natural that you don't know me." She tried to give a reassuring smile. "But I know you, famous Nightingale, the killer in the shadows."

"Did Cara send you here?"

"No, no, you misunderstand me." Lightning slowly fell, one foot treading on the ground. "I want to go with you."

Nightingale could not believe what she heard and asked, "Pardon?"

"You said that we should have the right to choose our own way of life." She paused. "I choose to go with you. That's simple."

"But... why?" Nightingale had been completely disappointed with the Witch Cooperation Association. The sisters refused to go with her, and even Wendy could not fully believe in her. Yet the girl in front of her... she was actually still a child, 14 or 15 years old, about the age of Nana, believed her. She had short blonde hair and a face high in spirits. Her speech and manners were full of confidence that did not match her age. She did not wear the robes of the Witch Cooperation Association, and instead, she was dressed in a fitted coat and trousers. Outside she wore a short and shabby leather jacket with many pockets and patches. Around her waist was a crude-looking belt, which seemed to be picked up from somewhere. At first glance, she dressed like a man.

"Because I'm quite interested in what you said. The black machine which puffs out white smoke, the gray powder which will turn into a rock when mixed with water, and the powder which explodes like thunder. I want to see them." She held her head up and said, "I'm determined to be an explorer, so it's only natural I go to any and all interesting places."

[What kind of reason was that...] Nightingale was stunned. However, she knew that the girl was not lying.

"I don't understand... why would you join the Witch Cooperation Association if you want to be an adventurer?"

"Not an adventurer, an explorer!" Lightning stressed. "I'm different from those people who work for money and call themselves adventurers. They're nothing but greedy wolves that will do anything for cash. Explorers only do things that we're interested in! As for my reason for joining the association..." she said confidently, "Isn't it a great adventure to look for Holy Mountain? But Cara doesn't have the slightest sense of adventure. She has been totally driven by that ancient book, trying to connect everything we saw with the description in it. She said she had found the Stone Gates which rose from the ground, but they were just two old pillars. If she keeps on like this, she'll never be able to find the real Holy Mountain. An explorer must honestly record what they see. We can never find a horse by reading its description. My father has emphasized that point again and again."

Nightingale had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask. For example, what kind of father would cultivate a daughter full of strange thoughts? But she knew it was not the right time to talk, as Wendy might die at any moment. She was happy to get a hand from Lightning since she was not an enemy.

"Is your ability flying?"

"Uh-huh." Lightning nodded. "Even if I carry both of you, I can fly like the wind."

"Then I'll have to trouble you." Nightingale quickly bound Wendy on her back and climbed onto Lightning's back, hugging her tightly.

"Ugh... you're so heavy." Lightning gritted her teeth and rose slowly. "Maybe I won't be as fast as the wind."

...

They hurried toward Border Town. When Lightning was exhausted, Nightingale would carry her under her arm to walk through the Mist and when Lightning had recuperated her vigor, she would fly with Nightingale on her back.

Only when both of them were exhausted would they stop to take a short rest. At that point, Nightingale would ask Lightning some basic questions about things like her father and her family.

Lightning claimed that her father was the greatest explorer in the world, who left his footprints everywhere. He owned an ocean fleet and was kindly addressed as "Thunder" by the crew. Lightning lost her mother when she was little, so she did not have much memory of her. In a violent storm, her father's ship hit a rock and sank, and then she was carried to a small island by the ocean currents and lost contact with her father. With the knowledge and skills taught by her father, she managed to live on the island alone for nearly two months. When winter came, she awoke as a witch.

After that, she flew all the way to the west and arrived in the Southern Territory of Kingdom of Graycastle through the strait. She wandered here and there, and finally joined the Witch Cooperation Association. She believed that, as long as she kept exploring, one day, she would be able to meet her father in some wonderful land... if he was still alive.

Nightingale failed to acquire much useful information from what she said. With her ability, she could only tell whether someone was lying or not, but she could not judge the objective truth of the words. In other words, if someone said that the sun was square and did not doubt it, then her ability would still show that they were telling the truth.

Anyway, she could guess from some of the information, that Lightning must have been born in a rich family. People who were struggling with poverty would not have the time to explore. In addition, the fact that her father owned an ocean fleet further confirmed it. So Thunder was probably a wealthy ocean-crossing businessman. Besides, Lightning's blonde hair showed that she might come from the Fjords across the sea rather than from one of the kingdoms on the continent.

Wendy woke up several times, drank some water with Nightingale's efforts, and then she quickly fell unconscious again. Nightingale was increasingly anxious. She felt that Wendy's body was becoming colder and colder.

Nightingale and Lightning took turns to hurry forwards, and it took them one and a half day to finish the three-day-long path. At the entrance, the horse given by the prince was still tied to the ground, and the heap of straw in front of it was half eaten.

Without catching her breath, Nightingale mounted the horse with Wendy on her back and rushed toward Border Town, with Lightning flying after her.

Chapter 60 - Arrangements

The second recruitment in Border Town went much more smoothly. Thanks to the winter food rations, the members of Militia were given a larger amount of better-tasting food. Many would save their bread and dried meat, and gave them away secretly to their families on visitation day each week. Roland told Carter and Iron Axe to turn a blind eye, but nevertheless, it became known when families happily talked about the food they brought home.

In the first place, a military force comprised of civilians was an excellent chance for publicity. The word-of-mouth approach became even more effective than any announcement the City Hall could make. Most people in Old District were well aware of the Militia organized by His Royal Highness by now, where the soldiers were paid a high salary and fed three meals a day. The fighting with the demonic beasts was also not as dangerous as they had imagined. Thus, more candidates from Old District showed up compared to the first recruitment. There were even some residents from New District who came to sign up.

There were more candidates that met Roland's requirements than he had anticipated. The second Militia was thus expanded to 200 soldiers. Carter was appointed to helm their training. When the horn sounded, the new recruits made their way to the city wall and were on the standby as an auxiliary force.

Chief Knight Carter and Assistant Minister Barov raised objections to this. The first Militia was already a force capable of fighting demonic beasts, making the recruitment of a second Militia unnecessary in their eyes. Never mind the fact that the size of the second Militia was twice the size of the first one. The higher food rations and salaries of the soldiers also led to a hike in their financial expenditure. What was worse was that the gold royals they spent did not give them any significant returns.

But Roland insisted on his decision.

That was because these people were not recruited to fight demonic beasts.

At the moment, he dared not to tell his men about the plan he had in mind. He wanted to conquer the stronghold before the duke could attack Border Town, but he worried that Carter and Barov would completely shut down his idea.

Unlike Border Town, Longsong Stronghold was the official border of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Its city walls were 10 meters high, built of bricks and stone. The duke and the six noble families of the Western Region were stationed in the inner city, so they could mobilize about a thousand soldiers at any given time. In theory, it was impossible to conquer the stronghold with his Militias made of fewer than 300 soldiers—even if they were equipped with flintlocks, a technology invented in a different era.

Besides, the witches could not serve as their secret weapon of decapitation due to the God's Stone of Retaliation; Roland had confirmed this with Nightingale several times. Duke Ryan and the six noble families must have spared no efforts in purchasing the stone—naturally, this was done in the name of donation. It took several dozens of gold royals for them to trade a single stone, which could seal the power of the witches within a certain range and hence acted as the most powerful weapon against the demons. The stones were thus the biggest annual income source for the church.

Roland's only chance was open warfare.

Most of the armies kept by the lords in this era were conscription-based, where most soldiers were drafted just before the war. To prevent runaway soldiers, the lords were forced to lead them to the battlefield personally. This gave Roland an excellent opportunity to implement his annihilation plan. However, he was still unsure how to seize this chance. After all, his knowledge of war strategies came from movies, television, or historical stories. He had no firsthand experience with them.

Since he could not figure it out, he thought he should focus on the things he was good at instead.

He stretched lazily and left his office, heading towards the wooden shed in the backyard.

The assembled Steam Engine II stood quietly in the middle of the field. Upon first glance, it looked more polished than the previous version and the welding marks were evener. Thanks to Anna's new ability, her green Heart Fire could penetrate into the tiny gaps for welding, allowing the individual parts to fit better than their last attempt.

In addition to a better appearance, Steam Engine II also functioned more efficiently, thanks to a newly equipped centrifugal governor. Its existence was remarkable as the first automatic control system and feedback system in history. The structure of centrifugal governor was very simple, consisting of two thin hinged rods, each with an iron ball at the end, and one rotating spindle. It looked like the bamboo dragonfly, a toy for children. When the bamboo pole was rubbed between hands, the two rotating blades would rise into the air because of the centrifugal force.

As for the centrifugal governor, the two iron balls acted like blades. When the steam engine worked, the spindle would rotate. If the engine output was high enough, the balls would spin faster and gradually rise under the influence of the centrifugal force, leading the rods to reduce the aperture of a throttle valve. When the output lowered, the balls would spin slower and fall because of gravity to increase the valve output again. This would keep the steam engine running with a near-constant output.

Now that it was speed-controlled, Steam Engine II was able to take on sophisticated tasks.

And the gears produced by the blacksmith now sat neatly in the corner of the shed.

Going by modern assembly line standards, none of the gears would pass the quality check and would be thrown into the defective bin, waiting to be recycled. But in this era, they were rare artistic works—the involute design of the gears carried an inherent sense of harmony, and the gears emitted a unique metallic sheen after being immersed in lard.

Besides the gears, the carpenters had prepared the foundations, caps, as well as other parts. He sent the guard outside for Anna, so that they could begin assembling the first steam-driven boring machine together.

In Roland's plan, this was the most effective way to mass-produce flintlocks.

If he had relied on the work of blacksmiths, the manual production of a single gun barrel would be time-consuming. But with the boring machine, they could directly drill the barrel from the casted iron bars. In one day, they would be able to produce more than ten barrels.

With a change in the cutter, the boring machine could also be used to cut rifling. Fitted with rifling, the flintlocks could be fired with even greater accuracy.

With how things were going, he was sure that he could arm his two Militias of nearly 300 soldiers by the end of winter.

However, Roland still could not guarantee that, in the face of charging enemies, his soldiers would be able to calmly load, aim, and shoot their targets, rather than dropping the weapons and running away. The two Militias had only been in training for a short period of time and had no experience in battling human beings after all.

Thus he had to bring out an even more powerful weapon that could obliterate the enemy before they could start their own assault.

That weapon was cannon.

As the Lord of War in the history of warfare, the lethality and deterrence force cannons commanded were incomparable to flintlocks. A six-pound field cannon had the range to attack the enemies before they could gather. The mixed-up armies of this era would not be able to keep their discipline under the constant attack of the cannons. As long as Roland could equip his Militias with three or four cannons, his enemy would not even have the chance to charge at them.

He had made his arrangements step by step—after he had invented the manual milling machine, he processed suitable gears that he used to build the steam-driven boring machine on the basis of speed-controlled Steam Engine II. And with the boring machine, he could produce a variety of gun barrels and cannon barrels.

There were at least two months before the Months of Demons ended. If his plan worked, the Militias of Border Town would have the ability to compete with the duke's troops in an outright battle.

Chapter 61 - The Return

As Roland squatted on the ground to install the base, three figures suddenly emerged out of nowhere, staggering upon landing, and together falling torwards the ground.

Anna was startled. A cluster of green flame rose up and transformed into a wall of fire, blocking those figures.

Roland looked up and found that one of the women was Nightingale after the long separation. Her appearance looked so discomfited that her cheeks were abnormally red. While the frigid wind was obviously blowing outdoors, her forehead was covered with dense beads of sweat.

"Your Highness, please call Nana to come. Hurry up!"

She looked up as she exclaimed in palpable anxiety.

Roland had noticed that the woman on her back had a pale face and her eyes were closed, half of the arm was missing, and the crimson blood was seeping through the cloth that wrapped the open fracture.

"Cardin, go to the hospital and bring Nana here!" He shouted at the guard near the door, with a tight heart.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Other than the two people, there was a little girl tucked in Nightingale's armpit. She appeared to be nothing serious, and her eyes looked around curiously.

"Are you okay?" Roland went up and untied the cloth belt from Nightingale's back, and removed the woman with the broken arm.

"I'm all right, Your Highness, cough... Sorry. I didn't bring the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association back," Nightingale gasped, in a weak voice. Apparently she had experienced a long journey that made her exhausted.

"Don't say anything. First, take a good rest," Roland said as he picked up the unconscious woman who had been seriously injured and let Anna hold Nightingale. The five people went back to the castle. Nightingale's room was next to Anna's. He ordered the maid to fire up the furnace and prepare a vat of hot water in the room. After Nana's arrival, he explained about the issue before she healed the wound, and stepped out of the room when he finished.

As long as she was not dead, Nana would be able to recover her from her wound as usual. To keep her life, the problem was not serious. Nightingale also brought back the woman's broken arm to reconnect it. However, the arm had lost blood for a long time. He did not know whether it was possible to connect it back. The next steps would involve undressing to conduct the cleaning and treatment. As a well-educated man in his previous life, Roland consciously chose to avoid it and left the room.

"But how could things go this way?" He thought, "Was the camp of the Witch Cooperation Association attacked by the demonic beasts, and only three people managed to escape? If that was the case, it was surely a great loss."

He was lingering uneasily outside the door. About half an hour later, the door was opened. The first one to get out of the room was the little girl who had come in good condition with Nightingale. She nodded towards Roland, "You're exactly what Nightingale said."

"..." Roland was slightly puzzled, "What did she say about me?"

"A prince who cares about the witches". She gently shut the door, "Unfortunately, the news was too unbelievable. Most people of the Witch Cooperation Association didn't believe her. In fact, I didn't believe her either. But my dad had said that the world is so big with various types of people. I'm Lightning, Your Highness. Nice to meet you," she said as she bowed her head, with her right hand on her left shoulder—that was probably a way of saluting.

But Roland was not concerned about it. He keenly captured the phrase "most people did not believe her". "Has the members of the Witch Cooperation Association been attacked by demonic beasts?" Roland asked.

"Attack? No... Why did you ask this question?" She touched her forehead with her index finger, and then revealed a sudden expression, "Ah, I understand! You're referring to the big sister with a broken arm. She's Wendy. She was hurt by Cara, the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association," Then, Lightning roughly told the whole story.

Roland was silent after hearing this. It was so... unbelievable, he thought. He had really underestimated the brutal oppression of the witches in this world. "Accumulatively over the years, the witches' distrust towards the church and the nobility had reached its peak. According to Lightning's story, the priority by the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association, after gaining enough power, might be to eradicate people like me."

But fortunately, Nightingale had safely returned.

Not only that, but even two witches were brought back to Border Town. As for the project of building houses for the witches, Roland thought it over and decided to let Karl go on. "We may not need it now, but we'll get more witches in the future," Roland thought to himself.

"Are you a member of the Witch Cooperation Association?"

"No," she replied, "Like Wendy and Nightingale, we've already left the Assosciation. It's impossible to go back. Cara must hate us bitterly."

"Will she be able to survive after being pierced by Nightingale" Roland asked, frowning.

"Probably. There's a witch called Leaf, who can increase the effectiveness of herbs several times," Lightning expressed her thought, "With the more usage of hemostatic grass and blood agent, it should not be a problem to save Cara's life. But compared to your witch, the effect is far worse."

"It's really a hassle," he thought to himself, "It isn't a worry to be targeted by the Church, but it may be a bit ironic to be aimed by witches. Fortunately, the adversary's purpose is to find the Holy Mountain, and now they shouldn't have enough time to trouble Nightingale."

"You said it before that you didn't really believe in Nightingale. Then why did you escape with her from the Witch Cooperation Association?"

"Because of the black machine wheezing white gas, and the gray powder able to turn into a stone after making contact with the water, and the snow exploding with a thunderous sound!" Lightning repeated Nightingale's words, "The prince that is kind to the witches may not exist. But she should not have lied about all of these to me. Otherwise the story could not have been made so lifelike—it's an explorer's intuition. By the way, the big block I saw in the yard just now, was it the black machine able to blow white gas? Nightingale seemed to call it... the steam engine?"

"An explorer?" Roland automatically ignored the last question.

"Yes, an explorer," she repeated the word emphatically, "That's why I chose to follow Nightingale here, and the explorer is curious about all of the unknown."

"..." Roland secretly sighed, "Is it the young people's frivolity? In this era, the people pursuits other than survival must be born in a rich family. Look at her tomboy's dress and short golden hair." "Are you sure you're not called Ezreal?"

"Who is that? I'm called Lightning," said the little girl.

Slightly after that, Anna and Nana pushed the door open and came out.

"How's it going on?" asked Roland, "Is the treatment going well?"

At the sight of Nana's nod, he breathed a sigh of relief. "In general, the broken limbs should be connected within six to eight hours. Beyond the time limit, the success rate of surgery would be greatly reduced. Lightning said that they had spent nearly a day rushing towards here from where they were hiding. During this period, the limb's open fracture was in a state of gradual atrophy. The conventional surgery has almost no way to engage with the nerve. I can only say that Nana's treatment ability is really excellent."

The little girl also looked a bit tired. The treatment seemed to have consumed a great deal of her energy. Roland encouraged her, "You have been working hard. After dinner today, you may go to bed with Anna."

"Of course, that includes Tigui Pine too," he thought.

Chapter 62 - The Oath

After all the chaos today, Roland no longer had any mood to assemble the steam boring machine. Instead, he ordered the cook to prepare a particularly luxurious dinner and serve unlimited plates of black pepper steaks and fried eggs. It was enough to stuff Anna and Lightning silly. Even Nana, who tried her best to maintain a proper etiquette, had her lips stained with grease at the end of their dinner. Roland also asked the maids to place stewed shredded pork and wheat porridge in the insulated porcelain and send it to Nightingale's chamber to make sure that the food was still warm whenever they woke up.

Once dinner was settled, it was time to decide their accommodations. Fortunately, the previous lord was a pompous person and had his castle built in the standards of a medium-sized town, despite only governing over a budding town. To describe it in Roland's terms, it was a three-story villa with an executive suite, equipped with towers at its four corners. Coupled with a parvis and a garden in the backyard, the castle covered an area of 900 square meters.

He arranged for Lightning to stay in the chamber opposite Anna's. The next one was left for Wendy after her recovery. When he saw Nana sticking to Anna like a piece of sticky candy as they entered the chamber, Roland could not help laughing and shaking his head.

Roland poured himself some ale after returning to his office. The change in plans was swifter than he had expected. He had expected that Nightingale would bring him more witches that would help him strengthen all branches of technology, such as chemistry, agriculture, and biology. But he had underestimated the hostility that the leader of Witch Cooperation Association harbored against nobles. Witches who were neutral, like Nightingale and Lightning, were rare exceptions. As for Wendy, Lightning explained she had no intention to leave the Witch Cooperation Association. But after Wendy was attacked by the Snake Witch Cara while trying to rescue Nightingale, she was forced to.

[If there are only two witches, then so be it,] Roland thought, as he knocked back his ale. [It's better than having none.]

During the dinner, Roland had inquired about Lightning and Wendy's abilities. He learned that Lighting had the ability to fly like a bird, while Wendy had the power to manipulate the wind. These abilities, Roland believed, would contribute little to the development of technology. However, they would be a great help in the upcoming war if used wisely.

Moreover, he found out that the powers of the other witches at the camp were varied and random. He could still come up with scientific explanations for some of those powers, but the rest was completely inconceivable.

Take the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association, the Snake Witch Cara, as an example. She could condense her magic power and mold them into snakes. The snakes were not only tangible but also aggressive. The different snakes carried different venoms. As far as Lightning's knowledge went, those venoms were enough to either paralyze or kill.

However, be it Anna or Cara, witches' powers were confined to a close fight. Anna's green fire could only reach as far as five meters, while Cara's snakes would lose their power if they strayed too far from their master. Nightingale and Lightning's powers were even more restricted—they were effective only through physical contact.

Thus, facing the army of the church equipped with crossbow bolts and God's Stone of Retaliation, all they could do was to scatter and run.

Having spent most of the night in his office, the flame in the hearth gradually dimmed as it reached midnight. Roland sneezed and was about to go to bed.

When he opened the door, something unusual caught his sight—like the last time, he saw a girl sitting by his bedside. Half of her figure was enveloped in darkness, her shadow reflected on the wall like a mural. But it was different this time. Instead of her usual robes, she was dressed casually. And unlike the first time he met her, he now knew her face enough to tell who she was at a glance.

It was Nightingale.

Roland became nervous. Could it be that his good fortune was here?

Noticing the prince's entry, Nightingale stood up and walked over to him. She had recovered a lot in the brief time she had rested. Rosiness took over the paleness in her cheeks, and her hair had recovered its shine. He had to admit that the ability of witches to heal themselves was extraordinary.

"You've suffered." Roland coughed, breaking the silence. "Why don't you take more rest? I've heard everything from Lightning."

Nightingale shook her head.

Roland could tell something was off, for her face was solemn and her eyes were full of indescribable persistence. The resoluteness that was rare even on a man's face made Roland realize that she seemed to have made a decision. He hid his other emotions and waited for her to speak.

Yet Nightingale remained quiet. She drew a deep breath and kneeled, raising her dagger in her palms above her lowered head. This was the greeting manner of knights and nobles who wanted to pledge their fealty to their superior.

"Prince Roland Wimbledon, I swear an oath to you in the name of Nightingale and Veronica," she said bluntly. "As long as you treat witches well, I swear to serve you, whether as a shield against demons, or as a blade piercing the darkness. I swear my loyalty from this day to the end of my life, without fear and regret."

[I see,] Roland thought. [After the Witch Cooperation Association disappointed her, she's hoping I would lead the witches.] As a time traveler, Roland ought to reject her. He preferred working together via employment or partnership, or even better, comradeship with the same dreams and ambitions.

Yet he knew it was pointless to harp on equality and freedom. Without soil suitable for growth, planting seeds was a worthless act. As a prince, he could never deviate from his aristocracy before he united the entire kingdom.

After a moment of silence, Roland took the dagger and tapped her shoulder three times with the flat side of the sword. "I accept your fealty."

Nightingale's shoulders trembled slightly, as if she could finally relax.

Roland reached out his right hand to her.

Nightingale took his hand and kissed it gently. Thus, the accolade came to an end.

Although it was strange for a witch to swear her loyalty, Nightingale's ability to do so showed that she was at least not lowborn. She had even mentioned the name Veronica... "Is that your true name? Without your family name?" Roland asked, pulling her up.

"Yes, Your Highness. I don't mean to hide it from you. I left the Gilen Family five years ago and have nothing to do with them since," Nightingale answered calmly. She had let down the last of her walls around Roland and gave him a brief explanation of her past.

She was born in Silver City, named after the silver mine there. Her father was a viscount while her mother was a lowborn. Though such a marriage was uncommon, they lived a happy life together. Nightingale had a younger brother named Hyde. She grew up in Silver City, where she spent the happiest time of her life.

Chapter 63 - The Story of Nightingale's Past

Before long, things changed. When she was 14, the refugees rebelled in Silver City while her parents were out doing charity work. Her parents never came back. Nightingale and her younger brother were sent to his father's brother, another branch of the Gilen Family.

In the winter of the same year, Nightingale awakened and became a witch.

With great care, she hid her power, but yet the old Gilen discovered it anyway. He took her brother away, and with her brother's life, he threatened her to follow his command.

Nightingale had no choice but to obey. After being trained by the members of the Thieves Guild invited by the old Gilen, she had to do illegal things for him, which included stealing the contracts and papers from the houses of his business rivals, eavesdropping on the meetings of the City Hall, and, what was worse, even poisoning the water in wine glasses or water tanks of his potential rivals.

The business of the Gilen's boomed, but yet the old Gilen treated her worse. He beat her whenever he felt bad. She was often locked in a room closed with steel bars and was forbidden to go out unless she was outside under his order. What confused and hurt her most was that her younger brother barely visited her. She started to suspect that her younger brother had been murdered by the old Gilen.

As Nightingale pleaded over and over again, the old man finally brought Hyde over, who, on the contrary, despised her and wished that they were not siblings. He told her to go to hell and live with demons as a witch should do.

Nightingale was shattered to hear it, yet the nightmare wasn't over. The old Gilen told her a truth that hit her harder — it was Hyde who informed him that she was a witch in order to get away from her, the farther the better.

After sending Hyde away, the old Gilen warned her grimly that whenever she disobeyed him, he would secretly kill her younger brother, who would inherit their father's title when he came of age.

In despair and deep grief, Nightingale became a puppet of the Gilen Family. In the year when she was going to pass to her adulthood, she came across Wendy who, perhaps, had found her on purpose.

Nightingale's broken heart, in little sparks, began to light up again when she heard of the Witch Cooperation Association that had witches who suffered as much as her and yet still fought for a better life.

It did not take her long before she transformed from confusion to determination. A week after they had met, she survived the torture on the Day of Adulthood, and her power improved tremendously. She found out that the Mist was more than a form of concealment and no bars would block her way anymore.

One night after she healed from the torture, she walked into the old Gilen's chamber like a ghost and cut his throat with a dagger. Seeing the blood spurting out and his breath turning staccato, she was surprised to find herself more peaceful than she had imagined.

After that, she left the house with little concern for her younger brother, Hyde.

She and Wendy started their quest for the Witch Cooperation Association.

After the story was finished, Nightingale waited a moment, and seeing the prince was still deep in the past story, she took off. It took Roland a long time to revive. Indeed, every witch had a long story of suffering, and those who survived to reach their adulthood must truly be the best.

How lucky he was to become a prince through time travel.

The next morning, Roland visited Wendy in Nightingale's chamber.

Wendy looked much better after a night's recovery, and her reattached arms also regained color. She struggled to bow to the prince regardless of the weakness.

"I've learned of your story. Thank you for saving Nightingale's life." Roland pulled out a piece of parchment and came straight to the point. "There's no doubt that Cara would never accept you as one of them again. I hope you can settle in Border Town and serve me. Please sign the contract if you agree. Your payment is the same as Anna's, one gold royal per month."

"Your Highness..." Nightingale blinked trying to say something, but she held back.

Roland knew what she wanted to say. Nightingale did not want him to push Wendy to make the decision so hastily, for Wendy had changed her life and saved her once again in the Impassable Mountain Range. She believed that Wendy would certainly change her mind and back Roland after living in Border Town for some time.

"I didn't want to raise this subject so hastily, but danger grows as things delay." Roland paused for a moment. Wendy did not interrupt, waiting for him to go on. "I guess, maybe I know the method to help witches detach themselves from the torture of the Day of Awakening."

Their expressions changed, at the same time. They asked, "What?"

"It's just a guess with no firm proof," Roland said, waving his hand. "Witches suffer less at the camp than in exile. The only difference between them is when in exile the witches hide their identities and powers for the fear of being revealed, and when at camp they have to keep using their power to run the camp."

Wendy nodded. "You're... right."

"Anna has trained herself every day since she lived in the castle. She even exhausted her power and sank into a coma before the Day of Adulthood. She passed through the hardest barrier safely before waking up, unscathed."

"So I believe that this is the key to dispose of the Demonic Torture. If we liken a witch's body to a vessel that holds her power, the power grows with her, and when the gross power exceeds the volume of the vessel, it'll counteract and harm her body. In the Months of Demons, the power in the body hits the top."

"So if a witch can constantly release her power and keep it on a safe level, the torture will ease a lot or diminish on the Day of Awakening." Roland paused, and then went on. "As the Lord of Border Town, I can offer witches the places, where you could release your power freely without being arrested, charged, or being executed directly. If I'm not wrong, there's no doubt that Border Town is the Holy Mountain you've been seeking for so long."

Since they were born, witches were taught that the dangerous power was given by demons. Some slightly enlightened witches viewed the power that would bite the owner as a curse. It was an infinite loop, which meant that the less time you use the power, the more serious the feedback damage became. But Roland, who had traveled back in time, viewed the power in an opposite way. Having learned from the memory of Prince Roland and excluded the existence of true god, he simply treated the power as an energy that the witches could control with their own will.

Wendy was silent for a long while before she asked, "What do I need to do... if I sign the contract and come to your service?"

During centuries, due to their unique powers, some witches were secretly chained and used as consumables by some men of ambition. The stern ban on it enforced by the church did not hold back those men's claws. They enslaved the witches with no mercy, and what happened to those who were no longer valuable was appalling.

Roland certainly heard about those things, but he had a long-term view and wanted more. He wanted a win-win sustainable development system. He smiled and answered, "The first thing you need to do is train your power over and over again until the moment you could fully control it. Just like Anna."

Chapter 64 - Curiosity

Three days later, in the castle garden.

"Sister Anna..." Nana pulled Anna's sleeve.

"Yes?" Anna turned her head.

"Did you notice Nightingale... has been acting a bit strange lately."

"Strange?" Anna paused for a bit. "Are you referring to her dress?"

Nightingale stood beside Roland. She was not wearing her usual strangely decorated cope which she did not seem ever to wash or change. Instead, just like Anna, she was wearing the bizarre outfit that Prince Roland invented. Although Anna did not want to admit, Nightingale's slim and tall body indeed amplified all the merits of that outfit—her well-proportioned legs, skinny waist, and that long curly hair. Collocated with the clock and peaked cap, she would have caught everyone's attention.

"I'm not talking about the clothes," Nana mumbled, "Don't you feel that the way she speaks to Prince Roland and the way she looks at Prince Roland are very different now?"

"Is it?"

"..." Nana quirked her lips. "Alright, Sister Anna, don't blame me for not warning you."

[What the hell?] Anna shook her head and paid no attention to Nana. Instead, she focused her attention on the two new witches.

The one named Lightning looked about similar age as Nana, but her style of dressing was distinctly different. Anna roughly counted that there were at least 12 sewed pockets on Lightning's coat.

As of the other witch Wendy, she was wearing casual outfit instead of the same decorated cope of Nightingale that Wendy wore on her first arrival. There was one aspect of Wendy that especially caught Anna's attention. It was that the size of Wendy's breasts was rather... impressive.

"Since all of you agreed to sign the contract, then let's begin our first training." Roland was now doing the tasks with ease as he had the experience in training the previous two witches. "Lightning, you first."

"Okay!" Lightning raised her hand and walked out of the shack.

There were flurries of snow outside with no wind, the young girl easily floated to the midair and waited for Roland's next instruction.

"Try to fly as fast as you can!" Roland raised his head and said out loud.

"Aha, here we go." She made a thumb signal, positioned into a running pose, and then started to run around the castle swiftly.

Roland estimated that the speed was about 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, based on his experience of driving on the highway every year when he went back to his hometown. The speed was not fast, similar to the airspeed of pigeons. However, it was impressive that she was able to carry both Nightingale and Wendy along when she flew to Border Town.

What was the idea of being able to carry 100 kilograms of weights when taking off? Roland imagined a piston engine that was carrying 100 kilograms of aerial bombs.

However, the following experiment broke his wonderful illusion

As the weight was exceeding 50 kilograms (about 110 pounds), Lightning's flying altitude drastically dropped from the previous flying altitude of 100 meters to only about 10 meters. When the weight was added to approximately 100 kilograms, Lightning would barely fly up to 2 meters.

This meant that if Roland wanted to transform Lightning into a bomber, even with explosive bags that weighed only a couple of kilograms, she would have still run into the enemies' crossbow range due to her flying altitude.

However, Roland soon discerned the new capability of the young girl—she would be the perfect candidate for either investigation or firing. The annihilation plan that had been bothering Roland seemed to have a possibility now.

When Roland was testing Lightning's power, Wendy was quietly watching Roland from aside.

After Wendy's departure from the cloister, she had seen countless people in her 15 years of wandering life: plebeians, farmers, artisans, soldiers, and the noble. Those people had all acted the same. They expressed their admiration and amorous feelings to her when they did not know that she was a witch. When they found out, all of their previous adornment to her would turn into abhorrence and fear, at the same time with a despicable lust that made Wendy want to puke.

She thought that she would have only accompanied witches in her life, and would no longer approach any men. This was the reason that she rejected Nightingale... It was not due to distrust, but rather the fear that obsessed her.

However, Roland Wimbledon changed her views.

The way he looked at her was too normal—as if he had seen for countless times. The first moment that Wendy saw Roland in Nightingale's room, she thought it was because that Roland was hiding his emotions very well. Besides, Nightingale was there too. However, in the following few days, he also had carried the same expressions.

Perhaps Prince Roland's standards were higher than the ordinary noble?

And for that roll of contract, Wendy thought that it was merely a pretentious act. However, as she was reading it, she discovered the numerous provisions that not only regulated responsibilities but also clarified her granted rights.

How incredible! Prince Roland was willing to take the witches. It was already very generous of him not to deprive their freedom, but he even notified their rights on the contract?

For instance, Art. 2.1 (it was the first time that Wendy saw such written articles), she was granted with paid vacations. According to the following definition, it meant that she could receive remunerations without having to work. The following article stated that the witch should complete the project assigned by the employer, but if the witch felt difficult in completing the project, she could propose to switch or reject it. The next article said that the employer should guarantee the security, housing, food, and remuneration for the witch. If this portion of the conditions was not satisfied, the witch could terminate the contract on her own.

These articles were a bit difficult to read but fully expressed their meanings. The contracted withes were not the prince's belongings. Wendy was granted with responsibilities in accord with her rights. In this contract, she felt the sincerity of Prince Roland—if it were merely a pretentious act, there would be no need to list such detailed articles.

Coming to this conclusion, Wendy could not help looking at Nightingale. Wendy knew very well Nightingale's personal experiences and knew her deep loath toward the noble. However, as of this moment, when Nightingale was talking to Roland, her tone and expression showed a different kind of emotion—a change that perhaps even herself was unsure.

It was only two month after Nightingale left the witch group and went to Border Town. Through the two months, Nightingale developed a complete trust toward this young man.

She would instead end with the Witch Cooperation Association to return to Border Town. In her heart, Roland Wimbledon had more possibilities than the Witch Cooperation Association in bringing the witches to their true sanctuary. The act of her respected mentor was also heart-breaking. That founder of the Witch Cooperation Association seemed to forget how hard it was for every surviving sister.

Wendy knew that she could not return. If fate brought her to the place, why would not she trust Nightingale's decision? Just like how she trusted her for numerous times...

"Wendy?"

"Ahh..." Wendy came back to the reality from her thoughts. She found that Lightning had already completed the capability test and everyone was looking at her.

She showed an apologetic smile and headed to the outside of the shack.

Since she had made her determination, then she should not lose to the younger generation, right?

At that moment, the buzzing noise of horn came from the west side. The sound reverberated among mountains and broke the serenity of the town.

Chapter 65 - The Inauspicious Omen

He had heard the horn go off several times before. In most cases, it was when dozens of the demonic beasts came to assault the border. The Militia now could handle such situation with ease.

Therefore, Roland did not panic at all. He announced to suspend the training for today, asked Wendy and Lightning to go back to the castle for rest and Anna to escort Nana to the medical center for patients, and he himself rushed to the city wall with Nightingale.

Unexpectedly, Lightning opposed. "As an explorer, I have resided in the Western Region for so long but haven't even seen a large scale assault of demonic beasts. That's disgraceful and humiliating. I request to come along!"

Without a second thought, Roland rejected Lighting's protest and told Wendy to keep an eye on Lightning, strictly forbidding Lightning to run around at a time when the demonic beasts were assaulting.

He then looked at Nightingale. The latter nodded her head, grabbed his hand, stepped into the Mist, and went straight to the city wall—when Roland found out that Nightingale was able to bring any objects with her into the Mist, he soon addicted to such a transportation method. Traveling straight through roadblocks and ignoring the topography, with several meters in one step, this gave Roland the pleasure as if the world was his camp.

After arriving at the foot of the city wall, Roland found a vacant corner to step out of the Mist and went on the defensive line alone. The wilderness from the far side looked snowy white. He did not see a large scale assault of the demonic beasts. Was this a mistake? Not only Roland, the Militia that came afterward also had an internal discussion.

The prince found Iron Axe and noticed that Iron Axe was staring afar with such a solemn expression while his hand was still tightly holding the horn.

"Did you set off the alarm?"

"Yes Your Highness, please take a look..." His voice sounded much dryer than usual. "That thing is coming."

That thing? Roland looked afar but could only vaguely see a small black dot. It was hard to spot it even in a pure white background. According to the rules, the horn alarm would only go off when the patrol team could not adequately handle the situation. However, as an experienced hunter, Iron Axe must have had his reasons.

"It's a demonic hybrid." Iron Axe swallowed. "I met it six years ago."

[Really?] Roland frowned. Theoretically, demonic beasts would keep assaulting Longsong Stronghold until they died—they did not have intelligence so they had no idea of retreating. Longsong Stronghold had never been conquered, but it did not die and even lived till six years? An inauspicious feeling arose in Roland's heart.

However, the distance was so far to the point that he could only saw a black dot, but Iron Axe was able to decipher the type of the demonic beasts. That was a shockingly good eyesight. Or perhaps, Iron Axe misjudged, Prince Roland thought.

The demonic beast did not make Roland wait for too long. It started to move toward the city wall. Soon, everyone noticed the unique physical features of that target.

Unlike the massive body of the previous demonic hybrid, it looked like an enlarged feline at a glance. However, it had wings on its back that covered the sides of its body when the wings were not expanded. Its head was similar to lion's but had two pairs of eyes—if the extra pair of eyes was not for decoration, then it could notice any movements from its back without turning its head.

Carter and the other hunter had already loaded ammunition and prepared for combat.

However the lion type demonic hybrid did not rush to attack. It stopped outside of the shooting range of crossbow bolts and looked around.

That distance was within the effective shooting distance of flintlock, but the hit rate was almost zero.

After a moment, it suddenly jumped to the left side and expanded its wings, making the whole body flying to the midair. Just like what Iron Axe said, it could fly for a short distance to glide. After it got over the roadblocks, the demonic hybrid quickly ran to the west side of the city wall where nobody was guarding.

Roland's trepidation grew, the inauspicious omen came true. From how it observed the weakness and strength of the opponent and chose to attack the weak side, it proved that it had intelligence—that was what the wild beasts lacked. The wild animals sometimes would attack the weak side of their pray. However, such was instinctual act through years of inheritance. When facing an unknown opponent, it was impossible for the wild beasts to judge, not to mention to make a comprehensive analysis.

What did it mean by owning intelligence? Humans relied on the exceptional brain and outstanding resilience to climb to the top of the food chain from the cruel ecosystem. Roland was afraid to think furthermore. He waved his hand to have Chief Knight Carter accompany him. The rest of the hunters would follow Iron Axe to attack the demonic beast.

It ran to a vacant area, jumped and got over the city wall with ease. It moved straight to the residential area, wholly ignored the Hunter Squad.

"Bastard?" Roland cursed. "The Militia members from the second range of the city wall, follow me. The substitute members shall go on and guard the city wall!"

At this point, he could not bother to care the fact that the Militia only had fencing training. The team would most likely come apart during the movement and would be attacked by the demonic beasts. Carter led the guards to follow the prince. Every one of them had the strongest fighting capacity, and they could substitute any possible lacks. At the end of the team was the flintlock team led by Iron Axe.

As they entered the Old District, their views were blocked by flat houses. Besides, the roads were narrow and covered by snow, so the team had limitations on their movements. Roland had to separate the team and move around in the crisscrossed ally, hoping to find the demonic beast.

Roland regretted not bringing Lightning. If he had a witch to investigate in the air, then the team would not need to run around the allies with no directions.

They searched for about eight minutes and all of a sudden the screams of the town resident came from the deep end of the alley.

The team immediately adjusted their direction and moved toward the sound. Fortunately, many of the Militia members were residents of the Old District. After knowing the destination, they swiftly moved around in the narrow alley and even walked across the backyard of someone's house. When they reached the place, Roland saw someone was bitten into two pieces, and the intestine was scattered and apparently dead.

"Jesus... this is Iron Fork, I know him!"

"Damn it, did it run away?"

"Watch out! To your right side!" Someone called suddenly. As soon as the sentence finished, a black shadow whipped across from the right side of the wooden house with the scattering wooden fragments. It came straight through the wall of the wooden house, flew into the group, and pushed down a militia member with its claw and bit him.

Iron Axe was the first one to react. He raised the gun and was about to shoot, but found that the diffused Militia members blocked the alley. He had no chance to fire, so he had to squeeze through the crowd and walked to the target step by step. All the other hunters noticed this problem. They all clung their gun under their arm and jumped onto the roof of the houses.

Demonic hybrid did not care about the guns that were pointing at it. It expanded the wings, blocked the stabs from the crowd, and picked up the militia member that was covered in blood. However, the gun was fired when it was about to leave.

There were drips of dark blood on its body.

The demonic hybrid roared in anger after being attacked by the gun. It threw off its prey, opened wings and was about to fly into the hunter that was standing on top of the roof. At the same moment, Iron Axe squeezed out of the crowd, aimed at the demonic beast and fired.

The near front shooting was impossible to miss. The hot gas of the gunpowder even sprayed to the nose of the monster. The bullet went straight through the eye of its target and all the way into the monster's brain.

The demonic hybrid stiffened and collapsed.

Chapter 66 - The Battle of Hermes (I)

...

Icy rain trickled down and diluted the blood-smelling air in Holy City. Alicia panted heavily, leaning on her longsword.

It was not the first time for her to have taken part in the defensive battles of Hermes. But it had never occurred to her that they could ever possibly lose New Holy City.

The city wall was completely destroyed.

Alicia had never seen so many horrific monsters in her life. An enormous worm-like hybrid beast scuttled from underground, with its body close to the glacial cliff and its bony claws deeply embedded into the city wall. When it had climbed to the top of the city wall, its whole body had not even fully emerged from the ground.

Enormity alone would not matter so much. But to everyone's surprise, the beast opened its wide mouth and spat out countless demonic hybrids, which instantly created chaos on the city wall.

The army that had been in order soon turned into a state of commotion under the attack of demonic beasts. The vanguard of the Judgement Army, to which Alicia belonged, were also scattered in this commotion. She saw how her companions were devoured one after another by demonic beasts, unable to help them. Warm human blood mingled with the black blood of the monsters, flowed along the cracks on the flagstone pavement.

As the retreat bugle call was heard, the mangonel in Holy City was also started. Stones as large as a table were hurriedly thrown down, regardless of the soldiers that still fought on the city wall.

Alicia remembered how a huge stone had hit Captain Dicarto right beside her. When she got up and stood on her feet again, she saw that he, along with his armor, had been crashed into the cracked pavement. His whole body looked like a creased parchment. His smashed bowels had flown out from his belly, whereas hot steaming blood had collected and formed a small puddle beneath him.

If she had not escaped the attack of the stone before it was too late, she thought, her end would be just like that of Captain Dicarto.

As for how she had escaped and retreated under the city wall, Alicia could not remember clearly. All she could remember was screaming and cursing. Everyone stabbed and chopped anyone and anything with their weapons in madness, not knowing whether they fought with demonic beasts or their own companions.

Out of around 100 soldiers of the Judgement Army, there were only 12 left including herself.

"What should we do next, Captain!"

"Captain Alicia!"

Alicia came back to her senses. Right. According to the ordinances of the Judgement Army, when a captain dies in battle, then the duty of the captain naturally fell on the shoulders of the deputy captain of the same platoon, who should lead the platoon in following battles.

She bit her lips until she tasted her own blood. "We'll go to the North Gate of Holy City. If demonic beasts want to attack New Holy City, they'll have to pass from there." This command meant forsaking the city wall and the populated area of the inner city, but she had no choice, for nowhere else could be more important than the pivot of the church—the Hermes Cathedral.

What she did not say out loud was a question that lingered on her heart, [What could she and the other 11 people do, if the glacial cliffs were incapable of stopping these monsters?"

[Perhaps today is the day for me to sacrifice myself for God's kingdom. May the Lord have mercy," she prayed silently and shouted at the same time, "The Judgement Army never gives up! Let's move!"

"The Judgement Army never gives up!" her companions echoed her.

The 12 ran to the North Gate in a trail formation, while the noises of fighting from the city wall died down in the sounds of wind and rain.

When they arrived at the North Gate, Alicia saw that quite a lot of soldiers from the Judgement Army had gathered before the drawbridge. It seemed that everyone shared the same idea, the thought of which made her feel a little better.

However, the drawbridge was let down even at this moment of crisis. Alicia could not help but frown. She walked to a handsome warrior in the red robe of the chief justice and saluted him. "Your Excellency Chief Justice, I'm the Captain of the 4th Platoon of the vanguard, Alicia Quinn!"

"I'm Tucker Thor in charge of the defense of North Gate. You have all my regard." The man nodded to her. "We've set up a rescue center behind the North Gate. If any of your soldiers are wounded, you can send them to the center."

"Sir, I don’t understand why we don’t raise the drawbridge. The demonic beasts on the city wall could swarm here at any minute. We must make sure that we don’t lose the inner city."

"Calm down, Captain. I know you and your men are unafraid of making sacrifices. But you should not sacrifice in vain. The situation is far from desperate for the church." He wiped the raindrops away from his forehead. "Await orders now at the gathering point. If Cold Expelling Pills are used up, remember to ask for them from the Supply Officers."

Upon hearing what Chief Justice Tucker Thor had said, Alicia found herself chilling in the wind. After the battle, sweat and cold rain had mingled and made her body freeze. Piercing wind blew in her direction and sent her trembling.

She took out a sheepskin pouch from her underclothes' pocket and shook the pouch with its opening down to her palm. Yet only some thick fluid dripped down. It seemed that she had crushed the pills in battle. She sighed and raised her head, only to find a Cold Expelling Pill in reddish brown color being handed to her.

"You should take mine." Tucker Thor smiled to her. "You can give it back when you have one."

Alicia did not refuse his kindness. She took the pill, bit and swallowed it. "Perhaps we'll never have the chance to eat this thing once again."

"Yes, that way it wouldn't be too bad." Tucker went so far as to nod in agreement. "This thing tastes way too bad."

Upon these words, a strong fishy smell rose from the stomach of Alicia and gushed to her head. Even battlefields with all their corpses would not smell so repelling. She felt as if what she had swallowed down was no pill at all, but a mixture of long-rotten flesh and blood. Unbearable numbness gradually came to every part of her body from the stomach. Chills were suddenly repelled. Instead, glowing warmth started to flow in her veins. Her body resumed its normal temperature while frozen sweat ran down. Her head was steaming. Her numb toes went nimble again.

"But it should not be today." Seeing her have swallowed the pill, Chief Justice Tucker Thor waved his hand. "God's Punishment Army is coming from the cathedral. The demonic beasts can't pass through the North Gate. Take your men to the gathering point. Remember to check if they all have the pills. They aren't supposed to follow your example and to find there's none when the pills are needed."

God's Punishment Army, the crack troop of the church! Alicia had heard about it for long, though she had never seen it with her own eyes. But no matter how powerful God's Punishment Army was, it could only be composed of humans. With human's bodies, no matter how hard they had been trained, there could be no chance of their beating numberless demonic hybrids easily.

But since Tucker Thor said so, she could only leave the North Gate with her platoon of 11 men and approached the gathering point to the west.

Here hundreds of retreated members of the Judgement Army had gathered. They stood dispersed in the field and let rain run down their faces. Some of them even sat on the ground in low spirit. Only a small number of them stood in formation and awaited the enemies that could appear at any minute.

If it had been a few days ago, Alicia would have scolded these people. But now she was confused herself. In order to build this New Holy City, countless believers had died. Every stone in this city had the blood of believers and Judgement Army spilled for it. The bishop always said that to own Hermes meant to own Kingdom of God on earth.

However, on this day the Kingdom of God seemed soon to fall into the hand of demon's minions.

"Demonic beasts are coming!" Someone yelled. "Be prepared to fight the enemies!"

Alicia gathered herself together and held up her long sword. Gazing at the shadows in the sky that were approaching, she shouted, "For Hermes!"

"For New Holy City!"

Chapter 67 - The Battle of Hermes (II)

But the expected final battle did not happen.

Someone walked to the female warrior and lowered her sword handle.

"Step back," he spoke in a soft and clear voice. Alicia noticed that the other party was one of the soldiers who remained in formation. On his arm, he wore the band of Regimental Commander. "The God's Punishment Army has come."

She turned her head and saw a platoon of tall warriors, one after another, all clad in shiny armor from head to toe which reflected a silvery tone in rain walking through the North Gate. They all wore crimson cloaks on their backs and carried various weapons in their hands. Some held swords and shields in their hands, and others held halberds, spears or iron axes. They did not resume formation after crossing the drawbridge but joined the fight against the attacking demonic beasts directly.

[What kind of strategy is that! It's child's play! When faced with demonic hybrids whose strength and speed far surpassed humans, the only way to beat them is to keep the formation and fight them collaboratively. Do they want to fight the demonic hybrids individually in this way? Should I just wait aside and do nothing while the God's Punishment Army fights the monsters?] Alicia thought.

"We have to give them a hand!"

"It would be no use." That man shook his head. He looked gloomy. "We should just watch. If we step in too rashly, we can only make things worse."

"Make things worse?" Alicia stared at the man, exasperated. "Did I make a mistake about the man? Is he only a coward?" She held her sword handle tight and walked past him, ready to join the fight. However uncertain she felt about the future of New Holy City, all she could do was fight the enemy until the end of her life.

Before she took another step, the female warrior saw an incredible scene.

A flying demonic hybrid was swooping down from the sky. With its gigantic gray wings that stretched nearly 4 meters wide, it seemed to have come directly out of hell. It had the head of a bird with ram's horns on it and two claws with barbs that could penetrate the cuirass of any warrior.

They were used to attacking by vertical fall, which was covert and made defense extremely difficult. The heavy shield was defenseless in face of the pouncing force. The strong force of impact would crash the arm as well as chest bones of the one who held the shield. There would be no way to survive under that condition. The only way to deal with the fatal attack was to dodge it by rolling aside before the hybrid landed.

But no one from the God's Punishment Army ever dodged. A warrior in silvery armor reached out both his hands the minute before the hybrid pounced on him, he hit the hybrids claws with his own hands. The pouncing force was so great that it sounded like firecrackers. Mist rose from him and the monster. His armor also groaned under the force.

He lowered his body by bending his right leg and kept his back straight. The hybrid was unable to crash him at that moment. Another warrior soon aimed his javelin at this flying hybrid and a silver light darted before Alice's eyes—she saw the shattered head of the monster.

The former warrior tossed the dead body of the hybrid to the ground. His arm was in a crooked unnatural position. It seemed he had taken damage from the previous attack. Despite the broken arm, he took out an axe from his belt and threw himself toward the other demonic beasts.

Alicia could not believe her eyes when she saw how humans had been successfully resisting these monsters. Hundreds of God's Punishment Army warriors had sprung to the herd of demonic beasts. Their crimson cloaks looked like a river of blood that prevented the enemies from taking one more step. She now understood what the regimental commander meant by "making things worse". Every one of these warriors had the power to fight ten demonic beasts, for their strength, agility and speed could be compared to those of demonic hybrids—No, even better than them. Common demonic beasts would mean nothing in front of them.

"They're just wonderful!" Alicia beamed with happiness. With these powerful warriors, Hermes Cathedral could not be lost to the enemies. "Ah. I haven't known your name yet. I'm Alicia Quinn, a Captain in the Judgement Army. You seem to have known about the power of the God's Punishment Army?"

The other party looked at her with his eyes that were as cold as the icy rain. He did not tell her his name but said, "My brother is a warrior in the God's Punishment Army."

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

"We seem to have won," at the dome of the cathedral, Archbishop Mayne said with a telescope in his hands. Here was the pivotal point of New Holy City. One can easily overlook more than a half of the battlefield from here with the spyglass of fjords merchants. "Make the mangonel stop. The God's Punishment Army will soon arrive at the top of the city wall."

"Isn't the victory a sure thing?" the other answered. He wore the same golden archbishop's robe as Mayne. Yet his voice sounded hoary. "The most important thing is the armies of the four kingdoms are all crashed."

"Right. In this way, their defensive force on the border would be weakened so much," the last one among them said. She was the youngest among them, no more than 30 years old, and the only female among the three archbishops. "A standing army of 5,000 well-equipped and well-trained men plus nearly 1,000 knights. Even if one set off replenishing the force immediately from now, that would still take four to five years. Um..." She exclaimed, "What a wonderful and malicious scheme!"

"But to reach this end, we've lost many men of the Judgement Army. They're all core forces of the church." Mayne sighed. "If any other plan could have worked as quickly as this, I wouldn't have tossed them into this hell."

The old man touched his beard and said, "We have no other choice. Just like our Holy Book has told us, Wilderness Beasts have emerged. There's little time left. If we can't unite the whole continent and integrate all the forces, only doom awaits us."

"Doom isn't bad at all." The woman smiled provocatively. "Humans are greedy, malicious, and short-sighted. They do things which are more horrible than what demonic beasts have done. The devil in hell may be kinder than us."

"Heather!" The old man bristled with anger. "What you've said was heresy! Are you trying to disobey God's command?"

"You don't have to worry about that, Lord Tayfun." Heather shrugged her shoulders disapprovingly. "I'm the one who's in charge of the Tribunal, not you! Besides, does God command that we should survive? How do you know whether or not he would care more for the devil?"

"You…!"

"That's enough! Tayfun! Heather!" Mayne said scathingly, "That's enough for today. Later on, I'll report the whole situation to the pope. Now you should both finish your own business."

...

When the two had left, Mayne stood before the French window and looked toward the north. Behind the fracture of the Impassable Mountain Range lay the snow-covered Land of Everwinter and to the west of it was the Barbarian Region, where everything began.

He knew that Archbishop Tayfun was right. God's Punishment Warriors were too rare. They were only chosen and trained from the ones who were most faithful to the church and had the strongest will. With almost 100 years' of efforts by the church, there were still no more than 1,000 people in this army, whose number was far from enough to fight against the demons.

But those were all that the north could provide. If they wanted more forces, there was no alternative to uniting the continent.

Of course, what Archbishop Heather said was also right. She had brought ten thousands of criminals and witches to trial. But all the trials that the criminals and witches had gone through were not half as cruel as the deliberate Pyrrhic victory of today.

The higher one's status was in the church, the more one could feel that God was neither good nor evil.

"How do you know if he would care more for the demons?" Thinking of Heather's words, Mayne could not help but laugh out loud. Only she could make Lord Tayfun sore and speechless. "It was only that", he thought to himself, "God didn't care for the people on earth, as he didn't care for the devil."

"He only cares for the one who wins."

Chapter 68 - The Funeral

The funeral was held on a wasteland on the southwest side of Border Town.

It was not appropriate to call it a wasteland. Yet this piece of land that no one cared about was already surrounded by a small fence of rubble, and the wall covered with thick snow. From far, it looked like a silver lining. Although one could cross over with one foot, yet looking at it, Van'er still unwittingly thought of the border city walls - they were the same color, the same shape.

He heard of this ritual from traveling businessmen. When a great noble or member of the royal family member died, the deceased's family would gather at the cemetery, where sad tunes were played and people mourned before the coffin was finally buried underground. The higher the status, the more pompous the occasion would be.

The dead got more attention than the living. He thought enviously at the time. What happened when someone from Border Town passed away? Probably a pit would be dug and filled at the edge of the Misty Forest. Who could know if the demonic beasts would dig out the corpse and eat it during the Months of Demons?

Death was always familiar to the inhabitants of Border Town, especially every winter on the way to seek refuge in Longsong Stronghold. Everyone would cram together in the shacks of the slums. Dying of hunger and cold, or illness and pain, was quite normal. No one had time to be sad. It would make more sense to save this energy to beg for more bread in the city center when the dawn came.

But today, His Highness went so far as to arrange a funeral for a soldier!

It was rumored that the soldier was in the pursuit of a hybrid demonic beast when he was thrown to the ground and had half his head bitten off.

Van'er knew this unlucky guy, who was considered a familiar face at the Old District. He had no name and everyone just called him Ali. He had a wife and two children. The older one was about six years old and the younger barely started walking.

In usual cases, this family would be over. The woman could find another man. But who would be willing to take care of the two children? The two little ones could be stranded on the road so that they could learn to feed themselves. Or the mother would still keep them by soliciting clients at a bar and finally die of a variety of strange diseases.

But His Royal Highness seemed trying to honor his commitment when he recruited the Militia. In case of sacrifices during the war, one would not only receive all the pay, there would also be an additional compensation. What was it called again? Van'er thought, ah... yes, the pension. And this money was worth five gold royals.

In addition, provisions of food and charcoal would be issued every month. This meant that Ali's wife could take care of the two children even if she did not work. Well, these benefits could hardly be counted upon, but the gold royals were undoubtedly real. He saw His Royal Highness place the pensions into the hands of the chief knight, who then transferred it to Ali's wife.

Hell, why did he suddenly feel a little envious of Ali? No, no, Van'er shook his head repeatedly to expel these silly ideas. He did not want his wife to benefit from his death... and she most likely ended up as someone else's wife.

After distributing the money was the address of His Highness. It was very short, but it touched Van'er. Especially the phrase "We'll never forget those who have sacrificed their lives to protect loved ones and the innocent". After hearing this, he felt a surge of warmth in his heart. That was why recently, in addition to the bread and silver royals, he always felt he had some other pursuits—at least this winter, they survived, relying on their own hands, and not the charity of Longsong Stronghold.

The last part was the burial. Ali's coffin was placed in the dug pit. Chief Knight let everyone queue up, and every member of the Militia, whether he was a formal member or a substitute, stepped forward with a shovel to fill in a row of soil. As for queuing up, everyone was familiar with it so more than 200 people immediately formed four columns. When it was time for Van'er, he suddenly felt that the shovel became slightly heavier. The attention of his platoon members around him also slowed down his every action.

After he stood aside, his eyes transferred this feeling to the next in line.

The tombstone of Ali was a pure white rectangle stone, and Van'er did not understand a single word on it. Ali was not the first person to take residence in this wasteland. Next to Ali's was a tombstone of the same design, the top of which was covered with snow. When everyone left, Van'er saw the new Captain, Brian, pour a pot of ale slowly on the tombstone.

If this was his own destination, it did not seem bad. He could not help but think so.

"Your Highness," on the way to the castle, Carter suddenly spoke. "You did that to..."

"Was that inappropriate?"

"No." He thought and finally shook his head. "I can't tell, I just think that no one has ever treated the recruited subjects like this—they have neither title nor family background, not even surnames or names."

"But you still felt good, right?"

"Uh..."

Roland smiled. Of course, he knew how strongly this idea would appeal to Carter, who also saw honor in fight and guardianship. When people start thinking about for whom and why they were fighting, the platoon would undergo unimaginable changes. There was a deep significance for Carter: once honor was no longer the privilege of the noble alone, and through his training and teaching, the civilian population who had nothing could also obtain honor by defending their homes, his doubled sense of accomplishment was simply indescribable.

Of course, the public funeral was just a beginning, Roland thought, he still had many means that could be used to enhance the collective sense of honor, such as the design of a military flag, the composition of a military song, the choice of a model hero and so on.

Every kind of spirit had its own origin. Only the relentless practice day after day would instill the idea and gradually achieve results. In order to ensure the reliable operating system in the future, he even arranged a small team consisting of himself, the City Hall, the Militia team to ensure that the follow-up food and charcoal were continually distributed.

As things progressed, Roland felt that his burden was getting heavier. Border town was still too backward, though people's livelihood had started to get on track. There was adequate food reserve, and so far no one had starved or frozen to death. This would have been a miracle in other cities. Even in the king's city, the capital of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the winter wiped out many refugees or orphans every year.

But he wanted far more than that, the City Hall's operating load had already reached the limit. All financial and administrative management relied on Assistant Minister Barov and his dozen apprentices. If he wanted to further expand the department, he had to recruit some managers. He had once asked Barov if there were any capable students or colleagues left in the king's city, but he received a cold reply: "Even if there were, they wouldn't be willing to come. Your Highness, do you realize how bad your reputation is in the king's city?"

[Well, that sounds reasonable,] he thought unhappily.

Back at the castle backyard, Nightingale stepped out of the Mist and gave a warm embrace to Wendy, who was waiting outside the wooden shed. Lightning hung around the unfinished steam boring machine and once she saw Roland, immediately insisted she wanted to help assemble this automatic machine.

Looking at this scene, he suddenly felt that his efforts had been worth it.

Chapter 69 - Producing Cannons

Four days later, a firing room was built in the backyard at North Slope Mine.

Two deep holes were dug in the yard, each one was round, with a narrow top and a wide bottom. The front diameter was about 20 centimeters, while the rear end was enlarged to 26 centimeters. Roland intended to use these holes to cast the mold. The hole had already been baked by Anna, and the surface of the soil was sintered into a whole like an outer shell. The chamber faced downwards so that a better wall quality could be achieved during casting. If the chamber were placed higher, more dross and bubbles would be produced. All the cave sizes were calculated by shells as he vaguely remembered that the so-called six-pound and eight-pound cannon were named according to the weight of their shells. So a few 12-pound iron balls were poured out, and the ball diameter plus barrel wall thickness were used to calculate the mold diameter.

Roland decided to customize the standard himself since he had no measurement tools. He intercepted a section with his own ring finger and set it as a centimeter. He then used this method to produce other sizes of iron bars and engraved the section lines.

A 12-pound iron ball diameter roughly measured about 12 centimeters. He set the thinnest wall with a thickness of four centimeters. The back of the chamber had its wall thickness expanded to seven centimeters, in order to prevent bombing. Thus the mold diameter could be obtained in this way. As for its length, although he knew that the cannon was measured by its caliber, he could only remember the caliber of battleships and cannon tanks. As for antique-like guns, he really had no idea.

He also took into account that a shorter tube, would not only be lighter but would also be cost-effective and reduce the amount of material needed. So Roland casually came up with the figure of one and a half meter, knowing that if the test results were not satisfactory, this figure could still be adjusted in the future.

When the cannon was first invented, it was made of iron on the wooden core and sealed with iron powder. Then it was reinforced with iron hoop, before the core would be burnt away in the borehole, just like the barrel storage. Roland knew that this type of cannon had a high risk of bombing due to gas leaking, so he decided to use the overall casting and the boring machine drilling process. As for the steam boring machine, whether it was drilling a 6-pound cannon or a 12-pound cannon made no difference in the level of difficulty.

He also believed that the caliber equated to justice, so he chose the 12-pound cannon which had a larger muzzle and a thicker barrel. If it got any bigger, it would not be easy to use as a field artillery. As for the weight of the shell, whether it was calculated as a shot or an iron ball was not important, as long as it could shoot out. After all, he was just drawing on the experiences of history, and not imitating everything.

"Let's start," said Roland taking a deep breath, facing Anna. The latter nodded, grabbed a piece of steel ingot, and hung it over the top of the hole. Green flames ignited. The ingot quickly turned red, and then melted, forming a small molten waterfall, which flowed into the hole. The steel surface was red and orange, the core became incandescent, and its brightness was difficult to look at directly. In order to protect the witch's eyesight, Roland also deliberately set up extra support for her in the hole. She only needed to determine the location in advance and place her arm on the support pad, then she would not need to stare at the liquid steel to observe whether it flowed into the hole.

These steel ingots were slowly accumulated over time. Anna alone would not be able to kick start the great steel making era, but producing a small batch was easy for her—once the temperature issue was solved, frying the steel would be able to produce more high-quality steel.

This was also why Roland dared to customize the size of the barrel. Compared to pig iron or bronze barrels, steel cast barrel was obviously stronger. Even if the size was not right, the cannon would still not bomb easily.

The liquid steel gradually increased, while the steel ingots were swiftly used up. Roland felt some heartache as he saw this. How long would it take before he could build a pile of chimneys and blast furnace on his domain so that he could refine an endless amount of steel? For a long time, steel production was one of the criteria to measure the power and strength of a country. He finally understood the reason for that now.

Anna's cheeks became glowing red after filling the two molds. Roland saw this and took out his handkerchief to dab the sweat from her nose. At the beginning, Anna showed a little resistance towards Roland's touch, but now she would stand still and allow Roland to do so with her eyes closed.

Her falling bangs looked red on the edges as they reflected the liquid steel, while the softness of her neck seemed to invite a nimble. As he was much taller, he could see the exposed half of her delicate clavicle. When they were close to each other, he could get a whiff of the fragrance from her body.

"Well, okay..." Roland put away the handkerchief and suppressed his passion. "Let's call it a day. You did well, and I'll inform the kitchen to reward you with an extra slice of black pepper steak."

[Not now,] he thought, [this will look like I'm taking advantage of her. Wait till she's really free...]

Anna opened her eyes. Although the sweat had been wiped away, her face seemed redder than before. She nodded towards Roland and gently said, "Yes."

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

Over the next few days, Roland traveled between the castle and the North Slope Mine.

In addition to the barrel, he also needed to produce a sufficient amount of boring knives.

This tool for drilling was produced in the same way as barrels. The diameter and shells were exactly the same. Once removed from the mold, Anna would heat it again, and rely on hammer processing to mold it. It was very different from the shape of a screwdriver and it looked more like a blunt iron bar. The only difference was that the head had a gap knocked out for the discharge of metal debris. Finally, quenching was used to improve the hardness of the boring knife.

Unlike modern high-precision boring machines, Roland only needed a rod that could drill holes. Taking into account the high wear and tear rate, he and Anna made five of these simple boring knives in a week. Prior to this, the steam boring machine had already proven its ability—the production of pig iron barrels increased rapidly from 2 per month to 10 per day.

When everything was ready, the cannon was mined by the miners from the pit, cleared of surface scum, and transported to the blacksmith shop.

The two cannons almost exhausted the rolled steel accumulated by Roland. Steel was definitely a priceless commodity. During transportation, the prince ordered Carter and two knights to guard them the whole journey. Chief Knight felt arranging the extra security was not necessary. Who would steal such a heavy thing?

The blacksmiths carried out leveling and polishing of the appearance of the cannons at the request of the prince. After polishing, it was transported to the castle backyard. At this point, the two rounds of solid steel stick appeared dark gray and emitted a thick metallic luster.

Roland could not wait to put on the boring tool and put the cannons in place together with Carter. The top of the knife needed to be in the center of the steel bar.

Roland pulled off the steam engine door at this historic moment. The boring knife began to move slowly and it did not take long to rise to a stable speed.

"Come on!" the prince shouted.

The chief knight activated the sliding base to control the amount of contact between the cannon and the boring tool. When the head touched the barrel, the harsh noise suddenly overshadowed the roar of the steam engine. Lard was used as a lubricant and squeezed into the hole, before black foam and the metal curls gushed out. The witches there started to withdraw from the wooden shed, but only Lightning insisted on remaining. She felt that these swarthy machines were more beautiful than any scenery.

Chapter 70 - The Spy (Part I)

"Groundhog" Cole looked anxiously out the window.

Once it started snowing in this forsaken place, it would not stop. Though the sky looked like his grandmother's unwashed bed sheets, both dirty and gray, he still had other ways to tell the hour.

It was the training of the Militia. As long as the weather allowed, they would run through the square in the town center every morning when the birds chirped (at 8 o'clock). This bunch of fools was doing so before the Months of Demons arrived, and continued to do so even now. Did not they know the most important thing in winter was to save their strength? When the time came for them to run for their dear life, they would probably have to ask gods to give them an extra pair of legs. But thanks to this gang of fools, he was able to estimate the time when he should depart.

Yes, he wanted to flee this devilish town! Although the orders of Prince Timothy were for him to keep lurking in Border Town, so as to observe the movements of Prince Roland Wimbledon and pass the information to Valencia, he did not want to stay any longer.

He was afraid that after half a month, he would join the residents here to become the demons' sacrifice.

This was not an exaggeration!

Since winter arrived, strange things kept happening, which the others might not have been aware of—it was not surprising as most of the town people were country bumpkins. Other than food, they did not care about anything, and they did not even care about the deities. But he was different. He was "Groundhog" Cole! Inquiring about the news and stealing intelligence was his special skill, so that was why His Highness Timothy hired him for such a job.

As for the city wall that came out of nowhere overnight, or the iron stick that made loud strange noises but could also defeat demonic beasts, of course, this was not the most amazing discovery he found.

Prince Roland was openly keeping witches!

Merciful God, was there anything more exaggerated than this? The prince had to be controlled by demons, otherwise, he could not think of any other explanation!

Even if the prince wanted to dally with the witches, he could lock them in the castle and have fun anytime. This was not the first time that Cole heard about the noble secretly hiding witches—those wanton sorceresses who nobody would care about if they died suited the strange tastes of some nobles. However, openly admitting it was another thing.

This was not his delusion, for he actually saw it with his own eyes!

Following the principle of "You worked for whoever gave you money", if the snow was not too heavy, Cole would stroll around the city wall, where he could often see the figure of Prince Roland. Originally he was surprised, what made this incompetent prince have the courage to stay in Border Town, rather than rush back like a scaredy-cat to Longsong Stronghold. But now he fully understood, Roland Wimbledon had long been possessed by the demon.

He saw with his own eyes that the city wall was penetrated by huge demonic beasts, the demon used thunder to attack it, then the demonic beasts that flocked forward was engulfed by the hell flames summoned by a witch. Finally, this witch also fell into the prince's arms, yet the entire Militia did not seem surprised!

He then heard the rumors of the neighborhood, saying that there was a witch with healing power. She cured someone's injured son and also cured some old lady who broke her leg. What blasphemous words! How could they accept the treatment of a witch? How was that different from accepting the demon's corrosion?

What made Cole determined to return was the incident that happened two days ago. He saw a witch fly out of the prince's castle, flying around the castle twice and flying back. The priest of the church often said that after the witch was tempted by the demon, she could get only one power. He had already seen flame and flight. Coupled with the rumor about the witch that could heal, it meant that this small town actually had three witches!

There was no doubt that the demon had already turned the lord's castle into the demon's party nest, and the inhabitants of the land were gradually being controlled by him. Cole had to flee as soon as possible. Anyway, he knew the secret about the rapid construction of the city wall. As long as he passed this information and the stolen alchemy powder from the city wall to Prince Timothy, he would most likely not be punished, but would even be rewarded.

The more he thought about it, the more he regretted not evacuating with the nobles and returning to Longsong Stronghold at the start.

Now that he wanted to leave, road traffic would not work, as the snow throughout the winter would cover all the roads. His only chance was by the waterway and using the merchant ships of Willow Town.

According to Cole's observation, on the first day of each month, ships from Willow Town would bring food over. After two to three hours of unloading and loading, it would sail away from the pier. He had to use this time to infiltrate the boat, or he would have to wait till the next month.

Today was exactly the first day of the month.

"One, two, three, four, one two three four." Right at this time, Cole heard the familiar slogan. Outside the window, a platoon of young men dressed in brown leather vests was running. If he had not long seen through the demon's plot, he would also be deceived by their youthful vigor.

[It's time to go,] he thought.

He put on his fur coat, tightened his belt and walked out of the hut. Neighbors were outside collecting dried fish, and they even greeted him. "You're going out so early?"

He had to say, although the Lord of Border Town was controlled by the demon, these fools' lives actually changed for the better indeed. They even dared to dry fish outdoors—if people were famished, even the dried fish that was frozen like stone, they would be able to swallow it whole.

Cole did not have time to reply. He looked at the disappearing Militia in the west and went straight towards the direction of the pier. Here the inhabitants took him for the brother of Iron Paddle, who came from Fallen Dragon Ridge to visit his loved ones—of course, that was all lies spun by him. Before he got rid of Iron Paddle, he asked for his name and address and pretended to be his brother to lurk in the town. As for his casually fabricated identity, he did not care if those fools believed him or not.

The snow on the slated road was swept a few days ago, and now it almost covered the top of the shoes. He kept a firm pace as much as possible to conserve energy—he did not worry about leaving his footprints, for it would take just one day that the snow would cover them again. Maybe after he reached Valencia, they would still be kept in the dark.

When he was approaching the pier, Cole saw the long-awaited sailing ship of Willow Town.

Bags of wheat were being moved out while cabin guards watched the area. He touched his pocket, and inside there were two gold royals and six silver royals, which was his entire belongings. There were six guards, who would not bother about the silver royals, and yet he did not have enough gold royals to share. So he had to target the porters. The stacked goods provided a blind spot; besides, he was good at knocking out and replacing a porter. If he could smuggle onto the boat, he believed that with the temptation of the gold royals, the captain would very likely be persuaded to harbor him and take him away.

Just as Cole was ready to act, uproar came behind him.

His heart secretly assumed the worst. When he turned back, he saw a few members of the militia team coming toward him while people around were moving towards him. Apparently, he had been surrounded.

Seeing that the attempt to escape was hopeless, Cole immediately held up his hands and knelt on the ground. In his line of work, it was important to not stubbornly resist. As long as he spilled the beans about his employer, he would generally be safe and sound, or... they would even pay a higher price to hire him instead.

"Do as much work as you're paid for" was also "Groundhog" Cole's principle.

But he did not understand how he was exposed?

Chapter 71 - The Spy (Part II)

In addition to the flame in the fireplace, there was also a mahogany candle holder on Barov's table. The top was divided into four fork branches, with the one in the middle being the highest and the other three in a triangular shape. Each branch had a burning candle on it, with their quiet light like bright icy mountaintops.

The room was filled with the smell of pine oil. The scent of sweet and moist rotten wood made him sleepy. But in Border Town, he could not ask for more. Elegance had nothing to do with this poor land and having a house for shelter was already very good, not to mention that he now had a large group of houses.

His office was located in a compound not far from the castle, where the City Hall initially built by the former lord lay. Of course, the lord took all his men when he left, and now it was the assistant minister's territory.

The continuous rustling sound of writing and the whistling winds outside the window constituted two different worlds. Barov was struggling to write on a wooden table fully covered with books and old scrolls. There were two low-lying long tables beside him, which were hardly used and just for placing manuscripts. When it was necessary, he would call his disciples to work at the low table to arrange information or compose drafts.

The candle on the mahogany holder had already been changed three times. Apart from getting up to replace them, Barov did not stop writing. Time was precious for him. There was a pile of documents waiting for him to deal with, and His Highness' financial expenditure also needed to be carefully reviewed.

Now Barov worked an average of 10 hours a day, but he did not feel tired at all. Instead, here he was able to work freely and had unending vigor. [This was the taste of power,] he thought. He no longer had to ape his tutor's footsteps. All the disciples had to obey him. No one dared to hinder him or cause problems. As long as he completed the orders of His Royal Highness, the specific process of governance could be decided by him.

It would be perfect if the prince's order could be slightly more normal. Barov pouted regretfully. For example, the document in front of him that had Roland's personal seal had a request to send staff to Willow Town to recruit management personnel and also to purchase a double mast ship. The second article also specifically wrote: In view of the price, you can do without the captain, helmsmen, and sailors.

He did not know whether to laugh or cry after reading it. [Without these people, who will drive the ship back? Do you expect them to walk back after buying it? Why do you need to buy a boat? This is the most critical point. The trading between Border Town and Willow Town was very stable. If you want to expand the ore trade after winter, you can just ask them to increase the number of boats. Buying boats isn't a wise choice, not to mention the town's port can only be used for docking. Without any shipyard protection or sailors to manage them, it will be abandoned before long. Probably His Highness was up to his crazy ideas again, right?]

As for the first request, he could understand its motive.

Currently, everyone in the City Hall was busy. The dozen staff that Barov brought was responsible for the regulation of commerce, statistical reports and income and expenditure settlements. He himself handled the administrative and legislative services, which was obviously unreasonable. If His Highness wanted to separate these departments, he needed to increase the employees in the City Hall. This was a very normal reason, but yet Barov did not want to let go of his power so soon. Having all the power in his own hand was just too satisfying. He thought that even his teacher, the kingdom's Treasurer, was only responsible for the finances of Graycastle. But he, Barov, was the Hand of the King.

[Ahem, well, only effective in Border Town,] he added in his heart. Although His Highness Roland had promised this, there was still a long way to go before he could ascend the throne. Barov found that he subconsciously included Prince Roland again as a contender for the throne. In the past, he would not have thought that this noble son with bad character and lack of any learning or skills could be crowned king.

Since coming to Border Town, he had no end of surprises. Up till now, Border Town was under the protection of the Militia. It was standing firmly in the Western Region and looked like it would persist for a long time. This was already good enough. Coupled with His Highness' new inventions, and a good understanding of the people's hearts, he was completely different from Prince Roland back in the Kingdom of Graycastle. He resembled more a demon who had an insight into everything.

At this time, there was a sound of knocking at the door. Barov reluctantly stopped the business at hand, and said, "Come in."

Coming through the door was one of his favorite disciples, "The Writer" Jaaro.

"Teacher, another 'Rat' was caught."

"Yeah? Did you manage to find out anything?"

"He said he was sent by the Second Prince. We found a package of cement powder on him, some coins and a letter." Jaaro came forward, handed Barov a leather-wrapped envelope. "We're still interrogating him to get more information. Teacher, how should we deal with him..."

"Just like before. After interrogation, compile all the information into a book. Then sentence him as guilty and hang him," Barov said nonchalantly.

"Yes," said Jaaro with a bow, "In that case, I'll take my leave."

The door was closed again, but Barov did not go back to his work immediately. Instead, he went back to the table and used an envelope opener to take out the letter.

[The fourth one...] he thought.

Way before the Months of Demons arrived, Roland Wimbledon had called him to discuss this problem.

His Royal Highness believed that when the cement, new snow powder, and witches were disclosed, the spies sent by his siblings would not be able to retain their patience and would come out from hiding. This would be the best time to remove the Rats. Barov agreed with the first half of the statement but did not agree with the latter part. In his view, Border Town had more than 2,000 people, so it was impossible to monitor everyone. They did not have the manpower or time to prevent this sort of small offense.

His Highness refuted. "How could there be no one? Every subject of Border Town can be our eyes."

At that time, Barov felt it was wishful thinking on the prince's part. He wanted to let these ignorant and dull civilians monitor the possible emergence of Rats? It was completely impossible!

It turned out that he was wrong.

At the first census conducted in winter, Roland deliberately mentioned to all the indigenous people that stayed here for more than five years: Longsong Stronghold's conspiracy to burn the grain failed, but they still did not give up. They already sent enemies to lurk among the people. Most of them were disguised as relatives of the town people or businessmen that did not evacuate in time. These spies would find any opportunity to scourge everyone. If anyone saw any suspicious characters, they should report it to the City Hall immediately. Once verified, they would receive a reward of 25 silver royals.

This trick turned out to be surprisingly effective.

Although there were some false reports, it was not long before that the first Rat got caught this way.

At that time, Barov also remembered that Roland proudly said something quite awkward.

What was it? He tried to think, that's right... "Let the enemy get drowned in the sea of the civilian battles."

Really weird wording and syntax. Barov shook his head and spread out the letter.

The guy, known as the "Groundhog", repeatedly stressed in the letter that many factors proved that Prince Roland Wimbledon had been replaced by a demon. Barov could even read his fears through the lines. Associating this with His Highness' manipulation of human sentiments, Barov could not help but agree. He took a deep breath, moved the letter to the candle, and soon the paper was engulfed by the flame and turned into ash.

[Even it's true, he's a demon who was not afraid of God's Stone of Retaliation and able to endow him with power, right?]

Chapter 72 - The Palace Discussions in the King's City

Timothy Wimbledon was sitting on the throne, with a red gemstone scepter in his hand, looking down at the ministers in the palace hall.

He thought this feeling was what he wanted, instead of staying in Valencia, entangled with businessmen for trivial matters.

When he knocked the tip of the pure gold scepter on the polished marble floor, a crisp sound reverberated. He nodded when the attention of the people was on him. "Let's begin."

"Your Majesty, I have something to report," Knight Weimar spoke first. He was nicknamed "Steelheart Knight", responsible for the defense of the king's city.

"Go on."

"Can we suspend the manhunt of witches? Your Majesty, the hunt is getting out of control. Yesterday, I heard that some girls from civilian families were arrested and interrogated in the dungeon. One of them actually died there. Later, it turned out that they weren't witches. Now people in the outer city are panicking. If this continues, I'm afraid people will be fleeing in droves."

Timothy frowned. It was him who had ordered the hunt of witches. King Wimbledon III's true cause of death was still unascertained so far, but he did not think his father would commit suicide. In particular, the strange smile prior to his death gave Timothy the creeps. The church also confirmed that the God's Stone of Retaliation on his father's wrist was not switched, making it still effective. But these things alone could not completely exonerate the witches.

When it came to oddness, no one was better at it than the witches.

He shifted his gaze to Langley, the person leading the witch-hunt and namely the minion trained by him. The latter stood up. "Your Majesty, it was just an accident. I've severely punished the personnel involved." He counted with his fingers. "The warden, the castellan, and the guards have been sentenced to 10 lashings and fined 25 silver royals."

"One person is dead and three cruelly tortured. But the villains are getting off with just a few whips and some fines?" Knight Weimar said coldly, "and who gave you the right to make that sentence? His Excellency Prime Minister Wyke, or Minister of Justice Lord Pilaw?"

"Your Majesty! At the unusual time, I have to act unusually." Langley knelt down on his knees, crying out his grievances. "Despite some negligible setbacks, the witch-hunt has been very successful. We've caught at least 15 witches lurking in the king's city. The witches are being tortured. We'll soon be able to know whether they have anything to do with your father's... no, I mean, whether there's a conspiracy."

Timothy glared at him. The fool had almost exposed his own intentions. Although the ministers in the hall could guess his real purpose, the word to the public should be that the first Prince Gerald had killed the king. He would not allow this point to be overturned.

"15 witches?" Steelheart Knight scorned in a contemptuous tone. "Very well. Originally the king's city had become the witches' battalion. A few years ago, the church captured only six members of the Witch Cooperation Association during the rounded-up hunt at the forest east of the king's city. It seemed your minions are stronger than the Judgement Army of the church."

"You…!"

"That's enough!" Timothy said. He was annoyed with the fool Langley, who had equally foolish subordinates. If he did not lack talents at the start of his throne ascension, he would not have promoted this fool. Even if he had wanted the credit, he should not have faked the numbers. These 15 people were probably the same as those hapless civilian women. He did not want the church to intervene, but there was no other way. "Go to the church and ask Priest Ferry to confirm the identity of those 15 people. Stop all the inquisition and torture. Whenever you arrest anyone, a priest's verification is required from now on. If I find out that you've failed to keep your subordinates in line again, I'll throw you into the king's city moat as fish feed."

"Well, yes, Your Majesty."

"Do it now!"

After asking Langley to leave the hall, Timothy turned to his treasurer. "If anyone of them is wronged, please compensate each with two gold royals, including the previous three persons. Compensate the family of the one who died in prison." He paused and added, "Give one more gold royal."

"As you wish." The treasurer nodded.

"Your Majesty is merciful." Knight Weimar also remarked, saluting.

"Let's move on to the next item." Breathing out turbid air, Timothy noticed his ministers were silent. "Since no one has anything to add, I'll speak." He turned towards to "Umbrella" Sir Bullet, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and said, "The recall has been issued for more than a month, but no one has returned to the king's city. What's going on?"

Sir Bullet was from the Flynn Family and had remained in his position for three decades. He was old with a head of gray hair, an age where one of his feet was in the coffin. He cleared his throat. "I'd like to report to Your Majesty. I've heard nothing about your third younger sister, Garcia Wimbledon. Your fourth younger brother, Roland Wimbledon, has replied with a letter. His letter said he'll consider returning after the Months of Demons ended, when his subjects are safe and sound." "But..."

"But what?"

"He addressed you as His Highness on the envelope, not His Majesty or the king."

Timothy could not help sneering. His hopeless brother was still as stupid as ever. If Roland would return and serve him as the king, he could give him a good fief, where Roland might enjoy wealth and honor as a prince. If he did not come back, he should prepare his deathbed as soon as possible. No matter what Roland did, he would be prepared. Roland wanted to return, but did not want to bow his head in submission. What was the use of having a silver tongue?

"Let him do as he likes." Timothy waved. "How about my fifth sister?"

"Your Majesty, she's... missing."

"What? What do you mean?"

"She initially agreed to leave with the messenger I sent. But a week later, she's gone missing along with her butler and two maids. I've ordered people to look for her. So far there's no information on her whereabouts."

[How did this happen? Why are they so unwilling to believe me!] Timothy felt like his heart was blocked. Originally, he had had great expectations of this sister, hoping that she would be able to assist him. After all, Tilly had performed extraordinarily smartness from her childhood, even more brilliant than him. Compared to him, she was at a disadvantage to him only in one aspect—she was a girl.

At first Timothy had been confident in her. From his father's arrangements, he did not intend to involve Tilly in the succession turmoil. She was to be given the domain in Silver City, near the king's city. The business and trade there were ordinary, without condition to keep soldiers. It was strange that his fifth sister would unexpectedly go missing.

Was this the choice of a smart person?

"Since she's missing, let the former lord take charge of Silver City. Keep looking for her. I can't let royal blood be stranded with ordinary folk." Gritting his teeth, he tried to suppress his upset. "Then, is my third sister the only one left to refuse to obey me?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Since she's so stubborn, then I'd to take some tough measures." Timothy looked to Prime Minister Marquis Wyke. It required the agreement by both the king and prime minister to issue an order on the war. As the prime minister was his largest supporter, it should not be a problem. Timothy said, "I plan to ask Duke Joey in the Southern Territory to dispatch their troops, force Garcia to give up the Port of Clearwater, and escort her back to the king's city."

Sure enough, Marquis Wyke replied, "The matter shall not be delayed. Your Majesty, please issue your order as soon as possible. The minister for diplomacy will be responsible for executing it."

Timothy nodded with satisfaction. He was about to call the clerk to draft the document, when they heard the sound of hooves outside the hall. After a burst of noise, a knight in a blue-stripe cloak pushed the door open and marched inside.

Timothy recognized him, Naim Moor, the famous "Frostwind Knight". He went straight to the center of the Palace Hall, and knelt down on one knee. "Your Majesty, I've just received the news from the south." He breathed a sigh of relief. "Garcia Wimbledon, your sister, defeated Duke Joe Kohl in the Southern Territory, and occupied Eagle City! And... she declared herself as Queen of Clearwater. All the lords have responded in support to her. The Southern Territory's independent!"

Chapter 73 - The Cannon Test

On the bank of the Redwater River, the west of Border Town.

The snow made it difficult for the carriage to move a single step. They spent half a day hauling their first field artillery out of town.

"What's it this time?" asked Carter, who had been accustomed to the new inventions of the prince. "A larger flintlock?"

"Kind of," Roland answered, and then commanded his people to remove the hook. He adjusted the angle of the gun carriage in person to keep the cannon flat and put the pole in the snow.

The principles of the cannon and flintlock were exactly the same, so it was very appropriate to call it a larger flintlock. The cannon could load 12-pound, solid iron balls, with the shells and gunpowder put into the front chamber and ignited with fuses. Referring to the mature designs in history, Roland instructed the carpenters to build a wooden gun carriage for it. In order to improve the durability, they also wrapped the edges of the parts with iron sheet which bore more friction with the ground and more forces when launching.

To make the carriage and wheels, Roland spent almost the same time as drilling the cannon bore. It took three carpenters one full week to complete them. Especially to make the wheels, with a diameter of half the height of a man, the carpenters first shaved four square timbers of equal length, and then infiltrated them and baked them with fire to bend them. Next, they whittled the groove for joggle jointing at the ends. This entire procedure alone took four days.

Therefore, in Roland's eyes, this handmade, 12-pound field artillery of a limited quantity was giving off a dazzling light. When the cannon was dragged out for a test, the prince made special arrangements. Besides Chief Knight Carter and Militia Commander Iron Axe, all the guards and knight apprentices also went along. 12 members of the Militia were sent to empty the venue and keep alert. In addition, he brought Nightingale and Lightning for the first time. Thanks to Nana, the prejudice towards the witches had reduced significantly and Nana herself became the person who was second only to the prince in stature.

"Do it according to the process, and clean the bore first." Although Roland was quite clear about the structure of the cannon, he knew nothing about the operation. He was racking his brain trying to recall the scenes of operating the cannon in various medieval movies, trying to figure out a process. However, only God would know what the actual result would be.

Lightning was in high spirits. She pulled out a mop-like cleaning rod from underneath the gun carriage and poked it into the muzzle. Different from the other witches' contracts, Lightning proposed that as long as she was allowed to manipulate all kinds of novelty inventions, she would like to work for Roland with no salary. In the face of this money-saving condition, Roland naturally agreed. Anyway, when it came to a secret project, he would study it secretly. There were many ideas in his mind waiting to be realized, and there would be enough for Lightning to study for a long time if he casually tossed out a few ideas.

She fiddled a few times, but the mop did not bring out any debris. However, according to the process, she had to clean it a second time. She took another mop and fiddled a few times again. Then the bore cleaning was done.

"Do you see it clearly?" asked Roland, looking at the knights and the militias. The test was also an exercise. Since the production of the flintlock had increased significantly, the Militia was bound to evolve into a regular infantry while wooden spears would be replaced by flintlocks and cannons. This required a lot of shooting training, so they would skillfully operate these two hot weapons on the battlefield.

Seeing that everyone nodded, he let Lightning move on to the next step.

Lightning took out a package of gunpowder wrapped with paper, and stuffed it straight into the end of the cannon bore with a wooden pole. Then she put a shell into the end. After that, she took out a drill pipe and put it through the fuse hole in the rear of the cannon barrel, stabbed the gunpowder package and then inserted the fuse. Thus, the launch preparation was complete.

To prevent accidents, everyone withdrew 30 steps and hid behind the bunker. After Lightning put the torch close to the fuse, the spark shone immediately and soon drilled into the cannon barrel in a short time.

Then there was a loud noise...

The high-speed airflow from the muzzle brought up the snow and raised a snow fog above the ground. The 12-pound cannon had a valid range of more than 1,000 meters in theory. Even if there was no rifling, the front shell would go in a straight line. The armor target, placed about 100 meters away, clanged and flew up when it was hit by the 12-pound iron ball. The speed of the iron ball did not reduce and it bounced back immediately when falling on the ground, stirring up more snow.

When the smoke of gunpowder cleared, Carter and Iron Axe were the first to run to the target. They found that the front of the armor target completely sunk, and the front deck was attached to the rear deck, with a palm-sized hole in its center. Obviously, the shell continued to fly forward about 100 meters after penetrating the target. Even when it fell on the ground, it kept rolling forward, showing the amazing power it contained.

"What a terrible penetrating force!" Carter exclaimed. He could imagine the horrors of the enemies when they gathered together and then became broken down by several shells.

"By the name of Three Gods." Iron Axe began to believe that Roland was the messenger of the Goddess. Except for the messenger of the Goddess, who else could play the power of the flame to such an extent? The gunpowder particle, which he had repeatedly studied, was a common flammable material as long as it was ground up into powder and ignited. The flame was the Goddess' surging anger, as well as her most powerful weapon. Thinking of the never-ending, orange fire erupting from the hole of the Southernmost Land, he had an impulse to worship the prince.

Roland was not surprised at the results, for the 12-pound field artillery could be described as a classic cannon. Especially the famous Napoleon Cannon, which shone in the American Civil War, fully proved that the large caliber was the beautiful truth.

Next, he tested the cannon's strength with different doses of gunpowder. Although he knew that it could cause damage to the cannon, it was necessary to do the tests.

When shooting with three parcels of gunpowder, the cannon muzzle rose and the carriage moved, but the barrel showed no obvious deformation. It seemed that the steel barrel was excellent in strength. Finally, Roland determined the standard amount of powder should be 1.2 times the amount used in the test. All that was left was to select the cannoneers and practice it over and over again.

"Your Highness, this weapon is powerful, but it's too heavy. If it were to run into a pit, it could hardly move," said Carter, who immediately found the shortcomings of the new weapon. "Moreover, the cannon barrel should be cleaned every time before loading. Since the cannons use more gunpowder and shells than the flintlocks, I'm afraid we need five or six people to operate one cannon."

"Yes, but everything is worth it. As long as we're equipped with two or three cannons, the duke... no, I mean the demonic beasts, like giant turtles, will be impossible to break through the city wall." Roland coughed and felt that was close. As for the shortcomings of the 12-pound cannon, he intended to solve that by shipping. It would be a complex and huge mechanical system to apply steam engines to steam-powered boats, even to the most primitive paddle steamer.

Instead of transforming them by himself, it would be better to buy two-masted sailing ships, and then quickly transport the Militia and the cannons behind the duke's troops with Wendy's control of the wind. With this, he would attack from both sides and annihilate the duke's forces.

Chapter 74 - The Shipbuilding Program

"What? What do you mean we can't afford it?" Roland sat in the office, looking at the request documents to recruit more administrators and purchase sailing ships.

Barov cleared his throat and answered, "No, Your Highness, we can't. The price of a two-mast sailing ship is between 80 to 120 gold royals, but that's just the cost of shipbuilding. The price may be higher with crew costs. The total price is estimated at over 200 gold royals."

"Didn't I say that we don't need sailors or helmsmen? We also don't need a captain. We just need a ship," Roland said, hammering on the table. With Wendy onboard, he would not need so many people to operate the sailing ship. Most of the inland river boats sailed straight. It was as easy to operate as raising and lowering a flag. So the oarsmen and sailors were redundant, and any helmsman could handle that. Anyway, with the vector of wind, did he have to worry that the boat would not go forward?

"Your Highness, there's no such business, at least not in Willow Town," Barov explained carefully, "You may not know much about the industry. Generally speaking, the owner of the ship is also the captain, maybe a businessman, or a noble. The former will recruit the crew himself and do business or transport goods between the major towns and docks. The latter will normally recruit a deputy captain to live on the ship instead of himself. Employees aren't paid on a monthly basis, but once every one to three years."

"Most of the time, the ship and the crew are tied together. If you purchase the ship from the captain without the crew he hired, then he loses the hiring salary. Even for the great nobles, 80 gold royals isn't a paltry sum that can be freely shed. Including the rough gemstone trading with Willow Town from the beginning of this month, City Hall now has a total of 315 gold royals. If you spend most of it purchasing the ship, you won't be able to pay the Militia next month." The assistant minister said this without pausing, and then lifted his cup to drink his ale.

"You said most of the time..."

"Yes." he nodded. "There are two cases when the ships will be sold without the crew. The first case is that the merchant is in desperate need of money so that he'll sell his property. He'll also dismiss all the crew and then sell the ship as soon as possible. The other case is that the owner wants to buy a new ship. It's easy to understand. But I have to say that both cases are very rare."

"Wait." Roland frowned. "You said to buy a new ship. Where do these ships come from?"

"Port of Clearwater, Seawindshire, and Farsight Point. Only seaports have shipyards and can produce new ships."

So, this was what he had meant when he said there was no such business, at least not in Willow Town. Roland was silent for a moment. It was too far away to go to seaports to buy ships. And if he did not hire a crew, who would help him to get the ships back? "In that case, l' will think it over."

When the assistant minister left, the prince was lost in thought.

Shipping was an irreplaceable part of his strategic plan. Without fast and convenient shipping, he would not be able to use cannons in the battle. The Duke of Longsong Stronghold usually recruited farmers, knights and mercenaries and the marching speed would be slow. However, their speed was slower. As Carter had said, by land, a mud pit could make the cannons difficult to move, even one step. There were no asphalt roads in this era, not even any stone roads. There were so many people walking that they formed trails. The road was fine during sunny weather, but it got muddy on rainy days.

Would he have to build the ship himself?

Roland spread out a piece of paper and wrote down the specifications he needed.

Firstly, the ship would need to transport one or two cannons as well as about 30 people. Ships in this era were driven by sails and not equipped with a power system. Secondly, the ship would only be sailing on inland rivers. It would need to be stable and reliable. With a shallow draught, it would not be easy for it to capsize or sink. Thirdly, it would need to be easy to operate so that the Militia could handle it quickly after minimal training.

Considering all these points, there was only one solution—a barge.

In the world where Roland used to live, this kind of ship, with its extremely shallow draught and low center of gravity, could be seen everywhere along almost all the river routes. In the old days, the ships stacked with sand or gravel, almost flat with the surface of the water, were all barges. As long as there was a tugboat, it could pull several barges forward like a train.

After the ship type was determined, the next key point was to determine which material should be used to build the ship.

Roland wrote down three options: wood, iron, and concrete.

Men first made ships with wood. From rafts to the Ship of the Line, from sailing in the rivers to sailing in the seas, wooden ships could always be a good choice. It was a pity that Roland did not know how to make a flat boat with logs, and there were no craftsmen. If he relied on the few carpenters, he could only make a large raft which could fall apart at any moment.

Iron ships were built similarly to houses. The keel was made up of the primary and secondary beams put in a crisscross and covered with iron sheets. If Anna could do the welding, then the overall stiffness would be guaranteed. However, it would deplete the reserves of the iron ore which were already small. It was clearly a better choice to use these iron ores to produce steam engines and barrels.

The concrete boat became the final option. The construction of the city wall had been finished, and there were still some raw materials left. As long as Anna calcinated them once or twice, they would have enough concrete. The construction of the concrete boat was much easier than that of the iron boat. They only needed to make a wooden template reinforced with iron bars, and then fill it with the concrete. Even in his rural village, people could build several concrete boats for fishing. The iron boat would need regular rust cleaning and painting, while the concrete boat would not require much maintenance. It could be built at a low cost, but still be strong and durable. Even if he had not learned how to build an ocean ship, building an inland concrete barge with a relatively low level of technology would not be too hard, would it?

Roland picked up a quill and quickly drew the draft of the barge.

...

A shed with walls was put up along Redwater River.

In order to facilitate the launching of the ship, Roland located the shipbuilding site as close as possible to the river bank.

Sheds could keep out the wind and snow. At the same time, two pots of charcoal were put in the room to avoid the impact that low-temperature had on the hardening effect of the concrete.

The carpenters created the basic template of the hull. The round bow would reduce the forward resistance, and the square stern would increase the loading area. The width of the boat was about 8 meters and its aspect ratio was 3:1. Compared with the conventional ships whose ratio was 8:1, it was quite bulky. In the center, they set up two masts. The masts were inserted into the bottom of the ship and connected to the iron beams passing through the centerline of the ship. At the stern, they set up a stake reserved for the rudder. Other places were crisscrossed with iron bars.

It did not matter that there were no iron wires for banding. All the intersections of the iron bars were personally welded firmly by Anna, forming an iron net over the bottom of the ship.

Once the template and rebar were ready, Roland ordered the workers to start the pouring operation.

The well-mixed concrete was poured into a template. The middle of the template was flat, and the walls were one and a half meters high, forming the cabin walls. At first sight, it looked like a very large bathtub.

Everyone involved in the construction, including Anna, had never thought that this strange thing made out of the same material as the city wall would eventually be a ship.

Chapter 75 - The Holy Mountain (Part I)

Cara noticed that the witch who was carrying her was breathing rapidly.

"Get someone else to carry me," said Cara loudly, "Leaf, you carry me instead."

Walking in the cold of the Impassable Mountain Range was very exhausting, especially in the snowy winter. Every day, the 42 witches had to find a suitable camp after walking a short distance and re-energize their medallions to withstand the sudden drop in temperature at night.

"Yes, Respected Mentor." A witch squatted down in front of Cara. Cara summoned the demonic snake and made it wrap around the witch's arms and pull herself up. Cara observed that the witch could not help trembling slightly.

"Damn Nightingale!" Cara thought bitterly. If Nightingale had not repeatedly refused her kindness, she would not have been cruel to her sister. At this crucial time in their search for Holy Mountain, Cara could not afford to take any risks.

And what was the result? After the damn traitor escaped, she was ready to stab her to death without hesitation. This was the result of her kindness! Cara's thoughts were filled with anger. Nightingale had damaged her spine. Although Leaf quickly healed her wounds with herbs, Cara's lower body was already paralyzed, and her feet had completely lost consciousness.

"Wait until I reach the Holy Mountain. I will call up more witches and cut you into pieces one day!" Cara thought.

"Respected Mentor, there are demonic beasts ahead of us."

Scarlett, who was in charge of investigating, reported. She could see through obstacles, shelters, and all traps. Nothing could be hidden from her. At the same time, she even had the ability to see fast moving objects clearly. She had been able to knock off the Judgement Army's bolts once, during a confrontation with the church.

"Put me down. Leaf, you go to help them."

The witch nodded as she squatted and placed her on a stone. Her hands supported her body as she fell into the snow. She felt the cold come through her palm. Cara thought unpleasantly, "Couldn't you at least wipe the snow away before letting me down?"

But she did not say it. Leaf was an irreplaceable member of the association. If it was because of Wendy and her good temperament that the witches had gathered and established the Witch Cooperation Association, then it was because of Leaf that everyone had the courage to follow her. Without her ability, most witches would have died along the way, hunted by the church.

Thinking of Wendy, Cara could not help feeling hurt. She had never expected that Wendy, who had established the Witch Cooperation Association with her, could betray her for Nightingale.

Even when Wendy blew her away, she had not wanted to kill Wendy. The venom secreted by the Snake of Magic "Suffering" would be painful and take effect slowly, but not lead to death immediately. The toxin could only be removed quickly if "Nothingness" bit her. She just wanted to give Wendy a lesson. If left alone, the toxin would invade her head and could not be cured. It was the wrong decision for Nightingale to take her away. Without the antidote to "Nothingness", Wendy would not survive for more than a day.

Could it be that she, as a church nun, had no chance to go to the end with her sisters?

As for the other betrayer, Lightning, Cara did not care too much. She had joined the Witch Cooperation Association recently, and her ability seemed to be flying. She always put forward different views in the search for Holy Mountain and even openly questioned the Holy Book. If it had not been for the ideals of the Witch Cooperation Association, she would have killed the talkative little girl and tossed her aside in the snow.

Two wolf-shaped demonic beasts emerged from behind the hillside. The sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association were skilled at dealing with them. The sisters who were not able to fight moved backward. Leaf drove her magic first, causing weeds to grow rapidly. The green leaves suddenly broke through the snow and entangled the demonic beasts' feet. Another witch, Windseeker, dried up the air around the demonic beasts. The two monsters suffocated quickly. Foaming at the mouth, they fell to the ground in convulsions.

"This was the power of the witches," Cara thought. Common people who relied on swords alone would easily lose their lives in the face of two demonic wolves. Only the witches with magical powers were the darling of the deities. If there was no God's Stone of Retaliation... bah, it should be called the hell stone, how dare the church ride on their heads? She spat on the ground.

"Respected Mentor, please come up." Leaf came back to Cara and bent down.

"Get someone else." Cara sighed. "You're tired."

They continued on the road. By noon, the snow was falling less. Stone, who was responsible for the camp layout, found a leeward place. They decided to take a break here and eat something to renew their strength.

Stone quickly transformed the land. The snow transformed into fresh soil. The ground seemed to come alive, weaved and wriggled, and soon became smooth and dry. All the witches performed their duties and soon set up the pot to make porridge. The snow was boiled in a cup, mixed with some herbs strengthened by Leaf, and immediately sent out strong fragrance.

"Give your badges to Shino," cried the little girl with extraordinary red hair like a leaping fire. Her ability was also related to fire. She could inject temperature into an object and make it glow for a long time. The badges of the Witch Cooperation Association, the Coin of Holy Mountain, were made by her alone.

The ability seemed insignificant, but it was helpful to the Witch Cooperation Association, especially in the march through the Impassable Mountain Range. If there was nothing to hold heat, it would be easy to lose temperature and fall into a coma in the cold wind and heavy snow.

After eating the oatmeal, the witches packed up and continued on their way. According to Cara's conjecture, the so-called Gates of Hell, was actually the key to Holy Mountain. The church deliberately called it the land of evil, hoping to prevent witches from reaching Holy Mountain. According to the records in ancient books, they needed to go through three Stone Gates, and the last one was in the Barbarian Region. The Stone Gates were usually hidden under the ground, and would only rise to the surface when the Bloody Moon appeared in the sky.

They had set out from the camp and been walking in the Impassable Mountain Range for about half a month. Soon they would leave the range and enter Wild Places. Recently, the demonic beasts had been appearing more frequently.

"Quick! Quick! Look! What's that!?" Suddenly someone shouted in horror.

Cara raised her head and was dumbfounded.

There was a city in the sky!

It was still snowing in the dusky sky, and the clouds were low. The silhouette of a city loomed through the clouds.

She had never seen buildings like this before. They looked like spires standing side by side. If the black dots above were the windows, then these spires were about 333 meters high! This was definitely not something human beings could create! Even the church's proudest cathedral, the Hermes Cathedral, was only 50 meters high!

Since it was not built by humans, then there was only one answer: the city was built by the deities!

Cara was so excited, a voice pounding in her heart relentlessly...

She had found Holy Mountain!

Chapter 76 - The Holy Mountain (Part II)

"Sisters, that's the Holy Mountain! We've found it!"

Cara screamed to let out her overwhelming joy. Many of the witches stayed in place, frozen in wonder. Others embraced their companions around them.

However, Scarlett wrinkled her eyebrows. "Is that really Holy Mountain?"

"What's the matter? Is there anything wrong?" Asked Leaf, whispering. The same question echoed in her mind. The city in the sky looked unlike those in the ancient texts, which were glittering and magnificent. Although the spires were spectacular, the whole of it was gray and black, and even in the day, it was dull. Not to mention the city was filled with a thick red mist akin to blood.

"There is something... crowding in those caves." Scarlett's voice was a bit dry. "I can't see it clearly, but those things don't resemble gods..."

A layer of goose bumps rose all over Leaf. Scarlett could see the farthest out of the members of the Witch Cooperation Association, and the way that she spoke made Leaf uneasy. Unfortunately, Lightning had left with Nightingale, or else she could have flown closer to look.

"Sisters! Holy Mountain lies before us." The mentor waved her hands as she shouted. "Just a bit further, and we'll find our eternity!"

She immediately urged Stone to move her forward. Leaf wanted to step forward to stop them but her feet stopped her. She remembered what happened to Wendy two weeks ago. She was afraid that if she discouraged them, it would not make sense to the Respected Mentor, and she would not stop.

The walking women began to speed up. After leaving the foot of the mountain, the snow seemed to get lower and the surrounding temperature also raised. "This is what was forbidden in legend, a place where humans can't step," Leaf thought, "but there're footprints in this no-man's land. If Lightning was here, would she be joyful?"

Looking back, the towering mountains behind her rose and fell, like a barrier that could not be crossed. Leaf could not help but guess that it was precisely because of the Impassable Mountain Range that the demonic beasts could not directly attack the hinterland, but rather must pass through the northernmost regions.

If they could somehow find Holy Mountain, no matter the method, they would not have to wonder any longer and could have peace... She gently sighed. To tell the truth, she was moved when Nightingale spoke to the cooperation about all that she had seen and heard in Border Town. When Wendy asked who wanted to leave with Nightingale, she could not help but try to move forward and tell her name. But until the end, she still failed to cross the heart of the threshold, and she was left as a shadow of the past.

Leaf shook her head, she did not want to think about things that had already passed. She moved to keep up with the group and crossed the yellow and white line into the wilderness.

However, it was not long before strange things began to happen. No matter how they sped up, the city retreated at the same speed. After two hours, the "Holy Mountain" was still in the clouds, neither smaller nor bigger. It was as if... they had not moved at all.

"Respected mentor, let us rest, our sisters are tired," said Stone. Over this period, a number of women had carried the mentor, but Stone had kept it up the longest.

"No, how could we stop now!?" Cara refused the suggestion without hesitating. "This is the test from the deities, sisters. If there's no firm will, we can never reach Holy Mountain! We can't stop. We must continue until the gates of Holy Mountain appear before us!"

Seeing that persuasion was futile, the women marched forward.

However the situation did not change, and while wandering the witches also encountered two waves of demonic beasts. The second wave consisted of two deformed beasts. Leaf created long weeds to trap the beast, but it could not stop one of her sisters from being hurt and bleed.

The monsters were finally killed and the crowd found that the sky was gradually darkening. Twilight had approached. The city remained in front of them, but the silhouette seemed to fade, like the city itself was disappearing.

According to their past experience, they must find suitable camping place to set up a camp. However this area was completely different from the Impassable Mountain Range, which seemed to be almost flat and was littered with the occasional demonic beasts. They simply could not stay there overnight.

"Respected mentor, we must return to the foot of the mountain! Let Scarlett lead the way, with Red Light lighting the path. Then maybe we can make it back by midnight."

"No!" Cara shouted, "We've spent all the afternoon coming here without stopping. At this point, we've spent more than half of our strength and it'd be impossible to return at the same speed. Sisters, let us move on. We'll rest once we've reached Holy Mountain."

"How about Sherry?" People asked, pointing to a witch who had collapsed lifeless on the ground.

"We've no time to bury her," the instructor shook her head and said, "Leave her here. The earth will take her."

Leaf closed her eyes in sadness. A sister had left them. If she had had more strength, then she would not have needed to die in this desolate land where even a tombstone could not be left.

As the crowd sat there undecided as to whether they should move on or retreat, Stone suddenly exclaimed, "Look at the sky, the city is gone!"

Leaf opened her eyes, looked up, and saw that the sky had become gray-black. The clouds had hidden in the night, and with them, the city had disappeared without a trace. It was as if it had never existed.

Everyone stood still, and for a while, there was a terrible silence.

There was the city you could never get, for it was an image floating in the air, and when the sun fell the illusion vanished... Leaf suddenly remembered a story from Lightning's adventures about those at sea who saw bizarre fantasies. She shivered. "We were cheated..." she whispered before shouting, "We were cheated, it was not Holy Mountain! What we saw was a mirage!"

"A mirage?" Cara looked back, her face terrifyingly ferocious. "What's that?"

"Lightning mentioned in a story that this phenomenon often occurs on voyages, but on the land is much rarer. All we saw was a phantom. The real city may be far away from us if it's not even there at all!"

"Does that mean that it does exist and just teleported?"

"I..." Leaf was stifled. "I don't know."

At this point, Scarlett suddenly called out, warning them, "Be careful! Something is coming!" She stared at something moving on the left, and her face was disgusted.

"Are they demonic beasts?" Windseeker crouched, ready to fight. "How many are there?"

"No..." Scarlett took two steps back, "I don't know what it is..."

As she spoke, a shadow closed in at lightning speed directly towards Scarlett. Although she saw the light enclosed by shadow, she could not dodge the bolt. It was just too fast.

In the blink of an eye, the shadow pierced through Scarlett's chest, making her fly backward. She was nailed to the trunk.

It was a spear.

Chapter 77 - The Holy Mountain (Part III)

Leaf felt her whole body was frozen.

On her left two shadows came out from the night, bulky and peculiar, different than the normal visage of a demonic beast. And then Leaf saw that there were two figures riding on the backs of the mixed species. They were tall, twice the size of a normal person. They wore no armor but the clothes of some indescribable material. No, one would be reluctant to call it clothes. It was as if they were wrapped from head to toe in a swollen animal skin, bulging in many places.

And yet the most striking thing about the two figures was the two masks they were wearing—they were obviously transformed heads of demonic beasts, ferocious and terrible. Their eyes with reddish brown crystals dug into their skulls. A full patch of leather on their heads seemed to be peeled back, running down their back in shells. One man was equipped with a few spears on their mount, another with strangely shaped iron gloves. From the look of it, the iron glove only had three fingers.

Only one word hung in Leaf's head, "Demon".

"Enemies!"

Cara's harsh screaming pulled all the attention back to the enemy. Stone placed her hand on the ground, turning the snowy land in front of them into a large swamp. This was the correct response. The mounts were hybrid wolf beasts with wings. They were not only fast but could fly for short distances. However, these two obviously could not, their wings had been cut off, hemp rope was tied onto their bare bones, which were held but the demons riding them. Therefore they could not fly over the swamp but would have to cross over it. This would give the sisters time.

However, the enemy did not act as expected. Rather, they drove the mounts forward, entering the swamp. Then, by the impulse, the demonic beast leaped into the sky, jumping across the remaining distance, right to the place where the non-combat type witches were gathered.

"Spread out, quick!" Leaf's voice had not fallen before the ironhanded demon wearing the three-fingered iron gloves was already killing the witches in the crowd. His degree of agility did not match his body at all. The witch close to him did not have time to react and was punched in the head. Then there were another two sisters that the ironhanded demon pinched on the neck. The others were alerted and ran about in panic. It was only Shino that stood still. Even though her ability was not suitable for fighting, she did not turn away, but rather drew the crossbow from her back and took aim at the creature. The ironhanded demon dodged to the side lifted its feet to send her flying. Along with the rush of power came a muffled sound. The little girl was sprawled on the ground and clotted blood flowed through her mouth.

The spear-wielding demon turned around, walking towards the terrified Stone. Right when he was about to pierce the witch through the chest, flames erupted in front of him. Red Light rolled between his legs, grabbing Stone's hands and running. Their opponent attempted to catch up but was stopped by a black wall of gas.

Leaf poured all of her power into the earth causing all sorts of plants to appear out of it. Thorny vines wrapped around, climbing the ironhanded demon. Cara summoned the demonic snake "pain" that bit into the ironhanded demon's arm. When he waved his hands to get rid of the snake, the vines fluttered and captured his feet, tugging them backward and causing the heavy body to crash to the ground.

"Run, sisters, run!" Shouted Leaf, her voice shaking in fear. "Escape, fast! Hurry away from these terrible monsters! They are recorded in the ancient texts as sources of evil, demons that have appeared out of the Gates of Hell!"

The poison from the demonic snake seemed to be ineffective. The ironhanded demon fell to the ground, who seemed to want to grab the vines that had scratched at him. The spear-wielding demon saw his companion's difficulty and was soon focused on Leaf, who was controlling the vines. He lifted a spear, getting into position to throw it, his arms quickly swelling. The original bulging skin was stretched to a thin layer, and even through it, one could see blood vessels and dark bones.

"Leaf, watch out!" Stone once again turned the ground into a quagmire, this time directly casting herself at her opponent. The spear-wielding demon suddenly sank down, and the spear he had thrown instantly changed direction, inserting diagonally into the ground in front of Leaf. A section of the spear as tall as a person was submerged into the ground. Leaf burst out in a cold sweat.

After throwing the spear, the swollen arm shrunk rapidly, quickly becoming something similar to a dry wood.

The spear-wielding demon could not throw spears now! She immediately realized that it was a good time to escape. She was not alone in this. Stone, Red Light, and Windseeker, who had been struggling with the ironhanded demon, ran to the careless Cara. They wished to bring Mentor Cara to leave with them. Only Leaf saw the ironhanded demon pull at the vines to reach out to the three women.

"What is he trying to do? Wait!"

"No..." But she was too late to warn them, as a line of blue light came from the ironhanded demon's hands. It was like a bolt of lightning piercing the sky and twisted to hit the three sisters. The blue bolt jumped between the three women, crackling. Their bodies went up in white smoke, and they fell to the ground, with their robes burning behind them.

The attack seemed to consume the great effort of the enemy, and with heavy breathing, he stopped moving. At this time, Leaf's magic power had hit its limit. The vines disintegrated and changed, turning quickly into withering weeds.

"Everything is over," she thought. The mentor's desperate shouting faded as if she had grown far away as the strength of her body faded like a tide. She fell to the ground helplessly.

After resting for a mere moment, the ironhanded demon slowly climbed up from the snow. No one could stop him this time as he went to stand in front of the horrified Cara. The demon stretched out his hand to choke the throat of the mentor, who wanted desperately to break free from the creature's fingers, but it was meaningless in this desperate state. Struggling, she sent the demonic snake out and it bit the enemy's arm and neck, but the ironhanded demon was unmoved but continued to grip tighter.

As this was happening, one demonic snake bit the ironhanded demon's leather hose under its head. Red mist sprayed from the fissure, revealing tendons and bones. The ironhanded demon issued a terrible scream, the skin quickly fouling under the red fog, revealing tendons and bones. Even though he released his iron hand after this and tried to block the tube in panic, the fog quickly dissipated and his body began to tremble. He fell to the ground, motionless.

The spear-wielding demon with half its body buried in the swamp shouted. Leaf had never heard such a voice. It was like a sharp scream and a low roar together, and it hurt her ears.

But the enemy's roar did not make Leaf flee, rather it gave her the will to win.

Biting her lips, she struggled to stand up and picked up the crossbow that Shino fell. Re-loading it, she went in front of the spear-wielding demon. The spear-wielding demon obviously understood what she wanted to do, its two arms desperately waving. But in the swamp, the more you struggled, the faster you would sink. He tried to block it from entering his lungs, but the part of his windpipe that extended into his shell was exposed.

"This is for my lost sisters," Leaf thought, aiming at the tube she pulled the trigger.

The crossbow bolt hit its mark, and red mist spurted out where she had hit. When it sprayed, the opponent's head fell.

She had killed the demon.

Leaving the crossbow, Leaf looked back at the more than a dozen of her sisters that had lost their lives. She fell to the ground and burst into tears.

Chapter 78 - The Companionship

Wendy opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling above her. There were cobwebs draping from the wooden beams. The ceiling was made up of gray bricks and had an unlit, circular chandelier. Slowly, the image turned from cloudy to clear until she could see every detail.

[It's not a cold rocky roof or narrow tent. Oh right, I've left the Witch Cooperation Association for more than half a month. I wonder if Mentor had successfully led the sisters to the discovery of Holy Mountain.] Wendy thought.

She took a deep breath. Although the air in the room was not as clean and fresh as that in a cave, its dullness and warmth made her comfortable. Her body was wrapped in a soft velvet quilt, and the layers of cotton blankets under her sank slightly every time she lay on them. Even if she stretched her body fully, her toes wouldn't be exposed.

She felt a little guilty at the thought of lazing on the bed. Even though she had only arrived for half a month, she felt a sense of peace. It was something that she had not experienced in a long time.

In the castle, no one would disturb her no matter how late she got up. Just like today. Wendy turned to look out of the window and noticed that the gray sky was a little glaring. It seemed over 10 a.m. In her past wandering life, she did not have such a comfortable sleep before. She would be woken by the faintest sounds and had to prepare food before dawn. During that time, the witches had lived in the fear of being discovered by the church or dying in the next Demonic Torture.

Even while hiding in the Impassable Mountain Range, Wendy was always busy with the many chores. She had to help with seasoning the dried food and herbs, drying her sisters' laundry, or cleaning the camp and so on.

Wendy did not mind doing these works and felt happy when seeing the smile on everyone's faces. Yet, she could not resist the lazy life now. Unexpectedly, she was enjoying it.

[No, I shouldn't be lazy anymore.] Clapping her face, Wendy pushed herself up and tried her best to get out of the bed. When she was in the convent, mother superior had always warned that God would never bless those who were lazy.

[In a while, I'll go to the castle backyard to practice controlling the wind and I'll clear the snow along the way.] Wendy could not hold back her smiles whenever she thought of His Highness' requirements for her training. These were odd and eccentric requirements, such as asking her to control the wind 10 meters above her head after he had seen her performance. However, a witch could never extend the power as far as he required. Nevertheless, the prince wasn't angry when she had admitted that it was beyond her abilities. Instead, he had come up with a strange idea—standing on a stool and blowing the wind from the top and the bottom at the same time. After trying, Wendy found this a practical solution. The test result pleased His Highness very much. In addition to asking Wendy to practice more, he also asked her if she was afraid of heights.

Just as Nightingale described, Roland Wimbledon was indeed an unpredictable person. Yet, he was also a prince who cared about witches.

Wendy sighed softly at the thought.

[Mentor, you're wrong. There exists a prince who doesn't hate witches.]

After she put on the new robe, she felt that it was a little tight at the chest—Wendy had been accustomed to it. When she was looking for the sewing kit to mend the cloth, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

It was Nightingale. Wendy was somewhat amazed and laughed. "Is His Highness still in bed? It's surprising that you have time to see me."

"What're you talking about? I don't have time to follow him all day." Nightingale lifted the basket in her hand. "I've brought you some breakfast."

Usually, it was the maid who served the breakfast to her room. Wendy had barely seen and talked to Nightingale except when the prince was asleep. She smiled in her heart. Wendy knew that Nightingale must have sneaked in to check if she had woken up and came in as soon as she was out of bed.

"Go ahead, what's up?" She took over the basket and put a piece of bread filled with cheese into her mouth.

"Hmm..." Nightingale walked to the bedside and sat down. "Today is... the day for Nana."

Wendy was speechless. She knew that although the first bite of magic power was not as fierce and long as the one in the Day of Adulthood, the witch was not completely safe. The younger a witch was, the less the pain she could endure. Wendy placed the basket on the bedside cabinet and walked to Nightingale. She clapped her shoulder and comforted her. "Didn't His Highness say that as long as the witch released her power every day, the torture would minimize?"

"It was just a hypothesis."

"At least it sounds reasonable." Wendy went on. "Anna has been through it this way, hasn't she?" "She was safe even on the deadliest Day of Adulthood, and you've seen it with your own eyes," she paused and continued, "Where is Nana?"

"She is at the hospital." As she was talked, Nightingale could not hold back her smile. "I heard that her father, Baron Pine, has bought a lot of hares from hunters and send them to the Medical Centre. Nana will get to practice with them until tomorrow."

"It's nice to have such a father," Wendy said enviously. "I don't remember anything about my childhood... which is very strange. It was like a memory gap. I don't have father or mother, and all the memories begin with the time when I was in the convent."

"Looks like I'm a little more fortunate than you."

"Yeah, much more fortunate." Wendy sat close beside her. "Are you nervous?"

"..." Nightingale remained silent for a while and nodded.

Of course, Wendy knew what she was nervous about. Today was not only of paramount importance to Nana but also a vital turning point for the fate of all witches. If she could get through the bite safely, it meant that all witches would be free from being called the devil's minions, and Border Town undoubtedly would be their Holy Mountain. A day would come where all witches would gather here, living a life just like ordinary people without a need to move around to hide from the church.

"There's no use worrying. Let's take a day off to stay with Nana."

"A day... off?" Nightingale looked at Wendy with wide eyes.

"Yes, telling me the news so early is making me as nervous as you," Wendy said bluntly. "Since we're not in the mood for training, let's go and see Nana. Isn't that written in the contract? It's called a paid leave."

...

After dinner, Nana's chamber was crowded with people—Anna, Lightning, Nightingale, Wendy, Tigui, and Roland. Seeing all these people, the young girl looked bewildered. "Er... am I going to die?"

"Of course not!" All of them shook their heads.

"The intensity of bite at the first time will be not very strong." Wendy held Nana's right hand and said, "Stay focus, you can manage it."

"Grasp my hands when it hurts." Tigui shook her daughter's left hand and said, "You've grown much stronger at the hospital. I'm so proud of you."

The young girl nodded. She looked through the crowd until her eyes fell on Anna.

Anna walked over and kissed her forehead. "Stay alive, okay?"

"... Yeah."

Chapter 79 - The Answer

All the curtains were drawn, and the fire blazed in the hearth, keeping the temperature in the chamber warm.

Unlike Anna, Nana was awake on her Day of Adulthood. To help her focus more quickly before the pain fell on her, everyone stayed with her, telling stories or playing simple games, to keep her awake.

Roland showed off some coin magic tricks, surprising everyone, especially Nana who stared at his hands without blinking. On a normal day, she would have asked him to teach her.

The magic of this age was vaudeville. Roland had watched it in the palace. It included the snake dancing to the flute, fire-breathing, crushing a stone plate on one's chest and so on. It seemed less appealing compared to the elaborate modern magic that focused on camouflage and tricks of the fingers.

Lightning shared her adventurous sailing stories. She talked about sailing with her father, Thunder, through isles and fjords, crossing vortexes and reefs and hunting deep water sharks and octopuses. Everyone was charmed by the stories, despite knowing that a large part of it was made-up. Roland could not help dreaming of it. In his imagination, the sailing ship turned into an ironclad battleship that sailed through the open sea and approached new land.

In fact, he lacked in understanding the history of this world where the clear record only went back to four hundred and fifty years ago. He had never caught any reason for this from the knowledge that the prince had learned from his court mentor. Maybe he had not paid any attention to it during class, Roland thought. Moreover, there was no archive or library in Border Town. He decided he would ask some maesters once he had taken Longsong Stronghold.

When Lightning's story was finished, Roland could not help yawning. He turned his eyes to Nightingale who shook her head, meaning the magic power had not changed. The lack of timepieces made it incredibly inconvenient to track time. Roland poured himself some warm water, sat down and continued to wait.

But as time went on, all of them sensed something unusual. The process was taking too long. Nana had been yawning all night, too tired to keep awake. Anxiety grew in Nightingale who touched the young girl's forehead, as she watched the flow of magic power in her body.

..

To his surprise, a glimmer had emerged on the horizon of the dark sky.

"Look!" Roland drew back the curtain, everyone turned at his shout. Looking at the dim light far on the horizon, they all realized that a new day had come.

Nana had passed her day of the bite of magic power safely.

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

Roland stretched himself and headed back to his chamber where he found two unexpected visitors.

It was Nightingale and Wendy.

Their faces were not sleepy at all but filled with excitement.

"Are you really sure that today, no, last night was the 'day' for Nana?" Roland asked.

"Yes, but the change was too small for me to confirm the vital moment of the bite," Nightingale said firmly, "your Highness, you're right! By regularly releasing power, the gross power will increase, but the pain we suffer will be less. If we keep training for a specific number of hours every day, all witches will stand a chance to survive their Day of Adulthood."

"In the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, your land is the only place where witches can use their powers freely. This means, in a sense, that this is Holy Mountain we've been pursuing." Wendy went on. "I want to beg you to inform more witches of the news and bring them to this holy land. I'm sure they'll be glad to serve you."

"This is what I intend to do." Roland nodded. "My subjects will partially understand and have contact with witches after the Months of Demons. That'll be the right time to spread the news—by way of spreading rumors. You should know that I can't publicly recruit witches in an open and expansive way. It would provoke a great disturbance in the realm." He paused for a moment. "Unless the church becomes extinct or I take the throne."

"Then I'll assist you to take the throne." It seemed that Wendy had been waiting for those words, and she kneeled to pledge her fealty. Roland could tell from her unskilled movements that maybe she had just learned the curtsey. Yet none of the details mattered, he accepted her fealty in the same way that he had accepted Nightingale's.

Wendy stood up and smiled at Nightingale. "How am I doing?"

Nightingale curled her lips. "After a fashion."

Roland could not help but shake his head. "You should go to bed. You've been up all night." "

"Your Highness, I want to ask for one more thing." Wendy who had just stood up and kneeled again.

"Go on," Roland said seriously, his smile fading. He could tell from her stance that it would be a difficult promise for him to make.

"I want to go back to the camp again."

"Wendy!" Astonished, Nightingale stared at Wendy, whose eyes were filled with determination.

"I don't know whether they've found Holy Mountain. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. I hope to leave for the Impassable Mountain Range after the Months of Demons. If Cara can't find Holy Mountain, they should be back in the mountains by then."

"That would be most perilous." Roland frowned. "Your respected mentor attacked you with no mercy."

"If she had really wanted to kill me, I would be dead," Wendy said, "she summoned the demonic snake of 'Suffering', not that of 'Death'. Maybe few or even none will come back here with me, but at least I can bring the news to my sisters that releasing power every day will save them from the dreadful pain." Her voice softened at this point. "Your Highness, as long as you treat witches well as always, my life belongs to you. I'll never treat my life lightly. I'll keep safe. Please promise me."

Roland remained silent. He should turn down Wendy's request for her safety. But he knew what the request meant to her. She would risk anything to save more witches. If Roland turned her down, she may still obey his command, but yet the death of her sisters, caused by his refuse, would scar her.

"I promise you." Roland nodded at last. "Go with Lightning two months after the Months of Demons has passed. Just in case, I'll offer you the flintlock and God's Stone of Retaliation. Promise me that you'll wear it when negotiating with Cara or other witches. And Lightning will stand by too so that they can't hurt you with their power."

"Your Highness, please let me go with her!" Nightingale said.

"No, Veronica. His Highness' safety is far more important. All witches' hopes now lie with him." Wendy smiled. "Take good care of him."

Chapter 80 - The Artillery Squad

A week after the concrete ship was placed in the curing room, the day to launch the vessel finally arrived.

All the workers were left stunned when the prince ordered to put this oversized bathtub that had taken them a lot of work into the water, making everyone wonder whether they had misheard him.

However, that was indeed Roland's order.

He had people temporarily dismantle the shed and had them dug a slope below the concrete boat, leading into the river. This part had to be handled with great caution because of the weak tensile strength of the cement products. A few cracks would not cause a problem, but in case it hit the ground that would be enough to destroy the whole vessel.

The ship was placed on top of logs and the speed at which it slid would be controlled by ropes. When everything was prepared, the workers let the wrist-thick rope slowly slide through their hands, making sure that it would always point in a straight line. While the workers were shouting their slogan in sync, the vessel slowly slid over the logs, creating an intense sound of friction.

Fortunately, everything went well, and Roland could see the boat slowly slipping into the river. The boat sank nearly half a meter into the water, with more than one meter staying above the surface. The workers were extremely surprised to see that this massive stone and metal made construction would not directly sink into the riverbed with a loud noise, but instead it floated on the surface like a leaf.

"Hurry, take the ropes and tie them tight around the bollards!" Roland ordered. If the ship was not tied to the bollards, the current of the river would carry the concrete boat southwards.

Although Nightingale did not show herself, she still was not able to stop herself from asking in a voice full of surprise, "Why does the boat float?"

"Well… it's quite simple. The boat's average density is lower than that of the water, and this is the reason it can float on water," explained Roland and after a moment of thinking, and he added, "The fact that the boat is built out of iron and concrete doesn't matter. In fact, you must have understood it from the sailing ship that was huge and weighed much more than a stone."

Since he did not hear her voice again, Roland assumed that she was still comprehending what he had said. Even Anna was not able to immediately understand the concept he had just explained. Roland smiled and continued to direct the workers to move on.

The subsequent hardening of the concrete took a lot of time, and by the time it began to snow heavily, the work had to be stopped. Only when the snowfall was minimum, were they able to continue their work. The most time-consuming task was the construction of the deck, which was built out of many wooden planks, and supported by many small stakes which were placed between the bottom and the deck. Although this was a waste of space, taking into account the primary purpose of the concrete boat, it did not matter much.

Next, it was time for the corrosion proofing. The carpenters knew very well how to do this. First they brushed a layer of oil with a pungent smell onto the deck. When the oil had dried, they repeated this procedure with red oil several times until it was finally coated with a red paint. Once the deck construction was completed, the installation phase of the upper building began.

As for the so-called upper part, it was just a wooden shed which was placed between the two masts, and which later would be used to store cannons and ammunition. In case of a rainy day, the shed could also be utilized by the crew as a shelter. A platform was added at the top of the roof where a person could stand, obviously created for Wendy. As long as she stood on the roof, the range of her magic ability would be enough to cover the entire sail.

The stern rudder was made of pig iron, and its installation was a bit troublesome. The tiller had to go through a reserved hole under the water, and then appear again on the deck, where an iron ring would be put on it. The buckle was a right-angled triangle plate, with the long side welded on the tiller, and the short side could freely rotate in the groove of the iron ring.

The welding was naturally done by Anna, who was also astonished and puzzled by the fact that a stone bathtub could float on the water. Thus, she also asked the same questions as Nightingale.

So Roland repeated his answer and watched Anna went aside and sat down to think about it.

Well… The task of universal education still had a long way to go.

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

On the other side, Van'er was still trying to decide whether to join the Artillery Squad or to stay with the Flintlock Squad.

Everything started with that order three days ago.

His Highness decided to transfer out some members of the first and second militia team, who performed exceptionally, to build a new elite force. When Van'er's name was called, he felt very pleased. But when Iron Axe asked him if he wanted to join the Flintlock Squad or the new Artillery Squad, he felt confused. He was aware of the new flintlock, which was effective in the fight against the demonic beasts, with its penetrating power much stronger than that of a hand crossbow. Currently, only Iron Axe, the Chief Knight and a number of senior hunters were allowed to use this deadly weapon. Van'er was supposed to join the Flintlock Squad without any hesitation, but instead, he could not help himself asking, "What's a cannon?"

When he found out that a cannon was ten times larger than a flintlock and that its power was a hundred times stronger than the strength of a flintlock, he fell into a dilemma.

Apparently, the ability to use a more powerful weapon could prove one's own value for His Highness. So joining the artillery seemed to be the better option of the two, however, the advantage of carrying a flintlock was that it was possible to carry it while walking through the town, attracting the eyes of the people, which was always Van'er's dream. Even though the cannon's power was ten times that of a flintlock, surely it would not be possible to carry such a powerful weapon while walking through the streets, right?

By the last day of the deadline, he finally decided to join the Artillery Squad. The last point that affected his decision was that the salary of an artillery soldier was five silver royals higher.

Afterwards, began the rigorous training.

The operation of a cannon requires five people, and Jop, Cat's Claw, Nelson and Rodney were assigned to Van'er's team. Since Van'er was previously a vice-captain within the Spear Squad, he was now appointed as the artillery captain.

Compared to flintlocks, the cannon was ten times more troublesome! For almost a month, Van'er had secretly observed how Iron Axe operated his flintlock, he was sure he was able to memorize the operation of a flintlock without mistake. As for the cannon, a series of complicated operations were required in order to switch it from transportation mode to firing mode.

Stopping the horse, pulling out the pin, pulling the hook, moving the cannon cart, pushing it towards the shooting spot, putting down the crutch, all these processes required five people to cooperate in tandem. For example, when pulling the hook, the other ones had to push the support cart right away from the cannon, turning it from a four-wheel vehicle into a two-wheel vehicle, so that the cannon's crutch would drop to the ground. During the process the cooperation should be perfect or else it would be hard to separate the heavy cannon from the cart.

After settling the position came the load of ammunition, and ready to fire. The firing process was quite similar to the flintlock, but the clean-up of the cannon after its usage requires two different mops. The ammunition would also be packaged properly and could be inserted directly in the cannon. The firing method was done though gunpowder line ignition. It would be hard to display its power when it rained, Van'er thought.

Fortunately, as an artillery captain, most of the time he just stood aside and ordered the others to do the job, which saved him a lot of energy.

For the first three days, the four newly selected artillery teams had only one cannon to train with. So under the command of Iron Axe, all the groups had to go through the process of stopping the mount, unloading the cannon, preparing it to shoot, loading the cannon on the cart and then restart the whole process. These steps were always repeated, and Van'er even suspected, that with the continuous cleaning of the cannon, the cannon would be even cleaner than his own face.

Chapter 81 - The Artillery Training

Every day Van'er's group had to train for two to three hours with the new weapon, and even after the training was finished, Van'er had to return to the city wall to continue his old, boring job. One of the men from Van'er's dormitory had signed up for the Flintlock Squad, and now he had a brand-new flintlock and stood behind him to show off the weapon. If it was not for the rules that forbid infighting, Van'er would have already made him shut up.

But he also noticed something was not right.

[Didn't my compatriots join the Flintlock Squad only a few days ago? Yet, they were allowed to directly start their shooting training through fighting against the demonic beasts, but what about our Artillery Squad? We aren't even authorized to shoot a shell. Moreover, the cannons are so heavy that it's actually impossible to transport them onto the city wall,] thought Van'er.

When he looked at the top of the wall, he could see that the wall-walk was almost full with people standing side by side in pairs. Usually, everyone was used to running on the inside of the wall-walk. Even if it was steep, it was still better than interfering with teammates' fighting movements. As for the cannons… the two wheels alone were wider than the whole wall-walk, and using a cannon to shoot downwards did not seem very practical.

Could it be… that the cannon would not be used to fight against the demonic beasts?

The next exercise further confirmed his suspicions.

Iron Axe brought the four artillery teams to the river. There, Van'er discovered that, without realizing when it had happened, a huge "boat" appeared in the Redwater River. No… he was not even sure if it was correct to call it a boat. The shell seemed to be made out of the same gray stone that was used to build the wall, and its dimension was very wide but short. Other than two bare masts, there was actually no other similarity with a boat. This even caused a heated argument between his team.

"This is clearly a floating bridge." The first one who came up with a conclusion was Jop, who previously belonged to the team with the sailing ships transporting the ore to Longsong Stronghold, and he always thought of himself very well-informed. "They built the deck so wide to make it more stable! During my traveling all over the realm, I've seen many of them, and if this is a boat, then how can it be moved without the wind? After the former wooden bridge of over decade old in Longsong Stronghold was washed away by a flood, people in Longsong Stronghold replaced it with a floating bridge. They just placed several of broad planks side by side on a boat and connected them with an iron chain to make it more stable!"

"The furthest place you have traveled to is Longsong Stronghold, and yet you call yourself knowledgeable." Rodney sneered. "If this is a floating bridge, why would it have two sticks? Wouldn't they be blown away by the wind?"

"And look towards the end, don't you see the steering wheel? Floating bridges don't need this." Nelson directly broke in to help Rodney. These two brothers were always at the same side. "In addition, looking at the construction between the two sticks, it looks like a cabin, and it's just not finished yet. This is a boat, no doubt."

Van'er was not interested in the boat, he was only concerned about the next training's content. Luckily, he soon found out. Iron Axe asked them to drive the horses that dragged the cannon towards the Littletown—yes, that was the boat's name, personally named by His Highness the prince. After listening to Iron Axe's introduction, Jop's face suddenly became stiff, while the two brothers showed a triumphant expression instead, and then they began to tie the wheels of the cannon cart onto the deck of the boat.

On the deck, there were two groups of stopping poles, each group consisting of four poles. They were located in the middle of the deck, one behind the other. This apparently indicated that the deck could fit two cannons.

Well, with this, Van'er could confirm that they would not be dealing with the demonic beasts—the Redwater River flowed from the north to the south, and there was no large river in the Misty Forest.

When they embarked for the first time, Van'er immediately felt the outstanding stability of the boat. As the river was flowing beneath it, the boat remained motionless; it felt just like standing on solid ground. Only when the horses came on the deck did they feel a little swing.

He also noted that every time a team finished their firing practice, Iron Axe would count the time and note it down. Considering that there were only two spots for cannons, it was clear that only the two fastest teams would get a place on the ship. Van'er secretly told his discovery to the rest of his team who were immediately inspired and were bursting with energy, and each of them put as much effort as possible into the training. If they were not chosen for the artillery team they would be sent back to the Spear Squad. Losing their face was a small matter, and the most important matter was that they would not get a pay rise!

Van'er had to wait until the seventh day to finally receive his first live firing training.

On that day, His Highness also came to visit the scene, watching the artillery exercise. Everyone in the four groups walked with a broad chest and was full of enthusiasm.

Because of their training, everyone was quite familiar with the loading of the ammunition, so it did not take long until the first shot was fired by Van'er's team.

It was the first time he saw the power of a cannon. With a deafening roar, the cannonball was shot and landed around 500 meters away in the snow, blasting a lot of snow and mud into the air, and then bounced even further. It was impossible for Van'er's bare eyes to track the iron ball.

The scene made Van'er both excited and a bit frightened, wondering how His Highness had managed to make such a terrible weapon. If he had to face an artillery attack, even with a full body armor, it would be to no avail.

After a round of firing, His Highness the prince would order someone to mark the landing position with a flag. And at the same time, he let someone measure the distance between the muzzle and the flag. After four rounds came the turn of Van'er's team again, he heard the command to change the cannon' angle.

A scale, marked with 0, 5, 10, 25, and 30, was placed on the joint of the two ends of the cannon and the cannon mount. Although he did not understand what this meant, as long as they just followed the instructions, everything would be alright. Iron Axe shouted, "Shoot at the angle of 5!" Jop, who was the strongest, took the ramrod, inserted it into the muzzle, waiting for Van'er to tight the screws, and pressed it upwards until the white line was inserted in the hole and then he let it go.

Compared with the angle of the barrel at the beginning, the angle now was a bit lower, and when the cannon was raised, it showed exactly 5 on the scale.

What followed next was again four rounds of firings, putting flags, measuring the distance, adjusting the angle.

Van'er slowly started to understand the reason behind His Highness the prince's actions.

He was recording the distance of every shot, and the higher the angle of the cannon, the further the iron ball would fly.

This was something that Van'er could understand from his experience of using a bow, the higher up the aim, the further the arrow would fly. If the arrow was shot horizontally, it would hit the ground very fast. He never thought that this was the case with the cannon too. The flying distance would be so much further because of its bigger velocity. Suddenly, he got this crazy idea—what if the iron ball got faster and faster, would it be possible that it would never land?

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

At the Redwater River, the testing of the Littletown was also underway.

Considering that Wendy would act as the boat's driving force, the boat's crew needed to be absolutely reliable. So, Roland picked some people who already knew about the witches as the first crew of the Littletown. Chief Knight Carter became the captain; the helmsman was Brian; the sailors who had to set the sails were Carter's men, and the task of communication was left to Tigui Pine, Nana's father. These people often came into contact with the witches, so coupled with their ideological transformation with which they got rid of their prejudice against the witches, there should not be any problem. In the case of Tigui Pine, it was even less the case, since his own beloved daughter was a witch.

Chapter 82 - The Initial Sail of The Littletown

As the only one professional with sailing experience, Lightning was honored to be the navigator.

In fact, she was also very interested in the weirdly-shaped, peculiar barge. Although it looked very ugly, it had all of the basic parts that a ship should have. However, she was unsure about whether it would sail. After all, she was mostly just a bystander on the sea as her father always refused her requests of steering or hoisting the sail.

In accordance with the tradition, Lightning smashed a bottle of ale on the bow and ordered to raise the sail for the barge's maiden voyage. Carter, as the commander, surely did not want the little girl to take over the position and thus, the knight always followed with the same command after her.

The sail of the Littletown was made of animal skin. It was mostly calf leather and sheepskin with a mix of some Border Town's specialties, such as wolf skin and bear skin. It looked like a rag, patches mixed with different colors and shading, with brown, white and gray colors. The sail was leader-shaped and was separated by four sticks of beams in which the cable passed through the iron ring on the top and fell onto the deck. The entire sail could be raised by simply pulling the cable.

Both the sails at the front and the back of the Littletown were single sail that ran parallel to each other and perpendicular to the center line for easy operation. If the normal brigantine was set in the same way, it would cause one sail very little wind consumption and would almost make it useless. However, the design would enable the power to be evenly distributed on both sides of the central line with Wendy's ability to control the wind, and would be more convenient for the helmsman to operate a direct.

Lightning commanded the men on the shore to untie the rope once the sail had completely risen up. The weather was still fine at the time with occasionally falling snow. The boat was slowly leaving the shore, driven by the breeze and water flow.

The little girl landed beside Brian and shouted, "Full rudder towards the right!"

Carter also shouted, "Full rudder towards the right!"

"Uh, what do you mean by full rudder to the right?" Brian scratched his head and asked, "How many circles should I steer towards the right?"

"No, turn it all the way to the left," Lightning hit her forehead with her hand and said, "Forget it, I'll do it."

She forgot that it was the first time for the crew to operate a two-masted sailing ship, they did not even understand basic commands. The sails of a standard brigantine would not have unfurled so quickly. The design of the Littletown was indeed so unique that the cement boat had smoothly left the shore with less than a 10 man crew.

She held onto the steering wheel which was taller than she was, and lifting her feet off of the floor, she rotated it towards the left. The huge steering wheel was very heavy for an ordinary woman. It was hard overcoming the water resistance in order to direct the iron rudder at the bottom of the boat in the absence of mechanical assistance. However, all these were not a problem at all for Lightning who could fly. She noticed the block that was set to prevent the turnaround at the bottom of the steering and wondered, [I heard that this ship was designed by His Highness, Prince Roland himself. How come he could be so clear about all these little details? Even experienced sailors who were out on the sea all the time may not how to design a ship.]

"Sister Wendy, the wind."

Wendy was amused, standing on top of the roof. [This is the reason His Highness asked whether I have acrophobia... to let me activate the sailing ship?] She suddenly felt a subtle sense of contrast, thinking of her usual chores like drying the meat and clothes, she opened her arms to get into the state of her usual practice. She let the wind evenly blow beneath her feet and over her head in order to make sure both sails received equal wind resistance.

Honestly, Wendy did not expect the seemingly simple request to be so difficult.

Although she had awakened as a witch 15 years ago, she had never tried to understand and control her strength thoroughly. Both summoning a swift current that wrapped around the rocks to attack the enemy or summoning a storm to wipe out the enemy required her to release a huge amount of magic power at once. While dealing with the chores in the campsite did not require the wind power to be constant as long as it achieved the purpose. Wendy suddenly felt ashamed of herself while thinking back to Anna's serious look during the practice.

"The first thing you have to do is to practice your ability repeatedly until you can completely master it... just like Anna."

It turned out that the prince meant it when he said so.

[In this case, let me start from now...] She took a deep breath and concentrated all of her attention on sensing the wind.

Although the wind was not completely balanced, the sail was still bulging up and the continuous thrust had caused the mast to make a squeaking noise. The bow started to swing rightwards.

"It's really moving." Carter exclaimed.

"His Highness made a cement boat that floats on above the water," Tigui smiled and said while touching his stubble. "Is there anything he can't do?"

The Littletown was going further and further away from the shore and gradually moving into the center of the river.

Wendy could create wind from nothingness, but she could not make the existing north wind disappear. The ship was not sailing forward in a straight line due to the effect of both winds, it needed to rely on the steering wheel to adjust accordingly. Brian could only experience it personally as Lightning was not able to clearly state the point. In order to let Brian master this feeling as soon as possible, the little girl had commanded him to implement a few big changes of steering direction to feel the relationship between the turning angle of the steering wheel and the swinging amplitude of the bow before making further little adjustments.

Wendy was the first to be worn out after sailing on the Redwater River for over an hour.

It was not because of the exhaustion of magic power but that her body had hit the limit.

Although her body was wrapped up like a dumpling, she still could not resist the cold wind. There was a thin layer of snow gathered on top of her cotton-padded cap, and her frozen hands and feet were almost numb, her body was shaking unsteadily on the platform. She would probably persist until she passed out if Lightning did not notice anything unusual when she was patrolling in the air.

Lightning quickly flew beside Wendy and tightly held onto her body while shouting for Brian to pull in to shore.

Brian steered the helm to the right and the bow deviated to the left. Lightning flew down with Wendy, although she could only stir a sail from the deck, at least she could temporarily avoid the cold and prevent the excessive loss of body temperature. As pulling into the shore required fine controlling, Lightning did not dare to entrust it to be operated by someone who just learned to steer, although she was not very experienced herself either.

The Littletown finally landed after tossing around for a while. Everyone's heart was raised when it collided with the river bank. The hull made a dull noise when hitting the land, but fortunately, it looked just fine. The men quickly gathered the sail and put the springboard up to the shore.

Luckily they did not choose a straight path for the trial but instead chose to practice, sailing back and forth in the spacious area of the river way. Thus, the Littletown was not too far off from the dock of departure.

Lightning flew straight towards the castle with Wendy at her back. Carter looked at the stone boat and sighed as it was not possible to sail the boat back to the dock themselves without the witches help.

Chapter 83 - The Cart Driver from the Northern Region

Winter was not a harvesting season for most people in the Northern Region, especially in the town around Hermes highlands. The Months of Demons did not only bring the non-stop rain and snow but also severe cold, hunger, and death. However, it was different for "False Leg" White. The emissary of the church would look for him every winter and get him to drive up to the Kingdom of Wolfheart for a trip to fetch the suffering orphans to Holy City with his carriage.

It was a good deal for him, for he could make around 20 silver royals per trip and it was a good deed. The Months of Demons this year was almost ending and this trip should be his last one for the year.

"My lord, why don't you stay in the carriage? The snow out here will continue for a while. We're accustomed to the wind and the snow, but you'll be freezing."

"This is nothing to me." The emissary took a gulp of wine from his flagon and said, "It's much colder in New Holy City than here. The leather clothing and armor won't keep out the cold on the highlands. They're like a pervasive demon, piercing through each part of the body. Normal human beings may not survive that place without the Cold Expelling Pill."

"That's true." White continuously nodded. He had not been to New Holy City, nor did he want to. [Why should I go such a place where there's only frozen ice and demonic beasts?] However, as an experienced cart driver, he could always find a new topic to talk about. Plus, the current emissary was friendlier than the previous emissary. "Your gloves are specially made with the wolf skin from the Kingdom of Graycastle in the Western Region, I suppose?"

"Oh? How do you know that?"

"Hey, I've been working as a cart driver for almost 30 years, my lord," White proudly said, "I started driving for the Baron, followed by the countess, and even the little princess of Kingdom of Wolfheart. If I did not break my leg in an accident, I would probably still be staying in the house of the earl. They have nothing more than the gold royals. The leather and silverware of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the jewelry of the Kingdom of Everwinter, the artwork of the Fjords were the topics they couldn't stop talking about once they were aboard, and I almost get sick of them."

"I see," the emissary nodded and said, "Was that where your nickname came from? What kind of accident was it?"

"Aye, it was the riot of refugees. The bullies would do anything for a living," White spat and said, "They had surrounded the carriage at that time, and I had to urge the horse to escape in order to protect the countess. As a result, the startled horse threw me off and the carriage was overturned."

"So, you broke your leg?" the emissary curiously asked, "What about the countess?"

"She was much better than I was. There were cushions and thick quilts in the carriage, so she was just badly bruised," White angrily said, "She climbed out from the carriage and ran away, leaving me alone on the road. I crawled home with my broken leg and spent all my savings on a fake leg," he knocked on the copper stick that was sticking out of one of his trousers and said, "However the house of the earl kicked me out with the excuse that I wouldn't be able to drive a cart anymore. The damn nobles!"

"What a pity," the emissary paused and said, "However, Gods didn't abandon you, and you're now driving for the church. Praise God."

"Indeed, my lord. Praise God." While saying so, White thought to himself, [No. If God is really kind, I shouldn't have experienced such a tragedy. God didn't save me when I needed him the most.]

Right then, they heard a girl crying inside the carriage.

"Stop for a moment," the emissary ordered.

White pulled the rein tightly to make both of the horses stopped gradually. The emissary hopped off the carriage and walked around to the back of the carriage. Soon, the sound of whipping was heard from the carriage.

"Poor child." He sighed. "Just bear it, he's your savior. You won't even survive the winter and probably become an unattended dead body along the street without Lord Emissary."

The emissary returned and climbed back up to the shafts after a while and said, "Let's go"

"Sit tight. Drive!" White shook the reins and the cart started moving again. "They're all from the Kingdom of Wolfheart?"

"More or less. The churches from each of the town in the kingdom would take in some orphans. The number of people we take in will increase by a few times especially during the winter when there's a shortage of food and clothing. It would not be sufficient depending only the friars from the churches, so they have entrusted the cart dealer to hire some trust-worthy driver to assist in delivery. You've done a very good job, White. My previous colleague has highly recommended you."

"It's my pleasure to be able to participate in such good deeds," White said with a grin, "My lord, are they all being sent to the cloister? Forgive me, although they're all orphans, they have very different characteristics. Even though some of them are still young, they would have done almost anything. Won't they stain Holy Land?"

"God will judge them, although they're guilty, they'll be given a chance to redeem themselves."

"Is that so? That's a good thing." White looked up to the sky. "It's late, my lord. Do we need to spend the night in the next town? If the weather is good tomorrow, we'll arrive the old Holy City by noon."

The emissary yawned and said, "Let's find a hotel with a yard to park the carriage. You may go to prepare food for them."

"Okay!" White answered.

The town was the only way to the old Holy City from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and it was not his first time here. He was so familiar with the places here that he quickly found the hotel which he used to stay. After he parked the horse cart at the yard, he went to buy some food for the orphans with the money the emissary had handed to him. As usual, sweet potato porridge was the most suitable choice as it was cheap and delicious. After he watched them distributing the porridge, he limped back to the hotel, ordered himself a loaf of butter bun, and started eating while sitting at the bar. As for the emissary, he must have gone to a better place.

If it was 10 years ago when his leg was good, he would have gone to the tavern to drink some wine and find someone to play a few dices with—he was pretty lucky back then. As for now... he thought it was better for him to go back to his room and have an early rest when he touched his purse in his clothes.

In the evening, he heard some noises in the yard. He woke up and opened the curtain to take a look, White saw the drunk emissary unlocked the carriage and went in. After a while, he came out with two orphans, and there were two men standing behind him, who looked like the nobles from the way they dressed.

White drew the curtain and went back to his warm bed.

This was not the first time he witnessed it, and the previous emissary always did the same. [Surviving is the greatest luck,] he thought, [Comparing to the temporary pain, tolerating is the only way. When you arrive in Holy City, you'll have a brand new life. At least, there won't be worries of starvation and cold in the cloister.] White yawned and fell asleep.

As soon as the sun rose, he was moving forward with the emissary. It was a smooth journey and they had reached the old Holy City an hour earlier than the time they predicted. There was already a church carriage waiting for them, and it looked like the poor kids still had a long journey to go. But it had nothing to do with White.

"This is your payment." The emissary threw him a sack.

White poured the money out onto his palm after he caught the sack and counted them twice, and it was indeed 20 silver royals. He nodded and said while bowing, "I'll see you next year."

The emissary did not answer but waved him away.

White noticed that there were a few other carriages that did the same job. [Perhaps they're coming from another kingdom?] He thought, [However, something is strange. They're all little girls who came out from the carriage. The church only adopts girls?]

He shook his head and left behind these questions, and drove back home.

Chapter 84 - Hermes' Underground Castle

Archbishop Mayne stepped across the annular stairs and walked down towards the underground.

The staircase, with a depth of at least of four times that of the cathedral's highest tower and a diameter of about 20 feet, was built in a natural doline and led directly into a strategically-positioned and spacious castle. The beginning of the staircase was well lit by skylight pathing through the windows of the high dome above, giving the twisting and turning stone walls an icy color.

As the archbishop descended, the speckles darkened and merged with the stone surface. Yet the center of the sinkhole reflected a faint blue light. The deeper it went, the brighter the light grew. Even if one was without a torch, there would be no difficulty in seeing things.

The stairs were like a little snake that wound around the sinkhole and snuggled up to the stone surface.

The stair pavements were granite and were cut rectangular in shape and were around four centimeters thick. The width was enough for three people to walk on side by side. One side of a stair was deeply embedded into the stone surface, while the other side stretched into the thin air. For safety, there were wooden handrails that were connected with cords on the other side.

He had not counted how many stairs there were, but he knew for certain that every slate was laid with tremendous effort. The masons in the church were suspended on ropes so that they could chisel deep enough grooves and embed the slates in them one by one. Every movement had to be made with care. More than 300 people had died from merely their ropes breaking or slipping.

If the Hermes Cathedral above symbolized the unyielding spirit of the church, then the underground castle deeply hidden in the sinkhole served as the real core of the church.

On the stone surface directly above the stairs, God's Stone of Retaliation glistened. Every hundred stairs there was a guard from the Judgement Army. Within the castle, a platoon of God's Punishment Army was ready to meet the invaders head-on. In the mezzanine between the dome of the castle and the floor of the cathedral, there were numberless sandbags and crushed stones. In the case that Holy City was lost and everyone had to leave, the pope would start the trap and bury this place in gravel and crushed stones.

It was not the first time for Mayne to go to the Hermes' underground castle, but walking in the thin air still made him dizzy, especially when he looked out from the handrail. He felt as if he were falling.

He only calmed down a little when his feet were on the solid ground again.

At the bottom of the sinkhole there lay a gigantic round white whet slate whose surface was as smooth as a glass. One could easily see their own reflections in it. With the genius design of the craftsmen, this whet slate could reflect the light from the dome that converged on it from the surface. The bottom of the sinkhole was not pitch dark even if there was no torch.

At the bottom of the sinkhole one could find that the sunlight was not colorless. The whet slate reflected faint blue light which illuminated the whole sinkhole in a cool shade. With a closer look one could notice that there was an infinite number of dust particles swirling in the brighter spots, as if they were the tiny beings recorded in ancient books.

The church used the natural openings at the bottom of the sinkhole along with the rock surfaces and connected them further to create Hermes' underground castle. And thanks to the openings that led in all directions, the air was never stale.

As soon as Mayne stepped into the gate of the castle, the guardian force became intense. A group of five Judgement Army soldiers guarded every barrier. They were all the most loyal warriors of the church. As long as they accepted this duty, each one of them would spend the rest of their life in the castle, not being able to return to above ground anymore.

In fact, only he and the pope could enter and leave the castle freely. Archbishop Heather and Archbishop Tayfun were not even able to step into this place.

But Mayne did not know how many forks of a road there were in the castle himself. Except for this main road on the south, there were many narrower roads on the sides. If one walked along one, there would be more forks in the road afterwards. Some of the roads were used by the church, while the others were sealed up. He had heard that when the castle was built, a few craftsmen lost their way in the unmarked forks and never found their way back.

The straight main road led to the depths of the mountain. There was a barrier every 100 meters. Mayne knew that every district between two barriers served a different function. The outermost district was a living quarter for the warriors who guarded the underground. The second district was the home of the archive for documents, manuscripts, and where the surviving volumes of ancient books were located. The third district was the prison, which kept prisoners who could not be seen and... the innocent.

When he walked past the third barrier, Mayne stopped. If he walked further, he would reach the Pivotal Secret Area of the castle, from which all the discoveries and inventions of the church originated. He had only been there once since he became the archbishop three years ago and he could not take the liberty to go there without the permission of the pope.

Mayne turned left from the main road into a narrow lane.

The lane was short. Before soon he reached its end. The guard at the door soon saluted him saying, "My lord."

Mayne nodded. "Open the door."

There was a corridor inside the door. On the walls, burning rosin torches were hung like infinite leaping light spots in the dark that stretched to the end of the corridor. At the sides there were numerous thick wooden doors with a number plate hung on each door.

The Judgement Warrior held up the torch and led the way, while Mayne paid his attention to the change of numbers. When he saw the number plate with 35 on it, he stopped and opened the door with a key. The door emitted a piercing sound in the silent hole bottom and the sound continued to echo in the empty corridor. Behind many doors came the cries for help, from both men and women. If one listened more closely, the content was mostly bitter entreaties like, "Let me out!" "Save me" or "Please kill me!"

Mayne was not moved at all. He ordered the warrior to guard the door, walked into the room and closed the door himself, shutting out the noise.

Behind the bars, the archbishop saw an old man sitting on his bed. Maybe he was not so advanced in age, but his hair was grizzled and his forehead was covered with wrinkles. He might not have shaven for a long time for his beard was long enough to reach his neck. His skin was astoundingly white and his limbs were thin and shriveled like dried branches.

Mayne took a look at the food box beside the bars, in which the food remained untouched. He sighed and said, "You should have been kinder to yourself. The church isn't short of food. Your meals are prepared according to the standard of a king, except that there's no wine. Even the fish is the best cod from the Port of Clearwater. You should be familiar with its taste, shouldn't you, Your Majesty Wimbledon?"

Chapter 85 - The Road of Thorns

The old man did not react until a few moments later. He lifted his quilt slowly, moved to the edge of the bed, and looked the archbishop in the eye.

"If you were locked up in this goddamned place, could you eat anything?" When he spoke, his voice was obscured, as if his throat was tight. "Half a year has passed, and I've been locked here for half a year. Without a word from the outside. How're my sons? What about my daughters?"

Mayne noticed that there were dints all over the wall, which seemed to have been scratched with nails. Did the old man count the days this way?

He pulled a chair in front of the king. "Do you have to ask about these unpleasant things?"

The other party remained silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I'm of no use anymore. Are you coming to finish me off?"

"Yes."

"Then as a dying man, I care nothing about my pleasure or displeasure! I only want to know how they're before I die!" As Wimbledon was finishing this last phrase, his words almost transformed into a wail.

[He can't take it anymore,] Mayne thought. The old man had shown his dignity and honor as a king. He had tried many times to escape on the way to Hermes after he had been replaced by the believer. He had not gone insane, and instead, he had tried to free himself by negotiating. He did not curse or howl hysterically, which was rare in the castle prison. If it were not for the unchangeable plan, Mayne would not have wanted to end such a life in this way.

He came up with the idea in the back of his mind that he could tell the old man what he wanted to know. Otherwise, an order for a soldier in Judgement Army to end the king's life for him would suffice.

"Your oldest son, Gerald Wimbledon, has died," Mayne said slowly. "He was sentenced to beheading by your second son Timothy Wimbledon in the name of treason and murder of the king. Your daughter Garcia Wimbledon has declared independence in the Southern Territory and given herself the title, Queen of Clearwater. A war between her and Timothy is unavoidable. As for your youngest son and daughter, we have no news. Maybe they're still alive."

"What did you say? Treason? Independence? What have you done?"

"Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince," he pronounced every single word of the phrase clearly, "we assigned your children to different places and declared that the one who ruled best would be the next king or queen."

Wimbledon closed his eyes in pain. After a long pause, he asked in a low voice, "Why? You grabbed the chance on the Day of Prayer, taking me into a chamber and stripping off my clothes and God's Stone of Retaliation. You made a witch replace me with some other person. You could have taken charge of this kingdom slowly and built a church in every town. Why did you have to issue something like the so-called Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince? I, I couldn't have... Achem." Wimbledon had stirred himself up so much that he curled into a ball, coughing violently.

[I'd never have issued such an order to set my children against each other.] Mayne complemented the sentence in his mind for the king. "Maybe you would not, but your children may not act as you wish. As they're getting older, they each have their own mind. For example, your oldest daughter, Garcia, seized Port of Clearwater five years ago. Even without the Royal Decree, or if you were to die a natural death, would she watch Gerald ascend the throne without doing anything? The most important fact is we don't have time to do it slowly. You may have noticed a witch's power can't last forever."

"Damn. What's the benefit for the church if they fight each other? The church will also be engulfed in the flames of war while the believers will die in battles. The whole kingdom will be in chaos..." Wimbledon suddenly paused and raised his head in disbelief. "Do you intend to..." A more violent cough interrupted the king's words. When he recovered his voice, the voice became so soft, as if the fit of coughing had drained all the energy from him. "you want to eliminate the royal family."

"Exactly. But to put it more precisely, it's the kingship that we'd like to eliminate." Mayne could not help but be amazed by the acute judgement of the king. The number of people who had stayed in a dark cell for almost half a year and retained their clarity of mind could be counted on a single hand. "Kingship hinders the development of the church. No matter how weak the kingship is, it'll grow like a sapling. The only way to get the kingdom for real is to root it out.

Wimbledon's face looked much older now. He may have seemed aged before, but now his spirit was broken too. His eyes were dimmed.

"The Kingdom of Graycastle is the largest kingdom and has the strongest army on the continent. A war against it would be unfavorable for the church. We've planned so long for this. Your kingdom will lose countless soldiers and mercenaries in the civil war. In two or three years, our Judgement Army will be able to take over the whole territory of Graycastle easily. You don't have to grieve so much, for you'll not be the only king who loses his kingdom. It'll be the same for the other three kingdoms. After that, there'll be no difference between the four kingdoms. Kingdom of Dawn, Kingdom of Wolfheart, Kingdom of Everwinter, as well as Kingdom of Graycastle will all vanish. There'll be only one sovereign in the vast land. That's to say, the church."

Wimbledon was silent. The man who had taken the crown from his brother by force had lost his spirit. Mayne even felt a little sympathy for him, though he did not feel the slightest regret in his heart. The church had paid a great price for this. Countless remarkable believers had been willing to sacrifice and serve as pawns in this carefully-schemed chess game.

The man who had played King Wimbledon III was actually a pious chief justice in the Judgement Army. His faith and loyalty to the church were undisputable. He could have gone through the incarnation ceremony of God's Punishment Army. But for the sake of the mission, he was given the king's image by the witch and died an honor-less death in the chamber room in the king's city of Graycastle. He could have had his name carved out on the monuments of Hermes Cathedral. Yet now the church could only bury his name forever.

Mayne did not expect Wimbledon would speak and took out a small porcelain bottle to make the old man drink its contents, but the king suddenly spoke, "Curse!"

"Huh?"

"I curse you. I'll wait for you in the abyss of hell." His voice grew weaker and weaker. Mayne could only hear what the king said when he concentrated.

"Sorry. There's no hell in this world. If there's one, it doesn't belong to us. What we've done is for survival only. Only by uniting the forces of all the four kingdoms can the church generate the utmost power to defeat the real enemy. Otherwise..." The archbishop stopped because he had seen Wimbledon's hands fall down powerlessly. His head turned to one side, and the movements of his chest died down.

[This is the end of a king, and yet at the same time, a brand new beginning for us,] he thought.

Mayne put the porcelain bottle back into his pocket and left. When he pushed the wooden door open, the corridor was quiet, as if the wailing had never been there. He said a few things about the ensuing arrangements to the warrior of the Judgement Army at the door and walked out of the castle with determination.

Chapter 86 - The Choice of the Witches

Leaf did not know how she managed to get through these days.

It took her nearly half a month to return to the camp in the Impassable Mountain Range from the Barbarian Region. In order to avoid the demonic beasts, she had to carefully hide between sturdy tree trunks and confirm there were no demonic beasts before running to the next hiding place. Though her heart was burning with anxiety, she had no other choice but to march slowly in this way. Once she was detected by the demonic hybrids, she would not be able to escape by herself.

More than a dozen sisters had been ruthlessly killed by the demon. The other sisters, who belonged to non-combat type, fled in all directions when the demon Ironhand jumped into the crowd and began his massacre. But Leaf did not know how many of them were able to survive and return to the camp. She dared not to even think about it at all.

As she always had to hide herself during her journey, she consumed her magic power quite quickly and was only able to walk about a dozen miles every day. In addition, she had to save some magic power to survive the night. Since she ate up all the food she brought, she had to transform some wild fruits to make them edible. The emblem of Witch Cooperation Association had run out of power and stopped to give warmth, so she had to wrap herself up with barks. Thinking of young Shino who died before her maturity, Leaf could not stop her tears from falling.

What's worse, on the evening of the fourth night, she suffered the Demonic Torture in a trunk. She completely forgot about it after the continuous attacks these days. A terrible pain quickly spread from her chest to her whole body, as if she were being torn apart. For an instant, she nearly became unconscious, and she had to bite her tongue hard to resist the pain. Under the constant torture, Leaf thought of giving up several times. However, she thought about the 20 sisters who might still be alive, or be waiting for her at the camp. She also thought about those that were seriously wounded and could only be cured by her. All of these made her grit her teeth and persevere on.

Luckily the Demonic Torture did not last long this time. When she finally struggled from the torture, she found there were bleeding cracks all over her body, and her blood had wetted the trunk. Afraid that the smell of blood would attract the demonic beasts, she had to take off her clothes and rush to hide in another tree despite the pain and fatigue. At the same time, she made green leaves grow on a bare branch with her magic power and made clothes out of leaves to keep warm. With the magic power, the branch became her needle while the leaf veins were her threads.

On her way back to the camp, she did not get to eat any cooked food or drink any warm water. When she entered the Impassable Mountain Range, even though she added two more layers of green-leaf clothes and tightly wrapped her hands and feet up, her toes still suffered frostbite. This was due to the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy snow that went up to her ankles. She walked and paused all the way, dragging her feet which could not feel anything, and finally arrived at the camp.

When she saw the familiar figures of the sisters, she fell head down and fainted.

When she woke up, it was already two days later. Having been exposed to low temperature for a long time, her feet were too severely injured to be healed by herbal medicine. The sisters had no choice but to cut off two necrotic toes from each of her feet to stop the spreading of gangrene.

Leaf did not care much about it. She was lucky enough to be alive, compared with those sisters who could never return. But seeing the white bandages on the arms of those wounded sisters, she could not help but feel extremely sorrowful.

When they started off, there were 42 sisters; but now, only six of them survived.

The sisters tried to comfort her, and then Scroll, the oldest witch, told her what happened to them after they had fled.

When Leaf was fighting the demon, the non-combat type of witches seized the opportunity to escape toward the camp. On that night, they were attacked by the demonic beasts—a group of demonic boars. Unable to resist, they had to flee again. Those sisters chased by the demonic beasts had little chance of survival, but they could do nothing about it. The next morning, under the attack of another demonic hybrid wolf, only eight witches escaped successfully. Fortunately, when they entered the Impassable Mountain, the beast finally left.

A few days after they returned to the camp, two sisters began to suffer the bite of the magic power. Maybe because of the terrible experience and the bleak future, neither of them were able to survive. Since none of the combat witches came back, everyone thought that they must have died in the hands of the demon, so no one expected that Leaf would come back.

"So... where are the other sisters? Red Light, Windseeker, and Respected Mentor, what happened to them?"

Leaf shook her head, "I'm the only one who survived."

"Is that so..." Scroll replied softly, having already guessed the answer. "Have a good rest, and..." she hesitated for a moment, and then she said, "Leaf..."

"What?"

"Before you woke up, we had a discussion. In case Cara won't come back, I hope you can take the position of our mentor."

Leaf was stunned for a moment and closed her eyes to consider. Well, after these heavy blows, the Witch Cooperation Association would probably fall apart immediately if there was no new mentor. The dream of the association was to seek the Holy Mountain, a place of freedom and peace. But now the dream was broken. No, even "Holy Mountain" was a lie, as it did not exist in the Impassable Mountain Range, or in the Wild Places. In this case, should the association still exist?

Those thoughts were getting on her nerves. Even without looking at the sisters, she could feel the expectations in their eyes. They needed someone to tell them what to do and to lead them on their journey.

"Let's... go and look for Nightingale," said Leaf, after a long silence.

"What? Nightingale?"

"You mean we are going to Border Town?"

"What if she lied to us?"

"Wendy is also there."

"Maybe she's been dead for ages."

Hearing what Leaf said, the sisters raised questions eagerly. Scroll clapped her hands to calm them, and then asked Leaf, "What if Nightingale also lied?"

"You can wait outside the town, in some safe place." Leaf opened her eyes, "Let me go first to find out whether Nightingale was telling the truth. If she lied, I will take over the position of the mentor. But if... I die in the town, Scroll, please lead the sisters to seek freedom."

"But, I..."

Leaf forced a smile, "I know your ability is unsuitable for fighting, and not very helpful for the daily operation of the camp. But now I understand that the strength of the ability is not the most important standard for the position of the mentor." The mentor should be a guide, instead of being the strongest one. Unfortunately, it was too late for her to understand it. If Wendy, who was patient and cautious, was their mentor, would the result be different? "You, as well as Wendy, were the first witches to join the association, and also the elder sisters. When we came to the Impassable Mountain Range from the eastern part of the kingdom, you behaved in an experienced manner and were cautious. No one is more qualified than you to become our mentor."

Scroll fell into silence for a while, and then said, "What if Nightingale was telling the truth?"

"Then the Witch Cooperation Association should not exist anymore." Leaf slowly said, "Border Town will be our new 'Holy Mountain'."

Chapter 87 - The Winter Twilight (Part I)

"Ready—! Stab!"

Van'er exerted himself to stab forward with his spear. Holding it with both hands, he could feel the violent tremble and hear the crackling of the spear. At the end of the spear was a demonic wolf. That beast had fluffy fur and blood-red eyes bulging like bells. In its wide-open mouth were two rows of fangs, and the largest one was as big as his thumb. This was his first time to face a demonic beast so closely. It was trying to attack him with its claws and the snowflakes were spattered all over on his face.

Van'er felt his mind was a blank. He was only driven by his instincts learned during the training, while subconsciously holding tightly the shaft of his spear and continuing to attack. Time seemed to flow slowly, and the shaft was bent to its maximum. The spear was stabbed deeply into the belly of the wolf, and he even thought that the sharp claws would tear his cheeks open in the next moment.

"Bang!" Unable to withstand the force of the wolf any longer, the shaft finally broke into two pieces. The sound also made time flow normally again, as he could saw the wolf falling down, just like it jumped on the wall earlier on. Its claws failed to clutch the city wall, scraping flakes along the wall, and then smashed on the ground, with half of his spear still in its belly.

"Flintlock Squad, finish loading!"

"Fire!"

Two gun barrels immediately stretched out beside Van'er. He hurried to take a half step back and raised his head to avoid the scattered fragments and the smoke of the gunpowder. As for his ears, he had no time to cover them.

Soon after the guns fired, Van'er stepped back to the front, where he discovered a variety of demonic beasts dead at the base of the wall. Someone poked him in his back. He turned around and saw his roommate grinning proudly at him.

Van'er thought, "You have just got the opportunity to touch the gun for a week. You have nothing to be proud of." He cast a stern glance at him and turned back to look at the battlefield. "When His Highness's cannon platoon is ready, you'll know the gun in your hand is just like a stick."

"Gunner, here is your spear." Cat's Claw handed Van'er a new wooden spear. "Are these demonic beasts crazy? They've been attacking us for nearly two or three hours, right?"

"They were already crazy," answered Van'er. He took the spear and placed it properly, waiting for the next attack. "What time is it?"

"It was almost noon." Cat's Claw sighed. When the hunter was not looking at him, he took a quick glance at each side and asked," Where is Jop? And the Rodney Brothers?"

"Don't turn around. Do you want to be torn in two by the demonic wolves?" Van'er snapped, "They were assigned to the other section of the city walls, maybe in the third or the fourth group. By the way, why are you in group one?"

"I belong to the auxiliary force." Cat's Claw laughed and said, " Wherever there is a need, I'll come to help. Just now an older soldier was wounded, so it was my turn to..."

"Ready—!" The order of the hunter observer interrupted Cat's Claw's words. Van'er saw a dozen of demonic beasts rapidly approaching. Now he could also quickly distinguish the types of demonic beasts. He discovered there were only two demonic wolves, while the rest were demonic boars, demonic foxes, and a demonic bear, which were no big threat to the city wall.

"Stab!" In spite of that, he still obeyed the order and stabbed forward in unified action with his group members. As expected, his spear stabbed into nothing but thin air. After withdrawing his spear, he saw from the corner of his eyes that the demonic wolves were killed by other soldiers from group one. When the slower demonic beasts gathered around the city wall, the Flintlock Squad squeezed by his side again, shooting downwards.

They had repeated these fixed actions from daybreak until the present. When the horn was first sounded, most people were still sleeping. Van'er yawned. This time, the attack of demonic beasts was more intense than ever before. Usually, they just needed to resist one or two waves of demonic beasts, but today, the corpses of beasts were almost piling up along the wall. They had been replaced by the second Militia halfway so that they could have a short rest and a bit to eat, after which they returned to the city wall.

Surprisingly, Van'er found that he behaved more calmly than he had imagined. He would withdraw his spear when he heard the order, leaving the rest to the Flintlock Squad, just as he had practiced in peacetime. Those regulations and actions, which originally seemed to be strange, came in handy and were incredibly effective.

Other soldiers behaved just like Van'er, firmly grasping the spear and having a serious look on their faces. Some auxiliary soldiers were very nervous, but still stood upright and no one stepped back.

Van'er knew that the daily repetitive training gave them confidence, but the morale was boosted mainly by His Highness. Only after the Flintlock Squad fired, Van'er would steal a glance at the lookout tower in the middle of the city wall—that was where the prince stood.

Since the horn sounded, His Highness immediately came to the city wall and stood there to overlook the battle without any rest. Even when Van'er was replaced to have his meal, he found that the prince remained on top of the lookout tower. Even his breakfast was sent there by the chief knight.

Van'er recalled that the last lord would always withdraw by ship as quickly as possible before the beginning of the Months of Demons. Then the other nobles would also go on board. The civilians would be the last ones to leave. If they could afford some silver royals, they could leave with the ships. But if they had no money, they had to walk to Longsong Stronghold by themselves. Thinking about that, Van'er felt that he was full of energy again.

Yes, they belonged to the Graycastle prince's Militia, totally different from the patrol team of Border Town in the past. With armors and weapons, those members of patrol team often bullied civilians in the New and Old District and blackmailed the foreign businessmen. In Van'er's view, except the two captains, the rest of the patrol team were nothing different from rogues. But the Militia, led by His Highness, was a strong team, which was able to block the terrifying demonic beasts outside of Border Town, making it impossible for them to advance. In the past, only Longsong Stronghold was able to do this.

Just look at Fish Ball, the famous coward in the Old District, who used to be ridiculed by others. Since he joined the second Militia, he was brave enough to fight the demonic beast with his spear. And Fermi, tall in stature but slow in action, was often teased by the people of the Old District. But now he was able to fight with his spear in a quick and firm way, and he was even more skilled than the others. Van'er knew that Fermi would always thrust out another one hundred slashes after the others had finished their training, just because His Highness once said to him, "Clumsy birds have to start flying early. To be successful, you have to keep one step ahead of everyone else to be able to surpass them."

Originally Van'er came here for the two eggs, but now he felt lucky that he had joined the Militia. Every day there was some subtle change, and every day he made progress. Van'er believed that he was definitely not the only soldier who felt it. He did not know how to describe his feelings. Maybe he could use the words which were often said by His Highness during the training—"You're a team that's out of this world".

"Hoot— Hoot—" Van'er suddenly heard two short horn blows, which was the warning sign for the demonic hybrid. He looked into the distance and discovered a demonic hybrid with a lion's head and two wings, which was similar to that beast which broke into the town last time. "This was the second one," he thought. But this time was different. Besides the Flintlock Squad, we had more help.

Van'er turned around slightly, and from the corner of his eyes, he saw a girl with short blonde hair floating beside the prince.

Chapter 88 - The Twilight of Winter (Part II)

"Take it easy. It hasn't come yet." Roland sighed as he watched the eager Lightning.

God only knew why she was so interested in challenging demonic beasts. Obviously, she was not cut out for battle, but yet she was hardly frightened of the demonic beasts that scared most people. "Do it the same way you dealt with the first one. Leave your bravado behind. Your job is to draw the beast's attention and lure it here. Watch the height you fly at in case the beasts pounces up to strike you."

"I know. I know," Lightning said, brimming with confidence, "I've learned all the details from the fight against the first beast. Give me some credit. I won't let this one touch me at all."

While they were talking, the demonic hybrid beast was approaching the wall. It crossed the obstacle belt and sprung over the city wall towards the unguarded area. This time, the Militia members did not respond but stayed where they were deployed, waiting for the instruction from the hunter observers.

"Now the fight begins against the demonic hybrid beast!" Roland said in a deep voice.

Lightning, who was already on her way, stopped and looked back at Roland.

"What's the matter?" Roland asked.

"What you just said was..." Lightning thought for a while and shook her head, "A little strange... Anyway, forget it. I'm leaving."

Watching her fly away, Roland laughed awkwardly and asked Anna and Nightingale behind him, "Did it sound strange to you both?"

"Yeah." Both of them nodded.

[Well then... It seems that the bumptious line will keep its feature wherever they are,] thought Roland. "Off you go, and keep safe," Roland said.

"Same to you, Your Highness." Nightingale bowed and took Anna's hand before walking into the Mist.

The wind blowing against him, Roland stood with his hands behind his back, endeavoring to cast an impression of a big boss. Knowing that a lot of men watched him secretly during the break of the war, he kept standing firmly on top of the wall, letting everyone see the sign at any time that their prince would always stand with them. Since he could not fight in the war personally, this was the best he could do to inspire his men.

The attack of the demonic beasts this year was the strongest on record. According to Iron Axe, in previous years, there had been only one or two demonic hybrid beasts during the Months of Demons. This year seemed very unusual as the number of the intruding demonic hybrid beasts was up to four, and the war lasted longer. The demonic beasts constantly emerged from the Misty Forest and marched unceasingly towards the town in a pack of ten or so.

Fortunately, last month they had prepared enough flintlocks to arm the Flintlock Squad of 100 men, otherwise they would not be able to guarantee such an efficient killing speed. If they used crossbow bolts, it would be very hard to keep up the loading speed by now. In a protracted battle, the advantage of the flintlock that cost less labor was standing out. Of course, the high consumption of gunpowder did bother Roland, hence he was planning to unpack all the gunpowder reserves in the warehouse, more than 20 packs of them, to supply the Flintlock Squad.

On the other side, Lightning had approached the place above the demonic hybrid beast. She took a stone out of her pocket and cast it to the beast. The stone hit right on its head. The unexpected attack made the beast step back immediately before it saw that the attack was from the sky.

Lightning lowered her flying height to challenge the beast and flew by it, keeping close to the ground as she began heading to the center of the town. Though the beast could think, it seemed to the beast that the little flying girl was weak and non-threatening. So it pounced on her immediately, its wings spreading open to strike the air, and with only a few bounces, it glided forward almost 100 meters. Lightning flew higher at once and turned around in the sky, passing by some houses and turning in to another street.

Through the perplexing paths, she lured the enemy to the square in the center of the town where she would launch an attack on the beast with Nightingale and Anna as they had planned. Since the beast was sensitive enough to discover Nightingale even when she was hiding in the Mist, it was critical for Lightning to catch the beast's attention before Nightingale and Anna launched their attack.

The trick worked perfectly. Now the beast was clearly furious and mad, and its nature got the better of it. With mouth wide open, it kept leaping up to catch Lightning who, without any burdens, was far agiler. She went up and down to fool the beast and made it miss the target every time it attacked.

From the other direction, Nightingale had arrived the square, and unlike Lightning, she walked straight here in the Mist where no obstacles like houses and barriers would stand in her way. Anna's fire could reach as far as five meters, and in order to lower the chance of the beast cottoning on, they had to be as close as possible.

Having learned a lot from the mistake of dealing with the first demonic hybrid beast, now Nightingale was familiar with how Anna attacked. When they were 30 steps away from the beast, she sped up to the limit. Within a split second, the distance seemed to be cut down to one step and then they strode over it. It happened so fast that when Anna came to her mind, she found that their face was right by the beast's tail.

"Now!" Nightingale shouted.

As the white and black world faded away in the blink of an eye, Anna came back to the familiar square. A green fire burst out on her fingertip and enlarged into a fire cage that trapped the entire beast.

Nightingale retreated quickly to dodge the heat wave that made her painful.

Before the demonic beast could react, the fire that had reached a temperature high enough to melt steel, became a fireball, and finally, the beast crushed.

"Looks like they've made it," Wendy who worked as a guard in Nightingale's absence curled her lip and said when she saw the green flame far away. "It seems that I didn't have to do much work..."

"I'd hope that none of you step foot onto the battlefield if possible," said Roland in a faux-sprightly voice, keeping his posture with his hands behind his back. But he knew in his heart that without the help of the witches, the Militia would definitely reel from the demonic hybrid beasts, which were able to fly over the city wall.

Even Nana, protected by Baron Tigui, had come to the city wall and was busy healing the wounded soldiers. Roland was very gratified that the first time demonstrating the power of witches in front of the Militia had turned out so well. Nana, who was nicknamed 'Healing Angel', apparently boosted the reputation of the witches to a new level. Moreover, the victory Anna and Nightingale had achieved in the battle against the demonic hybrid beast also earned them cheers among the crowds.

He certainly understood that it was impossible for everyone to accept the witches, but as far as he was concerned, the current situation was already an improvement. After the initial interaction between the Militia and the witches, his following plan would be carried out more smoothly.

All of a sudden, the sound of gunfire became sporadic, and Roland noticed that the beasts were abandoning the city wall. [The enemies are in retreat?] Roland could not believe his eyes. At that moment, a shaft of sunlight burst through the thick clouds, shining on the battlefield, and then the second shaft, the third... soon the gray sky was riddled with thousands of shafts of light which bled one another to become a single most dazzling one. Suddenly, the land was brightened up.

"When the sun finally rose up again, it signaled the end of the Months of Demons"

After a short moment of silence on the city wall, the wave of cheers swept across the border defense line. One after another, the townspeople came out of their houses, and following the wave of cheers, they sang and shouted. Cheers for the long-awaited sunshine, cheers for surviving the winter, and cheers for their prince. All the cheers came together, echoing throughout the small Border Town.

Chapter 89 - The Celebration (Part I)

For Border Town, this year was different from previous years.

In the past, after the Months of Demons ended, the refugees had to wait in the slum of Longsong Stronghold for one more month, until the snow had melted completely, before they could return to their home. What awaited them in Border Town was a mess. The houses that had been unattended for months would be in ruins. Sometimes fragile cabins would collapse from heavy snow. Demonic beasts often lingered in houses. Cabinets and tables had been bitten and broken into parts, and the pallets and rags had been moved to fill in the corners. Apparently, they used these shelters as their lairs. House owners had to spend a week repairing their houses and changing their mildewed furniture. And the rotten stench always lingered in the air. The residents had grown accustomed to it.

This year, however, Border Town was renewed. After quickly cleaning the snow, people started to hang colorful paper flags on their doors. These had been granted by His Highness. From afar, with the flags of various colors mixed together, the dull and shabby, little town became vibrant, like a sea of flowers. All the people went around spreading the news that on the first day after the end of the Months of Demons, His Highness would hold a grand celebration party in the square! Everyone was allowed to attend it for free! It was told that there would also be a free meal!

A party? In the past, these were only for the noble to attend. Most people simply heard about them from the knowledgeable businessmen who came from big cities. But even the experienced businessmen were not allowed to attend a party, and money could not buy them a ticket. Yet, to everyone's surprise, His Highness was allowing all of them to attend.

"Your Highness, I'm afraid this is not a good idea." Chief Knight Carter tried to change his mind. "Without a band or a lead dancer, who'll control the pace of the party? Besides, in a remote place like this, the noble won't even dance. Your subjects will ruin everything."

Carter had only been to one party in the capital, which had been held by a marquis for his daughter's birthday. The sounds of elegant strings and passionate drums had interlaced. Ladies had danced to melodious music while men drums, their steps fast and vigorous, and with rotating and tapping they combined the movements and the rhythm of drums. During the break, attendants would serve drinks and desserts among the people. Men looked for lovers and when the last song was played, they plucked up the courage to ask the object of their admiration for a dance. The one who won a lady's heart would continue his romantic night.

Carter sighed. Though he had not won over the admired girl at the time, the elegant, romantic atmosphere of the party still left an impression on his mind. Now the prince intended to replace the graceful noble with peasants who dealt with stones and beasts every day? Goodness, he dared not imagine it.

"The lead dancers? We have them." Roland had commanded the Militia to remove the stone sculpture and gallows in the square. "They're Iron Axe and the Militia."

"The man from Sand Nation?" Carter asked in shock. He had accepted Iron Axe, who as the Captain of the Flintlock Squad, had performed very well during the Months of Demons, and did not call Iron Axe's foreign title anymore. Yet this did not change what Iron Axe was. How could a man from the Mojin Clan understand the manners of the kingdom?

Roland laughed secretly. "This is not a usual party. You'll understand when you see it."

There was not much preparation needed, except removing the obstacles in the square and piling up the firewood in the center for a barbecue. Yes, this was Roland's idea of a celebration party, a bonfire party and outdoor barbecue.

Roland had been thinking about how to improve his people's identification with the place they lived. For the uneducated peasants who had spent their whole life serving their lords, the concept of nationalism was too deep to understand. What they really cared about was their properties and families. The further they fell behind, the more shortsighted they were. This was the law of developing civilization. It was written, "Civilization will eventually become as big as its mind." And Roland could not agree more.

However, it did not mean that he should ignore constructing community spirit, and a victory celebration was the best way. He did not understand why there was currently no celebratory party after the end of the Months of Demons. The invasion of demonic beasts was like an annual natural disaster. There was no doubt that defeating the demons deserved to be written a great deal about.

Therefore, he decided to name the first day after the Months of Demons Victory Day. On that day, all the people in his land would rest, and all kinds of celebrations would be held. Once this celebration was held for three or four years, it would become a tradition and pass on to future generations. As time went on, his subjects would recognize the difference between themselves and those people who were under other lords' governance.

Though it was not yet noon, the square was filled with people. The members of the Militia stood in a circle keeping everyone away from the pile of firewood.

It seemed to Roland that free food had a strong appeal to the residents. At least half of the town had attended the party. Everything was perfect, except that the square was a little too small. Apart from the clearing for the firewood, the rest of the square was barely enough to include a thousand people, who stood nearly shoulder to shoulder and had difficulty moving around. He noticed some children had climbed up to the nearest roof to have a better view of the center of the square.

To Roland, it was acceptable for his first celebration party to have some defects. When the time came, he walked on stage to give his speech.

This was his second speech in the square, and he was much more composed this time.

"Good afternoon, my people. I'm Prince Roland Wimbledon of Kingdom of Graycastle." He started the same as he had with his last speech, but this time it produced a totally different result. People greeted his opening with enthusiastic cheers. "Long live Prince Roland!" "Long live Your Highness!"

Roland was touched by the cheers. The spontaneous cheers were from the Militia and the crowds, not from the plants like he had arranged during the first speech. A sense of achievement and contentment filled his heart.

When the cheers faded, he pressed his hands down to silence the audience. "The Months of Demons have ended. The Militia fought hard and bravely to keep the demonic beasts away from the city wall. We've achieved victory in the battle against the fearful enemies at a very low price. It proves that if only we pull together, we could live well, independent from Longsong Stronghold, who intended to threaten us with food and force us to yield to hunger and cold. The victory of today has told them that their schemes have failed and all that they've planned is a futile effort.

"Exactly. I don't want to go back there anymore!"

"We'll never suffer hunger again if we follow our prince."

"His Highness has mercy! Finally, we don't have to put up with their extortion."

While everyone was in an ebullient mood, Roland continued his speech. "Let us celebrate this glorious and honorable triumph. This is a day to remember! I hereby proclaim that from this day forward, the first day after the end of the Months of Demons will be named 'Victory Day'! This is the reason for our celebration! Enjoy it, my people! Now, let the party begin!

A torch was tossed into the pile of firewood that had already been daubed with oil. The fire boomed and soared high, lighting the atmosphere of the whole square instantly.

Chapter 90 - The Celebration (Part II)

Six marinated cattle were transported next to the bonfire by carts—if they weren't escorted by the Militia, Roland suspected that on their way through the crowd, the cattle would have already been cleared by the overzealous masses.

This was all of the food reserves the castle had left in the basement. So he would not eat any meat until the arrival of the next merchant ship. The thought of this made Roland cry silently. To organize this celebration successfully, he had used up everything he had.

The royal chefs brought over from King's City were only responsible for brushing the meat and controlling the heat. The task of barbecuing was handed over to six strong members from the Militia. An iron bar was inserted into the cattle's body through its mouth and then placed next to the fire on a brick hearth. The flames were so hot that the heat waves could be felt even at two to three meters away. Soon the cattle's skin generated a sizzling sound, oil emerged out of its pores, emitting a succulent scent.

Of course, the crowd couldn't be left waiting during the barbecue, so on Roland's signal, Iron Axe led a team of militia to the stage.

The extravagant and complicated court dances weren't appropriate for an occasion like this, for there was no time for practice, and they wouldn't even be able to remember all the essentials steps, not to mention displaying a perfect dance move. To display a dance that was both enjoyable and easy to understand, the dance of Sand Nation was clearly a better option for the taste of the civilians.

The dance started with Iron Axe and the others placing both of their hands on their waist, and they interlocked each other's arms, creating a chain-like formation, forming two rings around the bonfire. Accompanied by the sounds of horns, they began to move clockwise, and with each step, they would kick in the air while shouting "Ha hey"!

"Is this the lead dance you talked about?" Carter asked in a startle. "Is this even considered as a dance?"

"Of course, it is, and it's very easy to remember. The militia members only needed to practice fifteen minutes last night to master the steps," Roland answered laughingly, "Would you like to have a try?"

Carter shook his head and refused the offer. He felt as if something in his heart broke with a bang—goodbye, the beautiful girl that melted his heart. Goodbye, the sad memory of youth.

The other militia members were clapping with their hands in the rhythm of the dancer's footsteps, accompanied each time with an applause. The extremely dynamic rhythm moved the masses, who, one after another, followed them. As the clapping got faster, the circling speed of Iron Axe and his men became faster as well. Soon the ring began to show signs of coming apart, and it did not take long until one of the dancers accidentally fell, taking down more dancers with him. The crowd was left startled, but the militia members did not stop the clapping, but instead, they clapped more wildly like a rainstorm.

Iron Axe helped the men that had fallen down, and asked the crowd loudly, "Do you understand the dance? Anyone wants to try? Every dance will end with members falling down! If you join the dance, you'll get a piece of sweet and delicious honey meat. The longer you dance, the more meat you get!"

If the noble or the rich families were to invite them, the normal townspeople would never have been involved—subconsciously, they gave them a feeling that they were superior to them. It was also common for them to go back on their promises. But seeing the militia members, who were their familiar townspeople, waving at them, they were unable to hold themselves back.

After the first person soon followed a second and then a third one. A new round of dance started, but this time most of the dancers came from the crowd. Although the dance was simple, everyone was very happy, and plus the reward of the honey meat, the participants tried their hardest to show the best possible performance.

This was exactly what Roland wanted to see.

Apart from the barbecue, there were also bread, fishcakes, and ale that was distributed to the crowd. The celebration would last until the night, but Roland did not plan to stay all night. He arranged for Carter to be in charge of the security of the town square and the assistant minister to be responsible for the closing speech before he left.

He also had a private party to attend at the castle backyard.

The backyard was still brightly lit when the night fell.

Just like in the town's square, there was also a bonfire here. The difference was that the chicken used for the barbeque was cut into pieces. The seasoning and the oil were done by themselves, completely imitating the atmosphere of an outdoor barbeque. The witches fell in love with this kind of novelty of self-service. Of course in Roland's eyes, this was also a rare spectacle—for example, Anna directly wrapped the chicken into her green flame after seasoning it, which would soon give off a delicious scent. As for Nightingale, she showed off her incredible knife skills. The knife in her hand was flying and dancing on the chicken causing all of its bones being completely cut off.

And of course, there was red wine, brought from Willow Town, and it was much more suitable for the tastes of women than ale. Before Roland could say that minors were prohibited from drinking, Lightning had already emptied half a bottle by herself, and since she was holding the bottle and floating in mid-air, it would be difficult to stop her, so he gave up the thought.

At the half-way through the barbecue, Roland started to feel slightly tipsy. He leaned against the chair, and while watching the group of happy laughing girls, Roland felt very pleased. This was the perfect life for a prince, he thought, and also for the witches. With their extraordinary abilities and appearance, they should not be the object of hunting. If they lived in the world of his previous life, they would have become the dazzling focus where they were. The only thing he could do now was to let them live a normal life here in his territory.

At this moment, Lightning flew down, directly landing on Roland's lap, and before he could react, she planted a kiss on his cheek.

Although this action was done very quickly, it was still captured by other witches.

As Lightning grinningly flew away and saw Anna, Nightingale, and Wendy looked at her in surprise, she waved her hand, explaining, "According to the rules of the Fjords, during a victory celebration, women can take the initiative to kiss the leader. Dad would always let me kiss him. Is it the same in Graycastle?"

"Of course not." Roland instantly woke up from his half-drunken state. "Uh… ahem, Lightning, you're drunk, go back to the castle and sleep now!"

"How could I be drunk." Lightning protested. "When I was sailing, I often had drinking battles with the crew and I never lost one."

Roland could only ask the witches for help, and he turned to Wendy, who nodded and then used her power to softly blow Lightning down. As she was landing, Wendy stepped forward and caught the girl in her arms. Disregarding her struggling, Wendy walked straight to the castle.

"Don't worry about her, she just drinks too much. Please continue, and soon the dessert will be served." Roland suddenly felt that the atmosphere had turned a little awkward, especially the way Anna was looking at him, which made him feel a chill starting from his feet. The only one who was completely unaffected by what had happened was Nana, and she was still concentrating on her chicken wings like nothing had happened at all.

After the bonfire was gradually extinguished, Roland asked Nightingale to escort Nana home. Then he went to the well and washed his face with the cold water, getting ready to go to bed. Roland did not take the former episode seriously. In his view, Lightning was still a little child.

But when he arrived at the third floor's bedroom, the prince's heart suddenly leaped.

He saw Anna leaning against his door.

Chapter 91 - The Heart Prison

The moonlight was coming in from the corridor's window, shining on half of the girl's face. Her eyes reflected a faint blue light, looking like two stars in the dark. Anna's body was leaning against the door, with most of her body hidden in the dark, but her silhouette was still visible—good nutrition had completely changed her previous thin and skinny body, and as a woman who recently became adult, her body was just perfect, containing the right curves of her age and the unique charm of youth.

Roland put on a calm face and walked slowly towards her until he was spotted by her. She stood straight and they looked each other right into the eyes.

"It was just an accident, and I didn't know she would..." Roland said.

"I understand."

"She's still a child, so I didn't take it serious..."

"I got it too"

Anna reacted completely differently than Roland had expected. It did not seem like Anna wanted to argue, and he could not detect any trace of displeasure on her face but only a serious look. There was no motion within her lake-like blue eyes. Roland realized that she was a straightforward woman, and she neither liked to hide nor she had to hide anything. As expected, she took the initiative and said, "I dare not do such a bold thing... in front of so many people, like what Lightning had done, so I have to wait for you here."

Upon finishing, her cheeks clearly showed a sign of blush, but even so, she did not shrink back and her eyes remained focused on Roland's. Her expression could not be more serious.

Roland's heartbeat gradually slowed down, wanting to say something, but he felt that saying anything right now would be meaningless. Maybe she did mind Lightning's behavior, but complaining was not her style, and she would simply express her own feelings.

Honest and hard-working children should not be rejected, he thought. Roland bent down, leant towards Anna's cheek. He could even feel her breath on his face, like a spring breath fiddling his heartstrings. It was so quiet that they could clearly hear each other's nervous breathing in the quiet corridor, and then, a pair of soft lips slightly touched Roland's cheeks.

"Good night, Your Highness," Anna whispered.

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

Wendy was sitting on the bed and reading some books.

For her, times like this were very rare. During her time in the Witch Cooperation Association, she would have never dared to think of having such a life.

Not long after she came to town, she developed such a habit: Before going to sleep, she would clean her body, put on a silk gown, which was not fastened around the waist or was it buttoned up, sit cross-legged in the bed, with a soft pillow between her back and the wall, and read the books she had borrowed from His Highness.

It had taken her a lot of time until she got Lightning to rest, so she did not plan to return to the castle backyard, and instead, she washed up and went straight to bed.

She was now reading a history book about the origin of the church.

Although she grew up in a cloister, yet she did not know much about this subject. The nuns had always warned them to obey the teaching of God, but they never mentioned God's name—during her childhood this discrepancy had always puzzled her. Everyone had a name, so why the highest deities did not have one?

What was recorded in the history book was mostly the same with the rumors she had heard. At the beginning, there were three major churches, which thought of each other as heretics and believed that their own God was the true one. This battle of faiths lasted for nearly a hundred years, and in the end, the church nowadays claimed the final victory. They declared that the heretics had been destroyed, and God has only one name that was the word of God itself.

The following pages described the glory and immortality of the church, including the construction of Old Holy City and New Holy City and their victory over the evil witches. This left Wendy very puzzled. She had previously borrowed the books, "The History of the Kingdom of Graycastle" and "A Brief History of the Mainland" from His Highness. The first one almost unequivocally recorded the kingdom's establishment, development, and major events. For example, names of each king, their marital status, and information about their children. The family with all their branches were described in such detail that it almost represented a detailed genealogy.

"The Brief History of the Mainland" focused more on the evolution of the Four Kingdoms, their alternations in handling their powers, and their political struggles. However, the content still focused a lot on the ruling families.

Yet within the history book of the church, there was no mention of any of the popes' names, or could it be that it was the same case with God's name. They just replaced their former names with the title pope. By the first look, it seemed like there was only one pope during all of the hundreds of years of history. This was not logical, and instead of calling it a record, it would be better to call it deliberate delusion.

At this moment, Nightingale suddenly appeared within the room. Wendy put down her book and looked at her with interest. "It's been late. You still have time to come here?"

Nightingale rubbed her neck and sat beside the bed. "I just finished escorting Nana home. How is Lightning?"

"She immediately fell asleep once I put her in bed, and she wouldn't stop murmuring about her father." Wendy shrugged. "She always acts like she is already a brave big girl, but in truth, she's still a little child."

"In your eyes, everyone is still a child," Nightingale replied and took the book from Wendy's hand. "His Highness had said that you shouldn't read at night, especially while sitting in bed. You'll hurt your eyes if the lighting isn't strong enough."

"Yes, His Highness did say that."

The two of them chatted for a while. They talked about their travel from Silver City to the Impassable Mountain Range, about the time they heard the news that a witch was soon to be killed in town and how the prince fought off the Months of Demons. Nightingale had a lot to say and Wendy would also occasionally throw in one or two sentences. During the past five years, these two had developed such a great chemistry and understanding between each other. The time passed slowly until finally, the candles were about to extinguish. At that time Wendy began to smile and asked, "So? You can't sleep because of Lightning's actions today?"

"What're you talking about..."

"What else can it be." Wendy smiled and shook her head. "Veronica, we're witches. You should know better."

"..." Nightingale remained silent, and after a long time she replied, "Well."

This was fate that no witch could escape from it. Wendy sighed and then said, "Roland Wimbledon is the kingdom's fourth Prince, and we have to do everything necessary to ensure that he'll take over the throne of Kingdom of Graycastle. He'll rule the kingdom well and he'll be able to create a place for us sisters to live in."

"But at that time, he must do what a king needed to do, and when the time comes, he'll have to marry a duke's daughter or the princess of another kingdom in order to give birth to one or many heirs. If it's a boy, he'll inherit the throne, and if it's a girl she'll be married to another noble family."

Here, Wendy paused for a moment, and then spoke aloud what Nightingale, or actually what all witches did not want to hear. "Veronica, we're witches, who can't give birth to children."

"Even by thinking most optimistically, after His Highness has ruled for many years, and our sisters can finally walk in the streets of the kingdom freely. On some occasions, outstanding witches would be able to join the upper ranks of society, and maybe even get canonized as nobles. But the fact that witches can't give birth will never change. And without the ability to bear any descendants, we'll be unable to continue the family's glory. Thus, the nobles would never consider marrying a witch. We have been given a gift, but at the same time, something was also been taken from us. This is our fate." Then she whispered, "May God be merciful."

"I see," she whispered.

...

After Nightingale had finally left, Wendy felt upset. But she was confident that Nightingale would be able to overcome this, after all, she had already overcome so many hardships, and she surely would not stumble on this one.

She was sure about it.

Chapter 92 - The Regrouping of the Platoon

"This is the end of our task, right?" In the square, Cat's Claw cleaned up the burned debris from the bonfire and regretfully said, "I really don't want to go back to the mine to work. To be honest, I kind of miss the Months of Demons."

"Yeah, I don't want to deal with those stones," Jop replied. "The most important thing is the pay is too different from the previous one. Where else can we get work like this in the Artillery Squad? Where can we get to eat meat every day and have a monthly salary of 15 silver royals."

"What a silly thing to say," said Van'er, who was holding a torch on the side. "This time His Royal Highness distributed a lot of grain, so no one starved to death during the Months of Demons. Do you remember two years ago in the Old District, half of the people did not survive the winter! Do you miss that? Anyway, the platoon won't be disbanded. Do you think His Royal Highness recruited us into the Artillery Squad and burned so much gunpowder, just to hear the 'bang' of the explosion?"

"But there are no more demonic beasts. Why would His Royal Highness still need the Artillery Squad?" Rodney asked, clutching the broom.

"The Artillery Squad isn't prepared just for the demonic beasts." Van'er pondered but ultimately did not say it. "Anyway, we'll know the answer tomorrow." He yawned and waved his hand impatiently. "Clean this up quickly, I'd like to go back to sleep early."

The next day early in the morning, there was an order to gather at the battalion camp, thus confirming Van'er's saying.

After all the people were gathered, Iron Axe stood before them and announced, "You have completed the first stage of the task—to protect Border Town against the invasion of the demonic beasts. After three months and six days of fighting, you've received the acknowledgment of His Royal Highness! The Militia will be regrouped to form the regular corps of His Royal Highness. If you do not want to continue fighting, you can step out now. His Royal Highness also said, those who decide to leave the Militia now, will get the full salary and an additional 25 silver royals as..." He thought about the words of His Royal Highness. "Well, the retirement pension."

None of the three hundred people moved, only Cat's Claw raised his hand. "Report."

This was also one of the weird rules developed by His Royal Highness during the training. The platoon members were not allowed to whisper in private. If they wanted to inquire about something, they had to first shout "report".

Iron Axe nodded. "Speak up."

"What is the meaning of the regular corps, does that mean we become knights?"

Van'er could not help but laugh, but he soon returned to his serious demeanor.

Knights? But that would already be considered as the nobility. Not only would that include property and squire, but would also include the conferral of land. Asking this type of question was really an embarrassment to the Artillery Squad.

"No," Iron Axe patiently explained. Apparently, he had also asked his Royal Highness before. "The regular corps is a full-time platoon, used to protect His Royal Highness and his domain. In other words, while the workers are mining, you're training. When the farmers are harvesting the wheat, you're still training. When the merchants are selling the goods, you would still be training. All the training is in preparation for future victories, just as you did during the Months of Demons."

"So how is that different from the Militia?" Cat's Claw continued asking.

"More frequent training, a more rigorous system, and a more lucrative return."

"Report!" This time it was Rodney. As soon as Iron Axe nodded, he asked eagerly, "What's the more lucrative return?"

Van'er sighed. Why was each of the young men in their team so impetuous? In fact, he would also like to know the answer to this question.

"The regular corps follow the army system. They complete designated missions during combat and for those with excellent performance, they can be promoted to officer," Iron Axe said loudly, "For example, be promoted to my position."

"Was this what His Royal Highness said..." Van'er secretly thought. "If this was really carried out, wouldn't this be encouraging everyone to go against their superiors?" He quietly looked around, but it seemed others were unaware of this problem and were still listening with relish.

"Officers can get higher pay, and... own land."

The last sentence resulted with a burst of voices. Van'er was no exception, he even doubted whether he heard the wrong thing. If they could get land as well, then how was that different from a knight?

"But remember that once you choose to become part of the regular corps, you need to follow a system that's completely different from the Militia. Failure to complete tasks, fleeing, mutiny and other violations of discipline, would be severely dealt with. I'm not talking about eating one egg less. The punishments include hard labor and even imprisonment. The positions and rewards that were received would also be withdrawn." Iron Axe paused. "It's still not too late now to quit."

The crowd was dead quiet and after Iron Axe silently counted to ten, still no one moved. He could not help but grin. "Well then, from today onwards, you have become a regular corps of His Highness Prince Roland Wimbledon!"

Van'er himself thought that was incredible. If it were three months ago, hearing about those terrible punishments he would have slipped away long ago. What was the use of promotion, of land, compared to keeping their own lives? But now, he chose to stay without hesitating much. Compared to breaking North Slope Mine's stones, or living aimlessly in the Old District, Van'er preferred to stay here.

"You have good powers of observation. What's your name?"

"Mr. Van'er, keep up the good work."

Thinking about the encouragement from His Highness, he once again confirmed his plan—he belonged to the Militia. In the future, he would also be a member of the regular corps, and continue to fight for His Highness.

...

Iron Axe soon announced today's first training: field training.

At the beginning, Van'er disapproved of running as a training method. Even during the Months of Demons, the training was rarely interrupted. After eating breakfast, depending on the weather conditions, they had to run two laps in the town unless it was snowing heavily. According to His Highness, this was conducive to exercising the bones. When defending the city wall, they would be agile and not have stiff hands and feet or be unable to stab the spears.

But when the platoon ran out of Border Town, he immediately felt the difference between the two.

At this time the wild snow was still far from melting. Three months of on-and-off snow now covered the knees. Rather than running, they might as well be climbing. The platoon suddenly became scattered. Once a foot sunk in, it took a lot of effort to pull out.

There was no doubt that this type of special training to torment them was His Highness's idea. Van'er had already figured out His Highness's ideas. At this point, protesting was basically futile, and the only thing that could be done was to persist until the end.

A back-and-forth trip took the whole morning. When the platoon returned to the town, Van'er could hardly feel his legs.

The snow that seeped into the boots turned into water. Even if standing under the sun, most people would still be trembling from the cold. A huge physical exertion exacerbated this chill, and even Iron Axe felt it was too much. He announced the dissolution of the platoon for noon and postponed lunchtime to one hour later. This gave everyone time to change out of their wet shoes and pants.

Everyone was pleased that the afternoon training was canceled.

Of course, they did not know that Lightning had been tracking their field training, and this was also the little girl's daily training content—precise control of the magic power of uniform flight. When she reported the information to Roland, the latter did not know whether to cry or to laugh.

The total mileage of the platoon in the morning was four kilometers.

Chapter 93 - The Corps Framework

A few days after the victory celebration, Roland continued to devote his energy into the great farming project.

Sitting in the office, there was a non-stop ticking sound outside the window as if it were raining. It was the sound of melting snow. When he was in the countryside during New Year, he loved crouching on the window and looking at the long ice icicles melting into transparent water droplets and slowly dripping down. At the moment, he did not have time for such leisure. But it was still enjoyable to listen to the voice of the earth recovering while writing a plan.

According to previous years of experience, the snow took about a week or so to melt. But a month would still be needed before it was possible to pass through the road between the town and Longsong Stronghold. It was not hard for Roland to imagine what the muddy road would look like without the surface hardening or proper drainage measures. If he could successfully take over Longsong Stronghold, his first action would be to build a hardened road suitable for horse carriages to pass through.

But now the priority was to solve the problem of building the corps. Without a reliable and powerful army, it would not be possible to defeat Longsong Stronghold corps if they had fewer soldiers. Converting the Militia into a regular corps was only the first step. The specific preparation, discipline, punishment and reward system was a real headache.

Although he played military chess as a child, at this moment he had long forgotten everything. After some deliberation on his part, Roland simply decided to create his own system. Anyway, he was the creator of the new corps, and no one would notice even if he set up an unreasonable system.

So the First Army of Border Town was created: consisting of corps, division, battalion, platoon and team as the framework; 5 people formed a team (considering a cannon required at least five people to operate), 10 teams a platoon, and 10 platoons a battalion. As for the number of the division and the corps, he would deal with that later. In view of the overall level of combat in this era, as long as there were two or three battalion forces, it would be enough to defeat the vast majority of opponents in the field.

After setting out the most basic framework, Roland let out a long breath.

The next rules and regulations would be much simpler. These included obeying the military order, obeying the superior, no escaping, betrayal and other similar cliches. But Roland's first set of discipline was the prohibition of looting and disturbing the peace.

Allowing the military to loot as they wished had too many cons, and it would take several years to reverse the damage it would cause for the local people. This was why he insisted on using civilians as military personnel.

When the noble responded to the lord's recruitment, choosing not to loot after defeating the enemy was simply a fairy tale. It would be more appropriate to say the main reason they were willing to follow the lord was that they could wantonly plunder the opponent's wealth and territory, including the innocent civilians on the domain.

As for mercenaries and bandits, that was better left unsaid. They looked sturdy and vicious, but in fact, they were useless at a real battle. Stealing was a big source of their income, so military discipline for this group of people was meaningless.

Only an army formed by civilians would not see other civilians as slaves to be slaughtered. Of course, just depending on discipline and punishment was not enough. As time went by, greed would increase with every winning victory. So the reward system had to keep up with the pace, in order to fundamentally eliminate looting and other disciplinary behavior.

In order to make the reward tempting enough for the people, Roland decided to release the ultimate weapon—military land as a reward. Whoever made great achievements during battle, could be granted a piece of land. Roland had already thought of the source of land. That would be the reclaimed land between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold.

In this era when 90% of the land belonged to the noble, it was considered a generous prize. Once they had titled land, these people would be closely attached to his side. Any person who wanted to overthrow him would meet the most intense resistance from his army.

Motivating the people did not rely on words or whips, but real measurable interests. In other words, as long as he could always represent the fundamental interests of the people, his rule would be stable.

Unlike traditional fiefs, Roland limited the land from several acres to about a dozen acres. It could be used for self-built residences, to purchase slaves or hired farmers to take care of the land, but not to build industry. In contrast, a knight's domain was close to two thousand acres, equivalent to a small village. The industrial income of the above operation could provide the necessary operations for knights and attendants, such as the purchase of weapons, armor, and horses.

Such a small area of land reward, would not cause a strong conflict between the noble interest groups, and yet it weakened the independence of the recipients. In Roland's opinion, it was similar to a retirement pension, and you could ensure that soldiers still had a stable income after retirement.

At the same time, in order to strengthen the centralization of authority, and to avoid the situation that "the servant's servant was not my servant", the person who was conferred the land had ownership but no autonomy. In other words, this land was still under the lord's laws, regulations, and systems. In a sense, they were more like the future generations of farm owners.

After transcribing these preliminary ideas, Roland stretched out. Next, he could finally devote himself to his field of expertise—R & D weapons.

Since the speed of flintlock manufacturing was increasing, continuing to equip the riflemen to protect the flintlock shooters would be a waste of manpower. The latter needed to have the ability to fight independently in close combat.

The solution was simple, that was to install bayonets on the guns. Roland did not expect his troops to take the initiative to start a hand-to-hand combat, but just as the opponents were trying to escape and the cannon could not completely destroy the enemy's courage, they would at least have the strength for battle.

A bayonet was not difficult to manufacture. It was simply a sharp cone. The key was the connection between the bayonet and the gun: the original bayonet was the knife handle wrapped around thin wood. The wood could be directly inserted into the barrel. The advantage was it was simple to create, while the disadvantage was also pretty obvious. During the hand-to-hand combat, the barrels would be unavailable, and pulling the bayonet out after the fighting was also particularly laborious.

Roland was planning to produce the second-generation bayonet—the casing bayonet. The end of the shank had a corner and was connected to a casing. The casing diameter, which was slightly larger than the barrel, was attached to the Z-shape tongue and groove joint. The barrel only needed to be welded with a small iron bar, so that the tongue and groove joint could be embedded in to fix the blade. The blade was a triangular iron, its cross-section similar to a V-shape. With all three sides of the blade piercing the body, this did not affect the pulling out, yet leaving a wound that was difficult to heal.

The casing bayonet after installation was slightly higher than the gun, and this had a certain impact on filling the ammunition. But compared to the folding bayonet, it was easier to facilitate mass production. All it needed was a sample that could be replicated by the blacksmith.

To make the bayonet play a role in combat, the key was to train the soldiers on how to use it.

Roland knew nothing about it. Fortunately, he remembered Chief Knight used to boast that he could use any military weapon. He might as well be in charge of teaching the Flintlock Squad on how to fight with a bayonet.

Chapter 94 - No Reason for the Demolition

The production of cannon was steadily progressing. The second cannon was undergoing a period of chamber expansion, while the third cannon was stockpiling the materials.

They would have four twelve-pound cannons a month later if they were lucky enough. It was without question that they held an unprecedented superiority in firepower. But, what Roland concerned about that was how to ensure that the advantage would turn into a victory.

As a mechanical engineer, before finding himself in this era, his understandings of war, like most people, was from history, movies, and games. If it was just hand-to-hand combat, he would give Carter and Iron Axe free reign to command. However, this was a totally different war and none were more familiar than him with the combat mode of the hot weapon war.

In this case, all he could do was to use all of his knowledge to make a detailed plan of action.

In order to ensure that his forces would be winning the war, Roland ordered Lightning to shuttle between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town every day. Her purpose was to observe the road situation and calculate the accurate distance. As for Roland, he firmly believed that the prerequisites for winning the war were plenty of calculations and reconnaissance. No matter whether tactical decision or game deduction, both were heavily dependent on these two points.

Using the size he had set when casting the cannon last time, several sticks of gavelocks and poles of hemp ropes were made, which were one meter and one hundred meters long respectively. Then, about one-thousand-meter long runway was marked out on the cannon test field in the west of Border Town according to the shadows of the hemp ropes and gavelocks. Lightning, at the same time, was herself practicing on controlling the consumption of magic power so as to pass through this 1,000-meter distance between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town at a fixed speed.

After she had a good command of magic power output on such a level, Roland set about measuring the distance between Longsong Stronghold and the small town. He figured out that the distance between the two places was approximate 54 kilometers by using a sundial to calculate the round-trip duration.

Of course, that was only in a straight-line distance. In reality, they would need to pass through two sharp bends to avoid the stretched foothill from the Impassable Mountain Range. Anyhow, it would take at least three days to arrive at Border Town if the duke chose a land march.

The strategic location and the tactical operations of the enemy would be clearly assessed by Roland when Lightning acted as an investigator.

The signifiers with distance marks were bestrewed everywhere within two kilometers in the west of the small town. As long as the enemies came into sight, the Artillery Squad could quickly adjust the corresponding angle of the muzzle.

He was now concerned about what to do if the enemies did not come.

Right at this moment, he heard someone knocking on the bedroom door.

Nightingale, who was lying on the sofa chair and eating dried fish, went invisible instantly. Roland coughed twice and said, "Come in."

It was Assistant Minister Barov, who opened the door and said, "Your Highness, a noble from Longsong Stronghold wants to meet you."

"Who? Did they send a messenger again?" Roland asked, seeming a little confused.

"No, not a messenger. It's Baron Cornelius who left before the Months of Demons and has come back now," Barov shook his head and answered.

Roland remembered after a moment that there were indeed some nobles of Longsong Stronghold who lived in Border Town. "Did they dare to come back? It was just the beginning of the spring. Didn't they experience the strong hand of the royal dictatorship?" Roland thought. "Why does he want to meet me?" he asked.

"His house, which hindered the defending of the city wall, was demolished. If you're reluctant to meet him, I shall let him go," The assistant minister threw up his hands and said.

"Usher him into the reception room," Roland said, who would have wanted to reject him but suddenly changed his mind.

"It was possible to put some pressures on Longsong Stronghold through him," the prince thought.

Roland came to the reception room after a moment of delay, while the man with a chubby belly was walking back and forth impatiently by the long table, and the flesh on his face was trembling with his steps. Seeing Roland walk in, the baron stopped to reluctantly give a bow toward Roland.

"Sit down," Roland said, and then went to the seat of honor. Usually, even though it was not the time for a meal, he would let the cooks offer some dessert. But not even a cup of tea was prepared today.

"Respectful Highness," Baron Cornelius said hurriedly without sitting on the table. "How could you let those foolish stonemasons tear my house apart? It was a superior residence with the brickwork parapet wall as the foundation. The beam column and the roof were built in logs of the best quality. I remembered it took me 100... Oh no, 150 gold royals when I built it!" he said and gesticulated with fingers.

"150 gold royals! When Roland first got to Border Town, he probably would have believed these words if he was reliant on the prince's memory. So..." Roland thought and smiled. "You mean the residence in the westernmost part of town?" he asked.

Cornelius nodded and said, "Yes! Yes! It was that house which was only inferior to the residence of Baron Simon."

"What a pity! The house was too close to the city wall and was in the way of my soldiers. "But City Hall has made compensation to it," Roland paused a moment and said.

"So... how much?" Cornelius asked.

"20 gold royals," Roland said and gestured with two fingers.

Your Highness... It's too little!" Cornelius opened his mouth and seemed to say something, but nothing came out. He took his handkerchief out, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then said, "Okay, 20 is okay! Where should I go to get the money?"

"Get the money? The money had been granted to the owner of the house long ago," Roland said, pretending to be confused by the baron's words.

"What? Wai-wait... I'm the owner of the house!"

"No! It's not you! The owner of the house is Brian, the Captain of the Second Militia Squadron."

"Who's he? Your Highness, you've got it wrong! I'm the owner of that house!" The Baron yelled.

"Uh? But I didn't see you in the winter. How could you say that house was yours?" Roland frowned and asked.

"I most certainly went to Longsong Stronghold. Who would stay in this damnable place? It was possible to be killed by the demonic beasts at any time?" said the baron.

"Idoit!" Roland thought, but he still said calmly, "So, what you want to say was that you were frightened by the demonic beasts and left your lord to escape by yourself, right?"

"Uh, I..." The baron was speechless suddenly.

"Come in, guards," Roland clapped his hands and said. Two guards came in immediately from the outside of the reception room and caught Cornelius in the center.

"Your High-High-High-Highness, what... does that mean?"

"It's easy. Now you have two choices. The first one is that you admit that you got it wrong and the house was not yours. I could just take it as a joke and let you go. The second one is that you admit that you betrayed your lord and left your domain to flee to Longsong Stronghold without permission. I would put you in jail and you'd be sentenced to the crime of defection, to be hanged," said Roland, who stood up and looked at the baron contemptuously.

The sweat dripped continuously from Cornelius's forehead, he swallowed and said after a moment of hesitation, "Your Highness, I, I got confused. It's not my house."

"So, you mean it's a misunderstanding. Send the baron out." Roland shrugged his shoulders and instructed the guards.

The prince called Cornelius out when he walked to the door and then said, "Oh, yes, I have a message for you to take with you when you return to Longsong Stronghold by boat, tell those... eh, those nobles who have the same misunderstandings as you, that if they won't admit that they've betrayed their lord and fled to other places without permission, they don't have to come back here again. It's a waste of time."

"As... you wish," Cornelius said, smiling reluctantly. But having turned back, Roland saw Cornelius gnashing his teeth.

"By delivering my message... The chaos, presumably, would be inevitable in Longsong Stronghold," he thought.

Chapter 95 - The Encounter

"Damn it! Damn it! What a f*cking prince! A poor fish that deserved to be exiled in such a barren wasteland!" Cornelius thought angrily. But the guards with swords in their hands frightened him and he could only swallow his hatred.

Walking out from the gate of the castle, the baron sighed in relief as he saw the guards turned to leave.

He took the wet handkerchief in order to wipe his forehead, spat on the ground and imagined that he had spat on the face of the prince. It seemed that spitting was not enough to comfort him and he trod on his spit as if he were treading on the prince.

"Even though you warded off the demonic beasts, do you think you could gain a firm foothold in the Western Region? I'll let you have your moment. Let's see for how long it'll last! If I were not receiving reliable information, I wouldn't have come to Border Town so early," Cornelius thought to himself. Generally speaking, the nobles would come back to the town later than the civilians. After all, the strenuous work of mining and hunting were not their responsibilities. All they needed to do was to monitor the production progress every now and then, and wait for the date of the ore delivery. In their spare time, they would also go to the hunter's family to purchase some furs of superior quality.

But something changed this year. Cornelius heard from the financial director Sir Reynolds that Duke Ryan prepared to expel Prince Roland from the Western Region. It was not in betrayal of the Kingdom of Graycastle but in obedience to the will of the new king, Timothy Wimbledon. "Roland Wimbledon would no longer be the Lord of Border Town, and the new fief would be conferred upon after he returned to the king's city to report his work."

As the superstar of the duke, Sir Reynolds spent only five years to be promoted from the municipal administrative governor to the financial director. Had he not relied on his connections with distant relatives and bribed them with furs, he would not have known the intention of the hierarchy of the Western Region.

It was just an excuse going under the name of 'conferring with new a fief after returning to the king's city to report his work'. Even Cornelius knew that the prince would be guillotined without opportunities to explain his behavior. If Prince Roland went back, he would be at the mercy of the new king, Timothy Wimbledon.

Without any doubt, the Western Region would still be under the jurisdiction of the duke. If it was only His Majesty Timothy who gave the order, the matter may be under debate. If Duke Ryan handled the matter in person, Roland Wimbledon would not be any different from a stray cur.

That was why Cornelius came to Border Town in haste. On the one hand, he wanted to purchase some furs of superior quality, on the other hand, he planned to sell his house. Over the past years, the common people would take refuge in Longsong Stronghold. It was understandable that there would be no furs in stock. But it was totally different this year because they did not leave here. Anyhow, they would stock some good furs. He could not only make some money by reselling the furs but also choose some superior furs to please Sir Reynolds.

The second reason was to thank Sir Reynolds for helping Cornelius arrange a job in the City Hall. Even a sinecure would be better off than staying in this poor area. The house was useless to him and therefore he wanted to sell it as soon as possible. No one knew when the duke would take action to deal with Roland. If these lowlifes made a last-ditch struggle and burned his house into ashes, it would be not a good deal.

But what he did not think of was that his house was torn apart by Prince Roland instead of being burned down by those lowlifes. Cornelius would be mad as a wet hen with the thought of this. What a good house! Although one hundred and fifty gold royals was a little expensive, it valued at least 30 gold royals.

In order to get the compensation of the house as soon as possible, he had made the compromise to receive only 20 gold royals. How could His Highness treat him like this? He paid nothing for it but also threatened that he had committed a crime of defection. Did not he know all the nobles would withdraw from here every Month of Demons?

Hold on... Cornelius slowed down and suddenly felt there was something different with the prince. He had heard that Prince Roland was of evil nature and was whimsical. His behavior of deliberately molesting Mrs. Simon when he first arrived at Border Town was regarded as a joke among the nobles. His impression, however, was that the prince was not as he had heard before. The prince did not fly into a rage or reject to the value of the house but used another seemingly reasonable excuse. He spoke in a calm voice all the way, but Cornelius was so scared that he obediently gave up his ownership to the house. Would the prince have killed him if he insisted that he was the owner of the house?

At the thought of his talk with the prince, Cornelius could not help but shiver. He had a feeling like he was talking with the duke.

Cornelius shook his head and put this unhappy memory behind him. Anyhow, Prince Roland would be in trouble soon. He would absolutely laugh at him when Duke Ryan took over Border Town and remanded him to the king's city. Perhaps he could turn to the duke for justice at the cost of 20 gold royals.

He felt relieved at the thought of this. Now that he had collected several furs of superior quality, and his house had been occupied by others, he thought that he would better go to Longsong Stronghold. "It was really a brazen to say 'tell those nobles who had the same misunderstanding as you'. When I go back to Longsong Stronghold, I'll be certain to tell others how pretentious Roland was!"

Cornelius brushed against a lady in a hood when he left the castle district and walked down the long slope.

He should not have felt so surprised. The women were all dressed in this way among the townspeople in the town. It was in the king's city that he could see beautiful girls or ladies. Cornelius was really stunned when he saw the wind blowing a corner of the hood as if the air around had frozen.

Oh my god! What a beautiful lady she was! She had aquamarine eyes and long hair. Her beauty was incomparable, even if he just had a glance at her. She would take the shine off from those princesses and debutantes. Why would she be in Border Town?

He looked back and wanted to catch up to her, only to find that she was walking towards the castle district.

Was she the girl of His Highness? After a moment of hesitation, the baron finally gave up on catching up with her. He did not want to have to be connected with Prince Roland anymore. The duke would punish the prince, and instead, he was more concerned that he should return to Longsong Stronghold.

He went on board to a single-mast boat berthing in the wharf. The boatman pulled the sail, and the boat undocked from the wharf. Soon, he was underway towards Longsong Stronghold.

Another extraordinary view came into the eyes of Cornelius, who was enjoying the sunshine at that moment.

About five meters away from Border Town, he saw a crowd of people who wore the same dark brown leather armor with long wooden guns on their backs. They were standing in rows and moving forwards on the snowy ground. He could not see the overall picture of the entire line because the trees blocked his sight, but he guessed there were at least more than a hundred of them.

Could it be… farmers that Prince Roland used for fighting against the demonic beasts?

Cornelius could imagine how cold they were, even though he had never experienced it. However, they did not stop but continuously moved forward, as if the snow, at a thickness of one foot deep, had no influence on them...

He really wanted to laugh at them but he failed. A question, unwittingly, came to his mind. "Could the knights in charge by Duke Ryan make it?"

Chapter 96 - Leaf

Leaf would have never thought that she would have the opportunity to set foot in this real-world town. She could see many people hustling and bustling about.

The cluster of brick bungalows unlocked old memories that came to her as she neared the boundary of Border Town. She had fled to the Impassable Mountain Range less than half a year ago, but the scene in front of her made her feel as if she were in a strange new world.

The Months of Demons had just ended. The people had just lived through the winter lacking in food and clothes, and they should have been in bad mental and physical shape. Leaf remembered that the Witch Cooperation Association had once passed by the slum of Silver City, and it had been awash with dead bodies. Those who were still alive appeared to be like the dead, with numb faces and awkward movements.

To her surprise, the people she saw here were full of energy. Some were airing dried fish in front of their doors, and some were repairing damaged tiles on their roofs. Many virile men were talking happily and moving towards the north of the town with hoes and hammers on their backs. Under such circumstances, Leaf would pull her cap brim down over her eyes and try not to look them.

As the castle was located on the hillside in the southwest corner of the town, it was very easy to find. There were no plants camouflaging it, so it would be difficult to sneak into the castle. She considered hiding in a tree trunk to avoid her enemies. However, it would draw attention if the trees were to suddenly grow and send her in.

She was not skilled at the art of invisibility. After thinking it over, Leaf decided to walk into the castle above rather than hiding herself from place to place.

If she were to walk directly into the castle, she would still be safe as long as Nightingale had told the truth.

Even if Nightingale had lied to her and the other witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, she felt confident that she could escape the chase of the two guards defending the gate.

Of course, it would be worse because that would mean that Nightingale had betrayed all the witches, and worked for the prince by capturing her partners. If this was the case, it was likely that she would die here. As one of the most excellent combat witches, few people could escape from Nightingale. Even the formidable Cara had no confidence to defeat Nightingale.

Anyhow, Leaf had prepared for the worst. Scroll would take over her position as supervisor and lead the rest of the witches to move on. No one knew where they would go or where their homes would be.

She walked slowly to the hillside and got close to the gate of the castle. The guards soon noticed her. "This is the palace of the prince. Don't approach. Stand back!" They shouted. After pausing a moment, they added, "If you have something urgent to report, please walk along the road and turn left at the City Hall. You'll be received by the people there."

Leaf took a deep breath and took off her cap. As expected, she saw a look of surprise on their faces. "I'm a witch," she said bluntly, without waiting for them to realize this.

She was prepared to fight against the guards the moment she revealed her identity. However, the guards just looked at each other, and no disgust, which was commonly seen in the common people's eyes at the hearing of witches, was on their faces. One of the guards even asked Leaf with great interest, "Can I help you, witch?"

Such reaction really shocked Leaf. She repressed the outburst of excitement and said as calmly as she could, "I want to meet with Nightingale. Or, Anna and Nana would be okay too."

In Nightingale's tales, witches were regulars in the castle. His Highness did not restrain the freedom of the witches, and the guards defending the castle did not discourage them from entry at the behest of Prince Roland. If what Nightingale said was true, it would be impossible that the guards did not know about them.

The guard, who had queried Leaf, clapped the shoulder of his partner and said, "You keep an eye on her, and I'll go to inform His Highness."

Leaf saw him walk into the gate and vanish from sight.

She wondered what would be waiting for her. Her sisters' greeting? Besieging from the guards? Or a backstage fight?

She fell into self-contradiction. She wanted to believe Nightingale, but the closer she came to the truth, the more she was afraid that Nightingale would disappoint her. "Is it possible that Nightingale has changed her name here? Or Anna and Nana are just concocted names? Or..."

She waited for her fate quietly. She had never felt time go by so slowly. It felt as if she were waiting for centuries.

She was not sure how much time had passed when she heard Nightingale's voice. She thought there was something wrong with her ears.

A familiar figure appeared from the doorway. It was Nightingale who rushed to embrace her and then took her into her warm arms.

"Welcome home, Leaf!" said Nightingale.

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

"These're my spare clothes, and you can wear them," Nightingale said, rummaging through her closet. "Here's a coat, shoes... Yes, you also need a night-robe and bath towel," she added.

"Don't get so excited. She'll get settled when His Highness wakes up," Wendy said with a smile and shook her head.

Leaf was deeply touched at the sight of Nightingale helping her to settle in. She sniffed and wiped at the tears that flowed out. She was afraid that she could not help crying once she spoke.

Nightingale had not lied to her. There really was a prince who was kind to witches.

"How about taking a hot shower? You must feel tired. It's a really long distance from the camp to the castle. His Highness is taking a nap. He'll be glad to see you when he wakes up. Have you found Holy Mountain? How about the other sisters?" Nightingale asked. She put the bath towel and other clothes around Leaf.

Tears blurred Leaves' vision after this battery of questions. She could not help sobbing in Nightingale's arms to release the sadness burning deep within her heart.

Leaf did not calm down until her tears had soaked Nightingale's clothes.

Then, she told of their experiences after the three witches had left the Witch Cooperation Association. She could feel Nightingale clenching her fists when she heard about many witches dying in Barbarian Land.

"I didn't expect Cara to bring the Witch Cooperation Association into an impasse. Only seven sisters survived among the 42 witches? I'm to blame for the matter. If I had stood firmly at Nightingale's side, they might still be..." said Wendy after Leaf told the whole experiences of the witches, with an extremely sad and serious look.

"You're not to blame. No one could foresee the future, what's important now is what to do next," said Nightingale sadly. She looked at Leaves and asked, "Six sisters survived? Where are they?"

"They're waiting for my message at the entrance to the canyon. We've made a plan that Scroll would lead them to leave for the southern horn or go across the straits if I weren’t be able to return."

"We should take them back right now. I'm on my way. Wendy, please, take care of Leaf," said Nightingale.

"But, what'll you do if they don't believe you? You should go with Leaf and Lightning, she's practicing flying in the western part of the town. You can ride on horses, so the sisters walk less." Wendy suggested carefully.

"But isn't the prince sleeping? Shouldn't you ask him?" Leaf asked with confusion.

"Take it easy! His Highness will be happier if he knows." Nightingale assured her.

Chapter 97 - New Witches, New Abilities (Part I)

Roland walked into the office and was surprised to find that Wendy, instead of Nightingale, was waiting for him.

"What happened?" He poured himself a cup of warm water and said, "Where is Nightingale?"

"She went to meet our sisters."

"I see," said Roland, about to drink, but suddenly he felt something was wrong. "Wait a minute, what sisters?"

"The sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. They are coming to Border Town." Wendy replied.

"Weren't they going to look for the Holy Mountain?" He stood up abruptly, "How many of them are coming? And what about that witch who wanted to hurt Nightingale... I remember she was called Cara 'The Snake Witch'. Is she also coming?"

"No, Your Highness... They failed to find the Holy Mountain. In the Barbarian Region, they were attacked by terrible monsters, and only seven of them survived." Wendy reported Leaf's words and bowed to apologize. "You were taking a nap at that time. Please forgive me for taking the liberty and deciding that Nightingale and Lightning should go to greet them."

"That's all right." Roland waved his hand to signal that it did not matter. "You know I won't blame you for such a thing. What are their abilities?"

"I don't know yet, but Leaf told me that they are non-combat witches. Maybe..." Wendy hesitated and said, "They're not very useful for you."

"Non-combat witches?" Roland was immediately full of expectations. Due to the restraint of the God's Stone of Retaliation and the short range of magic power, the fighting abilities of witches were actually limited. So productivity should be their strongest ability. If there was a witch who specialized in shaping objects, then he could make more sophisticated parts of machines, thus leading the town into the era of massive mechanical production. If there was a witch who was able to generate electricity, the evenings in Border Town would be as bright as daytime. Then he would become the king, marry with a witch, and attain the peak of his career. He would lead people to realize the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defense, science, and technology. How exciting that was!

"Your Highness, if you don't need them..." Wendy whispered, as Roland's long silence made her feel nervous.

"No, of course not," Roland came back from his thoughts, and said, "All witches are welcome in Border Town."

At sunset, Nightingale returned to the castle with the sisters of the Witch Cooperation Association. And then they enjoyed a sumptuous feast prepared by Roland in the hall.

Though obviously hungry, they were acting very reserved, since it was their first time dining in such a grand environment. Most of them had never met a lord before, let alone the lord here was a prince.

Fortunately, besides Roland, there were also two local witches, Anna and Nana, who were demonstrating how to act properly. Lightning, the lively girl, also helped to break the ice. In the end, they were finally able to relax a little, and the conversation started to flow at dinner.

Chewing a piece of toast, Roland observed the witches with interest. They were all beautiful girls with different styles, which was a gift of the magic power. Even if they were unable to contribute to the development of technology and science in the future, their beauty would be a never-fading scenery.

Since Karl had not finished the construction of the houses for them yet, they had to live temporarily in the castle. There were four unoccupied rooms on the second floor, so Roland arranged for two of them to share a room. After all, the large beds, which were originally prepared for the visiting nobility, were wide enough for them.

After dinner, Roland finally asked the long awaited question—what were their abilities.

With the company of Nightingale, the witches walked into Roland's office one by one. Roland asked and recorded their abilities, and also tested the effect of their abilities by using the God's Stone of Retaliation, which was just like a modern interview. When the interview with the last witch was finally completed, he took a deep breath and stretched out. He was afraid that Nightingale would secretly stay in the office, otherwise, he would have liked to hum the song "Super-Star".

These witches could not shape objects or generate electricity, so they could not help speed up his plan of modernization. However, they still gave him lots of pleasant surprises.

The first and most important witch was Leaf.

From the parchments of records on the desk, Roland picked up hers.

Before adulthood, Leaf's ability was limited to speeding up the growth of plants and fruits. After she came into adult life, her ability had greatly improved, and she also attained a derivative skill: She could manipulate the plants.

Her main ability could be used to improve the yield of the fruits and seeds and enhance herbal effects. Her derivative skill enabled her to change the shapes and traits of the plants. According to her description, if she poured her magic power into the plants, she could make green leaves grow on the withered branch, manipulate the weeds to bind up the enemy, and also integrate herself into a tree.

The larger the plant was, the more magic power she consumed. So she would prefer to use weeds in combat, as they came into effect more quickly and cost less magic power.

Her magic power was released through touching the objects, and it was able to be transmitted through materials (for example, the earth), with the range of about five meters.

There was no doubt that the witch with green long hair would be a good helper at developing agriculture, and her importance was self-evident. To realize industrialization, a large population was required, which depended on an adequate supply of food. The food should be either produced in his domain or imported from other countries. If they did not invent an effective way to cultivate crops, then most of their labor would be tied to the land. As for the latter option, it was difficult to import food due to the poor condition of transportation in this era.

But now that he discovered a Druid, he had the hope to support a large industrial population with the labor of only a few farmers, and therefore, accelerate the industrialization in his domain.

With this in mind, he decided to make Leaf practice more on improving the quality of wheat and barley seeds. If their yield was enhanced, then it would be a great help to increase the upper limit of the population in his domain. In addition, he heard that there were some unique crops in Fjords, much likely to be potato and corn, according to Lightning's description. If that was true, then introducing these crops should be placed at the top of the agenda. After all, wheat and barley were not high-yield crops.

Roland wrote down a practice plan for Leaf, put her record aside, and drew the second parchment from the desk.

The second witch who came to answer his questions was called Scroll. She was the oldest one among the seven witches, nearly 40 years old.

This was a really rare age for a witch. The older they were, the more difficult it was to resist the bite of magic power. But hearing her description of her ability, Roland could understand why she had been able to reach the age.

Her ability was having an extraordinary memory. After she entered adulthood and her ability became stable, she could remember almost anything she saw. At the same time, she developed an interesting derivative skill: She was able to materialize any book she had read for a short period. Roland named this skill as "Book of Illusion".

Since she used her main ability almost all the time, she could easily go through the Days of Awakening. And that was also why she became so knowledgeable, even though she came from a poor family. The ability greatly strengthened her learning, especially the reading of books which required a good memory. To use her derivative skill, most of her magic power would be consumed, and when the remaining magic power ran out, the Book of Illusion would disappear, usually in half a quarter to two hours.

Obviously, Scroll was a natural teacher. If in the future he wanted to make education universal, she would be a teacher who could teach any subjects. As for now, Roland thought, she did not need any special practice. So he would teach her some primary knowledge of mathematics and physics when he had spare time. When the time came, she would make a great contribution to the field of education.

Chapter 98 - New Witches, New Abilities (Part II)

The third witch was Hummingbird. She was small, just as her nickname depicted. She acted more reserved than the other witches when Roland asked about her ability. She just reached adulthood this winter and was a cute girl with symmetrical dimples, a delicate face and a sweet soft voice.

Her ability was Object Lightening, which meant that she was able to greatly lower the weight of an object once she put her magic power into it. According to her description, the weight of an object would be close to zero. Roland asked her to demonstrate it with his teacup and found that the teacup almost floated in the air—that was to say, its weight was close to that of air. Of course, in the eyes of people in that era, air was weightless.

That was the reason why the Witch Cooperation Association was able to cross the Western Region of Graycastle without worrying about food supplies. With the magic power of Hummingbird, bags of wheat and dried fish would become light enough for the witches. In that way, they could easily take a lot of food with them, which significantly relieved the pressure on supplies.

Though Hummingbird had entered her adulthood, she still had not developed any derivative skill. Her magic power would come into effect only when she touched the object, which could not be a living entity. The larger the object was, the more time and magic power it consumed. However, once she successfully reduced its weight, the effect would last for several hours.

The ability seemed to be perfect for transportation, and it would also be a large advantage in the coming war. Anyway, there were still too many unknown factors, and he needed to conduct further research.

Roland wrote at the bottom of her parchment: Practice with stones of different weights and control the output of magic power so as to determine precisely the effective time of the magic power.

After completing the first three practice plans, he ordered his attendant to bring another candle, making the room brighter. But even with this, in the waving orange candlelight, reading and writing were very tiring for his eyes.

Roland made a yawn and flattened the parchment with the information of the fourth witch.

She was different from other witches as she had a surname, and her full name was Soraya Zoen. She was born in a merchant family from the king's city of Graycastle. She had short brown curly hair and a pair of slender eyes. The freckles on top of her nose did not destroy her beauty; instead, they added a unique youthful vigor to her.

Soraya just turned 19 and she also had a special ability. After she became an adult, she was able to paint everything she saw or imagined. With her derivative skill, the Magic Pen, she was able to paint without pigment or paper, and her painting would be exactly like a photo.

Roland could list hundreds of ways to use this ability. As for her practice, he would ask her to paint several pictures every day.

He then picked up the next parchment.

The fifth witch, Echo, came from the Southernmost Region. She was a tall girl with a brown complexion, and her eyes and nose, which showed that she was a typical citizen of Sand Nation, gave her a very exotic charm. According to her description, she could imitate the call of any animal when she just awoke as a witch, and after she entered adulthood, she could skillfully imitate any sound in the world. She did not have any derivative skill.

Roland named her ability as "Magic Sound", but did not figure out its usage yet. As for her training plan, maybe... she could shout as loudly as possible.

The sixth witch was Lily, a 16-year-old girl with two ponytails and a doll-like delicate face. When she sat in front of Roland, she was quite nervous. Her ability was to prevent food from rotting, so she had become the most popular role in the Witch Cooperation Association since she awoke a year ago. Without food preservation, a lot of food would become sour and moldy during the journey. Lily, as well as Hummingbird, guaranteed the food supply of the Witch Cooperation Association.

Whether she killed the bacteria by her magic power to keep food fresh or not was still to be confirmed. Roland decided to ask her to practice on all kinds of meat and fruits, and to confirm the duration of the preservation effect after the magic power ran out.

Rubbing his stiff neck, he piled up the previous parchments. Only one parchment was left on the desk.

And that was another pleasant surprise for Roland.

The seventh witch was called Mystery Moon.

She was obviously nervous when she walked into the office. Nightingale reassured her for a while and later whispered into Roland's ears to simply explain her situation.

Among all the witches in the camp, Mystery Moon had the worst ability, which could be described as useless. Because of that, she was only able to do some chores which could also be easily completed by manual work. In addition, she was often blamed by Cara, so she had become very timid. She was afraid that Roland would also think that she was useless and hence drive her away from Border Town.

Her ability was magnetizing objects. Before she entered adulthood, she could only magnetize metal objects, but now she was able to magnetize any object. She did not have any derivative skill. She had to touch the object to magnetize it in an extremely slow way. As she described, it cost her half a day to magnetize a stone of about a cubic foot.

Her ability was indeed useless for the Witch Cooperation Association. The magnet was not rare in that era. For example, every huge ship sailing between the Fjords and the continent was equipped with a compass for navigation. On the continent, people did not need any compass to tell the direction as they could easily find other references. On the contrary, the magnetized objects would cause trouble to others. For example, the metal pots which were lightened by Hummingbird would accidentally fly toward the magnetized objects of Mystery Moon. For this reason, she was forbidden by Cara to use her ability in the camp.

But for Roland, this silent girl was a priceless gift.

That was why he would like to hum that song, "Super-Star"—was there any words more appropriate than the lyric of "You are electricity, you are light"?

Electricity would be generated in the magnetic field, and electricity would also create a magnetic field in reverse. It was known by every student who had learned physics. Roland expressed his sincere gratitude to Faraday, Gauss, Ampere, and Maxwell in his heart. With electricity, there would also be light. Maybe he did not have to wait for long to create another miracle in his domain.

As a witch who was forbidden to use her ability, Mystery Moon was still able to survive from the Demonic Torture. It showed that she was not mentally fragile though she appeared timid. At least she had more desire to live on than others. Roland was secretly thankful that she had just joined the association for nearly a year, or she might be ruined under Cara's rule if she had been restrained for a longer time.

With these thoughts, he wrote down Mystery Moon's practice plan for the following days. She would magnetize a variety of objects to confirm the relationship between the consumption of magic power and the strength of their magnetism.

After adding these seven witches, Roland now had a total of 12 witches working for him. Through inquiring about their abilities, he got a fair idea of the magic power. The traditional classification of combat type and non-combat type was unreasonable, and he preferred to classify them according to the characteristics of their abilities. In general, the main abilities of the witches could be divided into three types.

The first type was the self-strengthening type, which was very rare. Up to now, he only knew Scroll belonged to this type. Her ability would come into effect automatically, so it would not be influenced by God's Stone of Retaliation. Even if she was forced to wear the stone, she could still have a photographic memory.

The second one was the summoning type, and Anna, Nightingale, Nana, Lightning, Wendy, Leaf, Soraya, Echo, and Lily all belonged to this type. Their magic power could be summoned outside of their body within five meters. With various abilities, this type of witches was also most restrained by the God's Stone of Retaliation. Once they stepped into the Forbidden Area where their magic power was suppressed, any magic effects would disappear. However, before the magic power was suppressed, the results it caused would be everlasting and irreversible.

The third one was the attaching magic type. For example, Hummingbird and Mystery Moon fell into this type. They had to get contact with their target to complete the slow conversion, which consumed lots of magic power and could be interrupted by God's Stone of Retaliation. But once the conversion was completed, the added properties would become inherent, which meant that they would still be effective even within the Forbidden Area. The duration of enchantment depended on the size of the object and the amount of magic power.

"Maybe this was why the God's Stone of Retaliation could not relieve the bite of the magic power," he thought. God's Stone of Retaliation was unable to affect the gathering and flowing of the magic power; instead, it affected its transformation of magic power into ability. Described in computer terms, it affected the fore-end of clients instead of the backstage data.

Roland put down the quill pen and rubbed his eyes. Anyway, he knew he would become even busier in the future.

Chapter 99 - The Night Chat

The witches were still awake. After having suffered for so long, they still couldn't believe that they were being accommodated by the prince and that there were neither shackles nor guards. The prince even allowed everyone to enter the castle and live in such spacious and comfortable rooms.

Wendy probably guessed the anxiety of the sisters. Together with Nightingale, she called everyone to gather in her room and sit around the bed in a circle. They would have a chat to calm down their emotions.

"This is the style of a leader," Leaf thought. If it was Cara, she would never be so attentive to the needs of the sisters. Even if she had noticed, she would never have bothered to comfort them.

"Sister Wendy, what will His Royal Highness... ask us to do?" Hummingbird timidly asked, "Our abilities are far worse than you and sister Nightingale."

This struck a chord with the other sisters, and they all nodded in support.

Wendy began to laugh. "Let me think about it, uh... the first thing you have to do is to practice your abilities."

"Practice our abilities?" Soraya asked hesitantly, "Will His Royal Highness ask me to draw paintings all day long?"

"It's quite possible." Wendy patted Mystery Moon on the head. "Although Cara forbids you to use your abilities in the camp, His Highness won't. On the contrary, he'll encourage you to practice and master your abilities."

"My ability will only bring troubles to my sisters," said Mystery Moon.

"Even so, you must still practice," said Wendy, "and it's a matter of life and death."

"Life and death?" Leaf could not help but ask.

"Yes, His Highness discovered the way for witches to safely get through the day of Awakening," said Nightingale, who continued after Wendy. "From now on, we can say goodbye to the pain of the demonic bite and all sisters can live to adulthood."

All the witches were now staring at Nightingale. At that moment they couldn't believe their ears. Scroll asked in surprise, "Are you speaking about what happened to Miss Anna? But last time, you told us that you did not know the specific reason."

"Yes, at that time it was only the speculation of His Highness, but Nana's Awakening Day verified this. She also didn't suffer any harm."

"So the method is..." Scroll could not help but hold her breath.

"You just need to expend your magic power every day," Nightingale said slowly word by word, "I can see the changes of the magic power in the Mist. Regular use of it will increase the total capacity of the body. At the same time, the suffering during the demonic bites will also be reduced. As it draws close to the Day of Awakening, as long as the magic power is exhausted, it'll almost cause no harm to the body."

"I think everyone can sense it faintly as well," Wendy added, "During the days when we were hunted by the church, we would carefully hide in the corners of town and did not dare to use our abilities. Therefore, we lost many sisters every winter. But this year, while living in the camps in the Impassable Mountain Range, besides for Airy and Abby, everyone else was able to survive the Months of the Demons."

"So that's the reason." Thinking about this, Leaf took a deep breath. When she had encountered the Demonic Bite while traveling through Barbarian Land, its duration was exceptionally short. "In other words, Holy Mountain isn't in that barren land…"

"That's right, the Holy Mountain isn't a specific place." Wendy nodded. "Any place where people can accept us, without seeing the witches as the devil or limiting the sisters practicing their abilities, will be Holy Mountain."

"Wendy had even asked His Highness if she could go to the camp when the Months of the Demons had ended to tell you the news." Nightingale glanced at Wendy and said gently, "In this case, even if you hadn't found Holy Mountain, you could still live well in the mountains."

"Since everyone has come back, there's no need to mention this." Wendy smiled and shook her head. "Regardless of whether you're needed by His Highness or not, you should still practice every day for safety."

"If this is the key to resolve the bite of magic power, shouldn't there be other witches who would have been aware of this?" Scroll thought for a moment and said, "We're not the first witch organization. There are other witch organizations in Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. I have sent them letters to invite them to find Holy Mountain together. However, we have never received a reply.

Leaf sighed gently, and she knew Scroll held back on what she wanted to say. Ever since Cara found the ancient book in the ruins at the forest at the eastern border, she firmly believed in Holy Mountain and took everyone on her endeavor. At this point, the Witch Cooperation Association started their long journey of exile, almost across the entire Kingdom of Graycastle. During the journey, they met many new sisters but also lost many of them. If from the beginning they had decided to hide in the ruins, would they have discovered this key?

"We can try to contact the hidden witches in other cities," said Nightingale, "and it's part of His Highness's plan. He also wants to let the witches notice this remote town by spreading the rumors. If we become the middle person, it would no doubt greatly reduce their suspicion."

"However, I still don't understand why His Highness wants to accommodate us?" asked Echo, looking confused. The witch from the southernmost region had suffered more than most of the other witches. First, she was sold by the people of Sand Nation to a businessman from Port of Clearwater, who then took her all the way to sell her again in King's City. She was forced to learn dancing, royal etiquettes, and even the skills to please a man. If she wasn't coincidentally rescued by the Witch Cooperation Association, she would probably have been sold for an exorbitantly high price to a duke or minister. Until now, she still had her foreign accent when speaking.

"Maybe just like those who wanted to buy you." Lily sneered. "Man..."

"Don't speak nonsense, Lily," said Nightingale in a stern voice. "His Highness is clearly different from all those people that you talked about. As long as you stay here for a while, you'll understand."

"It's true, I have experienced it deeply," Wendy said while wearing her kind smile, "It's already late, so everyone should go back to their rooms and try to get some sleep. Don't worry even if your ability isn't useful to His Highness. He said that he wants all of you to be able to live a normal life in Border Town. If you want to know what His Highness will ask you tomorrow." She deliberately paused for a moment. "I guess, it'll start from the signing of a contract."

After Leaf and Scroll returned to their room and closed their door, the latter said, "We should sleep as well."

When His Highness had asked about her ability earlier, he arranged for her to stay in the same room as Scroll. He also mentioned that this was only a temporary arrangement, and in the future, she could have a brand new room for herself. But in her view, the bed was already spacious enough for three people.

She took off her coat and got under the quilt. It was hard to describe the softness and comfort that wrapped around her body. Leaf could not help but moan gently with her head buried in the pillow. After a long time, she softly asked, "Do you blame Cara?"

"..." Scroll sighed. "No one can predict the future, no matter what she did at the end, at least in the beginning she was really genuine in wanting to find a home for the witches to live in peace. Now there's no point mentioning this. Sleep well, my girl."

She closed her eyes. "Good night."

Chapter 100 - The Ancient Book and the Relic (Part I)

The next morning, all the witches were led downstairs by their maids. Like Wendy had said, each of them was given a roll of fine parchment by the prince after breakfast. In consideration of the fact that some witches were illiterate, Scroll explained what the contents were on the parchment. After that, everybody signed and put their fingerprints on it.

Roland knew that they barely understood what the contract really entailed. But it did not matter, as he believed they would eventually learn its meanings. He was also pretty sure that these witches would even be willing to sign all their rights away giving the present circumstances. Nevertheless, he did not think it was a bad deal to provide a relatively generous offer. Since he had decided to officially employ witches, he must look at the big picture. All that he had done so far was to create a virtuous, sustainable cycle that would benefit both parties in the long run.

After everybody handed in the signed contracts, Roland told each of them their individual training schedule which he drafted the night before. He then asked Leaf, Scroll and Soraya to come to his office with him.

Nightingale soon revealed herself and winked at the other witches after Roland closed the door.

"I've been thinking about what Wendy told me yesterday." Roland pulled the curtains to let the bright sun rays shine through the window. "She said you came across some hideous, horrible monsters from which only seven of you managed to escape. Even the supervisor of the Witch Cooperation Association, Cara, died in the wilderness. I wonder what exactly you encountered? Demonic hybrids?"

Leaf broke off first. "No, they were not demonic hybrids, but demons from the Gates of Hell. They got big statures and could summon demonic beasts. They had magic power as well, just like..." She hesitated for a moment. "Like us."

"Demons?" Roland knitted his brows and glanced at Soraya. "Were you there at that time?"

Soraya nodded.

"You can sketch out what happened that day, can you?" Roland handed her a piece of paper.

Soraya shut her eyes, appearing to be a little anguished. But she took the paper and walked to the desk.

As she summoned her power, an obscure quill emerged in her hand, whose tip emanated a beautiful rainbow glow. The quill soon sprang up and started to draw automatically. Soraya kept her eyes firmly shut. Gradually, a vivid picture appeared on the paper.

Roland approached the desk and saw the drawing was so lifelike that it was more like a photograph than a picture. Like a video camera, Soraya's ability enabled her to reconstruct the murder scene and relate the story on Barbarian Land from the first-person point of view.

By the time the painting was done, Soraya's forehead had been beaded with perspiration. Apparently, the memory of the incident agonized her like a prolonged nightmare.

At this point, Nightingale also joined the conversation. "Are they demons?"

"Yes." Leaf pointed to the one closer to her. "This one with metal gloves could summon lightning to attack us. He was also physically strong and powerful. More than half a dozen sisters were killed by him. The one farther could shoot spears several times faster than bolts. They couldn't, however, launch continuous attacks. During such intervals, I managed to kill them."

"By yourself?" Roland asked.

"Cara's Snake of Magic bit and broke the leather tube underneath this demon's helmet. She later died with the demon together. The tube turned out to be the demon's weak point, so I killed the other demon using the same method with my hand crossbow. There seemed to be some red gases in the tube. The demons didn't die until all the gases ran out." Leaf pointed at the neck of the gloved demon and said.

Roland could not figure out why there was such kind of creatures in the wilderness. They were definitely not extraterrestrial beings, for, from the patched leather tube that functioned like an oxygen tank and the animal skin garb they wore, one could tell that demons were by no means from a higher civilization.

Whether by means of scientific technologies or magic, the ability to visit another planet itself was a piece of solid evidence of power. In the case of human beings, it took men tremendous efforts just to land the moon.

Of course, the demons might also come from some queer civilization outside his knowledge, who had come to this world by some quirk of fate. Above all, now Roland knew that "demons" were not invulnerable enemies who could not be killed.

"Apart from the demons, we also saw a city in the air." Leaf continued, "It was always there at the front no matter how hard we tried to get close to it. Lightning once mentioned the phenomenon in one of her adventure stories. She said it seemed to be a mirage."

"Can you draw it?" Roland asked Soraya.

Soraya nodded and summoned the Magic Pen again. After that, she painted the air-built city that Leaf had just talked about on the paper.

Roland looked at the picture carefully, but could not obtain much information out of the blurry drawing. If what they had seen was really a mirage, the real city must be somewhere on Barbarian Land. As to the blood mists that obscured the sky above the city, they could be the breathing gases demons relied on. This explanation appeared to be more reliable than the alien theory. After all, the Impassable Mountain Range was a mysterious area never imprinted with the foot of man. It was perfectly normal that some other races lived there.

Now, the only question left was regarding the ancient book. "Nightingale and Wendy told me that Cara decided to seek Holy Mountain because of an ancient book." He asked, "Scroll, have you read that book before?"

Scroll hesitated for a while and answered, "Cara didn't allow any of us to read that book. But I, I once stole a peek at it. The contents are bewildering and at the same time... incredible."

"Can you make a copy of it? Let me take a look."

"What the book says isn't true, Your Highness. The non-existence of Holy Mountain has already shown it's a lie." Scroll sighed and raised her right hand. "I hope you won't be too absorbed by what's written."

A gilded book emerged in the air, with its front and back covers spread open. The book pages in between swiftly flipped through. It then abruptly closed and descended on Scroll's hand. "Your Highness, I hope you read it alone because I don't want the rest of our sisters to become as stubborn and radical as Cara."

Roland took the book and replied, "Got it."

After all the witches left the office, Nightingale silently showed up by the couch. She raised the skirt of her robe, cocked her feet on the stool and then started to chew dried fish like she always did.

"Don't you want to take a look?" Roland asked her smilingly.

Nightingale dismissed it contemptuously. "I'm not interested in what a crazy old witch was obsessed with."

Roland shook his head and returned to the desk. He opened the book with great care as if the book had possessed some real magic power.

Just like what Scroll had said, most of the contents were difficult and inarticulate. It appeared that the wording and the grammars were also out of date. The book recorded everything from the Bloody Moon to the giant stone gate, but just not Holy Mountain. In fact, other than a few phrases here and there, the rest was simply a bunch of jibber-jabbers. To conclude, Roland recognized every single word in the book, but could not make any sense out of them. He wondered whether the missing information resulted from the hasty manner in which Scroll had read the book, or the book was simply incomplete as it was.

Roland ignored the tedious paragraphs in the middle and directly skipped to the end. Only the first few pages of the big book contained some contents. The latter part of the book, however, was totally blank. On the last page, the handwriting changed abruptly. The earlier neat handwriting suddenly turned into a sort of scribbles, as if the author had written them in a rush. The contents, nonetheless, started to become clearer and more coherent.

The first sentence read, "We failed. It was impossible for common people to defeat demons."

Chapter 101 - The Ancient Book and the Relic (Part II)

"What does that mean?" Roland wondered while stroking that line of the sentence. "Has the author of the ancient book fought against the monsters on Barbarian Land?" As he continued to read, more information came into sight...

"The number of demons increased while ours decreased."

"Even God's Stones of Retaliation failed to stop them. These enemies were so ferocious and frightening that they could easily quash our resistance just with their monstrous, unparalleled physical strength. They didn't even need to summon their magic power."

"Holy City of Taquila had fallen, and we scattered to run for our lives."

"Across mountains and rivers, we strove to stay as far away from the Gates of Hell as possible."

"But where can we take our refuge next time? "

"Nonetheless, I don't need to worry about this problem anymore. I'm dying, Natalia."

"Demons' power is destroying my health. My illness is now beyond any medical treatment."

"I write these in hopes that you can help me with something."

"Alice's experiment of God's Punishment Army is almost completed. It was a great success. These extraordinary warriors are capable of competing against demons. However, she has forgotten that even if the God's Punishment Army wins the battle, the victory won't be ours."

"That's right. God's Punishment Army will bring us nothing but devastation."

"Go stop her, for this is something only you can achieve."

It was not a long paragraph. After skimming it through, Roland sank into thoughts and tried to put himself in Cara's shoes.

Suppose Cara did not know the existence of demons and replaced the word "demons" with "witches" in this paragraph, she would easily make the assumption that the church's army was defeated by witches. Combining this assumption with the afloat rumors that witches were demon's accomplices, whose magic power came from the Gates of Hell, Cara would readily jump to the conclusion that the church endeavored to cover up the fact that the Gates of Hell was the entrance of Holy Mountain. For hundreds of years, witches had been looking for their Holy Mountain for an eternal life. That was why the number of witches increased while the church's army decreased.

Of course, there were quite a few points in this speculation that did not sound plausible. For example, the "monstrous, unparalleled physical strength" was definitely not a faculty possessed by witches. Another peculiar theory was that witches crushed the church's army despite the influences of God's Stones of Retaliation. Roland did not know what exactly made Cara resolve to come to Barbarian Land. Had her fervent eagerness to find Holy Mountain clouded her judgment? Or rather, the real reason behind her decision was actually hidden in the part Scroll had missed?

Roland preferred the latter conjecture.

At least he now knew that the last page of the book was talking about demons, a real foreign race, rather than witches.

But it did not answer his questions. Instead, it created more.

When had the church had a battle with demons?

Roland rummaged the memory of fourth prince's, but could not find anything. The church had established its general headquarter in the north after the Battle of Faiths, for the purpose of preventing demonic beasts from invading the inner land from the ravine. Later, they had built a magnificent stronghold city on the plateau of Hermes and had named it New Holy City. The two connected cities, one high and the other low, were both used to defend against demonic beasts instead of demons. As to the name "Taquila", Roland had never heard of it.

If such stories were true, the church had no reason to keep them from the public. In the church's history books, every major battle the church had won were recorded in great details. The church people would elaborate on each victory they had gained to manifest their glorious achievements. It seemed strange, however, that they failed to mention anything about the battle against demons, for such a fight was absolutely more intense and worthy to be advertised than the ones with demonic beasts or witches.

The last question was in regard to the God's Punishment Army.

Evidently, this church member who wrote the book did not wish to build such an army. So, he asked somebody else to stop the experiment that appeared to be successful. Roland only knew the church had the Judgement Army but had never heard of the God's Punishment Army. Of course, there was also a big chance that the former Prince Roland was too ignorant and had not been provided with such information.

Roland did not understand why the writer thought the God's Punishment Army would bring destruction. From its description, the army seemed to be as powerful as demons. If this was the case, it could but greatly benefit the church.

These two arguments were probably what Scroll felt inconceivable.

"Do you know where Cara got this misleading ancient book?" Roland looked up and glanced at Nightingale.

"By the time I joined them, they had been looking for Holy Mountain already." Nightingale muttered with a mouthful of dried fish between her teeth. "But Wendy once told me the Witch Cooperation Association was initially not an association at all. It was just a small group of a few witches who happened to gather at Seawindshire, among whom were Cara, Wendy and Scroll. They later found a secret meeting spot in the Eastern Forest not far away from Seawindshire, which, unexpectedly, appeared to be the entrance to an underground relic." She swallowed the snack and licked her lips. "But only Cara went down there."

"Was the ancient book found in the relic?"

"Well, that's what Cara claimed." Nightingale twitched her mouth. "After that, more witches joined the group. Someone might accidentally expose their traces during a meeting. So, one day, the church sent a great number of Judgement Army and surrounded the forest. During that raid, more than a dozen witches were killed. It was at that time that Cara made up her mind to go to the Impassable Mountain Range and seek Holy Mountain. From then on, they started to call the group the Witch Cooperation Association and regard the search for Holy Mountain as its members' ultimate goal."

Roland was absorbed in thoughts after hearing the account. His knowledge of mythology was so limited that anything related to histories or folklores just escaped his mind. The ancient book did not specify the year, so he had no idea whether other history books recorded such a battle. As the soldiers in that battle had all passed away, Roland thought the only way to figure out what had happened was to explore the relic in person.

Nonetheless, Roland knew it was impossible. The Eastern Forest was too far. His current priority was to develop his territory rather than travel across the whole Kingdom of Graycastle on a whim.

Roland paced to the window and looked at the garden down there through the French window. The witches were training themselves as he had instructed. Now, he had 12 witches in total working for him, and it was time to formally establish an organization.

He did not plan to set up any guidelines or regulations for the organization, for the organization was essentially founded for an easy management and to help the witches develop their abilities. It would be similar to the industrial unionism in the modern world.

There were only two simple rules for the organization, which were: a) the prohibition of using abilities to violate laws; and b) the prohibition of using abilities to evade legal liabilities.

Roland was initially thinking about following the example of the Three Laws of Roboticsand formulating some rules to forbid a witch to injure or cause harms to an ordinary person by using her power. But he soon realized it was rather unnecessary. Power to a witch was like a gun to a human being. There was essentially no difference between using a gun and using abilities, for both were self-defense. Besides, an overemphasis on the difference between witches and ordinary people would only widen the gap between the two groups.

Therefore, no breach of laws and no evasion of liabilities were the most concise terms a dull engineer could think of.

As for the name of the organization, Roland had had an idea long before.

This brand new organization would be called "The Witch Union".

Chapter 102 - The Honeysuckles and the Elks (Part I)

When night approached, the Earl Elk's mansion was brightened up by glitters of lights. After Petrov handed in his invitation card, he was led by a servant to the hall. The earl's third daughter, Aurelia's birthday party had just started.

The guests invited to this party were invariably nobles from prominent families in Longsong Stronghold. From the woolen carpet in the hall and the servants' gilded black uniforms, one could tell the earl took the matter very seriously. After all, it was Aurelia's 16th birthday. She had reached an age of maturity and was ready to be introduced into society for a decent marriage.

The music rang while the servants passed through the crowd with wines and glasses in their hands. Steamy food was placed on the several round tables in the hall. Aurelia, on the other hand, like a proud canary in full bloom, enthroned herself among a group of ladies at the corner, appearing to be in good humor.

Unlike the banquet in the Western Region, where everybody sat around a long wooden table, waiting for chefs to serve food which was usually a big bowl of pork, a whole chicken, buttered bread, some golden fried eggs and lettuce, the party here was all about style and fashion.

Having said that, it was still uncomparable to a true first-class banquet. To Petrov, who had lived in the king's city for several years and knew the real extravagance, the birthday party was merely a superficial imitation.

For instance, the wine glasses delivered by the servants were in various colors rather than pure, transparent ones. Because of this, the glasses could neither display the vivid color of the grape wine nor enhance its mellow taste. The table should be entirely covered with white draperies to conceal the grease underneath. Meanwhile, the food, which still stuck to the typical Western Region tradition, was served in large portions and chopped into big pieces. Petrov shook his head. At least, the chef should slice them before serving.

It was a common practice for nobles to eat before the banquet so that they would not need to bother cutting these big chunks of meat on their own. Since every guest at the party represented his own family, it was considered as very impertinent to devour like a savage. Petrov did not want to become a conversation piece of those ladies.

"Hey, man, long time no see." Someone suddenly flung his arm around his neck. "I've heard you were appointed as the ambassador by the lord again? How's the mining business in Border Town going? I bet you've reaped a big profit from it, haven't you?"

By the familiar voice, Petrov soon recognized the person as Rene Medde, the second son of the Elk Family, a complete idiot who had been longing to become a knight yet was not even capable of managing his own territory. In spite of this, he was still a friend of his. "Not bad." Reluctant to talk about his experience in Border Town, Petrov simply steered away from the subject. "Did you put your combating skills to good use at Coldwind Ridge this time? Or you just locked yourself in a tavern at Hermes shaking like a leaf?"

"Damn it." Rene pushed Petrov in his back, complaining. "You just won't stop criticizing me, will you? I didn't even go to New Holy City this time because I happened to have caught a cold on the very first day the troops set out. So, I lay in bed for a whole week."

"Good. You did better than last time. At least, you saved the troops a lot of trouble."

"You're wrong though." Rene suddenly summoned up a mysterious smile. "If I didn't happen to stay in bed at Coldwind Ridge for a week, I would probably stay at the freezing city wall of Holy City forever."

"What do you mean?" Petrov raised his eyebrows.

"I got the news from someone else." The second son of the Elks whispered in Petrov's ear. "New Holy City almost fell. Demonic beasts dashed into the inner city and nearly took the cathedral. Fortunately, the church sent out their strongest warriors and stopped them. The armies of the Four Kingdoms, however, suffered great losses. Only very few people returned to Coldwind Ridge from the battle. It made tons of women in the city into widows within just a month. Those who don't have savings..." Rene winked and made a gesture. "Two silver royals for a night. Hey, don't look at me like this. I didn't do anything."

"Are you sure it's true? What about the border guards?"

"I saw it with my own eyes. The lord was shocked and got sick on the very day he received the news." Rene shrugged. "As to the troops... there's nothing he can do about it but slowly recruiting more in the future. Experienced soldiers are currently in urgent need in the Northern Region. I would have been able to command a group of knights if my family didn't desire my immediate return."

"This isn't the point," Petrov said within himself. The main purpose to garrison a troop at the border of Coldwind Ridge was to defend against the Judgement Army from the church. Now, soldiers of the four kingdoms' died in Hermes altogether. Petrov somehow smelled conspiracies. If the church was indeed scheming something, the north of Graycastle was currently as vulnerable and defenseless as a stripped, helpless woman. "What about the casualties among the Judgement Army?"

"Won't be better than troops of the four kingdoms. It's pretty obvious because they're all crazy men who always rush at the very front. In fact, nobody will voluntarily fight until the Judgement Army takes the first move," Rene said scornfully, "Those knights are always talking about their chivalrous manners. But when it comes to a real battle against demonic beasts, they're the last to put their words into action."

"There's one such kind of fellow right in front of me." Petrov smiled. Perhaps he had just been paranoid. Even if the church did plot to invade the north, it had nothing to do with Longsong Stronghold. It was something the new king should worry about.

"Unfortunately, nobody wants to employ me—or rather, I haven't found anyone I want to pledge alliance to." Rene paused for a moment and looked toward the door. "I saw the Wolf Family coming in. I've got to greet them. Talk to you later."

"Sure. You don't need to worry about me."

"Right." Just when Rene was about to walk off, he turned around again. "Have you noticed the handkerchief tugged in the invitation card?"

"You put in there?"

"No, I'll only put my old socks." Rene waved his finger. "My sister made the handkerchief herself. Although you're a lot older than her, I'll fully support you if you have the intention to seek this union. You have to think about it, man. You're 22 now."

Petrov gave him a side look. Rene whistled and walked away with a smile.

Petrov took a glass of wine from the servant and picked a corner, starting to study the bustling hall in secret. He noticed Aurelia would steal him a glance from now and then in the middle of her conversation. The moment their eyes met, Aurelia soon turned away to avoid his gaze. Petrov noticed a vivid flush gradually rose to her cheeks.

He smiled back as a courtesy. To him, Aurelia was simply an innocent little girl.

Just then, a furious voice on one side of the hall drew everybody's attention.

"What? He really said that?"

"Yes. Cornelius that coward just came back without even defending his honor." The loudest person exclaimed. "Such a shame on Longsong Stronghold!"

Petrov recognized that man. It was Simon Elliot, a remote branch of the Wolf Family, who married a quite beautiful woman. He had seen the wife once. She did possess some unique charm.

"Like you have a solution to that." Someone retorted with mockeries.

"Perhaps I can't do anything about it on my own. But if the duke notices such absurdity, I don't think Roland Wimbledon will still be able to act so unscrupulously"

Hearing this familiar name, Petrov was stunned for a moment. He was soon intrigued by this interesting conversation.

Chapter 103 - The Honeysuckles and the Elks (Part II)

§Petrov approached the crowd and asked, "What happened?"

"Mr. Hull," Seeing the kamon of the Honeysuckle Family, someone replied, "we're talking about the Lord of Border Town. He wants to seize the properties that the nobles in the stronghold leave in the town."

"Just call me Petrov. What's it exactly about him?"

"Let me explain it to Mr. Petrov." Simon came up to him with a half-fawning smile. "The truth is, we live in Border Town in peacetime on the duke's order to manage the North Slope Mine for him. Every winter, we take our townsmen to Longsong Stronghold and protect them from demonic beasts. When we returned to the town after the Months of Demons this year, however, one of my colleagues, Cornelius from the Fletcher Family, was told by the Lord of Border Town that his residence was torn down by the townspeople and that he would not receive any compensation for his loss!"

"You've got two choices: a) admit that the property doesn't belong to you; and b) imprisonment and being hanged for defection." Simon imitated the tone of Prince Roland. "Sir, how could he charge Cornelius with defection? I dare say all the managers of the mine have been doing this for the past 100 years."

The image of the gray-haired young man involuntarily flashed across Petrov's mind. Notwithstanding the prince's widespread notoriety, Petrov, from his personal intercourse with him, knew that Roland Wimbledon was definitely not a person of mediocrity. The so-called "defection" was merely a pretext Roland used to assert his absolute authority in his territory. He had never planned to reason with these nobles.

It appeared that the prince had resolved to sever relations with Longsong Stronghold. Petrov thought that Roland must know very well that the nobles and townsmen took refuge in the stronghold every year. But he still forced Cornelius to make a choice between a death penalty and confiscation of the property. On top of that, he publicized his unreasonable, almost ruthless decision across Longsong Stronghold, which made Petrov wonder what on earth the prince intended to do.

"But he's the Lord of Border Town. A lord is entitled to make laws within his territory," The one who had mocked Simon earlier replied.

"Border Town is also under the jurisdiction of the Western Region!" Simon retorted coolly. "Are you challenging Duke Ryan's authority? The duke has ordered us to live in the town and manage the mine. Now, Roland has seized all the properties of the nobles. He's defying the six families. Duke Ryan will absolutely not tolerate it."

"Are you talking about the murderer who hanged Kihls Medde without even issuing an official document?" Rene, who swung by unnoticed, suddenly voiced out. "My father was furious about it."

"Lord Medde." Simon bowed. "Yes, that's the man we've been discussing. He's now become more reckless and defiant than ever. I'm afraid we have to rely on the duke's power to stop him. I hope you can take a message for us."

"Don't worry. At any rate, Duke Ryan has determined to weed him out," Rene answered carelessly. "I came back to let you know that my brother is currently tied up with some business in the king's city. So, it leaves me the only person in the Elk Family to command the army."

"Really? How fantastic!" Simon rejoined in delight.

Petrov's brows knitted. He knew such a day would eventually arrive after the prince sent out the letter in winter, in which he announced his intention to stay at Border Town. Yet, Petrov had never anticipated his friend would also participate in the war. Ignoring the curious looks of others, Petrov pulled Rene aside and tried to dissuade him. "Don't meddle in it. He's a prince."

"I know he's a prince, but he's just a dummy prince among some country bumpkins." Rene Medde patted Petrov on his shoulder. "Don't worry. In any event, Duke Ryan won't hurt a royal family member. Perhaps the prince will surrender soon after we get there. Even if he decides to resist, I'm sure those farmers and miners will flee as soon as we officially launch the attack. Plus, Prince Roland doesn't possess any combatting skills. I reckon he'll remain intact during the entire battle."

[No, I'm afraid it'll be the other way around...] Petrov tried to say something but eventually chose not to speak his thought aloud because he knew Rene would not believe him. Indeed, he himself could hardly believe that the prince would defeat the alliance army commanded by the duke with only a bunch of miners, either. Nevertheless, a sense of evil forebodings pervaded him.

"Master Petrov, your father wants to see you at home. He needs to talk to you." A silver-haired steward walked up to Petrov hastily and whispered to him.

"Noted." Petrov nodded. After bidding farewell to Rene, he, along with the steward, threw himself into the carriage that conveyed him to the mansion of Earl Honeysuckles'.

"Father." Petrov entered the study and saw Sharafi Hull writing something at his desk.

His arrival, however, did not interrupt the earl's occupation. "Send me a report on the production, the population, and revenues in the domain. I can plan for the upcoming war in spring. Duke Ryan has issued an order of conscription. After the snow melts, we five families will need to provide our knights and mercenaries to help him attack Border Town."

"How many people do we have to provide?"

The Earl paused his writing and looked up. "You never cared about these matters. Why are you interested now?" He unfolded a letter on the desk and said, "25 knights at least, as well as the squires and horses they need. The 40 mercenaries we need to provide must be fully equipped and armed. As for freemen or serfs, the number should be over 100, and they should be lightly armed."

Petrov did a quick math in his head. In that case, the five families would be providing around 1,000 people. Combined with the duke's troops, such an army would be considered unbeatable in the whole Western Region. It would be an alliance sufficient to suppress the resistance of Border Town, where only 2,000 people in total garrisoned. They did not even need to dispatch all the troops in Longsong Stronghold to gain their victory.

"Father, can you stay at the rear?" After a momentary hesitation, Petrov asked.

"Why, my child?" The earl was a bit surprised.

"I'm concerned with your safety."

Shalafi could not help laughing. "Do you know what you're talking about? What danger can there be for an elephant to trump an ant? His Highness has but a few knights and less than 50 guards, whereas our people are 10 times more!"

Petrov would have also thought so had he not met the prince. Technically, his father was correct. Yet... "Father, everybody says a mud city wall will be washed away by the rain, but the one built under His Highness' supervision stood erect in the rain. They've also said it's impossible to stop demonic beasts with merely a group of miners in Border Town, yet His Highness managed to do so. Not a single person fled to the stronghold in the whole course of Months of Demons this year." Petrov felt increasingly agitated. "Now, everyone believes the duke will subdue Roland Wimbledon in the same way an elephant tramples an ant. Do you really think this will be the case, father?"

"Enough!" Shalafi whacked the desk, rose to his feet and shook his head. He walked to the wall upon which the portraits of all the ancestors of the Honeysuckles Family's were hung. "I know you prefer business and trades to battles and wars. However, a tradesman isn't necessarily a coward. For those merchants who sail out to pursue their enterprises, they put their lives on the line every day." Shalafi knocked on the wall and hollered. "Look at these portraits. Your grandfather and your great-great-grandfather, they fought with their swords and bows against their enemies before establishing themselves on this land full of beasts, refugees, and bandits. Your cowardice really disappointed me!"

[No, father.] Petrov hanged his head and stopped arguing. He muttered, however, in silence, [You also know that these are my grandfather's and great-great grandfather's stories. Look at their fearless countenances and toned bodies, and then at your own wide waist and your puffy double chin. Father, are you still able to fight on horseback?]

Chapter 104 - The Planning and Recreation

Roland fulfilled his promises on a sunny afternoon.

He conferred Tigui Pine with the title of Viscount and granted him the domain of the south Redwater River, opposite to the river that separated the town. It was a densely-grown forest, an area still waiting for development. In order for him to give up the autonomy of territory, Roland had promised to prioritize the development of Tigui's territory and divide a certain stake of the industrial land established to the viscount and his descendants. Of course, Roland tactfully described it as an underlining benefit that there would be no work needed to manage the property, he could just sit and wait for the money to roll in.

Tigui happily accepted it. He had never liked these, as nothing was more meaningful to him than fighting on the horse. However, he had diverted his attention to hunting since his daughter was born. In addition, Tigui asked Prince Roland to sell all his land in the east of Longsong Stronghold and move his family to Border Town as the properties within his domain had long been declining. Roland agreed.

The other one was Brian. Roland awarded him identity as a knight and asked him to choose either land or serving in the army.

If he chose the land, he would not be allowed to join the First Army of Border Town again. If he joined the army, he would be promoted according to his military exploits to obtain land like the others. Brian chose the latter, without hesitation.

Roland had a rough picture of how he would use the land.

Using the Redwater River as a border, there was a wide space of seven to eight kilometers and a narrow space of about three kilometers. The land in between the Impassable Mountain Range was the residential area. It could be used as a construction area or a reward for promoted officers.

Opposite the Redwater River was the future industrial and agricultural area, the land could be extended all the way to the Southern Territory. However, it was still covered by forest and hills could be seen some distance away. Roland would have to reclaim the forest when the population fulfilled its demand.

Misty Forest, to the east of Border Town, was an important development point. There were all kinds of treasures in the forest, such as wood, edible fungi, wild animals, and herbs. Wood could also be used as fuel, not just for construction and industrial use. The forest was incredibly huge. Roland had sent Lightning to explore and even after flying 30 kilometers, the end was still not seen. If it were only used for the firewood, it could be used for a long time.

Finally, the empty space in between the Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range was also a restricted area that no one ever set foot on. Judging from the boundary of mountains and forests, the tundish area was vast, a lot larger than the Kingdom of Graycastle. Roland was very tempted looking at the abandoned land. However, he knew that he could not attend to it for the time being as the population growth of Border Town was more necessary.

When he was back in his office in the castle, Roland summoned the artist, Soraya.

"How's the completion of the task on assisting the City Hall?"

"I've never drawn so many pictures in one day." She looked much better compared to their initial encounter. "I've almost finished drawing for today. However, it felt a little strange to only see from a window the size of a head when I was drawing."

"It's to prevent your Magic Pen from scaring the people," the prince smiled and said, "Although they know witches exist, such close contact could easily cause an accident. Thus, I would rather take a hidden approach to prevent them from knowing you're a witch. It'll improve it in the future."

Soraya's photographic skill had brought Roland's citizenship registration scheme to a new level. The City Hall had vacated a house for the plan as the archives to store the information of the people. They recorded their name, age, address, relationship status and other information on paper. Barov had briefly totaled the information once during the winter, and the record showed it had expanded a lot in this time. The biggest change was that there was now a "color photo" attached on each personal account.

According to Roland's request, the City Hall had built a single-access small house in the hall. It was covered with linen from the outside, leaving a square window at the front that allowed Soraya to see the appearance of the other. It prevented them from seeing the magic pen when the witch was painting the portrait.

Roland had come up with a very simple method to get the people of the domain to come forward and register, they would be subsidized 10 bronze royals. The money would be paid by the City Hall.

"I've summoned you here today to draw something else," Roland said. He laid the ready-cut papers in front of Soraya.

She noticed that the size of each paper was exactly the same. They were all square in shape and only half the size of her palm.

"What would you like me to draw?"

"A few recreational props," Roland said.

He’d had this idea for a while. The witches had basically nothing to do other than their daily practice. Life was getting a little mundane, even to the prince himself. Especially before the snow melted, his range of activities within the castle was limited. Therefore, it was imperative to think of recreational activities and get a few witches to accompany him to relax. ..

The simplest, of course, was poker cards. However, the normal soft paper was not suitable for holding in the hands and shuffling would be troublesome. He could consider making something more advanced with Soraya's help.

"Recreational?" she wondered with her head tilted. She did not understand what kind of recreational thing was to be drawn on a square paper. "Alright, tell me about it."

"First, you have to draw a soldier holding a heavy crossbow on this paper."

"From my imagination?"

"Yes, his armor, body-build, age, the surroundings. It's all up to your imagination. The only requirement is he's holding a heavy crossbow."

"Uh... I'll try," said Soraya. She closed her eyes and contemplated for a moment. A set of colorful magic pens appeared in her hands.

Soon, an archer who looked like a middle-aged man appeared on the paper.

"That's great." Roland praised. "Let me think what to draw next, ah... Draw a small circle on both the upper left corner and the center of the card. The first circle has a white color base with a gold frame and the second circle has an orange color base with a gold frame." He tried to recall the look of the cards in his mind.

When the painting was completed, Roland asked her to add a number in the first circle and the symbol of a bow and arrow in the second circle.

Soraya's magic power was that she could ignore the material she was painting on, so blank paper and the patterned paper did not make a difference to her. The formal pattern could be perfectly covered by the newly painted pattern like a cover.

Hence, an exquisite "Archer" card appeared in front of Roland.

"Is that all?" she asked.

"This is just one unit of the cards, there are still more similar cards to be drawn. I'll teach you how to play when it finally forms into a deck of cards."

Looking at Soraya painting with her eyes closed, Roland felt a hunch from the bottom of his heart. Perhaps such a conversation would soon fill his castle...

"What are you going to do? Let's play Gwent first!"

Chapter 105 - The Military Music

Echo was sitting on the highest point of the castle, the roof of the observation tower, where she could see the entire town.

She had troubled Lightning to carry her up here, and the little girl would come back to pick her up after sunset. Lightning was currently on her way to Longsong Stronghold.

The weather was very good today and the sun was bright; the river in the distance was shining like silk, running slowly towards the west, separating the land of green from the white snow. She felt a sense of warmth and softness in her entire body. This was different from the hot sun of the Southernmost Region where the scorching rays would burn the skin.

[Even the wind is different,] she thought. The winds in the mainland varied from the salty sea wind in the Port of Clearwater. From the humid monsoon season in the king's city, to the chilling wind in the Impassable Mountain Range, to the earthy breeze in the town here. Anyhow, the winds here were pure and simple. Sweltering heat or sweeping windstorms were common in Iron Sand City. Winds were visible, with gravel and grit mixed up in the howling airflow, like a black monster sweeping through. People would have to hide in their house or find shelter to avoid the wind. Standing in the wind would lead to the death.

Echo sighed softly. It had been four years since she'd left Iron Sand City. The Osha clan had unfortunately failed in the battle for power. Although her father had surrendered, he was still killed by the enemy. She had wanted to rush forward and perish along with the enemy after witnessing this, but she was knocked out from behind.

She wondered how many of the clan members had survived after these four years.

She'd heard that the Osha clan had violated the agreement of the sacred duel causing them to be spurned by the Three Gods and exiled to Endless Cape, forbidden from Iron Sand City forever before she was sold to be a slave in the Port of Clearwater. However, Echo knew that this was the conspiracy of the Tibia clan. They had smeared the whip with the black oil from the underground and it could not be extinguished once it was ignited. It was this exact trick that had caused her brother, the strongest warrior in the clan to be burned alive in the duel. It had caused chaos to the team formation.

Aside from the scorching hot golden sand, Endless Cape was left with only the never extinguished fire pillars and the ocean, which was more frantic than mother earth. The people heading there would soon turn into bones, and they'd ended up even more miserable than herself as a slave.

When Echo awakened and became God's Messenger, she wanted revenge. But her ability was the useless sound stimulation. No matter how much she begged the Three Gods, they did not grant her will. After living in the Port of Clearwater for half a year, she was clear that the saying that the God's Messengers was loved by the Three Gods was simply the Mojin Clan people's self-deceiving lie. The God's Messengers were hunted by the church under the jurisdiction of the four kingdoms. Echo had completely lost all hope for revenge since then.

There was a sudden rise of smoke from afar. She looked over to the east bank of the Redwater River and noticed the shimmering green flame moving through the woods. The black smoke of the burning trees combined with the white mist that accumulated from the evaporated snow, forming a gray pillar in the sky.

It was Anna's green flames.

When she arrived, Wendy had briefly introduced Anna and Nana to the sisters. Echo was very envious of Anna's ability. Having the freedom to manipulate high-temperature fire flames that could melt swords... If she'd possessed such a great ability when she was in Iron Sand City, none of the Tibia clan would be left alive.

Echo shook her head. There was no point thinking about these things, she was lucky to have survived, especially compared to the people who were probably killed in the yellow sand. Now that His Highness was willing to accept her, all she could do was finish her missions ordered by His Highness.

She cleared her throat and started to sing.

It was a happy song. She could remember the entire tune even though Prince Roland had only hummed it to her once.

Echo was no stranger to music. Seductive dance and flirtatious crooning were skills she'd needed to master when she was trained as a first-class slave. However, this song His Highness requested was totally different. It was full of rhythm and upward vigor, especially when he requested her to perform the music by imitating the flute, it felt like every note was jumping, making people wanted to dance along.

The difficulty was in adding in the drums and strings along with the music at the same time. It was Echo's first time to stimulate and overlap all the three different sounds at the same time. She had never thought that music could be played like this!

Initially, it was difficult for her to make sure that the drum did not interrupt the rhythm of the flute. She managed to gradually merge the two sounds together according to His Highness' suggestion by tapping the beat with her hands or feet.

After a few days of practice, Echo had gradually mastered the stimulation skill.

After singing a few times, she stood up and decided to add in the final string.

As the music played, Echo noticed that the minor tune changed again. If the elated fluting formed the body, the passionate drumming had given it a skeleton, and the last seemingly embellished string had given the music its soul. She worked on the beat repeatedly, unifying the three instruments into one; her voice became increasingly higher and finally she was singing loudly.

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

"My attack power was higher than yours, so I won."

Roland put his final card on the table, and Soraya sat opposite to him. She covered her face and cried softly in awe.

"Let's play another round," she said after a moment of contemplation. She gathered the cards again and said, "I'll draw your 10 cards this time."

"Ahem," Roland coughed and said, "It's getting late and I still have something to do, you can play with someone else."

After making a roughly sufficient set of cards, replication was the next step. Soraya's drawing skill was comparable to the copier machine when the template was in front of her. Soon, Roland had a few sets of Gwent cards.

Hence, Soraya became his first opponent.

After stating the game rules clearly, a card war was launched. In the card war, Roland found that the witch's acceptance was higher than most ordinary people. Soraya had quickly mastered card handling. Although Roland still managed to win for the following rounds, he had to use the special cards. He had to shamefully refuse now as she requested to draw the cards for him.

"Alright." Soraya carried the cards in her arms and ran out the door. This was when the cheerful music came through the window. She stopped and ran back into the room and stuck her head out of the window to take a look. "Is that Echo?"

"Uh-huh. She seems to be quite proficient." Roland leaned back against the chair to enjoy the familiar music.

The First Army of Border Town would soon enter the comprehensive exercising stage. It was quite different from shooting on the city wall. The comprehensive exercise would be carried out in the wild and required the team to march forward in an orderly fashion. This was also the basic segment of a shooting execution lineup. In order to unify the steps of the soldiers, they needed to rely on drums or slogans to command everyone's marching speed. With the witch's ability of mixed sound stimulation, he simply imitated the British style of infantry march music.

Compared to simple drumming, the infantry march music could not only control the platoon's marching speed but also help to effectively enhance and elevate the troop morale. Of course, the famous marching song, "The British Grenadiers" should be used during the shooting execution lineup. Unfortunately, Roland could only remember the name but not the entire tune.

This was no trouble for him as there was another song, based on "The British Grenadiers" that had been widely used across the country during the war of resistance. And, the melody was known by almost everyone; it was the widely-known "Guerillas' Song".

Soraya turned around as she heard Prince Roland humming along softly. It was in a language that she'd never heard before, clear-cut and perfectly consistent with the beat.

"We're all sharpshooters,"

"One bullet for one enemy."

"We're all soldiers with wings,"

"Unafraid of tall mountains and deep waters."

"In the dense forests,"

"Our comrades set their camps."

"On the tall mountains,"

"There are our countless brothers ."

"... "

Chapter 106 - A Different Reason

Scroll knocked on the door and someone quickly answered, "Come in."

Entering the room she saw Anna sitting at a table by the window, where she was reading a thick book. The sun streamed through the window, lengthening her silhouette. Her soft cheeks and delicate neck looked fair under the sun's reflection, and her ash-brown hair, that covered her shoulders, almost appeared gold.

After getting along with her for a week, Scroll had basically understood Anna's temperament, such as straight-forward, honest, steady and quiet, especially studious... In short, it was difficult to find a civilian who had a pure and peaceful soul like Anna.

"Are you going to play the card game?" Scroll moved a stool and sat down beside Anna. After practice, the sisters would rush back to the castle and squeeze into Soraya's room to play Gwent. They had fun and enjoyed fighting for cards from each other's collections. Even Nana Pine, who had been playing with Anna daily, had been coming by less after learning how to play the game. It was uncommon since the little girl with the magic healing power was almost always to be found in Anna's room.

"I want to keep reading," Anna turned the page and said, "I don't have an ability like yours, so I should spend more time on this."

She had read all kinds of books, everything from historical biographies to long poetry, including the folks' tales Scroll had heard being told in the streets; she was interested in all things, as long as it was in a book.

Scroll lovingly patted her head and said, "Don't worry. I'll tell you all that I remember in the books."

[This is the child who changed the fate of the Witch Cooperation Association's survivors,] Scroll thought. Nightingale would have never come to Border Town, nor met with Prince Roland from the Kingdom of Graycastle, and everything else that happened after would not have happened either. In other words, she was the savior of all witches.

That was partially why she was so fond of Anna. When Scroll had gained the insight from the Book of Magic, Anna had quickly accepted her and showed her great admiration, so much so that Scroll considered it a little ridiculous. There had been no one admiring her ability in the Witch Cooperation Association. Anna had the largest capacity for magic that Scroll had ever seen, with the exception of Nightingale, and her ability to control the green flames came with a very high attack power.

"Your hair is a little long," Scroll lifted Anna's bangs out of her eyes and said, "Does no one help you cut your hair?"

She shook her head and said, "I'd normally thread it myself."

Scroll's interest was immediately peaked and she said, "Threaded hair doesn't look as good, let me trim it for you."

"Do you even know how to do this?"

"I gave most of the sisters' their haircuts when I was in the Witch Cooperation Association," Scroll smiled and then said, "Hold on a moment and I'll get my tools."

She quickly came back with a sack clutched in her hand. After spreading out the folded layers of white cloth, a pair of bronze scissors were revealed. They were well worn, both sides of the grips were covered with scratches and the blades had been polished from frequent use. Scroll had relied on this pair of scissors for a living before joining the Witch Cooperation Association—she had been a hairdresser in the pub of Seawindshire. The extra bronze royals she had earned, after buying bread, was given to a captain with a broken leg in exchange for him teaching her how to read and write, this went on until he passed away from old age.

Scroll proficiently shook out and spread the white cloth over Anna, carefully tying it around her neck, and adeptly began trimming the long pieces of hair.

"I... have a question to ask you."

"What's that?" Scroll's fingers were dancing with the scissors in her hand, the blades constantly opening and closing, making a crisp cutting noise. Anna's ash-brown hair adeptly slipped through her fingers, falling to the floor, cluster by cluster.

"About the book you gave me yesterday, many of the stories end in the same way. Is it fated for a prince to marry a princess?"

Her hand paused a moment. The storybook was not a typical book, it was a collection of folks' tales that she had heard living in Seawindshire over the years. However, Scroll had filtered out the stories without a happy ending, where the prince and princess didn't end up together and compiled them into the book Anna was reading.

She had known that Anna would ask about this after reading the stories, however, she did not want to answer honestly.

"Most of them do, of course, there are some situations where a prince marries a grand duke's daughter. For example, King Wimbledon III of the Kingdom of Graycastle married the daughter of Duke Silverlight."

After replying, Scroll silently sighed, feeling it in her heart. Wendy had mentioned Nightingale's thoughts to her, but when compared to the mature and calm shadow killer, she felt more concern about Anna, to whom His Highness felt affection. Everyone could see her importance to him. Roland could not keep his eyes off Anna whenever she was around. She was busier than the other sisters and he did not change her sleeping arrangements. After bunking Nightingale and Wendy together, Roland had explained that Nana could share a bed with Anna when she stayed the night, never realizing that his decision needed no explanation since he was the lord of the manor.

Anna's reactions to His Highness were similar. She wouldn't really talk when she was with the other witches and preferred to be a quiet listener. However, she would become active and more animated when Roland was around. Scroll thought, that if there was ever something or someone that could tear Anna's eyes from a book, it would have to be Prince Roland.

Unfortunately, Roland was the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the future king. He would be supported by the witches and Anna was one of those witches.

This was not something she could tell Prince Roland, so she had to find a way to indirectly mention it to Anna. She didn't want there to be any misunderstandings, but she also didn't want to see it end in tragedy.

"Why?" Anna shook her head, knocking the broken pieces of hair off her neck. "What if the prince doesn't like the princess or the lady from the nobles' family?"

"Um..." Scroll didn't think that she would ask that. "He would still have to marry one. Since the prince is likely destined to be king, his marriage isn't just up to him." She tried to remember the relevant knowledge recorded in the book. "As a way to stabilize and unify the nobles from the bordering kingdoms, and to appease the shifting neighboring countries, or to even make strategic deals, a king had to marry for the benefit of his people. However, most importantly the king must have heirs."

Anna did not continue to pursue her question and Scroll felt relieved. This delicate of a matter would take time and careful persuasion and she thought that someday Anna would understand. After she had finished trimming Anna's bangs, she brushed them with her fingers and smiled, "Not bad, you look more energetic."

Anna bowed and said, "Thank you."

"So, for today's book..." Scroll contemplated a moment and then decided to summon a book about the revolution of the Kingdom of Wolfheart's history. She thought this book would support the information she imparted today. "Let's pick a family biography."

She was about to leave when Anna suddenly spoke with the Book of Illusion in her arms, "I don't think Roland is the prince in these stories." She sounded certain and not as if she were trying to persuade herself. "He would do what he wanted. regardless of his imparted duty."

"..." Scroll was shocked. "What makes you say that?"

"If he was a prince like in the stories, he wouldn't have rescued me."

Chapter 107 - Will You Marry a Witch?

Roland went back to his office so he could continue writing down the basic mathematical knowledge he had in his mind after dinner.

He did not have an extraordinarily retentive memory, not to mention his memory would decline over time. Due to his profession, mathematics and physics were the most frequently used subjects, while his information about history, geography, biology, chemistry and so on had degenerated to an entry-level. Thus, regardless of its usefulness, it was better for him to take notes about everything in order to retain more knowledge.

After he finished each page he would have Scroll commit it to memory. All she had to do was look over the page and it was permanently recorded. Unfortunately, Scroll's ability only extended to the memory of looking at the information and she could not teach herself junior-high-school mathematics. So, Roland explained it to her when he was free.

Of course, for someone like him, teaching was a meaningful task. When Scroll was surprised or enlightened, after a long contemplation, he felt especially accomplished. However, Roland knew that this had to do with his specific student. Although Scroll was closer to 40 in age, her magic power had greatly slowed the aging process. The skin on her cheeks was tight and rosy, and her long black hair was tied back simply behind her head, making her look very mature and capable. The fine crow's feet at the corners of her eyes did not destroy her overall beauty but rather brought out her steady temperament. She would definitely be the elegant and versatile teacher found in the movies. The sense of role reversal was pleasant now that he had surprised the "teacher" with his lesson.

Roland was quietly writing as he contemplated, [What exactly is the magic power found in this world?]

It was everywhere, and it did not matter if its source was in the deep mine of the northern slope or within the Impassable Mountain Range, off towards the Wild Places in the west, or located at the Seawindshire in the east; the witches could always use it to release their various and incredible powers. The power was obviously stronger than electricity and its energy was less processed and closer to its "origins".

Like with Cara from the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy had mentioned that she could summon four Snakes of different Magical types and their names were named Death, Suffering, Fossilization, and Nothingness, each with its own venom effect. Or, like Nightingale, and her unfolding Mist that could almost distort the space it occupied. The different forms of magic ability constantly changed, Roland could not think of a better word to use other than the "origins".

If he were to give the word "origins" a definition, it probably would be the rules and order that control everything universal. In the latter part of his life, Einstein wanted to integrate the four basic forces of the universe into his theoretical framework and called it the "grand unification theory". In a way he was searching for its source, so, Roland couldn't help but wonder if there was a universal rule that could span any universe?

Roland couldn't help but brainstorm, was it possible a force like that existed in the world he used to live in before he traveled across the universe? Had there just not been any witches to act as a catalyst, releasing the magic, and it was only neglected by others?

Roland was just thinking, besides there was no way for him to properly analyze the power with the currently available technologies.

So, in order to promote the industrial revolution, he had to concentrate on propelling the progress of civilization.

Perhaps, someday, mankind would be able to use the power without the assistance of the witches — it was exciting to simply think about the versatile energy, which could transform into various effects.

"Your Highness?" Scroll asked noticing Roland's intoxicated look.

"Ahem," Roland pulled himself from the delusion. He coughed twice and said, while looking at the dwindling candle, "That's all for today."

"Yes," she bowed and prepared to leave but then she paused.

Roland noticed that he had not heard the sound of the door closing and looked up curiously and saw that Scroll was still standing by the door. "What's up?"

"Your Highness..." Scroll hesitated for a moment before saying, "I would like to ask you a question."

"Ask away." Roland nodded while laying his quill down before lifting his glass of water and taking a large gulp. The witches didn't have many shortcomings, except one - they were all too skittish. They were like rabbits that would poke their heads out of their cave, only to immediately retreat at the slightest disturbance, never to be seen again. He was predicting that her question would be something like, "Why were you willing to take us in?" or "Don't you fear the church?" Nightingale and Wendy had asked him many that times. However, since Scroll had taken the time to ask he would answer her seriously, deepening their friendship and camaraderie.

"Is it... possible for you to marry a witch?"

"Pfft," Roland almost spat out his water, "Uh, why are you asking?"

"I..." Scroll opened her mouth but could not answer.

Marry a witch? The first person who came to Roland's mind was Anna, ever since the day he had met her in the prison, her blue eyes had left a deep impression on his heart. Witches started as ordinary, human girls but then their abilities would awaken and they would develop outstanding powers. Moreover, their appearances and bodies were superior to those of a normal human. They would be the focus of attention in the modern society. So, what did he have to hesitate about? In this case —

He looked at Scroll and asked with a smile, "Why not?"

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

Wendy rubbed her sore shoulders before returning to her room.

Her large breasts were troublesome, especially when she was casting her wind on the top of the Littletown's wooden shed since she had to raise her arms up and slightly towards her back to keep balance.

Since the first sail trial, Littletown had made a lot of improvements. For example, there was now a simple shed built on the spot she would be standing to shelter her from the sun and the rain. The hull was surrounded by bark that was used to reduce the impact when it went ashore. Both sides of the ship were fitted with two cement short piles for the convenience of fixing the vessels.

And, her ability to control the wind had also made a great progress after nearly a month of training. The ships were moving more steadily now, and the speed could be fast or slow under the influence of the wind. She even learned to adjust the magic consumption by using the existing wind force so that she could last a longer time.

Nightingale had finished her bath before Wendy, and she was already sitting on her bed, in her pajamas, waiting for her.

However, Wendy found it strange that Nightingale was smiling uncontrollably.

"Did something good happen?" Wendy couldn't help asking. Nightingale shook her head but didn't say anything, she only smiled a little wider.

Wendy's mouth twitched, [Her emotions has been low since the last time we talked. Only recently, with the growing popularity of Gwent, has her spirits been lifted. Then, why is she smiling so brightly? Where has the expressionless, quiet Shadow killer, I met in Silver City gone?]

[Whatever.] Wendy took off her clothes and stepped into the bucket of hot water. [She probably won a great card in the game.]

Chapter 108 - Echo (Part I)

It's been two months since the Months of Demons had ended, and the snow had finally turned melted into streams which ran into the Redwater River.

Once the white landscape slowly faded away, the trees on both sides began to sprout again, everything became green once more.

The land to the east of the town had already been cleared by Anna with her flames, and His Highness had temporarily turned it into a training ground for the First Army of Border Town.

At the training ground, Carter Lannis was holding a casing and was checking if the bayonet was firmly installed.

This was the newest invention of His Highness, but compared to the automatic operating machine and the modified snow powder, this new invention seemed to be a little too simple. When holding it in his hands, Carter instantly realized that it was not a qualified weapon.

In short, it was just a sharp iron triangle, with the middle line as the base, with the other two sides pointing inwards a little. Although it had a sharp edge, it was impossible to use it to cut down enemies—the blade was just too narrow after it was bent. Even if he was to attack an enemy without armor, if he tried to slash out horizontally, Carter was not sure he would even be able to cut apart the enemy's clothes.

This weapon had only one purpose, and that was, stabbing. And it required being connected to the flintlock for its use. When used alone, it would not be as handy as a dagger.

In the eyes of the chief knight, wasting so much pig iron, only to forge such a simplistic weapon was totally unacceptable. If a blacksmith within his territory had dared to create such a weapon, he would have tied the man and given him a proper beating.

But even for a bad weapon like this, he could still see His Highness' attention to details. For example, the design of the casing. The mouth of the barrel had two grooves with a right angle at its end, so as long as the pieces were fitted properly and the bayonet was turned slightly it would become fixed. Because of this design, the pieces did not need to fit perfectly, and if they were a little too loose, some paper could be inserted between the two iron pieces and the grooves, and in case there was no paper, even tree leaves would work instead.

''Put the bayonet on the gun!''

Hearing the command, the members of the Flintlock Squad who had a bayonet allocated to them took them out of their bag and put them on the gun's barrel—until now there were only about forty pieces of the new weapon and supporting bags. So the ones who did not receive a new weapon had to use a short stick instead.

They practiced this action for almost the whole morning, and now most of them only needed just a few seconds to adjust the bayonet. According to His Highness' words, the bayonet should only be used as a last resort. He did not want his men to fight a close combat fight. Carter disagreed with this statement, he thought as long as someone did not personally stab an enemy, they would still be considered as children. Only when they saw their enemies' first blood, they would transform from ordinary miners and hunters into soldiers.

Iron Axe was also in the platoon. Although he claimed to only be a hunter, Carter could see from his skills that the man had definitely received military training before. His skills were not much worse than that of the other knights.

When His Highness asked Carter to teach the soldiers how to use the new weapon, he did not feel very confident. He never heard of a weapon called bayonet before, so there was a chance that he did not even know how to use it. However, after seeing the prototype, he became full of confidence. After all, the bayonet was just like a short spear, and due to its special blade, it was much easier to use it compared to a spear.

The advantage of the bayonet was in the simplicity of learning to use it. There was no need to learn how to slash, lift, block or sweep, there was only one move, stabbing. So the chief knight let all the platoon members line up and taught them the most appropriate way of stabbing—placing one foot behind the other, bending the knees and the waist and pushing their arms forward with their maximum strength.

This kind of repetitive training was extremely boring. But what amazed Carter was that everyone was meticulously completing the stabbing training. Before the winter they were all still a bunch of weak and lazy civilians, but now they were behaving properly. They would immediately follow any command, and training them was even easier than training a squire. Of course, if he were to give them a sword, or using the words of His Highness "cold weapons", these people still would not stand a chance against his men. But in terms of willpower, their progress was really notable in his eyes.

After half an hour of training, Carter let the flintlock squad sit down and rest. At this moment, His Highness the prince showed up on the training ground, accompanied by a woman who was wearing a hood. The knight was not surprised. His Highness had informed him in advance that they would be assisted by a witch during today's training.

However, that witch was pretty tall, she was almost as tall as His Highness. Girls are more attractive if they are shorter, Carter thought. He then told everyone to stand up and greet the fourth prince.

"Greetings Your Highness!" The soldiers shouted and raised their hands.

"Thank you for your effort," Roland nodded. As he was about to speak to the knight, a soldier suddenly rushed out of the team. Carter Lannis frowned, he stepped forward placing the prince behind himself with his hand already touching his sword. Nightingale had also appeared, grabbing Roland's arm waiting to drag the prince into the mist in case something went wrong.

The person who appeared was exactly Iron Axe.

He did not run to the prince, but instead to the unknown witch, immediately falling down to his knees in front of her. It was not the Kingdom's normal kneeling posture, instead, he threw his whole body flat on the ground, with his head buried between his arms, "Clan Leader!"

With this, the flintlock squad's training came to an end.

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

"Tell me. Why did you do that?"

Back in the castle hall, Carter, Echo, and Iron Axe stood in a row, while Roland sat on the throne, he asked clearly dissatisfied.

Discipline, discipline! You have to always maintain discipline in the platoon! Not to mention seeing a clan leader, even if you were to see the King, you should not move an inch. If there is any request, there is always time for a report later.

"Your Highness," Iron Axe wanted to kneel down but just as he leaned over, he was stopped by Roland.

''Stand straight and speak!''

''Yes!'' Iron Axe swallowed nervously, and said, ''Master Silver Moon is the clan leader I served back in Iron Sand City.''

"No, Kabago, I am not the Clan Leader…" Echo quickly waved her hands.

''No, you are,'' Iron Axe responded, ''After the death of your father and brother, according to the Mowkin custom, you became the clan leader of our Osha clan. I heard that you were sold to the Port of Clearwater, but I didn't find you there, so I thought you were… dead.''

''But I'm——''

Roland interrupted Echo, ''One by one, you first Iron Axe.''

"Yes, Your Highness."

...

The story was not complicated, so Roland quickly understood the general idea of what happened.

Echo was originally a member of the Osha Clan in Iron Sand City. Her real name was Drow Silvermoon, and her father was the clan leader of the Osha Clan.

The Sand Nation was not unified and Iron Sand City was only able to accommodate a limited population, so every now and then, each clan had to take part in a sacred duel, and the six victorious clans would gain the right to live in the city, while the other clans had to either live outside the city, or camp at the Green Sea. Although there were water resources in these places, the wild beasts and the sandstorms would cause a great threat to the Sandpeople. So during each of the sacred duels, the warriors of the various clans would spare no effort in order to win.

Chapter 109 - Echo (Part II)

Unfortunately, the Osha Clan lost to the Ironwhip Clan, who had used insidious means during the duel. The Osha leader was killed and the clan ended up being exiled to Endless Cape. Drow Silvermoon, now known as Echo, was the daughter of the former clan leader and because of her extraordinary looks, she was sold as a first-class slave to a slaver at Port of Clearwater.

Iron Axe was of mixed-blood, and despite his being adopted by the Osha Clan, he was never regarded as a real Mojin person by the Sand Nation. For this reason, he escaped the fate of exile. Instead, other clans highly regarded him and they wanted to recruit him due to his excellent combat abilities. However, Iron Axe felt loyalty towards the Osha Clan Leader and was grateful for all of his help over the years, which, coupled with his desire to save Echo, made him resolutely reject the offers from the other clans. After a long and difficult journey, he finally arrived at Port of Clearwater. Unfortunately, he was too late and Echo had already been sold to the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Ultimately, Echo had been rescued by the witches and joined the Witch Cooperation Association, while Iron Axe headed to the Western Region of Graycastle, with a broken spirit. Today they unexpectedly ran into each other in Border Town.

After a moment Roland asked, "So what's your plan? Do you want to return to the Southernmost Region with Echo and revive the Osha Clan?"

"No, Your Highness!" Iron Axe went down on one knee. "I've already sworn to the Three Gods that I'll serve you for the rest of my life… It's just… I was so excited to see Lady Silvermoon again that I couldn't control my emotions. Please punish me!"

"What about you?" the prince asked looking at Echo, "Do you want to go and avenge your people?"

Echo also knelt in front of the prince before replying. "After my awakening as a witch, I did have thoughts of revenge, but that was a long time ago." She bit her lip, "Please allow me to stay… I don't have anywhere else to go.'"

"I understand. Stand up, both of you," Roland said quietly, "You don't have to act contrite, and I haven't said anything yet." He paused a moment before saying empathetically. "You know, it's not impossible for me to help you get your revenge."

"What?" Iron Axe opened his eyes in shock, unable to believe his own ears. Echo, on the other hand, did not react. After all this time she had given up hope of ever returning to Iron Sand City.

"Of course, not right this very moment." Roland waved his hand dismissively. This idea of his had not been mere whimsy. According to Iron Axe's descriptions of the Southernmost Region, he had heard about some very interesting things—the hot and dry land with the strange terrain. How the ground would spew forth orange flames that could burn for decades, never to be extinguished. Near the flames, the ground had eroded into many pits and in their depths, and one could see the black Styx's River.

Orange fire and the Styx's River, the more Roland thought about it the more he believed. "That sounds like oil. Better still, it sounds like free-flowing oil!" There was no point in thinking about the importance of the black liquid to industrial development, and more than half of the modern day wars were over oil. The rise and fall of oil prices could even impact the wealth and success of many countries, changing the structure of the world. If he was able to establish a foothold in the Southernmost Region, through the Osha Clan, he would acquire a stable oil source.

But for now, Roland would not concern himself with remote disputes. He would, however, keep it in the back of his mind and eventually stage this "once in a lifetime".

"After I take the throne, I'll find a way to get justice for you." Roland again stopped Iron Axe from kneeling. "But, as for today, you violated an order of the First Army. You're sentenced to two days of confinement and during these days, you're to reflect on your actions."

"Yes, Your Highness," Iron Axe happily replied.

"Then let us continue your training," Roland said to the chief knight, "and, you'll be responsible for the next march."

Carter nodded.

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

Brian had thought that today's training had already finished, however, everyone was still on the training ground, and no one dared to leave.

When Carter left with the prince, he ordered them to rest on site, but he had not dismissed them.

On his old patrol team, this type of situation would be unthinkable.

"Your Excellency, do you think His Excellency Iron Axe will come back?" asked Nail, from his team, "His actions just now startled me."

"How many times have I told you not to call me like that." Brian corrected him. "In the First Army, you should address me as Team Leader. His Highness told us to use military terms." After he was knighted by Prince Roland, his rank within the army rose up. The rest of the team no longer talked to him, except for Nail. A short fellow who had been a miner before joining the platoon. He often came by to chat. According to Nail, he not only talked with a knight, he had even claimed to have had close conversations with Prince Roland himself too.

"This was a special situation… His Highness can't blame him too much, right?" Although he agreed with this, Brian was not too sure about it. He once saw a civilian who had accidentally collided with a lord's carriage killed on the spot by the lord's guards. Iron Axe was a foreigner, and he had bowed to another while His Highness was present, even called her "Clan Leader", no matter how you looked at it, it was a clear break of etiquette.

"My guess is that'll be the case," nodded Nail. "I've spoken to His Highness personally and he isn't like other nobles, um…" He scratched his head, trying to find the right words. "Even though he looks like most nobles, he acts completely different."

Brian also did not want something bad to happen to Iron Axe. After over a month of training together, he felt a deep sense of respect for him. Especially after he had taught them how to build a tent during their field training. They had all benefitted from his superb skills and his enjoyable teaching method. In Brian's eyes, Iron Axe was even more suitable than Carter Lannis to be the commander of the First Army.

"They're already back!" Nail brushed against Brian's arm. "Hey, I can't see His Excellency Iron Axe."

Before his imagination could run wild, Carter had already ordered them to get into formation. Then, His Highness Roland stepped forward and began to give a speech. "The woman standing beside me is a witch, her name is Echo and she's an acquaintance of Iron Axe, they have been separated for many years… However, because Iron Axe disrupted formation and violated the military rules, he has been sentenced, by me, to confinement for two days, as dictated by the rules. I'll repeat this once more. You all now belong to the regular army, and the most important rule for a member of this army is to obey orders and maintain discipline! Do you understand this?"

"Yes! Your Highness!" Brian and the rest shouted. After hearing about Iron Axe's fate, he finally calmed down. Nail, who was still next to him, was looking at him while making a wry face.

"In the next training exercise, Echo will aid you. Her ability allows her to imitate sounds, such as musical instruments, trumpets, and drums. The marching song that she'll play next, will be the signal for you to act! Everyone has to move to the beat of the drums while maintaining your formation in one line." Here, His Highness paused. "On the battlefield, Echo will be standing behind you. She'll be the banner of the First Army, the soul of the Flintlock Squad! You'll have to protect her at every cost! Now… everyone should become familiar with the melody."

"What's a marching song?" Brian was confused. "Is it something like the music they occasionally play in pubs? Is it appropriate to use that soft music to direct the march of the army?"

But, once he heard the melody coming out of Echo's mouth, he instantly realized what His Highness had meant. The rhythm of the drum deeply affected him, which made him want to move forward while provoking his desire to fight.

This so-called "marching song" was a Battle Hymn that would encourage and motivate everyone on the battlefield.

Chapter 110 - The Battle of Eagle City (Part I)

Through the misty morning fog, Timothy Wimbledon could indistinctly see the flags flying on top of the city wall.

He raised his telescope, trying to make out the kamon on the flags. Most of the flags were green, each embroidered with a sailing ship and a crown on it. Undoubtedly, they belonged to his sister, Garcia Wimbledon.

The second most seen flag was a white flag, with a high tower which had a viper wrapped around it, and this belonged to the House Balya. "Ha." He sneered in his heart. "Earl Balya, how shameless of you to keep your flag flying high after surrendering to the Queen of Clearwater. I'll feed you your flags as soon as you fall into my hands, traitor!"

The least flown flag was red and it was embroidered with a high tower and a lion. This flag belonged to House Zita who was just as shameless as the rest. Timothy showed no external emotion even though in his heart he had already sentenced Arryn Zita, and Tommen Balya, to death. Of course, Arryn Zita also had to eat his flags.

"Sir Naim, raise the flags of the Kingdom of Graycastle!" Timothy commanded.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Frostwind Knight replied before galloping off to tell the army behind him. "The king orders to raise the flags!"

The new king turned his head and watched as one by one, the gray flags were being raised, flying high in the wind. The image was a black pattern depicting a huge tower with inclining and intercrossed spears on both sides making the flag look solemn. This was the emblem for the King of Graycastle, and any traitor would be beheaded before it.

As soon as news of the independence of Garcia reached his ears, he took immediate action by mobilizing the troops of the Eastern Region and the king's city and then marching on Eagle City. Although in his heart he was terrified, he had maintained a calm face, giving the ministers who stood by his side, a boost of confidence.

It took almost a month to summon the landowners and troops, and then a week on the road to the Eastern Region, followed by half a month to reach here. Yesterday, Timothy finally arrived at Eagle City at sunset. Fortunately, the Months of Demons did not affect the king's city much, therefore, the road in the Southern Territory was not hindered by snow. Instead, the frozen ground made the carts of food move even faster.

His army was quite large and mainly comprised of his own guards, the knightage of the king's city, and the troops of Duke Frances Chlett of the Eastern Region. The three groups totaled to over 6,000 men, and up to 1,000 of them were well trained and armed knights. According to a reliable source, Garcia had no more than 3,000 men, most of whom were the freemen of Port of Clearwater. They might be qualified enough to plunder unarmed farmers or merchants, but they would never stand a chance against the knights.

Goude, his Treasurer, had advised that it was not a good time to call the army after the end of the Months of Demons because the farming in each land would start soon, and the lack of men would harm the harvest. Timothy took the advice. He allowed his landowners to keep their serfs and called the freemen on his land to take on the job of logistics and transportation. This way the spring farming would still take place even while they were fighting in the Southern Territory.

In any case, Timothy Wimbledon would never allow Garcia to stay in the Southern Territory. Eagle City, which was not as stoutly built, had been designated a trade market, situated in the middle of the peripheral towns. As time went on, the market grew into a young city with a history of less than a century. Furthermore, the previous lords intentionally left out the construction of a defensible wall to give the impression of a trade city. Garcia's army that totaled 3,000 civilians and the men from the two earls was not large or strong in Timothy's view. Accordingly, the quicker they reacted, the more of a chance they stood. If he offered Garcia enough time to organize the entire Southern Territory, she would be more difficult to defeat.

After a good night's rest and full bellies, his troops were ready for war. As the sun rose changing from a bright orange into a radiating gold, the mist dissipated and the brown "wall" was revealed. This was not a wall but more of a bare soil slope, in the new king's opinion. The incline made the slope easy to climb with just bare hands and feet, there was no need for ladders. On the top of the slope stood wooden bars, all the height of the men. While this might deter the refugees and thieves, it would not stop the trained soldiers.

The men guarding this "wall" were scattered and obviously not ready to defend the city.

"Your Majesty, the scout on the south gate reported that a large party is on the move." Frostwind Knight rode to the new king and he reined in his horse to make his report.

Timothy handed his telescope over to Duke Frances and said in a relaxed voice, "It seems she intends to run away."

The duke watched the city for a while before nodding. "She made a bold decision quickly. We'll take them all if she plans on putting her men in Eagle City. She won't be able to defend herself there for very long." As the duke said this, he laughed. "As you predicted at the council meeting last night, our quick response caught her off guard."

"We've arrived at the right time," Timothy said, "She couldn't slip away at night even if she intended to."

"Exactly, to march the army at night would be taboo." "If she does decide to move at night, her army will be scattered even if we don't attack. It's impossible to gather your men once they have scattered in darkness. Thus, she's still doomed even if she does make it back to Port of Clearwater."

"So, my dear sister has to wait until the break of dawn to retreat with the army." Timothy looked at Eagle City, it was finally within his grasp. Filled with satisfaction, he believed his sister had done exactly as he had expected. Garcia had set up her army in Eagle City, a place she had desired for a long time. Strategically, seizing the house from the previous wards of the Southern Territory provided an advantage and allowed one to buy the loyalty of the noble in the south. And, yet the crisis came with it. Thinking ahead, he had deployed a decoy army to draw attention, while he secretly led the riders to the Eastern Region in advance. This left behind the infantries but allowed carts to secretly carry the war supply. After the decoy army had entered the Eastern Region, the duke would contribute to the troops to reinforce them. Then he would lead the march on Eagle City through the other side of the kingdom. As they moved forward, the riders would run ahead to block the road, in order to reduce the possibility of any information leaking from spies.

Garcia might have received the rough news two or three days before she decided to retreat her army at dawn, which, was a hasty march since there was no time for preparation. They would have to walk for a day to get from Eagle City to the Town of Clear Spring, and even so, they could never outpace his riders. As long as he rallied 1,000 riders to chase after her and pick off the enemy from behind, her funny Coalition would automatically collapse.

It was a pity that Garcia could still escape if she abandoned her 3,000 men and fled alone. If she did that it would be easy for her to reach Port of Clearwater alive.

He thought that hunting her down in her lair would end the farce.

"Your Majesty, do we split up according to the plan?" Duke Frances said, "Do you intend to cross the city at the south gate, and start the chase after I break into the city, or will you take a detour that'll add time?"

"I think it's better to take the detour to the southwest." Timothy pondered for a while. "The narrow street would be inconvenient, and furthermore, Garcia might block the street with junk to hinder the riding troops. A detour, while it might cost us two extra hours, won't affect the pursuit of the enemy."

"Then it's time for me to set out, Your Majesty."

"Be careful." Timothy warned him. "Garcia may not have left many of her troop behind in the city, but I assume there will be lots of traps. Moreover, be aware of the narrow streets or anyplace crowded with houses. This is where ambushes from Garcia's loyal men are likely to take place."

"Hahaha." Duke Frances laughed brightly. "Please, trust me, Your Majesty. Since the wound I received from following your father into battle, I haven't sustained one since. And, I have single-handedly beheaded hundreds of men. He waved his hand to the guards beside him. "Blow the horn and begin the attack!"

The army behind him started to surge, with some of the platoons moving out of formation. Led by knights, they marched towards Eagle City. They were the vanguards, made up of civilians. They were followed by armored mercenaries which were the main force of the siege. At the same time, the riders brought by the duke all rallied under his banner.

Timothy waited until the main army had attacked the wall before leading the rest of the knights and squires southwest.

Chapter 111 - The War of The Eagle City (Part II)

The freemen who were treated as cannon fodder had successfully climbed up the slope without any resistance.

However, wooden barriers blocked their way. Rather than being tightly built with wooden logs, the barriers bore gaps that allowed spears to thrown through so that the defenders only needed to stand behind the barrier as they attacked the enemies with spears.

Yet, Duke Frances didn't expect that the men that were guarding on top of the wall had disappeared leaving the outer-ring of the wall unguarded. The vanguards breached the barrier with axes and brought down a few logs before pouring into the top of the wall. After a while, the wooden gate was laid down as well.

"Let's move," Duke flicked the reins, leading the remaining army to march on. "It takes us not more than 30 minutes from the start to the lay-down of the gate. What is Garcia Wimbledon plotting?" Frances frowned. Anyone who had a little war experience would know that when the leader abandoned the city, he would leave behind some guards or buy some expensive gutsy men, who knew not fear of death, to resist the enemy and buy as much time as possible for the main army to retreat.

"Princess Garcia is no fool, after all she conquered the entire Southern Territory in such a short period of time. Why doesn't she deploy the men to guard the wall? The defenses and traps, no matter how strong and tricky they are, will have no use when they are unmanned." Duke Frances pondered and decided to send the guards into the city in advance to check on the situation.

The information that the Captain of the guards reported was the same as what they had seen on the wall, there was no resistance in the city either. Only some streets were barricaded by timbers and bricks, and his men had gathered the residents to clean the blockades.

Frances led the rest of the army into Eagle City without any hesitation. He believed that he, a proven veteran who had followed King Wimbledon III to war for many years, would not be scared stiff by a young girl. It seemed to Frances that Timothy had made the mistake since he could have saved a lot of time if he chose to cross the city after Frances took it.

As he passed through the gate, the Duke smelled something strong, it was not the rotten stink that was common on the battlefield but something like a mixture of pine nut oil, orange peel and incense. If drawing a deep breath, he could even smell fragrant.

"What is it?" He looked around and found nothing special. Since the ditch that was for draining water off the wall was plugged up, the sewage had overflowed and ran along the ground slowly. Moreover, the dirty accumulation that had been left alone for an unknown time was dark black, reflecting a colorful light pattern in the sun.

"Maybe it was the smell of the sewage," Frances thought while shaking his head and walked into the castle with the platoon.

"Now that I've taken Eagle City, it's natural to stroll around the lord's castle and City Hall to check if there is anything valuable to take. Certainly, Garcia must have plundered the city. But there are still some larger crafts and decorations that will be appropriate booties. And the food carts are good enough to carry the booties after they've been roughly cleaned up. As for the mercenaries, they must be heading to the stores and farms.

Leave them alone. Anyway, Duke Joey is dead and no one knows whom will be the new lord. Robbing the entire city comes first."

After he walked through the entire lord's castle, Frances Chlett discovered something wrong.

The castle was too empty, he thought. He couldn't even find any cloth or food in the basement, not to mention the gold. The wall where there should have been paintings on it was now blank and the bookcase had no books either. What's queerer was that the bed in the lord's chamber was gone too. The castle looked like it had been stripped.

How could they take away all these things when they were in a rushed retreat? Frances started to sense that the situation was not as good as he had thought. The castle wouldn't be so empty unless they had started to transport these things early.

When he was about to head to the City Hall, a thick black smoke suddenly billowed over the North Gate.

"What's wrong? Something caught on fire?"

"I have no idea my lord. I've sent Moliere to check it out," The Captain said, "maybe it was the enemy who started a fire on purpose."

At first the Duke thought it was a trap, but soon he realized that using the fire to block the gate was meaningless. If there were no men to join in and launch the attack, the fire would be quenched soon by any organized troops. Let alone the fact that the fire had little use to hold back the enemy since they could bypass the gate and climb the slope to get out.

The right tactic was to make the men lie in wait until the scattered fires disturbed the enemy, and then launch an attack and catching them by surprise. It was an effective way to mess up their formation or even force back the enemy. Like he had said before, an unmanned trap was no more than uselessness.

At this moment, the other three gates began to smoke too, and the fire in the North Gate became clear in sight, what's worse, the fire flared up quickly. It seemed like the gate was stacked with straws to fuel the fire. There were people screeching somewhere in the city, perhaps because their houses caught a fire as well.

"This is not right..." The Duke thought, "when I entered the city through the North Gate, there was nothing to catch a fire there but an open space! But how could the fire spread so quickly without a tinder? Wait..." An idea flashed through his mind, "could it be that Garcia Wimbledon had recruited the witches in secret?"

Frances touched the God's Stone of Retaliation that hung around his neck and felt relieved a little. With the stone that would protect him from evil, he could pass the witches fire with impunity. Furthermore, no evil harm would come to the guards either, for all of them were equipped with the stones. As for the freemen, who didn't have enough money to contribute to the church, they were beyond the Duke's consideration now.

Thinking that the city was a little weird, he decided to get out of the city first. The army could set camp at the South Gate, they could watch the city while waiting for the riders of the new king to return. As he thought of it, he commanded the Captain, "we move to the south and leave the city. You keep blowing the horn on the way to gather the platoons."

"Yes!"

The crowd moved at once, however, when they approached the South Gate, the fire had spread to the residential area where acres of houses were burning, casting a heat wave that forced them back. The panicked citizens, who had hidden in their homes, now ran out and crowded the street, even breaking through the wall of blades and swords of guards and running to safe clearings in a fluster. All of a sudden, everyone seemed to sink in the sea of fire, surrounded by the thick smoke and the fierce fire.

"Calm down! Go and find the well. Fetch the water to put out the fire," Duke Frances quickly gave a succession of orders, "let the houses alone. Just try to quench the fire on the blocks and clear out a road. Keep blowing the horn to make sure others know where we are."

"Sir!" A rider raced from the center of the city and jumped down from the horse before drawing the reins. It was Moliere who was sent to the North Gate by the Captain. "My lord, there is no way to quench the fire at the North Gate."

"What did you say?" Frances was in shock. "The fire can't be quenched?"

"The fire is fueled by black water," she said quickly, "The fire not only can't be quenched by water but also flows along it! My lord, the entire north of the city is burning!"

"The flame that can't be quenched..." he murmured, "it's the fire of demons indeed." The Duke shouted loudly, "everyone stay calm. It is the fire of demons set by the witches under Garcia's command! As long as you wear the God's Stone of Retaliation, the seemingly dreadful fire will not harm you!"

"I see. May God be merciful," said Moliere , subconsciously touching her chest, "My lord, what should we do next?"

"You've the God's Stone of Retaliation, so what's there to fear? All of you mount your horses, let's race through the fire," the Duke said while waving his hand, "the evil fire will disappear as soon as it meets the God's Stone!" He paused and said, "Moliere, you lead a platoon out first. I will stay here to gather the men yet to arrive."

"Yes!" the Lady Knight nodded, "please take care, my lord. The rest of you, be alert and keep up."

After that, she mounted and raced to the end of the scorching hot street, without hesitation.

Chapter 112 - The War of Eagle City (Part III)

The knightsage of the king's city cut into the tail of Garcia's platoon like a sharp silver blade.

Panic surged through the crowd of enemies. Many men fell as they were scattering and running in a flurry, ending their lives miserably under the horse's hoofs.

Occasionally there were some men that drew their weapons to resist, but they were pierced by the spears of the skilled knights. The one who raced in the front of the unstoppable knights, like the tip of the blade, was Frostwind Knight Naim Moor. The blue striped cloak flying behind him cast a particular conspicuous sight as he rushed ahead to clear the way. He fought fiercely to force back the enemies, causing his spear to be soaked with blood.

Timothy Wimbledon stood on a small slope far away from the battlefield watching the situation. At this moment, the tail of the platoon of 3,000 had become disordered, and as the scattering grew, the platoon almost halted.

"They can't hold on much longer," Timothy thought, "Her army will be defeated by two more rounds of strikes. The rabble of enemies is no match for the elite knights of Kingdom of Graycastle. Most of the enemies, who did not even have armor, only needed to be struck once for them to lose fighting capacity.

Just as he had expected, the detour took him two extra hours. The knightage had gone around Eagle City and then over a col, through a sparse wood, and finally back to the main road. After that, under his command of acceleration, the knights eventually caught up with Garcia's army at noon.

According to what the duke had taught him, Timothy divided the knightage into three teams, each with 300 men that would take turns to strike the rear side of the enemy. In this way, he could save enough horses and men to mobilize and support the attack in the event of an emergency. In case of being besieged, rather than marching into the main crowd of the enemy, the knights only needed to be near the platoon from the flank before speeding up and dashing into the platoon. In this way, each time they could cut off a short piece of tail of the enemy's platoon and cost them tens of men.

The tactic's effect was obvious. After some rounds of strikes, the enemy had lost over 100 men, and they were unable to fight back. Although they also wanted to organize the riders to defend, they were poorly equipped and trained. Comparing to the knightage of the king's city, their make-do riders were no more than the infantry mounted on horses. When the "riders" engaged in the battle with the knights, they could not help but to scatter and run away in the bloodshed.

The overwhelming slaughter lowered the morale of the enemy immensely. Timothy noticed that some of the men in Garcia's platoon were abandoning the army and running away in other directions.

He thought it was time to launch a general offensive. Waiting until Frostwind Knight led the team back, he returned to the knightage from the slope instead of giving the order for the next round of strikes.

"Your Majesty, they'll be soon dispersed," Naim said as he dried the sweat on his forehead, the blood on his palm leaving some marks. It was the enemy's blood. He had remained unharmed since the battle began.

Timothy pulled out his handkerchief and handed it over. "Well done. Take some rest before we launch the last strike."

Noticing that the next round of strikes had not come from Timothy's platoon, Garcia's men were aware that the final battle was coming. The large platoon stopped marching and gathered slowly together into an assemblage. The outermost men held up the wooden spears.

Seeing their reaction, Timothy scoffed at it. "It is no more than the death struggle. Without any horses and armors, the flesh will never ward off the knightage of king's city but end up in defeat. Whether Garcia was in the platoon will not change the result. Maybe she has run away long ago, leaving her army to buy her more time."

But soon he found out that what he had thought was wrong.

Once again, the enemy raised the flag of the Queen of Clearwater, letting it fly in the wind. Timothy frowned as he caught sight of the sigil of a sailing ship and crown on the flag. Through the telescope, he watched the enemy. There was a blurred figure of a woman standing on a "stage that was made of some warriors. It seemed she was shouting something while raising her hands high. He could not see her face clearly but he recognized her gray hair.

It's Garcia Wimbledon. Why doesn't she run away?

Timothy took a deep breath. "Very well, in this fashion, the farce will be ended earlier here, saving me the trouble of marching to Port of Clearwater."

The new king waited until the horses had enough rest before giving the order of a general offensive attack.

Under the leadership of the knightage of the king's city, the 800 riders, which were made of knights and squires, started to march on the enemy. Frostwind Knight Naim Moor, still raced in the front like the tip of the blade.

When the knights were about to charge into the enemy, a large group of riders emerged on the horizon of the east and the west sides. Accompanied with their weird shriek and shout, they galloped all the way to the center of the battlefield.

Timothy widened his eyes in disbelief. "Who are these people?"

The troop that burst in had no flag or kamon, and was different from any forces in the kingdom. Watching through the telescope, Timothy found that most of them were without armor and equipped with various weapons. To Timothy's knowledge, only one kind of people had the same sturdy figures and strange faces of theirs.

They were from Sand Nation in the Southernmost Region.

There was no need for him to guess which side they stood with. "Obviously, Garcia has struck a bargain with Sand Nation so that they'll interfere with the game of the thrones of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Damn foreigners!" As Timothy was thinking about this his rage soared, he turned to shout, "Blow the horn. call the knights back!"

But it was too late for the galloping army to turn around easily. The knightage had rushed into Garcia's platoon, piercing to where the Queen of Clearwater was standing like cutting through butter with a hot knife.

Timothy looked at the flying flag eagerly, hoping it would snap and fall down. "With the 1,000 soldiers from Sand Nation flanking on each side, the number of Garcia's army is up to 5,000 men, which is beyond the number of my knights. Meanwhile, the soldier from Sand Nation, who is valiant and tough, will threaten the knightage enormously in the close battle. My only chance lies in the possibility that the knights could kill the leader of the enemy and bring down the flag."

Yet the flagpole only shook a little and kept standing in the platoon.

Once the soldiers from Sand Nation had surrounded their enemy, they marched into the battlefield following the corridor cleared by the knightage.

If there were no reinforcements, Garcia's 3,000 desperadoes would have scattered. Yet, the game had changed. They were holding out and swallowed the knights one by one, like a swamp.

The horn calling for the retreat was echoing in the battlefield. One after another, the knights were gathering towards Timothy. However, many men remained trapped within the confines of the enemy's platoon, and Frostwind Knight was one of them.

He was panting with the effort to deal with a foreign warrior with a height of almost three meters that waved a giant stick to clear away the men around them. With the horse being killed under the bash of the stick, Naim now tried his best to dodge the strike. His extraordinary reaction and agility had helped him a lot, but yet the thick, heavy armor wore him out quickly. Finally, he tumbled at a dodge and was hit right in the chest by the flying stick. The hit was so hard that the plate caved in and the stick was broken into two parts.

The flying blue cloak fell slowly and disappeared in the crowd.

After an hour, the knights who were still standing had lessened. When Timothy saw that the soldiers from Sand Nation turned their eyes to where he was, he gritted his teeth and commanded the army to withdraw. The rest of army started to retreat to the north. After the battle, there were only 300 men left with the new king, considerably less than the large platoon that had started the war.

Chapter 113 - An Alert

Since the end of the Months of Demons this year, the Western Region had multiple sunny days in a row, with only two rounds of rain. These nice days made up for the gloomy weather of the past winter. The musty smell in Roland's office had gone. He was able to breathe fresh air now. Sometimes, he could even smell a pleasant, faint scent of flowers in the garden if he opened his window.

As the road between the town and Longsong Stronghold had restored its service by now, Roland started to pay particular attention to the development of the stronghold.

Based on what he had observed last year, he had expected that after the traffic was back to normal again, merchants from Longsong Stronghold would have come to Border Town to sell daily necessities. However, he had not seen a single merchant from the stronghold to this day. He ordered Lightning to patrol twice a day, as a way of making sure that the town would be well prepared when his enemy came.

In the recent week, the First Army had been busy with a comprehensive military manoeuver including defense line battling and field attack. The former was relatively easier, as the artillerymen and the Flintlock Squad only needed to act according to the signals given by Lightning. She would stay up in the sky to observe and would raise different flags to report the target distance to the soldiers when she spotted an enemy. After seeing different signals, the team leaders would give corresponding commands to their soldiers. They would shoot solid shells when the target distance was between 500 to 800 meters and grapeshots for enemy forces within 300 meters. If the enemy was less than 50 meters away from them, they would directly fire with flintlocks.

As for the field attack, it was a key part of Roland's plan. It generally took three days to reach the town from Longsong Stronghold by land, so Roland calculated that his enemy would need the same amount of time to flee back to the stronghold when they were defeated. Even if the knights left all the militia and mercenary soldiers behind, they would still need at least two days to withdraw. That meant, they would have to spend at least one night camping in the wild. Roland planned to order the First Army to secretly follow the enemy on foot and take this chance to launch a surprise attack at them. He would let Lightning monitor the whole process, in case that the First Army got too close to alert the enemy. Meanwhile, cannons and ammunition would be transported by the Littletown. The first army soldiers would surround the enemy's battalion at night after they pitched their tents, and the next morning, his soldier would besiege and crush the enemy.

It was not a complicated plan, but without radio communication, it was almost impossible to oversee the situation where his army had to be divided into two parts to besiege the enemy. Roland had to put a witch in his plan to make up for the communication inconvenience, but he was still not fully confident about this arrangement.

Another problem that he faced was the low reserves of gunpowder. Given that, the recent comprehensive military exercise did not shoot live ammunition. Instead, the maneuver just focused on training combined actions of the Flintlock Squad and the Artillery Squad and coordination between the witch and the First Army. Roland had sent people to farther Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City, hoping to find more saltpeter suppliers. If he failed to replenish the gunpowder stock for the First Army in time, the soldiers could only use the flintlocks as spears after two more battles.

Roland wrote down his new purchasing plan on a paper, which included saltpeter, grains and seeds. He intended to ask Barov to send one of his apprentices to the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle, as there were plenty of goods, especially saltpeter. Summer was near, the niter plant of the king's city must be in full operation now, as nobles and wealthy merchants there would consume a huge amount of saltpeter in hot weather. Roland hoped that he could find a long-term supplier who could constantly purvey this gunpowder material for Border Town.

Before this, he had already sent two of his guards to implement two plans respectively, which were "Calling for Witches" and "Seeking Seeds". One guard under the guise of a traveler or a merchant went to spread the rumor that Border Town was calling for witches in streets, taverns and black markets. Of course, he would not say that Prince Roland was accepting witches. He would say it was the Witch Cooperation Association who finally found Holy Mountain and welcomed witches to join. The other guard went directly to Port of Clearwater to buy seeds of extraordinary plants from the Fjords. If he found some other rare crops, he would also bring the plants and their seeds back to Border Town.

Roland gave Scroll the purchasing list he made and asked her to give it to Barov in the City Hall. When Scroll left, he stretched out to relax and wanted to drink some water, but found his cup was empty.

When he was to rise and get the kettle, Nightingale had already brought it to him. With a smile on her face, she stood in front of his desk to fill his cup and then put the kettle back.

Roland took a sip slowly, feeling really puzzled. "Nightingale's attitude has somehow changed. She smiles at me a lot and now even voluntarily serves as a tea girl. Is she suggesting a pay rise to me? She used to sit on the couch and spend the whole afternoon eating her dried fish."

Roland had asked Nightingale about her change, but instead of answering him, she had only given him a smile. After that, Roland just let her do what she wanted.

An idea suddenly struck him. "Is it because of Gwent? If it can really attract and please the people of this era that much, I should build a Chess & Card center offering poker games and mahjong later. It'll definitely bring me considerable profits... No, stop. It's not the time to enjoy my life yet." Roland shook his head to banish those thoughts and focused on what he was going to do after he seized the stronghold.

He had thought for a long time whether he needed to relocate to Longsong Stronghold. Moving the capital to a more prosperous place seemed very enticing, but might not be a good choice in this case. Unlike Border Town, the stronghold had a history of over 100 years. There were many nobles, making the situation quite complicated. In a feudal system, each domain was controlled by its own lord. Under such circumstances, even the lord of the stronghold could hardly have a say in the domains of his subordinate nobles. If Roland wanted to make the stronghold his own, he needed a radical revolution. He thought he had better not move to the stronghold where fish swam with dragons and where he could not even guarantee his own safety. He did not want to get shot by arrows in the back when he was taking a walk on a street there.

Border Town, however, was completely under his own control. It also offered him a vast territory, saving him the trouble of expanding his domain. Most residents of the town were miners and hunters, making the situation quite simple. With his success during the Months of Demons, he had won wide recognition among the people here. More importantly, most of his subjects had already accepted the witches due to the propaganda of the First Army. Compared with Longsong Stronghold and the other cities which were heavily influenced by the church, it was easier for him to develop the town into a home for both ordinary people and witches. After careful consideration, Roland decided to make Border Town the central area of his domain.

As for the stronghold, he could appoint an agent and let him manage the place for him, as long as the agent could offer him workforce and taxes that he needed most right now.

Roland had an initial plan to use Longsong Stronghold's wealth to hire its people for the development of Border Town. He conceived to return the gold royals he got from the defeated nobles to the people of the stronghold, and then he would collect taxes through the stronghold government and spend them again. Besides, he also decided to carry out some favorable policies to attract people with desired skills to settle down in Border Town.

That was a general frame of his plan. He would not have time to consider the details of the plan, such as how to appoint and supervise an agent, and how to make specific tax policies, until the end of the upcoming battle.

At the moment, a golden figure dashed into the room through the window and landed steadily in front of the prince's desk. That was Lightning.

"Drink some water first," Roland gave her a cup of water and said. Lightning picked up the cup but did not have the time to drink. She hurriedly reported to Roland, "Your Highness, they're coming!"

Chapter 114 - The Sound of Thunders

The alliance army from the stronghold was marching steadily toward Border Town

A knightage formed by the knights from the six big families of the stronghold was leading the army. Inequality of power among the families could easily be seen from the armors and outfits of their knights. Duke Ryan's knights were certainly the most eye-catching ones. With a significant air, they all rode on short-tailed horses imported from the king's city. These horses were good at long-distance races and looked much taller and stronger than the other ones. The knights wore unified, shinning armors that were specially made by "Hammer and Dragon Tooth" Blacksmith's shop. A huge lion head was carved into the thick chest armor and a wolf head into each shoulder armor. The lifelike animal heads seemed to be roaring with their mouths wide open. There were also fine patterns on their cloaks and red silk belts around their waists.

Duke Ryan's knights did not only have the look. Each of them had indeed accumulated lots of battling experiences. They had to wipe out the remaining demonic beasts out of the city every year after the Months of Demons, as a way of ensuring smooth land traffic. In terms of personal fighting skills, they were as good as the members of the knightage of the king's city. They were only less in number, compared with the king's knightage. However, for a duke, it was already a huge expenditure to support such an elite knightage of 150 members.

Looking at this elite troop, Duke Ryan was satisfied and absolutely confident that with them, and he would be invincible in the Western Region.

The mercenary fighters were walking casually behind the knightage. They were poorly equipped compared with the knights. Most of them wore old and incomplete chain mails or plate armors. Some had no hand protectors and some no helmets. They carried various kinds of weapons, walking and laughing loudly in groups of two or three. They seemed to be going for a spring outing instead of a battle.

Some free civilians were also press-ganged into the army by the lord. They were plodding on slowly after the mercenary fighters, dragging single-wheel carts filled with foods and tent parts. Due to the speed differences, this army of 1,500 people marched in a really long procession. The knights in the front of the line had to stop every now and then to wait for the troops behind them.

"My lord," Hirte Medde, Earl of the Elk Family, pulled the rein to catch up with the duke and said, "We're going to arrive at Border Town in less than half a day. If things go smoothly, we'll get there at 4 p.m. Are we going to rest for a night and reorganize the army for the battle next morning or directly launch an attack against the lord's castle?"

"Do you want to sleep in the wild again?" The duke smiled and said, "Tonight, we should lie in beds in the castle instead of the damp earth. Of course, as a courtesy to a royal prince, I'll send a messenger to persuade him first when we arrive at Border Town."

Earl Honeysuckle who was slightly ahead of them, turned around to join the discussion. "Our knights have been traveling all day. They and their horses are both tired now. Is it appropriate to launch an attack under such circumstances? We'd better be careful. After all, Roland Wimbledon successfully survived the Months of Demons with just his miners."

"Hah-hah, my old friend. I don't know others, but even you don't know the demonic beasts? They're indeed dreadful opponents in the wild, as they're incredibly fast and powerful, but they'll become easy targets when they're blocked out by a city wall. Demonic beasts are just beasts after all." Hearing this, the Earl of the Elk Family shrugged and added, "Yes, I agree. Though the prince really surprised me by building a city wall so fast, my knights are not dumb beasts who'll be stopped by a wall."

"Exactly, and I've received a piece of news from the north. Hermes nearly fell into ruins, as a huge amount of demonic hybrid beasts attacked Holy City this year for some unknown reason. That means, most of the demonic beasts aimed at Hermes, and only a few of them came to the Western Region," Duke Ryan said casually.

After the Western Region was under his total control, he did not want to confine himself to this remote area anymore. He placed informants who constantly provided him with the most recent news in all the major cities and towns. For him, the bloody battles against demonic beasts in the Northern Region were not as important as another war depicted in a secret report from Palisade City. According to the report, Timothy, the new king, and Garcia, Queen of Clearwater had already fought a fierce battle in Eagle City, but based on the previous information he had got, Timothy's army should arrive at Eagle City a month later.

The report did not mention the process of the war, but described the situation of Timothy and that of Eagle City when the new king had retreated from Palisade City. Timothy who had led an army of thousands of people to the war had left the city with only a few of his soldiers. He had not even been able to block roads again. At the same time, Eagle City had been caught in the fire. Raging flames had lit up the sky, and black smoke sprang up to reach the clouds. The residents of the surrounding cities and towns had all witnessed the scene.

No matter whether the Queen of Clearwater had survived the war or not, Timothy had apparently suffered a heavy loss and a great shock. Stirred by the news, on the same day he had received the secret report, Duke Ryan had sent out his trusted men to the king's city and the Eastern Region, hoping to find out the current situation of Timothy. If this war between the new king and the Queen of Clearwater truly shattered the Timothy regime, he would not hesitate to add fuel to the fire.

This was definitely the best chance for him to declare independence and become a king himself. The Northern Region had seen many of its soldiers buried near the Holy City during the fighting against demonic beasts. The south needed time to recuperate after the recent war. As for the Eastern Region and the king's city, if what the secret report had said was true, Timothy would also need several years to recover. At this moment, if he could conquer the Northern Region and draw some nobles over to join his side, he would be able to split Kingdom of Graycastle. When that happened, he was going to build his own kingdom which would be as large and populous as Kingdom of Everwinter in the north and be able to compete with the remaining Southern and Eastern Regions of Kingdom of Graycastle.

As to him, Osmond Ryan, would become the first king of this new kingdom.

The duke smiled in satisfaction at this thought. He hoped that he could end this farce quickly today and head home tomorrow, bringing the prince as a captive. With any luck, he would be able to receive good news from his informants in his own castle three days later.

When the sun was almost sinking down into the mountains, Ryan saw a vague silhouette of Border Town... and a dense crowd of people outside it.

"Father and Your Grace, those people seem to be Prince Roland's guards with weapons in their hands. It doesn't look like a welcome." Rene Medde who was in charge of guiding the army in the front hurried back and reported.

"It's good, at least we don't have to go to the castle to invite him out," Earl of the Elk Family said while smiling, "Tell the knights to slow down. We still have a long way to go before the charge."

"Yes, father." Rene received the order and left.

Duke Ryan raised a telescope in front of his eye to look at the princes' guards. They were in a strange formation, standing densely in two rows and carrying weird weapons in their hands. Those weapons looked like pikes without pointed metalheads and their handles seemed too short. It just did not make sense to the duke that the prince arranged his guards in this formation. Such a thin, weak defense line would be easily broken through when knights charged toward it.

Seeing that, the duke thought in bewilderment, "Even if the prince has no military knowledge, why did his knights and guards just let him mess things up?" In order to make sure what the prince was planning, the duke decided after a thought to order the mercenary fighters to charge in the beginning of the battle, and the knights to wait for order in the charge distance.

As he had promised before, he needed to send a messenger to persuade Roland first. Duke Ryan sent for a guard and said to him, "You go to tell the prince that I don't mean to hurt him. It's only the order from King Timothy Wimbledon. If he surrenders to me now, he won't be harmed. I'll escort him back to King's City."

It took time for a large army to assemble. When the knights were taking up their positions one after another on both sides, the mercenary fighters were still slowly heading for the center of front line. Right at the moment, four flashes of flame dazed Duke Ryan's eyes, and green smokes rose up after those transitory bright flames. The duke frowned at this scene, thinking he must be deceived by his eyes. He was about to pick up the telescope to look again when there came a series of loud bangs that sounded like thunders.

Chapter 115 - Defending Border Town (Part I)

Van'er immediately saw those well-equipped knights in shiny armors riding on tall horses and steadily moving toward the town when the distant enemy first came into his sight. He gasped at the sight of this scene. There was a knight in the town, who always looked down upon people like him, and now here came nearly a hundred of them.

Van'er felt that his hands started to sweat again, just like what had happened to him when he had stood on top of the city wall fighting against demonic beasts for the first time. This time, he thought that he and his enemy, the noble alliance army of Longsong Stronghold, were at least of his own species.

"No, my own species? When did those nobles treat you as an equal?" He spat and mocked himself internally and put those thoughts behind. The Stronghold Coalition came here to capture Border Town and control the North Slope Mine area again. More importantly, they even claimed to banish His Highness from the Western Region. That was totally unacceptable for all soldiers of the First Army.

The soldiers knew from a pre-battle speech made by His Highness yesterday that Timothy Wimbledon, an elder brother of His Highness, had killed King Wimbledon III, the late king, and had seized the throne through scheme and tricks. Van'er usually cared nothing about nobles' plotting against each other, as he believed it made no difference to him no matter who was the king. However, he thought Duke Ryan who coveted the domain of His Highness in the current disruption was really way out of line.

Van'er had witnessed lots of positive changes that His Highness had brought to the town since he had become the lord here. He also clearly remembered the previous lord, who seemed to be an earl. People in the town had seldom seen him except when he had come out to buy furs with his guards. He had often purchased best quality furs from hunters at low prices and had always been the first one to flee in Months of Demons, leaving all his subjects in the slums of the stronghold. He had never concerned about the sufferings of people.

His Highness was different. Under his governance, the life of the town was obviously getting better for all the locals. The miners could be paid more for more work. His Highness had installed a black machine into the mine of Northern Slope to boost production, but he still attributed the extra output to the miners and increased their personal incomes. The locals of the town, who took part in building city wall or crushing stones in the mine, were all paid timely. No one was starved or froze to death this winter.

The biggest change in the town was the Militia, now called the First Army. Protected by soldiers, the locals of the town did not have to huddle up in their cold wooden sheds and beg big shots for food in winter. Van'er asked himself secretly, "If the prince is banished, will the Duke allow the First Army to exist?"

He took a deep breath and wiped his hand sweats with his clothes while thinking. "No, he won't. The nobles of the stronghold won't give a damn about people of the town. Just like what His Highness has said, only an army of people will fight for people."

He lifted his head to look up to the left and saw a black point hovering up in the sky. It could be easily mistaken as a big-headed bird, but actually, it was the firing commander of the artillery squad, Lightning. She flew in the sky to investigate the enemy's movements while well covering herself with trees on both sides of the main road. When she flew back, Van'er noticed that the treetops overhead indeed made it impossible for the people below to see her. That meant, if the witch did not fly to an open place by herself, all the enemy could see were branches of trees when they looked up.

15 minutes ago, Lightning had flown close to Border Town's defense line to show them a green ribbon.

Seeing it, Van'er knew at once that the enemy was within 1,000 meters. Now he must immediately command their artillerymen to get ready for firing. In fact, Van'er did not know how long "1,000 meters" was. He only gave orders based on the rules he had learned during the maneuver. He quickly shouted out the correct order, instructing the team to reload cannons and correct angles.

Four mortar teams quickly switched angles of cannons to the third gear and filled the bores with gunpowder and solid shells, thus finishing the whole preparation process.

After that, Van'er still felt nervous. His heart had been palpitating all the time since the moment the army had assembled in the afternoon. He had considered himself an experienced leader, as he had fought against demonic beasts on top of the city wall, but today he found that he had still a long way to go before becoming a good team leader like Iron Axe or Brian. Both of them had calmly led their teams to the shooting positions, and he had even sensed a tinge of excitement from Brian's voice just now when he had been giving orders. Even his buddy, Rodney seemed to be better than him. That made him feel a little depressed.

He licked his dry lips and started to search for Lightning again.

At the moment, the enemy forces suddenly slowed down.

"What're they doing?" Rodney asked.

"I don't know." Cat's Claw widened his eyes to look at the enemy. "They seem to be adjusting the formation, and their people look quite messy."

"They're waiting for the troops behind," Jop said with a shaking voice. "Knights won't fight alone. They're certainly followed by a large number of people."

"Oh? How do you know that?" Nelson twitched his mouth and asked.

"I've seen it. One knight will take at least two squires and a dozen serfs who carry food," Jop said while counting on his fingers, "You see, a Duke of Longsong Stronghold must have at least 100 knights. He has at least 300 people who can fight on horseback other than the earls, viscounts in the stronghold...There're even more! And they've hired many mercenary fighters. Those guys are cold-blooded, professional killers! But there're only 300 of us."

"Nearly 300 of us." Van'er corrected him silently in his heart, but he actually felt better knowing that someone was even more nervous than him. Only about 270 soldiers of the Flintlock Squad were equipped with weapons, due to the insufficient production capacity, a phrase said by His Highness. As a result, the Flintlock Squad soldiers without guns were relocated in the mortar teams to carry ammunition for the four cannons.

"The mercenary fighters, they're coming!" Jop said in a low voice.

Van'er looked up and saw a group of people dressed in various clothes gradually taking the central position in the enemy's formation. They did not ride horses or march in lines. In groups of two or three, they gathered in the center. The knights were moving to the sides, leaving the central space for them. In less than 10 minutes, the alliance army of the duke's had gotten much closer to him again.

In a sudden, a knight rapidly galloped out of the army and headed to Border Town. Van'er's heart skipped a beat at the sight. He almost shouted out the firing order.

"What's he going to do?" Confused as he was, he looked up but still could not see Lightning. The knight was getting closer and closer while waving a white flag in his hand.

"He's the messenger of the duke. He's probably coming to persuade us to surrender," Jop mumbled.

"That's none of our business," Rodney said and then squatted down behind the cannon to align his eye with the central line of the cannon barrel. "Sir, the cannon needs to be readjusted, as most of the knights have already left the central part."

The soldiers were taught repeatedly during the maneuver when they had conducted solid shell practices that a shell's point of fall was in line with the cannon barrel. Given that, if they wanted to hit their target, they needed to adjust the cannon barrel until its central line aligned with the target. Five soldiers worked together to move the canon's carriage a little, so as to aim precisely at the knights in the front of the alliance army again.

The messenger arrived and was brought by His Excellency Carter to the back of the defense line, but Van'er knew clearly that it was only a waste of time, as His Highness would never surrender to the duke.

Right at the moment, Lightning put on a burst of speed, flying toward the town with a yellow ribbon in hand.

The yellow ribbon flapping in the wind indicated that the enemies were within 800 meters. At this distance, they were able to hit targets with solid shells from the cannons. At the meantime, the mortar teams could fire freely as long as the captain of artillerymen did not forbid it.

Seeing the signal, Van'er's team members all looked at him. He nodded, took a deep breath and then ordered, "Fire!"

Chapter 116 - Defending Border Town (Part Ⅱ)

Due to limited physical strength, horses carrying knights could only maintain a high-speed in a short time. As a general rule, in a charge, the knights would let their horses trot first when the enemy was around 800 to 1,000 meters away. They would speed up once the distance was shortened to 500 meters and sprint for the last 200 meters.

Theoretically, the shooting range of a 12-pound Napoleon cannon was 1,300 meters for solid shells, but the cannons designed and made by Roland tended to miss targets over 1,000 meters away, which might result from a small ratio of the barrel caliber to the barrel length. To ensure a high hit ratio, he made it a rule that artillerymen could only fire when an enemy was within 800 meters. In this way, shells would also be very destructive especially to a crowd of enemies as they would bounce forward on the ground after landing.

As Duke Ryan had ordered mercenary fighters to charge first, all the knights were standing by in a charge distance. This was usually a distance of absolute safety, as the enemy's arrows could never shoot that far. Meanwhile this distance also gave knights enough space to speed up their horses step by step during a charge. The slow assembling of mercenary fighters made the knights hold their horses to wait in their positions. In this way, they became easy, fixed targets for the mortar teams.

By now, the duke's army had already unknowingly stepped on Roland's planned battleground. They could only see a flat, wide main road in the middle, with green grasslands on both sides, but those seemingly ordinary grasslands were actually full of plants grown by Leaf for special purposes. Hidden in the knee-high grasses, stout vines worked as heel ropes to prevent the knights from swiftly outflanking the First Army from the sides. Within 1,000 meters on this battleground, there were distances marks left by Soraya, which were also invisible to the people on the ground. Up in the sky, however, Lightning could clearly see that the battlefield was split into segments by different color marks. Each colored mark represented a certain distance from the defense line. From above, the enemies seemed to march on a straight ruler. That saved the Artillery Squad the trouble of calculating and correcting angles by themselves before firing. They just needed to act according to steps that they had learned in their previous manoeuver.

Van'er's team was the first to fire their 12-pound cannon at the enemies.

A gust of air caused by the explosion of gunpowder sent a shell out of the barrel and flying at a speed of over 400 meters per second in the air. In the blink of an eye, it struck the ground with a whistling sound. It passed between two knights and finally fell into the grassland aside. The earth and crushed stones flying in all directions startled the horses. One of the knights had even fallen down from his horse before realizing what had happened.

Two following shells also missed their targets. They only created more dust and dirt springing up into the air.

In the first round of firing, only the fourth shot of the four cannons turned out to be lucky. There had been nothing in front of the iron ball, but then an unlucky knight happened to step into the area where the shell struck. His armors were of no use facing a high-speed iron ball. It broke the thin layer of iron and went through his body. After that, it bounced on the ground, hit and broke another knight's calf and then cut open his horse's tummy. The inner organs of the horse poured all over the ground.

The artillerymen would have to readjust for the next round of firing, if the knightage were accelerating their horses. However, the sudden strike apparently shocked the duke's alliance army. The knights did not receive any order to attack and still stayed in their positions, trying to calm down their frightened mounts. They did not know where those iron balls came from and how they came, as naked eyes could hardly observe objects flying at such a high speed.

Van'er's team reloaded the cannon as fast as they could to start the second round of shooting.

Hot weapon attacks were more than what flesh and blood could bear. Even rubbing against a fast-moving iron ball could severely injure a human body. The knight hit directly by the shell was blown to bits. His blood gushed out, forming clusters of blood mist in the air. The soldiers of the alliance army could only catch a glimpse of a black item when it bounced on the ground. It looked like a black ghost slaughtering their comrades.

After the two rounds of attack, the duke finally linked pieces together. He sank into thought. "The flames and the loud sounds must have something to do with the sudden strikes. The enemy forces seem to have some incredible weapons that shoot much farther than crossbow bolts. They may have the same firing range as mangonels of the stronghold." At this thought, the duke gave the knights the order to charge by having a soldier blow a horn, as he believed that weapons for long-range strikes would not work once the distance was shortened.

Hearing the horn, the knights reacted quite differently. Some of them followed the order and quickened their pace, heading for the town. Some were still trying everything to calm down their mounts. A small number of them were even retreating at the moment. The mercenary fighters rushed toward the sides where the knights stood, making the formation in utter disorder.

Seeing the knights taking their positions on the main road and getting ready to charge, mortar teams stirred at once. Apart from cleaning bores and reloading cannons, this time, they needed to move the cannon carriages again, as they saw a red ribbon in Lightning's hand when she returned to the sky above the defense line.

A red signal meant that the enemy forces were only 500 meters away. That was the cannons' point-blank range. At this distance, they had an 80% hit rate.

Van'er cried out, "Remain flat! Be quick, fire, fire!"

He did not even stop to look at the situation of the enemy when deafening noises of explosion died down. Instead, he directly turned around and shouted to the soldiers in charge of distributing ammunition. "Grapeshot! Give me grapeshot!"

During artillery training, His Highness had emphasized many times that once they saw red signals, they must reload their cannons with grapeshot and fire at the enemy forces when they were within 300 meters. His Highness had also reminded them that they must shoot out all the solid shells in the bore first before reloading grapeshot if their cannon was not empty.

Looking like an iron can on the outside, grapeshot was a cylinder stuffed with small iron balls and sawdust. Before the soldiers put the grapeshot in the bore, they needed to reload gunpowder and stuff a thin, wooden board inside the barrel, as grapeshot's diameter was smaller than that of the bore.

The moment Lightning raised a purple signal, four cannons fired all at once.

This was the first time for Van'er to shoot real grapeshot. The artillerymen including him had only received training without ignition because His Highness said that it was difficult to collect and reuse grapeshot. Today, he witnessed how destructive it could be for the first time.

After the grapeshot flew out of the muzzle, its iron container violently broke open due to huge pressure differences. The iron balls inside rained on the knights within 300 meters like a downpour. Blood gushed out of the knights and their horses. The grapeshot shot down a crowd of enemies as easily as reaping wheat. Some iron balls could even maintain a high speed after they went through a human body. When that happened, even hiding behind someone else could not save a knight's life.

There were still some lucky knights who escaped the iron ball shower and came to the sprint distance. They all lowered their upper bodies and rode forward at the highest speed, with only one thought in mind, which was breaking the weak defense line and killing the cowards who had been hiding behind it and operating those vicious weapons all the time. At their current speed, the knights only need less than two minutes to finish this 150-meter sprint.

However, it turned to be extremely hard for them to complete this short distance of 150 meters. The last round of grapeshot firing totally destroyed their will to fight. Within 100 meters, the undeformed, high-speed iron balls could go through two to three people at once. A cone-shaped area in front of each muzzle now was a realm of death. Each of the fastest 20 knights ended up dead. The only difference was how many shots he had got before he fell down.

The knightage collapsed.

Nothing could save this routed troop now. The frightened knights in the back of the troop pulled their horses, trying to flee the field.

Seeing the knights escaping, mercenary fighters would naturally refuse to move any step forward. They did risk their lives in battles for money but they never defy death. Now it was apparently the time to flee, and they were running much faster than they had when they had come to the battle.

The panic quickly struck the whole of Duke Ryan's army, making the situation out of control. Soldiers pushed their way to flee the battleground. Those people who were knocked down on the ground were stamped to death. Everyone was too busy running away to attend to others, wishing they could grow two extra legs.

At the same time, Guerillas' Song rang on the battleground. Borden Town's infantry marched out in lines to clean the field.

Chapter 117 - The Pursue and Attack (Part I)

This was the first time for Carter Lannis to see such a battle.

A large team composed of 300 knights was already devasted without even scratching the edge of their defense line.

Even at the end, they were not able to enter the 50-meter zone. Prince Roland marked it as the Flintlock Squad shooting line. Everyone was only allowed to fire when the enemy crossed the 50-meter line.

The four cannons forced the enemies to dwell at the 100-meter line mark. In the zone between 100 meters to 150 meters, there were about 20 corpses lying on the ground, who, just like Carter, were all skillful knights. Had they not of been skillful knights, they would not have been able to advance at high speed on their horse among the blistering gunfire.

Carter was glad that he was not one of those sacrificed knights. He vaguely felt that the wars in the future would be distinctly different than the ones before. Roland Wimbledon, who held such formidable power, would inherit the throne sooner or later.

Some men of the First Army were experiencing dizziness and nausea after seeing such horrifying battle scenes. Since it was not close combat, the impact of killing enemies with cannon would be much less than killing enemies with their own hands. Therefore, the reactions were not too severe. Carter picked a group of hunters who used to see blood and stumps, and ordered them to collect the corpses and search for any surviving men.

The sun gradually fell into the mountains and Carter stared at the blood-red sky, listening to the humming of crows from the faraway woods. He suddenly felt a sense of forlornness.

The era of the knight was over.

...

Duke Ryan was still in a state of bafflement.

He could not understand how they lost. That defense line seemed so vulnerable as if it would be penetrated by one light stab. However, the knights fled as though they had seen demons. He could not even blame the others because the ones in the forefront of the troop were his most elite knights.

The guards chopped down several people to divert the swarming mercenaries from the duke's location. However, that was all he could do. No matter how he shouted, he could not control his deviated subordinates. Without any choice, Duke Ryan had to retreat about 10 miles with the crowd.

Once night had fallen, the duke chose a place near the river to set up base camp. The separated knights and mercenaries approached under torchlight. There were still many lost members and the worst part was that the freedmen left carts and food when they retreated. The duke and the other members had to kill a couple of horses for food.

In the largest tent, the nobles from five prominent families gathered together. They looked at Duke Ryan with ghastly pale faces. Duke Ryan was carrying a solemn expression himself.

"Who can tell me what weapon they're using? The distance was farther than crossbow bolts could reach, but it was unlike the mangonel from which we could see the stones being tossed." He glanced at Rene Medde. "You were moving in the front line, did you see anything?"

"My lord, I, I'm not so sure," Rene answered, holding his head, "I could only hear the gunfire, and then the knights collapsed group by group. Especially the last fire, it looked like the knight who was racing at the forefront bumped into an invisible wall. I saw his body shaking, and his head and limbs were scattered, just like..." He thought for a moment. "An egg that was thrown off from the top of the castle."

"Perhaps it was witches?" the Earl of the Elk Family mumbled.

"Impossible." The Duke frowned. "All my knights were wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation. Witches won't be able to hurt them. You've played with witches before. They're like ordinary girls in front of the God's Stone."

"Oh, yes, my lord." Rene suddenly recalled something. "After hearing that loud noise, I saw that they had a few carts in their troop. There were big iron tubes on the cart, and I could see red lights and smoke rising from it."

"Iron tubes? Red lights and smoke? Isn't that a ceremonial barrel?" the Earl of the Elk Family questioned.

The duke, of course, knew what a ceremonial barrel was. It was often used in huge ceremonies for nobles in the king's city. Now the lord of every district would have a couple for spare use. He had a couple of barrels in his castle. It would blast after putting in snow powder. However, its noise was incomparable to the thundering roar he heard today.

"Ceremonial barrels won't split knights into pieces," Honeysuckle Earl said, "and no matter what weapon the prince used, we've already lost the war. What shall we do next?"

Duke Ryan glanced at him with displeasure. The word "lose" sounded ear-piercing to him. "We've not lost yet." He strengthened. "One battle wouldn't alter the result. Once we get back to the stronghold, I can summon another troop and at the same time terminate the business on the Redwater River. Without food, Border Town won't last for a month. As soon as he brings those peasants out, my knights will devastate and flank him from the back."

"Victory will belong to me," he thought. However, "The loss that has been suffered isn't comparable to a small town... It'll be impossible to reconquer the Northern Territory. Damn it! If I caught Roland Wimbledon, I'd cut him into pieces."

"But my lord, the ship on Redwater River was not only from Longsong Stronghold but also from Willow Town, Fallen Dragon Ridge, and Redwater City. If we terminate them all, would we..." Honeysuckle Earl hesitated.

"I'll buy it all. Nothing matters as long as I pay the money," the duke said coldly, "You shall all return to your tent and rest. We'll depart at dawn. Knights with horses shall come with us. The ones without horses will stay back to lead the mercenaries."

They could not march at night. Even if Prince Roland wanted to pursue and attack, he would have to wait until dawn. The prince would first encounter the mercenaries that moved behind his group. He thought, "Even if these useless ones collapsed quickly, it would at least buy some time for me."

The next morning, the duke did not receive any news to indicate that the prince would pursue. To confirm this information, the duke sent out his trusted followers to enlarge the investigation zone. They all returned with the same information. This was a great relief to him. Perhaps those new weapons were cumbersome to move like the mangonel and could only be used in defensive battles. Prince Roland would not act carelessly by relying on a bunch of miners.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the duke ordered the knights to stop the march and to wait for the others to follow them. The mercenaries and freedmen were only able to catch up with the knights at dusk. The crowded fumbled and made an area for base camp.

The duke would reach Longsong Stronghold after surviving through the night. The 10 meters city wall was like the natural moat to the hundreds of person troop. Even if Roland had the new weapon that could shoot over a long range, the duke would retaliate with the mangonel from the wall. It was the time for the duke to retaliate.

However, all day long, Duke Ryan felt as if he was being watched, which made him a little comfortable.

"Perhaps it's just a delusion, I'm too nervous," the duke thought

The next day at dawn, the duke was awoken by the roars of gunfire.

He rushed out of the tent and found that everyone was fleeing. There was splattering dirt and blood everywhere. The duke looked to the west side and saw that the 'Militia' that was wearing leather armor was in a straight line and standing outside of the camp. In the deafening roars of gunfire, The duke had only one thought in his mind—how did they catch up with them?

Why did not the knights find those pursuers yesterday!?

"My lord, we have to run!" the guard brought a horse and shouted.

Osmond Ryan finally came to reality from his bewilderment. He jumped onto the horse and ran to the east with the guards. However, they encountered another troop soon after they left the camp.

Wearing the same leather armors and holding weird truncheons in their hands, they neatly lined up and even wore the same the expression.

Soon, the duke heard rhythmic sounds from the opposite side. With orderly pace, Prince Roland's troop marched toward him.

Chapter 118 - The Pursue and Attack (Part II)

Roland ordered the First Army to practice at least twice a week, but they never tried to march at night.

Marching at night would be dangerous. They would be easily attacked by wild beasts and snakes without being able to see the road clearly. Besides, it would be easy to lose bearing and get lost, while torchlight would attract wild beasts. That was why Roland had to wait until the next day at dawn to have the troop march and follow the duke's army.

To ensure the success of this plan, Prince Roland decided to follow the First Army in person. Of course, he chose to stay on the Littletown instead of ridding horses on bumpy roads.

After a half month of training, Hummingbird could already stabilize timing for light fraction conversion of the 12-pound cannon. Considering a longer enchantment process, Roland ordered Hummingbird to convert the cannons at dawn. He hoped that the first cannon would take the longest time for conversion and the time would gradually lessen with each subsequent cannon.

Benefitting from Hummingbird's ability, the Littletown could load four cannons and all the mortar team members on a trip. The large concrete boat was occupied by people, besides the cannon team and Roland, the rest of the members on the boat were Anna, Nightingale, Nana, Leaf, Echo, Hummingbird, Tigui Pine and Wendy who was responsible for providing the power along with Brian who was working as the captain.

It could be said that except those not good at combat such as Scroll, Soraya, Lily and Mystery Moon, almost all the witches in Border Town participated in. Initially, Anna did not need to fight on the battlefield. However, Roland could not refuse when he saw the determination in Anna's eyes.

The land army was the flintlock troop of the First Army and was directed by the Chief Knight Carter and Iron Axe. Lightning took responsibility for locating and tracking. The group of people quietly followed the enemies. Their distance was outside of the investigation zone of the enemy's scouts. Once Lightning found any activities of the scouts, the troop would stop marching. They captured many lost mercenaries and freedmen along the way. However, they could not deal with these surrendered enemies and so Roland had them disarmed and brought them along.

It was the first time that Roland had led "a huge army" to conquer the enemy. Standing at the front of the Littletown and feeling the wind that was blowing on his face, Roland felt quite motivated.

"What makes you so happy?" Anna suddenly appeared beside him and asked.

"Umm..." Roland took back his smile. "Nothing at all."

"Really?" Anna handed her handkerchief to Roland. "Wipe your saliva."

"..." Roland suddenly felt a compulsion to jump into a river. "Thanks."

It was already sunset when Lightning reported that the enemy had set up its base camp. Compared with the relentless investigations when coming, the Coalition was demoralized heavily after such a total defeat. The moment it was just sunset, the scouting knights ran back to the camp, afraid to miss the horse meat at night.

Roland's troop camped beside the lake two kilometers away from the duke's army.

They were not discovered so the annihilation plan was already halfway successful.

Next, they only had to wait to besiege the enemy before their departure.

This was the first time that Roland had camped overnight in the wild. Compared with the camp that was full of insects, he would rather choose to sleep on the boat. The wooden shed where cannons were placed was emptied and the members of the mortar team took the 12-pound cannons off to rest in the camp. The Littletown became the temporary palace for the prince. Except Roland, all the other witches would also sleep over on the boat. Everyone covered the tent with blankets and lay down side by side.

Roland wanted to avoid the situation. However, he found that the witches paid no attention at all. Except Anna, they had all experienced some degree of hardship. In the days of wandering, it was normal to spend a night in the wilderness. Soon, everyone fell asleep except Roland and Anna who found themselves sleepless. The former was because he was used to a soft bed and was unaccustomed to a hard bunk bed, but the latter with her unknown thoughts, was staring at Roland. Every time the prince turned his head, Anna would close her eyes immediately and pretend that she was asleep. However, against the moonlight, her eyelashes were shaking slightly. If Roland was not afraid to disturb the others, he really wanted to pinch Anna's small nose, force her to open her eyes and hug her in his arms.

It was a sleepless night for both of them.

It was not yet dawn, but Roland had already started his annihilation plan. 270 infantries with flintlocks would be separated into two teams. One of the teams would take two cannons to the back side of the duke's army through the Littletown and finish the defense line from one kilometer away. Lightning was responsible for monitoring the movements of the duke. After the cannons were set up, she would make signals and the other team led by Carter which would launch an attack from the front.

The unified transportation by concrete boat avoided the possibility of separation. After Nightingale went into the Mist, her black and white view could be used as a night vision appliance. As the pilot, she could help the Littletown to sail at night.

After they practiced the process many times, everyone knew their responsibilities very well. Wendy boosted the wind power so that the Littletown was able to transport all the members to the back side smoothly. After two hours, the interception team led by Iron Axe was all set. Then Lightning flew to the top of Carter's camp and showed an orange flag.

It was just dawn.

The annihilation plan had just begun.

Because Echo was assigned to the back side, the members of the flintlock team who were assigned to attack in the front did not need to move. All they had to do was to line up and protect the two cannons. The 12-pound cannons were pushed onto the battlefield and were fired toward the enemy's camp. At this time, the duke's army was still asleep.

With the roaring noise of cannons, the solid shells went straight to the enemy's camp. The knights and mercenaries, who just now realized the situation, rushed out of the tents but to find that the First Army had already lined up and was waiting. With the previous disastrous experience, no one dared to challenge this seemingly weak defensive line and all fled to the east.

However, Iron Axe had been waiting in the backside for a long time.

When enemies appeared, it was finally the closing time for this annihilation plan.

With the reverberating marching music, the 150 members of the First Army lined up in. To impose pressure on the duke's army, the enemies would have soon abandoned their mounts and fled through the forest.

Duke Ryan was in a state of desperation. He could not understand how Roland's army appeared behind them.

Recognize the failure and surrender? He did not know how Roland Wimbledon would treat a duke that dared to attack the royal family. Perhaps he would be imprisoned or exiled, or more likely sent to the scaffold. Regardless of the choices, Longsong Stronghold would have nothing to do with him.

Roland's troop came closer and closer to him, so did Roland's formidable weapon that roared and shone from time to time. The duke knew that if he did not run now, he would not have the chance anymore. He only had 30 members left with him and this was his last resort.

"They couldn't stop us with their small troop," Duke shouted, "and as long as we cross over that line, they won't catch us without any transportation means. It would only take us half a day to arrive Longsong Stronghold! My knights! Follow me!"

Then duke started to command the mount to enhance its speed. However, not everyone had the mindset to fight regardless of their lives. He had only 10 people including his guards with him but he could not care too much at this point.

The marching music suddenly stopped.

Roland's troop stopped their march in a good order and stood before the duke like a wall.

Then the duke saw the troop raise their short wooden sticks.

When duke was only 100 steps away from that defensive wall, a range of noises blasted. He felt a shock on his breast and his stomach as if he was stricken by a massive hammer. Then he felt a feeling of paralysis and powerlessness. He leaned backward and fell from his horse to the ground.

The duke wanted to say something but could not make any noise. He coughed and smelled a strong scent of blood. The sticky liquid blocked his throat. Soon, darkness engulfed him.

Chapter 119 - The Ransom (Part I)

Petrov Hull sat at the desk and subconsciously fiddled with an exquisite parchment—that was the program the Longsong Theatre sent on every weekend afternoon. Usually, he would have chosen a favorite play and let the housekeeper pay the deposit, before giving the invitation to Shirley.

But now he did not read a single word.

Seven days had passed since their departure. If everything went smoothly, father should have already returned yesterday with the duke. Perhaps there was a delay on the road. Or perhaps the people were tired, and rested an extra day in Border Town? He tried to comfort himself, but yet he grew more anxious.

Prince Roland Wimbledon left a deep impression on him. Petrov felt it was incredulous. How could such an outstanding prince have such a bad reputation in the king's city? People commented that he had a bad character and was dandy, incompetent and ignorant... none of these evaluations tallied with the prince he knew.

But this was exactly why he felt so uneasy.

He was afraid that the duke would lose to him.

"Master Petrov," shouted the housekeeper at the door. "There's a letter from Longsong Stronghold."

[From Longsong Stronghold?] Petrov was dazed for a second. "Bring it in quickly."

After opening the cover, the first word in the letter already left Petrov stunned.

It was a letter written by Prince Roland!

"Duke Osman Ryan attacked my territory with force and tried to start a rebellion. The duke himself was already executed on the battlefield, and Longsong Stronghold is now back under my rule."

[The duke was defeated?!] His heart sank, and then he continued reading.

"Duke Ryan's accomplices, other than a few diehard rebels, had already surrendered and pleaded guilty. The families who rebelled against royal family were supposed to be executed as well, but I have been merciful. Only the main ones involved would be sentenced to death and the rest of the captives could be redeemed with money. The place to carry out the exchange would be at the lord's castle in Longsong Stronghold. The list is as follows."

This official letter was written in an awkward manner, without using the diplomatic language, but the meaning was loud and clear—the duke had failed in his rebellion and the prisoners could be redeemed with money.

Petrov lowered his eyes to find his father's name appear in the first line.

"Hedee!" He shouted the name of the housekeeper. "Prepare the carriage. I'm going to the lord's castle in Longsong Stronghold!"

…

Earl Honeysuckle's territory was in the east of Longsong Stronghold. When Petrov rushed to the castle's area, it was already half an hour later. The lord's castle was filled with the "Militia" he had never seen—they had no shiny armor and no cloak or ribbon. Each held a peculiar short stick in the hand with a sharp bayonet at the top. They stood neatly in two rows, with their head held high. Petrov could feel their undeniable presence.

After reporting his identity, Petrov was given access to the garden, and then led by a guard to the castle hall.

He had come to this place many times, but today, he felt like he had stepped into a completely foreign territory. The guards on the aisle were all new faces. No one nodded or smiled at him, but just looked at him blankly. At the entrance of the hall, a knight came up toward him.

"What's your name?"

"Petrov Hull," he replied with a slight displeasure. He did not like the interrogative dialogue and therefore emphasized his name a second time. "Sir Hull."

"Oh." The other party looked disbelievingly. He looked over the list. "Earl Shalafi Hull is your..."

"Father."

"Please accept my apologies," the knight said without changing his expression, "I'm Carter Lannis, Prince Roland's Chief Knight. Please come to the side room so that we can check if you have any weapons."

After the search, his God's Stone of Retaliation was also removed by the guard.

"That's not a weapon," Petrov said.

"Of course not." The knight nodded. "After the meeting, we'll return it to you. You can rest assured."

He opened his mouth but finally decided against speaking. [Return it to me? That God's Stone of Retaliation stone is considered a top grade stone and is worth at least 50 gold royals. It'll certainly be replaced by a defective one when they return it. Forget it,] he thought, [and take it as part of the ransom.]

As he walked into the hall, he saw Prince Roland writing on his seat. He raised his head and was startled to see Petrov, but then he laughed. "We meet again, Mr. Ambassador."

It was still his familiar face and tone. Petrov started to relax a little, bowed and saluted. "Greetings to you, Your Highness."

"Have a seat." Roland lifted his hand to direct him to his seat. "I'm sure you're aware of what has happened. Your father was not hurt. He was one of the first that surrendered."

"Thanks for your kindness, Your Highness," said Petrov. "I'm not sure how much ransom is required. As long as Honeysuckle can afford it, I'll arrange them to send the money immediately."

"I don't need money." Roland shook his finger. "I want livestock and men."

It was normal to want livestock. In the last 50 years, the conflict between the lords was usually settled with the losers compensating with cattle and sheep. Petrov had read this more than once in books. Why... did Prince Roland request for men? "Your Highness, the Honeysuckle domain does have a lot of cattle, sheep, and horses, but as for men..."

"It's very simple. Masons, carpenters, farmers, serfs are all useful to me." The prince handed over a paper roll. "You can follow the values here, as long as the total numbers add up to 3,000." He smiled. "By the way, because the earl can be considered as the one with the largest title, so his value is also the highest."

Petrov spread the roll of paper on the table.

He saw that it was listed with occupational categories and livestock species, followed by a number: cattle 3, sheep 2, mason 10 and the like. He understood immediately what the prince meant.

The value of 3,000 meant that he needed to pay a thousand cattle or three hundred masons to redeem his father. Of course, his territory did not have so many cattle or masons. Arranging the items on the paper into different groups would produce a variety of options. As a noble that dealt daily in trade, Petrov was instantly aware that there was a lot of maneuvering he could do. He just needed a few days to calculate an optimal solution that had the smallest cost to meet the requirements of 3,000 points.

"Your Highness, could I..."

"One day, I can only give you one day." Roland stretched out a finger. "This refers only to the time for you to make a choice. After all, it would take three or four days to gather so many resources and people. And I won't stay here forever. I'll leave after a week at the most."

"A day is really..." Petrov was taken aback suddenly and stared with his eyes wide open at the prince. "Hang on, did you say... that you wanted to leave?" He fell into thoughts. [What does this mean? If the letter was correct, the duke died on the battlefield. Longsong Stronghold now belongs to His Highness, yet he actually wanted to leave. Is this place less significant than the small and broken Border Town? No, this isn't the main point! The point is if His Highness departed, who'll run this magnificent city?] His heart became tumultuous. [Will he allow duke's children to inherit it?] He knew very well this would be impossible. "That'll give the duke's children an opportunity to gather troops to avenge their father? Would he consider the five families aside from the Ryan family or the other noble families?"

"Yes," said Roland, "I'll take the ransom and return to Border Town."

His heart was suddenly filled with a thought, and once this idea appeared, it could no longer be suppressed.

"Your Highness," said Petrov in a low voice, after swallowing hard, "Excuse me, is there also a numerical value to 'redeem' Longsong Stronghold?"

Chapter 120 - The Ransom (Part II)

Roland stared at Petrov with a look of interest and laughed. "You're the first person to ask me that," he said. He took the cup and had a sip, and then said in a casual tone, "Longsong Stronghold is undoubtedly mine, even if I'm not here. What I really need is a person or a family to run Longsong Stronghold on my behalf. Therefore, what you should ask me isn't the ransom, but the "agency fees".

Agency... Petrov was no stranger to this word. Many of the nobles had no time or interest in trade, while they had large output in their domain. Some sharp-sighted businessmen would help them to sell goods. In order to obtain this right from the noble, the businessmen had to pay a sum of money in advance as a deposit.

"How many pieces of gold royals would you require?" he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

"This is a long process, so you don't have to pay it all at once." Roland paused, and then said, "30 percent of the monthly tax of Longsong Stronghold, as well as supplies which value 1,000 points. The rest belongs to you."

"It was not that outrageous," Petrov thought. As long as he could control Longsong Stronghold completely, this price was even reasonable. He confirmed that His Highness was not kidding. The prince really intended to keep his word.

"This was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Petrov thought to himself. He and the prince were not enemies. The duke has completely failed, and his children would be deprived of their inheritance. If the Coalition forces could not defeat the prince, then who could stop him from controlling the Western Region? Aligning themselves with more powerful forces was the basic principle for the continuation of the noble. If he could earn His Highness' trust before the other four families, then Honeysuckle would own the biggest domain in the Western Region.

"Your Highness, why don't you wish to stay here? This castle is larger than the one at Border Town."

"What you meant to ask was why I wouldn't run Longsong Stronghold myself?" Roland looked at the slightly embarrassed Petrov and laughed. "There are many reasons. The power struggle here is too complicated, and straightening out the relationships takes too much time, much less getting some profit from it. Supporting a local noble family who can govern better than me, is a win-win deal. There are many other reasons that you can think about slowly." The prince started playing with the silver cup. "By the way, if you were chosen as the agent, would you try to revenge the duke?"

"Of course not, Your Highness!" Although the question was a little unexpected, Petrov still replied immediately.

[The duke was already gone. The five families now need to think about how to carve up his territory. Who would still care about revenge?] thought Petrov.

However, Petrov also knew that these were not the real reasons why His Highness did not want to stay in Longsong Stronghold. [The power struggle is too complex and difficult to straighten out? With his oppressing power, he absolutely can exterminate the opposing forces in the span of one to two years. All the nobles would forget the loser Ryan, just like what Ryan did in the past. Yet two years isn't enough to construct Border Town into such a big city like Longsong Stronghold.]

[His Highness Roland might have a more complex plan.]

"In that case, this city..."

"I'd gladly be your agent, Your Highness!" Petrov blurted out. Yet he soon seemed hesitant. "But, the king, no, I mean your elder brother, might not agree with this result. If he arranges a new duke for the Western Region, I would be unable to oppose the king's city."

"You don't need to oppose them." Roland threw two letters before him. "Look at this, and the document I found in Duke Ryan's office."

Petrov quickly scanned the contents of the letter, and could not help but gasp.

The first seal looked like a secret letter. The new king Timothy and Queen of Clearwater had a battle in Eagle City and suffered a major failure? The content of the second letter was even more horrifying. The document was only half written but stated Duke Ryan wanted to annex the north. His intention to be an independent king was revealed clearly on paper. The letter was not complete, hence it was impossible to know who the intended recipient was.

He understood His Highness's intentions—no resistance was needed because the new king was already at hard times himself. Otherwise, the duke would certainly not want to be independent. His elite knights were enough to wipe out the Western Region, but still a far cry from the knightage of the king's city.

[A secret letter may be forged, but this document is indeed in Osmond Ryan's handwriting. Unless the prince finds a witch that can imitate another man's writing...] he thought, and then denied the speculation.

[The prince doesn't need to go to so much trouble to deceive me. Acting as the agent for Longsong Stronghold isn't a unilateral transaction. If I can't establish a firm foothold in Longsong Stronghold, His Highness won't also stand to gain. Moreover, the duke designated by Timothy is bound to be the enemy of Prince Roland.]

If the Honeysuckle Family wanted to override the other four big families, then I would have to rely on the support of the prince. On the contrary, in order to ensure my interests to be better protected, the prince should also help the Hull family to hold the position more firmly.

As soon as he thought of this, Petrov stood up slowly and bowed to Roland. "The Hull family is at your service."

"Well." The latter nodded. "At the moment it's still undecided if you should be the agent. Let me first ask you a few questions."

"Please go ahead, Your Highness."

"How are you going to deal with those forces against you?"

"What's your estimate of the monthly taxes? How are you going to guarantee to provide supplies which value 1,000 points?"

"What measures do you have if I ask you to develop the business on a large scale?"

"... "

Petrov thought that His Highness just wanted to take this opportunity to get some information about the noble in the Western Region. He did not expect the latter to ask such strange questions as if he were being assessed for his administrative or general business knowledge.

A series of questions followed and Petrov racked his brains to answer them one by one. His Highness looked more and more impressed with each answer. In the end, he clapped his hands and said, "Yes, we'll stop here today. When you've put together the ransom valuing 3,000 points, you can return to redeem the earl. Rest assured. He'll be well taken care of these days."

"Your Highness, about the agent rights..."

"It'll be announced on that day." Roland implied that it was time for the knight to escort the guest out.

Petrov left the hall with mixed emotions. He then saw Carter returning to him the God's Stone of Retaliation—it was still blue and translucent, and worth 50 gold royals.

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

"So what did you think?" Roland looked at Nightingale who had emerged from the side.

"Well, he said more or less the truth," she shrugged her shoulders and said, "He was much more sincere than the ones interviewed before him. By the way, do you really think that it's a good idea for you to repeat the same things to everyone? What about those letters? Aren't the contents supposed to be of the utmost secrecy?"

"Not everyone," the prince looked over the list and said, "They're from the five big families. These great nobles are the only ones suitable for managing Longsong Stronghold. For those that aren't strong enough, even if they were to get this position, they wouldn't be able to run Longsong Stronghold properly. Instead, this would only cause the various forces to start an endless internal strife among themselves. As for Timothy Wimbledon being defeated at Eagle City, that isn't really a big secret. It would soon spread throughout the whole Kingdom of Graycastle. I was just trying to speed up the process."

[These two messages come at just the right time,] he thought, [If the Second Prince did not suffer such a defeat, it would probably be much harder to recruit an agent—if the use of coercion was needed, the results would not be so perfect.]

"So... Have you already decided to choose him?"

"If all goes as planned," said Roland with a smile, "Anyway, he was the first person to take the initiative to ask about this matter. A subjective initiative has always been the most important quality of a staff. I did not expect to discover among the five families such a talent who's proficient in administration and trade. I thought they were only good for getting on their horses and fighting and killing."

He found Petrov Hull's name on the list and used the quill pen to outline a circle.

Chapter 121 - The Looting

...

Roland was finally relieved after interrogating the five families.

When he leaned against the chair, Nightingale took the initiative to walk behind him and massage his shoulders.

From defeating Duke Ryan to capturing the lord's castle, they only took one day.

It went much smoother than he had expected. When the duke died in the battle, most of his people decided to surrender. The mercenaries, particularly, defected and kneeled to express their willingness to serve His Highness.

Thus the mercenaries watched over the surrendered knights and nobles, while the First Army watched over the mercenaries. Together, they went east and arrived in Longsong Stronghold at 3 p.m. that day. Upon seeing the Duke Ryan's head and the groups of surrendered nobles, the guards immediately opened the city gates to welcome Prince Roland.

Roland did not immediately summon all the nobles in the city to declare his ownership of the stronghold. Instead, he first went to lord's castle.

The castle sat in the center of the stronghold at the highest point, like a city within a city. When they broke into the city, there was an outbreak of small-scale fighting. When Nightingale blew up the courtyard gate with explosives, some 20 guards who did not follow the duke to the battlefield put up a struggle. They were shot dead by the First Army. But in their attack, they used hand crossbows and hurt five members of the army. Of those, two were seriously injured, but fortunately, Nana who was with the troop was there to cure them instantly.

10 guards tried to escape with the duke's family through the back door, but Lightning who was monitoring the situation from the sky noticed them. They were captured at once, including the duke's wife and his two sons. Until then, they were still in the dark about the duke's defeat.

After capturing the lord's castle, the First Army took over its defense. Doubtlessly, Duke Ryan's castle was three or four times the size of the castle in Border Town. Its design was also much grander, with six lookout towers making up a hexagon outline. The central tower was almost five-story high, an unusual feat at this point in history. The courtyard had everything including houses, warehouses, and stables. There was even a private jail in the castle's basement.

Roland put the valuable captives and the duke's family in prison and evacuated the civilians. The weapons he had confiscated from the mercenaries were placed in an empty room in the courtyard in batches. In the meantime, he also selected several leaders and paid them handsomely, so they can take care of themselves. In his mind, North Slope Mine was the best home for those opportunists, but he had more important things to do.

That was the most important thing to "loot" after a battle—commonly known as searching the dead bodies.

Roland led the witches to ransack the entire castle. They even found the God's Stones of Retaliation in the vault and secret chamber. By the time they were done, their haul was breathtaking. In the basement alone, they had discovered two boxes of gold royals. Even with a conservative estimation, they gauged there were at least 10,000 gold royals there. In a secret compartment in the bedroom, Nightingale found several gemstones the size of eyeballs. Behind a fireplace, Echo found the door to a secret chamber stuffed with all kinds of gold handicrafts like scepters and crowns, but also dazzling jewelry, all neatly placed on a shelf.

This was a duke's wealth!

Looking at the massive wealth and considering the revenue of Border Town that was less than 500 gold royals in fall and winter, Roland became emotional. This was the temptation of looting and plundering. If Roland did not come from a highly industrial society, he would have been addicted to the feeling it gave him.

Despite his profound emotions, these things still have to be taken in. There would be a boom in the working population of Border Town in the foreseeable future, so he needed a lot of money to import food before the development of their agriculture.

After Hummingbird's magic was used to reduce the weight of the boxes of treasure, Iron Axe and the prince's guards escorted the transportation of the treasures back to their castle through the Littletown. Considering the time spent in enchanting bulky items, it took about three days to ship them all to their destination.

That was also why Roland did not demand gold royals as ransom the next day. He had benefited a lot from the duke. What he needed most were people and livestock.

"Your Highness, are you really only staying here for a week?" Nightingale asked.

"What's wrong?" Roland closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of numbness on his shoulders.

"This is the biggest town in the Western Region," she said softly, "and compared with Border Town, don't you want to stay at a more prosperous place?"

"There are too many intricate power struggles in Longsong Stronghold. It's not suited for what I want to do. It's fine if we want to maintain the status quo, but once we want to make changes, we'll face more and more resistance. And I can't uproot those forces in one go right now." Roland smiled. "Of course, what's most important is that the church's teachings have been entrenched in the people here. They won't be able to accept you all so soon. But as I've said, I hope the witches can walk freely on the streets. I've succeeded in Border Town."

"Yes," Nightingale said softly, "You've fulfilled your promise."

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

The morning of the third day, Petrov brought his list over in a hurry. As per convention, Roland received him in the lobby.

"Your Highness, I've made my selection."

"Let me see." Roland took the list from him. As he had anticipated, most were second-class serfs. There were 800 of them, as well as 100 cattle and 300 sheep. In total, they were equal to 900 points. The rest were craftsmen.

"Your Highness, is that fine?"

"Of course, as long as we accumulate 3,000 points." Roland returned the list to Petrov. "When can you gather all these supplies and people?"

"I can do it today, as per my arrangement with the property and people of Honeysuckle domain. However, Your Highness, it may take half a month to ship them to Border Town."

"That'll be up to you," Roland said, knocking the desk. "I take that you have experience in arranging caravans?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Petrov hesitated before adding. "What about my father...?"

"You can take him back today." The prince smiled and handed him a parchment scroll. "If you don't have any questions, leave your signature and fingerprint on it."

"This is... an agency contract?" Petrov glanced at the top of the scroll, his voice shaking with excitement. "Are you agreeing to grant the Honeysuckle family the right of agency?" He unfolded the scroll and began reading it carefully.

Roland nodded with satisfaction at Petrov's cautiousness. The most basic requirement to be his partner was having a keen eye on contracts.

Petrov raised his head a moment later. "The content is almost the same as what you told me yesterday. But..." He pointed to the bottom of the scroll. "Your Highness, shouldn't it be my father's name? He's the Earl of Honeysuckle and the representative of our family."

Roland laughed. "Of course not. The one I'm discussing becoming the agent of Longsong Stronghold with is you, not your father. Naturally, it's you who have to sign the contract."

Petrov was stunned and asked in disbelief, "Your Highness, do you mean you want me to..."

"That's right. You'll replace the duke and manage Longsong Stronghold for me." Roland nodded. "If the contract is enforced smoothly, you'll continue to govern the city after I become the king." He paused, his smile gone. "But if you violate the contract, you'll end up like the duke. I've invaded this city once and I can do it again. So do well, Mr. Ambassador."

Chapter 122 - The Father and The Son

The dungeon of the castle was not as damp and dark as the prison in Border Town, for the duke did not want his basement to become a haunted house, or a house where anyone could smell the disgusting odor once they walked downstairs. The dungeon was still clean in general. Different cells were decorated differently according to the standards. Some of them were totally empty while some of them not only came with a bed, but were even fully-equipped with a closet, a desk, and chandeliers. It seemed that the duke originally took this as a place to imprison some nobles, and he wanted to ensure that basic etiquette was still being observed.

Roland also found a special cell in the corner, a room which was half-occupied by a big bed. There was a chain hanging down from the ceiling, and the iron handcuffs on the chain were wrapped with a layer of sheepskin, and on the wall was hanging all kinds of whips. It seemed that Duke Ryan had an affluent knowledge in that special area. But unfortunately, Roland would leave here in a few days, and he had lost the chance to get close to that special area here.

As the most valuable captive, Shalafi Hull was naturally arranged to live in the best cell. If you never noticed the iron railings which were outside the house, you may have thought it was a luxurious bedroom. The ones he lived with were the viscounts from the Maple Leaf Family and the Wolf Family, the eldest son of the Wild Rose Family, and the second son of the Elk Family. Together with Lion Ryan, these families were called the Fortress Six. Of course, the Ryan Family had been disintegrated by Roland, and his wife and sons were imprisoned next door.

When His Highness appeared in the dungeons, all the nobles stood up. Roland said, "Earl Hull, you can leave here. As for the other people, when the ransom arrives, I'll let you go," he added this before they could ask.

"Father," said Petrov, relieved at seeing the duke's ruddy face. He glanced at his friend and then looked at Roland. "Your Highness, I didn't see the name of the Earl of the Elk Family on the list. If he's died on the battlefield, and the eldest son of his family is still in the king's city, then there's no man to support the whole family. Is it possible to release Rene Medde first and let him raise the ransom? I'm prepared to guarantee him."

"The eldest son of the Elk Family, do you mean Jacques Medde?" Roland shook his head and said, "He's already been back and came to the castle yesterday, but... I don't think he intend to pay the ransom."

Hearing this, Rene leaned against the cage. "Why?" he asked in disbelief.

"He said you didn't protect your father on the battlefield and you killed Earl Medde."

"Why did he say that? The killer is obviously..." Rene suddenly sealed his lips.

Roland just got over it and said, "What you were trying to say was the killer is obviously me, right?" He went to the cage and said, "Your father sent the people into my castle, and he wanted to burn the crops before the Months of Demons. Now he had invaded my domain with the duke, and I just made a counterattack to also repel the invaders. So am I a killer? Compared with them, who should be condemned? If it were not because you were proved to know nothing about the whole thing, you were a dead man already."

"..." Rene could not say anything.

"Your Highness," asked Petrov, "if no one is willing to pay the ransom, will you execute him?"

"No I won't. I'm always benevolent," Roland grinned and said, "and I'd probably send him back to Border Town and make him mine on Northern Slope for 20 years for atonement."

"So... how much is the ransom?" he asked.

"As the second son, he has no chance to inherit the title of nobility, so the price is naturally less than that of the Earl of Honeysuckle. It only needs materials worthing about 1,000 points." Roland looked at him with interest. "So, do you want to pay the ransom for him?"

"What kind of materials? 1,000 pieces of gold royals?" The earl who was released by the guards interrupted.

"Your son will tell you about that." Prince Roland made a gesture of "please". "Go, there's nothing here worth staying for. As for the second son of the Medde Family, you don't have to rush for that. You can go back and think about it."

When they left the dungeon and went to the gate of the castle, the earl suddenly stopped. "Your Highness, I know that Duke Ryan may be guilty, but... his wife and sons are innocent."

"Yes, maybe," said Roland indisputably. "I didn't intend to punish them by exiling them or hanging them to death, I'll only bring them back to Border Town and imprison them." He wouldn't release them until the day that he ascended the throne. The situation would be more complicated if he became remissive now because the eldest son had a legal inheritance to the throne.

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

"What?!" Shalafi Hull stared at Petrov unbelievably. "His Highness doesn't intend to live in Longsong Stronghold, but he let you manage the whole city?"

As soon as they returned to the Honeysuckle's, Petrov immediately told his father in detail what had happened in the three days. The earl could not bear it when he heard about the contract, and when he got the specific answer, he stood up and walked around in the schoolroom again and again with mixed feelings.

"Father, are you all right?" Petrov anxiously asked.

"Now it seems our opponent is mainly the Elk Family. There's a broad gap between us and the other three families in terms of both wealth and culture."

"Sorry... What?" He did not get the idea of his father.

"Opponents! The opponents!" The earl yelled. "I'm so disappointed with you. His Highness gave you such a great chance but you haven't yet analyzed who is your opponent!"

"Uh, don't you feel odd about that?"

"Why does His Highness insist on going back to Border Town? It's really odd, but what does that have to do with us? We just need the real contract," the Earl said as he fondled his mustache.

[That's the fact,] Petrov thought, [and His Highness wouldn't use much energy just for a joke. As to the reasons why he loves Border Town that much, I can slowly think about that again.] But what he didn't expect was that his father accepted the fact so easily.

"I heard that the Medde guy is your friend," Shalafi suddenly said firmly, "and you go to get him out tomorrow."

"Do you allow me to redeem him with materials worthing 1,000 points?" Petrov was stunned.

"Well, think about it. If the Earl of the Elk family died, the eldest son wouldn't want to redeem the second son. So in this battle, the only sacrifice would be a few knights, and it seems that there's hardly any loss. Once Jacques Medde inherits the throne, it'll inevitably hinder you from being in charge of... no, managing Longsong Stronghold," the earl explained, "Why was Jacques reluctant to redeem Rene? Because he was afraid Rene will be a threat."

[Well, that was the real reason,] Petrov wondered while bitterly smiling. But he knew that his father was right. Rene liked swords and rifles since he was young, and he was very close to the knights in this domain. Unlike the eldest son Jacques, who thought that a royal should not be involved in fighting and preferred romantic things. Although Rene had repeatedly shown that he wanted to become a knight, but that was in the absence of inheritance to the throne. Now, without the control of the earl, who knew whether he would gather the knights to kill the eldest son? Jacques would not spend money to redeem a person who made him felt restless. His decision was very simple and ruthless.

"My friend will never do that," he firmly said.

"Maybe, if you redeem him, no matter what he intends to do will be a headache for Jacques." Shalafi went on to say, "As for the points, we can choose some wonderful craftsmen."

"When preparing for your ransom, I've transferred some craftsmen, and if we use more, I'm afraid there wouldn't be enough craftsmen in the whole domain."

"Don't worry, do you know that the Northern Region is a mess now?" Earl said confidently, "The four kingdoms were all destroyed in Hermes, the lords forced people to join the army, and there have been a large number of fugitives. We can take this opportunity to take a little more, and then we'll save the monthly supplies."

Petrov found that his father was also a business master—at least he did much better in business than he was on the battlefield.

Chapter 123 - The Offer of the Church

On the fourth day after Roland had conquered Stronghold, he summoned all the nobles in and near the area to the hall of the castle.

Although the majority had already known the news, he thought that he still had to make it clear before all of them—the Western Region had a new lord.

When he said that he would go back to Border Town and had asked the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family to take charge in his stead, all the nobles started to argue immediately. Of course, nobody was willing to take the lead to dissent at that moment while the head of the duke was still hanging high in the gate and Timothy's defeat made speculators decide to seek for external help.

After the knights of the Honeysuckle Family were ransomed, the rest of the captured knights from other families could not be ransomed. Together with those mercenaries, they would be escorted to Border Town. In Roland's plan, all the mercenaries were sent to the mine for labor reforming while the knights would be considered for employment based on their repentant attitude—after all, most knights were literate and could be the first teachers of universal education. They, of course, were forbidden to use weapons for the rest of their lives.

As a result, the Honeysuckle Family's power would be much greater than the other four families'. They had enough armed forces to defend Longsong Stronghold and their own Earl territory, Roland thought. And as for small confrontations in their interests among those five families, they were Petrov's responsibility to worry about.

During the past few days, Roland had taken some time to order his guards to capture some officials who were held accountable for causing residents of Border Town to starve and freeze to death two years ago; the Treasurer, Reynolds, was included. They would receive a people's trial in Border Town. The only pity was that Earl Hirte Medde, who attempted to burn Roland's army provisions and killed Greyhound, was dead on the battlefield without standing trial.

Now, the traffic between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town had been fully restored. Each day over the coming seven days, more than 10 sailing ships would carry material resources to Border Town. Roland guessed Barov would be very busy in taking over coins looted from the duke and resettling a large number of immigrants, and he wondered if Karl had built those temporary wooden sheds as he told him to.

Thinking about it here, he could not wait to return to Border Town as quickly as possible to take charge of the forthcoming farming project.

After accompanying the nobles to have lunch, the castle ushered in a special guest when Roland was about to take a nap.

It was the High Priest, Tylo, in the Longsong Stronghold church.

Suddenly, Roland's sleepiness was killed.

Different from Border Town, the church had been rooted here for a long time. They not only built a church but also had a high priest stationed here. This was also the main reason why the prince made up his mind to return to Border Town to develop it—Longsong Stronghold had been indoctrinated and influenced by the church for such a long time that any civilian could be their informer. And his public involvement plan would be constrained and the risks of witches being exposed would be multiplied. Unless the church was uprooted, his reformation would be going nowhere.

It was quite normal for the church to keep an eye on the changing of the Longsong Stronghold's lord. But what made Roland feel strange was that they should wait till today to send a representative to make dealings with him. However, the representative's identity was not simple. Believers of high priests were senior figures in the church and responsible for supervising one area which was similar to the secular duke's.

As usual, he met the representative in the hall.

As a middle-aged man about in his forties, High Priest Tylo wearing a church-customized, white robe with a blue border was very neat in his dress and appearances and he behaved like a courteous noble. If Roland were not in favor of witches and the royal Family, he would be glad to talk with such a person.

The high priest must wear a high-quality God's Stone of Retaliation. In case of any accidents, Roland told Nightingale before the meeting to stay far away from the representative's location.

After Tylo saluted, Roland invited him to be seated and ordered his attendants to serve tea.

No matter what he was thinking, he must behave properly.

"Your Highness, I send blessings on behalf of Holy City," Tylo said with a smile on his face. "You've already become the Lord of the Western Region as entitled, and may God bless you."

"Thanks," Roland answered in a relaxing tone, "and it seems that you don't care if I've killed Duke Ryan and seized Longsong Stronghold."

"We're rarely involved in those secular disputes. Whoever can provide the people a better life is a good king. Whether he's born to a particular Family or from the royal Family isn't the church's focus. In fact, promotion in the church never looks at believers' identities. I'm just a son of a farmer, but now the high priest." He smiled. "With all due respect, Your Highness, I'm afraid that sons of farmers can't become dukes, can they?"

If he launched an uprising and overthrew the royal Family, he would be the king. Although Roland thought this, he did not retort and changed the topic directly. "So why are you here, just for sending blessings?"

"Sending blessings is only part of it. I'm also here for cooperation."

"Cooperation? Cooperation of what?"

"We can provide whatever that can help you to expand your domain and influence."

"Wait…" Roland frowned. "You just said that the church was rarely involved with secular disputes."

"Rarely involved doesn't equal non-involvement," the high priest calmly said. "Nowadays, the fight between your elder brother Timothy and Princess Garcia has led to a miserable life for the people in the Southern Territory. "I've mentioned that the church considers whoever can lead the people to a peaceful life to be a respectable king. And you're exactly the kind of person."

Roland was stunned and wondered if the high priest was implying that they wanted to help him fight for the throne. He asked subconsciously, "Why?"

"You've led the people to fight against demonic beasts in Border Town and survived the Months of Demons, which proves your courage and ability. The amount of food you've bought from Willow Town shows that you don't want people to starve and suffer, which is a sign of kindness. The three noble qualities and the royal blood are the reasons why we choose you."

Roland did not believe those reasons at all, but it at least showed that even though Border Town was covered by heavy snow and isolated from the outside, the church was still staring at this remote place.

"But how? Dispatching the Judgment Army to fight for me?"

"We want to quell the war as soon as possible, but it'll raise most of the nobles' resentment, so we can only help with the material resources." The high priest took two pills from his bosom, one red and one black. "This is from the Holy Prayer Room in Holy City—which is equivalent to your alchemic workshop. The red pill can make your men temporarily have formidable strength, and the black pill can multiply their pain, cold, and heat tolerances. With these drugs, your army will be unstoppable. And the church only charges the most basic production costs." He paused. "Each pill is worth five gold royals. I can give you the two pills for free as test samples to prove that what I said is true."

"What do you ask for in return? Expanding the scope of the congregation and establishing a church in every territory?"

"That's good, of course, but it's our intention to quell the war. As long as the people live a peaceful life, they'll naturally come into the arms of God."

Roland took the pills. "It sounds fantastic, but for now, I don't want to compete to be the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Besides, both Timothy and Garcia are my closest blood relatives and I don't want to hurt them."

"I can understand." The high priest smiled. "But sometimes Family affection doesn't stop the temptation of obtaining rights, especially when you become an obstacle to their rights. Pills are just the starting point, and we can provide a little more help. If you decide to go that way, you can come to look for me at the church anytime." At this, he stood up and bowed down. "I've brought the resolution of the church, and may God be with you, Your Highness."

Chapter 124 - Returning to the Town

When Tylo left, Nightingale revealed herself from the Mist and said, "Today is probably the day that you've told the most lies."

Roland said impatiently, "What can I do when the person was the high priest of the church? Anyway, can you tell if he was lying?"

"No, the scene around him was engulfed by the God's Stone of Retaliation, and I could only see the darkness."

"Unfortunately, the high priest couldn't be treated like the noble," Roland thought with regret. He put the two pills on the table. "Do you think the pills are really as amazing as what he said?"

For pain relief, morphine could do it. But in order to make the soldiers become powerful, it sounded like the effect of the adrenal hormone. The problem was how to extract these two substances to make pills? If the church owned such technology, they should have conquered the world.

"Wait..." Roland suddenly thought of a possibility, "Maybe it has something to do with the magic power?"

"Can you see the flow of magic power?" He looked at Nightingale and asked, "is there magic power in these two pills?"

Nightingale observed carefully. "I can't see the magic power, but it's a bit like the God's Stone of Retaliation."

"The God's Stone of Retaliation?" Roland was stunned.

She nodded. "Well, you've seen the world through the Mist. It's only black and white there, but the darkness is different from that formed by the God's Stone of Retaliation, the latter more like a void that swallows the world around it. I don't know how to describe that feeling..." Nightingale hesitated. "It's better to say there's nothing inside rather than a darkness inside of a hole."

"Nothingness?"

"Yes, that's nothingness." She nodded. "The two pills also have something like nothingness, but they are subtle, and... they're also not a circular hole, but rather sections of the black flowing filaments."

"Does this nothingness affect your ability?"

Nightingale grabbed the pills, entered into the Mist, but soon retreated. "It seems to have no effect."

"It seems necessary to find a condemned prisoner to try these two pills and see what happens." Roland carefully wrapped the pills, and held the pills in his arms.

"I didn't expect the church to be so optimistic about you," Nightingale sat by the prince, and said depressingly.

"If the high priest didn't wear the God's Stone of Retaliation, I'd bet there are lies in nine out of his ten sentences." Roland curled his lips. "The most important thing is what they do. What they ask for is totally different."

"Why?"

"Think about what they want: more churches, more believers, a prince or king who's supported by himself, and deciding the propaganda of the divine right of kings, a stable country that's more conducive to their development of believers and development of power. Otherwise, under an annual war, the church and the cloister will become a target for robbery by refugees and aristocrats."

"What they like is that you can bring a stable life for the people?"

"It's not the case." Roland shook his head. "Stability comes from unity or balance, even if the king eats and drinks every day, the people in the unified country live happier than the refugees in the war. So it's not surprising that they support the Second Prince, and it's not surprising that they support Princess Garcia. But it's so strange to come and support me, especially when Garcia is victorious."

"Now if the church fully supports Garcia, I'm afraid that the king's city and the east side of the area will be swallowed by her in no more than six months." If 70% of the land of the Kingdom of Graycastle belonged to Queen of Clearwater, Roland thought their pressure would also be greatly increased. "If we don't help the strong one but choose the weakest one, it seems that this decision is beneficial to us. It can be assumed that we accept their support, and then the situation of Graycastle will become more chaotic. The direct impacts of the three countries are the sharp decline in the population, the rapid loss of wealth, the wars spread to the whole country, and the date of unification is dragged on.

"What benefits can the church gain? They won't have more believers. Worse still, I'm afraid all the churches will be demolished."

"I don't understand the idea of you nobles. You always beat around the bush." Nightingale sighed.

"Yeah," Roland replied with a smile, "except for me."

"..." The witch narrowed her eyes and stared at the prince for a long time. "It's strange.Why does that sentence also appear to be true?"

Three days later, Roland finally evacuated the castle and the library of Longsong Stronghold, contentedly taking the Littletown on the way home.

While approaching Border Town along the Redwater River, the scenery on both sides of the river had changed. In the open space of the town opposite where Anna burned, many people were busy working. Judged by their appearance, they were the serfs who first arrived in the town. While close to the Impassable Mountain Range, there were many simple wooden sheds that had been put up. Someone was moving in the wooden shed, Roland guessed it was a family member of the serfs.

These people were bound to the land from generation to generation, and their children were born to be serfs. Most people were living a numb life because they could not see hope. What drove them to work was not their inner desires, but the whip and cable set in the hands of the slaveholders. Low production efficiency was a great waste of human resources.

There was no doubt that slavery was the enemy of industrial production and belonged to the system that needed to be abolished. Roland did not intend to let them all become free people easily, but to provide a channel so that they could see the hope that they could be promoted to be free people. There was a precedent to follow—slaves divorced from slavery because of the kindness of their lord. Even if the spread of this approach would not have had much impact, other aristocrats felt that they were just a good person at most.

When the time was right, he would fully implement the abolition of the slavery law. The resistance would be much smaller then.

The wharf was full of sailing ships and it was clear that this small wharf had been unable to bear such heavy transport pressure. Fortunately, the draft of the Littletown was shallow, so it could dock directly without a wharf. "It seems that the expansion of the wharf also needed to be listed on the schedule," Roland thought.

When they returned to the castle, he could not take any rest. The moment he returned to the office he called Barov, letting him report on the situation of receiving the goods.

And the assistant minister was also ready. He took a roll of parchment from his pocket, spreading it out on the big wooden table.

"Your Highness, the things that you're taking back to the castle these days really scare me." Although he said so, his face overflowing with wrinkles betrayed his feelings. "It took the 12 apprentices a whole night to count all the coins, and the total is more than 14,000 pieces of gold royals! Your Highness, it's equivalent to a year's income in an ordinary town!"

Roland thought that it might take more than 20 years for a duke to save those many gold royals. And these gold royals were from the search, plunder, and exploitation of the people in the Western Region. He wanted to turn them into food, steel, and machinery as soon as possible. "What about the gemstones, jewelry, and handicrafts?"

"There isn't enough time to convert it all, but the conservative estimate is also about 10,000 gold royals. If they're sent to the king's city to auction, the price will be higher. Now they're stored in the basement of your castle." Barov stopped a second. "But there aren't enough rooms to be used for food storage, so I suggest that you expand the castle and build more warehouses to store other materials."

Chapter 125 - The Municipal Construction of Border Town

"Where's the person who sent it? Any classification statistics?" Roland asked.

"Yes, please refer to the bottom," Barov pointed to the bottom of the scroll and said. "A total of 1,100 have been sent to Border Town. They are mainly farmers and they were placed outside of the town as per your request. 35 of them were craftsmen that were placed under Karl's command. Their residences have been prepared in the New Civilization District." Barov clumsily pronounced the name. "However, is this okay, Your Highness? I remembered you were initially preparing it for the witches."

"The guards whom I sent to spread the rumors haven't returned yet, and the progress has been slower than I thought. Just let the craftsmen and their families have the houses, and we can always build more." The entire Border Town would need to eventually be refurbished in Roland's plan. The cottages built with the wood and mud shall be replaced with brick houses and they shall leave room for a spacious street at the same time, unlike the current alley which only allowed two people to pass side by side.

"Yes," Barov nodded and said, "Your Highness, I heard that there would also be cattle and sheep being delivered?"

"Yeah, but not now, I specially asked them to deliver them a few days later along with the shepherds. There's a grassland between the Misty Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range west of the city wall, it should be good for pasture. We need to blow out two openings in the city wall for the people to pass first. After all, it'll only be used during the Months of Demons."

Now that Roland had both men and wealth, the development limitations of Border Town had temporarily disappeared. Roland could finally put the town to good use.

He asked the bodyguard outside the door to come in and ordered, "Go and get Karl from the Administrative Office, I guess you'll find him in the wooden shed area outside of town if he isn't in the mine."

After an hour, Karl walked into the office, bowed and said, "Your Highness."

It had been half a year since he met the member of the Mason Guild, and he could be considered as the busiest officer since he was hired to work in the City Hall of Border Town managing the repair of the city wall, model houses, and those of the wooden shed temporary residential area. He was currently 35 years old with several white hairs showing on both of his sideburns, his skin was slightly tanned but he looked a lot more energetic than when they first met.

It was true that the environment could quickly change a person. Six months ago he was a Mason Guild refugee who was carefully concealing his identity. Now he was an experienced project commander and managed the engineering projects all by himself. Now he possessed the stature and gestures of a superior. However, what Roland most admired was his willingness to give.

Roland smiled and nodded. "Come and sit by the table." He handed the sketches he had just drawn to Karl and said, "Take a look. I'll need you to build these new things."

"This is the warehouse. Uh, the bottom part of it is built-on stilts. That could effectively prevent moisture issues." Karl quickly finished scanning through the first sketch before he flipped to the second sketch and observed for quite a good while before asking. "This is... a stove?"

"Indeed, you'll need to build more than five furnaces on the border of North Slope Mountain to incinerate the cement and burn the clay bricks. We'll need an open space, and considering the transportation channels and the yard position, more furnaces will be needed after it has been expanding to a larger scale."

"Yes." He turned to the last page of the sketch and frowned. "This... looks like a drain? No, it has a roof and parapet on top... It looks like it has a pond behind it. Your Highness, I don't understand."

Roland smiled. "It's a lavatory and it'll be your highest priority."

"Lavatory?" Karl contemplated for a while and said, "Your Highness, where are you planning to build it? There are commodes in your castle, and the attendant would handle them regularly. As for the villagers, they normally wouldn't need this kind of thing, they would resolve directly outside of their houses. So do the farmers, they just need to release themselves into Redwater River and the river would take the filth away."

Thus, he could smell the strong stinky smell when he came ashore today. Roland shook his head, intending to disperse the unpleasant memory. "Exactly, we need to change that bad habit."

"Uh... Bad habit?" Karl did not seem to quite understand.

"It's of course hard to understand for the people who're accustomed to defecating anywhere. How beautiful the world would be if a casual stroll wouldn't risk stepping on stools." Roland silently criticized in his heart. "Anyway, you just need to build it according to the sketch, and I've roughly marked the measurements. It should be located around the wooden shed area. There should be at least four to be built, and they should be built side by side on a two-by-two basis. Other than the ditch in the middle, it's to be built with bricks, the sheds, roofs, and partitions outside should be built with wood as it would save a lot of cement."

"Your Highness, you're trying to gather them together to... that," Karl paused as he obviously felt that he was degrading the dignity of the royal family by discussing such a filthy subject in front of His Highness. "What if they don't go in?"

"I'll issue an order for them to follow. You can go ahead and organize staff for the implementation."

"In that case, I'll follow your order," he nodded and said, "Your Highness, I have one more thing to report to you."

"Go ahead."

"Since the Mason Guild was forced to dissolve, there were a lot of people, just like me, that chose to leave the king's city. I'm thinking of writing a few letters inviting the members of the Mason Guild of whom I know to Border Town. They all have their strength, such as Lesya who's very good at the furnaces you mentioned. Your Highness, I'm not sure..."

"There's no problem at all," Roland quickly said, "and you invite all of them here and rebuild the Mason Guild. The pay shall be calculated according to what was paid at the Mason Guild, and the experienced ones can be inducted into City Hall."

"Thank you for your generosity." Karl bowed with gratitude.

After the mason left, he started to compose the serfs management and title removal system.

The population of Border Town would soon reach a peak. If the town continued to depend on food importation, the town would be in danger if there was any sort of disaster or if they were cut off from business. Therefore, other than the industrial sector, the agriculture sector would need to be quickly developed as well in order to achieve food self-sufficiency as soon as possible.

Prince Roland believed that as long as there was a promotion, the serfs would soon transform into active farmers. In addition to the improved seeds by Leaf, the farmland beside Redwater River would soon turn into an ocean of golden wheat in summer.

Regarding his request to prioritize the lavatory construction, that was to prepare for the agriculture development coordination. After having the men, land, and seeds, all that was needed was the fertilizers.

Of course, Roland knew that using the fertilizer of humans and animals was very troublesome. It required regular cleaning of the storage pool and needed manual composting which was not as convenient as a chemical fertilizer. However, he did not have a clue how to make chemical fertilizer and so he could only substitute it with the natural organic fertilizer. At least the human and animal fertilizer was tested over a long period of time, and the traditional fertilization could still be seen in some rural areas in the twentieth century.

The people of this world knew very little about fertilizer, and most of them thought that feces was something filthy, other than being used to disgust others, there was no actual use of it.

Chapter 126 - The Transformation of Wheat

The rotation system was not important for villages or towns with small population density, but the land around the big cities was scarce, and it was equal to wasting the land if the system was still adopted. There was a large amount of grain imported from other towns monthly for places like Silver City, Fallen Dragon Ridge and King's City.

The first step to use the human and animals fertilizer was to collect them up. This was the reason why Roland decided to build the public lavatory as soon as possible, and it would also help to reduce the spread of diseases and beautify the living environment. What a multi-purpose solution. The lavatories had been almost completed by the time the rest personnel arrived. As for composting and sowing, he decided to pick up a few of experienced farmers and teach them one-on-one. After all, the land was still under the clean-up stage, so it would still need another week before they could start farming.

Having completed the chores on hand, he decided to take a look at Leaf's experimental field in the castle backyard.

Since Leaf started to study and improve the various kind of seeds, all the planting areas in the backyard were planted with crops. She also followed Roland's suggestion to divide the flower pond into several sections and number them in order to compare the development of the two groups of experimental crops.

The moment Roland stepped into the backyard, his eyes were dazzled by the clusters of shaking golden wheat.

"Your Highness." Leaf who was squatting by the flower pond, stood, gathered up her hair by her ear and bowed to pay her respects.

"Are these all of your improved results?" He waved his hand to tell her not to be so courteous, walked forward excitedly to hold a heavy load of wheat and feel its full caryopsis with his fingers.

He had no idea of what the wheat would grow into, however, compared with the wheat fields of King's City in his memory, the wheat was not only smaller than that on his palm but the particles were not so full.

Leaf nodded and said, "First, I let the wheat grow big and then I plant the new seeds into the flower pond. After accelerating and harvesting the seeds a few times, such a wheat can be obtained. However... I'm not sure why it's difficult to get such a long and huge wheat again after repeating the process two to three times."

"Unfortunately, I am not able to help on this aspect," Roland thought. According to his poor junior high school biology knowledge, it was probably due to selfing defect? The rice planted normally in the southern area was far different from the wheat. In order to increase the productivity, the seeds were actually purchased. However, it already had reached its practical value if it could sustain for two generations. A wheat could produce over 130 seeds and the first batch of seeds was transformed by Leaf, the second batch of seeds was given to farmers as self-reserved seeds which could be used for at least two years.

"What about this one, how come it's empty?" Roland noticed an area of the flower bed with only a few wilted wheat."

"I was planting there at first, and perhaps I've been planted too many times on it," Leaf spoke with uncertainty, "The wheat can quickly grow if I cast magic power, but the wheat will quickly wilt once the magic power has subsided."

It seemed that in order for the magically transformed plant to continue growing, it would still need the nutrients of the soil and some trace of elements were still essential. Roland walked towards the last flower bed where the shape of the wheat planted was extremely strange. There were several clusters of cyan wheat grains hanging down from a stalk which was as thick as an arm, and there were several branches stretching out in the middle of the stalk. The branches were covered with green leaves. Therefore, the size of each wheat was much bigger and there were only two planted in the flower bed.

This was the revised version Roland got Leaf to produce with magic power—the Little Wheat Tree.

Roland had an idea to grow wheat like a banana tree, fruiting from the branches, harvesting annually to cut down on the troubles of ploughing and seeding and also yielding the bigger and more green leaves which could improve the photosynthesis and be less dependent on the land. The sturdy wheat-straw and branches were a little space-consuming as of now. Besides that, the wheat was only growing out from the top of the branches and did not match his initial idea. "Perhaps, get Leaf to improve it towards the direction of the grapevine?" Roland thought, "After all, she hasn't seen a banana tree before and grape isn't a rare product in the Kingdom of Graycastle, and it should be easier for her to imitate with an available sample."

"The seeds of the three wheat can't be used for sowing," Leaf said, "I've tried, but the seeds didn't sprout after they were planted. However, it does yield fruits repeatedly and the wheat you're looking at now belongs to the second batch."

"Not sprouting means that each of the wheat trees was a unique presence which required Leaf to manually transform and that it wasn't worth growing at the present." "You've done a good job. Let's name the wheat Golden Ones. I'll keep a test field for you in the south bank of Redwater River, surrounded by a fence and covered up by a partition. You can accelerate the ripening process of a batch of Golden Number One as soon as possible for this year's spring sowing." Roland ordered, "As for the garden, it'll continue to be used to improve the new species, and I've just come up with a lot of ideas, not only for wheat crops but also for grapes."

Unfortunately, Leaf could only understand the characteristics of a crop from the macro level, such as a lot of fruit, sweet taste, dense branches and so on... If she could understand a crop from the micro level, would she be able to directly manipulate its gene and carry out the fine and precise adjustment? For example, plants could absorb light other than the visible light, such as ultraviolet, X-ray, and even ionizing radiation for photosynthesis to directly produce starch, glucose, sucrose and other energy storage materials. In that case, people could directly plant the crops in the cultivating tank.

Prince Roland lit a bonfire beside Redwater River in the evening and ordered Carter and the guards to gather the serfs. Big pots were delivered here by his people and set up on simple clay stoves to cook porridge.

Staring at their new lord who had his back facing the fire, his narrow long shadow reflected by the fire, the serfs bowed their heads down scarily. There were some bold ones sneakily peeking at Prince Roland from time to time.

Roland stood before the bonfire and the crowd of more than 1,000 people, to announce the rules he had set.

"I'm Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the Lord of Border Town and the Lord of the Western Region!"

"I'm gathering all of you here to tell you that you're lucky to come to this domain! As long as you work hard, you can get rid of your present identity and status!"

"Yes, I'll give you a chance to get rid of the identity of a slave and become a free man!"

The serfs suddenly burst into an uproar. The serfs were well aware of what being a free man meant. They would no longer be subject to cruelty by the owner and no longer had to be forced to carry out endless farming. All the crops produced in the fields would no longer have to be turned over to the lord, and their sons and daughters could also leave the identity of slaves behind them.

Roland waited for a moment and continued to say, "From tomorrow onwards, each of you'll be assigned to a piece of land where someone will guide you on how to farm to cultivate more wheat. In the first year, you would have to turn over 70% of your harvest and you get to keep the rest. The serfs of the best harvest will be promoted to become free men!"

"After you become a free man, your family can be exempted from slavery, and you can decide whether to continue farming or find another way to sustain your lives in the town. If you choose to continue farming, 20% of your harvest should be turned over to pay the rent of the farmland. The other 80% would be at your disposal. If you choose to find another way to sustain your life, you would have to return the field to the lord, and, of course, there's also no need to turn over any food!"

All that could be heard was the sound of breathing until someone suddenly shouted, "Your Highness, is what you said true?"

"Of course," said Roland word by word, "As a lord, I would never deceive my people."

"Your Merciful Highness," someone could not help but shout gently and soon there was cheering which quickly became louder. "Long live, Your Highness!"

A serf in the first row started to kneel down in front of the cheering crowd, following by the second and the third...

Suddenly, all of the serfs were kneeling, the cheering sounds continually growing. The voice of the people finally combined into one rhythm. "Your Merciful Highness!" "Long Live, Your Highness!"

"Since there was an echo, there was no need to prepare an actor," Prince Roland thought.

He clapped his hands and ordered the guards behind him, "Let's eat!"

Chapter 127 - Wendy

Nightingale came out of the Mist once Roland fell asleep. She gently helped him to tidy up the blanket and covered his exposed arm. She stood quietly watching him for a moment. Then she left through the floor silently to go back to her room.

"Haven't you slept yet?" Nightingale was slightly surprised to see Wendy still reading at the bedside.

"I'm afraid that what you're doing is wrong!" Wendy stared at her. "His Highness isn't a child. Is it necessary to take care of him until he falls asleep?"

"His Highness sent people to the other cities and towns to spread news of the witch organization. I'm just being cautious in case the witches intentionally come to hurt His Highness after hearing the news." Nightingale picked up a wet towel and wiped her face, before untying her red belt and leather wrist guard. Then she unbuckled her armor. This outfit was newly made by His Highness. The ivory hooded-jacket design was extremely obvious, but yet Roland thought it was very suitable for an assassin.

Nightingale carefully hung the clothes up and smoothed out every wrinkle. Her perfectly fit body was wrapped within a piece of fine gauze, and there was no fat to be found on her tight abdomen, and thighs.

"What kind of accident would there be." Wendy put down her book. "We have our sisters living in the castle and there are the guards patrolling outside the castle. Besides, haven't you put the stone under his pillow? You've never touched something like that before."

"Well, I'm just doing it to ensure his safety." She sat by the side of the bed, took off her long boots, pulled her slender legs up and turned herself over beside Wendy.

"Did you even hear what I said last time?" Wendy sighed. "Veronica, we're witches."

"I know, Wendy," Nightingale nodded and said, "We're 'witches'".

[Prince Roland would marry a witch. He had said it himself, and he had not been lying.]

Of course, Nightingale should not disseminate this information unless it was necessary. She silently apologized to Wendy and changed the topic. "Do you have any information about the church?"

"Why do you ask this now?" Wendy was shocked.

"When Roland was in the castle of Longsong Stronghold, the high priest of the church came to visit him and expressed his willingness to support him to seize the throne."

"What did he say?" Wendy sounded nervous. "Or did Roland ask you to go out before the conversation?"

Nightingale shook her head with a smile and said softly, "He just asked me to pay attention to avoiding the range of God's Stone of Retaliation. His Highness didn't wear it himself. Wendy, he didn't agree to the invitation from the church. He refused them."

Wendy was relieved, and yet seemed a little disconsolate. "Unfortunately, the amount of help we can provide to His Highness is very limited, unlike the church which has power covering the entire mainland. If he agreed with them, he could probably take over the throne more quickly..."

"Who knows. He said that the high priest was full of nonsense and not trustworthy at all." She paused. "The only concern I have is this." Nightingale narrated the incident of the red and black pills. "In the Mist, the pill has the same color as the stone, which is incredible. Our sisters have seen the result of swallowing the stone, which is no different from committing suicide. The high priest mentioned it was a kind of medicine they're studying in the praying room of Holy City. Did you ever hear of it in the cloister?"

When the Witch Cooperation Association left Silver City, Cara brought Nightingale, Windseeker and Stone to set traps to capture villains who were chasing them for bounty and had retaliated. One of the ways was to put the God's Stone of Retaliation they were wearing into their mouth and make them swallow it. The villains who swallowed the God's Stone of Retaliation would die quickly, and their entire body curled up as if shrunken, just like fish dried under the hot sun.

"I have no idea," Wendy closed her eyes and said slowly, "As far back as I can remember, I was living in the cloister in the old Holy City. It was surrounded by high walls, and there were no other sights except the sky. All activities were within the courtyard, reading and interpreting drawings were both taught by the chief nun. I still remember her name, Faria. One of the books she read to us was an introduction to the old Holy City. There were churches, cloisters, libraries, memorial halls and heroic walls in the city, but there was never a place called the praying room. I lived in the cloister for more than 10 years before the accident happened..."

Nightingale had heard Wendy mention it before. The cloister had been attacked by a witch, and many people died in the accident. Wendy had escaped from the cloister during the chaos. "We're not sure which witch had such courage to challenge the church alone, but she saved you at least."

"No, Veronica. The witch came from the church," Wendy shook her head and said, "She was just like me, a member of the cloister."

"What do you mean?"

"The girls who lived in the cloister could basically be divided into three categories. The first was like me, they grew up there and knew nothing about their origins. The second was the waifs or orphans who were sent by the churches after being adopted. And the final was the girls who were sold by their parents to the church. The managers would separate them according to their age and place them in different dormitories, and their learning content was also different. The youngest would learn how to read, 10 to 14 years old would go for caroling and the girls older than 14 would learn etiquette. The nuns called our class the literacy class, and the older ones' the choirs and ritual classes. Once a lady becomes an adult, she was sent away from the cloister."

It was the first time Nightingale had heard this. Wendy had never discussed her experience in the cloister in detail.

"In the first few years, we could always hear the girls screaming at night, mostly the ones from the choir and ritual classes, I didn't quite understand what was happening. Until I was in the choir class, then I noticed that there would be lords from the church patronizing the dorm in the evening. They would drag several girls from the bed away with them and only send them back in the morning. Sometimes, they were not all sent back."

Nightingale clenched her jaw. She was certain that she knew exactly what Wendy's words meant.

"Such incident would happen once or twice a month. It became more frequent, almost once every two days. I was selected after that. Faria pulled me out of the room and whispered in my ear saying, "Just bear with it." I was dragged to a half-covered underground house in a corner of the garden. The house was ablaze with lights, and there was a girl from the ritual class cuffed to the wall and four or five people around..." Wendy's voice was slightly jittery. "When they approached me, the girl suddenly broke the shackles and grabbed the nearest one by his neck. She snapped his head off like a chicken."

"She awakened?"

"I don't know," said Wendy. "Though they had taken off their clothes, they still wore God's Stone of Retaliation. She killed them one by one, and one of them had his limbs torn off. Before his death, he seemed to say 'extraordinary'. Adult screams alerted the guards outside the house. They opened the iron gate and rushed into the room, but they were bewildered. The girl charged straight into them. "

"Extraordinary... does it mean witch?" Nightingale asked, "Even the guard couldn't fight against her?"

"The difference was too big. I learned afterwards that the guards were actually from the Judgement Army. One of them blew his whistle and the other attacked with his swords. By the time the first whistle ended, she already had her arm through the chest of the guard who was blocking her way. The armor of the church was flimsy, like a piece of paper, before her."

Chapter 128 - The Pill Test

"She picked up the sword of the Judgement Soldiers, stabbed Faria and split a Judgement Soldier into two pieces. The blade was broken into several pieces. However, the whistle had alerted the entire cloister, there were a lot of people rushing to the scene with oil lamps. She put on Faria's clothes and picked up the weapon of the other Judgement Soldier and walked towards the guards all by herself."

"I sat in a room full of bleeding bodies and I came back to myself after staring blankly for a while. One of the deadmen was in charge of the keys of every entrance of the cloister, I pulled the keys out from the clothes that were scattered on a side and took the God's Stone of Retaliation off their bodies at the same time. Although I didn't know what the use of the stone back was then, I simply thought that with its translucent appearance, it could be sold for a good price. The priest, the guards and the Judgement Army of the cloisters were searching for her. I almost got to the hidden side door of the backyard without any hindrance. Fortunately, having tried almost every key, I opened the door and left the cloister."

After that, I only managed to sell one of the stones and the rest were robbed. I wandered around and finally stopped at Seawindshire having depended on only the 10 silver royals that I had. I was awakened as a witch in the winter after two years." Wendy paused. "This is my entire story."

Nightingale held Wendy's hands and kept quiet for a while before she said. "What about the girl from the ritual class?"

"She may have escaped or be she might be dead. After that, I heard that the church claimed that there was a fire in the cloister and it was closed down. No one cares exactly where all the girls went. They were all abandoned."

Nightingale sighed and took Wendy into her arms. "Now you have us. Go to sleep, Wendy."

After a long while, Wendy answered, "Uh..."

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

Roland yawned while walking into the office the next day. He found Nightingale gravely sitting beside the table and waiting for him.

"Huh, what happened?"

"Have you ever heard about the Extraordinary?" she asked in a deep voice.

After Roland shook his head, Nightingale repeated the story that Wendy told her the night before. She said, "It's hard to imagine that a teenage girl could easily behead a member of the fully armed Judgement Army if she was not awakened."

"A witch who can't be controlled by the God's Stone of Retaliation..." Roland contemplated for a moment after hearing the story and he remembered the categorization he made for the witches abilities. "Could it be that she's a self-strengthening witch?"

"Self... What?"

Roland took a piece of paper out from the drawer and handed it to her. "I made a basic classification according to the type of magic you use. As a self-strengthening witch, she would consume magic all the time to transform herself, and her magic wouldn't be affected by the God's Stone of Retaliation. Although an ordinary witch's physical quality would be improved accordingly with the magic content, it's more prominent on the self-strengthening witch. If I understand correctly, Scroll is supposed to be the Extraordinary in the eyes of the church."

"Scroll?" Nightingale was surprised. "But, she..."

"But she's not good at fighting, right?" Roland said with a smile, "The classification isn't determined by strength, nor is it absolutely correct as it's just my personal ideas and speculation. A power self-strengthening witch can really cause a lot of trouble to the church. Without the restriction of the God's Stone of Retaliation, she can selectively kill the Judgement Army, or single-handedly destroy the church of small towns. However the strength of one person is still limited, and the awakening of a self-strengthening witch must be less than the other two types, otherwise, the witch would have hunted down the church in return." Although it's easy for him to say, Roland had a faint unease, thinking of both the red and black pills.

There were only a few Extraordinary, but there should be at least a dozen of them over the past century? As long as there were two or three power self-strengthening types, it could get the church hung up. For example, the church would focus all its energy on the Hermes defense line to clean up the church facilities of the other cities without restraint. They could destroy the church, the priest, and the priestess altogether. The number of church believers would be greatly reduced after a few years.

However, other than the Extraordinary witch whom Wendy met, Roland had never heard about another incident of the witch attacking the church and even the cloister Wendy used to live in was destroyed by a huge fire, and no one knew the whereabouts of the girls from the ritual class.

"The church would absolutely not be sitting around waiting to be killed," he thought, "Perhaps they already found the means against the Extraordinary, and the two pills could be one of it."

"In any case, we should first test the effect of the pills."

Thinking about it, Roland summoned for the guard standing outside of the door to pick up a prisoner and look for Carter.

The test field was arranged outside of the city wall.

But as a preventive action, Roland had arranged four groups of the First Army to surround the test field and they were armed.

Other than Roland and Nightingale on the city wall, Anna and Nana were also standing there. As long as there was no God's Stone of Retaliation, Anna's green fire was enough to protect his safety and Nana could provide the most effective treatment.

"Is everything okay?" Roland leaned over and asked Carter who was stretching his muscles and bones, "Don't despise the opponent."

"Don't worry, Your Highness," Carter put on his helmet and said, "Your Chief Knight doesn't earn his name with nothing. And, as the opponent is only using a wooden sword, it's impossible to hurt me."

The test object was a murder and robbery prisoner who was sentenced to death, and Roland did not like the death redemption after doing good deeds. He had directly told the prisoner that the family would be awarded five gold royals as a reward if he sacrificed himself for the test. The prisoner hesitated for a moment and agreed.

Carter even suggested the opponent to be armored and armed with an iron sword to have a fair duel with him, but Roland rejected without any hesitation. If the death penalty criminal was armed with a sharp weapon, the risk would increase exponentially. If the chief knight's head was chopped off, Nana would not be able to revive him. As for not wearing armor, it was just to test the pain tolerance of the black pill.

After the prisoner took both of the pills, the expression on his face quickly changed, blue veins appeared on his forehead and his arms, his skin appeared to be dark red and he was breathing hastily. He grabbed the wooden sword and dashed towards the chief knight who was quietly waiting, at the speed comparable to a running wolf. Everywhere he stepped he left a small hole, and the soil beneath his feet was trodden out into a few small pits.

Carter looked a little surprised, but still calmly took a step to the side and sliced with his sword. This trick could force the opponent to change direction, or the blade would cut into his ribs.

The opponent was just a murderer who never went through any combat training except for his strength. It was not a surprise that he was fluttered into the air with the side of his chest deeply cut open with blood gushing out. The injury was enough to affect half of his body, but he looked unconcerned and pounced towards the chief knight. Carter used the same trick, but with a slight change this time, when they passed by each other, the prisoner single-handedly pointed the wooden sword towards the knight. Generally, the awkward posture should not be threatening, but the chief knight saw a shadow when the wooden sword was swept out, and he subconsciously blocked with his sword. The strong impact forced him to take two steps backwards, while the wooden sword was also broken.

"You're pretty strong," Carter swang his arm and said, "Give him another sword, come again."

The prisoner did not catch the wooden sword that was thrown to him, but suddenly turned around and ran towards the forest. His speed was increased to a level where it was hard to be matched by an ordinary human, as fast as a galloping horse. He crossed his hands in front of his body and directly bumped into the soldier who was getting ready to fire. The soldier screamed miserably and was thrown into the air. At this time, other soldiers pulled the triggers. His blood was gushing out of his body, however, it did not slow him down. He was running so quickly out of the circle that it was more than 10 meters away within a few breaths.

"Don't let him escape," Carter shouted, "Get me my horse!"

Before Carter getting on the horse, the prisoner was suddenly startled and looked at his stomach incredulously—there was a horizontal wide-opened wound across his stomach and his boiling hot intestines were rolling out.

He slowly turned around and saw that a lady dressed in white, holding a shining silverlight dagger had appeared behind him without him realizing.

Chapter 129 - The Course Reopening

The wounded soldiers were quickly healed by Nana, and her ability to rejoin fractures was put to good use. Roland sent the First Army back to the camp, and the only ones that remained at the scene were the chief knight, the witches, and several guards.

He walked to the corpse with a gloomy face and commanded Carter to cut the back of the corpse open on where it was hit by the bullet.

The hole was about a finger and a half deep, where the bullet was found broken and the level of injury was basically the same as a normal human.

"What's your opinion on that?" Roland asked Carter.

Carter also seemed a little upset, for he probably did not expect to have someone who never received a sword training to use such a move. "It was simply empty strength and speed, if it was not for our observation, I would have cut his head off on my first attack."

"What if he were a knight?"

"This..." Carter contemplated. "If he were a knight under the duke, I probably could still barely cope with it, but if it was the Frostwind Knight and the Steelheart Knight from the king's city's knightage, I probably couldn't measure up."

Roland declined to comment as they would be relying on sword techniques and skills, and perhaps what Carter said was true, but with the armors, the situation would be worse. Assuming the prisoner was wearing heavy armor, with a helmet and a two-handed sword, Carter absolutely could not win so easily.

The power enhancement was multifaceted. They could carry more heavy armor and weapons, and enhance the speed as well as being able to last longer in combat. Roland thought that he had to correct the idea he had before in Longsong Stronghold. "Adrenaline? No, this is much worse than adrenaline, for hormones could only stimulate the potential of the human body. However, the red pill apparently had made the prisoner break through his limitation. He was almost comparable to the heavily-armed cavalry, especially the speed and momentum he showed when he was running."

The effect of the black pill was equally amazing. He was almost cut in half across his ribs, and even after being shot at close range, they could not stop him. If it were the ordinary people, he should have lost combat effectiveness due to the pain.

A civilian who had no fear of pain had become so powerful. What if it were a group of well-trained soldiers? Thinking of the words of the high priest, Roland could not help but frown.

"Your Highness," Nightingale said, "Look at his skin."

After the initial red color on the skin of prisoner's hand faded, it became pale and crumpled, like a molting snake. Roland poked it with a knife handle and noticed that there was no solid muscle under the skin and it felt empty. After cutting it open, he noticed that the subcutaneous fat had turned into mucus and the muscles had also shrunk.

"The effect is the same as after swallowing the God's Stone of Retaliation," she looked at Prince Roland and said, "The pills indeed contain the ingredients of the stone.

"Simply swallowing the stone would not produce the effect of power enhancement," Roland said while thinking, "How did they come out with such unscientific stuff?"

The pills seemed to have a strong side effect, and it was not clear whether it was permanent or it could be restored. Roland thought it was more inclined to the former. If it were the latter, the drug similar to an enhancer of mixed morphine and adrenaline would completely be considered as the magical war potion, as long as it was distributed according to the recovery time, it would not be a surprise for the church to use it to dominate the world.

Even if it were for a short duration and there were side effects, but it was also enough for Roland to be vigilant, Roland thought. If the church turned to support Timothy or Garcia, he would have to face an army of drug addicts.

It was even more disturbing for Roland that the church was willing to sell such thing without considering that the new king would attack them using the pill after the Graycastle reunification. Graycastle could easily recruit cannon fodders on the battlefield quickly as compared to both the old and new Holy City. If they joined forces, the Judgement Army would only be slowly exhausted.

Unless... they had a stronger card in hand and did not care about anything like this.

Roland sighed, he had intended to attack Longsong Stronghold to solve the problem of population and the lack of funding before focusing on the education, production, and agriculture in order to extend Border Town into a city within a short period. He thought he would be able to put aside weapons research for the time being. However, now it seemed that the army construction could not be set aside, the First Army would have to continue to expand and the production of flintlock guns would have to be continued as well. The new weapons research would also have to be listed on the agenda as soon as possible. They needed to work on breechloaders and fixed charge cartridges.

The mechanical principle of the breechloaders was not difficult, for it could be installed with paper-made bullets and it could also be made with several copper stampings.

Roland still had no clue regarding the ignition cartridge that was used to set the bullet. He only knew that it was called mercury fulminate. It literally meant that the raw materials must consist of nitric acid and mercury. He could not recall whether it needed to mix with anything else at the moment. And, he had the impression that there were certain requirements of humidity and temperature during the production, and the risk seemed to be rather high that it would be easy to blow fingers off accidentally. After some contemplation, he decided to spend more money to recruit a group of alchemists and build a laboratory in a corner of the town so that they could ponder it over themselves.

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

After dinner, Roland summoned both Anna and Scroll into the office.

Now the financials of Border Town had improved, and he would soon put half of the assets into compulsory education.

Industrial society needed workers with basic cultural quality, rather than the empty brute force of the illiterate. If universal education was not in place, the demographic dividend would only become a burden for the population.

With such a view, he intended to spend some time out at the school teaching, every night from this night onwards. Until Scroll mastered the basic knowledge of "Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science", the town should have almost completed the first batch of literacy tasks.

Scroll would be the future education pioneer and all-around teacher, so Roland wanted to pass all his knowledge to her. And, he asked Anna to come along as a favor.

Anna did not have an extra retentive memory, but her desire for knowledge and active learning was the most intense among the witches. He could often find her rummaging for books in the bookcases, and she had probably seen all the books for the past six months. In addition, her acceptance of new things and logical way of thinking was also rare in this era.

After getting the elementary mathematics and physics textbooks that Scroll created with her magic, he began to talk about today's teaching content.

Anna's understanding ability was significantly better than Scroll's from the beginning of the adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing to the more complex equations. When it came to physics, Scroll was still memorizing Roland's words and slowly assessing it while Anna could already ask a few questions from time to time.

Such as what the basic particles looked like and why the basic particles formed into various shapes and so on.

There were some questions that Roland could answer, but some of them he could not answer either.

Such as what magic power really was.

He could only share what he previously thought, saying that the magic power might be a kind of energy, similar to the electricity and heat, however, only the witches could use it currently. Ordinary people did not have the capability to store and use the magic power.

Anna revealed a thoughtful look.

The time always flew by quickly when teaching the women, especially the outstanding women. The candle had been changed twice without Roland knowing and the new one was already at its end.

Suddenly, Roland heard a soft snoring noise. Nightingale who was lying on the sofa had fallen asleep unknowingly. Perhaps the course was like a lullaby for her. The Mist had lifted the coverage, her totally inelegant sleeping position exposed to the eyes of three of them.

Roland shook his head helplessly and decided to end today's class here. He took off his coat and gently covered her, blew out the candle and closed the door behind him, while Anna and Scroll were trying to hold back from laughing.

Chapter 130 - An Evolved Ability

After returning to her room, Anna threw a cluster of green flames into a wooden barrel filled with water. The water would be soon heated up.

She took off her clothes and stepped into the wooden barrel.

When witches wanted to clean their bodies, they came to Anna to help boil the water. After all, it was troublesome to fetch water from the kitchen. Roland was surprised when he found out. It seemed like it was difficult for him to accept the repeated usage of bath water.

When Anna thought of this, she found it funny. For a commoner, it was difficult enough to clean his body once a month. Thus, it was very common to use bath water several times.

He was not even aware of the great improvements in the witches' living conditions after he took them in. Anna shook her head. His Highness Roland Wimbledon seemed to be erudite, but in some places, he was... slow-witted. She had read many stories where the princes would participate in various banquets and parties since his childhood. They would be familiar with all kinds of women. A prince could be ignorant and cowardly, but he should at least be good at socializing.

However, this feeling made her feel inexplicably secure.

His Highness' head was filled with much knowledge that took her breath away, such as the steam-operated iron machine and floating stones on the water by calculation. And today's lesson—the world is made up of little balls, so tiny that they need to be magnified thousands of times so the naked eye can see them. Because of this, they are everywhere. Either for solid, gas, and liquid or for people, flowers, and stones, when broken down, at their core, they are all basically the same material.

Anna found all these unbelievable. But how did her Highness knew all these?

After wiping herself, she dried the dripping water on her body with fire. She put on her clothes and sat at her desk.

In the center of the desk was a textbook written by Roland.

There was a period of time before the Book of Illusion was finished, so Anna borrowed this textbook. She wanted to read it for a bit before going to bed.

The book began with the common phenomena in life, before unfolding gradually like a peeled onion. Some pages were even illustrated with vivid and interesting drawings. Anna was so immersed in absorbing all the novel knowledge that she found it hard to stop after turning to the first page.

While the pages in the first part were relatively simple, the latter became more and more difficult to understand. Take the chapter on temperature, for example. It said that the cold and the heat are the active reactions of those tiny balls. The more energy those tiny balls get, the more actively they move. From a macro perspective, the temperature would rise. If what His Highness said was true, would her green flames become many active tiny balls after being magnified?

The candle burned to its end as time went on. After the flames wavered twice, it went out. Just then, the Book of Illusion was completed. The pages and handwriting became gradually transparent before disappearing altogether. Darkness engulfed the room until a green flame blossomed from Anna's fingertips, lighting up the whole room.

Looking at the empty desk, she felt somewhat disappointed.

Holding up her right hand, the dark blue magic was like a cluster of fluorescent lights, motionless on her fingertips.

She wanted to give it a test. If everything was made up of tiny balls, could it be as tiny as a tiny ball? Anna closed her eyes and visualized the image of countless particles that made it up.

The flames started to change.

It changed from a droplet-like shape to a thin line. It became thinner and longer, before finally resembling a hair.

Anna noticed the change, but it was not enough for her. She thought the hair was still much bigger than a tiny ball. It could become much thinner.

Even though she thought so, it seemed difficult to transform the green flames again. The light became dim and the thin green light started to tremble.

Perhaps they could not be stacked, but can be linked... Her Highness had once said that there was a fixed chain between the tiny balls. Maybe she could reshape them.

The particles imagined in Anna's mind shook twice, and with a bang, the links were broken up. The fire particles were no longer connected to each other, but flew apart like stars in the sky. The green flames may have disappeared, but in her mind, they still existed in a different shape. In the vast darkness, after most of the stars fell, the rest of the particles reunited slowly. They lined up one by one, eventually forming a filament composed of stars.

Temperature was an active matter, she thought.

As soon as she got this thought, the filament began swinging, as if someone was holding a corner of it and shaking it. After the shaking, the undulation of the filament seemed unstoppable and ripples were unfolded along it.

There seemed to be ripples in her world, where there was no clear outline between things jumping along this ripple, so was her magic power. She even thought that the first ripple plucked by her fingers was magic power itself.

When she opened her eyes, everything was quiet again. The green flames were gone. When her eyes were adjusted to the dark, the desk, the wardrobe, the candlestick... the furniture of her room showed their shapes from their shadows one by one. The pale blue moonlight poured onto the floor through the window, mirroring a small part of the grayish white. Everything appeared to be the same as usual.

But in her eyes, the world had become completely different. A dark filament floated in the air—Anna knew that she did not really see it with her eyes, but rather a different kind of perception.

She pulled out an iron ingot from under her desk and placed it in front of her.

The black filament abided by her will and wrapped itself around the iron ingot, quickly gathering. Like a hot knife cutting butter, the filament easily embedded into the iron ingot. Under the will of Anna, the temperature produced by the filament was several times higher than the green flames, but was limited to a very narrow range. Iron ingot soon broke into two. She picked up one half of it and saw the smooth cut. She could even feel its remaining warmth.

Then she placed the iron ingot vertically, placing the black filament on the top of it. She then split a horizontal filament, making them perpendicular.

This was a mathematical knowledge taught by His Highness in his lectures. With one point as the center, a precise circle could be drawn up using a tight line around the center. The area of the circle was equal to the line's length multiplied by itself and a constant.

Anna controlled one end of the horizontal filament to bend down and form a right angle, traversing through the iron ingot to the desk. She then made it gently rotate around the center line. The shape and whole temperature of the black flames could now be adjusted, and those black flames composed of particles could be turned into any shape. The temperature of various parts could also be controlled respectively.

After making a circle, a standardized cylinder was cut and shaped.

Due to the fact that the joints were shaped too closely to each other, Anna spent a lot of efforts to beat it out of the iron. Just as the section before, the surface of the iron cylinder was quite smooth. Against the moonlight, she could even faintly see her elongated face reflected on it.

Chapter 131 - The Forms of Magic Power

At the crack of dawn, Roland was pulled out of bed by Nightingale. He remembered the last time this happened was when Tigui Pine discovered Nana was a witch.

"What's going on? Did we discover a new witch in town?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

"No, Your Highness!" Nightingale exclaimed excitedly. "Anna, Anna's ability evolved again!"

"Again?" Roland was not completely awake. "Didn't she already reach adulthood?"

"It's a post-adulthood evolution. I've never seen such amazing magic power. It acts just like an entity." Nightingale brought him a washbasin and continued, "Scroll and Wendy have never heard of it as well. Hurry up and take a look. Everyone's in the office waiting for you!"

Roland gave his face a cursory wash. After putting on his clothes, he went straight to the office on the second floor with Nightingale. When he went in, the eyes of 11 witches were focused on him. Anna's eyes were swollen, as if she had not slept well the whole night.

"Who can tell me what happened?"

The first to speak was still Nightingale. "When I passed by Anna's room this morning, I saw her sleeping at her desk with a pile of iron lumps. I wanted to wake her up, but when I got closer, I noticed her magic power had turned..." She paused momentarily, as if to think of a way to describe it. "Her magic power has become a fixed shape, like a revolving block."

"A block?" Roland approached Anna and carefully observed her. There was nothing unusual about her, except for her exhaustion. Then he noticed a cylinder on the desk. The cylinder seemed to be made out of pig iron. Its smooth gray surface and the flatness of its top was an unbelievable sight for him. "This is..."

"Anna made that," Nightingale said, "Using her new magic power. After a witch is awakened, her body will gather magic power. At first it'll as pale as the fog, but in a few years, it'll slowly become a whirlpool of gas of a different color. For example, Wendy's color is white and Leaf's color is green... As for Anna, her magic power was immense in the past. In adulthood, it became a lot more condensed, making it a dark green. But her magic power is now only the size of a fist. It's like a solid object, completely opaque." She picked up a quill pen on the desk to roughly depict it. "That's basically what it looks like now."

Nightingale's drawing was terrible, but Roland could still tell that it was a cube.

He looked at Anna. "What happened last night?"

Anna told him what she experienced. When she finished talking, the other witches were still confused. They did not understand what the tiny balls, vibration, and linking had to do with the evolution of her ability.

Roland was the only one who was a little shocked.

In his view, magic power was a form of energy and it was the witch who released it. Magic power could be transformed infinitely, but its form was ultimately dependent on the witch manipulating it. In other words, it depended on the witch's thoughts.

If his guess was accurate, a witch's thoughts could have far-reaching impacts on her magic power.

To put it simply, a man who had never seen a plane would find it hard to imagine a huge iron bird flying in the air. A man who had never seen the universe would naturally not know how wide the world was. It was one's knowledge and thoughts that limited the use of magic power. Every step in understanding the nature of the world would bring great progress in science and technology. Would that hold true for a witch's ability? The more they understood the world, the closer their magic power got to its origin?

"Let me see your new ability," Roland said curiously.

Anna stuck out her fingers. A mass of black flames appeared on her fingertips, looking nothing different from ordinary flames, except for the fact that they did not glow.

"Can your Blackfire change shapes freely?"

Anna nodded and controlled the Blackfire to the table. Soon, the Blackfire suddenly turned into a cube. Not yet all the people noticed what happened, the cube spread into a black cloth, almost covered the entire desktop, and then concentrated to the center gradually, it turned into a straight line. Roland could not help touching it and found that hair shaped slim black line did not move— that was so incredible, we all knew that even if it was hard as steel, when it was pulled into a filament, one could easily twist it with fingers. This was determined by the flexibility of the object, the absolutely solid material did not exist.

"Can you make it finer?"

"Yes, but you can't touch it anymore," said Anna, "Otherwise it'll cut you."

"What about the temperature? Can you control it freely as well?"

"Yes. Compared with the green fire, I can make it produce different temperatures at different parts."

Roland basically understood what Nightingale mean by the ability liked real substance, compared with the green fire which as gentle as water, her ability had been cohered at the moment, and it was not appropriate to describe her ability as flame—when Anna accepted the point of view that the world was made by the microparticle, her knowledge of the temperature generated by flame broke the horizon of the temperature generated by particle movements. What could be sure was the two sides did not control the particles, like they did not control the flame... Whether the originally ordinary flame, or the green and black flame after adult year, they were all the forms of magic power.

Even though both were heat transformed from magic power, the effects were totally different.

Roland could not help thinking that Anna was a true genius. Other than that, he had nothing more appropriate to describe her. After learning the theory just a few days ago, she immediately understood and even applied it to her magic power. Such thought and capacity for knowledge could only be found in talented people.

Anna's transformation also made him more interested in exploring the true meaning of the world.

It was a pity that Roland could never possess magic power. This might be the biggest regret for him after the time traveled. After all, most people had a superhero dream. If one developed incredible strength out of the blue, thus changing his whole life, how wonderful would that be?

"I think I've figured out the reason for the change in Anna's ability," he told the witches, leaving behind his regret in his heart.

"What's that?" the witches asked.

"Learning."

"Learning?" Scroll muttered, "Do you mean the class yesterday?"

"Exactly," Roland briefly explained what he guessed, "The knowledge will help you improve your ability and even dramatically transform it."

"Can I... do that too?" Mystery Moon asked timidly.

"Of course." Roland patted her shoulder. If not for the fact that steam engines were limited in number, and they could not find rubber, they could have made wires. The pile of strong magnets made with her enchantment would definitely come in handy.

Roland's original purpose in lecturing was to pass on knowledge to Scroll, in case he forgot more as time passed. Now that he accidentally discovered that such knowledge could also improve the witches' abilities, his class had become a necessity for all witches.

Of course, he understood not everyone had an outstanding talent like Anna. For Nightingale who would fall asleep in class, he naturally did not pin any hopes on her. From remembering to understanding, and from understanding to applying, there were many gaps in the process. He did not know how many of them could truly understand the knowledge and finally apply it to their magic power.

"Did you not sleep well last night?" Roland asked Anna. "Take a good rest first. I'll test your new ability a few days later."

"Yes." Anna nodded seriously.

"As for you all," he said, looking to the other witches, "from today onwards, gather in the living room after dinner from Monday to Friday to learn basic reading and writing. Scroll, you're their teacher that'll lead them towards enlightenment."

Chapter 132 - The Knight of the Elk Family (Part I)

Prius had been kept here for five days.

After the transformation, the residence was almost like a cell. The original wooden doors had been replaced with wood balustrades and the furniture had all been removed. Only a few blankets remained. The only advantage was that the room was still clean, and neither air nor rain could leak in.

Aside from him, there were four other people in the cell. One belonged to the Wolf Family, while the other three were from the Ryan Family. And he, himself was the knight of the Earl of the Elk Family.

"Oh, heck! When can we leave?" The oldest knight of the Ryan Family shouted, "The wheat in my domain has not been sown yet! My wife doesn't know how to deal with these things."

"Your domain?" The young knight of the Wolf Family sneered at him. "Do you think His Highness will let you go to gather horses, weapons, and armor? Do you think he'll give you a chance for revenge? To tell you the truth, you should consider him merciful for not hanging you already"

"What did you say?!" The older knight glared at him.

"It's the truth," said the young knight in a carefree voice. "The duke was the mastermind behind the rebellion. Why did he not dispose of his elite knightage, to leave them for his son? As for us, we had no choice but to go to the battlefield under the threats of the duke.

"I think you're suicidal!" He walked over and lifted the young man, with his right hand clenched. As he was about to beat him, a hand stretched out from behind and held him firmly.

"Stop! Halon. Do you want to attract the guards?" An extremely handsome knight pushed down his fist. "He's right. We're the knights of the duke. When convicted, the sentence will be severe. Right now, the only thing we can do is to wait for the result. Look at the knight of the Elk Family and look at you. Where's your demeanor as a noble?"

Prius knew him. He was Ferlin Eltek, the star knight of Longsong Stronghold. His nickname was Morning Light. He had attracted many young ladies of the noble. But in the end, h had married a civilian woman, which had caused a big clamor at the time. Hearing Ferlin Eltek mentioning him, Prius could not remain silent anymore. He said to the three people who were quarreling, "I'm not sure whether your domain will be returned. But at least I know His Highness won't kill you."

"Oh? Why?"

"Killing you at the stronghold would have been more effective, why would he kill you here after all the trouble he went through to bring you here? For his subjects?" Prius shook his head. "The knightage wasn't even able to enter Border Town. "

They had not burned, killed or looted the town, so the townspeople would not hold extreme hatred against them. Therefore, for the prince, killing them in the town would not be as good as killing in the stronghold. Since they had not been killed in the stronghold, they should be alright.

Ferlin thought a little and nodded. "What you say is reasonable. And what's your name..."

"Prius Dessau."

"Thank you for your comfort, Sir Dessau." Ferlin looked at him with gratitude and took Halon back to the corner.

Ferlin Eltek sat down and hummed against the wall.

Prius thought that Ferlin Eltek was not really afraid, but his own "calmness" was just a facade.

Prius knew that he was unsuited to be a knight. He had not inherited his father's bravery or the wisdom of his mother. Compared with swords, he performed by taking care of his fields. For example, keeping chickens and ducks, going fishing in the pond. He had been forced to fight for the Earl of the Elk Family. He did not even like to hunt, and he never mind killing people. When in an assault, Prius always rode behind other people. He was still surprised to be alive.

"Wait..." Suddenly, he felt a bit strange. "As the star knight, why has Ferlin Eltek survived as well? Shouldn't he be the first one to go?"

"His Highness wants to see you," the guards shouted at the door, "Sirius Daly! Come out first."

The young knight jumped up, waved to the others, and walked out of the cell.

"Hey, what about us!"

Halon ran to the door but was forced back by a short jab from the guard. After locking the door, the guard said, "Don't worry, it'll be your turn later."

Knowing that the trial was about to come, Prius was getting more nervous. Damn it! He had been waiting for this day, but now that it was here, he was frightened. He got angry. His body could not stop trembling. He looked at the door from time to time. It was like waiting for his first child's birth, with hope and panic coexisting.

Fortunately, the wait was not long. About 30 minutes later, the guard came back. "Prius Dessau, it's your turn."

He stood up in a panic and tripped over the blanket on the ground. Luckily, Ferlin was quick to help him up.

"Thank you." His throat was dry.

"It's no bother," Ferlin replied gently, which made Prius feel quite relieved.

He nodded to Ferlin and followed the guard out of the cell.

The guard was a young boy, about 17 years old, wearing dark brown leather and boots, he carried thorns and sticks in his hand.

"Aren't you going to tie my hands?" asked Prius.

"You were searched before being locked in, what can you do without weapons?"

"Where are you going to take me?"

"The castle of His Highness."

"What happened to the man before me? The knight called Sirius. What about him?"

The guard shrugged and did not answer.

Well, maybe he did not know, maybe he did not want to tell. Prius stopped asking.

He felt strange about this guard. He looked like an ordinary civilian from his dress and appearance, but he was not afraid of the knights and when talking he did not even use the most basic honorifics. It seemed that he was not aware that these people could easily determine his life and death in normal times.

Something was strange about the guard's eyes. Prius had seen many civilians who had been running around for life, who were stiff and indifferent, just as a corpse without soul. But in this man's eyes, he saw the pride. He was obviously a civilian, but he had the same proud manner as the knights'. Prius was very confused.

What kind of environment could create such a person?

He looked around. Though he had not been to Border Town before, he had still heard of this barren and desolate place. But the town in front of him was thriving, far different from what he had imagined. The streets were crowded with busy people bustling about quickly. From time to time someone would say hello to the guard. Everyone's faces were ruddy and full of energy as if there had been no suffering during the Months of Demons.

Close to the castle, he saw an open space with more than a hundred people. It seemed that they were building houses, but looking at the size, it looked like more than one. The materials piled nearby were clay bricks. In general, only the nobles could choose this expensive material, but then again, these houses were too small for the nobles. Some of the houses already built in the open space were just a little bigger than his own living room. In addition, the rooms were too similar, as if they were printed out. What kind of noble would like this kind of room?

With his mind full of questions, Prius entered the castle.

Chapter 133 - The Knight of the Elk Family (Part II)

Before entering the room, Prius was searched again. This time the search was much more detailed. From top to bottom, any place that could hide a knife or dagger was checked again, even his soles were searched.

Then he saw the men who defeated the Duke the Coalition—Roland Wimbledon, the Fourth Prince of Graycastle, the lord of the Border Town, and the new lord of the Western Region.

The prince had long gray hair, a symbol of his royal blood. His face looked very young, at most 20 years old. His hair was not bounded, and he did wear any crown. The fingers holding the quill pen were slender, and you could not see any jewelry or rings on his hand, not even a bracelet. This was very rare for the noble.

"Prius Dessau, Knight of the Earl of the Elk Family?" Roland leaned against the chair and looked over his list.

"Yes, Your Highness." Prius knelt down on one knee.

He still could not believe that this man, who had no beard on his face, could lead a group of miners and hunters to defeat Duke Ryan.

"Are you literate? Can you read or write? Please stand up and answer my questions."

"I am, Your Highness. This is the most basic requirement of a knight." Swinging up, Prius stood wobbling. He suddenly remembered that being adept with both the pen and the sword did not apply to some of older knights that had been conferred in the Kingdom of Graycastle, so he added, "I mean, the new knights."

Over the past three decades, battle accomplishments and battle skills had had a reduced role in the appointment of new knights, as many other considerations had been added. If you could not read or write, it was difficult to be chosen by the lord. The rise of Frostwind Knight in the king's city, and Morning Light in the Western Region had also taken the requirements to a new level.

So if one desired to become a trainee knight, the first thing to learn would be reading. To reach a higher level, he also had to be proficient in all kinds of etiquette.

But Prius did not understand why His Highness asked this question.

"Well," said the prince, "Then I'll make the verdict now."

This made him hold his breath instantly.

"You have two choices. One is to become a miner in the North Slope Mine for two decades to redeem your sins. The other one is to become a teacher, teaching my people to read and write. Miners aren't slaves, rather you would be getting a salary, and you could have three days off per month. If you were to be a teacher, in addition to salary, there would also be free housing for you, and you could have two days off per week. However, if you choose the latter option, you must work until the age of 50. At that time, even if you quit the position, you'll continue to receive your salary."

Hearing this, Prius felt relieved. It was like he had expected before, no execution or exile. But these two choices puzzled him, mining sounded like hard work, but His Highness had said there were salaries and holiday? To be a teacher, that was supposed to be the job of knowledgeable people, wasn't it? He could only write and read. And His Highness had said that he should teach his people, what did he mean? Did he mean to cultivate the civilians like noble?

The important thing was that in that both choices there had been no remark of how his territory would be handled.

Prius looked up at the prince, and asked carefully, "Your Highness, I don't know, if I choose one of the two, how my territory will be..."

"From the moment you lifted the sword to me, your territory was no longer yours," Roland said bluntly, "and I've reached an agreement with the successor of the Elk Family. Your estate will be converted to gold royals as compensation to you, and when you make your choice, the new earl will send the compensation together with your family to Border Town so that he can vacate the place to recruit knights."

Prius was worried, for there were only a house and a flock of chickens and ducks in his territory. How much could these things be worth? The new earl would certainly take a big discount. It was hard to say if there were 30 gold royals or not. The earl had just died, and his successor would abandon him. Prius was disappointed.

"As an accomplice to the rebels, this is a minor verdict," said Roland. "Why regret a bare territory? Whether you choose to be a miner or a teacher, you would have enough money to buy land in Border Town."

Hearing this, Prius resumed a little again. He did not want to be a miner, as for the other choice... "Your Highness, how much is a teacher's salary?"

"Junior teachers receive 20 silver royals per month, with an increase of five each year until the age of 50. After the age of 50, the salary will be calculated on the basis of the maximum growth. Incidentally, the right can't be inherited or transferred."

Prius calculated that with nearly three gold royals every year, in addition to the increase every year, in about four or five years, he would have the revenue of his territory's. "Your Highness, what does junior teacher mean? Are there other categories?"

"Of course. The junior teachers only teach reading and writing, while secondary and senior teachers have to teach all subjects, as long as you have the ability which is beneficial to the development of Border Town, you can take the job." Roland sat up. "Do you have any good skills? I don't need riding and fencing."

"I'm not good at these skills anyway," Prius thought. He hesitated and then spoke, "Your Highness, I'm good at raising chickens and ducks, and I'm also good at fishing. Do these skills work?" The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted it. The skills he had said could not be considered skills. Chicken and ducks could be alive in the wild by themselves. And noblemen liked to raise birds and cats, but this was just their hobby. They never dedicated to raising these small animals. As for fishing, this was the same as the hunting which was just a personal hobby.

His Highness was actually interested in the first part of his sentence. "Oh, how to raise poultry? Please tell me about it."

"Well, according to the experience I've gained in the territory, they'll grow faster if fed with some corn, rather than the full stocking. And if the grain is mixed with sand, they'll also grow fast, meanwhile, the food can be saved. You need to build a shed in a ventilated place, which can keep out rain, wind and sun. Especially in summer, if there's no shed, the hen will probably stop laying eggs. And in winter, if you put straw inside, you can avoid the chickens freezing to death. In addition, if the chickens are fed some fish every month, then the flocks are less likely to get sick. Of course, the cleaning of chicken manure is also very important..."

His Highness started laughing. "Not bad! It seems that the noble of the Western Region isn't completely useless."

"Your Highness?" Prius did not understand.

Fortunately, Roland Wimbledon quickly solved his worries. "I'll let people buy some chickens and ducks from Longsong Stronghold, and I'll give some land west of the border to you to raise the poultry there. If you do well and teach the raising method to others, the remuneration will be the same as the secondary teachers. The salary starts with 50 silver royals per month in the first year, with an increase of ten each year. But if it fails, North Slope is your only choice."

Chapter 134 - Morning Light

Roland wrote down on a paper how he would deal with Prius, and then put down the quill, and rubbed his aching neck.

"Your Highness, do you need me to help you relax?" He heard Nightingale's voice.

"There are still more than 30 people to deal with, maybe later." Roland rejected her with a smile, and then rang the bell placed on the side of his table. The sooner he finished with these matters, the sooner he could initiate Border Town's universal education. With Anna's new ability, he was full of expectation about the future.

The next person brought into by the guards was a tall knight, and Roland's first impression on him was that he looked extraordinarily handsome. He was not that far off from Carter, who was also very attractive. Of course, in Roland's eyes, being extremely good-looking was a bad thing. He glanced at his list, and asked, "Ferlin Eltek?" But unlike the other people, there were also additional comments after his name, so Roland continued reading, "Head of the Lion Knightage, Morning Light, First Knight of the Western Territory… you have so many titles."

"I do, Your Highness." Ferlin went down on one knee.

"I thought people like you would be in the front line of the battle." Roland raised his brow. "How did you manage to survive?"

"I hid in the back," he replied honestly, "As long as you control the gallop of your horse, it'll look like you're in full sprint, while in fact, the horse speed is still relatively low."

Roland never expected such a straightforward answer. He was expecting some kind of excuse to cover up his cowardliness and how he had escaped from the battle. It seemed that the situation was not as simple as he had first thought.

As expected, Ferlin continued, "On the morning of the third day of your pursuit, in other words, the day of the duke's death, I was standing right by his side, waiting for an opportunity to kill him, but because he had a large number of guards closely surrounding him, I couldn't attack him. Fortunately, your troops killed him in the end." He paused and bowed his head. "Your Highness, I want to express my gratitude for what you did. No matter what you need me to do, I won't have any objections."

The last words could be regarded as a swear of allegiance. Stunned Roland commanded. "Stand up and tell me, what happened?"

"Yes, Your Highness." He stood up and began. "My wife, Irene, was originally a civilian who worked at a well-known theater in Longsong Stronghold. We met each other on a lucky encounter and immediately fell in love. I wanted to marry her, but my father and mother didn't support the wedding. So, I had to leave our territory, and rent a room on a farm near the stronghold. That's where we also held the wedding. Shortly after our marriage, Irene finally got the opportunity to officially perform for the first time." The knight's voice became deeper. "Unexpectedly, the duke also watched the performance and took a fancy to her, and soon afterward, while I was away on a mission, he took the opportunity to break into our room and raped Irene.

"It took a long time before she finally told me what had happened. I wanted to find the duke and hold him responsible for his action, but Irene begged me not to act recklessly. Deep down, I also knew that if I were to try and do something, my chances of success weren't very high. Even if I was able to kill him, I'd never be able to escape his guards and Irene would most likely become an object of revenge for the duke's heir. With no other option, I could only suppress myself, until the day he decided to march against Border Town."

"Although I didn't avenge him myself, Irene will finally be able to sleep without worrying that someone will break into her room during the night. And for me, a heavy burden has now finally been lifted from my heart, so please allow me to express my gratitude again."

"So that's what happened." Roland tapped on the table with his quill, a sign he had previously agreed with Nightingale, whenever he had to check whether the other side was lying. Soon he felt Nightingale pinch his left scapula, which meant that the knight had told the truth. But this pinch was just a bit too hard, leaving Roland with a little flinch. "Can you read or write?"

"Uh…" Ferlin was startled, clearly unable to follow the prince's thoughts. "I can."

"Then I'll announce my verdict now." Roland gave him the same choice as the others. "… what's your choice?"

"Your Highness, don't you require me to fight for you? Whether it's a single duel or a group battle, I..."

"No, I don't." Roland interrupted him. "There are no nobles in my army, and I won't recruit any of them in the future. My army is fully composed of civilians, and as for you, you'll never pick up a weapon for the rest of your life."

"Oh. Is that so?" Ferlin remained silent for a long time before he finally nodded. "I understand. In this case, I choose to become a teacher."

"You made a wise choice. Teachers can get free housing and the salary is also very good. I'll send someone back to your home, to pick up your wife, so that you can continue to live here together." Roland waved to the knight to leave.

"Wait, Your Highness, please allow me to ask a question," he hesitated and then said, "Do you give these options to all the knights? If they're unable to become teachers, will the only option left for them be to work in the mines for 20 years?"

"Correct."

"Your Highness, I have a man named Halon who's an experienced old knight but illiterate. Can I pay for him with gold royals, so that he won't be sent into the mine?"

"Of course not." Roland waved. "If you could redeem your crime with money, I would have sent you back to the stronghold."

"But he's almost 50 years old, and that kind of hard work would only destroy his body."

"He can't survive in a mine but has the ability to attack Border Town?" said Roland. [Furthermore, my mines are not like dark coal mines. Apart from the steam engine helping with the pumping and transportation, the workers also have a fixed amount of holiday.] Roland picked up the bell, ready to call the next person.

"Your Highness!" Ferlin ground his teeth and kneeled down once again. "I have a family treasure map. It's at least 400 years old. I'm willing to use it in exchange for Halon's freedom."

"A 400-year-old treasure map?" The prince raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure that one of your ancestors didn't just draw a map to joke with the younger generation?"

"No, it was not written with charcoal or ink." He shook his head as if he was trying to recall the drawing. "I can't tell what material it's made of. The lines are very delicate, smooth and subtle, and even though it has been stored in the basement for decades, the drawings and the text don't have any sign of discoloration. My father told me it was handed down from generation to generation, and it describes the location of a treasure, located deep in the Misty Forest in the northwest, but now the area is Barbarian Land, impossible for people to reach."

Roland tapped his quill again against the table, and once more Nightingale pinched his left side.

"Well, even if what you said is true, this treasure map should be hidden in the basement of the Eltek house. You've already given up the right to your inheritance in your territory. I'm afraid they won't be very pleased to see you again."

"That's true." Ferlin nodded. "But I've completely memorized the content of the map, and I can roughly depict the drawings and the texts on it."

"Then draw it for me." Roland pushed his quill and paper to the side of the table. "If what you said is true, I can make an exception to your request."

"Your Highness is too kind." Ferlin went to the table and began to draw the treasure map.

In fact, Ferlin Eltek was not just good at fighting, he was also talented in painting and calligraphy. Soon, a rough geographical map appeared in front of Roland.

The map displayed the area behind the Impassable Mountain Range, the whole lower right corner of the map was occupied by mountains while an equilateral triangle was drawn in the middle of the map. The three sides connected three different locations. One corner pointed towards the foot of North Slope Mountain, and another pointed to a hexagonal star mark inside the Misty Forest, which most probably represented the so-called treasure's location.

However, Roland's attention was entirely drawn to the third vertex of the triangle, located in the middle of the Barbarian Region, on top of a tooth-shaped mountaintop, with a word above it: "Taquila".

Chapter 135 - Starting from the Basics

"The number of demons increased day by day, but our numbers grew smaller. The Holy City of Taquila had fallen and the only option left to us was to flee in all directions. We fled over the mountains and across the rivers, getting as far as possible from the Gates of Hell. But next time, where should we flee?"

"What's your opinion?" Back in the office, Roland closed the Book of Illusion and turned to Scroll.

"If the knight remembers correctly, then this would be a really incredible coincidence." Scroll waited for a moment. "The content in the treasure map is the same as the recordings in the ancient book. It proves that the church had indeed constructed a city in the Wild Places to defend against the demons. As for the marks on the map, perhaps they were defense towers, posts, warehouses, or whatever else they had built there."

"You mean, it isn't really a treasure map?"

"Of course not. After all, the church isn't like bandits or pirates. They don't need to hide their treasures, not to mention leaving a drawing for future generations."

Roland nodded. "You're right, so… is it a legit map?"

"Most probably. Although it's not clear why the church didn't record this period of history, I believe that there are more ruins in the forest east of King City," explained Scroll. "If the locations marked on the map are just constructions above the ground, there shouldn't be much left after all these centuries, but if they include underground facilities such as basements, underground remains must exist, and through them we might be able to discover some clues."

"What kind of clues?"

"For example, why the church wants to hide the existence of the demons? Why are they so secretive about it when they've previously fought them?" She paused, her voice becoming deeper. "And, why do they hunt us, witches, as if we were demons?"

Roland did not know how to comfort her. After a long silence, he slowly said, "Unfortunately we're not sure how accurate the drawing is. According to him, the original map was so precise that it didn't look to be drawn by hand."

"How about asking Nightingale to check the knight's home?"

"That's not very appropriate." Roland disagreed. "The treasure map has already been passed down for hundreds of years in their clan. It's highly probable that the basement is filled with God's Stones of Retaliation and other traps. Let's discuss this another time." He measured the sides of the triangle symbol. "Anyway, for now, this place is out of our reach. Assuming that the foot of North Slope Mountain is our mines, then the location of the hexagonal star is at least 50 kilometers away from us, almost as far as the distance between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. Apart from Lightning, who could reach it within a day, the rest of us would need to walk for two or three days. Not to mention the chance of encountering demons. I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"You could let Lightning explore the area from the air, maybe she'll discover something." Scroll proposed.

"That's a good idea." Roland stood up. "Once she comes back, I'll talk to her. I need to go to North Slope Mine now, and you can start preparing your teaching materials for the lessons. If you need more copies, turn to Soraya for help. You have to continue their lessons this evening."

Roland had combined what he had learned in primary school with the teaching methods of the palace, and passed everything to Scroll, including classic memorization, phonetic reading, writing and reciting phrases. With all of these, he believed she had everything needed to become a good teacher.

"Yes, Your Highness." Scroll saluted and left.

The firing area behind North Slope Mine was double the size it had been before, and the two holes needed for the production of the 12-pound cannons were still visible on the ground. When Roland arrived, he saw Anna practicing her new ability. On the table, there were two finished products. They looked like steel pipes.

He held one up examining it. The steel pipes were perfectly round and had a smooth surface without any pores. The hole in the middle was equally wide on both sides, and sunlight passed through without any problems. Roland used his nails to measure the thickness of both sides, only to find that they were nearly identical.

"How were you able to make it?!" Roland praised her.

"Watch." Anna picked up a freshly cut steel bar, laying it flat in her hand, and then a thread of her black flame was inserted into one end, slowly burning through the whole bar. Then she rotated the thread around the center, and soon the hole was created.

What a great ability, he thought. With the high temperature of her magic, Anna was capable of taking the industrial production of Border Town to a new level all by herself. Trying to contain his excitement, he said, "Let's try some basic tests first."

The basic tests included the range of her ability, her ability's strength, and its duration.

Nightingale came out of the Mist. She was responsible for observing any changes to the magic power inside Anna's body.

The results showed that other than a substantial increase in the strength and the duration of her ability, the range of her dark flames still remained at around five meters, and only within three meters was she able to control them with precision.

At the same time, her ability still belonged to the summoning type. Her dark flames could still be affected by God's Stone of Retaliation, as they would immediately disappear once inside the range of one of them.

[Unless she could evolve to the point of directly utilizing magic power, it would be impossible to get past this hurdle,] Roland thought.

However, Anna's new abilities could turn Heaven and Earth upside down. With her Blackfire, it became much easier to produce industrial machines, all kinds of machine tools, and it quickly improved the quality of machining levels.

But a large-scale industrialization could not be achieved by one person alone. For example, the task he gave Karl of building furnaces next to North Slope Mine was underway, with one furnace already constructed. However, by the time they tested it, they discovered that although they could use it to produce clay bricks for the creation of cement, its temperature tolerance was not up to standard. So, in the end, they still had to rely on Anna to produce the required cement. Fortunately, since her day of adulthood, she could complete the calcining process without the need to be inside the dusty room.

Roland could solve the temperature problem. For instance, they could use the steam engine to create enough wind to improve the furnace's temperature, and they could then let the heated air circulate to minimize heat loss. But without Anna, the steam engine would not even exist. After all, only she could produce the key components.

It could be said that the industrialization of Border Town relied heavily on Anna's ability. Without her, the so-called industrial revolution would be nothing more than a dream.

During the Months of Demons, everything Roland did had been to survive, but now that the threat of the demonic beasts no longer existed, and Longsong Stronghold had provided them with enough manpower and funding, he naturally intended to change the current situation.

Starting from the basics.

He let Anna cut a two-finger wide, one-millimeter-thick steel sheet then measured a centimeter-long distance on it, marked it and repeated this until he had a ten-centimeter-long ruler. Then using the black flames, they created vertical marks at a regular distance. Under her control, the distance between each vertical mark was almost identical.

Roland intended to start with a ruler, and then continue with the creation of all kinds of measuring tools, in order to define all weights and measurements. These standard units would then be written as the norm into manuals, becoming an indispensable part of his imminent plan for universal education.

Chapter 136 - The Predicament

Every day during this half month in Port of Clearwater was like a holiday. Even when standing on the terrace of the Lord's high tower, Ryan could still feel the high morale of this city.

The supplies and manpower from Eagle City dramatically boosted the performance of this harbor city. Every marauder came home with great profits. The slave market also prospered. The series of battles did not cause much loss on the Blacksail Fleet. Instead, the Blacksail Fleet recruited many slaves as their sailors. Right now, the newly recruited slaves were under some serious trainings. A few days later, they would head for the Fjords route and start the first plunder of the year.

The queen also promulgated a slave expansion decree. As long as these slaves, who were looted from Eagle City, were able to capture new people from the plunder to substitute themselves, they could become the citizens of Port of Clearwater. With such an exciting decree, the residents of Eagle City who were now slaves would endeavor in the battles.

[Now Timothy was utterly defeated. There would be no one to stop the Queen of Clearwater in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Soon enough, Garcia Wimbledon would sit on the throne of Kingdom of Graycastle,] Ryan thought, [but why didn't the queen show any signs of pleasure? Instead, there seemed to be a sense of low spirit on her face.]

"Your Highness, the tribe leader from Sandstone Clan and Black Bone clan request to see you." There was guard's voice from outside of the door.

Ryan looked at Her Majesty, who seemed completely indifferent. Ryan then called, "Bring them in."

Regardless of resting, meetings or seeing subordinates, Her Majesty liked to do all the activities on the top floor of this high tower. As long as the weather was fine, Garcia stayed most on the terrace. Most of the people were not used to standing up in the midair and conversing with the sea breeze of unpleasant smell blowing on their face. Even the residents of Sand Nation were not accustomed to such.

The leader of Sandstone Clan was a small-sized female, who was also the goddess of the tribe. Ryan scorned it in his heart when he first heard such introduction to her. There was no such thing as the goddess. She was merely a fallen witch. The leader of the Black Bone Clan was a strong guy with scars all over his face. His arms were the same size of legs of the ordinary people. During every meeting, there would be three to four guards surrounding him in case of any malicious attempts from him to the queen.

The two tribe leaders frowned at the instant when they stepped on the terrace. However, they soon appeased their expression and bowed piously to the Queen of Clearwater. "We wish that your road to the future will be covered with oasis and that the stars in the heaven will shine on your path."

"You may get up." Garcia seated with her back facing the fence. "How's your new house? Are you content?"

"Everything has been great," the goddess Kabala said, "there are forests and water sources in your domain. Living here is much better than living in the windy and dusty Iron Sand City."

"That's good. Why did you two come to me?"

"Your Majesty, last time you..."

The leader of Black Bone Clan was immediately interrupted by Kabala. "Your majesty, after last battle, many of our warriors have been weakened. They can only recover after taking the new pill periodically. However, we don't have many pills in our hand anymore. So, I came here to ask you for more pills."

"I came for the same reason," the tribe leader of Black Bone Clan glared at the goddess and said.

"The ingredients to compose this pill are very complicated. I don't have many pills left either. Don't worry. I'll give the pills to you two as soon as the production of the new pills is completed. However, don't forget to prepare the gold royals. If you two don't have enough gold royals, you could use the water of Styx's River instead."

"Your Majesty, may I ask. "Kabala hesitated. "When would next batch of pills be produced?"

"I couldn't release any information to you regarding that." Garcia smoothed down her hair that was ruffled by the sea breeze. "Anything regarding the pills is confidential. Wait patiently. Those warriors are just exhausted. They'll be fine after resting for a while."

The guards received the hint from Ryan. They came up and surrounded the two residents of Sand Nation and "escorted" them out even though they wanted to ask more.

Garcia sighed after the door of the terrace was shut.

It was extremely rare to hear any sighs from Her Majesty. He asked, "Your Majesty, don't you think it's the proper way to allow Sand Nation to reside near the border of the Southern Territory? If they grew stronger one day..."

"No, Ryan." Garcia shook her head. "I never worried about Sand Nation. They would not anyhow threaten Port of Clearwater. The lake in that territory is in the middle of the two clans. And the upstream comes through Port of Clearwater. As long as I block half of the river, the lack of lake water would make them fight with one another. That's why I picked the Sandstone Clan and the Black Bone Clan—their relationship has always been not so harmonious."

"Then are you worried about the pills?"

Garcia did not answer. At that moment, the guard knocked again. "Your Majesty, Priest Descartes from church requests to see you."

"Bring him in." Her Majesty stood up promptly. Her expression grew even gloomier.

"Your Majesty Garcia Wimbledon, I wish to greet you as the representative of Holy City." The priest came up to the terrace and bowed.

"Where are the pills? The delivery of the previous batches of pills was punctual. What's wrong with the delay for this time?" Garcia asked coldly.

"Please appease your anger, Your Majesty. I came here today for this issue." Descartes wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Your order of 5,000 pills was too overwhelming. Even if we devote all of our resources to produce the pills in Hermes, we couldn't satisfy your demand within such a short time. This time, I brought you a new batch..."

"How many?" Garcia interrupted.

"1000 pills," Descartes said while holding onto his chest, "and the rest of the pills will be delivered shortly afterward."

"What was the promise before?" The queen's expression was less gloomy now. " You promised that I would have as many pills as I wish. Where are the pills? I'll send my people to retrieve it."

"In the church, regarding the gold royals..."

"You'll have all gold royals that we agreed on," Garcia walked toward Descartes and whispered near his ear, "however, if the rest of the pills couldn't be promptly delivered, your head will be hung on the embolon of my Blacksail flagship. I believe that the archbishop would not shed a tear for you."

The priest excused himself with a ghastly pale face. The queen walked back to the fence, stared at the faraway sea antenna. The sea breeze blew her long gray hair just like the flags waving in the wind.

"You're right. I'm worried about the pills." Garcia's voice sounded far away, "If Timothy was late more another two months, I would have ample knightage of King's City to defeat him, instead of relying on the pills. However, he came too soon."

"You've done very well, Your Majesty." Ryan thought. [Who would have possibly done better? Garcia schemed a response right after they occupied Eagle City. She ordered people to take away the resources and citizens and at the same time started to dig ditches to pour the blackwater. Due to lack of human resources, she obtained the support from Sand Nation in exchange for a vacant territory in the Southern Territory. She ordered the warrior who took the pills to attack the knightage. Her loyal followers even took the pills without any hesitation to block the last savage assault."]

"The pills from the church were not as beneficial as how I described. Without continuing the prescription, the warriors who took the pills will become anxious and then weak. They'll eventually die in pain. I don't care about the death of Sand Nation. However, my citizens who're loyal to me should get better returns." Garcia paused." Ryan, you go retrieve the pills and give them to the warriors. Tell them to eat half a pill once, so that we can last a little longer."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

At the moment when Ryan departed, the guard knocked the door again. "Your Majesty, there's a letter from King's City."

"Read it to me before you leave," She said.

"Yes." Ryan took the confidential letter, cut open the seal with ease and took out the letter. This type of letter was usually from the scouts from the various districts. There would be no names on the letter, and the content of the letter would be very clear. However, he was flabbergasted when he saw the first sentence of the letter.

"On 22nd day of Spring, the church declared that Linna, the queen of Kingdom of Everwinter was a hidden witch, and then conquered the capital of the kingdom and claimed total control over the Kingdom of Everwinter."

Chapter 137 - The Secret Talk

When Mayne pushed open the heavy door of the secret chamber, a slight scent of resting grass blew onto his face. Archbishop Mayne was fond of such a candle that was composed of a mixture of herbs and spices. Especially in the airtight room, the scent of the burning candle made him felt composed.

The secret chamber was not commodious at all, it could only take one round table and four chairs. The other two archbishops were already seated. The first seat facing the wooden door was vacant. With his failing health, the pope had not shown his presence in almost half a year. Mayne would visit the Pivotal Secret Area of Hermes' underground castle only when he encountered tough problems and sought help from the pope.

"Since you all have gathered, let's begin." Mayne locked the door and sat between the two others. "Tayfun, how was the social order maintained in the Kingdom of Everwinter?"

"Besides the nobles from King's City, there were not many revolts in other areas. The plebeians even welcomed us to rule the kingdom." Tayfun touched his beard and said, "Of course, the nobles who still clung to their glories in the past will be annihilated one by one."

"Very well." Heather licked her lips. "If it were up to me to make the judgment, the citizens would realize the ugly side of the nobilities. It is a shame that I have so much to do over here and couldn't make it to the Kingdom of Everwinter."

Mayne ignored her words and said to Tayfun, "Those vacant positions need to be filled with our people. The church raised so many talented individuals for this occasion. Now is the time to use them. Originally, the church had the most influence on the Kingdom of Everwinter. The smaller the waves that we make, the quicker that we will be able to handle the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

"This is natural."

"The people who seek refuge from the church—I mean, the nobility—how shall we deal with them?" Heather asked. "The reason why the church has attracted so many excellent believers is that we care about their ability instead of their background. If we hastily accept those fools, we'll shake the foundations of the church. My suggestion is... " She made a gesture of cutting down her throat.

"Leave them aside. We can make the issue clear to them after the situation becomes stabilized. That way, we'll meet less resistance." Regarding this issue, Mayne had consulted the pope. "The church could offer them positions equivalent to their noble ranks, which, however, can't be passed on to their descendants. Don't forget that we'll abolish the monarchy in the end. We don't need to be too anxious, Your Excellency Heather."

Heather was born in a low-income family. She had gone through the hardships of starvation and vagrancy before the church took her in. She climbed to this position, thanks to the fact that she was born with a keen mind and extraordinary judgment. Mayne deeply understood Heather's hatred toward the nobility. However, they needed to look at the bigger picture for now.

"How has the Kingdom of Graycastle been?" he asked.

"According to the information, the new lord Timothy didn't return to King's City after he was defeated. Instead, he went straight to the Eastern Region," Tayfun answered.

"A smart choice." Heather snapped her fingers. "He took Duke Frances to challenge the Queen of Clearwater, and when the duke died, he immediately went to divide the territory of the duke so as to stabilize the army and win over the support of other nobles. Well, well... not everyone in the royal family is a moron."

"This way, we don't need to worry as much. Let the High Priest from the church of King's City contact him. I believe, in such a predicament, he wouldn't refuse the benefits offered by the church. We'll cut down 30% of the distribution of pills to Port of Clearwater so as to balance the power between the two. You shall take care of it, Tayfun." Mayne arranged it. "In two years, the Kingdom of Graycastle would not have a single available soldier."

"Don't worry." Tayfun nodded. "But... something is wrong with Longsong Stronghold in the west of Graycastle."

"What happened?"

"After having defeated Duke Ryan, Prince Roland returned to Border Town. He didn't reply to the invitation from Tylo. Perhaps, is Prince Roland not intending to fight for the throne?"

"Well, what do you think?" Mayne looked at Heather.

The latter shrugged. "There's not much to think about... What were the rumors about him? They said he was ignorant, ill-mannered, incompetent, and covetous. I presume that someone like that wouldn't be able to conquer Longsong Stronghold. So the answer is obvious. He lied to everyone, nobles and also us."

"You mean that..." Mayne frowned.

"Our Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince picked the wrong person, Lord Mayne." She sneered. "He should be the one on the stage, not Princess Garcia."

"Being able to defeat a duke showed his capability. However, no matter how talented an individual is, it'll be meaningless if he doesn't have enough resources." Tayfun shook his head. "If he chose to go back to that desolate place, that means that he has given up the chance to fight for the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle. In this way, he'll naturally not hinder our plan."

"Yes, theoretically. However, it becomes interesting to view the situation with this new information." Heather took out a note. "My personal information."

Mayne unfolded the note and scanned through it. "Witches?"

"Uh-huh, a witch organization, which calls itself the Witch Cooperation Association, claims that they have settled down in Border Town and beckon other sisters to gather there. This may be a rumor without any confirmed evidence, and I shouldn't have brought it here for discussion, but we all know that the name 'Witch Cooperation Association' isn't made up. Since the association was attacked by our Judgement Army in the forest east of King City, its members fled to the west and ultimately disappeared in some place to the west of Longsong Stronghold. And Border Town is just outside of the Western Region of Graycastle, at the foot the Impassable Mountain Range. Your Excellency, don't you think that this is too coincidental?"

Witch Cooperation Association... Mayne had a vague impression of that name. They were hunted by the Judgement Army, and yet insisted on fleeing toward the Impassable Mountain Range even after losing many of its members. Through interrogating a captured witch, they knew that the witches wanted to find Holy Mountain in Barbarian Land. This was a suicidal act. Therefore, he did not put much effort into chasing them. There were several witch organizations like that over in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Dawn. Those witches who hid in the city were far more threatening than those who rushed to Barbarian Land.

"You mean that this prince is afflicted with the witch organization?" Tayfun's face was gloomy after hearing the news.

"Maybe or maybe not." Heather curled up her lips. "It's a simple speculation of mine. What're witches most afraid of? 'Being exposed.' Apparently, using the name Witch Cooperation Association will receive attention from the church. However, they're still using that name in their underground messages. Why?"

"Because to us, this is a familiar name," Mayne said calmly, "as it is to the other witches."

"Exactly!" Heather clapped her hands. "That way, it could lower the vigilance of wild witches. And perhaps someone will be attracted by this news and go to Border Town. It's difficult to imagine they dare to do so without the support of the lord. We always say that we choose the lesser of two evils. Apparently, they believe that the consequence of not being able to recruit witches would be more serious than being exposed..." Her voice grew gloomy. "I feel that we've underestimated."

"This isn't a problem of underestimating or not," Tayfun said in a furry. "Once the witches have settled down, they'll be able to use their power without worries. They'll probably soon discover that the so-called Demonic Torture can be avoided. That's why we need to annihilate any residing witches and force them to hide or live in exile. Only by that way can we maintain the secret."

Mayne knew that Tayfun had the right points. Witches themselves were not a threat to the church. However, as a group, once they got rid of their identity of 'sinner,' they would be impactful to the church's propaganda and even influence the foundation of the church's control.

He found that he had fallen into a dilemma. In normal situations, they should launch the Judgement Army to annihilate the witches. However, Border Town was too distant from Hermes. In addition, the church's army would soon attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart, so it was difficult for them to arrange the army to destroy this remote town. In addition, at such a turning point, if they commanded a large army to enter the Kingdom of Graycastle, it would raise the vigilance of Graycastle and the other two nations. This might affect later plans.

He decided after a long cogitation.

"I'll send an emissary delegation to Border Town. There'll be 10 members of the Judgement Army and a priest. They'll investigate this issue with the help of Priest Tylo. If the prince isn't involved with the Witch Cooperation Association, then this emissary delegation will eradicate the witches on its own."

"What if the prince is involved in this?" Heather asked.

[God's Punishment Army only obeys my orders and that of a few trusted priests. This is a rule personally set by the pope.] Thinking of that, Mayne said word by word, "Bring the news back to Holy City and I'll lead the God's Punishment Army to the town."

Chapter 138 - Setting up the Ministry of Agriculture

As the woodland on the south bank of Redwater River was gradually cleared, the days of plowing drew closer and closer.

In order to facilitate the movement of people across the river which spanned nearly 100 meters, Roland had ordered the construction of a floating bridge. It was supported by dozens of timber rafts, which were made by carpenters, bound together by hemp rope. He specifically instructed the carpenters to make sure that the two ends of every raft were sharp so as to reduce the resistance to water impact. On each bank, the ends of the hemp rope were tied around four wooden poles to keep the position of the rafts as stable as possible. Four long wooden planks were placed on every raft to form the deck. They extended two meters off the rafts, such that four people could walk abreast on the bridge.

The assembly of the floating bridge was simple and highly durable. As long as there were no incidents of water rising or falling violently, and thereby causing the hemp rope to snap, the bridge was guaranteed to last for two to three years - the timber from Misty Forest was of excellent quality and was also used to manufacture the columns and pavement of Bordertown's jetty, such that the lifespan of the jetty is said to be as long as Bordertown itself. Although it produced a creaking sound when stepped upon, there were never any signs of collapse.

Across the bridge towards the west, the first piece of land to be plowed was Leaf's experimental farm. At present, it was already securely boarded up on all four sides, while its entrance was guarded by the First Army soldiers. These days, apart from eating, attending class and sleeping, Leaf spent the rest of time on the farm. Roland could vaguely see the scene enclosed by wooden boards from a window in his third-floor office—wheat was growing at such a frenzied pace that what was only green ears of wheat in the morning would become a sea of gold by the afternoon.

These Golden Ones, which depended on magic power to grow, took only one day to ripen. Any outsider who saw this would probably kneel down and hail this miracle.

Seeing that the land, population, and grains were fully prepared, Roland decided that it was time to add the final piece of the jigsaw: supervisors.

He summoned over Assistant Minister Barov, who had been terribly busy of late.

"By now, your apprentices should be ready to take on leadership roles, right?" Roland asked, "I'll need to set up two new departments in the City Hall."

"Your Highness, but... we don't have enough manpower," Barov replied awkwardly.

[You'd normally agree right away before discussing the details. But it seems that you've learned how to complain recently.] Roland bemoaned in his heart while remaining indifferent on the surface. [How can that be? Didn't I recently allot you a fresh batch of knights?"]

In the first round of examination, Roland had picked out more than 50 knights who made the grade and were able to read and write. As there was no need of too many teachers, he ultimately assigned only nine of these knights to be elementary school teachers, while the remaining knights were assigned to the city hall and started off as apprentices.

"Your Highness, that bunch turned out to be tardy, lazy and unresponsive. They even make mistakes while copying notes. They're completely unfit to be apprentices."

"It's up to you to discipline them." Roland thumped lightly on the table. "If they don't follow your instructions, send them straight to the northern slope mine. I'll definitely need to set up these two departments."

"Alright, Your Highness, as you say," Barov replied in resignation.

Roland explained, "The first is the Ministry of Agriculture, which will be responsible for supervising the planting and growing of crops within my territory."

Barov was surprised, undoubtedly because this was the first time he had heard that the City Hall would take charge of farming matters. "Your Highness, why not let the serfs handle these things themselves? How they plant or harvest has nothing to do with us. We just need to collect the right amount of tax."

"That's why your... no, I mean to say, that's why the crop harvests have been so low." Roland lifted his cup and drank a mouthful of water, as if to cover up his slip of the tongue. "A responsible City Hall needs to take care of how the people eat, drink and sh*t."

"Eat, drink and sh*t...? Your Highness, are you kidding?"

"Of course not. I don't have to talk about the importance of eating and drinking. If my subjects don't have enough food, both the City Hall and I are guilty of dereliction of duty. As for sh*tting, don't you think the public toilets project is done for this purpose?" His casual tone turned serious. "I don't know how the City Hall in King's City operates, or if the lives of the common folk are of no great concern to them. But, in Border Town, I want to establish an all-purpose government agency which understands clearly the various conditions and situations that the people are in. Only this way will I be able to obtain the wholehearted support of my subjects, and thus ensure that the decrees I issue will be carried out effectively. Make sure you remember what I've told you about the setting up of this department, as well as the tasks that it'll be responsible for."

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

"Go to the archives and find three or four people who used to do farm work, and recruit them into the Ministry of Agriculture. Then choose two of your apprentices to be in charge of records and statistics. In total, six people should be enough."

"Wait... you want a few commoners to serve as the City Hall officials?" Barov revealed an expression of shock.

"They're not only obedient but also highly enthusiastic when doing things, so why not? Officials aren't equivalent to nobles. And the Ministry of Agriculture will require a few professionals to guide the farming from now."

"But most of them aren't even literate..."

"That's why you'll have to assign two apprentices to manage the paperwork." Roland interrupted. "This state of affairs won't last for too long. Soon, I'll implement a universal education program throughout my territory to teach everyone to read and write. When that time comes, you'll no longer have to worry about lack of manpower."

Clearly, this piece of news was even more startling to Barov than the decision to allow commoners into the City Hall. He gaped in silence at Roland for a long time.

Roland was not concerned about gaining his acceptance, and continued saying, "Back to the matter of the Ministry of Agriculture, when the serfs cultivate their own land, there'll inevitably be different standards and results. Some will dig the soil deeper while others will sow more densely. This will be an excellent opportunity to observe them. The six people of the ministry will need to number every plot of land, record every step undertaken by the serfs, and provide detailed information about how deep they dig and how much spacing they leave between every seed. I'll give the ministry the necessary measuring tools and teach them how to use these."

"Your Majesty, is this... comparison work?" Although Barov was old-fashioned in certain aspects, his brain worked faster than he usually got credit for.

"Indeed. For the first round of cultivation, the harvest amount won't be too important. We'll continue to import grains and... use a few new varieties of wheat to ensure that our people don't get hungry. What I need is to find out the most suitable method of all and compile it into a manual. We'll then use this method widely, with the Ministry of Agriculture in charge of promoting, guiding and supervising it."

Although Roland was not well-versed in farming, it did not prevent him from using scientific thinking to devise a set of the best farming methods. Once it was completed, the average yield per plot of land would be maintained at a relatively high level even if the acreage was increased or inexperienced hands were added.

Barov nodded in agreement but hesitated for a moment before responding. "Your Highness, there's something I don't understand. When the serfs were promoted to free citizens, why did you only collect two-tenths of their harvest as land tax? Even if you decided to collect half of their harvest, you would have been seen as big-hearted like no other."

"Because money piled up underground has no meaning," Roland explained, "and after they turn over that two-tenths, I'll purchase their excess grains at a fixed price—in Border Town, the Lord franchises the grain trade. This way, the castle obtains the grains while they get their due remuneration. Once they accumulate some savings, they'll think about buying things... such as farm cattle, iron-made farming tools, beef, cotton clothing, as well as top-grade brick houses. I'm the only person who can provide these. Similarly, the townspeople can only purchase grains from the castle. Eventually, money flows back to me, but within this cycle, it allows the living standard of the people to increase continually. Do you understand now?"

Barov frowned and did not answer for a long while. It was obvious that he had fallen into a state of complete bafflement.

Roland laughed and shook his head. "You can go back and try to comprehend everything on your own time. But first, do as I've instructed."

The assistant minister, still visibly dazed, stood up and made his way out. When he reached the door, he abruptly turned his head back. "By the way, Your Highness, you mentioned two ministries earlier. What's the second?"

"A Ministry of Education," Roland answered, "I'll personally handle this one."

Chapter 139 - A Demon's Authority

Barov returned to his office in the City Hall and immediately bolted the door.

[My goodness.] He felt the God's Stone of Retaliation on his chest. [His Highness has truly been possessed by a demon.] He had vaguely guessed this previously but was almost certain now—the person whom he talked to was definitely not the fourth Prince.

It was still understandable that there was a dramatic change in his personality and way of doing things, but not to he suddenly comprehending things he had never come into contact with, and acquiring knowledge he had never heard about. This only happened in fairy tales, and even then, the story would always be about a deity who possessed a common people and led humanity out of their predicament. Since when did demons do the same thing?

Barov would not have felt surprised had Roland Wimbledon copied the methods of managing his territory from King's City, as difficult as that would have been nevertheless. Even if the fourth Prince was known to be ignorant and incompetent, he could easily have faked his personality, and it was possible that someone had secretly taught him how to govern a city or even a country.

However, the assistant minister had never heard of the ideas and plans that the prince spoke of. Having served some 20 years in the City Hall, including as the treasurer's assistant, he was highly knowledgeable about the structure and operation of the City Hall. Usually, the ministers took charge of their respective functions and did not care about each other's business, saving for a few private agreements.

Whenever the king issued a decree, the ministers would assign work to their subordinates. Every minister had his own influence and style of doing things. Take for example Steelheart Knight, who was in charge of defending King's City in Graycastle. He had hundreds of patrolmen and mercenaries at his disposal, and also had some influence in the underground world of the city. His style of doing things was aggressive and reckless. Any criminal eyed by him, even if it was a noble, would find it difficult to remain in the city. They would either have to flee or wait to be imprisoned.

This applied not just to King's City, but every other city as well.

Therefore, to become the subordinate of a lord or the king, one had to first be a noble from an important family and line of work.

If one did not have enough money and food to recruit men, it would not be possible to get many things done. Conversely, the more men that one had, the more valued he would be by his superior—everyone understood the principle that many hands make light work.

However, the prince's new way of doing things completely subverted Barov's beliefs. One new rule was that everyone, including ministers and their subordinates, would be recruited and paid by the City Hall. This implied that whenever a minister was absent, he could easily be replaced, and someone from below could be directly promoted.

This was a novel system altogether. Barov was certain that the prince wanted to create a political system that was entirely different from the upper levels of Kingdom of Graycastle.

Some people might think that this was simply Roland's fantasy or the bumptiousness of a layman. Instead, the assistant minister did not think so. He picked up a quill and recorded His Highness' requests on paper.

As he read through the plans, he realized that they were all interlinked and consistent, and took into consideration every small detail.

The first thing to do was to take care of the people's "eating, drinking and sh*tting".

Barov naturally understood that the greater the control over the people, the faster the decrees ordered by the Lord would be carried out. However, this significantly increased the number of supervisors needed. Where was he going to find so many literate people? Furthermore, not many of the Lord's subordinates would be willing to see funds diverted to pay for the increased amount of salaries, which was sure to be a huge burden.

Barov then read the other two requests, which were respectively to recruit commoners into the City Hall, and to make education available to everyone.

He swept through these two lines of writing with his fingers, and his heart shuddered unbearably.

If His Highness successfully realizes these plans, how would Border Town be like?

Anyone would be able to read and write, and thus when the city hall wanted to expand, it could easily find a large number of suitable people. Conversely, this would promote the universalization of education—it would become widely known that those who received education would have the opportunity to enter the City Hall, secure a well-paying job, and increase their social status. But Barov was afraid that in less than two years, everyone would actively request an education, or, if they were incapable themselves, they would want to send their children to school.

Coupled with the aforementioned plan for the City Hall to take care of all salaries—which meant that Roland would be paying, the commoners who entered the City Hall would not need to fork out a single bronze royal to recruit their own men. This was tantamount to eradicating the extant restriction that only nobles who had sufficient capital could serve as officials.

Without a doubt, only a demon could have conceived such a revolutionary system.

Barov inhaled deeply and clutched the God's Stone of Retaliation in his hand. He only had one question left: do kindhearted demons exist?

He would be the first to disagree with any suggestion that Roland was a follower of evil.

In his eyes, the fourth Prince's deeds were on par with that of a noble king. In fact, even in the tales of the legendary kings in the history books, there was none who cared as much as Roland about the life and death of his subjects. He had remained behind to guard Border Town together with his people and spent large sums of money to purchase grains, so that everyone could get through the Months of Demons safely; introduced monstrous technology and equipment to develop the town; and somehow persuaded witches, who were considered to be the Devil's minions, to use their abilities to improve the lives of the people.

Barov suddenly thought that if Roland ever became the king of Graycastle, it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

He recalled his father's teachings: "Don't say what you shouldn't say, and don't ask what you shouldn't ask." He decided that it was the best to keep his discovery to himself for the moment. If Roland was indeed a demon, he would have to deal with the church sooner or later. When they discovered something wrong with him, Barov could then emerge as a divulger and witness who hid within the demon's camp.

He rang a bell and summoned in the City Hall's newcomer, Sirius Daly.

Compared to the stupid and haughty knights, this young fellow from the Wolf Family could be regarded as outstanding. Although he retained some of the arrogance of a knight, he was at least willing to listen to Barov's instructions.

"Teacher, what's the matter?" Sirius bowed as he entered the room.

"His Highness wants to set up a new ministry to be in charge of crop harvest and supervision. Two apprentices will be needed to help with the paperwork." Barov repeated Roland's request. "In addition, you'll need to go to the City Hall's archives to find 10 people who meet the requirements, and then pick out four of them. Although they're commoners, His Highness insists on bringing them into the City Hall. Anyone of them who performs outstandingly may even become the Chief Supervisor of the Ministry of Agriculture. Aye..." He sighed and continued, "You'll follow them to record the results. When the spring harvest is completed, I'll transfer you back here."

"Teacher, I'll only need to pick out two people." Sirius raised his chest and proclaimed. "I'm also very experienced in this area."

"You?" Barov seemed surprised.

"Yes! Before I became a knight, I used to help my father to manage the farm. I know a lot about wheat cultivation." Sirius paused. "However, when His Highness asked me whether I had other proficiencies, I didn't mention this... because I was worried that he would assign me to the farms to work with the serfs."

Barov quietly felt happy. If Sirius was to be believed, he was knowledgeable about farming while also educated. Even if commoners joined the Ministry of Agriculture, he would undoubtedly be the clear choice to become the chief supervisor. As things were at present, Sirius was on Barov's side, and therefore if he became the chief supervisor, Barov would have some influence on the ministry as well.

"Great." He framed these considerations into a promise of benefits, and nagged at Sirius. "Do your job properly. Who knows, you may even climb to a higher position than ever before."

After Sirius departed, Barov leaned back on his chair and exhaled lightly.

Since he now knew that Roland was a demon, he believed that he had to hold on to power tighter than ever before. As the legends often depicted, demons were always highly appreciative of ambitious people. And to Barov, power, whether conferred by the king or by a demon, was equally sweet.

Chapter 140 - The Plant Seeds

Not long after the assistant minister left, the prince received a piece of good news regarding someone's return.

It was his personal guard, Sean, who had earlier gone to Port of Clearwater to purchase crop seeds.

Roland followed the guards who reported the news to the garden. He saw Sean and several other bodyguards unloading many bags from several horses' backs.

It had been more than a month since they set off for Port of Clearwater. Sean was noticeably more tanned and skinnier than before.

When he saw the prince, he immediately stood up straight and raised his hand in salute. Roland quickened his footsteps, walked up to Sean, and patted him on the shoulder. "Good job. What types of seeds have you brought back?"

Sean crouched his body and untied the bags on the ground. "Pearl rice, ground egg, sugar stalk... I've bought all of the plants you described at Port of Clearwater. They're indeed mostly originated from the Fjords, but Port of Clearwater also has many farms to grow these kinds of crops now."

"Did you ask the merchants how these crops are cultivated?"

"I did, but they weren't able to explain the specific methods. They even said that these plants are very difficult to cultivate outside of Southern Territory." Sean dug out a bunch of orange-yellow granules from a bag and showed it to Roland. "Your Highness, this is pearl rice. A merchant told me that if I bought it together with the pearl stalks, he would offer it to me at a cheaper rate. But the stalks were too heavy and inconvenient to carry, and thus I only brought one back, while the rest are peeled seeds."

Undoubtedly, what Sean referred to as pearl rice was actually corn, which Roland was familiar with. He excitedly pinched a corn grain and observed it under the sunlight. Its fruit was a bit shriveled, as though it had been stored in a warehouse over winter. The yield of corn was naturally higher than that of wheat by some distance, and perhaps, after Leaf made some modifications, it could soon replace wheat as the staple food of Border Town.

Sean opened another bag and took out a plump and brown-skinned crop. "This is a ground egg. I ate some in an inn in Port of Clearwater. It's usually cut into strips and soaked in water. It's very crunchy and has a slightly sweet taste."

When Roland saw the familiar shape, he felt exhilarated. This was clearly a potato! He used a finger to scratch away the dirt-covered skin to reveal the dark yellow potato flesh inside—compared to the latter-day potato he knew, the size of this potato was relatively small, and the tuber's color was darker. Also, not every potato had the same egg shape. He noticed that there were potatoes with carrot-like long shapes in the bag.

"This thing's even tastier when grounded and steamed into a paste."

"Uh... Your Highness, you've eaten this before?"

"Yes, at a palace banquet." Roland decided to lie, if only because he felt that the name "ground egg" was too unpleasant. "The royal chefs don't call it 'ground egg' but 'potato' instead. The steamed delicacy is called 'mashed potato'."

"I see. Your Highness is indeed knowledgeable." Sean exclaimed. He then opened the final bag, which stood up perfectly straight, and took out a black-skinned stick. "Your Highness, I feel that this crop will be the most important. Honey is extremely cheap in Port of Clearwater largely because of it. I heard in a tavern that many of their farms have switched to growing these sugar stalks instead. This amazing plant tastes sweet, and after peeling off the skin, it can be squeezed to extract sugar. Its price is one-tenth that of honey, and yet it's no less sweet than honey water."

"..." Roland wanted to comment that he had also seen this crop before, as well as suggest to change its name to sugarcane, but after some thought, he dropped the idea and decided that it would not be too late to change its name after allowing his subjects to cultivate the crop. The raw material that sugarcane used to produce sucrose could also be used to refine ethanol, and therefore, it might be considered to be a crop that could greatly enhance the happiness of the people. It was not too difficult to imagine that if some white sugar was sprinkled over the usually-tasteless flour pancakes, it would improve the taste by severalfold. Even Roland, who much preferred salty food, would fall in love with this.

"Are there any other crop seeds?"

"Those are the only ones from Port of Clearwater." Sean fished out six small leather bags from an inside pocket and handed them to the prince. "You also asked me to bring back plant seeds which are found in Graycastle but not in Border Town. These bags contain plants which I picked while passing by Willow Town and Fallen Dragon Ridge. There are grapes, soybeans, cotton, flax and olive seeds. The only thing to note is that a farmer told me that grapes are mostly grown by sticking a branch in the soil. Although seeds can be used as well, the germination period is very long and the resulting grapes won't taste too good."

[None of these is a problem with Leaf around,] Roland thought. Now that he had grape seeds, he could even attempt to create a grapevine version of wheat. As for the soybeans, cotton, flax and olive seeds, they were all highly useful crops. He would first let Leaf modify the seeds to suit the Western Region's climate and soil, and then pass them to the serfs to cultivate on a small scale, and finally get the Ministry of Agriculture to make the final improvements and compile a cultivation handbook.

"Your Highness, I have some other news to report," Sean said in a low voice, "It's regarding the situation in Port of Clearwater."

"Does it have anything to do with Princess Garcia?"

Sean nodded. "I stayed in Port of Clearwater for nearly two weeks. Aside from purchasing seeds, most of my free time was spent in the taverns." "There was an ongoing rumor that your elder sister, Garcia Wimbledon, had struck an agreement with the people of Sand Nation. She would offer the Southern Territory's border regions for their people to reside, and in return, they would proclaim her as their queen and heed her call-ups and commands. During my time in the port, I indeed caught sight of the figures of several Mojin Clan people."

"The Mojin people of the Southernmost Region..." Roland got caught in his thoughts. "They yearn most for oases and sources of water. Garcia has truly found their soft spot this time. However, even if she's as bold as the Queen of Clearwater should be, she'll most certainly not dare to invite too many of the people of Sand Nation, or else the safety of Port of Clearwater will be compromised."

"The people of Sand Nation are divided among themselves into many factions. It's not possible that they'll all listen to her orders. Do you know which clans she made the agreement with?"

Sean shook his head. "The people of Sand Nation are extremely wary of Graycastle people. I won't be able to obtain more detailed information even if I paid gold royals. However... something extremely odd happened. A day before I intended to leave Port of Clearwater, Garcia returned triumphantly from Eagle City, and throughout the city, people celebrated their queen's victory over the fake king Timothy. However, the next day, there were four or five cases of murder throughout the city, and one victim was even torn into pieces on the streets."

"Subsequently, Port of Clearwater was put into lockdown, and thus I had to spend another three days there. The taverns were closed and everyone gathered in the lobby of the inn to discuss this matter. Some said that this was the revenge for the fake king, while others said that this was committed by the people of Sand Nation. A merchant from the Fjords claimed that he personally witnessed one of the murders. The murderer wasn't big in stature, and was clearly not a person of Sand Nation, but his strength and speed were extraordinary. The security team that came as soon as they heard the news was completely destroyed by him. Although he was stabbed several times, he seemed unaffected by his blood spilling all over the place. Only when more security members arrived in quick succession were they able to put him down with shields and spears. When the lockdown was lifted, I didn't dare to stay any longer, and immediately hopped on a merchant ship and returned here."

"You did very well." Roland pondered for a moment. "Don't bother returning the excess gold royals for purchasing seeds to the City Hall. Treat it as your reward."

"Thank you for Your Highness' reward!"

"Extraordinary strength and speed, and unaffected by the pain caused by stab wounds, these sound like... the church's pill." After the guards made their leave, Roland heard Nightingale's voice ring out in his ears.

"I think so too. But then it makes even less sense," Roland replied, frowning, "and according to Sean's explanation, Garcia would receive the pill earlier than me. If they're supporting both sides to fight for the throne... what exactly are they thinking?" He soon had a faint and nasty thought in his mind. "Could it be that the real purpose of the church isn't to see a stable Kingdom of Graycastle?"

Chapter 141 - A Kiss

At night, Roland sat in his office and began designing the new equipment.

The appearance of the pill in Port of Clearwater made him feel a strong sense of crisis. Without thinking about why the church simultaneously supported him and Garcia to vie for the throne, just the fact that Garcia's military strength comprised of thousands of soldiers terrified him greatly.

He imagined thousands of steel-clad warriors charging at cavalry speed towards him in an unstoppable manner. His weak line of volley fire would find it hard to stop them. If one of these warriors charged into a group of soldiers, it would cause heavy damage to the First Army.

Fortunately, this kind of pill could not provide immunity to its user, who thus remained flesh and blood.

What Roland needed was higher-speed and more precise weapons, so that he could continually fire at the enemies from an even greater distance.

He also had to come up with a way to overcome the problem of lacking mercury fulminate to serve as primer. He decided to first manufacture a batch of substitute equipment which would be used to cope during a possible crisis.

Anna's new ability gave him immense confidence. At present, as long as he could draw a blueprint, Anna would be able to produce the weapon with high accuracy and astonishing efficiency—unlike in the past when he had to rely on the blacksmiths to hammer out the flintlock's components one at a time, Anna could stack several parts together and cut them into shape together.

The universalization of education and the standardization of weights and measures were intended to prepare for industrial mass production, but that did not mean he would not take shortcuts. Anna's new ability was virtually a goldmine of its own, possessing an endless well of potential to be tapped. In recent days, Roland would go to North Slope Mountain every afternoon to do research together with her on the usage of Blackfire. When he did not have time for that, he would let her practice controlling her ability by carving a few small playthings, such as garage kits of the witches.

Although, at present, she was still an amateur in sculpturing human figures, Roland believed that there would come a day when the display sections of his bookcase would be crammed with garage kits of witches... perhaps?

He took out a steel ruler and pressed it down on the parchment. When he had only drawn two lines, he heard someone knocking on the door.

As his guards did not inform him of this arrival, he could guess that it was most likely a witch. And at this time, most witches would be in the parlor on the first floor, learning how to read words and perform the four arithmetic operations from Scroll. There was only one witch who did not have to attend elementary class and thus had time to visit him right now.

"Come in."

Indeed, the person who pushed the door and entered the room was Anna.

She gently closed the door and walked up to Roland's desk. She was carrying a book that was inlaid with golden edges in her arms.

That she was able to borrow the Book of Illusions, which Scroll could only reveal once a day, and furthermore to do so before Scroll's lesson, it must be said that although Anna did not talk much, her popularity within the witches' community was evidently yet unexpectedly high. He thought about Nana, who used to follow behind Anna like a tail on her back; maybe Anna was naturally born with a charm that enchanted witches?

"What's the matter? Did you run into a problem hard to understand?"

"Yes." She nodded in agreement and opened the book in front of Roland. "Here... Your Highness, you said that all things in this world are made of small balls and that these balls are all different from each other, but you then mentioned that they can turn into... waves?" Anna asked. "What's a wave?"

"When you throw a stone into water, the vibration created is a wave." The prince coughed twice before continuing. "This is a concept. You can observe it, but you don't have to research it too deeply."

"Why's that?"

[Because I don't know more about it myself.] Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. The micro quantum field was one of the most abstruse theories to him. He suddenly felt that he should not have written this paragraph in the book, but his reply did not match what his brain thought. "Therefore, these balls have both wave and material properties. We're also made up of small balls and thus we're like that too. The only difference is that the quality of our bodies is too high, which makes it difficult to observe fluctuations. As for an even deeper reason, it would take many generations of mankind to discover." He thought for a while before adding. "Because there's a considerably large conflict between this kind of phenomenon and our common sense, it may be very difficult to comprehend. It's like how those of us living in the three-dimensional world find it hard to visualize four-dimensional space. You don't have to worry about these things."

Anna curled her lips as though she was not satisfied with Roland's explanation. She then asked, "What's the four-dimensional space?"

"..."

By the time she stopped asking further questions, the prince had spoken until his mouth was completely dry. He had utterly underestimated Anna's curiosity and thirst for knowledge. If this continued, he would soon have nothing left to teach her.

Notably, when Roland asked her about her progress in mathematics, she replied with a calm face, "That's much easier than this. I'm currently studying equations and matrices, which are rather interesting."

[Much easier, rather interesting...] Roland suddenly felt that the disparity among humans was too large. How long had this been? She had progressed from the basic functions of mathematics to equations and matrices in only a week's time, and after this would be calculus. If placed in a school, Anna would be a terrifyingly quick learner.

And... a very pretty quick learner to boot.

Roland gazed at the young girl as she lowered her head and flipped through the book. For a short while, he was spellbound. He observed the fine fringes on her forehead and saw as strands of hair fell beside her cheek sporadically. He could not help reaching out his forefinger to gently roll up her hair behind her ears.

She turned her head and looked at him with a smile in her eyes. Her turquoise pupils were no longer as calm as water, and seemed to ripple. They looked into each other's eyes from this close distance until Anna opened her mouth to say something—she did not make a sound, but Roland could still interpret what her lips said.

"Nightingale isn't here right now."

The meaning of these words could not have been more straightforward. Roland felt that he would be stupid if he pretended not to understand. The room was completely silent, such that he could practically hear her breath and heartbeat.

As he moved closer to her, she closed her eyes and her cheeks started to blush. He sniffed the faint scent on her body and gently kissed her lips.

A lush and soft feeling spread through his body. Time seemed to freeze at this moment, and it was God knew how long before they briefly separated.

Without waiting for him to say anything, Anna tipped her toes, allowing the couple's lips to make contact again.

...

"Yee... haw... hey!" Mystery Moon sat cross-legged on her bed deep in meditation. She raised her arms high and chanted lines of words.

"Are you mad?" A frowning Lily asked while wrapping a towel around her damp hair.

"I'm trying to think of myself as a composition of particles, She opened her eyes and said, "I'm particles." Then she pointed her hand at Lily. "You too!"

"Nuts." The latter rolled her eyes and climbed into her soft bed.

"Aye, it doesn't work." Mystery Moon sighed. "I've clearly imagined everything around me to be compositions of particles. Why can't I develop a new ability like Anna did?"

"Because you don't believe it at all." Lily posited.

"I do!"

"You don't." She shook her head. "The only person that we can't deceive is ourselves... Although Anna wasn't clear about Roland's reasons, she trusted unconditionally in him from the very beginning. And of course, she's always been much smarter than you. This is another important reason why she was able to obtain her new ability."

"..."

"In any case, don't imagine too much. Have a good sleep." Lily shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't you wish to have this kind of ability?" Mystery Moon pouted her lips. "I want to be able to do more work for Roland."

"By developing an ability that'll keep food fresh for a longer time?" She yawned. "I'm not interested. Besides, why would you want to do more work for him? Men are all heartless and capricious. Echo is an example right in front of you."

"You say you're not interested, but yet you're always so attentive during class," Mystery Moon whispered softly, "and you're the most serious student after Leaf."

Lily grabbed her pillow and clapped it on the former's face. "Go to sleep!"

Chapter 142 - The Tramroad

It had been half a month since Roland conquered Longsong Stronghold. The five noble families in the stronghold had already delivered the needed people and supplies to Border Town.

After the Ministry of Agriculture was completely organized, spring plowing of a new year finally began, and it was the first step for Roland's agricultural technique revolution. The serfs, who saw the dawn of life as freemen, were filled with motivation to work. The scene that a supervisor whipped the serfs and forced them to work was never seen again on the southern bank of Redwater River. Some serfs loafed on the job, only to find that no one came to supervise them again. They heard from the officials who were busy measuring in the fields with strange tools that His Highness did not concern himself about the harvest of one or two fields. From now on, the serfs would work for themselves, and the more they plowed, the more they gained.

Not all officials of the Ministry of Agriculture understood the principle of 'distribution to each according to his work'. They were actually required by Roland to unceasingly repeat these ideas to the serfs in order to instill these ideas into their mind. To satisfy His Highness' nostalgic feelings, red flags and banners were decorated along the banks of Redwater River. On the banners were written slogans such as 'Labor is the only way to get rich', 'Labor brings honor and glory', 'Labor leads to freedom', and 'Labor changes destiny' and so on.

Of course these measures met objections from others, for example, Barov was the first one to stand up and express his disapproval.

"Your Highness, this is totally meaningless. Most serfs aren't able to read, and they don't care about what's written on the banners. These people are just stupid and ignorant. Whips can't even make them better, let alone these banners with strange words."

Roland, however, gave a simple answer, "Those banners aren't meant for them."

"Then why did you do these things?" hearing this, the assistant minister asked rather confused.

"To create living models."

He never thought the serfs were stupid and unchangeable. It was true that they were not educated, but it did not mean that they had no thoughts. No matter how dull a man might be, he would be driven by desire and interest, which was simply human nature. The repeated words said by the officials of Ministry of Agriculture seemed to produce little effect at first, but would actually inspire them and thus lead them to subconsciously change their old ideas, like little streams would gather to form a sea. When the first group of serfs was promoted to freemen, when they exchanged their harvested crop for money to buy decent clothes and delicious food and even solid and warm brick-houses, the often repeated slogans would become a reality and be deeply engraved on their mind.

As for the banners along the riverbank, they were for the subjects of Border Town after they received a universal education.

By their own hands, the serfs were able to get rid of poverty, become a formal member of Border Town and even have a better life than the native inhabitants. All by the power of hard work.

By comparing it, people could feel the gap between them. They would then pursue a better life of their own initiative. Only in this way could an individual's efficiency be raised to its highest level.

...

Iron Head stood at the mine entrance waiting for the latest delivery of ores.

Since half of his face was burned by the hot steam during the last Months of Demons, he never dared to stand beside this black machine ever again.

Fortunately, there was a kind angel, Miss Nana, in Border Town. Iron Head touched his face which was completely healed, and his heart was filled with gratitude. When he was wounded, he had the nerve to suspect that she was one of the devil's minions. What an offense to her! After the winter, he took two salted fish and a wild boar leg, and then went to the house of Mr. Pine to apologize for his mistake.

More surprisingly, though Tigui Pine was a viscount, unlike those arrogant nobles who held their nose high in the air, he generously accepted his apologies. For the first time, Iron Head felt that not all nobles were cruel and merciless.

"Old Iron," a miner who was covered with dust ran out of the mine and shouted, "The ropes have been fastened."

"Okay," he turned back to the direction of the steam engine and shouted, "everyone, clear the area. Flacke, lift up the green rod and then press the red rod. If you make a mistake again, I'll twist your head off!"

"Trust me, Old Iron. You can count on me," Flacke responded loudly.

Since Nail was sent to join the First Army, Iron Head arranged Flacke to operate the steam engine. At first, Flacke often made mistakes with the order, which caused steam pipes to burst. Iron Head had thrashed him many times for it. Fortunately, His Highness did not blame them for this matter. Instead, he sent people to replace the damaged parts of the machine. And they even did not have to pay money for the damaged parts. Iron Head originally had thought they would be fined a month's salary for it.

With the opening of the inlet valve, the steam engine spurted out a tremendous amount white smoke and the main wheel began to slowly rotate, leading the capstan to stretch the ropes straight.

"Cheer up! Watch the ropes. Watch them carefully!" Iron Head shouted.

Besides the steam engine, the way of pulling the ores out of the mine had changed too.

His Highness ordered the carpenters to chop many long wood sticks, which were laid end to end to form rails along the whole mine's tunnels. And then other wood sticks were placed under the parallel wooden rails. At the first glance, it looked like a long wooden ladder.

His Highness called it a wood rail transportation system, an awkward name. It did not seem to be very complicated, but it had amazing effects after they used the special trams! How efficient! The ores, which cost them three or four days to carry out of the mine in the past, were packed in several trams and pulled out by the steam engine in a breath.

Iron Head had eagerly observed the four-wheel tram running along the wooden rails. It was completely made of iron and so it was extremely expensive. The key to making it move along the narrow rails without falling was its wheels. There was a larger flange on the inside edge of the wheel which fixed it firmly on the rail. Above the wheel was a square iron pot that had hooks at the front and back to connect the trams in a line.

He could not help but admire His Highness's wisdom. With such a simple design, he had made the transportation of ores become much easier. Before the invention, the transportation of the heavy ores out of the mine was the most time-consuming and energy-consuming labor.

However, this system was not perfect. For example, after they used it for five days, two pieces of wood rails had already been crushed, and other ones were soon broken. The situation was improved after His Highness ordered to wrap the top side of all rails with a thin iron sheet.

In addition, the ropes broke once and caused a serious accident. Iron Head still felt his heart was violently beating when he recalled it. According to the regulations, they were only allowed to pull four trams at a time. But on that day, the miners wanted to finish their work more quickly, so they linked six trams together. The tram was halfway there, when a half arm-thick rope suddenly broke, rebounded and hit a miner who was standing beside Iron Head. It broke his arm and several ribs. The trams slid down along the rails, knocked down two miners and crushed the legs of another unlucky miner.

Luckily Iron Head knew what they should do in such cases. He immediately organized people to carry the wounded miners to the house of Viscount Tigui. As long as they were not dead, Miss Nana would be able to heal them completely.

"Old Iron, the trams are out!" shouted the man who was observing at the entrance.

Hearing this, Iron Head ordered loudly. "Flacke, wait for 10 breaths, then turn off the steam engine and mind the order!"

"Yes, gotcha."

Four trams slowly stopped at the end of the tramroad. Iron Head went over to record the ore yield. The first two trams were filled with reddish-brown iron ores, which were found the most in the mine. In the third tram, there were gray ores with a slight yellow tint, which should be copper ores. When he saw the ores in the fourth tram, he was a little shocked, as he had never seen this kind of ores in previous records. They were dark brown and emitted a dim metallic sheen in the sun.

Another unknown ore, Iron Head shook his head. North Slope Mine had so many tunnels, so it was normal that they often dug out some strange ores. He drew a cross on his paper and ordered miners to send all ores to the yard. As for these dark brown ores, whether they would be thrown into the furnace or not had nothing to do with him.

Chapter 143 - The Migrants

A sailing ship from Longsong Stronghold slowly berthed at the dock of Border Town.

After the gangboard was lowered, the passengers, with all kinds of luggage on their back, began to walk down the trestle. Most of them had never set foot in this strange land before, so they seemed quite confused. The sailors behind were urging them to hurry up, making them feel terribly uneasy.

As the crowd began to thrust forward, a middle-aged woman accidentally slipped. She lost her balance and nearly fell from the trestle. Luckily, a younger woman instantly stepped forward and grasped her wrist, saving her from falling.

"Thank, thank you." The middle-aged woman thanked her profusely with one hand on her chest to calm herself.

The younger woman, however, just smiled and waved her hand, indicating that it was no bother.

Ferlin Eltek was waiting at the dock. He immediately recognized this agile young woman. She was Irene, his beloved wife, the Flower of Tomorrow of Stronghold Theatre. She wore a white dress, and her long hair was coiled up on top of her head, making her beautiful and graceful as before.

Though the heart of the First Knight was beating with excitement, he waited until she had safely landed on the dock. Then he immediately rushed forward to hug her tightly, in spite of the looks and shouts of the people around them. She was startled by the unexpected hug, but once she recognized Ferlin, she responded to his hug gently.

"I was so terrified to hear that the duke was defeated. When you were in Longsong Stronghold, I never got the chance to see you," she whispered into his ears, "Fortunately, you're safe now."

"I was imprisoned in the dungeon of the lord's castle. The guards wouldn't have let you in," Ferlin let go of his wife and said, "how have you been these past two weeks?"

She was silent for a while and then told him, "I left the theater."

Ferlin immediately understood what was left unsaid. When he was still the First Knight of the Western Region, only the duke would dare to harass her. But when he became a captive of His Highness, those who coveted her beauty no longer hid their desire. They had been waiting for the opportunity to possess her. If she had continued to go to the theater to work, it would have been a suicidal effort.

"That's all right. I got a job here, and the salary isn't bad." He reassured her. "Let's go home first."

"Home?" Irene was surprised. "We don't have to live separately?"

Generally speaking, the prisoners who were neither redeemed nor sentenced to death, would work as poor laborers. They had to live in tents or barracks which were crammed with prisoners. They had to sleep on the ground which was covered with wheat straw. The families of the prisoners would be treated similarly. The women had to live in another barrack and also sleep on the ground. When the prisoners were working, the women had to tidy up the men's barracks, prepare meals and do laundry.

Thinking of that, Ferlin felt touched by his wife's choice. If she stayed at the farm of Longsong Stronghold, at least she had her own spacious room with a comfortable and soft bed. Yet she still chose to come to Border Town alone, just for him. Even though she thought she had to live with other women in a small room or a tent and would be forced to work, she did not hesitate.

"I'm a teacher now." He picked up Irene's luggage and held her hand, heading for the New Civilization District. "As a teacher, I got my own apartment for free."

To be honest, when he first heard the treatment of the teachers from His Highness, he did not expect much. As a prisoner, having his own room would be great. Even if it was a wooden hut with a leaking roof and broken windows, it would be a good shelter after he tried to fix it. He had never expected that the houses for teachers turn out to be so... regular.

Entering the new district, the streets became wider, and the ground was paved with gray gravel. The roads had been flattened by the stonemasons so that it was comfortable to walk on them. At first, Ferlin could not understand why the stonemasons would bother to waste labor and time. Then he saw how heavy rainwater flowed along the gravel, sinking into the ground and then into the deep drains on both sides of the road. Compared with the narrow alleyways in Longsong Stronghold, which were often muddy and covered with puddles on rainy days, these streets were obviously much better.

Irene looked around and asked with confusion, "These houses seem to be newly built. Have we gone the wrong way?"

"No, my dear. We're almost there."

After they had passed two more corners, Ferlin Eltek stopped in front of a two-story brick house, and said to Irene, "We're here."

"Where?" She looked around and then turned to the new house in front of her. She covered her mouth with surprise. "Is this whole house our new home?"

"Of course not." He smiled. "This is the Teachers' House, and we live in an apartment in the middle of the second floor. Let's go upstairs."

He opened the door with a key from his pocket, and led her by her hand into the new home. There were a living room, two bedrooms, and two auxiliary rooms, and were well decorated with furniture. It was not large, but surprisingly comfortable. From the living room decoration to the bedroom layout, they were all refreshing. Now with Irene, the hostess of the home, it became even more perfect.

"Oh my goodness. Are you really taken as a captive here?" Irene ran from one room to another eagerly, carefully looking at everything. She was as excited as a child. "We're really going to live here, right?"

"Yes, of course." Ferlin, with a smile of content on his face, took some bread and cheese from the cupboard and laid them on the table. "I'm guessing you didn't eat anything on the ship. Come, let's eat something. I have to go out to work later."

"Yes, you're a teacher now." Irene ran back to her husband. "Which noble family's children are you going to teach?"

"Not the nobles. The subjects of His Highness."

"Subjects?" Irene was dazed for a moment, and then asked, "What do you teach them?"

Ferlin picked up a book from the desk and handed it to her. "I teach them how to read and write. His Highness gave me this... 'textbook'."

When he had chosen to be a teacher, he had been afraid that he was not competent enough to do it. After all, teachers were usually knowledgeable, white-haired masters. But His Highness said he only needed to teach according to the textbook. When he read the so-called "textbook", he got to know that there were many details and methods in teaching others to read and write.

Everything was listed inside, from the methods of teaching to the content. On the first page, there was a list of dozens of frequently asked questions and answers for new teachers. For example, the question for how to become an excellent teacher, how to motivate students to learn or how to test the students, and the answers were plain and easy to understand, but yet gave the reader lots of inspiration. Before he even began his first course, he was already deeply intrigued by this book.

So was Irene, clearly. She had lived in the theater since her childhood and had read more books and scripts than Ferlin did. He had once thought, with her beauty and wisdom, if she had been born in a noble family, she would have been a distinguished lady known by the whole Western Region.

After reading through several pages, Irene suddenly raised her head and asked, "Did you say... the salary for teachers isn't bad?"

"20 silver royals per month, with an increase of five each year."

"There isn't any theater here, right?"

"No... there isn't." Ferlin hesitated, as he had already guessed what his wife was thinking.

Sure enough, she closed the book and smiled. "Then I'll also be a teacher, dear. Just like you."

Chapter 144 - The Real Feelings

In the backyard of firing area of North Slope Mine.

Nightingale picked up the wine glass on the table and held it above her head. The crystal clear glass body was shining under the light without any trace of mottle.

She was aware that these glasses were called the Crystal Cup, and its firing process and formula were top secret information in the alchemical workshop. Only the goblet in her hand was valued around one gold royal. The crystal glassware which was matching the exquisite silver tableware had always been the noble and rich businessmen's favorite to show off their wealth.

Now, these crystal containers from the royal palace would soon be melted into raw materials.

"Your Highness, you're not burning the glass but gold royals." Nightingale exclaimed.

"I don't have time to study how to turn the sand into the colorless glass, so I can only combine it this way for now." Roland threw a beautifully crafted crystal pot into the furnace made of Anna's Blackfire. Nightingale could not help but feel pity as she still remembered that Prince Roland used to fill it with ale for the tea parties in the castle garden and for the celebration feast of the Months of Demons.

The pot quickly melted and became a sticky paste under the stable high temperature.

"Blowing glass... with sand?" Anna asked, "Are they the same substance?"

"Well, the main ingredients are similar, but the sand contains a lot of impurities. The glass that was blown with sand is mostly close to the brown and green in color, which won't meet the requirements."

"So, glass is actually purified sand?"

Roland smiled. "You could consider so. When I put this knowledge into a book on how the particles formed into a substance, you'll understand once you read it."

Nightingale curled her lips and thought, [I wouldn't understand. Besides, the color of the glass doesn't affect its function as a container. You wouldn't be using it as a water cup, so why must it made by the glassware?]

Although they still looked colorless and transparent, their appearance was incomparable to the previous crystal cup.

Some looked like a tube with a round bottom, looking thin and long. And some looked like a bottle and the bottom was as large as a kettle and the bottleneck was only as thick as a thumb.

The strangest one was a tube that was bent into a horseshoe shape with both sides unsealed, and it was not even a container.

"What do you intend to do with the crystal glassware?" Nightingale could not help asking.

"It isn't for me but for the use of the Border Town alchemist," said Roland while stirring the paste in Blackfire with a glass stick, "they can use these glasswares to extract some acid and alkaline in order to produce some chemicals for the new weapons I created."

[Acid? Alkaline? Chemicals?] Nightingale blinked, realizing that she did not understand what His Highness said. It made her feel a little bit depressed. Of course, she could always ask about them one by one, but she felt that it seemed too ignorant and she did not want to expose that side of her in front of Anna, so she could only pay attention to the nouns that she could understand.

"Since when did Border Town have an alchemist? There's no alchemical workshop even in Longsong Stronghold. You can only find alchemists in Redwater City. I heard that their salary is higher than the lord, and it's rather hard to recruit them with only gold royals."

"You know quite a lot," Roland answered with a smile, "that's right. I've sent people who're already on their way to Redwater City. We'll likely receive a message in about two weeks. However, I'm not recruiting them with gold royals, but some alchemical secrets. As for our chances, I'm not very sure myself... But it's worth a try."

The compliment from His Highness during the first half of the conversation had suddenly blown away Nightingale's depression, and she contentedly walked back to the center of the yard and stuffed a pastry from a roundtable into her mouth.

Since Roland changed the main experimental site from the castle backyard to the firing area of North Slope Mount, the afternoon tea was also shifted.

On the roundtable were all the Royal snacks that were specially made by the chef for His Highness.

For example, this snack was called steamed bun. The skin was made from the wheat flour which was specially handled, making it extremely soft and chewy. There was also a meat stuffing wrapped inside. The meat was finely chopped and it was extremely juicy... Unlike the salted meat which was hard and difficult to swallow, the minced meat and juice would be integrated into one in a bite.

Nightingale put her fingers into her mouth and sucked them one by one while sitting on the couch. She felt a slight sleepiness.

[Am I getting lazier recently?] she thought.

The afternoon sun shone on her which felt like the warm water slowly wrapping around her. The spring breeze was blowing on the leaves making a shuffling noise. She felt extremely calm and quiet. She took off her shoes and curled her legs up, lying down on one side.

This perspective led to the view of the backyard to the side door of gunpowder making room. A curtain was hanging down from the door, which was used by His Highness to prevent her from sneaking in. Thinking about it, Nightingale found it slightly funny. Both the courtyard wall and the gunpowder making room wall were just a flat ground which she could freely walk into. She had even entered the mysterious house and listened to His Highness who was talking about the production method quietly at one side, but just that, she did not take away the finished gunpowder.

While Roland thought that no one knew about it, he himself was the one who did not know the truth.

Nightingale shifted her head to look at Anna.

She was holding a flat cup, which was just blown and she was talking to His Highness. She looked serious and focused.

Nightingale really admired Anna. She was a girl who came from a civilian family and yet she was so extremely talented.

It was Anna who brought the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association to escape the fate of the displacement and freed them from the magic power bite. If it were not her who changed Prince Roland's view of the witches, all the subsequent changes would not happen.

If His Royal Highness would marry a witch, Anna would be the only person she could think of.

Although she still had a slight expectation, Nightingale chose to deeply bury it in the bottom of her heart. As long as she could just stay around His Highness most of the time, she would be contented.

She closed her eyes and imagined a scene uncontrollably.

Roland was royally ascended in the palace. He wore a golden crown and held a gemstones scepter while walking towards the castle terrace to accept the public respect and cheers.

The girl in a white satin gown walking arm in arm with him was Anna, who also wore a golden crown on her head. Her face was covered by a veil. She smiled and waved to the people.

Lightning was hovering in the air, sprinkling the bright red rose petals. The melodious bell rang from the king's city belfry afar.

She herself was standing with the other sisters, applauding and sending their blessings.

She was increasingly drowsy and her consciousness gradually became hazy.

Roland turned around, opened the veil of the girl, and lowered his head to kiss her on her lips.

The last scene became very vague, with the veil falling on the floor, Nightingale faintly saw that the girl with her eyes closed... appeared to be herself.

She smiled and fell asleep.

Chapter 145 - The Quest of Pursuit (Part I)

Theo walked into a pub, where he could smell the strong smell of the hot and humid air that was mixed with beer smell.

Under the dim light, the men were bare-chested, their sweaty backs revealed. They sat at the bar table in the center, gulping down pints of cheap beer while chatting noisily with their companions. The scantily-clad maids were interspersed among the beer tables filling up the guests' glasses.

He looked around and found himself a target—a petite man who was sitting in the corner, and there was a withered wild rose on this table.

Theo walked towards the bar and ordered a pint of beer. He slowly savored the bitterness while looking around to see if there was anyone else secretly watching the petite man. He was very satisfied with what he saw. Although patrons would occasionally glance towards the corner, most were inadvertent. Only one person at the center table made the effort to cover his observation with his beer glass.

One person to connect, another person to coordinate was the practice of Rats in the Black Street, which was coincided with Theo's understanding.

"One more," he shouted at the bartender, "iced."

"Sir, the price of cold beer is double," the bartender reminded.

Theo threw a silver royals out and said, "The icier the better."

Theo walked towards the petite man with the foaming beer in hand and poured it onto the wild rose. The cold beer flowed down the curled petals. The man raised his head and said impatiently, "Pouring such a good beer on the table instead of drinking it, are you crazy?"

"Paying respect to the rose," Theo smiled and sat opposite the other party. "We've been looking for you."

"It only proved that you weren't looking at the right direction," he rudely said, "but since you're a customer... go ahead, how can I help you? Ask for a clue, to steal, to redeem the lost property, or stolen goods?"

"Neither, I hope you can help me to spread a rumor."

"That's not within the business scope of the Wild Rose." He shook his head.

"No, no, no. You would be interested in anything as long as it could be paid with gold royals." Theo shook his finger at him. "Young man, I'm not a layman. In order to get the prey hooked, we sometimes need to create a bait and rumor is the best bait, which has no evidence and arresting point. It's safer than stealing."

"This sounds very reasonable, "the other party straightened, showing a trace of a smile. "You've commissioned Wild Rose before?"

"I once entrusted your competitor from a small place. The name isn't as elegant as yours, and they can't do much."

"The business scope is too small and it's hard to find the right business whereas in Silver City, competition is fierce." He picked up the wild rose and shook it off a little before putting it into his pocket. "So, what kind of rumors do you need to spread?"

"News about the witches." Theo smiled. "An organization called the Witch Cooperation Association has found Holy Mountain in the Western Region, and they've overcome the Demonic Torture and gained eternal peace.

"Brother, this news is really..." The petite man clucked. "Really old school. Although I rarely abet the customers on deceiving, you have to at least come out with one that makes more sense. Let me guess, either you're trying to abduct a witch or to act against the church. For the latter, you would only be waiting for the Judgement Army to hang you to death, so I would think it's the former..." He showed a nasty smile. "Unfortunately, as far as I know, almost all of those who wanted to catch the witches and sell them for money are dead. Even though they all have God's Stone of Retaliation with them, those women aren't idiots."

"Why doesn't it make sense?" Theo asked curiously.

"A union organized by the witches is just like the moon in the dark night sky. If it was true, the church would certainly flock there, and if I were a witch, I wouldn't go to that kind of place. If it was false, then I would have no reason to go there. As for the Demonic Torture, brother, are you serious? Witches are the embodiment of the devil, and this is such a big lie that even the witches will scoff."

"Then just spread it like this," Theo said without taking it seriously.

"The customer has the final say." The petite man shrugged. "Anyway, I have to remind you that it costs 20 gold royals."

"Do I pay in one shot?"

"Yes, Wild Rose doesn't accept any deposit or final payment," he said, "and the trade is entirely voluntary."

Theo sighed. He took out a sack from his pocket and poured 19 gold royals on the table, and then he seized a handful of silver royals which were only the size of a fingernail and counted out 100 pieces before pushing the money toward the man in front of him. The latter only checked the authenticity of the gold royals and swept all the money into his bag.

After receiving the money, the petite man was much more relaxed. "It's rare that Wild Rose can't deliver what was promised. As I told you before, the competition in Silver City is very fierce, and our reputation would be ruined if we deceived the customers. If you're not in a hurry to return to the Western Region, you could stay here for a few more days. You'll hear the news everywhere not before long.

"Will it spread to the witches' ears?"

"Of course, but it depends if they're willing to go. In short, I wish you success. You'll be able to cover the cost if you sell one to the church or you can earn more by selling them to the noble. Of course, if you can't find a way out and afraid to be found by the church, you can always come to us, we only charge a 10% of the introduction fee."

The petite man snapped and walked away with the bag. The man who was responsible for the coordination also got up and left soon after him. Theo finished the rest of his beer with a gulp after waiting 15 minutes and hiccupped before walking out of the pub.

His Highness' task was now complete. Theo had gone all around, first from Fallen Dragon Ridge, then to Redwater City, finally to Silver City, to find the Rats from Black Street and spread the news. Every city had a group of them in a dark corner. They formed an orderly and hidden organization even under the acquiescence of the lord, including the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. What they could do was far more than those who spoke. As to what extent was mainly dependent on the number of gold royals the customers had.

The only difficulty was in finding a connection with the Rats. Not to mention it was rather difficult for him as an outsider to gain their trust. It cost him at least five gold royals just to speak to them. If it were not for his similar experience in the king's city, he would probably still be in the Fallen Dragon Ridge right now.

Walking on the way back to the hotel, he was aware of the strange atmosphere.

He was followed.

Although the other party was acting very subtly, however, Theo as a professional guard was aware of the presence of her. He quietly drew the dagger at his waist and turned into an alley on the edge.

Was it Wild Rose? He had purposely emptied the sack to find the 19 gold royals when he paid to avoid others from coveting. In general, they would not loot for a few hundreds of silver royals.

He leaned against the wall, counting the footsteps that were getting closer and closer. He rushed out suddenly as the other party was about to pass through the alley. His dagger suddenly appeared on the other party's neck.

"Don't move!" Theo shouted.

The other party suddenly turned into a mass of fog and disappeared.

[A witch!] He realized and before he could make a noise, his neck was hit heavily from behind. He suddenly felt a sense of dizziness and lost all his strength, falling to the ground.

Chapter 146 - The Quest of Pursuit (Part II)

Theo awoke, the back of his neck tingling with pain.

"Damn it, these women are ruthless." He opened his eyes and tried to move but found his hands were tightly tied behind him and that his feet were tied to the chair.

"He's awake." He heard the voice of a woman.

"Your name?" One of them came to him and lifted his chin. "I suggest you not lie, or your corpse shall be found in the city moat tomorrow."

Theo blinked. The woman was wearing a veil over her head and her body was covered in a robe. She obviously did not want to reveal her appearance.

"Theo," he replied truthfully while looking around.

It was a narrow room surrounded by dusty plaster statues. Some of the statues had been completed while some appeared to be only carved halfway. The accumulation of dust dyed the plaster gray and it looked like the place had been abandoned for a long time. There was no window in the room and so it was impossible to speculate the time, and the only light source was from an oil lamp on the wall.

"You've been relentlessly looking for us from Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City," the woman coldly said, "Why are you looking for us?"

"I'm not the one who's looking for you, and it's the Witch Cooperation Association."

"What's the Witch Cooperation Association?"

"A witch organization just like yours. I was sent by them to spread the news."

"Nonsense." She snapped. "I don't know where you heard the name, but the Witch Cooperation Association was far away at Seawindshire in the Eastern Region. You think we would believe you simply because you recited a name?" The woman drew a dagger out from her waist. Theo noticed that it was exactly the dagger he used earlier on. "I'll give you one last chance. Don't test my patience!"

"I'm telling the truth!" he said in a suppressed voice as he wanted to shout but did not dare, "They intended to go to the Impassable Mountain Range to look for Holy Mountain. They had not only found Holy Mountain but also settled down in Border Town. The Demonic Torture has also disappeared and therefore, they want to save more witches. I swear I'm not lying!"

"Why did they look for you?"

"It's because I helped them before. A member of the union was besieged by the Judgement Army of the church, and I helped her to distract the soldiers. Their mentor was Cara. It was Wendy and Scroll who asked me to come here!"

The masked woman kept quiet for a moment after listening, and then she put the dagger back into her waist and walked behind him. Soon, Theo heard the whispering sound of two people behind him.

"Newbie," he thought, "These two women are pretty accurate on the sneak attack, but the trial is completely and utterly the work of a novice."

The taboo of a trial was to get only one chance to choose. If there was no answer given, it could easily give the interrogator nowhere to go. To kill or not to kill? If it was to kill, the possibility of getting the information was lost. If it was not to kill, it was equivalent to failing to achieve the threatening effect the interrogator mentioned. It would seriously damage the majesty of the interrogator, and the effectiveness of the next threat would also be significantly reduced.

If it were for him to interrogate, he would certainly start with finger torture. A finger would be cut off for every lie, so even if there was a mistake, it would not be a big problem. The threat that was acted upon accordingly would quickly collapse the will of the enemy. It would be hard to carry out such a trial for those that had not been professionally trained.

The other party was in doubt as soon as he acted frightened. That exposed the fact that they simply could not identify whether or not he was lying.

The information of Cara, Holy Mountain and the Witch Cooperation Association were all true and reliable, which would further strengthen his position.

After a while, the masked woman appeared before him. "When did they go to the Western Region?"

"Two or three months before the Months of Demons. After the winter, they returned to the town and announced that they had found Holy Mountain."

"How many... of them?"

"About 40 of them? I'm not sure, except Cara, the other witches did not appear very often." Theo decided to add a little more bargaining chips. "'The Snake Witch' Cara, did you hear about her? Her ability is to summon the Snake of Magic, and one kind of it called 'Nothingness'. It can quickly remove any toxins. I have seen it myself and it was so magical."

"You're not afraid of the witches?" The woman sounded a bit puzzled.

"Why should I be afraid? The witches in the Witch Cooperation Association are all... beautiful! They aren't the demonic beasts with bare fangs and brandish claws that people have said they are and they don't hurt ordinary people. If I'm afraid, I wouldn't come this far to help them spread the news."

"If someone went to Border Town, how should they contact them?"

"One of them can sense magic power, and then they'll find any witch once that goes there."

"Shadow, what do you think?" The masked woman looked behind him.

"I don't know," said the witch called Shadow, "Let's wait for sister to come back and make the decision. She would definitely know what to do."

"...Yeah." She nodded. She found a chair which could be considered clean and sat in front of Theo.

"Who's your sister?"

"The guide." The masked woman's attitude had softened a lot compared to before, and it was probably due to him saying that he was not afraid of witches. "She'll take us out of here."

"Leaving? Where are you going?"

The other party shook her head and did not answer.

"You're not the witch from Silver City, right?" Theo continued, "Your accent doesn't sound like the people from the king's city." Silver City is close by, so the people here are proud of imitating the accents of the king's city."

She hesitated for a moment, "I... am from the Southern Territory."

"The witches from all over the kingdom have gathered here and are soon to be led by the guide to go somewhere else..." Theo thought to himself, "I have no doubt that this is a witch organization, and they're recruiting companions, just like the Witch Cooperation Association. But, where are they going?"

This was when footsteps came from outside of the shed again.

"Sister is back!" Shadow cheered as the wooden door squeaked opened. Theo held his breath in his heart.

"Is he the one that had been using the underground channel to spread the message?" The voice of the newcomer was mature and steady. "What information did you get from the interrogation?"

"He seems to be telling the truth." The masked woman repeated the investigated content and stated her thoughts, "It's not possible for him to know so clearly if he did not have a lot of contact with the Witch Cooperation Association."

"Well, that's true." She walked past Theo and stood in front of him. Different from the masked girl, and she did not cover her face. Her long black hair almost reached her waist and she looked around 25 or 26 years old. The most interesting part of her was her eyes. Theo found her pupils appeared to be gold in color, and her star-like eyes could be seen so clearly that even when she was standing in the dark they were visible.

Theo thought that he had seen many witches around His Highness, but the appearance of this woman was still considered as one of the best. There was a deep scar that went across her eyebrow and extended down to her cheek. The scar did not destroy her beauty but added a sense of seriousness to her look. Since seeing her face, Theo felt that this woman was a warrior.

"If the Witch Cooperation Association really found Holy Mountain, they should not send people to spread such a message." She shook her head. "This will only bring the church. If they don't leave Border Town as quickly as possible, I'm afraid disaster is around the corner."

"Then... what should we do?" Shadow asked.

"The ship will arrive at midnight. There'll be other witches on board and so you, have to leave," she said without hesitation. "I'll escort you on board." As for the Witch Cooperation Association..." the black-haired woman looked at Theo who was tied to the chair and said, "Please help me to get a message to Tilly. Tell her that I'll be there a few days later. Perhaps I can bring more companions."

"Are you going to Border Town with him?" Shadow said in shock, "What if this is a scam..."

"So, he'll only kill himself." She smiled, her words full of confidence.

Chapter 147 - The Emissary Delegation

Alicia had never thought she would one day be a part of the emissary delegation.

After all, whenever the church sent an emissary delegation, the members were always elite warriors. They were not only blessed with civil and martial virtues, but also looked good enough to represent the church. She was very confident about her fighting skills and the rites of the church. But when it came to her appearance, how good-looking could a woman who was swinging her huge sword in battlefields all day long be? Thinking about this made her uncomfortable.

According to Priest Mira, their delegation would head to a small town in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Their purpose was to deal with the blasphemous event of a prince harboring witches. Aside from the priest leading the delegation, there were another 10 members of the Judgment Army. One of them was even the stony-faced cool captain she had once met in Hermes Defense.

But from the looks of it, the man was still stony-faced even in the absence of combat. Alicia felt the temperature dropped a fair bit just by standing next to him.

Priestess Mira was completely different. She was over 40 years old and had a pair of wise-looking eyes. She wore a constant smile on her face when she discussed anecdotes about the church. She was sophisticated and warm without losing an ounce of grace. Even in front of the archbishop, her poise was unabated. Alicia had heard many times that she would likely be the next bishop.

What surprised Alicia, however, was that Mira as a civil official rode her horse as well as those in the Judgement Army. In these two days, she led the procession, from the forest in the mountains to the town tracks. She kept her horse moving at a stable pace while minimizing any physical exertion. This was a skill that would take a person of the Judgement Army a long time to master.

"We're heading south, aren't we?" Someone in the procession asked after leaving the Hermes area and entering the Kingdom of Graycastle.

"No. Border Town is too far away from us. I don't want to hurt my butt if we travel by land," Mira waved and said, "and we'll go east to Deep Valley Town. There's a river that can take us directly to Redwater City. From there, it'll be an easy path to Longsong Stronghold."

"When did you join the church?" Alicia asked curiously, "You're not only familiar with anecdotes of Holy City, but also well-versed with the secular world."

"12 years ago. I was exactly 30 years old then," Mira replied.

"That's so late!" Alicia exclaimed. "As far as I know, the older a person is, the more difficult it's for her to comprehend the teachings of the deities. But you took only 10 years to promote yourself from a believer to a priest. That's incredible."

"Yes," Mira smiled. "That's the charm of the church. I was the daughter of a merchant. I followed my father and learned to do business in the Four Kingdoms. We bought ordinary local commodities and resold them for higher prices in other places. The price could go several times higher. Take the emerald coral of Seawindshire for example. We bought it from a local fisherman for 20 or 30 silver royals. We then put it into a water tank, carried it to the Kingdom of Everwinter, and sold it for a gold royal. If the coral had a good color and well-distributed branches, we could sell it for over five gold royals. I used to wonder why the same item would have two different values."

"Because... it was rare?" Alicia replied.

"That was what I thought at first." The priestess nodded. "But something happened and my opinion changed. There was a noble in the king's city who harbored a witch capable of changing the temperature. He came up with different ways before he finally succeeded in growing Seawindshire corals in the Kingdom of Everwinter. He modified the basement under his yard into a huge pool with an overhead skylight. His harvest was about once a year. The corals he grew were more than our yield for 10 back-and-forth trips. But the trade road was so long that my father only took it once a year. As a result, the emerald corals flooded the market. The noble even sold them both to the palace and aristocrats. If a rare object became more common, it was only fair that the price would drop."

"But just two years later, the palace refused to accept low-priced emerald corals, thinking they were counterfeits. Not only did my father not slash the prices by half, he even doubled it. As for the noble, he was discovered by the church and charged with the crime of harboring witches. He, together with the witch, was tied to a stake and burned to death. But I knew his corals were not counterfeits. They were exactly the same as the ones my father sold."

"The idea that a rare object is priceless isn't wrong. But there are other factors affecting the price of an item. This is the simplest example. Since the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter treated the emerald corals as a symbol of luxury, they set its value. When more emerald corals appeared, the rules of royalty were impacted. Thus on the day of the noble's execution, the queen even threw a big celebration. Do you think these items are like those of us who're secular?"

"Like... what?" Alicia was lost.

"Like the people, the children under the throne," said Mira word by word,"we are born with a price, and this price doesn't reflect our real value. Just like this emerald coral, we are obviously same, but some are at a low price, and some are too high to be reached."

"Too high for us to attain… You mean the nobles."

"The nobles are like the corals of the palace of Kingdom of Everwinter." The priestess smiled. "We're all born having the same hands, feet, a pair of eyes, and a mouth. However, their prices are set at the highest value. That's not determined by their own abilities, but by the rule of the royalty. So I joined the church. At least, in the new Holy City of Hermes, your birth doesn't limit your value. If we could turn the entire continent into the final holy city of the church, then that would be our so-called divine state."

"You've made a very good point!" Alicia nodded repeatedly with excitement coursing through her. If they really manage to build Kingdom of God as per Mira's descriptions, where people were born without classes and there were no lowlifes and serfs, it would make a beautiful landscape.

"Kingdom of God?" The stony-faced captain of the Judgement Army scoffed and stepped forward. "How many more people do they want to turn into cold-blooded monsters? Honorable Priestess, and how much do you know about God's Punishment Army?"

"Hey, you..." Just as Alicia was about to reprimand him for his lack of courtesy, Mira stopped her.

"The God's Punishment Army is made up of the most powerful fighters in the church. They're faithful, willing to devote themselves, and brave enough to join the God's Punishment Army."

"Not bad. You're right about them being the most powerful fighters and converting into the army. But what they convert into aren't warriors, but a group of emotionless monsters instead!" Having coldly spat out this sentence, he rode away and ahead of the team.

"How rude!" Alicia said angrily. When she met him in Hermes, she considered him a calm person with the steadiness of a general and the bravery of a soldier. How did he become this kind of person?

"It's alright. He's just distracted." Mira shook her head. "Setbacks and sacrifices are inevitable in the building of Kingdom of God on earth... But at least we're willing to do so."

When the team arrived at the next town, it was already dark. The priestess led the delegation to the church to take a rest. After dinner, they went back to their rooms. Alicia followed the captain and stopped him in the hallway.

"Priestess Mira is our leader. What did you mean by saying those things earlier? Have you forgotten all the rules of the church?"

"You're Alicia, aren't you?" he only spoke after a moment of silence.

"Yes, I'm a caption like you. I asked for your name as early as in the Months of Demons, but you said nothing. May I know your name now?"

"Abrams," he answered without expression, "as for why I said that…? Do you have any siblings?"

"No." Alicia suddenly remembered that Abrams once said his elder brother was a member of the God's Punishment Army.

"I have one. We grew up together in the church. We knew each other so well like we were one person. Later, he took the initiative to accept the conversion and I never saw him again. The chief justice told me that his conversion was so successful that he was now doing special missions for the church. I was very happy for him." He paused. "That was until I saw him again in a cathedral one day. I called his name and want to go forward to hug him. Guess what I saw." His expression showed a hint of pain. "A stranger. It was as if he didn't see me. He walked straight past me. There was no light in his eyes at all, which only stared straight ahead. His movements were completely inhuman."

"..." A shiver ran down Alicia's back. She badly wanted to shout that he was lying, but when she opened her mouth, no sound came.

"The God's Punishment Army deprives their fighters of human emotions. They're nothing more than a group of walking corpses." He pushed stunned Alicia away and returned to his room without looking back.

Chapter 148 - A Merchant from the King's City (Part I)

Border Town finally had a rainy day. The sky was overspread by thick clouds. The rain poured in torrents and pattered on panes and windows.

Spring was usually a wet and warm season. This was not the case. After the Months of Demons, there was hardly any rain in Border Town. Fortunately, farmlands were just by the river, making it easier for farmers to water their crops. The heavy rain had dispelled the sultriness in the air. Nightingale opened the window to let the scent of soil fill the room.

Across Redwater River, young buds were shooting forth from the field at a distance. The endless green wheat wound underneath the canopy of the sky until it disappeared from sight. Quite contrary to the somber river, the crops appeared fresher and more vivacious than ever after the rain.

Roland stretched himself and threw the quill in his hand into a pen holder.

"Done?" Nightingale asked.

"Yes. A brand new weapon which can increase the shooting speed of flintlocks by several times." Roland stacked up a dozen sheets of blueprints and then said, "I call it a revolving rifle. Do you want to take a look?"

"No." Nightingale twitched her mouth. "I don't understand it anyway."

"This is just a prototype. If I shorten the barrel, it'll turn into a portable revolver. But I need to solve another key technical issue before I can put it into use. If everybody has one such kind of weapon, we won't need to be afraid of the Judgement Army from the church anymore."

"Are you saying it'll make an ordinary woman as powerful as a fully armed strong man?"

"Not just one, but several." Roland smiled triumphantly. "If we're lucky, we can make this number into five."

Nightingale appeared perfectly incredulous. She was about to say something when suddenly there was a knock on the office door.

"Your Highness, Barov's apprentice just returned from the king's city. He also brought a merchant who sells saltpeter. They're waiting for you outside the castle at the moment."

"The apprentice of the assistant minister?" Roland thought for a while and recalled the matter. As the gunpowder had been running out when he had attacked Longsong Stronghold, he had sent his guards to Fallen Dragon Ridge and Redwater City for new saltpeter suppliers. Barov's apprentice, whose destination was the king's city, was the last one to commence his journey. After all, King's City had everything. As summer was around the corner, the production of saltpeter must be increasing rapidly.

Roland had not expected the last to take his departure was actually the first to bring good news.

"Take them to the living room. I'll be right there." Roland looked up at the sky and added, "Ask the kitchen staff to prepare some desserts as well."

By the time he turned around, Nightingale had been out of sight.

But he knew she was right beside him.

…

When Roland entered the living room, the merchant who sold saltpeter was just walking into the hall under the guidance of the guard. She took off her drenched cloak and straw hat before bowing to the prince. "I'm Margaret Farman from the king's city. Please accept my warmest regards, Your Highness."

Roland was taken by surprise when he noticed the merchant was a lady. It was far less safe to do business in this era than in the modern world, as tradesmen frequently encountered bandits and refugees when they traveled, not to mention the harassment of local bullies and underground gangsters. Because of this, not many women engaged in business.

Like Lightning, Margaret also had fair blonde hair, but hers was denser and longer. She looked in her thirties. Probably because she was not a noble but simply an ordinary woman, she already got wrinkles around the corners of her eyes and on her forehead. Her skin was a bit dark, and even a little coarse at the first glance. From her appearance, however, Roland felt she did not look like a Mojin but instead a Fjords native.

"Please take a seat." The prince motioned her to sit down and seated himself in the host's seat. "You aren't from the Kingdom of Graycastle, are you?"

"Why did you say that?" Margaret smiled.

"You've got a hair color that's pretty rare in inland countries. As far as my knowledge goes, most people who live across the channel have beautiful blonde hair. I know an explorer from Fjords as well."

"You're indeed a learned man. My native town is at Fjords, but I've been here for over 10 years. I'm currently living in the Kingdom of Graycastle, and I consider myself as a half native of the Kingdom of Graycastle." She paused for a moment and then said, "You just left the king's city not a while ago. Perhaps we've met somewhere else before. I feel honored to live in a city that Your Highness once stayed at."

Apparently, every successful merchant had exceptional communication and diplomatic skills. Roland knew Margaret was trying to flatter him, but he still felt quite pleased with the comment. Just when he was absorbed in the compliment, Nightingale pinched his right shoulder with great strength. [Well, Nightingale, you're being over-responsible. In this case, there's no need to check the credibility of her words.] Roland said within himself.

"But speaking of explorer, it's a highly-respected title in the Fjords." Margaret went on. "You probably don't know. There are few lands in the Fjords that're suitable for a dwelling. As the tides rise and recede continuously, some islands will be swallowed by the rising seawater. Some, on the other hand, constantly erupt into flames and smoke. Rocks will melt into a dark red river at such a high temperature. Only those who have discovered a new sailing route or a new island suitable for life are qualified for such a title. Ordinary people won't call themselves explorers."

"Haha. She not only calls herself an explorer but also calls her father the greatest explorer ever." Roland shook his head with a smile. "She's just a kid. Kids always like to imagine themselves as some sort of great men."

"Even kids won't be so reckless as to regard themselves as explorers in the Fjords." Margaret frowned. "Did she say who his father is?"

Roland realized he had just made a mistake by the look on Margaret's face. It seemed to Fjords natives, the word "explorer" contained some sacred, spiritual meanings, which could not be used unscrupulously. "Her father's name is Thunder."

To Roland's surprise, Margaret's eyes widened as soon as she heard the name. "You're acquainted with Mr. Thunder?"

"No, but I know his daughter. Have you heard of him?"

"Everybody in the Fjords is familiar with that name! Mr. Thunder discovered Doublepeak Island and Sea Dragon Bay, expanding our living area almost by half. He also drew a detailed map of the east coast and Endless Cape. 80% of the current routes on this continent were discovered by him. Every kid knows Mr. Thunder's stories by heart. He's one of the most extraordinary explorers in the Fjords!"

"But I've heard Thunder died in a storm..."

"No, Your Highness. A true explorer won't be easily defeated by a storm. He encountered numerous dangers but always managed to escape. Mr. Thunder at present must be recruiting new crews somewhere, just like what he did before." Margaret leaned forward a little bit. "Your Highness, do you know where his daughter is?"

Roland was also surprised by the fact that Lightning's father was such a well-known figure. Did that indicate all those adventures, as bizarre as the Arabian Nights, were indeed true? "She's living right in the castle at the moment. She headed west after the storm until her arrival at Border Town, where I took her in."

"In your castle?" Margaret could barely hide her anticipation. "Can I... have your permission to meet his daughter?"

"Well, I'm afraid not now." Roland was pretty sure that Lightning was currently flying around the Misty Forest trying to locate the relic marked on the "treasure map". "She's now practicing... her jungle exploration skills. If you intend to stay over, you should be able to see her."

"Then please excuse my intrusion." Margaret nodded instantly.

"So, can we now jump into the business?"

"Of course, Your Highness." She smiled. "Please feel free to start."

Chapter 149 - A Merchant from the King's City (Part II)

"Do you primarily sell saltpeter in the king's city?" Roland came straight to the point.

"No, Your Highness." The smile on Margaret's face was no longer a fake one of formality but became more sincere and cordial. "I sell many products, from gemstones to fabrics, and I also run inns and taverns. In fact, I just started selling saltpeter a month ago. The previous business owner lost everything in my casino and had to put a lien on his plant."

[She not only sells various goods but also involves in the service industry. What kind of businesswoman is she?] Roland knew it required more than capitals to operate a casino in the king's city. He knocked on the desk, but Nightingale simply pinched his neck, which meant Margaret was wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation that blocked her scrutiny.

Hang on... If Nightingale can't detect lies, why did she pinch his right shoulder earlier?

Roland coughed and suppressed the desire to turn around and question her.

He had heard some merchants from Fjords, after settling down in the four kingdoms, expanded their business and accumulated incredible fortunes. After all, Fjords natives were all born businessmen who were not only fearless and adventurous but also good at sniffing out a business opportunity. Although many of them were ripped off by the government, some managed to establish themselves. By lobbying with local authorities, they formed a relatively stable alliance with some distinguished figures. Could Margaret also be one of the successful ones?

If this was the case, Roland felt it would be better to save the small talks and directly state his needs. "I want a large quantity of saltpeter. The more, the better."

"But the Western Region of the kingdom isn't hot, especially for the towns close to the Impassable Mountain Range. Do you really need that much saltpeter, Your Highness?" Margaret asked curiously, "I own three plants in the suburb of the king's city, which will suffice the needs of nobles in a medium-sized city."

[Three plants!] Roland was internally exhilarated by the news but still remained expressionless. "I plan to build a freezer in the basement of the castle to preserve some food that goes bad easily. If you offer me a reasonable price, I'd like to purchase all your saltpeter."

Margaret nodded. "Well, since you're being so straightforward, I'm willing to ship all my saltpeter to Border Town and give you a 10% off on the current market price. But..."

"But what?"

"I don't really want gold royals. My warehouse is full of them. I've heard you have some unique products, which I'm really interested in using as a substitution for gold royals if you don't mind. I'll be happy to make the deal with you if you agree to this term."

"Some unique products?" Roland was surprised. Margaret was the first person that he had ever known who did not want gold royals.

"Yes. For example, an automatic machine made of black iron." The merchant leaned forward a little bit and said, "Your servant told me it only requires some boiling water to produce immense power. In fact, this is what made me decide to come to Border Town in person. Otherwise, I actually prefer to sell my saltpeter to nobles in the king's city. Border Town, after all, was very far, and the shipping costs a lot."

[This is indeed unexpected,] Roland thought. Although he did not know how Barov's apprentice found her and how they turned their subject to steam engines, it was evident that this merchant from the king's city was very interested in it.

Roland knew very well how enormous the profits industrial goods could bring, especially for those machines that only he knew how to manufacture. He had been worried that the money in the duke's mansion would exhaust eventually after Border Town stopped selling ores. Now, a great business opportunity had just been presented to him.

"I know what you're talking about." The prince smiled. "It's called a steam engine. Its operation mechanism is pretty simple, which is to convert the steam of boiling water into power. But only Border Town manufactures this kind of machine."

"So it does exist?"

"Of course." Roland spread out his hands. "But its manufacture process is very complicated and the price is steep. If you're interested, I can show it to you."

"I would love to see it." She rose in excitement.

...

When Margaret saw the roaring steel monster slowly pull the mine car out of the mine at the North Slope Mine, her eyes almost bulged out under her lids.

"Your Highness, it, it's... so inconceivable." There was a tinge of tremor in her voice. "I thought your messenger was just exaggerating, but the truth is actually more fascinating than his description... I'm afraid one... steam engine can replace... more than dozens of people's labor."

Margaret wanted to take a closer look but was stopped by Roland. "It's too dangerous to approach an operating steam engine. Don't get too close to it. See that white steam puffing out? A little can burn you."

"Do you use it only to ship ores?" As the machine was too loud, Margaret had to crane her neck and raised her voice.

"There are two in total at the mine. The first one is responsible for pulling mine cars and the second one for drawing water from the mine," Roland replied, "In fact, the machine can also replace windmills and watermills to grind wheat. It won't be affected by water currents or wind and can save a lot of manpower and animal labor. It can even set paddles in motion and thus be used as a power source for a sailing ship. With a steam engine, you can operate a sailing ship even without wind."

Roland knew what a boat that did not need to rely on wind power and wind directions meant to Fjords people. As he had expected, Margaret's eyes were glowing with excitement. "Make an offer. I want to buy it."

"I can't sell this one to you, as the mine needs it for production. You can pre-order some new steam engines. Once your saltpeter arrives, I'll send you my invoice."

"What about the price..."

Roland led her to a quieter spot slightly away from the mine. "500 gold royals," Roland answered. It was definitely overpriced, for the number was almost equal to the annual income of a knight in the territory. The overhead cost for a steam engine was around 20 gold royals. It would be no more than 50 gold royals in total after adding smelting costs, labor costs and installation costs, but it created big room for bargaining.

"Then that's the deal! I want to purchase 10 steam engines!"

"..." Roland was speechless for a second. 10 steam engines meant 5,000 gold royals, which was pretty much a five to six years' savings of Duke Ryan's. As Margaret did not even bargain, Roland wondered if this was normally the way an ultra-rich merchant did her business. He cleared his throat and asked, "Are you sure? This is a big sum of money. Plus, it isn't going to be a one-time investment. You have to spend a lot as well on future maintenance."

"I know. It's just like maintaining a boat. You need to clean it annually to get rid of algae and tiny marine creatures nested in the hull and replace new sails, ropes, etc.," Margaret said carelessly, "let me know what needs to be changed or added, and I'll purchase them. If that doesn't work, you can just sell me the labors who maintain and operate the machine altogether at another price."

Roland shut his mouth. There was only one idea in his mind: it felt so good to have incessant money.

Chapter 150 - A Stone Tower

Lightning was flying above Misty Forest.

The world seemed to shrink in her eyes. All the details had become obscure in her sight, with only various color blocks left. The brown one was earth, gray the mountains, green the forests and blue the rivers.

Green, however, occupied most of the landscape she saw.

Unlike the bright, vibrant green color of the fields in Border Town, the green color here was dark and intense, mingled with some gray and black shades. The endless dark green landscape extended from the west all the way to the north. If Lightning gazed at it for a long time, she would feel like going to crash to the ground. Therefore, she had to divert her attention to the azure of the sky every now and then to dispel the increasing sense of constraint.

The low, thick clouds behind her, meanwhile, overspread the peaks of the Impassable Mountain Range and enveloped Border Town with a thin film of mists and rain.

Lightning was currently looking for a relic of 450 years old in Misty Forest. There was no doubt that this was a great exploration. Half a month ago when Roland had given her the task, she had promised to find the relic with great confidence. Unlike Supervisor Cara, the Snake of Magic, who strictly followed the hints in the ancient book with incredible obstinacy, Prince Roland stressed over and over again that the map was no more than a reference. He told Lightning to stay safe and that she did not need to feel sorry for failing to keep her promise. These words made the little girl quite happy.

Lightning knew His Highness was right. Even if it used to be a grand castle, it would be ultimately swallowed by bushes and shrubs and reduced to ashes in the elapsed 400 years. But she still wanted to find that place. By locating the Star of David, she could thereby spot where Holy City of Taquila was. After hearing the full account, Lightning had instantly known what Taquila stood for.

Down the relic, it was very likely that she could help the prince uncover the real reason behind the battle between the church and demons, which the church strenuously tried to conceal.

This was going to be much more fun than exploring new routes with her father!

Using the method of making nautical charts, Lightning first drew some grids on a square parchment and then filled each grid out based on the distance she covered in a certain period of time. When all the grids were filled out, her task was done.

She had filled out half of the grids already.

The rain clouds behind approached her faster than she had anticipated. The little girl could even hear muted thunders when layers of clouds rolled by. She lowered the height and flew toward the forest below at a tremendous speed.

Just then, she caught a glimpse of a transient white gray shadow from the corner of the eye.

For a second, Lightning was not sure what exactly she had seen. So, she stopped flying, hovered in the air and turned around to glance about the area she had just passed by.

Nothing particular was found.

Lightning wondered if that was an illusion. She decided to examine the area once again.

This time, she flew even lower, low enough to make out peeling tree trunks, splitting twigs and leaves in various shapes out of the entire green forest. She again saw the details of the color block.

A few minutes later, Lightning suddenly discovered a small part of a white stone tower sticking out from layers of branches. As the top of the tower was chopped off and its lower part was hidden in the forest, it was pretty hard for her to see it from the sky. If it was not because of the rain clouds, she probably would have missed it.

Lightning's heart was pounding in her chest. [Could that be the relic marked on the map?]

She flew around the stone tower but did not perceive anything unusual. Therefore, she decided to take a closer look.

After landing, the little girl noticed it was not technically a white stone tower.

Instead, it was covered with vines and mosses and turned out to be a grayish green color when she drew closer. The tower was slightly tilted as if it had been struck by some great forces. Stones of the same material and color as the tower littered on the ground, which appeared to have fallen off the top. Some bigger ones were still visible, while other smaller ones had been buried in the grass and soil. The tower was colossal, whose base was almost as big as Prince Roland's castle. For this kind of edifice, there was usually a basement beneath the ground.

Lightning should have recorded the location of the relic and returned to Border Town immediately.

A sensible voice in her head was telling her it was not a good idea to enter a relic of hundreds of years old, for the toxic underground gases were sufficient to kill her.

But Lightning was rooted to the ground and was burned with curiosity. Another dauntless voice was urging her to take a peek, to take just one peek. She looked up at the sky. The cloudless sky now appeared sullen. Apparently, a heavy rain was on the way.

Lightning finally found a justification for herself to enter the tower: since it was not comfortable to fly in the rain, she had to get into the tower to keep herself from getting wet. If she found the basement, she would absolutely not go down there alone.

After making up her mind, Lightning, driven by her great curiosity, went up to the entrance covered with vines. She pulled out her dagger from the waist and managed to drill a small hole for her to creep in. The wooden door frames had been rotten long before, and she went into the tower without any difficulties.

As the top of the tower had been chopped off, Lightning could clearly see everything without a torch. She searched the first floor of the tower but found nothing. Evidently, anything exposed to sunlight had been wiped out by the sands of time without leaving the slightest traces behind. There was nothing left on the ground floor of the tower other than the ruins of the wall. Lightning also found some holes for staircases that started from the floor to the ceiling, but no staircases were ever found.

It was fairly easy for her to locate the passage leading to the basement. It was on the southwest side of the ground floor, right across the entrance to the tower. Lightning suspected that she could probably find Holy City of Taquila mentioned in the ancient book if she advanced toward Barbarian Land in this direction.

While she was pondering, she felt something dropped on her nose. It was rain. She thus slowly entered that passage winding down to the basement and took a turn. There, she reached a wooden door. Although the door had not been completely eroded, it was quite dilapidated as if it were going to crack into pieces upon a gentle touch.

Presently, the light drizzle turned into a pouring rain. The rain pattered on the ground in torrents and obscured her vision. Although Lightning was standing somewhere dry, puddles soon overflowed and the water started to trickle down the stone staircases. In order not to get her shoes wet, she managed to float above the ground with her two feet dangling in the air.

Suddenly, Lightning heard a feeble, obscure yell in the rain.

The sound made her hair all stood up on its ends. The little girl glanced about in horror. The narrow passage was littered with nothing but a few dead vines here and there. With the help of the dim light from outside, she opened her bag and took out a portable torch and flints, attempting to light the torch for a further examination.

At that moment, she again heard the shout. This time, she realized the sound was coming from the wooden door behind. Lightning shuddered in fright and turned around immediately. The torch fell to the ground and the water splashed over her body.

This time, the voice was clearer. Although still pretty quiet, it was loud enough for her to figure out it was a woman.

[Is someone in the basement?] Her back was instantly covered with cold sweats at this thought. [How could that be possible? The stone tower should be a relic of over 400 years old. As it situates in the middle of nowhere deep down in the Misty Forest, who could have come here other than me?]

"Help me..."

By the time the woman yelled for the third time, the voice had become fairly clear. It was indeed behind the wooden door. Someone was truly asking for help. Lightning swallowed hard. She put her hand on the doorknob cautiously and then gently pushed the door open. The wet, goopy wooden door fell backward and hit the ground, accompanied by a muffled clunk.

A tall, stout figure appeared before her abruptly!

Lightning felt all her blood froze. The figure looked exactly like the demons Soraya had drawn. In the dismal light, Lightning sensed that the demon was also gazing at her. Its giant stature slightly leaned forward. In its hand, which had only three fingers, was an axe glistening with dark red blood stains. In a second, she recalled the day when these fiends had slaughtered the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association.

"Ah...!" Lightning shrieked at the top of her shrill voice. She threw the flints in her hand at the demon and darted out of the passage as fast as she could. She flew straight into the rain and headed toward Border Town.

Lightning did not notice, however, that the flint hit the demon on his chest at a crisp and clear sound. Some tiny cracks soon appeared around the area that was hit and then started to expand all over the demon's body. The demon gradually shattered into pieces as more cracks emerged. It finally reduced to some white ashes that eventually melted into the wind.

Chapter 151 - The Negotiation (Part I)

After visiting the steam engine, Roland and Margaret returned to the office in the castle and continued to discuss the details of the business contract. If such a discussion involved bargaining, it could commonly take one or two days. To save effort, the lord would usually entrust its treasurer to do the negotiation, while revealing the number and bottom line to him. But this time Margaret insisted that the price was non-negotiable, which saved Roland a lot of effort.

"I guess I'll be here again after one month, with three sloops full of saltpeter," the businesswoman said as she hastily took notes on a parchment, "Calculated by 90% of the market price, it is worth about 315 gold royals."

"By then the little town would have manufactured two steam engines." Roland lowered the number deliberately. "They're worth 1000 gold royals. You can pay the price difference with gold royals or with other goods."

"What kind of goods?"

"Iron, copper, lead, green alum," Roland said, "Nothing but common minerals. But for the first three items, what I need are not ores, but metal ingots. In addition, I also need 10 sets of crystal glass vessels. As to whether I need them with or without carvings, be them kettle or wine glass, it doesn't matter to me, as long as they're the finest products from the alchemical workshop of the king's city. If they're worth more than two steam engines, I can pay you in gold royals or you can deduct the price difference from the next month's two steam engines."

"You seem to take me as your exclusive businesswoman," Margaret said with a smirk. "Although I'm not involved in mine management, I do know a few peers who're in this line of business. What surprises me is there are so many opportunities in this barren isolated area. Not many nobles are living here and yet your saltpeter consumption is enormous. The town was established because of North Slope Mine but yet it needs to outsource ores. All that's happening here really contradicts my common knowledge. Your Highness, your domain is remarkable."

A major feature of industrial production is that it takes in massive raw materials and gives out end products. Roland laid out his hands and said, "This town will need more raw materials in the future. I think we can reach a long-term—"

At that moment, Margaret was suddenly surprised looking behind Roland with her eyes wide open. Roland was startled and then turned around subconsciously. He then saw Lightning, who was soaked to the skin, standing next to the French window. Her hands were clinging to the glass, and her face pale, on her forehead were fringes of hair with water flowing by—she looked like just being salvaged from a pond.

Roland hurriedly stood up and opened the window. Lightning flew in and threw herself into Roland's arms. At that point, her nerves were able to loosen up, and she totally rested her body on Roland and then passed out.

"Nightingale, go get Nana," Roland said anxiously.

"Yes sir." A reply came from his side without anybody shown.

"What happened? Since she could fly, she shouldn't have encountered demonic beasts or demons. Or they could fly too?" Roland roughly checked Lightning's physical condition and found no obvious injury. He was slightly relieved.

"Your Highness, is she... the Lightning whom you mentioned?" Putting one hand on her mouth, Margaret slowly walked to the prince and carefully examined the little girl in his arms.

Roland was startled. "Damn it! How could I forget about her." He shouted toward the door, "Sean!"

The guard then walked into the office.

"I'm sorry, Miss Margaret. I have no choice but keep you here for some time." Holding Lightning in his arms, Roland stood up and said to the guard, "Take this businesswoman from the king's city to the guestroom on the first floor. Keep a close eye on her. Don't let her out without my order."

"Yes sir!"

"What? No, Your Highness... wait a moment." Margaret suddenly realized something. "I hold no grudge toward witches. Besides, she's the daughter of Thunder. I won't tell the church..."

"Just in case." Roland interrupted her. "I'll come back to you for verification later."

…

"Your Highness, she woke up," Nightingale opened the door and said.

Roland nodded. Following Nightingale, he walked into the bedroom. The water bucket at the bedside was giving off steam with Lightning's wet clothes randomly hung on. A group of witches surrounded the bed. Wendy sat on the head of the bed combing Lightning's hair. Her hair was still wet, but yet her face was not that pale anymore. Lightning leaned at the bedside with two pillows on her back. The quilt was pulled so high that only the upper half of her face was shown. She stared at Roland motionlessly.

"How is it going now?"

"No injury. It was a trauma caused by the exhaustion of her magical power," Nightingale replied, "After Wendy helped her with cleaning, she soon woke up in bed."

Roland walked to the bedside and said with a smile, "What happened? Why did you fly back in such a hurry in the rain?"

"I've found the ruin," Lightning murmured, "but demons are inside."

The crowd was startled upon hearing this.

"You went in?" Scroll asked.

"No." Lightning shook her head, and then began to tell the whole story. "A Demon was guarding the gate. I heard someone inside calling for help, but I was so scared that I had no way to save her but to escape by myself." She slightly shrunk her head in the quilt. "Am I no longer being qualified to be an explorer?"

"No, you've done well." Roland consoled her. "An excellent explorer understands to act according to the situation, while not putting him or herself in danger. When you couldn't save her, escaping was your best choice."

"Is she a witch in the stone tower?" Wendy asked, "Because except for witches, no one else could reach so deep into Misty Forest."

"Witches won't go there either." Scroll shook her head. "It's a ruin from 450 years ago that we're talking about. Without the guidance of a map, to locate the stone tower among the countless trees is as difficult as climbing up to heaven. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Roland asked.

"Unless they have been living there all along," Scroll slowly replied.

"Do you mean they didn't go there from the kingdom but had been living there since 450 years ago? They had lived in isolation, generation after generation?" Although not saying so, the prince had deep down denied this speculation. "What would it mean by living in a primitive forest! It's full of elusive beasts, horrible insects and toxic animals, no stable source of food... and even Bear Grylls couldn't live in such a place for long. Not to mention in this world there're months of long snowy winter, and demonic beasts and demons running wildly. Settling down in Misty Forest basically means committing suicide." Roland looked at Lightning. "Was there any trace of people living near the ruins?"

"No," the little girl said while shaking her head.

"Perhaps there's more than one map," Soraya said, "Perhaps there're other people searching for the whereabouts of Taquila just like us."

"No matter what, we can't help them." Leaf sighed. "Except Lightning, no one can reach the stone tower quickly."

"I'm afraid we won't know the actual situation until we get there." Roland stroked his chin. "Anyway, it's cheering that you returned safe and sound. Tonight's class will be dismissed. Everybody get a good rest. The truth will be revealed when the time is ripe."

After leaving Lightning's bedroom, Roland said to Nightingale, "We've yet another problem to deal with."

"As long as she's removed of the God's Stone of Retaliation," Nightingale said with a smile, "I'll do the rest."

Chapter 152 - The Negotiation (Part II)

The rain had basically stopped. The layers of clouds were dyed red by the setting sun.

Roland pushed open the guestroom door to see Margaret walking back and forth in front of the fireplace seeming rather agitated. The moment the guard Sean saw Roland coming, he bowed and left. Upon seeing Roland, Margaret hurriedly walked up and asked, "Your Highness, how's Lightning doing?"

Roland was startled, unexpecting such a response from her. He had speculated that she might be peaceful, angry, or maybe cold, but never expected that she would show any concern for Lightning.

"She's fine... only tired."

"Really? That's good." She looked relieved.

"You seem to care about her."

"She looks very much like her father, especially that pair of long and narrow eyes and her pointed nose... I can tell she must be Thunder's daughter."

After saying this, Margaret unbuttoned her collar and took down a string of gold jewelry on her neck. "The verification you mentioned... you mean to judge me with the help of a witch's magic power, right? If my sincerity can be proved like this, then could you ask her to also join the conversation? I don't like being spied on."

The string of jewelry was composed of a gold chain and a light blue gemstone which was cut into a polyhex. "It must be a high-quality God's Stone of Retaliation," Roland thought.

Roland was surprised by her proposal because he had just been thinking about how he should bring that up without making her uncomfortable or suspicious. To be honest, he kind of admired this Fjords woman. Although she was in a fairly disadvantaged situation, she was still trying to take the initiative of the conversation. Both her negotiation skills and her conduct proved her a successful businesswoman.

Roland took the God's Stone of Retaliation from Margaret's hand and hung it on the clothes rack beside the fireplace. With such a good quality, this God's Stone of Retaliation might be able to restain any magic power within a one-meter range. In Nightingale's eyes, this was the same as a huge black hole. Perhaps Nightingale had dodged far away to escape from this stone.

"Let's talk in the living room," Roland said. Since the woman had shown sincerity, Roland did not want to appear too harsh. When the two of them stepped into the living room, Nightingale had already shown herself and sat on the seat of the host. Holding her chin with hands, her position looked as if she had been waiting a long time. "It seems she's thinking the same as me," Roland thought.

After everybody was seated, Roland started to introduce them. "This is Nightingale. She can tell whether you're telling the truth."

"Hello, Miss Nightingale." Margaret nodded toward Nightingale, and Nightingale greeted her likewise.

"You once said that you meant no harm to the witches. What do you mean by that?" This was the first question that Roland posed, which was also the thing he wanted to know the most. "As far as I know, the church also has power in the Fjords."

"But its influence is incomparable to that of the Three Gods. Or in other words, most of the people in the Fjords have similar beliefs to Sand Nation. They worship the sky, the ocean, and the earth. As to me..." She paused. "I used to have a very close friend. Once we encountered a storm when we went fishing in the sea. Our sailing ship was cut into two by a giant wave. Through this disaster, my friend became a witch who could breathe like fish. I lost consciousness in the ocean, and it was she who found me and dragged me ashore."

"What happened next?" Nightingale asked curiously.

"When I woke up, she'd left... Perhaps compared to staying with me, she yearned more for living in the sea," Margaret said regretfully, "Since then, I've never seen her again. The villagers use to say that when there was fog on the sea, she would guide the fishing boats with her singing to avoid reefs. No matter what, my friend can neither be an evil person, nor can she be the devil's minion."

Roland nodded. "Witches are awakened commoners. If one has had a profound understanding of the witches before their awakening, the impression one has on them won't be easily altered by what the church advocates."

"You seem to know much about witches' abilities. How did you guess that I have more than one witch here by the few words that I said?"

"To be honest, because of this childhood friend, I became very curious about witches. I even considered taking in such special girls," Margaret said with a smile.

Up until then, Nightingale had not found any evidence of Margaret lying, which basically ruled out the possibility that she would be a snitch to the church. Roland felt relieved and then said with a bit of guilt, "It seems that I've been too suspicious. I hope you won't mind."

"Of course not. I understand that Your Highness was doing this for the safety of Lightning and... this girl," Margaret said while waving a hand, "It'd have meant you're too irresponsible if you did nothing but stand by."

"Are you familiar with Thunder?" Roland asked, "Your concern toward Lightning indeed exceeds the kind of concern one person shows toward the children of a hero."

Faced with this question, Margaret hesitated for a moment. Then Roland said it would not matter if she did not want to answer, but slowly she began to tell the story, "To be honest, after I left the village, I used to join in Lord Thunder's expedition team and went through a fairly long period of going on exploration trips with him. As a new member of the team, Lord Thunder and his wife showed particular care to me. When Lightning was born, I was there to witness it."

"Was she born on a ship?"

"Yes, during a fierce storm. Out of the cabin, the thunder and lightning never ceased. Not long after her birth, Lord Thunder's wife passed away due to an infection of septicemia, and I... acted half of her mother. Since there was no breast milk, I chewed oatmeal, mixed it with fish roe and fed her bit by bit." Margaret's voice became very tender. "Lord Thunder was extremely sad, but yet he still managed to command the whole crew. Without a backbone, the crew was likely to collapse through the months' long voyage. I lived in the cabin and watched Lighting growing. That expedition ended when Lord Thunder found Shadow Islands and we returned to Sea Dragon Bay. After that, I... left the Fjords and settled down in the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"That's what happened!" Roland thought to himself, "No wonder when she heard the name of Thunder, she reacted so strongly. As to why she stopped following Thunder with his expeditions, it's not hard to guess. Not every story started with a love scenario ends up with a love scenario."

"But what a twisted and turned coincidence... having such a connection with her. Will I get a bigger discount on my trade with her?" Roland coughed twice. "Miss Margaret, you and I are sort of acquaintances now, so our business..."

"Your Highness, that's not how it works," Margaret said with a smile, "Business is business. That's our unwavering principle."

Chapter 153 - The Alchemy (Part I)

Kyle Sichi walked into the alchemical workshop.

When the apprentices saw Kyle enter, they immediately bowed and said, "Respected Chief Mentor."

He waved his hand. "Carry on everyone."

The apprentices sat back down to continue their work.

The outermost part of the workshop was the washroom. Here was where the materials arriving from all over Kingdom of Graycastle were cleaned, sorted, filtered, and ground. The design of the washroom was very clever, where there was a stone surface placed flat over a creek, acting as a walkway, leaving both side access to two flowing streams. Passing over the smaller creek, you would find a cleaning area at the farthest side.

At first glance, the long and narrow washroom looked like it was divided by the two streams into three sections. The light coming through the side windows would reflect off the stone and the streams surface, sending long strips of light throughout the room. The overlapping of light and shadow resembled the skin of a snake.

There were nearly one hundred apprentices leaning against the walls, dealing with the materials assigned to them. If the debris to be removed were lighter than water, it was just tossed into the stream. If the material sank in the water it was then placed into a basket and taken to the washroom to be discarded. Cleaning with running water was several times more effective than using the stagnant water in a wooden bowl.

The apprentices would study here for the next three to five years. Only when they had become adept at sorting and cleaning all kinds of materials, would they get the opportunity to be selected as a disciple by an instructor, and then moved to the next room.

Kyle, stepping on the dark and light stripes, entered the core area of the alchemical workshop, the refining room.

When he opened the door, a large room opened up before him. 12 giant wooden pillars had been brought from Misty Forest to support this spacious room. Many windows liked the walls and there was even a skylight on the roof making the room bright. In the center of the refining room there sat six wide wooden tables. On them, there were all kinds of alchemical utensils: round-bottomed flasks, beakers, protective glasses, scales, mortar and pestles, furnaces, crucibles… Each instructor managed and was responsible for their own table. As for himself, being the Redwater City's Chief Alchemist, he naturally got the longest table, with the most tools on it.

The room was always full of clutter and in disorder, just like the alchemy process itself. Mixing all kinds of raw materials together and then heating, performing dry distillation, watering or incinerating them, the results were ever changing and fascinating.

After experimenting, if the combination worked out, that specific process would be written down as a formula. As long as a person was able to create their own unique, successful, formula they were considered an alchemist. He had already conducted 10 successful alchemy experiments, and each of them worked as if it were coming from the deities themselves. Kyle believed that if his alchemy was perfected he would not only be able to break things down into their separate parts, but also combine all things.

"Chavez, how far have you progressed with your imitation powdered snow?" he asked.

A young man around 20 years old came over and shook his head. "The damn alchemists in the king's city definitely added extra materials to it. The powder has been crushed too finely and it's near impossible to extract anything useful."

He was the youngest alchemist in the alchemical workshop—generally, the creation of an alchemical formula required a long accumulation of knowledge and tryouts and sometimes even a bit of luck. Many people in the workshop had stayed as students their whole life, unable to ever progress further. Chavez, however, had an innate talent for alchemy. Two years ago, he had concluded how to obtain acidic liquid through dry distillation of green alum. From that moment, he won the respect of the five alchemists, claiming his own long table in the room.

"Take it easy and be patient." Kyle smiled and patted the young man's shoulder, comforting him. Being a chief instructor for eight years, Kyle naturally understood the difficulty of finding true logic through disorder and chaos. "However, I did manage to create something good yesterday evening. We can at least show something to those arrogant people now. Come with me."

He went to his table and asked two students to bring him a storage box. The box was about half the height of a person and made completely out of iron, making it nearly impossible to be stolen or destroyed. He pulled out the key and opened its first drawer. In the middle of the drawer, laid a small piece of transparent crystal.

"Did you cut off a crystal?" Next to him, Chavez took the crystal carefully into his hand to examine it, holding it in front of the window. "No, this is… crystal glass! God, you succeeded!"

"Correct." Kyle smiled proudly. "I can't wait to see the expression on their faces when they discover that their proudest alchemical discovery has been successfully duplicated by me."

Chavez, unable to control his praises, drew the attention of the other alchemists. They all left their work and came over to see for themselves.

"Is this what you were working on until late last night? It's incredible."

"It's so beautiful, looking just like a crystal."

"Congratulations. With this, the status of our alchemic workshop will once again rise in the eyes of the duke."

"How were you able to achieve this? Can you tell us?"

Kyle nodded. "It's widely known that the composition of glass greatly resembles that of river sand, but in the end when it's burned, the glass color will still vary because the sand contains impurities. So, we have to either find a way to remove all of the impurities or obtain purer sand. Everyone was trying it using these methods and so was I. However, the reason for this time's alchemical success was largely attributed to luck. I selected a fine white sand from Willow Town and the sandstone from Fallen Dragon Ridge…"

Everyone around him was listening quietly, and when he had finished his explanation, the alchemists exclaimed together. "So that's how it was done, telling us that was very thoughtful of you."

Crystals were both rare and expensive gemstones, but a transparent crystal was even rarer. Only the purest glass of all could be considered as crystal glass. This was the product that the Alchemist Workshop in King's City relied upon in order to dominate over the Redwater City's Alchemic Workshop. In addition, the gold royals it brought them every year had the Duke of Redwater City greatly envy them.

Now, everything would soon change. If Chavez could also figure out the composition to create the snow powder, in addition to his method of creating the acid, they would finally be able to outrank the Alchemist Workshop in the king's city. By that point, the people who looked down their nose at them would have to bow their arrogant heads. Thinking about this greatly boosted Kyle Sichi's mood.

As he was preparing to screen the raw materials needed for the second batch of crystal glass, a panicking student ran to his side. "Respected Chief Mentor, a messenger from the Western Region's Border Town wants to see you, who has brought you a letter from the fourth Prince Roland Wimbledon."

"Prince Roland?" Kyle frowned, it seemed that there was indeed such a person in the royal family from the Kingdom of Graycastle. He did not know much about the noble, but as far as he was concerned, they were all uneducated and ignorant, always fighting for power and wealth. "What does he need me for?"

"I don't know, the messenger said that once you read the letter, you'll naturally understand what His Highness want."

"…"The chief alchemist revealed an impatient look, assuming that the content of the letter would be either an offer to recruit him for a lot of money or to denounce alchemy as a devil's trick. However, since the other person was a prince, he still had to maintain a basic level of etiquette. "Take me to him, and after I get the letter, send him on his way!"

"Yes, respected Chief Mentor."

Chapter 154 - The Alchemy (Part II)

…

By the time Kyle Sichi returned home, it was already dark outside.

After he had dinner with his family, he returned to his study and recorded the formula and the raw materials for the crystal glass in the book he was writing—"The Door to Alchemy". In it, he had recorded his biography starting from the day he had become an apprentice until the day he became a chief alchemist. In addition, he also included the alchemic formulas they had discovered over the years at the Alchemical Workshop of Redwater City.

Kyle believed that with this book, he would earn a place in history. Thousands of years later, alchemists would still remember his name.

Only after the candle had burnt out completely, did Kyle finally put down his pen and prepare to go to bed.

Suddenly, he remembered the letter from the prince. Glancing at the soon dying candle, he decided to use the last of its light to finish the letter so that he could give a verbal reply to the messenger the next day. The tiny candle would not allow him to write more than a few dozen words, but it was more than enough to read this worthless letter by.

He opened the envelope and saw that it contained three pages. The first page was the usual formal introduction full of titles and territory. Kyle did not even bother reading it and just moved straight to the second page.

The content of the second page took him by surprise, and there was no recruitment offer or denouncing. Instead, there were five strange formulas written on it. After carefully examining them, he noticed that each formula was composed of the same three sentences.

[Oh, this is interesting."] He smiled even though he still did not know what the purpose of the letter was. The prince was quite good at mystifying.

He glanced over the first line.

"Dry distillation of saltpeter produces nitric acid."

Saltpeter… dry distillation… nitric acid, all these were terms used in alchemy. Wait a minute, Kyle's heart suddenly stopped. [Isn't this one of the double-stone acid-making methods of the alchemic workshop?]

The acidic liquid produced by the dry distillation of saltpeter had to be collected in a special container. It looked just like water vapor, so it was hard to recognize. It was, however, very corrosive. Apart from skin removal, it could also dissolve specific metals.

[This… is actually an alchemic formula? Does this mean that there's an alchemist in Border Town?]

He quickly moved his sight to the next line.

The first sentence had already surprised him, but the second sentence was even more incredible.

It consisted of a bunch of weird symbols, one after another, forming an equation. Kyle frowned, for he had never seen such strange symbols.

Looking further down the letter, it appeared that the third sentence was the explanation for the previous two. This line included the names and meanings for each of the symbols. However, these words were so difficult to pronounce that it almost seemed as if they were made up. To help him link the words with the symbols he read them over and over. Even so, he was still having trouble understanding the full meaning of the entire sentence.

At this point, the candle flame sputtered twice and then flickered out.

Damn it! Kyle cursed silently, and without hesitating, he took a new candle from his drawer and lit it.

…

By the time the second candle had burnt down halfway, the hands of the chief alchemist were shaking slightly.

For a letter that appeared to mean nothing, it had taken him a very long time to read.

The fives formulas on the second page were actually all alchemical formulas!

It was not unimaginable that an excellent alchemist would manage to come up with five formulas on his own, but the amazing part was that four of them, excluding the first one for the acid-making process, were all connected to each other. Certain words would appear repetitively, creating what seemed like a balanced cycle.

"Nitric acid reacts with silver to form silver nitrate, just like water with nitric oxide."

"Silver nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and silver."

"Silver nitrate reacts with copper to form copper nitrate and silver."

"Copper nitrate reacts with iron to form ferrous nitrate and copper."

He had previously also tested the alchemical reaction by putting a silver bar into the acidic liquid and part of the silver bar was clearly dissolved beyond recognition, which was an attribute of the acid. It would dissolve anything, but according to the letter, because silver nitrate was soluble in water, it would seem that it had disappeared, but in fact, it still existed in a different state and had not been destroyed.

How was that even possible?

No… Kyle shook his head. Apparently, the other side had already anticipated his doubts. The connection between these formulas was not coincidental and he realized that he was given the opportunity to personally verify them. He could try it with silver, iron or copper, and these were all common minerals. If he was to perform alchemy according to the later formulas, the silver would reappear, proving that it was not destroyed but still existed within the acid.

Seeing the orderly and neatly arranged formulas on the paper, he started breathing heavily. If these alchemical formulas were proven to be real, his years of accumulated experience, the efforts of his colleagues, as well as everything he had written in his book "The Door to Alchemy", would be nothing more than a joke!

"You and the kid can go to sleep first, and I have to go back to the alchemical workshop!"

Disregarding his wife's surprised look, Kyle put on his coat and rushed out straight into the night.

Arriving at the alchemic workshop, he immediately called the three students on duty and told them he had to conduct an alchemical experiment. He had them light the torches and candles, saying the more the merrier. Everything was soon arranged on his long table that was now brightly illuminated by the flames. The students began shuffling between the materials warehouse and the refining room, preparing the experiment materials for their Chief Alchemist Kyle.

There was still plenty of acid, that had been produced by the dry distillation of saltpeter in storage, so he was able to start verifying the second formula right away.

He took some of the acid and poured it into a glass. Then, he placed a silver bar into it. As the reaction started, the bar gradually dissolved, creating several bubbles.

As he waited anxiously, Kyle turned his attention to the third page of the letter.

There was only a short sentence on it, "This was merely a small part of my work, for more answers, come to Border Town."

[Damn it! Writing this sentence is totally useless! Once I verified the formulas, I would definitely have to pay a visit to this unknown alchemist master.] Otherwise, he would not have been able to sleep again for the rest of his life.

Once the bubbles dissipated, he removed what was left of the dissolving silver bar and put a small piece of copper into the cup in its place.

Soon, something incredible started to happen. A thin white crust began to appear on the surface of the copper, much like a beetle's skin. The white crust continued to expand and soon covered the entire surface of the copper. As for the previously colorless acid in the glass, it gradually turned a shade of blue.

Exactly as it had been described in the letter!

"The white matter is the silver, and the newly created substance, copper nitrate, is soluble in water just like the silver nitrate. However, it'll turn the acid sky blue."

Staring into the cup, Kyle Sichi stood there motionlessly.

…

The next morning, when Chavez arrived at the alchemical workshop, he was shocked to see the chief alchemist. He looked completely exhausted and had big black circles around his eyes indicating he had not slept.

"Didn't you go home to sleep last night?" Chavez asked surprisedly, "Did you decide to stay up and wait for the second batch of crystal glass?"

Kyle shook his head while dragging Chavez over to his table and he said tiredly, "You were once my most valued student, so I want to ask you, what do you think about alchemy?"

"Uh… just like what you taught me." His attention was drawn to the table where a number of glasses had been placed, filled with solutions of varying colors. The most eye-catching one was the one that was sky blue. Was this the reason the chief alchemist stayed up last night? Although Chavez was confused, he still replied honestly, "Like you, I believe that the essence of alchemy is to find the logic within all the disorder and chaos…"

"No, no, Chavez, I was wrong." Kyle interrupted him. "Everyone is wrong. That isn't alchemy."

"Not true…?" Chavez felt that his teacher was acting strangely. First, he had spent the whole night performing alchemy, and now he was asking weird questions. Before he could ask for an explanation, the chief alchemist continued, "Unlike what you and I previously believed, there's more order in alchemy. An order that might even be considered a strict order, like in mathematics where one-plus-one will always equal two. No matter what changes are performed, the material amounts don't increase, decrease or disappear, for they just change forms."

"Will never increase, decrease, or disappear? What're you talking about? Isn't that what alchemists do? They combine common materials, to create new and incredible things," Chavez asked confused.

"Yes, that's also what I used to think, but after receiving a letter from the Lord of Border Town…" Kyle patted his shoulder, and what he said next shocked Chavez. "I'll soon leave for Border Town to find answers. You… do you want to come with me?"

Chapter 155 - The New Visitors

Roland obtained his first ever purchasing order since the manufacture of the steam engine, and the transaction volume was the largest one so far.

The price of a bare machine was 500 gold royals. Two machines had to be delivered in the first month, and then the amount would increase by one every following month, until he reached a total of 10 machines. Technical support, parts replacement, and equipment upgrades would all require additional gold royals. As for after-sales service and a three package commitment, Roland said he had never heard of it before.

Barov was excited about the deal because, in his opinion, any activity that could add revenue to City Hall was worth praising, whether it was trade or plunder. There were also those who opposed to it, such as Carter, Scroll, and Nightingale who had all questioned the deal. They thought it was too early to sell these machines to outsiders, as there were not even enough for Border Town itself.

Roland did not bother explaining too much because he was not looking at it from a lord's point of view. He made the decision as an industrial promoter.

It was almost impossible to push the process of social industrialization alone, even though he had the knowledge to do so. The town's consumption capacity was extremely limited, and the manufactured industrial products were no different from scrap iron if nobody bought them. More people were needed to be brought into this change to set off a new wave of operation.

What could he gain by selling steam engines?

Enough money, lots of jobs, and a number of skilled workers which was the most important.

This was also the reason Roland lowered production.

Anna's ability had improved a lot, and the production efficiency was enhanced. As long as there were enough raw materials, she could produce a steam engine every day.

But selling such products was only "selling" machines.

If he wanted to promote the development of this industry, he had to set up a special team to be responsible for production, assembly, and maintenance. In Roland's plan, he needed to open a factory, making tools for production, such as a plant or mill so that the production of the steam engine was handed over to the workers. What could be expected was that production efficiency would be low in the early stage, and the product quality would be appalling. But everything would improve bit by bit. With the help of tools made by Anna, as long as the workers were familiar with the manufacturing process, the production rate would be greatly enhanced.

The next step would be to expand the scale of production and train more skilled workers about the profits of machines. Experienced workers would give the town the ability to produce more advanced products, such as steam trains, steamships, etc. There was no doubt that this was a virtuous circle. And the steam engines that had been sold could also create benefits indirectly; they could be used for mining, which could reduce ore prices; if used for shipping, it could promote trade; if used for textiles, it could make up for their shortboards.

Roland wanted to make steam engines popular throughout the country, as long as these machines were from Border Town. Once he unified the Kingdom of Graycastle, it would save a lot of work.

He also considered the possibility that buyers might imitate steam engines, but the new steam engine used boring machine drilled round cylinders, coupled with some deliberately designed complex parts. Relying on the current level of technology, it would be difficult to create qualified machines in a short time. Even with a witch like Anna, it would be difficult.

He should have been happy to have such a big order and find the channel to sell industrial products, but Roland was not content.

"The sky is clear. Why are you still unhappy?" Nightingale sat at his desk with her legs up, holding a dish of dried fish in her lap. "Are you still worried about the church?"

When Scroll was not there, Nightingale behaved casually, and the corner of the desk and the armchair were her usual places. For other lords, this would obviously be offensive, but Roland did not care, and she knew it.

"I have been wondering why the church supported both me and Garcia to compete for the throne at the same time, and now I understand. If I guess right, I believe Timothy also received an invitation from the church," he said with a frown.

In addition to the order, Margaret had also brought many pieces of intelligence for him, one of which made Roland surprised. The church had attacked and taken over the Kingdom of Everwinter. And according to the merchant's statement, they intended to invade the Kingdom of Wolfheart. This news came as a shock, as it confirmed all of his suspicions.

"It supports all three of you to compete for the throne?"

"Not support, but exhaust," said Roland shaking his head. "The church doesn't care that the war is spreading to the whole country. Rather they're happy to see Kingdom of Graycastle falling into civil war, and they're not concerned whether the churches and believers are involved in the war. Kingdom of Graycastle isn't as weak as Kingdom of Everwinter, with its vast territory and numerous citizens. If they were to use plain force, the Judgement Army would suffer many losses. Only after we kill each other, will they be able to occupy Kingdom of Graycastle at the lowest cost. At that time, they can have as many believers and churches as they want." "Those pills... are only traps that they've prepared. "

The Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince issued by King Wimbledon III was equivalent to giving the church an opportunity to manipulate the situation. If the Kingdoms of Graycastle, Wolfheart and Everwinter were destroyed, the Kingdom of Dawn might not exist. The real purpose of the church was probably the reunification of the four kingdoms, taking into account the slowness of the message, as well as the people's political indifference. Everyone might come to their senses when facing death.

It was also the reason Roland was perplexed.

In this period of time, they had not developed the notion of a unified battlefront. It would be a disaster to depend on the support of the noble of the Kingdom of Graycastle. When the time came for the church to attack, these few people in the Western Region would be the only ones he could rely on.

"But you have a new weapon. The Judgement Army isn't much stronger than the average knight, so I don't think they could defeat you."

Roland remembered that in the past, when it came to the church, Nightingale was terrified. But the confidence she had nowadays had exceeded Roland's expectation.

He smiled weakly and sighed. [It won't be difficult for Anna to produce revolving rifles that can trial a revolving rifle and two revolvers. Whether it has a trigger reset or an automatic wheel, the performance is excellent. But if the firing problem was not solved, there would be no actual value in the new weapon. In the absence of the development of mercury fulminate, I'll need to use an alternative material to fire the guns.]

Roland hoped the guards would bring good news from Redwater City.

At this point, the momentum was restored, and Lightning flew into the office. She brought unexpected news. On the east side of Border Town, the flags on the soil slope had been replaced with blue.

According to Roland's secretly spread rumors, the agreed communication signal was that a blue flag meant that a new witch had come.

Chapter 156 - The Puzzles

Theo climbed up a small hill. From here he could vaguely see the outline of the Lord's Castle in Border Town.

Finally, he had arrived back. It had taken him nearly one and a half month to go there, while it had taken only seven days to get back. Most of his time had been spent getting from Silver City to Redwater City. Even if Ashes did not care, he still chose the most secluded roads, to reduce the possibility of being found by the church.

Ashes led the way, but Theo could not be sure whether her name was real or not. She always dressed in a black robe, with a large sword wrapped in cloth on her back. Her long black hair was tied up simply in a ponytail, swaying on her waist. Whether it was riding or sailing, she paid little attention to him, walking alone in the front, looking at the scenery around her. It seemed that this trip to Border town was just a relaxed sightseeing tour.

Sometimes Theo would doubt his judgment. Was she really a soldier? The robe would interfere with her movements and the long hair was another disadvantage. Furthermore, it seemed Ashes was not afraid of being attacked from behind, during this time what he had seen most was her back. He did not think that the witch had a trustful nature. He could only assume that she had enough self-protection capability, that even a God's Stone of Retaliation would not pose a threat to her.

Theo searched around the hills and quickly found his target, a flagpole with red stripes on it. He dug a cloth out of the mud in the edge of the flagpole and replaced the red flag with blue cloth. Then he clasped his hands and sat on the ground.

"That's it?" Ashes asked.

"'Go to the foot of the hill in the northeast of the town, follow a stone road and find the flagpole at the top of the hill, then replace the flag with a blue one, and our people will notice.' That's what they said to do." Theo wiped the sweat on his forehead. "The Witch Cooperation Association will only take action at night, let's just wait here."

Ashes nodded, and sat in a clean spot, and asked if he had any food.

"Uh... wait." He untied his backpack, and took out a piece of meat. He ate half of it, and then gave the other half to her.

When Theo saw the witch chewing the dried meat slowly, he sighed. Except for her large sword, she had not even one bronze royal. Penniless as she was, she dared to rush to Border Town. Along the way the accommodation and meals were all paid for by him. She had to have the upper single bedroom and meat. Moreover, she was unaccustomed to portable food like dried meat.

Maybe the domain was strange to her, she was quite cautious. However, would not the most prudent approach be to prepare food by herself?

"The place we're going to is opposite the strait," Ashes swallowed the meat, and suddenly spoke, "I don't know if you have ever heard the rumors of the Fjords. There are countless islands, some of which are very harsh. We had to build a home suitable for a witch."

Theo was surprised, no matter how much he inquired, the witch had never said anything before. Why had she taken the initiative to mention this issue now?

"Are you wondering why I didn't reveal anything to you before?" she explained, "because if you were a liar, you would send a message secretly to the church when I was asleep at night. Then those girls would have likely been stopped halfway, but now they should be on the merchant ship to the Fjord. And the church is unable to stop them. I came here to take away the helpless witches in the Witch Cooperation Association. Sooner or later they'll know the news, so there's no sense hiding it."

"Even though I've brought you here, you can't rule out the possibility that I'm a liar."

"Yes, that's true," said Ashes, "and if people later coming here was not the witch, you would die here, with those who tried to kill the witches."

"Okay," said Theo, "can I ask another question?"

She thought a little and said, "If I can, I'll answer it."

"Do you come from the Kingdom of Graycastle? I've never seen such eyes before." Theo decided to start with her origin, for this topic was not sensitive, and it would decrease her suspicions.

"I was born in the Kingdom of Everwinter, but this has nothing to do with the color of my eyes. My eyes have been like this since I became a witch."

"The Kingdom of Everwinter? It's so far from the Kingdom of Graycastle. There are kingdoms in the middle, how did you come to Silver City?"

"I was sold to the church, and later..." She paused. "I wandered from the cloister in Holy City to the Kingdom of Graycastle until… I only stopped the vagrant life when I met her."

"Her?" Theo was curious.

"Tilly Wimbledon," said Ashes with warmth in her eyes, "she took me in."

The guard was suddenly startled when he heard the name. He had at first thought it was a duplication of the name, but the meaning was completely different adding Wimbledon. The person leading the witches to the Fjord was Roland Wimbledon's sister, Princess Tilly? His voice stuttered. "She, she's your leader?"

"The leader? You could say so." She nodded. "But for me, she was the most important person... No one could replace her."

As night fell, the two lit a bonfire on the hillside.

Ashes took her sword, and opened the cloth slowly. The blade of this terrible weapon had been close to her waist. It was covered with traces left behind from the collision. The dark gray blade did not have an edge, and it was clear that it killed people only by its weight. It was hard for ordinary people to lift this weapon, but in her hands, it was as light as a single-handed sword.

[How many blacksmith's shops had been robbed, in order to make up the necessary materials for this sword?" Theo thought, "and if His Highness' witch didn't show up, I might become a victim of the sword.]

"I heard that the Lord of Border Town is also called... Wimbledon." He decided to find something to say, otherwise, the wait would be particularly tough.

"Roland Wimbledon, Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle," she said quietly, "I've seen him before."

"What?" Theo was surprised.

"When I was taken in by Tilly and served as her bodyguard in the palace, I had the opportunity to meet her brothers and sisters." Ashes seemed to know Prince Roland very well. "Incompetent, arrogant, a man without knowledge or skills. It's hard to believe that he's Tilly 's brother, but in some aspects, he's quite daring."

Her tone became colder.

Theo could not help shuddering. He had heard a lot of rumors about His Highness when he served in the palace, his outspoken behavior, his flirting with the maids. Although he had never abused his power, it was inevitable to take advantage of others. He could not have...

At that moment, Ashes suddenly stood up and stared in the direction of the path. "People are coming."

Theo followed where she was looking, and figures of people gradually appeared in the night. The witch leading the way was the personal guard of His Highness, Nightingale.

Chapter 157 - Ashes (Part I)

The newcomers were all witches. Theo did not lie. Ashes could feel the magic power coursing in them and could even roughly differentiate the strong ones from the weaker ones—particularly the leader in front of her. Her magic power was like a sharp knife cutting into Ashes' suffer when she tried to feel it keenly.

"I'm Ashes. Nice to meet you, sisters from the Witch Cooperation Association." She put her great sword on one side and went forward to hug the four witches… No, she knew there were five of them. Ashes looked up at the dark spot circling in the sky. "Is she not joining us?"

"She's showing us the way," the leader smiled. "I'm Nightingale." She then pointed at the three other witches. "Scroll, Leaf, and Echo." She nudged her lips at the sky and said, "That little girl is Lightning."

When Ashes stared at Scroll, she was stunned. The magic power in Scroll was fairly weak, like a cloud scattered all over her body. It surprised her and she asked, "Are you an extraordinary witch?"

Nightingale also looked surprised. "You can see magic power?"

"No, but I can feel it," Ashes explained. "An extraordinary witch can sense the form and flow of magic power because all parts of her body have been altered. I think this sister here has the same feelings as I do."

Scroll smiled and nodded. "You're right. This ability has helped me find a number of companions in the sea of people."

"Is an extraordinary witch that rare?" asked Nightingale.

Nightingale's focus was on the numbers instead of the meaning of an extraordinary witch... Ashes wondered if they had never heard of the term in the Witch Cooperation Association. This was a heavily-guarded secret of the church. That was because that an extraordinary witch used her power directly on herself and therefore was not limited by God's Stone of Retaliation. Any known extraordinary witch would make herself the top enemy of the church.

"In a thousand witches, perhaps there's only one." Despite her thoughts, Ashes remained calm when she answered, "I've only met three extraordinary witches including Scroll in my life." Ashes momentarily paused. "Right. I remember that Cara is the leader of Witch Cooperation Association. How is she?"

"She died." Nightingale shook her head. "She died on her way to find Holy Mountain."

"... That's such a pity," said Ashes, her voice lowered. What concerned her was the lack of sadness in Nightingale's expression when she spoke. "Who's your new leader?"

"Let's talk about that when we go back to Border Town." Nightingale smiled. "You'll be able to meet him very soon."

…

When they entered the town, Ashes sensed that something was off. The witches actually dared to walk boldly on the streets while holding torches. Besides, the town was not tranquil even though it was already dark. She could see dim flames from the paper windows of many homes and hear the sound of children reading.

Though candles were not expensive things, commoners would probably not light them until it was necessary due to their limited savings. But there were many households in Border Town that could afford candles. It was incredible. In addition, children were reading word by word. Were their parents teaching them to read?

But they did not explain and she was also unwilling to ask. After all, this was not a permanent residency for them. What she needed to do was to take them away as soon as possible.

Walking through criss-cross streets, they got closer to the castle. Ashes could see the dark walls and guards in the darkness. "Where are we going?" she asked.

"The castle of Border Town. We're almost there," replied Nightingale.

"Wait." Ashes slowed down. "That's where the lord lives."

"Yes. But it's also home to the witches."

"Have you reached agreements with the lord?" Ashes frowned. Even though Witch Cooperation Association had huge influence among the locals, it would boldly go against the church and the lords possessing God's Stone of Retaliation. The association was forced to work with them. That was a choice some witches took. Most lords, however, were reluctant to discuss conditions and endlessly oppressed and exploited the disadvantaged witches. Such collaboration was quickly put to an end.

"Kind of." Nightingale did not sound oppressed, but rather joyful. "We've all at least signed an agreement with His Highness."

Ashes could not feel happy for them. Agreements written in ink and paper had little binding force. Once the lord was sick of protecting witches or wanted to terminate their equal relationship, he only needed to scrunch the agreement and throw it into a fireplace. No one would feel indignant in the witches' place. They were like lonesome boats in the vast sea, and they risk being capsized at any time.

Fortunately, here she was. She wanted to lead them away to the other side of the sea. There was a habitat there built by witches. They can stay away from the threats of the church and the secular world.

After through the gate of the castle, guards were really used to the presence of the witches. They even exchanged greetings.

Compared with the palace of the king's city, the lord's castle was not as spacious. Only several torches were hung on the walls along the hallway and the swaying lights were unable to light up the entire place. Walking through the gloomy hallway made one felt rather depressed. It only got brighter when they entered the guest room.

In the hall, Ashes saw more witches who seemed to have waited for a long time. The moment they saw her, they all applauded to welcome her. Just as Nightingale stepped forward to briefly introduce her, a witch rushed over.

"Wendy!" someone shouted.

Ashes noticed the witch's behavior and did not take any defensive measures. She could feel the other girl's pleasant surprise, but there were no traces of hostility. She was quickly enveloped in a warm hug.

"You actually survived." The girl's voice was full of excitement. "Thank you for saving me back then."

Ashes was stunned. "You're..."

"I'm Wendy." She loosened her hold and looked straight at Ashes. "I'm the little choir girl. Do you remember me?"

…

In the bedroom on the second floor, only Ashes and Wendy remained.

Ashes never thought that she would meet a companion from the cloister here.

To be precise, calling her a companion was a stretch. If not for their encounter that night, they would not have known each other. Honestly, she did not realize there was another unfortunate person like her who was dragged and forced into that underground cell. Most of all, she did not expect that person would become a witch.

"After escaping from the cloister, I settled down in Seawindshire," Wendy said after a long silence, "I later heard that there was a huge fire in the cloister that day and all children there disappeared."

"A fire?" Ashes shook her head. "The church did that to cover up the scandal. I killed some managers and Judgement Army soldiers who tried to stop me until… the God's Punishment Army arrived. This scar on my eyes was left by them. Had I not made up my mind to run away immediately, I'd have died there when the rest arrived."

"God's Punishment army..." Wendy repeated those words with wide eyes. "What's that?"

Chapter 158 - Ashes (Part Ⅱ)

Ashes explained to Wendy, "God's Punishment Warriors are the strongest fighters of the church and confidential weapons to destroy Extraordinaries. They could absolutely compete with me in terms of strength and speed. What's more..." She hesitated and then continued, "They appeared to be unconscious. Once in a fight, I cut off the right hand of a God's Punishment Warrior, but he immediately lifted his left hand trying to gouge my eyes without any hesitation. As I turned around to escape, he didn't overbalance at all. It's nothing to do with willpower. Losing an arm, a tough warrior can continue to fight but he won't be adjusted to the unbalance in such a short time."

"I only heard of Judgement Army of the church. Given that the church people had such powerful warriors, why didn't they use them when rounding up witches in the previous times?" murmured Wendy.

"I don't know," Ashes said slowly, "and until I came back to the old Holy City, I heard the name "God's Punishment Army" from some people."

"You... came back?" Wendy was surprised.

"Uhm, how could I let go of those craps easily." Ashes stood up and walked to the window. "I attacked some chapels and a station of Judgement Army where there was even a chief justice. I had thought that they weren't afraid of death at all." In fact, the chief justice had acted no better than a common person facing death and painful torture. He had been frightened and begged Ashes for mercy. "From him, I know the name of God's Punishment Army and the fact that they're converted from the Judgement Army by a rite. According to him, only the best warriors are blessed with such an honor and they should be voluntary to accept the conversion. It seemed that a successful conversion has a lot to do with their determination. In other words, unlike witches, God's Punishment Warriors aren't gifted. They're altered artificially."

"…" Wendy was dumbfounded by the news.

"I guess that the reason why they couldn't put God's Punishment Army into battles like what they did with Judgement Army is that the conversion has side effects. Unconscious warriors, in some degree, aren't different from monsters." Ashes sighed and continued, "During that period of time, I hid in water channels or deep wells in the daytime and attacked believers of the church at night. I wasn't forced to evacuate from the old Holy City until the church launched a citywide search. The day I left, my clothes were so sticky with blood. Ferocious as I was, in others' eyes, I also looked like an unconscious beast."

With these words, Ashes felt Wendy put a hand on her shoulder. "It was all gone. Here, you can live like a commoner and Prince Roland is very nice to us. Having undergone attacks from the Months of Demons and Duke of Stronghold together, we're accepted by most local people. Hence, this small town is Holy Mountain we've pursued before."

Ashes stared at Wendy who now was standing beside the window together with her. In her memories, children in the cloister were all thin and weak with dull eyes, but now Wendy looked completely different in terms of figure and appearance. It was hard to imagine her childhood look based on her present appearance. Furthermore, Ashes felt peaceful and calm in her naturally gentle tone.

However, there were some words she had to tell Wendy. "I won't settle down in the town. It isn't the reason why I came here." She paused. "I come to take all of you to a really safe place, as Border Town isn't a permanent settlement."

"You won't stay here..." Wendy was startled and remained speechless for a moment. "Why?"

"As long as we live on this continent, we'll be threatened by the church. Tilly's gathered most witches of the Kingdom of Graycastle to the Fjords where a country of witches would be constructed."

"But Fjords is also under the influence of the church, isn't it? "

"Due to a special landscape of archipelago, islands are divided from each other so the church only exerts influence on a certain island. Besides..." Ashes curled her lips. "There's no God's Punishment Army on the Fjords."

It was the high time for the church to try witches' rage. They planned to uproot local churches in the Fjords one by one in much the same way as the church eradicated witches.

Ashes continued to persuade Wendy. "You and your sisters must leave. It's a mistake to spread the rumor to summon companions since the church may also hear that. They never let a witch organization expand. After a while, the army of the church will come across Kingdom of Graycastle to destroy you. Confronted with the invincible God's Punishment Army, do you think Prince Roland will still protect you? No secular lords want to coexist with witches. He's nice to you now, but he'll abandon you without any hesitations upon the dangerous moment."

After a while's silence, Wendy said, "I don't know about the other sisters' thoughts, but I won't leave Border Town."

Ashes frowned. "Here's already the edge of the cliff. The longer you stay here, the more dangerous your situation will be."

"It's cruel to leave Prince Roland behind just to avoid the upcoming danger and to prevent us from being abandoned by him. I don't want to be such a person. Besides..." Wendy paused to take a deep breath. "I don't think that Prince Roland would be subdued to the church. Nightingale's asked him the same question and he answered that even if it meant fighting against the church, he would still ensure that each witch in his domain would live like a common person."

"..." Ashes remained speechless this time, as she did not know what to say at the moment. She had seen many promises broken up by its promise. In addition, what was the point of Prince Roland protecting witches down the way? It only resulted in sacrifices in front of overwhelming power.

By now, she had basically known the situation of the Witch Cooperation Association. After "The Snake Witch" Cara died, the rest members of the association were accepted by the Lord of Border Town. She guessed that Theo who spread the news in Silver City was not a commoner saving witches coincidently but a guard of the lord. Though she did not know what cunning measures the lord had adopted to make witches trust him, she believed that his meticulous camouflage would be fallen apart in front of her great sword.

"I want to talk to your lord, Roland Wimbledon," Ashes said in a deep voice at last.

…

The next morning, she met Prince Roland.

Led by Nightingale to an office, Ashes met this disgusting man once again.

She was clear that he had the same blood as Tilly, but she was indisposed to admit that. His long gray hair was simply banded behind and shinning silver lights in the morning sunshine, the hair color was a shared feature of royal family members of Graycastle. His forehead and nose were similar to Tilly's, but the more similar they looked, the more unhappy Ashes felt. Different from his usual appearance in the palace, he dressed uniquely neat without any ornaments—no earrings, necklaces, rings, or bracelets. He simply sat on a chair and looked at Ashes who now felt that he was looking down at her.

The temperament of a superior.

The term immediately struck her.

[Well, you've improved a lot in appearance, but how long can you stay that way?] Ashes mocked coldly in her heart.

"Welcome. You're Ashes, the envoy dispatched by my younger sister, right?" Roland took the initiative to talk.

"No, it's my personal decision to come here."

"Even so, you're still an envoy, aren't you?"

"..." Ashes frowned and wondered what was the point of stressing the envoy? She did not want to play character game with him and said, "Kind of."

"Very well, Envoy Ashes." He put on a strange smile. "I've heard that you want to take my witches away?"

Chapter 159 - The Most Powerful Persuasion

Theo had informed Roland about the situation in detail, prior to Roland's meeting with the new witch.

He had not expected that the long-lost Tilly Wimbledon would have become the leader of another witch organization. What was more, she had already recruited more than half of the witches in the Kingdom of Graycastle. And the more intolerable thing was, now she actually wanted to expand her power in his territory.

Nightingale had informed him that this witch was an Extraordinary, and her ability was likely to be combat type.

Any Extraordinary was worthy of careful treatment. Therefore, when he met with Ashes in the office, Roland had Nightingale standing by, invisible. He also arranged for Anna to be nearby, just in case. In front of the desk, there were several extremely slender Blackfires, it looked like a wall, undetectable to the naked eye. If she dared to rush at Roland, these fires would tear her into several pieces.

When combat witches were not wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation they were not dominant in a civil war, but once they wore the stone, they possessed an unrestricted, destructive power. Fortunately, God's Stone was hated by the vast majority of witches. Ashes had probably taken this point into account, and was not carrying the church's iconic item when she came to Border Town to recruit witches.

"Your witches?! Don't be so arrogant," Ashes said coldly, "They're living people, not your personal belongings!"

Roland felt suddenly choked by her words. This was the first time he had suffered from a feeling of failure in eloquence since he had arrived here. He was used to saying words like "my subjects" and "my people", however, he was now being criticized unpredictably for his democratic speech. He felt extremely embarrassed. Although in the practice of this era, there was nothing wrong with words like "lord" and "territory", it was not wise to emphasize this point in front of Nightingale and Anna. It seemed that these words brought the wrong type of emotion.

So he coughed twice, acting as naturally as he could and then he said, "I never thought that way. It's their will to stay in the town, and I believe that this is the best place for them. As for the Fjords, the weather there is unpredictable, and you suffer from storms and tsunamis all year round. Plus, the Fjords are very dangerous, so it isn't really a suitable place to live."

"But at least the power of the church is minimal there. Witches are able to build their own homes, and using their power, they can resist natural disasters. There's no way to resist the church with the God's Stone of Retaliation, let alone resist God's Punishment Army," Ashes said without any mercy, "Do you know how foolish you are to do so? The news you spread will only lure the church to you. To be honest. I think that you have no chance of winning against God's Punishment Army. You should let the witches leave your territory, and avoid the tragedy that'll inevitably happen."

Roland had heard about the intelligence of God's Punishment Army from Wendy. He knew that to persuade her with power would be much more efficient than any words could be. Of course, he could choose to completely ignore Ashes. If he were to do so, it would mean completely giving up the witches under Tilly Wimbledon. Although there was little hope, he still wanted to try.

"How many God's Punishment Army soldiers can you fight at one time?" he asked.

Ashes looked puzzled, but finally stretched out three fingers. "If there're three of them I think I can cope okay."

"Then let's have a duel," Roland sat up straight and said seriously, "Let the results tell you if I could win against the God's Punishment Army."

"What, what're you suggesting?" Ashes asked. She was shocked momentarily, but then her cold face finally gave way to a different expression.

"A fair duel, one to one," he said, "If I can beat you, it'll prove that I have the ability to resist the church, OK?"

Ashes' facial expression showed that she thought he was crazy. She asked, "Just you and me? Or do you want the witches to fight?"

"No, of course not me. And not the witches either. God's Punishment Army would have the God's Stone of Retaliation," Roland said smiling. "Your opponent is an ordinary knight."

Although it was regrettable that he could not personally fight in this battle, he knew that the opponent was an Extraordinary, with superb power. From the description he had gotten from Wendy, he knew that this Extraordinary had killed all her enemies in the cloister and escaped the God's Punishment Army's chase. Even if she held only a wooden sword or even without weapons, she would unleash her full lethality. Also, the actual effect of the pistol needed to be developed. For safety reasons, he decided he would give this glorious task to Carter. If he had been holding an AK47, he would fight her Ashes himself.

"An ordinary knight..." Ashes said and then she recovered her original cold face. "If I win, will you let the witches go with me?"

"Of course not. Just like if you lose, you would never force Tilly to bring her witches to Border Town, right?"

"So what's the purpose of this duel?" asked Ashes.

"It's not a battle but a test," Roland answered, "The purpose is to show you that I won't lose when I face the church. And if you lose in this battle, you'll naturally remember that when you're back, if you can't stay in the Fjords, there's a border in the west where witches can live comfortably. Of course, if you win, at least it'll be more convincing when you persuade Wendy and others.

"I won't lose," said Ashes, "Tell your knight to come at once."

"Not now." Roland waved his hand dismissively. "In a week, I'll finish the preparation for the duel. During this week, you can live in the castle, and experience life in this small town with the witches. Maybe you'll change your views."

She stared at the prince for a while, then nodded. "Perhaps it won't take seven days. They'll change their views, and leave Border Town with me.

Roland shrugged.

When she turned back to the door, he suddenly stopped her and asked, "Wait... Have we met somewhere before?"

Although he had never seen her face before, from the shape of her back, there was a sense of familiarity. Roland slightly recalled in his memory, this sense of familiarity seemed to come from the king's city.

"Didn't the guards tell you?" She did not look back. "Back in the palace, if Tilly hadn't stopped me, I'm afraid that you would have only one hand."

After the door to the office closed, Nightingale appeared whistling. "Did you grab her ass before too?"

"What?" Roland was astonished. "I don't remember this kind of person being in the palace. And what do you mean by 'too'?"

Nightingale made a face, he discerned it was "Tyre". To hell with her. Although he really had touched the maid's ass, it was a situation that he failed to see anything wrong with it, many others did it as well. Nightingale still owed him credit for her peeping.

"Ahem." Anna interrupted their talking. "Are you sure that the knight will defeat the Extraordinary? If he fails, it may affect other witches' confidence in you."

Fortunately, Anna looked calm, so Roland was relieved. "The self-strengthening type of witch isn't affected by God's Stone of Retaliation, but she can still fight based on her physical function. Compared to our weapons which can shoot rapidly, her defect is obvious. We have a 70 percent chance of winning."

But he would have to complete the development of ammunition within a week.

Chapter 160 - The Confrontation

Roland had been thinking about bullets for the revolving firearms. Circular lead bullets and loose gunpowder were an arrangement that was simply too backward. Taking Anna's ability into consideration, the direct manufacture of copper shells for ammunition was technically feasible. The key concern was that there did not have a reliable primer to ignite the black gunpowder in the cartridge for reliable firing.

In early times, the outer shell of the ammunition was generally made out of mercury fulminate which was extremely sensitive to impact. When one pulled the trigger, it would stimulate the firing pin, and hit the base of the bullet. The mercury fulminate would flare up, igniting the black powder, and eject the bullet from the chamber.

It was unfortunate that even after breaking his head over it, he still could not recall the necessary raw materials he needed for the mercury fulminate. From a literal point of view, he would definitely need nitric acid and mercury. However, if he looked at the result of the chemical equation he had written down, it became apparent that these two substances would only produce nitric acid together.

In addition, knowing the raw materials was not equal to the successful production of finished products. Roland would still have to discover the right concentration and temperature for the reactive process, and whether he still needed to add another catalyst or not were also key factors in the production of the finished product. Moreover, because of the sensitive properties of mercury, it was easy to trigger an explosion during the manufacturing process. If it exploded one could easily lose a few fingers, so Roland was afraid of trying it out personally.

So, Roland had no alternative but to settle for the second-best option, using metal shells but keeping the old flintlock ignition. This required that the spark could enter the interior of the shell to ignite the gunpowder. So, he had to leave a hole in the bottom of the shell, but he still had to find a method which would prevent the gunpowder from leaking.

Obviously, these two points were contradictory to each other: the greater the opening, the faster the leakage of gunpowder. Yet if the opening was too small, it would become too difficult for the spark to ignite the gunpowder.

He needed something that would allow the spark to ignite the powder, while at the same time blocking the hole, to prevent the leakage of gunpowder.

Roland's first thought was nitrocotton, also known as guncotton.

It was one of the few chemicals which he still remembered that could be used for weapons because it had such a simple production method: the cotton just had to be soaked in two strong acids. The two acids it used were the commonly available sulfuric acid and nitric acid, and there would be no danger involved in producing them. Even though he had wanted to wait for the hopefully soon, arriving alchemist, he now had a deadline of seven days. It was time to roll up his sleeves and get to work.

Taking the quill, Roland began to write down his long-standing idea on draft paper.

The first ingredient he needed was cotton, and the best cotton was yarn that had not been woven or dyed. It was exactly this kind that he had brought back with him from his visit to Duke Ryan's castle, and was now also piling up in his warehouse. The cotton yarn needed to be skimmed. Otherwise the grease attached to its surface would prevent the nitrification. He was already familiar with the material required for removing the oil, which was sodium hydroxide, also known as lye or caustic soda. It was also one of the raw materials needed for making soap. To produce soap, one had to add fat to caustic soda, and then stir it until it became solid. Afterward it could be used as washing soap. But Roland had been too busy developing industrial and agricultural technology and defending Border Town against foreign enemies. He had not found any time to invent this kind of daily necessity yet.

As for how to prepare sodium hydroxide, the simplest method was probably to electrolyze salt water. So the prince found that in order to build a new bullet, the first thing he had to develop was a DC generator.

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

Ashes walked along Redwater River, feeling somewhat depressed.

Since the other witches now knew that she had come to Border Town to take the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association away, their attitude towards her had cooled down considerably. There was no longer any of the warmth she had received last night.

Moreover, she noted that most of the witches practiced their ability in the castle backyard. Roland had also found the way to avoid suffering the demonic bite. Originally Ashes had wanted to use this vital piece of intelligence to show her goodwill toward the other witches, but that plan had been unexpectedly shattered right from the beginning. She had nearly nothing else left to persuade them to move.

What surprised Ashes the most was Roland Wimbledon. His appearance had not changed much, but there was an indescribable temperament in his gestures, very different from his previous image as a dandy.

How could this be? Previously, he had been fairly incompetent. When he was in trouble the first thing for him would be to escape, he had never stood up for others, and even if a problem was clearly caused by him, he had been afraid to take on any responsibility. That time when he had thought about harassing her, she only needed to throw him a hateful look, to make him fall to the ground in panic. But she had later heard from Tilly, that he had claimed that he had fallen by accident, and that Princess Tilly was at fault for having such an ugly woman as her personal guard?

Since then, Ashes' impression of Prince Roland had fallen to the lowest possible ranking.

Previously she had believed that such a type of person would be easy for her to handle, but during today's negotiation she had failed to gain the upper hand. Especially after he suggested a one-on-one duel, she discovered that her threat of using military force would not work, since he had not thought about escaping. Instead, it might even have had the complete opposite effect. Threatening him personally had also reduced the other witches positive impressions on her.

Ashes sighed. If she could be as smart as Tilly, every problem that appeared before her could be easily solved. If Tilly were faced with a situation like this, she would surely have been able to come up with a solution, right? If she had not wanted to help Tilly as much as possible, Ashes would have taken the next ship heading to Port of Clearwater and left the Kingdom of Graycastle as soon as possible.

Unconsciously, she found herself outside the town. On the other side of the river, there was no longer a lush wheat field, but instead unclaimed woodland.

When Ashes was ready to turn back, she suddenly felt the fluctuation of magic power behind her. Subconsciously turning her head, she saw a dagger coming directly towards her cheek, slicing horizontally. The magic power fluctuation had transformed into surging waves, and Ashes suddenly felt a piercing pain in her cheek. The other person's systematic and coherent skills were clearly nothing one could expect from an ordinary person. Ashes no longer hesitated. Putting aside her passive attitude, she concentrated on avoiding the dagger. She put all her strength on one foot and jumped out of the way.

Her opponent disappeared into thin air, and then appeared behind her within a blink of an eye. Ashes was totally unable to follow her opponent's movement.

She drew her giant sword and rotated quickly, creating a dull roaring sound. Dust rose up from the ground. She launched an all-directional attack with her sword but the enemy evaded. In front of this unknown enemy, even this trick attack of hers ended in complete failure. When her sword swept through the attacker's vanishing position, it encountered nothing.

"This is terrible," she thought. Every muscle in her body became tight, and she was ready to encounter the next round of attacks, but then the shadow disappeared in front of her. Dust settled slowly, and the person again appeared near Ashes, playing with the dagger she held in her hand.

It was Nightingale.

"Is this a warning?" Ashes asked, frowning.

"Of course not," Nightingale said, putting her dagger back on her waist. "I just wanted to see the strength of an Extraordinary."

"Really? I thought that you wanted to say..."

"Do you think I would force you into leaving Border Town so quickly, or otherwise be rude to you?" Nightingale interrupted her. "If that was the case, there would be no difference between Cara and me."

Cara? Why would she mention the former leader of the Witch Cooperation Association? Ashes was confused.

"You can rest assured that I won't hinder you from approaching any of my sisters. If anyone is willing to leave with you, I don't think His Royal Highness will stop you. I certainly won't. But..." Nightingale paused. "If you threaten to hurt His Highness, I guarantee you that next time I won't be deliberately stabbing the air beside you." Here she grinned and then disappeared into thin air. "Enjoy your time in Border Town."

Sure enough, it was a warning. Ashes shook her head.

Chapter 161 - Alchemy and Chemistry

Roland had known from his childhood experience back in the modern world, that DC generators were simple machines working on simple principles. He had disassembled a dozen of motors from his four-wheel-drive toy cars, including both ordinary whiteboard motors and legendarily high-performance Jinchaoba motors, and he had wound rotor copper wires by hand... All of them had been typical DC motors.

Based on his knowledge, DC motors had the same structure as DC generators, and they were basically the same thing. A DC motor, added a mechanism for driving its motor rotor, could double as a DC generator. The rotor, namely the conductor, constantly rotating inside a magnetic field and cutting the magnetic lines, would cause electric current to flow.

With the help of Mystery Moon and Anna, Roland spent only half a day building a simple DC motor in an easy, quick way. Besides the metal rotor part, he made a stator out of wood simply by asking Mystery Moon to add magnetism to it and chose a section of a log for commutator base. He embedded motor commutating segments into the log where there was a hole allowing itself to be connected to the rotor of a steam engine. Such formation was convenient to be built and ensured that segments were insulated from each other.

After that, it was Anna's job to make the new type steam engine. Roland and Mystery Moon just stood by, watching her wondrous skills. Every time she needed to make large machine parts, she would start up by spreading her Blackfire to wrap up a pile of iron ingots. She would burn and melt them first, and then she would squeeze the Blackfire to press the metal into plates with demanded sizes. In the end, she would cut the parts she wanted out of those plates.

The next day, when Roland was going to test the generator in the calcination room, his guard brought him a piece of exciting good news. The Chief Alchemist of Redwater City's alchemical workshop had arrived at Border Town, with lots of people following him.

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

After reading Roland's letter at the night, Kyle Sichi had made up his mind to leave for Border Town. The very next day afternoon, he had boarded a merchant ship to the town with his family and a dozen of his students. Unfortunately, Chavez, his best student, had refused to join him after a long period of hesitation.

Kyle had not leaked the content of the letter to the other alchemists, as the more alchemists knew about it, the more delayed his departure would be. He had also worried about the duke. Hearing the news about the success of crystal glass, he must want to hold the lucrative luxury goods business firmly in his own hands and stop him from leaving the city.

As payback for the duke's generous investment in building the alchemical workshop, Kyle had left a parchment recording the formula and firing process of crystal glass in his drawer in the workshop. He had been so eager to find out those alchemical answers in Border Town that neither crystal glass nor alchemical workshop had been able to stop him.

Five days later, Kyle finally met Roland Wimbledon, the Lord of Border Town and the one who had written the letter to him.

In a reception hall of the lord's castle, Kyle bowed to Roland and then hurriedly opened his mouth to make a request as soon as he sat down. "Your Highness, if you don't mind, I'd like very much to meet and talk with your alchemists."

"My alchemists? There're no alchemists in Border Town before your arrival. But now, you're my alchemist," Roland chuckled and said.

"You mean... those alchemical equations were written by you?" Kyle directly neglected the prince's last sentence and turned a little pale. At the moment, another possibility struck him. [Prince Roland must have learned those alchemical things from his court mentors. Given that the prince knew that much, the Alchemist Workshop of the king's city must have already mastered the rules of alchemy. If that's true, it would be ridiculous to say that I wish to be ranked above them.]

"Well, not exactly. Those equations are recorded in ancient books which are over 400 years old. I just happened to find them. This knowledge seems to be called 'chemistry' at that time," Roland answered.

"Che-Chemistry?" Kyle felt much relieved, hearing that those equations were not written by the Alchemist Workshop of the king's city, but he was still shocked at the prince's reply. He wondered who had written those books 400 years ago, as even the king's city's Alchemist Workshop only had a history of nearly 200 years. He also found it hard to believe that the alchemists now knew even less than their predecessors.

"Yes. The authors suggested a hypothesis in their books, dubbed mass conservation law. The substances forming the world never disappear or increase. Instead, they only transform from one type to another. Take this piece of cake as an example." Roland pointed to the cake on the long table and continued, "When you eat it, part of it'll be absorbed by your body and the rest of it will be excreted. The mass of what you absorb plus the mass of what you excrete equals the mass of the original cake."

"Wait... Your Highness." After a thought, Kyle continued, "If I burn a piece of wood into ashes, no matter how to weigh, the weight of the ashes will be lighter than that of the wood. If the substances never disappear, where's the missing substances?"

"The books explained it, too. The missing weight is substances that become gas and vapor during the burning. The residue left behind is the ashes you can see," Roland explained with a smile.

"Gas?" Kyle caught a sudden inspiration in his mind and asked, "does the air have weight?"

"Of course, each matter has a mass." The prince nodded and continued to explain, "It's easy to prove this point. You can put some sawdust in a bottle and cork up it. Weigh the bottle on a scale. After the scale balances, burn the sawdust inside. You'll see the scale remain balancing finally, as the gas and vapor can't escape from the bottle. All the mass is still inside of it."

"That's... also recorded in the ancient books? Could you please let me read those books?" Kyle anxiously asked.

"Yes, as long as you can promise me a few things," Roland said while spreading his hands.

"Please, go ahead."

"First, you have to work for me. You'll be paid as much as you were in the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City. Second, once you accept the job, you need to comply with my confidentiality regulations. That means that you can't disclose any details of your work to the other alchemists. Third, if you agree to work for me, we'll sign a five-year contract. Five years later, you can choose to stay or leave. Besides, you're no longer subject to confidentiality clauses and are able to show your work results to the other alchemists and alchemists guilds. Accordingly, if you accept these three conditions, Border Town will provide you a house and a chemical laboratory, and I'll lend you the book, 'Elementary Chemistry'. If you find something in the book difficult to understand, you can come to ask me."

Kyle thought, [Those conditions sound not harsh, except for some awkward terms like confidentiality regulations and chemical laboratories. But it isn't hard to understand the general meaning. Five years isn't too long. I thought the lord was going to ask me to stay in Border Town forever.]

In fact, Kyle was so determined and eager to read the book about the essence of alchemy that he was ready to accept any harsh terms.

Thinking of these, Kyle rose and slightly bent forward, saying, "Your Highness, I'm at your service."

The prince did not seem to care much about etiquette, either and directly said, "Good, that's it. Your workplace is by Redwater River. After we sign the contract, I'll show you the laboratory and introduce the usage of the glassware and its operation regulations to you, and then you'll know how to work in the lab."

Hearing that, the chief alchemist could not help wondering why the prince sounded so skillful and confident while talking about alchemy after he was a common noble who just happened to read something in an ancient book. Knowing it was not yet the time to think about this, Kyle neglected his doubts and asked, "Your Highness, what you need me to make for you?"

"Yes, an acid solution with a high concentration. Produce as much as you can," the Prince replied.

Chapter 162 - The Pistol Drills

"Liar," Nightingale said when she went back to the office with Roland after the meeting with the alchemist. "There aren't any 450-year-old ancient books. Was it not you who wrote Elementary Chemistry and asked Scroll to memorize the textbook? Didn't you intend that the book become part of teaching materials for subjects sooner or later?"

"It's a white lie." Before Roland continued to explain this to Nightingale, he picked up his cup to sip his tea. After the merchant from the king's city, Margaret, had presented him with a packet of black tea, he had happily said goodbye to those days with only plain boiled water and ale to drink. "How else could I explain to him that a prince living in a palace knows that much about alchemy? If there were a prince like that, he would have learned everything from the alchemists of the king's city. Giving him a book to study by himself is more fitting, compared to learning the knowledge directly from me. After all, like everyone else, he would trust himself the most."

"Oh?" Nightingale suddenly leaned forward to get close to Roland. "Then who was your teacher, really?"

"Um..." The moment Roland opened his mouth, Nightingale pressed a finger against his lips and said, "If you don't want to tell me, don't say anything. I don't want to hear you lie."

Roland blinked his eyes as a promise, and Nightingale took back her hand.

"There're only five days before the planned duel." Roland took this opportunity to change a topic. "It's time to let Carter get familiar with the new weapon."

"But you said that there was an ammunition problem."

"The guncotton problem will only cause inconvenience in battles. It's just a match. He doesn't need to think about ammunition transportation or reloading problems. He can shoot at least one round with each gun. 10 shots will be enough for us to test the new weapons," Roland said. Actually, a lack of guncotton might also bring down the hit rate of the weapon, but Roland chose to leave that to luck and Carter.

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

Out of the town, a site to the west of the city wall was chosen for drills before the duel.

Carter arrived at the former explosive trial blasting site to accept the new task from Roland.

"Fight against a witch? Could I wear God's Stone of Retaliation?" The chief knight asked, stunned after hearing the task.

"Of course, but you're going to fight against a special witch. She won't be affected by God's Stone of Retaliation and she fights with a large sword, similar to a knight," said Roland, smiling.

"You mean, she's a witch who's excellent at close combat skills?" Carter asked while glancing at Nightingale, who was standing beside Roland.

"Something likes that. Her ability is to strengthen herself, so she's more powerful and faster than ordinary people. You have to be well prepared. Her physical strength is several times greater than that of the drugged death row convicts during the test on pills." Roland said.

"Several times greater... Your Highness, do you know what that means?" Carter widened his eyes. "I may not be able to react, even if I do see her moves. If she's really that powerful, I'm afraid that I can't defeat her."

"Theoretically speaking, you have no chance of winning the duel." The prince gave Carter a strange-looking firearm and continued, "But this thing will greatly increase your winning probability."

"Is this... a new type of flintlock?" Carter received the weapon with both hands and asked. The knight thought it must be something like a flintlock, as it had similar trigger and barrel. Smaller as it was, it weighed heavily on his hand and could have even been heavier than a flintlock. The most striking feature of this new weapon was that it was completely made of metal, except for the wooden handle. Carter found it hard to describe in words the aesthetic feeling aroused by the weapon's smooth lines and corners and its offwhite metallic luster.

He loved this new weapon the moment he saw it.

"It's called revolver." Roland took out another similar weapon and flipped a honeycomb-like revolver out of the left side of the gun. "Now, I'll teach you how to use it."

Soon, Carter found out that it was actually easier to operate than a flintlock. As its bullets and gunpowder were fully connected to each other, he could directly embed them into its revolver to fire. As there were together five holes in the revolver, he could shoot five shots after each reloading. He thought this might be the reason for which the weapon was called revolver. On the other side of the revolver, there was a little hole opposite to the runner. Sparks could be seen flying out of this hole when he pulled the trigger, during which he could hear the sounds of friction. He guessed that it might have flint inside. What impressed him the most was the bullets. Their light golden, streamlined shells seemed to be made of a thin copper layer. He could not see any gap on the smooth surface. Each bullet was pointed on one end, with the opposite end thick as his index finger. They precisely fit into the hole in the revolver. Amazed by the design, he wondered how could such delicate things be manufactured.

"This one isn't a finished product yet. You have to pay attention to the opened parts in the bottom of the bullets. Point slightly downward to prevent the gunpowder from leaking out, like I'm doing now. Remember to clean the cartridge in the runner after each round of shooting, just in case there's some gunpowder left in the holes," Roland said while performing the demo.

"It's not a finished product?"

"That's correct." The prince shrugged. "We're stilling working on a key technology. If everything goes smoothly, you may be able to use the finished product for the duel. When that happens, you won't have to worry about the leaking problem anymore, as bullets will no longer have openings on the bottom. Now, let's begin our target practice."

[How will the gunpowder inside the bullet shell be ignited if there's no opening in the bottom?] Carter felt confused, but he quickly decided to let it be. He knew that he would never think of the right answer to such a difficult question, as he was not a brilliant man of wide learning like His Highness.

[His Highness is really knowledgeable.] Carter now harbored immense respect for the versatile prince. Among all the court mentors, alchemy masters, and astrologers he knew, he was unable to find anyone so capable of inventing so many strange but highly practical things like His Highness. The steam engine he created had been put to use in the mines, transporting ores and drawing water. Even his flintlocks and cannons had defeated demonic beasts and Duke Ryan's Coalition. By contrast, the other inventions, such as snow powder and the manned kites which had ended up being nobles' toys were so impractical. Carter firmly believed that Roland Wimbledon would eventually sit on the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

The human body shaped target 15 meters away looked only as big as his palm. Following the prince's instructions, Carter turned his upper body slightly to one side to precisely aim the revolver at the target and pulled the trigger.

Smoke and several sparks gushed out from both sides of the revolver and deafening sounds caused a pain in his ears. He felt as if he was being pushed firmly back by someone. His wrists were thrown up uncontrollably by the strong knock-back. However, after the smoke of gunpowder vanished, the target still remained intact.

"Go on," Roland said.

Carter took a deep breath and then shot the remaining bullets, but none of the four shots hit the target.

"This is..." Carter looked at His Highness who did not seem to care very much about the results.

"A pistol can never compete with a rifle when it comes to shooting range and accuracy because of its short barrel. It's not a very strange thing to miss the target when shooting a pistol. Its caliber is nearly 12mm, so its knock-back is much stronger than that of a flintlock." Carter felt that Roland's explanations were hard to follow. "To put it simply, just keep practicing following the steps I taught you until you can hit the target in all the five shots. This is the only way for you to win the duel. By the way... remember to collect all the shells. They can be refilled and reused many times."

Chapter 163 - The Witch Maggie

Ashes sat on top of the castle, waiting for the day of the duel.

These days she had no progress with her proposals. The witches of the Witch Cooperation were much more stubborn than expected. Whether it came to the aged Scroll or the underaged Lily, all of her invitations were refused. The only difference was the way that she was rejected.

Some witches stayed because of Roland, and some decided not to part with the sisters of the Witches Cooperation Association, resulting in a tight-knit group of 10 witches. She had even less will to try at Anna and Nana, the original witches from Border Town. Ashes felt that the magic power of these witches was different somehow, especially Anna's. Standing in front of her, Ashes could feel that her magic power was hard as steel, smooth and dense, standing between them like an iron wall.

Among the many witches gathered by Tilly, there had been no other witch that made her feel this way. When she asked other witches here about it, they stated that Anna's ability was to control flames, something rather typical. Why she felt that a real barrier existed in the magic power of those invisible flames, Ashes had not a clue.

The town was also different than the other towns and villages she had seen before. To say it simply, there was a greater vitality. People seemed to have endless activities each and every day.

From the top of the castle, she had a panoramic view of the entire town. The most crowded area in the center of the town was where new houses were being built. They had split the whole area into small districts, with the houses of each district looking mostly alike. Horse-led carriages were continuously transporting bricks from the north. Masons first dug a dozen or so similar looking pits and then began to build a brick foundation. This construction was surprisingly fast, and in about a day the foundation would be approximately half the height of a man.

And when Ashes looked to the northeast smoke billowed up into the sky, it was not a result of a forest fire, but because of the work at the brick kiln. There were also a number of sturdy brick towers that had been erected. At first glance, they seemed like piles of lumber from giant red trees.

On the side of the riverside pier, groups of sailing ships arrived at Border Town daily. From looking at the banners hanging on the masts a majority of the ships had come from Longsong Stronghold. The goods unloaded from the ship almost filled the yard, and around the area guards patrolled holding wooden spears. Unlike most cities' garrisons, they were not alternating between lazy walking and resting, nor were they simply looking for a place to hide and take a nap. Rather, they paced between the pier and the yard, keeping always in a straight line. Sometimes they would also stop to help unload goods from the ships, which was something that Ashes could not recall having ever seen the likes of before.

[Just what sort of magic power does Roland Wimbledon possess that he can create such enthusiasm in his subjects as they build up this desolate and barren town?] Ashes wondered.

At that moment, the coo of a bird was heard above Ashes' head. She raised her head and saw a fat pigeon fly down from the sky and land on her shoulder.

"I finally found you, coo." The pigeon rubbed her cheek.

"Did Tilly send you?" Ashes took some wheat out of her pocket and tossed it onto the roof.

The pigeon fluttered past her when it seemed like it suddenly remembered something. "I'm not a bird, coo!"

"Then just change into a person and then talk to me."

"Fine, coo." The voice faded and then the pigeon's feathers suddenly swelled out, a white light shining between the gaps in the feathers. After that, the swollen feathers quickly contracted, changing into long, white hair.

No matter how many times Ashes saw this, she was always amazed. Maggie could change into a variety of birds. Besides the fact that she was a big fat ball in her transformed state, Ashes thought that the ability was nonetheless wonderful. There were times when Ashes would envy Maggie's ability and wished that she had it rather than being an extraordinary with the power of not fearing God's Stone of Retaliation. She would rather be able to travel quickly between two places. That way, each time she wanted to see Tilly, she could just leave and do so.

"Even though you have the tracking sigil, you were not easy to find." Maggie shook the sticky fluff off of her body. "You were so far away that my magic stone could not receive the sigil's fluctuations. Fortunately, Shadow knew your approximate location, and as I passed over Fallen Dragon Ridge, I got a bit of a response from the stone."

Other than Maggie's iconic white hair, her most particular attribute was her height. Despite it being clear that she was an adult, she barely came up to Ashes' waist and had the appearance of a young girl. When her white hair flowed freely, it nearly covered her whole body.

"Has Tilly safely arrived at the Fjords?" Ashes sat down and patted the shingles beside her. Maggie scooted over in a manner similar to that of a bird.

"She had the safe travel on the Empress, but the second ship was hit by a strong north wind and crashed into the reef. Luckily, no witches were lost. The third and fourth ships are still at sea. I flew over them when I came looking for you."

"Then that's good." Ashes was relieved. Even though the face of His Highness was abominable, what he said had not been wrong, and the passage from Kingdom of Graycastle to the Fjords was indeed dangerous. The climate of the sea was much swifter and more violent than that on land, and the good weather of a beautiful blue sky could turn into a storm in the blink of an eye. In those overwhelming waves, even her extraordinary magic power seemed insignificant.

Maggie stated, "Your rhetoric is all the same. Shadow said that you didn't go back with her because you wanted to go to Border Town to win over more witches. Rather than questioning the situation, the first thing that Lady Tilly said was 'That's fine'." She paused and looked around. "The companions, where are they?"

"They didn't want to leave," Ashes said, sighing. She proceeded to summarize what had happened. "They trusted their lord more than they did me. Furthermore, he's Tilly's older brother."

"Lady Tilly is willing to accept us, so is her brother... Well, then it seems that there's nothing wrong, coo. That's why you should set out for the Fjord early. Without your help, Lady Tilly will have no way to enact the cleansing plan," Maggie said.

Ashes shook her head. "I'll leave only after the duel."

"But you just said, even if you win, the lord won't ask the witches to leave with you, right?" Maggie muttered, "Even with that you want to complete the duel?"

"If there's even a chance, I'd like to try," Ashes said, calmly. "It's not a big deal to delay the cleansing plan for a few days, but if I can convince even one witch to come back with me, Tilly's power will grow greatly."

"Alright, then I'll wait here to return together with you. However, there's one more thing. When crossing Fallen Dragon Bridge, I saw a group of about 10 people carrying the church's banner," said Maggie.

"That's not too many... with that flag, it's probably a diplomatic envoy." Ashes snorted coldly. "I don't believe there's any place around here that the church would send envoys to other than Border Town. Their nose is as sharp as a dog's. But fine, wait until I beat the knight to the ground. After that, I'll tell Roland Wimbledon the news about them. By then, he'll know just how wrong he is."

Chapter 164 - Acid Preparation

Kyle Sichi had few nights of sleep for several days. He discovered that coming to Border Town was the best choice he had made in his life.

He spent two days and one night reading through the book of Elementary Chemistry. He could be fully resurrected by only four or six hours of sleep. At the moment, he had gone back to the first page and started pouring over this ancient book.

The substance is composed of tiny particles. The change of substance is the process of decomposition and restructuring of the tiny particles. The total amount of the substance remains unchanged in the reaction process.

"Oh my god! What a great writer! One should describe the world that was invisible to the people so clearly." He had suspected more than once that what the book recorded was total bullshit. However, the final result actually stood up to the alchemy test based on the recorded formula. Besides, some examples in daily life also proved that what the book said could still hold water.

An example would be the "oxygen" that was described in the first chapter.

It was the main component of the air. People breathed oxygen, not air. Combustion must be in need of oxygen, given that the essence of combustion was a kind of oxidation reaction. The more oxygen was taken in, the more vigorous it burned.

The wording reminded him of the glass kiln in Redwater City— the air blower that was continuously swung by two people could make the temperature in the furnace rise up to the melting point of gravel. As a kind of substance, the pure oxygen could be extracted through alchemy... no, by chemical reaction. "Could the air-blowing equipment be saved if the furnace got oxygen?"

And, what made him surprised was, according to the book, that the water should be composed of two hydrogen particles and one oxygen particle, which was also ascribed to why all creatures needed to drink water. However, the hydrogen seemed to be a kind of gas. He wondered how it was done by mixing up two sorts of gases into a kind of liquid.

Kyle found he had many questions to think over. But what he could make sure of was that he had surpassed all the alchemists, as they were still on the way to explore the formula. He, however, had set foot on an easy path.

He needed to get down to his business. Kyle closed his book reluctantly. It was time to work as the day broke.

He blew out the candle, walked into the bedroom to see his sleeping wife and daughter, and then left home without making noise.

The residence His Highness enfeoffed him was located in the west of the castle, which was far larger than his house in Redwater City, and had walls constructed of bricks. It was a lot more comfortable compared to the wooden-made houses that easily got mildew. Life facilities were all available in all varieties. He was very satisfied with such arrangements even though he did not speak about it. Apprentices lived in another community two streets away from his residence. Their houses were smaller than that of Kyle's and they did not live by themselves, but four people shared one bedroom, seemingly like the layout of hotels.

Apprentices were busy with their work when he got to the chemical laboratory along the bank of Redwater River. They were carefully selected by Kyle and had almost learned to rinse materials in the alchemical workshop in their childhood. They were in between their 20s and 30s now. He satisfactorily nodded when he saw the clean laboratory and glittering glass containers.

"Good morning, Respected Chief Mentor." When the apprentices saw Kyle enter, they immediately bowed.

"Let's start," he said, taking a pair of gloves to wear, which were light, thin, and elastic. It was likely that the gloves were sewed up with animal tharm. There were no such regulations in alchemical workshop long before, but His Highness Roland had repeatedly emphasized the danger of chemical experiments. He had stipulated that the experimenters had to wear gloves and open the window during experiments that touched upon corrosive material reaction.

Their work now was totally different from that in the alchemical workshop. All they were doing was to prepare acid fluid for His Highness. They had operated the acid preparation several times with two varieties of stones. Therefore, Kyle could just look around and give instruction to apprentices instead of doing experiments in person.

The details of sulfuric acid and nitric acid were recorded in the book Elementary Chemistry. Kyle was accustomed to naming the products by the raw material. For example, the former was called green alum while the latter was named saltpeter. The preparation methods of these two kinds of acids were the same, even though they were different in names. The acid vapor was obtained by destructive distillation of green alum and saltpeter, and then collected acid fluid by congealing the acid vapor. Green alum was usually associated with sulfur mines, while saltpeter was the common raw material which could be produced in the exclusive saltpeter preparation pool in the big city.

His Highness, however, stressed that the two varieties of acids must be of high concentration, and he had specially explained the method of purification.

For instance, after collecting the sulfuric acid, the moisture could be evaporated by heating, and 80% or 90% of concentrated sulfuric acid could be finally prepared. However, the preparation of nitric acid was much more troublesome. It was said by His Highness Roland that the sulfuric acid fluid itself was not stable, and easy to volatilize. It would even decompose if exposed to the light when it reached a certain concentration. Therefore, the diluted nitric acid from destructive distillation had to mix up with concentrated sulfuric acid to heat, which could absorb the moisture. The nitric acid that evaporated was stored in a brown glass bottle. A thermometer was intentionally prepared by His Highness for the preparation of nitric acid.

Kyle felt it was like a marvelous creation at first glance—mercury was loaded up within a hollow glass tube, and there was no need to worry about the leaking of mercury because both ends of the glass tube were sealed. Several rings of painting lines served as the scale, and where the mercury stopped to rise would represent the current temperature when the mercury was heated.

Currently, three bottles of concentrated sulfuric acid and one bottle of nitric acid had been prepared. He found that sulfuric acid was not prone to flowing like water under such a concentration. It was much more like viscous oil. Nitric acid was no longer colorless and transparent but changed into a faint yellow. As long as the bottle cap was opened, a burst of white smoke would emit.

"Respected Mentor, should we prepare these two varieties of acid fluid every day?" an apprentice named Amon asked.

"Until His Highness assigns a new task." Kyle paused and asked, "So, are you worried that you have no time to explore the alchemy formula?"

Amon nodded.

"I forgot to tell you that the title of alchemist would not be in use later, so you don't need to rely on exploring formula to become an alchemist," Kyle smiled and said, with his hands touching his stubble.

"No... You mean, not in use?" Amon was shocked. Other apprentices also slowed down the pace of work and listened to what the mentor would say next.

"Yes, the alchemy formula no longer needs to be researched and explored, as you'll rely on memorizing and deduction," said Kyle, as he clapped his hands to gather the apprentices around him. "His Highness Roland gave me a book named Elementary Chemistry. This is also why I brought you here. Most of the alchemy formulas can be deduced from the content of that book if it's studied thoroughly."

"Be deduced?" said the shocked apprentices.

"Yes, it's true. I'll teach you after I learn it carefully and digest it. His Highness also mentioned about the evolution method. You can only be conferred with the title of chemist after passing the test he arranged personally. I believe this title of honor will outmatch that of the alchemist. Even in the Alchemist Workshop in the king's city, it's impossible for them to obtain more knowledge than you," he said.

Chapter 165 - The Chase

Lightning traveled back and forth between Border Town and the southern hills, holding a parchment in her hands that was slowly nearing completion.

This was her newly received task. Together with Soraya, she had to draw a map of the Western Region.

Flying together with Soraya, her altitude was significantly reduced, making it difficult to fly over the forest. So she would first paint a rough outline of the topography, and later Soraya would draw a more exact picture. By using her magic pen, the map looked like an aerial view, every detail seemed to come to life.

Lightning planned to go back to Border Town after the parchment was filled in. Several months of practicing had made her flying much faster. His Highness Roland calculated that Lightening could fly 120 kilometers per hour at full speed. At this speed, any incoming strong wind made it nearly impossible for her to open her eyes.

She had thought that it was all she could do. However, the day before yesterday, His Highness had given her a gift, a headband made of leather, with two copper rings in the middle and transparent glass embedded into the copper rings. As long as she wore the headband, she was immune to the incoming wind.

His Highness called it wind-proof glass, and it was made when firing some glassware. He had said she looked like a little Ezreal when she wore it. Lightning did not know who Ezreal was, but she understood that it took a lot of time to join the copper rings and glass lenses. The complete piece of leather had a double-layered structure so that it could wrap itself tightly around the inset copper rings. There was no need to worry about scratching her skin. The buckle was also designed to adjust the tightness. Anyhow, it was not something that had been just casually made.

She liked the gift instantly and wore it on her head. Even when she was sleeping she also wore it. She could fly as fast as she wanted now, regardless of the howling wind around her. As long as she wore the wind-proof glass.

Lightning reached the small town soon, and when she would fly back to the castle to give Soraya the map, a pale figure suddenly swept past the corner of her eye. She turned, only to find a pigeon flying toward Longsong Stronghold. Pigeons were not rare, but this one was quite different. It was too fat and just the wings alone would be enough to satisfy her stomach for an entire day.

Lightning swallowed. She thought back to a time when she had still lived on the island and caught some flying fish and birds by hand, later roasting them over the fire. Now, living under the roof of His Highness, although the food was substantial, having to eat bread with butter and mushroom soup for months on end, the food had started to become somewhat tasteless to her. If she could catch a pigeon to roast… She touched the pack with salt and pepper fastened to her waist and made her decision.

Lightning adjusted her direction and flew directly toward the pigeon. The pigeon quickly noticed Lightning. It immediately folded its wings, and dove sharply downwards, seemingly wanting to hide in the woods, to rid itself of this menacing hunter.

Seeing this, Lighting was shocked, for she would never have thought a pigeon could be this clever. A few seconds later, a broad grin spread across her face. With a sudden turn, she followed the pigeon as it dove downwards. Since the Months of Demons had ended, the little girl had become confident that nothing could escape her.

The pigeon would skim the treetops for a moment, and then fly extremely low for a while, close to the ground. However, the distance between the two got closer and closer. No matter how fast it beat its wings, it could not throw off Lightning's pursuit.

The dense forest receded, and the sun shone occasionally through the branches, alternating patches of light and shade. Until finally they flew through an open area, with an expanse of brightness. Grabbing hold of this opportunity, Lightning brought her speed up to maximum, grabbing the pigeon from behind and tumbling to the ground.

No matter how hard she struggled, the pigeon could not escape. Lightning drew the knife from her waist and prepared to kill the prey. But at this moment, the pigeon said suddenly, "Stop... coo! Help... coo!"

The little girl's shock was so heavy that she almost tossed her knife away. But she quickly understood and asked, "Are you a witch?"

The Pigeon nodded repeatedly as an answer.

"And here I thought I could finally have a change in flavor." Lightning sighed in regret, putting her knife away. "I'm Lightning, what's your name?"

The pigeon swelled and magically changed into human form. "Maggie. How dare you try to eat this bird!" She complained.

"I've actually eaten many before." Lightning shrugged and reached out her hand to pull Maggie up. Suddenly, a bead rolled out from under her arm and bounced on the ground, finally falling into a pit. Lightning went to pick the bead up, wanting to return it to Maggie. She noticed that the red transparent bead was engraved with a string of strange runes and looked particularly familiar.

She frowned and thought for a moment, and then she grasped a string around her neck, and slowly pulled a dark red pendant from her chest. Placing them side by side, she discovered that the pattern on them was exactly the same.

"What?" Shocked, Maggie who was looking over her shoulder, asked, "You have a tracking sigil, too?"

"A tracking sigil? What's that?"

"You don't know what it is? It can respond to a magic stone, allowing the holder of the stone to locate your position," she paused and said, "No! I shouldn't have told you. Just now, you wanted to eat me!"

"Do you have such a magic stone?"

"Yes. No!" Maggie shook her head.

"So, you can track my position?" Lightning asked curiously.

"No, I can't. The magic stone can only track the corresponding sigil," she answered this time, "and only we witches can use it. If you don't know this already, how did you even get it?"

"My father gave it to me." Lightning returned the bead to Maggie and asked, "What about you?"

"It's a secret." Maggie made a face but then she stared curiously at the other girl. "You belong to the Witch Cooperation Association, don't you? Ashes said that you don't want to leave Border Town."

"You're on her side?" Lightning curled up her lips in disdain. "And here I thought you were a new witch, attracted by the rumor. We live a good life here. Why would we leave?"

""Because it's dangerous. The church could come with their army at any time."

"The explorer isn't frightened by potential dangers." She blushed when she mentioned this. The Stone Tower didn't count. It was only a matter of time before she would visit the ruin again, and by then she would be able to enter the basement. "Furthermore, His Highness Roland Wimbledon has several incredible inventions. Once you've seen them, you'll understand. One can turn a fist-sized ball into a weapon, and when someone is hit by it, they're torn to pieces."

"Really? Could you take me to see them?" Maggie exclaimed.

"No. You're not allowed unless you join the Witches Union and become one of us."

"But I have to go back with Ashes," Maggie said with hesitation

"Then you can come back later," Lightning continued her coaxing, "Here there're many interesting things. We have machines which move on their own using heated water, and there are also weapons that can attack enemies a kilometer away. Uh, are you asking how far a kilometer is? It's quite far, if you look at people from one kilometer away, and they'll seem to be about the size of a tree branch." She made many gestures with her hands and feet. "There're even more interesting places and things to do in Misty Forest. Things like poking honeycombs, gathering so many mushrooms that you couldn't even count them all, and hunting birds and wild boars which are even more interesting. They're delicious if you peel off their fur and roast them over a bonfire with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper."

"Really?" Maggie could not help licking her lips.

"Of course. Why should I lie to you?" Lightning hooked her arm around Maggie's shoulder. "How about hunting a bird and roasting it, right now!"

Chapter 166 - The Night before the Final Battle

Chapter 166 The Night before the Final Battle

On the promised fifth day, Roland finally finished preparing all the ingredients needed to produce guncotton.

He made a serious error during the electrolysis of the salt water. He used the copper strips Anna cut out as the electrodes, causing the electrodes to dissolve. He ended up wasting an entire pot of the salt water. Saturated brine was typically used to prevent the dissolution of chlorine in water during the electrolysis process, but salt in this era was not an inexpensive, everyday item. He felt like he was uselessly throwing away gold royals when discarding the contaminated salt water. He was finally able to solve the issue after using carbon rods as the electrodes.

He boiled the caustic soda with water to remove the grease. When he ended up with grease-free cotton gauzes, he brought the rest of the caustic soda to the chemistry lab.

The esterification of guncotton was the most important step of the process. Roland was not entirely sure of the theory, only that he needed to soak the gauze in acid and remove it after nitrification. He did not know anything about the acid ratio or reaction time. Roland told Kyle to form multiple teams to conduct the experiment. Hourglasses were used to control their timing. They repeatedly washed the gauze after soaking in acid, before soaking them again in sodium hydroxide solution. The wet gauzes were then taken to the castle for Wendy to dry.

They used concentrated nitric acid during the esterification, so most of the trial products were inflamed very quickly. Among them, the gauze soaked in the 1:2 ratio of nitric acid and sulfuric acid produced the best result. After obtaining a general prescription, the lab started the mass production of guncotton. After soaking and washing, the soldiers from the First Army took them away. Not even the chief alchemist knew the use of the guncotton they created.

The maids would cut the dried gauze into squares the size of a fingernail, where the gauzes were delivered to North Slope Mountain in boxes. They would end up in the backyard of the firing room. Without machines, these procedures had to be done by manpower. Seated scattered on the ground, the guards used wooden sticks to push the guncotton towards the bottom of the shell and seal the ignition hole. Black gunpowder was then poured into the shell with a funnel and compacted. They tried to make sure the amount of gunpowder in each shell was the same.

The last step was to force the bullets in. Anna's bullets were well-fitted with the shell. They only needed to push the bullets in with their hands and use a hammer to tap it lightly.

Despite the somewhat inefficient procedures, they could still produce hundreds of bullets within a day. On the sixth day, Carter tried the new weapon. As a competent chief knight, Carter's hit rate saw a dramatic improvement after a few days of continuous training. He performed much better than when he was undergoing Roland's rifle practice for his military training.

After the creation of bullets, Carter no longer had to hold the flintlock in an unnatural position with his wrist crooked downwards. As long as the guncotton remained intact, the cartridge would remain clean. Carter was a hundred times more sensitive to sparks than the black gunpowder, allowing him to fire accurately.

On the last day, Roland took advantage of the remaining time they had and made Carter Lannis practice quick gun-drawing and double-gun shot. The 12mm caliber pistol had a considerable recoil even when using black gunpowder. When the pistol was used with one hand, it was difficult to maintain the accuracy of the second shot. However, in Roland's plan, this was his last resort if Ashes attacked him in a close combat.

Carter would enter the battlefield with double pistols. In a long battle, 10 bullets would be enough to determine the outcome. If it became a close combat, he could use the other gun to fight back. Considering that the enemy was using defensive weapons, Roland chose rigid iron-made bullets to increase the penetrating power and lessen the cavity lethality at the same time. Due to the technology limitations of this era, it was likely that the giant sword Ashes owned was made out of cast iron. Its lavish appearance would not enhance its quality. The poor forgery of the huge iron weapon would instead cause imbalanced internal stress and would not make a good shield. In Roland's opinion, the giant sword would turn out to be a useless weapon. If his luck was not particularly bad, the possibility of her winning was pretty low.

If Ashes wanted to defeat Carter, she had to get close to the knight. This was the disadvantage of cold weapons compared to hot weapons. If the ability of Ashes was not as insane as being able to visualize the ballistic trajectory and dodge the bullets, she would have no chance to defeat Carter.

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

It was close to the evening when Ashes finally saw Maggie fly back to their room.

"Why are you back so late these days?" she asked, closing the window.

"Lightning took me to catch the birds." Maggie transformed back into her human shape and took out a roasted bird thigh. The room was full of the delicious smell. "I bought one for you too," said Maggie.

"I've already eaten." Ashes shook her head. "Is Lightning a witch of the Witch Cooperation Association?"

"Yes." Maggie nodded enthusiastically. "She has the same flying ability, but she's much more agile when using the ability." After a short pause, she asked, "Sister Ashes, must you have to fight this battle? I think... they wouldn't follow you. Their lives here are good."

Ashes was stunned, but she did not answer.

"Even I want to stay here." Maggie sat on the bed. "The bed is soft and the food is good. At lunch, I saw Prince Roland bringing his plate to the backyard and eating with the witches. Everyone seemed to have a good time. The prince would occasionally talk, too. He's totally different from those detestable nobles. Lightning took me to play Gwent in the afternoon. It's a game where two parties draw 10 cards each to compete. The one with the bigger number would win. It's really fun. They gave me two sets of the cards. Sister Ashes, do you want to play? I can teach you."

"No..." Ashes shook her head and took a deep breath. She noticed the change in Maggie. However, she did not realize she was mistaken until this moment.

Most witches lived their lives in fear and insecurity. A shelter for them to live in peace was all they coveted. Take Maggie for example. She had to hide in a cottage room in the slums of King's City before Tilly accepted her. Like a real bird, she squeezed herself into the narrow beams of the roof to pass each night. Even when Tilly decided to cross the ocean to the east, Maggie ran around to inform the witches hidden in the cities. She did not rest for half a year. It was probably the very first time she lived such a peaceful life.

Was it not the same for her? It was only after meeting Tilly that she began to experience a life she had never once imagine in the past. Ashes was used to the peaceful life in the palace, but she neglected the meaning of the small town to the witches. The sense of belonging was the most priceless thing for them. They wanted to stay here and protect the land just like how Ashes wanted to protect Tilly.

If Roland Wimbledon could indeed withstand the fanatical God's Punishment Army as he had said, then this place would be a better choice than the Fjord without question. It was tempting to establish the kingdom of witches in an unfamiliar place, but no one could predict how many more hardships would come.

But if he could not withstand the army, should the witches leave?

Her emotions suddenly calmed.

If she thought about it from another perspective, Ashes would still stand by Tilly and protect her even if Tilly could not keep a foothold in Fjords. Tilly was the person who granted a home to her. Ashes had no reason to leave her.

"This place is under the constant threat of the Church. If they could not withstand the God's Punishment Army, Border Town would be destroyed sooner or later."

There was no longer any need to insist on this battle anymore... But she still decided to do it anyway, whether for admonition or perhaps even proof.

"What if they could do it?" Maggie mumbled.

"I hope so. So I'll help them prove this," Ashes said in a low voice.

She closed her eyes and made the mental preparation to give it her all.

Chapter 167 - Victory or Defeat

The battle took place at the foot of the city wall of the Western Region.

Besides Roland, those who watched the duel was Iron Axe, Tigui, Brian, and members of the Witch Cooperation Association.

And a pigeon perched on the lookout tower.

Everyone had to climb up the city wall to watch to avoid the stray bullets. The two participants, Chief Knight Carter Lannis and Extraordinary Ashes, will have a one-to-one duel in an area near the city wall.

Instead of his usual knight costume, Carter wore a lightweight close-fitting leather suit with a custom holster belt around his waist. He had two revolvers on both sides of his waist, and a short dagger behind him for emergency purposes. But Roland knew that if Carter had to resort a dagger in fight against an Extraordinary, he might as well surrender.

Ashes was in her usual outfit, a long dark robe covering her entire body. She combed her long black hair into a ponytail, unconcerned about the weakness she had created for herself. The only difference was the wrapped strips of cloth on her giant sword was uncovered. The dark brown body of the sword was dull and had little shine. As per Roland's expectations, its surface was bumpy. It was not a well-made weapon. Due to the lack of maintenance, rust was beginning to form in the cracks on the sword.

The two of them walked into the duel field. Carter tried to adjust his position until he was 15 meters away from Ashes. He held a 80% chance to get an accurate shot from this distance. He took out two revolvers and checked the bullets and the muzzle.

Roland made Echo imitate and magnify his voice. "The rules are very simple. Don't make critical kills and you're allowed to surrender! As long as you don't die, Nana can heal you immediately. Any problems?" When he did not hear any disagreements about the rules after a moment of silence, he said, "When the clock rings, begin!"

Ashes observed her opponent. As an Extraordinary, she fought by listening to her instincts. She had learned combat skills from the master of the swordsmanship in the palace after she came under Tilly's care. She, however, felt those skills were superficial to her. Her opponent was Prince Roland's chief knight, but he did not carry any swords or spears, or even wear an armor. The weapons in his hands looked bizarre, too. Based on their shape, they could not be close combat weapon such as a dagger. The only possibility was a long-range strike weapon, something like a hand crossbow.

Crossbow bolts would not threaten Extraordinaries. Ashes learned that through numerous combats. If it was a crossbow bolt, she could even catch the flying bolt in her hand. However, noticing the prince's confidence, she believed that the weapon would not be as simple as a crossbow bolt.

Her instinct told her to approach the knight quickly, instead of waiting in the sidelines for the knight to strike. Before the duel started, Ashes sank the tip of her giant sword into the ground. Her posture seemed innocuous, but it was the best strategy to handle a crossbowman.

A string of clock chimes drifted from the city wall.

Ashes made her move at nearly the same time. She gripped the hilt of her sword with both hands and swung it fiercely at Carter. The soil, grass, and rocks were thrown at him, forming a smokescreen.

Chief Knight Carter reacted swiftly. A spark burst from his weapon and an astonishing roar followed. But Ashes saw nothing. Either Carter did not have any bolts or the bolts were so fast that she could not even see them. Compared to the stupid-sounding first speculation, she was inclined to believe the latter.

Under the protection of the smokescreen, Ashes struck from the side. Their distance was almost narrowed by half and the smokescreen had yet to fall. People would normally try to dodge the dirt. If she could interrupt Carter's shooting, she would most likely win.

But Carter did not move nor did he care about the dust on his face. He squinted, aimed at the Extraordinary, and pulled the trigger. The spark flashed along with the roar. Ashes instinctively dodged, but still did not see any bolts. She did not see him pulling the string either.

This new weapon could shoot in succession. However, under the situation where Carter had already missed two shots, the outcome was clear.

The last 10 steps of distance passed in a blink of time. She raised her giant sword in front of her and kicked the ground hard, striking at the knight. Such collision would not cause instant death, but it would be enough to knock him unconscious. Even if the knight could still stand through his strong resilience, the broken bones in his chest would make him lose any ability to fight. In the last minute, Carter's third strike exploded in front of Ashes. She felt her giant sword shake and make a crisp sound. The right side of her stomach felt a sudden numbness as if it was harshly scratched by something.

Almost at the same time, she smashed into Carter and knocked him into the air, where his body created an arc in the air before falling to the ground.

Only now did she have the time to check the wound on her waist. Just as she lowered her head, a strong sense of dizziness rushed to her head. Ashes stumbled and almost fell. The strength from her magic power left her like flowing water. Her limbs became unbelievably heavy.

Ashes used her sword to support her weight. The numbness on her wound became a burning sensation of pain. She felt like she lost a chunk of flesh on her waist. She could even see her bright red liver. She could only clench her teeth to not let herself collapse.

...

In Roland's eyes, the whole duel ended in five seconds. He saw the Extraordinary swing dirt towards Carter and strike him from the side at the same time. She changed direction once and smashed into the knight. Carter then fired three bullets before he was knocked upwards. That was out of Roland's expectations.

When facing an abnormally fast Ashes, it would be difficult for Roland to even trace her movements with his eyes. However, Carter was able to aim and shoot at her, proving that he deserved the title of Chief Knight. It was normal that he missed the first two shots. In fact, had Ashes kept switching directions at her speed, he could not have shot her at all. The key was the third shot. Ashes made a frontal strike with her sword blocking her chest in a short distance of six meters.

If it was a bolt, even a heavy one, it would at most hit the sword and not hurt the Extraordinary. However, the ammo with a 12mm diameter with an iron bullet head made an terrifying impact at such distance. At that time, Roland could only see black dust flying and the side of Ashes covered in blood. When she stood still, he noticed half of her waist was damaged, as if bitten by a demonic beast. Her intestines flew out and slid down her side. There was a bowl-sized hole in the sword. The bullet probably penetrated the sword, swirled into her stomach, and inflicted a huge wound.

Even heavily injured, Ashes did not faint and stood persistently. The physical fitness of an Extraordinary was astonishing. If they had used lead bullets or smaller bullets, Ashes would most likely survive them. Maggie ran toward Ashes and tried to hold her. However, she was so short she could only hold onto her leg, looking anxious.

Nana rushed to heal Carter, while Roland took quick steps toward Ashes.

This moment seemed to be what she was waiting for.

"I won..." Ashes collapsed into Roland as soon as she said these words, without giving him any chance to react.

Chapter 168 - Ashes' Past

"Go away! Filthy beggar!"

Someone pushed her forcibly, but she stood still. She watched as the other person staggered and backed up a bit.

The pompous expression on his face disappeared. He glared at her and left.

She continued moving through the crowd with indifference. The majority of people frowned and avoided her when they saw her ragged clothing.

There were swarms of people. Although the Inner City didn't have a traditional city wall and gate, people had constructed a symbolic entryway composed of wood and wreaths. Armored guards stood on both sides of the door. Their exquisite armor reflected a glaring light under the sun. The vivid eagle adornments, the embossed irises on their chests and the handsome visage of the knights, made all the girls shriek in excitement.

Their red velvet cloaks dragged all the way to the ground, resembling a red wall from afar. The magnificently dressed nobles separated the crowd and made an empty space behind the entryway.

The flags on the sidewalks were flowing in the air. Long strings of golden flags hung from the top of the flagpole, creating a sense of grandeur. The embroidered flags had different motifs. The most common was the high tower long spear. She knew that this pattern represented the royalty of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the host of today's ceremony.

Today was the coming-of-age ceremony for Princess Tilly Wimbledon.

A week prior, the advertisement for this ceremony had caused a joyous uproar. Everyone in the town knew about it. In addition to the local nobility of the Kingdom of Graycastle, there were a few ambassador groups from the other kingdoms. They all brought gifts and marriage proposals in the hope that they would gain the admiration of Princess Tilly and the Royal Family.

The church had sent a bishop to host the ceremony for Princess Tilly. The ceremony would be held in the Dawn Square in the center of the city. The royal family would distribute meat porridge and soup, this was the reason the ceremony had attracted such a large audience.

However, she had not come for food.

Her goal was the archbishop.

It would cast shame on the church if one of its archbishops was assassinated in front of everyone in the king's city. The sweet joy of retaliation gave her a strong sense of exhilaration. She touched her chest; there was a short knife that she'd stolen. Although the knife was of an inferior quality, it was enough to kill a common person.

There was a round of loud applause in the crowd that interrupted her thoughts. She looked toward the Inner City. The knightage was marching in organized alignment. The knights in the very front of the group looked glamorous with their red cloaks flowing behind them like dancing flames.

The carriage was drawn by four horses behind the knights. The emblems of the royal family of the Kingdom of Graycastle were ingrained on the sides of the carriage. The wheels and frames were painted gold. Bright red pennants fluttered in the wind on top of the car, and golden silks were hanging on the four corners. At a glance, the whole troop looked like a moving golden ocean.

The crowd started to move to the Dawn Square with the carriages. She entered the border of the square with the crowd. The soldiers had separated the inner part of the square. Only the nobility could watch the ceremony up close. She estimated that it would only take few seconds for her to rush into the square. As long as the archbishop entered the square, he would not be able to avoid her.

The people from the royal family started to jump off the carriage. The five children of King Wimbledon III were slowly walking toward the center of the ceremonial stage.

Among them she saw the Princess, Tilly Wimbledon.

Undoubtedly, Princess Tilly was the heroine of the day. There was a light shining in her eyes, crystal clear like a gemstone. Her tidy long gray hair was in a simple hairstyle, without any decoration. Her appearance was the most exceptional of her siblings; the patterns on her cloth were simple, stylish, and well-suited for her aura. Most incredibly, Princess Tilly cast her eyes straight onto her in the crowd. Then, Princess Tilly nodded as if greeting her and smiled lightly.

This was not a delusion. She felt the same sensation at that moment, a sense of intimacy as if they had known each other for years. Sweet and warm. This intimacy was not of blood, identity, or social status. It was from the resonance of magic power.

She released the handle of the knife that she was squeezing tightly and started to watch the girl on the stage quietly.

At the end of the ceremony, two guards found her. They wanted to take her to the palace.

If she chose to refuse, the guards would not be able to block her. However, she did not ask anything and followed the two guards to the Inner City, entering the glamorous palace through a narrow street.

In a secret chamber in the palace, she stood in front of Princess Tilly.

"I see."

"This is a truly unfortunate story. So, this is how you ended up here in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Don't worry. You don't have to wander around anymore. You shall accompany me hereafter"

"I'll do a proper makeover for you. I'll make sure that no one can recognize you."

"I investigated. The cloister was destroyed by a huge fire. All the children were missing. The entire building was left in ruins and ashes."

"Do you have a name?"

"Then, I shall call you Ashes."

…

Ashes opened her eyes. The first thing that came into view was Maggie's face.

Maggie blinked then rushed to hug her. "You finally woke up!"

Ashes tried to move her finger. She did not feel the expected powerlessness or numbness. She did not feel pain in her waist either.

"How long was I in a coma?"

"A whole afternoon," Maggie said, "Nana said I could wake you up as soon as she healed you, but that your body would be really tired. It was better to let you rest so that you would feel more energized when you woke up."

Ashes patted Maggie's head and slowly sat up on the bed. She lifted up her clothes and found that her waist was intact. The huge wound was like a nightmare that had disappeared upon waking.

"How did she heal me?"

"I don't think you want to know." Maggie pursed her lips. After she saw the insistence in Ashes' eyes, she explained, "They collected your scattered... umm, parts, and put the parts back into your stomach. Then Nana used magic power to restore the parts back to their original state. According to Lightning, the more parts that they collect, the faster she heals. If the limbs are all gone, Nana won't be able to regenerate new parts."

Ashes could feel the goosebumps breaking out over her skin. "Then the dirt and grass stains..."

"The dirty stuff was expelled when your wound was healed. Nana's power is able to differentiate between necessary parts and unnecessary parts."

Ashes was relieved. She got off the bed and tried to feel the power in her body. Just like Nana had said, after her long rest, Ashes did not feel any emaciation. Instead, she felt her power was even stronger than before.

Ashes put on her black cloak, looked at the color of the sky through the window and walked toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Maggie asked.

"To see Prince Roland," Ashes said without looking back.

Chapter 169 - The Farewell

In the office, Ashes met Roland Wimbledon again. He was buried in documents, writing. It seemed that he was handling some work. The sun was tilting to the west and the sky was painted with a touch of golden color. The sunlight came through the casement windows and lifted a long shadow before the table.

Ashes waited until the prince put down his quill before proclaiming, "I won."

"Absolutely, you won." Roland nodded without hesitation.

Such a straightforward attitude made Ashes feel a bit surprised. She'd thought that Roland was going to argue and had not expected that he would admit this result.

"However, I admit that you do have the power to fight against the God's Punishment Army," she said. "The God's Punishment Army isn't impervious to blades and spears. Their power and physical capabilities are similar to mine. However, they lack consciousness and also the ability to think. That's why I can handle three at one time. According to the previous contest, if the knight's opponent is God's Punishment Army, I believe they would attack with a frontal assault on the knight. The God's Punishment Army isn't able to have a single dispatch as the Judgement Army does. If what I assume is correct, the church needs to appoint someone to lead them."

"Thank you." Roland smiled. "This information is substantial."

"What was the new weapon in the knight's hand?"

"A running fire flintlock," he said, "From now on, all my soldiers will use this weapon. Even a farmer would be able to defeat a well-trained member of the Judgement Army using the flintlock."

Ashes hesitated. "Could you give me a flintlock?"

"Not unless you join the Witch Union." Roland shrugged. "This weapon is still fairly rare at this stage."

Roland's refusal was expected. Ashes breathed out and said, "I have to reunite with Tilly as soon as possible. Tomorrow at dawn, I'll leave Border Town. If you can't withstand anymore, you could move to the Fjords for sanctuary."

He nodded. "You too, don't forget to tell the news to my beloved sister that there's a place for the witches in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Ashes was silent for a moment. "I'll consider it."

When Ashes was just about to leave the office, the prince called her to stop. "Wait, I have a gift for you. It's right behind the door."

A gift?

She was dazed for a moment. She turned around and saw a huge sword near the door. It was blocked by the door so she hadn't noticed it when she walked into the office.

"Your original sword couldn't be used anymore. I asked Anna to make a new one for you. This sword isn't made out of inferior pig iron, it's made of pure steel."

The body of the huge sword was smooth and well-proportioned. It reflected an orangish glow under the light of sunset. She walked to it and gently touched the body of the sword. Its width was very well-balanced, and the side of the blade showed signs of the hardening process. Undoubtedly, this was a high-quality weapon. The only thing confusing Ashes was the style of the sword. Rather than having double blades, it was a single blade, and the other side was as wide as a little finger. The sword did not have a tip. Its top was in a trapezoid shape. The most bizarre part was the first section of the blade. A particular pattern was ingrained on the blade, and the unsharpened side had a round bump covered in gold. It would definitely catch everyone's attention.

Even though she did not want to show her affection to the new sword, she could not help but lift it up in admiration.

"Why is its appearance... so weird?"

"Because this isn't an ordinary weapon." Roland smiled. "Its name is the Messenger of Ashes. Compared to the plain sword that you had before, this is a legendary item."

Ashes decided not to inquire about the strange words that Roland was using. "Well then, I'll accept this gift. In return, I'll give you a gift too."

"Umm? What is it?" Roland asked curiously.

She did not answer and simply left the room.

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

The next morning, Roland opened the door and saw Nightingale sitting in front of the desk with a piece of dried fish in her mouth.

"They left."

"Both of them?"

"Yes," she answered in a sluggish tone. "They departed at dawn. Wendy accompanied them part of the way."

Roland was moved. Wendy was caring for every single sister, not to mention that this was the witch that at one time protected her from harm and indirectly helped her to leave the cloister. He'd thought that Wendy would have gone with Ashes. He had not expected that Wendy would refuse Ashes' invitation.

In the end, the Witch Union was still composed of 12 people. That truly motivated Roland.

"Do you believe that they'll tell the witches across the ocean about Border Town?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." He leaned against the chair and sighed. "However, if they meet insolvable hardships, they'll think of the Border Town."

Roland closed his eyes and started to search his mind for the memories that belonged to the prince.

He and Tilly were not close. Tilly had kept her distance from everyone, even King Wimbledon III. Aside from her exceptional appearance and intelligence, he did not have much information about Tilly in his mind.

Roland did not know when Princess Tilly had started to cover for witches or what she planned to develop in the Fjords. Nevertheless, since both of them planned to fight against the church at this stage, she would be a great alliance that he should strive for.

Sending Theo to spread the news was not a meaningless act. The awakening of a witch was totally random. Tilly would not be able to take away all the witches. Especially since the organization had retreated, the newly awakened witch would be in desperate need of finding sanctuary.

Since he'd gathered new information regarding the God's Punishment Army, the next thing that he needed to do was to expand the manufacture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

More efficient gunpowder and bombs were inseparable from nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Once the First Army replaced its weapons to the revolving rifles, gun-barrels with rifling and fixed loading bullets would drastically increase the accuracy of shooting. Therefore, training would be even more important. In this era without gun control, the skillful soldier would be able to fight 10 newbies. The consumption of bullets would be astonishingly high.

The black gunpowder would remain in the gun-barrel and block the rifling, decreasing the age of the gun-barrel. This problem could be solved by using the smokeless powder. The smokeless powder in its preliminary form was nitrocellulose, in the later stage it would be the mixture of glycerol and nitrocellulose. Right now, even the nitric acid that was used to soak the guncotton was insufficient, not to mention replacing it all with guncotton.

The production in the lab was limited to a small-scale. He would need industrial manufacturing if he wanted enough equipment to supply an army. However, Roland was unfamiliar with the chemical industry. He could not think of any better ideas right now. 

Besides that, he also could not neglect the education. Not only civil knowledge, but Roland also had to implement to transform the thinking of his citizens. The locals now had a better understanding toward the witches after the challenge of the Months of Demons and also the advertisement of the First Army. However, the outsiders were still confined to the propagated thinking of the church. The population of outsiders in Border Town had dramatically increased, especially the farmers. They were still living in the wooden sheds near the Redwater River. It could be considered the "suburb" of the town. However, as soon as they were promoted to freedmen, they would gradually move to the inner city. By then it would be too late to adjust their thinking.

He had to think of a transformation method that would not arouse too much attention and would be accepted by the public.

…

His thoughts were in a chaotic mess for a while. Roland opened his eyes and noticed that Nightingale was staring at him from aside. When their eyes met, she subconsciously turned away her head.

"Ahh... yes, I forgot to tell you something." The witch stared through the window and pretended to be nonchalant. "Wendy asked me to tell you something."

"What?" Roland asked.

"She said, thank you."

Chapter 170 - A Gift from an Avenger (Part Ⅰ)

The sun had gradually sunk into mountains, and night fell in the Western Region.

The emissary delegation decided to camp in an open field not far away from the main road.

Soon after they pitched their tents in a circle, they lit up a bonfire in the center. Warriors took off their armors and sat around it. They stretched to relax themselves and waited until the water boiled on the fire to cook porridge.

Alicia carried a basin of warm water into a tent and said, "My Priestess, please wash your face."

"Thanks," Mira nodded to her with a smile and then dipped her towel in the water. "We'll arrive at Border Town tomorrow. Thank you for your hard work along the way."

"It's not a big deal, compared with fighting against demonic beasts. On this journey, you're the one impressing me the most. You're such a good rider. I used to think priests and priestesses weren't good at long journeys," Alicia said.

"Hah-hah, I'm not born a priestess. I frequently traveled on horseback when I was a merchant." Mira wiped the dust and sweat on her face with the towel and then gave the basin to the female warrior. "Wash your face, please. How's it? Do you feel any better now?"

"What?" Alicia winced.

"The thing about God's Punishment Army." The Priestess shook her head with a smile. "You've your heart on your sleeve. Is it because of what Abrams said?"

"..." Alicia took the basin without saying anything.

"All of us will encounter difficulties and challenges. If we can't overcome them, the whole world will suffer, let alone the church. In order to stop those dreadful enemies, we have to make sacrifices sometimes. This issue may put you in a dilemma, but don't forget the church's motto," Mira said.

"Of two evils choose the lesser," Alicia said in a low voice.

"Exactly, the purpose of the sacrifice determines whether it's worth doing. Most importantly, participation in the incarnation ceremony of God's Punishment Army is completely voluntary. When Abrams' brother made up his mind to become a God's Punishment Warrior, he was ready to sacrifice himself to the church. It's a lofty ideal, and his name will be engraved on the Monument of Glory and passed down through generations together with the glory of the church."

"Thank you, My Priestess. I feel much better now," Alicia said, with her right hand on her chest.

She stopped feeling gloomy hearing what the priestess said. She thought no matter what, as least, God's Punishment Warriors adhered to their faith and sacrificed themselves for the glory of deities.

"My pleasure," Mira said with a slight smile, "let's get out having dinner. It must be ready now. No kidding, I can't taste now after so many days of eating porridge."

"Luckily, today is the last day," Alicia smiled back and said, "tomorrow, we'll meet the lord and enjoy a splendid banquet."

The chief justice picked out tonight's watchmen after the tasteless dinner. Judgement Warriors not assigned to any task went back into their tents to sleep. Alicia also returned with the priestess to the tent, put out their oil lamp and wrapped themselves in quilts.

Alicia was not sure how long she had slept when she heard a sudden thud in a daze. It sounded like something hitting the ground. Very soon, here came another heavy, dull noise.

And in that noise, she had heard a vague sound of an armor dropping onto the ground.

She opened her eyes at once.

She swiftly got out of her quilt to grab her two-handed sword aside and slowly moved to the door of the tent. When she was going to raise a corner of the tent to see what happened outside, she heard the chief justice angrily shouting, "Enemy attack! Warriors, get up to fight!" The roar broke the silence of the night and stirred up everyone in the battalion.

After that, Alicia heard a loud bang!

Meanwhile, the chief justice's voice suddenly stopped.

She did not hesitate anymore and promptly rolled out of her tent. She saw the chief justice's giant sword being cut in half, no... not only his sword, the chief justice himself was also split, his blood gushing into the sky. In the light of the bonfire, he knelt down feebly and his body broke into two pieces, falling down at a woman's feet.

This woman with a giant sword in hand was the attacker. She wrapped herself in a black gown and covered her face with a hood. In the shadow of the hood, Alicia could clearly see two shinning golden pupils.

Another two Judgement Warriors lunged at the attacker together, but nobody could resist the dreadful giant sword in her hand. She killed each Judgement Warrior with only one strike, cutting both the warrior and his sword in half. First, their swords clashed, making loud bangs and sending sparks and iron filings flying to all directions. After that here came the friction sounds of flesh and bones being cut through by her giant sword. The horrifying sounds like a nightmare curdled Alicia's blood.

"It's a witch!" someone exclaimed.

[There's only one attacker... and she dares initiate attack at Judgement Army on her own. She must the Fallen with demon power!]

When Alicia was absorbed in thoughts, a steady voice suddenly came into her ear. "Take the priestess away!"

She turned around and saw Abrams.

"Are you asking me to leave all my battle companions behind?" Alicia widened her eyes.

"Otherwise, you'll die here for nothing. Don't you understand!" He growled with his eyebrows knitted. "She's not afraid of God's Stone of Retaliation. She must be an Extraordinary. I'll try my best to stop her. You take the priestess to Longsong Stronghold! Remember to take the main road all the time. If you run into any caravan along the road, ask them for help!" With these words, he dashed toward the attacker with his sword in hand.

Alicia gasped. [She's an Extraordinary. It's said that only God's Punishment Warriors can rival Extraordinaries. Meeting them, I should immediately ask the local church for help. Abrams is right. If I stay here, it'll only waste their sacrifices.]

Seeing five Judgement Warriors killed, the remaining warriors changed their tactics. They took advantage of the tents and the terrain to fight a running battle against the witch as a ploy to gain time. However, Alicia knew it clearly that sooner or later, the warriors would die in the hand of the Extraordinary who was way more stronger and faster than them.

She grated and rushed back into the tent. The priestess had already put on her shoes, waiting for information. Alicia jerked Mira up, leading her to the place where the delegation had tied their horses.

"What happened?" the priestess asked in a deep voice.

"An Extraordinary witch attacked the battalion! Please leave with me now!" Alicia mounted her horse and urged. "Be quick!"

Finding out that she could hardly see the road at night, Alicia was afraid that the horses might be tripped if they galloped on the main road. Slowing down the speed to ensure safety was not a good choice, either. The witch could easily catch up with them as they could not run very far.

In the end, Alicia decided to send the horses run along the main road while she and the priestess were burrowing into the forest on the wayside. In this way, it was hard to find them without firelight.

She took Mira's hand, walking away from the main road. Gradually, she could hardly hear the clashes of swords. In the dim moonlight, she stayed alert and aware of the surroundings. Deep in the forest, they might meet beasts or vipers, but at least it was better than encountering an Extraordinary.

Alicia finally heaved out a sigh of relief when they fumbled their way through the dark and got near to the Impassable Mountain Range. It seemed that they were not followed by the witch. Quietness prevailed now except for the tweeting birds over their heads.

"What're we going to do next?" Mira asked.

The priestess did not seem to panic at such a crisis, which impressed Alicia a lot. "My Priestess, we'd better find a place beyond the wind's reach to spend the night. When the dawn reaches tomorrow, we'll go to Longsong Stronghold to ask for help."

"Don't we go to Border Town? It needs at least a day and a night to return to the stronghold."

"No." Alicia shook her head and continued to explain, "It wasn't just a coincidence that we were attacked by an Extraordinary. The lord probably has already been in collusion with witches. If that's true, it's too dangerous for us to go there."

"I see your point..." Mira's mouth was suddenly agape. She seemed to stare at something behind the female warrior.

Alicia's heart skipped a beat. She turned around and saw the woman in the black gown steadily stepping out of the forest's shadow. Her eye shone like stars. An owl swirled down and landed on her shoulder.

Chapter 171 - A Gift from an Avenger (Part Ⅱ)

"Devil!" Alicia took out her two-handed sword and stood in front of Mira.

"... devil?" The witch sounded cold, showing no emotion. "What about you church people? You send orphaned and abandoned children to cloisters and pick witches out of them? What should I call you?"

"Nonsense!" The woman warrior retorted. "The church accepts and raises the kids out of kindness of deities. If it's not for cloisters, how many of them will be able to reach an adult age? Ubiquitous demons corrupt the weak-minded ones and lead a small number of them astray now and then, but the church will solve all the problems at once when finding a devil witch among them. You're distorting reality."

Hearing the word "solve", the witch's golden pupils suddenly dimmed. She raised her giant sword in just one hand and said, "I'm not very interested in arguing with a dead woman, so that's it."

Before her voice died away, the owl on her shoulder had flown up, and she had already come up to Alicia, evoking her unforgettable memory of her battle companions being cut in half together with their swords. Instead of moving back, Alicia lunged forward at the witch, aiming at the part under her right arm. Alicia had repeatedly heard during her sword training courses that this part was the weakest point if the opponent chose right hand as a sword hand. If she attacked this point, the right-handed opponent would need several seconds to turn the blade.

Alicia bounded on the witch like a leopard, evading the strike. When she brushed past the Extraordinary, she held her two-handed sword horizontal, trying to hit the weakest point on the right side of her body, but the witch reacted at a stunning speed. By just a skip, she easily escaped Alicia' attack and swiftly turned around, lifting up her giant sword.

Alicia, however, had not landed by now.

It all happened in a split second. Alicia saw half of her calf flying up into the air with blood. A tearing pain down there almost made her faint away. She instinctively clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying out at the scene.

The gap between her and the Extraordinary was just too wide.

She finally saw what an excellent fighter Abrams was, who had exchanged a dozen of blows with the Extraordinary, striving for more time for her to escape.

Alicia struggled to turn around and saw Mira took a hand crossbow out of their backpack, aiming at the Extraordinary when the witch was concentrating on herself.

This was their last chance. Alicia thought that she must manage to make the witch focus on herself.

When she was going to say something, the giant sword swept. She suddenly felt a tight throat and then saw the world upside down... No, she thought that she must be flying, as she could see her body feebly kneel down on the ground and the owl dart toward Mira. The owl transformed into a girl in the air and knocked down the priestess... Soon she was bleary-eyed and then all she could see was endless darkness, when her head finally fell on the ground.

…

"Damn this stupid rock! Coo." Maggie touched a swollen part on her head, complaining. "You're so careless. If it wasn't for me, you would have been shot by the bolt!"

"Relax, I saw it. I just wanted to end this as fast as I could," Ashes said. She dug two shallow pits in the ground, dragged the two bodies into the pits and buried them, after she had pocketed all their God's Stones of Retaliation and gold royals. By doing so, she earned her travel expenses on her way to Port of Clearwater. In addition, she found a letter from the priestess. She skimmed through its content. It said that if the priestess found Roland Wimbledon, Lord of the Western Region, was not in collusion with witches, she should request to buy female infants and orphans from him at market price. All the females under age could be traded for golden royals or pills, like what they had done with Duke Ryan before.

After reading the letter, Ashes sneered and burnt it with a torch fire.

"Let's go. We have lots of bodies to bury."

"Coo." Maggie transformed into an owl and led Ashes back to the emissary delegation's camping site.

As she would get dizzy seeing broken body parts or smelling blood, she alighted on a bough and watched Ashes digging pits, dragging and burying bodies all by herself.

"Why did you do this? It'll be awful if the church finds out what you've done."

"Only several months later, the church people will confirm that the emissary delegation is missing. They usually expect an emissary delegation sent out to investigate a lord to return in about two to three months, if the lord is happy to cooperate with the investigation," Ashes said while digging.

"But His Highness won't be happy to do so! Coo!"

"Please talk to me in your human form." Ashes sighed and continued to explain, "Once this emissary delegation is allowed to enter the town, witches of the Witch Cooperation Association will be exposed. They even don't need to ask the prince. All they need to do is to interrogate some subjects there. At that time, Roland will have only two choices. First one is lying. He'll contend that he's nothing to do with the matter. Second is to cooperate with the church and arrest all the witches. For a well-prepared emissary delegation like this one, if one of them had escaped from me, Hermes would have soon received the news. They brought carrier pigeons with them all the way. You've seen them, right?"

"I've already got them all. They can't see their way at night." Maggie patted her bulging pocket. "Let's toast them tomorrow. One for you, and one for me."

Ashes had never seen Maggie eat birds before. She sighed secretly, thinking how come the little girl became so keenly interested in toasted bird meat after having stayed in Border Town for merely a few days. "If the church received the delegation's report about what happened in the town and decided to send its troops there at once, the prince would have only one month to prepare. But now, he has at least three more months before the church reacts, with any luck... This is the gift I give him and also my revenge on the church."

"I see. Ashes, you're such a considerate person." Maggie praised.

In fact, Ashes had another reason for doing this, which she did not tell Maggie. By killing the whole emissary delegation, she had also pushed Roland Wimbledon to the point of no return. When the church failed to contact the emissary delegation, it would impute blame to Roland Wimbledon. At that time, he would not have any chance to betray the witches even if he wanted to.

It was almost dawn when Ashes finished.

"That's it. Now, time to say goodbye to each other," Ashes said to Maggie.

"..." Maggie was surprised. "What?"

Ashes gently touched her little head and squatted down to talk to her. "Don't you really like Border Town? You'll have a good time there with Lightning and Wendy."

"But..." Maggie lowered her head and hesitated. "I like you and Lady Tilly, too."

"I'm not telling you to stay in the town forever." Ashes smiled. "Roland Wimbledon isn't like Tilly. He's an ordinary nobleman after all. We can't be sure that he'll remain on our side all the time. Given that, I assign you a task now. You have to fly back to Sleeping Island every month to tell us the recent situation of the town and then bring our information to the witches of Witch Cooperation Association there. In this way, we'll stay in touch with the Witch Cooperation Association and you'll be able to guide them to the Fjords when the town and Kingdom of Graycastle are no longer a safe place for them."

"Is it true?" Maggie blinked her eyes.

"Yes, remember to complete your task. I trust you," Ashes nodded and said.

After the talk, Maggie transformed into a pigeon and gradually disappeared in the morning sky. Ashes mounted a horse, heading for Port of Clearwater.

Chapter 172 - A New Play

"That's all for today. Class is over."

"Goodbye teacher," the little girls said simultaneously.

Irene closed her textbook and watched the kids walking out of the classroom. This school was rebuilt from a former residence belonged to a noble, which had been expropriated by the lord after this year's Months of Demons. Partition walls which had separated the house into small rooms had been torn down. New walls had been built to create several big rooms on each floor. Four to six batches of students could take classes here at the same time. According to the textbook, such batch should be called a "class". She could see most students of the daytime classes were kids, and at night classes, she would usually meet adult students.

She had thought her application for a teaching job would have taken a long time to reach the City Hall, when Ferlin had submitted her application. Surprisingly, she had received permission on the very next day. After that, she had gone to the City Hall to register and fetch her teaching materials and a school timetable.

Most of her students were children of the locals in Border Town. She had done lots of work to make these naughty kids attend classes well. There was one interesting chapter in her textbook guiding her to maintain classroom discipline. This chapter which was a real eye-opener suggested that the teacher should help students to develop self-discipline by dividing a class into groups and appointing group leaders and class leader. Besides the traditional methods of vocal critics and cane punishment, it also encouraged teachers to motivate students through encouragement and praises.

Irene believed this thoughtful author of the teacher's textbook must be a senior who had been a teacher for many years.

As soon as she walked out of the school, she saw her knight, Ferlin Eltek, waiting for her at the gate.

Standing tall and straight, he still looked handsome in a simple leather coat. Without his shining armors, shield and sword which were bearing his family's lion emblems, he was still her Morning Light.

After they hugged, Irene noticed that there was something wrong about Ferlin.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"..." he hesitated and said, "His Highness invites us to enjoy refreshments in the palace in the afternoon."

"We?" Irene remained speechless for a while, as she had realized what was bothering Ferlin. She patted his back and shook her head, saying, "The prince has never met me. It's impossible that he'll act like the duke... and you'll go to the palace with me, right?"

"Yes, I'll protect you this time," Ferlin nodded and said.

In the afternoon, Irene dressed up a little and went to the lord's castle wearing an appropriate dress.

Not long after they were ushered into the reception hall, a gray-haired young man came to the gate. He was Lord of the Western Region, His Highness Roland Wimbledon. A lady above 30, seemed steady and capable, accompanied him. They could tell from her still attractive face that she must have been an extraordinary beauty when she had been young. They quickly rose and bowed to the prince.

"Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Eltek." Roland sat in the seat of the host. "Help yourself to these dishes prepared by the kitchen of the palace."

"Thank you very much for inviting us. It's such a great honor for me," Ferlin replied with noble manners.

"This lady is Scroll, the one in charge of Ministry of Education of City Hall. I believe you've already met each other."

"Yes." Ferlin nodded to Scroll to greet. "I've not yet expressed my gratitude to you. Without your help, Irene could not become a teacher that fast."

Finally meeting the one who had helped her in the job application, Irene smiled to Scroll with gratitude.

After chatting together for some time, Ferlin finally asked, "May I ask, Your Highness, what's the reason for this afternoon tea?"

"Education." Roland paused and looked at Irene. "I heard you've worked in a theater in the stronghold. Are you an actress?"

"Uhm..." Irene was surprised hearing the prince asking about this. "I did only one drama."

"Well here's the thing. I plan to present a play every weekend in the square of the town. I've got scripts, writers and directors. What I need now are actors and actresses. As you don't have many classes now and have a relative work experience, I want you to star in this drama. I'll pay you extra salaries. Do you agree?" the prince said explicitly.

"..." Irene looked at the prince in disbelief. After she made sure that he was not kidding, she nodded excitedly, saying, "Your Highness, I'd like to!"

Standing on the stage to play had been her aspiration all the time. Since she had left the Longsong Theatre, she had been thinking that she might never get the chance to play a drama again. Therefore, she had buried this wish in her heart and never shown any regret in front of Ferlin. She was so excited now to know that she would be able to return to the stage.

"These plays are for the masses. It's not very demanding. It'll do as long as you can play the story clearly on the stage. Do you have friends in Longsong Stronghold who have a certain understanding of drama and hope to play on the stage but can't find any opportunity? If you do, you can write to them, telling them they can play in Border Town every weekend and get paid as they're in the theater of the stronghold."

"They even can join this play? I know lots of people like that! I'll write to them as soon as I get home. They'll be happy to come to the town if they get the chance to play," Irene was overjoyed and said.

"Good." Roland gave her three books. "Here are the stories you're going to play. They're numbered. You'll start with the first one. All of them are written by Scroll, stories close to the common people's lives. You can take them home to read. If there's anything you can't understand, you can ask Scroll."

"Yes, Your Highness! Thank you!" Irene bowed and said.

…

"Is it good to lie to her like that? You're the author of those stories," Scroll said.

"It's alright. They won't believe such vulgar stories are written by a prince." Roland stretched himself. "And without your polishing and editing, I couldn't finish them in such a short time."

"They're not vulgar at all." Scroll shook her head. "They're moving and inspiring. I don't know why you know so much about the common people's daily life, but I can promise the play will be generally welcomed."

[Of course, it's going to be a hit.] Roland was confident, too, as the first two scripts were actually revised from two popular stories, "Cinderella" and "The Crowing Cock in Midnight". The first one was a moving love story between a prince and a civilian girl. The latter depicted the struggle of people at the bottom and their fighting against their mean, shameless landlord. He had localized both stories by changing the fairy who helped Cinderella into a witch and the landlord in "The Crowing Cock in Midnight" into a merciless lesser noble. After these two plays attracted lots of attention, Roland was going to put the third story called "The Witch Diaries" on stage, which was the part and parcel of his whole drama plan.

It was an original piece about three girls who became witches but had very different lives. He had not directly mentioned the church in his script, but only focused on the characters. One witch girl was abandoned by her parents, another one was used by others and the last one, very lucky, was deeply loved by her father and mother who remained the same to her even when they found that she was a witch and who even sacrificed their own lives to protect her. Fate and chance finally brought these three girls together. In the end, they defeated their enemy who wanted to kill them and then lived a good life like ordinary people.

Roland intended to make "The Witch Diaries" a series to infuse the people with a new idea, telling them through the moving drama that witches were not devil and even some of their own female relatives might become witches.

Chapter 173 - Irene's Wish

When they were back in their apartment, Ferlin shook his head with profound resignation. "Why don't you think about it for a few days before you promise His Highness?"

He had seen his wife skip happily all the way back home. In his memory, he had only seen her being that happy in their wedding.

"No." Irene stuck out her tongue at him. "One day's delay will make me sleepless."

[Yes, she loves drama so much. Back in the Longsong Theater, she used to practice all alone until midnight and frequently run over her lines with me. If it had not been for the duke, she would have moved from Flower of the Theater up to Star of the Theater.] At this thought, he hugged his wife from the back and said, "I'm sorry."

"..." Irene patted his head. "It's not your fault. You were transferred to another city and couldn't stop him at that time," she said with a slight smile, "if you want to apologize, go to cook. I want to read the scripts first."

"Well, well, well, I'll cook." Ferlin kissed her earlobe. "Meat porridge and fried eggs. Let's add toasted sausage to our dinner tonight to celebrate."

This residence in the town was different from all the houses which he had lived in before. Took this cooking range for example. Unlike the open hearth in every household in Longsong Stronghold, which was generally located in the center of a living room, the kitchen stove here was set in a separate room. The back of the stove was connected to a flue, and the other sides surrounding the stove were covered. A movable baffle was arranged on the fume exit. When they were not using the stove, they could push it to block the exit in case that cooking fume from downstairs came out of it.

Ferlin could easily think of the advantage of this design. Once the kitchen door was closed, the cooking fume and smell would not come into the living room and in summer, the temperature in the house would not be influenced by the heat out of the kitchen.

He put some firewood and sawdust into the hearth and then lit the fire to cook for dinner.

After dinner, Irene engrossed in the scripts again. When she finally put down the third book and heaved a long sigh, the candle was almost burnt out.

"How's it?" Ferlin was bursting with curiosity, seeing her read the scripts for such a long time. He remembered she had been able to read 10 books like that in half a day back in the theater.

"It's... hard to describe. Every story is different from the usual ones. I've never read anything like this! In 'Cinderella', the prince fell in love with a beautiful civilian girl instead of a princess... which isn't a rare thing, but he even insisted on marrying her. I'm wondering why His Highness didn't feel unhappy reading such an absurd story. Despite that, it's really a heart-thrilling story. I can't help but applause for the prince and Cinderella when I read the part where he found her again and put the crystal shoe on her feet," Irene exclaimed.

"Another story 'The Crowing Cock in Midnight' has simpler plot compared with 'Cinderella', but it's very interesting, too. I think two to three scenes will be enough to tell the story clearly on stage. The part describing the serfs finally plucking up their courage to fight against the nobleman is well-written. The serfs were resigned to everything in the beginning and then they were driven beyond endurance. By creating a long foreshadowing, the author added dramatic tension to the ending and fully expressed their emotions. I felt really great reading it when the serfs decided to fight back!"

"Serfs fight against a nobleman?" Ferlin knitted his eyebrow. [Nobles will never tolerate such a thing. If the serfs in the Eltek's manor dare to fight against their lord with hoes and shovels, my father will cut their heads and put them at the manor gate the very next day.] "Is His Highness really going to let you play such a story on stage?"

"You haven't read them yet." Irene rolled her eyes at him. "You'll feel the same thing as I do after reading them. The serfs had to fight. The lesser nobleman had gone too far. They were so cruelly oppressed by him, but all they did in the end was wrapping him in a bag and beating him up. I think they were very restrained. After that, the nobleman wanted to put all the serfs to death, but a witch happened to pass by and stopped the noble by transforming herself into a well-known great noble in that place. Later, she even went to the Lord's castle to humble herself for the sake of the serfs. After a thorough discussion, the lord made a wise and merciful decision. He bought all the serfs and made them free civilians! I bet the audience will hail seeing this."

[But nobles will definitely protest and press the theater. In the end, this troupe will be dismissed,] Ferlin thought with disapproval but another idea suddenly stuck him. [Wait, there's no other noble besides His Highness and Viscount Tigui in Border Town and the prince is the one who builds this theatre. Does it mean that he really just intends to play the stories for the common people? How much will he earn by doing this? If he really pays the troupe as Stronghold Theater did, he'll inevitably lose money on this investment. Does he just do this to amuse himself?]

Irene, however, did not notice the look on his face at all and continued to say, "But my dear, wonderful as the two stories are, they can't compete with the third one, 'The Witch Diaries'. I wager that theaters in big cities like Redwater City or even the king's city will set up a troupe to rehearse and put up ads to ballyhoo the play once they read the script! I have to say, Scroll was a genius playwright. 'The Witch's Dairy' is way better than any play nowadays in terms of the story and narration skill."

"Are you sure?" Ferlin found it quite funny when Irene talked about those scripts so seriously and asked, "Do you think it's even better than Mr. Kajen Fels' widely recognized works, 'For Rose' and 'A Prince Searching for Love'? They don't only hit in the king's city, but also attract troupes from the other kingdoms to watch and learn. I could hear Mr. Griffith's name all the time even in the stronghold."

"Yes, trust me, dear," Irene told him the plots of the three stories roughly. "Despite the content, the narration style alone is creative enough. Plays before are written from a third-person view but this one is from the perspectives of the three witches. What they did affected each other's lives, but they didn't know it at all. In the middle part of the story, details that seemed irrelevant in the previous plots turned out to be coherent, and the witches became close friends. I must say this method of using multiple story lines to motivate the development of the plot will definitely make a stir, but not in Border Town. I doubt that the audience here will be able to see this point." In great excitement, she got paper and quill, ready to write letters. "I have to invite all my friends in the theater over as soon as possible. I can't wait to see the surprised look on their faces!"

"Wait, Irene, don't you think... these stories are too irrational?" Ferlin came up to hold her hand.

Hearing what his wife had said, he also found the stories very interesting and all characters, good or evil, well-written, but he just did not feel right hearing the parts about the witches. They were completely contrary to what the church preached and in the meantime, amazingly detailed. The third witch in the story, who was lucky to be brought up in a loving family and to release her power at her will, found out in the end that Demonic Torture was nothing but a lie and that witches were not different from the common people except for their ability to use magic power. In the story, the witches had feelings and would also be overcome with sadness when their loved ones died. Ferlin believed that once the church got this news and came to the town, His Highness Roland would be in real trouble. [Is His Highness really not afraid of the church?]

"Irrational! No... Ferlin, before they became witches, they were ordinary girls, too."

"Yes, that's true."

"What about me? If I turn out to be a witch, will you think that I'm evil?" Irene stared at him and asked.

"No, of course not. You're always the kind-hearted girl I know," Ferlin said hurriedly.

"So what if we have a daughter who turns out to be a witch?"

"That's impossible..." He suddenly closed his mouth and got what Irene meant. Judging a witch who he had never met was very different from judging his own relatives whom he got along with morning and night. How could he easily call them evil?

"Yes, if we really have a witch daughter..." Irene nodded with satisfaction.

"I'll love her and protect her like the father of the third witch in the story." The knight got down on one knee, acting as if he was taking an oath of allegiance.

"That's the answer I want." Irene put down her quill and smiled slightly. "I think... we can try it now."

"Yes, my dear," Ferlin whispered in her ear and then scooped her up, walking to the bedroom.

Chapter 174 - The Industrial Park

After Ashes left two days later, Maggie unexpectedly returned to Border Town and appeared again in front of everyone.

After she had been asked about the reasons for coming back, they welcomed her warmly and there was a new member in the Witch Union.

What made her feel greatly moved was the welcome banquet, which was held in the backyard garden of the castle. In this banquet, there was a long, iron shelf, covered with all kinds of meats that could be casually taken to barbecue. Spices were also very abundant; there were salt, oil, pepper, chili, and barbecue sauce which was made by Roland—boiled forest-produced mushrooms and chicken together with the soup, then salt, sugar, and wheat flour were added, which could be used instead of MSG. Maggie did not stop until her stomach was full.

In the afternoon, Roland tested her ability.

According to Nightingale's judgement, her total amount of magic power was at a moderate level among the witches. Her ability could be shown as she could change into a variety of birds—on the condition that she had seen that kind of bird before. The consumption of magic power was quite large when she was changing. She could continue to change 4-5 times in one day, and when she maintained the deformation, the consumption of magic power was very little. So, her ability belonged to the summoning type—it could be influenced by the God's Stone of Retaliation. Her favorite birds were pigeons, but Roland noticed that no matter what kind of birds she changed into, the shape of her deformation was too large. For example, when she changed into a sparrow, in his view, the shape was as large as an ordinary pigeon, and if she transformed into a real pigeon, the shape would be as large as a sea eagle.

Maggie could not change into a Flying Beast like those in his fantasy—a Phoenix, a Griffin, or a Kunpeng, such as what Roland painted—which made him feel sorry.

In addition, Ashes' plan was still worthy of his concern, that was, for the witches who were called up by Tilly, what kind of ability did they have? He would not mind using technology to exchange the assistant witches if they could dramatically improve farming efficiency.

For these reasons, Roland decided to write a long letter to Tilly. First, he showed the natural relationship of allies on both sides, and then warned her that the church's intention was to unify the mainland, and finally handed out an olive branch to show the will of mutual cooperation and common progress. Next month, when Maggie went to the Fjords, he would ask her to take this letter incidentally.

The next day, the prince got another piece of good news.

The plant used to produce the steam engine was finally built. The plant was located on the other side of Redwater River, leaning to the west, and it was next to the Leaf experimental field. The whole site had been surrounded by a wooden fence, and they also paved a simple road leading to the pontoon. In Roland's plan, this place would be the industrial park in the town afterward.

In order to expand the building space as much as possible, the plant was built of light wood, and covered an area of about 1,000 square meters. The machine tools, which were manufactured by Anna, had been transported in. They were two steam boring machines, two manual milling machines, a manual grinding machine, and a manual lathe. Although these machine tools were simple in principle, their workmanship was first class—except for the base or pedals that were made from wood, the other parts were cut from the wrought iron or rolled steel. It was true that under the existing level of materials, the products were of the highest quality.

At present, there were just about 10 workers in the factory, and they were originally blacksmiths and apprentices in the town. They were now recruited by Roland's 50 silver royals to learn how to operate high-end machine tools. And their blacksmith tools and shop were also moved to a brick house outside of the plant. Except for creating some unimportant parts, the production of the steam engine would be completely finished.

Roland held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the door of the factory. In order to strengthen the momentum, he called up the officials of the City Hall, and they delivered brief speeches. In the Echo's simulative of the gun salute, the Kingdom of Graycastle Industrial Company officially announced its establishment.

Over the next few days when he was free, Roland, as the head of the company, would go to the plant to demonstrate the operation of the machines as well as the manufacturing process of the steam engine. The best method he could think of to make the illiterate blacksmith grasp how to process and assemble a steam engine was to make a map. In this map, he showed the process by pictures, similar to the instructions for the assembly of models. It showed the names of parts, numbers, and their size one by one before illustrating the order in which they were installed and the methods of connection with pictures. Soraya helped him a lot in this matter.

As he had expected, in the initial days of production, almost no parts met the requirements, let alone a completely assembled steam engine. However, Roland did not care about the rate of rejections. In Anna's hands, these defective products could be recast into a new plate in the blink of an eye. He believed that after repeated practice, these blacksmiths would master the production methods of the modern era sooner or later.

Apart from the industrial plant, Prince Roland transformed the North Slope Mine area and the backyard into an army factory, mainly for the production of revolving rifles and bullets. After "Furnace Expert" Lesya arrived at Border Town, who Karl had recommended, the temperature of the airbag had been greatly improved. They could fire cement flour independently, and the firing room had no need for existence.

But limited by the technology, the production of revolving firearms and bullets was still completed by Anna. Roland was designing a steam punch for punching bullets, although the efficiency was less than Anna's cutting molding, at least it could reduce her burden.

In order to thank Anna for the nearly half a month of busy work, he decided to present her a gift.

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

"A gift?" Anna asked, and then put down the cutting parts in her hand, stroked her hair and slid it to her forehead, showing a bright smile. "That's good."

"Don't you ask what kind of gift?" Roland teased her.

"Well..." She thought for a moment and replied, "I'll like whatever you give me."

After half a year of recuperating, Anna was not the girl that he first met in the dungeon. That thin and weak girl now became a slim beauty. Her blue eyes full of expression, she looked neat and pretty in a plain dress, and her whole body was filled with the vitality of youth.

This was how an 18-year-old girl should look.

Roland was pleased when he saw her smiling face.

The "gift" was placed in the courtyard of the castle, and in order to give Anna a surprise, it was also covered by a layer of linen—when he was making Envoy Ashes, he had this idea in his mind. Since he was the prince, the gift must be special, for something like jewelry was not sincere. He thought for a long time to come up with this idea.

Roland opened the linen, and a rattan basket appeared in front of them. The top of the basket was connected to a lot of hemp rope, and at the other end of the hemp rope was a huge canvas.

"What, what's this?" as Anna came forward and walked around it, she asked curiously.

"A hot air balloon," he replied with a smile, "It can take you up to the sky, like a bird overlooking the earth."

"Flying in the sky?" She turned around, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Really?"

Soaring in the sky was the dream of mankind since ancient times. From gliding wings to hot air balloons, from airships to airplanes, people had made huge sacrifices in the exploration and challenge of flying in the sky, but people had never given up this kind of pursuit. There were witches in this world, but flying was still the right of few people. To see the scenery through the high-altitude perspective would certainly leave a deep impression on her.

"Of course, just fully fill the airbag with hot air."

Roland let Nightingale ask Lightning and Maggie to be first-aiders. If there was an accident, Lightning and Maggie, who could change into a large sea eagle, would protect them to land safely. As for the other witches, he decided to not tell them, especially Wendy and Scroll, as they would certainly oppose any of his adventures—they would not allow anything dangerous happen to him.

Chapter 175 - The Hot Air Balloon Tour

The manufacturing principle of hot air balloon was simple. There were only obstacles they needed to overcome: the combustion equipment and airbag.

The first difficulty was the hot air balloon must depend on firewood or charcoal to heat the air without the pressure vessel providing the gas. Never mind the low efficiency, the balloon would not be able to fly long distances. That was also why people still choose to use hydrogen balloons in actual combat when they had already discovered the manufacturing principle of hot air balloon. Roland gave up on producing the combustion equipment and relied on Anna to do the heating work.

The second difficulty was the airtightness of the airbag. But this was easy to solve for Roland who had learned from the predecessors' experience. He used three layers of cloth to make the airbag, with a durable canvas as the outermost layer, bovine skin as the middle layer, and thin gauze as the inner layer. When the layers were stitched together, they not only sealed the air in, but acted as defense against birds' pecking.

Roland stretched the bottom of the airbag so Anna could spew out Blackfire towards the inside. Blackfire's temperature was almost like the common fire, making the airbag expand, which looked like white gourds with wrinkled skin. Considering the hot air balloon needed to carry him and Anna, so the widest diameter was five meters. It took almost one week to stitch 12 bovine skins up. Roland could not afford such a big toy if he were not the lord of this town.

"So does the hot air balloon use the lift from the buoyancy of the hot air?" Anna asked. "I remember the book once mentioned that hot air is always rising."

"Yes, it's a common natural phenomenon that hot air rises and cooler air falls. To explain it from the perspective of the particle theory, the hot air particles move faster and strengthens the diffusion process. The air volume becomes larger and the density lower. The air becomes lighter compared to the air nearby and rises."

After his explanation, the other three looked very confused, except Anna. He could not help lamenting how important talent was.

When the airbag was bulging and rising, the drag rope was gradually pulled straight. Roland was the first to jump into the basket. He then helped Anna who was climbing in.

"I'm still a little worried," Nightingale said anxiously, "Why don't you let me try first?"

"Trust me. It'll be fine." Roland laughed. "Besides, Lightning's here if anything happens."

"I'll take care of them. Don't worry," said Lightning, patting her chest.

"And me too, coo!" Taking her cue from Lightning, Maggie also patted her chest.

The hot air balloon held the basket and slowly lifted off the ground with a shake. They soon flew over the top of the castle, the full view of the town spreading ahead of them.

For Roland who had seen high-rise buildings, the scenery was not particularly extraordinary to him. But it was a totally new experience for Anna. She leaned over the basket, with one hand around Roland's arm, and stuck her head out. She looked around, a little breathless and excited.

Roland first saw Anna like this. It was natural to have slight acrophobia for someone who had never flown in the sky.

The drag rope beneath the basket was soon stretched tight, stopping the rise of the balloon. The rope was 50 meters long, about 15 or 16 story-high from where Roland came from. He told Anna to slow down so the hot air balloon finally became still in the air.

After seeing the nacelle finally stop rising, Lightning was relieved and started playing the tag game with Maggie around the hot air balloon.

From above, they could see clearly everything below, from the roof of the castle, to the town under construction, to Redwater River flowing from the west to the east, and to the picturesque farmlands by the river.

"How do you feel?"

Roland raised the question with a smile after he waited for Anna to withdraw her head from outside the basket.

Anna was very excited. "Thank you for your gift. So I can also fly this high."

"You can fly even higher." Roland sat next to the wall of the basket. "If the rope is long enough, it's no problem to go 10 times higher. But the air flow gets more complicated the higher we go and we can't ensure our safety. Besides, this balloon is just a prototype. When we make the piston engine later, even commoners can fly higher and faster than the birds. In the future..." He turned towards to the blue sky and continued, "... People can even fly to the infinite outer space."

"..." Anna held her breath. There was a glow and an exaltation in her eyes.

Roland was amused by this. "I can't promise that we can fly to the outer space, but when we make the piston engine, I think I can promise that commoners can fly like birds in my time." With Anna's help, the process capability was not a problem to him. What he needed to focus on was the materials. He could use poor quality pig iron for the steam engine and wrought iron for the cannon. It was not a big deal to use Blackfire make steel revolving firearm. But he might need high quality cast iron, steel, and aluminum to make the internal combustion engine. "It's all because of you that Border Town can be so prosperous today, Miss Anna."

Anna was stunned to hear his words. After a while, she leaned closer to him and whispered, "My mother died in a fire, but I became a witch instead of burning to death. For a long time, I thought it was my awakening that caused the fire and I hated myself for being a witch. When I was in prison, I thought I could get a closure if I die, but you saved me and taught me how to use my power... I've never thought that my fire can be so helpful apart from burning things and causing misery." After a pause, Anna continued, "I should be very grateful to meet you, but I realized my mind has changed. Sometimes I even feel depressed about it. I want more."

She leaned on Roland's shoulder. "Even if I'm that way, will you still use me?"

Her blue eyes were shining and her breath on Roland's face itched. He could feel the softness of her body and her rapid heartbeat through her thin clothes. Even so, Anna did not avoid his gaze. She was passionate and forward whenever Nightingale was not around.

"Lighting and Maggie are..."

Before Roland could finish, Anna kissed him, preventing him from talking anything.

Roland gasped lightly for air after their lips parted. "Miss Anna, I want to use you. Always."

"Hmm."

This time, it was Roland who took the initiative to kiss her, holding her.

…

"Eh? Hang on." Maggie stopped mid-air after playing with Lightning for a while, staring at the empty basket. "They're gone, coo!"

"Ah?" Lightning tilted her head and took a look. "Don't worry, they're just sitting down. That's why you can't see them."

"But don't they want to see the scenery outside?"

"They can see the scenery any time, but opportunities like this are rare."

"Opportunity?" Maggie quivered her wings and perched on Lightning's shoulder. "I don't really understand. Should we go check on them, coo?"

"No." Lightning held Maggie in her arms. "This is a holy ceremony that can't be interrupted."

"Coo?"

"You'll understand in the future. Times like these, you just have to pretend you didn't see anything. That's what the greatest explorer in the world, my dear father, told me." Lightning threw Maggie out and held her waist with one hand. "Now run. It's my turn to chase after you."

Chapter 176 - The Answer in Her Heart

After suspending in the air for an hour, the hot air balloon landed in the courtyard of the castle slowly.

The hot air balloon drew all the witches' attention after landing. At first Nightingale was the only one to stand there and wait for them, now almost all Witch Union's members stayed here. Even Scroll who worked at the City Hall came to see what happened. She looked at the sky with worries after knowing the truth, fearing that the big hot air balloon would fall from the sky,

Scroll and Wendy approached Roland as soon as he climbed out of the basket, warning him not to risk his life. After placating them for a bit, the prince wisely changed the subject to the hot air balloon. This amused Nightingale and she was about to step forward to greet him when she suddenly froze, rooted to the spot.

She saw Roland carrying Anna out of the basket. Her blue eyes were smiling and there was a faint blush on her cheeks. A little shining hairpin was in her hair, neatly pinning her fringe to the side.

Nightingale remembered that it was the silver ingot Roland had grounded several days ago when he was instructing the blacksmiths to operate those big machines.

So, the hairpin was made by Roland himself?

The other witches were clamoring to take a ride on the hot air balloon. Very soon, the airbag expanded again. The passengers were Anna and Nana this time.

Nightingale stood away from the crowd, watching the hot air balloon became smaller and smaller in shock.

Her entire mind was filled with Anna's sweet smile.

Anna was usually calm and indifferent. This kind of expression was rarely seen on her face. Nightingale was very familiar with the expression when she was traveling with the Witch Cooperation Association. She knew what it meant. Roland was obviously not just enjoying the beautiful scenery with Anna in the hot air balloon. With Lighting and Maggie around, they would not go that far, but it was hard to suppress the idea once it occurred to her. She felt like there was a hole inside her heart.

Although she had made up her mind to be okay with that, still Nightingale found it was easier said than done.

Seeing everyone was so happy and the place was so rowdy, her mind went totally blank. She just found a corner and sat against the wall.

The hot air balloon descended again. It was Leaf who seized the chance and got in the basket when Nana left.

Roland had already gone when Nightingale came to herself. "He must've gone back to his work after he finished listening Scroll's remonstrance," Nightingale thought. She was supposed to follow him just like she always did. But when she stood up, she felt it was hard for her to step forward. For she really did not know how to face Roland now, even though he could not see her after her entering the Mist. But Nightingale knew clearly that she would feel worse seeing how happy he was.

The hot air balloon ascended and descended many times. After everyone got tired of it, Wendy went to Nightingale. "Why are you staying here? Don't you want to ride the balloon? It's amazing to fly in the sky and look at the town."

If there was anyone harder for her to face than Roland, it was Anna. Nightingale hastily stood up. "No, I can't. I need to return to the office now," she said, walked into the Mist. Before she could walk longer, she thought it was strange for her to use her ability in the courtyard. When she turned around, she saw Wendy in her original spot, looking confused. Nightingale gritted her teeth and quickly walked away.

...

Nightingale went back to her bedroom after dinner, sprawling on the bed.

She did not show herself in the office the whole day. When Roland tentatively called her name, she just patted him on his back to indicate her presence. She did not show herself even when Roland took out her favorite salted dried fish from his mahogany desk.

"What's wrong? Are you all right? I saw you sit alone when all of us are so excited about taking the hot air balloon." Wendy walked into the bedroom, closing the door.

"Nothing." Nightingale turned over.

"I don't believe you. There must be something on your mind." Wendy sat by her bed and pulled her up, staring at her for a while. "I thought you're willing to share all your burdens with me."

Closing her eyes, Nightingale was silent for a long time. "It's Anna."

"Anna?"

Nightingale did not want to talk about these things because it made her feel like a narrow-minded person. Anna was, after all, the first witch Roland met, not her. But if she did not say anything, she felt like a rock was weighing on her. What was worse, Wendy had helped her a lot when they were in the Witch Cooperation Association. Whenever Nightingale was confused, the first person she thought of was always Wendy and she had never failed her. Considering this, Nightingale held Wendy's hands and told her everything.

Wendy sighed after hearing her explanation. "Anna doesn't understand the severity of the situation, but why don't you? I've once warned you that Roland Wimbledon can't be with a witch. He'll be a king and needs heirs to inherit his kingdom. From this perspective alone, he won't choose to marry a witch."

"He will."

"What?" Wendy was shocked.

"His Highness Roland will marry a witch." Nightingale opened her eyes, every word spoken slowly. "He said so himself."

In the first place, Nightingale wanted to keep this in her heart, but she could no longer stand the feeling of not being understood.

Wendy seemed frightened by what she heard. After a long silence, she asked with a scowl, "Are you sure?"

"It's true." Nightingale repeated what Scroll asked that night. "When Scroll asked if he would marry a witch, he answered yes, why not. You know my ability that I can tell if a person's lying. I know he meant what he said."

Wendy grabbed Nightingale by the arms. "Remember, you mustn't tell anyone about this, not even the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association."

"Wh-why?"

"Roland is destined to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. What would it mean if he can't have heirs? Even without the church's opposition, the local nobles wouldn't support such a king. You must keep this a secret and never, ever tell anyone about it! The only thing you need to do is keep him safe. Don't forget the fates of all our sisters go hand in hand with whether Roland can be king."

Nightingale nodded.

After pondering for a moment, Wendy said, "As for the thing that troubles you, do you want to be his queen, or just stay with His Highness all the way?"

"Of course I want to stay by his side," Nightingale replied without hesitation.

"Aren't you already by his side now?" Wendy chuckled. "There can only be one queen, but when he ascends the throne, he'll still need your protection. Do you know what I mean?"

Nightingale blinked. She did not reply.

"So it's not hard to be together, but it's hard to accept your own choice." Wendy opened her hand, saying. "If you can't accept that, you must step back or step further, to be his queen or... As for this question, only you know the answer."

…

The next morning, Roland walked into the office, yawning. When he opened his drawer, the salted dried fish was gone.

Chapter 177 - The Will of the Church

The secret chamber of the Hermes Cathedral.

The pope's chair was still empty.

Three archbishops sat in a line. As usual, Mayne started the conversation. "I've heard that some conflicts are bursting out in the Kingdom of Everwinter."

"The Judgement Army garrisoned there is dealing with it. Coburn, the High Priest is the commander," Tayfun answered.

"What exactly is happening?"

"It's all because of the dregs that were introduced into the church." Heather whistled. "After the queen was beheaded, the nobles joined the church in swarms and took high occupations in church. It was all caused by your plan to compromise, Lord Mayne. The city guards turned a blind eye when the nobles sacked the city in the name of arresting the witches, resulting in provoking the people to rebel."

"It wasn't my plan, Lord Heather," he said unhappily, "It was the will of the Supreme Pontiff. This way, we'll be able to take over the entire kingdom in the shortest possible time, rather than waste time contesting with the nobles. Which, I must say, have generated a number of capable people who can offer us great help. As for the borers who have no right to succeed, the lineage will be sifted out in one generation."

"Well, since you bring up the name of the Supreme Pontiff, I'll argue no more." Heather shrugged. "But please let me deal with those defaulters who have discredited our reputation."

Mayne turned to look at Archbishop Tayfun who pondered and said, "I suggest that instead of punishing them now, it's better to detain the defaulters after we quell the unrest. The nobles have just joined the church. If we punish them now, it'll create panic among the nobles."

"No!" Heather shouted, banging her fist on the table, "The rule is the rule, and it can't be violated. Any plunder that was acted on in the name of the church will never be spared. I'm the one in charge of law and arbitration!"

"We should be greater than ourselves at this time..." Tayfun said.

"That's what I mean." Heather interrupted. "Don't forget how we built up the reputation of justice in the Kingdom of Everwinter. If we don't punish those scum severely now, we'll lose the people of Everwinter. The foundation of the church is the people, not the nobles. If you disagree with me, I'll ask for instruction from the Supreme Pontiff!"

The Pope did not have time for this kind of affair. They were not built on the support of people, but on how great the power they had. Mayne sighed, reaching out his hand to signal Tayfun to calm down. "How about letting High Priest Coburn take them back to the new Holy City for trial?"

"No need for that. I'll take care of it myself," Heather said, "I've finished my work here already, and I'll be back in two or three months. As for the location of the trial, of course, the more attendees the better. I think the ice and snow stage of the king's city in the Kingdom of Everwinter would be a good place."

"You sure?" Mayne frowned. "Now that we have no extra commander to escort you, it would be perilous if you were to run into an Extraordinary on the road."

"We could meet an Extraordinary anywhere," Heather said disapprovingly, "A team of Judgement Army soldiers will be enough for me."

"If you insist." Mayne wanted to drop the topic. "I've got bad news. Something unexpected happened in the battle to attack Broken Tooth Castle in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. We lost more than 20 men from God's Punishment Army and over 100 members of the Judgement Army. What's worse, we haven't taken the castle yet."

"More than 20 men of God's Punishment Army?" Tayfun said, staring at Mayne, "Who was the conductor?"

"It was Bell, and she's dead."

"The conductor is dead? It looks like they've met something quite strong," Heather said with interest, "Lord O'Brian should be very annoyed at losing so many men in one single battle."

"We can't blame him. Broken Tooth Castle has taken advantage of its unique topography. They built the gate between the hills with a height of around 10 meters. They destroyed the wooden bridge in front of the gate in advance and had the aid of an alchemist who invented some unique things for them," Mayne explained, "It's reported that as soon as the army climbed up the ladder placed against the outer wall, they were stricken by weird flames. White solids were shooting out from pipes in the gate before they smoked and caught fire. The flame was able to adhere to the human body. The unquenchable flame would keep burning until the carriers turned into ash. Currently, they're connecting the believers in the city to see if they could work in collusion."

"I'm sure that the believers in the city must have been slaughtered." Heather curled his lip. "We should send more men to consume the fire if we want to breach the wall. That's the right thing to do. I never knew that an alchemist could prepare their items on a large scale. The more men we send to consume the fire the less stock they'll have."

"Those men you said are the God's Punishment Army!" Tayfun shouted angrily, his beard jerking, "Do you have any idea about how difficult it's to incarnate a member of God's Punishment Army? And by now the number of them hasn't reached 1,000 yet. What do we have to resist Months of Demons if we lose over half of the army in unifying the continent." "Not to mention the demons following after that."

"Stop fighting," Mayne said, "I didn't mean to tell you the news so that you could argue the means of attack. We have to admit that the church demands more God's Punishment Army soldiers at present. Since the church has taken the Kingdom of Everwinter, something that used to be carried out in the dark can now be performed in the right and proper way. There used to be two deliveries of 'seeds' every year. Now I'm requesting for one more delivery. As the duration of spring becomes irregular because of the Months of Demons, the delivery of 'seeds' to Holy City has to start in summer. We must secure the delivery every season. Accordingly, the incarnation ceremonies will increase to three times a year. Lord Tayfun, you'll be responsible for this."

"But there aren't that many orphans and babies," the elder archbishop said, touching his beard, "Not all people will abandon their children to the church."

"You have to figure out a way to gain more children. The church has had its roots in the Kingdom of Everwinter for the longest time and has developed the largest number of believers. If we can't even get enough manpower in this land, what better situation do we expect in the other three kingdoms? Never forget, the Judgement Army and God's Punishment Army are the only things we have to quell the resistance while we're on the way to unifying the continent."

"I think we have the people we want." Heather raised her lips. "There're as many children who wander on the street as there're wild cats and dogs. Moreover, I heard that there're Black Street Rats who recruit the children and train them as pickpockets, smugglers, or scapegoats. The nobles may offer the Rats shelter before they're erased. Thanks to Lord Mayne who has brought the nobles into the church, no one will shelter these Rats now. If we send the Judgement Army out to crush the underground gangs once and for all, I'm sure that you'll get a lot of children. Meanwhile, eliminating the dregs will build up a good impression in people's mind as well as intimidate the nobles. It's a good move that'll kill three birds with one stone, don't you think so?"

Mayne thought it was a good idea as well. No matter how extreme Heather could be, she was always the first one to come up with solutions to problems, except for some words that needed to be ignored deliberately. "Do as Lord Heather suggests. In any case, we must take the whole Kingdom of Wolfheart before autumn. After that, apart from the garrisoned Judgement Army that's necessary to preserve order in the kingdom, the army must be recalled to Hermes in order to defend during the Months of Demons. The enemy will be stronger next time."

Tayfun looked unwilling yet nodded at last. "Just don't blame me when the nobles whose interests have been harmed start to protest against us. Also, since the Kingdom of Dawn has noticed what happened in the neighboring country, the churches in many cities have been targeted. The churches in some areas have even been robbed and burned. I suggest organizing the believers to evacuate so that they don't waste their lives in these conflicts."

"No, they have to protest to the end." Mayne denied. "The more believers are sacrificed, the more justification we'll have to retaliate later. This isn't a waste, but a spark of fire. If we retreat our people from the kingdoms where we don't have many believers and our root isn't deep enough, the church there will become weaker."

"All right, I'm just pointing it out." Tayfun shrugged. "The last one is the Kingdom of Graycastle. Hmm, read it yourselves." He pulled out a scroll and tossed it to Mayne.

Mayne opened and scanned the scroll. It was actually a letter from Garcia Wimbledon, Queen of Clearwater. He frowned.

"She hung Priest Decca?"

"And fed the believers to the fishes," Tayfun added, "The church has been torn down to the ground as well. I suppose she found out the side effect of the pills."

Heather smacked her hand. "How long have I said that even if someone kept replenishing the pills, the pesticide effect would decline until the takers became feeble and died. It seems a good weapon to destroy the enemy, but as soon as the effect emerges, the enemy will understand what the church is planning. What's worse is that I've heard from previous reports that her own men didn't take too many pills. On the contrary, most pills were fed to barbarians in the Southern Territory."

"Less than 1,000 of her men have taken the pills. She blames us for her loss." Mayne put down the letter. "How ridiculous! How could she become the Queen of Port of Clearwater without the support of the church? Where's Timothy Wimbledon? Why didn't he march on the Southern Territory when he received our pills?"

"Currently, he's engaged in plundering the Northern Region. The reason he gave us was that he has to stop the rebellion in the Northern Region in case his defense become unstable. I suppose he means to take the lands of the dukes in the north before coming to the final battle with Garcia," Tayfun answered, "I'm not sure if the new king will march directly to the Western Region when he takes the Northern Region."

Chapter 178 - The Pivotal Secret Temple

"Ha ha ha... " Heather said, laughing, "It's unlikely for a pawn to do as exactly as he was commanded. Provided that he keeps the final purpose the same with ours, we just let him act in his own way, which means as long as they keep losing men in war, we don't care wherever his army marches to. Anyway, since Graycastle is the last kingdom to attack in our plan, there's time for them to fight each other. Didn't Roland Wimbledon refuse our pills last time? This time we could let Timothy put more pressure on the Western Region and then maybe he'll accept our pills."

Still, Mayne was displeased that the Queen of Clearwater had turned against him openly. After all, he personally selected this pawn. If Timothy chose to station his troops and stand facing Garcia instead of marching on her after he took Graycastle, the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince wouldn't have its intended effect. It seemed that he needed to take other actions.

"We won't hastily make a decision about the affairs of the Western Region until we received words from our messengers," Mayne said, "That'll do for today. Please make sure everything goes as planned. I have other business in Hermes' underground castle."

"Oh, yes," Heather said, as if something suddenly occurred to her, "Is today the day of the incarnation? How many people have applied to participate in the incarnation ceremony?"

"It's confidential." Mayne stood up and headed out of the secret chamber without looking back.

…

After walking on a long, hanging stairway down to the bottom of the cave, Archbishop Mayne, crossed the white stones, which were as sleek as mirrors, heading to the depths of the underground castle.

Unlike its usual tranquility, the office seemed quite busy today. A group of men of the Judgement Army who had passed the examination were waiting outside the office. Since most of them were here for the first time, they all looked around curiously. As soon as they saw Mayne, everyone thrust out their chests and gave the clenched-fist salute. "Lord Archbishop!"

He smiled and nodded back. The Judgement Army was made of the elite warriors of the church, who were very loyal to God and were willing to sacrifice. Despite the fact that the incarnation of God's Punishment Army did not always succeed was known by them before they submitted their applications, they were still willing to devote their lives to this great honor.

As the warriors watched him reverently, he passed the third hurdle and arrived at the Pivotal Secret Area, where the pope's guards were waiting. They bowed to him before pushing open the big metal door behind them.

Mayne followed the guards into the chamber. From here, the heart of Hermes' underground castle started, and every research and discovery of the church was carried out here.

With no torch lit in the Pivotal Secret Area, suddenly he could not see anything but the darkness. After slightly adapting to it, he noticed a narrow corridor before him. The wall and roof of the corridor were forged with iron, and both sides of the wall were adorned with fluorescent stones—this unique stone belonged to the family of God's Stone of Retaliation and could fluoresce green after it was stained with the blood of demonic beasts.

A cage was laid at the end of the corridor. As they entered the cage, the guards pulled down the gear. The chain above them let out a crunching noise, which sounded particularly harsh in the quiet corridor. Accompanied by the sound, the cage descended slowly into a hole in the ground. Suddenly, Mayne saw the light.

An underground space that was exceedingly spacious came into his sight.

No matter how many times he had seen this startling scene, he always felt a sense of smallness.

Logically, a cave buried deep in the underground should be pitch black. But that was not the case here, for the whole cave was lit by the gleam of God's Stone of Retaliation. The huge God's Stone of Retaliation looked like numerous prisms that rose from the ground, forming clusters of crystal flowers. Even the smallest prism was as thick as a human trunk, and the large one was so thick that it needed more than 10 people to get their arms around it. The heights of those prisms were uneven. The highest one could touch the roof and be even higher than the tower of heaven in the Hermes Cathedral.

The colors of stones were various. The densest cluster of God's Stone of Retaliation revealed a color of lavender. Other clusters near it had their colors varied from dark blue to light green. The smaller ones were white, and the young prisms that just cropped up from the ground were almost transparent. The purple God's Stone of Retaliation shone most conspicuously, especially the one higher than the tower of heaven. With a brightness close to that of the full moon, this unique stone contributed most of the light, so that even without the torch in the cave, people could faintly see the ground.

Being affected by the God's Stone of Retaliation of such density, the magic power was unable to work in the inner region of the hillside. And the stones that the church sold were also mined from here.

The space of the cave was large enough to accommodate five or six Hermes Cathedrals, and they had indeed built a structure that was exactly the same as the Cathedral, which was named the Pivotal Secret Temple. Yet it looked much older than the church that stood on the top of the hill. Mayne, who was now in the cage that was in the air descending, could see the black, iron gate on the wall of the cave behind the temple, which led to the foot of Mount Hermes, connecting with the old Holy City. In a sense, the old building was the true body of the Hermes' underground castle, and long before the establishment of the new Holy City, it had put down roots here.

It took almost eight minutes for the cage to land. Mayne stepped out and groomed himself before following the messengers to the temple.

The incarnation ceremony would be held in the hall on the first floor.

After entering the hall, the archbishop felt the light had returned to the world around him—it was no longer blue-purple, but orange, shining from thousands of candles. The light above them was from the three-layer, tower-type candle chandelier. Meanwhile, there were many candlesticks placed around the hall, casting an image of countless stars that were swaying. Thanks to the fire, the chill within the cave had now been driven away considerably.

The man that stood between the two incarnation altars was the Supreme Leader of the church, Pope O'Brien, who was wearing a striking red robe trimmed with gold, and a golden gem crown on his head. At that time, he was concentrating on checking the apparatuses of the incarnation to make the final preparation for the ceremony.

"Supreme Pontiff." Mayne walked over and kneeled before O'Brien, kissing his hand.

"Rise, boy." The pope's voice was hoarse and slow. "There's no one other than the guards here. No need to pay attention to the cumbersome etiquette."

"As you wish." Mayne stood up, and when he looked at His Holiness, he was shocked by his look. He looked much older than the last time they had met. His face was full of deep lines, and his skin looked an unhealthy white, saggy and dull. The thickly dotted speckles were particularly eye-catching. As the archbishop saw this, his eyes went wet. "You've... worked too hard."

"Time has left its marks on me," O'Brien said calmly, "and no one can resist the passage of time. There isn't much time left for me now. I'm afraid I can't see the day when men defeat demons, nor do I have to bear the unknown pain. But you have to keep fighting until the day you eventually defeat the enemy or the other way around. And one more defeat will crush us once for all."

Mayne nodded and said, "I'll fight to the last moment."

"Very good." The old man smiled. "You've done very well recently. You've added more than 1,000 men to the Judgement Army for the church, and there're 62 applicants who'll participate in the incarnation ceremony this time. The number of the Judgement Army has reached the highest in its history."

"Your Holiness, could you tell me how many men of the God's Punishment Army do we need to defeat the demons?" Mayne hesitated for a moment before he asked. "All we know about the demons are from the Holy Book, and yet the record is fragmentary. It has left out the knowledge about where they came from, their number, and how they fought. I understand that I won't learn these secrets until I become the pope, but..."

O'Brien reached out his hand to stop him going on. "You're being impatient, boy. Be patient. It won't be long before you take over the crown and become the next pope. By then, all of your questions can be solved by the files stored on the top of the Pivotal Secret Temple. The only answer I can give you now is the more men, the better," He gasped for air and said, "Moreover, although you aren't summoned here for the incarnation ceremony, since you're here, I hope you'll try to host the incarnation and take it as an... ahem... experience for the future. I'll stand by."

Mayne patted the pope's back to ease his cough. After the pope began to breathe more easily, he lowered his head and said, "Yes, Your Holiness."

Chapter 179 - The Incarnation Ceremony

To master how to host an incarnation ceremony of God's Punishment Army was essential to the pope. When Mayne had taken over the ancient book of God's Punishment from His Holiness O'Brien, it meant that he had been qualified to be the next pope.

Mayne had learned all that was written in the book thoroughly. He knew that to create a man of God's Punishment Army they needed to sacrifice a witch, whose blood would be blended with a God's Stone of Retaliation before being injected into the man of the Judgement Army. Despite that the process had been improved several times over centuries, the essence had not changed—the number of witches limited the total number of the men of God's Punishment Army, and the will of the Judgement Army significantly determined the success of the incarnation.

After reading the book, he realized the reason for the church taking in so many underage girls. Before their magic powers were gathered, they looked just the same as common people. So there was no obvious sign of potential witches that could be spotted. Yet, once their magic powers began to converge, their bodies, organs, and blood would be shaped. Therefore, there was no other way to obtain more witches except by expanding the scale of breeding underage girls.

That was why he agreed with Heather—everything they had done was extremely evil, and all seniors had their hands soaked with blood because they had slaughtered more witches than any executioners. However, in order to defeat the demons and save mankind from doom, they must continue on.

Only the winner would be eligible for God's favor.

…

Two men of the Judgment Army were lying on the incarnation altar. They were Dylan of the advance battalion and Tucker Thor of the guards of Holy City. Mayne was acquainted with them, especially the latter one, who was a chief justice.

Although they wore smiles on their faces, the archbishop could tell from the tensed muscles and the clenched fists that they were very nervous. He patted their shoulders and encouraged them. "Take it easy. I believe you can make it."

"My lord, when the time comes, all I have to do is to endure the pain?" Dylan could not help asking.

"Yes, just get over it," Mayne said while smiling, "Your name is Dylan, isn't it?"

"You actually remember my name," he said excitedly.

"Of course. You belong to the advance battalion and participated in the defense of Hermes last year. Your captain is... Alicia, if I'm not wrong?"

"Right, right," said Dylan, nodding, "At that time, our team lost many men in a battle, and demonic hybrid beasts killed most of our brothers. I thought of how good it would be if only I had the ability to kill the deformed hybrids. That's why, my lord, I want to be one of God's Punishment Army."

"It's very nice to have the faith of being stronger for the sake of your brothers." Mayne encouraged him before turning to the chief justice. "What about you? Tucker Thor, what has made you come to the decision to become a member of God's Punishment Army?"

"To defend the new Holy City, my lord," he said with determination, "Priests have said that the demonic beasts will grow stronger in the coming years. Last time, they reached the wall of Holy City, and the cathedral would have been destroyed without the help of God's Punishment Army. I wish to be the shield against the demonic beasts and the spear to pierce enemies."

"Very good. Both of you are the pride of the church." In accordance with the steps told in the book, he eased their tension and fear with the conversation. When he saw their emotion soaring high, he waved his hand and motioned to continue the ceremony.

A guard went forward to blindfold their eyes and fixed their limbs firmly on the incarnation altar with bracelets. After that, a witch was carried in and laid between them.

As a witch who was raised by the church, she spent most of her life in the cloister in old Holy City. After the awakening, she would be sent to the Pivotal Secret Area where she would wait for the incarnation. A day before the sacrifice, she would be forced to drink in much Dreamland Water—a medicine made of the sleeping fern and coltsfoot to make sure that she would not be roused by any sounds during the ceremony.

"The code and the age?"

"Number one, 18," the guard answered.

This was a routine inquiry, for only the blood of a grown witch was enough to incarnate two men at the same time. After Mayne rechecked the witch list to reach a final confirmation, he announced that the ceremony had begun.

As an exquisite silver needle was inserted into the witch's arm, her russet blood flowed along the needle to a leather hose that was connected to the needle and to the crystal basin under her. The bottom of the basin was paved with light-blue God's Stones of Retaliation. Over time, the blood gradually immersed the stones. Finally, it filled the basin.

Soon, the God's Stones of Retaliation changed. Through the transparent crystal side of the basin, one could clearly saw that the blue stones were absorbing the blood. After eight minutes, the stones melted away and the turbid blood became clear. Meanwhile, the color of the liquid turned from russet to sky blue.

The seemingly simple operation had taken them tens of thousands of tests to conclude a complete and reliable procedure. It included the details such as the different ages of witches, how to estimate the blood volume of different figures, how to make the silver needle and leather hose, which part of the body was appropriate to insert to get the blood or inject the blood, how to choose the quality and quantity of the God's Stones of Retaliation and so on... The ancient book had recorded every test failure and the improvement, as well as the general principle of incarnation.

After a witch's body was changed by the magic power, her blood could strengthen the organs and tendons. The recipient would be killed immediately by direct injection of the blood. They had to immerse the God's Stones of Retaliation in the blood to dissolve the "unknown power" before injecting them into the recipients. Even so, the blood was able to damage their mind so that recipient would gradually lose his feeling and intelligence until he was left with nothing but instinct and some strong will. The ones who survived the incarnation would become as strong as the Extraordinary. Moreover, they would keep the ability to tolerate the magic power even without wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation.

Mayne had to say that it was a wonderful combination. The blood of the witch could kill people, and swallowing the God's Stone of Retaliation would also put people to death, while combining these two things would minimize the undesirable effects.

As the blue liquid flowed through the hose slowly into the two recipients, the veins in their arms and necks protruded, and their faces became ferocious, like enduring a great pain. Dylan cried out first, struggling on the altar. His fingers were clenching and unclenching, and yet his hands and feet were fixed and unable to move, so that after a while, his body was covered by a thin sweat.

Tucker was not much better. He growled constantly, his lip stained with bloody foam, and his whole body was twitching.

As the liquid level lowered to the bottom of the basin, Dylan's voice sounded like crying. He shouted out meaningless words randomly, his skin was dissolving, and his body was covered with white smoke. According to the description in the ancient book, his incarnation was levering on the verge of failure. When Mayne was hesitating to see whether he needed to wait a little longer to recheck, the pope held his shoulder from behind and said, "Enough, free him from the pain."

A guard walked over and unsheathed a dagger. He neatly pierced it into Dylan's throat while turning the hilt to end his pain.

After a tough wait, Tucker Thor's twitching eased, his breathing smoothed out with his skin turning from red to light blue. Mayne knew that he had survived the incarnation ceremony.

One succeeded while the other failed. He sighed about the result. In no more than 30 minutes, the church had lost one loyal man of the Judgement Army as well as wasted half of the witch's blood.

Yet, since there were 60 men waiting in line, he had to continue the ceremony.

…

When the whole ceremony was finished, Mayne barely could remain on his feet. He staggered down the stage and sat against the wall, regardless of manners.

The pope walked slowly towards him and stood before him. "To tell the truth, your performance had surprised me, my boy. The first time I hosted the ceremony, I did much worse than you. I was 45-years-old that year, and the strong smell of blood made me throw up directly on the stage, almost resulted in ruining a basin of blood. The mistake even got me whipped hard by the previous pope. After the punishment, he ordered me to get back to the stage and continue the ceremony.

... Mayne opened his mouth but did not know what to say.

"So, clear your mind and take a good day off."

"Yes, Your Holiness." The archbishop took a deep breath and kneeled to give a salute. When he was about to leave, he suddenly remembered the purpose of this visit. "Oh, yes, you've summoned me to the Pivotal Secret Area for... "

"Oh, such a poor memory of mine." O'Brien shook his head in self-deprecation. "I intend to give you a new poison developed by the office."

"A poison?" Mayne asked in disbelief. The Pivotal Secret Area had a department that specialized in the research of the God's Stone of Retaliation, such as Cold Expelling Pill, Fluorescent Stone, Madding Drugs, etc. As soon as they developed new products, they would distribute them to the bishop. However, he never heard that they also worked on poisons, which were something that, according to what Mayne had known, the alchemists should excel at.

"They told me that they got it by accident," the pope said slowly, "You only need to sprinkle it on rotten corpses to make it work, and it has a long-term effect on the people around the corpses. The poison saves us the trouble from ordinary poisons, which were needed to be taken in to make them work. The one who's poisoned will barely be cured without the special antidote. Ask Master Crow's Eye if you want to learn more. I believe that it may have some use in the war of the four kingdoms."

As Mayne heard these words, Broken Tooth Castle, which had taken them so much time to besiege, immediately emerged in his mind, as well as Graycastle, where the war situation was at an unsatisfying stalemate. He restrained his joy and saluted again before saying. "If the poison is really as effective as what Master Crow's Eye said, it indeed will help me a lot."

Chapter 180 - The Census

Recently, Roland had been immersed in a pleasant mood.

Even while sitting alone in his office, he would occasionally hum a bit and recall his happy time in the basket of the hot air balloon.

Anna was so lovely when she closed her eyes while waiting for a kiss. He could not help raising his lips in a soft smile while thinking about it. Moreover, the most important part was the meaning of her words, which had revealed her passionate feelings for him thoroughly.

At that time, all Roland could do was to kiss her back with even more passion so much so that when they were landing,

He even felt a faint pain on his lips.

Maybe the kiss had lasted too long and unable to catch her breath she bit him in a panic.

Regardless, this was a feeling that he had not experienced in a long time.

Since his age was maturing all of the romantic skills he had learned from T.V., movies, novels, and comics came into use. And, his partner was the strikingly beautiful Anna. Roland believed that he was finally taking his first steps as a winner.

Taking a deep breath of satisfaction, he reached into his drawer for some snacks to accompany the joy but found nothing. There had been fresh jerky placed in the drawer just yesterday.

Roland glanced back at Nightingale who was lying prone on the windowsill. She whistled and pretended to look out the window. He had deliberately changed his snacks from dried fish to jerky to prevent Nightingale from stealing it. Perhaps jerky was also to her liking.

That's when he heard footsteps outside the door.

"Your Highness, Sir Barov asks to see you."

"Let him in."

Nightingale did not hide away as usual. Instead, she pulled down her hood and returned to the chaise longue near the wall.

Assistant Minister Barov pushed open the door and entered. When he saw there was someone else in the office, he was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered.

"Your Highness, the results from the census taken this month has been released." He handed over a roll of parchment.

"Already?"

"With help from the registration of subjects, it's much easier to take a census now." The assistant minister laughed. "You made a very wise decision."

[Ha, now he tries to flatter me...] Roland spread out the scroll that briefly categorized the people in Border Town according to their jobs. This made it easy and clear to read. [Compared to his poor report that I couldn't even distinguish a single paragraph of when I first came here, Barov's ability has improved significantly.]

The first row represented the largest group of people, the serfs, with a current total of 3,628 people (including family members). On the next line, there was a note that said the number of serfs who were farmers was 1,500.

"Your Highness, do you think the number of farmers is too low?" Barov said while pointing at the first row, "According to what Sirius from the Ministry of Agriculture has estimated, if we want to cut the imported grains to zero, we might need to double the farmland and the labor in order to meet the need for grain in Border Town."

Roland remembered the name, Sirius, who should be the knight of the Wolf Family. The 1,500 people who were currently farming were just the first batch of serfs sent here. The subsequent batches were deployed by Roland to the mines or to Karl's construction team. All of them had received the same guarantee that as long as they worked for a specific amount of, they would become free people.

"I don't intend to support the grains this year since there's a lot of wheat stored in the castle warehouse, which is enough to support everyone for two or three months. Meanwhile, this new species of wheat is quite different."

"Quite different?" Barov asked surprised.

"Well, you'll understand soon enough." Roland smiled. [The new species of wheat, the Golden Ones, were enhanced by Leaf's magic. Each plant now tripled its production over ordinary wheat. This harvest will definitely surprise everyone. That's why I don't need to put too many men on the task of farming. With the help of Leaf's special magic, just a small number of farmers are going to be enough to feed my subjects. This way I can save my precious human resources for the industrial development and urban construction.]

He continued to look down at the scroll.

The second-row contained the details about architects followed by a complicated note including the masons, tilers, bricklayers, carpenters, handymen, etc. The total number reached more than 1,100, and most of the people were serfs who worked as handymen. The reason why the houses and factories in Border Town were erected in only a short period of time was due to the involvement from the builders of "the labor army". The way he accelerated construction was by careful planning. Using templates, batching tasks, and specific programming facilitated the speedy process. The construction speed still had not met Roland's standards, however, most people found the construction time to be shocking.

The third row discussed the mining industry and the workers.

Just like what happened in the case of architects, the number of local residents from Border Town had dropped to only 25. Most of their jobs were running the steam engine and managing the mine. The remaining 1,600 people were outlanders, including the captured mercenaries from the war of Longsong Stronghold, and the serfs who were sent here consistently after the war.

"There have been some fights taking place in the mines," Barov said, "mostly because of the conflict between the mercenaries and the serfs. Your Highness, this could be a potential problem. There are too many of them, and if a fight burst out, the 25 managers won't be able to control it. I suggest letting the First Army assist and guard."

"Well..." Rolland thought for a moment. "So be it. Now I'm short on hands to build the police force. I'll have a word with Iron Axe. A Flintlock Squad of 50 men should be enough."

"What's... police?"

"You can view them like a patrol except that they have duties within more aspects. They'll almost take full charge of the town's security," Roland said. [Since there's no division between the internal violence and external violence in this era, letting the army control security isn't part of their own black history. Before I defeat the church I won't waste the manpower on forming a second violent machine.]

The fourth row was about the First Army of Border Town.

After the war for the Stronghold, the First Army's name became renowned all over the Western Region, who had defeated the Coalition of Duke Ryan, at the low cost removing the noble's courage to resist. He then rewarded the First Army according to the size of their contributions. That's when Roland decided to increase the army's size to 600 men. As soon as recruitment was announced, the square became packed with applicants. From them, Roland selected 300 residents who were in a good health and had no criminal record to join the First Army. This was in accordance with his concept that the army for the people should be made up of the people.

The rest covered the topic of technicians.

For example, the workers who conducted refining and burning had increased substantially in recent months, going from no more than 20 men to 400 men. Thanks to "Expert of the Kiln" Lesya, North Slope Mine Kiln was able to not only produce red bricks but also burn cement and glass. Meanwhile, there were three shaft furnaces under construction. It would not be long before the minerals, stacked in the stockyard, would be refined for the first time in a shaft furnace. After forming the ingots, they would be transported to where ever they were needed.

As for the people who worked in education, chemistry, industry, and animal husbandry, the total came to less than 50. In other words, from the point of view of the census, Border Town still had a long way to go. However, for a little town, the change in the population composition, which went from mainly hunters and miners to how it was now, only took 6 months and that was considered great.

Nowadays, there were few people who made a living by hunting, and hunting had become mostly a hobby. Besides the people who had joined the First Army or took on refining, there were still about 1,000 unemployed. As soon as they finished the literacy classes established by the universal education, Roland would begin the industrial development by employing them all in factories.

Chapter 181 - Soraya's [Painting]

After Barov took his leave, Roland put the chart of census into the drawer. He turned to look at Nightingale and wanted to ask what had happened to her, yet after hesitating for a moment, he did not say anything.

He might know the answer, and yet he dared not to say out because of the embarrassment as well as the possibility of guessing wrong. Instead, he said, "Next is to visit the North Slope Mine."

"Want to see the changes of Soraya's new ability?" Though Nightingale was acting a little strange now, her manner looked just as usual. She took off the hood and laughed. "Let's go."

[Perhaps I'm thinking too much,] Roland thought while watching the witch walk towards him.

The sky journey of the hot air balloon that day had affected more than one person.

Roland had not expected that Soraya had become the second witch whose power had changed qualitatively.

In fact, even Soraya herself did not expect the change.

Roland found out about it by accident yesterday.

Since the hot air balloon was given to Anna as a gift, it was laid in the courtyard. Someone who wanted to fly and enjoy the view would just call for Anna and Lightning. Until the day before yesterday when it rained, Roland remembered that cane-weaved gondola would be softened and peeled if it was soaked by water, moreover, it would lose part of ductility even after being dried. Hence, he was about to take it back into the castle.

He was meant to order the aiders to do it, but when he reconsidered it that the hot air balloon was a gift for Anna, and the components like the cord and the gasbag were fragile, he decided to take it in by himself. When he met with Hummingbird in the courtyard and was about to work on it, what he saw in the gondola surprised him.

The inner wall of the gondola was covered with drawings. They were of an aerial view of Border Town. Unlike the two-dimensional picture she had painted before, it seemed the paintings had a stereoscopic sensation. Regardless of the falling raindrops, Roland moved closer to have a clear look before discovering that for the first time, her painting had "thickness".

It was not surprising for a painting to have a thickness, and theoretically, any real paintings should have thickness because the pigments themselves had thickness. In oil painting, painters would even use the thickness of the pigments. With pens, brushes, or scrapers, they could create uneven texture, and through varied color layers, they could strengthen the texture as well as improve the presentation of the picture.

But Soraya was different, for her drawings were not created with pens and pigments but the magic power.

That was why the thickness created by the magic power was particularly strange.

He remembered that when he touched the raised trees gently with bare hands, it was like scratching the branches and leaves which were not hard solid but slightly softer jelly. And when he touched the ground, it felt more solid as if he was touching a stone.

It was incredible.

Moreover, as the raindrops ran down along the painting, they were kept away from the canes.

As soon as he got back to the castle, he called for Soraya. At the same time, Nightingale also confirmed the speculation. When she observed Soraya in the Mist, the magic power in her body had changed from the initial state of the golden gas swirl to the new state of a condensed and constantly rotating ribbon.

...

When they stepped into the compound of the military factory, Anna was smiling and greeted them by giving Roland a big hug.

Since they had opened their relationship, she behaved much more intimately when staying with Roland. Roland rubbed her head pleasantly and the silver hair clip on her hair was glittering in the sun.

Yet, he caught a glimpse of Soraya who was meant to walk over to greet him but held back bewilderingly. In the end, she looked away, her face blushed, pretending that she did not see anything.

"Ahem," Nightingale pulled Soraya back to the table and asked loudly on purpose, "You've painted all of these?"

Roland shook his head while laughing, and he let go of Anna and walked towards the table along with her.

The table was covered with Soraya's paintings, and they were the views of what could be seen in the compound. The only difference among these paintings was the thickness. Some paintings extended just one millimeter high above the paper, while others extended near three centimeters high. This was the training that Roland had made her practice in the morning in order to test how thick the 'pigments' created by magic power could be.

"This is the thickest one?" Roland reached his fingers to touch the painting that extended three centimeters high above the paper. It seemed that the pigments of the enchanting blue sky were too soft so that he could not sense any texture, however, when he moved his fingers to the wall of the compound, he felt the gravel-like friction at once.

It seemed that as he had guessed, a picture painted with the Magic Pen not only had the same shape and color the real objects but also the feel.

"It could be thicker, but it consumes much more power when it goes beyond this thickness." Soraya pointed to a brown protrusion on the table. "I meant to draw a tree on the wall, yet when I just finished the trunk, it had cost me half of my magic power."

"You've painted this thing?" Roland reached his hand to measure its extended height above the paper. To his surprise, the thickness was up to 10 centimeters. "I thought it was a real bark standing here."

Though as Roland had said, it looked like a bark, but its bonding with the surface of the table was exceedingly strong. He picked the bark up, which did not separate from the table, even when the legs of the table were above the ground.

Nightingale unsheathed the dagger to cut it. It took her a long time to cut a small hole at the bottom of the bark. "As if it was embedded in the table."

In the end, it was Anna who cut the bark off. As the thread formed by Blackfire swept over the table, the pigments emitted a white smoke before the bark fell down. The cut was neat but not smooth and had black scorched marks. When Roland picked up the fallen pigments and held it in his hand, it felt much lighter than he had expected.

"Why did you suddenly think of changing your painting style?... No, I mean, how did you decide to fill the painting with thickness?" he asked.

"I think probably because it was the first time I saw such a landscape," said Soraya, recalling. "When I was overlooking the earth, I felt that the paintings I made before—the 'photo works' that, like you had said, were almost able to rival the real scenery were not truly real. Especially when I painted the scenery in the gondola, this feeling grew stronger." she paused and slowed down, "The top of the tree is peaky and waves with the wind. The height of hills varies, some high, some low, like the undulating chest. The river is embedded in the earth, and there are vessels traveling over it. This is the scenery I've seen, not a thin plane of things. So I want to make the picture more real that it could stand up like the magnificent scenery. But I failed several times... When in slight frustration, I suddenly remembered the small ball you had said."

"The small ball?" Roland said, raising his eyebrow.

"Well." she nodded with some sort of embarrassment. "It's the knowledge that you've taught us, and I thought since everything was made of small balls, shouldn't the painting be the same? I tried more times, imagining that the painting made by Magic Pen was colorful balls, which were overlapping each other until they formed pieces of colors. And then... the picture suddenly squirmed. The green forest uplifted, and the dark green river sank down. The whole painting became what you've seen now. The change had startled me and Anna a lot, and I wouldn't view it as an evolution of my ability unless you mentioned it to me."

"I see."

"But compared to Anna's Blackfire, my new ability seems useless except for making the paintings more vivid." Soraya stuck her tongue out.

"No... How could it be?" Roland shook his head. "In my eyes, it's not just a simple painting."

It would be completely wasteful if she only used the ability to paint. He remembered the scene that the raindrops ran down along the surface of the gondola and was kept away from the cane. Rather than treating it as pigments, he would view it as a "coating" that was made of the magic power.

Chapter 182 - The Shaft Furnace

As long as anything could cover the surface of the object, forming a solid continuous membrane, it could be called a coating. Coatings could come in the phase of gas, liquid, or solid, and had different usages, ranging from the primary decoration to the modern durable protection.

Roland performed a series of tests after this discovery.

The test results had highly pleased him. Perhaps she had been influenced by the concept that the longer a painting could be preserved, the better it would be, and therefore, the photo-like painting she had drawn before had the advantage that the painting could hardly be erased unless its carrier was destroyed. Unexpectedly, the evolved ability shaped the advantage to a new level.

First of all, the special "pigments", which were highly adhesive and light performed two distinct features in physical properties. When they were working on a painting, they could change their flexibility according to different objects. For example, when painting the sky or the clouds, it would soften like the cotton candy and had a very high resistance to extension and cutting. When painting something like iron ingots or glass, it turned hard, brittle and could easily be broken by hammers. In other words, due to its special quality, it performed better in flexibility than rigidity, matching Soraya's understanding of the pigments.

Second, no matter which features it performed, its chemical properties were very stable. It not only was unable to react with the diluted sulfuric acid or diluted nitric acid but also repelled the water and oil. When he filled a painted box with water, the thin bottom of the box did not leak. After pouring off the water, he could see the clear droplets rolling within the box, like dews on a lotus leaf. The bottom of the box was dry when he touched it.

As Anna dropped the molten iron into the painted box in the high-temperature resistant test, the paper, which was the carrier, suddenly caught on fire, but yet the coating did not change much except being slightly swelled by the molten iron. When Anna's Blackfire continued heating up the coating, it began to melt and deform while emitting white smoke, and finally turned into a mass of black jelly.

What had excited Roland most was that the coating was also insoluble. The copper wire covered by the coating looked just like enameled wire in the modern world. He had proved this point with the simply equipped DC generator in the compound.

At this point, Roland could comprehensively understand Soraya's new ability.

Unlike Anna whose evolved Blackfire had completely surpassed the initial green flames, it seemed that Soraya had extended her ability of painting after evolving. Now she could draw virtual "oil paintings" as well as thin "photo-paintings", which depended solely on the idea in her mind. Most of all, both abilities could be used at the same time.

In addition, when creating virtual paintings with the thickness thinner than one centimeter, Soraya could keep painting for hours without any rest. Yet, when the thickness was thicker than three centimeters, the painting would consume magic power much more quickly. As long as the thickness reached 10 centimeters, which was a threshold, she would run out of all of her power in one or two strokes. Of course, to think it in another way, it could be view as the most effective way to drain her power when the bite of magic power came.

The ability was still a summoning type of skill. As soon as the magic pen entered the effective range of a God's Stone of Retaliation, it would disappear abruptly. Meanwhile, Soraya would not be able to continue the painting. But the God's Stone of Retaliation could not affect the finished coating. According to what Nightingale had observed when she was in the Mist, there was no trace of magic retained on the coating—in other words, the materials created by the magic pen were real.

As for the application of the coating... It was too much. Soraya would never expect what enormous change her new ability was going to bring to the town. It meant that Roland would soon get a number of water pipes with rust preventive coating and a large bundle of enameled wires, or even heat-resistant fire-proofing tiles. Three supplies projects (water, electricity, and access) which had seemed out of reach before, had become accessible.

At the same time, it warned him that any knowledge learned from personal experience was more profound than that from books.

If he could let the witches see the micro-world more intuitively, would it accelerate their acceptance of particle theory and lead to a new round of evolution? Such as... a microscope that could be used to observe cell structures and microbes.

Roland felt it was necessary to try something.

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

The North Slope Mine Kiln.

"Pump! Make the fire burn brighter!" Lesya shouted.

Although he could not see anything inside the shaft furnace, the stones should have been burned red as three carts of charcoal were added in.

When Lesya had come to Border Town called by a letter from Karl Van Bate, he had thought it was a desolate barren land. He would never go to the border of the kingdom to pick up his former career if it was not written that Mason Guild would be reborn at Border Town.

After packing up his things and saying goodbye to the family, he had prepared for the worst like drinking gruel and living in tents. He would be willing to accept a situation that was lacking in men and funding as those problems were common in construction.

Lesya hadn't intended to stay in Border Town for long, and a chance to see his very old friend Karl and other colleagues who had been exiled or lived in seclusion would be enough to make him content.

But the fact was that it was a fantasy.

After Lesya arrived the dock of the town by boat, he saw Karl Van Bate, an excellent mason of Graycastle as well as a strong contender for the next leader of the Mason Guild. Compared to how he looked in Lesya's memory, Karl looked stronger rather than thinner, and his face looked glossy, despite the fact that his sideburns had gone gray and he had more wrinkles.

After the greeting, instead of taking him to the tumultuous construction site, Karl led him to a clearly new-built residential building and handed over a key, saying, "This is your house now. Put down the luggage before we go to the tavern and grab a good drink."

... After that, Lesya heard a series of incredible stories from Karl.

The lord had recruited Karl, a civilian, into the City Hall and appointed him as the supervisor of the construction department as an official with a regular monthly salary!

If I stay, I can work at the City Hall like him!

And free housing!

After working for 10 years, I can get a retirement allowance! What's a retirement allowance? Something that means I don't have to work to get the money!

Lesya had thought Karl was drunk, but it turned out... what he had said was true.

"My lord, the ores are melting. I can see the iron liquid flow!" the worker on the top of the furnace shouted.

"Open the slag outlet to deslag!"

After he started the work, the troubles that Lesya had expected did not appear at all. Whatever he demanded, the money or the men, the superior fulfilled his demands very soon. They often gave the answer the day after he submitted the application. Furthermore, the town produced an alchemical material called cement that could adhere bricks quickly which significantly fueled the construction speed. Unexpectedly, he felt so carefree here—a feeling that he had never experienced before.

In no more than a month, Lesya had built up five furnaces with bellows, and three shaft furnaces for ironmaking.

Now in front of him stood a shaft furnace which was a design he had worked for many years after he left Mason Guild. The work was built on years of experience. Before the construction of the designed shaft furnace really began, he had always expected that the design would have been handed down on paper.

This improved shaft furnace was two meters tall with the inner diameter 75 centimeters long. There were a number of inlets in the lower part of the furnace for pumping air or drawing in air. A slag outlet and iron liquid outlet was set at the bottom. A sand slope was built up beside the shaft furnace for the workers to feed in materials and observe the burning situation.

Today the first shaft furnace would be formally put to use, and before the start, they had to do the regular examination of the smelting.

After they intermittently opened the slag outlet more than ten times and fed in two carts of charcoal, the examination was passed. There was iron liquid covering the bottom of the furnace now and the slag outlet was unhindered. Meanwhile, since the temperature was high enough to melt the iron, there was no need to waste any more charcoal to keep the fire going. In order to cut the cost, they used the waste ores stacked in the corner of the stockyard to do the tested melting every time the furnaces started.

They opened the outlet to discharge the melted iron liquid, and Lesya announced to shut down the furnace.

…

Two days later, the townspeople found some dark black stones when they were cleaning the furnace. All of the waste ores melted and shrunk greatly in high-temperature except those black ores which not only were unchanged but also had a sleeker surface and had become as dark as ink after going in.

Even Lesya could not tell what kind of ore they were. From their shapes and looks, they did not look like useless waste ores, but yet supposing that they were useful, how could he made them into products if they could not be melted. After thinking for a while, he picked up the squarest one and wrapped it up before ordering his men to send it to Roland Wimbledon, the Lord of Border Town, in the castle.

Perhaps his well-informed lord knew the answer.

Chapter 183 - The Construction Plan of Border Town

Looking at the shiny black stone on the desk, Nightingale asked, "What's this?"

"Obsidian." Roland even did not raise his head, busy with painting his blueprint.

"Ob... What?"

"No, I was talking nonsense." He sighed. Just by looking at its shape and color, how could he know what it was? After all, he was not a geologic expert, and could not guarantee to distinguish even a pure metal, to say nothing of ores. The knowledge he had in his head only told him most ores were compounds with complicated compositions and their color varied with different impurities. For example, iron ores could be divided into hematite, pyrite, and siderite, which looked totally different from each other. Especially the pyrite, which would sometimes show a light yellow metallic sheen, was often wrongly identified as gold, giving it a nickname "Fool's gold".

As for their thermostability, a compound did not have a fixed melting point, as it was related to the impurities and its composition, so it still was impossible to distinguish between all the different varieties by using different temperatures. In addition, metallic elements would exist in ion state, so melting the metal would be useless, as long as he did not know how to purify it.

"So there are also things you don't know about?" Nightingale asked with surprises.

"There are plenty." Roland put down his quill and poured himself a cup of black tea. "Would you like some?"

"No." She waved her hand. "By the way, beef jerky isn't as delicious as dried fish. You'd better put some dried fish in your drawers in the future."

Roland was silent for a while, pretending that he did not hear her. He decided to give the ore to Kyle Sichi, the Chief Alchemist. After all, minerals were more or less radioactive, so putting them in his office as decoration would not be a good choice.

Since Soraya's ability evolved recently, he found that there were suddenly a lot of things he could create now.

First of all would be a tap water system, which would greatly enhance the living level of the residents. Thinking of that, after a busy day, the residents came back home in a sweat and could not wait to have a shower, only to find the water tanks were empty and they had to walk to a well nearby to fetch some water. That feeling would be awful. What was more, Roland hated to use water from the tank to wash face or hands. He always felt there were parasites growing in the water after it had been stored in the tank for several days. To make things worse, tanks were rarely cleaned, not even once a month. When he took a closer look, he could see strips of sediments flowing at the bottom of the tank.

If they used water tower for water supply, there were not many technical difficulties. They could pump water from Redwater River into a water tower by using a steam engine, and then the siphon principle would cause water to flow along pipelines into every house in the town. With this, they would have formed an automatic water supply system. The reason why Roland had not put it into practice so far was... the insufficient material.

They had to use pipes made of iron or copper. The iron pipes without anti-rust treatment would be seriously damaged within several years. Copper pipes would be perfect, as they were non-corrosive, the inside walls would not scale, and they were non-toxic, and even the copper ion could kill bacteria in the water. But how could he use the raw material of coins to make pipes? The output of North Slope Mine was far from sufficient to afford such luxurious product. Even in modern time, copper pipelines were only affordable in high-grade mansions.

Up to now, Border Town was not able to export ores; instead, it had to import metal ingot. Therefore, no matter iron or copper pipes, Roland was reluctant to use them just to create a water supply which was purely for his enjoyments rather than making any profit.

But now it was different. With Soraya's Coating magic, he could make pipelines without metal. For example, he could take an iron pipe as a mold, wrapping it in paper and then covering it with Soraya's coating. Then he only had to take out the mold and got the pipe he needed. Even though these kinds of pipes were not pressure-resistant, they would be qualified as long as they were placed in covered ditches.

The second thing he wanted to create would be a power supply system. He was afraid that it was impossible to spread it over the whole town within a short time. But Roland had dreamed for a long time to make the castle full of light. After all, reading in dim candlelight was too painful, and would do great harm to the eyes. Furthermore, summer was coming soon, so the evenings would be sweltering enough. If he had to stay in a room with burning torches and candles, how terrible it would be!

Now he had got generators and electric wires, it was not an impossible dream for the castle to enter the electrical age ahead of its time. As for the filament of bulbs... he vaguely remembered that carbonized-bamboo filaments were commonly used for the incandescent lamps before the invention of tungsten filaments. Bamboos were not rare, as there were a lot to be found in the forest south of Redwater River.

However, what Border Town needed most so far were smelting facilities. Their iron output was directly related to the scale of their mechanical production and weapons manufacturing, which was essential for the survival of the town.

"You are drawing... a tower?" Nightingale sat at the desk and asked curiously.

"Similar to it." Roland nodded. "But it's empty inside, so it can be filled with fuel and ores. It has similar functions as shaft furnaces and can be used to smelt iron ore into pig iron."

This was a blast furnace, an updated version of the ancient shaft furnace.

He had visited the construction site and had taken a look at the shaft furnace designed by Lesya. To be honest, its structure was very close to that of a blast furnace, except its capacity was smaller and the temperature it could achieve was lower. If Soraya's ability had not been evolved, giving the town the possibility to produce refractory bricks, he had originally intended to build a dozen of such shaft furnaces.

But now with refractory bricks, he could consider building a blast furnace which could achieve a higher temperature and have a higher output.

The height of the newly designed blast furnace was almost eight meters, about four times of that of the shaft furnace. The furnace was tower shaped, and its largest part was three meters wide. In order to prevent it from collapsing, carriages were installed at the bottom. The furnace wall was thinner at the top part and thicker at the bottom. The furnace bosh was up to half a meter thick, and its innermost layer was made out of refractory bricks with Soraya's coating. At the same time, it also had an air inlet hole through which a steam engine was able to continually send fresh air into the furnace bosh.

In order to make full use of the power of the steam engine, Roland had also designed a set of automatic feeding equipment for the blast furnace, which included a climbing rail and a special loading cart with a movable door at its bottom. Driven by the steam engine, the cart would climb to the top of the furnace. Then the buckles at its bottom would be inserted by a hook, pulling open the loading door to pour fuel or ores into the furnace. This system could be regarded as the top technique in this era.

Different from the shaft furnaces with wide openings and low furnace temperature, his new blast furnace would not stop working for a long time once it started. As long as fuel and ores were constantly delivered into it, it would have a much higher output than the shaft furnace. If five or six blast furnaces were built in the town, the output of pig iron would be multiplied.

…

After finishing all his drawing, Roland rubbed his sore wrists and then took out a box from a drawer of the desk and pushed it in front of Nightingale.

Nightingale was surprised. "This is..."

"Well, I had intended to give it to you earlier, but it cost me some time to engrave decorative patterns on it. After all, I'm not very familiar with the machines in the factory," Roland smiled and said, "Open it and take a look."

She opened the box and could not help but give a cry of excitement.

Inside the box were two revolvers. Different from the prototype used by her when she competed with Carter, the revolvers were made of shining silver and were so polished that she could even see her own reflection on it. Exquisite decorative patterns were engraved on its grip and body. On the barrel, he had engraved Nightingale's name "To Veronica".

Roland had planned this for a long time. Compared with the flintlocks which were inconvenient to carry and load, the newly invented revolvers had been greatly improved. It had a high level of safety and firing rate. What power this powerful weapon would create in the hands of such an agile witch like Nightingale, he was looking forward to.

"Thank you." She smiled to pick up the two revolvers, jumped off the desk, and struck a shooting pose. "Will you teach me how to use them?"

"Of course." Roland nodded. Her white assassin outfit and sunny and dazzling smile made him immediately understand what was drop-dead gorgeous. "It's not difficult. You only need to sneak up on your target, pull the trigger, and shout 'It's time to die'".

Chapter 184 - Self

Scroll hesitated for a while at the door of the bedroom before pushing the door to enter.

Inside, Wendy sat at the desk, holding a book with a miserable look on her face. It was certainly Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, even if Scroll just had a quick glance.

She could not help smiling, as it was rare to see such miserable look on Wendy's face. Even when Witch Cooperation Association was trapped in the Impassable Mountain Range and the food supply ran out, Wendy still smiled, trying to cheer up every sister. It seemed that she had never worried about the difficulties and hardships.

She had never expected that a book would trouble her so much.

"Totally beyond understanding, right?" Scroll said, "when I first read it, I feel the same way."

"I thought it was Nightingale." Wendy turned back when she heard her voice. "... So what about now?"

"I still can't understand it."

"Fortunately, you're the same with me." Wendy sighed. "Besides Anna, now Soraya also developed her new ability. If I don't try harder, I'll soon be excelled by the younger generation. I wonder how His Highness knows so many things. How's he able to describe the invisible world as if he had seen it?"

"Actually, he isn't aware of many things, "Scroll shrugged her shoulders, and said, "I mean in certain aspects."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about Nightingale," Scroll said, and she drew a stool and sat beside Wendy. "Have you noticed that her current behavior is totally different from how she acted in the past? When she's protecting His Highness, she rarely becomes invisible now. Even when she's out of the castle, she'll only wear a hood to cover her face. And what's more... she's earnestly listening to the evening classes. You share a bedroom with her, so you should be even more aware of this. Can you tell me what happened to her?"

"Well, it was nothing." Wendy shook her head. "She just made her own choice."

Her response surprised Scroll a little. "Choice?"

"Well, just as you've guessed," Wendy closed her book and bluntly said," she has a crush on His Highness, Roland Wimbledon. Of course, this is so obvious that you don't have to guess. It isn't new that some witch falls in love with the man who offers her shelter. We've heard lots of such stories when we were in the Witch Cooperation Association."

"Those are just stories made up by others. Most sisters didn't have a happy ending."

"His Highness was different from people in the stories."

Scroll was stunned for a while. She never expected that Wendy, who held the same view with her not long before, would say things like that. She said, "You know, witches aren't able to have children. It's impossible for His Highness..."

"His Highness will marry a witch," Wendy shrugged and said, "He told you personally."

[How did she know about it? Was Nightingale there at that moment?] Scroll thought. Then she suddenly realized something and asked, "Are you blaming me for not telling you?No, Wendy, I just don't want this to get out. It will cause bad influences on His Highness's road to the throne."

Wendy remained silent for a while before she said, "I know. I'm not blaming you. I said the same thing to Nightingale before. Before I knew His Highness' answer, I thought nothing would happen to the sisters. But if His Highness doesn't mind it, why would we force them to change their mind? Previously Nightingale tried to hide her feelings, but she was so depressed. I prefer how she looks now. No matter what'll happen in the future, at least she follows the feelings of her heart."

So that was the reason, Scroll thought. Although she agreed that His Highness's answer should not get out, she would not interfere with the sisters' feelings, and would not make choices for them. Different from Cara, Wendy always considered the feelings of the sisters and cheered them up when they had little courage to face with difficulty.

"But, did His Highness know it?" Scroll suddenly thought of a serious problem. "What if he didn't know that witches are unable to have children?"

"Well..." Wendy also lowered her voice. "How about, you go to ask him?"

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

Outside the city wall of the Western Region.

The grassland was bathed in late spring sunshine. Far away herds of cattle and sheep were leisurely eating grass. It was difficult to imagine that just three months ago, the whole grassland was covered in snow and ice, and there was nothing outside but terrible and cruel demonic beasts.

Nightingale had been practicing shooting for most of the afternoon. She mastered the skills of shooting much faster than Roland had expected. [Maybe everyone was endowed with different talent,] he thought, [some people were born to fight. With her standard positions of reloading, aiming and shooting, she had completely behaved unlike a beginner so far.]

"If she were born in a knight's family, she must be the most excellent and renowned knight in Graycastle." Carter could not help praising her. "Just like me."

"Luckily she wasn't. I don't want her arms to be as thick as yours." Roland cast a glance at him and asked, "How do you feel drawing a tie with an Extraordinary?"

"The moment when I was hit, I felt as if I was hit by a battering ram and my chest was smashed into pieces." Carter admitted honestly, "To tell the truth, awful."

"There should be no next time." Roland laughed.

When Nightingale finished another round of shooting with standing position, Roland applauded. "Your performance is excellent so far. Let's do a simulation now."

After putting the pistol back into a holster on her belt, Nightingale walked towards Roland. In the bright sunshine, sweat droplets sparkled on her nose.

"Do you see those targets?" Roland pointed to the five bust targets not far away. "They're all hung with God's Stone of Retaliation. You should be able to see them clearly in the Mist. Here's what you're going to do next. Combine your ability with shooting skills, and defeat these enemies in shortest time once you expose yourself from the Mist."

In the Mist, objects and space were constantly changing, making difficult to guarantee that the bullets would fly toward the objects. Previously Nightingale had tried to directly shoot from inside the Mist; however, nine out of ten bullets changed their trajectory when they left the Mist, and the last bullet nearly hit Roland, who was standing behind her.

Therefore, Nightingale had to walk out of the Mist to shoot; and the shorter amount of time she exposed herself, the less possible she would be counterattacked by an enemy.

"Got it." She smiled, raised her cloak with one hand, and disappeared instantly before them.

When the first shot rang out, Roland could barely see a white figure quietly emerge and then with flame and smoke spurting out, the target got hit and broke apart. Even before spattering wood chips completely landed, she had already arrived at the back of the second target and pulled the trigger from a distance of three or four meters.

Then the third, the fourth target... Every time when she shot, she had not completely stepped out of the Mist. Except the silver pistol and sudden flame, Roland could not catch more details. It was difficult for him to capture her position with his eyes. Under cover of her Mist, she seemed to appear and disappear in an instant—a scene which could only be seen in movies. Within the blink of an eye, the five targets all broke into pieces; and after another blink, Nightingale was standing beside him again.

"How was it?" She laughed.

"Well..." Roland cast a quick glance at the stunned Carter and asked him, "what do you think?"

"I'm afraid no one can catch Miss Nightingale now." The chief knight took a deep breath. "Even Ashes can't, even if she wears God's Stone of Retaliation."

"So, have I graduated?" She wiped the sweat from her nose and rubbed it on Roland's cloak.

"Of... course."

Chapter 185 - The Star of the Theater (Part I)

The Swan on Redwater River towards the west. May was standing on its bow, looking straight ahead. It was not to enjoy the scenery, and she just wanted to see Border Town's pier sooner.

"How much longer until we reach our destination?" she asked impatiently.

"Soon, Miss May. The sun is too hot, you should return to the cabin to rest," said Gait, who was standing behind her. She did not even have to look to know that he was fawning over her smilingly.

As she turned around, she saw that she was right. "You told me this before, and now you are telling me the same thing? Have you actually been to Border Town before?"

"Uh…" embarrassed, he scratched his head and said, "it has been 10 years since I came here last time."

"One year is enough for Longsong Stronghold to change a lord, can you imagine about 10 years then?" May said angrily, "but there are always exceptions. Look at you, in 10 years, you never once performed on stage."

Seeing his awkward smile as he retreated, her mood finally got better. If it had not been for Irene's message, she would have never gone with this group of lowly performers to Border Town.

As the star actress of the theater in Longsong Stronghold, she had quite a reputation in the Western Region. This time she had received an invitation from the Tower Theater to go to the king's city and perform the play "Prince Seeking for Love". The show had been a great success, and even the drama master, Mister Kajen Fels, praised her performance in the role of the princess who died for love. Although she did not play the main heroine, she still left a deep impression that was not any less.

But when she excitedly returned to Longsong Stronghold, she had discovered that the stronghold had undergone great changes. Duke Ryan had been defeated and died, and Longsong Stronghold had fallen into the hands of Prince Roland Wimbledon, who had temporarily appointed Petrov Hull of the Honeysuckle Family to run the stronghold… She had been away for less than a year, but the Western Region had become totally unfamiliar to her.

Fortunately, the political turmoil in the upper ranks had no effect on the theater. This would have been something May and her sisters talked about after dinner, if only her heart had not beaten violently at the news that Morning Light, the First Knight of the Western Region, had been captured.

May had rushed to the theater, looking for Irene to ask for more details, only to discover that she had also followed him to Border Town around half a month ago, probably to reunite with her husband. This news disappointed May a little, and also made her a bit envious.

They both worked in the same theater where she was the deserved leading figure, while Irene was just a new face on the stage. The title, the Flower of Tomorrow, was given to Irene by those inferior actors who were flattering each other all the time. In regards to appearance, May would definitely not lose; and in regards to family background, although she was a common civilian, Irene was just an orphan adopted by the theater. So no matter what, she was definitely better than Irene.

But what was hard for May to understand was that Ferlin Eltek, the Morning Light, fell in love with that naive looking Irene, even giving up his family inheritance in order to marry her later.

"Look, farmlands," someone shouted, "Border Town shouldn't be much further."

May looked at her left side, only to see rows of high wheat swaying in the wind. Farmers wearing straw hats were busying themselves in the fields as if they were standing in a green sea. The wheat fields extended westwards along with the river reflecting the sunlight, with no end in sight.

"Such a beautiful scenery, Miss May," Rosia walked over and nodded. "I never expected that a remote place like this would have such a vast farmland, it can be even compared with Longsong Stronghold."

"This is nothing compared with the farmland around the king's city," May argued. "There, the wheat fields are so vast they can connect two cities. You can see wheat everywhere, and then you'll become sick of it."

"Is that so?" She smiled awkwardly. "I've never been that far."

[Well, this is a normal reaction,] May thought, but if it was Irene, she would have shown an expression of envy and would have asked her to describe more. "Rest assured, you'll have the chance one day."

"I hope so." Rosia patted her chest. "Thank you for the encouragement."

[I meant that with only a few silver royals, you could find a caravan to take you to the king's city, not that you would ever have the chance to go to the king's city to perform.] May rolled her eyes silently. But the other was a good friend of Irene, and May did not want to bother saying this aloud.

Rosia had joined the theater before her, they had almost the same age, but because of her simple appearance and poor memory, she never had the opportunity to officially perform on stage. Except for Irene, not many in the theater were willing to talk to her.

"Does Irene know that we're arriving today?" May asked.

"I've informed her of the date in my reply, she should be waiting for us at the docks."

"Good." She nodded. "I don't want to search for an inn alone in an unknown town."

"May I ask you something, Miss May?" Rosia asked hesitantly, "why did you come with us to the small town? Moreover, why did you try to conceal this from the theater? Irene wrote in her letter that there may be an opportunity to perform here, but you're not someone who needs such opportunities."

"If I told them the truth, do you think the theater would ever let me come to this place?" May curled her lips. "As for the reason… I merely want to see if my theater comrade is having a good life."

In fact, she also did not know why she made this impulsive decision. The Longsong Theater would have important plays during the next two days and with her gone, the owner would have a big problem. Although there were a few backup actresses, without her, there was a chance that the nobles would not accept their performance and they might even seriously protest about it.

To be honest, May knew that this was not a wise choice. No matter how big her reputation was, she still had to rely on the Longsong Theater. If she made the owner angry, she would be unable to stop him from freezing her career and promoting a new actress. Other than apologizing, the only choice left for her would be to leave and compete with the stars of other theaters.

"Or… I could take the next ship back to the stronghold, the moment I meet Ferlin, right?" May thought.

"I see." Rosia nodded. "Irene will certainly be very surprised to see you."

The scenery along the river bank gradually became richer. A lot of tents and wooden houses were seen near the Impassable Mountain Range. As it was near noon and the peasant women were all busy cooking porridge and soups, they saw wisps of smoke rose continuously from the village chimneys, and May even occasionally smelled the aromatic fragrance of wheat. Many children gathered to play by the river, and those who were good at swimming would completely take off their clothes and jump into the river with the cheers of their peers, and then proudly climbed back ashore.

In the end, May finally saw the dock.

After The Swan had docked, Gait and Sam volunteered to handle all of the ladies' baggage. Just as they walked down the trestle, Rosia excitedly shouted, "Irene!"

Looking at the direction she shouted at, she saw a woman wearing a white dress standing on the dock, waving at them. Beside her, stood a tall man. Even from such a big distance, it could be seen from his broad shoulders and chest that he was extremely extraordinary.

The Morning Light, Ferlin Eltek.

His figure in May's memory became clear once more.

Chapter 186 - The Star of the Theater (Part II)

The moment she saw him, May immediately forgot that she should return at once.

"My God, M-May!" As they approached, Irene exclaimed in disbelief. She then took her hands and pulled her towards the knight. "Darling, do you know who she is? She's the most famous actress of the Longsong Theater, Miss May! Whenever she performs, the people are lining up from the theater lobby to the streets!"

May's heart jumped when she heard the phrase darling, but thanks to her years of experience in acting she was able to smile and give a little nod. "Hello."

"Of course I know her. You said it yourself she's the most famous actress, all the noble of the Western Region is familiar with her name." He sighed and then apologized to May. "My wife showed a lack of manners. I'm Ferlin, welcome."

He didn't announce his title, his position, or his family name. May's heart was filled with sadness, but on the surface, she maintained her utmost elegant expression. "I'm aware of you. You are known by everyone as the First Knight of the Western Region, 'Morning Light', Sir Ferlin Eltek. I must apologize, because of my busy theater work, I was unable to attend your and Irene's wedding.

"That belongs to the past now." The knight smiled as he shook his head. "Nowadays, I'm just a teacher, not a member of the Eltek family, so you don't need to be so polite." Then, he waved towards the others and said. "Let's go back first. We've already applied for your temporary residence."

[A teacher?] May was startled. [Did he mean a court mentor? Even though this town's lord is a prince, but even a castaway prince would not hire a knight for that kind of position. And what's that about applying for a temporary residence? Shouldn't Irene take us to a reliable local inn?]

Before she could think more about it, Irene approached her. "God, I really did not expect you to come here. If you were to play Cinderella, it would certainly cause an outbreak!"

"Is that so?" May said with a doubt. She had never heard of such a play, which meant that it was probably written by some new playwright. Furthermore, she did not have time to rehearse for a play, she had only come here… because she wanted to see how Morning Light was, and if there was any way she could help him.

As they entered the town, May realized that something was amiss with this place. The town was located on the border of the kingdom and it was supposed to serve as an outpost for Longsong Stronghold, but yet it looked like a newly constructed city? The roads were covered with dark gray gravel, with no sign of mud, not to mention the width of the roads, they could practically fit two carriages side by side.

"What kind of road is this?" Sam asked the question in her mind. "It feels so flat."

"Aha." Irene proudly smiled. "When I first arrived here, it was still made of mud, but now it's like this. In fact, the road isn't finished yet. I heard from the masons that this was only the foundation for the road."

"They've fooled you." Rosia argued. "Only houses need foundation. Things already lying on the ground won't collapse, so why should they need one?"

"Really, they used a mix of gray powder and stones and then spread it out. Afterwards, they sprinkled water on it and compressed it with a rolling stone until it became flat. In the beginning, I also thought this was a new type of road, but the masons said that this was a practice developed by His Highness, something called… water whatever layer. In short, this is still only the foundation!" Irene turned around and continued leading the way, with her long braids swinging with each step. "In the future when people and carriages increase, it'll be paved with slate. Only then it'll be truly finished."

Paved roads? May sneered into her heart. Other than the inner city of the king's city, which city could afford to cover its roads with slates? A broad and flat road like this was already good enough, even in Longsong Stronghold, there were still many mud roads.

As they were going further into the town, she saw many houses on both sides of the road were being demolished, regardless of whether they were wooden or clayed houses. Although they were clearly not new houses, they still could not be considered uninhabitable. "Did the lord drive them away because they were blocking the road?"

"No, they've all moved to another district."

"District?" May asked, "What's that?"

"It's the new residential area, which contains identical brick houses," Irene explained. "They'll be allocated to all the original residents, and soon there'll be no old houses in town."

Brick houses allocated to everyone? May could not believe her ears. This was even more exaggerated than the slates streets. Did she have any idea about the cost of such a project? But being in front of Ferlin, May could only swallow her words.

There were many pedestrians in the street, and occasionally they would stop and greet Irene or Ferlin. So, May found out that Irene was also one of those so-called teachers.

"Aren't you performing here?" she asked, "Why do all the townspeople call you a teacher Irene?"

"That's my job. I only perform part-time. After all, the town doesn't have a theater." Afterwards, Irene told the story of how she had been summoned by His Highness. "Although it'll be an open-air performance and the audience will only consist of civilians, the pay will be still calculated according to the standard of the Stronghold. I think this is a good chance. At least, I can have some practice."

"You're right. As long as I can go on stage I would be satisfied." Gait and Sam nodded repeatedly.

An open-air performance for civilians! May did not even have the strength to say a word. Compared with Irene, what was harder for her to understand was the reason behind the prince's idea. How could those people whose only purpose was to survive each day really comprehend the romance and the plot twist of a drama?

Gradually, they finally arrived in front of a two-story building.

"This is the teachers' building, but since there are only nine teachers in Border Town at the moment, there are still plenty vacant rooms left. Ferlin applied for you to stay temporarily in two rooms here. During the show, you can stay here." Irene handed out two keys. "Gait, Sam, this one is for you. Rosia and Tina will get the other one, eh, as for Miss May…"

"I'll stay with you," May said.

"But..."

"I came here to see how my theater comrade is living," she said with a smile, "after all, we've been through so much together in the theater, and you probably won't return to the stronghold again, so I'd like to chat with you more. Are you going to reject me?"

"Of course not!" Irene happily reached out to hold her hands. "I'm just worried that the room is too small for you to live comfortably. There are also a lot of things about acting that I want to ask you!" She turned around to the other four. "Let's first put away your luggage, then you can come over to my place and we can discuss the script together."

May climbed up to the second floor and followed Irene and Ferlin into their new home.

But her last hope was shattered.

She did not want to admit it but this small room gave off a comfortable and clean feeling. The red and white cotton tablecloths and curtains were clearly newly purchased. The floor was clean and there was linen carpet placed in the living room. Her attention was quickly drawn to some strange cups on a low table. Stepping closer, she picked them up to take a closer look, but she was unable to identify its material—it was light, like wood, but the surface was smooth and the color was vibrant. It was nothing like the usual cheap goods owned by civilians. Depicted on top of the cup was an image of two people holding each other affectionately.

"Beautiful cup, right?" Irene, said as she came over, "but it was too expensive. It was sold for five silver royals at the convenience market, four cups consisting a set, depicting a different kind of pictures. To celebrate our payday, Ferlin insisted on buying them for me which resulted in us spending our whole salary. That fool."

"Convenience Market?" May deliberately ignored the last part of the sentence.

"Yes!" Irene nodded. "The Lord has opened a market at the town's square, where they're selling some very fine daily necessities, but they're not cheap. If you want, I can take you there tomorrow to have a look."

May had mixed feelings in her heart. Everything was different from what she had expected. She thought that, as a war captive, and a knight for whom no one had offered a ransom, even if the lord had released him, his life would still have been very hard. And since Irene never had any savings, the only thing she could do to help him would be to accompany him throughout this hardship.

If it was like that, any assistance she could have provided him would be greatly appreciated by Ferlin Eltek. She could have even taken it further, and with her own influence, she could try to persuade the local lord to allow to her redeem the First Knight. That way, she might have been able to completely reverse the knight's heart.

However… all of her plans had been for nothing. He was having a good life in Border Town, even without her help.

Should she go back? By choosing to leave, she would forget everything about Ferlin and Border Town.

May fell into a state of confusion.

Chapter 187 - The New Merchants Group

By summer, Margaret's inland ship team would arrive at Border Town.

Roland deliberately went to the docks to meet the business woman and inspected the cargo she had delivered.

The most important things were the three ships of saltpeter. Border Town's gunpowder had basically run out causing the shooting practice of the First Army to be stopped. Though revolving rifles had been distributed on a small scale, they were merely put through their paces in order to maintain the guns by reloading and cleaning them. With the saltpeter they could begin shooting practice once more.

Apart from the saltpeter, she had also brought two ships of mine ingots that included iron and copper, as well as part of green alum mine. It would take almost two or three days to unload that.

Roland put two steam engines in an obvious place and dropped a red cloth on one as was customary. He then tied the cloth into a big red flower and waited for Margaret to accept it. Actually, the Western Region Industry Company had spent almost one month and a lot of power to make just a single steam engine based on hundreds of scrapped parts. So, Roland had Anna reprocess some part that had a smaller deviation, which made it possible for the second steam engine to catch up on the scheduled delivery time.

To Roland's surprise, Margaret did not come alone this time, she had brought the merchants group of the king's city.

After the delivery was completed, Margaret and her crew followed Roland back to his castle for lunch.

"Your Highness, this is Hogg, my old friend. He's also one of the top businessmen engaged in mining in the king's city." Margaret introduced them one by one. "This is Gammon, like Marleen, he belongs to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan as well. He mainly mainly deals in the sea trade between the Kingdom of Graycastle and the Fjords. They all are very interested in the steam engine. Due to having known them for years, I'm embarrassed to increase the selling price to profit off of them. Therefore, I come here with them to make the necessary introductions."

"I pay my respects to you, Your Royal Highness," Hogg who had a paunch and a shining face with fat said, "I heard Margaret say that this kind of machine not only replaces manpower to draw water from mines and transport ores quickly but also is capable of creating an endless supply of power. Does it need a rest? Could I see it with my own eyes?"

"Of course." Roland took a sip of wine. In the beginning, he could not get used to its acerbic taste from the start, but now he had gradually become accustomed to it. "However, if you want it to deliver ores, we'll need to equip it with the orbit system. I'll take you to North Slope Mine and you can see the system."

"Your Highness, I'm very interested in the uses of the steam engine you described. Could it be installed on sailing ships instead of sails to drive ships?" Marleen asked, "If it were used on a three or four mast seagoing vessel, its power wouldn't be enough, right?"

"The steam engine is just like horses, some of which have great strength while some of which have a poor strength. It depends on their model number when they're produced. Of course, the engine that has a greater power is more expensive. What's more, you can decide the model number that you'll buy as per your needs," Roland answered with a smile.

Even though it was the most basic of paddle steamers, it involved complex power, transmission and control systems. Besides Border Town, there was no place owning the technology in Kingdom of Graycastle. And transferring that kind of ship cost much more than a steam engine.

"If that's the case, Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan also want to order this kind of machine." Gammon narrowed his eyes after forking a bun just out of the steamer into his mouth.

Sure enough, birds of a feather, flocked together. Entrepreneurs were drawn to other entrepreneurs. They had not even looked and had already placed an order as if they did not care about the thousands of gold royals that they would fork out.

Roland shook his head. "We're incapable of producing extra machines before finishing Margaret's order because Border Town's manpower is shorthanded and making a machine is very complex."

"I can provide sufficient manpower, Your Highness." Gammon clapped to applaud a breast. "Either carpenters or blacksmiths, even shipwrights, there's enough in my port. Besides, you wouldn't need to worry about paying them."

"After that, let them learn the means of making the machines and work for you." Hogg interrupted.

"No, of course not!" his eyes rounded and he said, "how would I play these tricks on His Highness. 10 years, Your Highness." He opened his two palms. "I'm willing to let them work for you for 10 years, and I shall pay them. But I only have one requirement that steam engines made by them will be sold to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan preferentially."

[This is an interesting suggestion,] Roland thought, [just like technical partners in the modern society. I only provide technology and gain the large part of its earnings. Of course, they can get the steam engine as soon as possible and own a group of technical personnel in 10 years. His investment might be equivalent the cost of buying the technology.]

"Don't worry about deciding on that now. We can talk about these details after seeing the object." Roland relieved the pressure by changing the subject. "The steam engine isn't the only thing worth buying, you're presumably interested in something else as well, such as this..." He snapped his fingers and the guards move a lot of things out of the box by his feet and placed them on the table one by one.

"These're the new goods in Border Town, both high quality and available for a fair price. Let me present the simple mug," Roland said, pointing at those colorful mugs. "Light, beautiful and not fragile like crystal cups. The patterns on it can be customized and what's more, it sheds water so it's easy to clean."

"Sheds water?" Margaret picked up a cup and looked at it carefully.

"You can have a try with the wine." Prince Roland joked. "You can pretend to be a drunken man, throwing it to the ground. If it breaks, I'll undertake the cost."

"The craftsmanship... it... is rather exquisite... But I'm afraid that not all of the cups will have this kind of quality." Abdominous Hogg had filled his glass and swilled it all. "Eh, inside of it should be dry."

It certainly was dry. The nature of it was an ordinary wooden cup covered by a layer of Soraya's painting. "It doesn't conflict with crystal cups. Compared with a royal banquet, it's more fit for noble lady's boudoir," Roland said, "as far as I know, they tend to like colorful and beautiful things."

"I think so too." Margaret nodded with interest. "You look really experienced."

"Ahem." The prince coughed twice. "Look at this, a whole cuirass that has a uniform thickness. It has two parts, the forward and back, both of which are made of wrought iron. Besides it's more portable than knights' plate armor and anyone can wear it. It's fit for guards following caravans too because there's no gap after closing it. The most important thing though, is that it's cheaper than plate armor."

...

After having introduced all goods, the merchants could not help getting together and whispering. Roland left the hall to give them some free discussion time and went for a walk heading down the long corridor towards the garden.

"Your Highness, we left one month ago. But now you've made a lot of novel things," Margaret said as she walked out behind him.

"Do you exchange your ideas with them?"

"No, the things I like can't be changed by the thoughts of others, which include both goods and people." She shook her head with a smile. "The caravan may stay here for three or four days. So could you allow me to meet Lightning again?"

"She didn't recognize you, but she didn't express her dislike of you at least. So, I think it's okay."

"Thank you!" Margaret said thankfully.

"No problem." Roland smiled. "You know, now that you stay here for such a long time, what about watching a drama? The first show will be held in three days in Border Town."

"It only took one month to finish building a theater?" she said with a great astonishment.

"Of course not, this is just an open-air performance. It's located in the central plaza of the town. I think it might be different from the rest."

"And so your wish shall be my command, Your Highness," Margaret bowed and said with her hands on her chest.

Chapter 188 - [The Play Begins!]

After the field trip to North Slope Mine and two consecutive days of negotiation, Roland established a new trade agreement with Hogg and Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan.

When Hogg saw the rapidly operating mine transportation system, his eyeballs almost fell out. He even put forward an application to invest and build a factory in Border Town that would specialize in the construction of mine orbits and ancillary equipment. They would both earn half of the profits. However, Roland refused his application. If Roland had lots of people, he would consider the invitation of investment. But currently, the town was short of people, not money.

Hogg, after all, was a mining businessman. Although he owned several mines and managed an open-air silver mine for the Earl of Cambara in Silver City, he only had the miners and was much weaker compared to Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan which owned an island. Eventually, Hogg signed a contract to order 10 steam engines and a complete mine transportation system (including orbits and harvesters). The first half should be delivered before the Months of Demons, and the rest next year.

The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan was so much stronger that Gammon directly signed a 10-year contract. When the caravan came next time, he would bring a team of 300 people, mainly composed of blacksmiths and carpenters. The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan would pay for them while Roland only needed to provide accommodation and food. The steam engines they produced over the following 10 years would preferably be sold to the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan. A decade later, these people would decide voluntarily whether to go or stay. This point was finally agreed after Roland's repeated negotiations.

There was no doubt that there would be henchmen of the caravan in this team. Especially with the last item, the caravan would try their best to choose the people who were loyal to the Crescent Moon Bay, and it would be hard to know whether half of the people would decide to stay or go. But for Roland, skilled workers were never enough. Even if only 10% of the people stayed, it meant that he earned. He was never worried about technological advantage but worried that no one would transfer the technology to an actual product.

In addition to the steam engine, the second biggest order was for ship transformation.

They would bring two inland sailing ships together with the 300 craftsmen. The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan hoped that Border Town would transform both sailing ships into steam-powered paddle steamers. The reconstruction expense for a single ship was up to 1,800 gold royals, and the expanse for two ships directly exceeded Margaret's order for the steam engines. In contrast, though he received three orders for mugs, the total amount was less than 300 gold royals. The amount would be even less if Roland had not increased the price of the mug by 10 times more than that in the convenience store. This made him deeply feel the profit gap between industrial and civilian goods. If the civilian goods could not be produced in large quantities, then it was better to simply meet the needs of the local residents.

To the prince's surprise, iron cuirasses and implements were snubbed. Margaret later answered his doubts at dinner. "Although your cuirass is really cheap, the production is too small. For resale, excluding the cost of transportation and tax, the profit may be only five or six gold royals. Besides, your armor is forged by a hydraulic hammer, right? Or with the steam engine? In any case, the price of this armor is fixed. It's expensive for the quality of the iron, but not for the manual work." She paused. "It's even more unnecessary to buy them for our own use. For sea merchants, both bodyguards and sailors rarely wear heavy armor. For the heavy armors will allow them to sink quickly when falling into the water. Most of the time, the armor is a kind of shackle for them and not protection."

"The same is true for farm implements. If you can't get lots of cheap iron, the price of the farm implement will be cheaper but not cheap enough. It'll be hard to form an advantage compared with the local equivalents. Conversely, the prices of those colorful cups aren't fixed. If a noble liked it, he would pay several times the price for it."

"I see." Roland thought for a moment and found that was true... For commodities like armors and farm implements with stable prices, the material costs accounted for the majority, so it was hard to cut the price too much. His armor and farm implements were cheaper because of the higher efficiency in forging with a steam engine than with a hydraulic hammer. Unfortunately, this difference was not big enough to attract the interest of big businessmen.

And these whiteboard armors with Soraya's stab-resistant coating on them were also a part of the First Army's armament upgrade. If the iron production did not increase, it would be impossible to sell them in large numbers.

...

The anticipated premiere of the play was coming soon.

In the afternoon, the center square was so crowded with people that even a drop of water could not leak out. Even though Roland had demolished the surrounding buildings and doubled the size of the former center square.

To publicize the play, Roland released an announcement a week ahead of time. Besides, he specifically ordered the Ministry of Agriculture to send people to the town's surrounding areas and mobilize the serfs to come and watch the play.

Roland, as the lord, obviously had the best viewing position. In the direction of the performance stage, Karl set up a temporary wooden stage with three rows, which could hold about one hundred people. Roland sat in the middle of the third row. On his one side sat the Witch Union, and Anna sat next to him. The other side sat the merchant group, with Margaret sitting close to him.

The first and second rows were mostly for the City Hall officials and apprentices.

For safety's sake, the people around the wooden stage were soldiers from the First Army. They would separate the prince from the civilians while watching the play.

At this moment it was about four o'clock in the afternoon. The sun was not that hot, together with the occasional cool breeze from Wendy, everyone on the stage enjoyed a VIP-like treatment.

Amidst the applause of the crowd, the actors went to the stage one by one.

To tell the truth, Roland was completely unsure what effect the premiere would achieve in the end. After giving the script to Irene, he never cared about it again. The recruiting and rehearsal were both under the charge of Irene and Ferlin. In retrospect, Irene was a theater newcomer and only performed on the stage once. How much experience would she have? Her friends might be the walk-ons who had no opportunities to perform in the theater in the stronghold and had to perform in the town.

In other words, this was a new play totally directed, arranged and implemented by a new team.

However, Roland did not mind failure. The play was neither for the ticket revenue, nor to promote how good the script was. It was an enlightenment of ideological remolding, and it would show more than once. If they did not perform well this time, then they would make improvements next time.

"I know why you're so confident in this show." Margaret suddenly exclaimed. "You invited Miss May!"

Roland was surprised. "Who?"

"May! Don't tell me you don't know. Oh, my God, before I came here, I had seen her show in the king's city." Margaret smacked her lips. "She's the top actress in both grasping the roles and creating feelings. Her performance in 'The Prince's Searching for Love' moved many people to tears, even Kajen Fels was full of praise for her!"

[Who's Kajen Fels?] Roland checked his memory and found that he had no recollection of the name.

"... Your Highness, are you really from king's city?" Margaret blinked and asked, "Forgive me for asking, except people in the court, who's the person you're most familiar with in king's city?"

"'Magic Hand' Yorko." Roland blurted out but immediately realized that he gave the wrong answer.

"Oh." The lady merchants looked at him meaningfully. "The most famous casanova, I heard that he could make a woman never forget him with only one hand... I know."

"Only with one hand?" Anna turned her head and asked, "why?"

"No... Nothing..." Roland said with his hand on his forehead, "we'd better watch the play earnestly."

Chapter 189 - The Star and the Flower

Without a curtain or introduction but only a piece of wooden board separating the stage and the preparation room, the group of people had their debut on this simple theater. It was also the first formal presentation of their lives.

"This story happened in the king's city of a kingdom. In the outer city, there was a beautiful and kind-hearted girl..."

At this narration, Irene slowly walked to the center of the stage. She was wearing a dirty gray robe, her hair was coiled on her head, and her face was patted with black ash.

She carefully swept the ground with a broom, bending over from time to time to erase the dirt with the corner of her robe.

After a few days of rehearsal, Irene had remembered the whole process by heart. It was a simple story: a common girl who had lost her mother was bullied at home. Out of kindness, she accidentally saved a witch's life, and the witch used magic power to send this girl to a ball held by the prince. Then, the girl fell in love with the prince at first sight. The magic power had a time limit so the girl had to hurriedly leave the ball but left one of her crystal shoes in panic. After that, the prince searched the whole city for this pretty girl and finally found her in the outer city, and then the two of them lived together happily ever after.

The story was simple and easy to understand. Its plot was not a love story between a prince and princess as it commonly was at that time. Instead, it was about a common girl, who due to her kind nature, gained help from a witch and won a prince's affection. The transformation of Cinderella, the leading character of this play, from tolerating the suppression of her stepsisters to bravely resisting it, was the main part the actress needed to perform on.

Yet to Irene's surprise, May handed over the leading character for her to act.

Irene was extremely joyous merely by performing on the same stage with the Star of the Western Region. As the pillar actress of the stronghold Theater, May had enough pride and confidence to play the leading role in any play. But in the show Cinderella, she requested to play Cinderella's half-sister.

At first, Irene had problems believing it. But after May repeatedly emphasizing that it was a show to train new performers, Irene unwillingly took the leading role.

In the following rehearsal, Irene exerted all her effort: she not only practiced every scene over and over again but also kind of forced May, who was sleeping in the same room with her, to teach her acting skills after the candle was put out before sleep. She simply did not want to disappoint May for giving her this opportunity.

Luckily, Irene was not inexperienced. Looking at the numerous eyes staring at her off the stage, she relaxed her body and re-acted the way she had practiced countless times during the rehearsal. Up until then, she felt everything was fine and she did not make any mistakes. When Rosia, who was acting as the witch, forgot her lines, Irene even encouraged her with eye contact.

"You can have half of my oatmeal. Don't eat too fast. It's still hot."

"Thanks, you kind girl. I'll pay you back."

When Rosia walked to the backstage with a stoop, the applaud came from the audience. Irene was relieved. If it had happened in the Stronghold Theater during the official performance, it would definitely be intolerable. The nobles would have booed the actress, rather than applaud with benevolence.

Right then, May Eden went on the stage.

This act of the play was about the first conflict Cinderella had with her elder sister. After being bullied and insulted, Cinderella could only react by crying. She would sob silently in the basement looking at her mother's portrait.

But when May stood in front of her, Irene found the atmosphere from the audience suddenly changed.

May, the star of the theater, stopped being silent as she normally was during the rehearsal. Instead, she became the ruler of the stage. Her arrogant manner, proper body movement, and unconcealed contempt gave Irene a strong oppression.

"Oh, look at this girl. What're you doing under daylight other than working? Daydreaming?"

"You miserable creature. Go wash my dress!"

"Don't be clumsy anymore. This dress is for an official banquet. You can't afford to ruin it."

May gave Irene a hard push. According to the script, Irene was supposed to fall on the ground. But looking at May's cold gaze, Irene involuntarily stepped back and stumbled, which led to her falling on the ground with her elbow heavily hitting the floor. After that, there came a burning pain.

"You're useless..." May stopped staring at her and walked to the center of the stage. Looking at the silent audience in the square, she started her monologue.

"She's worthy of her fame." Margaret could not help but praise May with a low voice. "She drew everybody's attention with a few words. She totally gives life to this character she plays."

"Indeed impressive." Roland nodded. "But isn't she too talented? The disgust and contempt she showed toward Irene are so real that I could feel her ruthlessness while sitting in the audience section. Her emotional appeal was so strong that it could be felt from the audience's looks... but, she isn't the leading actress. Irene's poor-to-fair acting looks so inferior by comparison. If it goes on like this, I'm afraid the attention the supporting role gets will exceed the leading role."

Irene felt at a loss.

She understood she must stand up right away. May's monologue mainly expressed her craving for the prince, which served to lead out the royal ball, so it would not last long. Irene needed to leave the stage before the scene changed. But at that moment, she felt the familiarity she gained during the rehearsals left her and for the first time, the stage appeared strange to her.

"Is that all you're capable of?" Irene felt disappointed at herself.

"When May finished her performance and walked by Irene, her waving dress touching Irene's face, Irene came back to senses. Through May's cold expression, Irene could feel what the Star of the Western Region meant to say to her. She understood that May could not pull her up because the characters they played were on the opposite sides. If May reached out a hand to her, this play would be ruined. She bit her lips so heavily that she could feel the taste of blood. Watching May's figure disappearing to the back of the clapboard, Irene tried to climb up and follow May, but at that time Gait and Sam had run on the stage carrying props with them. Sam took the opportunity when he put a bucket beside Irene to whisper to her, "You're in the next scene anyway. Keep acting. Be strong!"

Irene understood that it was against the rules not to exit the previous scene, but indeed... she had missed the chance.

The audience then witnessed something spectacular—Cinderella sat in the middle of the stage motionlessly, and yet the surrounding scene was shifted from a living room to a basement. A beautiful round table and wooden chairs were replaced by wine buckets and cane baskets. The staff moved back and forth carrying props, while Irene remained in the middle of the stage with one position as if she was frozen in time.

The following plot was that Cinderella was prisoned in the basement, then a witch showed and rescued her. The witch not only gave her clothes but also summoned a carriage to take her to the palace.

"Remember, you can only stay there till midnight. Before the midnight clock sounds, you must leave the palace, or the clothes and carriage will all disappear."

"Ah... yes. I see. Thank you."

Irene was still at a loss. She used to peek at May's performance from backstage. At that time, she was impressed by this woman who could act freely and smile brightly in front of 1,000 viewers. Now when she stood on the stage looking at this shining star right in front of her, she fully understood how astonishing May's acting skills were.

Perhaps this was the distance between the star and the flower?

After Rosia and Irene finished their lines, there came the first climax of the show—the royal ball. In order to achieve a grand effect, all the actors went on stage for this scene, except for Irene and May. Gait, Sam, Rosia, and Tida would all put on masks to act as noble dancers. The one who played the prince was Irene's lover—Ferlin Eltek.

Chapter 190 - The Victory and Defeat

"The actor who plays the role of prince looks handsome, but isn't his facial expression too stiff?" Margaret commented.

"Ah, it's him," Roland said with a surprise, "Morning Light, the number one knight of the Western Region. He works as a teacher in Border Town, not a professional actor after all."

"Not an actor?" the businesswoman said with a surprise, "Is he qualified then?"

"We're short of hands," Roland said smilingly, "Look at the other two guys who carried props earlier. If either of them plays the prince... he would definitely not look like a guy who can win Cinderella's heart at first sight."

"... If you put it like that."

Splendidly dressed Irene stood aside, looking at May walking to Ferlin Eltek, putting her hand on his shoulder and starting to dance with him. "No, Ferlin doesn't dance. He's only guided by May's excellent dancing skill and waggling with her steps." Irene had not seen this plot during the rehearsal, which meant May was improvising.

The elder sister tried to seduce the prince with all her might, but the prince was not impressed at all. He only had a conversation with her out of politeness. When Cinderella appeared in front of him, all his attention was drawn by this pretty and charming girl.

Irene knew she only needed to go over there then Ferlin would push May away and put on this love-at-first-sight show with herself, but she felt everybody could see at her lost state, she looked totally unattractive compared with May. "So how could the prince abandon a prettier and more attractive woman and choose the common me?"

At that moment, she saw Ferlin looking at her.

The expression in his eyes meant helplessness, consolation, encouragement, and... affection.

Irene felt her surroundings suddenly quieted down: the laughs, cheers and discussing noises from the audience vanished, and her friends in the theater disappeared. Only May, Ferlin and herself were left on the stage.

It 's true that my acting skill is so much poorer than the Star of Western Region, but should I just quit and admit defeat?

"No." Irene felt there came a voice from the bottom of her heart. She wanted to keep acting. This was a rare chance, or in other words... her last chance. If she chose to give up, she might never get the chance to play with such an outstanding actress on the same stage again.

She wanted to become someone just like May who could draw the audience's attention to herself only by gestures and expressions.

Sorry, May.

She murmured in her heart.

If the prince had been played by an actor from the theater, she might not have the encouragement to compete with May. It was merely impossible to defeat the Star of Western Region with acting skills.

"Unfortunately, he isn't. He's Morning Light, my lover," Irene thought. "Please forgive me, May. I don't want to be defeated by you in front of my lover."

The stage seemed to have disappeared. Irene felt in front of her was a piece of wheat field. The heavy golden ears had ripened and bent, slightly waving with the evening breeze as if waiting for harvesting. At the far side, the sun was about to set beneath the horizon, which dyed the slowly flowing water in Redwater River with a warm color. This was the place Irene and Ferlin used to date. Under this reddish orange sunset glow, the prince resumed as the knight, the person who had been in love with her for long.

"As long as I show my finest side in front of him, I could draw all his attention... it's not performing, but a present of my true self." Irene lifted the sloppy cope and tied a knot on it, and then walked up to Ferlin.

The confidence returned to her and everything felt so natural to her again. She walked to the knight and smiled at May, then May subconsciously lowered her hand on Ferlin's shoulder.

"May I have a dance with you?" Irene asked.

A familiar smile appeared on Ferlin's face. "Of course, Miss."

Although Irene could not dance as skillful as May did, the knight danced more naturally under her leading. The entire audience was infected by the coherence of their dance. They began to applaud, whistle and cheer all over.

The noise brought Irene's mind back to the stage. She stood tip-toed, gently kissed on the prince' cheek, then pushed him away and quickly ran toward the backstage. At the same time, sincere bell tones came on top of the square and echoed by the remote mountains. No more, no less, exactly 12 strokes.

Soon enough, the show drew to the end which was also the climax of the entire play.

To look for Cinderella, the prince initiated a ransack in the outer city from house to house. When he finally came to Cinderella's house, the little girl had already changed back to her dirty gray cope. With a broom at hand, she was pushed aside by her sister. Her sister was still pretty and appealing and could put on that crystal shoe.

"Your Highness, what're you waiting for? I'm the girl you're looking for."

"No, she isn't."

"You... shut up!"

Although May's performance was still excellent, actually even more oppressive, Irene was not intimidated anymore. She walked from the corner to the stage center step by step, looking at May in the eye, showing an unyielding expression.

The audience burst into the applause at this splendid scene.

At that moment, the witch appeared. She waved her hand, and then Cinderella was in her ball gown again.

"Your Highness, she's the girl you're looking for."

Rosia jerked down Irene's cope, revealing her night gown. At the same time, Irene's hair, which was tied on her head, scattered. After her hair being combed, the girl who stole the prince's heart once again presented in front of everyone in an incomparable poise.

The atmosphere in the theater was instantly detonated.

Everybody got excited upon seeing the prince and Cinderella hug together. Gun salutes sounded outside of the theater, which pushed up the atmosphere to the peak. The sounds of unceasing applaud and cheer filled the theater. Until the ending narration started and the actors and actresses bowed and left the stage, the applause was still sounding.

"It's marvelous," Margaret exclaimed and said while clapping, "I thought the little girl would be totally crashed by May, but yet she was able to make the situation turn. I wonder if it's only an illusion, but I feel the interaction between Irene and the prince is more natural than May. It's as if... Irene is meant to be together with the prince."

"Indeed surprising," Roland said, nodding. In the last few sets, Irene was like totally different, which was exactly herself, so that she could remain confident in front of the intimidating May. To convert the prince back to her husband in a short time, shaking off the shackle of the stage, she indeed showed an impressive ability. Given time, she would become a rising star. Besides, the sounds of bell tones and gun salutes created by Echo were equally perfect.

…

"I lost," May thought with her eyes closed.

She exerted all the effort to make Ferlin Eltek play the leading actor, with an aim to impress him on the stage where she could show the best of herself. She could defeat Irene with her acting skill by showing Ferlin she was much better than Irene.

In order to achieve that, May stayed in the little town for nearly a week to rehearse with actors who were normally despised by her. Having stayed here for so long that the boss of the Stronghold Theater might not extensively boost her anymore. And the result of her scheme was rather ironic—she failed to defeat Irene on stage. But what led to her defeat was not Irene's acting, but Irene's love toward Ferlin.

That being the case, it's time to give up.

May inhaled deeply. After changed her custom with a long face, she prepared to leave the preparation room early.

While she stepped down the wooden stairs, a man suddenly walked up to her.

He was a tall, straight and handsome guy. Judging from the shining armor he was wearing, he must be a knight of Border Town—but different from Morning Light who had a warm smile, this guy looked proud and cold with his rising eyebrows, long eyes, and thin lips.

"What're you up to?" May asked, frowning.

"Hello, Miss May." Unexpectedly the guy did not appear cold at all when he spoke. "I'm Carter Lannis, Chief Knight of His Highness. Your acting was splendid. Can I invite you for a drink?"

Chapter 191 - The Teeth of the New King

Petrov took a sip of black tea. Leaning on the soft chair for the lord, he exhaled deeply.

It'd been for two months since he took over the management of Longsong Stronghold. He found he had gradually grown a fondness toward this hall—the escalating structure under his chair enabled him to overlook the officials and guards standing in front of him, which gave him the satisfaction of taking everything under control.

At the beginning of the first month, a few nobles occasionally stood out and publicly questioned him, or secretly planned riots—of course, those who incited them were most likely from the big families like Elk and Wolf. Taking his father's advice, Petrov did not hang those civilians and Rats involved. Instead, he prisoned the minor nobles and planned to expel them after their families paid their ransom.

After these hardball measures being adopted, the situation quickly subsided. After all, except the Honeysuckle Family, all the knights of the other big families had been dispatched to Border Town, so they could not resist Petrov's policies openly. He planned to distribute part of the earnings of Longsong Stronghold to compensate for the big families' losses caused by the subsidence, in order to integrate the nobles as a relatively stable interest group.

Now 30% of Longsong Stronghold's earning was turned over to Border Town; another 30% was to maintain the city operating; 20% was to pacify other great nobles; what was left, the final 20% went to Hull's domain.

Right now, the portrait hanging on the wall behind the lord's chair was shifted from Duke Ryan to Prince Roland Wimbledon. Petrov hoped one day his own portrait could be hung there—the portrait of Petrov Hull.

If he could completely own Longsong Stronghold, the domain he owned as an earl would be integrated with Longsong Stronghold, which would become the domain of a duke. The 50% of annual earning to turn over and to pacify would be saved and used elsewhere—to invest in the operating and trading of Longsong Stronghold and generate more generous payback.

Of course, for that to become true, Roland would have to be crowned, namely, to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

"My lord." A guard walked into the hall and presented a letter. "It's a message from Border Town."

Upon hearing the word "Border Town", Petrov instantly stood upright.

He took over the letter and shook the sedge-made paper to level it. Judging from the poor quality of the paper used, the letter was from the confidants he placed in the serfs.

The battle happened two months ago ended in an inconceivable way. Although Petrov did not attend it personally, the story he heard from his father was rather bizarre. In order to figure out the reason led to the duke's failure, he placed a few confidants among the men he sent to Border Town. Disguised as craftsmen, herdsmen, and serfs, they were supposed to send information they collected back to Longsong Stronghold.

Petrov believed other big families would do the same.

But until now, except for the two confidants disguised as serfs were still sending back new information every month, the others disguised as craftsmen and herdsmen were totally mute, as if they had vanished into thin air.

Have they betrayed me, or have been discovered and eradicated by the prince?

Shaking the head, Petrov focused on the confidential letter.

The letter was written with a charcoal pen. It was not with a single line straight, and filled was water spots. It seemed the man had sneakily written it while working on the land.

The first paragraph said speculative iron towers were being constructed by Redwater River. Giant iron cans were put on top of the iron towers. Up until then, three such towers had been completed, each with a height of the stronghold city wall. It seemed the iron towers were manufactured by the blacksmiths within the town, then shipped to the river bank in a whole, and finally the soldiers of the First Army would set up baffle plates around the towers. The next day, the towers would stand up as a miracle.

"'Construct'... this word again," Petrov thought, "Same as the previous letter. Judging from the information collected, the prince is constantly building the little town. The last letter said there was constructing roads and bridges, while this letter said there was constructing iron towers. Could it be the prince would not stop until he spent out the gold royals he extorted from Longsong Stronghold? Besides, the towers are speculative... After all the confidants he sent to the little town weren't real serfs but well-informed guards. If the towers were to be used as observative towers or embrasured watchtower, they would have known it at a glance."

"Perhaps it's hard to judge before the completion of the iron towers." Petrov shook his head. "Maybe next month I'll get more details."

He continued to read the second paragraph.

It said that a large scale of merchants' fleet headed east after it stopped at the little town dock for a week. The ownership of the fleet was unclear. During its stay at the dock, a lot of ore ingots and saltpeter were unloaded of it.

The demand for saltpeter was easy to understand—the second month in summer would be very hot, so the castle needed a large amount of saltpeter to lower the temperature; it could also be used to cool wine and juice. As a royal noble, Roland would definitely avoid being sweaty all day long, which would make him as shitty as a farmer working in the field.

But the purchase of ore ingots bewildered Petrov. Border Town was an origin place of ores. He remembered during the Months of Demons when he went to the little town as an envoy, Prince Roland even exaggeratedly said that he would double the ore sales volume, but now he stopped ore export and started ore ingots import?

Associating with the iron towers as tall as the stronghold city wall mentioned in the previous paragraph, Petrov found it harder and harder to understand what His Highness was up to.

While the last paragraph totally startled Petrov.

In the previous two weeks, several open-air plays were performed in the Border Town square?

There was no charge for an entrance fee, the title of the play was unheard, and serfs were encouraged to go and watch. What startled him the most was that the recently missing Star of the Western Region, Miss May was in the cast!

What's going on?

May's recent missing was big news in Longsong Stronghold. The leading actresses of several plays had to be replaced due to her missing; nobles left in the middle of the plays as protests; the theater had to put an announcement, stating that May had left the theater without explaining to anybody, and her whereabouts remained unknown. The news caused an uproar among the play-loving nobles in the Western Region.

"She went to Border Town? There isn't even a theater! She even played for civilians and serfs..." Petrov found it hard to imagine. His impression of Miss May was that she was not an amiable actress.

After thinking it over, he decided to write His Highness Roland a letter to officially inquire about it, saying as a play-lover himself, he not only had not seen the Star of the Western Region's splendid acting performance for a long time but also had fewer chances to invite Shirley. "Since the plays were publicly played at the little town square, it's not strange that they were seen by a businessman from Longsong Stronghold, which is how the message passed to my ears." Thought of this, Petrov felt the guard he placed in the little town disguising as serf should not be exposed.

Just when Petrov was about to tell a guard to draw up the letter, a knight hurriedly walked into the hall and urgently said, "My lord, a guard in lookout tower of the east gate finds a knight troop is approaching Longsong Stronghold!"

"Knights? Can you recognize where they're from?" Petrov instantly stood up.

"They were holding banners with images of high-tower and double-spear on," the knight replied, "If they're not shamming, they must be a troop of the new king."

Chapter 192 - Under the Curtain of Night

There were around 50 knights, all in armors that glittered in the sunlight. Three flags among the troop were with images of high-tower and double-spear which symbolized the royals of the Kingdom of Graycastle; the other flag had a pattern of high-tower and horsehead. Petrov thought for a while and then remembered that it was the symbol for the Hawes Family.

One man walked out of the troop and shouted, "I'm Lehmann Hawes, the envoy of King Timothy. I bring with me the resolution of the king's city. Please lower the drawbridge."

"Where's your certificate?" Petrov stuck out his head and shouted back.

The knight took down the bow and arrow from his back, tied a roll of paper on the arrow and then shot it to the top of the city wall.

Petrov's guard picked the arrow and brought it to him. He unfolded the parchment and saw on the bottom of the document there embedded interlaced gold threads; on the lower right corner was the Wimbledon Royal's seal. He was sure then that the knight was the new king's envoy.

"Lower the drawbridge. Open the door." Petrov inhaled deeply. He could roughly guess the content of the king's city's resolution—most likely something about Roland Wimbledon. Since the knight was not a sham, he had no reason to turn the new king's envoy down, or he would be regarded as an enemy of the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. As soon as this message went out, the other big families would turn against the Honeysuckle family without any hesitation, and the undercurrent which had been suppressed by him would return.

But the fact that Timothy only dispatched an emissary delegation of 50 knights to inquire the situation just proved what Prince Roland said—the new king probably had no time to administer the Western Region.

Since His Highness could defeat the Duke Ryan's Coalition of over 1,000 soldiers, these 50 knights would most likely return empty-handed.

Of course, Petrov needed to convey this information to His Highness Roland quickly.

Thinking of this, he called the previous knight. "Westeros, bring three short-tailed horses so that you can ride on them successively. Bring this information to the Lord of Border Town as soon as possible, and tell him that Timothy's troop is here."

"Yes, milord," Westeros said, nodding.

Watching the knight leaving, Petrov sighed. "Let's go and welcome the new king's envoy."

…

Standing at the city gate, Petrov found those 10 plus knights walking in the front row looked in good spirits, but yet all the others looked rather weary, most of which sitting on the horse backs as if they could fall off at any time.

"Hello, Knight Lehmann." Petrov greeted him while nodding. "I'm the manager of Longsong Stronghold, Petrov Hull from the Honeysuckle Family."

The term 'the manager of Longsong Stronghold' made him feel awkward. If he were the Lord of the Western Region or the Duke of Longsong Stronghold, he would not have to salute the envoy; he did not even have to welcome the envoy at the city gate. All he needed to do would be waiting at the lord's castle for the envoy's quest for an interview.

"I've heard about your name at Coldwind Ridge, 'Lord of Deputy Duke'," Lehmann got off the horse, walked to Petrov, said with a smile, "The Western Region is indeed a weird place. The large army that Duke Ryan summoned failed to conquer a little town, and he lost his life. This is quite rare in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Of course, this probably is a piece of good news to the Honeysuckle."

Petrov automatically ignored the envoy's sarcasm. "How're your subordinates? They look a little... unwell."

"Never mind of them." Lehmann glanced at his men behind him. "Probably because they've traveled a long way and aren't acclimatized to this place. A rest will do them good. To be honest, this place is a bit too hot."

"It's a bit too cold in the north." Since the knight seemed nonchalant, Petrov would like to neglect it too. "I'm very curious why His Majesty sent the envoy team from Coldwind Ridge instead of the king's city."

"That's because His Majesty Timothy is in the Northern Region right now," he answered frankly, "Duke Ise created a riot in the Northern Region taking advantage that the border army is weak at this moment. He was suspected of rebelling, so the king had to lead an army to put it down."

"A rebellion?" Petrov frowned. "This doesn't make sense. Although in the border army, there're knights and mercenaries from various places of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and most of its members are the duke's soldiers. How could he start a rebellion when his soldiers had suffered a heavy loss?" Then he remembered that in Duke Ryan letter, who mentioned he planned to annex the Northern Region... and this gave him an ominous feeling. "Perhaps Timothy Wimbledon has the same plan?"

"So what's the king's city's resolution?"

"A recall order," Lehmann answered, "His Majesty sent me here because he doesn't wish to see the Western Region fall into wars as the Northern Region did. If my memory serves me right, as early as the Months of Demons, His Majesty had sent Roland Wimbledon a recall order too, but yet he hasn't returned the king's city."

"I suppose the document arrived at Longsong Stronghold five months ago, but His Highness Roland didn't return to Longsong Stronghold for sanctuary before the fall of the Months of Demons like the other lords did." Petrov paused. "At that time, he was leading his people to defend the attacks of demonic beasts, which was why he couldn't instantly return the king's city."

"Since the Months of Demons ended three months ago," Lehmann said without commenting on Petrov's words, "the king sent me to escort Roland to the king's city."

"When do you plan to leave for Border Town?"

"I'll set off tomorrow morning."

"With a normal speed, it takes a person three days to arrive at the little town. If I send a knight to travel by day and night, I could send His Highness the message 24 hours later, which will give His Highness Roland enough time to prepare," Petrov thought, "This is all that I can do."

Leading the emissary delegation to the stronghold camp, Petrov stopped. "This used to be the stationary for the duke's knightage. I wish you rest well here tonight. Dinner will be sent to here later. As to you, Mr. Envoy," Petrov looked at Lehmann Hawes and said, "we'll prepare a special feast in your honor in the castle. Please do come and join us."

"I appreciate your generosity, Sir Petrov," the envoy said smilingly.

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

After the feast, Lehmann returned to the camp. While stepping into the big tent, several of his subordinates hurriedly surrounded him.

"How's the situation?" he asked.

"There're people watching everywhere. At the exit a troop of around 100 soldiers is stationed, most of whom aren't fully armored. I think that's the city patrol team," one of his subordinates reported, "It seems the lord is worried about us."

"At least the information is accurate because that's also what I heard during the feast," Lehmann said in a low voice, "After the defeat of the duke, most of his knights were sent to Border Town. There aren't many elites left in Longsong Stronghold for military operations."

Before he reached this place, he had carefully inquired the situation in Longsong Stronghold. The mission His Majesty Timothy gave him was very simple, which was to investigate the reason leading to the duke's defeat and take corresponding measures to seize the control power over the Western Region.

"Those on medication... how are they?"

"They almost reached their limit," a guard replied, "Now as long as the pills are provided, they're willing to do anything."

The emissary delegation was only a camouflage. Among the 50 soldiers in the troop, only 13 of them were real knights, and all the others were mercenaries who, on the influence of the pills, were more obedient than hunting dogs and crueler than demonic beasts. They were the key to opening the city gate. According to his plan, another troop with 1,500 militias was approaching Longsong Stronghold. As long as this city gate got opened, this city would be at his command.

"Distribute pills. Leave 10 soldiers to take care of the patrol team; the rest march toward the east gate," Lehmann ordered.

Chapter 193 - The Castle Toilets

The theatrical performances were a huge success.

Over two weeks they performed "Cinderella" three times with many people coming to see it more than once. Many people attended the premiere due to its publicity and advertisement, while the next two showings had a spontaneous rise in crowds. There were even subjects who came to City Hall to enquire about the next performance.

This left Roland feeling overjoyed. Everyone had been completely fascinated by the story. In fact, there had been almost no-one to cry out in objection, asking, "Why does a witch help Cinderella?" Next month he would show "The Cock Cries at Midnight", a play whose audience was mainly comprised of poor subjects. He did not know what the serfs would think about the witches helping them in the show.

He was also happy that the cast had accepted the existence of witches after settling down in the town. After the third performance, Irene had sought out Roland and asked him why they were able to have such unique accompaniment. Roland decided to tell her about Echo.

From what Nightingale observed from the darkness, although Irene was surprised, she had shown neither offense nor disgust. After she composed herself, she became curious, asking all sorts of questions about Echo and making her demonstrate her magical sound several times. After that, Echo joined the theater crew, becoming the obscure music director. In order to avoid accidents, Irene would hold a separate rehearsal with Echo where they would line up sound effects. All of this happened without the knowledge of the rest of the crew. Without a doubt, the richness of the sound would reach a new level in the next play.

In addition, something else to be even more joyous about was that the castle was reaching the era of tap water.

A tall water tower had been built in the castle backyard. The tower was triangular and made of a welded iron frame. An iron water drum, three meters tall and two meters in diameter, was attached to the tower. A float valve was attached to the drum, which made it convenient to adjust the water level. The tower was welded by Anna and then it was given an anti-rust coating by Soraya. Finally, with the help of Hummingbird, it was lowered considerably so that it could be erected on a pre-poured cement base.

Due to the height of the castle, the water tower in the backyard was higher than the Redwater River and was approaching 12 meters, approximately equal to the top of the castle. In order to stop it from collapsing, Roland added a wall section to the tower, integrating it and the castle into a single structure.

A steam engine was set just outside of the backyard and was used to bring source water to the tower. The water came from the well in the castle backyard. This was the third generation of the steam engine. The largest improvement in this generation was a large reduction in sound pollution.

A gasket was fitted at each junction of the steam engine. These light blue gaskets were the color of the sky when Soraya created them. They were very soft but tough and could greatly lessen the noise made in running the machine. The inside of the cylinder, as well as the sides of the pistons, were the color of grass. These parts reduced leakage while simultaneously increasing efficiency. All of the steam engine's components that were prone to tremors, such as the exhaust pipe, were replaced with coated hoses.

In order to protect the steam engine from rain and sun, and to further isolate noise, Roland created a small room to enclose it. The walls of the room were given a honeycomb coating by Soraya. This worked as a porous, sound absorbing material. The test results showed that even when the machine ran at night, its sounds did not wake the people sleeping in the castle.

However, Roland's attempt to make the steam engine run automatically was ultimately a failure. He had thought that a flying ball controlled by the steam engine could work the wooden box flap. When the steam pressure was lowered, the shifting ball would open the flap and push the firewood from the storage box into the furnace. However, he had to enlarge the speed controller so that the ball would be able to move the flaps with its own weight. After thinking for a bit, Roland decided to give it up. If the wooden box was loaded with firewood, it was better to have people fill it. Furthermore, men had to fill the water tank daily anyway.

The last step was installing water pipes into homes. This included faucets, showers, pipes, and the corresponding drain pipe installation.

The castle was not like the newly built brick buildings in small neighborhoods where holes were prepared. The stone walls and roofs were quite troublesome to reconstruct. This step alone took nearly a week to complete. In order to improve the quality of life, Roland personally commanded Carter to have a room converted into a bathroom on both the second and third floors.

For this, Soraya's new ability once again played a critical role. She paved a drain on top of the cement flooring and then painted on a thin layer of grass. Not only did this help with waterproofing, but it made entering the bathroom feel like taking a stroll in a valley. After he had received this inspiration, Roland told her to paint over the entire room. The ceilings became open blue skies with clouds, and on each of the four walls, one could see distant valleys and forests. The walls of the bathtub were made crystal clear like a gemstone.

On the day when the water system was up and running, the prince called all the witches into the bathroom, so that they could experience this great achievement for themselves.

The backyard water tank had been filled with water. He twisted the faucet, and water flowed through the pipes.

"From today on, there's no need to raise water from the well," Roland proudly announced, "Bathwater also doesn't need to be used for three days. All you need to do is to stand in the shower, and pull this lever."

"Huh? Where does the water come from?" Lightning stretched out her tongue and tasted the stream of water. "It's sweet."

Maggie stretched out her head from under Lightning and did likewise. "Very sweet, coo!"

Roland grabbed Nana, who was also trying to put her head over it. "If you want to drink this water, you need to boil it first. This water is only for washing hands and taking showers."

"This is the siphon principle, right?" Anna looked at Roland, her lake-blue eyes sparkling.

"What's that?" Hummingbird raised her hand and asked.

Under Teacher Scroll's training, the witches had developed the habit of raising their hands to ask questions.

"Elementary Physics says that when the two uneven vessels contain liquid, and the liquid is connected by a pipe, it will move to the lower vessel due to gravity, regardless of the shape of the tube," Anna explained. "We're in a lower position than the water tower, so the water will keep flowing here."

"You're completely correct," Roland praised. She really was a genius, able to learn new information and connect it like this.

"What about these?" Nightingale pointed to the tall shower curiously. "Why are there so many tiny holes at the bottom?"

Roland opened the valve, letting a small bit of water pour out. "It's designed for a more convenient bath. All you have to do is to stand here, and you'll easily be able to clean your body."

"So you've been busy around the castle all a week just to make a more comfortable bathroom?" Lily curled her lip and whispered, "it's indeed the sort of luxury that the noble would enjoy."

"Lily!" Scroll frowned.

"It's alright." Roland waved, showing that he did not mind. "The pursuit of enjoyment is the source power of human progress, and I'm no exception to that."

Chapter 194 - Lily

Scroll walked in not too long after Prince Roland had returned to his office.

"Your Highness, my apologies. Lily, that child... she wasn't being intentional."

"I don't really care," he smiled and said, "She's just a little girl."

"Only you'd be so forgiving towards us." Scroll sighed. "She didn't begin like this, only after being deceived did she lose her ability to trust people."

"Was it before joining the Witch Cooperation Association?" he asked, "I remember she only joined you for a year."

"Indeed, I found her on the outskirts of Redwater City," Scroll said, "You know that I'm able to feel the existence of magic power and the closer I'm to it the stronger the feeling. I can't see the shape and color of the magic power like Nightingale, but I can still sense it enough to discover new witches. To better use this ability I would dress as a noble lady looking to adopt a child, and I would walk through a town and visit the local asylum and orphanage to see if I could find any sister who may have awakened." She paused. "At the time, I found Lily confined in a remote asylum and I was rejected when I petitioned to adopt her. The lord that ran the asylum told me that they only sold the females that were fully grown."

"Why?" Roland asked confused. "Could the reason be related to the fact the awakening period for a witch happens before adulthood?"

"We also felt suspicious, so Nightingale snuck into the asylum and looked through their account books, records, and other related information. Fortunately, the asylum was far away from the town, so we were able to take our time."

"Why didn't you bring Lily back with you? It wouldn't have been difficult with Nightingale's help."

"Indeed, it would not have been difficult." Scroll nodded. "There wasn't a God's Stone of Retaliation in the asylum, except for one that the lord wore himself. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that since there was a previous incident."

"What previous incident?" Prince Roland poured some tea for Scroll.

"Thank you." She took the cup. "We would initially try to take the witch by force once we had found her, but there was a misunderstanding that happened in Seawindshire that ended up changing our method. A newly awakened witch was taken by surprise and thought we were enemies and attacked us. She had been brought back to the Witch Cooperation Association and refused to listen to reason or explanation. It ended after she had killed two sisters and she was taken down by Cara's "Death" magic snakes. Since this happened we now carefully observe the witches and determine their situation before intervening. If we were being closely chased by the church... we'd like to give up."

"You mean, the encounter between Nightingale and Wendy was not an accident?"

"Of course not." Scroll sipped her tea and shook her head with a smile. "It was over a month from Nightingale discovering her to Wendy contacting her. During this time we recruited other sisters, Red Light and Windseeker..." She looked solemn as she said it. "Unfortunately, they ended up being buried in the wilderness. I wish they would have immediately decided to settle down in Border Town."

Roland felt sorry hearing this. "If the more than 40 witches had gathered in this town, they would all be living the modern life."

"Let's not talk about that." Scroll inhaled deeply and changed the subject. "Let's talk about Lily. After we tracked down the information from the asylum, we spied on the lord and found out a surprising fact. This small country house was not established to be an actual asylum or to screen for witches."

"What was it created for?"

"It was for satisfying the lord's selfish desires." Even the well-bred Scroll looked gloomy while mentioning this. "The lord would visit the slums in Redwater City every week to abduct homeless girls. He would lie to them by pretending to be a kind-hearted noble who opened the asylum in the suburbs. He said that if they came with him he would make sure nobles in fancy-dress would come to adopt them as their daughter. They wouldn't need to worry about food or clothing as long as they got picked. Even though he couldn't fool every girl, there were hundreds of girls he had tricked over the decades."

"That many?" Roland frowned. "But, you said the asylum was not very big."

"Only hundreds of them were officially recorded in the account book, and most of them were listed as... dead," she said softly, "He had only found three witches in the last 10 years and they were all sold to the church. The pretty girls he dressed up and sold them as prostitutes to wealthy men. The homely or unwanted were killed in the woods behind the asylum."

"..." Prince Roland was suddenly at a loss for words, and he felt a hand gently resting on his shoulder from someone standing behind him.

"The chances of a witch awakening aren't high. Based on the records in the account book, he only earned around 20 gold royals, after deducting the asylum expenses. Nearly 300 girls died for just 20 gold royals, leaving that pit in the woods filled with corpses. Cara asked him why he had done this during their interrogation and he replied that it was not about money but keeping the asylum open to feed his desires and allow him to sell the grown women. Not to mention a witch was worth more than an ordinary woman." "He made it his purpose to enjoy having the king-like-power to decide who lives and who dies, freely disposing of the homeless girls after he had fulfilled his needs. Upon hearing this, Cara killed him in anger and we went to free the girls. Instead of gratitude, they acted as if we had taken away their chance of becoming a noble."

"Lily felt like the majority of other girls until Cara had taken her to the woods behind the asylum. Here she saw her friends, the "lucky" girls that had been chosen to go live with nobles a month ago. Seeing this and a few other revolting pits had Lily vomiting and retching so badly she passed out in Cara's arms. When she revived she sat stunned, with no light in her eyes. After that, she has slowly been healing under Wendy's care. Now she's wary, vigilant and full of mistrust towards any noble." Scroll then said, "However, I believe if there's anyone who can improve her perspective, it would be you."

"I see." Roland emotionally thought to himself, "After experiencing such a traumatic event, it must be tough for her to cheer up."

Scroll picked up the kettle to refill both of their cups. She was silent for a long time before saying. "Your Highness, I have a question to ask you."

"What's the question?" he replied stunned, noticing Scroll's serious demeanor.

"Nightingale, are you here?"

"Ya." Nightingale revealed herself. "Do you need me to leave?"

"No... You already know about this anyway." She shook her head. "Just stay where you are and be my audience."

After that, Scroll looked directly at His Highness and said, "You said you're going to marry a witch, but I'm not sure you know that witches can't bear children." She paused, letting the information sink in, and then she clearly asked, "Your Highness, now that you know this are you going to change your mind?"

Chapter 195 - The Answer

Roland was wondering if he had heard her wrong. "Pardon?"

Scroll, clenching her teeth, repeated the question.

This time he was sure he was not experiencing a hearing problem and thought, [This witch is really concerned about my marriage?] He then said, "Are you sure all witches are unable to bear children? Is this due to... any specific reason? Something that could lead to a misunderstanding? For example, the previous Holy Mountain."

"I hope so," she said with a sigh, "unfortunately, there's no documentation of a witch bearing a child and there're countless examples that confirm the theory. Whether it be a normal relationship or taken by force, there has never been a conception in the Witch Cooperation Association or any of the other organizations."

[Reproductive isolation]... was the term that emerged in Roland's mind. [Was it possible that witches had evolved into the next form of human being, preventing them from reproducing with the older version? Or, perhaps, it was the magic power they stored in their bodies?]

[However, now was not the time to speculate,] he thought, [The current problem was its possible influence. Will it prevent me from entertaining the idea of marrying a witch?]

Roland immediately thought of Anna.

Although it would be a pity if he couldn't have kids with Anna, the basis for Roland's love for any children would stem from his initial love for Anna, and this love was not going to decrease if they could not have children. Not to mention that, as a person with a modern soul, having a blood-related next generation was not as important to him as it was for the past generations. He believed himself to be an individual entity and since children were not actual clones, they were not a continuation of himself but other independent humans.

Therefore, he would totally accept a witch that could not bear him any blood-kin.

In this case, the only real problem would be creating an heir. However, it was still not a too difficult-to-handle task for Roland who had gone through their world's long history. All he needed to do was build an empire that did not require an heir. There were a few choices for that specific implementation and he had time to consider it later.

Roland was surprised to find that it was actually extremely good news as a whole.

He had been thinking about how he could create a social framework that included the New Mankind Witch could live in peace with the normal human and together progress. He had been pondering this since he had that late night conversation with Nightingale. However, he did realize that the witches and their future generations would still be able to form powerful groups, even with the development of the God's Stone of Retaliation. This stone would not close the gap between human and witch abilities. Even with the newly developing technology, the witch's superior intelligence would still give them an advantage.

But, now he had been told that the witches could not procreate. This had largely prevented the formation of family organizations and increased the population gap between the witches and the ordinary humans. The thought gave him hope that both parties could progress hand in hand, at the same time.

Perhaps he had been thinking for too long, Nightingale could not help but grab his arm.

Roland retrieved himself from his thoughts and patted Nightingale's hand on his arm to comfort her and, after clearing his throat, said, "I thought so before and I still think so now."

"..." Scroll was stunned momentarily. "What?"

The hand on his arm suddenly tightened.

Roland could not help but laugh. He had been the one who thought he had heard incorrectly and now they were thinking they had misheard him? He coughed before repeating. "Yes, I'm still willing to marry a witch."

...

Scroll left with a strange expression on her face, satisfied and yet, slightly sad, and this confused Roland.

After hearing this he turned around and asked Nightingale who was still standing beside him, "Is she okay?"

Nightingale did not answer but looked at Roland with a smile instead. The sun outside the window was streaming in and enchantingly shone on her fair face and smooth hair.

"Well." Roland looked away. "I'll just take that as a sign you're both in a good mood."

Then they all heard a knock coming from the door to the office. "Your Highness, a knight from Longsong Stronghold is here. He says that he has some information for you."

"Bring him to the hall, and I'll be right there."

When the prince entered the hall, the waiting knight quickly walked over and knelt down on one knee. "Lord Petrov has sent me to inform you that Timothy Wimbledon has sent his emissary delegation and they've already arrived at Longsong Stronghold."

"Emissary delegation?" Roland muttered. "How many of them arrived?"

"A total of around 50 people."

[It seems to be the persuasion team,] Roland thought, [It's futile to me if he's just being diplomatic.] He asked, "When did they arrive?"

"Yesterday afternoon," the knight answered in a low voice, "Lord Petrov ordered me to inform you as soon as possible."

It only took him a day to arrive and he had probably been on the road all night riding by torchlight. "You must be tired, and get a good night rest here before you return." Roland looked at his guard and ordered, "Reward him with a gold royal and take him to the hotel."

After the knight left, Roland wanted to ignore the matter since a team of 50 people would not really be a threat to the town and it was simply a show for persuasive purposes, besides he only had to let the leader in. However, Petrov was taking it seriously so it would be better for Roland to keep track of the emissary delegation's whereabouts.

After thinking about it, Roland summoned Lightning and Maggie. He asked them to fly to the stronghold to look at the situation, one after the other.

After only two hours, both of the witches had completed their investigation and returned to the castle.

"Nothing was discovered, " Lightning reported, "There was no army of 50 knights along the way, actually, not even a single knight was found."

"Not even a single one, coo!" Maggie confirmed.

[It looks like they needed to have some fun and relax their tired bodies after the long travel to the city.] Roland relieved them. "Both of you just continue to investigate along the path once every day before the emissary delegation arrives." He paused. "By the way, how's progress on the map?"

"We've put about hundreds of pieces of it together and it's almost filled up Soraya's room," Lightning said, "she already moved the map out into the backyard. Would you like to take a look?"

"Sure," Roland said with a smile.

The castle's backyard had become a botanical garden and there were all sorts of exotic plants growing there since Sean had brought some crops seeds back from Port of Clearwater. Leaf had put up an elevated wooden shelf in order to leave the bare ground and flowerbeds for the vining plants. The grape vines crawled up to the shelf and even halfway up the castle wall. Along with the grapes, there were apple trees, and sugar cane hanging on the back wall to the castle. The witches would gather here and eat fresh fruit and chew on sugar cane. Unfortunately, the success of this garden was due to Leaf's influence, so they were not a good example of what could be freely cultivated.

The map was located in the middle of the yard, five to six square meters and comprised of the various pieces of parchment that had been put together.

"We're here." Lightning held onto Roland's waist with one arm and they slowly floated above the map. "Can you see that palm-sized grayish-brown square? From an aerial perspective, Border Town looks like this."

"The blue-colored place to the east and the south... could those be the ocean?"

"Yes, however, we would need to cross a mountain to reach it."

Roland was slightly worried. This would be considered normal if Barbarian Land were 10 times bigger than the Kingdom of Graycastle, however, he had not expected the Western Region to be so small once the entire map was completed. Graycastle was simply caught in the middle of the borderlands created by the natural barriers, the Impassable Mountain Range in front and an ocean behind. No... Not only the Western Region. He filled in the unfinished portions in his mind, using the Impassable Mountain Range, that divided the mainland, as a wall. The Kingdom of Graycastle and even the entire "mainland" would be just a small plot of land behind the wall.

...

Chapter 196 - The Church Disaster

Lehmann and the others rode through the streets of Longsong Stronghold on horses.

The residents in the city were all hiding in their houses with their doors closed. There was no one on the street and it had become a little deserted after the war.

"Sir Lehmann, is your arm okay?" "Shield" Knight Levin asked.

"It's not a big problem." Lehmann Howes shrugged. "At least I can still move." However, the shrugging move had caused him to frown suddenly.

The hasty war last night was very successful. There were only 20 soldiers guarding the eastern gate of the stronghold and they did not expect the enemy to attack within the city.

Although the horn was sounded, it took the reinforcements at least 15 minutes to arrive. The mercenaries who had taken the pills jumped onto the city wall and killed the soldiers on watch one by one, and Lehmann opened the city door along with the knights. He did not notice that there was a side door beside the city wall in the dark, and two soldiers came out from the door, one of whom jumped over to Lehmann with an iron hammer in his hand.

In order to facilitate the rotation of the capstan, he had kept his weapon by his waist and Lehmann could only block with his arm in the haste while Levin, on the other side, pointed out his swords and pierced into the soldier's waist almost at the same time. The hammer force that struck on his arm was decreased by half under the influence of the deadly attack, but yet it still left a dented mark on his arm armor.

Lehmann did not feel much pain at that moment, only after they won the city gate did he realize that he could barely lift up his right arm. He found his forearm swollen like a rolling pin after taking off the armor.

"I hope there's some pain-killer herb in the church," Levin said, "They always have some strange and eccentric stuff."

"Such as the pill," another knight, Duane, came up and said with a smile.

[Two people were killed in the night attack among the 13 knights and one is seriously injured and currently lying in the camp groaning. He probably won't last through the night. The loss is acceptable in general,"] Lehmann thought, [now that the militia army had entered the city, the stronghold should entirely fall into my hands.]

After a while, they came to the church entrance and there was already a team of over 100 militias awaiting command. They all looked hopeful when they saw Lehmann.

"Distribute the pills to them." Lehmann turned around to dismount and walked up to the stairs towards the main hall with the team after everyone received their pills.

"Stop!" two believers who were on the watch shouted, "no weapons are allowed in the holy place!"

Levin pulled out his weapon and delivered it with both hands. "Alright. I'll give it to you now, okay?" He suddenly held onto the sword handle and pointed it upwards when the believer was about to reach out for the sword, both of the believer's arms dropped on the floor.

"Ah..." Before the believer could scream, the knight had pierced his sword tip into his throat.

Levin's nickname was "Shield", however, it did not match with his swift sword skills.

The other believer's throat was also cut by Duane. Lehmann kicked the door open and walked into the hall without any expression.

"Who're you?" A middle-aged man, wearing a priest robe with a white base and blue trim, walked towards them. Facing the bloody edge of the sword, he showed no fear. "How dare you break into the church! My children, catch them!"

Lehmann sneered. Most of the people were now hiding in the house and there were only 20 or 30 believers residing in the church. There would only be a dead end for them, facing the knights who had fought in hundreds of wars.

Duane did not wait for Lehmann's command. He drew his sword with a sneaky smile and rushed towards the believers. The others quickly joined the war and the church was suddenly in chaos. Looking at the situation, the priest loudly shouted, "My children, take the pills and let the Gods give you the power to defeat the mob!"

Timothy, His Majesty, was right and Lehmann was pleased. There really were pills here! The believers' eyes turned red and the blue veins appeared on their faces. An ordinary human could overcome the limitations of a human body in both strength and speed, and they were harder to handle in smaller spaces when the pills took effect. [Unfortunately, you're not the only ones who have the pills,] Lehmann thought, [you're going to have a taste of your own power.]

"Get out of the wat!" He yelled. "Militia, engage the enemy!"

The militia behind him quickly swallowed the double-colored pills after hearing him and fought the frantic believers closely. The priest finally turned pale and said, "Why would you have...!"

"The Holy Medicine?" Lehmann walked around the group of people from both parties and approached the priest with a sword in one hand. "This is a gift from the church. If you didn't come in between, His Majesty would probably have ruled the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"His Majesty?" the priest stared at him and said, "you're Timothy's..."

His voice abruptly stopped, and the sword in the knight's hand was already piercing through his heart from his chest.

The war of great disparity quickly ended and over 20 believers were killed, with the corpses lying all around the floor. After the efficacy faded, the militia was breathing heavily and sitting down beside the corpses contentedly without caring about the blood that was wantonly flowing.

Lehmann started to notice that his arm was getting increasingly heavy, and he could feel a searing pain from pointing his sword. Sometimes he also wanted to swallow the black-colored pill to ignore the physical exhaustion and pain, but he put away this idea every time he saw the ugly appearance of the pill-takers.

Lehmann had had a deep understanding of the two pills sold by the church. For a healthy person, the pills would only take effect for three times. The first time lasted for about 15 minutes, and then the duration would become shorter and shorter, forming a strong dependence on it. If no medicine was taken for a long time, the body would gradually decline until the person died.

Using this characteristic, he had unified the militia to take the pills before the departure in order to make them follow his command. The desire of the drugs would turn the weakest farmer into a bloodthirsty beast. This was the second time the 100 people took the pills and they had only one use remaining.

However... after three times of continuously supplementing the drugs, they would only help to reduce the pain but it could not reverse the process. In other words, it was equivalent to putting one foot in the coffin. Of course, Lehmann would not share this with the group of people.

There was no doubt that the double-colored pills were the church's conspiracy. Timothy, His Majesty, recognized this point clearly and stopped the knights from taking them. However, they were also a weapon that would unify the kingdom, or perhaps... a necessity. His Majesty would not be able to defeat Garcia Wimbledon, who possessed the same pills, without them.

When His Majesty first mentioned this matter, Lehmann found it unbelievable, as he was not able to understand why the church wanted to support both of the royal blood to fight for the throne. However, a series of misfortunes had made him increasingly agree with His Majesty's judgement. He had no further doubt about it after seeing the pills in the Western Region church today—the church did not plan to assist any of the royal blood to ascend the throne, but they wanted the entire Kingdom of Graycastle.

"The pills were found in the basement, four big boxes, and there were thousands of pieces in total." After the church was searched thoroughly, Levin excitedly reported, "There were also a lot of gold royals, jewelry, and silk that were supposedly donated by the believers."

"Take what we can and burn the rest," Lehmann ordered. "After all, all of this was done by Roland Wimbledon, we were just assisting the church to suppress the rebellion."

As the drugs could only be reliably supplied by the church, it was not the time to completely ruin the relationship yet, and pushing it to Prince Roland, he would have no testimony from a witness. His Majesty was staying in the north in order to prevent the church from being suspicious to create the illusion of complying to the other party, sending only several knights to recruit a large number of militias to take down the Western Region.

Now the church had focused the entire force in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, ignoring the situation here. Therefore, it was necessary to unify the Kingdom of Graycastle as soon as possible in order to draw the strength to resist the church's attack—Timothy, His Majesty, believed that they would soon attack the Kingdom of Graycastle and it was necessary to store and collect as many pills as possible before that. At the same time, he ordered the Alchemist Workshop of King's City to study the composition of the drugs to imitate it as soon as possible.

Now that they had the pills on hand, the final step for the task was left—completely eliminate Roland Wimbledon.

Chapter 197 - The Preparation for Engaging the Enemy

Roland learned that there was a huge platoon of soldiers and horses approaching the next morning, and Lightning's routine patrol found the slow-moving platoon.

"What? More than 1,000 of them?" Roland was startled. [Didn't you say 50 emissary delegations?]

"Um, coo!" Maggie added, "However there're only six of them riding on horses."

"In that case, what're the clothes and weapons... of those who're walking?"

"Just normal, most of them don't even have armor on, and they're wearing ordinary linen clothes," Lightning said, "weapons are various, however, there're hundreds of them carrying a short spear behind them."

[Such poor level of equipment, could they be the forced-recruited civilians or serfs?] Roland wondered. [There's no special training provided for the militia in this era. They're the logistics who're responsible for transporting the provisions and gears supply of the knights, and they're sometimes used as the 'cannon fodder' to exhaust the enemy's arrows.]

He would need to understand the situation of the war between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town if Timothy wanted to kill Roland by force. Over 200 knights of the Coalition of Duke Ryan had not even stepped into the town, not to mention the militia who were walking and running on their feet. They must be confident to break through the intensive gunning-line since they were still approaching the town after knowing the result and the process of the war.

Roland could not help but think of the pills from the church.

He was previously guessing if the church was supporting both himself and Garcia, they would probably support Timothy as well. The situation would be different if these people had possessed the pills.

They could enhance the running speed of a human to the speed of a horse in a short time and they would be fearless to pain, which also meant that the gunning-line would have to face the attack of over 1,000 "knights". It would bring casualties to the First Army, even if only one of them was running into the line.

Luckily, the First Army was no longer the army of two months ago.

Although there were only around 100 revolving rifles modified, the firepower transmission density had been far more than the flintlock army, especially with the shooters equipped with the specialized loader—the enemies within a 300-meter range would be continuously attacked. The Artillery Squad had been expanded after the stronghold war from four teams to 20 teams currently. Every team was equipped with a 12-pound modified field artillery which increased the caliber that increased the effective range to over 1,000 meters.

However, another question came to Roland's mind.

"Did you see any God's Stone of Retaliation on those who were walking?"

"I didn't get too close to them," Lightning pointed at Maggie and said, "but she can see much better after transforming into an eagle."

The latter shook her head and said, "I didn't see any, or perhaps it was hidden in their clothes, coo!"

"In that case..." Roland pondered and said, "You bring Nightingale with you this time. You could probably fly around 10 meters high with only one person behind you. You just fly along Redwater River. Maggie is responsible for the front line alert while Nightingale goes forward in the Mist state in case there're any passing ships." He looked at Nightingale and said, "You'll need to observe if most of the army is wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation after approaching the enemy. Make sure not to attack."

"Yes," Nightingale and Lightning said in unison.

Just when the three were about to depart, Roland stopped them and said, "Remember, safety first. Protect yourselves."

"No problem." Nightingale blinked her eyes and smiled.

Roland was feeling a little uneasy after the witches left. [Was my last sentence similar to setting up the flag?]

And he noticed that he made a major mistake in his work, which was that he had very weak control over the information of Longsong Stronghold—if it was not for the carrier pigeon Petrov sent, he would probably only notice the condition when the enemy was attacking at the door. It would be hard for the First Army to redeem the situation once they were caught in the street battle.

[I'm too young and too naive,] Roland thought, "it must be made up after the war, not only on the intelligence but also placing the manpower for Petrov.]

Prince Roland was restlessly sitting in front of the table, he even lost his appetite for lunch and he was only relieved when Lightning flew into the room with Nightingale on her back.

Maggie patted her wings and stopped on Nightingale's shoulder and said loudly, "No, coo! No, coo!"

"No God's Stone of Retaliation?"

"Mostly no." Nightingale took off her hood and her blonde hair fell out. "I had been observing from the front of the army to the back. Other than 10 people who lead, there were only three or four parts with a black empty hole within the militia."

"Very well." A preliminary battle plan was quickly formed in Roland's mind. "Are you hungry? Go to the dining room and ask the chef to cook whatever you like."

"Honey barbeque meat, coo!" Maggie extended her wings and raised her head.

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

The east side, outside of the town.

Van'er glanced at the busy stonemasons and workers on both sides of the street. "What're they actually building?"

A few hundred of them were first digging a few huge pits on the ground and started to build a brick wall along the side of the pits. He first thought that both ends of the wall would be joined to block the road but the wall was unexpectedly surrounding the pits.

"Who knows? I only know that there're enemies to be beaten up again," Jop fixed the carriage and excitedly said.

"Indeed," Van'er thought. Since they defeated the Coalition of Duke Ryan, Prince Roland, His Highness, personally issued a bronze emblem to every member of the mortar team... No, it was a medal. The front side of the medal was the pattern of the Longsong Stronghold's high wall and the back was engraved with the reign title and military exploits. It was exquisitely made, making the Flintlock Squad badly envious.

Other than the honor, everyone was promoted a level and Van'er was currently a captain of the cannon teams, managing 10 cannon teams. And the Rodney brothers, Cat's Claw, and Jop were promoted to be the team leader, and three of them were transferred to a newly-formed team to teach the new recruits how to operate a cannon.

The most exciting thing was that Prince Roland, His Highness, had fulfilled his promise and divided a piece of land at the bottom of the Impassable Mountain Range located at the east side of the town. Although it was still a forest currently, there was already a monument erected on the ground which signified that the land had belonged to him.

Therefore, the First Army was suddenly worked up, knowing that there was an enemy invading the town. Everyone was eager to fight, hoping to contribute to this war.

In the evening, Van'er wiped off the sweat on his forehead after completing the training of the day. He leaned against the carriage to take a rest. He was checking on the new recruits' compliance and confirming if they were launching the cannon in accordance with the rules the entire evening. His throat was almost fuming due to all the screaming.

"Drink some water." Jop passed him a leather sack.

"Thank you." Van'er twisted open the cover and took a huge gulp of it.

"I think I know what they're building," the former smirked and happily said.

"Do you?" Van'er returned the sack to Jop. The brick wall was built as high as half a human, and the pits were roughly surrounded by a hexagonal wall. However, each wall was 30cm to 40cm away from the ground, leaving a long and narrow gap. It looked a little like a window, but it was a little narrow. "Would it be a house?"

"It's also correct to say it's a house. I've asked one of the stonemasons." Jop nodded. "He told me that it was an idea of His Highness, who wanted to build the underground house for the Flintlock Squad to hide inside when firing as a protection shelter. However, it has a unique name. His Highness named it a bunker."

Chapter 198 - The Unexpected Opening

Three days had passed quickly, and the defense line had been basically constructed.

Roland stood on the high platform behind the battlefield in order to inspire all the soldiers in the First Army as if he would go to the battlefield, which was like the Months of Demons against the demonic beasts.

Due to the special task assigned to her, Nightingale had sneaked into the battlefield with Echo, and the witch Anna took the place of protecting Roland.

Roland also put on the coating armor, with two revolvers in his waist. If the line of defense did not totally collapse, it would be hard for the soldiers who escaped to cause a threat to him.

"Coo! The enemies are about 10 kilometers away from here." The huge pigeon fell from the sky and landed on his shoulder.

"Well done. Continue to monitor." Roland took out a piece of beef from his pocket and handed it to Maggie, and she pecked the meat and swallowed it into her belly, and then flew towards the east.

With the alternate investigations of Lightning and Maggie, he was clear about the movements of the enemies, so he could easily arrange the battlefield.

To deal with the crazy warriors who had taken the pills, long and thin lines were not safe, especially according to Lightning's report. Hundreds of people bearing short spears made him particularly care. If it was not wrong, it was likely that the enemies struck first to gain the initiative.

Usually, the range of throwing weapons was no more than 50 meters, but that was for ordinary people. And Roland was not clear how far the militia could throw the short spears after taking the pills. Once the range was over 100 meters, there would be a threat to the Flintlock Squad. So he chose to put down a number of bunkers and implemented the city with tactics which built an insurmountable line of defense, with buildings covering the hole and flintlocks blocking the roads.

In the case of sufficient cement, it was easier to build bunkers quickly than construct walls. Although the monolithic bunkers were somewhat fragile in structure, for the Militia without heavy siege equipment, it was an indestructible fortification.

The 10 bunkers were arranged in a diamond on both sides of the road to form a crossfire. Each bunker was equipped with 24 soldiers, half of which were veterans, and half of which were recruits. The skilled veterans were responsible for the shooting, while the recruits were responsible for filling ammunition. Soraya also painted "optical camouflage" for bunkers. Standing in the distance, the bunker and the surrounding environment were almost the same, it was hard to tell the difference between them.

In the rear was the artillery, and 20 cannons were lined up. The firing order was the same as the previous one, with the cannons' angles adjusted and the corresponding ammunition loaded according to Lightning's instructions.

There was also an emergency force standing around the shelling position, which was about 100 people, equipped with flintlocks, which were used to protect the artillery and His Highness from the rear.

Looking at the soldiers with high morale, Roland felt a little emotional. These people who joined the army because of eggs had shouldered the responsibility to defend their homes after the experiences of the Months of Demons and the defense wars.

"Your Highness, the enemies are only two kilometers away from us." Lightning flew back to report this time.

"All right, it's time for Maggie to monitor. You can send the signal for artillery over the forest." Roland nodded and turned back toward the chief knight saying, "I order all members of the First Army to prepare for combat. Get ready to meet the enemy!"

"Yes!" Carter saluted.

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

Lehmann felt his hand was getting heavier.

Two days ago, there was still a burning pain in his hand, but now his hand almost lost consciousness. Armor could no longer hold the swelling arm, and there was a red and black mark left in the part which was hit by the hammer. The skin looked like a layer of shiny oil, which was kind of transparent.

He thought the bone might be broken, and the arm would be gone without treatment. The analgesics found in the church could relieve the pain, but they could not make the bone regenerate. He decided that he would return to the king's city immediately after the battle had stopped. The best pharmacists and alchemists were there, and they might cure his fatal internal injury.

"Sir Lehmann, is your arm okay?" Levin asked anxiously.

"It just looks scary." He pretended to be unconcerned. "And the attack on Border Town doesn't need us. We just need to watch by the side."

"I hope the pain in your arm doesn't make you dizzy." Duane laughed. "Do you known how to attack the town?"

Duane's tone made Lehmann frown, but now was not the time to care about these little things. "According to the information from the Wolf and Elk aristocracy, they mainly relied on long-distance offensive weapons to curb the knights. This weapon could attack before the knights were speeding up, accompanied by fire and a loud noise, which was similar to a large ballista, and the launch of the projectile was much faster than the bolt."

"In other words, although it's powerful, it still can't shoot continuously, right?" Levin quickly caught the key points.

"Yes, the faster we approach the defensive line of the enemies, the less we'll be attacked." Lehmann nodded. "As far as I know, the number of people is also important. The Knightage of Duke Ryan and the knights enlisted by the noble are no more than 200. It was only one step away from breaking the line, and we had 1,500 people. The speed of these idiots after medication was not much slower than the horses, so the results would be completely different from the last one."

"Or it shouldn't happen at all." Duane did not agree. "Roland Wimbledon might still be waiting in the castle for the messenger group to visit, we just need to go into the castle and cut off his head."

"No, he must have noticed us," Lehmann said, "don't you see that we haven't met any caravan for three days? The businessman from Longsong Stronghold saw the large army and chose to stay or to return, so it isn't strange. But it's not usual to see the caravan from the town, which only shows that the prince has blocked the border."

"Now do you understand why His Majesty chose Sir Lehmann as the captain, and not you?" Levin laughed.

"OK, it seems that your brain is still working right." Duane shrugged. "This way, rather than killing only the prince, killing those who dared to defy His Majesty will be more interesting."

"Sir Lehmann, there are troops and horses of Border Town in the front," the knight who was responsible for investigation reported.

"Go, let's check it out." Lehmann pushed the mount forward. At that moment, the outline of the castle had been faintly visible. At the end of the road, there was a shadow moving. He took out the telescope to carefully observe the enemies' defense line. "Those wheeled things should be what the intelligence said were the long-range assault weapons, but their numbers look much greater."

"Do all of us rush up directly?" Levin asked.

"This road is so narrow that it can't hold all of the militia." He looked at the right side of the woods. "It's okay to divide a few people from the woods. It doesn't matter if you're slow. If you can attack from the side, that line of defense can't hold up for a long time."

The moment when Lehmann was ready to adjust the ranks, his eyes suddenly caught a touch of a white shadow.

He was startled. [Is that... the illusion caused by broken-arm?] When he turned around, he found it was a woman, unexpectedly. She wore a hood, shrouded in a white robe. Before she opened her mouth, a flame suddenly appeared in her hands.

Lehmann felt as if his head was knocked by a hammer, and the world went into darkness.

Chapter 199 - The Battle of Chaos

"All charge!" Lehmann shouted almost at the same time.

Levin stared at Lehmann Howes, who had fallen from the horse, and Lehmann Howes's head had completely exploded, revealing a red and white sticky paste. His broken helmet fell to the side, with a big hole on the top. It seemed that the helmet did not have any protective function.

"Attack! Everyone attack!" Levin's voice followed.

No, it was not right! Levin did not say anything at all. He covered his mouth and looked back to see the militia, who had quickly swallowed the pills and began to run, as if there were a wall of people coming towards him.

It was the witch. He realized that it was the witch who imitated his voice. "Don't charge. Stop!" he exclaimed.

However, his voice was like a tiny splash among the turbulent crowd. After hearing his command, some people stopped, but more people were still charging forward.

"Quick! Charge forward! Break the enemy's line from the center, and then the town is yours!" Not just his voice, but the voice of Duane and the other knights rose together and their voices drowned out all other noise, just like a shout in the ear.

There were also shouts bursting from the team as if they were in line with the command. Everyone was shouting "Plunder"! Levin did not know who started the shout, but soon the shout rang through the team. The situation had gotten completely out of control—no matter how Levin shouted, it was completely drowned out in the excited roars of all the people. He needed to take full control of the horse in order not to be swept away by the crowd, as the militia had lost their senses and rushed toward the central road.

No, no, they were not rational at all, especially under someone's guidance. They would enter a state of extreme excitement after taking the pills, and any killing would stimulate them to be irrational. At first, the militia avoided Lehmann on the ground, but later they trampled on his body directly. Levin wanted to find Duane and the other people, but he found that they had been wiped away by the crowd. Finally, he had no choice but to follow in the direction of the team, and gradually leaned to the side of the forest. If his horse was suddenly hit, it was more likely to knock down the militia who had eaten pills, and then it would be hard to get up again.

Departing from the team, Levin looked around. He wanted to find the witch who had created the chaos and tear her to pieces. In his opinion, this was definitely the conspiracy of the witch!

Fifteen hundred people who had eaten the pills rushed towards the town's defense line. It was a fatal assault for the prince—even if the other side had a large number of new weapons, they could not withstand so many people, so the end result would be no better. If both sides were in disadvantageous circumstances, the witch would be happy. Therefore, she caused trouble in secret, which induced the army to advance without authorization.

"The witch who killed Lehmann isn't the witch who made this chaos." He looked at the few militiamen beside him. Standing in front of the team, they had witnessed Lehmann fall down, and also heard his command to stop. But compared with the huge army, the militiamen nearby were less than 30 men. "One has the ability to hide his appearance; one has the ability to imitate sound. A witch can't have both of these abilities. Find the latter one! I want to tear her throat out!"

...

Brian could see from the shooting window that the enemies were approaching closer. Gunfire had arisen in the front bunker.

His offensive position was located in the middle of the diamond, and he could not shoot until the enemy went through the purple signs on the roadside. This waiting made him anxious.

Brian went to the window on the other side and looked back. The artillery was jumping with continuous white smoke and a loud sound like thunder rolling over. They were the first to be very busy and the range of fire for the 12-pound cannon covered almost the entire battlefield. Listening carefully, people could even hear the shells across the air.

"Oh, God, they're running so fast!"

"Look at that guy. His hand has been cut off by the shell, but he's still running forward."

"His Highness was right. That guy isn't a human but is the same as a demonic beast."

During their pre-war mobilization, the First Army had been informed that the enemies were all maniacs who had madness pills from the church, so the battle against the hail of bullets did not intimidate the crowd and they were full of fighting spirits. After all, the First Army grew up fighting against demonic beasts.

"Captain, they're coming!" Someone warned.

Brian quickly returned to his position and put the rifle out of the window. Compared to flintlocks, which needed to be loaded every time, the new weapons issued by His Highness had a qualitative improvement. He could shoot five bullets in one breath, throw the nest to the recruits who were following, and then finish the spare five bullets. By then, the recruits should have already loaded the bullets.

However, His Highness had stressed in training that only when the enemies approached 50 to 100 meters could they use this method to suppress the fire. They should increase the accuracy of long-range shooting as much as they could, because the bullets of the rifles were very difficult to make and there was a limited rationing for everyone.

Brian believed that, and almost every shell was the same shape, thin in the front and wide in the rear. The blacksmiths could never make such an ingenious thing, so he thought it must be made by the witch. Usually, everyone collected the bullet shells and handed them over to Iron Axe. But after the shooting training, there was a re-installation practice. A group of people sat around the camp and, according to operational norms, assembled the primer, gunpowder, and warheads into the distribution of the shell that was, in turn, assembled into a new bullet. So he was also reluctant to waste his ammunition casually on targets which were difficult to hit.

When the enemies crossed the purple signs, Brian took a deep breath and shouted, "Shoot freely!"

The soldiers had waited for this command for a long time, so they could not wait to aim at a good target and pull the trigger, and the bunker was flooded with the sound of gunfire. The first enemy coming across the firing line was struck by the bullets from both sides, and with blood emerging from his waist, he fell to the ground after staggering a little. Obviously, they could suffer more than ordinary people. But when they were facing large-caliber bullets, they had no hope.

Brian noticed that several people had jumped to the top of the front bunker, trying to attack the soldiers from behind. But there was a thick, iron gate blocking them. He did not hesitate to turn the muzzle to kill the exposed fanatics. The reason why the bunker was arranged as a diamond was to cover each other, and enemies who attempted to bypass it would be strangled by the fire from the rear bunkers.

"Look out, they're throwing the spears!" someone shouted suddenly.

Brian saw dense shadows coming from the enemy forces, fleeing out of the air. The shadows crossed the highest point in the air, and then came towards the bunkers on both sides.

The distance was two or three hundred meters away! He subconsciously drew his head down close to the pit, only to hear a series of crackling sounds overhead. After that wave of attack, he stood upright and found that no spear had been thrown into the fort. The situation in the front bunker was similar, with only a few short spears plugged into the wall, like solitary feathers.

"It looked scary, but it didn't really work," everyone said, laughing.

At that moment, Brian saw an enemy approaching the bunker, with a series of sputtering dust streaks flying everywhere. The enemy bent over and threw the spear out of his hand. The moment that the weapon was released from his hand, he was knocked down by a shower of bullets.

"Get down!" Brian warned them, but the spear happened to pass through the shooting window into the chest of a shooter, who issued a muffled sound and fell back to the ground.

Chapter 200 - The Hunter and The Prey

"Freckles!" Someone shouted, "He's hurt!"

"Don't move him!" Brian roared. "I'll check his wounds and you keep shooting."

He handed his rifle to the recruits who were responsible for it and bent over to the wounded. The wounded man was conscious and asked tremblingly, "Captain, I... am I going to die?"

A short spear squint had pierced his lower chest and it was not clear whether it had pierced through his body. Based on his smooth breathing, his lung was not hurt. In his literary class, the prince had briefly explained the functions of each organ in the human body as well as the emergency measures to be taken if they were injured. In cases like this, the best way he could think of was not moving him until Nana could treat him after the battle.

"Does it hurt?" Brian asked.

Freckles nodded painfully.

"If you're feeling pain, that means you won't die." Brian put his hand on the man's forehead. "You should be aware of Miss Nana's power, right?"

"Yes." Freckles barely managed to smile at him. "Everyone wants… to meet her so… I guess I can finally meet her."

"That's right. So hang in there."

After Brian finished speaking, he returned to the shooting window, and the recruit looked back anxiously. "Don't we pull out the short spear?"

"Pulling out is easy to cause a lot of bleeding, and when you learn this, you'll understand." He paused. "What we can do now is to destroy the enemy as soon as possible."

…

Standing on a high platform, Roland could clearly see the enemies that rushed towards the town like a tide.

With each bunkers they crossed, their speed significantly slowed. When they passed the third row of bunkers, the enemy's central wing was completely exposed to crossfire by the shooters.

Echo's use was very obvious. Even when the team was scattered into a long strip, most of them were still following the witch's command to charge at the center, running on the road.

Each minute, groups of people fell over, helpless to do anything. Facing fortifications that could not be destroyed by swords and spears, Timothy's militia could only endure their casualties and continue to move forward.

300 meters away from the third row of bunkers were the artilleries. Within this range, this was the death zone covered by grapeshot.

In the sky, Lightning turned the flag a vibrant red.

The firing angle of the 20 artilleries was set level to give off flames and smoke. Roland roughly estimated that the skilled mortar team could fire a grapeshot in 20 seconds and the lesser team in half a minute. Upon first glance, it was similar to the firing rate of the excellent mortar team in the American Civil War, but the result of three rounds per minute for the latter was based on a solid shooting performance with a lot of time spent on targeting and repeated reduction. But there was no need to target and wipe the gun. Thus, their firing rate could be even higher.

But for the enemies, this was a formidable firing rate because grapeshots could cause astonishing hurts on unarmored targets with each iron ball capable of penetrating two to three people. Though pills could cure the pain, it could not resist terror. When witnessing people around riddled, excited greatly and eager to kill as they were, they could not resist this extremely terror of losing lives, let alone they were not so determined. Without pills, they were untrained and unexperienced commoners. After a half of them were killed, escapers appeared in the enemies.

The fear spread among the people like a plague. When the first runaway disappeared, so did the second and third. It was so bad that the front line stopped moving forwards and turned backwards to escape. The cannon team once again reloaded solid shells and fired at the center of the road, as the flintlock squad continued to shoot.

Bodies were piled up on the road.

...

Levin's anger gradually subsided and he began to feel afraid.

The 20 more people all discovered that witch who caused chaos. She wore so strange clothes that she could be incorporated into the woods when on the lurk. No one would be able to discover her if she did not follow the team to march and lead all to pool together toward the center of the road.

Even so, she had already made huge trouble for Levin—he found that the sounds imitated by the witch were from everywhere, sometimes from the left, sometimes from the right, sometimes from the behind of his head. Besides, their contents were diversified, such as imitating his sound to send orders or some militia's painful sound.

The moment they wanted to catch her, the lady in white appeared again.

Levin relived the shocking phenomenon where Lehmann Hawes was killed within the blink of an eye.

She held a silver "light crossbow". With a spark and a loud noise, a man would then drop dead.

The roundup net was instantly torn into pieces. Everyone became terrified as their armors and shields were not working. What was worse, Levin's iron buckler was shattered into half. The small hole in it showed that his enemy's weapon could not be any more powerful. Perhaps only two-handed crossbows were enough to go against it. Had he not subconsciously lowered his head, he would be a corpse by now.

However, crossbows could not be shot consecutively.

Levin soon realized his desperation when he found out that the witch in white was not only capable of appearing and disappearing at will, but was also equipped with a fearsome weapon that needed no reloading. Once this thought prevailed, it was as if his anger met the cold wind and was extinguished in a flash.

"Eat the pill and kill her when she shows up!"

Even as he was shouting this order, Levin himself was making his retreat. He ran towards the woods when her attention turned to the militias.

It would be safer to stay with the main army. She would not dare to attack him when he was in a crowd.

The woods were filled with peculiar wild grass that reached his knees. There were also creepers on the grounds. If he was careless, he would definitely trip over them. Stumbling out of the woods, he looked ahead and wanted to join the army. But the scene before him terrified him.

The militias who were still under the effect of the pills were retreating… No, it was more accurate to say they were escaping. Those who were slow or did not react in time were pushed to the ground and mercilessly trampled by the others. They were like roaring horses when they charged forward and they were the same when they escaped. The runaways stirred up all the dust and Levin dared not step forward to stop them.

What happened on earth? Levin was stunned and could not believe that 1,500 people taking the pills had been defeated in such a short time? Were Prince Roland's army all monsters?

At this moment, he heard someone treading on the grass, he gritted his teeth and pulled out his sword to stab in the direction behind him—at the life-threatening moment, this pull was even quicker than his usual speed, but he could only see a dazzling fire spark. The sword was smashed by something and the sparks were flying. Then he felt a pain in his right hand, which was holding the sword and he lost all sense at his fingertips.

When his eyes turned to his hands, Levin found half of his arm had disappeared, with his red-white muscles and bone exposed like a blooming snake flower. The lady in white approached him without expression and he retreated, before falling over in panic.

With one foot pressed against his shoulder, the witch held a cold weapon against his forehead. From this angle, Levin could see her face hidden under her hood.

So… beautiful.

This was his last thought before the gun was fired.

Chapter 201 - Back to Longsong Stronghold

Roland considered the effects of the pills and did not instantly order the First Army to chase after them. Instead, he sent Lightning and Maggie to spy on the other side.

The wounded on the defense line were given immediate treatment. Only five were injured by spear throwers, four of whom belonged to the Artillery Squad. It delighted him that the Artillery Squad stayed put even when the enemies were as near as 150 meters away from them. Instead, they laid low and hid behind carriages to avoid the spears and rejoined the combat as soon as possible.

Nana remained behind the battlefield the whole time. When the enemies ran away, she disregarded the noise of the artilleries and rushed to treat the wounded with Viscount Tigui. It was hard to imagine she was a young girl who would faint upon seeing blood just half a year ago.

The five wounded ultimately survived. Surrounded by cheers, many soldiers saluted her as she left the battlefield.

Actually, this battle was much easier than that against the Coalition of Duke Ryan. Without the support of pills, addicted militias were so bad at fighting that someone lay down on the ground after escaping a few kilometers away and were unwilling to move.

The hunting squad rounded them up quickly and escorted them to Longsong Stronghold. The First Army also captured two knights at the same time. Even if the knights did not swallow pills, they had lost all will to resist. Facing the approaching soldiers, they chose to turn themselves in and requested to write to their families for a chance to be ransomed.

They arrived at Longsong Stronghold four days later.

Nightingale easily defeated the remaining enemies in the stronghold thanks to the intelligence extracted from the surrendered knights. The captain was instantly killed and the remaining 100 militias were soon captured by the First Army waiting at the gate.

Roland's men found the captive Petrov in the castle's dungeon. He looked weary, perhaps due to his worries and anxiety. But with his status as the Earl of Honeysuckle, he was not treated inhumanely.

After nearly three months, the prince once again met this representative.

"Your Highness, I'm so pleased to see you." Petrov was finally relieved from his tension and told Roland what had happened. "Those envoys from Timothy..."

"They're all dead," Roland said, unconcerned as he leaned his back against the chair. "most of the 1,500 men they brought died on the borders of Border Town. The rest are locked in the stronghold prisons for now."

Petrov looked surprised to hear that members of the emissary delegation were all dead. "Your Highness, I'm afraid that the new king, no, your elder brother will see you as an imminent threat."

"So should I just do as I was told and obediently return to the king and allow myself to be used as he pleases?" Roland stared at him.

Petro lowered his head involuntarily. "No, Your Highness..."

"He became my enemy the minute his army set foot on the Western Region," Roland said quietly, "Timothy Wimbledon's actions would only be more desperate in his bid to seize power. He needs lands and titles to repay the nobles who support him. If you're doing this for fun, you don't need to manage the stronghold in my stead. Besides, you should be fully aware that your position in the Western Region will only be secure if I become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle." He paused. "To prevent something like this from happening again, I need to build an army to defend the stronghold."

"An army?" Petrov was stunned.

"Yes. An army comprising civilians, instead of knights." Roland carefully explained his idea. "Choose 300 people to form a team. My subordinates will teach them how to fight. The requirements are that they must be able-bodied civilians aged between 16 to 30 years old. They must not be criminals or believers of the church. During the training period, they'll live in Border Town, and I'll provide the weapons. What's more, your knights and patrol team are only responsible for urban security from now on. More details are here." Roland handed Petrov a parchment. "You can issue a recruiting notice and screen the candidates according to its content."

It was the most suitable way to station an army of his own if he wanted to control the defense lines himself. But the First Army was not even enough to defend Border Town, let alone protect Longsong Stronghold. Hence, it was the best compromise to have Petrov select the people and his men train them.

With her ability to detect lies, Nightingale could guarantee the sincerity of the squad. In addition, a new training method and ideological education could quickly help them form their fighting capacity. They would be equipped with soon-to-be-defunct front loading flintlocks, so it would not be a big problem even if the enemies confiscated their weapon. Besides, this army will also be responsible for the transfer of information and intelligence. If someone tried to attack the stronghold, Roland would instantly know.

"I understand." Petrov nodded.

"I'll reexamine your recruits, so it's pointless to place spies into my army." Roland warned. "Those spies of yours were all sent to the mines. If the same thing happens again..."

"No, Your Highness." Petrov wiped away the sweat on his forehead. "I promise it won't."

"Next is the church." Roland leaned back on the chair, satisfied with Petrov's answer. "You may not know that Timothy's men burned down the church in Longsong Stronghold and killed High Priest Tylo. Only ruins were left."

"They actually burned the church?" Petrov was stunned by the news. "I, I need to report this to Hermes."

The church ruled that the king and the lords had the obligation to protect local church facilities from destruction. If they were helpless to stop it, they should instantly report it to Holy City. This was the normal reaction of a law-savvy former envoy. Such a matter could not be concealed anyway. The most sincere of believers in the stronghold might have already sent secret letters to Holy City on the same day.

"It should be reported but its content needs adjusting." Roland lifted his lips. "You only state clearly in that letter that the church was attacked by the army led by Timothy Wimbledon and that they left Longsong Stronghold for nowhere after they've looted and burned the church. Besides, attach this to the letter." Roland pulled out a pill from his pocket and handed it to Petrov. "They would understand if you say that the pill was picked up near the church."

"What... is this?"

"It's the church's secret pills and also Timothy's target. It'll make civilians unleash super strength in a short time, but it'll also gradually kill them." Roland gave him a simple explanation. "Timothy wants to use these pills to strengthen his army to consolidate his precarious throne. The church will understand his intentions when they see the pill. "

Whether they would take counter measures was another thing.

"Yes, Your Highness," Petrov places this pill into his blossom and said.

Chapter 202 - The Road to Development

Sipping some tea, Roland said, "In addition, I plan to carry out basic education in Longsong Stronghold. It's a test of whether you can continue to manage the stronghold."

Petrov paid very serious attention when he heard the word 'test'. He asked, "Basic education?"

"Yes." Roland nodded with a smile. Now that the local church was destroyed and the high priest killed, the church's power had been weakened by more than half. It was a good time to fight for the superior ideological position. He did not expect that all believers could be transformed into potentially qualified workers. It was fine as long as they could further eliminate influence from the church. If Holy City wanted to once again encroach on Longsong Stronghold, he had numerous ways to shut them out, let alone allowing them to build new churches.

"Basic education should be available for all the residents in Longsong Stronghold under the age of 40, regardless of gender. The content includes reading, writing, simple calculation, natural knowledge, and ideological education." Roland waved his hand, stopping Petrov's questions. "Don't worry. The cost will be deducted from the tax paid to Border Town. From this month, you only need to pay 20% of the taxes and the remaining should be regarded as the cost of education. You can recruit several scholars from the king's city, or hire local knight squires and sorehead nobles, but these people wouldn't spend much money. 10% of the tax is at least 1,000 gold royals. What you have to do is far more than that."

Petrov considered this momentarily. "Your Highness, do you mean this money can be used to encourage the residents to receive an education?"

This guy was really smart, Roland mused. He laughed and said, "Yes. Except for children, most people have to make a living during the day, so their education should start at night. But after a busy day when they can finally rest, no one would like to listen to some other people nagging or doing any learning that consumes brain power."

"So you can use your ways to encourage them to learn, like providing dinner with meat or giving monetary rewards to those who do well in their studies. Of course, a bright and spacious classroom is also essential." Roland paused and continued, "In short, you must spare no effort to turn this plan into reality for everyone in Longsong Stronghold. As what I told you earlier, it's also a test for you. A year later, I want more than half the people in Longsong Stronghold to be literate."

"But Your Highness..." said Petrov hesitantly, "whether it's the scholars or the nobles, they don't have the teaching experience necessary to spread literacy, let alone popularizing natural knowledge and ideological education." He read the few strange words. "In fact, not even I understand any of the stuff. If we let these people teach, I'm afraid that you can't achieve your goal."

"I've taken it into account," said Roland, "don't worry. I'll send a number of City Hall officials to assist you in implementing this work. Border Town will provide all the books necessary for the education here. The officials are experienced, so they can train the staff before starting their teaching work. You'll understand after talking to them. They can handle all the specific matters."

The prince thought that as long as Petrov wanted to continue his control over Longsong Stronghold, he would surely need the staff. This way, news from Longsong Stronghold could be delivered to Border Town at once by the officials from the Ministry of Education.

Noticing no objections from Petrov, he continued, "There's a third thing. I plan to build a road between Longsong Stronghold and Border Town, to shorten the traveling time for pedestrians and caravans."

"Your Highness, isn't there already a road?" said Petrov, confused.

Roland shook his head. How could they call a muddy trail carved out from people's stamping a proper road? It was less than two meters wide and was full of muddy potholes on rainy days. It was completely unsuitable for high-speed carriages. "The road I want to build can support at least two carriages side by side. I need the road to be flat and straight. I don't want there to be pounding even on rainy days, just like the streets of Border Town."

"Do you mean a gravel road?" This temporary mayor looked surprised. "It's not cheap to build such a road. We need the masons to dig the gravel and pick out the right-sized stones that can be used together. If we build a gravel road to Border Town, we'll be spending at least 5,000 gold royals. Your Highness, to be honest, I'm afraid we can't get so much money if we don't raise taxes in Longsong Stronghold."

"The Longsong Stronghold only needs to provide the manpower," Prince said frankly, "post a recruitment notice in every domain in the Western Region, including Longsong Stronghold and the domains of the major families. Pay the workers with a salary of six silver royals per month. The construction period is one year. I believe many will sign up."

"It's pretty a high salary for a handyman to earn six silver royals." Petrov nodded. "How many people do you need?"

"At least 2,000," Roland replied.

The monthly cost of hiring handymen would be large. In addition to that, they still have to pay for the masons. From the perspective of other people, it was a steep cost. Few lords would be willing to spend their money to build these things without any rewards. This could be seen from Petrov's facial expression. But the people of Border Town could now sell steam engines. Their income and expenditure could be basically balanced. Roland did not plan to leave his gold royals in warehouses. There was a saying that if you wanted to be rich, build the road first. Pouring his remaining money into infrastructure was undoubtedly the best choice.

The construction of a high-quality road connecting the stronghold and Border Town was of great significance. Not only could it facilitate future businesses and connections between the two places, but it could also be the base for the rapid deployment of the corps platoon. If they did not have a proper transportation route, it would take them at least three days even if they received the news of Longsong Stronghold being attacked. The enemy's flag would be flying from top of the city wall by then.

"I see," said Petrov.

"That's what you have to do now. I'll immediately return to Border Town. Do a good job, my 'representative'. Don't let me down."

'Your Highness, how should we deal with those who're imprisoned?" Petrov asked just as Roland was about to leave.

It was the first time when Rolland did not answer immediately. He was silent for a moment. "Keep them. They won't live long."

...

Boarding the Littletown, the prince embarked on his way home.

'You seem to be in a bad mood." Nightingale appeared beside him. "Is it because of those civilians?"

"They were all forced by Timothy." Roland sighed. "If they didn't take those pills and get manipulated, they wouldn't be his accomplices and die in a foreign land."

"It's not your fault." Nightingale reached out to hold his arm.

"Of course not," said Roland, without any hesitation. "If I didn't stop them, the town will be Timothy's victim in his pursuit of power. And of course, the main culprit is the church that produced the pills."

"You'll destroy the Church and end the dispute, so people no longer have to kill each other for such unnecessary reasons, right?" Nightingale smiled. "Whether it's the ordinary people or witches, we can all live happily under your rule."

Roland looked into her shiny eyes and nodded. "I promise."

Chapter 203 - The Home

The sea was like a blue earth, only more flat.

If Maggie were here, she would have been constantly chirping to inform her how far the island was. But right now, all she could hear was the sea waves crashing against the sides of the ship. Although it sounded a little monotonous, for the crew, it was actually a lucky beat, as it meant that today was a good day for sailing.

Oh, now there was another one, Ashes thought. The footsteps were banging against the old teak board, issuing a slightly squeaky sound—someone was coming over to her.

"I don't expect that you've actually settled down in Sleeping Island." A white-haired old man stepped to her side, resting his hands on the railing. "That place seems spacious but once the tide rises, most of the land will be flooded by the sea, so it's not suitable for settling down. Why not live in Crescent Moon Bay? It's the second largest island among the Fjords and there're still many uninhabited spaces there."

The one-eyed Jack, Captain of the Charming Beauty, just like his name suggested, had a blindfold on his face covering his left eye. He was also one of the few captains willing to transport goods for the witches—even though the people in the Fjords did not hate witches like the residents on the mainland, they still were not keen on dealing with outsiders.

"Not everyone is willing to deal with witches like you are." Ashes smiled. "The sea will indeed flood Sleeping Island and that's the reason why even if its area is the third largest among Fjord Islands, it's still a deserted island."

"Being the third largest area doesn't mean that it has an equivalent inhabited area." Captain Jack shrugged his shoulders. "If it's impossible to live there, then size won't matter. Take Searing Flame Island for example."

"The witches are the best at altering nature," she earnestly said, "after all, this island will be our home. As long as we're free from the oppression of the church, we can create an entirely different world, a… brand new world." She paused for a moment. "When was the last time that you were on Sleeping Island?"

The captain took off his hat and scratched the back of his head. "It's been almost a month now and last time I sent a group of witches and a full cabin of pearl rice. To be honest, the way those girls were playing around on the ship made my sailors drooling all over them. It's really hard for young men sailing at sea, and they're like volcanos that can erupt at any time, but fortunately, I was able to control them. Otherwise, my precious ship would be in trouble."

Ashes instantly ignored the last part of his words. "One month is enough for Heaven and Earth to be turned upside down, Mr. captain. I bet that when you see Sleeping Island this time, it'll be much more different than that in your memory."

"Really?" Jack whistled. "Then I 'll be looking forward to… Wait, what's that?" He leaned over the ship, staring at in front of him. "Monkey! Get up on the mast. There's something in front of us!"

The sailor named Monkey swiftly climbed to the top of the mast, and lifted the telescope. "Captain, it looks like an island!"

"Island? What nonsense is this." Captain pulled out and glanced at his compass. "There shouldn't be any other island near us except for Sleeping Island."

"But it's really an island, captain, I swear!"

"Don't swear to me. Let me see," Jack said taking off his hat.

"No, no, Captain, it's best if you don't come up here, the wind is too strong." Monkey continued to observe. "By the name of Three Gods!" He exclaimed incredibly, "This is actually the Sleeping Island! It's taller!"

…

As the Charming Beauty approached the docks of Sleeping Island, all people on the ship could not almost believe what they were seeing.

The towering island resembled a small mountain located above the sea surface. The mountain slopes were straight and steep with the distance of at least dozens of feet to the top.

It was the first time for Ashes to arrive at the island so her reaction was much calmer than the rest. In the eyes of Captain Jack, this represented a calm and confident character.

"You won." He sighed. "I never expected that you could raise the level of a whole island. No wonder why those church fanatics hate your witches so much, you're comparable to the Gods."

"Uncle Jack, it's not like that we raised the whole island," a smiling young girl standing on the pier said, "but we only built a 'city wall' around Sleeping Island, and you'll understand in a moment after you come with us." Then, she turned to Ashes and bowed her head saluting. "You're finally back. Lady Tilly has been talking a lot about you."

Ashes stroked her head. "Don't be so formal, Molly. I'll have to trouble you with carrying my stuff."

"I got this." The young girl said patting her chest.

Once the sailors transported all the grain to the pier, Molly summoned her magic servant—a light blue sphere with two arms that could be transformed at will. The arms were turned into a net, firmly grabbing all the bags and carrying them in the air. "Let's go," she said proudly.

"Oh, what a convenient ability," the captain said. "Did you see that, men? You can't even compare to a little girl."

The pier was built in the middle of the mountain slope. They climbed up the stairs and as they reached the top, Ashes instantly understood the meaning of "building a city wall around Sleeping Island".

They did not raise the island itself, but rather the outline of the island—turning the whole Sleeping Island into a basin, surrounded by thick edges. This edge was what Molly referred to as city wall. Inside the wall, many stairs were leading down to Sleeping Island itself.

"This… is unbelievable." Captain Jack curled his lips. "You turned the island into a city. What would happen here when the tide floods? My God, you would be living below the sea level!"

"That's correct." Molly laughed. "that's the reason why we have two piers, one below the sea, and one above sea level. Of course, they can also be considered as one at sea level and one at mid-air."

As they reached the center of the island, they came across all kinds of houses but unlike traditional wooden or brick houses, these buildings looked as if they were grown out of the ground, as the foundations of the houses were attached to the ground. Without a doubt, just like the wall itself, these were all Lotus's work.

"Sister Ashes, the house in the most tip of the north is Lady Tilly's palace. I'll go with the captain to deliver the goods, and you don't need to come with me, just going straight to see Lady Tilly," the little girl said as she waved.

Ashes nodded, said goodbye to the two of them and walked towards the north quickly. She saw a lot of familiar faces along the way, some bowing to her and some waving smilingly. "The homeland of the witches" made her feel more and more hopeful and powerful.

The founder of this homeland was Tilly Wimbledon, Queen of Witches.

Unlike the royal palace, this spacious house had no guards or locked gates. Ashes walked straight through the vestibule and upon entering the hall, she saw a familiar figure in front of her.

She quietly walked behind the other person and used her hands to cover the gray-haired girl's eyes.

"I sensed you as soon as you reached the door." The other side laughed. "Don't forget how I first found you in the crowd."

Extraordinary witches had the ability to sense magic power, and between two extraordinary witches, the mutual feeling would be even more intense. This kind of magical connection, like an invisible fetter, had resolutely connected herself with Tilly.

"I'm back," Ashes said softly.

"Yeah," Tilly replied cheerfully, "Welcome home."

Chapter 204 - Tilly Wimbledon

They enjoyed a moment of affection, and then Ashes' attention was drawn to a bunch of diamond-like gemstones in front of Tilly. She asked curiously, "What're these?"

"Come." Tilly patted her sides. "I'll show you something interesting."

Ashes sat cross-legged next to her and saw her putting on a white silk glove the back of which was embedded with a red gemstone.

"Is this... a tracking stone?"

Tilly did not reply. Instead, she smiled and raised her hand toward the empty place. Suddenly, a lightning appeared from her fingertips, hitting the floor with a cracking sound. As a green smoke faded away, she saw a black spot at the size of a palm on the hit spot.

Ashes could not believe in her eyes. "Did you... obtain a new ability?"

Tilly Wimbledon was an extraordinary witch whose magic power could exert on herself, manifesting as genuine intelligence. It was impossible for her to unleash her magic power like the other witches. That lighting flash just now meant that she now had a brand new ability, but it was impossible for witches to have two types of abilities, which was a common knowledge among all the sisters.

Tilly took off the glove and handed it over to Ashes. "It's not like I acquired a new ability and it's actually because of this stone." She smiled. "It has the ability to change the way magic operates, allowing the magic to manifest in different ways."

Shocked, Ashes rubbed the gemstone in the middle of the glove. She knew that Tilly would not lie to her—this meant that even non-combat type witches would now possess the ability to fight, significantly increasing the witches' ability to resist an enemy. "How many these stones we have?"

"Only one," Tilly said like she had guessed Ashes' thoughts, "Not to mention that using them is quite difficult. You'll have to think of magic as something real and concrete, letting it fill in the stone and then release it through the gemstone."

Ashes tried silently for a long time, but not even one ray of lightning appeared.

"Do you understand now?" Tilly smiled. "We, as extraordinary witches, can already sense magic, so for the rest of the witches, it's even harder. It requires a tremendous amount of imagination and understanding. As a matter of fact, I've asked many sisters to try, but only two to three out of 100 people were able to understand it and release flashes of lightning."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?" Ashes took off the glove.

"That's right." Tilly raised her eyebrow. "At that time I merely used... oh..."

She was unable to continue talking as Ashes suddenly kissed her… When they parted, the latter exhaled a deep breath. "Fine, not too stupid."

"What about the other stones?" Ashes licked her lips as if she did not have enough. Only in the presence of Princess Tilly, was she able to completely relax. "Do they all possess different types of abilities?"

"They manifest differently." Tilly corrected with her cheeks still blushing. "They still won't allow commoners to possess abilities like witches since they require magic to be triggered," she paused and said then, "which left me with a question."

"What kind of question?"

"What exactly magic power is?" Tilly said slowly and explained word by word, "For a long time, the abilities vary and manifest with a certain uncertainty, and they also feel different according to the senses of an extraordinary witch. But these strange stones are able to unify all magic power and through them, all witches can release the exact same ability. Thus, I might have been thinking in a wrong direction previously. Perhaps magic itself is an all-powerful type of force, but the witches can only possess one of its forms."

"Then what about these magic stones?" Ashes asked.

"They can only be used to release, but not to gather magic power. It isn't clear whether they're man-made or naturally formed," Tilly said regretfully, "according to legends, they were first excavated in the ruins and most of them were then spread out among commoners. I was only able to collect this much… I heard that some ancient ruins lied in the forest east of King City at Seawindshire. I really want to go personally and check it out, and we may be able to find more clues about magic and other historical faults."

Tilly's words were not making any sense to her again, Ashes thought helplessly. As long as they could manage to live on, who cared about what had happened 400 years ago. "It's best if you don't. Currently, Seawindshire is probably one of the most dangerous places in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Why?"

"Before leaving Port of Clearwater, I heard the sailors mention that Garcia Wimbledon had dispatched the whole Blacksail Fleet with Seawindshire as her target—that's Timothy's territory. She probably wants to use the advantage of the sea to directly attack his homefront camp." Ashes persuaded. "Only when the martial law had been lifted, I was able to leave the harbor. If what they said was true, I'm afraid that Seawindshire had already become a war zone."

"They're still fighting amongst themselves." Tilly's expression became worried. "If this continues, the church will take advantage of it and start an invasion. If we don't unite, the Kingdom of Graycastle will fall just like the Kingdom of Everwinter and we'll be swallowed by the church."

These words startled Ashes, and Princess Tilly soon noticed it. "What's it?"

"Nothing." She blinked her eyes. "Just now, you looked a bit like Roland Wimbledon who also said the same words to me."

"Oh? You managed to see him?" Tilly got interested. "Right, you still didn't tell me anything about your trip to the Western Region. Come on!"

"Shadow must have already told you that after hearing the news about the Witch Cooperation Association I went to Border Town." Ashes hugged her into her arms, "After arriving there, I found out that the so-called Holy Mountain search was just a lie created by Roland who had taken command of the Witch Cooperation Association and was secretly recruiting witches…" She then described to Tilly about everything that she saw and heard during her one week in Border Town. "In the end, he told me that we should unite to resist the attack of the church. If one day we couldn't live at the Fjords anymore, he would gladly welcome us to Border Town at any time."

"Well…" Tilly thought silently for a moment, then suddenly said, "This man isn't Roland Wimbledon. He has been replaced."

"Huh?"

"You've mentioned that many witches have gathered around him, right? I guess that a witch is controlling him, or maybe changed her appearance into his." Tilly said bluntly, "I grew up with Roland, so I'm sure about this—compared with my two other elder brothers and my third sister, he's the worst at deceiving, and his lies are full of loopholes. It's impossible for him to pose as another person. As for the weapons you've mentioned that can fight against those of the God's Punishment Army, they prove my point even more… One can hide his character, but can't fake knowledge. Court mentors had never taught these things, so how did he come to know them?" Tilly said without any hesitations, "No one in this world is born knowledgeable, so that person is certainly not my stupid and annoying brother."

"Is... that so?" Ashes frowned.

"Having said that, I still have to contact them." Tilly sighed. "Roland Wimbledon is my brother after all. Even though he's ignorant and incompetent, there's still hope for him. Compared with the rest, he was the most harmless. Hopefully, the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association haven't killed him already."

"I think that's highly improbable." Ashes could not help thinking of Wendy. "I also left Maggie there, and at the end of this month, she'll come back to bring us news from Border Town."

"Alright, after all, our current priority isn't that." Princess Tilly freed herself from her embrace, going to the garden and opened her arms. "Now that you're back, we can finally begin with the cleaning project. I want no traces of the church on the island so that Fjord Islands can finally become the home to the witches."

The sun shone at the back of Tilly's body, covering her figure with a golden halo. Her long gray hairs fell on her cheeks like golden threads and her face was full of confidence as if no difficulty could ever bring her down.

"I'm willing to serve you, my Queen," Ashes said with a smile.

Chapter 205 - The Microscope

After defeating the army of Timothy, the town resumed its peace.

Roland made a group of three people from Ministry of Education of City Hall and two teachers bringing Soraya's reprographic books to Longsong Stronghold. Despite his best efforts, he had finally taken the first step to assimilate Longsong Stronghold.

Although Petrov was not a good battle commander, he indeed behaved excellently in administration. In the short span of two weeks, 2,000 men, under the protection of the knights, had laid a road which reached the town. If not for the fact that the second batch of the 10 groups of furnaces was to be produced, Roland still would not make the decision to build a road between the two places.

This road was named Kingdom Main Street by Roland and with the full authority of the Minister of Construction, Karl, its construction was the same as the town street which used cement as a stabilizing layer. In this time without heavy vehicles, this road surface was strong enough to undertake transportation tasks. And the drainage performance was good, and it could also be improved further if paved with asphalt or concrete.

In terms of construction materials, four steam-driven mills had replaced manpower. Every day they could produce tonnes of the gravel. The weakness of the transport capacity that limited production had been negated. So many stones needed more than 100 people with a carriage to transport and it took one day to get to the construction site. Future generations, it could transport the materials in a slag hauler in a single journey.

In the furnace area, except for four kilns that were firing clay bricks, the other blast furnaces had been assigned to the production of cement powder. Nowadays, whether in quality or stability, the cement that the town produced was better than the original production due to the process of many composition experiments and the iron powder supplied by the mine mountain.

However, large groups of people transporting gravel and cement also had a negative effect on the town. The most serious problem was dust pollution. By the afternoon, with only a light breeze, the dust would fog the air and the street became a thick yellow. Although the townspeople did not mind the situation, for Roland, there was nothing worse than having to close the windows and doors in the summer.

As a result, the carriages carrying the cement and gravel were quickly fitted with covers to reduce the possibility of scattering during transport. Meanwhile, with the help of Leaf's ability, the street was lined with the greenery and thick shade of sycamore trees in a short few days. Roland also instructed the townspeople to pour water on any dust they saw and the situation improved quickly.

The perpendicular distance between these two places was about 70 kilometers. However, to circumnavigate the Impassable Mountain Range, the total length of the road was around 100 kilometers. The work was predicted to take around a year to complete, and due to the high quality of the surface, the road would be open to new forms of transport such as bicycles and steam cars.

Under his aspirations, developing education and building the road were just a means to connect the two places, like the urban integration that later generations greatly promoted. After the development of the land between the two places finishes, Roland's plan was for Longsong Stronghold and Border Town to merge into a big city. If he could make the southern uplands become a part of this city too, it would provide access to the sea.

Of course, developing so much land required a growth in population. And in response to any possible war in the future, the city must provide enough workers for industrial production while maintaining self-sufficiency in agriculture. According to Roland's preliminary calculations, he needed about 100,000 people to immigrate to the city. The Kingdom of Graycastle's biggest city, the king's city, had around 20,000 to 30,000 people.

Roland focused on the north of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the Southern Territory. These two places had been through war and when winter came, it was possible that a lot of refugees would head towards the city. Only by supplying food and warm rooms, could Border Town appeal them. Even the refugees of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart were under his consideration. Thinking of this, he wrote a letter to his business acquaintance, Margaret, asking her to inquire about the situation of these two kingdoms.

...

After writing the development plan, Roland put the folded paper into the drawer and stretched. He then decided to go Anna's room in order to see how her lens had been cut.

Since learning of the causes behind Soraya's revolution, he was going to make a microscope that could observe cellular structure.

If the witches could observe the fantastic microworld with their own eyes, maybe it could trigger more witches to evolve new abilities. If nothing else, it would at least trigger their interest in learning.

To make a microscope, two convex lenses that were used to enlarge targets were not difficult. The difficulty was the focal distance of every hand crafted lens. So it was a precise operation to match the eye lens to the objective lens, it required constantly adjusting the distance between the two lenses.

After describing the image-forming principle of the convex lens, he gave Anna several crystals with excellent quality and let her try to slice the optics and measure the focal distance. After three days, Roland was full of anxiety and wondered to what degree Anna had managed.

Arriving at Anna's room door, he saw Nightingale smiling at him. She stood against the wall, as if indicating that she would not follow. Since she reduced the amount of time that she spent in the Mist, Roland also did not have to guess her whereabouts. When he and Anna were together, Nightingale always chose to stand at a distant location.

Opening the door, he saw Anna sitting beside the table and tinkering with a metal tube.

"How's it going?" he went ahead and asked.

Just as he was about to speak further, Roland was startled. He saw several instruments that looked like the microscope drawn by his own hand on the table.

"According to the drawing that you gave me, I made several trial products. Indeed I could see details that I couldn't find at ordinary times." Raising her head, her fringe slipped down one side. "I used it to observe paper, leaves and ponding, and found they're different from their ordinary appearances." After their hot air balloon trip, Anna did not use honorific language when Roland and herself were alone, which made him feel quite relaxed.

"How could you make that?" Roland asked surprisingly, "That diagram is only a rough silhouette."

"The outline was enough." Anna laughed. "You see, you can magnify objects using the eye lens and the objective lens and fixing them at the right distance. After fixing them in an iron tube, the main body of the microscope is done. When I tested the lens magnification effect, I found that the objective lens and the observation target must be kept within a certain distance to see a clear image. The slightest flick of the hand would make the image blurred. As you can see from the schematic diagram, the tube is fixed and the table below the target can be moved up and down to get the best possible object distance." She paused. "The bottom of the sheet is harder to understand. Can you tell me what it's for?"

Roland looked at the drawing and found that was actually a mistake of his. It was a retroreflector used to increase the ray of the light going through the target. At this time, the mercury mirror had not been invented. Generally the nobles still used bronze mirrors or iron mirrors to check their appearance. There was silver behind a sheet of glass in the imperial palace in order to obtain a better reflected image. Even without a mirror, sunlight was sufficient for the microscope to work.

He carefully made an explanation, and he was shocked by Anna's great perception. Only using a rough diagram, she could make a complete product. This was impossible.

While looking down the barrel of the microscope, Anna's neck became exposed. Roland could not help himself but want to kiss Anna. But Anna gently pushed his face away with her hand and said, "Wait, Your Highness, I'm busy right now."

"Well... Okay."

Chapter 206 - [A Swarm of Worms]

The issue of the mirrors was finally solved by Soraya.

She referred to the mercury brought from the laboratory and painted a bright layer of coating behind the glass, out of fear of poisoning risk from inhaling mercury vapor.

Light reflected much better on painted mirrors than on mirrors stuck with silver scraps. Roland set aside a batch of crystal glasses to make little mirrors and delivered them to every witch to keep. The witches were pleased to see their faces so clearly. Even the imperturbable Scroll smiled. Roland thought that the witches were still feminine in nature, even though they could not get pregnant.

It was a pity that these convenient items could not be sold to the masses at a low price. That was because the laboratory not only needed high priced crystal glasses as the basic material, but also consumed large quantities of glass to make colorless transparent containers. Although Kyle Sichi knew how to make colorless glass, the project had been too heavy to find others to make mirrors. Most apprentices were busy purifying the two acids and soaking guncotton. And chief alchemist was devoted to preparing mercury fulminate with his three students. They could not make other things, but find industrial acid-making process.

In addition to the mirror, the object moves from the finger to move the stage into a knob to control the movement of the barrel; however, Anna would be able to take the hint only if Roland gave some directions about these. With the Blackfire processing, the newly fixed bracket quickly finished. They selected two groups of the highest magnification tube to get the first complete body of the optical microscope.

Taking advantage of the sunny day, Roland gathered everyone in the Witch Union to the backyard of the castle and started the first fundamental biology lesson.

...

When Lily walked into the backyard, she found the plants there had turned more and more luxuriant.

Grapes on the wooden frame had turned a vibrant mauve color. She recalled it had not even been a week since its last maturity. Now and then, Lightning flew to pick some of the grapes and shared it with everyone. And that clumsy bird who had just joined Border Town was perched on the wooden frame, pecking and swallowing the grapes herself.

Roland and Anna were like a pair of lovers talking to each other at the center of the backyard under a tree, but Lily knew they were not flirting. If she went closer to listen carefully, she would hear many indescribable words and theories… like the mention of little balls, a cat which was dead or alive, things turning into waves, and so on. Nightingale stayed away 5 meters from them because their conversation made her sleepy!

Wherever they were, Wendy was always beside Scroll, wearing smiles and tender looks. Sometimes Lily thought Wendy looked at her like she was looking at a child. Lily reluctantly sighed. There was, after all, a huge difference when she glanced at Wendy's chest and hers.

When she became like Wendy, perhaps she could be regarded as an adult.

When all the witches gathered, Roland put two gray-black ironware that he claimed were microscopes that could see microorganisms on the desk. Lily thought that maybe things would look very different under the microscope. But it was still hard to believe that the world was made of a kind of particle that could form a block of hard stone.

After ordering the guard to bring a bucket of water, Roland placed a few drops of water under the microscope. The water was different from what Lily imagined. The water was not muddy or dirty at all. Rather, it was so clear that it was transparent under the light. Perhaps the particles could only be seen using the microscope.

"Something's moving in the water!" the other sisters unexpectedly shouted in surprise, "oh, it's running away!"

"There's not only one. It seems that there're many in there."

"Oh God, are those worms? They all look different!"

"That one looks like a transparent crab..."

Lily's heart rose to her throat. Were they not particles, but worms instead? His Highness was lying to them! But these worms were so strange because there was nothing in the water at all. When it was her turn, she no longer pretended to be careless. She could not help squinting and putting her head close to the microscope.

Then she saw an incredible scene.

In a narrow iris diaphragm, there were many oddly-shaped things swimming. There were square-shaped things, things with long soft hair, a demonic hybrid of beetles and crabs, and even kernels with feet. No matter how strange they looked, they were all transparent as if they had no skin or hull. Obviously, there was nothing in the stomachs of these worms, too.

"Your Highness, are all these actually worms?" Scroll asked.

"What you're seeing are some protists and unicellular algae. It's not appropriate to regard them as worms. They should be categorized as microorganisms," the prince explained.

"Microorganisms?"

"Yes, they're independent lives, but their sizes are much smaller. Besides the two kinds of microorganisms you could see with your naked eye, there're other much smaller microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. According to a present microscope, we couldn't see bacteria and viruses that cause spoilage of foods and other diseases," Roland said excitedly, "these microorganisms are everywhere. They're abundant and not resistant to high temperature. That's why water needs to be boiled, fish and meat need to be cooked, and bath water can't be repeatedly used."

Though Lily could not imagine there being much smaller microorganisms, she could not help getting goosebumps once she thought of how she drank water with these worms in it.

And His Highness said that these little things were the main reason for causing food spoilage?

If the bread and meat porridge could be kept fresh, perhaps… it may work for the water as well.

Coming to this conclusion, she could not help releasing her magic power to envelope the water drops under the microscope.

Something unexpected happened.

She saw a part of the "worms" trembling and their skins quickly became no longer transparent. Covered with purple armor now, root tentacles grew out of their bodies and began swallowing the other unchanging "worms". No, they did not really swallow it. Lily saw them assimilating with each other at an alarming rate. Their tentacles, like sharp swords, pierced the other microorganisms and absorbed them.

She did not know whether it was just an illusion. She felt that these mutant groups were still changing those invisible lives. Purple spots soon appeared in the water droplets. More and more spots gradually formed into a piece, as if a lavender carpet appeared in her eyesight. The tentacles were arranged one by one, neatly like an army. It seemed like they felt her attention on them, as their tentacles were all lifted as if they were saluting her.

It was the first time that she had seen the true nature of her power.

Chapter 207 - Parent Population and Clones

Nightingale in her Mist was observing the change in the witches' magic power.

There were few chances to see such bright and colorful scene in the black-white world. Compared to the time when they were looking for Holy Mountain, their magic powers had increased a lot through daily practice. They could now control their power more accurately. But what was the most comforting thing for Nightingale was the expressions of her friends.

Despite Wendy's gentle inspiration and Cara's firm action, they were never able to sleep peacefully, even for one night, in the Witch Cooperation Association. Any little signs of arrest from the church and suspicion of the public could make them wake from their stressful sleep. Even when they were looking for Holy Mountain, they were not able to relieve their stress. No one knew Holy Mountain would really be a safe shelter for them. Back then, the witches were usually downcast with numb, vacant expressions.

Now, nobody went hungry and had to worry about the Church arresting them. Everyone wore lively expressions never before seen on their faces. When she saw the relaxed smiles her sisters had, Nightingale shared their feelings. Holy Mountain was real. It was not in the wild, but here.

At this moment, she felt a slight tremor coming from the magic power.

A cloud of purple fog started revolving, sucking in other magic powers like a tiny storm. But only Nightingale saw this scene. She held her breath unblinkingly to see every detail. Comparing Anna and Soraya's hindsight, it was the first time she saw the gathering of magic power in person.

Lily stood in the middle of the storm.

She was absorbed in observing the micro-world and paid no attention to the change in quality in her magic power.

As the fog became denser and the revolving became faster, the fog became almost solidified. At the same time, the silhouette which produced some waves no longer appeared in a whirlpool shape. In the end, magic power gathered and stopped just as slowly.

Her new magic power was not as hard and glossy as Anna's cube or as soft as Soraya's silk. Her magic power was as big as a fist. The main body was an oval with eight pairs of tentacle. Four pairs were upturned and others downturned. Her new magic power looked like… a worm.

...

Roland never thought that the outcome of the first fundamental biology class would be this great or that the first witch who evolved was Lily.

Roland did not assign her many missions, except for instructing her to practice daily and learning a little about her because keeping food fresh was her magic power. After Roland listened to Nightingale's report, he nodded without speaking. He did not make her stay until the class was over either.

"What? Are you saying that my magic power has evolved?" Lily said in shock, "I didn't see the particles you mentioned."

"Of course you can't see them." Roland shook his head, smiling. "Particles are thousands of times smaller than microorganisms. Even though we could construct a limitless microscope, we would still not be able to see the particles that form matter."

"Is that so? I thought I can evolve my magic power after thoroughly understanding the particle theory," she murmured, "I can't believe everything in the world is made of those particles. If those particles are what hard steel are made of, they should be collapsing into a pile of sand."

That was the reason he thought the microscopic particle theory was not the only way to improve the ability to evolve a witch's magic power. "What did you see?" he said.

"Uh..." Lily gave it a thought before saying, "There were many purple worms that can be summoned using magic power. They can turn other organisms into beings like them."

"Worms?" he said, "Are they as big as microorganisms?"

"Sort of." She nodded. "They're still transparent if you see the water with your eyes."

"So… Let's have an actual test."

...

Unlike Anna and Soraya, it was hard to observe Lily's magic power with naked eyes.

When Roland saw the microorganisms arrange themselves in an orderly manner in synergy, he was surprised that they seemed to have a sense of collective consciousness.

Next were the partial tests including the function, effective time, and influence of Stone of Magic on these microorganisms.

This test lasted three days. Although Lily would retort and complain sometimes, she still diligently carried out Roland's commands.

Through the quantities of sample pairs and a discussion with Anna, he had a rough idea of the features of Lily's new magic power.

In the variant purple worms, it was obvious to see they could be divided into the parent population and clones.

The parent population was the primary variant microorganisms Lily's magic power produced.

The characteristics of the parent population were similar to Blackfire. As long as there was a magic power supply, they would always exist. The magic power user should stay within five meters or they would disappear. They were also affected by the God's Stone of Retaliation, instantly dispersing within the scope of the stone.

When the parent population was present, surrounding microorganisms would be assimilated into clones in a short time. It was inconceivable for Roland that the clones were actually the result of the "ability", like Soraya's coating, and were no longer bound by the God's Stone of Retaliation. Simply speaking, Lily could create a magic parent population that could create new and real microorganisms.

The clones have the same feature of assimilation like the parent population, eroding the other microorganisms. But the result of test left Roland confused. The assimilation did not last. In some samples with the same amount of clones, some microorganisms were completely converted. In others, he could see the clones and unaffected microorganisms coexisting.

He could only rely on guesswork for this as he lacked precise observation instruments.

After the discussion with Anna, Roland formed a hypothesis that the number of assimilation was relative to its size.

Lily could not distinguish the types of microorganisms with her power. That was why there were unobservable viruses and bacteria, as well as visible protozoa and single cell algae under the microscope among the clones. The numbers of clones were dependent on the parent population. if the parent population was larger, the number of assimilation would be increased.

Besides, the clones could not continue living in the form of spilled propagation. When the number of assimilation ran out, the last batch of clones could only live for about one day. Boiling the water could kill most of the clones. As new lives, they were not that starkly different than other microorganisms.

But one interesting point was that these clones arranged in a line would gather around the parent population. They seemed to be waiting for orders from the parent population, like soldiers.

Due to the limitations of their observation, Lily's new ability was still not made clear. Unfortunately, the little girl was now completely puzzled whether parent population and clones had the same influence on viruses, bacteria or all kinds of fungi used in the chemical and food production. Leaving alone the instructions of finishing those corresponding by using her power.

Even so, those clones still had great potential for further development. Even though there was nothing to do, all the deadly bacteria or viruses could be assimilated. Lily's power could play the role of rapid sterilization. This unreasonable drugs could apparently pave the way for healthcare in the domain.

Chapter 208 - [I Am an Idiot.]

Lily came back to the room with her wet hair wrapped in a towel.

Although she was accusing Prince Roland of pursuing pleasure, she had to admit that the stuff in the bathroom was... incredibly great. She enjoyed the cold well water that fell on her body from the shower, which washed off the stuffiness and stickiness of the scorching hot sun, causing her body to feel refreshed after a busy day.

However, she felt guilty after taking a comfortable shower and wondered. [Should I apologize to His Highness for being overboard without controlling myself?]

"Traitor!"

"What?" Lily lifted the hair that stuck on her forehead.

"You obviously don't believe the spherule theory but you're now the first to evolve a new ability." Mystery Moon was kneeling on the bed upright while pointing her hand at Lily. "You're a big liar!"

Lily turned and said, "I still don't believe it. How could it be that everything is formed by spherule?"

"But sister Nightingale mentioned that your magic power had advanced."

"It has nothing to do with spherule." She shrugged, climbed onto the bed and pressed Mystery Moon's hand down. "His Majesty said that evolution doesn't depend on acceptance of the spherule theory. As long as we deeply understand our ability, we can still transform the magic power."

"Really?" Mystery Moon pouted.

"That's what he said anyway."

[Mystery Moon was neglected in the Witch Cooperation Association, which has caused her lack of confidence,] Lily thought. Unlike her, food preservation was very important to the Witch Cooperation Association which was facing a food shortage. And she could understand Mystery Moon's feeling as she noticed that her ability had become useless when she first came to Border Town. She was once afraid of being kicked out of the town, however, it ended up entirely different from what she was worried about. Even Prince Roland, His Highness did not give her extra tasks, he treated her the same as the other witches.

It was probably the reason why Mystery Moon had become bolder instead of cowering and self- deprecating like before. Her fear was mainly due to Cara who never bothered to look at her and even prohibited her to use her magic power in the camp.

"So..." Mystery Moon frowned and said, "what should I do to understand my ability? His Highness mentioned that the magnetic field is invisible and intangible, and even the microscope is useless."

"Don't ask me. I don't know." Lily yawned. "In fact, I only know what my ability looks like. I don't even understand... those cells, bacteria, fungal that His Highness was talking about. He even said that he's going to write a textbook for me," she reluctantly said, "Pardon me! I can't even read all the words yet."

"I also want to be more powerful," Mystery Moon rolled her body on the bed and said, "I would also like to do more for His Highness!"

Lily sighed. [Mystery Moon is apparently older than I am, but she acts as if she's younger...] she thought. "You can always ask sister Anna."

"Ask her?" Mystery Moon stopped rolling.

"Yeah, aren't you afraid of delaying His Highness? Then, you should just ask sister Anna for advice," Lily said, "other than Prince Roland, His Highness, she knows the most in the entire town."

"But, Anna is always busy. I heard that she's the one who makes all the machines in the town." Mystery Moon hesitated.

"So, you can ask her when she's free. Such as after dinner, ask for her help to heat up the bath water, or even invite her to take a bath together. Then you'll have a lot of time to ask her," the little girl suggested.

"What you've said... sounds really reasonable." Her eyes lit up.

"Then, let's go to bed. We still have to wake up early tomorrow." Lily untied the towel on her head and wiped two more times before she lay on the pillow. "Go and blow out the candle."

"Uh, okay." Mystery Moon crawled to the end of her bed and blew out the candle. "Good night."

…

Lily did not go to the kitchen or the wheat warehouse as she would usually do to practice her ability the next day but she sat in front of the table and started learning to use the microscope.

It was the new task His Highness had arranged. She was to fully understand the types and shapes of various cells and bacterias and record their differences before the textbook was ready. It was not a problem she could not write them down as they could be drawn.

His Highness mentioned that Anna was still trying to manufacture a microscope that could multiply magnification. She would be able to see the tinier microorganism. The magnification effect could reach up to 400 times.

In the future, her tasks would not just be maintaining the freshness of things, but she would also need to learn how to duplicate things. Lily found it difficult to understand this point. Luckily, His Highness suggested several directions to practice, such as commanding them to imitate the appearance of a single cell or instruct them to destroy or improve the cells with consciousness. It, of course, had to be based on the complete knowledge of various microorganisms. Although Lily was not sure if she could achieve it, she would have to at least try.

Not to mention that exploring the unknowns itself was an interesting matter.

Mystery Moon came back disappointed that night.

"What happened?" Lily curiously asked, "Did sister Anna say anything?"

"She said a lot." Mystery Moon laid on the bed. "However, I don't even understand a word. She said that the magnetic field is everywhere, and the compass can clearly show the direction because we're located in a gigantic magnetic field. Does it mean that my ability is useless? Not to mention the principle of the magnetic field, some kind of motion-charged-spherule and magnetic force are interdependent and the magnetic field can produce electricity... Is it true that I won't be able to progress without understanding the theory of the spherule?" she murmured, "Tell me, am I too stupid?"

"A little," Lily said with her hand touching her forehead.

"Traitor!"

...

There was another sister from the Witch Union that gained new ability and it made Wendy really happy.

Lily's evolution had increased the witches' learning passion and some of them were still asking Scroll questions after the evening course had ended. Even Maggie was conscientiously squatting on the hanging lamp, listening to the class after hearing that learning could improve her own ability.

All except one person.

When she returned to the room with the "Natural Science Theoretical Foundation" in her arms, Nightingale was lying on her stomach in front of the table, tidying something attentively.

Wendy knew that it must have nothing to do with learning.

"What're you doing?" she asked.

"Dividing dried fish flakes, do you want some?" Nightingale vaguely said while chewing a piece of dried fish, "I just brought it from the kitchen."

"So much?" Wendy looked at the table that was piled up with the golden-color grilled dried fish in shock; meanwhile, she could smell the rich honey flavor.

"Uh, the chef noticed that I come here every day so he simply grilled all the rest since it could be kept for a while." She took out a sack and filled it up with the food. And there were five or six similar sacks which were filled on the table.

Wendy suddenly understood what she was doing—it was dried food preparation. The dried food needed to be divided according to the appropriate quantity and filled it into the carrying sack whenever the Witch Cooperation Association was preparing to leave the town. No matter how hungry they were on the way, they could only eat the set quantity to prevent food shortage. None of the sisters was doing it anymore since they came to Border Town, with a stable three meals a day provided and afternoon tea often served.

Of course, for Nightingale, it was more appropriate to say that she was preparing snacks instead of preparing food.

"You don't read?"

"I won't understand it anyway. My head spins even simply hearing those theories and theorems." Nightingale swallowed the dried fish and smiled. "And my ability is enough for me. It doesn't matter if it evolves."

"I see."

[Nightingale's eyes sparkled at that moment without showing any compulsion or hesitation. She looks incomparably natural compared to before. It's impossible for a confused person to reveal such an expression,] Wendy thought to herself, [she had found her goals.]

[She displays her firmness once she understands the path she takes. She was like this when she left her noble family and confronted Cara.]

However Wendy did not ask, and she believed that she would see the answer herself someday.

Chapter 209 - The Convenience Market

"Stop!"

May stopped Irene who was holding a dagger, pretending to stab. "Your expression doesn't have to be so hideous. Although he's a heinous scum, he's still playing the role of your step-father. So, you should show perseverance within the hesitation and finally express relieved and peace after stabbing him. Do it again."

"Yes!" Irene seriously said.

It had been half a month since her first performance in the town, and she was not sure why she had not left this place but joined for the second performance instead. The crew was currently rehearsing for the third part of "The Witch Diaries". The drama bound to be incomparable simply in terms of the scripts. It was her first time to see such an interestingly twisted story which was not about the love story between the prince and the princess or the conspiracy of the rebels in the palace but was praising the courage, friendship, and principles of the ordinary people and the witches... She even could not help but want to applause for the characters in the story after reading the entire scripts.

It was also the reason that May claimed to be staying for a short time.

However, she was not clear about the actual reason herself.

Irene suddenly stabbed Sam who played the role of her step-father with the prop dagger. Sam miserably yelled, "You actually..." and he tilted his head to one side and pretended to die.

It looked too exaggerate. May shook her head. "Since she was stabbing you in the chest, how would you have time to scream and talk? You can simply raise your arm pretending to strangle Irene and then paralyze. This is the most common expression of fatal injuries. Were you not listening during the drama class?!"

Sam could not help but blush. "I'm, I'm sorry."

"Again," she emotionlessly said.

Irene's performance was out of May's expectations, and a lot of details were quickly corrected once she mentioned. Irene was considered the outstanding batch with her serious attitude towards drama and her personal performance talent. Her title of "Flowers of the Theater" was not entirely the mutual adulation among the low-level performers.

"Much better. Let's end the rehearsal here today." May clapped when the content of the scene was finally clearly expressed. "Have Ferlin Eltek finished the lesson? You should also head home to prepare dinner, after all the whatever water..."

"Tap water," Irene added with a smile.

"Uh, the tap water will only be refilled once before the dusk, and that means there'll be no water for the shower if the dinner is too late," May said after coughed twice.

"Miss May, is it mainly because Mr. Knight is coming to pick you up?" Rosia chuckled with her hands covering her mouth. "There's still at least an hour from the evening."

"I heard that Mr. Carter is the trusted guard of His Highness Prince Roland, always traveling with His Highness in and out of the castle," Tina loudly said, "ah... you're indeed a dazzling star in the Western Region, no wonder you're so compelling everywhere you go."

"Enough." Irene waved. "Miss May doesn't necessarily have to accept Mr. Carter."

"..." May raised her eyebrows, it was probably because she had not behaved so harshly recently. Both of them did not even dare to breathe in front of her initially but now they dared to make up a joke. She would probably have to be stricter towards them during the rehearsals for the next few days, otherwise, they were not qualified to be on the same stage with her with such a bad performance. "I'll leave first."

"Thank you for your guidance!" Irene and the others bowed.

Originally only the drama tutor was eligible to have such etiquette, however, May did not care. She nodded and left the rehearsal room, suddenly feeling the hot air around her.

A tall man was quickly walking towards her after she sat down under the shade in the center of the neighborhood for a moment.

He was Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight of the Lord of Border Town.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he touched his head and said.

"I didn't wait for too long." May lightly smiled. "Let's go."

He did not give up although he was rejected the last time he invited May. He was persevered to visit at the door which was entirely different from the cool and arrogant look he had, and she was confusingly retained by him just like that. She was quite aware of what he meant but she was confused and afraid to think of residing in the foreign land.

She did not plan to reside here with him for long-term even when she initially decided to see Morning Light.

She was a famous drama star who was the undisputed focus in the stronghold. However, she was no different from the other members of the drama team here, and her reputation could not even be compared with Irene who was a teacher in the town.

Both of them walked through the wide street where was covered by the shades towards the Convenient Market.

The town looked different every week, it was empty in the outer district last week but it was luxuriantly green now. There were constructions every day as long as it did not rain, and there were always roads and houses repairs. Sometimes they were carried out at the same time. The buzzing with activities scene was hard to find even in the king's city.

The convenience market was located in the north of the square, dividing both of the districts and separated by the sycamore tree in the middle. It was the fair price area on the right and the layout was similar to the market, surrounded by the streets and a wooden shed was built above it. There were people selling some cheap irons and farm products in the market—the former were farm tools, hammers, drills, and nails while the latter were eggs, beef, grapes, and some food that can't be named. These goods were arranged in different stalls and each stall had a specially-assigned person-in-charge.

It was the boutique area on the left, where was much smaller and surrounded by bricks, looking like a bungalow. There were a variety of goods sold inside and the crowd was much lesser as the price was slightly higher. She was pulled here by Irene to walk around the second day she was in the town. If the chief knight had not mentioned that there were some rare new products sold here today, she would have gone to the bar for one or two ice-cold ale.

Both of them walked into the boutique area after registration. The selling method here was very strange. There was only one door to enter and exit in the entire market and the goods were displayed on the shelves for self-selection. There were neither bargaining accepted nor anyone boasting and promoting, the prices and items descriptions were written on a parchment stuck at a corner and the payment was at the counter by the door after picking the favorite items.

May noticed that there were only around 10 pieces of the colorful glasses left on the first row of the shelf, and the patterns on them were still the same as what she saw the last time she was here, which means that the glasses were not entirely sold within the one month. If it were for the normal merchant, he would have suffered the loss.

"Is this market really opened by His Highness?" she asked.

"Yes." Carter nodded. "So you would see some incredible merchandise." He walked towards the third shelf and said, "Such as this one."

"This... is the rare new product you were talking about?" May followed the knight and saw five or six bars of light-yellow colored blocks which were only the size of a palm displayed on the shelf without knowing what they were for.

"It's personally trial-produced by His Highness and the witches in the castle now... Ahem, I meant the servants and guards are using it. It can easily clean the stubborn grease when it's used in the shower and it feels extremely refreshing after showering, leaving a soft fragrance of the rose on the body. I swear it's the most magical thing in the shower," the chief knight solemnly said.

May looked at the parchment next to it and saw a rare term marked on it—scented soap.

Chapter 210 - To Leave or to Stay

"Scented soap?" She picked up a bar, putting it to her nose and smelled it. She could really smell the rose scent.

"Yeah, it's hard to imagine that it was a sticky paste before it was made. His Highness even added perfume into it in order to make it fragrant."

May subconsciously glimpsed at the price on the paper, which could be considered luxury as it cost 25 silver royals each, however, the price was obviously a little too low as compared to the expensive perfume. "Are you sure there's perfume added? A great noble had given me three bottles of perfumes when I was performing in the king's city and each bottle was only as big as the thumb but the price of each bottle was more than 5 gold royals. Such a big bar of soap would at least required half a bottle of the perfume."

"Is it?" Carter stunned. "Perfume is actually so expensive?"

"Of course." May rolled a blind eye at him. "It's the most complacent product of King's City Alchemist Workshop, other than the crystal glass, perfume is the best selling product. I heard that there're only thousands of bottles perfume flows into the market annually other than the batch that's tribute to the royal family. Those who could afford to buy this thing are mostly the upper-class noble and wealthy merchants. I wouldn't use the remuneration of several of my plays to purchase a bottle of perfume if it wasn't a gift."

"However, I didn't see any rare materials when His Highness made the perfume... I heard His Highness mentioned that it seemed to be made of sugarcane." Carter added, seeing May's confused expression. "Sugarcane is a sweet stick, a plant that came from the Fjords that looks like a stick and chewing on it will fill your mouth with sweet juice. It's only planted at the castle backyard currently, and I'll ask His Highness for permission to bring you one."

"It's Prince Roland, His Highness again..." She had been hearing the name of Roland Wimbledon the most often since she came to the town. As long as the change of the town was mentioned, both Irene and Carter would definitely mention him. It sounded like His Highness knew everything and all the new things were created by him.

[Is there really such an erudite in this world?] She was skeptical. [It takes time for a person to learn the new knowledge. The recognized scholars in both the king's city and Longsong Stronghold are white-haired old men. There's even a saying that the longer the beard, the wider the knowledge. Prince Roland is only around 20 years old, and how could he know so many things?]

Thinking so in her heart, May looked as usual and said, "Don't need to, it must be a rare crop if it were used to make perfume. Especially the perfume formula which could be sold for a high price in any alchemic workshop. You must not inquire from His Highness even if you shouldn't say anything about it even if you see it."

"Alright," Carter answered before he pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped four scented soaps in it.

"You're going to buy so many?"

"Each person was limited to purchase two bars. We'll pretend to purchase separately and I'll give them all to you when we're outside—don't reject for now." The knight stretched his arm out to stop May from talking. "I can always apply for it from His Highness if I run out of it but I'm not too sure when would the new stock comes in if it's sold out here. It can last you for a while with these four pieces."

May felt warm in her heart, looking at Carter's serious expression. "For a while..." She puckered her lips, quietly looking at the knight who was wrapping the scented soap.

"Let's look at the other merchandises since we're here." He lifted the sack and smiled.

…

It was dimmed outside the window when May returned to her "home" in Border Town.

The sunray of the sunset penetrated into the house from the window, dying the decorations in the house with a touch of orangey-red.

Since she decided to stay here for the following plays, May received a set of the room like Irene's. It was not big but it was fully-equipped.

She put the fancy goods they bought from the Convenience Market on the table one by one, and there was a bottle of alcohol besides the four bars of scented soap.

The bottle of alcohol was different from the common ale and wine from the pub. It had almost no color and was clear and transparent like water. She remembered it was called White Liquor on the introduction of merchandise, and it was high-alcohol and not suitable to drink too much of it.

[White Liquor.] She smiled. [The name matches the appearance well.]

May pulled out the wooden stopper and poured a glass for herself. She lifted the glass and the strong smell had made her frown. However, after the smell, she could smell an alcohol fragrant that was sweet and rich, and was totally different from the low quality diluted alcohol in the bar.

She seldom went to the bar as she would need full attention and concentration during the play, and she would only drink a glass or two to celebrate with the drama team after a big success of her play. It did not feel bad for being drunk, but she witnessed a lot of actors and actresses' misbehave after getting drunk, so she always kept her drinking limit within the scope of not affecting her thoughts.

However, May was having a strong urge of getting drunk now, otherwise, she would not insist on buying such an expensive White Liquor even with Carter's discouragement—she heard the other actors said that getting drunk could shield the distracting thoughts and concerns away to find the actual answer at the bottom of the heart, and she wanted to try.

May closed her eyes and drank up the alcohol in the glass, and she could have a boiling hot feeling exploding in her throat. She had spat the alcohol out before she could swallow it and a severe cough was choking her to tear.

"Damn it, is this really alcohol?"

She bit her lips and tried again after the burning sensation had subsided—she only dared to sip on it, and she could taste the thick and fragrant after the burning sensation. It did not taste very good with both the tastes mixed up, but it brought her a strange feeling.

May felt a trace of dizziness after only 7 minutes.

She pulled out a fist-sized metal box from her pocket and opened up the box where she found a shining mirror in front of her. The mirror must be expensive as it was different from the usual bronze-mirror or silver-mirror, and it had a smooth surface with the reflected scene extremely clear. May could see both her blushing cheeks and her confused eyes.

It was a gift from the chief knight before parted, and she wanted to reject but the knight had walked away without giving her a chance to push it back. He turned back to wave goodbye at her while walking away quickly. To be honest, Carter Lannis was an impeccable type on his appearance, however, it would be impossible for her to stay if the knight was not being chatty.

So, should she reside here? Moving away from the busy city and starting over in the remote town, and there were only a few of them from the crew knew her identity... The fear of unknown made it difficult for her to make up her mind.

May opened up the letter that had been on her table for a few days—it was the letter Prince Roland, His Highness passed to her through Irene and it was written by Petrov, the manager of the stronghold. She was informed that the Stronghold theatre had announced her to be missing, and Petrov was personally hoping for her to return to the stronghold and continue the play.

Prince Roland, His Highness did not hide the news but left her to decide herself.

As May drank up the alcohol left in the glass, her vision gradually became hazy.

She staggered to the desk, spreading out a piece of paper to write back.

In the overlapping surging thoughts, she could see the Stronghold Theater, Irene, Ferlin Eltek, as well as the town square filled with cheering noise and the out-of-control exciting third-rate actors... When all these finally faded slowly, it was only left with the smiling face of Carter Lannis when he was inviting her for a drink in her mind.

"Hello, Miss May. Can I buy you a drink?"

…

Chapter 211 - The Light Industry

Roland was sitting in front of the desk, interestingly looking at the chief knight who was here to report the up and down of the First Army.

Comparing to his meticulous look past few months, Carter's icy face had shown other emotions, the steady feeling had faded a lot and he was showing a lot of hope and impatience.

[It must have something to do with the Star of the Western Region,] Roland thought.

Roland also heard a little about the matter that Carter had recently gotten very close to May. After all, as one of the top-level in the first army and Roland's representative in the army, his every action had been watched; not to mention that he was close to the attractive lady, May.

When they first appeared side by side on the streets of the town, the guards had already reported the news to Roland.

Roland did not really care for such things. It was very strange for Carter to be still single as he was probably two or three years older than Roland. It would be good if he could find his spouse in the Western Region as long as it did not affect his work.

According to the report of the chief knight, the First Army had possessed around 200 revolving rifles equipped and it was increasing by 10 daily— in fact, if the raw material was enough, Anna could produce several times more, however, the speed decreased as she was also responsible for pig iron and steam engine manufacturing at the same time.

However, the production speed was acceptable as there were only 600 people in the First Army, and it would be finished reloading within one and a half month. The military scale temporarily could not be further expanded before the new population expansion arrived.

Another point was the formation of the Second Army.

The civilians recruited from Longsong Stronghold were incorporated into the Second Army by Roland after verification in order to facilitate the training convenience and security needs. They were currently accepting the discipline training which was also a part of military training. It was the ideological education course at night in order to develop their ideas as the guardian of the Western Region, and they needed to protect the safety of their loved ones.

"The training of the Second Army personnel was progressing well at the moment, and they were expected to be transferred into shooting training after a week. Then, the sifted-out flintlocks were enough for one each." Carter concluded.

It was also the advantage of the flintlock. It would take at least a year to train a cold weapons fighter and five or six years to train a knight, but yet the musketeer would only take a month to complete training and enter into combat. The longer a battle lasted, the more dominant force of the musketeer was—after all, pulling the trigger was easier than fighting with the sword.

"The live ammunition shooting practice requires to be paid attention to the management of firearms, the number returned had to be the same as the number given out. The same applied to the gunpowder, which was distributed on the spot during training and it was arranged to be supervised by the veteran of the First Army."

"Yes." He nodded.

"Very well." Roland waved. "In this case, you may go to do with your business."

"Uh, Your Highness," Carter said with hesitation, "you mentioned to me last time that the perfume that was mixed into the soap was made from sugar cane, was it true?"

"Yes," Prince Roland leaned against the chair and said, "why?"

"Is the sugar cane expensive?"

"No... Just an ordinary crop."

"I heard that a thumb-sized bottle of perfume can be sold for five gold royals in the king's city." Carter scratched his head. "If so, can manufacturing perfume with sugar cane bring huge income to the town?"

"Five Gold Royals?" Roland startled as he did not consider about this point. Thinking back the time in the palace, Prince Roland never cared about the prices of daily necessities and he had only little contact with the thing such as perfume—only women preferred the stuff that could make them smell nice.

The initial motivation for him to make perfume was to get soap. Otherwise, it always felt like something was missing in a bathroom without scented soap, since rubbing the bubbles all over the body was the true romance in the bathroom.

If a small bottle of perfume could be sold for a few gold royals, it would be indeed a good business. Unlike the coated mirrors, the sugar cane and flowers that were used as the raw materials were much cheaper than the crystal glass.

Thinking about it, Roland laughed. "It's a pretty good idea. I'll consider it."

"Your Highness, in this case... May I bring a sugar cane out from the castle?" Chief Knight asked with hope.

"For sure." Hearing from the tone, Roland could guess what Carter wanted to do—the Western Region was different from Port of Clearwater, the crops in the Fjords were rare here, and it was a good choice to give it to the lady as a gift. "It's on the wall in the backyard. You may go and pick it yourself."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Carter bowed and left.

After that, Roland summoned Barov—it was no longer appropriate to call him the assistant minister, for he had been regarded as the administration manager of Border town as the headline of the City Hall.

After Barov was seated, Roland mentioned to him about perfume. "What do you think about this business? Can we earn a lot from it?"

He did not answer immediately but stared at him. "Your Highness, are you sure that perfume is made from the sweet crop?"

"Did you not use the soap that was distributed to you? The reason for the fragrance was because of the perfume that was mixed in it," Roland stretched his arms and said, "its raw materials are indeed worthless things. I'm just unsure if it's true that the perfume in the king's city is as expensive as Carter said."

"More than that, Your Royal Highness," Barov excitedly said, "the perfume was the top-secret product of the King's City Alchemy Association. There were only about 1,000 bottles produced a year, and only a small part of it would be sold in the king's city. The price for those which were transferred to be sold in the Kingdom of Graycastle and other cities were 20 or 30 percent higher. If it was sold to the Fjords and other kingdoms, the price can be almost doubled. In order to prevent the merchant from earning the difference, the association not only firmly controlled the perfume price of the other area, and even the merchants were designated by them. If you can produce perfume, we can get a huge return even if we're just selling to Redwater City and Fallen Dragon Ridge."

"I see." [He's indeed the man who served as the finance minister's assistant for 20 years,] Roland thought. Barov was really good at the price of the goods and trading market. With this information, he also formed a preliminary plan.

There were many methods of making perfumes, the simplest method was soaking the unique fragrance petals or herbal in the alcohol, letting the aromatic oil of the plants dissolved in the alcohol, and finally filtered the residue, adding water to dilute it.

The alcohol came from the sugar cane juice fermentation; the raw materials of the aromatic oil could be roses, and it could also be the more commonly seen rosemary and Vanilla. However, since it would be under mass production, getting Leaf to cultivate a magic plant that would directly produce the fragrance aroma oil would be the best choice.

The industry could also produce sugar and white liquor, which were also consumables with a considerable demand, although the profits were less than perfume, it could be sold to the people at a low price to enrich their recipes and it would be a big progress for the people's livelihood.

Roland was not developing the light industry due to the small-scale production of daily necessities was very difficult to earn high profits with the lack of manpower; investing the limited manpower into the heavy industry was the most cost-effective approach.

Since the production of perfume was profitable, perhaps he could take this opportunity to make up for this missing link.

Chapter 212 - The Caravan and News

Margaret arrived in the second month of summer as what had been agreed upon.

This time, the number of their boats had far exceeded the capacity of the dock, and quite a few sailing ships had to anchor along the riverbank, waiting for the ships before them to finish unloading cargos before being connected to the trestle.

It thus occurred to Roland that the dock of Border Town had to expand.

The Industrial Corporation of the Kingdom of Graycastle had at length managed to complete its task this month. It had successfully reduced the rejection rate to 40% and had manufactured three steam engines prior to the deadline. Although compared with the third generation steam engine used in Border Town, the commercial products manufactured in the plant was not in the same league in terms of power, noise reduction, vibrating frequency and gas leaking control, they were much better than the first generation.

The Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan brought 300 workers in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement. Roland took them to the industrial zone located to the south of the Redwater River and helped them settle in. Apart from building a wooden factory next to the original plant, Roland also asked Karl to build a dormitory close to the riverbank for those workers. In order to have the construction completed within a month, he instructed Karl to supervise on technical issues and Anna to cut and slice materials after logs were delivered to the site. It thus only took them two days to process materials, which was supposed to be the most time-consuming part of the whole construction process. Meanwhile, Karl, as Anna's former teacher, was astounded by her astonishing progress in her ability. In merely half a year, this quiet, emaciated girl had become so confident and radiant.

Roland held a big feast to welcome the merchants.

It was also the first time white liquor was presented.

"Margaret is right. Every time Your Highness has some novelties to show us," Hogg said loudly, "and even the wine here is different. Compared with this, this..."

"White liquor." Margaret reminded him timely.

"Right, white liquor! Compared with this white liquor, ale and grape wine are tasteless." Hogg grinned and drained the glass. "Your Highness, you must sell a few boxes of this wine to me."

"I prefer fruit wine actually. White liquor is too spicy for my taste." The businesswoman shook her head with a smile.

Roland laughed. "It has nothing to do with the flavor. Not everyone likes distilled liquor of a high concentration. I didn't plan to sell it to the public anyway. The production is quite accidental, and I want everyone to have a chance to try it."

In an era where brewing was still one of the main industries, distilled liquor evidently had great potential. The wines in the modern world, such as white liquor, rum, whiskey and vodka, were all distilled liquors with high concentrations. The widespread of distilled liquor also gave rise to the so-called wine culture later. Yet for the current Border Town, it was still too early to develop such an industry.

"Your Highness, with respect to the matter in your last letter, I've got quite a bit news from my people." Margaret broke off. "There haven't been many changes since the church took charge of the Kingdom of Everwinter. The church, however, encountered great resistance from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. It's rumored that the church sent all its army to Broken Tooth Castle but had been stuck there for over two months. Also, the King of the Kingdom of Dawn sent a messenger to the Kingdom of Graycastle, for the former believes the church's true intention was to occupy the whole continent rather than eradicate witches. He calls for an alliance between the two nations, in hopes that the two countries can collaborate to fight against the church and Holy City of Hermes."

"What was the response from the king's city?" Roland asked.

"Prime Minister Marquis Wyke declined the proposal and denounced the absurdity of such an idea." Gammon shrugged. "Everyone's talking about the matter at the moment. No agreement has been reached even among nobles. As far as I know, many people view the alliance with favor, for there's no sign whatsoever that indicates the church will return the sovereignty to the heir of the Kingdom of Everwinter immediately."

"Timothy didn't say anything about this?"

"The prime minister must have made the objection on Timothy's order. As to Timothy himself, he's taken his army to the Eastern Region," Marleen said gravely, "I've heard that a huge fleet just landed Seawindshire and plundered the coast of the Eastern Region. They even looted the church. Many merchants from the Fjords suffered extensive losses from the pillage."

"There has been a large number of refugees in the Eastern Region lately, of whom Hogg and I took in quite a few," Margaret added, "and they say these looters not only grabbed things with monetary value but also robbed people. For stuff they had no way to take away, they burned them as if they had wanted to burn the whole Eastern Region to ashes. This is definitely a big blow to Timothy, for he has just vanquished the nobles in the Eastern Region."

Roland should have been glad to hear that Timothy had received quite a big blow. His heart ached at the same time, however, when he heard ordinary citizens suffered from the raid. "Those refugees..."

"Are you interested in purchasing them?" Margaret smiled faintly. "When I was reading that letter, I thought you'd like to purchase a multitude of slaves and have them work for you in your territory. But I doubt they'll be as willing as the refugees from the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart to reduce themselves to slaves."

"I don't want them to be slaves. As long as they're willing to settle down at Border Town, they'll receive food and accommodations, and get paid for the work they've done." Roland corrected her. He had just realized it was a good opportunity for him to increase his manpower, although the news reached him a little late. "How many of them are there?"

"Most strong and able ones have been taken away by nobles and caravans. There're still nearly 10,000 refugees hoarding outside the king's city, but they're mostly children and women."

"That's fine. I'll send someone to screen and bring them here." The prince made the final verdict. "Do I need to inform the officials in the king's city before taking them away?"

"No." Margaret waved. "They're more than happy to get rid of them. As there's not enough food for all the refugees, there'll probably be a riot if the number keeps going up."

...

After the banquet, Roland retired to his office and summoned his guard, Theo.

This incident reminded him how dated his intelligence network was. If he could get informed right after the refugee problem occurred, he could start his preparation in no time and bring more people to Border Town. Currently, his sole information source was the caravan who visited the town once a month. Such a frequency was absolutely not enough to meet his needs.

Even if he garrisoned troops and built sentry posts in Longsong Stronghold, his monitoring would still be confined to the Western Region. If he wanted to become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle, he must expand his intelligence network throughout the whole nation and even the entire continent.

Roland did not have enough devoted, reliable people for a full-service intelligence agency, and there was no way for him to find spies and agents who were willing to work for him from different locations. As such, he planned to start from scratch by sending a group of people to the king's city to collect news of various places. Although it could not be considered as a complete surveillance system, he would at least be able to quickly get updated with current trends and the latest events, and would not be put in such a disadvantageous position like this in the future.

Theo, who knew Black Street Forces in the king's city very well, was the perfect person for this job.

"You want me to return to the king's city with the caravan?" Theo was a little surprised.

"Yes. You have two tasks. First, fetch refugees from the Eastern Region here. I'll dispatch a unit of around 100 soldiers to escort you and let you know the specific screening criteria before the caravan takes off."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Second, after you bring all the refugees here, you stay in the king's city to collect news of different cities and towns for me. You dealt with underground Rats before and should know what to do. Margaret and her caravan will fully support you. You can ask for reimbursements for any expenses incurred. Unlike the dissemination of the information about witches in Redwater City last time, there's no budget limit for this operation." Roland put a revolver on the table and then said, "Take good care of yourself. I'm looking forward to hearing good news from you."

...

Chapter 213 - A Plan on Paddle Steamers

Four days later, the caravan departed the dock and sailed out.

Theo and the 100 soldiers from the First Army set out for the king's city together.

During the past few days, Roland and Margaret had reached an agreement: Theo could come to Margaret's stores to request for as many gold royals as he wanted, whereas Margaret would deduct the amount withdrawn from the payment made for the steam engine. In addition to this, Roland would need to pay a 1% interest as well.

Notwithstanding that the amount of saltpeter and ingots Margaret brought was nearly two times those last time, Roland had still earned over 2,200 gold royals, including the deposit for modifying two inland river ships. Such a number would be unimaginable prior to the Months of Demons, as the profit for a one-month mine sale would be no more than 300 gold royals.

After the departure of the caravan, it was also about time for Maggie to leave Border Town temporarily.

As what had been agreed on with Ashes, Maggie would have to bring news related to the Western Region to Fjord Islands.

Roland even wrote a long letter and handed to Maggie, in which he particularly expressed his intention of mutual assistance and collaboration, as well as his hope that Princess Tilly could send some of her assistance witches to help him. In the letter, he did not address the matter as Tilly's brother but as the Lord of Border Town, the ruler of the Western Region. Although Roland knew the chance that Tilly would consent was slim, he wanted to give it a shot anyway. At any rate, it did not take much time to draft a letter.

All the witches gathered at the castle backyard to send Maggie off.

Nightingale gave Maggie a small pack of dried fish, whereas Lightning gave her a pack of pepper.

The other witches all felt sorry for her departure. They stroked her feathers and hugged her as if they would have never seen her again.

"Don't worry, coo!" Maggie raised her head. "I'll be back soon, coo!"

"What if Tilly doesn't let you come back?" Lightning was quite concerned.

"Coo..." The pigeon ducked her neck and pondered for a while. She then waved her tail feathers and said, "Then I'll fly back secretly, coo!"

"So that's the deal." Lightning made a serious promise. "If you do come back, I'll barbeque some birds for you. Also, as for that beehive which we found the other day, I won't touch it until your return."

"Coo!" Maggie nodded vigorously. "Deal, coo!"

Roland was amused and had no comment on what had just happened. It only took Lightning a month to bond with Maggie. Good job, Lightning!

"Well, see you guys later, coo!" Maggie spread out her broad wings and slowly took off after a short run-up. She hovered in the air for some time and then gradually disappeared in the southeast.

"Will she get there safe and sound?" Looking at Maggie's slow move, Roland could not help worrying about her.

"She should be fine," Lightning replied immediately, but soon crooked her head and added, "I... think she will."

Roland returned to his mundane routine of everyday busy life after seeing Maggie off.

This time, he had to draft a complete set of blueprints for the two ships that the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan had left here for modification. They would become the first two paddle steamers powered by steam engine in this world.

As the paddle steamer would have only one power source, the drive shaft of the steam engine would be directly connected to the paddle without relying on a gearbox. Several air intake ducts would be used to control the amount of air pumped in and thereby adjust the speed of the boat. If someone wanted to slow the boat down or pull it over, he would only need to shut the air intake ducts and air out the excessive steam through the exhaust. At the meantime, it would be still fairly easy to speed up the boat, as the ventilation would not affect the boiler.

The mechanism was not difficult. Roland soon drafted out a rough model. To make the design more precise, however, he needed to take specific measurements on the spot.

Just at that moment, Anna entered the office with a book in her arms.

"What's the matter?" Roland put down his quill and immediately smiled at her.

"I finished the book." Anna put the book on the desk. It was exactly that Natural Science Theoretical Foundation.

Roland's smile faded away in a second. This was unbelievable! How could it be possible that Anna was able to learn everything about high school mathematics and physics within just a few months? Roland did not ask her whether she had fully understood the contents because he knew Anna would read the book over and over again or come to ask him had she not. By "finishing", she meant a complete comprehension.

"The model you drew... Are you thinking about replacing sails with steam engines to power the boat?" Anna was instantly drawn to the draft on the desk. "But..."

"But what?"

"The two wheels are similar to paddles, right?" "When the wheels are in motion, they'll push the boat forward. But since half of the wheel is exposed to the air, a part of the power generated is wasted. Why not put the whole wheel into the water?"

"..." Roland was speechless for a second and did not know how to respond. Nobody in the world was born to know everything. Anna must have made the judgement the moment she glanced at the drawing. Roland was suddenly intrigued. He asked, "So, what do you think I should do?"

Anna thought for a while and then started to draw on the paper with a pen.

Roland rested his chin on his hand while at the same time gazing at Anna with great interest. The latter was currently absorbed in her work. Roland could see a strand of unclipped fringes dangle in front of her face as she moved. Her dainty lashes fluttered occasionally. A rosy blush glowed on her fair cheeks. Although Roland could only see her side face from this angle, he could capture the perfect, soft contour of her face with the help of the light, including the arch of the bridge of her nose, her delicate chin and her elegant neck.

"Want some dried fish?" Nightingale suddenly came over and thrust her hand between them.

"Yes." Anna nodded and put the snack handed by Nightingale into the mouth. "Thank you."

As his view was blocked, Roland coughed to conceal his embarrassment. His attention was back to the drawings on the desk again.

At first, Anna tried to place the paddle down in the water horizontally. But then it would be pretty hard to see where the paddle was when the boat landed. The placement would thus easily cause a collision between the boat and the dock or trestles.

Therefore, she tried to put the paddle at the rear, which was actually a common practice. This arrangement, however, required a more complex power system. A steam engine, after all, was too cumbersome to be placed at the rear, for its drive draft and gearbox would take a lot of space of the boat.

When Roland saw Anna's new design, he was once again amazed by her terrifying intelligence and insightfulness.

The draft Anna was working on had indeed become very close to a uniaxial propeller, where a steam engine was placed at the bottom of the hull, with its drive shaft sticking out from the waterline and its tail connected to four square paddles that looked like a windmill.

"I don't know whether it'll work," she said hesitatively, "Technically, there should be a horizontal component of force if the dips of all the paddles are the same. But I've reduced one wheel, and it may not be enough to mobilize the boat with merely four paddles."

"Of course it'll work, with some modifications though." Roland took the quill in Anna's hand and drew a real propeller. "Compared with the shape of a windmill, the paddle in this shape works better under the water. You're on the right track. However, the agreement requires us to turn the ships into paddle steamers. So, we have to stick to the first design. This has nothing to do with technologies but is simply a business strategy." Roland paused for a moment and then asked, "Do you want to measure the actual boat with me?"

"Yes!" Anna blinked her azure eyes and gave an affirmative answer.

The best learning method was to test theories in practice.

...

"Nightingale?"

When Anna followed the prince to the doorway, she turned around and saw Nightingale was looking at the design on the desk meditatively.

"Ah, you guys can go first. I'll be right there."

She compared with the two drawings repeatedly and eventually made her conclusion: Didn't she simply switch the location of the wheel?

Chapter 214 - A Trip to the King's City

The caravan went up north along a branch of Redwater River and entered the Grand Canal leading to the king's city after it passed Silver City.

Theo had once learned from the Chronicles of Graycastle that 200 years ago, it had been an uncultivated land here. In order to ship silver dug out from the mine back to the king's city, King Wimbledon I had summoned the Mason Guild and nearly 10,000 handymen and spent 20 years creating the canal to link the king's city and the silver mine. Gradually, a city had formed in the vicinity and had been later named "Silver City" by the late king.

Nevertheless, Theo could now hardly make a connection between the current prosperity he saw and the deserted land 200 years ago. On either side of the canal lay fertile farmlands, behind which at a distance were packed villages. The scene reminded him of the Kingdom Main Street in Border Town. Theo believed if the construction of the main street was completed, there would be a dense population at the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range as well.

"I've heard you're from the king's city?" A lady's voice said to him at the side.

Theo turned around and found the leader of the caravan, Margaret, was talking to him. He nodded and replied, "I lived in Inner City before becoming a guard in the palace."

"How do you feel like returning to your native town?"

"To be honest, it's just so-so," Theo answered, "if it's not because of His Highness' order, I actually prefer to stay at Border Town. It's true that the king's city is bustling but it's suffocating at the same time." [Especially for lower nobles,] Theo added within himself.

"Really?" Margaret smiled. "How much do you know about Roland, I mean, His Highness?"

"Why did you ask that?" Theo's heart stopped with a queer jerk.

"I think he's incredible. You must have heard of various rumors about his ungovernable behavior in the king's city, but he's... completely different from what people believe he is. Both his manners and ideas are inscrutable." Margaret paused for a moment and then continued, "I can tell from the steam engine invented by him that the prince is a learned man, but why are the soldiers trained by him also so different?"

Theo glanced about the soldiers from the First Army on the deck. Considering that they should keep a low profile in the king's city, the soldiers neither carried flintlocks nor wore military uniforms. Instead, they were all dressed up like any ordinary guards of a caravan, in a leather jacket, with a wooden pike on their backs. For most of them, it was their first time to leave the Western Region. They looked around with some curiosity and exchanged a few words with each other from time to time. Nobody, however, took off his shoes or lay down his weapon.

Compared with these soldiers, most of the mercenaries hired by the caravan had already gone into the cabin to avoid blinding sunshine. As for the few left on the deck, they were all lying on their backs in shady areas, shoes off and disarmed.

"I don't really know, either. Perhaps His Highness used to be pretending." Theo spread out his hands, looking as puzzled as Margaret. He was not trying to hold back anything, for he truly had no idea. Ever since Prince Roland came to Border Town, the life in the town had experienced dramatic changes.

"Is, is that so?" Margaret neither agreed nor disagreed. She was silent for a while until she suddenly pointed to the front. "Look, that's the city wall of the king's city. We're almost there."

An ashy, shadowy shape gradually entered Theo's sight. Theo could sense the magnificence of the city wall from a far distance, for this piece of architecture was the most remarkable work completed by the Mason Guild before its dissolution. The wall was the highest and thickest in the Kingdom of Graycastle. It was said that in order to further facilitate continuous patrolling and immediate reinforcement, there were even built-in chambers and passages in the wall that could accommodate nearly 1,000 soldiers.

When Theo could clearly see the city wall, he also caught sight of refugees.

Hordes of peasants were gathering outside the suburb of the king's city. Along the city wall, numerous sheds were set up, in front of which were fire pits. From the white smoke running out of the pits, it seemed those refugees had been in a good condition and had not suffered from famine yet. Nevertheless, nobles in the king's city would not continuously offer food. Once they had got enough laborers, they would soon send soldiers to drive the rest of the refugees away.

"What are you going to do?" Margaret asked curiously, "ask His Highness' soldiers to persuade them to go to Border Town?"

"No, this is inefficient and will be too conspicuous." Theo shook his head. "You should know very well that there're only two feasible ways in the king's city to get things done. One is to lobby with officials, and the other is to hire Rats."

"Precisely." Margaret laughed. "I wanted to remind you, but it looks like that won't be necessary. Well, feel free to contact me if you need any financial help." Margaret handed Theo a plate and said, "My store managers will contact me immediately if you show this to them, not to mention that you can directly withdraw gold royals of any amounts under 100 with it."

"Thank you." Theo took the plate. It was a crystal-clear dark red stone, the end of which was engraved with a line of words written in a language he had never seen.

"You're welcome." Margaret chuckled. "His Highness will pay these loans off, both interests and principals."

After the boat anchored, Theo asked the soldiers from the First Army to wait for his news at the suburb and try to avoid the patrol team in the king's city as much as they could. He, on the other hand, entered the city with the caravan. When Theo passed through the city gate, he noticed the guards there had tightened the security, obviously to screen out refugees from the Eastern Region.

The first thing Theo saw after he entered the city was a line of towering gallows.

On the gallows hanged four women, whose hands were tied behind their backs. Under the scorching sun, their bodies produced a terrible odor that made Theo frown.

"Timothy is conducting a massive witch-hunt in the city, and these are all victims." Margaret sighed. "Well, not exactly. Some of them were simply playthings abused, used and abandoned by nobles. The search has provided those nobles with an excellent opportunity to get rid of the witches they've been fed up with. It's hard to say that between being locked up in a dim cell alive and being hanged, which is better... Anyway, I hope they can rest in peace."

After spending half a year in Border Town, Theo had learned witches were not as evil as the church claimed to be. Other than possessing some weird abilities, they were no different from ordinary people. From the figures of the women on the gallows, the youngest of whom had probably been only 14 to 15 years old. At this thought, Theo felt the long-gone suffocating feeling suddenly came back to him again.

No big changes had taken place during his half a year's absence. Other than the main street right across the city gate, which was a bluestone road, all the other alleys and sideways in the king's city were mud roads. The roads cracked in the blazing sunlight of mid-summer. Dust and ashes sprang up every time a carriage passed by. It was unbelievable that the capital of the kingdom had even poorer infrastructure than a remote town beyond the Western Region.

After crossing two streets, the caravan arrived at the marketplace, where Theo bid Margaret farewell and turned to an alley alone.

He located the tavern named "Covert Trumpeter" effortlessly and pushed the door straight open.

"Hey! We aren't open until night!" Someone yelled.

Theo took no notice of the man but went straight to the bar. Instead, he said to the stout bartender there who was busy wiping wine glasses in a low voice, "Do you still remember me?"

"Who the heck are you? Didn't you hear that the tavern is only open at night?" The bartender put down the wine glasses impatiently and sullenly looked up. While he was growling, the two servers who had been tidying tables and chairs also slowly approached the bar. "I'll count to three... S... sir Theo?"

"It's me." Theo spat on the floor. "I came to let you know a good deal."

Chapter 215 - The Skeleton Fingers

The stout bartender led Theo to a small chamber upstairs and asked the servers to continue with the cleanup before he closed the door.

The room was reserved for customers with particular needs. As it only cost 25 bronze royals per night, the abode was kind of shabby. The crumbled beddings on the tiny musty bed appeared to have not been washed or dried for ages. The cracked wooden table looked greasy and dirty. One corner of the table was chopped off, and the cracks were filled with black stuffings. Theo, however, carelessly threw himself to the bed, waiting for the bartender to break the silence.

"It has been such a long time." The big man grinned. "Why haven't you swung by since Lord Nagi took over your place? It doesn't hurt to come down here to have a drink even if you've washed your hands off the matter."

The bartender's nickname was Black Hammer. He was the guardian of "Covert Trumpeter", and also a member of the "Skeleton Fingers". Although his name sounded quite intimidating, he was one of the many Rats in the Black Street of the king's city. It was common for Rats to form various cliques to compete for territories. They would then further establish multiple large but loosely managed organizations based on their areas of business. These underground organizations were invariably somewhat colluding with great nobles or wealthy merchants. The "Skeleton Fingers" was just one of them. Unlike vassals, however, most Rats would not pledge alliance to a specific person but were more often driven by interest and profits.

"Cut the crap," Theo said bluntly, "Ask Hillwei, Swineherd, Silver Ring and Pott to come here tonight, right in this tavern. I need them to do something for me."

"These are all members of Covert Trumpeter." Black Hammer failed to respond immediately. "Just them?"

"I've told you it's going to be a good deal." Theo shrugged. "I pick you to do the task is simply because you did a lot for me in the past."

Generally speaking, the first step to do business with the Black Street was to find an intermediary who would decide whether to take the task or not. Once an agreement had been reached, the intermediary would then assign the task to the appropriate person and charge fees. Of course, everything during this negotiation was oral. There was no formal contract or written document to guarantee the success of the operation. The employer would have to take the risk of uncertainty himself. Normally, the more well-known the organization was, the more they cared about their integrity. Correspondingly, the higher fees they would charge. Newly established organizations usually charge a relatively low fee, but there was a big chance that the employer ended up paying for nothing. There existed a delicate relationship between Rats and the city patrol team, who, in some degrees, jointly maintained the order of the king's city with the former.

Before Theo had become a guard in the palace, he had been a member of the patrol team, responsible for handing over some dirty work to various organizations in the Black Street. Due to the nature of his work, Theo was familiar with every large underground group. It thus saved him time to look for intermediaries. The reason he selected the Skeleton Fingers was that their members had yet to reduce themselves to the basest and most vicious kind in the world.

"Can I ask who you're working for these days?" After a moment of hesitation, Black Hammer asked.

Theo did not reply but simply pointed to the palace behind him.

Neither the patrol team nor Rats knew that he had been appointed by King Wimbledon III as the guard of Prince Roland, and he had gone to Border Town with His Highness shortly after he had become a palace guard. In the past half a year while he had been absent, everybody had thought Theo was staying at the palace and working for the king. Technically, Theo was not lying by implicating the palace, as both Timothy and Roland Wimbledon were members of the royal family.

"Got it." Black Hammer nodded with some understandings. "Hillwei and Swineherd are actually gone. Can I pick my own people?"

"What happened to them?"

"They're dead." Black Hammer gritted his teeth. "They came into conflict with people from Dreamland Water when they went to the northern city to sell poppy flowers and sleeping ferns. Casas and his men drove them away. Hillwei got her throat slit and bled out, whereas Swineherd was dumped into the canal."

Theo frowned. The patrol team did not give a damn about things like this. They sometimes even deliberately provoke Rats to fight against each other as a way to balance out their power and number. Nobody cared about victims. "Well, that should be fine. But make sure that they must be someone in the tavern."

...

Theo took a deep breath as soon as he left "Covert Trumpeter".

The musty, damp air in the tavern made his stomach turn. He had been feeling sick all this time, until the fresh, balmy air outside at last filled his lung and dispersed the stifling sensation.

Despite that Black Hammer insisted that he should try some of the best wines in the tavern while waiting for the other members, Theo did not want to stay at a stuffy place for too long, for he needed to constantly keep an eye on any possible contingencies that might occur.

Theo decided to first go to Inner City to book a relatively comfortable hotel room where he could spend the night. He did not worry about the soldiers from the First Army in the slightest, as he believed they had been quite good at pitching tents for the night.

When night descended, Theo returned to "Covert Trumpeter" again.

The tavern was now during its regular business hours. Theo could see customers go in and out from time to time. After secretly observing the tavern from a distance for a while, he went in with one of customers.

As "Covert Trumpeter" was a cheap tavern, most customers were peasants. The wines offered were also ales of low quality, which were served in large bowls and cost merely 10 bronze royals. Theo soon spotted Black Hammer's men in the noisy crowd. They were sitting in a circle close to the wall, with a fraction of a white finger bone on their table.

Theo joined them silently. Soon somebody offered him a spot.

"Good evening, my lord." Both Silver Ring and Pott bowed to him.

"Let me present you these two members. This is Little Finger." Black Hammer patted the petit person next to him and then pointed to the young man beside Little Finger. "This is Hill Fawkes, who joined the 'Skeleton Fingers' just very recently."

"Fawkes?" Theo rested his eyes on the man. The latter bowed, appearing to be a little nervous.

"Well, people in our profession seldom have a full name." Black Hammer broke into a laughter. "Hill lost everything in a casino, and his wife ran away with another fellow. His house was put on sale and he had no choice but to join the Black Street. Don't worry. He used to live in the northern city and visit 'Covert Trumpeter' occasionally."

Theo did not worry too much about the other members. Silver Ring and Pott were both old acquaintances of his, and Little Finger looked no different from any ordinary homeless people, but he was just concerned about this Hill Fawkes. From his outer appearance, Theo could tell that this man had definitely experienced some great misfortunes and had now sunk in the lowest dejection. However, there was something in his eyes that Theo failed to name. Theo thought for a while but could not find an accurate answer.

After a moment of reflection, Theo made the conclusion that Hill Fawkes should not pose a problem, for, after all, he used to live in the northern city and had also been a frequent visitor of the pub. His current priority was to send refugees to Border Town, which should not entail any ensuing risks.

"Listen carefully. It's a simple task. Nobles don't want to see any more refugees coming from the Eastern Region because food is decreasing day by day. If things go on like this, sooner or later there'll be a riot. By then, the situation will be out of control. So, they want us to find a way to get them out of here."

"What do you want us to do?" Black Hammer asked.

"Very simple. You spread out the news that the lord of the Western Region needs refugees to help him cultivate virgin lands. The mercenaries and fleets to escort refugees are now on the way and will be arriving at the dock in three days. What you need to do is to let those idiots outside the city know the information. Feel free to use your imagination. The more real it sounds like, the better."

"But... if there're no mercenaries or fleets after three days, it'll be a waste of time." Silver Ring looked concerned.

"There will be." Theo smiled.

"Huh?" Silver Ring was stunned. "Is the Lord of the Western Region really accepting them?"

"You thickhead!" Black Hammer slapped Silver Ring on the back of his head. "Certainly we have to make up a perfect lie. Do you think they'll walk to the king city once shipped to the Western Region? As to how to deal with them, let the lord there worry about." He looked at Theo hesitatively. "It's indeed an easy task. But how about the compensation..."

Theo stuck out two fingers. "Two times the normal rate. My new employer is nothing like the patrol team. He wants to see the result as soon as possible, and he doesn't care much about gold royals." Theo smiled faintly. "I've told you it's a good deal."

Chapter 216 - The Demonic Plague

For the next couple of days, Theo had been traveling back and forth between Margaret's Chamber of Commerce and the suburb of the king's city.

They reached an agreement where Margaret provided the boat for transportation, while the First Army disguised themselves as mercenaries at a fixed time to fetch refugees at the dock.

As to the dissemination of the information and the persuasion work, Theo was confident that Black Hammer would do well, for he had been doing this type of business for years. Although Rats majorly confined their activities to the northern city area, they usually spread words much faster than non-locals. Refugees, of course, would spread the news among themselves as well. Besides, His Highness had also instructed Theo to gradually ship refugees over and do what he could. It was, after all, impossible for him to take all refugees away at one shot.

To Theo's surprise, there were nearly 1,000 refugees waiting at the dock on the first day the fleet arrived. It appeared Black Hammer and his men had done a quite good job, as Theo believed only about 100 people would come to board if the advertisement was purely done by the First Army.

Based on His Highness' criteria, the boarding order was children first, families with children second and adults the last. As to seniors... Theo noticed there were very few gray-haired ones in the crowd. Perhaps elderly people were just reluctant to venture into a remote town, or they simply did not have physical strengths to flee to the king's city from the Eastern Region.

The first fleet, which consisted of 10 sloops, sailed out with over 500 passengers. Those who did not board were asked to return to the camp with the message that "the fleet would come back again".

Theo had thought he would complete His Highness' first task without many difficulties. He did not anticipate, however, that shortly after the caravan shipped the second batch of refugees, a big problem occurred.

A queer illness suddenly emerged in the king's city.

The first victim was discovered on the street. There were several dark spots on his body. His teeth had fallen off, his skins had cracked and his blood was in a weird color. The symptoms were just like what happened to a witch when she was devoured by demons' power. Nevertheless, the victim was not a woman, but a male resident in the northern city area.

In the next few days, more bodies with the same symptoms were found in the city. For people who had once touched a victim's body, dark spots soon started to appear on their skins. Neither herbs nor ice could relieve the symptom. When patients let their blood, they found the blood was in a dark red color as if it had been mixed with a large quantity of ink.

The illness immediately sparked panic and fear among citizens. The number of people who went to pray in church increased rapidly, but yet things were not getting any better. More people found dark spots on their bodies, and even some refugees outside the city got infected.

Just when the situation was about to get out of control, the high priest from the church spoke out and alleged it was a conspiracy plotted by witches. The priest claimed that witches released demons' power, in an attempt to kill the innocent. There was no treatment whatsoever to defend against demons' power at present. Those infected would die miserably. Nevertheless, the priest assured the multitude that the church would not stand by with folded arms to see their people suffer. Indeed, as what the high priest asserted, the church had developed the Holy Elixir that was potent enough to suppress the evil power of demons in hell.

The speech somehow brought a hope to patients, who sat outside the church waiting for the holy medicine every day.

Theo was pretty suspicious of the church's assertion. The shipping of refugees, however, was suspended out of caution.

"Why do you stop?" Black Hammer was confused. "Those guys are now also infected by demons' power. If we keep them here outside the city, more people will be exposed to the disease."

"I've received instructions to stop shipping refugees from my employer," Theo replied impatiently, "If they're just ordinary refugees, then that won't be a problem. What'll the kingdom look like if this demons' power reaches the Western Region?"

"Well..." Black Hammer was speechless for a second but soon broke off. "That isn't our business. Your Excellency, just pretend that you've never got the instructions and get them out of here. Look, anyone who has touched a body might be infected. I don't want to stay with a bunch of demons in Hell, even if there's a wall blocking them."

"Pretend to receive no instructions? I've got only one head," Theo said coolly, "and so do you. Do what I told!"

After leaving the tavern, Theo came to a store bearing the emblem of Margaret's caravan and showed the staff the plate.

"I want to see your boss. The sooner, the better."

Shortly afterward, Margaret met him in the secret chamber of the store again.

The businesswoman said, "The disease must have nothing to do with witches. If the released demons' power can't be stopped even by God's Stones of Retaliation, then witches would have taken Hermes long before."

"I think so, too. But the priority right now is to report the incident to Prince Roland. Although there seems to be nobody who has dark spots on their bodies among the first two batches of refugees we shipped over, the disease appears to have an incubation period. If there's anybody infected, we must let His Highness know so that he can come up with a solution immediately." Theo took out a folded letter from his inner pocket. "I need you to help me send this letter to His Highness as soon as possible."

"Certainly." Margaret nodded. "Words always spread fast among tradesmen."

...

The long voyage in the past few days made Lucia sick.

It seemed she had kept fleeing from one place to another for the past one month, first from the Eastern Region to the king's city, and then from the king's city to the Western Region. The only difference between the two trips, however, was that the former was by force, whereas the latter was voluntary. The Western Region was her last light of hope.

"Sister... water. I'm thirsty..."

Ring groaned in agony and grasped Lucia's arm.

"OK. I'll get some water for you."

Lucia grabbed the fabric bag beside her and staggered out of the cabin. She stooped over the lowest side of the boat and sank the bag into the water. While she was trying to haul some water, her stomach turned again. Lucia could not hold back the reflux, so she puked. The little porridge she had taken earlier was all emptied out. She could feel the stomach acid gushing out of her nose. Lucia managed not to cry. She clenched her teeth and roughly wiped her face with the back of her hand. She again put the bag back to the water. When the bag was full of water, she carried it in her arms and trotted back to the cabin.

"Here's the water. Open your mouth."

Ring looked worse than before. Her feverish cheeks were glowing with a crimson flush. Her forehead was burning and her mouth was clamp shut. From time to time, Ring uttered an inarticulate moan.

Lucia had no choice but to open Ring's mouth by force. She twisted the fabric bag to let the water drop down into her sister's mouth.

"Don't get too close to her. She won't hold up for long, as the dark spots have already reached her neck," A wan middle-aged man said feebly, "We're all going to end up dying here. You'd better take care of yourself."

Shortly after they had left the king's city, some people on the boat had caught the terrible disease. The patients had first caught a fever that had lasted for a few days, after which dark spots had started to appear on their skins. The symptoms had aggravated within three or four days, and they had finally sunk into a coma. Anyone who had touched the patients had all been infected. Therefore, on the fifth day after the departure, the crews had arranged a sailing ship to isolate these patients from the rest. Lucia thought they had not dumped the infected refugees into the river was because some of the crews were also infected.

After dark spots had been found on Ring's body, Lucia boarded the sailing ship with her sister resolutely, despite that someone had tried to stop her.

She had been busy taking care of little Ring without any sleep for nearly two days.

Lucia had not given up yet, for she believed everything would turn better after they arrived in the Western Region.

If the rumor was true... the Witch Cooperation Association was her last hope.

Chapter 217 - The Origin of the Disease

When Roland was about to retire to his bedroom and take a nap after having lunch with the witches, Carter darted into the castle hall.

"Your Highness, the refugees from the Eastern Region have just arrived at the dock!"

"That fast?" Roland was surprised but at the same time also pleased at the result. It appeared as one of the former members of the patrol team, who had connections with both government officials and their illegal counterparts, Theo was quite efficient. However, Roland instantly noticed something had gone wrong at the sight of the chief knight. The latter was moist with perspiration, brows furrowed.

"What's wrong?"

"The crews have caught a weird disease." Carter briefly described the symptoms. "There were only a few people who got infected at first. Now the disease has spread to all the passengers on the several boats we have, including the soldiers from the First Army!"

"A contagious disease whose main symptom was dark spots?" It sounded like a plague, which was also widely known as Black Death. Nonetheless, Yersinia pestis could not change the blood color and certainly would not result in cracked skins.

Roland's brows drew together.

He first thought of Lily, but he was not sure if Lily's ability could cure this unprecedented contagious disease. If she failed and also got infected, it would be a huge problem. So, he must act with an abundance of caution. Yet according to Carter's description, these patients would not hold up for long and he had no time to lose.

Anyway, he had to first cordon off the scene.

At this thought, Roland gave Carter his order. "Ask the First Army to circle out a caution zone outside the dock and forbid anyone to enter or leave it. Also, make sure to tell them that we, and also Miss Nana, are on the way."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Trouble?" Nightingale asked.

"I'm not sure yet. It all depends on Lily's ability," Roland answered in a low voice. "Ask everyone in the Witch Union to come here. We probably can't have a nap today."

...

After thoroughly reflecting upon the matter, Roland felt it was advisable to stay away from patients before he confirmed that Lily's ability did work.

Fortunately, Lily's preservation ability belonged to the summoning type, which meant Lily did not need to touch her targets to apply her ability. Like most witches, her magic power was effective within a radius of five meters.

Given that, Roland asked two carpenters to build a rectangle box room with the help of Anna. The room was segmented by a windowed division, through which one could see the other side. Below the division hung a soft curtain drawn by Soraya, which had two symmetrically arranged holes where Lily could put her hands through. The soft azure curtain would tightly wrap around the little girl's hands to stop the airflow between the two sections. Roland believed as long as Lily washed her hands with alcohol later, she would not be infected.

There were around 50 soldiers from the First Army maintaining the order at the dock. They being able to keep self-disciplined despite the rampant plague was not because of their strong wills, but purely because of their firm belief that angelic Miss Nana would eventually cure the disease.

After the box room was ready, an infected soldier was picked out for treatment. Although there were dark spots on his arms, he still had the capability to walk on his own.

The soldier went into the room and stood still as instructed. Shortly afterward, Lily reached out her hands through the division to apply her ability. Meanwhile, Roland stood behind her, observing the patient through the window.

The magic power produced no audible sounds. After the little girl nodded her head, notifying that she was done, Roland asked the soldier, "How are you feeling now?"

"Your Highness?" Hearing Roland's voice, the soldier at once administered a military salute in excitement. With a little exclamation, he was rooted to the ground immediately. "Wow, I feel my strength has come back to me again. Good Gracious, Your Highness, I feel much better!"

Roland also noticed that the dark spots on the soldier's hands were fading rapidly. Now he was positive that the disease was not a plague, for he remembered that dark spots caused by a plague were originated from the concurrence of septicemia and hyper cyanosis. Those dark spots normally lingered on skins for quite a long time even after Yersinia pestis were killed. Lily's ability, however, did not include reviving muscles and skins.

Roland felt a little relieved after knowing that Lily could cure this unknown disease with her new ability.

"I'm glad to hear that. Call the other soldiers in. Ten at a time. No matter he has symptoms or not, everyone needs to receive treatment."

"Yes, Your Highness!" The soldier paused for a second and then saluted again. "Thank you, Miss Nana."

Roland corrected him with a smile. "You should thank Miss Lily this time. She saved you instead of Nana. You'll only need Miss Nana if your skins start to bleed."

"Real-really?" The soldier scratched the back of his head. "Well, thank you, Miss Lily."

After the soldier left, Lily glanced at the prince and said, "I don't mind you attributing it to Nana. I don't need anyone to thank me."

"Is that so? Then why did you stand so erect just now?" Roland looked at Lily's dangling double ponytail and gently rubbed her head. To his surprise, Lily did not protest this time but simply uttered a muffled snort.

Roland wondered what had caused the disease if it was not a plague. He was approached by Nightingale as soon as he walked out of the box room. Nightingale reported, "Your Highness, I've noticed something unusual. There seem to be... signs of magic power in the blood of those patients."

"What?" Roland was astonished.

"They look like glitters of stars at night in the Mist." Nightingale affirmed. "I've never seen such feeble magic power before."

This accidental discovery made Roland realize that the disease, which contained magic power, might have something to do with witches or the church. At least he was now pretty sure that the disease did not result from bacteria or viruses in nature.

"I see." The prince pondered for a while. "In that case, let's take some blood samples."

"No, you may be infected!" Nightingale stopped him, looking quite worried.

"Relax." Roland smiled at Nightingale. "Lily's new ability has completely got the disease under control."

Roland sampled the blood of an unconscious peasant. He put a slide with black blood on it under a microscope and adjusted the objective working distance. If the cause of the disease was bacteria, most likely he would not see anything. However, the image started to become clearer gradually. The moment the object came into focus, Roland almost could not believe his eyes.

In the confined microscope field, several worms with tentacles and big bellies were slowly wriggling in the liquid. Their tails ejected thin threads of slime from time to time. The worms were as small as unicellular algae, but like the parent algae Lily had created, they were not transparent. Therefore, it was hard to tell whether they were unicellular creatures or not.

Fortunately, the magic power carried by the worms did not affect the little girl's ability. After the blood mixed with duplicate algae was added to the sample, the clones soon began to attack the strange worms and assimilate them.

Out of caution, Roland instructed the recovered soldiers from the First Army to take the refugees to the box room. Each refugee would have to wear a mask when they entered. At the meantime, another box room was set up primarily for Nana to treat patients in critical conditions with cracked skins.

The treatment started at noon and did not end until the evening. When all of the 500 passengers on the 10 boats were healed, the multitude roared in ecstasy. Many of them knelt down to appreciate Roland's help. The loud chorus of "Long live His Highness" reverberated across the dock and lingered for quite a while before it completely died down.

"You don't look very happy?" Nightingale winked at him.

"I didn't cure the disease, but Lily and Nana, the witches did." Roland shook his head. "People should thank them instead of me."

Roland knew that before the public completely accepted the existence of witches, the sensible way was to hold back the truth. He breathed out a sigh, hoping that eventually, witches could meet the public face to face without fear or mortification.

Nightingale seemed to read Roland's mind. She patted his shoulder heartily. "We won't mind. You've already done a great job, and I'm sure that day will come sooner or later. Don't you think so?" After a short pause, Nightingale added, "Right, I forgot to tell you a piece of good news."

"What news?"

"The Witch Union is probably going to have a new member." Nightingale beamed.

Chapter 218 - Lucia

Ring's condition had stabilized.

Similar to the strange arrangements of the initial boarding, mercenaries carrying wooden spears on their backs divided people into a number of teams. Those in critical condition were carried into the strange wooden buildings for treatment first. Following them were the young people, families with children, then adults, respectively.

Lucia and Ring were in the first group. The entire treatment process flew by fairly quickly. Blindfolded, she held her sister and walked into the hut with the mercenaries supporting her. Before long, a pill was placed in her hand. The pill was small and slightly sweet. The person at her side told her not to worry, as her sister had already been given her medicine.

When she left the room and lowered her hood, she was pleasantly surprised to see visible improvement in Ring's complexion. Although she was still in a coma, her forehead was no longer hot, and the flushing on her face had diminished. The dark spots had disappeared without a trace.

Those who had been freed from the terror of death's door and regained their lives could barely contain themselves. They bent their knees before the gray man off in the distance and rejoiced, giving him the highest respect. They knew from the mercenaries, that this man was the lord in control of the Western Region, His Royal Highness, Roland Wimbledon.

What they could see matched the rumors. The lord not only lit the bonfire at the pier and boiled meat porridge for the people, but also walked among them speaking. He told them that should they be willing to do things for the town, they could receive remuneration, food, and residence here. Everyone enjoyed the tasty meat porridge, talking amongst themselves that it was fortunate they boarded the western fleet and thanked His Highness for his kindness."

Only Lucia felt a hint of anxiety.

Just how would she manage to get in contact with the Witch Union? The information that had been quietly circulating said that there were witches residing in Border Town, but it never mentioned how to find them. Maybe an important part of the information had been lost during transmission. She heard that the news had started in the large cities in the center of the kingdom.

Once everyone had a full stomach, a few mercenaries led them to a wooden shed near the river. Lucia suddenly heard a woman's voice behind her.

"What're you looking for?"

Shocked, she turned her head and jumped two steps forward, prepared to run. Yet when the woman came into sight, Lucia could not help but stand still.

Heavens, this woman was beautiful. Long curls swaying in the firelight granted her hair a soft orange glow, her eyes shone bright like stars, and a sweet smile was in her mouth corners. However, what was the most noticeable was the temperament she emanated, similar to that of a towering man, no less than a noble.

"My name is Nightingale. I'm a witch. Welcome to the Western Region."

Lucia could not help but bow her head at the woman's aura. "I... my name is Lucia White. I wish to join you."

"Then come with me," said Nightingale, smiling, "I'll take you home."

By this time, the sun had already set behind the mountains, and the sky gave off only a weak light. Carrying the sleeping Ring, Lucia followed slowly behind her.

"When did you awaken?" she asked.

"Awaken?" Lucia was startled.

"It's the moment when you turned into a witch," said Nightingale, "from then on, your body will continue to converge with magic power. We call this change the awakening."

"I think... probably two years ago," Lucia recalled. "Is magic the power of the devil?"

"That's just the rhetoric of the church." She shook her head. "Magic is a power bestowed upon us by the heavens. It has nothing to do with good or evil. The Demonic Torture is the bite from the body full of magic. You can avoid it if you exercise your powers."

"You mean there's a way to avoid such pain?" Lucia stared with wide eyes.

"Yes, if there were no church oppression, no witch would ever have to bear the pain of the bite." Nightingale blinked. "But here we're free to use our abilities at home." She pointed behind Lucia. "Is this cute thing your sister? And as for your other family members...?"

"They're all dead, and only Ring and I escaped." Lucia was silent for a moment. "A group of people attacked Valencia, burning and looting everything. Because my father tried to resist them, they... he was stabbed several times. My mother told us to run and in the end sh-she too..." A long-felt sadness filled her heart with grief, making her unable to speak. All the hardships that they had endured over their passage, the hunger, thirst, fear, all the grievances came gushing out. For the sake of her sister, she gritted her teeth and tried to stay in the moment. But it was like she was unable to stop the wall she had built in her mind from tumbling down, and she burst out in tears. This was no good. The first time you met someone, you were supposed to be elegant, and proper. How was it that she could not stop the tears from flowing?

Would this make Nightingale dislike her? She felt her tears mixed with snot and her mouth filled with a salty taste. However, to Lucia's surprise, she was suddenly surrounded by a pair of arms, holding her in a warm embrace. Nightingale gently patted the back of her head, showing that she did not mind the mess and tears that covered Lucia's face. Rather, she said warmly, "Cry. It's okay to cry."

...

Once Lucia had calmed, she raised her head, only to see Nightingale's shoulders were wet with her tears.

"I, I'm sorry..." She blushed.

"It's okay. Do you feel a bit better?" Nightingale took out her handkerchief and helped Lucia wipe her face. With one hand, she held Ring, with the other, Lucia. "Let's go. There're many more sisters waiting for you."

Lucia had thought that the witches would be housed in abandoned warehouses and basements. She did not expect Nightingale to bring her to the castle district. Was not this the personal domain of the lord? Even more surprising was the fact that the guards waved her in instead of stopping her.

Could it be that the entire town was under the control of the Witch Cooperation Association?

On the third floor of the castle, they entered a brightly lit room. She was impressed to find that the man sitting across from her was the well-known lord who had accepted the cheers of the crowds previously.

"This is the leader of the Witch Union, His Highness Roland Wimbledon. He has taken in the survivors of the Witch Cooperation Association and spread the news throughout the cities, hoping to attract witches who have nowhere to go," said Nightingale, "Border Town is the home to witches. You needn't doubt anything because the person who treated your sister before was actually a witch."

Lucia's head blanked. She had never thought a noble could accept witches, especially when they were not used as tools or slaves. When she had recovered, she threw a panicked bow in salute. Nightingale could not help but laugh at the strange motion. "Don't worry about it, His Highness pays no heed to such rituals."

"So, you come from the Eastern Region?" The lord's voice was peaceful and relaxed. It was like he was chatting instead of inquiring.

Lucia stole a look at the man who sat in an oddly relaxed way with his face full of interest.

"Yes..."

With the deepening of the conversation and Nightingale's explanation, her mood gradually softened. Although Roland was a noble, he did not have an aggressive attitude. Rather, it was an attitude similar to one caring for their elders.

"So, it seems that when you awakened two years ago, you aren't yet an adult..." he said with interest, "What's your ability, then?"

"To return an item to its original form." Lucia hesitated. "But it doesn't work for everything."

"Original form?" The lord touched his chin, and pushed an elegant cup across the table. "Can you show me?"

"It'll destroy it."

"It doesn't matter."

Lucia nodded, went to the table, and placed her hands on top of the cup.

Soon, the cup began to shrink. It became deformed, and ultimately separated into three unique substances. The far left one looked like a pool of oil, dark and thick. The middle was a small cluster of black powder. And on the right sat a puddle of water, slowly flowing across the table.

.

Chapter 219 - Sisters

"Welcome to the Witch Union!" In the hall, a colorful group of witches of various ages made a joyous toast.

"Thank you, thank you." Lucia felt her eyes heating up. She breathed in through her nose and held back the tears. Impulsively, she took another drink of ale in one sip. It was not as bitter as she remembered. Rather, it carried a slight sweetness.

After meeting with the Lord, Nightingale had helped her and Ring take a hot shower, and change into clean clothes. When all was arranged for her sister, Lucia followed Nightingale back to the castle hall. Here, the witches threw a welcome party for her.

It was the first time that Lucia had seen so many witches, and the doubt that lay deep in her heart finally dissipated. If the witches had been imprisoned or forced into allegiance, they would not have had such bright and lively smiles.

She remembered what Nightingale had said, "this is the witches' home." Suddenly, she was having this type of pleasant experience, in comparison with that of the witches who had been exposed, hunted and killed by the church. For them, finding a safe and comfortable shelter had always been so difficult. Since Valencia had been attacked by thugs, just over a month ago, she had gone through all sorts of suffering and endless wandering. The Witch Union's warm welcome, made her feel greatly relieved.

Meanwhile, a party thrown by witches was an incredibly amazing thing to behold.

Black flames cooked a piece of meat instantly, without damaging the pot that it was held in.

A little girl with short golden hair flew around in the air, carrying a jug to fill everyone's cup.

An alien-looking witch simulated all sorts of instruments, eventually joining them together to form a beautiful song.

...

She quickly remembered the name of each witch that Nightingale introduced to her. As she assimilated unconsciously into the group, the pain in her heart had grown lighter.

Within the Witch Union there were many unique witches, the reliable Scroll and Wendy, the older-sister-figures, Leaf and Echo, as well as her peers, Anna, Soraya, and others. No matter who it was, nobody treated her like a stranger. For this, Lucia's heart was full of gratitude.

After the banquet, she and the other witches said goodnight to each other and Lucia returned to her new home. His Highness had given her and Ring the last room on the second floor. He did not try to separate them, despite the fact that Ring was not a witch.

"Sister?" Hearing noises, Ring opened her eyes.

"You're awake!" Lucia's heart was filled with joy, she took three steps, then ran the remaining two to the side of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Ring looked as if she had just woken from a heavy sleep, yet her body bore no traces of suffering the disease. Her eyes were confused, and she muttered, "I'm so hungry."

"Wait a moment..." Lucia quickly took out a bag from her pocket. After she opened it the smell of grilled fish filled the air. It was the dried fish that Nightingale had given to her. "Here, eat this."

Seeing Ring sitting on the bedside and gnawing at the fish, pleased, she patted the little girl on her head. Her sister was only 10 years old and had no parents. She had only Lucia to rely on.

After Ring had swallowed a few bites of fish, she was much more alert. She looked around. "Where are we? The ship didn't seem to have such a large bed."

"Border Town, in the Western Region. We just arrived there."

"Already?" She touched her cheek, saying. "But haven't I... been sick? They would allow a sick person to enter the town?"

"No, they wouldn't," Lucia smiled at her sister's confusion. "But the lord has a witch who healed you." She told Ring what had happened at the pier, in detail. "Now we are staying in his castle."

"A witch?" Ring tilted her head and asked, "just like you, sister?"

"Yes, everyone is very good to me, especially a witch by the name of Nightingale," Lucia gently fiddled with her hair. "She also helped you to bathe."

"But, don't you often say that nobles hate witches? Why is the lord willing to shelter them?"

The question left Lucia slightly stifled, and she coughed twice. "That's... there are occasionally one or two good people among the nobles."

Ring grabbed the last piece of dried fish from the bag. "Then, do you need to work for him? Like a housemaid, sweeping, cooking, or warming his bed?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Lucia pulled at her sister's face, "I'm a witch! It's my ability that is useful to the lord! And who told you that a maid should do those things?"

"Mom," Ring replied. "That's why she never let dad hire a beautiful maid."

When it came to her family, her face grew dark. Instead of blaming Ring, Lucia hugged her sister in her arms and let out a sigh.

She was not worried about her sister's statement because she could tell what His Highness’ intentions were when talking to him. Other than asking about her life experiences, everything else he had asked was about her ability. Obviously, his main concern was whether a witch's ability would benefit him.

But thinking about her own ability, Lucia became worried.

She was not ignorant of the world of witches, as she had met many in Valencia. But six months ago, they had begun to gradually withdraw from the city. She had heard that they were heading to the fjords to find new homes. She did not want to leave her parents, so she did not agree to travel with them. But after several dealings with them, Lucia at least knew that witches' abilities were typically divided into two types: combat and non-combat.

Her ability to restore objects could be seen as useless. It was an ability with little effect during peacetime, let alone in battles. Her father was a businessman who'd operated a papermaking workshop, so their living room had often been filled with fresh paper. The day that she became a witch, she had cast her ability subconsciously and had accidentally turned the sheets of paper back into flying blades of grass and broken pieces. Her parents scolded her severely but did not hand her over to the church. Rather, they carefully hid her, making her wear a God's Stone of Retaliation. It was necessary to disguise her as a devout believer.

In the beginning, Lucia was curious about her ability. She would often hide in her room and secretly attempt to restore various items. But soon she found that the ability was extremely difficult to control. Just like with the paper, sometimes it turned into blades of grass, but sometimes it would turn into black particles. If she continued to use her ability on the same object, then it would become smaller and smaller. The final product would be either powder or just fine granules. This meant that her ability could not be used to restore the damaged items. All she was able to do was destroy products that others had finished.

Other witches also thought that Lucia's ability was not so useful. When it came to fighting, her range was too short, and it could not be used on living things. It was difficult to hit a common farmer, let alone well-trained knights. She was not a combat witch and was useless as a non-combat type. She really had the lowest form of ability.

This had depressed her for a long time.

But now... Lucia's greatest worry was that His Highness would deem her useless, and kick her out of the castle.

With an uneasy heart, she blew out her candle. Holding her sister, who was satisfied after finishing the dried fish, Lucia slowly closed her eyes, and waited for a new day to come.

Chapter 220 - Assembly and Disassembly

Early morning, Roland was already in his office arranging various kinds of test tools on the floor.

There were all kinds of things—from solids to liquids, minerals to metals, inorganics to organics.

"You look quite happy." Nightingale bent down, picked a dumpling from a plate, and gobbled it.

"That's of course. We have a new witch in town, and her abilities are incredible." Roland raised his eyebrows. "Also, don't think I didn't see that you just ate one of my test items."

"There're enough left." She wiped her mouth. "How useful are Lucia's abilities?"

"Very. Her assembling and disassembling abilities will improve our smelting and manufacturing by leaps and bounds," Roland replied excitedly, "Together with Anna, she can improve the strength of our machinery by severalfold. Even if she's unable to mass produce, and instead can only handmake a few machines, the quality of our production will be upgraded significantly."

At present, the machine tools used in Graycastle's factories had already been improved by Anna. Though they were extremely precise even before that, they gradually wore down due to imperfections in the materials used during the production processes. The problem of deformation became increasingly evident over time, and it was common for the tools to break or splinter. Had Anna not improved and maintained their components, they could only last for up to two years.

Lucia's abilities would make it possible to precisely control the composition of the materials used. Machine tools made of high-strength cast iron, rolled steel, or even alloy would not only last longer but would have a higher level of processing efficiency and quality. For example, revolver, which only Anna could produce at present, would become possible to batch produce.

"Is it?" Nightingale leaped back on to the table. "But she doesn't seem to think so herself."

"That's because she hasn't recognized the value of her own abilities, just like Mystery Moon."

"..." Nightingale silently stuffed her mouth with two pieces of dried fish.

When Lucia had finished her breakfast and came into the office, the ability test officially began.

Roland watched in anticipation as she transformed each test item into a pile or a few small piles of substances—the iron ingots and ores turned into silvery white granules, and on close observation, there was some variegated powder on the side. There were no changes to the grapes and steak, while the dumplings turned into water, minced meat and flour.

Halfway through the test, she suddenly stopped and said a little embarrassedly, "I feel like... my magic power is used up."

Roland glanced towards Nightingale, who nodded and said, "The amount of magic power in her body is very small. It looks like a drifting cloud of smog. However, this is the first time I've seen this type of color."

"What color is it?"

"... Gray," she replied.

Roland returned to his desk and beckoned to Lucia. "A witch's magic power will increase with age and practice. What you've done isn't bad for a child." When the young girl walked to the side of his desk, he placed the parchment he had long prepared in front of her. "Since you've decided to remain in Border Town, please sign this agreement."

Lucia lowered her head, read through the agreement, and gulped a mouthful of cold air. "One gold royal per month? Your Highness... but, I haven't completed the test?"

"This isn't based on your capability at all." Roland laughed while shaking his head. "As long as you're a member of the Witch Union, this agreement will be effective."

"Even if a witch's abilities are useless?" she queried in disbelief.

"You may put it that way." The prince shrugged his shoulders. "But I believe that every witch's ability has its unique uses. It's only a matter of finding them. So, you don't have to worry that you won't be of use." He paused before continuing. "Also, you should have heard from the other witches the real reason why magic power tortures the body. To ensure that you get through the Day of Awakening safely, you'll have to practice your abilities every day. After dinner, Teacher Scroll will be teaching witches in the parlor. You'll have to go and listen—although you've already mastered reading and writing, there're still primary mathematics and natural foundation lessons to be learnt."

"Yes, Your Highness." Lucia forcibly nodded.

"You have a younger sister, right?" Roland smiled. "Please bring her along for lessons. She has also reached the age to start education."

Lucia was slightly surprised. She raised her head to make sure that he was not joking before she bowed and replied happily, "I obey."

After the young girl made her leave, Roland kept the signed agreement in his drawer and stared, deep in thought, at the test items on the floor.

"How's the result?" Nightingale asked.

"Amazing." He raised up the plate that was filled with dumplings, and touched the broken bits of meat and flour. "Look at this... when dough is kneaded, its gluten forms a reticular structure which enables the dough to become stretchable. After boiling it, the high temperature causes the protein-formed gluten to denature. Even if it's grounded into flour again, it's impossible to get back the fine and smooth appearance. The change is usually irreversible, but..." Roland took some flour and laid it on his palm. It felt soft and smooth as if it was freshly-grounded flour. "She's made the flour return to how it was at first."

"Eh, I don't quite understand." Nightingale curled her lips. "If that's the case, can her ability be seen as reverting things to their original form?"

"Not quite." Roland pointed at the iron ingots. "If it's only to revert, the iron ingots should have become iron ores. Instead, they've been disassembled into iron powder and other impurities."

"Then what exactly is her ability?" Nightingale asked confusedly.

"I'm still not sure at the moment, but I guess that her ability could have two different kinds of effect, and which of these is seen depends on her knowledge."

"Know-knowledge?"

Essentially speaking, steak isn't that different from iron ores. They're both composed of many particles. However, Lucia's ability can only disassemble iron ores, and not steak. I think that this may be because she doesn't understand organic compounds... or should I say, the makeup of living things," Roland explained. Though he was uncertain about this conjecture, he had no doubt that Lucia was the witch who most needed to improve her knowledge as quickly as possible.

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

Three days later, when the second fleet of ships carrying Eastern Region refugees arrived in Border Town, it was discovered that there had been a similar epidemic onboard, and it was more serious than the first fleet's. Nearly half of the people onboard were infected. After asking, Roland found out that some of those infected had shown black spots as symptoms on the first day of boarding. This meant that they had been parasitized by insects beforehand, and thus the latent period correspondingly shortened.

Meanwhile, Roland also received a letter sent from the king's city. The sealing wax was stamped with the mark of Margaret's Chamber of Commerce.

After reading the contents of the letter, he began to frown.

Currently, the demonic plague was spreading wantonly throughout the king's city. The church thereby claimed that this was a plot by witches, and informed the masses that it had holy medicine which could cure this plague. There were also a large number of infected people outside the city. Due to safety considerations, Theo decided that the transport of refugees would be temporarily halted.

If Roland estimated the time correctly, the first fleet should arrive back in the king's city in four days. It would bring news that Border Town could cure the demonic plague. Unfortunately, the people who were already infected were unlikely to be able to pull through for the one week's journey. Furthermore, the church's announcement caused him to smell a conspiracy.

After thinking it over, he decided to dispatch a team to escort Lily to the king's city. Or else, the people of the king's city and the Eastern Region refugees would lose half of their populations over the course of this man-made catastrophe, while the survivors would all become devout followers of the church.

Roland had to do all he could to prevent this situation from happening.

Chapter 221 - A Rescue Plan

Since he had made this decision, the first question he had to consider was: should he personally go to the king's city?

This would be the first time the First Army of Border Town fought a battle far away from the Western Region. Unlike the previous cases of defensive warfare, there were sure to be problems caused by unfamiliarity with the terrain. It was unclear how well they would fight without being able to set the battlefield. Roland felt that he could not be at ease if he did not go—though his military knowledge was heavily limited, his understanding of firearms was certainly ahead of the times.

However, there was no one to manage the Western Region when he left Border Town. If this news spread to Longsong Stronghold, a few noble families might have some devious ideas. And if someone leaked this news to Timothy, both the front and back lines would suffer—Timothy would probably not pay too much attention if it were just a few witches, but if he heard that Roland was near the king's city, he would certainly mobilize his main forces. Moreover, even if he decided to spare Roland and instead ordered his forces to attack the Western Region, it would yet be a disaster for Roland.

All in all, compared to a frontline defeat, a capitulation in his backyard would be far worse.

Eventually, Roland decided to remain in Border Town.

The primary task of the First Army was to protect the witches, while the second was to lead refugees on to the ships in batches. Conversely, it was not part of their main agenda to engage in head-on battle with Timothy's patrol team in the king's city or the church's Judgement Army. So long as they performed their relief work well and without incident, they might never have to fire a gun.

Of course, Roland had to draw up a rescue plan that was as complete as possible.

That afternoon, Roland summoned over Carter, Iron Axe, Brian and the Witch Union members.

There was only a vague impression of the topography around the king's city in the prince's childhood memory. However, this would not be much of a problem. Roland got Soraya to draw a simple map on the dining table in the parlor before he assigned instructions to Iron Axe and Brian.

"This central diamond represents the king's city, while this blue line represents the canal," Roland explained as he contemplated, "You'll have two tasks. The first is to protect the witches while they treat the refugees, and then escort everyone back to Border Town. The second is to stop the demonic plague from spreading in the king's city. I'll tell you now that this plague is likely to have been created by the church."

"Wh-what?" Brian stared at him in bewilderment, while Carter's forehead began to furrow. Only Iron Axe remained completely expressionless—as a Mojin Clan member from Sand Nation who worshipped the Three Gods of Nature, he did not revere the church or the "one and only God" it proclaims. This made Roland feel very relieved.

"After annexing the Kingdom of Everwinter, the church has begun to attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart. I believe that if the latter collapses as well, the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Graycastle will become their targets sooner or later. In fact, I would question the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince itself." The prince subsequently gave a simple account of how the church simultaneously provided the pill to Timothy, Garcia, and himself. "From this point alone, we can see that they aren't supporting a particular person, but are instead encouraging us to fight among ourselves. Furthermore, the people who consume the pill won't turn into veteran soldiers, but will instead become paralyzed and die after the effect wears off. The current epidemic is the same. Shortly after the demonic plague began to spread in the king's city, the church has already claimed to have an antidote. Ironically, they still haven't distributed it to the people."

"The light shone into Hell is the brightest." Iron Axe remarked.

"Indeed. To pose as a savior of the world, the best thing to do is to appear when people are most in distress. The greater the sense of contrast, the deeper the people's impression of the church. Those who perished halfway were simply deemed as sacrifices whose faiths weren't devout enough." Roland articulated. "So, apart from rescuing the refugees in the Eastern Region, we'll also have to foil the church's conspiracy."

"What should we do?" Brian inhaled deeply.

"Try not to be noticed, and keep them in oblivion as you complete the tasks." Roland pointed at a large open space to the south of an outskirt pier along the canal. "This area should be full of crop fields and is thus very suitable for hiding. Try to find a high spot in the area to build a sentry post that overlooks the pier. The soldiers responsible for fetching the refugees will disguise as caravan mercenaries and escort the treated refugees onboard. I'll contact Margaret the merchant to prepare as many ships as she can, so that we won't have only two fleets for this mission."

Whether it was Longsong Stronghold or the king's city of Graycastle, the patrol strength of a large city rarely extended to its fringes. The guaranteed surveillance range was fundamentally determined by the height of the city wall—the distance that could be seen standing on the city wall was equivalent to the range that could be monitored. By this measure, the area to the south of the pier was outside the church's surveillance range, and therefore Roland's troops were unlikely to be noticed by the guards if they set up base here.

"How will the disease be treated?" Iron Axe asked.

"We'll mainly depend on the replicas created by Lily." Roland gave a general explanation of the young girl's strange ability. "She won't need to enter the refugee camps to treat these people, as she can turn any microbe into a replica—in other words, your job is to gather river water for her to purify and serve the water to those who are infected."

"Just... like that?" Iron Axe was surprised.

"Take note of two things." The prince held up two fingers. "First, ensure that everyone on board has drunk the purified water. Second, don't use boiled drinking water to produce the purified water—in fact, the purified water should be as dirty as possible. The more microbes it contains, the more replicas that can be produced. You mightn't have understood, but just do as I say."

"Is it the same for the patients in the king's city?"

"More or less. But we can't use our men to send the cure as that'll be too conspicuous. This part will be handled by Theo," Roland replied, "As long as the money is right, even the Rats of Black Street can do an efficient job."

"Your Highness, but these Rats aren't reliable. If they smell profits elsewhere, they may stab us in the back at any time," Carter suggested.

"Therefore, although you should do your best for the second task, it isn't necessary to complete." The prince stood up and continued, "If you sense that something's not right, the First Army shall immediately evacuate the witches. It'll be a victory as long as we bring the refugees back smoothly. We'll simply treat as many people in the king's city as we can. The plan to defeat the church doesn't solely depend on the purified water to actualize. So long as we make it clear that the truth isn't like what they declared—that 'only the holy medicine can treat the demonic plague'—their act will fail."

"Finally, I shall announce the people selected for this expedition to the king's city." Raising his voice, he shouted, "Iron Axe!"

"Yes!"

"You'll lead 240 musketeers to protect the witches, control the canal piers, and eliminate potential threats. You must ensure that the witches and the Eastern Region refugees are safely brought back."

"Yes, Your Highness!" Iron Axe immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"Brian!"

"Yes!" The young knight held his head high and raised his chest.

"You'll lead 60 soldiers to disguise as caravan mercenaries, send the cure to the camps, escort the refugees on board, and maintain order on the ships.

"I sincerely obey Your Highness' orders!"

"Next will be the witches. The ones who'll be going to the king's city are Lily, Nightingale, Echo, Lightning, and Wendy." Roland then lowered his voice and continued, "I'll expatiate your task later. Most importantly, take good care of yourselves and come back safely."

"Don't worry, Your Highness." Nightingale beat her chest and asserted. "There's me around."

Roland nodded. "My final and most important point is... when the contingent arrives in the king's city, you may only stay for three days at most. When the time's up, no matter the situation, you must return to Border Town." He enunciated his word clearly. "If the church is intent on withering the resistance of the Kingdom of Graycastle, it'll certainly not just create an epidemic in the king's city. The Western Region will likely become one of their targets. That's why you can't stay in the king's city for more than three days, understood?"

''Yes, Your Highness!" Iron Axe and Brian replied in unison.

"Great. Then begin to carry out the plan."

"Hold on... Your Highness, what about me?" Carter raised his hand and asked.

"You'll lead the remaining First Army soldiers to guard Border Town, that's all." Roland gave him a pat on his shoulders.

.

Chapter 222 - A Long-anticipated Victory!

The Fjords, Sea Dragon Bay.

The church's followers climbed onto the walls and fired bolt after bolt at the witches. However, this produced little effect, thanks to the resistance of Shavi's invisible barrier and Molly's magic servants. The arrows either fell out of the air or were swallowed by the magic servants. Only the magic-breaking arrows, which were embedded with God's Stones of Retaliation, posed any kind of threat.

However, the quantity of God's Stones of Retaliation was ultimately limited. The witches who were unfortunately struck by these arrows were immediately brought to the backline to be treated. As long as the bleeding was stopped in time, their lives were not in danger. After two or three rounds of firing, more than 20 witches managed to advance to the city wall. Ashes leaped directly on to the top of the wall and sorted out those followers who dared to show themselves.

After several days of reconnaissance, the witches had fully learned about the weak spots of the walls on this side. Screeches of varying lengths were heard from a pigeon in the sky—it was Maggie informing everyone that they had reached their correct positions.

Lotus, who already had a few battles' worth of experience, used her ability without hesitation. Suddenly, the floor began to shake. The church's followers charged at her to stop her, but Ashes finished off every one of them. Without the God's Stones of Retaliation's protection, the wall quickly collapsed. The witches rushed through the subsidence and used their abilities to attack the followers. Those who did not have a God's Stone of Retaliation were knocked over in a blink, while those who remained standing were swiftly cleaned up by Ashes.

This was the first time the cathedral suffered a frontal assault since it was built. Furthermore, the assaulter was none other than the mortal enemy of the church. The priest who was stationed here understood that this was the final moment. He thus ordered the remaining followers to consume a pill and sacrifice themselves for God. A group of more than 10 crazed believers surrounded Ashes while the rest charged at Lotus and the other witches.

Lotus, who was already prepared, raised up an earthen wall from the ground to obstruct the enemies temporarily, knowing that their God's Stones of Retaliation could not dispel the realized effects of magic power. By the time the followers made their way around the wall, they discovered that the space was empty.

Thus, the manic followers could only return to attacking Ashes. However, the witches would appear behind them spontaneously to catch them off guard and knock them out. Each time this happened, the strength of the followers decreased. Within an hour of fighting, the cathedral was filled with the followers' bodies, leaving only the priest alive.

Shuddering, he placed a pill in his mouth, but before he could swallow it, Ashes chopped off his arm with a single stroke.

"God damn you, evil witch! You cursed monster!" He held on to the amputated arm and barked hysterically, his eyes filled with fear.

"Are you scared? When you tortured and slaughtered those innocent people, did you ever consider how they felt?" Ashes responded icily, "Compared to witches, the lot of you are more like the Devil's minions, and scumbags who stop at no evil. So, may you go and report to Hell in peace." With that, she swung her sword at his throat, where his angry curses would remain forever.

"Have we won?" Molly walked up to Ashes with some disbelief lingering in her tone.

"Indeed." Ashes sighed heavily. "This is the last cathedral in the Fjords. From now onwards, the church has no stronghold left in any island. We've won!"

Although the church's power in the Fjords had always been weak, the number of followers in each cathedral was barely in the hundreds, and there were no sections of the Judgement Army stationed here, this was nevertheless the witches' first head-on victory over the church. From being chased in all four directions by the latter and being panic-stricken by even the slightest sound of the wind, to today's attack on the cathedral and downing the colossus of old, even though this was only an insignificant section of the church, it was still sufficient to hearten the witches.

As she expected, after everyone acknowledged this long-anticipated victory, they began to cheer loudly. The church had been a huge mountain weighing on everyone's minds. Now, they had finally pried a hole in the foot of this mountain to see a glimmer of light. From this moment onwards, the Fjords became their real home.

"We've won!"

"Long live Lady Tilly!"

"Coo, coo!"

...

After arriving in Sleeping Island by boat, Ashes rushed to Tilly's residence and told her the news of the witches' outright victory. The latter brushed her gray hair behind her ear and revealed a radiant smile. "Maggie has already told me. It's wonderful that all of you are safe and sound."

Indeed, compared to the sailing ship, Maggie's flying speed when she transformed into a seabird was much faster. Ashes looked around the room but did not catch sight of the familiar figure. "Where's Maggie?"

"She left right after reporting the news to me." Tilly shook her head helplessly.

Ashes was surprised. "She... returned to the Western Region?"

"Yes." Tilly smiled again. "She has probably made some really good friends over there. After just a few days, she couldn't wait to go back. If it wasn't to help us defeat the church, she would perhaps have gone back to Border Town after sending the letter... I'm becoming increasingly curious about that place."

Ashes hesitated before she opened her mouth and asked, "Am I wrong to leave her over there?"

"No, it's great this way," the princess replied in an assured tone. "It's precisely because you allowed Maggie to stay in Border Town that we were able to get in touch with them easily. I even allowed her to bring along my reply letter to Roland Wimbledon." She made a funny face and asked, "Can you guess how I replied to him?"

"You must have rejected his request. Sea travel is full of risks. How can we send our witches to the Western Region?"

"No, I agreed to his request." Tilly tilted the corners of her mouth upwards. "I even briefly introduced the abilities of our non-combat witches to him. I also said in the letter that if he can guarantee the safety of our witches, I'll consider allowing a few witches to go to Border Town. Oh, what did he say in the letter? That's right—'Study and learn, enhance our friendship, progress together.'" She paused before continuing, "He also said that I can visit Border Town if need be."

"Your Highness!" Ashes could not help exclaiming the honorific she used when she was working as a palace guard.

"I know what you're worried about, but at present, the witches' biggest enemy is the church. An extra ally is an extra source of strength. Our dealings with the Fjords are on a benefit basis, while the Witch Cooperation Association of Border Town is a natural friend. As such, why can't we show a little goodwill?" Tilly laughed. "Furthermore, I heard from Maggie that witches can evolve their abilities by learning knowledge. Don't you feel curious? If the witches that we send can also pick up this technique, Sleeping Island will benefit greatly."

"But if you personally go there, what'll happen if they..."

Tilly reached out her hand and interrupted Ashes. "Don't worry. I didn't say that I'll set off immediately. I won't put myself at risk until the situation is clear. Don't forget that Sylvie can see through all deception, whether it be exquisite cosmetics or magical illusions. She'll follow the first batch of witches to Border Town and help me find out the truth about Prince Roland. Besides, even if I run into danger, don't I have you by my side?"

After gazing at Tilly for a long while, Ashes finally nodded her head.

"Of course, the specific circumstances can be discussed when Maggie returns next month." Tilly laughed. "Right now, we have something more important to do. "

"What?" Ashes asked in puzzlement. At present, the church's forces in the Fjords were completely wiped out, and it appeared that the only thing left to do was to peacefully develop Sleeping Island... but Tilly's expression seemed to say otherwise.

The princess pointed at a red gemstone on her white silk glove. "Not just on the kingdom's continent but in Shadow Islands of the Fjords too, there's an ancient ruins. More than half of the Magic Stones purchased from the islanders came from this ruins. With the church gone, I want to visit it myself."

"Is it the Ghost Shadow Red River of folklore?" Having spent some time in the Fjords, Ashes had heard a little about these legends. This ruins appeared intermittently in the ocean and its surroundings were full of dangerous undercurrents and sea monsters, hence most people had no way of reaching it. Ever since it was first discovered, many explorers had lost their lives in Shadow Islands because of this incredible spectacle. "You don't even know its specific position. How will you enter the ruins?"

"I indeed don't know its position. But I know who can bring us there. In fact, this remarkable explorer is on Sleeping Island, and he was the first person to discover this ruins," Tilly replied and smiled gently.

Chapter 223 - The Premeditation

These days, Theo spent his time in the Inner City's inn waiting anxiously for Border Town's reply.

The tall inner city wall divided the king's city into two different worlds. There was strict control on entering and exiting. Whether they were nobles or merchants, everyone had to be checked in a small room at the entrance, and if they had any sign of illness, such as fever, flushing or black spots, they would not be allowed to enter. If Theo left the Inner City area, he would have to return in the evening, or else, once the sun sets, the gate would be locked and he would spend the night outside.

However, these policies did not prevent the demonic plague from spreading. He heard rumors the previous day that there were nobles in the Inner City area who were infected. Had the church not finally release the first batch of holy medicine, the nobles would probably have gathered and left the king's city.

On the sixth day after sending out the letter, Theo finally received news from Margeret's Chamber of Commerce. He hurried over to the agreed place - a tailor shop, where he was led into the basement by a shop assistant. The lady of the Chamber had been waiting for a long time.

Margaret sat upright beside a low table, on which there was a jar of iced water that continually gave off cold air. While still profusely sweating, Theo walked to the opposite side of the table from her and sat cross-legged. He felt a cool breeze blowing against his face at once, and was immediately invigorated.

"His Highness has asked me to hand this letter to you." She passed to him a folded sheepskin envelope, which seal seemed to be completely intact.

Theo impatiently opened the envelope and took out the letter. On it was a brief of the action plan, news of the First Army's set-off, as well as the tasks which Theo had to complete. After carefully reading through the letter once, he stolidly placed the letter in his pocket and looked at Margaret. "Did His Highness request anything from you?"

"No. All he did was to have the carrier pigeons send this letter. Of course, sending messages by express will require a fee, which I've already recorded in the accounts."

"Ahem, I see." Theo cleared his throat. "His Highness needs to fetch all of the refugees back to the Western Region within a very short time. Therefore, he hopes that you can provide him with a large number of ships that'll be used for non-stop transportation, instead of just one or two fleets."

"Even if they're infected?" Margaret conjectured with interest. "I believe that His Highness certainly won't want to turn the entire Western Region into a land of death, so... has he found a cure for the plague?"

"Indeed so." He nodded his head. "In fact, they discovered infected people on the first fleet, but it didn't spread and was only discovered upon reaching Border Town. At present, they're on their way back to the king's city, and all of the ship's crew are in good shape."

"His Highness is truly an incredible person. Even the church didn't bring out the antidote so soon." Margaret gasped in admiration. "How many days does he intend to take to transport the refugees? A week?"

Theo raised three fingers.

"This... impossible!" The female merchant was stunned for a moment, and shook her head in disapproval. "Even if half of these people died, there would still be more than 5,000 of them. Transporting them within three days means that I'll have to prepare close to 100 ships. Even if the chamber's other ships stop their ongoing operations for the sake of this, there'll only be just enough ships. But if so, my losses will probably amount to thousands of gold royals, while the subsequent loss of customers can't be counted. Even free steam engines won't be sufficient to offset a portion of these numbers. Therefore... pardon me for my rejection."

"If the people onboard sat on the deck instead of sleeping in cabins with bed boards, the capacity of a ship can be doubled." Theo contended. "If comfort isn't a factor, the two-masted sailing ships usually used for transporting ores can also be employed. With the hatch opened, these ships will be able to fetch around 200 people each time. Your old friend, Hogg, should have many ships like this, right?"

"He indeed has several large ships like this in Silver City..." Margaret appeared a little hesitant. "And according to your calculation, the number of ships can be reduced to around 50 or so. But... this isn't a good deal nevertheless."

Theo thought the same way. In order to assemble dozens of ships on the canal, the scheduling and coordination alone would be extremely exhausting. Furthermore, the chartering fees would not all go into his pocket, and yet the task demanded lots of thought and effort from him. If the reward was not high, it could not be a good deal in any way. Thus, he could only use his last resort.

At the end of the letter, His Highness had written a short line: If Margaret is unwilling to help, tell her that Lightning is coming as well.

This line was puzzling. [Does Margaret have a special relationship with that lively and adorable golden-haired young girl? By appearance, it doesn't look that way at all... but His Highness must have his reasons for saying this.] Having thought this far, Theo opened his mouth and spoke slowly, "There're no alternatives but to transport the refugees within three days. What Roland is doing is akin to snatching food from a tiger's mouth. If it takes too long, the church will likely go to his doorsteps. Lightning is also in this contingent, and there'll be danger if they discover the presence of witches."

"What did you say?" She raised her voice a notch suddenly. "Lightning's coming as well?"

"That's what it says in His Highness' letter." Theo acted as honest as he could. "Probably to lead the way and provide early warnings of danger to the contingent. This is the new king Timothy's territory after all."

"I got it." Margaret stood up at once. "When do you need the ships?"

"Probably in four days, if they don't get sidetracked along the way."

"I'll do my best to arrange it." She walked over to her desk, lifted up a pen, and quickly wrote down something. "But I have one condition. You must inform me of the position where His Highness' contingent stations. If they intend to enter the city, I'll also be able to arrange adequate lodgings."

[Alright, seems like this method is indeed effective,] Theo thought. "This won't be a problem, I think," Theo replied while chuckling to himself, "and I have something else that needs your help."

"Speak." Margaret sighed.

"I need a team of carriages for transporting beer barrels. The greater the number of barrels, the better. Don't fill them with ale or wine, but instead river or well water." According to the explanation in His Highness' letter, the key person for curing this plague would be Lily. She could turn plain water into medicine for this disease. However, there was a huge flaw in this plan. The Rats must never be allowed to get close to the First Army's camp. If they found out that there was someone in the camp who could continuously produce the "holy medicine", Theo would bet that this news would be all over town the next day.

"River and well water?" She raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

"Don't worry, His Highness will pay for this service," Theo replied, laughing.

Due to secrecy and safety considerations, he would have to personally transport these barrels between the First Army's camp and the king's city. If he brought one barrel at a time to cure the plague, like when treating the Eastern Region refugees, it would not only be troublesome but also very ineffective. Thus, he had to think of a way to transport as much purified water as he could in one go.

On the surface, storing the water in large beer barrels mounted on four-wheeled carriages seemed like a good choice.

Chapter 224 - Launching the Rescue

Theo's anxiety finally quelled when he learned that His Highness had a cure for the plague.

It was also good that he had things to get occupied with so that the next few days would pass faster.

Aside from visiting the wine manors in the countryside and arranging the carriages' routes, he also memorized the terrain of the road from the canal pier to the city gate.

At present, it was much more troublesome to enter the king's city. Due to the presence of refugees outside the city, every one of the city gates was sealed to prevent outsiders from entering. Especially because news had spread that the church was currently distributing the holy medicine, there were hordes of desperate people pounding on the city gates every day, hoping to go to the church to seek treatment. The guards on the city walls did not hesitate to respond with their bolts. Thus, there were piles of bodies at the entrances, giving off a foul smell under the scorching sun.

The only side gate that could be opened was restricted to nobles as well as merchants who transported grains. Fortunately, Theo had worked for the patrol team for a considerably long time, and he was also a native of the king's city. As such, most of the guards on duty recognized him and he could enter simply by saying hello.

Due to the restrictions, there was a breakdown of contact between the city and the outside world. Even if the transportation of refugees at the pier was done without any attempt at concealment, it was difficult for the news to be spread into the city. Moreover, the upper nobles were only happy that someone took away all of the Eastern Region's refugees, whom they considered to be a volatile bunch. This would save the patrol team the trouble of suppressing the inevitable riot.

Theo broadly understood His Highness' feelings when he made the decision to send an expedition on the very day he received the letter. These people had been forsaken by the king's city. If the church sent priests to distribute the holy medicine now, most of the refugees would probably become devout believers.

If His Highness was able to act faster than the church to bring the refugees under his command, as well as provide them with a new life and a safe place, they would undoubtedly become His Highness' fanatical supporters.

In the morning of the fourth day, the returning fleets reached the canal pier on time. Theo was astonished to discover that Roland had sent more than 300 First Army soldiers, and that they were mostly equipped with revolving rifles. With this powerful contingent as safeguard, the church would probably not be able to stop the refugees from leaving even if it heard the news.

"Lightning!" Margaret, who was also waiting on the pier, caught sight of the young girl's figure, and impatiently ran up to hug her.

"This person is...?" Iron Axe asked.

"The Lady of the King's City Chamber of Commerce, Miss Margaret." Theo introduced. "All of the ships used for this transportation are arranged and provided by her. She has done a great deal to help actualize this plan."

"I see." Iron Axe nodded at her to give his regards. "Thank you for your help."

"I'll deduct the expenses from His Highness." She shrugged her shoulders. "And you should thank Lightning rather than me."

Lightning tilted her head in surprise. "Why?"

"Ahem, it doesn't matter." Theo coughed twice. "What do you intend to do next?"

"We'll set up camp to the south of the pier, and at the same time control the pier area. The rescue shall begin tomorrow afternoon," Iron Axe replied. "As for the ships, we'll leave them to you."

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

When Brian led his men into the refugee area, he could not help but frown.

There were plague sufferers on their last breath everywhere. Dark-colored blood and pus flowed from the blisters all over their bodies, attracting swarms of flies to them. They did not even have the strength to shoo away these little insects, and thus these insects crawled along their bodies and fed on their blood.

He recalled that during the Months of Demons, the people of Border Town who lived in the slums of the stronghold were cold and hungry, and were hence similarly helpless. If this was really the doings of the church, it would be an absolutely unforgivable crime.

"Gather all of those who can still move." Brian ordered. "It's on you, Miss Echo."

If it was announced hastily that they brought medicine which could cure the plague, it would almost certainly cause a huge stir and the refugees would surge towards the pier area in a way that his men would not be able to control. Thus, the notification had to be carried out in batches. His Highness' decision to send Echo was based on this consideration - her ability could dictate which areas heard the notification, or even who heard it.

Brian saw her opening her mouth as if to speak. Although he did not hear anything, a few refugees began to look over.

Soon, a group of refugees came stumbling in his direction. "Lord Brian, is what you said true? If you can cure my disease, I'm willing to go with you to the Western Region!"

That was enough to make Brian feel pleased. "Of course. Our ships are already waiting in the pier. Bring all of your family members and follow me!"

The other soldiers helped to carry the sufferers who lay on the ground and could not move. In the blink of an eye, a few hundred soldiers were seen heading towards the pier. Many people noticed this and decided to follow them. When they reached the pier, they discovered that bags of purified water were placed neatly on a long table, while the bridge that led to the ships was guarded by Iron Axe's men. Only two people were allowed through at one time so that they could make sure that everyone onboard had already drunk the purified water.

"Listen up everyone. These bags contain the cure. You'll recover once you drink it." Several soldiers stood atop a platform erected on one side of the long table, and repeatedly read aloud the manuscripts prepared by His Highness. "The church's assertion that 'the demonic plague was created by the witches, and only the holy medicine can dispel it' is completely groundless. All that they want is to make even more money, while making you fall on your knees and thank them for saving your life. His Highness Roland has not only brought the real medicine, but is offering it for free! That's right, not a single bronze royal is required!"

These words caused a flurry of commotion among the crowd. The first person to drink the purified water quickly felt the changes in his body. He tore his clothes in disbelief and saw that the black spots rapidly disappeared. "This medicine is truly effective! I'm well, I'm well!"

"So am I! Thank God, my wounds aren't bleeding anymore!"

"What God? Where is it? All I see is a bunch of liars!"

"You're right, this medicine has nothing to do with the church!"

"Long live His Highness Roland!"

As more and more people were healed, the response of the crowd became even more excited. If the First Army soldiers did not maintain order, the refugees would probably have burst the water bags placed on the long table.

"His Highness Roland is currently opening up the Western Region. He'll require many hands to till lands, build houses and repair roads... He isn't collecting any money for the cure, and neither will he force anyone to go to the Western Region." The soldiers who were in charge of propaganda continued loudly. "However, His Highness promises that those who go and serve him will receive food, housing, and wages! No matter what you're skilled at, you'll be matched to a job! So, for those who're willing, take one step forward and follow the soldiers onto the ship and towards your new home! For those who're not, no problem. You may leave after assisting us for these three days. During this time, you'll be provided with food by the caravan!"

"Will there really be housing and wages?" Someone shouted.

"Certainly. These terms were promised by His Highness himself!" The soldiers nodded and replied.

"Please allow me to get onboard. I'm willing to serve His Highness!"

"Me too!"

"And me, Sir!"

"I'm a blacksmith!"

"..."

Brian was pleased to see that not one person chose to remain in the king's city out of this batch of hundreds of people. All of them boarded the ship destined for Border Town. When a ship was fully boarded, it would set off straight away, and an empty ship waiting behind would take its place. Under Margaret's command, there was not a single moment of pause.

Subsequently, Brian repeatedly traveled to and from the refugees' camp and the pier. He relied on Echo's sound transmission ability to draw in batch after batch of refugees. The size of each batch was controlled at between 300 to 400 people. As he was fetching a new batch of refugees back to the pier, he suddenly saw that the First Army stationed in the southern wheat fields began to mobilize. A small platoon dashed rapidly towards the north bank of the canal while wielding their firearms.

"What happened?" he asked one of Iron Axe's men.

"The lookout, Miss Lightning, says that someone has jumped ship and escaped." The latter replied after saluting. "Perhaps a Rat that hid among the refugees?"

Chapter 225 - The Avenger

It turned out that there was more than one rat. Iron Axe looked expressionlessly at one of the arrestees. " You're already the third person to jump ship. The refugees have said that you aren't from the Eastern Region. Do you have any last words?"

The previous two arrestees had confessed everything about their background and purpose after two of their fingers were chopped off with a dagger. Of course, their bodies were already thrown into the canal—Iron Axe was never a kindhearted person. His combat experience in Iron Sand City informed him that the best way to extract information from these evasive characters was to chop their fingers off one by one. However, what surprised him was that this fella, who knelt on the floor with his hands tied behind his back, appeared to be in very good health, as though he had not contracted the disease.

Could he be a death warrior from a faction somewhere?

"I'm not your enemy." The first sentence that the man spoke surprised Iron Axe slightly. "I'm Hill Fawkes. Theo knows my name!"

...

At this time, Theo had still not left the pier area and was thus quickly called over by Iron Axe's men. He looked briefly at Hill and said with a grin. "This person is Black Hammer's subordinate."

"Not yours?" Iron Axe asked.

"He has no relation to me. He's simply a Rat that just joined."

"You deceived not only Black Hammer but also Skeleton Fingers," Hill suddenly said, "you aren't working for Timothy, but are instead serving His Highness Roland Wimbledon of the Western Region!"

"He knows too much already." Theo made a throat-cutting gesture at Iron Axe. "The best resting place for this person is at the bottom of the canal."

But Hill continued to blabber on. "I heard the contents of the propaganda announced by the mercenary. We can work together! I'm willing to serve His Highness Roland!"

"His Highness doesn't need the loyalty of a Rat." Iron Axe pulled out his rapier.

"I'm no Rat. I'm a... free citizen of the king's city. I'm Timothy's enemy!" Hill exclaimed.

"Wait." Theo held back Iron Axe and walked up to Hill. The latter raised his head and made eye contact with no sign of fear. There even seemed to be something burning in his eyes.

[I see... this is the answer which I couldn't figure out when I first met him.] Theo thought to himself. Hill's eyes were filled with an extreme hatred which he could not completely cover up even though he deliberately tried to do so.

"Tell us more about your reasons for wanting to serve His Highness."

"Although I indeed lived in the north district of the city, and would occasionally go to Covert Trumpeter to drink, it wasn't the case that I lost my property through gambling, nor did my wife run away with someone else...," Hill said while gnashing his teeth, "she was killed by Timothy!"

The story behind this was not too complicated. Theo quickly understood the sequence of events.

Hill and his wife were formerly members of the acrobatic troupe "Dove and Hat", which often held performances in the inner city area of the king's city. The troupe consisted of only seven people, but the atmosphere between them was very harmonious. As the only female in the troupe, his wife was courted by everyone else, and it was Hill who eventually succeeded in winning her heart. Their marriage life was sweet indeed, and after not long, they were able to save up enough money to buy a house in the inner city area. This was all destroyed by Timothy's witchhunt operation. Under Langley's command, the patrol team arrested suspects as recklessly as a pack of rabid dogs. His wife was one of the unlucky ones to be arrested by mistake.

Hill had thought that if he paid the ransom, his wife would be released, or at the very least, he could enter the prison to see her once more. Although the warden accepted the ransom, he did not release her or agree to Hill's visit requests. He simply reassured Hill that his wife would be naturally released after it was confirmed that she was not a witch. However, things took an unexpected downturn. When he was told to enter the prison to claim his wife, all he saw was a corpse covered in scars and bruises.

Filled with rage, Hill went to Langley to demand justice, but in the end, the warden, the castellan and the guard were only sentenced to 10 lashes and a fine of 25 silver royals each. As for himself, he only received a compensation of three gold royals. This punishment was completely unacceptable to Hill. He even sought out the highest leader of the patrol team, "Steelheart Knight" Knight Weimar, but it was to no avail. Weimar explained to him that Langley was Timothy Wimbledon's confidant, and hence the new members of the patrol team were also the latter's minions. Furthermore, the witchhunt was decreed by His Majesty himself, and thus even Minister of Justice Pilaw, would not speak up on Hill's behalf.

Consequently, Hill was determined to take revenge on the new king. What he did not expect was that this decision garnered the support of all of the members of his acrobatic troupe. However, as a bunch of performers who did not possess combat expertise, wealth or men, it was virtually impossible for them to achieve their aim of revenge. All that Hill could think of doing was to gather intelligence about Timothy and provide it to his enemies, such as Queen of Clearwater Garcia. Thus, the troupe members quickly joined and hid themselves in various Black Street organizations, and started collecting information that had to do with the new king.

This also explained why Hill had covertly kept watch on Theo's movements. If Timothy intended to banish the refugees, he had to think of a way to stop it. However, before he could take action, the plague broke out and Theo had discontinued the transportation of refugees on the king's behalf. It was only on this day that Hill discovered that there were people resuming such activities. In order to investigate further, he disguised as a refugee and blended into the crowd. In the end, he discovered that Theo was actually serving Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

There was no question that, as one of the qualified contenders for the throne, Roland was an archenemy of Timothy.

From Hill's perspective, he was willing to serve anyone who could topple the king, even if it was a demon.

"The last question I have is, when you blended into the crowd to obtain information, did you consider the possibility of being infected?" Theo asked with interest, "and I don't believe that someone who seeks revenge would belittle his own life."

"I have an antidote." Hill pouted his lips. "It's in the pocket of my undershirt. A pal from my troupe spent a great deal of his family fortune to purchase it from the black market for me."

Theo reached out his hand and felt Hill's pocket. He then fished out a transparent vial that was as thick as an index finger. It seemed to contain a blue liquid. Theo passed the vial to Iron Axe and said, "The church's elixir... I believe that His Highness will be interested in this."

"This person..." Iron Axe questioned after receiving the vial. "What do you think?"

"Oh." Theo stroked his chin and pondered. Under normal circumstances, he would have no means to verify what Hill said, and therefore he would choose the safest option—send Hill on his way swiftly. However, there was coincidentally someone in the camp who could accurately determine whether Hill was lying or not. "I'll like to have Miss Nightingale verify this."

...

In the evening, Theo returned to Covert Trumpeter.

Black Hammer seemed to be in poor spirits. The spread of the plague had caused the tavern's business to drop heavily. Silver Ring's and Pott's contraction of the disease also caused him further distress.

Hill appeared as if nothing had happened during the day, and sat opposite Theo with his usual restraint.

Theo's personal guard smiled and tossed a small bag of gold royals in front of Black Hammer. Theo then said, "Don't be so depressed. Let me tell you a piece of good news: there'll soon be business again."

Black Hammer counted the royals, kept the bag in his pocket, and replied feebly, "I'm not taking any business. With the plague spreading, who would dare to stroll in public? The money I earn won't be enough to buy the medicine for everyone. Do you know how much a vial costs on the black market these days? At least 25 gold royals!"

"What a coincidence." Theo laughed heartily. "The business I was about to mention is also selling medicine," he paused before continuing, "... a special cure for the demonic plague."

Chapter 226 - The Action in the City

"Have you gotten the holy medicine?" Black Hammer immediately came to the spirit.

"Holy medicine?" Theo stopped smiling and sneered. "We can also cure patients who're infected with the epidemic without the medicine of the church." He removed the two small bladders from his waist and put them on the table. "Blaming the witches is just their usual trick, after all, the dead won't refute them."

Black Hammer was puzzled and picked up one of the bladders, shaking it by his ear and then untying the rope to smell. "No smell?"

"You take it to Silver Ring and Pott and let them drink it to see if it's a real medicine," said Theo, "The two men should be still in the pub."

"Since they were found infected, I let them hide in the basement, and they don't come out. Because now black spot patients are easy to be attacked outside, and Skeleton Fingers wouldn't open the door to put them in," Black Hammer picked up the bag and said, "Lord Theo, I'll try it."

When Black Hammer left, Hill was still staring at the table, not saying a word, which made Theo shake his head inwardly.

As an ordinary person living under the demonic plague, when hearing that a medicine could cure the disease, how could he have been so calm? Even if he was not excited to take a look at the medicine, at least he would ask about it more. As an intelligence officer, such a performance was not qualified.

"This medicine can really cure the demonic plague?" cried Little Finger, "Lord Theo, how did you get it?"

Even a little girl was better than him. Theo drank a glass of wine and said, "Of course, His Lordship in the palace gave it to me. Except him, who dares to do something against the church?"

A moment later, Black Hammer came back with Silver Ring and Pott. "My God, this medicine is incredible! Not long after drinking it, their black spots were gone."

"Lord Theo, thank you for your medicine." The two thumped down, kneeling on the ground, while Pott's cracked skin was still bleeding. "You've saved our lives!"

"First, bandage the wound." Theo waved his hand. Although the water could get rid of the disease, it could not heal the wounds. If people who were seriously injured wanted to recover, they needed at least a week or so. "You don't need to thank me, and you had better thank my employer. If you complete this task well, you'll have the opportunity to get rid of the Rats' status."

"No, I mean that your employer is really going to let us sell the medicine?" Black Hammer asked excitedly. Obviously, he also realized that selling that special medicine could bring in much more income.

"Yes, the church tricking the people in this way has made him very angry. If these church scoundrels continue to act unscrupulously like this, I'm afraid the whole king's city will become a big church, rather than the domain of Wimbledon," Theo said heavily, "In addition, he doesn't want to see that there're few living in the huge city. Therefore, the medicine can't be sold at a high price, so that most civilians in the city can afford it." He took two bladders again and said, "This bag can be sold for, at most, 10 silver royals."

"Ten, ten silver royals!?" Black Hammer widened his eyes in astonishment.

"Yes, you have to give six silver royals to my employer, and then the rest belongs to you," he said, "And the medicine is enough for 5,000 to 6,000 people, so you can get at least a few hundred gold royals. Even if you share it equally, it isn't a small number, enough for you to spend in a lifetime."

They had a hesitant look, staring at the bladders on the table as if they were considering how to get more benefits from them.

Theo had a clear idea of what these Rats were thinking.

The medicine itself had no cost, and it did not matter even if it was given freely. However, such a big share, if he distributed by himself, would be inefficient and it would be too noticeable. It could reduce risks by letting Rats sell the medicine, and 10 silver royals was affordable for the majority of the people. Of course, these people could not honestly sell at low prices, but whether they sold some to Inner City or handed them over to the black market, they could both gain a huge income.

Eventually, less than half of the medicine could be sold to civilians at a low price, but that was not the focus of Theo. The task His Royal Highness gave him was to thwart the church's conspiracy as much as possible, as long as people all understood that the holy medicine was not the only antidote to fight against the epidemic, and it was not something rare or expensive. Then the contents of the priest's propaganda would be questioned by the public, especially those believers who took a great expense to bring the holy medicine. They would be more doubtful from the bottom of their hearts if the spokesman of the gods was deceiving them.

"I know what you're thinking," Theo said, "You hide some of the medicine and sell it secretly, or give priority to the buyers who offer high prices. I'll ignore these... but don't forget." His tone became cold. "My employer isn't kind, if you don't want to be sunk into the moat, you'd better restrain yourselves. After all, only those who're alive can have the opportunity to enjoy life."

"But what happens if someone else sells it?" Silver Ring asked.

"It's very easy. Everyone can only buy one and use it on the spot." He finished saying that and looked at Black Hammer. "How about this business? Are you interested?"

"The Covert Trumpeter may not be able to sell so much medicine, so I want..."

Theo stopped his words directly. "Who and where to sell the medicine is your business, while my duty is to watch for you for His Lordship."

Black Hammer gnashed his teeth and looked around. Seeing that there were no objections around, he smashed a fist on the table. "This business, I accept!"

"Very good." He nodded. "As the sun sets on the day after tomorrow, the carriage carrying the potion will reach the gate of the pub. You'll have to arrange the manpower and release the news of new medicine. Work hard, my employer doesn't want to see failure."

Theo thought that the day after tomorrow was the last day of the First Army's stay, and no matter what the city would look like later, it would not cause a threat to His Highness.

…

Not long after getting out of the pub, Hill chased him from behind.

"Won't you meet my partners? They're all eager to avenge against Timothy."

"I believe you temporarily because you've passed the test, but it doesn't mean that I believe them also." Theo shook his head. "If you hadn't been caught today, what would you have planned to do?"

"I wanted to go back to tell the news to the others, and listen to their views, whether we continue to observe for some more time, or go to His Highness directly," he replied.

"Oh?" Theo asked with interest, "What's your personal view?"

Hill hesitated a little and said, "I think His Highness is different from most of the nobles, for few people will do their best to save the fugitives like him, and... he also treats the witches equally. If Timothy did everything like him, my wife wasn't... " He was silent for a moment. "So I'm more inclined to work directly for His Highness."

"Then you go back and don't say anything, and you've never been to the wharf."

"Why... " He raised his head in amazement.

"A good intelligence man should be accustomed to hiding secrets in his heart, rather than share them with others, especially at this critical moment," Theo said slowly, "If you want to work for His Highness, there're many other things you need to learn."

Chapter 227 - The Informer

In the splendid hall of the church, Priest Ferry was looking down at a farmer who was kneeling beside his feet.

The farmer's tough body had become bent into a ball, as his hands were trembling and an abnormal purple color appeared on his skin. These abnormal purple spots would cohere and turn into black spots, which would spread all over the body within half a day, and he was considered to be strong enough not to be infected until today.

The priest said, "I know you. You're Rock Hill, living in the eastern district, and you often bring us some fresh wheat grain."

"You... remember me! That's great, Your Reverence," he repeatedly kowtowed and said, "All my family members are infected with a demonic epidemic. Please give us some holy medicine, please..."

Ferry said slowly, "But what have you brought for us this time? You know that the holy medicine is so precious that it can't be given at will, but you can exchange it with your sincere heart."

Rock Hill said in a trembling tone, "In order to buy medicine, my money was all cheated away by Rats, so please forgive my insincere heart by seeking the black market as a shortcut. Now all I have is an egg, please accept it." Rock Hill pulled out an egg from his bosom and held it above his head with two hands.

Ferry received the egg with a smile on his face and said, "When pinning your hopes on the black market, fraught with fraud and unfairness, you'll certainly end up with punishment. But God will always help those lost sheep like you. As long as you're aware of your error, you can go farther on the road of pilgrimage. Stand up. God has forgiven you!"

"Rea-really?" Stone Hill said unbelievably.

"We, the messengers of God, never deceive commoners." Ferry waved, and another believer holding a box of medicine came forward. Then Ferry picked up four bottles to hand over to the farmer. "If I remember correctly, you have four family members?"

"Yes, Your Reverence." Rock Hill swallowed his saliva and held the bottles in his hands. He bent down to kiss the priest's shoes. "Thank you! Thank you very much! I'll devote myself to the church and to God for the rest of my life!"

Believers beside them were all moved by this scene and cheered, for a sincere believer was joining the big family of the church.

When the cheers stopped, Ferry lowered his hand down to make everyone quiet and said loudly, "The next one."

…

This medicine distribution ceremony lasted until sunset.

As the clock of the king's city rang at its integral point, Priest Ferry announced that today's ceremony was over and that it would begin again tomorrow. Even though commoners begged him to stay, he left the hall.

Although he was a little exhausted, he felt very fresh. Standing in the hall to hear the commoners' pleas and dreams, and watch them ingratiate himself, Ferry could not help feeling like he was God himself.

"No, the church itself is God," Ferry thought, "It developed the demonic plague and its medicine so that it could control commoner's lives easier. Its power is no different from God." Ferry could not help feeling that the best choice he made in his life was to plunge himself into the church instead of inheriting his family business.

Nobody could stop in the presence of such power. Could a rich merchant or a powerful noble? In the face of death, they all would abandon everything in exchange for an opportunity to live.

Back to the resting area in the apse, a priest came forward in a hurry and whispered in Ferry's ear. "Your Reverence, Rats reported that there has been something wrong."

"About what?"

"Refugees of the Eastern Region. But he insisted on telling the details after seeing you," the priest replied.

Based on instructions of the church, Ferry should make full use of the demonic plague and antidote to convert many believers to the church for Hermes. So it was part of his plan to draw in refugees who, compared with residents of the king's city, were not so important. In his plan, in two or three days when half of those homeless died, he would go out of town to spread medicine to them, and make them become residents of the king's city at the same time. Hence, 90% of residents of the king's city would become believers of the church. With such achievements plus what he had done for the Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince, Ferry would even set foot on the road of becoming a bishop.

Regarding blood and identity, the church was quite fair to grant rewards to the due person. As long as a believer made a great contribution, he could get a promotion.

Is there something wrong with the refugees?

Ferry hid his doubts and said calmly, "Take him to the secret chamber and I'll be there soon."

"Yes, Your Reverence."

Ferry took off his priest's robe and took soft armor out of the wardrobe to wear. Then he wore a loose coat and checked himself against a silver mirror, walking toward the secret chamber.

Ferry met that "informer" in a small room in the basement—messy hair, sallow face, as well as his thin and dry arms, in which could be seen the bones' shape. Oddly, there were not black spots on his body.

The moment the informer met Ferry, he kneeled down and said, "Your Reverence, I'm Needle and I have very important intelligence to tell you."

"Go ahead."

"But..." He looked up to see the other people in the secret chamber and stopped speaking.

"It doesn't matter. This's my right-hand man, Priest Shattrath, while the other one is Hera, responsible for guarding and cleaning up this room and she never leaves here," Ferry explained to him.

"I'll tell, but you've promised me..."

Ferry shook a small blue bottle impatiently. "The potions are here. If your intelligence is worthy, I'll cure your demonic plague."

Needle looked up and said confidently, "Your Reverence, I can guarantee that this intelligence is well worth it. Someone is sending refugees away and I've witnessed that ships are everywhere in the canal. I'm afraid that they would carry all refugees away in a few days."

Ferry frowned. "Those black spots patients? Are you sure?"

Ferry had heard that there were ships to carry away refugees of the Eastern Region, but he had thought that it was normal—after all, all nobles of different domains would like to purchase a batch of laborers at a quite small cost when other domains suffered natural or man-made disasters. In any case, when the demonic plague came into effect, God would punish those stupid refugees. However, now that the demonic plague had gotten rampant, why did someone still accept them?

"No, they have cures for the demonic plague! Mercenaries help patients drink a kind of strange water, and then the black spots soon disappear. Besides, someone claims that they came from the Western Region and that as long as refugees go onboard, they would obtain food, houses, and remunerations." Needle paused and continued to say, "But the most incredible thing is that there're witches."

"What're you saying?"

Needle shouted, "I'm quite sure, Your Reverence. Dressed up as one of the refugees, I went onboard and I didn't find out until someone jumped into the water to escape. Mercenaries on land soon ran after him and at that moment, I noticed that a dark shadow in the sky wasn't a bird, but a flying witch. I was so stunned that I waited for an opportunity to jump into the water after the ship sailed away for a few miles and the witch disappeared. It almost took one day for me to swim back." He rubbed his hands and continued to ask, "Your Reverence, don't you think the intelligence is worthy of a bottle of holy medicine?"

"Wait a moment, you've mentioned that they have cures for the demonic plague and you've already drunk it. And now, you're healthy?" Ferry asked him anxiously.

"Ugh... that's right. But you've said that if I have valuable intelligence, I can..." Needle smiled embarrassedly, revealing his uneven, yellow teeth.

"So, he wants to sell this available holy medicine on the black market." Ferry thought for a moment and said, "How many people are there? Are you sure that they are mercenaries of a caravan?"

Needle scratched his head, saying, "I'm sure. They don't have armor or horses, and their weapons are wooden spears. There're 100 people at most."

"The ships belong to which family?"

"I don't know because most ships don't hang flags. What's more, even if they had flags, I can't recognize them. But according to the mercenary, the ships will go to the Western Region. He also mentioned that this is recruiting of the Lord of Border Town. It seems that the lord needs more men to reclaim land. That's all I can remember."

Ferry took a deep breath, pulled out that blue holy medicine, and then threw it at Needle, saying, "Well, it's very important intelligence. Take it, it's yours."

"Thank you, Your Reverence." Needle was in a panic to catch the bottle, but he suddenly trembled and his eyes widened. Standing behind him, the old Hera had used a short sword to cut through his neck.

.

Chapter 228 - Faceless

The old woman drew back her short sword and laid Needle down on the ground. She then picked up the medicine bottle, wiped it on her clothes to clean it, and then handed it to the Priest.

"Nice work." Ferry nodded. "Drag his corpse out and dispose of it."

"Yes," she replied in a hoarse voice. She dragged the corpse effortlessly, utterly unlike an old woman who had one foot in the grave.

"My lord, do you believe what he said," Priest Shattrath asked after the old woman left. "A caravan is working with the witches under the command of the Lord of Border Town. As I recall, isn't that lord Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince?"

"We'll know whether it's true after we send someone to check it," Ferry said with a serious look, "but I think he has no reason to lie. As long as someone takes a look from the top of the city walls, he'll notice the actions of the refugees. If he wanted to tell a lie to exchange for the holy medicine, at least he would have made one harder to verify."

Shattrath bowed and said, "I will send people to check the situation immediately."

"Go ahead. Report to me immediately, as long as you find anything."

Ferry slowly walked to the desk and sat down, playing with the holy medicine in his hands. Those refugees had already been in the bag for him. In order to control their movement and prevent them from fleeing, after the demonic plague spread out, he commanded Dreamland Water to send some Rats to mingle into the refugees and spread the news that the church would save them. As long as the refugees could stick it for a few more days, they would not only acquire salvation of deities but also be accepted by the church. And they would also become a citizen of the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. As for those Rats, most of them had already been infected with the disease. In order to exchange for the holy medicine, they would spare no efforts to follow his orders.

If that Rat was telling the truth, then those people had started to ship refugees away at least since yesterday. It seemed that they would not stop until they delivered all refugees away. This would seriously impede his plan. What was worse, they were cooperating with the witches. Ferry believed that the person among them who was able to cure the demonic plague must have been a witch.

"My lord, the corpse has been disposed of." The old woman quietly walked into the secret chamber. "Has another Fallen appeared?"

"Most probably." Ferry lowered his voice. "Maybe more than one." He paused for a moment. "There's no one else in the room. Stop wearing such an ugly disguise. It's so disgusting."

"Yes."

She bent over, and then the sounds of bones stretching and rubbing crackled over her body. She quickly became taller, her gray hair turned dark in a blink of eyes, and her wrinkled and loose skin gradually tightened and glowed with health again. Time seemed to flow backward. When she finally stretched her body again, she had turned into a beautiful young woman.

"Now much better-looking." Ferry smiled contentedly. "I remember it's... the one who was hanged at the city gate?"

"Yes, my lord," she nodded, "you spent the most time with her among the four."

"You really know...how to please me." the priest smacked his lips," But Shattrath is probably coming back soon. We don't have enough time." He fought down his lust and said, "And I need you to handle those Fallens, just like what you did before."

"Leave it to me, my lord." She bowed. "I won't let go any Fallen witch."

About 15 minutes later, Shattrath returned to the secret chamber. He cast a quick glance at the witch, and then reported to Ferry, "My lord, many refugees outside the western gate left the camp indeed. It was dim outside, so I ordered my men to walk through the camp with torches, and they found that many tents were empty. But there wasn't any flame at the dork, so we were uncertain whether the caravan was still stationed there. As for the witches..."

"No need for a further check." Ferry interrupted. "Since they dared to ship the sick refugees away, then the information from the Rat shouldn't be wrong. So there were at least two witches, one flying in the air to supervise the action, the other one clearing up the demonic plague. Especially the latter one is a great threat to my plan, so we must stop them." They were only transferring refugees outside the city at present, but if they brought the witches into the city and publicly cured the infected citizens, the "holy medicine" of the church would become a joke!"

"Then what should we do?" Shattrath asked, "Should we send the Judgement Army to catch the witches?"

Ferry shook his head. "We're in the king's city, not Holy City of Hermes. There're only around 20 soldiers of Judgement Army in the church. If we send them to catch the witches, then who'll maintain order during the distribution of the holy medicine tomorrow? Moreover, we have too few soldiers, what could they do except giving the other side a warning? Even if they're able to defeat the mercenaries, I'm afraid the witches will run away." Just because they were in the king's city, the number of Judgement Army which was responsible for protecting the church was limited to several dozens. Otherwise, thinking of such a powerful army of hundreds of soldiers owned by the church, the king would not be able to sleep well.

"Then... should we write to Holy City and ask the bishop to send over more soldiers?"

"When the Judgement Army comes, I'm afraid the refugees will be already gone." Priest Ferry responded with a sneer, "By the way, we don't need to bother the elite army of the church just to deal with a group of mercenaries. Leave it to Dreamland Water."

"Leave it to the Rats?" Shattrath was stunned.

"At least they keep a lot of Rats, so they can surround the dock in advance, and then attack the mercenaries together. How many Rats can a mercenary handle, since he wears no armor and uses only a wooden spear?"

"About two or three."

"Then they'll only be able to deal with about 200 people, while Dreamland Water can summon more than 1,000 thugs. Of course, these aggressive and violent dregs may not be able to defeat even a small team of Judgment Army. But they're enough just to kill those mercenaries without armors." Ferry stood up. "Tell my words to 'Fiercetooth' Tanis. He only has a day to summon his men, as many as possible. And then he'll attack tomorrow night. Don't tell him that there're other ways to cure the demonic plague or they're going to deal with the witches. Only tell him not to spare anyone's life. His reward will be a box of holy medicines. If he hesitates and attempts to put it off, then tell him he won't get any poppy flower and sleeping fern from me anymore."

"What about... the witches? Especially the one who can fly?"

"She can't fly forever, and the Rats won't finish fighting in a short time... In other words, their role is to attract the attention of the mercenaries." Ferry walked to the witch, stretching his hand to stroke her face. "As long as Faceless finds a chance to sneak into the camp, what'll happen is for sure."

Faceless was able to completely disguise herself as someone else as long as she touched him. Not only her appearance, but also her body shape and voice would be perfectly substituted, and this state would not be relieved by God's Stone of Retaliation. It was a perfect ability for an assassinator. For this reason, she was one of the few witches who was kept and specifically trained by the church.

"Once they realize they're unable to win, the camp will certainly fall into chaos. At that time, Faceless can guarantee that no witch is able to survive." The priest laughed.

Chapter 229 - The Eve of Returning Day

On the third day, outside the eastern city gate of the king's city.

Nightingale hid in the Mist, quietly watching those refugees who dressed in rags. They were summoned here group by group by Echo's magic sound, slowing moving after knight Brian toward the dock.

Now the witches did not have to be as cautious as they were two days ago, where they had to pass through the edges of the refugee camps and lead the refugees off in small numbers. After lots of refugees had left with them, the rest who had already noticed that would constantly follow them. Even the guards on the city walls had noticed what happened at the foot of the walls, but they only wished that these refugees with stinky smell would leave as soon as possible.

The whole plan was progressing smoothly. Few refugees were left in the eastern district, and the refugees outside the northern city gate were making a proactive approach to them after they heard the news. It was likely that before sunset, all people would be able to be safely sailed away.

Everyone was busy, while Nightingale seemed to be the only one at leisure. Echo was surrounded by the "mercenaries" who were responsible for guiding the refugees. Lily was making purifying water under the protection of the First Army. Her protection seemed to be unnecessary.

Only when the "mercenaries" left to carry those patients who were too ill to move by themselves, she would keep a wary eye on Echo. Just then, Nightingale saw Echo raising her head to look at the magnificent eastern city gate and sigh to herself.

"What's the matter?" she walked towards her and asked.

"Nothing. I just recalled something." Echo seemed to be sad. "Before I was sold to King's City, I had suffered so much on the way. I thought that they treated me so cruelly because I came from Sand Nation. But now it seems that they're equally merciless to their own people. There isn't much difference between them and the people in Iron Sand City."

Recalling that Echo had been sold as a slave, Nightingale was not sure how to comfort her. She gently patted her on her shoulder and said, "Not all people are like this. There are many kind-hearted people, for example, the sisters in Witch Cooperation Association, or... Prince Roland."

"Do you think... His Highness can really end the wars?" Echo whispered, "no matter where we're from, the kingdoms of the continent, Sand Nation, or the Fjords; no matter who we're, a witch or an ordinary man, we'll live together peacefully, instead of fighting each other. Do you think His Highness can really make this happen?"

"I believe His Highness can," Nightingale responded in a positive tone, "it's not because of the strange machines and powerful cannons he created, but because of him... I always think that His Highness is different from us."

"Of course he's different from us. He's a prince of Kingdom of Graycastle."

"No, not about his identity." She shook her head. "I can't tell the difference. It's just my instinct. Maybe only someone like His Highness can produce so many strange theories. He even repeatedly carries out studies to figure out our abilities. He also thinks in a different way. No matter what strange things he creates in the future, I won't be surprised."

"You really have confidence in him." Echo snorted with laughter. The sad expression on her face seemed to be lighter. "I hope when that day comes, I'll be able to revisit the Southernmost Region."

Confidence? In some aspects, yes. But in other aspects, she did not have any confidence. Nightingale could not help looking toward the Western Region. [What's he doing when I'm away? Is he busy with the blueprints and strange machines, or is he together with Anna?] She shook her head, trying to shake off these strange thoughts.

[At the end of this day, we would return to Border Town,] Nightingale thought. She would ask him directly; after all, he had not been lying to her.

…

At noon when they returned to the camp, Lightning slowly landed to have a rest.

During these days, she had the toughest work of all of them. She had to fly to patrol under the hot sun. Especially for concealing her from the guards, she had to wear a special sky-like camouflage coat made by Soraya, which tightly covered her body and even her hair. This outfit with a strange name given by His Highness was obviously not designed for a better appearance. Instead, it was coated with blue and grey patterns, which made her almost melt into the background when she flew. It would be hard to notice her without careful observation.

The first thing this little girl did after landing was to take off the coat and grab a water bag to drink. Nightingale noticed that her clothes inside the coat were completely wet, beads of sweat broke out on her forehead and nose, and her windproof glasses left a circle of marks on her white cheeks.

"You've done a hard work." Nightingale bent down to help her wipe the sweat.

"Fortunately, these people aren't coming endlessly from the Eastern Region." Lightning stuck out her tongue naughtily. "Or I'll really faint under such scorching sun."

"We can go home tomorrow, right?" Lily slouched to Lightning's side. "I haven't taken a shower for several days. I feel itchy from head to foot now."

Nightingale couldn't help laughing. When they were in the Witch Cooperation Association, they only got time to take a bath every half a month and no one complained. Now they couldn't tolerate it for just more than a week. She suddenly thought maybe the bathroom and scented soap were Prince Roland's "conspiracies". Since he invented those strange yet useful things, it was difficult for the witches to determine to leave Border Town.

However, peace was broken before the plan of shipment of refugees was completed. After lunch, Theo, who went to the king's city to gather information, came back with a bad news.

"Did you say... Dreamland Water is summoning its people and planning to surround the dock?" Iron Axe frowned.

"They 'may' plan to surround the dock." Theo corrected him. "The first part is a confirmed fact, while the second part is too strange for my informers to believe it. Now other Black Street organizations in the king's city have sprung into action, in case Dreamland Water suddenly attacks them. However, I don't think that 'surrounding the dock' was a smokescreen deliberately put up by Dreamland Water. I believe this news was accidentally leaked. It's very common for the Rats. After all, most of their members are rogues and dregs, so it's impossible for them to form some tightly-unified group. If my information is correct, Dreamland Water should have been controlled by some powerful force, otherwise, it's rare for them to leave their territories."

"They were just Rats," Iron Axe said with no regards, "If these people flee hither and thither, will it interrupt your plan of selling healing water?"

"I guess not," Theo said, "they can't interfere with the patrol team, so they're unlikely to stop me passing in and out the side city gate. After entering the city, Skeleton Fingers will protect the convoy to transport healing water. I'm worried about you, as I have to stay in the city tonight and supervise the sale of healing water. I'm afraid I can't see you off tomorrow morning."

"That's all right." Iron Axe patted his arm. "When His Highness comes in person to the king's city in the future, we'll meet again at that time."

Just as Nightingale had expected, at dusk, the last sailing ship which was full of refugees slowly left the dock, sailing toward Silver City. As for the over three hundred people unwilling to leave the king's city, they were ordered to scatter by Iron Axe.

Then all of them retreated to the other side of the canal, waiting for the arrival of the night.

Chapter 230 - The Assassination (Part I)

Before the sun completely disappeared behind the mountain, Faceless had already quietly crossed the canal and hid somewhere behind the mercenaries' camp.

Her real name was not Faceless, but Aphra. It meant dust and was given by Heather, an archbishop of Holy City of Hermes. She was fond of this name because dust was plain. Once it fell on the ground, it would be difficult to be recognized, just like her.

Only in front of Heather, would Aphra resume her real appearance.

As a member of the Tribunal, she had assisted Archbishop Heather to dispose of many Fallens, including witches who betrayed the church, and believers who were degenerated by the secular world. She came to the king's city under the archbishop's order to complete a crucial task, which was to transform a pious chief justice into the King of Graycastle. As for catching fallen witches, it was one of her leisure activities. She liked to imitate those witches who suffered from punishment and torture and then experienced all of their pains. That made her deeply understand the significance of what she did. It was also her atonement for owning the demon's power.

The mercenaries had chosen a clever place to set the camp. It was located on a slope surrounding the fields by the riverbank, making it difficult to observe their whereabouts from a lower place. She dared not to approach the camp, as she saw a witch flying in the air. Aphra had to hide in a farm warehouse, waiting to take actions after the nightfall.

When the night finally descended, she was surprised to discover that the situation had changed.

The mercenaries had already retreated from the dock to the camp. The morons from Dreamland Water were gathering by the riverbank, holding some torches up. They were literally telling the mercenaries that "We're going to attack your camp." Even if there was not any flying witch, at a quick glance, the mercenaries would know what was happening on the other side of the riverbank, as long as they were not all blind.

[That's too bad,] she thought, [If they know the Rats outnumber them and they have no chance to win, they'll certainly retreat to the east. Though a night march is bad for them, who cares it when they have to run to save their lives? They may run in all directions, while the Rats haven't encircled them yet. Dreamland Water has just occupied the dock and is slowly crossing the river by some rafts. When they finally surround the camp, the enemies will have been long gone. It's impossible for the Rats to chase enemies in the night. Then where can I search for those damn witches?]

Aphra hastened to the camp, hoping to mix into the mercenaries before they retreated.

But when she finally hurried closer to the camp, she was surprised by what she saw.

Some mercenaries were still on patrol around the camp, and the bonfire was burning high, there were shadows of people walking in the camp. It was different from her expectation, and everything was in order.

They did not choose to retreat?

After careful observation, Aphra confirmed her judgement and could not help laughing silently. She did not know why they chose to station here instead of running as quickly as possible. However, they were doomed to die. She drew a dagger from her belt and observed the action of the guards for a while, choosing the weakest position.

Her Excellency Heather had endowed her with the significance of life, and also taught skills of combat and assassination. The mercenaries were not broadly experienced elites, which could be told from their watch arrangement. The moment a mercenary turned to another direction, she crouched to approach him from a blind angle and then pounced on him from his back, one hand covering his mouth, the other stabbing the dagger into his throat.

After killing the mercenary without any noise, Aphra pressed him with one hand and laid another hand on her bosom, casting her substitution ability. This process could be long or short. When she replaced the king, to create a long-term effect, she almost used up all magic power in her body, and the substitution process lasted for about an hour. But now she did not need to bother. She transformed herself into the mercenary in a blink. The effect could only last for half a day, which was long enough for an assassination.

Before the patrol team returned, she quickly put on the clothes which she took off from the dead mercenary, and dragged his corpse into the wheat field. But she became a little confused when she picked up his weapon. It looked like an iron spear with a wooden handle. But where was supposed to be a spearhead was a dark hole instead.

Damn, what weapon is this?

She thought about it for a while but still failed to figure it out. Seeing the patrol team was approaching, she recalled what the mercenary did before and carried the weapon on her back, pretending to be on watch.

Just like in other assassinations she experienced before, the patrol team passed her without noticing anything strange.

Aphra did not haste to return to the camp and look for the witches. After all, through substitution ability, she was able to imitate a man's appearance, but she could not read his mind. If she met one of his acquaintances, she would be easily exposed. When these people fell into chaos under attack, she would have numerous assassination opportunities.

When the moon was hanging high in the sky, the morons of Dreamland Water finally managed to cross the canal, walking toward the camp. She immediately heard a whistle, while the mercenaries who were watching and patrolling retreated back to the camp. Her opportunity finally came.

Following them into the camp, she was shocked to find that there were far more than 100 mercenaries. They formed a long circle to surround the top of the slope, crouching or standing, holding that eccentric weapon in their hands, with the dark hole pointing to the enemies.

She had no time for a careful observation. When no one noticed her, she bent over and got into the nearest tent.

Soon shouting and cries broke out, which was interrupted by a burst of more fierce explosions. Aphra was startled as she found that the explosions were so intense and did not pause for a second.

"What on earth happened?" She wanted to have a look, but then she restrained her curiosity and patiently waited.

As time went by, the camp became busy again. She could hear footsteps and commands everywhere. Maybe they were adjusting defense forces according to the attack of the Rats. Aphra felt anxious, as the Rats hadn't occupied the slope yet after such a long time. How was that possible?

She continued to wait. The explosion sounds gradually became less and less, and she could no longer hear the shouting of the Rats. Thinking of this, Aphra's heart sank.[Are... the dregs of Dreamland Water defeated? Even if the number of mercenaries doubled, there were at most two or three hundred. How are they able to fight against thousands of Rats from all directions and prevent them from stepping on the slope?]

Her opportunity seemed to be leaving.

Aphra immediately decided to get out of the tent. Then she sneaked to the center of the camp. When the combat was finished and they began to have a roll call, it would be difficult for her to pretend in front of everyone. After all, she didn't make full preparation this time, so she was familiar with the members of the mercenary group and their passwords. She had to act quickly.

After passing two tents, Aphra then hid behind a tent, secretly looking towards the central area of the camp. She saw four women sitting by the bonfire. They were probably the witches described in the information. The number was not correct, but the damn information was never accurate. What's more, it did not matter if she had to kill two or four witches. Any suspected Fallen should be interrogated, or be killed in case time is limited for interrogation. Even if she was not a Fallen, that was a necessary sacrifice.

She looked around to plan her retreating route. Then she stood up from behind the tent and walked towards the bonfire as if nothing had happened.

The moment she stepped into the central area, she felt something cold and hard against the back of her head.

"Don't move," a woman said, "who're you?"

Chapter 231 - The Assassination (Part II)

Faceless felt a chill on her back. She could not help thinking, [How was it possible?]

She swallowed her saliva and lowered her voice. "Are you kidding? I'm Vorte."

[It's impossible that she happens to know Vorte. After all, there're so many mercenaries in the camp; can she remember everyone's name?]

She did not expect to hear a reply with a sneer. "Really? I never knew that magic power would also gather inside a man's body. You're either a witch who tries to get something from the camp, or you're an extremely rare wizard. No matter what your answer is, it's impossible you're 'Vorte'. I never saw such an eccentric soldier like you in the First Army."

She... was able to see the demonic power? Aphra's heart sank at her words. Now she knew why she was exposed. There were more than four witches in the camp, and the woman behind her was also a witch, whose ability was probably similar to the Eye of Truth. This kind of ability was recorded in the "Canon of Magic" of the church. As one of the hundreds of derivative skills, it was not in conflict with the main ability.

[I haven't seen anyone around me or approach, so... her main ability is invisibility?]

"Kneel down and put your hands behind your back, then I may spare your life," the woman shouted, "do as I tell you."

The mercenaries were still fighting outside the camp, so they didn't notice what took place in the central area. But the four witches by the bonfire realized that something happened and turned their sight to them, "What's wrong, Nightingale? What happened?"

Aphra realized this was her last opportunity. She was good at assassination instead of direct combat. Especially when she did not wear any God's Stone of Retaliation, she got no edge on witches with various strange abilities. It did not matter that the flying witch would escape, but she had to kill the witch who was able to cure the demonic plague, as she was a great threat to the church's plan.

It was also possible that she would not be able to escape after she killed the witch. Thinking of that, she felt a heavy heart but soon calmed down again. To unify the four kingdoms and resist the demons from the hell with all forces, the church had sacrificed many excellent soldiers. She would be proud to contribute to this great course.

She believed that Heather would not forget her, and her name would be recorded in the Canon in the future.

"Don't come over," the witch named Nightingale shouted, "here's a..."

At that very instant, Aphra suddenly moved, turning back to raise her elbow to hit Nightingale's arm, and simultaneously lowered her head to avoid her weapon. Anyone who was talking was unable to be utterly focused. That was why her coach repeatedly told her to hold breath when she was caught. What's more, if she wanted to escape or counterattack, she would better grasp the opportunity when the opposite side was talking.

The trigger hidden in her sleeve was simultaneously pulled, with white powder spurting backward. This alchemic powder would release abundant heat when it met water. If it was thrown into the enemy's eyes or mouth, it would make her instantly impotent. Even if she was lucky enough to avoid the powder, she would be in a panic for a while.

Then Aphra pounced on the four witches by the bonfire. A blonde witch immediately flew up. Another witch who appeared to be the oldest stepped in front of the other two witches, trying to protect them in regardless of her own safety. Aphra drew out a sharp and slender short sword and stabbed toward that witch. She would kill all of them anyway, so it did not matter who she would kill first.

At the moment when her short sword pierced that witch, Aphra saw an incredible scene.

A white shadow appeared in front of her, with eyes under the hood flickering with anger. But no one stood there just a blink before.

[Is it... Nightingale who was behind me?]

[Why isn't she affected by the powder spurting from a short distance?"] Faceless could not believe what she saw. Nightingale raised her hands, and then a flame burst out from her shining silver weapon. Faceless felt that she was fiercely pushed backward by something. She immediately lost her balance and fell back onto the ground. No, she had to... kill the other two witches. She struggled to get up and draw her sword to stab next witch, but she failed. She could barely raise her arm, and soon she fell into a comma.

[What a pity...] That was her last thought.

…

Nightingale was startled after she fired. She stood there, watching the soldier who got hit in his chest fall down. His body began to twist and shrink, slowly turning into an unknown young woman.

This was her first time to kill a witch by herself.

She did not recover from her thoughts until she heard Lily's anxious cry.

She tried to suppress her wild thoughts. Then she put back her pistol and ran to Wendy.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I don't feel any pain." Wendy waved her hand, indicating that they did not need to worry. "I guess the sword didn't pierce through the clothes."

"Did the protective clothing work?"

"I suppose so." She unbuttoned her coat, only to find that the sword hanging on her coat. When her coat was opened, the sword fell out of the hole to the ground, without any blood on it. Only the external layer of the protective clothing was pierced with a small hole, while the soft internal layer was not damaged at all.

"I, I'm really scared." Lily gave a deep sigh and fell on the ground out of relief. "Why did you try to parry the sword for me. I don't need you to do that for me. I, I, I..."

"All right." Wendy gently touched her head. "You see, nothing happened."

Lily leaned on Wendy's bosom with her head drooping, grunting with an upset.

"I was also scared when I stood there. I even forgot to use my ability." Wendy shook her head. "If I had blown a strong wind, she wouldn't have been able to stab me."

"Because you rarely fight with others, so it's normal that you can't react quickly." Nightingale tried to comfort her.

"Fortunately, we have the protective clothing," Echo said with a terrified look, "or we would have been in danger."

Before their departure, His Highness gave each witch a special vest and demanded that they should never take it off. The vest was very light yet very thick, and it was composed of many layers. According to the description of His Highness, each silk layer was coated with Soraya's sky coating, which made it highly flexible and hard to be pierced through by sharp swords, knives, and crossbow bolts. If Wendy had not been protected by the vest, she would probably not be able to survive and wait for Nana's treatment.

Lightning slowly landed beside the dead witch. "Why did she attack us? Isn't she one of us?"

Nightingale stared at that dead woman for a long time, not knowing how to answer Lightning's question. The eyes of that witch were closed, and her blue long hair spread on the ground. She had a peaceful expression on her face, so it seemed that she did not suffer too much. But Nightingale would not forget that she pounced toward Wendy without any hesitation. At that moment, her eyes were filled with firm determination as if she was not trying to kill someone, but to fulfill her life-long duty. Maybe in her heart, what she did was absolutely right.

"No." Nightingale sighed. "She's not one of us... She's just a pathetic person."

Chapter 232 - The Shadow Islands

"The Fjords are blessed with countless islands and no one has seen the borders of those islands," a tall and bold man with a rough appearance said. "The more eastward you go, the more unpredictable the climate is, and the same is true of the islands. What's worse, I don't know how strange they'll be in the end."

"Have you also never been here?" Tilly asked curiously, "They said that you're the excellent adventurer, and that only you dare to cross Searing Flame Island and continue going eastward."

"Hahaha," he said with a hearty laugh, "This is an exaggerated praise. In fact, there're brave people of the Fjords crossings to the east every year, but it's hard to find anything new. A storming hurricane and sudden fog will make the ships difficult to move."

He was Thunder, Ashes thought, an adventurer who was the first one to discover Shadow Islands. However, many people thought that he had been killed since he disappeared in a shipwreck two years ago. Unexpectedly, he showed up in Sleeping Island and reached an agreement with Princess Tilly—he bore a responsibility to blaze new trails, chart maps, and discover new ruins for Sleeping Island while Tilly dispatched witches to assist him. As for the two-year disappearance, Thunder never told and Tilly was indisposed to talk, but she always thought Tilly knew the inside story, otherwise, they could not have such a tacit understanding, which made Ashes feel unhappy.

"Like yesterday's hurricane?"

"Yes, it both came and went in the blink of an eye." Thunder shook his tobacco pipe, sprinkling ashes into the sea and then filled in some tobacco. "But for a mysterious witch..."

"Her name is Molly." Ashes reminded him callously.

"Ah, yes, look at my memory." Without taking it seriously, Thunder touched the backside of his head and smiled. "Without Molly, the ship would have been capsized. And I often think that her magic power is so amazing that witches may be the most qualified adventurers."

"There already are, aren't there?" Tilly smiled. "... Witches who bear the name of the best adventurers."

"Hmm..." Thunder sucked his pipe and exhaled a long string of smoke. "I hope so."

"Come on." Ashes frowned and had no idea about what they said, so she left the bow for the stern to calm her mood down. Princess Tilly seemed to be very urgent to explore new ruins, so after cleaning up the church of the Fjords, she set out to prepare for sailing. But to her surprise, no matter how much she tried to dissuade her, Her Highness asked to go in person.

Sitting on the stern, Molly was controlling her magic servant to hold a fishing pole to learn fishing from the sailors. Even though the sailors were not happy about her being on board, their attitudes changed completely after yesterday's hurricane—the magic servant summoned by Molly expanded rapidly so that the middle part of the sailing ship was embedded into his body, which protected them from storming winds and heavy rains. Even if the ship floated on the sea fluctuating, its body kept stable. Therefore, each sailor considered witches the gods of luck and even said that they dare not sail without the company of witches.

"Sister Ashes, I got a big fish!" Molly pointed at a bucket behind her where there was a scaleless fish with a sharp beak, completely different from the freshwater fish in Graycastle.

"What's that?"

"Swordfish. They like to follow ships, and sometimes they would destroy the bottom of a ship with their beaks," a sailor replied, "but they're delicious, especially the meat on its stomach, like a piece of melting ice when it's placed into your mouth." He smacked his lips. "In the evening, we can all enjoy the tasty, fresh swordfish."

"I may have another fish!" Molly was surprised.

She saw a dark shadow under the green water. As the magic servant pulled his fishing pole more and more powerfully, the more the shadow emerged from the sea.

"This, this is." The sailor was stunned. "No, drop your pole immediately!"

Before those words were finished, a monstrous creature popped out from the water and opened its big mouth biting directly towards Molly.

The moment that Molly was about to be swallowed whole, Ashes, at a faster speed than the creature, held the little girl with her left hand and swayed her giant sword in her right hand to directly clap on the creature's head.

The monster made a painful noise and was dropped down from the air forcefully, but it moved quickly with its six legs and wanted to escape into the water. However, Ashes did not give it an opportunity. She put Molly down and held the sword with both hands and struck downward to nail it directly to the deck.

It twitched for a while, exhaling a string of white bubbles, and soon stopped moving.

"What's this?" At the moment, Ashes had the opportunity to look carefully at the monster in front of her. It was somewhat like a fish with a crab's short feet, and its mouth was open and rounded, almost as large as its body and filled with dense teeth. The most disgusting thing was that there was a pair of furry arms on both sides of its mouth, and the ends were divided into five fingers, looking like human hands.

"A mutant sea ghost!" Still suffering from the shock, the sailor patted his chest. "They are often disguised as fish and will bite the fisherman and drag them into the water. And I've heard that the sea ghost, having eaten humans, can grow hands!"

"That last sentence is only a rumor," said someone behind her. Ashes turned her head to find that Thunder and Tilly had both come over.

"Mr. Captain!" The sailor stuck his tongue out and made room for him.

"The more formidable the rumor is, the more incorrect it'll be." Thunder stepped forward and kicked the monster on the ground. "In fact, it has a name you might be more familiar with."

"What?" Ashes asked.

"Demonic beasts," he said word by word.

"Mr. Thunder, there's fog!" suddenly the lookout shouted.

"Everyone must cheer up!" Thunder ordered loudly, "Drop the sail down. We're sailing into the waters of Shadow Islands!"

Ashes noticed that a sunny sky had almost suddenly darkened and that the green waters had turned into ink green as if a mass of ink was unfolding under the water. After a while, the ship was shrouded in dense fog whereby, and at the stern, she could not see people clearly at the bow.

"What happened?" Tilly could not help catching Ashes' arm.

"This proves that we did not go wrong." Thunder smiled. "When Shadow Islands emerge from the sea, the waters will be covered by fog. Of course, the correct statement is that the sea is ebbing with a range of about 110 feet, so that a huge decline will produce a lot of water vapor, coupled with reefs everywhere, so a little bit of carelessness will lead the ship to be stranded and sunk. Therefore, I need you witches to protect the ship from crashing."

They all came to the bow. Just like against that hurricane, Molly ordered the magic servant to enwrap the bow and expand his body as much as he possibly could with one part of his body deep into the water. So if there were hidden reefs in front of them, the servant would have felt them first.

"What if there weren't any witches?" Ashes asked.

"It would only depend on patience and luck." Thunder sighed. "We would send a boat to explore the road ahead and ensure that there weren't any dangers, and then we'd follow forward. However, this area of water isn't so tranquil, for demonic beasts, like you've seen before, will become more and more plentiful as we got closer and closer to Shadow Islands. The mist, reefs, and monsters... they're why many adventurers went there, but few of them could find the entrance to the ruins."

After another hour of sailing, the Mist faded away gradually and Ashes saw more and more islands surrounding her. However, there were not any plants, but only green moss or algae and crustaceans on the islands. "Are these islands sunk into water?"

"Yes, just like Sleeping Island, but the gap between ebb and flood tides is much shorter, almost once in half a month," Thunder replied, "What's more, the speed of flood tides is very fast as if there's a huge hole which madly engulfs the surrounding seawater. And, I even guess that it has a huge influence on the changing sea levels of the whole Fjords. If we're lucky, we can witness the whole process of its main island emerging from the bottom of the sea."

Chapter 233 - The Ancient Ruins

The more eastward they went, the thinner the mist became. But the sky was still darkened, as if the sun could not shine in these waters.

In addition, the surrounding reefs were becoming higher and higher, turning into sturdy stone pillars. Somehow, though the water line was declining, the ship still sailed at a steady speed. Even the waves became smaller and the sea was as tranquil as a windless lake.

Tilly asked puzzledly, "Why not enter the Shadow Islands waters after waiting for the seawater to completely recede? Once the reefs are exposed, you won't be afraid of crashing into them."

"Because before the seawater recedes, we can see the Ghost Shadow Red River, which is the only way to lead us to the ruins," Thunder explained. "The locations of these pillar-like islands aren't stable, and vary from each ebb and flood tide. Besides, most markers would be flooded so that they can't be used for positioning."

"The Ghost Shadow... Red River?" She repeated.

"Right. Look at this..." Thunder whistled, pointing to the bow.

The witches looked in the direction that he pointed, only seeing several red shadows under the ink-green seawater—they flashed past, just like phantoms. But soon, two or three more red shadows flashed past again, and this time Ashes found out that they were fish, red in their whole bodies.

"These're... fish?"

Thunder touched his jaw and smiled. "They're red-scale fish, unique to Shadow Islands. After a while, you'll see the real face of the Ghost Shadow Red River."

Gradually, more and more fish appeared in flocks instead of two or three and swam together toward the stern. Looking far ahead, Ashes was shocked at this phenomenon—as more and more fish joined this flock, there was a dark red, thick line appearing in the sea. Apparently, the sailing ship marched on by following this red line, and she could hear the sound of striking from time to time as those fish swam through the bottom of the ship.

Out of the blue, she realized that this was the Ghost Shadow Red River he had mentioned—a non-existing peculiar river! As the ship marched on, this intense fish flock expanded itself to admit several ships to sail abreast. It was as if the ink-green seawater had disappeared with the ship marching on the fish flock. If the two directions were not opposite, she could think that the ship was being held up by them.

Surprised, Tilly asked, "Why would this happen?"

Ashes also wanted to ask this question, because such a phenomenon would never take place in Graycastle or other kingdoms—the enshrouding mist, darkened sky, peculiar giant stones, as well as a "river" made of red-scale fish. For the first time, she was astonished by the sea's spectacular scenery.

Thunder continued to say, "That's because its main island is like a triangular spire with a huge empty hole centered on the tower and red-scale fish love to lay eggs in the hole to pass down. Each time the ebb arrives, the empty hole emerges from it and these fish are the first to sense the change and rush over in great numbers. Therefore, as long as we're following along the Ghost Shadow Red River, we'll arrive at the main island of Shadow Islands."

"Captain Thunder, there's a giant blockade ahead of us, like a mountain!" the observer shouted.

He shook his pipe. "We're almost there. Ladies, welcome to Shadow Islands!"

Soon, Ashes could also see the main island. Just as Thunder described, it was as if it was made of several triangles, narrow toward the top with a wide bottom, and its surface looked very smooth at first sight and not like it was naturally made. However, it was a little stunning to say that the whole spire was cut by people because the exposed spire body was almost similar to the size of half a city, and the hole in the middle was big enough to hold the Tower of Babel of the Hermes' church.

Seawater still receded and water on top of the giant hole was flowing down like a fountain, while the submerged part deep into the water was covered by the fish flock, painting the waters in front of her red. Ashes thought secretly that there were, perhaps, ten million red-scale fishes living in the hole.

Until it was dark, seawater retreated back to the bottom of the hole. At that moment, Thunder ordered sailors to anchor and tie the ship to a copper pillar in the hole with sturdy long ropes. Standing on the edge of the hole, people could see a perforated mouth at the opposite side—sunlight from the two sides could only illuminate a very small area and its center area was in darkness, which made people feel depressed.

"These pillars were left by you last time?" Ashes asked.

Thunder shook his head. "No. They were here when I first came, so I guess that they might have been built by the ruins' owner."

"Where... are the ruins?"

He pointed upward with a smile on this face. "Right above us, and we're already standing on the entry to the ruins."

…

The rest of journey was quite unimaginable. Following Thunder, the witches entered from a stone gate in the bottom of the huge hole and stepped upward along those gurgling stairs. Even though everyone held torches, their shaking fire, compared to these endless stairs, was weak and tiny.

Walking forward in the dark abyss, Tilly held Ashes' arm closely and lost her usual calm.

This was the princess she was familiar with, Ashes thought. Princess Tilly was famous for having her own thoughts and being confident when facing any difficulties in the palace but her greatest weakness was fear of darkness. Even when going to bed, her room must have lit candles. So after escaping the palace, Ashes would escort her to sleep if that was not possible.

Walking in the dark and dampened spire, Ashes instead felt much happier.

There were no demonic beasts, nor tricks stopping intruders—though if there were, they might be ineffective after a long time soaking in seawater. The only trouble was that, after a long time of stepping upward, all of them were exhausted so their actions became sluggish. Thus, when the stairs reached their end, the team all cheered.

The last barrier of the ruins was not made of stone, but metal, and reflected luminous light against the torches. Thunder pushed the gate with two hands, and then the heavy planks made noise and opened slowly.

With one hand holding a sword, Ashes was the first to enter, and after ensuring that there were not any dangers, Tilly and the other witches were allowed to step in.

After torches were hung on the walls, a spacious hall appeared before them. As spacious as it was, it was empty, without anything worthy of being researched.

"This is the ruins?" Ashes touched on the stone desk that looked green due to being soaked in water. "There's nothing except for some stone desks and chairs."

Thunder nodded. "There's indeed nothing. Because of being soaked in water for a long time, nothing can be preserved except for stones. I've told Princess Tilly, but she insisted on coming here personally."

Tilly asked, "How about those red stones? Where did you find them?"

"On the ground. There were maybe dozens of stones scattered on the ground at that time."

However, there was nothing. Ashes lowered her head to see the slippery ground where seaweed had grown. More than one adventurer had arrived here, so it was impossible to find Magic Stones after many times looting.

But Tilly was still excited. Holding a torch, she looked carefully at each corner and even asked the sailors to add more torches to see the greatly dampened corners. Molly summoned out her Magic Servant to flatten itself on the ground and serve as a cushion for them to sit down on. Ashes accompanied Tilly to see her touching the walls.

"Hey." Princess Tilly stopped suddenly. "What's this?"

Following her sight, Ashes saw a wall covered with green algae, reflecting some firelight.

Tilly tore off the green algae to see a gemstone revealed with half of it hidden inside the wall—as red as the others, it was shining like a magic stone. Shaped like a prism, it was as thick as an arm but its edge was embedded with golden filaments as if it was fixed inside by a card slot. However, even though it had steeped in the seawater for such a long time, the golden filament was still bright and clear.

Tilly tried to pull it out but the gemstone stayed motionless.

"Let me try," Ashes said.

Princess Tilly shook her head and appeared to think of something, and then she touched the prism with her eyes closed.

Suddenly, there was a flash in the center of the prism—Ashes thought that there had been something wrong with her eyes, but a rumbling echo appeared behind the wall like something had been triggered, and it soon spread to the entire hall. A crunching friction noise enveloped the wall and soft white lights came from the wall, even the ceilings became bright.

Panicked, the sailors stood up, pulling out their swords, but did not know which side should be defended. Finally, standing back to back closely and surrounding Molly's Magic Servant, they gathered together.

However, there were no monsters coming out.

When the noise disappeared, the hall had become luminous.

Chapter 234 - [The Door]

"This... how on earth did you do this?" Thunder's mouth was agape in amazement.

The walls were dotted with dozens of holes. Each hole was positioned in a piece of stone and emitted a pure white light. Moreover, even on the edge of the ceiling there was a circle of this amazing Stone of Light. They could see every detail of the hall under this soft light.

It was the first time that Ashes had seen the explorer make such an expression. She could not help but feel pleased. "Didn't you know? When a witch forces power into the Magic Stone, it can stimulate the extra ability."

"Are these Magic stones?"

Thunder carefully picked up a piece of glowing stone. Holding it in his hands, even without the holes, its light did not diminish in the slightest.

"I don't know." Tilly shook her head. "These stones may have been glowing here for hundreds of years, if the relics had such a long history. They were all hidden behind the slates, so nobody could find them. Only witches can operate this special switch."

"You didn't light them up?"

"No, they can glow on their own." Tilly grabbed a piece of the Magic stone, closing her eyes. The white light reflected on her beautiful features. "If it's a device that requires magic to keep it going, it would be impossible to take it down so easily, just like candlelight can't easily leave a candle. The holes in the wall are only the positions of the Stone of Light, they're nothing special."

"Assuming you're right, and they can be luminous on their own, and continually bright for hundreds of years, then their value is simply immeasurable," Thunder said, "The snow crystal produced in the Kingdom of Everwinter, isn't half as bright as this. A piece the size of a fist can be sold for hundreds of gold royals."

When the sailors heard this, they all stared at the stones. The expression in their eyes suddenly changed.

"As we agreed, you can take half of them," Tilly said vaguely. This was not her focus. Now that there was plenty of light, she could explore the hall more carefully. Ashes did not want her to pull down the seaweed with her hands, so she simply picked up the sword, and cut all of it from the wall. Soon they found the second hidden Magic Stone.

Tilly poured her magic power into it in the same way. Accompanied by the crisp sound of a metal crash, everyone was surprised to see a huge slate appear above Tilly's head. Both sides were held by copper cords, it appeared to be a ladder. The bottom of the slate slowly fell to the ground, the other side led to the top of the ceiling. When Ashes looked up, she saw a metal door at the end of the channel.

"Tilly," seeing Princess Tilly go up the stairs on her own without any hesitation, Ashes could not help saying, "let me go first."

"Go ahead, this isn't a treasure land." She climbed to the top of the stone ladder, holding a Magic Stone next to the door. The metal door opened quickly.

Seeing Tilly enter through the door and disappear into the ceiling, Ashes had no choice but to keep up with her. She kept her sword in her hand.

Ashes could not help staring at the ceiling. She saw that there was a room much smaller than the hall, and the wall in the room was embedded with the Stone of Light just like the wall below. What surprised her more, was that there was no water damage.

There was a wooden table, a chair, a bookshelf, and a cabinet. All the furnishings were intact, covered with thick dust, and one could even see a broken spider web. A row of books was neatly placed on the bookshelf. Everything was covered in gray dust. An old book sat open on the table, as well as a cup, a kettle and a penholder. The quill pen was merely a pole, and the ink had long dried up. Compared to the hall which was full of algae and shells, this room seemed to belong to another world.

Thunder climbed up thirdly, then looked around after pouring cold lump. 'here is...'

"It's an abandoned residence," said Tilly. She opened the book on the table, patted the dust, and read it page by page. "Someone lived here for a long time."

"What does it say?"

"I don't know." She shook her head and showed them the book. "I've never seen these words before."

"The book on the shelf seems to be the same." Ashes wiped the dust on the spine off with her finger. The words contained strange wavy lines, and no one could comprehend their meaning.

"We can take it back and examine it," Tilly laughed and said, "and according to our agreement, the books and the Magic Stones belong to me."

"Of course," Thunder said, touching his beard, "but I hope that when you find something out about this place, you can share this old story with me."

"No problem."

…

The three of them searched the second floor carefully and soon had a general idea of the place.

They did not find any new Magic Stones, but on the other side of the room they found something strange. At first glance, it looked like a thick metal pipe—one side was embedded into the stone wall, and the other side shrunk gradually to the size of a wrist. At the end, there was a glass lens.

"What's this?" Ashes knocked on the pipe, and a series of crisp echoes came out from it. Apparently, the middle was hollow.

"It looks like a telescope for sailing, maybe the people living here used it to observe the outside world." Thunder brought it closer to her eyes for a better look. "You can't see anything through it. Perhaps it's broken."

"I'm not sure." Tilly pointed to the wall behind the metal pipe. "Look there."

Ashes looked in the direction Tilly pointed, and saw a copper board with a handle on the wall. There was a small hole below the handle, it appeared to be a keyhole. Princess Tilly went over and tried to pull the handle. The board did not budge. "It's locked."

"Let me try." Ashes held the handle and pulled hard. The entire copper board suddenly fell from the wall.

"Ha, you're right." Thunder applaud. "It's also a Magic Stone switch."

A huge Magic Stone was stuck in a groove behind the copper board. It was different from the former two, looking much larger and slightly purple.

"Do you want to activate it?" Ashes asked.

"Yes." Tilly nodded her head without hesitation. She held the stone with her two hands, but nothing changed.

"What's the matter?"

"It's too big," she said, beads of sweat appearing on her forehead, "I can feel it's absorbing magic power constantly. It seems that the installation behind it is huge."

"How about you forget it," Ashes said frowning. She knew that once the magic power exhausted, the witch would likely go directly into a coma. Spending all her magic power in such a dangerous place was clearly not a good idea.

"No, it's almost finished, I can feel it." The words had barely left her lips when a thunderous crash came from the wall and the whole room began to shake.

"Is this... an earthquake?" Thunder held the metal pipe to prevent himself from falling down. Ashes seized Tilly into her arms at once. Dust had fallen down, and everyone was coughing.

The vibration lasted nearly 15 minutes, and then gradually calm was restored.

Molly leaned out from the stairs. "What just happened?"

"A new installation," said Ashes, "is everything okay downstairs? "

"Everyone was freaking out, and some parts of the roof collapsed, but fortunately, I used magic power to cover them." The little girl walked closer to her and asked, "Lady Tilly, what're you looking at?"

To her surprise, Tilly did not answer her, her eyes were focused on the end of the metal pipe. After a long time, she sighed. "It is simply incredible..."

Curious, Ashes came forward to look. What she saw was so shocking that she could not speak.

At the other end of the "telescope" emerged a vast land, the edge of which seemed like a cliff, so deep that you could not see the end. A huge stone arch stood in the middle of the cliff, and the door was deep and dark like an enormous mouth that could eat anyone.

Chapter 235 - An unexpected Letter

Roland opened the letter, and handed Maggie a piece of beef jerky.

"Coo!" She took the meat and swallowed after chewing two or three times, and then she obediently groveled on the table, burying her head in her feathers.

"Nice to hear from you, my dear brother, or 'Roland Wimbledon Your Highness.'"

[I have received your letter, for your opinion, I deeply agree. I'm not clear about why you suddenly changed your temper since you were once a playboy. But now you are even willing to help the witches. Since you have done so, the church becomes our common enemy. ]

"You may already know that I've become a witch, which is why they're willing to believe me. While you're a prince, a real noble, it's quite incredible for you to have gained the trust of so many witches. Since I heard your news, I've often wondered how you were able to manage this? If you were using the witches as a tool like other nobles, it would be impossible to get the recognition of Ashes and she would not have chosen to let Maggie stay in Border Town."

"In addition, I'm also very interested in what Maggie mentioned about the steam engine, as well as the theory of promoting our ability with knowledge, especially the latter. I hope to have the opportunity to talk to you in detail."

" As for your invitation, I've thought carefully, and found that I have no reason to refuse. The establishment of an alliance requires trust and effort, and if we're all hesitant and timid, then only the church will benefit. So, I'll list most of the assistant witches in Sleeping Island along with their ability in a form, and include it with my letter. You can choose the ability you need most and notify me through Maggie. If everything goes well, they'll depart next month for your territory. For security reasons, it's best that you don't choose more than five."

"In addition, please provide a reliable transfer program, and protect every witch when they're on their way. The loss of any witch would be a major loss for Border Town and Sleeping Island, and it would cast a shadow on our cooperation. I hope you'll take care of these witches as you take care of your witches. If it's all right, please also let them participate in the evening classes, I believe that, for us, any witch's ability to become more powerful is good news."

"As you mentioned, the church has shown its true colors and it's only a matter of time before they take over the four kingdoms. I hope that when the day comes, you'll be ready for it. If it's too difficult to resist, then Sleeping Island will be your harbor. And of course, I'll assist you with everything I've obtained during the church's invasion."

"Finally, I hope that we can end the oppression of the church and build a new order—a new kingdom, in this kingdom, not only witches but also everyone will never be persecuted."

"Your sister, Tilly Wimbledon."

Roland put down the letter, with indescribable pleasure in his heart. He smiled and put the letter away. He took out a piece of beef jerky and gave it to Maggie.

She immediately stretched out her head and pecked at the food. "Coo, coo!"

He touched the smooth feathers on her neck and she squinted her eyes warmly.

"You've had a long day. Lightning went to the king's city with the sailing platoon, and it should be a few days before she comes back," Roland smiled and said, "you can go play with Nana or Leaf, or take a bath and have a good night's rest."

"Coo, coo!" Maggie lifted her wings, and then jumped from the table, flew out the window, and soon disappeared.

Roland realized that she just said that she was not tired and would go play with them. Although speaking in the pigeon state, he could understand what she had said.

Was this the power of habit?

Anyway, he had never imagined that Tilly would actually agree with his invitation, and even never mind provide a list of the witches' abilities. What a treasure! Although the letter did not state how long they could stay, it would take at least half a year to finish the primary education course. If he added "A Hundred Thousand Whys", the course would extend to a year. How many changes could these witches bring to Border Town in that time?

The benefits of their evolution were far greater than the disadvantages—if they stayed in the town, they would promote the development efficiently, even if they returned back to the Sleeping Island, it would also be a lively publicity. With these witches' words, more and more witches would be willing to go to Border Town, and Tilly could not stop this trend. Roland believed that, compared with the inducement or coercion, sincereness was the real long-term plan.

In general, the surprise brought to him by this letter was far greater than he expected. Her enlightened and positive attitude made him have a feeling of meeting a super hero partner. Thus in the fight against the church, he was no longer alone. As for the safe shuttle route, he considered properly a long time ago—to avoid Port of Clearwater and Seawindshire, directly landed from the uninhabited bund at the edge of Border Town in the south. After arriving in the mountain area, they could take the hot air balloon to over the mountain, directly access to the hinterland of the town, and they would not care about the church, the forces of Timothy or Garcia in the whole process.

The more he thought, the more Roland felt excited. He eased his strong impulsion to immediately browse the appendix to choose the witch. He focused on the matter which had to be done now—after all, the witches from Sleeping Island would come in next month, and now the most important problem in Border Town was the housing construction.

Since the First Army had gone to the king's city, the fugitives from the other side had been escaping to the town continually. In order to prevent the recurrence of demonic plague, Roland had arranged them in the city wall of the Western Region. They had put up a long string of wooden sheds for them to live in. With the addition of the serfs who were farming along Redwater River, the total number of the two groups would be more than 8,000. This figure would likely break 10,000 once the fugitives arrived.

It was possible to supply food to these people. After all, since the Months of Demons, there had been no interruption to the food supply in Border Town. The accommodation, however, was clearly a big problem. It was summer now, so living in simple wooden sheds would be okay for them, if it could shelter them from rain and sunshine. The only issue was that there were many mosquitos and insects. But once winter came, the wooden sheds would be almost the same as being out in the open air. The temperature inside the sheds would be the same as the temperature outside. If he did not move them into brick houses, it was likely that most people would not make it through the long winter. In other words, Border Town needed housing for at least 10,000 people within six months.

Roland spread out a piece of paper and began to write.

He intended to move some of the workers who were building the Kingdom Main Street road to the housing construction. After all, a delay of 10 to 15 days to finish the road would not create any problems. But if people in his territory froze to death, it would be a stain on his accomplishments. Even when he had first arrived here, when faced with no money or aid, still nobody had frozen or starved to death during the first Months of Demons. And now he had the Witches Union and the steam engine, as well as considerable income and staff. He could not allow such a thing happen.

Carter entered the office.

"Your Highness, I have bad news," he said, looking serious, "your chemical lab just exploded."

Chapter 236 - The Chemical Accident

After Roland arrived at the lab on Redwater River, he soon found that the damage was not as serious as he had imagined. The main lab where acid was prepared had remained intact with only two of the glass windows broken in half.

"Your Highness, please help our mentor. He's heavily hurt and dying."

Upon Roland's appearance, a crowd of anxious students tried to gather around him, only to be stopped by the guards. Roland made a hand movement, signaling everyone to calm down for a moment. "Where's he now? Let me have a look first." Then he turned to Carter, asking in a low voice. "Where's Nana?"

"I've asked someone to send for her. She'll come soon."

"Good."

Roland nodded and entered the lab with his guards.

Kyle Sichi lay on the ground with blood trailing off from his body in a manner that suggested he might have been dragged to the main lab from the accident site. His face was smeared with blood and pus, which should have been caused by the sputtering strong acid during the explosion and a few fingers were gone from his hands, leaving white bones visible.

The students had given him some first aid. It seemed that they had gone through similar accidents in Redwater City, and so they could perform the procedures of taking the injured person away from the accident site, stopping the bleeding and seeking help in a proper fashion. However, the injury would have been incurable if it were only treated with herbs and left for self-recovery as usual.

Roland asked his men to guard the door and wait for Nana while he and Carter sought to retrieve the chief alchemist's fingers. Otherwise, even if the little girl cured him, it would be impossible for him to continue the chemical experiments. That would also mean a great loss for Border Town.

"It looks as if a storm has hit," Carter held his nose and said, "and it smells so bad, so strange!"

"It's the smell of nitrogen dioxide." Roland glanced around the small room that had its windows all thrown open. They were unlikely to be poisoned by the remaining gas. The glass bottles on laboratory rig were all shattered, acid water trickled down and formed tiny streams on the ground.

"Remember to look for the fingers with tools. Never touch them with your own hands." The prince warned. "There're gloves in the cabinet."

Since Soraya's power evolved, he sent a dozen thin corrosion-resistant gloves to the labs. But he could tell from the alchemist's condition that he had performed the experiment without gloves. If he had worn gloves, they would have kept his fingers inside despite the explosion.

One item in the cabinet above the laboratory rig caught Roland's attention. He found to his amazement, after taking it out, that the bottle with a peculiar design contained actually the white liquor sold in Convenience Market. There was no more than a half of its content left in the bottle.

Kyle went so far as to bring white liquor into the lab! It was hard to imagine that an experienced chief alchemist would drink during an experiment!

"Your Highness, Miss Nana is here!" one of the guards said.

"Okay, continue to guard the door and keep the students out." Roland returned to the main lab while Carter kept looking for the fingers among glass fragments.

"Is it him?" Nana gradually got used to treating serious injuries. She had grown from being the little girl who did not dare to look at blood or fainted in the face of horrible wounds. She had grown a lot, both in terms of competence and courage.

"Please treat the caustic burns on his face first." Roland nodded. "Carter's looking for his fingers. You'll help reattach them back to where they were."

"There's no need to do that." Nana gave a small complacent smile. "I can cure such tiny injuries directly now."

Roland was startled as he watched in a daze. Nana put her hands on the alchemist's chest, closed her eyes and then a dramatic change immediately took place upon Kyle. Within a few seconds his face resumed its former look and his missing fingers grew back slowly. First bones, then flesh and skin, at last nails and hair. After a quarter of an hour, his fingers were completely the same as before.

At this moment, Carter came out of the side lab. "Your Highness, only three were found. I think the other finger might have been blown to pieces... Uh?"

"Since when could you do that?" Roland asked in surprise.

"Around a week or so. When I did the training on chicks, I found that I could make broken limbs grow back as long as I put enough magic power into it." She stuck out her tongue. "I might have remembered what you said. That human body parts are composed of cells. So there must have been a loss of cells where limbs are lost. If magic power can compensate for the loss, why couldn't they bring the lost body parts back? Then I tried it out."

"Any body part can grow back?"

Nana shook her head. "It's too exhausting to treat the broken limbs this way. It's okay to make fingers grow back. Yet I can do nothing to bring back arms or shanks since my volume of magic power is far smaller than Anna's."

[It's because you haven't come to adulthood,] Roland thought to himself. Was this change a sign of her power's evolution or was it the result of the training? He could not tell if there was any change in the characteristics of her power without Nightingale's presence. If this change was only due to the increase in her magic power, Nana's capacities after adulthood would certainly be exciting.

"Your Highness, he woke up," Carter said.

"What happened... to me?" Kyle looked at his hands, both intact. He touched his face in bewilderment and began to say, "Should I..."

"You should have died from serious injuries caused by a chemical accident. But a witch has saved your life. Here's the person who cured you of your wounds, Nana Pine." Roland decided to tell him things about Nana, a man who came to Border Town for chemical equations could not be beyond enlightenment. Even if he detested witches, he would not go so far as to desert his work at hand to report to the church. Besides, with the presence of Lucia in Border Town, the cooperation between alchemists and witches must happen sooner or later.

"God, you're saying this witch could cure the injury caused by alchemical... no, chemical experiments?" Kyle's reaction was quite unexpected. "Hahaha, it couldn't be better, Your Highness. I'll not have to take dangers into consideration and I'll be able to test the reactions in any way I like!"

"So what happened?" Roland was relieved. "Why did you bring white liquor into the lab?"

"No, Your Highness, it was used for the experiment," Chief Alchemist Kyle exclaimed excitedly, "I've made what you asked me to experiment on."

"You mean... mercury fulminate?"

"Yes, Your Highness, the lacking reactant is actually alcohol!" he said quickly, "I had tried dozens of chemicals without any progress before I went to the market to buy some liquor to chill out. Then it suddenly occurred to me that 'Elementary Chemistry' had mentioned that alcohol is an organic solvent and also an indispensable chemical in certain reactions. So I tested on distilled white liquor as a new reactant and succeeded the sixth time... In several test tubes, gray crystals were formed. I remember that I noted down the heating time and reaction temperature and took out some of them for a test, which had shown exactly the same qualities you described, pale gray needle-like crystals or powders that were extremely sensitive and violent. Just as I tried to filter all the residues in the remaining test tubes, the test tubes suddenly blew up."

Now it occurred to Roland that mercury fulminate was usually made by adding mercury and ethanol to an excessive amount of nitric acid or made directly by the reaction between mercury nitrate and ethanol.

"Nice job." He patted Kyle Sichi on the shoulder. "Your achievement can win you the highest honor and reward in Border Town."

In this way, the solution to the percussion primer in a self-contained cartridge had emerged.

Chapter 237 - The Invitation

Roland started out on drafting the new machine as soon as he got back to the office.

With the First Army and the witches out for the king's city, he was not unoccupied. In contrast, he found himself busier than usual despite the absence of Nightingale and the lack of private time with Anna. He had to make arrangements for the refugees that came continually by ship, supervise Anna and Lucia to determine the composition of the smelting products, and build a new smelting furnace.

In the past, iron or steelmaking depended solely on experience and intuition. There was no way to analyze the composition of the products. Now with the help of Lucia, Roland finally had an accurate determination method for metal ingot composition analysis. He can get detailed data about smelting, for example the required time for blending, the proportion of charcoal, or whether he should use additives like limestone to remove sulfur and phosphorus or add other metals to obtain alloys, through comparison with her power of decomposition.

Based on all of the data, Roland could generalize a standardized workflow for the smelting industry, which would then enable the mass production of stable-quality iron ingots or steel and solve current problems in material technology.

The new smelting furnace was being built for that exact purpose.

It was a four-meter wide and two-meter high square furnace with a tilting bottom. It had a thick foundry-iron shell covered with clay bricks on the inside and Soraya's "earth" coating on the outside to make it extremely heat-resistant. The lower bottom had a movable valve that was pulled by a steam engine. Considering that the fancy ways of heating like blowing oxygen or using electric arcs were impracticable, the furnace was not equipped with any external combustion unit, that meant that it would completely rely on Anna's Blackfire to produce liquid steel. After the raw materials were added according to the determined proportion and smelted, liquid steel would be directly discharged from the valve.

The furnace could produce 50 tons of liquid steel each time. Anna could finish the whole smelting process in a quarter of an hour. Including the time for adding materials and casting steel, every round of production would only take an hour. This capacity could fulfill the production needs of firearms and cannon. The blast furnaces and shaft furnaces in the little town were now responsible for producing a large amount of pig iron, which would be useful for everyday ironware, steam engines or could be further smelted as raw materials to produce wrought iron or steel.

...

Roland was about to draw a draft design for a set of bullet punch production facilities. The stable supply of steel served as a good prelude to the process and assembly of punching machines while the successful production of mercury fulminate had made the mass production of new bullets more urgent. Though Anna's Blackfire cutting was efficient and accurate, it would still take a long time for her to complete all the procedures on her own. If a punching machine assembly line was put to use, over 30 ordinary people would be able to operate it after a short training period, and they could produce ten thousands of bullets a day. That was to say, the soldiers would then no longer need to reload the bullets manually.

After dinner, he drew until the midnight bell struck. He finally made up his mind about the big picture. Of course, the design was only conceptual and tentative. He would not know if certain details could work until the design was tested.

Roland would have yawned endlessly in his usual manner, but he was far too excited to sleep today.

He put away the drafts and from a drawer, took out a parchment from Princess Tilly and lay it on the table. He now could do what he had long awaited—he could now select the visiting witches.

The list included the powers of more than 60 auxiliary witches. According to Maggie, there were around 200 to 300 witches on Sleeping Island. It was obvious that Tilly had not included all the powers of the auxiliary witches on the list. It corresponded with the usual manner of a leader. Reaching out her hand in a friendly gesture without fully revealing her capacity. She had already shown enough sincerity to form an alliance. Roland replaced the candle and looked at the powers of the witches listed on the attachment with his full concentration.

It was a hard choice. After giving it his full consideration and careful comparison, he listed the names of five visitors.

Roland spread out a piece of paper and began to write back.

"Dear sister, I'm so glad to hear from you."

"I'm so gratified and encouraged by the choice you made. With your aid, it would be more likely for me to stand against the attack of the church."

"I've received trust and support from the witches for the same reason. In the whole Kingdom of Graycastle, only Border Town is free from the influence of the church. The natives have not only accepted witches, but also fought side by side with them against the demonic beasts and the church. My subjects and the witches have formed a united whole. Now you could see their participation everywhere in the town. The steam engine which made you curious was also realized with their help. This is a good sign. What I have to do now is to make this a common scene in the whole Western Region, and even in the whole kingdom.

"To this end, I must destroy the whole church, eliminate the statement that witches are evil and pull my people out of stupidity and ignorance. This is a hard process, and I shall need more of your help."

"As for what made me have this decision and what made me no longer indifferent to everything like in the past, I'll explain it in detail to you later."

"I'm looking forward to the visit of the witches next month. Please don't worry about safety. I've planned a route that goes directly to Border Town. This would make the trip totally invisible to the church and doesn't require any stops. The only risk lies in the voyage itself. But if Maggie leads the way, the ship will be unlikely to get lost. The route will be marked out in an attached map which Maggie will bring to Sleeping Island."

"When these witches arrive at Border Town, they could, of course, participate in the courses of primary knowledge, and such knowledge can help a witch's powers evolve. I'm inclined to think that a deeper understanding of the world will contribute to their transformation. Whichever knowledge will do, whether knowledge of nature, magic or self, it's all included. Undoubtedly, one more witch with an evolved power would mean a greater chance of beating the church. I totally agree with you on this point."

"Lastly, I'll include a list of five witches in hope of seeing them soon."

"Terrain Modeler—Lotus."

"State Preserver—Candle."

"Winemaker—Evelyn."

"Beast Tamer—Honey."

"And Eye of Truth—Sylvie."

"All the best, Your brother, Roland Wimbledon."

Chapter 238 - How Could I Regret?

A week later, the First Army and the witches finally arrived at Border Town. It had taken more than half a month to finish this mission, which was delayed five days more than they had expected.

The main reason was that Petrov Hull, the agent of Longsong Stronghold, had reported the occurrence of an unknown epidemic that had appeared in Longsong Stronghold.

Fortunately, because Roland had reminded him before, Petrov tried his best to take quarantine measures and closed the whole town when the disease occurred. They sent word to Border Town at once.

Upon receiving the message, Roland sent Maggie east along Redwater River to find the First Army's fleet and inform them to change their route to Longsong Stronghold at the Redwater River fork. And they could not return to the town until the plague was stamped out.

Roland led the rest of the First Army and the families of the expedition to welcome them back successfully. With the familiar military march, soldiers excitedly saluted the prince. Many of them imitated knights by getting down on one knee, and shouting hooray. After walking down to the harbor, they hugged their families tightly. At this moment, Echo made a salute sound. The atmosphere was lively and extraordinary, attracting lots of serfs and wanderers.

Iron Axe gave the prince a comprehensive report about the task.

"Do you mean that some of our enemies attacking the First Army are witches?" Roland thought a moment. "It's not possible that Rats and their men did that."

"Theo thinks so too. He even thinks that other powers gave the Rats the order. Normally, these pariahs rarely leave headquarters. In the king's city, aside from Timothy, only the church is able to order the Rats and own witches," Iron Axe said, "as the biggest underground organization, even the nobles can't appoint them to come out of their headquarters in full strength."

"What's more, they appointed the witch to fight alone and Timothy was in the Eastern Region. The church is more likely to do that." Thinking of Wendy's and Ashes' encounters, Roland thought it was not surprising that the church had developed a batch of witches secretly. "Are you sure she's dead?"

"She was hit in the chest by Nightingale and shattered." Iron Axe nodded. "We buried her corpse in the cornfield, where the sentry's remains were found."

A soldiers' troop of 300 had suffered a night raid made by a large number of Rats on the last day, causing one death and four injuries. The only casualty was killed by the enemy's witch. Four injuries were caused by the hand crossbows of the enemies who had drawn near accidentally. Because of the continuous shooting of the revolving rifles, the war was over before entering the melee stage. Their wounds were tightly strapped up. And they received timely treatment of Nana after coming back to Border Town. Because of the existence of Nana, as long as bolts missed the vitals and their wounds were not infectious, they were likely to be cured after Nana helped them stop bleeding.

In general, Roland was very satisfied with the First Army's first warfare expedition. As for the night raid, he did not know much about arranging both converts and undercovers for keeping watch. Iron Axe would need to think it over.

"Thanks for your hard work. I'll host an Award and Honor Ceremony in the central plaza of the town. You can tell all members of the First Army."

After Iron Axe left, Roland let out a sigh of relief.

"Good job." He took out a bag of dried fish from the drawer and placed it on the desk. "If it were not for you, I'm afraid they would have been in danger."

Nightingale revealed herself and accepted the dried fish with a smile, "I told you before we left to leave everything to me."

"How strong was the opponent?"

"She was very decisive and had a graceful skill. I'm guessing she may have been trained for several years. If I hadn't entered my Mist the instant she turned around and tried to strike back, I might have been hit with the smoky powder." Nightingale shrugged and briefly described the encounter. But he knew it had all been a blur to her. "I didn't mean to kill her. But, when I saw her eyes when she stabbed Wendy, I knew that only death would stop her."

Roland was silent for a moment. "Do you remember what you said to me when we came back from the stronghold after defeating Timothy?"

Nightingale thought for a moment. "It's not your fault?"

"It's true." He nodded. "If she was adopted by the church as a child, she'll consider you traitors and fallen people, and it would need to take years to change her mind. At least you saved Wendy and the others."

Nightingale laughed. "Are you comforting me?"

"Um… "Roland coughed. "I think so."

"Don't worry. Even though she's a witch, I can't feel sad for enemies. The road she chose is quite different from the future I expect. I figured it out on the ship back to the stronghold." Nightingale put a slice of dried fish into her mouth. "Taking down enemies and protecting my sisters is my duty. I just do it."

"That's an encouraging thought," Roland was glad to say. It seemed he had misjudged her. He had thought she would be lost and depressed because she had killed a witch. He had not expected her to recover in such a short time. Therefore, either her mind or faith had matured.

"But I have a question to ask you." After swallowing a filet, she hesitated for a few moments before continuing.

"What?"

"Did you do anything with Anna during these days?" Nightingale stared at the prince, her voice growing lower and lower. "You know what I mean."

Roland nearly knocked over the cup in his hand. "Ahem. Why would you ask me that? I've been busy arranging for the fugitives. I have no time to spend alone with her."

Her eyes lit up immediately. "You didn't lie to me."

"Of course not, I'm..."

Roland did not get to finish his sentence, but Nightingale disappeared immediately. Then he felt a soft lip touch his. The sense of touch was fleeting, only leaving the saltiness of fillets.

"Wait..."

Two slender fingers touched his mouth slightly before he spoke. Roland could not see her, but he knew she was at his side.

"I know what you want to say," she whispered in his ear, "I don't want to change the affection between you and Anna. I just want to stay with you. That's all. Please forgive me. I'm afraid to reveal myself right now, and I don't know how to face you. Your Highness, You don't hate me, do you?"

Roland opened his mouth. It would be impossible to say that he hated her. The obstacle in his mind came from 20 years of knowledge, not just lust. At this point, he could not deceive himself.

"Even so." She said slightly, "Don't say anything. That wasn't your fault. I just did what I wanted to do."

Chapter 239 - The Midnight Snack

After dinner, Anna carried a big bag of Bird Beak Mushrooms to the kitchen.

The white mushrooms had been picked from the Misty Forest by Maggie. Different from typical mushrooms, the Bird Beak Mushrooms usually grew at the top of huge trees and survived by absorbing the tree's nutrition. It was also the favorite food of birds. Their thick stems were smooth like tender meat, they were delicious. It was difficult to find the Bird Beak Mushrooms due to their elevated location. There were not many people willing to climb up the huge tree to harvest the mushrooms.

Her mother had always picked some Bird Beak Mushrooms on her birthdays and they celebrated her birthday with a couple of mushroom dishes. Compared to the molded coarse bread and bland oatmeal, the delicate taste of these mushrooms was simply unforgettable. Although she no longer had to worry about starvation and the meals were much fancier, she still wanted to make these two special, regional dishes and share them with the busy Prince Roland.

The stove in the kitchen had already extinguished. However, this was not a problem for Anna. She summoned Blackfire and very soon flames rose in the hearth.

At that moment, Nightingale jumped through the wall. "Uhh? What are you doing?"

"I'm making some food for His Highness. He has been staying up very late recently. What about you?"

"Haha." Nightingale scratched the back of her head. "I'm looking for a snack... I'm a bit hungry." She paused and peered over in curiosity. "What are you planning to make?"

"Umm... honey roasted mushrooms and mushroom soup." Anna opened her bag and showed Nightingale the Bird Beak Mushrooms. "These dishes are a specialty in Border Town. Do you want to try some?"

Nightingale nodded, and very soon asked, "Could you teach me this? I want to learn how to make these dishes."

"Sure." Anna smiled. "It's pretty simple."

Anna cut the mushrooms into slices and handed a large piece to Nightingale. "First you smear a layer of butter on both sides of the mushroom and roast it on the fire slowly and carefully until both sides of the mushroom are golden. Be careful not to caramelize the mushroom too long or it'll be burnt."

"Alright." Nightingale took some slices of the Bird Beak Mushrooms, and imitated how Anna had spread the butter on both sides of the mushroom. "His Highness has been working very late recently?"

"Yes, to settle the refugees and also draw some new engineering drafts. He stays up until midnight almost every day. Many times, when I walk by his office, I can still see the light shining out the crack of the door." Anna nodded. "You've been away for more than half a month. You miss His Highness a lot, right?"

Nightingale's hand shook, and the mushroom almost fell into butter. "Umm... not that much..."

"Not only you. Lightening, Lily, Echo, and Wendy all missed His Highness very much. They said that there was not even a bathroom over there. They've wanted to come back for a long time." Anna felt that Nightingale's expression was a bit weird. "Umm? What's wrong?"

"No." She shook her head, and picked up the mushroom. She smiled with red-tinged cheeks. "I see, indeed... we missed him."

"Right." Anna pinched a mushroom that was covered in butter and put it near the stove fire. "If I left His Highness for more than half a month, no, maybe only for a few days, I could hardly wait to see him."

The first time she'd met Roland Wimbledon in the dungeon had been the most incredible moment of her life. Anna still felt grateful when she thought about that day. If it was not for Prince Roland, even if she were able to survive, she would only live in bewilderment just like regular citizens.

Prince Roland had taught her the beauty of this world. Whether it was the sauced black pepper steak, or the book "Natural Science Theoretical Foundation", his appearance filled something new into her life, and that made Anna feel like she was unique, different from anyone else.

The other sisters must have felt the same way. The longer that they spent time with Prince Roland, the more that they were attracted to his unique charisma and incredible ideas. Anna firmly believed that point.

"Ahh, did I roast it too long?" Nightingale lifted her iron fork, finding a side of the mushroom was burnt.

"Yeah, a little bit..." Anna could not help laughing. "The Bird Beak Mushroom is very tender, so you need to roast it for just the right amount of time. You'll manage it once you've tried a few more times. I'll prepare ingredients for the soup."

Nightingale put honey and salt on the slightly burnt mushroom and popped it into her mouth. "Mmm, it's pretty delicious." Staring at Anna who was swiftly mixing the herbs into various sauces, Nightingale asked in curiosity, "Did you used to make these before?"

"Yes, pickling food, grinding flour, doing part-time jobs for nobles, washing and shaving the neighbor's sheep," Anna said. "Besides going to Professor Karl's class, I spent most of my time doing those things." She paused and said, "but after my mom passed away, my father didn't allow me to go to school anymore, and even forbade me to leave the house."

"Sorry..."

"Oh, it's nothing. It's all in the past." Anna's eyes were shiny like a blue lake under moonlight. "Compared to most witches, I'm very lucky, aren't I?

The mushroom that was smeared in butter curled up slightly under the fire and made crackling noises. Anna spread some salt on the mushroom and roasted it again. She inhaled its pleasant, earthy scent. The creamy aroma of melted butter mixed with the savory taste of Bird Beak Mushroom. It aroused the appetite. Lastly, she swirled the mushroom in the honey jar and completed the process of roasting a mushroom. Both the Bird Beak Mushrooms and the honey could be gathered in the Misty Forest. To the locals, it was a lucky day if they encountered a tree that had both honeycomb and Bird Beak Mushrooms hidden in its crown.

When the crock that was used to make soup spouted white steam, Anna and Nightingale completed the roasting and saucing.

"All done! It looks pretty good." Nightingale ate one more slice. "I'm pretty gifted regarding cooking... umm, this slice is a bit too salty."

"It's just on time too." Anna stared at the night view through the window. "Let's deliver these to His Highness."

"Would you give the mushrooms I cooked to him for me?" Nightingale put her hands together and said, "Please."

"Aren't you coming with me?"

"No." She smiled. "Because I don't know what kind of expression I should have when I see him again."

Anna was dazed for a moment. Nightingale disappeared into thin air without giving Anna time to inquire. Did the expression matter? Smile, despondent, or no expression at all would be fine. His Highness hadn't even disliked her desperate appearance when she first got out of the dungeon. Why would Nightingale avoid him? Anna could not understand. She shook her head as she carried the dishes and soup to Roland's office.

Chapter 240 - The Honors Ceremony

Roland was designing the pattern of the medal for tomorrow's honors ceremony. This peripheral job should have been finished long ago. However, Roland had been in a state of anxiety since this afternoon.

More accurately, after Nightingale kissed him.

Roland had been vaguely aware of Nightingale's affection for him before, but because she did not confide, Roland did not ask. However, it was certain now. How should he reply to her feelings?

Nightingale's behavior made him know that he did not hate her, but even at that he felt a bit pompous. Who would hate a beautiful, composed girl who spent every day with him? Roland could not respond to her because of how his thoughts had developed over 20 years, the real problem that he would face... and Anna. Especially the last point, he would not be able to ignore Anna and only follow his own wishes.

Or he would have to entrust these problems to time.

Suddenly, there were sounds of knocking at the door.

"Come in. It's not locked," Roland called out. He was a bit surprised. Who would come to his office at this hour?

It was Anna who pushed open the door. She held two dishes in one hand and a small jar in the other hand. Roland could smell the savory aroma before she even spoke.

"Food?"

"Yes." Anna smiled and placed the dishes on the desk. Then she took off the bowl covering the jar and poured the milk-white soup. "This is called 'honey roasted mushrooms'. Some were made by me and others by Nightingale. And this is mushroom soup, made from the spices of common vanilla.

"It looks delicious." Roland licked his lips. "Sit down and let's eat it together."

Anna nodded and sat down against the desk.

"Where's Nightingale? Why didn't she come?"

"She said that she doesn't know what kind of expression she should use to face you," Anna answered, "I don't quite understand why she would care about this."

I see. Roland sighed discreetly. Even though Nightingale had seemed confident when she’d said the words and shown no regret, and even said that, "This isn't your fault. I just did what I wanted to do." However, she was actually just like a squirrel that had finally taken up the courage to come out of the hole. Oh dear, was that courageous or timid? "Then, let us eat first."

Roland pinched a slice of mushroom and put it into his mouth. The sweetness of honey melted in his mouth instantly and then his mouth filled with the succulence of the mushroom. In this age without MSG, this rich, juicy flavor was incredible... and perhaps the salt enhanced its flavor. Finally, he felt the texture of the mushroom. It was smooth and chewy. It was perfection.

"These aren't normal mushrooms?" Roland swallowed the mushroom and detected the differences. Normally, it would be good enough to keep the smooth and chewy texture of the mushroom after roasting it. How could a mushroom be so juicy? It was not boiled in soup.

"Yes, it's the local specialty from the Misty Forest, the people in the town call them Bird Beak Mushrooms," Anna smiled and told Roland the history of the mushroom, "That's why I wanted for you to taste it too."

Roland ate another mushroom that was soaked in soup. It was also very delicious and even more delectable than the last. He felt as if he was eating soup dumplings, there was even a slight crunchy texture when he chewed it. Such flavor made Roland recall the very common and multi-purpose seasoning in the previous world—MSG. Before sodium glutamate had been discovered, chefs could only enhance the flavor of the food indirectly. For example, chefs would use hens, bones, mushrooms, or beans to make soup stock. Although future chefs preferred to use original ingredients to demonstrate their exquisite skills, Roland had to say that even for newbies, with MSG they could take it up a notch.

If the Bird Beak Mushroom was naturally juicy, it would be the perfect extraction ingredient for MSG. Perhaps the Bird Beak Mushroom was not promoted because it grew on trees and was difficult to pick. However, that would not be a problem for Roland.

"Are there a lot of this type of mushroom?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Quite a lot I think." Anna took a bite. "Maggie said that she flew around the border of the forest and picked a whole bag of the mushrooms for me."

"That's a piece of good news." Roland soon ate all the roasted mushroom slices that Anna had made, and stretched his chopstick to the other dish. "I'm concerned that the steak is always seasoned with either pepper or honey. I've grown tired of eating that... Oh gosh."

"What's the matter?"

"No... nothing." Roland was crying inside. Oh dear, this slice was really salty. Did Nightingale accidentally throw it into the salt jar? Despite his thoughts, Roland still swallowed the mushroom. After that, Roland discovered that the rest of the mushroom slices were either burnt or still somewhat raw. There were mushroom slices that were half burnt and half raw. Fortunately, the Bird Beak Mushroom itself was very delicious, and that largely concealed her clumsy cooking skill.

"I'm... full." Roland put down his chopsticks. He tried hard to finish the second dish and ate all the soup. Roland's stomach was bloated. "Thank you."

"Yes, and Nightingale too." The way Anna smiled was extremely adorable. Roland could not help but pinch her nose. Anna cried out softly and leaned forward to kiss Roland on his cheek. "I'll go to wash the plates now. Remember to rest early."

Roland sighed lightly after Anna left.

Although he did not want to ignore Anna's feelings, some things were hard to talk about. Roland thought helplessly, perhaps it was because he’d been a mechanical engineer. When Roland was still a student, he rarely acquainted himself with any females. Even though he’d gone on to a large-scale design institute and began to have considerable income, that part of him remained unchanged.

Luckily, they were still on a long journey to eradicate the church. He could take time to ponder what he should do next. Right now, he should focus on his work.

...

The next morning, Roland climbed up to the temporary wooden stage in the square. There were already swarms of people around him.

Border Town looked completely different now compared to its previous poor and dilapidated look. It could be said that the town had been completely renovated.

The old houses in the town had all been torn down and replaced with operating construction sites and uniform brick house. The latter was constructed according to the urban planning of the neighborhood. The area looked neat and organized. Although it only took up one-third of the land of the town, it was able to inhabit 2,000 locals.

By the time the three and four story houses were put into construction, with the further development of the neighborhood, the same land would be able to contain more and more people. Right now, the name "Border Town" did not seem to fit its actual performance. No town was able to hold 20,000 people and a professional army of 600 soldiers. Roland planned to promote the town as an actual city the following spring.

Under the power of Echo, Roland's voice soon made the crowd calm down.

"Today is the first Honor and Awards Ceremony in Border Town. Today's ceremony is to award and encourage people who’ve made a major contribution to the town. It has been more than half a year since the first day I arrived here. We've defeated the demonic beasts, conquered the duke, and many people have sacrificed for all these achievements. There were strong performers among all the contributors. These people aren't the noble or rich merchandisers. They are normal people like you, all of you, before you started to work for me."

He looked around and said loudly, "Right now, they'll receive plentiful returns! Each of them will receive a medal that's crafted by myself, 100 gold royals and a land of 0.8 acres!"

The news caused waves of impacts among the crowd. Not to mention the medal and land, only 100 gold royals was a huge sum of money that would make people envious.

"This isn't a one-time ceremony. From now on, every year we will have an Honor and Awards Ceremony. Regardless of your background or wealth, as long as you make great contributions, you can receive this highest honor!"

As soon as Roland finished his sentence, the gun salute that Echo imitated started to reverberate in the square. Among the continuing roar of the gun salute, Iron Axe, Kyle Sichi, and Nana Pine walked on to the wooden stage with the cluster of the First Army.

Chapter 241 - The Liberation

Even though there were only about 2,000 people gathered in the public square, yet the noise they were making could be comparable with those big gatherings of more than tens of thousands of people. Roland silently sighed, Echo's ability was really handy in this case.

By choosing these three people, he intended to set an example for the civilians–none of these three belonged to the nobility. Iron Axe came from Sand Nation of the Southern Territory; Kyle was a chief alchemist, but his family background was not prominent and he reached his position step by step starting as an apprentice; as for Nana, she was a witch.

A foreigner, a civilian, and a witch; as the later generations would say, this was an unmistakably wise political choice.

Roland hoped to use this ceremony to instill his ideas into his subjects—The only thing that mattered in Border Town was your accomplishments, not where you came from.

The first one to receive the medal was Iron Axe. Roland personally handed him the gold tooth-edged medal, which had the emblem of the Kingdom of Graycastle carved on it. At that moment, the soldiers of the First Army in the audience raised their hands to applaud while others started to whistle.

"You must all know his name already, Commander of the First Army's Flintlock Squad, Iron Axe!" Roland turned towards everyone. "Before the Months of Demons, he was just a common hunter of the town. But in each of the battles of Border Town afterward, Iron Axe had never been absent, and just a month ago, he led the First Army soldiers to the king's city, saving those Eastern Region refugees who were affected by the demonic plague! More than 6,000 people who temporarily stay outside of the city wall right now were all brought back by him!"

Most people in the square were either Border Town's natives or First Army soldiers, while there were only hundreds of serfs and refugees, but under Echo's encouragement, the atmosphere in the square was far from cold. The moment Roland stopped, the refugees immediately started cheering, and their passion did not seem to be less than that of the First Army.

Iron Axe was clearly moved, he probably had never expected that even though he was a member of the Mojin Clan, he would still be able to win the prince's appreciation. He first saluted Roland in a military manner and then kneeled down on one knee, making the kingdom's salute for knights. If Roland had not stopped him, he might have continued with a salute of Sand Nation by throwing himself on the ground.

"Stand up, as a soldier, the military salute is enough." Roland laughed.

"Thank you… Your Highness." His voice slightly trembled, as if it was extremely hard to control his emotions.

The prince patted Iron Axe's comforting him, placed 100 gold royals into his hand, and then let Kyle Sichi come up.

"This one, you might be seeing him for the first time, from the central area of the kingdom, the Chief Alchemist of Redwater City's Alchemical Workshop, Mr. Kyle Sichi!

Hearing these words, all the civilians exclaimed with wonder.

"A chief alchemist? Isn't he a sage that even the king himself has to treat with respect and courtesy?"

"You mean like a royal astrologer?"

"No, the position of an alchemist is even higher than that of an astrologer. After all, there's no certainty in the predictions of the latter, whereas the work of an alchemist is definitely real."

"Not to mention that he comes from the Alchemical Workshop of Redwater City. I heard that only the Alchemical Workshop in the king's city is on par with it!"

"..."

In the four kingdoms, alchemists and astrologers possessed an extraordinary status, and for the civilians, those alchemists who were considered as sages, had even more credibility than the lords and the great nobles. Roland was very pleased with the reaction of the crowd, he raised his hands and continued, "Even though Mr. Sichi didn't personally participate in a battle, his chemical work is firmly connected with the continuous improvement of the firearms, from single shots to continuous burst shots, and it was an important reason in guaranteeing the First Army's victories. Without these alchemical—chemical products, peace and safety would not be feasible in Border Town." The prince paused for a moment. "As a matter of fact, the chemical laboratory is currently recruiting trainee alchemists. Any civilian who's completed the town's elementary education and passed the examination can enroll. The successful candidates won't only receive a generous salary but also gain the opportunity to become an outstanding alchemist just like Mr. Sichi himself!"

The cheering from the crowd started once again, but yet Kyle himself had an impatient expression. He received the medal and said in a bad manner, "You called me over just for this? What a waste of time, I could have used this time to perform a few more experiments instead."

"This is a great opportunity for advertisement, didn't you complain that you were short-handed?" Roland shrugged. "Once the scale of the alchemical laboratory has doubled, I intend to write the 'Intermediate Chemistry' and pass it on you."

"Intermediate... Chemistry?" Kyle immediately bowed. "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Although passion was important, training a successor was equally important. The better the foundation of the people the easier to accomplish a project. This was also applied to scientific research. Roland never intended to put all of his eggs in one basket, so he would definitely not pass on such an advertisement opportunity.

The last one was Nana.

Looking at the nervous little girl coming over to him, Roland could not help but lament.

In contrast to the days before the Months of Demons, he finally intended to let everyone know of the existence of witches—after nearly six months of preparation, the town was finally ready. Furthermore, choosing Nana as their representative was a decision he had considered carefully. She was being called as an angel by the First Army and her reputation was even higher than that of Iron Axe, second only to his own. There were also many civilians who had received her treatment, including mining or mechanical accidents. Everyone had developed the habit of visiting the little angel whenever they needed treatment.

After watching the play "The Story of a Witch" repeatedly, the attitude of the serfs towards the witches had improved. The braveness of the troubled girl in the play and her will to resist giving a good impression to the people and won their sympathy.

The refugees also owed their survival to Lily's ability, and even if some of them disliked witches previously, they would never badmouth them after that. Not to mention that they were no longer the weak individuals that the church hunted—at least in Border Town, these women with their extraordinary abilities were under the protection of the lord.

And the most important thing was that even if some believer of the church wanted to expose them, it would be totally useless in the Western Region. The town was completely under his control, the church in Longsong Stronghold had been completely destroyed by Timothy, and thus the church had lost the ability to monitor Western Region. Unless they went further to places like Fallen Dragon Ridge or Redwater City, they would not even be able to find an appointed priest.

"This is.." Before Roland could speak, the whole square burst into cheers.

"Miss Nana! Miss Nana is here!"

"Miss Angel, thank you for treating my husband!"

"Little girl, if you have time to come to eat at my place, I have two chicken, no matter if it's eggs or meat you can have whatever you want!"

"Nana looked at me!"

No, she looked at me!"

Nana covered her mouth and her eyes became wet. Roland believed that the rest of the witches would be feeling the same as her—they were finally free from the evil identity the church had forced upon them. From now on, they would be like normal people. Roland stroked her head smilingly. "Don't be afraid, just reply with a few words to everyone's enthusiasm. Don't forget, you are now representing the whole Witch Union.

"Yes…" She sniffed, wiped her tears and bowed. "Thank you, thank you all!"

Chapter 242 - Constructing New Area

The first Award and Honor Ceremony lasted until noon, with Roland being both commentator and host, making him extremely exhausted. Fortunately, the ceremony finally ended with bells and gun salutes. He returned to the castle sweating, but as he reached the third floor, he saw Anna leaning against his office door, smiling.

"What's the matter?"

"Go in and you'll know!" Anna blinked her beautiful azure eyes.

[I hope it's not some kind of trick.] Roland pushed the door only to stare in surprise—the twelve witches were standing in two rows, with Wendy and Scroll standing at the front. When they saw the prince enter, they all held their dresses, bent their knees in a curtsy and bowed with respect.

"Um, what are you..."

Scroll spoke first, "Your Highness, your actions proved everything you've told us. We sisters are all extremely grateful for this. There are no words to describe our appreciation, please allow us to continue to serve you in the future."

"I see." Roland sighed in relief. "I thought you all came to say goodbye."

"Pff." Wendy started laughing. "No way, Your Highness, this place is the Holy Mountain that the witches have been searching. As long as you don't make us leave, we wish to stay here forever."

"This is also my wish… In fact, you don't need to act like this, by helping you I'm also helping myself. You don't need to be so formal, and I prefer when you're all more relaxed."

"Ha! I told you so." Lily snorted. "See, he thinks we're too formal."

"When did you say that? You also instantly agreed to come over." Mystery Moon whispered. "Traitor!"

"Alright, let's go to the dining hall everyone, His Highness still needs to change his clothes," Scroll said helplessly, "Oh, right, I heard from Miss Anna that you've been staying up late recently. Please take care of yourself, you have to stay strong until you achieve that goal."

"Don't worry." Roland smiled. "My health is perfect."

The witches left one by one, leaving only Anna and him in the office.

"What's it, do you also want to express your gratitude to me?" Roland joked.

"Yes... I want to say the same thing." Anna tilted her mouth. "No words can describe my gratitude."

"And.... do you want to live in Border Town forever?"

"I'm not sure."

Startled, Roland's heart jumped, "Why?"

"Because you will not stay here forever." Anna tilted her head. "... No matter where you go, I'll follow you."

His heart was suddenly filled with warmth. Since the day he met her, she had never changed her mind. No matter if it was the invitation from the Witch Cooperation Association or during the dangerous times battling against the demonic beasts, she had always chosen to stay beside him.

At that moment, Anna suddenly came closer and hugged him gently.

"Wait, I'm sweating." Roland reminded her.

The girl did not reply but instead placed her head on his chest and took a deep breath as if she wanted to take in his scent. In the end, he gave up trying to push her away and put his arms around her white neck. They stayed like this for a long time.

…

After lunch, Roland took a cold shower and continued with his work.

He called Karl van Bate, opened a detailed map of Border Town and pointed to Redwater River. "I want to construct a bridge here."

"Not a pontoon?" Karl asked after thinking for a while, "With all due respect Your Highness, since Redwater River is nearly 100 meters wide in this location, it's almost impossible to construct a stone bridge. Even an arch bridge wouldn't reach more than one-third of the distance. The Redwater River's current is too strong, so there's no way we can insert the bridge-piers. They would be washed away even if they're as thick as a person and made from stone… Other than pontoons and rafts, there's no other way to cross the river.

"Not a stone bridge, but a steel bridge," Roland explained, "it'll have a total of three parts, and the middle pier will be handled by the witches. You only need to construct and assemble the rest of it. Make sure the bridge has a slope so that its height is high enough for sailing ships to sail through without having their mast touching it."

"Wouldn't that mean building the bridge into the sky?" Karl asked surprised.

"It'll only be six to seven meters above ground." He quickly drew a sketch for the three-span iron bridge. "In order to develop the south bank in the future and also construct the shipyard, the river must have a bridge that won't affect the traffic on the river. A pontoon bridge may be simple, but it'll cover the whole river obstructing my future development plans."

The expedition of the First Army to the king's city had inspired Roland—he realized, that within the Kingdom of Graycastle flowed countless of rivers and most major cities were mainly built next to a big river. In case he wanted to start a war in the future, having several shallow water gunboats would be beneficial for both supporting his troops or besieging and conquering cities—after all, the strength caliber of a naval artillery would exceed that of a field artillery by far.

"But I don't have experience constructing bridges…" Karl was clearly hesitant.

"Neither do I." Roland shrugged. "Since it's the first time, you can explore freely. You can start by assembling the bridge at the river bank and then test it, and if everything is alright you can move it to Redwater River." He also introduced him to the concept of general prefabrication and the construction concept of disposable parts, "Just like the construction of water towers, as long as we utilize Hummingbird's ability to decrease its weight and your student Anna's help to do the assembly and the welding, it won't be too difficult in overall."

"As... you wish, Your Highness." He nodded.

"Apart from this, there's also one more important construction project for you." The prince moved his finger to the castle area. "I plan to expand the size of the back garden, including in all the surrounding high grounds, and at the same time I want to build a three-story house here."

If everything went well, Tilly's five witches would arrive in Border Town next month. However, there were no more spare guest rooms in the castle. Although he could convert them into three people room temporarily, the witches would only continue to increase with time, so he had to find a permanent solution. Offering a superior living environment with all kinds of comfort experiences was part of his plan to convince the witches to stay. No matter if it was the people from old times or the modern times, no one could resist an extravagant lifestyle and all the comforts it included. A good life would always be appealing to people.

"Three-story... brick house?"

"Not entirely a brick house." Roland smiled. "The correct term should be mixed brick construction. The pillars and the roof will be made of reinforced concrete, which is similar to human bones. With this kind of structure, we can build a taller house, increasing the number of stories to four or five later, without any problem."

"Reinforced… concrete?" Karl repeated looking confused.

"It's a mixture of cement, sand, and stone, reinforced with steel bars to enhance its bending resistance," Roland said, "of course, many tests are required to determine the correct percentage of each material needed, but once we succeed, it'll be even harder than a natural bluestone."

In theory, a product like this would have great elasticity. Even though they were both concrete, the one bought from the village and mixed was entirely different from the one mixed in the mixing station. The same could be said for the steel reinforcing bars… When some people were building their houses in the residential area, they would not use pebbles, steel bars or bamboos to replace concrete. During his time in the countryside, Roland had witnessed the erection process of several these "country villas".

Thus, he intended to imitate the process, after all, it would only be a three-story house. It would be too hard for it to collapse no matter how bad materials he used.

On the other hand, through the construction of the witch's residence, he hoped that Karl could grasp the concept of shape transformation and the beauty of construction materials that were as perfect as a stone. As part of the development direction of the construction industry, concrete's importance was very significant. However, he was not familiar with architecture, whatever little he knew came from his time at the countryside. Therefore, expanding the mason's horizons and guiding him to the right direction was the correct way to handle this.

"Um... Do you want me to take it slow with this one too?" he asked.

"No." Roland smiled. "I can teach you."

Chapter 243 - The Establishment of Intelligence Bureau

The air gradually cooled after the moon rose. Sitting in the garden, Theo could see the little fire reflected in the windows of pubs, brothels, and casinos from a distance. The fire in the night was like the stars in the sky, showing the city's prosperity.

This was a scene that only could be seen from the inner city area of the king's city. Even after the end of the demonic plague, about one-third of the civilians died on the fringes of the city. Those deaths did not stop the nobles from drinking and merrymaking in the city center. If one listened carefully, one could even hear the soft cries floating in the breeze.

Theo bought the house with a garden and pool for 150 gold royals, located on a hillside near the edge of the inner city area, even though no one wandered here in the daytime. He typically did not stay here unless he was meeting an informant or exchanging intelligence. He would either spend the night at a hotel or stay in Covert Trumpeter for a few days.

"Sir, they've all arrived."

A man walked out of the room, holding an oil lamp. It was Hill Fawkes who was doing undercover work in the Skeleton Fingers.

"Light the candle." Theo nodded and walked into the room.

In the dim candlelight, Hill and the other five people sat around a wooden table. When they saw the appearance of the guards, they all bowed and saluted. Theo looked at them blankly, hoping to determine their reliability from their expressions and gestures. It was unfortunate that Miss Nightingale had followed the sailing platoon and returned to Border Town. If she was here, she could make the most accurate judgment in an instant.

They were Hill's partners and members of the Dove and Hat acrobatic troupe, as well as avengers full of resentment towards the new king. In the siege war last week, it was them who provided intelligence to Theo, allowing him to learn Rats' night attack plan in advance. Now that the demonic plague had gradually subsided, he decided to meet them in the king's city. If they were really as Hill had described, then they were some agreeable spies indeed.

"Besides Mr. Fawkes, please briefly introduce yourselves," Theo said.

"Sir, my name is Rockhill," said the most robust man in a booming voice. He was almost six feet tall and his muscles were full of strength. "I played Luxman in the acrobatic troupe. Now I've joined the blood sails."

"I'm Clown," said a little man sitting next to Rockhill as he pointed at his nose. He looked like he was the youngest among them, about 18 or 19 years old. "Of course, I'm a clown in the troupe, but I didn't join the Rats. I only perform some tricks in various bars."

"Joe and Neil." The next two were a pair of brothers. They looked no different than any civilian in the outer city area, from their appearance to their clothes. They have given up all their properties to Priest Ferry and were "devout believers" of the church. Theo could not help wondering if there was any chance those two also had a crush on Hill's wife. He eased his doubts and turned towards the last person.

"They all call me Magician, sir." The man saluted again. "My plan was to pretend as a frustrated loser put into Dreamland Water before, but unfortunately most of them died or fled. Even 'the Fiercetooth' Tanis died in the hands of the Judgement Army of the church. Everyone was busy looking for a new boss."

"Died in the hands of the Judgement Army?" Theo raised an eyebrow. "Aren't they the ones receiving secret support from the church?"

"I also heard that from others." Magician spread out his hands. "After Tanis was defeated in the siege war at the pier, he was also attacked by Skeleton Fingers while returning to the east area of the city. There were only dozens of people left who followed him. He got so mad that he went to the church with his followers who stayed in the nest that day. The next day, only two or three ended up coming back. They told me that he quarreled with Priest Ferry and was shot in the chest by the Judgement Army... In other words, the Dreamland Water collapsed."

Theo thought what happened was probably because Fiercetooth had accumulated his strength over a long time with much difficulty, but was now reduced to nothing. Because his position as a leader was precarious, he tried to seek for assistance from the church. But he was refused and a dispute broke out. However, he did not care about the irrelevant details. He just wanted know why Dreamland Water was just an empty title now. There was no doubt this was good news for him. Perhaps he would be able to utilize this opportunity to gather this group of Rats with nowhere to go to expand his intelligence network.

"You must have heard my name from Hill." Theo rapped the table. "I'm the guardian of His Highness Roland Wimbledon, responsible for collecting intelligence from all over the kingdom. Since you're willing to come here, you've shown your will in a sense. To be clear, I'll have to ask once again. Are you willing to work for His Highness?"

"We're willing to do so!" they answered.

"I'm willing to do anything as long as I can mete justice on Timothy Wimbledon," Hill said.

"Very good. From now on, we'll gather here weekly. You can report to me in advance if you have urgent intelligence. The signal is a pot of purple flowers in front of the door of the house," Theo said, "and after I noticed that signal, I'll wait for you in this room. Remember to knock with three long rhythms and two short rhythms. Got it?"

Theo nodded with satisfaction when everyone agreed. "A qualified intelligence officer will never easily expose himself. The first thing you have to do is to hide your identity. You must keep this in mind whether you're investigating personally or getting an assistant to collect suspicious intelligence for you." "If you have financial needs, you can request that from me... Remember, don't act rashly. Timothy won't sit on the throne forever. His Highness Roland has personally guaranteed that." He paused for a moment before asking, "Is there anything else you guys want to add?"

"Sir, Timothy has returned from the Eastern Region," Hill said, "you may have already received the news."

The new king's knight platoon was carrying a banner into the city from the eastern city gate at noon. Many residents had witnessed this scene. Theo said nothing because he knew that they would elaborate.

"I heard from Black Hammer at nightfall that Timothy seems to plan on recruiting a group of Rats to join the corps by offering to make them free civilians. Several leaders of the Skeleton Fingers have gone to the palace. It doesn't sound like a rumor."

[Recruiting Rats?] Theo pretended to be calm, despite his inner anxiety. [It's clear that these Rats can't combat as formal soldiers, so the main purpose should be feeding them with pills to turn them into walking bombs, just like the last attack on Longsong Stronghold. What's their goal this time?]

"It's an interesting news," he said, "remember to pay close attention to the whereabouts of Rats. Once you have any information, report to me immediately."

Theo hoped that Timothy Wimbledon would not trigger another riot in the Western Region.

Chapter 244 - The Identity Registration

Outside the city walls of the Western Region, under the guidance of the First Army soldiers, the refugees accepted an unprecedented identity check.

Barov naturally knew that population was the most valued wealth of His Royal Highness. In order to bring these people back to Border Town, His Royal Highness had spent a lot of gold dragons, going so far as to pay for the First Army to make the expedition from the king's city. When the bill from Margaret's Chamber of Commerce was placed in front of Barov, he was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped.

In more than half a month, they actually spent more than 2,000 golden dragons for the charter fees to provide for the caravan, including the shipping fees, food supply fees, and so on. This was equivalent to the selling price of four steam engines. If it were not for the two sailing ship renovation deposits, this time Barov was afraid that the financial statements would be in a deficit.

After the refugees returned, the cumbersome and huge statistical work fell on his shoulders. Almost all of the city officials and apprentices were deployed. At the foot of the walls, a wooden shed and passage were put up for the classification and recorded files of these people. Looking at the over a dozen groups of refugees line up and being examined, he saw them as if they were walking money.

Compared to the ordinary civilians' registrar, he felt a hefty personal responsibility that the act of channeling out the professionals was so cheerless. So far, only 50 or 60 people had passed.

"I'm... a carpenter." At this point, a middle-aged man cautiously walked over. "I heard that any craftsmen can get a home?"

"Yes." Sirius Daly asked, "What's your name? Are you literate?"

The knight, originally from the Wolf Family, was handy in the Ministry of Agriculture, and up to this point, he had not made any mistakes. Barov was quite satisfied with him. Although demographically the literacy rate in the City Hall was rather high, they still had to pull people from other departments.

"Uh... well sir, my name is Marshall." He paused. "I don't know how to read."

"You can't read or write?"

"No, I can't." The middle-aged man bowed his head.

"Well, if you're a carpenter..." Sirius looked at the stack of question forms to find the one marked "carpenter". "Ah, I found it. Let me ask you a few questions."

This preliminary step was something thought of by the prince. He brought the craftsmen of the various industries together, asked them about their professional knowledge and their corresponding approaches, and recorded the answers on a set of inquiry forms. In this way, as long as one asked a few questions when checking the audit form, they could immediately know whether the other side was lying or not. The first time he saw this polygraph method, Barov could not help but want to applaud the little devil's mind. If not engaged in the industry, most civilians would not understand these things. If a person wanted to pretend to be knowledgeable, they could be made speechless with only two or three questions.

"What's the tool used to cut the surface of wood?"

"That's... a planer, sir."

"What're the types of common saws?"

"Box saws and cross-cutting saws. Occasionally hand saws will be used for cutting small pieces."

Several questions were asked, and Marshall could almost answer everything. Over time, his tone and timing became smoother.

"Well, it seems you're a carpenter." Sirius was prepared to write down the name of the person on the identity checklist, but Barov stopped him.

"Sir?"

"Don't make judgements so soon. First, look at his hands." He looked at Marshall. "Hold your hand out."

Marshall was startled at these words. With a puzzled face, he spread his hands. The skin on his palms was incomparably rough and cracked lines mixed with many soil particles. Each finger was thick with callous and seemed to have endured much wind and frost.

"If he's a carpenter, the palm shouldn't be so rough. Especially the two pads of muscle under the palm, which will often become smooth and hard from the friction with the wood. In addition, carpenters often need to use black paint to draw contours, so the palm will be stained with the black ink, and will turn black, rather than yellow," Barov said quietly, "Another point, he always shifts his eyes when he answers. Many people who're recalling an uncommon memory, will inadvertently have this expression. If he's a carpenter, then answering should come naturally, right?"

"Is that... so?" He stared.

Barov looked at Marshall who was surprised, and he said, "You have had heard the warnings when the first army soldiers summoned you. Any act of impersonation, deception, or denial of registration will be severely punished. Perpetrators will be issued to the mine or expelled from the Western Region. Now, do you still think you're a carpenter?"

"No, sir, I was wrong!" Marshall could not help but kneel on the ground. "The carpenter was my neighbor, and all I did was watching him work!"

"Go there and line up."

Watching the man walk away, Sirius said, "Sir, how do you know these things?"

"In the months of demons, I completed a census for his Royal Highness. I dealt with every carpenter from each town, and wrote down what they did." Barov feigned a casual reply. Seeing the knight's face show an expression of shock and admiration, his heart soared.

[Though His Highness' method is clever, there still will be someone having the tricks to pass the check. It's only someone like me, who has learned from being tricked in the past, will see through these tricks,] Barov thought.

And influenced by His Highness, they had begun to deal with the problem differently than before... Barov could not help but secretly sigh. In cases like for this civilian, it was only when those that came before were punished with the strength of thunder, then those following could be deterred. But now it would probably save His Highness a lot of money to just let him go. After all, every refugee was worth a lot of money, if not for sustaining years of life in Border Town, then simply for the cost of transporting them thousands of miles.

Sirius waited until the next refugee came for a professional inquiry, he did not immediately register them but looked at Barov.

Barov looked at the examiner and nodded. "You record it, I'll take him to His Highness."

On the other side of the hole in the city wall, Roland Wimbledon had constructed a shed. This was also the final checkpoint.

Here, they would accept the advice of His Highness personally. If they were confirmed acceptable, they could get a "resident identity card" and become a formal resident of Border Town. At the present the housing situation was tense, and priority would be given to craftsmen. As for those with a lack of skills, they would wait for two to three months outside of the city wall.

Barov also had an identity card. It was a colored piece of paper, almost the size of his hand. There was a painting of his head that looked like a real person in the upper left. In the middle were his name, address, and number. The back of the paper was printed with the emblem of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and the signature seal of His Highness. Both the paper itself and the outer were wrapped in film. The material was very strange. Whether it was soaked in water or burnt in a fire, you could not damage the ID card.

There was no doubt that this thing was certainly a product of the witch Soraya. His Royal Highness seemed to have implemented the policy of ID cards throughout the town. In the future, the certificate would be shown, whether it was to buy food or pay for something.

Ever since a medal was given to the eldest daughter of the Pine family at the Award and Honor Ceremony, His Highness was no longer planning to hide the existence of the witches, and Barov did not want to ignore the question of who was right between the devil and the church. And even then... [I hope that His Royal Highness Roland can defeat the church and completely unify the Graycastle.]

There was no doubt that the higher the position of His Royal Highness, the more reward he would get.

Of course, there was still a long way to till then, and that could be considered in the future. Now the town's population had gone beyond that of Longsong Stronghold, and His Royal Highness had also revealed the next year's city plan to him. Once they were connected to Longsong Stronghold, a majority of the Western Region would be joined as one. Its size would no doubt surpass the king's city, and become the most magnificent in the Kingdom of Graycastle. And just what kind of promotion would he get as the city hall director?

Barov was looking forward to the future.

Chapter 245 - The Tools of Transportation

Roland sat on the office chair and took a closer look at the statistics reported by Barov.

It took three days for the City Hall to sort out all of the more than 6,000 refugees. Including the low percentage of artisans, the final approval was only 186 people. Of course, this was also related to the intensity of the audit, as it involved the allocation of housing and the issuance of identity cards.

According to Roland's consideration, it was only after you were issued an identity card that you would be regarded as his official subject. Therefore, it was important to complete this while the population was small so that better control would be had over the town's advocates over time. That way, when the population grew, the people's power could be used to assimilate the new entrants. After all, people were social animals and as long as the environment exemplified a philosophy, more and more people would agree with it. In this way the subjects could be given a better life.

"Then the artisan workshops have been arranged for you, whether it's for a single person or a family, all have been given their separate suites," Roland stated.

"Yes," said Barov, "Your Highness, are these houses issued as a gift?"

"The rent will be arranged." He shook his head. "Aborigines have free access to new homes because they mostly have old houses, which is equal to old homes being exchanged for new homes. If these people were donated houses, then it would be not conducive to kick them out and engage them actively in work. Of course, the rent can be calculated at a lower grade, and you may tell them, as long as an effort is made to save enough gold dragons, then they can buy a house directly.

"I understand."

Roland was silent for a moment, and suddenly asked, "After the Award and Honor Ceremony, how many people fled?"

"There's no one in the aborigines, but seven in the serfs." Barov paused and continued, "And the refugees from the Eastern Region chose to leave more, a total of 115 people."

"Really?" he said, taking the time to push the witch to the stage, and he knew that such a situation would happen. In order to assess the public response and to avoid accidents, Roland also specially arranged a flintlock squad temporarily away from the town several meters away, to keep the retention and get the statistics of these people fled as well as to see everyone on the acceptance of the witch.

The answer was not perfect, but at least it could be considered very good. The aborigines had fully accepted the witch, which was close to what he expected; the refugees in serfs appearing in numbers less than estimated, it seems close to the bottom of life of drama performance was good; it touched the refugees from the Eastern Region—they obviously accepted the treatment of witches, and in their homes destroyed, desperate situation, there were still over 100 people who chose to leave. This made Roland slightly surprised.

"Your Highness, I suggest that all of them be executed," said Barov calmly, "those who're determined to run in this situation will inevitably be those who're deeply influenced by the church, and for the foreseeable future they won't stand on the side of the monarchy. They'll be converted into church believers, so there's no need for a kind of kindness to them."

"Is not necessarily so... Really pious people on the church are those more than 300 refugees, who should be faced with the demonic plague and not want to leave the king." The prince closed his eyes. "These people may just be unable to change their own ideas, stubbornly thinking the witch is evil, and want to flee here."

"Even so, they're also your potential enemies." Barov insisted.

If it was on the battlefield to meet this group of people, Roland would not hesitate to defeat it. Because the ideological backwardness and the concept of incompatibility, it was necessary to wield the butcher to kill a group of civilians. This was a huge psychological barrier for him. Hesitated for a moment, and he finally rejected the offer. "I'll let Nightingale go to interrogate these people fled, and if there're spies inside they'll be hanged, and others will be expelled from the Western Region."

Barov shook his head, and after a delay, he said, "As you wish, Your Highness."

"Do you have anything else to report?"

"Not at this time, Your Highness." He coughed twice. "I have to attend to the distribution of housing."

"Don't worry, we can deal with these over time." Roland opened his eyes and stood up. "First, take a few photos with me to relax yourself."

"Pho-photos?" Barov was startled.

"You'll know before long," Roland said with a laugh.

Inside the castle, he called Carter, Iron Axe, and Soraya together. In the corner of the garden there were a few pieces of wood that were four or five meters long with the same amount wide. The ground was also covered with a canvas.

"Border town isn't so large yet, so the southern land will be developed in the future and then connected to Longsong Stronghold. The scale will be several times than that of now. At the moment, it takes one or two days to walk from the east to the west, so a faster means of transportation is necessary. The cost of raising a horse is high, and it's impossible for each subject to spend time learning how to ride a horse," Roland said as he opened the canvas, "I Intended to promote this means of transportation in the town. It's easy to use and the price is much lower than a horse."

"What… is this?" Carter was instantly attracted by this novelty. "Two wheels, an iron shelf. Is it a cart?"

"Two wheels—one in front, one in back, it would be difficult for a cart to stay balanced." Barov shook his head. "I don't see how it could replace the horse."

Only Iron Axe was silent, quietly waiting for the prince to explain.

Roland smiled. "This thing was called a bicycle, I'll give you a demonstration so you'll understand." He placed his feet on the pedals and took on a standard starting posture. With one simple pedal, he began riding up the garden road.

With Anna's finishing and Soraya's coating technology, it was not difficult to handcraft a bicycle, as its principles and structures were not difficult. Its required rubber parts were just replaced with a coating. For example, the inner tube was directly drawn onto a roll of paper tube. To this end, Roland also made a simple pump. The tire and brake were also given a greater hardness with a leather coating. The frame was a hollow iron pipe. The brake wire was an anti-corrosive copper wire. The only trouble lay in the chain, where they must rely on Anna to cut the metal, and then form the cut shapes into a long section. As for the kind of pedals that would be installed directly on the wheels of the classic bike, he had no idea.

Riding back in a circle, Roland pressed the brakes and easily pulled over. Seeing a row of stunned men, he could not help but be proud. With this, they could all come to have fine mounts. Compared to the taming and feeding needed for horses, bikes would be more readily available.

"I intend to open a bicycle plant in the industrial area for the production of this means of transport. Not only do we need to recruit workers, but we also have to give it publicity to promote it to the entire territory as soon as possible," Roland simply explained, "With this, I'll teach you how to control the bike, and then let Miss Soraya put your riding pattern painted on the board. I want to let all the subjects see that as long as they can afford the cost of one or two gold royals, they'll be able to have the same with tools as the lords, the first army command, the chief knight, and the city hall director.

.

Chapter 246 - The New Gunpowder Plan

What was the hallmark of the Industrial Age? The steam engine that powered the railway was the first thing that occurred to Roland.

For Roland, his first acquaintance of beauty was the steam engine. Rather than the modern mechanical systems of his time whose structure hid in a shell, used high-precision processing to reduce shaking and had sound-proofing. He felt that the greasy cast iron cylinder, the sturdy crankshaft, the huge iron wheels, as well as the rhythmic noise, the shaking, and the shrill whistle of the steam engine, undoubtedly showed the industrial beauty and strength in a more intuitive way.

He wanted to instruct workers to lay railway lines everywhere in his domain so that a train could carry the cargo and passengers to the Western Region. Although this was a good idea, it would not be easy to make it a reality. The large amount of steel needed for such an undertaking far exceeded the capacity of iron ingots which North Slope Mine Kiln could produce.

Thus, for Roland, promoting the bicycle became his best option. The more smooth roads that were built in his domain, the more profitable the bicycle would be. Compared to the steam train with its complicated structure, the bicycle did not need to be maintained. The chain only needed to be oiled once in a while.

If Roland planned to mass-produce the bicycle, he could not let Anna do all of the manufacturing work. First, he should build a company, training a group of professional workers to do the manufacturing and assembly work. Considering that the Kingdom Main Street was scheduled for completion by the next spring, the company size would not be too large at first. The workers would have enough time to get familiar with the manufacturing process when Anna made the machine tools. It would be okay if the company produced 10 bikes per month. The most difficult part was the production of chains, which needed to use a machine to stamp out chain pieces.

Soraya's ability could help with the production of the rubber parts, such as tires and brakes. Thankfully, the workload was not heavy in this part. The magic pen could draw a lot of these rubber parts as long as the base mold was done. The same was true of the bearings. They could not make reliable ball bearings, so a short piece of steel casing was found to be just fine. After covering the inside with a smooth mirror coating, its effect would be no less than that of a ball bearing.

When the bicycle was first invented, only nobles could afford such an expensive form of transport. In order to promote it to the common people, Roland also planned to advertise and implement an installment payment system to reduce purchase pressure. Of course, only the subjects with ID cards could apply for this kind of payment.

The three of them spent the whole afternoon in the courtyard learning how to ride a bike. As the chief knight, Carter Lannis quickly mastered the skills. Iron Axe, who was the second quickest to learn, managed to finally successfully take a trip around the courtyard. Only Barov failed again and again. Every time he tried, he ended up almost falling off the bike or else he just could not proceed in a straight line. At last, Roland had to let Soraya draw a still picture of him who just stood beside the bike with both hands holding the handlebars.

"Is that okay?" Soraya asked after she had completed the four big posters.

After a moment's thought, Roland said, "We need to add two advertising lines. At the top of the picture we can write, 'This is the mount in a new era, I have it, you can have it too.' At the below we can write, 'The bicycle factory is recruiting workers. We offer you a good salary and better treatment. You'll also have the opportunity to get a new bicycle of your own. Anyone who has completed their primary education can sign up in the City Hall.'"

...

When the matter of the bicycle posters was done, the prince returned to his office. He asked his guards to call Kyle Sichi before dinner.

Now that they finally developed mercury fulminate, the production of new weapons should get started too. Undoubtedly at the thermal weapons age, the caliber of the cannon represented justice, while the firing rate represented freedom. The more powerful the weapon was, the more glorious it was. Finally, the quantity of the gun turrets decided everything... But there was another problem here, at this rate, the two acidic liquids which were extracted in the lab would not be enough.

For example, if Roland wanted to improve the firing rate of the cannon, he must discard the black gunpowder which had a lot of residue in favor of smokeless gunpowder, namely guncotton or the mixture of guncotton and nitroglycerin. The same was true for the production of high-explosives. It was fine if he could not make TNT as he could use nitrostarch to replace it. While its stability was not very good, it was more powerful than TNT.

But whether he wanted to improve the firing rate of the cannon or produce high-explosives, he would need a large amount of fuming nitric acid along with a huge volume of concentrated sulfuric acid in order to purify the nitric acid. Neither of these could be covered by the yield of the lab. In other words, if they could not find an industrial way to extract fuming nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid, they would get into the dilemma where they had no bullets to use even if they had created the highly-efficient weapons.

When the chief alchemist entered his office Roland said, "I have a new task for you."

"Do tell, as long as it isn't to attend any ceremonies." Kyle shrugged.

"I need more acidic liquid. Right now the yield of the chemical lab isn't enough for my needs. So your new task is to design a set of chemical systems which can produce the two acidic liquids efficiently."

"Chemical... systems?" Kyle was incredibly confused.

"Well, you need to design a set of chemical systems which consist of several pre-positioned types of equipment. They can pump out plenty of products as long as we put in the raw materials." Roland simply explained to him the essence of the industrial production. "I only know a little about this, so you have to figure it out on your own."

The prince knew it was a very difficult task to accomplish that could require several years of study and results which could not be ensured. After all, Kyle only knew some basic reaction principles and chemical equations from the book "Elementary Chemistry".

"I get it." Kyle nodded. "The things that you've mentioned really refresh me."

"Whether you can accomplish it or not, the two kinds of acidic liquid are what I desperately need now." After the pause, Roland said, "So I've already decided to build another three labs beside Redwater River, and hire some subjects to act as lab assistants. You can pick up some of your students to instruct them if you're busy. After all, the industrial acid-making process will be a long-term research project."

Perhaps he could not resist the seduction of "Intermediate Chemistry", because Kyle agreed immediately. "Yes, Your Highness."

Roland gently sighed after Kyle Sichi left.

If the industrial acid-making process did not work, he had to let Lucia help with the purification of the acidic liquid. After all, when the war came, he would need more powerful weapons to win a victory for this town.

Roland opened the drawer. He wanted to eat some dried fish but found that the drawer which he used for snacks was empty.

He was stunned for a while, but when he raised his head, a dried fish was handed to him.

"Is this what you're looking for?" The blonde woman opposite him smiled.

Roland bit the dried fish, but could not help laughing. "I thought you would stay in the Mist for the rest of your life."

"That would be fine. At least nobody can see me, but I still can see you." Nightingale smacked her lips.

Seeing Nightingale's familiar face, Roland was incredibly relieved, his bad mood began dissipating. "You've said before that you don't know how to face me..."

"Huh?"

"Actually, you look just fine the way you are."

Chapter 247 - The Graduation Ceremony

"Look, that is Lady Scroll, I heard she's the Minister of Education." Piper nudged Jilly with his elbow secretively.

"Education... Minister?" Jilly felt puzzled. "What's that?"

Piper explained to her. "The minister is the one who's in charge of all the teachers. Isn't your favorite teacher Ferlin while you hate teacher Harben with his loud voice? Well, they all are under the charge of Lady Scroll."

"Where did you hear about this?" Jilly blinked her eyes. "I suppose you must have heard it from the big shot you've mentioned?"

"Well, of course." Piper smiled with pride and then said, "Besides, I also know that, not only will the officials of City Hall will be attending today's graduation ceremony, but the lord will also attend. How wonderful is that His Highness would come here?"

"Really?" Jilly's eyes brightened suddenly. "Do you think His Highness will talk to us?"

"Oh... That I don't know." Piper touched the back of his head. "He probably will."

After all, he heard this from his big brother Van'er. Speaking of Van'er, he was an amazing person who used to be a common knapper but became a captain who was in charge of a small platoon when he joined the Militia. Now that he was an officer of the Artillery Squad in the First Army, his monthly salary is 25 silver royals, and he had even talked and shaken hands with His Highness.

Although Van'er spent most of his time in the battalion area, he occasionally had many interesting observations and stories to say when he came back. His former neighbor and worshiper, Piper would go to his place and pester Van'er to tell him more about interesting things. Piper could always get some information from Van'er in advance.

For example, it was also Van'er who told him that the lord would attend this graduation ceremony. A week ago, the First Army had received the command to protect His Highness and guard against danger. They also practiced some manoeuvres near the school building.

Before long, a group of energetic soldiers in uniforms walked in with their heads held high. His Highness and his chief knight were in the middle of the parade,

the crowd could not help but become restless.

After the entrance of the school building was encircled by the soldiers, Roland stepped into the hall, waving to the multiple rows of students. "Hello, my subjects. I'm Roland Wimbledon who's in charge of the Western Region, the Lord of Border Town. Let me congratulate you all on your accomplishments and for having completed all the contents of your primary education, becoming the first batch of graduates in Border Town."

A hush fell over the crowd, which was not because they were indifferent to Roland's words, but because many of them were too excited to say anything.

Jilly grabbed Piper's arm and pinched it, looking very excited, and she said, "His Highness is talking to us."

Piper felt exhilarated too. Piper felt like he also had the same close contact with His Highness that his big brother Van'er enjoyed.

"The reason that you can pass the examination and graduate from school so soon is all because most of you are teacher Karl Van Bate's students. You've been ahead of others from the start. So don't be conceited and self-complacent as there's still a lot of knowledge which you need to study and explore." Roland continued, "Of course, today is still worthy of celebration, because from now on, you've already chosen a way which is different from others. You'll get a generous reward no matter what kind of job you'll engage in. Congratulations!"

"His Highness... live long!" someone shouted, then all of them exclaimed with excitement, "Long live, His Highness! We're willing to serve you!"

Waiting for the cheers of the audience to subside, Roland laughed. "Then I'll issue you your diploma as an honor certificate to prove that you've completed your studies." He opened a booklet and said, "Piper."

Piper shuddered when he heard Roland call his name. Staring at the prince, he opened his mouth and did not know what to say. Teacher Ferlin Eltek waved to him and said, "Don't be afraid, just go and stand in front of His Highness."

Piper walked toward Roland stiffly, and his heart beat so fast that he could even hear his own heartbeat. Suddenly, he thought about the military courtesy that Van'er had always mentioned which was simpler than the chivalrous courtesy and could show his loyalty toward His Highness. Given that it was also invented by His Highness himself, although he did not know the exact specific gesture, he still summoned up his courage to salute Roland, putting his hands on his forehead flatly.

The prince was amused. He nodded and handed Piper the booklet, saying, "It would be more proper if your hand moved backward a bit towards your ear... Congratulations on your graduation."

"Th-thanks." Piper took the booklet and walked back unconsciously. He only came to himself when His Highness started to issue the next diploma.

"Let me see, what did they write on it?" Jilly turned her head and asked curiously.

"What's the rush, you'll have one too," he mumbled as he opened the diploma's cover with trembling hands. There was a piece of exquisite parchment inside, In the top left-hand corner, there was a drawing of his own face portrait. In the middle was the royal emblem of the Kingdom of Graycastle which had several lines below it on the page. If it was half a year ago, Piper would have had to ask teacher Karl to tell him what the meaning was of these words. But now Piper had mastered the basic skills in reading and writing, so he simply read it to himself.

"The first batch of graduates in Border Town: Piper."

"President: Scroll."

"Issuer: Lord of Border Town, Roland Wimbledon."

...

After all the diplomas were issued, Roland clapped his hands to get their attention. "From now on, you're qualified to do jobs which common people can't do. These jobs have a generous salary, and the minimum wage is 10 silver royals per month. Next, I'll let Lady Scroll introduce the work content in the City Hall of Border Town." He raised his hands to stop them from chattering and continued to say, "You don't have to make a decision instantly, go back to home and discuss it with your family. You can come to City Hall to apply for the job you want with your ID card and diploma once you make up your mind."

Seizing the chance while Scroll was talking, Jilly turned her head and asked Piper, "Do you have any idea? I want to work in the bicycle plant, for the salary is higher than my father's. I'll also have the opportunity to get a new bicycle."

"It sounds wonderful," Piper answered without caring. Recently four massive plates were set up in the square of Border Town. Imprinted on the plates was the portraits of His Highness and several officers. This iron mount with strange shapes beside them had stirred up heated discussion among the citizens. Furthermore, the monthly salary of the bicycle plant was 15 silver royals. The plant would have been crammed with people if it did not have specific requirements that only people who had completed their primary education could enlist.

But there was one place that Piper wanted to go the most.

After the graduation ceremony, Piper could not help but get a rather crazy idea. He wanted to step up to the platform of the square and receive the honor from His Highness in front of thousands of people, just like his former classmate Nana.

According to the words of His Highness, one could only receive such honor when he made contributions to the town. He would never have the chance to receive such honor if he worked in the bicycle plant. Unlike Iron Axe, he could not be a soldier and go to the battlefield to fight against the enemies. He also did not have an amazing ability like the witches. The only man he could imitate was Chief Alchemist Kyle Sichi.

He had heard many times that if he could create a practical alchemical product which could bring wealth and fame to the domain, then he could be a great man. No need to be brave or born to a noble family, the only thing he needed was a little luck... it was the best way for him.

Thinking about that, Piper made up his mind.

"I'll go to enlist in the chemical laboratory," he said.

Chapter 248 - The Mutation

Even in summer, the ice and snow on Hermes Plateau did not melt much.

Mayne stood at the top of the Heaven Tower and looked out from afar. There were only two colors in the wilderness outside the wall—the green meadows and the white snow intertwined, like a scar of the earth left by the war during the Months of Demons. The climatic conditions were unsuitable for any crops, so all the food they needed in the new Holy City had to be transported from the foot of the plateau, that was, the old Holy City, by animal-drawn vehicles.

After living in Hermes for more than a decade, he had been used to the coldness everywhere.

"This time only we two are left?" Tayfun came through the door and asked, "is it okay if the meeting isn't held in the secret chamber?"

"Do you like to stay in that tiny room?"

"No... of course not." The old archbishop touched his white beard. "If Heather hadn't always talked about the disciplines and regulations, I would have been eager to exchange information here. Even if she talked a lot of nonsense, I could at least enjoy the scenery of Holy City. But..." he said with a faint smile, "I didn't expect such a person who's always punctually to not return on time?"

"Maybe she met some difficulties," said Mayne sitting back to the table, "maybe she's on her way."

"Maybe..." Tayfun curled his lips and said, "You shouldn't make an excuse for her. She often said that everyone should suit the action to the word. Even if she met with some troubles, she should report to us first. She isn't alone in the king's city of the Kingdom of Everwinter, and sending a messenger won't take long."

"Leave her alone." Mayne pushed three letters to Tayfun and said, "we're in trouble."

"Trouble?" Tayfun was stunned for a while and then sat down across the round table spreading out the letters. "Is it all bad news?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath. "It couldn't be worse."

Tayfun lost his smile and began to carefully look at the first secret letter. "... the spread of the demonic plague has been stopped and Faceless' whereabouts is unknown? Wait, what's the demonic plague?"

"It's the latest research result of the Pivotal Secret Area. You don't need to know too much and just consider it as a rapidly infectious disease." Mayne simply explained. In fact, according to Master Crow's Eye, it was a micro demonic beast which would mutate specifically for the human body after special cultivation. And the holy medicine to restrain it was also the demonic beast, but with a smaller body. "The pathogen can't be directly observed with the eyes, so it can't be cured with the conventional means. Only one kind of person can stop the spread of the demonic plague."

"The witch?" Tayfun quickly thought of the answer.

"And it should be more than one," he said with a low voice.

After reading the letter, the old archbishop punched on the table. "What was the idiot doing? Not to mention that he let the Rats encircle and suppress the mercenaries, he even let Faceless in? Didn't he even know how important the pure witch is?"

"His idea isn't wrong." Mayne frowned. "If there were no lies about the number of people in the letter, then 1000 Rats would be enough to defeat the other party's over 100 mercenaries. However, it seems that they have powerful long-range bolts, which can be launched continuously. For this point, I remember that Priest Tylo, who stationed in Longsong Stronghold, has also mentioned that the reason why Duke Ryan lost to a group of miners was that the other party's crossbows were extremely powerful. Although the armors can significantly reduce the damage of the bolts, the Rats don't have such equipment."

"Even if it was right to send those Rats, he shouldn't send Faceless so easily!" Tayfun said angrily, "Heather will be furious when she comes back. Every witch who would grow into a pure witch has an extremely rare ability and the training is very energy-consuming. In a sense, they're more precious than God's Punishment Army."

"But whether it's the witches or the God's Punishment Army, their ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy and achieve victory," Mayne slowly said, "It's inevitable to lose some of them in this process."

"Do you want to keep Priest Ferry safe?"

"Don't forget the law of the church," Mayne said with a low voice, "only focusing on results is the way the nobles love to deal with things. Although Ferry failed miserably, his starting point and plan didn't have too many problems. It was just that the enemy was stronger. He'll certainly be punished, but the specific punishments need further consideration."

"But Heather may not think so," Tayfun shook his head and said, opening the second letter, "don't forget that she's in charge of the arbitration of the church."

"I'll explain it to her."

Soon, the old archbishop turned over the letter, daring not believe what he had seen. "Timothy's militia forces sneak attacked the church in Longsong Stronghold and killed all members of the emissary delegation? Was he crazy!?"

The contents of the second letter actually came from two aspects. One was the report from the stronghold's agent Petrov, and the other was the intelligence from local believers. On the whole, there was indeed a militia from outside the Western Region that attacked the stronghold and plundered the church. They not only took the Berserk Pills, and their target was also the pills stored in the church... So the first judgement wouldn't be wrong—the team came from either Timothy, the new king, or from Garcia, Queen of Clearwater. Between the two, the former was more likely.

As for the latter one, Mayne felt a bit weird. According to Petrov's description in the report, the other party burned the church and immediately withdrew from the stronghold being nowhere to be found, then how could they kill the members of the emissary delegation? At this time the emissary delegation should have arrived in Border Town, so it was impossible for the two parties to meet.

Seeing that Mayne did not say a word, Tayfun soon realized that as well. He picked up the first letter to read it again, and then the wrinkles on his forehead deepened. "Is it... Roland Wimbledon that removed the emissary delegation and then pushed it all to his elder brother Timothy Wimbledon?"

"We might as well speculate," the archbishop said, after a moment of silence, "Roland intended to obtain the cheap population, so he sent the witches to cure the demonic plague and transported the fugitives back to the Western Region. Before that, to avoid being perceived by the emissary delegation that he was keeping the witches, he had sent the knights to raid the camp of the emissary delegation. The emissary delegation even couldn't send messenger pigeons. Then he placed all the blame on the stronghold raiders. After all, it was with Roland's support that Petrov became the agent, so it was taken for granted to help him make counterfeiting. Of course… all this is our speculation. The disappearance of the emissary delegation is indeed too suspicious, but we have no energy to send another emissary delegation."

"In that case, we should immediately send troops to punish him for his arrogance," Tayfun said coldly, "even if the emissary delegation has nothing to do with him, the witches going to the Western Region is worth our cleaning up."

Mayne did not answer but pointed to the third letter instead. "You'd better read the last letter first."

Tayfun looked at him puzzled and spread the letter. Soon, his hands became trembled and could hardly hold the thin paper. "Lots of witches appeared in the Fjords, and they even destroyed all the churches? Then this letter is..."

"It's from Sea Dragon Bay, and it's the last church being broken through." Mayne closed his eyes, leaning against the chair, with a tone filled with tiredness. "Large numbers of witches can't appear in the Fjords without any symptoms. So there's only one possibility, that's, they migrated from the mainland." The letter also mentioned the Extraordinary—It was clearly defined in the church law that once any traces of an extraordinary witch was found, it should preferentially dispatch the God's Punishment Army to catch her. Since Fjord Islands were too far away, and the Kingdom of Wolfheart battlefield was at an anxious occasion, he had no time to attend to the affairs across the strait.

"Shall we ask the supreme pontiff for instructions?" Tayfun asked.

"..." Mayne slightly shook his head and forced down the sense of powerlessness. Maybe it was the deities' test for the church, and the truth of the deities could only be seen when the church broke through brambles and thorns. He opened his eyes and calmed down again. "I leave the matters of the Holy City of Hermes to you and Heather."

"Do you want to go to the Fjords?" The old archbishop stared at him.

"I'll lead 100 members of the God's Punishment Army and Pure Witches who stayed at the church and thoroughly clean out the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Then I'll seek opportunities to deal with the witches in the Fjords."

"But the law says..."

Mayne interrupted him. "It was in the case that the extraordinary appeared in the four kingdoms. Now they're separated far from us by the sea, so they have nothing to do with our plan. Don't forget that our ultimate goal is to gain more land and population, and continue to expand the God's Punishment Army. It's clear that Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle is a bigger hindrance to us."

"But..." When Tayfun intended to contradict him, there came a rush of footsteps outside the circular room. They both slightly startled and coincidentally looked to the door.

The door was pushed open and a priest rushed in the room in an abrupt manner. "Bad news, Your Archbishop, bad news!"

"Calm down," Mayne shouted, "What's the matter, say it slowly."

"Critical intelligence came from Her Excellency Heather's follower that a huge fleet had landed on the coast of the Kingdom of Everwinter. A large group of enemies was besieging the king's city and the situation was urgent. Their ships were uniformly hung with black sails, and the flags on the mast were green flags with a crown and a sailboat on it." The priest looked very anxious. "The moment when the news was sent out, two gates had been lost. Her Excellency Heather was leading the believers to fight, but there're too many enemies. Moreover, they had taken the berserk pills!"

"What?" Mayne could not believe his ears for a while. Black sails, designed with a sailboat and a crown...

The enemy was actually the Blacksail Fleet of the Queen of Clearwater!

Chapter 249 - The New Clearwater

...

The granite steps of the Kingdom of Everwinter's temple were stained with blood, which smelled sweet and a little pungent.

Many bodies lay on the ground—bodies of the God's Punishment Army, believers, their own people, and also the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan. Ryan saw different wounds on them. Most of them had traces of burnt marks on their bodies, and their broken limbs and intestines were everywhere. Ryan knew that the deaths were caused by the impact and incineration of the snow powder.

He felt sticky beneath his feet for every step he took. The Judgement Army and believers of the church had a simply crazy will of fighting. The slaves who were strengthened by the pills did not retreat but they were clinging to the enemies with their flesh and blood as the shield in order for their companions to have a chance to strike. They became powerful and painless by taking the pills, but their vitals parts such as heart, neck, and head were still fragile. Besides, Her Majesty did not have extra armors for these cheap slaves.

If they had not had the snow powder, it was hard to say that they would certainly win.

[But we won...] Ryan's heart was burning like a fire. [We finally won!] The flags of Queen of Clearwater were fluttering on top of the city wall, and the strongest defensive point of the church had no resistance to the attack. As a result, Blacksail Fleet was no longer besieged in a corner of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and they did not have to exhaust their force little by little in the endless battles with Timothy.

The temple hall was also in a mess, with scattering broken glass and overflowing blood everywhere on the ground. Ryan did not care about these and walked towards the woman who was standing in the center of the hall in high spirit. He knelt down on one knee and said, "Your Majesty, all the four gates have fallen into the hands of Blacksail Fleet. You're now the Queen of the Kingdom of Everwinter."

"You've worked hard. Please rise." Garcia reached out to him.

Ryan gently held the Queen's hand, symbolically kissed on the back of her hand, and stood up beside her.

"Strange rituals," Kabala at the side coldly said, "you didn't even touch her hand. Why do you have to do this?"

The unexpected question made him frown; however, the other party was the Chief of Sandstone Clan and it would not be appropriate for him to denounce her rudeness. He could only coldly say, "This is the common courtesy of nobility. It represents manner and respect. It'll be rude to touch her and it's normal for you not to able to understand as a people of Sand Nation."

"Is that so?" She raised her eyebrows and pointed at her neck. "We're allies who just fought shoulder to shoulder. As soon as the battle ended, you forced me to wear this. The manner and respect of kingdoms of the continent are really confusing."

An iron chain with a lifted center circled around Kabala's neck, which simply looked like an accessory. But Ryan knew that a God's Stone of Retaliation was wrapped in it. It was hard to take off by any other means other than the special key held by Garcia. Kabala was a witch so she had to be treated with caution. However, she did put in a lot of efforts in the war. Without her operation of command, the slaves who carried snow powder would not dare to attack the closed defense-line formed by the believers. He opened his mouth several times, not knowing what to say.

"Well, stop arguing for such little thing." Garcia interrupted. "Don't forget the purpose we're here. Can't you tolerate a little stone for the vast land of survival?"

"I'm just saying." Kabala shrugged. "I hope you can honor your promise."

"Of course, this is the basis of our cooperation." The Queen smiled.

"What should the Blacksail Fleet do next?" Ryan asked.

"We'll talk about the next step later. Let's watch a good show for now." Garcia clapped and ordered the guards. "Bring her here."

After a while, two armored guards brought a woman whose hands were tied at her back into the temple.

She was about 30 years old, with an ordinary look and messy brown hair scattering on both sides of her cheeks. She wore a golden church robe with exquisite workmanship and fine materials, which was generally only worn by the archbishop in Hermes. The gorgeous robe, with stains of blood, was torn apart at a few places.

"She is a... archbishop?"

"Yes," the Queen of Clearwater said, "I confirmed with a few nobles that she's one of the three archbishops of the church, Her Excellency Heather." She looked at the woman and said, "Am I right?"

"..." Heather did not answer, but Ryan could see the strong ridicule and disdain from her eyes.

Obviously, Garcia also felt the same and she chuckled. "I don't think you'll surrender, so in my kind thought, I brought you to the temple to send you back to the mercy of the Kingdom of God. You can beg for the salvation of the deities, or you may also beg for my forgiveness. I'll slowly cut off your fingers, limbs and facial features so that you can fully experience the pain and helplessness of the people in Port of Clearwater."

"And then?" said the female archbishop, "do you want to be crushed by the army of the church? Or do you intend to drift on the sea for a lifetime without landing?"

"You don't have to worry about this," Garcia said while gestured the guards to take action, "the church's army is now attacking Wolfheart City, and Hermes is left undefended. It's more important than my life. I may not be able to set foot on the land of the new Holy City, but I can easily turn the old Holy City under the plateau into ruins. You should have heard of the water of Styx's River at the most southern corner of the Kingdom of Graycastle, which is very ignitable but extremely hard to extinguish. I've got an entire boat with me this time."

The guard pulled out a dagger and approached the archbishop who was pressed on the ground, neatly cutting off her two fingers.

Heather bit her teeth and did not even utter for pain.

The Queen of Clearwater stepped onto the main ladder of the hall and sat on the spacious throne, with her right-hand supporting her chin, revealing the joy.

... Another three fingers were cut off, and then Heather's left hand had become a bare palm. Her forehead was full of sweat.

"Do you have to do this?" Kabala shook her head. "If it were not a deterrent to the enemy or to interrogate for information, it would be unnecessary to torture."

"Unnecessary?" Garcia laughed. "That's what you should say to her. Do you know what happens to the witches who fall into the hands of the church? I guess you wouldn't be interested in it."

"Hahaha..." Heather, who had lost all her fingers, suddenly laughed. "You don't understand the greatness of the church, and you don't understand how important the Holy City is. You're always accompanied by ignorance, not knowing the coming doomsday! Hermes will show you what the real power is. Those who're against the church will have no other endings other than the destruction!"

"Really..." Garcia crossed her legs and smiled. "In this case, I'll wait and see."

The archbishop did not beg for mercy even until the moment she died. However, Ryan was surprised that she did not even call for the Gods and, nor asked for the God's salvation. Finally, Heather died of excessive blood loss and her expression was impassively terrible when she was losing consciousness. It seemed that she was not being tortured, but rather she was watching a farce that had nothing to do with her. Ryan felt as if he saw his destined future through her eyes.

This feeling made him feel inexplicable and almost breathless.

"Cut her head down and hang it in front of the church," Garcia ordered after confirming the archbishop was dead. And, she looked at Ryan and said, "Now, we can talk about the next step."

"Yes, Your Majesty." He suppressed the discomfort in his heart and asked, "Do you intend to attack Hermes?"

"Yes, but not with full force." She spread out a carry-on leather map. "Only with a minimum number of sailors and part of slaves of the Eastern Region, the Blacksail Fleet will flow along the river to the west, heading for the old Holy City. And, we're going directly to the south, across the border of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the destination is the Wolfheart City."

"Wolf... heart?" Ryan was shocked.

"I had an agreement with Woolf, the King of the Wolfheart." Garcia said, "if I could help him defeat the church, he would help me take over the entire Kingdom of Everwinter. In this case, if the church didn't withdraw the army, the boats which are loaded with snow powder and the water of Styx's River are enough to burn the old Holy City. Unlike the new Holy City, it's a city without walls. In addition, if we don't gather enough manpower, there would be no way to stop the slaves from attacking."

"If they retreat, Wolfheart City will have some breathing space. And, if both the countries merged, we can also work together to defeat the church in the future!"

"That's true," said the Queen of Clearwater, "and then we can have a hold of the Kingdom of Everwinter."

Chapter 250 - The End of Midsummer

Roland did not want to leave the castle anymore, seeing the midsummer was coming to an end and Border Town was ushering into the final and hottest month of summer.

The saltpeter bought from Margaret, except for producing gunpowder, was all used to lower the room temperature. Now almost every room was displayed with a bucket filled with saltpeter and also a kettle. Then he could sit in a cooler room and enjoy iced water to quench the thirst. In this case, he would not be sweating profusely the moment he came into the office.

Except Anna, the other witches were told to stop working other than the daily practice and learning. They would basically gather in the hall on the first floor to chit-chat or play Gwent, looking extremely cheerful. As for Anna... it was not that Roland did not want her to rest, but she was not afraid of the heat. She could hold the red-hot ingots of high-temperature directly in her hands, so the scorching hot summer was nothing to her. Even if she was busy working by the steel smelting stove the entire afternoon, she would not sweat more.

In order to reward the hard work of Anna, recently Roland had deliberately created some cold desserts to reward her, such as the classic delicious ice-cream in modern time. It was made by mixing the egg yolk, cream, milk, and sugar evenly and chilled with the saltpeter. Anna was very fond of this waxy, soft, and sweet snack. Every little bite of the ice-cream would make her lake-blue eyes bent into a slit, making him feel extremely pleased.

In addition, reading the monthly summary sent by the City Hall was also a great pleasure to Roland.

The population of Border Town had doubled again so far, which was close to 18,000 people. With a number of serfs turned over by Longsong Stronghold every month, it was not a problem to break the record of 20,000 next year. If the number of villages and towns within the domain were excluded, this scale was comparable to the big cities such as Redwater City, Valencia, and the king's city.

It was a pity that the quality of population did not improve with the quantity. At present, there was still only over 1,000 natives accepting the education, and they may take about a year to graduate. Although the private academy Karl opened previously had created a number of talents who graduated ahead, the less than 100 people were relatively unworthy to mention compared to the total population.

[Perhaps I should go ahead to educate the refugees from the Eastern Region, rather than doing it after building enough dormitory area,] Roland thought, [After all, early education is only good for them.]

The factories in the town were developing very well.

After half a year of construction, the industrial park now had three factories running. They were two steam engine production plants and a bullet processing plant. The number of workers in No.1 factory had increased from the initial dozen of blacksmiths to more than 100 people now. The subsequent participators were mainly the natives. This was what he wanted to see, a number of apprentices growing into craftsmen and promoting the next batch of apprentices.

The workers of No. 2 Factory belonged to the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan, who had generally mastered the usage of various machine tools within a month. Although the yield was relatively poor, the first-month performance of these craftsmen was apparently better than the blacksmiths from No.1 Factory. However, the steam engines they produced were owned by Roland before their contract expired. Now, both factories could produce almost 8 to 10 steam engines each month, which was the main income source of Border Town.

As for the bullets factory, the bullets produced would be directly passed to the First Army. Sentries were set at every entrance, and the factory was also surrounded by the patrols, and even the production was in-charged by the soldiers. After a week of the trial run, it had begun to mass produce the new generation of fixed bullets.

The pipeline Roland designed could not achieve full mechanical production. It did not matter if it was a primer, gunpowder or warhead, it needed to manually file the compaction. The tools were mainly two mechanical punching machine—one of it could press the copper Anna cut into the shell shape, while the other was used for stamping primer cup.

The soldiers needed to place the mercury fulminate evenly between two pieces of paper, stuck them up tightly, and then put them into the cup before inserting the cup into an annular groove at the bottom of a primer shell. As for loading black gunpowder and compacting the warheads, it was exactly the same as the previous reloading exercise.

The number of people in the plants was not much. There were only around 40 people and it could produce almost 500 bullets every day. Roland intended to turn these 40 people into full-time processing personnel in order to maintain the normal operation of the bullets factory.

Then Roland intended to build the soap plant and perfume plant. The former was a very important part of the military industry, while the latter might be able to open up new business channels for the town. As for the bicycle plant, it could be delayed a little, as long as it was put into production before the completion of the Kingdom Main Street.

"Your Highness," Nightingale said after she opened the door, "Maggie and Lightning are here."

Both of them drilled in beside Nightingale. They ran to the table and stuck their heads out. "Are you looking for us?"

"It'll be the last month of summer since tomorrow." Roland pulled out the reply letter he had written from the drawer and handed it to Maggie. "Remember to help me pass this to Tilly when you returned to the Fjords."

"Ah..." She stunned for a moment and blinked a few times before she took the envelope. She carefully stuffed it into the bag and said, "No problem, coo!"

Looking at Maggie's sudden enlightened look, Roland guessed she probably did not remember that she had to go back to report monthly. Roland suppressed himself from smiling. [It seems that the influence of the town is really big.]

"I've forgotten that tomorrow is the beginning of a new month," Lightning held her forehead and said, "doesn't that mean we won't meet for a while again?"

"The last time I was delayed due to Lady Tilly's sweeping plan. I'll come back as soon as possible this time." Maggie shook her white hair which was almost dragging on the ground. "Wait for me to explore that eagle nest... Coo!"

"I know," the little girl pouted and said, "it's a deal."

"You also have a task." Roland spread out a map of the southern area of the town. "This is the map you drew. Do you remember the location of a shallow beach in the direction of the mountain closed to the sea?"

"I do." Lightning pointed on the map. "It was around here."

"Well, you'll take Maggie for a fly later. After that, set up two flags in the junction of the shallow beach and the mountains, and marked them on the map." He looked at Maggie after finishing his order and said, "If Tilly agreed to send the witches, you'll take the sailing ship to the location of the shallow beach, and I'll meet you at the top of the mountain."

"Send the witches?" Lightning asked curiously, "are any new sisters coming to Border Town?"

"I don't know yet." Roland smiled. "It depends on Tilly 's answer... But I think she'll agree."

Chapter 251 - Fly Again

The second day after Maggie left, Roland led the witches to the yard and started the assembly of the new generation of hot air balloons.

Since the castle backyard and witches' dormitory was under construction for remodeling and enlarging, Leaf moved the plants to the front yard. Various types of vines climbed all over the walls, gallows, and hallways, which made the yard appear to be an ancient forest. The effect of shielding from the sun was apparent. The sunlight could only penetrate through the tiny gaps between the vigorous leaves, leaving scattered spots of sunlight on the ground.

Roland handed the witches a stack of paper, made them spread it into an enormous drawing paper, and had Soraya to draw the lightest coating of blue sky. Compared to the combination of cow skin and canvas that the first generation hot air balloon used, the coating fabric was much lighter and sturdier. There were no stitches on the connecting points so that there were no concerns over any breakdown of the hot air balloon in the air regardless of its size.

"I heard from Lightning that there might be witches coming from the Fjords?" Wendy asked in curiosity.

"If everything goes smoothly." Roland repeated the content of Princess Tilly's response letter. "We have to wait for Tilly Wimbledon's reply for any further conducts."

"Seems like that Ashes and her group succeeded," she said in contemplation, "it's unbelievable that these many witches gathered on Sleeping Island."

"Indeed, I'm afraid that Tilly has been planning for this migration over the past many years." Roland shrugged. "Besides the Kingdom of Graycastle, she has undercover witch networks over the other three superkingdoms. I believe that Witch Cooperation Association has received her invitation too. I guess that's why not a single witch visited even though the guards had been spreading the rumors for so long—we were one step behind Tilly."

"But Cara never mentioned this to us." Wendy rubbed her shoulder.

"If she had told your guys about Tilly's invitation, you guys wouldn't insist on seeking Holy Mountain anymore, Right?"

"There's such a possibility indeed. However, if that were the case, we wouldn't have met each other in Border Town." She shook her head with a smile. "So... this isn't bad at all."

"I also think this isn't bad," Lightning raised her hand and said.

"Maybe it would be even better if we went to the Fjords." Lily twitched her mouth. "After all, there're witches all over the island, unlike this town that we have to be extra cautious whenever we go out."

"This is still much better than before," Anna said in a serious tone, "I didn't even dare to go out at that time."

"Right, some people are like that. Even she instantly refused Ashes' invitation, she still put on a pretentious act," Mystery Moon murmured a complaint. "How dare she say that she's not a traitor!"

"You..." Lily widened her eyes. "Moron!"

"Traitor!"

The rest of the witches could not restrain their laughter.

"I think so too." Roland felt a sense of accomplishment raising in his heart. Even though he was not as intelligent as Princess Tilly, and was less powerful and less decisive compared to Timothy and Garcia, he was able to provide a free and comfortable environment for these witches at the same time bring higher living standards to his citizens.

"That hot air balloon... I'm afraid it'll be so many times larger than the previous one." Nightingale observed the parts that Soraya finished drawing so far. "Are you planning to use it to transport witches?"

Roland nodded and said, "Only this way will we be able to avert the harbor cities and arrive at the inner territory straight from the southern end of the town. Also, besides transporting the new visitors, it'll be a new experiment."

After the paper was painted on both sides, it became an interlayered fabric. Each fabric was about six meters in width and length—if it were regular canvas or linen, it would be difficult to drag the fabrics with a single hand. Yet the light-weighted coating's weight was similar to a stack of paper. When the 10 pieces of fabrics were connected and seamed with the adherence of the coating, it became a huge gasbag that was astonishing in size.

What Roland wanted to test was Soraya's ability to adhere the coatings. At least when Roland first saw Soraya's new ability, the half-done drawing of the "thick tree skin" on the desk was quite memorable. The two objects tightly stuck together that someone could lift the whole table by pulling the tree skin. How strong would the adherence between the coatings and the base be? Would it be able to support a huge gasbag and maintain its stability after inflating the balloon? These were all the things that Roland wanted to know.

The inflation of a hot air balloon still depended on Anna. The hydrogen balloon could be handled by anyone. Now with the presence of DC motor, they could produce hydrogen through electrolysis. The prominent Zeppelin seemed reachable to Roland at this point. As long as he could find the suitable materials for the lightweight backbone of the airship, this gigantic monster that could travel with a high velocity at two to three kilometers above the ground would be infallible. Its technical difficulty would be much less compared to that of the airplanes.

Although the accuracy of dropping bombs at a high altitude of 1,000 meters above the ground would be quite low, the enemy would not be able to retaliate at all—any enemies would be devastated if someone kept dropping bombs every day on their domain.

Imagine when Roland started the expedition against the Holy City of the church, four or five airships floating on air in a line and dropping bombs, shallow water gunboats bombarding the enemy's city gate and strongholds in river courses, and the infantry with flintlocks was supporting in the back. The army, navy, and air force would be cooperating with each other and fight against the enemy. Roland felt quite excited just by imagining that scene.

"Your Highness, what're you smiling about?" Anna let out a deep sigh and reached out to cover Roland's widening mouth.

"He's probably thinking about those newly arrived witches." Lily rolled her eyes. "The nature of men..."

After the gasbag was connected to the huge vine basket with hemp ropes, the new generation of hot air balloon was officially accomplished. The size of the new hot air balloon was almost four times larger than the first generation hot air balloon. The new hot air balloon would be able to contain 10 people. The top of the balloon was equipped with shade shed which could be used to shield from the sunlight. Of course, there would be a hole in the shed so that Anna could replenish hot air to the balloon.

Roland named the hot air balloon the Cloud Gazer. After completing various tests on the vacant area in the yard, Roland launched the first flight of the Cloud Gazer on the next day. The participating members of this test flight were five witches including Anna, Wendy, etc. Prince Roland himself was also in it.

The test flight went smoothly. The witches were chitchatting during the flight and marveled at the incredible views in the air—compared to the observation from last time, the sightseeing trip this time obviously aroused everyone's interest. The Cloud Gazer moved to the south under the stable wind-force produced by Wendy. They reached the mountain ranges around noun, crossed the summit of the mountain that had a banner on it, and finally stopped at the coastline.

The Cloud Gazer flew around the shallow beach and took the group back to the castle. Roland noticed that Wendy, who was responsible for controlling the direction, kept rubbing her shoulder and looked quite exhausted.

Roland heard that women with big breasts were prone to have sore shoulders. It was said that lingeries were made to solve this problem. Although Roland had not testified this theory, it would worth a try. Besides, as growing, Anna's body would start to develop too. Roland decided to make a small gift for every grown-up witch.

Chapter 252 - A New Round of Purchasing

As the Lord of the western region, Roland naturally did not have any hands-on experience, he just made a rough sketch on paper, and then expounded the lines to a tailor that had been recruited.

Despite Roland having no personal experience with bras, he had seen more than enough various advertisements, television shows and films. He chose the most common shoulder strap and clasp from a few models, a buckle with three copper hooks. It allowed one to choose a certain amount of slack.

Due to the need for it to be worn tightly to meet the requirements of the bust, Roland also called the castle maid in order for the tailor to measure sizes. While the tailor had engaged in cutting clothes for many years, her experience was also very rich. When listening to His Highness's explanation, she immediately understood the role of the bra and in accordance with the actual measurement results, would divide the several grades of bust into different sizes and then subdivide those for the adjustment range.

In fact, long ago in this era, there had been a prototype of the bra, the corset. It was not to make women more comfortable but to tighten the waist as much as possible and hold up the chest so that the body would show an hourglass-like appearance. Those gorgeous aristocratic dresses were also in accordance with the thin waist design with no corset assistance. It could be seen that the average woman had difficulty in wearing these type of very fine, tight-waisted dresses as too much oppression of the waist was a very uncomfortable experience. It was severe and could even may affect blood circulation, leading to fainting.

The bra, in addition to holding the bust, would also play a role in fixing the bust and lowering the movement. Wearing it daily would only make women more relaxed.

In only two days, the old tailor cut out 20 bra patterns. The material that Roland provided was silk and high-quality cotton, which were both beautiful and breathable, working exceptionally well.

However, before Roland sent the gifts to the witches, the caravan from the King's City had arrived at Border Town.

Compared to what had been scheduled the previous month, the fleet was not only late, but the scale was far less than the last time. Even when the sailing ships docked at the edge of the pier in front of the expanded part of the town, it had a sparse feeling.

"Your Highness, we meet again." Margaret smiled.

"Welcome, the prior transportation of refugees exhausted you." Roland looked to the fleet by the river. "This time's load seems to be a lot less?"

"That's because of... An unforeseen mishap." She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "If you don't mind, let's go to the living room. It's too hot."

"I think so, too," muttered Hogg, "I'm just a typical man from Graycastle, this darned weather is going to be the end of me. If not for the steam engine, I wouldn't want to leave the house."

Roland nodded and headed back to the castle with a row of people. When entering the hall, they felt cool air suddenly flutter at them head-on. Hogg took a deep breath. "Thank the deities that we found such a good thing… If I hadn't seen the production process of ice cooler, I wouldn't have believed it comes out of manure. Ah, there's also ice water! Your Highness, May I..."

"Of course." Roland made an inviting gesture and then sat. Going back to the main ordeal, he asked the businesswoman, "So what was the accident that led to the issue with this month's cargo? Was it mainly the sharp drop of saltpeter?"

According to the contract, she should provide Border Town with at least three ships of saltpeter each month, but this time there was only one sailing ship carrying saltpeter.

"Because the Alchemy Workshop of King's City has recently been acquiring saltpeter. The price isn't high, but they received the support of the former Prime Minister Marquis Wyke and so this isn't a pure trade. Businessmen won't buy or sell," Margaret said, "I guess it may mean that Timothy is behind this. After all, his Prime Minister Marquis Wyke seems to have his nose in the air."

"Timothy?" Roland asked puzzled, "He's not going to the Southern Territory?"

"It's true." She nodded. "It seems That Theo has told you the news. I heard that he left King's City already and also brought a lot of troops and baggage. In all likelihood, it's to go through the trouble of finding Garcia. Just after his departure, the Alchemist Workshop of King's City rampantly bought saltpeter."

Roland knew more about the matter. It was indeed fruitful to arrange Theo to work in King's City. At first he only received the news of Timothy through the underground Rats. In order to prevent an outsider's sudden attack, he also asked Petrov to strengthen the Stronghold in the realm of work, but the next letter from the guard made Roland feel a little relieved. Timothy went straight to the south, it was clear that the shipment was not for him.

As for the purpose of this group of Rats, Roland and the guard's views were basically the same. That was, they were not suitable for frontal combat and that they were even less disciplined than civilians and serfs. Timothy's use of this group of people must have been the same as the last time. First, he gave them addictive drugs and then forced them to go forward and kill the enemy. This repeated consumption of cannon fodder was his opponent's strategic strength. For the king who owned two-thirds of Kingdom of Graycastle, it was a safe strategy.

But why did the Alchemist Workshop of King's City suddenly acquire a lot of saltpeter? Snow powder was one of their hit products, but the wrong ratio can only be used to ring the ceremonial cannon. Did they find the correct recipe for gunpowder? Were they planning to manufacture in bulk, or were they trying to determine the best mix by performing a multitude of tests?

Roland shook his head and put aside the doubt that had emerged in his mind, speculating that it would not make sense. Though he felt that, as soon as possible, it would be prudent to complete the industrialization of triacyl acid production into a more advanced chemical gunpowder.

"So there can't be a guarantee of a three-ship supply of saltpeter next month?"

"This... I don't know," said Margaret, though she seemed a bit embarrassed, she still spoke bluntly, "I did spend a lot of effort to bring this ship to the western region from Silver City. This is the hottest part of summer, so the demand for the saltpeter is very large. I'm unsure if I'm able to buy it. If it was another season, I could guarantee the supply of the three ships."

"I see." Roland took a drink of ice water. "So try it again next month, yeah? There's no need to be so reluctant. I have new goods to buy from you."

"Oh?" Margaret was relieved. "What's it? Or is it ore?"

"Washing stones for cleaning laundry," he replied, "They look like a white turbid chip or pillar. If you soak them in water, they give off a greasy feeling. They aren't uncommon in King's City."

"Sure enough... It's an ore." The business woman reluctantly laughed. "It's clear that there's a big mine in your domain. Alright then, this item could be lots of things, and it's not expensive. What're you going to do with it?"

"Naturally, it's for more convenient ways of doing laundry." Roland laughed.

In Prince Roland's memory, the washing stone was essentially a natural base. The main component was sodium bicarbonate and it had a strong decontamination effect. In addition to vegetation ash and the pancreas, it was said to be one of the three ancient cleaning tools. In the absence of an ion exchange membrane, the electrolysis of salt water collects sodium hydroxide at an extremely low efficiency. Salt was not cheap like cabbage, so he intended to buy tartrate directly in order to produce a caustic soda. With sufficient caustic soda, he could make soap on a large scale... Also soap by-products, like glycerol.

.

Chapter 253 - The Hot Air Balloon Trade

"Your Highness, I wanted to ask you when we entered through the door," began Hogg, looking like he was finally able to breathe. He was next to a barrel with an empty pot of ice water that he had finished. "The painting in the hall... I'm afraid that an average person couldn't draw it. Whether it's the realism or that it's from the perspective of the air overlooking the Earth." He paused and lowered his voice. "This is... A witch's work?"

Roland looked at Margaret and she nodded. "Your Highness please rest assured, Hogg is my old friend of many years. He is no threat to witches."

"You guessed it. It was indeed a witch that drew it." Two days ago, after sightseeing around the beach by hot air balloon, Roland wanted to capture the magnificent view that he had seen. Plus, the castle living room was simple and humble, without a single painting at all. He simply let Soraya change the stone wall behind the main seat into a huge mural. With the art backdrop, the hall's style was instantly raised several grades.

"I knew it," said Hogg with a sigh, "although they were propagated as the demon's minions, those strange abilities are really enviable. Ordinary people can't fly like they do, or paint such exquisite murals."

"You are only correct with the first half." Roland shook his head. "Ordinary people who don't rely on magic powers can fly up higher than an eagle, faster, and even more swiftly."

"You can be really humorous." said Hogg as he laughed loudly, "Unless we had a pair of wings and also became lighter than the birds."

Margaret asked, startled, "Really?"

"Of course," said the Prince with a laugh. "I can show you proof."

Having a businesswoman take a look at inventions was an effective way to improve their relationship and expand their trading paths. From mugs to liquor, even with a sale going out, exporting was another matter. Anyway, the caravans would stay in the town for several days. The regular business negotiation process should be to eat, drink, and finally sign. Anna was also very interested in traveling by hot air balloon. Just letting her body take a rest for a moment from the busy work could be beneficial for multiple reasons.

Roland quickly finished inflating the hot air balloon Cloud Gazer. However, this time he called the witches who had not been able to get into the hot air balloon last time. Lucia also timidly asked whether she would be able to take her sister to see and Roland said that she could join them.

When the balloon carrying the people slowly rose, Margaret surprisedly covered her mouth, while Hogg clutched the edge of the basket. People could not tell whether he was excited or afraid. Ring was too short to see the scenery outside the basket, so Lucia had to hold her up on her shoulders and told her not to tamper with anything. As the navigator and the rescuer, Lightning had been circling around the hot air balloon. From time to time she would make faces at Ring.

In this way, the hot air balloon once again made its way along the southern coastline, and then swung in a circle to complete the aerial sightseeing tour.

…

After returning to the castle, Hogg's legs were still trembling. He stammered, "I-I-I never thought that looking down from the sky would be that terrible. I felt like we would fall at any moment."

"Fly a few more times and you will be just fine." Roland laughed. "The first time a person's feet leave the ground, they will have that kind of illusion, like a man who has never been out at sea and will stumble on a bumpy ship."

"You're right," exclaimed Margaret, "It was incredible to see the scenery today. From the sky to the edge of the sea, it's like a blue arc."

"But Your Highness, I don't seem to be wrong," said Hogg, drinking a swig of white liquor, "Ordinary people may be able to fly in the sky, but it's still due to the witch's credit. If not for their contribution, this big guy should not be able to fly up."

"No, my old friend." Roland was not able to open his mouth before Margaret spoke. "Do you not realize it? Miss Anna is only releasing the flame. I also asked Lightning and she told me that as long as the airbag was filled with heat, it would be able to rise into the sky. Flame isn't the privilege of the witch alone, Your Royal Highness, am I right?"

No wonder she, a businesswoman from the Fjords, could have a firm foothold in King's City, both the observation and thinking ability she had were particularly outstanding. Roland nodded with a smile. "The hot air rises and the cold air sinks... This is the reason why they're called hot air balloons."

"It really only needs to use something like a brazier?" Hogg asked wonderingly.

"That isn't enough, because you want to let it float in the air. It must continue to heat, but the wood itself is very heavy. The balloon is unable to carry too much of a load and so we have to use a special way to solve this problem."

"Can you do that?" Margaret could not wait to ask.

"Well... We should be able to..." Roland thought for a moment. "But there still are some minor issues."

"That's great," she said immediately, "I hope I can buy four or five hot air balloons from you. Not too big, but enough for just one person."

"Do you want to put it on the ship?" asked Hogg.

"Well, the mast can't be stretched indefinitely, but the hot air balloon can. As long as there's a line tied to the balloon's basket so that it doesn't fly off with the wind. With a hot air balloon looking ahead, we could then have earlier detection of nearby pirate ships. Unless there're unpredictable storms and tsunamis, the biggest harm is the droves of pirates."

"But it's cost, it's probably not very low." Roland estimated in his mind. "I expect to need more than 1,000 golden royals."

If you don't use the witch to heat it, the hot air balloon will have to use a gas fuel. The easiest to get is undoubtedly gasoline. Unfortunately, the mine at Coldwind Ridge of the Kingdom of Graycastle is too far away from Border Town. According to the current traffic conditions, there's almost no way to transport it over. If replaced with the hydrogen balloon, then it would be easier to achieve, but there was the need to solve the problem of the gas tank. If they were not able to charge and discharge it freely, then there would be no practical value."

"1,000 gold royals for each one, how's that?" Margaret also said, "If you really made this kind of thing, I can guarantee that all of the caravans coming and going to the Fjords would want to buy one or two."

"Had the Crescent Moon Bay Caravan come as usual, they would certainly be the next big order." Hogg drained the white liquor he held in his hands. "However, I don't need it. Although the hot air balloon looks very magical, I only want to get my steam engine as soon as possible."

Their offer of price left Roland overjoyed. 1,000 gold royals was his estimate of the price increase after a five-time premium. He did not expect the other side would actually accept something twice the price of the steam engine. But when thinking about it, the goods carried by the ship were likely to be more than that price, not to mention the entire business fleet and ship sailors. As long as they avoided being looted by pirates, the deal was still cost-effective for maritime businessmen.

In addition, 1,000 gold royals was not the exact cost of buying it. Whether it was hydrogen or gas, they were consumables. When they ran out, they would have to fill them up again in town, which was an extra cost... Of course, if one purchased many gas tanks at once, they could consider discounting or giving an additional number of inflations. At this point, the 4S shop and the two barrels of oil were examples of his learning and imitation.

Roland pretended to hesitate for a moment and then finally nodded. "It's a deal."

Chapter 254 - The Alliance

The weather in the Fjords was very peculiar. Yesterday was sunny without any clouds in the blue sky, while today was gloomy with strong winds and thunders. A storm was coming.

Ashes walked into Tilly's home with her hair blown into a mess. She saw the giant pigeon crouching on Tilly's shoulder at first glance.

"Maggie?"

"Coo!" The pigeon looked up and its eyes became bright. It spread its wings and straightly flew to the door, but was easily stopped by Ashes. "Turn into your human form before we talk."

"Woo... Coo." Maggie thumped her wings and landed on the ground, shedding her feathers and exposing her original appearance. Then she twitched her lips and asked, "Do you hate pigeons?"

"I've always felt it's strange that a big bird can speak," Ashes said with a smile and pulled up the girl sitting on the ground, "when did you come back?"

"Just a moment ago. I was afraid of being caught in a storm, and my wings were almost broken," she patted her chest and said, "fortunately, I arrived at Sleeping Island before it rained."

"You flew back... like this?" Ashes put her hand on her forehead and asked, "why not become a petrel? It'll be much faster."

"Oh..." Maggie blinked her eyes and came to understand suddenly. "I forgot, coo."

Tilly could not help laughing, putting down the letter in her hand. "Well done. I already know the news of the other party. You can go and play with Lotus and Molly, and I'll inform you when I think of a good reply."

"Good, coo!" Maggie saluted and hopped outside the room.

"What did Roland Wimbledon say?" There were only two persons in the room. Ashes went to Tilly and sat beside her. In front of Tilly there laid a map, when Ashes looked closely, she found that it looked like a topographic map around Border Town.

"This is his letter." Tilly handed her a piece of paper. "I have to say, the witches he chose are really... special."

Ashes quickly read the letter and could not help frowning. "He actually chose Sylvie? Didn't he care about being exposed?"

"I don't know," said Tilly, not expressing any opinion, "Perhaps my notes about their abilities were so vague that he didn't go deeply into it. Or he didn't mind showing his identity in front of us to show his sincerity in cooperation? Of course, there's another possibility..."

"He's really your elder brother," Ashes continued, "so he doesn't care about Sylvie's ability."

"But it's a slim possibility." She laughed at herself. "Does anybody know him better than I do? If he was the real Roland Wimbledon, he would never choose to protect the witch and go against the church. Man and boy, he's been good at escaping, whether in the face of challenges or difficulties... Even when he was sent to Border Town under the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince, he had never made a protest against our father, even if it was symbolic."

Ashes lifted her eyebrows. "In a word, it's a good thing for us that he actively chose Sylvie. So you don't need an excuse to send an additional witch, but the other witches... Do you really want to agree with him?"

"Why not?"

"Lotus is one of the most important witches of Sleeping Island. If she left, who would fix the mud houses? If you want to build something or transform the island's terrain, it'll be extremely inconvenient without the ability to reshape the terrain. After all, we've only used less than 30% of the entire Sleeping Island, and there're many places remaining to be transformed." She gestured with her fingers. "So is Honey. She can drive the ospreys to fish for us, and all the delicious fish soup we enjoyed every day is her credit as well. As for Candle and Evelyn, there're not too many problems... Can't you refuse his request and exchange another two witches who aren't so useful?"

"What's useful, and what's useless? By sending the witches to Border Town, I hope to form an alliance with the other party, rather than abandon them." Tilly looked a little serious. "Whatever abilities they own, anyone choosing to come to this island is our sister. If we want to build Sleeping Island into the witch's home, how can we select them according to whether their abilities are useful or not?"

Ashes had ever seen such a look in the palace—this was the expression when Princess Tilly was really angry, so she could not help changing her address. "Sorry... Your Highness. I just..."

Tilly sighed and said slowly, "Moreover, it's difficult to measure everyone's ability by a certain standard. Roland selected five witches from more than 100, including Candle and Evelyn, who you said were useless. Are they really useless? Perhaps through this alliance, we can figure out whether Roland chose the two by chance, or he had seen something special that we haven't realized." She paused. "Anyway, we're the minority, so every witch is worth fighting for. They're not tools for building homes, but our partners with a common goal. So never say it again."

"Yes, Your Highness," Ashes said in a low voice.

At this moment, a lightning broke through the clouds, straight over the sea. As if it were the order of the deities, deafening thunders closely followed, roaring above Sleeping Island. Then it began to rain. At first, it rained sparsely, but then quickly merged into a hubbub.

Ashes stood up and closed the window to keep the rain from coming into the room. When she turned around, she saw Tilly sway for a moment with a haggard look on her face.

"Did you stay up all night?"

"Yes." Tilly yawned. "The books brought back from the ruins are all written in the same language, and I've found some common ground. As long as I have enough time, I'm sure that I can translate them all."

"Yes, as long as you have enough time... Since we've got rid of the church's entanglement and time is enough, you don't need to study it all through the night." Ashes frowned. "It's bad for your health."

"Don't worry, I'm an Extraordinary, so my body won't collapse so easily." Princess Tilly took a deep breath. "But I have some uncertain foreboding—I'm disturbed by the scenes of the ruins, so we'd better translate these books as soon as possible... By the way, when the witches go to Border Town, tell them to take an ancient book with them."

"If you can't understand it, then it's less likely for the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association to understand."

"Just take a chance," said Tilly, "I heard that there was an ancient relic in the forest east of the king city, and the origin of the Witch Cooperation Association is in Seawindshire, almost next to the forest. Perhaps someone of them has seen this language. If we can prove the two languages are the same, then it means that the relics are from the same group of people."

"Yes, I got it," Ashes answered.

"In addition, I didn't blame you, and what you said has some truth—but not the part about the significance of their abilities." She reached out to stop Ashes from speaking. "I've reached an agreement with the Chamber of Commerce in Crescent Moon Bay and they'll migrate some ordinary people to Sleeping Island in the next spring. If Lotus leaves for too long, it'll certainly affect the subsequent construction of the island, so I'll let them return to the Fjords before winter comes."

Ashes sighed in relief. "That'll be good."

"However, in order to avoid misunderstanding, I'll lead several combat type witches to Border Town instead to help the Witch Cooperation Association go through the Months of Demons." Tilly exposed a sly smile. "Then, are you willing to go with me?

Ashes froze for a moment, and finally had no choice but to reply, "Of course, Your Highness."

Chapter 255 - The Welcome

The storm left as quickly as it came.

The delegation set out the second day after the storm and the sail that took them was the Charming Beauty.

Sylvie leaned against the fence of the hull pulling out a piece of beef from her bag, and shook the beef over her head.

"Ou, ou..."

The huge seagull landed with the twitter from the sky. Sylvie could not stop blinking due to the air current from the flapping of the wings. The beef in her hand was caught in the seagull's beak. When she looked up, the seagull had returned to the front of the sail and guided the direction in the vast sea continually.

This was what Maggie told her to do, because she could not take out the jerky by herself when she turned into a seagull.

Even though there was nothing different between her and normal seagulls (except for size), Sylvie could still observe the change in her magic power and its real shape. If she looked carefully, she saw that the magic power that came from all directions turned into light spots before disappearing.

"I heard she could change into different birds and gain their abilities. Is that right?" someone said, "as far as I know, seagulls never lose their way in the sea and can always tell if a storm is coming."

"Exactly, Mr. Captain." Although Sylvie did not turn around, she knew who was speaking now." That's why we dare to choose a new route. Otherwise, we'll be landing in the southwest of the Kingdom of Graycastle after going around Endless Cape."

Her ability not only allowed her to see the change and flow of magic powers and give her a vast view without a blind spot, but also to see things around her without obstruction anytime and anywhere. She could even see the sailors sleeping below the plywood and the fish at the bottom of the boat.

"There's a port there too?" Captain Jack spat out cigarette smoke. "I remember there were explorers who had been to the west of Endless Cape, but they found nothing except mountains and shallow beaches."

"It'd be best if there's nothing there," Sylvie said indifferently, "that way, everyone can return home."

"Doesn't that mean we're getting nothing out of this trip?" The captain shook his cigarette. "I was looking forward to seeing if there's a new scenery on this new route."

This trip was entrusted to them by Lady Tilly. Their mission was to visit the other witches' haven, so they can improve their relationships and help each other. Other than the selected five witches on the ship, there were also Ashes and Molly. They would not be going ashore; they were on the ship to ensure that the route was foolproof. Molly's Magic Servant could help the ship withstand the storm and Ashes could make sure the pirates who had their eyes on their ship to never return home again.

Ashes also had another mission. That was to determine Roland Wimbledon's true identity for Lady Tilly.

Before they left, Tilly had explained to her the causes of the matter, the possible outcomes, and the ways to deal with them. Simply speaking, Tilly wanted her to try her best to reach an agreement with the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association and exchange for the real Roland. But to be honest, she thought that this was a difficult task. It was still acceptable if the association did not agree with the exchange. But what if they did not want information to be leaked and imprison everyone on the ship?

Through the cabin walls, she saw Lotus, Evelyn, and Magic Servant playing with happy expressions. She could not help sighing.

She hoped the witches in the Witch Cooperation Association were as friendly as Maggie had said.

...

After a week of navigation, Sylvie finally saw the gray coastline.

"We're almost there!" Honey shouted as she lay on the side of the ship. A row of swallows, ospreys, and seagulls beside her were made noise in unison.

"We're finally there…?" Candle lay on the side of the ship, wearing a haggard expression. "I think I'm close to my limit."

"This is only a temporary phenomenon. Child, as long as you go ashore, you'll soon recover." Jack held the telescope and laughed. "I've been sailing for many years, but I've never seen anyone who dies on board because of the turbulence."

"Where's Maggie?" Honey asked.

"She's going to Border Town in advance to contact the Witch Cooperation Association," Ashes said, "and I believe someone will pick you up soon."

"Aren't you coming with us, Sister Ashes?"

"Tilly needs my help more." Ashes laughed. "Don't worry, the Witch Cooperation Association will treat you like sisters... If you have problems, ask for Wendy. She'll definitely help you immediately. "

[Wendy?] Sylvie quietly stored this name away in her mind.

"Oh, there's one more thing." Ashes patted her forehead. "Remember to stay away from Lord Roland Wimbledon. You mustn't be left alone with him if you can help it."

"Why? Isn't he Lady Tilly's brother?" Evelyn did not understand.

"He is," Ashes said earnestly, "but that doesn't stop him from liking to touch the witches' butts!"

Everyone gasped.

The sail was finally docked at a shallow beach about 250 meters from the location. After all, there was no detailed map here. No one knew how deep the water by the shallow beach was. It was simple to go ashore. They did not even need to use a small boat. Molly made her Magic Servant to wrap up five witches, including herself, to float across the seaboard.

This shallow beach was clearly an extension of the mountain that turned into a soft beach after continuous erosion of the sea. The dash inland and the coast were completely separated by the high mountains not far away. The mountains were endless, getting taller as they went west. At the end of the vision, the great mountains almost turned into something like the Impassable Mountain Range.

After waiting for two hours, Sylvie noticed a strange shadow approaching.

The shadow was pretty large, comparable to the size of the Charming Beauty. The round outline of the shadow made it obvious it was not a natural creation. Logically, such a huge thing should be very heavy, but its movement was as smooth as it was floating in the air. She could not see the shadow clearly due to the mountains and the woods, but she was sure that it was climbing quickly and was almost over the mountain.

After a while, the thing left its shadow and revealed its true self.

"Oh my God. What's that?" Lotus asked in surprise, turning to the sky.

"Sister Ashes, have you seen that thing before?" Evelyn asked, pulling her arm.

"No..." Ashes seemed surprised. "It's my first time seeing this thing too."

"Looks like this is the way the Witch Cooperation Association is welcoming us," Sylvie said.

The unbelievably large-sized spherical object was floating in the air with a basket made of vines hanging underneath. Maggie was inside the basket, flanked by two other witches. What was striking was the long yellow canvas hanging from the bottom of the basket, where large words were written on it.

It read: "Welcome to Border Town."

Chapter 256 - The Prologue to a New Life

After the hanging basket fell to the ground, a witch, who seemed to be about 30 years old and had red hair dropping down to her waist, stepped out of the basket and came forward. "Hello, welcome to Border Town. I'm Wendy." Then she looked at Ashes with a joyful smile. "I'm glad you're here, too."

[Is she the witch that Ashes mentioned? It seems that they have known each other for a long time,] Sylvie thought, looking them over.

"Hello, I'm Anna." Sylvie's eyes lit up when she saw her blue eyes, which were as pure as lake water. Besides, she was even more surprised by her magic power—strong, powerful, and almost faultless. A square made of black, white, and gray turned slowly and even changed the track of magic from all directions.

[What an amazing power!] It was Sylvie's first time to see such oppressive magic.

"Hi, I'm Lightning!" It was the little girl that had been flying beside the hanging basket. Then Maggie fell on her shoulder.

"Coo, coo!"

After Ashes briefly introduced the witches from Sleeping Island, Wendy invited them with a smile to step into the hanging basket.

"The huge airbag above our heads is called a hot air balloon. We can go anywhere we want in it as long as we provide constant hot air for it." She had a slight pause and asked Ashes, "Aren't you going to town? His Highness would be glad to see you."

"He wouldn't welcome a person who intended to take his witches away." Ashes smiled. "Take care of the children, please."

"Well..." Wendy pursed her lips regretfully. "Don't worry. I'll take good care of them."

"Hold on tight," Anna shouted, "The Cloud Gazer is due to take off."

Sylvie only felt a tremble from her feet when the hanging basket left the ground. She stuck her head out, seeing Ashes and Molly waving to them. As the hot air balloon was rising, the scenery got smaller and both of them just looked like a fingernail. Anyway, a new life was coming soon.

Wendy's magic seemed to control the wind. The hot air balloon moved towards the Kingdom of Graycastle under her control.

It was Sylvie's first time to overlook the ground from the sky. Although the earth and mountains could not impede her view, it was still a novel experiment to keep such a large field of view in sight. She tried to summon the Eye of Magic. However, what she had not expected was that many sights came flooding back—steep cliffs hidden in the depths of the sea, underground rivers connected with the sea, animal remains buried in the mud, changes of rock formation underground, etc. Those sights caused Sylvie to have a splitting headache and her magic power was weakened sharply, so she had to stop her Eye of Magic instantly and gasped against the hanging basket..

"Are you okay?" someone asked. She opened her eyes and saw Wendy.

"Um, just a little... dizzy."

"You'll feel better after taking a few deep breaths," Wendy said with a smile, "Many people feel uncomfortable when they're far away from the ground."

"Thank you, I'm feeling better." Sylvie nodded.

The atmosphere on the way was more harmonious than she had originally expected. As Ashes said, Wendy did not treat them differently just because they were newcomers. Although Anna did not talk much, she could answer them carefully. Lightning seemed to be close friends with Maggie. Her personality was so lively that she always flew into the hanging basket to chat with others, together with that fat pigeon.

With Maggie acting as the link between both sides, the rest of the four people began to relax and asked Lightning about the situation in Border Town. Afterwards, the little girl simply hovered at the hanging basket and told the story of how they defeated demonic beasts and invaders and some incredible inventions made by His Highness, in which everyone was absorbed.

After a while, the hot air balloon reached the sky above the castle.

For its size alone, the town was consistent with "Border"—small and remote, whose area was less than one-third of Sleeping Island. However, townspeople were so many that groups of people could be seen here and there, such as the central square, the periphery of the city wall, and the riverside. They went through the crowd just like a flowing river.

The hot air balloon landed in the courtyard of the castle. When they stepped out of the hanging basket, Sylvie jumped when she heard a sudden explosive sound, so did the others. Honey came back to the basket hurriedly and, just popping half her head out, asked, "What happened?"

Wendy laughed. "Don't worry, it's a gun salute to welcome you."

They went through the corridor covered with green shade and came into the hall. Sylvie finally met Tilly's brother—he was sitting in the seat of honor. His appearance had some similarities with Princess Tilly in that both of them had gray hair, an easy expression, and no pendants on his body. Though his look was not nearly as delightful as Lady Tilly's, his expression was so contemplative that he could easily attract their eyes only sitting there.

"Welcome to Border Town. I'm the Lord of the Western Region, Roland Wimbledon. Presumably, you already know my name," He got up and said with a smile, "Tilly Wimbledon is my sister, so you can feel at home, just think of the town as Sleeping Island."

Sylvie could not help casting the Eye of Magic, and then she was stunned.

To her surprise, the darkness did not appear, even though he did not wear a God's Stone of Retaliation and had no signs of magic—he was consistent with what she found with her Eye of Magic and he was not pretending or was controlled, which could only mean that the man before Sylvie was Roland.

Regarding this situation, Tilly only told her to pass on the message to Sleeping Island.

...

She was untidy in her brain and did not listen to what Roland said at all. To fulfill Lady Tilly's entrustment, she had imagined what words and expressions to use when talking with him, and she was even ready for being imprisoned. To her surprise, all of them were totally ineffective. Then she would finish the only task that let Maggie take the message back to Sleeping Island by the end of the month.

[How could it be that a true noble is determined to protect witches and has become the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association?]

Such a huge change put Sylvie in a trance. It was not until His Highness arranged bedrooms for them that she came to herself.

"This is the situation. The Witch House is under construction, so I'm sorry that you can only stay in the castle. But it'll help you to quickly integrate into the town life." Roland said, "As a formal gift to welcome you, a wonderful banquet is waiting for you. Enjoy it, please."

Sylvie was relieved when she found out the result that she would be living with Wendy. During the time she spent with Wendy, she found that Wendy was a really nice predecessor and easy to get along with. Besides her, it seemed that another witch called Nightingale was also living there.

[I hope she'll be an easy-going person too,] Sylvie thought.

Chapter 257 - The Mystery

Roland had been excited since the five witches from Sleeping Island arrived in Border Town. He drank half a glass of white liquor to force his body into the sleeping state as he found himself lying on the bed wide awake after dinner.

He was already awake when the cicadas in the courtyard started to chirr on the next day. He energetically climbed out of the bed and simply washed up before walking into the office. The sky was just about to turn bright and the first ray of the dawn was evenly streaming into the room from the French window.

Roland looked around and did not see Nightingale who was usually lazily lying on the chair when he entered the room. He could not help smiling and took out a notebook from the drawer to start planning for the next witch training program after sitting down by the table.

Wendy and Scroll would be responsible to help the newcomers to familiarize the environment and integrate into the group while he would have to start the sugarcoated-bullet offensive in order to make sure the visiting witches enjoy the unique and comfortable life. It would be a good publicity for his domain even if they decided to leave as they might not necessarily stay in Border Town.

When the sun completely rose, Nightingale finally appeared in the office. "Oh? You woke up so early today. Are you really tempted by the new witches like Lily mentioned?"

"Nonsense." Roland smiled and put a bag of "dried fish" on the table. "How did you get along with your new sisters last night?"

"Sisters?" she curled her lips and said, "I suggest you not to believe them too much."

"What's the matter?"

Nightingale stretched her arm out and lifted up the bag before she turned around to lie down on the couch and said, "Half of the words of the witch named Sylvie are lies. She must be hiding something from us even though there's nothing malicious about it."

"Oh... it's understandable," Roland did not care much about it and said, "She's probably trying to figure out if I'm really Roland Wimbledon."

"What?" Nightingale was stunned.

"If one of your family members changes drastically, won't you wonder if he has been replaced or controlled ?" he smiled and said, "I suppose this is how Tilly sees me as I was notorious for being loaf, ignorant and bully and how can it be possible for me to stand up to protect the witches?"

In fact, any bad comments of Prince Roland were not excessive as he also found a past incident when he went through his memories that Prince Roland had broken a few crystal-glass bottles while playing in the palace and pushed all the responsibilities to Tilly Wimbledon. He even forged the scene by throwing the six or seven years old sister into the broken glasses in order to prevent being punished. It was not surprising that the others were not impressed with such a dark history. It was normal for Tilly to wonder if her elder brother who had changed so much now was still the same person. In fact, anyone else would be wondering the same.

"Hearing this, I also wonder," Nightingale curiously asked, "Are you the real Roland Wimbledon?"

"I'm, yet I'm not," Roland opened up his arms and said.

She was shocked and said, "How come my ability is telling me that this statement is true?"

"Because it's fact." Nightingale's ability could only distinguish the deliberate lies and Roland did not think that he was lying.

"..." She frowned for a long time but finally decided to give up and said while holding her forehead, "Okay, I'll directly ask Anna later. Anyway, it'll be fine as long as you're the Roland I know."

"Of course, I've always been myself since I knew you." Roland smiled.

After breakfast, Wendy brought the five witches from Sleeping Island into the office.

"Good morning, Your Highness," five of them bowed and said.

"Relax, I'm not very particular about the etiquette. You may address me the same way you address Tilly," Roland waved his hand and said, "I won't arrange any task for you in the first week. You mainly need to familiarize yourselves with the environment and lifestyle of the town. You're free to visit Border Town as no one will be rude to you or attempt to arrest you for money reward because you're a witch. The church forces have been eradicated from the Western Region, so it's a place of freedom here, just like Sleeping Island."

"I think you all should know the reason of the magic power bites, so the necessary practice can't be left behind. There're no restrictions during the day, as long as you don't forget to come back for lunch. After dinner, you can also go to attend the elementary education classes which included reading and writing, as well as simple mathematics and natural knowledge. Tilly may have mentioned to you that the witches' abilities can be further strengthened other than the Day of Adulthood, so it's necessary to master this knowledge. You may come to join the witches of the town in the class if you're interested.

"Besides, you'll be paid a gold royal every month and you're also entitled to weekends and paid holidays. You can ask Wendy if you don't understand. In short, your usual life will be the same as your life in the Witch Union. Border Town is the witches' home, just like Sleeping Island." Roland paused. "Let's test your ability next as Tilly didn't clearly describe it in the letter and I'll like to see it myself. Let's go to a spacious place as it's not convenient to cast your magic power here."

"Please wait a moment, Your Highness. I've something to pass to you," Sylvie said.

"What's it?"

She opened the parcel in her hands and placed a few yellow parchments and a letter on the table. "Tilly found these documents in the Fjords' remains and she had written down her questions in this letter."

Roland questioningly opened the letter and soon finished reading it as the letter was not long, but the content of the letter had made him felt unsettled.

A man-made stone island that was sleeping on in the bottom of the ocean with unpredictable ebb and flow, a telescope that was still working after hundreds of years and the stone gates that were built on top of the cliff... It's incredible to find such bizarre remains in the Fjords, and Tilly's question at the end of the letter made him feel numb on his back, as he found that the words were indeed looking familiar to him after he took a few glances at the parchment.

"Ask Scroll to come here quickly," Roland ordered Nightingale.

Scroll quickly returned to the castle from the City Hall to summon the Book of Magic. Prince Roland frowned.

The characters used in the documents found from the Fjords' remains was the same as the one used in the "Holy Book" that Cara brought from the remains in the forest of the Eastern Region! It proved that Tilly's speculation in the letter was true as both the ancient relics came from the same group of people.

Why did the church abandon all these that they built? Furthermore, the records of 450 years ago were entirely erased other than abandoning these magnificent buildings. What exactly were they trying to hide?

Even the summer sun could not warm Roland up as he could only feel a faint chill that was rising from the soles of his feet, making him feel dark and cold.

Was the hidden stone tower Lightning found in Misty Forest related to this as well? What about the demonic beasts, demons and Holy City of Taquila... What actually happened 450 years ago? Roland could feel a strong anxiety from the bottom of his heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

Lotus was the first to accept the test.

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What's the level of her magic power?" Roland asked.

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

"What about the speed of consumption?"

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

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

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

"Who's next?"

"Me, me, me!" Honey raised her hand.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.

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

The fourth was Sylvie.

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

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

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

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

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

Roland thought it was probably due to the rare sample.

The last who came up to the stage was Candle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

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

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

"They're all good," Roland casually answered.

"What?! You like all of them?!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 260 - The Scented Soap and Liquor

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

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

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

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

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

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

"But..." She took the cup and hesitated.

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

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

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

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

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

"Where are we going?" the later asked in shock.

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

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

"This is..."

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

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

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

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

...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What're they? Something edible?"

"Okay, I want to try!"

"Me too! Coo!"

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

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

"His Highness, it's prejudice!" Lightning shouted, "I can drink more than the grown-up sailors!"

"Well, you still can't participate."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.

Chapter 261 - The Gift

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

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

Three of them nodded continuously other than Lily.

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

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

"Hey," Mystery Moon said in shock, "I just called for you, I didn't pull you here."

"I..."

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

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

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

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

"There's a slip of paper underneath," Lightning yelled.

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

"Uh huh..." Wendy also opened her own box. "This is a bra?"

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

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

"You're talking as if you'll definitely have," Mystery Moon stared at her and said.

"Who cares!" The latter rolled her eyes.

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

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

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

Oh yeah, what would Anna do?

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

Soon, the door was opened and Anna was wearing her nightgown, looking as usual. "What's the matter?"

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

"I've already put it on, it's pretty convenient."

Anna's answer caught her off guard. "You've already put it on?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

"No, I don't want to..." Wendy shook her head.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chapter 262 - The Bridge over Redwater River

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

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

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

"This is... the shape of a boat." Lotus moved her eyes back to the drawing.

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

"It's not hard to do that, Your Highness," Lotus answered, "Just leave it to me."

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

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

"You'll have to give this credit to me." Nightingale in the Mist whispered in his ear and giggled.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Plant... flowers?" Karl was shocked.

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

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

"It's laying the cement pavement," Karl said, "and it should be completed this week."

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

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

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

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

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

Roland contemplated and said, "Let's name it the Redwater Bridge."

Chapter 263 - [The Wheat Is Ripe]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Duke Ryan was a good example.

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

"If what the Lord said before was still effective?"

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

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

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

"My lord, I... can't read..." The serf smiled in embarrassment.

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

"Real-really? That's great!"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"So, the price is...?"

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

Looking at the serfs dismissed, he licked his dry lips and continued to check on the crops. He was not sure how many of them among this group of people would remember what he just had said, but Lord Barov had clearly conveyed the strong will of His Highness to punish the food smugglers severely.

This was when a young serf left the crowd and turned around, walking back to him. "My lord." He panted. "I've one more question for you."

"Yeah?"

"Do you know where Miss May and Miss Aileen have gone?" He hesitated. "There hasn't been any theatrical performance in the square recently, so I'm thinking... to ask you for their recent condition, did they fall... sick?"

It was a new and interesting question. Sirius could not help but tilt his lips. He would not be able to answer this question if he had not seen them, going through the formalities in City Hall. "They've gone to Longsong Stronghold."

"Ah," the other party looked disappointed. "Don't they intend to stay in Border Town?"

"They just go to perform in the Stronghold Theater." He shrugged. "And now the weather is so hot, can you bear to see them sweating under the sun? They'll return to the square in the fall to perform new plays."

"I, I see... Thank you, my lord!"

Sirius could not help but think of himself, watching the back of the young serf who walked away in satisfaction—the experience of the past few months could be described as ups and downs; from a knight to a prisoner, and from a prisoner to a city hall official, he did not want to go back to the domain of Wolf Family where there were only old houses and the empty wheat farms. Becoming a knight was simply for him to get rid of the life to live his father going for farming the entire life.

Not every knight could be as proud as Morning Light or had the best domain and squire like the knight of the duke, but his annual salary was now more than a knight's and there was also a vast opportunity to be promoted. Perhaps it was time for him to fetch his parents to the town, marry a girl and enjoy life.

Chapter 264 - A Bumper Harvest

It was harvesting day. The first batch of wheat planted in Border Town was finally being ushered in.

Serfs used reaping hooks to cut off the wheat straws and bundled them up to be delivered across the river under the scorching sun.

Roland knew it was a cumbersome process to split kernels from wheatears. Before the popularization of mechanical tools and combine-harvesters, the process of separating, cleaning, screening and drying to obtain kernels had to be done by manual labor. Now, he once again witnessed the whole process.

Once it was delivered to the camp, the serfs lay the wheat straws flat on the ground to dry. Then, a variety of tools including wooden sticks, stones, and rakes were used to repeatedly hammer the wheat straws and wheatears in order to separate the kernels from the hulls. The whole process normally lasted three to four days. In Roland's memory, cows or donkeys had been commonly used in rural areas to squeeze wheat in the barnyard by pulling stone rollers. This was not only less labor-intensive; the hulling effect was also much better compared to hammering.

He had to admit that the agricultural industry in Border Town was far more backward.

The wheat was turned over in the barnyard after being hammered. The tools they used varied from prongs to wooden sticks. Sometimes the wheat straws were thrown into the air by hand like vegetables in a stir-fry. After the wheat had been hammered, most of the hulls were broken. The process, in fact, was intended to split the kernel and wheatears.

After threshing, the wheat straws had a lot of functions. They could be returned to the field as fertilizer or used as bedding for livestock. They could also be used to produce fodder or make paper. Regrettably, Roland had no extra plan to develop a green industry, he simply burned the straw stacked by serfs along the river. In the following days, the dusty smoke covered the entire sky of Border Town, it was worse than the previous cement flour pollution.

At the same time, two fusiform islands along both sides of the Redwater Bridge had been cleared up, and the scheduled retention walls were under construction. The pier foundation adopted the same prefabrication system as the main bridge. Concrete columns containing structural steel and rebar were cast in the open ground. Then, the columns were hoisted upright. Lotus was responsible for sinking it into the soil, with half of the steel plate coming out to connect with bridge pontic.

In one week, Roland had shuttled his way from the Redwater bridge to the barnyard. His skin had tanned considerably.

Once the wheat straws had been picked out, only a bed of kernels and hulls remined.

Serfs quickly swept the kernels and hulls together, into heaping small hills. They stood on the small piles and used shovels to scoop up the mixture of kernels and hulls, winnowing them toward the open ground. Due to the mass difference, the lighter hulls blew farther away in the wind, while the heavier kernels tumbled close to their feet. This was how they gradually collected the grain.

Of course, it was impossible to split the kernels from hulls completely using this method. Small pieces of dirt and stones were very likely to mix in with the kernels. Roland made a resolution to prepare a batch of mechanical farming tools for the reaping period next year. Even though it was not likely that he could produce combine-harvesters, it would be easy to manufacture hullers by changing the stone roller into a millstone, installing a screen cloth under the millstones and then using an air blower to filter the split hulls.

Grains of full kernels were laid evenly in the barnyard. The north bank of the Redwater River was covered with golden color. Seeing the golden kernels, a sense of accomplishment filled Roland's heart. It did not matter whether the grains reaped could support ten thousand people. It was still a day worth commemorating, at least, for Border Town.

From today onwards, the people of his domain would no longer have to rely on importing grains, they were self-sufficient.

After three days of drying, the wheat could be filled into sacks for weighing.

"Your Highness. A bountiful harvest!" said Barov, who bounded happily into Roland's office in the afternoon. "According to the preliminary statistics, the grain yield per mu (about 666.7 square meters) of each responsible field was four times the previous output, and the highest output was even six times more. It is enough to feed the subjects," he added.

"Really? It appears that the newly-built granary in the Castle District will come in handy," said Roland, who could not help but laugh.

"Did you know what this means?" The City Hall Director looked more excited than Roland. "With only an increase of 2,000 serfs we could meet the grain consumption demands of 50,000 to 60,000 people! Unimaginable! It is absolutely likely that Border Town could expand into the largest city in the Kingdom of Graycastle, no..." he paused and added, "the largest city in the continent!"

Low food production capacity was a major factor in the low rate of population. Dozens of nearby villages were needed to provide food for a large city boasting more than 20,000 people. Each village boasted a population of one to two thousand people, like the King's City. If half of the villagers worked in farming, it revealed that almost 2,000 people supported the lives of another 2,000 people. In other words, the grain yield per capita was just enough to support himself, his family and one more person in the city.

This was also the invisible limitation of the productivity. Barov had hardly imagined that the yield of just one small group could feed tens of thousands of people. Once mechanized cropping became popular, the productivity was greatly improved. Such abundant harvest must be attributed to the "Golden Ones" built by Leaf.

Roland had set a strategy for supporting the people with as few serfs as possible, liberating more labor resources from the farming industry to engage in industrial production. Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture had obtained optimum planting processes. The per capita grain yield would inevitably improve even further next year with the aid of iron farming tools and mechanized cropping.

...

At dusk, Roland delivered a bonfire speech. It was just like the time four months ago, with the flaming bonfire, a flood of people and the last touch of afterglow on people's faces. However, people's looks had changed from the panic and uneasiness of newcomers to uncovered joy and hope for a bountiful harvest.

Roland waved his hand, and the scene became quiet at once. They all held their breath and waited for the prince to fulfill his promise.

"I know what you want to hear. I can tell you with great certainty that the promotion rules enacted before are still valid and will be carried out later!" Roland said bluntly, without adding his name and title as per the usual practice.

His words greatly enlivened the atmosphere of the scene. They could not help cheering happily, and some of them even got down on their knees and gave thanks for the mercy of the prince. "Long live my lord! Long live Your Royal Highness!"

"After we’ve finished weighing the food, the promotion list will be released accordingly," said Roland. He continued as the hurrahs quieted down, "City Hall will be responsible for the follow-up arrangements for being freemen, and you can choose either to work in farming or find another job in the town."

"In addition, if you didn't rank at the top, in the coming year, as long as the crop yield meets the promotion standards, you can also become freemen. In other words, as long as you work hard, you have the opportunity to rid yourselves of your identities as serfs. As I once said, labor creates wealth, and labor changes fate." He, paused for a moment and looked around. "I hope one day there will be no serfs in Border Town, and all people will my subjects," he added.

As Roland finished his speech, the people's cheers range out in the Redwater River for a long period of time.

Chapter 265 - The Last Enemy

Timothy Wimbledon walked into the arched tholos at the top of the Lord's Tower in the Port of Clearwater.

Different from the common castle, the towering structure was much higher but also more narrow. Aside from sightseeing and handling governmental affairs, it could hardly be used to convene the ministers for an official meeting.

The room furnishings had stood forever in the same place as if its owner had just left and would come back soon. A rufous square table faced the entrance, with some neatly arranged books and unfinished manuscripts in the center of the table. In the inkpot was a quill-pen, at disposal to write at any time.

He walked to the table step by step, and then sat on the wide chair. The chair was covered with a bamboo cooling pad, suitable for easing the summer heat. A basin of water was placed beside the chair. Apparently, it was used to store ice in the hot summer months. However, the weather today was gloomy, with dark clouds close to the sea horizon. It was not too hot in the room.

Timothy leaned over and sniffed at the table. A faint fragrance came to his nostrils, the fragrance of the blue sunflower that Garcia liked most. Planted in the Coldwind Ridge, it had a unique sense of cooling. Different from rose and rosemary, it held the scent of permeating ice and snow in the Northern Region.

Only an article used for a long period of time could embody the essence of its owner. There was no doubt that his little sister had often sat on this chair, with her hands on the table, listening to her men report or writing government decrees.

He could not help but chuckle at thought of this.

Finally, Timothy simply leaned on the back of the chair and laughed aloud.

He had finally won!

Garcia had given up the Port of Clearwater and the Southern Territory, which was tantamount to abdicating her intention for the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Upon hearing that the Blacksail Fleet would continue to march north, he had gathered his troops at once and drove over 5,000 slaves, Rats, and criminals to the Southern Territory to attack the Port of Clearwater, Garcia’s nest. The only defense had been from the Sand Nation in the Southernmost Region. It was not clear what they had been promised, they’d just put up a desperate fight like cornered beasts. Most troublesome, was that they had mad pills.

The battle lasted for nearly half a month. Taking advantage of his numerical superiority, Timothy defeated the counterattack and again continued to encroach on the defense line of the Sand Nation. Almost 3,000 people died from this war of attrition. Had it not been for the pills, these rabbles could not have engaged in the war, let alone fought against the barbarous and fierce soldiers of the Sand Nation.

The result of the war was that he finally crossed the corpses lying on the field and occupied the Lord’s Tower in the Port of Clearwater.

The "Queen of the Port of Clearwater" was now a thing of the past. The Southern Territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle was finally under the rein of Timothy.

"Your Majesty?" the knight on duty entered. Possibly he had heard him laughing.

"It’s nothing," said Timothy. He stood up, hinting that the knight should follow him, and then ascended to the terrace from the side door of the tholus.

A slightly salty sea breeze was swirling, and their robes rustled in the wind. The dark clouds gathered overhead in the distance, it appeared a heavy rain was approaching.

It truly was a pity! He had planned to witness the port, the wharf, and Garcia’s Lord’s Tower turning to dust and ashes, but it seemed to be impossible. He had been on various expeditions with his troops for nearly half a year and had hardly stayed in the King's City for more than a month. All the government affairs had been entrusted to the prime minister to deal with. Although Marquis Wyke seemed to be loyal, even loyalty could not resist the lure of profit. Gerald Wimbledon was the best example. He had to return to the King's City as soon as possible to control the turbulent political situation. The rain in the Southern Region would last for several days, but he could not wait any longer.

"I will return to the king's city tomorrow morning. The other knights and mercenaries will be under your command except for the guards and knightage in the King's City. Sir Ed Howes, guard the Southern Territory for me. Don't let the people of the Sand Nation set foot in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"You’re leaving me here? But I wanted to fight for you, Your Majesty. I..." the young knight from the Howes Family in the north, was momentarily shocked.

"Defending the frontier is still fighting for me," Timothy interrupted. "Listen up, there are several things I need you to do. I need a loyal and competent person to deal with follow-up matters."

"But..." Ed appeared irresolute.

"I know what you're worried about. Rest assured, I won't leave you here to guard forever. After the follow-up matters in the Port of Clearwater come to an end, I will recall you back to the King's City at once. The Kingdom of Graycastle hasn't achieved unity yet. I will need more knights to fight for me before recapturing the Western Region. It is unlikely I would forget you," said Timothy, smiled and clapped the knight's shoulder.

He raised his head and then got down on his knees, eyes shining. "Yes, Your Majesty," he shouted.

"Rise," Timothy nodded satisfactorily and said, "Subsequently, you need to do three things. The first is to escort all the remaining residents in the Port of Clearwater to the King's City." ..

"You don't want to gibbet the betrayers?" Knight Ed asked in surprise.

"No, they're not real betrayers. They would have left with the Blacksail Fleet if they had defected to Garcia. If I killed them, it would just play into her hands," said Timothy. In fact, Garcia’s influence was really beyond his expectation. The port boasted a population of over 10,000 people, along with the slaves plundered from Eagle City. Only 400 people were reluctant to leave. But for the desperate defense of the Sand Nation, it would have been an empty city.

"May His Majesty be merciful."

"The second one is to burn the port, wharf and Lord Tower. I wanted all the people in the Southern Territory to see that the nest of Garcia has gone with the wind. Even she fled hither and thither to come back finally, only ruins left to her."

"Yes!" The knight answered.

"Your last task is to gather all the refugees regardless of the methods adopted. All the homeless, Rats, and caterans, even the people of the Sand Nation are okay. Since the Eagle City war, the disputes in the Southern Territory were never quelled. There will be a large number of refugees in the villages and towns nearby. You should have a troop of at least 5,000 soldiers before waging war to suppress the Western Region," Timothy looked toward the horizon as he said this calmly.

Garcia’s escape had proved the feasibility of his strategy. Her forces were consumed by more than half of the population of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Under general circumstance, thousands of civilians would be in command of one hundred knights to launch an attack. The knight who had no need to participate in the war would only be responsible for distributing the pills and commanding the general situation. With their advantage in numbers, those who surrendered first must be the enemies. Garcia’s withdrawal seemed to be much determined. If she had made a last-effort defense, the Port of Clearwater would have been encroached on by the crazy civilians who had swallowed the pills.

The only enemy he had now was Roland Wimbledon in the Western Region.

Chapter 266 - The Determination

"Your Majesty, how come my brother hasn't sent any news back by now?"

Hearing Ed's words, Timothy remained speechless for a moment. "Indeed, it's strange. I sent Lehmann Hawes to sack the Western Region two months ago. Counting in the time spent on the road, now it's time for him to report or return to the king's city."

Timothy was clear that Lehmann and his knights who had merely 1,500 drugged men could hardly occupy the Western Region, so he had only told Lehmann to try to take control of the Western Region if possible. Their main tasks were to bring back the pills of the stronghold church, investigate the battle between Duke Ryan and Roland, and launch drugged men attacks to consume Roland's effective strength before leaving the town.

This tactic of drugged men attacks paid off during his battles against Garcia. Even if he had not capture Port of Clearwater at once and all the drugged militia members had been killed, his knights would have still managed to get back safely. As long as they could mass another group of useless people, they could launch another round of attack like that.

This time, however, out of Timothy's expectation, he had heard nothing from Lehmann Hawes and his platoon of knights since they had left.

"Maybe he's attacking the town or on the way back." Timothy finally opened his mouth to give Ed some unconvincing explanations instead of the most possible one. "With any luck, I'll receive information from him when I return to the king's city."

"Your Majesty, if you receive any news, could you please..."

"Tell you the information he's come back?" Timothy nodded. "Of course, I'll send a carrier pigeon to you at that time."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Leaning on a railing, the new king looked at the dark, cloudy sky. He occasionally saw a lightning in the clouds and heard muffled, deep thunders coming from a long distance away. His heart sank.

Ed's question neutralized his excitement of finally conquering Port of Clearwater. Garcia Wimbledon, as he had expected, had fought back. Tilly Wimbledon, out of his expectation, had left Graycastle. As for Roland Wimbledon, Timothy thought what he had done was unimaginably queer. The new king had thought he would have never needed to worry about this incapable little brother who would have soon got tired of the dull, remote town and returned to the king's city by himself. However, what had happened in the town was contrary to what Timothy had thought.

Roland had stayed in the town and survived the Months of Demons. He had even defeated Duke Ryan and seized Longsong Stronghold. Now, Timothy wondered what had he done again to make Lehmann and his 1,500 militia men lose touch.

He did not know very much about this younger brother. Neither Garcia nor Gerald had liked to play with him in childhood. When Roland had grown up, he had only seen him on banquets in the palace and heard quite a lot about his numerous bad deeds. Even their father had not liked him very much. But based on what had happened after he had gone to the town, Timothy doubted whether he had been hiding who he really was all the time.

Soon he vetoed that idea. No one was born to know how to disguise or deceive. Smart as Tilly was, she had not been very different from a common little girl in childhood except for her talent in learning. Given that, Roland's change must be caused by something happened to him in Border Town.

He shook his head to banish these thoughts.

"What's the matter? Your Majesty."

"Nothing." The new king took a deep breath. "A rainstorm is going to start."

"No matter what he's met in Border Town, the position of the town has already put him in a corner. What's behind Roland is Barbarian Land, making it impossible for him to retreat backward. Without any port and fleet, he can only fight till death if I keep on launching attacks," thought Timothy.

"Do you insist on setting out tomorrow?" the knight asked with some anxiety.

"How can we withstand a real storm in the future, if we're easily stopped by some raindrops?" Timothy turned around and said to Ed. He believed that sooner or later Roland Wimbledon would kneel down in front of him to beg for mercy, and he himself would become the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He also knew it was just the beginning and the real challenge was the church, as he had already sensed its intention. "Go ahead and do your job. The sooner you finish the task I gave you, the earlier we'll return to the king's city."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Ed walked two steps away and suddenly turned around to say, "I almost forget. Your Majesty, what should we do about those drugged men who didn't die on the battlefields? They've taken pills for three times."

"Let them burn with Port of Clearwater," Timothy answered, showing no emotion.

The knight received the order and left. Timothy suddenly felt something cold drop on his nose and looked up. Several raindrops fell down from the clouds and then more of them came down, rippling the surface of the sea.

***************

On the top floor in Tower of Babel, New Holy City, Hermes

"Damn it, damn it! This b*tch! This devil defying deities! How dare she aim her spearhead at the church!?" Tayfun shouted harshly while banging the table.

It was the first time for Mayne to see this elder archbishop acting like that. His face looked ferocious now with his beard shaking and veins throbbing on the forehead. He acted as if he wanted to swallow Garcia alive.

Tayfun had complained a lot about Heather before and would have even spent a whole afternoon quarreling with her over a trifle. However, the moment he had opened the jewelry box sent by Queen of Clearwater, he had flared up.

Inside the box, there was no pearl but a blood-stained finger wearing an iron ring that bore an archbishop emblem and had been bestowed by the pope.

Mayne heaved a sigh and stretched his hand to close the box, saying, "Of course, she dares to do so, as we weren't blessed by deities this time. Deities prefer the winner."

Hearing this, Tayfun, still panting heavily, calmed down at once and then sat back in his chair without a word. In the end, he asked with great efforts, "So, what're you going to do next?"

The church had never met such a predicament in the recent 100 years. They had never expected that Garcia would have come to the Kingdom of Everwinter. After she had captured the king's city, she had sent out Blacksail Fleet to approach Hermes. Even though the church had almost succeeded in seizing Wolfheart City at that time, Mayne had still recalled God's Punishment Army to the old Holy City.

They had to defend this city which had no city walls, as behind it there was Hermes' underground castle.

When the God's Punishment Army had retreated from Wolfheart City, Blacksail Fleet had also changed its course, sailing back to the king's city. By doing so, Garcia had shown the church that if they dared to attack the Kingdom of Wolfheart, she would attack Holy City from waterway. Her strength stirred up the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter again. Mayne believed that as long as she could ensure the safety of those greedy nobles' domains and property, they would support her to become the new queen of the Kingdom of Everwinter without hesitation.

He knew these problems now were not easy to solve.

But the church would never be subdued by them. Before officially becoming an archbishop, Mayne had understood that it was a thorny path ahead.

He slowly said to Tayfun, "First of all, Holy City needs a new archbishop. You can make a list of candidates for the pope to pick."

Tayfun snorted and said, "So what about the enemy?"

"I'll tell everything to the pope. Don't worry." Mayne closed his eyes. "His Holiness will make a wise decision."

Chapter 267 - A Predestined End

After walking through a dark corridor and taking a suspended cage down into a giant cave located deep underground, Mayne came to the Pivotal Secret Temple again.

His Holiness O'Brien was already waiting at the door.

Mayne thought that His Holiness looked older than the last time he had seen him. He was sunken-eyed, and wrinkles around his eyes now had covered his whole face, looking like a spider web. His smile, however, remained kindly as before. Mayne could not help but kneel down in front of the pope. His nose twitched as he began to weep. "Your Holiness, we..."

"Get up, my child." The pope sounded calm and gentle. "I've heard that you're in trouble. Let's talk about it in the hall."

Only several candles placed in the corners of the hall were lit up, as today was not the day for incarnation ceremony where rows of candles would light up the whole place like stars. The pope sat in his chair, panted a little and said, "Now, tell me. What has happened outside?"

Mayne was clear that His Holiness O'Brien shouldered great responsibility and did not have time to take care of those trivial matters that happened outside Holy City. As one of the three archbishops assigned by the pope to assist in managing the church, Mayne knew that he should try his best to avoid bothering His Holiness with these things, but now he really did not know what to do.

He briefed the pope on what had happened.

"Heather is dead..." O'Brien heaved a sigh after a long silence. "She's such an observant, clever and devout girl. I watched her grow up."

"Your Holiness, please refrain your grief."

"The murder will be punished." The Pope nodded. "Now, Garcia and the Kingdom of Wolfheart form an alliance. Did the new poison take effect?"

"It did when we attacked Broken Tooth Castle. All its defending soldiers died after a month. When Judgement Army marched into the city, there was hardly anyone alive in the residential area. However, it didn't seem to work when we attacked Wolfheart City. The resistance of the enemy is still strong at present," Mayne reported.

"You made two mistakes. The people poisoned will get sick and die in seven to ten days. You should have launched an attack when they were in the peak incidence of poison disease and cured the residents in the city to reduce their hostility toward us after you seized the city. Don't forget that what we need is people not empty cities. It's the first mistake," O'Brien said slowly.

"The second mistake you made was that you had waited for a month before you launched an attack. By doing so, you could reduce our casualties but meanwhile you gave more time for your enemy to find treatment. The new poison is in fact made from demonic beasts. Based on what's recorded in 'Canon of Magic', there're over 70 kinds of magic abilities which could stop the infection spreading. There was probably one witch who happened to have such an ability in the city. It's not a rare thing, given that there're tens of thousands of people in the city."

"You mean, they're in collusion with witches..."

"When it comes to life or death, who'll care whether the witches are demon minions or not. That witch might come forward to treat the people by herself or was forced to do so as someone discovered her ability. Neither situation is good news for us. If they really manage to resist our attack with the help of the witch, they may make another disruptive move. They'll accept the witch or even worship her as a hero," the pope said calmly.

"It's all my fault," Mayne said, lowering his head in agony.

"It is, but not a very serious mistake. After all, to minimize the loss to Judgement Army and God's Punishment Army was the reason for you to set such a strategic direction." O'Brien tapped Mayne shoulder with his scepter. "And it's an opportunity for us, as Princess Garcia of Graycastle and the King of Wolfheart are in the same city."

"Oppor-opportunity?" The archbishop was dumbfounded.

"Yes, an opportunity to get them all," O'Brien stood up and said to Mayne, "Follow me."

Guided by guards, Mayne walked behind the pope. They got out of Pivotal Secret Temple and went deeper into the cave inside the cave. In the beginning, Mayne could see the road in the weak light of a large God's Stone of Retaliation, but it was gradually dimming as they moved forward. When Mayne could not help but turn around to look, he found that Pivotal Secret Temple and the God's Stone of Retaliation were already far behind them. At this time, the guards lit up torches in case that anyone stumbled on gravels on the ground.

"Where... are we going?"

"We've arrived, my child." His Holiness O'Brien stopped and panted heavily. "Oh, well, I'm really old. Walking such a short distance can make me so tired now..."

A guard came up to support him and said, "Your Holiness, let me carry you."

"No, thanks. I'll be alright with some rest." O'Brien stood at the place for a moment and then said, "Light up the braziers."

The archbishop had not noticed until now that besides the guards who were holding torches there were several high iron shelves standing by the stone road. It was hard for anyone to see these metal things in darkness. After the guards climbed up the shelves to light up the rosin basins on the top, dazzling flames gushed out all of a sudden. Mayne squinted at first to adapt to the change in light and then looked forward.

In flickering firelight, he saw something tall and huge covered by a dusty sailcloth.

"As demonic beasts are growing stronger, I've planned to put it to use later, but now it seems that I have to use it ahead of the scheduled time." O'Brien waved his hand. "Remove the cloth."

"What's..." Mayne could not believe what he saw now when the thing was unveiled. It was a huge, ferocious-looking iron four-wheeler. It had no carriage, but each of its wheels stood even taller than himself. The thing was mounted with dreadful embolons and an animal bone holder with a bone shield set in the middle. The shield was as large as three to four door plates combined and covered with barbs. Two pointed-end iron rods were stuck out from two holes in the shield, looking like arrows ready to shoot. On both sides of the iron four-wheeler, there were a dozen of iron spears like that. Each spear was thick as his thigh, with dull metallic luster.

"It's referred to as Siege Beast in 'Canon of Magic'." The pope walked to the iron four-wheeler and patted a sturdy iron rod. "It's controlled by magic power. Three to four witches have to work together to operate this thing. Siege Beast's shooting range is much farther than that of a mangonel or ballista. Generally speaking, city walls can hardly resist its iron spear shots, and sailing ship built of giant logs will be as fragile as a piece of paper facing its attack. It'll easily destroy the walls of Wolfheart City and stop Blacksail Fleet."

"Is... it a weapon created by Pivotal Secret Temple?"

"No." O'Brien shook his head. "You should be able to guess it. It comes from our enemies—the demons in the hell. That's why the church has to hide it in the depths of the cave. When you use it, remember to try your best to hide it from the civilians?"

"Got it," Mayne replied while lowering his head.

"How come the witches are able to manipulate a demons' weapon? Do the demons also have magic power?" Instead of raising those questions, Mayne pressed down his suspicions, as he knew he was not entitled to know that until he became the next pope.

"Besides, to prevent Garcia and King of Wolfheart from fleeing this time, I'll send two pure witches to assist you in the battle. No one can escape from them... Go ahead, use those devils' blood to mourn Heather," the pope said solemnly.

"Supreme Pontiff's Pure Witches!" Mayne was thrilled. All the pope's witches had abilities amazing enough to be recorded in "Canon of Magic", as he had chosen for himself the strongest pure witches, who were raised up and controlled by the church. Heather, Tayfun, and Mayne had pure witches, too, but the pope's pure witches were way out of their league. Now that His Holiness had said the enemies could not escape, they were doomed.

"Yes, Your Holiness," Mayne excitedly said.

Chapter 268 - The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅰ)

Roland convened the first plenary meeting of Border Town's senior officials in the reception hall of the castle.

The City Hall which had started with only Barov and a dozen of his students now employed nearly 100 staff. Among them, there were broken nobles, captured knights and their squires and local people who had completed primary education and received diplomas.

Thanks to population growth, departments of the City Hall had come into being one after another. Now, it was finally one step closer to what the prince had expected it to be. Instead of doing everything by himself, he could rely on the City Hall departments to carry out what he decided and planned, which made him felt satisfied.

The senior officials attended this meeting were heads of the departments, including Minister of Agriculture Sirius Daly, Minister of Education Scroll, Acting Minister of Chemical Industry Kyle Sichi, Minister of Construction Karl Van Bate, Commander of the army Iron Axe and City Hall Director Barov Mons. In fact, the City Hall had another department, Ministry of Industry, but it was under Roland's direct supervision due to the fact that no one else knew industrialization better than him

A bucket of ice water was placed besides each attendee to maintain a cool temperature in the hall. Candle had filled the ice inside the water with enchantment to ensure that they would not melt in the whole morning even when the sun was scorching hot outside the castle.

"Well, it's time to hear each department's report on recent work. Let's begin with Ministry of Agriculture." With these words, Roland picked up a kettle in the ice water bucket to pour himself a cup of ice water.

"Yes, Your Highness." Sirius rose and bowed. He spread out a scroll that was prepared in advance and began to report. "Ministry of Agriculture has collected about 17,000 Hu (850,000 kg) grains from serfs, enough to meet the town's need for grains in the following year. In addition, according to your request, we also offered to purchase surplus grains at the market price from the serfs but have collected only 4,500 Hu (225,000 kg) in this way by now, as much fewer serfs were willing to sell their remaining grains to the City Hall, compared with the number of serfs turning in grains."

The "Hu", a vessel made of woven bamboo strips, was used to weigh wheat by people in this era and one Hu equaled 50 kilograms. Roland only knew it as a unit of measurement but had no idea how many kilos or liters one Hu of wheat was. As long as he knew the grains that the City Hall had collected were enough to feed the people of the town, he would never bother himself with this kind of trifles.

It was the grain purchase situation reported by Sirius that gave him cause for concern. In accordance with the City Hall's regulation, 70 percent of the harvest should be handed over to the government and a large proportion of the remaining 30 percent should be sold to it. After deducting the portion of grains that the serfs kept for food and seeds for the next year, the amount bought by the City Hall should be around 7,000 Hu (350,000 kg). The current amount of purchased grains suggested that some serfs chose to hoard grains privately in their wooden sheds.

Roland had foreseen such a problem but still could not help but sigh when hearing this. The cause of it was obvious. Some people planned to store up grains to corner the market. Once the town could not offer sufficient grain supply or was hit by some natural or man-made disasters, they would sell out their grain stock at a much higher price. It might even be a dozen times as much as the market price now.

To prevent such a situation from disturbing the market, Roland had made grain an exclusive commodity controlled by the City Hall and required all the grain buyers to show their ID cards first. The town's economy was still at its initial stage of development. Its grain reserves were quite low and grain prices could greatly affect its stability. Under such circumstances, he must adapt those restriction and real-name policies to stabilize the grain prices. If he did not restrict the sale of grains, the cornering and profiteering in the market would easily bid up the price.

"Your Highness, why not force the serfs to sell their wheat to the government? After all, in accordance with law, they're not allowed to sell it to anyone else," Sirius felt confused and asked.

"No, their remaining wheat is their private property. They've got the right to deal with it according to their will. The regulation doesn't forbid serfs to keep grains for themselves. That means, they're allowed to store some away. As long as it isn't banned by any regulation, it's allowed," Roland answered.

The last sentence of Roland made Sirius even more confused. The other officials also knitted their eyebrows, except Barov who revealed a thoughtful expression on his face.

Seeing them, Roland gave no further explanation. He expected them to digest this idea of following rules and procedures in doing their jobs by themselves. Only when they fully embraced such an idea, they could be regarded as qualified officers of the new era. Of course, this idea might also lead to another extreme, bureaucracy, but Roland believed that it was at least better than disorder. He took a sip of his ice water and asked Sirius, "Anything else you need to report?"

"Uhm... Yes." Sirius Daly shook his head to straighten his thoughts. "As all crops in the fields have been harvested by now, are we going to leave the land fallow for the coming year?

"No, don't let the fields lay fallow." Roland waved his hand. "The excrement piled beside the fields is organic fertilizer for the soil. After harvest, you can instruct the serfs to shovel it into the fields and thoroughly mix it with the soil. Remember that the place left empty beside the fields should be reserved for new organic fertilizer." The excrement would need merely two months to decompose in the summer, and four months in winter. Given that, in the next spring, the town's fields would, for the first time, have improved soil fertility and a new batch of organic fertilizer as a starter treatment. That meant, there was no need for a fallow period.

Chemical fertilizer aside, this practice of using human and animal wastes to fertilize the soil was already a huge improvement in agriculture of this era.

"Well, yes, if you insist." Sirius touched his head. "Here's another thing... Your Highness, if we continue to plant wheat next year, the stone mills we've got now won't be able to meet the future demand. I propose to build a new mill by Redwater River and I hope that it'll be driven by a steam engine."

"Good, I agree. You submit a proposal to Barov first to get fiscal funds, and then you can discuss the construction plan details with the Ministry of Construction," Roland nodded and said, happy to see such a progress. Except him, now there was finally another one who took the initiative to use the new technology.

"Thanks, Your Highness," Sirius said, "The last thing I want to report is about the entitlement of free citizens. This time, 516 serfs in total are qualified for the entitlement. As the qualification was decided according to the weight of wheat they turned in on the spot, no one raised an objection. I've already submitted the name list to Lord Barov." Sirius stood up again to bow. "My report is over."

"Well done." Roland clapped his hands to show encouragement. Sirius who had been a young knight serving the Wolf Family now seemed to have well adapted to the new life of the town and did a good job in the City Hall, making an excellent example for the broken nobles and knights in the stronghold. Roland believed advertising Sirius' story would help him a lot in recruiting more of those people.

Scroll was the second to report. She had done her long hair up behind her head, and dressed in a neat, white shirt and a plain, black long dress without decoration or lace, she looked mature and capable. It was hard to imagine that only half a year ago, she had still been a homeless witch, wearily running from the church.

As her ability was the photographic memory, she could precisely report the numbers and facts without any written materials in hand. This ability made Roland envy her a lot. "We've seen two batches of students, a total of 85 people, finish their primary education. Most of them have studied in Mr. Karl's college. Among the graduates, 46 chose to work in the City Hall, 21 chose the bicycle plant, 13 applied for joining the First Army." She paused here for a while and continued, "And five applied for the jobs in chemical laboratories."

"Only five? It seems that the investiture ceremony doesn't deliver good advertising results as I've expected. Well, the three new laboratories will lay idle for some time." Roland was surprised and could not help but look at Kyle Sichi who seemed quite displeased at present.

"At least, the employment rate is 100 percent." Roland comforted himself in his own heart.

Chapter 269 - The First Plenary Meeting of Border Town's Senior officials (Part Ⅱ)

Now it was time to hear the report from Acting Minister of Chemical Industry, Kyle Sichi. Kyle started with a snort and said, "Your Highness, I hope you can find a real minister as soon as possible. I don't want to take part in this kind of meetings anymore."

"..." Rolland rolled his eyes at Kyle in his heart. How could the prince easily find a man who had an understanding of both alchemy and chemistry to replace Kyle in this era? Since he had become a leader, he had gradually realized that he had to ignore some opinions sometimes, such as what Kyle had just said. Without showing any displeasure, Roland asked Kyle, "Do you have a clue about the mass production of two kinds of acids?"

"No, that's why I need more time and manpower to study the project instead of wasting my time sitting here," Kyle shrugged and said. After staying in the town for a long time, Kyle had learned some "Roland Style Expressions". "If I have to say something here, I can only tell you that the labs need more staff, the more the better. In addition, the five new, young employees turn out to be quite clever. I have to say, your primary education works."

Chief Alchemist Kyle seemed not as reverent as the other officials, but Roland, considering Kyle's age and his craze for chemical experiments, was not bothered by his language or attitude. When Kyle had found that he could be cured by Nana after suffering an explosion accident, the first thing he had thought of was that he could conduct any risky experiment he wanted with Nana's help. This new finding had given him so great enthusiasm that he even wanted to taste different kinds of acids. Such a frenzy filled Roland with awe.

"Alright... continue your study. I'll let Barov help you with employee recruiting."

"By the way, Your Highness. Have you finished writing 'Intermediate Chemistry'? If you could lend the book to me, I may be able to think of the mass production acid-making process earlier," Kyle said.

"Just as what I said in the Award and Honor Ceremony, I'll give the book to you when your students and assistants could fill all the posts of the new labs," Roland said while spreading his hands. The real situation, however, was that the prince had not written a word for that book. As he had racked his brain to write "Primary Chemistry" which had already exhausted most of his limited chemistry knowledge, he was afraid that he could hardly piece together several pages for "Intermediate Chemistry".

Karl Van Bate, Minister of Construction, was the fourth one to report.

"First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude to Lady Scroll." Karl nodded to greet Scroll. "I'm happy to know that the batch of students has graduated."

Scroll nodded back to him and said, "My pleasure." It was obvious that this mason had a far more sociable personality than Chief Alchemist Kyle did.

Karl opened a notebook that he carried with himself all the time and started his well-organized report. "We're steadily advancing the construction of major projects of the town, which include Kingdom Main Street, Redwater Bridge, new residential district and new city wall. It's estimated that Kingdom Main Street will be completed in the next spring. This project has hired 4,500 workers, half of whom are from Longsong Stronghold. Redwater Bridge is also in the construction stage. We're still focusing on the cement wall enclosure underground. The residential district has been expanded to the old city wall area, and around 1,000 people work in this project now. We're confident to accomplish our assigned task of offering enough houses for the refugees from the Eastern Region before Months of Demons this year, as long as we have sufficient brick and cement supply."

Given that Karl had to inform Roland of the progress of the town's construction projects everyday, he just reported briefly here, leaving out some minor projects, such as the expansion of the castle and the construction of Witch House. As to the new city wall, Lotus was building it on her own. After the position of the wall was chosen, she constructed a wall section of about 500 meters everyday along the set line.

"Good job." Roland nodded. As the sector in which the City Hall invested the most manpower and money, the Ministry of Construction delivered the most achievements. "While stepping up the construction of the town, remember to promote our preferential policies to attract the construction workers to settle down in the town. Even the handymen recruited from the stronghold have already become qualified construction workers after a whole year's work here."

"Yes, Your Highness," Karl answered.

"Now, the next... Iron Axe."

It was the first time for Iron Axe to attend such a meeting. Feeling a little awkward, he cleared his throat and then said, "Your Highness, there're two things about the army I want to report. First, the Second Army has already accomplished basic training and is ready to be sent to the stronghold. Second, after the recent recruitment, the First Army now has 825 soldiers. Except 350 soldiers of the Artillery Squad, all of the First Army soldiers have been equipped with revolving rifles. That's all I want to say." He saluted after his report.

"Good, send the Second Army out tomorrow. Remember to place some reliable men in them to continue our daily drills and ideological education in the stronghold, and require them to report to the town weekly," Roland remarked.

Barov was the last to report. He glanced at everyone and then bowed to Roland. "Your Highness, after paying Theo and Margaret's Chamber of Commerce's transportation expenses, the government's gold reserves decreased sharply. We have a harvest this year and Ministry of Agriculture is purchasing grains at market price. Now, there're only about 2,000 gold royals left in the government's coffers. It's a dangerous dividing line."

Considering what he had had in the last winter, Roland felt that 2,000 golden royals was already a huge sum of money but he also knew the situation was different now. It would cost him a bundle just to pay over 5,000 construction workers every month, let alone the better-paid positions in the First Army, plants, labs and the City Hall.

In another word, Border Town now earned much and at the same time spent a lot, even though, at present, it could still provide itself most raw materials and machines.

"I see. In the beginning of the next month, Margaret will return to the town and we'll get much profit by selling her steam engines. Furthermore, the grain acquisition and refugee transportation aren't regular expenses. In the next six months, the gold reserves will be able to rise back steadily. You don't have to worry about it too much." Roland paused a moment. "I've something else to tell you. You'll get pay rise."

"Pay rise?" Barov was surprised.

"Yes, now the City Hall is no longer a simple organization run by a dozen of people. Your workload has increased significantly, so should your payment." The prince smiled to Barov and said, "Your monthly salary, from this month, is raised to five gold royals and that of the ministers to two gold royals. Based on this proportion, you can raise the salaries for the City Hall's apprentices and assistants. Relax, it won't be a large sum of money, around 20 to 30 gold royals in total."

Five gold royals was not high salary for the position of City Hall Director, but Roland was sure that what Barov preferred was power. As Barov had been controlling the finance of the town all the time, it was easy for him to make a fortune by stealing public funds. However, by now, he had not conducted any corrupt practice like that.

Of course, as a leader, Roland could not solely depend on the officials' integrity to maintain a clean government. Nightingale who could tell lies from truth could help him with this matter. No one could hide their bad deeds from Nightingale.

"In addition, though you may have already known it, I want to say that I'm going to establish a city here after the Months of Demons this year. The town will become a real city covering a much larger area than the king's city or any other city of the four kingdoms. We'll expand westward to the edge of Barbarian Land, eastward to include Longsong Stronghold and southward to the mountains and sea. The natural barriers will form our city wall."

"So, you've got to speed up the progress of the work in your hand to greet the new city," Roland paused and then said solemnly, "I hope the city will be warm as spring even in an endless winter."

Chapter 270 - High Pressure Tanks

After the meeting, as Roland requested, all the officials left except Barov.

The prince said to his City Hall Director Barov explicitly, "Now you see, both labs and Graycastle's factories need hands, and so do I. I plan to manufacture soaps and perfume on a large scale, but I have to wait until another batch of students, and at most 600 to 700 of them, will graduate in the following year to be recruited as the workers I need. It's obvious that even at that time, the graduates won't be able to meet the manpower demand. Given that, I need larger population."

"What about recruiting more workers from the stronghold..."

"No," Roland interrupted. "I'll establish a city next year and by then the stronghold will become part of it. Recruiting people from there is like moving the money in one of your pockets to another. It's pointless. I need to recruit more people from outside the Western Region."

"It's..." Barov seemed a little baffled. "I'm afraid it's not an easy task, as the local lords won't neglect it when we're recruiting their people in their cities."

"No, we don't recruit from cities." Roland dipped his finger into his cup and started to draw with the ice water on the table. "Have you noticed that since the end of Months of Demons, Graycastle has been a theatre of war. Timothy has launched several rounds of attack on the Southern Territory. He burned down Eagle City and made its surrounding villages and towns suffer a lot. After that, he charged treason against Duke Ise and waged war in the north to deprive the duke of his title and domain. In the end, it's the attack from the sea in the east." Roland drummed the desk several times, leaving some water stains. "All big cities there such as Seawindshire, Valencia and Crow Castle were affected, let alone the small towns around them. Based on the number of refugees in the king's city from this area, it's plain to see that those places must have suffered a heavy loss."

"You mean..." Barov revealed a thoughtful look.

"Let your men advertise the Western Region." The prince wiped out the water stains. "Over the recent six months, only the Western Region has been peaceful, without any war or compulsory recruitment. Timothy used lots of drugged men in wars. He must have recruited or even grabbed lots of civilians for military service. No one can be sure that such a thing will never happen to himself. Given that, we should focus on emphasizing the peaceful and stable situation of the Western Region in our propaganda campaign."

"I see, you plan to attract people in the other towns and villages through promoting the safe and peaceful life here and through promising them that you'll provide them houses, food and jobs, right?" Barov said after a thought.

"Almost." Roland smiled and nodded with satisfaction to Barov who had been quick in mind and ready to embrace new things all along. "Besides, you need to highlight the excellent payments and conditions we offer to the literate people. I believe these will attract some broke knights and nobles in those places to seek opportunities in our Western Region."

Most villages and towns were lesser nobles' domains. No matter how barren the lands were or how badly they managed their domains, during peacetime, it was easy for them to have enough to live on. However, it would be difficult for them to get through the wartime when the population fell. Roland was confident that if he offered those troubled lesser nobles good opportunities at such a time, most of them would like to come to his Western Region. As for their own domains, even without any management, the lands would stay there anyway. After the hard time, they could go back with money and mercenary fighters to restart their lives on their domains if they wanted to.

Now the only problem was how to advertise the Western Region. Roland decided to leave it to Barov.

"But, Your Highness, we'll spend lots of money to attract those people and to help them settle down here, and we need to continue the grain purchase at the same time. If our arrangement with Margaret has some unexpected changes, the government's coffers will be almost empty," Barov hesitated and said.

"Uhm... I see your point." Roland touched his chin, thinking that as a new leader, he should give top priority to building his prestige and authority among the people and avoid things that would destroy his image, such as breaking his payment promises. "Well, you go back and draft a plan first. Let's start the propaganda campaign after we make enough money from the deal with the caravan in the next month."

"Yes, Your Highness," Barov said, with a hand on his chest.

After the talk with Barov, Roland went back to his office to think about how to complete Margaret's hydrogen balloon order.

Each balloon was sold at 1,000 gold royals, a much higher price than that of a steam engine, but its cost was much lower. The balloon was painted out by Soraya and the other parts such as bamboo basket and hemp ropes were cheap goods. Roland had made a simple prototype in the backyard of the arsenal, which could take both Lightning and Maggie in a flight.

He had abandoned the hot balloon plan after careful consideration, as now hydrogen was easier and cheaper compared with coal gas. Given that coal gas was obtained through coal dry distillation which required a large equipment, a complicated process, and a huge amount of coal imported from the other towns, it was clearly not economical to produce coal gas on a small scale.

The balloon of the prototype was made of a flexible, watery coating which was light as air. It was painted on a large paper which was burned afterward. In experiments, it was proven to be crash-worthy, waterproof and fireproof. Maggie had transformed into different kinds of bird to crash into and peck at the inflated balloon but failed to cause any damage. Only an iron needle could pierce through this 1-mm-thick coating. Due to its light weight, a hydrogen balloon which was about five meters in diameter was able to carry an adult up into the sky.

The remaining problem was how to refill the high pressure tank that stored hydrogen.

As one DC motor used for water electrolysis was enough to provide hydrogen for all balloons, Roland decided not to sell the motors to anyone in order to generate recurring revenues for himself. For that to happen, he needed to provide his clients high pressure tanks to store the hydrogen.

With Anna's help, he could have any tank he wanted. Even if he could only use pig iron or wrought iron as raw material, by asking Anna to increase the wall thickness of the tanks during manufacturing, he could easily make up for the material defect. However when it came to the refilling process, it was not that easy anymore. To blow up a large hydrogen balloon, the pressure inside the tank must be above 20 MPa, based on his experience in modern world. It was obviously impossible for him to refill the tanks with ordinary pumps. He needed high pressure air pump.

He thought of two different types of them, which were high pressure piston pump and turbopump. The former was included in the internal combustion engine tech tree, and the latter was a kind of turbines. Both of them required lots of time and energy to develop and manufacture, which was not what he wanted. It was already late afternoon when Roland finally thought of a solution, self-inflating inside the tank.

Before traveling into this era, he had read a piece of news about an explosion accident in a street caused by some hydrogen balloon seller's misconduct. Without careful calculation, the seller put dilute sulfuric acid and aluminum into a converted liquid gas storage tank to produce and store hydrogen. Unluckily, the tank's inner pressure got too high and it exploded.

Pouring dilute sulfuric acid and some active metal into a container was a self-inflating method used to produce hydrogen. In lab experiments, zinc was the most frequently used active metal and aluminum was the one most capable of producing a large amount of hydrogen. However, in this era, he could get neither of those single metals. Given that, Roland decided to use elemental Fe (pure iron) which could be produced by Lucia as the active metal. As this choice might lead to a low-speed chemical process at ambient temperature, Roland planned to activate the reaction by heating and expanding the reaction area (such as using pure iron plates or pure iron powders). He also planned to have the interior of the tanks coated by Soraya to resist the acid.

Having decided on the plan, Roland sketched out his design of the high pressure tank. To avoid gas leaks, the tank must be manufactured by integral moulding of iron, except for a protruding threaded opening. An air nozzle with valve would then be screwed into this opening.

Once the valve was tightened, the hydrogen generated inside by the metal and acid would never leak out, thus increasing the inner pressure to the desired level. This design was easy to use, as the clients just needed to open the valve to inflate the balloon. It also solved the refilling problem. He just had to remove the air nozzle, clean out all the ferrous sulfate crystallization and dry the tank before he put in metal and acid again.

Considering that dilute sulfuric acid was an alchemical product, he could not set a low price for refilling the tanks.

"I'll charge 50 gold royals for each refilling, and a client will get one free refill after 10 refillings," Roland thought.

Chapter 271 - The Elements

When Kyle Sichi finished his experiments and went back home, his wife had already prepared a dinner for him. She served him toasted wheat cake, mushroom soup and a glass of white liquor.

Both white liquor and these large white mushrooms were available on the Convenience Market. The signboard outside the mushroom shop read "you can hardly find anything more delicious than our mushrooms", and he had to agree with it after tasting the mushroom with rich flavor. Only one slice of it had led him to the endless aftertaste.

Meanwhile, this delicacy was amazingly expensive. A mushroom which was about the same size as his palm cost a silver royal. Kyle would have never bought such expensive food, if he had not been so well-paid here in the town. He found that with enough money, one could enjoy a far more comfortable life here than those ordinary nobles did. Besides good food, people of the town could buy many other nice things, such as scented soap and mirror.

Having witnessed so many eye-opening things in the town, Kyle now firmly believed that Roland was a fathomless man.

After the dinner, his wife handed him a letter.

"Where's it from?"

"A guard sent it here in the afternoon before you came back. According to him, it's from Redwater City," Kyle's wife said while tidying up the dishes.

"Is it?" Kyle immediately went into his study and used a little knife to open the seal. He took out the letter inside.

And the first line of it read "Dear mentor".

"It's from Chavez." Kyle could not help but smile. He sat at his desk and read it word by word.

It turned out that since Kyle had left the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City, another alchemist Capola had become the new chief. Capola was a narrow-minded person. He had got the firing process and formula of crystal glass left by Kyle and had falsely claimed to have worked out it together with Kyle in front of the lord. He had also seemed to wittingly push Chavez out during alchemical experiments.

Chavez sobbed out all his grievance in the letter. He had borrowed Capola's students when he had been working on the double-stone acid-making method, but had not told Capola the results in advance. He guessed that it might be the cause for his isolation in the workshop. The other alchemists now also seemed to avoid him, which annoyed him a lot.

Kyle, however, understood what those people thought. They had believed Chavez, the youngest alchemist in the workshop, had stood out only because of luck and the fact that he was former chief alchemist's student. Kyle sniffed at this view. Chavez was the one who could find double-stone acid-making method from saltpeter and green alum, which were common things in the workshop. Without sharp observation, good memory, bold conjecture or careful experiments, he could hardly make an important discovery in ordinary things. Kyle believed that this young man was even more talented than himself.

In the last part of the letter, Chavez added two alchemical equations which he said were his recent discoveries that he wanted to share with his mentor. Kyle recognized these neutralization reaction equations at once. Now he could write a dozen of equations like those based on the rule that an acid could react with a base to form a salt.

He put down the letter with a sigh and then looked at the book "Elementary Chemistry" on his desk, which he had known by heart.

It was this "ancient book" from His Highness that had totally changed him. If he had never read it, he would have been like Chavez, seeking and treasuring superficial achievements that he happened to meet in the chaotic world of alchemy.

He picked up the book and turned to the last page of it.

He saw a table divided into over 100 little squares.

This table would always give him goosebumps and fill him with a kind of awe which was hard to describe in words.

Each square was marked with a number written in the up left corner of it, but most of the 118 squares were empty, except for the first two rows. Some squares were filled with symbols, such as No.26 Fe and No.29 Cu.

This table was called "periodic table of elements".

Once, with a jumping pulse, Kyle had held the book with trembling hands and asked Roland about those empty squares. Roland had answered that this table had been stuffed with symbols but he had forgotten most of them.

If Roland had not been a prince, Kyle would have slammed the book into his face.

The book claimed that all the elements in the world were included in this table. Kyle thought if there were a canon of alchemy, this chapter must have been the most glorious part of it. He was awed every time when he wondered who had mastered such a great rule and made this table. "Those people in the past knew so much, making today's alchemists look like a joke. We're like kids building ridiculous, improbable sand castles on the beach without knowing the glorious past of alchemy built by our predecessors at all."

In a sudden, Kyle thought of Roland's promise. If he could draw Chavez and some other students over to fill all the positions in the three new labs, he would get his dream book "Intermediate Chemistry".

At this thought, he immediately took out a piece of blank paper to compose a reply to Chavez.

Kyle had not told the truth when the prince had asked him about the mass production of two kinds of acids during the meeting. He just had not wanted to waste his time on explaining something so complex and lengthy in the meeting. More importantly, he had not been sure whether his plan was feasible, as it had been the first time for him to design a process based on the principles written in "Elementary Chemistry."

Compared with his previous alchemical experiments, his new design sounded so unrealistic, like some crazy talk. He wanted to use an unheard method to extract an element from seemingly irrelevant raw materials.

Kyle somehow felt that this method would work!

He had conducted hundreds of displacement experiments to validate the correctness of the book's recordings.

As His Highness had told him that all the mass production methods adapted in plants could be simulated and tested in the lab, now in order to confirm his design, he needed to complete the theoretical and experimental studies in the lab first.

Kyle quickly finished writing the letter. Instead of comforting Chavez, he explicitly told his best student that he had learned in the town that alchemy was knowable, measurable and accessible. He believed that a clever, keen alchemist like Chavez would never want to miss such a chance to get to know the truth of alchemy.

He folded the letter, put it into an envelope and then sealed the envelope with wax. Tomorrow, he would hand it to a merchant who was willing to deliver it to Chavez.

After that, Kyle looked at "periodic table of elements" again.

If the table could only remain incomplete, he would lose all his interest in life. Fortunately, His Highness Roland had told him something else. Those words had made him thrilled at that time and now still reverberated in his ear.

"Don't give me that look. The elements on the table are arranged following a certain rule. You can fill out the blanks by yourself."

"A rule? You mean the unknown elements can be derived out, like alchemical equations?"

"Exactly, even though you've never seen those elements, you can still know their appearances and characteristics based on the rule."

"What… is that rule?"

"You want to know? It's in the book 'Intermediate Chemistry'."

Chapter 272 - The North Slope Mine

The deeper they walked into the cave, the more humid it became.

Sylvie carefully avoided the water droplets above her head, and slowly walked into the cave carrying a torch. Even without the light, the Eye of Truth would not be hindered by the dark. She was only doing so to save her magic power.

"We're at the junction." Nightingale who was walking in front stopped. "What's the number of the cave?

"It's the first fork of the second door of the 23rd cave," Lightning took a glance at the record book.

"Hopefully, this is the end," Sylvie muttered, opening the eyes that were completely formed by magic power, "On the left... separate from the mine area, no mine. On the right... the same."

Lightning noted the results, "Well, there's one last door to check in this cave."

"Let's go," Nightingale went from the front to the back of the line, taking everyone with her. Her ability was not simply becoming invisible. Sylvie could only faintly see Nightingale's changing magic power, but she could not capture her stature or action. Apparently, she was the most powerful combat witch in the Witch Cooperation Association.

This was perhaps the reason Roland had asked Lightning to follow Sylvie. There were rumors that the mine was once the cave of an ancient monster, and several miners had gone missing in the past. Before they departed, Prince Roland, His Highness had repeatedly reminded them to be careful and that if they encountered any unknown situation, they should withdraw from the mine at once, and report to him.

Sylvie did not need to worry about this. No monster could escape the investigation of the Magic Eye. She could even see the corpses of dead animals and twisting mollusk worms clearly.

There were four people in the "expedition". Aside from herself, there were also Nightingale, Lightning, and a little girl named Lucia. Every time she found a mine, she would transform the material into various crumbs, and carefully classify them before putting them into her pocket. She said that it was for His Highness' verification.

Lightning was responsible for drawing the topographic map of the mine. Of course, according to her argument, she must join for any of the adventures. Her proud tone reminded Sylvie of a captain who had stayed temporarily on Sleeping Island.

The 23rd cave was a massive hole, deep in the bottom of the mine. It was divided into three junctions after hundreds of steps and there were more endless interwoven pathways walking deeper into the mine. It almost extended out of the scope of the mine. There was little possibility of there being a mineral vein, so they would stop after this section.

When they came back to the first junction which was also the "door" Lightning recorded, Sylvie cast her ability to observe the situation of the 23rd cave with three doors.

The wider the gaze of the Eye of Truth, the greater the amount of magic power was consumed. It was also a heavy burden to her body, so she chose to observe only once at each junction and explore the various channels one at a time.

"Another three doors... Ah, no mine, there's something at the end..." She was shocked. "There're five junctions and one of the junctions seems to turn back around from the bottom."

"From the bottom?" Lightning repeated.

"Indeed, it's so," Sylvie said. The slender passageway turned around straight towards the mine after going downwards for a short way. She felt a strong dizziness in her mind when she wanted to continue exploring along the junction, interrupting her contact with the Magic Eye. "I think it may lead to a mine."

However, this explanation was very farfetched. The intricate cave in the North Slope Mine was clearly not an artificial digging, and it would not link directly to the mine. The unknown mineral vein they had discovered previously was caught in the middle of two junctions. It was simply not possible to find a pile of metal stones hidden in the mud and stone walls without the Eye of Truth to overlook the obstacles.

"No matter what it is, let's just go and take a look." Nightingale shrugged.

They entered the cave from the third door and reached the end of the channel after about 15 minutes.

The passageway was divided into five paths and the narrowest one did not allow anyone to walk through but had to be climbed into instead. The strange passageway Sylvie had seen previously was located in the middle of five junctions. The terrain drifted down, forming a steep slope to the ground on which they stood.

"It looks pretty deep," Nightingale said, peering forwards with the torch, "I feel that the cave here is somewhat similar to the cliffs in the Impassable Mountain Range."

"Let's go back after checking." Lucia could not help but tightly hold onto Nightingale's arm. "I don't like it here. I keep feeling like there's something staring at us in the cave."

"There's nothing in the cave, except for mud and stones," Sylvie said. She did not like this damp, silent place either but her ability was telling her that there was no danger here. "The four junctions on the left and right don't have any mines, away from the mining area." She quickly glanced through the straight junctions and shifted her gaze to the middle one. She was shocked. "...Ah?"

"What's the matter?" Lightning asked.

"I... can't see the situation at the bottom."

"Can't see?" the little girl was surprised. "Is it because you're too tired and your ability is fading?" "Take a rest."

"No, it's not an ability issue." Sylvie closed her eyes and reopened them. It was still dark, and it felt like her vision was deprived. She held on to her aching head and further expanded the scope of her vision, but the results were still the same. The surrounding soil was clear and visible, but the center was completely enveloped in a darkness as thick as ink. "There's something blocking my vision."

"Stay here and don't move." Nightingale pulled out two shining silver blades. "I'll go down and explore the situation, and I'll be right back."

"Don't go!" Sylvie pressed on her painful forehead and stopped Nightingale. "There's only one thing that could produce such an effect. You're going to be in danger if you go."

"What's it?"

"God's Stone of Retaliation." She clenched her teeth. "There's a God's Stone of Retaliation below and it's covering the entire area!"

…

When Roland received the news, he immediately gathered the First Army soldiers into North Slope Mine.

The final result of the investigation was just as Sylvie had guessed. There was a huge amount of God's Stones of Retaliation hidden in the cave below the mine.

After making sure that there was no danger, Roland entered the 23rd cave under the protection of his guards. He wanted to see what it looked like with the entire bottom full of the God's Stone of Retaliation.

"Please be careful, Your Highness." Carter reminded. "The exit is right in front."

"You can't use magic power inside, and it's safer for you to stay here." Roland looked at Anna, Nightingale, and Lightning behind him. "Isn't it good to learn from Sylvie?"

"I'm still more powerful than you without magic. If you can go, of course, I can go." Nightingale pouted.

"I'm wherever the adventure is." Lightning lifted her chest.

Anna did not say anything but just stared at Roland quietly. Looking at the pair of clear eyes reflecting under the torch, Roland knew that whatever he said would be useless.

"Alright." He sighed. "You must follow beside me and don't get too far away."

They came to the end of the path walking along the steep cave and Roland suddenly understood the meaning of the "exit" the chief knight mentioned.

Their sight was suddenly lit up as a huge cave appeared in front of him.

He could clearly see the entire cave without a torch. The light came from the God's Stones of Retaliation, and it sparkled like a crystal prism. They sprang up from the ground and each had a diameter of 20 to 30 meters. It looked like a giant neon tower standing in front of him.

Chapter 273 - The God's Stone of Retaliation

Roland quickly estimated the size of the underground cave. It was almost the size of a football field and was surrounded by steep mountain walls. The junction that connected it was right in the center of the mountain and there was a narrow stone staircase beside the cave that extended further down.

"I guess you didn't cut out these steps." He squatted and put the torch near the ground. The carving marks on the stone steps could be seen clearly under the light and there were a lot of chips and dust accumulated in the carvings.

"Of course not, Your Highness. The stone steps were already here when we found it." Carter shrugged. "I'm guessing it's been there for decades."

"Or centuries," Anna suddenly said.

"I think so too." Lightning nodded. "Border Town has only been established for 70 years so far, so the stone ladder is unlikely to be related to the locals or the kingdom."

"Was there anyone in the western region centuries ago?" Carter questioned, "The Kingdom of Graycastle had not yet been established."

Roland patted the knight's shoulder and said, "450 years ago, there was a group of people who were forgotten by the history." Then, he lifted the torch. "Let's go down to take a look."

The soldiers of the First Army had surrounded the bottom of the cave accordingly. He went straight to the side of God's Stone of Retaliation with the knights and the witches. The greatness of the huge God's Stone could only be felt when they were standing under the stone pillars. It was more than 10 times the length of stretched-out arms and they could only see its top when they lifted up their heads. The tallest purple-colored God's Stone of Retaliation was close to 30 meters and it was almost equivalent to the height of an eight or nine storey building.

In theory, the glowing stone was likely either made of a radioactive material or it contained fluorescent ingredients. However, the light of the God's Stone of Retaliation was obviously irrelevant to both of them. The former's luminescence came from the ionization of the air caused by the decay of the element itself. The shorter the half-life was, the greater the brightness was. According to the brightness, the soldiers who entered first would die from ionizing radiation after only for a few minutes. The latter needed light to shine and there was no light source underground which was able to support it to emit such a cold light continuously.

Roland also noticed that although the stone was in a common crystal prism shape, the surface had no crystal lines and was as smooth as flat glass.

"If a thumb-sized God's Stone of Retaliation can be sold for several gold royals in the church, then such a gigantic one... It can easily empty the treasures of all the four kingdoms," Carter could not help but say emotionally.

"Sell them to the nobles with the purpose to kill the witches?" Nightingale fiercely stared at him.

"Uh, I didn't say that." The chief knight unconsciously shifted his sight.

"It's my first time to see a God's Stone of Retaliation in this color. Shouldn't it be white and transparent?" Lightning looked at the stone pillar and curiously asked, "We would not even need to light a candle at night if we brought a piece back."

"I'd rather be in a hot room with a dozen of candles than use it for light," Nightingale held her arms in front of her chest and said, "To a witch, it's a cage, a shackle and an accomplice of the church! It would be great if there were no such stones in the world."

"Well, sister Nightingale, you don't read in the evening anyway..." The little girl licked her lips, picked up a stone and looked at Roland. "May I take a piece back as a trophy for the adventure?"

Roland nodded. "If you don't react to it."

She picked up a stone with her hand and threw it to the corner of the prism with all force, but she only heard a crisp sound of "ding", the stone crashed and the prism did not even bear a scratch.

Carter could not help but feel curious. "How could it be... Aren't the God's Stone of Retaliation normally fragile?"

"Perhaps the one that's lit up will be different." Lighting patted the stone chips off of her hand, pulled out a dagger from her pocket and began working around the prism. Ultimately, it was futile. She had even used all possible methods, such as scraping, slicing, cutting and picking.

Roland could feel that something was wrong, he looked at Nightingale and said, "You try."

The latter nodded. She pulled out her flintlock and pulled the trigger after pointing it directly at the other prism. Suddenly a huge roar echoed in the cave and some sparks came out from the God's Stone of Retaliation which was shot. After the smoke of gunpowder had cleared, they walked over and found that the bullet had left a shallow mark on the surface of the God's Stone.

It meant that in terms of strength, it had exceeded a homogeneous steel plate.

"Even the flintlock was useless?" Carter frowned. "How did the church cut it off to sell it?"

No one could answer the question and this was also different from everyone's usual impression.

Previously, Roland smashed the God's Locket of Retribution that was around Anna's neck with a brick and it only took two or three smashes to crush the crystal clear stone into a pool of white powder.

Anna, who had been silent, suddenly said, "Your Highness, do you remember the 'treasure map' drawn by Morning Light Ferlin Eltek? "

"Treasure map?" Roland was shocked. He vaguely remembered that there was a triangle on the drawings that occupied half of the area, there were three vertexes pointed to Holy City of Taquila, the stone tower of Misty Forest and the North Slope Mountain. "North Slope Mountain?" He suddenly saw a flash of lightning in his mind. "Could it be..."

"I don't think that's pointing to Northern Slope Mine, but here..." Anna slowly said, "the underground cave has many hidden God's Stones of Retaliation."

…

After some careful searching, there were no other valuable discoveries other than the indestructible God's Stone in the cave.

There wasn't so much as ancient books or remains, it was incredible that there were not even the tools used to carve the steps left behind. According to the present technical level of civilization, it was absolutely a huge and arduous project to chisel a ladder on the steep cliff. The accidental falls, missing tools and so on should be common. However, there was only stone and more stone at the scene as if they had cleaned the cave thoroughly before they left.

Roland summoned Scroll when he returned to his office, he wanted her to show him pictures of the Morning Knight on the Book of Illusion again.

According to the pattern in his memory, the southernmost point was indeed located at the foot of the North Slope Mountain, .

If Anna guessed right, could it be a map left by the church when they were searching for a new God's Stone of Retaliation mineral vein? But why did they abandon it after spending so much effort to cut out those steps that could lead directly to the bottom? If the church, as early as 450 years ago had established a Border Town church, today's Border Town would probably appear to be totally different. In accordance with the price and the use of God's Stone of Retaliation, this mine did not look like a resource that could simply be abandoned.

Now that the Holy City of Taquila had become a restricted area that was unreachable, perhaps these answers would only be found after arriving in the stone tower... if they are ever found at all.

Chapter 274 - The Test

After dinner, Candle went to the castle's hall early.

Scroll taught in the hall ever night. It differed from the noble colleges in the big city in one key aspect, and the students who attended Scroll's classes were the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association.

But she was not the first to arrive in the makeshift classroom. Evelyn who had arrived before her was sitting at the long table and waving to her.

"Has His Highness given you any missions recently?" Evelyn impatiently asked as Candle just sat down.

She still remembered that she had duly called Roland 'The Lord' when she first came here. Candle was secretly laughing at the bottom of her heart. "Yeah, he told me to cast my ability on some strangely shaped metal bumps and solidify them at the room temperature, but I don't know what their use is."

"Is... is that so?" she said with her eyes dimmed, "His Highness hasn't asked me to do anything."

"Even the practice content isn't specified?" Candle curiously asked.

"No, I've just been simply practicing by myself." Evelyn shook her head and continued to say. "He only occasionally lets me taste a newly brewed white liquor."

"Perhaps His Highness sees this. You used to serve in a tavern and you're very familiar with the tastes of different liquors. There aren't many witches like you."

"However, liquor tasting doesn't really need a witch." She protested. "A gold royal is enough to hire a professional winemaker."

"Uh..." Candle patted her shoulder. "I think His Highness certainly has his plans."

"Scroll was also comforting me like this. But, even I myself... don't know what to do with my ability. I can't simply transform water into liquor... Unless His Highness wants to make the best liquor and sell it? But common people can only afford low-quality ale. The nobles have individual tastes..." Evelyn rested her chin on the table and depressedly said, "The liquor His Highness made... It's become more awful to drink, and I've suggested that he mix it with water or juice, but he seems to only want to make the strongest liquor."

Candle did not know what to say for a moment. She was on the same boat with Evelyn regarding this. After going to Sleeping Island, they could only do some chores for most of the time. With the increasing abundance of the fish oil resource, consolidating candles had become dispensable and drinking was prohibited by Lady Tilly.

On Sleeping Island, the materials were often allocated according to a witch's ability at a critical time. Candle sometimes only received a salt-free grilled fish for an entire day. She did not have a problem with this approach and was also willing to give more food to those witches that consumed more magic, but the witches had divided into groups accordingly and the vaguely exclusionary feeling made her feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, Lady Tilly took good care of them and she apologized for the distribution method, promising to adjust it when there were sufficient resources. As a result, those witches did not express their discontent at the exclusion too obviously.

But the situation that she was experiencing in Border Town was something she had never seen before. Sitting at the same table as His Highness to enjoy a meal, what the witches wore and what they were allowed to use was also so different. Most importantly, they would receive the same treatment, regardless of their ability. It could be seen from how they got along in their daily life. She had deeply felt it even though she was only in Border Town for two weeks,

The witches here treat each other like real sisters.

It made Candle extremely envious.

When all the witches were seated, Scroll came in with a stack of white paper. "I'm not teaching new content today, but I'll conduct a comprehensive test of what we've learned."

"What's that?" Lightning was the first to raise her hand and ask.

"Coo, coo?" Maggie followed her closely to ask.

"You've been studying for almost three months now, and His Highness believes that it's necessary to test the results of your studies." Scroll laughed and continued to say, "All the questions are listed on these papers, and it's divided into three parts, Kingdom Language, Mathematics, and Natural Science, a total of 60 questions. You'll get a mark for each correct answer. Of course you're not allowed to raise your hands to ask if you don't understand a question. And, I believe you have a preliminary grasp of reading and writing, otherwise, you wouldn't be able to answer even if you know the answer." She paused. "By the way, His Highness has said that only those that answer more than half of the questions correctly may enjoy the ice-cream dessert on weekend afternoon. The rest would not be qualified for afternoon tea."

Candle heard a noise at her back. She turned around and found Nightingale in shock, and her charcoal pen had fallen to the ground and broken in two.

"His Highness has specially mentioned that the five witches from Sleeping Island aren't included. You all can either stay back to answer the questions with everyone else or you can take a rest today." Scroll looked at Candle, Evelyn and others before continuing to say. "No matter what scores you get, you would still be able to enjoy the delicious afternoon tea."

"Phew," Evelyn patted her chest, turning around and whispered, "I don't even know all the words yet so I thought I would certainly have no ice-cream."

Honey and Lotus happily stood up and bowed to Scroll before leaving the hall.

Except Sylvie who was absent due to her unwell body, there were only Evelyn and herself from Sleeping Island.

"Do you want to stay?" Candle whispered.

"I want to try." Evelyn nodded. "Hasn't His Highness mentioned that knowledge could enable the evolution of our abilities?" "If I don't work harder in this aspect, I'm afraid that I'll never be comparable to them." She slyly smiled. "I've been practicing writing in my room after the classes. What's more, Lily and Mystery Moon have also taught me some common words."

The frustration in her tone had dispersed and her eyes became shiny. Candle could not help smiling upon seeing this.

"Is it? I'll try it."

…

"Your Highness, here are the test results." Scroll submitted a summary sheet to Roland.

"You've worked hard." The recent discovery in the North Slope Mine area confused him, subsequently, it was difficult for him to even concentrate on his daily work, and thus he would rather simply concentrate on easier matters. "Oh, Nightingale actually passed?"

"Yeah, her score was within the top three and she scored 100% in the Kingdom Language," Scroll smiled and said, "After all, most of the questions you asked were very simple. She knows how to read and write and that makes it easier for her than other witches."

"Tsk tsk." Roland smacked. "I thought that the test could make her eat fewer desserts." Before he finished saying that, he felt a heavy pinch on his shoulder. "In short, the result looks pretty good. All the members of the Witch Union scored over 60. It seems that your education is very fruitful."

"It's a testament to the efforts they put in."

Roland looked down and said, "Only two of the witches from Sleeping Island participated in the test?"

"Yeah. Evelyn scored five points and Candle scored 36 points. The latter should have a certain foundation. Most of her score had come from the Kingdom Language questions," she replied.

They only joined two weeks ago and they were able to score on the written examination. Their individual qualities were indeed amazing. Witches indeed continuously improved both internally and externally. Their very own witches, such as Lily, Hummingbird, Mystery Moon and the others were equally excellent. They only took three months to learn from a being completely illiterate to being able to basically master both reading and writing, which was obviously better than the ordinary people.

If the people could completely set aside their prejudices and work together with the witches to promote social and civilizational development, what would the future look like? Roland was full of expectations in his heart.

Chapter 275 - Lucia and Nightingale

Lucia carefully put three iron ingots on the bedroom floor. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath while reviewing the feelings from her past practices in her mind before she stretched out her hands to release her ability to surround the ingots.

This was the practice method Anna came up with for her, even the iron ingots were specially made by Anna. The three ingots contained different compositions. The ingots were fused with silver, copper, lead and some other impurities. Her task was to identify the separate elements without breaking down the ingots and find the ingot with the highest content of silver.

It meant that she would need to control the magic power output and to perform it on each ingot once.

Otherwise, the impurities would be further dissociated and would cause the ingot to break apart. This was the reason that she found her ability difficult to control at her home in Valencia. She would restore paper products but due to her lack of understanding of her magic power and effect, the results were inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic with most raw materials of some paper being refined down to water and gas.

The first lesson that the witches taught her when she first came to Border Town was to practice controlling her magic power.

Lucia did not believe that the invisible and intangible magic power could also be precisely controlled until Anna demonstrated how to measure the length with the Blackfire and Lucia realized that she had been totally wrong. Anna could even adjust the output of the magic power to transform the size and thickness of the Blackfire, and it was always perfectly accurate every time.

"Sister, are you starting to practice again?" Ring curiously stuck her head out from the bed. "We've just had lunch."

Lucia flicked her hand and the iron ingot was suddenly changed into several piles of powder.

"I've told you not to bother me when I cast my ability," Lucia knocked on her sister's head and said, "concentrate on your book!"

"I don't understand," Ring pouted and said, "I don't understand the meaning of half of the words. Unlike you, I can't read and write."

"That's why you have to read more. Many words have similar structures. Even if you haven't seen it before, you should also be able to guess its meaning. Literacy itself is a process of familiarization."

"Okay." Ring retracted her head.

Lucia re-focused on the second iron ingot while controlling the magic power to slowly flow out. She imagined it as a layer of gauze, and she controlled it gently to cover the target and wrap it up evenly.

"Hey, I'm here." The door suddenly opened and a blonde woman walked into the room. "Oh, are you practicing your ability?"

"Sister Nightingale!" Ring yelled with joy.

The second iron ingot was turned into dust again.

Lucia sighed and collected all the metal scraps on the floor into the sack as she felt that she might not be able to practice anymore this afternoon.

"This is for you."

An ice-cream with a strong aroma of milk appeared in front of her.

"Thank you." Lucia took the ice-cream. "But, isn't it only offered for afternoon tea?"

Nightingale patted her chest proudly. "That's what I asked for as a reward from His Highness. Oh yeah... You also have one." She handed the other one to Ring, making the little girl laugh joyfully.

"Sister Nightingale is the best!"

[What a brat! She totally forgets about me whenever she gets delicious food,] Lucia thought. However, once Lucia took a bite of the ice-cream, she felt that she would probably have the same reaction as Ring if she were the sister. The ice-cream's mellow honey and milk favor melted in the mouth. The cool and refreshing taste blended both of the flavors together and further enhanced the sweetness. The cooling sensation was still lingering in her mouth even after swallowing it.

No one could resist its yumminess, especially in the hot summer. No wonder His Highness only distributed ice-creams during the weekends' afternoon tea time. Such a unique delicacy would probably cost a lot as she had never heard about it before.

Thinking about it, Lucia could not help asking, "How did you ask His Highness for this?"

"Hehe." Nightingale lifted her lips. "I achieved third place in the test, only behind Wendy and Leaf. However, His Highness thought I wouldn't pass, which was completely different from the actual situation, so I asked him for a reward."

"I... see," Lucia hesitated and said, "how about my scores?"

"Your score is 68, but I'm not sure which place you're at."

"Uh, so low." Lucia was depressed. [I'm a literate, but I only correctly answered a little more than half out of a total of 120 marks.]

"It's pretty good," Nightingale said, patting her head, "after all, you only joined the class not long ago. You're, of course, poorer in the maths and natural science. You can ask me if you have anything you don't understand."

"What about me? Can I ask?" Ring raised her hand.

"Of course," Nightingale answered with a smile, "You're always welcome."

"When I pass the primary assessment, will I be able to choose my own work?"

"It's still early for you. His Highness has said that the minimum age to work is 14 years old and you're only 10, so don't be worried." Lucia stared at her.

The little girl reluctantly answered, "I want to share the pressure with you as early as I can because it's going to take a lot of money for things like getting married and having kids. Life'll be very hard if money isn't enough!"

"Who did you hear that from?" Lucia said with her hand on her forehead.

"Dad. He was always nagging that he wouldn't be able to support us anymore."

"Pfft," Nightingale could not help laughing and said, "if you can work, where will you choose to go?"

"The chemistry laboratory!" Ring raised her hand and said, "I want to be an alchemist, obtaining the title of philosopher, accepting everyone's admiration and praise!"

"You'd... better not." She shook her head. "The lab is pretty dangerous."

"Dangerous?" Both of the sisters asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Nightingale stretched out her arms and said, "Alchemists have to not only deal with the acid often, but also have to face explosions sometimes. Even the chief alchemist can't avoid such accidents, he blew off four of his fingers last time. Without Nana, Mr. Kyle Sichi would probably never be able to pick up bottles and jars for the rest of his life." She paused. "And recently, His Highness has wanted to develop a new gunpowder that even he thought was extremely dangerous himself, so it was necessary to make a separate laboratory for it."

"Uh, what good advice do you have in this case?" Lucia put her arms around Ring and decided not to let her sister work in such a terrible place.

"Of course, joining the City Hall and becoming a government official."

"Government... Official?" Lucia repeated.

"Ahem, that's what His Highness was murmuring about. General speaking, it's a City Hall official." Nightingale coughed twice and continued to say, "It's stable, safe and the payment is in the upper-middle class. It also has good prospects and the payment would be comparable with that of the witches when one becomes a department manager."

"I see," Lucia thoughtfully said.

"Sister Nightingale, do you like His Highness?" Ring asked, "there're a lot of 'His Highness says' in your words, and mom had said that we'll only keep mentioning a person because we like him very much."

Ring's question surprised Lucia, [Damn, how can she ask such a question directly? It's so impolite. Even ordinary friends will not ask so directly... Nightingale is a respected senior.] She quickly covered Ring's mouth and when she was about to apologize, Nightingale frankly answered.

"Well, I do like him."

Chapter 276 - The Research and Development of New Cannons

Lucia went to see His Highness with the ores in her hands, dwelling on Nightingale's words.

In truth, she was shocked by the calm attitude showed by Nightingale.

Although she did not quite understand exactly what love was, she knew that the witches and the prince could never be together. Thus, should not Nightingale carefully hide her feelings deep in her heart rather than letting the other side know the truth?

Moreover, why would herself, being just as a listener, feel embarrassed and blush?

Standing outside the door, Lucia took a deep breath and stepped in.

"Your Highness, I've brought the ores."

"Let me see." Roland yawned.

This ruler of Border Town looked normal. He seemed still sleepy with his bleary eyes as if he had not long awoken from his noon nap. He was leaning on his chair in a casual manner and was easygoing when he spoke, totally different from the other nobles.

Lucia suddenly felt relieved and relaxed. She took out the pieces of ore found in North Slope Mine from her leather bag and spread them on the desk.

After they had undergone decomposition from her ability, the particles seemed almost identical. Some were white and some gray. Probably only the erudite prince could identify exactly what these ores actually were.

The prince gazed at the ores for a long time frowning and weighed them one by one in his palm. Then he looked at them carefully under the sunshine before he finally waved his hands. "Ahem, I'll give theses ores to Shichi to discern them. Continue to practice your abilities in the backyard of North Slope. You can ask Anna if there's anything you don't understand."

[What, not even His Highness can distinguish them?] Lucia bowed her head. "Yes."

When she was about to leave the office, Roland stopped her.

"By the way, you did a good job in the examination, you ranking ninth with a score of 68. It isn't easy for you to have such a performance after only a month's worth of study, so try to maintain it. And..." He paused. "I hope Ring can join you all in the next test."

"Yes, Your Highness," Lucia said excitedly.

***************

The little girl happily bowed to him and left. Then Roland stared at the metal particles on the desk and sighed.

He was still naive. He thought that he could have found out what mineral veins were hidden in North Slope Mine through decomposing the ore. However, the reality made him realize the huge gap between mechanical engineering and geology. These stones would eventually differentiate into three or four kinds of metal. Although the ore was predominately a single kind, they all looked almost identical in color and shape. For example, iron, aluminum, magnesium, and potassium were silver-white metals at their purest state. It was too difficult to distinguish with a naked eye.

[I had better ask the chief alchemist for some help rather than waste time here. After all, chemical reactions can verify the material properties properly, and it's better than just guessing,] thought Roland.

After finishing this, Roland got a piece of paper to plan how to deal with the Months of Demons from this year on.

Summer was coming to an end leaving only the three months of fall for him to prepare. Not only should he get ready to defend against the demonic beasts in the west, but he should also be aware of what Timothy and the church were doing in the east as well. Compared to last year, the population and income under his rule had risen sharply. Ironmaking output had been gradually increasing, and he even had a dozen more witches than last year. He was completely confident in his ability to make the Western Region an insurmountable one.

Based on the combat experience of last year, the biggest threat to the city wall was undoubtedly the demonic hybrids which had strong armor that was hard to be penetrated with bullets. He had to either use an explosive package when demonic hybrids came near or send witches to fight outside. However, both of these strategies were incredibly risky.

In addition to the demon beast, most of the enemies he encountered were cavalry and infantry and had never seen the siege weapons of this era yet. If they built torque trebuchets, or an even more advanced trebuchet, they would be a problem. After all, it was very inconvenient for the current artillery to shoot downwards. Each barrel needed raising in order to fill with shells and the shells could easily fall out of the barrels.

It was imperative to invent a kind of more powerful cannon.

Roland pondered and listed the indicators he needed on paper.

Firstly, it should have sufficient range and power to penetrate the carapace of demonic hybrid beasts at one kilometer. It also needed to be reloaded from the back and should be freely adjustable, in terms of the angle so that it could rapidly fire. Finally, a multi-purpose design should be considered for the cannons to save time for repetitive development. It could suppress the enemy as a fixed fort and be pulled directly onto the ships as the main weapon for the shallow water gunboats in the future.

So it should be a kind of heavy artillery with a large caliber and a long barrel.

Roland first thought of those 15 to16 inch cannon on a battleship with a range of up to tens of kilometers, whose shells could make a deep pit of a few meters when exploding. But he quickly rejected this unrealistic idea. Although there was no problem in processing, using the materials in Border Town, most of the cannons would break when firing... The inventions would be abandoned because of their poor flexibility and they would quickly lose their value.

He could at most produce wrought iron with a higher purity and ordinary steel, so the plan had better be more conservative.

Roland finally decided to use the caliber of '152 millimeters', a sacred number.

The cannon was with a vertical wedge-type breechblock. When sliding down the breechblock, one could fill the shell into the cannon bore, and then pulling up to lock it and igniting, the gunpowder gas could eject the shells. Compared to the screw-type, the wedge-type breeches had the fastest firing speed and the simplest principle. Not to mention that its mechanical structure had been well documented in Roland's mind.

However, to achieve rapid firing, the cannon would need to harness recoil that would act like a double pump. One was filled with oil and the other, a spring or gas. The barrel would be pushed backward from recoil, which would release the oil and the compressed spring. The oil was used to smooth the recoil, while the spring was what pushed the barrel back after firing.

Finally, the shells...

Since they would be upgrading the cannons, Roland naturally also needed to upgrade the shells. Solid iron and paper wrapped grapeshot would no longer fulfill ——ccothe needs of the upgraded weaponry. Roland thus decided to develop two kinds of shells at the same time. One was an enlarged bullet, the head of which was made of solid metal, while the other was a kind of explosive warhead with a fuze which would later be known as the howitzer in modern time. However, there was a certain technical difficulty for the latter and it would need testing, especially in terms of the reliability of the fuze. There was also no guarantee that this weapon could be assembled before the Months of Demons. So it was very necessary to produce the former to solve current problems. Even firing solid warheads from fixed siege equipment could easily deal with the slow-moving demonic beasts.

Of course, no matter what kind of shell it was, they all needed a large amount of smokeless gunpowder. Before he could mass produce the two acids, this new type of cannon could only be used as a special weapon, so arming his forces with such a weapon would be impossible.

Suddenly, a guard walked in.

"Your Highness, a secret letter from the king's city."

Roland put down the quill and opened the envelope. There was no sign in the whole letter and the handwriting was strange. But one sentence showed that the letter was undoubtedly sent from Theo.

"A platoon of about 1,000 left the king's city today in the direction of the Western Region."

Chapter 277 - The Conflict in the Theater

Here at the theater performance hall, Longsong Stronghold.

The curtain slowly fell with the audience's endless whistles and cheers. May wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked at Irene, who gazed at her in excitement and expectation. She responded Irene with two slight nods.

The response made Irene cheer out loud. After the curtain fell to the ground, she could not help rushing over and hugging May forcefully.

"Hahaha, did I really play very well?"

May thought her troublesome and gave her a supercilious look. She pulled Irene away and said, "You have made some progress and can perform on the stage independently."

"Miss May, what about me?" Another witch actress Rosia asked her cautiously.

"You still have a long way to go," she said without hesitation, "your expression was stiff, your movement was tardy, and you spoke the lines without any feelings. Furthermore, you made two mistakes in the second act and made another one during the fourth, which was a typical mistake of not memorizing the script."

"Ha-ha, Miss May is really strict," Gait touched the back of his head and said, "however, the audience's response seems very good. You can hear that the applause has not yet subsided."

"Most of these people are civilians who have never been to the theater, and play is a fresh thing for them," May said frankly, "If it was a regular show, the several mistakes were enough to make the nobility hiss its displeasure." She paused, "If you want to go down the path of the actor, you can't be satisfied with the temporary success. Only by constantly improving yourselves can you gain a firm foothold on the stage."

"Yes, thank you for your guidance!" The surrounding people bowed and said simultaneously.

May sighed. She thought, [here they come again. I am definitely not their drama tutor.] However, she was too lazy to care about such little thing. She said, "OK, let's continue to work hard. Since the show of 'The Witch Diaries' will last until September, we have several more chances to make the performance. This opportunity is so rare that we shall not miss it."

"Yes!"

May was informed by the Ministry of Education a month ago, that all members of the crew were arranged to go to Longsong Stronghold and perform there. The so-called all members were the inferior players following her to the border and Irene Eltek.

Perhaps it was because that His Highness had reached an agreement with the agent Petrov, the theater specifically adjusted its schedule for the crew to perform "The Witch Diaries" trilogy. Hence, the inferior players, who had poor acting and even could not be regarded as new artists, openly appeared on the stage of Stronghold Theater. If as usual, they were even not possible to be selected for the supporting roles. However, they could take the stage as important roles and perform together with the Star of the Western Region, which made people lament the capriciousness of the fate.

After returning to the backstage, May frowned.

She saw a crowd of people making a great noise seemingly disputing on something in the lounge. When seeing May and her members, more than a dozen people gathered around under the leadership of a woman.

These people were all the players in the theater. May also knew the leader, Bella Dean, who was a famous actress and belonged to a different crew. Some nobles once thought that she was the strongest competitor for the Star of the Western Region. Actually, no matter on acting or reputation, May always firmly pressured her.

"Guess what I've seen?" Bella bypassed May, walked toward Irene step by step and said, "I've seen a group of ham actors sneaking back from the countryside."

"What did you say?" Irene asked confusedly, while Gait, Rosia and others looked stiff and could not help moving back two steps.

"Puff," Bella said while covering her mouth, "look, she even doesn't know her identity." These words caused the crowd to burst into a laughter. Bella continued, "I just say it directly. The big city like Longsong Stronghold is not the place you should come, and your poor, vulgar and third-rate performance is not welcome in Stronghold Theater. What's 'The Witch Dairies'? It's just several stray dogs struggling and wailing. Who would be interested in this kind of cloying play? You'd better go back to Border Town early."

"You—" Irene suddenly colored as she said, "what did you mean by 'third-rate performance'? Don't you hear the applause of the audience?"

"Ha, the audience?" Bella dismissively quipped, "did you call those people who worked with mud, hoe and furnace audience? Don't make me laugh my teeth off! Even if you catch several monkeys and let them run on the stage, they will still cheer loudly! If it was not for the free tickets, how could they have the spare cash to watch your performance?"

"I..." Irene opened her mouth a little but did not know how to contradict her.

"In order to arrange your performance every Wednesday, the theater has suffered a continuous decline in income, and even we have been affected—as long as you perform here, the nobility won't come to watch our play!" Bella raised her voice and continued, "Who would be willing to sit on the chairs stained with mud and oil? If I were them, I also don't want to come into the messy theater after the party of a crowd of country bumpkins."

May thought, [She is obviously to make trouble here. Many actors indeed have lost their performing chances due to the sudden appearance of the crew from the Border Town. However, Bella Dean hasn't been affected too much. Since I left Longsong Stronghold, the theater has intended to brand her as the new Star of the Western Region. Therefore, the play starred by her can't be canceled.]

[Then Bella's purpose is clear. She seemed to yell at Irene and others, however, she actually aimed at me—if these people back down, I could not play 'The Witch Diaries' alone but go back to Border Town in disgrace. By doing that, she will be regarded to defeat me in the confrontation and restore the performing chances for other players incidentally, which will cause a corresponding rise in her prestige, and will build up her status of the new Star of the Western Region.]

But May never made herself a stepping stone for someone else.

"The theater's income has been declining. Are you serious?" May turned back and said casually, "How could you come to such a naive conclusion that the theater couldn't make ends meet due to offering the free tickets for our play? The theater operator has definitely come to an agreement with His Highness and Mr. Petrov. The missing amount would be complemented by the City Hall of Border Town. It's a commission contract, but not a game of playing house. You'd better use your brain instead of shouting here only based on your guesswork."

"What... were you talking about?"

"In addition, only your group of inferior players with low-performance level has suffered income reduction," May said with a smile, "I once played in the Grand Theater in king's city, which was an open-air theater. Unluckily, it was drizzling the day when we performed. However, the tickets were sold out and the theater was filled up with the nobility. So if you said that they didn't want to come to watch your play because of the civilians, you were wrong. Actually, they just didn't want to make a special trip for the show of a group of monkeys."

"..." The scene fell into a strange silence. No one stood up to accuse May, or even made a defense.

"Finally, did you say that 'The Witch Diaries' was vulgar and the stray dogs' struggling and wailing?" May raised her mouth, but her voice was extremely cold, "I might have forgotten to tell you that the script of the story was written by His Highness. Did you mean that the idea of His Highness was poor and vulgar? Insulting the royal nobles will be punished by cutting off the tongue. Do you still stick to your point?" She looked at the crowd behind Bella and said, "or anyone among you wants to have a try?"

Under her gaze, these dozen players receded one by one.

"Enough!" Bella clenched her chew and said, "Since you have gone to Border Town, you shouldn't have come back! May, do you think I don't know the reason why you went to that broken place? You went there not for the idiot Irene but for Morning—"

WHACK!

Her voice ended abruptly, and a bright red hand print appeared on her left cheek. Bella touched her face and said in disbelief, "You, how could you dare to slap, slap..."

May realized that she was still impulsive and took a deep breath. This thing might bring her some trouble.

As expected, two actors behind Bella stepped out and said, "Miss May, you've gone too far in doing this."

"Don't you know the importance of appearance to a player? I think you have to apologize to her at least."

Apologize? Isn't it to prove that she was wrong? May sneered in the heart. Even she was impulsive, she did not think that she needed to make an apology at all.

She looked at the two greasy-headed men, and could not help thinking of what Carter Lannis had said.

"Don't only look at men's strength, as they also have many weaknesses. The attack on their eyes and throat, also... on the place between their legs, will make them lose resistance instantly. As long as you have agility and reflexes, it is not impossible to knock down a man much stronger than you."

Although she was not clear about how she had talked to him about this aspect, she had prepared to throw a leg kick, only waiting for the two to get closer...

At this moment, as the lounge door was violently pushed open, a knight wearing a cavalry came in, followed by several warriors armed with long guns. When entering the room, they had the gun pointed at the crowd.

"I heard that someone here slandered His Highness, and attempted to contemplate an unethical act on His Highness's crew?"

May was shocked. She blinked her eyes and thought what she saw was an illusion. However, nothing changed. She even found the man smiling at her secretly—the knight before her eyes was exactly Carter Lannis.

Chapter 278 - The Operation Plan

The conflict ended quickly.

Upon seeing the menacing knight, no one dared to say another word. It was as if the actors had turned into walls and they stood there frozen, witnessing the conflict as it took place. No one wanted to go up against the mighty May, so the fight became one-sided as Bella was dragged from the restroom by two guards.

A few moments later, only Carter and the performers from Border Town were left in the big house.

"Thanks for your help," said Gait and the other people, and they all bowed deeply.

"You were awesome! She couldn't even speak." Irene exclaimed and held May's hands. "That slap to her cheek could easily beat her senseless," she added.

Then, she turned to the chief knight and gave him a salute and asked, "Your Excellency Carter, why did you show up in Longsong Stronghold?"

"I was wondering that too," said May. She shrugged, breathing a sigh of relief.

"For the sake of His Highness' decree," Carter threw up his hand and said, "May I buy you a drink?"

...

"You... live in here?" The chief knight asked, looking around while appearing reserved.

"Yes, it's pretty common." May pulled out a bottle of white wine from a cabinet and poured a small amount into a cup. "The pub is only open at night. Now, this cup counts." She pointed out handing him the cup. Irene and her partners had fled using the excuse of having something important to go do, which left her and Carter alone in her domicile.

"Yes, indeed... common." Carter coughed and then asked, "What about... your family?"

"My mother passed away a long time ago. My father landed a job in the theater, doing a few easy chores, but it would keep him out very late." May said in a calm voice.

She bought this small bungalow, situated in a deep alley off of Inner City, with all of her savings after she had become the Star of the Western Region. Although it was old and small, she would be free from harassment and the vicious snooping moving from the outer city brought.

"Oh... sorry."

"It doesn't matter. Did His Highness send you here to rectify the theater order and cope with the growing disputes between performers?" May asked while pouring herself a cup of the white liquor.

"No, of course not." Carter waved his hands in denial. "Timothy sent some of his people to cause trouble in the Western Region again, so His Highness Roland went with the main troops. I arrived early in the Littletown to arrange the night duty reinforcement from the Second Army and to remind the Honeysuckle Family to remain vigilant in case of an enemy's sneak attack at the gate."

"You shouldn't have told me about this." May was shocked and shook her head.

"You asked and it wasn't confidential. Take it easy! I know what I'm doing," Carter said before drinking the wine.

"Okay." She curled her lips before asking. "How did you come to the theater?"

"After I arranged everything, I saw the advertisement for your drama. So, I came to see you on a real stage and just like I had imagined, it was a wonderful performance. Although, I only got to watch the ending." The knight gushed in admiration. "I went backstage to invite you out for a drink. I didn't know if it was proper so I hesitated until I heard the dispute inside..."

May frowned before saying. "You were already out there?"

"I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Carter lifted his hands in protest. "It was just a coincidence, I promise."

"Pfft." She could not help snickering. "I wasn't accusing you. Don't get a hurt look," she said.

"Oh? Yes?" The knight breathed a sigh of relief and went to pour himself some more wine and she quickly smacked his hand away.

"Don't you have duties to complete tonight?" May wagged her finger at him and said, "you're only to drink a small cup, nothing more, but... you could invite me to have a big drink with you after you've finished with your tasks." She offered with a smile.

After Carter left, May added more wine to her own cup, before leaning against the chair and taking a sip.

She found that she now loved the ardent and mellow taste of the white liquor when compared to the last time she had tasted it.

As to Carter's invitation earlier, she faintly knew the answer in her heart. As expected, the only way to know was to try. Much like the drink in her hand, although the first taste was difficult to swallow, the later mellowness she experienced was comparable to a sweet fruit wine or a plain cerevisiae.

[How about returning to settle in Border Town with father after finishing the drama's performance?] she thought.

…

Roland arrived at Longsong Stronghold two days later.

Petrov Hull and members of the Five Families greeted His Highness and troops outside of the city.

After the First Army was stationed at the stronghold, Roland went straight into the castle and briefly convened.

"According to our credible source, Timothy sent out a troop to march on the stronghold. The number of people and the attack route isn't clear though. There's little doubt that I'm the target. Considering his style, he's going to try and expand his troops by looting civilians, and then he'll then force them to take pills and make them launch an attack."

"Your Highness, by a pill you mean...?" Viscount Elliot of the Wolf Family asked confused.

"This is an evil red pill which endows the person who takes it with incredible power that rivals that of the knights. However, anyone who takes the pill will die in desperation as soon as the effects of the pill wear off." The only one who knew anything about this pill was Petrov, so Roland took the time to explain the details to the others. He then added, "Timothy's plan is to weaken the defensive forces of the Western Region by targeting the civilians that were of no use to him, and this is the plan for your domain. I implore you to move your families and civilians into the inner city, to prevent them from being used by Timothy."

"But, what about the grains and goods in our warehouse?"

"Only transport within your capacity." Roland interrupted firmly. "I leave you only three days. The civilians of the villages around must gather together in the stronghold. I'll set you free as soon as Timothy's troops have been defeated."

After the meeting, the prince led Iron Axe into the castle.

In fact, he had not fully disclosed all of the information he had to the nobles. He had found out the location of the troop through Lightning and Maggie's reconnaissance. Unlike the last invaders, they were taking the slope to travel west along the mainstream of Redwater River so they could enter the backlands of the Western Region, gaining access through Willow Town.

It was a pretty tricky route and if the enemy crossed over fork point, they could turn back to attack the southern and eastern gates of Longsong Stronghold along the tributary. Or, they could choose to march towards the west of Border Town.

In order to avoid them dividing their forces, he decided to take the initiative and gather his superior forces to defeat this enemy.

Apparently, the fork in the Redwater River was the most appropriate place to conduct an ambush.

Chapter 279 - The Battle Line

Iron Axe gave a standard military salute when he walked into the hall.

"Timothy's troops are expected to arrive at the fork of Redwater River in four days, so the First Army will set off this afternoon," said Roland bluntly, "the troops stationed in Border Town will rendezvous with you in the inception place, and I'll catch up to you as soon as possible."

"Doesn't Border Town need to be fortified?"

"Lightning and Maggie have kept a close watch on the enemy's movements, so we don't have to divide the forces for defense. What we should do is to defeat them head-on," the prince paused and said, "100 people should be left in Longsong Stronghold to guard those nobles."

"Leave them... here?" Iron Axe was a little surprised.

Roland briefly introduced the decree conferred to the five families. "Gathering them together makes it convenient for us to guard them. It's uncertain what designs they would have if they knew the information that Timothy attacked the Western Region. The outmoded weapons and lack of combat experience make the Second Army come under scrutiny in case of emergencies and the troops couldn't react in time. However, it would be impossible for those nobles to make trouble if 10- platoon soldiers of the First Army provided assistance. I don't expect something uncontrolled to happen at the battle in the fork of Redwater River."

"Yes, Your Highness," Iron Axe answered.

"You'll also go to the front?" asked Nightingale, who showed up from behind the seat of honor after Iron Axe took his leave.

"Of course. If I don't go, who'll make the utmost use of Lotus' capability other than me? Perhaps I'm not skilled in commanding troops, but my expertise is to set bunkers and drive tankers," said Roland.

"I understand bunkers, but what's a tanker?" Nightingale asked with a look of confusion.

"Oh... It's a kind of wagon carrying cannon," the prince said with some coughs. "But we don't have enough horses, so the Littletown will be used to transport cannon. To some extent, it can't be called a tanker," he added.

"So you chose Honey?" she blinked her eyes and said, "as far as I'm concerned, she can tame tigers and leopards to be as docile as a horse. Can the cannon carried by beasts be called a tanker?"

"Of course, it can even be divided into tiger or leopard tankers." Roland could not help tilting his lips and smiling.

At that moment, Carter came in with an Elanus in his arms. "Your Highness, here's the information from Border Town," he said.

Roland clapped his hands, the Elanus appeared to understand what this action meant, ridding itself of the knight's arms and flying up. It stably landed on Roland's shoulder after gliding a distance. Roland took out a slice of dried meat from his pocket to feed the bird. The bird also lifted one of its claws to let Roland take the strip of cloth with the information.

The Elanus wasn't magically changed by Maggie, but was one of the messengers trained by Honey, which could remember the appearance of five to six people and fly hundreds of routes. It could establish the connection with home if it were taken to a strange place.

Roland unfolded the letter wrapped by the strip of cloth and glanced through it quickly.

The letter was from Wendy, who had taken Lotus, Sylvie, Leaf, Hummingbird, and Nana, heading to the fork of Redwater River as he had required. They set off with some of the soldiers of the Artillery Squad and eight cannons were loaded on the boat. It was the largest capacity that the Littletown deck could accommodate after this lightweight load.

The prince calculated the speed of Wendy and her followers in his heart. It would take one day to arrive at the destination by concrete boat. Although Sylvie could work as the navigator, and the boat could also sail at night, the magic power of Wendy was not as abundant as Anna, and she could not constantly cast her power. However, if they rested at night and chose to sail during the day, they could only complete two round trips within four days and, at most, 16 field artilleries could be transported to the fork of the river.

Although the number of weapons was less than that of the last war, it was just sufficient enough in consideration of some unexpected strike and the enemy's failure to mount a counterattack on the boat. Roland wrote a new order using the pen and paper passed by Nightingale, saying to gather troops and set off right away with weapons and ammunition to converge with the main force in the command of Iron Axe in the fork of the river.

An hour later, the Elanus delivered the letter to Scroll, who would then transfer it to Captain Brian.

...

It was noon of the next day when Roland headed to the preset position.

The glittering river served as the boundary line between Longsong Stronghold and Redwater City.

Due to the width of Redwater River, it was commonly considered as the main channel, while the part that flowed to Longsong Stronghold was called Small Redwater.

After disembarking from the vessel, the witches, who had waited for a long time, came to meet the prince.

"Where's Wendy?" Roland looked around and asked.

"She has gone back by the Littletown," said Leaf, "and she said there was the last batch of cannons to deliver."

"I've heard that you plan to deal with Timothy Wimbledon, the fake king who catches the witches in the city daily. What could we do for you?" Lotus asked eagerly.

Although Iron Axe and the main force of the First Army had not arrived, it was practical to make preparations as long as witches joined in.

"I need to build defense lines on both sides of the main channel," he said and crouched to draw up a sketch map with a stone, "this line represents the path that the enemies are marching on, and our troops are hiding on both shores of the river to mount a surprise attack on them. Therefore, you need to lift up two earth houses forming a V-shaped angle. The house'll be in a rectangular shape, with its walls thick and solid enough. There'll be eight compartments inside, with a small window to the left on the wall that faces Redwater River."

"Your Highness, I'm not clear... " Lotus said with confusion, "you hide the soldiers in the earth house to conceal their whereabouts, but they can't attack the vessels on the river. What should we do if Timothy's troops would neither stop nor hug the shores?"

"No, they won't pass by. You'll know at that moment," Roland smiled and said.

He then looked at Leaf and said, "You're responsible for camouflaging these fortifications. Both weeds and vines will work. Just make them look natural."

"Yes!" Leaf answered.

When cannons were pushed into the disguised fortification, the two earth houses that seemed to be useless in Lotus's eyes instantly changed into "the ship of the Line" that would be unsinkable. Each compartment would spew out the fatal fire only after opening the baffle on the window. The 16 field artilleries would not lose their target because of jolting. In fact, they could hit a sailing ship in the central channel even with their eyes closed. Even if the sailing boats would not sink, their decks would become inevitably useless.

And from the beginning of the war, the enemy was in a disadvantaged state. Roland thought proudly, [My troops certainly hold all the trumps.]

Chapter 280 - The Ambush on Redwater River (Part I)

When the enemy's ships arrived in the fork of Redwater River, they were half a day late as expected. Until an afternoon, four days' later, 10 sailing ships slowly appeared at the end of the horizon.

On hearing this news, Van'er walked through six compartments to order his subordinate mortar team to get ready, and then went back to his location.

"Where are they?" Rodney looked out through a crack that he made by lifting the window baffle.

"They're at least several hundred meters away from us," Cat's Claw, who was responsible for watching signal flags, lay prone to the skylight and shouted. "There're too many wild grasses on the roof, so much so that I can't see them from here."

Each compartment was equipped with both a shooting window and a hole on the top beside the wall. Stepping on two stairs made of soil, it was quite easy to see the situation of Redwater River.

"When it comes to wild grass, the witch with green hair has an incredible ability." Jop wiped his semi-rusted shell, saying, "Wherever she went, the hair-like grass would grow so crazily that it would cover the dungeons tightly, which looked the same as an ordinary mound of earth."

"What? The witch with green hair?" Van'er scolded. "Her name is Leaf. When we fought against the knightage led by the duke, she helped us grow vines on both sides of the woods, blocking the knights from passing. Otherwise, we would have suffered even more once the knights crossed the woods to attack us from behind."

"Speaking of a miracle, all the witches are incredible." Rodney shrugged. "Such as building bunkers in one night, growing vines and wild grass to cover the ground, flying freely in the sky, even turning into a giant pigeon—none of these things can be done by common people."

"In my view, Miss Nana is the most incredible one," Cat's Claw said with yearning and anticipation, "I don't know whether I'll be wounded. If it happens, I could meet her at a closer distance and maybe I can hear her comfort."

"Please fix your eyes on the enemies, OK?" Van'er frowned and shouted, "If you say that nonsense again, I'll dispatch you to sweep toilets!"

Cat's Claw spat out his tongue and craned his body out again.

As the leader of the artillery squad, Van'er sighed internally, knowing that those guys were not anxious and would not feel trembling in their hands as they had several months ago when they were first on the battlefield. He could not say whether the change was good or bad but he thought that they were too dismissive of their enemies. However, he could not reproach them, because he was no better than they were—since he became a soldier of His Highness, Van'er had developed a completely different understanding of battle; bloody and cruel fighting seemed to have nothing to do with strength, skills, or courage. All they needed to do to achieve victories was repeating those procedures in which they had been trained by preparing, fighting, and shooting by the book.

That was especially true when fighting against the militia of the new king in Border Town. Obviously, the enemies had incredible strength and the humanoid beasts did not fear death, but the battle had been over within half an hour. In addition, when cleaning up the battlefield, he had found himself not tired at all, as if he just finished a warm-up before training, and the enemies had already been defeated.

If this continued, would the day come when they only operated these metal machines to destroy their enemies 1,000 miles away without seeing their faces?

As Van'er was distracted, Cat's Claw's warning brought him back to reality.

"I see the enemies!"

Van'er shook his head to leave that nonsense behind and calmly made an order. "Load the ammunition!"

They became busy right away and they were so familiar with each step that they could even place the bag and shell into the bore with their eyes closed. Without thinking of resetting and adjusting firing angles, the mortar team could shoot once every 20 breaths.

Van'er had borne in mind the battle plan set by Prince Roland and Lord Iron Axe—similar to Border Town's defensive battle, and they could not push the disguised window baffle to shoot until the observer saw a red flag held by Miss Lightning. The No.1 and No.2 teams closest to the banks of the river would shoot the deck with grapeshots while the rest would bombard the cabin with solid shells.

He waited quietly for the red flag to come.

…

Without the help of telescopes, Lotus could also see that the ships of the new king got closer and closer to the ambush location.

Compared with the ships sailing in the sea, these ships were much slimmer without high side ports and railings. Their low hulls made it look like the ships were stuck to the river. In addition to the sails, there was a row of sailors sitting on each side of the deck, slowly pushing their paddles.

So far, His Highness had not issued an order.

Lotus became somewhat anxious because the observing tower was built on the top of a high hill and was far away from the river, though it could overlook the whole battlefield. At that time, Lightning and Maggie did not stay with His Highness. Because it still took some time for the messengers to pass orders to all the teams, the ships would cross the fork of Redwater River if His Highness did not give an order right now.

Seeing the first sailing ship nearing the ambush location, Lotus could not wait to ask while a rumbling sound rolled over the river. As if it was a signal to attack and accompanied by consecutive thunderous sounds, more than a dozen thick smoke plumes mixed with flames were ejected out.

What happened?

Fixing her eyes back to the river, Lotus could not believe what had happened—she did not see any fighting knights and mercenaries, but the deck of the first ship was bombed abruptly. Those paddling sailors were half-killed and wounded instantly with debris and broken limbs flying in the sky. As clouds of blood rose up, the deck was painted scarlet red.

The ship's advance slowed down because of the absence of half the sailors, while the thunderous noise didn't stop. After a while, a towering mast in the center of the ship's hull was cut in half by a cloud of dark shadow and fell down after swaying twice. And two knights, crawling out the cabin just then, were knocked onto the deck by it.

Propelled by the water currents, the sailing ship slowly retreated backward with the rest of ships giving way to it. On hearing that noise, many sailors walked out of the cabins to see what had happened. Puzzled and confused, they looked at the first ship, which had turned into hell.

Then, the second ship was attacked.

Lotus could see that the crowded decks caused the clouds of blood to come more turbulently. After a thunderous noise, there appeared several bloody empty areas between the enemies who were standing shoulder to shoulder. Those unfortunate people in those empty spaces were broken into a couple of pieces forcefully, while some who were still alive shouted painfully with their guts flowing outward. The survivors all jumped into the water to save their own lives and would not dare to stay on the deck any longer.

Lotus finally understood what His Highness meant when he said, "They can't make it", but how did his subordinates achieve that?

Chapter 281 - The Ambushes on Redwater River (PartⅡ)

Compared with Lotus who was watching from afar, Sylvie could see everything more clearly.

Through the walls of the mud hut, Sylvie could see that soldiers were busy repeating their single actions in good order. When a group of seven or eight worked together, they formed a whole body. Bags and iron balls piled up behind compartments were successively sent into a thick iron pipe and then they were ejected out like thunder.

Looking at it carefully, Sylvie noticed that the soldiers first lit a rope attached to the end of the iron pipe and then sparks jumped into the pipe to light the bags. The ensuing brightness was so luminous that Sylvie squinted. The firelights then instantly expanded themselves to an orange fireball which filled each pore of the pipes. The firelights expanded so much that they, together with the iron balls, were tossed out as if by a giant hand.

In a blink of an eye, the iron ball turned into a dark shadow and flew directly towards the sailing ship in the river. Its power was so strong that it made a fist-like hole on the ship's wooden side. Even though the iron ball slowed down as it went through, its power was not weak. An enemy who had been about to crawl out the cabin, was hit on his waist and instantly broke into two halves.

It was the first time that Sylvie had seen such a scene. Without the use of sharp knives or swords, a person could be slashed in two only by some small round balls.

Because she could see the cruel scene so clearly, Sylvie even felt that she was sprinkled with blood and guts from the wounded. Many people were and had either their limbs broken or heads smashed. The cabin was covered with flowing blood and organs.

Sylvie suddenly felt sick and wanted to vomit.

The scene in the cabin disappeared abruptly as Sylvie was forced to disconnect the Eye of Truth as her thoughts were so distracted that she could not support her ability any longer... She then vomited.

"What's up?" Lotus was shocked and came forward to support her. "Are you OK?"

His Highness also noticed her discomfort and handed her a handkerchief. "If it's too bloody, you'd better stop looking or at least not use your ability to watch closely. Take a rest first."

"Thank you, Your Highness..." Sylvie took the handkerchief to wipe her mouth and said, "I'm Okay."

This was perhaps the "incredible invention" Maggie and Lightning had mentioned, but at that time no one had really paid any attention to it or had taken it seriously. After all, without personally witnessing it, it was very hard to imagine such a powerful weapon.

Looking at the battlefield again, she saw ships led by Timothy marching close to the two banks. The enemies obviously were aware that this round of intensive attacks came from behind the disguised mud hut on the bank. However, they did not know that His Highness had set up more than one fortification.

Far away from the V-shaped defense line were hidden bunkers that were covered with wild grass and vines. The distance between them was equivalent to the tandem length of the whole ship. Unless the enemies did not hesitate to turn around to withdraw, wherever they landed, they would be attacked from the front and back.

Soldiers in the bunkers held long gavelocks to toss sharp tailless bolts instead of round iron balls. Even though bolts were not as powerful as iron balls, armorless human bodies were their targets.

Sylvie guessed that the enemies wanted to counterattack after they landed, but the soldiers in the bunkers would not give them this opportunity. Just as the previous attacking plan, without even showing their heads, they only needed to point at the enemies and pull the triggers, and then bolts like rains would be thrown at the enemies.

Those weapons could be shot quickly and did not need winding up. After a while, the enemies were broken down. The enemies that had disembarked wanted to go back to their ships, while the rest standing on the ships and waiting to disembark, wanted to escape to anywhere. The hull was breached, which allowed the sea to flood in. As the ship capsized, most of the enemies that were falling into the water were killed while they were crawling on the side. What a mess!

At this moment, Roland put his telescope down and ordered Iron Axe, "It's time for you to take your reserves to clean up the battlefield. If their leaders didn't die on the battlefield, arrest them alive if possible, for I want to ask them some questions."

"Yes, Your Highness." Iron Axe saluted and left.

Then Roland looked at Sylvie and said, "You follow Iron Axe to make sure that no one can escape."

Sylvie nodded and followed Iron Axe to walk out of the observing tower. Suddenly, she understood why Prince Roland would dare to boldly protect witches in his domain... With such powerful weapons, God's Punishment Army of the church could not break down Roland easily. If Lady Tilly harbored such weapons, one day the witches would really be able to return to their home.

***************

Seeing the broken sailing ships on the bank, Roland was slightly relieved.

The enemies were doomed to fail when they were about to land, turning the bow around by rod and boatman was very slow, which was maybe the reason why they chose not to withdraw under the attack of the cannons. Thinking that they would, rather than be attacked in vain, pull over and organize their soldiers to a counterattack.

It would be very hard to sink a wooden sailing ship completely with 12-pound field artillery. Even though the hull was hit badly, the ship could also float on the water. Thus, turning around would perhaps cause a lot of damage, but one or two ships could have survived. However, once they chose to land, they would all be ruined.

Compared with the previous Longsong Stronghold raid and the Border Town defensive battle, the enemies this time never even launched an effective attack. Perhaps this was because the pills were controlled by commanders and they would only hand the pills over to militias before battles, so once there was an abrupt attack, militias could not respond instantly.

Cleaning up of the battlefield lasted until the nightfall.

Iron Axe and the guards escorted two captives into their camp.

Before Roland could speak, one of them already started shouting. "Your Highness, I'm Sznak. Please allow me to write to my family, and they'll definitely pay a handsome ransom."

The other also said, "Your Highness, I'm Elvin Shad, the second son of Shield Family in the northern region, I'm also willing to pay a ransom."

"So... you two led this attack?" Roland raised his eyebrows.

"Er, no, the captain was Sir Vincent. Alas, he's already dead." Sznak wriggled his body for a while and continued to say, "Your Highness, can you untie me? I hope to be treated normally during the ransom time."

Roland shook his head, saying, "I don't want ransoms. Tell me everything about your purpose, plans, as well as Timothy's plans for the Western Region and then I'll give you what you deserve."

Sznak hesitated for a moment and said, "About that Your Highness, I'm afraid I can't tell you."

The young knight of the Shield Family also refused, saying, "I've given my allegiance to His Majesty Timothy, I can't violate my oath."

Roland said carelessly, "Well, take them away."

After the guards left, Roland glanced at Iron Axe. "I've heard that you were appointed as a guard leader and that you were very good at interrogation in Iron Sand City? Is that right?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Iron Axe answered confidently, "Few people can hold back intelligence from me."

Roland turned around, saying, "Very good, no matter what methods and skills you use, interrogate the two and obtain as much intelligence as possible."

Iron Axe was stunned and asked, "What about the ransoms?"

"I said from the beginning, I don't want any ransoms," Roland said coldly, "Once you finish your interrogation, kill them."

[This is the rightful punishment for anyone who dares oppress common people and attacks the Western Region,] Roland thought in his heart.

Chapter 282 - The Stage

The following day, Iron Axe brought all of the intelligence that he had extracted from the interrogation to Roland. After which, they returned to Border Town.

"Are they just Timothy's advance troops?" Roland frowned and asked.

"Indeed, Your Highness." Iron Axe nodded. "As you've guess, Timothy Wimbledon's combat strategy is to send one militia troop after another to attack the western region. Besides the western region, he has also targeted Garcia Wimbledon at the Port of Clearwater with the same stratagem."

"Are they all common people?"

"Not entirely. There're criminals and rats. Most of them are refugees from all over the country," he answered, "according to the statement of the enemy's knight, Timothy coerced them with some promises after forcefully hiring them and convincing them to take the first pill. Thus, they had no choice but to obey Timothy in order to obtain more pills to relieve their pain and their yearning."

"However, they don't know that there's no cure once they've taken the pill." Roland deeply sighed. "The extra pills are simply delaying their death."

"Yes, Your Highness. Timothy didn't tell the militia about the side effects of the drug, and they thought that they would receive the promised title and remuneration after fighting for the 'new king'."

"Where was this troop targeting?" Roland asked.

"Border Town," Iron Axe quickly replied, "because Sir Vincent, who had been killed in the war thought that it would be easier to achieve the goal of the war of attrition since there was no wall in the town. He had estimated that 1,000 militia that had taken the pills would be able to exchange for about 3,000 casualties, which would be a heavy blow to Border Town. However..."

"However?"

"Sznak also confessed that Timothy assigned them another task. It was to divide the militias into batches and to attack the town in order to ensure their own safety as well as observe your coping style and operational effectiveness. I think he may have noticed that no team leader returned from the last attack."

"There's no one returning this time either." Prince Roland shrugged. "Do these two people know Timothy's subsequent attack plan?"

"They don't know much, but the scale will be far greater than both of the previous attacks."

Roland quietly hated it in his heart and clenched his teeth. [How can these living laborers be consumed like a cannon fodder batch by batch? Even if they can defeat us, it'll still be a miserable victory. It's more important to stop this meaningless war than resisting Timothy's attack. Otherwise, how long would I have to wait for the population to flourish again after unifying the Kingdom of Graycastle?]

"The entire western region will be covered by heavy snow after the arrival of the Months of Demons. A large force will be difficult to move and there would be a long line if they were to travel by ship. Not just considering how how costly it would be, it's also easy to be intercepted halfway." He said, "So, he'll have to act before the heavy snowfall in the winter if he wants to launch an attack this year. He'll also have to search for the population earlier as the recruitment of militias must be completed by the winter."

"You're planning to..."

Roland contemplated for a moment with his eyes closed and said, "I want to delay this war."

"Delivering a diplomatic letter or sending a messenger to him? Timothy Wimbledon probably won't do what you want," Iron Axe said.

"No, it's useless," he said slowly, "In order for Timothy to dispel the idea to attack, we need to either reduce the number of people he can search for or make him realize that a war of attrition is of little significance and make him fear for the western region. I was planning to get Barov to arrange people to spread the news of the western region reclamation in order to attract the poor outside of the city to come forward themselves. However, it seems that the measures are too conservative now and the effect will be too slow. We must take the initiative to contact and enlist them just like our last trip to the king's city in order to take away the population before Timothy. The Southern Territory which is frequently attacked comes first, followed by the northern region of the kingdom which probably has to be undertaken by the First Army.

"A team of 50 people will be enough for only recruiting," Iron Axe continued without hesitation, "After all, it's not within the vicinity of city activities, and there's no worry about any confrontation with the enemy."

"I'll talk to you in detail after I think out a specific plan." Roland nodded.

There would need to be a force retained to guard in Border Town and a squad sent out that would need to return to the town before the Months of Demons. There were also gold royals and food problems as the expenditure would exponentially rise with a more aggressive solicitation policy. The previous plan was more cost-effective, but Roland needed to consider it carefully.

"But, regarding the second point you've mentioned... what should we do?"

"We need to first release the news of deporting the captive civilians back to the king's city so that Timothy has an idea about the course of the battle. After all, he wouldn't keep trying to do such futile thing."

"But our cannon combat mode will also be exposed," Iron Axe worriedly said.

"It doesn't expose much," Roland lightly tapped the table and said, "he won't know the principle behind it or the method to reproduce them. All he would know is that we use a long-range strike weapon and that it's amazingly powerful." He wouldn't be able to defend against it even if he knew. This was the overwhelming advantage of thermal weapons compared to cold weapons. This would not change with willpower, tactics or numbers. "These people will send him a letter of warning."

"Letter of warning?"

"Yes, I'll announce the time and date of the attack in advance in the letter and then raid the king's city on that day," Roland said.

"..." Iron Axe was shocked; he made a solemn salute after he recollected himself. "I swear with my life to complete it as long as it's your order!"

"Relax, I don't plan to send you to death." Roland smiled. "The witches will execute the plan, not the First Army."

How would he make Timothy fear the western region? Roland estimated that there was nothing more shocking than attacking the palace directly. Timothy would probably retract any of his plans as soon as he realized that he was not safe.

Roland envisaged a solution which was derived from the future airdrop leaflets. However, he intended to deliver two air bombs to Timothy beside the leaflets. The so-called raid would be an attack from the sky with a very little possibility of directly killing the new king; however, it would be considered a successful move as long as it played the deterrent role.

As a result, it would be difficult to judge whether Timothy would insist on launching a large-scale attack.

Roland clearly realized that the pattern of the contention war had changed. He was no longer as weak as when he first arrived and needed to hide. It was time for him to reveal himself and step onto the political arena of the Kingdom of Graycastle in order for the people of the kingdom to notice his existence. It was nothing to do with performance, but propaganda of his territory and power.

It was useless to have a kingdom full of ruins and dead bodies. Roland hoped that more people would come to the western region and stand with him after this declaration.

Roland opened the window in the office. The sun crashed into the mountains, the blowing breeze was no longer hot; it was bringing a touch of coolness instead.

Autumn was here.

Chapter 283 - The Hydrogen Balloon Delivery

Margaret's Chamber of Commerce arrived at the pier of Border Town on the third day of autumn as according to the appointment.

The caravan regained its former scale this time with 10 sailing ships lined up and steadily anchored by the trestle.

"Your Respected Highness, Prince Roland, we meet again," Gammon, the merchant from Crescent Moon Bay bowed and said, "I heard Miss Margaret mentioned that the first steam-powered boat was completed?"

"That's true." Roland laughed. "However, it'll need three or four days' trial trip to verify the reliability of the power system in order to ensure the quality of the goods."

"I'm looking forward to it," Marleen said while clapping her hands, "we can definitely wait around here as it'll take as much time for the fleet to unload. Your Highness, may I visit the steam-powered boat during the trial?"

"Of course, it's a completely new boat. I'll have to show you how to operate it as it's totally different from the sailing ship. However, these are tomorrow's content according to the plan." Roland made a gesture telling them to follow him. "The most important thing now is to relax the tired body, I supposed you've not had your lunch yet? I've prepared a full feast in the castle hall."

"There'll always be a good meal to enjoy every time we come here." Margaret laughed. "I'm really hungry now as the wheat biscuits and jerky was as hard as stone and it was difficult to swallow."

There was no reliable preservation technique in this era, so most of the dry food was really hard and dry which reminded Roland about canning. Manufacturing a variety of delicious and convenient canned food was definitely the best option for long-distance travel and marine merchants after the completion of the light industrial development.

…

When the feast was over, Hogg patted his belly with gratification. "I almost swallowed my tongue while gulping down the mushroom soup. I can also taste the flavor of seafood, stewed chicken and pork bone at the same time. Your palace chef is superbly-skilled. "

"I prefer the dessert after the meal which was called ice-cream... right?" Margaret said, "I guess it's made of milk and honey before it was frozen into ice crystals with saltpeter."

"Some butter and egg white are added too in order to make it softer," Roland added. "May I know what the volume of saltpeter is this time?"

"There's still only one boat." The businesswoman shook her head. "The alchemist association is still buying up saltpeter, and the prime minister even sent the patrol team to help them sift through the niter plant. They're no different from the robbers who have the title of philosopher and even this boat of saltpeter was shipped from Redwater City."

"In this case, most of the goods delivered this month are washing stone?"

"That's right." Hogg drank up the white liquor in his glass and filled it up again himself. "However, it may be a little more as I remembered by heart that you personally said to get as much as possible last time. There're premium-quality iron ingots and lead ingots other than the washing stones, and not many cities needed them recently except you." He sighed. "And the mine operations are getting worse."

[t's the impact of the civil war,] Roland thought to himself, [the purchasing power is gradually declining everywhere. If it lasts for another two or three years, it'll basically lead to increasing food prices and starvation rate.]

"Oh yeah, what happened to the Western Region recently?" Margaret suddenly asked.

"What happened?"

"On the way to the town, the fleet came across a lot of... well." She paused for a moment as if she was considering how to put it. "A lot of floating corpses were floating on both sides of the river. There were some broken planks and ropes on the water other than the bodies, which looked like a boat wreck; however, there was no reef in the river, so I thought..."

"Hmm, they're Timothy's fleet that attacked the Western Region." Roland pretended to be angry and simply narrated the war a week ago. "They've received the punishment they deserve."

In order to avoid clogging the waterways and epidemic, Roland had arranged Anna and Lily to clean up the battlefield where one was responsible for burning the damaged ships and another was responsible for purifying the river. The dead bodies that Margaret saw were probably the bodies that were drifted far down the river before the battle ended.

"I see," the businesswoman smiled and said, "it seems that Timothy is going to hit the wall on both sides."

"Both sides?"

"And Garcia from Port of Clearwater. The latest news I heard was that it was Garcia's men who previously attacked the Eastern Region. The Blacksail Fleet didn't return to the harbor but went north along the coast after they robbed Seawindshire and Valencia, and no one knows where she eventually went."

"Went north..." Roland wondered. "Did she leave the Kingdom of Graycastle?"

"It looks like it now and Timothy's men went back empty-handed from Port of Clearwater as it's now an empty city." Margaret said, "It wasn't a secret in Black Street as he brought a lot of Rats there. Anyway, he may attack the Western Region more frequently as you're the only one left now. "

"You're always welcomed to the Crescent Moon Bay if you're thinking to leave the Kingdom of Graycastle as well," Marleen said.

"That's true," Gammon patted his chest and said, "the island there is enough to hold 10 Border Town and we're willing to offer it to you and your people for free."

[However, I'll have to surrender the technology of steam engine and paddle steamer, right?] Roland turned a blind eye in his heart. Tilly Wimbledon would be their first target to go for if the Kingdom of Graycastle was crumbling. However, Roland was simply smiling and said, "Yeah, I'll think about it if that day really comes."

"Oh yeah," he looked towards Margaret and said, "I've successfully made two detection balloons which you ordered last time."

"So fast?" The latter was surprised and said, "Can you please bring me to see?"

"Of course, follow me," Roland stood up and said.

...

There was a fully inflated hydrogen balloon in the extended castle backyard.

Its airbag was in a droplet shape and it was wide on the top and narrow at the bottom while the top diameter was five meters. It was made according to the size of the test target and it could take off with an adult man. The airbag and ropes were painted with the sky-like camouflage and it would minimize the scale of recognition with the matching camouflage reconnaissance clothing for the observers.

"It looks different from the balloon we took last time?" Margaret looked carefully at the new product.

"Because it can be used without a witch." Roland cleared his throat and began to introduce the method of using the detection balloon to the crowd. "There're moving valves at the end of the airbag that's used for inflating and deflating as it was exactly the alchemy filling that makes it fly. The inflating method is as simple as unscrewing both of the valves after the matching hose is connected to the gas tank." After that, he demonstrated the process of inflating and deflating to the crowd once.

"How many bottles of gas are required to fill a detection balloon?" Margaret quickly grabbed the main point.

"Five or six bottles..." This question made Roland a little embarrassed. "It'll not take more than seven bottles." The main reason was that it was difficult to control the concentration of diluted sulfuric acid to generate hydrogen in the bottle and it would be a waste of valuable manpower of the laboratory to purify the distilled sulfuric acid to 98% before diluting it.

"Is the alchemical gas very expensive?"

"Indeed. It's hard to keep and very dangerous... I mean under a careless operation." Roland coughed twice. "So, each of the tanks can only be stored for a year and no knocking, dismantling, or burning allowed; otherwise, it'll cause serious consequences." He paused. "The price is somewhat expensive. However, no worries as the first tank will be provided for free by Border Town on your first purchase of the detection balloon. You'll also receive an additional sky camouflage reconnaissance clothing."

.

Chapter 284 - The Company

When the caravan left, Roland let out a long sigh of relief.

Finally… the treasury was full once again.

He delivered a total of eight steam engines to the three chambers of commerce. Three of them had been produced by the Crescent-Moon-Bay Chamber of Commerce in Factory No. 2—Roland had to acknowledge that when it came to talent or learning potential, the smiths from the Fjords were far better than the miners and the blacksmiths from the town. Once they understood how to operate the machines, the standard of the products just kept rising. Perhaps after two more months, the production capacity of Factory No. 2 would catch up with that of Factory No. 1. Fortunately, according to the signed contract, any income from the sale of those machines belonged to Roland.

Furthermore, he also received a new purchasing order for a new hydrogen balloon from the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan. Marleen was extremely interested in an item like this that could greatly increase the vision range. Apart from a single person detection balloon, he specifically ordered also a huge three to four people balloon which he planned to use to explore the new islands of the Fjords.

Adding up to that paddle steamer, the three orders brought to Border Town an income of almost 7,000 gold royals. Excluding the purchasing fees for metal ingot, the washing stone and other food supplies, the remaining 6,000 gold royals were enough to sustain his project to expand the population.

Roland called Barov and Iron Axe into his office.

"Now that we have extra funds, it's time to recruit more foreign citizens." He looked at the two capable men. "This operation will be handled together by the City Hall and the First Army. You'll decide which men to use, and I'll only provide you with the details of the task."

"Please go ahead." The Prime Minister nodded.

"The recruitment will be done both in the north and the Southern Territory." Roland spread a map in front of them. "Especially from Eagle City to Port of Clearwater… I suspect that Timothy already regards those people as part of Garcia's force, and they can be used and be disposed of any time. That's why you need to hurry and bring them in first."

"The team sent out by the City Hall will be responsible for the recruitment of nobles, smiths, and other literate people. The First Army's main task is to recruit civilians. Unlike the previous rumor spreading, this time the approach should be more active. Do you understand what I mean?"

Iron Axe hesitated for a while. "You mean… by force?"

"Um, no need for that." Roland coughed twice. The way of people of Sand Nation was obviously simple and rough. "For example through food distribution, actively encouraging them, advance payment for their living expenses, etc." He glanced at Barov. "You should be pretty familiar with this method."

"Of course, Your Royal Highness, during my time in the king's city I often assisted the ministers and the patrol teams to control and suppress riots," he said stroking his beard, "their requests were quite simple, sometimes it was just to fill their belly, so there was no need to use any money, or to mention salaries—if the benefits were too generous, they would actually become suspicious. Even though the fallen nobles are troublesome, and they're currently hard-pressed for money and no longer showing off but still they're quite knowledgeable, so their requests will likely be more demanding. They won't follow us miles away for just a piece of bread. That's when money and promises will come to use in order to attract them."

Roland clapped satisfied. "It's a pity that you have so many affairs here in Border Town so you can't go personally, or else this mission would definitely be a success."

"Rest assured, Your Highness, I'll send out my most capable students," Barov said with a smile, "by next year's wall construction, the two sides of Redwater River will be swarming with residents."

"That day will definitely come."

After the two of them left, Roland rested on his chair for a while and then decided to go to the North Slope courtyard to see Anna.

As he entered, the first thing he saw was a pile of metal cubes.

Roland picked up one in his palm—their size was mostly identical, around five centimeters long and wide. The surface was not smooth as if they had been suppressed, and there was a number engraved on one side. For example, the one in his hand had the number "256".

"How is it going. Have you discovered anything nice?"

"Number 1057 and number 2284, one is extremely hard and the other is perfect both in terms of hardness and tenacity," Anna replied with a smile on her face as she came closer.

"You already reached number 2,000?" Roland asked in surprise. He took the record handed over by Lucia, which was completely filled with data. He found number 2284, and read the notes next to it, "carbon accounts for 0.8% and unknown element number four 15.2%".

"Yeah, this is much more interesting than cutting gun barrels." Anna winked. "I never expected that mixing iron with other metals could cause so drastic changes in its characteristics. I'm really curious how the little balls of metals are able to be combined together."

The research that Anna and Lucia were conducting had a great future significance.

Roland first asked the little girl to break down the ore into its raw materials and then Anna would smelt them according to their quality with pure iron. Afterward, they would test the characteristics of these pieces—through the suppression and pull of Blackfire, Anna could discern how much magic power was needed every time, thus being able to determine their toughness and tenacity.

The first material to mix was obviously carbon.

Roland knew that steel was essentially a type of iron and carbon alloy: with too much carbon it would become pig iron, and with no carbon at all it would be pure iron. Only if it contained a certain percentage of carbon it could be described as steel and any fluctuation would cause significant changes to the metal's properties. So, the first thing they had to test was this range of fluctuation.

According to the record, before number 1500 the pieces were all done by smelting iron and carbon, but after number 1500 new elements were added in addition to the steel. Roland understood that with each additional element in the sequence, the results could multiply many times over, making the process extremely time-consuming. This was why he let Anna conduct her research only when she was not busy with her other manufacturing work.

He encouraged the two witches and sat on one side, admiring the rear view of the busy Anna in silence.

The autumn sunlight was still very bright, but it was not as vivid as that during summer. He felt a feeling of warmth, along with a long-absent feeling of safety and stability.

As the time passed, the yard gradually quieted down. Suddenly, he felt a soft hand on his forehead. Struggling to open his eyes, he saw that Lucia had already left and that Anna was sitting in front of him. "You want to talk to me?"

"…"

"I can see it in your eyes." She leaned over, her hair falling down naturally like half transparent golden silk threads.

Roland hesitated but finally shook his head. "I'm just a little confused." He briefly described his population expansion plan to her. "Compared with my original free will choice, now in order to save time, a combination of half luring and half forcing come to me. Even though doing this will help them avoid Timothy's extortion to take the pills and gradually die, after carefully thinking about it, I'm not really so different from him... the only difference is in our purpose."

"Isn't the purpose the most important thing?" she said softly.

"But..."

"I know what you're trying to say." Anna covered the prince's mouth. "You're worried they won't appreciate your efforts and at the same time, you have doubts whether you can always guarantee that this purpose is correct in the future—being misunderstood for using the wrong method to achieve the right purpose, or using the right method but ending up making an irrevocable mistake… You don't know whether using the correct method or achieving the right purpose is more important. Am I right?"

"Don't worry." Without waiting for his reply, Anna came closer, put her hands on his cheeks and whispered softly in his ears, "You have me... I'll look after you."

Chapter 285 - The Answer

The environment in Sleeping Island was getting better day by day. When flying, Tilly could see the busy crowd and the lively market.

Sleeping Island was no longer a place where there used to be 300 witches who had been secretly living in isolation. Through negotiations and trade agreements, Crescent Moon Bay, Twin Dragon Island, Sunset Port and Shallow Water Town had all established trade connection with Sleeping Island. Furthermore, she also guided few civilians from some nearby crowded villages to settle down here.

Even though for now they were gathered outside of the island, far from the witches, Tilly believed that one day, Sleeping Island would become a city without prejudices. The merge was a slow process, but she was full of hope for the result. It did not matter if the awakened witches of the other islands joined them at Sleeping Island or if they decided to stay in their hometowns and they were accepted by commoners. Either way, it was good news for her. It meant that Tilly and the witches that immigrated to the island would receive more supporters.

"Come down and it's windy," Ashes shouted from below, "Be careful not to fall!"

"I'm alright!" Tilly waved. Suddenly, she dropped for a short distance but after a while, she was able to stabilize her body again. "Oh… it's still a bit hard to control."

"And yet you flew so high!" Ashes said stomping, "You can fly at a lower height or practice above the sea. If you don't come down now, I'll climb on the roof to catch you myself."

"Fine, fine, I got it." Tilly could feel that the wind was getting stronger and she did not want to push it. So, she withdrew the magic power that she had released and landed slowly in her residence's garden.

"Please call Molly next time you do this," Ashes said, "At least her magic servant could catch you."

"As long as I keep providing magic power, it's impossible to fall down. The worst that can happen isn't able to control the direction." She took off the blue magic stone glove and handed it to Ashes. "You should try it, and flying is so magnificent. When you look down at Sleeping Island from above, you'll see the world in a whole different look."

"I'd rather not." Ashes refused. "I was unable to activate the lightning magic stone at the beginning, let alone this stone that needs continuously filling magic power into. Furthermore, there's also only one such stone. Even if I learn how to use it, I still wouldn't be able to fly with you."

"You're right." Tilly regrettably took the glove back. "I often think that it would be so nice if I manage to figure out the principle behind it and then create similar magic stones."

"Do you think it was made by humans?"

"Of course." She nodded without hesitation. "As for its polished surface and its purpose, it's highly unlikely that the stone was formed naturally. The people who constructed the ruins must have had a deep understanding of magic power, and it's a pity that they didn't leave anything else behind other than some documents that were hard to understand."

At this moment, a huge white figure suddenly fell from the sky. Due to its fast landing speed, it almost hit the ground, causing a circle of dust.

"Maggie?" Ashes lifted her eyebrows.

"Oh… that hurt, coo." It was indeed the little girl. Standing up, she rubbed her head and said, "Did my eyes just play some trick with me? Lady Tilly can actually fly in the sky! If it wasn't for the hair color, I would have thought that it was Lightning."

"You saw correctly and I was just flying a while ago." Tilly smiled and rubbed her cheek. "So... are the witches from Sleeping Island doing well in Border Town?"

"Pretty well, coo. They've asked me to deliver a letter to you." Maggie opened her bag to find letters and said, "This is from Lotus. This is from Evelyn, and this… is from His Highness."

Tilly was startled. The prince's letter was half a finger thick and it was tightly wrapped as if it was a package. It felt a bit heavy as she held it in her hands. Obviously, it did not contain just a letter.

"You must be tired."

Ashes took out half a wheat pie and gave a small piece to Maggie. But Maggie shook her head, putting a dried fish into her mouth and said, "I'm going to play with Molly." Then, she turned once again into a huge white pigeon and flew out of the flower garden.

"Why do I feel that she has grown even bigger after a month?"

"I have the same feeling." Tilly laughed. "It seems like that life in Border Town is really good."

When Tilly returned to her room, she opened Roland Wimbledon's letter and found out that besides a letter full of words, the rest were actually lifelike pictures.

"What's this?"

Ashes' question also reflected Tilly's own puzzlement. She shook her head and unfolded the pictures one by one—their content was somewhat hard to believe: the background looked like an evening in the wasteland, where under the bloody red light of the setting sun, two scary-looking monsters were engaged in a deadly fight with a group of witches. The witches were obviously losing and their abilities seemed to be useless, and both vipers and fireballs could not stop the monsters. In the last picture, several witches were lying dead in a pool of blood.

Tilly frowned. The scenes in front of her were clearly drawn by a witch. Only magic power could create such lively and real drawings. But… were these mere drawings, or did they represent an event that had actually happened?

With a feeling of uneasiness, she grabbed the letter and quickly read through it.

Soon, Tilly felt a grip on her chest and her hands started shaking as she came across many times a same word: "demon".

"What's wrong?" Ashes took her hands into hers. "What's in the letter?"

"The past of the Witch Cooperation Association," Tilly patted Ashes' back to relax her and continued to say, "They used to search for Holy Mountain in the Wild Places... you must have heard of Holy Mountain, right?"

"Yeah, it's the legendary destination for all witches. Only at Holy Mountain can they obtain real peace and serenity, but this is just a rumor," Ashes said carelessly, "In Sleeping Island, we can also live in peace, and the demonic torture is nothing more than a lie created by the church."

"But Cara was convinced that Holy Mountain really existed. Furthermore, she found an ancient book in the ruins of the forest east of the king city, believing that the gates to Holy Mountain were in that forbidden area that no one had ever stepped in before. So, she led the Witch Cooperation Association over the Impassable Mountain Range, towards the wilderness. However, what they encountered was not Holy Mountain, but instead a kind of terrifying monster," Tilly said in a low voice.

"The one in the drawings?" Ashes breathed heavily.

"Exactly." Her expression became somewhat dark. "According to the letter, they possess unimaginable strength, and they're extremely agile. They can also control demonic beasts and one of them can actually release lightning from its hand… Just like a witch's ability. Among more than 40 witches, only six survived. As they had no other choice, the six witches decided to seek the help of the Lord of Border Town.

"I see... So this is what happened."

"One more thing that makes me confused is that at the end of that ancient book, there's a sloppy essay which was written in the language of the four kingdoms." Tilly checked the back of the letter. "It mentions that Holy City, the fight with the Devils, as well as Alice's experiments of the God's Punishment Army. All of this should have happened 400 years ago, but since they were familiar with the kingdom language, why would they use an entirely different language to record the literature and the books?"

Princess Tilly thought about it for a long time but without any result, so she put everything aside and picked up Sylvie's letter to see the result of her examination of the Lord of Border Town.

But she was stunned the moment she saw the first sentence of the letter, even more shocked than the time she had seen the word of demons.

"Lady Tilly, I didn't find any sign of camouflage or magic power on Roland Wimbledon. Besides the Witch Union, there're also no other witches hidden in the town. So I think… he may actually be your older brother."

Chapter 286 - [Transformation]

A real brother.

[A real... brother? How's that even possible?]

Tilly stared at the stationery in her hand but could not concentrate enough to make sense of it, and her train of thought was a complete mess.

King Wimbledon III, their father had five children, among whom Gerald, Timothy, and Garcia were the eldest. So, they were all close and by the time Roland was born, Garcia, who was the youngest, was six years old at that time. Naturally, the older boys would not let him join their play. Normally she would have had a close relationship with Roland, but that was not the case.

Her brother Roland absolutely admired their other three brothers and tried in every way to get close to them. But, as a result, he was always bullied, which made Roland bitter and irritable over time. Of course, he dared not release his pent-up wrath on his brothers but saved it for her.

For example, Roland once forced her to steal their father's crown with him. Following some verbal abuse, he would even sometimes hit her if she refused to cooperate. Later, their father found it and severely punished him, which made him a little less arrogant, but he still intimidated her in private.

While she had not understood it at the time, in retrospect, Tilly realized that it was all ridiculous and... foolish.

When she found broken pieces of an earthworm in her beloved shoes at the age of 10, she finally could not take it anymore and decided to fight back. She yelled for Roland and directly stuffed the pieces into his mouth. She then threatened him, and after that Roland no longer provoked her and she just began to ignore him.

As an adult, Roland had not made any progress and had even become vainer. His deeds were always filling her ears. According to the noble's, he was irritable, harsh, ignorant and unbecoming of his nobility. He had nothing left but his royal status. Tilly agreed with this evaluation greatly. However, she also knew that his bad temper and irritability were his way of keeping up appearances and to conceal the fact that he was timid and weak.

However, he was the person who sheltered and defended the group of alien witches, known as the devil's minions, even going so far as to make an enemy of the church.

Tilly did not know what to say in that moment.

"Tilly, Tilly?" She did not fully snap out of her daze until Ashes gently shook her.

"I'm okay. It's just a little bit... unbelievable." She shook her head before saying. "Sylvie told me that the Lord of Border Town is probably the real Roland Wimbledon and not someone controlled or replaced by a witch."

"Well, he's the fool... ahem, the guy who once attempted to bully me?" Ashes coughed and said then, "He has made some staggering changes since we met a year ago. I feel like I'm watching someone else in general, except for a little difference in his face in my impression."

"Can you be more specific?"

Ashes thought for a long time with her head tilted to one side. "I think... the biggest difference is that he's neater."

"Neater?"

Both his dress and my impressions indicate that he doesn't favor ornaments like the other nobles. He doesn't even wear gold or gemstones." Ashes recalled. "Even his clothing looks common and more relaxed, lacking lace, ornamentation, and gold. There's almost no differentiation between him and other people, except his conspicuous hair. But, anyway, he isn't like an ordinary noble."

"He looks like the nobles?" Tilly asked.

"Not anymore, not like typical nobles." Ashes curled her lip. "None of the nobles here are clean, and instead they're like stagnant water or sludge at the bottom of it. As for him... I can't give an accurate evaluation. Anyway, overall he makes me feel good."

"It's hard to believe that you're praising him."

"Uh, I just wanted to answer your question honestly."

Tilly exhaled. It seemed that her brother had changed a lot. However, what had contributed to his transformation? Was it something external that had changed him into another person?

Princess Tilly suddenly remembered Roland's first letter—[to this end, I must destroy the whole church, eliminate the belief that witches are evil and pull my people out of stupidity and ignorance. This will be a hard process, and I'll need more of your help. As for what made me come to this decision and what made me no longer indifferent to everything, like in my past, are something trivial that I'll explain in more detail to you later.]

Maybe once they see each other in person he would tell her the real reason.

Taking her thought back, Tilly returned her eyes to the letter.

The latter part of its content discussed what Sylvie had seen and heard in Border Town.

Originally, Roland chose her to find mineral resources. However, a great amount of the God's Stone of Retaliation was found in North Slope Mine. As it turned out, the stone that suppresses witches' abilities grew out of the ground just like other minerals. That indicated that Holy City of Hermes must have controlled a mineral vein that produced the God's Stone of Retaliation continually.

And then another passage caught her attention.

It talked about a terrifying weapon that could fire iron balls and bolts from an iron pipe with a deafening roar... Although Maggie and Ashes had mentioned this kind of thing to her before, this was her first time reading such a detailed description, and there was even a hand-painted diagram to accompany the paragraph.

"Oh? Now I finally know what the thing that shot me looks like." Ashes walked over. "Since we're all allies, you can write back asking him to send you a batch of weapons to protect Sleeping Island from the church. Unless you think he isn't willing too... Hum, maybe this ally isn't as reliable as you think."

"Allies don't mean preparedness." Tilly smiled. "Since this weapon is the foundation from which he guards himself, why would he share it with others? The temptation to ask for things would only destroy our slowly developing trust. There weren't Molly and Breeze presented on the witch capabilities list that I handed him. Besides, we're going to Border Town this winter and I think it would be more appropriate to ask for a favor in person, don't you think?"

"Well," said Ashes, "as you wish."

Tilly smiled and continued to read the letter.

When her sight had reached the end of the letter, she could not help but express shock.

Roland intended to send a brazier, as a gift, to every adult woman in the Witch Union. This was absurd! Everyone knew that only lovers bought gifts that were personal like that. How could he... wait, Tilly suddenly remembered that he once sent corsets to some noble ladies in the king's city, some of which were directly thrown back in his face. This incident became a joke among the nobles at the time.

This seemed just like something he would do!

Tilly suddenly felt entangled. On the one hand, she wanted to see if he was just like in her memory. But, on the other hand, she would rather not.

Deciding whether or not she would go to Border Town this coming winter greatly distressed Princess Tilly.

Chapter 287 - Building a Soap Plant

Border Town, Western Region.

The washing stones bought from Silver City had filled four ships, and it took a few days to unload them.

Now that there were sufficient raw materials, the soap production plan was formally put on the schedule.

The workshop and warehouse had been set up already to support the soap factory, which was located beside the industrial park next to the second steam assembly, which was the same shape as the soap factory. In addition to the wood cutting and hoisting being the responsibility of the witches, the roof, beams, and walls were a wooden structure that was smaller than the second steam assembly; therefore, the whole building project period was only a week.

It was a series of chemical reactions. The washing stones were used as a natural alkali in making soap. And the crude materials were common, which included lots of lime cream and oil. In this process, lime cream which was soaked in water would precipitate the turbid liquid. And this liquid was used in reacting with sodium carbonate for getting a caustic soda. After the caustic soda made a chemical reaction with the oil, the higher fatty acid and glycerol would be produced. The former was soap, and the latter was the raw materials for explosives.

Before making the soap, Roland had experimented with the whole reaction process in the castle backyard. The theory was the same, but it needed professional chemists to make the appropriate craftwork and rules to go from trial-production to volume production.

Therefore, he asked the chief alchemist to come into his office.

"Your Highness, I have thought of a possibly feasible plan about your request of making massive sulphuric acid." Kyle Sichi started speaking loudly when he came into his office. "But we need lots of lead and blacksmiths who can make lead into vessels. I heard that your witch can cut metal accurately, and she had made those ironwares that made a rumbling sound. Can I..."

"You may. You can give me the size and shape of the vessel, and I'll tell the Witch Union to do this," Roland let him sit down and said, "It isn't about making acid, and I asked you to come here today for another project."

"Your Highness, I'm too busy to do another project," Kyle shook his head and said, "It's a big challenge to make this massive acid, and I must try my best." He added, "Also, my students aren't available. They all help me to prepare that, so none of them have free time."

"Don't worry about that. It won't take you much time," Roland said while drinking tea, "I also don't need your students to respond. What I need are just a few apprentices."

"So... What's the mission?"

"We'll make low-cost soap like in the Convenience Market. Besides the flavor, its function is the same as scented soap, which can be used for showering and cleaning clothes and dishes."

"You mean the saponification which was mentioned in Elementary Chemistry?" Kyle touched his mustache and asked, "Is that the chemical reaction between caustic soda and oil, which can produce alcohol and salt?"

Roland had to admit that it was amazing when he heard some professional and standard chemical words, which were made by himself, directly from an alchemist. Roland bore a happy expression and nodded seriously. He said, "Exactly, that's the saponification which is mentioned in the old book, and I'm also making soap based on this method."

"What can I do for you? I suggest that this production can be put off if it isn't necessary. You know, it's not a big deal that your subjects can't take shower or wash clothes and dishes, after all. They also can drop into the river to clean themselves."

"It's very important," the prince stressed that and said, "In another word, it's not important to make soap but make byproducts, which are what I urgently need."

"You mean... alcohol?" Kyle asked without any expression.

"Yes, it's alcohol, or you can say it's glycerin," Roland said, "It's a very important material which has the same significance as the two acids."

"Alright," Kyle Sichi shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'd like to say this is worse than the situation before, for I really don't have time to implement that."

Roland sighed lightly, for it was tiring to talk with the chief alchemist, and he said, "You just pick some smart apprentices and show them how to do that. I'll recruit some subjects for production. But I need these apprentices to supervise them." He made a pause and continued. "You can regard this as an unpractical chemical trial—this process means many alchemical formulas could be discovered, and these would make apprentices become alchemists in the alchemical workshop."

Kyle was probably convinced by the last sentence and said, "In that case, I'll find another afternoon to teach some apprentices what you told me."

"Good." Roland smiled. "You should know that the most vital part of this process is making enough caustic soda." He wrote down the reaction formula—natural alkali can be decomposed into sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide, and water by heating. These were the main materials of making caustic soda, so this method was used until today. Roland said, "You can heat, dissolve, and filter the washing stone; therefore, you can get more pure sodium carbonate solution.

"Next you can heat it with lime cream to get sodium carbonate solution. It's easy for you to purify," he wrote on the paper and explained, "The clarification, distillation, and mix need repeating again until there're lots of crystal in the cold sodium carbonate solution."

These all referred to the content in Elementary Chemistry. When he was a student in school, he had taken a long time in reciting this part, because two alkalis had many other names (such as caustic soda, soda ash, sodium thiosulfate, sodium bicarbonate, and soda) and were the keynote in the examination, too. That was why he remembered this part so clearly.

"I see," the chief alchemist looked through the chemical equations from the top to the bottom and said, "but what about the oil, Your Highness."

"I'll send those materials to you." Animals' oil was expensive that year, but after the guards found the olive seeds in Fallen Dragon Ridge in the last purchasing trip, Border Town had a reliable resource for plant oil. Although olives were planted in the castle backyard at a small scale, it would not be a problem to get plenty of olive fruits a day because of Leaf's magic power to accelerate ripening.

Moreover, the process of squeezing the oil was easy, too. When the fruits were ready, you could filter out those scraps and dregs, and then you could get the limpid oil.

In the end, Roland did not let Kyle Sichi leave his office until he asked Kyle Sichi to simply repeat the method of making soap and the requirements of extracting glycerol.

In this way, he had acquired a stable channel of supplying the oil once the soap plant opened.

Last but not the least, he had glycerol, which meant that the real smokeless ammunition and powerful explosives were on their way.

Chapter 288 - Mentor and Student

Kyle Sichi was walking across the town, towards Redwater River.

Border Town was now a bustling place, and it was hard to imagine that it was just an outpost for investigating the movements of demonic beasts. The floor beneath his feet was black and gray in color and there were bungalows neatly arranged on both sides of the street which were different from the residential quarters. These residentials were not for living, which was more spacious than the residential and looked more like a small warehouse.

According to His Highness, these houses would be for sale later.

There was a deep ditch in front of the bungalow which was covered by slates, looking like two border lines that were cut out on the black street. Other than that, there was a tree planted for every specific distance. And, the branches were closed to the center of the street in between of two bungalows which not only acted as a good shelter for the rain and sun, but also looked extremely beautiful.

He had to say that the place had given him a feeling that it was in order.

The houses, the roads, the ditches and the trees were all placed in the well-planned position. The degree of attention was not any less than the noble garden. It felt different walking in Border Town as compared to the main city area of Redwater City. The coordinated arrangement of the buildings in Border Town had a unique aesthetics even though the latter had more intensive and larger buildings. The aesthetics overshadowed the individual size of it and it looked more grandeur as a whole.

[It feels just like those consistent chemical formulas,] he thought, [that's the beauty of order.]

Kyle had quite a reputation in the town today. The passerby would always nod and bow to him while addressing him as lord philosopher. However, he liked the title, master of chemistry more than the philosopher. Unfortunately, His Highness said that he had to understand "Intermediate Chemistry" before he could receive the honor.

Redwater River that traversed the Western Region could be seen after he walked out of the central area. There were four laboratories by the river and two of them were idle due to the lack of manpower.

A soldier who was wearing the First Army uniform walked towards him when Kyle was about to summon for several apprentices to complete the task His Royal Highness ordered.

"Your Excellency Sichi, there's a sailing ship approaching the dock area and it was carrying over 50... civilians," he bowed and said, "They're stopped by the garrison because there're a lot of them and they aren't businessmen. One of them said he wants to see you and he claimed to be an alchemist from Redwater City. His name is..."

"Chavez!" Kyle excitedly grabbed the soldier's shoulder. "Take me to him quickly."

…

He pulled the soldier to the dock and a familiar figure came into his sight. It was really Chavez.

"My Respected Mentor!" Chavez quickly waved at Kyle once he found him.

"These're the alchemists and apprentices I invited," he went to the captain of the garrison and said, "you may let them enter, I'll take them to the City Hall to register."

"Yes, Your Excellency. However, please allow me to send a squad to escort them."

"Alright."

The escort was in fact surveillance and control to prevent anyone from the team sneaked into the central area of the town. However, this was the rules set by His Highness, Kyle had no intention to interfere.

"My Respected Mentor, what's wrong with them? Why is there someone specifically watching the port even in a deserted town?" Chavez who was just released quickly walked beside him and unhappy complained. "And, they're checking more strictly than the big city, even asking for our names and origins. I was giving them silver royals but it didn't even change their mind."

"Silver royals?" Kyle asked with interest, "How many?"

"One, of course." Chavez was slightly shocked.

"Haha," he laughed while touching his beard and said, "that certainly wouldn't work. You should know that their remuneration is about fifteen silver royals per month."

"Fi-Fifteen?"

"Well, the First Army has a more comfortable life than the city patrol that lives by extorting the merchants and travelers. However, because of this, extortion, looting or taking bribes is strictly prohibited and they'll be immediately expelled from the army and imprisoned in the dungeon to accept trial if they were found doing any of these." Although Kyle was not an official in the City Hall, however, he had replaced the chemical minister to attend several meeting. So, he had a certain level of understanding about the upper-level policy.

"Are they really able to keep their hands?" Chavez asked with suspicion.

"There were some uncontrollable, and they were sent to the mines." He curled his lips. "Did you notice the uniqueness of this town when you were on your way?"

"Uh... There's a lot," the young alchemist said while scratching his head, "For example, there're many people cutting down the trees and repairing the road along the river. Where are they heading to? And what're these iron towers along the river banks for? Are they for storing drinking water?" He paused. "Oh yeah! Before arriving at the pier... I even saw an iron bridge under construction! It was not a wooden or a stone bridge, and I can confirm that it was iron!"

"And it was much longer than the bridge we usually see, wasn't it?" Chief Alchemist smiled. "So, don't bring the living experience from Redwater City here, for this is a very different city and of course... It's also surprising enough for it's just a little town now. It's just like "Elementary Chemistry", you won't think of such possibility in the world without seeing it by yourself."

Somehow, he felt carefree and cheerful in his heart when he spoke to his previous apprentice. Thinking about it, he noticed that he had regarded himself as a member of Border Town and he was like showing off his new home to the guests.

…

Upon completion of the registration, the apprentices were left to the City Hall officials for accommodation arrangement, and Kyle Sichi directly pulled Chavez back to his home.

"Although I knew that you'll still accept my invitation in the end, I never thought that you'd come so fast."

"I..." Chavez lowered his head with embarrassment. "I should have promised you before."

Chief Alchemist Kyle smiled. He was obsessed with alchemy, but he was not totally oblivious to the world. Chavez initially did not choose to leave, and it was likely due to his expectations towards the lord and hoping to become the chief with the two-acids preparation method. It was not until Capola became the new chief and he had quite a bit of prejudice against him that he decided to leave Redwater City.

However, Kyle did not care about the charade as longing for the position as a chief of the workshop was the ultimate pursuit of every alchemist.

"Don't keep the past in mind. Alchemy is meaningless here, and the alchemist glory is also not worth mentioning as there's only one thing worthy of your pursuit here. That's the chemistry."

"I see." Chavez took a deep breath.

"Although you can also be assigned to an independent house, you can just sleep here tonight, just like before... We've not talked for a long time."

When he was teaching Chavez the alchemy skills, they would always have a long talk at night. They would squeeze on the same bed and fall asleep if they felt sleepy.

The other party apparently also understood his meaning and answered with excitement, "Yes, mentor!"

Both of them came to the study after dinner and Kyle carefully brought out a book named "Elementary Chemistry".

"Is this the ancient book you've been lauding about?"

Chavez solemnly turned open the first page and started reading it carefully while Kyle was standing beside him to explain his doubts. This scene seemed to have returned to a few years ago and Chavez once again became Kyle's student.

He would have sufficient manpower to test the large-scale production of sulfuric acid with Chavez and the more than 50 new apprentices, and the other two chemical laboratories could also start operating. Kyle happily thought, [Most importantly, His Highness has fulfilled his promise and passed me the 'Secondary Chemistry'.]

Chapter 289 - The West of the Western Region

Lightning took out the "adventure supplies" that she carried with and checked it again.

Flint, tinder, bandages, dagger, map, and a bag of dry food, stuffed with beef floss.

"What about yours?" She looked to Maggie. "Check it again too."

"Coo!"

Maggie put her hand into the bag. The cloth bag was usually hidden in her fluffy hair. It was difficult to see how many things it could fit in, and both the clothes and the bag would disappear into the thin air after she transformed into a bird. It did not seem to affect Maggie much as compared to Lightning's flying ability being restricted by the weight. And, the best proof was that she pulled out more things than Lightning.

There were piles of food piling in front of Lightning, such as dried meat, meat floss, chicken drumstick, fish slices and eggs, etc.

"Oh God," she said, "we're going on an adventure, not a barbecue. You should at least bring a weapon."

"Coo, coo!" Maggie touched her beak.

"Are you saying that your beak is a weapon?" Lightning sighed. "I wonder how you're going to peck open his armor if you encounter a Judgement Army who dressed like an iron bucket! Aye, nevermind... Anyway, it's just for a day, we shouldn't encounter any danger. Let's go."

"Oh! Coo!" Maggie suddenly turned into a pigeon while running for two steps and flying close to the ground for a while before she could slowly rise.

Uh, perhaps the weight still had an impact on her.

Lightning pulled down her windproof glasses and gently took a leap, and she was already flying in front of Maggie.

She remembered the first time she saw Maggie was when she was launching a chase in the west of the forest. Although the fat pigeon did not escape from her, but at least it took her a lot of effort before she caught Maggie. Looking at her now, she would probably be caught in a blink of eyes.

It could not go on like his. It was so rare for Lightning to find a flying partner, and she would have to rely on Maggie to carry the adventure tools in the future. The little girl thought, [It seems like she would need some good exercise.]

"Coo, coo?"

Lightning slowed down her speed, flying side by side with Maggie. "Speak properly!"

"I want to ask you where we're going to explore, coo?" Pigeon said while her beak was opening and closing.

"The west side of Misty Forest, I wanted to see how big the forest is." Lightning spread the map and pointed at the white area of the west side. "And, I'll fill it in at the same time and perhaps, we would be able to see where Redwater River comes from."

After Maggie returned from the Fjords, Lightning immediately began to prepare for the adventure. Anyway, His Highness would not control where they fly during the free practice. And the little girl had a secret that she did not tell Maggie, which was that she did not dare to explore the forest alone anymore.

It was a shame for an explorer.

However, she could not deceive herself that the stone pagoda trip had made her fear for the deep forest. She could not help but want to quickly run away once she thought of those terrible monsters that may be hidden somewhere in the forest.

Luckily, she was still the daughter of the greatest explorer.

Thunder had mentioned to her that the way to overcome the fear was to approach it slowly, observe it, understand it, and ultimately she would find that "fear" was not so terrible.

Because it was the obstacles that came from the heart.

This adventure was one of Lightning's attempts, and at least she felt bolder with the company of Maggie. The route she had chosen was also very safe, which was flying westwards along Redwater River and not flying deep into the forest, so it was unlikely to encounter the demon. After she flew through this route, she should be able to try flying alone next time. She believed that one day, she would complete an entire map of the west, and once again entered the stone pagoda and revealed the truth of Holy City of Taquila.

…

Lightning was controlling her speed at around 60 kilometers along the way. Now she had learned to accurately adjust her speed by controlling the release of her magic power, and she could continue to fly all day according to the current consumption.

The method of flying along the edge of the river and forest was easier for her. The entire sight was in a dark green color, and she could not tell the direction and height as it was gloomy and depressed compared to the last stone pagoda search. Lightning's fear was fading away now with a sparkling silver belt and Maggie who was talking nonstop along the way.

"Look, there's a mountain in front, coo!"

Lightning also saw the gigantic mountain. Albeit it was far apart, its gray figure had already described its towering height. At the same time, the hills area on of the riverside was drastically reduced, and the mountains that looked upon the sea seemed to be a closed inland. The closer they were to Redwater River, the closer they were to the silver belt.

"This mountain is a little too big." She could not help being emotional. The silhouette of the mountain was increasingly clear with the decreasing distance. It was white on the top as if it was piercing straight into the clouds, although it was not like the Impassable Mountain Range that was rolling over thousands of kilometers. In terms of height, it was more than three or four times higher than the Impassable Mountain. The hills on the south side of the mountain were just a corner of it and the source of Redwater River came from this magnificent mountain.

"We're at the end of Misty Forest!" Maggie screamed excitedly.

The dark green block beneath their feet was ended. The earth had restored the light green color and it looked like a grassland. However, looking further in front, there was a touch of darkness within the scope of sight and it covered the foot of the mountain.

"Let's go down and take a look." Lightning made a gesture while diving down toward the dark earth. She soon discovered that it was a ground formed by black-colored stones.

"What's this?" Maggie pecked twice. "It seems not edible!"

"Of course not edible." Lightning picked up a black stone and carefully looked at the array, which looked angular, and although it appeared to be black, a metal shine could be seen while turning it around under the sun. The stone was everywhere, mixing with the sparse soil. It looked as if the earth was entirely soaked in the black ink at the first glance. "It may be some kind of ores. Let's bring two pieces back for His Highness to take a look."

Next was the drawing work. She returned to the air and began to record the terrain around her in details.

They had spent almost half the morning flying from Border Town to the towering mountain foot, which also meant, it was about 240 kilometers away from the town which was further than Longsong Stronghold. And this mountain... Lightning suddenly came out with an idea. [What will be the scene behind such a huge mountain? Would it be a vast jungle, or the undulating hills and mountains?]

After the fear retreated, it was difficult to suppress it the idea once it came up.

There were obviously some difficulties to cross the mountain, and it was discouraging to simply looking at the white snow on top of the mountain. However, there was another route, which was to fly around the sea or even not around the back of the mountain, but simply flying oblique towards the center of the sea, which would allow them to cast their gaze behind the mountains.

Lightning called for Maggie and warned her not to tamper around before she put on her goggle, and suddenly increased her spead to the maximum and the magic power quickly vented out. The oncoming gust of wind blew her short hair backward, and the land receded while the blue ocean was filling her entire sight.

She could faintly see behind the mountain after flying for half an hour. It seemed to have another continuous mountain that isolated the sea and the land behind the mountain, but the next scene Lightning saw had scared her.

At the end of her sight was a layer of reddish-brown fog covering the mountains, as thick as the inseparable blood. The fog was spreading all the way to the west and there was almost no border to be found.

Chapter 290 - The Investigation Plan

When Roland was sitting at the desk thinking about how to launch air strikes against the palace in king's city, he suddenly heard thumping sounds on the French window behind him.

Turning back, he saw Lightning bending over the window with a look of panic, while Maggie was squatting at her head and pecking the window quickly.

After Nightingale opened the window, the little girl immediately flew into Roland's arms.

"What's wrong?" Roland stared blankly for a moment and asked, "What happened?"

"Black stone coo! Huge snow mountain coo!" Maggie fell on the table and reported while patting her wings.

"Huh?"

"No," Lightning muffled, "it was the demon. I saw demons!"

"What?" Roland looked serious, and he touched Lightning's head to make her calm down. "Don't panic. Just take your time telling me."

For a moment, Lightning looked up from the prince's arms, with her short blond hair in a mess. Around her eyes, there were two circles of light red marks, which were apparently reined by the goggles during the high-speed flying. She said, "I planned to draw the border of the Misty Forest. While I advanced to the west along the Redwater River, I found a huge mountain..."

After Lightning told what she had seen in detail, Roland could not help straining his eyes. The Red Mist by which demons lived was just behind the snow mountain. And it was only over 200 kilometers from the Western Region.

He cast a glance on Nightingale, who nodded and said, "I'll call the other sisters."

An emergency meeting was held in the castle office.

After Roland retold what Lightning had found, the crowd of witches, who experienced the killing night, all turned anxious. Especially Leaf, who killed two demons, could not help covering her mouth and screaming out in a low voice.

"Your Highness, I suggest a further exploration on the land covered by Red Mist," Scroll said firstly, "after all, Lightning only took several glances from a distance. We're not sure whether demons are entrenched under the Red Mist. Even we can confirm it, we shall investigate whether they can cross over the mountains by the sea or reach the Kingdom mainland along the coastline.

"I agree with Scroll," Wendy nodded and said, "although the demons are powerful, a prepared defense is better than no response at all."

As the two eldest witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, Scroll and Wendy always were the mainstays among the girls. Although others were still a little scared, no one would like to sit still waiting for death.

Roland also tended to adopt this suggestion. Since no one disputed, the basic plan was set down. The most important thing was how to implement the plan.

"How about using hot air balloon to detect the land?" Anna suggested, "we can cover the Cloud Gazer with sky-like camouflage and fly over the sea under the cover of the clouds."

"You can bring Sylvie together," said Nightingale. "Her ability is just appropriate to cope with this kind of situation."

"OK," Roland nodded and said, "and... I'll go, too."

"Your Highness!" after his words were spoken out, Wendy, Scroll and Nightingale blurted out at the same time to stop him. "You shouldn't take this risk in person!"

"It's not risky," Roland waved his hand and said, "if the demons were able to fly over the sea or the mountain, they should have been all over the Four Kingdoms. However, they're still entrenched in the Westernmost Land. The demons are obviously not as terrible as they might be."

There was another reason he did not tell them. In judging the development degree of a heterogeneous civilization, he was more experienced than anyone—seeing the demons and their city with his own eyes would be extremely helpful to set up the development direction and tactics for accepting battles in the future.

"But..." Wendy expressed her hesitation.

"Don't worry. We just look over from a distance," the prince smiled and said, "if it's still dangerous, I wouldn't promise to let you go."

"Well, but you must take me along," seeing the prince could not be discouraged, Nightingale reworded firstly.

Looking at Nightingale's serious eyes, Roland knew it was impossible to refuse her. After thinking for a while, he announced, "In addition to me, the staff members for this action are Anna, Wendy, Soraya, Nightingale, Lightning and Maggie."

"We're scheduled to start off in a week. In addition to the necessary food preparation, I'll give each of you a revolver. Practice it during the week. Thus even the non-combat type witches can fight back when confronting enemies."

Since the flying speed of hot air balloon was far slower than that of Lightning, it would take a whole day for them to cover the distance of more than 200 kilometers. Considering that they would need to camp for a night to complete the exploration, solid foods, tents and weapons were all necessities.

"Yes, Your Highness," the witches answered.

Roland did not have time to check the black ore brought back by Lightning until everyone left.

"Did you say that this kind of stone was everywhere on the edge of the forest?"

"Yes," Lightning already calmed down with her cheeks still a little flushed. She sat by the mahogany table with her feet shaking. "The closer we got to the bottoms of the mountains, the more rocks we found. Looking over from the sky, I found the land covered by the black stones was more than 10 times larger than the area of Border Town."

Roland weighted the stone in his hand, and he was a little shocked.

Since it was lighter than the average stone, it was unlikely to be a metal ore. It looked hard and light, with a metallic luster, and it was exposed to the surface... Was it a coal mine?

Thinking of that, he hurriedly called Anna back.

Under the burning of Blackfire, the stone quickly turned red, which looked like the iron ore in the smelting furnace. But it was not dissolved. Even taking back Blackfire, the orange light it emitted was not weakened, and the cyan flame was still seeable on the surface.

Roland confirmed his guess that it was indeed a piece of high-quality anthracite.

"So the coal mine looks like this," Lightning said with astonishment. "I once thought that it was as fragile and brittle as wood charcoal and had a lot of powder. Once touched, it would stain the palm."

"What you said is the coal ball and coal cake after crushed and watered," Roland laughed and said, "most mines are rock-like when they are mined, and the harder the better. The high-quality raw coal, like the stone, can even reflect a luster in the surface."

This unexpected discovery made him overwhelmed with joy.

Coal was not rare in the Kingdom of Graycastle. In Fallen Dragon Ridge and Silver City, coal mines were produced mostly for kilns burning and heating. But in fact, it could be used in a very wide range. Before the popularity of the internal combustion engine, it was the burning coal that held up half the sky of steam power. The coking coal could replace charcoal to produce iron and steel, which was much more environmentally friendly than unbridledly cutting down trees. Even after entering the electrical age, coal could also be used to refine gas, hydrogen and asphalt, and generate electricity. It could be considered as an inexpensive and excellent fuel.

It was obviously much better to hold an open-pit coal mine than to rely on imports. The only problem was how to develop it.

Roland averted his gaze to the map newly drawn by Lightning.

It seemed imperative to build more steam concrete boats suitable for the inland river.

Chapter 291 - The Notice

Meanwhile, in the palace of Graycastle, Timothy was sitting on the throne and holding his scepter, looking down at Rayleigh Chenies, his Chief Alchemist. Rayleigh was complacent and respectful.

"Do you know which formula the traitor Boer stole?" Timothy asked.

"Yes, Your Revered Majesty. It was the last snow powder recipe that was invented by alchemist workshop. Please allow me to demonstrate." Rayleigh bowed deeply.

After the new king had given him permission, Rayleigh waved to his apprentices in the back, indicating to set up for the test. Two of his students walked forward holding leather bags. Rayleigh laid some white paper out on the floor. He dumped the snow powder, from each bag, onto the paper and divided them into two fine lines. One was a light gray, while the other was much darker and closer to the color of gray charcoal.

"Your Majesty, please pay close attention. The pale powder is the first and original snow powder, while this darker one is a newer, more recent invention." Rayleigh pulled out a fire-lighting stone and lit-up both of the powders on the paper. The pale powder burned slowly and produced a thick smoke, while the darker one was almost incinerated instantly, burning the paper beneath it.

"What does that mean?" Timothy said with a frown, "Burning a piece of paper doesn't show me that it'll overcome my dear sister's weapon."

"Of course not, My Revered Majesty." Rayleigh smiled while stroking his beard. "Forgive me for asking this, but did you notice the smoke that was being emitted by the burning powder? It has a unique feature where the quicker the powder burns the more smoke it produces, making the powder rather formidable. I can prove it with this next test."

This time, the apprentices brought forth two parchment bags tightly wrapped around fist-sized balls of the snow powders. Each one had a long string and the students ignited them before covering the bags balls with copper bowls. They all stared at the sparks as the fire traveled along the wicks, nearing the bowls.

"Your Majesty, please be aware. The noise is going to be very loud, so make sure you cover your ears." Rayleigh suggested.

As soon as the Chief Alchemist had finished speaking these words, there was a loud bang and one copper bowl bounced up and turned over. The second was tossed high into the air, hitting the ceiling, and then bouncing a little, making a clear clashing sound as it made contact with the slate and granite.

"Damn it!" Timothy cursed silently while tightly clenching the scepter he had almost dropped. Unconsciously, he swallowed hard and complained in his heart. "Why didn't this old man warn him a little earlier?"

He repressed his rage and turned his attention to the second blown-up bowl that one of the students had brought over for him to inspect. "After all, that old man is the anchor of the Alchemist Workshop in the king's city and I need his help to develop alchemical weapons."

He found that the copper bowl had been totally disfigured, whose outer-edge had become twice as large as if something powerful had hit if from the inside.

"After repeated testing, we discovered that the gas emissions from being ignited unlock the power of the snow powder, and this is why I suspect Boer decided to take this particular formula," Rayleigh said this with confidence, "A dense ball, compressed and containing large amounts of snow powder would be powerful enough to rip their armor and men into pieces. I believe that the new snow powder formula will replace traditional weapons, such as swords, spears, bows, and arrows. Even a well-trained knight won't be able to defeat a civilian who's draped with bags of snow powder."

Timothy noticed that the comment had triggered some of the knights, their faces turning sullen. When he noticed Steelheart Knight Weimar was about to step forward in protest, he quickly used his scepter to knock the floor and shouted, "Silence!"

After everyone had bowed their heads acknowledging his command, he turned his eyes back to Rayleigh Chenies and then asked, "Was the formula taken by the traitor the new formula?"

"No, Your Majesty," Rayleigh shook his head and exclaimed scornfully, "He discovered the formula by accident when he was grinding it down to compound the snow powder. But, the storage, though small, of saltpeter is common in the alchemic workshop. However, what he took isn't large enough for him to conduct more tests. And, my snow powder, the best formula based on massive testing, is far more powerful than the occasional accidental invention."

"That's good." Timothy was relieved. He had known that Garcia had put a lot of spies in the King's City, but yet he didn't expect a spy to be hidden in the alchemist workshop. She had planned the traitorous theft involving Boer and 12 other apprentices. Generally speaking, alchemists were considered rare, but in the king's city, where more than 20 alchemists resided, so losing one alchemist wasn't a big deal. However, the tricky part was the fact this alchemist had made an extremely lethal snow powder just before leaving in the middle of the night before the formula had been recorded at the alchemist workshop.

Sadly, Timothy's secret agent was unable to intercept Boer and the fleeing group, but he was able to catch the diversion spy. As soon as he had the information, he immediately ordered the prime minister to purchase all of the saltpeter in the city, and required the alchemist workshop to rediscover Boer's snow powder formula. He was so pleased that this was accomplished in two months that the disrespectful old man didn't seem as nasty as he once was.

Timothy cleared his throat before saying. "Well done. You'll be granted 25 gold royals as a reward. Moreover, I'll open a workshop in the inner city area to massively produce this quick-burning snow powder. Meanwhile, you'll continue to do your research and discover any other applications for this snow powder." "And you'll be granted a title and land, but only if the snow powder is as powerful as you described, and allows a civilian to defeat a knight."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After the chief alchemist had left, Knight Weimar could not help but step forward and say, "Your Highness, the snow powder may look scary, but it can't defeat a knight. You have already seen that it's only lethal when in very close proximity. Before a carrier could even get that close to me I can think of 10 different ways in which I could have already killed him. Even if they find a way to get near me, I can use the ignition time to slay him and then not even have to worry. What Rayleigh said is just the imagination of someone who has never witnessed a war."

"We also think this, Your Majesty. "The other knights chorused.

"That's why I order him to continue his research and find better applications," Timothy comforted them. "Like a shortened ignition time or possibly find a way so it could be tossed. Of course, whatever kind of weapon it is, I always believe that my knights are better than mere peasants."

However, what he had in mind was not exactly the same as what he was saying. The civilians, though they were indeed useless, weak, and cowardly, would become formidably lethal once they were weaponized with snow powder and under the control of the "madness" pills. At least, when sieging or attacking a shield formation, his army could breach the enemy's defense line using only a few of the mad militias. Dispatching them while they were draped in bags of snow powder would open a gap through which they can then approach the target.

Suddenly, there were hurried footsteps outside the door. A guard rushed hastily into the great Hall and dropped to one knee before saying. "Your Majesty, it seems that the militia you sent to the Western Region has been defeated. From what I've been told the remaining wounded have returned to the king's city, with a denouncement letter from Roland Wimbledon. Currently, the news is spreading quickly."

"What?" Timothy was shocked. "Make them keep their mouths shut and bring the remaining soldiers to the castle!"

…

In the courtyard of the castle, the wounded militias congregated. They looked lousy and shabby, begging while kneeling on the ground like lumps of mud. "Your Majesty please show mercy. Please allow us to have some more pills. I can't stand it anymore."

[You all are a group of waste and are useless for anything but annoying the enemy. Any food consumed to keep you alive will be a complete waste. How dare you ask me for more pills?] Looking at them coldly, Timothy asked in a low voice, "What happened? How did you come to lose the battle? Anyone who can tell me the details clearly will be granted the antidote."

Everyone shouted at once, "We were attacked on board and the fleet broke into chaos. Lord Knight commanded us to go ashore, but as soon as we reached the shoreline we were under a volley of crossbow bolts. The rain of arrows was so dense we couldn't even defend ourselves. Finally, Lord Knight surrendered, as did the rest us."

"Where's the Lord Knight who led your troop?" Timothy asked.

"I, I don't know, they escorted us to our camp, but no one has seen Lord Knight."

Timothy's frown deepened and his voice grew colder. "Then how did you make it back here?"

"Prince Roland released us." one of them answered quickly, "He gave everyone a letter, and told us to bring them to you."

"Every one of you?"

"Yes, I've got one here!"

"Your Majesty, I have the letter too!"

They scrambled and shouted, pulling out the 'letters' sent from Roland.

"Hell! He really gave this damn letter to everyone?" Timothy beckoned to the guard to hand over the letters and he found that each letter had the same passage.

"I'm sorry about your foolishness, Timothy Wimbledon. You'll soon understand how big of a mistake you've made by invading the Western Region repeatedly, and what you've done to us will be repaid. I've decided to march into the king's city at the beginning of the September, by then you'll find that you aren't as safe as you expected, and every civilian will notice that your throne is hanging by a thread."

"Roland Wimbledon."

Chapter 292 - The Precise Guided Bomb

The pistol shooting training venue was arranged in the parvise of the castle.

Including Sylvie, all the witches who were selected to the recon force had obtained a revolver.

After two days of familiarizing and mastering the posture of holding guns, the training became serious and they entered the live-firing exercise. It included a 10-meter aimed shot and a five-meter rapid shot so that the trainees would be able to cope with an approaching attack and an ambush.

The live-firing practice gave the witches away, who had seemed quite decent in the previous holding guns practice.

Especially when a deafening bang broke out, most of them started to cover their ears instead of shooting, which made Nightingale quirk an eyebrow.

All of them except Anna.

She kept her posture of holding the gun, pulling the trigger continuously, completely disregarding the sound of gunfire and the smoke of gunpowder. If Roland ignored the accuracy, her action seemed neat and clean.

"Is Anna also talented in other aspects besides learning?" Roland was astonished inwardly. "The recoil of a revolver remains strong even if it's filled with a black-powder bullet. How could she manage to keep her arms absolutely still while continuously shooting?"

Curiously, he walked towards her back and saw two balls of Blackfire clinging to the handle of the gun, fixing it firmly in the air, while Anna just stood there pretending to shoot without even touching the gun. He patted her shoulder and she pulled out the Blackfire that plugged her ears, her face craving for praise. "What do you think? I hit all the targets without a miss!"

Roland, who did not know whether to laugh or cry, just declared loudly, "Magic power is forbidden in practicing."

"Oh, why?"

"You'll be greatly flustered when encountering the enemy who wears a God's Stone of Retaliation." Roland sighed and reached out to cover Anna's ears. "Now you shouldn't be afraid anymore."

"Yeah," she said, her bright eyes were filled with laughter. She reloaded the gun and took aim.

"Maggie, come and help me to cover my ears," Lightning shouted jealously.

"Coo?" Maggie pointed at her own gun in her hand.

"Anyway, you can't use a gun after shapeshifting into a bird." The little girl made a wink. "You cover my ears first, and later I'll do the same for you."

"Coo!"

The incessant gunfire had attracted other witches in the castle to gather in the parvise, most of whom were eager to have a try. At last, almost everyone came forward and experienced how to use the thermal weapon.

Roland's heart was flooding with complex feelings, seeing a group of sprightly and colorful women happily playing with the weapons in their hands.

He could still remember what they looked like the first time he met them.

Anna had been weak and skinny like a bamboo pole, her eyes full of deadness and her face numbed with the same expression.

Nightingale, who always had a hint of a dark cloud lingering between her brows, wore a smiling face that had nothing to do with her feelings, or perhaps she took on a joking face as a disguise to hide her true feelings.

Wendy, who could not hide the tiredness behind her soft whisper; the resigned and bewildered Leaf, who took a gamble on her future life; and Lily, who was as cautious and alert as a cat,

As well as Lightning, Mystery Moon, Hummingbird, Scroll, and so on...

For them, after being oppressed, framed, and hunted, staying alive was lucky enough, they simply did not have the time to cogitate the future path they would take. But now, they had completely changed.

Their bodies overflowing with unique charms, and their eyes sparkling with smart light, they would never be perplexed about the future. Apart from surviving, they were able to pursue other things, things that were as wonderful as life.

Roland's mind was brimming with strength every time he saw the gratitude and trust in the witches' eyes.

…

After lunch, it came time for the part of the aloft hurling practice, which Roland had specially designed for the "Autumn Offensive". Only three witches, Anna, Wendy, and Lightning, were left to continue the training while the others took early leave.

Three were the least number they need to accomplish the air attack.

After careful consideration, Roland set the attack time for the beginning of the second month of autumn on purpose. If he made it too early, it would be too rushed to make comprehensive preparations, while if it was made too late, the attack would lose the function of deterring Timothy from dispatching troops—the air attack would not be able to achieve the desired effect if Timothy decided to feed the compulsory civilians on pills and launch a large-scale attack on the Western Region.

That was why he had to start the Autumn Offensive before Timothy was able to complete the recruitment.

To keep his "promise", Roland planned to drop a 250 kg bomb right above the palace of Graycastle. The bomb, weighing fivefold Nightingale, would be dropped from 2,000 meters in the air, hit through the dome, and detonated within the palace.

Slowly, the huge basket carrying the solid simulated bomb was flying up into the sky. Since Roland came with them this time, the solid bomb was made a little smaller with a weight of fourfold Nightingale, and yet the shape was exactly the same as the real aircraft bomb that would be put into use in the future. The bomb was equipped with a stable tail and a parachute to make sure it kept vertical throughout falling and maintained the maximum falling speed.

The basket was specially modified to accommodate the bomb dropping. The iron mounting bracket set at the center of the basket was to hold the bomb still vertically, and half of the bomb body was left poking out of the bottom of the basket. Pulling up on the valve would trigger the talon to loosen the clench and release the bomb that would drop right down.

As they ascended, Border Town shrank to the size of a nail for a short time while Redwater River turned into lace glittering with silverlight.

"This is the first time I'm standing in such a high place," Wendy looked out through the window and said, "I feel like the whole Western Region is narrowing."

"That's because the Western Region is indeed very small," said Roland, with a light laugh, "Look at Barbarian Land in the north. That's where we should go in the future."

"Would you like to keep ascending? I'm almost losing the target," Lightning shouted loudly outside of the basket.

"That'll do." He nodded to Anna and then gestured to the little girl to keep ready.

Roland could not estimate the accurate height, yet he was sure it was over 1,000 meters—a height that would not only be absolutely safe to launch an attack but also prevent the enemy from spotting the hot air balloon.

However, he must depend on luck to hit the target when dropping the bomb from over 1,000 meters, unless the bomb was equipped with a guidance system to control a precise strike.

The little girl, Lightning, would be responsible for aiming.

"Release," Roland ordered.

As Wendy pulled the valve to release the bomb, a strong current gushed into the basket, and Anna immediately sealed the hole with the prepared cover and tightened the mounting brackets. Their coordination became smooth and tacit after the repeated practice on the ground.

"Did she hit the target?" Wendy asked, lying by the window.

"We'll know when we land." Roland shrugged.

Lightning, who was falling with the bomb at the same speed, would adjust its orbit by imposing the horizontal thrust so that it resembled a guided bomb. As soon as it was approaching the target, Lightning would pull the tail mechanism to separate the parachute. In this way, the bomb would gain sufficient kinetic energy over the last few hundred meters till it hit right through the dome of the palace.

In this case, having it fall from a sufficient height would ensure that the landing could be more precisely controlled.

After that, all they need to do was to practice the procedure constantly.

Chapter 293 - The Night Before

A week quickly passed and it was time for the investigation platoon to depart.

Roland decreed that Barov, Carter, and Iron Axe come to the castle where he told them of his coming departure in a couple days in advance. The affairs of Border Town were to continue to be carried out according to the daily plans and regulation.

It was not surprising that his decision was unanimously opposed by all three of them. Carter had hoped to perform the duties as the chief knight to guard the prince; Iron Axe requested that a troop of 100 soldiers escorted the prince; Barov tried to persuade him to stay based on the fact the degree issued by City Hall had to still be checked and sealed by the lord. Finally, he had to flex his power as the leader and commanded that everyone follow his orders.

"Your Highness, I don't understand. What's so important that you must go personally?" Barov wondered aloud.

"These matters are about the Western Region... including the fortune of the Kingdom of Graycastle," Roland said after a moment of silence, "And, only I'm able to make the best judgment calls."

"Can't you... tell us the specifics?"

"Not now, but you'll understand it someday." He shook his head. "Another thing, this trip is confidential, so you can't disclose this information to anyone."

More than 200 kilometers from the Western Region there may be a battalion of demons stationed. These demons destroyed Holy City of Taquila and drove the resistance to the edge of the continent. They made Barbarian Land the scarred and forbidden territory no one dares to go to today and what happened was so horrible that it was forbidden to speak about.

He was not overly distraught by it because he had been desensitized by watching several extinction films. However, he did not know how everyone else would react. If the information leaked, there might be a panic which would lead to a drop in the population of the Western Region.

So, now was not the right time to reveal the truth.

After arranging the political affairs, Roland boarded a hot air balloon, on the castle vestibule, with the witches, and flew to the snow mountain.

"Your Highness, if over 400 years ago, and it really was the church that fought against the demons, are they good or bad here on earth?" After being told about the existence of demons, Sylvie had become concerned.

"Bad, of course." Nightingale interrupted as Roland was about to speak. "Have you ever seen a good man who hunts down witches for no reason? We weren't demon's minions and we all know that we witches have nothing to do with demons, let alone a Demonic Torture.

Sylvie continued to stare at Roland, appearing to wait for his answer.

Roland thought for a moment. "First of all, there's no proof that the church fought against the demons and it has yet to be confirmed. If they really had made that sacrifice why would they hide it by destroying records of it? Telling the public would be the best way to gain more believers. I'm afraid that there're only a few clues as to the truth. Not to mention, it isn't so black and white for good and evil, and it's not that easy to distinguish it depending on which side you're standing," Roland answered with a smile, "What you want to know is if I'll decide to stand with the church in order to fight the demons, right?"

"I..." Sylvie couldn't deny it, even though she wanted to."

"The pope and the lord have always been enemies. I wouldn't stand on the side of the church, even without witches," he said, "What's more, now you're on my side."

"You see I was right." Nightingale laughed. "Even if the church had fought against the demons, they were defeated, totally defeated. If that war had been led by our Prince Roland, the results would have been very different. So, why would we side with the loser?"

"... I understand now." She nodded, seeming no longer depressed.

The snow mountain came into their view at dusk.

"What a massive mountain," Roland thought. Even he himself had rarely seen such a towering peak. There were no surrounding peaks standing by its shoulder, as if the earth suddenly stood up, creating a road to the heavens. The gray mountain wall occupied most of their vision, and it would take a few months to travel around the mountain's foot.

They chose a plateau that was close to the seashore to camp, making it easier to observe their surroundings. And, it was far from Misty Forest, which ensured their safety against beast attacks.

After eating their dry food, they started to set up their tent. Due to the limited carrying capacity of the hot air balloon, they were only able to carry one large tent. Roland was considerate though and slept in the basket, allowing the witches to share the tent, while Maggie slept in a tree. She could even sleep standing on her feet, after metamorphosing into a bird.

He found that he was still shy and too embarrassed to squeeze in with the witches. Wendy and Soraya suggested that they sleep in the basket while Roland slept in the tent, but Roland rejected the idea.

Sylvie was the only one who stared nervously at Roland while discussing the accommodation arrangement, and he did not know if her reaction made him want to laugh or cry.

After arranging the guard, they all went into the tent. The rugged basket made it impossible for Roland to fall asleep, so he sat on a rock that was facing the sea and looked out at the moonlight on the water, becoming lost in thought.

Suddenly, he heard soft footsteps.

The prince turned around and found it was Anna.

When he was in school, he would always look forward to something happening during group trips. Although nothing happened on most of his trips, he would not forget to look forward to the next.

But, now that it was coming true, Roland was nervous. Acting nonchalant, he frowned before saying. "What's up? Can't fall asleep?"

"No," Anna replied bluntly, "I just wanted to sit with you."

"Really?" he coughed. "Thank you."

"It's me that needs to say thank you." Anna smiled. The faint silver moonlight sparkled on her face and her blue eyes looked more beautiful than the sea. "Sylvie did not thank you for what you said, but I could sense it made her feel much better."

"Are you happy for her?"

"No." She shook her head. "I'm happy I have a choice."

Roland was suddenly surprised. "What... choice?"

Anna closed her eyes and kissed him on the cheek without saying a word. After what felt like a long time, she whispered, "Good night, Your Highness."

Did that really just happen?

Roland stretched in content and watched her as she walked back to the tent. As he turned to go back to the basket and try to sleep he felt a pair of invisible hands touch his face. He could see nothing in front of him, but he again felt the soft caress on his cheek. "And me, Your Highness. Thank you for what you've done for witches."

…

Chapter 294 - The Demon Attack

In the early morning, everyone packed up their camp and departed again.

Roland noticed that the witches' appearance did not even change a little though they had been camping out in the wilderness, and Roland could not do the same. He knew that he looked terrible without even looking into the mirror. His hair was messy and his face was pale due to lack of sleep while the half-dried sweat on his skin felt slightly sticky. He was only relieved from the discomfort after he slightly cleaned himself up with the drinking water in the leather sack.

Roland started to miss the water system in the castle and the spacious shower.

An hour later, Cloud Gazer arrived at the scheduled place, the snow mountainside in accordance with Lightning's instruction. They could see the scenery behind the mountain while hovering in the broad sea.

As Lightning said, the Red Mist was covering the entire snow mountain from the back with a very low pressure. The ground color was richer as it got closer. In order to see farther, Roland let the balloon continued to rise, and the vision at the end of the land was also increasingly opened.

"Any discovery?" He looked at Sylvie.

Sylvie shook her head. "No, it's too far away and it has already exceeded the observation scope of the Eye of Truth."

"We'll get closer after Soraya draws the scenery down accordingly," Roland said.

While Soraya was drawing the picture, he also used the telescope to observe the coastal line. There was no dock, shipyard or any man-made buildings by the shore other than the rocky beach. Even if there were any demon, they did not plan to build any ships to attack the Kingdom of Graycastle from the sea. The observation made him a little relieved.

Sylvie finally began to report the situation she saw when the hot air balloon was slowly approaching the land. It was about more than 5 kilometers away from the shore where she found a triangular-shaped building formed by a pile of black stones, which resembled the spires.

"It's just like the mirage in Barbarian Land," Wendy could not help but exclaim, "It's indeed the demon's territory!"

"However, the height is clearly different." Soraya frowned. "The spires of the mirage are as high as almost 1,100 feet, it can't be covered by the Red Mist and they should be higher than the undulating mountain."

"Maybe what you saw was the demon's city, and it's the demon's village here?" Anna guessed.

So, it meant that the demon had a complete and unique urban system which belonged to the higher evolution groups, while it was keen to expand and kill? Roland thought, "Please, don't be true." "What're in those spires?"

"Uh... Most of the spires are empty and some are filled with liquid... Hold on." Sylvie was in shock and she said in disbelief, "Leave quickly, the demons have found us!"

"Found us?" Roland lifted up the telescope and took a glance, and he could not see anything clearly as it was covered in the dark-red colored fog.

"They're in action," Sylvie yelled nervously, "They were buried under the ground just now, revealing only the tube on their back, there... the demon is flying!"

"Wendy, full speed retreat!" Roland ordered.

The wind blew rapidly. The sudden movement of the balloon caused the basket to tilt, and the taut rope was creaking.

However, Sylvie's warning gave everyone a chill in their heart.

"Two demons were coming towards us, and the mounts they're riding could fly!"

"Damn, these guys actually have flying mounts?" Roland stared "This is simply unreasonable, how big the mount would be to carry such a strong beast?"

After a while, he captured two black spots from the sight. Looking through the telescope, he saw them crouching on a mount with sharp fangs, hairless, and the mounts totally did not look like birds. If he was not mistaken... they were actually two demonic hybrids.

"Reduce the height and land as soon as possible." Roland squeezed a few words out of her mouth.

It was going to be bad. Roland did not think that the devil had the ability to carry out air chase, and there was only Lightning who was able to fight in the sky. However, looking at her pale face, Roland knew that there was no chance of winning this battle. Once they were caught up, it would kill the witches even if the demons only attacked the balloon with collision and even if the coating could resist the demons' collision and bites, they would probably be thrown out of the basket and hit the sea, like a stone under the violent shake.

And, falling into the sea from this height had no difference from falling onto the ground.

At this point, the demons were getting closer to the hot air balloon, and Roland could see the giant wings of the demonic hybrid and the huge burly enemy on its back without using the telescope.

"Be careful," Sylvie screamed again, "They're getting ready to throw a spear!"

When he heard the warning, he suddenly remembered the scene of war described by Leaf which the enemy snatched Scarlet's life in a blink of eyes using this method.

He did not see the demon's quickly swollen arms or the attacking spear. Anna had already stretched out her arms to control the Blackfire into a thin protective layer in front to block the attack when Sylvie warned.

And, he heard two loud banging noises.

Anna hummed twice silently and took two steps back. The Blackfire was broken into pieces like the glass and half of a burning iron spear was tumbling to fall into the sea.

She blocked the attack with a dense Blackfire curtain.

The witches were in a sigh of relief, but only Roland was worried as it would consume Anna's magic power quickly to operate it this way. Roland had noticed that her body's vast magic power almost would not use up if it were only heating or cutting when she was smelting the steel. However, once it was expanded to the macro level, the magic power consumption would be dramatically increased if it were used as a dense overall impact on an object. For example, the use of Blackfire as a furnace. The outer wall that hindered the molten steel from overflowing would accelerate the magic power consumption, and even Anna could only hold on for a few minutes when it came to lifting the Blackfire Furnace.

Obviously, the block had consumed a big amount of her magic power, and she would probably not able to maintain the heating if she had to do the same for twice.

The demon seemed to have been deterred by this scene as well, and they did not immediately follow-up attack, but simply passed by from both sides of the hot air balloon as if they were waiting for the next charge. Roland also witnessed the enemy's ferocious appearance for the first time and it looked exactly the same as the pictures. They were wearing a demonic beast's helmet with their eyes covered by the red crystal, and there was a leather pipe linked from the chin and around the neck to the back of the shell.

In the meantime, the witches had pulled out their pistols to fight back, but it was almost impossible to hit an enemy with a high-speed movement while the basket was shaking. They had reloaded twice but none shot their enemy.

This was when the demon's arm swelled again, and they chose to fight from the back and forth this time.

The Blackfire Anna summoned could only cover one side and she did not even have time to observe the enemy behind her. Roland could clearly see the demon was throwing its right arm towards her, but he could not see the path of the flying spear. And, he subconsciously pushed Anna who had her back facing him away. He could feel a heavy hit on his shoulder like a hammer smashing on it, and he flew backward and hit the wall of the basket.

The unbearable pain almost tore him apart and followed by a strong sense of dizziness, his consciousness seemed to be leaving him.

Roland clenched his teeth and turned around to look at his shoulder. He noticed that there was a huge opening on his shoulder and the ventilation gap behind the basket was enough to explain the striking force.

And, half of his arm that was completely torn by the attack fell in a corner of the basket, and the gushing blood soon dyed his clothes red.

"No!" The miserable cry of Nightingale was the final voice he heard before he lost his consciousness.

Chapter 295 - Spread Your Wings

Nightingale felt her heart unexpectedly flinch when Roland got hit.

The surrounding noise suddenly faded out and she desperately wanted to help him up, but her body was cold and stiff, leaving both of her hands trembling slightly. Other than her internal exclamation, she was not even able to take a step towards him.

She was afraid that Roland would freeze in her arms.

She was also afraid that he would never wake up again.

Simply thinking about it made it hard for Nightingale to breathe.

She had not been this overwhelmed since she recovered her memory.

Anna was still the first to react, rushing over she squatted and covered his entire wound with a mass of Blackfire. It started to smoke under the lightless fire, which was emitting a buzzing sound. Roland's broken arm was charred once the Blackfire dissipated.

The trickling blood had stopped.

"Oh yeah, this was the emergency measures he was talking about during the first aid class. What to do next? Wrap up the wound, and quickly send him to the hospital for Nana..." Nightingale swallowed her saliva and looked around the basket. "No, they can't, Nana isn't in the hot air balloon but back in Border Town."

We'll have to go back.

We must go back as soon as possible!

She slowly turned her head to the southeast, in the direction of the town.

Suddenly, the ferocious image of the demon's bared fangs and claws flashed through Nightingale's mind, bringing her thoughts back to the basket.

All at once her hearing returned and Nightingale could hear a cacophony of shouts from the panicking witches, the sound of gunshots, and the roar of the enemy. Once the cold had subsided she was able to arrange her thoughts into a sentence.

There's no way to return to Border Town in time, without first defeating the demons.

"Lightning!" Anna anxiously shouted, "Protect the hot air balloon so it can land!"

Although the little girl looked pale from seeing Roland unconscious, she nodded and clenched her teeth as she floated up from the basket.

"No," Nightingale thought, "Look at her appearance, she won't be able to take on a demon, like most of the witches, she's never experienced combat with a real enemy before."

The only person here, who could defeat the demons, was Nightingale herself.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed all thoughts of the injured Roland from her mind. The two demons were still attacked them from the front and rear, fortunately, their spear-throwing arms were dry and thin like fire kindling, which indicated that it would take them a while to recover. The demons were about 50 meters away from the hot air balloon. This distance was not enough for her since she could easily fall while spreading her Mist in the air. The further her distance was from the ground, the fewer flashing "lines" there were, and if she stayed on the same line for a long time, she could easily be torn into pieces during the change of direction and the up-and-down.

The enemies realized that the battle would become harder for them once the hot air balloon touched down on the ground. One demon was shouting something while waving its left hand that had only three fingers. And, then it pulled up on its mount, flying straight towards the hot air balloon.

While the other demon kept pouncing towards Lightning. The demonic beast, with the gigantic flapping wings, was stalking her just like that an eagle hunts a squab, wearing her out by forcing her to constantly dodge. As Nightingale expected, Lightning could avoid taking damage due to her flexibility, but she was unable to aim and fire. Even the other witches were afraid of hurting the little girl and had ceased their fire.

The demon that was flying towards the hot air balloon commanded its mounts to bite and scratch the airbag. Luckily, Soraya's special coating was tough enough to withstand the claws and teeth of the demonic hybrid, and it could not get a grip. Realizing that it was having no effect, it roared and flew further from the balloon, which appeared as if it were going to knock the balloon off kilter.

Nightingale saw her opportunity.

She spread her Mist and stepped forward without hesitation as a slightly glowing thread appeared above her head. She stood directly on the airbag as the silhouette of the hot air balloon started to change. Although her body was parallel to the ground, she felt like she was walking upright and quickly climbed to the top of the balloon.

At this moment, the demon was rushing back.

In the black and white world, Nightingale was surprised to find that there was a mass of magic, a magic cyclone, that was slowly rotating within the demon's body, and a sparkling stone that was embedded in its thin arm.

Even they have magic power?

However, now was not the time to worry about this, and it was time for her over 10-meter sprint. Nightingale jumped out from the Mist and appeared behind the demon, just as it was about to hit the hot air balloon.

The body of the demonic beast with the gigantic wings began to sink due to a sudden increase in the weight it was carrying. Realizing something was wrong, the demon quickly turned back, but it was greeted by the roaring 12-millimeter pistol.

"Go to hell."

The bullets rushed out of the barrel, flames and the smoke surrounding it, before instantly penetrating the demon's headpiece, blowing a bowl sized hole out of the back of its head. There was a thick spray of blood, followed by a pungent smell that permeated the air.

The enemy fell down, still twitching, and the demonic beast rolled across the hot air balloon. Unfortunately, while Nightingale was trying to return to the top of the airbag, the falling body pulled the reigns to the side and the mount flipped pulling her with it.

She did not have time to react and was not able to return to a safe distance on her own.

Although the balloon had been descending, it was still over 100 meters away from the sea. Entering her Mist during a fall would be akin to committing suicide, she would be cut in half if she hit any thread during the uncontrolled fall.

"Nightingale!"

She heard her sisters screaming in horror, but there was no helping the situation. Lightning was fighting with the remaining demon and Maggie would not have enough strength to pull her up, even if she transformed into a sea eagle. Nightingale was sure of her impending death.

The speed of her fall was increasing, Nightingale looked down, seeing that the original blur of the ocean had revealed its true appearance, and she could clearly see the rolling water and waves. It was almost as if she was not the one falling, but it was the sea that was rushing towards her.

Her mind became clearer the closer she was to the sea.

Nightingale closed her eyes and remembered when she had met Roland, replaying the memory fragments behind her closed eyes. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, playing with the dagger in her hands, waiting for the gray-haired Prince Roland to come in. The swaying fire, the door, and the bedroom were gradually fading, and finally, she was only left with Roland's smiling face.

Her only regret was that she would not be able to accompany him to the end of his days.

"Coo, coo, coo, coo!"

Suddenly, she heard a continuous loud tweet. Nightingale opened her eyes and saw a white figure heading straight downwards, rushing towards her chest.

It was Maggie.

As she was about to say something, the pigeon produced a blinding white light and instantly expanded in stature, producing gigantic wings from her back as the previous feathers fell off. The birds head was ferocious and it looked just like the demonic beasts!

"Owh...!"

Maggie was roaring loudly as she caught Nightingale with her claws and threw her forcefully upwards. Nightingale flipped up and then fell straight onto the giant bird's spacious back.

"What's going on?" Nightingale was completely shocked.

"Owh! Owh!" Maggie turned around and roared again as if she was trying to tell her something.

This time she understood Maggie's words without needing translation. Although, she was not clear as to how Maggie transformed into this beast, defeating the demon was a more important matter to address.

"Let's go!" she exclaimed.

Chapter 296 - The Demons

The situation instantly reversed when Maggie was carrying Nightingale back to join the battle.

The demons angrily roared and it was forced to give up the pursuit of Lightning. It rolled over and dived down straight toward Maggie. The arm that had not yet fully recovered once again raised the spear and quickly swelled up, the skin cracking and blood spraying out.

The strike was still strong, however, the spear that was thrown out was not as powerful as before, at least Nightingale could catch the path of the flying spear a little.

"Maggie!" She patted the giant beast, spread the Mist, and stepped forward.

"Owh... coo!" Maggie's body quickly shrunk into a pigeon once again.

The gigantic target suddenly disappeared, and the spear flew by both of them, making a whistling sound and fell into the sea.

And the next moment, Nightingale appeared from the mist and returned to Maggie's back who was in her demonic beast form. The entire dodging process went smoothly.

The demon was crying in pain, and its arms were shrinking inward, finally even collapsing inch by inch, like a dry bark. However, its left hand was still clenching the reins and manipulating the mount to collide into both of them as if the demon wanted to kill the witches along with itself.

Maggie obviously would not do as it wished. She suddenly descended and flew across the enemy when they were about to collide. When she restored her balance, Nightingale on her back had disappeared.

The latter appeared behind the demon like a ghost.

The enemy was scrambling to untie the rope that fixed its body, and Nightingale would definitely not give it the chance.

She angrily pulled the trigger and shots rang out continuously.

The shooting this time not only broke the shell on the demon's back but also through its chest. The enemy loudly roared, and soon fell into the blood fog.

Finally, the demonic beast which lost its master was killed by Lightning. It fell into the sea and soon disappeared.

Cloud Gazer slowly landed by the shore.

"What should we do next?" Nightingale looked anxiously at Anna who probably was the only one to stay calm at this time.

"It has been delaying for so long. The hot air balloon would only arrive Border Town at midnight even if we're flying in the night," Anna slowly said, "Prince Roland must be carried by Lightning and Maggie and depart first."

"No problem, owh!" the beast opened its gigantic mouth and said.

"I have... no problem. Just leave it to us." The little girl looked a little down. She probably felt bad that as an explorer, she was afraid of fighting with the enemy leading everyone into trouble.

Nightingale patted her head and said, "No one is born to do this. This isn't your fault."

The witches tied the unconscious prince on the back of Maggie, and the broken arm would be carried by Lightning. Both of them quickly flew into the sky towards the town along Redwater River.

"What about us?" Wendy asked, "My magic power is running out."

"Continue to fly, and we have to fly as far as we can. The enemy may send a second team to search for us, and it's too close from the snow mountain here. We have to leave as soon as possible," Anna said, "We'll find a hidden place to camp after we reached a safe place."

Her decision was unanimously agreed by the other witches.

Cloud Gazer rose up again, and there were only five people left in the basket.

"How did the demon find us?" Soraya said with puzzlement, "The hot air balloons and baskets are painted with sky-like camouflage, and it's hard to discern at a height of more than 2,000 meters even with a telescope."

"A huge demon." Sylvie frowned. "It crouched on the top of a black spire with a head bigger than the body and it was covered with countless eyes. I just took a glance at it... All its eyes looked at me, and then hundreds of demons came out from the ground as if the whole area was boiling."

"There's still such a monster?" Soraya gasped.

"Not only that, both of the flying mounts are also very strange," Anna said while thinking, "The blood that gushed out from their body after getting shot wasn't black like the ink but dark-blue colored, and it was completely different from the demonic hybrid we encountered in the Months of Demons."

"It's similar to the demon instead," Soraya added, "I saw that the first demon Nightingale shot had blue blood."

"Are they not demonic beasts?" Sylvie asked.

"I don't know... However, it's good that Maggie can transform into them," Wendy emotionally said. "If it's not for her to save Nightingale, we're probably going to be in danger."

"She's able to evolve," Nightingale who was quiet suddenly said, "I could see the magic power in her body is no longer a mass of rotating cyclone but has turned into a fixed appearance. It looked like a pair of white wings when I was in the Mist. "

***************

Lightning was hugging His Highness' arm, feeling extremely guilty.

The demons simply looked ferocious, but they were not undefeatable in the air. His Royal Highness would not be so seriously injured if Lightning left the basket to stop the enemy from the beginning.

To come forward to protect the companion was an obligatory responsibility of the explorers. Thunder would be the first to lead the soldiers to break through all the dangerous during the Fjords sea adventure. He would never step back whether it was against the pirates or the deep sea monsters.

For the first time, Lightning realized that the distance for her to be an outstanding explorer was still very far.

However, she remembered her father also mentioned that fear could be resolved through the understanding and familiarity, while the skills could be mastered through the repeated training.

She determined to beg His Highness to give her a special pistol when he recovered, and she would ask Nightingale to train her on the shooting and fighting skills.

"How's His Highness doing, owh?" Maggie muttered. Her voice was hoarse and muddy as compared to when she was a pigeon. It felt like the wind that blew out of the stone cave. "I could feel his body getting colder, owh."

The little girl tightened her fists, turned around, and flew to Maggie's back.

Roland looked totally lifeless with his eyes closed, pale lips, and messy gray hair. The blood on his clothes was solidified, and the burnt black wounds looked extremely horrible. She gently put her hand on his neck, a weak beat proving that the prince was still alive but his fingertips were scarily cold.

"How much magic power do you left with?" Lightning estimated the journey and said, "We have to move forward at full speed."

"Sure, owh!"

When both of them arrived in Border Town, the little girl was already feeling dizzy. The extremely high speed not only quickly depleted her magic power but also was a great burden to her body. She clenched her teeth and used her final effort to fall directly into the parvis of the castle, and shouted at the guards who were rushing into the parvis after hearing the noise. "Quickly summon for Miss Nana. Prince Roland, His Highness is wounded!"

Chapter 297 - The Blazing Heart

Roland opened his eyes and found himself lying on a big soft bed. There was a familiar ceiling above his head and even every crack coincided with his memory.

This is my... bedroom?

He turned his head to look at both of his shoulders. Both his left and right arms looked completely intact. He even tried to move both of his arms and they were working fine.

Everything was like a dream.

However, he knew that it was not a dream and that the investigation of the demon and the attack were facts, things that had certainly happened! That he was safely lying in his bedroom showed that they had escaped the pursuit of the demon and successfully returned to the castle.

However, did all of the witches return safely?

Thinking about it, Roland's heart sank. He attempted to prop himself up, but his arms felt feeble. Just when he was about to call for someone, he saw a row of witches leaning against the wall opposite the end of his bed. Anna, Nightingale, Lightning, Maggie, and Nana, they were all leaning against each other and breathing smoothly with their eyes slightly closed. They looked like they were sound asleep.

Roland quietly lifted up one corner of the curtains and he found that the sun was rising from Redwater River, it looked like a dazzling gold was sprinkled upon the earth.

"You... are awake?"

He turned around, and Anna already opened her eyes. She was slowly walking towards Roland while kneading her sleepy eyes.

"Yeah, I'm awake. The other witches..."

"They all returned to the town safely. In fact, you're the only one who was injured."

"Is it?" Roland was relieved and said, "That's really good..."

"You're an Idiot."

Before he could refute her statement, Anna firmly hugged him. The arms that were buckling behind him were powerful that they were almost embedded in his flesh.

Anna's actions awoke the other witches.

"Your Highness!"

They stood up in surprise and came around. The second to hug Roland was Lightning, followed by Nana and then Maggie. Nightingale hesitated for a while and then held everyone in her arms from behind. For a long time, everyone hugged in a group like they did not want to let go. The moment seemed to freeze time.

…

After breakfast, Roland figured out what had happened after listening to the detailed story.

The witches defeated the demon pursuers together and let Lightning and Maggie bring him back first.

His broken arm quickly recovered after he was brought back to the castle to accept Nana's treatment. However, he lost consciousness for an entire day due to the severe blood loss. It was now the fourth day since the departure date.

The action this time was a little careless. Roland did not expect the demon to actually discover the hot air balloon that was coated with the sky-like camouflage from over 5 kilometers away. According to Sylvie, the giant multi-eyed Demon did not appear to notice them until she had fixed her eyes upon it, and it was at that moment that it instantly aimed at her with its eyeballs.

He had never heard of this investigation method before. Other than Sylvie's Eye of Truth, even looking through a telescope, everything would be a blur at such a distance. It was even more difficult to see what the demon was doing over such a distance as the Red Mist was covering the top of the spire. But still the demon discovered them?

Having said that, the harvest of the intelligence was incredibly good despite the fact that they had incurred major risks.

The demon was no longer a mysterious and unknowable hell messenger. They owned urban and organizational systems. They belonged to a higher evolution of civilization, just like humans.

Also the demons were not strong in the air, at least those in the area behind the snow mountain were not. Hundreds of demons drilled out from the ground and they had ended up with only two of them pursuing them on mounts, which meant that flying was still a rare ability for them. For now, it was still unknown whether the mounts were rare, or the riders were rare. However, in general, this was good news for Border Town. At least he did not have to worry about a group of demons coming around from the south side of the mountain and going straight into the Western Region to burn and loot.

Besides, it was also an important discovery that the demons possessed magic power.

According to Nightingale's report, although the magic power of the demons running after them was scarce, it formed a cyclone which was very eye-catching under the Mist. However, the way they activated the magic power seemed to be completely different from the witches. They did not activate it by themselves, but they used some kind of mechanism, such as a glowing stone to release the power. It was not as flexible as the abilities of the witches, but it was a more standardized weapon which they could mass produce.

Of course, that was just speculation. Unfortunately, the demons' bodies had all fallen into the sea and so Roland could not verify it further.

The last point was the building.

Those small and slender black stone spires were not the demons' residences and the material was also quite strange. The surface did not have any traces of Red Mist corrosion. Some of the stone spires were empty inside while others were filled with red liquid inside, similar to a storage tank.

Perhaps the Red Mist in the sky was formed by the liquid after its gasification?

Perhaps the demons did not further expand their territory to Barbarian Land nor the four kingdoms due to the gas coverage limitation?

Anyway, they would, at least temporarily, not pose any threat to the security of Border Town, according to the comprehensive information.

However, Roland also knew that since humans had been driven away from Barbarian Land by the demons over 400 years ago, perhaps they would come back again someday, so he had to be prepared for that day.

…

Night has fallen, and due to the blood loss, Roland quickly retired to bed after casually dealing with a few decrees.

He was preparing to blow out the candle and go to bed after reading half of the history book on his bed when someone knocked.

He was slightly stunned and climbed out of the bed to open the door. It was Anna.

This time she did not have a thick book in her hands about "Secondary Physics" or "Natural Science Theoretical Foundation" as she had done previously. With nothing in her hands, she was walking into the room dressed in a white sleeping robe. She did not even wear shoes and her delicate feet touched the floor without making any noises.

Roland swallowed his saliva.

Anna shut the door behind her and locked it. Then, she held Roland's hand and walked to the bed.

Her flowing hair had just been washed and it was flashing with the golden light of the candle. It smelled fragrant when he was close to her and the enchanting fragrance was not from rose scented soap, but from her own body.

Her long eyelashes were slightly trembling and her cheeks were blushing. Her blue eyes looked like autumn water. Although she looked a little nervous, there was no trace of anxiousness, and she stared at Roland determined.

He understood Anna's meaning despite the fact that he had never experienced anything like it.

"Ahem, this..."

"I don't want to wait anymore," Anna whispered, "especially after experiencing such a terrifying encounter." She paused and continued to say, "I don't want any regrets."

.

Chapter 298 - The Dream

"I understand," said Roland, lifting her up by her waist and gently putting her on the bed. However, such simple action had made him breathless. He uncovered the thin blanket and turned into the bed while Anna moved closer to him from the side and rested her head on his arm.

Should the next step be... foreplay?

He noticed that himself was getting nervous as well. "It can't go on like this. As someone "experienced", I can't possibly make a fool of myself in front of the lady. It may be necessary to ease the atmosphere with some simple chit-chatting before taking action, such as... telling a dirty joke?"

When he was contemplating hard, Anna softly said, "Had you thought that you may be killed when you pushed me away on the hot air balloon?"

Roland startled as he did not expect Anna to ask this question. "I just subconsciously did it."

"You're the ruler of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the witches' hope," she whispered, "I'm not worth it."

"It's not about your worthiness," Roland said with a light chuckle, "I couldn't simply sit there and watch you being attacked. In fact, I thought it over again after I woke up. Even if I had time to think about it before I did it, I'll still do the same if things did not happen so suddenly."

"I can't stop you, can I?"

"Well, no." Roland pinched her nose with his other hand.

Anna's eyelashes drooped down and she was quiet for a moment before saying. "Can you tell me about your past... I want to know more about you."

"Well, the past?" Roland exhaled. He searched the memory of Prince Roland but he stopped when he was about to tell a few funny stories in the palace. His past did not belong here but another completely different world. "I used to live in a big city and it was really, really big."

"Yeah, the Kingdom of Graycastle is many times bigger than Border Town."

"I was not different from the common people, witty but not very smart. I was always praised by the teacher because I was studying really hard, however, he didn't know that the stubborn doodles on the wall were painted by me."

"Of course, he didn't dare to blame you," Anna softly whispered.

"Haha, not really, he didn't need to do anything to me as long as he told my parents." Roland shook his head with a smile. "They showed no mercy when they were punishing me back then."

"After that, my teacher kept changing as I grew older from elementary teacher to mentor, and I finally completed all my studies with neither good nor bad grades. Of course, after all, I was always a bit worse than the other kids..."

He was slowly telling his experience after slight rendering it with his eyes half-closed as it had been a long time since he experienced such an open and unbridled communication. He had been playing Prince Roland's role since he came here, and he felt that he had returned to the past at this moment as if he was lying in a classical hotel with the girl he liked, sharing about their daily life and he felt gradually relaxed.

Maybe it's time for the next step?

Roland slightly turned his head but he found that Anna had closed her eyes while her chest that was rested on his side body was undulating like a cat that fell asleep.

He was surprised and then he could not help softly chuckling.

"I see... She was tired."

Thinking about it, the witches were curling up to hide in a small cave in the mountains and they had to always beware of the wild beasts and demons attack that they almost did not sleep for an entire night. Furthermore, they had to continue rising Cloud Glazer up at the dawn to return to Border Town. Anna had spent an entire night looking after him in his bedroom after they returned. Of course, she was tired now as all the exhaustion easily erupted under such restless circumstances since she had not taken rest for two days and two nights.

Perhaps her decision was also made in an anxious waiting.

Although he felt a little unfortunate, Roland did not really care about that as they still had a long way to go.

He leaned forward to kiss Anna's long eyelashes and softly said, "Goodnight."

***************

When the morning light shone through the crack of the curtain into the room, Sylvie got up from the big bed and yawned a few times.

The experience these few days was like an unbelievable dream since they were being discovered by the demon to the air battle and finally escaped and returned to Border Town. She felt that it would not be as nervous and exhausted even if they were chased by the Judgement Army from the church."

"Good morning." Wendy had already changed and she was about to wash up with a bowl of water in her hands.

"Good morning." Sylvie nodded. "You wake up really early."

"I'm old," Wendy smiled. "The sleeping time is getting shorter as well."

"Ah... it's already dawn?" Nightingale rubbed her eyes. "It seemed I'll need to make up with an afternoon nap."

"You didn't sleep well last night?"

"Well, I dreamt a lot."

Sylvie disapprovingly curled her lips as she clearly saw Nightingale went invisible and headed to the third floor of the castle, wondering in front of Roland's room for a long time. Although Sylvie did not know what she was doing due to Nightingale's special ability, she came back very late at night anyway. "Last night, didn't you..."

Nightingale suddenly turned around and stared at Sylvie who was just about to speak. Her squinting eyes were self-evident and Sylvie quickly stopped. The strength of the number one combat witch in the Witch Cooperation Association was obvious, and the scene of her killing the demon in the air like a fleeting ghost was still vivid in Sylvie's mind. Lady Ashes would not even be her opponent if she was put in Sleeping Island. Sylvie felt she was better not be overly curious with her silent warning.

"What happened last night?" Wendy curiously asked.

"Ahem," Sylvie said, "I heard her snoring last night, and it probably because of too much energy consumption these few days."

"I think so too." Nightingale shrugged and took off her sleeping gown, revealing her well-coordinated body and began to wear the bra given by His Highness.

Speaking of it, Wendy had completely accepted the bra now and she even had the tendency to recommend it to Sylvie.

His Highness Roland is really a scary man.

However, Sylvie felt warm in her heart when she thought of him this time.

There's really a noble who's willing to be wounded for a witch.

She was touched when she saw Roland pushed Anna away regardless of his personal safety. The witches in the Witch Cooperation Association was not controlled by him, but his important following, even... companions. His reflected action could not deceive that he was indeed truthfully standing on the witches' side, just like Tilly Wimbledon.

Roland and Tilly might be able to set up a new kingdom without any distinction between the witches and normal people if they could stand together hand in hand and gather both forces.

She decided to write a letter to Lady Tilly.

It's wonderful that Your Highness Roland is your brother.

Chapter 299 - The Intelligence and The Messenger

Garden Mansion of Inner City in the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Today was the scheduled information exchange day. Theo was sitting on a couch in the living room waiting for the arrival of the members of the "Dove and Hat" acrobatic troupe. The inner city's door closed early in the evening after autumn so that the secret party had to be changed to the afternoon.

Hill Fawkes was always the first to reach the mansion.

He was wearing a blue velvet open-collar jacket with a pair of light gray tights and moccasins along with a white tie around his neck, just like a noble. After paying his respect, he passed the "History of the Kingdom's Customs" to Theo whom later took the book and glanced through with great interest. "You've finished reading?"

"Yes," Hill nodded and said with hesitation, "Will you teach me some sword fighting... or assassination skills?"

"What for?"

"You mentioned that you would train me into a qualified intelligence officer during the outbreak of evil spirits," he scratched his head and said, "but so far you've only given me some strange and eccentric books to read."

"You mean 'The Customs History'?" Theo poured himself a glass of wine and put two ice cubes into it. "This isn't some strange and eccentric books. It records the nobility origin, tradition, kamon, and the famous specialty of each area of the kingdom. As an informant, first of all, you need to be knowledgeable to tell the value of the news from each area. As for sword fighting and assassination?" he smiled and said, "I don't intend to get you to sneak into an organization or probe into the enemy's internal information as it's dangerous and time-consuming. In that case, I might as well directly spend more gold royals to bribe the insiders."

"But not everyone can be bribed." Hill insisted.

"And it's equally difficult to send a mole into a strictly-controlled organization, and it's not possible to sneak in without more than 10 to 20 years of effort." Theo shook the glass and took a gulp of the wine. "Qualified intelligence officers only need to be good in two things, which are identifying the news and hiding. The books I've been giving you are the basis for identifying the news. As for the second point... As a member of the acrobatic troupe, you should be more experienced than I am. For example, you dressed well today."

"..." Clown and the others were also rushing to this secluded house as Hill Fawkes lowered his head and contemplated about Theo's words.

"Your Excellency, they all have arrived."

"If so, let's get started." Theo set down his glass and opened up the notebook. "Who'll be the first?"

"I'll speak first, Your Excellency." Rockhill who had a strong-built was the first to speak. "A batch of newcomers has moved into the camps on the king's city's eastern suburbs."

The news slightly surprised the guards as they did not expect the first information to be bad. The barracks set up in the suburbs had become the militia's headquarter since the king's city's knightage had lost most of the men. All the Rats, fugitives, and criminals who were recruited by Timothy would be sent into the eastern camp before the expedition. And now there was new manpower supplement in just a month after a group of over 1,000 militiamen had been sent to the Western Region.

"How many of them?"

"There are only 200 to 300 people and most of them seem to come from the Northern Region... There're also a few Rats from the Blood Sail, but there're fewer Rats willing to go as compared to the first two times."

"Closely keep track of them and report to me as long as there were over 200 men increased each time," Theo ordered.

"Yes, Your Excellency."

These people had only one use which was being the consumable after taking the pills. Now the Queen of Clearwater was moving towards the north and the Southern Territory was powerless to resist. Timothy would undoubtedly continue to attack His Highness Roland's territory, so he must send the news back to Border Town as soon as possible.

"Next, Clown will present to you the secret information, or perhaps, a gossip," Clown said in an exaggerated tone, "I can't verify the truth of the news, however, those merchants make it sound very real so I'll take it as a truth. They mentioned that Garcia Wimbledon's Blacksail Fleet appeared in the Kingdom of Everwinter and attacked the church causing the siege of Wolfheart City to crumble. They're preparing to take the advantage to sell goods which are in shortage there before the winter."

"The Queen of Clearwater actually went to the Kingdom of Everwinter?" Theo felt slightly surprised but it was not important if the news was true because when she chose to leave the Kingdom of Graycastle she had given up the right to compete for the throne. "That's all?"

"Well, I know it's a bit far from the Kingdom of Graycastle," he said while sticking his tongue out, "but I'll find out more useful news next time."

"Ahem." Hill coughed twice. "Your Excellency, I've some new clues for the task you entrusted me with. Timothy has built a new workshop in Inner City and recruited many mud craftsmen. They purchased a huge amount of saltpeter and shipped them to there. However, my people couldn't learn more about the use of saltpeter as the workshop was heavily-guarded."

"Oh?" Theo was surprised. "They've really moved the saltpeter into the workshop?"

"Indeed." Hill nodded. "I've also personally stalked a carriage of goods."

This was an extremely valuable piece of information. He had served His Highness Roland for a long time, so he knew that the invincible gunpowder was an alchemical item mainly composed of saltpeter. He noticed that and arranged Hill Fawkes to probe the whereabouts and uses of the goods since the saltpeter from the niter plant around the king's city was largely acquired.

The intention of the other party to transfer the saltpeter from the alchemist workshop to the production workshop meant that they had mastered the gunpowder formula. The priority of this information was higher than that of the increasing soldiers in the eastern outskirt camp.

"Good job." Theo praised.

…

The crowd left the mansion in batches after the confidential conversation.

Hill suddenly asked before he left, "Your Excellency, can we really dethrone Timothy with what we're doing?"

"Of course," the guard said with a smile, "Didn't you see the letter His Highness Roland send through his routed troops? His throne is crumbling."

Theo saw an unexpected acquaintance, Sean, when he returned to the Covert Trumpeter tavern in the evening.

He was also a guard around His Highness Prince Roland, just like himself.

They walked into the guest room on the second floor and both of them greeted each other before Theo pulled the curtains closed and whispered, "How did you know that I'm here?"

"His Highness sent me to pass a keepsake to Lady Margaret, and she knows where you're." Sean pulled out a glittering red gemstone and shook it.

"Does he have a new mission for me?"

"It's not a mission but a gift." Sean walked to the window with a smile. He opened the curtain a crack and whistled. There were three tawny birds flew into the room and stopped on the table while cooing at him until each of the bird was fed with some grain.

It was the first time Theo ever saw such a gifted bird. "This is..."

"A carrier pigeon trained by the witch," Sean patted the pigeon on its neck and explained, "Different from the normal carrier pigeon, they could fly freely to and from both the places by itself without anyone letting them out or putting it back to their nests. All you need to do is to give the pigeon a specific command and they'll send the news to His Highness. If everything goes smoothly, you would receive His Highness' reply within a day."

.

.

Chapter 300 - The Witch Building

"Owh! Owh!"

In the newly built castle backyard, Maggie fiddled with her wings and tail, twirling around to show everyone.

Roland, who had already heard what had happened from the other witches, was still stunned when he saw the "demonic beast form" of Maggie.

She had become an enormous brown-feathered bird with a 10-meters-long tail and a wingspan of about 15 meters. When she fully spread her bat-like wings, the blood vessels and bones under the thin skin were quite distinct under the sun. She had limbs the size of an adult and talons instead of hands to support her long body.

Her head was the most conspicuous, with three eyes lay triangularly on the top and both sides of the head. In addition, a fierce-looking mouth that was not the kind of common bird-like beak covered a large part of the face. Maggie's lips moved and revealed sharp teeth and a long tongue as she talked, making other girls cry out in astonishment.

"This is the demon's mount?" Leaf said, "Fortunately, we didn't run into such monsters in Barbarian Land, or none of us could have escaped."

"If she didn't evolve the new ability, I'm afraid I couldn't survive at that moment," Nightingale said, stroking Maggie's glossy neck, "I'll prepare a bag of small pieces of grilled fish for you every day."

"Owh...!"

"I know. I'll season the fish with more honey."

The giant bird whisked its tail even more cheerfully.

Those were his grilled fish pieces! Roland sighed inwardly. How could Nightingale reward others with food that she stole from the kitchen and talk about it so loudly?

"Then, as usual, let's test your new ability."

"Sure! Owh!"

...

After a morning of hard work, Roland gained a detailed insight into Maggie's ability after she shapeshifted into a beast.

The change had followed the convention of enlargement. Her new form as the enormous brown-feathered bird was twice the size of the Devil's mount. Her loading capacity also saw a slight upgrade, so she was now capable of carrying two witches while flying. But her speed at full-load, which could be kept at about 80km per hour, was much slower than Lightning's.

However, since any load would reduce Lightning's flying height and exhaust more of her magic power, Maggie's endurance was an advantage. As long as the giant bird was completely shapeshifted, the depletion of magic power was slow. The height she flew or the load she carried did not matter. The only concern was her physical strength.

Maggie's magic power had also grown considerably, allowing her to climb from the bottom to a medium-ranked witch in the Witch Union. She had enough magic power to shapeshift seven to eight times a day.

Roland also confirmed his previous hypothesis through Maggie.

The understanding of their own abilities determined the evolution of the witches, whether they understood it through learning or sudden enlightenment.

This also meant there was a possibility for the witches to evolve naturally. As time went on, a few of them would be lucky enough and eventually stand out. The new ability, which was miraculous enough to turn the foul into the ethereal, absolutely overtook the old one. Could this be the reason why the church fully suppressed the wild witches?

After lunch, the lord's castle ushered in a great event.

After nearly four months of construction and renovation, the Witch Building was finally ready for use.

Roland marveled at the building with only three stories and less than 50 rooms. Though it looked like the ordinary self-built house in the modern world, this building represented the highest construction level of the mainland kingdom, not from its size, but technique-wise.

It was the first brick-and-concrete structure built with concrete beams and pillars reinforced with bamboos.

Roland remembered what Karl, overwhelmed with emotion, had said to him when he poured the first concrete earth pillar. "I never thought that cement could be used this way. After being mixed with pebbles, you can shape it any way you like and use it for any part of the house... Your Highness, I believe it won't be long before masons completely disappear from the masonry."

In addition to the beams and pillars, the floors were all paved with the prefabricated cement slabs with holes dotting the center. It awakened Roland's childhood memories. These old building materials can only be seen by the post-80s as they were completely abandoned by the times and replaced by cast-in-place concrete slabs before he turned 20.

Yet the "old" prefabricated slabs were reborn in Border Town.

The Witch Building stood on the left of the castle, forming an L-shape with the castle. The open space surrounding the two buildings was the new garden. It was three or four times the size of the old one, enough for Leaf to improve the cultivation of grains and fruits.

***************

Evelyn, who was staying in the new home, felt uneasy.

Having been in Border Town for a month, she seemed to have done nothing more than wine-tasting for His Highness. She was also in the bottom in the last test with only five points... Although Teacher Scroll did not publicly announce the test results, she could easily pry into the information.

Even Maggie who could not complete a sentence got 61 points.

She suddenly felt she was no better than an idiot.

Still, His Highness treated her as usual without discrimination. From time to time, he sent for her and they would talk about wines produced in different regions and taste the newly made hot white liquor. She even earned a gold royal at the end of last month, which worsened her uneasiness. Compared to the other four witches, she seemed like a freeloader.

"There's actually a kitchen next to the living room for cooking and a weird little white-painted room. Come and take a look," Candle said excitedly, opening the bedroom door.

"Yeah..." Evelyn answered weakly.

"What's wrong? Are you unwell?" Candle asked, looking a little startled. She crouched down to touch Evelyn's forehead. "It's not hot." She then laughed. "Are you reluctant to be part with the sisters of Witch Cooperation Association who have shared one bed with you?"

Evelyn was silent for a moment before she whispered. "We've been here for more than a month, right?"

"Almost."

"Lotus is about to finish the new City Wall that she's responsible for. Honey has trained plenty of carrier pigeons for His Highness; Sylvie even dared to accompany His Highness to investigate those terrible monsters," she said in frustration, "I'm the only one who has done nothing. I don't even have any training arrangements and I also have the worst test scores... I really don't know why His Highness invited me here."

"Well." Candle mused for a moment. "Why not ask him personally?"

"Huh?"

"Prince Roland is Lady Tilly's brother. And you've noticed that he treats witches with sincerity. Even Sylvie who used to tell us to stay away from Roland and to beware of Roland has changed her attitude. Yesterday, she couldn't help complimenting him." Candle shrugged. "He won't bite you if you ask him."

Is that so? That seems reasonable.

Evelyn thought for a moment and decided to take Candle's advice to get rid of the anxiety that had haunted her for so long.

Chapter 301 - The Bomb and The Wine

Roland called Barov, the City Hall Director, to his office the second day after the relocation of the witches from Sleeping Island.

"I need you to issue a recruitment announcement." He pushed the drafts towards Barov. "10 people for one week's work. Preferably women."

Barov picked up the paper, read it carefully, and asked, "Your Highness, may I ask, what is... starch?"

"I suppose you know about wheat flour?"

The director hesitated for a moment. "Which kind of flour do you mean, the coarse flour or the refined flour? The grains can be crushed before being baked into loaves of bread or wheat cakes, and yet the bread Your Highness eats is made from the refined flour that has been sifted to remove the bran. The yield of the refined flour is only 60% of the coarse flour and the corresponding bread is softer. It has a price so high that only great nobles can afford it."

The thing that Roland liked most about the former treasurer was his good understanding of all the ordinary commodities. Due to the underdeveloped agriculture and deficient food supply, the same thing could be eaten in different ways according to the social class. Take the common wheat for an example. Civilians simply made porridge from the roughly-hulled wheat in order to make full use of the food. The disadvantage was that wheat hulls and sand remained in the porridge making it gritty to eat.

By comparison, the low-class nobles cared more about daintiness. They would ask people to sift away the sand and pulverized the wheat into the coarse flour for baking bread and cake.

As for the rich great nobles, food, which was viewed as a way to pursue an enjoyment of superb cuisine, was more meaningful than just something to fill their stomachs. After being sifted further, the coarse wheat flour would become the snow-white fine flour from which the beige bread was made, smooth and sweeter.

"The starch is further refined and processed from the refined wheat flour," Roland explained, "after the workers are recruited, I'll send someone to tell them the procedure."

"Fur-further processed?" Barov could not help but stare at Roland. "How much wheat will it take?"

"Not too much, 300 or 400 kilograms..." Roland paused and changed his words. "A basket as big as my desk will be enough."

Barov nodded and asked again, "Why would you prefer to recruit women?"

"Because, they're more careful, and I want to see more women employed rather than them just staying at home." Roland suddenly remembered something and he continued, "At present, in Border Town, of all classes established by the universal education, the woman's class seems to be progressing more quickly, correct?"

"That's indeed the case, with Lady Scroll mainly in charge of the Ministry of Education. Women in town, who barely had anything to do except taking care of children and completing housework, have been spending most of their time learning and reading."

"In that case, I request that you recruit some female apprentices into City Hall after the next assessment and gradually increase the proportion of female jobs," Roland ordered.

"Your Highness, this... is unheard-of." Barov frowned. "My apprentice is just as good as a woman when it comes to being careful."

"Then make it heard-of," Roland said bluntly, "It's the easiest and quickest way to increase the workforce without growing the population. If all of the women can contribute to the construction of the town, I would have the double manpower. All you have to do is to guide the people in order to change their mindset—as long as the pay is attractive, I believe they'll apply, out one by one."

After Barov took his leave, Nightingale laughed in the prince's ear. "What kind of goody are you going to make this time?"

"The starch? No, it's not for eating," Roland drank some tea. "But, we can actually get some good ingredients during the process."

Pour the refined wheat flour into the water, knead and scrub until the water has turned completely white, and then do it again with new water. At last, the remaining sticky substance is gluten, which can be used to fry or quick stir. Adding a bit of honey or spices will make it particularly delicious, especially with the flexible texture.

But, what Roland wanted was greater than just something to eat.

The starch, that settled in the milky white water that had been sifted, was what he really wanted. It was the main material of explosives.

Since nitroglycerin had not yet begun its testing trial and neither had TNT, nitrostarch was relatively the simplest high explosive they were able to make, and the production process was exactly the same to nitrocotton. But, the sensitivity of the finished product was low so that it could not be ignited by an open flame. It could only be ignited by using a detonator. Nitrostarch, more powerful than TNT, was widely used as a substitute for TNT during WWI and WWII.

With highly refined starch, those alchemical apprentices who had been extremely proficient in the production process of nitrocotton would presumably be capable of producing a batch of nitrostarch in a short period of time.

After lunch, Roland had returned to his chamber, to take a nap. However, that was when he heard footsteps outside the door.

His heart thumped a little wildly, guessing it was most likely Anna who would come for him at this time of the day. "Would she pick noon to come here, because she was too tired and fell asleep last time?"

"Come in."

Roland was a little surprised when he saw Evelyn standing outside the door.

"Uh... It's a bit different from what I was expecting." He coughed a little, wore a genial smile on his face, and said, "What's the matter?"

She walked over to the table and bowed her head. Despite looking a little nervous, she said, "Your Highness, I want to ask you a question."

"Is it just another platitude like 'Why do you treat witches so well?'" Roland thought to himself, and yet in the spirit of treating the comrades like a warm spring wind, he smiled, "What do you want to ask?"

"Why did you... pick me to come to Border Town?"

The question shocked Roland for a moment, "Is she complaining about the bad wine?"

"My ability is neither as good as Sylvie's nor as practical as Lotus's and Honey's," she said in a low voice, "and if you want someone to taste your wine for you, a gold royal per month is sufficient enough to hire a professional winemaker from the king's city."

"What do you think of... the variety of wine?"

"The alcohol burns at first but it mellows if you drink it slowly and get yourself used to it. And, the drink that's made of ice, fruit juice, and syrup is richer in taste. But, all of these are based on my personal preference," Evelyn replied cautiously, "My family-run tavern only sold cheap wines and watered-down ale, so I'm not very clear about which kind of wine the nobles would prefer."

"So, it's not a problem with the wine." The prince was silently relieved. He rose to open his bookcase, took out a can of ale from the top shelf, and placed it in front of Evelyn. "Can you turn this ale into my brewed white liquor?"

"I think... that's no problem." She reached out her hands and held the jar soon the dingy wine began to change. While bubbling, the ale was gaining clarity and then finally became as transparent as boiled water, which was marvelous to Roland who could already smell the strong bouquet of the transparent liquid. He could not wait to dip his finger into the liquid and have a taste. He felt the bitter and burning sensation, which was the exact taste of high-proof alcohol.

Roland could not help but laugh. "This is what you're chosen for."

Looking at the puzzled look on Evelyn's face, he clapped his hands and said, "I'm going to set up an alcohol factory... No, it's a brewery. Would you like to be my chief winemaker?"

Chapter 302 - The Battle Horn

The fireplace was blazing inside the king's city's palace hall of the Kingdom of Everwinter.

Summer here was exceptionally short when compared to the Kingdom of Graycastle, with its four distinct seasons. The coming of fall was more like a warning for the upcoming cold and a cold wind would quietly arrive before people would change their light jackets.

Garcia Wimbledon was sitting on her throne in her fox-fur overcoat, while listening to the complaints and requests of the nobles.

She did not like this palace. The pillars, walls, and floors were all white stone, which had been polished smooth and made translucent to look like ice. Even though she sat on two velvet cushions, she could still felt the biting chill spreading up to her from the steel throne.

"The damn house seems to be built of ice," she thought unhappily. "The first thing I'll do is to break down the floors and walls, and then rebuild them with dark brown granite slabs, after my situation has stabilized."

"Respected Majesty, I'm begging for justice!"

A noble said, in a woeful tone.

The fellow was long-winded when the matter needed only a few words. The main point was nothing more than that Archbishop Heather presided over a public trial of sinful nobles, most of which were sentenced to the gallows. Although he was lucky enough to avoid being hanged, he was still sentenced to confiscation of his property and was forced to deal it out to the civilians who had suffered from his persecution.

"I can understand your request, and your private property shall not be infringed upon." After a moment of contemplation, Garcia continued in a calm voice, "But, it'll be hard to clarify the specific amount. Provide me with a balance sheet from the last five years, I'll replace a portion of your compensation from the seizure."

"But, those mobs have almost robbed me blind, so I'm afraid the records might..."

Garcia interrupted. "Well, I can only give you compensation in accordance with the standards previously announced, if you can't provide the balance sheet. There're other nobles being ransacked around you. If I give you more, others will get less, right?"

"That's right. Who knows whether the numbers you declare are true or not! "

"Don't be so verbose, Knight Halon. Those gold royals were not yours."

"You should be content with what you've got. Compared to your companions, you're lucky. They can only beg for compensation from the deities in the heavens."

Seeing that all the nobles around him were glaring, Knight Halon could only bow, saying, "Okay, I accept the compensation you've given me, and thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty."

"Next," Garcia said with a smile.

"I'd like to send my best regards, Your Majesty," a white-haired old man said as he stepped out of the crowd, with his hands on his chest. The kamon of the Silver Heron Family was shining on his chest.

"Marquis Bode, I remembered your domain did not suffer attacks from the church mobs."

"Yes," he nodded and said, "they definitely wanted to attack but they couldn't... Snow Ridge was easily defended, and my knights blocked the invasion of the mobs. My son, however, was less fortunate. He was on duty at the palace on the day of the riot. In order to protect the former Queen, the believers killed him and hung his body on the gate. He wasn't free from the humiliation until Your Majesty arrived at the Kingdom of Everwinter."

"That sounds like a tragedy." Garcia pretended to be sad and sighed. "What would you like me to do?"

"A guy named Butcher killed my son, and he has become the leader of the surviving rebels. The gang of people has been hiding in the Impassable Mountain Range to the north. I want to kill them to avenge my son." Marquis Bode stated calmly.

"I don't have enough manpower. Apart from those going on patrol, defending the city wall, and the granary, it's hard to dispatch more to hunt for the hundreds of mobs in exile," Garcia said and shook her head to express regret, "Once winter comes, the heavy snow will block the mountain pass, then they won't be able to get supplies, and sooner or later they'll all freeze or starve to death. So, why don't you stay calm?"

"I'll only feel relief after killing the foes to avenge my son, Your Majesty. I'm not requesting that you dispatch knights to search for the rebels. There're many grottos at the foot of the mountain, and they must be hiding there. However, the entrance to the grotto is extremely narrow, and the knights can't invade since it's blocked off by rubble. I was hoping that you would provide me with the alchemical materials necessary to destroy the gate, and I'll do the rest by myself."

"He wants snow powder?" Garcia thought and frowned. "The formidable power of the snow powder is almost ever-victorious. It can be the trump card needed for game-changing, so it shouldn't be spread around."

As she went to refuse the Marquis Bode's request, he said again, "If you grant my request, I would return back to the palace to work for you. The Silver Heron Family would support your rise into power in the Kingdom of Everwinter."

Garcia slightly paused upon hearing his words. "When the church put the former Queen to death, a portion of important officials were also killed. Marquis Bode was quite prestigious here, he could work as the prime minister to unify the rest of the nobles, which could, to some extent, ease the dilemma of the administrative difficulties."

"You request too much." She contemplated his words for a moment before making the final decision. "But, since I'm not willing to give you gunpowder directly I can send my specialized alchemist to assist you in destroying the gate."

...

After the official business was over, Garcia went to the back room. Ryan came forward and handed a cup of heated fruit wine to her. "It's hard work, Your Majesty! Those nobles all turned to you as expected. In this case, you'll still be able to take over the whole Kingdom of Everwinter, gradually, even without depending on the King of Wolfheart."

"If it wasn't for the church." Garica shrugged her shoulders.

The church's move to deprive the nobles of the inheritance right had caused them all to side with her. She had won the wide support of the nobles and, together, with her efforts to greatly undermine the rights of the church power-holders, it would make it less difficult for her to gain a firm foothold in the king's city. However, she would still have a long way to go to take control of the Kingdom of Everwinter. People there were greatly influenced by the church. The soldiers of Blacksail Fleet, who were dispatched to wipe out the churches in some of the large cities, had suffered attacks from civilians and believers alike. Therefore, there was a vital importance to align with the Kingdom of Wolfheart, not only to help resist the church but to also weaken the influence of the church by thinning their population.

As for the civilians who were as stubborn as mules, they should all be killed.

"Oh, by the way, the King of Wolfheart sent you a letter," Ryan took out an envelope and said, "you were busy dealing with the administrative affairs at that moment, so I didn't bother you."

Garcia looked serious as she opened the envelope and read the letter.

"Bad news?"

"The church has dispatched troops again," she said in a deep voice, "and they're heading to Wolfheart City by land and have broken through several of the temporary lines of defense."

"What? The Months of Demons is about to come, are they planning to abandon the new Holy City?" Ryan's eyes bulged in shock.

Garcia returned to her desk, contemplated a moment, and then frowned.

It was impossible to think that the church would let her off the hook, but she had not expected them to counterattack so quickly. She would be well prepared if the church had waited to wage war until spring, but the enemy obviously did not want her to have the respite. If she did not accept the request for assistance from the King of Wolfheart, she would not be able to resist for long if the Kingdom of Wolfheart collapsed.

However, there was a chance.

Provided that the troops from the church were exhausted to near death in Wolfheart City, the enemy would then suffer from a great calamity as the demonic beasts invaded massively into Hermes.

They might send out more of the God's Punishment Army, even so, she had more powerful weapons, like the snow powder. That, used with the black water from the Styx River, would create an evil fire powder that would be lethal if thrown over the high wall in Wolfheart City. She could absolutely destroy the collective strength of the enemy.

Realizing this, Garcia said, "Execute my command, the troops of Blacksail Fleet are to get ready for the expedition! We'll get through winter in Wolfheart City this year."

Chapter 303 - Preparation for Aerial Attack

After a week's assembly and testing, Roland and Anna finally completed developing the impact fuze for the bomb.

Compared to the fuze for the artillery shells, there was no need to withstand high temperature and pressure, nor high-G overload when during the detonation, that's why the structure was surprisingly simple. But even for such a simple thing which was made up of a firing pin and a spring, they had to conduct countless experiments to succeed.

The main issue was that no one knew how much elasticity the spring required to avoid ignition during an accidental fall. In the same time, they had to guarantee the firing pin would trigger the bomb during a normal launch.

He and Anna could only test this by changing the thickness and the hardness of the spring little by little.

Fortunately, Anna and Lucia had already done a lot of pre-work. Thus, Roland could choose from a variety of high-quality materials. In the end, through testing, they ended up using the steel alloy number 1365, which had a relatively high hardness, but a lower toughness. So, even if the bomb fell from an altitude of one meter, it would not be completely compressed.

After the selection of the spring, the rest was easy. Even though Roland had never seen a fuze before, he could still come up with a design by himself according to how it worked.

It was certainly not state of the art but it would be enough for the current crude bombs.

The completed fuze looked like a cylinder, 12 centimeters long, five centimeters wide, with a thread below it which could reach up to the top of the bomb.

Its interior looked like a downward convex groove so that the firing pin which had the same shape could fit inside. In the idle state, its top part would be pushed by the spring to the groove mouth, while the firing pin inside the groove was just one finger away from the primer. For security purposes, Roland also opened a hole in the head of the firing pin and used a plug to keep it fixed on top of the ammunition case. This way, before the launch, it was necessary to pull the plug first, or else the firing pin would not move upward and downward.

The simulation launch was held on a sunny afternoon.

Because the weight of the bomb after it was filled with gravel and black gunpowder was close to five times Nightingale's weight, Roland did not to board the hot air balloon, and instead watched the launch with a telescope from 300 meters away.

Apart from himself, Iron Axe, the Commander of the First Army and Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight were also watching the simulation.

"You plan to use a hot air balloon to throw a giant explosive package in the palace?" Carter could not believe his ears when he heard Roland's plan. To initiate an attack from an altitude of two kilometers, disregarding the city walls and the garrison forces, this redefined entirely his concept of a combat—but of course, having stayed in Border Town for almost a year, his previous concepts had been redefined many times already.

"As long as it's controlled properly, this is entirely possible." Roland nodded. "Timothy is currently recruiting soldiers of the militia by force. If he isn't stopped, the Western Territory will definitely suffer from another attack of a drugged army. And even if we win, it won't benefit us at all."

According to Theo's secret letter, Timothy still wanted to use his old tricks to decrease Roland's strength. He was not sure whether the people sent out from Barov would be on time to recruit as many people as possible to Border Town before it was too late.

"Supposing you successfully release "thunder's fury" on Timothy's head, he'll be utterly scared!" Iron Axe said excitedly, "It would be like an inescapable God's Punishment!"

"I hope so." Roland smiled.

Theo had mentioned in the letter that Timothy had probably figured out black gunpowder recipe and had opened a workshop in the inner city, planning to mass produce it. After thinking carefully, Roland still decided to choose the palace as its target.

The reason was simple. The palace was much more eye-catching.

When looked from an altitude of 2,000 meters, even the most magnificent city of Graycastle was half a palm big. Therefore, it was important to choose the target of the bomb in advance. The palace was situated in the middle of the inner city, surrounded by red tile wall. At the top of it, there were white slates, which were particularly eye-catching, making it impossible to miss the target.

But the workshop was different.

Without layout chart of the king's city and ground guidance, it would be impossible to describe the exact location of the target by words. Plus, the workshop's area was not so big. If the bomb were to fall on top of a civilian's house, the whole plan would fail.

Suddenly, a white shadow fell on the ground, causing a pillar of smoke in the simulation field, followed by the thunderous sound of an impact.

"Looks like the bomb has landed." Roland put away the telescope. "Let's go see the results."

After a week's training, Lightning's bomb dropping technique had improved significantly. This time, the bomb had hit the ground just five meters away from the target. The whole bomb was sunk in the ground and the outer shell was greatly deformed due to the impact.

Once the Cloud Gazer landed, Anna used her Blackfire to cut open the bomb, and everyone saw that the soil near the fuze had been burned black—this proved that the primer's temperature was high enough to ignite the gunpowder which was spread on the ground beforehand, so the fuze itself worked properly. If the interior of the bomb was filled with nitrostarch, it would easily create a four to six meters deep hole, and everyone within a vicinity of 50 meters would die.

Since the development of bomb had been completed, the next thing to do was to plan the attack.

Roland looked everyone around him and said slowly, "The surprise attack on king's city will be carried out next week. First, Iron Axe, you'll lead a group of 50 flintlock squad members and escort the witches to the outskirts of Silver City. There's a mountain ridge in that area, which is much concealed, and it's suitable both for setting camp or launching off a balloon."

"Yes, Your Highness," Iron Axe answered.

"We won't fly directly from Border Town?" Wendy asked.

"No, it's too far." Roland shook his head. Normally, from the Western Territory to the king's city it required at least a week's trip and with the Cloud Gazer it would take around six days to go and come back. Furthermore, with the dropping equipment installed, the basket could only load two people, and since Nightingale was not going, only Anna had the ability to fight out of the four witches. Thus, spending six nights in the wild would be too dangerous for them and he did not want to risk it. "If you set out from Silver City, you'll be able to complete the mission in just one day and return before nightfall.

"Next, the witches for this mission are Anna, Wendy, Lightning, Maggie, Nightingale, and Sylvie. The last two will be responsible for monitoring the surroundings, while the attack will be carried out by the first four according to our training. Especially Lightning." He looked at the little girl. "Our success depends on you."

"Just leave it to me," she replied and patted her chest.

"The last thing I want to say is, be careful," Roland emphasized each word. "I'll be waiting for your return in Border Town."

Four days later, under the escort of the First Army, the first bomb "Easterly Wind No.1", carried out by a carriage, was loaded on a freighter to Silver City.

Chapter 304 - The Unexpected Surprise

May never thought that by the time she would set off for Border Town once again, and her heart would be filled with expectation.

The forest along Redwater River started to become yellow and the blowing breeze had a trace of chilliness. The river water with its waving light was flowing below her, and from time to time one could see fallen leaves sliding across the rail.

Without the anxiety and restlessness of last time, the autumn scenery around her looked as if it came out of a poem or painting.

"Miss May." A voice full of admiration sounded from behind. "The play that you performed, "The Witch Diaries", was it really written for you personally by His Highness?"

As May turned around, she saw a group of actresses gathering behind her, and in front of them standing a woman who looked at her nervously. She recalled that her name was "Swallow".

"Aha, sorry." Irene waved at her from the bow of the boat and laughed. "I couldn't answer their question so I told them to go ask you."

"Such a fool…" May rolled her eyes. In the past, she would have answered them with a sneer. But after spending more time with Irene, she became more and more patient. She said, "His Highness didn't write it for me. It was the Minister of Education of the City Hall, Lady Scroll, who wrote it for the witches."

"Uh, is that so?" Swallow blinked. "We thought it was true when seeing you fight with Bella."

"'His Highness wrote it personally' and 'His Highness wrote it personally for me', these two sentences are so different, but yet they still manage to confuse the first with the latter," May thought. "His Highness has approved both the script and the theatrical performance, so mocking the script indeed means mocking His Highness. In this aspect, I didn't lie to her."

"Have you met His Highness?"

"I heard that he has the iconic long gray hair of the crown and is extremely handsome, is that true?"

"I also heard that he's romantic and has many lovers!"

"Uh, really?"

"…" Looking at this lively group of young girls, May could not help but frown. Damn it! She should have never responded to their curiosity.

"Alright, stop bothering Miss May." Rosia came forward and sent them away while giving May an apologetic look.

"It's alright." She shrugged and continued to enjoy the scenery along the coast. "I was the one who answered their questions after all."

"I… don't understand." Rosia scratched her head. "Why did you bring them along? Out of the 35 people, only two of them have previously performed, while 26 of them haven't even completed all of their drama classes. According to what you used to say, they can be considered as more the unhatched than the chicks. Even if the lord's requirements for the play aren't so high, I'm afraid it'll still be hard for them to be accepted. If it's revenge against Bella that you seek, you should have persuaded some more experienced supporting actors."

"I never planned to let them all perform."

"Huh?" The other was shocked at the spot.

"They can all read the scripts, correct?" May smiled. "Although they're still a long way to performing on stage, they can at least read and write. Haven't you realized that this type of people is exactly what His Highness needs?" She paused for a moment. "Do you believe that Prince Roland Wimbledon asked us to perform because he really loves drama so much?"

"This...."

"If it was Lord Petrov, then the answer would be affirmative. Before he started managing Longsong Stronghold, he used to go to the theater every week. But His Highness Roland, except for the first performance of a new play, he's never appeared in the town's square, so the reason he's promoting drama isn't for pleasure but to pass on his ideas to the public by showing the performances." May continued, "Compared to the first plays, which emphasized on resisting oppression and that witches aren't evil, the new plays "Dawn" and "New City" aim towards people's recruitment and the message of getting rich through hard work. I'm merely following his wishes and do as much as I can to help out."

"So that's how it is. I never thought of this..." Rosia said.

"To understand a script, apart from putting yourself in the position of the character, it's also necessary to contemplate and realize the true meaning of what it intends to reflect as much as possible. This is also a quality that a good actor needs to possess.

"Yes, thank you for your guidance!" She bowed respectfully.

"Rest assured." May smiled. "In case you don't want to perform anymore, you can still find a pretty good job in Border Town. You may even enter the City Hall and become an administrative officer. After all, His Highness doesn't focus on status or family background. A career like that is much easier than that of a performer."

…

As the ship arrived in town, May right away noticed Ferlin Eltek standing on the dock.

Obviously, he was there for Irene.

She could not help but sigh as she saw the girl throwing herself into his arms.

"Isn't that person Morning Light Ferlin Eltek?"

"So he was not exiled by His Highness."

"The first knight in the Western Region, so nice." Shallow admired. "I thought he would be with the Star of the theater..."

"Stop talking nonsense." Everyone stopped talking upon hearing May's cold tone. "Quickly gather your luggage and disembark. Gait and Rosia will take you to the City Hall and have you registered. Everything else will be arranged by them."

"Yes," everyone replied respectfully.

As she came down to the docks, Ferlin, with his arm around his wife, approached and said respectfully, "Miss May, Irene just told me about the clash in the theater. Thank you for keeping an eye on her."

"There's no need to thank me," May replied, "They're actually targeting me, though it looks like they're offending her."

"Even so, I still have to thank you." the Knight laughed. "If it weren't for you, she would have definitely cried at that time."

When the couple left, May curled her lip, carried her luggage alone, and walked towards the residential district.

Even though she had given up on him, but seeing them together still made her feel a bit sad. Furthermore, that familiar figure also did not appear, even though he had promised in his letter that he would give her a surprise.

Well, he was, after all, someone important to His Highness. Would not he be able to move freely like the Morning Light right?

Having arrived home, May put down her luggage and felt a sense of relaxation that she had not felt for a long time. She took a long breath and walk to the cupboard to take out some white liquor. Just as she was about to pour herself a drink, she heard someone knocking the door.

At the door, Carter Lannis was standing before her.

"I didn't expect you to arrive an hour earlier." He wiped the sweat from his forehead. "I came here straight from the barracks when I heard that the ship from Longsong Stronghold had arrived."

Curiously, even though he did not wait for her at the docks to escort her, her mood instantly became better after seeing him like this. "Would you like some drink?"

"No thanks, I'm on duty this afternoon. Carter waved his hand.

"Alright." She nodded. "His Highness's work is more important. "

"I wanted to give you a present." The chief knight took out a white wooden box from his pocket and handed it to her.

"Is this the newest product from the Convenience Market?" May asked curiously as she took the box. When she opened it, she saw a yellow-orange ring. At the top of it, there was a transparent gemstone, which reflected various colors of light from the autumn sun that shone through the window.

Without a doubt, the ring was priceless, something unlikely sold in the Convenience Market. And when nobles gifted a ring, it meant… she could not help covering her mouth.

"Miss May, will you marry me?" Carter asked earnestly.

Chapter 305 - The Chemical Breakthrough

It had been four days since the witches and the First Army departed. According to the plan, they should arrive at the Silver City suburb the following afternoon.

Since they were equipped with Honey's carrier pigeons, Iron Axe, Anna, and Nightingale sent Roland letters every day. Though they were not as fast as mobile phones, they were not slower than newspaper messengers. If there were more carrier pigeons, with birds flying between them all the time, maybe they could achieve the effect of texting.

With Nightingale away, the chief knight had taken over the task of defending the castle. Roland was puzzled to see that Carter had been especially cheerful these days; it seemed that he had encountered something pleasing. Was being Roland's personal bodyguard the cause of this extra cheerfulness?

Roland shook his head and focused on the report from Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction.

Over the past month, with the assistance of the witches from Sleeping Island, they had made amazing progress on the construction projects in Border Town.

The first was the successful completion of the steel bridge across Redwater River. Compared with traditional stone and wooden bridges, the steel bridge was much easier to construct. The main body of the bridge was prefabricated, and then it was hoisted and assembled into place. Two floating islands raised by Lotus in the river course further simplified the difficulty in erecting the bridge, shortening the construction of the main bridge astonishingly into a month.

By modern standards, this bridge was short and narrow, with a simple structure and low load capacity, making it a project that was purely a waste of materials. However, in this era it could be regarded as a magnificent bridge. It had a total length of 100 meters. The surface of the bridge was flat and wide enough for two carriages to move side by side. The bottom of the bridge was high enough for the inland river ships to pass through, something impossible for any of the heavy stone bridges.

Secondly, Lotus's new city wall had also been completed. This purely mud-built city wall had increased the size of the town twice over. If he built a city on the basis of the town in the future, the original town would be the virtual "Inner City". However, Roland preferred to use "First Ring" and "Second Ring" to describe it. Perhaps one day in the future, this place could be expanded into a mega-city with seven rings, and officially named the "Imperial Capital".

Finally, as for the construction of the Kingdom Main Street, some parts of the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range had been flattened by Lotus, greatly reducing the construction time. Now the roads could go straight through.

"Your Highness, what's your next construction project for Lotus?" Karl asked after reporting the progress.

It could be seen that he was in extreme admiration of her ability to transform the terrain. He nearly proposed to recruit her in the Ministry of Construction and appoint her as the deputy minister.

"Well..." Roland was also considering it. He had three major renovation projects to be implemented in the following days.

The first would be the estuary project. They would look for a low opening in the southern mountain ridge and then level out the terrain to build paths to the shallow beach. This could only be achieved by using Lotus's ability. Once completed, the Western Region would own a seaward harbor.

The second was residential expansion. Although City Hall had invested a lot of manpower and financial resources to speed up the construction of residential districts, nearly 3,000 people might still be without the warmth of brick houses come winter. The simple shelters and wooden sheds they had at present, could not keep warm. He would need a number of cave dwellings with thick walls and heated brick beds to solve the problem.

The last project was the construction of a shipyard. To produce shallow water gunboats, he had to build a spacious shipyard first. It could not affect the shipping on Redwater River. Roland planned to lower the riverbank on the west side of the town to form a dry dock. Then he could install a lifting valve at the side of the river to control water intake and runoff. It would be a large project with huge earthwork, which would also require Lotus's ability.

After considering for a moment, he finally decided to give priority to residential expansion. Since they had brought the refugees from the Eastern Region to Border Town, they were responsible for their basic life necessities. If they froze or starved to death, it would not only be a major loss but would also lower people's sense of belonging to this place.

"So where should this temporary residential area be located?" Karl asked.

"Locate it in currently the serf shack district." Roland glanced at the map. "It's far from the defense line of the city walls. They'll also be sheltered from the wind by the Impassable Mountain Range."

After the minister of construction left, he was about to take a nap in his chair when Kyle Sichi came in.

"Your Highness, the large-scale acid-making process you required has been successfully developed."

His words were a great relief to Roland's tiredness. He stood up from the desk in surprise. "Really? Take me to see it."

They came to the laboratory at Redwater River. Several gray tanks and a furnace had been built next to the Fifth Laboratory. Each tank was as high as two men and had a pipeline connected to its top. The tanks had a smooth shape, clearly Anna's work.

"My respects to you, Your Highness." A young man bowed to Roland.

"You're Chavez?" Roland knew that Kyle had brought some apprentices and a distinguished alchemist from Redwater City, but this was his first time meeting this young man.

"You actually remember my name," Chavez said in surprise.

"Sir Kyle has mentioned you on many occasions." Roland patted his shoulder in encouragement. "Nice work." Then he looked to the chief alchemist and asked, "How is acid produced here?"

Kyle laughed while touching his beard. "It was developed successfully, because I deducted the chemical equations completely from the 'Elementary Chemistry'. Look at that furnace. The purified sulfur will burn in the furnace, and the resulting gas will go into the lead tank after further heating."

"Are all these devices made of lead?"

"That's right. Only lead can withstand acid corrosion." Kyle nodded. "The lead pipeline at the top of the tank keeps sprinkling down nitro-sulphuric acid. Meeting hot sulfur dioxide, the nitric acid will decompose to nitrogen oxide, which will react with water and sulfur dioxide to generate the sulfuric acid solution. The solution will flow out of the hole at the bottom of the tank. The ingenious part of the reaction is that nitrogen oxide only acts as an oxygen carrier, but it won't be consumed. In this way, the need for nitric acid is very small. Once the reaction starts, it can go on working forever!"

"How's its output?" Roland patted the lead tank excitedly. Large-scale acid production was a prerequisite for the mass production of smokeless gunpowder. If this problem had been solved, he could produce the ammunition for the new-generation flintlocks and cannon.

"This is the fourth device I've tested. Its daily output is equal to a week's output from the laboratory. We use a dry distillation method for a week," the chief alchemist proudly said, "It isn't large because I just made it for testing. If I can use larger lead tanks, the output can be further improved."

"That's really good news." Roland laughed. "When Miss Anna returns, you can immediately start building a larger-scale acid plant. In case the lead isn't enough, you can use iron instead. Miss Soraya's coating can make iron containers withstand acid corrosion."

Kyle nodded, but his next words made the prince's smile fade away.

"The large-scale acid-making process has succeeded, and all five laboratories are filled with apprentices. Your Highness, would you please award the 'Intermediate Chemist' to me as you promised?"

Chapter 306 - In the Castle Backyard

Scroll stood behind His Highness Roland, quietly watching him writing out the manuscript. The autumn sunshine shone through the window onto her back, making her feel like being bathed in warmth.

"Oh, what contents should also be included... in addition to gain and loss of electrons? Can anyone tell me? I'm waiting online..." The prince wrote down some words on the paper from time to time and then began to hold his forehead to meditate, occasionally saying some incomprehensible nonsense. Originally Scroll was somewhat worried about his physical condition, but later she realized that this was just the normal state of His Highness when he tried to recall his "knowledge".

Only today his "symptoms" were much more severe than before.

"Unfortunately, I can't help him..." Scroll lightly sighed, "I'm afraid Anna is the only witch who can help him in this aspect. I've already memorized the several pages His Highness wrote earlier. However, I just remember the contents but don't understand them at all. The knowledge is much deeper than the basic principles of mathematics and natural science we've learned in the past. Just reading it has already made me feel dizzy. No wonder that His Highness is so frustrated."

"How about we call it a day?" Scroll could not help but say to His Highness.

Roland gave up and dropped his pen, leaning against the chair. Then he sighed. "I really envy your ability of never forgetting anything. If I could be like you, I would never need to worry about exams. Then I would be admitted to a famous university and achieve the pinnacle of my career."

She automatically ignored the latter part of his words as nonsense. "Did Your Highness also need to take exams in the palace?"

"Yeah. Otherwise, how can they figure out which prince is more excellent," he muttered.

"In fact, sometimes remembering everything isn't so good," Scroll said with a smile, "Things like bad encounters, sadness, and griefs. I'd rather I could forget them."

When she lived in Seawindshire, she had been beaten and insulted countless times, just because of being poor. Until now, she could still remember the blows the suffering, the twisted faces of those perpetrators who beat her to release their anger, and the pain of each hit and kick. Only after she was sheltered by an old captain with broken legs, had her life become slightly better. In fact, in places like the slums, every day many people died from fighting and killing each other, which was not less than those from hunger and coldness.

For a long time, she had detested herself for clearly remembering the hardships she encountered. The scenes were so clear that the insufferable experiences turned into her nightmares every night. Until she entered adulthood and awakened to gain the derivative skill, "Book of Magic", she began to understand that she had an extraordinary memory because she was a witch.

Roland probably guessed what she was thinking, and he showed an apologetic smile toward her and said, "You're right."

Scroll suddenly felt warmth flowing through her heart.

Few people cared about a witch's feelings, not to mention that this man was a prominent member of the royal nobles.

"It's alright. It's in the past, Your Highness."

Roland Wimbledon was different from any noble she met... No, he was actually different from any men she met. He owned profound knowledge, yet thinking of passing the knowledge to others all day. He had a noble background, but yet he did not have an arrogant and refusing attitude toward others. He was admired by all the people and could do anything as he liked, but yet he did not, and instead, he would consider other people's feelings.

A desolate and backward town had undergone earth-shaking changes within one year. The witches gained their long-dreamt peace and freedom, which all thanks to His Highness. If she had not experienced it by herself, she would never believe a ruler like this could exist in the world.

Now, Scroll found that her thoughts were also changing little by little. She had not agreed with His Highness' decision of marrying with a witch in the past. But at this moment she felt that no matter who he married, His Highness would ascend the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle. He did not rely on those noble members who knew nothing but following the routines and greedily fighting for power and fortune. Instead, he relied on people who supported him because he brought a better life to them.

She vaguely felt that this power would be stronger than any other power before.

"Ah, well," Roland suddenly rubbed his head and said, "this is the last page."

"Will we continue tomorrow?"

"No, just give it to him like this. With another physics textbook, it'll be enough for him to study for a long time." His Highness took a new piece of paper and quickly wrote a few characters. "After all, it's normal for a book from 'Ancient Times' to have some missing pages, right?"

Scroll took the paper and saw the name of the book on it—"Intermediate Chemistry (Remnant)".

...

After finishing her memory work, she left his office and was ready to go to the City Hall, but was attracted by the magnificent view of the castle backyard.

After the expansion of the castle walls, the backyard became almost as large as the town square. It was planted with a wide variety of plants within less than a week. There was no doubt that this must be the masterpiece of Leaf.

Scroll walked deep into the garden along the passage of olive trees. After passing through a dense row of sugarcanes, she saw Leaf sitting by a small pond.

Leaf did not bundle her hair into the usual braids; instead, she had her green long hair casually hanging around her shoulders. She was gently tapping water with her white feet, and holding some wheat grains with both hands and throwing them to the fish from time to time. Whenever a fish swam up and rubbed her toes, she could not help but chuckle.

"Your feet have been healed?" Scroll sat down beside her.

"Ah, Miss Scroll." She blinked, then nodded and smiled. "Yes, Miss Nana restored them to their original form, so I finally don't have to endure the pain of the toes in winter."

"Have you personally improved all the plants in the garden?"

"Yeah." Leaf happily pointed to the plants. "Those are grapevine sheds. Here are fruit trees and crops. I also asked His Highness to send some compost to test the absorption of new crops. There're dozens of bird's nests in the fruit tree area, so the carrier pigeons that Honey raises can all sleep in them."

Scroll affectionately caressed her long hair and said, "I thought you'd be the first witch in the association to evolve your ability. After all, when we were in the Impassable Mountain Range, the ability you demonstrated was nearly as strong as that of Cara."

"His Highness said the evolution of one's ability comes from the understanding of our own abilities. The plant cells are indeed incredible, but I've thought long before that they should have been the same. You see, a bunch of grass can gather together to form pliable vines. If they're different, how can they integrate together like that?"

Scroll opened her mouth but did not know whether to comfort her or agree with her. Finally, she said, "Even if your ability doesn't evolve, you can still do a lot of things for His Highness."

"I feel it isn't far away from me." Leaf shook her head while her eyes were shining with excitement. "Animals are life, plants are also life, and even the parts that form them are also life... Birds need to nest on trees, and their faeces can also fertilize trees. A forest can support every living being to grow, while it also expands because of the support of the living beings in return." She paused. "Looking at the garden, I think I've found a way forward. "

Chapter 307 - A Knell from the Sky

The hot air balloon was soaring over 2,000 meters above the ground. This number was measured by Lightning when she flew perpendicularly.

The sky was loosely specked with puffs of white clouds that seemed so close to her that she almost felt they were within her reach. If she really wanted to touch them, however, she had to fly up for another several hundred meters.

The entire hot air balloon was colored in white and blue, perfectly fused with the sky from a distance. Like the "Easterly Wind No.1", Lightning was also in camouflage. Since His Highness had told them that the raid must be quick and unexpected, the First Army landed before the boat arrived at the pier of Silver City and marshaled toward the backside of the mountain ridge nearby on foot.

Thanks to Sylvie's monitoring, the army successfully reached the camp unnoticed. After tents were pitched, the "Cloud Gazer" slowly rose and was ready for bombing the following day.

It had taken them a week to commute, and now it was exactly the beginning of mid-autumn.

The white figure in front of the balloon was Maggie. As it was inconvenient to observe in the basket, she took over the guidance and scouting work. After turning herself into a goshawk with white tail feathers, Maggie was thus able to quickly capture various roads connecting cities and towns, as well as carriages running on these roads. It seemed that goshawk's eyes worked better than a telescope for scouting.

Lightning was happy to know that Maggie at least could not help adjust the landing spot of the bomb. Otherwise, she would truly become an idler.

"Are you tired?" Anna asked while leaning against the basket. "Get in to take a rest. There're no demons right now anyway."

The little girl shook her head. "I can fly at this speed for a whole day."

"Are you a bit nervous?" Wendy also joined the conversation.

"Certainly not." Lightning twitched her mouth. "I've practiced a lot of times. Plus, the palace is huge. There's no way I'll miss the target."

"Really?" Wendy smiled. "In any event, don't force yourself. His Highness has said safety is a top priority. Plus... you don't need to worry too much about what happened during the investigation of Devil's Town. It wasn't your fault."

"Well, I..."

Wendy continued in a gentle voice, "Everybody knows that you've been in low spirits for the past few days. You weren't afraid, but were simply not good at battling. If I were you, I wouldn't necessarily have done any better."

"Wendy's right. Most witches don't possess the combatting skills that Nightingale does." Anna comforted Lightning. "Come in and have a rest. You'll need a lot of magic power to adjust the landing spot of the bomb later."

Persuaded, Lightning let out an imperceptible snort and flew into the basket, head hanging. Before she completely landed, Wendy had pressed the little girl firmly into her chest. "Nobody will blame you, so you don't need to cast the blame on yourself, understand?"

"Yes..."

...

After flying for the whole morning, Maggie returned to the Cloud Gazer while flapping her wings and reported to the three people in the basket. "The king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle is right at the front. We're almost there, choo."

Lightning left the basket and raised the telescope. Like Prince Roland had said, the magnificent city wall of the king's city, which wound like a blue thin thread that twisted and crooked along the whole city, could be easily detected from above. In the middle of the gray color block stood out a nail-sized white dot.

Based on the original plan, they should have first distributed pamphlets before dumping the "Easterly Wind No.1". After several trials, however, they had discovered it was impossible to have the flyers land at their designated spot, even with loadings. If they lowered the height, they would then be easily spotted by people on the ground. After all, the "Cloud Gazer" was not a tiny balloon. People would naturally look up when sheets drifted down and thereby see them flying in the sky.

As such, His Highness had at last asked Theo to spread the message, whereas they were only responsible for bombing the palace in the air.

Wendy manipulated air currents to let the basket hover above the king's city.

"Are you ready?"

Lightning gave an approving nod and said, "Open the valve."

With a clink, the heavy bomb was detached from the basket and plunged straight down to the ground. As the loading was abruptly discharged, the hot air balloon rose swiftly.

Lightning was too familiar with the steps coming next.

As the parachute at the end of the "Easterly Wind No.1" slowly opened, Lightning soon caught up with the bomb and started to adjust its trajectory little by little.

For witches of the Witch Cooperation Association, the king's city was familiar to them. During the time they had traveled to Barbarian Land to seek Holy Mountain, they had hidden in the slum of the city for a few months. The purpose of staying in the king's city was to collect food and recruit new members. In fact, Soraya and Echo had joined the Witch Cooperation Association during that time period. Although having not personally experienced herself, Lightning had heard witches were less tolerated in the king's city than in any other cities. Witches were executed almost every month at the square in the outer city. Therefore, their stay in the king's city had been the shortest among all others, for to linger one more days had meant more suffer from the loss of their sisters.

Lightning did not like this flourishing capital at all. If she could throw the bomb right above Timothy's head and end his regime, she would be very glad to do so. She believed that if Roland were the ruler of the Kingdom of Graycastle, there would have been no such tragedies.

Right now she just got an opportunity to correct the error.

Winds whistled in her ears. As Lightning flew lower, the landscape below started to become clearer. More details of the palace in the inner city were presented.

Compared with the low-rise residences where peasants lived, the palace was much larger. Its main architecture consisted of a dome temple, a reception building and a tower castle. There were also numerous complementary buildings such as barns, barracks and stables. In view of the fact that the castle was fortified and that its roof structure was complicated, Roland picked the temple as the bombing target because it was easier for them to ignite the fuze there.

With the bomb dropping rapidly, it was soon about time to detach the parachute. Lightning pulled the trigger to let the sleeve separate from the bomb while at the same time quickly flying upward with the sleeve.

Although she remembered His Highness had told her repeatedly to fly high enough to keep herself safe before the bomb landed and not to turn around to see the explosion, the little girl still lowered her head in curiosity.

A blinding flash lighted up the temple, and soon a fireball began to grow in size.

The white illumination immediately turned into a bright orange-red color and was then engulfed by the surrounding smoke and ashes that sprang up. The blast only took a few seconds. Next Lightning heard a deafening explosion that almost tipped her over in the air.

She had never seen a real battlefield full of bombards before, but she was totally shocked by the monstrous power of the "Easterly Wind No.1". The noise produced by the bomb was 10 times more than all the sounds produced by those terrifying weapons that discharged iron balls.

Smogs that ejected from windows enveloped the pillars surrounding the temple, permeating throughout the garden and the hallway outside. Presently, several cracks appeared around the dome where the bomb landed.

Lightning's attention was attracted to the explosion. She gazed at the last of the temple while holding her breath.

In a second, black cracks were all over the dome like spilled ink that streamed down. As the bombing continued, the dome finally failed to support itself and collapsed, kicking up an even thicker gust of ashes and crumbs.

The temple of the palace crumbled under the fierce attack of the "Easterly Wind No.1".

Chapter 308 - Terror

For the past few days, Theo had been in touch with His Highness on a daily basis.

Although he had witnessed numberless incredible incidents since becoming Roland's guards a year ago, the new order he had received again blew his mind, making him feel... bewildered.

To advertise the bombing of the palace of the king's city and spread the rumor that it was actually a punishment Roland Wimbledon imposed on Timothy Wimbledon?

When the militia who used to attack the Western Region had retreated to the king's city, Theo had heard "warnings" from those soldiers. At that time, he had simply thought their warnings were another Roland's bluff or distraction strategy. He had believed that the prince's real intention was, as what Garcia had done, to attack and loot other cities before winter while Timothy was busy with defense work.

However, the subsequent order from Border Town alarmed him. It appeared that his Highness did mean to attack the king's city, as he had instructed him to make preparation for pre-war political propaganda. The latest order specifically stated that Roland would launch an attack on the first day of mid-autumn, which was exactly the time previously "warned" by the Militia.

The order read, "Advertise the bombing of the palace and tell the public it's a punishment". This meant His Highness would directly attack the inner city of King's City. Theo wondered how it could be possible. The city wall of the king's city was the strongest one throughout the Kingdom of Graycastle. It was as thick as two residence buildings putting together. Even bombarded by the cannon invented by His Highness, it was still impregnable. Apart from the fortified castle, there were numerous knights, guards and recruited militia defending the king's city. The prince would need to have an army of at least 10,000 people to penetrate the defense line.

As for employing witches to launch a sudden strike, it was also a too optimistic and unrealistic tactic. There were incessant God's Stones of Retaliation in the palace, and those in halls and bedrooms were giant in size. They would immediately render witches powerless once they entered the room. This was also why nobody had retaliated for the massive witch-hunt Timothy was conducting so far. After all, it was impossible to assassinate a royal family member in the palace.

The strategy would also bring another potential problem. If a witch did manage to murder Timothy Wimbledon, the church would probably benefit the most from its outcome... With simply a little instigation, the church would be able to condemn Prince Roland for colluding with Devil's minions to usurp the throne. By that time, nobles would have also united together to resist Roland's army. With that being said, Theo believed that as smart as the prince was, Roland must have already foreseen these prospective difficulties.

So, how would His Highness break into the inner city?

"Your Excellency, did you wish to see me?" Just then, Hill Fawkes pushed the half-open door and entered the living room.

Theo spread out his hands. "I'm waiting for a new order. Please take a seat."

"... OK."

Perceiving the surprised look of the former acrobat, Theo smiled wryly. Normally he would clearly communicate the order to these people, but this time, he felt hard to hand His Highness' task in advance. If the palace was not bombed, not only would he look very absurd to issue this order but it would also compromise the prince's integrity at the same time.

On the contrary, if His Highness did succeed, the shock created by this operation would be revolutionary. These people would build greater confidence in Roland's plan, for they would witness what a dangerous threat His Highness could pose to Timothy's ruling without even physically being here. It would be a much more earthshaking blow than oral advertisements.

In this light, Theo decided to pick a middle way, which was to ask Hill to wait for the bombing in the inner city. If the prince did implement his plan, then so much the better. If the plan failed, he would just say the messenger got held up with something on their way.

"Have some tea." Theo smiled. "Don't have a questioning look all the time. The most important thing for an intelligence agent is..."

"To conceal himself, Sir." Hill took the teacup and said, "I've seen many members of the patrol team on the street recently. It looks like that the number of the guards on the city wall has also doubled. Does it... have something to do with His Highness' order?"

"That's right. Timothy..."

No sooner had Theo finished his last sentence than a thunderbolt roared above the mansion. Windows rattled at the powerful sound. Although the shock was quite fugitive, Theo could clearly feel the ground was shaking. Hill was caught fully unprepared and the teacup in his hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

Hill was dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, Sir... but what, what just happened?"

"Follow me," Theo answered gravely.

As soon as the pair ran out of the mansion, their attention was diverted to a streak of black smoke around the palace area. Apparently, that was the cause of the previous thunderbolt. Theo had seen His Highness' cannons and flintlocks, so he knew only alchemical powder could create such severe damage. He also believed regular cannons could not generate such an intense shock. It was more like the offspring of the explosives that had been used to attack armored demonic beasts earlier.

Hill gaped in disbelief, looking perfectly incredulous. "So His Highness' warning is indeed true?"

"Yes." Theo was relieved. He turned around and put on an unfathomable look. "This is also the new order issued to you by His Highness."

***************

Timothy's face went livid. He looked at the fallen chandelier, too frightened to pronounce a word.

"Your Majesty, ahem... Your Majesty, are you OK?" The prime minister was choked by thick ashes in the air. "Hell, what just happened outside?"

Timothy was silent. His dry throat forbade him to make a reply promptly. A silver armored knight had just been crushed by the chandelier. The knight had just been about to report to him on the recruitment of refugees when the chandelier plunged and broke his neck. Timothy could not imagine what would have happened if he had paced one more step forward...

At this thought, all his hair stood up on its ends.

"Was that an earthquake?" The treasurer had yet to fully recover from the shock. "We've got to get out of the castle right now and go to an empty field."

"That's right, Your Majesty. It isn't safe in here!"

"Shut up, all of you!" Timothy growled. The moment he yelled, he noticed that he almost lost his voice as if somebody were pressing on his neck. "Knight Weimar, take me to the basement right now!"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Although a little nervous, Steelheart Knight was overall calm compared with the other ministers. He helped Timothy up and led him downstairs.

While they were walking, the new king noticed the ground was littered with broken glass. Through the broken windows, he saw the Hall of Sky Dome next to the castle was completely gone, except a few lonely stone pillars enveloped in smog. This was definitely not the effect of an earthquake, but of an explosion generated by a large amount of snow powder!

Timothy realized that it was almost suicidal to slip out of the castle now, for God knew where else Roland Wimbledon had deployed snow powder. Therefore, the basement built with thick, sturdy stones was the only safe place.

"Damn it!" Timothy cursed within himself. He wondered how his fourth brother possessed those alchemical weapons. Could it be possible that Garcia had given Roland the ingredients and asked him to wage a war against him before she had left Port of Clearwater, so both he and Roland would be consumed by the battle?

Even if that was the case, how did Roland manage to ship snow powder to the palace? Even an extraordinary witch could not possibly do so!

"You take the knightage to conduct a thorough search of the palace, especially of places for hiding snow powder, such as the drainage system, the garden and the barn!" As soon as Timothy stepped into the basement, he gave his order to Steelheart Knight. "Once you've found someone that appears suspicious, arrest him immediately, no matter he's a noble, a guard or a servant. I want you not to miss a single soul!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The new king did not realize that his back had been covered with cold sweats until Knight Weimar departed.

He could not believe that Roland had indeed succeeded in hiding snow powder in his palace unnoticed!

It did not matter what method he had used. If he could hide snow powder in the palace, he could definitely put them in the castle as well.

"You aren't as safe as you've excepted. By then, every civilian will notice that your throne is hanging by a thread."

Timothy shuddered at this warning.

Terror started to slowly creep in and in the end seized him after his fury gradually dissipated.

Chapter 309 - An Exploration of Knowledge

Roland received an encrypted letter from the king's city.

It was most likely a letter from his guard, Theo, for the letter was delivered by a carrier pigeon.

After taking the note off the bird's paw, Roland walked to the window and started to peruse its content in the bright sunlight.

"Your Highness, your plan was an astounding success."

"As the access to the palace was soon blocked, I did not know how profound the impact of the bombing was until later. By the evening, almost every resident in the king's city has been talking about the incident. It's the only thing people are now discussing. Where there's a little knot of people, rumors follow, no matter it's a hotel, an inn or the square. Nothing has ever created such a great commotion, not even the death of the previous king. Because of your warning earlier, now many people are of opinion that Timothy died in the accident, and that you'll soon come to the king's city to ascend the throne, becoming the new sovereign of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Roland felt relieved as he read this paragraph. No news could be better than the success of the bombing operation and the safe return of the witches.

He made himself some tea and returned to the mahogany desk to continue to read the letter.

"Nonetheless, based on the information I've collected so far, the great nobles outside the king's city have yet to have any reaction to this matter. On the contrary, the palace soon came up with a countermeasure. Therefore, I conjecture that Timothy Wimbledon may still be alive."

"Further, someone boasted that the attack was out of God's will, for some residents saw a pale, white object descend from the sky and plunge into the palace. In view of the above-noted, my preliminary plan is to proclaim the bombing as a God's Punishment for the atrocities the usurper committed. I believe many people will buy this explanation."

"My employees are all excited about this operation. They've collected quite a bit information on some of the most obnoxious crimes Timothy committed. Combined with the recent incident, the argument will be convincing. I hold that within a month, the rumor about Timothy's wicked acts will be circulated all over the city and reach every citizen through Rats in the Black Street."

"In addition, I'll continue to closely monitor the movement of the barrack at the eastern suburb. From the current situation, however, I assume Timothy will leave it as it's for the time being until he develops a strategy to defend the city."

There was no signature at the end of the letter. Roland folded the encrypted letter and put it into the drawer after finishing reading it. He breathed out a long sigh.

If the "Easterly Wind No.1" could prevent Timothy from sending out his troops, that would be perfect.

It would be a huge waste of population to form a drugged army. The later Timothy commenced the war, the greater chance he would have to increase his manpower.

Roland raised the teacup and sipped the scented black tea. The next thing he should do was to wait for the return of the witches.

He had felt a little strange and uneasy with Anna's absence and the intact dried fish in the drawer in the past few days.

Just then, Carter pushed the office door open.

"Your Highness, two fleets arrived at the dock."

Roland was a bit surprised. "That's the fleet of Margaret's Chamber of Commerce's, isn't it? She just missed a show... Hang on, there're two fleets you said?"

"Yes," Carter replied with a smile, "some members of the emissary delegation you sent to the South Region for recruitment have just come back. The dock is now packed with the refugees they brought. The City Hall is currently busy in screening them according to your procedure. I mean the plan you implemented with Miss Lily..."

"The quarantine protocol."

"Yes, that's it. This is to eliminate the possible existence of the demonic plague..." The chief knight coughed in embarrassment. "There're around 400 to 500 people coming here."

"Really?" Roland could not help smiling. He was satisfied to see some progress in his plan. It seemed that Lotus had to arrange accommodations for more people. "Let's go and take a look."

***************

Kyle Sichi put down the thin book. The sentence "I see" fell from his lips and gradually turned into a repetitive murmur.

"Mentor?" Chavez asked with some concerns.

Kyle had not been asleep for two days since he received "Intermediate Chemistry". He had been reading the ancient book almost day and night. Chavez had once stolen a glance at the contents, but they were too profound and difficult for him to comprehend.

"I'm very well," the chief alchemist answered vigorously. His voice was the most passionate one without a hint of weariness. Although there was a thin layer of crust at the corner of Kyle's eyes, his pupils were glistening with excitement. The chief alchemist did not by any means look like a person in lack of sleep.

As a common rule, a student was not allowed to interrupt his mentor while the latter was conducting research on alchemy. Therefore, Chavez did not speak until now. "I don't really get... this book. What's an atom, and what's an electron?"

"You're now a qualified alchemist, and you don't need to regard yourself as a student any longer. We're currently what High Highness refers to as colleagues." Kyle paused for a second and then continued, "As to your question, I don't have an answer, either. In fact, His Highness also gave me this book when he handed 'Intermediate Chemistry' to me."

Chavez looked at another book placed on the desk. The cover indicated the name of the book was Natural Science Theoretical Foundation.

"Mr... Sichi." Apparently not accustomed to this way of addressing, Chavez stuttered. "It seems the book has nothing to do with alchemy... no, I mean with chemistry."

"I thought so, too." Kyle stroked his beard. "However, after I skimmed through a few pages, I realized that I actually know nothing about the world."

"What?" Chavez was stunned at Kyle's conclusion. The sole research subjects of alchemists were the constitution of objects and the nature of elements. If they were considered as ignorant, the rest of ordinary people would be no smarter than monkeys.

"I mean ideas." The Chief Alchemist was exhilarated and... contented at the same time. "We don't really think out of the box but simply regard alchemy as an exploration of substances. We think it bears no relations with the rising and setting sun or the decline and flourish of a flower."

"Isn't that so... The movements of the sun and stars are the research subjects of astrologers'. As to plants," Chavez commented somewhat contemptuously, "only farmers and pharmacists care about them."

"That's why we're ignorant of the world." Kyle shook his head. "This book connects everything together from the beginning. Stones, flowers, grass, thunders and flames all consist of the same thing and follow a certain set of rules. These rules don't only apply to chemical reactions, but also apply to the rise and set of the sun, the bloom and fading of flowers. The rules are so accurate and consistent that as long as the conditions at the starting point are the same, the results will be identical. Chemistry, after all, only takes a very small part."

"... How, how can it be possible?"

"I also feel it incredible." Kyle spread out the periodic table of elements and explained, "Intermediate Chemistry asserts that each element has a specific shape, consisting of a big sphere and many small ones surrounding it. The big sphere determines an element, whereas the number and the layers of the small spheres determine the element's property. This table here organizes all the elements based on this rule. The tabular arrangement is as orderly as a line of soldiers. Even I haven't completely figured out what His Highness was actually trying to convey. The prince believes that one can know the property and the reaction mechanism of an element even without actually seeing or touching it. Its underlying reason is that the nature of a chemical reaction is the loss and gain of small balls. The reaction itself won't affect big balls. That's also why during a chemical reaction, elements won't disappear but will just transfer."

Chavez contemplated for a while and asked, "Do you... believe it?"

These theories were just so abstract as to be verified through experiments. Chavez wondered how the author of the book got to know all of these.

Kyle smiled. "I don't know. That's why I couldn't answer your previous question. No matter you believe it or not, the point is, that the book has told us to view things from a perspective that we've never thought of... It shows me another realm beyond chemistry." Kyle paused for a moment and then said, "Unfortunately, His Highness did not write all the elements down. He probably doesn't understand what he has exactly missed."

Chavez did not quite understand what Kyle had just said. He felt bewildered as if he had once again become that new apprentice who, for the first time of his life, had come across alchemy terminologies and overwhelmed by this foreign language.

Yet he was not worried. As long as he followed the guidance of his mentor, he would eventually learn the so-called "connections between everything". He had much more time to study than the chief alchemist.

After a while, Chavez broke the silence. "By the way, why are the books given by His Highness labeled with different colors?"

The chief alchemist uttered an exclamation. "I, I didn't notice that. Did he just randomly label them?" However, he soon shook his head. "No, they can be random if they're only in black and red. These pigments are particularly hard to make, so it can't just be a coincidence. That means His Highness did it on purpose, didn't he?"

Elementary Chemistry was in blue, Natural Science Theoretical Foundation blue, Elementary Mathematics green and Intermediate Chemistry (Remnant) purple. These colors did not pop up when being singled out. They became quite eye-catching, however, when being put together.

"Perhaps for some aesthetic reasons?" Chavez presumed.

Chapter 310 - The Pure Witches

Standing on the top of a hillside, Mayne looked out over Wolfheart City.

In merely three months, it completely changed. The last time he had come here, its city wall built with neat, white snow stones from the Kingdom of Everwinter had been like stain-free white teeth of a new-born wolf, but now the blood-stained, damaged wall looked brown and mottled. Broken parts of it were hastily mended with the local black rocks or even wooden frames and plates.

Looking from afar, this rough, dirty wall was like dreadful fangs of an old wolf who had gnawed many animals and become a real predator.

The church's forces camped at a place around 2,500 meters away from Wolfheart City. Less soldiers of the church came here this time. In case that the Queen of Clearwater would sneak attack the old Holy City, the church reserved some forces to guard it and only sent 800 God's Punishment Warriors, 5,000 Judgement Warriors and 5,000 transport corps men here to conquer Wolfheart City, but Mayne was fully confident in capturing this city, with the secret weapons and the pure witches.

"Your Eminence, 'Siege Beasts' have been set in place, ready to attack," a priest ran to the top of the hillside and reported to him

"What about the pure witches?"

"They're ready, too."

He lifted a telescope in front of his eye to observe the battlefield. Two "Siege Beasts" were crouching 1,000 meters away from Wolfheart City, hiding themselves well under a thatched shed and surrounded by planks. It was hard for anyone seeing with naked eyes from afar to notice those two ferocious-looking weapons.

In front of the "Siege Beasts", stood the God's Punishment Army formed by soldiers converted from the most pious believers of the church. They remained upright and motionless in the autumn wind. All the enemies who had fought against them had been overwhelmed by their might. As they were unable to act independently in battles, they were controlled by their commanders who mingled among them under the guise of God's Punishment Warriors. As for these commanders, even the church people, except the pope and three archbishops, had no idea who they were.

"Good, now you can return to your position and wait for the attacking horn." Mayne nodded with satisfaction.

"Yes, Your Eminence."

Now it was time to summon the Supreme Pontiff's Pure Witches.

Thinking of them, Mayne could not help but knit his eyebrows. Totally different from the other witches raised up by the church, they behaved as they pleased even in the army. If his own pure witches acted like this, he would punish them by whips, but he could not treat these two pure witches like that, as they held equivalent positions to him in the church. After all, Supreme Pontiff had only ordered them to assist him in this battle, not to follow his order.

No matter how they behaved, he still needed their help to eliminate the enemies.

He walked down the slope to the pure witches' tent outside the battalion. Just as he had expected, he found no one in the tent when he lifted up the door curtain.

"Where did Zero and Isabella go?" he asked a Judgement Warrior stood at the door.

"The two ladies are interrogating prisoners and should be in the east of the battalion. There's a flat open space. You'll see it when you walk in that area. Do you need me to call them over?" said the guard.

"I won't come here if you can invite them out. And it's a captive game again... Haven't they got tired of it yet?" Mayne complained inwardly and said to the guard with a gloomy face, "no, I'll go there to have a look."

…

He soon came to the place mentioned by the guard.

Surrounded by lots of Judgement Warriors, two women stood in the middle. In front of them, there were three captives whose hands were tied behind their backs. One woman leaning forward was whispering something to the captives with a soft and intent look on her face. Her white hair and corners of her white robe danced in the wind, making her look like a pure elf. The other woman who got a great body, blonde wavy hair and a dulcet voice chuckled now and then.

Mayne said to the chief justice beside him, "Order all the Judgement Warriors to leave this place at once, including the ones in charge of those captives."

"Yes, Your Eminence."

The blonde witch noticed this. She said something to the other witch and then quickly walked toward Mayne.

"Your Eminence." She slightly bowed to him and continued, "Why do you drive away all the audience? The trial will begin right away."

He nodded back to greet her and said, "Lady Isabella, the full-range attack on Wolfheart City is about to begin. At this moment, there's no point in interrogating captives. Besides, they're just scouts we caught along the way and can offer little valuable information. If you can, I hope you two immediately come to the front line."

"Relax, now that we're here, it's impossible for any important enemy to escape. As for the trial... I can't stop her. Given that, how about you watching it here? It won't take a long time, anyway," Isabella said while spreading her hands.

"The same trial game?"

"Well, the rules are basically the same." She smiled. "Zero just loves this kind of games."

"So, start it immediately." Mayne tried his best to suppress his anger to put on an expressionless face, but he swore inwardly. "Damn! What the hell is this trial game? It should be called the cat-and-mouse game. In this game, a captive has to get out of a certain area set by Zero or defeat her to get a slim chance of survival. These seemingly easy tasks which are actually something the captives could never complete are thrown out by Zero as baits to lure the captives into her traps."

It was not a fair game at all, and what the pure witch did was far from a good, pure deed. This was the reason Mayne had ordered to send away all the Judgement Warriors who were in charge of protecting and monitoring the pure witches. He was afraid that watching this would shake their faith in the church.

He made up his mind that when he became a pope, he must strictly teach these witches to obey orders.

At this moment, Zero had already untied the ropes binding the captives. She stretched out her arms to show that she did not carry any weapon, but the captives had a long sword, a bent blade and a light crossbow placed in front of them.

"Come on, fight or escape. Follow your own heart. Only deities can make a decision," she said with a calm face and a gentle tone.

One of the captives clenched his teeth and picked up the crossbow to shoot at the pure witch close at hand in a sudden. Immediately after that, he grabbed the sword to strike at her, planning to leave her no time to react. He had done all those actions in just one smooth motion, which indicated that he was not just an ordinary militia fighter.

However, his sword did not hit the pure witch. Zero easily evaded the sudden strike by swiftly moving two steps backward. When he lifted up his head, he was agape seeing the witch holding the arrow between her lips, as if it were a common twig.

Zero spat out the arrow and said with a smile, "Go on, please."

The captive's eyes widened in fright. Seeing his trembling hands, Mayne was sure that most of the courage that he had just plucked up was gone now and all the remaining courage, if any, was only enough for his last strike.

As the archbishop expected, after a moment of hesitation, the captive gave full vent to his feelings in a loud roar and dashed toward the unarmed witch, with a sword in hand.

There was nothing at all skillful about the captive's desperate last strike. Mayne could know what would happen next, even with his eyes closed. Having spent only half a month with Zero, he was impressed by her amazing ability. She was not an Extraordinary, but could definitely compete with Extraordinaries in terms of combat skills. She was not extremely powerful or resilient, but incredibly skillful.

Even without magic power, she would still make an excellent fighter.

Zero edged to one side to avoid the captive's sword and then took a chance to grab his head with her slender hands. Making use of his forward momentum, she slightly twisted his head, and the captive collapsed suddenly, looking as if all his bones were removed.

Zero turned around to look at the two remaining captives and said, "Now, it's your turn."

Chapter 311 - Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part Ⅰ)

Having seen what had happened, a remaining captive immediately turned around to escape, which disappointed Zero.

She transformed into a beam of dim light and entered the captive. He stopped running and rolled his eyes at once. It was not the first time for Mayne to witness this uncanny ability, but every time he saw it, he could not help but get cold feet.

As the dim light shone out of the captive's body, his image was twisted and distorted. In the end, he changed into Zero.

Mayne could tell that this was not possessing or killing, but as for what had happened exactly in the process, he thought that only the pope and those people who had experienced it had a clear idea.

Zero took a deep breath and then walked to the last captive.

At the age of 14 or 15, he was the youngest among all the three captives. With the panic in his clear eyes, this boy clearly could not believe what he had seen.

"Now, you're all alone, Al," Zero whispered.

Hearing this, the boy who was trying to pick up the bent blade with trembling hands was stunned. "Wh-Why..."

"Deities have told me everything. You're a farmer's child living in the suburbs, but the King of Wolfheart forced all the people in your village to move into the city to repair the city wall, make military supplies and deliver food for the army. They didn't treat a young boy like you differently. They grabbed you for military service in the scouts team and then abandoned you to your fate." She reached out her hand to touch his cheek. "The best evidence of this is the fact that you weren't allowed into the city by the guards the first time you went back to report. You delivered to them the information about our actions, but the captain of the guards just asked you to leave and to follow us again, after hearing your report, right?"

"I..." He opened his mouth but failed to say anything.

"They would never let you in, because all the people in your family, your parents and brothers, were dead at that time. They were just like you, being enslaved and abandoned by the king. If the guards let you in, the whole scouts team would know those bad, disgusting deeds. When your father was mending a breach in the city wall, he fell down from it and died. Your mother went to the supervision team to ask for a reason, but only received a flogging punishment. Because of this, now her life is hung by a thread. Without deities, this world will remain to be evil and ugly. Are you sure you still want to serve such a lord?" Zero said.

Al's eyes widened in shock. Unable to resist the grief, he cried, "It's... impossible. You're lying!"

"Deities never lie." the pure witch shook her head. "You know in the bottom of your heart that what I said is true. You know that your tragedy is caused by the fact that the noble would never regard you as equals and would treat you like their livestock. We, the church, however, want to end this kind of tragedies and build a new world which is under the supervision and protection of deities."

Al fell heavily onto his knees and dropped his head, wailing. "Wh-What should I do?"

"Follow your own heart. Only deities can make a decision."

The boy sobbed. "I was wrong. I'll tell you everything I know. I'll do anything as long as I can save my mother."

"Good boy." Zero patted his head. She took a plant which was full of slender leaves out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Eat this and have a good sleep first. It'll stabilize your emotions." She tore off half a leaf and chewed it in her mouth. "Eat it just like me. When we occupy Wolfheart City tomorrow, you'll probably meet your mother again."

Mayne frowned when he recognized the plant. It was sleeping fern used to made Dreamland Water. It did no harm to a witch, but could violently poison and kill a common person. Only coltsfoot could neutralize its toxicity. As he expected, quickly after the young boy ate it, his face turned green. He gripped his own throat and looked at the smiling pure witch in disbelief. He hissed and scratched his skin with his nails. Soon his blood spilled out, covering his neck. After struggling for nearly 7 minutes, he went limp and stopped breathing.

"It's a pity that deities don't forgive your sins." Zero smiled and walked to the archbishop. She bowed and said, "Your Eminence, what do you think of this trial? Did I act like Her Eminence Heather?"

"Why did you delude him to eat sleeping ferns?" Mayne asked in a deep voice. "If it was Heather, we would get one more devout believer instead of a dead body. Why did you put this lost sheep that you brought back to death?"

"If his family members did die as what I've said, he'll become a pious believer. Unfortunately, I didn't know what happened to them. I made up the story to deceive him." Zero shrugged, showing no emotion. "Once he found out the truth, it wouldn't be a good thing for the church. That's why I must kill him. Trust me. I serve the church wholeheartedly."

"If you do, you should wait for orders inside your tent." Mayne retorted inwardly. Not wanting to get involved in this trial thing any longer, he turned his head and said, "We're about to attack. You two should get ready at once. According to our plan, the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater..."

"Must die, Your Eminence." The pure witch interrupted with a smile. "I may not be able to complete such a task alone, but now that Isabella is here, none of them can escape from the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

***************

"Woo, Woo...!"

The attacking horn resounded to the skies. Under black clouds, the church launched the second siege battle in the rustling autumn wind.

Over 1,000 meters away from the city, the spear holders of the "Siege Beasts" started to shine with magic power. When they shone like the glaring sun, a spear was thrown out with a deafening roar, looking as if it were hurled out by a giant. It flew toward the city wall at such a high speed that the human eyes were unable to capture it.

After traveling a long distance, the iron spear still maintained its momentum. It smashed into the snow stone city wall and continued to knock down the militia soldiers hiding behind it. Three rounds of spear shooting shattered the city gate and heavily damaged the wall area near it.

Working at a similar speed to a catapult, the demons' siege weapons could shoot several times farther than the man-made armament. As the city's defending soldiers were unable to see the moving trails of the extremely fast spears, they had no idea where they were going to attack. Given that, they did not know how to fight back, either. Before the church's army came to the city, its outer defense line was already teetering on the brink of collapse.

In a sudden, an earth-shattering boom reverberated somewhere behind the city wall.

A huge fire ball shot up into the sky. All the soldiers nearby felt the vibration under their feet, and then the section of wall tumbled down in the fire and black smoke, leaving a gap in this mottled city wall.

Hearing the quick sounds of the horn, Judgement Army and God's Punishment Army started to charge toward the city wall. They looked like golden and red waves, remorselessly swamping all the enemies who dare to stand in front of them.

Being only flesh and blood, the defenders of Wolfheart now had to fight against those unearthly soldiers.

Chapter 312 - Common People Fight against Unearthly Power (Part Ⅱ)

"Common people can't compete with demons. That's why the church creates God's Punishment Army," Isabella thought.

God's Punishment Warriors were extremely powerful, without pain or fear, making the best soldiers to fight against demons. They could not act independently, but this was not necessarily a shortcoming during battles.

It was impossible for the city's garrison formed by common people to stop such a strong troop.

Especially now, without the city wall's protection, they could never defeat the church's elite soldiers in close combats.

The golden waves arrived at the gate of Wolfheart City. Judgement Warriors dressed in golden started an intense fight against the assembled garrison. Among the gold waves, there were some red spots which were God's Punishment Warriors wearing red clothes. They walked from the collapsed section up to the top of the wall as easily as on the flat ground and began to kill the soldiers of Wolfheart, who were still trying to hold their position in the front line.

Isabella turned around and asked Zero, "Are we going to help them?"

Zero yawned and answered, "No, my magic power is limited. I've got to leave it to the important enemies."

Isabella twitched her lips, saying, "Come on, you can fight with swords, hammers or crossbows. They can't defeat you anyway."

Zero shook her head and said, "With or without me, our army will easily win the battle. I don't want to do such a meaningless thing."

"Well." Isabella decided to change the subject. "Why did you do that?"

"What?"

"Seeing you fool with the boy captive, the archbishop got a really stiff face." Isabella seemed a little worried. "He's probably the next pope and he doesn't seem to like this kind of trials. Aren't you worried he'll give you a hard time."

"Lord Mayne may be angry seeing that. That's because he's not yet become the pope." Zero seemed to pay no heed to Isabella's advice and continued, "As soon as he steps into the library on the top floor of Pivotal Secret Temple, he'll understand that it's the only way to please the deities."

"What... way?"

"Fooling." Zero smoothed her snow-white hair blown into a mess by the wind. "Deities will never come to this world, nor will them protect the people in this world. Instead, they set an imaginary goal for us, forcing us to strive for it and long for it. Isn't this just like my trial game? At least, I gave the captives a clear goal, but deities gave us nothing. They even don't promise that the goal they set for us is real, or, all of this thing is just our crazy, twisted imagination. No matter what, we're still willing to risk everything... Tsk, tsk, this is really fooling.".

"What's Zero talking about? How come I can't understand a word she's saying?" Isabella was confused and asked with a frown, "Have you been to the library?"

"Not yet," Zero shrugged and explained, "His Holiness O'Brien told me these things. He's no magic power and is getting near to the end of his life. It's said that a common people tends to review all his life experiences in head and find someone to talk to, as his life moves to its end. The pope even plans to let me absorb him before he dies."

"You can't..."

Zero interrupted. "I won't, of course. It'll enrage Lord Mayne. Relax, I know what I can't do." She smiled meaningfully and added, "But there's another possibility. What if the pope defeat me? When that happens, I'll lose my body to him."

"I don't think so. If you lose, nothing will happen, I suppose." Isabella heaved a sigh, thinking that Zero was indeed a strange person. She guessed that Zero's weirdness might have something to do with her ability. By absorbing so many people, she had experienced all kinds of feelings in this world. As a result, she was seldom keen on one thing, and all she did was for fun, unusual fun.

Isabella moved her eyes back to the battlefield. Some drugged men suddenly appeared on top of the city wall, dashing toward God's Punishment Army. Most of them got pierced through by God's Punishment Warriors' spears. Only a few made close to their target. At this moment, here came another explosion noise. Flying dust and smoke enveloped the gap area at once.

Isabella thought, "This is probably the alchemical weapon they've seen in the previous siege battle. It may be good enough to suppress demonic beasts, but will never stop God's Punishment Army. Without pills, those people could hardly get close to God's Punishment Warriors."

At the gate area, the golden waves were blocked, too. A large fire flared up at the gate, stopping the Judgement Warriors outside from entering the city. Some warriors got inflamed in the fire. They immediately rolled on the ground, but still failed to put out the fire on their bodies.

Isabella said, "Oh, it seems some big shots have come to the gate. The density of God's Stones of Retaliation increases several times, and there're two high-quality stones."

"So, let's go to the battlefield," Zero stretched her body and said.

"But they're not the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater." Isabella glanced at the inner city area and continued, "The best stones are still in the castle. Are you sure you're going to join the fight now?"

"Isn't the army in trouble? A bitter victory is completely different from an easy victory. I've got to reduce loss for His Holiness O'Brien." Zero tilted her head and with a serious look on her face she added, "As what I said before, I serve the church wholeheartedly."

…

Wolfheart City' outer defense line finally collapsed in the afternoon. God's Punishment Warriors controlled the gap in the city wall, and Judgement Army swept into the streets of the city to eliminate the remaining defenders of Wolfheart.

"Our targets started to move." Isabella looked at the castle. "They seem to head for the dock on the inland river."

The two big shots who came to the gate to organize resistance turned out to be sons of the King of Wolfheart. Zero absorbed both of them and confirmed Isabella's speculation by reading their memories. The two people wearing best-quality God's Stones were the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater.

Besides, Zero and Isabella also killed an exotically-dressed fallen witch. Right after her death, the number of drugged militia fighters who dared to fight against God's Punishment Warriors decreased dramatically.

"They probably want to leave by boat. Let's go to fulfill the mission that His Holiness gave to us," Zero smiled and said.

The King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater acted with caution. They had changed routes several times on their way to the dock. When they arrived at the dock, they boarded a small, single-masted merchant ship instead of a great blacksail ship.

No matter how hard they had tried to cover their tracks, their each and every move had been captured by Isabella.

As soon as they stepped on the deck of the small ship followed by a score of guards, the pure witches outflanked them on both sides of the ship. The guards sensed danger at once. Without a word, they simultaneously drew out their swords, jumped off the ship and lunged at the witches.

Zero fought with skills and ease. She snatched a long sword from a guard with empty hands and used it to fight against the swordsmen. She precisely controlled her strength and used the sword to poke, strike, chop or block. She was so dexterous and quick in action that none of the guards could predict her next move. Each of her movements was well-timed and proper-angled and every strike of hers killed a guard. Soon, a dozen of guards fell down, dead.

Seeing this, the King of Wolfheart drew out his sword, ready to fight till death.

"Isabella!" Zero shouted.

"Got it." Isabella summoned her magic power and formed around herself a lightless realm which could only be seen by Eye of Magic. She was able to see black zones created by different God's Stones of Retaliation, where magic power effects would be eliminated. Those black zones were slightly vibrating at different rates, looking like rippled water surfaces. She made her own dark zone vibrate at the same rate as that one around the king did, and then connected her zone to the king's. The ripples of her zone quickly canceled out that of the king's zone, leaving both zones flat and smooth.

At this moment, Zero instantly transformed into a beam of dim light and entered the King of Wolfheart.

Seeing the King of Wolfheart twist and change into the pure witch, the Queen of Clearwater was unable to conceal her shock any longer. "Why can you use magic power faced with God's Stones of Retaliation?"

"Because God's Stones don't work the way you think them do... but you don't need to know this, as your end is coming soon," Isabella replied and then stopped the vibration of Garcia Wimbledon's black zone.

Before her voice faded away, Zero darted at Garcia.

Chapter 313 - Battle of Souls

I haven't felt such warm sunshine for a long time.

Garcia stood in a garden and took a deep breath. She smelled rosemary in the gentle breeze.

Even with her eyes closed, she knew that she was not in the Kingdom of Everwinter. That place had nothing except cold winds, frozen soil and no-scent coltsfoot, and the backyard of the castle was constantly filled with stench from the sausage and the meat hung up to dry. This place was obviously not her Port of Clearwater, either. Winds here were not humid or salty, and she could not hear any sound of sea waves washing up on the beach.

"It must be the backyard of the palace of Graycastle," she thought.

However, when she opened her eyes, she found it was somehow different from the place she remembered.

Sitting by the central flowerbed, she touched the rough stone bricks. Once in her childhood, when she had been playing hide-and-seek here, she had stumbled over some brick and broken her forehead, blood spilling out to cover her whole face. She remembered that her father had already had the bricks replaced by smooth cobbles to prevent similar accidents from happening again, but after that she had been unable to hide herself here any more.

She also remembered that the moment she had fallen, Gerald and Timothy had been there, too. They had been scared seeing what had happened to their sister. In order to comfort her, they had taken turns to imitate the way she had fallen and had deliberately hit their heads onto the bricks beside the flowerbed. Because of these stupid actions, they had been beaten by father afterwards.

Garcia had thought that she had already forgotten this experience, like a secret deeply buried under a tree. However, coming back to this place revived her memories at once. When this experience was dug out, she found that she could still clearly recall every detail of it.

She felt as if she traveled back to her childhood.

In a sudden, she heard a strange voice coming from behind. "So, this is your world. It's a nice place for you to sleep forever."

Following the soft, dreamlike voice, Garcia turned around and saw a woman dressed in white step out from the back of the flowerbed. She had long white hair, a perfect face and a pair of light red eyes, looking like an angel.

The Queen of Clearwater pulled her face and said, "You're the church's witch."

"My name is Zero. It's not appropriate to call me a witch. I'm a pure witch, different from those fallen ones," the woman said with a slight smile.

Garcia said coldly, "Pure witch? You're just the church's plaything. What's this trick? Is this scene a mirage you create? Is this your ability?" She paused to pick up a stone and squeezed it in her hand. "It's not real! You can't deceive me!"

The queen's roar reached far, but nothing changed after that. The stone did not break. Instead, its hard edges grazed her hand. When she released the stone, she could still feel the pain in her hand clearly.

"Well, apparently, you're not ignorant of witches' abilities. It's much easier for me to explain." Zero lifted her dress a little and slightly bowed. "Welcome to the world of consciousness. I call it Soul Battlefield. We're going to fight against each other here. The winner gets everything, and the loser loses everything... just as the oracle in the Holy Book says."

Soul... Battlefield?

Garcia was stunned and suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. Before she had noticed, Zero had conjured a spear from nowhere and thrust it into her chest, making her feel hard to breathe. She opened her mouth, trying to shout, but failed to make any sound. At this moment, Zero turned the barrel of the spear and pulled it out, let Garcia's blood gush out and splash on her body. The queen knelt down, trying to cover the wound with trembling hands, but the massive loss of blood quickly made her black out.

The next moment, Garcia found herself intact and standing in the same place, and the pure witch was leaning on her erected long spear and watching her from a distance, looking as if she had never left that place.

Garcia panted heavily, thinking, "What happened just now? Is it just an illusion?" However, when she lowered her head, she saw a pool of blood at her feet.

"This is the rule, but consciousness isn't immortal." Zero spread her hands. "The pain of each death is real to you. It'll consume your willpower and strength. When you can't bear it anymore, the real long sleep will befall you."

She continued to explain in a gentle voice, "After each death, your body will be restored to its original state. Most people were able to withstand three to four times at most, but some strong-willed people I've seen could survive seven to eight or even more times. I'm looking forward to seeing how many you can take, but I'll understand if you decide to give up. After all, continuous deaths are an unbearable torment even for me. It's not a cowardly choice to quit this battle especially when you're doomed."

With these words, she threw away her spear and drew out a long sword from her back. She jumped up, flying toward Garcia with the sword in hand.

Garcia's eyes were widened in shock. "It's impossible for the pure witch to hide such a big weapon in her white dress, so they must be... conjured from the air?" In a sudden, some words that the witch had said flashed upon her mind.

"So, this is your world..."

"I call it the Soul Battlefield."

"Consciousness isn't immortal... it's real to you."

The sword struck down, but hit on a large iron shield, instead of cutting Queen of Clearwater in half. The rebound force was so strong that Zero could hardly hold the handle of the sword. After a loud crash, the sword flew out of her hand, and she involuntarily moved backward for quite a long distance. Meanwhile, Garcia was also knocked down by the impact.

"I'm doomed?" the queen grated her teeth and sneered. "You said that this is 'my world', did you?" She rolled to get up and conjured a hand crossbow. When she was shooting at Zero with it, a crucifix rose behind the witch to trap her.

With bolts shot into her tummy, the pure witch revealed a look of suffering on her face. She panted for a while and then said slowly, "I, I'm really surprised... ahem, usually it's hard for a person to perceive the rule of this world, let alone motivating his consciousness to fight back. Queen of Clearwater, you're definitely a tough opponent even for Lord Mayne."

"Thanks for the compliment." Garcia picked up the spear on the ground. "If you didn't talk so much crap, I wouldn't realize the wonders of this world so quickly. Well, next, how many holes should I pierce your body?"

The pure witch smiled bitterly, saying, "It's up to you."

…

When Garcia thrust the spear into Zero for the 10th time, the witch finally died. The queen intentionally avoided the vital parts by starting from her limbs and tummy. In the beginning, Zero had given out sad shrills but then she had gradually quieted down in the process.

"Now, this witch will come back to life, but I won't lose. This is the palace of the Kingdom of Graycastle, my world. I can conjure anything here according to my will," Garcia thought.

Soon, as a beam of white light shone through Zero's body, all her wounds were gone. She opened her light red eyes again.

Garcia raised the spear, ready to kill the witch one more time. However, out of her expectation, Zero easily got rid of the ropes that tied her to the crucifix. She kicked the spear away and came close to Garcia. Before the queen realized, she lifted her hand and cut. Garcia lost all her feelings at once.

In front of Zero who had nothing in her hand, a headless body feebly fell to the ground.

How... is this possible?

After a dozen seconds, Queen of Clearwater came back to life again. She covered her neck with her hands and staggered backward in fright, thinking, "Did the witch cut my head off with just her hand?" She looked at the broken hemp ropes on the crucifix and then at the blood on her own hands, convincing herself that what had happened was true.

Zero smiled and said, "If you don't understand the rule of the consciousness world, how can I get a real fight? You look confused. Are you wondering how did I get rid of the ropes which were as thick as a finger? The answer is simple. As I told you, in this world, the winner takes all... Among all the people I've absorbed, there're some supremely powerful witches. They're strong, fast and not afraid of God's Stone of Retaliation. Maybe you've never heard of them before. The church calls them Extraordinaries."

Zero opened her arms, saying, "You can't defeat me by conventional means. If you want to survive, you've got to try harder... Now, it's my turn."

Chapter 314 - Total Annihilation

This was the first time for Garcia to witness what an Extraordinary could do.

The weapon in her hand was just an ordinary sword, but its strikes were unbelievably heavy and powerful. After resisting several such strikes with her shield in hand, Garcia was unable to lift up her arm anymore. At this moment, Zero poked the sword from the ground to the sky to break her chin.

When she recovered this time, she decisively abandoned this strategy of passive defense and conjured a ballista in front of her. She pulled the trigger to shoot several jars of black water of the Styx's River instead of iron spears. Zero struck to break the earthen jars and got soaked in the black water downpour. The fire crystals immersed in the jars fell out and covered all over her body. They started to fume and burn as soon as they contacted with the air, turning the pure witch into a pillar of fire.

When Zero came back to life again and begun to move at a super-human speed around the flowerbed, Garcia's trick could not work anymore. Now that she was unable to aim her ballista at the fast-moving witch, she tried to hinder her movement by rising a stone wall and steel bars covered with sharp thorns in the garden. She changed all the flowerpots into explosives filled with snow powder and sometimes created sinkholes in the ground to trap the witch.

By doing all these things, Garcia had killed Zero for several times. Gradually, her breath was getting labored and heavy and beads of sweat were sliding down from her forehead. Suffering from frequent dizzy spells, she felt as if she were standing on a shaky ground.

"Well done." Zero recovered and clapped her hands, instead of taking this chance to launch an attack. "You've really impressed me a lot by fighting till now. but I forgot to tell you something. In this world of consciousness, you can change your world according to your will as you did just now, but it consumes much more energy than conjuring things out of the air... It feels like recovering from a death. You must feel weak and tired now, and the next time, you may fall asleep forever."

"Huh, it's better than stretching out my neck for your sword." Garcia panted and continued, "You seem to forget about the screams you made when you were burnt by the fire crystals. How many times have you died? Three or four? I don't think you'll hold on any longer than I do."

"..." Zero remained speechless for a while and said, "Since I became a pure witch of the church, I've been well trained in literacy, basic knowledge and combat skills. To enhance my ability, the church even fed Judgement Warriors to me. Knowing that they would sacrifice themselves, those warriors still came into Soul Battlefield without hesitation. In this world of consciousness, they fought till death just to improve my skills, and then were absorbed by me voluntarily, giving me all their feelings and experiences."

Garcia guessed that Zero might be trying to delay the time, but she did not interrupt the witch, as she also needed some rest now.

"I've swallowed an Extraordinary. Her power filled me with awe. I nearly lost in that Battle of Souls, but in the end I managed to defeat her with the demons' weapon and got all the things she had. Due to the differences in magic types, I can't change into an Extraordinary, or get the ability of any other witch I absorbed, but it's not a problem for me in this world of consciousness. By absorbing countless people in the past 200 years, I've become so strong that no one can threaten me now, and in this way, I've experienced all kinds of pains, happiness, sorrows and pleasures of this world..." Zero paused for a while. "And all kinds of deaths."

"What... is your point?" Garcia asked with a frown.

Zero calmly replied, "To show you the gap between you and me. With all the souls in me, I've got extraordinary willpower. To make it more clear, if you judge one's willpower by the death times she can bear, you'll see that I can bear at least 100 times of death."

Garcia sneered. "Well, I'll help you verifying it." Meanwhile, however, her heart sank... She could tell that Zero was not bluffing about it. Having witnessed the witch easily kill the guards at the dock, the queen had to admit that she did demonstrate combat skills that were not consistent with her age. "Given that, I've got to use a more powerful weapon to fight against her... Come on, I have to be quick! What weapon can easily kill an experienced Extraordinary?"

Zero seemed to be able to read through Garcia's mind and said, "The Battle of Souls isn't about imagination. You can't make yourself impervious to blades and spears or summon some legendary weapon of destructive power out of the air... In this world, you create weapons to fight with based on your own knowledge and experiences instead of imagination. You can't summon those things that you don't understand."

Garcia sneered. "I'll spread snow powder all over the garden. When that happens, you can't escape any more, and I may end up dead, too. However, at least, in this way, I can destroy you along with myself!"

Zero looked at the queen with pity, saying, "What a meaningless result you strive for. In this case, I'll show you the real strength of the church."

Several beams of red light shone behind Zero and then cohered as ferocious-looking chariots. The giant chariots even crushed the wall of the garden. On the top of each chariot, two sharp iron spears stuck out, reminding Garcia of what a guard of the King of Wolfheart had reported. He had said that the church had been using some strange spear throwers to attack the city wall and that those weapons which he had had never seen before had turned to be far stronger and shot much farther than the other weapons of their type. Garcia wondered whether these giant weapons in front of her were the strange spear throwers mentioned by the guard.

At this moment, she heard a "Zoom" noise.

A thick spear broke through the barriers raised by Garcia and easily tore her in half, sending her body parts flying backward. Before she lost consciousness this time, she could even see her own inner organs and blood spill all over the ground.

She died and recovered again and again, while the chariots kept shooting long spears at her. In this process, she could hardly get a chance to create snow powder to kill both her enemy and herself. Constant tearing pains started to make her out of consciousness. Right at the moment, the ground began to tremble and the sky started to crack. Lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and a large fire broke out in the garden.

"A strong will will only delay your failure. It won't change the result." Zero closed her eyes. "You've struggled for long enough. Now, rest in peace."

After these words, the whole world collapsed.

…

"Is it over?" Isabella twitched her mouth. "Should not it be completed instantly? I saw you change back into yourself a long time ago, but you've not said even a word... I thought you failed."

Zero opened her eyes and said, "In her memory, I found something interesting. Some of her ideas... amazed me."

Isabella asked with a casual air, "Oh? Is there anything in the world still able to surprise you? What about that strange alchemy powder? Did you find it?"

"Yes, the alchemists call it snow powder, made from common raw materials in their workshops. Its composition is quite simple."

"Good, let's hurry back to Holy City to report to His Holiness O'Brien." Isabella heaved a sigh of relief. "The battle here will last for at least three or four days, but without the leaders and the witch, the remaining troops can't stop God's Punishment Army now."

"Let's go," Zero nodded and said.

"Wait ..." Isabella stopped her.

"What?"

Isabella looked at Zero carefully and then shook her head, saying, "No... nothing." However, she could not help but think, "Is it an illusion? She looks the same as before, but why did I feel that there was something different in her light red eyes?"

Perhaps I'm just thinking too much.

Chapter 315 - A Celebration Party

Roland held a splendid celebration party in the hall of his castle in Border Town.

Besides the witches, all high officials of City Hall and the First Army attended it, including noblemen such as Barov Mons and Carter Lannis and civilians like Iron Axe and Kyle Sichi. Roland had tried every possible way to persuade Kyle to come to this, in his words, "meaningless" banquet.

In order to share his happiness with his subjects, the prince gave a public speech and ordered his kitchen to bake a large sum of white bread with the left refined starch for the people of the town. Today, everyone who showed his or her ID card to City Hall, could get one piece of this delicious bread there. In this way, most people of the town knew the victory before the return of the First Army.

They might not understand the purpose and significance of this expedition, but as long as they could get free bread, it was a day worth celebrating.

This was the first time for Roland to organize an "elegant" banquet, following the fashion trend of the king's city.

It was similar to a buffet in the modern times. Instead of serving chunks of grilled or stewed meat, all the food was diced or sliced and delivered to the table in white plates. Besides the dishes, different sauces were placed in a big bowl for the guests to use according to their preference.

He walked toward Anna, with two glasses of fruit wine in hands. "Welcome back. Thank you for your hard work."

Anna took a glass of wine, saying, "You've already thanked me at the dock. It's my pleasure."

When they clinked glasses, Roland saw the happiness and sweetness in the girl's eyes. He resisted the urge to hold her on the spot and then toasted to the other witches.

"What about me?" shouted Lightning.

"You shall have some, too." Roland beckoned to a waiter and took a glass of cider for her. "Thank you for your hard work."

"I want white liquor!" the little girl looked up and said.

"Uhm... All right, but only one glass of it." After a little thought, Roland agreed to her request. He thought that if he continued to refuse her plea like this, this curious little girl would follow Nightingale's example and sneak into the kitchen to steal liquor for herself.

"Yes!"

The moment Roland handed her a glass of low-alcohol white liquor with ice cubes, the little girl suddenly came up and kissed his cheek.

"Ahem... Is this a social etiquette of the Fjords again?"

"Yes, my dad told me that!" Lightning nodded vigorously.

The witches of the town, who had seen similar things happen before, did not seem to heed this action, but Sylvie and all the other Sleeping Island witches stared at this in surprise. After that, they all looked at Roland with accusing looks in their eyes, seriously doubting this strange Fjords etiquette of kissing the lord during a celebration party. Feeling quite awkward, the prince turned his head aside to avoid their eyes.

After that, he moved to toast to his officials.

When he came to Chief Alchemist Kyle Sichi, he leaned toward him and whispered, "Your Highness, I've read "Intermediate Chemistry" twice, but still can't understand many parts of it."

"It expounds microcosmic composition of substances and involves lots of physics knowledge. You have to read it together with another book to get a clear idea. I suggest that you read 'Elementary Physics' before you read the incomplete chemistry book. In this way, you can find answers for many of your questions," Roland explained.

"That's what I intended to do, but..." He hesitated. "Your Highness, why do the covers of the ancient books have different colors? Do the colors suggest anything?"

"Well..." Roland continued after a little thought. "The colors represent different levels and different degrees of difficulty."

With a thoughtful expression on his face, Kyle said, "I see. The covers change from green to purple, and the deeper the color is, the more difficult the content of the book will be. Given that, the cover of 'Advanced Chemistry' must be black, right?

"No, it's orange."

"Ah?" Kyle was greatly surprised. "Why?"

Roland smiled and said, "Who knows."

…

Halfway through the banquet, the prince walked out of the hall and came to the castle terrace. In the evening breeze, he felt a touch of coolness and then realized that half of the autumn had already past and before long the Months of Demons would bring a long, cold winter to the whole Western Region.

He was happy to have witnessed many good changes of the town in this year. After the deals with Margaret's Chamber of Commerce, the town was awash in liquidity. Most of those gold royals were distributed to the subjects as wages, except for some used to buy food and goods. A recent survey conducted by the Convenience Market showed remarkable sales increases in all kinds of goods of the market, especially those goods which could significantly increase life quality, such as steaks and eggs.

No doubt, the statistics suggested that the living standard of the people was improved, especially that of the locals. Now that they had free brand new houses and much higher incomes, they started to buy good food for daily meals, which they had only been able to enjoy in festivals in the past. As to the newcomers of the town, they were still saving money to buy houses. Roland believed that when they settled down, the market would see a new sales peak.

What did the people need? In some era, they would be grateful and loyal to their lord, as long as they could eat and drink well.

Just like in this era, most people were easy to be content.

"Your Highness, be careful not to catch cold." Nightingale appeared behind him with a thin leather coat in her hand. She tossed it to Roland and then took out a piece of dried fish. She stood beside him, asking, "What're you doing here?"

"Nothing." He smiled and put on the coat. "I just wanted to see my domain in a sudden."

"The town still seems bustling." Nightingale pointed to the square lit up by firelight. "It's getting late now, but there're still so many people outside."

"Because tonight is the first night of the new drama 'Dawn'." Roland smiled. "It's the first show after the troupe comes back here. The audience has waited for several months. They just can't wait any longer to see Miss May and Ms. Irene again."

He suddenly thought of the fact that Miss May would soon become Ms. May Lannis. To his great surprise, his chief knight had quickly won the affection of Star of the Western Region. He had been dumbfounded for a long while when Carter told him about it with an expression of absolute honesty. By tradition, a chief knight's marriage needed his lord's approval. As Carter's lord, Roland would never object to such a happy thing. Carter and May's wedding would be held after the Months of Demons this year, on the same day of the city-building announcement of Border Town.

Nightingale was also moved by the lively scene, saying, "When I sneaked into the town for the first time, it was still a dull, backward place, but now I can feel the joy of the people even when I'm standing inside the castle."

"The people's life is getting better day by day." Roland looked up at the cloudless, starry night sky, thinking that he still had a lot of things to do, such as expanding education, establishing public health care system, strengthening cultural construction, encouraging births, etc. All these things would thrive his Western Region and give him enough strength to unify the Kingdom of Graycastle.

"What about us?" Nightingale tilted her head and asked, with a crafty look in her eyes.

"You'll be getting better, too." Roland patted her head. "I promise."

Chapter 316 - The Second Exploration into the Stone Tower

Having seen the prince leave the hall, Lightning drew Maggie into a corner.

"Coo?"

Maggie wore her hair down. The long white hair which almost touched the ground made her look like a ghost when she was moving. She parted the hair covering her face and revealed a bulging face. Half of a pork gristle still stuck out of her mouth.

Lightning whispered, "I find an interesting place in Misty Forest. I'll go to explore it tomorrow. Are you going with me?"

"Coo." Maggie swallowed the food in her mouth and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, what do I need to prepare?"

"The three-piece suit for exploration..." Realizing that she had used some Roland-style strange words just now, Lightning corrected herself by saying, "no, I mean the three most frequently used things in exploration, flint, solid food and dagger. It's not very far away. We only need to bring food enough for one day. Don't fill all your bag with food like the last time."

"Got it, coo," Maggie patted her chest and said. When she was about to leave, Lightning stopped her.

She said to Maggie, "Remember, this is our secret. Don't tell anyone else. We'll set out tomorrow morning."

Seeing her hurriedly heading for the dining table, Lightning twitched her lips and started to think about the plan for tomorrow's exploration.

Despite the fact that she had successfully dropped the bomb for His Highness, recently when she was flying she found that something seemed to hinder her movement and decrease her agility. Every time when she sped up, she felt as if she were chased by a demon.

She believed this psychological obstacle was caused by the dreadful experience of her precious exploration into the stone tower. She had panicked and turned around to flee as quickly as possible when seeing the menacing bulk at the entrance of the basement. This fear had not only made her lose her cool on the spot but also affected her confidence in being an explorer.

"The thing you have to fear isn't fear itself but fearing the unknown. If you want to overcome it, you must get close to it first." Lightning repeated to herself what her father had taught her.

Knowing that tomorrow she might confront real dangers, she still made up her mind to be brave and keep moving forward. She knew that if she failed to overcome her fear this time, she would no longer fly freely.

This was the reason for her decision to act without Roland's authorization. In accordance with the prince's plan, the exploration of the stone tower was scheduled after the Months of Demons, but at that time, accompanied by all the other witches and the First Army soldiers, she thought she would not force herself to overcome her fear. It could hardly be called her exploration, if she was only able to get close to that dreadful place with so many people.

She was clear that His Highness might reproach her and punish her by stopping offering her ice creams for this unauthorized action, and the sisters of the Witch Union might worry about her, but she still determined to go.

As the daughter of the greatest explorer of the Fjords, Lightning could not accept herself as a coward.

She must be well prepared for this upcoming exploration. Compared with the ill-prepared one several months ago, this time she was equipped with a revolver, a gift from the prince and she had a better understanding of demons and her friend Maggie's help.

"It's really good that Maggie agreed to join me. Even if she failed to fright away demons, if any, in her demonic beast form, she could at least carry me and flew away in a dangerous situation."

"An explorer doesn't need a large troop to keep his courage up, but exploring with several reliable friends is totally acceptable," she thought.

When the banquet ended, Lightning wrapped up all the sliced honey ham she had collected and put it in a cloth bag, and then she put in her gun, her torch and her water bag.

She got some of her confidence back after the success of the bombing mission, and felt braver after getting encouragement from the prince and kissing his face which had a little stubble. As a saying went, struck while the iron was hot. After such a nice day, tomorrow was the best time for her to start the exploration.

Early in the next morning, when she flew up to the top of the castle, Maggie was already perching on the top of the wall, waiting for her.

"Check your pack."

"I take all the things you said." Maggie transformed back into a girl and opened her cross-body bag for Lightning to check. This time, Maggie only took half a bag's food, a dagger and a flint.

"Well, I can let you pass this time... Let's go." Lightning flew with the pigeon toward Misty Forest.

…

As she had recalled this route many times in her head, she could fly in the right direction even with her eyes closed. It was a little cloudy today, but it was much better than the dark and gloomy day when she had explored the tower for the first time. The land below was slowly moving backward. When she was approaching the area where the stone tower located, Lightning was getting increasingly nervous.

Maggie asked, "Is the interesting place you mentioned last night a newly found eagle's nest?"

Lightning shook her head and said, "No, it's much more interesting than that. Our destination today is an ancient monument, an over 400-year old stone tower. As its basement hasn't collapsed yet, we may be able to find some ancient books in it recording information of that time."

"Ancient books?" Maggie fluffed her wings. "It doesn't sound as fun as stealing eagle eggs, coo."

Lightning explained, "An eagle nest has at most two or three eggs. You'll swallow them in a few bites. However, if we can find valuable ancient books there and bring them back to His Highness, he'll reward you with a basket of eggs. You can boil or steam them according to your preference. Even if you eat three of them each day, they'll be enough for you to enjoy for a long time."

Hearing that, Maggie immediately cheered up. "Really? Let's hurry up to find ancient books! Coo, coo!"

They finally saw the tower when it was almost noon.

Half of a stone tower covered by vines and moss stood down there in the woods. Everything around it looked the same as several months ago. Lightning lowered herself to fly around it. After making sure that it was safe, she landed.

"Is this the place?" asked the pigeon perching on her head.

"Hush..." Lightning put a finger in front of her lips to suggest Maggie be quiet. In this silent woods, even their speaking voices sounded quite loud. "Talk quietly, for some demons may be here, too."

"Demons?" Maggie's tail erected in shock.

"Waiting for me up there. I'll get in and check first," Lightning pointed to the top of the broken tower and said in a very low voice.

Stepping on the withered grass, she could clearly hear the rustle under her feet. She found that the plants had not grown back to cover the tower's entrance yet, and she saw the small cluster of vines she had cut off last time. She held her breath, and entered the tower, following the route she remembered. Step by step, she was getting closer to the stairs in the center of the tower, which led to the basement. Now she could even hear her own heartbeat.

"Ignorance brings the fear. To overcome the fear, I've got to approach the unknown..." The little girl kept encouraging herself in her heart. She lit a torch and walked down the stairs.

Standing at the stair corner, she stretched her neck to peek. She saw that the collapsed wooden door was fragmented and no demon was at the entrance of the basement any more. The profound darkness there looked like a bottomless open mouth of a man-eating monster.

At this moment, she heard a weak but familiar voice coming out of the darkness.

She involuntarily cringed at the sound, and all the hair on her body stood up at once. Feeling a desperate urge to escape, she clenched her teeth to suppress her fear and covered her mouth with her hands to prevent herself from crying out. She focused to listen again.

This time, she heard it clearly. It repeated in the same tone.

"Help me..."

Chapter 317 - [The Frozen Coffin]

The voice gave Lightning goosebumps all over her body.

All the horror stories that she had heard from some other explorers flashed upon her mind. No matter it was a devil crawling out of the abyss, a ghost bearing a grudge or a lingering deathless, it would be an explorer's nightmare. A monster like that could kill a person simply by looking into his eyes and was good at creating illusions and deluding people. She was afraid that there was such a monster in this monument.

Despite that her father Thunder had told her that those stories were just nonsense made up by the worst explorers, she still got cold feet at this moment. "If it's not a monster, then what's it? Who can keep shouting inside in the same tone and at the same frequency for several months while being besieged by demons."

She was faced with difficult choices. If it was a monster who had killed all the demons inside, going there would get herself killed by it, too. If it was someone who had been fighting against demons till now, there must be some demons that she never wanted to meet. She could hardly make a decision.

After a little hesitation, she decided to fly back to discuss with Maggie first.

Hearing what Lightning said about the situation inside, Maggie lifted her head, saying, "We can put out the torch and sneak in. This way, the demons can't see us."

"Uhm, but we can't see them, either."

"I can transform into an owl." The pigeon rubbed the little girl's face. "By doing so, I can see everything in the darkness, coo."

Lightning's eyes shone and agreed. "That's a good idea, but... those legendary evil things have lived in the darkness for their whole life. They must be able to find preys in the dark. Otherwise, they've already starved to death."

"Didn't you say that those stories were just made up to scare people?"

"It's not me, it's my dad." The little girl corrected.

"It's all the same to me. Anyway, I've never heard of any immortal monster in the Kingdom of Graycastle. If they're really that powerful, they should not just exist in the Fjords." A light shone in Maggie and the pigeon swiftly swelled into an owl, eyes filled with excitement. "I thought that you were quite interested in those stories."

"Yes, a qualified explorer should never miss a chance to verify a story. I'm here to overcome my fear. I'll waste all my previous efforts if I escape now." After a moment of hesitation, Lightning decided to do as what Maggie had suggested.

"But, wait... I'm here to overcome my fear, but what makes Maggie so interested in exploring this relic? Is it.."

"Do you hurry to get inside because of the basket of eggs?

The owl blinked her round eyes at the little girl and then turned her head aside.

…

Lightning came to the entrance of the basement again. She took several deep breaths and then crept into the deep darkness, tightly holding the revolver in hand.

She felt much calmer this time with Maggie on her shoulder.

The floor was wet, with puddles here and there. As this basement was located in a low-lying place, all the rain fell into the tower would end up flowing down here. Usually, a drainage system would be built for a basement to drain off the water, but after hundreds of years, most of the ditches here must have been blocked already.

Maggie patted Lightning's head with a wing to suggest her be careful of the stairs in front of her.

Lightning slowed down to fumble for the edge of the stair and then stepped down. After she took a turn, she saw some light in a sudden.

This dim yellow light coming from the end of the stairs even made the floor gleam.

She fixed her eyes on the floor for a moment and found that it was just shimmering sewage water down there. It submerged part of the door frame. Judging from that, she knew that the water inside the basement might at least be able to submerge her knees if she walked into it.

Given that, she flew up and slowly moved to the door after she came to the stair parallel to the water's surface. She popped her head in and looked about.

It was an incredibly large room behind the door, which was far more spacious than the space inside the tower above the ground. She did not see any burning torch, but some stones embedded in the wall were giving out yellow light, making it possible for her to roughly see everything inside.

A raised stone stage stood in the center of the room with some standing figures on it. Judging from the big and muscular bodies and the shells on their backs, she was sure that they were demons. They had not yet noticed the girl and the owl. Instead, they were surrounding a blue stone cuboid with large shields and long spears in their hands.

At this moment, the cries for help were getting more and more clear. They now sounded as if someone were talking right next to her ear.

"Help me, help me..."

Lightning swallowed hard. "What should I do next?"

"We..."

"Go and save her right now," Maggie whispered in her ear.

"What?" The little girl was startled. "But there're several demons inside... we can't beat them!" She felt her hand holding the gun was sweaty now. "If Sister Nightingale was here, it would be alright, but I... can't do this by myself."

"Are they the demons you're talking about?" Maggie tilted her head and said, "They all seem to be dead, coo."

"What? Dead?"

Maggie had flown toward the high stage before Lightning's voice faded away, leaving her to stand agape in the place. The little girl was so frightened at the moment that she even forgot to reach out her hand to grab Maggie back. When she finally began to take it in, Maggie had already flung herself to a demon. The little girl gnashed her teeth and followed the owl with a gun in her hand, repeating to herself the shooting tricks that Nightingale had taught her.

Surprisingly, she saw the demon collapse in a sudden, like a weather-beaten rock. The owl smashed it in an instant simply by pecking at it.

"What's... going on?" Lightning landed beside Maggie and looked at the other three demons in surprise.

Standing on the stage, she could clearly saw the cracks over all their bodies and broken spiderwebs between their legs. Through their ferocious masks, she saw their eyes and skins were pale and gray, showing no trace of life. Now she finally saw why Maggie said that, as in dim light the owl's vision was much better than that of hers.

When she was about to relax, another thing suddenly caught her attention.

Seen from afar, the big cuboid surrounded by the demons on this stage resembled a stone pillar, but it turned out to be transparent at close range. Inside it, stood a woman dressed in radiant garment. She closed her eyes and opened both of her hands. Her long blue hair flew backward, as if it were blown up by wind.

"Is she a witch?" Maggie flew to the top of the crystal cuboid and pecked at it heavily, making loud and clear knocking sounds. However, it did not crack with the sounds.

"I don't know," Lightning muttered. As soon as she put her hand on it, she felt a piercing coldness. It was obvious that this woman must have stayed in this "stone coffin" which was covered with a thick layer of dust for a very long time, but she looked as if she was still alive. With her eyebrows knitted tightly and her eyebrow tails raised, she seemed anxious and worried.

"Help me..."

Again, Lightning heard the familiar voice coming from behind the crystal cuboid.

Chapter 318 - The Unknown

Roland scribbled quickly on a piece of paper. Several paragraphs streamed from the tip of his quill.

He used to draft mechanical drawings with his computer all the time before coming to this world. Since he had rarely used pen, he had not anticipated that he would employ this ancient recording method again.

Beside him lay two documents, both of which were the plans he was going to implement.

One was about the massive production of sulfuric acid. Anna and Soraya had already produced the equipment required. The previous lead reaction vessel had been replaced by a more sturdy iron one, with an anti-corrosion coating on the inner side. The new vessel was three times larger than the trial version.

Since he had yet to find a feasible way to collect and purify exhaust gases (mostly resulting from the combustion of sulfur and escaped nitrogen oxide) emitted during the manufacturing process, Roland decided to place the facilities on the south of the industrial zone, far away from Redwater River and the residential area. He also planned to build an enclosure outside the plant as well as a chimney to further increase the effective emission height.

As the increase in the production of sulfuric acid would greatly enhance the production of nitric acid of a high concentration, the current top priority was to put the facilities to use. In the document, Roland instructed Kyle Sichi to pick some of his students to exclusively help with the mass production of sulfuric acid. At the same time, he also asked Barov to recruit some handymen from local residents for further assistance, so there would be around 100 labors working in the first chemical plant.

The second document was about establishing a public health care system.

To be honest, Roland was not familiar with this area and naturally had no knowledge of modern medical science. Despite that, he still drafted a preliminary proposal that met the current requirements based on common sense.

The first task for this department was to promote and advocate for a healthy lifestyle. For instance, water should be boiled before drinking; meat should be cooked before serving. The public should receive basic education related to health care such as the cause of illnesses and their corresponding treatment, the differences between parasites and microorganism, etc. With the improvement of his reputation, Roland believed that it was not hard to induce his subjects into doing what they were told. The hard part was actually to let them know the reason behind it. To tackle this problem, there should be experts responsible for public education. Subjects should be educated repeatedly before fully accepting the concept. It worked just like the slogans hung over the farmland. A one-time campaign was definitely not enough.

The second task was to encourage birth rates. Since City Hall was short of staff, Roland did not want to specifically found a birth control department. He thus put this part under the healthcare sector. In this era, labor was always in deficiency. So, the more children subjects gave birth to, the better. With the help of Nana, complications that arose during the labor and delivery process would be largely reduced, and almost every woman could survive childbirth. Furthermore, to prevent child abandonment, especially of female babies, Roland made detailed policies regarding subsidies and punishment. For example, the subsidy for a female baby would be slightly higher than that for a male one; subsidies would be distributed regularly; there would be a fine or a sentence of imprisonment for child abandonment, etc.

The last part was about fees. Apart from helping child deliveries, the hospital would charge a certain amount of fees according to how much magic power Nana consumed. This would not only reduce the burden placed on the little girl but would also lay a solid foundation for the establishment of future medical institutions. Roland had already known who the first superintendent of this department should be. It was Nana's father, Viscount Tigui Pine.

The third document, which he was currently working on, was the most complicated and lengthiest of all three—the city construction plan for Border Town.

The proposal talked about the expansion of the town itself, as well as the merging with Longsong Stronghold. Roland would have to enact a series of laws to govern people in two locations and also create a judicial and policing system. He knew it was impossible to write a comprehensive, perfect plan just with the poor knowledge he had now. Therefore, he decided to first make a draft and further enhance the plan after discussing the details with Barov, the director of City Hall.

Roland stretched himself after finishing the opening section. He then walked to the French window.

It was a somber day. There was no sunshine in the morning. By the afternoon, the sky had been overspread by thick, sullen clouds. It appeared there was going to be a heavy rain soon. Chilly winds swept over the castle backyard while rustling the olive trees.

Just then, Roland saw a dot darting in the castle's direction.

"It's Lightning." Nightingale's voice popped up behind him.

"She probably went to Misty Forest to pick mushrooms again." Roland smiled. Normally when Lightning and Maggie did not need to scout around, they would just practice flying freely around the forest and have lunch outside. According to them, they would often come across some bird eggs and beehives. Sometimes, they would barbeque some little animals. Perhaps every explorer would eventually become a Bear Grylls.

Although bird beak mushrooms usually grew on trees, they always remind Roland of the story of "A Little Girl Who Picked Mushrooms".

"Your Highness, you have a... weird smile on your face."

"Ahem, I just thought of an interesting story. Do you want to hear it?"

"Huh?"

Roland cleared his throat and began. "Once upon a time, there was a little girl who liked to pick mushrooms while counting... Hang on." The dark shadow gradually drew closer. To Roland's surprise, it lowered and dashed straight to the French window instead of passing the castle. Roland hesitated for a moment before opening the window panes. Lightning darted into the room swiftly.

"Your, Your Highness! I found a witch!" No sooner had she landed than she exclaimed in excitement.

"A witch?" Roland asked curiously, "Where?"

"In the stone tower in Misty Forest." Lightning pointed to Maggie who entered the office later. "She can be my witness!"

"Coo, coo!" Maggie raised her head.

"Stone tower?" Roland's brows knitted. "What happened exactly. Fill me in."

Roland gasped after hearing Lightning's account. He could not believe the little girl would be so audacious as to again investigate the ancient relic where demons had once appeared accompanied by no one but a pigeon. What was more astonishing was that there was a witch down the relic. Of course, the witch could not be an ordinary one... At any rate, it was just incredible.

"What of the voice calling for help?"

"It's this. I found it on the table behind her." Lightning took out a palm-sized square iron box from her pocket. The box looked like a small vanity mirror at the first glance. When Roland opened its lid, however, he saw a red gemstone embedded in it. After turning on the switch beside the gemstone, an anxious lady's voice rang in his ear.

"Help me..."

Roland shuddered. It was such a horrid voice that it appeared to be very close one moment and suddenly drifted far away the next. If he heard the same voice in a dim dungeon, he would not feel like staying there for even a single minute.

"The gemstone has magic power." Nightingale revealed herself and commented with amazement. "I can see the swirl of magic power, although it was almost invisible. It looks just like the magic power of a witch."

It seemed that the gemstone worked as a recorder running by magic power. Now the probability that the woman was a witch appeared to be even higher. "Are there any other stones like this in the basement of the stone tower?"

Lightning shook her head. "I didn't look. Many rooms have been flooded. At that time, I just wanted to fly back and tell you the news as soon as possible."

"Don't do that again in the future, and particularly, don't go to dangerous places on your own." Roland patted Lightning on her head and then looked to Nightingale. "Summon all the members of the Witch Union and Iron Axe to my office. We probably have to carry out the relic-searching plan earlier than we've planned to."

Chapter 319 - Snow in Fall

After everybody was here, Roland related the whole story again. "A crystal coffin in an ancient relic, a damp but fully intact basement, a magic gemstone sending out a call for help, and a demon reducing to ashes... What're your opinions on these matters?"

Anna replied thoughtfully, "Are you saying she may be a witch? If she's still alive, we can probably learn more about what happened over 400 years ago from her."

"She may not be a witch as well, or even not belong to this era," Scroll said hesitatively, "plus..."

"She may not necessarily stand on our side," Leaf continued.

Leaf's comment took Roland by surprise. If the relic was left by the church, the woman down there was very likely a member of the church. From her splendid dressing Lightning had described, she might even have been one of the senior executives in the church. If she was just an ordinary person, it would not be too big a problem. If she, unfortunately, was indeed a witch, then she might be a difficult person to deal with.

Based on the battle between Ashes and Nightingale, and the attack from Faceless, Roland concluded that there were no specific guidelines to grade a witch's fighting capacity. An Extraordinary without a God's Stone of Retaliation might, in some cases, be defeated by an ordinary witch who had a unique ability. Likewise, a combatting witch could also put herself in a difficult position if she was caught unprepared by an assistant witch.

If the woman, by any chance, harbored malicious intent, nobody would then be able to guarantee that her ability would not pose a threat to the Witch Union... unless she was awakened under the influences of a God's Stone of Retaliation.

"Are you guys all crazy to debate whether she was on our side?" Lily put her hand on her forehead. "How could she possibly be alive? At any rate, she was a person living over 400 years ago. Witches have a short lifespan. Even a strong Extraordinary can live no more than 100 years. You guys worry too much. In my opinion, she would probably shatter like that demon upon a gentle touch."

Roland corrected her. "Witches don't live long is because of Demonic Torture. Witches are physically stronger than normal people, so they should have a longer lifespan."

"Normal people live no more than 40 to 50 years." Lily let out a snort. "Do you think everybody lives as long as a turtle?"

A life expectancy of 40 to 50 years was primarily caused by insufficient food and poor medical care. Once people's living standard improved, this number would increase by 20. Nevertheless, Roland thought Lily was somewhat right. Even if people did have a longer lifespan, they could not possibly live for 400 years. Even a turtle could not live that long.

"But she's alive indeed." Lightning retorted. "You'll see once you get there. She's different from that dead demon. Her skin is radiant and her lips are plumped. Maggie!"

"Coo! Lightning is right!"

"Well, stop arguing," Wendy spoke up, "Whether she's alive or dead, it's worth taking a look."

"Are you sure?" Scroll frowned.

"If she's really a witch working for the church, we'll just put a God's Stone of Retaliation on her after she wakes up. That should do. Plus, we have Anna and Nightingale here. That shouldn't be a problem." Wendy said placidly, "The key lies in the fact that she may know something about the battle over 400 years ago. We need to rescue her even just for that."

The information about demons, which the church endeavored to cover up, was truly important for the town, and most likely it was not going to be a piece of good news. If they could learn it in advance, they would probably be able to gain a prevailing position in the future battle against the church.

As both Anna and Nightingale held the same view, Scroll conceded unwillingly. An agreement had thus been reached among the Witch Union.

"What about the First Army?" Roland looked at Iron Axe.

"I can dispatch 50 people at most," Iron Axe replied, "Your Highness, you sent out a few units to help City Hall to recruit refugees. There're currently 500 soldiers garrisoning the town approximately. Although Timothy received a God's punishment, there's still a chance that he makes a desperate effort to wage an aggressive war against the Western Region. In this light, we must retain a certain number of soldiers in the First Army to defend against a possible attack from the king's city."

"I see." Roland nodded. A military force of 50 soldiers was decidedly a little too thin. They would possibly suffer a great loss if demons speared them far away from somewhere out of their sight. In order to prevent this happening, Roland would need Lightning and Maggie to scout around in the air. Meanwhile, he had to also rely on Sylvie's perspective view. The ideal combination would be a hot air balloon in concert with ground forces, a few witches responsible for close-range combatting and guarding, and a flintlock squad in charge of long-distance attacks.

In that case, however, witches on Sleeping Island would also know there was a sleeping beauty in the relic. After a thorough reflection, Roland decided to include Sylvie, since the most important thing for this rescue operation was personal safety.

When Roland was about to turn the subject to the details of the rescue plan, Mystery Moon cried out in a low voice. "Heaven... what's that?"

Everybody was stunned when looking outside the window.

Roland pushed the window open in disbelief. The sullen sky had been covered with "white elves" which swirled and drifted down silently to the ground. Roland stuck out his hand. He felt a cold sensation as the little white dot of feather descended on his hand.

It was snowing.

This was out of usual... As far as he knew, it only snowed once in winter in the Western Region, and it was not even winter yet!

"Would it normally snow in the second month of fall?" Roland eyed Iron Axe who also looked at the snow sternly. Iron Axe slowly answered, "During my stay at the town over the past seven or eight years, I've never seen this."

Snow meant the arrival of the Months of Demons. At that time, the sun would be overspread by dark clouds. Before it once again peeped through the clouds, the entire Western Region would be under the attacks of demonic beasts. The whole Misty Forest would be filled with these fierce monsters. It would thus be pretty dangerous to travel somewhere beyond the city wall and almost impossible to transport witches with a hot air balloon, not to mention sending out the First Army.

In view of the above-noted factors, Roland had no choice but to suspend his rescue operation for now until the sky cleared up.

As the temperature in fall did not normally drop that fast, Roland truly thought the heavy snow was just temporary and would cease in no time.

To his disappointment, however, the town was wiped out by snow three days later. The forest and distant mountains were all covered with a thick layer of white muslin. It would definitely be a breathtaking view in the modern world. Unfortunately, at this point, Roland did not have the slightest intention to appreciate its beauty.

Although the snow had become noticeably less heavy than earlier, snowflakes still sprinkled here and there. The First Army was currently on a full alert and patrolled upon the new city wall regularly every day. Tents were pitched at the foot of the city wall so that soldiers could get prepared for the upcoming war in a timely fashion. As the temperature decreased almost on a daily basis, soldiers had changed their attire from shirts to winter jackets.

Roland's heart sank on the fourth day when he received the news from the front.

The west wall was attacked by demonic beasts.

That meant the Months of Demons arrived one month earlier than usual.

Chapter 320 - Sleeping Spell

In Sleeping Island of the Fjords.

"I'd never thought that Sleeping Spell's first patron would be you." Tilly laughed as she served up a steaming bowl of fish soup. "Thanks for your help in finding the ruins in Shadow Islands."

"You're welcome." Thunder received the soup. "I'll be willing to enter those mysterious waters a few more times even if I'm not rewarded. Honestly, without the witches traveling together, the area to the east of Shadows Island is absolutely dangerous and forbidden to an explorer." He took a sip of the soup and exhaled a mouthful of hot air. "Ah... blacktail fish soup is absolutely delicious."

Neither black tea nor ale was popular in the Fjords. The people here were used to having a bowl of cold fish jelly during midsummer, and when temperatures were lower, they would have a bowl of boiled fish soup instead. When cooked, different kinds of fishes had very different tastes. This was a custom that Tilly learned about only after coming to Sleeping Island.

"Is that why you couldn't wait to come and patronize Sleeping Spell?"

"Correctly speaking, I was eager to begin my next adventure." Thunder laughed heartily. "The last time in the ruins, the scene I saw through my telescope was stunning. I wished so bad that I could fly over to see what there was on the land, and why a stone gate appeared on the cliffs."

"Is that so..." Tilly poured a cup of fish soup for herself. "You should know that I intend to visit Border Town. This is because I wish to have a good talk with the leader of the Witch Cooperation Association and, at the same time, experience the Western Region's Months of Demons. You... won't be going with us to have a look?"

Thunder remained silent for a moment before he put on a grin and replied, "I think not. She's probably living well over there, and it's fine this way... As an explorer, you never know when an accident will happen after all. I've already lost her mother, and I don't want to lose her too. When the time comes, I hope you'll..."

"I will." Tilly nodded her head. "She's one of us after all." Laughing gently, she continued, "But remember, business is business. Though you've helped us a lot, the cost of hiring witches will be calculated according to the book."

"Of course. Business is always business. This is the Fjords' tradition." Thunder drank up the remaining soup and laughed even louder.

...

"So, who did he hire?" After seeing Thunder depart from the palace, Ashes walked into the hall and sat cross-legged beside Tilly.

"'Magic Servant' Molly, 'Door of Random' Orbit, and 'Puppet' Shadow." Tilly laid open the agreement. "The fees are set at more than 4,800 gold royals. It's generous, isn't it?"

"4,000..." Ashes gaped in wonder. "Where did he get so much money?"

"Don't forget that he's the most famous explorer in the Fjords." The princess smiled. "He can attain a huge fortune whenever he discovers a new navigation route or digs up a treasure. That explains why he has the financial ability to consistently hire a large number of experienced personnel to accompany him in exploring mysterious and dangerous regions. His risk is heavily reduced with the witches around. Using money to offset risk has been a worthy transaction since time ancient."

"But, is this really good?" Ashes seemed unconvinced. "While the establishment of a bounty guild can bring huge fortune to Sleeping Island, the witches' abilities will be revealed as a result. If the church learns of them..."

"Sleeping Spell" was a new guild established by Tilly. Here, explorers of the Fjord Islands could hire witches with suitable abilities to help them complete their adventures. Of course, aside from its primary business, there were also various convenience services on offer, such as reparation of damaged items, crafting of several exquisite artworks, fast house construction, as well as floriculture and fumigation. As long as the witches' abilities were not made use of for evil, "Sleeping Spell" could offer any service.

However, the downside to all this was that their abilities were publicized.

Tilly held Ashes' hand. "Haven't I already told you that I don't care about the gold royals, but rather, what I hope is to use the bounty guild to enable more people to understand Sleeping Island and build up friendly relations. Thunder said something which I agree very much with: fear comes from the unknown. It's the same with witches. The Fjord Islanders' and the kingdoms' citizens' fear of us simply arises from the church's slander and their own ignorance."

"I have no means to force them to initiate contact with and understand us. All I can do is to publicize our identity positively and tell them that our power doesn't come from demons, as well as that our abilities aren't overly uncanny—witches are normal people before their awakenings, and therefore are essentially humans too. When there's greater mutual understanding, the fear will disappear." She took a breath and continued, "As for the church, they've never cared about what abilities we have. The Judgement Army has always been responsible for capturing witches, while at times the God's Punishment Army would be mobilized. There isn't much difference among our abilities in front of the God's Stone of Retaliation."

"I hope that you're right," Ashes said softly, "I only know how to fight and kill. I won't be of much help in this regard."

"You've already helped me plenty." Tilly laughed. "To develop and expand Sleeping Island, the most important thing to do is to build relations among the Fjord Islands. Fostering mutual understanding is a long process. I'm doing all this simply to speed up this process as much as possible." "There's also a further use for the bounty guild." She stuck out her tongue and revealed a sly grin. "And that's to find new uses for abilities which seem to be useless at the moment. This way, our non-combat witches won't feel depressed that their abilities aren't useful."

Ashes seemed to be amused by her expression. "You always have so many reasons, one after the other, that it's difficult for anyone to refute you."

"Because I'm always right." Tilly smirked. "Let's change the topic. Maggie has still not returned to Sleeping Island. Did something happen over there?"

"Perhaps she's being delayed by something." Ashes pondered briefly. "Or perhaps..."

"What?"

"She doesn't want to come back." She answered while shrugging her shoulders. "Compared to the Fjords, living conditions over there are much better. I'd long advised you not to send witches there. What will we do if Lotus and Honey also refuse to come back?"

"Then we shall go over," Tilly replied.

"Alright, I'll go and make preparations... What?" Ashes seemed dazed for a moment before she regained her senses. "We... will go over?"

Princess Tilly curled her lips. "Haven't we already agreed that we'll help him to fight the demonic beasts before we fetch the other witches back? Without Lotus, the immigrants from the Crescent Moon Bay will have no houses to live in next year."

"There's still more than a month before winter. Do we really have to go so early?"

"The journey will take considerable time. If Border Town has indeed run into some trouble, we may be able to assist the Witch Cooperation Association by reaching early. And..." She blinked several times. "I want to see how that obnoxious elder brother of mine has changed."

Chapter 321 - The Laws of Border Town

Roland was awakened by the cold early in the morning. He climbed out of his chilly bed, put on a woolen coat, and placed his feet in a pail of warm water.

This was the kind of "corrupted privilege" only he could enjoy as a prince. Every morning, maids would place the pail of warm water beside his bed, and also fetch a clean towel and a cup of warm milk. This way, his body could quickly regain warmth.

Of course, he considered this to be restrained compared to the great nobles who often had their servants to warm their beds. The prince had brought over his chief maid, Tyre, for this reason, but unfortunately, she died before he got to enjoy it. Roland was not in favor of this practice, and thus, he handed the vacant position to a senior and highly experienced old maid. It turned out to be the correct choice. Though the castle accommodated many witches at present, she was able to keep the castle's interior spick and span."

The flames in the fireplace had gone out, leaving behind only a trace of white ashes. Gusts of cold wind slipped through the window cracks behind his back, causing him to feel a piercing chill. It was hard to believe that it was still mid-autumn. Roland wiped his feet dry, cleaned himself up with another pail of warm water, and then walked up to and closed the window which had been left open overnight.

Although open fireplaces were very common during this era, he remained worried about carbon monoxide poisoning, and thus, he would leave a gap in the window when he slept. For the first half of the night, the room temperature could be maintained at a warm level, but as the firewood was burned up, the temperature became similar to outdoors by the early hours of the morning.

"I should think of a way to solve this problem," Roland thought, "or else, I won't be able to sleep in anymore."

After breakfast, he led Nightingale, the chief knight, and a bunch of guards to the city wall area to conduct a routine inspection.

There was a huge patch of grass between the new and old city walls. At this time, it had turned into a white expanse. As they walked over the piles of thick snow, they could hear a creaking sound beneath their feet.

Roland raised his head and saw that the sky was a faint gray. On occasion, a lump of snow would drift against his neck, bringing with it a chilly feel. He was aware that this weather would likely last until the coming spring... or even longer.

"How's the situation at our defense line?"

"Much better than last time." Carter Lannis seemed to be perfectly calm. "Most of the First Army soldiers have battle experience and carry revolving rifles. A city wall of approximately 100 meters in length only requires 10 guards to suppress demonic beasts clattering below. Plus, the new city walls are higher than the old ones by half a meter. Even demonic wolves will find it difficult to leap on top of the city walls, and as such, they become shooting practice for our soldiers. As long as demonic hybrid beasts don't appear, it's impossible for our defense line to be breached."

"That's great."

As Roland climbed to the top of the city wall, the soldiers raised their heads and puffed out their chests to salute him. Judging from their spirits alone, they were completely different from the initial militia soldiers. When he visited at that time, although the Militia stood on the city wall and thrust their spears uniformly, it was nothing more than a conditioned reflex which they had trained repeatedly. Their eyes seemed numb and their movements were rigid. On closer inspection, he even saw that most of their legs were trembling slightly.

This time, confidence oozed from the expression in the soldiers' eyes. After saluting, they turned their sights straight ahead and resumed their watch on the battlefield.

As he cast his glance along the city walls on the side that led towards Misty Forest, he realized that this area appeared to be much busier than the rest.

The temporary residences constructed for the serfs and refugees were situated in this area. As he looked down from the top of the city wall, he saw that long inclined tracks were arranged in parallel like undulating waves. Along each of these tracks were built 10 or so houses, whose structure was identical to that of cave dwellings. The thick earthen walls served to maintain indoor temperature, and together with heated brick beds and linen blankets, the inhabitants were kept away from the cold.

The entire settlement was divided into two zones. The zone closer to the city walls was called the Western Zone and was arranged for refugees. The zone further away from the city walls, called the Eastern Zone, was partitioned and given to the serfs.

Every day, the City Hall would send men here to distribute food and charcoal. In return, the refugees performed logistical errands for the First Army guarding the city wall. As for the serfs, most had already stored up sufficient wheat for themselves. Except a few hardworking ones who came out to find odd jobs and earn a little extra cash for themselves, the rest of the serfs rarely stepped out of their warm houses.

All of a sudden, a heated argument was heard from the direction of the Eastern Zone. Roland looked towards where the sound seemed to be coming from, only to see a group of people gathered on the main road in the center of the residential area, loudly arguing over something. One of them was wearing a blue and white uniform which suggested that he was a city hall officer. The quarrel soon escalated into a brawl. Two groups of people fought against each other, turning the scene into a mess.

"Your Highness?" Carter asked.

"Let's have a look." Roland nodded.

Roland's party made its way towards the location of the trouble. The chief knight took the lead by charging straight into the brawling mob. With two or three blows, he quickly subdued several of the rowdiest brawlers. Roland's guards pulled out their swords and urged everyone to stop fighting. Before long, the situation was brought under control.

When the two groups of commoners discovered that the arriving party was none other than the lord himself, they kneeled on the ground all at once.

"What's your name?" Roland looked fixedly and frowned at the officer, who had taken two punches on his face. "What happened here, and who attacked you first?"

"Your Highness, I'm Khoya Harvie," the officer replied in a shrill voice while covering his face, "and it was that d*mn refugee wearing a brown linen shirt who hit me first! I was distributing food when he jumped on me like a vicious dog."

The refugee whom Khoya pointed at raised his head and retorted. "Your Highness, the matter isn't as he said. These people colluded with the serfs to exhort us. They're charging us a price for every portion of oatmeal. When Your Highness took us in, you clearly said that all these would be distributed for free!"

Roland felt slightly surprised. The Eastern Region refugees had already been checked through by the City Hall. Those among them who were craftsmen, possessed special skills, or were literate had been shifted into an inner ring. In principle, the remaining ones should only be peasants. However, judging from his manner of speech and vocabulary, he did not quite seem to be a peasant.

By comparison, the city hall officer, whose mouth was full of expletives, was very disappointing. From his name and surname, Roland could guess that he was probably a knight who pledged allegiance to Duke Ryan.

"I indeed say so—before your people are officially incorporated into Border Town, oatmeals and residences will be provided for free," Roland repeated his original words in front of all the refugees. "At present, my words are still effective!"

"Your Highness is benevolent!"

"Long live the lord!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

The refugees kowtowed and exclaimed.

Khoya Harvie's face turned a ghastly pale at once.

"However, within my territory, fighting and injuring others is always an offense, especially assaulting a city hall officer." Roland signaled to his guards. "Arrest all of the refugees and serfs who laid hands on others, and bring them to the castle. I'll handle this case myself."

After a brief pause, he glanced with interest towards Khoya. "I'll also like to ask you about what's with the pricing of the oatmeal."

Chapter 322 - Western Territory Security Bureau

When Roland returned to the castle hall, he sat back on the seat of honor and looked down at his subjects.

From his memory, the former Prince Roland had exercised his right to adjudicate only once, and that took place shortly after he arrived in Border Town. After he fell out with the nobles and became dissatisfied with life, he handed over all of his responsibilities and matters to Barov and never took interest in them again.

When everyone involved was present, Roland announced the start of the trial.

Each party was allowed to state their reasons before Roland interrogated them. With Nightingale's secret assistance, his duty as a judge became relaxed and easy—he neither had to work out who was lying or being insincere nor needed to have an overbearingly meticulous heart.

The whole story of the matter soon became clear.

After being stripped of his status as a knight, Khoya Harvie harbored some discontent. At the same time, he was sick of the tedious paperwork at the City Hall. He thus decided to take his grievances out on the refugees. While distributing oatmeal to them, he deliberately charged a price, and then drove a wedge between them and the serfs by claiming that the serfs had not turned over their grains accordingly, which caused the stock of wheat to be insufficient and therefore unable to be distributed for free.

In fact, Khoya had been collecting a price for the oatmeal for several days. As he would wear the unmistakable uniform of the City Hall and the refugees were worried of reprisal from the officials, most of them chose to remain silent. This made Khoya grow even bolder. Only today, when a refugee by the name of Vader came forward to protest at Khoya's measures and stirred up a commotion, the matter was brought to light.

After Roland understood the circumstances, he let out a sigh of relief.

During an organization's development phase, it would typically be full of vigor and vitality. After it stabilized, corruption and inflexibility would become inevitable. However, these problems should only occur after the unification of the Kingdom of Graycastle. If they arose at such an early stage, then the organization was destined not to go far.

As things stood, it was fortunate that this incident was caused by the individual behavior of Khoya Harvie, and did not involve other city hall officials. Furthermore, the matter was only extortion of money, instead of what Roland would be most worried about: collusion with the serfs to resell and traffick grains.

Of course, he was also at fault for this incident. Initially, when the City Hall was desperately short of manpower, he did not arrange any screening or training, and simply assigned all of the surrendered knights to Barov after giving them a warning. As the outcome of this case showed, not everyone could accept this job without complaint while having to endure the psychological blow of falling from a knight to a commoner.

Roland summoned Barov to his side and asked softly, "How would a lord usually handle a situation like this?"

"Your Highness, there're two kinds of situation," the latter replied respectfully, "If the offender is a noble, he may pay a few gold royals and be spared from further punishment. The offence of a commoner who assaults a noble can be deemed either big or small. The punishment may range from amputation to flogging."

"But Khoya isn't a noble." The prince shrugged his shoulders. "I'd taken away his title."

"Understood, Your Highness. If that's so, the verdict entirely depends on the lord's mood."

"Nothing is fixed?"

Barov shook his head.

Roland furrowed his brows. "If it entirely depends on my mood, it means that it doesn't matter how I deal with the commoners. It seems that in the eyes of nobles, they aren't people who need to be taken and treated seriously."

"Aside from chopping off their limbs, flogging, pulling their nails and similar punishments, is there anything more normal? Like imprisonment."

"Imprisonment?" Barov was taken aback. "Your Highness, you mean to simply lock them up? That doesn't count as a punishment. Prison is but a temporary place to hold criminals while they await trial. If we keep them locked up, you'll have to provide them with food. To some people, this could even be seen as a form of reward."

"Alright. Seems like fixed-term imprisonment, which is used extensively in later ages, can't be applied here." Roland pondered for a moment and decided to follow the rules in the Kingdom of Graycastle. He stood up and swept his glance across the entire hall. "I'll now pronounce my judgement."

"Khoya Harvie. For dereliction of duty and extortion of refugees, from today onwards, he shall be removed from his duties in the City Hall, and be banished to labor in the mines for 10 years. He shall also pay a fine equivalent to three times the amount he earned from extortion."

"Vader. For instigating an assault on a city hall officer, he shall be sentenced to 10 lashes."

"As for the rest of the refugees and serfs who participated in the brawl, each of them shall pay a fine of two silver royals or be sentenced to five lashes."

"Oatmeal shall continue to be distributed for free. The extortion money shall be returned in full." He peered at the city hall director. "You shall be in charge of carrying out the above rulings. The final outcomes must be declared to the people living in the provisional residence area."

"Yes, Your Highness," Barov answered while making a bow.

When Roland returned to his office, he leaned back on his chair and stretched his body. He promptly felt a pair of hands place itself on his shoulders and begin to massage him gently.

He closed his eyes to enjoy this moment of relaxation.

From this incident, Roland had become aware that as the population of his subjects rose and the authority of the City Hall rapidly increased, it was perhaps time for him to address the issue of internal supervision.

Yet, he did not wish to establish an organization akin to a procuratorate, or more so to have an independent public security unit. The former would require a large number of literate personnel, and was prone to cause mutual conflicts and blame-pushing, which would hinder the implementation and expansion of new policies. On the other hand, the latter would insidiously diminish his own powers, such as in legislation, judicial interpretation and jurisdiction, all of which he felt would be better off under his control.

What he needed was a simple and effective system which would not require too many personnel in order to serve the functions of supervision.

He clutched the hand on his shoulder.

Nightingale dissipated her Mist and held on to the prince's hand as she sat back on the table. Tilting her head, she asked, "What's the matter?"

As she swayed her slender legs over the edge of the table, her high deerskin boots and tight pants formed a perfect curve.

Roland coughed twice before he spoke. "I intend to set up a new department which will supervise the City Hall as well as arrest individuals or groups who threaten the stability of the Western Region. This department shall only answer to me, and will be independent of the CITY HALL and the First Army." He enunciated his words clearly. "For the time being, I shall call it the Western Territory Security Bureau. I hope to put you in charge of this department."

"Me?" She blinked her eyes in surprise.

"Indeed. Only you can easily distinguish truth from falsities. No form of deception will work in your presence." Roland nodded in approval. "How about it? If you accept, I'll even offer you alone the drinking afternoon tea with ice-cream in winter, or..."

Nightingale gently pinched his hand. "Even without this offer, I'll agree to your request as long as it's something you want."

"..." Roland suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

She laughed and broke the silence before it turned awkward. "But, what do I have to do?"

"Hmm, the supervision part is really easy." The prince adjusted his emotions. "I'll install a letterbox for reporting offences at the castle gate. All you have to do is to verify the contents of the letters received."

The most cost-effective solution was indubitable to enable public supervision as well as let the City Hall supervise itself, similar to how he arrested spies who infiltrated Border Town during the previous year's Months of Demons.

The downside of this method, which came from a later age, was that both the accused and the accuser would need to be meticulously verified. There would also be cases of false or mistaken reports, not to mention frame-ups. However, these problems would become insignificant with Nightingale's ability. It would be easy to verify information simply through face-to-face interrogation. Furthermore, by rewarding the accuser if he was found to be truthful, while punishing false accusations and information, this reporting system would certainly be highly effective.

"As for maintaining the stability of the Western Region and eliminating threats and dangers, it'll be best to have an internal intelligence system. I'll slowly supply more men to you until you have enough eyes to watch over the entire Western Region."

Chapter 323 - The Public Security Team

Roland went on to moot his general plan for Border Town's public security system.

At present, there were approximately 20,000 people living in Border Town. Aside from native inhabitants, there were also people from Longsong Stronghold and refugees from the Eastern Region. When the emissary delegation dispatched by Barov returned, there could even be migrants from the south and north of the kingdom. The composition of Border Town's population would thence become more complicated, creating greater discrepancies in terms of population quality. Conflicts similar to what happened today would only become more common.

This was why Roland needed to establish a public security system to replace the First Army's ongoing patrol work. It was only a matter of time before internal and external violence had to be demarcated. He had long considered this issue but had been hindered by a shortage of manpower. Now that the First Army needed to concentrate on fighting the demonic beasts, and his population was rapidly increasing, it was the right time to implement his plan.

He would personally take charge of legislation, judicial interpretation, and jurisdiction of major criminal acts—his verdict would be final. The public security team would arrest criminals in accordance with the law, as well as handle civil disputes. The Security Bureau would be responsible for maintaining the integrity of public departments and preventing abuse and corruption of power. In order to economize on manpower, they might also call on public security personnel to carry out clean-up operations. This was the outline of Roland's idea for the public security system.

Ideally, he would first try out this system within Border Town, and only extend it to the entire Western Region in the following year, when Border Town would undergo expansion.

When the time came, all of his territory, including the domains self-governed by nobles, would enforce the same set of laws and be managed by unified departments. The only person who would be above the law was Roland himself.

As the greatest noble in the Western Region himself, he would neither claim that everyone was equal before the law nor abolish the aristocracy. However, he could at least ensure that his cities did not carry the presence of feudal aristocrats in the traditional sense. If they wished to receive his protection, they would have to give up their right to self-rule.

Roland had also long decided on who would be the head of the public security department.

As a person with a great sense of justice yet was not pedantic in doing things, Chief Knight Carter Lannis would make a fine choice.

***************

When Vader hobbled his way back to his provisional residence, an old man named Cacusim immediately walked out of the house and assisted him.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Vader put on a smile and replied. "I was simply sentenced to 10 lashes by His Highness."

"Let me have a look." Cacusim beseeched.

"We should go inside first." When Vader entered the house, the interior warmth dispelled his bodily chills at once. Closing the door, he felt as if it was a different world from the outside. Compared to the wooden shed he had stayed in which provided no shelter from wind or rain, this low and narrow mud house was much more comfortable.

"Right, don't the locals call this type of house a cave dwelling?" Vader thought.

The old man got him to lie on the heated brick bed, lifted the shirt off his back, and involuntarily exhaled a mouthful of cold air.

"Your back is covered in blood. I'll go get some ash for you."

"No, don't use that. These are just bloodstains from my punishment. The bleeding stopped long ago." Vader repeatedly urged. "The chief knight has told me that it's best to leave them open. The wounds will heal in two to three days."

"Two to three days?" Cacusim shook his head worriedly. "No, child, you may fall into a high fever and get swelling on your back because of this. Even if you're healthy and strong, it'll take at least a week to recover. You should know better than me what happens when a disease acts up."

"You may not believe me but..." Vader licked his parched lips. "I don't really feel the pain from the wounds on my back, and instead there seems to a cool and itchy feeling. This is the sign of healing. After I was whipped, they poured a bucket of water over my back..."

"Salt water?" The old man knitted his eyebrows.

"I thought so at first, but I didn't feel the usual searing pain afterward." Vader laughed softly. "The knight who carried out my punishment told me that the water they used could remove all pathogenic microbes. For my wounds to heal faster, I simply have to not do anything while allowing it to air."

"Micro... what?"

"Microbes." He curled his lips. "Devil knows what that is. It's probably something to do with the witches."

The old man lowered his head, and only after a long time, he spoke in a deep voice, "You shouldn't have stood up for me. If only you controlled yourself a little..."

"That would only cause us to receive even worse treatment. I understand that b*stard's character, or should I say, all nobles are more or less the same." Vader spat out a mouthful of saliva. "I'd heard that snowfall can last for a couple of months here. Neither of us has enough money to last until it ends." He paused before continuing. "And... I purposely picked that moment to hit him."

"Purposely?" Cacusim froze.

"Every day at that time, His Highness would appear at the city walls of the Western Zone. He had promised that food would be distributed for free, and would certainly abhor behaviors which tarnished his own reputation. This was, therefore, the most effective method. If it was only a simple brawl, His Highness might not even have heard of it. And, after all, Khoya Harvie could have been instigated by someone else. If the city hall officers wished to suppress this news, nothing we said would have mattered."

"But how if he was instigated by the lord himself?"

"The possibility of that is very low. If His Highness wanted to save money, he could simply reduce our meals from three to two a day. I had also asked around beforehand, and found that the local people and serfs were full of praise for His Highness' benevolence and sagacity." He chuckled smugly. "See, didn't I make the right bet?"

"Oh... I see." The old man sighed at length. "Your insight was truly profound."

What Vader did not guess correctly was the punishment he would receive.

As a member of the patrol team in Valencia for more than 10 years, he deeply understood the hideous side of a city behind its glamorous facade. He had seen nobles who made use of their power to carry out extortion one too many times before. This even happened within the patrol team he served. Therefore, he had long learned how to punish this kind of crooked and lofty nobles.

His Highness' response was also as he had expected. Only the means of punishment took him by surprise.

Under this kind of circumstance, a lord who was fond of his own reputation would typically acquit the oppressed party. Instead, His Highness meted out punishments to everyone involved—it thus seemed that he was more concerned about the system rather than his reputation.

This was a seldom seen quality, especially for a lord who had been used to doing as he pleased.

"What do you intend to do next?" The old man asked after a brief silence.

"Rest for two days specially authorized by the chief knight. Then I'll continue as before to run errands for those guys who carry strange weapons."

"You could have entered the inner city area and lived together in dignity with the other craftsmen."

"But you couldn't follow me, Cacusim. Let's not talk about this." He shook his head. "I'll not abandon you on the outside."

This old man was neither his kin nor his senior. Half a year ago, the former was a convict locked up in prison. Although everyone knew that he was used by the rats of Black Street as a scapegoat, such cases were so common that the patrol team simply could not be bothered. Later, when Valencia was ransacked by a large group of pirates, Vader had thought that he would die in the turmoil, only to be rescued by the old man and hidden in his prison cell. Cacusim used his smelly bed sheets to conceal the latter's figure, and ultimately helped him to survive.

Vader had never thought that he would ever be rescued by a convict, which he usually would not even look in the eye. It was then that he realized that he was essentially no different from those obnoxious nobles.

The other two people living in the same room as them also knew Cacusim's identity. Things were fine when Vader was around, but when he was not, they would disturb the old man.

"Relax, everything will become better." Vader gave the latter a pat on the back.

Two days later, he heard news from the inner city area that His Highness was recruiting public security personnel.

Chapter 324 - The Omen from the Seas

"Hey ladies, want some fish soup?" Captain Jack poked his head into the cabin while wriggling the cigarette in his mouth. "A fortunate young man caught a huge tailless trout just now."

"Thank you." Tilly Wimbledon nodded. "We'll be over shortly."

"Fish soup again." Ashes sighed when the captain had disappeared from sight. "What's so good about this tasteless stuff?"

"You can add some salt in it if you need." Breeze chuckled. "Pepper is also fine, although it's more expensive and Mr. Jack may disapprove."

"Don't put anything, or you'll spoil the original taste of the broth and won't be able to tell the quality of the ingredients." Andrea elegantly ran a hand through her pale golden locks. "Lady Tilly, let's go to the captain's cabin."

"I just want something hot," Shavi, who was the shortest among the group, muttered, "My toes are almost freezing."

They walked up the stairs to the poop deck of the Charming Beauty. One-eyed Jack was standing by a porthole, observing the lines of the ship's white wake as they tumbled and scattered.

"This bloody weather, why is it suddenly so cold?" He exhaled a puff of smoke. "Holy Three Gods above, it's only mid-autumn."

"Perhaps the Gods are asleep?" Ashes shrugged her shoulders.

"Phooey, don't say that when we're on the sea." Captain Jack snickered. "The Sea God is constantly watching over us." He made a blessing gesture at his chest. "Never mind, I shan't think about it anymore. Have some fish soup to warm your stomachs."

In order to enjoy warm food in his own cabin, he had made a large opening in the floor, placed a brazier in its center, and filled its sides with sea sand. This had an insulation effect which prevented any accidental fire from igniting the entire ship.

The large pot of fish soup placed on the brazier was bubbling and making a rumbling noise. A fragrance soon filled the room.

The six people present took off their shoes, sat around the brazier, and buried their feet in the fine sand, so as to allow their toes to be in maximal contact with the sand and thereby enjoy the warmth provided by the heated charcoal.

Tilly received a bowl of fish soup from the captain and gently blew against its steaming surface. Unlike the milky white broth made from blacktail fish, this soup was dark yellow in color, and a layer of oil which refracted a bright luster was visible on the surface.

When she saw bits of green and white floating in the soup, she knew that the old captain had inserted a few precious ingredients. As the ship was frequently at sea for months at a time, the crew could rarely eat fresh vegetables and fruits. The captain had apparently used ice nitrite to preserve the freshness and tenderness of the scallions, whose fragrance neutralized the fish smell, and mixed together with shredded ginger and a small amount of ale, so that all that was left was a rich and mellow taste.

Tilly slowly drank the fish soup. Every time she felt that it was going to scald her tongue, she would pause and take a couple of breaths. With every small sip, she could clearly feel that the soup was like a warm current which slid smoothly down her throat into her stomach, where it provided a nice comfort.

The chill quickly went away, and she even felt her body begin to give out heat.

"Try adding a little chili." Jack pointed at the spice jars that were placed beside the brazier. "That'll make the taste even more special. And, it's even more effective at dispelling the cold than wine."

"Though I believe that food should be eaten in its original flavor, I have to say that these condiments perfectly complement the food and don't cause the soup to lose its flavor." Andrea commented.

"Aren't you drinking it?" Tilly glanced at Ashes.

The latter waved her hands. "Probably not. I simply can't stand the smell of fish."

At first, Tilly was also unable to accept the Fjord people's penchant for eating fish. Every meal would consist of several varieties of fish, which could be grilled, steamed or fried. There were also special things such as fish jelly, fish sauce and caviar. After she forced herself to try eating fish at a few formal dinners, she realized that the taste was indeed not bad, and that after getting used to the fishy smell, it could further bring out the delicious taste of the fish. At present, she was also willing to try the more pungent varieties, such as dried fish, grilled cuttlefish, and even pan-fried surströmming.

"Our dear young Madam Ashes here has had her taste for food spoiled by the terrible forms of cuisine in Border Town." Andrea chaffed while covering her mouth. "It's really a pity. The spices and table salt she would normally put in her food have made her unable to appreciate truly good food. Now, she doesn't even have the courage to try new food."

"What're you saying?" Ashes glared at her.

"Why, was I wrong?" Andrea giggled. "A little bit of smell fazes you. This shows that you're as wayward as a young girl. How can we count on you to step up when Lady Tilly needs you?"

"I see... it seems to me that you're challenging me to a round." Ashes' tone suddenly became milder. "You'd better give up that thought. There's a scary type of weapon in Border Town which is much more powerful than your arrows. Even so, I defeated it in a competition. You're still many years of practice away from challenging my position as Lady Tilly's bodyguard..." She took a breath before continuing. "Or perhaps even a lifetime."

"You..."

Ashes began to grin. "You should also know that the cuisine invented by His Highness don't merely add spices and table salt. You'll understand when you try it. Before that, please don't spill your saliva on your clothes. Lady Tilly can't afford to lose face."

"Nonsense, that would be you!"

Tilly began to laugh involuntarily. As Sleeping Island's best combat witches, the two of them argued incessantly over who was better. Tilly considered both to be her best subordinates. She knew that when real danger arose, the two of them would unhesitatingly fight side by side and work together to construct an impregnable wall for Sleeping Island.

The pair's argument caused the atmosphere in the room to liven up. As she observed the scene, Tilly could not help thinking about the five witches she had sent to Border Town, and whether they were still living well in her elder brother's territory.

Right at this moment, the Charming Beauty began to shudder without warning.

"Careful!" Ashes pulled Princess Tilly away as the pot on the brazier overturned. The spilled soup extinguished the charcoal fire, and chunks of fish fell all over the floor.

They then heard a shrill whistle from outside the cabin.

"Enemies! Enemies are attacking!"

A sailor dashed into the captain's cabin and exclaimed in horror, "Captain, the mutant sea ghosts are here! And there're more than one!"

"Sea ghosts... isn't that another name for the demonic beasts?" Tilly was bewildered. "How did they manage to come here?"

The party ran out of the cabin, only to see more than a dozen fish-bodied crab-legged creatures on the deck. There were even more of them climbing up the sides of the ship. They were fast and agile; when they moved on all six legs, they resembled giant cockroaches. Their human-like arms, which they waved in the air on either side of their heads, were astonishingly strong and could easily break off a sailor's neck.

"Since you aren't willing to fight, then let's have a contest." Andrea snapped her fingers, and momentarily, a beam of golden light emerged from her fingertips and formed into a bow which she held steadily in her hands. "Whoever kills more monsters shall be considered the more powerful between us."

"Fine." Ashes pulled out that huge and strangely-shaped sword from behind her back. "I'm game."

Chapter 325 - The Arrow of Light

Holding the Stone of Flight, Tilly injected it with magic power and then ascended into the air to overlook the entire deck.

After the initial shock, the experienced seaman of the Charming Beauty picked up their weapons to resist the demonic beasts while trying to sail towards the poop deck. Though it was impossible for them to defeat so many enemies alone, the witches on board, were their greatest hopes.

The situation instantly reversed as Ashes joined the battle.

She struck the enemies like a gust of wind, leaving the monsters screaming and wailing behind her. Any monster that dared to face her great sword would ultimately be cut in half. Soon, the deck was littered with body parts.

Andrea, unwilling to fall behind, raised her Magical Longbow. It was able to use anything as arrows, shooting them accurately at an astounding speed. That was why she rarely prepared regular arrows but instead a bag of glassbead. The demonic beasts within 20 steps were falling under her shooting without even a chance to scream. The beads were hard and strong enough to slam into the beasts' heads and smash their brains.

With the invisible barrier protecting them from the demonic beasts, Breeze and Shavi were going back and forth on the deck, rescuing the injured seamen.

Although Tilly saw that all the demonic beasts would soon be killed, she did not let her guard down.

She noticed that the boat was shaking violently. It seemed more like the result of an enormous monster thrusting the boat from underneath the water than from the fish-shaped monsters ramming into them. Without Molly's Magic Servant defending them, a few more impacts would be enough to destroy the boat. In this case, the witches would barely be able to protect themselves, while the seamen would most probably be doomed to feed the fish.

Just as she had expected, when Ashes smashed the last demonic beasts with her big sword, a giant shadow was spotted in the water ahead of the boat. There was absolutely no way for a fish to have such a huge figure. Within a short period of time, the shadow neared the surface and was about to bump into the Charming Beauty.

"Watch out!" Tilly shouted.

The giant shadow brushed under the bottom of the boat before the shouting died down. The sailing ship shook fiercely again causing two masts to swing with horrifying a sound. It was as if they would fall at any time. Fortunately, the shadow suspended the attack after its strike and disappeared rapidly into the deep water. It seemed that the monster had intended to knock over the boat with its back before feasting on the seamen and witches.

Tilly landed on the deck and then briefed the other members of the situation.

"We must force the damn monster to surface or it'll sink us sooner or later." Ashes frowned.

"Let me have a try," Shavi said, "I can block the impact with a barrier whenever it gets close."

"Sea God be good." The old Jack prayed and wiped away the sweat from his forehead. "If it's as giant as Lady Tilly described, a regular strike won't be able to work on it. Even if we can make it surface, how can we kill it?"

"Leave it to me," Andrea said as she pulled her drooping hair back to her ear and smiled confidently, "No enemy is strong enough to take my all-out strike within 10 steps."

Soon, the shadow reappeared. This time it attempted to strike from another direction, the tail of the Charming Beauty.

When Tilly who was watching in the mid-air signaled the alert, Shavi ran and jumped out of the edge of the boat with a rope tightly wrapped around her waist. Ashes held the other end of the rope to steadily control Shavi's descending height.

With the strike impending, Shavi instantly weaved the barrier and it started to spread along an abruptly-emerged crack in the gray water, as if the water was cut by something invisible.

The dash against the barrier was so hard that the giant body stopped dead. Shavi gave a grunt with her hand dropping down weakly, as if most of her strength had been sucked away. She saw the size of the shadow beneath her was expanding in her view quickly and that the water was abruptly rising.

"Pull her up!" Tilly shouted as she swooped down.

With one tug, Ashes pulled Shavi back on deck. That was when the giant sea monster roared out of the water, waving the boat fiercely. At first glance, it looked like a mixture between a tooth shark and an octopus with several tentacles sticking out of its triangular head. The tentacles stuck straight to the deck.

The bizarre impact had significantly riled the monster. The witches could sense its rage simply from its roaring. The tentacles which were as thick as an adult's thigh, swept over the deck causing the poles to scatter all around, but yet the attack was still blocked by the barrier, which almost depleted Shavi's magic power.

"Andrea!" Ashes bent down and folded her fingers to form the shape of a bowl with her hands.

"I'm coming," Andrea stepped on Ashes' palm and said, "Leave it to me!"

Ashes launched Andrea into the sky in an extraordinary fashion. Andrea arced in the air and had reached above the head of the monster in a blink of an eye.

She summoned the magical bow and drew the string. Suddenly, a dazzling light burst out from the bow. The light was like the sun shining through thick clouds, dying the water golden.

"Go!"

With a flash of light, the arrow that was made of pure magic power, pierced into the monster like a lightning accompanied by the sound of thunder. The dust-colored monster suddenly inflated and soon golden cracks crawled all over its body. Finally, the light shone through the cracks and ripped apart the monster.

The titanic explosion rippled the water. Meanwhile, the splashing dark black blood dyed the water while body parts began raining down from the sky. The monster whose head was blown open, sank to the bottom of the sea, and its tentacles that had bound the boat, slowly loosened and began withdrawing.

Andrea fell into the water with a splash.

"Ah... Help, help! I can't swim! Who... give me a hand?"

Ashes glanced at the tired Shavi and sighed with resignation. "An idiot that likes to play cool." She untied the big sword on her back and jumped into the water, swimming towards Andrea.

Tilly was relieved that the boat was no longer at risk of sinking. At least they did not need to worry about swimming to Border Town.

Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze on her nose. She looked up and could not help being stunned.

At some point, snow began falling from the gray sky, like the elves dancing in their visual field.

"This, this is snow?" Breeze stared at the ice crystals melting on her palm and asked, "Does it snow in the autumn in Graycastle?"

"Ha, I said it was getting colder as we moved west," One-eyed Jack said as he pulled out his pipe and lit it, "and it seems that you really live in a tough place."

Tilly was quiet and solemn. The snow seemed rare even in winter for Breeze who came from the Kingdom of Dawn that had spring all the year round and the old Jack who was a resident of the Fjords. But the snow signified something special in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

The court mentor had told her that the endless snow signified the invasion horn of demons. It symbolized the beginning of the Months of Demons. It would not subside until the Months of Demons came to the end.

Although the Months of Demons had never ended at a regular date, it always began in winter. Could it be that demonic beasts were invading Border Town now? What was worse, the water spirits that used to haunt the east of Searing Flame Island could now also be spotted at Southernmost Cape. No one knew if those monsters would attack merchant ships that traveled between different lands.

Tilly became increasingly worried.

After two day's navigation in heavy snow, they finally caught the sight of the hazy coastline.

Chapter 326 - The Contact

"Is this where you docked last time?" Tilly asked as she looked at the lofty cliff.

The Charming Beauty had been sailing west along the coast ever since they saw the coastline. Ashes did not shout for the sail to be stopped until they saw the beachhead.

"Yes. Look." She pointed at the peak of the mountain.

Following the direction that Ashes was pointing at, Tilly noticed two orange flags flying in the wind.

"It was just a beach the last time we came, but the two flags show we're heading in the right direction."

"I remember it too," old Jack said with a pipe in his mouth, "but last time they relied on a giant balloon to carry them over the cliff. How will you go over it this time?"

"A giant balloon?" Tilly questioned curiously.

"Yes. A balloon that flies as long as it's filled with hot gas." Ashes nodded. "I've heard that it's Prince Roland's invention. The hot gas in the balloon rises, lifting the balloon and people on it."

Princess Tilly looked conflicted as she heard her answer. "The court mentors didn't teach us these things." She exhaled a white breath and then said, "I'll find out the answer soon since I'll see him anyway. Let's go ashore."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay on the boat and wait for him to pick you up?" the captain said when he shook off the cigarette ash, "how can we go over the cliff?"

"Shavi will handle it." Tilly smiled.

Since they were unclear about the depths of the naturally-formed seabed, they anchored the boat at a discreet distance and released the landing boats to move the people to Shallow Beach.

After they landed on the thick snow, Tilly turned to the one-eyed Jack. "Captain, I'll be troubling you to stay here for three to four days. I need you to send Lotus and the other witches back to Sleeping Island."

"Sure," the captain said, "I dare not to sail back without you on board. God knows if those mutant sea ghosts will come back again."

Tilly walked towards the foot of the cliff and flew to the top with the help of the Magic Stone. She observed her surroundings. The landscape behind the cliff was almost as high as the peak of the cliff. This meant they did not have to climb down once they reached the top. Lifting things with barrier would cost them considerable magic power, but the cliff, about 50 steps, was not at all high for Shavi. Tilly landed slowly near the other four girls. "Shavi, I'll leave the other three to you."

"Yes, Lady Tilly." Shavi laughed while patting her chest. She then summoned the invisible barrier. After two days of rest, she had recovered from the violent attack from the giant sea monster. Waiting until all of them stepped inside the transparent barrier, she drove her magic power to slowly raise it. Before long, they had crossed the cliff.

Under Ashes' guidance, it took them half a day to finally arrive at Border Town.

A uniquely-designed iron bridge was the first that came into Tilly's sight. Supported by only two piers, the bridge crossed over the broad river. There were no extra decorations, except for well-lining iron beams and pillars. The contrast of the white snow on the black bridge cast an inexpressible momentum at the first sight.

"It's... so huge," Breeze said in amazement, "how many iron ingots do they need to forge such a grand bridge?"

"What a waste. A simple floating bridge is enough for transportation. Why did they build such a high bridge?" Ashes commented disapprovingly. "Since Border Town is the last stop for merchant ships, I doubt there're any ships that will head to the source of the river to trade."

"You're shortsighted," Andrea said, shaking her forefinger gracefully, "even if I'm not from the Kingdom of Graycastle, I can understand the value of this west woodland. And I believe it's just a matter of time for a town to be built. Marching towards no man's land is a wise choice for someone who intends to expand his land. By then, the seemingly simple and low-cost floating bridge will significantly hinder transportation. Looks like Lady Tilly's brother is much more farsighted than you."

Ashes raised her eyebrows. "You've nicknamed him as a vulgar nobleman who likes cooking in a barbarous way. Now you call him Lady Tilly's brother?"

"It was you who added the word of a vulgar nobleman," the blonde haired witch said, looking away dismissively, "and the saying that he likes cooking in a barbarous way doesn't contradict the fact that he has a long-term view. Stop yourself from gossiping in front of Lady Tilly."

However, Tilly paid little attention to their bickering. She turned her gaze towards the opposite of the river.

She noticed something incredible.

The flurries of snow in the sky lowered the temperature similar to that of a chilly winter. The civilians should be staying home, gathered around the stoves or cocooned in quilts. Few people could be seen in the streets even in the king's city. Since the cold accelerated the burning of their energy, people had to eat more to keep warm. There was also the danger of catching a cold outside their door. Hence, most people would reduce their outside activities to subsistence purposes.

But that was not the case in Border Town. The town was bustling with people and activities. Some were pushing carts and some were carrying big bags. It seemed that all of them were in a hurry and engaged in all kinds of work. Tilly did not find any supervisors holding whips, so it meant they were working on their own account.

How… is this possible?

As they crossed the bridge, two guards equipped with peculiar-looking spears walked up to them. They wore uniforms and looked to be in high spirits, a stark contrast from the patrol teams in other big cities. "Stop. Why are you coming from the south?" One of the guards looked at them carefully for a moment. "Wait, are you… witches?"

The question gave Tilly a slight shock. She was already aware that witches were openly accepted in this town, but when she heard ordinary people asking such a question in such a calm tone, billows emerged in her heart and stirred her. "Yes, we're witches," she answered.

"You must be here to join the Witch Cooperation Association." The guard laughed. "Please wait for a while. I'll report at once."

"Wait? No, this is..."

"Great. We'll wait here." Tilly interrupted Ashes. "By the way, may I ask what're those people doing?"

"Ah. They're busy repairing the shipyard. The snow caught them off guard and messed up many things. But I don't exactly know what they're doing."

After the guard returned to his duty, Ashes asked in incredulity. "Why didn't you tell them who you are?"

"Aren't you curious about how he'll receive a witch from another city?" Tilly winked playfully.

It was not long before a tall, white-clad woman arrived. She had curly blonde hair and impeccable looks. Even though Tilly could not see her magic power, she can feel the piercing momentum radiating from her, just like a sharp blade.

There was no doubt that she was a combat-type witch with extremely strong power.

"I thought there really are new witches here for us. Hadn't you returned to Sleeping Island?" she said, glancing at Ashes before sweeping her gaze past the rest of them. The sight of Tilly unexpectedly shocked her. Her sharpness dulled, replaced with a water-like warmth.

"Hello. I'm Nightingale." She nodded in greeting to Tilly. "You must be Tilly Wimbledon, the younger sister of Prince Roland."

Chapter 327 - The Reason

"Lady Tilly!"

Following Nightingale into the Lord's Castle, Princess Tilly had never expected Sylvie to be the first person to greet her. Sylvie ran happily to her, half bowing. She eagerly rose to hug her as she said, "You're here so early. It's still autumn."

"There's not much difference from winter." Tilly laughed. "Where are your other sisters?"

"Lotus is building houses for the refugees. Evelyn and Candle should still be in the industrial zone at this hour. Honey is training the carrier pigeons in the back garden." Sylvie ticked off the whereabouts of the witches on her fingers. "His Highness has sent someone to notify them."

"Don't worry. I think you'll see them soon." Tilly heard a somewhat familiar yet unacquainted voice from behind Sylvie.

Tilly raised her head and saw a gray-haired man smiling at her. His appearance had not changed much from that in her memory. However, his smile and manners gave her totally different feelings.

"Welcome to Border Town, my dear sister."

…

Tilly's mind was stormed by various thoughts. She had so many doubts that she wanted to speak out. However, she remained calm as she followed Roland Wimbledon into a room that looked to be a study room.

"Please sit down." Roland poured her a cup of warm black tea and handed it to her. "It's been a whole year since we parted. I know you have a lot to say to me, and so do I... but take your time." He turned to look at the snow outside the window. "It'll be a long winter this year."

She did not reply. She just held the cup and sat beside the mahogany desk, quietly looking up and down Prince Roland.

The opening remarks alone were something she could not imagine the brother in her memory saying, Tilly thought. He was cowardly and timid, but always pretended to be strong in front of others. The most important thing was that he used to be evasive, never thinking of a positive response when he met any difficulties. However, this Roland Wimbledon sitting in front of her was utterly different. He was trying to take initiative in beginning a conversation. He showed the manners of a man in power, though he spoke in a gentle and soft tone.

"Nightingale." Roland turned slightly to his side.

"But Your Highness..." The voice of the witch who led her into the castle came from somewhere in the room.

"It's alright. She's my little sister."

"Alright." Nightingale was silent for a moment. She then emerged from the Mist and left the room, looking displeased.

"There's only you and me left in this room." He smiled and returned to the square desk.

Tilly was silent for a moment. "Who on earth… are you?"

She thought he might hesitate or lie to hide his identity. She had never expected him to answer so promptly. "I'm your brother, Roland Wimbledon, the Prince of Graycastle." He then laughed. "I know I've changed a lot, but I'd like to explain it to you in detail."

Tilly suddenly recalled what he wrote in his letter: "As for what prompted me to make this decision and what made me no longer indifferent to everything, as I had in the past, was something trivial that I'll explain in detail to you later." That sentence was probably what incited her to determine to come to this desolate town.

She could not help smiling. "I'll listen to you carefully."

The whole story was not complicated, but very exciting. After hearing Roland's experience since arriving in Border Town, Tilly found her teacup already empty. She took a long breath and recalled his story. In short, he was touched by a witch named Anna. From the witch he had rescued, he learned the evil actions of the church and its deceits against the people. Subsequently, Garcia's assassination made him experience the darkness of royal power. Even if he hid in a corner of the kingdom, he would still not escape their malice that followed him like a shadow. Finally, he decided to change everything.

It sounded somewhat dramatic, but it barely could be counted as an explanation. The problem lay in the weird and strange knowledge in his brain, whether it was a steam engine or flintlock. It was not something that could be acquired because of a moment's inspiration.

"So, the ultimate reason for all this is the additional memories that suddenly appeared in your head?" Tilly asked.

"Indeed," said Roland earnestly, "I know this is unbelievable, but it's the truth... I was lucky enough to escape Garcia's assassination and wake up with this piece of memory. If meeting Anna was the immediate cause, then the knowledge in the memory was the driving force behind my desire to change the status quo."

Tilly wondered if it was the result of a witch's magic power. It was unlikely that he had been substituted or manipulated, as Sylvie had confirmed this. The abilities of the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association were not a mystery. They had special exercises every day and Sylvie has found no ability even close to substitution or manipulation.

The only possibility was the occupation of his body. She could not exclude the possibility that a witch might have the ability to occupy a man's body and acquire his memory. But this speculation was also impossible. Roland Wimbledon, though not his father's favorite son, was undoubtedly one of the Princes of the Kingdom of Graycastle. The God's Stone of Retaliation was not unusual for him and he was always protected by knights and guards. It was impossible for a witch without a concealing ability to approach him easily.

Besides, even if such a witch existed, how could she know so many extraordinary things? When Tilly was a child, she searched through the palace's library and received education from several well-educated and white-haired court mentors. But even they had never talked about using steam and snow powder to replace animal labor and swords.

Looking at it this way, it seemed that Roland's bizarre knowledge was indeed somewhat related to his bizarre encounter.

"How can you prove that you're Roland Wimbledon but not someone with the additional memory?"

Tilly knew this question was quite rude. If he were the previous Prince Roland, he would have flown into a rage, kicked over the desk angrily, and stamped out of the room.

"Because I still remember what happened on the court," he still spoke in a calm tone, "and I think distinguishing the essence of a person lies in his unique memory. If a witch transforms herself into your appearance yet has a different memory, she's still another person in essence. I have many strange memories, but I don't remember where they came from. But the scene where you wept because I threw you on the broken glass is still vivid in my memory. So that's the proof." He paused. "Of course... I have yet to apologize to you for that. I hope I'm not too late."

Tilly remained silent. Roland sat in front of her, with clean clothes and earnest eyes, as if he was telling an undisputable fact. Obviously, by any standards, he was much better than the former dandy prince she knew. But there were still doubts in her mind.

"It's really... unbelievable."

"That's normal." Roland seemed to have seen through her thoughts. "Many things are also incredible to me before I experienced them myself. I've never expected that my sister would actually awaken as a witch and hide it from everyone in the palace. But... as I've said in the beginning, it's a long winter. We can get to know each other slowly."

This was probably the best solution at present, so Tilly nodded. "Then for the next few months... I hope I won't trouble you too much."

"Trust me, you'll come to love this place."

...

Chapter 328 - The Formal Talks

After Tilly left the office, Roland let out a long sigh.

Obviously, talking nonsense in a serious way in front of a smart person was a very stressful thing, especially when he had to maintain an earnest and sincere expression throughout. Fortunately, Nightingale's report gave him a timely respite—Sleeping Island witches had returned to the castle, and Roland used it as an excuse to end the conversation that just past.

"How was talking to your witch younger sister? Was there a special feeling?" Nightingale turned and sat on to the table, from where she looked down on the prince.

The latter replied sulkily with a contemptuous look in his eyes. "Is feeling heavily pressured considered a special feeling?"

"I'd thought it would be an emotional reunion." She curled her lips.

"I don't have a good relationship with her." Roland sighed. "In the palace, I used to bully her often. After growing up, we became like strangers. It's an unexpected delight to me that she even came."

"Oh?" She gave him a meaningful look. "You wouldn't talk alone to witches you aren't familiar with. I can see that you trust her a fair bit."

"That's because I don't want you to see me lying." Without replying, Roland refilled his teacup and took a sip as he leaned back on his chair.

"Anyhow... you'll understand next time."

Nightingale reached out her hand and touched his lips. "You'll tell me everything, right?"

"... Yeah."

"I'll remember this promise." She laughed softly and then vanished right in front of Roland.

While leaning back on his chair, Roland recalled the entire conversation and searched for possible slips. He had given the "most suitable" explanation he could think of. From his many years of work experience, he knew that the more lies he fabricated, the more his words would not stand up to close scrutiny. Therefore, explanations such as deliberately hiding his good side during childhood, accidentally discovering ancient books of wisdom, or receiving guidance from a secret teacher would be difficult to justify upon further questioning. Apart from being his younger sister, Tilly was also the leader of a witches' organization. Before a stable alliance was forged between them, any debunked lie would have severely compromised the mutual trust.

Thus, he decided to tell the truth regarding the details which were likely to be debunked. He then attributed his new knowledge to a memory that came from nowhere. Although this sounded very unbelievable, it was still more plausible than time travel. It also did not have too many negative effects, and was impossible to falsify. It would most certainly be harder for her to accept a completely unknown visitor from a different age.

As long as he continued to maintain his identity as Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle, nobody could disclaim who he was. Furthermore, all that Tilly wanted could have been to hear him personally explain his changes. Roland knew that an excellent leader would not keep holding on to the past, and would instead focus on working together to make progress. In the coming winter, he would be able to show her the Western Region's vast prospects. Even if his sincerity to cooperate was only shown in one successful meeting, there would be a huge amount of time in the future to repair their mutual relationship.

At night, a grand banquet was held in the castle hall.

Aside from the common dishes such as pepper steak, fried eggs and white bread, there were also white liquor of all types, pan-fried bird beak mushrooms, small dumplings, ice-cream and many more on offer. The taste of these cuisines was brought to an entirely new level. Every dish also incorporated the concept of fancy platter. For example, on a large porcelain plate would be placed a small main course covered in sauce. This had an excellent visual effect which made the dish highly tempting to anyone who saw it.

After a flurry of toasts was exchanged, the banquet ended in a harmonious yet lively atmosphere.

The formal talks were next to take place.

The fireplace blazed in the parlor. Roland sat together with the members of the Witch Union on one side of the long table, while Tilly and the Sleeping Island witches sat opposite them. As Maggie's identity was sensitive, she morphed into a pigeon and perched on the chandelier hanging overhead.

Tilly was the first to speak. "I came this time not only because I hope to help Border Town defend against the invasion of demonic beasts, but also because I intend to bring back with me the five witches I'd earlier sent." She explained the recent situation on Sleeping Island. "In the coming spring, Moon Bay will be moving a batch of commoners inland. The additional home rental and food costs will need to be settled by Lotus and Honey."

Roland momentarily felt his head begin to hurt. He knew that the First Army would be able to defend against the demonic beasts on their own. Unless there were demonic hybrids, which were both agile and fast, he virtually did not need to send out witches. However, on the construction front, the witches' functions were irreplaceable. At present, the ridges near the harbor had yet to be opened, only half of the shipyard had been repaired, and there were a few more batches of cave dwellings he intended to build. "Will it be okay for them to stay for another half a month?"

"I wish to agree, but the situation has had some changes." Tilly shook her head helplessly. "Mutated sea ghosts have appeared in the southern waters. You can see them as a type of demonic fish. I suspect that all of this has something to do with the Months of Demons. It's rumored that the longest these Months are, the more ferocious the demonic beasts will be. That's why it's safer if our witches made the journey back earlier."

"They aren't suitable for combat."

"I know. That's also why Breeze shall be escorting them on the ship. Her abilities are highly effective against low-intelligence enemies. Also, we don't intend to return by the same route we came, and instead, we'll first head north along the coastline until we reach Port of Clearwater, where we'll then follow the usual trading route towards Sleeping Island. According to the information delivered by the messenger birds, there has been no appearance of demonic beasts on the route between the Fjords and the kingdom."

Roland was forced to make a last-ditch attempt. "Uh... apart from Lotus and Honey, may the other three remain? Their primary education is still ongoing, and if they leave now, they'll have to give it up halfway..."

Tilly could not help laughing. "Seem like they've caught your fancy."

"..." He did not know how to respond to these words for a while.

"May I ask, how do you make use of Candle's and Evelyn's abilities?"

"For welding metal parts and making wine. The former serves to greatly increase the efficiency of mechanical operations, while the latter..." Roland paused to frame his words better. "Wine is a fabulous thing. Aside from drinking, it also has many other uses."

"When on Sleeping Island, they're always worried that their abilities are useless, and would often..." Tilly did not finish her sentence, but Roland could guess that it had to do with being discriminated against, just like Mystery Moon's experience in the Witch Cooperation Association. "I'm glad that you're willing to let them stay. I truly believe that every witch has her unique uses and that there're no useless abilities." She glanced towards Evelyn and the others. "What do you all think?"

"I wish to follow you, Lady Tilly." Sylvie was first to reply.

"I..." Candle touched her own head. "I'm fine with anywhere."

"Lady Tilly, I'll return to Sleeping Island if you need me," Evelyn answered after pondering for a moment, "otherwise, I wish to remain in Border Town. I... have a lot more to learn from Teacher Scroll."

"Don't be nervous. This isn't a question of staying or leaving." Tilly shook her head and laughed. "All I wanted to know was your living situation in Border Town. All of you may return to Sleeping Island at any time. It's also not as if Lotus and Honey won't have a chance to come back. I'm even thinking about inviting the Border Town witches to visit Sleeping Island. I hope that through our hard work, witches may one day freely live either in the Northern Region or the Southern Territory. Am I right, brother?"

Roland was slightly surprised. This was the first time she had openly addressed him as such. Even from the former Prince Roland's memory, the last time was more than 10 years ago. He elicited a smile and nodded. "Yes, that day will come."

Chapter 329 - Sounding of the Horn

When this matter was closed, Roland cleared his throat and spoke in a more serious tone. "Next, I need to talk about the news regarding the demons and the monuments."

He recounted to Tilly the recent discoveries that were made in Misty Forest and behind the snow mountains. "I had intended to send witches and First Army soldiers to bring the person trapped in the monuments back to Border Town, but heavy snow arrived more than one month before schedule and disrupted these plans."

"The legendary Army of Demons is close by. To think that there's still a person in a more than 400-year-old monuments..." Tilly gaped in astonishment. "I'm starting to believe what you told me.."

Anna turned her head to look at Roland. The latter coughed twice and continued, "Based on the observed scene and the enemy's response, the demons should have inhabited the back of the snow mountains for many years now. My guess is that they're restricted by the effective range of the Red Mist, and thus can't advance closer to the continent of our kingdom. They shouldn't be a threat to Border Town for the time being. In the next two years, I'll set up guard posts along the coast to monitor their movements." He paused before continuing. "The person sealed in the monuments could possess the truth about Holy City of Taquila and the church's defeat."

"I feel so too." Tilly closed her eyes and ruminated. "Is there a way to get there not by land but by sky? Ashes says that you have a flying device which can transport people once it's filled with hot air."

"You want to bring the person out of the monuments during the Months of Demons?" Roland furrowed his brows. "My hot air balloon, the Cloud Gazer, can fetch up to 10 people, or perhaps be expanded to fetch 15 people. Nonetheless, it won't ever be able to carry the First Army soldiers. If demons are encountered along the way, the witches may get injured or be killed. Not to mention that demonic beasts are everywhere... this is far too dangerous."

"It's definitely dangerous if we solely depend on the Witch Cooperation Association." Tilly nodded in agreement. "However, we now have Shavi and Ashes, who'll significantly reduce the risks. As you explained earlier, the demons' main forms of offense are long-range spears, as well as melee combat using their superhuman strengths. Shavi's invisible barrier can deflect the spears, while Ashes is able to suppress the enemies at close range. As the Months of Demons have just started, the demonic beasts aren't at their strongest yet. This is the best time to go to the monuments."

Roland felt slightly hesitant to agree. He had suffered losses owing to the disadvantages of aerial combat during the previous battle with the demons. He was thus uncertain of flying across once again. However, Tilly's words sounded reasonable. Sylvie's Eye of Magic would ensure that they spotted the enemy before they were spotted back. By maintaining the hot air balloon at a height of 10 to 15 meters, which meant keeping close to the canopy, they could ensure that they landed before the enemies approached. After that, Nightingale's and Ashes' powerful offensive abilities would easily crush small groups of demons. Even if one or two demons managed to slip through, Shavi and Anna's shields would ensure the safety of the party.

He meditated in silence briefly, and then asked, "Are you sure you want to go?"

"I feel that this is an opportunity to solve the mystery," Tilly replied frankly. "The early arrival of the Months of Demons and the appearance of demonic beasts in the southern seas give me a bad feeling."

Roland sensed a slight chill in his heart. He had a similar feeling; it was unlikely that the Months of Demons was brought about by climatic changes, and he also vaguely suspected that it had something to do with the demons and the church.

"Who'll be in the party?"

"I'm not sure about the Border Town witches. What's certain is that I'll personally be going," Tilly replied without a second thought.

...

Snowflakes danced in the grayish sky. Mayne and Tayfun ascended slowly up the city wall of Hermes, where a huge battle had just taken place.

Dark and warm blood flowed beneath their feet and blended together with the white snow. The good thing was that these blood were spilled from the bodies of their enemies. Hundreds of God's Punishment Army soldiers stood erect on top of the city wall, waiting for the demonic beasts to carry out their next wave of attack.

"Your Eminence!" The Judgement Army warriors, who were assisting the God's Punishment Army in battle, hurriedly made a fist salute. There was a look of tenderness on most of their faces, and their eyes seemed to be mingled with fear and excitement.

"They're still teenagers." Tayfun walked to an open space, from where he observed the wilderness in the distance and sighed. "When I was at their age, I was still in the mill, grinding flour for the noble lords."

"The God's Punishment Army has to prioritize guarding New Holy City. I can only hand the task of eliminating the remaining defendants of Wolfheart City to the experienced Judgement Army. These soldiers here are believers who were promoted recently. They've never properly been on a battlefield," Mayne explained with a sense of frustration. "This snow has come too early."

Tayfun hesitated and then said, "This type of situation isn't recorded in the Holy Book."

"The Holy Book was also written by a pope. There're bound to be omissions." The archbishop held on to a battlement and observed the cliff below, where there was a huge pile of corpses. Most demonic beasts would certainly not be able to climb up such a high city wall—the only ones which could threaten Holy City were the hybrids. "It's fine as it is, as long as its general direction is right. Based on the Wilderness Beasts which appeared last year, I can infer that we have about 10 years left."

"We'll use two years to unify the four kingdoms, and another eight years to build up the God's Punishment Army. By then, the church shall possess a military force of more than 10,000 men." After a short pause, he continued, "By making use of Hermes' sturdy city walls and advantageous geography, we'll hold our ground on this plateau until our strength exceeds our enemies'."

"I'm already old. I'm afraid I won't be able to see that moment."

"Nothing to do with age, Archbishop Tayfun." Mayne solaced. "Many people won't be able to see that moment. Allen, Stone, Liji, etc."

"And Heather," Tayfun added.

"Yes, Heather as well." He nodded. "But no matter what, there'll always be successors to continue our mission and keep going."

"Let's not talk about disheartening things." The elder shook his head and laughed. "By the way, how's the effect of the snow powder formula which Zero obtained? Have tests been carried out in the Pivotal Secret Area?"

"Toys used to deal with common people won't be of much use to the church," Mayne replied scornfully, "Perhaps it can also be used to eliminate hordes of demonic beasts, but our real enemy is the Devil of the Abyss. The lethality of the powder is greatly reduced in an open area, and thus we'll require a huge volume of it to damage the heavily-armored devil. Apart from the God's Punishment Army, no one else will be able to hurl a bag of snow powder that's about half the size of their own bodies."

"Aww... that's a real pity."

"There aren't any tricks that'll help us to defeat the demons." Mayne emphasized every one of his words. "The only way for us to survive is to defeat them head-on."

Just then, a long horn sound was heard from the observation tower on one side of the city wall.

"Woo..."

Such a long sound signaled that demonic beasts were incoming.

"Let's return to the cathedral. There'll soon be a battle here."

"Yes." Tayfun nodded. As he turned his body, the horn began to sound once again.

"Woo, woo..."

Two long sounds meant that there were numerous hybrids among the demonic beasts. Mayne's heart began to quiver. There was no question that the God's Punishment Army was going to face an arduous battle.

"But... why is it so soon? This is only the first Month of Demons," thought Mayne.

Before the echo of the second sounding had fully dissipated, the horn sounded for the third time. The dull and continuous sounds seemed like claps of thunder that rolled across the sky above Hermes, and did not subside for a long time.

"Woo, woo, woo..."

Mayne almost could not believe his own ears. He glanced at Tayfun, who stared back at him with a look of shock. Three long sounds were only played when the situation was extremely critical, and implied New Holy City was on the verge of destruction! Even when the demonic beasts managed to intrude into the perimeter of the cathedral the previous time, this signal was not sounded.

What exactly had the observator spotted?

Mayne quickly knew the answer.

Among the hordes of demonic beasts which swarmed towards the city wall like a black tide, there were two enormous monsters. They each had four stout fangs, four legs and two arms. Their bodies were covered with pitch-black fur, and every one of their legs was as thick as the torso of a wolf-figure hybrid. From this distance, the monsters each resembled a fortress that could move. Every step they took would leave a deep imprint on the permanently-frozen plains. Any accompanying demonic beast which did not evade their legs in time could be plunged into the ground and be turned into a pool of blood and flesh.

This type of monster had many records in the Holy Book. It was referred to as the "Death Messenger", "Fearful Beast of Hell", "Fangs of Demons", etc. However, what Mayne was terrified of was not its menacing appearance, but rather what it represented.

"Why?" His mind was completely seized by a dreadful thought. "Why would this horrible monster, which the Holy Book prophesized would only appear five years before a catastrophe, suddenly appear in Hermes?"

Chapter 330 - Farewell

The next day, Roland was in the castle backyard to see off Lotus and Honey.

Although he quietly wished that they would not leave so soon, upon hearing the news that Charming Beauty was still waiting at the shoal, he decided not to delay it further - at least this way, it would seem magnanimous of him and would not put Lady Tilly in a difficult position. Placing himself in her shoes, he thought that Lady Tilly had shown utmost sincerity in sending her important witches to Border Town at a time when Sleeping Island was in need of large-scale construction. It would not be right for him to make further demands of her.

To save the witches the trouble of a long journey through snow on foot, he asked Anna and Wendy to send them using the Cloud Gazer, which would take only an hour to reach the shore.

"We are grateful for Your Highness' care over these few months," the two witches bowed in front of Roland and said.

"No, I should thank you," said Roland, laughing. "You two have contributed greatly to the construction of Border Town, and for that, I have two gifts for you."

"G... gifts?" Lotus looked slightly surprised and her cheeks turned a bright red.

Honey touched herself on her bosom, casting a quick glance at Lotus', and asked eagerly, "Can we also have a gift?"

Taking two parcels from Nightingale and handing them over to the two witches, Roland said, "Yes, go ahead and open it."

Honey unwrapped her gift almost immediately and pulled out a long strap of cloth, saying, "What's this? Isn't it a corset?"

"Close, but it is actually a scarf," Roland walked up to Honey and tucked the fabric made of pure cotton around her neck. "With this, you will never need to fear the cold wind or snowflakes entering your neck. If you twine it a little more, you can also protect the ears."

"Ooh, it feels really warm," Honey exclaimed with an expression of satisfaction.

Sensing something, Lotus flushed more deeply.

"There is one more thing inside," Honey said after playing with the scarf, and pulled a square object out of the parcel. "Your Highness, is this also a gift?"

"Yes, open and see what it is."

"Wow, it's shiny!" Honey raised up the metal box and said excitedly, "Look, Lotus, my reflection is so clear in this!"

It was a small mirror embedded in a wooden box - actually a common item sold in the Convenience Market. As Roland's life experience had taught him, women were irresistibly fond of shiny objects.

Honey's shrieking caught the attention of other witches, and soon the Sleeping Island witches had gathered in the backyard, using the shiny mirrors to check out their own appearances. Adoration and envy were in the air - hand coated by Soraya, these crystal mirrors were vastly superior to silver mirrors in reflectiveness and accuracy. Indeed, they turned out to be a great gift idea by Roland.

Soon after the gift-giving session, Cloud Gazer was adequately inflated and ready to depart. Lotus and Honey stepped inside the basket and waved goodbye to Roland and the onlooking witches. They were evidently reluctant to be departing from Border Town.

"I have to say, this has been a truly good place to live," Tilly walked to one side of Roland and said softly to him. "There's already a convenient water supply and comfortable housing. It's unimaginable that you've transformed this poverty-stricken land into what it is now in only a year."

"Do you regret it?"

"You mean, sending the witches here?" Tilly laughed, "Why, they have a better life here. Don't forget that I am also a witch."

In the spotlessly white garden, Tilly's smile gleamed as white as a snowflake, beautiful and colorless. Roland thought that if he had a younger sister like Tilly, it would be impossible to bring her out on the streets without attracting admiring glances from everyone. Of course, he was aware that her relationship with him was more akin to a collaborator and a natural ally rather than a sister. As was evident from her decision the day before, she was willing to put herself at personal risk in order to deal with any possible threat.

"Are you certain about going to such a dangerous place?" Roland queried, "You may be an Extraordinary, but perhaps your abilities aren't suited for combat?"

"Rest assured, I am not without any ability to protect myself." Tilly held up her hands to display the ornaments she was wearing - on the ring finger of her left hand she wore a ring made of blue crystal, and on her right hand she wore a white silk glove that was embedded with red gems on its back. Frankly speaking, the mismatch of accessories appeared exceptionally odd, as if inspired by the mix-and-match style of catwalks of a later generation. Roland had been curious about the ornaments since the day before but did not ask Tilly about it in order to not be disrespectful.

"This is a Magic Stone that was discovered in ancient ruins," Tilly explained. "Imbuing it with magic power allows me to use several abilities. This ring grants me the ability to fly freely, just like Lightning does."

As she spoke, as if to prove her own words, her feet gradually lifted off the ground and her body suspended in the air as though it was weightless. The scene startled Roland.

"Can a stone really alter one's abilities?" He wondered.

He quickly realized the significance of this.

If abilities could be mass customized, the witches' work efficiency would be greatly enhanced - supposing every witch in the Union could possess a stone that allows them to acquire Lotus' abilities, it would require only one day to complete the construction of the temporary residential area.

As Tilly landed on the ground, she pointed her right hand at an open space on the ground, and a bright flash of lightning spurted from her fingertips, creating a hole in the ankle-deep snow to reveal the black soil lying beneath.

"Are you able to possess two abilities at the same time?" Roland asked, a look of surprise on his face.

"No," Tilly shook her head and said. "In most cases, the Magic Stone only allows one ability at a time, but if I try to imbue two stones with magic power simultaneously, there will be no effect." Then she smiled and said, "I wanted to keep this a secret from you at first, but after last night's discussion, I realized that I might have misunderstood you before... when you told me the truth regarding the ancient ruins, I felt delighted... and also a little sorry."

"No problem. I understand."

"By the way, there's something I noticed - what was the corset that Honey mentioned earlier?"

Roland nearly choked on his saliva. "Um, I am not too sure about it myself... you might want to ask Sylvie or Evelyn."

"Well," Tilly shrugged, "it seems that you still keep some things from me."

For a moment, the prince did not know whether to laugh or cry.

"Let's change the subject," Tilly said, blinking a few times at Roland. "I was thinking about a question last night. If these ruins belong to the Church, why would they discard all of the Magic Stones? According to Ashes' experiences, it is highly likely that the Church is grooming its own witches, and therefore these Magic Stones could be highly useful to them. Even if they fled a losing battle against the demons and concealed the outcome of the battle, there would be no problem for them to continue using these stones - it just doesn't make any sense."

"Do these stones really not matter to the Church?" Roland pondered, but quickly shot down his own opinion. "That's not right. It is more likely that they were unable to mass produce the stones, or else the stones would have been used for hunting down members of the Witch Cooperation Association. If the Church's witches were able to fly, not many people would be able to escape from them."

"Indeed, I just recalled something strange about the palace library's books concerning the Church and its God... not only do the historical records go no further than four hundred years back, but also the origin of God is unclear and there isn't a prominent name or an epic legend for God. Apart from propagating the idea that God is omnipotent and omniscient, there are few other details. At least, compared to the Three Gods of antiquity, it appears to be much more abstruse and illusionary. Putting the two aspects together, one cannot help but feel strange.

"What do you mean?" Roland exclaimed, feeling shocked.

"The Church seems like it emerged out of nowhere."

Chapter 331 - The Key of Art

"The Church seems to have emerged out of nowhere."

Until Roland returned to his office, these words continued to reverberate in his mind.

He closed his eyes and flipped through his memory carefully, but could not think of anything related. His understanding of the Church was mediocre among the nobility - while living in the palace, he had spent little time and effort acquiring knowledge, therefore, things like occultism were largely lost on him. But, if what Tilly said was right, the Church's propaganda strategy actually wouldn't make sense.

Taking the religious lore of the old world as an example, it was common knowledge that the deity originated at the beginning of the world, and instead it was recognised that it was more important to spread the idea that the deity created the world. For example, the Seven Days of Creation, karmic reincarnation, etc., every religion has its own set of lore that describes the powers of its deities.

In comparison to other religions, the Church seems rather... insubstantial.

However, Roland did not have any more clues for him to investigate further, and so, shaking his head, he decided to put these thoughts to the back of his mind.

Perhaps, after the exploration of the ancient ruins of the Mist Forest, there'll be answers to all of these questions.

Roland walked up to the window and looked out towards the huge coating that laid flat in the middle of the garden - amidst the vast expanse of white snow, its green surface was particularly eye-catching.

Soraya was presently preparing a larger airbag, which would allow the new hot air balloon to have a larger capacity and therefore accommodate more people. This was in consideration of the possibility that during the exploration of the ruins, should it be impossible to free the entrapped lady, it would be easier for Anna to shatter the Frozen Coffin and transport the lady together with a portion of the transparent crystal back to Border Town.

The time of departure was set for two days later.

Personnel arrangements were already made. Participating witches from Sleeping Island would include Tilly, Silvio, Shavi, Ashes and Anderlia. The Witch Union would send Anna, Wendy, Nightingale, Nana, Lightning and Maggie. This lineup could be said to be unprecedentedly strong, whether it be in offense, defense or situational awareness. As long as the demons did not use the God's Stone of Retaliation, it would be difficult for them to even get near to the witches.

"Your Highness, Chief Alchemist Kyle Sichi would like to meet you," a guard said from outside Roland's office.

"Let him in."

On this visit, instead of coming alone, Kyle brought a companion in Chavez. "Your Highness, we're closing in on a method to mass produce nitric acid, as you requested."

"Is that true?" Roland replied. He seemed to be dazed for a brief moment, before bursting into joy. This was perhaps the best piece of news he had heard in recent days. He leapt off his seat and poured two cups of tea for the chemists, before saying, "Tell me more about your method."

"This was entirely Chavez's work," Kyle said, stroking his beard. "Let him explain it to you."

"Your Highness," the young man said with some restraint, and bowed before he continued speaking. "Your alchemy workshop... no, I mean chemistry lab... produces nitric acid by using distilled saltpeter to obtain dilute nitric acid before purifying it with concentrated sulfuric acid. Hence I tried combining the two processes by directly placing saltpeter in concentrated sulfuric acid and heating them. I successfully obtained a nitric acid solution, of which the purity was very high. I could even observe the smoking phenomenon recorded in "Elementary Chemistry".

"Heated together? But the two are not the same." Roland said, questioningly. "The temperature of distillation is much higher than that of heating them together, and furthermore, the gas obtained from distillation should be nitrogen oxide, which then forms nitric acid when added to water. The purification of concentrated sulfuric acid simply makes use of the principles of high boiling point and strong water absorption to reduce the water content of nitric acid, and does not involve any chemical reaction."

"I'm not sure how I managed to do it either, but Mr. Shichel conducted a few experiments later, and reckoned that my discovery was a coincidence."

"Coincidence?" Roland looked at the Chief Alchemist.

"Indeed." Kyle confirmed. "Although the process is different, the result is the same." Deducing from a chemical formula, I guess certain components of the saltpetre reacted with the sulfuric acid to form nitric acid, which then turned into vapor when heat was added. And according to inverse deduction, it appears to be a sort of... nitrate."

In his mind, Roland suddenly remembered that a chemistry textbook did mention that prior to the invention of synthetic ammonia, people reacted sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate with concentrated sulfuric acid to produce nitric acid. This was the oldest industrial method used. As the main components of saltpetre were the two aforementioned nitrates, it was convenient and easy to obtain, and extraction was relatively easy, therefore, as long as the temperature was properly controlled, a steady flow of evaporated nitric acid could be gathered.

However, because this production method expended too much sulfuric acid, and the necessary equipment was prone to corrosion, it was later quickly phased out by more advanced techniques.

These two problems did not concern Roland greatly; there wasn't a chemical fertilizer or pesticide industry within his territory, and hence all produced sulfuric acid were intended solely to purify nitric acid. As for the nitric acid vapor's tendency to cause corrosion, he could hand it to Soraya to enhance the equipment with her coating ability.

"Not bad." Roland happily patted Chavez on the shoulder. "You actually managed to come up with this method with a bit of luck."

"Your Highness, you may not have heard, but Chavez had already displayed his excellent luck while working in an alchemy workshop in Redwater City." Kyle said, raising his eyebrows. "He did not have an education in chemistry, and alchemy itself has always been a form of exploration which requires luck. Yet, this fella, while only in his early twenties, was able to discover a method for producing dioic acid, and also became the workshop's youngest alchemist, which made a group of apprentices in their thirties and forties all jealous. You should know that most of them will probably end up remaining apprentices for life."

"No matter how you put it, this is good news for the entire town." Roland said in compliment. "Try to produce a set of production equipment for now, and I will get some witches to aid you. And if possible, try to further expand the scale of production."

"As you wish."

"By the way, I have another task for you," Roland's facial expression and tone of voice turned solemn. "Now that there's a reliable source of nitric acid, I'll need you to try producing a similarly dangerous chemical - nitroglycerol."

"How dangerous is it?" Kyle asked.

"Its materials are very simple, which is reacting concentrated nitric acid with glycerol, using concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst. However, during the reaction process, the temperature must be strictly controlled, and ventilation must be maintained. As the nitrification will produce a large amount of heat, you can place the container in ice water during the experiment. But remember, temperature fluctuation, vibration, impact and friction may all cause it to explode." Roland was not sure if his layman knowledge was reliable, but the components were unquestioningly correct. Despite the risks involved, it was necessary to give it a try. "And, use only a small amount of acid during the experiment. This way, even if there's an accident, Miss Nana will still be able to rescue you."

"This..." Chavez opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Kyle interrupted. "I understand it now, but how does its power compare with that of snow powder?"

"They are heaven and hell apart."

"Sounds like an interesting experiment." The Chief Alchemist chuckled.

"It is indeed true to say that nine out of ten chemists has a hidden artistic affection for explosions..." Roland silently thought to himself.

Nitroglycerol is highly unstable; Nobel's dynamites were made by adding diatomite to cause ester inactivation, which although increased its safety, reduced its explosive power. Naturally, Roland would not choose to use such an obsolete method. He intended to add nitrocellulose or nitrostarch to the nitroglycerol, as these two compounds not only had stabilizing effects but also further increased the explosive power. The former was an excellent smokeless propellant, while the latter would make a powerful high explosive. As can be told from their names, the key for Blackfire explosive to evolve into a chemical explosive was a large amount of nitric acid.

And now, Roland possessed this key.

Chapter 332 - Experiences

In the days before the witches set off to explore the ruins, Tilly took the most pleasure out of strolling down the flat streets of Border Town, exploring the nooks and crannies of this remote territory, which had undergone extraordinary transformation in the hands of Lord Roland.

"This is a unique little town." Tilly thought, and the more carefully she observed, the stronger this feeling grew. It was vastly different to anywhere she had ever been... and if there was one thing that impressed her most, it was the unparalleled vitality which the town radiated.

Even the newly developed Sleeping Island could not compare.

"Are these people not afraid of the cold?" Watching people on the street come and go, Andrea asked curiously, "What's it that your brother promised them, for them to be willing to work on this cold winter day?"

"It's still mid-autumn," Ashes shrugged her shoulders. "You can't even tell the seasons apart?"

"There isn't much difference from winter. I was merely using an analogy, which is a technique that is regularly used in the book "Her Dream, His Nation"." Andrea elegantly lifted up her long hair. "Of course, barbarians will never understand."

"What's that your dream my dream book..."

"Deary me, it's simply difficult to talk to a barbarian who has never appreciated theatre. I'm sure Lady Tilly has watched this famous play which originated from the Kingdom of Dawn."

"Quit bickering, you two." Sylvie let out a sigh. "I imagine that the reason is simple indeed. Most commoners refuse to work in winter because energy consumption is high, while they are short on food and susceptible to catch a cold. However, these problems don't exist in Border Town. Over here, the price of food is inexpensive, there is more than sufficient firewood, and Miss Lily is able to treat chills and colds. Therefore, people are able to continue working hard despite the wind and snow - a day's work for a day's pay, after all.

"I can understand why firewood is sufficient; Mist Forest is just over to the west, and there are woods in the surrounding as well. But the low prices of food... how is that possible?" Andrea asked questioningly, "My family was involved in the food business before, and whenever natural disasters or other factors caused poor harvests, the prices of food would go through the roof. When there is bad weather, don't the nobles and merchants here raise prices?"

"Nobles? Merchants?" Sylvie chuckled silently. "Over here, only one person controls the food business, and that's none other than His Highness Roland."

"Are the fields along the river all his?" Tilly frowned.

"No, those belong to the serfs." Sylvie gave an account of everything that she had seen and heard about the town, and described the scene during a bumper harvest. "Roland sets the buying and selling prices of food. These two prices are fixed, and the latter must always be higher than the former."

"Isn't this considered hard buying and selling?" Ashes said, looking unsurprised. "If he's selling the food at a high price, why is he preventing other people from doing the same?"

"It's not the same." Tilly muttered. "After the wheat is collected, it requires threshing, grinding, and storing. These processes are costly and therefore it is perfectly normal for prices to be increased."

"Lady Tilly's right. I only understood after consulting Teacher Scroll." Sylvie laughed. "She said that after these extra expenses are collected, they can either be distributed as wages to the workers who process the wheat, be used to build a new granary or to expand the scale of production. These provide the town with new..." she paused and thought briefly, "jobs, yes, that's what she told me. I heard that His Highness is very concerned about jobs."

"But still, it IS hard buying and selling." Ashes emphasized. "Shouldn't trade be free?"

"Perhaps yes, but the prices which His Highness sets are largely affordable. If these prices never change, the people are able to feel at ease.

"Sometimes, freedom doesn't represent the best state of affairs." Tilly said with a sigh. She had made sense of the purpose behind Roland's measures. "Prohibiting other people from selling food may seem dictatorial and unjust, but in practice, it eliminates hoarding and profiteering and therefore is effective in preventing prices from skyrocketing during a food shortage. Taking King's City for example, if snow falls in autumn unexpectedly, the prices of food will inflate by a factor of five or six, and more than half of the commoners will starve. If this persists for a long period of time, the people may start to riot, and the only solution then would be either sending relief grain from the palace or mobilising the guards. In either case, it will come at a significant cost to the national treasury."

"Although Roland's policy looks impressive, it's not implementable just anywhere. In most places, the people controlling the food business are the nobility and wealthy, who own many serfs and fields. Therefore, the royalty is unable to hard buy the food produced by these people, or prohibit them from hoarding the food. However, in Border Town, with the exception of Roland Wimbledon himself, there is no other noble family, and therefore he is able to have the final say on all matters."

After Tilly provided her opinion, Ashes still had a few grievances. "What about the serfs? When prices of food increase, the serfs will probably be able to earn more income. The fixing of prices prevents them from doing that."

"Pfft,"Andrea sneered, "you speak as if in a city with free trade, these people aren't exploited. When there's a bumper harvest of wheat, they not only have to turn in a larger amount of wheat, but even the portion that they keep for themselves will drop to a very low price. And when there's a poor harvest, after subtracting the portion that they turn in, the remainder that they have left is insufficient for them to tide over the famine. By comparison, having a fixed price is more reasonable. It'll always be that the greater the production, the higher the earnings."

"And over here, they can choose not to be a serf." Sylvie's words captured the other three witches for a brief moment. "His Highness has said before that when production output reaches a certain target, serfs can be promoted to free citizens. Then, whether to continue working in the fields or choose to find a new job is entirely up to their wishes. However, as a free citizen, they'll only need to hand in one-fifth the amount of food they usually do to earn a considerable income, if the buying prices of this year's bumper harvest are anything to go by."

"Pro... moted?"

"Yes, in fact, during a public speech, His Highness even spoke of his desire to make Border Town a place without serfs in two or three years' time."

"That explains it." Tilly felt a sudden jolt in her heart. "This is the reason why the town is so full of vitality... When setting policies, Roland took into consideration the views of the citizens, and implemented an incentive system which encouraged the people to do more and better, which was completely different from how any other noble lord did. Incentive is given not only by way of speech but by practical means that allow the people to obtain benefits and rewards through hard work. The riches of the town are not just stashed away in the castle's underground vaults."

It was only at that time that she truly understood the meaning of the slogan on the riverside red banner.

"Yet, while in the palace, Roland Wimbledon wasn't a generous person... therefore, could this also be a change brought about by 'that' portion of 'Sudden Memory'?" Tilly was also fascinated by the lesson content of the night classes for elementary natural science and mathematics.

She had thought that after reading through the palace's book collection, there would be little else that could arouse her curiosity and interest, but now, she realized that she still had so much more to learn.

A feeling suddenly swelled up in her heart. "Even if I do nothing but remain in the town castle, flipping through the books that recorded magic knowledge, and at the same time, observe the changes happening in the town, it will be immensely pleasurable."

Suddenly, from the direction of the city wall, a bell started to chime. This was the warning for an attack by demonic beasts.

Tilly suppressed her ongoing thoughts. It was a pity that she was no longer the free-spirited Fifth Princess that she used to be, but was now the leader who was responsible for the fates of the witches of Sleeping Island, and therefore she could not simply do what she liked capriciously. "Let's head to the city wall and have a look. We may need to give the guards a helping hand."

"Certainly."Andrea smiled. "This is the real reason why we're here. Let's give them a good look at how witches fight."

Chapter 333 - The Defensive Battle on the New City Wall

The entire camp seemed to become astir when the bell rang.

Van'er rushed out of his tent, followed the flow of people rushing towards the city wall, and took up his combat position. Since everyone had practiced the process countless times, they knew exactly what to do even without a commander around.

Just like in last year's Months of Demons, only a small patrol was arranged to guard each section of the city wall in normal times. After all, scattered demonic beasts could be taken care of by two or three people. It was only when the lookout spotted a large-scale demonic attack that they immediately sounded the alarm.

A group of shadows was approaching the city wall from the horizon. Van'er observed them and estimated the number to be about 1,000, thinking, "If this happened a year ago, we'll definitely have a tough battle to fight." In the past, he, as a pike man whose responsibility was to earn time for the Flintlock Squad to load their weapons, had to take turns with the reserve members in order to persevere until the end.

But now, the forces of Border Town had undergone a massive change.

Cat’s Claw removed the gun cover and shook off the snow on it. Meanwhile, Rodney checked the barrel of the field artillery, and after confirming it was clear of foreign objects, he began to load the ammunition. Although the new city wall was built of soil and concrete, it was higher and wider than the old one. Moreover, with a shelling platform set every 100 meters on the wall, its defensive fire was greatly improved.

The city wall was rather wide, allowing four persons to walk side by side. During a battle, the Flintlock Squad was set in the first row and recruit loaders in the second; the latter was responsible for filling cartridges and then handing them over to regular soldiers in front of them.

"Why can't they just leave us alone?" Rodney yawned and continued, "They frantically run over here during the "Months of the Demons" every year. Even if they managed to break into Border Town, they wouldn't benefit much, right?"

"They serve as good practice for us," Nelson laughed and said. "In comparison, it's much more amusing to shoot moving demonic beasts than fixed wooden targets."

"Speaking of shooting practice, I heard of an interesting rumor recently. It's something to do with our cannon squad," Jop said mysteriously.

"What kind of rumor?"

"I heard it from other mortar teams. They told me sharp shooters would be put in an Elite Artillery Squad and take on brand-new tasks," he paused and asked, "Does any of you know more about it?"

"An Elite Artillery Squad?"

"You have a nose for news. How do we possibly know more about it than you do?"

"Maybe it was all made up by some raffish person."

Van'er was the only one that remained silent in the mortar team. Hearing Jop's words, he couldn't help but frown, thinking, "How imprudent they are to gossip about this!"

A week ago, Lord Iron Axe summoned and told him that His Highness planned to develop a new type of cannon, which was totally different from existing field artilleries and would not serve the First Army. Instead, they would be used to turn ordinary ships into warships with long-distance attack capability. Moreover, the best member of the artillery team would be chosen to operate the cannons. Anyone interested could apply to Iron Axe.

Of course, Van'er agreed straight away since it was obviously a good opportunity for him to get promoted in the army. According to Iron Axe, His Highness had high expectations for the new unit, which might even be separated from the First Army and become a new army. Besides, if anyone managed to make great contributions, warships built in the future might be named after them.

What an honor that would be! Van'er would feel content for the rest of his life if he could have a warship named after himself. Thinking back, although he was merely a common laborer in the mining area, he always believed he could make a name for himself. Unfortunately, he failed to save his own younger brother's life in the slum in Longsong Stronghold. But now, he didn't need to brag about anything as he could have decent meals and wear warm uniforms in the army. Additionally, every time he went back to his community, his neighbors would take the initiative to say hello to him.

All these changes could be attributed to His Highness.

Originally, he joined the Militia for an egg. Now it seemed to be the wisest decision he had ever made in his life.

In addition, Iron Axe also asked Van'er to recommend candidates, who may submit their applications together with him. In other words, it was equally possible for these young men to get this opportunity to prove their true worth. However, in Van'er's eyes, they were too immature right now and thus it was better to wait until they grew more composed. Besides, if they actually rendered outstanding service, should the warships be named after them as Jop or Cat Claw? It would sound awful... Maybe Rodney and Nelson were better choices.

As for the matter that some disclosed the news to their subordinates, Van'er thought he should report it to Iron Axe. After all, it was clearly set in the regulation training that any piece of news about the First Army must be kept only within the army. No one was allowed to spread it unless explicitly required by their leaders.

"Stop gossiping. Focus all of your attention on the battlefield." Van'er cleared his throat and interrupted the discussion among the mortar team members. "Don't forget what Lord Iron Axe stressed in the class. Any mistake may lead to irreparable failures."

"Yes!" They said in unison.

As the destructive power of solid iron balls were too low, they didn't start shooting until the demonic beasts came within range. When fierce-looking demonic wolves crossed the 100-meter line, the shelling started.

Heat waves rolled up the snow beneath the muzzles and big booms caused acute pains in Van'er's ears. In the distance, dark red blood suddenly splashed everywhere with groups of demonic beasts falling to the ground. Neither the fur of demonic boars nor that of bears could withstand the damage inflicted by iron balls in short distance.

"Look at the beast over there." Cat’s Claw pointed to the front left. "It's a red-skinned demonic wolf!"

A group of people swiftly moved the gun carriers, adjusted the muzzles to the right direction, and loaded them before firing again. Theoretically, it was unnecessary for them to aim at any target because as long as they fired, their shots would always cause heavy casualties among the enemy. On top of that, the new mud wall was higher than the old stone wall, so demonic wolves wouldn't pose a threat to soldiers on the top. Therefore, they targeted these agile demonic beasts first just to practice their shooting skills.

Finally it was the Flintlock Squad's turn. In order to ensure high hit rate, they didn't shoot until demonic beasts were near the 50 meter line.

Unlike the synchronized sounds of flintlocks, those of revolving rifles were dense and continuous. Wisps of white smoke rose from the top of the city wall. Stimulated by the pungent smoke of gunpowder, Van'er couldn't help sneezing.

"Holy crap! Revolving rifles are less powerful, but they produce more smoke than any other weapons." Jop complained.

"Yeah. Cannons decide who win the battle," Rodney agreed and added, "whether it is a war against knights or demonic beasts."

At that moment, a short but sharp chime was sounded from the observation post. It was an early warning for spotting demonic hybrids.

Van'er squinted forward only to see two huge shadows moving slowly in the smoke. Judging from their sizes, they should be Siege Beasts with thick shells.

"What did I say just now?" Van'er grinned and said, "It's time for us to show what we can do now. Put in pointed ball ammunition."

To deal with enemies with strong defensive ability like these, new shells developed by the arms plant can penetrate their shells within the range of about 200 meters. If the fight against demonic wolves was deemed as warm exercises, now the official shooting began.

"Do your best," Van'er clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention and said, "Prove you're the best cannoneers to other teams."

.

Chapter 334 - Distressed

Andrea had just climbed onto the corner of the city wall when she saw something stunning.

A row of soldiers in the uniform of the Militia was standing on the wall, each of whom held a strange weapon—probably the flintlock that Ashes mentioned. As the demonic beasts drew near, the flintlocks sprayed flames and smoke, and the sound of gunfire rang constantly in her ears.

The weapon should be similar to a crossbow, but she couldn't see bolts shot out of it, probably because of all the smoke. The demonic beasts rushing to the front seemed to be heavily struck by something, because they all suddenly stopped and fell on the ground one after another.

However, the soldiers didn't stop to observe their shots, nor did they refill bolts into the weapons. They just kept on shooting at the enemies at a speed that was even faster than shooting with crossbows.

"Is this the dreadful weapon you talked about?" Andrea felt her lips dry. "The shooting speed is indeed fast, but the accuracy seems..."

Ashes interrupted her. "These people were only miners, farmers or hunters before they were recruited. They have only trained with these weapons for less than six months."

It takes five years to train a warrior well, and longer to train an archer. Even for the crossbow, which is easy to operate, it takes about six months of training to at least prevent a farmer from placing the bolt in backwards in panic. As for actual combat, who the hell knows what they'll shoot at. The prince will probably just use their size to intimidate the enemies.

Andrea gulped in awe. She was no stranger to these trainings. Her family used to train outstanding knights, so she understood what it meant to produce qualified soldiers in about six months. As long as they had sufficient weapons and food supply, Roland was able to put together a large army in a short time, which didn't have to worry about close-quarter combat, because their ceaseless attacks prevented even elite knights from coming into attack range.

It had nothing to do with the soldiers' courage and willpower, because the weapons had endowed them with great strength.

"Do you know anything else about flintlocks?" Tilly pondered for a moment and asked Sylvie.

Sylvie nodded. "I've carefully observed it many times. It's indeed similar to the crossbow, but the arrow it fires is very short without any shafts or tail feathers. The difference is that the arrow shot by the flintlock is not propelled by an elastic string, but by the impact of exploding black powder - it can bring the shots to an extremely high speed in an instant."

"Black powder?" Ashes asked, "What's that?"

"It's probably an alchemic product." Sylvie shook her head. "I don't know its specific ingredients."

"It must be very expensive," Andrea said. "Nothing made by alchemists is cheap."

Ashes frowned. "Is that so... When the soldiers are shooting, they don't act like they're using something expensive at all."

"Wait a moment, something is coming," Sylvie, who had been observing the battlefield, said in a stunned tone. "Oh God, is that also a demonic beast? It's almost as tall as the city wall! It looks like a huge turtle with a giant shell on its back."

This caught Andrea's attention. "Shell? Those flintlocks may have limited impact on that, but as long as I can get within ten steps of the target, even the city wall can't withstand my magic arrows. Ashes, you cover me."

"OK." Ashes took down the sword on her back reluctantly. "Let me remind you—you'd better not embarrass Lady Tilly."

"Don't go." Sylvie tried to stop them. "They have..."

Andrea missed the second half of Sylvie's sentence. All she could hear was a deafening roar that sounded like a thunder ringing in her ears. Looking back, she saw that those metal tube weapons standing on the city wall were shooting out flames in unison. This time she vaguely followed the arrows' trajectories - they were like shadows going at a lightning-fast speed toward the distant beast that had just appeared.

After a few seconds, columns of snow sprung up near the beast. While the snow scattered down, the ugly large demonic beast still proceeded with the same speed—obviously the round of attack missed the target.

Despite this, Andrea was already in shock... the shooting distance was much farther than what a longbow and a heavy crossbow could reach. "Is this..."

"His Highness calls it field artillery. Simply speaking, it's a magnified flintlock." Sylvie uncovered her ears. "This weapon is much more powerful than flintlocks and can reach a much farther target. His Highness used these to easily defeat Timothy's fleet at the fork of Redwater River."

The demonic beast wasn't as lucky in the second round of firing, as two shots accurately landed on the beast's shell. After two heavy collision sounds, Andrea clearly saw a layer of mist spring from the beast's bumpy shell and two big holes appear on the shell near the beast's head. Black blood and guts spurted out of the holes, splashing everywhere.

The fight didn't last long. After a short while, piles of demonic beasts' bodies were scattered at the foot of the city wall. Warm blood flowed out of their bodies and turned into fog when it touched the snow. The soldiers began to clean up the mess. Andrea, on the other hand, hadn't found any chance to use her abilities in the fight.

"It seems my prediction was wrong," Tilly said resignedly. "He doesn't need the help from combat witches."

"When I arrived in this town last time, this sort of weapon hadn't been popularized, and they were exclusive to Chief Knight. However, this time, he has already produced so many of them..." Ashes sighed. "This was probably why His Highness insisted on announcing the existence of witches in public despite the pressure from the Church."

Andrea didn't talk back. Normally, she would have teased Ashes, but now she felt extraordinarily depressed with no strength to fight back.

After the witches returned to the castle, they found that His Highness Roland had prepared a hearty lunch for them.

Looking at the colorful dishes on the table, Andrea felt even more depressed.

The upper nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn emphasized the natural form of food. They spent lots of money and time on collecting cherished and rare ingredients, and they cooked them using the most authentic methods. The food served in the Kingdom of Graycastle was covered with all sorts of spices and sauces. In her eyes, this was a rather vulgar way of eating - seasonings were only used to cover up the defects of the food itself. The more seasonings were added, the worse the food actually tasted.

Surprisingly... every dish on the table was terribly delicious.

Take the grilled mushroom for example—where did His Highness find all these juicy mushrooms? A small bite of it yielded a mouthful of flowing juices.

Then there was the vegetable soup. It looked just like ordinary clear soup, but it tasted as rich and fresh as it had been cooked with a whole chicken, ribs and kelp for a long time.

The most special dish was the dessert—ice cream bread, which was actually a kind of sandwich with fragrant ice cream in between. Taking a bite of it, she felt intoxicated by its icy and creamy texture. Although it was "winter", it didn't stop her from eating piece after piece.

Damn, even in regards to food, she had completely lost.

Looking at Ashes, who was smiling at her provocatively, Andrea didn't say anything in response for the first time.

Chapter 335 - The Drastic Change

On the third day, the assembly of a large hot air balloon was completed, and it was time to explore the ruin.

The new hot air balloon was called the Farsight. Its huge basket could accommodate more witches and was surrounded by a canvas so that it could resist the cold wind and heavy snow.

As the earlier they carried out the mission, the safer it was, the witches bade a simple farewell to Roland and stepped onto the hot air balloon. They took off from the castle backyard and headed for the stone tower.

In order to land quickly and fight enemies as soon as they appeared, the Farsight flew at a very low altitude, almost as low as the rooftops of the town houses. Most of the subjects witnessed this "miraculous view". Some of them froze in place, while others shouted "Long live His Highness Roland"—in their eyes, such a miracle could only be created by the Lord of Border Town. When the hot air balloon flew over the West Wall, the soldiers of the First Army all saluted it. Both Lightning and Maggie, who were flying to escort the balloon, were no strangers to them. The little girl Lightning, who used to guide the Artillery Squad's shooting directions, aroused especially enthusiastic cheers among the soldiers.

Soon, through the flying snow, Farsight left the town behind and entered the Misty Forest.

Tilly stood at the edge of the basket, overlooking this boundless forest.

The snow season during the Months of Demons turned the whole world white. The top branches of gigantic trees were all covered by thick snow, which looked like high and broad platforms above the ground at first sight. On the other side of their view were layers of mountains, casting a shade of gray in the obscure mist. As the feet of the mountains weren't visible, they looked as if they were floating in the air.

"Beautiful scenery." Shavi sighed. "This is the first time I see a snow-covered Western Region."

"Are you a witch from the Western Region?" Wendy asked curiously.

"I used to live in Fallen Dragon Ridge. It was close to the south, so it rarely snowed in the winter. Later, I heard that Lady Tilly was exploring Sleeping Island, so I secretly travelled to the Port of Clearwater by boat to meet the other witches."

"I see," said Wendy, shaking her head with a smile. "His Highness had been complaining about the lack of new witches even after spreading the rumor of the Witch Cooperation Association in Border Town... it seems that he was one step later than Tilly."

"Did you also spread messages to attract witches?"

"They did, but the person they sent wasn't very skillful. I kept my eyes on him the moment he reached Fallen Dragon Ridge," Ashes said with satisfaction. "and I caught him at Silver City. Was his name Theo?

"You were also a witch. Of course you would notice this strange rumor." Andrea twitched her mouth. "If you didn't run into Lady Tilly, you would probably have gone to Border Town."

"I'm not His Highness..."

"Oh," Andrea said, mocking Ashes' voice, "His Highness ... You're quite good at saying it."

"Ha-ha," Tilly couldn't help but laugh. Yesterday, Andrea seemed depressed about something, but today, she seemed to be herself again. On Sleeping Island, Andrea, born to a noble family, was the only one who dared to pick on Ashes. Tilly said, "No matter where we are from, Sleeping Island or Border Town, we're of a family, so let's make no distinction between witches."

She turned around and looked at the witches one by one.

Before leaving, they had introduced their own abilities to one another so that they could cooperate well while fighting against enemies. There weren't as many combat witches in Border Town as there were on Sleeping Island, and most of the former ones weren't fit for combats. However, thanks to their tireless efforts, the town was turned into the way it was today.

Tilly focused her gaze on Anna. If she had to choose a witch who impressed her the most, it would be this woman, who had her awakening in this desolate place and made a profound impact on Roland.

Every time she stood beside Anna, she felt an indescribable decorum and peacefulness, which was a new feeling to her. If she had to put it into words, it was like the feeling of laying on a broad field, with the soft but firm ground on your back making you feel at ease.

Anna didn't talk much to anyone but Roland, and her facial expressions didn't change much, either. However, as long as she stood among the witches, she was hard to ignore.

Sylvie told her that Anna was the first witch who evolved in Border Town and had astonishingly great magic power as her Blackfire was extremely powerful and malleable. Besides, she was the first witch who read through Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, a fact which made Tilly feel closer to her.

"In this winter, if only I could sit with Anna beside the fireplace and have a good discussion about books. I'm more than willing to do that." Tilly thought silently and was looking forward to it.

Princess Tilly then moved her gaze to Lightning, who was flying beside the basket. As the daughter of Thunder, Anna had a lot in common with her father, the number one explorer in Fjords. She was lively, curious, and a girl of action. "She is cut out for flying." Tilly thought. "Only the endless sky could accommodate her adventurous heart." Although Thunder wanted his daughter to live a peaceful life, Tilly knew Lightning was bound to be an explorer as soon as she saw her, and maybe even a more successful one than her father.

All she could do was try her best to protect Lightning.

"We're almost there." Tilly's thought was interrupted by Lightning, who came near the basket to inform everybody.

"Come inside and rest," said Wendy concernedly. "Your lips are frozen white."

"I'm OK. My face is just a little numb." She patted her rosy cheeks. "Fortunately, I have the scarf from His Highness with me, so my ears aren't cold at all."

They didn't encounter ferocious demons along the journey. The demonic beasts crawling through the forests occasionally roared once or twice towards them, but they obviously didn't have the ability to attack a hot air balloon on the sky, so the first half of the journey was fairly smooth. However, when the Farsight arrived above their destination, everyone was shocked by the sight down below.

The forest seemed to have been swept through by something huge. Broken trunks and branches were scattered everywhere, and the snow on the ground was totally turned over and mixed together with mud, forming a very messy scene.

"Where is the Stone Tower?" Ashes asked.

"It used to be there." Lightning pointed at the open space under them, her tone full of disbelief. "It's... gone."

Tilly looked in the direction that Lightning was pointing at. On the brown-and-white ground, there was a huge hole. It was so black that its bottom remained invisible, and it looked as if someone had dug a tunnel toward an abyss. However, according to the size of the hole entrance, whoever created this hole must be extremely huge.

"Sylvie, come and see what's inside the hole."

Sylvie quickly frowned and her expression grew ugly. "A... A worm-like monster. It's moving northwest. Wait a moment, the ruin is in its stomach!"

"What? In its stomach?" Ashes said surprisingly.

"That's right. I see the stone tower... and the Frozen Coffin you talked about," she said carefully. "God. It swallowed the whole ruin!"

What to do next? Everyone looked at Tilly.

"Is there anything else other than the worm?" Princess Tilly asked in a deep voice, "especially demons."

"Hmm... there are some demonic beasts, but all in the worm's stomach. I think they are dead." Sylvie watched for a while and shook her head.

Tilly thought for a moment and said decisively, "Let's land. Several of you keep watch outside, and the others should follow me into the hole, kill the huge beast, and retrieve the Frozen Coffin."

Chapter 336 - Worm Stomach

"Tilly, you can't..." Ashes was just about to stop Tilly when she was interrupted.

"If we want to get into the hole, we must rely on witches who can fly to bring people out." Tilly waved the ring on her finger. "Although carrying heavy objects will consume more magic power, I can bring at least one witch, who would be vital to our mission—with one more witch, we can face bigger challenges." She paused, looking at the Border Town witches and said, "Anna, Lightning, Maggie - I need your help."

The three of them didn't show any dissent, and Maggie even seemed itching to go.

Tilly was slightly relieved. "Ashes, Shavi, and Sylvie will join us and go to the bottom of the hole. Sisters who are on the ground - please try your best to guard the gate."

"Lady Tilly, please let me join you," Andrea said.

"Nightingale might find it hard to cope with the demonic beasts all by herself." Tilly shook her head. "You two can cooperate well from close and afar."

"Don't worry. I will guard the exit for you." Nightingale seemed full of confidence. "Neither demons nor demonic beasts will get close to the exit."

Tilly was fully aware that the number of witches who could go down depended solely on the flying witches. First of all, the heaviest item was the Frozen Coffin. If the witch inside the coffin couldn't be awaken on the spot, they would have to chop the coffin apart and take her back. The coffin's weight would amount to that of two to three witches, a weight only Shavi could carry using her invisible barrier.

Sylvie's Eye of Magic was necessary too. Without her, they couldn't precisely locate the ruin in the worm's belly. So were Anna's cutting and heating abilities, but neither Sylvie nor Anna could fly. Fortunately, neither of them was heavy, so Maggie could transform into a magic bird and carry them. The last necessity was the Extraordinary Witch Ashes, who could fight fiercely under any circumstance. Tilly would carry her during the mission.

Lightning could fly, but according to her, her altitude would drop greatly if she carried someone on her back. Therefore, she would not be able to fly out of the deep hole. Her advantage lay in her excellent flexibility and high speed, which could play an effective role in alarming, exploring and attacking.

These witches were almost irreplaceable. The absence of any of them could make the whole situation extraordinarily tricky. So, Tilly’s decision was made out of comprehensive consideration instead of momentary impulse.

As for Andrea... her destructive power in close range was astonishing, but her ability would be greatly impeded in a dark, narrow area. So, it would be better if she and Nightingale stayed on the ground to guard against possible demonic beasts nearby.

Tilly had also considered giving up the rescue mission completely and going back home directly, but an uneasiness kept gnawing at the back of her mind. "How could the surrounding areas remain intact and the stone tower ruin be the only target?" The direction the giant beast was crawling toward was especially suspicious. She looked to the northwest of the mountains, which was the demons' exact residence.

Could there be any connection between the two?

Under Wendy and Anna's control, the hot air balloon soon landed steadily. Tilly put all her confusions aside and went through the whole plan one more time. Taking a deep breath, she said slowly, "Let's go."

...

This hole was 6m deep, which was deeper than she had expected. At first it plunged straight down, then it tilted, and in the end it became a horizontal channel. The surrounding soil exuded an unpleasant smell. Looking closely, one could see sticky liquid dripping from the surface of the soil that looked like wet traces left by slugs.

As the team proceeded, the light that came from the mouth of the hole soon disappeared. The bottom was completely dark except for some dim spots illuminated by a few torches. Meanwhile, the whistling wind had gradually died out and the coldness was replaced by heat emanating from the earth. Tilly felt that her body was also warming up.

Looking at the flickering torches, she couldn't help but think of fireflies.

"The giant beast is ahead of us," Sylvie whispered.

Even without her warning, everybody could sense that the target wasn't far way—there were strange sounds coming from the deep hole. Some were like an autumn wind blowing through rustling woods, others were like something chewing.

"Let’s land." She told Ashes, who was on her back, to wave the torch twice, and then she controlled the Magic Stone to lower her altitude until her feet fell onto the loose and soft soil.

Then, Anna's cold light appeared.

She changed her Blackfire back to Heartfire, and cold and soft light suddenly filled the surrounding areas. Under her green light, the witches clearly saw the giant beast's tail. The beast was slowly crawling forward. Its squirming grey skin was constantly excreting mucus, which made the putrid smell even stronger.

"A disgusting big worm," Ashes pulled out her sword and said. "What should we do next? Cut its stomach open?"

"Wait a moment and let Anna do it," Tilly shook her head and said. "I'm not sure if what's in its stomach is dangerous, but killing it with a sword is too risky."

"Well, let me try." Anna summoned a ball of Blackfire while keeping the Greenfire burning. In the blink of an eye, the Blackfire turned into a thin line and flew directly toward the giant beast.

It penetrated the beast's skin without any resistance and cut its belly open. Perhaps the thin line had too high a temperature, because the skin it touched instantly burst into flames. The liquid inside the beast's body was vaporized into white mist. Shavi was already prepared for it and held up her invisible shield, blocking all the scattering liquid.

Tilly thought, "This must be her evolved power." Although Anna had spoken about her own abilities, seeing it happen still shocked Tilly. The Blackfire was transformed into a thin line and could be operated by consciousness, without being attached to anything. It was not only sharper than any giant sword, but its movement was also hard to predict, thus making it difficult for enemies to dodge it.

The beast issued a sharp scream, and its body began to squirm maniacally. However, the Blackfire continued to attack and soon pulverized most of the beast’s body. The flowing liquid was vaporized by the Greenfire before it reached the witches.

Gradually, the giant beast stopped struggling, and its skin crumbled in a heap.

"It's dead," said Sylvie. "Its heart has stopped beating."

"Something like this also has a heart?" Ashes asked, with one hand covering her nose.

"Yes, the heart is in its head and is about as big as the basket of Farsight. And..." she paused and said, "There is magic power flowing inside of the beast."

"So, is this a demonic hybrid?"

"Nobody knows," said Tilly. "There isn't much recorded in history books about demonic beasts and Barbarian Land, so this area basically remains unknown to us. Let's hurry up and dig out the Frozen Coffin."

After Anna burned the beast a second time, the putrid smell wasn't so strong anymore. Under Sylvie’s guidance, they quickly found the ruin swallowed by the beast. Unsurprisingly, the basement had been turned into nothing but scattered rocks and showed no signs of its previous structure. The illuminating Magic Stones that Lightning mentioned earlier were mostly turned into pasty lumps. Fortunately, the crystal pillar was still intact. After being turned out from the beast's stomach, it showed no signs of erosion, and the woman sealed inside still looked lifelike.

"Now show us what you can do," Tilly said to Anna.

Chapter 337 - Rescue

Anna nodded. She stretched the Blackfire into a thread, which gently arrived on the crystal pillar.

The witches subconsciously held their breaths. Then they saw some green smoke rising at the spot where the Blackfire touched the pillar. However, that was not the color of the smoke itself, but a reflection of the light of the Greenfire.

The Blackfire penetrated into the crystal.

"How is it?" Tilly asked.

"It's a bit difficult, but I can cut it open," Anna replied.

Suddenly, changes occurred in the Frozen Coffin. With a crisp clicking sound, a few cracks appeared around the area where the Blackfire penetrated. It looked as if the entire pillar was suddenly covered by cobwebs. Almost at the same time, Shavi held up a shield to protect all the witches.

But there was no explosion as they had expected. The crystal just broke into pieces and fell off, exuding coldness from its core. Now, the witches found that the transparent pillar was actually composed of two layers, and its inner layer was a genuine ice crystal. Instantly, everybody could feel a chill, and the temperature of the surrounding areas dropped rapidly.

Fortunately, Anna quickly stopped the temperature from dropping and managed to raise it to normal degree.

Under the baking of Blackfire, the ice crystal began to melt even faster, and its transparency declined drastically. A while later, the pillar didn't have an angular shape anymore. It kept on melting and shrinking under warmth, like ordinary ice did. But Tilly noticed that there was no large pool of water on the ground. The melted ice had turned into mist and drifted away, as if the Frozen Coffin had never existed.

After the whole ice crystal had melted away, the woman sealed inside appeared.

She seemed still in her deep sleep. Her long hair and robes had no trace of being soaked, and they looked the same as they did before she was sealed. Losing the support of the pillar, the woman fell back feebly, only to be held by Ashes in her arms before she fell to the ground.

"Is she still alive?"

"She's weak, but her heart is still beating," Ashes pressed the woman on her chest and said, "This... is really incredible."

It was indeed incredible. Tilly found that in less than a week since she arrived at Border Town, she had witnessed more bizarre things than she had in the past year. But she was also a little relieved, because the identity of the person who had survived a freezing cold ice crystal was almost certain a witch.

At least this adventure wasn't for nothing.

As for her name, her origin, and the reason why she was trapped in the ruins... all these puzzles could wait until they got back.

*******************

Andrea felt a bit bored waiting outside the cave. Now and then she looked down the hole, wishing to see Tilly return as early as possible.

No trace of demons was spotted around the ruins. Even demonic beasts were rare to see. Occasionally, some demonic wolves or demonic boars popped out of the forest, but before Andrea pulled out her bow, Nightingale had darted her daggers on their heads.

Time seemed to slow down. Apart from her, all the guarding witches were from the Witch Cooperation Association. She couldn't find anyone to chat with to kill time. Although the woman called Wendy looked very kind, Andrea couldn't pluck up the courage to start a conversation with her.

As an unmarried female upper nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn, elegance and reservedness were her essential qualities.

"Never mind. I probably should talk to Nightingale. I heard that she used to fight against Ashes and ended up with a draw. Since I'm prying into my old enemy, this doesn't count as starting a conversation.

"Yes, it should be my homework." She thought to herself.

She dusted off the snow on her head and looked up, only to surprisingly find that Nightingale had disappeared.

That girl who had blonde curly hair and looked as graceful as nobility had been leaning against the basket all along. Now she was nowhere to be seen. "Oh right, her ability seems to be concealing herself."

Keeping that in mind, Andrea calmed down to feel the surrounding sounds. When vision couldn't come in handy, ears and noses could be good helpers for capturing the whereabouts of the opponents.

Then she heard a series of rustling footsteps.

"Is that Nightingale?"

"No, it's not," Andrea thought to herself. Then a creepy feeling hit her. Those footsteps weren't from one individual. There must be a group drawing near, right in the jungle ahead of her, no further than 100 steps away! She kept her eyes wide open, but she could see nothing but a scene of quietness.

The footsteps seemed to be in arm's length. "Damn it. Those enemies are transparent!"

Before she could sound an alarm, a roar suddenly burst near her ear.

There was a flare appearing midair, followed with an air wave, and then came out an oddly shaped monster. It had a narrow head and a pair of sharp claws, which made it look like a mutant mantis. But what made it different from any other insect was that it was walking upright.

An arrow shot out of the flintlock smashed part of its face. Black blood was blown out of its head and almost splashed on Andrea.

The monster collapsed on the ground. Then she saw Nightingale's flying white cloak and hood.

Then came a second shot!

"Damn. I was too careless!" Andrea tightly bit her lips. "Nightingale noticed the danger earlier than I did."

She summoned the Magical Longbow. But without knowing where to shoot at, she slowly retreated to the basket, standing alongside the other witches.

With four more shots later, four more monsters fell down, each being killed by one single shot.

When Nightingale showed herself beside a monster, Andrea put away her weapons and walked swiftly to Nightingale.

"What are they?"

"Either demonic beasts or demons." Nightingale squatted, fiddling with those creatures' fangs and claws. "But judging from their blood color, they look more like demonic beasts."

"When did you notice them?"

"The time they appeared." Nightingale smiled. "In Mistland, the magic powers glowing on their body are as prominent as stars in the night sky."

"Could demonic beasts have that ability?" Andrea frowned.

Nightingale smiled. "Uh... probably the demonic hybrids are special."

At the same time, the seven witches who had gone down to the hole returned. Coming with them was a blue-haired woman on Ashes' shoulder.

"Is she the one who called for help in the ruins?" Andrea walked toward them and asked.

"That's right." Tilly nodded. "I'll tell you the details when we get on the Farsight. The longer we stay in this forest, the more insecure I feel. Oh, was it alright on the ground?"

"A few odd demonic hybrids came, but they are all dead by now," Nightingale shrugged and said.

The hot air balloon quickly lifted off. The basket went across the tree tips and began to move to the direction of the town. Right then, Sylvie exclaimed, "Oh dear, what are those down there? Are they demonic beasts?"

"Demonic beasts?" Andrea stuck out her head and looked toward the ruin, but didn't see anything.

No, something was moving on the ground indeed, because the bodies of those dead monsters were suddenly half missing, and the black blood was scattered by trampling. At the junctures of soil and snow, one could see some weird twists, as if seen through a glass. One might miss it without watching closely.

"Still the same old demonic hybrids," Nightingale carelessly said. "There are about a hundred of them rushing into the hole... Maybe they are tempted by the smell of the dead giant worm and go for a good meal." She yawned. "But none of that is our concern."

.

Chapter 338 - Police

Vader got out of bed and tried to move his body. His back didn't hurt at all. "It seems the Lord Knight was right. The wound would heal by itself." Vader thought so himself.

"How do you feel?" asked Cacusim. "I think you should take more rest."

"I'm OK. I worked well yesterday, didn't I?" Vader put on his old coat, and stuck his feet into the cold boots. "The sooner I start working for them, the earlier I can receive my share of oatmeal. I can't always rely on you. Your bowl of oatmeal isn't enough for the two of us."

"But I think it's OK. The oatmeal here is much thicker than relief porridge elsewhere, and it has the taste of meat." The old man shook his head. "Kid, you used to be a patrolman. You might not be familiar with the life in slums. The porridge there was more like clear soup. Its only difference from soup was that it contained a few grains of wheat. To make it look thick, the authority used to boil it with grass roots or tree leaves. The oatmeal given by the Lord may not be enough for both of us, but at least we won't starve."

"I hope both of us can have enough to eat," Vader tied his shoelaces and said with a smile.

"OK." Cacusim sighed. "Then you take care. Don't be too hard on yourself."

"What a strange feeling. Originally he was just a scapegoat picked by the black street rats, but now he seems to be an elder member of my family." Vader thought. More strangely, Vader even liked this feeling.

"I will." Vader shook his head, as if he found it funny. "Take care of yourself, too."

As he opened the door, Vader saw two men standing there. Their white uniforms with a light blue shoulder ornament and armband revealed their identity - clerks from the City Hall.

Vader frowned and asked, "Whom are you looking for?"

One of them pulled out a sheet of paper and glanced at it. "Are you Vader?"

"Yes."

"What's happening?" Cacusim also heard of the conversation outside.

"Congratulations," One man smiled and said, "You have passed the written test for public security officer enrollment. What follows is a week-long comprehensive training." Then he put a small card into Vader's hand. "This is your temporary identity card. Bring it with you when you go to the campsite of the Second Army. You'll be received by people there."

Vader said with his eyes wide open. "Did I... really pass the Lord's test?"

"Not yet," one clerk replied. "The written test is only the first step of the the screening process. You'll pass all the assessments and become a regular public security officer only after you complete the training and get the Chief Knight's recognition."

After delivering the message, the two men left. They neither asked for money, nor tried to gain popularity. It seemed their aim was solely to deliver this piece of information.

"You did it!" The old man patted Vader's shoulder with excitement. "What did you say earlier on? You said you could never be chosen."

Vader was stunned for a while, and then he murmured, "Because the questions in the test were really bizarre."

The old man was curious. "What were the questions?"

Vader couldn't help but think back what happened a week ago. Ever since he learned that His Highness was recruiting public security officers - the same thing as patrol guards but with a different name - he applied to the City Hall following the requirements on the notice. He got a quick reply - only five days later, he was informed to go for a test.

Vader was full of confidence, because he not only met all the requirements on the notice, but also had more than five years of practical experience. Considering that the town was really in need of supervising personnel, he felt the chance for himself to be selected was very high. If he could become a patrol guard, he could take care of Cacusim at any time even if he had to live in the Inner City.

But he didn't he would sit for such a weird examination.

That day, over 100 candidates sat in a hall. The Lord Knight distributed a pile of paper to them one by one, and asked them to answer all the questions listed on the paper. He also told them to write clearly because the final examiner would be the prince himself. Such a testing method aroused confusion among the candidates. Although it was clearly written on the notice that the candidates must be able to read, none of them had ever expected that the government would actually be serious about it.

At that time, half of the candidates felt lost. Vader could read the paper, but after reading it thoroughly, he was also left in bewilderment. "What the hell are those bizarre questions about?" For example, "Imagine you are a coachman driving a carriage along a narrow mountain road and there are two civilians in your carriage. Suddenly, a bunch of refugees appear in front of you. You can only choose to run over them or let your carriage fall off the cliff. In the first case, some refugees will be hit and die, while in the second, the two civilians will lose their lives. Either way, you can survive with your agile skills. What would you do? Please explain your reasons with at least 300 words."

The question simply made people feel at a loss. It mentioned the numbers of civilians, but the number of refugees was uncertain, making it very difficult to measure the damages of the two scenarios. Besides, Vader felt that it may not be such a big deal to hit and kill a bunch of refugees, but it might not be the answer His Highness wanted.

"Should I choose to let the civilians die? Would this be the right answer?"

The whole paper was full of bizarre questions like this. At that time, Vader even felt His Highness deliberately made the test difficult, and actually the real candidates had already been chosen.

"Forget it. Maybe I was wrong." Vader took a breath. "Now I'm going to the campsite."

"OK." Cacusim laughed. "I think you'll be enrolled eventually as a public security officer."

...

The campsite of the Second Army was located in the north of the town, out of the stone wall surrounding the Inner City. When Vader arrived, he found that the Chief Knight was already waiting there.

"From today on, you'll be reserve policemen," Carter said when all the people were there. "In the following week, all of you must live in this camp to receive special training. Those who are qualified may stay, and those who aren't may go back where you're from! I'll make you understand what disciplines mean and how exactly to serve His Highness!"

This was what Vader imagined a test should be like, but... "Did he just say that only 15 out of the more than 100 candidates will stay?" He took a glance at people around him. Judging from their clothing and complexion, they, unlike him, must be the locals.

Sure enough, the requirement for reading wasn't a joke.

"Report!" someone raised his hand and said.

Carter grinned. "Oh? You are familiar with the rules in the army! Go ahead."

"Well, my brother is in the First Army," the man said with one hand touching the back of his head. "My Lord, I want to know what 'policemen' exactly means. I thought we were enrolled as public security officers."

"The policemen are part of the public security system, and you can take them as security officers in His Highness's territory. Their responsibilities are to arrest criminals, fight against illegal acts, maintain territorial orders, execute policies issued by His Highness and the City Hall, and help the subjects in difficult situations."

"Helping the subjects? But just now you said we are to serve His Highness..."

"There isn't much difference between the two. Serving the subjects of His Highness is the same as serving His Highness. Well, do you want to serve His Highness in his castle?" Carter shrugged. "Become a good knight first."

"But all the knights are nobles..." Vader thought to himself. "There is a world of difference between them and civilians. Not any ordinary person can become a knight."

"Remember, you are both the executors of the law and the guardians of the people. OK, go to the tent and put on your uniform." The Chief Knight clapped his hands. "Now, there's a mission for you to complete."

Chapter 339 - The Assassins

After Vader took off the old jacket full of patches and put on the brand new uniform, he could feel that his whole body was warmed up right away.

Making of thick leather on the surface and a cotton lining, the uniform could both keep people warm because of the leather and comfortable. Only these materials used could cost up to a few silver royals.

Although it was similar to the uniform of City Hall in design, it was very different in color—the shirt and pants were pure black with white striped lace at the shoulders, collar, and cuffs, looking extremely striking. Standing in a row in the new uniform, the 15 people could not help but hold their chest up higher than usual.

"Not bad," said Carter with a smile of satisfaction, "Now, you follow me."

Snow was still falling from the sky at that time. It was the first time ever that Vader saw the scene with non-stop snow since autumn. It occasionally snowed in Valencia, but it would normally cease within one or two days. Children were often found making snowmen or having snowballs fight on streets. That's why there was a saying that it was the Children Festival whenever it snowed. However, it was extremely inconvenient for the adults as snow would make their shoes wet and moldy, walk on the streets difficult, and business slack. Worst of all, occasionally some roofs collapsed under the pressure of heavy snow.

The patrol platoon of Valencia would never go out in such weather. Instead, they would probably find a tavern to sit around the fireplace and flirt with the maids while drinking warm ale.

However, it was completely different in Border Town.

Every day, the streets were cleaned and the snow was swept to both sides of the streets, which was a long-term job offered by City Hall. Although the workers were low paid, they could make quick money since they could receive their wages daily or monthly.

There were many townsfolk coming and going on the street. Wearing straw hats or in their cloaks, they were all busy with their own chores. It would be just like summer if all the snow in the town was removed.

If it were not witnessed by himself, Vader would not have believed that a town on the border of the kingdom would seem busier than Valencia. If it were not because of the high rise church and bell tower in the town, it would make him wonder which big city he was in.

Soon, the group of people arrived at the pier side. There were more than ten sailboats anchored in the Redwater River. The shore had gathered up to hundreds of people. This scene seemed to be quite familiar… Right, Vader remembered, it was the same scene as the time when he first arrived in this town with the others fleeing from Eastern Region.

"Report! These people are…"

"Refugees from Southern Border and Northern Land. To make sure they can get through the winter, His Highness sent people to summon them to Border Town. Your job is to help the City Hall maintain order, ask these people to queue up for customs check, and then quarantine as well as registration. Currently, the number of police officers is quite limited, so soldiers of the First Army will assist you. But in the future, you have to do this independently."

"Yes!"

It did not sound difficult for Vader for he once organized refugees to queue up for claiming of porridge. In order to let everyone nearby hear his commands and approach one by one, Vader walked towards the hurdle and yelled.

"Your name? Where do you come from? Any expertise? Are you literate?"

Every refugee who passed through the hurdle will be questioned by City Hall officers and their answers would be roughly recorded. Vader knew that these were just preliminary statistics. There would be further audits and verification after everyone settled down, and those with skills would have the priority to be transferred to the Inner City. He knew the process well because he personally experienced it once.

Suddenly, he heard uproarious noises from his back. Vader turned around and saw a man in a long fluffy robe coming into the dock area under the protection of the guards. The flowing gray hair indicated his identity—His Royal Highness Roland Wimbledon, the local Lord. Standing beside him were a few finely dressed members who were probably leaders of the City Hall.

Vader did not expect His Highness would come to visit the refugees in the snow storm. Few few great nobles were willing to leave their warm beds in the cold season, especially when servants could do everything for them.

"My name is Mane. I'm from the Northern Land. And ... I am good at... good at farming. I can't read. "

"Farming?" A City Hall officer ticked the corresponding checkbox on the record sheet and said, "OK, pass."

Right at that moment, Vader noticed that the man quickly glanced at the direction where the prince was standing while passing through the checkpoint. There was little respect shown in his eyes, which was totally different from the normal civilians.

"Hold on," he said subconsciously.

"What... What's the matter?"

"You're a farmer? When do you plant wheat in winter? "

The City Hall officer also looked at him with an impatient look. "It's only a simple registration, and I don't have time to judge whether they're telling the truth. Hasn't His Excellency Carter told you the procedure? All you need to do is to help me maintain order."

Hearing what he said, the man kept quiet immediately.

What a fool!" Vader frowned and continued, ignoring what the officer said, "You don't speak like a northerner. You have the accent of the central part of the kingdom. Which town of the north do you come from? I'm very familiar with that area."

Mane hesitated, yet he didn't answer the question.

"Besides, if you dress like this in the northern area, you'll suffer from frostbite in fingers even if you manage to survive. As far as I know, it's below the freezing point throughout the year in the north." Vader grabbed his right hand and asked, "Where're your gloves? Don't tell me that you threw them away when you arrived at Border Town because you found it's warm here."

Now the officer at the checkpoint also realized something was fishy. A refugee may lie about his expertise to get a better treatment, but lying about his hometown was obviously strange. "Where exactly are you from?"

Grinding his tongue, Mane suddenly fished out a red pill out from his chest, stuffed it into his mouth and shouted. "Go away, you all!"

Vader instantly felt Mane's wrist become boiling hot. He reflexively tried to pin Mane down onto the floor, only to find that Mane remained still even though he had exploited all his strength. After that, Mane swang his arm and Vader was flung far away.

He fell heavily onto the ground and he could feel the burning pain on his back. "Damn, the wound's been ripped open." He spat, shook his dizzy head and got up, only to find Mane had long gone.

Another four or five refugees sprang from the crowd. Their movements were as agile as the demonic beasts outside the city wall. They jumped over the temporary railings of the City Hall in a few steps and directly ran towards the prince.

This group of people could not make their targets more obvious. They came to attack the high-level officials and the lord of Border Town.

Considering the wierd strength of Mane, Vader could almost imagine the scene in which the prince's guards were torn into pieces on the spot, and even the prince himself might not be able to survive.

However, none of those happened.

He soon heard a series of noise just as the one he heard when soldiers on the walls were fighting the demonic beasts.

White colored smoke floated in front of the prince.

Blood splashed from Mane's head amidst the smoke.

Chapter 340 - The Reason of Employment

All the eccentrics that rushed out of the crowd were killed, but the outburst of the refugees caused by that sudden change continued and gradually became difficult to control. Amid continuous screams of the people, dozens of specially armed warriors surrounded the scene, and at the same time, the prince's sonorous voice suddenly rang above the crowd-

"Quiet, my people. I am your Lord, Roland Wimbledon. Now listen to me."

The voice was loud, yet it was not a hysterical roar. It was a clear and steady narration. Vader felt as if he was talking directly into his ear, and there was an undeniable force in his words that overtook the tumult and fright of the scene.

The crowd quieted down suddenly.

"As you heard the news when you first arrived in Border Town, we'll provide you with shelter to protect you from the wind and snow as well as food that can fill your stomach. There're also plenty of well-paid jobs. I'm here to tell you that all of these are true. "

"You'll live in thick clay houses with no air gap and a charcoal stove beneath the bed. Sleeping on it will be as comfortable as lying on the grass in the summer sun. As long as the doors and windows are closed, you won't feel cold even if you only wear an unlined garment in the house."

"You'll have meat jerky and wheat porridge for meals. Digging into the porridge with a spoon, you can see the grains dripping. It'll slowly flow down into your mouth due to the consistency. You'll just need one bowl to fill up your stomach."

Hearing this, Vader suddenly felt hungry. His Royal Highness made a novel speech. Unlike most aristocrats who kept emphasizing their powers and the obligations of the subjects and claiming that all people must follow their will, he spoke from the point of view which the people were most concerned about by describing his promise with the food and clothing. Judging from the facial expression of the refugees, one could tell his words obviously had touched their hearts.

"I hope that all the people will be able to live well without any worry about food and clothing, but the enemies that are hidden in the dark don't want to see this. There's no doubt that these beasts that rushed out were sent by them. The reason is very simple—they don't want to see that I am still alive, and they don't want my people to live a better life.

"If I'm gone, will any other lords help provide you with warm shelter and delicious food? You should be very clear about this point and you'll understand looking at your previous experiences. I'm the only person that is willing to do so."

Vader found that the fright had dissipated. After the monsters that did not behave like ordinary people were regarded as common enemies, the uneasiness and fear of the refugees were gradually transformed into anger. The villains who were trying to be detrimental to His Highness and wanted to destroy their wonderful life at the same time would never be forgiven.

"In order to avoid the attack again, the inspection needs to be repeated. This time, my guards will be responsible for the body search to make sure no enemy has the opportunity to destroy it all!"

Everyone followed the will of His Highness. Those who had passed the checkpoint were brought back to the dock by the guards. None of them protested and they were even better-organized than before.

"His Highness is good indeed," Vader could not help but be filled with awe since the prince managed to put an end to the impended chaos with just a few sentences.

"I heard that you were the first one that sensed something was wrong?" Carter Lannis approached him and said, "Come with me, His Highness wants to see you."

Following the Chief Knight, he came in front of the young prince and knelt on one knee. "My respect to you."

"Tell me, how did you find that there was something wrong with him?" asked the prince.

Vader reported what happened truthfully.

"Very observant. Were you just an ordinary civilian?"

"No, Your Highness, I served the Valencia patrol team for almost six years until Valencia was attacked by large groups of pirates," he replied honestly.

"But there was no expertise stated on your resume. I asked Carter about you and he said currently you still live in the temporary residential area. In other words, you hid your identity during your registration with the City Hall at the entrance—this was absolutely unnecessary." The prince said. Why did you do that?".

Although he did not understand the meaning of the resume, it did not affect his answer to this question. Vader hesitated for a moment and told the prince about the story of Cacusim, "If it was not for this prisoner, I may have long been dead. I cannot just leave him alone in the Western Zone. "

"So you want to be a patrolman in order to help him while executing inspection missions in the future ?"

"I..." Vader panicked. Judging from the previous penalty, it was clear that His Highness was very concerned about the violation of the system, and that he would obviously be suspected of crossing the line.

"No worries. You have not done that yet, so we won't punish you for having the idea." The prince seemed to have seen through Vader's thought and said with a smile.

But these words made Vader disappointed. There was no doubt that His Royal Highness did not agree with this approach, even if he became a police successfully. Once he was found to be biased in handling disputes, he would be punished as severely as the City Hall officer was.

"Do you have a family?" The prince suddenly asked.

"... they were all killed in the robbery of Valencia."

"Does Cacusim have a family?"

"I don't think so," said Vader, although he was not sure why His Royal Highness asked the question. "If he had any family member, he wouldn't have been chosen by the Rats as a scapegoat."

"Anyone who has special skills will have the priority to rent a residential house. Besides, he can obtain the identity documents issued by the City Hall and enjoy all the power of the town's subjects. All of these, of course, can also be enjoyed by his family members." The prince grinned and said, "Do you understand what I mean?"

Startled, Vader could not help but ask in surprise, "Your Highness agree to let me have Cacusim..."

"Bring the old man to the City Hall for registration, and they will arrange it for you."

He held back the excitement and knelt down again. "Gracious, Your Highness!"

"Don't be slack, and be as vigilant as you're today." The prince nodded and said, "If you cannot pass the follow-up tests, even if he becomes your family member, you'll have to stay in the temporary area for now."

"Yes!"

The things that he cared the most was finally settled, Vader felt so much more relaxed. He was ready to be excused when he suddenly thought of the written test. Hesitating for a while, he could not help asking, "Your Highness, I was not sure about the answers to many questions in the first round of test. Why would you hire me? "

"Because there're no correct answers to them," Prince grinned and continued, "They differ from man to man. By the way, it was not the right answers that counted, but the applicants' reading and writing abilities did. You may pass the test as long as you could understand the questions and write down your own opinions."

Chapter 341 - The Transportation Corridor

"Your Highness, may I ask you a question? Do you know who sent them here?" Carter came up to ask Roland after Vader left.

"Only the Church and Timothy have the pills. Garcia has been far away from the Kingdom of Graycastle. It's completely unnecessary for her to assassinate me." Roland sighed. "More likely, it was Timothy. He doesn't dare to send his army out of King’s City to attack me, but that doesn't mean he has abandoned his plan for revenge."

Roland thought it was lucky that these attackers only carried pills instead of covering themselves with explosives. If they successfully ignited the explosives among the crowds, the efforts of these two months would have been wasted.

Actually, the Suicide Squad wasn’t his concern. He wore God's Stone of Retaliation and was protected by the guards when Nightingale wasn’t around. By doing so, he believed that those enchanted people could hardly approach him under the suppression of ten runner flintlocks, not even an Extraordinary.

He was surprised to see how quickly his mindset had changed in less than a year since he became the Lord. Any assassination or tumult like that attack would definitely make him get cold feet and feel at a loss if he remained to be his old self, that newcomer to the town. Despite the tension, he successfully hid his uneasy feelings and looked calm and in command. With absolute trust in his brave and loyal bodyguards, he was even amazed by himself. As the center of attention, he was able to stay cool during the emergency.

"Please bring the emissary delegation here. Ask them the details about how they recruited these people," Roland said to Barov, "and I also need to know where those people boarded the ship."

"Yes, Your Highness." As the City Hall Director, Barov felt uneasy. He didn’t expect that most capable City Hall officers he had chosen for this mission would have made such a great mistake.

"Don't blame them. Let's clarify the situation first."

When all the refugees went through the check point, Roland came back to his office in the castle. The emissary delegation brought him the good news this time. As the Eagle City and the Port of Clearwater in the Southern Territory were destroyed in the battle, the farmlands outside of the cities were deserted and all the former residents became refugees, looking for shelters. The food prices surged in bad weather when temperatures dropped sharply across the Kingdom of Graycastle. Under such circumstances, slave prices had already been halved.

If Roland could provide them a reliable, effective transportation corridor, those people would pour into Western Region. In fact, according to the report from the emissary delegation, many refugees were starting to head towards the Western Region, after hearing the news that Border Town was calling for recruitment.

But offering such a "transport corridor" was a tricky task.

As heavy snow in the "Months of the Demons" had covered all the roads, it was better to choose water transportation, using sailboats to transport refugees via Redwater River. "The Littletown", the witch-powered and the only boat of Border Town, obviously couldn’t meet all the needs in refugee transportation. To fulfill that task efficiently, at least twenty more sailboats were needed.

Shortage of boats remained a burning issue for the emissary delegation. On their mission, they found it hadn't cost them a lot to win the refugees over, yet they had spent most of their gold royals on the transportation and settlement of refugees. Only nearly 400 refugees had already arrived at Border Town and more than 3,000 were still settled in Willow Town, Silver City and Fallen Dragon Ridge, waiting for boats to fetch them.

Unfortunately, all the boat owners raised prices based on the current market trend. The budget cost for the transportation of the remaining 3,000 refugees was now almost the same as that for the last rescue plan in King's City. If this condition persisted, this refugee transportation would cost more money than they could imagine. After the delegation's report, Roland thought for a moment and quickly decided to ask the Margerie's Chamber of Commerce for help, hoping they wouldn’t bid an unaffordable price for the sake of Lightning.

He thought further and had a plan in his head. He wanted to build more boats for the town so as to control the transportation expenditure. With advancements in steel and cement production, the town now was able to build steam engine-driven huge punts, serving as transportation vehicles on the river.

...

After the lunch, Barov knocked at his door and came in, "Your Highness, I've found out what you want to know."

"Go ahead." Roland said.

"Cyron, one of my students, was in charge of the refugees in the North. He couldn’t find enough boats to transport refugees back to Western Region, so he contacted some old friends in King's City , hoping that they could help him with the boat issue." Barov sighed. "He settled his refugees in Silver City, which is close to King's City. I guess it was possible for Timothy to somehow hear about that and send his men to mix in the refugees."

"How many refugees are there now in Silver City?" Roland asked.

"About 800," Barov answered, "and the hired boats make a round trip in at least half a month. I'm worried about what will happen when they carry refugees back the next time. How about recalling the platoon of the First Army and abandoning those refugees in Silver City?" Barov suggested.

"No, no, let's improve our check process, pick out the ones sent by Timothy and separate them when they are passing the check of the town." Roland answered, "If we abandon the refugees in Silver City, driving some of them back to the North, the people there hearing about this will never trust us again." Roland said.

With the help of Silvio and Nightingale, spies and assassins could be identified easily. They weren't a threat to Roland. He just wanted to make proper arrangements to ensure the safety of the innocent refugees.

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov paused a while and asked. "So, what about Cyron?"

"I want to listen to you first." Roland suggested.

Barov hesitated for a moment and said, "I suggest removing him from the office and deducting two months' salary. He isn’t prudent enough for this job, but it seems cruel to exile him to the North Slope Mine area as a punishment. After all, he didn't mean it and it hadn’t caused any severe damages."

Roland couldn’t help laughing for he could easily tell that Barov felt awkward from his face. Roland smiled and said, "That's alright. Let him off. The salary deduction is enough. He didn't deliberately leak the information. He just lacked experience and had never done this kind of job. I remember he’s still in his twenties, right? He has room to grow and must have learned some useful lessons this time. Let's give him a chance."

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov answered and made a bow.

Roland smiled and shook his head. He knew that Barov wasn't willing to punish Cyron severely, despite the fact that he suggested a quite tough punishment in the beginning. Cyron was among his first group of students and had followed him since the time when he was still in King's City. He fostered him like his own son.

"That's it." Roland said and Barov withdrew.

Then Roland stretched. and took some blank papers out of his drawer, planning to draw sketches for steam engine-driven cement punts. At this time, Leaf suddenly ran in.

"Your Highness," she said excitedly, "Farsight is back!"

"Really?" Roland sprang up and quickly followed her to the castle backyard. A huge hot air balloon was gradually flying down, casting shadow on the garden.

As soon as it landed, Anna hopped off. Roland opened his arms to fetch her and Ana took this chance to give him a sweet hug.

"I am back."

.

Chapter 342 - Strategy

"I want a hug, too," Lightning rushed up.

"And me!" yelled Nana.

"Coo!" Maggie followed close at Nana's heels.

Roland just stood there, fetching the witches from the hot air balloon basket and all of the Witch Union witches hugged him one by one. Seeing this, Tilly couldn't help but laugh. "Ah! You are really good with the girls."

"And do you want a big hug from your brother?" Roland joked.

"No, thanks," she smiled and shook her head, "I can still remember that you once took me up and threw me onto the hard ground.

Roland turned off this dialogue with a shrug of his shoulders, as if saying, "I didn't mean that. I was innocent." Then he moved his eyes to the girl in the arms of Ashes. The girl seemed young and had sea blue hair and a figure as slim as Anna’s. Her eyes were tightly closed and her slender eyebrows looked slightly upturned. Her skin was so fair that a mole which looked like a tear stain in the corner of her eye was particularly eye-catching.

She looked like a sleeping beauty rather than a prisoner trapped in the stone tower basement.

However, her beauty wasn't the focus of Roland's attention. Her purple robe with exquisite patterns was the thing that intrigued him. As in this era, dyestuff was rare, especially purple dye, he believed that this gorgeous purple robe with beautiful and complicated white stripes and sigils must be a magic robe which could only be seen in movies.

He assumed it must be a piece of orange equipment.

"Is she still alive?" Roland asked.

"Yes," said Nightingale, "She is alive, yet she has exhausted all her magic power, a similar situation to that of Anna when she entered adulthood. Still she's a little different from Anna for her magic power is regained very slowly. It may take three or four days for her to fully recover."

"I see, so let's call her Sleeping Beauty for now," Roland nodded and said, "I'll make a room for her on the third floor of the castle, giving her time and space to recover. The other girls, let's go to the lobby. I wanna listen to the story of your trip."

...

Having heard what Tilly and Nightingale said about the trip, Roland was surprised and somehow broke into a cold sweat for them.

Provided that Silvio had eye of truth, he thought it was still dangerous to go far below the ground, hunting a strange and huge demonic beast. Roland believed even he himself would be hesitant under such circumstance, but Tilly was decisive. She managed to pick up the right people immediately and lead them to fulfill the task... Now he realized that Tilly became the leader of her witches not only because of her identity as a princess.

"What did you think at that time? Did the maggot have something to do with the demons?"

"I don’t know, but I guess yes," Tilly said slowly, "because in Barbarian Land, some witches of Witch Cooperation did encounter demons riding demonic hybrids whose wings were cut off. Those hybrids seemed tamed by the demons and followed their orders. Behind the snow-capped mountains, you also saw those flying beasts. They are totally different in form compared with the demons. Maybe they are another kind of demonic beasts."

"Based on what we've seen, I guess the demonic beasts are demons' pets and servants. Their relationship is similar to that between human beings and their hunting dogs. The demons could somehow tame those beasts and drive them to complete some difficult tasks by giving them orders?"

"It… sounds right." Rolland nodded, but still felt confused. "The demonic beasts only attacked the human communities in the ‘Months of the Demons’, but the moss and weeds on the Siege Beasts' shells suggested that they didn't just live during that one month and they could possibly stay alive for decades. Limited by the Red Mist, the demons couldn't expel all the human beings and fully occupy Barbarian Land in a short time, but they should have been able to keep sending demonic beasts to harass the Four Kingdoms all the time instead of just in winter."

Another question was how come a demonic hybrid could be tamed. He could never forget the smart demonic wolf-lion hybrid that attacked Iron Axe during the first year's "Months of the Demons". It could learn and analyze, set a goal and plan out how to achieve it. It was nothing like those so-called clever animals that acted upon conditioned reflexes repeatedly and far more intelligent than most animals and beasts. If all the demonic hybrids were long-living and intelligent, they could not be tamed and enslaved by another species.

"Compared with the underground demonic beast, the ones Miss Nightingale encountered outside the stone tower were more worrying," Tilly sighed and said, "because they could remain invisible to us in daytime and we could hardly detect their movement, let alone fight them. It’s a pity that we know little about demonic beasts and have no idea of how to deal with such horrible enemies."

"I wouldn’t believe they actually exist if Nightingale hadn’t seen them with her own eyes," Roland said, "Luckily, such kind of demonic beasts have never appeared in the Western Region... If a few of them came in every winter, Longsong Stronghold would have been ruined by now." Roland said.

"According to the historical records, the longer the ‘Month of the Demons’ is, the stronger demonic beasts will be. This year, it began to snow in fall. That means a long 'Month of the Demons' and we will confront with powerful enemies." Tilly said.

The word "we" said by Tilly warmed Rolland's heart. He was happy to see that she had already regarded the town as her close ally, of course, for the sake of the witches. Now it wasn't that important whether she had accepted himself as a brother.

"Based on the current situation, the line of defense must be under the oversight of Nightingale." Roland suggested.

"No, let's give that position to Silvio this winter," Tilly said, "because Nightingale would work overload. She needs at least half a quarter of an hour to merely make a tour around the eastern and western city walls, while Silvio can observe the entire city wall area, staying inside the castle. When she detects demonic beasts, she can immediately notify other witches in the castle. "

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Roland nodded.

"That witch..." Scroll hesitated, "I have some reservations about her. Before we can confirm her identity, she is a potential enemy."

"I understand and I will put God's Locket of Retribution on her for the time being," he said, "and I hope she won’t misunderstand us."

...

Roland went into Sleeping Beauty's bedroom where Anna alone was taking care of her.

"How is she?" Roland asked.

Anna shook her head, "She's sleeping all the time, giving no response."

"I see." Roland went close to her bed. The lady lay quietly, still with her eyes tightly closed. Only her eyebrows were somehow lowered and seemed relaxed a lot. Nana and Lily had used their powers to help her, now all they could do was waiting.

"It's incredible for someone to be frozen for so long, having absolutely no trace of freezing in the body." Roland said with amaze.

"That's no surprise to me. In my case, I feel at home with fire," Anna chuckled and said. "Her ability must be related to this freezing."

"I heard that you're the one who cut apart her frozen coffin." Roland patted her head. "You nailed it, Anna."

"Actually, it wasn’t only because of me," she said seriously. "This witch must have gained mastery of her magic power. It looked like that she had frozen herself in very low temperature at first, and then wrapped her whole body up with ice crystals which were at normal temperature. By doing so, she could prevent melting and preserve her life. That was tricky."

"Ice crystals at normal temperature..." That sounded ridiculous, but Roland understood. He knew something about a summoning type witch's ability and this was merely an embodiment of her magic power, just like Anna's Blackfire which could be changed in form and temperature.

Anna paused a bit and continued, "When I cut into the surface of the ice crystals of the Frozen Coffin, the whole thing collapsed instantly, as if she had deliberately left flaws in it." That means she was expecting this to happen."

"You mean…" Roland said.

"She’ll definitely wake up," Anna answered.

.

Chapter 343 - Hope to Restore Order

"My lord, the city wall has been breached. I'm afraid the Coalition can't hold up any longer! Let's get out of here!" Kaff said.

Hearing the sound of fighting outside, she walked out of her high tower and saw faint red lights shone through dark clouds, which looked as if they were soaked by sticky fresh blood.

"But my sister hasn't come back yet." finally she answered.

"She's a warrior in the Defending Army and cannot leave her position without permission." Kaff sounded more and more anxious. "If you die here, you'll definitely let her down!"

Hesitated for a long while, she nodded and said, "I see."

Refugees poured down to the streets. The guards there stretched themselves to preserve order. Mixed in the moving mass of refugees, she moved helplessly towards the South Gate, accompanied by Kaff who stayed by her side closely all the time, protecting her from the panic crowd with his tall and strong body.

It was an overwhelming defeat.

She was wondering, "Is this our end?" She looked back at the Tower of Babel which was both the highest building of the city and the center of the Union. Flying demons carried Mad Demons into the top of the tower and occasionally some of them would be shot down by lightning. However, the situation would hardly be improved as there were so many demons.

As the most thriving Holy City on Fertile Plains after hundreds of years of development, it would probably be destroyed today. The efforts of several generations were falling into ruins, like a kid's sand castle, whose creation required a whole afternoon but its downfall could happen in the blink of an eye. After that, the greatness would once again sink into to chaos and disorder.

...

Passing through the South Gate, they found that demons had already come to besiege them. Those who could still fight voluntarily joined the guards in the combat with the demons.

With Mad Demons, Fearsome Demons and Lords of Hell, the enemies were much stronger than the people. After a round of spear thrower attack, dozens of people were lying in pools of blood. Some of them were impaled by spears in the stomach and their warm guts fell out of their body, onto the snow on the ground. Some got severely injured and held their wounds, crying and wailing.

"My lord, where are you going?" Kaff stopped her.

"I can fight." She took a deep breath. "Let go of me."

"No, you are much more important than them. You cannot ..." Kaff insisted.

"Let go!" She used her magic power and an overflowing chilliness to break his grip, and then she strode off without taking a look back. Seeing the ferocious masks and bloody weapons of the enemies not far away, she felt her stomach knotted at the sight. Despite the horrible scene, she made up her mind to fight till death. She was fed up hiding in the crowds. As a witch of the Holy City, she believed fight was her destiny.

"Get away!"

Just at that moment. someone shouted from one side of the battlefield. The next thing they saw was a god-like figure descending from the sky.

She was there with her back to everyone, raising up a long sword in her hand. Her reddish-brown hair flew upward like a flame, and instantly kindled everybody's hope.

"She's a Blessed Warrior from the Union !"

"She's... a Transcendent!"

High above the cheering crowd, a light from her sword's blade quickly changed the whole sword into a beam of dazzling golden light, glaring like a rising sun. It lit up the earth and pierced through the clouds, circling the dark red clouds with golden tassels in the sky. When the light became as strong as it could be, she leapt forward and stroke the demons in front of her.

A profound silence prevailed over all.

At that moment, time seemed to stagnate. The shadow of the demons, like the last faint trace of darkness at dawn, was engulfed in an overwhelming light.

The demons, even powerful Mad Demons and Lords of Hell collapsed in the light.

When the witch of Holy City opened her eyes again, she only saw a scorched land and the demons facing them just now were all gone, as if they had never existed.

Seeing it, the other demons spontaneously withdrew. As more and more Blessed Warriors arrived to hunt the demons, the siege was lifted.

"Get out of here as fast as humanly possible!" said the witch carrying the sword. She seemed exhausted and was down on one knee, catching her breath. "Now, leave."

"But... my lord, where can we go?" someone in the crowd asked.

"Good question, where can we go?" she was deep in thought, the last Holy City had fallen now and tens of thousands of human lives had been wiped out. The witches did all in their power trying to win, but still had to face their defeat.

"Never give up, we still have hope!" the red-haired witch said firmly, "Go over the mountains and cross the rivers to the wild lands."

"But there are only some rural villagers." someone said.

"We can restore the order there. As long as we can survive, we'll see the day of our victory!" the Transcendent said.

...

"My lord, why don't you go with them?" Kaff asked,

as the witch of Holy City rushed out of the crowd and headed for the west, followed by a team of people. Except Kaff and her family guards, the team was composed of servants from the tower, who couldn't fight at all.

"I left some Magic Stones and documents in the Misty Forest. They're of overriding importance for the witches to restore the order. I must bring them to the other side of the mountains." she answered.

"The demons were catching up!" someone shouted.

"Thresh, you go to block them," Kaff commanded.

"Yes!" Thresh answered.

Clenching her teeth, she forged ahead with her head down. She knew that mortals could only block the demons for a while and they could never beat the demons and that if she left them here, they had no chance to survive. However, she must leave for her destination as soon as possible.

Suddenly, some black and white spots appeared in the sky and blurred her sight.

...

Sturdy as Kaff was, he was exhausted after three days' of long trek, puffing heavily and dragging his feet.

She looked back and saw only six people were still following her. She remembered that she left with a team of more than thirty. Some of them escaped on the way and some were too wounded to follow. She was wondering if the demons caught up...

"Don't worry, my lord. I'm behind you." -Kaff seemed to be able to read her thoughts and comforted her-"I will do my best to block those demons."

"Why?" she asked.

He was a little surprised by her question.

"Why do you want to fight for me to the end? If you escape now, maybe you'll survive," she said. "Witches always feel superior to you ordinary people. I don't understand why you're willing to fight till death for a witch."

"Yes, you're a witch, but you've never treated us badly. I didn't have any magic power, but I knew it was my duty to protect you." Kaff answered.

Then they heard the demons' sounds coming from behind and understood that was the horn calling them to their last battle.

"My lord, go! Never look back." Kaff said.

There were more and more black and white spots before her eyes.

...

She stumbled into the basement to pack the documents and Magic Stones on the table.

Somehow, she was still puzzled by Kaff's words.

A long-held view in the Holy City was that witches were the chosen ones of gods and ordinary people without magic power were ignorant and incompetent. Because of this, ordinary people, or the mortals, were just used to serve and support witches. However, the courage and resilience of Kaff, head of her family guards, made her believe that the ordinary ones were not that incompetent and useless after all. In fact, she even thought if witches and ordinary people could work together, the situation would be better. She could tell this from the successful experience in her own stone tower.

Such being the case, why were the people so badly defeated more than 400 years ago?

Roars of demons from the other side of the door interrupted her flow of thought.

"Damn it, they get here so fast." she thought.

As her vision was blurred by numerous black and white spots, she could not see anything. Her strong desire to survive enabled her to fight, straining every nerve to bring her research achievements to the wild lands where the witches would restore the order.

She took out an Stone of Echo and gave it an injection of magic power, making it send out distress calls continuously.

Suddenly, she heard a loud band. The wooden door fell apart and the demons broke into the basement.

The moment she centralized magic power to fight, her magic chillness started to surge and a Mad Demon also lifted a spear with its swelling arm. In her heart, she prayed for someone to come to her rescue as she saw the spear flying to impale her.

She subconsciously closed her eyes and then black and white spots turned into utter darkness. She could not see or hear anything at all. She felt as if she was being wrapped with a warm and comfortable velvet, the same feeling one would get lying on the grass in the sunshine. She felt as if she was not in the dim basement anymore, no pain and no tension.

Am I dead?

After a while, she felt a growing light in the darkness and tried to open her eyes. A gray roof gradually came into her sight.

She heard someone said, "Your Highness, she is awake."

.

Chapter 344 - Bygones (Part I)

"‘Your Highness’? What a weird title! It seems like a name that’s only heard in ancient fables."

She turned her eyes and looked behind her. A man with gray hair appeared, surrounded by several girls.

" How are you feeling?" he asked in a soft voice.

She didn't reply but asked back, "Where am I?"

"Welcome to Border Town, in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Well, things were progressing in the direction she most did not want to see: She was in a strange place at an unknown time, and was facing a group of strangers. She even had no strength to lift herself from the bed. She tried to get off the bed, but realized that she did not even have an ounce of strength.

"I am the Fourth Prince of the Graycastle Kingdom and the lord of Border Town.… Roland Wimbledon." he added. " These women are members of the Witch Union. Have you... forgotten everything?"

"The Witch Union?" A deep frown formed on her face. "Were they really witches?" She knew nothing about this new organization. It must be a young organization, she thought, but at least these witches were of the same kind as her. "However, why do they appear to be the subordinates of this man?" "Wait, is he a... prince?"

She tried to search for some fragments from her memory, and was dumbfounded. "Wasn’t this one of the titles in the secular regime during the first Battle of Divine Will? Did she... return to the intact world before the war? Was it possible that God has given her another opportunity to get well prepared in order to rescue the Holy City and its citizens?"

"No, calm down," she told herself, "This kind of ridiculous thing only exists in the gossip among customers in dingy taverns. Come on, what happened to me before I fell asleep?" When a group of Mad Demons rushed into the basement of the laboratory, she used all her magic power to erect the strongest ice wall to repel them. The Stone of Echo continually broadcasted signals for help, and she patiently waited for the day that her sisters returned to the Fertile Plains and found her.

"You saved my life, didn't you?" Yes, now she had escaped from the ice cage, it most probably meant that the witches' corps was back! "Did the demons retreat? Did we win the war? How is the Holy City…of Taquila?"

After she voiced these questions, she perceived changes in their facial expressions. They exchanged glances and revealed looks of delight and excitement.. " Indeed, we found you in the basement of a stone tower," said a witch who looked mature and had long reddish brown hair, "Do you really belong to the world 450 years ago?"

This witch reminded her of the Bliss Warrior, as the two of them had the same type of hair, which was like a flame that shone a light on one’s heart. Compared to the gray-haired man, she was more willing to answer this witch's questions. Although she usually didn't care about status or ranks of people, she felt vaguely offended to be interrogated while being stared at.

If she was a petulant master, the man would most likely be severely punished for his indignity.

"My name is Agatha, and I'm a witch of Taquila Quest Society." She paused for a moment, "What do you mean by saying ‘450 years ago’? Have you been fighting with the demons for more than 400 years? I think it is impossible. "

"You've been asleep for too long, and the matter is totally different from what you think," the man who called himself Roland said. "If you feel well enough, we can tell you the whole story."

"Fine, go on then."

Agatha closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Although the prince was very rude, she had no time to care about that.

After hearing Roland's presentation on Graycastle's history and Four Kingdoms' evolution, she started feeling some pinpricks of cold sweat emerging on her back. Agatha quickly recognized several landmarks in his narrative, for example the Mist Forest, the Impassable Mountain Range and so on, but after digging into her memory for these landmarks, she was shocked by the conclusion that she gathered.

If these names corresponded with the old ones, the so-called Four Kingdoms was previously the Barbarian Land. That was a slim region between the mountain and sea. In their ancestors' eyes it was a barren place that had little development value. As for her hometown, the beautiful Fertile Plain, they called it the forbidden area in the wild land now. The Holy City of Taquila had become a place nobody knew about, and had been buried deeply under the Fertile Plain for a longtime.

How ridiculous it was!

But the following words were more absurd.

The status of witches was interred together with the Holy City of Taquila. People expelled and killed witches. In the Four Kingdoms the regime was controlled by mortals. They made themselves the kings and nobilities. In fact, these names were obsolete playthings from before the first Battle of Divine Will.

Yet, these deplorable, feeble and incorrigible persons became rulers, and humiliated the witches.

How could it be like that?

"Outrageous!" she couldn't help breaking in. "How dare these mortals hunt and kill witches like animals? Who dares to do that? "

Agatha couldn't hold her rage. She raise her hands and wanted to teach this impudent man a lesson, but, unexpectedly, she was unable to summon her frost bolts per usual.

It was only at this time that she felt a metal ring locked around one of her ankles. She lifted the quilt and found that the stone embedded in the ring was the God's Stone of Retaliation.

"Are you all crazy?" she glared at the witches unbelievably. "What's wrong with you? Why are you siding with a mortal against me? And how dare you violate the Union’s ban and use the God’s Stone of Retaliation without permission!

The Union only authorized the enforcement team to use these stones. Apart from them, anyone who carried, sold, modified and destroyed these stones would face severe punishment, and possibly death.

"That's what I’m worried about," the prince sighed heavily.

"Take it easy, Your Highness, I'll tell her the whole story," the witch with reddish brown hair sat down beside her and covered the quilt on her body again. "My name is Wendy. His Highness is telling the truth and he always has mercy on witches... I have no idea what happened about the Holy City where you lived 450 years ago. But now Taquila doesn't exist anymore. And we hear nothing about the Union. We were preyed and hunted by the Church until we met His Highness.

"He gave us a safe place to live and encouraged us to use our abilities and find ways to use them to change the world for the better. Here, we have the freedom like all the ordinary people. We do not have to hide from the persecution from the Church or the human beings who hate us. You know, in this world there're a lot of God's Stones of Retaliation. A witch is as vulnerable as an ordinary person when she loses her ability. "

Hearing these words, Agatha fell into a deep silence.

The Union was a large organization established by several witches' kingdoms, in which there were a lot of Seniors and Extraordinaries. In order to win the Battle of Divine Will, the Union established a formidable military, and then controlled all the holy cities. They took charge of training and dispatching witches, meditating arguments, maintaining the stability and building more order cities. Only the Union had the power to arrest and sentence witches... but, such a divine organization finally ended up with interment under the debris...

Where were the survivors who wanted to rebuild the new order? Where were they now?

Chapter 345 - Bygones (Part II)

Agatha was perplexed by the immense changes. She told herself not to believe them, but their stories sounded so real that she thought no witch could have made it up out of blue.

Putting herself in their shoes, she could never imagine she was slaved, hunted or even slaughtered.

Even ordinary people with the lowest status in the Holy City were treated by witches as human beings instead of animals.

She started to feel extremely exhausted. Wendy sensed it and brought her a cup of hot milk and tried to console her, "Oh, dear, drink this milk, and you'll feel better."

Though the lady with reddish brown hair didn't have the godlike power and strength, she affected Agatha with her good temperament and manner.... Agatha drank the milk in one gulp. A warm and sweet current flew into her gut, which helped her recover a little. Agatha rested for a long period before she continued their conversation.

Although she couldn't understand why these witches were wary of her, she knew that she must win their trust first, or they wouldn’t help take the fetters off.

As for the credibility of what the prince and Wendy said, she had to find out by her own eyes.

She wouldn’t believe the words that the holy Union had vanished before she saw the cramped and underdeveloped Barbarian Land with her own eyes.

"As I said, my name is Agatha, and I was a member of Taquila Quest Society. In the 30th year of the Battle of Divine Will, Taquila, the last Holy City, fell down in the war. Most people went into exile, while I went to the Misty Forest to fetch things we left there. "

"Wait. Were you fighting against the demons?" asked the Prince.

"Who else could be fighting against them other than us?" Agatha frowned. "Should we rely on vulnerable humans like you?"

"Were you a witch raised by the Church?"

"I never heard of anything about the Church. What's it?" she said impatiently. "Taquila... no, all the Holy Cities which hosted tens of thousands of people were created by witches. Apart from witches, most of the citizens were ordinary people... like you. They were responsible for reproducing and raising children until their magic power was awakened. And then these young witches would be handed over to another special department to receive education and training. Of course, the witches who were good at fighting would join the Union and participate in battles with demons."

The prince pondered for a moment, and then took out a book and asked, "Can you read it?"

Agatha skimmed several lines and was attracted by the content at once. "This is a diary from a witch."

"Did you also write in this way?" a witch with light gray hair asked.

"This writing system was created by the Union and exclusive to witches. In this way, the ordinary human beings would be prevented from participating in important affairs at upper level. But in my opinion, I didn't think this sort of exclusion was a good idea."

"How could you prevent ordinary people?" she asked with a great curiosity. "Even if witches created another language system, ordinary people could also grasp it through learning, right?"

"It takes magic power to read it," explained Agatha. "It isn't very difficult. I can teach you since you're a witch."

"Language is a tool for communication." The prince commented. "The more popular it is the better. So what the Union did was very stupid. The exclusion of ordinary people would only limit the resources available to you. In fact, after training and education, ordinary people are capable of many jobs. Except that they cannot use magic power, they are as good as witches."

Although Agatha agreed with him, yet she could hardly accept that an ordinary person criticized the Union. She would collaborate with them when necessary, but she couldn’t tolerate their finger pointing.

She began to miss Kaff, her chief guard.

Even though he was only a subordinate to her family, she thought he was more gentle than the so-called prince.

"My name is Scroll, Miss Agatha," another witch who looked pretty mature, suddenly asked, "Have you ever heard of the name of Alice?"

"How come you know this name?" Else suffered a jolt. "Wasn't it said that all the records about 450 years ago had been lost?"

"I found an ancient book in the ruins located in the forest on East Border of King City in Graycastle," said Scroll. "It's the one on your hand. Her name is on the last page written in ordinary people's language."

Agatha quickly turned to the last page. After reading the illegible diary, she deeply sighed and fell into silence. A female statue started emerging in Agatha's mind. The lady raised her long sword, with light radiating from her body shinning and dazzling all the people's eyes. But finally her figure was fading away, step by step, little by little. In the end it totally dissolved in the darkness.

After a long while, she said slowly, "Right, Alice was the Queen of the Meteor City as well as one of the three chiefs in the Union.She was an Extraordinary, or a Transcendent. Even among amounts of Blessed Ones in the Union, she was also the strongest."

"A Transcendent!" The crowd murmured.

"Since these records have been lost, it's natural for you all knowing nothing about it," Agatha said in a serious voice. "The abilities of withes will be enhanced continuously since they awoke and become stable since the Day of Adulthood. But it isn't the ceiling of their ability growth. Some lucky dogs can step forward and get unbelievable achievements... We often call it the High Awakening. In fact, there's no limit for their awakenings, or growth rate. But obvious changes could be observed on the performance of their magic power."

"Hum, is this ability evolution?" The prince touched the back of his head and muttered. "In total, four witches have evolved in the Witch Union."

"Four?" Agatha was almost choked by that. She asked surprisingly, "How many witches are there in your Witch Union exactly?"

The prince counted with the help of fingers and said, "More than ten."

" Stop talking nonsense!" Agatha obviously seemed to be enraged by his rash words. "Do you mean four out of ten have undergone the High Awakening? You have no idea what evolution means for witches.It’s totally different from the consolidation or derivative skills on the Day of Adulthood. Only the luckiest ones can be promoted, which takes both perspiration and inspiration!"

The prince looked rather innocent and gestured to Anna.

"What a pretty and elegant girl!" Agatha said to herself as she watched the girl walk towards her bed. She was extraordinarily good-looking even among all the witches. Her beautiful blue eyes seemed like a lucid lake, where Agatha could see her own reflections. But she was too young and maybe just had her adulthood. It was impossible for her to accumulate enough experience in training, meditation and enlightening. Agatha evolved at 26 years old. At that time, she was treated as the most promising genius in the Union for her achievement. She knew how difficult the evolution was since she went through that.

"They probably take derivative skills a young witch developed on her Day of Adulthood as a High Awakening," Agatha said to herself .

A ball of orange fire appeared in Anna's palm.

"It's the ability to control the flame, a common type of the summoning capabilities, which can be ranked by the maximum temperature and the heating rate," she gave her comments quickly. "The one who can eject the flame are regarded as a combat witch."

Just after Agatha's words, the blaze dimmed away, and then turned into a tongue of fluorescent green flame. It began to change its color, from dark green to light green. It seemed that the green flame tried to absorb all the lights around so that it could become stronger and stronger.

"This is the consolidated skill she mastered on the Day of Adulthood, and you’ll see her most important skill soon," the prince explained.

"Is it? No, it can't be a consolidated skill! If it were, the flame should be hotter and the heart of the flame should be bigger and brighter." Agatha was astonished with her mouth wide open. "Besides, what’s her most important skill?"

Soon something incredible happened. The green flame suddenly disappeared, and a black solid cube emerged in Anna's palm, which looked like a piece of rigid metal with smooth facets and angular sides.

Chapter 346 - Bygones (Part III)

"Well ... does this count as High Awakening?" asked the prince.

Agatha didn't know what to say for a moment. What was left in her brain was - how could this be?

The Holy City had been forgotten, and the Union had been destroyed. There was nowhere for the witches to receive training and guidance, so it was only logical that the witches' abilities declined. But what did she just see? A newly matured witch had received two promotions. This couldn’t be explained by luck. After all, even in the Union, the home of geniuses, a witch like this was still very rare.

Furthermore, if she heard correctly (serve her right is only for memory, not for eyes or ears), there were three more of them who were equally talented as Anna?

Agatha stared at the man with gray hair motionlessly. It was some time before she could recover, "This... should count as High Awakening, but I don't have the Stone of Measuring, so I can't measure her change in skill." She paused, her throat feeling dry. "I want to ask, if I may, what did Anna experience during her awakening? She seemed to have come of age not long ago. Could these two awakenings have happened in only the past one or two years?"

It was not until she finished talking that she realized she had used honorifics. The status of a witch couldn’t be inherited. Even if a great number of common people were put together, there was no guarantee a capable witch would come out of them. Thus, a witch’s level was usually decided based on capability instead of origin. According to Anna's ability, she was already qualified to be a high-level member of the Union. Compared to herself, Agatha felt that Anna was at least her equal, if not her superior.

Any awakened senior was worthy of respect.

"My first awakening happened after I exhausted my magic power while fighting against demonic beasts. As to the second awakening, I think it was caused by my learning of knowledge."

"Knowledge ..." she was startled, "what kind of knowledge?"

"Ahem, this can be discussed later," the Prince cleared his throat. "Now let's get back to the topic we were discussing earlier. What do Alice and Experiment of God's Punishment Army exactly mean?"

"Indeed, if he wasn't lying to me, this knowledge must contain something extraordinary in itself. That was why Anna could awaken a new ability through epiphany. So it's understandable that he didn't want to elaborate on it before he could trust me." Agatha could not help but feel excited. Enhancing the chance of evolution had extraordinary significance toward witches. If she could figure out its mechanism, reviving the Union wouldn't be impossible.

Then again, where did he acquire this knowledge from? This place is but a barbarian land. How could a bunch of peasants like him understand the secrets of magic power?" She was full of confusion. What had the world become in these 400 years?

Agatha put those intractable problems aside for the time being. "Alice was very powerful. With the help of God’s Stone of Retaliation, she wouldn't be defeated even faced with several Lords of Hell. However, there were too few Transcendents. Put differently... the lack of diversity in our ability led to our defeat."

"Diversity?"

"That’s right. A witch wouldn't know what kind of ability she would have before awakening. But according to the Union's calculation, only ten percent of all the witches were fit for combat - the same ratio could be applied to Extraordinary Witches. As to what the ratio was of combat witches that were actually promoted, no one knew. There was a period of time when not a single witch was promoted within 50 years. Thus, actually the fighting ability of the Union was very unstable."

"So mortals may necessarily awaken, the awakened may not be good at combat, and combat experience doesn't necessarily lead to capability. Is this what you mean?" the prince said with one hand fumbling his chin.

"That's about right," Agatha sighed. "We formed a guard platoon composed of mortals to compensate for the witches’ number shortage, but ... mortals could not defeat demons." Even equipped with God’s Stones of Retaliation, they were still far from being able to fight against the mighty Mad Demon. Under this unfavorable situation, Alice ordered the Quest Society to research warriors that could break through the limits of the human body. Judging from this scrawled note, it seemed that she had succeeded ..."

"Seemed?" the prince said in curiosity. "Didn't you say that you were a member of the Quest Society?"

"Indeed. But ever since the order was issued, I left the Taquila Quest Society and began to build my own lab in the Misty Forest." She bit her lips and hesitated for a moment before proceeding. "They quickly found the solution, which was to unite witches and mortals by force with the help of God’s Stone of Retaliation, but... this process required them to consume the witches' lives. I couldn't accept this approach. I believed that the Quest Society should focus on exploring the use of God's Stone of Retaliation, rather than using witches as consumable resources. What's written on the note is right. This behavior would only bring destruction to witches."

The prince looked a bit shocked, "Using witches as consumable resources?"

"Alice did this out of helplessness. At that time Taquila was on the verge of destruction," Agatha felt the prince somehow looked a bit pleasing to the eye when she saw that he showed an expression of sympathy. "But now the Union has vanished into thin air, it proves that this approach wasn’t able to proceed, and probably won't ever appear again."

After she finished talking, she bowed her head and fumbled the book with her hands, 'climb over the mountains, wade through the waters...' how familiar the slogans were. "Yet where are you now? How could I possibly revive the order all by myself?"

"But God's Punishment Army is still there."

Upon hearing this, Agatha's fumbling fingers suddenly froze. She looked at the prince with disbelief, "What... did you just say?"

"I am not sure whether this is a mere coincidence," the other said very slowly, as if he was looking for the appropriate wording. "The Church... the organization you've never heard of, established two cities at the grand opening in the middle of the Impassable Mountain Range. Those cities were named Holy Cities. The hunting of witches was also initiated by them. What's more, they also searched for orphans and street urchins, and brought them back to the monastery of the Holy City. Wendy was one of them who had escaped."

"The church had its own army and territory. Its most powerful warriors were from the God's Punishment Army. Those monsters who had lost their sanity had infinite strength and were almost as mighty as Extraordinary Witches. And their numbers were absolutely not few. Apart from that, they might even have owned a number of powerful witches, which is why I temporarily sealed your ability with the God’s Locket of Retribution." The prince laid out his hands, "Prior to what you told us... we had always thought that it was the church who established the Holy City of Taquila, fought against the demons, and left the ruins."

Agatha opened her mouth but was unable to utter a word. How could it be that an organization composed of mortals took away the most important secrets of the Union, hunted witches in return, and built God's Punishment Army to consolidate its rule? She suddenly had a splitting headache. So God's Punishment Army didn't vanish, but fell into the hands of an organization that hates witches! What on earth did the members of the Union do?

Wendy must have sensed her exhaustion and discomfort, because she gently pushed Agatha down onto the bed, and said in a low voice, "Let's call it a day. Have a good night’s sleep. Rest assured that we will find out the reason."

Then, she felt something loosened from her ankle-the God’s Locket of Retribution was taken off by Anna. The crowd left the room one by one, and the gray-haired prince was the last.

As the door being closed behind him, Agatha heard some calm steady words.

"You are wrong about one thing—mortals can defeat demons."

Chapter 347 - Confusions

...

"How is she?" Roland asked. Roland put down the pen, looking up at Nightingale who had just quietly appeared in his office.

"She’s fallen asleep. Before that, she had a bowl of oatmeal. It seems that she had a good appetite." Nightingale went to the table and sat back in her old place. "Now it's Silvio's turn to guard her."

"Well, that's not bad."

"Do you believe what she said?" Nightingale asked.

"With the God’s Stone of Retaliation being removed, you can easily judge if she is lying when you question her tomorrow, but..." Roland paused for a moment, "I think most of what she said is true."

"Why do you think so?" she asked curiously.

"Have you noticed that as a person from 400 years ago, she’s using the same diction and language as us?" the prince said with his hands propping up his chin. "Theoretically, such a situation would be almost impossible for two territories separated by the Impassable Mountain Range, unless these two territories were of the same origin and had frequent contact."

"But she called the Four Kingdoms the Barbarian Land."

"That's the point ... I don't know what the scene was like 400 years ago. Perhaps all this used to be was just a few scattered villages and some criminals exiled by the world of witches. The Kingdom's history book also records that the age of the major cities was generally between 200 and 300 years, and astrologers also came into existence during that era," he said with great interest. "It had always bewildered me that the astrologers, who generally had no achievements nor research findings, were also called 'sages', the same as alchemists. Now I think I've got my answer—the Union fled to this borderland, and brought with them the survivors, their language and civilization. These people mingled with the locals, and helped the latter build the regime, fortress and city."

"You speak as if you'd seen it happening." Nightingale shook her head, smiling.

"This is the only way we can explain why we're using the same language as her," Roland said earnestly, "because we're of the same origin. And during these 400 years, civilization was constantly in the process of rebuilding without the slightest opportunity of advancing past where it used to be. "Alright," she said with her hands laid out, "anyway, you'll know the answer by tomorrow, and if your guess is wrong... then you'll have to give me a 'luxury lunch'."

The so-called luxury lunch was composed of corn soup, roast chicken drumstick and ice cream bread and was usually only served once a week.

"What if you're wrong?"

"Whatever you want," said Nightingale, tilting her head and squinting. The perfect curve formed by her cheek and smooth neck was exceptionally beautiful. "Regardless of what kind of movement an attractive person makes, it will always look seductive." Roland finally believed this saying.

"I will bear that in mind," he said with two coughs, turning his attention back to his notebook.

Since Agatha had only recently awakened after four decades of sleep, Roland didn't want to press her to give accurate and detailed answers to all his questions. For the most part, his questions followed her train of thought, and the information he gained was quite disordered as a result. What he was doing at the moment was to rearrange the information he gleaned from Agatha, and to find out the key points he had to know next.

Undoubtedly, the most pressing problem was about the demons.

What was the cause of the war with the demons, and why did the demons cease fighting? This information was essential to Border Town. No war could have been started without a reason, but the demons' behavior didn't seem like an attack motivated by resources or expansion. They didn’t occupy the Barbarian Land, nor did they pillage mankind. What they did seemed like an act purely for the joy of slaughter.

Roland also noticed that Agatha mentioned the term Battle of Divine Will. Could it be that the two sides waged the dreadful war under the will of God? But at that time, the Church hadn't come into being, so there wasn't the one and only God that the Church declared. Without this explained, his mind remained unsettled.

Meanwhile, he needed to figure out the basic necessities of life in the Holy City's civilization as soon as possible, or in other words, assess its degree of economic and civil development. He needed this information to measure the level of this civilization and deduce the demons' capabilities.

As for the Union, Roland wasn't too concerned about it. Its witches were scarce and their abilities were unstable. This organization's capability for organized combat wouldn't be very high. Historical experience had repeatedly stressed that before the formation of a generation gap, a comprehensive war was all about attrition. A few sophisticated weapons wouldn't reverse the overall disadvantage.

The second question was about the Magic Stone.

Considering what Tilly said, the magical nature of such stones could greatly compensate for the witches' unstable ability, enabling the witches to exert powers that didn't belong to them. In this way, even auxiliary witches could be sent to war. However, in Roland's point of view, that was like putting the cart before the horse. He'd rather turn all the combat witches into auxiliary witches and put them all to work in production roles.

Oddly enough, the Union, which had large numbers of witches, didn't make use of Magic Stones to fight against the demons. Instead, it chose to produce God's Punishment Army, which in Roland's view was beyond comprehension. Maybe the Magic Stone had some unknown shortcomings, or its production was extremely difficult?

Fortunately, Agatha was a member of the Quest Society, an organization similar to the current Alchemy Workshop, which gathered a group of highly talented witches specializing in the research of Magic Stones and magic power. Roland faintly felt that there must be a wealth of potential information to be exploited.

The last question was about the Church.

He drew a circle on this column. Obviously, he couldn't count on getting details from Agatha about the organization's foundation and development. What he could infer from the scattered information at hand was that the Church was founded after the witches' defeat. After obtaining the Union's secret, the Church concealed everything about the witches and declared them as incarnations of demons. If the people of the Four Kingdoms were seen as descendants of aborigines, the Church would be a veritable outsider. Since the aborigines didn't have their own civilization, they could be easily fooled by fabricated history and prophecies.

"Was it only because the witches used to suppress ordinary people that the refugees took the witches as their enemy and went on to hunt the witches on this continent?" Roland frowned. "All these deductions did sound reasonable, yet... he felt that there was something wrong."

The Union had a great number of Bliss Warriors, Extraordinary Witches, and even Transcendents. Even if the Church managed to get a hold of God’s Stones of Retaliation, was it possible for them to defeat an opponent like the Union?

To wipe out a much stronger force, you couldn't purely rely on hatred. Clearly there was some key information missing.

"That witch seems to dislike you," Nightingale suddenly said.

"After all, she used to live in a world where the witches were considered superior to the human being." Roland laughed. "I'm afraid I'm just no different from the roadside weeds in her eyes."

"Don't you hate her?"

"Why would I? She is nothing but a poor woman abandoned by her own time." He shook his head. "She'd been sleeping in the frozen coffin for 400 years, and woke up to find the world had completely changed. The strangeness brought by the new world would bring her fear, so it was no surprise that she would build a defensive wall in her heart. After she accepts all this, she will probably gradually change her point of view."

"What a typical response of yours," said Nightingale with a smile. "But rest assured, I won't allow her to offend you in any way."

Chapter 348 - Mortals and Extraordinaries

When Agatha woke up again, she was alone in the room. The thick curtains were tightly closed, making the room extremely quiet.

Probably considering the fact that she wasn’t familiar with the environment, someone put a candle beside the front of the bed, which was quietly burning with orange flames.

Agatha turned her head and watched it for a long time, only to find that there wasn’t a single drop of wax overflowing. The candle seemed to be burning forever without any change in the length.

"It may be caused by magic," she thought.

The quilt was so soft that it was probably made of high-quality cotton and filled with light and warm fluff. The treatment was as good as that in the Holy City of Taquila, which made it hard for Agatha to believe that there could be such comfortable beds and bedrooms in Barbarian Land.

She moved her fingers and found that she had recovered most of her physical strength. Agatha rolled out of bed. She drove her power, and chill overflowed from her fingers immediately— "It seems that the prince didn’t play any tricks. He had God’s Stone of Retaliation removed to give me a certain degree of freedom." She went to the window and opened a bit of the curtains. It was totally dark outside. Stars couldn’t been seen, so did the moon. The whole earth seemed to be swallowed by darkness with only a few hazy flare shaking so far away. She could hear the wind roaring outside next to the window, and could occasionally see some snow falling on the glass.

It seemed to be winter now which was a good season for the awakening of witches. In Taquila, this kind of evening didn’t even exist since the whole city would celebrate every day of winter.Bonfires burned throughout the night on the street. When she overlooked the city on the tower, it seemed to be lit by flares shining like stars, which symbolized hope and a promising future. People prayed around the campfires, eager to gather magic power and surmount the mortal world. Whenever a witch awakened, the fate of her family changed as well. They don’t need to worry about food or clothing anymore.

Agatha pulled up the bolt and opened the window. The cold wind suddenly swept into the room and blew the curtains away. The candles in the house were snuffed out as well. The room suddenly was plunged into darkness. When her eyes became adapted to the changes of light, she could see the faint white light reflected by the accumulated snow on the roof of the town. "Judging from the silhouette of the buildings, this place isn’t very big indeed, and is identical with the 'Border Town’ mentioned by the prince."

Ordinary people would be frozen after a few hours if they stayed outside in such cold weather. But Agatha wasn’t afraid of the cold since her body would automatically expel the slightest chill that made her uncomfortable. The last time she felt cold was before her awakening. But now, she had almost forgotten the feeling.

The earlier conversation was lingering in Agatha's mind as long as she closed her eyes.

The Union died and the witch became the devil's minions. Hence mortals were recklessly hunting witches with the help of God’s Stones of Retaliation... According to the diary, Alice and Natalia successfully fled from the Fertile Plains. But if they failed to stop everything, the Union was doomed.

What on earth happened at that time? Why were the two Transcendents defeated by mortals?

She was reluctant to think about that anymore.

"Aren't you cold?" someone behind her suddenly asked .

Agatha was shocked. She turned back and saw a girl sitting by the bed in the dark. Her face was completely hidden in the night. She was like a ghost that appeared quietly. The door was closed at that time, but Agatha didn’t hear any footsteps before she came in.

"If you can close the window, I don’t mind re-lighting the candle," she said again.

There was no doubt that the girl was a witch.

But it’s late in the midnight. What’s she up to?

Agatha nodded without any word. She closed the window and secretly let the thin yet hard ice cover her skin. The girl didn’t do anything dangerous; instead, she opened the first drawer of the night table from which she took out a flint to light the candle. In the candlelight, Agatha saw the her. She had beautiful golden curls and slender eyebrows which made her eyes look very sharp. Agatha hadn’t see her before.

"Nice to meet you... Oops. It's the second time that we meet," she raised her lips and said, "My name is Nightingale."

Did she mean that... she also hid in the crowd before? "Is this your ability?" Agatha frowned and asked, "Are you also the High Awakened?"

Even if she was one of the honorable High Awakened, it was still impolite of her to break in without knocking at the door.

"Ah, you are talking about evolution..." Nightingale shook her head. "I'm not that smart like Anna. She finished the book called ‘The Theory of Natural Balabala’ in a short time. My head is going to explode once I see those formulas and theorems. Maybe I don't have the luck to evolve in this life."

Agatha was absent-minded for a short period because she couldn’t understand half of what the girl said. Honestly, she didn’t expect that "an Original Witch" could say something like that. Besides, according to her facial expressions, the girl didn’t seem to deliberately tease herself. "Is that what the prince called... knowledge?

"As for the book you mentioned, can I read it?"

"Of course. You may read it as long as you join the Witch Union and be loyal to His Highness." She shrugged her shoulders.

"To serve a mortal?" Agatha stared at her and said in a low voice after a while, "I thought I was weird enough, but you are crazier than me."

"Weird? Crazy?" Nightingale tilted her head and asked, "Why would you say that?"

"In the Holy City of Taquila, most of the Awakened Witches only treat ordinary people who couldn’t gather magic as humble servants, inferior people, or ... fertility tools." She said slowly, "but I didn’t think so. Even though they were stupid, they weren’t hopeless. Those people were no different from witches in many aspects as long as they were taught to learn and think. Because of that, many people thought that I was so weird that I had allocated part of the business in the tower to mortals. However, I didn’t expect that you are crazier than me since you are loyal to a mortal and take orders from him."

"His Highness Roland didn’t consider us as servants," Nightingale twitched her mouth and said, "I don’t know what kind of strange idea you have on the word of loyalty, but the fact is that he took in the witches oppressed by the Church, gave us new power, and let us live together with his subjects in Western Region. We are united to fight against the Church and demonic beasts, as well as against the demons in the future

"But this model was proved to be a failure!" Agatha couldn’t help raising her voice. "400 years ago... for you, it might be 800 or 900 years ago, the world was ruled by both mortals and witches. At that time, human beings lived almost throughout the entire Dawn Region. However, when demons attacked, we suffered such a big defeat that we only managed to keep the Fertile Plains."

"Oh?" She raised her eyebrows. "Was that true?"

"You said the history had been buried for 400 or 500 years," Agatha continued, "According to the Union's records, the third Battle of Divine Will is about to break out very soon, yet you have no idea of demons! The east of Barbarian Land is Swirling Sea. So where else can you retreat? Only by rebuilding the Union, uniting witches and improving the probability of High Awakening with knowledge can we seize the final chance to stop demons' attack!"

"Why do you have to say that?"

"What do you mean?"

"400 years have passed, right?" A lot of things could be changed in such a long time. But why are you still restrained by those old ideas? " Nightingale sighed. "His Highness said that mortals could defeat demons when he left. You heard that as well. He is also uniting all the people, including witches. He wants to unite every ordinary person on the continent, because he told me that people across the land are the most powerful group. "

"Wasteland—" Agatha was about to refute this nonsense when she suddenly paused. "The girl is so certain that she seems to know the result in advance. Could 400 years really change everything? Does that prince with gray hair really have such incredible ability to let mortals have the same power as witches?"

"You seem to have realized that," Nightingale smiled and said, "We still have a lot of time, so why not open your heart and to see with your own eyes?'

This time, Agatha was silent for a long time. "... I can see that you don’t like me."

Nightingale didn’t retort.

"The witches of the Quest Association used to see me like that as well— after they knew that I had appointed a group of mortals as experimental assistants in the tower," she said. "Obviously, you don’t like me, but why do you tell me these?"

"I don’t hate you as long as you stop being so arrogant and treat His Highness normally. As for your question... " she paused and continued, "because the prince said he didn’t want to see you abandoned by the times."

.

Chapter 349 - Passing On (Part I)

Standing on the top floor of the Tower of Babel, Mayne peered through the window towards the snow-covered city of Hermes.

Since the last attack by a large group of demonic beasts on New Holy City, peace temporarily returned to the icy plains, and the fall of snow weakened. The citizens of Hermes were able to enjoy an unlikely, but timely respite.

Even though this was supposed to be a time of happiness and celebration, Mayne continued to feel nothing but emptiness in his heart. During the attack, in order to kill the terrifyingly-large, hybrid, demonic beasts, a platoon of warriors from God's Punishment Army dashed out from the side entrance of the city wall and fought them head-on. In total, 19 warriors were wounded and two were killed. As for the two beasts, they laid on the ground, growling for a long time after the warriors hacked off their limbs. Eventually, the city wall's guards killed them with spears. Rather than the loss of the warriors, it was the timing of the demonic beasts' attack that terrified Mayne.

After remaining silent for some time, he let out a long sigh and returned to his seat beside the table. He wanted to flip open the Canon and read through it carefully one more time.

"Even if you flip the book until it breaks, the result isn't going to change." Tayfun said as he walked into the circular room holding two hot drinks, and placed one in front of Mayne. "His Holiness O'Brien hasn't agreed to meet you?"

"I've sent my request to the Pivotal Secret Area three times already, but there's still no reply." Mayne said anxiously. "And I have no idea what His Holiness is up to at such an important time..."

"Don't worry," Tayfun interjected, "as you've said yourself, the Canon was written by the first Pope, and hence there are bound to be mistakes. After more than four hundred years, who can guarantee that everything in the book is accurate?"

"But this time it's different." The Archbishop shook his head. "If the time is miscalculated, it'll be a serious catastrophe for us! We're investing a lot of strength and energy in unifying the kingdom to gather all the power of the mainland against the demons. But, if the time is shortened by half, we have no way to build up God's Punishment Army sufficiently after the war!"

"Quiet, Lord Mayne." The old bishop laughed and slowly sipped on his hot drink. "What's done cannot be undone. We can't change the fact that Fang of Hell appeared before us. But there might be two reasons for this."

"What reasons?"

"Drink first and I'll speak," Tayfun said, stroking his beard.

Mayne picked up his cup. It looked like goat milk at first, but when he brought it closer, a spicy smell rushed into his nose. "What did you put in it?"

"Coltsfoot." Tayfun tilted his mouth. "Although you aren't able to directly drink Dreamland Water, drinking a bit of this will be beneficial for you. It'll help you to release your tensions, soothe your nerves, and sleep easier."

With one gulp, Mayne emptied the cup and soon felt a fierce burning sensation in his throat. Although the savory taste of the goat milk was supposed to dilute the coltsfoot juice, it was still extremely uncomfortable for someone who did not consume such drinks often. He coughed twice, wiped his mouth, and said, "Even a cup of Dreamland Water wouldn't make me fall asleep. Can you speak now?"

"One possibility is that the Pope made a mistake in writing. Old men get dizzy spells and moments of amnesia very often, as I know very well." Tayfun shrugged.

"That's unlikely." Mayne frowned. "This concerns the layout and arrangement of the Church, and more importantly, determines the destiny of Man. I'm sure he took great care in writing this down. What's the second reason?"

"The second possibility is that there are circumstances we don't know about that have changed everything."

The Archbishop waited for a moment, and upon realizing that the old bishop had no intention to continue speaking, he questioned, "That's it?"

"Well, that's it." Tayfun repeated.

"Is this... a joke? Everything changed? For this simple reason, all of our efforts will go down the drain! How can you be so cursory..."

"Lord Mayne!" Tayfun raised his voice a few notches. "What exactly do you insist on getting? Is it a sure-fire way to defeat the demons? Or do you think that you're the only person who wants to defend Hermes and prevent the demons from entering the icy plains?"

"..." Mayne froze.

"In any battle, everyone wants to win. But so far, we can't even assure victory in every battle against the Four Kingdoms, not to mention the demons from hell." Speaking in a louder voice, he said, "Have you forgotten the Supreme Pontiff's teachings? The consequences of over-insistence and fear aren't too different. What you should do is accept reality and take things step by step till the end - the eventual result isn't for us to control.

Fear of... the result. Mayne's heart palpitated. "He's right, I'm indeed afraid. Afraid that after becoming the Pope, I'll be unable to fend off the demons, and watch the death of Mankind under my charge."

"I used to be like you," Tayfun suddenly lowered his voice, "but Heather's death made me understand that the result is often unpredictable. The Months of Demons came earlier than usual without warning, yet we were still able to capture Wolfheart City before the big snowfall, as planned... but Heather died and the nature of the war changed. Even so, we still have to carry on." He stood up and let out a long sigh, then patted Mayne on the shoulder and walked out of the room. "So... whether for five or ten years, you must be unrelenting in your mission, not for the path of certain victory, but to fulfil your duty even if the result turns out to be not what you desired."

After hearing the door closing, Mayne gazed at the empty cup in front of him and remained silent.

He had to admit that Tayfun's words were reasonable, but now that he was about to shoulder this heavy responsibility, how could he not feel afraid?

Suddenly, a Presiding Judge walked into the room. "Lord Mayne, the Supreme Pontiff wishes to see you."

Finally!

He stood up immediately, and said eagerly, "Take me quickly to the Pivotal Secret Area."

...

Hidden deep beneath a plateau, the Pivotal Secret Area was a cold and quiet place.

Walking into the hall of the Pivotal Secret Temple, Mayne seemed slightly dazed. Although there was no incarnation ceremony arranged for the day, all of the candles in the hall were lit up and the resultant candlelight sketched out an orange-yellow silhouette for the hall. The overhead chandelier seemed like a gathering of stars in the Kingdom of God.

His Holiness O'Brien was sat on the throne, silently gazing at Mayne.

Mayne felt something was not right, but suppressed his suspicions, and walked up to the throne. He knelt prostrate with his forehead touching the floor.

"Rise, child." The Pope's voice was very delicate, and without paying attention it would be difficult to hear what he was saying.

Mayne straightened his body, and saw that the Pope's face was ridden with age and fatigue, as if he had not had a rest for a long time. "Your Holiness, please take care of your body."

"No need." He laughed, and deep wrinkle lines covered his face at once. "I'm going to die soon."

"Your Holiness, you aren't..."

"No, listen to me, child." O'Brien labored to interrupt the Bishop. "I understand the condition of my own body, and without question, my time is soon up." He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "The purpose of calling you here today... is to pass on the Pope's position to you."

.

Chapter 350 - Passing On (Part II)

Mayne froze and stared at the old man in front of him, hoping to see something in his eyes.

But he saw nothing other than lifelessness.

The Pope's eyes were no longer as penetrating and authoritative as they used to be. Perhaps, he still possessed the wisdom passed down from previous Popes, as well as the knowledge obtained from the Canon, but... nothing escaped time.

"His Holiness wasn't kidding," Mayne realized. His journey was reaching its end.

Mayne's eyes started to blur.

He knelt once again, with his forehead touching the floor. This time, His Holiness did not ask him to stand up, but instead waited until he completed the entire action before saying, "Follow me."

The attending guards helped the Pope on to a cart and wheeled him towards the gate of the Pivotal Secret Area. Mayne followed closely behind, and the party left the Pivotal Secret Temple, turning into a long and narrow tunnel. On the smooth stone walls of the tunnel was embedded a luminous crystal at every ten steps' distance. Looking down the tunnel, one couldn't see the end.

After walking for a long time, Mayne finally left the tunnel and entered a well-lit room. Beneath his feet, the floor had turned into flat slabs, and he was able to see the edges and corners of the walls, as well as the chandelier that hung from the ceiling. Apparently, the tunnel had led into an underground chamber.

"We're underneath the cathedral of the old Holy City." Perceiving Mayne's bewilderment, the Pope clarified. "The design of this place is identical to the cathedral, except that it is built upside down. I call it the Reflection Church."

"Underneath the cathedral?" Mayne exclaimed. "I never expected there to be a basement."

"It's not a basement indeed, because the two aren't mutually accessible." O'Brien smiled. "This place is only accessible through the underground tunnel of the Pivotal Secret Area. The roof is made of an extremely thick mixture of slab and clay, which is impossible to break through using conventional methods."

"Why... is such a design necessary?"

"To guard a secret, without completely burying it." He replied. "Before a Pope ascends the throne, he must come to the Reflection Church to witness the establishment, development and expansion of the Church, and at the same time, learn by heart the goals of the Church."

"To defeat the demons," Mayne said solemnly.

O'Brien did not nod in agreement, but instead said softly, "No, child. To win the smile of God."

The Archbishop was briefly at a loss. "What?"

This time, the Pope did not respond, but instead commanded the guards to continue moving forward. According to the direction of the stairway and the ramp, they were moving upwards. Soon, the party arrived in front of a grand hall. By recognizing the designs in the surroundings that he was familiar with, Mayne identified the place as the Prayer Room of the Reflection Church.

The thick wooden door of the room was pushed open with a creaking sound. Although it seemed that the Pope had not visited this hall for a long time, there wasn't a smell of dust... Evidently, someone had been keeping this place clean at all times.

"They're only allowed to send me thus far. From here on, you'll have to push me into the room." O'Brien said.

"Yes, Your Holiness." Mayne took the cart handles and pushed the Pope into the Prayer Room. Closing the wooden door behind him, the room no longer received light from the torches outside. Now, the only light remaining in the room was the soft radiance of the yellow crystals - similar to the arrangement in the tunnel, the crystals were embedded evenly on the walls of two sides of the room. However, a notable difference was that above each crystal hung a large portrait. Mayne vaguely remembered that the positions of the portrait frames were where the windows of the Prayer Room above ground went.

The portraits' contents were much the same. They were half-body portraits of people wearing magnificent gowns, looking full of energy, with their eyes seemingly fixed upon anyone who entered the Prayer Room. Mayne was astonished when he found His Holiness O'Brien's portrait among them - the drawing looked exactly like the real person, and stared at Mayne with a smile on his face. A strange feeling caused Mayne to shudder uncontrollably, and goose bumps covered his back.

"Ah, you found me." The Pope seemed to sense the Bishop's change of emotion. "This portrait was completed half a year ago. At that time, I didn't look quite as old as I do now, and hence it's relatively good-looking. By right, the portrait should only be hung up after my death." He observed the portrait carefully. "Blame it on my impatience, for I wanted to see how I looked on the portrait earlier than I should."

"Your Holiness, these are..." Mayne felt his throat turn dry.

"Yes, they're the noble pioneers, the Supreme Pontiffs of old." O'Brien said softly. "Let's continue moving forward, and I'll introduce them to you."

The Archbishop listened to His Highness' descriptions, while at the same time studied the portraits - even though he understood that they were the former leaders of the Church, but an inexplicable strange feeling continued to linger in his mind. The persons in the portraits were simply too lifelike, and Mayne was unable to imagine what techniques and dyes were used by the artist to produce these half-body portraits. Under the dim yellow light, the top half of the portraits gradually faded into the darkness as Mayne walked further, leaving visible only the lower section of the faces which continued to grin at him.

Halfway through the grand hall, Mayne unexpectedly noticed the portraits of women.

Their looks were dissimilar and they were dressed differently, but each of them could be said to be movingly beautiful - it was rare for mortals to have such remarkable appearances, as the Bishop well knew, and it was for this reason that he felt extremely puzzled and astounded. However, His Highness seemed unconcerned, and continued to calmly introduce their names, terms of service, and contributions.

Each of these people was a former Pope of the Church.

The two men soon reached the end of the Prayer Room.

Facing the central aisle of the grand hall was a full-body portrait which occupied an entire wall on its own. It was hung behind the sanctuary, and its four sides were decorated with shiny crystals, which made the picture look even more vivid.

Mayne swallowed hard and walked up to the portrait.

At the very instant he managed to get a full view of the painting, he felt his heart leap up. "O holy, a woman of peerless beauty!" Aside from these words, there was no other way for him to describe what he saw. From her looks, she possessed both feminine beauty and masculine fortitude, which blended naturally and did not conflict with each other. Her red hair seemed like streaks of burning flame, while she wielded a large sword which looked wanton and capable of extinguishing all fires and evil desires. She stood erect holding the sword, with her eyebrows slightly raised, both eyes glancing forward, her slender lips firmly closed, and looked naturally powerful and imposing. Under the gaze of her sharp and penetrating pupils, Mayne felt an immense and overwhelming pressure which almost coerced him to kneel in front of this magnificent lady.

"Your Holiness, this is..."

He struggled to turn his head, only to find that O'Brien had already knelt down.

"She's Alice, the First Pope and a Transcendent. She also has a nickname - the Queen of Witches."

Mayne felt his heart jump violently. His earlier speculations had turned out to be absolutely correct - the first Popes of the Church were witches!

"Why was the founder of the Church a witch?"

"Kneel and pay respect, child. I'll let you see everything that you wish to know later."

Chapter 351 - Illusions (Part I)

After Mayne paid his respects, he carried the Pope back on to the cart.

"Zero," O'Brien gasped and called softly.

A Pure Witch dressed in white entered the room through a small side door, taking light footsteps which were barely audible. "I'm here."

The Archbishop frowned. He did not expect the presence of a Pure Witch in such a secret place. "Even though they were single-handedly raised by the Pope after their awakenings, and served His Holiness for life, these women are, after all, witches." Furthermore, he felt a little unhappy that this person seemed to know about the Reflection Church earlier than he did.

"Take him to the Illusion Room."

"Yes." She walked up to the sanctuary and pressed down the stone carved Canon on the table. A magical light flashed and the giant portrait started to rise upwards slowly, revealing a black metal gate. Then, Zero took the crystal pendant off the Pope's neck, inserted it into the door lock and twisted. A clicking sound was heard from inside the iron gate, and it started to open outwards.

She pulled out the crystal pendant, but instead of returning it to His Holiness O'Brien, she placed it in Mayne's hand.

The Archbishop turned his head back to look at the Pope, and the latter nodded his head. "Take it. You'll keep it from now on. You may use it to open the library of the Pivotal Secret Temple, or the secret door of the Research Office."

"Let's go." Zero smiled and took Mayne by the hand. They walked together into the room behind the giant portrait - it was probably no longer the Church in the same position above ground, and there was nothing in the room except for a floor-to-ceiling window which faced the highlands of Hermes.

The room looked very spacious and was formed in a circular structure. It was approximately half the size of the prayer hall and could accommodate rows of ten people standing side by side, such that it was difficult to associate it with the name "Secret Room". However, within this space, there was no furniture. The only place to sit down was a stone bench that extended along one of the room's curved walls.

After the metal door was closed, Mayne threw off the hand of the Pure Witch and asked, "Did His Highness allow you to enter?"

Zero dismissed his question. "If I don't come with you, who's going to activate the Stone of Illusion? It's not like you have Driving Power."

Her rude response made Mayne's heart skip a beat. "It seems that she still regards herself as His Holiness O'Brien's witch. After I receive the scepter and take control of the Church's domain, I must absolutely let her understand that she shouldn't only respect the Pope, but also the Archbishop who has heirship."

"Then let's start." He held back the emotions that triggered in his heart and sat down on the stone bench.

"Yes, Your Highness." Zero lifted open a dark panel on the wall, and pressed the Magic Stone with her hands. "But please be prepared, for this is the first time I'm activating this thing."

"The first time? Hasn't she lived for over two hundred years? Didn't she participate in the previous papal handover ceremonies?" Mayne felt a little puzzled, but before he had any time to dwell on it, a dazzling ray of light flashed by and he found himself covered in darkness.

The darkness was so complete that there was virtually no light at all, causing the walls, floor and the stone bench to disappear from sight. Mayne felt as if he was swallowed by a giant beast from the abyss and suddenly lost all concept of distance. The sky and the earth seemed to merge into one entity, and all he could see was darkness. Lowering his head, he realized that he could not even see his body.

Holding his breath, he cautiously reached his hand down and touched the stone bench which remained underneath him. Stamping with his feet, he realized that the floor was also in place. These allowed him to feel a little relieved. Hence, it was fair for Mayne to believe that he had not been transferred into a new underground chamber, but simply that the Magic Stone had absorbed all the light in the room. ,

"However, under this darkness, how is it possible to witness the "truth" that His Highness mentioned?"

As if responding to Mayne's question, the floor started to brighten again, but it was obvious that this no longer the same Secret Room. The slabs on the floor were polished until they were glossy and slick, reflected a dark blue sheen, and on every one of them was carved various elaborate and exquisite patterns. Soon, rays of light streaked down from overhead, and Mayne was astonished to see a transparent skylight appearing on the roof. Peering through the skylight, he was even able to see the clear sky and clouds.

In a short while, more furnishings appeared within the room: a marble round table was surrounded by chairs, with a globe and glass cups placed on top; the four walls were curtained; an ornamental sword and shield were erected in the middle of the room; a Megacerops' head hung from the top of the doorway.

What followed were shadows of people.

Mayne watched in disbelief as lifelike figures of women appeared one by one in the room. Each of them was wearing a magnificent robe, and they sat around the table. Sat facing the gate of the hall was none other than the leader of all, the red-haired Queen of Witches. Her hands drooped and folded in front of her, with her head raised and her chest out. Her eyes looked directly forward while the other women's eyes focused on her. To Mayne, all of these seemed like an extremely realistic painting.

"Was this what the 'illusion' in 'Illusion Room' represented?" Mayne mused. The illusion before his eyes was perfectly identical to a real scene, such that for a moment, the women seemed to come alive.

"Everyone, the Experiment of God's Punishment Army has been successful," said a witch sitting beside Alice. "They're now extremely aggressive, fearless of life and death, and extremely powerful. Even a feeble assistant witch can be transformed into a mighty warrior who isn't inferior to the Original Extraordinary. In addition, they also have the ability to disrupt the release of magic power, and hence when facing Mad Demons and Lords of Hell, both of whom require the Stone of Driving to fight, they undoubtedly possess a huge advantage."

"But the incarnation ceremony consumes witches' lives, and I've heard that not everyone can be successfully transformed." Someone said.

"These are insignificant details." She unfolded her hands. "I believe that with the continuation of the research, the Quest Society will be able to remedy this."

"Don't talk so easily, Elaine. We're already short on numbers, and therefore every witch is precious!" That other person frowned.

"What's the difference between dying in the demons' hands and dying in the ceremony?" Elaine raised her head and said. "At least with the latter, a contribution is made to the Union prior to death."

"What are you saying..."

"Enough." Alice said softly. Even though her voice was very soft, the scene was instantly silenced. Everyone kept their mouths closed and awaited the Queen's forthcoming words.

"Mortals cannot defeat the demons, my sisters," she said calmly. "We can choose to do nothing but simply enjoy this final moment of peace, and when the next invasion of the demons arrives, we'll be completely consigned to history. Or, we can choose to put up a final fight, placing our hopes in the God's Punishment Warriors, and make necessary sacrifices for them. I admit that this is a difficult choice, but as long as there is a chance to prolong the existence of Mankind, the spirit and determination of witches will never break."

"Although I'm the Queen of Starfall City, I'm willing to allow you to make this important choice. Do you want to give up the resistance and die in peace, or do you want to avenge our dead sisters, chase the demons out of the Dawn Region, and restore the past glory of witches? It's entirely up to you."

"Of course, none of us is able to directly participate in the third Battle of Divine Will, hence no matter which choice we make, we can live out our transient lives peacefully. Remember, the choice which you make now isn't only for yourselves, but for the whole group of witches... for our future sisters to still be able to see God's smile."

"Those who don't agree, please stand up now."

.

Chapter 352 - Illusion (Part II)

§§ Chapter 352 Illusion (Part II)

"So... that's what happened then!"

Mayne could not take his eyes off the illusionary scene, and his heart leapt like never before.

"The incarnation ceremony of the God's Punishment Army turned out to be invented by witches in order to defeat the demons, and they willingly sacrificed their own kind... How many of the witches present would stand up and castigate her for her cruelty?"

The final result was beyond his expectation. After a few minutes, not a single person stood up. Even the witch who questioned the ceremony did not openly oppose Alice's words, albeit gritting her teeth and smacked the table as she thought, "How ironic! Having killed so many witches with her own hands, she can still talk about it being for the continuation of witches! Is there anything more ridiculous than this?"

"But she isn't wrong," said an elderly witch. "We're after all born of mortals, and thus if Mankind was wiped out, witches wouldn’t be able to persist either."

"Conversely, no matter how many witches are sacrificed in the incarnation ceremony, there'll always be new witches to replace them. The more mortals there are, the more witches there'll be." Elaine shrugged her shoulders.

"Is it certain that the God's Punishment Army will defeat the demons?" Someone asked.

"I don't know," said Alice. "Before we try, nobody really knows. The defeats in the previous two Battles of Divine Will have already shown that the demons are way stronger than us, and the only way for us to restrict their actions is to use the Red Mist. This implies that even if we create a large number of God's Punishment Warriors, it's uncertain that we'll secure the final victory." She paused. "But you should be familiar with how I do things."

Elaine smiled and said, "Even if there's only a small chance, we must try our best."

"I'm willing to follow you wherever."

"For the continuation of witches."

"I, too, don't want to admit defeat."

Everyone stood up and saluted the Queen of Witches.

The witch who raised questions was the last to stand up, but she declared, "Hopefully you're right."

"So it's decided." Alice nodded, seeming unsurprised by the result. "What we've to do now is to convince the other members of the Union."

"They won't necessarily listen to you," said the elderly witch. "If we're to carry out the incarnation without resistance, the witches cannot continue to act in a superior and privileged position. The Union must be disbanded, and the past must be completely buried."

"I'll do my best to convince them," Alice said in a resolute voice. "If they aren't able to accept it, Starfall City will carry out this plan alone, and a new order will be made."

Shortly, the scene disappeared... Darkness consumed everything again. When light in the Secret Room was restored, Mayne realized that his back was soaked in cold sweat, and his head spun terribly.

"You look a little tired. Shall I carry you outside?" Zero walked over to him and asked.

"No need. Quickly open the door!" Mayne said, taking huge gasps of breath.

After the metal door was opened, Mayne stumbled out of the Illusion Room, and then covered his mouth as he rushed over to the Sanctuary, and knelt in front of O'Brien.

"After the Magic Stone was activated, the scene was automatically mapped into your mind, hence feeling discomfort is perfectly normal," the Pope said softly. "The first time I came into contact with these, I had the same reaction as you. You will be fine after a short rest."

"Why didn’t I have any problems?" Zero asked, embracing the Pope's arms.

"Because you're a witch, thus your body has long been used to the operation of magic power." O’Brien smiled benignly. "Whether in terms of endurance or resistance, witches are universally far superior to mortals."

It took a long time for Mayne to calm his breath down. "This is the Church's... origin?"

"Yes. After this, Alice led the witches of Starfall City and two other cities into battle, eventually emerging victorious, and laid down a new set of rules. Witches were no longer the chosen ones, but instead became the evil ones who were lured into degeneration by demons. This war lasted for nearly a hundred years, and is known in the history books as the Battle of Faiths."

"Did she live for that long?"

The Pope shook his head. "Not long after Alice established the Church, she perished along with another Transcendent. The second Pope inherited her will and continued to lead the Army into battle until they completely subdued two other factions. Unfortunately, this battle badly damaged the three cities, and they virtually lost control over the world. The mortals who were unwilling to participate in the battle began to settle down in this narrow strait, and led the indigenes to cultivate the land. Gradually, this became what is now the Four Kingdoms."

Somehow, O'Brien became more energetic as he spoke, and even his voice became more coherent and no longer as feeble as it used to be.

"After that, the Church continued to eliminate its remaining enemies on many occasions, including mortals who didn't belong to Starfall City. But the world order had already taken shape, and due to a lack of strength, the Church was never able to complete the unification of the continent. All of this is due to the early death of the Queen of Witches."

"Natalia, whom she considered a friend, not only rejected her plan but also suddenly attacked her during a meeting. This was recorded in the unabridged Canon." The Pope sighed. "If she was still alive, the Battle of Faiths would have ended fifty years earlier, and after the Church accepted all witches into its membership, it would have easily unified the continent. No one expected the Battle would continue until today."

Mayne wiped the sweat on his forehead and said, "Your Highness, there's something I'm unclear about. Why were the earlier Popes all witches, while after that, it became entirely normal people?"

"Zero, you should head back first." O'Brien kept silent for a brief moment before saying.

"Yes."

Only after the Pure Witch had departed, O'Brien slowly said, "Because of weakness and cowardice."

"W... what?" Mayne was shocked, and for a moment, hesuspected that he had heard wrongly.

"No, child, you didn't hear wrongly." O'Brien seemed to have read his thoughts. The Pope's eyes gleamed, and he looked as if he had returned to a younger age. "In order to restore the witches' glory after defeating the demons, Alice had stipulated that the Pope's position must be taken up by an Extraordinary. But Extraordinary Witches were very rare, and it wasn't always possible to find the ideal candidate. Therefore, a few prominent ordinary witches served as the Pope - but weakness and cowardice were like poisonous snakes in the heart which could never be removed once they appeared. A mortal who served as the Archbishop was afraid of being oppressed by the witches someday and therefore usurped the Pope's position."

Mayne's eyes opened wide. "And therefore, the later Popes were..."

"Yes, all of us are cowardly descendants who profiteered from the witches' sacrifice." The Pope let out a long and deep sigh. "No matter what happens, the Church has to bury this secret forever." He paused. "The truth regarding the Battle of Divine Will is recorded in the Pivotal Secret Temple. It's now for you to bear this responsibility and continue the line. Even giving up... may also be a wise choice."

After saying these words, his whole body abruptly slackened, as if he had put down a heavy load, and he lay down and slumbered on top of the cart.

"Giving up? If he did so, who else was going to take over this position?" But before he had any time to ponder, Mayne realized that something was not right with O'Brien — his physical condition took a dramatic turn for the worse, and the spirited look of only a moment ago disappeared. His eyes' muscles relaxed rapidly and the radiance from his eyes slowly faded.

"Your Highness, Your Highness O'Brien!" Mayne shook the Pope's body anxiously, but O'Brien stared vacantly at the ceiling with his mouth twitching slightly, as if he was murmuring something.

At the last moment, Mayne felt him saying, "Child, I'm sorry."

Chapter 353 - The Quest Society

As the night wore on, a soft ray of light peeked through the cracks of the curtains.

It was daybreak.

Agatha had barely slept all night. Her head had been spinning with Nightingale's words.

"The mortals of this continent are the most powerful ones."

"So much can change in 400 years. Why can't you let go of past ideas?"

"You still have much time ahead of you. You can confirm it with your own eyes."

Agatha rolled out of bed and walked over to her clothes-rack, resting her hand on the robe of the Taquila Quest Society. As she reminisced about gaining the unanimous approval of the Three Chief Witches when she earned this robe, her spirits leaped with joy. Exploring the mysteries of magic power had always been her lifelong pursuit, and the Quest Society's most revered motto was "Existence is truth". So, if those mortals really could prove their ability...

Agatha put on her robe, opened the door, and walked towards the grand hall.

"In any case, I am probably the last member of the Quest Society, as well as the sole survivor of Taquila. If I want to rebuild a new Holy City, it will take more than a couple of days. But before that, I might as well have a look at what this mortal prince could possibly be capable of to have witches at his beck and call."

After breakfast, Agatha, accompanied by Wendy, went to the office of the prince with gray hair.

At a glance, the Prince looked no different from people of 400 years ago. However, he gave off an aura unlike a common mercenary, merchant, or farmer, but it was also different from Kaff, her head of family guards. It took only one glance to see right through these kinds of people, whose deepest thoughts were usually very easy to read, as if they were only symbols on a piece of paper. However, she could not perceive the prince in the same way, especially his eyes. Although they were a simple set of gray pupils, they seemed to be filled with indescribable radiance and confidence. More importantly, this confidence was not blind optimism. It exuded a kind of calmness and peacefulness beyond his years. It was as if he had lived for... thousands of years, and knew all that was in this world like the back of his hand.

"Why do I feel this way?"

"He is Roland Wimbledon." Agatha thought, silently memorizing this name.

"How did you sleep last night?" He smiled. "Did the oatmeal and fried eggs 400 years into the future suit your tastes?"

"It was so-so, but it would have been better if you hadn't let a witch barge into my room."

He was stunned for a moment, and shook his head resignedly. "Alright, she will knock next time. Oh, by the way - if you wish to take a stroll outside to explore the town and people's customs, you can ask Nightingale to show you around. If you wish to read history books, you can ask Scroll; she has kept all the books she read in her mind."

"People's customs?" Agatha frowned, "With the dangers of demons looming over us, I would love to see how you have the audacity to claim that mortals can defeat demons. If you can't fend off their attacks, all the history and customs are completely meaningless!"

The Prince smirked and said, "Compared with heavy industry, light industry and civilian livelihood are just as important... Why are you so interested in cannons?"

"What do you mean by light and heavy?"

"Nothing... Never mind..." The Prince sighed, "You will soon see, and we're going to test new weapons this afternoon. But before that, I have some questions to ask you - questions about the Holy City of Taquila 450 years ago."

New weapons mortals operating ? Agatha's mind immediately went to crossbows and mangonels. If he simply updated these weapons, they would not be nearly enough to defeat the demons. However, she did not let her skepticism show. "Ask away."

"You mentioned that the Holy City of Taquila was a city ruled by witches and that mortals without magic power could only belong to the lowest class. How many meals did mortals eat in a day? What was their staple food? Did they eat a lot of meat?"

Agatha was stunned. She did not expect him to ask such questions. "There were also ranks within the mortals. The mortals who served Senior Witches by running errands or protecting the city had the same standing as the weakest assistant witches. Below them were farmers and merchants, and lastly came slaves and coolies. As for what you asked, I have no idea - no witch in the Upper City ever paid attention to what mortals ate. As for the guards and servants in my tower, they were all provided with three meals a day. Except for the "Months of the Demons", they got to eat meat once a week."

"What was their salary?"

"What is that, money?" She arched her brow. "They became my attendants and vowed to serve me for life, and in return I gave them shelter and food, and I imparted my knowledge onto them. They didn't need any other compensation."

"I see." The Prince scribbled furiously on a piece of paper and asked, "Did the witches participate in farming, livestock breeding, or iron forging?"

"Of course, all of these things were done by assistant witches," Agatha replied. "Although they were only assistant witches, they were far superior to commoners - if commoners handled the work alone, they could never fulfill the Union's needs."

This back-and-forth went on for almost half-an-hour. He seemed to be especially interested in basic necessities of life in major witch cities and asked extremely detailed questions, which confused Agatha to no end. "Compared with these insignificant matters, isn't he concerned about the demons who have already conquered more than half of the Dawn Region and are about to strike again?"

The Prince paused for a moment and handed his notes to Scroll. "You said that you were a member of the Quest Society and that this society specifically studied Magic Stones and magic power?"

Finally, such a decent question was asked. Agatha nodded, "Yes, the so-called Magic Stone is transformed from God's Stone of Retaliation, and it can suppress a witch's ability, but it can also give her unique powers."

These remarks were a shock to everyone. The witch who called herself Tilly blurted, "How is it done?"

Agatha finally felt a rush of her past importance and was quite pleased, "For the past 400 years or so, the Quest Society made endless sacrifices to pursue the secret of the relationship between magic power and Magic Stones. I can share it with you, but you must also share your knowledge of increasing witches' awakening rates in return."

Tilly and Roland exchanged a glance, "No problem, but I am still confused by one thing." She lifted her left hand, and the blue crystal resting on her finger glinted with a striking light. "This Magic Stone was discovered in the ancient ruins and enabled me to fly - there is no doubt that this type of Magic Stone is immensely powerful. When battling the demons, it will give troops an advantage in both attacks and retreats. Not to mention, it saved quite an amount of time in my daily commute." She paused, "So why did you still retreat on foot? How was it that even a Senior Awakened Witch like you did not have such a convenient Magic Stone?"

Chapter 354 - The Magic Stone

Agatha froze in shock. She never dreamed that Tilly would have a Stone of Flight and even figured out how to use it. After hesitating for quite some time, she finally spoke, "We only understood the relationship between magic power and Magic Stones, but we couldn't produce the Stones."

"You couldn't produce them?" Tilly asked surprisedly, "What does that mean?"

"These Magic Stones were made by demons..." she sighed, "If we had a reliable source of Magic Stones, we would have been able to transform assistant witches into combat witches, and God's Punishment Army wouldn't exist."

"Made by demons?" The witches couldn't help but look shocked, while Roland's expression darkened.

"How much do you know about making Magic Stones?" he asked, "and how were these Magic Stones made?"

The tone of these two questions sounded a little too blunt, and Agatha initially didn't want to answer them. However, considering that demons were witches' real enemies and that this information would eventually come to light, she stifled her remarks on his rudeness and answered slowly, "There was a strange being among the demons, which we called the Chaos Beast. Its appearance resembled a large flower bud with the height of three or four people, and it crawled slowly on its tentacles. After it swallowed God's Stones of Retaliation, it could produce a variety of Magic Stones, and the speed of this process depended on the type of Magic Stone being produced."

"Have you... witnessed this?"

"We caught a live beast once." She was extremely irritated by the Prince's skepticism. "The Bliss Army launched a surprise attack on a remote Devil's Town where there was a Chaos Beast producing Stones of Light. Witches brought it back to Taquila and made it work for the Holy City - this kind of demon was extremely unintelligent, so it automatically transformed the stones it was fed. Unfortunately, we did not know how to make it produce more powerful stones, and we also didn't know how to raise it. Six months later, it turned yellow and wilted like an uprooted plant."

"Afterwards, the Quest Society sent a couple of witches to other Devil's Towns to investigate. All reports led to the same conclusion - Chaos Beasts were the only way of obtaining Magic Stones, and it would take a longer time to produce more powerful stones. Most demons used Magic Stones in battle; for example, the Mad Demon embedded on its arm a Magic Stone that could instantly excite its body's energy and give it powerful long-range attacking abilities. All the Magic Stones we had were seized from enemies' bodies or battalions.

"So this Stone of Flight used to belong to a demon?" Tilly asked curiously.

"As far as I know, only a powerful demon leader could have such a Magic Stone." Agatha sighed, "So it probably belonged to the battle spoils of a Transcendent."

"What about the types of Magic Stones?" Roland frowned, "Did they always have all types of Magic Stones?"

"Of course not. If that were the case, humans would have been doomed long ago." She rolled her eyes, "In the First Battle of Divine Will, most demons did not have Magic Stones. Instead, they relied on their immense bodies and impenetrable armor and attacked human cities with metal spears. This is all recorded very thoroughly in history books. After hundreds of years of war, human territories were conquered bit by bit, until everyone was forced to retreat to the Fertile Plains." At this, she sighed, "That was when we were closest to victory. If we had been led by a witch and had a trained platoon of combat witches, the demons wouldn't have even been able to set foot in the Dawn Region."

"And then they gained access to all kinds of Magic Stones?"

"I think so. In the Second Battle of Divine Will, their attacks became much more varied." Agatha's voice dropped in defeat. "This time, we were totally crushed in a matter of 35 years. Although the elite Bliss Army was a strong match for the Lords of Avernus, there were many more of the enemy than there were of us. I heard from the elders of the Union that the witches actually had the upper hand for the first ten years, and that one Transcendent could slaughter an entire demon platoon. However, after we began to lose a lot of soldiers, we were forced into the defensive within our city."

Then, the Prince was silent for a long time and appeared to be considering something very serious.

"He has finally understood the horror of demons," thought Agatha. "Not only were their numbers immense, but their evolution was frightening. Who knows what kind of army will emerge in the next attack."

"Are Mad Demon, Fearsome Demon, and Lord of Avernus categories you assigned to the demons?" Tilly asked as Roland was still lost in thought.

"Yes, these names became widespread in the Second Battle of Divine Will - before they had their Magic Stones, there was not much difference between them besides their appearance."

"How did they reproduce?"

"Uh... that," Agatha stuttered, "I don't know. It was never recorded in any books or learned from captives - they couldn't survive for long without the Red Mist, so we didn't have enough time to understand their language. And the demons who did not need the Red Mist to survive were all low-level beasts that couldn't communicate."

"Beasts?"

"Yes. Demons consisted of many different species, but there were two main categories," she explained carefully. "One had magic power, and the other didn't. The latter didn't need the Red Mist to survive, but their appearance and intelligence were no different from regular animals. Examples of these beasts were Eight-feet Reptiles that carried supplies for the demons, and winged Devilbeasts that could carry demons into the air."

"Hold on." the Prince suddenly frowned and asked, "Did these Devilbeasts you mentioned look like this?" He took a painting out of a drawer and spread it out in front of Agatha.

"This is indeed a Devilbeast." The painting of the winged demon was incredibly lifelike and was no doubt the work of a witch. "Have you seen one before?"

"Not too far from here." Roland sipped his tea and continued, "I thought it was a demonic beast tamed by the demons. So you're saying that... they aren't the same thing?"

"Of course not. Low-level demonic beasts were nothing but food for demons, while powerful mutant demonic beasts were actual threats to demons. When the 'Months of the Demons' arrived, their attacks usually decreased, giving us some time to recover." Agatha paused and changed the subject to the nearby enemy, "If there are Dinotheres around, that means a Demon's Town can't be far away... Where are they?"

"Just West of the Mist Forest, behind a large snow mountain." Roland roughly told her about his investigation, "It's completely covered in Red Mist."

"No, not completely!" Agatha exclaimed, "Those short stone towers are used to maintain the Red Mist by evaporating a stored liquid, so they need to be refilled periodically. That's why those demons always hide underground to reduce usage. We can try to capture this battalion!"

"Initiate an attack on the demons?" the witches all gasped in fear.

"There are Multi-eyed Demons on watch, which meant that there is probably a Chaos Beast in the battalion. Otherwise, there would not be high-level demons stationed in such a remote and small battalion." She bit her lip, "A Chaos Beast will always preserve its ability to produce its last Magic Stone. Even if it is not a powerful Magic Stone, we can still use it to further the research of the Quest Society, and even find the principle of transforming God's Stone of Retaliation!"

Chapter 355 - Miracles

The group of people stared at her, dumbfounded. After a long silence, the prince cleared his throat and asked, "Isn't the red fog extremely toxic? There's no way for us to approach it right?"

"It's only toxic to witches. According to the Quest Society's research, normal humans, plants and animals can all survive underneath the red fog. In addition, fire can speed up its rate of dispersion," Agatha plainly replied.

"Weren't you the one who said even normal people could fight the Devils? Well, prove it for me to see! The winged hybrids can be lured away by our flying witches," She said as she pointed to Tilly, "The rest of the people can stand by waiting for us to rouse the devils and lead them into a trap. If what you said is true, taking this stronghold should be a piece of cake."

Roland chuckled and shook his head, "I forgot to mention this earlier, this investigation trip was done via hot air balloon, not the flying witches you assumed — this kind of flying device can only carry a dozen people, I'm afraid there's no way we can carry a whole troop of normal soldiers. In addition..." he paused, "This plan you came up with is highly susceptible to risk. We have no idea just how many devils are lurking around. Close quarters combat will result in casualties, not to mention the dangerous job of luring the Devilbeasts. I refuse to put my people in such danger."

"How could anyone have a foolproof plan for fighting the devils?" Agatha fumed. "Every time the Blessed Army mobilized its people in the past, everyone went in with the expectation of a bitter battle to the death. As I thought, he's delusional! In order to achieve an end goal, casualties are an eventuality. Only a naive rookie who's never experienced the cruel reality of war would worry so much about every single individual life."

Though extremely disappointed, she still controlled her feelings, managing to hide her doubts. In the afternoon, after attending his presentation of this so-called new weapon, everything will become clear.

Only now, Agatha no longer harbored any real expectations.

They were just a prince who's only fought before on paper, a bunch of witches with support abilities, and finally some fragile and useless ordinary mortals. Even with the most powerful of weapons, how strong could they possibly be?

Perhaps from the moment the Union collapsed, humanity had already been destined for destruction.

"You often spoke of the Battle of Divine Will, why do you call it that? Isn't it simply a war to repel the devil invasion," Roland took a new piece of paper, raised his quill and asked.

That's what everyone called it. The history books never recorded the initial reason for the war," Agatha answered in a disheartened tone, "It's not wrong to call it a war to repel the invasion, after all, the devils did only come to the Land of Dawn from the stone gates..."

"What stone gates?" Scroll couldn't help but interrupt.

"The Gates of Hell that rose from the ground." Agatha sighed. "On the eve of the Bloody Moon, the Gates of Hell shall open, engulfing the world we know. That's what was written in the history books — either way, these damned stone gates would appear every few hundred years. The first horde of devils used them to come to the Land of Dawn and rabidly attempted to murder us all."

"So the pattern of their invasions is also related to this?"

"They needed the red fog to survive, in order to leave the fog they had to depend on their own handheld reservoirs — the leather pouches, metal containers and demonic beast hide tanks. This is also the reason we were even able to have the second or third Battles of Divine Will. Only when the stone gates appeared could the devils build their fog generating Obelisks, which were usually taller than even mountains and had a wide area of diffusion. A single one is enough to cover the entire Fertile Plains," she explained slowly.

"If another Battle of Divine Will erupts, the devils will definitely construct an Obelisk in the middle of the plains to serve as their base. After it's complete, they'll use their fortresses at the boundaries of the fog to initiate their attack. This time, I'm afraid there's nowhere left for humanity to run."

"If that day comes, everyone can at least escape to Fjords to weather the storm." Tilly shrugged her shoulders.

"Are you talking about those few islands in the middle of the Swirling Sea? How many people could a tiny land like that possibly sustain? It's nothing but a place of desperation where one waits for their eventual demise," Agatha snappily retorted.

"Alright, everyone cheer up a little, at least we now have a decent understanding of the devils we're up against," the Prince shrugged and said, "By the time the third Battle of Divine Will begins, we won't be unprepared. Let's call it a day here. Anything else we can discuss after lunch."

　　...

Agatha finished her sumptuous lunch and followed Wendy back to her room.

Life in the wastelands was a lot more... luxurious than she imagined. Both the variety and taste were far superior to that of any feast in her memory. She thought that perhaps this was because she was born in an era of war; those days, be it in her own stone tower or at the fortress of the Union, food consisted solely of bread, jerky and vegetable soup. Yet here salt, butter, and honey were all plentiful, as well as some delicious spices she didn't recognize. Even though she wanted to maintain her image, she nevertheless couldn't help but devour an entire plate of fried mushrooms as well as two huge pieces of honeyed steak.

However, the more she ate, the angrier she became. She both loathed herself for succumbing to the temptation of delicious food, bringing shame upon Taquila, and loathed the Prince for being so short-sighted as to be wasting time savoring delicacies while the humanity walked towards its doom!

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but harden her tone and say, "I'm already familiar with the castle halls now. You needn't bother with the hassle of escorting me back from now on."

"It's not a hassle at all. I'm delighted to do these things... " Wendy smiled. "Also, if you want to talk about anything, I'm always here. Bottling your feelings up in your heart will only make them fester."

"Didn't he say he was going to show us the new weapons in the afternoon? Why'd he leave all by himself after eating?"

"You mean Roland? This... is probably because he's taking a nap," Wendy covered her mouth and whispered, "That's His Majesty's habit, usually after lunch he'll always sleep for at least an hour. His Majesty often says the body is the foundation of all efforts. Without enough rest, it's impossible to fulfill the duties of a lord."

"An afternoon nap! What kind of habit is this! A whole night isn't enough for him!?" Agatha angrily thought, "This is obviously nothing but a lazy person making excuses, yet you actually wholeheartedly believe him!'

"Be it normal witches or Senior Awakened Witches... why is it that you all have such confidence in him?" she took a deep breath, "Is it just because he gave you a safe haven? Do you really believe that he can win against the devils - no, even against the Church that has been suppressing you all?"

"I can't speak for the other sisters," Wendy gently replied, "but I myself do believe in him. Because His Majesty is capable of making the things that no one else imagined, or even dared to imagine, happen. To me, he's someone who's made countless miracles happen."

"Mira... cles?

"When witches everywhere were being hunted to death, he saved the Association; when everyone saw us as demons, he created a place where we could coexist in harmony; in a single short year, His Majesty has managed to use an army of peasants to fend off the Months of the Demons, and defeated Duke Ryan who had a territory several times of his; even the mad empowered army of Graycastle wasn't able to take a single step past our border."

"But these are merely the battles of mortals, compared with the war between God's Punishment Army and the devils, they're completely different." Agatha shook her head.

"Of course it's not just this," Wendy continued, "His teachings and theories allowed four sisters to evolve their abilities, and has unceasingly created increasingly powerful weapons, which allow knights and even ordinary people to win against Extraordinaries... these are all miracles that I've personally witnessed, not just the wild rumors of a tavern, nor the bombastic descriptions of historical records — they happened right in front of my eyes."

"One day he’ll become the King of Graycastle, and lead us to defeat any and all of our enemies." Her eyes were filled with mirth yet her voice was full of confidence.

"That’s what I believe."

Chapter 356 - 「152！」

Weapons that enable civilians to defeat Extraordinaries?

After Wendy left, Agatha kept mulling over this phrase. Did they truly know what an Extraordinary was?

Unfortunately, she did not have a Stone of Measuring with her to clearly determine the powers and types of these witches.

After waiting for an annoyingly long time, Nightingale appeared in her doorway. "His Highness invites you to view his new weaponry tests. If you don't want to go..."

"I'll go," she mumbled. "Please lead the way."

When she saw Prince Roland still groggy and yawning, Agatha had a sudden impulse to dump ice chips onto him to wake him up. However, this move would probably cause some misunderstandings with the other witches, so she could only think about it to herself.

As they left the castle, she saw the entirety of the town in broad daylight for the first time.

With the snow as a backdrop, the first impression that leaped into her mind was order—all the two-story houses stood in clean rows and had exactly the same appearance, with matching white silhouettes and red tile roofs. The black roads were all straight as an arrow, splitting the town into equal square sections. Looking into the distance, the scenery seemed to be continuous layers of houses, trees and streets and so on.

Even Taquila's Inner City could never be this orderly!

But she felt there was something about the town that couldn't compare to her city. Except the castle, there were no buildings worth a second glance in this town. Even the castle itself could not compare to Taquila's Quest Tower in grandiosity.

"After all, it's only a small town." Agatha scoffed inwardly and turned to Nightingale. "How many people live here?"

"Um... There used to be only a little over 2,000, but now, with the refugees from the North and South, there're almost 30,000."

"There were only 2,000, and he claimed to defeat demons. What a stupid... hold on, 30... 30,000?" Agatha widened her eyes in shock. Even in its prime, Taquila could only accommodate 50,000 people. Could this tiny place hold 30,000? She wasn't counting the populations of the surrounding villages, right?

Although these square brick houses did seem to have a larger capacity than wooden bungalows, the increase of population wasn't merely a simple addition of numbers. After the population reached a certain point, demands on the city would also increase exponentially. Firstly, the demand for food and water would increase dramatically. Secondly, there would be more public safety issues following an increase in slums. Finally, even waste disposal would become a difficult issue.

Towards the end of the Second Battle of Divine Will, Taquila faced all of these issues—following the collapse of many major cities, more and more people flocked to the Holy City. Overpopulation did not strengthen the city's defense, but instead paralyzed the entire city. The Union had to forcefully remove a group of refugees to settle the crisis.

After experiencing this firsthand, Agatha knew how difficult the growth of population was. As she observed her companion's casual demeanor, she somewhat distrusted her. Perhaps Nightingale had no idea what she was talking about and was simply lying to her.

"I should ask Wendy these kinds of questions in the future, " she thought. "At least she seemed more sincere."

After crossing the crowded city streets, Agatha followed the prince and his group onto a city wall made of mud. This kind of short city wall was far from lofty and sturdy. There were no barbs on the surface of the wall, nor was there a moat surrounding it. Demons wouldn't even need machines to climb this wall as they could do so bare-handedly.

She became more disappointed in her heart.

Every hundred steps or so, there were protrusions of flat platforms on the top of the wall, which seemed to be prepared for ballistas. It didn't take a long walk along the wall for Agatha to see the weapon being tested that day.

Its appearance was so unique that it commanded everyone's attention.

It was a metal tube that looked like an enlarged iron spear, except there was no spear head. It was entirely smooth and had a slight silver tinge to it, so it didn't seem like a metal weapon. The parts at the ends of the tube were slightly complicated. Besides a stabilizing stand, there were also two shorter tubes that were attached to the top and bottom of the large tube. It had no pulleys or slots for arrows, appearing nothing like a larger ballista or mangonel.

But she still could not figure out how this thing could attack enemies.

"This is a newly-invented weapon of Border Town—the 152 mm Stronghold Standard Artillery, symbolizing justice and glory!" The prince exclaimed, waving his hands. "We made many improvements on the basis of the 12 pound field artillery, and it's outstanding in all respects. It's undoubtedly a revolutionary weapon!"

Agatha couldn't help but frown. All this talk of justice, glory and Stronghold Standards sounded extremely superficial. Not to mention that the long string of introductions was a mouthful of made-up words. Was he really the prince, whom, as Wendy introduced, was learned and trusted by all witches?

"Clap, clap, clap," Nightingale was the only person clapping, and the atmosphere seemed a little awkward.

"Ahem," Roland cleared his throat. "Let's not waste our breath and start testing. Iron Axe, take it away."

"Yes, Your Highness." Three people dressed in the same uniforms immediately stood up and got to work.

Agatha stood on the side and followed every movement of these men, hoping to understand the workings of this weapon.

She watched one man slide off the metal piece at the end of the tube, and another immediately stuff an orange sharp object into the tube and shut the metal piece.

"Report. Preparation is ready. Prepare to launch!"

"Everyone, cover your ears." The prince demonstrated with his hands, nodded, and said, "Fire."

"Wait... is it ready this quickly?" Just as Agatha was about to ask, a large boom exploded next to her ears. Her head immediately began buzzing, and her surroundings quieted. The long metal tube spat out a ball of orange flames, blinding yet fleeting. In that moment, she sensed the immense power of the fire, and felt the city wall trembling beneath her feet. A wave of heat rushed towards her, pushing her back a few steps. The cannon itself also suddenly sank back suddenly—but then it steadily returned to its original position.

"..." Nightingale supported her in time from behind and seemed to say something to her, but she could only hear fragments of whispers, as if they were coming from far away... Finally, the buzzing subsided, and her hearing was back to normal. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head, looking towards the fields of snow, but couldn't see any change.

Were those flames only good for intimidating the enemy?

"Did you see the landing point?" the prince asked a witch with green hair.

"It fell behind a small hill, nearest to the red flag," the latter said after peering out for some time, "but it was still much farther."

"Red flag?" Agatha looked at Roland with puzzlement. "What are they talking about?"

Luckily, the prince quickly addressed her confusion. "This weapon can fire shells—or bolts that you're familiar with—to a long distance, so it's used to attack enemies far away. In order to observe the range of attack, I had Lightning place colored flags every one kilometer, and the red flag was the last one at five kilometers away." He explained, "By your measurements, one kilometer is a little over 300 yards."

Agatha was stunned. "Is he saying that that weapon fired a bolt over a distance of more than 5,000 meters? There were no pulleys or power-storing mechanisms. How did they make it? Even Siege Beasts driven by magic power could only reach a range of 1,500-2,000 meters. If he was not lying, then a tall and sturdy city wall, combined with these kinds of weapons, could really fend off the demons' attack."

But... it's probably not very easy for a weapon with such an astonishing firing range to fire even once.

"It just doesn't feel right without seeing where the shells landed," The Prince stroked his chin and said, "Next, let's test a fast triple-shot flat aim to attack targets in short range."

Chapter 357 - Unfinished-work

The second time it fired, Agatha covered her ears up in advance.

Then she saw an incredible scene.

There was no endless charging work that she expected. Gigantic as the long metal pipe seemed, it was actually not as heavy as it looked like. Every shot seemed to shake the earth up. However, its base remained absolutely still, as if the pipe and the base were not related at all. The long tube was quick and accurate each time in terms of backing and resetting, and this process did not even require human control—only three of the four operators were busy working, while the commander Iron Axe was just standing aside issuing orders.

Withdrew the metal stopper, slid off the copper shell, stuffed the new bolt, and then fired... and repeated the process. Agatha could feel the ground-shaking anger of the earth almost every ten breaths. At the same time, she also witnessed the soil and the snow columns kicked up one after another by the flat fire at a close distance—the prince did not lie that this weapon truly shot the bolt out at a speed that was impossible to capture with naked eyes. Judging from the interval between the firing time and the time when the snow columns were kicked up, it could be concluded that even a Transcendent would absolutely have no way to avoid the attack!

Agatha looked at this silver white long tube weapon and could not help being amazed.

If ... if Taquila was guarded by such a powerful weapon at that time, we should have been able to keep all the frightful demons below the city walls, and thereby prevented falling into the dilemma of attrition after the walls were destroyed. The war would perhaps not have gone that bad either.

"Was this weapon created by witches?" After quite a while, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva and asked quietly. From its bright and shiny appearance, this could absolutely not be handcrafted by mortals with iron hammers.

However, the prince's reply greatly surprised her.

"This is a masterpiece jointly created by witches and mortals," he smiled and said, "Witches took care of everything from smelting to casting the Longsong Cannon, whereas alchemists were responsible for shells that were used to fire. By the way, the witches who have been engaged in manufacturing are all what you call assistant witches except Anna."

Agatha felt that her long-standing idea was suddenly shaken. She thought she had been kind and generous enough to mortals, and for this she had been even marginalized by the Quest Society. However, it now appeared that what she had done was far from enough?

Is that true that the Union had been wrong all the way from the beginning? Did it mean that what the prince said, namely "Mortals can defeat demons" was actually right? ...

Yet if the cooperation between witches and mortals can generate such powerful strength, then why did the first Battle of Divine Will end up with a disastrous defeat?"

With questions continuously coming to her mind, Agatha started to feel very confused.

...

When the Longsong Cannons jetted out flames in succession, Tilly was greatly shocked as well.

Although she once stood on the top of the city wall and saw shells being fired at demonic beasts, the drawbacks of those firearms were also quite evident—It was hard to target at a long distance, and it could not shoot downwards if enemies drew close. It was only at somewhere in the middle that they were able to exert the optimum power. However, as the loading was sort of slow, it was very likely that swift hybrid demonic beasts may have already arrived at the foot of the city walls before they had time to ignite them.

Furthermore, in order to quickly load and shoot, five to ten people were required to run a mortar team. The weapon operation would be affected even a single step went wrong. Besides, it required someone to specially keep an eye on the combustion source upon ignition. When there was heavy rain, field artilleries probably would not be useless.

Nevertheless, the Longsong Cannon newly developed by Roland did not have the aforesaid deficiencies.

Charging from the rear of the cannon enabled the muzzle to stay lower than the breech, and thereby largely increased the efficiency of close range shooting. The firing rate was also multiplied several times, yet the staff was reduced to three people. Meanwhile, the cannon did not need to be lit by open fire, which meant that they could operate even in harsh weather. As its attacking scope was far greater than that of mangonels, it totally deserved what Roland referred to as "an epochal weapon".

Although they currently relied on witches' abilities to manufacture such weapons, Tilly believed that this was only temporary—Sylvie's observation could verify this: In the past, only Chief Knight was equipped with automatic weapons, but now each soldier had one in their hand. Anna only needed to create the facilities and equipment for the manufacturing of such weapons. Specific casting and assembling work could be independently completed by laborers.

From Ashes' and Anderlia's looks, one could tell that the Longsong Cannon was something that they could not possibly imagine.

It was nice to have such an ally, but as a brother, she felt he was even more distant.

She even had a feeling that Roland had gone far ahead of her.

This made Tilly a little frustrated.

If only he could be more frank.

...

Seeing the shells that were produced with great difficulty exhaust in a blink, Roland felt his heart was aching. In spite of this, he still had to put on an inscrutable look to cover up his unwillingness.

This was not a new cannon testing in a real sense.

In order to achieve a brilliant demo effect, he asked Iron Axe to borrow a group of elite artillery from the artillery battalion and had them start on simulative shooting practice a few days beforehand, during which they also carried out two rounds of ball firing practice. This was nothing but a force demonstration specially prepared for the witches.

The shooting went on well, and the result was also excellent—at least from Agatha's shocked look, one could tell that the performance of the cannons had blown her mind.

Nonetheless, to Roland, the firing performance of this Longsong Cannon was far from ideal.

Except for the sacred caliber of 152 mm, the rest of it was not even close to that of the real 152. With Anna's ability in precision machining, Lucia's in element purification and Sylvie's in crack detection, theoretically, he could manufacture modern cannons in a real sense, rather than a replica that only had a shooting range of seven to eight kilometers.

The key lay in details.

For now, it appeared that the setting of its chamber was too small.

In consideration of the weight of fixed ammunition, Roland decreased the volume of the chamber on purpose, which resulted in insufficiency in powder charge. Although it had a long barrel of 40 caliber, its shooting range was still unsatisfactory.

Another thing was propellant.

Since nitroglycerin was still in the process of testing, all that was loaded to the cannons was nitrocotton. This was also a reason why Roland felt it was a pity that the nitrocotton consumed by a few shells was enough to load thousands of bullets. In addition, these smokeless propellants had not been gelatinized, which further decreased the powder charge.

Finally, the shell itself was after all a larger version of the bullet. If the bullet had not been charged, it all relied on kinetic energy to create lethality. Missing the target meant zero harm. At this stage it could only be used to attack some slow enemies.

Overall, there was still a long way to go before they were able to barrage and cover every inch of the earth with cannon shells.

However, Roland felt he probably did not have as much time as he initially expected.

Ever since he knew that the transformation of the Magic Stone was originated from demons, he felt increasingly alert deep down inside.

"If demons also had their own scientific technologies, would they enjoy an advance by leaps and bounds in these technologies at some point?"

Chapter 358 - Invitation

This was not a wild guess, but it could be best proved by the development of human civilization.

It took mankind nearly a million years to enter the Iron Age from the Stone Age, but only 3,200 years from the Iron Age to the Age of Steam. From the Age of Steam to the Electric Age, it merely took 150 years, and the world directly stepped into the information era in another 50 years.

From the information Agatha disclosed, demons were not an invariable race. Over 800 years ago, they combatted in a close range with knives and shields made of bronze and pig iron, fighting in a similar way to mankind. In order to compete against witches, some Senior Demons would also wear God's Stones of Retaliation. Every time they attacked a city, demons generally did not have any effective countermeasures for long-distance weapons such as crossbow bolts and mangonels, and therefore always suffered great loss before conquering a fortified city. If they were not born to possess such immense power, perhaps mankind would have become the ultimate victor of the first Battle of Divine Will.

Nevertheless, demons had already been able to mass produce Magic Stones in the second Battle of Divine Will, and their groups had also experienced differentiation. Demons of various forms took on diverse operation missions, and even Mad Demons who outweighed in number had also developed measures for long-distance attack. According to Agatha, they even created transportation tools and engineering instruments driven by Magic Stones! Now more than 400 years had passed, how far had they evolved?

Roland originally thought Agatha would bring him the Magic Stone technologies from Taquila's Quest Society, and based on them, he would be able to wedge a new path of industrial development, but he did not expect that such technologies were from the enemies. In that way, the competition against demons would very likely become a war between industrial and Magic Stone technologies.

"Only the one that develops technologies faster will win in the end."

At this thought, Roland could not help but heave a sigh. It seemed necessary to have a thorough discussion with Tilly.

...

Roland met Tilly Wimbledon at his office after dinner.

He felt pleased when he saw she came alone—at least there had been great progress in terms of trust between them.

"Nightingale told me you want to discuss something with me." she took a seat and came straight to the point.

"Yes." Roland poured a cup of tea and handed it over to her himself. "It's mainly about how to cope with the third Battle of Divine Will and our future."

Tilly took the tea cup and blinked, seeming to wait for him to continue.

"According to Agatha, the Four Kingdoms was merely a tip of the Land of Dawn and that even the Barbarian Land used to be the most prosperous Fertile Plains. It was after being defeated by demons twice that human beings had to retreat to this place. Based on the time the Stone Gates opened, the third Battle of Divine Will is at the corner." Roland hesitated for a moment and stated bluntly, "I hope you can stay."

Tilly smiled faintly after a short pause and said, "I didn't expect you would say that."

"The strength of demons is unpredictable, and we must gather all the powers available to win the war. Although Agatha said the first Battle of Divine Will was operated by both mortals and witches, it was very likely that their cooperation was only on the surface, which essentially had no difference from the second Battle of Divine Will." He addressed in a sincere tone, "As you've already seen, the excess of the memories in my head possesses weapons sufficient to defeat demons. Once these memories are converted to physical entities, mortals can also burst out powers beyond imagination. The right choice is to have witches take care of the operation of war machines, while ordinary people fight in the war. Upon a big war, one more person means one more source of strength."

"..." Tilly took a sip of the tea and did not answer for quite a while. Roland felt his heart was in his throat.

Yet under such circumstances, there was no use feeling vexed. He put on a composed look, waiting silently for Tilly to speak.

After seven minutes or so, Tilly finally heaved a sigh and broke the silence. "If I stay, what about the witches on the Sleeping Island?"

"Does that mean... she agreed?" Roland restrained his excitement. "Ask them to come to the Border Town. They are totally welcome here. I'll mark off a plot of land for your witches, and each of them will be equally paid as those in the Witch Union—ah, I don't mean making them members of the Union. They'll still be led by you. It's like establishing a special autonomous district in the Western Region. This is not only convenient for our cooperation, but also helpful to boost the mutual understanding between us."

"Will they be equally paid?" She could not help but smile, "You don't mind their abilities? You know most of them can't fight for you."

"No, no," Roland waved his hand repeatedly and said, "In the cooperation model I have conceived, assistant witches, on the contrary, can play a more important role than combat ones, because it isn't themselves that are strengthened, but hundreds of thousands of ordinary people—nature doesn't lack power, but lacks people who discover and make use of them. In this regard, the abilities of assistant witches are far greater."

"Is this your real purpose?" she asked slyly.

"Um..."

"It's indeed a generous offer." Tilly smiled, shaking her head. "In view of the public concerns, I can't refuse your request to jointly fight against the intrusion of demons; in view of the personal concerns, I also want to stay here to learn the interesting knowledge. However, I can't give you my consent now."

A bit surprised, Roland immediately asked, "Why?"

"Since I am the leader elected by the witches on the Sleeping Island, I can't decide their future based on my personal preference. Once moved to the Western Region, the organization will inevitably lose its independence. If something happens, they'll be too vulnerable to resist. If one day there're conflicts between us, should all the witches have to pack up and return to the the Sleeping Island again?"

"No, I'll never..."

"I can't put their future in an oral promise," Tilly interrupted, "If you were me, would you surrender everything of yours to me simply because we are allies?"

Roland was instantly speechless. He knew the answer even without thinking about it. If he himself was in such a situation, he would never agree with others easily. Most of the time, the closer two people are, the more likely they'll have conflicts. That's exactly what the so-called "befriending a distant state while attacking a neighbor" means. The same applies to powers and lovers.

"See? You are worried about the same thing as I am."

"But... you are my younger sister. I won't hurt you." Roland had no choice but to make the last effort.

"Really... but for the reason you just said, I still can't trust it," Tilly closed her eyes somewhat melancholy, "this is probably why I can't promise you right away." She paused for a little bit, as if she wanted to leave those thoughts behind, "Let's just treat each other as an ally for now—I will give my full support to the construction of Border Town. If you need witches, I'll try to meet your requirements as much as I can... If it's really hard to resist the attacks from demons, you can still return to Sleeping Island and spend the rest of your life in peace. This is all that I can do so far."

Chapter 359 - Different Choices

The fire in the fireplace shook for a second and fainted. Nightingale revealed herself, and put some firewood inside. Cracking sounds came from the fireplace and the flames suddenly rose up.

Roland looked at the stretched shadow of the cup and took a deep exhalation. Tilly had been away for some time, and he had been recalling their conversation to see if there was any way to change the result, but it ended up in vain - trust is very intriguing, and only by taking a lot of time can he earn someone's trust.

"It seems that you're not capable of everything," said Nightingale. She brushed off the dust on her hand and sat back at her usual place, "What on earth did you say to her that day?"

"A white lie." Roland leaned on the chair. "It's very normal that she doesn't believe it." He paused and said, "You said that you had a younger brother. If he suddenly becomes very different than he used to be, and keeps saying that he's still himself, will you believe him?"

"Do you mean that guy who looked innocent but then betrayed me at the back?" Nightingale twitched her mouth, "As far as I see, he was basically no different than a mutation."

"Well, I shouldn't have mentioned this."

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I'm not a member of Gelan Family anymore, and they're just strangers to me." She said carelessly.

"She and I were once just like strangers as well," Roland sighed and continued, "or I would rather say that I didn't get along well with anyone in the palace."

"If you feel bored, you can share it with me." Nightingale gave a subtle smile, "I've been very curious about the royal life, but I also want to know how bad you were at that time. How could you be so bad that your notorious reputation was even spread to the Silver City?"

"To be honest, back then I was much worse than now." Roland could not help but raise his lips. He picked some stories from his memories and said briefly, "Probably from the moment she fell onto the glass slag, she began to hate me."

"It's indeed... terrible," she clicked her tongue and continued, "but I think she doesn't hate you now."

"Oh?" Roland raised his eyebrows and asked, "How could you know that?"

"Of course I know. Didn't she say these words—'in view of the personal concerns, I also want to stay here to learn the interesting knowledge.'" Nightingale imitated. "It sounded like a consolation, but the truth is that she didn't lie about it. If she still hates you as much as she did in the past, she would never feel like staying here."

"Are you comforting me?" Roland smiled and said.

"I'm just telling the truth," she shrugged and continued, "and I think it's fine to maintain the status quo."

"Why?"

"She promised to give priority to providing witches for the town to support you against demons, so there's no difference whether she stays here or not. If the witches on the Sleeping Island all come to the town at the same time, with more witches like Ashes, I may be very busy." Nightingale threw a dried fish into her mouth and muttered," Not everyone is as obedient as Maggie."

Roland could not help but laugh, "It sounds like that you had some issues with Ashes before?"

"Oh? Of course not. How could it be," Nightingale waved her hands and said, "I just keep my eyes on her occasionally to prevent her turning against the Witch Union."

"Really?"

She turned her head to another side and whistled.

"I'm not sure if it's an illusion," Roland stared at her. "Why do you feel so happy when I was rejected?"

"That's an illusion," affirmed Nightingale, and then she looked at the door, "well, someone is coming." With these words,she concealed herself.

"Was it just her excuse to get away?" Just at this moment, someone began to knock on the door outside the office.

Roland was very surprised. It was almost midnight now. Who would come at this time of the night? He changed a new candle for the candlestick and said, "Come in."

The visitor was Agatha.

The prince was shocked for a moment and asked, "What's the matter?"

She didn't reply but came to sit down at the round stool beside the table, "Ms. Wendy said that the flintlock that can fight against Extraordinaries and the cannon with an amazing long shooting range were both your ideas. Is it true? And the theories behind these things and their manufacturing methods are all recorded in the books you wrote? "

"Do you mean Natural Science Theoretical Foundation and Elementary Chemistry? There're related theories in them, but as for their manufacturing methods, they're not written down because of length." said Roland, "After all, they are just textbooks for elementary theories. " Do you come to see me just for this?"

"Only members of the Witch Union can learn such knowledge, right?" she didn't reply but continued to ask.

Roland nodded and had almost figured out what she wanted to say.

"Then I apply to join the Witch Union," Agatha said without a pause.

"But the Witch Union is an organization belonging to the Border Town. Are you sure you want to work for the town?" he said with curiosity, "Its lord is not a Transcendent but just an ordinary mortal."

"Any mortal that can create weapons to defend demons is not ordinary at all. Even in the Quest Society, there'll be a place for you." Agatha paused for a little bit and said, "As long as it does no harm to the witches and it's not against the survivors of the Union, I don't mind... cooperating with a mortal."

Probably it's a little hard for her to say "to work for a mortal" at the moment, but Agatha's capability of accepting new things had impressed Roland a lot. Perhaps someone who was engaged in research was always able to accept new things quickly. He restrained himself from smiling and said, "I thought you would follow Tilly to the Sleeping Island, which is a city built by the witches."

"It's just a refuge for hiding from the hunting of the Church," she shook her head and said, "I've learned about everything from them before I made this decision. And I've seen so many cities ruled by the witches before I was frozen, yet they were all gone without any traces. It'll be meaningless if we cannot defeat demons. I wish I could see the hope of victory here."

"You will," Rolland nodded, "but as to not be against the Union... I cannot promise that, because it probably hasn't been gone, but just changed its name and covered itself up."

"What?" Agatha was shocked.

"I've thought about what you said carefully. Even if you ran away from Taquila after it was defeated, there were still Transcendents and many Blessed Warriors in the Union. On this undeveloped land in which many original inhabitants are living, they can't entirely extinct unless they intend to do so." Roland said in a deep voice, "The Church is probably a transformation of the Union. It were not the mortals that took away the power and the methods of creating God's Punishment Army from the witches, but the witches themselves did that and turned the Union into an organization that hunted witches. In this way, it's more convenient for them to create a large number of God's Punishment Armies."

"Are you saying that it's the Union that has led to the tragic situation where witches are oppressed and hunted?" She said in great surprise.

"I'm not sure yet. It's just a guess." Roland stood up and went to the bookcase, took out several thick black books and handed them to her. "You can find their chronology written by the Church itself, and the histories of the Four Kingdoms written by astrologers. You can make reference to them. In any case, the Church is now our enemy that we must eliminate in the future."

"If you decide to stand on the side of witches and fight against demons with me, you're most welcome at the Witch Union."

Chapter 360 - Ice

Early in the next morning, Agatha received parchment scroll from Roland.

"What is it?"

"A contract. After you leave your fingerprint on it, you'll officially become a member of the Witch Union."

She spread the scroll of paper, carefully read the contents in it and asked in surprise, "That's all?"

"Yup?" Roland seemed a little confused about what she said, "Why ask?"

"The restrictions on it are useless," Agatha pointed to the part of "Services" and continued, "it just mentions that witches cannot betray Border Town unless the mutual agreement between both parties is breached, but there isn't any restricting measures. If a witch does want to break the contract, she might have no pressure at all. Besides, and the wordings are way too loose. Is this a real contract?"

"Well, I just wrote it casually and it's just a kinda formality." The prince nodded without any surprise. It seemed that Agatha was not the first one to point out the loopholes of this contract.

"It's a formality full of loopholes ." Secretly criticizing the contract in her mind, she then touched the ink pad and put her thumbprint on it. There were very few requirements for both parties in the contract of the Witch Union. According to the articles, Agatha could barely see any differences after she joined the Witch Union. Although she thought it was unnecessary to sign the contract, she felt much relieved than before.

She said she would work with the mortals, but she knew it well that the man with gray hair was the real leader of the Union. If she had to work for a mortal like the way she served the Union or the leader of three cities with the utmost deference, she would probably not accept it. But now, she was at least free to a large extent.

Roland put away the contract and asked curiously, "What were the restrictions on the contract of Taquila?"

"It was only used for recruiting the mortals and the penalties included corporal punishment and mental torture." She twitched her mouth. "As for us witches, we didn't need such contracts. Once you joined the Union, you should serve it for your lifetime and there was only death for traitors."

"Okay," he took a breath and said, "welcome to the Witch Union." After breakfast, remember to come to the castle garden. I need to test your ability comprehensively."

...

The ability test was much easier than what Agatha thought. All she needed to do was to show every characteristic of her ability once in front of the prince and answer some questions.

"The form of the magic power is a sky blue pentagonal prism and it's a medium level. It belongs to the summon category. Your ability has evolved once. The initial performance is creating a low temperature, and it can freeze at a normal temperature after evolution, which is a very convenient ability," Roland asked after recording the results, "how did you get evolved? "

"Constant practice and a sudden enlightenment," she proudly said. As the youngest High Awakened, she was called "the Genius of Taquila" by all the members of the Union. "Every day I kept trying to lower the temperature to freeze the water instantly. One day, I saw a witch who manipulated the flame to melt a piece of lead into liquid, and as the lead was heated by the flame, the lead water began to boil."

"This scene made me realize that everything may have three states: gaseous, liquid and solid—lead is solid at room temperature, but if the temperature is high enough, it can also turn into gas; water is liquid at room temperature, and when the temperature falls, it can freeze into ice."

"So for gas at normal temperature, can it freeze as long as the temperature is low enough, just like the case of the lead?"

"With this idea, I quickly felt the magic power in my body changing entirely, and I finally evolved into a Senior Witches. This enlightenment is also recorded in the General Principles."

In fact, she was the youngest witch whose enlightenment was recorded in that book. Back then, even all the Three Chiefs praised her, for such enlightenment was very significant in enlightening witches to evolve and in practical research. However, when she said those in a serious manner, Roland was quite calm.

"I see." The prince nodded. "What is the General Principles?"

"Wait... Aren't you surprised at all?" Agatha asked surprisedly. "The world is full of gas everywhere. It can be anywhere and without any weight. Actually, the gas can turn into flowing water and frozen ice."

"They are very normal phenomena, and there are many kinds of gases, each of which has different boiling points and melting points." Roland shrugged. "Why should I be surprised? These're common sense in Natural Science Theoretical Foundation."

"..." Agatha was quite shocked and hurt, and she took two deep breaths and said, "Alright, I'll read it carefully."

"The General Principles..."

"It records the feelings and experiences of the High Awakened during their evolution," she said in discontent, "but the abilities of witches are different from each other, which makes it very difficult for them to evolve by imitation and referencing, so this book is of course uncomparable to your Natural Science Theoretical Foundation!"

"Did I say something wrong?" The prince was quite confused.

"No, I'm too arrogant," Agatha was unhappier now.

"Well." He seemed to figure out the reason, so he changed the topic quickly. "You just said that the abilities of the witches are different from each other... so there's no one sharing the same ability among thousands of witches in the Union?"

"No," she replied bluntly, "The Quest Society believes that the form of magic power decides the ability, but there are no witches sharing the same form of magic power."

"But when you first saw Anna, you could instantly tell that it was the ability of fire control."

"It's just an informal categorization, which is easy to understand. The abilities of generating light and heat can be categorized into fire control, but with the development of magic power, consolidation after growing up, or High Awakening, similar abilities will change greatly. Even at the initial stage of fire control, some witches are good at controlling the temperature, some generating greater fire, and some throwing the fire. Even if there're no obvious differences, it's because of the lack of careful observation," Agatha said, "The Quest Society's categorization method was much more formal and basically the same as yours."

"Also three categories?" Roland asked.

"Four. The main difference is the summoning type—the Quest Society divided it into two categories, Magic Power and Shaping. You can understand the difference from the literal meanings."

"The former means that the summoning of the ability costs magic power all the time, just like Anna's. When the magic power is gone, the summoning of the ability will stop. And Shaping can exist for a very long time, just like the Coating drawn by Soraya, right?"

"Although I don't know the exact ability of Soraya, it's pretty much like that... That can stay for a long time can be taken as Shaping, such as my ability of freezing at a normal temperature."

"Understood." Roland recorded these contents as well. "That's all for the test today." Usually, if you receive no assignment from me, you can practice your ability as you wish, but I'm thinking that someone might urgently need your help."

"Who?"

"Kyle Sichi, the Chief Alchemist of Border Town."

Chapter 361 - Expansion

According to the records of Stall Literature, temperature control was the key in large-scale production of nitrifying glycerol because the excessive heat of exothermic reactions was extremely prone to cause the sensitive dynamites to explode. As long as the temperature of the large reaction vessel could be kept constant, the nitrating glycerin could be safely manufactured in batches.

However, the ice-water mixture had limited performance in heat absorption, especially when a large amount of heat was released. Its cooling rate was slow while the consumption of itself was fast. Besides,it was very troublesome to produce ice cubes. In light of these, ice cubes were suitable for laboratory tests, but not for the mass production. As the Frozen Coffin of Agatha could easily produce low temperatures, such as nearly 100 below zero, it was undoubtedly a great way to cool down the container.

Roland did not know whether the news was reliable or not, but it didn't stop him from trying one by one. Even in the event of an accident, Nana could always save her life.

Back in his office, he wrote a reference letter and gave it to his guard, who brought Agatha to the chemical laboratory and sent the letter to Kyle Sichi.

Besides introducing Agatha's abilities, he also made up an upper-class identity for her in the letter to mellow the alchemist so that he would take good care of the witch who might bring great help to the chemistry experiments. Roland was still worried after the guard left. He knew Keymor was straightforward while Agatha was arrogant and hoped they would not get into a big fight with each other.

Scroll pushed the door open and walked into the room while he was pondering whether he should go to the lab to take a look.

"Your Highness, here are the results for the second batch educational examination." She smiled with a curve at the corner of her eye and continued, "This time, 762 students have passed the exam and half of them are adults."

"So many?" Roland was pleased. Compared with the first group of more than 50 kids from Karl College, half of the adults graduated this time proved that night school training did work. At the same time, it verified the feasibility of a series of training programs formulated by the Ministry of Education based on different training schedules and durations.

"Yes, you've been implementing universal education for almost six months now, and these students are generally under 25 years old, it's not too difficult for them to master the basic reading and writing skills."

It probably has something to do with the characters themselves. It would never be as fast if it was Chinese instead." Roland thought to himself, although he always felt that these earthworm-like characters were awkward.

During the initial implementation of universal education, he had no idea how far it would go. After all it was utterly new to the Kingdom of Graycastle. In accordance with the principle of encouragement and subsidy, he had been discussing with Scroll for a long time to formulate a set of educational programs for minors and night classes for the workers and make a series of incentives to tempt the workers to study. The result appeared to be really good as of now.

Of course, all of these were attributed to the executor Scroll for she really did a good job in management.

"Thanks for your hard work." Roland nodded.

"It's my pleasure to be at your service, Your Highness." She bowed.

As she was the eldest witch in the Union, it was hard for Roland to compare her with the young girls like Anna and Lightning. Scroll always gave him a feeling of remaining stable and well-organized. When discussing things, she would both silently listen to his thoughts and brutally point out his mistakes. Sometimes, he even felt like a junior in front of Scroll.

Probably... she was born to be a teacher.

Roland smiled and shook his head, putting these thoughts aside.

Anyway, the long-standing factories could finally be put into use with the new productive forces.

"Please invite over Barov," he said with great excitement.

...

The City Hall Director rushed to the castle quickly. As his workload had been increasing since he started building the city, he seemed older now with balder head and more wrinkles on the forehead. But there was not any fatigue on his face, he seemed increasingly energetic instead.

"Your Highness, are you want to see me for the recruitment matter?"

He probably had also received the news of the new group of graduates in town and took the initiative to ask.

"Exactly," Roland nodded, "since the Months of Demons this year came earlier, Timothy won't be able to disturb the Western Region. I'd like to scale up the army of Border Town in order to deal with the war next year and increase the number of factory workers at the same time."

"And, the City Hall as well." Barov added. "After the town is expanded into a city, your territory will be five to six times bigger. The City Hall will need more officers to manage such a vast land."

"No worries," the prince smiled and said, "you're not forgotten." He drew out a piece of paper and said while writing, "For the new group of 700 graduates, the City Hall will provide 20% of the graduates' jobs, and the acid plant 40%. The rest will be recruited by the steam engine plant and the bicycle plant, with at least 100 allocated to the latter. You may set the salary based on the previous standards, but that for acid factory workers can be a little bit higher. Try to fill all the vacancies quickly."

As for the soap and perfume plant, the main tasks were completed by the witches, and the ordinary people will only need to repeat a few simple operations. The workers there don't need to be literate, so there is no need to recruit graduates for them.

Roland believed that education could not only improve one's knowledge and vision, but also improve his sense of responsibility and sociality, which were exactly the significance of enlightenment. That was why advanced factories required large numbers of elementary educators, who knew their social attributes and the importance of cooperation, altruism and self-discipline better than the illiterate. This was critical to the fine work featuring many complex procedures.

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov replied. "How many people does the army need?"

"At least 1,000. Start recruiting from the newly promoted civilians and the refugees from the Eastern Region." Roland commanded. "As in the past, the City Hall issues the notices and the First Army is responsible for the reviewing and hiring."

"1,000... headcounts?" Barov startled and said, "This is equivalent to the amount of the current headcount of the first army, Your Highness. If they're equipped with the resources and weapons in accordance with the specifications of the First Army, the cost won't be low. "

"I have taken these into consideration. Just do it."

Knowing the danger of the demon's invasion, he naturally could not be planning as slow as before. Besides ruling the entire Western Region, the first task in the spring of the coming year was to completely defeat Timothy. As long as he wiped out the regime against him, the new town of the Western Region would become the veritable King's City even if the other areas were not seized. By then, both the expansion of population and the promotion of trade would be allowed, rather than be limited as it was currently.

However, the prince did not think Barov had to know the plan since all the latter needed to do was to arrange financial and material distribution.

After the City Hall Director left, the guards brought a new message.

Margaret's caravan had arrived.

Chapter 362 - Predicament

At the pier, more than 10 sailships were lined up in a column, with the top of their masts and their interlacing hemp ropes covered in snow, such that they looked like threads of clear silver. Refugees filed out of the cabins and rushed towards the large open space in front of the pier.

This was not the first time Border Town welcomed refugees from the Kingdom of Graycastle, and therefore the entire procedure seemed very orderly. Four lines of iron fence separated the crowd into two columns, which helped to control the crowd movement and prevented a stampede. On both sides of the fences, there were policemen carrying batons on patrol. Anyone who pushed his way through or attempted to climb the fence would be beaten. Although there was punishment, there was also reward—in order to comfort them after an arduous journey, the refugees would each receive a hot bowl of gruel when they passed through the railed passageway. In any case, filling up their stomachs before all else could effectively abate the refugees' fear and discomfort of being in a foreign land.

This time, aside from the policemen, First Army soldiers, and City Hall officials, Nightingale and Sylvie also took part in the inspection to locate the drug users who were planted in the crowd by Timothy. Under the surveillance of the Eye of Magic, pills and snow powder had nowhere to be hidden.

"Thank you for all that you've done for Western Region." Roland looked away from the crowd and said to Margaret beside him. "If it wasn't for your fleet, these people would've to spend the winter in the slums of other cities."

"It was rare for Your Highness to ask me for help in such an urgent tone of voice, and naturally I had to do my best." She laughed. "However, many sailors were unwilling to set sail in the heavy snow, and hence I was only able to pool together these 13 sailships."

"It's better than not even one." Roland puffed out a white breath. After he learned that there were still large numbers of refugees held up in Silver City, Redwater City and Willow Town, he sent a letter of help to Margeret's Chamber of Commerce, hoping that it could deploy a fleet of sailships to help him transport the refugees.

Although 13 was a smaller number than he expected, all of the refugees could be transported by making the sailships take two extra trips. Assuming that each sailship could accommodate 100 people, and each trip to and fro required an estimated two weeks, the 3,000 stranded refugees would take roughly a month and a half to be transported. Because the gold royals brought along by a small platoon of the First Army were insufficient to last for this entire duration, therefore, on the last return journey, the sailships had to transport food and winter clothing as well. Roland did not wish to see the refugees carry their hopes of a better life on board the ships yet eventually fail to reach the destination.

Thanks to Lightning, Margaret calculated the transportation costs to be two times the normal daily rate. Any other merchant would have considered this to be a foolish transaction, as the transportation costs alone exceeded the value of the goods. On average, it cost one gold royal per two people, which, according to the current market price, would be enough to purchase several strong and high-quality slaves. Margaret had initially expressed her doubts to Roland, but he was insistent on bringing these people over to the Western Region.

From the moment the refugees stepped on board the ships together with the emissary delegation, they were considered subjects of the Western Region, and it was in line with his duty to provide them with asylum. Furthermore, in Roland's eyes, the value of these refugees was far greater than that of slaves. After receiving education and training, and eventually given employment, the wealth they would create through their jobs would be immeasurable.

...

Returning back to the reception room of the castle, Roland ordered the kitchen to prepare a hot pottage for Margaret. "Drink this, it'll make your limbs feel much warmer."

"Thank you for your kindness." The businesswoman scooped up a spoonful of the soup and sniffed. "There seems to be White Liquor in it."

"Indeed." He laughed, "In addition, there's also pepper and honey, and the base is chicken soup. Spirit is always an excellent drink to dispel the cold, and when heated with chicken soup, it becomes even more delicious. The other seasonings are added to cover the pungent taste, as well as add flavor and a little spice to the soup, such that even a person who rarely drinks alcohol will find it palatable.

Margaret slowly drank the pottage and finished it with a loud burp. "That's great. Every time I'm on the way to your place, I'm filled with anticipation, never knowing what novelty is in store. It's a pity that next year I'll probably be unable to visit you."

"Are you referring to a trading opportunity?" Roland subtly caught the meaning in her words.

The businesswoman nodded, "Timothy has decreed a ban on saltpeter trade, and therefore, sales are prohibited not only to King's City, but also Silver City and Redwater City. Aside from supplying at a low price to the Alchemist Workshop, the only other customers are the nobility in the city.

Roland frowned.

"Furthermore, according to a piece of news that I heard from a City Hall source, Timothy is planning to blockade the Western Region. It won't be just saltpeter, but also merchants, which will be stopped at the frontier of Redwater City. When the time comes, not only Border Town, but also Longsong Stronghold and Willow Town will be affected. Although many nobles have expressed opposition, it's unlikely that Timothy will revoke his order." She shook her head in resignation, "From next year onwards, I'll not only be unable to ship saltpeter and ingots over here, but even the steam engine trade will probably be suspended."

"I must have pushed him too far, or he wouldn't have issued a decree that's so damaging to the royalty." Roland silently thought. "Before completing the centralization of authority, hasty interference in the trading activities of other territories is always likely to evoke the resistance and defiance of the lords and nobles. Even if Timothy sends his own troops to blockade the land and river routes, the troops would easily be eliminated by assassins covertly sent by the local lords—just let him try to enforce this policy for a year and a half."

However, trade was the lifeblood of Border Town. Let alone a year... even half a year of blockade was a huge no-no. Saltpeter was a material used in large-scale acid production, and before the problem of synthetic ammonia was solved, it remained an irreplaceable component. If supply was cut off, the 152 mm artillery would become useless, and the reloading of the new repeating rifles would also be massively delayed.

However, compared to weapons, the prohibition of the steam engine trade was even more destructive. At present, the amount of gold royals stored in the City Hall's vaults was not much. A portion of revenue was used in infrastructure projects and increasing the number of jobs, while another portion was distributed as pay to the townspeople and recollected through the sale of food, convenience goods and housing. This economic model necessitated a continuous injection of gold royals into the market, which had to be at least equal in amount to the wealth created by the subjects.

At present, Border Town remained in a state of primitive accumulation and also did not issue credit. If the revenue from the steam engine trade was lost, finances might dry up to the point that pay cannot be issued to the people, and a full economic meltdown would follow.

In any case, the interruption of funds was absolutely unacceptable.

"This situation won't last long." Roland spread his arms, "I believe that you'll soon be able to visit our town again... no, when that time comes, you'll see a brand new city."

Margaret was slightly surprised, "Are you planning to build a city here?"

"Indeed, after the Months of the Demons." He smiled. "Also, I plan to set up a trade shipping route that connects directly to the fjords. Instead of passing through Seawindshire or Port of Clearwater, it'll set out directly from the Western Region towards the Fjord Islands. Will you be interested to participate in this?"

Chapter 363 - New Trading Route

"Setting out from the... Western Region?" Margaret asked curiously. "I didn't know that there's a good harbor that leads to the sea here."

"There isn't yet, but we can build one."

Her eyes widened, "Your Highness, are you serious?"

"Of course. By next spring, we should be able to begin the construction." Roland smiled and said.

In this era, harbors were, without exception, natural. Construction projects which required transforming the natural landscape, such as man-made harbors, were practically impossible.

However, now that he had obtained Tilly's full support, he simply had to wait until the housing construction in Sleeping Island was completed, after which Lotus would come back to the Western Region, and furthermore, the crisis caused by the demonic beasts should have subsided by then. It would then be a suitable time to start work on the harbor.

He stood up and pointed to a map that was hung behind him. "In the south of Border Town, there's a shore where the depth of water is ideal and the surface area is highly suitable, sufficient to accommodate all of the facilities required by the harbor. By making only a few modifications, and also flattening the ridges along the coast, I'll be able to transport goods from the inland of Western Region to the harbor."

"Modifying the shore... and flattening the ridges? Why is it that when you speak of these astonishing plans, I seem to get the impression that they are not difficult at all?" Margaret said with interest. "However, do you have a merchant fleet? You should know that sea ships and inland river ships are very different."

"At the moment, no." Roland spread his hands. "This is also one of the reasons why I hope that you'll participate."

"I'll provide the ships?"

"And also be responsible for shipping and selling," he added, "while Western Region will only provide the goods."

This was equivalent to possessing the exclusive dealership in the fjord region, and with her experience, Margaret could smell the potential profits. If he created his own merchant fleet and sold goods to the Fjords himself, the profits would be higher, but Roland did not want to expend too much energy and manpower in this area. He simply wanted to obtain some funds as soon as possible, in order to maintain the rapid development of his territory. After the primitive accumulation was completed, it would only be a matter of time before he introduced credit.

As expected, the businesswoman blinked her eyes and excitedly asked, "You're entrusting it all to me?"

"If the price is reasonable." Roland nodded. "If you're willing to take care of Western Region's overseas trade, we can discuss the details right now. The selling area is limited to the Fjords, and the selling price must not be lower than the price at which we're currently selling to the Crescent-Moon-Bay Caravan."

"That's for sure. The steam-powered boat, which doesn't rely on wind power to sail continuously, has alone made it worth it for maritime trading teams to compete for and buy goods at high prices." She said in a highly assured voice, "If selling directly to the Fjord Islands, I'm confident of doubling the price."

"We can share the excess profits together." Roland laughed. "And, aside from the steam engine, there's also another major product." He clapped his hands, and a guard who was waiting outside the hall immediately walked in with a plate in hand. On top of the plate was four or five gleaming crystal bottles, and each of them was only about the size of a thumb.

"This is..."

"Open it and smell."

Feeling curious, Margaret pulled the cork from the top of the bottle and sniffed. Her eyes immediately lit up. "My gosh, you actually created perfume!"

"I wonder, how is it compared with the perfume created by the Alchemist Workshop in King's City?"

"The fragrance seems to be stronger." She raised up and scrutinized the bottle, seeming very fond of it. "Was this manufactured by the Alchemist Workshop in Border Town?"

"More or less." Roland also took a bottle and placed it in his palm. In accordance with his demands, the perfume bottles were made by firing crystals of excellent transparency, and each of them had the same hexagonal prism shape. By spinning the bottle gently under light, the perfume inside the bottle would change into various shades of color, and looked extremely aesthetically pleasing. If the sales concept of later generations was anything to go by, exquisite packaging could greatly increase the quality of the product itself. As the perfume served as the hit product to open up the Fjords' market, he naturally took great care with every aspect.

Compared to the steam engine, the perfume could be described as real low-cost goods. When Evelyn realized that "the spiciest White Liquor" was also a type of liquor, she started to continually produce liquors with very high concentrations and even skipped the final step of distillation. As for roses and other flowers with unique smells, they were made into various oil products by Leaf. By mashing only two or three stalks of flowers, it produced sufficient fragrance to fill a bottle of liquor.

"If you like, I'll give these few bottles to you." He placed the perfume back on the plate.

"Really?" Margaret smiled, "Then I shall not be courteous."

"I heard that this thing can be sold in the Fjords at a high price?"

"You should know, the Alchemist Workshop in King's City sells only a very limited stock of perfumes every year. The thousand or so bottles don't come anywhere close to fulfilling the demand. In fact, of the perfumes sold in other regions, a large portion is bought by maritime merchants and resold in the Fjords."

Margaret paused after she said this. "I wonder, how many bottles of perfume can your Alchemist Workshop produce a year?"

"If there's sufficient material, it should be approximately ten times the amount produced by the Alchemist Workshop in King's City." Roland deliberately downplayed the actual figure. He did not want to sell this highly profitable good as if it was cabbage, or earn only four or five thousand gold pieces a year. Along with the steam engine, the perfume served as his hit product, and Roland hoped that it would be able to bring back a similar profit.

"..." The businesswoman remained silent for a long while before she heaved, "Your territory is truly full of the unexpected."

"So, does that mean you're willing to manage the sales of these goods?"

"Of course, Your Highness." She stood up and bowed to Roland. "I find this to be a rare opportunity."

...

After a general agreement was reached, the specific details and contractual terms were handed over to Barov to negotiate. Roland returned to his office and prepared to write a letter to Theo, who was hiding in King's City.

Whether to initiate an attack and overthrow Timothy, or to open up a new trading route, a fine balancing act was required. Roland did not want to put all his eggs in one basket. He hoped that even if the attack failed, he could continue to obtain saltpeter.

And the way to do this was self-production.

In the letter, aside from mentioning his intention to attack, he made a point to encourage Theo to contact the nitre plants in the surrounding areas of King's City and purchase a batch of nitre workers to send to Western Region.

This year, life was certainly not rosy for saltpeter merchants. Apart from prohibiting exports, Timothy also forced the merchants to sell at a low price to Alchemist Workshop. As a result, the profits of saltpeter fields naturally sank. Roland believed that as long as the pay was good enough, it would not be a problem to obtain entire factories' worth of workers.

The principle of saltpeter production was not complicated. At present, the population of Border Town was continually increasing, and could already satisfy the large amount of faeces required by the saltpeter fields. All of the conditions for self-production were fully met. Before defeating Timothy, this was undoubtedly one of the most stable guarantees.

Chapter 364 - Double Image

...

The snow outside was becoming heavier again. Snowflakes that were the size of a fingernail fell from the sky and covered Border Town. Gray elves danced in the wind and descended towards the land together, where they blended in with the white roofs and tree branches. In all probability, witnessing such a scene made one feel nothing but cold.

Yet, the more it was so, the warmer Tilly felt.

She leant back on her deckchair, with half of her body covered by a soft woolen blanket, and her legs extended towards a fire barrel. This convenient device for warming oneself was invented by Roland. A charcoal brazier was placed inside a square barrel, which was arranged in line with a chair separated by a horizontal wooden plank. It was different to a blazing bonfire, which could cause burns if one got too close, yet did not provide much heat if one was far away. By placing one's feet on the wooden plank, one could safely enjoy the warmth of the charcoal fire from a close distance. And by additionally tucking into a blanket, one's entire body would feel warm.

The swirling snow outside the window accentuated the cosiness of indoors, and the sense of bliss created by this contrast was deeply memorable.

She had to say that the treatment that the witches received in Border Town was completely different from one year ago. Understandably, the witches did not wish to leave as even she herself was immensely enjoying the stay.

Apart from her, Anna and Agatha were also staying in the room. This was originally Anna's bedroom, and whenever there was a rare downtime, Tilly would bring her books to the room and seek advice from Anna for things she did not understand. At first, there were only the two of them, but now, there was also an ancient witch who had awakened from the ruins. Anna simply moved the fire barrel from beside the table to an empty space in the room and asked Roland to install two more deckchairs. The three of them sat around the fire barrel with their legs resting on each other, and together they learned eye-opening and arcane knowledge.

Of course, most of the time, Tilly and Agatha asked questions while Anna answered.

"It's hard to believe that a book like this could be written by a mortal." Agatha closed the cover of Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, and inhaled deeply. "The more I read, the more I realize that the world is the way it is. Amidst the mass chaos there are hidden rules, and everything operates according to the same rules. If he was born in Taquila, the Union would certainly accept him as a member, and there's a chance that he'll possess the same status as a Senior Witch."

At first, she asked many questions regarding the book's contents, but through Anna's detailed explanations, Agatha's attitude towards Roland changed significantly.

However, Tilly believed that this change was only directed towards Roland, while together, they continued to see other mortals as extremely dull and stupid.

As she thought of this, Tilly sighed uncontrollably. Only she knew that all of this knowledge did not originate from Roland Wimbledon but another person who suddenly appeared in his mind.

Through these few days of contact, as well as Sylvie's supporting evidence, Tilly was able to confirm this explanation. However, it would be impossible for them to prove he was still Roland Wimbledon. What was even more suspicious was that he did not know where this portion of memory came from or who it belonged to. It was hard to believe that memory could be completely separated from his life, or at least, she herself was unable to do so. As long as he recalled in his mind the knowledge of the court mentor and professor, the relevant segments of memory would flash in front of his eyes.

"Where exactly did he acquire all of this knowledge from?" Agatha sighed and said, "I had thought that the mortals' research has been extensive, but after these few days of observation, it seems that there's not much difference from 400 years ago—and perhaps even a little behind."

"I don't know either." Tilly shrugged. "In any case, the knowledge couldn't have been acquired in the palace."

"How was he like in the past?"

This question made Anna raise her head.

"In the past..." Tilly hesitated for a moment. "He was arrogant, cowardly, bigoted, ignorant, unskilled and terrible... His only merit was probably that he didn't make use of his status as a prince to commit any atrocious act."

"Oh... so, he was equal to other mortals?"

"No. Even among mortals, he was considered a terrible fella." She said, grumbling, "Though he improved after coming here, it's still never clear what he's thinking... He would always hold back his words and yet wanted people to trust him. How is that possible?"

The room suddenly quietened.

"What's the matter?" Tilly sensed something odd in the other two's eyes.

"No... Nothing." Anna smiled with her mouth closed. "This is the first time I've heard you speak about this."

"Damn, she only now realized that she had spoken too much. This kind of complaint shouldn't be coming from an ally. It was probably because in recent days she had been too relaxed." She tried to explain. "What I mean is..."

"It's OK, His Highness wouldn't care." Anna shook her head and laughed. "He probably has his own reasons."

"Roland..." Tilly hesitated briefly and asked, "didn't mention these to you before?"

"No," Anna said casually, "I haven't asked him either. If he wanted to talk about it, he would."

"Indeed," Tilly sighed in mind. The first time that Anna met the prince, he was already a changed person, and hence it was meaningless to consider this question.

"From what you said, he was a totally different person in the past?" Agatha asked with interest. "There used to be a saying in the Quest Society that the more uncommon a person is, the more distinct quirks he has. Perhaps this kind of change is a normal occurrence. While in the palace, did Roland howl at the moon, or spend a long time staring and gesturing at the wall?"

"What kind of quirks are these?" Tilly could not help but shake her head. "Apart from being a little eccentric in the way he did things, he was no different from ordinary people. However... I heard people mention that once during a court lesson, he publicly exclaimed that he would marry a witch, and probably because of these words, Gerald and Timothy constantly picked on him in the name of purifying the Devil's minions, while his own father was also unhappy with the behavior. After that, his personality became more and more stubborn and unruly."

"He was discriminated against because he wanted to marry a witch?" Agatha curled her lips. "This was a noble goal in Taquila. Of course, the number of people who were successful to do this was very small, because most witches were unwilling to spend their lives with only one man."

"But we're different from 400 years ago. If he married a witch, it would mean that he wouldn't have children to succeed him. How could his father feel good about such an idea?" Tilly sighed, "It has already been more than 10 years. He has most probably already forgotten those silly words."

"Is it?" Anna spoke suddenly, "But now he's still willing to marry a witch."

"Oh, he still remembers? Wait..." Tilly's eyes widened uncontrollably. "You said now?"

"Yes," Anna laughed gently, "His Highness said so himself."

Tilly suddenly froze.

Chapter 365 - The Journey to the West

Petrov yawned, sat up in his bed, and immediately felt a chill run through his upper body. He would stay in his bed forever if he could, where it was warm and had Shirley's company.

"Don't you want to sleep a little more?" The woman beside him turned over and mumbled groggily, "It's still early, isn't it?"

He bent over and kissed her forehead—Shirley had brown hair that fell in soft ringlets, skin as smooth as a baby's, and a pair of lovely round eyes. When he first met her at the Longsong Theatre, it took no more than a glance for him to be completely drawn by her eyes.

"I think it's almost noon, so I should head downstairs to see if there is any official business to attend to." Petrov whispered. "Go back to bed if you don't want to get up, and I'll have attendants bring lunch to you a while later."

"But I want you to stay here with me." Shirley wrapped her arm around his waist. "It's snowing outside anyways, so what official business could there be?"

She wasn't wrong. Ever since the Months of Demons arrived, the entire city immediately fell silent. Theater performances became weekly, all the merchants left the markets, and even the taverns shut their doors. If someone had walked on the streets during the day, he might have even thought this was a ghost town.

So... should he sleep for a little longer? After pursuing Shirley for nearly a year, Petrov's dream finally came true, and he felt a little reluctant to leave. Yesterday's entire night of joy really wore him out, and now that he had regained his strength, perhaps there could be a second round of joy with Shirley after lunch.

Right at this moment, a knocking came from outside the bedroom.

"Sir Petrov, there is a blue-envelope letter."

He was shocked and immediately rolled out of bed, picked up the robe that was carelessly tossed on the ground, and draped it on. "I'll be there in a second."

"Sir?" Shirley murmured.

"Give me a minute." Petrov said as he tied his belt hurriedly and left the bedroom. After a while, he returned to the bedroom and crawled into the quilt holding a letter encased in a blue envelope.

"What's this? Who wrote this to you?" At this point, the woman was basically wide awake. She yawned and sat up to lean against Petrov.

"It's from Border Town." Petrov replied. "It must be a letter written by His Highness."

He opened the envelope and took out the letter, and as he quickly scanned its contents, he couldn't help but frown. "His Highness orders me to pay a visit to Border Town."

"Right now?" Shirley exclaimed. "Even in this weather?"

"Yes, it must be about something urgent." Petrov sighed, "I'll pack later and leave in the afternoon. You should go home for now, and I'll visit you as soon as I get back." He couldn't help but think of the time a year ago when he sailed through a blizzard to Border Town, bearing the warning from Longsong Stronghold for Duke Ryan. Yet now, he was summoned back to that god-awful place because of a letter from the town Lord in a cruel twist of fate.

"Can't you just pretend you didn't receive it?" She said, annoyed. "Even though he conquered the Longsong Stronghold, you're the actual ruler here. Even if it were the King's order, you didn't have to immediately carry it out, right?"

If it were from the Duke, it would have been possible. However, Petrov knew Prince Roland's impatience full well. He could only lovingly stroke her head. "That's not the same. The King might not pay attention to the Western Region, but His Highness Roland can... He isn't only the Lord of Border Town, but the ruler of the entire Western Region."

...

During the Months of Demons, there truly wasn't much official business to attend to in Longsong Stronghold. After delegating a few tasks to his underlings and placing the town under his father Earl Hull's charge, Petrov left the castle. Different from last time when he was only accompanied by one assistant, this time he sailed on the Duke's private ship—the Lionheart, with more than ten attendants and apprentices, as well as two family knights. It was quite a spectacular scene.

Just as they were passing through the outer city and heading towards the Stronghold harbor, sounds of an uproar coming from the street corner caught Petrov's attention.

He saw ten or so men in a circle watching something. Judging from their dress, they were all civilians. They were probably attracted from their homes nearby by the noise. A few cries of "demon" also occasionally erupted from the circle. "Hang her!" Someone screamed sharply.

Petrov felt a twinge of sympathy and told one of his knights, "Go check it out. If it's a regular brawl, tell them to get back into their houses."

"Yes, Sir."

The knight pushed through the people and walked into the middle of the crowd. As he pulled out his swords, the crowd quickly dissipated. He brought back a woman and two children, one of which still had a rope tied around her neck.

"What happened?"

"Sir!" The woman knelt next to Petrov's feet. "Kill her immediately! She has fallen to temptation and become a witch!"

This word shocked Petrov. "Witch?" He cast his sight onto the other two people. The slightly taller boy immediately stood in front of the girl and looked as if he was ready to attack. His face was badly bruised, revealing that he had been beaten brutally. "She isn't the demon's minion! I saw in plays that there were both good and bad witches. Why do you punish her?"

"Are you certain she's a witch?" Petrov ignored the boy and continued asking the woman.

"Yes, Sir. Don't be fooled by the plays. If the Church were still here, it would have never allowed them to spread such lies on stage. This thing here is also a little demon, and I was punishing her on behalf of the Church. Sir, hang her right now so that the influence of Hell won't spread in Longsong!"

"Get to the point!" Petrov snapped.

After the woman had jabbered on for quite some time, Petrov finally understood the whole story. After the church was burned down by Timothy, this woman and some other believers continued preaching of their own accord in the outer city, and at the same time waited for the Holy City of Hermes to send a new priest to rebuild the Western Region's church. This chaos happened out of pure coincidence. Just as the girl was using her abilities to help her neighbors clear out the snow on their roofs, the woman ran into her, which led to the debacle at hand.

While she was talking, the woman kept complaining about the absurdity of primary education and the demoralization of theater performances, which led to the onlookers only dared to hold onto the boy but not help her kill the damned demon. If it were in the old days, her corpse would have already been hung on a beam... These hateful words made Petrov's face twitch.

"Take her back and interrogate her thoroughly." He spoke to his knight. "You'll stay in the Stronghold this time. When I come back, I expect all the disciples similar to her to be in prison."

"What... no! Sir, how could you..." The woman had not even finished protesting before she was silenced by a few slaps across the face from the knight.

"Are you really a witch?" Petrov asked the terrified little girl. "Show me your abilities."

The girl could only kneel weakly on the ground and gave no response.

Petrov shook his head, raised his voice, and repeated, "If you can prove that you are really a witch, I'll let you go."

After a long time, the girl stuck her trembling hands in the snow. Soon, a layer of snow that was nearly an inch thick melted into flowing icy water.

"So I see." Petrov nodded. "Come with me."

"Come?" The girl raised her head. "Where to go?"

"A place fit for witches to live." He motioned for his servant to pick up the girl and continued walking to the harbor.

"Put her down, you liar! You promised to let her go! " The boy wanted to rush towards her, but he was blocked by the other attendants, and his voice faded slowly into the distance.

Chapter 366 - Paper

After the snowfall during the Months of the Demons, the Redwater River became the only path in the entire Western Region that could still be traveled.

Compared to the small sailboat Petrov used before, the Lionheart was much more spacious. It had room for a simple kitchen, so that even during travels, the passengers could eat piping hot food.

His bedroom naturally was the single bedroom at the cabin that the Duke used to live in, the poop deck of the boat. It had windows that allowed Petrov to see the currents and chunks of ice floating under his feet.

"Milord, the egg soup you demanded." The knight carried a clay jar and a ceramic bowl into his room.

"Thanks for the trouble." Petrov nodded and said. "You should sit down and have a bowl too to warm yourself up."

After His Highness drafted all the knights of the other four noble families to Border Town, the first thing those nobles did was to send over their families as well. All the empty lands left behind were used for soliciting new knights, or directly taken up by the nobles themselves.

Only the Honeysuckle Family didn't suffer too many losses in this war, actually managing to expand swiftly after they were placed in charge of Longsong Stronghold. Now, they were high above the other four families and still owned a relatively complete platoon of knights. Seth, the knight next to him, was a member of this platoon. Although he was not as well-known as the Morning Light, he was still one of the more outstanding young knights.

"Yes, Milord." He smiled, opened the lid of the jar, and poured a bowl of soup for Petrov. "But... Milord, do you really think this is alright?"

"Are you talking about the witch?"

"Yes. Even though the church was burned down, it's pretty easy to rebuild it, and the church will surely return to the Western Region someday. If you place all the blame on Prince Roland, there won't be anything they can do to you. However, you rescued a witch in public and arrested the believers of the church..." The knight hesitated and continued, "That's publicly opposing them."

"If it's so easy to rebuild it, then why is that place still a pile of rubble?" Petrov blew on his fragrant egg soup. "The church won't ever come back to the Western Region again."

Seth blinked confusedly and didn't seem convinced.

After the egg soup had slightly cooled, Petrov took a little sip and huffed a breath of fog in satisfaction. "As an administrative representative, my most important duty is to figure out the true intentions of my superior. The real purpose of His Highness' efforts to normalize education in the Stronghold, utilize the newly trained Border Town soldiers, and act out plays with obvious messages was to weaken the church's influence. Since I'm the caretaker of the Stronghold under His Highness, I have to follow his intentions in governing this area. If I can't even figure this out, he'll probably replace me with someone else." Petrov shrugged. "Preventing the church from being rebuilt is as easy as lifting a hand—the stonemasons and carpenters should have all gotten their warnings. Even if the believers want to rebuild the church on their own, the Rats won't let these artisans work for them."

"But the church..."

"Since His Highness did it, he's not afraid of the church's retribution, which is to say that he's confident that he can fend off the church. If they can still set foot in the Western Region, it'll mean the prince has failed. If he fails, I won't be able to sit on the Stronghold throne anymore and the point will be moot. This I think you can understand."

"Do you think Prince Roland can defeat the church's army?" Sise asked.

"Who knows?" Petrov shook his head, smiling. "A year ago, no one thought that he could fend off Duke Ryan's knights." He stood and lifted up the jar. "I'll go check on the little girl, she may be hungry."

...

The girl's name was Paper.

There was no doubt that only an orphan could have such a meaningless name.

Ever since she boarded the boat, she'd stayed silently in the cabin under the deck. Even when her hands were frozen and red and her body was trembling in the cold, she didn't make a sound. For safety reasons, Petrov still placed a God's Locket of Retribution onto her. Although His Highness kept claiming that witches were just like normal people, he still didn't fully believe that someone with such extraordinary powers could be like a normal person—even the slightest wrong move could end up with someone being hurt.

"Why aren't you lying in the blanket?" Petrov pointed at the hammock hanging in the cabin. Cabin space was limited, so sailors usually slept in suspended hammocks, and used coarse linen blankets. Although it wasn't the most comfortable thing, it was still warm.

"I'll get it dirty," she whispered.

"Sailors can't be any cleaner than you are." He found a relatively dry spot and sat down. "This journey takes three days. Are you just going to sit like this the entire time? I'm worried that you'll starve to death before we even reach Border Town."

"Border Town?" Paper stared in confusion.

"Didn't I tell you? You're going to a place fit for witches to live in." Petrov opened the jar. "Drink some hot soup and go lie on the hammock."

This time, the girl did not refuse. It was obvious that she was starved as she began drinking directly from the jar without any fear burning her tongue.

Petrov shook his head. She was as skinny as a monkey, her hair was matted with dirt, and there were holes all over her clothes, which she probably found somewhere. At a glance, she seemed no different from all the other orphans in the Stronghold.

"Who's he, the boy protecting you?" He asked, "Your orphan friend?"

"Snaketooth. He... often brought us... food to eat," Paper swallowed the soup, stuck out her tongue, and mumbled. "If I go with you, you won't... arrest him, right? He's not... a witch."

"Of course," Petrov said expressionlessly. "He isn't important." The phrase "often brought us food to eat" slightly surprised him. There were few people like that boy in the slums. Usually, a lack of food pushed people to steal from each other—people who were already struggling to survive rarely had the energy to worry about others. And the name Snaketooth... sounded a bit like a Rat.

At that thought, he couldn't help but ask, "You said 'us' - were there other witches besides you?"

"No." Paper shook her head. "All of the others were just orphans."

This relieved Petrov a little. "So what was that old bat talking about when she said you were using your abilities to clear snow? This's the first time I've heard about a witch who used her abilities in public."

"It was Snaketooth's idea. He said that I could help the residents clear the snow on their roofs in exchange for food, so no one would go hungry. The theater puts on stories about witches all the time, so no one is afraid of witches now. As long as I'm willing to do it, he can negotiate with the adults."

"It is that so." Petrov thought, the corners of his mouth curling into a smirk. "This kid is quite interesting. He knew how to make the most of his resources, but he underestimated the church's influence." Then, he asked, "So, did you get food in exchange?"

"Um..." Paper bowed her head. "I cleaned three roofs. One family chased me away, while the other two gave me half a loaf of bread and a pancake. However, when I got to the fourth..."

She met that hateful old woman. Petrov patted her head. "Get some rest when you're done drinking. I'll send someone to get you when it's dinnertime."

Three days later, the Lionheart arrived in the harbor of Border Town.

Chapter 367 - The First Step to Building the City

Petrov stepped out of his cabin and was surprised that he was not greeted with the smell of rotting wood. There was a newly built bridge next to the boat, and the harbor had doubled in size and thudded instead of creaking when stepped on—he could tell that the planks had been laid sturdily and that the material was of great quality.

After leaving the harbor, a few uniformed guards immediately walked over. The leader of the group gave the family crest hanging on the Lionheart's flagpole an once-over and asked, "Are you... Sir Hull of the Honeysuckle Family?"

"Yes." Petrov nodded, feeling quite important. "I am Petrov Hull, and I came here at His Highness' invitation."

"Lord Iron Axe has already told us about you. Please come with me." The guard waved his hand.

"We're walking?" Petrov was shocked.

"Yes. All the stables have been demolished," the guard smiled apologetically and said. "Don't worry. The town roads are in great condition."

Petrov soon understood what the guard meant by "great condition".

The road was smooth and wide, and all the snow had been cleared so that there were barely even any puddles. It seemed to be paved with many little black stones that had tiny spaces between them and glistened with moisture. Furthermore, what surprised Petrov the most was that this wasn't the only road like this. There was an intersection every hundred steps. The roads were so straight and symmetrical that they seemed to be drawn on paper. During the half-hour walk, he didn't see a single bit of mud.

Petrov was stunned to find that this town looked completely different from the one in his memories.

"Sir, is this really... Border Town?" Seth stared at the scenery around him. "Wasn't it only a temporary living area for miners?"

"It used to be that way," the guard said, smiling, "but ever since His Highness arrived, everything has been changing. Take these roads for example, they were all built six months ago. Back then, there were thousands of people working together every day, so we could practically build a new one every month."

Petrov noticed a strong tone of pride peeking through the guard's voice, as if he felt proud to be a member of the town.

But... this was so unbelievable! Neat rows of trees bordered every road, which he imagined to form a beautiful canopy of leaves to block out the scorching sun in summer. Then there were the houses—all the short mud huts and shabby wooden inns were nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were clean-cut brick buildings with two to three stories that all shared a similar style. They obviously must have all been built by the same group of stonemasons.

How could he possibly transform a poor little town in only one year?

The shocked and confused Petrov followed the guards into the castle grounds. His guide was replaced by an armored knight, while his attendants were left to wait outside the castle walls.

When he stepped into the Lord's castle, Petrov finally felt the same as he did one year ago.

It seemed that not much had changed here. Compared to the Stronghold castle, the prince's was still much smaller.

The knight pushed open the door to the hall and made a motion for him to enter. Petrov immediately saw the prince sitting on the throne.

It was His Highness Roland Wimbledon.

"Welcome to Border Town," Roland said with a smile, "Mr. 'Ambassador'."

It seemed the prince hadn't changed much. For some reason, Petrov felt relieved. He raised his hand to his chest and bowed solemnly. "The Honeysuckle Family pays you our respects, Your Highness."

"Have a seat." The prince nodded. "I call you here because of a very important matter. It concerns the future of the entire Western Region, Longsong Stronghold naturally also included."

"Please, go ahead."

"I plan to build a city here, which will extend westward to the Misty Forest, eastward to Longsong Stronghold, and it'll include half of the Western Region in its bounds. From then on, the Stronghold will be an eastern fortress for the new city and the first line of defense against the church's army instead of an independent city like it is now," Roland said in a methodical manner. "In such a vast and expansive region, it's important to pass the same laws everywhere and centralize their enforcement to the City Hall of the new city. No nobility can meddle in city affairs, which includes the five main noble families of the Western Region."

Petrov felt a sudden shock! A year ago, he had a similar idea to have Duke Ryan move the defense line against the demonic beasts to Border Town and utilize the space between the two towns. He would never have expected that the prince would use this method a year later with a much heavier hand. Turn Longsong Stronghold into a section of a city? He could only imagine how terrifyingly massive this city would be!

He felt an impulse to question the prince, but stifled his words—if the prince was telling this to him, it meant he had already made up his mind, and no one would be able to stop him from carrying out his plan.

Petrov didn't dare to challenge the prince. Duke Ryan's fiasco was forever burned in his mind and made him believe that this man with gray hair was unbeatable... at least by him. The only thing he could do was to reap as much profit as possible during this immense change.

"You said that the five noble families can't meddle in city affairs, so how can the Honeysuckle Family continue to serve you?"

The prince was silent for such a long time that Petrov began to feel uneasy. Then, he chuckled and said, "You've really surprised me, Mr. Ambassador. Both your asking to ransom the Stronghold and your positive attitude right now are wise and calculated decisions that are rarely seen made by nobles."

After a few words of praise, his smile faded, and he said seriously, "As long as the Honeysuckle Family is willing to accept my rule, you can continue to assist me to govern the Longsong region."

"Both my father and I will always do as you wish—"

"I'm not talking about individuals—I'm talking about the whole area," Roland interrupted. "From now on, the nobilities under my rule will have the ownership of their land, but not the right to govern it—whether it is regarding the law, law enforcement, or other policies, they'll all have to defer to the decrees of the City Hall."

"Um..." Petrov hesitated.

"Land can still be passed on through family lineage, just like titles. Any industries that your family conducts, such as farming or craftsmanship, will also belong to the Honeysuckles along with your land. That's your indisputable right, and I promise you my blessing. Aside from governing rights, nothing will change about the land you own. It might even flourish under new policies." The prince continued. "Of course, you can also choose to return to your land and continue to live as a feudal lord. However, when I finish building my new city and begin expanding, any land I conquer won't belong to its original owner anymore."

Chapter 368 - Filling in the Gaps

...

"Do you really think he'll agree?" asked Nightingale after Petrov left, whispering into Roland's ear.

"I'm not sure. In addition, even if he does, he'll still need to persuade Count Hull for it to be of any use," said Roland as he took a sip of his hot tea, "If his father still insists on his position as a noble, then there'll be nothing we can do."

"You can't bear to see him go, can you?" she teased.

"Of course not." Roland pursed his lips. "As a noble, he's both intelligent and humble, as well as having a penchant for managing commerce. As long as he studies in Longsong Stronghold for a year or two, he'll definitely become an capable government official."

"If he manages to persuade Count Hull, you'll really hand the Royal Capital over for him to govern?"

"If I manage to conquer Graycastle, the capital will naturally need to be moved elsewhere... In addition, cities that are far from the Western Region will need to be managed by officials sent from the west. As such, the terms I laid out may have sounded fantastical but were nevertheless legitimate."

Towards the end of his conversation with Petrov, Roland informed him that from henceforth, he would not appoint any nobles. In fact, after consolidating Graycastle, he planned on establishing a brand new model for society throughout the kingdom based on that of Bordertown. He planned to consolidate and create a central government with a single word of law and judicial policy. Should Petrov decide to stay, Longsong Stronghold would be far from his final destination. Be it a mayor of a major city or chief bureaucrat of the new central government, neither was impossible for him.

As for how far he'll go in reality, it'll be up to none other than himself.

Roland sincerely hoped that Petrov would understand his implications and anticipations from the conversation just now.

"Alright then, it's not as if I understand these things anyway," Nightingale patted his shoulder and continued, "in any case, the new witch is coming over soon. It's best if you go elsewhere for a while."

"You're going to question her by yourself?"

"I'll call Wendy over." The sound of her laughter rang out beside him. "She's better at these things than I am."

The Witches Union for the sake of safety (a cause mainly championed by Scroll), had established a rule: prior to any further interactions with an unknown Witch, their identity had to first be confirmed by Nightingale. Doing this required her to enter her mist, and therefore also take off the God's Stone of Retaliation. Thus, it was best if Roland was not present, lest the outsider revolted and anything unexpected happened.

Scroll even managed to come up with a series of 10 questions specifically to determine one's identity, such as "Where are you from", "What is your real name", "Do you recognize the prince", "Do you hold any hostile intentions towards the prince", etc. Since Nightingale could only determine the veracity of someone's statements based on the target's own beliefs, this battery of true/false questions aimed to establish the target's true intentions without leaving any loopholes. Even if they could deceive her once or twice, there was no way they could pass every single question.

Roland didn't know whether to laugh or cry when this was brought up, but in consideration of the witches' good intentions, he could only go along with this plan.

　　...

After leaving the main hall, he returned to his office and immediately sent for City Hall Director Barov.

After reading Petrov's report on the discovery of new witches in Longsong Stronghold, Roland realized his oversight. Though he had sent Anna onto the ceremonial award stage and acknowledged the existence of witches in Border Town, no official decree ever explained their status and how they should be treated. Thus, Border Town might very well have a similar situation as the Stronghold, where a witch would hide herself upon awakening and lie unknown instead of revealing her talents.

The second Barov stepped into the room, Roland immediately ordered, "I'm declaring a long term recruitment drive, and the details are on this paper here."

Barov received the draft and took a cursory glance, "Your Majesty... you mean to recruit witches at a monthly salary of an entire gold royal each?"

"That's right," Roland nodded, "This is also the Witches Union's standard salary." A monthly salary of one gold royal in this era was for only the most prestigious of positions. Border Town's average salary and standard of living were already well beyond those of other cities, with the highest paid being the workers in the acid manufacturing plant at 20 silver royals. Yet, this new decree set the witches' wage at five times the current highest, cementing their position in society.

"Since you want to recruit more witches, why not send people to search for them?" asked Barov, "the same way you had the citizens report spies. After all, their eyes see more truth than anyone else's."

“Even my Director has learned to fight [The Peoples' War].” Roland mused, holding back the delight in his heart, "And should I offer a reward for finding them? What difference will there be between me and the church then?"

"But... you're doing this to recruit them, whereas the church means to hang them."

"Even if we say so, the witches forcibly exposed this way might think we're actually persecuting them. Though new witches in Border Town may have not experienced the persecution of the populace, the same cannot be said for those who have come from elsewhere," said Roland, declining Barov's proposal. "My hope is for them to stand forward of their own volition, for the sake of making their own contribution to Border Town."

In addition to the witches' own inhibitions, Roland was also worried about the effect declaring a reward would have on the populace, possibly creating a new wave of "witch hunters", or making witches out to be valuable "commodities" to be created and found. Giving birth to a witch would become more profitable than hard work, which though in the short term would elevate the witches' positions, but in the long term could easily hurt Border Town's "American Dream" that Roland had worked so hard to achieve.

Right after Barov left, Wendy immediately entered, placing the results of the investigation on his desk.

"Your Highness, we've confirmed her identity. There are no problems as her answers line up with what the Honeysuckle's eldest said."

"See," smiled Roland, "I told you guys you were being too careful."

"Nevertheless this level of caution is necessary," Wendy persevered, "Your Highness' personal safety will always be our first and foremost priority."

"Alright," said Roland, suddenly feeling a little touched, as he took a deep breath and said, "bring her here then."

The girl seemed around 15 years old, her dirtied hair a muddled brown, eyes brimming with timidity and slight panic. It seemed to be the first time she'd ever stepped foot into a carpeted room, as seen from her restless fidgeting as she tried to determine where to put her feet.

According to the information on the report, she called herself Paper and was born just outside of Longsong Stronghold. She became an orphan during a blizzard three years ago, a background shared by many of the street urchins in the western region. These orphans' fates were usually to either die scrounging for food, or join the underground street rats, becoming a pickpocket, thug or scapegoat.

"You..." Roland paused, unable to decide what to say. The girl was neither like Agatha, resilient and adaptable, nor like Anna, determined and firm of heart. Even Mystery Moon and Lily, whose situations most resembled hers, had the sisterhood and companionship of the Union. As a young girl in a completely new place, she was probably in a state of constant panic, and most likely required a lengthy period to acclimate to her new environment. From Petrov's report, her ability to melt snow was most likely related to the control of temperature.

“Anyway, there's no rush to test her ability, we can slowly learn about it as she becomes familiarized with this place.” With that thought, Roland turned to Wendy and said, "She must be exhausted from the long journey, why don't you take her for a bath first and let her rest awhile. Arrange for her to stay in the witches' building. As for any instructions she requires with respect to magic, I'll leave that to you, alright?"

"Of course," she smiled coyly, "As you wish."

Chapter 369 - Changes

Steam billowed out of the bathroom’s bathtub.

Wendy lathered the soap and rubbed it everywhere on the little girl’s body: behind the ears, under the arms, not even sparing the area between her fingertips. Upon seeing the layers of dirt intermixed with foam slide into the bathtub, revealing the tender skin underneath, Wendy felt an unprecedented amount of satisfaction.

It had been quite some time since Wendy experienced this feeling. Back in the days when the Witch Cooperation Association was still fleeing for its life, every close call or scare and every newly awakened witch that had given up all hope was made well again under her care, recovering a state of peaceful normalcy. Leaf, Lily, even Nightingale all found their hope with her help.

Yet, ever since they had come to Border Town, the witches’ lives had undergone a 180 degree change. No one had to worry anymore about any life necessities, as everything was now provided for them—of course, she had no problem with this, and was incredibly grateful for everything Roland had done for the sisters. It was merely the fact that there were no longer any witches that needed her care—even Mystery Moon had become open and carefree that led Wendy to feel a little frustrated.

Now, she finally once again had the opportunity to feel the joy of being a big sister.

"Close your eyes. I’m turning the water on."

"Okay," the little girl’s voice quietly slid out, soft and graceful like a droplet of morning dew.

It must be said, His Highness’ decision to give her a bath was truly genius.

The water ran past the girl’s bangs and trickled down her back, taking with it the now ashy brown foam. Only after rinsing her body three times did the color of the water turn back to normal.

Without any set of clothes to cover it up, the girl’s frail and emaciated body was completely revealed to Wendy’s eyes. "What a poor, skinny child," Wendy couldn’t help but think. Her spine could be seen protruding out of her back, her arm so thin that a single hand could easily grasp it, and her skin not white like her namesake but instead a pallid yellow revealing her years of living in hunger.

Luckily she was a witch, and as long as she was properly taken care of, it wouldn’t be long before she could recover.

After rinsing her body clean, it was time for them to enjoy a bath. Wendy first tested the temperature and then carried her into the bathtub, the water quickly submerging and enveloping them. Though the water was near scalding, after enduring the slight discomfort and acclimating, one would soon be able to savor the joy and comfort of being cradled by its warmth.

Paper involuntarily let out a low shout, most likely because it had been a long, long time since she was last able to bathe in hot water. She tightly grasped Wendy's hands, and then gradually loosened her grip. Wendy then spun her around so that the girl faced away from her, letting her sit in her lap as she meticulously began to parse through the little girl's twisted bun of hair, strand by strand.

"When did you find out you were a witch?"

"Two... two years ago," Paper quietly replied, "I think in the winter, just like now."

"That's not surprising." Wendy smiled and continued, "Most witches awaken during the Months of the Demons. According to rumor, it's during this period of time that magic power is most abundant."

"Isn't it demonic magic power?"

"Of course not," she patted the little girl's head and said, "becoming a witch is a very, very normal thing. Asides from having the abilities to do some things other people can't imagine, we are no different from your everyday normal person. You should know that several hundred years ago, witches were even viewed as those blessed by the gods.

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

“In reality, the difference between witches and mortals was quite large, such as their superhuman physical abilities and sterility,” thought Wendy as she replied, “but these things could be slowly taught to her at a later time.”

"Then, what’s magic power?" Paper asked shyly.

"Magic power is a type of natural energy, just like the sun's ever-present light." Wendy thought for a second. "Well, sort of. The sun has a time when it sets, but magic power is always there. All in all, you can regard it as an extension of yourself, an extension that's constantly growing."

"Constantly growing?"

"That's right, your magic power will grow as you do, becoming increasingly powerful. In order to accommodate its growth you must also increase the limits of your own body. Otherwise there will be a backlash." Wendy meticulously explained, "The church abused this very fact, claiming that witches were being devoured by the energy of the devil when in reality it couldn't be further from the truth. As long as you continuously practice your control of your powers, even if your magic power grows, there will be no need to worry about it harming your body. If you awakened two years ago, you must have already experienced a Day of Awakening already. Back then... it must have hurt a lot."

Paper gently nodded her head.

"Worry not though, now that you've arrived in Border Town, everything will be better." Wendy tenderly consoled her. "As long as you make the most of this time and practice, this year's Day of Awakening will be quick and painless."

Just as she was about to continue, the door to the bath was shoved open, revealing Lily running in with a towel in her hand.

"I heard there was a new sister? Where? Where? Mystery Moon's so anxious to see her!"

"It's obviously you who's anxious!" Mystery Moon, dragged all the way here by Lily, shot her a glare. "Why take a shower now? What if we have to use our abilities this afternoon?"

"Don't worry, there's no harm in resting for a day. His Highness probably won't need you for anything, after all, you're not Miss Anna."

"... You traitor!!"

Upon seeing the two barge in, Paper quickly shrunk her neck, the bottom half of her head submerging itself into the water.

"Oh, so this is the new witch?" Lily climbed to the edge of the bathtub and looked at Paper, eyes brimming with curiosity. "You look around the same age as me, but you can still call me big sister."

"Why would she call you big sister if she's around the same age as you?" Mystery Moon noisily interjected. "And how come you've never called me that?"

"They're both witches of Border Town," Wendy introduced with a smile. "You may think they are open, but when they first arrived here, they were both just like you... especially Mystery Moon, she wasn't much braver than you, always speaking with a very quiet and soft little voice."

“Ahem. I was just worried His Highness would look down on me for having such weak magic power." Mystery Moon mumbled to herself.

"His Highness has told me several times, your power has incredibly unexplored potential." Wendy shook her head. "As long as you finish reading and learning Elementary Physics, it might evolve into something surpassing your wildest dreams.”

"Forget the books. She doesn't even understand all the words yet. She barely even passed the last examination." Lily interjected, shrugging her shoulders. "She even came to me at night asking me to help her with her studies. By the time she's done learning all the weird theories and formulas in that book, His Highness Roland will probably have already conquered and unified all of Graycastle and won't even need the witches' help anymore." Ignoring Mystery Moon's annoyed expression, her gaze turned towards the girl sitting in Wendy's lap. "Oh, that's right. What kind of power does Paper have?"

"... Melting snow." The little girl pondered for a while before replying.

"Anything else?" Lily curiously asked, "Can you freeze the melted snow back into ice?"

"No," Paper meekly replied, "and also... also I can make hot water cool really fast."

"Temperature manipulation then?" Wendy mused and said, "But melting snow is adding heat, whereas cooling water is removing it, yet the two processes can't be reversed, so it's probably not temperature control. Have you only tried your power with water?"

"With other things, the difference is very small."

"Try using this." Lily held up a basin full of soapy water.

The little girl cautiously placed her hand into the basin. Very soon, the steaming hot water began to cool. Then, before everyone's eyes, a change occurred in the murky soap water. The soap bubbles on the surface began to disappear, the white kernels of soap also vanished into thin air, and the basin was once again filled with pristine, clear water.

Chapter 370 - Rhythm

Three days later, Roland received an affirmative answer from the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family.

"I'm willing to continue serving you, and so is the Honeysuckle Family," he said, bowing his head. "I'll convince my father—he's a little... different from the other families."

"Is that so." Roland suddenly felt quite cheerful. "That's great to hear."

"In the past few days, I've witnessed all the extraordinary changes that have taken place in your town, and I realized that this was the city I wished for all long," Petrov confessed. "If the Honeysuckle Family can flourish like this, Father won't mind merging with the new city."

This struck a chord in the Prince's heart. He originally only had two reasons for bringing Petrov here: The first was that it was more sincere to share such momentous news with Petrov in person, and the other was to observe his attitude towards the decree. Roland never imagined that Petrov would react this well. Roland nodded and said, "Of course. In time, every inch of land in the Kingdom of Graycastle will be home to the people."

"Then I must return to Stronghold as quickly as possible and relay this news to my father."

"Don't forget the other four noble families and all the nobles of the Western Region." Roland added, "Any family who wishes to accept my terms will be welcomed unconditionally into the new city, regardless of past conflicts. You can hold a banquet in the Stronghold to spread the word."

"You mean you want me to tell them?" Petrov asked, stunned.

"Yes," the prince said, smiling. "This time... you can act as my ambassador."

"Yes, Your Highness," the eldest of the Honeysuckles raised a hand to his chest and said.

Just as he was about to leave, Roland stopped him and said, "By the way, you did a great job with the witch incident. There'll be no more hiding from now on. After all this universal education, if anyone is still blindly hanging onto the church's teachings, they should be removed from the Western Region. You can decide how exactly you want to do it."

"Yes, Your Highness."

After Petrov Hull left, Roland stretched and yawned, and then continued flipping through the data that the City Hall had compiled on various construction projects.

Due to the heavy snowfall, the construction of the Kingdom Main Street had to be halted, and the construction of houses had been slowed down as well, so there were only a few indoor maintenance projects underway. Fortunately Lotus had constructed a series of cave dwellings to shelter the refugees before she left. Even if more refugees came, they could be distributed among the current caves—this was the advantage of using heated brick beds.

According to the Ministry of Construction, at least more than 60% of the workers were currently employed, so any last-minute recruitments from the City Hall were always snatched up quickly, such as clearing the snow off the streets, transporting goods in the Blast Furnace Zone and so on. If this were in any other city, having this many eager workers during the Months of Demons would be unbelievable. Winter was already the most difficult season for civilians, so most people usually shut themselves in their homes and survived by their fall harvest. However, Roland felt dissatisfied with seeing all this manpower being idle, so he racked his brain trying to think of something that could utilize it all.

After all, Margerie's Chamber of Commerce had bought the last batch of steam engines manufactured this year, and the City Hall had more than enough money and grains, so that he could carry out many of his plans.

At this thought, Roland had his guard summon Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction.

After he explained his ideas, Karl couldn't help but stare. "You want the masons and clay artisans to build ships for you?"

He nodded and said seriously, "Yes, right by the harbor. Build a temporary workshop out of wood and keep a brazier burning inside to maintain the temperature. When the ships are completed, they can go straight into the water."

"But, Your Highness, how can they ever know how to build such a thing?"

"Of course they can. It's just like building the witches' tower," Roland said as he took out a piece of paper and drew a diagram. "Just set up a frame, lay down steel bars, and fill it in with concrete. I'll instruct you in building the first ship, and then you'll be solely in charge of supervision, so all the workers can be utilized as well."

Karl looked at the blueprint skeptically. "Is this... a bowl?"

Roland couldn't help but smile. "Yes, it's a giant concrete bowl."

Karl had not participated in the construction of the Littletown, so it was natural that he did not understand it. In fact, ships were constantly changing their shapes over time, with those of the next era barely inheriting those of the previous one. Roland had no idea how to design an ancient wooden ship with keels, but building a concrete ship was essentially no different from making a clay model—all it had to do was to float. It was the same for steel ships. With the improvements in welding technology, most modern ships abandoned the keeling method and were instead pieced together with steel plates so that the entire floor sustained its weight. There was no need to bother with wooden ships.

He had already considered building a new fleet of concrete ships for a long time. Both the coal mining excavations in the nearby mountains and the transportation of refugees required large riverboats, so a flat-bottom design with a low draught was the best option. Compared to the conservative design of the Littletown, the new ships should have longer hulls to ensure a larger load, better stability, and higher speed. In order to also reduce construction difficulty, Roland decided to use paddle wheels to propel the ships. This had already been tested on wooden ships and was easier for the masons to achieve.

"Your Highness, how many men do you plan to employ to build these... concrete ships?" Karl asked awkwardly.

"Round up all the idle workers and build multiple ships at a time, just like when you were building houses."

This way, even if no one bought the newly produced steam engines, there was something for people to do. The Furnace Area could continue producing cement, which would kill two birds with one stone. In the coming years, if he could command a large fleet of cement ships, the First Army would always have reliable logistic fallback wherever it attacked.

After dealing with this matter, Roland decided to check out the castle backyard.

The olive trees and grape vines that Leaf planted provided a shelter against the snow. If they weren't working, the witches would usually practice in the backyard, including the newcomer Paper.

According to Wendy, her abilities weren't temperature control, but they weren't material restoration either, and they had little effect on any substance other than water. This intrigued Roland to no end. After three days, the little girl shouldn't be as timid as she was when she first arrived, so he wanted to see her for himself.

As soon as he entered the garden, Roland felt that there was something off.

All he could see was lush greenery, as if he was in a different world from the snow outside—the olive trees were evergreen and had vines winding around their branches. Although it wasn't surprising that the trees blocked out the snow, all the plants here were still a little too vibrant. What made it different from a forest was that although there was no wind, the grass and trees swayed rhythmically in unison.

He thought it was an illusion, but as he walked deeper into the garden, he saw the olive branches bend over as if they were greeting him, and the grass around his feet fell to the side as if to welcome him.

This made Roland a little uneasy, and goosebumps began to appear on his back. He felt as if he was not walking in a garden, but inside the body of a giant creature.

The whole garden seemed to be breathing.

Chapter 371 - The Heart of the Forest

Roland walked into the center of the garden and froze in shock.

At the end of the path, a small house made out of plants suddenly appeared, with tree trunks and reformed crops forming its walls and layers of woven vines hanging up above, with some even carrying bunches of glistening grapes. A bonfire burned in the middle of the room, and there was green furniture placed all around. A closer look would reveal that they were actually shaped by strange plants that grew from the ground. For a moment, Roland felt as if he were in a fairyland. If it weren't for the familiar faces next to the bonfire, he truly would have thought he was dreaming.

"What's this?"

Tilly turned around and exclaimed, "Leaf's ability has evolved, and she's transformed herself into this garden."

"Where's she?" Roland asked surprisedly.

"She has become one with the plants," Tilly said, looking around her. "Everything you see right now is a part of Leaf."

His feeling of walking inside a creature wasn't wrong. It was just that the "creature" was actually Leaf. Roland suddenly felt a tug on his heart, "She can still turn back, right?"

"As soon as I call off my powers, I can return to my normal form." Leaf's voice suddenly echoed.

However, when he listened carefully, he realized that it wasn't Leaf herself who was speaking. The voice came from the rustling of swaying leaves and the rubbing of branches.

Her answer calmed Roland down a little bit. "Can you hear us talk?"

"Not only can I hear you, I can also see you, smell you and feel you," Leaf answered happily. "I can feel the slightest changes in the garden, including the birds building their nest on a branch and a bug crawling on a trunk... It's hard to explain, but Lady Tilly is right. I am the garden itself, and I noticed you as soon as you walked in."

Suddenly, a giant leaf hanging from the ceiling was lowered down next to Roland and unfurled slowly to reveal a cup containing purple liquid. The intricate cup was made from four overlapping olive leaves with their stems curving into a handle. Roland raised the cup up to his lips and realized that the liquid was freshly-made wine, a perfect combination of sourness and refreshing sweetness. Clearly, both the wine and its container came from this garden.

Roland downed Leaf's "toast", walked up to the bonfire, and sat excitedly on a plant chair—its frame was made of rough branches, and its seat and back were covered with a heavy layer of wheat leaves. Sitting in it was like sinking into a soft couch. Next to the bonfire stood a grill, where Andrea was roasting apples and corn for everyone. These foods were undoubtedly also taken directly from the garden.

"How did you manage to do all this?" the prince looked up and asked.

"I don't really know either," the voice answered immediately. "I was just taking care of the newly planted crops and your messenger birds as usual, while also practicing my abilities—and they responded to my call. Maybe this is the reconciliation I have been searching for—bringing the forest and the lives inside it together as one."

"Could you use your abilities in the Misty Forest? Could you also turn it into a part of you?"

"I don't think so..." She hesitated. "Even if I could, it would take a really long time. Maintaining this state doesn't require a lot of magic power, and I can even draw power from the forest, but every time I expand my area of influence, my mind becomes more sluggish."

"Sluggish?" Roland asked confusedly.

"I don't know how to describe this feeling," said Leaf. "If I kept expanding slowly, I might become one with the entire Misty Forest in a couple of years, but I'm scared that I might lose my consciousness. When I first started fusing with the garden, my mind felt so overwhelmed, as if it suddenly became very expansive. It took me a long time to get used to it." She paused and added, "However, re-entering plants that I have already controlled doesn't give me this unfamiliar feeling, and it only takes the slightest thought to accomplish."

"How incredible," Roland thought. "Compared to Anna and Lily's micro-evolution, Leaf's new abilities were a breakthrough in macro-evolution. If she could one day control the entire Misty Forest, not a single move of our enemies would escape her."

"Congratulations," Wendy said, smiling. "Now there's another evolved witch in the Witch Union. According to Agatha, we have about half the amount of evolved witches as the Union."

"If she were here, she must have gone on and on about this for ages." Roland chuckled and glanced over at the little girl who was peeking curiously at him. "What about Paper?"

"Her ability... unfortunately requires further testing," Wendy responded, "but we found a strange phenomenon."

She snapped her fingers, and two piles of packed snow immediately fell off the roof.

Wendy placed one pile next to the bonfire and another in a corner of the room, and then she asked Paper to use her powers. "I'm currently teaching her how to use her magic power evenly so that its effects are consistent—just like how you taught me. Although she can't control her power very precisely, it doesn't differ too greatly in general."

Roland noticed that the snow next to the bonfire had quickly melted into an icy puddle, while the farther pile had only melted halfway.

Wendy scooped up the melted water, carried it to one side of the room, and knocked on the wall. The tightly woven vines shrunk back to reveal a fist-sized hole, letting in the chilly wind.

"Here, now use your power on this," she said to Paper.

The girl nodded and raised her hands, and Roland was shocked to find that the water had formed a thin layer of ice crystals.

"So her power is to... speed up time and accelerate results?" He doubted his theory as soon as he said. "That can't be right. Time is but a concept created by humans for convenience, so it doesn't exist on its own. How can she affect something that doesn't exist?"

"That's what I thought as well, but Lady Tilly said it wasn't the case." Wendy tied a stone to the end of a vine and swung it back and forth in front of Paper. As much as Paper tried to use her powers, the pendulum continued to swing at the same speed and eventually stopped. "If she could speed up time, the stone would have swung faster."

Indeed. Roland quickly realized what her power was—she wasn't affecting time, but molecular movement. Her magic power could lower or raise the energy levels of molecules, which led to freezing and melting. Of course, Paper probably didn't understand this, so she simply used her intuition to control her power, which was why she had little impact on other objects. Oxidation was a long process and needed time to show visible results.

If he guessed correctly, her power made her a natural catalyst.

.

Chapter 372 - Leisure

A week later, Border Town welcomed its last month of fall with a giant blizzard.

Roland gazed out of his office window at the dark figures on the snowy rooftops—these were the townspeople carrying out their daily task of shoveling away the snow on their rooftops, so their houses wouldn't collapse under the weight.

This day marked a full year of him being in this world, but last year's fall was not nearly this cold, and his view from this window was not nearly this orderly.

At that time, the town was practically a wasteland. Besides a few decent wooden houses around the square, there were only shabby clay huts and straw shacks. Most of the nobilities lived near the square, from which the only stone road led to the castle. Otherwise, there was not a single inch of clean ground in the entire town, and everything reeked of the faeces of human and livestock.

Now, all the roads here were built from cement pavement, and even the uncovered roads were expertly packed solid. Dark lines separated the town into various sections, with the two sides of the main road reserved as a commercial district and the surrounding areas as residential complexes.

In addition, Border Town's manufacturing industry was beginning to take shape, which was to say that it finally replaced workshop manufacturing with a continuous assembly line—although this was only the case for steam engines. The Blast Furnace Zone produced enough iron ingots for processing, while the steam engine factory turned these raw materials into machine parts. The blacksmiths had all become familiar with their various tools and took on many apprentices. Even though Anna was still needed in producing the highly precise tools, the blacksmiths had already achieved great progress on their part. After all, before the appearance of tools, these men only knew how to use a hammer, while others started out as miners and hunters.

He might as well call these engines the fruits of these workers' labor.

There was also the production of ammunition and gunpowder, which was also entirely done by civilians. Anna still needed to produce the firearms herself, not because of a lack of machine tools, but because the town's blast furnace couldn't produce iron with consistent quality. This had already been added to Roland's list of problems to tackle.

The achievements in chemical engineering were even more exciting; because Roland didn't have any high expectation, any result was a pleasant surprise. Now, sulfuric acid and nitric acid were being massively produced, and chemical explosives were beginning to be developed. As long as ammunition production could increase, switching to repeating rifles wouldn't be an issue.

It didn't matter that their production methods were outdated, because producing anything at all was more important, given the town's current state. When Paper's abilities stabilized so that she could precisely control her own magic power, there might even be another peak in chemical engineering.

What mattered the most was that all aspects of Border Town, whether it was production, education, or construction, were all on an upwards developing trend. In time, as more and more people became educated, there would be more frequent breakthroughs in every field.

He felt his heart burst with pride for transforming a run-down land into what it was today within only a year.

Roland felt as if he could stand by the window and watch this town all day long.

At that moment, the sounds of tolling bells came from the north-west direction.

That was the alarm for a demonic beast attack.

After the arrival of the Months of the Demons, the alarm would sound every three to four days. However, the First Army was already very experienced in handling attacks and no longer required Roland's supervision—if he had not stood alongside the Militia a year ago, they all would have dropped their weapons and run away.

"The demonic beasts are back. Should I go take a look?" Nightingale's voice emerged next to his ears.

"Sure." Roland nodded. "Be careful."

"Don't worry. They can't touch me."

He felt a slight warmth on his cheek, and the voice disappeared.

Roland shook his head helplessly. The witches were probably sick of hiding indoors from the snow, so Nightingale might just want something to do. The combat type witches who came with Tilly were especially eager to rush to the city wall and watch the battle, waiting for demonic hybrids to rush up the wall so they could put their ablilities into play. Nightingale was intrigued after hearing about this and began joining the combat witches every time the alarm sounded. Perhaps she intended to compare herself to others and determine who was the strongest combat witch.

Roland sighed. "If only she could be this eager in her training..."

However, fighting side by side could bring witches and mortals closer together, so he didn't bother to stop them. The current revolving rifles were enough to fend off regular demonic beasts, but they faltered in the face of demonic wolf-lion hybrids, so having powerful witches present could stabilize the defense line and reduce casualties.

So far, there hadn't been a single death in the First Army.

Nightingale's exit reminded him that the combat witches had found a way to entertain themselves, but the assistant witches still didn't have much to have fun with. It was time to think of some new activities.

At that thought, he summoned Soraya.

"Your Highness, do you have a new task for me?"

This painter who had accomplished so much for Border Town seemed to be in good spirits. The Freckles on her face had lightened, and her eyes shined with a piercing vitality.

Her pleading question stifled Roland a little—why did he suddenly feel so remorseful?

"Um, have you been busy lately?"

"No, why do you ask?" Soraya pushed a lock of hair out of her forehead. "Recently, fewer workers have been going to the factory, so it only took me a few hours to finish my coating everyday, and the weird metal boxes made by the alchemist Sir Kyle kept me busy sometimes." She paused, tilted her head, and smiled. "However, compared with being in the camp of the Witch Cooperation Association, I prefer this fulfilling life here, and I'm really glad that my abilities are helpful to you."

Wow... What a blinding smile.

Roland couldn't help but feel a little guilty. "Ahem, I called you here to draw some new cards for me."

"More Gwent Cards?"

"No, you all are probably tired of those," he waved his hand and said. "It's too simple. As long as you know your opponent's hand, the game is basically predictable."

"Yes, you're right..."

"See, this's what the new cards look like—very simple." Roland took out a piece of paper and drew a rough sketch. "There're four different symbols, each with cards numbered from one to thirteen, as well as two jokers, so it's 54 cards in total."

Soraya's abilities had evolved greatly, so she was able to quickly produce a deck of cards directly from his sketch. "How do we play them?"

"There're a lot of games you can play with these, but let's start with an easy one." Roland tested the cards with his hands and felt as if he were time-traveling again. To celebrate a Spring Festival, his family would always sit around their fire barrels, watch the Spring Festival Gala, and play poker until the next morning, when they would light firecrackers to welcome the spring.

Different from mah jong, poker could be played anywhere and had many variations, so it was probably the most popular game in the world.

"Go fetch Anna," Roland said, smiling. "I'll teach you how to play Fight the Landlord."

Chapter 373 - A Clue at the Market

Ferlin stood behind his wife and smiled gently as he watched her pick out pieces of meat from a stall.

There would always come a certain time when the look in Irene's eyes became extra serious.

"Actually... every piece of meat is priced according to its weight, so you don't have to spend so much time choosing."

"That won't do!" she said in firm rejection. "Although I know that you like lean meat, without the fat, the dish won't have any flavor. A layer of fatty meat for every layer of lean meat will make the best ribs, and is also ideal for slicing and frying. I have to choose carefully."

Ferlin laughed uncontrollably. "Fine, you take your time. I'll go and buy a sack of wheat. The queue is quite long, so when you're done, come and find me.

"Okay," Irene replied without turning her head.

He shook his head helplessly and advanced towards the wheat stall in the Convenience Market.

Ever since snow started falling, Lord Roland had put up wooden sheds, which acted as wind shields, around the market. He also specially posted an announcement that even though it was winter, the sales in the market would not stop.

This implied that during the long Months of the Demons, Border Town would continue to be provided with a stable supply of food.

To the townspeople, this measure effectively granted them peace of mind.

Compared to the meat stall, the wheat stall was much more frequented by customers. A long queue was formed in front of the counter, while surrounding the queue were two patrol members wearing black uniforms whose task was to maintain order. In Border Town, they were given a unique name: "policemen".

Morning Light had already gotten used to seeing all kinds of amazing initiatives by Lord Roland, and a change in name was nothing interesting. He also knew that the name "patrol members" was commonly associated with rogues and ruffians, and therefore changing the name gave a wholly different impression.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Eltek." Someone in the queue recognized him. "You've also come to buy wheat?"

"Stand here with me."

"Let me offer you my position."

"No, that's unnecessary." Ferlin waved his hands and stood at the back of the queue. "Thank you."

"You're so popular," A middle-aged man in front of him laughed and said, "the former First Knight of the Western Region indeed."

Ferlin was slightly stunned. "You know about my past..."

"Haha, of course. This is no secret in Border Town." The man touched his own chin and grinned. "My sons and daughters are highly fond of you. Ever since my eldest son, Nat, heard about your background, he can't stop telling us how much he wants to become a knight too."

"That's all in the past." Ferlin shook his head. "And His Highness no longer needs Knights."

"That's because we have the First Army." The man said casually. "In the past, I wouldn't dare to talk to you like that."

Indeed, while he was still a knight of the Duke, most common folks did not even dare to look straight at him. The rumors about him were filled with words of not only envy and admiration, but more commonly, fear. The only person who dared to make eye contact with him, and who was able to speak straight to him without scruple about status, was Irene. The first time they met at a theatre, his heart found its home.

After being defeated and brought captive to Border Town, Ferlin originally thought that it simply entailed a change of the lord he worked for. He did not expect that he would become a teacher to many people and receive widespread respect.

The form of respect shown towards him was completely different from the old times when he was a knight. People no longer avoided him and instead came close to him. Compared with the respect shown by keeping a distance, it was the latter which made Ferlin feel more comfortable and satisfied.

Perhaps, I'm not suited to be a Knight.

...

After waiting for more than a quarter of an hour, it was finally Ferlin Eltek's turn.

"Identity card, please." The counterperson said before she got a shock. "Teacher Ferlin?"

"Betty." Ferlin was also a little surprised that the girl standing behind the counter was a student from his first batch of graduates. He soon understood, and said happily, "You're working in the City Hall now?"

"Indeed," she revealed an expression of joy and bowed towards Ferlin as if she was still in school. "I'm now a trainee in the Governing Hall, and I am currently working in the Agriculture Department."

Ferlin did not want to make the people behind him wait, so he hastily presented his identity card together with six silver royals. "I want to buy a medium sack of wheat."

"Sure!" She recorded his name in the daybook and shouted towards the back room. A porter walked out of the warehouse and placed a sack of wheat on the counter. Inspection and selection of goods were prohibited at this stall. Every sack was filled beforehand and classified as large, medium or small according to its weight. A small sack was roughly able to feed two people for a month. The food prices were fixed and fluctuations were very rare. Identity cards had to be presented during purchase, and each customer's purchase volume was limited. Ferlin understood that the purpose of this measure was to prevent a single person from purchasing a large volume of food, which would cause a shortage of food for other people with actual needs.

"Teacher, when you have time, visit me at my house." Betty returned his identity card.

"Sure." Ferlin smiled and replied. He carried the sack and walked off to one side so that the next person could make his purchase. Irene was still nowhere to be seen, and he guessed that it was because she had taken a fancy to other products. He thus thought about finding a prominent and dry spot where he could place the sack and sit down for a rest.

Just then, a faint blue figure flashed across in front of him.

Morning Light flinched and turned his head instinctively, and then felt a full body shiver. It was a beautiful woman with exquisite facial features and a head of blue hair which was rarely seen. She was the type who one would absolutely never forget after the first sight. Ferlin felt the blood throughout his body freeze. This was not because of the person's outstanding beauty, but because... he had seen her before in the family hall.

When he was young, he asked more than once about the person in the portrait that was hung in the most prominent position on one of the hall's walls. Yet, his father always kept silent. The person was undoubtedly a woman, but her portrait was ranked higher than the portraits of his other ancestors. It was only once, when drunk, that his father mentioned the person.

If I remember correctly, the person in the portrait is... the founder of the Eltek Family.

How... is this possible?

"Sorry for making you wait." Irene's voice snapped him out of his confused thoughts. "I went to choose some eggs, and also bought a small sachet of butter. Have you bought the wheat?"

"Yes..." Ferlin replied with his mind elsewhere.

Back home, he continued to see the woman's figure linger in front of his eyes. "Why would I see an ancestor of the Eltek Family when I'm in Border Town?"

After deliberating for a long time, he decided that he would make a trip back to Longsong Stronghold.

When he informed Irene about this plan, she frowned. "Haven't you severed relations with your family? Why do you want to go back?"

"Uh... because," he said hesitantly, "because of some matters."

"Succession rights?" Irene tilted her head and said. "That's not it. Or is it because of... a woman?"

"Ugh," Ferlin replied. "That's impossible!"

"But your eyes tell me that you are lying." She pressed Morning Light against his chair and looked down at him. "You promised me to be my knight, and I believed that you would not break this promise. That's why I'm now feeling so curious... What could it be that you cannot tell me about? Remember that in the farmhouse on the outskirts of Longsong Stronghold, we promised not to hide anything from each other."

He looked into her clear and beautiful eyes. At all times, she would want to share everything good or bad with him. Despite experiencing so many hardships together, Irene never changed.

Ferlin took a deep breath and held her in his arms. In a soft voice, he told her about what he saw.

"So that's what happened." After listening to his story, Irene nodded. "Go."

"You... believe me?" Reasonably speaking, even he himself would not believe such an absurd tale that an ancestor was still alive.

"Of course." She blinked her eyes. "This time, you did not look away."

Chapter 374 - Returning Home

Having separated from the family, Ferlin was inappropriate to return to the domain of the Elteks. However, he was not doing this to address his own doubts, but instead, for the sake of his father.

During that particular banquet, Sir Eltek not only talked about the person in the portrait, but furthermore, in a very emotional speech, he claimed that the Eltek lineage existed only because of her benevolence, which was betrayed by his ancestors. Ferlin did not understand the meaning of the speech at that time, but his father's expression—which showed remorse for his ancestors' behavior—made it memorable.

Since remorse has been shown, is there a chance to remedy the situation? Perhaps, the woman who I saw is the descendant of my family's founder.

After all, he left his family only because he did not want to separate from Irene. As the eldest son, his family could not accept him marrying a commoner. This was only a difference of choice, and he did not have any other problem with his family.

After his marriage, although his father never visited him once, his mother arranged someone to send some daily supplies together with a letter which said that his father had forgiven him.

It was because of these reasons that Ferlin decided to return home and tell them about what he saw.

Due to the impact of the Months of Demons, the number of ships which travelled between the two lands had significantly reduced. He had to wait three days for a merchant ship that came from the Stronghold, and including the time required to unload the cargo, he would arrive at Longsong Stronghold only in a week's time.

When he finally arrived and got off the ship, Ferlin immediately felt the emptiness of the city. The ground snow was up to his ankles, yet he saw that apart from a few lanes which left different depths of footprints, most of the snow on the streets was flat and even, implying that no one had passed through for a long time. Compared with the crowded Border Town, it was hard to believe that this was actually the largest city in Western Region.

The Elteks' estate was to the north of the Stronghold, and included a village of nearly two thousand acres. If even the Stronghold was this empty, it was, needless to say, more empty in the village. As his coach travelled along the road towards his family's mansion, he saw bodies of starved people on the way. Every year, if snow started falling early in autumn, most poor people would be caught unprepared without sufficient food and firewood, and approximately half of these people would not be able to hold out till the next spring. Although what he saw was very common during the Months of Demons, Ferlin could never get used to seeing it.

After passing through several more scattered huts, Ferlin finally returned to the doorsteps of his family home for the first time in many years.

The iron gate in the courtyard was firmly locked, and the front yard was covered with snow. However, the slabs of the walkway were cleared of snow, evidently showing that there was someone in the family who took care of the estate.

He knocked on the iron gate forcefully, and after a short while, two guards walked out of the mansion. One of them quickly identified Ferlin and said surprisedly, "You are... Eldest Master."

"I want to see Sir Eltek," Ferlin said placidly.

Although everyone living in the mansion knew that Morning Light had severed ties with the family, this was after all a matter among the noble family, and hence the guards did not dare to make any decision. The two guards quickly opened the iron gate. One of them led him into the lobby to wait, while the other went to inform the butler.

Ferlin did not expect that the first person to rush over would be his younger brother, Miso Eltek.

"You don't belong here anymore. Why are you back?" He frowned as he sized up his elder brother. "You walked over here? "Where's the squire?"

"I'm no longer a knight." Ferlin laughed. "Naturally, a squire no longer accompanies me."

"Ah, I almost forgot that you were brutally defeated by the prince of Border Town and became his prisoner. Has he released you or what?" Miso snorted. "Is it because you don't have money to tide over winter? I can give you a little, but you'll then have to leave."

His brother's attitude made Ferlin sigh. It was understandable that he would behave this way—Miso Eltek was presently the heir apparent in the family, and naturally did not wish to see him return and cause complications.

"I'm not here for money, and have no intention to fight over heirship." Morning Light said in a low voice. "His Highness appointed me to become a teacher, and I'm very satisfied with my current life."

"Teacher?" Miso looked astonished. "I don't remember you possessing so much knowledge that you can teach other members of the nobility."

"I don't teach nobles, but rather commoners to read and write."

"Teach commoners..." Miso sneered. "The lie you're fabricating is getting more interesting. Did that commoner wife make you lose your mind?"

"Enough!" A low groan was heard from behind, causing Miso to tremble. Ferlin looked towards where the sound came from, only to see his father, Sir Eltek. "Ms. Irene isn't inferior to the nobility. All that she lacks is status. It's rude to continue talking about it."

"Father!" Miso cried.

Sir Eltek did not pay attention to his younger son. "I heard the guard mention that you have information for me."

"Yes." Ferlin bowed and said.

"Come into my study."

...

Ferlin followed his father up to the study on the second floor of the mansion. When he passed through the hall, he took the opportunity to look towards the portrait wall. The blue-haired woman appeared before him once again, looking exactly like she did in the Convenience Market. Compared with the other portraits, her portrait appeared more vivid and elaborately detailed, such that even the mole on the corner of her eye was clearly visible.

When they entered the study, his father was the first to speak. "During a theatre performance in autumn, I had the chance to see your wife. Her complexion was excellent, and her acting skills didn't pale in comparison to Miss May's. It seems that the two of you are getting along fine."

Ferlin suddenly felt his eyes welling up with tears. He did not expect his father to mention this first. After a brief moment of silence, he nodded and said, "Indeed. We have our own house in Border Town and plan to have a child after the Months of Demons."

"That's great." Eltek took a sip from his cup of tea. "It must be difficult to come over from Border Town now. What's the information?"

Morning Light checked his emotions and said, "I saw a woman while out in the market. She looked exactly like the person in the large portrait in the hall."

The father's hands trembled and nearly overturned his cup of tea. He raised his head with his eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"Her blue hair was rarely seen and her beauty was unmistakable. I'm sure that I didn't see wrongly." Ferlin replied. "Could she be the descendant of the person in the portrait?"

"Impossible! That person was..." He paused and shook his head. "It's impossible for her to have descendants."

"Is... that right?" Ferlin looked downwards. "Then maybe I'm wrong."

"You rushed all the way here just because of this matter?"

"Yes, because I remember that you once... expressed your remorse towards her."

Sir Eltek lowered his head and pondered for a moment. "Did she really look alike?"

"Apart from a slight difference in hair length..." Ferlin recalled. "Everything else was exactly the same." "You know, since I was born, I have only ever seen this hair color in that portrait, hence I paid extra attention."

"She couldn't be a descendant of that person." Sir Eltek said tentatively. "However, she could be the person in the portrait herself."

Ferlin almost could not believe what his father was saying. This idea seemed even more inconceivable than his own imagination. "Herself?" You mean... she has lived for more than four hundred years?"

"I didn't want to tell you about this." Sir Eltek stood up and said. "She is a witch after all, hence anything is possible. Follow me."

"To where?"

"The basement. I have a few things to show you." Sir Eltek said slowly. "Our ancestors' heritage includes a relic that she left behind."

Chapter 375 - Last Wish

Ferlin was not unfamiliar with the basement in the Eltek mansion.

When he was young, this place used to be his personal playground. He took immense pleasure in finding all kinds of strange artifacts in the dusty boxes. Of course, for this reason, he was often beaten by his father and was eventually forbidden from entering the basement alone, but he somehow always found a way to sneak in.

This time, Sir Eltek led him into the furthest stone room. The four walls of the room were embedded with pale blue crystals which were the size of a fist. Ferlin inhaled a cold breath involuntarily. To his surprise, every block of stone was a high-quality God's Stone of Retaliation. As a young boy, he was unaware of this, but now, he naturally understood the implications. High-quality magic stones were worth a lot of money, and those as big as these were worth at least five or six hundred gold royals each.

Is the Eltek Family actually so wealthy?

He suddenly recalled that the treasure map was also found in the Elteks' house.

A circle of boxes was placed in the stone room, and the arrangement was similar to the impression in his memory. Sir Eltek took out a bunch of keys from his pocket and opened the largest box in the circle. Following a loud creaking sound, a cloud of dust kicked up at once.

Ferlin held his breath and looked inside the box. The interior was divided into numerous layers, similar to the dressing boxes used by young noble ladies, and on every layer was placed gemstones of different colors.

"Which ancestor had passed this down?"

"I've not been here for a very long time." Sir Eltek sighed. "Every time I see these Magic Stones, I would remember the past events which my ancestors told me about."

"Magic Stones?" Ferlin asked in surprise.

"Yes, they are treasures which only witches are able to use." He nodded. "This is a long story. Our family was established under the blessings of a witch."

Ferlin's father started to recount about the family and its history. Some of the details of his story were different to what Ferlin had heard as a child. The first Eltek ancestor was in fact not from Western Region, but instead, from the remote and unexplored Barbarian Land, which was located past the Impassable Mountain Range.

Ferlin's eyes gradually widened. He did not imagine that the portrait could have concealed such an amazing secret.

"Our family's founder, Ancestor Agatha, had once established a huge kingdom together with many other witches. The witches were part of the dominant class, akin to today's nobility, in the kingdom. It was an offensive by the demons from Hell which brought about the demise of the kingdom. In the final battle, the survivors fled in different directions. Agatha led a group of people towards the stone tower in the Misty Forest to collect experimental materials, while another group of people followed the troops to Graycastle—at that time, the land on which the Kingdom was eventually built was barren and desolate."

"Were our ancestors part of the other group?" Ferlin asked hoarsely.

"Indeed. He used to be the housekeeper of Agatha. Accordingly, he was supposed to follow her into the forest, but he cowered and suggested that he would stay behind to look after the materials. His request was accepted by his master." Sir Eltek spoke in a deep voice. "You should know what this means."

Ferlin nodded. The housekeeper was typically the person the master trusted the most in the household apart from her kin. At most times, the housekeeper ought to have accompanied the master wherever she went, unless she commanded otherwise. In a sense, proposing to leave was equivalent to betraying the master even if she did not refuse.

"When he arrived at Western Region, he began to feel remorse for what he did, and recorded his sentiments in a book." Sir Eltek took out a black-coated book from another box and handed it to his son. "His master never returned, and after that, he broke off from the Union and left the refugee camp. He took many servants with him and settled down on this piece of land, which was yet to be cultivated."

Ferlin grasped the black-coated book without opening it. Instead, he thought of something frightening. "So, does that mean that you knew from the beginning that everything the church did was wrong?"

If the witches had fought against the demons before, why are they now branded as the Devil's minions? There's definitely much more to this than meets the eye.

"I knew, but I couldn't do anything." Sir Eltek said calmly. "If a witch was found in our territory, I would definitely help to hide her. But in the Stronghold, I wasn't able to do so, because of Duke Ryan's disagreement—he hated witches more than the church did. From the records of some of our later ancestors, it's evident that they did the same thing as me... except that they never informed the survivors about what happened in the witches' kingdom."

"Are these survivors still in the household?"

"Of course not, they're all in their graves already." He spread his hands. "It was very rare to live until 60 or 70 years of age, and being humans after all, they aged and passed away."

"But you believe that our first ancestor could still be living."

"This is only a possibility—witches have many different abilities but are unable to breed children, hence I made this supposition."

Ferlin pondered for a brief moment and then changed the subject. "Did our ancestors never think of entering the Misty Forest to find Ancestor Agatha?"

"Easier said than done." His father shook his head. "If even witches were unable to return safely, ordinary mortals entering the forest would simply be courting death. Furthermore, four hundred years ago, the Western Region was a wasteland with beasts and jungles everywhere. It was extremely difficult to settle down upon, and hence there wasn't time to take care of other issues. However, our ancestors did indeed write in their wills that they hoped that someday a descendant would enter the stone tower of the Misty Forest, even if it was just to take a look."

Morning Light inhaled a deep breath and flipped open the dust-laden book. From the very first page, he already felt a sense of regret written between the lines. Much of the writing had faded over time, but perhaps because of this reason, the heavy feelings of his ancestors became even more pronounced. After reading for a long time, he finally flipped to the last page of the book where the wills, which seemed more like unfulfilled wishes, were written.

This was, in all likelihood, the page which made his father become emotional on that night when he was drunk.

As a former knight himself, he could empathize with this.

"Do you need me to find her?" Ferlin asked after a brief silence. "If she's indeed Agatha, then she must be staying at the prince's castle, and as far as I know, many witches are also gathered there."

"Witches are gathered in the castle?" The knight responded while deep in thought. "Little wonder that Longsong Stronghold made an announcement to recruit witches a few days ago. It seems that His Highness is intent on becoming an enemy of the church." Then, he shook his head. "No, you don't have to find her."

Ferlin felt surprised. "Don't you want to see her?"

"It's wrong for an ancestor to visit a descendant." Sir Eltek laughed. "Of course, we should be the ones to visit her."

"W...we?"

"Indeed. I'm following you to Border Town." His father stroked his chin and smiled. "Bring all of these things. If she's really Agatha, our ancestors' last wish may finally be fulfilled."

Chapter 376 - The Castle's new facilities

"What are they?" Andrea asked while chewing on the dried fish.

The prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle was tossing about something new again. He spliced sections of brass together, having Anna melt the joint and Soraya wrap a soft layer of magic coating around it. At first sight, they looked like the water pipes installed in the bathroom, but they were much larger in size and each of them was about the size of a human thigh. It was impossible for a man to move it without the help of Hummingbird, who reduced the weight.

Yet, the brass was not installed only in one or two rooms but horizontally throughout the whole castle and the Witches' House. It entered from the corner of the room, connecting with a strange metal louver along the bottom of the wall, crossed the next room and joined with the longitudinal pipe at the very end.

This large project attracted a lot of witches to surround and watch it, in which the witches from both the Sleeping Island and the Witch Union showed great interest.

"Any guesses?" Roland smiled mysteriously and said, "If you get it right, an extra ice cream bread for dinner."

Ice cream bread! This caught Andrea's attention. It was the most amazing food here, a layer of sweet ice cream stuffed in two slices of toasted bread. It had never been heard of before in the Kingdom of Dawn. She instantly fell in love with the delicacy the moment she tried it. Despite being teased by Ashes repeatedly, she would still eat it. Otherwise, watching it being left on the plate would still be nothing short of torture to her.

"Does this supply water to rooms?" Ashes frowned.

"Of course not." Andrea pouted to herself. Copper was not cheap. Since the small pipes in the bathroom could distribute water, why use such a huge one?

However, considering she was always teased by Ashes' jeers of "who was the one who said the food from the past was the most delicious", which she had indeed once said in front of Tilly and could not deny, Andrea could only pretend that she did not hear such superficial words.

"What a shallow opinion. Who needs such a big pipe for water supply?" someone said behind Andrea, "His Highness would never do such a pointless thing."

Incisive! That was exactly what Andrea was thinking. Her spirit was lifted right away. No one else would dare to use such a tone to talk to an Extraordinary other than herself and Miss Nightingale from the Witch Union. She turned around and saw a woman looking at Ashes in disdain, with her chin being lifted to just the right angle.

This is the expression the nobility should use!

Andrea secretly praised this mysterious woman who was the most cordial witch she had met since she came to Border Town. Nightingale showed her extraordinary skills during the rescue of the witch in the relic. She was also from a noble background, and even her hair color was similar to Andrea's. In the battles against the demonic hybrids on the city wall, Nightingale had recognized her ability and shared dried fish with her. She was just acting like a noble.

Most importantly, she didn't like Ashes at all.

Andrea didn't know how Ashes offended Nightingale when she first came to Border Town, but wasn't it true that the enemies my enemy was my friend? Not to mention that her character was very compatible with Andrea herself.

"You're talking as if you know the answer," Ashes shrugged and said.

"Of course, I know," Nightingale grinned and said, "I've been in the office when His Highness was drafting the design drawings. All of his plans were drafted in front of my very eyes."

"It's not fair!" Mystery Moon muttered.

"She doesn't take part in the examinations though," said the prince. The prince's words made Nightingale's proud expression stupefied right away. "A hint for you all, these pipes are only parts of the system and you may want to look elsewhere in order to better figure out the answer."

"Goo!" Maggie flew out of the room with Lightning immediately, the other witches were not far behind. Everyone had scattered away, trying to have a look at the pipe. Andrea fell behind everyone else on purpose. When everyone left, she winked at Nightingale and called her out to the door.

"What's that?" Andrea whispered, "I'll share half of the dinner bread with you if I got it right."

"I don't know either." Nightingale's reply shocked her.

"But you just said that you had gone through all the designs, didn't you?"

"Yeah, just like Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, even if you understand the individual words on it, can you understand them when they're put together? "

"Uh..." Andrea opened her mouth but she found that she was quite right. She had tried the book herself and found that it was just like hieroglyphics.

"I'm afraid only Anna has the ability to understand His Highness' intention by simply looking at his drawings," Nightingale said, "If you ask her, she'll definitely tell you the answer."

After Nightingale left, Andrea hesitated for a long while. In the end, she didn't call for Anna to come out from the room. It was out of shyness or embarrassment, but rather... out of respect. She was not afraid of heinous criminals nor the cruel God's Punishment Army, but this young girl of fewer than twenty years left her in awe.

She remembered when she passed by the prince's office once and overheard the conversation of Anna and His Highness. Their conversation still brought her goosebumps now. Those strange terms like the high angle calculation, orbit-trimming with drop-point parameters and the conversion from kinetic energy to potential energy in an ideal state, all made her rooted to the spot immediately. The were both witches, but why Anna could fluently speak such terms that Andrea didn't understand at all? From that moment onwards, Andrea had an extended admiration towards Anna. She thought that Anna was a totally different type of person from herself but at the same level with Lady Tilly instead.

Since she could not ask for the answer, she could only rely on herself. Andrea went around to explore each of the rooms according to His Highness' advice. She found that there was a rectangular metal railing separating the pipes in the room that had completed the installation as if it was to prevent anyone from touching the pipes. Upon seeing this, she thought, if it wasn't for the presence of barbarians like Ashes, even if someone touched them it probably wouldn't be a big deal. Thinking of what Nightingale said—"His Highness would never do such a pointless thing", Andrea thought that these metal railings should have their own distinct functions.

She had a new discovery when she came to the first floor of the Witch House. There was a newly built bungalow between the castle and the Witch House and that was where the copper pipes leading to the two buildings extended.

There was a huge iron box in the house, it was hollow at the bottom half of the box and there was a huge chimney on the top... It looked almost like a cooking stove. And she saw a pipe connected directly to the well in the yard, which looked rather similar to the water supply system in the water tower.

Wait... Was it supposed to be used for boiling water?

If the pipes were used for hot water distribution, there was no need to be such humongous at all.

Andrea still couldn't understand what it was for after a long contemplation.

His Highness gathered all the witches in the hall before dinner. He smiled and said, "The heating system in the castle is officially launched from today."

"Heating system?" Ashes puzzled.

"Yes. Water will be boiled in the boiler, and the high-temperature steam will enter the rooms through the pipes and increase the temperature there. As long as the doors and windows are closed, the whole room can be warmed up pretty quickly," Prince explained, "compared to fire barrels that are too heavy to move and require good air flow to prevent anthracemia, the new heating system is far more efficient and doesn't have such hazards at all. It'll make you feel as warm as spring while you sleep." When the test period ends, the entire residential area will be gradually equipped with such a heating system."

"Next, to announce the winners of the ice cream bread. In addition to Anna, Soraya and Hummingbird who were participating in the installation of the heating system, there was only one person who guessed it right. And, it was... Tilly!"

Andrea helplessly stared at Lady Tilly who was smiling while eating the delicious dinner, completely losing her reserved manner of a noble.

Chapter 377 - Under Low Temperatures

The boiler heating system was not too complicated and essentially just involved boiling the water and distributing the heat through pipes and radiators into the rooms. The heat could be carried by water or steam, and Roland preferred the latter because it had a higher temperature and was more convenient. As long as the boiler kept on running, the steam pressure would fill the pipes with hot water droplets without the help of a pump.

Of course, there were also shortcomings to a steam heating system. The pipes were always under very high pressure, so weak infrastructure could cause leakages or even explosions. The steam would reach temperatures of 200 to 300 degrees Celsius, making it extremely damaging to human flesh and thus raising the safety standards for the steam heating system. Anna's Blackfire welding technique, combined with Soraya’s coating, guaranteed system integrity and reduced these risks to a minimum.

Roland also installed an automatic valve on the boiler, which had the same mechanical principles as the centrifugal governor on a steam engine . When the furnace pressure was too high, the high-speed rotation of the flywheel would pull the valve upwards, releasing steam and lowering pressure.

The last safety measure was located between the boiler and the two main heating pipes. Roland asked Anna to carve several grooves around the connecting copper pipe in order to decrease its strength, just like in the design of tin cans. Even if the pressure valve failed to turn on, the explosion would still be contained in the boiler and would not harm anyone in the room.

The castle was completely transformed after the heating system was up and running.

The witches’ thick winter clothes were replaced with unlined fall garments. Watching the girls talking and laughing in their colorful attire greatly increased Roland’s motivation to work.

Of course, these facilities could only act as a supplement to their lifestyle and help create a better working environment.

His next task was much more important and decided the future of the Western Region.

He had to find a way to produce synthetic ammonia and reduce dependence on nitrate, which would allow chemical explosive production to reach new heights and satisfy the amount required to use automatic firing weapons.

If he could achieve this by the end of the winter, it would undoubtedly serve him well in his planned offensive in the spring.

Roland summoned Kyle Sichi and Agatha to his office.

"How have you two been working together during these past few days?" he asked with a smile on his face. Kyle Sichi was the Chief Alchemist of Border Town, but besides his love for alchemy, he hardly cared about people's feelings or opinions. On the other hand, Agatha came from the Witch Kingdom from four centuries ago and was a proud member of the Quest Society, the kingdom’s most prestigious research institution. Both of them were straight talkers and had highly reactionary personalities. Roland was often worried that they might fight, but he needed them to work together to produce nitro-explosives and ammonia. Thus, he had to personally check in with them, because if they argued, only he would be able to work things out.

"Very well." Kyle’s words shocked Roland. "Miss Agatha's abilities are of great help to my experiments. I've found the stable synthesis temperature of nitration glycerol, and there have been no problems with laboratory preparation, so we’re currently testing the possibility of industrial production. None of this would be possible without the ice cups... Oh, forgive me, I was so busy that I forgot to inform you of this. " He paused and said, "By the way, if you called me here to ask about this, can I return to my laboratory now? I still have many things to do."

"Um… is that so?" Roland looked towards Agatha, and she nodded.

"Sir Kyle has an extraordinary amount of knowledge, especially in regards to the elements, which is somewhat similar to that of the Quest Society. We’re cooperating very nicely, and if he was in Taquila, he would definitely have been accepted by the Union."

"Was it actually easier for two straight talkers to get along? It seems I was worried for nothing. But why does the chief alchemist more respectful towards the witch than towards me? How sad..." Roland thought to himself and cleared his throat. "Then I'm relieved. I gathered you here to assign you some new research. "

"Please." Kyle perked up as soon as he heard the word "research".

"As I said before, there are many different gases in the air, and it's time we start using them. According to ‘Elementary Chemistry’, oxygen and nitrogen make up 99% of the air, and I need to separate these two gases for chemical production," Roland explained.

Kyle contemplated for a moment. "Do you mean we should separate them by using their different characteristics, such as their different boiling points and melting points?"

"That's right." Roland nodded. "Condense and then reheat the gases. As the boiling point of nitrogen is lower than oxygen, it can be distilled from the liquid first. Since the temperature needed is far below the freezing point for water, the experiment is difficult to conduct with conventional methods, so Agatha’s abilities are crucial."

"Turning air into liquid," Kyle said, stroking his beard. "It sounds very interesting."

"If the temperature was brought low enough, they could freeze into solids," Roland smiled and said. The alchemist probably never dreamed that the seemingly elusive gas could be held in a person's hands – as long as adequate anti-frostbite measures were taken.

Agatha asked confusedly, "I flipped through the same book a little, but I didn't see anything about air being frozen into a variety of gases."

"It's difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye because they are mixed together and show no distinct layers," Rolland explained. "The first step is to eliminate carbon dioxide, which has the highest freezing point, but it makes up a very small percentage of air, so you wouldn't even notice its solid form. Next, oxygen and nitrogen would fuse together to give off a light blue hue. If you don’t separate it, it would look like a pure substance, but liquid nitrogen is actually colorless."

"What should we do?"

"First, prepare the distillation vessel." The prince grinned. "This is a very important project."

There was no doubt that depending on Agatha alone would not be enough. Glass could easily break under repeated temperature changes, so the vessels for the liquid air could only be made of steel. This was not difficult for Anna, but the closed shell would make it impossible to see the liquefied air changing during the heating process. Therefore, Sylvie's Eye of Magic was necessary to observe the situation inside of the vessel. Then, Agatha would record the magic consumption at the boiling point of nitrogen, as well as the stable production temperatures.

Preparation alone took three days.

When the vessel was completed, Roland went to the chemistry laboratory to personally oversee the town's first oxygen-nitrogen separation experiment.

Chapter 378 - Oxygen and Nitrogen

Agatha, Sylvie, Chavez and Kyle Sichi would conduct the experiment. Carter, Iron Axe, Barov and all the other witches of the Witch Union were also required by Roland to come to the lab, as it was an experiment of great practical and educational significance. The fifth laboratory was chosen for this event, given that it was the largest lab and had enough space for the two dozen people.

Considering the experiment was the first of its kind, Roland had built a tower-shaped vessel which was only as tall as a man with a diameter of one meter instead of a giant fractionation vessel. The inside of the vessel was divided into three parts. The air would enter the vessel through the bottom part and come out through the two parts above.

Before separating the air, Roland gave them a simple lecture on chemistry, telling them what was going to happen and putting forward a few questions for them to think about and try to answer. It was a trick frequently used by chemistry teachers to intrigue their students and enhance the effects of the lesson.

"... theoretically, when Agatha cools down the vessel and brings down its internal temperature, the air inside will gradually be condensed into liquid, and drip down into the bottom of the vessel through the holes in the plate. So when you see liquid at the bottom, please let us know."

Roland explained to Sylvie in detail, because no one except her could directly see into the vessel and describe the changes happening inside.

Sylvie nodded somewhat skeptically, "Will I really see liquid appear? Will it not be only the water vapor inside the vessel?"

"No, it's different. The liquefied air is light blue, completely different from water vapor." Roland shook his head and explained further, "Plus, at that temperature, the water vapor will be solidified into ice crystals long before the air." Then he made a gesture toward Agatha and said, "Let's get started."

"Wait... Do we not have to plug up the hole in the vessel's bottom now?" she asked.

"Block it up later. Otherwise, the vessel won't have enough air inside to bring about significant changes." As this was only an experiment, he chose the easiest way for air intake—when the air temperature inside the vessel was rapidly lowered, the internal pressure would fall, and thereby draw the air into the vessel. In mass production, cooling down the air cost too much energy and the cool air would run off continuously. Therefore, this cooling method was considered inefficient and rarely applied in practice. However, Agatha's magic power could bring down the vessel's temperature more efficiently than any refrigerators, saving Roland the trouble to prepare an air pump.

Agatha took a deep breath and pressed her hands onto the fractionation vessel.

About half a minute later, whistling sounds could be clearly heard as the air was rapidly passing through the air intake pipe. White frost could be seen by the naked eye around the pipe hole, and its area gradually expanded—the water in the air nearby was quickly solidified, and then adhered to the vessel. Anna turned her Blackfire into threads to clean up these continuously thickening ice crystals.

"I see some liquid appearing on the plate, but there's more white frost inside." Sylvie said in an amazement a moment later.

"The white frost may be the solidified water vapor or the crystallized carbon dioxide," explained Roland. "Considering that there's only a small portion of carbon dioxide in the air, most of it should be solidified water vapor."

In normal production, air must be dried out first before being sucked into the fractionating vessel. Otherwise, the solidified water vapor would block the parting plates and the holes, and thus decrease the production efficiency.

Several minutes later, Sylvie reported to Roland that the bottom part of the vessel had been filled with light blue liquid. Roland immediately instructed Soraya to block the holes in the air intake pipe and seal them with coatings.

The next thing to do was heat the vessel, a crucial step in this experiment.

When the liquefied air was heated, the nitrogen would first reach its boiling point, vaporize and run off due to the different boiling points of nitrogen and oxygen. In this way the two could be separated. Due to the fact that Roland forgot the exact temperature at which nitrogen reached its boiling point, and that he had no way to measure it either, it all depended on Agatha to control the temperature. If she managed to heat the fractionation vessel to the right temperature, the nitrogen gas would come out via the exhaust pipe and the liquid in the bottom part would grow bluer and bluer, with an increasing purity of oxygen.

Fortunately, Agatha was familiar with magic power control. She accurately adjusted the cooling range, increasing the temperature slowly. After a while, Sylvie observed that the liquid was boiling. She saw bubbles around the coating pipe which was plunged into the water. At the same time, Keymor quickly collected several bottles of gas, using the drainage gas-gathering method.

"This is nitrogen?" Lily twitched her lips and said, "I can't see anything at all."

"That's exactly the first question I put forward earlier," Roland said, "How do we prove it's different from the air?"

"Test it with a piece of burning wood," Tilly answered first, "it'll extinguish the fire instantly if it's nitrogen. According to Elementary Chemistry, everything requires oxygen to burn."

"Cool it down again and condense it back into liquid," Agatha said after thinking for a while, "Didn't you say that liquefied nitrogen is colorless?"

"How about pouring out the remaining liquid in the vessel and proving it's pure oxygen? By doing so we can verify the diversity of air composition." Anna suggested.

In the lab, only a few quick learners eagerly proposed different methods and began a heated discussion, while the others remained silent. Roland looked around and found Nightingale, Andrea, Maggie, the City Hall Director and the Chief Knight Carter all seeming confused and at a loss. Iron Axe, the commander of the First Army, on the other hand, always maintained the same facial expression. Roland believed that Iron Axe would probably give him a nod no matter what he said.

Roland sighed silently. "It looks like this chemistry lecture is a little above their level."

Perhaps the only ones who could really share His Highness's happiness at this moment would be Kyle Sichi and Chavez.

"Your Highness, it's really... amazing," the young alchemist exclaimed, "and you've proven what's written in the Elementary Chemistry is true. I'm afraid it has never occurred to alchemists that even the air around us is so complicated."

"With pure oxygen, it's possible to observe more intense oxidation reactions, right? I have a lot more experiments to try out now." Kyle said in excitement.

Roland nodded and an idea suddenly jumped into his head.

Nitrogen was the most important raw material for synthetic ammonia. It can react with hydrogen at a high temperature and under high pressure to form ammonia that can be used to manufacture nitrogenous fertilizer and synthesize nitrogen oxides, which can be further used to produce nitric acid. However, in order to carry out this plan, much work needed to be done and many pieces of equipment needed to be built, such as air pumps and vacuum gasholders. Even if Paper has the magic power to work as a catalyst, it would require repeated testing.

Now, with pure oxygen and pure nitrogen, why not try to produce nitrogen monoxide?

The reaction of oxygen and nitrogen in nature wasn't an automatic one because it was an exothermic reaction that required external energy, such as an electric discharge in which an electric arc can instantly heat the air up to a temperature of thousands of degrees. That's why places where thunder and lightning frequently occurred had more fertile lands, and why ammonia was often used instead to produce nitric acid in the chemical industry. The electrical method of production was not a common practice as it costed too much energy and required extremely high-quality equipment.

Yet it was the most efficient method in case of an emergency, as it didn't even require any catalyst, simply constant electric discharge... in fact, any other means that produce the extremely high temperatures that electric arcs can achieve will do.

Roland naturally thought of Blackfire.

He was sure that it was easy for Anna to manipulate her Blackfire, which worked as an efficient and powerful electric discharge. Now all they needed to do to produce nitrogen monoxide was mix purified oxygen and purified nitrogen in the proper proportions and pour the mixture into an airtight reactor.

He decided to give it a try.

Chapter 379 - Attack

"Move faster!"

"Keep your hands steady. Insert the bullets into the cartridge one at a time!"

"Your teammates at the front need you to act quickly. Otherwise, you'll give the enemy the chance to approach and kill you!"

"Don't look at other places. Stay focused on the job in your hands!"

"As long as your teammates are still shooting, you just keep on reloading!"

In the First Army's military camp, Lord Brian was loudly urging the new recruits to practice, and Nail was one of them.

He was not newly recruited, but instead a veteran in the First Army. After the Militia defeated the demonic beasts under the leadership of His Highness, he joined the army at Iron Head's strong recommendation. In Iron Head's words, it was much more promising to carry a flintlock to fight and protect His Highness and Miss Nana than to spend the rest of his life mining in the pit.

Not long after Nail joined the Militia, they were reorganized into the First Army. Guided by Prince Roland and Lord Iron Axe, the army in which he served defeated not only demonic beasts but also great nobles whom he used to regard as unbeatable. They overthrew Duke Ryan and even prevented the troops of Timothy, the new king, from setting foot in Border Town. After those battles, Nail was promoted to a team leader in the Flintlock Squad.

However, according to the First Army's tradition, whenever a large number of new recruits came, some veterans would be chosen to join the newly formed platoon. They would live and eat together with the new recruits and accompany them in practices, as their instructors. When he first found out that he had been chosen to be an instructor, Nail was initially unwilling to accept the position. He was reluctant to leave the front line and his familiar battle companions, but thinking of the veterans who had helped him when he was a new recruit in the Militia, he had no choice but to accept this task.

At that time, the instructor in his squad had been Lord Brian, who now was the commander of the First Battalion in the Flintlock Squad.

Nail hoped that one day, he would be someone like Lord Brian, wearing a medal bestowed by His Highness and giving commands to nearly a thousand soldiers. Iron Head was right. "This job is far more promising than operating a steam engine in front of a mining pit."

"My lord, how long do we have to continue with this practice?" A young man in his platoon grumbled. "It's still snowing."

"Keep practicing until you can finish the reloading in about half a minute with your eyes closed," Nail stopped in front of him and said. "You're Haimon, right? Remember to say 'Report' before you speak. That's a rule in the First Army! "

"Report," shouted a little man next to Haimon, with his hands filling the loader all the time, "do we have eggs for dinner tonight?"

Hearing this question, many soldiers in the platoon started to lick their lips.

Nail could not help but grin. He understood aside from the two weeks' strict military training, sufficient food supply was also an important factor to keep these new soldiers from the Northern and the Southern Territory well disciplined even on such a snowy day. They had oatmeal and salty dried meat for every meal, and sometimes a piece of pickled fish or even an egg. Yet eggs were only provided after a battle against demonic beasts or a field training.

"Well, you'd better ask demonic beasts whether or not they're coming to Border Town today." Nail shrugged. "What's your name?"

"Al Bitter, my lord," answered the little man.

"It takes you almost half a day to insert one bullet. My next-door neighbor, an old lady, is far more nimble than you," Nail suddenly stopped smiling and said seriously. "If you can't improve when today's training is over, I'll cancel your share of oatmeal and meat, let alone the eggs!"

The new soldiers immediately lowered their heads and focused. No one wanted to be punished like that.

Just at the moment, the bell on the city wall tolled rapidly.

Demonic beasts were coming.

"Stop practicing!" Brian shouted, "Instructors lead your men into the city wall area. Get ready to fight!"

"Have you heard it?" Nail urged. "Carry your ammunition, everyone. Line up and go up to the top of the city wall, as what you did in the training. Our position is the fourth section of the city wall. Move quickly!"

"The new soldiers now do get a chance to have eggs for dinner tonight." Nail thought in secret.

...

After arriving at their position, Nail saw the Flintlock Squad was ready. Seeing the dark shadows gradually approaching, he calmly did the last fire check and instructed his men to mount the guns upon the wall piers.

Nail somehow felt a little disappointed. He himself could have given those beasts a hard strike with his revolving rifle.

The bullets were filled into the loaders one by one and then put at handy places that the soldiers at the front could easily reach. There were one to two people responsible for loading behind each veteran. If necessary, the veterans could fire five bullets in a shot. The new weapons were much more powerful than previously-used flintlocks.

"Look! Here comes the witches!" Haimon whispered.

"They're so... pretty." Al Bitter murmured. "Before I came here, I only heard about them via the church and thought they were ugly and dreadful."

"That's the only thing you've noticed?" Haimon grunted. "Don't you remember the witch carrying a big sword? The girl could chop and kill demonic hybrids. Oh! If only I had powers like that."

"If it's truly the power of demons..."

"Shut up!" Nailed shouted loudly. "Miss Nana is also a witch. You think she's a demon?" Then he lowered his voice and said, "Miss Nana is our town's angel. The power she has is the power of gods, understood? If you dare say anything like that in front of any veteran in the First Army, I promise you'll be beaten up really badly. Now focus on the reloading. It's not practice!"

After shouting at the two gabby guys, he cast a glance at the coming demonic beasts, "They look almost the same as the ones that have come before. It appears to be a short battle... Wait, what's that?"

There seemed to be a giant figure among the dark shadows, something like a tortoiseshell Siege Beast, but it seemed much bigger and faster.

When it came closer, Nail could not help but stare at it. It was a super giant demonic beast that he had never ever seen! Its huge tusks were almost thicker than a human's body, like sickles sticking straight up. Its four legs looked like pillars of rock, kicking up layers of snow mists. At each step of its running, the earth beneath its feet trembled. The city walls of more than four meters in height was even lower than its jaw. If the beast ran into the wall, this mud wall would probably crack into pieces.

The artillerymen!

There was no doubt that flintclocks had very limited influence on such a giant monster, but only the big equipment of the artillerymen was able to stop it! The new culverins mounted upon the sixth section of the city walls were the most powerful artillery equipment they had.

At that moment, the new recruits started to scream in fright, "Good God. Look! What's that?"

"Gods have mercy on us. Is it a demon from Hell?"

"Shut your mouth and focus on your job!" Nail swallowed the lump in the throat and looked at the new cannons at the sixth section of the city wall. The barrel, which reflected the silver light, slowly turned around and projected in the direction of the giant monster.

Then bright flames were shot into the air, and the cannons thundered and boomed!

Chapter 380 - Flesh and Blood

Nail felt his heart suddenly leap up his throat.

At that moment, time seemed to slow down. He stared at the giant demonic beast without a blink, while at the same time prayed in secret that the new cannons could hit the target. However, the demonic beast was still safe and sound, rushing forward by the time he started to breathe again.

About half a minute later, a snow column was kicked up far away from the monster.

This is gonna be bad.

Nail's heart suddenly sank. As the monster was not coming toward the sixth section of the city wall, it left an included angle between the cannons. The artillery unit had to constantly adjust the angle of the culverin, while at the same time also estimate how fast the beast was moving and fire in advance. Otherwise, the shell would land somewhere behind the target just like what was happening now.

Based on the firing rate of the field artillery, they only had one last chance before the monster broke into the city wall!

Nail had already been able to see the thick fur that covered the enemy's body, as well as its huge crimson mouth beneath the tusks. Witches were coming in this direction, apparently planning to stop this monster. Yet the four of them together were not even as big as the beast's leg. Were they able to succeed with pure magic?

He was so anxious and worried that he even wanted to run to the sixth section of the city wall and remind the cannon team to aim forward. However, since there were supervisors standing on both sides at each section of the city wall, he eventually suppressed this impulse—he would be very likely accused of being a coward if he left his post now without permission. Lord Iron Axe had stated repeatedly that behaviors that would break down the line of defense were absolutely forbidden. Once such a person was discovered, the supervising team could directly shoot him down.

The demonic beast running at the very front had already entered the shooting range of the revolving rifles. There was a series of cracking shooting sounds upon the city wall.

Nail had no choice but to continue with his mission, putting the already prepared loaders one by one next to the shooters.

Just at that moment, there was a second ground-shaking roar, which was less than half a minute after the first firing of the culverin.

"That... fast!?" Nail looked at the sixth section of the city wall in great surprise. The smoke above the muzzle had not completely disappeared and some smoke was continuously running out of it, making the cannon look like a litten silver pipe. Nevertheless, what was shocking was yet to come. He had not even had time to notice whether the enemy was shot or not when the dazzling blazes appeared again.

The third firing!

Good Lord. Don't they need to load the shells?

Nail only saw four or five people busy working at the rear of the barrel, but none approaching the muzzle. It appeared that entirely different from the short thick field artillery, this new cannon could fire in succession like a revolving rifle!

This time the firing was effective.

Nail did not see the shell entering the monster's body. What he first noticed was a mass of blood mist bursting out from one side of the giant demonic beast. Aside from the black blood that spilled over, there were also furry skins torn apart, as well as large pieces of flesh. The demonic beast suddenly quivered. Its entire body seemed to be flattened a little bit, and there were streaks of crinkles showing up on its thick furry skins like the ripples on the water surface—but he was not sure whether it was an illusion, because in the next minute, the sunken body restored to normal again, except for the eye balls of the monster, which had been pushed forward when the body was flattened. Meanwhile the eye balls ejected something thick and sluggish in black and white.

With a dull crashing sound, the giant beast fell all its length onto the ground, lying on its side even without an agonal growl. It was until then that Nail found where the shell hit—there was a big hole close to the beast's neck. It was so insignificant compared with its robust body that it was hard to relate the hole with the fatal shot that occurred just now. Strands of smoke was coming out of the hole, and the furry skins around it were blackened.

The monster from the Hell just died like this?

Nail could no longer restrain the excitement in his heart, but vent out all his earlier anxiety with a roar.

"Long live His Highness!"

Even such a terrifying and fierce enemy could not possibly resist the powerful weapon invented by His Highness! Apart from that new cannon, he could not even think of any other ways to kill this huge hybrid demonic beast—even if a witch could manage to do so, it would not be such a clean shot. Thinking further, he could say that His Highness, in a way, had granted them a supreme power comparable to witches'!

His shout, like an introduction, was responded by more people and it soon created an uproar among others. At first only the new recruits responded with loud shouts, but later even the veterans could not help clenching their fists.

There were loud cheers bursting out from the top of the city walls.

"Long live His Highness!"

*******************

Roland was only informed that the beast was killed by the new cannon after the battle was over.

He put on a woolen coat and hurried to the West Wall. The demonic beast's gigantic body was still lying quietly in the snow, with its black blood melting the snow around it into a pool of black water.

It seemed that no matter how horrible these monsters might look like, they were after all carbon based organism. When faced with ammunition and steels, they were as weak as a piece of thin paper.

This solid pointed shell rolled over due to the loss of its stability after being projected into the beast's body, and thus transmitted its kinetic energy throughout the entire torso, and finally went through the body while swirling—as it could be seen from the scene, the other side of the beast's body was completely torn, with the internal organs and broken bones scattered around. Even its head, which was the hardest part of all, was shattered by the vibrating energy and collapsed in total.

However, he still felt a little concerned. "The bone strength of creatures has a limit. This beast is apparently several times bigger than an elephant. How does it support its body without being crushed by its own weight? This is the exactly why terricolous animals have much smaller body builds than marine lives, as they can't overcome the pull of the gravity."

Would it have anything to do with the magic power? He remembered Nightingale once said she could see there were magic powers flowing inside some of the hybrid demonic beasts' bodies.

"How... could this be possible?" Agatha who arrived later had her eyes wide open, "Isn't this the Fearful Beast of Hell?"

"What‘s that? Is that the name of the hybrid demonic beast?" Roland asked curiously, "It has also shown up at the Fertile Plains before?"

"Yes, and when they showed up in group, they were difficult enemies to both witches and demons. Many cities and towns were devastated by the Fearful Beasts of Hell," Agatha's voice sounded a little dry, "However, they could only be seen when the arrival of the Bloody Moon was drawing near."

"The arrival of... the Bloody Moon?" Roland suddenly remembered what was written in the ancient book, "When there was a Bloody Moon in the sky, the Gates of Hell would open once again." He frowned and asked, "What does that mean?"

"This was a record passed down since the first Battle of Divine Will when the magic power was the strongest. The appearance of witches would bring another peak in magic power, but likewise, demons and demonic beasts would also be extremely powerful." Agatha said nervously, "I've perused the history book you gave me. Based on the years, I deduce that there're still at least 20 to 50 years before the arrival of the Bloody Moon. It's impossible to see such monsters."

"But it has still appeared," said Roland in a deep voice, "What does it mean?"

"It means that we don't have much time left."

Chapter 381 - Evelyn's Resolution

Roland was frightened by the sentence "We don't have much time left", but he was relieved after hearing the full explanation. "Don't stop halfway. It only sounds scary."

"You think five years is a long time?" Agatha frowned and said, "The timing was accurate at the first and the second Battle of the Divine Will. I don't know why the timing of the battle has been quickened and… it might come sooner yet."

"I thought you were about to say the Bloody Moon would come this very winter," Roland shrugged in reply. According to the current research and development plan, he would be able to universalize the use of new firearms throughout the whole army in one year. As long as the enemies were not impervious to blades and spears, they still had a chance to win the war. The only thing he needed to pay attention to was that the construction and development of the territory. It should be developed to the extent of supporting a lasting war. This required the land, population, and resources to all be at a high level of sustainability. That meant the territory must have sufficient foxholes and retreats where people could recover in the face of possible defeat.

Therefore, the primary difficulty did not lie in arms manufacturing itself, but in the establishment of enough industrial cities to be able to consistently provide population, ammunition, and food during a war. Logistics guaranteed a victory, while staff guaranteed logistics. In the end, he found what he needed most was reliable leaders, governors, and clerks. Without these, even if he unified the Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not be able to consolidate it into a war machine, and the nobility would probably drag him down.

It's indeed true that a country capable of waging a war always has a high level of educated populace.

"What's this weapon called?" Agatha suddenly changed the topic, "Back then, I remember you called it 152mm Stronghold... "

"Stronghold Standard Artillery," Roland added, "There will be naval artilleries in the future."

"If you can fit the city wall with weapons like this prior to the arrival of the Bloody Moon, we probably can resist the attacks from the demons. According to Kyle Sichi, what I made in the chemistry lab is also a part of the cannon, right?" Agatha seemed to be determined and said, "I'll try my best to produce liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, as long as you can... "

"Don't worry." He comforted her. "We'll defeat the demons."

*******************

"Was this all that I needed to do today?" Evelyn dipped her finger into the wine and then touched it to her tongue. The spicy flavor appeared to be more intense. According to His Highness' requirements, the purer the white liquor was, the better it would taste. The best spirits did not contain any water, and every drop of it was mellow and rich. Although she felt the white liquor she had made was increasingly close to what His Highness described, it became increasingly further from what could be considered "tasty".

"Yes, good work." The manager of the brewery said while labeling the wine jars. He nodded at her, "Remember me when you are speaking to His Highness."

"Can you... really sell these?" Evelyn asked, confused. From her past experience of running a tavern, she was afraid that only a few people could tolerate such a bold flavor.

"This wine? I don't know," the manager smiled and said, "But, there is someone coming to ship the liquor every now and then, so I think there are still some people who like it."

Evelyn was relieved instantly. If nobody was willing to drink this, not only did His Highness fail, but she herself would become useless as well... It was fortunate that things turned out not to be what she thought it was, and it appeared that His Highness was a true great noble who knew the tastes of nobility very well. She smiled, "I'll take off then."

Evelyn left the brewery and crossed streets that were filled with a bitter and cold wind. Upon returning to the castle, she could feel the warm air greeting her. The world inside the castle was totally different from the one outside. She took a deep breath and removed her coat so she could be closer to the warmth.

This kind of comfortable life was unimaginable in the past. In winter, she used to either sit tightly with her family by a brazier, or curled up beneath a blanket. "What's the difference between castle life and the Kingdom of God which the church has alleged to be like spring all year round? Besides, His Highness has said that he would popularize the central heating system throughout the residential area, and enable all of his subjects to stay away from the piercing coldness of the Months of the Demons." She had no idea how many believers of the church had arrived at the Kingdom of God, but in here, witches who were considered as Devil's minions, and ordinary civilians were the first to enjoy this privilege. If this fact had reached the ears of the believers, they would probably grit their teeth out of envy.

His Royal Highness is truly capable of everything.

Across the hall, Andrea, Ashes, and Shavi were playing poker.

"Pair of eights!"

"Pass."

"Pair of twos! I win," Andrea smiled proudly and said, "Ashes has the most cards, a total of six. Hand over the IOU for ice cream!" Then she turned around and waived at Evelyn, "Hey, do you want to play with us?"

Out of curiosity, Evelyn could not help asking, "What's an IOU for ice cream?"

"It’s a bet," Ashes waived her hand and continued, "Whoever has the most IOUs will have to give up her next ice cream bread to the winner. How does that sound? Do you want to give it a shot?"

Evelyn was very hesitant. "This was a rare chance for her to make conversation with combat witches. If it was on the Sleeping Island, both Andrea and Ashes would be figures only next to Lady Tilly, who was rarely ever seen, and they would certainly not invite her to join in their activities voluntarily. Besides, Fighting the Landlord is indeed very interesting, it has simple rules but numerous variations, and it also requires teamwork. One can easily spend the whole day just playing it. However..."

"Um, it'll be the final exam soon. Don’t you need to review?"

"Do you mean the exam for that basic course this evening?" Andrea pouted and said, "It's very simple. I can probably pass without much studying."

The other two agreed with a nod.

Right... Andrea is nobility, so, her insight and knowledge is greater than that of ordinary people. Both Ashes and Shavi can read and write. It appears now that she's the one that falls behind.

"I... I might as well not play," she hesitated for a moment and then said, "I'd better get back to my room and do some reading. You guys please continue without me."

Leaving the three people who were a little surprised behind, Evelyn rushed to Witch House. She pushed the wooden door open and found Candle sitting at the table in the living room practicing the arithmetic exercises in the back of the textbook.

"You're back?"

"Yes." Seeing Candle hard at work, she felt a lot of relief at once. "How did your revision go?"

"Not bad. Nature and arithmetic are a little hard to understand," Candle smiled and said. "How about you?"

"Me too," Evelyn nodded and said, "Let's make a list of all the things that we don't understand and ask Miss Anna in the evening."

"Sounds good."

According to Miss Scroll, these books were written by the Royal Highness himself, and they were based on his existing knowledge. If she mastered them, did that mean she would also possess one part of his almightiness? Evelyn thought in secret that although she couldn't change the ability she was born with, at least she could progress in this regard by working hard. Even if the nobles no longer liked to drink spicy white liquor, she could still work as a teacher in the territory rather than being useless. To this end, she pretty much read her textbook and studied those difficult phrases and equations whenever she had time. This had made her a frequent visitor to Anna', Scroll' and Wendy's rooms.

She had the lowest score during the last test, but she firmly believed that that would not be the case this time.

"Let me set an achievable goal first—I want to exceed Maggie!" she thought to herself.

Chapter 382 - Final Exam

The day of the final exam soon arrived.

In the hall, the witches sat in neat rows as they waited for Teacher Scroll to distribute the test papers.

Meanwhile, Andrea was elegantly trimming her nails with a clipper. She was already thinking about dinner—according to His Highness Roland, the first semester of school would conclude as soon as the exam was over. To celebrate, every student would receive a roll of ice cream bread for dinner.

This meant that Andrea would receive much more than one roll.

In recent days, she would play "Fight the Landlord" with Ashes and Shavi whenever she was free. This game of tactics and technique was somewhat similar to beasts chess, which used to be popular among the upper-class nobility. In both games, the key was to make use of one's advantages and hide one's weaknesses, and deep planning was required. She would often brag about never having lost a game of "Fight the Landlord" to Lady Tilly and, even more so, Ashes, and she was indeed telling the truth. At the moment, she was owed six rolls of ice cream bread, of which four were from Ashes and two were from Shavi. In other words, whenever His Highness arranged this delicacy as dessert, the two of them would have to give their portions to Andrea.

It was going to be a "bumper harvest" for Andrea. She would be able to enjoy three rolls of ice cream bread for dinner, which would be finally enough to satiate her craving.

Naturally, she was also confident about the exam.

As soon as she heard that there would be an exam, she asked Sylvie about the previous test and even attempted the questions on her own. She realized that the test was very simple and was basically equivalent to the basic education for nobility. The test paper was mainly about recognizing words and phrases, and there were also a few simple arithmetic calculations of profit and loss, which were not as difficult as accounting problems, let alone family finance calculations. She was widely known as her family's prodigy in this area, and at the age of 15, she was already able to check her family's account books.

The true way of the nobility was to do everything to one's best.

The test papers were soon distributed.

Andrea took a quick look through the paper and raised her head. The test consisted of three question sheets, which were each labeled separately as "Kingdom Language", "Basic Arithmetic", and "Elementary Nature".

Great, exactly the same as last time.

She grinned uncontrollably as she opened the "Kingdom Language" question sheet and began writing with her goose quill pen immediately.

Within 15 minutes, she completed the questions on the first sheet. Although the range of vocabulary was greater than that of the previous time, and there were a few unexpected segments such as "reading comprehension" and "filling in the blanks", the test remained easy for her. "Well, it's just answering the questions after comprehending the passage and completing the sentences. It only looks confusing, but it's quite simple."

The next sheet was "Basic Arithmetic".

The front segment comprised of simple calculations of profit and loss, but gradually, Andrea's progress slowed down.

"What does 'Use an equation to describe two intersecting lines with a few dots above them.' mean?"

Her heart suddenly clenched. She began to have the feeling she got when she read Natural Science Theoretical Foundation. "Why is it that I can understand the words separately, but not when they're connected?"

This was also the case for the subsequent questions.

Andrea started to sweat profusely.

She took a deep breath and held it in her chest. Then, she turned towards Nightingale, who was seated in the back row. "As a fellow noble, can she give me some hints?"

But Nightingale's facial expression shocked Andrea.

Nightingale was staring dully at her test paper while holding her goose quill pen in her mouth. She did not shift her gaze for a long time.

Are the questions also difficult for her?

Lady Tilly did not attend the exam, while the legendarily gifted Miss Anna was also nowhere to be seen. Andrea saw that most of the witches were still stuck on the first page and unable to answer the questions.

After another 15 minutes, everyone flipped to the second question sheet. Even though they were much slower than Andrea for the first sheet, they did not stop writing even for a brief moment on the second sheet, and even Maggie was writing furiously. "Oh dear, Maggie doesn't even hold the pen properly and looks as though she's clawing the pen in her fist, yet she's able to answer the questions?"

Andrea felt entirely helpless. Pretending that she had completed the "Basic Arithmetic" sheet, she flipped to the final sheet, "Elementary Nature".

Compared to the previous test's straightforward question-and-answer format, there were numbers and incomprehensible symbols this time. "Wait... this requires calculation as well?"

She suddenly began to feel that things were not going according to what she had anticipated.

The only relief was that Ashes had stopped writing a long time ago, apparently because she was equally stumped by the questions.

"But... what the heck," she thought, "what joy is there in beating a meathead?"

Amidst her anxiety, she heard Teacher Scroll announce the end of the exam. Slumping back in her chair, she watched as the teacher took her test paper away, and she felt that her three rolls of ice cream bread for dinner were no longer that sweet.

*******************

"Your Highness, here are all of the test papers." Scroll placed a stack of paper on Roland's office table. "Are you sure that you want to mark them yourself?"

"Indeed." Roland smiled. "Sometimes, reading test papers is a form of pleasure."

For example, he could read their bizarre answers, or discover the test takers' anguish and suffering by reading between the lines. These served as spiritual food during his leisure time.

"Shall I collate the scores for you?"

"Yes, sorry to trouble you." Roland nodded, and then he shouted, "Nightingale, no peeping."

"You knew." From the couch, Nightingale revealed her form and smiled. "Why doesn't Anna have to attend the exam? Isn't it the end of the semester? All sisters of the Witch Union should have to take the test."

Roland burst into laughter uncontrollably. "Because this test was formulated by Teacher Scroll and her."

Nightingale kept silent for a long while before she asked, "How about your younger sister?"

"Lady Tilly? She helped review the test paper and took the exam beforehand in order to check for errors." The prince spread his arms. "By the way, she got full marks."

Nightingale's shadow appeared to grow heavier.

Roland shook his head and started to mark the papers.

...

After all of the scores had been collated, Roland stretched his sluggish body. The Sleeping Island witches showed considerable improvement this time. Candle, Evelyn and Sylvie all passed the exam, and among them, it was Evelyn who improved the most. Although she had the lowest score among the trio in the previous exam, she improved from 5 to 62 marks this time, undoubtedly because she had put in a great amount of effort.

Conversely, the three combat witches who had recently arrived attained low scores, none of which went above 50 marks. This was understandable because they had spent a much shorter time in the classroom and their scores for "Kingdom Language" were assigned a relatively low weight.

However, it was Nightingale who fared the most terribly. Although she had attended class with everyone else, her total score was less than her last test's. Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. "It appears that learning ability is indeed a natural gift that can't be forced."

The only one who surprised him was Maggie.

Although she was not able to solve more than a handful of calculation problems in the "Basic Arithmetic" and "Elementary Nature" sections, she correctly answered most of the multiple-choice and true-or-false questions and ultimately scored 63 marks, which Roland found rather unbelievable.

"How did she manage it?"

Roland could not think of a reason.

.

Chapter 383 - The Bite

Inside the Tower of Babel at Hermes Cathedral.

The newly-crowned Supreme Pontiff, Mayne, was quietly listening to the reports of the three Bishops in the secret room.

Aside from the elder Bishop Tayfun, the other two were newly-promoted Archbishops, Soli Darl and Ell, who came from the Verdict Army and Tribunal respectively. The former had been a gallant and heroic Presiding Judge who had gained a stellar reputation over the course of more than 25 years of service in the army, and the latter had been Heather's adjutant and was also widely respected.

"The intake of orphans from the Kingdom of Everwinter has been very successful during this year's Months of Demons. The nobles of every major city have fully yielded to the church. At present, the number of orphans sent to the Holy City is already three times more than the planned," Tayfun said with a sigh. "This is the only piece of good news recently."

The nobles were always like this—as soon as they saw that the situation was not advantageous to them, they would change sides faster than they drank water. Mayne nodded and replied, "This is only the first year, and there will be more and more in the future. If we're able to take over the whole continent, our yearly intake could fill up an entirely new city."

"I hope so." Tayfun sighed deeply. "How many times has this place been attacked by demonic beasts since the heavy snow began to fall?"

"Six times," Soli replied.

"Six times... and hundreds of Verdict Warriors have already died on the frontline," Tayfun said in a heavy tone. "The God's Punishment Army has also lost ten of its personnel, and the demonic beasts' offensive will only become fiercer next year."

"This is easier than fighting the demons," Ell said and gestured with his hands. "Although I haven't personally witnessed the might of the demons, the Holy Book describes them as invincible. Is it really necessary to defend this place to the death?"

"What on earth do you mean?!" Soli frowned upon hearing Ell's words. "God gives us our direction and strength. As his disciples, how can we not stick to our faith and run away instead?"

"Stop quarreling," Mayne said, thumping his scepter on the ground. "After working with Heather for more than ten years, Ell has been affected by her loose-lipped temperament." As he watched Soli and Ell bicker, he could not help thinking about the partnership between Tayfun and Heather in the old times. He glanced at the old Bishop, only to discover that the latter was glancing back at him, as if they were thinking about the same thing. "Our ultimate goal is to sustain the human race, and the only way to do so is to defeat our enemies."

"Understood, Your Holiness." The two Bishops bowed their heads in respect.

Although, even he himself was not sure if they could defeat the demons by maintaining their position and defending Hermes.

Mayne suddenly thought about O'Brien's entrustment and felt his shoulders grow heavy.

The Fearful Beasts of Hell had already appeared, and the demons would arrive in five years. Mayne would get to witness the next Battle of Divine Will while he was alive, but unlike O'Brien, he would not be able to entrust his duties to a successor. He could neither sleep nor eat well whenever he thought about this.

In truth, he had also thought about leaving a way out for himself. When Garcia's Blacksail Fleet was captured, Mayne did not order the ships to be burned nor execute all of the rebels, but instead locked them behind bars. Apart from executing a few of the fleet leaders together with a large number of scapegoats who were actually commoners living in the slums, most of the fleet crew were kept alive and were presently locked up in the harbor of the Kingdom of Everwinter by Mayne's most trusted subordinates.

If the defensive line is completely broken, the Fjords will become the final refuge—even though retreating to those islands will mean that Mankind is near extinction and has no chance of redemption, at least I'll be able to live out the rest of my life.

After all, hasn't Mankind already done everything it could and not been able to defeat its enemies in two attempts?"

In the subsequent discussions regarding how the church should expand and how to stabilize the governance of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, Mayne did not pay much attention. He waited until the three bishops finished discussing before saying absent-mindedly, "We'll do as you three have said. That'll be it for today's meeting."

"Yes, Your Holiness." The three bishops hurriedly stood up and bowed.

Mayne left the secret room and made his way towards the Pivotal Secret Area together with his guards.

According to the plan, a new batch of Verdict Army soldiers were to be converted to members of the God's Punishment Army today. This was what he was truly concerned about. Whether it was standing their ground or retreating, these powerful warriors were guaranteed to follow his orders.

However, before this, he had to handle another problem.

He passed through the stone steps and entered the Pivotal Secret Area. Then, he turned into the long prison corridor that was situated in the middle of the area. The last time he was here, it was to secretly execute the King of Graycastle, Wimbledon III.

The long corridor was extremely deserted. The rosin torches that were placed on both sides of the corridor emitted a dim yellow light. The far end of the corridor was covered in darkness as if it was the entrance to a bottomless abyss. Many people who had been imprisoned here never saw sunlight ever again.

Mayne walked towards cell No. 85 and signaled to his guards to open the door.

The thick wooden door gave out a harsh grinding sound. Then, fits of wailing and crying were suddenly heard. When the cell door was closed again, these fits were shut out on the outside.

Through the iron railings, Mayne saw Zero's figure.

The Pure Witch's back was facing the entrance. Her upper body was bare, while she was handcuffed to an iron bar overhead that forced her to tiptoe at all times. A dozen fresh lash marks were visible on her white-skinned back, but the streams of blood that flowed downwards had already solidified.

"How does the tribunal's Sermon Whip feel?" Mayne asked. "I hope that this teaches you the meaning of obedience."

"Uh..." Zero groaned softly as if she had just awakened from a dream and turned her head meekly. "So the Supreme Pontiff has come. Do you mean obedience towards you, or towards other bishops?"

Her frivolous tone made Mayne frown. However, his displeasure diminished when he reminded himself that he was currently the Supreme Pontiff, which was very different from his previous position as a bishop. "After this lesson, she should understand that I can decide whether she lives or dies." "Obedience towards me. And when I ask you to assist another bishop to complete a mission, you have to obey his orders."

"Is that all?" She asked noncommittally. "If this is what you demand, I'll agree to it."

"Release her handcuffs," Mayne ordered a guard.

Having been handcuffed up high for a long time, Zero's hands seemed to be dislocated, and they dropped down as though they did not have an ounce of energy left. The Pope picked up Zero's clothes using his scepter and tossed them on her shoulder. "I have a task for you. Follow me."

Zero allowed her clothes to dangle on her shoulder and nonchalantly followed Mayne out of the long prison corridor.

"This year's Months of Demons could be as long as five months. This is a daunting challenge for the Holy City, and even more so for other places that are affected by the Months of Demons." Mayne walked to the border of the Trap Area, and then passed through a narrow iron-walled passageway and arrived in front of the elevator cage once again. Ever since he was crowned as the Pope, he had been busy with the various matters of the church. This was the first time he stepped foot in this place as the ruler. "I order you to follow the other Pure Witches to the Kingdom of Graycastle and kill the rebels Timothy and Roland Wimbledon by taking advantage of the disorder brought about by the heavy snow. Is that understood?"

As the door of the elevator cage closed, the clicking sound of the capstan rotation was heard overhead and the elevator began to descend slowly. But Mayne didn't hear Zero's reply.

"Damn, the whipping hasn't taught her to obey." With a sullen face, Mayne turned to look at Zero, only to see her smiling with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

Then, he saw a beam of bright light heading straight at him.

Chapter 384 - Sin and Redemption

After the darkness disappeared, Mayne found himself standing in an empty square.

Everything in front of him seemed vaguely familiar... short houses, a monastery still in construction, and a new stone church. The dirt floor was dry and firm without a trace of snow, the sun was peeking through the clouds, and a warm breeze kissed his cheek. It didn't feel like the Months of the Demons at all.

"Wait." He suddenly realized. "Was this the old Holy City where I first became a believer? At that moment, His Holiness O'Brien was hosting a cleansing ritual on the square."

"So this is the most prominent place in your memories," said Zero coldly from behind him. "It's a pretty nice place."

The Pure Witch!

His fragmented memories suddenly came together, and he felt a fit of rage come over him. He turned around and glared straight at her. "Zero, are you insane?!"

How dare she use her powers against me!

Also, why doesn't the God's Stone of Retaliation that I wear have any effect?

"I know exactly what I'm doing." Zero smiled. "It's you... who is still confused. It's alright. There's more than enough time in your subconscious world for me to explain this to you."

Mayne was familiar with Zero's power of the Soul Battlefield, which allowed her to battle the possessed victim using only her mind, and the victor would gain everything, while the defeated would lose it all. This was an extremely rare type of summoning power and could only be resisted by God’s Stone of Retaliation. "But... damn it! I'm clearly wearing a God’s Stone of Retaliation!"

He reached into his pocket and took out the blue crystal, the silhouette of which reflected a cerulean light under the sun, showing no defects.

"Why?" Mayne asked, gnashing his teeth.

"Are you talking about the Stone?" Zero smiled. "Basically, its sphere of influence has been removed. Of course, a mortal won't be able to feel the difference."

"Its influence has been removed?" The Pope couldn't help but stare. "There's only one person in the entire Holy City who can counter the effects of God's Stone of Retaliation, and that's the Pure Witch Isabella.

This is... blatant betrayal!

"These b*tches!" A vein throbbed on Mayne's forehead, and his hands shook with anger. "If I knew how unreliable these tools were, I would have added them to the God's Punishment Army when I was appointed!" He tried to control his temper and said bitterly, "When did this happen?"

"How could I know when she struck, since you put me in a cell to teach me a lesson?" Zero shrugged. "I only asked her to do it and that's all."

"You asked! If you hadn't been planning this for a long time, how could she do such a blasphemous thing so easily?" "No." His heartbeat suddenly stopped. "Even the two of them wouldn't be able to pull this off..." After he became the Pope, he moved into the bedroom that used to belong to His Holiness O'Brien, which had all kinds of booby traps and Verdict Warriors standing guard at all times. Not to mention there were Advanced Magic Stones by his bed, which he carried with him every day, and guards followed him everywhere. How did they manage to find an opportunity to strike?

Mayne was so angry that he actually grew eerily calm. "What do you want? Are you doing this just to get back at me for my punishment? Even if you kill me, the entire cave below your cage is the influence area of God's Stones, so you have nowhere to run. As soon as the elevator stops, you'll be spotted and captured by the waiting Verdict Warriors. Don't even dream of escaping this cell, because when they start interrogating you, you'll feel like the days of whipping is just tickles to you."

"I don't want to escape." Zero shook her head. "I want to replace you and become the Pope."

"..." Mayne was stunned. He had predicted all kinds of reasons, but he never expected to hear this answer. "A Pure Witch as the Pope? You have quite an imagination, since I'm the one who was crowned as the Pope in front of all our believers! If you kill me, do you think they would accept you?"

"I don't need to appear in front of everyone because I can just have a 'mouthpiece' to act as the Pope," said Zero unconcernedly. "See, His Holiness O'Brien also stayed in the Pivotal Secret Temple most of the time and would wear a mask on the rare occasions he came out. Under these circumstances, who could tell that the Pope was actually someone else?"

"You won't be able to keep up your ruse for long! Didn't you hear what I just said? As soon as your cage hits the ground, when the Verdict Warriors realize I'm not here, they'll immediately arrest you!" Mayne roared. "If you let me out right now, I can still forget that you ever did such a reckless thing!"

"As soon as the Battle of Souls begins, it won't ever end," said Zero with a smile. "Also, you were wrong from the beginning, because they won't arrest me."

"Won't arrest her... What does that mean?" The Pope stared at the Pure Witch's eyes with a frown and tried to see what she was thinking, but her eyes only shined with excitement and didn't reveal a trace of fear or panic. She didn't avert her eyes and instead stared calmly at him, as if she was saying a completely normal thing.

Mayne suddenly felt a bolt of electricity flash through his mind!

"Even giving up... may also be a wise choice."

"I'm sorry, child."

He opened his mouth, but he felt that his throat was choked by a pair of large hands and couldn't make a sound. He felt his heart sink, as if it fell into a pool of icy water. After a long time, he said with great difficulty: "Is this all O'Brien..."

"So you finally understand." Zero arched her eyebrows. "The Supreme Pontiff has given orders to all the guards and Verdict Warriors in the Pivotal Secret Temple—they'll never leave their position below ground and will only listen to the Pope. You accepted the scepter above ground, but you don't have the control of the Pivotal Secret Temple yet." She chuckled quietly. "Think about it. We're currently above the cave and the core organization of the church, as well as the only place free from the guards above ground and from the influence of God's Stone of Retaliation. Don't you agree that this is the perfect arena?"

The Pure Witch stopped smiling, and her eyes flashed like dancing flames. "This is the battlefield His Holiness arranged for us, so whoever survives will become the true ruler of the church."

"How... how could this be?" Mayne felt his throat dry up. "This stupid old man. Is he doing this to repent for his sins of taking the power that belonged originally to witches? How absurd!"

The flames in Zero's eyes were clearly from ambition, an emotion that was rarely seen in Pure Witches—they were trained as tools since birth and were all supposed to be unwaveringly loyal to church officials. "If we hadn't conquered those reckless... No, shoot!" Mayne suddenly remembered what His Holiness said to him before invading the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

"I'm sending two Pure Witches to fight alongside you. No one can escape their wrath."

Why didn't he ever consider how acquiring the memories of the King of Wolfheart and the Queen of Clearwater would affect Zero?

As he recalled O'Brien's relieved expression in his last hour, he finally understood the meaning behind his dying words. Mayne gritted his teeth furiously. "How did the old man not consider this issue? He had already been preparing for the ambition to return to the Pure Witch's heart."

Is this the ending you hoped to see, Supreme Pontiff?!

Chapter 385 - Cause and Effect

"Don't be so upset, Lord Mayne." Zero held her hands behind her back and slowly circled the square. "The church was originally founded by the Union anyway, so His Holiness only did this so that the witches could get back what was theirs. If you win, you can also get my memories and experiences—wealth I accumulated over the past 200 years."

"I see. Letting Zero use the Reflection Church was already strange because even if she were the Pope's favorite, she was still a Pure Witch and shouldn't have been given access to the church's deepest secrets. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this soon enough." Mayne was silent for a while before saying, "If you win, where do you plan to lead the church to?"

"To victory," she said, raising her head, "or destruction... just not towards the Fjord Islands."

"W... what?"

"You think no one knows about your secret orders?" Zero's tone contained a trace of mockery. "Right before a great battle, you sent resources to the port of Kingdom of Everwinter to repair ships and support sailors. Plus, you sent a large number of scapegoats to the gallows. These are all costly expenses, practically impossible to hide from the church."

"Shoot, O'Brien even entrusted her with the Pivotal Secret Area's intelligence agency." He thought silently. "That doesn't prove anything! As the Pope, I need to think in the long-term to ensure that the church survives under any circumstances."

"Do you even believe your own words?" Zero laughed. "Right after you accepted the scepter in front of all those believers, you started thinking about your own future, and you lost your will to win the Battle of Divine Will before it even began—do you think a mortal like you can earn the approval of God?"

"What approval of God?" Mayne couldn't help but scream. "If his approval was really protecting us, why were the humans suffering defeat after defeat?" He panted heavily and rasped. "Meanwhile, we need to rely on God's Punishment Army to battle the demons, so time is of the essence, and there's nothing you can do to change that."

"No, not just God's Punishment Army," whispered Zero. "The fate of mankind shouldn't rest in the hands of a few people."

"Are we supposed to count on you witches?" Mayne chuckled coldly. "Don't forget that it was your kind who failed us 400 years ago!"

"The witches are also only a small group." She stopped walking and stared directly at the Pope, her eyes chilling him to the core. "This battle will decide the survival of all of the mankind, so everyone needs to be involved—men, women, the elderly and children will all become honored warriors and join the fight against the demons, or else... they'll all die."

"That's absurd. You plan to send those civilians who are scared senseless by demonic beasts against actual demons? You must be out of your mind..." Mayne suddenly stopped, as he realized she wasn't joking and was seriously sharing her plans with him. "The only way to give civilians the ability to fight was..."

"You want to feed all of them Pills of Madness?" He asked in disbelief.

"One enchanted person is no match for a God's Punishment Warrior, but what about ten?" Zero turned her head and asked. "Not only is there currently a steady supply of demonic beasts running rampant, but the Pivotal Secret Area might also be able to invent a few new formulas. Five years later, the church will have a supply of around three to four million pills. What does this mean?" She paused. "It means that besides God's Punishment Army, the Holy City can also send out an army of millions of maddened men to participate in the battle against demons."

"You're... insane!"

"Insane? You're the insane one for not taking the Battle of Doomsday seriously!" The Pure Witch suddenly roared. "Both the Union and the church used small groups to fight against their enemy's full force, which is why they failed. No one is exempt from this battle, and mortals can't hide behind God's Punishment Army or witches forever—as I said, this is a fateful battle that requires everyone's full efforts, otherwise we won't be able to contend with the demons in the Barbarian Land!"

A Pure Witch raised by the church would never say such a thing because this was the mentality of a conqueror. Mayne's face grew pale. "You are... an absolute mutt!"

Your Holiness O'Brien, did you really foresee all of this?

"Accepting knowledge is a part of the process of self-change, and only the exchange of thoughts can bring progress." Zero inhaled sharply. "Perhaps we should stop chatting and decide who the ruler of the church should be."

"Don't bet on winning," said the Pope through gritted teeth. "I built this world!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Red Mist appeared at his feet and began to spread. Zero seemed slightly taken aback. Suddenly, she grasped her throat and screamed a tortured cry, her face curling up like orange peels, falling off in chunks, and spewing blood everywhere, soon losing its human form.

"This is the demonic mist hidden in the Pivotal Area's traps and only affects witches with magic power," said Mayne bitterly through the Red Mist. "If I fill the entire square with it, you'll be left to suffer endlessly and die a thousand times!"

"Is that so?" A gust of wind suddenly cleared all the Red Mist around the Pure Witch, and the reborn Zero said painfully, "Of course, the new Pope has some tricks up his sleeve. If you headed straight to the library of the Pivotal Secret Temple in the beginning, this battle would be even more difficult—but this is also the fun part of the Battle of Souls.

"Is that... a Stone of Windpower?" Mayne noticed a ring with a green crystal on her finger. "The stone's area of influence is limited, so as long as I keep my distance, I can break this shield with a God's Stone of Retaliation bolt. But just to be safe, I should make some preparations." He racked his brain, created two Pills of Madness, and swallowed them.

"Oh, smart idea," said Zero with a grin." Your biggest weakness is in your fighting ability, so the duo-colored pill can increase your strength, agility, and pain tolerance, so it's much harder for me to attack you from afar with weapons such as crossbow bolts."

Mayne ignored her, moved to an area unaffected by the Magic Stone, and focused on creating a God's Stone of Retaliation. The Pills of Madness were kicking in, and he felt his strength increase rapidly and sight become very clear. When he created the God's Stone of Retaliation, it would make the most effective weapon against the witch, and she would die of erosion by the Red Mist if she tried to attack him.

She's also making her own weapon—what is it? A pair of long swords?

It makes sense to have bolts, but what does she need swords for?" Also, the structure of the swords is very strange, with a blade as broad as her torso and encrusted with many crystals, seeming strangely familiar.

Zero raised the weapons in her hands. "Do you know? In the Illusion Room of the Reflection Church, there is more than one recorded image."

What does that mean?

"Did you forget what His Holiness O'Brien said? Alice's battle with Natalia was completely recorded by the Union," she said carefully. "Besides absorbing memories, watching and learning are also talents of mine."

As she said this, the crystals on the swords lit up one by one, as if they were signaling something. And then a bright golden light emerged from the swords and ripped through the Red Mist, shooting straight into the sky. The sky also seemed to respond to this power by shooting down thousands of bolts of light.

"What... kind of ability is this?" Mayne stared in shock.

Before getting the answer, he was surrounded by an engulfing golden light, which seemed to tear the entire world apart.

*******************

The cage fell slowly to the bottom of the God's Stone cave.

Zero threw the clothes on her shoulder onto the ground and walked out of the cage. The scars from whippings had all disappeared from her back, as if they had never been there.

The Verdict Warrior standing guard lowered his head respectfully and handed her a prepared golden robe—the clothing signaling the highest authority in the Church.

With the help of many attendants, Zero put on the baggy robe and walked straight to the Pivotal Secret Temple, not sparing even a single glance ba.

Chapter 386 - A Different Story

After a busy week, Roland built a new chemical factory next to the Redwater River. Considering the toxicity of nitrogen oxide, this factory was built like the Convenience Market, with a gaping wall and wooden roof, a one-story tall gap in the middle, and awful ventilation. Of course, the temperature inside was pretty much the same with that outside.

The new oxygen and nitrogen synthesizing system was already in use. The heat produced instantaneously by the Blackfire was the same as an electric arc and was much more efficient. After the raw materials were placed into the reactor, Anna only needed 8 minutes to turn them into nitrogen dioxide, which produced nitric acid when combined with water.

The system that synthesized ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen was also in full swing—the amount of liquid nitrogen resolved from cooling was much larger than the amount of liquid oxygen, so the leftover nitrogen was used to produce ammonia. Roland also did not cease the regular industrial production of nitric acid so that he could cover all his bases. Every new production line for nitric acid was an opportunity for more chemical explosives.

According to the test on Paper's abilities, he found that she truly could speed up a heated nitrogen and hydrogen reaction to the extent that it seemed like the results were instantaneous. The problem remained that she still could not control the release of her magic power, and her young age made her consume the little power she had very quickly.

However, this could be fixed through practice. According to Wendy, the girl was improving quickly, and she would be able to maintain her power at a basically stable level in about a week.

With these two production lines and a stable glycerol nitrification output, achieving modern smokeless powder became possible. The next step was to design a repeating firearm and begin producing it as soon as possible.

Roland was just thinking about his design for the new weapon when a guard walked into his office and reported, "Sir Ferlin Eltek and his father Duke Eltek are here to see you and are waiting in the lobby."

"Ferlin?" He pondered for a while. "Wasn't he the first knight of the Western Region, Kingdom of Dawn? All his family should be at Longsong Stronghold. Why is he suddenly in Border Town?" Did they mention why they were here?"

"Sir Ferlin said it had something to do with witches and told me to give this to you." The guard handed him a piece of delicate parchment depicting the treasure map previously drawn by Morning Light, but compared with the previous rough draft, this map almost seemed to be printed.

Roland suddenly remembered that Ferlin once said this map had been passed down in his family for 400 years, and that Lightning used it to find the stone tower where Agatha was being held.

He was suddenly very interested. "Go summon Agatha; she should still be in the chemical lab right now. I'll go and see them right away."

"Yes, Your Highness."

After the guard left, Roland rolled up the map and went to the lobby.

Ferlin and an old man immediately stood up and bowed in respect.

The prince noticed that both men were wearing thick leather jackets with sweat stains on their shoulders, and the old man's forehead was already brimming with sweat. He smiled and said, "If it's too hot, you can take off your coats. There's heating in the castle, so it's much warmer in here than it's outside. Don't make yourself sick."

"Heating?" Ferlin was stunned.

"It's a new type of heating equipment that's much better than a fireplace." Roland didn't waste time on explaining and instead directed the subject to his visitors' intentions. "I heard you came because of the witches?"

"Yes, Your Highness," said Morning Light, nodding furiously. "I met a woman with blue hair at the Convenience Market..." He briefly summarized his experience during the past few days. "When I returned home, my father told me about my family's history, and I thought that she might be a witch."

"I see." Roland was shocked to hear his story. He didn't think that Agatha's family had any mortals who survived till now. "There's such a witch at Border Town, and her name is Agatha indeed."

Duke Eltek bolted out of his chair in excitement. "Then could Your Highness..."

"Let you meet her?" Roland nodded with a smile. "Of course, she should be on her way to the castle right now. Also, considering that she's a witch, I think you should do her the courtesy of taking off that God's Stone of Retaliation you're wearing."

"Ah, you're right." The Duke hastily removed the stone from his shirt and placed it on the table.

"There was no such courtesy in Taquila 400 years ago, and witches weren't hunted like animals by the church yet," Nightingale whispered in his ear. "This stone is nothing but research material for Agatha."

"This way, you can determine whether they're telling the truth or not," Roland said, hiding his smile.

He felt Nightingale lightly pinch his neck.

"Liar."

...

"Why do you summon me back?" Agatha pushed through the lobby door and demanded. "The Battle of Divine Will is looming and I need all the time I have to produce weapons to fight... in battle." She fought down the word "demons" when she noticed the strangers. "If it isn't important, you can just send someone to tell me."

After working with the Chief Alchemist for a long time, she started to sound a little like Kyle Sichi, and her tireless attitude in serving Border Town's production industries made the town leader Roland feel a little guilty. He cleared his throat, "Ahem, this is a very important matter. Do you remember, when Taquila was on the verge of collapse 400 years ago, that one group of servants was separated from you and followed the masses to the south of the Impassable Mountain Range?"

"I think so." Agatha took off her hat, which was covered in snow, and tossed her blue hair. "What kind of important matter is this? It happened a long time ago."

When she showed her full appearance, Ferlin and the Duke gasped, and the Duke immediately kneeled in front of her. "You really are Lady Agatha!"

"And you are... ?" Agatha frowned.

"I'm a descendant of Kagar. Do you still remember that name?" The Duke asked, looking up expectantly.

"Kagar... of course. I gave him that name." She shrugged her shoulders. "I purchased two mortal servants and named one Kaff, who was the head of my family guards, and the other Kagar, who was my housekeeper." She paused slightly. "So you're the descendants of that housekeeper who snuck away with my Magic Stones and experiment notes?"

"Snuck... away?" The Duke stared in shock. "No, he..."

"Get out." Agatha's face darkened. "I don't ever want to see you again."

Chapter 387 - Inheritance

The witch left the hall as soon as she was finished talking and gave the two men no time to explain.

Roland turned his head slightly. "Can you tell what's going on?"

"Both sides are telling the truth," Nightingale whispered in his ear.

Roland pondered this for a bit and quickly guessed what had really happened. What was spoken truthfully wasn't necessarily the truth, but only what one thought was true. It seemed that the issue lay in their family history book.

"Since you came all this way from Longsong Stronghold, don't go back so soon. Stay in Ferlin's house for a couple of days and tour the scenery of this town." Roland turned to the confused Duke. "I'll try to reason with her, and maybe you will get to talk again."

"Is that... is that true?" The knight was shocked, but he bowed his head and said, "Then I must trouble Your Highness."

"By the way, where are the Magic Stones and ancient books that you brought?"

"There're more than ten boxes on our boat."

"Great, let's bring them all to the castle," Roland said, nodding. "I think she'll soften up a little after seeing all of her things that survived for over 400 years."

...

After dinner, the Prince called Agatha to his office.

"You should give Duke Eltek a chance to explain himself." He told her the Duke's entire story. "No matter what your housekeeper did, this man is trying to return your belongings to you, and he may even be trying to right his ancestor's wrongs."

"My housekeeper deceived his descendants, so this man doesn't owe me anything." Agatha pouted. "Also, witch families mean nothing now. They belong to the nobility of the Western Region, right? If I accept them, it would make things difficult for you, because you want to seize all the ruling authority of the Western Region for yourself, don't you?"

Roland was shocked that she even considered this issue, and he shook his head with a smile. "Alright, that makes sense. But you don't seem to blame them."

"I shouldn't place my anger towards a mortal from 400 years ago onto his descendants, especially if they don't know what happened."

"Spoken like a true enlighted member of the witches' kingdom!" Roland thought. "Whether it is towards mortals or accepting new things, she always has a positive outlook. To me, this is no doubt an outstanding mindset, but it was probably a rare one in Taquila, so it's no surprise that she was rejected by other witches in the Quest Society."

"In that case, I'll explain it to them," he said, smiling. "Do you have any interest in going through your belongings?"

Agatha rolled her eyes and scoffed, "They're not mine. They're the Quest Society's belongings."

...

All the boxes were brought to the castle basement. Beside Agatha, Roland also invited Tilly, Sylvie, and Anna.

The boxes were opened one by one under Sylvie's watch—ten out of the fifteen boxes contained Magic Stones. Roland picked up a fist-sized crystal and clicked his tongue. "You said that they were all transformed from God's Stone of Retaliation, so a stone this big must be worth 200 or 300 gold royals."

"200 or 300 gold royals?" Agatha said, unimpressed, "Magic Stones can only be produced by Chaos Beasts, so every piece is practically priceless."

"What kind of Magic Stones are these?" Tilly asked. "They don't seem easy to carry."

"Stones of Light." Agatha pressed on the stone in the Prince's hand and channeled her magic power into it, causing a pale yellow light to stream out of it, which quickly exceeded the light of a torch. When the blinding light became too much to bear, she finally lifted her hand. "More than half of these are Stones of Light. Besides the ones produced by the Chaos Beasts, the rest were all battle spoils we gained from attacking Devil's Towns."

"How were the Magic Stones made into different sizes?" Anna asked curiously. "If they were all God's Stones of Retaliation, then they couldn't be cut with magic power, but the block of God's Stone of Retaliation was extremely hard and couldn't possibly be cut with knives either."

"An entire block?" Agatha was stunned. "Are you talking about the God's Stone of Retaliation vein?"

"It's right under Border Town's mines." Roland explained the story of the treasure map. "Its surface is very hard, and even a flintlock can only leave a tiny dent in it."

"I see." She couldn't help but smile. "You used this map to find my laboratory tower. Yes, it really was used by the Quest Society to mark the God's Stone of Retaliation vein and was a chosen location for the next Holy City."

"Holy City?" Everyone asked surprisedly in unison.

"Why else do you think there would be hundreds of cities on the Fertile Plains, but only three Holy Cities?" She lifted the corners of her mouth. "These supposed Holy Cities are all built on top of God's Stone of Retaliation veins. We needed a lot of God's Stones of Retaliation to research the relationship between magic power and Magic Stones, and also to prevent large-scale damage in conflicts between witches.

"So you were planning to build a New Holy City on North Slope Mountain?" Roland asked in surprise.

"Yes, if we weren't defeated so quickly in the Battle of Divine Will." Agatha sighed. "It was the same case with the Barbarian Ridge in the Impassable Mountain Range—you now refer to it as the Hermes plateau, which is where the church's Holy City is now."

"The church also continued using the term 'Holy City'," Tilly said with a frown, "so it is even more possible that they are descendants of the Union."

Thank goodness they didn't build the church's Holy City in Western Region. Roland sighed quietly in relief.

"Anyway, the God's Stone of Retaliation is basically indestructible, so cutting it requires a special solution," Agatha continued to explain. "It contains the blood of witches with magic power... or the blood of demons."

"Blood?" Sylvie couldn't help but gape.

"Yes, and the amount of blood needed depends on the Stone," she said, spreading her hands. "In the Holy City, all adult witches were required to donate blood. Once it leaves the body, the blood lost magic power very quickly, so it must be used on the spot. Every two or three years, eligible witches would be ordered by the Union to go to the mines and donate blood, and any captured demons would also serve this purpose."

"Have you done this as well?" Anna asked.

"Of course," Agatha said, nodding. "Even the Three Chiefs of the Union were no exception."

"What about demonic beasts?" Sylvie asked. "Some demonic hybrids also seem to have magic power."

"Yes, but the levels of their magic power are very low, so their blood can only be used to deal with shattered stones, and they have no effect on the actual veins," Agatha replied. "After the God's Stone of Retaliation is cut, its hardness will greatly decrease with its size, and its range of impact will shrink as well. For example, the God's Stone of Retaliation that people carry around with them can be easily smashed with a hammer."

Chapter 388 - The Sigil of God's Will

These words confirmed Roland's guess, which was that the God's Stone of Retaliation did not affect magic power, but witches' abilities.

"Besides the Chaos Beast, did the Quest Society find any other ways to produce Magic Stones?"

Agatha shook her head. "It's easier said than done. The Union once had a witch who could turn God's Stones of Retaliation into regular stones, but all she did was to remove the magic power—it wasn't nearly enough to even produce the simplest Stones of Light." She turned to Sylvie. "You can see the form of magic power, so you should also be able to see the real forms of these crystals."

"It's a ball of faint... fog," Sylvie said with an unsure tone.

"This is one of the ways magic power gathers." Agatha nodded. "The Quest Society examined and recorded almost 10,000 witches and Magic Stones, and they found that most unevolved magic power came in the form of fog, cyclones, blown sand, light balls and flames. They might look similar, but each had an infinite amount of minute differences, which was why we believed there were no two identical magic powers. As for magic powers that were condensed after the High Awakening, their shapes differed even more."

"Its light is dimming," Tilly suddenly pointed to the Stone of Light in Roland's hand and said.

"That's because I only channeled a small amount of magic power," Agatha explained.

"But I once saw a Stone of Light in the Fjord ruins that never dimmed," she said confusedly. "If those underwater ruins belonged to you, then can you also make a Stone of Light shine for 400 years?"

"Underwater ruins?" Agatha was shocked. "Did some Union members go to the Swirling Sea?" She shook her head and dismissed this thought. "It's possible to make a Stone of Light shine forever, but it requires more than 10 witches."

"More than 10... " Anna mumbled. "Is it transferring magic power?"

"Yes. Some witches can refill others' magic power or directly exchange the magic power collected from two people. This way, a witch can channel much more power than the amount she has in her own body and cause a Magic Stone to act continuously." Agatha returned the Stone of Light to its original brightness. "However, this method doesn't work on every kind of Magic Stone. Usually, only the Stones of Mist with the simplest form of magic power can be used this way, such as Stones of Light or Echo Stones, which aren't much help in battle."

"But they would be very useful in the castle," Roland said excitedly, staring at the box of Stones of Light.

In a time before the Electrical Age, these things would be perfect lighting, and he was sick of weak and flickering candlelight. Candles were alright in the winter, but working in the office in the summer was absolute torture, not to mention it's horrible for his eyesight. Now, these magic stones could brighten the entire castle, even at night.

"They would?" Agatha asked disapprovingly. "I think they would be more useful in the laboratories, especially if we want to keep producing liquid oxygen at night, because open flames are too dangerous."

"Um... Is she asking to work overtime in addition to the eight hours during the day?" Roland tilted his head. "Ahem, let's take a look at the Magic Stones in the other boxes first."

A quick check showed that besides Stones of Light of various shapes and brightness, there were also some random Stones. According to the Ice Witch, although these were all priceless goods, they were still of the lowest tier of Magic Stones. For example, there were Stones of Vigilance that sent out signals and Stones of Pathfinding that located things. "I wasn't in charge of everything in the Holy City's stone tower, and I was basically estranged from the Quest Society at the time, so all the goods I transported were unimportant."

"What about these books?" Roland pointed to the black books in the other boxes. "Are these all lab records?"

"Some of these are the General Principles." Agatha blushed. "I wanted to save a copy as a promotion guide to the new witches who had to reclaim wastelands."

Why was this embarrassing? Roland glanced at her curiously and continued to sift through the remaining boxes.

"This wooden box... is a little strange." Sylvie's words caused his hands to tremble and recoil immediately.

"Is there a booby trap?"

"No... there's an interlayer," she said, examining the box. "It's at the very bottom. I didn't notice it at first because I thought it was only a regular partition."

Roland took out all the books from the box, exposing the thick bottom. Anna carefully cut open the wooden plank and retrieved a cast iron box.

"What's it?" Roland curiously opened the lid and saw a thick metal plate encrusted with four colorful crystals. Its design revealed that it was obviously very unique. "Perhaps the Quest Society did leave you with some valuable objects after all."

Agatha gasped. "This... can't be possible!"

Her dramatic reaction confused the other four people, and Roland immediately put the metal plate back into the box. "What's wrong?"

"This is the Sigil of God's Will!" the Ice Witch said in disbelief. "How did Kagar manage to get his hands on this?" She rechecked the box a couple of times. "Did he steal it from the other witches in the Quest Society?"

"Maybe his fleet was attacked and someone entrusted him with it," Roland guess randomly. "It's been 400 years, and it doesn't matter who the box belonged to... What on earth is the Sigil of God's Will?"

"Some Magic Stones, when pieced together, can have extra abilities, alter their magic powers' properties, or increase their effects—this was the most important topic of research for the Quest Society." Agatha carefully scooped up the silver plate. "Magic Stones that are pieced together are called Sigils, and the Sigil of God's Will is the most powerful kind. Its Magic Stones all come from Senior Demons, and there are only three or four of its kind in all of Taquila."

Roland couldn't help but whistle in awe. "How powerful is it?"

"It can wipe out your entire castle."

The prince choked in shock.

"Don't worry, it also requires an alarming amount of magic power—the more Magic Stones are on the Sigil, the harder it is to activate." Agatha closed her eyes, and two of the Magic Stones on the metal plate began to glow, while the third remained dull. After a while, she seemed to be exhausted and let go of the plate, panting. "The only witches who could use the Sigil of God's Will were the Union's two Chiefs."

"You mean... Transcendents?"

Agatha nodded.

Roland thought for a while and said, "Let Anna have a try."

"That's useless," Agatha said, shaking her head. "Extraordinaries use their magic power differently from ordinary witches, basically practicing all the time. Once they evolve, the amount of magic power in their bodies will greatly surpass... What?!"

Everyone saw that as soon as Anna touched the Sigil, the four Magic Stones immediately began lighting up one by one, and the edges of the metal plate began streaming with a gold light that looked like lightning. The gold light became more and more intense, and the Sigil shone like the rising sun!

"Let go of it right now!" Agatha screamed.

The light immediately vanished as if it had never even appeared. Anna let out a gasp and gently placed the Sigil back into the iron box. "It does use up a lot of magic power, so I can probably only use it twice."

The basement was dead silent.

Chapter 389 - Entrust

"Sir... Eltek, dinner is ready."

Irene opened the room door and bowed rigidly. Her voice sounded more restrained than usual. This was the first time Ferlin had seen his wife behaving in such a manner. Even when she met the prince, she was not as nervous as this.

"Father?" He raised his voice and glanced at the knight who had not spoken a word since he returned.

"Ugh..." Sir Eltek blinked his eyes as if he had just woken up from a period of meditation. "Come and eat."

The dishes placed on the small dining table were especially sumptuous. To Ferlin, it was apparent that his wife had made a trip to the Convenience Market. He looked at her and smiled, as if to praise and encourage her. He started the dinner by slicing the bread as usual and then proceeded to divide the main course into four equal portions—apart from the three of them, there was also Irene's friend, May.

Earlier, when he came home, he saw May discussing the content of a drama with Irene. After he introduced his father to the two of them, he expected that May would choose to leave, as most people would do. However, she did not, and instead, after making a simple bow towards Sir Eltek while revealing a frown on her face, she remained beside Irene. Even more uncommonly, she proposed that she should stay for dinner.

Ferlin was boggled by all of this. In the past, when he wanted to thank her properly, he invited her several times to attend a banquet, but she never agreed even once.

However, Morning Light had no time to think about all of this. Although on the surface he appeared calm and collected, his heart was in an utter mess. The first reason was that he was worried about what his father thought about his wife, and the second Agatha's attitude. From the look of disappointment on his father's face, it was evident that, as the current head of the Eltek family, he cared a great deal about the matter. However, Ferlin did not know how to console his father, particularly because the many years of separation had created some estrangement between them. All he could do was continue to eat quietly.

Fortunately, Miss May was around.

Her conversation topic regarding the drama aroused the interest of Sir Eltek, and together they had a nice chat about the charm of King's City and the lives of the nobility. Hence, the dinner was not so dreary at last. Moreover, Irene was able to participate in the discussion regarding the new drama, and Sir Eltek even enquired about her recent performances. This allowed Ferlin to feel relieved.

After dinner, May swiftly took her leave.

After helping his wife to wash the cutlery, he was asked by his father to meet in the study.

"Your wife has made a good friend."

"You mean Miss May?" Ferlin was slightly surprised. "She's indeed an outstanding actress, and has assisted Irene tremendously in her dramas. She took care of Irene during the show in the Stronghold..."

"No, I'm not referring to acting," Sir Eltek said. "Didn't you notice? She kept asserting power over me."

"Assert power?" Ferlin's eyes grew bigger. "Weren't the two of them simply having a nice chat?"

"Hahaha..." The old man laughed uncontrollably and shook his head. "You really don't understand how nobles deal. Her story regarding King's City was taken from a legend about the interaction between a commoner girl and a noble man. It's called Cinderella. When discussing politics, she even referred to His Highness' intention to reclaim feudal land. I believe that she knows that you willingly severed ties with your family to be with Irene, or else, she wouldn't have opposed me in every sentence."

"Is... that right?"

Sir Eltek smiled. "Rather than be in awe of superficial things like status and title, you should know that it's one's practical actions which are more important. After talking to Miss May, I've figured out what to do regarding Miss Agatha. Whether or not our ancestors lied, we've returned the items that she entrusted to us wholly intact. Even if she's unwilling to accept us, we can serve her through other means." As he spoke, he sighed loudly. "Although I personally disagree with your view, yet after seeing your life here with Irene, I suddenly realize that these efforts may not be futile after all."

"Thank you..." The sense of affirmation which was revealed in his father's words made Ferlin's eyes well up with tears. Although he was very firm about severing his family ties back then, he still hoped in his heart that his marriage would be endorsed by his family.

However, what Sir Eltek said next astounded him.

"Have you ever considered returning to the Eltek family?"

"What? No, I... you..." Morning Light was stupefied. He opened his mouth but did not know how to reply. "Return to the family? Why would father suddenly mention this?"

The old knight said slowly, "Since you know that your initial decision was a mistake, it's not too late to turn back."

After a long while, Ferlin said cagily, "I feel that my current work is decent, and also the life in Border Town is..."

"I'm not asking you to go back to become a knight in Longsong Stronghold." Sir Eltek interrupted. "You should understand what I mean." He then enunciated his words. "I want you to inherit the family."

The Morning Light swallowed his saliva. "But brother..."

"Miso Eltek won't make a good successor," Sir Eltek said openly. "At first, he wanted to become a renowned knight in Western Region just like you, but after the Duke's defeat, he lost his direction. As a family of the losing side, we should pledge our allegiances to the new ruler of the city, but your brother continues to keep in close contact with the other four big families, and I'm unable to change his mind about it. You should be able to guess the reason for this."

"Because he's sure of becoming the next head of the family." Ferlin guessed. After he left the family, his father had no other option except Miso to succeed him. This was also probably why his brother gave him the cold shoulder when he returned to the family mansion after so many years.

"This has nothing to do with ability and knowledge. Ability can be developed and knowledge can be taught. But a suitable successor should know how to observe the current situation," his father continued saying. "Lord Petrov has announced His Highness Roland's new policies. By also inferring from Miss May's drama in the Stronghold, which is titled "New City", I suspect that he's going to shape the entire Western Region into one entity soon. It's uncertain whether the four big families will accept this change, but the situation is definitely not calm. At this time, the most suitable thing for us to do is to observe the changes quietly, rather than be used by these families as pathfinding stones."

Ferlin had heard this news before. His Highness had never concealed his own intentions and policies, and in fact, he would publicize them to his people before implementing them. This included the plan to build Border Town into a city.

However, he did not wish to participate in a contest over leadership of the family. Despite his father's words, Miso would definitely not take things lying down. Ferlin understood his younger brother's personality very well.

Finally, he shook his head. "Sorry, Father. I... "

"I'm not asking you to make a decision now." The knight gestured with his hands. "After all, I'm still very healthy, and with me around, our family won't lose its direction." His smile appeared to have aged somewhat. "If Miso could understand these, I wouldn't need to say so much. All I'm hoping for is that, should our family ever fall into some kind of trouble, you'll do us a favor—on behalf of your mother and me."

This time, Ferlin was not able to refuse.

Chapter 390 - Winter

After Paper finished washing up, she wrung her towel and hung it on the snow-covered balcony.

By leaving the towel outside for a day, it would freeze completely. Before she used it again, all she needed to do was to knead and pat it a few times, and then remove the remnants of ice. Of course, she could also remain warm indoors and use her magic power to vaporize the moisture on the towel, but that would reduce her number of daily practices.

Paper was aware that her body's capacity for magic power was considered to be one of the worst among the witches, hence every drop of it had to be used wisely.

Just as she completed the cleaning work, someone knocked on the door. Almost every day at this time, big sister Wendy would bring her to the castle hall to enjoy a hearty breakfast.

"Coming!"

Paper opened the door cheerfully. It was indeed Wendy who was standing outside—she proceeded to hug Paper lovingly and sniffed her cheeks. "Excellent, you've cleaned up already."

"Hehe." Paper grinned and held Wendy's hand as they walked towards the castle hall together.

It had been nearly half a month since she came to Border Town, and she had become accustomed to the way of life.

Here, there was no need to leave her shack early in the morning to find food, and no need to worry that the firewood she gathered would be stolen. Aside from the time she spent filling her stomach and keeping warm, she could concentrate on practicing her magic power and acquiring knowledge. In the past, she could only imagine having such a life while chatting with her companions. A life where one had no worries about survival seemed to be reserved only for the masters and mistresses of the great noble families.

Paper had never expected that someday, she could also have this kind of life.

Wendy's palms felt soft and warm—a feeling Paper had never experienced while living in the slums. In her present life, Paper felt that there were people who constantly loved and cared about her. She hoped that she could remain permanently in this warm and loving place.

If it was only a dream, she would rather not wake up.

As they walked into the hall, Paper noticed that the witches were not sitting at the long table and eating their meals as usual. Instead, they crowded around a wall and bawled incessantly.

She blinked her eyes in curiosity, but was too embarrassed to ask Wendy what the witches were doing.

However, the latter seemed to read her thoughts, and said, laughing, "Our sisters are testing out their fighting capacities."

"Fighting capacity?" Paper was intrigued. "What... is that?"

"It's something that was invented by His Highness' eccentric rhetoric. Don't take it too seriously." Wendy bent her waist and lifted the young lady onto her shoulder. "See that silver sheet of metal? It's said to be a relic from the witches' kingdom, which existed more than four hundred years ago, and was used by Extraordinaries as a battle weapon. Only those with strong magic power can summon its might. His Highness has placed it in the hall so that everyone can test the level of their magic power, or should I say... to satisfy the curiosity of our sisters. Those who are able to illumine the four magic stones placed on the weapon in one breath would be considered to have divinely willed fighting capacity."

"..." Paper felt extremely confused. "Witches' kingdom?" "Extraordinaries?" "Magic Stones?" These foreign words left her scratching her head, but that did not mitigate the shock caused by the incredible sight before her—as the witches took turns to place their hands on the metal sheet, the embedded crystals glowed brightly and resembled a kaleidoscope of colorful stars.

"I can illumine two magic stones!" exclaimed Lightning, who was the same age as Paper. On her shoulder sat a stout-looking dove—Paper recalled that the bird was also a witch who was called Maggie around here.

"Two and a half, coo!" Pigeon cried out proudly.

"Aye, you actually did better than me? That's impossible!"

"Do you want to try?" Wendy laughed. "I guess that you won't do very well now. You haven't learnt how to imbue magic power into a magic stone, let alone summon a sigil. But, His Highness has stipulated this as a required course for witches, and therefore, you'll soon be given a Stone of Light to use for practice."

"Would it be as crystal-clear and shiny as these gems?" Paper was suddenly excited. She looked at Wendy and nodded. "I'll practice really really well!"

"Good girl." Wendy laughed and rubbed the young child's cheeks. "Eat first, then you'll have the energy to practice."

...

After finishing her oatmeal, Paper returned to the Witch Tower and began her daily practice.

Wendy had told her that everything on this Earth was formed of tiny balls which the eyes could not see, and material changes were the result of these balls separating and bonding. One's abilities could only accelerate these processes, rather than simply, for example, melting ice or cooling hot water.

Although she was not able to understand the meaning of Wendy's words, she conscientiously followed Wendy's request—she would feel the magic power that was contained in her own body and released it as evenly as possible. From her earlier years living in the slums, she understood that the fact that she was now able to live a good life was because His Highness required the power of witches—this was her only worth, and therefore, if she did not want to be abandoned, she had to work hard.

Suddenly, Paper felt a twisting pain in her abdomen. Magic power was vibrating inside her body and seemed like it wanted to burst out, causing her to groan uncontrollably.

"What's the matter?" Wendy, who was by her side, asked.

"No, nothing." She shook her head. "Just now, my magic power felt like it wanted to break free."

"Break free..." Wendy pondered for a moment. "Do you remember when you became a witch?"

"It was probably winter," Paper said softly. "I cannot remember the exact date."

"It's now the end of autumn, and winter will be here in a few days." Wendy's smile disappeared. "As we near the Day of Awakening, our body's magic power will become active as a form of bite. Take a rest first. I'll call Nightingale over. She'll be able to see the changes of your body's magic power." She walked to the door, then turned back and added, "Don't worry. For a witch from Border Town, this is not a life and death issue."

...

Wendy's prediction was confirmed.

After three days, Paper was about to have her second Day of Awakening.

Lying on her large bed, she looked around at the circle of witches that had come to visit her. Listening to their gabble of comforting words, she suddenly felt like crying.

The pain of being burned by magic power, which she remembered from her first awakening, seemed to become much more bearable.

"Because your practice time is relatively short, it's not guaranteed that the pain of the bite will completely go away." Wendy sat at Paper's bedside and stroked her hair. "But remember, don't ever think about giving up, and don't lose your sense of awareness."

Paper nodded.

She did not dare to speak up, afraid that the moment she opened her mouth, she would start to cry loudly.

She did not want to disgrace herself in front of everyone.

While living in the slums, crying was seen as the weakest expression, something which only people who gave up would do.

Paper closed her eyes and quietly waited for that moment to arrive.

...

When she opened her eyes, she saw that outside the window was a sea of white.

The bite was weaker than she had expected, such that the various means of rescue which everyone had helped to prepare turned out to be redundant. When she awakened, she felt that her body's capacity for magic power had increased considerably. Small changes had taken place all over her body. Her eyes could see further, and her limbs possessed greater strength than before.

After she washed her face, she once again heard Wendy knocking on the door.

"I'm coming." Paper opened the door cheerfully and held Wendy's hand. However, this time, Wendy did not bring her to the castle hall, but instead, to the Lord's office on the third floor.

The gray-haired big shot smiled gently at Paper and held a piece of parchment in front of her.

"From today onwards, you're officially a member of the Witch Union."

Chapter 391 - The Sigil's Secret

After winter arrived, the snow seemed to subside considerably.

Roland was humming a tune as he read through the three manuscripts on his table.

They were, separately, the plan for the trial and production of the latest type of ammunition, the blueprint for the latest generation of small weapons, and the construction plan for the Spellcaster Tower.

The former two manuscripts were ideas which he had conceived for a long time. Now that he could make use of Agatha's abilities to freeze and control temperature, the town's nitric acid output increased manyfold. The problem regarding the stability of the mass production of nitroglycerin had also been solved, and therefore, all of the conditions for the manufacture of double base propellants were fundamentally provided.

Even though Roland knew that this type of propellant was created by dissolving nitrocotton in nitroglycerin, and eventually obtaining a viscous jelly that could be sliced or granulated, he still required an alchemist to test and find out the mixture ratios involved.

Fortunately, Kyle Sichi was already very experienced in conducting both quantitative and qualitative experiments. If this task was given to him, the results should be obtainable in one or two weeks.

Since Roland was already trying to produce a brand new propellant, naturally, the development of a new type of light weapon was also on the agenda.

Compared with blackfire gunpowder, which required the use of a large-caliber revolving rifle, only a small amount of a double base propellant was necessary to achieve an equivalent lethality. Therefore, based on firepower and cost-to-performance ratio, it was definitely better to switch from rifles to light-caliber automatic weapons.

Of course, the specific parameters were to be further determined according to the results of Anna's processing.

Roland drank a mouthful of hot tea and placed the third manuscript in front of him. This was what excited him the most at present.

Compared to the other plans, the contents of this document looked very discordant. At Agatha's request, he planned to build a Spellcaster Tower beside the Witch House and use it for the research and manufacturing of sigils.

He imagined a lofty Magic Tower standing high among the masses of chimneys and factories. It felt simply... too cool and fancy.

Roland started laughing uncontrollably.

Nightingale, who was at one side busy gnawing on dried fish, looked at Roland contemptuously. "Are sigils really so interesting? The witches' kingdom possessed many sigils, yet still lost to the demons."

"But there're some very interesting things inside." The prince took a thick book out of a drawer. It was a sigil collection that was translated from the experimental notes left behind by the Quest Society. It recorded all of the formulas discovered by the Quest Society over more than 200 years.

To him, this was a completely new territory.

After Agatha had completed the translation, Roland spent most of his nighttimes reading the book. As he read about the uses and composite lists of the magic stones, He felt as if he was assembling runewords. Probably, when the Chief Alchemist first received the book of Elementary Chemistry, he carried similar excitement as he studied the different chemical formulas.

"Knowledge that's new always seems especially attractive, even if it's only basics."

"For example?" Nightingale leant over to Roland.

"Like this." Roland pointed to a sentence in the book. "The ancient witches called this the Sigil of Listening. It is used for long-distance communication, and, like the Sigil of Tracking, it'll remain effective even if it's separated into parts." He shifted his pointing finger downwards. "The materials are very simple. All you need is a piece of Echo Stone and a piece of Marking Stone."

According to the book's description, the effective range of this sigil was dozens of miles. Although it could not compare to the mobile phones of later ages, which were supported by many signal towers and satellites, it could still suffice as a walkie-talkie.

"Is it?" Nightingale glanced at the page and then pulled Roland's finger towards the page on the right. "However, it's written here that 'Echo Stones come from Fearsome Demons, and Marking Stones are commonly seen in Devil's Town.' How are you going to obtain these two magic stones?"

"No, we already have the materials," Roland said zealously. "The piece of red crystal which Lightning found in the ruins was an Echo Stone. As for the Marking Stone, it's one of the composite materials of the Sigil of Tracking—Tilly has brought along a few of this, and they simply have to be disassembled."

"Even if Agatha is able to create it, you'll only be able to obtain one Sigil of Listening."

"Just let her try. Anyway, when we fight demons in the future, we'll acquire more and more Magic Stones." It was too bad that, previously, there weren't the conditions for research on new applications of magic power. Now that Roland had the technical support of Agatha, he was not about to let go of these resources which cost nearly nothing.

"Alright." Nightingale shrugged. "As for the Sigil of God's Will, what magic stones does it require?"

"This... I remember seeing it on the last page." Roland flipped to the final page of the book. "By the way, how was the result of your fighting capacity test?"

Nightingale flinched for a while and then uttered a single word. "Secret!"

She seemed to have been frustrated by Anna.

"Found it, over here." Roland pouted his lips. "The four required magic stones are all written as unknown... probably, out of confidentiality considerations, the Quest Society didn't record them in the written form. However, according to Agatha, these magic stones mostly come from the Senior Demons, and therefore, even if they were written down, no one would be able to obtain them."

"And yet you display such a precious object openly in the hall." Nightingale groaned. "If the Transcendents find out, they'll be so angry at you that they'll even come back to life."

"Because it's nothing precious, probably... as precious as a few dozen kilograms of TNT." Roland laughed but did not reply.

...

This time, he waited until Agatha had completed her production of acid for the day before he called her into the office.

"Have a look at the Spellcaster Tower that I've designed for you." Roland held up his sketch. "The basement is a warehouse, and there are three storeys above ground. They are, separately, the apprentice lab, the tower master's lab, and the office."

"Wait... why is it called the Spellcaster Tower?" Agatha frowned. "All I want is a chemical lab like Sir Kyle's, except a little more spacious and bright. It'll be very troublesome to build a tower like this. In Taquila, towers were built only because the land area of the city was small. You have lots of open space here."

"That's not fashionable already!" Roland shouted in his heart. "Anyway, the problems regarding the construction aren't difficult to solve. Aside from the facilities that I have stated, do you have other demands?"

"No." Agatha raised her hands. "If you insist."

"Great." Roland placed the sketch down and started talking about the idea he thought of in the morning. "Can you complete the sigil production alone?"

"No, I can't." Agatha shook her head. "Although sigils are created by linking magic stones, the materials required to transmit magic power are very complicated. Most importantly, it requires the blood of demons."

The prince was stunned. "What?"

"You didn't hear wrongly. And it has to be fresh blood." She said solemnly. "When the Quest Society was figuring out the nature of magic power, it conducted thousands of experiments and eventually proved that the flesh and blood of witches, demons and demonic beasts are completely different in nature, and their functions are also remarkably different."

"The flesh and blood of...witches?" Roland received a shock when he suddenly realized the meaning behind these words. He asked impulsively, "What are their functions?"

"To create God's Punishment Army," Agatha said stoically.

Chapter 392 - Determination

Roland widened his eyes and said, "Using dead..."

"No." Agatha interrupted him. "Just as with demons' blood, the flesh should be taken from a living witch."

He heard Nightingale gasp behind him.

"This was the most important secret of the Quest Society. Not long after the experiment began, I left the stone tower of the Holy City. The only thing I knew about the experiment was that it used the blood of weak and old witches, mixed it with God's Stone of Retaliation, and injected it into the bodies of mortals to make mortal's body change." Agatha's tone was a bit grave. "Judging from the notebook you found, this research must have succeeded."

"How much blood was needed?"

"More than half." Agatha's answer saddened Roland. "The blood must come from the same person, otherwise the magic powers contained in it would reject each other and their effectiveness would greatly decrease." She paused. "You guessed correctly. A witch died for every experiment, and mortals could barely survive the erosion of the weakened magic blood. In the beginning, no one could survive. A great number of society members objected to it because they believed that mortals could never gain magic power. If not for the insistence of Chief Alice, this plan might not have been carried out fully."

"But now the church has a huge God's Punishment Army... According to Tilly's information, there may be 500 to 1,000 God's Punishment Warriors," Roland said, frowning.

"Suppose the success recorded in the notebook refers to the increase of the transformation rate to 10%, it means that at least half of the witches had been killed. I don't think those people could gather such a large number of old witches."

"The church arrested and raised witches so that they could drain their blood and create powerful extraordinary warriors?" Roland felt the hand on his shoulder clench involuntarily. "Damn it. Hundreds of witches with all kinds of magic powers died in the Holy City of Hermes for no reason, and they were branded as the Fallen and were loathed by the public. Such an ignorant organization must be destroyed, even if its original intention was to fight against the demons."

"Rest assured. I'll stop them," Roland said word by word.

After Agatha left, Nightingale shut off her Mist and appeared in front of him. She gritted her teeth and said, "I didn't expect that was how God's Punishment Army was produced! If the Church really came from the Union, their chief must be a lunatic! "

"Indeed." He sighed. "Now it makes sense why the church has been adopting female orphans and abandoned babies everywhere—they were only collecting materials for creating a huge army. Perhaps slandering the witches as Devil's minions was also part of their plan, in order to justify their treatment of witches."

"..." Nightingale did not respond, but her face was full of anger.

Roland slightly worried about her. Holding her hand, he said, "You don't intend to..."

"Pick a fight with the church by myself?" She shook her head. "I'm not that silly. If they were so fragile that they could be overturned by a witch, someone else would have done it long ago."

The prince felt a little relieved. "The ultimate goal of creating the God's Punishment Army is to strengthen the church. If there're extraordinary ones among the witches the church raised, they won't have to give blood... Even escaping into the Mist won't guarantee safety when facing witches loyal to the church. When we wage a war against the church, the safest strategy is to push forward step by step following the firearms of the First Army. Whatever the enemies are, they are no different in front of bullets." He paused. "I've said that in the new world, witches will be able to live a normal life without restrictions, just like ordinary people do."

"Hmm." Nightingale whispered, putting her forehead on Roland's head. "I'm sure you can do it all."

*******************

Wendy sent Paper back to the witches' building and happily returned to the Lord's castle.

Recently, she felt her days were very fulfilling. Although her previous life was quite comfortable, she'd always felt something missing. Now, with this little girl who was well-behaved and full of admiration for her, she believed there was nothing more pleasing than this.

"Winter has come. This is when the witches' awakenings happen the most. In the following months, there might be more new witches joining the Witch Union, so there'll be more kids for me to take care of." This thought excited Wendy very much.

She gently hummed the song she heard from His Highness. But when she pushed open her bedroom door, what she saw startled her.

God, what do I see? Nightingale sits in front of the book table, reading the Natural Science Theoretical Foundation!

Did she fight with His Highness Roland?"

"Ahem." Wendy coughed twice. "I'm back."

Nightingale nodded, giving no response. From the side, her face seemed very upset and sad.

She must have guessed correctly.

Wendy stepped forward, patted Nightingale's shoulder, and softly comforted her. "This is love. You sometimes quarrel, but when you think about it, it's nothing serious. Sleep on it and you'll feel better afterwards."

"What are you talking about?" Nightingale frowned.

"You and His Highness... Fighting is only temporary, so don't take it seriously."

"Why would I quarrel with him?" She said, touching her forehead.

"Uh... you didn't?" Wendy paused. "Then why are you reading all of a sudden?"

Nightingale sighed and told Wendy about the Experiment of God's Punishment that Agatha had revealed to her. "I just feel I need to become stronger to help more in future battles to overthrow the church."

"I see." Upon hearing what Nightingale said, Wendy solemnly nodded. "I didn't expect that the church built monasteries to obtain witches' blood... If it weren't for Ashes, who had suddenly awakened as an Extraordinary and drew all the guards' attention, I'm afraid I would have been among the other corpses in the church."

"Nightingale is right. Perhaps the environment in the castle is so relaxing that I've let my guard down." Wendy suddenly realized that the enemies were very close. Be it from the church or demons, their threats weren't completely eliminated, yet she hadn't improved for a long time. Although her magic power was slowly increasing, her fighting skills and ability to create wind weren't so different from the time when she was in the Witch Cooperation Association, and evolution was totally out of the question.

Sisters such as Mystery Moon, Hummingbird and Echo were studying very hard. Compared to them, she seemed to be slacking off. As an older predecessor, she couldn't even light two Magic Stones on the Sigil of God's Will. If this continued, she would feel like an unworthy elder to the other witches.

"You're right. I need to study hard as well." Wendy took a deep breath. She decided that from that day on, she would spend two hours every night before bed learning the knowledge from His Highness.

She went to the bathroom to have a quick wash, returned to the room, and found Nightingale lying on the desk, asleep.

Chapter 393 - New Boats Entering the Water

A crowd of people surrounded the temporary shipyard by the Redwater River.

Everyone knew that in the wooden shed some strange boats were being built with shells resembling a huge bathtub. The boats were made of gray cement—a material which was no different from rock after it set. If they were put into water, there would be no trace of it except a splash.

The craftsmen who worked here gave it a proper name: Bathtub Ship.

Today would be when the first two boats went into the water.

The crowd was composed of two kinds of people. One kind was civilians who had just joined Border Town and were curious about the event or felt it unconceivable, so they came to check it out with great skepticism. A great number of them were fishermen and sailors from the Eastern and Southern Territory. The other kind was locals who were used to His Highness' various "miracles". They had heard of the previous Littletown and gathered here in the drifting snow to see His Highness.

Cacusim was among the first kind.

When Cacusim first saw the notice about the test of new boats and the new recruiting order of His Highness, he said he would come and watch the boats entering water no matter what. Vader had no choice but to ask His Excellency Carter for a leave and accompany Cacusim. Considering Cacusim wasn't familiar with this area, and the ground was covered with thick snow, Vader was worried about his going to a crowded place all by himself. If he fell down in a push-squeeze situation, it could mean incurable injury.

"You're underestimating me, child." The old man waved his hand, suggesting Vader not to follow him. "I’ve been through winds and waves. Although I'm getting old, my physical condition isn't much worse than yours."

"Sure, sure," Vader said carelessly. "I've already asked for leave, so any rejection is too late. I just don't quite get it—why do you have to come and see this thing enter water? It's only a boat."

"But you said it was made out of gray stone." Cacusim shook his head. "Have we entered a time when even a bathtub-sized stone could float on water?"

"It's my own fault." Vader thought. "I shouldn't have mentioned the notice at the square." "Maybe His Highness was only bragging. Probably it's a wooden boat with a few parts made out of that... cement."

"That's even more unlikely." The old man insisted. "Think about it—when was this wooden shed built?"

"About... over a month ago."

"That's right. It's before when you were recruited as a policeman. When we first moved to the Inner City here, this place was still empty!" His beard shook. "It took a month to build the shed, so it means building the first boat only took half a month."

"Uh, isn't that normal?" Vader was bewildered.

"Of course not!" Cacusim exclaimed, "In the name of the Sea God! I've never seen a boat that could be built within half a month. It's not a matter of size—for any type of sailing boat, processing keels alone would take more than a month, because you must wait until the wood is totally dried to then curve it with steam. This is a very complicated process that can't be completed in a short time."

Vader was very surprised. "Why are you so familiar with shipbuilding?"

"I was once a captain, child." The old man sighed. "When I was young, I used to sail with lots of goods through Seawindshire and the Port of Clearwater, and I reached as far as the Kingdom of Dawn and Fjord Islands. Then something happened... and now I'm here. "

"You've never told me any of that." Vader said with his eyes wide open.

"You've never asked, child." Cacusim shrugged.

"Alright." Vader shifted his attention to the shipyard. "So what you're really curious about is the technique His Highness used to build a sailing boat within half a month."

"Any captain would be curious." Cacusim touched his beard. "If His Highness isn't lying, do you know what this means?" One or two years later, his fleet will be sailing through all the rivers in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Vader' heart twitched. "You don't intend to..."

Cacusim smiled, "I can't always eat your oatmeal."

"His Highness never lies." Someone nearby suddenly said. "Besides, that's not a sailing boat."

Vader turned around to find that the speaker was a young man. Judging from his accent, he seemed to be a local Western Region resident. "Not a sailing boat?"

"No. It can travel without wind and at a speed faster than any sailing boat." "The young man continued proudly, "Have you seen the steam engines in the mines? They can easily drag a basket of ore out of the mine hole. These cement boats are driven by those steam engines, and according to His Highness, they're actually steam-powered boats!"

"Travelling without sails?" Cacusim said with disbelief, "Kid, that's nonsense. If a boat has no sails, it can only rely on paddling. Such a boat can never travel faster than a sailing boat. Besides, they're not in the water yet. If you haven't seen it, how can you be sure that they can move in water at all?"

"Of course I've seen it," said the young man. "You must be newcomers from other territories, so it's normal if you don't understand. In the summertime, I modified a steam-powered boat for a Caravan across the strait. But the boat was still wooden and not as durable as those cement ones."

Vader intended to argue more, but that young man's eyes suddenly brightened up. Pointing to the shipyard, that man said, "Look over there. His Highness is here!"

Cheers and applause erupted from the crowd as all the people raised their hands to greet the Lord.

Prince Roland went up to the temporary wooden platform next to the shipyard, conveyed a few congratulatory words, and then announced the entering water of the new boats.

With rhythmic chants, the workers opened the wooden shed towards the Redwater River. A boat with a 40-meter-long gray hull slid down the river levee, collecting snow, and plunged into the icy water.

Vader felt his heart jump into his throat. He thought this thing would sink directly to the river bottom, but to his surprise, after the rear half entered the water, the front lifted up and splashed with foam.

The crowd burst into applause again.

"Gee, it really floats up." Cacusim froze in shock. "But is it really made of stone?"

Vader had the same question—the surface of the Bathtub Ship looked so smooth, as if it was made of finely polished granite slabs seamlessly connected together. The hull of the boat looked like one whole piece. The boat cabin was shallow and it had no decks, so there were no places for the crew to sleep. Furthermore, the boat bottom was too flat for masts to be fixed on. As its nickname indicated, this thing looked exactly like a bathtub.

Either way, His Highness had indeed managed to produce the boat within half a month.

Vader looked at Cacusim and found his eyes glinting with excitement.

"I want to apply to be captain," said the old man.

Chapter 394 - The Seed of a Navy

...

Roland watched the second cement boat slip into the water with satisfaction as his subjects cheered loudly.

The two cement boats looked simple in terms of structure, but they were actually much better than previous models, namely the Little Town. A framework of dense steel reinforcement had been added to the internal structure, and the quality of the cement had improved tremendously. The overall strength of the boat was thus several times greater than the Little Town.

To expedite the shipbuilding process, Roland reserved slots and ports for steam engines, transmission mechanisms and paddle wheels when he designed the hull. This way, laborers only needed to weld bolts into the metal components. They could quickly build the boat putting pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Meanwhile, the mold was now made of iron rather than temporary masonry. This change not only guaranteed a high density of the poured concrete, thereby improving the boat's waterproof performance, but it also ensured that each boat was almost exactly the same. This helped to avoid errors when installing the power system. In order to create a complete design of the mold, Roland had scrapped at least seven or eight testing samples. Fortunately, cement was no longer scarce these days. Steam engines had replaced human labor, from stone grinding all the way to kiln feeding. It was the only large-scale industrial project that did not rely on witches' abilities in Border Town.

With ample materials, reliable molds and skilled laborers, the only factor that limited the production of hulls was the hardening rate of cement. However, with the help of Paper's reaction acceleration ability, it only took one day (rather than the original one to two months) to launch a cement boat. In other words, the shipyard could launch an unpowered vessel every two or three days if Roland wished to.

If the speed of steam engine manufacturing could catch up with that of crew training, he would most likely develop a huge shipping fleet in a short period of time and fill the Redwater River with his own cement boats. They would look like "dumplings in boiling water".

That was the appeal of industrialization.

Now that the hull had been completed, the next step would be the installation of power units. The mechanical equipment was pretty much the same as those on the modified boats of the Chamber of Commerce at Crescent Moon Bay. The craftsmen already had practical experience, so he didn’t need to worry about it.

"I don't understand. Why did you tell these things to subjects?" Nightingale asked.

"To advertise the national power." Roland smiled faintly.

"I'm sorry?"

"I mean to behold the tremendous changes the town has gone through." The prince stroked his chin. "You probably never expected a boat made of stones could float on the water before seeing the Little Town. My subjects think the same way. After realizing what is impossible, they'll have a greater sense of township. It's a comprehensive upgrading in mentality, which can even turn into a belief that there's nothing they can’t achieve."

"I don't quite understand." Nightingale sounded a little confused.

"You just see it as a means of propaganda, and that will do," Roland smiled and said. In this era, the nobilities only celebrated with civilians for big events or ceremonies, both of which were almost entirely noble affairs. If it weren’t for the free food, many civilians wouldn’t attend. Nevertheless, the cement boats were the combined work of hundreds of laborers, and they were part of the festivities.

After witnessing constant miracles, members of the territory would gradually develop their confidence and sense of identity, collectively referred to as "superpower mentality" in later generations. Once a territory had become powerful and prosperous, the mentality of its subjects would inevitably experience positive changes.

...

A week later, Roland met over twenty townies who had applied for the captain's position in the castle's hall.

He was quite surprised at first when Barov reported the number, as he did not expect there would be so many "top-notch talents" among the refugees taken in by this town. When he read the detailed report that he couldn't help laughing. There were quite a few fishermen who operated rafts and small fishing boats, even some boatmen who made a living providing ferry services. They could indeed be regarded as "captain", in a sense.

Among all the applicants, there were only three people with experience operating sloops on the inland river, one of whom claimed that he used to work as a commander for a merchant fleet, and had earned a living on the sea for a long time.

Roland thought for a while, then decided to recruit all twenty people.

Steam-powered boats belonged to a completely different system from that of sailboats, and were also operated in a distinct way. Even an experienced captain would not necessarily learn the operation of paddle steamers that fast. Besides, he knew nothing about operating a boat himself, so it would be better for them to learn as they went.

Since he was starting from scratch, he needed to be resolute and have the courage to explore.

"I've reviewed your applications," Roland glanced at the group of people kneeling in the hall, "Today I've summoned you here to tell you that you've passed the preliminary assessment, and have gloriously become the first group of captain interns. Please rise."

"Yes... Your Highness," all the people rose gingerly, exchanging looks with one other. They looked rather confused about the term "captain intern".

The prince took the initiative to explain, "Being an intern means you haven't been officially hired yet. You'll only get half of the salary stated in the post until you are officially on board, ten silver royals a month. The first two months will be the learning period, during which you will get yourselves familiarized with the performance, operation method and procedures of the new boat. The third month will be the trial period, during which you'll be assessed in terms of your learning ability. Only the qualified ones will be promoted to official captains and paid full salary. Those who aren't willing to accept these terms can leave now."

Nobody in the group moved. After a while, an old man suddenly spoke, "Your Highness, who'll teach us and who'll assess us to see if we’re qualified?"

Roland cast him a glance with great interest. He was the one who claimed to be an experienced fleet commander. His name appeared to be Cacusim. If Roland remembered correctly, he was a relative of the policeman from the assassination case two months ago. Judging from the old man's tone, Roland could tell that he didn’t think there was anyone qualified to teach him how to operate a ship. Indeed, there was none.

"The ‘teachers’ will be yourselves," the prince nodded and said.

These words caused a stir among the group.

"Your Highness, what does that mean?" Cacusim asked, confused.

"How much do you know about steam engines?" Roland replied with a question. As he expected, not a single person could answer. "The steam-powered boat is brand new in every aspect. Your past experience will not actually help much, therefore you need to explore and find a way yourselves. Of course, I'll send the craftsmen from the steam engine plant to assist you in familiarizing yourselves with machines." He paused for a little bit and said, "The assessment approach is very simple. Those who are able to operate the boat with a group of sailors and complete a transportation task will be regarded as qualified."

Although the saying 'It takes ten years to build an army and a hundred years a navy' was exaggerating slightly, it did indicate the difficulty in building a navy. If this group of people could master the operation of the steam-powered boat, they could for sure foster a large group of capable crews for the Western Region. These crews could be directly employed to build steam-powered shallow water gunboats later.

He wondered what kind of navy it would turn out to be.

Chapter 395 - Deep down inside the Winter Forest

Leaf passed through the branches and foliage looking for Lightning and Maggie.

In actuality, she was not exactly passing through them, but moving just her vision—her body was integrated into the thick forest.

It was an amazing feeling. She felt like a bird, except a bird would fall to the ground if it wasn’t flapping its wings, whereas she wouldn't. As long as she maintained this form, she could cross from one end of the Fusion Forest to the other instantly. Of course, compared to the entire Misty Forest, the range that Leaf could cover now was just a drop in the ocean.

Ever since her ability had evolved, she had longed to experience the Misty Forest to the west of the town. If she could control this vast forest it would be of great help to His Highness, whether it was fighting against demonic beasts or collecting goods and materials. There wasn't much she could do for His Highness in return. Apart from improving crops, this was the only thing she could do, so she wanted to be good at it.

Compared to the castle's back garden, this was a real forest. Its complexity was far greater than the ecosphere of the castle's olive trees and grape vines and beyond comparison. There were numerous creatures hiding beneath every inch of earth. Looking down along the roots of plants she could sense dormant animals, squirming insects, and decaying remains, along with tiny babbling streams.

To prevent losing herself, Leaf expanded her territory with great caution—starting from the city wall on the west, extending little by little each day. Once she completely adapted to an environment, she would then try to control a new plot of forest land.

At this rate, she could cover the entire Misty Forest within two or three years.

Shortly after, Leaf found two people hunting in the forest. If she had been walking in the snow instead of flying above the treetops, she would have noticed them sooner.

"I found some prey," said Leaf, shaking the branches.

"Ah!" Lightning patted her chest after a shudder. "You scared me!"

"Coo, coo!" Maggie nodded repeatedly.

"Sorry." Leaf revealed herself through a tree trunk, just like a twig growing out of the branches. "Is this better?"

"Well, at least I’m not talking to a ghost." Lightning landed quietly. "You can appear anywhere in the forest at will?"

She nodded. "As long as it falls in the territory that's under my control."

Maggie landed right on Leaf's back, walked a few steps back and forth, and even pecked where her body and the trunk joined. "You've even grown into a tree, coo!"

Feeling her back tickling, Leaf couldn't help laughing. "Because this is my ability," said she.

"It feels a little weird, coo."

"How can you call someone else weird? You've turned yourself into a giant demon bird." Lightning rolled her eyes and looked at Leaf. "Where's the prey?"

"Follow me," she said, turning her head.

Leaf couldn't sustain a human form while moving, instead she made vines grow up from the ground to lead Lightning and Maggie on the way.

"What kind of prey?" Lightning asked.

"A big boar that ran out of the depths of the forest," she replied. "Do you really want to catch it yourself? I can just tie it up with grape vines and throw it at the foot of the city wall."

"Of course. Explorers seek more than just results." The little girl raised her head. "The process is sometimes more memorable than the outcome."

"I'm good as long as there's meat to eat, coo!"

Leaf could not help smiling. The two of them had already become frequent visitors to the Misty Forest before she had integrated into it. They hunted in the forest to practice their magic powers, and Maggie would carry all of the prey they caught back to the castle. Half of the meat on the table these days was provided by them.

"Look, there it is," said Leaf.

There was a huge boar squatting down by the stream, lapping up the cold water. With large, sharp tusks at the side of its snout, and a raised mane that was almost finger-length, it appeared to be a tough enemy. Hunters would normally stay away when coming across such an animal, but it was just a feast in the witches' eyes.

"I'm ready," said Lightning, who pulled out her dagger.

"No gun?" Leaf asked in surprise.

"That would be too boring." She wiped her nose with great confidence and rushed straight toward the target.

"Good luck, coo!"

The little girl's figure, like a streak of golden light, sprang onto the head of the boar from behind. As she rose, the boar shook its head fiercely, bursting out a high-pitched scream.

"She missed it?" No... Leaf noticed one of the boar's eyes had become a bloody gash. It seemed that Lightning was planning to take advantage of her flexibility and first eliminate the threat of counterattacks from the enemy, and then exhaust it through a battle of attrition.

The boar was as clumsy as a stone facing Lightning's attack from the sky. It soon fell to the snow without the strength to resist.

She whistled, "How was that?"

"Good job," Leaf said. She tied the boar's rear legs with vines and hung it up. "First let's bleed it out. His Highness says meat without any traces of blood is tastier."

"Purr." Maggie's mouth was watery. "It's gonna be a big meal tonight, coo."

"Wait... " Leaf suddenly sensed there were other creatures entering the forest. She looked toward the edge of the controlled area and saw two grey wolves approaching.

She frowned, something was wrong. This type of animal usually lived deep within the forest and wouldn't normally come so close to Border Town, even in the winter.

She was just debating whether she should tell Lightning when a familiar figure suddenly appeared before her eyes. Leaf felt all her hair stand up as she remembered the tragic battle she had experienced in the Barbarian Land.

"Demons!"

She saw two demons slowly walking in the direction of the city wall. There were no Magic Stones on their arms, nor spears on their back, so they weren't carrying any weapons. However, Leaf noticed that they both wore a black iron glove, the same weapon that had killed Red Light.

"Why would demons come here?"

With great horror and uneasiness, she turned to Lightning and said, "Get out of here, quick! Demons are coming!"

"What?" Both of them were slightly startled.

Leaf briefly told them what she saw and urged them on, "Hurry up. They don't have a mount and can't catch up. I'll come later."

To her surprise, Lightning hesitated for a moment and then shook her head, saying, "I'm staying here to fight them."

"F... Fight?" Leaf was stunned and asked, "Why?"

"If I run away from the enemy now, how can I defeat them in the future?" The little girl took a deep breath, pulled the gun from her waist and said, "My father told me to get up from where you fall. I won't run away any more."

Chapter 396 - The Fierce Battle

"The explorers will never be afraid of the adventures, but they will definitely not take an adventure recklessly.

Demons are not that horrible because they can also be killed. And they have a huge weakness—they can't survive without Red Mist.

Leaf once used the crossbow bolts to kill a trapped demon. Nightingale managed to kill the enemy under a very unfavorable circumstance." Lightning secretly cheered for herself and she believed that she could also make it.

"We should first report this to His Highness," Leaf said hurriedly. "Comparing with us, both Nightingale and Ashes are much more experienced in fighting the demons!"

"But, the demons may have already left by the time they reach here." Lightning checked the pistol's cartridge to ensure that it was filled with bullets and said, "By letting such dangerous enemies wandering around the border, we'll face much more serious risks."

"I... can stay and keep an eye on them."

"What if they walk out of your control area," the little girl insisted and continued, "and if you try to stop them, you'll end up exposing yourself. Three of us might as well work together."

Leaf relapsed into silent. She seemed to be persuaded.

"Coo coo!" Maggie stood on top of Lightning and flutered her wings.

"Alright," she scratched the pigeon's neck and said, "we'll each take care of a demon."

"What did she just say?" Leaf asked.

Lightning pouted and said, "She said she wants to break the head of the enemy with her claws and pound the flesh into a meat pie with her wings. Finally, she will toast it in the fire to find out how it may taste like."

"She just said 'Coo' twice!" the latter questioned.

"It's basically what it means." The little girl nodded earnestly.

"An excellent explorer is not only extraordinarily brave but also has the ability to lead the entire team, helping them to relax when they are nervous and keeping them when they are over relaxed. I'll try my best to follow your words, father."

Lightning shook her wrist and the cartridge was closed. Trying not to look nervous, she pretended to look calm and said, "How far are they away from here?"

"About three hundred meters away from our right." Leaf answered.

"I should have seen the enemies if I was not blocked by the woods." She was thinking that she definitely had the advantage of taking the first shot, and the pistol obviously outperforms the Magic Stone due to its long range. "You can trap the demons with vines, right? Just like last time at the Barbarian Land."

"I believe I should be able to trap them for a short period of time."

"OK. We can attack from the sky." Lightning said, "It's the last direction the enemies will notice. They will temporarily focus on the vines only. We can end this fight in seconds."

"I... understand." The leaves shook slightly. Perhaps because there were too many related horrible memories when Leaf was in the Witch Cooperation Association. But Lightning had no time to worry about this at this moment. She would probably lose her courage if they kept waiting. After all, she and Maggie were the ones that fight the demons. But Leaf would hide in the woods. She wouldn't be hurt no matter how the demons attacked the vines.

"Let's get started!" Lightning flew right into the sky.

"Coo!" Pigeon was following right behind her.

The forest instantly looked like green and white patches below her. The little girl put on the goggles given by His Highness and she felt braver right away.

"They're over there." Maggie transformed into a Gray-tailed hawk and found the targets just after seconds of searching—with her hawk eye, she would never even miss a running rabbit in the snow.

Lightning took a deep breath. Thunder and His Highness flashed upon her mind. She shook her head and made her mind clear. With her hands holding the pistol grip, she said, "I'll take care of the left side and you, the right side. When we are half way through then you turn into the giant-winged bird again."

"Leave it to me. Coo!"

"Go!" The little girl shouted and then began to dive in. With the cold wind roaring through her cheeks, her ears were hurting. She moved her head a little bit into the scarf. Thinking of the shooting method she learned from Nightingale, she pointed the flintlock forward. The effective range of the bullet was about 100 meters, but it was clear that she should move as close as possible to make sure the target would be hit. Assuming that Leaf's information was right, the demons' iron gloves must be inlaid with the electrical Magic Stone. Their magic range was around five meters, almost the same as the witches'. It was the best choice to shoot them at a distance of seven to eight meters.

The enemies' figures became clearer. And she could see their horrible headgears and scarlet masks. Suddenly, a demon stopped to look up and roared towards them. "Are we... exposed?" Lightning's heart sank. "Why does the enemy act as if they can perceive her?" At the same time, countless vines rose around the demons. They twined the enemy's legs and continued to climb upwards. Finally, the enemies were totally twined by the vines.

A white flash shined from Maggie's body and she turned into a huge monster instantly, diving and screaming at the same time to show her strength.

"Whatever." Lightning grit her teeth and decided to speed up again. When she was about fifty meters from the enemies, she took a sudden turn and rushed down to the back of the enemies like a shooting star—she could only hit the heads of the enemies if she shot straight down, while she could expand the shooting area if she shot horizontally. And Nightingale had also repeated many times that she should fire on the widest body part of the enemy.

The demon struggled to lift his right hand twined by the vines. Dazzling light burst out from his iron gloves. Almost at the same time, Lighting pushed down the trigger. A huge boom suddenly went through the sky above of the forest.

As she expected, the attack range of the Magic Stone was really limited. The blue and white arc light just existed for a very short time. With the sounds of gunshots, blood mist burst out from the back of the demon—the bullets not only went through its body but also smashed the gas bottle on its back.

However, Maggie was not as lucky. Another demon hit her body with its lightning. Sparks burst out from her body and her mighty screams turned into terrible ones. She curled up her wings and then heavily fell down on the demon, kicking up large snowflakes. When they hit the ground, Lightning felt the ground shaking. It was probably because of the severe impact, the demon's gas bottle was smashed and Red Mist was overflowing from under the giant bird. The little girl was very anxious and worried, looking at this.

Leaf reacted immediately. Dozens of vines gathered on Maggie's body and moved her away from the demon. The giant bird rolled in the snow twice, and lay still with her face on the ground.

Lightning rushed towards her. She held her giant head, shaking it and said, "Wake up, Maggie! Are you alright? "

"Coo... I feel numb," Maggie opened her eyes. She transformed back into her human shape with her magic power faded off and said, "what just happened?"

Lightning checked every part of her body, feeling relaxed after confirming her safety and said, "I'm glad that you're alright."

It seemed that in the shape of the flying giant monster, Maggie would not be hurt by the blood mist and she could endure more harms with her giant body. The electric arc just knocked her out for a moment, and there was a demon right below her as a cushion when she was falling down. It was a frightening attack but she was barely harmed. This could be the best out of the worst.

"Both of them are dead." Leaf moved half of her body from the trunk, examining two lifeless demons and said, "What should we do next?"

"Bring the bodies back," Lightning said, "His Highness should know how to deal with them."

Chapter 397 - A Close Study

Hearing the news, Roland was shocked.

Rushing after Leaf he couldn't even attempt to question her further until they had reached the castle's backyard. As he stepped out of the castle he saw Lightening dragging two dead demons off of Maggie's back.

"Your Highness, look, we won!" Seeing the prince, the little girl jumped up straight into Roland's arms. "We defeated the demons!"

"No one is hurt?" Roland asked.

"No, everyone is fine." Lightning looked up, her eyes sparkling with eagerness and hopes of praise. Her metaphorical tail wagging was with excitement.

Roland sighed. Seeing her look of sheer joy made him reluctant to point fingers. So, instead of asking why no one had reported seeing the demons he decided to say, "I am glad there are no injuries, but what just happened exactly?"

The three witches all replied at once. Roland had to listen for a long while before he was able to piece together what had happened.

The way they told it made the fight seem easy and it was over quickly. However, there were many moments that could have ended in disaster. If Maggie had not been able to withstand the impact of the electric arc, or if the demons had been able to shake off Leaf's restraints, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again." Nightingale couldn't keep quiet any longer. Stepping from the cloak of her mist as she said, "To fight with demons is to leave us. With Sylvie, there is no escape."

"But we won," Lightning said while pouting.

"I call it dumb luck. Before the fight did you know Maggie was going to be hit?" Nightingale countered sternly, "I taught you to use a gun so you could protect your sisters and self. Instead, you drag them into danger!"

"No..." Lightning dropped her head in contrition and said, "I was wrong."

"And you," Nightingale said turning to Maggie, "You know you are obligated to fly back and report and yet you chose to stay? If you make a mistake like this again I won't give you anymore dried fish!"

"Sigh..." Maggie's head drooped, too.

'Nightingale is indeed the toughest witch fighter Border Town has to offer,' Roland thought, giving Nightingale a glance of approval. Then he said, "Well, as long as it was just this once. Go and bring Tilly and Agatha to me. It's time for us to examine our new trophies."

...

In the castle's basement, on the cold stone floor lay two bodies stripped bare, their shabby clothes and meager belongings stacked beside them.

"Are they demons?" Tilly inquired while covering her nose, hoping to block the fetid stench.

"They don't look stronger than ordinary people," Ashes said, twitching her mouth.

Agatha looked glum. "Don't underestimate them. Any demon is a tough opponent, with or without magic powers. A senior demon or even a Transcendent would wear a God's Stone of Retaliation," she stated frowning. Looking over at Roland she then said. "They really showed up near the town?"

"Pretty much, Leaf said they were less than two miles from the town's city walls." Roland nodded his response while looking at the bodies displayed before him.

The demon bodies were tall, over six feet, they had strong powerful limbs, and their skin was a shade of light blue. One of the bodies appeared to be severly mutilated and the organs could be seen peeking from its collapsed chest. It looked almost as if it had been crushed by a steam roller. This in combination with Lightening's narrative, Roland could almost see the great impact that had caused the damage.

The other body was in better shape and the only visible damage was two puncture wounds. He could still see the demons blue blood trickling from the perfect holes. Of the four shots Lightening took, only two had hit their mark, fortunately they were fatal.

The blue blood makes sense since demons don't need oxygen like humans, they have no need for hemoglobin. Technically a demons blood could be any color.

And their massive bone structure was also logical. It was necessary to support their height and powerful frame.

What is confusing is their striking resemblance to humans, minus the reproductive organs.

"How do they... reproduce with their own kind?" Roland asked Agatha curiously, "Don't they have gender differences?"

"To my knowledge, no, they don't," she said shaking her head. "It has been an unsolved mystery for me. No one can get close enough to Red Mist tower to find out. There is speculation that they were born in the tower, formed by the mist. However, the Quest Society rejected the notion claiming that the demons were regenerating and every battle was with the same demons, in different forms. They called it the 'regeneration upgrade phenomenon'."

"Regeneration upgrade phenomenon?" Ashes frowned and asked, "what is that?"

"Some of the demons that were severely wounded by our witches would again appear on the battlefield. Based on the pattern of the wounds, we could tell they were the ones that had been beaten previously even though their forms had changed. This implies that Senior Demons were not born but instead likely evolved through battle. Once they reach their full upgrade their forms would change." Agatha explained.

'Well... the magic stone technology by itself is worrying enough, and now the enemy seems to have the ability to upgrade from battle. No wonder they defeated the human beings in the last two Battles of the Divine Will.'

Roland squatted down to have a closer look at the demons' stacked clothing and belongings.

Fortunately, it did not look as if they had anything that could be considered advanced. Their belongings actually looked a little out dated. The clothing was a mix of animal skins and ugly primitive weaves. The ferocious masks were actual skulls from demonic hybrids, clearly not manufactured.

Even the transparent portion embedded into the eyes of the skulls were no more than a polished crystal, tinged and clouded from the Red Mist. While wearing the masks, they would only be able to see a bloody red shadow. How did they learn to fight with something like this?

In addition to the clothes and masks, there were a dozen black slates and a few magic stones.'

"Has the Quest Society ever seen anything like this?" Roland asked Agatha as he laid out the slates, side by side, they made him think of the towering buildings in the red mist. A few of the slates had distorted red marking, while others had nothing you could see with the naked eye.

"That's the way demons keep records," she nodded while answering, "and they record with magic too, so we can't decode their meaning at all."

"Maybe the way they think is completely different," Tilly suggested.

"That's a possibility," Rolland agreed, "and what about the magic stones?"

"Stones of Perception, Stones of Pathfinding... and Stones of Marking," Agatha answered while glancing over them, "Nothing precious. They are only basic equipment for Scout Devils."

'Scout Devil...' Roland felt a dull pain in his head as he asked Agatha, "Does it mean that the demons have already noticed this place, and have started to send their scouts to the town?"

Chapter 398 - Puzzle

"Don't bet on it." Agatha shook her head, "Based on what we experienced during the second Battle of the Divine Will, if they wanted to investigate a human town, they wouldn't act this carelessly."

"What does that mean?" asked Prince Roland.

"To make sure information makes it back to Red Mist tower, this type of reconnaissance would be conducted by two or even three platoons. Quite often the soldiers rode demonic beasts and acted as a unit, under the protection of Spear-wielding Demons," she said slowly. "In order to destroy the investigative platoons, the Union would often send out flying witches to block their rear and they would send out twice as many Blessed Warriors as there were demons for a head on assault. In the last war, the investigative platoons just kept growing in numbers and even Fearsom Demons and Flying Demons joined the recon. It would be odd for them to send out only two ordinary Mad Demons to investigate. Not to mention they were unprotected and really poorly equipped."

"Maybe they don't think it is necessary to send large platoons to investigate Border Town and that only two ordinary demons would be enough?" Ashes suggested.

"That doesn't make sense," Agatha said after a thought, refuting Ashes' theory. "During the time of the Union, every town near the border, no matter how small it was, would be protected by witches. Since the demons couldn't possibly know of the changes that have happened in the human world over the past 400 years, they would have been more cautious and investigated like they had done previously."

"So you think... they were not here deliberately but found the town by accident?" Roland couldn't help but relax at the thought.

"Very likely." she frowned and seemed to be pondering something. "The demons probably had no idea the town was even here, but it's more likely they were scouting the area surrounding their camps. It's unlikely they thought they would meet anything more than a few demonic beasts. That would explain why they only carried Stones of Lightning for protection, instead of Stones of Unifying Strength which manifest spears that can not be used continuously."

"Wait... " Roland was startled, "You think there are demon camps near by?"

"Of course. What other reason would cause them to be out this way?" Agatha stated simply. "They must have established strongholds on the Fertile Plains and from there spread into the Barbarian Land... Oh, I forgot it is now called the Four Kingdoms."

'Awe, Hell, that's a big problem! If the enemies establish themselves under my nose, how will the town survive?' The prince worried to himself. He then asked aloud, eyebrows raised, "Are they like the camps behind the snow-capped mountains?"

"Yes, they are pretty much the same. During the war, there were several storage towers to store the Red Mist at each outpost. Each tower was guarded by 100 to 200 demons." Agatha stated while nodding, "Considering the Bloody Moon hasn't arrived yet it is not likely that they have built a new Towering Stronghold on the Fertile Plains. Since it isn't easy to transport Red Mist the camps are probably small."

"What are you going to do?" Tilly asked, looking at Roland with concern.

"First, we find the camp—see if it really exists," he paused and said, "then... we wipe it out."

"A decisive choice," said Ashes, smiling. "That's indeed a lord's decision, and don't worry, we'll help too."

'If Agatha is right, before the third Battle of the Divine Will officially starts, demons are unable to spread their influences to the whole Fertile Plains. Given that, once the camp near the Western Region is eliminated, there will be at least a few years' peace during which demons won't have the ability to strike back even if they wanted to.

However, this plan could be risky due to the fact it would inform the demons that there are humans who live to the east of the Misty Forest and reveal that they have the ability to take the initiative and attack the demons.

If I leave the camp alone, it'll expand and cause me even bigger trouble. First, they'll probably send out more demons here after they realize those two Scout Demons are missing, and after that, it is just a matter of time before they find the town. Second, if it is a larger camp, the demons will just increase in number and attack the town whenever they desire. Even after the Months of Demons has passed, which is very dangerous. How can I expect the First Army to complete their spring plan of attack if they are trapped in the town, busy constantly fighting demons?'

When Roland returned to his office, he immediately sent for Lightning and Maggie and quickly gave them a task,

"Please remember that you are never to act without authorization. Once you find the camp, fly back here immediately. Don't engage the demons in battle, they may have flying beasts on hand. Your first priority is to keep yourselves safe."

"Yes!"

"Coo!"

He paused before adding, "If you do find the camp, you'll be rewarded with ice cream bread for dessert after every meal this coming week."

Maggie stretched her neck and said, "You can count on us, coo!"

...

Three days later, Roland received Lightning's report. Out in the Barbarian Land, there was a place suspected to be a Demon's Town, it was located about 130 kilometers away from Border Town.

After roughly mapping out its position, he noticed that it was right in front of the route that the Witch Cooperation Association used to follow. This was less than ten kilometers away from the place where the Association was attacked by demons.

"What do you mean when you say 'suspected'?" he asked Lightning. "Have you not seen their black stone towers?"

The little girl shook her head, her expression perplexed, "I have only seen what appears to be... wreckage."

"What?"

"What I saw was crushed black stone, broken fences pieces, and... a huge hole in the ground," she continued while rubbing her forehead, "the place looks like the one where Agatha found the relic. I didn't track any demons though. After surveying the destruction, I flew back here immediately."

"'Another hole?' Roland was stunned, 'Are there giant maggot-like beasts inside this hole too? Last time, there were maggot-like beasts with the relic and they devoured the stone towers remains, this time... did they swallow the demon camp as well?

Did I miss some important clue that links those two events?'

He shook his head and pushed aside the puzzling pieces and asked, "Did you find anything else?"

"No... the camp was deserted. There were no demons there." Lightning replied.

"And no sparkling magic stones either, Coo!" Maggie added.

"I see," Roland mulled over the information he had been given and then quickly began to make arrangements. He looked over at the white haired girl and said, "You take Nightingale and Soraya to the suspected camp site and get pictures of the scene. Then escort Nightingale and Sylvie there so they can check it out further."

"Why not just let Soraya and Sylvie go there together?" asked Lightning.

"Just in case the demons have flying beasts that Maggie can't get rid of," Roland explained briefly. "Nightingale can use her Mist to help you escape. In any dangerous situation, you just get out of there as quickly as possible."

...

Soraya's "photo" of the scene was soon placed in front of Roland.

Just as Lightning had described, there was a massive crater in the ground, stretching five to six meters across, with broken debris scattered around its edge. The fringe of the hole looked almost like the earth and been churned from below. The snow and dirt were mixed, along with various pieces of the crushed black stone and that was exactly how it looked, like it had been crushed by a massive creature.

Sylvie's findings made him even more uneasy—the underground passage there led towards the snow-capped mountains, the same direction as the one relic they found in the Misty Forest.

Both tunnels led to the same place.

Chapter 399 - Contact

In the basement of the palace, King's City, Kingdom of Graycastle.

Timothy sat on the throne with his cheek resting on his right hand. He watched impatiently as the candidates performed their assassination stunts.

"How many fools have I watched since winter began?

I must have been too lenient recently, to have allowed these clowns to perform."

He sneezed and felt the dryness in his eyes.

Ever since the Hall of Sky Dome was destroyed by snow powder, Timothy had moved the venue of the Council Meeting to the basement of the palace. After some renovation, including opening up several storage chambers, the total space was large enough to accommodate all of the Council's ministers and nobles. Most importantly, this place was absolutely safe. There was only one entrance, and the magnificent palace was directly above. No amount of snow powder could disrupt matters in here. The only disadvantage was the lack of sunlight, and thus light had to be supplied using turpentine torches. The torches, which were placed on the surrounding walls, caused the air in the room to become abnormally dry and stuffy. Furthermore, the turpentine gave off a sweet yet foul smell which made Timothy feel drowsy.

Whenever he thought about his Fourth Brother, Timothy would become furious and spiteful. Had it not been for the eyewitnesses who noticed that the attacks came from the sky, Timothy would probably still be building guard towers recklessly. After he realized that this method was completely ineffective, all he could do was to hold his meetings in this place for the time being.

"Roland Wimbledon will surely pay for this!"

"Your Highness." The voice of a candidate disrupted his thoughts. "Have a look. If that traitor Roland ever dares to appear in front of me, I'll accomplish the mission that you've entrusted to me!"

Timothy took a swift glance at the candidate. In a split second, the candidate landed four flying knives accurately on a barrel that was twenty steps away.

"Is this the stunt that you mentioned?"

"Indeed, Your Highness," he replied assuredly. "Frankly speaking, I was in this line of business previously. I've killed dozens of Rats using this method. If I hide in a crowd, most of my targets won't even know where the knives are flying out from."

"How much do you want?" Timothy shifted his stiff body a little.

"Just 25 gold royals," the candidate counted his fingers and said, "five of which will be used to cover the cost of my journey and my disguise—I'll dress in a common and unattractive fashion in order to get closer to the traitor."

"Knight Weimar." The King beckoned.

"Yes, Your Highness." Steelheart Knight walked into the hall, brandishing his saber and shield.

"Your Highness, what do you mean by this?" The candidate was startled.

"If you defeat my knight, I'll give you your reward straight away." Timothy winked at Knight Weimar.

The latter nodded his head. Then, he took off his head armor and walked towards the candidate.

"Wait, wait... no, Your Highness, this won't do." The candidate flipped his body distressedly to dodge the knight's incoming slashes, and stammered, "I can't fight head on! Ah!"

The knight swiftly followed up with a vicious kick to his stomach, causing him to swallow the rest of his words.

After rolling on the floor for a while, the candidate flimsily flung a flying knife at the knight, but it was easily deflected by the knight's shield. The knight stomped on the candidate's hand and, using his sword, sliced off half of the candidate's arm. Blood spilled on to the ground in a curved line.

"My hand...!" the candidate cried in pain. He held onto the remainder of his right arm and coiled his body.

"Firstly, the royal family isn't as dumb as your average target. Even that foolish brother of mine won't easily go near crowds. And secondly, if you can't even handle a knight, what makes you think you're able to assassinate a lord who's protected by many knights? I'm afraid that once you receive the 25 gold royals, you'll never be seen again." Timothy gestured with his hands. "Throw him out."

Had it been a month or two ago, he would not even entertain this bunch of ignorant and greedy people. He had given a small sum of money to those whom he deemed to have a slight chance of succeeding—yet until now, Roland was still alive and kicking.

It was probably because of this 'benevolent' attitude that caused more and more people to come forward and declare that they could solve the problems created by the traitor, and the methods they proposed became increasingly absurd. There was even a fella who suggested using a tavern maid as the assassin, claiming that her technique was outstanding and that no man could refuse her service. "Utter ignorance! Don't they know the difference between a normal female and a witch?" It was already well-publicized that Roland had raised and groomed several witches, so there was zero chance that Roland would fall for someone so cheap.

Timothy let out a long sigh. "By teaching these ignorant candidates a lesson, perhaps others will think twice about coming forth.

Maybe it was a mistake to recruit an assassin from the citizenry.

The only things that could defeat Roland are pills and snow powder."

He swept a glance around the hall, and, seeing that there were no outsiders remaining, he asked the Prime Minister, "How's the progress of the development of the snow powder weapon?"

According to successive intelligence gathered from Longsong Stronghold, the reason that Border Town miners were able to defeat the Duke's knights and the mad militia was because they used an unusual snow powder weapon. It was, in all likelihood, a semi-closed iron pipe which made use of the force generated by the explosion of snow powder to propel a lead shot towards the target, similar to how a crossbow worked. Timothy was highly interested in this, and had immediately gathered the experienced blacksmiths of King's City to begin creating an imitation of this unique weapon.

"Not ideal, Your Highness." Marquis Wyke shook his head. "The blacksmiths have created 10 or so prototypes of this weapon in accordance with the intelligence, but none of them have anywhere close to the alleged firepower. Only a few can penetrate a knight's breastplate within 10 steps, while all are inaccurate over 50 steps."

"10 steps?" Timothy frowned. "Might as well aim at the face, no? At this rate, how are we going to stop the charging knights?"

"Indeed, there may be some tricks we have yet to master... Another thing, even if we gather all of the city's blacksmiths and apprentices, we can at most produce 20 of these weapons per month, and there's no guarantee that every one of them will work." The Marquis sighed. "Until today, there have been four cases of iron pipes exploding during training, and the guards are rather reluctant about training with this kind of snow powder weapon."

Damn it. Border Town was several times poorer than King's City, yet Roland was able to produce hundreds of iron pipes in one winter. He must have received the assistance of demons.

Timothy angrily switched the topic. "How about the pills? Hasn't the church replied to us yet?"

"Yes, Your Highness." The Marquis responded. "The High Priest said that Holy City was busy fighting the invasion of the demonic beasts, and therefore temporarily unable to provide more pills of madness. He hoped that we could wait until after the Months of Demons to discuss things."

"I don't want to see the traitor remain peacefully in the castle of Western Region, not even one day longer!"

"Looks like I have to personally write a letter to the Holy City of Hermes," Timothy thought spitefully. "In the future, if they want to continue recruiting believers in the Kingdom of Graycastle, they'll have to bring pills for exchange."

Just as he was about to announce the end of the day's Council Meeting, the Minister for Diplomacy, Sir Bullet, suddenly walked up to him and said, "Your Highness, messengers from the Kingdom of Dawn have arrived in King's City, and they wish to see you."

Chapter 400 - Alliance Agreement

"According to the customary practice, the reception of messengers from other kingdoms should be conducted in the Hall of Sky Dome. However, it was only recently cleared of rubble from the collapsed ceiling and is still a long way from restoration." As Timothy thought about this, his resentment against Roland grew.

"Bring them to my study," Timothy ordered. After a brief hesitation, he decided to receive them in the palace anyway. No matter what, it would be rude to receive messengers in the basement.

He was clueless as to why the Kingdom of Dawn would send messengers to the Kingdom of Graycastle at this time, especially with no prior notification. Had it been one of the other two kingdoms instead, it would most certainly be a request for aid—either for food or materials to resist the winter cold. There was a saying among the nobility that people who made contact in summer were friends, while those who did in winter were enemies. It held true among all of the kingdoms, except for the Kingdom of Dawn. Although its territory was small, it did not lack in materials, and, in fact, it sold a large amount of food and cloth to the Kingdom of Graycastle every year in exchange for perfumes and crystals.

Timothy shook his head discreetly. He had many things to attend to and therefore intended to dismiss the messengers as early as possible.

When he returned to his study, he saw that the two members of the emissary delegation had been waiting for a long time under the companion of Sir Bullet. Upon seeing His Majesty enter the room, they stood up and bowed. "To the honorable king of the Kingdom of Graycastle, Wimbledon IV, the king of the Kingdom of Dawn sends his regards."

"Bring him my regards too." Timothy nodded inattentively. "Have a seat."

He noticed that the pair of messengers, which comprised of a man and a woman, was very young and looked rather alike. The family insignia on their chests was an antler scepter, and if he did not remember wrongly, this meant that they came from the illustrious Luoxi Family of the Kingdom of Dawn.

"What exactly is Mia IV thinking? Why did he send these young 'uns?" Timothy felt rather curious. Nobles of this age were typically haughty and arrogant, and were vastly different from older nobles who would fight for every little bit of benefit on the negotiating table.

"Are you both members of the Zulu Family?" Timothy pointed to their chests. "I once briefly met Duke Luoxi."

"Indeed, Your Highness." The young man smiled. "I'm Otto Luoxi. This is my younger sister, Belinda Luoxi."

"They're even siblings." Timothy raised his eyebrows. "If that's the case, I don't have to beat around the bush with them."

"It's currently the massacre period of the Months of Demons. Why did the king of the Kingdom of Dawn send you here?" Timothy took the lead and asked. "I guess you are neither short of cotton and cloth, nor of wheat and bread. And of course, even if you met with a disaster, the aid that I can provide is very limited—you should know that the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince has left my kingdom in a mess. Many places have come to a standstill, and just helping the refugees has stretched the City Hall thin. It's very difficult for me to pull out more supplies."

"With regard to this, I express my deepest regrets," Otto felt his chest and said. "However, Mia IV did not send us here to request aid, but to respond to an even more dangerous threat."

His words startled Timothy. "What threat?"

"The church, Your Highness," Belinda replied. "Currently, the Church's army has seized the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and large numbers of refugees have swamped into the Kingdom of Dawn. According to the information the refugees brought, the church's methods are abominable and in serious violation of the rules of engagement agreed among the nobility. Those who resist are either hanged or exiled, while only the nobles who agree to switch allegiance are allowed to live."

"This method intends to completely eliminate the noble class and bring the territories under the full control of the church," Otto spoke in a rather heavy tone. "Mia IV believes that the Kingdom of Wolfheart won't be their last target. Given the critical situation that both our kingdoms are in, the church is likely to bring the flames of war to our lands in the coming year. Our king hopes that we can work together and fight back against the church."

"Are you sure that Wolfheart City has already been captured?" After hearing from the other party, Timothy began to frown.

"A thousand times sure, Your Highness." The two messengers nodded in unison.

Timothy had caught wind of the church's aggressive war, but he did not expect that it would be able to seize two large kingdoms in such a short period of time. If the messengers were not lying, the strength displayed by the church was a little too frightening.

Certainly, it was best to verify this matter with the Minister of Intelligence first. The early arrival of snow during the Months of the Demons had impeded his caravan's route, and thus he had not received messages from the Kingdom of Wolfheart for a very long time.

After a long silence, Timothy asked, "What's the specific plan?"

Otto moistened his lips and pulled out a map underneath his arm. Spreading the map in front of Timothy, he said, "If the church sets off from Holy City and attacks the Kingdom of Dawn or the Kingdom of Graycastle, then the other kingdom should lead an army towards the north and invade the Holy City of Hermes. Doing so will suppress the church's offensive and divide its troops."

"Is this an offensive-defensive agreement?"

"Indeed, Your Highness," Otto replied. "No matter the starting point is Coldwind Ridge of the Kingdom of Graycastle, or Northshire of the Kingdom of Dawn, it'll be possible to reach the Holy City of Hermes in a week's time. As long as our main forces are stationed in these two places, the church may decide to retreat wisely—it'll be a blessing to both kingdoms if we can prevent this war from happening."

"If that's the case, I might as well forget about buying pills from the church." Timothy thought silently. "But without them, how am I supposed to drive Roland Wimbledon out of the Western Region?"

Timothy understood that precautions had to be taken against the church. But he felt that it was best to first purchase the pills he needed and unify the entire Kingdom of Graycastle before he reached an agreement with the Kingdom of Dawn.

"This is a matter of great importance. I'll need to consult with my ministers before I decide. The two of you can stay in the palace while you wait for my decision."

"Sure, Your Highness."

"There's another thing I would like to ask. How much do you know about the situation in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart? Did all of the information come from refugees by word-of-mouth?"

"There are a few reports from spies, but not many... When the church sieged Broken Tooth Castle and Wolfheart City, it also sealed off the surrounding roads. That's why we don't know much about the progress of the battle," Otto replied. "According to the refugees, the church used a terrifying siege weapon which demolished the walls of Wolfheart City in only one day."

"It was probably a snow powder weapon, which was possibly revealed from Garcia's side." Timothy gestured with his hands and asked, "I'm not interested in this. Have you heard of any news about the Blacksail Fleet or Garcia Wimbledon?"

"This..." The two messengers exchanged glances before Belinda said cautiously, "We heard that when Garcia was fleeing from King's City together with the King of Wolfheart, she was struck by the church's arrows and perished."

"Garcia was with the King of Wolfheart?" Timothy's heart skipped a beat. "Was her body found?"

"Not that we're aware of. Judging from the church's publicity after the siege, as well as the lack of news from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, it's highly unlikely that they managed to escape."

"Really..." Timothy exhaled and felt a little relieved. Although there was a bit of regret, this was one of the few pieces of good news he had heard since winter arrived, and he hoped that the messengers were right. "Okay then, you two can go and have a rest."

As the messengers took their leave, a smile began to form on his face. "Hear that, Roland Wimbledon? This is the kind of demise which, as a fellow insurgent, you'll end up in as well."

Chapter 401 - Winter in the Fjords

In the sea of the Fjords lies Sleeping Island.

The skyline turned a pale yellow as the last of the highrise buildings was finally completed. Although the setting sun was not visible, one could still see a streak of golden light reflected on the sea's surface by the sunset glow that passed through the clouds. Only the harsh cold gusts of wind, which blew directly at one's face, gave away the fact that it was no longer autumn.

"And it's done." Lotus lifted up the scarf around her neck until her ears were also covered by the soft cotton. "This will be our new home once the furniture and beds are moved in."

"Fantastic!" Durat Kimshoe clapped and said. "That's a lot of houses built in half a month. And I thought Lady Tilly was exaggerating."

"Lady Tilly doesn't lie," Breeze added.

"Indeed," Durat stroked his thick double chin and said. "If that's the case, I'm reassured about resettling my citizens over here. Oh, what's this?"

The merchant who came from the Crescent Moon Bay analyzed the groove-shaped parapet that was in the house. Bending his body, he even stuck his head in the hole to take a look inside.

"This is a warming device that I learnt about in the Western Region. It's called a heated brick bed." Lotus explained. "It's connected to the kitchen, and hence when a fire is started in the kitchen, this bed will also turn warm. "Add a wooden plank on top and cover it with linen or straw, and you can use it as a bench or a bed. It'll be more comfortable than your typical furniture, especially in the current season."

"Interesting design," Durat said and glanced squarely at Lotus. "If I wanted to hire you for the long term, how many gold royals would it cost?"

"What... do you mean?" Lotus was slightly astonished.

"Follow me to work in the Crescent Moon Bay. There remain several wastelands which have yet to be developed in my territory. Your abilities will prove extremely useful." Durat rubbed his hands and said. "How many gold royals do I have to pay the 'Sleeping Spell' in order for Lady Tilly to authorize you to follow me?"

"Sorry, I've never thought of leaving..."

"Your life over there will be much better than it is here," Durat interrupted quickly. "You'll get to live in the same large compound as me, enjoy fine wine and cuisine from the Four Kingdoms every day, and have attendants accompanying you wherever you go. That's the ideal life that many people envision, and I'm giving it to you as long as you work for me. Besides, Lady Tilly has said that the requests of the 'Sleeping Spell' must be fulfilled, and I'm able to afford your recruitment fees no matter how high it is."

Lotus frowned. She was not unfamiliar with his kind of attitude. Although verbally, he said that he was hiring her, it felt to her more as though she was being bought. Just as she was about to bawl out a few sentences, Breeze gently tugged on her hand. "Even though the requests must be fulfilled, it doesn't mean that it'll be accepted. There are some things that even witches can't do. Besides, all parties have to approve before an agreement can be made."

"You mean that money alone isn't enough? I've never seen a deal like this," Durat spoke with displeasure. "Was what you said when you cast the 'Sleeping Island' mere rhetoric to make fun of us? "No one will believe or be interested in you if this goes on."

"I doubt so," someone responded from behind. "There's only one witches' guild that offers rewards, whether it be in the Fjords or the Four Kingdoms. If you don't come, there will be others."

"Who speaks?" The merchant turned his head and received a rude shock. "Y... Your Highness Thunder!"

"I came up with some of the ideas for the regulations of the 'Sleeping Spell'. Before a contract is signed, the consent of the employee has to take into consideration the possible risks associated with the tasks. They'll not be forced to venture into grave danger," Thunder said in a clear voice and laughed. "Do you have an issue with this?"

"No... this is definitely reasonable." Durat's facial expression restored to normal. "Then... I'll still have to trouble you in the future, Miss Lotus."

"Phew." Lotus watched the merchant and his entourage make their departure, and sighed in relief. "Thanks."

"No problem, I was just passing through." Thunder laughed. "Didn't you follow Lady Tilly to the Western Region?"

"Yes, but I came back early together with Honey and Breeze, because Sleeping Island needed to prepare supplies and houses for winter." She gave him a simple account of the matter. "Have you completed your expedition?"

"Hahaha, yes... it was an incredible and unimaginable trip." Thunder's eyes lit up as soon as she mentioned his expedition. "This was the first time I saw different sea levels occurring at the same time. Our ship seemed as though it was flying. We didn't 'fall' into the sea when we advanced past the cliffs that were formed by the waves! If I hadn't seen it myself, I absolutely wouldn't believe that such a strange sight could be real."

"Different... sea levels?" Lotus murmured. "How could it be? The sea water ain't rocks. Wouldn't it flow downwards?"

"Hmm, I named it the 'Sealine', and it's located to the northeast of the Shadow Islands. When we reached the top of a cliff, it would appear like a long line which we couldn't see the ends of, and the sea would seem to be divided into two distinct sections." He patted his chest excitedly. "I can't wait to venture even further next time!"

It was indeed worthy of the most prominent explorer in the Fjords that the first thing he talked about upon his return was regarding his adventures, and not regarding his daughter who was far away in the Western Region. Lotus shook her head helplessly as she watched him talk on and on.

Before darkness fell and the temperature outdoors plunged, Lotus had already climbed early into the heated brick bed. This was the most relaxing moment of her day. For more than a month, she not only constructed a new batch of houses but also renovated the creaking houses of other witches. Crowding on to the heated brick bed with everyone else and chatting about her experiences in Border Town, the questions from her companions - which were borne out of a mix of curiosity and envy - ensured that she did not get any sleep for half of the night.

The conversation topic shifted to the Bird Beak Mushrooms.

Her companions started to salivate when she mentioned how she prepared them. She would place the mushrooms in some butter and flip them a few times, then fry until both sides of the mushrooms were golden brown in color, and finally sprinkle a bit of salt on top to create a most delicious dish.

"Mmm... I feel like eating this," Shadow exclaimed. "After eating dried fish onboard for a month, my mouth is full of a salty and fishy smell."

"Great," Molly could not help interrupting Lotus. " If only I was the one whom Lady Tilly's elder brother invited."

"Hey, there are even more amazing things you haven't heard." Someone giggled. "In the showers of Border Town, the water comes straight out of the wall, and the scented soap makes your whole body smell great after showering."

"There's really something like this?" Shadow asked curiosly.

"Of course, and I even brought one back." Lotus curled her lips upwards. "But it has been used up."

"Don't talk about it. At least they got to experience it. I followed Lady Tilly to the Western Region and then immediately brought these girls back here. I didn't get to enjoy anything!" Breeze bemoaned.

As she listened to the witches' gabbling discussions, Lotus suddenly had a thought.

If it was instead His Highness Roland Wimbledon who wanted to hire her long term, would she have agreed?

After contemplating for a while, she realized that she would not be able to refuse if it was indeed Roland.

What an embarrassment!

Lotus tucked herself inside her quilt and glanced left and right. Luckily, the lamp was already extinguished, or else someone might have realized what she was thinking about.

However, when would Lady Tilly finally be able to accept His Highness Roland?

It would be great if they could stay together forever. Lotus held the cloth tightly in her arms. If so, it would be good for me and the other witches, as we would all be able to live happily in Border Town.

Chapter 402 - Organizational Structure

At the beginning of the second month of winter, Barov walked into Roland's office, carrying a stack of books under his arms.

As he walked up to Roland's table, a huge color painting on the table caught his attention. "Is this... a map of the entire Western Region?"

"Not just the Western Region," Roland said, laughing. "It also includes a portion of the Barbarian Land and the Misty Forest, especially this space over here." He pointed to an area in the northern part of the Impassable Mountain Range—it was the Fertile Plains that Agatha had talked about. "At present, the area that we've already discovered is equivalent to three Western Regions. If we manage to cultivate the land of this large space, we can resettle hundreds of thousands of people."

In order to eliminate the threat that came from Devil's Town, he had sent Lightning and Maggie to comb through the area and draw up a map. Now that Maggie could carry Soraya while she did the drawing, more accurate maps could be drawn. Although the disappearance of the Devil's camp was still a mystery, the good news was that there was no sign of another enemy camp within 200 kilometers of Border Town.

"In the Barbarian Land, there aren't only demonic beasts, but also... scary enemies, like you said." Barov's words came with a hint of hesitation. "Won't it be too dangerous to cultivate the land towards the northwest?"

"By that time, the First Army will most likely be equipped with the power to fight demons." Roland slowly swiveled his finger around the plains on the map. "It won't be safe anywhere if we're unable to defeat these enemies."

Ever since demon scouts were spotted in the Misty Forest, he knew that he could not conceal this information for long. In order to prevent the panic that could be brought about by a sudden revelation, he first disclosed the existence of demons to his top brass. Judging from the current situation, the reaction of the people were fairly normal. Of course, he had slightly downplayed the strength of the demons by asserting that they were of the same ilk as demonic hybrid beasts, while he did not divulge the history of the two Battles of Divine Will.

Roland knew that his kingdom could not remain on the mainland border forever if it wanted to be on par with the Four Kingdoms. Only the Barbarian Land... or should we say, the Fertile Plains, was a land area that was worthy of his governance. In fact, the area that had been explored was only a tiny fraction of the entire plains. One could imagine the vast amount of land that humans occupied during the second Battle of Divine Will.

He retracted his finger, then rolled up the map and placed it to one side. "Do you have any news to report?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov nodded and then spread the books that were under his arms in front of the prince. "I've drawn up a plan for the City Hall's expansion according to your demands."

"Oh? I'll have a look."

In order to cope with the rapid growth of territory after the establishment of the city, Roland utilized a futuristic classification of his government's functional departments, and thus set a new framework for management organizations of his time. Overall, the upper sector of the government was divided into four main branches, namely the City Hall, the military, the Security Bureau and the Witch Union.

Under the expansion plan, the new City Hall would assume the role of the cabinet or State Department, and would be the core institution of the entire territory. In time, the personnel would increase to approximately 500 people. Its six departments would be finance, foreign affairs, education, agriculture, industry and law, while new departments could be added at any time according to demand. Moreover, if (or when) the Kingdom of Graycastle was reunified, all of the other cities could follow this template and set up corresponding lower sector institutions, and together they would be managed by the City Hall.

In addition to its battle staff, the military also had independent production and medical departments that served as logistical safeguards. Every military division had a commander-in-chief who was responsible for specific combat matters, but the supreme authority of the military rested with Roland himself.

The Security Bureau was a secret organization which hid in the dark. Its funds were not allocated by the City Hall, while its members were also not recorded in any dossier. Its primary functions were to monitor and ensure the security within the territory and handle issues of official corruption.

Lastly, the Witch Union... Roland had thought hard about this organization but eventually decided that it would be a separate department, instead of sorting the witches into the other departments.

This was because, for some of the witches, their abilities would increase dramatically after evolution, and then they would be able to work across multiple departments. For example, Anna and Soraya could both play important roles in industry, agriculture, military, and education.

Another reason was that there would be times when a witch would not be assigned any work, and therefore, classifying them together could effectively avoid dampening their enthusiasm. This was a point that Scroll and Wendy had brought up to him.

Roland hoped that in the future, the Witch Union would operate on its own, which included handling its membership, inspection and work allocation.

"Are you really able to hire so many literate people?" After he finished reading the City Hall Director's proposal, Roland raised his head and asked. A 500-person institution was considered enormous in this era. Plus, the requirement that every employee had to be literate would almost certainly be impossible to fulfil in other territories. Although the royal city of each kingdom might have sufficient literate people, these were in large part nobles who were too proud and arrogant to be willing to serve as apprentices.

"Add in the fresh batch of graduates and there shouldn't be a problem," Barov replied. "According to the feedback from the recruitment notices, jobs in the City Hall are the most popular."

"It seems that being a civil servant is popular everywhere... " Roland arced his lips upwards uncontrollably. "In that case, go ahead and recruit people according to this scheme. The next and final task is to formulate laws."

"Pass me the principal article that you mentioned the last time, and I'll have my apprentices complete the rest as fast as possible," the City Hall Director said in high spirits.

"It's called Basic Laws," Roland said and laughed. It appeared that enthusiastic "model workers" were not only confined to witches—this was a good sign for a new regime.

"Another thing, Your Highness," Barov said. "If the City Hall is expanded according to the plan, the current building may not be able to accommodate so many people. Can... "

"You want to build a new City Hall?" The prince nodded in agreement. "For sure. I'll arrange Karl to see to it." In the eyes of the citizens, this was the face of the lord. While they rarely had the chance to enter the castle, they would often settle matters in the City Hall. Thus, a certain degree of splendor and style was necessary. If it was austere and unembellished, the people's confidence in him might erode.

After Barov took his leave, Roland called his guards to bring in Prius Dessau, the knight from the Elk Family.

Roland had not seen him for half a year. The knight was visibly fatter and his face fuller than usual, while his cheeks even glowed a bright red. Life had certainly been good.

"Recently, there's been more eggs and poultry in the Convenience Market. This's all your credit." Roland smiled. "Your way of raising chickens and ducks must be great."

"Hehe..." Prius laughed, somewhat embarrassed. "Without your support from the start, I couldn't have done any of this."

Farming was not a smooth journey. When Prius first started, the fowl plague even appeared and caused the death of many chickens. Roland simply thought of it as a good lesson and did not give up on him. Instead, the prince continued to buy baby chicks from the Stronghold and passed them to him for raising. Presently, he had become an indispensable talent of the town's community.

"I plan to recruit you in the City Hall under the agriculture department. Do you agree?"

"Your Highness, you... don't want me to continue raising chickens and ducks?" Prius was slightly surprised.

"Of course not. You've been doing a great job, and therefore, I hope that you can bring more people into this business." Roland said encouragingly, "Soon, I plan to expand the scale of farming by more than ten times. Then, you and your family won't be able to handle it alone. After you're recruited in the City Hall, you can pass on your experience to more people and teach them how to farm."

Given Lily's ability to eliminate bacteria and diseases, the most thorny problems of animal husbandry ceased to exist. Apart from chickens and ducks, large livestock such as cows and lambs were also within the prince's expansion plans.

"This is undoubtedly a noble job that's no less honorable than knighthood." The prince paused for a moment and then continued speaking. "There'll be a day when eggs and poultry will be served on the dining tables of every household in the Western Region. And when people see these delicious foods, they'll all remember your name. What do you think?"

"I'm... willing to serve you." Prius Dessau clenched his fists and bowed respectfully.

Chapter 403 - Student and Teacher

...

Nana yawned loudly as she got off the bed.

She glanced at the whiteness outside the window. Still, she could see nothing but snow.

Reluctantly, she moved out of the warm bed and put on her thick winter coat. As she trudged out of the bedroom, she saw Aunt Alda tidying up the living room.

"Good morning," she muttered.

"Ah, little princess, you're awake." Alda smiled at her. "Want breakfast? It's ready."

"Yes." Nana sat beside the dining table and ran her eyes around the room, but she did not see her father. "Where's Daddy?"

"Lord Pine went out early in the morning," Alda replied from the kitchen. "He was carrying his silver shotgun."

"Indeed." Nana curled her lips upwards. "He's probably gone to the city wall to practice shooting again—ever since he fended off the demonic beasts with the flintlock, he has become enamored by this loud and booming weapon. Not only does he wipe a gun barrel every day, but also he'll go to the city wall to practice whenever he has time. Furthermore, he managed to apply for a specially-made flintlock from his Highness using my healing abilities as a bargaining chip.

It's all His Highness' fault for saying that long shotguns are the standard equipment for hunters," Nana thought. "If Mummy's still around, Daddy probably won't go out all day long like this."

"Breakfast's here." Alda placed two steaming plates on the table in front of Nana. "Fried eggs and white bread. Eat while they're hot."

"Thank you."

Breakfast's normally prepared before Daddy leaves home. Only Aunt Alda would specially place it in hot water to keep it warm. If instead, Daddy took care of me, I'd be eating cold and hard eggs.

Nana sighed uncontrollably.

If only Aunt Alda could marry Daddy.

But the young girl knew that this wish had little chance of happening. Alda was the family servant while Daddy was a noble of Border Town—as far as she understood, it was difficult for a commoner and a noble to get married.

She devoured the delicious breakfast, wiped her mouth, and shouted. "I'm going to the medical center."

"Okay." Alda put down the broom she was holding, and led Nana to the door. As she bent down and tied a scarf around Nana's neck, she said, "Be careful on the road, Miss Pine."

"Yes, Aunt!"

White snowflakes greeted Nana as she made her way out of the house.

This was her daily routine: In the morning, she would leave home for the medical center. She would treat the patients if there were any, or else, she would practice her abilities on animals. At noon, she would go to the castle to have lunch with Roland, while in the afternoon until night time, she would remain in the medical center, after which she would return home—she was the only witch who did not live in the castle.

Although time in the medical center was boring, she persisted because she wanted the patients to receive treatment as quickly as possible. The smile and warmth of the townspeople also supported and pushed her on.

"Lady Nana, good morning!"

"Miss Angel, going to the medical center again?"

"Today's weather ain't good. Do take care of your body."

"Miss Pine, have you eaten breakfast? Why not have a bowl of hot oatmeal that I just prepared?"

Greetings like these continued incessantly whenever she walked in public. It was a stark contrast to a year ago. Her sisters claimed that she was currently the most popular witch in Border Town, even more popular than Anna. Nana wasn't concerned about a popularity contest, albeit she was happy with the current atmosphere. Every person whom she had treated before would greet her affectionately, and this filled her with a sense of achievement.

"Elder sister Anna was right," Nana thought. "The only way to change people's prejudices was to face them adamantly."

When she arrived at the medical center, the First Army soldier who was manning the gate bowed and greeted her. "Hello, Miss Nana."

"Good morning, are there patients today?"

"Not at the moment," the soldier replied. "But your friends have come."

"Friends?" She was surprised. "Could it be Anna?" As she thought of Anna, she excitedly ran up to the second floor and pushed open the door, only to find Mystery Moon, Hummingbird, and Lily idly lying on the table. On noticing her, the three of them immediately got up and surrounded her.

"You three... "

"Haha, are you pleasantly surprised? We came all the way just to see you!" Mystery Moon raised her arms and exclaimed.

"Mystery Moon suggested that instead of lazing about in the castle, it would be a good idea to come out for a walk," Hummingbird added.

"You two may be free, but I'm certainly not. I still have many insect samples to observe." Lily, who was standing at the back, lamented. "Nana must be very busy as well. You think that she's like you?"

"Is that so? Yesterday, I peeked and saw you dozing off in front of the microscope. You were obviously sick of your job." Mystery Moon shrugged her shoulders.

"Nothing of that sort!"

Nana was slightly disappointed that it wasn't Anna who turned up, but she quickly buoyed up. At present, Anna was His Highness' busiest subordinate, and naturally, could not spend as much time with her as in the past.

"No, I'm in fact very free," she replied, laughing. "Thank you, you three."

"Ahem... since you say so, I shall remain behind to accompany you." Lily turned her head. "It won't be a problem to observe the samples tomorrow."

"What are we gonna play?" Hummingbird questioned.

"What else?" Mystery Moon took out a pack of playing cards. "Of course, this!"

"Aye, 'Fight the Landlord' may be interesting, but it's a three-player game."

"No, not 'Fight the Landlord'." She shook her head uncannily. "A new game that's suitable for four players, where we compete to see who can show her cards the fastest. I learned it from Andrea's group only yesterday!"

"The three-player group of the Sleeping Island?" Lily said, holding her forehead. "You learn poorly from others, yet still choose to learn from this bunch... had you used your energy to learn new knowledge from His Highness instead, you won't have made so little progress until now."

"This was also handed down by His Highness." Mystery Moon retorted. "Why's it not considered part of His Highness' new knowledge?"

"Other than you, there's probably no one in the Witch Union who thinks this way." Lily stared at her for a moment.

"I'd like to learn as well... " Hummingbird mumbled softly.

Nana watched the conversation going on, and laughed uncontrollably. She felt like she was back to the carefree days when she attended Teacher Karl's academy.

...

Under the company of the three witches, the morning time, which was usually boring, passed quickly. They then went to the castle for lunch together, after which Nana returned to the medical center alone.

As she stepped into the hall, she saw someone unexpected.

Karl Van Bate.

"Mr. Karl!" Nana said in surprise. "What brings you here?"

"To see you." Karl smiled and gazed at her, and then said happily, "You... have grown up."

"Is that so?" Nana lowered her head, as if embarrassed. "I'm still a long way from Anna."

"Everyone's different. You have your strong points." He laughed. "Watching you and Anna grow up, as well as observing the town's changes, it seems that I can no longer see the cracks."

"What cracks?" Nana was confused.

"Nothing... I'm just spouting nonsense." Karl shook his head. "I used to believe that the god had forsaken this world, but now, I feel that it continues to watch over us."

"Not a god," Nana corrected him. "His Highness says that these are the fruits of human efforts. Weren't those residential communities built by you?"

"But without an origin, nothing could have happened. At that time, when I thought that Anna was dead, and you somehow awakened as a witch, I was utterly flustered. It might have been a God who heard my prayers and answered my call." Karl said in a gentle voice. "It brought us His Highness Roland."

Chapter 404 - The Journey to Magnetoelectricity

"Ah... I envy Nana so much." Mystery Moon wiped her wet hair and drew her face close to Lily who was sitting upright at the desk.

"Hmm," Lily replied without even turning her head.

"You don't ask why I envy her?"

"You'll soon fill me in anyway," Lily said, twitching her mouth.

"Damn it!" Mystery Moon mumbled, but could not help saying in the end, "Didn't you see how the soldiers at the hospital and the townsmen nearby treat her?"

"Saw it."

" 'Hello, Miss Nana,' 'Are you leaving, Miss Angel?' 'Miss Pine, this is the wheat cake I made,' ... I want to be treated like that, too!" Mystery Moon pressed her face onto Lily's cheek, but was pushed away relentlessly.

"That's a return for her ability," Lily said without turning a hair. "Didn't you notice that ever since the Months of the Demons, she's been staying at the hospital almost every day, waiting to treat the wounded? Half of the locals have received her treatment, and the rest are pretty much their families."

"You're exaggerating."

"Not really," Lily said with a sigh and put down the book in her hand. "Although not everyone will fight against demonic beasts at the city wall, it's perfectly normal for townees to get injured—miners can hurt their toes by ores; kiln labors can get burned. The same applies to the apprentices at the steam engine plants and the chemistry laboratory." She paused for a moment and said, "His Highness once told me that Nana and I are the foundation of medical care in Border Town; one of us for internal medication and the other surgery. This allows the operation to remain at an intense level, while still make sure everyone is healthy without establishing a safety policy. However, in fact, I haven't done anything except epidemic prevention for new refugees."

"So you're feeling sour like me!" Mystery Moon said, leaning over unyieldingly.

"No, I'm not!" Lily fired. "And stay away from me. You're interfering with my reading."

"Aw... " Mystery Moon chickened and said, "but I'm really envious of her."

"Then learn from Nana. Take the initiative to help every townee until they know you and get familiar with you. Then surely everybody will say hello to you wherever you go," said Lily, shrugging her shoulders.

"But I don't have an ability like Nana's," Mystery Moon said, frustrated.

"Then use your physical strength if not your ability," said Lily, mocking. "Regardless, you've been there at the camps of the Witch Cooperation Association."

"You... rascal!"

Mystery Moon still nursed a grudge when she went to bed. She knew that Lily was right, but being inferior to the other witches chafed her pride. This was intolerable. She had gone through so much pain before finally finding an ideal place to settle down and idling about all day was torture.

Mystery Moon slept fitfully all night. She knocked on Roland's office door with dark circles below her eyes the following day.

"What's the matter?" the prince asked in surprise. "Were you bullied?"

"By Lily... No, nevermind." She leaned dramatically on Roland's desk and asked, "Your Highness, didn't you say that I have great potential? Why's there no change in my ability yet? It really can't evolve unless I understand Natural Science Theoretical Foundation?"

"I see," Roland said, trying in vain to suppress his laughter. "Actually, I've been thinking about this problem, too."

"What problem?"

"Didn't Agatha say that over 400 years ago, the witches at the Union experienced High Awakening even without a comprehensive understanding of the world? Apart from basic practices, the rest will be a sudden enlightenment—this could be achieved by the observation of natural phenomena, or by an accidental flash of inspiration." Roland continued, "However, the latter is apparently not comparable to the awakening inspired by systematic learning. Look at Agatha's magic power. She's not only the weakest one among the evolved witches, but she can't even compete with some of the ordinary witches such as Sylvie and Andrea."

"Doesn't matter, as long as it evolves!" Mystery Moon's eyes were sparkling. "You've got an idea?"

"It may not work," the prince said, throwing up his hands, "but it's worth a try. What do you know about magnetic forces?"

"Um... A force produced by the directional movement of electrons, which a magnetic field acts on the magnetic bodies and electric currents in it."

"That was copied from the book," he smiled and said. "You memorized it well, but you probably don't understand it at all."

Mystery Moon hesitated for a moment and nodded.

"You've seen lines of magnetic forces simulated by iron powder. You also know the direction of magnetic forces, and have seen the DC generator, too. So I think... you may not enable closed circuits to quickly cut lines of magnetic forces, yet you can change the magnetic field you form, thereby personally experiencing the transformation from magnetism to electricity. "

"I don't quite follow you."

"The nature of the transformation from magnetism to electricity is the change in magnetic flux. If you wanna change the magnetic flux in a constant magnetic field, the only way is to change the area, that is, to cut magnetic induction lines." The prince drew a diagram on the paper and said, "What if the area remains constant? That'll be changing the magnetic field, which means changing the magnetic flux."

Mystery Moon groped unsuccessfully for adequate words, failing because she didn't understand a word.

The prince laughed and said, "It's OK that you don't get it. You only need to do this—quickly release and withdraw your magnetic forces rather than continuously use your power."

"And then?" Mystery Moon waited for Roland to continue.

"Nothing more." He shook his head. "This is the only step."

"Huh? Just release and withdraw magnetic forces?"

"Correct. If you can also change the direction of lines of magnetic forces, that would be perfect. For example, switch from the left hand to the right hand." The prince smiled and said, "While you practice, I'll prepare a 'little toy' for you. You'll know why when you get the hang of this method."

...

Two days later, Mystery Moon received what His Highness called a "little toy". It was a square frame made of copper wires, the top of which was connected to a glass ball no bigger than half of a fist. Taking a closer look, she could see the copper wires were cut open in the ball, and were connected by a much finer metal wire.

An accompanying instruction manual read, "Hold the two ends of the square frame with both hands and practice. Note: be sure to draw the curtains and hide the Stone of Light."

What the heck is that?

She scratched her head and then did what the instruction manual instructed— "It's practice no matter how I do it. Just ignore it, and it'll be fine."

Mystery Moon learned that it was not hard to quickly release and withdraw her power, but changing the direction of magnetic forces delivered a blinding headache. Magnetic force was an essential power to her and at first, this endeavor was akin to breathing with only one nostril at a time. Although Mystery Moon had restrained herself from playing poker games and been dutifully practicing her new skill for the last two days, the result lasted merely half a minute.

She took a deep breath and summoned the magic power in her body.

At first she felt nothing, but soon she saw a flash of red light.

The metal wire in the glass ball turned orangy red, and the light became increasingly bright and intense. In a few seconds, the light was glaring. Mystery Moon almost could not believe her eyes. The inkily dark room was lit by soft light much purer than the candle light, which she had never seen.

She was still in a daze when the red light faded away accompanied by a feeble popping sound before the darkness enveloped the room again.

Chapter 405 - Accompany

The next morning, Mystery Moon ran to the office in a hurry with bigger dark circles under her eyes.

"Why would the glass ball light up? It didn't work afterwards, no matter how hard I tried to apply my power... " she could not wait to spit it all out after pushing open the door.

"That... fast?" The prince was a little surprised. He put down the quill, took the small object from Mystery Moon and said, "I thought it would take you two or three days."

Mystery Moon bent over, propped up her chin on the edge of the desk, and asked with a blink, "What on earth was glowing?"

"That was electric light." The prince smiled and said, "You released lightning from the sky."

"Lightning?" She could not help repeating the word in a quiet voice, and then shook her head. "But it didn’t look like it at all. This light was a red-orange color, and kept glowing—lightning is always just a flash. "

"The lightning lit the filament, making it glow continuously." The prince twisted the glass ball and took it off, then said, "It's fine that you don't understand it. I'll let you see the real electric light later."

Mystery Moon's eyes were wide open. She gazed at Roland's every single movement, afraid of missing something. The prince drew the two copper wires closer and put the glass ball back again. "There you go. Now continue to practice."

"That's it?" She took the wire frame, utterly disappointed.

"That's right," the prince covered his mouth and said, "and don't forget to draw the curtains when practicing."

...

Lily was sitting at the end of the bed reading Natural Science Theoretical Foundation when Mystery Moon returned to the bedroom.

"Why are you up so early today?" she asked in surprise. "Since you're up, bring me breakfast. An omelet and bread, please. No porridge."

"No, I won't bring breakfast for a traitor," Mystery Moon said with a grunt. She drew the curtains, and the room turned completely dark in an instant.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Lily frowned and asked.

"Practicing my ability." She threw herself on the floor and said, "Draw the curtains and hide the Stone of Light—that's His Highness' requirement."

"Fine, fine," the little girl rolled her eyes and said, "I'll do my reading in the hall."

"No, you can't!" Mystery Moon hollered.

"Why?" Lily darted her a look, "I can't read when I'm starving, and I have to stay with you here?"

"Um... " Mystery Moon paused a moment, "I'll bring you breakfast. Can you stay here?"

"What?" Lily asked with great interest, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

"Not at all!" She puffed out her cheeks and muttered after a while, "I just need company."

She wanted somebody to witness her progress and be amazed at her ability. Even if she failed, she hoped someone would still comfort her, but she would rather carry these words to her grave than confide in Lily.

"Okay then. I'll stay with you this time, since you sound so pathetic," Lily said with a yawn. "Breakfast, quick!"

Mystery Moon finally got ready to practice after reluctantly bringing the breakfast over.

Lily swallowed the egg in content and asked, "What're you going to do? Magnetize the stuff in your hand?"

"No, I'm going to let the magnetic forces in my hand change quickly. His Highness says that'll produce thunder and lightning."

Lily was stunned—"Thunder and lightning?"

"Yeah, I'm going to start... "

"Hold on," the little girl shouted, drawing closer to the door. "It's good now. Go ahead."

Mystery Moon exhaled a long breath and mobilized her magic power as she had earlier. If this happened at the camps of the Witch Cooperation Association, Supervisor Cara would definitely scold her for such behavior. However, His Highness had intentionally replaced all the wares in the bedroom that contained iron, including iron nails with copper-made items, making it easy for her to practice.

She was generously treated in Border Town and would not allow herself to sit idle.

Reminiscences of her experience in the town swarmed back upon her, image by image, as vivid as a merry-go-round. This time Mystery Moon found herself quickly in a ready state. The magic power danced between her hands with increased movement and growing intensity.

Then she saw the electric light. Like a blue ghost revealing itself from layers of clouds, the light was transient, and disappeared instantly. Nevertheless, she clearly saw a trace of electric light. It was like a tiny arc, spanning from one end of the copper wire to the other, bursting out gentle popping sounds.

It was far from the end.

Then came a second arc, and then a third... She noticed in dismay that every time the magnetic forces transformed, there was dazzling electric light springing up, the traces of which also changed correspondingly with its movements. With the direction of magnetic forces quickly switching back and forth, a bridge of blue and white gradually took shape between the two copper wires.

"What's that?" Lily who stood far away asked, her eyes wide open.

The electric light was insignificant compared with the red-orange blaze of yesterday, but it made Mystery Moon quiver in excitement—this was her first time witnessing her own ability! In comparison to the invisible lines of magnetic forces she could not understand in the slightest, the rythm at which the electric arc danced and the direction of its movement were completely under her control. This was truly "lightning" created by her.

Electricity generates magnetism, and vice versa. That's what it is. She sensed the power in her body had become more visible and clear.

Mystery Moon got up on her feet and put the metal frame on the desk. She slowly released her hands to let the magic power die down, but the ends of the copper wires were still glittering, like flickering stars in the darkness from a far distance.

She now had a better understanding of these words.

In other words, electricity is magnetism, and vice versa.

*******************

Roland kneaded his sore neck with a quill between his teeth.

"Do you need a hand?" Nightingale's voice popped up by his ears.

"Ah, thank you," he nodded slightly and said. Nightingale thus laid her two fair hands on Roland's shoulders and started to massage his neck with just the right amount of strength.

Roland half closed his eyes, enjoying this moment of serenity. In order to draft the first code of the town, which would later serve as the Basic Laws of all the primary laws, he had been up earlier than even the guards for the past three days. It wasn't until today that he finally finished the draft. As Roland had no knowledge of the laws, he could only jot down some ten articles in plain language based on his understanding of the system, which was no longer than two pages altogether.

Nonetheless, these articles contained ideas and ideology from the new world. He believed this code would enable him to carry out a brand new system which was entirely different from the ancient feudal system across the whole continent while expanding his territory. With this code as its base, his new kingdom would indubitably distinguish itself from the others.

"Your Highness!" The office door was suddenly flung open. Mystery Moon rushed in with the copper wire frame in her hand, shouting, "I finally got it!"

Roland opened his eyes, and saw the girl withdraw her hands and put the "little toy" on the desk.

"Look!" She did not touch the wire frame, but there was still an arc of light where the copper wires were cut open.

Looking at this incredible scene, Roland could not help dropping his jaw. The quill slid off the corner of his mouth and fell on the floor.

Chapter 406 - The Limitation of Magic Power

"What did I just see? A self-generating system of electricity that doesn't need an external energy supply!

Mystery Moon's ability is an attaching type of magic so the answer is clear. She added a brand new property to the metal frame, and "her magic power acts as the energy supply," Roland mused to himself.

"How did you manage to do that?" Roland asked aloud.

"When you said that there's an intertwining relationship between electricity and magnetism, and that they're indivisible, I wondered if I could make the objects generate lightning by magnetizing them. I tried to add a constantly changing magnetic forces to the copper wires because you've said creating electricity requires changes in magnetic forces. Then it turned out this way," Mystery Moon answered cautiously, her eyes sparkling with expectation.

"That's why... Changes in electric currents do produce magnetic fields, but magnetic fields only generate electricity under certain circumstances. It requires both closed circuits and changes in magnetic flux; changes in the magnetic area and magnetic forces both need external energy supply.

Mystery Moon's new ability has replaced an energy supply with the self-changing magnetic force," the prince concluded. Roland would have thought it was a perpetual motion machine prototype, if he saw it in modern times. Yet here in this world, he understood that powers of witches could not be judged by common sense of his time. The magnetic property added to the objects might not be produced by magnetic poles, just as the Blackfire was not natural fire.

They were tangible forms of the magic power.

He could only wonder whether Mystery Moon had noticed any magnetic force change in objects to which she attached her magic power.

When Roland asked her about it, she nodded and then shook her head. "When I was in the Witch Cooperation Association, I once wanted to change the magnetism of objects according to my will. To avoid causing my sisters any trouble, I tried to make the objects less magnetic when they were not in use. However, it didn't work. Their magnetic force remained the same. I thought it was impossible, so I gave up on it," she said.

"Just as I expected," Roland thought. He cocked his head towards Nightingale and said, "The form of her magic power... "

"They have been united." Nightingale stepped out of her mist and smiled. "The two are now one."

Mystery Moon gasped, "Did I really... "

"Yes, you did. Your ability has evolved." Roland confirmed. "Only a long-term and relentless dedication of practice can lead to enlightenment and evolution that fast. You did a great job. From now on, you'll be the sixth evolved witch in the Witch Union."

"Congratulations." Nightingale went to Mystery Moon and patted her head, smiling.

"Now, am I able to do more for Your Highness?" she asked, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Yes, countless things," Roland smiled and said. "As I've told you before, you've got great potential. But first, go rest. You have dark circles as huge as fists around your eyes. I'll test your ability in the afternoon."

"Yes!" she nodded vigorously.

After Mystery Moon left the office, Nightingale purposefully shut the door and turned her attention to Roland. Ignoring her regular perche at either Roland's desk or the French window, she drew close to him. Grasping his shoulders and leaning in to speak, she stood so close that strands of her fair hair tickled his face. He felt his heart beating violently at the sight of her bright eyes and soft, red lips.

Eh? What's going on? Is she asking for it in broad daylight?"

"Tell me the method." These were not the words that the prince had expected to hear from Nightingale, "Wait... what's this have to do with anything?"

"What method?" he asked.

"The method to evolve without reading Natural Science Theoretical Foundation?" she said excitedly, "I can tell from Mystery Moon's grades that she doesn't understand the contents of the book, but you taught her how to evolve and gain a new ability! What should I do? Practice with 'little toys' as well?"

"Eh, she is asking for the evolvement method. What a pity... no, a relief." Roland thought and cleared his throat, putting himself together. "I'm afraid your ability won't evolve through a sudden flash of enlightenment," he said.

"Why not?"

"According to Agatha, only observing natural phenomena related to your ability can provoke an evolvement. Your Mist is just too incredible for me to understand, let alone guide you to learn about it." Roland explained. "Maybe the only method for you to develop your magic power is a sound understanding of natural science, physics and even advanced mathematics."

Nightingale's face fell. She feebly walked to the couch and sank back into it, feeling as if her body was hollowed out.

After lunch, Roland spent the whole afternoon conducting a comprehensive test on Mystery Moon's new ability.

He named it "Variable Magnetic Force." It could be applied to any object like her magnetizing ability, and it would create periodic variation based on the magic power she initially conjured. However, as far as insulators, no electricity would be generated.

Roland determined that Mystery Moon's magic power was the weakest of the the evolved witches. She could only light up two Magic Stones embedded in the Sigil of God's Will, half a stone less than even Maggie. Unfortunately, the attaching-type magic ability required a vast amount of magic power. The greater and longer variations in magnetic forces, the greater demand for magic power. After a series of tests, Roland found that Mystery Moon's new ability could serve as a stable battery, but it was far from sufficient to drive a large electric motor or power a steam engine. He tested her ability by transforming an old DC motor, initially used for the electrolysis of water, into an electric motor, and the result was disappointing. The motor, which consumed all of Mystery Moon's magic power to add a magnetic force, could only work half day. That meant her new abilitycould not practically be used as a source power.

Roland didn't tell Mystery Moon the bad results. Instead, he encouraged her to keep studying and practicing her new ability, because she was fragile and he feared bad news would be devestating.

Besides, he knew that ability evolvement was not a sudden transformation, but a metamorphosis through learning.

Roland remembered something he had heard from Agatha, the method to jointly produce Stone of Light. He thought,"If there is a witch who can control or transfer magic power, Mystery Moon's power limitation won't be a problem anymore."

In the evening, he went to talk to Tilly Wimbledon.

"An assistant witch with a controlling type of magic?" she said after hearing the prince's idea. She thought for a while and answered, "No witch of the Sleeping Island has that kind of ability."

"Really?" he asked, heaving a sigh. "It seems that Mystery Moon has to depend on herself to improve."

Yet what Tilly said next cheered him. "However, I know where you can find the witch you want."

Chapter 407 - Tilly's Questioning

"You mean... she didn't follow you to Sleeping Island?" The prince soon got what Tilly meant.

"Exactly." Princess Tilly shook her head helplessly. "Her name is Spear Passi and her ability is magic power channeling. She can channel magic powers of several witches. In other words, a witch at one end of the channel can borrow magic powers from other witches connected, so you may need her help." Tilly paused for a while and continued. "She lives right in Fallen Dragon Ridge."

"Since you know so much about her, you must have contacted her," Roland asked for further explanation, "and what're the reasons for her to stay there? There's a risk that she'll be caught by the church."

After a moment of silence, Tilly answered, "That's because she's a Marquess and Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge."

"Lord?" He was startled, "A witch?"

"Yes, her father Marquis Passi, the last Lord, gave the title and the territory to her, instead of to his second and third son. Due to her high rank, Spear can conceal her witch identity pretty well, and thus can lead a far better life than ordinary witches," Tilly said slowly, "and she contacted me first and offered her help during the migrations. Because of her, I was able to quickly gather the witches from the towns in the southern and middle parts of the Kingdom."

"'She contacted me first'...", Roland sensed something strange thereinto and asked, "Wait... She didn't intend to give a shelter to her fellow witches?"

"No." Tilly shook her head. "Not only that, she also wanted those witches to leave her territory as soon as possible and protect themselves from being tortured by the church. Spear apparently values her lord title more."

Her Lord title would no doubt be in danger if the church found she was protecting witches. Unlike towns in the remote border area, Fallen Dragon Ridge had well-established churches and priests, and their believers greatly outnumbered those in the Western Region. Roland understood her choice but was still astonished. "If a witch in her territory is seized, will she... "

"I asked her the same question, " Tilly said with some sadness, "and Spear Passi bluntly told me if a witch was caught by the people, she would try to replace her in the jail with a death-row prisoner and secretly send her out of her territory; but if a witch was caught by the Verdict Army or judged by the church, she would just stand by."

"..." Roland thought, "It turned out that Spear Passi voluntarily got in touch with Tilly because of the hidden danger of witches in Fallen Dragon Ridge. That was why Tilly chose to leave for the Fjords, which was a new place for her despite the risk of crossing the channel, instead of settling down in Fallen Dragon Ridge." At this thought, he frowned and asked Tilly, "If I invite her to Border Town, will she come?"

"I won't bank on that, but you may have a try," Tilly threw up her hands and said, "I'm just telling you where you can find her but I'm not promising anything."

Roland made a long sigh and said, "I'll send a messenger to talk to her first."

Without doubt, he would choose Nightingale as the messenger, given that she was able to avoid eyes and ears of the people when she got into the castle, and that she could also discern lies. As long as she made Spear believe she held no hostility, Spear would probably not overreact, either.

It generally took five or six days to travel from Border Town to Fallen Dragon Ridge by boat, but that trip would only cost Maggie half a day. They could bring Lightning, who acted faster as a helper. The three witches formed a team of the highest mobility in the Witch Union, and now equipped with guns, they could both attack enemies and defend themselves.

Thinking about the plan for quite a while, Roland made up his mind.

Assuming that the Marquise did not agree to come, it was still a matter of time for him to investigate the situation of her territory. As an important passage on the way to the Southernmost Region, Fallen Dragon Ridge was included in his spring attack plan.

"I heard there's a newly evolved witch in the castle?" Tilly suddenly switched the topic.

"Ah, you mean Mystery Moon. Yes, she did cohere her magic power," Roland nodded and told Tilly about her evolvement process. "But using the ancient witches' method to evolve is not very effective in increasing her magic power. To become someone like Anna, it still requires the thorough understanding of solid knowledge."

"But the ancient way is still a method," Tilly said with interest, "and there's a point I find very interesting in what you said just now. What did you mean by 'They're not natural phenomena but only concrete forms of magic powers'?"

"That was my personal speculation." He picked up his cup and had some tea. "Neither Anna's Heart Fire nor her Blackfire is something you can find in nature, so it's not hard to view them as concrete forms of magic powers, but what about the normal fires before the evolvement? So I assume the normal fires were also created by magic powers, and that it reflected what Anna perceived as 'heat'. As her perception became more thorough and profound, the images of 'heat" also changed. This explains exactly what Agatha has experienced. Many witches have similar abilities before their evolvement because they've observed the same natural phenomenon. After High Awakening, their abilities vary because their understandings of the phenomenon have huge differences."

"Sounds quite reasonable," Tilly replied without saying yes or no, "but according to your speculation, the witches of the same kind will evolve almost the same new abilities if they've same understandings of the phenomenon, right?"

"Yes, pretty much like that, but under the condition that they've got exactly the same understanding abilities."

Roland did not tell her another idea of his, which was to what extent magic powers could evolve. "Since magic power forms the foundation of all kinds of abilities, it is elementary and universal. Provided that there is a witch who understands everything in the nature, will she be able to display all kinds of abilities?"

"Did you... come from a world without magic power?" Tilly suddenly questioned.

"Poof..." The tea nearly gushed out of the prince's mouth. He wiped his mouth and asked, "What, what did you say?"

"I've gone through all the books written by you during this month and always felt something was wrong." Princess Tilly looked at him in the eye. "I finally see what the problem is after hearing what you said just now. You separate magic power from the nature... Neither Natural Science Theoretical Foundation nor Elementary Physics mentions anything about magic power and you said concrete expressions of magic power were not something existing in the nature, but... magic power itself is a part of the nature."

Roland was stunned.

He suddenly realized that he completely forgot Tilly lived in a world where magic power naturally existed. So did the previous Prince Roland, but he just placed magic power in a position opposite to natural phenomena and seemed to get used to it.

Blame the excess memories coming all of a sudden for this careless mistake? It probably won't work this time. It is acceptable to say that Prince Roland wrote these books based entirely on his memories, but how to explain that he firmly believes in them and subconsciously separate magic power from the nature? Is it possible for him to pledge that this is still the memory of the previous Prince Roland's?

Roland swallowed hard.

Chapter 408 - The Conundrum

He couldn't believe that she was digging holes for him using the books that he wrote himself.

When faced with such complicated information, most people struggled to even understand it, let alone to notice its flaws—it was pretty unbelievable that there was no mention of magic power at all in a science book studying the nature of everything in the world.

Roland had also completely wiped the Fourth Prince's memories from his mind, and besides trying to mimic the Prince during his first month after traversing the space and time, he never considered it ever again. His ministers were afraid to question him, and he didn't have to hide who he was from the witches, so he became more and more careless.

However, Tilly was no ordinary witch.

Besides being Prince Roland's sister, she was also an Extraordinary.

Not only was she able to quickly finish all of his books, but she also shrewdly noticed this inconsistency. Her logic was just as clear as that of any modern person who had undergone universal education. In addition, she used leading questions to prove her point so that he had no chance of arguing his way out.

This was a disaster.

Roland's brain was spinning with frantic thoughts, but he had no idea how to respond to her. Any forced explanation to someone who could notice this inconsistency would only arouse more suspicion, and lying to cover a lie would only create even more issues.

Tilly broke the awkward silence and said gently, "You don't have to answer me right now. It's late, and I'm going back to the Witch House. You should get some rest too, Your Highness."

"Um... Okay." Roland stared into the eyes of this grey-haired woman, trying to understand her thoughts, and forgot to send her off.

Tilly stopped at his office door, turned around and asked, "I can trust you, right?"

Usually, Roland would have confidently agreed, but in that moment, he found himself struggling to respond and could only manage a slow nod.

After the door closed, Nightingale said, confused, "How could she just leave like that?"

"Why do you look so upset?" Roland scoffed at her.

"I was so close to hearing about your true life story!" Nightingale stuck out her tongue. "Why didn't she press on you harder?

"Because she didn't want to risk our friendship." The Prince heavily sighed.

"What?"

"No... nothing." Roland leaned back in his chair and felt a chill on his back. Tilly's behavior was absolutely perfect because she didn't push him too far. Border Town was definitely the biggest ally to the Sleeping Island, and allies were more important than identities in the face of their enemies. If she strained their relationship by asking too much, it would only mean bad news for the witches of the Sleeping Island.

That was why Tilly left him some time to recover after posing her question. However, this didn't mean that she didn't need an answer, and if he kept dragging his feet, he could also lose her trust right after they defeated their enemies together. She had made her move, and it was time for him to respond.

However, Roland couldn't tell Tilly the truth, at least not at the moment—Anna and Nightingale were different because they knew only him from the very beginning, but Tilly was Prince Roland's little sister. Until he figured out what her real thoughts on her brother were, he would have to keep this secret to himself.

He shook his head and dismissed these annoying thoughts. Roland turned to Nightingale and said, "You heard our conversation earlier, too. What do you think about checking out the situation with Maggie and Lightning?"

"No problem, Your Highness."

"It's not just going to be a simple chat... To be honest, I'm a little worried about you," he slowly said.

"Wha... what's there to be worried about?" Nightingale stuttered. "I... I'm fine, even if I have to drag her back... "

"That's exactly what I'm worried about!" Roland slammed on the table. "What do you mean drag her back? Are you trying to have her tear us to shreds? Listen, you have to be careful this time and check out the situation before you confront Spear Passi. It's alright if she refuses; just don't threaten her—as a fellow witch, she'll be no stranger to you."

"Uh... is that all?" she asked disappointedly.

"That's all in regards to witches." Roland frowned. "Additionally, you need to help Lightning record the layout of Fallen Dragon Ridge's surroundings, fortifications, sentries, and armies, and then return as quickly as possible."

Nightingale murmured in acknowledgment.

"And finally," Roland said, pausing, "be safe. This's the most important thing."

*******************

"Can we get another pint of ale over here?"

"Hey, is my oatmeal ready?"

"Coming, coming! Sorry for the wait!"

Otto Luoxi entered the pub, Covert Trumpeter, and was instantly surrounded by chaotic chatter. A crackling fire warmed him, and a smell of sour and musty body odor made him cringe. As a nobility, Otto rarely set foot into commoners' areas and was not used to being in close quarters with them. If not for his appointment with the Rats, he wouldn't be caught dead in this backalley pub in the outer city.

Following local rules, he quickly found his target—a skinny man wearing a hood sitting in an unlit corner of the pub, enveloped in the shadows. A small piece of bone lay next to his hand.

Otto sat across the man and said, "Cheers to Skeleton Fingers."

"You don't have liquor to give cheers."

"But I have the thing measuring all things on earth." He spoke the code word.

The man shrugged. "Call me Hood. I heard you're here to get some information?"

Otto nodded. While Timothy was stalling on giving him a response, he hadn't been able to rest and was busy asking around about the rebel king—someone who could hold the Western Territory for half a year after the king's ascension and completely stump Timothy was surely with a force to be reckoned with.

The fastest way to gain as much information as possible was through the Rats.

This was the sixth Rat Otto had spoken to, and the information he had gained startled him. The legendary rebel king, Roland Wimbledon, fourth son of King Wimbledon III, was not showing any signs of weakening and was even challenging the new king with the threat of an attack to dethrone Timothy.

This man was also true to his word—although Timothy went to great lengths to hide the news, Otto was still able to find out about the strange collapse in King's City. If this news was true, an alliance with Timothy was questionable at best. He needed to get to the bottom of all this to protect the Kingdom of Dawn.

"That's right," Otto Luoxi whispered. "I want to know about the giant crash and collapse in the King's City palace three months ago."

Chapter 409 - A Reliable Ally

"You've come to the right man," Hood smiled and said in a raspy voice that made it hard to tell his age. "Even though I live in the outer city, I happened to be near the palace on the day of the incident, and as soon as I heard the crash, I ran to the palace gate. You have no idea how terrifying the crash was, because it sounded like lightning hitting the earth. All the surrounding windows, whether paper or glass, were shattered by an invisible force, and some people were even scared to death by the sudden sound... "

Every Rat claimed to be nearby and to have witnessed everything, but each person's story was different from the other. "Okay, no need to ramble on about unimportant things. How did it happen?" Otto Luoxi interrupted and asked. "Was this incident really related to the Fourth Prince... Roland Wimbledon?"

Hood cleared his throat and stretched out his right hand. "I can answer that, but... "

"You need the thing measuring all things on earth, right?" Otto opened his wallet. "How much?"

The so-called "thing measuring all things on earth" was nothing more than a gold royal. Only uncultured people like Rats would use such an obvious code word or phrase to appear mysterious.

The Rat stuck up two fingers.

Otto took out two gold royals and placed them in Hood's hand. "This is not a small fee, so I hope your information lives up to it."

"Of course. The reputation of Skeleton Fingers rests upon this." The Rat smiled greedily and pocketed the gold royals.

"A Rat's reputation is as ridiculous as a ruler's mercy." Otto sniffed. "Go ahead."

"I'll start by answering your first question." After his payment, Hood's posture was much more relaxed. He sipped his ale, leaned back in his chair, and pointed towards the ceiling. "Thunder comes from the sky."

"What do you mean?" Otto frowned.

"Didn't you want to know what caused the crash?" the Rat whispered. "All thunder comes from the sky, and this was no exception. I saw it with my own eyes. Before the crash, a white rock floated into the palace, and then the incident happened."

"Nonsense! You mean to tell me that a huge rock fell from the sky and smashed the palace into pieces?"

"Hehe, everything I said is true, or else Skeleton Fingers wouldn't assign me this task. If you think I'm lying, you can leave right now." Hood shrugged. "But you won't get your fee back."

"... Keep going." Otto tried to repress his annoyance.

"The rock entered the palace only seconds after it appeared, but I could clearly tell that it wasn't that big or fast and didn't like something that could destroy the Hall of Sky Dome, which is why I said it 'floated'. Also, when the crash and smoke appeared, I saw a menacing flash of fire that definitely wasn't caused by the collision," Hood said, smacking his lips. "I mean, His Highness Timothy's search afterwards proved this very point—he closed off and cleared the Inner City multiple times without arresting any suspects, and the palace is heavily guarded, so where else could the attack be from if not the sky?"

He took another sip of ale. "As for the fire and smoke, they resemble the phenomenon caused when an alchemy solution called snow powder burns, which is why I'm certain that this was an attack. By the way, I also have some information about snow powder, but you'd have to pay only a little more... "

"No need, I don't want to know." Otto interrupted. He had already heard through other channels about snow powder, which was originally used in celebrations but could be modified into a weapon. Rats probably didn't know anything about its specific content, so he didn't feel like wasting his money.

"Alright, now I'll answer your second question," Hood said, splaying his hands indifferently. "This incident was certainly related to Prince Roland."

"Why?"

"When did you arrive in King's City? Of course, I'm not trying to ask about your background or... identity, since that's a rule of Black Street, so you don't have to answer me." The Rat smiled. "What I mean is, if you arrived in King's City in early autumn, you'd know this: His Highness sent thousands of soldiers to attack Western Region, but only very few returned, all bearing letters from Prince Roland to His Highness."

All six Rats had mentioned this, which meant that it was probably true, but he continued to ask, "Are you talking about the warning of revenge? It sounds quite scary. Are you sure it's not pure folklore?"

"Most letters were brought by the soldiers into the palace, and the few that were leaked were mostly seized by the City Hall, but Skeleton Fingers always surprises its clients. I actually have a preserved 'warning' with me." Hood stuck up five fingers. "Considering it's a very rare letter from Prince Roland himself, the price is slightly higher. What do you think?"

...

Otto Luoxi returned to the palace, and Belinda immediately stood up to greet him. "Any news?"

"Not much, but I did get my hands on a letter from Prince Roland." He handed the wrinkly piece of paper to her, took off his coat, sat next to the fireplace, and told her all about what he had learned. "All six Rats gave similar answers to the second question, and this paper proves them right—Roland Wimbledon is not as weak as the King says he is, but the complete opposite. If the Kingdom of Dawn allies with Timothy, we may benefit very little and gain a tricky enemy."

"But all the Rats' answers to the first question were different," Belinda said with a frown.

"This proves that the attack was very mysterious and difficult to understand, and I kind of believe what the last Rat said." Otto sipped his hot tea and sighed. Spending too much time in the cheap pub made him very uncomfortable.

"From the sky?" Belinda gaped at him. "Are you crazy?"

"Of course not. If I hadn't seen this letter, I wouldn't dream of it either. Roland was very confident about the time and location of the attack, and only an attack from the sky would be able to pass the high city wall and strong fortifications, confusing even the shrewdest Rats." He frowned. "However, what's more important is what we do next."

"With the imminent threat from the Church, they should stop fighting each other and join forces against their common enemy."

"That's not for us to decide." Otto shook his head. "The only thing we can do is to find a reliable ally for the Kingdom of Dawn. His Highness Timothy Wimbledon seems a little... unreliable."

"Are you really going to go to Western Region?" Belinda was shocked. "Isn't that a place currently facing the dangers of the Months of the Demons?"

"It's nothing compared to the danger of our kingdom collapsing," he said after some silence. "You can stay here and wait for the new king's response, while I travel alone to Western Region."

Chapter 410 - Expectations

The water vapor formed an even layer of white mist resembling thin gauze on the window pane. Chilly wind blew on the windows with a popping sound, which contrasted with the tranquil fireplace burning in the room.

Scroll sat in front of a long desk in the City Hall Office, reading rolls of thick documents.

Those documents were not about education but were statistics reported by various departments. She used her free time to memorize such information in case someone needed it. This was recently the main part of her work since there was not much to deal with in the Ministry of Education. After all, the second round of assessment ended not long ago, and another round wouldn't be carried out before next summer.

Having worked for His Highness Roland for half a year, she found out His Highness was particularly interested in statistics—he liked it when his subordinates described things with a long series of precise numbers; he frequently used terms such as horizontal ratio, year-on-year ratio, and chain relative ratio. Subsequently, all the staff in the City Hall had picked up this habit from him.

As the township population grew, the related statistical work increased correspondingly. Therefore, His Highness entrusted this work to Scroll and jokingly called her the "database" of Border Town. Although the nickname made her sound like a warehouse, His Highness described it as something extremely important. With the help of a database, he said he could estimate the development of next year and make economic and military plans. He even said all his future decisions concerning the territory would be based on the data analysis.

"Lady Scroll." A woman dressed as an apprentice pushed open the office door and entered the room. After bowing to Scroll, she handed her an application form. "Hello, my name is Freya. His Excellency Carter from the Department of Justice wishes to acquire the information on refugees who passed the resident verification within the last week."

Due to her limited ability to derivative skills, His Highness ordered that anyone who wanted to inquire complex data must get consent from Barov first. As for individual data, one could ask Scroll at any time.

"Wait a minute!" Scroll glanced at the signature on the application form, summoned the Book of Magic, and showed the corresponding contents on its pages. "Alright. Give this to Mr. Carter."

"Thank... thank you." Freya carefully held the book that came out of thin air as if it was a demonic beast.

"Don't worry. It won't hurt you." Scroll could not help but laugh. Most people had such an expression when they saw the Book of Magic. "You do not need to return the book to me because it will vanish four hours later. However, according to the Constitution of Confidentiality, you aren't allowed to give it to anybody other than Carter."

"Yes ...My Lady."

Freya bowed and retreated. While she pushed open the door, Scroll saw a sea of people in the hall, and a chattering sound instantly rushed into her room, quieting down again when the door was closed.

This was a weekend, which was supposed to be a rest day, but the City Hall was still as busy as on workdays. Everybody was excited about the upcoming construction of Border Town, so they worked particularly hard. With the salary reward for overtime offered by His Highness, no one was willing to stay at home.

Scroll didn't understand His Highness's decisions. To her, there wasn’t that much work to be done in the City Hall, and compared to the labors of miners and furnace workers, writing official documents, collecting data and making reports took much less effort - yet these were the main jobs of the City Hall. His Highness only had to give orders, and everyone would easily comply. There was really no need to raise the salary in this regard. Compared to most of the nobilities, His Highness appeared to be too benevolent.

Truthfully, Scroll didn't think His Highness Roland seemed like a real Lord. Yet, it was exactly such a person who led everybody to this stage, which was nearly a miracle.

She didn't come to this conclusion due to her respect and trust for Roland, but due to clear data; compared with one year ago, when only miners had a stable income in Border Town; the wages of miners, furnace workers and handymen had doubled now, although they used to earn the least; some emerging occupations such as assemblers in the steam plant and operators in the acid plant had had their wages raised eightfold, and the number of workers was still on the rise.

The changes within the town itself were so obvious that if a person hadn't lived here one year ago, he might find it very hard to believe that such changes were possible.

Scroll touched the words on the document. She couldn't imagine how the territory would continue to transform under His Highness' leadership, but she firmly believed it would have a future full of hope and surprises.

"Miss Scroll." The wooden door was pushed open, and His Highness Roland's guard stepped in. "His Highness wants to see you."

...

When she returned to the third floor of the castle, Scroll saw that His Highness was organizing pieces of the manuscript.

"Would you like me to record these things?" Tying her black hair up, which was messed up by the cold wind, she stepped up and asked the prince.

"That's right. It took at least half of my brain cells to finish this book." The prince massaged his neck, murmuring words that were difficult for Scroll to comprehend. "Even for the knowledge that was commonly used at the time, I could only remember them generally, and I even had to deduce several formulas myself."

Scroll had gotten used to this behavior. She ignored his weird terms, picked up the manuscript, realizing the letters on its cover were in an unprecedented orange color that formed the word "calculus".

She flipped through a couple pages, and found it impossible to understand what the book title meant. She then focused on memorizing its contents—compared to the equations she had learned previously, she found these new formulas didn't even have numbers, but a series of bizarre symbols, like a whole set of new characters. They looked like things only Anna and Tilly would be interested in.

"Right," Roland asked, "what's the average income of the residents here?"

"The minimum was 10 silver royals per month, and the maximum was 40," Scroll answered without stopping her memorizing of calculus, "but to calculate the average income I would need the Book of Magic, which has been used once today."

"That's alright. You can give me the statistical result the day after tomorrow." Roland waved his hand. "I need this number to determine the fee for water and heating supply. The collective heating supply project is about to begin in a week. On its completion, this place would be as warm as spring, even through the longest winter."

A city without fear for the cold. This is one of the miracles that could only happen in His Highness's territory. "If I don't get extra work, I'll give you the result tomorrow."

"Tomorrow ...It would be nice if you could turn the Book of Magic into a storybook." Roland shook his head with a smile. "Or any book that Anna hasn't read."

"Storybook?" Scroll was slightly startled before quickly understanding his reasoning. "Tomorrow is Miss Anna's ..."

"Day of Awakening," the Prince nodded and said.

Chapter 411 - The Vow

...

With no swaying candlelight or crackling burning fire, the room was made so warm and pleasant by the heater that one wouldn't feel cold even when only wearing thin clothes. The Stone of Light at the bed stand brightened the room—the stable and gentle yellow light shone on the bedsheet and carpet, producing a wonderful nostalgic scene.

Sitting at the bedside and listening to the occasional slight chirps from the caliducts, Roland felt as if he was in a dream. It was like he wasn't in a backward monarchy nor a modern society full of electronic products, rather somewhere in between... his childhood.

His childhood memories very much resembled the scene in front of him—everything was covered in a faint shade of yellow, whether it was a light bulb, a movie, or a developed photo.

The only difference was that Anna wasn't in his childhood memory.

At this thought, he turned and looked at the girl sitting at the edge of the bed.

She was reading a storybook. Her blonde hair on her forehead glimmering under light and her long eyelashes occasionally trembling, made her look extremely moving. Yet, the most extraordinary part was her sapphire eyes, which were still as blue as a clear lake even under the reflection of the Magic Stone. The only difference from one year ago was that this pair of eyes weren't such a peaceful lake anymore.

Her existence alone made the whole picture vivid. Anna is not only a different color from the rest of this whole setting, but also a marker that separates my reality from memory. Seeing her assumes me that everything is real.

"What are you looking at?" Anna had already put down the Book of Magic and was staring at Roland. "Me?"

"Ahem... " Roland shifted his eyesight eyes subconsciously, but quickly shifted them back again. "Uh-huh...That's right."

After spending about a year together, the two of them had been quite familiar with each other. Roland wasn't as passive as he had been, and since they were alone in the room, he was more open about the emotions he had been holding back all this time.

They looked at each other and burst into laughter at the same time.

"Do you think my demand is a little too stubborn?" Anna shook her head and smiled. "Clearly everybody cares about me, but I pushed all of them away."

"Don't worry about it." Roland said with his hands laid out, "They were only surprised by your reaction at that time."

"If it weren't for the 'ancient methods' suggested by Miss Agatha, I wouldn't have made this request," Anna said, sticking out her tongue - a cute move that she rarely made. "But I assume other sisters would do the same. You'll be busy then."

Roland smiled resignedly and said, "I think they would only ask for a few more pieces of ice cream bread."

After learning that Anna was going to have her Day of Awakening, Agatha instantly contributed her experience gained in the Holy City of Taquila—according to the research of the Union, on the Day of Awakening or the Day of Adulthood, a witch needed to drain her magic power to decrease the influence of bite. Additionally, the witch's emotions were also very important - positive emotions as happiness and contentment would greatly increase her resistance. For some outstanding witches, the Union even dispatched personnel to fulfill their wishes on their Day of Adulthood.

After knowing this, Anna requested that Roland accompany her on her Day of Awakening.

"Thanks to Miss Agatha, I'm having a good time." She confessed. "I couldn't spend my Day of Adulthood with you, but I can make up for it on my Day of Awakening."

Watching Anna’s sincere expression, Roland almost blushed. He cleared his throat, took out a thin book tied with a colorful ribbon from his back, and handed it to her. "A gift for your Day of Awakening."

The reason why he rushed to write down the advanced calculus knowledge that he remembered was to finish it before this day. To a witch, the Day of Awakening was more important than a birthday and could almost be seen as a rebirth. Roland had always had difficulty choosing presents for holidays, and this time was no different. After racking his brains, he decided to give Anna new knowledge as a present—Anna had a talent for learning and an appetite for new knowledge, so he chose her gift accordingly.

However, after receiving the book with orange cover, she didn't open it instantly as she used to. Instead, she put it down together with the Book of Magic. "Thank you."

"The storybook... Have you finished reading it?"

"Not yet." Anna slightly shook her head. "But I want to hear something special."

"Special?" Roland was slightly astonished.

"Yes." She said with a smile, "Your story—last time I fell asleep too soon while listening to it and today I hope to continue hearing about it."

"Does she mean the day when we lay in bed together?" Roland pursed his lips. He suddenly had an impulse to tell her about his true identity, and to not hide it anymore. "Do you still remember that I once told you I used to live in a big city? By a big city, I didn't mean Kingdom of Graycastle."

"I know."

"Huh?" Anna's reply was shocking to him.

"When I thought about it, I found those stories you told me couldn't have happened in the palace of King's City," she said with a smile. "Don't forget, I have repeatedly read through Chronicles of Graycastle."

"Is that so?" Roland hesitated for a moment. "I actually ..."

"You don’t have to say anything." Anna stopped him. "You are hesitating, which means it's not easy to tell, right? Then don't. Besides, it's not hard to guess. I believe I'm not the only one who has this feeling. The closer we get to you, the easier to feel this way—you are different from everybody else." She paused. "What if... we take a bet."

"Bet... on what?"

"Let's bet how much I can guess about your life story."

Roland suddenly recalled a game he used to play when he was little: time capsule. "The game works like this: write down your words to the future on a note, put it into a can, and take the can out a certain number of years later... Although most of the cans would be missing, a few of them would be retrieved, and looking at the note you wrote years ago would give you an unspeakable sensation."

He didn't ask about the wager. "It doesn't matter who wins and who loses, since she probably proposed it to comfort me, rather than to figure out my true identity." He must admit, among all the witches, Anna was the one who understood him the best.

"Deal." He nodded.

"Where did we stop last time?"

"I finished my study under the guidance of my mentor ..." Roland laughed. "Let's start from here."

When the light of dawn lit up the skyline, Anna peacefully passed through the first Day of Awakening since her adulthood.

Chapter 412 - Sneaking into the Fallen Dragon Ridge

The entire world was gloomy, from the sky to the land and sea.

Although the south central area of the Kingdom of Graycastle wasn't covered by endless snow, the impact of the Months of Demons was inevitable—the sun was hidden by an expanse of gray clouds which filled the whole sky. A pale fog rose from the earth, shrouding the land, rocks, and jungles. All that was revealed was the black and gray mountain peaks above the clouds, which stretched towards the southern end of the continent, and acted as the visual guide for Nightingale and her companions.

While flying in the sky on Maggie's back, Nightingale intensely experienced just how terrible the cold wind was in the open air. Even with a set of customized windproof clothes on, which were given to her by His Highness before they left, she could still feel the cold penetrating her body from her scarf and cuffs. In particular, her ears and fingers would soon get numb due to hypothermia. They often had to stop and rest for a while, making the normally half-day journey eventually extend to the next day—even flying at full speed.

"Here we are." Lightning approached her.

Nightingale peered out and realized the ridge had become much lower, as if it was sinking into the ground. A city built on the hillside emerged faintly from the fog, which should be their exact target—Fallen Dragon Ridge.

"Let's land." She patted Maggie's back. "Be careful and don't let anyone see us."

"Awh!" Maggie nodded, folding her wings as she glided down. The Mist soon enveloped the three of them as they landed. Nightingale found that the visibility around them was so low that she couldn't see clearly what was only 50 steps in front of them, let alone over a great distance.

This was a good sign for the witches—at least they wouldn't be easily noticed.

After entering into the Mist, the true colors of the world would be revealed, but she wasn't worried about running into the church's Judgement Army due to the thick white fog.

"You just wait here, this shouldn't take long," said Nightingale.

"His Highness asked me to keep a lookout from the air." Lightning shook her head.

"And he asked me to be the emergency contact in case you kidnapped the target. Coo!" Maggie transformed into a fat pigeon, crouching on the top of the little girl's head.

"His Highness gave some meaningless commands," Nightingale thought. "In that case, let's go."

Suddenly, the world became black and white—the fog disappeared, or transformed into something else, which no longer hindered her vision. All of a sudden, the view became clear. The dark city wall was 200 meters away, extending out of the mountain side, and linked the city and the mountain like a dome. The stone wall was much shorter compared to the outer wall of Longsong Stronghold, and there were no sentry guards on it.

Nightingale went to the side of the wall and found the entrance through the curved lines. She stepped forward and realized that she was already on the other side of the city wall.

The city was half the size of Stronghold, and it was more like a small town in this area just outside of the mountain cliffs. But Fallen Dragon Ridge was located within the rocky mountains, and the Lord's castle built on the hillside could be seen from far away.

Nightingale assured that Lightning and Maggie were following her into the city, and then she went straight towards the castle.

This mission wasn't new to her and she was very proficient at it.

When she served old Gilen, it was a common assignment to infiltrate into other nobles' mansions and castles. Most of the buildings were similar in structure, and the owners always liked to live in the most spacious house right in the center. Back then, she was unable to go in through walls freely and could only conceal herself—while carefully avoiding any possible traps and the God's Stones of Retaliation—before stealing the letters and documents hidden in the cabinet.

Now with the help of the Mist, she could easily do these things, since the lightless black hole presented by the God's Stone of Retaliation, embedded at the corner of castle's aisle, seemed as attractive as the moon hanging in the dark sky. The hidden traps could be seen clearly, as their twisted contours were like creeping earthworms, and she could easily destroy them after passing through the walls. While under the influence of her ability, Nightingale was perfectly free to move—the walls, doors, and roofs were just inconsequential to her.

Walking into the largest house at the top, she found her target.

Although they had never met before, Nightingale identified Marquess Spear Passi, the Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge, at first sight because a magic blue light was rotating in her body, which was the only color visible in the world of the Mist.

Sitting in front of a desk with a quill in her hand waving back and forth, the Marquess seemed to be writing something. She was about 30 years old with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, and the silver curls of hair and plain robes she wore made her look older. Nightingale examined the room carefully and found that there was no God's Stone of Retaliation or trap, and that Parcy's only weapon was a delicate and luxurious short crossbow hidden inside her sleeve.

After leaving a mark on the side of the window, she dissolved the Mist and revealed herself.

"Greetings, Marquess Spear Passi."

Shocked by the unexpected voice, Spear Passi raised her head swiftly and saw Nightingale. She quickly calmed down and asked, "Who are you?"

Nightingale remembered the scenario of her first meeting with Prince Roland一his first reaction was to try to escape and she had to stop him by using a dagger, which in hindsight was really funny.

"I'm Nightingale and I'm from Border Town of the Western Region. As you can see, I'm a witch."

"I thought so, as no one can come here without an invitation, except a witch." Spear Passi pretended to be calm, as she moved one of her hand slowly into her sleeve. "You should knock on the door before coming in."

"Then I'd be welcomed by your guard, not you." Nightingale laughed softly. "Don't worry. I don't intend to hurt you. I just want to have a talk—so you won't need that crossbow inside your sleeve."

This surprised Spear Passi and her face got more serious. "You know quite a lot." She took her hands out and crossed them in front of her chest. "Well, why are you here?"

"I bring you a message from Lord of Border town, Guardian of the Western Region, the fourth prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, His Highness Roland Wimbledon." Nightingale bowed slightly. "He's creating a new order of the world that allows witches to live together with average people peacefully, and he hopes you can assist him."

"Prince... Roland?" Marquess frowned. "The incompetent nobility who was always laughed at by everyone?" With an absurd look on her face, she said, "This is ridiculous, Lord of Border Town? He's just a rebel banished to a waste land!"

"Timothy was the real usurper," Nightingale said, "and Prince Roland will soon dethrone him. But that's beside the point... His Highness needs your magic power to strengthen the ability of a witch. Would you mind making a trip to Border Town?"

Chapter 413 - The Incident

Spear Passi was silent for a while before saying, "Are you threatening or inviting me?"

"I'm inviting you, of course," Nightingale said. "His Highness doesn't believe in coercing witches. In fact, I don’t either."

"In this case, I refuse," Spear answered without hesitation. "If he really needs my help, he can bring the witches to the Fallen Dragon Ridge to visit me for the ritual of the nobility. No need to send someone sneaking in my castle. Of course, if a witch attracts the church's attention I can’t ensure her safety."

The answer was just as Nightingale had expected. It was difficult to get a stranger to agree to such a difficult request. Generally, there were two means of handling the situation—coercion and inducement, but she didn’t want to perform either option. Marquess Passi was the Lord of the city and would be the guardian of the realm once promoted. However, His Highness did not plan to flatter her in any way. Instead, he would withdraw power from the nobles. According to His highness, this was called the centralization of authority. In this instance, she would be degrading herself in the eyes of nobility if she was at His Highness' service.

In regards to following Roland, to create a brand new world and defend in the Battle of Divine Will, she would not believe it from word alone.

"I understand." Nightingale pouted. "In this case, I shall leave."

"Hold on..." Spear looked surprised. "That's all?"

"I'm responsible for bringing His Highness’ messages to you. Now that the message has been delivered and you've given me your answer, my task is complete." She grinned. "Were you expecting me to tie you up and bring you back with me?"

"How did you know about my ability to channel magic?" Marquess hesitated. "Did you talk to the witches who planned to go to the Fjord Islands?"

"Yes. The leader of the witches is Lady Tilly Wimbledon. She's currently in Border Town, fighting the Demons with her brother." Nightingale shrugged. "His Highness heard about you from her."

"They didn't go to the Fjords?"

"No, they didn't know His Highness had gained such a firm foothold in the Western Region. They only got in touch after settling down on Sleeping Island." She gave a brief outline of the alliances on both sides. "Just like you, Lady Tilly was invited to the Western Region by His Highness."

"Prince Roland really established a system of coexistence for witches and ordinary people in his territory?" Spear frowned and asked. She was having a hard time believing it.

"Not only that, he also evicted the church from his territory." Nightingale smiled. "Currently there are more than 10 witches living in Border Town. The locals are accustomed to their existence. I'm not lying about this."

Marquis stood up and poured her a cup of tea. "Can you tell me more about it? How did he do it?"

"If you want to know." Nightingale turned and sat at the table. It might not change her decision but it was never a bad thing to deepen her understanding. Nightingale decided to tell her about the Witch Union His Highness had built, the war with Duke Ryan and the political run after the recovery of Longsong Stronghold. If Spear could understand the witches’ situation, hopefully she would not resist too much when His Highness eventually unified the Kingdom of Graycastle.

A sudden rush of percussion was heard.

"This is..." Spear looked at Nightingale in shock.

Nightingale opened the window. It was Maggie squatting outside. "Danger, coo! Lightning discovered an accident, coo!"

"What happened?"

"A troop of Judgement Army soldiers is rushing towards the castle, coo!" The pigeon patted its wings and said, "There are at least 20 people, coo!"

"The Judgement Army from the church?" Nightingale turned around and frowned. "Did you summon them?"

"No... I didn't have an appointment with the church Priest today," Marquis looked particularly puzzled, "could it be your whereabouts have been exposed?"

"That's impossible." She shook her head. "Unless the church has the ability to monitor every bird in the sky."

"That's weird..." Spear murmured, "if they were coming for me, they wouldn’t need so many Judgement Warriors. It's almost the entire force!"

"What are you waiting for? They're almost at the entrance!" A golden figure darted through the window and landed lightly beside Nightingale. It was Lightning.

"I'm not sure about the situation, I suggest that you avoid it," Nightingale said, "or get the guards to stop them outside the castle and find out why they’re here before proceeding."

"This is my castle. Where would I hide? Don’t worry, these people can’t enter without my permission. Otherwise, I would not have been able to protect the witches." Spear sighed. "However, this meeting may have to end here... If you're not in a rush, I think..."

Before she could finish her sentence, a series of chaotic footsteps were heard just below the castle. The sound of swords fighting could be heard clearly in the castle, echoing in the mountains. Marquis expression changed. "Who let them in?! Guards!"

Spear called a few names but no one responded from outside. The footsteps were approaching closer and closer.

"It looks like they're here for you." Nightingale made a gesture towards Lightning, indicating she should leave first, "You still have time to leave, we can protect you."

"No, I'm not going anywhere! This is my territory; how could they be so presumptuous... "

She hardly finished speaking when the door was broken down by a group of heavily armed Judgement Warriors. The Lord was fully surrounded by warriors holding up their swords and shields.

Nightingale hid in the Mist, taking a step back into the corner where it was both convenient to escape and suitable for observation. She noticed that neither Lightning nor Maggie left. The former was peeking her head out from the top of a window, the latter was simply squatting on a beam, arranging her wings.

"These two brats are totally reckless. I’ll get His Highness to discipline them well when we're back..." She shook her head helplessly and shifted her eyes to the Judgement Warriors. Every one of them was wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation. The dark holes were intertwined and totally obscured Spear. She could only hear the Marquess' angry rebuke. "Redwyne, are you crazy? You let them into my castle without permission?"

"Of course not, wise sister." A man's voice raised within the crowd. "Father was wrong to give the title to one of the Devil's minions. I'm simply correcting his mistake."

Chapter 414 - The Conspiracy

"What... What are you talking about?" Spear asked in disbelief. "The devil's minion? This is a complete fabrication!"

"Fabrication or not, His Reverence will draw his own conclusion," Redwyne raised his voice and said. "Just because you managed to deceive Father, it doesn't mean that you can deceive everyone else! Soon, people will know who you really are. You belong in hell!"

"Did you make all these up?" Spear's tone suddenly became icy cold. "Or someone else put you up to it? I think the latter is true. After all, father chose me because you and our third brother were completely useless."

"Shut up!"

Nightingale heard a rattle and the Marquess groaned in pain.

"Enough, bring her to the church for questioning," someone said, "but she's still a member of the nobility before her verdict, so maintain your etiquette."

As Spear Passi was carted away, the Judgement Warriors followed right behind her, and soon there were only two people left in the room. Nightingale couldn't see their faces clearly because of the effects of God's Stone of Retaliation, but she could tell that one of the voices belonged to Redwyne, the man who spoke to the Lord. If she was not mistaken, this person seemed to be Spear's younger brother.

"You're doing really well, Mr. Redwyne; perhaps, I shall address you as Earl going forward."

"So that's it, Mr. Rosad?" Redwyne could not hide his excitement. "I really can inherit the title of Earl and become the Lord of the Fallen Dragon Ridge?"

"Of course. As long as you abide by our agreement, you may even go further," came the reply.

"So, what should I do next?" he asked eagerly. "Can I move into my sister's room? She won't leave her cell, right?"

"Spear Passi will soon be hanged to death as a witch in the square as per the terms of our cooperation." The other man hesitated for a moment, and continued, "As for what to do next, I suggest you relay this incident to all her ministers, knights and men and divide the rights of the Marquess."

"Do... do I really have to do that?"

"If everyone can benefit from the incident, your position will be much more secure, which will help our future plans to proceed smoothly," Rosad said. "If you're still confused, I can always assign a priest to you. He's very good at handling government affairs and can always advise you on any questions you may have."

"Yes, please," Redwyne replied quickly.

"It'll be very helpful for us if you can hold the Lord's position, so the church is happy to help with these issues." His peals of laughter filled the room.

After the men left, Nightingale emerged from the Mist, followed by Lightning and Maggie.

"We're in trouble." She stared at both of them and said, "How could the church show up at precisely the right time and place?"

"I thought they said her brother found her true identity and revealed it to the church," Lightning said, her eyes flashing with excitement. "Now we have something to do."

"Why didn't they find it out earlier? Why right now? I feel like something's wrong." Nightingale frowned.

"No matter what, we are not going to watch them execute Spear." Lightning held her head up high and said, "We must save her and annihilate the church!"

"Annihilate it, coo!"

"The confidence of this blonde girl has inflated since defeating the demons. This is not a good sign." Nightingale shook her head and responded, "We can't defeat the church for the time being. They must have participated in this conspiracy, so if we removed these people, Spear would naturally return to her position as Lord. This might be an opportunity for us. If we sneak her out, she'll probably agree to go back to Border Town with us under these circumstances."

"Awww, we're not fighting the church?" Lightning asked, disappointment in her voice.

"Battling will be the very last resort since they outnumber us and have a large amount of the God's Stones of Retaliation. It's pretty risky to try routing them all at once." Nightingale contemplated for a moment and said, "I'll go to the church first and find out what's going on."

There was one concern that she didn't mention. Spear Passi might be thinking that His Highness was the one framing her if the situation wasn't explained clearly. That, Nightingale knew, should be avoided at all costs.

"What about us?" the little girl asked.

"Just be ready to meet me outside."

...

The church of the Fallen Dragon Ridge was located on the outskirts of the city. It was small and had a prayer hall, a residential area for the believers, and a three-story tower surrounded by a wall with only one exit. None of these obstacles posed a problem for Nightingale.

She had familiarized herself with the entire area by the time all of the faithful had departed in the evening. Although there were many more God's Stones of Retaliation here than in the castle, Nightingale still managed to find her way. There was a huge God's Stone placed right in the middle of the hall to stifle any magic in the room, and the same was true for some corridors. However, she could always take a detour or even hop over the floor.

Nightingale found the place where Spear Passi was imprisoned in the basement of the tower. She didn't seem too hurt, just a little frustrated. She intended to rescue the Marquess during the middle of the night.

Nightingale snuck back into the tower after sharing her plan with Lightning and Maggie. She ascended to the top floor and hid in a magnificent room.

"This," she thought, "would be the Priest's room. He would probably spill the beans if he found me here with a dagger."

When the bell of the Fallen Dragon Ridge struck nine, swung open.

She drew out her dagger stealthily but didn't attack. She judged from the footsteps that there were two people.

"What an unexpected joy!" said a woman's voice. "Little did we know that Marquess Spear is actually a witch. It seems that we need to tweak our plan."

"Uh... Lady Saint," Rosad answered with a very respectful tone, "isn't it more convincing if she's a witch?"

"It's different from before, because according to the will of the Supreme Pontiff, any new witch who comes to realization shall be handed over to be executed in the Holy City as soon as possible," The woman said. "As for the execution, let's not hang her, but burn a masked death-row criminal with a similar build."

"Yes," Rosad answered. "But why did His Holiness set such a troublesome rule of delivering a witch to Hermes?"

"I've no idea, but according to my superiors, it's simply returning to tradition," she replied.

"Returning to... tradition?"

"You don't need to know too much. Just fix the matter at hand." The Saint said brusquely. "I'll have to head towards the Redwater City once everything is done here."

"Understood," Rosad answered crisply.

"Who is she exactly? How come even the Priest is so respectful towards her? It seems they didn't know that Spear Passi was a witch before they captured her. Could it just be all a conspiracy to seize the throne of the Fallen Dragon Ridge?"

Nightingale couldn't help but come out from her hiding place and looked at the lady while hidden in the Mist, only to find that she was not wearing a God’s Stone of Retaliation. The magic power inside of the Saint was as bright as a fluorescent light in her world of black and white.

"She's a witch!"

"Who's there?" She responded in an instant, and a dazzling silver light shot towards Nightingale!

Chapter 415 - The Fight

Nightingale's years of fighting experience kicked into gear, and her body immediately responded before she could even think.

She leaned back instinctively, and the silver light grazed her cheek. Even in the Mist, she could feel the immense power of the light—extraordinarily scorching and intense. After dodging the sudden attack, Nightingale tucked into a roll and distanced herself from her opponent.

"What... what's happening, Lady Saint?" Rosad asked frantically.

"It seems like a rat has snuck in." The witch licked her lips. "Find somewhere to hide and protect yourself."

"You mean... there's a witch here?!" The priest's expression suddenly changed. "I'll summon the Judgement Warriors!"

"No need. I haven't hunted a witch for a long time. How could I let someone else have this priceless opportunity? Just stand by and watch me."

Nightingale was observing the so-called Saint during the conversation. Although she knew that the church was probably secretly raising their own witches, it still broke her heart to see the proof of this theory. This witch had entirely owned by the church, she may even have a high rank, and it sounded like she enjoyed hunting witches and did not see herself as one of them.

Nightingale could not help but remember the determined eyes of the witch who attacked them at the harbor outside the King's City and stabbed Wendy.

These people were no longer witches since they had chosen a completely different path.

With this thought in her mind, Nightingale did not hesitate to pull out her revolver—although she hated this kind of battle, she had no choice but to kill to stop the killing.

"Where do you come from?" The Saint tilted her head and stared towards where Nightingale was standing. "If the priest can't see you, you have the power to conceal yourself; if you can dodge my attacks, you have been trained for battle or you have fought in many wars. Either way, it's quite rare for wild witches like you."

"Wherever I come from is none of your business," Nightingale said coldly. She noticed the ribbon that blindfolded the opponent, and it was what a blind person would do. The "silver whip" in the Saint's hand was still curled by her side with its tip raised like a snake, waving at her.

Only magic power displayed color in the Mist. Was she using this strange whip to locate her?

"Maybe you are not aware, but the church has crowned a new Pope who is compassionate, forgiving, and believes that even wild witches deserve to be saved. As long as you are willing to serve the Lord, the church can cleanse your sins off and accept you as a Pure Witch," the Saint said with her hand on her chest. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you. If you didn't come alone and are accompanied by other fallen witches, you can all go to the Holy City of Hermes together to seek your rebirth."

"Wow, that sounds great." Nightingale chuckled. "But if awakening as a witch is a sin, and you had a way of cleansing it, why would you establish this law now instead of helping all my lost sisters from the beginning? Do you think I'm a toddler who has never heard a blatant lie before?"

She inhaled deeply and narrated. "I have not sinned!"

As she said this, Nightingale broke out of the Mist and pulled the trigger, and the barrel erupted in flames with a thunderous roar.

The "silver whip" immediately flicked upwards and blocked it off the Saint, spewing sparks everywhere. Then, the tip of the whip relaxed and tossed a twisted metal nugget onto the ground which was the bullet that Nightingale just shot.

This thing could block a revolver!

"Oh?" Her opponent raised her eyebrow. "What kind of weapon is this?" Her voice cooled down suddenly. "I've changed my mind. It looks like you'll be dying here tonight."

The silver light lunged towards Nightingale once again, this time it was divided into dozens of whips that completely surrounded her.

Nightingale used her Mist to swiftly back away. Unlike common objects, the whips containing magic power were immune to the Mist, so she couldn't pass through them and could only try to avoid them. However, her enemy's range of attack was far too big, and the silver light struck by her side. She felt a slight numbness on her shin and she lost her balance, crashing onto the ground. The magic whips pierced into the ground behind her and pulverized the stone floor into dust. If she had been hit directly, she would have immediately lost her fighting power.

Nightingale ignored the wound on her shin and shot all the bullets in her gun at once from the ground.

The silver whips recoiled and turned into a spinning band of light, blocking all the bullets.

She knew she had no time to reload her bullets in the Mist and that once she wasn't able to hold off her enemy with her revolver, she would be in huge trouble—it was too cramped to distance herself from her enemy, and not being able to dodge any attacks would only shrink her range of movement. She pulled out another gun in a panic, shot all the bullets randomly and ducked into the Mist, and fell two stories down through the floor.

*******************

"She escaped!" The Saint screamed. "Summon the Judgement Army to lock down the church, and send guards to the Marquess' cell as well since the witch might be here to see her!"

"Escaped?" Rosad glanced around him, not seeing any damage in the doors nor secret exits. "Through what?"

"The walls, the ceiling, or the floorboards—her powers go way beyond invisibility. There isn't any magic power left in the room!" The Pure Witch gnashed her teeth and said, "Do exactly what I told you to, She's injured and won't make it too far. Tell all your men to put on the God's Stone of Retaliation bolts!"

"Yes!"

After the priest left hurriedly, the Pure Witch immediately collapsed helplessly to the floor, her hands trembling powerlessly.

Damn, what kind of weapon is this?

Her abilities were all-powerful, and her defense power, the magic light that could block any attack, was seen as the strongest among Pure Witches—no sword or bolt could ever penetrate it.

In order to strengthen her powers, she was constantly using her magic light. After more than ten years, she was able to carry such an immense amount of magic power that hundreds of arrows were futile, and she had never exhausted her magic power due to blocking anything.

However, her opponent's attack drained her magic power instantly, and she was no longer able to even maintain her abilities. She felt an extreme fatigue that she hadn't experienced in years.

"I must get my hands on this Fallen Witch, dead or alive," she thought vengefully.

Chapter 416 - Retreat

Nightingale followed the path she had scouted out before, passed through three rooves, and landed straight in the dungeon that the Marquess was held.

Spear Passi heard the sound and stared up with wide eyes. "How... did you get in?"

Nightingale raised a finger to her lips as a sign for silence and limped out of the steel door. Judging from their clothing, the two guards in the pathway were probably followers of the church. She used the Mist to instantly move behind the two men and slit their throats with a dagger—they would never have expected an attack from within the dungeon, so they didn't even turn their heads as they lay dying.

After returning to the dungeon, Nightingale finally had a chance to examine her wound.

The wind-resistant pants that Soraya made for her were cut open, and blood was gushing from a wound on her shin that was half an inch deep. Her enemy's magic whip must have scraped through the pants and cut through her flesh, but thankfully it had not damaged any bones. If not for the sturdy coating on her pants, she would have been injured even more seriously.

"You're hurt," Spear said with a frown.

"It's not too bad. We have to leave before you turn into a corpse." Nightingale did not tell the Marquess about the Saint's plans of taking her to Hermes, for it seemed just as bad as dying, or even worse. "They had no idea that you were a witch before they captured you, so it must be the church's conspiracy to gain control of Fallen Dragon Ridge."

"How about my brother..."

"He's probably already become the church's puppet. There's no time to waste, so I'll explain to you on the road." Nightingale tightly tied a sash right above the wound. "Where is the God's Locket of Retribution?"

The Marquess pointed at her neck. "At first, they only tied my legs with a chain, but then they replaced it with this."

Nightingale's heart immediately sunk upon seeing the metal ring as thick as her thumb—this kind of God's Locket of Retribution was made by stuffing magic stones into a metal tube and sealing it with a special technique, making it practically impossible for someone to undo it.

"Do you remember where the locking device is?"

"It's inside the dungeon near the entrance, where they brought me to be locked."

It was obvious that after discovering the Marquess' real identity, the Saint decided to use the strongest restrictions that could almost trap any witch except an Extraordinary.

She would have to remove this contraption in order to take Spear into her Mist and escape.

"Let's go to the first dungeon," Nightingale said decidedly. "Come with me."

She fought against the stabbing pain in her shin, returned to the fallen guards, took their keys, and opened the cell door.

Suddenly, the tolls of ringing bells broke the silence and echoed throughout the tower, which made her heart race.

"That's the church's alarm," Spear said with a panicked expression.

"I knew they would come eventually," Nightingale whispered. "Our only chance of surviving is to move faster than our enemy."

The alarm might have actually helped her because all the men in the basement would swarm towards the only entrance at once, making it easy for her to eliminate them together.

She descended on them with her Mist and aimed her gun at these men. After her bullets pierced her first target, they immediately struck her second, splattering blood everywhere. The God's Stones of Retaliation that they wore served as clear targets in her black-and-white vision, while her invisibility rendered the men clueless about where to attack. After two rounds of shooting, there was not a single living guard left in the dungeon.

However, she knew that these were the lowest-rank followers and that an armed Judgement Army was headed their way soon. If she couldn't take off the God's Stone of Retaliation before their arrival, it would be very difficult to escape.

"Come here!" She quickly spotted the locking device—a metal instrument resting against the wall with two rusty clamps stretching outwards, resembling a terrifying torture device.

Spear pressed her neck against the clamps, and Nightingale fastened the device onto her and furiously turned its handle. With the help of the pulleys, the clamps pulled in opposite directions and created an opening in the God's Locket of Retribution.

At the same time, the sound of the Judgement Army's armor rattled near the cell door.

"That's them right there!" Someone yelled.

"Take aim—shoot!"

"Let's go!" Nightingale brought Spear into the Mist, but small black holes shot towards her and tore her Mist apart.

There were God's Stones of Retaliation on the bolts! Nightingale felt a cold sweat break on her forehead as she and the Marquess became completely visible to the Judgement Warriors—it was clear to see that these men were trained very differently from regular followers. They shot their first round of bolts all throughout the passageway to close off their exit, and only half of the men participated in the first attack.

Meanwhile, the other half waited for the witches to expose themselves.

After spotting their target, the second wave of arrows flew towards them.

Nightingale heard the buzzing of arrows behind her and pulled the Marquess in front of her body, yelling. "Duck!"

A searing pain spread like fire through her back as she was hit by countless arrows, but she didn't stop running.

As they rounded a corner, Nightingale tasted blood in her mouth, probably from biting her lip in pain before. "Are you OK?"

"I'm... I'm fine," the Marquess said blankly. "Did, did you just block the bolts for me?"

"If you were shot, you would be gone for, but I might make it." Nightingale reached behind her and found that none of the arrows had pierced through Soraya's windbreaker—although her back hurt like it was on fire, there were only bruises, and no stone powder had entered her body.

The Judgement Warriors hurried towards them. They probably did not expect the two witches to survive the second wave of bolts without a shield, so they were a considerable distance away.

After escaping the binds of the God's Stone of Retaliation, Nightingale grabbed Spear and entered her Mist. She rushed upwards through the floorboards and soil to the outside of the tower, took a bamboo tube from her bag, and pulled the string on its end.

A blinding red light shot out of the tube into the sky and exploded into a shower of sparks that looked like stars dotting the sky.

When His Highness gave this to her, he kept boasting about how one flare would summon a thousand troops to her aid. Right now, she didn't need a thousand troops and only prayed that Maggie could see her signal.

Soon, a giant shadow descended from the sky as Maggie landed next to the tower, her large body crushing its walls and her wings fanning away the fog around them.

"What... what is that?" Spear Passi stared in awe.

"That's my friend." Nightingale had Lightning fastened the Marquess onto Maggie, used the last of her strength to crawl onto her back, patted her body, and said, "Let's fly."

"Aooooo... aoooo... " Maggie roared at the incoming Judgement Warriors, flapped her wings, took off, and disappeared into the night with the two witches.

Chapter 417 - Strike back

On the Fallen Dragon Ridge, Lightning expertly set up a tent big enough for four beyond the wind's reach.

Nightingale sat by the fire to warm herself. She rolled up the cuffs of her pants and found her calves stained with blood. The places hit by the Saint were swollen. She had not felt it at the time with adrenaline coursing through her, but now, as she relaxed, she struggled to lift her legs. If Maggie had not come to her rescue, she probably would not have been able to run any further with carrying the Marquess.

It was extremely dangerous to move in the Mist in her current condition. The changing lines inside of it were staircases lined with sharp blades waiting to cut her to pieces if given the opportunity.

"Let me help you, coo."

Maggie took first aid supplies from a big backpack. Besides cotton and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, she found an herbal remedy prepared by Leaf, the medicinal mainstay of the Witch Cooperation Association.

Try as she might, Nightingale could not stifle her gasp with accompanying grimace when the pungent alcohol was poured over her wounds. If His Highness hadn't mentioned that it could kill the bacteria that caused the demonic plague, she would think this was some type of torture.

To Nightingale's great relief, the scorching burn was relieved quickly by the herbal preparation. As soon as her wounds were bandaged, she felt much more comfortable.

"Your back... " the Marquess said in a low voice, "Is it alright?"

"What's about her back?" Lightning crawled into the tent with a bundle of firewood.

"To save me... she was shot by their bolts," Spear said forlornly.

"No big deal. It's like taking a couple of punches." Nightingale twitched her mouth. "It's not a problem as long as I don't sleep on my back tonight."

"It's better to apply some herbal medicine on it," Lightning said while fiddling the branches in the fire pit with the sparks flying. "Leaf's medicine, not only can stop the bleeding, but also is very effective for bruises."

"Lay down on me, coo." Maggie sat down and patted her lap. "Let me apply the medicine to your back, coo."

Seeing the serious look in the white-haired girl's eyes, Nightingale could not disobey and acquiesced without argument. "Alright."

She took off her clothes with her hands covering her chest and reclined in Maggie's lap. The Marquess let out a muffled gasp.

She knew without looking that her smooth back was now mottled with darkening red bruises. "But it just looks scary. Since witches have strong self-healing capacity, these wounds will heal after two or three days," she thought, shrugging it off the best she could.

During this tender evaluation and treatment, Nightingale coughed twice and said, "Marquess, do you have any plans for the future? Your brother Redwyne, deluded by the church, has betrayed you. Actually, before that military coup, neither he nor the church knew you're a witch." Then she briefly repeated what she had heard in the tower to the Marquess. "They worked in collusion to deprive you of your title. Even if you aren't a witch, you'll be put to death as a devil's minion. It'll be easy work for the church."

"If they dare to murder a marquess," Spear said, gnashing her teeth, "I'll make Redwyne and the church pay the price!"

"The church's deeds are far beyond your imagination." Nightingale shook her head. "They kill even kings without blinking. Think of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

Spear was stunned for a moment and then opened her mouth to ask, "Does the church really dare to swallow all four kingdoms? I've only heard about it from merchants of neighboring countries, but most of the nobility in the King's City thought it ridiculous."

"The nobility in King's City also said Roland Wimbledon was a rebel king." Nightingale shrugged. "If His Highness guesses right, conquering the four kingdoms is only the first step in the church's plan, but unless you join the Witch Union, I can't tell you the conspiracy behind it. Besides, the church must spend some time plotting this military coup and most of your men should have already swung to Redwyne who has promised them more profits. If you want to take back Fallen Dragon Ridge, you can turn to His Highness for help."

"Will he really help me?"

"Of course, it's our solemn duty to wipe out the church," Nightingale said with a trace of a smile touching her lips.

Marquess was silent, and she looked like she was hesitating to say something.

"Believe me," Nightingale said, recognizing the Marquess' hesitation. "You're free to leave the Western Region anytime you want. His Highness never compels anyone to stay."

"Is he really establishing a place where witches and ordinary human beings live together?"

This was the second time she had asked Nightingale this question, and again Nightingale answered proudly, "Yes, His Highness' territory is a place like that. It's the witches' Holy Mountain."

In the firelight, the expression seemed uncertain on Spear Passi's face. After quite a long while, she nodded slightly and asked, "Are we going to set off tomorrow?"

"Not yet," Nightingale and Lightning spoke with one voice. Then they gazed into each other's eyes and burst into laughter.

"The local church will try to report to Holy City what happened here, so in the following two days, we must catch all the pigeons sent out by our enemy," Nightingale explained to the Marquess. "After that, Maggie will carry you to Border Town. I have some other pressing demands here."

She remembered what the Saint had said in that room atop the tower: she would leave for Redwater City soon after the military coup.

Apparently, wherever the Saint went, an undercurrent of tension soon followed. Troubles big or small were sure to find His Highness. If she could impede the Saint, she would not only sabotage church's plan but also collect a bounty of information from the Saint.

Nightingale took a deep breath and made a plan to kill every member of that church platoon, but she was not sure whether Prince Roland would agree to her plan. If he insisted on her giving up the plan and going back, she would do as he wished.

...

Three days later Maggie, who had already sent the Marquess on to Border Town, returned to Fallen Dragon Ridge bearing two witches from the Sleeping Island on her back.

"Why are you here?" Nightingale asked, the surprise evident on her face.

"Prince Roland sent us to help you," Andrea said, gracefully hopping off the big bird's back, doffing her hood and giving her blonde hair a nice shake. "We'll get two pieces of ice cream bread in return."

"Wiping out a church platoon, you can never do that without me!" Ashes said with a smile.

"His Highness said you can do what you've planned, but take safety into account first, coo." Maggie changed back to a girl and continued, "He said he was waiting for you to return to the castle."

"Really... " Nightingale mused, suddenly aware of warmth in her heart. "I get it."

"So how many are there?" Ashes raised her eyebrows slightly. "I heard there's a witch among them?"

"I don't know the exact number yet, but there are at most 20 Judgement Warriors along with their servants and some believers," she said in a measured voice. "You take care of the others and leave the witch to me."

Chapter 418 - Finish the Fighting

They had been on the ridge for a week when Lightning detected the platoon at the north gate of Fallen Dragon Ridge.

As Nightingale had expected, the church's emissary delegation was composed of 25 fully armored Judgement Warriors, who were riding stallions at the head of the platoon. There was a transport corps of around 100 mercenary fighters and believers walking behind the Judgement Army.

Among them, there were two coaches. She assumed the Saint was in one of them.

The five witches secretly followed the platoon, as it headed toward Redwater City.

According to the plan, they would initiate the attack when the platoon was out of the monitoring area and thus would be unable to call for backup quickly.

Nightingale quietly watched a coach in the platoon from her mist and vaguely saw a silver light of magic power coming out through the distorted silhouette of the carriage.

If Nightingale acted alone, she could probably kill the Saint of the church, but it was not guaranteed that she could kill all of the enemies here. But now, with the help of the witches from Sleeping Island, it was highly possible that they would be able to block the news in the Southern Territory.

Once this platoon was eliminated, Hermes would not know anything, at least until next spring. And by then it would be very difficult for them to investigate what had happened to the emissary delegation.

Nightingale did not like killing, but this time it was an intentional decision.

It would lighten the burden on His Highness and help to defend the witches' Holy Mountain.

She would not regret it.

When the emissary delegation entered the forest, Nightingale saw a dark shadow coming close.

It was Maggie. She folded her wings and swooped down, roaring. Horses suddenly neighed in fright and went off uncontrollably. All the people were shocked, dumbfounded and only stared goggle-eyed at the scene.

But the giant beast did not burst into the crowd to bite and stomp on them as they had expected. Instead, it spread its wings just over their heads and flew away close to the ground, leaving a storm behind it. The strong wind made it hard for them to open their eyes. Suddenly, a person jumped off the beast's back and landed on the ground.

"Enemy attack!" the Judgement Warriors shouted among the emissary delegation.

Hearing this, the believers began to recover themselves, drew out their weapons and struck at the unknown enemy at the center of the platoon.

Nightingale's vision filled with black and white lines. They were fully covered with lightless black holes which could protect them from ordinary witches, but not from Ashes the Extraordinary.

She cut all the believers within her range in two, at their waists, like reaping wheat. All the people around her fell swiftly. She used an ordinary iron sword instead of her symbolic heavy sword, in order for Maggie to carry one more witch besides herself. The iron sword quickly cracked and broke during the fight. She seized the weapons dropped by the enemy, a halberd, a stick, sometimes an iron hammer or a cutlass. Anything in her hand became a lethal weapon.

Blood splashed and bodies were torn apart. In the middle of the platoon, Ashes cut them in two all by herself.

In the rear part of the platoon, the mercenary fighters could hardly offer the middle section any help because they had their own difficulties.

Andrea kept skipping through the forest like a fairy. She used the branches and trunks of the trees to cover herself and shoot arrows every time she changed position. Every one of her arrows would hit someone between his eyebrows and every one of her shots was to kill.

In less than ten minutes, the whole platoon was a mess. Screams, cries and fighting noises resounded in the forest.

Nightingale joined the fight immediately. She dashed through her mist, closely following her target, who was her only target in this fight, the Saint of the church and the witch hunter. The coaches were drawn by the frightened horses. They ran wildly for a long way before the horses finally calmed down, but then they did not return to the platoon. Instead, they left the main road and burrowed into the forest in two different directions.

It seemed that the Saint had already noticed that among her enemies there was a tough opponent, an Extraordinary. For most witches, an Extraordinary with God's Stone of Retaliation was unbeatable.

Unfortunately, she could not escape from Nightingale's control.

Nightingale had already spotted her position earlier on. The one in the other coach was likely a high-ranking priestess or priest.

Nightingale left it to Lightning and Maggie.

Despite the fact that the Saint's coach tossed heavily on the bumpy road in the forest, the coachman kept whipping the horses, looking like he was urged by someone to speed up.

Nightingale approached. In order to shoot fatally every time, she only fired when she was less than ten meters behind the target and in line with it. She aimed at the four Judgement Warriors following the coach and pressed the trigger to kill them one by one. The Judgement Army immediately split off at the sound of the gun, but the distance now was still only several steps for Nightingale in her mist. Further, their full armors were doing more harm than good in a fight against large caliber bullets. The bullets became more harmful to the human body after going through these deformed, cracked armors.

After getting rid of the four Judgement Warriors, she pointed her gun at the horses.

As the two horses fell down, the fragile wooden carriage promptly flew off from the force. It then hit a tree trunk and immediately fell apart.

Through the flying pieces, a person wrapped in silver light rolled out. Nightingale aimed and shot without hesitation, but the light formed by magic power seemed to have consciousness and blocked the bullets one by one.

She moved away to reload a new cartridge.

"Traitor!" the Saint shouted angrily, charging towards where Nightingale hid.

This time, the situation was different.

They did not fight in a small room anymore. Now every step Nightingale took would cost the Saint more than ten steps to catch up and the effective range of a revolver which was around 50 meters was much bigger than the area a witch could affect with her ability. The Saint's "silver whip" could hardly reach Nightingale while a bullet could put the Saint to death anytime.

At this distance, merely one or two out of five shots could hit the target, but luckily Nightingale had enough time to reload new cartridges and keep aiming and firing.

After five catridges, the silver light dimmed out. One shot hit the Saint's left shoulder and another went through her stomach. She could no longer stand. She staggered a few steps, and then fell to the ground.

Nightingale was not in a hurry to approach her. She went back to the place where the carriage had fallen apart to pick up a God's Stone of Retaliation before she walked to the Saint. During the fight, she had kept moving around the carriage so it would be easier to search the site afterwards.

The moment Nightingale appeared beside the blood-covered witch, she suddenly stretched out her right hand, the only part she could move now, only to find that her silver light could not pierce her enemy as she wanted.

"You damned demon, the gods will put you on trial!" she said, gritting her teeth, blood was spewing out of her mouth.

Nightingale pointed the gun at her chest expressionlessly and replied, "Really? I'll wait for that day."

Then she pressed down the trigger.

Chapter 419 - Faith

After the smoke caused by the battle dissipated, the forest returned to silence.

The witch's long braids had unraveled, and her hair spread like white petals over her body.

Blood streamed down her back and quickly formed a dark red puddle, slowly immersing into the ground and melting the cold, hard soil. After that, the air was filled with a smell of iron.

Nightingale squatted and untied the blindfold on the witch's face. She found the face looked unexpectedly young, probably similar to her own age. However, the scars by her eyes destroyed her overall beauty—her eyes looked like they had been repeatedly burned by red-hot iron, and her skin was red and wrinkled, so she had lost the contours of her eyes.

This was undoubtedly caused by men. Nightingale gently touched the wrinkled scars; as for whether she suffered these wounds before becoming a witch or after serving the church, no one would ever know. However, this was no longer important because from now on, she couldn't hurt any more witches and wouldn't suffer any more torments.

After searching the Saint's body, Nightingale found a letter, a seal and an emblem in the pocket of her robe lining. The emblem was a circle split by a cross with a clenched fist in the center.

She carried nothing else—no gold royals or jewelry.

"Perhaps she never enjoyed anything in her life," Nightingale couldn't help but think.

"Hey, look at what I caught." Lightning's voice sounded from the air. She looked up and saw the little girl carrying a struggling man, whom she threw onto the ground.

The man groaned in pain and rolled around, trying to get up, but he was hog-tied, so all he could do was to twist around helplessly.

The man's outfit revealed that he was probably the Priest who was sitting in the other carriage.

"Where's Maggie?"

"She's guiding Ashes to chase the runaway Judgement Army." Lightning walked over to the Saint. "This is the witch trained by the church?"

"Uh-huh," Nightingale said softly. "She won't ever hunt us again."

"From her appearance, it's difficult to believe that she saw us as enemies who must be killed... " The little girl sighed.

"If not for the church, none of this would have happened." Nightingale turned to glare at the captive man. When he saw the witch lying in a pool of blood, his eyes immediately widened, and he tried to say something but couldn't because of the cloth gag in his mouth.

She took out the cloth. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Ahem... you, you've killed the Pure Witch of Bishop Tayfun, reckless devil! You'll sooner or later be hung by the church at the city gate and left to the crows!"

"Even if we didn't kill her, being caught by the church is no better," said Nightingale, "and compared with this, you'd better worry about yourself first."

"Even if I die, I'll have the salvation of God, and you guys will only sink into Hell and be tortured forever!" He yelled.

"That's why I have to block his mouth," Lightning said.

Nightingale stuffed the cloth back into his mouth. "Let His Highness deal with him. He said that Iron Axe is very good at interrogating such kinds of people."

...

By the time Maggie brought over the two witches from Sleeping Island, it was already afternoon. Ashes jumped down from the back of the beast and landed steadily next to Nightingale. " You're not hurt, are you?"

"Everything went well," she said. "How about you?"

"Obviously, not a single man escaped." Ashes laughed proudly.

"Is she dead?" Andrea landed and looked at the Saint. "I thought you'd keep her alive."

"The enemy was a witch, so hesitating would have been extremely dangerous," Ashes twitched her mouth and said. "If I were you, I wouldn't keep her alive either."

"Gee, you have no mercy for your own kind."

"She isn't our kin, but a puppet controlled by the church," the Extraordinary said casually. "Besides, sometimes our own kind can be even crueler than others. I've never seen demonic beasts or demons imprison and torture people for several years."

After saying that, she took off her blood-stained gloves and offered her hand to Nightingale. "Your actions and performance were amazing, and you did the right thing in this situation."

"... " The latter stared at her for a moment before holding her hand. "Thank you."

"Who would have thought that someone like her would comfort me," Nightingale thought. "She probably didn't want me to feel guilty for killing a witch."

"I think this victory is worth celebrating," Lightning said.

Maggie agreed with a "Coo!"

Andrea rolled her eyes, reached out her hands, and placed them on top of the others'. "I have to clarify that if it were only your hand, I wouldn't touch it, so this's for Nightingale's sake."

"OK, I get it," Ashes said, raising her eyebrow.

Then, the five witches raised their hands to the sky, looking like an unwavering tower in the cold wind.

...

Next, they needed to collect the information carried by the emissary delegation and hide the traces of their battle. After properly dealing with these issues in the forest for two days, they arrived back in Border Town three days later.

After landing in the castle backyard, Nightingale was immediately surrounded by her sisters.

"I heard you were hurt. Where is the wound?" Nana asked.

"She has been waiting for you for a long time. Why did you come back so late?" Lily asked, annoyed.

"Does it... still hurt?" Lucia asked urgently.

"This batch of herbs was made especially by me. They can't only stop bleeding, but also calm swelling, so their effect should be pretty great," Leaf said with a smile.

"How could you be so careless to scurry into the church alone! You might not be this lucky next time!" This was Wendy's voice.

"It's alright as long as she can return safely." Scroll chimed in.

Seeing their concerned faces warmed Nightingale's heart, and she didn't understand how the Church's witches lived, but she knew what it was like to belong to the Witch Union. There was no doubt that this was worth devoting everything to.

Then, she saw His Highness Roland.

Lightning jumped into his arms and stuck to him like a gecko.

Maggie also flew onto Roland's shoulder, rubbing his cheek.

Although Nightingale wanted to do this too, she knew that she wasn't a child, so she held back the impulse to embrace Roland, walked up to him, and said with a smile, "I'm back."

"Uh-huh, I've waited for you for a long time." The prince smiled his familiar smile. "Take a hot bath and get some rest. I put a few bags of honey grilled dried fish in the office drawer."

"OK, then I'll go help myself."

Nightingale smiled.

She reassured herself that she had done the right thing.

Chapter 420 - The Lord's Response

That night, Roland held a magnificent banquet at the Lord's castle.

Since they not only rescued Spear Passi but also captured a Priest from Hermes, it was technically the Witch Union's first unprovoked attack on the church.

As the five witches who had participated in the battle walked on to the stage, the hall erupted into applause, and even Roland, who rarely drank, drained two glasses of Evelyn's chilled white liquor.

Although it was only a small triumph, the Months of the Demons were long and stressful, and he wanted to take this opportunity to help everyone relax.

When Roland stumbled into his office the next morning with a raging headache, Nightingale was already waiting for him, sitting cross-legged on his table.

"Don't you need more rest?" he asked with a smile.

Ever since he agreed to let her attack the emissary delegation, he had been worrying about her—even if he knew she was in a spacious area and could use the Mist to remain invincible, he still fretted about accidents. Afterall, this wasn't daily practice, but a true battle of life and death. Now seeing her energetic and vital, he felt much better.

Nightingale swallowed her dried fish and said, "Of course I don't. I'm in a great shape right now."

As soon as Roland returned to his seat, she jumped off the table, walked to the back of the chair, and hugged him. "One more day of rest is one more day without seeing you."

The prince was slightly startled.

"I actually wanted to do this yesterday in the castle garden... but now isn't such a bad timing either," Nightingale whispered into his ear.

...

She did not let him go and disappeared into the Mist until she heard the footsteps outside the door.

"Your Highness." A guard shouted. "The Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge, Marquess Passi, is here to see you."

"Send her in." Roland cleared his throat and adjusted his posture.

Spear Passi walked into the office, bowed, and sat in front of his desk. "I've thoroughly considered your proposal."

"What do you think?" He poured a cup of tea for her.

While Nightingale, Ashes, and others were battling against the church, he had also been busy with showing the Marquess around the town and negotiating with her. Roland briefly told her the crisis that the kingdom faced, the origins of the church, and the threats of the demons, as well as his future plans.

When Spear heard about the church's origins and their reasons for hunting witches, she was so shocked that her eyes widened to the utmost. If not for the testimonies of Tilly and Agatha, she would have never believed that witches once had ruled the entire Barbarian Land, but her attitude changed greatly afterwards.

"Repealing feudal power, universalizing laws and administration institution, prohibiting the inheritance and sale of titles... I can accept these requests, but..." She paused. "I'm just curious. Do you really plan to spread this to all the territories?"

"Yes. If we don't do this, Kingdom of Graycastle will be nothing but loose sand," Roland said, nodding. "Before our final enemies arrive, we must gather as much power as possible."

"Your plan will offend all of the nobilities," said Spear slowly, "especially the part prohibiting the inheritance of titles—if I'm not mistaken, the Lord of a territory is also a title. Doing so will confirm your reputation of the 'rebel king'."

"That's why I don't expect them to back down voluntarily," he said, knocking on his desk. "Before the fateful Battle of Divine Will, the nobility's discontent is not my priority. I don't have to kill them all, either. As long as these people accept my new terms, they may even be able to keep their territories, just not their feudal power—I believe they'll make the right decision."

Centralization of authority was only effective when all the power was held by a few people, so if local authorities had too much power, they would threaten this centralization and even his position as a ruler. Unlike one year ago, the town now had the ability to undergo a revolution. After this step was completed, he would be the only ruler of Kingdom of Graycastle in a real sense.

"You seem to have made up your mind." Spear sighed. "If I don't accept them, your army will probably overturn my ruling anyways."

"I desperately need manpower for my plan," Roland said earnestly, "especially someone with experience in governing a city. Like I said, you won't lose your territory, and you can proudly reveal your identity as a witch to your people without fear of the church."

The Marquess was silent for a while. "I also have a request."

"Please, go ahead."

"After you take back Fallen Dragon Ridge for me, I don't want anything to change," she said bluntly. "I can only fully support you when Timothy is no longer the king."

"What a clever answer..." Roland thought. "She avoided giving a strict refusal and gave herself some room for changing her mind. Basically what she meant is that in order to earn her support, I need to prove that my plan of unifying the Kingdom of Graycastle isn't just empty talk and that I'm truly capable of doing it."

"It's a deal then." He didn't think much of the Marquess' secret calculations. If his attack in the spring went well, it might be easier to overturn Timothy than retrieving Fallen Dragon Ridge.

"Oh, by the way, Your Highness." Spear hesitated. "The witches are attending class tonight, and I'm wondering if I could join them..."

Roland was a bit surprised. "Those are all very basic beginner courses. You probably won't learn anything new."

"I'm intrigued by their calculating methods," she said, shaking her head. "I've never seen anything like them before."

"Is she talking about the Multiplication Table or algebraic equations?" He mused. "Of course, as long as you're willing to join the Witch Union."

...

After lunch, Iron Axe brought him some good news.

"He's willing to talk?" Roland was slightly surprised. "That soon?"

According to Nightingale, the captive Priest was quite stubborn.

"Not everyone has a will of steel, Your Highness," answered Iron Axe seriously. "The Sand Nation has some unique interrogation methods that barely damage the body but destroy the mind, even making some people view death as a relief. He has already lingered longer than most people."

"That's right," he thought. "Professional spies not only have extraordinary willpower, but are also trained not to crack under any interrogation, but no one in this era has received this kind of training."

"Take me to see him," said Roland. "I have quite a few questions for him."

.

Chapter 421 - The Interrogation

The prison of the town hadn't changed much since he arrived one year ago.

His mass infrastructure development did not extend to this place, and although the houses and roads above the ground had been renovated, the prison below still reeked of decay. Moss grew on the stone walls, and muddy water dripped down the stairs.

The only difference was that the cells held very few prisoners.

Due to the the expansion and development of the territory, anyone who was willing to work was able to find a job. The scoundrels who were unwilling to change were sent by Roland to the mines, where they were whipped into shape.

Since Anna had wrecked the cells at the bottom of the prison, and there was no need to repair them, the entire lower floor was sealed off and abandoned. Roland followed Iron Axe to the middle of the third floor and saw the captive Priest—the only criminal on this floor.

The man was not hanging on a torture rack nor beaten to a bloody pulp, which completely defied Roland's idea of an interrogation. He was huddled in the icy corner of his cell, and although his clothes were all intact, he seemed completely lifeless and pale with hollow eyes without focus.

"Is he alright?" Roland asked quietly.

"It's not an issue, Your Highness," Iron Axe answered with a bow. "If you have any questions, you can ask him directly."

The prince nodded. The Sand Nation's interrogation methods were indeed unique, but he was not interested in the specifics or the humanity of Iron Axe's process, as long as it got the job done. He cleared his throat, sat down on the long wooden bench near the cell, and asked the Priest through the bars, "What's your name?"

"Are you the Fourth Prince of Kingdom of Graycastle... Roland Wimbledon?" The man's expression changed. "Look... look at what you've done. You've unleashed the demons' powers."

"His Highness is asking your name," said Iron Axe coldly. "If you don't want to undergo last night's punishment again, then cut the crap."

The Priest's face froze, and after a short pause, he lowered his head and said, "My... my name is Campus."

"I heard you're from the Holy City of Hermes?" Roland glanced at the man. "Who was the witch traveling with you? Was she also from the Holy City? What was her role in the church?"

"Her..." Campus seemed hesitant and was silent for a long time before answering, "Her name was Aurora, and she was one of Master Tayfun's Pure Witches. She didn't take any positions in the church."

"Tayfun?" The prince pondered for a while upon this familiar name.

"He's one of the three Archbishops of the Holy City, in charge of the church's external affairs. His position is second only to the Supreme Pontiff." The Priest explained.

Roland suddenly remembered that he had met this person before—at a ceremony in King's City. That day, King Wimbledon III organized a big coming-of-age celebration for Tilly Wimbledon, and Tayfun was the Bishop sent by the church to the ceremony. In his memory, Tayfun seemed like a benevolent old man with a caring and forgiving smile, as if he had nothing to do with anything evil in the world.

"What's a Pure Witch?"

Campus hesitated once more, but after Iron Axe threatened him again, he grudgingly responded. "Pure Witches are witches who are raised by the church and directly managed by Bishops and the Supreme Pontiff, so I don't know too much about them."

Roland scratched his ear to signal for Nightingale's confirmation and learned that the man was not lying.

"How many people know about the church's hidden witches?"

The Priest shook his head. "Master Tayfun only told me about this two years ago and ordered me not to tell other believers, so... I'm not sure how many people know."

"The church is obviously very secretive about raising Pure Witches, which at least means they aren't publicly holding a double standard," thought Roland. "This is definitely good news." This finally confirmed his suspicion and gave him another piece of evidence to hold against the church—if the believers found out that the sermons they received were all false and that the church was secretly raising the very enemies they were taught to fight under their noses, how would they react?

"What was your motive in sabotaging the Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge? Why did you want to take her back to Hermes?"

"I don't know. My only mission was to monitor Aurora, so only she knows the exact motive. There was a change of plans because Aurora discovered that the lord was actually a witch, and the new Pope thus ordered us to send all captured witches back to the Holy City to be purified."

"Purified," Roland snorted. "Do you actually believe that? If purified witches... no, Pure Witches are sinless, why would the church keep their existence as a secret?"

"Because... because some believers aren't devoted enough, so this's the only way for now..." His voice trailed off, and he eventually closed his mouth.

The prince sneered. "Where did you plan to go after leaving Fallen Dragon Ridge?"

"Redwater City."

"After that?"

"Impassable Castle."

"Anywhere else?"

"Just these three cities." The Priest responded numbly, having given up resisting after disclosing the information about Pure Witches. "Master Tayfun didn't tell us when to return, so we were going to stay at Impassable Castle awaiting new orders."

His answer matched the letter found on the witch's body. "Why these three cities?"

Campus shook his head.

It seemed that he didn't know much since for the church, he was probably just a monitor for the Pure Witch. Roland stroked his chin and thought, "Fallen Dragon Ridge is in the Southern Territory, Redwater city in the center of the kingdom, and Impassable Castle between the Northern and Western Territories, so they have nothing in common, and they aren't important passes or intersections. Even if the church wanted to overturn the Kingdom of Graycastle, they wouldn't start with these cities."

If he had to name a similarity between them, it would be that they all lay on the border of the Western Territory—a thought suddenly sprang into his mind: Was he actually the person the emissary delegation was targeting at?

...

The interrogation didn't stop until evening. Roland collected his information and stood up. When he was about to leave, he noticed that the Priest was sitting motionless against the wall, as still as a corpse, neither begging for mercy nor cursing in fury. This surprised him greatly. "Aren't you asking what I intend to do with you?"

"You tortured me into confessing all this... and God will bear witness," Campus said with his eyes closed. "God is my final judge, not you. It doesn't matter what you'll do to me."

"Your Highness, give me another night with him," said Iron Axe. "I'll turn his attitude around."

"Not necessary. This is enough." Since the Priest had already confessed everything, Roland had no interest in continuing to torture him. "He'll be judged, not by God... but by the people."

.

Chapter 422 - Public Trial

Shortly after winter began, a wooden stage was built in the center of the square. It was the first of its kind for the people of Border Town. It wasn't for a theatrical performance but rather to conduct the first public trial.

A notice had been issued two days prior. On the day of the trial the stage was surrounded by a large crowd. The square area was much larger after the extension but it still wasn’t large enough to accommodate the entire community. There were scattered snowflakes falling from the sky, but everyone was too excited and completely ignored the wind and snow.

The atmosphere suddenly reached extremity as Roland appeared on the stage.

Watching the audience at the bottom waving their arms at him, he was emotionally touched. Once he had been almost a laughing stock in the eyes of the nobility and he'd had little influence on his subjects. Now, after just one year, the situation was reversed.

With shouts from the crowd, the Priest Campus was pushed onto the stage. His facial expressions changed a little while facing the crowd. Perhaps this parade was common for the top management from the church. They were accustomed to worship from the believers, and could easily influence the lives of these people with a single word or action, Roland thought. Except that this time, he probably wouldn't go through the brilliance of the past.

With excitement in their eyes, the witches from the union walked up to the wooden stage. They had always been slandered, hunted, unjustly treated and tried. But this time the roles were reversed. Witches were the victims, accusers, and jurors, and the trial object was the church. They had always imagined such a scene, but never expected that such a day would come so quickly.

Roland waved his hands and the people quieted immediately.

"Greetings, my people."

"The purpose of today's gathering is to reveal a shameful crime. The church has hidden the truth from the very beginning. I wouldn't have discovered this shocking news if the Priest of the Holy City had not been captured in a rebellion case."

Roland had been thinking about how to reveal the church’s crime effectively for the past two days. The rebellion case of Fallen Dragon Ridge shouldn't be the key point, because the story from a small town far away from them wouldn't gain their attention; the Battle of Divine Will and the Kingdom of Witches shouldn't be mentioned, for the story of a few hundred years ago was irrelevant for them and it might cause panic if it revealed the existence of demons. He needed to share something that they cared about in order to arouse the indignation of the masses.

In other words, it had to touch their hearts.

With no doubt, the witches who lived here shared the same daily lives with the people.

"The church has claimed that witches are the devil's minions, persons that are neither clean nor fortunate, but in fact, both the Pope and the Archbishop have been sheltering witches in a surprisingly large scale! This was said by the Priest himself." Roland faced the Priest and said, "Am I correct?"

After a long silence, Campus replied, "Yes."

Discussions broke out in the crowd.

"Your Highness, is he really a priest from the Holy City?" someone asked.

"Of course," said Roland, showing an expression of praise in the direction of Echo. "He was sent to the Kingdom of Graycastle in the name of the church as a Saint, and all the documents he’s brought reveal his identity!" Roland pointed to a small table beside the wooden stage. "Priest’s robe, badge, circular letter, all can be used as evidence."

The crowd was liable to doubts about these, so he would let Echo ask first and then answer them accordingly. Furthermore, these items were real, he didn't need to fake it.

"My people, come back to what I said before," continued the prince. "Take note of the term I used—sheltering! Yes, they gather female infants and orphans from all over the country to the monastery of the Holy City and these women are treated as animals. Only a few turn into witches, and proceed to further their training. The rest simply become trinkets for Church believers."

"No, these ..." Campus raised his head and opened his mouth, but he could hardly make a sound.

"In order to get more witches, they shelter female wanderers in the name of relief, and even collude with Black Street Rats to steal infants! Please think, my people, if there were a church in this town, you wouldn't only lose Miss Nana, but also a family member of yours could be missing too. They claim that the witches are evil spirits, seduced by demons, and drive believers to persecute these innocent women. Could you tolerate if Miss Nana was framed by them?"

"Never, Your Highness, never!"

The atmosphere of the square was hot, and people shook their fists, expressing their anger at the Priest.

"Miss Nana can't be evil, and she is the one who cured my injury!"

"I've know her since she was little. She was my daughter's classmate in Karl's college."

"I would have been killed by demonic beasts if not for her healing. She is an angel to the First Army."

Roland paused for a moment so the crowd could voice their dissatisfaction, then he continued. "So, why did they do that?"

The question caused a commotion among the subjects.

"Because the church needed witches to maintain their rule!" Before they could make more speculation, the prince said, "As you know, the witches’ abilities are varied and incredible! Besides Miss Nana's healing and Miss Lily's elimination of demonic plague, they have many other abilities that can improve our lives. The water supply equipment in our town was made by Miss Anna and Miss Soraya. The flintlocks used by the First Army and the steam engine that pulls the miner's truck, all these are gifts given by the witches. Our town wouldn't have achieved any of this without their contributions."

"But everything has two sides. Like a sword, it can be used to fight the demonic beasts or used to kill the innocent. The church is using the witches' abilities to hurt good people. And those who don't obey them are regarded as God's outcast. In fact, the top management of the church is committing a heinous crime which is recorded in the doctrine, and they completely disregard that their God is watching them."

"My dear people, if your children were to be kidnapped by the church and used to hurt you after being trained. If they became the church's whip and blade, how sad that would be!"

Roland turned around, walked to the front of Campus, expanded the long roll of paper, and asked loudly, "Do you have anything else to say about the accusations recorded on this paper?"

"These... are all true." Popping his eyes, the Priest looked as if he couldn't believe he had uttered these words. "I... admit guilt."

The masses became very angry.

"I hand over the right of judgment to you all!" Roland said loudly while the crowd was agitated, "For this evil, your choice is..."

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

Everybody was shouting the same words, soon there was only one voice left in the square.

In Border Town, with scattered snowflakes floating above, the people made their choice.

Chapter 423 - The Connection

...

Spear Passi solemnly signed her name at the bottom, after she had read both contracts several times.

One was the Memorandum of Unification and the other was the Memorandum of the Witch Union.

The first contract agreed that Spear would lead the people of Fallen Dragon Ridge in promising allegiance to Roland Wimbledon after Timothy Wimbledon's rule had been overthrown, and in response to the request of the new king, she would surrender her power. In return Roland would guarantee her position as the Lord of Fallen Dragon Ridge and other rights. The memorandum divided them into three categories which were, human affairs, administrative affairs, and finance. Although such a categorization was new, it was easy for her to understand what her daily routine was to include.

Spear thought about the second contract for a long time before she had made up her mind, as of this time the union was to serve Prince Roland without any doubt. She didn't want to join Prince Roland so hastily, he had only just occupied the corner region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. But, the content of the contract was attractive, and she vaguely sensed that the unique method of categorization would be helpful in managing her territory.

Fortunately, the constitutions of the Memorandum of the Witch Union were very loose, more like a formal consensus, and didn't even limit the whereabouts of its members. She consulted with the prince regarding this, and his reply was that the members could leave any time they wanted.

"I've signed it."

Spear placed the two elegant parchments on the table, but Roland didn't respond. He looked at the empty side of the room as if thinking about something.

"Your Highness?"

"Ah..." He blinked his eyes as if he had come back from somewhere. "Let me have a look at it."

He wasn’t this absent minded before the negotiation, and it seemed that ever since the trial yesterday, His Highness has been confused. This was difficult for her to understand. The trial was an absolute success and the people were on his side and cheering him. Before that, Spear had never thought that ordinary people would support a person of nobility. She thought that she and they were in two different worlds, and that nobility needed neither the understanding nor support of the people. But, she had changed her mind a day ago. After seeing the people surrounding the square, waving their fists, shouting with a strong voice that shook the sky and land. She then realized that they might contain a power that she had never felt and it was more powerful than a noble.

Besides, the decisive judgment displayed by His Highness was another one of the reasons why she had signed both contracts.

Regardless of whether or not he's trying to protect the witches, it's a kind of good faith to punish rebels who are against his royal power. Considering this, she would respond accordingly.

However, His Highness doesn't seem satisfied... Is he regretting being publicly against the church?

Spear was clear that the church was not an enemy they could easily deal with.

It's better to figure it out agreeably since it's related to the direction of their future co-operation. She hesitated, and then mentioned it diplomatically.

The prince was astonished for a while after he had heard this, and then he shook his head and smiled. "I have never regretted fighting against the church, after all, they're enemies that must be defeated from all points of view."

"So why..."

"I just have some mixed feelings."

"Mixed feelings?"

"I feel a little embarrassed, although what I said was truthful and what I disclosed were the crimes committed by the church." He shrugged, "It seems as if I'm not a qualified politician."

Politician? What's that? Like an astrologer devoting himself to studying stars, is a politician someone devoting himself to studying politics?

His Highness interrupted before she could keep asking. "I'll keep these parchments. I heard that your ability is related to the control of magic power?"

"Yes." Spear stopped questioning. "To be more precise, it's to extract the magic power of one witch for other witches to use. Of course, I can also retrieve and recover my own magic power for the purpose of consumption. As this process doesn't have a big impact on the outside world, I can repeat the process anytime in the castle."

"How did you find out you have such an ability?" the prince asked curiously.

"After my awakening." The Marquess answered, "I've no idea how other witches discovered their abilities, but I could feel it, and the feeling was like... you suddenly had an extra limb."

"Interesting description." He nodded thoughtfully. "You should know that the reason I sent Nightingale to Fallen Dragon Ridge is to give you an invitation."

"You need my ability." Spear paused a moment and bowed. "It's my honor to serve you."

Anyway, since there was no way for her to return to Fallen Dragon Ridge at the moment, it was better for her to see what a prince does, despite the fact that she had only been in town for a week. She had already realized that the town was different from others, it was a secluded land that was far away from the center of the Kingdom, but as energetic and lively as the capital. As a Lord, she was curious.

What made Spear more surprised was how the life of the witches here was completely different from what she had imagined. The prince didn't control them, but rather allowed them to live freely, and this was evident from his waiting for the return of Nightingale—he obviously hoped that she could return early, but still agreed with her requisition.

His Royal Highness didn't treat them as servants.

Some nobles sheltered witches because of their beauty. She thought he would have been more unscrupulous because His Highness openly recruited witches, but he was surprisingly self-disciplined.

Were the rumors true? Was the prince both prurient and incompetent?

She had more faith in him and she felt ridiculous for thinking it at the same time. When she thought back on it, she felt what Nightingale had told her was totally true.

...

She left the castle with the prince and they came to a yard at the back of the town, where Spear saw two other witches.

"This is Anna and this is Mystery Moon." Roland introduced them. "The Magic Power of Mystery Moon is considered to be low level, but the consumption of her magic power is astonishing."

"I'm obviously at a middle level!" Mystery Moon protested.

"Among the awakened witches," the prince added.

Mystery Moon kept quiet immediately.

"Do you want me to connect their magic powers?" Spear looked at Anna. "Does she have the strongest magic power in the union? I suggest that you invite a few more witches to come over. The stock magic power is related to their age, even if there's a difference, it wouldn't be big."

"This is just an experiment," His Highness said, rubbing his chin, "and if it works, I'll ask them to come over."

The Marquess nodded and summoned a passage of magic power—it was a sphere shining with blue light, quietly floating in the air. Under her control, two thin tentacle-shaped threads stretched out from the sphere to Anna and Mystery Moon.

"You'll feel weird in the beginning, so just relax and it'll be fine," Spear explained. "I'll fail to transfer your magic powers if you resist it."

Anna was shocked when the tentacle touched her chest.

What's… happening here? It seemed that the tentacle was connected to a solid metal cube instead of the rotating magic orb. It was so big that she felt like an ant standing at the bottom of it, and she could only see over its top by raising her head.

Chapter 424 - The Dawn I

How is magic power with such a form possible?

Spear "touched" the edge of the metal in disbelief, which was her unique way of sensing magic power. As soon as the passage was connected, she could see, touch, and even smell the magic powers of witches, as if she were entering their bodies.

Hard and cold, the surface was as smooth as a mirror, reflecting every detail of the tentacle-shaped thread. When the antenna-like cord of energy reached the cube, it swiftly bounced back.

"Relax." Marquess comforted her. "They're harmless." She wasn't sure whether her ability could affect this metallic cube since Anna's magic power seemed unable to flow.

After trying a few times, the antenna finally stuck to the cube.

But there was no transmission of magic power.

"What's going on?" Nightingale noticed something was wrong.

"I've never... transported magic power of this kind. It's too massive and doesn't look like the air that can be transferred." Spear felt her throat dry. "As soon as the channel is connected, the magic power should have been absorbed by the 'pivot'."

"I'll try to charge it with magic power." Anna suddenly spoke. "The same way as using the Sigil of God's Will."

"Be careful not to expend too much each time." His Highness nodded.

What was the Sigil of God's Will? Spear found that she'd heard several new terms since she came to this little town.

As she was pondering, the magic power in Anna's body suddenly transformed.

The perfect mirror was broken, and the surface of the metal rippled. The liquid without light rushed into the pipe and then became a floating ball as if pushed by something.

She then felt some weight.

Different from the cyclone of magic power, the liquid was very heavy. As it flew into the pivot, it was like putting in chunks of iron ingot. Spear found that she was consuming an increasing amount of magic power.

It was rather unbelievable. Prior to this, she could easily exhibit her abilities for half a day. Now at this rate, she might not be able to last a few hours.

Out of desperation, she drew out another cord from the pivot, connected it with her own body, and sustained the channel using Anna's magic power.

When the light ball was full, the metal cube in Anna's body was still in its original form, as if the magic power it lost was only a very insignificant portion.

Spear really wanted to take back what she had just said. She coughed twice. "Hem... now the channel can supply enough magic power for Miss Mystery Moon. What do we do next?"

"Stick to it." His Highness Roland handed Mystery Moon a copper cylinder. "Now show us what you can do."

"Ok." Mystery Moon took a deep breath, held the copper object in her hands, and closed her eyes.

All of a sudden, the Magic Power began to flow furiously.

Spear saw that the metal cube in Anna's body gleamed, the fluid in the pivot came out, and filled again; the entire channel kept on trembling. It looked as if it would be torn apart by the turbulent magic power. The Marquess had sweat on her forehead. She felt as if she was standing in front of a tsunami.

On the other side, Mystery Moon had a frowned forehead and red cheeks. Obviously, she was also under the impact of the fierce waves. But considering Spear was the one transferring the power, Mystery Moon must be under tremendous impact. Even so, she didn't stop using her abilities, and the rapidly consumed magic power was the proof.

These girls were monsters!

Spear didn't know how she managed to last to the end. When the magic power in Anna's body was drained, Spear felt she could barely stand on her own feet.

"Fi... finished." Mystery Moon opened her eyes and excitingly held up the copper cylinder. "I made it!"

"Well done." Roland carefully clamped the copper object with a pair of wooden tongs, as if it was a red-hot iron.

"What's this?" the Marquess asked. "It looks exactly the same as before."

"A strong magnet with ever changing magnetic force," the prince replied. "I don't know whether it'll form an access with the earth while being held in a person's hand. If so, it would discharge. So we'd better be cautious."

Spear blinked her eyes. "What?"

Nightingale smiled. "Don't mind them. This is such a topic that only Anna can participate in."

"Then... what can it be used for?"

"Let's try it out." Roland put the copper cylinder into a black iron machine standing in the middle of the yard. Judging from the silhouette of the machine, it looked like a giant iron tube. It had a wooden pedestal at the bottom. An iron pole as thick as an arm stuck out from the middle. The prince looked at Mystery Moon. "Turn on the switch. If it works, it'll bring a whole new source of power to the town."

Mystery Moon nodded. She held the wooden handle on the machine and pulled it downward with effort.

Sparks burst out from the downside of her hands, making a crackling sound. To Spear's surprise, the iron pole in the middle began to rotate rapidly. The pole must have been as heavy as one or two people. How could it rotate so fast?

"Have we... succeeded?"

"Not yet." The prince found a chair and sat on it. "It depends on how long it can work."

Spear noticed there was something glittering in Roland's eyes as he looked at the plain rough iron machine. It was as if he was looking at a piece of shining jewelry.

*******************

Three days later, Roland pushed open the door to the backyard of the North Slope Mountain. Upon hearing the sound, Anna stopped her work and rushed to greet Roland. She couldn't conceal her excitement. "It's still working."

There was no need for her remark though. The prince also heard the noise made by the operating electric motor. To him, this noise was almost as euphonious as the sounds of nature. Because it meant that the variable magnetic core cylinder, being filled with Mystery Moon's magic power, was still operating properly. As a whole new power source, it had shown its practical use.

Roland came to the center of the yard and saw that Mystery Moon was sitting beside the electric motor. With her hands on her chin, she looked at the black machine, feeling bored. "Your Highness, when you said my abilities are full of potential, did you mean this thing ? It doesn't look any different from a steam engine."

"This is only the first step to change the world," Roland said beaming. "You'll be able to see what changes it can bring to our little town soon enough."

Every step forward in the history of the human race was related to the utilization of energy. To some extent it could be used to measure the level of a civilization's advancement. From steam to electricity, from electricity to nuclear, the breakthrough in energy would usually boost the industrial production. The variable magnetic core cylinder filled with Mystery Moon's magic power was such a kind of new energy. It resembled a super large battery and transformed magic power into electric energy. Its small manufacture scale limited its application, which meant it couldn't lead to an energy reform. But as a supplement to the steam engine and internal combustion engine, it was still a perfect power source.

Besides, with the growth of Anna's magic power, it still had the potential to be used in other areas. And when Leaf gained control of the Mist Forest and obtained the massive magic power supply, the potential was unimaginable.

"The name 'variable magnetic core cylinder' is too long," Roland said, smiling. "Let's call it Dawn I."

Chapter 425 - The Utilization of Energy

On the afternoon of the fifth day, the electric motor stopped working.

In other words, a single Dawn I could provide energy for a large-scale electric motor to work for five consecutive days. If an electric motor didn't run continuously, then its work time could be extended. When the magnetic effect of the copper column was lost, it could be recharged with magic power, which was purely low-consumption, recyclable, and pollution-free energy.

Its flaw was also very obvious—recharging it would exhaust all of Anna, Mystery Moon, and Spear's magic powers. So if the three of them produced a Dawn I per day, it could only sustain five electric motors (non-stop). At the moment, Anna was irreplaceable for the fine machining and steel smelting in the little town. Roland had tried his best to distribute most of the manufacturing work to ordinary townsmen, but without the machine tools produced and maintained by Anna and her supply of materials, the production of revolving firearms and bullets would instantly bog down in stagnancy.

Furthermore, Anna was also essential for the production of the 152 mm Longsong Cannons, new-style light weapons, and Roland's other new ideas. So he wouldn't want Anna to strain her magic power on charging the batteries.

Roland leaned back on the wing chair and deeply sighed.

There were two solutions for this problem. First, increasing the duration of Dawn I. To this end, they needed greater resources or more witches to supply magic powers. Unfortunately, the Marquess' passage was just strong enough to transfer Anna's magic power and the process almost exhausted her, so she couldn't manage to transfer any more witches' magic powers to Mystery Moon. Hopefully, Spear could get used to it gradually—after all, she might not have the time to study how to improve her abilities while she was a lord.

Second, substituting other witches for Anna. Compared with Anna, Soraya, and Agatha (who were usually busy with work), most of the other witches didn't have to exhaust their magic powers during the day. So if the rest of their magic powers could be used to produce variable magnetic core columns, it seemed plausible.

As long as the total volume of the magic powers didn't exceed that of Anna's, Spear would be able to handle it. She had once said that the passage for magic powers could be connected with more than two people at a time.

Thinking of this, Roland wrote it down. Questions like who had more magic powers or how much of the magic powers should be used per day were left for the Witch Union to calculate.

Undoubtedly, Wendy would be a perfect candidate since everybody trusted her.

After finding solutions for this problem, the next question was how to make use of this whole new energy.

Different from the steam engines, of which four to five pieces could be produced per month and would operate as long as boiling water was supplied, the number of terminal conversion machines was dependent on the number of Dawn Is. Considering the magic powers that could be used, he estimated that only three to four terminal conversion machines could be sustained in the little town. Whether to use them as source power, for boiling water, or supplying energy for light bulbs, the correct choice was imperative if the system was to operate steadily.

Roland thought for a long time and finally drew a circle on the light bulbs.

As for source power, electric motors exceeded steam engines in such aspects as stable rotating rates, easy maneuverability, and automatization. But the power supplied by steam engines was enough for the time being. He had also visualized some high-end electric equipment, such as electric cars that commuted between Longsong Stronghold and the little town, or electric airships that were accessible to ordinary people. But such equipment wasn't so cost effective—to make it work, Anna or other witches had to stop their work for a day.

The same was true with boiling water, which could simply be solved by a boiler and firewood could. Even though several workers needed to be hired to attend to and maintain the steam engines, it was still more economical than using magic powers. After all, the magic powers weren't that abundant.

Furthermore, lighting is more significant—a stable and clean source of light could greatly increase the residents' happiness and render them better study conditions at night. After all, not everybody wants to read a book under the dim candle light after a day's stressful work.

Besides, doing something like seizing the legendary thunder power and using it for daily life would help eliminate suspicion and enhance scientific spirit. This was probably the civilians' most intuitive understanding of electricity's applications. As astonishing as airships and electric cars may sound, they were too far away from people's daily life.

More importantly, the weak candle light simply couldn't meet the needs for night production. With light bulbs, the factories would be able to sustain production even at night, and the workers could even work on three shifts if necessary, which meant the work efficiency in the little town would be further improved.

After setting the direction of development, there were still a series of problems to be solved to achieve his goals, such as light bulb manufacturing, line construction, power supply schemes, and the promotion of electricity utilization, etc.

But these problems could be considered later.

With this thought, Roland called Wendy.

"Do you intend to calculate the daily consumption and the surplus of my sisters' magic powers, and transfer them to Mystery Moon according to the plan?" Wendy asked, after hearing Roland's statement.

"Yes. Those combat witches who have fixed missions can be excluded from your calculation though." The prince nodded. "What do you think?"

Essentially, they were to gather the magic powers left after the witches' ability practice, mission consumption, and emergency preparation, and use them to produce the Dawn I. Such an arrangement could not only put the magic powers of witches into full play, but could also enhance the effects of their practice, which was helpful to the promotion of their magic powers on the annual Days of Awakening.

"I think Hummingbird and Echo would be happy," Wendy said with a smile, "because they can then be as useful as Anna. But how will the magic power surplus be measured?"

"By using the Stone of Measurement, which was a universal method used by the Union."

"Yes, Your Highness." She bowed slightly. "Right, today is the Day of Adulthood for Lucia. Should we gather all the members of the union to accompany her?"

Roland was shocked a bit. "Oh... I've almost forgotten it."

"There are so many things for you to remember," Wendy said softly. "I've written down every sister's growth history on this notebook so that nothing will be missed."

After Anna's Day of Awakening, Lightning, Nana, and Echo had also passed their "second birthday" in succession. But the Day of Adulthood was actually more meaningful and it could be taken as a special Day of Awakening. Although they happened on the same day, the bite of magic power that one suffered on the Day of Adulthood was several times stronger than usual. Unless the witches could master how to eliminate the pain caused by biting, the Day of Adulthood could be a matter of life and death.

After adulthood, the witches' abilities would be stabilized while getting considerable improvements at the same time, and some witches could even develop derivative skills, which was as significant as evolution.

"OK. I'll prepare a rich dinner tonight." Roland said softly, "Besides the Witch Union, I'll be there to accompany her as well."

.

Chapter 426 - The Shining Starlight

After dinner, the witches gathered in Lucia White's room.

Touched by their encouragement and comfort, she could feel her tear-filled eyes. She inhaled deeply with her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry.

"No crying. It's embarrassing enough to cry out loud in front of Nightingale, not to mention in front of my little sister. I must set a good example for her," Lucia chided herself.

She had only heard about a witch organization situated here before she boarded the boat towards the town. She was not hoping to live a good life here but simply to find a cure for her sister's demonic plague and a shelter.

What they found was not only a comfortable life, but a group of people with so much in common that they soon became like family. She felt at home again for the first time since her parents’ death in the pirate attack.

"Is my sister really in danger?" Bell asked while resting in Lucia's arms, "How painful is a magic power bite?"

"Unbearable pain, it feels just like thousands of knives stabbing you from the inside of your body." Nightingale grinned. "Only a few witches can survive this. There are probably only one or two out of ten witches who can survive their Day of Adulthood."

The little girl shivered.

"You don't scare her." Wendy stared at Nightingale. "That was all the way back to the time of Witch Cooperation Association."

"All you need to do now is to keep on practicing every day and release all your magic power before the Day of Awakening, then you'll be fine," Scroll said, smiling. "I heard that even Anna was asleep when she was growing into her adulthood."

"And her first High Awakening appeared at the same time," Agatha yawned. "It'd definitely cause a stir if it happened 400 years ago back in Taquila, as there's never any witch who could come to enlightenment in their sleep."

"Are you alright?" His Highness looked at her and asked, "Even though work's important, you should not push yourself too hard."

"The Battle of Divine Will is approaching. If I'm not busy with it now..." Agatha said with her hands covering her mouth, "it would not be an issue to sleep forever if we fail this time."

"We won't fail for sure this time." Prince Roland assured.

"I decided to do a little bit more as I was feeling optimistic about your invention." Ice Witch rolled her eyes at him, "Otherwise, do you really think that I like to stay in the lab every day?" With these words, she turned around and muttered to herself softly, "I wouldn't be able to do anything to you even if you don't fulfill your promise..."

"Well, you shouldn't discuss such a heavy story at this time." Wendy interrupted and said, "Oh yeah, didn't Miss Agatha mention before that each of the witches shall be granted a wish on the Day of Awakening? It's Lucia's turn this time; what would you like to wish for?"

"Uh... me?" Lucia was shocked to find that she was the center of attention in the knot of witches.

"Get the ice cream bread in exchange, sister!" Bell said with her eyes sparkling, "10 of them will do, and we'll have a half each!"

"This one... all you can think of is food," she thought and gave her sister a good knock on her forehead. Then she looked towards Roland. "May I keep this wish for now?"

"If you wish." He could not help but smile and say, "However it would not increase even if you keep it."

"Only one will do," Lucia answered with gratitude. She had nothing more to ask for herself as long as she could live in this town. All she could hope for was for Bell to live a happy life. Her younger sister was not a witch, so she would have to leave her and build her own family with someone someday. This wish might be able to help her if there were any changes by then.

It was then that Lucia felt her empty body tremble suddenly and the magic power was regenerated as if it was appearing in the void and pouring into her body continuously.

"It's started." Nightingale reminded.

Even though the sisters told her not to worry, she grasped the blanket tightly, as a chill washed over her palms and the soles of her feet. This she ascribed to an overwhelming sensation of tension.

"Relax," Wendy said, reaching for her hands. "The magic power is part of our body."

"Should we talk about something else to distract her?" Lucia heard someone, perhaps Lily, ask.

"What should we talk about?" Mystery Moon asked.

"What about the result of the second test?" Lily's voice seemed to come from far away. "Normally once the topic's brought up, she immediately changes the subject and diverts attention, like what about Mystery Moon's results..."

"Don't say!"

"Look, it works."

Lucia wanted to laugh but she realized that the expression on her face was very stiff and it was scorching hot inside her body. At the same time, there was an undefinable sense of contraction and increasingly more magic power as if she was sucking everything around her into her body.

Will every witch experience this feeling in her Day of Adulthood?

"What was Lucia's result?" She could only hear Mystery Moon intermittently.

"Her average was 86," Prince Roland replied.

"Wh... what?"

"That's very high!"

"You see, she didn't even try to stop us."

"You've failed, so it's time for punishment!"

"Go away!"

"Hold on... Stop fighting, Lucia doesn't seem to look right."

She could hear the conversation between Mystery Moon, Lily and finally Nightingale's voice, but she realized the voices of the witches had become distant to her. Lucia was clenching her teeth and she held her head up to look at the sisters around her. She was shocked to see the completely changed scene. Everyone's appearance became hazy and pixilated like a composition of innumerable squares—some big, some small and each of them had a different color.

She wanted to scream in terror but all she could hear was the hissing sound in her breath.

The contraction in her body was getting stronger and it started to cause a vague but growing sense of pain. Lucia could only hold her breath and see people around her starting to get busy.

It was exactly like Nightingale said, the pain in the Day of Adulthood was far beyond the pain of the awakening. The more persistent she was, the stronger the pain became; it felt as if she was being cut into pieces.

Suddenly, a strange magic power probed her body. Lucia could clearly feel the magic power did not belong to herself. It was just like a tube ridden in the magic whirlpool.

She could not bear it any longer, subconsciously yielding to the overwhelming power and allowing the current to carry her. As if she had finally found her savior, Lucia kept injecting the magic power into it to suppress the pain in her body.

The strange contraction eased after a period of time. The magic power no longer twirled around but it felt substantial and solid; it was a completely different experience.

She blinked and was relieved to find that her vision had fully returned.

Looking at a fearful Bell, Lucia patted her head and reassured her in a hoarse voice, "It's alright now."

This was when she realized that she was soaked in sweat. She could feel the chill on her back when the cold wind blew.

"Wait, how could there be any wind in a room with the heater on?"

When she turned her head, she was shocked to see the huge gaps in the wall facing the garden and the two missing windows that allowed the cold air to swarm in. She could see the dark night and the tiny little lights of the small town through the gap. Standing in front of the wall was Anna, looking at her with concern. The Sigil of God's Will in her hand glimmered.

"Her ability has crystallized," Nightingale said.

Chapter 427 - The Aftermath

Roland walked into the office yawning as the sky turned bright.

He had not expected so many accidents on the Day of Adulthood. It was supposed to be an easy day.

The magic in Lucia's body became extremely turbulent. Nightingale realized something was wrong with her expression. It was exactly the sign of the magic power bite. It was incredible that this was happening to a witch who practiced frequently, especially since she had released all her magic power prior to her Day of Adulthood.

Agatha came out with a solution.

As an ex-member of the Union she had witnessed countless witches awaken. She quickly thought of a remedy.

Ice Witch made Spear Passi summon the magic power channel and release the bite from Lucia's body. Then it was transferred to Anna who had the greatest capacity. Finally, the restless magic power was absorbed by the Sigil of God's Will.

Surprisingly, the released magic power had lit up four God's Stones and activated the Sigil of God's Will. Anna released it into the open space without further hesitation.

Suddenly, the town was brightened by the golden sun. The dazzling light shone through the castle wall and pierced through the dark, starless sky. The thick clouds could be seen in the dark sky and there were thousands of tassels flowing in the sky. It was incredibly beautiful. Although it only lasted for a few moments, the scene was undoubtedly miraculous.

Lucia was finally safe and she had developed a new ability during this adulthood transformation, just like Anna had a year ago.

However, it was not without trouble. The accident had happened around eight o'clock at night, when most people were still awake. Quite a number of people must have witnessed this spectacular event. Roland would have to come up with an explanation to the public when he returned to his room.

"Your Highness, Director Barov asked to see you," the door guard informed after knocking on the door.

"Let him in."

Barov with a head full of white hair walked into the office. Before he paying his respect, he blatantly asked, "Your Highness, what happened last night? How come there was daylight appearing in the night?"

He was indeed here about the light. Roland took a glance at his face and saw dark circles. He probably had not slept either. If outsiders were not strictly prohibited from entering the castle at night, he would have come to the door last night.

"No hurry. Have a seat." Roland pointed at the chair in front of the table and said, "Have a cup of black tea first."

Roland mentioned the incident of Lucia's adulthood after pouring a glass of hot tea. "It was just an accident, don't worry too much."

"So... this was caused by a witch?" The City Hall Director frowned.

"Don't be silly. It was not the demonic side." Roland quickly guessed the other party's thought. "No one was hurt aside from the missing wall of this old, broken castle."

"But the villagers will think this," Barov shook his head. "Most of them accepted the harmless healing power of Miss Nana but not the ability to destroy the castle like this, causing astonishing changes in the sky."

"That's why I came up with a solution," said Roland while sipping his tea. "You'll arrange for your men to spread this news: the golden light that appeared last night was from when His Highness captured lightning, in order to bring light to his people."

"What?" Barov was stunned.

"I'll soon be building the power supply equipment in Border Town. It has a similar essence to the lightning in the sky." Prince Roland explained briefly. He knew he was speaking technically and the other party could hardly understand. "This equipment can light up the town brightly even during the night. It coincides with the news."

"Is that... Is that true?" The director asked in surprise, "Can you really make lightning?"

"It's everywhere by itself," Roland shrugged and said, "however, please remember that it's just hearsay, so it shall be spread according to 'the Art of Rumor'. Do you understand?"

In order to prevent any impact on the universal education in the future, these statements should not be too democratic. It would be fine as long as an ambiguous explanation could temporarily be given to the public to redirect the discussion towards himself.

Not too long after Barov left, Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction came to the castle.

"Your Highness, regarding last night..."

"I know what you want to ask," Roland put his hand on his forehead. "Sit down first and we'll talk."

He sighed silently to himself. Perhaps he would have to explain this incident for the entire day.

Fortunately, Karl was not a deep thinker like Barov, and he simply sighed after listening and said, "It turns out Anna has already become so strong."

"It was indeed a decisive disposition at the time." Roland agreed. "If there was any further delay, I'm afraid it would have been not only the wall that disappeared but the whole bedroom instead."

"The gap in the wall..."

"Just fill it in with bricks. You can go ahead to arrange an exact plan as long as it's done before the nightfall. I'll get Lightning and Hummingbird to help you with this." Prince Roland said. The appearance of the castle would need to be restored after mending the wall. He would get Soraya to paint a simulation coating on it.

"Yes, Your Highness."

As expected, Carter Lannis, the Chief Knight; Iron Axe, the instructor of the First Army and Kyle Sichi, the alchemist, were taking turns to ask about yesterday's incident and each of them had a different concern.

Carter was concerned about whether she was hurt.

Iron Axe was concerned that the light had been caused by the demons' attack.

However, what concerned Kyle was... which was more powerful, the Sigil of God's Will or the nitric acid glycerine?

The men were finally dismissed after a series of non-stop talking and explanations by Roland. He leaned back in his chair, getting ready to take a nap but someone was knocking on the door again.

The last to enter was Tilly Wimbledon.

"No worries. Yesterday was..."

"I already know about it." Lady Tilly interrupted. "I asked Miss Anna before I came here and she told me what happened."

"Oh, I see." Roland cleared his throat and sat up straight. "Anything else?"

"I'm just a little concerned with the cause." Tilly said slowly, "According to Miss Agatha, be it awakening or adulthood, as long as a certain amount of practice is carried out normally, it shouldn't cause any sign of magic power bite. It's basically in line with what we've learned from past experience. It's never happened to any of the witches on the Sleeping Island, so how could Lucia be the one who fell into the bite of the magic power?" She paused here for a little, shook her head and said with a smile, "As for the High Awakening, I'm not surprised... I've seen a few of them each day since I arrived in Border Town."

A few of them each day, that's an extreme exaggeration... Roland thought, he poured her a cup of tea. Contemplating for a moment, he said, "I do have a preliminary guess regarding Lucia's misfortune." He pulled out a transcript from the drawer and handed it to Tilly. "This's probably the reason."

Chapter 428 - An Exploration of Magic Power

"... Grades?" Tilly took the transcript, glanced at it doubtfully, and said, "She did improve a lot."

"Yes," Roland nodded. "As a businessman's daughter in Valencia, Lucia White already had basic writing and arithmetic skills, and she also performed well in the natural theory course. That's why her grades are so good."

"I'm not questioning your theory that 'a better understanding and cognition of the world can help develop abilities,' " replied Tilly, twitching her mouth, "but what does it have to do with the bite of magic power?"

"Judging from the evolution of Lily, Leaf, and Mystery Moon, as well as other witches, we can tell that evolution also increases witches' magic power limits. I think such limits have a lot to do with how well witches perceive the world." Combining what Agatha referred to as "ancient High Awakening" and the evolution of the town witches' abilities, Roland explained his theory in details. "They're essentially the same thing. However, witches who evolved by partial or random enlightenment are far less powerful than those who evolved by a full, comprehensive understanding of the world—Mystery Moon is a typical example. Although she's a member of the Witch Union, her evolution was achieved through enlightenment, so her magic power isn't in the same league as Anna's and Soraya's."

Tilly soon learned what Roland meant after a moment of reflection, "You mean the reason Miss Lucia's magic power was low both on normal days and her Day of Awakening is that her body has adjusted to a certain level of magic power? Yet her ability evolved when she entered adulthood, which resulted in an instant surge in her magic power, and so much power was far more than she could take, right?"

"Pretty much like that, but I prefer to think there are two different types of power increases." Roland continued, counting on his fingers, "Magic power increases on the Day of Awakening, on the Day of Adulthood, and during evolution. The effects seem the same, but I believe the first two are passive, while the last is voluntary."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because evolution won't cause magic power bites," the prince replied slowly. "If this wasn't the case, Anna would have been killed by the surge of magic power during her evolution. I assume there's a magic power redline for witches. Once they go beyond it, they'll suffer from bites. Daily practice can gradually increase their limits, and that's also why witches need to empty all their magic power before awakening."

"Redline? It sounds interesting..." Tilly murmured, sinking into her thoughts. "Do you think the outpouring of magic power that was generated by Miss Lucia's evolution resulted in insufficient space for magic power on the Day of Awakening, which led her to exceed the power limit and thus caused the accident?"

"Correct. Like Lucia, Anna experienced her first evolution when she reached adulthood, but her magic power capacity was incredible, so she had a much higher limit for bites than ordinary witches." Roland paused for a moment. "This also explains why Lucia went back to normal after Spear extracted the agitated magic power—that power didn't belong to her anyway."

"Your theory... does clarify a lot of problems." Tilly pushed her hair behind her ear and propped up her chin on her hand, apparently absorbed in thoughts. "Why witches present different forms of magic power despite their power sharing the same origin? Why free magic power can only be seen upon witches' awakenings? Because witches can't integrate it unless they accept it."

Roland said with a smile, "We can view awakening as drawing magic power in, but only a small part of it can be retained. Evolution expands and develops this small part, and the greater cognitive breadth a witch possesses, the better strengthening effects she'll obtain. It's also reasonable to assume that there's no limit on the number of times a witch can evolve, since the exploration of the world is endless."

"I'm suddenly curious."

"What?"

"If you were a witch, how extensive would your power be after evolution?" asked Tilly, covering her smile.

Roland nearly choked himself. Although he really wanted to personally experience these extraordinary powers, he would rather turn them down knowing the sacrifices he had to make.

"Can I bring a copy of the textbooks you wrote back to Sleeping Island?" Tilly asked, while raising her eyebrow.

She sounded pretty casual, but Roland noticed her right hand gently grasping her skirt's hemline.

"Absolutely." He would not miss a single chance to leave his sister a good impression, and generally speaking, it was better to respond as quickly as possible. "It'll also be helpful to Border Town if the witches on Sleeping Island evolve. Besides, you're my sister."

Nightingale immediately pinched his left shoulder with immense strength.

"..." Tilly did not respond back, but simply showed her gratitude with a slight nod. "Thank you, I'll be excused then."

"Sure."

It looks like my performance was overdone. She probably won't be interested in this kind of approach before hearing a convincing explanation.

Yet to Roland's surprise, Tilly stopped at the door, turned her head and answered quietly, "Sometimes, I'd rather hope that you aren't my brother."

...

After Tilly's departure, Roland sat at his desk in a daze, with her last sentence reverberating all around his head.

Would rather hope I'm not her brother. What does that mean?

"Hey, are you OK?" Nightingale revealed herself, waving her finger in front of the prince.

"What do you think her last sentence meant?"

"How do I know?" Nightingale commented with a shrug. "Perhaps she thinks you're better as an ally than a sibling."

Roland would certainly not assume anything inappropriate, since he had already known this royal princess pretty well after cooperating with her for half a winter.

Could she mean that she doesn't want Prince Roland to come back? Or was it just the backlash of his lame approach?

"You aren't her brother anyway. Why do you even care?" Nightingale turned over to sit on the desk, crossing her slender legs. She thrust a piece of dried fish into her mouth and added, "Plus, I could tell you were lying without even using my ability when you said 'you're my sister'."

"Um, is that so..." Roland stroked his nose. "So the answer is the latter then?"

"Also, since Tilly isn't your real sister, is it alright to give her that Natural 'Something' Theory?"

"That's Natural Science Theoretical Foundation," the prince corrected her with a sigh. "There are several months of winter. Don't you think she can produce a copy? I bet she already knows everything by heart, but she still requested my formal permission. This definitely says something about her attitude."

At least from the standpoint of political alliance, there's no question in Tilly's sincerity.

He waited for a moment before continuing, "The residents on Sleeping Island are primarily witches. Even if all of them have evolved, they still rely on witches' power. However, I'm different. The knowledge not only enables witches to progress, but ordinary people as well... It's the power of all the people that I'm relying on."

Chapter 429 - Element Separation

Accompanied by howling wind and raging snow, Lucia entered the backyard of North Slope Mountain and closed the door, shutting the chill out of the room.

A circle of wooden sheds was pitched in the yard after winter kicked in. Although the lighting was somewhat affected, the houses here would at least not be buried in piles of snow.

There was a bonfire in the yard, and Lucia could even feel the heat of its flickering flames by the door. She took off her gloves and put her freezing hands above the blazes to warm herself up.

"Are you cold?" Anna, who stood at the workstation, turned her head and beckoned. "Come here, I'll warm you up."

"Ah... thank you." Lucia trotted to her. Soon bathed in warm green flames that gave her a languid and relaxing sensation from head to toe, she felt like she was soaking in the bathtub of the castle.

"Such a convenient ability..." Lucia thought enviously. "She's never afraid of the bitter cold."

"Are you warm now?"

"Yes!" she affirmed, nodding vigorously. "What are you making?"

"Some parts for new guns." Anna grabbed a long slim steel tube with a piston in the middle and pulled it back and forth. "His Highness says he's not sure if it'll work with the first shot, so it needs to be tested repeatedly."

These parts, bright and shiny from the outside, were apparently made from the best rolled steel and were carefully carved by the Blackfire. Before coming to the town, Lucia would have never thought that the surface of iron objects could be as smooth as glass, like artwork.

She had also made a contribution to their creation. Lucia could not suppress a smile at this thought. Both Roland and Anna had said that without high-quality materials, the finished products would still be damaged goods, even with precise and refined processing methods.

"His Highness didn't come with you?" asked Anna, who withdrew her green fire.

"He said that he still needed to take care of something and would come a little later. He asked me to first get familiar with my new ability," Lucia answered, twitching her mouth.

"What does your ability look like after the evolution?" Anna inquired with great interest. "There's probably no one in the Witch Union who created a bigger stir than you did upon entering adulthood."

Lucia scratched her head, looking a bit embarrassed. "I probably couldn't have made it without you and milord Spear."

"You already thanked me, no need to worry about it." Anna dismissed it with a wave. "Let's see your new ability."

Lucia agreed. She summoned the magic power in her body and again sensed the same odd feeling enveloping her heart—everything became strange and obscure, dividing into numerous tiny squares that grouped together by color, forming different color speckles. However, this time she did not suffer any pain from magic power bites, so she could calm herself down and carefully observe each single square.

She took one of the parts processed by Anna. There were lumps and bumps on its surface, which had been smooth and shiny earlier. With the help of the magic power, she could clearly see the color speckles on it—there were around seven or eight color blocks, the largest of which was cyan. As if an artist carelessly spilled various pigments on the floor, there were no patterns whatsoever in their arrangement. The only difference, however, was that each color speckle had visible boundaries that prevented them from mixing with each other.

It occurred to Lucia that these were not the tiny particles His Highness had referred to. These "squares" and "color speckles" were just too big to be considered as the fundamental elements of everything.

There's a larger classification than the particle, which is the element.

Small particles form larger ones in accordance with different patterns and rules, and these larger particles will exhibit entirely different properties due to their various structures.

Lucia used to have no idea about her own ability or its specific functions back in Valencia, but now she thoroughly understood the concept of elements. According to His Highness' description and classification, she believed it was elements that she had just observed.

After hearing what Lucia saw and thought, Anna pondered for a while and said, "It may be a type of derivative skill."

"Derivative... skill?"

"That's a rare talent," Anna explained, smiling. "There are only a few adult witches in the Witch Union who possess such a talent—according to Agatha, it only occurs on the Day of Adulthood. Once you miss it, you miss it forever. I believe it has a lot to do with the witch’s primary ability, or we can say, it supplements and strengthens the primary power. For example, Soraya needs to first mix pigments into paint if she doesn't have the magic brush. The same applies to Miss Scroll's Book of Magic. She once told me that although she could quickly memorize most of the books prior to adulthood, she couldn't share the contents with others because she didn't have any money to purchase pens and paper."

Anna paused for a moment before continuing. "Your main ability is separation and restoration, so I reckon these color speckles may be assisting you in accurately separating a specific type of element—you can give it a shot to see whether you can separate a particular color block or not."

Lucia nodded. She started to once again apply her power to the pig iron ingot by the workstation. Unlike the separation earlier, this time she cautiously transformed her magic power into a filament to pull the cyan squares.

The whole process was much harder than she expected. Lucia had never manipulated her magic power in such a laborious manner, but she was delighted to see her progress. Compared with her confusion prior to adulthood, she was now able to truly feel the magic power, as if it had become her own fingers—even an extension of her consciousness.

As more filaments clung to the color speckle, the squares finally started to loosen up and wriggle out of the iron ingot. Meanwhile, the rest of the color speckles also changed—their distinct boundaries began to wobble, and the whole iron ingot collapsed and crumbled into a yellow green crystal as small as half of a nail, next to which appeared a box-like iron block.

Lucia withdrew her power and wiped the perspiration from her forehead. She noticed the crystal and the block displayed different colors under the magic power than with normal vision—the previous cyan speckle had turned silver white, which was a color usually seen among pure iron. Nevertheless, the crystal still remained colorful, but if she did not look at it using her magic power, it just looked like a polished gemstone.

"What's this?" Lucia gently took the tiny crystal. Its size was not even close to that of the iron ingot, but it looked much more beautiful.

"It's probably a compound formed by the other elements in the pig iron," Anna suggested, her eyes glistening. "I'm not sure, but I can do a small experiment to verify it. If I've guessed right, do you know what that means? It means that you can separate some elements from an object and reorganize the rest of the elements, instead of breaking them up... Any useless, poor-quality materials can be reborn with the help of your power."

Chapter 430 - [The Star of Steel]

It was the last month of winter in Border Town after Lucia's day of adulthood.

As for the Months of Demons, the end of winter did not mean the end of the snow. The snow would often continue to fall until the spring of the second year, and it was totally in God's hands as to when it would cease.

Based on past experiences, the Months of Demons would end within the first half of the first month of spring, and it would be a very difficult period. It would be an extremely tough time if it ended within the second half of the first month. The days could become hard to survive if it delayed until the second month.

However, it was a situation that only the local people ever encountered.

The situation this year had been greatly improved. The wheat being stored in the granary would be enough to make sure everyone was adequately fed, even if the Months of Demons continued to the end of the second month of spring.

Roland naturally would not be satisfied merely by no one being starved or frozen to death. Over the last few days, he had been sprawling across his desk, exitedly working on many drawings and the ideas for the next stage of his big plan. The entire plan was divided into both military and civilian aspects. The former included the construction of the weapon factory, the bicycle plant, and the dock as well as the shallow water gunboats and other locations. The latter mainly involved the connections for the water, heat, and electricity of the residential area in addition to the promotion of the universal use of the iron farming tools.

It was Lucia White who motivated him. After he realized what her ability was, Roland clearly recognized that the final limitation of the mass production was resolved, and the productivity of the town could usher into a new peak of the growth in the population.

The limitation was the supply of materials.

The modern way of smelting was very complicated, and the output of steel iron was one of the most important parameters to measure an industrial country. However, Roland did not know much about it, and this was the main reason that the iron making capacity of the town was still outdated. Not only were the techniques not as advanced, the scale was not nearly comparable with the private smeltery owned by some mining businessmen. When the iron ore in the brick blast furnace was smelt into pig iron, quality pieces would be sent away to become parts of steam engines, while the poorer quality ones would be passed to Anna for further processing into steel. However, this process was totally out of control, and the carbon content was not stable. Sometimes, the useful materials could only fill up one to two carriages after an entire workday, which greatly limited the production of the steam engine manufacturing plant.

Although the low-quality pig iron could be processed into the quality-controlled rolled steel with Anna's special smelter, the production quantity was only enough for military plant use. It would basically meet the need of the small town in the fall, but with the two expansions of the army and the development of new firearms and cannons, the limited quantity of rolled steel could potentially be overstretched come winter.

Lucia's evolution could be described as a cardiac stimulant. Her targeted separation ability would allow easy removal of undesirable components in the material and regulate the elements proportions in the smelting phase, allowing each furnace of molten steel to be maintained at the same performance.

The smelting standard of Border Town would instantly increase exponentially with the help of both Anna and Lucia.

Roland had already got Anna to put down all the other projects on hand in order to concentrate on the creation of the enormous, latest generation smelter for this reason.

The new smelter was 10 times bigger in size compared with the old special smelter designed by her previously, extending to 50 meters in length, 10 meters in width and four meters in height. It looked like a slender swimming pool at the first glance. It was essentially similar to the last generation special furnace; it was still a metal box without any heating equipment and fully dependent on Anna's Blackfire. However, it was buried in the ground, relying on the soil to support the pressure of the molten iron on the walls. There was also an aisle built in the center for Anna to heat up the iron ingots on both sides at the same time.

The huge volume was its only advantage. Based on the previous smelting method, it would contain too much of product for only the limestones used for removal purposes; it also required a lot of effort to clean the impurities generated and would be very painstaking to reinforce and stir them. Thus, it should not be mass produced or used with the old method. However, there was no such concern now. As long as the pig iron was melted, Lucia could eliminate the harmful components, such as phosphorus and sulfur.

Roland intended to build a batch of kilns along with the old blast and shaft furnaces. He was only responsible for the initial smelting, and he did not care about the quality of the finished product as long as the ore could be melted into the rectangular iron ingots, all of which were then put into the new smelter for secondary refining. The molten steel formed would flow through the strobe into the mold at the lower terrain and directly form the materials to be processed. After that, the steam engine plant would be converted into rolled steel production, and it would bring a powerful new source of motivation to the town.

Roland was going to name the latest smelter "Star of Steel".

As soon as Anna completed the manufacturing, the steel production of the town would be more than 10 times higher with the Star of Steel officially in use.

It could be said that the latest large-scale production plan was built on this basis.

Furthermore, the development of the state-of-the-art light-weight weapon had come to a conclusion.

Roland discovered that his initial idea was not appropriate. He had designed a few prototype weapons himself based on the principle of the latest pneumatic automatic rifle, which simply used some of the high pressure gas generated while the bullet was fired to finish the process of ejecting, chambering and re-filling.

This project took about half a month. It was not difficult but he needed to test each of the components repeatedly to make sure it operated normally. He did not bother to memorize the specific structure of the rifle. As long as he knew the operation of the weapon, he thought he would definitely be able to piece together a useful weapon after a few tries.

That was exactly where the problem lay.

The completed prototype machine was not only humongous, it also consisted of almost one hundred different components which were all custom-made by Anna. These included small little gadgets like springs, the firing pins, and the induction pistons. It was really hard to mass produce such a weapon with the current machine tool. If all the revolving rifles in the soldiers' hands were to be replaced by automatic weapons, it would not only increase Anna's burden, but the current firearms processing equipment units that had been put into production would be wasted as well.

Additionally, the ammunition consumption was undoubtedly going to increase significantly if all the soldiers were equipped with the automatic weapons. Roland did not care too much about this in the beginning as he felt that it could be resolved by increasing manpower. However, he soon discovered that as soon as the new weapon was put into production, it could easily overtake the entire production of the acid plant.

The frequent cartridge jamming during the shooting test, failure to fire, and the other small issues had become less important as he reaized that the weapon production was not feasible.

He finally dispelled the idea of mass replacement of the automatic weapons after repeated contemplation. However, increasing the firepower of the military had become an urgent need. He began to shift his focus on continuous firing weapons.

He was considering the heavy machine gun.

A heavy machine gun could be assigned to 20 to 50 people in order to significantly reduce the number of weapons. In this case, both of the most critical problems would be solved easily. It could also be self-loaded with the use of a ventilation method; the structure was similar to the trial manufacture of the prototype weapons. It could be put into the principal test after a few alterations, and it could be built in a bigger size with bigger components. The difficulty to himself, Anna, and Lucia would be greaty reduced.

.

Chapter 431 - From the Kingdom of Dawn

Apart from the upgraded heavy machine gun, Roland also planned to develop a bolt rifle which would have a mid to long shooting range. He did not need many, a mere hundred or so would suffice. The rifle would have the same caliber as the heavy machine gun, and could be easily transformed into a sniper rifle by simply installing a gun sight.

In this way, he could continue to manufacture revolving firearms and black powder bullets without a huge waste of the products.

During a battle, soldiers could use field artilleries to suppress enemy forces within 800 to 1,000 meters and heavy machines guns 500 to 800 meters. Snipers could take care of enemies in less than 500 meters, and revolving rifles could be used to clear out enemies within the last 200 meters. Therefore he could, in theory, make sure every inch of the battle field was covered.

Of course, it would probably take three or four months to fully equip his army with the whole set of weapons he planned to make. He might not be able to complete it before the spring attack. Therefore, he needed another weapon, an inland river gunboat equipped with a 152mm caliber culverin. One would be enough to pressure on enemies when he launched the attack.

Roland felt he held more responsibilities upon his shoulders than before. He thought of the founding ceremony subsequent to the Months of Demons, the unification of the entire Western Region and the new population that would swarm in after he kicked Timothy off the throne. He even wished time could have slowed down its pace, and that the Months of Demons hadn't ended so soon.

*******************

Upon entering the Western Region, the landscape started to change.

Otto Luoxi lifted up the blinds and peeped through the window. Heaven and earth were washed out altogether. The sky was covered with dense snowflakes which swirled in the harsh wind, drifted down to the ground and blended into the vast canvas of whiteness.

It seemed that the heavy snow would never cease. He could see nothing other than piles of snow cloaking the soil, rocks and woods in the past two days. If the boat was not wobbly, he would even think it remained on the river.

"Shut the blinds." The captain grunted. "Go out on the deck if you really want to see it, nobody will care."

He did not take the captain's words personally, but shut the blinds and asked, "Does it always look like this here?"

"Of course, do you think I was bluffing?" The captain sipped wine from his decanter and said, "Every year when the Months of the Demons arrives, the Western Region is cut off because of the snow. There's no way to get here except through the Redwater River. I can use my fingers to count how many people in the entire King's City are willing to ferry you over here in this bloody weather. Well, they also gotta have a boat." He grumbled, letting out a burp. "So five gold royals is an awfully good deal. You got it?"

"It's a bit expensive, but I didn't bargain with you when I paid," said Otto, smiling.

"That sounds better." The Captain tossed the decanter to him and said, "It's warm. Drink some. It'll warm you up." He wiped his mouth and continued, "There was once this tradesman who wanted to purchase goods from the Western Region faster than anyone else, but he didn't want to pay a little more for the fare, so he asked the rats on the black street to ferry him. You know what? That fellow was killed halfway. Those few mercenaries he brought with him were crap. They all ended up feeding the fish."

"That was... really unfortunate." Otto took the decanter, but did not pull out the cork to drink the wine. Instead, he took off his gloves and held the decanter in his hands. He really did not feel comfortable sharing drinks with others.

"You get what you pay for. It's a universal rule. There're always people who think they can get away with it. Did it never occur to him that if rats agree to provide him with the service at such a low price, how are we going to run our business?" The captain added, twitching his mouth, "By the way, what's your trade in the Western Region? Don't you blame me for not reminding you. There used to be jewelry and furs in this damn place, but you can't get anything from here now."

"Really?" Otto marveled, pretending to be interested. "As far as I know, don't they make a living on these trades? Have people in the Western Region all become bandits now?"

"They're stale news now." The captain lit his pipe with the charcoal fire and inhaled deeply. "Ever since Prince Roland ruled Border Town, the Western Region has become weird. You know the town is well known for its furs and jewelry, but nobody knows what the hell the prince is messing around with in his territory. Now there're only imports but no exports. Some jewelry still gets sold in the Longsong Stronghold, but the Nobility have their specific ways to get a hold of it. You can't butt in."

"Only imports but no exports?" He echoed, stunned.

"Yes. Although you can't purchase local products, sales are pretty good. You can pretty much sell out everything from food and garments all the way to fabrics and general goods. No one knows where Prince Roland got so many gold royals from." The captain breathed out some smoke and concluded, "So you're very likely to return empty-handed this time."

Otto put on a worried look without giving any response. In fact, he did not really care whether this would be a fruitless journey, as his sole purpose was to meet the lord of Border Town. However, due to the hostile relationship between Roland and Timothy, he had to be disguised as a tradesman and come to the border in secret.

Before taking off, he had already conducted a thorough investigation of his destination.

As its name suggested, Border Town was insignificant to neighbors. It was initially built for the purpose of monitoring the intrusion of demonic beasts, and was later transformed into a town for permanent residence. From the prince's widespread notoriety and the wasteland he was entitled, it was widely believed that Prince Roland was the least favorite of the king, and had been abandoned to his fate on the border.

However, the truth was, not only did he settle down in the Western Region, but he had also become a big threat to the new king. This was what confused Otto the most. If Prince Roland was indeed a capable man, what was his infamy based on and how had he put himself in such a desperate position in the first place?

According to his information, the rise of Roland Wimbledon was just incredible.

As a matter of fact, it was more like the prince had been banished to Border Town a year ago, accompanied by no ministers or guards. Even the knights with him were dispatched by the king. It was almost impossible for him to force the local noble to submit to his rules with such inadequate resources, not to mention the implementation of his policies. Therefore, a lot of people treated his arrival as a joke.

Nevertheless, Prince Roland defeated Duke Ryan and conquered the Longsong Stronghold, becoming the true ruler of the Western Region in merely six months. There were various rumors about the battle among the mass. Some believed the duke was killed during an internal rebellion, while others thought he'd been thrown from horseback, which was why the knightage failed to compete against a group of miners.

Roland thus secured his position as ruler of the Western Region. The wars induced by the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince had become increasingly intense. With Prince Gerald and Princess Garcia being killed in succession and Princess Tilly missing, cities in the Southern Territory and the Eastern Region were devastated by the constant chaos. Only the Western Region remained tranquil and peaceful.

This was certainly not due to the benevolence of the new king, but that the armies sent by Timothy had never come back. Otto was very curious about what on earth Roland had done to foster such fierce soldiers.

"Captain, Border Town is right at the front." The sailor pushed the cabin door open and reported, "We're almost there."

"Ah, finally!" The captain tapped the pipe and yelled, "Lower the sail, raise the flag and tell the dockmen that we're here! I'm going to a tavern to have a good sip." He looked at Otto and reminded him, "Hey, don't you forget your luggage. See you in a week. I'm not waiting for you if you run late."

Otto shrugged his shoulders, showing no objections.

Out of all the rumors about Prince Roland, the one he cared about most was that the prince had given himself up to demons and was hiring witches in secret. This was believed to be the real reason he was able to quickly crush the duke and occupy the whole Western Region, the evidence of which was the burned church in the Stronghold, the murder of the Priest and the expulsion of believers.

He came here actually because of this rumor.

Otto did not care about whether the prince was trading with demons or hiring witches, as long as the prince was on the opposite side of the church.

In this regard, Roland was more beneficial to the Kingdom of Dawn than Timothy.

The cabin suddenly shook violently when the boat was ashore.

.

Chapter 432 - An Encounter

Since his trip was kept confidential, obviously there would be nobody greeting him.

Therefore, Otto did not plan to go straight to the castle, but to first spend one or two days looking at the prince's territory before turning to local rats for information, as a picture was worth a thousand words.

He walked out of the cabin and onto the trestle, and was immediately astonished at what he saw.

This is... really a borderland wharf?

The dock areas were built with russet colored bricks within several hundred paces from the river bank. Trestles were built at certain intervals, with a sign where the trestle and the dock connected, on which there was a number. Otto counted them roughly. There were 26 in total, all of which were neatly displayed like tentacles extending from the bank. Some were covered with snow while others revealed the tawny planks beneath. This indicated the town's wharf was well taken care of even during the Months of the Demons.

In comparison, the trestles at the dock of King's City were less than half the ones here in terms of both length and number!

However, what stunned him more was the boats at the wharf.

A line of colossal gray boats he had never seen were at berth not far away. There were seven or eight in total, each of which had a shallow waterline with no sail or mast. Nonetheless, they were definitely too big to be operated by poles. One unique feature of these strange boats was the giant wooden tire on either side and the bulky iron pipe in the middle. They looked different from any inland river boats.

Otto stood there and watched them for quite a while. He was still trying to figure out how these weird "tire boats" were operated when it began to snow.

He brushed the snow off his head, put these thoughts behind him, and decided to follow the crew to the town.

Apparently, Otto was not the only passenger on the "Downwind" from King's City. He watched the crew unloading cargo and piling it up at the wharf. Several guards wearing black uniforms were jotting something down on the paper. They seemed to be examining the goods, as they picked out a couple of bags every now and then.

"Who are those people? The mercenaries hired by buyers?" Otto went to ask the captain.

"Huh? Mercenaries?" The captain beamed, "Those guys are patrollers in Border Town."

"Patrollers?" He was puzzled. Weren't they the same as bandits? He remembered the first time he left King's City, the patrollers there blackmailed him for two silver royals, which he later learned was actually a common practice everywhere. These patrollers were sort of the rivals of underground rats, but they basically did the same thing. The difference was they charged more and often charged for nothing. However, to Otto's surprise, the captain seemed pretty relaxed, still smoking his pipe leisurely without any intention to stop them, nor did he thrust them silver royals or ask the patrollers to leave.

"I thought the same thing when I came here for the first time." The captain explained, seeming to have read his mind, "The patrollers here are different. As long as you follow their rules, you don't need to pay anything before entering the market."

"Patrollers' rules?" Otto doubted, frowning. "Even the bandits here talk about rules, and they also note things down. They probably write nothing but wriggly symbols, but this is already more than enough to blow my mind."

"What are they recording?" he questioned.

"The types and numbers of goods... especially wheat," the captain answered, throwing up his hands. "Goods will be checked after being delivered to the market. This is to prevent you from selling them to others halfway. The food here can only be sold by the lord. Of course, I don't have wheat in my cargo, so it's going to be fast."

All the bags were loaded to the carriages and everybody departed from the wharf, ready to set out for the market. Otto was suddenly dazzled by the scene.

Is this really the most deserted territory in the Kingdom of Graycastle?

Looking at the smooth, hard-surfaced road, the handsome houses along the street and people going to and fro, Otto felt the town was as thriving as City of Glow, the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn.

As a noble, he had seen many magnificent buildings. Compared with the Spire of Dawn and the Great Hall of Sun, these two or three-story buildings were definitely not in the same league.

Yet there was only one Spire of Dawn, which was surrounded by tumble-down houses, swampy paths, and muddy water.

However, he could not find a single house here that looked even slightly worn, as if all the residences had come about at the same time.

"You look quite surprised," the captain said, laughing. "Nothing to be embarrassed about. Everybody was as stunned as you when they first came here. I ought to say Border Town is an amazing place. See the three-story building over there? It wasn't there when I was here last time."

"I heard... that it used to be a mining base here."

"That's what I've heard too, but who knows the truth," he commented, picking the nose. "You know a lot of times rumors fly and truth walks. Perhaps there's tons of gold hidden in the North Slope Mine, and that was why His Majesty sent his son down here... After all, they're blood-related."

"Hang on. What's that?!" Across the square, Otto suddenly caught a glimpse of two big colorful balloons floating in the air. Below hung a banner, which read "Welcome to Border Town" on one side, and "Join Now to Obtain the Citizen Welfare" on the other.

"The stuff above or below?" The captain replied, pouting, "I don't know much about the floating balls up there, but as to the one below... You can go to the east of the square where the Lord's notices are usually posted. The banner says they're recruiting tourists, tradesmen, and refugees from all over the world."

"Even refugees?" Otto asked in dismay, "What's the citizen welfare?"

"Allowance for work, food for the first two months and a shelter. Sounds pretty awesome, eh?" The captain explained airily, "It isn't that easy to get approved. Many of my crews have tried, but none of them passed. The Lord wants someone who's loyal, not a believer of the church and has no criminal records. But holy cricket, theft is also a crime. All sailors stole at some point in their lives, don't you think? Plus, it looks very bustling here, but in fact, there're also lots of downsides as far as I can tell."

"Such as?"

"Barely any entertainment. No casinos or whorehouses, not even a hooker on the street." He coughed out a spit and continued to complain, "Wouldn't you be bored to death living in a place like this?"

The marketplace was to the north of the square. Otto decided to first take a look by himself while the captain and his crews were delivering the goods. According to the captain, there were plenty of rare finds in the convenience market on this side and the high-end market on the other. Indeed there were. Otto saw lines of racks filled with various goods. Once he lingered a little longer at a booth, there would be someone coming up to greet him. No matter what the result of the negotiation with Prince Roland would be, Otto knew this town had already drawn his attention.

Just then, there was a stir among the multitude.

Otto turned around and saw two ladies heading toward this side.

One of them was wearing a black gown with a long dark ponytail. She had fine eyes, a cute nose and plump lips. But the coldness on her face made her look unapproachable. The other one, was completely different, looking soft and gentle. The traits of her every character were elegant and graceful like a warm spring breeze. Her gorgeous blonde hair reflected a shimmer of golden rays of the dawn.

Otto felt all his blood rushed to his head at the sight of the blonde lady.

He rubbed his eyes over and over again, hands slightly trembling, and was sure it was her...

"Andrea Quinn!" Unable to restrain his excitement, Otto shouted aloud in the crowd.

.

Chapter 433 - Unrequited Love

...

"Enjoy." The maid placed some wine on the table and gave the three people a strange glance. "If you need a refill, just pull the rope near the door."

"Got it. You're excused." Otto waved his hand, and the maid bowed and left. When the door closed, the ruckus in the lobby was blocked out, and the room immediately fell silent.

Even now, his heart was still racing, and he stared intensely at Andrea, as if he was afraid she would suddenly disappear. "I thought this was a dream. Belinda and Oro both think you're dead, and I never thought I'd see you again..."

Otto's loud outburst in the market caused Andrea to stare at him; since she responded to this name, this meant that she wasn't just a lookalike.

In fact, she couldn't be anyone else, since Andrea's outstanding beauty and air of elegance were unparalleled among other girls.

However, she wasn't as excited to see him as he had expected, and instead, she frowned, walked up to him, and sternly ordered him to follow her as she exited the market.

"She probably didn't want to cause a scene. Yes, that's right, the noble shouldn't draw attention to themselves when among commoners. I was being rude."

He followed the two people into a private room in a pub and finally got a chance to take a closer look at Andrea. Even after five years, she still looked the same as he remembered. If this was a dream, he hoped that it would last a little longer.

"This is your ex-lover?" The dark-haired girl whistled in awe.

"Since you insisted on coming, you should know when to keep your mouth shut," Andrea said with a glare. "Even if you stay quiet, no one will think you're mute."

"I came to protect you," said the other girl with a grin. "Besides, you dragged me here to buy Tilly a birthday present, so kicking me out now would be an improper behavior for a noblewoman."

"That depends on who the behavior is directed to." Andrea scoffed. "I don't have to be proper towards you."

"This is ..." Otto didn't get a response from Andrea and felt a little awkward, so he turned to the equally stunning dark-haired girl. "... your friend?"

"Ashes," she said quickly before Andrea could respond. "Who are you, and why do you know her?"

"I'm Otto Luoxi, and I come from the Kingdom of Dawn." He was slightly taken aback by her interrogating tone—this Ashes girl spoke too bluntly and incisively to be an educated noblewoman, so why was Andrea in her company? "I've known Andrea since we were children, along with my sister Belinda, Oro Tokat, and the eldest son of the King of Dawn, His Highness Appen. We were all extremely close."

"Sounds like a bunch of rich brats." Ashes shrugged. "You said she died?"

"That's because..."

"That's enough." Andrea interrupted. "Belinda and Oro are right—the lady of the Quinn Family whom you knew is dead."

"But you're right here." Otto shook his head. "What happened?"

Besides the royal family, the most powerful families in the City of Glow, the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn, were the Tokat, Quinn and Luoxi families, because their heads were the King's trusted friends and held high positions. This tradition had been passed down since the founding of the Kingdom of Dawn and remained the same for Otto's generation.

Andrea was the eldest daughter of the Quinn family and was outstanding in her appearance and background, so she naturally had many suitors, including Otto and Oro.

However, no one expected that during a spring outing, Andrea's carriage would go out of control and fall into a canyon, an accident that even startled the king. The three families combined their efforts to search for her, and ages later, they found her battered body at the foot of the mountains.

After hearing about this, Otto was depressed for a long time, because while Oro had already begun pursuing Andrea, he had not yet expressed his feelings to her. He never thought he would get the chance to do it, and he would never have expected to see her again in this foreign land.

After a long pause, Andrea sighed. "It wasn't an accident.

"W... what?"

"The carriage accident five years ago was all planned by my family," she whispered. "Father found out that I was a witch."

Otto was startled. "A witch?"

"Seems like you did a pretty good job of hiding your powers," Ashes said, covering her mouth, "since you were even able to fool your childhood friends."

Andrea ignored her. "Yes. After father learned this, he immediately arranged for the accident to be staged—I wasn't even in the carriage, and a driver and maid lost their lives for me. Then, I was sent away from the Kingdom of Dawn and settled secretly in Palisade City of the Kingdom of Graycastle." She paused. "He never actually asked for my opinion on the matter and didn't care what I thought because he was only focused on getting rid of me as quickly as possible."

"So that's what happened..." Otto fell silent. "The beloved 'Flower of Glow' is actually a witch. If word of this gets out, it'll greatly damage the Quinn Family name." However, the staged accident also protected Andrea from harm—as a member of the upper noble, he had heard many tragic stories about the sufferings of witches who fell into the hands of the church.

After some hesitation, he shared his thoughts with Andrea, but she interrupted him with a cold chuckle.

"Protect? As long as father didn't give me up, what could the church have done? Sent the Judgement Army straight into the inner city to arrest me?" She raised her voice. "He was Prime Minister to the King of Dawn and controlled the outer city's surveillance teams, but he didn't do anything to help me. Nana's father was only a Baron, but for the sake of his daughter, he went straight to the Lord's castle and demanded mercy from His Highness Roland, while my father simply banished me from my home. Do you call that protecting me?"

Otto was at a loss for words, and after a long and awkward silence, he finally said hesitantly, "Are... are you going back?"

"Never." Andrea stood up. "I already said that the lady of the Quinn family died five years ago, which was exactly what father wanted."

"Oro still leaves flowers at your grave every year. He can't forget you."

She walked up to the door and whispered, "His love is one-sided, so he'll forget me one day."

As Otto watched the two people disappear from view, he lay helplessly on his chair.

He was beginning to hate his cowardice.

Even at that moment, he still only mentioned Oro instead of expressing his own feelings.

I can't forget you either.

He closed his eyes.

.

Chapter 434 - The Birthday Gift

Roland learned from Anna that Tilly had her twentieth birthday coming.

He hadn't thought about such a thing until now.

It wasn't because he was careless, but because Prince Roland's memories were like a database that he would only delve into when necessary. However, his memories rarely contained anything related to politics or occultism and mostly consisted of mischievous wrongdoings and ideas for pranks, so he revisited them less and less.

Moreover, Tilly was a sore spot for Prince Roland, so everything related to her had little significance and had been buried away, as if he didn't want to recall them.

Tilly's birthday didn't mean her Day of Awakening, but her actual day of birth. As an Extraordinary, she didn't know the time when she awoke as a witch, nor would she experience the magic bite during the Months of Demons. Therefore, her birthday was her only important milestone.

Roland scrolled through his memories and realized that since Tilly was the Queen's youngest child, King Wimbledon III used to throw her a birthday celebration in the Inner City every winter when he was still alive, which was a luxury that even his favorite child, Timothy, never received. However, besides this, he usually ignored Tilly and showed no interest in her life. Otherwise, Prince Roland wouldn't have dared to bully his little sister so much.

As he continued scrolling back, he found another interesting piece of memory.

Tilly's celebration on her eighteenth birthday was her most extravagant one, even surpassing the rite of passage ceremony that followed. Not only did the four border guardians come to the King's City for this celebration, but there were also gifts from the Kingdom of Dawn, the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and the Kingdom of Everwinter, and even the Fjord Islands sent an emissary delegation.

Timothy and Garcia were extremely jealous and wanted to teach Tilly a lesson that she wasn't father's favorite child—the only one reason why King Wimbledon III threw her these celebrations was to make up for the loss of his queen and to console the spirit of Tilly's deceased mother.

No matter how Roland felt about this theory, they both believed it at the time, so they tried to convince Prince Roland to carry out their plan on his sister. However, after Tilly taught him a lesson eight years ago, he was too scared to mess with this girl who seemed meek at first glance but had the spirit of resistance in the depth of her heart , so he refused. The two siblings were forced to act on their own.

Prince Roland didn't know how they did it, but Tilly's favorite gift, the bear cubs from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, was somehow poisoned—as he watched his little sister dully cradling the dead bears, Roland realized the prince had actually felt entertained.

No wonder he was the scum of the royal family. Besides murder and arson, Prince Roland had done every awful thing under the sun.

Either way, this was definitely an awful memory for Tilly Wimbledon.

After he finished scrolling through his memories, Roland suddenly came up with an idea for a gift.

He took out a sheet of paper and began drawing the picture of his gift.

"What's this?" Nightingale peeked at him from behind. "A bear?"

"Yes, a stuffed bear, the one you can sleep with at night." Roland smiled.

Judging from his limited gift-giving experience, he knew that most girls loved cute and furry gifts, and a life-sized stuffed animal was the perfect combination of these two features. Of course, a simple stuffed animal was too easy and common. As a prince with a group of witches to assist him, he could do much better.

...

On Tilly's birthday, Roland carried her gift to her room.

She was alone when she opened the door and was slightly surprised to see him. "Why do you come over?"

"Today is your birthday, so I'll host a celebratory feast in the castle tonight," Roland said with a smile, "but before that, I have a gift for you."

"A gift?" Tilly said, taken aback. "Is it what you're carrying?" She turned around and said, "Come in."

"Um... It's a little bit big, but I promise it's very special." The prince mopped the sweat on his forehead and placed the gift on the floor. The noble during this time usually gave small and delicate gifts, such as flowers and rings, so that they could hide them in their robes and take them out as a surprise. Roland carrying a large wrapped paper box was definitely a rare sight—and this thing was much heavier than he imagined.

"You've never given me anything before," Tilly said in a mysterious tone.

"I gave you a goose feather quill when you were born." Roland corrected it. "But it wasn't anything valuable."

"Alright, it's a Graycastle royal tradition." She shrugged. "What about this? Can I open it?"

"Of course."

Roland smiled as he watched her untie the ribbons, and when the box fell open, he heard her gasp quietly.

"What... what's this?" Tilly blinked.

"It's a bear!" Roland said with a grin.

"What kind of bear looks like this." She circled the stuffed animal curiously and patted it. "It's so soft..."

Its fur cover was specially made by Soraya according to the fur of Northern wolf cubs and added a silky soft touch. As for the design... Roland completely based it off of the future's pandas. As an animal that had survived millenniums by simply acting cute and had even been used as diplomatic gifts, it was exceptionally cute.

"I've never seen this kind of bear... Its color is so strange..."

"You don't like it?"

"No, I mean..." Tilly seemed to be at a loss for words, but her eyes, which were flashing with excitement, revealed her true thoughts.

"It's called 'panda', and it's a... widely-loved animal."

She quickly understood what he meant. "This belongs to your other world..."

Roland nodded. "And it's not just a stuffed animal you can hold. Try pinching its neck."

Tilly did as he adviced, and the panda suddenly started to move, wave its legs and try to climb on top of Tilly. She covered her mouth in shock and backed away, while the stuffed animal continued to move its legs and walk slowly towards her.

This was why it was so heavy—Roland had installed connecting rods and gears in its body with small generators in each leg, and the generators' power came from miniature Dawn I engines. As he lowered the magnetic flux, its shelf life was greatly extended, lasting up to three or four months without use or four fifths of the time if used frequently. Even if Tilly returned to the Sleeping Island, the panda would still accompany her for a long time.

"Pinch its neck again, and it'll stop." Roland smiled. "I hope you'll like this gift."

This time, even though Tilly didn't respond, her expression told Roland everything he needed to know.

.

Chapter 435 - Arrested

"Why do you... want to give me this?" After a while, Tilly put down the muppet.

"Do you remember what happened on your 18th birthday?" Roland asked slowly.

"..." She pursed her lips and asked, "You did that?"

"No, it was Timothy and Garcia." The prince told the story again. "But I should also take some responsibility. If I had told father, it wouldn't have happened."

"And they also would have beaten you up," Tilly said, "so it was reasonable for you not to tell."

"This sort of thing will never happen again."

"I thought that the extra space in your head was used to store knowledge." She didn't respond and changed the topic. "Now it seems that's not the case. Besides this 'panda', is there anything else new? "

When he heard her get tongue-tied trying to pronounce this strange word, Roland couldn't help but smile. "Of course... countless things. When I get a chance, I'll tell you more."

There was no doubt that Tilly was smart. He believed that she would understand him even if he didn't tell the whole story.

Sure enough, after pausing for a moment, she stared at Roland with thoughtful eyes.

Suddenly, Andrea's voice sounded through the door. "Lady Tilly, I want to give you a gift... You, go away!"

"I came first, OK?" Ashes' voice immediately followed.

"I was the first one!"

Roland laughed and stood up. "Indeed, a lot of unpleasant things had happened before, but the past is the past. No matter what, you and me, or Border Town and Sleeping Island shouldn't be bound by bad memories. If you have any trouble in the future, you can come to me anytime... I'll be your elder brother forever." He paused for a while and said, "Happy birthday, Tilly."

He opened the door. The two witches were immediately stupefied and stared at each other with confusion.

The prince smiled and said, "Stop quarreling, I was the first."

*******************

Otto wandered the streets dejectedly with Andrea's words still lingering in his mind.

"...the lady of the Quinn family died five years ago, which was exactly what father wanted."

He didn't agree with her, but he couldn't find any excuses to contradict her with. These days, besides observing Border Town, he spent the rest of his time wandering near the market. He hoped to see her again, but was ultimately disappointed.

Otto went to the stone bench next to the square, flicked away the snow on top, and sat down slowly.

Although thoughts were surging in his heart, he still didn't forget the reason why he came here. Except for the corps and battalions, he had gone through every corner of this village and had a comprehensive understanding of this area. For example, the villagers' lives weren't so affluent at the very beginning and had been no different from those of regular slums. All these changes were due to the Lord, His Highness Roland Wimbledon. He led the people against those bloodcurdling demonic beasts and invented various magical machines and tools to improve people's lives.

Otto had witnessed the black machines operating in the mine area. Just two or three iron lumps could easily finish the work of tens of people.

Also, it was said that the high tower alongside the Redwater River could send water to each resident's home.

There were the quickly built city walls, residential communities, and docks as well.

In addition, it seemed that the ditches that were being dug would make the installation of heating equipment easier, and the inhabitants would no longer fear the cold—news like this could be seen on the bulletin board in the center of the square every day. More astonishingly, most of the villagers could understand the official documents on the board.

The more he observed, the more astonished he felt. Changes were happening everywhere in Border Town and were totally beyond his imagination.

Opening his notebook, Otto intended to take down today's new discoveries, but someone suddenly grabbed the hand holding his pen.

Looking up, he saw two patrol officers with black uniforms in front of him. "Are you Silver Eye?"

That was a false name he used when disguised as a businessman. Otto answered calmly and when he looked around, he found out that there were also people with black uniforms appearing on the other two sides of the square. However, they just stared at him and didn't come closer.

They came here for me.

Otto's heart sank. Before, he thought that the patrols here weren't like what he saw elsewhere and behaved appropriately, so he didn't expect to get into trouble.

"What's up?" he asked with a cold voice. Faced with these bullying and greedy people, there was no benefit in flattering them. Even if they wanted to blackmail him, he wouldn't let them run their mouths. In the worst case, he would have to use his identity as a nobleman.

However, the uniformed officers' answer surprised him. "According to the report we received, we suspect that you are conducting espionage. Now, keep your hands behind you and follow our instructions. If there is any resistance, we can't guarantee your safety."

"Espionage? What a strange reason... Could it be that they want to find a fall guy?" Otto thought silently. "I don't understand what you are saying." He shook off their arms. "I'm from the Luoxi Family in the City of Glow, a noble of the Kingdom of Dawn. I'm not a..."

As soon as he shook off their hands, his belly was suddenly punched severely, and more than half of his strength disappeared immediately with an acidic taste filling his mouth and his body curling up involuntarily. Then, the two men knocked him down into the cold snow, and his hands were tied together with ropes.

"A noble? You said you were a businessman several days ago." One of them sneered.

"I told you not to resist." The other man gave him another hard kick. "You asked for it."

"Several days ago? Does this mean they have targeted me for a while? This is impossible... At least no patrol guards noticed me in the first two days."

"Ahem... I'm indeed a nobleman, and the writ... is in my bag." Otto struggled for a while, but the men ignored him.

"Save your excuses for His Excellency Carter." Two men lifted him up. "If you're honest, you may get to survive."

...

After staying in jail for a day, Otto felt hungry and thirsty and finally saw the one whom people called His Excellency Carter.

Before the knight could say a word, he gripped the iron bars and blurted, "I'm really the Otto Luoxi from the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn. Entrusted by the King of Dawn, I came to this Kingdom of Graycastle for allies to confront the church. I'm not the spy you accused me to be! I want to meet with your Lord, His Highness Roland Wimbledon!"

He had long heard about the shady dealings in jail. Patrols always colluded with Rats and imprisoned foreigners to be scapegoats. If they thought that he was an unimportant stranger, he probably wouldn't live to see another day.

Carter was shocked. "I haven't asked you anything yet." He turned his head. "What do you think my answer will be?"

Then, in a scene that shocked Otto, a girl came out from the shadow, her body covered by a white robe and her face concealed by a hood. However, judging from her figure, she seemed no different from the "Flower of Glow".

"What he said is true," she shrugged and said.

"Really? Does this mean he's indeed an envoy from the Kingdom of Dawn?" Carter put his hand on his forehead. "It seems that we caused some trouble for His Highness."

Chapter 436 - The Indeterminable Appointment

Finally, Otto met the legendary Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

After confirming he was a nobleman of the Kingdom of Dawn, Carter brought him into the castle. Then, as the attendants served him with toiletries, new clothes, and some hot food, Carter frisked him.

This might be the most offensive reception that Otto had ever seen.

Prince Roland was in a north-facing room on the castle's third floor. The French windows, which occupied half of the wall, first came into sight as the door was opened. The snow-covered landscape brightened up the room, which was particularly warm, despite there being no lit fireplace.

The prince was sitting at a mahogany table, reading a black-covered book in his hand, which Otto realized was his own notebook. In addition, the diplomatic documents and the family seal were set on the side. It seemed that the hotel that he was staying in had been searched thoroughly.

Although Prince Roland had the same gray hair as Timothy, and there was some resemblance in their features, they gave people an entirely different impression. Both his sitting position and expression seemed to be very casual which conformed to the rumors that Prince Roland liked to persist in his old ways.

Noticing Otto, he closed the book, smiled and said, "Are you the envoy from the Kingdom of Dawn? Have a seat."

Otto bowed in accordance with noble etiquette. No matter how awful the prince behaved, he had to do this—after all, although Prince Roland might not care if he was treated as a joke, he represented the royal dignity of the Kingdom of Dawn.

"I have read some of your notes," the prince laughed and said. "Some were recorded in great detail, so it's not surprising for them to mistake you for a spy. Also, my people didn't know where you were from, and they enthusiastically reported you to me because of my orders. I'd like to apologize to you here."

"The people... reported me?" Otto frowned and thought. However, no explanation could excuse rudely offending a noble, not to mention that the offender was just a man without any title of nobility. If it wasn't for his mission, he would definitely ask the prince to bring the man who assaulted him to justice. Otto restrained his innermost negative emotion and said, "No, you don't have to. Your Highness, you just do this for the peace of the people. It's just… that it may hurt innocent strangers, and I'm afraid most people couldn't provide documents to prove their identities like me."

"You don't need to worry about that. The collection of evidence by the judicial department is irrelevant to the identification documents, and we have all kinds of measures to protect the innocent people." Prince Roland waved his hand and continued, "What's the saying? We would never wrong a good man or let a single bad one go." At this, he smiled and said, "I heard about your arrest—if you did as they commanded, then you wouldn't have been harmed. The process was a little brutal but it's also done with reluctance. You know, some of the most vicious people may take out a weapon and fight back at any time. Since the winter, two police officers have been injured while making arrests. "

"Police officers… It might refer to those patrols. What's a judicial department? The administration to supervise patrols?" Otto wondered and asked, "Does this kind of thing happen often?"

"Once or twice a month," said the prince, "and it's probably because Timothy is so bored in this endless winter."

The prince openly showed his hostility toward the new king. Otto realized that the contradictions between the two sides couldn't be reconciled. Then he hesitated for a while and said, "When I went to the King's City, I heard a rumor… Your Highness, are you really going to overthrow Timothy's authority?"

"Did the rumor say that the new king's throne is hung by a thread?" The prince said bluntly, "Timothy shouldn't be the new king—in order to usurp the throne, he murdered his father, blamed it on his elder brother, and expelled Garcia out of the Kingdom of Graycastle. The entire Southern Territory was destroyed in the war, and the people became destitute and homeless—these are all the crimes he had committed. The only way to restore the past prosperity of the Kingdom of Graycastle is to overthrow him."

Otto held his breath for a second and thought, "Roland Wimbledon is more active than Timothy; at least Timothy's fighting resolve isn't so strong… It seems to be a reversal of both status and momentum."

He cleared his throat and said, "So, as a friendly neighbor, the Kingdom of Dawn hopes that the Kingdom of Graycastle could soon regain peace. I came here at this time to bring the alliance agreement of Deegan Moya, the King of Dawn."

"Oh?" said the prince with interest, "Where is it?"

"In order to avoid the message being leaked, I didn't carry the document with me. However, His Majesty has granted me the right to sign the agreement." Otto repeated the alliance agreement again. "If the two countries can help each other, we can effectively hold the church in play and avoid going down the same road as the Kingdoms of Everwinter and Wolfheart."

"That's it?"

The response of the prince perplexed Otto. "What does 'that's it' mean? I've made myself quite clear," he thought. As he was about to repeat his words, the prince shook his head and said, "The project might not work. The determination of the church to annex the Four Kingdoms is much stronger than you think, let alone the combative God's Punishment Army and witches—your troops stationed along the border might be surrounded and destroyed by the enemy before they've even departed."

"God's Punishment Army and... witches?" asked Otto in surprise.

"It seems that you know nothing about the ambition of the church," said Prince Roland. He took a sip of tea and continued, "I'll tell you all the information we know, and I hope you can bring these messages back to the Kingdom of Dawn so that your king can re-examine the alliance agreement. If we want to defeat the church, we need not only a deterrent, but one big attack. "

The meeting didn't come to an end until the evening when the Prince put his cup down, and the wilderness and forest behind him were all in the dark. A strange light lit up in the room, which was brighter and purer than a candle, but Otto had no mind to notice this. He felt his clothes soaked with cold sweat on his back, his hands inadvertently held into a fist, his palms were creamy, and the words of the prince were echoing in his mind.

"The extraordinary warriors created by utilizing wild witches, secret combat witches, and pure witches... And the purpose of the church to eliminate the Four Kingdoms at all costs is to usher in the coming Battle of Doomsday! The news was just too incredible!"

However, many details coincided with the information that he had collected, such as the Pill of Madness, which the church used to weaken the resistance of the kingdom; the carriages transporting female orphans to the Holy City; and their attitude towards the defeated nobles—if it was to completely erase the influence of the nobility to achieve a completely united kingdom of the church, all these things would make sense.

"I... I can't make a decision," Otto stammered. "These matters are too important. I have to report to His... His Majesty first."

"Of course, this is a matter of life and death for the two countries," the prince calmly said, "and you can't be too careful. But don't forget, our time is running out."

...

Ready to leave, Otto went to the door, hesitantly turned around and said, "Your Highness, I heard that a group of witches was recruited to Border Town... I wonder if you've heard of the name Andrea."

"Ah, she used to be a noblewoman of the Kingdom of Dawn, but unfortunately she became homeless and came into the Kingdom of Graycastle afterward." The prince lifted his eyebrows and asked, "Why? Do you know her?"

"Yes!" answered Otto with his heart beating strongly. "Could you... allow me to see her?"

The prince nodded and said, "I can help to arrange it, but whether or not she'll meet you will be up to her."

"Isn’t Andrea your..."

He shook his head with a smile and said, "The witches are just the citizens who live here, not my servants—I can 't manipulate their minds."

Chapter 437 - A Silent Farewell

After Otto Luoxi left the office, Nightingale stood by Roland. "What he's said isn't completely true, especially the part about his experience before he came to Border Town."

"No surprise. He must have negotiated with Timothy in King's City before coming to the Western Region." Roland smiled. "It would be very strange if he came directly to me first. A diplomat always hedges his bets. If I were him, I wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket either."

"You mean... they might not stand on our side?"

"At least, they won't hurry to make a decision." He picked up the kettle to refill his tea cup. "When the King of Dawn receives this news, how much of it do you think he will believe?"

Nightingale searched for an answer for quite a while until she finally said, "I... don't know."

"Me neither." At these words, Nightingale pinched Roland's shoulder. He was not telling the truth. "One thing is obvious though. The King of Dawn is probably not going to swing to us because of this news. It sounds terrifying but it's something that will only happen several years from now. Besides, we can't even give him an exact date. The threat of the church, however, is right under his nose. Given that the church may launch the attack in the coming spring, he's most likely to stand by watching battles between Timothy and me until either of us wins. If he's clever enough, he'll probably be on good terms with both of us for future returns."

Politicians often handled these kinds of issues this way. They preferred smooth gains to risky investments, especially in the case of wars which were normally highly profitable. If there had been no threat from demons, Roland would have been happy to join this game, setting a trap for his opponent and then reaping some profits. But he was not in the mood for this diplomatic game now. In the following year, Border Town would have to launch an attack and stabilize the situation. A storm was brewing, and the ones who had a narrow vision and concentrated on immediate interests would have no future.

"Is it... good for us to tell them the news?" Nightingale asked in doubt.

"The Kingdom of Dawn isn't our real enemy, after all. I'm not sure how much the nobles there will believe the story about demons, but they'll definitely spread the word about the church's ambition. It'll weaken the ruling of the church," Roland explained. "Without people's support, the church won't be able to use the kingdom's resources that easily."

When he broke the news to Otto, he only mentioned the part about demons, but not the part about the witches' empire and the two Battles of Divine Will.

The former was even more unbelievable than the existence of demons and might cause unwanted effects. It could be purposely distorted into a "witches' scheme" because of people's general hostility towards them.

The latter might shake people's confidence in fighting against the demons. They had failed twice before. What were their chances of winning this time?

Anyhow, he had already hinted that the two kingdoms should fight the demons together. As to the result, it would depend on the reply from the Kingdom of Dawn.

...

Three days later, Roland met Otto Luoxi again,

He could guess the answer from the disappointment in Otto's eyes.

"Personally, I'm more inclined to the alliance, but the priority now is to send the news to the Kingdom of Dawn as soon as possible instead of talking about the agreement details." Otto bowed and said, "so I'm here to bid you farewell."

"Hope to hear good news from you then." Roland nodded.

"Besides... Your Highness," Otto hesitated for a moment and said, "I would like to ask you a personal favor."

"What is it?"

"Please take good care of Andrea Quinn for me."

"Andrea was a witch from Sleeping Island. You should actually ask Tilly Wimbledon to do that, not me," Roland thought with a sigh, but still he gave his promise.

*******************

At the top of the castle, Andrea stood, facing the howling wind and looking south toward the Redwater River.

"Aren't you... going to the dock?" Shavi shivered in coldness, hiding behind her invisible barrier. "I hear he's going to lea-leave by boat. As a childhood playmate, you shou-should go to wish him a good trip."

"I can wish him one here, too." She heaved a sigh.

"A-Ashes said he never stops thinking about you."

"Don't listen to anything she's said," Andrea grunted. "She even praised that guy in front of Lady Tilly. A filthy mouth will never utter decent language."

"Eh, is, is that so?" Shavi said, her teeth chattering.

"Yes." She snorted. She noticed Shavi shivering. "If you feel that cold, go down now. You can come back to fetch me later."

"It’s, it's OK, I'll wait for you here." Shavi shook her head. "If, if I catch a cold, Miss Lily will cure me and I can take two, two days off. Then I'll have more time to play cards."

"That sounds reasonable." Andrea gave her a thumbs up and turned her gaze to the Redwater River. Through the falling snow, she could vaguely see some rising sails and something red fluttering at the top of a mast.

It was the sailing signal.

This was good. Time would dilute all the attention and forgetting would be better for everyone, she thought.

Andrea somehow knew Otto's love for her, but she still chose to avoid him. Both he and Oro Tokat should marry someone more suited to their status. They were the most famous noble families in the City of Glow. A relationship with either of them was doomed from the start. Besides, she was not willing to return to the land which had abandoned her.

Avoiding him was the best choice.

"Farewell, my friend," Andrea thought.

The looming sails soon disappeared on the horizon.

*******************

After sending off the messenger, Roland threw himself into the construction of Border Town.

The Three Supplies Project which included a water supply, a power supply, and a heating system had officially launched. The three pipes were embedded in underground tunnels, reaching every residential community. It was easy to adapt each household because every residential house had been designed with reserve openings for the pipes. The key lay in the location of boilers and water towers.

In order to save materials and reduce loss during transportation as much as they could, Roland changed the plan. Instead of drawing water from the Redwater River, they would draw from underground springs. Given that Border Town was rich in underground water and that it was not deep, it was easy to dig wells. Besides, in this era, there was no need to take water pollution into consideration. With the help of Sylvie, Roland quickly picked out four spots as water access points for the town. They could purvey water not only for daily uses such as drinking and cleansing, but also for the heating system and boilers.

Chapter 438 - Electricity and Light

Based on the construction plan, Roland set up a workroom with all the equipment to build an efficient Three Supplies Project system.

The complete set of equipment included a steam engine, an electric motor, a power supply unit, a boiler, and two water tanks. Together with the water tower outside the room, they formed the workings of the Three Supplies Project system.

The steam engine pumped the water up into the water tower and the water tanks. The former was to provide the residential communities with water for domestic needs. The latter was the water supply for the boiler and the heating system. The first-level water tank was higher. Limestones and washing stones which were used to soften the water by precipitating magnesium and calcium ions in it were put inside the tank. The water in it would then flow into the lower second-level tank through a filter screen specially made by Soraya, which would stop the floating objects in the water from entering the second-level tank.

The boiler's water supply was controlled by an electric motor. When the water level inside the boiler was too low, the ballcock inside would start the electric motor to bring water in until the water level got back to normal. This process was more stable than both the manual control and the steam engine system, saving the trouble to arrange someone to observe the site all the time.

The water supply and heating systems had already been successfully tested. Roland was confident that their construction would go smoothly. His current focus was on the power supply. It was a brand new thing for the town. Neither Karl nor other members of the Mason Guild had any idea of electricity. Given that Roland did not know much about electricity himself either, and that all his knowledge of electronic circuits remained at the high-school level, he decided to build a model in his courtyard first. If he succeeded, he would explain it to the Ministry of Construction.

Once he had a stable power supply, the first step then was to create that traditional emblem of electrical power: a light bulb.

With that in mind, Roland put on a thick coat and set out for his courtyard on the North Slope Mountain.

It normally would take a quarter of an hour to walk to the courtyard, but with the help of Nightingale's mist, they arrived in scarcely four minutes.

When the wooden door was pushed open, Anna and Lucia immediately noticed Roland. Anna, busy with her work, just nodded to him. Lucia happily ran to him and said, "Your Highness, good morning."

"Good morning," Roland nodded with a smile and then walked to Anna. "What're you busy with?"

"The new gun barrels and locking mechanism." She pointed to several long steel pipes on the desk with a serious look on her face, "Some aspects of your drawings don't make sense. I think it'll be better this way."

"My amazing Anna," Roland thought and could not help stretching out his hand, trying to touch her head but she refused it by rocking back and forth. "Well... this scene seems familiar." He coughed, banished his thoughts of Anna and said, "Good, do whatever you want."

Roland did not mind her questioning his designs. He knew he would naturally have mistakes and shortcomings based on his minimal design experience. He felt like Anna was not only more talented but also had a keener eye for fine detail and he was convinced that one day she would surpass him in skills.

After a while, Anna finished her work and put down her tools . She walked to Roland and lowered her head a little.

"Eh? Is it to make up for the touch just now?" Roland thought in surprise.

He ruffled her soft hair. Anna looked up in satisfaction, "What are we making next?"

"Ah... yes." The prince turned to Lucia. "How did your separation work of ores from the mines go?"

"Almost done and here are the results," Lucia gave him a stack of books and said, "but I'm afraid it'll take a long time to test on the mixtures of them and rolled steel. There are just too many individual elements."

"It's already pretty good," Roland encouraged her.

This was part of his material improvement plan. He had already improved the rolled steel quality by reducing carbon content and eliminating impurities, and now all the elements in the North Slope Mine area could be utilized. They had to try one by one. There was no shortcut.

Roland glanced over the books, looking at the features of the elements separated from ores in the mines. He soon found the element with the highest melting point. He poked his finger at the testing sample marked with No. 12 and asked, "Where are they?"

Lucia quickly found them. They were a crude stone and a bag of elementary particles, both sealed in transparent coated bags.

Roland thought he recognized this crude, black stone from somewhere else.

"Wait, isn't it the same as the black stone sent to my office earlier? I gave it to alchemists and then totally forgot about it. I've never thought twice about it since then.

Could it turn out to be the mineral that has the highest melting point on the North Slope Mountain?"

Anna could not measure the exact temperatures at which the materials melted, so she described them roughly by words such as "normal", "high" and "relatively high". Only the melting point of No.12 testing sample was described as "extremely high."

The elementary particles in the bag were silvery white, similar to most of the other metallic elements.

He thought, "Is it wolfram? Whatever, as long as it is difficult to melt."

Roland let Anna make the particles into very fine wire, twisted the wire into a spiral and fix it onto a glass shelf which was then put into a glass bulb. The main part of an electric lamp was completed.

To make it a stable light, there were two more steps which were also considered to be the most difficult part in making electric bulbs. The first one was to evacuate the bulb, preventing the filament wire from reacting with oxygen. The second was sealing it to ensure that the air could not enter the bulb.

Without a doubt, only witches could realize those two steps.

Roland soon thought of Agatha.

The filament would become extremely reactive at high temperatures. It would easily oxidize, produce new oxides, and eventually melt down. That was why the bulb needed vacuum inside, but filling the bulb with inert gases could achieve the same or an even better effect.

Pure nitrogen was an excellent choice for this.

As nitrogen was lighter than the air, using a simple downward exhaust method, the bulb could be easily filled with nitrogen. It was much simpler than the vacuuming process. When the other end of the exhaust was also pure nitrogen, Soraya quickly sealed the bulb. A simple incandescent lamp was made successfully.

Looking at the electric bulb as small as his palm, Roland felt all sorts of emotions welling up in his mind. It was something outdated but now represented the most advanced manufacturing skills of the town.

The following night, he summoned all the members of City Hall to gather in front of the castle and ordered his guards to put out all the torches in the courtyard.

In this dark, snowy night, Roland switched on the circuit.

All of a sudden, at the center of the courtyard, an orange light lit up. It would not sway and extinguish in the wind like the light of a candle and it never flickered like fire. Though it could merely light up within a radius of a few meters, a stable light in the wind was something that the people had never seen before.

At this moment, everything was self-explanatory.

The fixed look on everyone's face and the silence of the scene told everything.

He had brought electricity to this world.

Chapter 439 - The Crime Scene

"Brother Vader, is... this really Okay?" Firehead said while fiddling with her own clothing. "Chief Knight said that our uniforms are the symbol of our status, and thus we must wear it neatly when we're on duty."

"What's more, there's a punishment for dirtying the uniform, let alone for not wearing it." Whistle kept looking left and right as if he was afraid of being spotted by a colleague.

"Stop nagging. It's symbolic enough to wear it. Standing in the midwinter snow in the black uniform will alert everyone in the vicinity that policemen are around. How are we supposed to catch any criminal?" Vader spat on the ground and then continued, "You're both from Border Town, right?"

The two policemen became more spirited the moment Vader mentioned this. "Yes, I am. My father was a hunter who used to live on Old Street, and his skill was remarkable. He was able to strike the neck of a fox scampering about in the woods with only one arrow."

"Me too. But my father often told me that hunting was an unstable career, and he preferred I became a miner. He'd even prepared a hoe for me. Had His Highness Roland not become the new Lord, I would have spent my days in the mines."

"I can tell." Vader shrugged his shoulders. "Only the children of hunters would have such uncommon nicknames," he silently thought. "Since you're both locals, surely you're more concerned about the public order in the town than I am, right? If even I'm not afraid of being punished, why are you afraid? Is wearing the uniform more important than enforcing the rules and laws laid down by His Highness?"

"Hmm..." The duo hesitated briefly, before they replied with conviction, "You're right."

"But, Brother Vader, you're not an outsider. Haven't you already received your identity card? His Highness once said that anyone who possess the identity card are considered to be his subjects," Whistle muttered.

Vader laughed and did not say a word. Instead, he fixed his gaze on a row of cave dwellings on the eastern side of the temporary housing area.

After serving as a policeman for nearly three months, he had grown fully accustomed to life in the Western Region. Before he became a policeman, he thought that a "patrol team" would have nothing to do apart from extorting and cheating the people. Little did he know that there would be more work than could possibly be completed every day.

The police were required to accept refugees and handle disputes among the citizenry. It was also the police's duty to catch criminals and spies. Whereas, apart from fighting against the demonic beasts, the First Army did not help or intervene in the internal peacekeeping of Border Town.

This was completely different from what he had initially expected.

In Valencia, the patrol team was more like the city guards' backup. They handled menial tasks and were not of much use. This was the reason why many patrollers would seek money from illicit sources. However, in Border Town, the police and the First Army belonged to different systems. The former handled internal affairs while the latter handled external ones.

What surprised Vader more was that the majority of the patrol team's targets came from public reports instead of direct orders from their superiors. Indeed, the citizens of Border Town had changed his perception of commoners. This bunch of lazy and stupid people would actively watch out for suspicious characters and report them to the City Hall. Whenever a foreign merchant ship arrived in the town, the Ministry of Justice would receive a handful of such reports.

Vader soon realized the tremendous power that lied within the town—no foreign spy could shut himself off from the public or integrate into society quickly unless he grew up here. With everyone serving as a vigilant watchdog, what enemy could hide among the populace?

But of course, not every arrest operation would be successful. For example, the sneaky characters whom they arrested during the previous operation turned out to be a noble from the Kingdom of Dawn. Vader was prepared to be punished, but his superiors showed no reaction and seemed unperturbed that he had beaten up a noble. This served to consolidate his current mentality towards his job.

"Gold's here!" Firehead exclaimed softly.

"Ignore him and just pretend that you're sweeping the snow," Vader said calmly. "He didn't bring any goods, which means he's only here to check on the situation."

"Gold" was the code name of their current target. The Ministry of Justice received a report two days ago that a serf was trafficking grains. His Excellency Carter attached great importance to this issue and immediately assigned the task to Vader. He demanded that the serf was arrested alive together with the goods, and called this the "Gold Hunting Mission".

However, the mission did not start out smoothly. After making some inquiries, they began to uncover the identity of the target. Subsequently, a team of six people took turns to monitor the temporary housing area, but not a single trace of the target was found.

To Vader, it was clear that the reason for the lack of development was because the policemen's uniforms were too conspicuous. He had lived in the Western Zone for some time, and naturally knew that whenever a City Hall official was in the area, news of it would spread rapidly among the residents. It was no different in the Eastern Zone. The people who lived here were serfs, and thus the black uniforms of the policemen were as striking as fireflies in the night sky.

That explained why he was adamant that Firehead and Whistle should take off their uniforms and put on a tattered coat. In this way, they could disguise as snow sweepers and stand on the thoroughfares of the Eastern Zone and Border Town. The suspect would not be able to escape their sights as soon as he appeared.

They saw Gold walking around the Eastern Zone briefly before returning to a cave dwelling. When he reappeared, he was carrying a large sack on his back.

"He's indeed trafficking wheat..." Whistle clenched her fists tightly.

"Damn it! He simply doesn't respect what His Highness has said." Firehead cursed angrily. "We shall arrest him right now!"

"Don't be rash," Vader said and beckoned with his hands. "His Excellency Carter said that he wanted the target arrested alive together with the goods. We shall split three ways and act." His instructions were in accordance with the previous operation to surround Rat. "Firehead, you'll mobilize immediately and go to the old city wall area first. There's only one route for him to enter the inner city."

"Yes."

"I'll follow the target. This requires a lot of skills, and thus I'm the most suitable for this role." He licked his lips in anticipation. "Lastly, Whistle, you shall stalk me from about a 100 steps back. Remember not to make eye contact with Gold."

"Understood."

"Then, let's begin!"

Although the three policemen were similar in rank, they acted in full compliance with Vader's plan.

Vader carried a broom and calmly walked a couple of steps in front of Gold. According to his experience, following the target from behind would easily arouse the target's suspicions. Instead, by "leading the way", the target would be much less cautious. If he was fairly certain of where the target was heading, this would be the safest method of tracking. He fully concentrated on Gold—he was confident that the instant that he heard a slight change in the target's footsteps, he could trip the target and prevent him from fleeing.

After passing through the old city wall, Gold stopped walking and rested by the corner of a street. He was ostensibly aware that if he headed towards the center of the town, there would be a high chance of encountering policemen. Vader took a dozen more steps forward and turned into a side path, where he waited for the buyer to show up.

A short while later, a local who was pushing a handcart appeared. He looked around the vicinity before he slowly walked up to the serf. After inspecting the contents of the sack, he took out a handful of coins to close the deal. At that very moment, Vader gestured for the two policemen to act.

The three of them dashed towards the target from different directions. The dealer was so dumbstruck that he did not move at all.

Vader pressed the serf down on the ground, accompanied by the clinking sound of coins scattering all over. He yelled, "You're under arrest!"

Chapter 440 - The Court Trial

Roland was studying the power grid layout of a residential district when he heard the news. After Carter had concluded his report, Roland put down his quill pen and sighed lightly. Although he knew that something like this was inevitable, he felt helpless and sad that it truly happened. He had repeatedly publicized the strict ban on private sales of food, yet there were people who still took the risk for the sake of a small profit. As this was the first case of its kind, it was clear to him that a heavy sentence should be issued to deter others.

In addition, he felt the urge to finalize the laws, and then to recruit specialized legal officers to conduct interrogations and handle cases. After all, when the city was fully constructed, criminal cases would only increase, and he would not have time to play judge to all of them.

It was decided that the trial would be conducted in the castle hall.

Roland had requested for Barov to come to the castle, and together, they would hear the case of this food smuggling crime.

In the hall, the two suspects knelt on the floor. Their ghost pale faces and vacant eyes suggested that they were new to this sort of occasion.

Roland took his seat on the throne, cleared his throat, and said, "Explain everything that you did. You'll be doubly guilty if you hold back or lie about anything."

"Yes, yes, Your Highness." The two suspects seemed as if they had just awoken from a dream. They scrambled between themselves to tell their personal accounts of what happened, particularly the serf, who shouted at the top of his voice, "Your Highness, Lord! I know that what I did was wrong, but if I didn't sell the wheat... I wouldn't be able to live on! Those officials didn't buy wheat according to your demand. I'd no choice but to do this!"

The case turned out to be very simple, and Roland cleared his emotions halfway through listening.

In order to reassure the citizens, the City Hall had set the individual quota for purchasing grains to be slightly higher than the actual consumption. Therefore, there would be a small excess of wheat every month. Parker, who resided in the Sixth Residential Area, smelled a business opportunity. He would grind the excess wheat into flour and add in a few of his self-grown herbs to make savory pancakes. It sold well—fortunately, the sale restrictions in the Convenience Market only applied to staples, while poultry and eggs could be freely sold in the stalls.

The business brought in some silver royals for him every month. However, there was only so much excess wheat, and hence, he had to reduce his own consumption in order to expand the scale of the business. Parker thus set his sights on serfs who did not sell all of their food to the City Hall, and soon got in touch with "Gold" to establish this trafficking deal.

However, the serf's final words puzzled Roland. "Why didn't the officials purchase wheat according to the rules? Does this affair involve the City Hall?"

Roland looked at Barov. The latter faced him back and said softly, "The Ministry of Agriculture is in charge of purchasing. The minister is Sirius Daly, whom I believe is unlikely to have made such a grave mistake. You can call him in for questioning."

Roland nodded and had his guards summon the Minister of Agriculture to the castle.

Sirius Daly rushed to the castle hall, and after making a very impressive Knight's bow towards Roland, he enquired if His Highness had any decree for him. His mannerisms retained the style of the Wolf Family's knights.

The prince delineated the parts of the case which he did not understand. "Did you ever refuse to purchase the serf's grains?"

"Your Highness, this was what happened," Sirius answered without hesitation. "As per your demands, we didn't stop the purchases after the bumper harvest. However, we lowered the purchase price according to the diminishing quality of the wheat. In the first two months, there was little difference between our purchase price and the original price."

Sirius paused before he continued, "After winter arrived, because the majority of serfs didn't have proper storage places for the wheat and they were relocated from the shacks to the temporary housing areas, the quality of the wheat deteriorated substantially. When we do the purchases, we would often find wet, discolored and moldy food, and therefore our purchase prices reduced by 20 to 30 percent. The food of this particular serf was largely wet, moldy, and couldn't be stored any longer. Therefore, the price that I offered was five times less than during the bumper harvest."

"Your Highness, that's as good as not buying!" The serf shouted. "I spent my entire year working on the farm. This price was even lower than what I would get on Black Street! Didn't you say that the prices wouldn't change?!"

"But you have to sell it on time, idiot!" Barov snapped angrily. "Do you think that nobody knows why you hoarded wheat? Had there been a food supply problem in town, you would have sold your stock at three to four times the usual price!"

Everything about the case became clear. However, the result slightly surprised Roland. He had thought of it as a simple issue of food trafficking, but instead discovered a case of black-hearted food selling. Parker was obviously aware that this batch of grains was of extremely poor quality, and yet he was fine with buying it at half the price on multiple occasions. He probably did not care whether the moldy wheat was actually edible.

While there was no doubt that the serf had committed a grave crime and should be punished heavily, Roland was uncertain about how to punish Parker. He had heard Scroll's stories about the life of the poor. When they had no food to eat, they would satiate their hunger with branches, grass and leaves, let alone moldy bread. This was precisely why Scroll had repeatedly emphasized what a noble and great thing it was for all citizens to be able to eat wheat. Parker used to be poor too, and he was probably not aware that it was a severe crime to use low-quality ingredients to make pancakes.

After discussing the issue with Barov for a while, Roland finally passed his judgment.

He stood up, looked over the entire audience, and then said solemnly, "I pronounce... the two men guilty! The serf disobeyed the ban and trafficked grain. He knowingly violated the law and hence is doubly guilty. I shall sentence him to ten years of labor in the mines. If his performance and behavior are good, the number of years may be reduced."

"Resident Parker also violated the ban, and furthermore used low-quality wheat to make pancakes which he sold to other citizens. For these two crimes, I shall sentence him to ten years of labor, and a fine equivalent to three times of his earnings from the sale of pancakes. My judgments shall be enforced immediately!"

The two convicts turned feeble and fell on the ground as if paralyzed. The guards standing on one side walked up to them and dragged them out of the hall.

The prince then instructed Sirius. "Write this matter into a bulletin and then hand it to Barov for review and publication. I want to let all citizens know the entire sequence of events, and make sure that this never happens again."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

After the trial ended, Roland summoned Chief Knight to his office. "Did you hear that the person who arrested the criminal was Vader again?"

Carter nodded. "However, they overdid it this time. They took off their uniforms while arresting the criminal, and in the process, they were also reported for getting into a fight with commoners. I'll warn him about this."

"Don't do that. In fact, you should commend him," Roland said, stroking his chin. "Isn't it expected of a plainclothes policeman to adapt to the situation and to understand how to apprehend a criminal? Vader was formerly a patrol team member, and also understands the Black Street Forces well—he's, quite simply, a natural born talent for inspection work.

When the time's right, I shall recruit him into the Security Bureau." Roland quietly thought. "Nightingale's lacking some manpower after all."

Chapter 441 - Storm Clouds

It was a secret room of the Tower of Babel in the Hermes Cathedral.

Tayfun stared at the witch across him and couldn't help but sigh.

"Is His Holiness Mayne really so busy?"

"Of course he is." The witch stroked her golden curls. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent me to meet you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Isabella, and I'm a Pure Witch of the Supreme Pontiff."

"Your Excellency Tayfun, this..." The other two newly appointed Bishops, Soli Daal of the Judgement Army and El of the Tribunal stared at each other. Although they knew about the church's secret witches, they never expected them to be allowed to participate in such important meetings.

"She's a direct subordinate of the Pope with the same rank as a Bishop—she just doesn't have an official position in the church," explained Tayfun with a sigh. "Bishops can also have their own Pure Witches, so when the Months of the Demons are over, you two can choose a few witches to raise."

"I... I see." Soli widened his eyes. "So... so what kind of powers do they have?"

"This is highly confidential, and only the Supreme Pontiff knows about it."

"Why would we want to raise witches?" El seemed quite annoyed. "If the believers find out, the church's reputation will be terribly damaged!"

"Of course, they can help you take care of shady business." Isabella raised her eyebrows. "Also, they can sleep with you, let you vent your anger, or do many other things... you should know that witches are completely different from regular women."

"Absurd!"

"Ahem, that's enough." Tayfun coughed. "Your Excellency El, I already said that the Pope's Pure Witches are of equal rank as bishops and should be seen as his representatives, so you should show them some respect. And Lady Isabella, please refrain from making these jokes. They aren't as old and near death as me, and might get very angry at what you said."

"As you wish, Your Excellency," Isabella said with a smile.

"Hmph." El uttered a nasal sound and ignored the witch.

"Then let's get to business," Tayfun said, stroking his beard. "Do you have anything to report?"

"I don't understand why His Holiness Mayne is suddenly asking all of the local church groups to send their captured witches to the Holy City. Even if it's to create God's Punishment Army, it's still a high price to pay." El took the lead and said. Her tone sounded harsh probably because of her anger towards the Pure Witch. "Ever since the order was passed, we've captured three witches. While they were being sent over, one broke out of her cage and killed the accompanying guards, and we have yet to find her."

"Wasn't she restrained by a 'metal leash'?" asked Soli.

"Not all churches are equipped with the most advanced God's Locket of Retribution," said El annoyedly. "We lost 16 believers to this witch, including four who were supposed to become Judgement Warriors. If something like this happens again, people might be too afraid to capture witches."

"But we all know that combat witches are a minority, and most of the Fallen aren't capable of fighting back, so this kind of issue is very rare," said Isabella nonchalantly. "Also, every time you bring back a wild witch, the church can gain two new God's Punishment Warriors, so I shouldn't have to explain to you which is more important."

"I agree with Lady Isabella," Soli said, nodding his head. "With the stress on Hermes' line of defense increasing every day, we desperately need more God's Punishment Warriors to fight the demonic beasts. One God's Punishment Warrior has the fighting ability of three or four Judgement Warriors, and even more Warriors-in-training."

"Since the Supreme Pontiff has made his decision, we should just carry it out to the best of our ability." Tayfun turned to Soli Daal and asked, "What's the situation at our line of defense?"

"Very difficult. Regular demonic hybrids are easy to deal with, but every time a Fearful Beast of Hell appears, a God's Punishment Warrior gets injured or killed." Soli shook his head. "Burying snow powder and detonating it is a good idea, but we can't guarantee that they walk over the snow powder every time."

"His Holiness has also considered this," said Isabella frankly, "and he plans to use the 'Siege Beast' ahead of time."

"What's that?"

"A siege weapon controlled by Pure Witches with a range, accuracy, and power that far exceed those of the mangonel, and the key to conquering the Kingdom of Wolfheart," explained the Pure Witch. "The 'Siege Beast' was originally used to fight demons and giant demonic beasts, so since the Fearful Beasts of Hell showed up early, we should start using it."

"Why didn't we use it from the beginning?" Soli asked confusedly.

"Because of the potential damage." Isabella shrugged. "We can't build new ones and can only repair parts of it."

"So where did it come from?" El asked with a frown.

"This is top secret, so you don't have the clearance to know."

"You..."

As the secret room fell quiet, Tayfun broke the silence by clapping his hands and saying, "Alright, since you all brought bad news, I shall share a piece of good news. Besides a few cities in the Kingdom of Wolfheart that are still resisting, all the other nobles have pledged their allegiance to us, just like the weaklings in the Kingdom of Everwinter did. There'll be more believers joining the church, and by next summer, the Holy City's resources and Judgement Army will double in size. Also, the Kingdom of Dawn caused an uprising because of its hostility against believers, and our people are secretly helping them fight the noble, which might last until the end of the Months of the Demons."

"Finally, some good news." El sighed. "I thought the church was done for."

"What kind of nonsense are you talking about?" Soli glared at her. "Aren't we progressing exactly according to our plan?"

"Good job." Isabella nodded approvingly and glanced at the three bishops. "Since you're all done talking, I'll share the Supreme Pontiff's new order."

The three archbishops all immediately looked at the Pure Witch.

"His Holiness orders that we adjust next year's attacks by targeting the Kingdom of Graycastle first and the Kingdom of Dawn last."

"What?" Soli Daal was stunned. "But all of our strategies were made in accordance with the Kingdom of Dawn, including our resources and reinforcements, so if we change our plan now, we'll have to delay our date of the attack."

"Wasn't this plan already in place when Pope O'Brien was in power? Why are we changing it now?" El asked curiously. "Both kingdoms will fall eventually, so why does the order of attacks matter?"

Tayfun was silent. When His Holiness Mayne ordered him to send Pure Witches to the Kingdom of Graycastle to plot the Western Region, he had already predicted this change. "His Holiness wasn't interested in King's City, but in the border area of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

After the two men stopped bickering, Tayfun said quietly, "I've nothing against the order itself, but there's a lot at stake, and I want to see His Holiness Mayne before we carry it out. Can you pass the message for me?"

"No need for such trouble." Isabella smiled. "It just so happens that His Holiness wants to see you too."

Chapter 442 - The Approval of God

As he walked down the stairs to the bottom of the church, Tayfun felt an inexplicable chill.

In the eerily quiet church basement was the core secret of the church—the Hermes' underground castle.

It was the first time for him to come to this place.

"His Holiness Mayne really wanted to meet me here?" According to the convention, only the archbishop who was in line as the Pope was allowed into the Secret Area, but he was too old to be Mayne's successor.

"You've served the church for so many years and have worked together with His Holiness, so he trusts you deeply," Isabella said with a smile. "Also, past rules don't apply to war-times like these, and God's will shouldn't be hidden underground but used to guide the lost believers and lead us to face our final challenge."

"Is this... His Holiness's idea?"

"That's right," she said gently.

When they entered the Secret Area, they were greeted by two Judgement Warriors. "Milord Bishop, His Holiness is currently testing Magic Stones, so if you are carrying a God's Stone of Retaliation, please give it to me for now—it might affect the stones' magic power."

Tayfun nodded and handed a string of stones to the Judgement Warrior.

"His Holiness is right here, please follow me."

Isabella turned into a long passageway and pushed open the metal door at the end. Following the screech of the hinges, Tayfun saw another masked Pure Witch. She blocked the doorway like a ghost, her white skin peeking through the black silk covering her body, and she wore nothing else besides this chiffon. The most striking thing about the witch was her dull gray eyes that were different from those of ordinary people. They seemed to have whirlpools inside them that sucked him in if he looked for too long.

Tayfun subconsciously lowered his head.

It was only then that he noticed that she was barefoot and her toes were covered with flecks of red.

The archbishop recalled Isabella's sentence that "witches are completely different from regular women."

Damn it; are all these witches demon spirits?

Those delicate feet soon moved out of the way, and Tayfun heard Isabella's voice. "Milord?"

"Ahem." Tayfun broke out of his thoughts and walked into the room.

The room was not big, and even though the rosin torches on the walls were burning brightly, they didn't give off their usual sweet smell.

Four Pure Witches sat around a stone table and were fiddling with a clear stone, while the incumbent Pope, His Holiness Mayne, stood by the table.

Tayfun was about to kneel in respect, when Mayne grasped his arm and stopped him.

"There aren't any outsiders here, so there's no use for all this red tape." He smiled. "We go way back, Milord Tayfun."

In two months, Mayne's forehead had become much more wrinkled, and he had grown a few more strands of silver hair, but his humble tone was still the same.

"You can't do this..." Tayfun's heart suddenly felt warm. "Even if there aren't other believers here, I still have to follow the church's rules."

"And I make the rules." The Pope smiled nonchalantly. "Anyway... are things alright above ground? I originally wanted Isabella to bring me the news, but since you're here, you can report directly to me."

"Yes, Your Holiness." Tayfun nodded. After he shared the recent state of the church, he mentioned the order that Isabella had brought up earlier. "All of the resources we prepared up until now are specific to the Kingdom of Dawn, so adjusting our target will take a lot of effort. Why do you suddenly want to attack the Kingdom of Graycastle first?"

"That's also why I called you here." Mayne sighed. "The Kingdom of Graycastle is starting to show signs of decline because the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince and Pill of Madness are achieving their expected results. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Dawn is in even more chaos, so both of them will eventually fall, and it doesn't really matter whom we attack first."

"I agree, but... Graycastle is still a formidable enemy."

"I have two reasons for changing our plan of attack," said the Pope slowly, clasping his hands behind his back. "The first is basically the reason why you're worried: The Kingdom of Graycastle is vast and rich in resources, which means it's a high-risk, high-return opponent. If we can make it a territory of the church earlier, our benefits will be much greater than if we conquer the Kingdom of Dawn. If I had ten more years, I would definitely act according to Lord O'Brien's plan, but we don't have enough time. The appearance of the Fearful Beast of Hell means that the Bloody Moon may appear even earlier than predicted in the Holy Book. In times like these, a little risk and more sacrifices will be worth it."

Tayfun nodded slightly, thinking, "This is a good reason, but the problem is... it didn't seem as if Mayne would have done it this way." He continued, "And the second reason is..."

"Roland Wimbledon of the Western Region," the Pope said decisively.

"You mean... Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle?" Tayfun was shocked.

"By combining the past year's reports, I've discovered something incredible." Mayne patted the bishop's shoulder. "Both the church and the Kingdom of Graycastle failed in all their attacks against him. The first failure can be traced back to the one when Duke of the Western Region attacked him, and what did Roland have at the time? Nothing but a run-down small town. Outsiders think that he defeated the Duke's knightage by succumbing to the demons, but we all know that besides Extraordinaries, a few witches have nothing against knights equipped with God's Stones of Retaliation."

"Also, the reports have only become more and more confusing, such as the secret letter sent to the Holy City two months ago, which stated that King Timothy once sent 2,000 crazed soldiers to attack the Western Region and was immediately defeated. What does this mean?"

Tayfun couldn't help but gasp. "2,000 crazed soldiers! Even in Hermes, this is a considerable force."

"If these messages are read separately, they might seem normal, but when combined, they're very shocking—Roland Wimbledon has never lost a single battle!" the Pope said quietly. "Also, our reports show that his power is growing at a concerning pace, and he seems to be preparing for expansion. If we delay for another year, the entire Kingdom of Graycastle may fall into his hands, so it'll be even more costly to try to defeat him." He paused and turned to Tayfun. "There are a lot of matters to be dealt with in the Secret Area, and I have no time for the operation and expansion of the upper levels of the church, so I can only entrust them to you."

*******************

After the Archbishop left, the appearance of the room suddenly changed.

The torches on the wall, the Pure Witch who was studying the magic stones, and the stone table disappeared. The figure of the Pope also gradually faded, leaving only Isabella, Zero, and the woman in black.

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known that Prince Roland of Kingdom of Graycastle was so interesting," said Isabella. "Why do I get the feeling that he, rather than the church, is more likely to defeat the demons?"

"What does that mean?" asked the woman in black, frowning. "Do you want to betray the church?"

"Betray? Don't phrase it like that." Isabella shrugged. "Isn't the purpose of the church to ensure that human beings survive the Battle of Divine Will? If someone else can do this, I don't care who I serve."

"You…!"

"Stop fighting," said Zero. "Isabella isn't wrong. In the so-called Battle of Divine Will, only the final winner can be protected by God." She looked expressionlessly at the two witches. "As for who will receive the approval of God—the Union or a prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle, I think this war will give us the answer."

Chapter 443 - The Conspiracy

Somewhere to the north of Longsong Stronghold, the Western Region of Kingdom of Graycastle

Sir Eltek was sitting by the fireplace contemplating.

They had not heard anything from Miso Eltek since he had left the night before. It was morning now, and he had yet to return.

Sir Eltek felt a deep sense of unease.

Recently, Miso had been very close with the major families in the Western Region. As the prince's agent in Stronghold, the Honeysuckle Familyhad announced His Highness' intention to integrate the Western Region. All territories would adopt one law and the enfeoffment rights of the nobles would be taken back, which meant they could not expand their subordinate nobles or recruit knights to fight for them.

As for lower nobles like the Elteks, they felt little influence and enjoyed many benefits. As the rumor went, anyone who was loyal to His Highness would be rewarded his favor. Right now, the less influential nobles were the safest people because they would determine the success or failure of His Highness' reform plan.

Consequently, the smartest thing to do was wait and see.

However, Miso Eltek hadn't shared that philosophy.

"My lord, the attendants looking for the second master have returned." said the steward, pushing open the door to the knight's study.

"Have they found him?"

"No," the steward shook his head. "They've searched the taverns, casinos, theaters and brothels and still can't find him."

Eltek was increasingly anxious. He had dispatched two companies of scouts to search for Miso. The first one went to the homes of lower nobility nearby. Most of these nobles were vassals in the employ of Duke Ryan and retained a status comparable to the Duke's family. Miso often went to these places for parties or dinners.

The second group went to the entertainment venues, popular spots for young nobles.

Seeing both parties return empty-handed, the knight's sense of dread intensified.

He stepped to the window, looking toward the eastern territory. The territory of the Elk Family lay in that direction. It was the largest earl domain in the Western Region. Since the collapse of Duke Ryan, Petrov from the Honeysuckle Family had completely swung to Prince Roland and the Elk Family had edged ahead to become the leading power against the prince.

Hell, had Miso gone there...

"My lord, the second master has returned!" Suddenly an attendant ran into the study, breathless. "He's changing clothes in the hall, and it seems he is getting ready to go out."

"What!" The knight immediately grasped his crutch and rushed downstairs, disregarding the steward's pleas for restraint.

The moment Eltek stepped into the hall, he felt his anger rise to a new level. He saw Miso replace his thick coat with a thin and soft leather. The shiny armor of a knight was in front of him and two squires were doing their final preparation work.

"Where did you go yesterday?!" The old knight couldn't help shouting. "What are you up to now?"

"Father, our chance is coming," Miso said excitedly, "A chance to be baron. Maybe even viscount!"

Eltek felt his blood pressure increasing. "Who told you this?"

"Jacques Medde, he brought the king's confidential order!"

Eltek took two steps back, his heart sinking. Jacques Medde was the eldest son of the Elk Family. Never mind the involvement with Timothy. Everyone knew that Timothy wanted to eradicate Roland Wimbledon.

His worst nightmare had occurred and now it was even more serious than he had anticipated.

"What did you hear?"

"Lord Medde summoned the nobility of the Western Region into his castle and opened his Majesty's holograph. It said that if someone conquers Longsong Stronghold, the king will promote his title and expand his domain!" It seemed that Miso was still immersed in the grand scene. "Lady Miller from the Wild Rose Family, Lord Cavan from the Maple Family and Lord Remy Noah from the Wolf Family all pressed their fingerprints and pledged an oath of allegiance, without hesitation. The rest of the nobles and knights are determined to follow the four families and remove the Honeysuckle Family."

It was ridiculous. How could the four families make such a decision based on a piece of paper? The knight lamented inwardly. Had you forgotten how they had treated King Wimbledon III when Duke Ryan was guarding the Western Region? When had they become so loyal?

The only answer was that this was a complete fraud to convince the lower nobles to become pioneers in the movement. The plan would commence in a few months and the four families might agree on the benefits after finding success.

Eltek opened his mouth but didn't share his thoughts. This was Miso Eltek, not his eldest son Ferlin, and such dissuasion wouldn't convince him.

"Where are you going in this armor?" the old knight asked after short silence.

"To win honor and status." Miso wore a cuirass made of stainless steel. "Morning Light, the top knight in the Western Region, only won honor for himself. While I fight for my whole family. Father, when this is finished, you'll know that I'm as worthy of respect as my brother."

"If Timothy vanquishes Prince Roland, your words may come to pass. However, the army of the new king is still far away while Prince Roland's army is very near," the old knight thought.

"Don't you remember how Duke Ryan collapsed?" Eltek said in a low voice.

"Things are different this time. The king has shipped a number of snow powder weapons, the same ones used by Prince Roland. He'll provide better ones to Medde. Without the possession of superior weapons, can Roland seize Longsong Stronghold again?" Miso clipped his sword to his waist and nodded to his father. "The battle is coming soon. Please wait here for good news."

Looking at his back, Eltek threw his crutch to the ground.

"My lord, why didn't you stop him?" the steward came up to hold the trembling Knight.

"It would be easy to stop him, but the family would suffer a great calamity," he nodded slowly. A noble attending the 'rebellion' meeting hadn't shown up at the agreed place. What did this mean for the four families? The crime of escape or defection could lead the whole Eltek Family to death.

"Look on the bright side, if the four families win," the steward comforted. "After all, the months of the demons are long and it'll take two or even three months for the snow to melt. When the army of Prince Roland arrives, the king's army may have already besieged the Western Region."

If it were the past, he would view it in the same way. However, after having visited Border Town once, the knight had a totally different view of Prince Roland. Not to mention his eldest son Ferlin Eltek and his family's benefactor Lady Agatha were all living in Border Town.

He turned to his steward and told him in a stern voice, "Go to Border Town immediately and deliver this news to His Highness. If the city gate has closed, go to the docks in the outskirts and find some ferrymen or fishermen. It doesn't matter how you do it, just do it quickly!"

Chapter 444 - The Intelligence

Before the housekeeper left the Eltek territory, Roland received a letter from the Second Army of Stronghold delivered by a bird.

An hour later, Petrov's call for help also reached the town's castle.

Since the carrier pigeon could only carry limited information, Roland had to combine the two messages and discovered a piece of astonishing news.

The four families of the Western Region had rebelled!

"Who on earth gave them the confidence to plot treason under my nose?"

Roland immediately summoned Carter and Iron Axe and showed them the notes.

"Your Highness, is this..."

"A message from Stronghold," Roland said angrily. The winter was drawing to an end, and the new year was in three days. Not only were there various matters concerning the city construction, but also the installation of the equipment for the Three Supplies Project required his instruction. "Those nobles chose to trouble me at the wrong time; they must be looking forward to dying!"

According to the secret letter, the inner city nobles led a bunch of squires to attack the city guards. By the time the sentries on the city wall realized something was wrong, the switch for the northern drawbridge had fallen into the control of the enemies. The sentries could do nothing but light the beacon fire and rely on the city wall to hold their positions.

When the other members of the Second Army saw the beacon signal, they followed the emergency response protocol by dividing the camp's ten teams of about 50 soldiers in total into two platoons. One platoon charged toward the north gate, while the other went to the Stronghold castle. Petrov's secret letter was sent after the second platoon confronted the enemies at the castle and realized they were fighting the local nobilities.

"Petrov Hull mentioned that the attackers sieging the castle were carrying the four families' banners, which means this rebellion was planned," Carter frowned after reading the notes. "Since the four families are acting together, there must be a leader among them."

Indeed, the four families, or five families including those under Duke Ryan, were great nobles on equal footing. If they were to set aside their prejudices and cooperate, it was most likely because a bigger force was behind them. Otherwise, with the Earls looking down upon each other, it would take over a decade for them to decide on a leader.

At the moment, there were only one or two people who would be interested in meddling with the Western Region.

"Do you mean... Timothy in the King's City?" Iron Axe looked at the Chief Knight. As a member of the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan, he was far less sensitive to the political situation of the Kingdom of Graycastle than Carter was.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it's the church," Roland twitched his mouth and said. "Judging from their actions at Fallen Dragon Ridge, it's only a matter of time before they attack the Western Region."

"The problem is, in the second letter, Petrov mentioned the enemies might have firearms." Carter frowned. "Does it mean they have learned the formula for gunpowder?"

"Snow powder isn't unknown to the church and Timothy, but they have a long way to go before they can use it smoothly." The prince knocked on the table lightly. "What puzzles me is that with Border Town as the nearest town to Stronghold, the help they get must be from somewhere further. So even with the support of an unknown force, how did they gain enough confidence to confront the First Army?"

"Probably because we're in the Months of the Demons," Iron Axe replied after contemplating for a while. "Although last time Your Highness defeated the Duke's knights using thunder power, our troops didn't show extraordinary skills in battle. Now with the snow blocking the roads and demonic beasts attacking the borders, it seems like perfect timing for a successful rebellion, and it'll be at least two months before you have the resources to attack Longsong Stronghold."

"And I'll be hindered by the lofty city walls and powerful flintlocks?"

"Yes," Iron Axe couldn't help but grin. "They have all the weapons that you have, plus the insurmountable city wall and reinforcement of an unknown force, so they have a very good chance of beating you at the foot of the city wall. That's probably what they thought."

"Yet they're fully unaware of the power of Border Town." Roland stood up. "Iron Axe!"

"At your command, Your Highness!" Iron Axe instantly stood at attention.

"The First Army must immediately prepare for an expedition. We'll set off tomorrow morning," Roland said decisively. "Choose 500 soldiers. Carry six field artilleries. You are in charge of making the specific arrangements."

"Yes, Sir!" Iron Axe saluted.

The scale of the First Army had quadrupled its original 500 soldiers to 2,200. Revolving rifles were upgraded, and their firepower was drastically increased. Besides, the efficiency of the First Army's executing instructions was greatly enhanced due to the improvement of the soldiers' educational level. Upon command, personnel would deploy ammunition and rations based on the number of soldiers on the operation and the number of days. The logistics work for 500 people could be done in almost one day. Compared with the knights or the mercenaries, who needed weeks to prepare, Roland's army was functioning at an incredible speed.

The army headed towards the inner city of Stronghold on 11 paddle steamers. After entering mass production, the production of a boat with a reinforced concrete hull took only five days, which was even a deliberately lowered speed, because its number was limited by the available crew and steam engines.

"Carter!"

"At your command, Your Highness," the Chief Knight said and raised his head high.

"You stay in Border Town."

The corners of the knight's mouth instantly fell down. "Wha-what? No. Your Highness. How could you leave me behind again?"

"We're still in the Months of the Demons. Demonic beasts pose a greater threat than the nobility," Roland said unwaveringly. "Guard the town well."

After the two of them retreated, Roland sighed. "This time the witches need to go with me."

"I'll follow you, no matter where you go," Nightingale said with a smile.

Considering their opponent could be the church, Roland knew that only the witches could effectively counter the Pure Witches' attacks without God's Stones of Retaliation. After debating his options, Roland decided on the witches who would accompany him: Lightning, Maggie, Sylvie, Nana, Lily, and Nightingale. "If I add the three combat witches from Sleeping Island to the list, ít'll be very hard for the Pure Witches to defeat us."

Roland stood at the window and looked at the snowy mountains and plains.

"If I view the Impassable Mountain Range as the city wall of Stronghold, then the Barbarian Land in the north is also the domain of the four families, a territory beyond the reach of my power. Elk, Wild Rose, Maple Leaf, and Wolf families... have operated separately on their own lands for over a decade, forming their unique laws and customs, so even Ryan, the overlord of the Western Region, seldom interfered with their businesses," mused Roland. The prince had intended to slowly divide and annex these aristocratic territories after building the new city, but the rebellion gave him an early opportunity—one to swallow the vast land and population of Stronghold in one gulp.

He didn't intend to let go of the nobles this time.

Chapter 445 - Ready to Strike

Cacusim arrived at the dock as the first rays of sunlight started to peep through the clouds.

Unlike the usual, the dock was packed with silent soldiers. They stood erect, with their sacks and long-barrelled guns on their backs, looking like a thick forest in a storm. Although the dock was crowded, everyone was moving in an organized manner. Watching the soldiers board the paddle steamer one by one, Cacusim was filled with an indescribable sense of power and strength.

He swallowed hard while thinking,

These are the soldiers trained by His Highness.

"How incredible!" The old man had traveled from Seawindshire to the Port of Clearwater as a youth. This distance was over half the Kingdom of Graycastle, and he had also led the commercial fleet to the Fjords and nearby islands. So, he had personally witnessed the arrogant demeanor of the armored knights, as well as the fierce demeanor of the barbarians who killed beasts bare-handed. To him, these soldiers were undeniable fighters that could exercise extreme power. However, he had not expected to feel that power once again, but while standing with the group of ordinary people he could feel it and it was stronger than ever.

"No doubt these are just ordinary people..." He thought. It had been about four months since Cacusim arrived at Border Town, and each day he understood the town a little better. He knew that the First Army consisted mostly of locals and that many of them were miners, hunters, furnace labors, and masons before they joined the army. Because of this, they had never received any professional combat training.

Nevertheless, in just a few months, these people had become as brave and disciplined as any knight. "What magic did his Highness use on them?"

"Are you... really going?" Cacusim heard Vader whisper from behind him. He could tell from his lowered voice, that he too was silenced by the presence of the army.

"Why did I apply for the captain position if I wasn't going?" Cacusim answered while taking a deep breath.

"But they are off to fight." Vader continued.

"They all offer their services to His Highness." The old man corrected. Without turning his head he added, "And so do I."

Following the momentary silence, Vader then implored, "Stay alive."

Cacusim waved in response.

...

Cacusim boarded the sixth paddle steamer as it arrived with the swirling snow. According to the tradition, a captain can name their own ship, and even though this boat belonged to His Highness, he was still allowed to decide its name.

Yet, he still had not made up his mind.

This was the second time he had assumed the position of captain since his retirement ten years ago. So, he wished to come up with a name dedicated to his memory.

"Captain, there you are!" As soon as Cacusim stepped into the cabin at the helm, the first mate came up to greet him. "We are now preheating the boiler, and I promise it will soon be ready to go"

The young man was called Pike and he was from the Southern Territory. He had a few years experience fishing on the sea. If he was a part of another fleet, he wouldn't even pass as a sailor but on this boat, everyone was a newbie.

"Everyone's here?"

"All are on board. You were the last one," Pike replied with a wink.

"If you don't know how to respect your captain, I'll be happy to teach you through a full day of deck cleaning."

"Yes, captain." The young man shouted, erecting himself immediately, "Of course I do!"

"That's better," Cacusim commented. While stroking his beard he gave Pike orders. "Tell the boiler house to stoke up the fire, but not to shut the damn steam valve. I don't want to rear-end the boat in front of us!"

"Yes, gotcha." Without finishing the sentence, Pike had slipped back into his previous playful manner. He quickly winked at the old man and dashed out of the cabin.

"That rascal," Cacusim mumbled while shaking his head smiling. He was more at ease after the interaction, as if he had slipped back to the good days of when he roamed the sea. The old man went back to the wheel, where he gently stroked its wooden handle. Slowly he began to remember the operating procedures for a paddle steamer.

The stone boat invented by His Highness was very different from the sailboat. It didn't have a mast or a cabin below deck, instead, it had two chambers. The first chamber is located at the helm and is called the wheelhouse. This room has two large windows from which the captain can see the route and navigate clearly. The second chamber is found in the middle and it contains the boiler that powers the boat.

Behind the wheelhouse, there was a bare deck and this space was often filled by miners during training. During this time of training, they would often travel west along the Redwater River to drop the miners off at the edge of the Misty Forest, where they could find coal. Coal lasted longer than wood and was the preferred fuel for Seawindshire. Now, there was a makeshift shed constructed from cloth, apparently set up in preparation for the boarded soldiers.

Although Cacusim was not familiar with the stone boat, he soon realized it was not hard to operate and even simpler than a sailboat in many ways. First of all, this boat didn't require wind and sails for direction and power. Overall it took less manpower to run. Furthermore, It would not be hard to teach a villager how to run a stove, whereas it would take at least six months for them to master sailing. The stone boat could run by itself for a long time as long as the engine was on and the steam valve was shut.

Just then, the tranquility of Border Town's early morning was broken by a dull steam whistle from the front of the line.

The first boat was sailing off.

"Captain, the water in the boiler is ready!" reported Pike who scurried back to the wheel house.

"Ring the bell to tell Bigpad and Grizzly that it is time to shut the valve and speed up. It's time to move." Cacusim solemnly gave the instructions.

"Yes, sir. Advance!" Pike pulled on the long iron string attached to the wall, which would ring the bell in the boiler house and deliver the captain's command.

In response, the boat shook violently, and the wooden tires on either side started to move slowly.

Cacusim held tight to the wheel at the helm and looked straight ahead. When Vader asked him why he wanted to fight, he actually did not tell him the truth. Saying it was to serve His Highness was only a small part of the reason.

The truth was he simply enjoyed being a "captain".

It didn't matter if it was a sailboat or a paddle steamer, Cacusim truly loved the feel of the wheel in his hands as he navigated the bow through the thrusting waves.

This is the life he really wants.

"Full sail... No, continue to shovel coal!" The old man turned to face starboard while hollering. "Hold on guys! We're setting out!"

*******************

"If you ferry me to Border Town the Eltkes will pay you well. How about five... no, ten gold royals?" The steward asked while blocking the troubled boatman's cabin door. The steward had placed his left foot in the crack of the door to prevent the boatman from closing it in his face and effectively shutting him out.

"Y... Your Excellency, I'm happy to be at your service, but I just can't." The boatman stammered, "L... Look, there isn't even a shed above my boat to protect you from the snow. It wouldn't be a problem to ferry you across the river, but to Border Town... that would take several days! "Just consider this freezing weather. Where would we sleep?" the boatman implored. "We would become frozen like popsicles in just one night on the boat, wouldn't we?"

"Are there any other boatmen nearby who can ferry me to Border Town?" the steward persisted.

"No, not a one." the boatman denied while waving his hand. "We only have small boats. Y... You should go to Stronghold to find a boat you can spend the night on."

If I could have entered Longsong Stronghold, why did I come here looking for a boatman that fished and ferried for a living? the steward thought to himself as the boatman shut the door.

The steward kicked at the snow. Ever since the four families started to attack Stronghold, all the city gates had been closed. He spent a long time taking this detour and now found that all of his efforts were in vain.

It will be getting dark soon. How am I going to complete my Lord's task?

The steward sullenly looked at the Redwater River, but he was soon stunned.

Good Heavens, what's that?

He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, making sure what he was seeing was not an illusion. A huge fleet was coming down the river and the boats were unlike any he had seen before. Through the dense misty snow, the vessels roared and whistled towards him at full speed. There was not any sail on the gray boats and yet they were still proceeding against the wind, their bows cutting the water and cleaving through the waves.

On the first boat, he could see a flag flapping in the wind with the embroidered emblem of a tower and a gun. The steward held his breath in realization, "This is the fleet of Prince Roland Wimbledon!"

Chapter 446 - Here Comes the Giant Beast

Longsong Stronghold was bisected by a branch of the Redwater River; to the West laid the residential area and to the East laid vast farming lands.

Unlike the other big cities that were set in the suburbs of farmlands, the towering city wall of the Stronghold encircled both the residential area and a portion of the farmlands. It was built to defend against human beings, and not demonic beasts. However, even if the city was under siege, Stronghold would still flourish and be able to supply its people.

As such, the outer wall of Longsong Stronghold was split where the river divided the two sections of the city. Between the divide in the walls hung several massive chains which were the width of a man's arm. If an enemy decided to attack from the river, the hemp cords holding the heavy chains would be cut and send them crashing into the water to stop the enemy below.

Fortunately, the inner land of the Western Region had rarely been attacked by any fleets. So, these cables had almost never come into use, and would not this time either. Out on the water, Roland's fleet pushed through the storm. Around twilight, they were able to see the silhouette of the fortress in the distance. Strands of the beacon's fire could be seen flashing above the city, slashing through the inkiness of the ever gradually darkening sky.

"The enemies have already reached the lord's castle and there are some militias fighting with the guards at the north gate of the city wall. It looks like they can't hold up any longer." Lightning, who had carefully investigated the situation in the city, continued giving her detailed report to the prince, "There are around 200 people attacking the castle. The first round of attacks failed. The enemies have weapons similar to our flintlocks, but they look completely different."

"Is Petrov alright?" Roland inquired, showing concern. Roland currently cared most about the safety of his agent.

"He's fine, other than being a little frightened. But... "

"But what?"

"His family was killed," Lightning answered, her mouth twitching. "His Excellency Petrov warned his father and asked him to get to the castle. However, his other family members were taken as hostages, including the Countess. They were being held by the four families in exchange for surrender and subsequently they were executed one by one." The little girl paused for a moment before continuing, "I took an opportunity to fly into the castle to tell him that you would be coming soon and he had only one request."

Roland nodded and asked, "What is it?"

"Blood for blood."

There was an unwritten rule among nobles where people with bestowed titles were exempt from being murdered in times of battle. In the case of the family of Earl Honeysuckle, most of his loved ones had been honored with a knighthood. However, the four families had betrayed that rule. Not only did they hate the Honeysuckle Family because of the benefits of Roland's support but they were also being driven by a new political power.

In light of this, Roland was almost certain the power behind them was the new king, Timothy Wimbledon. He now realized there was no room for mercy and that he needed to crush them. Supporting the king and executing rebels was very different from helping the church slaughter nobles. The prince looked towards Stronghold and coldly gave the order, "Go straight into the city and take the dock!"

*******************

Ayt heard the sound of footsteps below the city wall.

He raised the flintlock numbly, aiming it at the dark hole below. This was the only path to climb up the city wall from within. There had been several rounds of attacks since the enemies captured the city gate, but they were still not able to seize the northern part of the city wall.

The battle started yesterday at noon and had yet to cease. He hadn't expected to be standing in the cold, brisk wind for so long. After watching his supporting comrades fall one by one into pools of blood, all he could focus on was fighting.

"Are they coming again?" Seeing a long-barrelled gun pop up next to him, Ayt tilted his head to the side and found that it was his unit leader, Bronzehill.

"I could hear them," Ayt replied feebly, "but I have no idea how many there are in the darkness."

"They don't know how many of us are left either," Bronzehill comforted him.

"So... how many are left?"

Bronzehill answered after a moment's hesitation, "Only five. Raven just took his last breath."

"And we probably won't see the sun tomorrow," Ayt said bitterly. After the initial feelings of fear and panic, he then became numb. It was this experience that helped him finally understand what his instructor had meant when he said, "Only a real battle will quickly make you a man." However, this did not make the current situation any better. Out of the three units, there were only five people left. Even if the enemies didn't make it up the wall, they would likely die from starvation or exposure to cold. "Can we still surrender?"

"Surrender?" Bronzehill snorted. "Didn't you hear what they were yelling? 'Kill the rebels!' There's nothing but death ahead. We'd better take down as many as possible while we can."

Ayt knew the unit leader was right. Many captured soldiers from the Second Army were beheaded. They were not nobles, and nobody would pay a ransom. But... he just hated the idea of dying up here.

The instructor had told them about how happy life in Border Town was and promised that once the Months of the Demons had passed, soldiers who did well in the Second Army would be transferred to the First Army and receive free housing there. There was plenty of food in Border Town, as well as running water and a heating system that could warm up a whole room without ignition...

He wanted to survive and see the amazing things that his instructor had described.

"Here they come!" Bronzehill suddenly shouted while pulling the trigger. In the muzzle flash, Ayt could see the figure of the enemy revealed in the darkness. Six or seven people were creeping slowly up along the wall, holding up their shields. He even caught a glimpse of the terror in their eyes.

The unit leader missed his target, fortunately, he was already pointing the gun in the right direction.

He aimed at the fleeting figure and fired again.

There was the muffled sound of a bullet hitting a wooden shield, and then a shriek, followed by the sound of a heavy object rolling down the stairs. Realizing that they had been exposed, the rest of the enemies rushed to the opening recklessly.

Bronzehill was struggling to reload his gun, but his frozen hands hindered the process, slowing him greatly. Ayt jumped back from the open pit and groped frantically for his gunpowder sack. His heart sank when he found it empty and he realized that he had already used it all.

According to his training, now was the time to use the bayonets.

He pulled out the bayonet and struggled to attach the knife to the front of his gun. Clenching his teeth in frustration, he finally got it to attach and lifted it just in time as the enemy breached the hole and rushed at him.

Instantly firing, Bronzehill took the first man down, but there was a second close on his heels and this one managed to slide a sword into Bronzehill's chest.

Ayt was stunned and his training took over. He mechanically thrust his bayonet in futility, only striking the enemy's shield. The enemy easily kicked him to the ground, disarming him completely.

Am I really going to die here?

Looking up at the night sky in despair, he noticed a dark figure above him.

He normally wouldn't notice something so dark against the inky sky that night, but the shadow was close and rapidly getting closer still. It plummeted towards him like a collapsed curtain made of night.

Ayt's eyes bulged as the shadow became more defined and he realized it was a giant beast!

This was a beast only found in nightmares. Its huge crimson mouth was gaping, head larger than a bull's, and giant wings that almost covered the entire length of the city wall.

The giant beast descended right in front of Ayt, crushing the enemies who just surfaced from the opening.

"Ow... Ow...!"

It released a thunderous growl that was loud enough to wake the dead!

Chapter 447 - The Reaper

Ayt was paralyzed with fright. He helplessly stared at the beast, who now also turned to look at him. He could clearly see mucus dripping from its beige fangs.

"Relax. I'm not going to eat you." The beast suddenly spoke in human language with a muddy voice, which almost horrified him enough to shriek.

He was astounded again when seeing a girl jump off the beast's back. She walked towards Bronzehill, turned him over and checked him out. She said to the beast, "He's alive. Maggie, send him to Nana."

"Ow!" The beast seemed to understand what she said. It grabbed Bronzehill with its claws and flew up again. The flapping of its wings stirred up the air, producing strong winds, which made Ayt unable to open his eyes. When the wind and snow finally stopped, he squinted at the city wall but saw nothing at all—as if everything that had happened was just a dream.

"No, it's not a dream... That girl is still here!" he thought.

He vaguely saw the girl's figure in the darkness. There was apparently no light around, but her pupils were emitting weird golden lights, like stars in the night.

"You... you're..."

"I came to help you." The girl's reply left him dumbfounded.

"Wh-what?" Ayt felt this was more implausible than a dream. "You're here to help me?"

"Yes. His Highness Roland sent me here." She squatted down, dug out a long sword from the flattened corpses and swung it, completely disregarding the fact that the sword was covered with flesh and blood.

Ayt was overcome by a feeling of sickness. He retched twice but vomited nothing except bile. Just then, outside the city wall, a battle cry resounded again. The beast had just terrified the enemies一but now that they saw it had left, and they had no idea what had happened up there on top of the city wall, they began to stir again.

"By 'His Highness'... you mean the prince of Border Town?" He wiped his mouth and gasped.

"Is there another Roland besides him?" the black-haired girl asked, as she started to dig another weapon from a corpse. Ayt immediately turned his head away from her.

"But it takes at least three days to get here from Border Town... How did His Highness know about the noble's rebellion so quickly?" Ayt swallowed hard and continued, "and the beast just now..."

"It's not a beast, but a witch that came here to save you." Her voice turned cold. "I don't have time to answer all your questions. Just keep quiet."

As there was no flintlock blocking them this time, the enemies easily came up on top of the city wall. When torches lit the place up again, they were surprised to find only a girl standing in front of them.

Malicious laughter soon broke the silence.

Ayt immediately knew what they meant by the laughter.

"Stay alert. Don't give them any chance to play any dirty tricks on us."

"Don't worry, my lord. We'll take care of it, but later..."

"When I'm done, I'll leave her to you."

"Hey... fine with me."

"Qui-quickly come back here to me!" Ayt struggled to stand up, but what happened next made him stare in amazement.

A silver light chopped down and the laughter died abruptly.

The leader of the enemies was chopped into two pieces by the long sword. His shield and armor could not stop it at all. In fact, he didn't even see the girl strike.

When the two pieces of his body fell down with blood spurting out from the wounds, everyone's smile froze on their face.

However, this was just the beginning.

The black-haired girl took one step forward and swept her sword. Before Ayt could clearly see her movements, he heard the sound of flesh scraping and bones breakings.

The three men had no time to react as they were ripped open in their stomachs.

Their intestines fell out mixed with blood and spilled all over the ground.

"You..." Ayt opened his mouth a little but didn't know what to say.

The girl looked back at him and said, "Go find your surviving battle companions and gather on top of the wall. Someone will come to fetch you later." With these words, she jumped directly off the city wall.

"The city wall here was thirty feet tall!" He endured all the pains in his body, fumbled to climb close to the edge of the wall and looked down. He saw the crowd down there turning into a meat grinder. The girl killed wherever she went. She freely dashed among the crowd, with her weapon moving around smoothly in her hand. She easily cut down the entire enemy who dared to stand in front of her, like the reaping of wheat.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the enemy collapsed.

They'd never seen such a fierce opponent, who was faster than a snow wolf and stronger than a grizzly bear. Facing her sword, nobody could react, dodge, or fight. The noblemen hurriedly retreated and the siege was extinguished, merely by one person.

She followed the escaping crowd all the way, leaving a trail of blood behind her. At this sight, Ayt dropped to the ground and cold sweat soaked his spine.

That's a witch?

Well. whatever... I survived!

*******************

The Stronghold castle was tightly besieged by the four families' armies. A dozen bonfires around the castle brightly lit the place up.

After a day and night of fighting, the second floor of the castle had already been conquered. The Honeysuckles now shrunk back to the very top of it and must be suffering from both hunger and fear up there.

Jacques Medde looked at this towering lord's castle and began to feel excited.

After his father died, he traveled all the way back to the territory from the King's City just to inherit the Earl's title, but now he had an even better chance.

Timothy mentioned in the secret letter that if he could take hold of Longsong Stronghold for the King's City, the king's army would come here when the snow melted to conquer the rebel king, Roland Wimbledon. Once the rebel king was eliminated, Timothy would probably let him govern the Western Region.

Together with the territory of Earl Honeysuckle, Jacques would have both the land and title of a duke.

Duke Medde. What a wonderful name!

This castle would also become my residence.

"My lord, the sixth platoon has come back down," a knight came and reported, "and they said they heard a lot less flintlock sounds from the enemy. Is it time to send iron armor platoons up there?"

Jacques Medde nodded and said, "Go and arrange it."

Iron armor platoons were specially developed to fight against flintlocks. During the fighting, three or four soldiers formed a team—two of them held shields made of wood with several layers of iron coating, which could cover them all up, and had holes for aiming and firing. In order to make more shields like this, he made the tough decision to tear down a dozen knight's armors. Of course, those thick iron-coated shields had a weakness, too. As it was hard to carry and the whole team had to move slowly, they would easily become targets for their enemies.

"Luckily, the Honeysuckles can't hold out any longer." Jacques sneered silently. "They reacted unexpectedly quickly and withdrew part of their soldiers and knights back into the castle before the four families' armies arrived, and they had just only nearly a hundred men. It's impossible for them to fight a long, hard battle.

It'll probably take several days before Prince Roland receives the news.

If I send Petrov's head as a gift to Roland Wimbledon, how will he look like?

Chapter 448 - A Hail of Bullets

"My lord, the dock area in the west city seems strange," reported a guard who was in charge of sealing off the street. "I've heard strange noises coming from there and sent two platoons to investigate but none of them came back."

"What?" Jacques Medde said with a frown, "You must have misheard it."

"No, it's clear, like the sounds of heavy, rapid breathing. Wheeze, wheeze..." the guard said, imitating the sounds.

"Maybe it's the snoring sounds of a tramp?"

"My lord, in this weather, anyone sleeping outside will be frozen to death," the guard insisted, "and nobody can snore that loudly. It must be a giant almost as tall as the city wall if they're really snoring sounds."

The Earl stared at him for a good long while and then turned away, shouting, "Knight Dowcan!"

"My lord, what can I do for you?" a knight wearing the badge of the Maple Family on his chest responded, striding toward the Earl.

"Summon your platoon and follow my guard to investigate the dock in the city." Jacques patted the knight's shoulder and added, "Inform me at once if you've any news."

"Eh... Could you send someone else there?" the young knight said, hesitating. "My father urged me to enter the castle together with you."

"It won't take you long to go to the dock, but I can assure you here it'll take a lot longer," the Earl said with a smile, "and if the Honeysuckle Family surrenders, I'll wait for you here."

"Ah... fine."

After the knight left with his guard, Jacques' facial expression turned stone-cold. "Keep dreaming! You think you can receive the same credit by sending a son here to enter the castle with me? His Majesty mentioned only me in the secret letter!"

Before long, he heard the distant sound of gunfire coming from the west.

Jacques was instantly on the alert. "What's that? The eldest son of the Maple Family has no flintlock."

When he was planning to send some of his knights there to check the situation, the guard who had reported to him earlier stumbled back into the battalion. "My, my lord... things have gone wrong!"

"What went wrong?"

"The rebel king... he came here!" The guard said with his eyes widely opened, "Thousands of enemies are heading for the castle!"

"You meant Roland Wimbledon's army?" Jacques raised his hand and slapped the guard on the face. "Thousands of them? If you dare to talk nonsense, I'll hang you up on the city gate!"

"My lord, they carry the flags of the Kingdom of Graycastle." The guard did not dare to dodge. He got down on one knee and continued, "I wanted the squire of Knight Dowcan to catch one or two enemies to get further information, but the moment they charged towards them, they were, were..."

"What happened to them?" the Earl pressed.

"They were shot down by intense gunfire." The Earl could tell from the guard's face that he seemed to have witnessed very terrifying scenes. "At that time, it looked like numerous fires popped out all of a sudden in the darkness and the cracking sounds never stopped. Twenty people only charged forward for less than 100 steps before they were all shot down and so did the horses!" The guard swallowed and went on, "My lord, I've never seen such an intense gunfire. If there weren't more than a thousand enemies, how could they eliminate the knight's platoon in just a blink?"

"Where is the eldest son of the Maple Family?"

"He's... run away."

The Earl sank, weak-kneed, into his chair and was completely confused. "How is it possible? The four families started to act from yesterday at noon and Prince Roland came to support Longsong Stronghold tonight. If we count the messaging time, does this mean he needs only one day to come here from his town? Even when sailing smoothly with the wind the entire time, they can't reach here that fast, let alone while carrying a thousand people. To transport that many people, he needs at least a huge fleet, but according to the intelligence, Border Town has no ship in the winter!"

How could things turn out like this?

"No, I have to be calm in such an emergency." Jacques Medde wiped the sweat from his forehead and thought that maybe the guard did talk nonsense. Without torches, he could not see clearly how many enemies were there on the dock in the darkness when he was obviously shocked by their firing flintlocks. "Flintlocks may seem powerful. However, their shooting range was merely about 40 steps and their reloading speed and hit rate were extremely low. Assuming that every enemy is equipped with this kind of weapon, they won't be unbeatable for at most two dozen soldiers who can march abreast in the street leading to the castle. If I inform the Wild Rose and the Wolf Family now and gather all the knights, mercenary fighters and guards to attack them after their first round of firing, maybe we could defeat them.

Unlike battles in fields, the poor efficiency in flintlock reloading is a fatal shortcoming in street fights.

"Damn it." Jacques slapped on an arm of his chair and said to the head of his guards. "Go to invite Earl Wild Rose and the Viscount of the Wolf Family to come here and order all the men with flintlocks to block the entrance of the castle. Go!"

Compared with crossbowmen, it's much faster to train flintlock soldiers. Let them block the enemies first. Their lives aren't worth much. If necessary, knights can tread on them.

To his great surprise, the head of his guards came back and reported, "They've already left the battalion with their men."

To besiege Petrov, the four families respectively held the four sides of the castle. Jacques did not expect that the other families received the news earlier than him.

Now, the sounds of gunfire were nearing the castle. As the guard had described, they were the deep rumble of dense drums, loud and clear across the growing mounds of snow.

"These bastards!" Jacques' heart froze. He looked at the castle for the last time. He had no choice but to order a retreat. This time, only he and his guards had the chance to flee. His men in the castle were left behind.

Outside the castle, the Earl was shocked by the scene.

The enemies were everywhere, and any knight who tried to break through the blockade would be shot down remorselessly. Their weapons were nothing like the flintlocks sent by Timothy. They could fire continuously and seemed to require no reloading. It was chaotic. Members of the other three families were trapped, with the exception of Knight Dowcan, who had been the first to flee.

"My lord, what should we do?"

"Send for the iron armor platoons!" he cried out. "We'll forge behind them and we'll be covered by their iron shields."

After all the troubles, three iron armor platoons finally gathered and slowly moved forward holding their shields. The other knights found it and followed them, too. They knew that this might be their last chance to break through.

Unfortunately, Jacques Medde made a mistake. When they were only 100 steps from their enemies, the latter's weapons exploded with dazzling bursts of fire. The iron shields made to block lead balls were instantly riddled with bullets. The men in the front holding the shields were killed. Splashing metal debris shot through bodies, stirring up a thick fog of blood behind the shields.

Before the Earl could call out the order of charge, he was cut down in a volley of fire.

Chapter 449 - The Course of War

...

When Roland walked into the messy castle, Petrov and Earl Hull were kneeling down on one knee in the center of the hall, awaiting his arrival.

All the bodies on the floor had been removed, but the smell of the blood lingered. The pieces of broken furnishings and weapons could be seen everywhere; he could almost imagine the killing-scenes between the two parties in the battle for the castle.

"Rise." Roland walked towards Petrov, bending over to hold his shoulders.

"Yes," Petrov said in a choked voice, "Your Highness, you are finally here."

"You did a good job," Roland said with a heavy voice, "the four big families will pay a heavy price for this, and the murderers shall be brought to justice."

"I didn't guard Longsong Stronghold well..."

"You did your best. It's not your fault." Roland sighed. Petrov was not a ruler of war. This was evident from the seizure of the previous city by the light cavalry and the rebellion of the nobilities this time. He was good at managing the territory, proficient in trading, and skilled in capturing opportunities, but he was not a Machiavellian. He was definitely not an expert at fighting and plotting. If it wasn't for the Second Army that was stationed in the castle in accordance with the emergency measure, he wouldn't have been able to hold more than two days.

However, that did not mean Petrov Hull was not a good manager. If he was not good at war, he should be assigned to a territory without any war. Roland preferred operators with a business mind to those with fighting talents.

"I believe there must have been an inducement for this riot," Roland looked at everyone around him. "This is a downright conspiracy. The enemy seeks to subvert the order of Western Region in order to obtain benefits that don't belong to them."

The scene quieted down. Everyone, including both the armed soldiers of the First Army and the wounded knights behind Petrov, had their gazes on His Highness.

"They have committed a felony for this, murdering the nobility and killing the civilians. After the war, we'll see that many people have lost their families, and many houses will have been looted. But their conspiracy didn't succeed in the end. It was your unyielding resistance that prevented Stronghold from falling into a greater tragedy. Your performance was heroic and your willpower was laudable!"

The knights slightly lifted their chests without realizing it.

"However, the war isn't over yet. These rebels are fleeing in panic, and it's time for us to seek our revenge! I swear no matter where the enemies are hiding, they won't escape the coming trial, be it in the territories of the four families... or King's City!" Roland paused and said categorically, "The culprits who caused the rebellion are bound to be punished too! The blood you shed... will not be in vain!"

"Long live, Your Highness!" Petrov and Earl Hull knelt down once again.

"Long live, Your Highness!" The surviving knights and soldiers of the Second Army also began to kneel.

Soon, everyone was kneeling on one knee with their upper body upright, right hand on the chest, shouting the slogan in unison.

"Long live, Your Highness!"

...

After comforting the people at the scene, Roland summoned Petrov, Van'er, Brian, and Iron Axe into the study on the third floor of the castle, which was the only place that had not been invaded. All the furnishings were basically intact. Roland knew that he would probably have to spend the next few days there.

The first thing he had to do was to understand the situation regarding the battlefield within the city. He looked at Iron Axe, and the latter reported immediately, "The witches have seized back the northern gate and the eastern gate which was once occupied by the four families. The First Army is eliminating the rebels within the city under Miss Sylvie's guidance. The order of the city should be restored by tomorrow morning."

"What about the casualties?"

"A total of six people were injured so far, and all of them are from the rifle battalion, but they’ve been treated and cured by Miss Nana."

"What about the Second Army? Has it been counted?"

"Not yet... But according to the latest news, there are more casualties." Brian hesitated. "Both of the platoons sent to support the city wall have been defeated, and they haven't been gathered so far. Out of the 50 soldiers who were sent to defend the castle, 11 were killed, and almost none of the soldiers patrolling on the city wall survived."

Roland nodded. The militancy of this era was not as high, enabling the 100 people to persist for two days. The defensive party tended to have the bigger advantages, especially when the enemy lacked effective assault weapons. If the other party wasn't using firearms, the Lord's castle could not be broken through with only the flesh and blood of the mercenary and guards. This was fully taken into account during the design of this building to prevent enemy attack.

At this thought, he instructed Iron Axe, "Show me some of the rebels’ firearms."

Roland was really concerned about the new hot weapons of this era. Although this day was expected to come sooner or later since the birth of the snow powder, the development speed of Timothy really surprised him.

Iron Axe carried out the order quickly. Only several minutes later, a few tube-like weapons of different lengths and shapes were carried into the study by soldiers.

After seeing the actual objects, Roland quickly understood why the enemies could build the weapons in a fairly short time.

These long tubes could not be called flintlock in the sense that they had no trigger and percussion device, and they were nothing more than metal tubes with a hole at each end. It was deeper at one end for loading gunpowder and bullets and had a needle-like hole at the end for ignition. The other end was shallower and could be used as the handle after inserting a bamboo stick or a wooden pole.

It was very similar to the prototype of the flintlock, structure-wise.

The loading process of this primitive fire lance was the same as that of the flintlock, but the launch was more troublesome. It required a gunman to hold the wooden pole under his armpit and ignite the gunpowder with the hand on the other side. Due to the limitation caused by the holding position, it was impossible to aim accurately and could only be roughly pointed straight ahead while shooting.

But it was still undoubtedly a hot weapon. Putting aside all the inconveniences, its launch principle was completely consistent with the flintlock. Its barrel and projectile were almost the same as those of the latter’s, so the power was far greater than crossbow bolts. If shot, the armor of knights would not hold the attack.

Timothy's efforts on the customization could obviously be seen from the unique look of each fire lance. Some were made of rolled-steel with clear thumping traces left on the body of the pipe, while some were molded by wrought copper and looked smooth. Considering they were simply testing products to assist the four families, the firearms used by Timothy himself should be better.

However... even the best fire lance was merely a fire lance.

The King's City had no chance of winning as soon as the launch of the spring attack began. They would be unable to face the Western Region army armed with revolving rifles, bolt rifles, and HMGs (heavy machine gun).

Roland shifted his gaze back to the four of them and said, "The First Army will be recovering the suburban territories of Longsong Stronghold one by one from tomorrow onwards. Any nobility who resists can be put to death on the spot. I hope the entire Western Region will be unified after this week."

"Yes, Your Highness!" The four of them answered in unison.

Chapter 450 - Old Friends

...

Rene Medde had been trapped in the basement of the Elk's mansion for half a month.

He thought he could've stopped Jacques, but he hadn't expected his elder brother to make the first move.

"Here is your lunch. Hope you enjoy it." Sean, the long-faced steward, brought a plate of sticky food to the cell. What was on the plate looked like a mixture of oatmeal and vegetables, and the portion was only palm-sized.

"Set me free, you dumbass!" Rene threw the food on the floor. Holding the cell bars, he shouted, "Jacques is a dumbass too. He has no idea what he's doing. It's not too late to let me out!"

The steward shook his head regretfully, took out a handkerchief and cleaned up his dirty shoes. "If I were you, I would've eaten that food instead of spoiling it. The Earl told me to bring you food once a day all this week, to let you save some strength."

"Damn it. Haven't you heard what I said?" Rene burst out with strong language. "This isn't about a meal. If Jacques doesn't stop, he'll destroy the Elk Family. For my father's sake, open this cage!"

Seemingly, the steward was moved by what Rene said in the end. As he was just about to leave, he stopped. "Your father? I think if he were still alive, he would've expelled you from this house." He then turned around and looked at Rene, expressionless. "Master, you seem to have forgotten that it was Roland Wimbledon who killed the Earl of the Elk Family. On the other hand, the Honeysuckle Family has not only gone over to Prince Roland's side, but also assisted him in suppressing the other four families. At this moment, your elder brother is trying to correct this mistake, yet you're scared to death. How can you be a qualified knight this way?"

"It's not for you to judge whether I'm a qualified knight," Rene said angrily. "In the past three years, while I was defeating the demonic beasts in Hermes' defensive line, Jacques was busy enjoying wine and women in the King's City. Do you think it's out of bravery that he decided to attack the Honeysuckle Family? Don't be ridiculous. He's only blinded by profit!"

Sean sighed. "Even if you're the younger brother of Milord Jacques, you should show him some basic respect. After all, he is both an Earl and the head of the Elk Family."

After this, the steward ignored Rene and left the basement along the stairs. When the door was closed, the basement returned to silence.

"Damn it!"

The second son of the Elk Family smashed his fist down onto the floor forcefully.

Since the beginning of winter, Jacques had begun to visit the other families more often. Rene didn't pay much attention to it at first—after all, he wasn't interested in managing his family. Besides, when he was taken captive by His Royal Highness the first time, Jacques refused to pay the ransom, and it was Petrov who offered him a helping hand and got him released from prison. Since then, the relationship between the two brothers had fallen to the freezing point. Even so, Rene didn't plan to fight with his brother about who would be head of the household. When he heard the news about the construction of Border Town, he even considered going to the town and serving Prince Roland by becoming an official guarding knight. But afterwards, there were some changes in the situation. During a private feast held in the Elk mansion, Rene heard that the four families were planning to unite and fight together against Longsong Stronghold.

That night, Rene rushed into Jacques' study and confronted him, but Jacques wasn't happy about it and threw him out. Thinking about it overnight, Rene decided to tell Petrov the news and lead his patrolmen to stop Jacques. Unexpectedly, his breakfast was poisoned by Jacques. When Rene woke up, he found himself in prison.

Since then, despite his yelling and threatening, he hadn't yet earned himself a chance to meet with Jacques. Every day, he could only judge time by looking at the brightness of a louver in the basement corner, and the only person he had seen was Jacques's personal steward.

"Grrr..."

With this lengthy growl coming from his stomach, he realized that he was hungry.

Taking a glimpse at the scattered food on the floor, Rene turned his head and lay back onto the pile of straw on the floor. "I'd better go to sleep... I won't feel hungry once I fall asleep."

The moment Rene closed his eyes, a series of footsteps resounded in the basement.

"Could it be... Jacques coming?" He instantly hopped off the pile of straw and rushed to the bars. With the help of the dim light from the louver, he saw a small and slim figure. Obviously, that couldn't be the arrogant Earl.

"Brother, are you OK?" When the person arrived at the cell, he found it was Aurelia, the third daughter of the Elk Family.

"How did you get in?"

"Jacques wasn't around, and those servants couldn't stop me." Aurelia saw the oatmeal on the floor and said incredulously, "Is this what they are serving you? This is outrageous! Wait a moment. I'll tell the kitchen to cook something else for you."

"Jacques isn't home?" What his sister said suddenly saddened Rene, and he almost forgot about his hunger. "Where did he go?"

"I've no idea... He left two days ago," Aurelia shook her head and said, "along with most of the house guards. Otherwise, I couldn't have come here."

"Damn it." Rene was disappointed. "Jacques left two days ago, and today is the third day—even if I can get out now, I'm afraid it's already too late.

"Brother, I heard that Jacques was trying to hurt the Honeysuckle Family. Is this true?" Aurelia looked worried. "Will Milord Petrov be alright?"

"Right... Aurelia has always had a crush on Petrov Hull. Although I've tried to set them up as a couple, it seems my friend Petrov has somebody else in mind. But now nothing can be done." Rene leaned against the bars and sat down, feeling feeble. He knew Jacques fully well. "Jacques won't show mercy on the Hull Family, which would definitely cause Prince Roland to take his rage out on the whole Western Region."

"Jacques has spent too much time in the King's City, so he's no idea what he's got himself into... " Rene closed his eyes. He couldn't stop thinking about the day when he and his army attacked Border Town—fires continued blazing in front of his eyes; thunder boomed all around his ears unceasingly; knights in the front rows seemed to be hitting an invisible wall; and their skills, gained through years of training and the courage of fighting for honor, had all lost their effectiveness in the face of the enemies' powerful weapons.

From that moment on, Rene had totally lost the intention of fighting against His Highness ever again.

Nobody could defeat His Highness' troops—at least no human beings could.

"But when Prince Roland gets to know what's happening in Stronghold and decides to sweep through this area, what's the use then if the Elk Family gains a lot of profit? This time... Prince Roland may not let go of the four families."

"What's the matter, brother?" Aurelia shook him, but he remained motionless.

"The Elk Family is finished."

Just then, some indistinct roars spread through the thick ceiling, and then the floor slightly trembled. It felt as if the mansion was hit by something.

"Is that what I think it is?" Rene turned around, and saw his sister with the same surprised expression.

Then came another dull, yet much clearer, thundering and a series of noises. Rene could hear panicked shouts from his family's servants coming from somewhere over his head.

"Could it be... Prince Roland's army coming?" Rene was stunned. "How's that even possible?"

"What's happening out there?" Aurelia stood up. "I'll check."

"Don't." Rene grabbed her hand. "Don't go anywhere. Just wait here."

"Huh?"

"Listen to me..." Rene swallowed, and said in a tiresome voice, "It might be dangerous outside."

The roars quieted down before long. Only a few minutes later, a platoon invaded the basement—they wore brown uniforms and held strange, long-handled weapons. At a glance, Rene realized they were Prince Roland's troops.

He felt totally hopeless. He had expected retaliation from His Highness, but not so quickly!

"Or maybe this is a drama directed and played by Prince Roland himself?"

"Who are you?! How dare you break into the Earl's mansion!" Aurelia stood up and questioned them.

A tall, strong man stepped out of the platoon. With an angular face and a chilling aura around his eyes, he looked as if he was from a different race.

"Are you the second son of the Elk Family, Knight Rene Medde?" the guy asked.

"Since you know who he is, you... should retreat. What are you up to?" Aurelia said, voice trembling, but still she stood in front of the bars.

"I'm Rene! Don't hurt her... She's innocent!"

Rene thought he was about to see something unbearable, yet the guy totally ignored Aurelia, and what he said next simply shocked Rene.

"I'm Iron Axe, Commander of the First Army. His Highness Roland asked me to find you specifically," the guy said in a low voice, "and he asked me to tell you that Mr. Petrov wants to see you."

Chapter 451 - Aspirations

Rene walked out of the Earl's mansion, squinted instinctively, and took a deep breath. It'd been half a month since he last saw daylight and snow.

To Rene's surprise, there were soldiers in uniform everywhere, not shamelessly plundering the mansion, but guarding crossroads in an orderly fashion. A few blood stains dotted the snowy ground, but there were neither bodies nor scattered clothing around, which meant the soldiers didn't pillage the dead when they cleared the battlefield. What he saw confirmed his supposition that these troops were different from any he'd ever seen.

"Is Petrov alright? " He looked at Iron Axe. "How is... Longsong Stronghold?"

"Everything is alright." The tall, strong, foreign man spoke very little, but he'd answer as long as Rene asked.

"That means Jacques Medde's plan didn't work." Rene was slightly relieved. "If Stronghold is intact and the Honeysuckle Family is unharmed, Petrov is bound to put in a good word for me." He didn't care about Jacques' fate. "That idiot almost dragged the Elk Family into a catastrophe, so whatever happened to him isn't my concern."

"Brother... what in the world did Jacques do?" Aurelia leaned over and asked quietly.

Rene hesitated, shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Aurelia instantly made an expression as if to say "you're lying".

Rene smiled bitterly. He really didn't know how to answer that question... He couldn't simply say that Jacques intended to rebel, because he only knew about the planning stages and didn't know how that plan turned out. After some silence, he asked, "Do you really want to go to the castle with me?"

"Of course. I'm very curious about what exactly happened to give these men a reason to break into the Earl's mansion in broad daylight." She stared at Iron Axe and said, "I think Milord Petrov wouldn't just sit by and do nothing about it."

Rene understood that his sister was actually worried about Petrov, so he finally nodded and said, "Alright. If you ask him in person, he might tell you the details."

The group of people rode on horseback for about an hour along the snow covered roads and reached the Stronghold castle at noon.

With Iron Axe leading the way, Rene and his sister stepped onto the third floor, which was heavily guarded by sentries placed every few steps.

When he entered a room that looked like a study, Rene finally saw Petrov Hull, his childhood friend. However, Petrov only stood next to his desk respectfully. A gray-haired man sat by the desk, looking at Rene and Aurelia with interest and playing with a quill pen. Almost instantly, Rene recognized who this man was.

He instantly went down on one knee. "Your Highness, Rene Medde is here to salute you."

"He is ..." Aurelia was a little surprised, but Rene tugged her clothes gently and hinted at her to bend a knee and bow.

"We met each other in Longsong Stronghold," the prince said with a smile, "right in the castle's basement. According to what Iron Axe just told me, you were locked up there again?"

"Uh..." Rene was embarrassed and didn't know what he should say.

Luckily, the prince wasn't expecting an answer. "Please rise. Before I ordered the attack on the Elk territory, Petrov had repeatedly assured me that you would never take part in Jacques Medde's rebellion, and it seems he was right about you. But... how did you end up in the basement?"

Rene cast an appreciative look at Petrov and told the prince what had happened in his family.

"I see." The prince nodded. "It's a shame. If you could have stopped Earl Jacques, Longsong Stronghold wouldn't have gone through this disaster."

That remark shocked Rene, and Aurelia couldn't help but ask, "What... happened?"

"Jacques Medde colluded with the Maple Leaf, Wolf, and Wild Rose families, and they attacked Longsong Stronghold two days ago." The prince said coldly, "The attack led to mass casualties of innocent people, and two blocks were burnt down. To force the Honeysuckle Family to surrender, they even hurt Petrov's family."

Rene couldn't believe his ears. "Even when fighting a rival noble, threatening them with their families is considered very shameful. How could Jacques do that?"

"This rebellion involved many parties, but I assure you that no one involved in the attack will escape the punishment of the law—all the rebels will be severely punished!" The prince knocked on the desk and said, "I came to Stronghold to clean the entire Western Region and not let a single rat slip through my fingers!"

Rene felt his back break into a sweat. "Your Highness, I..."

Roland waved his hand to interrupt him. "Don't worry, I won't take my anger out on innocent people, and the Elk Family's offspring will be spared. Actually, I have a question for you. Jacques Medde was killed in the rebellion, so are you willing to inherit the title of Earl and serve me, just as Hull does?"

There was only one answer to this question. Rene Medde knelt down without hesitation, a standard gesture of a knight, and he pledged to faithfully serve the prince.

To his surprise, he felt quite calm while pledging his oath.

Actually, he had never hated this prince who took his father's life. "In a battle field, anything could happen to anyone. Moreover, it was not the prince but Duke Ryan and the other five families who started the war. After the war, the prince didn't treat the defeated noblemen harshly, and he also exchanged captives for ransom, a conventional practice among the nobility. If father hadn't died in the battle field, he probably could've gone back to our territory safe and sound, just as the Earl of Honeysuckle did."

Rene was trained as a knight and held the values of a knight deep in his heart—"A battle is plausible as long as it's righteous, and what Jacques did was not only unrighteous, but also had no purpose except to exacerbate hostility."

For the sake of Aurelia and all the other innocent members of his family, he must accept His Highness' offer. Without the protection of the Elk Family, these people would not be able to live a stable life ever again.

After the pledge, the prince smiled and nodded. "In the following days, you and your sister can live in the castle. Petrov will arrange rooms for you. There are still a few members from other families that escaped who are fighting in the suburbs, so it's better for you to wait until this rebellion quiets down before returning to your territory."

"Yes, Your Highness."

As Rene left the study, Petrov followed.

Looking at his haggard friend, Rene felt a range of emotions. "I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault." Petrov patted on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it."

Somehow, Rene felt his friend was a lot different. He could see in Petrov's eyes a look he had never seen before一a subtle resolution and calmness that was as strong as steel that had been repeatedly tempered with fire.

Rene realized that his friend was on his way to becoming a real leader.

Chapter 452 - The Unification

The rebelling nobles were powerless against the First Army, and it only took a round of firing in every confrontation to decide the victor. The First Army didn't even need to change cartridges before their enemies dispersed and ran away with their tails between their legs. Moreover, the enemies usually didn't even put up a fight, and the First Army only had to pursue and capture them.

Iron Axe cleared through one territory per day and quickly conquered the regions governed by the Elk, Wolf, and Wild Rose families. However, when the troops reached the Maple Leaf territory, they began slowing down.

They encountered some unexpected issues.

"Damn it. This is no different from Stronghold." Brian stared at the Earl's looming castle and spat angrily. "It's protected by a moat!"

"Was anyone hurt in the past round of attacks?" asked Iron Axe coldly.

"Two unlucky men were wounded, one in the arm and the other in the back while retreating, but it doesn't seem serious," said Brian, frowning. "The soldiers were at a great disadvantage because they were shooting upwards from the ground, so even if the enemies only had bows and bolts, they could still contend with us."

Iron Axe knew that Brian was right. No one had expected the Earl of the Maple Leaf Family to have a castle built like a tower which was supported by mountains and cliffs. The streams from the Impassable Mountain Range were led into a five-meter-wide ditch that formed a small moat surrounding the castle. Since the water was constantly flowing, although there were blocks of floating ice and snow, the moat was not frozen solid. The gate was the only entrance into the tower, so in order to reach it, they had to cross the bridge, where the enemy's force was most concentrated.

There were no concealments around the Earl's castle, only plains of snow, so standing on the higher ground made up for the enemies' disadvantage of using crossbow bolts. After two rounds of probing attacks, the First Army only shot down three or four people and suffered many casualties themselves.

"I wish we'd brought cannons with us," said Brian bitterly. "If we shot a few cannonballs at their gate, they would surrender in no time."

"It's too bad that the troops can't bring them here because it's too far from Stronghold, and the snow's too deep." Iron Axe glanced at the sky. "Let's call it a day and arrange for the troops to set up camp."

The territory of the Maple Leaf Family was northwest of Longsong Stronghold, next to Impassable Mountain Range, and it lay on the border of the Western Region. Simply walking here took almost a day, and the uncleared snow on the paths made it impossible to transport a 12-pound field artillery.

According to reports, the Maple Leaf Family barely contributed to the rebellion, and even the Earl himself didn't participate. This meant that their resources and power were all intact and stored in this guarded tower, making it very difficult to deal with without siege weapons.

At night, bonfires were lit in the camp's tents.

"What should we do tomorrow?" Brian asked, tossing wood into the fire pit. "Order the soldiers to rush against the rain of arrows? As long as we can blast through that damn steel door, they're done for."

"But the First Army would also lose dozens of soldiers." Iron Axe shook his head and didn't answer. If he were still in the Iron Sand City, he would gladly sacrifice hundreds of soldiers to complete his mission without feeling regretful. However, after he came to the Western Region, he felt somewhat protective of the soldiers whom he watched improve and whom His Highness Roland put so much effort into.

After a long pause, he sighed. "Let's use the witches."

Brian was shocked. "The witches?"

Iron Axe didn't want to do this either. He remembered the prince had once told him that a decent army should be able to complete its mission independently at all times. However, this was not important at the moment. In order to reach their goal of uniting the Western Region in a week and to minimize casualties, he was willing to give up his pride.

Also, His Highness also said that a good general accounted for his soldiers' lives.

"Send a messenger and tell the prince that we're in trouble and need Miss Maggie's help." He ordered.

The next morning, Maggie and Lightning came to the camp. "What happened?"

"Coo coo?"

Iron Axe coughed and explained his dilemma. "The enemies are mainly concentrated at the top of the tower, so rifles can do little damage to them. There's also a steel door blocking the entrance, so the First Army can't get close enough to place explosives. We can only rely on you to open the gates."

"We've got this," the little girl said, patting her chest.

Throwing explosives was a familiar task to them, and they were even trained with the First Army in the small town. Iron Axe nodded and immediately arranged the soldiers to begin the last attack—even if the explosives didn't have the desired effect, they would at least scare the enemies and give themselves enough time to break through the steel door.

"Are you fighting as well?" Brian watched surprisedly as Iron Axe strapped a rifle to his back and stuffed a few cartridges of bullets into his belt.

"Rather than say 'charge for me', say 'charge with me'." Iron Axe smiled. "His Highness always said this."

...

When the two men led their soldiers into the charging position, Maggie's figure appeared in the sky.

She transformed into a giant beast and charged towards the tower, her claws grabbing a bag of the new explosives. Everyone witnessed this stunning scene and the First Army erupted in cheers, while the side on top of the tower descended into chaos. The mercenaries and guards of the Maple Family all turned their crossbow bolts around and began shooting at the beast with no avail.

Meanwhile, Maggie finished collecting her strength, flapped her wings forcefully, rose rapidly into the air, and released the bag. The bag of explosives shot towards the top of the tower like a cannonball...

Iron Axe felt his surroundings go quiet, and then he saw a glaring ball of fire rise from the top of the tower. Suddenly, the earth began to shake! The entire world seemed to be trembling, and huge columns of smoke shot up through the snow. A heat wave struck him in the face, forcing him to stumble back a few steps with his ears ringing.

This is... the power of God!

Iron Axe couldn't help but recall the first time when he witnessed His Highness' gunpowder test, but the explosion this time was much more powerful. Even standing almost a hundred meters away, he could feel the scalding heat of the fire ball. As for the enemies close to God's Punishment at the top of the tower, their fates were all easily imaginable.

He quietly prayed to the Three Gods, raised his rifle high, and shouted, "For His Highness the prince, First Army, charge!"

"For His Highness!" The soldiers echoed his words and swarmed to the Earl's castle.

This time... no one dared to stop them.

When Iron Axe returned to Longsong Stronghold, it was already the sixth night.

The entire Western Region was finally under Roland's control.

Chapter 453 - Dealing with the Aftermath

The Stronghold's castle office was much roomier than that of the small town. Tall bookshelves with gilded edges lined the walls to his left and right and were filled with all kinds of books. The bookshelves provided any subject he could dream of, from epics to travel notes. In order to reach the books on the upper levels, a wooden ladder was placed next to the bookshelves for easy access.

Probably out of safety concerns, the only waist-high window in the office was equipped with metal railings on the outside. When the daylight hit the room, he could clearly see a stripe of sun ray splash over the old fur rug while feeling a sense of aloofness as if he were standing against the world.

"Anna would definitely love this place," Roland couldn't help thinking. However, to him, the brightly lit town office with large windows suited his taste better. Even though it was small, it was comfortable.

As for Nightingale, he could tell by her habit of sleeping by the fireplace that she would not like it here at all.

Suddenly, someone knocked on his door.

"Come in." Roland placed the Secret History of the Western Region he was holding back onto the bookshelf.

"Your Highness." Petrov Hull entered the office and placed a stack of paper onto his desk. "I've finished collecting the data you asked for."

Roland walked back to his desk and read through the list of the nobles carefully. "These are all the nobles left in the Western Region?"

"Yes." Petrov explained, "They're divided into two main categories, guilty and innocent. After that, I ranked them by family names. There are 64 people who are guilty, and 137 people who refused to rebel or had no knowledge of the rebellion. The innocent people are mostly free knights, knights, and lower-level nobles."

Roland flipped to the first page and saw the name of Roman Candy, the Earl of Maple Leaf Family, listed on the top. According to Iron Axe's report, this great noble hid in a wine barrel in his basement after his castle was seized, and he soiled his pants out of fear when the First Army found him. He was also the noble with the highest rank among the captured in the war of unification.

Next was an entire page of the nobles from the Maple Family, which included two sons, other relatives, and knights.

Roland quickly finished reading the list and felt very satisfied. "Great job."

The six families of the Western Region had literally become history—Lion Ryan, Maple Leaf, Wolf, and Wild Rose were completely crushed, and although Honeysuckle and Elk still remained, they were no longer feudal nobles. Now, all the power in the Western Region belonged to Roland.

"Your Highness..." Petrov hesitated for a bit before asking, "Sir Iron Axe convicted the people on that list. Could there be any... misjudgment?"

Roland couldn't help chuckling. "He's a very skilled interrogator and didn't use torture to force confessions, so I think his final judgment is trustworthy."

Meanwhile, his interrogation was just a matter of formality. After all the nobles were locked into prison, Nightingale double checked each of them—it only took her a few simple questions to determine if they had involved in the rebellion. This was also why Roland felt confident in addressing the noble with a heavy hand. With Nightingale's help, he could ensure that he wasn't missing any guilty people or condemning any innocent ones. He didn't have to worry about shedding innocent blood or exonerating the real culprits.

"So... what do you plan to do with the guilty nobles?"

"Why do you ask?" Roland raised his head and glanced at Petrov. "Are some of these men your friends?"

"No, Your Highness." He shook his head. "I just think that if you hanged them all, it might harm your future rule."

"You were talking about an eye for an eye a week ago." The prince raised his eyebrow curiously. "Now you want to spare them?"

"I do want all these people to go to hell, but even if I strangle them all to death myself, it wouldn't change anything... It might even cause the other nobles to hate the Honeysuckle Family. Also, if everyone learns that you've executed the nobles, other cities might resist your rule."

After hearing this, Roland was quite surprised. This was the logic of a seasoned politician, who set aside personal emotion while weighing the pros and cons... "It seems that this battle hasn't made him hate fighting but actually helped him become mature."

"It doesn't hurt to tell you this beforehand." He stood up and walked to the window. "I'm going to announce everything about this matter to the people and hold an open trial for all the rebels at the square, including the nobilities, guards, squires, and mercenaries... the ringleaders and direct organizers of the rebellion, as well as scoundrels with the people's blood on their hands. They will all be hanged. People who are guilty of following their orders will be stripped of their titles and sent to the North Slope Mine."

"This way, only five or six noblemen will be hanged. The Earl of the Elk Family and the Viscount of the Wolf Family died in battles, so those who survived will be trading their titles for their lives. When the message gets out, I don't think anyone will see this as too harsh a punishment—after all, rebelling against the king is a capital offense."

Petrov sighed in relief. "Your Highness is merciful."

When the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family left, Roland felt an unfamiliar feeling of satisfaction.

This operation had cleared all the obstacles for him in the Western Region, so he could easily make laws and distribute orders throughout this vast land.

More importantly, he gained the support from many people and nobles—after the rebels were removed, only supporters would remain.

This was especially true for the nobles—after losing their feudal and legislative power, they would have to wholeheartedly follow and spread his policies if they wanted to continue living a comfortable life. Since the nobles had more resources than civilians, it wouldn't take them much thought to figure out how to profit from them.

Once they started to gain small profits, they wouldn't ever want to go back to their old lives —after all, these low-level nobles had never gained much from their territories, and sometimes even went into debt if they didn't manage them well. They would soon realize that as long as they played by the rules, they would live an unimaginably comfortable life.

There was no doubt that he had taken a big step toward his city-building plan.

Roland wiped off the water vapor on his window and looked at the city enveloped in snow—since he still had to stay in Longsong Stronghold for a while to deal with governmental affairs, he might as well refurbish this office to his own liking.

For example... he would start with the French windows.

Chapter 454 - Pensions and Punishment

Roland made a speech at the theater of Longsong Stronghold three days later.

To advertise the speech, he asked Petrov to relate the details of the rebellion to the entire city beforehand and also instructed Maggie to bring Echo from Border Town.

There was a smaller audience than he had expected. Although it was already spring, the endless snow stopped people from going outside.

Fortunately, driven by the prince's promise that "soldiers killed in action will be well compensated", all members of the Second Army and their families came to the theater. It would take Roland some time to earn trust from the rest of his subjects, but Roland believed the best marketing was word of mouth. Once the seed was sown, it would spread its roots to more people. This was the reason he insisted on an army consisting of ordinary men.

They were as sharp as swords, as impregnable as fortresses, and perfect role models for publicity.

"Good morning, my subjects. I'm the lord of the Western Region, Roland Wimbledon. I believe most of you have already heard my name." Roland surveyed the audience and continued, "First of all, I'd like to express my deepest sorrow and grief for those who were injured or lost their lives in the rebellion. This was a conspiracy plotted in King's City. In order to disturb the peaceful Western Region, Timothy has tried to wage war against us numerous times. Unfortunately, the four families of Western Region didn't side with the people, but instead helped the wicked perpetuate wicked deeds, thus causing this tragedy."

The prince did not linger on the details of the rebellion. Compared with a formal speech, people were usually more interested in the rumors circulated in taverns. Therefore, he soon switched to the more popular topic of compensation after a brief introduction.

"During the rebellion, 56 out of 112 soldiers in the Second Army were killed in action. In addition, rebels looted and burned the residences, leading to 48 deaths among civilians and reducing 12 properties to ashes," Roland spoke in a low voice. "I hereby apologize to the subjects in Longsong Stronghold. As the lord of the territory, I've failed to fulfill my obligations."

The prince's words stirred up the audience, who apparently had never heard any royal family members apologize to civilians. Many of them were shocked and startled, but Roland thought this was the attitude a lord should have. He was not as inscrutably arrogant as other nobles, who always treated civilians with an air of scorn and condescension. History taught him that a ruler would not be truly accepted by his people unless he viewed them as his equals.

"I promise that those people won't die for nothing! Not only would soldiers killed in battle receive a proper burial, but their families would also receive a pension of five gold royals. Plus, they can apply for food and charcoals from the City Hall as additional compensation every month in the future. This pension plan is exactly the same as the First Army's, and I assure you subjects who join the Second Army as of today will also be equally compensated!"

Few people cheered for the prince's promise. Apparently, most of them were skeptical about Roland's alleged pension plan. Corruption and briberies among officials were normal on this land, so even winter relief rations were sometimes mixed with sand and leaves. How could they possibly believe that they would receive gold royals?

Nevertheless, Roland had already thought of a solution to maximize the effects of his advertising. He clapped his hands, and two soldiers from the First Army came up to the stage with a vault, followed by Petrov and Iron Axe. "I've got a list of the soldiers who sacrificed themselves in the battle here. Now the governor of Longsong Stronghold, Petrov Hull, will distribute pensions to you personally!"

When the soldiers dumped the shiny gold royals on the table, the audience finally became a little more enthusiastic.

"Ayat, from the First Gun Battalion of the Second Army!"

"Chapiter, from the First Gun Battalion of the Second Army!"

"..."

As Iron Axe slowly read out the names on the list, the soldiers' family members went up to the stage one by one and took the gold royals with excitement, bowing and kneeling in gratitude. For a time the theater was so chaotic that Roland felt Nightingale lay her hands upon his waist.

Fortunately, there were no accidents. By the time everybody had received their pensions, it was almost noon. Roland waved his arm to silence the murmuring audience. "Those who lost their homes during the war will also receive a shelter and food. Food will be delivered to you by assigned staff until the Months of the Demons end."

"Y-Your Highness, what about after the Months of the Demons?" asked someone in a loud voice. Of course, the "inquirer" was created by Echo.

"By then, the City Hall will have created a great number of jobs with competitive salaries and benefits. As long as you're willing to work hard, you don't need to worry about food!" Roland raised his right hand and announced, "The Western Region won't forget those who have contributed, and neither will I!"

This time his speech received a warm welcome as the audience raised their right hands in response. While the subjects cheered for the speech, Roland instructed his men to distribute the porridge, bringing people's high spirits to a peak.

By the afternoon, many more people had gathered at the theater. Since all the seats were occupied, many people squatted in the hallway, obviously waiting to watch the trial.

It seems everybody loves to see a prisoner be prosecuted, both in the world I used to live in and the current one.

Roland asked Iron Axe and Petrov to conduct the execution, while he himself sat in a box on the second floor of the theater as one of the spectators.

The verdict had been reached long before. The prisoners were led onto the stage and lined up on their knees in front of the spectators, with armed soldiers standing solemnly behind them. Iron Axe read out the counts, and Petrov the verdicts, after which the soldiers escorted them to the execution ground, the Stronghold Square.

At the sight of the prisoners, some of the victims' family members went up to tussle with them. As long as the fight was not life-threatening, the First Army just stood by. Nobody took pity on these scoundrels, who should have known the subsequent consequences the moment they committed murder and plunder.

In the end, 132 prisoners were sentenced to death, six of whom were great nobles. The rest were mercenaries, guards, and servants. The execution methods varied. Since gallows were limited in number, only the nobles had the privilege to be hanged, whereas others were shot. It was also the first time firearms were used for execution.

The other 900 people who had participated in the rebellion but had not committed murder were imprisoned, awaiting to be sent to the North Slope Mine in batches.

Now, Roland had weeded out all the nobles who challenged his authority in the Western Region.

The following day, he summoned the innocent nobles to the castle hall.

As it was just the beginning of the cleanup, he still had a lot of work to do before he could truly rule this region.

The most important step was to establish a new order.

Chapter 455 - The Second Step of City Construction

Roland arranged a feast for the nobles to ease their minds.

A long table covered with a white tablecloth stood at the center of the hall, with a large variety of delicacies, delicious wines, and beautifully arranged flowers on it. The nobles were seated on either side of the table facing each another.

After drinking a few glasses of red wine, everybody seemed to feel more comfortable and less stressful. Given that the Honeysuckles and the Elks were both Roland's supporters and that all of the great nobles had been crushed, these petty nobles were unlikely to strike up a discordant tune at this hour. On the contrary, they voluntarily revealed their intentions to stand on Roland's side during the conversation. Under such circumstances, Roland knew it was time to talk about his new policies.

After they all had been fed, he distributed the booklet that was prepared beforehand to each noble.

It was the "marketing graphic book" which he carefully designed and drafted.

"Your Highness... what's this?" As he expected, the nobles soon asked in surprise, "Why are the drawings in this book are so lifelike?"

"Yes, they look so real."

"It doesn't look like a picture... No paint can express such delicate colors."

They were, no doubt, nobles from the big city, who knew how to properly appreciate artwork. Roland clapped his hands and replied with a smile, "They are indeed illustrated by a painter. The only difference is she's a witch, and the paints she has used are actually her ubiquitous magic power."

All of the nobles were startled by these words, not sure whether they should put down the booklet or not.

"The local church has fallen from power. What are you worried about?" The prince said, raising his brows, "Witches are no different from us. I've confirmed that myself many times."

"Uhhmm... Uhm." Petrov almost choked. "Your Highness is right."

"Of course Your Highness is correct. Haha..." the other nobles chimed in, managing to summon up a laugh.

"Um... looks like I just said something that contains an unintended meaning." Roland put on a look of indifference and switched the topic while thinking. Ever since he became a prince over a year ago, he had noticed that his ability to remain unflappable amid changes had improved by leaps and bounds—or rather he had become increasingly bold. "The point is the story inside it. The drawings are just to make it more readable and interesting."

While the nobles were still absorbed in the story, Aurelia, the Elks' girl, looked up abruptly and asked, "Is this the family history of a noble?"

"Aurelia!" Rene reminded her while lowering his voice, "You should call the prince Your Highness!"

"Correct. He used to be a noble in the Western Region." Roland gestured Rene that it was fine and then continued, "Some of you may still remember him."

"Your Highness... I know him," answered one knight. "His name is Tigui Pine. We used to be neighbors and his territory used to be adjacent to mine."

"I also met him once," someone else recalled. "He was just a Baron back then. His father was a feudatory of Joe Kohl. But since Lord Joe left the Western Region, his territory has diminished."

"Viscount Tigui is currently living in Border Town." Roland said, smiling, "The graphic book records how we met... as well as what happened later. As you can see, he's a noble living in a society regulated by the new system. He's now busy practicing flintlock. I expect that right after the Months of Demons, he'll take his daughter and guards to Misty Forest to have some fun hunting there. As far as I know, ever since he sold his territory to the east of Stronghold and settled down in Border Town, not only has he been promoted to a higher rank, but his properties have increased by several times as well."

Fear originated from the unknown. The same held true for changes to the system. As the nobles were ignorant of what impacts all these changes would bring about, they abhorred anything foreign or unfamiliar. In order to reduce their fear and resistance, Roland picked Tigui Pine as a living example and asked Soraya to sketch out his life in a cartoon format. Compared with those dull biographies, cartoons apparently presented the details of the story in a more vivid way.

"You may have known that I'm planning to build a city in the Western Region. In fact, I've been thinking about that for quite a long time. By then, Border Town, Longsong Stronghold, and the narrow land in between will all be consolidated into one," Roland continued, "someone may ask how the two towns, so distant from each other, can possibly be connected. I have to say that the unification will be confined only to administration. In other words, the new city will be governed by the same laws and policies. This is also the reason I take back nobles' feudal and legislative powers."

"Your Highness, but our territories..." somebody asked.

"They'll still be yours," he interrupted. "Like I said, you won't lose anything except these two types of power. The very nature of feudalism is to grant lands to others who will then become your subordinates, and thereby expanding your influences, leading lower nobles to defend against enemies and fight for profits for you. However, a professionally trained army will be responsible for city defenses under the new system. As long as you follow the rules, you'll gain far more than you used to. After all, you benefit more from slicing up a bigger cake than sharing a small one."

While the nobles were silent, Roland sipped tea before continuing his persuasion. "You've never been to Border Town, so it's perfectly normal that you don't know how much you can actually gain. In fact, the town's revenues for the latter half of the year reached 30,000 gold royals. It could have been 10,000 more if the Months of the Demons hadn't come so soon."

The nobles all gasped out. "30... 30,000?"

Roland had learned the annual financial situation of Stronghold from Petrov a long time ago. The annual income of the City Hall was no more than 30,000, and these petty nobles obviously earned much less than that. 100 gold royals would be a fortune to them.

"As you'll be administrators of trades of all kinds in the future, you'll certainly be well paid." Roland went on, "Back to the consolidation matter一aside from the unification of administration, the two towns will also be closer geographically. For example, it takes me one day to travel from Border Town to Longsong Stronghold now. Once the construction of Kingdom Main Street is completed, it'll take less than a day to cover the distance on foot, and half a day by horse or bike, not to mention other faster transportation methods."

"What's a bike?" Aurelia questioned curiously.

"A manually operated riding apparatus that runs fast on a flat surface." The prince mused, "I bet in five years... no, in three years we'll be able to work in Border Town after having breakfast in Stronghold." As Kingdom Main Street ran straight between Stronghold and Border Town, it reduced the distance to a mere 60 kilometers, allowing people to travel within half an hour by tram or car.

Nevertheless, most of the nobles cared little about transportation. The knight who claimed to be Tigui Pine's neighbor asked cautiously, "Your Highness, by what you just said, did you mean that you want us to manage Stronghold?"

"Yes and no." Roland shrugged. "Like I said, the consolidation of the two towns will be limited only to administration. The Stronghold will become a district of the city, directly administered by the City Hall. But considering commuting a day to work still sounds quite unrealistic, for the time being, I'll set up a secondary City Hall in Longsong District. It'll operate in the same way as Border Town, with multiple secondary departments under it. You'll work in those secondary departments dealing with local matters."

"Secondary... departments?" the nobles echoed, looking bewildered.

"It isn't simple to manage a town. Although you'll get paid well, it won't be that easy to do your part," Roland said bluntly. "Therefore, I need you to come to Border Town with me once we've re-established order here. I want you to see with your own eyes what a well-functioning City Hall should look like. With respect to city management, you've got a lot to learn."

Chapter 456 - The Differences

After explaining the administrative integration plan, Roland raised his cup and took several slow sips while waiting for everyone to process the information.

He needed a lot of people in order to maintain the area's daily perimeter patrol. In a time before the general literacy rate improved, he had to rely on the nobles. Most of them had their primary education and they had experience in management. If there was a noble that distinguished himself from the others, he would promote them and place them in charge of a city or territory on behalf of himself. If he was still living in his previous world, this position would be referred to as a governor or a mayor.

Several minutes later, Roland brought up the next topic.

It was time to crack down on crime.

In his idea about the new order, the Black Street organization wasn't needed. Everyone in the city could find work and they didn't need to pillage, so there was no demand for stolen goods. He probably couldn't have accomplished this in a highly developed, modern city with a population in the ten million range. The over saturation of minimum-wage jobs in the market would create a high unemployment rate. Fortunately, the population of the Western Region, including Longsong Stronghold and the whole suburban area was no more than 60 to 70 thousand people. Since the major development had yet to start, the townspeople could find work as long as they wanted a job.

"How much do you know about Rats?"

"You mean... Black Street Rats?" Rene Medde coughed. "I've done business with them before."

"What kind of business have you done with them?" Roland asked with interest.

"Um..." Rene swallowed hard, a little embarrassed. "I was the leader of the Ragingfire, and I fought with several Rat gangs over territory."

"Bahaha." Several people broke into laughter.

Roland was astonished. He had never expected that the Earl's second son used to deal with Rats. Besides, Ragingfire... was such a lackluster name. He started to doubt the legitimacy of Rene being the Earl Medde's son.

"Your Highness, the truth is," Petrov started to explain, "several years ago, Black Street Forces were running rampant at the dock. Almost every day both civilians and foreign businessmen were killed, and the patrols would turn a blind eye to the matter. Earl Rene couldn't stand it anymore, so he brought in his own guards and a group of people from the refugee camp and together they drove the Rats out of the dock. At the time, he was writing to me daily to keep me updated on the progress of the operation. I was far away at the King's City during that time. In the letter, he told me it was a war that equaled the one against the demonic beasts, so I think..."

"Petrov, that's enough." Rene interrupted, embarrassed. "I was bored and just wanted to do something to occupy myself at that time."

So that was the reason. It was just the impulsive, yet gallant, actions of a young noble, which was a demonstration of his chivalrous demeanor. Roland believed that the second son of the Elk, who loved fighting as a youth, enjoyed nothing more than to command a group of followers. So, while Ragingfire was not a real army in the sense, what they fought was indeed a real battle.

"What of this gang now?"

"Uh, I don't know." Rene scratched the back of his head. "After I went to defend Hermes and fight against the real demonic beasts, I stopped all contact."

Roland nodded. "Actually, I'm going to eradicate all the Rats in Stronghold to enable everyone to live a peaceful life."

"Your Highness, I'm sorry to say this," Rene hesitated before saying, "but... that's probably impossible."

"Why?" He frowned. "I have the First Army at my side. Are the Rats more difficult to deal with than the knights?"

"That's not what I mean." Rene seemed to be looking for the right words to phrase it. "They're weak, timid, and with no weapons or armor. They don't even know any operation tactics, basically, they're by no means comparable to knights. However, if you execute them as you execute the rebels, that's to say, execute them just because they used to be Rats, I'm afraid there won't be many civilians left in Stronghold after the cleanup."

"You mean…" Roland said.

"Rats and civilians are mixed together, they are one and the same, Your Highness." Rene replied respectfully, "After a particularly bad year, when the Months of Demons are long, many civilians have to become Rats to sustain themselves. That's why most lords turn a blind eye to the existence of Black Street. An internal conflict is apparently better than an external riot caused by starvation."

Roland's face clouded over. He had never thought about how the Rats came into being. "What about their organizers?"

"A few of these people are habitual criminals and some of them are supported by the local nobles, but there are also some criminals from other towns."

"Well, I hope none of you are supporting any Rats now," the prince stated while glancing around the long table, sullen expression clear. All the nobles hung their heads in response. The prince sighed, "It doesn't matter now. As long as you help with my cleanup plan, I will forgive your past misdeeds."After a pause, he looked at Rene. "I have a task for you."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"In the coming month, I will be focusing on cracking down on all of the criminal activities in Stronghold. You should cooperate with the First Army to eliminate all of the Black Street gang leaders and completely break down all their organizations. As for the specific methods, I'll send someone to you with instructions."

"Your Highness, what about the citizens that are depending on them? Without the gangs to provide them with food, they are not likely to survive the Months of the Demons." Rene was worried. "Plus this year the Months of Demons arrived earlier than usual, so there might be even more people depending on them than in the previous years."

"I'll let Petrov open the barn and distribute food to the citizens until the end of the Months of Demons."

The nobles around the table started to protest, "Your Highness, that's not going to work!"

"That type of support will just make things worse!"

"After that, everybody in the town will become a beggar!"

All of the nobles ventured to prevent him.

Roland slammed his fist down, hitting the table hard. "I've made up my mind and I don't want to hear your protests any longer!"

Roland knew the nobles thought the worst of people and believed them to be lazy, ignorant, incompetent, and filthy. They believed that the citizens were very greedy in their nature and considered them to be absolutely hopeless. However, Roland thought differently and knew the strength of the people. They may appear dumb, but with guidance and a role model, they could be a game changer. If people were really as useless as the nobles thought, how were they able to keep changing the world?

In fact, trying to better people was the best investment. Even the slightest positive change would have a larger payoff than could be expected.

"Finally, I want you to spread this message as soon as possible." Roland looked to Petrov, "You have experience in this, so I want you to work on it. If the subjects can't read the message, get someone to read it to them. Just make sure the written message contains what we have talked about here today."

"All of what we have discussed?" Petrov asked with a surprised look. "Even the information about the Rats clean-up plan?"

"Yes, include that and the information about the barn opening to distribute food." Roland glanced at the nobles around the table, challenging them. "These are the conditions that create a well-functioning City Hall and are a necessity in order for it to run properly. Publicize the policies, answer the people's questions, and accept feedback. This is the best way to implement a change to policy."

Roland believed he needed to first teach the nobles, and then unify the law by consolidating the administration, as well as enhance public safety, all the while carrying out political propaganda before re-establishing order.

Chapter 457 - The Music of Fantasy

"You don't need to come with me." Echo walked along the Redwater River, the snow under her shoes crunching.

"Here the city isn't safe. It's not Border Town." Iron Axe walked behind her, with two steps between them. "His Highness told me to protect you if you leave the castle without other witches accompanying you."

"I shouldn't have told him." She mumbled, breathing out into the cold air. "Also, you don't need to call me lady anymore."

"You will always be the head of the Osha clan in my heart, my lady Drow Silvermoon."

When he mentioned Osha, Echo fell silent. Even though Iron Axe couldn't see her expression, he could feel Echo sadden at the mention of her clan. He wanted to console her, but he didn't know how or what to say. So, he just kept his mouth shut and followed her silently.

The branch of Redwater River that wound its way through the field outside of the city was different from the one that flowed into the inner city, which was almost a straight line. The river levees on both sides were covered by masonries, stacked, flat, and neat. About every ten steps, there was an opening with stairways to the river, which allowed the people to get water from the river.

Today's snow fall hadn't been too heavy and there were several pedestrians on the street. The men and women would look at Echo with surprised expressions on their faces. Lady Silvermoon was tall, and shapely with a lovely figure. Her beige skin and long blue-gray hair were quite special and eye-catching. In the inland of the Kingdom of Graycastle, it was seldom that one would see a purebred from the Sand Nation.

"Let's switch to the other side of the river." Echo obviously wasn't enjoying the attention.

"Yes."

They cautiously stepped on a frozen arch bridge across over the river and then arrived at the eastern zone of Stronghold. There were almost no houses and vast areas of farmland were all covered by snow. What they could see was just limitless flatlands and a dim, black figure of the city wall. This area was in sharp contrast to the western zone of the city.

"This place is nothing like the Iron Sand City." Echo said. "When I was in the Southernmost Region, I thought everywhere was the same. The sands covered almost all of the ground. Water sources and the Oasis were the most valuable resources and people would fight to the death over them. However, here, no blood would be shed over the Redwater River. If they want to drink the water, they just need to crouch down and drink it."

"However, here they would fight for other things," Iron Axe said seriously, "such as gold royals, jewels, honor, status... There's no escape from fights."

"Really? But, Nightingale told me that our prince would end all disputes." She looked up at the cloudy sky. "No matter who you are, people of the Sand Nation or people of the Four Kingdoms, ordinary people or witches, you can enjoy equal rights and live a free life."

"I... I don't know." Iron Axe hesitated. He couldn't imagine that everyone would throw off all barriers and live together peacefully. He thought that even though His Highness had the power of the gods and he would undoubtedly conquer all of his enemies, it would just be impossible for him to make all of his enemies accept his dominance willingly. Making enemies during the process of conquering was an unavoidable by product of battle.

"Do you want to go back to Iron Sand City?" Echo suddenly asked.

"No, Lady Silvermoon," Iron Axe quickly came to his senses and answered without hesitation. "I've sworn to the Three Gods that I'll serve His Highness, Roland Wimbledon forever and help him to expand his territory. Don't worry my lady. His Highness has promised to seek revenge for you. Please believe in him. When you go back to Iron Sand City, no one will disrespect you."

"But I don't want to be the head of the Osha clan," she whispered. "I'd like to stay somewhere the trees are evergreen. I'd like to stay with Wendy and Nightingale. I'd like His Highness to teach me songs. I hope someday I can go back to have a look, but I don't want to live in the desert and continuously fight for water."

"Either way, you're the only successor of Osha in my heart." Iron Axe didn't speak his mind fully. Instead, he just looked down and said, "No one can force you."

They walked across the white field to an open area where Echo stopped. "I'll practice here. I don't think I will disturb anyone."

Iron Axe knew that her power was to make various sounds and she usually practiced in the backyard of the town's castle. But this time, in order to not disturb the important meeting between His Highness and the nobles, she intentionally chose here to practice her power.

He nodded and took two steps back. "I'll stand guard for you."

"Oh, I made a song for our hometown." Echo turned around, "Would you like to hear?"

"A Song?" Iron Axe was a little surprised.

"Yes, I learned to use the arrangement method His Highness taught me. I now mix various instruments' sounds together to add a layering effect and build complexity," Echo talked about this with a relaxed expression on her face. "I've tried it and to my surprise, it worked. I didn't know a song could be so pleasant. Each added tone would add in a distinct feeling. I don't know where His Highness learned this method though. When I was sold to King's City, I never heard anything about something like this from any noble."

"Prince Roland was always special," said Iron Axe, he believed the Gods favored Roland.

"Yes... No one treats witches as sincerely as him." Echo fully agreed with Iron Axe. "However, His Highness gave me really strange and irrelevant names to the mix performance methods, such as 'Electricity sound' and 'Agricultural heavy metal'." She shook her head with a smile. "I think only he could think up names like that."

Before Iron Axe could reply, she started to sing.

When the mixed melody reached his ears, he was shocked and immediately stood, frozen in place. What an amazing tune! It sounded like the sands had gently touched the oasis. It was like a bright fire plum bursting from the earth's depths.

At the moment, Iron Axe felt that he had been transported to the desert and was standing under the scorching sun. "Is this... an illusion?" He looked down and found that the snow had disappeared and he was now standing in an Oasis. When he looked into the distance, what he could see was only sand. The girl before him kept her eyes closed. Her song resounded through the air as she stood in the shallow water, disturbing its smooth surface. What a breathtaking beauty!

"Going through sand and dust to seek the traces of the Oasis.

Your footprints were left in the sea of sand.

Your shadow was reflected in the spring.

Someday, the oases will become the new deserts,

and the deserts will also breed new oases.

The only eternal thing is the legend of you.

Someday, I'll follow your footprints to find your shadow at the sleepless and wordless moment before dawn."

...

When the song faded out, Iron Axe was back at the snowy Longsong Stronghold. It seemed that nothing had happened and that everything he had experienced just now was an illusion. He swallowed hard for a while and then opened his hand, there was a tiny grain of transparent sand shining on his palm.

Chapter 458 - The Song of Resonance

Roland could not believe what he was hearing.

"You said that you saw a vast desert in Echo's song and you’ve brought back a grain of sand?" Roland asked. His mind was racing.

Was this simply an auditory delusion? How, then, could he explain this speck of powder?

"I didn’t bring it back, Your Highness," Iron Axe put the grain of sand on the desk solemnly, "At the time, it rooted me in place and I never thought of checking whether it was real. This grain of sand just suddenly appeared in my hand. Maybe it was blown by the wind?"

It was becoming more and more implausible. Roland thought for a moment and asked, "Did she sing only the one song?"

"Some other songs, too. But I couldn't understand." Absorbed in his memory, Iron Axe continued, "It was like a miracle... Back in the Southernmost Region, if Lady Silvermoon claimed to be the Three Gods Emissary, I would firmly believe her. Your Highness, is it because she's evolved?"

This Ironsand man of the Mojin Clan had followed Roland more than a year and now had a much better understanding of witches.

"I think so, but it's the first time I’ve seen such a situation." Roland answered. After some thought, he decided to send for Echo and ask her in person.

When Iron Axe left, Roland picked up the grain of sand and looked at it carefully, "Was it created by magic power?"

"I'm not sure," Nightingale's voice came from behind, "There's no trace of magic power in it."

This did not necessarily mean that it was not made by magic power. It was a real thing in the real world, like Soraya's pictures. Once created, it would maintain itself without magic power and could not be affected by God's Stone of Retaliation.

Before long, Echo came into the study. Nightingale immediately stepped out of her mist to stand beside Roland. With a smile on her face, she said, "Congratulations."

Echo was surprised, "To me?"

Nightingale nodded, "The magic power in you has cohered. Don't you feel it?"

"Re-really?" Echo shook her head in amazement, "You mean my ability has evolved?"

Finding that things had turned out just the way he’d expected, Roland asked Nightingale, "What does it look like?"

"It's like a transparent blue gem, clear as water," Nightingale answered, "She has almost as much magic power as Maggie."

Echo's evolution seemed to be unrelated to enlightenment. She had condensed her magic power even before she knew it. When Roland told her what Iron Axe had experienced, she was astonished.

"He actually felt like he had returned to the Southernmost Region and was in the sea of sand?"

"The phrase 'Felt like' may be inaccurate. He returned with a grain of sand from the dessert," Roland said with smile. "Sand can be found everywhere, but I don’t believe he went so far as to dig in the snow or mud for it only to deceive me." He paused a little and asked, "What did you see at the time?"

"Nothing at all." Echo answered with some embarrassment, "I had my eyes closed and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings."

"So how about showing us?" Roland suggested. He propped his hands on his chin, with interest. "Sing the song you created, the one about your hometown."

"Here?"

"Yes," he said, "Dinner isn’t ready for another half hour. It won't disturb anyone."

"I want to hear an immersive song, too," Nightingale encouraged.

"Ah... fine."

Echo took a deep breath and soon a mixed sonata from a distant time resounded in the office. It was a sweet feminine voice, slightly restrained at the start. Maybe it was because she had never sung indoors. As the melody slowly soared, she became thoroughly absorbed in the music.

As she was singing, Roland could hear hot winds blowing through green woods; he even felt the temperature increase. He smelled searing sands under a scorching sun. As the song faded out, he lingered lost in the aftertaste. Undoubtedly, this was a wonderful, exotic lyrical song in which a tone-deaf guy like himself could never find fault. However, he’d seen neither desert nor oasis with trickling streams. He sat still in his study the whole time.

He glanced at Nightingale who shook her head. It was apparent that she had not seen any miraculous scene, either.

Was it because her ability was not effective this time?

Roland contemplated, and then asked Echo, "Did you write this song?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Now, sing several songs I’ve taught you," he thought for a moment and decided, "Let everyone come and listen."

Soon, the study was crowded with witches. The three witches from Sleeping Island had even come, too. They were still holding their cards in hand. Echo was clearly a little nervous, but with the encouragement of Nightingale, she calmed down. She sang all the songs including the Guerillas' Song.

She received warm applause from the witches without exception.

After listening to the witches describe their feelings, Roland had a rough understanding of Echo's new ability.

The amount the audience could be affected by her singing depended on their respective experiences. If they had the same experience as depicted in the song, they would be influenced more. He came to this conclusion based on the newer songs he’d taught to Echo. Guerillas' Song was the most popular one, because the witches had seen the First Army marching along to the beat of music. Therefore, they could understand this song better. This could also explain why her Southernmost Region song had resonated so strongly with Iron Axe.

Unfortunately, Roland could not tell from a test that how much her singing could affect the audience. He was wondering if the scenes in her song could become real things when a listener was fully absorbed in it.

Echo's new ability filled him with expectations. The ability to lift one’s spirits should never be underestimated. She could encourage soldiers, pacify the masses, and sing background music for dramas...

...

The next afternoon, Roland met Vader from Border Town in his study.

"Your... Your Highness... I... I'm here..." he said with chattered teeth. Obviously, he had not recovered from the high-speed flight.

The fastest way to travel between the town and Stronghold now was Maggie's express service. However, even wrapped up in a thick blanket, flying at a speed of 60 kilometers per hour under the claws of a large beast was not a comfortable flight.

"Good job," Roland patted the fat pigeon on his shoulder.

"Coo!", she proudly held her head up.

"I want you here to assist the Elk Family with training," he looked at Vader and said. "The situation here is different from that in Border Town but similar to that of Valencia. Here there are rats, refugees and violent criminals."

"You mean, you want me to train patrollers?" Vader asked. He had finally stopped shivering after warming himself by the fireplace.

"No, I mean police." Roland explained his plan for taking severe measures against illegal and criminal activities. "The First Army will take care of it in the beginning, but public security work has to be handed over to the local police. The most important thing in training the police is to infuse them with the 'people's protector' concept."

"Treat the people warmly, like a spring breeze. And punish the criminals ruthlessly, like thunder," Vader repeated what Roland had said.

"Yes," the prince said with a smile, "I hope you can train them well."

Chapter 459 - Snaketooth (Part I)

During the Months of Demons, the streets and lanes in Stronghold were always desolate and the Rats here huddled themselves up, hiding in their respective evil territories. They were sharing the food that had been stored in the fall and waiting until a new prey emerged when it would warm up again.

This is the way it should've been.

"Shit, why do I have to struggle through the snowstorm to listen to some damned policy-preaching?" Snaketooth bitterly spat on the ground, "I don't give a damn what the lords will do."

"Put your collar up," he said to Joe, a small boy shivering next to him. "You'll die if you catch the cold-plague."

"He shouldn't have followed us out," Sunflower said, frowning. "Is it really necessary to send all the four of us just to get some information? Kanas must have it in for us."

"Save it, please. Even if he does, what can we do?" Tigerclaw, a strapping boy, said with disapproval. "He's our source for food." Though he sounded unconcerned, he still quickened his pace to walk in front of the other three kids. From then on, Snaketooth felt that the cold wind was diminishing considerably.

"Th-thanks," Joe whispered.

When it came to Kanas, every one of them was reluctant to say anything.

Rats had social ranks too. Kings were at the top and tails at the bottom. Different ranks had different places to stay. As for Kanas, he was neither a king nor a tail. He was the ruler of the Endless Lane in the Western Zone of the outer city. If he must be called something, he should be a waist or a belly. No matter what he was, Snaketooth and his friends had to respectfully call him boss whenever they met him.

There were six rulers like him in the Western Zone, but their boss, namely the king of the Western Zone, still remained unknown to Snaketooth.

Kanas had several teams of Rats and they were one of them. The only way to win more favor from the ruler was to show stronger competency than the other teams. Unfortunately, as street kids in the lane, they were obviously at a disadvantage in both number and strength. But Tigerclaw was different一it was incredible for him, who ate only half a piece of brown bread every day, to be so well-built.

The reason the brown-haired girl, Sunflower, thought that Kanas was aiming at them was because of their prior mishap. They didn't take the witch that appeared in the lane to Kanas because Snaketooth wanted to use her ability to make some money first. Not long after they went out, they unexpectedly met the big shot from the Honeysuckle Family and lost the witch before they made enough money.

Because of this incident, Kanas was extremely angry with them. He thought if they had given the witch to him earlier, he would have made a lot more by selling her to the nobility or the church.

"It's easy to say," Snaketooth said with contempt. "Selling her to the church for 25 gold royals? Where can he find those priests? The church is in ruins. The nobility won't honestly give gold royals to a Rat, either. He'll get killed instead of getting paid."

"Snaketooth is, is right." Joe agreed, still shivering. "If he re-really thought we made him lose 25 gold royals, he would have thrown us into the Redwater River."

"Kanas could only give the witch to the king of the Western Zone. He also needs to protect himself from her magic power and doesn't have any God's Stones of Retaliation." Snaketooth continued, "He's just disgusted with us."

"Stop saying 'selling'. She's Paper and one of us!" Sunflower gave Snaketooth a painful pinch. "You talk about her like she's cargo!" She suddenly paused a little here and asked, "Hey, did you sell her back then?"

"No, I didn't!" He exclaimed. "I tried my best to save her, but that person is the lord of the city."

"Is she alright in Border Town?" Tigerclaw sighed.

"How can she be alright?" Sunflower snorted. "What's the difference between being played by the prince and being played by the other noblemen?"

"Really... you say that now, but when you actually see the nobles' lifestyle, you'll desperately want to be played by them," Snaketooth said and twitched his lips.

When they arrived at the square of Stronghold, they were taken by surprise. Several hundred people there surrounded a wooden stage and there was a bonfire. It was such a rare scene on a snowy day.

"Someone will actually come here to preach," Tigerclaw rasped. "What kind of tricks does the nobles want to play?"

"It can't be good news." Snaketooth shrugged. "I suppose it's about tax collection or grabbing some able-bodied guys for military service. They've just fought a battle, right?"

"Whatever, it's none of our business." Sunflower said, "Let's finish this quickly and get home early. Joe, go over to the bonfire and warm yourself."

"Ye-yeah."

Snaketooth walked around the crowd to the edge of the stage. The man on it wore a thick, cotton-padded jacket, a wool hood, and a pair of deer-leather gloves. Snaketooth felt warm simply by looking at him. This was so much better than him and his dirty, old clothes. He thought of how great it would be if he had a chance to steal them, but also knew that was just in his imagination. The Elk Family label on the man's cloak indicated his identity.

A Rat could never afford to offend an attendant of the four families.

"Go with Joe to warm yourselves, I can take care of this here," Snaketooth said to the other two kids.

"Really?" Tigerclaw asked and raised his eyebrow a little.

"Of course, I've got a good memory." Snaketooth pointed at his head. "I remember everything—the words, the people, and the bitter hatred."

"Pfft," Sunflower scoffed. "Listen to you. Since you say so, I'll go. And thanks... Let's go, Tigerclaw."

"But you'll have to give me more at dinner tonight."

"We'll see. I don't know if there's any food tonight!" she said, throwing her hands up.

After they left, Snaketooth patted his cold face to draw his attention back to the wooden stage. The information was useless for a Rat tail like himself, but it might mean profitable opportunities for Rat bellies and kings. Unfortunately, even if they did make some profits, the tails at the bottom would still get almost nothing.

"My fellow citizens, here's a joint declaration by the lord of the Western Region, Prince Roland Wimbledon; Earl of the Honeysuckle Family, Shalafi Hull; and the lord of Longsong Stronghold, Petrov Hull." The man took a sip of his hot ale and continued to read a piece of parchment in his hand. "The City Hall of Longsong Stronghold now opens the grain market to the public. Any citizen who has extra grain at home can sell them in the market freely now. But pay attention please, starting next month, any unauthorized sale of grain will be considered a felony, and only the City Hall has the right to purchase and sell grain! Once someone is arrested for the unauthorized sale of grain, he'll be severely punished! The City Hall also welcomes public tip-offs about this kind of offense, and will reward anyone who offers correct information 25 silver royals!"

Snaketooth opened his mouth with surprise, for he never expected that he would hear such incredible news!

The nobility wants to forbid the private trade of grain!

Besides, both the grain purchasing and selling prices offered by the City Hall are extremely low. Who'll sell grain to them at this low price? The grain price in Stronghold has already increased threefold because of the early arrival of this year's Months of Demons and it's impossible to drop before the snow ends. If the City Hall sells grain now, no matter how much, the nobility and merchants will buy it all. Did the prince and the city lord never think of this issue?

"Wait... if they really do forbid private trade in grain, what will happen to us?" Snaketooth suddenly shuddered at this thought. Most of the citizens bought most of their grain from Rats. Once the policy was carried out and all the grain in the market was bought by the nobility and merchants, it would be a disaster for almost everyone!

Chapter 460 - Snaketooth (Part II)

Snaketooth never expected that much more unbelievable things were yet to come—the speaker's next announcement rendered him motionless.

"In five days, which is the second week of the first month of spring, the City Hall will distribute rations at the square! Everyone can come here to collect two bowls of steaming hot oatmeal, one for lunch and one for dinner. Citizens, let's all thank the prince for his generosity!"

At this, the crowd began to stir.

"My god, Gayle was right—this was really in the notice!"

"Yes, I came just to confirm that."

"Do my ears deceive me? Free oatmeal every day?"

"Are you coming, too? Don't you have plenty of oats and dried meat at home?"

"It's still two free meals! My lord didn't forbid me from coming. Didn't you hear that he said 'everyone'?"

"My Lord!" Someone suddenly shouted. "Is the oatmeal really free? How long will this continue?"

This was the question on everyone's mind. The crowd quieted and turned to look at the attendant in unison.

The attendant waited for the good news to sink in, and then announced calmly, "That's right! The oatmeal really is free, and the distribution will continue until the end of the Months of Demons! Tell all your neighbors and friends about this news, because His Highness will always stay true to his promises!"

Hundreds of people instantly became excited, but Snaketooth still couldn't believe his ears.

"Free food? What does this mean? It means that they can temporarily avoid being threatened by Kanas and starving in the snow—No, not just them, but all Rats will be able to easily obtain food. Now, they'll be even more difficult to control!

Kanas won't just sit by and let this happen, so what will he do? Send someone to disperse the crowd, disrupt the distribution... or bribe City Hall officials to dump all the oatmeal into the Redwater River?"

However, Snaketooth also noticed that the announcer kept mentioning "His Highness", which meant it was the legendary Prince Roland that gave orders to distribute rations, not the Duke or the Five Families. "Will he let these Rats roam shamelessly, or will he really be different from the other noblemen?"

He didn't trust any of the nobility, and the day Paper was taken away was still fresh in his mind.

However, a small voice in his head kept asking him, "What if it was true, what if... it was true?"

Luckily, his doubts didn't last long because the Elk attendant on the stage began to read another notice—he used to think that these orders were simply the nobles' tricks to mess with the citizens and had nothing to do with orphans like him, but even more surprising than the last two notices was the third one, which directly applied to the Rats.

"Citizens, listen up! There are brighter days to come!" The announcer shouted something to calm the rowdy crowd and then said, "In five days, or when the oatmeal distribution starts, His Highness will begin cracking down on crime in Longsong Stronghold, including Black Street organizations, theft, and any behavior that threatens the safety and belongings of the citizens! When the time comes, please don't hang around Black Street or visit pubs, casinos, and other unsafe areas to prevent unnecessary harm!"

"Order in Stronghold needs to be maintained by all citizens, and the City Hall is currently recruiting public safety officers and police personnel. Next, I'll explain the requirements!"

Snaketooth didn't feel like listening anymore, so he made his way out of the crowd and ran next to the bonfire. "Hurry, let's go back!"

"Are you done listening?" Sunflower rubbed her hands and asked reluctantly, "You should get warm before you leave."

"No, we have to go now!" he said urgently.

"What happened?" Joe could sense that something was off.

"I'll explain to you on the road." Snaketooth stomped his foot. "We need to go back right now, otherwise Kanas will hear about this through someone else and we'll be done for!"

...

The gathering spot for Rats in the Western Zone was a two-story house buried deep in the Endless Lane.

Kanas was an intimidating one-eyed man, and his temper and methods were just as cruel as his appearance. Snaketooth personally saw him nail someone who was messed up to a wall and then whipped him to death. At the same time, he controlled the food supply of several Rat organizations in the area, so no one dared to disrespect him.

Snaketooth felt the same way, so he knelt carefully in front of Kanas and told him about the notices.

"Is the lord of the city targeting us?" Kanas asked with a frown, "What kind of nonsense is that?"

"...It's not the lord of the city," reminded Snaketooth carefully. "The announcer was talking about the prince."

"What the hell do you know?" Kanas spat. "No noble, no matter how important, can do anything in someone else's territory. This's Longsong Stronghold, not Border Town or King's City, and the lords of the Honeysuckles or Elks are here, so there's nothing he can do. So what if he's the so-called protector of the Western Region? Just look at who's sitting in the castle. The king still rules Graycastle in name, but who cares about his orders?"

"You're right," a girl next to Kanas said softly. "Not to mention, even if power changes hands, it has nothing to do with us. Nobles are Nobles, and Rats are Rats. Just because the two groups live in the same city, it doesn't mean that they are anything alike."

"Rats are Rats? That's what I love to hear." Kanas grabbed the girl's behind. "However, the second notice is quite strange. Usually, if the nobles want to improve their reputation by distributing food, they would let us know beforehand. Also, they usually restrict the amount they distribute, but how come it sounds like they're trying to feed the entire city this time?"

No one could answer his question, but Snaketooth knew that everyone was thinking about those two free bowls of oatmeal.

"Maybe... the noblemen want to get on good terms with Sir Bloodyhand?" The girl chuckled.

"Who knows." Kanas shrugged. "I'll go ask the boss later. Only he knows and understands these issues related to the nobility."

The so-called "Bloodyhand" was the king of the Western Zone Rats, and it was rumored that he was very close with the lower-level nobles. In a sense, he was no longer a regular Rat, but a title-less "underground nobleman"—in fact, all Rat kings had similar social connections.

At this thought, Snaketooth breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that Kanas' lover was right. "Both the nobility and Rats have existed for hundreds of years, so no matter how the upper level changes, the underground world will always maintain its own rules... His Highness is also a member of the nobility, so what can he do?"

"By the way, I know exactly what you all are thinking right now." Kanas chuckled. "You want to try the City Hall's oatmeal? On the day of distribution, everyone must remain in this room, and no one can leave. Understood? If anyone goes behind my back to eat it, I'll make sure he never eats another thing in his life!"

Chapter 461 - Respective Beliefs

It was the strangest group of people Rene Medde had ever seen.

A detailed map of Longsong Stronghold was spread open on the square table in the lobby on the castle's first floor.

Six people surrounded the table, including, Commander of the First Army, Iron Axe; Police Chief of Border Town, Vader; the current leader of Ragingfire, Crack; head of Security Bureau, Nightingale; dark-haired witch, Ashes; and himself, Earl of the Elk Family.

Rene never expected that he would need the help of Rats one day, let alone cooperate with witches.

"My lords, there're about seven or eight different gangs in Stronghold," Crack said, bowing and smiling ingratiatingly. "Sickle Gang, situated in the northern outer city, is the largest group with 500 to 600 members, but Knell Gang, in the inner city, is the most powerful. Knell consists mostly of escaped convicts and mercenaries and rarely accepts commoners as its members, and they have more than enough swords and armor, which is why they control the most lucrative area."

"The eastern city belongs to Dead Flesh Eaters and Vulture Gang, who sell slaves and Dreamland Water through the harbor area through extremely cruel means. It's rumored that these two Rat organizations are backed by the Wolf and Maple Leaf families, but when our Ragingfire totally defeated them a couple years ago, no great nobles stepped up to help them." He said with a tinge of pride.

"As for the western city, the gangs are much more complicated... Since they are all small gangs, I've only interacted with their leaders. They are..."

"Information about gangs isn't important, so you don't have to go into details." The tall Mojin man interrupted. "I only want to know if you can take us into the lairs of these underground Rats?"

"Ahem, my lord..." Crack nodded towards him. "A common saying goes, 'The lairs of Rats are riddled with caves and holes'. I know the main gathering points of all the gangs, but I don't know every single one of their shelters, especially the hiding places in dried wells and basements, so I can only rely on leaders and cronies to find the specific spots."

"He's right about that." Rene sighed. "If we went face to face with the Rats, they wouldn't stand a chance, but it'll be much more difficult to clear them all out."

"We might have a chance of success if we launch a surprise attack, but now that the notice has been announced, the leaders will all hide away by the time we act."

"Hide?" The dark-haired witch laughed. "Unless they hide in Redwater City, if they'll have to stay in Stronghold, there's no way we won't find them here."

"Yes, you're right." Crack wiped the sweat off his forehead and didn't argue further.

The witch named Ashes gave off a terrifying feeling of pressure. Rene had been in battle and fought demonic beasts in Hermes, so he knew what a true warrior should be like... But even soldiers in the Judgement Army, who had faced hundreds of battles, would falter in front of her. She didn't need to make some scary expression because even when she was simply standing, no one could dare to look into her eyes.

There was no doubt that she had not only seen blood and slain enemies but also hovered between life and death. That was why she had such a menacing aura.

"His Highness has given us three days to prepare. When the first batch of rations is distributed, the army will begin from the western city gate and clean up the Rat gangs in all the areas." Iron Axe said quietly, "This mission is targeting only the organizers so that we can take down the Black Street as quickly as possible."

"But... will this really work?" Rene couldn't help asking as Iron Axe walked towards the entrance of the lobby. "No city has been able to get rid of the Rats. As long as the citizens exist, so will they."

Iron Axe turned around and glanced at him. "Is that so? Border Town doesn't have any Rats."

...

Everyone left, and only Vader was left.

"Earl, has anyone applied to be a policeman yet?"

"Not yet... but I heard from Petrov that dozens of people in the Second Army have signed up for it." Rene sat down slowly next to the table with Iron Axe's words still ringing in his ears. After a while, he whispered, "Are there really no Rats in the town?"

"If you mean the conventional Black Street organizations, then there aren't any." Vader shrugged. "No man or woman has to worry about food or shelter, and everyone can find a suitable job. Even the salary from doing odd jobs is enough to feed themselves. Honestly, before I went to Border Town, I didn't believe that a place like that could exist in the Kingdom of Graycastle either."

"Why?" Rene couldn't help asking.

"I don't know, my lord..." Vader splayed his hands. "His Highness Roland is capable of things that are far beyond any other noblemen I have known."

"No need to call me lord." Rene waved his hand. "His Highness wants us to work together, so we can put our titles aside for now."

Vader nodded and didn't protest. Rene admired Vader's frankness. "Do you think the prince can really eliminate all the Rats in Stronghold and purify the entire Western Region?"

"I'm not sure either." Vader's answer surprised him. "After all, I used to be a Patrol Leader and interacted with Rats for many years. Their existence was like the shadows under the sun, so blunt force might not be that effective. His Highness once said that if he was dealing with a large city with millions of people, he might not be able to take care of everything. But if there were only ten thousand people, he might be able to get rid of these bottom-feeding scums. Basically, he plans to make people realize that it's too risky to become a Rat and there're many other better options."

"Too... risky?" Rene ignored the statement about millions of people because even a city with ten thousand people was already unbelievable. "This will take a pretty long time to achieve."

"That's right, targeting Rats or crime can't be done in one day," Vader said and nodded. "That's why His Highness Roland established the police force. I told you before that this organization is completely different from a patrol team."

It was really different. They reported to the City Hall rather than the noble and maintained order in an area rather than conspire with criminals.

"And most importantly, His Highness told me one more thing."

"What did he tell you?"

"I actually had the same concerns as you do now," Vader said with a smile, "but His Highness asked, 'So you won't try because it's hard?'"

Rene Medde felt a sense of realization rush into his heart. If he did not try because it was hard, he would not have been relentlessly pursuing his knighthood. Although he inherited the title of Earl and felt like he was straying from his desired life, as long as he could continue to fight for the people, he would be still following the path in his heart. Now, this path was becoming even wider.

"Now... I understand." He took a deep breath.

"I was just as shocked as you." Vader recalled. "But I don't understand what His Highness said next."

"Did he say anything else?" Rene asked excitedly.

"Uh-huh," Vader said, stroking his chin. "he said 'you'll feel incredibly fulfilled after drinking this bowl of chicken broth.' But... what does it have to do with chicken broth?"

Chapter 462 - The Determination

Joe fell ill.

He was the second weakest in the group before Paper was kidnapped, and since then he had become the weakest. Joe was fine the night he came back from the square. But the next day, Snaketooth found him lying motionless on the hay, moaning vaguely and with bright red cheeks.

"He was infected by the cold plague," Sunflower said while touching Joe's head, "and his head is burning hot."

"Will I... die?"

Joe, squinting his eyes, asked softly.

No one answered.

The cold plague was an extremely stubborn disease, and once contracted, you can only rely on the body to resist the infection. However, people who were physically fit seldom suffered from the cold—those who were infected were generally weak, so very few patients could survive it. It was essentially a death sentence for Rats.

"I'll go and look for Kanas," said Snaketooth, breaking the silence.

"What do you want him for?"

"To beg him to give Joe more food." He stood up. "I've heard that the chance of survival is greater if the patient is kept warm and adequately fed."

"He won't give you any food," Tigerclaw shook his head and said. "We all know what kind of person he is."

"Exactly, you may even get beaten up by him," Sunflower said while gathering hay. "Rats never feed any useless person."

"Joe isn't useless." Snaketooth retorted. "He can read!"

"Just a few words, and of what use is that to Kanas? He wants people who can steal and rob others."

"..." Snaketooth clenched his teeth, turned around and walked towards the manager's room in the Endless Lane. He had to try even if he would be beaten up by Kanas with a stick.

Surprisingly, Kanas was not back yet.

"You're lucky." When he brought the message back to his companions, Tigerclaw grinned. "Or we may have to take care of another one."

Sunflower sighed. "Each of us will give a portion of our bread to Joe later when it's time for the bread distribution so that he can eat more."

However, Snaketooth did not feel lucky at all. He could feel something was not right.

"It'd only take half an hour to send the message to Bloodyhand. It's understandable that Bloodyhand didn't come back last night due to the discussion of countermeasures—but it's already noon, the discussion should have been finished by now." Furthermore, when his men opened the door, he took a peek and realized Kanas and his lover were both missing.

The gang started to distribute food not long after, and Snaketooth realized that it was distributed by Kanas' confidant.

What he received was nothing but half a slice of brown bread.

...

After four days, Joe's condition was still deteriorating.

He was yelling that he felt cold yesterday, but he couldn't speak a word today. His once pink cheeks started to turn pale and his breathing was getting weaker.

"We've tried our best," Sunflower said languidly with her hand on her stomach.

They had given half of their food to Joe in the past few days. If it was not for them, he might not have lived this long. Tigerclaw, who used to be very energetic, was starting to look feeble as well.

Kanas had not shown up these past few days.

More than a hundred Rats gathered in the room and started to discuss this matter. But it was just a discussion—after all, they were still getting food as usual. However, it was especially noisy today.

It was the day of free food distribution, as announced.

"I'll go to the square," after a long contemplation, Snaketooth clenched his teeth and said. "We need to eat more than just bread. Joe might be able to last if I could get a bowl of hot oatmeal for him."

"Are you crazy?" Sunflower stared at him and said, "Don't forget how Kanas warned us. Do you really want to get stitches on your lips?"

"That's if he knows I snuck out. We don't even know where Kanas is now. What if the lord of the city is really going to attack them?"

"But his men are still here. Do you think they'll let you off if they find out?" Sunflower looked at Tigerclaw. "Don't just stand there. Help me to talk him out of this."

"I'll go with you," the latter said suddenly.

"Both of you..."

"This food distribution may have already been ruined. Or perhaps there's no food at all, and it's simply the noble's act of disguising it. I suppose it shouldn't be considered disobeying Kanas' warnings in this case?" Tigerclaw twitched his lips and said, "I'm strong—I can run there and back while carrying Joe on my back, and it won't take us too long. Kanas isn't around now and his confidants are hiding in his room roasting themselves in front of the fire. No one will notice us."

"Um..." Sunflower hesitated.

"You just stay here," Snaketooth said, "so you can cover for us in case anyone asks. Just say we have diarrhea and had to go to find a sheltered place to relieve ourselves. No worries. We won't need long to rush back from there."

"Well, then," she looked around and said, "hurry up!"

...

Snaketooth and Tigerclaw snuck out of the log cabin, running all the way down the alley. The elevated snow under their feet drenched their trousers. Even though the cold wind that blew into their face felt as sharp as a knife, it couldn't stop them. Panting while arriving at the square, they found that there were almost a thousand people surrounding the podium.

Oatmeal really was being distributed!

Both of them ran over quickly, but were stopped by two guards in brown uniforms. "Walk slowly, no pushing, and no cutting in line—otherwise you'll be prohibited from receiving any free food."

Snaketooth noticed that there was a wooden fence set up around the center of the podium. The crowd was moving along the fence in a line like a folded dragon. Guards armed with strange iron bars could be seen at every short interval. They looked like the defenders of order, because people were expelled from the line from time to time.

"My friend is sick... Can you help us, please? I'm begging you!" Snaketooth knelt down on the snowy ground.

"He's been starving for days. He's in need of food urgently!" Tigerclaw knelt down beside him.

"What kind of illness?"

"It's... the cold plague."

One of them reached out to Joe who was unconscious and said, "Leave him with me. Both of you get in line."

"Erm..."

"He knows the way back, doesn't he?" the other guard said, "Even if he doesn't know, you can always come back here to look for him."

While saying this, the guard walked away with Joe on his shoulders.

"What should we do?" Both of them stared at each other. No one expected it to turn out like this—according to their plans, the other party would either be totally indifferent or let them bypass the fence to get the oatmeal in advance.

"Let's go back first." Snaketooth decided after some short contemplation.

"What... Go back?" Tigerclaw asked with surprise, "No oatmeal?"

"It'll take us at least half an hour to get there with this line. There might be trouble if we take too long," he nodded and said. "We can sneak out again in the evening to bring Joe back."

Tigerclaw looked at the oatmeal on the wooden table and said reluctantly, "Okay... then."

There was something that Snaketooth kept to himself—since the announcement of the free food distribution had come true, did it mean that the other two rumors would eventually pan out as well?

He vaguely felt that an upheaval might be coming towards the Black Street.

Back at the Endless Lane, both of them tiptoed into the house but were caught by surprise.

Sunflower was hung in front of the entrance with both her hands tied behind her back, standing on a shaky wooden bench. Bruises could be seen on her face. All the while, Kanas' men were standing by her side, sneering at both of them.

"You, finally back with a well-fed stomach?"

Chapter 463 - The Elimination of Bloodyhand Gang

Snaketooth's heart sank rapidly.

"Let…go…" Fear seized his throat. He opened his mouth but could only rasp in a dull voice.

"You mean 'let go of her'? Alright." The man kicked the stool below Sunflower's feet, her body stiffened instantly. The rope dug into Sunflower's neck. She kicked her feet in panic, clenched and released her tied hands, but none of these helped.

Tigerclaw rushed forward to help, but his head was struck from behind with a stick and he fell to the floor.

"If we hadn’t been waiting for you, I'd have killed her earlier." One of Kanas' henchmen sneered. "What a good excuse, diarrhea! You probably don't know, but we’ve had people watching you. He knows that mutts aren't disciplined. We knew we'd have to teach you a lesson to ensure you abide by the rules of the Bloodyhand Gang."

"It's my fault." Snaketooth knelt down. "Please let her go! She never even stepped out of this room!"

"This little b*tch lied to me," the henchman shrugged. "She swore you were just looking for shelter from the wind. Even with her two teeth knocked out, she wouldn't change her story. Why would I want her alive? So she can get back at me?"

"They want to kill us." Snaketooth came to the sudden realization. He struggled to raise his head, seeing that Sunflower's struggle was getting weaker and her body had begun to stiffen. He forced himself not to look at her, but instead paying attention to the dagger hanging at the waist of the man. He was only six steps away. If Snaketooth could rush up and get that dagger...

Suddenly, the rope broke.

Sunflower fell to the floor silently.

"What the hell..." The henchman frowned, but before he could finish his words, a line of blood spouted from his neck, spraying the face of the closest Rat.

Snaketooth stared at the scene in front of him.

Meanwhile, sounds of a fight came from the outer room.

"Stop! This is the Bloodyhand Gang's territory!"

"Some... somebody broke in!"

"Oh... my hand!"

"Damn it. Come out and kill her!"

"Mon... monster! Help..."

Kanas’ followers looked at each other and pulled out their weapons. Before they could escape, an apparition flew in and overthrew the two front men.

Snaketooth then saw the attacker—a striking woman with black hair casually tied into a ponytail at the back of her head. She was wearing a long black gown and her eyes were golden. Snaketooth felt his blood freeze when she cast a glance at him.

"Drop your weapon, put your hands over your head and kneel down. If you want to live." The woman stuck out three fingers. "I will count to three. Anyone who doesn't follow my instruction will die."

"Three."

There were only a few seconds of silence before someone shouted, "God, such skills... she must be worth 100 gold royals!"

"Everybody, let's move!"

"Catch her and boss will definitely reward us well!"

"Catch her alive!"

"Never mind. You'd be better dead." She held up a giant, oddly-shaped ornate sword and charged into the crowd. Snaketooth couldn't believe his eyes. The sword was made of cast iron, and whatever it touched shattered instantly. She moved at such a fast speed that her enemies' lime powder and crossbows were barely useful. The once effective hidden weapons couldn’t hit the target now. The crowd could not escape from her, let alone fight back.

"Protect your friend, child," a voice came but the source of the voice was nowhere to be seen.

He swallowed his saliva and crawled to Sunflower’s side in panic. He put his hand to her nostrils to feel her breath.

She faintly exhaled warm air... she was still alive!

Snaketooth felt like crying, the happiness of having survived overwhelmed him.

What was written on the announcement was real. These people had been sent by the prince to eliminate organizers of the gang! Now they had hope!

Bending over Sunflower, he burst into tears.

...

As more soldiers in brown uniforms rushed into the room, the fight ended quickly.

All the conscious Rats were told to stand in a line and walkout of the room one by one.

"My head aches," Tigerclaw complained with one hand rubbing his head. "The bump is so big."

"Be grateful you weren't beaten to death." Snaketooth glared at him with tears in his eyes.

"What happened?" Sunflower massaged her neck on which appeared a black line from the rope. "I thought I was dead for sure."

"I'll tell you after we get out of here," Snaketooth shook his head. He was afraid if he spoke too much, he would burst into tears again.

"Your turn." The guard at the door twisted Snaketooth's arms to his back.

Snaketooth didn't resist, and he followed the guard outside. A woman in a white gown was standing in the yard, a paradox to the lethal goddess in black. Her face was covered by a hood, with only strands of curly blonde hair showing.

"You may leave after answering the Lord's questions."

"Yes," Snaketooth faithfully replied, he was in awe of this army's capabilities.

"Have you committed murder?" Her voice was brisk and pleasing as if it was from another world. "How about rape? Robbery?"

Suddenly something struck his mind—she was the one who had warned him without showing herself.

"None of those."

"Alright." She nodded. "Wait at the square for your dinner from His Highness."

Snaketooth stopped after two steps. It took courage to ask, "Are you a witch?"

"That's right." Snaketooth hadn't expected an answer, but to his surprise, the witch gave an upfront reply.

"These are Kanas's followers," Snaketooth continued to speak, biting his lip. "He hasn't been here for four days. He must be hiding somewhere with Bloodyhand! Bloodyhand is the real head of the gang! Never let him go!"

"Don't worry. They can't escape." The woman smiled and said this with a tone of unquestionable confidence.

...

"Do you mean... His Highness sent witches to hunt for the head of Rats?" Tigerclaw’s eyes were wide in disbelief.

"Not only witches but also many common men," Snaketooth told the bizarre story he had just witnessed. "What I've guessed is right—witches are accepted in His Highness' territory. They can appear in public without worries, and even fight with others." He paused, and then continued to speak with excitement, "If Paper really was sent there, she must be living a fairly decent life."

"Sounds like you want to go there and meet her," Sunflower said, twitching her mouth. "Witches are talented and it’s difficult to see them. You might embarrass her if you go to see her."

"Oh..." Snaketooth was stunned for a moment. He knew what Sunflower said was true. He was only a Rat, even if he could survive the winter, his identity would remain the same. Paper must be living a whole different life now, totally out of his league.

"Don't overthink it." Tigerclaw patted him on the shoulder. "Look, it’s time to eat."

Chapter 464 - The Changes

Many people came for the second meal. Luckily, the three of them had arrived early and were able to secure a position at the front.

When Snaketooth joined the queue, he realized why the fences were built around the wooden stage. There was a speaker chattering about the new policy. He would probably have to keep listening to him until he got his oatmeal.

The crowd moved forward slowly. After waiting for half an hour, he finally reached the back of the wooden stage.

"Give me your right hand." A guard said.

Snaketooth followed the instruction, and the guard stamped the back of his hand.

"Next."

The wooden fence extended on both sides to encircle a large area, but the queuing still continued. Everyone was guided by a guard to take a wooden bowl, receive the oatmeal, go eat on the side, and then return their bowl. It was hard to believe that ordinary civilians and Rats could be this orderly.

Snaketooth looked at the long queue behind him and felt that this whole thing was absurd. It was as if they were in a solemn ceremony instead of begging for charity.

"What did he stamp on our hands?" Tigerclaw stuck his head out from behind. "I can't wipe it off."

"It's probably meant to prevent us from joining the queue again after we finish our oatmeal," he said with a frown.

Tall tents were set at the perimeter of the empty space, and he could see through the shadows that there were many busy people inside. Heavy wooden barrels were being moved to the long wooden table beside the fence, and it was obvious that the food had just been cooked. As he watched the steaming porridge flow into his bowl, his hands could not help but tremble.

How long had it been since he had a hot meal?

The oatmeal was watery and did not come with vegetables or condiments, but just the golden porridge and its overflowing aroma was enough to make him salivate. Compared with black bread, which contained stones and husks, the food in his bowl made him feel warm again.

Tears were starting to collect in his eyes again.

Snaketooth finished the oatmeal quickly despite how hot it was and licked the bowl clean. Although he wished he could go back and beg for another bowl, he finally dispelled the idea after he saw the surveillance guards. He put the wooden bowl into the designated pot and followed the crowd to exit the fenced area.

There was another wooden stage at the exit, and the speaker was answering questions from the public enthusiastically.

After eating some warm food, the howling wind did not seem as cold as before, and the three of them slowly followed the crowd to the wooden stage.

"You asked why His Royal Highness distributed the oatmeal? That's a good question!" the man said excitedly. "It's because His Highness is determined to eliminate the Rats. Those who are menaced by Rats and those who are forced to comply with the Rats for food can be completely liberated and no longer subject to their threats! At the same time, he did this so that the families that don't have enough food storage can survive the harsh times! This is His Highness' benevolence!"

"You said earlier that the oatmeal would only be provided till the end of Months of Demons, so what happens after that?" someone asked loudly.

The scene suddenly quieted as the people eagerly awaited the answer. Snaketooth also listened attentively.

"It's simple! You can support yourselves!" the speaker said with a smile.

"Support...ourselves?"

"But I don't know how to farm."

"Could you please explain, sir?"

"Don't worry, let me explain to you slowly!" He waved his hand. "After the Months of Demons, Longsong Stronghold and Border Town will merge to form a new city, so the empty areas in between will require a lot of you to reclaim and reconstruct! Only hard work can create wealth, and only hard work can change destiny! You'll have a stable salary, and the money you earn will support you and your family! At the same time, His Highness promised that those who officially have a job will be accepted as citizens of the new city."

His words stirred a wave in the crowd, and Snaketooth felt his heartbeat speed up.

"Yes, I know what you are thinking," said the speaker loudly. "Many of you are Rats, or citizens forced to become Rats. It doesn't matter. You can work for a new life. You no longer have to live in the dark underground, and you don't have to worry about being sent to the gallows. You can rely on your own hands to earn legitimate rewards, whether it's food, clothing, or even shelter!"

"Sir… do we only need to be willing to work?"

He smiled and nodded. "In the future, His Highness will need more than 10,000 people, so… yes, as long as you are willing to work."

Snaketooth suddenly understood something.

...

During the next few days, the three of them went to the Central Square for oatmeal at noon every day. More and more citizens heard the news and came to the distributions, until they occupied almost half of the square. Of course, some people didn't go for the food. They just wanted to witness the end of the Black Street Rats.

It looked like there was a festival going on in Stronghold every day.

After the oatmeal was done being distributed at noon, there would be trials and executions on the other end of the square.

As the woman in the white robe had said, none of the Rats could escape their arrest. Snaketooth saw Kanas in one of the trials. His face was pale as he knelt and trembled on the scaffold, no longer domineering like before.

Then, as the iron pipe roared, his head was smashed into pieces.

Apart from Kanas, Snaketooth also heard the names of many other big figures among the Rats.

These included Bloodyhand, Ironcrow, Ripper… they had all been fierce kings in Black Street. Their appearances were not much better than Kanas. Every death of a Rat king was met with warm cheers and chants of "Long live His Highness".

On the fourth day, Snaketooth saw Joe, looking completely recovered. The four of them hugged each other excitedly.

"Where have you been?"

"I don't know," Joe shook his head. "My mind was obscured at the time. When I woke up I was lying in a tent, and my head didn't hurt anymore. I only ate and slept until the fever came down. There were quite a few patients like me in there, drinking oatmeal with dried meat. I ate so much the first time that I almost swallowed my tongue."

"Is there such a good thing?" Tigerclaw stared and said, "Damn, I want to be infected with the cold plague!"

"Anyway, it's good you survived," Sunflower said gladly.

After everyone was done catching up, Snaketooth suddenly said, "I want to look for a job after the Months of Demons."

"Perhaps those nobilities are just fooling us, and there'll be additional requirements," Tigerclaw said. "When they recruited the new Second Army and police members, they asked for a fixed address and a clean record, which means no stealing. So we aren't even in their consideration."

Snaketooth shook his head and did not answer. The things in the bulletin were gradually becoming a reality, and he realized that the "new city" was possibly beyond his imagination. In these few yet long days, he had already felt a change.

If the speaker was telling the truth, would he be able to stay in the new city? If he could get rid of his Rat identity, would Paper feel less embarrassed if he saw her again?

Chapter 465 - Inner Peace and Disturbance

Wendy, Scroll, and Spear were sitting in the castle hall, enjoying the top-grade black tea that was imported from the City of Glow.

Wendy took the whistling kettle off the pot hook in the fireplace and poured the boiled well water into a tea cup. Watching the water surface gradually being dyed a transparent orange and sniffing the mellow aroma that came from the rising steam, she felt her whole body become lazy. After blowing on the cup to cool down the tea, she took a small sip. The initial taste was slightly bitter, but it slowly turned into a fresh and sweet taste that rejuvenated her lips and tongue. As the warm liquid flowed into her abdomen, she uncontrollably let out a satisfied groan.

On the other side of the hall, Paper was still fiddling with the Sigil of God's Will. She had already mastered the skill of injecting magic power into the sigil, and was also able to accurately control the output of magic power. But no matter how she tried, she was only able to light up the first magic stone on the sigil.

"Whenever I see her, I'll think of the days in the Witch Cooperation Association," Scroll said emotionally. "At that time, nobody thought that we would all be able to live a life like what we have today."

"If we were able to foresee the future, Cara wouldn't have persisted so stubbornly." Wendy placed her cup down. "It's good that in the future, our awakened sisters won't have to experience the same suffering as we did." As she spoke, she started laughing. "We're probably the last batch of witches who had to suffer."

"Also the oldest batch, which means we'll enjoy the least number of good days," Scroll added while placing her hand on her forehead. "Sounds like we got the worst lot."

"That's why you came back early today just to enjoy a bit more leisure time?" Wendy joked.

"I left only after completing my duties." The latter shrugged her shoulders. "His Highness Roland is away and thus the amount of work is much less than usual. I'm somewhat not used to it."

"Is that so?" Wendy raised her eyebrows. "When His Highness returns, I'll tell him what you said word-for-word."

"Oh... then, for the next exam, I can't promise that you'll be able to understand every question."

"You two have such a great relationship." Spear giggled as she listened to the conversation. "Although I'm not young anymore, I've never enjoyed such a deep relationship with anyone. You two are among the most fortunate of the witches."

"That goes without saying. Not every witch has a powerful father," Scroll said, and drank a mouthful of tea before continuing, "and he would pass on everything he has to his daughter—even in the noble, such people are rare."

"By the way, how's it going in the City Hall?" Wendy looked towards Spear. "I've heard that you'll go there whenever you're free recently."

"There're many benefits of going." Spear exhaled deeply. "This's the first time I've gained insight into a departmental management style that's so well-ordered and demarcated, yet allows the departments to work closely together. Instead of having the ministers of each department conduct their own employee recruitment and compensation, the City Hall takes care of it for them. This way, there's less difficulty in replacing employees, and also allows capable citizens to enter the civil service without hindrance. I've no idea how His Highness conceived this idea."

"She even had a very nice chat with Barov." Scroll jested.

"Ahem, he was simply consulting me about a few questions related to the laws of the noble, which I happened to have a good understanding of," Spear said, shaking her head. "Also, the new laws laid down by His Highness are very unique, and may even be implemented in the Fallen Dragon Ridge. I discussed this with Barov for a little longer."

"Oh? How are they unique?"

"Such as the part regarding the definition of citizenship..."

"Sister Wendy, when will I be able to light up the second magic stone?" Paper had joined in unexpectedly and bawled as she held up the Sigil of God's Will.

"When you're a bit older." Wendy reached her hand out to the young girl. "Come, let me give you a hug."

Paper held on to Wendy's outstretched hand and climbed into her embrace.

Wendy caressed Paper's head as she watched the other two witches discuss the new laws, and felt a sense of calm.

It would be so good if this life could last forever.

At this moment, a guard entered the hall. He first glanced around the room before walking up to the four witches with a slight hesitation.

"Something happened?" Wendy recognized him—he was a personal guard of His Highness.

"Lady Wendy, someone has arrived from outside the castle, and she claims that her daughter has just been awakened as a witch..." The guard said while making a salute. "His Highness has specified that when he's not around, you'll be in charge of such issues."

"What?" The three witches were shocked simultaneously. "A new awakened witch?"

"That's what the person said."

"Quick, take me to her," Wendy immediately responded.

...

At the main gate of the castle, Wendy saw two citizens waiting in the cold wind. One of them seemed about 40 years old, her hair already turned half-white, and the wrinkles on her forehead were deep and long. She was wearing an old-fashioned coat and her stature was slightly hunched. The other person was much younger, about 17 or 18 years old, and she stood reservedly beside the elder woman.

"This is Lady Wendy of the Witch Union." The guard introduced.

"Our greetings, Lady Wendy." The two citizens bowed respectfully.

"They claim to be migrants from the Southern Territory and that they moved into an inner city residential district half a month ago. I've verified their identity cards and found no issue with the information they provided."

"You're the witch?" Wendy looked towards the young woman and spoke in the tenderest voice she could. "What's your name?"

"Lady Wendy's asking you a question." The elder woman tugged on the younger one's sleeve.

"Summer," the latter murmured.

"You're her... mother?"

"Yes, yes, indeed. Her father is still working at the Furnace Area, so I brought her over." The elder woman nodded repeatedly. "Lady Wendy, may I ask if what His Highness stated on the bulletin is true... that witches are entitled to a wage of one gold royal every month?"

"It's true indeed, but she has to be willing to join the Witch Union."

"I..." Summer opened her mouth.

"She's willing, she's definitely willing to serve and dedicate everything to His Highness." The mother interrupted her daughter. "Do we have to sign a contract? When will we receive the money?"

These words made Wendy frown uncontrollably. It was not hard to decipher from her tone that the mother not only treated her daughter as an object for sale, but also thought that the Witch Union was a place of pleasure for His Highness.

Wendy held back her unhappiness and replied placidly, "His Highness is currently handling some affairs in Longsong Stronghold, and I'm not sure when he'll be back. Furthermore, there'll be a few examinations and tests before she can join the Union. You may leave your daughter to our care in the castle, and when His Highness returns, we'll arrange for you to sign the contract."

No matter what, Summer was innocent, and thus Wendy did not want to impose her anger towards the ignorant mother on to her. Even though witches were already accepted by the majority of the town's inhabitants, the refugees who recently arrived in the Western Region still possessed a gross misunderstanding of them.

"I'll entrust her to you, Lady Wendy." The mother made a deep bow and then patted her daughter's head. "Behave well and don't disappoint His Highness."

"Mom, I..." Summer wanted to say something, but the elder woman had already turned and walked towards the exit ramp.

Chapter 466 - Reappearance

"Summer, right? Don't worry." Wendy walked up to the young woman and held her hand. "The Witch Union isn't what your family thinks, nor do you have to stay in the castle all the time."

"Really?" Summer asked softly.

"Of course." Wendy smiled. "We stay in the castle because we have nowhere else to go... before His Highness took us in, we lived vagrant lives. Our families were either broken or perceived us as strangers. You're considered fortunate to have a family." She paused briefly. "Let's go inside, the wind is strong here."

"... OK." The young woman lowered her head and followed Wendy into the castle.

"This is the new awakened witch?" Scroll was already waiting at the door. "What's her name?"

"Summer," Wendy replied, and then look towards the guard. "Can you help me inform Lady Agatha to return to the castle? Tell her that there's a new witch. She should be in the riverside chemical lab right now."

"My pleasure to serve you, Lady Wendy." The guard bowed before he turned and exited.

"Indeed, when Nightingale and Sylvie aren't around, only Agatha is able to distinguish magic power by type and capacity." Scroll nodded in agreement. "What's her ability?"

"We don't know yet." Wendy then caressed the young girl's head and asked, "How old are you?"

"18." Summer became nervous again in front of so many strangers.

"18?" Spear seemed surprised. "Isn't that the age of adulthood?"

"When did you realize that you were awakened as a witch?" Scroll asked. "Tell us your story in detail."

"Just... three days ago, when I turned 18," Summer replied meekly. "That day, my elder brother caught a fish for me as a gift, but it was taken away by my second sister, and only half of the tail was left for me in the end. At night, I hugged my quilt and cried. I then dreamt that the fish returned to my bowl. When I woke up, I discovered that the fish was indeed there, and I also had a new elder sister."

"A new elder sister... what does that mean?" Wendy asked in astonishment.

"One was sitting at the table and eating fish, while the other one was paralyzed with fear on the floor. However, the former soon disappeared together with the fish..." Summer recalled what happened. "At that time, I could feel that... those things that appeared had something to do with me. However, when I told my family about it, I was beaten up by my father and told not to scare my second sister. I really didn't scare her on purpose. Who would think that a dream could become real?"

"That wasn't a dream." Wendy confirmed what the girl said. "It was an awakening call."

Magic power would gather inside a witch's body on the aforementioned Day of Awakening. During this process, a witch would not only be able to feel the weird changes inside her body, but also, for a majority of witches, they would be unable to restrain the strange magic power, causing them to use their newly-gained ability involuntarily. Hence, apart from the extremely unbearable Day of Adulthood, the second highest cause of loss of witches was the Day of Awakening—the consequence of performing magical effects in front of normal people was obvious.

However, Wendy had never heard of a case whereby the Day of Adulthood and Day of Awakening fell on the same day. Albeit this was no doubt possible—the Day of Adulthood was just a more special Day of Awakening.

"After that, my second sister called me a witch and said that I had to leave home. My elder brother retorted that there was no issue with me being a witch as there were many witches in the town. My family quarreled over this..." Summer's voice became even softer as she spoke. "In the end, they decided to send me here."

It thus seemed that even people who had recently arrived from the Southern Territory were already being influenced by the town's propaganda. Fortunately for Summer, she was not tied up and handed over to the church, like many witches were. The unfortunate thing was that her family was ultimately unable to accept a witch. However, Wendy was confident that this kind of situation would be improved over time... the original inhabitants of Border Town were a good example.

After Wendy enquired about a few more details from Summer, Agatha walked into the hall, looking worn out.

"Is this the newly discovered witch?"

Wendy nodded and recounted Summer's identity and awakening experience. "How does the Union test a witch's ability?"

Agatha took a magic stone out of her waist pocket after she was done listening. "It's usually divided into two sections. One is to observe a thorough performance of the ability, and the other is to use the Stone of Measuring to measure the aggregate level of the magic power." Then, she looked at Summer and instructed. "Close your eyes and feel the magic power revolve inside your body."

"Does she need a partner to assist her?" Wendy appeared anxious. "She became a witch only three days ago. I'm afraid that she knows nothing about her magic power."

"No need." Agatha chuckled. "I'm only worried that she's scared."

As they spoke, the magic-filled stone emitted a ray of pale green light that enveloped Summer. A mist gradually appeared around her chest. Its center was pale yellow in color and it seemed like it could dissipate at any time.

"She wasn't lying." After observing briefly, Agatha stopped the operation of the Stone of Measuring. "It's indeed a feature that only occurs when the Day of Awakening and the Day of Adulthood are on the same day. The type of ability is... the summoning type which you're all familiar with. The level of magic power is... extremely low."

"Extremely low?" Wendy winced. "Did such a coincidence also occur in Taquila?"

"The Union had witnessed the awakening of thousands of witches. Something like this was rather common." Agatha replied proudly. "As for witches who awakened only near the end of adulthood, it was as if they never had a Day of Adulthood."

"What?"

"Their magic powers were never able to develop and thus remained in the pre-adulthood form forever. Naturally, they didn't have the derivative skills and steady growth that were unique to adulthood. I don't know if such witches were able to have High Awakenings, but if they were unable to develop, the problems with their magic power would bug them for the rest of their lives. She paused briefly. "We should have a look at Summer's ability first. After all, magic capacity is only one aspect. The ability itself is the best way to gauge a witch's value."

"Agatha!" Wendy exclaimed while frowning. Every witch should be treated as a fellow sister, instead of being valued based on her ability.

"This is how it's done in the Holy City." Agatha was unmoved. "Sure... I believe His Highness' saying that every ability has its own special use, but they're still distinguishable by their quality."

"What are you... arguing about?" Summer opened her eyes, looking confused.

"Nothing much." Wendy forcibly smiled and said in a comforting voice, "Try to demonstrate your ability to everyone."

"Yes..." The young woman held her breath and slowly reached out her hands. Soon, the four people present were able to see the effects—they saw figures of themselves positioned on the other side of the hall. Two of them seemed to be discussing something, but not a sound was heard. Suddenly, Paper, who had left the hall a long while ago, reappeared beside Wendy and slowly crawled into Wendy's arms, revealing a sweet smile on her face.

Wendy subconsciously reached out a hand to the figure of herself, but her fingertips passed through the figure as if there was nothing there.

Chapter 467 - You're Irreplaceable

After the illusion disappeared, the lobby fell into an eerily silence.

After a while, Scroll finally sighed and said, "No wonder your sister fell over in shock. That's quite... terrifying indeed."

"The ability to place an entire group under an illusion is very rare, but not new..." Agatha said slowly. "When I was in the Union, I knew at least two witches with similar powers, one of which was a Senior Witch from Starfall City."

"How many times can you use this ability every day?" asked Wendy. "Can you control the specific time period that the illusion shows?" According to His Highness' usual practices, there should be a comprehensive test of her ability that sought to understand its characteristics, efficacy and usage.

"About... two or three times," whispered Summer, "and what do you mean by time period? Are you asking how recent the things I show are?" Seeing Wendy nod, Summer stroked her own head in embarrassment. "I've never tested it, but I think earlier things take more effort..."

Wendy couldn't help but laugh. "It doesn't take effort, but the magic power inside your body."

"Magic power?"

"You should be able to feel it flowing inside you like water, or floating inside you like fog. Using your ability requires magic power," explained Scroll. "There're so many things to learn about magic power, and I'll teach them all to you in the future."

"Uh-huh." Summer nodded.

Then, Wendy instructed Summer to use all her powers to display an illusion. This time, the illusion was from a day and a half ago, when the lights were shining in the lobby, and the sisters of the Witch Union were having dinner at a long table. Afterwards, Summer completely exhausted her magic power and lowered her arms, panting, with beads of sweat emerging on her forehead.

Wendy recorded the results of the two tests on a notebook, but she couldn't think of a single use for Summer's ability. "Her illusions can only show the past but can't predict the future, so we'll have to wait for His Highness Roland to return and judge." At this thought, she couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. His Highness once told her that he wanted to make the Witch Union a self-governing organization and to appoint her as the director. However, she wasn't as nearly knowledgeable as His Highness, so she couldn't think of all the uses for her sisters' abilities as well as he could.

After collecting her emotions, Wendy was about to say a few words of encouragement to Summer, when Scroll made a gesture towards her.

The two witches stepped aside, and Wendy asked, "What's wrong?"

"Were you planning on telling Summer that she could stay here if she didn't want to go home?" Scroll asked with a frown. "Did you forget that witches need to be verified before joining the Witch Union?"

Wendy obviously knew that witches needed to answer ten questions about their identity and background under the supervision of Nightingale before being accepted. "But Summer probably didn't lie... Her identification was made by Soraya, and her background matches up. Not to mention that she just awakened and is a non-combat type witch, so even the church won't be able to predict something like this."

"Magic power isn't the only thing that can harm someone. A dagger or a pack of poison can have the same effect, if not better."

"No, how could she possibly..."

"But you can't rule out this possibility." Scroll interrupted. "The City Hall is in charge of resident verification and won't inspect every household, so a sudden awakening is actually the best way of getting into the castle..." She paused. "I know that this possibility is very small, but don't forget that we can't afford to lose His Highness Roland. Lady Tilly is also living in the witch building right now, so if something happens to her, the relationship between Border Town and Sleeping Island will completely splinter, and all of His Highness' work will be for nothing. It's too high of a risk."

"..." Wendy was silent. She knew that Scroll's concerns were reasonable and weren't targeting Summer, but she still found them hard to accept. As the first witch to be awakened in the town under the rule of Roland, Summer was treated as a potential enemy spy, which was simply heartbreaking. After a long time, Wendy said, "I understand. I'll send her back."

"I'll go with you." Scroll sighed.

...

After they left the castle, Summer instantly became much more energetic and began holding Wendy's hand and asking about the witches and the lord.

"What's wrong?" Wendy asked after answering all her questions. "Why are you so glad that you don't have to live in the castle?"

"Uh... " Summer gulped and lowered her head in embarrassment. "I heard that the lord, or His Highness, is a very scary person and ravages all the women around him every day."

"Pfft!" Wendy almost choked in shock. "Where did you hear that from?"

"Isn't he Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle? I've heard this many times in Eagle City, and there are even folk songs that say the Second Prince is conniving, Prince Roland is lecherous, and only Princess Garcia of Port of Clearwater is a good ruler," whispered Summer.

"I see..." Scroll said with great interest. "This's probably Garcia's way of promoting herself. It's quite unique."

"Is he... not that kind of person?"

"Of, of course not," Wendy said, blushing. "You'll soon learn that he's the lord who is worthy of the witches' trust!"

They came to the residential area where Summer's family lived, walked up to a two-story house, and knocked on her door.

Summer's mother answered the door.

"Mom, I'm back!" shouted Summer excitedly.

"How did you..." She paused and stared at the two people behind her daughter with a panicked look. "Did she do something wrong? Why don't you want her?"

"His Highness hasn't returned yet, so..."

"She can stay in the castle and wait for His Highness to return," said Summer's mother impatiently. "Summer is very obedient. She might be a little slow, but she'll do anything you ask her to do."

"Ma'am, the Witch Union isn't what you think it..." Wendy felt anger rushing into her heart, but Scroll interrupted her before she could finish her sentence.

Scroll took out one gold royal and waved it in front of the woman. "Your daughter is indeed a witch, so we'll sign the contract when His Highness returns. Here's your compensation for the first month."

"Yes, yes." The woman's attention immediately moved on the shiny coin. "Thank you, my lady!"

"Remember, you're now taking care of her on behalf of His Highness. Understand?"

"Yes, my lady, I'll take good care of Summer."

...

After they left the house, Wendy couldn't contain her anger anymore. "How could you pay such a terrible woman? Even if you were paying in advance, you should have paid Summer."

"Would Summer be able to keep the gold royal?" Scroll's answer shocked Wendy. "If she can't keep it for herself, the money will eventually fall into her family's hands; if she can, she'll be completely alienated by her family. That's why I gave the money directly to her mother, so Summer won't have to carry this burden, and it might help to raise her status in her family. She has so much time ahead of her. If we can use the gold royal to buy a better life for her, then it's a good deal."

"..." Wendy pondered for a while and said, "You're right. I was too naive."

The consecutive setbacks greatly discouraged Wendy, and she began to think that she wasn't good enough to lead the Witch Union.

"However, no one cares about them more than you do," said Scroll with a smile, as if she had read her thoughts. "After being in the Witch Cooperation Association led by Cara, I realize that... a trustworthy leader would care about her witches whole heartedly and always put their interests first, regardless of their abilities. That's exactly why you're irreplaceable."

Chapter 468 - The Return

After two weeks, Roland was finally on his way home.

After clearing out the four noble families and Black Street Rats with an iron hand, he could, for the time being, start the reform of Longsong Stronghold from scratch. Relief and resettlement measures were underway in an orderly fashion. Although the gold royals and provisions seized from the territories of the Maple Leaf, Wolf, and Wild Rose families weren't as abundant as the ones seized from Duke Ryan, they were still a shocking amount. That was why he could expand the relief program to the entire city unscrupulously, and successfully promote his policies during the porridge distribution.

By the day of his departure, the Second Army had reached its target of recruiting 500 people, and the police department had newly added about 200 new members as well. Roland left half of his soldiers and Vader in Stronghold, so that they could not only manage defenses and maintain order, but could also train the new recruits into usable warriors.

He knew the time for him to implement his policies was limited. If he failed to facilitate the direct communication between the people and the City Hall and did not establish his authority among the masses quickly enough, the ancient power would return to fill the current power gap. As the saying goes, there could be no construction without destruction. He had already completed the destruction, and now it was time to construct and boom Stronghold.

Roland's source of confidence was Border Town, whose population had grown to over 30,000 people, more than half of which were receiving elementary education. This would equal to the size of two modern day middle schools, but it was a shocking number for this era. Furthermore, elementary education was not just about reading skills, but also included basic knowledge of science and politics, as well as a universal sense of patriotism.

The increase in literacy rate would provide him with enough manpower for the revolution. Also, compared to ignorant and meek civilians, a sense of patriotism will enable them to burst out unimaginable power. The town's subjects were each small sparks that would one day set off a great fire in the entire land.

As the sky dimmed, Roland saw the town looming against the darkness.

"Look... what's that?" a member of the nobility shouted behind him.

"A... bridge?" said another person, craning his neck. "My goodness, it's way too long."

"That's impossible! How could such a long bridge be supported with only two pillars?"

"Wait... it seems to be made of steel!"

On the way back, apart from the witches, there were dozens of lower-level nobles on Roland's boat, who had not participated in the rebellion and therefore survived the cleanup.

According to Roland's plan, those lower-level nobles would learn to hierarchically manage the City Hall. After the city construction was officially under way, they would return to Stronghold and help Petrov build the secondary City Hall to carry out and give him feedback on his orders. After the nobles lost their feudal privileges, they would all want to improve, and the only thing they could rely on was their own abilities.

As the fleet passed the steel bridge, Roland heard the astonished gasps of the nobles behind him. Everyone held their breaths and stared as the steel bridge that stretched over the entire width of the river flitted over their heads.

The prince couldn't help but laugh at these people, who had not stopped exclaiming since they boarded the boat. First, they were shocked that a boat made of stone could float on water, and then they were amazed by the spinning wheel and the puffing steam engine. "It's a shame that the town's Three Supplies Project isn't completed," he thought, "otherwise their jaws would drop to the floor when they saw the power of light bulbs."

The boats slowly docked with a sharp whistle. Barov, Carter, and a group of City Hall officials had received the carrier pigeon and were waiting by the shore. When they saw Roland, they set off celebration cannons and welcomed him with a set of formalities fit for a king.

Roland smiled and patted the two men's shoulders, and then he brought Barov over to the Stronghold nobles and introduced everyone to each other. "You're in charge of these people's housing, lives, and education," he said quietly to Barov. "Don't mind their identities and titles, since they are barons at most. There're all kinds of people in the mines, and they all have to work to live an honest living. Train them like you would do to new graduates. I want to see the results as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness."

When Roland returned to the castle, all the witches who had heard about his return were waiting in the lobby. Before he could even feel the effects of the heating system on entering the door, a warm body leaped into his arms. He smelled the familiar scent of her hair and patted her head, smiling. "I'm back."

"Uh-huh." Anna raised her head, her blue eyes sparkling with joy. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

"Me too!"

"And me! Coo!"

Soon, Roland felt an extra weight on each of his arms... He didn't even have to look to know that it was Lightning and Maggie, because no one else would interrupt him and Anna.

"Hey, you two basically went along with him." Mystery Moon complained.

"Yeah." Lily scoffed. "No shame!"

"I'm just glad you're all back safe and sound," said Wendy gently.

"We should celebrate tonight," Scroll suggested.

"Yay! I want ice cream bread!" Andrea exclaimed. "With Ashes' and Shavi's portions, I'll be feasting tonight!"

The last to walk up to him was Tilly Wimbledon.

She stuck out her hand and said casually, "You've had a long journey."

"Thank you." Roland smiled and grasped her extended hand.

...

After a hearty dinner, Roland returned to his office and sighed heavily. Although the castle of Stronghold was much bigger, this small place was much more comfortable.

Just as he was about to sort out the books he brought over from Stronghold, Anna entered the room.

"You came just in time." Roland pointed to the books piled on the rug. "Look, these are my presents for you. They're mostly historical records and legendary tales, while others are secret stories of the Western Region, and they were all taken from Duke Ryan's library. Oh, right, this one is..."

Before he could finish, he felt a pair of soft lips press onto his.

They brought a sweet scent mixed with passion and warm moisture.

"I really missed you," Anna pronounced each word with due stress after she disengaged from Roland, looking deeply into his eyes.

As he stared back at her, Roland felt a sense of warmth swarming upon his heart. "This book..."

"I'll read it later."

"Good idea."

The two became entangled in a kiss.

Chapter 469 - Don't Make Her Wait Forever

The next day, Roland walked into his office humming and found that Wendy was already there waiting for him.

"What's the matter?" He stepped over the messy pile of books on the floor and poured her a cup of tea.

"Congratulations, there's a new witch in Border Town." She smiled and told him about everything that happened in the past few days. "If you need, I can summon Summer to the castle anytime."

"The first witch awakened in my territory... She’s also the first witch recruited after my public recruitment notice." Roland's face was instantly lit up, but when he heard the second half of the sentence, he asked curiously, "Isn't she in the castle right now?"

"No, because Nightingale wasn't there to verify her identity." Wendy repeated what Scroll insisted. "We sent her home and paid the first month's salary in advance."

"That wasn't a bad idea." Roland nodded. "Tell her to come and sign the contract this afternoon."

"Yes, my lord..." responded Wendy, who was obviously dying to say something else.

"What's the matter?"

"Aren't you angry about people's opinions towards you and the Witch Union? Also..." she paused for a while before saying through gritted teeth, "Also, my ability might not be suitable for leading the Witch Union. Scroll is more experienced and mature than I am, so I think she should be in charge."

"I'm sure you also brought this up to Scroll?" asked Roland with great interest. "And then she told you that you were the best candidate?"

"Huh?"

"I guess I was right..." He sighed. "And I feel the same way. Administration techniques and methods can be learned through experience, but personality is much harder to change. Haven't you realized that the most loved member of the witches, besides Maggie, is you? Also, Scroll is mostly in charge of the education department and will only be busier in the future, so she won't have much time to communicate with the new witches, which happens to be your strength. You should give yourself more credit. I'm an excellent judge of character."

Before Wendy could answer, the prince continued, "As for the misconceptions that civilians have towards the Witch Union, I really have overlooked them. I never thought that this body... no, my previous reputation would spread all over the kingdom." He pondered for a while. "I must fix this rumor as quickly as possible. On top of further advertisement, I also think it's best for the organization to run independently."

"Run... independently?"

"Yes, I want to turn it into a department, just like the City Hall." Roland had considered this issue before. There were only around a dozen witches in the Union now, so he still could manage all of them. However, if it expanded to hundreds of members or were on a scale as big as the Holy City of Taquila with thousands of witches in it, he obviously couldn't handle them all alone. They needed to establish a governing system that could operate independently and assign witches to different positions, and he would only serve to give suggestions based on their abilities and evolution.

After he explained his thoughts to her, Wendy said hesitantly, "But there're hundreds of people in City Hall, while there're only about a dozen sisters, and they all have their own issues to tend to... Also, how would this change the citizens' opinions toward us?"

"Rumors are like fear because they both come from the unknown. The town residents can accept witches because they personally experience the benefits that Nana and Lily bring," Roland said with a smile. "Allowing commoners to join the Witch Union will not only solve the issue of insufficient staff, but also help the people better understand this organization—voluntary promotion through the people themselves will definitely help improve the people's impression of witches, and your work and contributions to the town will be well-known by the public."

Just like how academies of sciences didn't just hire scientists, a great number of commoners were required for daily errands, administrative duties, and research organization. If he wanted the witches to be accepted by all the people, he would need them to understand each other better, so placing witches and commoners in each other's lines of work made sense.

"I see." Wendy nodded. "This is a pretty good idea. But how do we select these people?"

"Since you'll be operating independently, you'll also have to do your own recruiting and screening." Roland stroked his chin. "You can ask Countess Spear about this, because she should be pretty good at constructing an organization centered around witches. However, there're only a few members in the Witch Union, so you can start by hiring an assistant or staff member as practice. After the Months of Demons, I'll build a new building next to the City Hall, which you can use as the base for the Witch Union."

He didn't mention that since it was the Witch Union, they wouldn't only be in charge of the Witches in Western Region or Kingdom of Graycastle. If he could build the right infrastructure, the Union would be able to immediately cooperate with the witch organizations of all the kingdoms he absorbed.

"I got it." Wendy inhaled deeply. "If you have decided to give me this task, I'll try my best to carry it out."

...

After Wendy left, Roland continued to organize the books from yesterday.

Looking at the pages scattered all over the floor, he couldn't help thinking of last night's fiery and passionate kiss. Anna's fragrant hair, sparkling eyes, and soft body made him tingle with excitement. Although she once burned all of her clothes to the ground without any hesitation when she first met him, he had not been as tremulous as he was then.

It was probably because she was still a helpless little girl back then, and now she was a strong and beautiful woman—in only a year, she had changed so much.

"Maybe I should take the initiative and respond to her..." Roland's thoughts were interrupted when his hands touched someone else's finger, and he realized that Nightingale was handing a book to him. "Let me help you."

"Um..." Roland paused with a start. Last night, when Anna followed him into his office and embraced him, he didn't notice if Nightingale had also followed them into the room from the banquet.

"Don't worry, I left immediately last night and didn't stick around to be the third wheel." Nightingale rolled her eyes. "I guessed that after having not seen you for a long time, she would throw herself at you—she never represses her emotions."

"Is... that so?"

With Nightingale's help, the books were quickly organized and put on the shelves, filling up each vacancy.

"Alright..." Roland stuffed the last book into a remaining vacancy on the shelves. "Thank you."

"Alas. How long are you going to drag this on for? Don't make her wait forever..."

Roland paused and turned around. Nightingale had already disappeared, but her final words still echoed in his ears. Although her voice was very low, he was certain about what he heard.

"... and don't make me wait forever either."

Chapter 470 - The New Warship

As Roland walked up to the path leading to the North Slope Mountain, Nightingale's remarks were still ringing in his ears.

He was suddenly enlightened. "That's right," he thought. "I'm no longer just a regular man who only interacts with blueprints all day, and this is no longer the world I used to live in. Now, I'm a lord of a great territory, and I might become a king one day, so if my situation ever changes, I can't use my old approaches to hold myself back."

"I just have to follow my heart," he told himself. "If I force anything because of some insignificant 'principles', it could only result in continuing to hurt Anna and Nightingale."

At this thought, Roland felt a weight had been lifted off his heart. He inhaled deeply and pushed open the backyard door.

Opening the steel door was just like opening his heart and he instantly saw a whole new world.

"Oh... Here comes His Highness!" Hummingbird and Lucia ran up to greet him.

"You're here." Anna smiled sweetly. Roland saw a faint red mark on her pale neck and couldn't help but recall the passionate scene last night. However, since he already made his decision, he didn't mind waiting a little bit more.

"Have you completed the model?"

"Of course." Anna made a beckoning motion. When the two walked out of the yard, they saw a steel boat floating in the middle of a pond surrounded by snow. The steel boat was about one meter long and twenty centimeters wide, seeming much slimmer than those unwieldy concrete boats. The bow had a distinct thin point, its stern was flat, and the unique part of it was that the hull was covered with overlapping supporting bars as if it were pieced together with thousands of squares.

"This is exactly what I wanted," Roland exclaimed. Compared to the concrete boats that were poured into steel molds, the pure steel boat had a unique delicateness, and the overlapping bars made it look like a work of art. He knew that every piece of this model was cut with Blackfire according to shrunken proportions, without a single junction missing. If this model were brought to the modern world, it would be worth tens of thousands yuan.

"Is this the new kind of boat you want to build?"

"Yes." Roland nodded. "It's also the town's first regular warship."

Originally, Roland planned to use the concrete boats as shallow water gunboats, but he realized that if the steam engines didn't provide enough power, the concrete boats would be too slow. Even when only carrying fuel and crew, the fleet's average speed during the journey to Longsong Stronghold was only eight to nine kilometers per hour. If the boats also had to carry 152 millimeters Stronghold Cannon, gunpowder, and other weapons, their speed could drop to as low as five kilometers. This was equivalent to even less than three knots per hour. This was due to the big dead weight of concrete, which wasn't an issue in simple supply transport, but it was an undesirable feature in warships.

If the town was still suffering from a lack of steel like it was two months ago, Roland would have to put up with this flaw. However, with the production of Star of Steel, the current amount of steel inventory was enough to build a true steel-clad warship. Roland chose the simplest technique of module assembly, which meant soldering pieces of steel boards together with beams to form a large hollow unit, and then connecting these units together to form the hull bottom. This piecing method eliminated the traditional need for a keel, and since the enemy did not have any cannons, he did not worry about defense mechanisms. The sides of the hull were made almost entirely of thin steel plates, thus minimizing the cost and dead weight.

As for the propulsion, Roland decided to use the propeller technology instead of a paddle wheel. The power still came from a steam engine that turned the two propellers by rotating gears. In the blueprint he gave Anna, he also left room for it to be remodeled as a triple-expansion steam engine since he planned to invent a new type of steam engine more suited for boats when he began mass-producing the steel boats.

When they returned to the backyard, Anna began to cut the first steel plate.

The Blackfire in her hand acted like a precise ruler that instantly sliced a thick steel block into seven thin plates, each exactly five millimeters thick.

Next came the soldering. Hummingbird reduced the weight of the steel beams and placed them between two plates, and Anna's Blackfire turned into an extremely thin and hot line and sewed the three components together like thread. This was completely different from her original soldering technique, because her Blackfire heated the steel from the inside, allowing the liquid steel to completely fill all crevices. After the three were completely combined, the beam was lowered by about a millimeter, which meant that its bottom had completely filled the space between the two plates.

A cross made by steel beams could connect four plates, and more crosses could form a hollow box unit. These units were lightened by Hummingbird and transported to the Redwater River, where they were assembled together at the dock.

Meanwhile, Roland's eyes never left Anna's busy figure. Her flaxen hair swayed with her cutting motions like a spirit dancing in the pure white snow.

...

In the afternoon, Roland met Summer, the newly awakened witch.

Since she was in his office, it meant that she had passed Nightingale's verification. Wendy had already clearly recorded her ability, so Roland need not perform any more tests but immediately placed the contract in front of her.

Summer held the pen awkwardly for a while before saying with a red face, "I... can't write."

"That's alright." Roland smiled. "You can also sign with your fingerprint."

She carefully pressed her inked thumb onto the parchment. "Is that all?"

"Yes." Roland rolled up the contract. "Wendy has told me every detail about your situation, so even though you signed the contract, you don't have to live in the castle. You only need to come here every day to practice and attend classes. Has Wendy told you about the characteristics of magic power?"

"Yes, Your Highness." As soon as she learned that she did not need to live in the castle, Summer became much more relaxed. "Lady Wendy said that if I don't release the magic power that's accumulating every day, I'll be in great danger on my Day of Awakening."

"That's right, so you have to practice well. I know she'll continue to teach you how to precisely control magic power and its connection with your ability." Roland didn't correct her honorifics because he thought it would be best for a beginner to have some awe. "If there's anything you don't understand, you can ask any member of the Witch Union."

"I understand, Your Highness," she said with her head lowered. "But... do you think this ability is completely useless? I asked Lady Wendy about this, and she said only Your Highness would have the answer."

"Of course not," Roland said with a smile. "You have the ability of a detective, so you'll be very helpful in fighting crimes."

"Detective?" Summer looked confused.

"Don't worry. Soon you'll understand." He summoned Nightingale from her Mist. "From now on, this witch will be your supervisor."

Chapter 471 - A Reunion

It was evening. Ferlin Eltek was in his study looking over the newly issued textbooks when he suddenly heard someone knocking on the main door.

"Dear, I'm busy toasting bread. Why don't you get the door?" Irene shouted from the kitchen. "It could be Miss May."

"Okay."

He closed the book, walked to the front door in the living room, and unlocked the latch. The person standing outside caught him completely by surprise.

"Father! What brings you here?" Ferlin exclaimed.

"I followed His Highness here," the old knight said while brushing off the snow on his shoulders. "In fact, I arrived in Border Town yesterday. Though I told them that my son is living here, they still arranged a house for me in a residential area near the castle."

"Come in. It's cold outside." Ferlin hastily moved out of the way.

"Yes." The knight seemed surprised as he stepped into the house. "You have... central heating in here?"

"You know central heating?"

"I only found out about it today. The last time I was here, I'd already felt that the city was inexplicably warm. I'd thought that the heating equipment mentioned by His Highness was a new type of fireplace. When I visited the City Hall this time, I discovered that it could be equally warm indoors without fire. Only then did I realize that it made use of steam to produce heat." He took off his coat and hung it on the stand next to the door. "Wait... I recall that the last time we went together to the City Hall, you weren't sure what it was as well."

"I only understood after reading a City Hall bulletin." Ferlin poured a cup of tea for his father. "Before they do anything, they would always spend some time to explain it to the citizens. The bulletin area in the square is now even more popular than the Convenience Market."

"Does it mean that, within two months, His Highness was able to install the device in the homes of ordinary citizens?" The knight said approvingly. "Wouldn't it have cost thousands of gold royals?"

"Our residential area was among the first to be installed with it. The western and northern zones are still in the process of ditching. It's said that water and heating supply are part of the Three Supplies Project. When the construction is completed, we'll be able to do things at night as we do in the day."

"Nights like days?" The knight's eyebrows were raised. "Does it mean more candles or oil lamps?"

"Neither. The City Hall officials claim that electricity will be delivered to every home."

"Electricity?" The old man was stupefied.

"I also think that it's beyond reason, but that's what His Highness' propaganda states." Ferlin agreed with his father. "With electricity, nights will be as bright as days." Curiously, the news sounded utterly absurd when he had heard it, but deep down in his heart, he had a feeling that since it was His Highness' words, it was not completely impossible.

After all, Roland was always creating new miracles.

"Good evening, Knight Eltek..." Just then, Irene scurried out of the kitchen, and in her hurry, she almost dropped the plate of half-baked bread she was carrying while bowing.

The old knight laughed gently at the sight. "Hello, Miss Irene. Don't panic. I'm not yet hungry."

Ferlin saw his wife's cheeks begin to blush.

"Ahem." He cleared his throat before adding, "There'll be just two more dishes today. Take it easy, the night is still young."

...

The small family had an enjoyable dinner together. Irene was finally able to recover from her initial panic, and after the three of them chatted for a while, she began to clear up the utensils. Meanwhile, Ferlin's father beckoned him into the study. Ferlin could sense that his father had something important to say.

Just as he expected, when the old knight sat down at the study desk, he calmly asked, "Do you know what has happened in Longsong Stronghold over the past few days?"

"I know a little..." Ferlin tried to phrase his words tactfully. "I've heard that there has been a rebellion by the four families. His Highness left Border Town to suppress it. It was publicized on the bulletin board."

"The City Hall even mentioned this?" The old knight was astonished for a brief moment before he explained the whole matter to Ferlin. "Though I sent someone to inform His Highness, I didn't expect him to arrive so quickly. The result was guessable. The four families were no match for His Highness' troops. The Maple Leaf, Wolf and Wild Rose families were completely crushed, leaving only the Elk Family in a critical state. Our family was nearly implicated in the event."

"What?" Ferlin was greatly surprised. "Father, you..."

"Of course it wasn't me." The knight sighed. "I'm already so old and don't wish to participate in such risky affairs, but your brother's different. He's eager to exceed your achievement and prove his qualities as the heir. Regrettably, he took the wrong stand."

"Are you saying that Miso participated in the rebellion?" Ferlin's face sunk.

His father nodded. "After the rebellion collapsed, he was captured by His Highness' soldiers. On the day of judgment, I went to the square to see him for the last time."

"..." Ferlin closed his eyes. He thought of how, after he had become a superstar knight, his brother constantly tried to make life difficult for him. Yet, Miso was his younger brother after all, and thus it was saddening to see him come to such a tragic end.

"Because he had no blood on his hands and surrendered compliantly, he was sentenced to 10 years of labor. He should be in the North Slope Mine now."

The latter part of his father's words made Ferlin regain his spirits. "10 years of labor? I thought you meant that he was..."

"Executed?" The knight shook his head in disagreement. "When I said I saw him for the last time, I meant the last time he was a member of the family. From that moment, he was no longer a part of the Eltek Family."

"You... severed ties with him."

"Correct." The knight inhaled a deep breath. "I'd warned him long ago, but he never took my words to heart. Someone who fools around with the family's future and risks the fate of every family member is definitely not suitable to be the successor." Even though he spoke assertively, his facial expression betrayed his sadness, and the wrinkles on his forehead deepened. "Now, I only have you as my child."

"Father..." Ferlin felt his eye sockets tingling, and he involuntarily held his father's hands.

"I've never begged in my life. But this time, I hope that you'll succeed the Eltek Family. I have a premonition that it'll prosper again in your hands." The old knight said slowly. "I'd agreed to follow His Highness here also in order to occupy a good position in the upcoming reforms."

"But positions can't be inherited, Father... the Knight's position will also become an honorary title."

"I know, but you've ignored the benefits of connections and experience. His Highness has stated that the positions will be given out based on merit and outstanding ability. With the experiences and relationships that your predecessors have built up, your chances of getting a good position are far greater than that of the average person." He patted the back of his son's hands. "Even if you still wish to become a teacher, I shan't stand in your way, as long as you continue the family name."

Ferlin remained silent for a long before he finally nodded and said, "I understand, father. I promise you."

"If that's the case, I can rest assured." Knight Eltek seemed greatly relieved. "By the way, if you have the choice, which department do you wish to work in?"

"Well..."

"How about the Second Army? I've heard Chief Commander, Iron Axe, say that apart from the battlefield soldiers, the army also wants to form a strategy department. This plan will be tested out in the Second Army first." The old knight fixed his gaze on his son. "Actually, I know that your current job isn't your favorite line of work. If you were truly happy with reading books all day, you wouldn't have chosen to be a knight in the first place." His eyes seemed to pierce insightfully into Ferlin's heart. "You're still the Morning Light that I know, my child."

Chapter 472 - A Pledge of Love

...

"Garments, shoes, mugs, spoons and forks." May checked off each item by counting with her fingers. "Is there anything else I should take with me?"

The floor was littered with an assortment of household supplies, everything from a water kettle to a wooden bowl.

"The bedding is the most important," Irene thought and then said, "you'd better take a set of the pillow, sheets, and blanket."

Hearing these words, Rosia and Gait both burst out in a fit of giggles, but they were soon silenced, however, when May shot them a cold glance. "The bedding isn't necessary. Carter says he'll buy a new set from the marketplace. It's rumored they once belonged to the four families and were dug up from their mansion's basements."

"Wow, then they must be made of fine silk," Irene commented enviously. "I've heard there's a tailor in King's City retailing fabric and garments made of pure silk. It's unfortunate that only great nobles and wealthy merchants can afford them." If they came from the four families, they must be just as good."

"Yes, pretty much," May replied nonchalantly. "I remember he said one set was worth five gold royals."

"Wow... "The three girls gasped in surprise.

"Five, five gold royals! God Almighty!" Rosia smacked her lips. "It would take me nearly two years to make that much money."

"How can you compare to the Star of the Western Region?" Gait said derisively while tapping her on the head. "Miss May is a celebrity who has performed in King's City! As for His Excellency Carter, he's Chief Knight of His Highness. You can't compete with either of them!"

"That's really awesome, May," Irene said, looking at May with her radiant eyes. "I envy you so much."

May knew only Irene felt genuinely happy for her, and her sincerity was why Morning Light was attracted to her in the first place. May also wondered how a girl like Irene, who grew up in the theater, was impervious to worldly temptations and desires all the while retaining the innocence and kindness of childhood. Although she had put her past romance out of her mind, May was still delighted to see Irene was a little envious of her. "When you rise to fame, you can buy a set for yourself... You'll be paid several gold royals for starring in King's City just once, not to mention the tips you'll get from the nobles after the show."

"But how long will it take me to become as good as you?" Irene asked in frustration, mouth pulled tight.

"Looks like you’re pretty busy here. Are you rehearsing?" Right then the door was swung open abruptly. A good-looking young man poked his head in and asked, "Am I interrupting?"

"His, His Excellency Carter!" Gait and Rosia immediately bowed.

"Good morning, Mr. Knight." Irene turned to smile at him. "We're discussing what May should take to your place and we were just talking about you."

"Really? What did you say about me?" Carter asked curiously, scratching the back of his head.

"Nothing!" May stared at him and thought silently that he always appeared to be the perfect gentleman when his mouth was shut, but the illusion was shattered once he started talking. "Why did you come here today? Today isn't your day off, is it?"

"Um... don't worry. His Highness gave me some time off today. So... I brought you a gift."

"A gift?"

May glanced about the room. Gait soon took the hint and said, "Oh, Miss May. I just remembered that I've got something to take care of. Feel free to let me know when you've finished packing."

"Me too. I have to do the laundry. It's been there for a few days now." Rosia also took her leave with a bow and pulled Irene away with her as she walked out of the room.

"Huh? I don't need to do anything. Hang on... I want to see May's gift too..." When the girl's voice gradually faded away, May sighed in relief and bolted the door. She turned to Chief Knight and asked, "So, what's the gift? I hope it's not a new invention of His Highness' again."

Carter glanced around before breaking the silence. "Your father... "

"He's busy. Do you think everyone has 'free time' like you?" May snapped impatiently. She had thought it would take a while for her father to become familiarized with the new surroundings after he moved from Stronghold to Border Town. However, to her surprise, he had found a clerical job at the City Hall in only one week, and there was nothing she could do about it. Now he was a regular employee at the Ministry of Construction.

"I'm busy, too." Carter threw up his hands in defense. "His Highness transferred one of the most efficient employees from the Ministry of Justice to Longsong Stronghold. Now I have to deal with all sorts of tasks. On top of interrogating spies and verifying the status of the residents, I also need to hunt for criminals at large. I don't even have time for meals these days. You have no idea how fierce these criminals are. Unlike any of the locals in Western Region, these guys are gangsters, initially hiding among refugees. Now, as things have gotten a little better, they've started to make trouble. But don't worry, they only stir up on the outskirts of town where the temporary camps are to the west and they won't get into the inner city easily. And, I'll catch any of them when they're found messing around."

Seeing Carter describe the matter so passionately, May broke into laughter. "Alright, I got it. So, Mr. Knight, as you're so devoted to the peace and order of the town, would you like to have lunch and a few drinks here before heading back to your business?"

"I'd love to, but I'm afraid my break is almost over." Carter put down the parcel in his hand. "Try this on to see if it fits. I asked His Highness to design it."

"His Highness?" May was a little surprised.

"Yes. When I told His Highness about our wedding date, he mentioned a type of gown specifically worn for weddings. The only thing is that it takes a lot of effort to make one. I begged His Highness for quite a while, and even bribed Miss Soraya with ice cream bread before I finally got this dress."

When May unfolded the fabric, she saw a snowy dress in the parcel.

May's heart stopped beating for a moment when the knight spread out the garment. It was a simple gown with elaborate and sophisticated details. The dress was simple in the sense that it was not ornamented with any jewels, nor was it hemmed with a gilding of gold. Instead, it was purely layered with white muslins. However, the cut of the dress was rather showy. It was tightened with a girdle and flared out into a contrasting, voluminous skirt below the waistline. The skirt rippled like waves, perfectly showcasing the ingenious handicraft embedded in its design.

She knew any girl, whether noble or peasant, would be fascinated by and obsessed with a gown like this just at the sight of it.

May gently caressed the snowy white gown that weighed almost nothing and retired to her bedroom to put it on.

When she was back in the living room, Carter's jaw dropped, struck by the breathtaking beauty he saw. "God, you are... stunning."

"Really?" A rare, vivid blush rose to her cheeks. She could imagine what she now looked like without even looking into a mirror. Chief Knight's gaping expression had already told her everything.

May went up to Carter and gently pressed her lips to his cheek. "Thank you for your gift. I really love it."

The knight flung his arms around her in response.

Watching Carter's face slowly approaching hers, May closed her eyes.

"It doesn't sound too bad to be called May Lannis," she thought.

Chapter 473 - The Third Step of City Construction

After two weeks' learning and exploration, Barov, the governor of the City Hall, held the first municipal plenary session in the castle hall at the end of the first month in spring of the new year at His Highness' request. Aside from the directors of all the departments, some of the nobles in Stronghold were also invited to the session, bringing the total number of the attendees to 65.

Barov knew the learning process itself was also an evaluation. After working as a City Hall governor for a year, he could now easily distinguish capable nobles from useless dandies and idlers. It was why half of the nobles had already failed the assessment.

As His Highness described, he had offered these petty nobles an opportunity to "catch the express train", but the reality was ruthless. People who were unable to keep pace with changes would be naturally obsolete as time went by. Barov shared the same thoughts. Whether His Highness was a demon or a god, it did not change the fact that his territory had manifested an atmosphere entirely different from those in other kingdoms. If this was a new era, he would be happy to dive into it with the prince.

The main topic of the discussion for today's meeting was the final vote on the unification act which would be enacted after the city construction. He would also need to inform the nobles in Stronghold of the act's contents. Barov had prepared for this moment for a long time, and now it was finally the time to uncover the details.

Everyone was given a thin hardcover book with gilded letters on its cover, which read Basic Laws of the Kingdom. It contained some core subjects of law drafted and edited by His Highness himself. He could tell just by its name that His Highness had big ambition, and he also believed the prince had the capacity to make towns beyond the Western Region flourish.

"Let's get started." Roland, who seated himself at the end of the long table, instructed with a nod.

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov cleared his throat and ventured. "Perhaps all of you have heard that we're going to build a city in the Western Region. The book in front of you is the unification act to be enacted in His Highness' territory once the construction of the city is completed. Feel free to read it through by yourself, or you can listen to my presentation. If you have any questions or concerns, interrupt me anytime, His Highness will answer them."

A slight rustle of pages swept over the hall. Barov flipped over the cover, revealing the first page of the book made of fine parchment.

"The first thing you see now is the outline of the contents, which contains the structure and institution of the new territory..."

"Article One: Roland Wimbledon shall reserve all the rights with respect to the territories under his jurisdiction."

"Article Two: The City Hall is the highest authority of the territory, administering all the matters concerning the territory under the supervision of Roland Wimbledon."

"Article Three: Every person, upon entry to the territory, shall have the right to gain the status of citizenship through multiple channels. The City Hall has the obligation to guarantee the provision of at least three such channels to the public."

"Article Four: Every individual, upon gaining the status of citizenship, shall not be discriminated based on gender or their former status, namely freeman, farmhand, servant, and slave. Every citizen of the territory has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law, and has the legal obligations to pay taxes, defend the territory and serve in the military."

"Article Five: Every noble shall be treated equally as a regular citizen and shall no longer be privileged based on his/her title. Titles shall be honorary without granting the subject noble executive power, and they shall be conferred by inheritance in accordance with the law."

"Article Six: Every citizen has the right to seek protection of life, security and personal properties from Roland Wimbledon."

"Article Seven: Every citizen has the right to education, liberty of work and marriage."

"Article Eight: Commercial interactions and free trade are encouraged in the territory, provided that such activities are carried out in accordance with the law."

"Article Nine..."

Barov ran his fingers through the pages while explaining the articles one by one. Few codes drafted by the nobles concerned civilians. Even freemen in the city were viewed as subjects of exploitation by great nobles. It was indeed a rare thing that the laws made by His Highness involved so many rights and protections of civilians. The prince probably believed they could only win the Battle of Doomsday with the help of people's power.

Barov didn't care who His Highness relied on. To him, nobles and civilians were the same. He only cared about trying his best to complete His Highness' tasks and keeping a firm grip on power. In King's City, he had been transferred from the Astrology Association to the Ministry of Finance, serving as an assistant to the Treasurer. He had thought he would soon stand on the highest level of authority in the Kingdom of Graycastle, only to realize a decade of waiting had turned his ambition into a desolate, hopeless dream. He had obeyed King Wimbledon III's order to accompany Prince Roland to Border Town due to a faint and tenuous promise made to the past king, and also due to his morbid disappointment brooding for years. Yet, he had never expected his long-awaited dream would somehow come true in another way.

Barov had not seen a real demon, but he knew well the strength and power of the armored knights. If His Highness could defeat the knights at a single blow, he could certainly sweep away all his obstacles in the Kingdom. Eventually, the prince would ascend to the throne and become the reigning sovereign of the state, and he would be the Hand of the King. If the Treasurer was still alive by then, what a bitter countenance would he show to Barov?

...

As most of the contents in the outline had been read out to subjects in plain language before, none of the directors were surprised. However, when he read the part that stipulated the prohibition of human trafficking and the abolishment of slavery, the nobles began murmuring. All the other articles were passed unilaterally.

No one questioned the article on the reform of the noble. These petty nobles had not benefited much from their territories since most of their lands were in deserted areas, so they did not care much about the so-called feudal power and legislative power. Besides, after two weeks of study, many of them had planned to sell the territories to the City Hall and use the proceeds to start a new business, such as a machinery factory and a chemical plant.

The conference started in the morning and did not stop until the afternoon. Everybody was focused on the presentation. When it was time for lunch, the servants placed the food on the table to let the attendees eat while reading. Barov had a lot of water. Although he had a sore throat, he was happy to explain every detail of the articles to the people present.

Finally, they entered the last topic of discussion, which was the only article in the Basic Laws of the Kingdom that required everybody's opinions. It was the flag and the name of the new city.

The conference hall was soon filled with a buzz of debate.

Barov asked everybody to come up with a name and an ideal design for the flag. The attendees would have to place their work on the table and pick the best one.

After several rounds of voting, the flag and the name of the new city were nailed.

The design of the flag was based on the emblem of the royal family of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Its basic pattern was a gun and a tower, above which was a big pentagram with three smaller ones below. The big pentagram represented Lord Roland Wimbledon, while the smaller ones each represented the City Hall, the Army, and the Witch Union.

As for the city name, they picked "City of Neverwinter".

Chapter 474 - The Killing Machine

Two days after the enlarged meeting, Iron Axe was ordered to test new weapons again.

Since the northwest side was vulnerable to the attacks of demonic beasts, the new shooting range was set on the other side of the Redwater River. When Iron Axe got there, the prince's guards had already surrounded the place with hemp ropes and red flags, and set a checkpoint at either end of the steel bridge. Unauthorized personnel were not allowed in that area.

Obviously, His Highness took the test on new weapons seriously.

Iron Axe walked quickly in the uneven snow, and every guard he met gave him a friendly glance. Seeing this, he could not help but remember his first time participating in a test of flintlocks. Back then, he was a nobody, and the people of the Kingdom of Graycastle were vigilant and suspicious of him because he was from the Sand Nation. He had lived in the town for five years by then, but only had built up relations with huntsmen living near him because of his expertise in archery, and no one knew him beyond the Old District.

At the time, he believed that he would live in seclusion in this desolate town as a hunter until he died of old age, or got killed by demonic beasts or prey. He didn't expect that His Highness would hand-pick him and show him the power of fire and thunder. Then, fast changes began to happen. He fought against demonic beasts in the Militia, which was then turned into Border Town's First Army. He was promoted rapidly from Head of the Hunter Squad to Commander of the First Army. To his great surprise, and to make up for his greatest regret of his life, he had met the heiress of the Osha clan, Lady Drow Silvermoon, again in the town because of His Highness' open attitude towards witches. Due to this trust, recognition, and improvement of his fate, he swore allegiance to his new lord deep within his heart.

In the middle of the shooting range, Iron Axe saw His Highness Roland, Chief Knight, and unexpectedly, several Sleeping Island witches.

"Your Highness, Iron Axe reporting to you!" He walked forward and saluted the prince.

The prince nodded and said, "Everyone's here. Let's get started." He gave two long guns to Iron Axe and Carter. "It's one of my newly developed weapons, still in the prototype stage. The numbers are limited, so take turns trying them, please."

Iron Axe carefully studied the gun in his hand. It looked similar to a revolving rifle except that it had no cartridge.

This made him wonder if its bullets had to be reloaded through the muzzle like the oldest flintlocks.

"It's called a bolt rifle," His Highness quickly explained. "It uses the newest smokeless gunpowder. The caliber is 8 mm, smaller than the 12 mm of a revolving rifle, but it's more powerful." He turned the gun over to give a demonstration. "The ammunition is inserted from the front of the trigger, and each clip can be embedded with five bullets. However, it cannot fire continuously like a revolving rifle, so you need to reload it after ejecting all the bullets."

Soon after the prince's demonstration, Iron Axe understood how to operate the new rifle and shot a clip of bullets. The kickback of the rifle was quite strong. Every time the gun was discharged, he felt a heavy kick on his shoulder from the butt, and it was much louder than a revolver.

Five bullets shot out of an old gun would usually cause thick smoke that blocked his sight, but now there was no smoke in front of the muzzle, which might be due to the "smokeless gunpowder" that His Highness had just mentioned. Apart from that, there was nothing special about this new bolt rifle. Iron Axe thought there was a substantial improvement from the flintlock to the revolver, but the bolt rifle seemed to have no improvement and even wasn't as good as a revolver. Its most obvious shortcoming was the low rate of fire.

He could fire continuously while standing with a revolving rifle, but it was inconvenient to do so with the bolt rifle, since he had to reload the gun by hand and then raise it back up to aim at the target again after each shot. Though this process took much less time than a flintflock, it wasn't effective in suppressing the enemy in a short time. For example, it was obviously less practical than a revolver in battles—like the ones against the noble rebels in Longsong Stronghold with close combat in the streets or indoors.

Iron Axe told Roland his honest opinion, and Carter voiced a similar view.

The prince nodded and said, "Yes, it's not as convenient as a revolver, but it also has a great advantage. Andrea, come here and show them." He gave the rifle to the witch and said, "Remember to shoot using your ability."

"Uh-huh." The blonde witch picked up the gun and skillfully reloaded it. They could tell that this was not her first time operating this new weapon. "Now, watch me!"

With three deafening shots, Iron Axe was shocked to see the three farthest wooden targets fall down in turn. Her bullets shot the targets that looked as small as fingernails at the distance, on their thin sticks below the target boards.

They were standing at least 400 meters away!

"Your Highness, it's..." Carter stuttered in disbelief.

"Andrea's derivative ability enables her to accurately hit the target with a gun or a bow," the prince explained with a smile, "but her ability works on neither bullets nor arrows. It only gives her proficiency for using weapons. For example, she'll hit a target ten meters away if she throws a stone at it, but if she throws a bird at it, her ability just won't work."

"You mean... ordinary people can also achieve that kind of proficiency through training?"

"Exactly. The greatest merit of this bolt rifle is its greatly improved shooting range and accuracy. Unlike the guns before, there's no gap between the barrel and the cartridge, so there's no air leak in this new rifle," Roland nodded and answered. "With a telescopic sight on it, any ordinary soldier can use it to precisely shoot down enemies around 400 to 500 meters away, while a revolver can only shoot accurately within 100 meters."

Iron Axe instantly realized why this weapon was so deadly. Most people would never be on guard against attacks from this long distance. If the shooter hid himself inside a residential area or at a higher point, he could easily kill his target. And if the shooter was Lady Nightingale, nobody could survive bullets coming from an invisible source.

"Your Highness, you agreed to give me one when it's put into mass production." Andrea reminded Roland, covering her mouth.

"Of course," Roland said and put the two rifles away. He walked to the other side and removed a cloth covering something. "In fact, bolt rifles are just the beginning. This one is the focus of today's test."

Iron Axe took to the newly unveiled weapon as soon as he saw it. Different from rifles made of steel and wood, this new, black gun seemed to be made of pure metal. It was also bigger than all the other guns. Including the tripod beneath it, it was about half of his height. Its long barrel was half as thick as his wrist. Connected to the big gun, a long, thin piece of cloth carried shining bullets. It was obviously nothing like the guns before in both design and size.

Chapter 475 - The Light

"This is a heavy machine gun. It uses the same bullets as a bolt rifle. You can pull a bullet out of this pouch and shoot it from the new rifle," the prince said and patted the big machine gun. "Its mechanism is far more complicated than a rifle, so I won't bother giving you all the unnecessary details. I named it Mark I type HMG. I'll show you how to use it."

He sat behind the firearm and pulled the trigger. What happened next was hard for Iron Axe to comprehend.

All of a sudden, flames shot out of the muzzle, and the strong airflow caused by the gunfire shot the fluffy snow into the air. The strip of bullets seemed to be constantly pulled into the gun. Simultaneously, hot, empty bullet shells were rapidly ejected from the other side one by one. Several dozen shells fell to the ground in just a second.

This machine gun sounded fiercer than a whole team of riflemen in the Flintlock Squad. No pause could be heard between the gunshots. The prince aimed at the ground in front of him instead of the distant targets and shot continuously into the snow. Before the snow in one place could fall back to the ground, the snow in another place was propelled upward, making the snowy ground look like the surface of boiling water. The hail of bullets formed a web of death and anyone attempting to break through it would be riddled with bullets.

"It's, it's amazing," Chief Knight murmured.

Carter was not the only one who was astonished. Iron Axe glanced around and saw that all the witches were dumbfounded, and only Lady Nightingale, who always stayed beside Roland, seemed quite calm. Ashes, the black-haired witch carrying a giant sword, showed a mixture of shock, confusion, and frustration.

Iron Axe could not help but feel the same way. He had become Chief Bodyguard of the Osha Clan because of his proficiency in knife work and archery, skills he had honed with regular practices since childhood. Like him, the most powerful warriors with outstanding talent were popular among clan leaders in the Southernmost Region. However, even the quickest and strongest fighter in the world could never escape these bullets that moved faster than sight. Astoundingly, the Mark I didn't even have the flaw of requiring a pause to reload bullets. If the First Army was equipped with 20 heavy machine guns, the enemy's fighting skills acquired from more than ten years of hard work would become a joke.

A fighter would naturally find it hard to accept the fact.

Fortunately, he found a new path.

*******************

Leaf moved rapidly through the heavy undergrowth of plants to drive the demonic beasts that had intruded into the Misty Forest towards the city wall.

Now, she could control an area almost as large as the town. The trees and foliage in the area were like her eyes and limbs. They could grow according to her will and form a defense line against enemies, but His Highness kept telling her to inform the army whenever she found any demonic beasts or demons instead of directly fighting against them, especially demons. If demons sensed her existence and destroyed the whole forest, it would be a significant loss, as the town now counted on her to provide early warnings, and a forest that could be adjusted on demand was a great asset.

Leaf reclaimed an empty lot near the town and planned to grow "Golden Ones" wheat on it as soon as the Months of Demons ended. This time, with the Heart of Forest to provide her with magic power, the seeds of the wheat would grow continuously and produce enough seeds for all the farmers in the Western Region.

Suddenly, she sensed a group of demonic wolf hybrids approaching from the edge of the forest.

Leaf immediately turned to look at these invaders and saw eight strong demonic beasts fleeing into the deep forest. As she was about to send out a carrier pigeon to inform the First Army and meanwhile drive them to the city wall, she felt something strange.

They did not look as ferocious as usual. Instead, they seemed to be driven by something. Even her branches and vines could not stop them now.

Could it be demons returning?

Leaf frowned, and as she was about to widen her range of sight, she felt a hint of warmth on her head.

She promptly looked up and saw golden rays of light peep out from several cracks in the cloudy sky, shining down on the snowy white land of the Western Region.

*******************

"How do I deal with this one here?" Tilly pointed at an equation in a book.

"Well... you put in equation four to create a new equation, and then you'll derive it to get the one in the book." Anna quickly wrote down the derivation process on a piece of scrap paper. "That's it."

"I see." Tilly clapped her hands and said, "If you put this variable in, the result should be close to 1."

"Impressive! You can calculate the result in your mind," Anna gasped with admiration.

"That's just because of my ability. You're the amazing one. You can learn everything in the prince's new books so quickly," said Princess Tilly with a smile.

Anna gave her a soft smile. Only the mention of Roland Wimbledon could bring a smile like that to her face.

Every time Tilly saw that smile, she could not help but think that it was impossible for a simple, honest girl like Anna to like a wicked man. "Roland must be different now," she presumed, regardless of whether he was the real Prince Roland or not. Actually, Tilly herself felt that the new Roland was totally different from all the nobles in this world as if he were from another world. However, at the same time, she felt comfortable around him and liked his unique charm more and more as time went by. Looking up at the cloudy sky, Tilly even hoped for the Months of Demons to continue like this so she could learn all his knowledge. That way, she might be able to truly understand the new Roland, even if he never wanted to talk about himself.

She shook her head to dismiss these thoughts. Tilly pointed to the next question. To her astonishment, the book was suddenly lit up.

The two witches looked out the window simultaneously. Traces of light had mysteriously appeared in the snowy sky, and the long lost sunshine now rimmed the clouds with golden light. The locals bustling about in the town sensed the change, too. Soon, a growing number of people poured into streets, cheering.

Tilly looked at the sky in a daze, all sorts of emotions welling up inside her.

*******************

When the gunfire stopped, empty bullet shells were piled up beside the prince's feet. A dull, light tint of red could be seen on the muzzle of the gun, and white smoke was coming out of the barrel.

Even the drop of a pin could be heard now as nobody aired their opinions. Words were unnecessary since the fixed look on their faces told the shock brought by this new weapon.

Iron Axe could not control his excitement any longer and knelt down in the manner of the Sand Nation.

"The world is yours, Your Highness."

He firmly believed that his new path was to lead the First Army which was equipped with brand new firearms to expand the territory for His Highness Roland.

A hand reached in front of Iron Axe.

The prince pulled him up and did not look as content as Iron Axe had expected. Instead, he looked at the Impassable Mountain Range and said in a deep voice, "Our real enemy are the demons."

"Even so, I'll still fight for you until I die." Before Iron Axe could speak his thoughts, a dazzling ray of light pierced the cloudy sky, illuminating the world below. The witches behind exclaimed in amazement, and Roland looked up and smiled. More and more rays of light came down from above and became brighter and brighter. Soon, it was hard for them to stare at the light. Meanwhile, dark clouds silently melted away as the ice did with fire. The sun appeared again in the sky.

The Months of Demons ended.

Chapter 476 - The Victory Day

...

It was still dark outside, and someone had been knocking endlessly on Cacusim's door. He yawned and subconsciously reached out to grab his coat, and then he realized he no longer needed a coat.

The thick brick wall kept the chill away, and the incredible heating made the inside warm. No matter how heavy the snow was outside, the house no longer let the cold in like it used to, and the roof no longer leaked. Such a high-quality house was only fit for the nobles in Valencia. Of course, it was a little smaller.

He opened the door and found a young boy, his assistant Pike, standing outside. "Why aren’t you up yet? We have to hurry, Captain! Otherwise, we won't get a good spot!"

"Do we need to leave so early?" Cacusim stuck his head out and looked at the sky. The dawn was peeking through the clouds, and soft morning sunshine lit a small section of the sky.

"Of course!" the boy exclaimed. "My neighbors told me there would be a performance from the Star Flower Troupe during the celebration, and we won't get into the square if we're late!"

"All right, wait a minute." The old man shrugged and returned to his bedroom to change. He looked at the other empty bed and sighed softly. "The Victory Day... Is there any celebration like this in Longsong Stronghold? If not, Vader would miss it."

They went to the square and found that there were banners strung up on ropes and tied to the trees on both sides of the street. The small town looked bright and new under the morning sunshine. Every now and then, people joined them from the pathways into the main road and walked alongside them. It seemed that they were going to the square too.

Cacusim had heard about the celebration from Pike. The prince had named the first day after the Months of Demons as the Victory Day to celebrate passing the months safely. On that day, everyone in the town had the day off and enjoyed a grand bonfire party in the square. Cacusim's assistant had learned about this and invited him to go to square with him. After some thought, the old man agreed.

As they entered, they found a fenced-in area in the center of the square and policemen with black uniforms maintaining order. Quite a few people had arrived early and were standing around waiting. The two quickly found a place near the stage and chatted as they waited for the celebration to begin.

At noon, crowds gathered in the square and the prince appeared in the center of the theater. As soon as he showed up, Cacusim heard overwhelming cheers. The people around him excitedly raised their hands and shouted, "Long Live Your Highness!"

Prince Roland smiled. He waited for the cheers to pass, raised his fist, and said loudly, "We have defeated evil once again!"

The square exploded in instant cheers, the deafening sound shook the old man's heart. He had not seen such a respected lord in a very long time.

"My people, no matter where you come from, the Western Region, the Northern Region, the Eastern Region or the Southernmost Region, as long as you have made a contribution to our town, the glory belongs to you! This glory belongs to everyone who gave their blood and sweat to Border Town!" The prince's calm, emotional voice seemed to have magic power and could be heard without him having to shout. "Today is the Victory Day. It was set by all of you. Evil has not been completely eliminated and will come back sooner or later, but no matter how many times our enemies come, victory is ours as long as we unite and work together!"

The old man had never heard a nobility refer to the civilians and himself as "we", but His Highness didn't seem to mind. He looked at the people naturally, without arrogance or scorn. In the prince's eyes, he and his subjects were together as one.

It was incredible, but unexpectedly... harmonious.

"Now, let's cheer for this hard-won victory and raise our glasses to celebrate!"

"Long live Your Highness!"

"Long live Victory!"

The cheers rang throughout the square, and the people raised their right hand to show their respect, including Cacusim.

"This is a Lord who is worthy of my loyalty!" Pike said passionately while thumping his chest.

Next, it was the Star Flower Troupe's turn, and many people whistled excitedly.

"We haven't seen their performances in such a long time."

"Ms. Irene is still so beautiful!"

"But compared to Miss May, she still lacks lasting appeal."

"It's Ms. May now. Haven't you heard the news? She's about to marry Chief Knight, and the prince has already sent a wedding gift."

Listening to the people around, Pike asked in wonder, "The name of a troupe is usually either the same as the theater or the name of the town, so why does the troupe of Border Town have such a strange name?"

"You aren't a westerner, are you?" asked someone immediately. "Ms. May and Ms. Irene are both from Longsong Theatre, and Ms. May is called the Star of the Western Region, while Ms. Irene is called the Flower of Tomorrow. Now, they both live in Border Town, so the troupe's name is Star Flower Troupe."

"Look, it's beginning!"

This was not Cacusim's first time watching theatrical performances, but the story was quite unique. Instead of a normal love story between nobilities, it told the history of the Western Region. The actors played ordinary people living in Border Town. In the beginning, they were helpless, confused, and chased around like lambs during the Months of Demons. Then they decided to stay in the town and fight against the demonic beasts. The whole story was full of twists and turns, which were very gripping. When the characters died from hunger and cold or were killed in the line of defense to protect their families, the audience felt as if they were there.

The old man was quickly captured by the performance, and even people who had just come to the Western Region could feel the sacrifices that citizens of Border Town made and their unremitting efforts for survival.

When the play was finished, a thunderous applause rang above the square.

Cacusim was dumbstruck by what he saw next. A girl with long flaxen hair held a black line in her hand. She cut the wood stage into various parts, and used them to light a giant bonfire.

The crowd wasn't scared by this, and they even chanted her name. "Miss Anna! Miss Anna!"

As sheep baked on the bonfire, the atmosphere in the square reached its climax. The locals spontaneously stood in a long line and then began to dance strangely, the last part of the celebration. According to the people standing around Cacusim and Pike, as long as the dance continued, the barbecue would continue until midnight.

"Captain, let's go together!" Pike gulped. He was eager to join.

"I'm too old to dance," Cacusim shook his head. "You should join them."

"I'll go then." He stuck out his tongue. "I'll share some barbecue with you when I get it."

Looking at the boy dancing with the crowd, the old man couldn't help but laugh. He had been wondering how to make the name of the Concrete Boat assigned to him memorable and unique, and now he had an idea.

"I'll name it Victory," he thought.

Chapter 477 - Love and Affection

...

Just like last year, the witches held the feast in the castle.

Leaf turned the backyard that had been expanded several times into an open-air campsite fenced by olive trees. Around the raging bonfire, the witches could appreciate the starry night sky anytime.

Compared with the last BBQ feast which was only attended by five witches, this one was much more crowded, reaching a total number of 25 witches. All the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association came, along with the seven witches from Sleeping Island, as well as Maggie, Lucia, Agatha, Spear, Paper, and Summer.

Plates of finely cut food and various sauces were put on a small table by the bonfire for the witches to eat freely. After the territories of the rebel nobles were completely cleared, the supply of meat and cloth in Border Town had greatly increased. Also served on the table was the low-alcohol fruit wine brewed by Evelyn, as well as the ice cream provided by Agatha.

While Lightning was enthusiastically demonstrating to the crowd how to grill a chicken foot, Maggie had begun to enjoy a hot-roasted steak. Having spent a year in the mountains and jungles with Lightning, Maggie had got familiar with all sorts of grilled food, and she filled her waist pocket with various spices, just as Lightning did.

"I think this is a waste of time." Agatha smeared honey on the roasted meatballs in her hand. "The demons are bound to attack us, but we're not seizing this precious time to prepare... instead, we're just celebrating the latest victory. When the enemy breaks into our city... everything is done for," she said while chewing the food.

"Take it easy. It'll be OK." Roland handed her a bunch of stuffed beefballs—obviously, she was very fond of the juicy meatballs. "A proper balance of work and rest will increase the work efficiency. Besides, resting for one day won't prevent us from defeating the demons, and even if we lose, at least we've enjoyed the sweetness of life."

"Nonsense!" Agatha said while rolling her eyes. She then took the beefballs and put them over the bonfire after dipping it in a bowl of oil—with the help of her freezing ability, she could keep the meatballs at just the right temperature regardless of the heat from the fire. Clearly, her recent work with the process of cooling nitrogen had helped her to perfect control of her magic powers.

On the other side, the newcomer Summer apparently hadn't seen so much meat in a long time. Although she could not stop swallowing saliva, her hands kept still. Fortunately, after noticing Summer's timidity, Wendy pulled this newly awoken sister to her side and shared the food that she roasted with Summer and Paper.

The three witches from Sleeping Island, Ashes, Andrea and Shavi, began to play poker games while waiting for their food to be grilled. In the past few months, they had learned all the variations of poker that Roland was familiar with. As long as there was no attack from the demonic beasts, they would get together and play poker in the castle hall.

And the other witches from Sleeping Island, such as Candle, Evelyn and Sylvie, who had got familiar with the witches in the little town, were having a good time talking with Leaf, Echo, Soraya and others, just like a family did.

Looking at the harmonious scene, Roland felt quite gratified—after a year's effort, changes in the Western Region began to emerge. The people's enthusiastic cheers at the square at daytime and the heartfelt smile on the witches' faces were all payback for his efforts.

Such kind of payback was so sweet that Roland could not help but feel intoxicated by it.

As the bonfire gradually died out, the time approached midnight. Roland asked Nightingale and Ashes to escort Nana and Summer home respectively, while he stepped onto the second floor of the castle, waiting for Anna to appear.

He decided to take the initiative instead of waiting passively, or rather, postponing.

Silver moonlight cast into the castle through the corridor window. In the moonlight, Roland saw Anna's blue eyes. The scene was quite familiar to him, but their positions were reversed from the last time. Half hidden in darkness, Anna's pupils reflected a faint luster, like stars in the night sky where all the other stars could not be seen. The sky only belonged to her tonight.

Roland did not speak, but walked forward. Holding Anna's hand, they went to the third floor.

This was not the first time that Roland had kept this close to Anna, but still, his heart beat fiercely. Through the hand he was holding, he could tell Anna was nervous too. Nevertheless, she followed him without any hesitation.

They entered Roland's bedroom. When Roland closed the door, turned around, took a deep breath, and wondered what to say, Anna kissed him.

The tip of her tongue softly pried open Roland's mouth. Roland felt lost in her luscious breath.

At that moment, the title of a song popped into his mind, Sealed with a Kiss.

When you don't know what to say, kiss; when you've no idea how to express your feelings, kiss. Kissing is the speech without a sound and kissing is scorching affection.

When their lips finally parted, Anna's cheeks had turned red.

"I have a present for you."

From his pocket, Roland took out two red Magic Stones, which had been polished, rimmed with gold and strung together by a thin, red thread at the top.

"Is this... a Sigil?"

"Yes. After being connected together by magic power, a Stone of Pathfinding and a Stone of Positioning make a Tracking Sigil." Roland helped Anna to put the Stone of Pathfinding around her neck. "Now no matter where I go, you can find me with the help of the stones."

Anna must have sensed something unusual because she stared at Roland, motionless.

Just then, Roland carefully spoke each word while softly holding her cheeks with his hands, "Will you marry me, Anna?"

The peacefulness of the clear blue lake was interrupted by a pouring rain.

After a long pause, Anna nodded and said, "Yes."

...

What followed next was so natural—the long held emotions broke through the last barrier at that very moment and entangled with one another.

Roland picked her up by the waist and put her on to the bed. He kissed her from her forehead down to her neck with tenderness, and clumsily unsnapped her buttons. With her eyes open, Anna stared at Roland as if she wanted to imprint every single move of his into her brain.

When the girl's fair and smooth body was exposed, Roland hugged her gently in his arms and covered them up with a quilt.

Without the barrier of clothes, he clearly felt Anna's rhythmic heartbeat, as if her heart was about to pop out of her chest.

"This time..." Anna whispered in Roland's ear.

"What about it?"

"I won't fall asleep again..."

Roland couldn't help but burst into laughter, which eased the tension between them. He lightly brushed her nose and said, "Even if you fall asleep, I won't leave you alone."

Their mouths searched for each other once again, their bodies became one, and their hearts merged together.

...

Chapter 478 - Witnessing the Establishment of the New City

After m*king love, Anna rested her head in Roland's arms and nuzzled up against him like a cat.

"Your Highness, it's so good... to have met you," she whispered to him. Her breathing had just returned to normal from all the excitement.

"Call me Roland." He stroked her long hair and smiled. "There isn't anyone else around anyway, and I've never heard you call my name."

"Ro... land."

"Good girl." He tickled her ears until she laughed, and then he exclaimed, "Actually... it's me who should have said that. In the past, I never imagined that I would meet such a brilliant girl like you."

"Not even in the palace?"

"No." Roland shook his head faintly. "Sometimes, I even think I'm dreaming."

Anna remained silent for a while, and then cuddled closer to Roland before saying, "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere."

These words aroused his thoughts. He recalled that she had said the same thing to him before.

"...living like a normal person, but I do not care about that. I just want to stay at Your Highness’ side, nothing more."

"What are you talking about? I’m not going anywhere."

She's the petite and frail lass who was rolled up in a corner of a prison cell, the diligent girl who practiced her ability in maids clothes, the daring young lady who conjured a huge fire and sealed up the city wall, the diffident maid who raised her head and kissed me, and the lovely young woman who asked me to accompany her on the Day of Awakening...

Such scenes flashed in front of Roland one after another.

Without realizing it, the two of them had built up so many memories together.

"... it's true." He slid his hand down Anna's silky hair and caressed her slender back. "You're right here with me."

"Feelings are really intriguing," he thought to himself. "Though these are nothing but meaningless and silly words, they warm and melt my heart like nothing else can."

An even longer period of silence followed. Then, just as he thought she had fallen asleep, she spoke,

"I'm a witch."

"I know."

"Sister Wendy told me that witches are infertile," Anna muttered. "This will be troublesome for you."

"I'm not afraid," Roland replied assertively. "Compared to the impending third Battle of Divine Will, this is nothing." He once spent time considering how to arrange his succession, but discontinued it after hearing Agatha's report. The battle that would decide Man's fate was around the corner. All kingdoms would be completely decimated if they were unable to defeat the demons. Compared to this, the succession issue was not important.

He paused momentarily when he thought of this. After a while, he continued, "Actually, I was a bit worried earlier on."

"About what?"

"I was worried that you would use this reason to reject me."

"Why?" Anna looked puzzled. "I want to be with you, no matter I'm a witch or not."

Roland guffawed when he heard her reply. "Indeed, since I met Anna, she's always been like that... straightforward, never beating around the bush, and expressive of whatever idea she had. With her, there would never be a Korean drama case of 'I mean well for you, but I can't tell you' misunderstanding. I've thought too much."

As they chatted, Roland began to feel his body revitalize. Sensing the changes, Anna kissed him on the neck and climbed on top of him...

The night was still very young.

...

The next day, Roland woke up much later than usual. When he opened his eyes, the sun was already directly above the castle.

He looked beside himself and was slightly shocked. Anna was nowhere to be found. "Could it be that... what happened last night was merely a dream?" He bent his body down and breathed a sigh of relief. Strands of flaxen hair were left on the pillow, and he could smell a faint fragrance on one side of his clothes.

"What're you doing?" Anna's voice suddenly came from overhead.

Roland raised his head and felt awkward—he must have looked unglamorous sniffing all around while lying on the pillow. "Ahem, I was just counting the strands of hair you left. Hey, when did you get up?"

"I went to bring breakfast to you." She placed the plate she was holding on the bedside table. Her actions and movements seemed a little unlike her usual self. "I saw you sleeping soundly when I woke up and didn't want to disturb you."

"Sorry," Roland said apologetically, "I should have helped." After so many physical activities during the night, Roland feared that she was feeling uncomfortable despite her exceptional recovery capabilities.

"What nonsense." Anna laughed meekly. "You're a prince."

He shook her head and did not say one more word. Instead, he pulled her into his arms. After embracing for a while, she patted him on the back. "Alright, that's enough. Since you're awake, hurry up and eat your breakfast. I still have work to do today."

"Shouldn't you rest for a few more days?"

"That won't do," Anna replied earnestly. "We have to face the demons soon. Miss Soraya and Miss Agatha are working really hard, and thus it won't be right for me to slack off." She smiled sweetly. "You too... Roland."

...

After kissing goodbye to Anna, the prince strode to his office in buoyant mood. When he pushed open the door, he was surprised to see Tilly waiting for him and sitting by the table.

"Good morning." he greeted. "Is there an issue?"

"Look, it's already noon." Tilly smiled back at him. "And you look like you had a good dream."

"Do, do I?" Roland placed a hand around his mouth.

"Of course, you're all smiles today." She shrugged her shoulders and the smile on her face disappeared. "This time I came to say goodbye to you."

Roland was stunned. "Goodbye? Are you returning to Sleeping Island?"

"I've stayed here for too long. Even though I've kept in touch with the Fjords by letter, but... I've to go back sooner or later. Now that the Months of Demons are over, the objective of my trip can be considered done." She stood up and walked over to the French window. "Don't worry. Even though I'll be across the sea, I'll give you my full support in fighting the church and the demons."

"Can't you settle here in the Western Region?" Roland made a last-ditch attempt to persuade her to stay. There's a huge amount of vacant land on the south bank of the Redwater River. It can accommodate all of the witches."

"We've discussed this before." Tilly sighed lightly. "This is not a problem of finding residence."

"It seems like she has made up her mind," Roland reckoned. Though he understood that the decision was a sign of her political maturity and responsibility as a leader, he was very unhappy about it. "At least stay for another week. I'll prepare a few useful things for the witches in the Fjords."

"Oh?" Tilly turned and faced him. "What are they?"

"Books, courseware, and a few exercises." He said while flicking his fingernails. "This will not only save you the trouble of making copies but also enhance their learning effectiveness. Also, I'll pack a few revolvers. These can be used for self-protection in case you encounter enemies equipped with the God's Stone of Retaliation. There'll also be two steam engines which can be used to pump water for irrigation and salt extraction."

"I see..." Tilly turned away and said. "Thank you very much."

"And there's the Groundbreaking Day." Roland said, emphasizing every word. "I hope that on that day, you can join me in witnessing the establishment of City of Neverwinter."

Chapter 479 - Choice of Nightingale's Heart

Recently, Wendy spent her life in an exceptionally fulfilling way.

True to her name, Paper had quickly absorbed the knowledge regarding witches and magic power. She made great progress in learning how to read and write as well as knowledge about the natural world. At present, she was already able to learn new vocabularies on her own. There was only a bit of concern about her tutoring. On occasions, she would raise questions that even Wendy could not answer, and that meant either Anna or Roland had to be consulted.

Compared to Paper, Summer's progress was much slower. This was perhaps a matter of age. Every word had to be recited a few times to her before she could remember its spelling. Furthermore, she seemed confused by natural knowledge. But Wendy was okay with it. After all, what she did not lack at the moment was time and patience. In fact, it would be more problematic for her if her students were all as smart as Anna.

Every morning, she would call her two students into the living room to go through the homework that was assigned the day before. This was in line with what His Highness had told all of the Department of Education's teachers: The knowledge that was learned without practicing would be forgotten quickly, and only through regular practice would the knowledge be committed to memory. Wendy agreed very much with this statement.

The next lesson was practicing magic power. For this, Paper could assist Agatha to produce acid, or go to the shipyard to help in accelerating the hardening of cement. Hence, Wendy mainly tutored the newcomer, Summer. She had heard that Summer would soon be joining Nightingale in the Security Bureau and help His Highness to recreate crime scenes. Thus, the most important thing to learn was how to precisely control the reversal of time.

Fortunately, using magic ability was as natural as breathing to witches. Even the slowest students could not go very wrong once they felt the operation of magic. Wendy often raised the example of Maggie in order to encourage Summer not to be disheartened by her lack of natural proficiency in magic power. If even a pigeon was able to evolve, surely a regular witch could also do so? Of course, after that, she would secretly bring a few pieces of honey roast meat to Maggie as compensation.

Elementary classes were conducted in the evenings. In consideration of the different learning paces of incoming students, His Highness had sorted the Witch Union into two classes. The early comers would continue to receive lessons from Scroll and also begin to learn knowledge about elementary physics and chemistry, while the new arrivals would receive extra tuition from Wendy after their usual lessons.

This was the most relaxing part of Wendy's day.

As the earliest witch from the Witch Cooperation Association to join the Union, she had increased the gulf between herself and the other top-scoring sisters after a period of learning. She would feel a great amount of pressure on her shoulders whenever she remembered that His Highness had conferred on her the role of manager of the Association.

Only while teaching the newcomers did she feel free and able to put her heart and soul into the tutoring.

After assigning homework to the two students, Wendy went to have a hot bath. When she returned comfortably to her bedroom, she was surprised to see Nightingale sitting by her bed and dazing while holding a copy of Natural Science Theoretical Foundation.

She's definitely dazing. If she was focusing on the book, she would have fallen asleep within minutes.

"What's the matter?" Wendy uncovered her quilt and climbed on to the bed, sitting next to Nightingale.

The latter shifted her head slightly and briefly glanced at Wendy, who gasped when seeing Nightingale's vacant expression. Wendy had seen such an expression on Nightingale's face only in Silver City, which was the first time they met. At that time, Nightingale was walking alone spiritlessly through the snowy streets, in complete disregard of the snowflakes that fell on her shoulders.

"His Highness Roland's together with Anna already..." she muttered, "and it was I who encouraged him."

"..." Wendy was at a loss for words. She had also noticed that Anna and His Highness had grown closer recently, but this was acknowledged by everyone and thus it was not surprising. Anna was the first witch that His Highness met, and was impeccable in all respects. Apart from her inability to give birth, she was considered by Scroll to be the most suitable person to be Queen. The only surprising thing was that the recent development was facilitated by Nightingale.

"I had made preparations and knew that this would be the outcome. Yet, seeing them together, why... why do I feel so painful?" Nightingale grasped Wendy's hand tightly. "I'd resolved about this long ago..."

Wendy also began to feel bad as she looked at Nightingale's appearance. Her deepest impression of Nightingale was her strength and courage. Whether it was stabbing and capturing her own distant relative in Silver City, or fighting against the church, she was able to keep her cool and fight on despite the difficult circumstances. She even showed no sign of fear while facing the menacing Cara. Yet, on this relationship matter, she once again became a helpless child. And Wendy was unable to provide any help.

There's no right or wrong with regard to feelings.

All that Wendy could do was to embrace her and pat gently on her shoulders. "If you feel bad, cry it all out and you'll be fine."

Nightingale shook her head in disagreement and mumbled. "Since I left the Gilen family, I vowed... never to cry again, never again..." Her voice progressively lowered until she became inaudible. Wendy gradually felt a warm and moist feeling in her bosom, but even so, Nightingale did not make a whimper. Because she was restraining herself greatly, her shoulders began to shudder and she held on to Wendy even more forcefully.

"I didn't cry..."

"Yes, you didn't.... I know." Wendy closed her eyes and started to regret what she had once said to Nightingale. Staying around His Highness was a simple solution. In fact, the majority of witches would choose to stay around him... because they did not have anywhere else to go. They were also aware that there was only a minimal chance that Roland would accept and marry a girl who could not give birth and thereby could not carry on his bloodline. However, the problem with staying around him was the distance. Just like with the sun, anyone can bask in the warmth and glory of the sunshine, yet it was easy to get burned if one tried to move closer. And Nightingale's intention was obviously not to gaze at him from a distance.

This was not an easy road to follow.

"How about giving up?" Wendy asked softly. "If you take a step back, you'll still have the sisters to accompany you."

The ensuing long silence made time appear to freeze. Wendy felt as though she was awaiting a trial, and even though she was not the defendant, it was still extremely difficult for her to bear. A few times, she almost opened her mouth to ask more questions, but her words would slip back just before she said anything.

This continued until Nightingale raised her head.

Her eyes appeared slightly red, but tears could not be seen—the wetness on Wendy's bosom seemed to be her own false perception. Seeing the expression in Nightingale's eyes, Wendy could tell that there was a conclusion to this trial... but it was not the end.

"I won't give up." Nightingale shook her head and said, "No matter what, I'll stay beside him until the very end..."

She did not mind being burnt to ashes by the sun.

This was her answer.

Chapter 480 - The Wedding

Three days later, the wedding of Chief Knight Lannis Carter and Star of the Western Region May was held on castle grounds.

Besides family members, there were also members from the Star Flower Troupe, the City Hall and the Witch Union.

In this age, a wedding ceremony was always witnessed by the church. Weddings of royal families and the nobility were witnessed by a regional Bishop, while nobles and businessmen High Priest or Priestess. Ordinary citizens needed to go to the church by themselves and pay several silver royals to ask the Priest to preside over the wedding. Of course, people who could not afford it just lived together unwed.

Since there was no church in the Western Region, the City Hall was the wedding witness. Roland planned for the City Hall to dispatch officers to issue marriage certificates and do the registration for free. Carter's wedding would be a great role model—he had already thought of the slogan, "Convenient, legitimate and free of charge".

When the bride appeared in her wedding gown, everyone was impressed. She was not a witch, yet she was a big star, and this drew crowds. Even Roland had to admit that Carter had a good eye. If it were not for the publicity and pleading from the knight, Roland would not have shown the wedding gown.

Dressed in his handsome black attire, the bridegroom Carter Lannis looked extraordinary. The two of them standing together were like a heaven-made match.

"They look so great together." Anna said.

"We'll have our day eventually," Roland squeezed her hands gently and said, "by then, everyone will know you."

"Mmm." She smiled sweetly.

Marrying a witch was easy, however, getting the recognition of subjects was difficult. It could only be achieved by those with absolute might and great prestige. Hence, the most fundamental thing was to subside the civil war within the kingdom and become the only king of Graycastle. After that, he could marry Anna—he did not want others to think that Anna was his hidden plaything, like previous nobles.

However, Roland believed that it would not be too long. Since the Months of Demons had finished, the town was fully preparing for the coming spring attack. Soon, there would be a fierce attack and Timothy’s throne would be destroyed completely.

"The rings, please. Er, next..." The officer from the City Hall was unfamiliar with the new wedding process written by Roland. He lowered his head to look at his notebook, "you may kiss each other now."

"Wow!" Assembled guests broke into a round of applause, especially Irene, a member of the Star Flower Troupe. She excitedly grabbed Morning Light and swayed from side to side, and then grabbed others to clap and cheer for May.

"Just kissing," Lightning twitched her mouth, "each time, my father returned from an expedition, he was kissed several times."

"Coo..." Squatting on Lighting’s head, Maggie turned her head away. She put her wings in front of her face, however, the eyes of a pigeon are on both sides of the head.

"Is this wedding procedure really suitable, Your Highness?" Scroll put her hands on her forehead.

"It's a particular case. Not every couple needs to do this," Roland smiled. "After all, it's used for publicity, the more attractive, the better." Speaking of this, he turned to Soraya. "You need to paint this moment in detail!"

"Rest assured, leave it to me." The latter watched the two newlyweds without blinking, the Magic Pen in her hands was shining.

Carter was obviously nervous. After his initial shock had subsided, May stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

Applause broke out in the yard.

"Please welcome His Highness. He’ll give his blessing!"

Roland left the crowd and joined the newlyweds. He patted Carter's shoulder and said, "Well done." Then he turned to May, "May you be forever happy."

"That, that's it?" Carter hesitated.

"Of course! Now go home and rest. I'll give you two days off." Roland smiled. "Vader should arrive in the town this afternoon. Leave your work to him."

"Thank you, Your Highness," the newlyweds answered in harmony, smiling at each other.

The wedding ended in the sounds of fireworks, which were simulated by Echo.

In the afternoon, Barov and Karl came to the castle office to report the progress of the Three Supplies Project to Roland.

"So far, the water supply equipment has been installed in all the living quarters and more than half of the heating pipes have been laid," Karl said. He pointed to the town planning map and continued, "but the power supply will need more time. Except the factory district under your guidance will complete the installation soon, the four residential areas are still in the phase of trenching and slotting. After you went to Longsong Stronghold, this part of the work almost stagnated."

Roland nodded and knew they could do nothing about it. No one other than him understood what a circuit was or how electricity operated. Maybe in April, possibly May, all the townspeople would have electric lighting. Roland said, "It doesn't matter. Now that the Months of Demons is over, the heating can wait for some time. Next, the most important thing is the power supply program and the building of Kingdom Main Street. The former concerns the efficiency of time use, and the latter is the key to strengthen the relationship between the two areas once the city building is completed." He continued, "In addition, don't dismiss the redundant workers after finishing the construction of Kingdom Main Street. We need them to build the road to the shoal."

"Do you mean the spot towards the southern mountain area?"

"That's right. It’ll be the entrance to the sea." Roland affirmed. After Tilly and her group returned to Sleeping Island, Lotus would come back to the Western Region. At that time, with the help of Countess Spear, it would take less time to break a new path in mountains. "In addition, once the City of Neverwinter is established, these redundant workers will be my subjects and I want to confer citizenship on them as soon as the construction of Kingdom Main Street is finished." He turned to Barov, "I'll leave it to you."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Don't stop the construction of communities. You can expand them to the space between the town and Stronghold or the south bank of the Redwater River. The population expansion remains to be a major priority, and I want to triple the urban population by the end of the year."

Barov sucked in a breath. "My lord, that will be close to 100,000 people."

"I believe we can afford them in the Western Region," Roland said with a deep voice, "you can take it as your goal."

Indeed, the Kingdom of Graycastle had population potential. A big city of 20,000 inhabitants could afford a suburban population of at least 100,000. The more prosperous a city was, the bigger scale the latter was—this phenomenon could also be seen in modern agriculture. There was no limit in the Western Region, plus since the steam engine had come into use, there was no need to have so many people working on the material supply.

"Lastly, since electric lighting is now available in the factory district, you’ll need to switch to working eight hours a day in three shifts once the city construction is completed, especially the ammunition processing department," the prince said to the supervisor of the City Hall, "The salary of each shift should be calculated according to the past daily wage. The more they do, the more they get. You can promote it from now on and I hope the factory can operate constantly until we unify Graycastle."

"Yes, Your Highness." Barov answered and made a bow.

Chapter 481 - The City of Neverwinter

On the designated Groundbreaking Day, Roland got up very early.

He shaved the stubble on his face, tied up his long gray hair with a simple band, and used a small pair of scissors to trim his brows. After a year of living in this world, he was very experienced in grooming himself and did not need a maid's help.

Looking at his blurry reflection in the silver mirror, he felt that he somehow had the divine manner of a reclusive Taoist priest, if he put on a wide robe.

Roland nodded in satisfaction and left for his office.

There was Barov waiting for him in the room.

"Your Highness," he said with a bow, "a flying messenger has already been sent to Longsong Stronghold and will probably arrive at the Stronghold castle in half an hour."

"Uh-huh, is the venue set up?"

"It was all completed by yesterday afternoon, and right now it seems enough to hold the entire population of this town," replied the City Hall Director.

"Great job." praised Roland, and he slowly walked to the window.

The Impassable Mountain Range and the Misty Forest in the distance were still blanketed in white, and the rising sun scattered rays of golden light onto the snow. He saw moving figures on nearby town streets heading for the rubble city wall area in the West of the town.

As a defense line against demonic beasts last year, this rubble city wall that was hastily constructed with concrete played a principal role in the fight. However, it had now become a border between the inner and outer areas of the town. Roland didn't like this kind of clear separation between the rich and the poor, so he decided to tear it down sooner or later, except the symbolic gap area and gate tower. However, before that, he could still utilize it. He chose the middle section of the rubble city wall as the site for the Groundbreaking event since it could hold far more people than the square.

According to his plan, in order to strengthen the impact of the Groundbreaking event on citizens of both cities, Longsong Stronghold would hold a Groundbreaking announcement at the same time, which would be synchronized by flying messengers. When the first messenger reached Petrov, Roland would step on to the stage to give a speech.

"Right now, the gray falcon carrying the news must be soaring among the mountains and over the Redwater River, with a paper slip fastened to its claw as usual," thought Roland, "but it doesn't know the significance of the news it's carrying. From the moment it lands, Border Town and Longsong Stronghold will become history."

"Let's go." He collected his thoughts and turned around.

"Yes, Your Highness," Barov said with a smile.

...

Petrov Hull walked slowly onto the constructed wooden stage and looked around.

There were not that many people on the square, at least not as many as during the oatmeal distribution last week.

This was not surprising, since people were mainly only concerned with food and clothes. Compared to the free oatmeal, a Groundbreaking ceremony would not matter that much.

It seemed rather unnecessary to even Petrov himself.

The Months of Demons had ended, but the City Hall still did not receive as many applications for jobs as they had expected. The notice calling for handymen and construction workers was put up a week ago, but the number of recruits hadn't even reached half of the target amount. Meanwhile, Rats seemed to rise back from the ashes, as the police department received more and more reports every day and only verifying these reports was a painstaking amount of work. His friend Rene Medde complained to him that the arresting team needed twice the men to handle its workload.

This actually met Petrov's expectations.

The people were just like that, lazy, greedy, and unintelligent... His Highness spent so much time and efforts on them, but what could he get in return? The thing confused him the most was that Roland Wimbledon was clearly a member of the royal family, so where did that strange confidence in the people come from?

No matter what, he was firmly tied to the prince's chariot, so all he could do was to follow him faithfully.

An eagle cawed in the distance, and a gray figure appeared in the sky.

Petrov opened his prepared speech draft.

...

"Your Highness, it's almost the time." Barov reminded.

The sun had risen halfway into the sky, and the sundial's shadow pointed to nine o'clock. Roland nodded and walked to the tower railing. As soon as the people saw the prince, their chatter turned into warm cheers, and they all raised their hands to create waves throughout the crowd.

Area on both sides of the city wall was packed by a dense crowd of over 20,000 people, which meant that most of the town's residents were gathered here. Roland was glad that he was not holding this Groundbreaking ceremony in the central square, since it obviously could not offer enough space for such a huge, excited crowd.

He waved his hands to silence the cheers. "Greetings, my subjects."

Echo's magnifying ability allowed his voice to reverberate over the entire town.

"I believe you already know what's about to happen today. This small town, which was built for the North Slope Mine, is soon about to become a real city."

"In the past, the Months of Demons was a nightmare for Border Town, and everyone had to escape to Stronghold for shelter. Now, we have built a strong base here. Osmond Ryan, who wanted to ruin the Western Region, has fallen; the church, which wanted to harm witches and enslave the people, has been banished from this land; even Timothy Wimbledon, who dared to attempt to destroy me, failed—even if he set the entire Southern and Eastern Regions on fire, this town would still be safe and sound. I'm sure the refugees who fled here know this best."

Roland's words were quickly met with the crowd's responses.

"That's right. He burned down the Eagle City and plundered the Port of Clearwater!"

"The new king cleaned out Valencia. His knights acted no differently from burglars, sometimes even worse!"

"He took away my son, saying he needed to join the King's City guards. Heavens... he's only fifteen!"

The prince reached out his hand to quiet them. "And these tragedies will never happen again. This is why the new city is being built! Only by uniting more people, can we face our evil enemies and show them the consequences of their recklessness." He paused. "And this is my city, too. I vow that Roland Wimbledon will never leave any of his people behind, and even if the Kingdom of Graycastle is united, he'll never leave this place!"

A wave of cheers erupted at the foot of the city wall.

"Your Highness, you..." Barov exclaimed from behind him.

Roland waved his hand to silence him. "That's right. This will become the new capital of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and the kingdom will be reborn! I believe that even if an endless winter arrived, this city would still be as warm as spring!" He paused for a while and raised his right hand. "From this day on, Border Town and Longsong Stronghold will become one, and its name will be..."

"Long live the City of Neverwinter!"

"Long live, long live the City of Neverwinter!"

Everyone became excited, and the deafening chants rang through the sky. A mist of snow erupted on the mountainside, and the echoes rolled endlessly through the peaks...

Roland looked at the cheering subjects and felt a great anticipation growing inside him. The sparks of revolution had been ignited, and one day, he would see these sparks turn into a giant flame that would engulf the entire land.

Chapter 482 - Zero's Will

The upper level of the Pivotal Secret Temple was brightly lit up with dozens of Magic Stones that made the circular library as bright as day. When one was in this room, it was difficult to believe that it was underground.

This area was equivalent to the Tower of Babel of the Hermes Cathedral above ground, and it was Zero's favorite place. She could easily see all of the Pivotal Secret Area through the window. Watching over the figures bustling around the God's Stone of Punishment Pillar like ants, she felt a great joy in having control over all of these lives. It was as if she was the Lord of the Kingdom of God, and the people walking slowly in the dark were the believers that built the kingdom.

When she had free time, she would take a book containing the history and secrets of the Union from a shelf and read it by the window. Of course, she also had to have a cup of black tea with coltsfoot in it next to her.

After she became the Pope, Zero was actually more relaxed. She did not worry about the impending Battle of Divine Will, but looked forward to it. After more than 200 years, her life had become quite dull, and the Senior Demons that were recorded to be unbeatable seemed like exciting opponents. "I wonder if I take them into the Soul Battlefield, will they still be as fearless and terrifying as they appear?"

However, this battle was still years away, so she needed to set a new goal for herself to pass the time.

There were few people Zero concerned, and Roland Wimbledon happened to be one of them... he was the only mortal to interest her so far.

He was belittled by everyone, but he came out on top after the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince, fighting extremely well with his tiny territory against two strong contenders for the throne. This was undoubtedly very rare. Also, she discovered some interesting clues in Garcia's memories.

The Queen of Clearwater once placed a maid next to Prince Roland to feed him a deadly poison, but it completely failed, and then the furious queen executed the unlucky alchemist who made the poison. However, Zero had a member of the Secret Pivotal Area replicate the poison according to the recipe in her memories, and the product turned out to be just as the alchemist had promised. It was odorless, colorless, soluble in water, deadly upon intake and incurable.

"So, did the maid deceive Garcia, or is the current Roland Wimbledon not the same Prince Roland as before?" According to the information she had gathered, Zero was more inclined to the second guess. "The question is... if he isn't Prince Roland, who is he? Why had no one doubted his identity before?" The more she pondered on this issue, the more intrigued she became. He was able to change his ways to earn the love of all his subjects, single-handedly redistribute the power in the Western Region, and make both the church's emissary delegation and crazed army disappear... If such a man was simply the lord of a small territory, it would really be a pity.

Thus, Roland Wimbledon had to be included as a member of the church, or in other words, become part of her. Zero could not help but lick her lips. It was also why she changed the sequence of attack. If her guesses were correct, then conquering the Kingdom of Graycastle would bring in more benefits than she could imagine.

Of course, as a lord with great authority, he would stay behind the lines during battles, so it was important to figure out how to force him out.

Just as Zero was contemplating how to avoid the direct battle and go straight to Roland, Isabella pushed open the library door and walked in.

"Is the meeting over?"

"Yes." She rubbed her neck. "Lucky you, sitting here reading and sipping tea all day, while I have to lie to those old men... no, it's actually one old man and two madmen."

"It's not simply lying. It concerns the operations of the church's lower level," Zero said with a shrug. "Although witches are the actual core of the church, without these men, we wouldn't be able to collect so many resources to achieve our ultimate goal."

"Whatever." Isabella yawned. "Anyways, they said that we have to wait until the second month of this summer for the resources to attack the Kingdom of Dawn to be relocated to the battle against the Kingdom of Graycastle, and even this is an optimistic estimate.

"This amount of time isn't too long, but it isn't short either," thought Zero, "so the wait will both be torturous and make the reward even more enjoyable." "How's the pill production going?"

"I think there are about 300,000 to 400,000 pills in storage right now," replied Isabella. "But do you really plan to send all the civilians to battle against the demons? Millions of people would completely exhaust all of Hermes's resources. Also..."

"Also what?"

"Also we might not win." She shook her head. "There are so many people that they'll cause trouble no matter where we place them. Not to mention, their days are numbered after they eat the first pill, so what if the demons don't attack us in time? If we feed too few, then they're useless; if we feed too many, we might waste them. Even if the demons all attack at once and are defeated by the crazed army, these people won't be able to fight anymore."

"You don't understand." Zero stood up, walked over to a large table, and lifted the cover off of it, revealing a map of the Wild Places. "I never planned to use the crazed army to protect Hermes, and the location for the final battle should be somewhere on the Fertile Plains... I think it'll probably take place at the ruins of the Holy City of Taquila, since it's closest to us." She pointed at a spot on the map.

"Do you want to... initiate an attack?" Isabella froze in shock.

"We're desperately lacking time," said Zero calmly. "I've never dreamed of completely wiping out the demons. The Holy Book says that only when the Bloody Moon arrives and the Gates of Hell open can the demons build a black spire. Actually, the spire isn't built... it grows."

"Are you saying that those stones are actually alive?" Isabella asked in disbelief.

"This information can only be found in the personal notes of the Union's Three Chiefs... the demons' expansion depends on the black spire's ability to produce Red Mist, and currently spires are founded in areas with many God's Stone mineral veins, so their range of influence will continue to grow. In the beginning of the Second Battle of Divine Will, an Extraordinary once led a division of soldiers to approach the Red Mist area underground, and they found a startling sight—an enormous monster was writhing under the spire, and its body was even larger than the Taquila tower itself," Zero said slowly. "That enormous monster was decomposing God's Stone and turning it into black crystals, which gave off Red Mist. Considering the demons had Chaos Beasts that turned God's Stones into Magic Stones, it wasn't difficult to comprehend that they also had this kind of ability."

"..." Isabella opened her mouth and finally spat. "That's disgusting."

"Unfortunately, once the spire is formed, small surprise attacks will be ineffective, so our best bet is to attack them directly. I don't know how long it takes for the decomposed God's Stone to grow out of the ground, but it probably doesn't happen overnight. During this time, demons can only transport Red Mist from their backup resources, so they'll have very limited strength. We need to use a crazed army that is large enough to defeat the demons to create a path, so the God's Punishment Army can kill the underground monster," said Zero with great conviction. "If we're lucky enough, we'll buy ourselves another 400 years."

Chapter 483 - The Distance to God (Part I)

Isabella stared at the map in silence for a while. "But the crazed soldiers aren't God's Punishment Warriors. Although the pills can affect their resolve, it won't give them unbreakable resolve. In front of truly terrifying enemies, they'll still be afraid and may even run away—millions of defecting soldiers are enough to run us all over into dust."

"Obviously it won't be that simple. It would be best if the crazed army mostly consists of the church's lower level believers, and if the Judgment Army was the core." Zero returned to the window. "And if we want these many believers, we must unite the Four Kingdoms."

"What are our chances of winning?"

"30%? 50%?" she replied nonchalantly. "How can I know what our chances of winning are? After all, we've never fought against them and can only get the information through ancient books from 400 years ago. Don't forget what I said before... if we're lucky enough."

This was exactly why it was so exciting—she was putting the fate of all mankind at stake and placing the few bargaining chips she had all in one basket by fighting the strong with the weak... in a battle where the odds were against them, an unexpected triumph would be all the more sweeter.

"The continuation of mankind will depend on their courage, wisdom, faith, and sacrifice in this battle," she thought. "This is probably what God hopes to see... cowards can't earn his smile."

"I hope you're right." Isabella frowned. "I'm feeling more curious now."

"Curious about what?"

"If Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle was standing here, what would he do?"

Zero furrowed her brows. "Why? Do you think he can beat me?"

"Bishop Tayfun said that he hasn't heard from the Pure Witch he sent to the Kingdom of Graycastle yet, as if she simply disappeared. She was the one you assigned on the mission to check out the Western Region. Besides her, we also lost Aphra from King's City, the Bishop candidate Mira, and the church in Longsong Stronghold..." Isabella paused for a bit. "Don't you think since the church began targeting the Four Kingdoms, we've never suffered so many losses before? It's as if after we got involved with the Western Region, we have been losing. It's like... God is protecting him."

"Enough!" Zero slammed her fist on the table. "You know nothing about God!"

Isabella was slightly shocked. "I was only kidding... since when did you care so much about God?"

Zero tried to repress her anger. "He's merely a mortal! Mortals can only rely on calculations and knowledge, and this will all become part of me. Even though he has ways to fight the demons, the Union will definitely do better!" Zero turned around and stared at Isabella. "When the church's troops march into the Kingdom of Graycastle, you'll know who really has God's blessing."

As Isabella left the library, she sighed and said, "You're becoming more and more like a... Pope."

Zero sat silently next to the table, her emotions in tumult for a long time, which was uncommon throughout her 200 years of life.

She knew what Isabella meant, but she could not explain herself to her... no matter who was Pope, no matter what ideas they had before, as soon as they stepped into the Prayer Room, they would all undergo unpredictable changes.

God... really exists.

Zero realized that her thoughts had been completely disturbed, so she closed her book and walked to the top floor of the library.

It was the highest point of the Pivotal Secret Temple where the Prayer Room was.

Zero pushed open a secret door made out of bookshelves, walked up a narrow stone staircase, and entered a windowless room. The room was only a few square feet, not even enough for someone to lie down in. The roof was cone-shaped and encrusted with Magic Stones that gave off a faint blue light. Under the dim lighting, Zero could vaguely see the four walls and hard ground. Besides these, there was nothing in the room, and it was hard to believe that this stuffy and cramped place was the closest location to God.

Zero closed her eyes to feel his summoning.

Her dark world slowly began to change, as if something entered her mind and displayed a scene in her consciousness—she knew that this wasn't a figment of her imagination. Even her soul, which had absorbed hundreds of people, could not see or even imagine such a sight.

When the twisting lines slowed down, five large paintings appeared in the expansive world... one floated above her head in a giant ring, and the other four lined up symmetrically in a cross next to her.

This was a sign from God.

Watching something in her mind was an incredible feeling. Zero knew that this entire scene would disappear as soon as she opened her eyes, so she could only use her consciousness to view every painting—when she was focused on the paintings, she felt being brought into them.

The large ring-shaped painting on top of her was undoubtedly God himself.

It was a dark world with no visible boundaries, and a giant red sphere was suspended in the middle. The sphere was made of magic power, and she could feel its infinite power from simply looking at it. Half of it seemed to be cut off by a knife or hidden in darkness, so only half could be seen.

The more closely Zero looked at it, the surer she was of her judgment.

It was just too majestic.

She was nothing compared to this ball of magic power. She could not even find the words to describe how giant it was, only that even the world under her was dwarfed by this red sphere. The swirls of magic power on its surface were even wider than the ocean, and the light of the shining magic power was even brighter than the sun—besides God, who else could have such vast powers?

This was probably the Bloody Moon recorded in the Holy Book—from the side, the half-sphere truly did not look like a full moon.

Zero once tried to pray to it, but it did not respond and only floated calmly in the darkness as if it was waiting for the results of the Battle of Divine Will.

This was why she was extremely enraged by Isabella's words. This thing did not give anyone its blessing... she realized after witnessing it in person that humans were insignificant in God's eyes.

After she separated from her thoughts, Zero looked towards the four paintings at the bottom.

She believed that the reason the battles that occurred every 400 years were called Battle of Divine Will had something to do with the content of these paintings.

The church's secret history recorded past Union leaders' and popes' interpretations of the paintings, and most of them came to the same conclusion—the location of the ending of the war was in these four paintings.

Chapter 484 - The Distance to God (Part II)

The first painting had the richest contents.

It depicted a throne constructed with swords and bones, and blood red long windows and tall black columns were behind it. It seemed to be a part of a palace. If she completely submerged her consciousness into it, she could even see the city outside the window with endless spires. What caught her attention the most was the Stone Gate that peeked through the city—if the spires around it were the buildings of Hermes residents, then the Stone Gates at least five times as tall as the church's Tower of Babel, which completely went against common sense.

What was more unbelievable was that the inside of the gates was black, as if a large and smooth cloth was covering its middle. However, as she looked closely, there seemed to be an immeasurable depth to the darkness... The more she stared at it, the more uneasy she felt.

Zero only focused her attention on the window for a while and soon turned it to the throne.

She did not see the lord of the throne today.

The things she saw in her mind would sometimes change. For example, she could occasionally see an armored warrior sitting on the throne, his head covered with a frightening black helmet, only revealing a faint red light through his eye sockets. However, this was not very common, and the throne was usually empty.

According to the records of secret history, this painting depicted the city where the demons originated from and first appeared—the Northwestern corner of Land of Dawn.

Zero agreed with this theory. The painting's blood red colors and black spires were very similar to the demons' living environments, and the helmet of the owner of the throne had a distinct demonic style. The only strange part was that its body was exactly like that of a regular human, and not like the strong and horrific bodies of the Fearsome Demons or Lords of Hell recorded in the Holy Book. Thus, there were many speculations about its identity. Some popes believed that it was the source of evil, while other witches thought that it was a member of the demons that guarded the secrets of God.

The second painting was much more mysterious.

It had few contents, which seemed to keep moving. At least in Zero's limited number of observations, she had never seen the same scene twice.

This time, she saw water.

The light blue water rippled backward against three large skeletons, which were completely hollow inside, but the water was somehow held outside the bones by an invisible barrier. It was as if the giant skeletons were keels supporting the side ports, and she felt like she was in a boat and looking out through the window—except these windows spanned the entire wall.

Zero was quickly enthralled by the strange scenery in front of her... She was standing at the border between water and sky, with half of her underwater, and the other half floating above. She could see the bright sunlight and sparse clouds above her, but her legs were encased in water. Under the sun, she could clearly see the color of the water changing from light blue on the surface to bright green, and then dark green, as it went deeper and deeper.

Suddenly, the scene began to shake, and Zero felt the world tremble below her and almost fell over. She subconsciously tried to open her eyes but stopped herself at the last second. "This isn't reality," she told herself. "This is God giving you a sign."

The water was quickly rising and almost drowned out the sky.

Or, perhaps the water was not rising, but she was sinking downwards.

Soon, everything outside the window was covered by water, and she even saw red fish swimming by the skeletons. First, there were only a few of them, but then there were more and more, and the dense schools of fish surrounded the invisible barrier like a red ribbon. The water gradually changed from dark green to a dull black, until the scene was shrouded in a complete darkness and totally disappeared.

Zero broke out of the painting, panting. This was the first time she experienced such a clear vision, and when the darkness covered her eyesight, she felt like she was about to choke. However, she did not find any useful clues—according to the secret history, the contents of the second painting were always changing. Some recorded seeing a giant eyeball, others saw a volcano spewing bubbles and yellow smoke, and others saw a bottomless abyss giving off a faint light. No observers had ever seen the same thing.

She rested for a while and turned her attention to the third painting.

However, there was still nothing in it... it was like the world outside the frame, dark and dead silent.

The secret history mentioned that in the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will, there was something in the painting... but this recording was so ancient that its pages were tattered and basically illegible. However, she was certain that a hundred years after the Battle of Divine Will, this painting turned black and never showed anything ever again.

The fourth painting was not at all mentioned in the secret history.

It was difficult for Zero to understand as if they were all in agreement to hide something—if even the sole messenger of secrets, the pope, did not have the right to know, then the secret would be unknown to everyone forever.

The painting depicted a wall.

It was an unassuming rough gray stone wall.

Parts of the gray paint were chipped off, revealing the cracked stone blocks under it. It had obviously stood here for a long time. Besides this wall, there was nothing else.

After staying in the painting for a while, Zero started to feel exhausted.

Reading God's signs took a lot of energy, and even she could not do it for a long time.

Zero opened her eyes to disconnect from the sphere of magic power, causing the dark world and giant paintings to disappear, and she was back in the dim small room.

She sighed deeply and stumbled down the stairs, only recovering after finishing off her cold black tea in the library.

Although God did not give her any response, her anger from before was completely calmed. "Isabella knows nothing about God, but I do."

Zero looked out the window at the busy figures under the tower, and her feeling of control returned. Her experiences during the past 200 years made her disregard everything in this world, but after she became the Pope, she realized that she had only scratched the surface in understanding the world—now, she faced a whole new mystery, and her immortality was perfect for solving it.

Zero felt in her heart that she was the real person chosen by God.

If she could approach God, it would be worth waiting 400 years, even thousands of years.

Chapter 485 - The Day of Leaving

"Here comes the ship."

A sail peeked over the end of the light gray horizon. There were no other merchant ships around, so it had to be a ship from Sleeping Island.

"Uh-huh," Tilly gently replied, her voice muffled by the sounds of the sea washing onto the shoals. She had turned her back to Roland, so he could not see her face.

"We're leaving now," Andrea said regrettably. "I really liked your domain, and I've no idea if I can make the same delicious ice cream bread as you have here when I'm back at Sleeping Island."

Along with a bolt rifle, Roland had given her the ice cream recipe as well. "As long as you have eggs and milk, it won't taste too bad. When you come back to Border Town… no, the City of Neverwinter next time, I'll have more delicious food for you."

"Will it be even tastier than ice cream?" Andrea held her stray hair and said with a laugh, "You'd better not lie to me. I have your word."

"If you're reluctant to leave, you could stay here," Ashes laid out her hands and said. "Princess Tilly definitely won't mind leaving such a gluttonous witch like you behind—you won't be allowed to eat as much as you want on Sleeping Island."

"Is that true? I won't give you any ice cream when we get back." Andrea stared at her. "You should just eat your dried fish and drink your fishy soup every day."

As they continued to bicker, the sailboat neared the coast. The flying pink flag on the top of the mast told everyone it was the Charming Beauty.

Shavi summoned the invisible barrier, which allowed her to travel and move between the shoal and the ship, enabling her to carry all the books, goods and materials to the ship, without docking. Then, she carried the card-playing three and Princess Tilly, but as Tilly was stepping into the barrier, Roland called her name.

"… What?" She turned her head, her eyes revealing a complex mixture of emotions.

Roland was not good at saying goodbye and had stopped her without forethought. He took a deep breath and shouted, "If you have any problems on Sleeping Island, you can tell me. I'll do my best to help you. And remember that you're always welcome in the City of Neverwinter."

"... " Tilly smiled after a moment. "Thank you, and you too."

"Goodbye, everyone." Andrea and Shavi shouted while waving their hands.

Ashes did not say anything and just waved her hand too.

After their farewell, the barrier carried the witches to the Charming Beauty quickly.

"What's wrong? You don't want them to leave?" Nightingale asked from behind him.

"I just think it's a pity. There are 300 witches... It would be wonderful if they all moved to the Western Region," said Roland with a fake casualness.

"Yeah, and then you'd feel even more guilty." Nightingale rolled her eyes at him.

"Guilty?" Roland felt terrified and asked.

"Why? Living here is better than living on Sleeping Island, isn't it?" Anna was also confused.

"You wouldn't understand, even if I told you." Nightingale turned around and walked towards the hot air balloon. "And that's the most irritating part."

Watching her walk away, Roland felt a sense of relief. Nightingale had disappeared for the last two days, and now she was finally back to normal, so he had nothing to worry about.

"Let's go. There're a lot of things for us to do," Wendy said while smiling.

"OK." Roland and Anna smiled and walked to Cloud Gazer while holding hands.

...

Back in his office, Roland opened his notebook and thought about how he would develop his domain in the coming year.

Undoubtedly, there were two things of the utmost importance that needed addressing.

The first thing to do was to dethrone Timothy and stop him from diminishing the countrymen with the Berserk Pills. This could also greatly expand Roland's reputation and prepare everyone for the unification of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

The second was to absorb Longsong Stronghold as soon as possible to put the City of Neverwinter on the track for construction.

Iron Axe, Carter, Theo in King's City, and he had already discussed the former many times, and they decided to launch the spring offensive at the end of April, which would be at the end of this month. It was the plowing time in many cities, which would not affect the professional First Army, but would affect the traditional noble, because people would be constrained by their crops and unwilling to start a war at the risk of starvation. If the army suddenly appeared at the outskirts of King's City, Timothy would be totally unprepared.

The steam engine plant, ammunition factory, and concrete boat plant were all busy producing resources for battle. Meanwhile, logistics operations were at full speed. Plus the City Hall boasted enough manpower, and the First Army was experienced in battles. Roland had a good grasp on the necessary resources and their deployment, so he was not worried at all about either.

The most important thing at the moment was to utilize the resources of Stronghold.

Thinking of this, Roland told Barov to come to his office.

"Have you cataloged all of the industries in Longsong Stronghold and its surrounding territories?"

Barov pulled out a notebook. "It's all in here, Your Highness. The primary income was from the mining industry and salt industry, especially the former—there was a high-quality gem mine to the west of Longsong Stronghold near the Impassable Mountain Range, whose output accounted for more than half of the Stronghold's income."

"Gem mine?" Roland was not interested in luxuries. "Isn't there also a gem mine in the North Slope Mine? Why did that town appear so poorly last time I visited?"

"It's not the same, Your Highness." Barov rubbed his hands and said, "The gems of the North Slope Mine are the byproducts of other mineral veins, so the quantity is very small, and they might not even be good enough to be made into jewelry when they're cut. But the gem mine in Stronghold is full of colorful stones, and each of them can easily be made into a high-quality multicolored stone. The gems are worth dozens of gold royals once sold in King's City, and the output and quality are far better than that of the gems from the North Slope Mine."

"A multicolored stone?" Roland asked curiously, "What does it look like?"

"It's generally transparent and has no fixed color. It reflects many different colors under the sunlight, from light green to orange-red, and it shows multiple colors after being cut. It's more like crystallized sunlight than a normal ruby or sapphire." Barov paused. "The multicolored stone of the Kingdom of Graycastle, the Ice Stone of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the luminary stone of the Kingdom of Dawn are the most popular gems among the nobility."

"That gem sounded pretty luxurious." Roland thought. "Maybe it could be used to make a ring for Anna. But, the gem mine has little value when talking about the improvement of people's livelihood.'" Roland asked, "Any other mineral resources?"

"The Maple Family and the Wild Rose Family each have an iron ore mine," Barov said, "but, they're both smaller than the North Slope Mine."

"The domains of the two families are both surrounded by the Impassable Mountain Range—these mountains crossing the Four Kingdoms may be full of treasure," Roland thought. "Maybe I can explore along the foot of the mountain with Sylvie to find an ore reserve for the City of Neverwinter. After all, steel is a powerful resource for industrial manufacturing."

Chapter 486 - A Call for Help

"What about the salt industry?"

There were many ore resources in the Western Region, so it was not surprising that mining was the primary industry of Stronghold. However, this was the first mention of the salt industry, and Prince Roland had no knowledge of local specialties. In Roland's opinion, salt should be the main industry in coastal cities.

"Stronghold, the Elk Family, and the Honeysuckle Family each have one salt well. In fact, the three salt wells are very close to each other and basically located on the borders of their domains. I heard that over 200 years ago, civil wars in the Western Region often happened there and lasted for 50 years." Barov stroked his mustache.

Roland wondered if the three nobilities occupying the area had then become the biggest winners. He asked with great interest, "What’s the output of these salt wells?"

"Besides supplying the Western Region, the salt was also sold to Fallen Dragon Ridge, Redwater City, and some other small villages along the way." Barov leafed through his notebook. "It accounted for almost 15% of the Stronghold income."

"Why such a low percentage?" Roland asked in surprise. "The market price for salt isn't low."

"It's too hard to get the salt out of the deep pit." Barov shook his head. "I know a nobleman in Silver City who has a salt well in his domain. It’s about the size of a human head and too small for a cask. People mine it by putting water in and scooping it up with a bamboo stick after the salt melts."

"Why not expand the well?"

Barov smiled smugly. "Your Highness, the salt bed is too deep. If we dig it like a water well, its walls will collapse. According to him, the salt well has been mined from his grandfather's generation, and now the well is as deep as a belfry in King's City."

"I see," Roland thought. Limited by the depth, people here mined salt wells using the brine method, but the process could be improved. Lifting the salt mine with Lotus's power or extracting the brine with a steam engine would be more efficient.

An abundant salt supply would not only bring great profits to the City of Neverwinter, but also popularize healthier and more delicious food to the subjects. The salt they had at present was crude and saline with all kinds of impurities and foreign substance.

"I see." At this thought, the prince nodded with satisfaction. "You can go now. Don't forget to do population expansion work. The Months of Demons just passed, so it's a good time to recruit before refugees starve without their crops."

"I had the same thought, Your Highness," Barrow said with his hand on his chest, "The new emissary delegation will leave soon, and I think they will gain more than last year."

After the chief left, Roland was about to plan how to deal with the Stronghold resources, when he heard a knocking on the window.

He turned his head and found a gray falcon lying on the window grille with a note on its foot.

Nightingale opened the window and let the flying messenger in.

It was a letter from Petrov Hull in Longsong.

Roland read the letter quickly and could not help but laugh. After Nightingale came back to Border Area with him, it had been difficult to continue the fight against crime. They received all kinds of reports from the masses, and it was difficult to identify what was true, and what had been made up for the cash reward. Less than half of the Rats had applied for jobs. The new Minister of Justice, Rene Medde was busy all day long and could not control the Black Street Forces. If it went on like this, public safety would deteriorate.

Petrov had written at the end of the letter that he wanted the prince to help him with manpower and technology, but Roland knew he actually wanted Nightingale and Vader to help the Earl of the Elk Family.

He gave the letter to Nightingale. She glanced at it and said, "They can't hold Stronghold anymore?"

"The former Ragingfire was just a response to the war among the masses. He has no experience in battling or capturing the Rats." Roland smiled and said, "As I expected, they have a long way to go in fighting the Rats, and there’ll be many relapses. But they’ll eventually be destroyed with powerful measures and given a better way of life. Once they're on the right track, it'll be hard to stray into evil again. This is the case for both people and cities."

"Do you want me to go?" Nightingale sighed.

"Don't forget that Longsong and Border Town are one city now. Don't separate them from each other." He shrugged. "I said at the expansion meeting that there’ll be a day when we could have breakfast in Border Area and work in Longsong Area half an hour later. And you are in charge of the Security Bureau, you are expected to travel between the two places and inspect the work."

"If I go, what will protect you?" She shook her head. "Don't tell me there’ll be no danger. You are the thorn in Timothy and the church's side, and only I can stop assassin witches."

Roland wanted to say that he had the God's Stone of Retaliation and would not be hurt by a normal witch, but he realized that was not what she was worried about. "Listen to me."

She cut in, "You can't make me promise anything, and Wendy and Scroll will agree with me. You’re the most important person in the Witch Union—"

"I'll go with you."

"Ahem, re-really… " Nightingale choked in shock and turned her head to avoid his gaze. "I guess I'm the only one who can help them."

The prince could not help but laugh. "Take Summer with you. It's time for her to practice."

"And Sylvie and Soraya should go too to establish the identification systems while checking out the mines, and maybe even build up the City Hall," he thought. "I wonder how the training of the nobility in Longsong Stronghold is going."

...

Three days later, Roland boarded with the witches and the nobility in Stronghold to go to Longsong Area.

Looking at the cement paddle steamer and the coal cinder in the deck seams in the Redwater River, he sighed. It seemed impossible to reach Longsong Stronghold in one day, this speed was still too slow for him. After all, time was money. Roland planned to build an exclusive luxury high-speed ship.

Chapter 487 - The Guarding Shield

By dusk, the ship reached the port of the inland river near Longsong Stronghold.

Petrov had heard about their trip and greeted them at the port with his followers. When they returned the castle, a grand welcoming banquet awaited them in the hall of the first floor. After taking over Longsong Stronghold, something changed in Roland's heart. When watching the nobles giving toasts to each other, he felt the money spent on the banquet came out of his own pocket.

After briefly greeting the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family, he cut to the chase. "Have the Rats come out again?"

"Judging from the reports we received, it seems so." Petrov made a gesture to guide the prince to a corner of the hall. "Compared with the former organized Black Street groups, the criminals we recently arrested mostly acted individually, such as thieves, burglars, and murderers, all of whom were pulled to the square to be hung. Since you asked us to judge with adequate proof, the criminals we executed were only a small portion of all the reported criminals. Verifying the information in hand took quite some time. Besides..." The eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family paused. "We're in a great trouble recently."

"What is it?"

"Someone openly resisted your policies, Your Highness," Petrov said in a worried tone. "Earl Medde knows more about it. I'll ask him to tell you in detail."

"Your Highness, the Elk Family greets you." After being summoned, Rene came and bowed to the prince, and then he began to tell the whole story. "Recently, something serious happened in North Street of the outer town... Um, Sheriff Vader would call it a serial killing case."

"Um, it's actually what I would call it." This triggered Roland's interests. "Carry on."

"Yes," Rene Medde said in a serious voice. "Since three days ago, a resident has been found dead at home every night. The victims were all male, lived alone, had no families, and most importantly, they applied for jobs in the City Hall."

The prince frowned. "Were they regular employees?"

"If handymen can be counted as full-time job, then yes." The Earl of the Elk Family nodded. "In the room of each victim, there was a painting drawn with blood—a crown and a cross. Because of the identical mark, I sought confirmation from the City Hall and then found all the victims were among the list of people who were about to be sent to the Redriver District to build houses.

"You think their intention is..."

"To sabotage your enrollment plan, Your Highness," Rene replied. "Rumors have been spreading in North Street saying that whoever applies for a job in the City Hall will be a target for killers."

"I believe that's what's happening." Petrov chimed. "We've employed less than we'd expected, and there're barely any applicants from North Street. Moreover, there're applicants who regret applying and say that they're physically unfit for going out of town and hope that the officials can take their names off the City Hall's enrollment list. Now, the rumor is only spread in North Street, but if it goes as far as other blocks, it could sabotage your construction plan."

Roland contemplated for a moment. "Have you got any clues about the suspect?"

"We..." Rene opened his mouth and said after a while, "There were no witnesses to the crimes, so we've no idea where to start the searching."

"Really..." Roland felt surprised. "How did you solve such cases on previous occasions?"

"Do you mean the patrol team?" The young Earl of the Elk Family hesitated for a while. "As far as I know, they didn't have standard handling methods. If it was an influential case where the families of the victim appealed to the Lord, and the Lord decided to show his subjects justice, he would pressure the Black Street gangsters and order the Rats to hand over the criminal—the patrol team didn't care if the person they handed over was only a scapegoat or not. If the victim was only a foreigner or lived alone, the patrol team would usually ignore it."

"This is outrageous!" Roland was shocked. "The patrol party's way of handling such cases is equal to handing over the jurisdiction to the Rats. No wonder people were saying that Rats were the other party who ruled the city. Besides, in this era, there seems to be no such a thing as a criminal investigation, so if there's no witness in a murder case, it'll most likely become suspended—of course, that's only the case for civilians.

"Border Town has always been under Nightingale's supervision, plus it has a simple population composition, so all the crimes here are instantly cracked, which led to my neglect of this matter. Although Rene didn't say so, he might think that my request of a verdict on verified evidence is too demanding.

"But no matter what, I won't allow the using of scapegoats in my territory."

"I see. From tomorrow on, the Security Bureau will take over this case, and all you need to do is to cooperate."

"Yes. Thank you, Your Highness," Rene said joyfully.

...

After the banquet, Roland returned to his study on the top floor of the castle. The interior of the study looked very different now—the book shelves around the walls were all torn down, and a soft couch, a tea table, and cushions were added. Behind the desk, the wall was knocked open, and two French windows were installed. Although they were not made of crystal glass, they greatly expanded the view of the room. Through the slightly tinted glass, Roland overlooked Stronghold, enveloped in darkness, and nodded with satisfaction.

It seems Petrov followed my orders with great care, which means my choosing him as my deputy was a wise decision.

"How do you plan to handle this?" Nightingale emerged from the Mist sitting on the desk with her legs crossed.

"I'm not planning to handle it at all." The prince smiled, shaking his head. "Now that all the nobles have returned to Longsong, tomorrow the primary work is to have them establish the secondary City Hall, divide them into departments, and place some people in charge. The sooner the structure is established, the earlier Soraya can draw identification cards. You'll be the one in charge of fighting crimes."

"Me?"

"You're the head of the Security Bureau, so it's totally up to you to decide how to solve a case... The whole police department of the City of Neverwinter is in your command; both Vader and Rene are your subordinates."

"But didn't you always say that the authority of the departments should be separated, and administrative status should be equal?" Nightingale felt bewildered. "I don't understand how the City Hall operates, but this arrangement seems to put the Security Bureau above the City Hall."

"Territorial security is top priority, which is exactly why you report directly to me," Roland said affirmatively. "Not only for the police department, but all the examination work for the City Hall and the army will be carried out by you. Indeed, each department should be separated and not interfere with one another, but there needs a web that binds them together and stops power abuse and corruption. It'll prevent the collapse of the new system from within. You must have heard the saying: the firmest defense collapses from within." He paused for a while, looking into Nightingale's eyes. "You're the most powerful shield to prevent all these things from happening. Now, both my personal safety and the security of the territory are in your hands."

."

Chapter 488 - The Breeding Ground for Evil

"We're going to catch all the criminals and stop them from perpetrating in the City of Neverwinter!"

Nightingale held onto Summer's shoulder and said loudly.

"Uh, yes... Lady Nightingale." Summer then shrank back. "But it's time to go to sleep…"

"It's still early. Let's talk about the countermeasures for tomorrow." Her eyes were sparkling. "No one can escape our hunting, not even the most cunning Rat! Right, you can call me sister instead."

"Yes... Sister Nightingale."

Oh my God... Summer did not understand why, as an ordinary townsman, she had to catch criminals. Wasn't it the patrol party's job? Plus, Lady Nightingale… no, Sister Nightingale had been so excited since she had returned from the prince's office. She had been saying "catching criminals" over and over again.

"She's really a witch who hates evils as she does her own enemies." Summer said to herself. "But can I really help her?"

As Summer thought about this, she asked cautiously. "What shall we do? I've never caught a criminal."

"It's my job to catch the criminals," Nightingale patted her chest proudly and said, "And, you only need to rebuild the crime scene to show us who the murder was!"

"You mean the exact moment of the killing?" Summer hesitated and continued, "But, how can I know when exactly the killer did it?"

"Uh..." Nightingale paused. "You're right. How often can you use your ability?"

"I practiced with Sister Wendy for a week and four times is the limit now, I think that's the best I can do," Summer said with frustration. "My magic power is very limited and if the illusion lasts a little longer, the number of uses will decrease. Besides, I cannot rebuild a scene from two days earlier, otherwise, the magic power will run out very fast."

"How long can the illusion last?"

"Half, half a quarter."

"Um... that's rather short." Nightingale paced to and fro at the bedside. "It'll be troublesome if the flashback doesn't reveal the criminal." She meditated for a few minutes. "If you reduce the lasting time of each illusion, can you try a few more times?"

"Maybe I can, but I'm not sure," Summer murmured, "Sister Wendy told me if I could control the magic power accurately, I would be able to control the length of time. But every time I summon my power, I always feel the magic waning quickly."

"It's such a pity Countess Spear isn't here," Nightingale said with a regretful look. "Anyway, let's deduce a time and take a chance."

"Take, take a chance?"

"Yes!" Nightingale said, laughing. "I'm always pretty lucky; otherwise, I wouldn't ever have met Prince Roland." She suddenly became sad at these words. "... if only it could have been a few days earlier."

"How could that be considered as lucky?" Summer shouted in her mind. "Anyway, luck is unreliable! My ability won't work even a few hours later, let alone days. Can we really catch criminals tomorrow?"

"Well, now go to sleep." Nightingale blew out the candles and darkness soon enveloped the room.

"Uh-uh." Summer answered and climbed onto the big bed. The soft bedding covered her immediately.

"God, this is the bed of a noble? It's too comfortable." Summer buried her head into the clean pillow and felt her body sinking into the bed. She stretched her body and quickly started to fall asleep.

Do all the witches in the castle sleep with such comfortable bedding? If I slept on such a bed, I wouldn't ever feel like getting up again.

She could hear Nightingale mumbling while she was trying to fall asleep.

"I'm his shield..."

And then Summer fell asleep.

...

Early the next morning, she was woken up by Nightingale.

"Hurry up. We ought to go," Nightingale said energetically.

"Yes..."

Summer struggled to get off the bed, put on her coat, and went downstairs with Nightingale. In the lobby, there was a tall man with brown hair pacing back and forth. When he saw them, he stepped forward and said with a bow, "Good morning. I'm Rene Medde, the Earl of the Elk Family. I've been waiting for you, you must be Lady Nightingale, and this is..."

"Summer, she's my assistant." Nightingale raised her head a little. " She's a witch, too."

"Is that so?" He looked a little surprised but quickly nodded at Summer. "That's great. The criminals will have nowhere to go if I get your help."

"Where is your staff?"

"They're all waiting outside the castle."

"Very well. Ask them to wait a little while longer, I haven't had my breakfast yet."

"Of course, please take your time."

Summer fixed her eyes on them until Nightingale turned into the dining room. She hurried to follow at her heels. "God, is this Sister Nightingale? She hadn't seen Sister Nightingale so dignified and serious—No, not exactly. She's so supercilious as if she were a noble."

That's definitely not something to be expected from a civilian.

Besides, the man is an Earl. In Valencia, the young Earl would be the perfect lover in every woman's eyes. If I were Sister Nightingale, I'd be too nervous to say a word. But Sister Nightingale seemed not care about this and kept him waiting for her.

"Is this all right?" Summer asked with concerns.

"Take it easy. His Highness told me that a noble is just a title in his territory and even the Earl won't devour you." Nightingale smiled. "Besides, Security Bureau is superior to the City Hall and I'm his boss. Why can't I make him wait for me?"

Summer felt the woman was suddenly beyond her reach.

After breakfast, they left the castle to investigate the scene of the murder. Last night, another victim died at home. This time, however, it was on the corner of North Street and West Street.

"It is the fourth one." Nightingale frowned. "And the murderer is moving to the west."

"It shows the killer realized the propagating effect of committing crimes only in a specific block was unsatisfactory," Rene nodded. "After all, the Rats' organization no longer exists."

Walking not too far down a muddy alley, the leading police officer stopped at a tumble-down cabin. "Sir, it's here."

Summer walked into the cabin after Nightingale and her heart skipped a beat.

A man was lying on the floor with his neck cut open and his vital fluid everywhere. There was a crossed crown on the wall facing the door and the heavy, metallic smell of blood filled the room.

"Ugh..." She had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from throwing up.

Chapter 489 - Tracking down the Criminal

"Is this the first time you’ve witnessed a scene like this?" Rene came up to her, looking quite concerned. "Perhaps it'll be better if you go outside and get some fresh air."

"No. No, thanks." Seeing Nightingale squatting by the body examining the wounds, Summer declined the offer. If Nightingale was still able to keep her composure at such a horrible crime scene... she must also stay here. Summer continued, "I, uh, feel much better now."

"When was he found?" Nightingale turned questioning.

"Early this morning. The residents nearby found his body when they went to draw water. It was before sunrise. The door was left wide open as it is now, as if the killer wanted to announce the death to the whole community." Rene answered. "In the past, it would take two or three days for us to hear about something like this. The City Hall has been offering rewards for information, so it was reported sooner."

"Do you know the victim's identity?"

"Shovel, freeman." Rene glanced about the room. "Nothing valuable has been found. Um... it looks like he used to be a Rat, too."

"Did anyone see him last night?"

"I checked. Nobody."

"Any noises heard?"

"None."

"It doesn't sound right; a strong man like him?" Nightingale frowned. "Even if his throat was slit, he wouldn't die immediately. Someone should have heard him struggling for life or banging on the floor. Are you sure they weren’t lying?"

"I don't think so," Rene replied hesitantly. "The murder has sparked panic among the community. Plus, the residents get rewards for assisting the police. They shouldn't have any reason to lie."

"Well, bring them here. I'll interview them myself. And, Summer?" Nightingale looked toward her assistant.

"Yes?" Summer responded with a shiver.

"Go to the castle and bring Soraya here."

"Uh, sure."

Summer staggered out and ran toward the castle.

Somehow, she found the way in which Nightingale gave commands utterly beautiful. Everything about her character demonstrated great confidence. No wonder His Highness trusted her with the Security Bureau.

...

When Summer came back, there were another two people following her.

"Why didn't His Highness ask me to deal with such matters?" Lightning flew into the room, exclaiming. "He's unfair!"

"Coo, coo!" Maggie rejoined.

"I couldn’t stop them," Summer said timidly.

"Shouldn't you protect Prince Roland while I'm away?" Nightingale's brows went up a fraction of an inch. "This isn't an adventure game!"

"Relax. Sylvie’s there, nobody can easily approach His Highness," Lightning winked. "Besides, His Highness is going to call a meeting with the nobles and there’ll be no danger in the castle hall."

"How incredible..." thought Summer. How could these two girls act so airily at such a horrendous crime scene? Especially Lightning. She was several years younger, and her eyes were sparkling with excitement. What on earth had they been through since becoming witches?

"Who are these?" Rene and the other policemen stared at the girl and the bird, eyes wide open.

"They're witches." Nightingale grumbled. "Anyway, you ought to get back to the castle before the end of the meeting. Got it?"

"Aw..." Lightning pouted.

"Um, you wanted me to draw the body?" Soraya was the last to enter the room. Summer felt slightly relieved when she noticed Soraya looking as ghastly pale as herself.

"Not the body, the murderer." Nightingale closed the door and disclosed the plan. "Once we've got a picture of the killer, we'll post it on the bulletin boards at the square and offer cash rewards to people who provide tips. This should be the fastest way to find him."

The Earl of the Elk Family gasped. "You mean the witch here, Miss Summer, can reconstruct the crime scene?"

"It depends. She can maintain the illusion for only a limited period of time, so we also need a bit of luck. You'll see." Nightingale gave Summer a nod of approval. "Go ahead."

"Okay." Summer shut her eyes and traced time back to somewhere between midnight and dawn as Nightingale instructed. In the darkness, her magic power streamed from the tips of her fingers and intertwined, gradually forming a clear image. Slowly, some wooden planks, a bed, a table and a room took shape. A house was constructed in her mind. The victim was lying on the floor, his blood running onto the bumpy ground. The previously locked door was pushed open.

"Is this the witch's power?"

"It's unbelievable!"

"Gracious! The illusion is so lifelike. It's almost like the demons' power."

"Hush! Shut up!"

The surrounding police hushed to a whisper.

"It seems he's already dead." Nightingale patted Summer on her shoulder. "Don't waste your magic power. Switch to another time point."

The second time, Summer traced the event back to somewhere close to midnight. The figure on the floor disappeared abruptly, and the victim was lying in bed, appearing to be in deep slumber.

"Does this mean he was killed between the two periods of time?" Rene asked in bewilderment.

"Correct. The killer took action between midnight and three o'clock this morning.

"I got it! Miss Summer's power doesn't last long, and we're likely to miss the exact moment the murderer was committing the crime. That's why you said we needed a bit of luck!"

"Precisely," said Nightingale. "It likely took a long time for the murderer to leave these marks after he finished the business. Summer, you just start from somewhere close to three o'clock."

Summer nodded and heaved a heavy breath. She summoned her power again and set the time between two and three. The magic power swarmed toward the wall and revealed a stranger standing at the bedside. He was drawing something on the wall with the bloodstained sheet.

"It looks like we've found him." Nightingale smiled. "Lucky indeed."

"So this man is the killer, coo?"

"He looks like nothing special... I thought it would at least be someone stout and strong." Lightning remarked in disappointment.

"I can only draw a side face from this angle." Soraya looked at the murderer from the wall. "Is there any way to turn him around?"

"Summer, I'll leave it to you." Nightingale instructed.

"Alright." Without further explanation from Nightingale, Summer knew what to do. She pushed the time of the last illusion a quarter backward. This time, everyone saw clearly what the murderer looked like. He first strangled Shovel to death with a rope, dragged him to the floor and then slit his throat with a dagger. During the whole process, Shovel was sleeping like a log without any signs of struggling.

It suddenly struck Rene when he turned and noticed a water tank in the corner of the room. "Did he drink Dreamland Water?"

"It looks like it." Nightingale nodded. "That's why there was no noise. The killer slit his throat just to obtain some blood. The victim had already been dead."

"My, my lord! I've seen this man before!" said a police officer suddenly.

"What?" Both Nightingale and Rene rested their eyes on him.

The police officer paused a moment before continuing. "His name is Maans, and he used to be a patroller. I've dealt with him before."

"Do you know where he lives?" Rene pursued.

"I remember he lives in the inner city... West Street, near the Sheep Tavern."

"Very well. We don't even need to search him out. It appears God is on our side." Nightingale scoffed. "He can't get away with it. Let's go!"

"Yes, my lord!" The police shouted in unison.

Chapter 490 - The Real Target

Upon arriving at the Sheep Tavern, the group promptly obtained Maans' address through enquiry.

"I'll go in first to take a look. You guys enter from the front door afterwards. Summer, keep an eye on Lightning and Maggie. Don't let them in." Nightingale entered her Mist and vanished after delivering the order. In her world of black and white, the lines that constructed everything started to twist and distort. She soon located a crack invisible to the naked eye and glided through the wall effortlessly.

The man's abode was as humble as Shovel's. It appeared that Maans had been destitute since losing his job as a patroller. She could see clearly so she knew that there was no God's Stone of Retaliation in the vicinity. Nightingale soon spotted her target in the bedroom. The man was sound asleep beneath the blanket. His coat hung at the bedside with blood smears still on its sleeves.

Nightingale returned to the drawing room to open the door. The police swarmed in. They pushed Maans, who had just woken up with a start, back on the bed and tied him up.

"Who are you? Let me go!" He yelled with horror.

"You're under arrest for murders!" Rene silenced him with two loud slaps. "How dare you plot against His Highness. It'd be merciful even to have you hanged at the city gate!"

"No, I, I didn't..."

"You didn't!?" The slaps turned into punches. After a few muffled sounds, Maans gasped in pain, his mouth full of blood and his front tooth falling out. "We saw you murder Shovel last night. Do you think we'll believe your cunning excuses? You used Dreamland Water to knock him out. Then, you strangled him to death before cutting his throat to avoid getting blood on you. That was pretty smart, eh?"

Maans did not say a word, but his eyes were filled with shock and terror.

"Who gave you the order to kill Rats applying for jobs? Who instructed you to draw a crossed crown with blood at the crime scene?" Nightingale picked up a glass bottle from the night stand, it was filled halfway with light blue liquid. "Dreamland Water isn't cheap, and it isn't easy to get a hold of it now that the gangs have been eradicated."

"I..."

"We might exempt you from death penalties if you spit all out." Rene clasped his hands. "Otherwise, I'll make you fully understand the consequences of infuriating a noble."

Nightingale did not stop his threat, even though she knew the Earl of the Elk Family was lying. Like His Highness had said, security was the top priority, and anyone who posed a threat to it should be punished severely.

Maans hesitated, more punches landed on him.

The knight, who had received professional combat training, hit him between the abdomen and the ribs with just the right amount of strength to inflict excruciating pain, but not enough to cause death.

"Mercy! Mercy! I'm sorry, my lord! It was a guy from the inner city, he told me to do it! He'll pay me four gold royals for each person I kill. He said by doing this, people will nurse a grudge against the police and think those black uniform guys are incapable of protecting the public. In this way, we can reassemble the patrol party!"

Maans collapsed. He was not a strong-minded person. A person who stood firm in his spirit would never choose to be a patroller and benefit himself through robbery and pillage, and certainly would not take four lives for just a few gold royals. Nightingale believed he had probably never expected to be tracked down by the Ministry of Justice so soon after committing the crime, and definitely never thought he would be found out in a city of 20,000 people in merely four days.

Maans confessed everything tearfully, smearing blood and snot all over his collar.

"I don't know how he found me. Our first meeting was at a tavern. He handed me that bottle of Dreamland Water and told me as long as I did what he asked me to, I would get a big chunk of money. I didn't have any savings at the time, and the police had rejected my application. I was feeling bitter and resentful. So, I agreed."

"The police department will never hire a scumbag like you." Rene coughed out a spit.

"Do you know the man's name and identity?" Nightingale questioned.

"I don't know."

"You're lying."

"I really don't know!"

Nightingale looked toward Rene who immediately took the hint and delivered a few more punches. "The lady here is a witch. She can tell whether you're lying or not. It's indeed very stupid of you to lie in front of her! Don't test our patience!"

"No, my lord, I'm just... just not sure." Maans cried in his shrill voice. "Because he has never told me his name or identity!"

"What did you mean by 'not sure'?"

"I've also wondered why he pays so generously, as he doesn't look like a noble at all. When we met a couple of days ago, I could tell he was in a hurry and his attire looked a little weird too, like he layered one coat on top of another." Maans panted. "But he seemed to wear a uniform inside, and I also saw an emblem shaped like a petal on his collar."

"An emblem of a petal?" Nightingale and Rene exchanged a look. "Isn't that the emblem of the Honeysuckle Family?"

"That's why I'm not sure. Everybody knows the Hulls are the lord's supporters, and they would never plot against Lord Wimbledon." Maans said, hanging his head.

"It can't be Petrov, it must be someone else," Rene said firmly. "Since they meet each other on a daily basis, why not set up a trap to catch the guy?"

This appeared to be the only feasible way. They would arrest the man when Maans met with him and "asked for compensation". By then, everything would be cleared up. Nightingale nodded, but still felt something was missing.

Maans wasn't lying, and what he said was all true. What had gone wrong?

"Nightingale, are you guys alright?" Lightning shouted from outside.

"They’ve almost finished the meeting, coo. We have to head back now, coo!"

Nightingale had asked Lightning, Maggie and Summer to wait outside because of the violence that might have occurred during the arrest. A flash crossed her mind when she heard the word "meeting" from Maggie. His Highness was now in a meeting with the nobles, discussing the details of founding a new City Hall!

This meant there was not a single guard with the prince to protect him, and the closest one would be outside the hall.

If this person was really a member of the Honeysuckle Family, he could go straight into the castle and enter the hall on the first floor without raising any suspicion, though he would be forbidden to access the second and third floors, which were exclusive to His Highness. Yet she happened to be away from Prince Roland at this very moment!

"Lightning!" Nightingale had no time to explain to Rene and Maans, she dashed out of the room and grasped Lightning's shoulders, yelling, "Take me back to the castle now! His Highness might be in danger!"

"Huh? OK... Hold on tight." Lightning was very surprised, but she carried Nightingale on her back at once. She did not raise any unnecessary questions and flew straight toward the castle. When she was loaded, she flew much lower but still maintained a speed around 100 kilometers an hour. It would take her only half a minute to reach the destination.

Nightingale hoped she was wrong, but felt her terror grow as she further examined the details. The murders started three days ago, which was exactly when Petrov's letter for help arrived at the Border Area. If this man's real purpose was to distract everybody with several murder cases and put Roland in a defenseless and vulnerable position, it would be the worst-case scenario.

When they were close to the castle, Nightingale stepped into the Mist and entered the hall from the air. Her heart sank when she saw the meeting room in chaos. The nobles seemed to be petrified and were all standing by the wall murmuring. The guards were blocking off the scene. The host seat at the end of the long table, where Prince Roland should have been, was vacant. A man was lying on the floor. Nightingale could not tell whether he was alive or not, but could see his body was covered by the black curtain created by the God's Stone of Retaliation.

Chapter 491 - An Assassination Story

For a moment, Nightingale felt as if the entire world trembled.

As she walked out of the Mist, the scene before her eyes regained its usual color. The darkness created by the magic stone also began to dissipate, allowing her heart to stop beating frantically. The man lying on the ground was not Roland, but a guard whom Nightingale had never seen before. He was wearing the standard uniform of the Honeysuckle Family, and on his chest was a dark red mark which looked like a gunshot wound.

"Why are you here?" She heard a familiar voice cry out from beside her.

She turned her head and realized that the person speaking was Roland himself. He was surrounded by layers of bodyguards at one corner of the hall, which explained why Nightingale did not notice him when she rushed in.

"I..." As Nightingale opened her mouth, she realized that her throat was terribly hoarse, while her limbs were cold and numb. Her body felt so feeble that it was as if she had just narrowly survived a disaster. All that she desired to do at that moment was to hug Roland tightly, but she knew that she could not do so as there were other nobles around. Therefore, if she truly wanted to lead the Security Bureau and protect this territory, she had to avoid acting overly intimate with Roland.

Although her brain forbade her from doing so, she entered into the Mist and walked up to Roland, cutting through the lines of guards. Then, she hugged him with all of her remaining strength.

At once, gasps were heard from the crowd. The onlookers apparently could not understand why a witch appeared out of nowhere and disappeared without saying anything.

In the Mist, Nightingale held on to the prince with both arms. She tucked her head against his chest and listened attentively to his heartbeat. Perhaps, this was the only way to confirm that it was all just a false alarm.

Roland also began to sense what was going on. He clapped his hands and announced, "Everyone shall proceed to the dining hall for lunch first. No one is to leave the castle in the meantime. We'll resume the meeting in the afternoon!"

When only his guards, as well as Petrov, Sylvie and Lightning were left in the hall, Roland asked, "Does the murderer have anything to do with this assassination attempt?"

When she heard Roland's voice speaking to herself, Nightingale began to calm down gradually. She took a few steps back reluctantly and revealed herself once again, pretending that she did not move towards the prince at all, and replied, "Indeed. When I found out that the person directing the criminal was a guard of the Honeysuckle Family, I immediately rushed here." She then explained her findings and Maans' confession. "I couldn't tell that the real purpose was to divert our attention in order to create an opportunity to lay hands on you... thankfully, you're safe."

"His plan worked until the last step, and he accurately calculated the time that I would arrive, as well as predicted the witches' movements." Roland gave a sigh. "This person is wasted as an assassin."

Petrov immediately knelt down on one knee and said, "Your Highness, I really didn't know that he's..."

"Stand up. You've said this before, and you know I don't like to punish people." Roland interjected. "But it was no doubt that due to your negligence of duty, there were agents among the castle servants and the outer guard."

"I..." Petrov opened his mouth to speak, and then lowered his head. "I'm guilty."

"Find out the identity and background of the assassin. I want to know as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

After the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family took his leave, Nightingale enquired about her worries. "How was the situation like?"

"Threatening but not dangerous," Roland replied, laughing. "Thanks to Sylvie's warning... but then again, the assassin was already at a disadvantage when he chose to do it in the meeting hall."

After listening to the prince's account, Nightingale began to understand how the attempt took place—but in reality, it was not as easy as Roland put it. Though weapons were not permitted to bring into the hall, the assassin had concealed a dagger under his clothes, and because he was a castle guard, no one conducted a body check on him before he was allowed in.

The assassin's only error was to carry a God's Stone of Retaliation. It was common for the outer guards to adorn magic stones, but in the hall, it appeared particularly prominent—in order not to distract Sylvie, all of the nobles would comply with the request to take off their adornments. Hence, Sylvie noticed the assassin the moment she saw the black cavity, and when he moved towards the prince, she immediately issued a warning.

Although Roland described the following scene as simple, Nightingale broke into a cold sweat as she listened to his story. The hall was approximately 20 meters in length and width, and when the assassin heard the warning, he picked up speed and charged towards the main seat of the long table, where his target was sitting. By the time the prince pulled out his revolver and opened its safety lock, the assassin had already struck him on his lower back with the dagger. As someone who had undergone assassination training, Nightingale naturally understood that compared to the chest and head, which a person would protect subconsciously, the waist area was very difficult to protect, and the severe pain that could be inflicted by a single strike might cause the target to lose his ability to resist, enabling the assassin to easily go for the vital blood vessels in the neck next.

Luckily, Roland was wearing the protective clothing that Soraya specially made for him. The dagger failed to penetrate its coating and thereby could not prevent Roland's subsequent defensive action. He opened fire at the assassin while the gun was literally pressing on the assassin's chest. The two 12mm caliber bullets fired immediately killed the assassin, causing a loud booming sound which led to a huge commotion in the hall.

Nightingale could clearly visualize just how risky this sequence of events was. If His Highness did not manage to open the safety lock in time, or the gun failed to fire off, the consequence would have been unimaginable... Nightingale turned her head and cast a glance at Lightning, who immediately dropped her head as though to acknowledge her mistake.

"Your Highness, we've figured it out," Petrov re-entered the hall and said. "His name's Shio. He's not a native of the Western Region, but was formerly one of Duke Ryan's castle guards."

"Duke Ryan?" Roland frowned. "Why did you choose someone like that to be your guard?"

"He's just an ordinary guard. At that time, every family lost a lot of manpower, and thus I brought in those who weren't so attached to the Duke. This is how it's usually done in Stronghold..." Petrov answered cautiously. "I believe that it's unlikely that he committed this attempt as revenge for the Duke."

"He's not lying," Nightingale thought. "When a large family fell, apart from the subordinates who were given land and title, the remaining people were perceived by the other families as resources that can be divided. To them, it's simply a change of owner. Because the Honeysuckle Family had long surrendered to His Highness, plus the fact that Stronghold was always managed by Petrov, this portion of people was never examined."

"How many men with a similar background are there?" Roland asked. "Did you also hire men from the Wild Rose, Maple and Wolf families?"

"There're only three or four of them in the outer guard," Petrov replied, nodding his head. "The servants, citizens and serfs from the other three families were assigned to the Honeysuckle and Elk families. I guarantee that they won't appear in Stronghold."

"Okay, then I shall not concern myself with them. But remember, in the castle area, even the men of the perimeter garrison must be chosen from your family, understood? As for the inner castle, I'll arrange them myself."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Meanwhile, seal off Shio's residence. I'll find out the real reason behind his attempt." Roland then turned to look at Lightning. "Inform Maggie to fetch Countess Spear here."

Chapter 492 - Reality & Illusion

As she followed Roland back to his office, Nightingale muttered to him, "I failed to protect you..."

"No, you did well," Roland responded, shaking his head. "Think, why did the assassin, Shio, choose the meeting hall of all places? Because he knew that I'm being protected by an extremely powerful witch, and if he didn't trick her away, he wouldn't have a chance. The more arrangements he had to make, the weaker his attack became, and he was ultimately able to strike me with only a tiny dagger."

"But he nearly succeeded."

"It can't be considered a success without killing me right there, and your presence served to restrict this possibility." Roland laughed. "What would he have done if I didn't have you? He would have waited patiently for a chance to launch a fatal attack—there would be chances as long as he could remain in the castle. This shows that you've already protected me very well. In fact, the safer the territory is, the safer I am as well."

"These aren't empty words of consolation..." Nightingale mused. "His Highness seems to really believe so." She felt a warm surge run through her body, and the nagging feelings of remorse allayed considerably. "Understood. But you mustn't let Lightning and Maggie off the hook this time!"

"Uh, what did they do?"

"When I wasn't around, they should have been by your side to guard against lurking enemies!" Nightingale pointed out. "Like in today's situation, the assassin wouldn't have been able to hurt you at all if Lightning was there to fly you up."

"She's just a little more active..."

"That won't do! Wendy and Scroll will definitely agree with me if they're around. If we don't let Lightning and Maggie understand their mistake, things may go wrong the next time when something like this happens!"

"Oh..." The prince deliberated briefly while stroking his chin. "I got it. I'll punish them by forbidding them to go outside until they complete three sets of MPC (Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry) comprehensive exercises. How does that sound?"

Nightingale inhaled a mouthful of cold air. "Comprehensive exercises... the math section is still okay, but the physics and chemistry sections are even scarier than the basic natural principles. Just the first page alone can make you sleepy, especially those weird formulas and diagrams, which are no different from the incantations in the legends." If it was herself who had to do the exercises, she would likely never be able to go out ever again. Yet, she was the one who came up with the suggestion and thus she felt that it was inappropriate to take it all back. Hardening her heart, she nodded at Roland and affirmed. "Great. This way, they'll surely recognize their mistake."

...

The afternoon meeting proceeded smoothly, with Nightingale staying behind and guarding Roland until it was dusk. The general framework and first batch of candidates for the secondary City Hall were finally confirmed.

Petrov Hull was appointed as Chief Executive of the Longsong Region. Apart from overseeing the City Hall, he was also concurrently Minister of Finance, while his father, Earl Hull, served as Minister of Construction. Therefore, Petrov could be considered one of the biggest winners among the Stronghold nobles this time. Even Nightingale gasped silently at this decision. Indeed, His Highness did not place the blame for the assassination attempt on the Honeysuckle Family—by the lords' standards, this could be considered to be a wonderful expression of fairness and clemency.

The other ministries were to be helmed by several outstanding people from the lower nobles. These people were formerly barons or knights, who would normally not be qualified for the higher levels of government. They were highly touched by His Highness' decision to remove the restrictive criteria and thereby expressed their willingness to serve him for life.

Although they sounded sincere, Nightingale had no doubt that should the situation ever change, such as if Timothy or the church captured the Western Region, there was a high chance that these people would quickly forget about their vows.

Before the meeting was dismissed, His Highness repeatedly emphasized two employment principles—the manpower of each family could be used within the ministries, but the proportion must not exceed 30 percent, and their files had to be reported to the City Hall beforehand. Another point was that no matter whether family manpower was used or not, the salaries of all employees would be paid by the City Hall, and any ministry head who kept the money would be harshly punished as criminals.

Nightingale was completely uninterested in these details, and thus she yawned repeatedly as she listened, until she caught sight of Maggie flying back into the castle with Countess Spear on her back, and her spirits lifted at once.

After the dinner party, a line of people followed Earl of the Elk Family to Shio's residence—it was a regular bungalow located in the castle quarter, and the inside of the house was extremely clean, such that not a single shred of paper could be found. Apparently, Shio was well-prepared and had destroyed all possible evidence before he acted.

"Shio spent his days in the castle, and thus we only need to reconstruct what he did at night." The prince advised Summer. "I'll need to find out everything he did here from the first time he contacted patrol member Maans until today. Every segment of activity in this house is important."

Countess Spear summoned her magic power to connect Maggie and Summer together.

Obtaining an abundant amount of magic power temporarily, Summer began to recreate the details of each night. Shio seemed to come back to life. He would sometimes sit in deep thought by the fireplace, and sometimes write things down on paper. All of these segments were recorded by Soraya's eyes.

On the fourth day, he sat as usual by the fireplace, but this time he had an emblem in his hands.

"Wait... I think I've seen this thing before." Roland's voice sounded surprised. "Draw it for me."

By using a Magic Pen, the emblem was quickly drawn on paper. It was roughly the size of a thumb, and its body was a gem that was polished into the shape of a button. Identical logos, comprising of a tower and a spear, were engraved on both sides—this was the typical emblem of the royal family.

"Could he be Timothy's man?" Nightingale asked unconsciously.

Roland frowned without saying a word, and seemed to ponder for a long while before he shook his head faintly and said, "No, this is the keepsake of King Wimbledon III."

"Are you saying... your father?" Rene looked completely astonished.

"Wasn't the king already.... by the eldest prince, Gerald..." Petrov was equally shocked.

"When I was little, I saw this emblem on my father's study desk and even asked him what it was. He told me that every piece of gem represented a warrior who was loyal to the royal family, and therefore the more gems there were, the more stable the throne was." The prince then took a deep sigh. "By the looks of it, Shio was a pawn placed by my father by Duke Ryan's side, and helped him to monitor the development and trend of the entire Western Region."

"If so, why did he want to kill you?" Rene asked.

"Most likely, Timothy found the gem list and ordered the assassination... to these warriors, the emblem means everything, and hence any and every order must be carried out."

"That's why..." Nightingale glanced at the illusion of the assassin—he observed the emblem for a long time and eventually tossed the gem into the fireplace. His expression seemed a little sad, and at the same time, he revealed a hint of relief on his face. Probably, in Shio's eyes, the order represented a kind of freedom.

Having understood clearly the reason for the attempt, Roland did not seem relieved nevertheless. With a grim face, he stared at the sparks in the fireplace and did not shift his gaze for a long time.

...

Late at night, after Summer had fallen asleep, Nightingale quietly snuck into Roland's room.

Ever since she was admonished by Wendy, she had not done this again, until now. The assassination attempt had caused a constant undulation of her emotions, and without the presence of Wendy and Anna in the castle, she felt a little more unfettered and free.

Watching Roland Wimbledon in his deep sleep, she emerged from the Mist and quietly walked up to the bedside. She bent down and kissed Roland on the forehead.

Sorry, Your Highness, I can't control myself.

Chapter 493 - The Gem Mine

Roland rolled out of his bed under the glare of daylight.

He put on his coat and walked to the window. The snow covering the buildings outside had partially melted to reveal some areas of red roofs and gray walls, which brought both colors and vitality to the landscape. Inside the room, it was still cold, but if you faced the sunlight, you could also feel a little bit of warmth.

The snow had begun to melt.

He stepped into his office and saw his breakfast arranged neatly on his desk. As usual, there was a fried egg, two pancakes, and a cup of warm water. Nightingale had prepared it for him just like always.

"Thanks," Roland said to the empty couch.

"How do you know I'm here?" Nightingale said from the couch as she gradually revealed herself.

"You'll never sit if you get the chance to lie down." He smiled and then put the egg between the pancakes and raised it up to his mouth. "Besides, the couch was sinking where you are sitting. How could I not know?"

"No, I like sitting, too." She dashed to the desk and perched herself on the edge of it "Like sitting here," she added.

Roland would never get tired of seeing her graceful, airy movements, especially the amazing ones she made when she quickly stepped in and out of her Mist.

"You look good. Did you have any nice dreams?"

"Uh-huh, Indeed, I had a very a nice dream," she answered while raising her eyebrow a little.

"Good." Roland hurriedly ate his egg and pancake "hamburger" and continued, "Today, you ought to follow me."

"Because of the assassin?"

"Yes," he replied, "If Timothy gave orders to those on the gem list, perhaps there are still other assassins in the Western Region. However, it's impossible for us to check every single person." He felt it was a shame that people so brave and smart and so loyal to the royal family were employed as assassins. People as capable as they should be placed on more promising positions. With this in mind, Roland became even more resolute to eliminate Timothy's influence as soon as possible.

"As you wish, Your Highness." Nightingale said with a smile, "Where are we going?

"The mine and the salt well. That's one of the reasons I came to Stronghold."

...

Having summoned Petrov and other relevant personnel in the castle, the exploration group proceeded to the suburb of the city.

Roland actually cared more about the iron mines of the Maple Leaf and Wild Rose families, but he still made the gem mine his first stop on the investigative tour, given that gem trade was the primary industry of Longsong Stronghold, and the gem mine was the closest one.

The road leading to the mine became spongy and muddy because of the melting snow, making it impossible to access with a carriage. Therefore, the group rode horses and moved very carefully and slowly. It took them almost the whole morning to get to the edge of the Impassable Mountain Range. This experience strengthened Roland's belief in the saying that "a good road is an access to wealth". Without a hard-surfaced road to the mine, raising its output would be meaningless since any inclement weather could easily hamper transportation of the ore.

They went through a narrow passage and walked into the spacious mine cave, where the mineral vein lay. While 100 torches lined the cave, they could barely light the space inside it. Roland looked around and asked, "Is this a natural cave?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Petrov nodded and continued, "It was found by accident. It used to be a smooth rock wall, but about 300 years ago, it collapsed during an earthquake and revealed this cave. At first, it was only used by local hunters taking shelter from the rain in the entrance, but eventually, they ventured deeper into the cave, and they found these colorful stones."

"You know its history very well," Roland said with a smile.

"These stories are known to every household in the Western Region." Petrov waved his hands to beckon to a man and introduced him to Roland. "This is Denver Crain, the manager of the mine. He will know much more than I about the details of the cave."

"You're Duke Ryan's man?"

"No, Your Highness. The Crains doesn't belong to any lord," replied the man called Denver. He looked as if he was in his early thirties, but he spoke like a composed older man. "We've lived near this mine for generations and my ancestor was one of the hunters who found this gem mine. We've worked for three Dukes, and the mine maps my family has drawn could be piled up to the height of a man. No one knows this place better than the Crains."

He was extremely confident with his knowledge of the mine as he spoke with ease and fluency even in front of a prince of the Kingdom of Graycastle. His sedate manner and black uniform reminded Roland of the stewards of aristocratic families in movies he had seen before.

Due to the fact that everyone had been checked by Nightingale, Roland knew this man was not a lurker. So he asked "Why is nobody working here right now?"

"It's because the Months of Demons has just ended, Your Highness." Denver answered automatically, "The snow in the mountains will melt into water and flow down here. Even though we've built drainage ditches and pools to carry water through the mine, we can't take the water out as quickly as it flows in. As a result, we won't be able to get into the mine hole at the bottom. Based on our usual procedures, we have to wait until summer to resume normal mining."

"Are the iron mines in the territories of the Maple Leaf and Wild Rose families faced with the same situation now?"

"I've never been there, but I've heard that their iron mines are located in higher places, and their mine tunnels stretch upwards. I would guess that their situations may be better, but they'll still have to wait another month before they can mine in their pits."

"It seems that you may need several steam engines to draw the water out." Roland shrugged.

"Steam... engine, what's that?" Denver looked confused.

"A machine that enables you to continue your mining job in all seasons." answered the prince, smiling. "You have a lot to learn about mining."

Denver moved his lips a little in disbelief, but he was able to restrain himself from refuting Roland's comment.

Roland did not notice Denver's expression. He thought it was only a matter of time for this mine to be equipped with tram roads, water-drawing steam engines, and a traction system similar to those widely used in the North Slope Mine of Border Town. They had already successfully sold out a set to a mining tycoon in Silver City. Only he had little interest in gems, so he would put his focus on the iron mines first.

"Okay, we're done here. Let's leave for the next stop now." Roland turned around.

"Wait, Your Highness. The Crains have a little gift for you." Denver, surprised by the prince's sudden decision, walked fast to catch up with him. He took out a small wooden box and handed it to him.

"Ah?" Roland took it with interest. He opened the box and saw two glittering gems inside, reflecting dazzling red and green beams in the light of torches. He was startled. "Th-they're multicolored stones?"

"Yes, Your Highness. They were picked from the highest quality gemstones and a treasure kept by my family for hundreds of years," said Denver, with a hand on his chest. "The Crains are honored to work for the new lord of the Western Region."

Roland was so attracted by the gems that he missed the latter half of the sentence. They looked very familiar, and even a layman in mining like himself had heard their names.

They were called diaspores.

水铝石.

Chapter 494 - New Resources

When diaspore reached the gem class, it gave off a dazzling light due to its high refractivity and was highly polychromatic. Unlike other gemstones, which changed from one color to another, it gave off many different colors at the same time, most noticeably red and green. It was obvious why locals called it the multicolored stone. Roland did not connect the stone to diaspore when Barov was introducing it, but he instantly recognized it when he saw it in person.

Also, when diaspore was dehydrated, it would turn into corundum and gem class corundums were the famous ruby and sapphire. Compared to the former, the latter was even more renowned.

However, it was not the gemstones themselves that excited him.

"What about the residue dug out from the mine?" the prince asked excitedly as he closed the wooden box after a long time.

"Are you asking about... the debris from digging the mine tunnels?"

"That's right, and not just rocks, but mud as well. How did you deal with them?"

"They were all carted out and dumped at the bottom of the mountain." Denver seemed confused about why the prince was interested in this. "Don't worry, Your Highness, all good quality ores were carefully picked out and the remains were either broken in the mining process or of poor quality and can't be polished into gemstones. Moreover, the screening process is done by the most experienced members of my family. They never miss out good quality ores."

"You're wrong." Roland smiled and shook his head. "Those things you dumped... might be the real 'treasure'."

"What?" Denver froze in shock, and the other people also seemed confused. None of them could see the mine residue as treasure.

At the time, Roland find it hard to explain this to them, because in this world even steelmaking was difficult to imagine, let alone pure aluminum extraction.

Diaspore consisted mainly of aluminum oxide and was a by-product of bauxite and its discovery suggested that there was probably a large amount of aluminum in this area. That meant, the mud and rocks dumped by them could be used as raw materials for aluminum extraction. As the most abundant metal element in the earth, aluminum was more common than iron and could practically be found everywhere. Lucia could extract small amounts of aluminum from any rock on the ground, but it was clearly not efficient enough for industrial needs. Only places that were rich in aluminum were worth excavating.

This cave in front of him was one of those places.

Roland called Petrov aside and asked quietly, "How has the Crain Family managed this gem mine in the past 200 years? I mean... how did the past lords pay them?"

"I checked Osmond Ryan's checkbooks, and the payment methods were simple. Every year, the Crain Family could choose a box of second-tier gemstones as their fee in a similar manner as weighing grain," explained Petrov. "This box is as long and wide as one hand and deep as half a hand, and as long as the cover could be closed, they could take as many gemstones as possible. Of course, the rarest gemstones had to be given to the lord."

"That means the two gemstones from their family treasure that he just gave me aren't of the best quality?"

"They really are the best in terms of quality, since he wouldn't dare to deceive you, but you know that gemstones are always more expensive when they're bigger."

"You've also accepted his gifts, correct?" Roland stared at the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family with great interest.

"Um..." Petrov replied awkwardly, "Yes, Your Highness, I'll give them to you as soon as I get back."

"Keep them, I don't care," said the prince nonchalantly. "I'm just curious about how we can assure that this payment is accurate. What if the family secretly takes more gemstones during the excavation? Unless we turned their entire house upside down, we wouldn't be able to detect it."

"There're people monitoring the transport and filtering each cart of ore, and even if the Crain Family steals some, they wouldn't make it too obvious—this is a relationship of checks and balances, since the family is afraid of being punished by the lord, while the lord can't find other people who know the mine so well." Petrov paused. "Anyways, if we replace them with our own people, we still can't ensure that no one will steal."

"I see." Roland nodded. "Then let's continue with this practice. But besides the multicolored stones, I also want the rocks and mud that they dig up. When we get back, I'll draft an initial gathering plan for you to follow."

"Your Highness, is the mud... really more valuable than gemstones?"

"It depends on whose hands it falls into," replied the prince.

What's so important about aluminum? It has numerous uses. Having low density and lasting quality, it plays a vital role in the industrial production and is a crucial material used in aviation technology. To be honest, aluminum extraction is extremely difficult now, since the amount of electric power required by the electrolysis equipment is way beyond the capability of City of Neverwinter, but Lucia can offer another solution to this problem and may be able to extract some aluminum first with her ability. Then, weapons that are once impossible in this time period will become a possibility, such as large airships.

Roland originally planned to focus excavation on the two iron mines, but now it seemed that he had to adjust his plan.

...

When he returned to the castle after inspecting the two mines and a salt well, the sky was already pitch black.

After dinner, Roland excitedly took out a pen and paper and began drafting a utilization plan for the new resources.

First was the steam engine.

It would drastically increase the efficiency of the draining system in the mines, transportation and brine extraction in salt wells. As the Maple Leaf and Wild Rose families had fallen, he planned to relocate some experienced workers from the North Slope Mine and recruit more workers in the Longsong Area, in order for the two new iron mines to be operated first and their ores could be transported back to the Border Area for refining. Meanwhile, the gem mine's excavation would have to wait until Lucia got to Longsong Stronghold to determine the aluminum content in the mine.

The other focal point was the salt well.

As Roland had predicted, besides using the steam engine to drain water and increase production, he also lacked the vital step to refine the products into pure white salt. Since the mineral contents were quite complex, he decided to take a tube of brine from each well, take them back to the Border Area, and give them to Chief Alchemist Kyle Sichi to find out the specific refining process. After the process was obtained, he could set up a factory on the spot to produce table salt on a large scale.

Of course, the salt industry would be managed exclusively by the City Hall, just like grains. The Elk and Honeysuckle families' salt wells could receive the City of Neverwinter's technological support, but the refined salt they produced must be sold to the City Hall at the set market price, not sold to other buyers in order to gain profit. If he could obtain large amounts of refined salt at a low price, he could undoubtedly create a new commercial path for the City of Neverwinter.

Roland believed that this could all become a reality after he defeated Timothy.

Chapter 495 - On Top of the Sealine

As the Charming Beauty slowly approached the harbor, Tilly walked out to see that the dock was filled with witches who had come to welcome her.

"Lady Tilly, you're finally back!" Molly rushed up to Tilly first with the help of the Magic Servant.

"Wow, how sneaky!" Honey complained.

"Yeah, where's Orbit? Open the door so we can go over too!" shouted Shadow.

"Stop it. My ability isn't for you to harass Lady Tilly!"

The crowd immediately erupted into a fit of laughter. Looking at everyone's genuine smiles, Tilly felt her worries from the past few days disappearing.

No matter what, this was her real home, a kingdom built by witches.

Camilla Dary greeted her on the dock. "You've gone for so long that I was even worried you wouldn't come back."

"No chance," Tilly said with a smile. "I just didn't expect the Months of Demons to last so long this time. How has Sleeping Island been?"

"Of course, since you entrusted me with it, I wouldn't let you down," said Camilla with one hand on her chest. "The situation has improved overall. Using the Sleeping Spell was a good idea. I'll report the specifics to you later, but now... I'll hand you over to the witches." She blinked. "Otherwise they'll eat me alive."

As a great noble from King's City, Camilla was very skillful at managing things and played a key role in recruiting witches for Tilly. She was the reason why Tilly felt confident leaving the Fjords for a long time and investigating the Western Region.

Tilly shook her head helplessly, passed the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island, raised her hand to the crowd, and was heavily surrounded by a sea of witches.

"Your Highness, did you see your brother? How did he treat you?"

"I heard that the town also has a witch organization, so will they come and live with us?"

"Is it true that in that desolate little town, people don't have to worry about food and clothing, and they all live in new houses?"

"I'm so glad you're back. Everyone really missed you."

Tilly responded to their questions and concerns one by one until Shavi flew onto the dock with a pile of books, and everyone directed their attention to these "priceless treasures".

"What're they?" someone asked curiously.

"Documents from ancient ruins?"

"They don't look like ancient documents. The pages are new, so they're probably legends."

"Or maybe they're play scripts? Honestly, I haven't seen a play for a long time."

"Um... but what should I do since I can't read?"

Tilly clapped her hands to silence everyone. "This is His Highness Roland Wimbledon's present for you all—they include reading and writing pamphlets, basic mathematics, and natural science! Simply put, these are full of knowledge!"

"Knowledge?"

Most of the witches looked confused, while Camilla and some other noble witches were surprised. "Do you actually want to spread knowledge to everyone?"

Tilly nodded. "This is the only way to improve our abilities."

Roland once mentioned that universal education was not easy to achieve and needed a great amount of money and time—when people put their jobs on hand to learn, it meant that the domain would temporarily lose some laborers. Also, encouraging them to study required the support of money, which, combined with teachers' salaries and the cost of building school houses, was not a small amount. Most importantly, it would not have instant profits like businesses and needed to be carried out in the long term by the ruler.

However, it brought profound changes, even more so for witches and normal people. Tilly had already witnessed this at Border Town. Before she went to the Western Region, she could never have dreamed that a group of commoners could have such vigor and vitality.

After returning to the keep, when she was about to arrange the plan for universal education according to Scroll's methods, Ashes knocked on the door. "Thunder wants to see you."

"Ah, it's been for a long time, Your Highness." Thunder smiled as widely and genuinely as usual. "How did it go? Did your trip to the Western Region address your confusion?"

"Honestly, I didn't get my answer." Tilly shook her head with a smile. "He was still reserved towards me. But in our current circumstances, these issues aren't so important for the moment... by the way, do you know about demons?"

"Monsters from hell?" asked Thunder, raising his eyebrows. "I've heard a lot about them in epics and legends, where brave knights killed these terrifying enemies with spears dipped in dragon's blood."

"This time, they're no longer just enemies in books." She sighed.

"Um... what do you mean?"

"I don't know if those dragons exist, but demons... are real." Tilly briefly explained the Witch Union and Battle of Divine Will to him. "Where the Four Kingdoms settle on is used to be Barbarian Land, so if we lose again, humans will have nowhere to retreat."

"How could this be?" Thunder exclaimed after listening to her silently. "All the ruins in different locations are the works of witches, and an ancient witch from 400 years ago was discovered in Border Town? This, this is unbelievable! The mysteries you uncovered in one journey are more than I did in a lifetime!"

Tilly was shocked. "Aren't you afraid?"

"Afraid? Of course, I am..." he said excitedly, "but compared to the burning desire for exploration in my heart, this fear means nothing! Damn it, I wish I could go to the Kingdom of Graycastle to see this living fossil with my own eyes!"

Princess Tilly wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry—his motivation to go to the Western Region was to see Agatha instead of his own daughter. She did not know how to feel for Lightning.

"If not for my recent expedition, I'd probably have to give you the title of the greatest explorer of the Fjords," said Thunder after a fit of exclamations, "but... I also found something quite amazing."

"Please, go ahead."

"I sailed to the east of the Sealine again."

"Sealine?" asked Tilly confusedly. "What's that?"

"Ah, I forgot that you were still in Border Town the last time I returned." He stroked the back of his head. "It's a cliff made from seawater that splits the sea into two surfaces, but boats can still sail freely on it like... spiders climbing a wall."

"What? That's impossible!"

"I had the same reaction as you did the first time I saw it, but the Sealine does exist." said Thunder with great pride. "What's more incredible is that I sailed on the Courage over the Sealine and was lucky enough to witness the tide rise—you have to see it to believe how majestic it was. The flow of the sea water gradually quickens and eventually rushes downwards like falling off a cliff. If Molly's Magic Servant hadn't protected the boat, the Courage would have been snapped into two!"

"I turned the rudder to steer the bow directly towards the current, which formed a delicate balance with the wind. The Courage couldn't move forward, but also couldn't be brought down the cliff by the current." He panted as if he were reliving the excitement. "Of course, the Sealine isn't a real cliff. We all know what a waterfall looks like, with water dropping straight down, splattering droplets everywhere and creating a loud rumbling sound—but there, there wasn't any of that except an accelerating current. I was sure that even if the Courage fell over the Sealine, it would have returned to the lower side, just like how it climbed up."

"What happened next?" asked Tilly impatiently.

"And then the Swirling Sea was filled—I could only clearly see this standing on the Sealine," said Thunder with a low voice. "By the name of Three Gods, I don't know how to describe my shock at that moment. The height of the Sealine shrunk from over 200 meters to about 100 meters as the sea below rose up. This is the reality behind tides!"

Chapter 496 - Under the Deep Sea

"The water from the Sealine flows downward to cause the lower level water to rise? How is this possible?"

Tilly pondered for a while. "So when the tide falls, will the water flow backwards?"

"Good question." Thunder clenched his fists excitedly. "Afterwards, my fleet stayed near the Sealine for two weeks, until the tide fell. During that time, we tried all kinds of ways to break through the Sealine, and the most amazing part was sailing on the Sealine itself—do you know what kind of feeling that is? To outsiders, it seemed as if we were stuck to the face of a cliff, with our sails completely paralleling to the ocean, as if we could fall down at any second. But we couldn't feel this on the boat at all, and it was like the Courage was sailing in a narrow river, with the vast wall of seawater on one side, and the expansive sky on the other. Of course, we had to wait for the water to slow down to do this, otherwise even the Magic Servant couldn't protect the boat."

"This... makes no sense." Tilly felt her brain sink into total confusion. If some other explorer other than Thunder was telling her this, she would have immediately thought they were making it all up.

"I think so too, but I trust my own eyes more than common sense." He continued, "After two weeks, the tide began to fall—it happened at exactly the same time as the tides rose and fell in the Shadow Islands. The seawater did not regorge and simply backed off slowly, and the Sealine raised from about 100 meters to over 200 meters once again."

"Do you mean that all this seawater just disappeared into thin air?"

"Maybe, but it might have also flowed to somewhere else."

"Where could it flow to?" Tilly said, rubbing her forehead. "The tides are drastic in the Shadow Islands, much calmer in the Fjord Islands, basically nonexistent at the shores of the Four Kingdoms—if this isn't vanishing into thin air, what is it?"

Thunder pointed at the ground.

She sighed. "I remember that you once said the sea level in the Shadow area dropped very quickly as if there was a giant hole sucking it in at the bottom of the ocean. However, no matter how big the hole is, it should still be filled up after a few years."

"I'm only guessing. No one has actually seen what the ocean floor looks like... but I'm very curious about one thing."

"What?"

"Why is the ocean we're in called the Swirling Sea?"

Tilly felt her heart skip a beat as she came to a realization and shook her head, saying, "That's impossible and insane. If an underground cave expelled water to create a whirlpool, how could we not notice it? Also, this name has been around for hundreds of years, so who knows what our ancestors were thinking?"

"That's right. I conducted a simple experiment and found that the water must be shallow enough for the whirlpool to show, but we don't have the ability to see the ocean floor." Thunder smiled. "Meanwhile, that doesn't mean that witches can't do it—I never thought of this before, but when you told me that witches ruled this land 400 years ago, I realized that this sea was probably named during that time."

"I'm a witch," said Tilly with a shrug, "and not a single witch on Sleeping Island can do it."

"I know who can."

"What?"

"The witch lives right on the Fjords but hasn't had any human contact for a long time..." Thunder sighed. "She used to be a close friend of one of my crew's best assistants, but after she awakened as a witch, she left the continent forever. Now, you can only hear her beautiful singing when mist sets on the sea. You've probably heard stories about her before."

"The mermaid that guides the ships... Are you talking about the subject of this legend?"

"That's right." Thunder nodded. "Although I don't know if she'll help me, it's still worth a try. I might need the help of my old friend Margaret."

"I see. Then you must hurry," said Tilly with a frown. "The merchants in the Fjords seem to want to hunt mermaids. A month ago, Sleeping Spell received several offers to capture mermaids. Honey sent me a carrier pigeon telling me the request, but I refused."

"Her songs are the symbol of peace and safety to the sailors and explorers in the Fjords. Those merchants are insane." Thunder asked quietly, "Can you tell me who they are?"

"Sleeping Spell shouldn't reveal the identities of its customers, but..." Tilly wrote a few names in the air with her hand. "You didn't hear it from me." Since she was also a witch, Tilly could not sit by and do nothing as the leader of Sleeping Island.

"That's right." He smiled. "They'll get what they deserve."

The two smiled at each other, and Thunder said, "I came to tell you about my new adventures. Besides, I want to ask you a favor."

"Go ahead."

"I heard that Crescent Moon Bay has a new kind of boat that isn't powered by wind and can sail much faster than sailboats. My sources told me that this kind of boat was produced in Border Town," said Thunder. "If I want to keep exploring the Sealine, I'll need a much bigger and faster boat that can withstand the currents under strong winds." He handed her an envelope. "Money isn't an issue, as long as the boats are fast. Can you give him this order?"

Tilly understood his intentions. "You don't want Lightning to know?"

Thunder said helplessly, "If she finds out, she'll insist on going with me. There're too many unknowns in the Sealine, so it's too risky for me to take her."

"But she's already a great explorer. She was the one who found the stone tower ruins in the Misty Forest," Tilly thought. However, she still nodded. "I understand. I'll act as a temporary messenger between you and Roland Wimbledon."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

After Thunder left, Tilly pondered for a long time and took out the ancient books from the ruins in the Shadow Islands, hoping to find clues about the Sealine or tides. Following the method Agatha taught her, she twisted her magic power according to the shapes of the letters, and their meaning appeared in her mind. It was as if she wasn't reading, but the books were telling her their contents.

Some of the books recorded the writers' experiences in the Barbarian Land, some were sailors' diaries, and others mentioned important plans of the Union. The more she read, the more confused she became. These books had nothing to do with each other, obviously not written by the same person. To her surprise, none of them mentioned anything about the Sealine, the spire under the sea, the telescope, or the Giant Stone Gates, totally different from what she expected. She thought that as long as she could read the Union's words, she could uncover some of the ruins' secrets, or even find the reason why the Shadow area's sea level rose so quickly. But now, she felt like she was piecing together random scribbles.

"Wait... piece together?" An idea popped into Tilly's head. She spread open three of the sailing diaries, placed them together, and checked them carefully. Their dates were far apart, some even decades apart, and their routes varied from the seas near the mainland to the Fjords. It was like someone had gathered all these things from different sources and placed them into the ruins.

At this thought, she felt a chill creep up her spine.

Who would do such a thing?

Chapter 497 - A Chaotic Departure

The Longsong Area Harbor, City of Neverwinter.

Two concrete boats were docked as workers carried linen bags onto the shore, and the newly appointed officials in the Ministry of Agriculture counted them. The entire harbor was bustling with energy, which was a rare sight for Stronghold, a place still experiencing the aftermath of the Months of Demons. After being inspected and counted, the seeds in these bags would be distributed directly to every farmer.

"Your Highness, can the Golden Ones seeds really triple the wheat production?" Petrov was still a little skeptical. "Won't that mean that the produce could feed everyone in this city?"

Barov had said something similar to Roland before. To most of the noble, constant hunger was quite common among the civilians. "Feeding everyone is the basic responsibility of a lord. We're only taking the very first step. Also, it's not just because of my benevolence. Hungry subjects can't fully devote themselves to the construction of the city."

"But... this is no doubt an incredible accomplishment. I don't know of any other city in this kingdom that can achieve it."

"It's indeed an achievement, but I contributed very little to it. This is mostly the witches' work—without Leaf's modifications, there would be no Golden Ones."

Petrov was silent for a while. "Perhaps we really were wrong before."

"What do you mean?"

"We had the wrong attitude towards witches." Petrov sighed deeply. "Most of the nobles didn't care about the church's propaganda, but we still despised and distrusted the witches, so it wasn't hard for us to go along with the church's violence. Even if we used the witches, we treated them like slaves... Only Your Highness saw their true value and treated them like humans. This is the most incredible part—they really are special."

"Not only did you ignore the value of witches, but also ignore the power of the people, which is actually even stronger. Witches are like a catalyst and when they work together with the common people, there can be great improvements in civilization." However, Roland did not say his thoughts out loud. "We can still make up for the lost time. After all, we're all the same."

"Your Highness, the boiler is ready, and the Victory is set to sail," reported a guard.

"Tell everyone to board the boat. I'll be there shortly." The prince turned to Petrov. "The instruction team of the Ministry of Agriculture should arrive by this afternoon. They will show you how to plant the Golden Ones. As for the mine construction, population growth, universal education, and building factories, we've already discussed enough in the meeting. Just follow the plan and try to address any problems you run into by yourselves before asking me." He patted the eldest Honeysuckle son on the shoulder. "I'm leaving this place in your hands. If you serve me well, you won't be just the executive officer of the Longsong Area forever."

"I won't let you down, Your Highness." Petrov bowed.

Roland boarded the concrete boat and ordered to set sail. Following the long sound of a horn, the Victory slowly left the shore and sailed towards the Border Area.

*******************

"How many Bald Boats are there already?" Joe clicked his tongue. "They're all coming from Border Town!"

"It's called the Border Area. Didn't our Lord say that we're all part of the same city as the town now?" Snaketooth twitched his mouth. Joe nicknamed the strange sail-less boats "Bald boat", but he preferred to call them Concrete Boats—their broad gray hulls looked like giant bedrocks, not even budging an inch as the movers ran around on them. "What's it called again?"

"City of Neverwinter," Tigerclaw chimed.

"Who cares? It has nothing to do with us." Joe exclaimed excitedly. "You're going to be taking this kind of boat to Border Town, right? Be sure to figure out why it can move without oars and what the white mist and black fog it spouts are!"

"This really has nothing to do with us," thought Snaketooth. "At least the city construction will give everyone a job."

"Are you really planning on leaving?" Sunflower seemed upset. "If you have to work as a handyman no matter where you go, why would you go to a foreign place?"

"Because we can earn one extra silver royal," said Tigerclaw, chuckling. "We can earn six silver royals if we stay here, but seven if we go there. If we can work on either place, we're obviously choosing the one with more money."

"I wasn't asking you." Sunflower rolled her eyes at him and turned her attention to Snaketooth.

For some reason, Snaketooth suddenly felt a little guilty. After the construction of the City of Neverwinter, the Lord kept his promise, and countless recruitment notices suddenly appeared in the square. However, the Rats had very few job options, which were mostly handymen and mason apprentices, and they were offered a lower salary than others. Of course, this was still better than their former lives, when they lived lack of food-if the salaries could really be distributed on time.

He told his friends that he was going to Border Town for the higher salary, but what he really wanted was to be closer to Paper. Faced with Sunflower's intense stare, he decided not to tell the truth and said, "My reasons... are the same as Tigerclaw's."

"Are you ever coming back?"

"Bwoo... bwoo..." Suddenly, a siren began to wail at the harbor, and a red flag began to wave.

"It's our turn to leave, hurry!" Tigerclaw grabbed Snaketooth's hand and dragged him towards the harbor.

The crowd behind them also began to move as the siren rang. When they entered the security inspection area, Snaketooth felt as if he was being carried by the masses. He held his suitcase to his chest and kept staring back, but he couldn't see Sunflower or Joe over the dense waves of people.

A few officers in black uniforms were checking tickets at the end of the line. "What's your name? Assigned group? Take out your documentation!"

Snaketooth came immediately after Tigerclaw. He took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it carefully to the officer. "Snaketooth, Fifth Construction Team of Redflag Group..."

The officer ignored his introduction, scanned his ticket, and slapped it onto his chest. "Boat on the left. Next!"

Tigerclaw was already waiting for him at the entrance. "They didn't ask for bribes. That's amazing."

"Indeed... they didn't." Snaketooth half-heartedly folded his documentation, put it in his pocket, and scanned the harbor for his friends.

When the Concrete Boat sounded its horn and slowly sailed away from the harbor, he finally saw them on a flight of stone steps—Sunflower was waving Joe's jacket, while Joe hugged his elbows and crouched behind her.

Snaketooth also took off his jacket and waved it furiously, ignoring other passengers' stares of confusion.

Their eyes finally met once again.

"Take care!" he shouted. His friends also seemed to say something, but the sound of the boat's engine drowned out their voices.

Sunflower followed the boat along the shore for a while, but the Concrete Boat was soon too far away and disappeared from her sight.

Even then, Snaketooth failed to give her his answer.

Chapter 498 - The Roland Gunboat

It took Roland a whole day to return to the Border Area, and his back ached with weariness. After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he went to bed early, and he didn't feel refreshed until noon of the next day.

He thought, "I must have a soundproof cabin, a soft desk chair, and a large bed on my private boat. Otherwise, I'll have to sit on a trembling hard deck stool and listen to the roar of the steam engine, which will torture both my body and soul."

The first thing Roland did when he walked into his office was to call his director, Barov Mons, and Minister of Agriculture, Sirius Daly, to his office. Although there was only one week left before the planned date of the spring offensive, he could rest assured since Iron Axe was governing the military. The most important thing at the moment was to manage the agricultural production well, namely spring sowing. After all, he would be much less worried when he had a supply of grain.

"I saw seeds being transported at the Longsong Pier, so with enough Golden Ones, the crops there won't be too bad this year. But we should focus on the Border Area, since we're everyone's model, proof, and example!" Roland said with one hand knocking on his desk. "How is the spring sowing going? Someone tell me."

"Your Highness, here's the situation," Barov spoke first. "Among the first batch of promoted serfs, only 30% of them are willing to continue farming; plus the newly employed ones, the agricultural population is about 10,000. According to last year's average wheat yield, the grain that these 10,000 serfs produce should be able to feed 40,000 to 50,000 people." He paused and then added, "And this number is calculated according to the official citizen's quota for purchasing grains, which is far more than the daily consumption of other cities' citizens. If we calculate according to the minimum amount of grain people need to stay alive, this number can increase by 20,000."

"That's about it, Your Highness," Sirius added. "But those conclusions are made by the Ministry of Agriculture according to the statistics from one year ago. This year, half of the serfs, mainly newly employed, will use the Golden Twos modified by Lady Leaf. Honestly, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that one wheat straw could produce so many ears. Also, more than 2,000 serfs will change to planting potatoes and corn this year, which makes it hard to predict the actual yield for this year."

"As for the sowing process, farmlands are currently being plowed. According to the Crop Farming Brochure, farmland needs to be plowed three times, and raised compost must be mixed in the soil—usually, this process takes three to four weeks, depending on the number of laborers and the farm tools they're using. But the serfs employed last year all rented iron tools, which should greatly shorten the plowing time."

"As for the ditch depth and seeding distance, I've arranged apprentices to educate the serfs to farm with the optimal methods introduced on the farming brochure."

It was easy to see that the former knight of the Wolf Family had done a lot of research on farming. He obviously had considered all aspects and made points that Roland could not help but agree with.

The excessive dependence on the land itself led to the agricultural underdevelopment in this era. Namely, people believed that owning land was all there was to farming. Sometimes, in order to protect the farmlands, they would let farmlands rest for a few years, which was very inefficient. Now that the City of Neverwinter had controllable water irrigation, natural fertilizer, and scientific planting methods, plus Leaf's modified seeds, the land yields greatly surprised all the residents. However, a third of the 30,000 total population was engaged in agricultural production, which was too high of a percentage for Roland. He wanted to efficiently reduce the agricultural population by improving farming tools, such as manufacturing agricultural equipment which used animal or mechanic power.

"Well, keep the momentum going," Roland said with satisfaction, "and people who have been assigned to the Longsong Area should keep everything well documented, in case we want to extend this model to other cities."

After dealing with agricultural affairs, Roland left the castle. Accompanied by Nightingale and the guards, he went to the dock of the Redwater River.

The ship, which was constructed by Anna, entered the weapons installation phase two days ago. Now, with its hull painted with a gray and red anti-corrosion coating, the ship quietly stood on the crossties. It was the size of about three concrete boats and seemed extremely mighty. Unlike the cement paddle steamer, which had no cabin, this ship's side port was almost three meters wide and could fit the boiler and steam engine. There were also no paddle wheels on both sides. Another characteristic was a bridge at the center of the hull. Although the bridge was only about six meters tall, it looked very prominent.

Of course, as a shallow water gunboat, its most important equipment was its 152mm giant cannon. In order to save the manufacturing time, Roland did not let Anna produce the naval artillery, but tore down the one on the city wall and planned to install it on the ship.

Now, it was standing in the dock, waiting for hoisting—the final step.

"Your Highness." Anna waved at Roland when she saw him. "Over here!"

The prince walked over with a smile on his face. "How is it? Is the construction going well?"

During his absence in Border Town, Anna took care of all the manufacturing work. Although she had all the blueprints of its key parts, it was entirely an unprecedented huge project, so it was natural to run into all sorts of problems.

"Not so well." Anna shook her head. "There were some tricky problems—side hull deformation, propeller leaking, hull tilting after being welded with a bridge, and the gun platform couldn't hold a cannon, but I solved all of them."

"All... solved?" Roland asked surprisedly.

"Yes." With a big smile, Anna explained while counting her fingers. "There was a hull deformation because the steel plate of the board was too thin, so I added fixed carriages. The propeller leak was caused by the gap between the casing and the gear lever, so I wrapped the gap with a sink so that the water inside won't run everywhere and can be pumped out by a steam engine. The bridge tilting was caused by uneven weights, which were fixed with a little modification. The gun platform problem was the most difficult one, but I drew inspiration from the revolver design—I first cut a row of indentations on the bottom ring, then I put in a falcula, which could be inserted in between gears, and it could simply fix the upper rotating gun carrier in any direction."

Roland blinked his eyes and spoke after a long pause. "You're a genius." For him, those problems were not difficult to deal with, but he had drawn countless mechanic sketches. Especially for the last problem, probably only someone as observative as Anna could associate a revolver with the fixing method of the gun platform.

"By the way, Your Highness, does the boat have a name?"

"Not yet," he said, raising his eyebrow, "and why do you ask?"

"The soldiers from the First Army came every few days and fought eagerly to carve their own names onto the bridge," Anna said with a smile. "They say you promised that the best gunner could have a gunboat named after him."

"Ah... I see." Rodney from the Artillery Battalion and Nelson from the Artillery Battalion came to Roland's mind. "But not for this ship, because the name of the first warship not only represents the ship itself but also represents its rank and model number." He tilted his mouth. "I can't hand over this honor to anyone else, so I'll name it the Roland—the Roland No. 1."

Chapter 499 - Prelude to the Spring Offensive

Garden Mansion, the Inner City of King's City, Kingdom of Graycastle.

Since Roland Wimbledon's surprise attack on the palace which successfully destroyed the Hall of the Sky Dome, Theo's status had greatly improved. Every member of the "Dove and Hat" showed him great respect, and this intelligence organization was finally established.

Along with several core personnel, Theo could also affect Skeleton Fingers' decisions as a result of his contributions over the past six months. He also had a good knowledge of the activities of the other Rats' organizations, since he had informants in both the patrol team and the Black Street. They provided him with privileged information only for the money, and they did not care at all who they worked for. However, his gold royals still could not buy his way into the circle of the upper nobles, who cared more about family background and titles. Fortunately, through his connections with the heads of the Rats, who had close relationships with the great nobles, he managed to get some less important information now and then.

For example, he heard the news below.

"Timothy is sending a platoon of 500 men to block the Redwater River?" Theo tapped on the arm of his chair and asked. "Is he really going to do that?"

"Yes," Rockhill answered, "half of his platoon will be Blood Sail Rats. That's what the boss said himself. It's a profitable job, so the Rats fought each other over it, and several of them even got injured or killed."

"Indeed, it's profitable," Clown whistled and said. "Just think about it... What will they block in the river? The merchant ships! And what's the punishment for violating the king's ban? Confiscating the cargo and imposing a fine! Who can do a better blackmail job than Rats? Ah, of course... the patrol team is also good at it?"

"Half of them are Rats, so the other half must be Timothy's guards," said Hill Fawkes calmly. "I'm told that in the countryside this morning, there were four hawk-headed ships in the harbor."

Theo could not help but frown. The hawk-headed ships were high-speed, inland river warships that had slender hulls, with sails and oars, as well as embolons below the water and iron hooks on both sides. Once they caught up with their target, they could be tightly hooked together to enable the soldiers on one ship to easily jump onto another one to fight, making it difficult for merchant ships to escape from them.

"Based on all the information we've collected already, it's clear that Timothy is going to send a fleet of four warships carrying more than 500 people, including over 200 fully armed guards, to block the Redwater River." He sighed inwardly, thinking that it was really bad news.

They had got wind of Timothy's intention to block the Redwater River trade route before the Months of Demons, but most people did not take him seriously back then and thought he would only set a blockade in the canal of King's City. Nobody believed that he would dare to set a blockade between the Western and Central Region to declare an economic siege on the City of Neverwinter. That would anger the lords of Silver City and Redwater City, who would never allow this ban to cost them any great economic loss.

However, now with four warships that could easily block merchant ships anywhere they wanted, Timothy's situation was different, as the other lords could not compete with him at all on the water. Even though this blockade would turn the lords against him, nothing could shake his resolve to defeat Roland.

Theo looked at Hill, who nodded at him and voiced the same thoughts, "Timothy may not set a fixed blockade on the Redwater River. He'll just attack any caravan he spots, and his troops will act as pirates on water and bandits on land. An enemy force of 500 people is indeed a nightmare for any caravan. By doing so, he'll probably succeed in cutting off the Western Region's supplies."

"We have to report this to His Highness as soon as possible," Theo said in a deep voice.

Last year, Border Town had bought a large amount of grain, clothes and ore, and this year, because of the town's merger with Longsong Stronghold, it had a much higher demand for resources. If Timothy succeeded in his attempt, it would definitely cause Prince Roland massive trouble. They worried about this vexing issue for His Highness and wondered if he could solve this problem.

Sounds of flapping wings then came from the backyard.

As Theo stood up to open the door to the backyard, a gray falcon flew in as quickly as a flash of lighting and gently landed on his shoulder.

The circus members simultaneously lowered their heads, putting their hands on their chests, to show respect for the message from the Western Region.

Theo took a piece of paper from the messenger and glanced at it. His heart skipped a beat.

"Ha... haha." He could not help himself from laughing out loud, even though he knew that he should hide his emotions as an intelligence officer. It was such timely, good news for him. "We don't need to worry about it anymore," he said with visible joy.

"His Highness already knows about it?" Hill asked.

"No, but he's going to solve it once and for all," he said in a low but excited voice.

"Once and for all?" Clown was confused. "You mean..."

"Yes, the First Army of His Highness has already left for King's City!" Theo clenched his fists. "It's time to overthrow Timothy!"

He had known that His Highness would launch his attack this year, but he never expected it to happen so soon, as the prince had not told him any specifics about the attack in order to keep the plan secret. Now, he finally knew that the attack was actually scheduled for spring, just in time for the plowing season.

"It's finally time." Hill inhaled deeply, suddenly got down on one knee, and said, "Just give us His Highness's orders."

"For the new King!" the other five people shouted and kneeled likewise.

The thought of the new kingdom also excited Theo. If Timothy was overthrown, Roland Wimbledon would become the only successor to the throne of the Kingdom of Graycastle. And if Roland was crowned king, Theo would probably gain greater power and reach a new height that he had never dreamed of before.

He did not even have to think about their chances of winning. Anyone who had witnessed the First Army in action would never doubt that Roland would be victorious over Timothy in this attack.

"His Highness orders us to stay away from the west gate of King's City. He also orders us to prevent the Rats from taking advantage of the chaos during the attack, and to restore the social order as soon as possible after the war." Theo slowly read out the remaining part of the secret letter. "Do everything in your power to help the civilians suffering in the war, such as providing medical aid, free shelter, and food, and hand over this job to the First Army when the situation is stable."

"Th-that's it?" All of them looked at each other and were totally at a loss. "His Highness didn't order us to trick the guards into opening the city gate, or set fires in different directions in order to mislead the enemy?"

"No, those're His Highness's wishes," Theo put the letter away and said with a smile. He thought it was just like Roland's style to care more about the people and social order, not to compel any intelligence personnel to step onto the battlefield. He felt that Roland's order also suggested that the prince thought nothing of Timothy's forces.

Chapter 500 - Body of Steel (Part I)

...

Roland stood on the balcony on top of the command room of his boat and felt his heart stir with pride as he watched his fleet of boats lined up behind him.

Besides the flagship, the Roland, all the other boats were slow and clumsy concrete boats. However, with more than ten of them in a fleet, they still looked magnificent. The massive fleet puffed long trails of white smoke out of their chimneys and parted the river as they crashed through the waves, and they seemed to be completely unstoppable.

The gunboat was apparently the fleet's main attraction—its towering bridge and sleek appearance separated it from ordinary sailing ships and concrete boats. It dominated the inland rivers with its weapons, including a 152mm main cannon and two Mark I machine guns, custom-made high-pressure steam engine, and a propeller driving system that enabled it to reach a speed of 12 kilometers per hour.

"You seemed to be in a good mood." Nightingale observed as she tidied her windswept hair. "Is it because you'll be returning home soon?"

"You mean, the palace? No way, I'm never going back there," he said, shaking his head. "The Western Region is my real home. I'm happy because this conflict will be over soon."

"Hm... half of that is a lie."

Roland remembered with a shock that she could tell when people were lying. "Ahem, alright, I'm actually proud of myself for managing to produce many boats during the Months of Demons."

"You're telling the truth this time." Nightingale blinked. "But you sound a little full of yourself."

"That's why I lied."

"That's understandable." She chuckled and walked over to Roland. "I don't blame you. I wouldn't mind if you told a little lie, as long as it has nothing to do with me."

"... If you don't mind, then don't point out my lies," thought Roland querulously.

"By the way, I never thanked you," whispered Nightingale as she gazed into the distance.

"Thank me for what?"

"For ending the conflict and bringing peace to the Kingdom of Graycastle. Both commoners and witches will live happily under your rule," she said slowly. "I always knew that you'd achieve this, but I didn't think it'd happen so soon."

"It's not that fast. Even after I dethrone Timothy, the noble will resist with all their might. Uniting the entire Graycastle may take another few years." Roland sighed. "Progress is never easy, so we still have a long way to go in achieving our goal."

"This is already so much better than I imagined. Before this, I was worried I would never live to see this day."

"Come on, don't say like that?" Roland glared at her. "Do you think I'll put you in danger?"

"It's expected for a combat witch like me to always be in battle, and breaking convention takes sacrifice." Nightingale turned her head. "I had prepared for this the moment I swore my loyalty to you."

"I'm sorry I let you down," Roland said with a shrug. "There will definitely be sacrifices, but our enemies will be making them. Anyway, I should thank you."

"Why?" Nightingale asked in surprise.

"Because if I never met a witch, I wouldn't have the confidence to do what I'm doing now."

If not for Anna, he would not have decided to save these witches, and if there was not magic power in this world, he would still be cautiously living his primitive life in a run-down Border Town.

"You're... telling the truth." Nightingale looked up at him.

"Of course I am," said Roland with a smile.

Suddenly, a golden figure descended from the sky and landed next to them. "Your Highness, four sloops with paddles on both sides are approaching us from 20 kilometers away, and they look like the hawk-headed ships described in the report." said Lightning, "but I didn't see any hawk statues on the ships."

"The hawk head probably refers to the embolon under water." Roland patted her head. "Good job, keep up the good work."

"So... can I do less practice questions as punishment?" The little girl stared at the prince with begging eyes.

He could not help but laugh. "Alright. If you promise to keep still in the future, you only have to do one set of questions."

"Yes, Sir!" Lightning's eyes lit up, and she immediately leapt up and flew towards the East in a flash.

"You shouldn't have let her off so easy." Nightingale complained.

"She'll learn her lesson if she's rewarded." Roland dismissed her criticism with a wave and turned to walk towards the stairs. "Let's go back to the command room. We have work to do."

...

The small, square command room contained nothing but a wooden table and four benches. The commander of the First Army Iron Axe, the leader of the Gun Battalion Brian, the leader of the Artillery Battalion Van'er, and the captain of the Victory Cacusim stood by the table to draft the battle plan for their first battle in the river.

"According to Theo's report, Timothy's four battle ships are inland galleys. They're about as fast as our concrete boats, but they're more agile." Roland said, pointing to the chart on the table. "Usually, these ships will approach enemy ships, so their crews can jump onto them and fight. They can also be filled with flammables such as gunpowder or sulfur and crash into their target, destroying both ships. However, since our enemies' goal is to block the river and plunder our boats, they probably won't use the second method. "This is our first time to fight on a river, so please feel free to share any ideas you have."

"Your Highness, it'll be hard to hit a moving target with a moving cannon, so I suggest we fire when we're closer to their ships," suggested Van'er. "As long as we're about 50 meters away, I promise every cannonball will sink an enemy ship!"

"But I hear that firing shells not only wastes a lot of gunpowder, but also requires Miss Anna to make the shells," said Brian, shaking his head. "I think it's better to wait for the enemy to board our ships and then riddle them with the bullets from our heavy machine guns."

Roland turned to Cacusim and said, "What do you think?" He summoned this old man into the command room because he was the only person in the City of Neverwinter who had fought on boats before. According to him, he ran into pirates many times when he was a merchant, and even being plundered still counted as a kind of experience.

"Um, Your Highness..." Cacusim hesitated for a while. "In my opinion, we should just charge towards them."

"What?" the other two men all asked, staring in shock.

"Your ship is large, fast, and made of steel, so their wooden ships will probably collapse upon contact. Even if you don't destroy them, any leaks will prevent them from moving further." He glanced at everyone. "Of course, this, this is just my personal opinion."

This tactic reminded Roland of a poem that said, "With the sun shining and waves high, a D flag hangs from the mast."

"Alright, let's follow this plan." He finally decided. "Even though we don't have a D flag, a flag with a tower and four stars will have the same effect." "I order the Roland to raise the flag of City of Neverwinter, sound its horn, and proceed at full speed ahead!"

Chapter 501 - Body of Steel (Part II)

...

Eden was a newly promoted knight in King's City who had no land and no inheritable title, placing him in the lowest rank among the nobles. Some great nobles even believed that knights were not nobility and only held honorary titles. Thus, he was very excited to enforce Timothy's blockade order. Since he had sailing experience from his younger days, and the king preferred new recruits, he eventually became the captain of a hawk-headed ship.

He believed that he was a good judge of opportunity—this blockade was his chance to prove himself and be crowned as a real nobleman, since most of the noblemen were not willing to leave the comfort of their homes to fight on ships for months.

It was also easy for him to prove himself because both merchant ships and caravans stood no chance against him. If local lords sent knights to protect the caravans on land, the merchant ships would be left vulnerable. As long as he was not too greedy, he would be able to complete this mission to His Majesty Timothy's satisfaction.

"Of course, His Majesty's satisfaction depends on how much money and cargo I can seize." At this thought, he glanced coldly at the happy Rats on the boat across from him. They had intercepted a merchant ship from Redwater City yesterday, and although the captain insisted he was sailing to Fallen Dragon Ridge, they still seized all his cargo and killed most of the crew. The cargo mostly consisted of furs, wine, and a jar of gold royals. "And these idiots dared to treat the seized cargo like their own spoils and divided it among themselves according to Black Street rules."

Eden chuckled coldly at this thought. "The Rats have no clue that their only purposes in this blockade are to openly plunder ships and to appease local lords. When the rebel king Roland is defeated, the Rat's heads will be sent to the lords who were affected by the blockade as an apology from the king. Then, the seized goods will definitely be added to the palace's vault.

But these Rats see this mission as a chance to strike rich and have no clue about their imminent deaths. How ironic."

"Sir, there's movement ahead!" shouted the sailor from the lookout position.

Eden peered out from the bow and saw a puff of black smoke in the distance, as if something was burning on the river. After a while, a gray smudge emerged and began to approach them. It was definitely a ship, but he could not see its sail.

"Isn't it traveling a little too fast for a ship?" asked his assistant after staring for a while.

Eden had also noticed this. Its speed was frighteningly fast, even for going downstream, and it had grown to the size of his palm from a gray speck in less than half an hour. He could also tell by its distance that it was much larger than regular merchant ships.

The other two hawk-headed ships had also spotted the target, and one of them began paddling quickly to reach this strange merchant ship before everyone else.

"Sir, should we approach as well?" asked Eden's assistant.

Eden pondered for a while and said, "Let's wait and observe first." He noticed that the hawk-headed ship behind him that was commanded by Baron Derrick was also holding back, while Rats' ship was already preparing to board the strange ship.

When he got a clear view of the approaching boat, Eden gasped in shock, and everyone on deck also exclaimed. The sailor on the mast shouted, "My God, sir, what in the world is that?"

Unlike seaships with copper bottoms, the entire ship made of uniform glistening metal, including the strange iron tower on top of it. Its bow parted the river like a shuttle in fabric, and the foam it stirred up revealed how fast this steel vessel was going.

"Hum..." The boat gave off a deep whistle as it plowed forward and turned to crash straight into the first hawk-headed ship!

The hawk-headed ship was sailing sideways in order to board the approaching boat, a tactic that worked with slow merchant boats but left them vulnerable against this fast steel vessel—before it could turn around and escape, the vessel had already crashed into its defenseless side.

Its wood side split open with a loud crack, and the entire ship almost turned over into the river, as if it had been pushed by a giant hand. Fierce waves crashed onto the deck, and many men were flung straight into the water

"God!" Eden's assistant stared in fear. "It's heading straight towards us!"

"The enemies are attacking!" shouted the sailors. "Sir, the enemies are attacking!"

People began scrambling to set up bows and fill their flintlocks with ammunition.

Eden saw the flag of the tower and twin spears on top of the steel vessel, gulped and ordered, gritting his teeth, "Tell the rowers to start moving and take us close to shore!" He had never seen this flag before, but he guessed that such a terrifying thing could only be invented by the prince of the Western Region, who was rumored to deal with demons! Not only was it giant, but its speed was also faster than slim galleys. A mortal could never achieve this!

"Aren't we going to retreat?" asked his assistant, trembling.

"Retreat?" Eden yelled angrily. "How can we outrun a ship that is faster than us? Our only hope is to stay near the shore to prevent it from crashing into us and try to board it by circling behind! Damn it, go relay my orders!"

He pushed his panicking assistant aside and felt a chill as he saw the damaged hawk-headed ship. He could imagine how bad the situation inside the hull was. The steel vessel's bow was completely stuck inside its side, wrecking, if not completely splitting, the thin and flimsy hawk-headed ship. The unluckiest sailors were the rowers, who were either smashed to death by the steel bow, or worse, trapped in the hull and drowned.

Cries and curses erupted from the boat, and the fear they conveyed made Eden pity even the Rats on board—their circumstances were reversed, the hunter had become the prey.

As the current kept flowing and the steel vessel slowed down, the twisted hawk-headed ship fell off of the enemies' hull and turned over, spilling bloody river water from its hole. The second hawk-headed ship was desperately trying to turn around and run away, but the ominous whistle sounded again, and with a deafening rumble and long cloud of smoke, the steel vessel began advancing towards its next target.

Chapter 502 - Body of Steel (Part III)

The second hawk-headed ship was still turning around, so its side was directly facing the steel vessel, making it even more vulnerable than the first. The Rats were all terrified by the incoming steel vessel, but a few of them still attempted to shoot the enemy with bolts. However, the bolts were as tiny as a needle compared to the giant boat and did not even make a dent.

Soon, the unstoppable steel vessel directly smashed into the center of the hawk-headed ship's side, instantly crushing a dozen of its paddles. Then, to Eden's disbelief, the river current and force of the impact caused the hawk-headed ship to flip sideways, which also lifted the bow of the enemy ship into the air.

The steel bow rose up and then crashed down heavily onto the hawk-headed ship's deck.

The hawk-headed ship cracked with a shrill sound, and the unharmed Rats jumped into the water to escape, while the others trailed blood all over the deck, screaming in pain from their injuries. Eden watched the steel vessel slowly lower into the thin hawk-headed ship, which fell apart under the weight with a series of cracking sounds. Its hull could not withstand the pressure and suddenly snapped in half, causing both ends to shoot upwards with a great splash.

The two halves did not immediately sink, but floated like corpses on the river with only half of the side port above water. On the other hand, the steel vessel did not have a single scratch on it and instead began to charge toward Eden's ship.

Eden heard the sailors around him gasp in fear. His hawk-headed ship was about to be the third one to be instantly snapped in half, and he was preparing to abandon the ship.

Luckily, he had given the right orders before!

His ship was completely pressed against the shore, and the enemy was turning to pursue the remaining Baron Derrick, which was trying to escape.

"Raise all your bows and torches!" Eden took a deep breath and roared, "I want all of these cowards hiding in this metal shell dead! I'll give you one gold royal for every enemy you kill! Do you hear me? One gold royal!"

If he survived and escaped back to King's City, he would definitely never be promoted, so his only chance of gaining Timothy's approval was to defeat the rebel king's ship. Even though this ship might have been produced by demons, the crew on it was still human and defeatable!

The sailors seemed to regain some of their confidence after dodging the last round of the enemy's attacks. These men all dealt with murder in their previous jobs, so they were used to seeing blood and gore—as long as they were not going to be completely slaughtered, they were still willing to earn a gold royal or two.

When the hawk-headed ship was completely safe from being hit, it left the shore and sailed parallel to the steel vessel, slowly inching toward its course, until the two ships were sailing alongside each other.

Before the steel vessel passed them and when the two ships were only meters apart, the sailors raised their various weapons. They would first fire at the passing ship and then board it to attack the crew, which was the common tactic used against merchant ships. However, there was not a single man on deck, only a dark tube encased in metal and containing a row of small holes, pointing directly at the sailors.

Before Eden could figure out what this thing was, the tube began to spit tongues of flames!

Bursts of blood began to appear among the row of armed men, and wooden fragments and gore flew everywhere. The sailors were cut down like rows of grass, while the surviving ones immediately began to search for cover. However, neither barrels nor masts were a match against the metal tube, which shattered the barrels and snapped the masts with a loud crack. After the sails fell into the water, the hawk-headed ship began to slow down.

Eden did not get the victory he had dreamed of. He realized that the tube was some sort of flintlock, but it was much faster and shot out streams of bullets with a hissing sound. However, he could not understand how the rebel king managed to drastically improve such a slow and inaccurate weapon... perhaps this could only be explained as the power of the devil.

Soon, he was struck by a shower of bullets.

*******************

This was Rodney's first time witnessing such a battle. The Roland barreled its solid bow straight through the enemy ships as if they were dry weeds, leaving them completely helpless. He waited by the cannons for an order to open fire, but that order never came.

When the fourth enemy ship was left floating in pieces in the river, the battle was officially over.

The enemies' screams and groans filled the air, while the survivors gave up their faith, swam to shore, and escaped without hesitation into the forest. His Highness did not order the crew to chase after these deserters and left them to run off on their own. There were also some badly injured men who were holding onto their last breaths and lying against the broken ships, but no one tried to save them from their inevitable deaths.

"What a shame." Jop put the unused shells back in their cases. "I thought we'd be able to show off the true power of cannons to those fellows in the Gun Battalion."

"Yes," agreed Nelson disappointedly. "Compared to the ammunition we used for the heavy machine guns, a round of cannon shells uses about the same amount and is much more effective."

"That's enough. Miss Anna personally made these, so they're much more valuable than machine gun bullets, which are produced by the hundred every day," said Van'er with a frown. "You'll get your chance when we attack the city, so be sure to aim well and save face for the Artillery Battalion! I hand-picked all of you..."

"To join your elite team, commander, you've told us this many times," said Nelson, splaying his hands. "Don't worry, it won't take more than three shells to blow open the gate in King's City." He nudged Rodney. "Hey, say something."

"I want a battleship like this one..."

"What?" The other four men were shocked.

"I hope to own a shallow water gunboat like this one someday." He repeated, his eyes glittering with excitement. "I'm going to call it the Rodney!"

"Wait, don't you think your elder brother deserves this honor first? The second boat should be called the Nelson."

"No way... I'm not giving you that right."

"Save it, you two. The second boat will definitely be called the Van'er. Don't forget that I brought all of you into the elite mortar team."

"Here we go again." Cat's Claw sighed.

"Could it be called the Cat's Claw or the Jop?" Jop mumbled quietly.

"No," responded the three men in unison.

After the concrete boats caught up to the flagship, the expedition fleet resumed its journey. Two days later, King's City's gray city wall emerged into sight.

Chapter 503 - The Battle of King's City (Part I)

"Your Highness, there's a platoon guarding the pier area," Lightning, who was responsible for monitoring the enemy's situation, reported. "There are about 100 of them, and judging from their uniforms, they seem to be militia."

"Only 100?" Roland was slightly surprised. It was predictable that Timothy would deploy troops to the pier of the outlying district—the massive fleet was certain to be noticed when it passed through Redwater City and Silver City. Though steamships were much faster than sailing ships, and could in five days cover a distance which the latter would require seven days for, they were still not as fast as messengers who continuously changed horses and traveled round the clock. Not to mention pigeons—if the new king's spies used pigeons to deliver their report, Timothy would have received the news two or three days in advance.

But it was unexpected that Timothy would deploy only 100 men to defend the pier. Roland had imagined that the first battle would take place in its vicinity. He anticipated that crossbowmen, musketeers, and even mangonels would be stationed along both banks of the river in order to prevent his troops from landing on shore successfully. This was why he wanted to build inland river gunboats in time for the spring offensive. The efficiency of transportation by water was much higher than that of by land, but its disadvantage was that the troops had to alight at a dock and thus could be easily ambushed. If his army had the capability to attack across the shore, it would be able to handle any ambush easily and create a secure landing point.

It seemed as though Timothy had already given up on the "massive advantage" he would have while Roland's troops were landing. From Roland's perspective, although this was the right decision, it was unjustifiable—it was impossible that Timothy knew about the range and power of his 152 mm naval artillery.

As Roland thought about this, he beckoned Sylvie over. "Are the militiamen carrying any Berserk Pills?"

Sylvie summoned her Eye of Magic and took some time to observe the scene. "I don't see anything that looks like a pill. Some of them don't even have any weapons on them. But... there's something strange about the ground."

"The ground?"

"They have buried a few things in the ground... there're also some on the pier." Sylvie strained her brows to observe even more carefully. "Crocks and barrels... they're filled with dark gray powder."

"Gunpowder?" Nightingale exclaimed uncontrollably.

"Well, that makes sense," Roland said, acting as calm as he could. "The militia is just a bait to draw our attention. By presenting us with a false opportunity to scramble ashore and capture the pier, Timothy will then ignite the gunpowder and blow all of us up."

In his heart, he was not as calm as he appeared. This strategy was similar to the landmine warfare of the past and was indeed a good plan. Though he saw through it early, his troops would still need to land on shore—having made the choice to travel by water, the pier was a necessary crossing, and it seemed that Timothy was aware of this inevitability. He probably hoped to catch Roland by surprise by setting up an ambush instead of fighting straight up. If Sylvie was not around, there was a chance that Roland would have walked right into the trap.

The solution to this was fairly accomplishable. As Timothy did not have wireless methods to ignite the gunpowder, he would have to deploy people near the barrels to do the ignition. All that Roland had to do was to eliminate these people. In any case, it was important to preserve the pier, or else he would not be able to transport his cannons and ammunition on shore.

Through Sylvie's careful observation, Roland was able to pinpoint two places where the ignition was likely to be carried out. One was situated in a shack on the edge of the pier, as evident from a long iron pipe that connected it to the nearest barrel. The other was situated in the pier's warehouse. The two places had a similar feature - a shifting black hole formed by a God's Stone of Retaliation.

After some discussion with Iron Axe, Roland quickly decided the battle plan.

First, Nightingale would sneak into the warehouse, silently dispose of the ignition crew, and guard the gate against substitutes running in and igniting the gunpowder. Then, Roland would use the naval artillery to destroy the shack. There was no problem even if it caused the gunpowder to ignite—so long as the pier remained in good condition.

*******************

Leaning against a battlement on the west side of King's City, the Steelheart Knight, Weimar, raised his telescope and observed the movement on the river.

The long and thin canal was like a strip of glittering gold ribbon which cut through the brown and white plains, of which much of the accumulated snow had already melted to reveal a vivid green that came from the sprouting of grass. This was proof that earthly things were coming back to life. Such a view was always pleasurable regardless of the occasion. The only things that did not fit the scene were the billows of black smoke that drifted through the air directly above the canal.

It's the fleet of the rebel king, Roland Wimbledon.

I never thought that he'd really dare to attack King's City.

Although Weimar felt that it was laughable, he also developed a hint of admiration for Roland.

Ever since this capital city was built more than 200 years ago, it had never been attacked. Once an enemy saw the towering and magnificent bluestone walls of the city, the courage to attack would naturally fizzle away. Not everyone possessed the audacity to fight when it was clear that the enemy held an absolute advantage.

At least, Timothy Wimbledon surely doesn't possess this courage.

While the person who does possess it is our enemy, unfortunately.

The knight was committed to his honor. As the Guardian Knight of King's City, he was entrusted with the responsibility of defending it, and would have to fulfil his duty until the very end.

"Sir, the rebel king's fleet is here!" A squire ran up to the battlements and yelled.

"Hush, I saw it long ago." Weimar placed his telescope down and spat out some saliva. "Convey my order that the 1st and 2nd Cavalry shall mount their horses and await my command behind the city gate, while the mercenaries shall follow closely behind the cavalries. Tell them not to piss their pants when the gunpowder explodes. The oil boilers will also be set on fire, even though I doubt that the enemy will be able to touch this side of the city wall."

The knights nearby burst into laughter at once.

According to the plan, after allowing the rebel king's platoon to occupy the pier, flags would be raised along the city wall. At this time, the snow powder buried near the pier would be ignited, which would be certain to disarray and damage the enemy substantially. Then, the city gates would be opened for the cavalries to launch their attack, ultimately delivering a comfortable victory.

"Those country bumpkins from the Western Region probably believe that King's City is comparable to their grandest city, Longsong Stronghold. Just climb a ladder and the city can be seized." The Ironfeather Knight, Scar, chimed in. "I think that you can save the firewood and bring them home to burn."

"Just for precaution." "What a fool," Weimar silently thought, "even if things like the boiling oil or the rolling stones aren't effective in battle, they must still be displayed for His Highness' sake. Trying to be cheap just because the enemy's too weak to break in—with this kind of mentality, he'll surely be kicked out of the city's knightage by Timothy sooner or later."

He raised up the telescope once again, only to see the front most sailless ship detach from the rest of the fleet and head towards the pier on its own. The top of the ship billowed black smoke which could be seen from miles away, while there were no paddles on either side of the ship. It was unclear to him how the ship operated. But these were unimportant details. No matter how weird a ship was, it could not come on shore and fight.

The sailless ship gradually reduced its speed and unhurriedly docked at the pier on the opposite shore.

"What're they trying to do?" Scar raised his eyebrows. "Do they intend to alight on the opposite shore? Don't tell me that 100 militiamen scare the rebel king?"

Weimar also felt surprised. Usually, when an enemy saw that the pier's defense was paper-thin, it would try to capture the pier quickly. He opened his mouth to say something, but just then, a blaze of fire lit up in front of the strange-looking ship.

The orange-red flames seemed to create a new dawn.

Chapter 504 - The Battle of King's City (Part II)

A few seconds after the flames blazed, Weimar heard a dull thunderous sound.

It came from a far distance away. Although its tone was not high, it was nevertheless powerful. He saw that right next to the shack, a pillar of earth rose up in tune with the sound.

"What just happened?"

"Was the snow powder ignited?"

"Doesn't seem like it. It seems to have been done by that ship."

"What a joke. It's about a mile away."

The knights were busy discussing among themselves. Weimar frowned and wondered. "Could it be that... the enemy has noticed something strange about the ground?"

According to the intelligence gathered from various channels, the rebel king possessed extremely powerful snow powder weapons which were superior in both range and accuracy to anything the King's City blacksmiths were able to knock up. Hence, from the beginning, Timothy had decided not to engage in direct combat, but instead to use the snow powder barrels as ambush so that Roland's weapons would be rendered useless. The things that released fire at the front of the ship were likely to be enlarged versions of the weapons. They were able to load more snow powder and shoot a more powerful projectile. The only issue was that they were much more difficult to manufacture than handheld weapons. Already, despite Timothy putting all of the city's blacksmiths to work throughout the winter, the devices they were able to create were not even as good as trebuchets.

After a short while, the flames appeared once again, followed by the same thunderous sound. This time, the earth pillar attached itself firmly to the shack and flew up, causing mud to splotch all over the roof of the shack.

Weimar's guess was proven correct. Clearly, the enemy had conceived a plan to get to the shack, which meant that they knew about the snow powder hidden near to the pier! As such, Timothy's ambush tactic failed. Weimar quietly thought to himself, "Perhaps they do have a chance to touch the city wall."

After this battle, it would become evident whether the snow powder weapons were more powerful or the walls of King's City were sturdier.

Just then, a booming sound was heard from the battlements...

It was louder and more sonorous than anything the knights had ever heard, as though thunder clapped right beside their ears.

A small hill began to arch upward in the space in front of the pier. Dirt and stones were hurled into the air before smoke and fog burst out of the dirt, forming a visible cloud-shaped gaseous mass. Violent quakes swept through the land, and in an instant, the top of the city wall began to sway terribly. Weimar instinctively crouched his body, but Scar suffered a foot sprain and fell to the ground beside him.

After reaching its maximum height, the flying soil began to fall like torrential rain. Yet, it did not make any noise when it hit the ground. Weimar's ears buzzed for a while, and it took some time for him to regain his senses after the tremors.

Damn it, that fool didn't wait for the flag signal to ignite the snow powder!

The ground, which was originally flat, now looked as if it had been chewed upon. Bumps and hollows were everywhere, while hot and white smoke emitted from the loose black mud, filling the air with the smell of gunpowder.

Weimar leaned one side of his head out from behind the battlement. He saw that in the distance, the fleet began to move once again. The ships formed a straight line as they headed toward the pier. The decoy militiamen were either paralyzed on the pier, or had dropped their weapons and fled in various directions.

"Who was responsible for the ignition?" Scar, who was angry from embarrassment, held a guard by the collar and interrogated. "I'll wring his head off!"

"It was a person arranged by His Highness." Weimar snapped. "Watch the enemy carefully. They're coming on shore any time now. Prepare to raise the blue flag."

"I hope the fella hiding in the warehouse will be able to complete his mission," he thought.

However, there was no movement in the pier area at all, and the enemy's crews were able to land the shore easily.

*******************

Allen Alba was busy maintaining his rapier when the thunderous booms sounded and shook the earth. The violent explosions and tremors almost caused him to drop the rapier out of shock.

Though he knew in advance that this would happen, he did not expect the sound of exploding snow powder to be so loud and terrifying.

After all, it took place at least two miles away from where he was. "How does it feel like on the scene?" He wondered.

Using his hands, he soothed his mount which had turned restless. Then, he kept his rapier in its sheath and beckoned toward the cavalries behind him. "When the gate opens, you'll follow my charge. Don't hold back your horses' energy. They have no way to retreat!"

From the uncertain response he received, it was apparent that few among the horsemen had recovered from the thunderous shock waves.

Allen cried out loudly, "This is a trap set by His Highness. The wrath of thunder shall punish our enemies, not us! Gather yourselves; our enemies have nowhere to run!"

"Yes..." The response this time was slightly more in unison.

The mercenaries waiting behind the cavalries were still in a dazed state. Allen shook his head disdainfully. He had never taken these people seriously—they were merely the back line responsible for cleaning up the mess on the battlefield.

After quite a long while, the city gate was still yet to be opened.

"What's going on?" He glanced toward the top of the city walls with suspicion. The Steelheart Knight had not issued any new orders—however, as the charge could begin at any time, Allen could not leave his position and inquire about the situation. Time went by slowly. All of a sudden, he heard a dull and muffled sound which seemed to originate from very far away. If he did not remember wrongly, it was the enemy's signal to attack.

Did something go wrong with the plan? Didn't the snow powder trap cause the enemy to disperse and flee?

Whew...

As Allen's anxiety reached its tipping point, he suddenly heard a strange wind sound. Before he could gather his thoughts, the bricks beside the city gate split open at once.

Ka-cha!

Stones and slags flew in all directions. He felt numbness around his waist and fell off his horse stiffly. The startled horse even stepped on his thigh as it attempted to flee.

The extreme pain caused Allen to howl. "Ahh, my leg...!"

"Captain!"

"My lord Allen!"

Two squires quickly gathered around him.

"Control the platoon, and stop them from running around!"

Allen shouted while trying to bear with the stinging pain.

The formation of the cavalries was in complete disarray. Nobody knew exactly what was going on, and many rode on their horses as they tried to avoid the objects flying through the air. Though the squires issued instructions as loud as they could, it was difficult for them to take charge of the situation while this was going on.

Allen tried several times to stand up but failed each time. Turning his head, he was horrified to see that his thigh had twisted into an irregular shape, and was badly ruptured and lacerated. His armor plate had deformed and tilted to one side, while a dislocated white bone had torn through his flesh and trouser to expose a small section with bits of tissue hanging on it.

Allen's heart began to turn cold. He knew that his career as a knight was effectively over.

Just then, he heard the strange wind sound again.

This time, the city gate was where the change occurred.

Allen saw the two guards standing at the city gate instantly become enveloped by large masses of debris, before flying pieces of wood and stone swept through them like a swarm of bees. When the debris dissipated, Allen was astounded to see that the upper bodies of the two guards seemed as if they had been sliced with sharp knives. Fresh blood mixed together with their red-green innards and trickled on to the floor. Behind them were another five or six horsemen heaped on the floor unconscious. What had appeared to be harmless pieces of wood had turned into deadly weapons and sliced through the bodies like knives. Even the pieces of stone, which were only the size of a thumb, were able to penetrate the guards' helmets and armors!

Furthermore, a gap of the size of a basin had appeared on the city gate, which was nearly two feet thick. All these had happened while the enemy was still more than three miles away!

"Demons, the enemies are demons!"

Out of nowhere, someone shouted something, and the scene, which was already dreadful and chaotic enough, became even more disastrous.

The cavalries, which had been prepared for the assault, hastily turned their mounts backward and galloped away. As they caught up with the fleeing mercenaries, they trampled over bodies and created even more serious disorder. In the twinkling of an eye, the situation near the west city wall had become completely out of control.

Allen had no more energy left to support his body. He collapsed on the floor and looked towards the sky helplessly. The cries of panic from the crowd and the continuous sounds of things breaking apart seemed to become more and more distant, and his surroundings gradually became quieter.

He had one last thought in his mind.

It's so cold...

Chapter 505 - The Battle of King's City (Part III)

Meanwhile, Lightning, Wendy, Maggie and Hummingbird were executing the final attack before the main offensive.

Because the main artillery of the battleships only fired solid bullets, they were largely ineffective against the personnel and defense facilities on the city wall. Hence, the witches aimed to destroy the first line of defense so as to puncture the enemy's effective strength and open up a safe channel for the general offensive.

This was also the first time that the hydrogen balloon was used in battle.

Unlike the thousand-mile raid five months back, the balloon lifted off from just beside the canal this time, allowing almost everyone to witness the ascent of this colossal object. Under Roland's plan, the hydrogen balloon, which could move anywhere without hindrance, was advanced enough to be used as a short-distance bomber during this era. With the fleet behind it providing logistical support, this earmarked the beginning of the generation of aircraft carrier combat.

Standing on the pier, the soldiers of the First Army burst into fervent applause. They knew well that no enemy was able to resist an aerial attack and therefore their wise and benevolent lord was certain to win this war.

Quickly, the hydrogen balloon drifted to the sky directly above King's City. From its perspective, the majestic capital was only about the size of a palm. Lightning pulled down her windshield goggles and gestured to Wendy to release the bomb. The latter nodded back at her and pulled the mechanism.

Shortly, a bomb dislodged from its frame and fell towards the ground.

Another difference of this aerial attack from previous times was that Anna was not onboard but was replaced by Hummingbird. Under the effect of the latter's sustained magic power, the four carried bombs weighed only a fifth of their usual weight as long as they did not detach from each other. This type of enchantment was a new method discovered by Hummingbird while she was cultivating her mastery of magic power. By maintaining the effect for a very short period of time, she could alter the weight of multiple connected objects and reduce the expenditure of magic.

Lightning easily caught up with the bomb and guided it towards the mangonel situated on one side of the city gate.

Halfway through the air, the young girl perceived the fear in the eyes of the knights standing on top of the city wall. They raised their crossbows and flintlocks, and fired towards the sky to shoot her down. However, she knew that it was difficult enough for them to hit a bird flying freely in the sky, not to mention that most weapons did not have sufficient range to hit her at her current distance.

Subsequently, the bomb hit the mangonel right on, and following a huge boom, a blazing red fireball lit up at once and swelled rapidly. The nearby guards were unable to dodge it in time and were instantly devoured by the flames. As violent blasts swept across the city wall, the oil boilers toppled and were quickly ignited. The blazes followed the spill flow of the hot oil and ignited the explosives that were placed at one corner. Explosions followed one after another, destroying everything in the vicinity and filling the place with nothing but flames and thick smoke. The knights, who were preparing for battle just a while ago, hastily fled in all directions. Many lost their direction in the thick smoke and fell straight down the city wall. Others floundered about in the sea of fire or rolled on the floor to put out the flames on their bodies.

The top of the city wall had turned into hell on earth.

...

"Their defense line has collapsed," commented Sylvie. She was observing the billows of thick smoke on the city wall, with a trace of pity in her expression.

"These people deserve it," added Nightingale, who was expressionless. "If we failed, they would've become even worse."

"Someone has to pay the price in this battle. If it isn't them, it's us," Roland opined, while pretending to be calm. He then beckoned to Iron Axe behind him. "Blow the horn and order the seizure of this city."

He did not want to lament the cruelty of war or expound the value of peace at this time. Above a fight for power or a battle for survival, this was a collision of ideas and classes. Whenever a backward class was displaced, it would not leave the stage quietly, but rather, it needed to be sent off with a huge amount of bloodshed.

To Roland, it was always better that the blood was spilt by the enemies.

"As you command, Your Highness!" The latter bowed neatly and departed the ship.

Soon, the signal for the general offensive resounded through the pier area.

...

As a member of the Fourth Commando, Nail's target was to destroy the palace gate.

As the platoon entered the Inner City, its advance was abruptly impeded. Here, they faced a strong counterattack from the enemy.

"Edgar's injured, carry him down quickly!"

"F*ck, where's the field artillery?"

"They are blocked off by debris and have to detour!"

"Prepare the weapons. These monsters are charging right up!"

Nail slapped his own cheek forcefully before he filled a cartridge with bullets and handed it to a teammate in front of him. A volley of rifle fire sounded, puncturing thousands of holes in the crazed people charging at them. Blood splattered all over as they fell to the ground. Those who followed behind continued to pounce at the commandos recklessly. They did not slow down even if their arms, abdomens or other body parts had been struck.

These were certainly not militiamen. Nail felt his limbs become numb. The enemies were wearing either half-plates or chain armors and wielded excellent weapons, with everything from swords to crossbows. He had heard from the knowledgeable Jon that only the king's guards possessed such a complete range of equipment. Unfortunately for Jon, his knowledge was not able to protect him at last. During a previous assault by the enemy, he was critically impaled by a bolt that was shot at him from sideways.

Hope he can persevere until Miss Angel arrives.

"Retreat, the Fourth Commando, retreat!"

"The three squads are ready to fire!"

The veterans, with no concern about economizing their use of bullets, shot precisely at their targets. In one breath, they emptied their cartridges and immediately retreated to the back line, so as to shorten the time interval between the suppression fires. Five commando teams took turns to shield the others along the main street. This was the first time that Nail had seen this method of taking turns to fire ever since revolving rifles replaced flintlocks.

However, their enemies did not attack from only one direction.

Suddenly, a platoon of crazed people leapt at them from a streetside house. Before most of the veterans could turn their guns, the platoon was already in their midst.

Screams and curse were heard at once. Nail watched helplessly as a teammate was cut into half by a red-eyed guard right in front of him. Although the guard was shortly struck dead by the other teammates, Nail knew that this particular teammate could not be resuscitated even by Miss Angel herself.

"Where are those bastard artillerymen?"

"Help me! Ouch... my legs!"

"Continue firing!"

As he heard his captain screaming instructions, Nail gritted his teeth and used his sleeve to wipe off the blood stains on a cartridge. He picked up a gun on the floor and reloaded it with the cartridge. Then, he aimed at an enemy who was tussling with his teammates and pulled the trigger.

Although he was afraid, the trainings that he had attended reminded him constantly that while facing a strong opponent, it was necessary to stick closely with his platoon and make use of the team's collective strength in order to have a chance of survival.

Just then, Nail heard the loud call of a support unit from behind him. "The artillery battalion has run into trouble on East Street. Lord Brian has sent us to assist you!"

"No matter who you people are, hurry forth!" The captain cried out without looking back once.

The support unit pulled two carts up the street. Noticeably, the weapons equipped on the carts were none other than Mark I type HMG. When their shooting positions were fixed, the guns discharged long rows of fire at the new wave of charging crazed army.

Chapter 506 - No One Could Escape

In an instant, a cloud of dust and ashes sprang up from the street. As soon as the "Crack! Crack!" sounds of shooting began, the enemies stopped dead in their tracks and appeared to burst into plumes of blood. The dense hail of bullets seemed to form an invisible wall that blocked the forward motion from the drugged soldiers.

"Nicely done!"

"Die, monsters, die!"

Nail clasped his hands in excitement. Sparks flew off the enemy's armor as they were bombarded by the heavy machine guns. Compared with revolvers, heavy machine guns were much more efficient and powerful. They were able to kill a man with just a single shot to the head or chest, and they could easily cause severe injuries to limbs as well. A revolver could barely stop someone from attacking. Best of all, there was no interval between each shot of the heavy machine guns. The target would likely be hit even if several shots missed their mark.

Strands of white smoke escaped from the muzzles of the guns and drifted into the air after the sounds of shooting died down. Unable to compete with the heavy machine guns, the crazed army retreated in a panic, leaving numerous bodies behind. Those who sustained critical injuries from the bullets were lying on the ground moaning and wailing, having completely lost their ability to fight, much less drag themselves from harm's way. Nail caught sight of the terror in their eyes.

'Guns in the air!" The unit leader shouted aloud.

Thinking of the comrade who was violently slashed in half right in front of him, Nail coolly raised his rifle without the slightest hesitation.

The army was finally able to march forward after the road had been cleared.

When the five commandos arrived at the palace gate, they immediately circled out a shooting field as instructed during the training, while at the same time monitored the movements on the streets. To prevent a pincer attack from the enemies, the army responsible for taking the inner city was divided into three wings. Each wing would march along one of the three main streets and serve as a flank for another. In this way, the First Army would be able to defend against enemies coming from all directions.

However, Nail noticed the real combat was far more complicated than the training. The south street was devoured by the flames, and it was almost impossible for them to pass. His own troops, on the other hand, were hindered by the crushed stones and became scattered as the battle progressed. Meanwhile, the soldiers were overwhelmed by the extent of the counterattacks they encountered, and they had completely forgotten to watch for the flag signals from Miss Lightning. A commando that should have belonged to his wing was missing, and gunshots could be heard everywhere in the Inner City.

Fortunately, they were the first wing to arrive at the gathering place.

An hour later, the other wings trickled into the palace gate one after another, slowly followed by the field artilleries.

The hot air balloon once again appeared above the palace. As the four bombs burned the garden wall and the iron gate to the ground, the final storming of the fortified castle began.

*******************

"Your Majesty, they're already at the palace gate. Please, run for your life!" Osborne, the imperial bodyguard, urged in anxiety. "There isn't much time left!"

Timothy silently sat at the bedside in his bedroom, completely motionless. This was exactly where his father had taken his own life many years ago. Now it appeared to be his turn.

He had usurped the power of Prince Gerald, his biggest rival, by making him a scapegoat for the death of King Wimbledon III, and he had thereby ascended the throne. Within one year after becoming King, he had unified the Eastern and Northern regions in succession, driven away Garcia, his third sister, and quickly became the most powerful man in the country.

He had thought it would be just a matter of time before he occupied the Western Region and unified the whole Kingdom of Graycastle. However, he had not expected that the situation would suddenly take a turn for the worse. The turn was so sudden and severe that he was caught fully unprepared.

First, the crazed army had failed its mission to attack and conquer Border Town. Afterwards, the unexpected explosion had further shaken his confidence.

In a matter of three days, all of his advantages were gone.

When he received the message from Redwater City, he had never thought there would be only three days to prepare. The snow in the Northern Region had yet to melt, and it was still too early to start conscription since farmers were busy with the spring plowing. He immediately sent a letter to the new Duke in the Eastern Region for help, but it was likely that the Duke would just now be receiving the letter and probably had yet to read its contents.

In the end, he was forced to fight against the enemies in haste. He had the help of many well-trained fighters including knights in King's City, the mercenaries, the patrol team, and the guards and squires of the nobles nearby. Nevertheless, to his astonishment, the towering city wall that he had put so much faith in simply collapsed on the very first day of the battle.

"Son of a b*tch!" Timothy suddenly picked up the candelabrum on the nightstand and smashed it to the floor with all his strength. "You damn bastard... How can you ever defeat me if you haven't colluded with the witches and surrendered to the demons?!"

"Your Majesty..."

"Yes, the demons!" There was a tinge of dryness and tremor in his furious howl. "The church is crap! They've promised to kill the witches, but instead they have decided to just let Roland Wimbledon go! If it isn't the aid from witches, what else has made his firearms so much more powerful than mine? What else has enabled him to easily attack from above? I have far more laborers and alchemists, and I'm hundreds of times wealthier than he is! There's only one possible explanation: The demons in hell are helping him!"

Two explosions went off below the palace, and the glass windows started to rattle. He could hear muted yelling outside. This was the sound of his guards' last attempts to hold off the enemy.

"No, I can't die!" Timothy thought resentfully. "It would be too kind of me to commit suicide now. My brother is the one that should go to hell."

"Let's get into the secret tunnel." He tried to stand up, but his legs were too shaky to support his weight. The guard stepped in and grabbed his arm to steady him.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Osborne was relieved. He carried Timothy on his back and asked the guards at the door to join them. They walked toward the hearth together.

The secret tunnel had both a trap-door and a fixed gate. Once the fixed gate was shut, the entrance of the tunnel would be blocked permanently. The underground maze was filled with God's Stones of Retaliation and hidden traps. Due to the complexity of the tunnel's structure, Timothy had not yet had a chance to fully explore it. It was possible that the tunnel existed even before the construction of the palace.

When the group of six arrived at a large lounge area in the tunnel, Timothy ordered that they halted and asked them to take a rest while they waited for a chance to escape.

Although the tunnel had many exits, with the farthest one leading to the outer city, it was still very risky to plunge into action in the broad daylight. Timothy clearly remembered that Roland had a witch who could carry gunpowder to the sky.

The safest option was to wait until it was dark and quiet before exiting the tunnel. Given that the tunnel was fully protected by God's Stones, it was impossible for witches to sneak in.

"Your Majesty, since we won't set out until midnight, please take a nap here." The imperial bodyguard took out a blanket from the chest and unrolled it on the ground.

Timothy lay down. His brows furrowed when he smelled the damp, musty blanket. Feeling anxious and lost, Timothy could hardly fall asleep.

Where should I go next? The Northern Region or the Eastern Region?

There were nobles who supported him in both areas, and the dukes there were newly assigned... However, would they still be obedient once they learned that King's City had fallen?

Or... the church?

As soon as the idea of turning to the church for help crossed his mind, the thought was stuck and would not leave. Anyway, all those great nobles were just hangers-on. Even if they knew his brother was in collusion with the witches, they would still knuckle down to Roland upon threats and duress, just as the nobles in Longsong Stronghold. Yet the church... The church claimed that they would not tolerate a single witch, and they would certainly not tolerate a noble who supported a great number of them.

Although these church scoundrels were conceited and foolish, at least they were not too stupid to condone the demons and allow them to spread their power in the Kingdom of Graycastle so scrupulously.

If the church could support him, he would even be willing to sacrifice the kingdom of his father's.

Until... Until he could send Roland Wimbledon to the guillotine and torture those damn witches to death, he would never give up!

In the dim torch light, Timothy made up his mind.

After midnight, the group of people fled King's City via the longest passage of the tunnel.

They exited the tunnel and quietly made their way through the outskirts of town. However, they had yet to cover half a mile before the surrounding fields were suddenly lit up by hundreds of torches!

"Your Majesty, run..." Osborne's words stopped abruptly on the tip of his tongue.

There was no need for any explanation at this moment. The enemies had apparently planned out everything long before. They launched a perfect ambush and encircled the six of them, blocking all possible exits through which they could flee for their lives.

Timothy's heart turned cold. He knew there was no escape.

Chapter 507 - The Wind-up

"Your Majesty, the road to the palace has been cleaned up, and the city is yours now!"

Iron Axe exclaimed in excitement as he knelt before Roland.

The battle started yesterday and did not end until early this morning. After entering the city, the First Army only spent four hours to complete their two main missions, seizing the palace in the inner city and taking the great church in the east. The next steps would be to clear out the enemies and eliminate Timothy's resistance.

Roland glanced around and noticed that everyone was exhilarated. The soldiers in the First Army and the witches were in high spirits. If he had made the official announcement, they would have probably been cheering for victory, but he had not yet. After Timothy's rule had been overturned, he was the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle even without a coronation ceremony.

However, Roland felt surprisingly calm and peaceful.

This "magnificent capital city", the political and economic center of the Kingdom of Graycastle, did not resonate with him, nor did he feel belonged to its soil. To Roland, it was simply an ordinary city, even less developed than Longsong Stronghold. The only thing that delighted him was that the chaos created by the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince had finally come to an end. Now he could concentrate on the development of his territory.

Having said that, it was still a victory, a significant triumph. Roland believed by the time the news spread throughout the Kingdom, he would have built a greater reputation and gained more booming authority in the country. Subsequently, he could use his influence to recruit more talents and further the reforms. The plan for the spring offensive that he had been preparing for the last four months was half completed. The only territory yet to be conquered was the south. Roland looked toward where Fallen Dragon Ridge and the farther Southernmost Region lay. That was the territory he had to seize.

He took a deep breath, put the thought behind him. "Let's enter the city!" he announced.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Iron Axe stood up with great respect and delivered his command to the guarding soldiers who had been eagerly waiting for instruction. "Column of Twos, protect your new King and advance!"

The soldiers raised their weapons in unison and shouted, "Long live King Wimbledon!"

"Long live His Majesty!"

Roland stepped off the warship and set out for the palace.

...

There were few people on the streets when the army entered the city gate. Traces of the fight could still be seen, more in the areas close to the palace than anywhere else.

In the inner city, he saw property destruction, traffic barriers, broken limbs and blood stains everywhere. Although the First Army was able to occupy the palace in a short time, it was the most intense battle they had ever come across.

Roland's heart ached when he saw the ruins on both sides of the street. The casualties were still unknown. However, there had been more than 20 soldiers' bodies sent to the rear, despite the fact that Nana had come to rescue in a timely fashion. If the little girl had not offered to help, the number would have been at least three times higher.

When Roland entered the palace area, the guards knelt down. Two columns of soldiers neatly lined up on their knees along the road leading to the castle. Such a scene was rarely seen among the First Army, where military salutation was commonly administered. Roland did not stop them. He could tell from their thrilled looks that these people were not greeting him as a military member, but were paying their respects to the new King as subjects of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

As Roland passed through the green castle garden, an old memory from childhood suddenly struck him. Three blue stone edifices arranged in a triangular shape surrounded the aquatic garden, it was where the Wimbledons had been living for generations. On the left stood the Hall of Sky Dome where banquets and ceremonies were often held. Unfortunately, it had been completely destroyed by a bomb, save the ten soaring stone pillars. On the right lay the City Hall and the library, both of which were guarded by the First Army at the moment.

In the middle stood the most magnificent Holy Temple of Double Towers. Its structure was similar to that of skyscrapers in the modern world, with an oval three-story podium building as its base. It was even bigger than the castle area in Border Town. On either side of the podium building was a lofty tower. One tower was shaped like a King's crown, the other a Queen's, both representing the supreme power of the royal family. In the center of the double towers hung two crossed iron cables, representing the two spears on the Kamon. Both the design of the architecture and the theory behind it were masterpieces that could go down in history and remain immortal.

Roland stepped onto the long spiral staircase and entered the Holy Temple. It was strange that he knew every single chamber and hallway here, despite this being his first visit. In the temple, aside from the armed soldiers, there was also a group of fidgeting nobles. When Roland went in, they all knelt to greet him.

"Please rise."

Roland enthroned himself as a matter of course and surveyed them from above.

He caught sight of several familiar faces among the nobles:: Lauren Moore, Treasurer; Bullet Flynn, Minister for Diplomacy; Pilaw, Minister of Justice; Marshall, Director of Intelligence; Marquis Wyke, Prime Minister, etc.

These people used to work for King Wimbledon III, and some of their family histories could even be traced back to the time when the Wimbledon family settled in. When Timothy Wimbledon had succeeded to the throne, they had all pledged allegiance to the new King. Now, they apparently planned to play the same trick on him according to the usual practice.

Unfortunately for them, Roland did not need them.

This was not a negotiation but a trial.

"Timothy Wimbledon is suspected of the murder of Prince Gerald, treason, as well as collusion with the church. He's now been taken into custody and will be subject to severe punishment. Soon his conviction will be publicized and known by the whole country. Do you want to say anything about it?"

"These are all capital offenses. I once tried to stop him but failed." Marquis Wyke ventured first. "You've driven away a plague on the Kingdom of Graycastle, Your Majesty."

All the other nobles chimed in.

"Really?" Roland sneered. "When he was committing these crimes, were you standing with folded arms or holding a candle to the devil? Don't tell me that you tried to stop him with your vain persuasions."

"Well..." The Marquis frowned. "Your Majesty, you don't know the real situation. Timothy promoted a lot of his loyal followers, such as Lanry, Scar and Marquis Morris, after he took charge. We could command neither the knights nor the conscripted army."

"Yes, Your Majesty. That was indeed the truth."

"He didn't even try Prince Gerald before sending him to the guillotine." Pilaw coughed while defending himself. "The executor was also a knight. We couldn't stop him."

"So, you're saying that everything that happened this year had nothing to do with you?" Roland despised these ministers even more. They were not handy assistants to the King, but rather a group of bloodsuckers feeding on the benefits granted by the royal family, only caring about their own interests. Perhaps, these aristocratic ministers had been of great help to the King when the Kingdom of Graycastle had initially been founded, but they had gone downhill in the past few hundred years. "Well, since you insist on your innocence, let's play a game."

"G-Game?" All of them were taken by surprise.

"A 'trial game' where I question and you answer." Roland's eyes flitted across each of the nobles. "There are ten questions in total. You'll be out of the game if you lie. Remember, you only have one chance to answer each question."

Chapter 508 - The Game

"Your... Your Majesty, I... I don't understand." Marquis Wyke wiped the sweats from his forehead. "What... What do you mean by 'out of the game'?"

"Those who are out will either be hanged, banished from the kingdom, or sentenced to heavy labor in the mines. Or, perhaps, all of their assets will be confiscated." The prince explained airily. "The rules of the game conform to the royal laws. It's fair enough."

"No, I've served the royal family faithfully since the reign of your father. You can't..."

"But now I'm the king. I can do whatever I want." Roland interrupted him and continued. "Don't panic. Those who have answered all of the ten questions correctly will get promoted or rewarded. It'd be boring if there were only punishments and no rewards, right?"

"I... can't accept this," said Sir Pilaw, shaking his head. "Those punishments you've mentioned should only be ordered by the court. We can't take such serious things so lightly. Your Majesty, I'm sorry I feel uneasy. Please allow me to take my leave."

He turned around and tried to exit the room, only to find that the door had been closed and that there were two expressionless soldiers now standing by the door. They blocked his exit and would not budge.

"I'm not asking for your opinion, Sir Pilaw," said Roland, "and, if you insist on quitting the game, I'm afraid I'll have to add one more punishment," he made a gesture as if shooting a gun and added, "that is, to shoot you."

The frightened nobles opened their eyes wide and spontaneously stepped back a few paces, while the soldiers around them lifted up their guns and calmly looked at them.

"So, now, time for the game." Roland stood up and clapped his hands. "The first question, did you get involved in the matter of forcing refugees to invade the Western Region? Let's start with you, Mr. Prime Minister."

"..." After a moment of silence, Marquis Wyke said, "I did follow Timothy's order to recruit refugees from the Eastern Region and the Southern Territory, but I did not take part in the other matter you stated."

He felt Nightingale lightly pinch his right shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I told you that you'd only have one chance to answer each question honestly." Roland waved his hand. "Take him down to the jail beneath this hall."

"Your Majesty, what I said is true..."

"No, you and I both know that you're still lying, even now." Roland promptly rejected the Prime Minister's appeal. He watched him get dragged out into the hallway and then slowly said to everyone, "If you're smart, you'll understand that lying won't do you any good, because, I can tell whether or not you're telling me the truth."

The nobles all stood with mouths agape, and no one dared to speak.

"If nobody volunteers to answer the question, I'll just call out names." Roland looked at the Minister of Justice and said, "What about you? Sir Pilaw."

...

It had turned out just the way he had wanted. This was a trial.

He had to cut the Gordian knot by efficiently dealing with the nobles here in this manner. As he also had to handle the situation with the area to the south of Fallen Dragon Ridge, he could not afford to waste too much time here. The post-war city management would be transferred to the personnel trained by the City Hall, and the resistance they would meet was from the local nobles and Black Street gangs.

Given that he needed the city to smoothly get back to normal and that now there was not enough time and energy left for a long screening, he held the trial to quickly remove the guilty nobles who had worked in collusion with Timothy and to pick out the clean, honest nobles to work with. As for the Black Street problem, he would leave them to Theo.

After all, the purpose of the surprise attack was to prevent Timothy from using ordinary people to wage a meaningless, long-lasting war. If he were to just step away from the city after overturning Timothy's rule and leave the city in chaos, he would be no different from their previous King.

He did not plan to absorb King's City into his kingdom, nor did he want to find another agent to run the city for him. After a whole year of hard work and development, he just did not have the strength.

No matter to act against the noble or the church, he had the ability to beat them.

"Now, the last question, have you ever bullied or oppressed the people, including witches?"

After asking nine questions, less than 10 out of the over 50 still remained in the hall. Such a high outing rate did not shock Roland at all, as he knew for sure Timothy had already kicked the incapable ones out of the palace. They were the people who either thought he usurped the throne or questioned the cause of King Wimbledon III's death. However, what did surprise Roland was that there were still seven nobles working in the City Hall who had nothing to do with either Timothy's schemes or the church.

"Your Majesty, I'm guilty," said a noble, falling to his knees and sweating profusely. "I've ordered my men to beat up a civilian because he smeared my trousers with his feet. I failed to hold back my anger at that time and..., but I just beat him. I did not kill him."

"I, I had a secret love affair with a shop owner's daughter, but she seduced me first!"

"My housekeeper slept with my wife while I was out hunting. I cut off his penis straight away instead of sending him to the court... But, Your Majesty, a housekeeper doesn't count, right?"

Roland did his best to keep a straight face while hearing those various, funny answers. Those trifles were not considered misdeeds or even mistakes by nobles usually, but now they were apparently so frightened by the questioning that they spat out all those things in fear that it would be regarded as lying.

After they had all given their answers, Roland cleared his throat and asked, "Is there anything else?"

"No," the nobles said.

When Nightingale pinched his left shoulder, he finally nodded and said, "Congratulations, you've passed."

The nobles were greatly relieved.

"I did say that the winners of the game would be rewarded... Trust me, I'll keep my word, especially when there're so many vacancies in the City Hall, but I still have one question." Roland looked at the two people standing at the back of the room, who seemed to have never broken any laws since they hadn't said anything but "No" in reply for every question and their answers were all approved by Nightingale. "What're your names and positions in the City Hall?"

"I'm Alva Taber, Your Majesty," one of them replied, "and I'm in charge of the issues related to the star image."

"Blanche Orlando," the other person, a woman, said, "I'm the ceremonial officer."

"That's the reason. People in positions like theirs don't get many chances to do bad things... These two are indeed the only ones with clean hands in the City Hall." Roland went back to the throne and said, "You can leave the palace now. I'll send for you after I straighten up a few things with my family." He paused and added. "My way of ruling will be very different from my father's and Timothy's. You'll see that soon enough, and remember what got you through the game... Keep it up. This isn't going to be the last game you play."

The nobles withdrew submissively and then Roland left the hall and headed to the basement with Nightingale, thinking to himself,

"Time to meet my 'dear brother'."

Chapter 509 - To Become a King

The dungeon of the palace was a childhood nightmare for Prince Roland. The feeling naturally came back to him as he was walking down the stone steps.

He started to search his memories and soon found the reason for this fear.

One day, Timothy invited Gerald, Garcia and little Roland to explore the basement of the basement under the palace hall together. The 12-year-old Roland had been so excited to finally get the chance to join their inner circle but had never expected what would happen next. Timothy had stolen the keys from the guards, locked Ronald into a jail cell and left with the other two kids while laughing.

Little Roland was left alone in the dark room. He had thought of the shrilling cries he occasionally heard throughout the hall. A guard had once told him that the cries were from wailing ghosts in the underground world beneath the palace. His teeth chattered with fright but he had not dared to cry out loud since he had been afraid of attracting the ghosts to him. At last, he huddled up in a corner, held his knees and pressed his face against them, sobbing uncontrollably. When Timothy, Gerald and Garcia returned to check how terrible he was, his face had been covered with his snot.

After that, Prince Roland had been too frightened to step back into the basement of the palace.

Roland now understood that the wails and shrills did not come from ghosts, but from the prisoners being questioned and tortured in the basement. The jail could not hold many prisoners which explained why little Roland had only been able to hear them every now and then.

Roland met Timothy Wimbledon in a small cell on the bottom floor of the basement. Compared with the jails in the Outer and Inner City, the place was pretty good. At least, it was dry and clean, without rats, cockroaches or stinky smells. This was the exact cell where the little Roland had been locked into and cried for an entire night.

Ironically, now Timothy swapped positions with Ronald.

Hearing unexpected noises, Timothy, who sat silently against the wall, opened his eyes and saw Roland.

This brother, that Prince Roland had feared the most in the past, looked almost the same as before. Like all the other descendants of the Wimbledon Family, he was gray-eyed and gray-haired. He resembled his father in appearance in that he wore short curly hair and had his father's nose and handsome face. However, his long, narrow eyes made his face a little ghastly, especially in the flickering torchlight.

Prince Roland had never dared to look into his brother's eyes before, but now, Timothy was just a helpless and defenseless stranger.

They looked at each other for a while during which nothing could be heard except the burning sounds of torches. Finally, Timothy was unable to veil his gaunt face any longer and gave up trying to overwhelm Roland with an aggressive attitude, for he found that it was useless now. The look in Timothy's eyes changed, and somehow he seemed to be terrified.

"Who the hell are you?" Timothy broke the silence.

His dry, emotional voice reverberated in the basement, from which Roland could easily tell that his brother was scared. Compared with Tilly, Timothy had had more interactions with Prince Roland and contributed a lot to his previous annoying and fickle behaviors. He felt that it was natural for Timothy, who had known Prince Roland quite well in the past, to spot something different in Ronald now and ask that question.

"I'm Roland Wimbledon," Ronald said as he had squatted down until his face was level with Timothy's and looked into his eyes, "You can't remember me?"

"No, you're not him," Timothy said in a trembling voice, "He could never look at me like this. He dared not look directly into my eyes." He heavily panted and continued, "I know... You're the real demon! You're not lured by demons. You're evil incarnate, wanting to steal my kingdom!"

Roland did not even want to bother explaining anything to a dying man like Timothy. Ronald said, "So what? You think you're better than the demons? You killed our father, framed our innocent elder brother and then executed him to keep the throne you stole. You collaborated with the church, who our father hated the most. You compelled innocent people to invade the domain of Princess Garcia and you can't even spare your weakest and most powerless brother Prince Roland. In only one year, you conquered and destroyed so many cities, dragging the whole kingdom into chaos and making the people homeless. Even the demons wouldn't do this!"

Timothy hurriedly refuted, "No! I didn't kill our father. He killed himself. Just like you, he was controlled by demons!"

"Suicide?" Roland asked, frowning.

"Yes! He lay in the bed as usual and drove a dagger into his heart with a smile on his face!" Timothy answered.

"Not the witches?" Ronald questioned.

"No, he wore God's Stone of Retaliation! Damn it..." Timothy shouted hoarsely and added in a choked voice, "It just happened without any warning and I couldn't stop it at all!"

Roland looked back at Nightingale who slightly nodded to him.

"It must have been an attaching magic witch. Once she performed her magic power, she would not be affected by God's Stone," Roland thought, "And unlike witches from other organizations, the pure witches of the church could possibly find a chance to get close to the king." Prince Ronald quickly recalled an incident that happened half a year ago when they were evacuating refugees. A witch tricked her way into the camps to assassinate Wendy by her ability to change her appearance. Connecting that incident to what had happened to King Wimbledon III, he thought the answer was clear.

If the church was the creator of those incidents, it could also explain the reason for the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince which clearly aimed at creating wars and chaos. He still needed somebody to testify this speculation and believed he would get something out of the High Priest of the King's City.

"But this can't be the justification of framing Gerald and expanding the war," Roland said in a deep voice. "You conspired with the church and used the Pills of Madness to create crazed soldiers. Have you ever thought that how many people would die of this?"

"Even if I didn't use the pills, who could guarantee that Garcia wouldn't use them? If they recognized me as the legitimate king at first, why would I destroy them mercilessly?" Timothy explained as he crawled to hold the railings. "And what do all these have to do with a demon like you? How the hell do you want to deal with me?"

"I want to expose your crimes, judge you and then send you to the guillotine. You'll end up like Gerald, except that you're proven guilty of unpardonable crimes for which even death penalty is not enough to serve the justice," Ronald said.

"No! You can't kill me. Demons like you can never stand in the light, since powerful deities will wipe you out. If you want the Kingdom of Graycastle, you have to rely on me." Timothy yelled.

"Deities?" Roland grinned. "You mean the church?"

"You don't know them! The church's hidden strength is unfathomable. There're incredible things father had written down in his notes and they're the reason why he could not make up his mind to banish the church in his life!" Timothy cried out. "Pills are just one of their formidable methods. If they uncover your identity, there'll be no escape for you!"

"No, Timothy Wimbledon. I know much more than you think I do and I've got a clear idea of the road ahead. It's a hard road and you don't have the ability to lead the people to a bright future," Roland said slowly, "Your life must end here for the crimes you committed. But, relax, you aren't the only one who is going to hell."

With those words, Ronald stood up and walked out of the jail, leaving Timothy to cry alone without even turning his head.

Chapter 510 - The Flower of Revenge

...

When he entered the basement of the palace, Hill Fawkes felt his heart tremble, not out of fear, but rather uncontrollable excitement.

The flickering flame of the torch seemed to dance for him, while his steps echoed praises off the stone floor.

He never felt the dark, quiet basement could be so wonderful.

After arriving at the ground floor of the basement, Theo searched his body again. He then patted his shoulder and whispered, "Go, and don't stay too long."

Hill nodded and walked excitedly into the darkness ahead... After a while, as he passed through a darkened walkway and approached the cage, he slowed down so he could fully savor this memorable moment.

He then saw the murderer who killed his wife,

Timothy Wimbledon.

At that moment, Hill covered his mouth, as his eyes were filled with tears... Everything that he had done before was not in vain, and the outcome came earlier than he expected.

"My wife would smile at this sight," he thought.

"Who... is it?" Timothy asked. He turned around, leaned against the rails, and he desperately asked, "Is that you, demon... Did you change your mind?"

Hill came out of the shadows and paced to the cage.

Timothy was shocked and then became wary. He moved two steps back. "Who are you? Who let you in? Where is Roland Wimbledon? I want to see him!"

This was the formerly haughty king.

Hill had only seen what Timothy looked like from a distance in the ascending ceremony. At that time, he wore a crimson robe, a shining and noble crown, and he held a golden scepter in his hand. Surrounded by the Knights of King's City, he walked to the high platform step by step and accepted the coronation. Hill once hoped that he would become a good king who would give everyone a stable life, but the later raid tore the whole city, the acrobatic troupe, and the families apart. As a result, all these expectations for the future disappeared.

Now, he finally felt the sweetness of revenge—it did not contain any pity for this enemy or emptiness after success. Instead, all he felt was just sweetness and happiness, which warmed his cold heart again... To his surprise, he found he actually was fond of this kind of feeling.

"I'm Hill Fawkes, Your Majesty," Hill said as he bowed. "I'm a member of 'Dove and Cylinder', and it's impossible for you to know me, but I know you."

"..." Timothy was stone-faced and speechless.

Hill did not care at all, however, and continued, "There should have been seven members in this acrobatic troupe, but we lost a partner because of you. Since then, the six of us left no longer focused on performing, but we hid among the Rats and hotels to inquire about your movements. After that, we organized and analyzed the information and sent it to Lord Roland." He paused, and then said, "By the way, we told him about your plan of developing snow powder and impressing militiamen to invade the Western Region. We also made the two saltpeter factories in the suburbs close down and transferred them to other places."

"What're you talking about?" Timothy squinted and said, "A hidden traitor who is proud of what he has done? A traitor who betrayed his king and reaped the benefits of betraying his dignity? I don't know anything about the 'Dove and Cylinder' at all. Stop your tricks, you lowlife!"

"Benefit? Betrayer? No... Your Majesty, I just followed my heart," Hill said quietly. "That partner is my wife. She died in your witch-hunting campaign. In prison, she was tortured and insulted, but the ultimate punishment for the murderer was just 25 silver royals."

Timothy's eyes glittered.

"Do you remember now?" Hill spread his hands and added, "Although the City Hall later gave three gold royals as compensation, it actually means nothing to me. My wife will never come back. She was not a witch, but she died because of you."

After a while, Timothy said, "I didn't do it."

This rather weak answer was as sweet as honey. Usually, this response would have been met by a sneer and a "so what?".

"At the time, Lanry, who executed the arrest, was your henchman. Even Steelheart Knight couldn't stop him. I just wanted a fair verdict, but the court and the City Hall rejected my appeal. There's no doubt that you were behind this..."

"No, enough! You lowlife!" Timothy could not help but roar, "Do you know what you're doing? If that witch-hunting campaign only wronged your wife, what you've done will ruin the Kingdom of Graycastle! Lord Roland? You idiot! Roland Wimbledon has been dead for a long time! Your master is a real demon! You decided to serve a demon just for a woman?"

"... Is that so?" Hill asked raising the corners of his mouth. "When I begged the Gods, there wasn't any response. At that moment, I swore that as long as I could get my revenge, even if he was a demon, I'd follow him to hell." He bowed with his hand on his chest and said, "Goodbye, Your Majesty. I'm much honored to have aided in your destruction."

...

When he returned to the basement's entrance, Theo nodded toward Hill. "Are you satisfied?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, please take me to see His Majesty Roland," Hill said, as he took a deep breath.

On the third floor of the palace, he finally saw the man whom he had served for the past six months—Roland Wimbledon looked much kinder than Timothy. Although they had the same gray hair and gray pupils, he did not have the arrogant temperament that kept people at arm's length. He did not even... look like a royal nobleman.

"I'm very grateful for your undercover work in King's City," said Roland. Hill was also surprised by his first sentence. "Thanks to your intelligence, I could prepare everything to conquer King's City at the lowest cost."

"Don't mention it, and I was doing what was right..."

"Certainly, I know you did that for revenge. Timothy will soon have his due verdict. Now that you have what you want, you can start a new life, but I hope that you can continue to work for me." Roland got up, walked in front of him, and looked at him. "There is still much to do to help the city restore stability and even return to its past prosperity. For example, Rats need to be controlled, and the restless noblemen also need to be watched, but Theo won't be able to cope with these tasks alone. What do you think? The members of your acrobatic troupe and you can work in a secret and formal position to protect the people of the city from a similar tragedy."

"I'd love to, Your Majesty," Hill said and solemnly knelt down. "Even if you didn't say so, I'd still follow you forever. You fulfilled what you promised before, and now it's my turn to do so," he said slowly. "The rest of Hill Fawkes' life will belong to you."

The flower of revenge finally bore its most delicious fruit.

Chapter 511 - Whispers at Nightfall

Nightingale lay by the window and watched the city under the night sky.

Dim shadows spread under the darkness and outlined the silhouette of King's City's wall. Under the light, the three walls showed some minor differences. The nearest palace wall was a light gray color, lit up by burning resin torches. At a glance, it looked like a jeweled belt with overlapping areas of light and dark.

Far away was the inner city wall, which was gray mixed with black, and it looked like a long snake that surrounded the city. Even after King's City had a new ruler, the Inner City still kept its splendor. It was the first time that Nightingale saw a place busier and livelier than Border Town. This short, yet fierce war did not have any effects on the noble and the rich, so they still joyfully indulged themselves at night.

However, beyond that, the sky was suddenly darker as if all the light was blocked by the inner city's wall. The darkness covered everything including the most splendid bluestone city wall, where Nightingale saw only some stones sparkle from the moon's light. The Outer City just looked like most of the cities she had seen before. These cities fell into silence after the night came. In the vast darkness, the Inner City's light seemed a bit dull but it did not stop people from dancing and singing. For some reason, Nightingale suddenly thought about how human beings were cornered into this part of the continent, and the vast Land of Dawn was being devoured by the darkness bit by bit. There were demons and evil beasts that lurked about but most people had no idea and still partook in what little entertainment they had.

"Phew, I'm beyond tired." Wendy's voice interrupted Nightingale's thoughts, as the red-headed witch rubbed her shoulders and lay down next to Nightingale by the window.

Nightingale asked, "Have they fallen asleep already?"

"Yes. They finally got tired after all the commotion they've stirred up today." Wendy yawned. "I don't know where their energy comes from. They flew around on hydrogen balloons the entire day and still they demanded to hear a story before going to bed." Wendy finished.

"You should thank His Majesty for that." Nightingale laughed. "If he didn't punish them to do three sets of exercises, I'm afraid they'd go out to explore the night instead of listening to your story." Nightingale turned around to look through the gap between the balcony and the bedroom and saw Maggie leaned over Lightning. Maggie's white hair almost covered Lightning's entire body. "Those two seem to really hit it off." Nightingale expressed.

Since the rooms in the royal palace were more spacious and each living room was accompanied by two bedrooms. The witches that followed Roland on this expedition lived in four-person rooms with each other. These rooms were the most splendid places in the whole Kingdom of Graycastle. The carpets and bedding in the guest rooms were all made of excellent materials, some of which Nightingale recognized, like velvet and silk. Other things were made of materials she had never seen before.

"Yes." Wendy also smiled gently. "I heard from Lady Tilly once that Maggie used to turn into a pigeon and slept while squatted on the roof. Any little noise would wake her and she only kept pigeon form to escape any possible dangers. Now, she finally can have a peaceful sleep just like a normal little girl." She paused for a while and then continued, her voice filled with emotion, "We're very lucky."

Nightingale did not answer her... She did not need to. All the Witch Cooperation Association's witches who survived would feel the same way. When they struggled between life and death, it was the Lord of Border Town who reached out to them and promised them a new world. Now, not only did their sisters see hope, but they also found that this new world was within reach. After the Holy Mountain, they pursued for hundreds of years, became a reality, their gratitude and recognition could not be expressed within a few words.

They fell into a long silence until the midnight bell ranged from far away, and Wendy said, "Do you... want to go back and have a visit?"

Nightingale asked confused, "Go back to where?" She still was not fully awakened.

"Silver City, your hometown," Wendy pointed south and said, "It's only half a day's journey from here. If you let Maggie carry you, it won't even take an hour. You, you do have a little brother living there, right?"

Nightingale did not think she would bring this up, and after a little hesitation, she shook her head and explained, "While we restore the city's order, there are potential enemies everywhere. So I can't leave His Majesty now. Besides, when everything in the Kingdom of Graycastle is settled, I'll have many opportunities to visit Silver City. There is no hurry."

"I thought you'd emphasize that you've already removed yourself from the Gilen family, just like you did in the past," Wendy said relieved, "You seem like... you don't hate your little brother anymore?"

"Without his betrayal, I wouldn't have met you, let alone His Highness." Nightingale smiled. "You always say to me, 'Getting rid of the past nightmares doesn't mean separating yourself from the past.' Now I finally understand the second half of the sentence. It's okay as long as I live a better life than before."

"Well... it seems like a good proverb pieced together." Wendy raised her brow. "I didn't know you had such literary skills."

"So I won't sneak out secretly, and you can go to sleep in peace." Nightingale uttered as she held Wendy's hands. "It's late."

"Uh-huh." Wendy huffed as the two of them crawled on the big bed, and Wendy summoned a slight breeze to blow out the candle. "Good night," Wendy mumbled.

Nightingale replied, "Good night."

After Nightingale was sure that Wendy was asleep, she got up from the bed, went into the Mist, and walked to Roland's room.

Next, it was her time.

Darkness was on her side.

*******************

The next day, Roland received both good news and bad news from Iron Axe. The good news was that after one night's interrogation, High Priest Ferry finally admitted Hermes' plan of secretly replacing Wimbledon III and issuing the Royal Decree on the Selection of Crown Prince.

The bad news was that the church had plotted this war for a long time, so they could weaken the military potential of the Kingdom of Graycastle and occupy it more quickly. They actually occupied many areas, like the two provinces in the southeast of the kingdom. If Roland had not traversed time to become Prince Roland, this plan would probably have destroyed the Kingdom of Graycastle already.

"Did you hear all of that?" Roland asked Theo, who stood beside him. "Go spread the news, especially about the church's true intentions and Timothy's collaboration with them. The more details you disclose, the better. I want every citizen of the city to know what they have done."

Theo answered, "Yes."

Then Roland turned to Iron Axe and ordered, "Send out another paddle ship to bring Barov and Kyle Sichi here."

Iron Axe seemed embarrassed, which was uncommon for him. "It's no problem to fetch the director, but the chief alchemist... Will he really agree to leave the lab and waste his precious time on the road?" Iron Axe questioned.

"I'll write to Kyle." Roland frowned. "There's a saying that if you don't come back and visit your hometown when you get rich, it's like wearing a black suit in the middle of the night. What's the point if people can't see it? When a man learns impressive skills, he shouldn't mind showing it off. When Kyle was in Redwater City, he always competed with the Alchemist Workshop in King's City. As they say, two of a trade never agree. Now Kyle has a chance to beat his rival, so I don't believe that he won't come."

This is also a good opportunity to enlist all the alchemists in King's City in one swoop and make them serve me."

Chapter 512 - An Old Friend and a New Friend

There was no doubt that King's City was a huge treasure trove.

Although it was a rather backward city, and those magnificent buildings meant nothing in Roland's eyes, it was still the most brilliant pearl in the Kingdom of Graycastle.

In terms of population, the number of noblemen here far exceeded that of other cities—the first thing anyone who lost their rank and land would do was to come to King's City to seek new opportunities. If landless nobles and knights canonized by the royalty were counted, then the population was even bigger. For example, nearly 20% of the citizens in the Inner City were noblemen. Most of them received primary education and could read and write, making them all potential officials who deserved training in Roland's eyes. After all, without land and property, they would not resist the new policy too much, and their excellent insight would allow them to accept new things quicker.

In terms of industries, King's City also hosted the best men of all trades. Besides the merchant and craftsmen unions, it also had the biggest alchemist association and the only astrologer association. Roland coveted these talents and summoned Barov and Kyle Sichi to utilize these men as much as possible.

In terms of wealth, the value of all the collections in the palace was ten times that of Duke Ryan, with gold royals, jewelry, and golden handicrafts filling up several storehouses. This, combined with the properties of the other ministers who fell from power along with Timothy, totaled an astonishing number. If their properties were all confiscated, then the City of Neverwinter would be well taken care of for two or three years. However, Roland did not plan to take away all of the treasures, since it would waste too much time. Besides, he would need a lot of wealth to take over King's City and maintain its stability. Neither keeping the money stacked up in the basement nor using it freely was meaningful, so it was best to circulate it.

If possible, Roland would love to spend half a year to process all these resources. But compared with King's City, which lay far in the middle, it was more important to take Fallen Dragon Ridge and the Southernmost Region, which lay next to the Western Region.

Soon after Iron Axe left, one guard reported, "Your Majesty, outside the palace, a businesswoman called Margaret wants to see you."

Roland's eyes lit up. "Bring her to me."

When the businesswoman walked into the hall, he smiled and arose from his seat to welcome her. "We finally meet again."

"I didn't expect we would meet in the palace of the Kingdom of Graycastle this time." Margaret raised her hem and curtseyed to Roland. "You always surprise me, Your Highness... no, now I should call you Your Majesty."

"It doesn't matter, the enthronement hasn't been held, so I'm not the king yet." Roland waved his hands.

"You're not anxious about this, and you do behave in a kingly way." Margaret covered her mouth and smiled. "From now on, there will be business opportunities everywhere in King's City. As an old friend, you should take more care of me."

"Of course, even if you didn't come to me, I'd find you." He laughed openly. "You may not know this, but Border Town and Longsong Stronghold are going to be integrated into one big city. The steam engine company has opened several more production lines, and the yield will triple. It'll also produce more new commodities, and I promise they'll be unparalleled in the Four Kingdoms."

"I've already seen how creative you can be, so we can talk about these things later in great detail." Margaret nodded. "But that's not why I'm here today. I want to ask another favor from you."

"Oh?" Roland asked with great interest. "Tell me."

"Could... we move to another place to talk?" she glanced around the room and asked quietly.

"If the Chamber of Commerce's financial resources can't solve this problem, and now we have to be secretive about it... Has she really encountered so much trouble?" The prince thought for a moment. "Then let's go to my study."

...

The study, located on the top floor of the Tower of Crown, belonged to King Wimbledon III originally, and it was also where Prince Roland wanted to be the most when he was a child—this was the only place where he could see his reticent father. However, the reason that Roland picked this place was only that it was too high to have any secret passages, and there was only one set of winding stairs leading to the top of the tower, making it easy to defend and hard to attack.

"Can you talk about it now?"

There were only him and Margaret left in the room, plus Nightingale, who had already hidden herself.

"Sorry, Your Majesty, I swore to someone that I'd tell this to only you..." She bowed respectfully. "Thunder wants to see you."

"Thunder?" Roland was shocked. "You mean the most famous explorer in the Fjords? Didn't he... just die in a shipwreck?"

"A real explorer may believe in the three gods, but he wouldn't go to them so easily." Margaret shook her head. "He doesn't want to reveal his whereabouts, especially to Lightning, which is why I need to tell you in secret. Thunder had planned to contact you through Tilly, but he didn't expect that you'd occupy King's City so soon, so he changed his plan at the last minute." The businesswoman halted for a while. "He also said that he found some unbelievable things in the east of the Shadow Islands that you'd definitely be interested in, and that they may have something to do with the ruins from hundreds of years ago."

"Wait... is he in King's City now?"

"Yes, he arrived here yesterday. He made this decision after meeting with me."

"You don't seem surprised by his coming back from the dead." Roland was surprised. "Have you known about it for a long time?"

Margaret nodded.

"So the reason that you came to Border Town to do businesses the first time wasn't that I sent the guards out, but to find Lightning, right?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you this from the start," she said while holding her hand to her chest. "Lightning wore a Magic Stone, so Thunder could find where she was. He sent me there just to make sure that she was safe. After learning that Lightning was settled in your domain, he decided to hide his information to keep his daughter far away from being an explorer."

"That's it." Roland understood it instantly. "I didn't ask for more details about Thunder's death at the time, and Margaret did speak the truth in some sense, so Nightingale couldn't detect her lies but could only tell that she had no bad intentions towards witches. So there was a reason for this 'coincidence'. Without Lightning, my steam engine trade wouldn't have found business routes so quickly."

"Now King's City is still a mess, so I can't leave the palace," Roland said, after a minute's consideration. "If Thunder wants to meet me, you can bring him here. I promise I won't divulge his information to Lightning."

"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty." Margaret looked very grateful and she bowed again. "I'll deliver your reply to him as soon as possible."

Soon after the servants sent the businesswoman away, Roland heard his guard's report when he got back to the hall. "Your Majesty, a nobleman outside the palace claimed to be your old friend and made a fuss about coming inside."

It surprised him a little. He knew the lower noblemen who were not influenced by the spring offensive would come here to snoop, but he did not expect they would come so soon. Logically, they should have waited to see the policy trends, and they should not come forward so proactively before Timothy was beheaded... He also used to be a prince, so how could he be on good terms with a lower nobleman? "What's his name?"

"Sir Yorko, Your Majesty."

Chapter 513 - [Magic Hand] Yorko

"Pfft... ahem." Roland almost choked on his own saliva. A pale-looking, slightly oversized man with stubby fingers and a curly Mohawk appeared within his mind. Roland had almost forgotten about him, but he quickly realized who he was once the name was mentioned. His appearance was as clear as if they had parted just yesterday.

The visit was not a surprise; Prince Roland had once been so close with Yorko that he would have given him the shirt off his back. Prince Roland had been out of his mind and was self-loathing after being fiercely rejected by Tilly, realizing that he would never fit into Gerald, Timothy and Garcia's circle. Yorko's appearance was basically his salvation. Not only did he bring Roland along to the brothel, allowing him a taste of the pleasures of a noble, but he also introduced him to a gang of evil associates to boss around, giving him the prestige that he would never have in the palace. Even though these things were not righteous, he had been Prince Roland's best friend, at least at that time.

Roland wanted to reject Knight Yorko, but these memories made him realize that he would not do that if he were still Prince Roland. Not to mention that he needed someone to attract the rest of the nobility to serve him. After a little contemplation, he finally decided to meet the popular "Magic Hand" of King’s City.

"Bring the knight to my study," he ordered, "and remember to confiscate his God’s Stone of Retaliation."

...

Returning to the Tower of Crown, Roland soon met the "old friend" he was waiting for.

"Oh my God! Your Majesty... I didn't expect you to come back so quickly and defeat your demon older brother so easily!" Prince Roland used to address his siblings as a clan of demons, and Yorko had gone along with this statement in private. His image was very similar to what Roland could remember. Yorko dashed forward and gave Roland a warm hug as soon as he opened the door and walked into the study.

Roland reluctantly patted his back like he used to and said, "I didn't expect you to come so soon either."

Despite the fact that Yorko’s average appearance did not relate to his title of "Casanova", his round chin always gave people a sense of inexplicable intimacy. Considering his neatly-shaved beard, the clean-as-a-pin attire, the perfect smell of his cologne, and his legendary techniques, it was no surprise that so many ladies fell for him.

"I'm different from them! Those cowards are still worrying about Timothy's remaining power, but I know that you would never let him off so easy!" Yorko grinned and asked, "Since you're back, would you like to have a drink tonight at the Golden Lane? Do you want me to make an appointment with Mrs Rother or Miss Kingfisher? Ever since that one-night stand, they've been missing you."

Roland suddenly felt a chill from behind his back, an ice-cold gaze pierced through his body, casted directly towards Yorko.

The knight felt the change too. His voice abruptly ceased, and he started to look around in doubt. "How come it suddenly got so cold in here?"

"What one-night-stand? I had nothing to do with them," Roland immediately objected. "Whatever they're feeling has nothing to do with me!"

Even if it did, it would only have something to do with Prince Roland... It was totally different from his true self, so what he said was still the truth. Nightingale should not be able to tell the difference.

As expected, the chilling sensation reduced drastically following his response.

"Oh? Is that so?" Yorko stroked his chin, "But you obviously spent a night with them!"

"It was way past curfew time, and I wasn't able to return to the palace. Otherwise, I would have had to sleep on the street," Roland emphasized. "Anyway, I didn't do anything that night, understand?"

There was a glimmer of doubt on Yorko's face, but his initial smile soon returned. "Well in that case, forget about them. Let's meet some new ones today. You probably have no idea, but a classier brothel opened up right opposite the Golden Lane. I heard that the quality can be compared to private reserves of the nobles, and they only allow entry by invitation. I haven't had a chance to try it out myself yet. I'm sure there'll be no problem for you. What do you think?"

"No, I'm not going anywhere at night. I'm staying in the palace. "

"Oh, I understand," Yorko raised his brows and said. "There are quite a few beautiful attendants in the palace as well, so you should enjoy them first. In that case, I'll teach you my famous skills so none of them will forget about you." He sighed and said, "You used to be so eager to learn from me, but I thought it would be useless for you back then, even if you mastered the stunt. Now that you're about to become king, I'm afraid you'll have more lovers than I do. So, the stunt should be able to come in handy for you. After all, human energy is limited."

"Stop." Roland was close to covering Yorko's mouth with his hand. He dared not let Yorko continue. It was utterly a complete collection of dark histories. He did not want to bear the responsibilities of the awful things Prince Roland had done, especially not in front of Nightingale. "Listen, friend... I'm different now."

Yorko was stunned, but replied, "Of course. You're now the king, Your Majesty..."

"I don't mean that," Roland interrupted, "but you can also interpret it that way. As a king of the country, I definitely can't be as ruthless as I used to be, understand?" He recalled Prince Roland's way of intimate conversation, hooked his arm around Yorko's neck, and said, "Speaking of which, just tell me what you have in mind. I don't believe that you came here, simply to reminisce about the past. You don't have to hide anything from me."

As expected, Yorko laughed and said, "In that case, I'll be straightforward. Your Majesty, can you please grant me an official position?"

"What?"

"What about making me your minister? I don't need to be in a key position, such Treasurer or Minister of Justice. Just let me manage the patrol team, like Steelheart Knight." He patted his bulging stomach and said, "I can assure you that the Rats would be obedient under my watch."

Roland could not help but silently roll his eyes. How dare he mention that? The reputation of King’s City would be ruined if he held the Minister of Defense position. He would bring the patrol team to fool around and summon the men to beat up other Casanovas if he had any conflicts. It was scary to even think about it.

However, it could be good publicity if Yorko was given a suitable position. He would have a chance to be promoted during the throne alternation as long as he was willing to serve Roland. After all, Yorko had a clean background; he basically did not have any bad habits other than the fact that he could not control his sexual desire. The key question was what kind of position was suitable for someone like him.

Roland contemplated for a while and said, "I see. There's no problem with granting a simple official position, however, I'll still have to discuss the specific details with the City Hall. After all, it's an official job." He patted the "old friend" on his shoulder and said, "I'll send someone to inform you after I decide."

Chapter 514 - The [Hypothesis of the Spirits]

Nightingale appeared from behind him once Yorko left the study.

"Who are Mrs. Rother and Miss Kingfisher? What's the famous stunt?"

"Uh, this is a really tough question to answer." Roland walked towards the window and pretended to be contemplating, but he was actually preventing Nightingale from seeing his expression. "Just two ladies whom I was acquainted with. I don't know them very well, and I don't even know their real names. This is the way of interactions among the nobles. They're always hypocritical. Everything's simply for show most of the time and they forget all about it after that."

"But he said both of them are missing you dearly."

"Ahem... about that, they're not missing me, but my gold royals, status, and power. After all, I was still a prince back then. So they lost contact with me after I was assigned to Border Town. They would not be so cold to me if they really missed me, would they?"

Nightingale could only differentiate the truth of the statement, but she could not directly determine the truth of the matter. Thus, Roland decided to use the art of misleading and dispelled Nightingale's doubt with winding statements. Not to mention that he indeed had nothing to do with this nonsense, so he was not at all stressed about it. "Regarding the famous stunt... It's a little bit more complicated. Simply put, Yorko can make a woman fall for him with the skills within his hands, as he is named the 'Magic Hand'. I used to be curious because I knew nothing about it, but I don't need any of these skills now, do I?"

He turned around and looked at Nightingale. However, she quickly avoided the eye contact, and a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. "I, I guess," she said.

"Phew... I should be safe now." Roland silently sighed in relief. Even though he could always ask Nightingale to wait outside in the beginning, it would not only hurt her trust but also put him in potential danger. After all, Sylvie was still inspecting the entire palace, and the gem list was still missing; it was better to be safe than sorry.

...

After dinner, Roland finally got to meet with Thunder, the great explorer from the Fjords.

His body was solidly wrapped up, with his head in a hood and a gauze wrapped around his neck. The guards would probably not have let them pass with the way he was dressed if Nightingale had not personally picked him and Margaret up.

Thunder took off his coat and gauze after creeping into the study. He respectfully bowed to Roland and said, "I’ve heard of your name from Margaret and Her Highness Tilly a while ago. My respected Roland Wimbledon, Your Majesty, thank you for taking care of Lightning."

"I'd like to thank you for taking care of Tilly as well," Roland excitedly answered, observing him from head to toe. "I heard that you've helped her a lot since she moved to Sleeping Island."

Thunder had the typical short blonde-colored hair of Fjords locals, just like Lightning. He was brown-skinned and had a stocky body, rugged-looking appearance, and thick sideburns that were conjoined with the stubbles covering half of his face and his chin. His tone was full of energy, and he clearly spent most of his time on the sea. He was completely different from when he first walked into the room without making even the slightest noise.

"Don't mention it. She was a great help to my adventures. If it wasn't for her help, I'm afraid that the fleet would have been limited to exploring the Shadow Islands." Thunder smiled and said, "And, of course, I wouldn't have been able to reach the sea that I've never seen before and witness the existence of Sealine."

"Sealine?" Roland curiously asked, "What's that?"

"A wall that's formed by the sea water that still allows the boats to cross over freely." Thunder narrated what he had seen in detail. "It's also what brings me here."

Roland was shocked to hear that sea water could overcome gravity and form into ladder-like height differences, allowing boats to sail vertically upwards and cross over smoothly. It sounded incredible! He felt a great wave of emotion in his heart; it would be difficult for him to believe any of these if he had not heard them from the most famous explorer, Thunder.

It implied that the gravity here was distorted, forming a unique gravitational field. However, Roland was not able to make any conclusion at this time, as the principle of gravity formation was still unclear. Since magic power was everywhere in this world, he could only guess that perhaps magic causing the formation of Sealine.

However, he could faintly feel in his heart that the answer was more profound than he could imagine.

The planet looked very similar to Earth at a glance, so he quickly referred to the theories he learned as scientific enlightenment and guidance. This was not a surprise, since the existence of human beings and carbon-based organisms led to a rough judgement: The law of substances here was basically similar to the previous universe.

It was not metaphysics. The existence of life could be traced back to the speed and direction of atomic spin; it was so precise that none of the machines in the world could be compared. Any change in the constants would cause life to fall apart. Just like a wise man once said, "Life is just like a set of flush in hand, so it'll no longer be there once the cards are shuffled."

He even speculated that the past world might also contain magic, but it had never been discovered due to the lack of witches as terminals.

"I heard that you can make steam-powered boats without sails that are faster than any sailing ship," Thunder continued after Roland completely processed the news. "Therefore, I'd like to ask for your help to build such a ship for me, so that I can sail against the current and the sea wind. Money is not a problem. Please feel free to state your price."

Roland said after a while, "Regarding this matter, gold royals are indeed not a problem... No worries, I'll put the best technology into the ship construction and charge you only the cost of production."

"Your Majesty, no, you don't have to..."

"Listen. It's no longer your personal matter. Exploring the unknowns of the world is as significant as changing the fate of mankind," Roland interrupted and said. "I'll fully support your adventure with only one condition—remember to update me at once with any new discovery."

The discussion of the follow-up details continued for another half an hour. However, Thunder probably noticed that it was very difficult for Roland to settle down and concentrate, so he left after setting the next appointment time. Afterwards, Roland continued to sit in front of the desk, frowning and feeling unsettled.

"What's the matter?" Nightingale anxiously asked. "You look pale."

"Nothing..." Roland shook his head and sighed. "I just have a bad feeling about this."

"What feelings?"

"Do you know about the spirits?"

"Uh, do you mean those tiny, glowing, heavenly individuals that could bring moisture and recovery to all things on earth in the epic biography?"

"No, I'm talking about the creatures with pointed ears and human-like bodies, who are elegant, long-lived, and generally prefer to live in the forest."

Nightingale contemplated for a moment and said, "I've never heard of them."

"I've only read about them in a storybook," Roland slowly explained. "These fictional species basically spread their footprints through the entire continent. However, they were forced to hide in the deep forest after the rise of mankind, putting them on the verge of extinction. As intelligent as they were, they were far less in number compared to the latecomers. Facing the Coalition of mankind that was a hundred times larger than they were, the spirits appeared to be totally defenseless, trapped themselves within the deserted mountains, and became increasingly outdated. Their technology was eventually taken over by mankind, and they ended up as pets... What do you think?"

He continued without waiting for Nightingale's answer, "We're just like the spirits now."

As a member of mankind himself, Roland had totally neglected this, but now he shuddered at that thought. Although mankind was indeed a thriving race comparing to the spirits, it did not mean that they would always thrive the most among the intelligent creatures. Nowadays, mankind was actually the minority, and they were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. They were trapped by the demons in a corner of the continent and were totally oblivious to the outside world.

He decided to fully support Thunder in exploring the new maritime space for this reason as well. If mankind was not more foresighted and did not actively assess their situation within the world they were in, they could only be eliminated like the spirits.

"Both Battles of Divine Will wasted nearly a thousand years. Hopefully, it's not too late for all this," Roland thought to himself.

Chapter 515 - The Magic Painting

"Good morning, Miss Soraya!"

As Soraya stepped into the bicycle factory, Jilly came up and said, "You're so early."

This made Soraya feel a bit embarrassed because she had stayed up late last night playing Fight the Landlord with Mystery Moon and Lily which made her wake up half an hour later than usual. When Wendy was not around, everyone became slightly lazy, of course... except for Anna and Agatha. Whether it was work or learning, they had always set a great example for the other sisters, especially Agatha. She always arrived early and stayed late.

Soraya asked Jilly, "Is the material ready?"

"Yes, please follow me," Jilly replied

As a student in the first graduating class, Jilly became Soraya's assistant after graduation. Her main job was to inform Soraya of her daily schedule. A year ago, Soraya would have never believed that ordinary people and witches could work together in harmony.

"Are those the finished bicycles?" Soraya asked since she suddenly noticed that the factory was a bit different today. The steam machine was not in operation and everyone stood around and stared at a row of brand-new vehicles.

"Yes, these are the first batch of products," Jilly said with a smile. "20 bicycles in total. It's not easy to make, especially the chains and wheels. The rate of the finished products was less than 50%." She finished.

"It's not easy indeed," Soraya thought. The factory was built last autumn, but since then, it had experienced all kinds of difficulties, such as the equipment not being ready, a serious shortage of human resources and so on… It was clearly less prioritized when compared to the steam assembly plant and chemical plant next door. Both of the neighboring plants operated in three shifts and people were working at all times. However, the bicycle factory only operated during the daytime. Once, even Jilly complained that her friend, who had worked for the chemical plant, had a salary three times more than hers, but she had never seen a single bicycle made.

Now Jilly finally obtained a bicycle of her own.

As Soraya walked into her office, she saw that the ground had already been paved with a layer of white paper that was about 40 square meters. The white paper made the floor look as if there was snow on the ground.

"Sorry to disturb you, the part we need to process today is the inner tire," Jilly explained to Soraya and then bowed.

"Okay," the witch nodded and said, "You may go on with your work."

"Well, please call me if you need any help." She laughed. "I'm just around the door."

Seeing Jilly leave excitedly, Soraya knew that she could not wait to ride the bicycle.

Soraya smiled and shook her head as she took off her shoes and stepped on the tiled paper floor.

Soraya usually painted the inner tires, outer tires and bicycle frames based on the demand of the bicycle factory. Soraya's painting speed was faster than the factory's production speed, so there were a lot of such things in stock. Given that magical powers grew every day, it was a waste not to use it, so Soraya came to the factory every three days to finish her painting tasks.

She recalled the color the inner tire should be painted and lifted her hand to summon the Magic Pen.

As a film material that contained gas, it must be light, soft and ductile enough and could be fused at high temperatures. From past experiences, she chose shaving coating method for it. After hundreds of tests, she found that sky coating was too flexible and ripple coating too thermal-resistant. When she was collecting raw materials, she noticed the wood shavings left by the carpenters and finally found the ideal painting materials.

Unlike Lucia, she was unable to break down materials into elementary substances and then mix them at any proportion. She had to understand the materials' characteristics by painting it out and she was unable to remember thousands of materials and their properties. Therefore, the simplest way for her to remember was to make a color card. She would choose the appropriate coating from the color card when needed.

Of course, as the paint used for the inner and outer tires were common, Soraya was able to draw without referring to the color card.

The Magic Pen gradually widened to six meters as Soraya was standing at the center of the brush. Actually, the magic pen could expand at most to ten meters, but in that condition it could easily get out of control. So, she would rather spend more time drawing with a smaller brush to ensure the quality.

...

Within two hours, the 40 square meters of paper was coated with a layer of wood shavings. Of course, the paint was not real wood shavings. It was just like her steel painting was not real steel, but a material that was breakable like glass. A thing could never be extremely hard and extremely ductile at the same time.

Inside the wood shavings, Soraya engraved her name as a signature. This is a tradition among artists. Initially, Soraya signed at the lower right corner of the coating, but later, she found out that after the coating was cut, her name would only appear in one inner tube. So, she decided to sign everywhere. By doing so, no matter how the cutting was, people could always see "Soraya's work". At first, Soraya panicked when His Highness noticed it. She thought she would be punished, but instead, his Highness praised her as a watermark inventor.

Although she did not understand the meaning of watermark, Soraya still felt happy for a few days after being praised by His Highness and decided to continue to sign her name on her work.

After the painting was completed, the next process was to burn the paper at one side of the coating to obtain the raw materials for the inner tire. It then would be sent to the cutting room to be cut into strips which would be welded into tires by hot iron. All these tasks were performed by dedicated workers, and Soraya just needed to prepare the raw materials for them.

The painting she made today almost consumed one third of her magic power and reminded her of the importance of training. Training would greatly upgrade her magical powers. In the past, this workload would make her exhausted, but now after she said goodbye to Jill, she still had energy and power to go to the North Slope Mine alone.

After entering the mountain, there was a sentry stationed almost every 100 meters as well as a bunker and watchtower set up at the entrance. Even the lord's castle was not so tightly guarded.

As Soraya entered the yard, the soldiers saluted her. She saw Anna thoroughly focused on cutting some strange parts as usual. At this sight, Soraya suddenly felt a bit ashamed of herself and at the same time felt some admiration for Anna who was so talented and still so hardworking. Anna was also the favorite witch of His Highness.

"Hey, Sister Soraya, you're here." Lucia announced and smiled as she heard Soraya's footsteps.

Anna also put down the parts in her hand and waved at her. "Please, here are some copper wires to be painted," Anna requested.

"No problem." Soraya smiled and walked towards them.

Chapter 516 - The Music of Recovery

What Soraya did was to cover the cut copper wire with a layer of hard anti-corrosion coating so that it could be used for the City of Neverwinter's Three Supplies Project.

This process was easier than coating the inner wire, as the thickness did not require much accuracy.

After choosing the color card, Soraya turned the Magic Pen into a round tube. Once scanned from top to bottom, the "pigment" will become solid on the metal surface. It was a trick she learned from Anna—to make better use of magic power by changing its form.

However, there was still a big gap between them because Anna's ability to control magic was almost perfect. Soraya witnessed the Blackfire as it was cutting metal ingots. It seemed like a performance instead of a task… The three types of Blackfire were in different forms, and they cut through the metal from different angles, making a number of parts that were all the same size, or directly created a complete machine. It was easy to remember the characteristics of the black fire at different lengths. It was, however, hard to control the many types of it and make them work together while maintaining the different characteristics of their magic power. In order to do that, there should be no difference between magic power and limbs, and the magic power might need to be more flexible.

"Is it… a vine?"Lucia asked as she stared curiously at the colors painted by the Magic Pen.

"Exactly, this is a 10-year-old grapevine." Soraya explained, "It's hard and difficult to break, very close to His Highness' requirement."

"10 years old... Is that necessary?".

"Of course." She could not help laughing. "Young vines are obviously softer and less resistant to corrosion and heat. It's not just about their ages. Materials, such as wood, paper, and cloth have different properties in wet and dry conditions. That's why I need to use color cards to record them."

"If this is true, there'll be more color cards than metal formulas!" exclaimed Lucia.

"Not really," Soraya thought for a while and said, "'Elementary Chemistry' states that the characteristics of a material might undergo huge changes while its composition has subtle changes. But, the color card of wood has no noticeable changes when it's mixed with 10% or 15% water."

"Wow, you record the whole world with just a pen." Lucia was amazed. "This is really an enviable ability."

She smiled but did not answer. She was thinking of Anna, who really had an enviable ability. If the Magic Pen was recording the world, then the Blackfire was creating the world. Most of the changes in the town were related to Anna. Several of the machines at the corner of the courtyard displayed proof of that. As long as they were connected to the steam engine, they were able to produce strong bursts of power. The workers became an add-on to the Blackfire through a machine. In a sense, Anna's creation enabled the ordinary people to have power close to the witches'.

Today's job was considered done after coating five bundles of copper wire—Soraya's working life was very consistent. She would go to different places to complete partial coatings every day. Since her painting speed had improved, only about half of her magic power would be exhausted by midday.

When a witch consumed all her magic power, she would feel tired or even faint. Therefore, they would usually retain 30% of their power during the daily training—Typically, as additional training to consume more magic power, she would continue to collect color cards and capture new colors. Still, Soraya became less productive because Wendy and His Highness were not around. For that reason, she decided to join Mystery Moon and others in Fight the Landlord game later.

She thought that this was definitely not slacking off. It was just a temporary entertainment.

...

Time always flew fast while playing a game. The whole afternoon passed within a wink. After dinner, Scroll announced some unexpected news.

"Today's evening course has been canceled and changed to Echo's ability test."

"Well, hasn't she done her ability test before?" Lily wondered and said, "Why does she have to do it again?"

"This is great," said Mystery Moon almost immediately while covering Lily's mouth with her hand. "I've never tested anyone else's abilities!"

Lily stared angrily at Mystery Moon till she stopped covering her mouth and muttered softly. "The point is the class has been dismissed. Why don't you feel happy...?"

"Teacher Scroll, what should we do?" asked Ring, the only non-witch in the hall.

"You just need to focus and listen," replied Scroll with a smile.

"I fancy not everyone needs to attend the test." Agatha stood up. "If not, I'll go back to my room."

"That won't do." Scroll shook her head. "You're one of the reasons for the test."

"Me?" She asked frowning.

All of the witches looked at Agatha, including Soraya.

"Yes. You're too stressed and your body won't be able to bear it if you consume all your magic power every day."

"In Taquila, senior witches do the same," said Agatha carelessly, "Are you not aware of the brutality of the Battle of Divine Will? It'll never stop until the opponent collapses. I believe that the Union is willing to sacrifice all its members if they're able to find the path to victory."

"But His Highness said before, simply forcing yourself will reduce your efficiency. Resting is necessary for doing things, both studying and working," Scroll said softly. "I have told him your situation, so the test is an attempt."

"Test what?"

"The recovery skill of Echo."

The phrase surprised the witches. "Can she heal the wounded like Nana?"

Soraya doubted it. Echo's ability was to simulate all kinds of sounds. She was useless in the Witch Cooperation Association. She would not have been despised by Cara if she could heal others.

Scroll paused for a moment. "I don't know the exact reason. It's His Highness's idea." She looked outside. "Are you ready? Let's begin."

Echo walked to the hall and ascended the podium. She was a little nervous. Everyone was holding their breath and waiting for her to exercise her ability.

The music rang softly, like a clear spring ringing in everyone's ears.

Then she sang a melodious song in her own voice instead of simulating one.

Suddenly, Soraya felt that everything around her had changed. The stone castle gradually faded into the darkness and her body was surrounded by warm springs… It was as if she were enveloped by a white mist, and upon her was a sky full of stars. The cool breezes blew through her warm body. She could not help humming out loud and was completely relaxed and immersed in this very comfortable spring.

At the end of the song, Soraya slowly opened her eyes after a long time. She understood the meaning of "Recovery" without any explanation. There was no increase in magic power, but the fatigue of the day was swept away. Her body became active and strong.

Chapter 517 - The Real Alchemy

...

When Kyle Sichi returned home, he immediately saw a dark envelope on the dinner table.

"What's this?" He looked at his wife Cerra, who was busy at work in the kitchen.

"Oh, by the way, City Hall's officials came around this afternoon." His wife wiped her hands clean and placed an appetizing bowl of meat broth onto the table. "They said His Highness wants you to go to King's City, and a boat will come in two days to escort you there."

"Isn't he going there to confront his brother? Why would he want me there? What a complete waste of time," said Kyle with a frown. "It'll take at least a week's journey. His demands are really going too far."

"He's your prince, Lord of the City of Neverwinter, dear," said Cerra, shaking her head with a smile. "Also, City Hall's officials said that he wrote you a personal letter to show how important this trip was. That's quite an honor, isn't it? You should keep this letter safe after you finish reading it, so we can probably pass it on as a family heirloom."

"Family heirloom? If only it were the complete edition of 'Intermediate Chemistry'." Kyle curled his lip. "Let's discuss this after dinner... He'd better have a good reason."

After his simple meal, he ducked into his study and opened the envelope.

A small strip of paper as long as a finger fell out. This was obviously a secret letter sent by a carrier pigeon, which was then placed in an envelope by the City Hall officials.

Kyle used one hand to press the paper and the other to fumble around the table for his monocle and placed it on the bridge of the nose. Due to reading over a long period of time under faint candlelight, his vision was getting worse day by day. Luckily, his life in the town has been improved a lot, and he could light five or six candles at a time in his office, but he did not know when his house could be installed with the kind of bright lights that lit up the chemical plant.

There was only one short sentence on the strip of paper:

"Do you still remember the Alchemist Workshop of King's City? Now it's your chance to show them what the real alchemy is."

Kyle gasped.

The Alchemist Workshop of King's City was the ultimate dream position for all aspiring alchemists who searched for the truth of all things, and he was no exception when young.

Only his wife knew that he had once applied to the Alchemist Workshop of the King's City. He had planned to gain admission using the "gold-dissolving liquid" that he had invented by himself at the age of 20. However, Kyle's formula unexpectedly failed during the review process, and he could not produce the smoking brown acid liquor even after two attempts. The reviewing alchemist Retnin was outraged and accused Kyle of intentionally wasting the Workshop's valuable ingredients. He denied Kyle a third try and even ordered the guards to seize his purse and kick him out.

Outside the Workshop, Retnin coldly tossed five silver royals from the purse to Kyle, saying that he should buy a trip back to Redwater City, while the rest of the purse was compensation for the Workshop's loss. He left as soon as he was done talking, leaving Kyle with only rejection and a great shame. This left a gaping scar in his heart, and he never told anyone about it except his wife.

Kyle returned to Redwater City full of rage, but he continued to pursue alchemy and spent all his time in his workshop, trying to find a new formula to prove the Alchemist Workshop of King's City wrong. Finally, after ten years, when he was 30 years old, he developed a second formula. For this reason, he was promoted as an alchemist in Redwater City. It took him another six years to become the chair.

Kyle had always viewed the Alchemist Workshop of King's City as his greatest enemy, and he interacted with them a couple times in his work, as well. But their alchemists were always extremely haughty and did not recognize any other alchemist organizations except their own. They believed that Redwater City's alchemists were only as good as their apprentices and students and did not deserve the title of an alchemist. Their supposedly newfound alchemy formulas were mostly discovered by the Alchemist Workshop of King's City dozen years ago.

The Workshop chair even said other cities did not need to build alchemical workshops because this line of work required a great amount of money and manpower, which regular lords could not afford at all. If people needed the help of alchemists, they could seek it directly from King's City. If the lords invested tens of thousands of gold royals into their own workshops, they would probably make no progress with the end of a bunch of useless men.

Embarrassingly, Kyle knew that only the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City saw the workshop of King's City as a competitor, but the latter did not care about him at all. He was overjoyed by his success in the double-stone acid-making method and the production of crystal glass because he could produce large amounts of valuable acid with the former, and the latter was the most highly demanded alchemic product on the market. Even the proud Alchemist Workshop could not ignore his two accomplishments.

In an unexpected and theatrical turn of events, Roland Wimbledon of Border Town found him and opened his eyes to a whole world of possibilities with "Elementary Chemistry".

From then on, Kyle realized that everything he had learned was meaningless. The alchemy itself was a backward practice and doomed for extinction, while a new path of exploration lay ahead of him—this time, the relationship between all things was no longer murky, but clear and organized. His past squabbles were also pointless, and he let go of his vendetta with the Alchemist Workshop of King's City and the formulas that had taken him so much effort to develop.

It's reasonable to do so.

However, when His Highness mentioned this word again, Kyle Sichi's heart still raced, and an indescribable excitement crept back into his heart.

Kyle's mind recalled the cold figure, the muddy silver royals, the door that slammed shut, and the outrageous claim that there was no need for other alchemic workshops except the Alchemist Workshop of King's City to exist.

"Now it's your chance to show them what the real alchemy is."

Kyle scanned the strip of paper one last time, stood up, and walked out of his office. "Cerra..."

He paused in the middle of his sentence and noticed that his wife was bending over, packing his clothes into an open bag in the living room.

"What's this?"

"It's for your journey to King's City. I knew that even if His Highness didn't write you a letter, you'd still go," said Cerra with a smile. "Do you still remember the stories you told me? There are things that you're owed in that city."

Kyle stared at her blankly for a while and then burst out in laughter.

"Take good care of our home. I have to pay a visit to King's City."

Chapter 518 - The New Journey of Magic Hand

It was a bright and sunny day in King's City, making it perfect for a sentencing day.

A cannon would sound on the square every hour, signaling that another formerly "prominent and important" figure received his deserved verdict.

Their convictions had actually already been decided, so this process was mostly used as a propaganda for the citizens. It especially condemned the church and Timothy for conspiring against the king and stealing the throne. After a week of preparation, the evidence collected against them proved their guilt without a doubt—of course, Roland did not actually give them a chance to argue for themselves.

Only a few of the nobles were sentenced to hanging. Besides Timothy, his henchmen, the Prime Minister, and judge, all the other sentenced men were the church believers. Even the church of King's City was completely uprooted, and Roland made sure that everyone who was involved in spreading the demonic plague got what they deserved.

These scumbags will surely be met by cheers from the audience when they're brought to the gallows.

"Are you not going to watch it in person?" asked Nightingale, standing by the window.

"Iron Axe and Theo will take care of everything," replied Roland without even raising his head. Public trials helped excite and unite the subjects in Border Town, but they would not have the same effect here. The people would not automatically side with Roland as soon as he killed Timothy, just like they did not side with Timothy after King Wimbledon III and Gerald died.

He did not have enough support among the citizens here.

He was also concerned about his own safety. Sylvie eventually found the gem list Roland remembered, which Timothy had hidden in a secret compartment in his closet. However, there were twelve more names than the gems there, four of which were hidden in King's City. It meant that they had all received Timothy's orders. Although they were not necessarily the assassination orders, Roland still kept his guard up. Execution grounds were too disorderly and unsuitable for him to visit, and he had no interest in watching executions.

He had much more important things to deal with.

For example, the army.

The casualties in capturing King's City were finally calculated, revealing that the First Army lost 33 men, which was their worst loss so far. Although they killed a much larger amount of enemies than that, Roland still noticed many flaws in their street battle tactics, especially in house demolition—most of the First Army's casualties were caused when enchanted soldiers surprised them by leaping out from civilian houses. If his soldiers could use rifle grenades or blasting cartridges to demolish suspicious houses in their way, there would definitely be lighter casualties.

His other concern was the size of the army. The First Army could take on the entire Kingdom of Graycastle with its 3,000 men, but it was not enough to conquer everything in his sights. He would have to leave at least 500 men behind to maintain order in King's City, and after conquering Fallen Dragon Ridge and the Southernmost Region, the army would be too small to maintain a peace war. He needed to expand his army.

Roland wrote down the plans for death benefits and army expansion and handed them to his guards. He ordered them to take the plans back to the City of Neverwinter, where the City Hall would carry them out.

After that, the prince directed his attention to the lower-level nobles.

They did not have any substantial political power, but they were all well-educated and desperately wanted to be promoted. All the great nobles in King's City had already been cleared out. They were either exiled from the territory or sent to the Neverwinter mines, leaving many vacancies in the office. In order for King's City to run normally, the most effective tactic was to have these lower nobles work for him.

Barov had years of experience in King's City and definitely knew some of these men, so he would be in charge of organizing a temporary ruling system.

These men were willing to serve him, so giving them greater responsibilities would increase their eagerness. Yorko was Roland's first try.

Over the past few days, he finally decided where he should assign his "old friend".

...

Yorko shouted as soon as he entered Roland's office, "Oh God, you really killed all of the church scoundrels! I would never have guessed that they spread the demonic plague, and I couldn't even believe my ears when High Priest Ferry confessed to it. What a disgrace to the deities! Right now, the crowds on the square are praising your name and saying that you saved them six months ago."

Roland smiled. Theo had ordered the Rats to spread this news to corroborate the refugee camps from six months ago. It seemed that it was quite effective. However, Yorko probably made up the part about praising his name to flatter him.

He did not question his words and handed a delicate lambskin letter to Yorko.

"Take a look at this."

Yorko opened the letter, glanced at it, and widened his eyes. "You're, you're making me the ambassador of the Kingdom of Graycastle?"

"Yes, and a permanent one," said Roland with a nod. "You'll have an official letter of appointment, scepter, and seal, and you'll reside in the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn. What do you think?"

This position had taken a great amount of consideration—as the famed "Magic Hand" in King's City, Yorko had a bad reputation, just like Prince Roland did in the past.

No one wanted to be made a cuckold, including the nobles. While their wives cheated on them with other men, instead of simply catching them in the act, the husbands also meddled in brothels and bars—but it was all in secrecy.

If Yorko was given an important position, or if Roland openly gave the Magic Hand a job in the City Hall, it would have an unimaginable influence... All the nobles and merchants would be worried that their wives would begin to openly pursue Yorko, and the women that Yorko had slept with would all try to take advantage of him. Roland did not want this to happen.

His best option was to place him in a foreign country. Kingdom ambassadors were different from traveling emissary delegations, and they had similar authority as Earls, so even foreign kings treated them with respect. This was an important-sounding title that was perfect as a promotion. He also did not have to give him any land, and he would not worry any of the other noble.

Let him go bother the Kingdom of Dawn. I heard that their noblewomen are exotic and outstanding, so he might be able to make a new name for himself there.

Yorko obviously also realized this point. He knelt down without any hesitation and replied excitedly, "I accept... my lord!" He was so eager as if he was worried that Roland would regret his decision.

"Then it's decided," said Roland with a smile. "Before you leave, I'll have a ceremonial officer to train you."

Besides Yorko, he also needed to send some of his own men to the Kingdom of Dawn, so he could keep an eye on his neighbor and also form an alliance with them to fight the church.

Chapter 519 - The Secret within the Stars

Roland shook his head with a smile as he watched Yorko excitedly bowed and left.

He did not mind helping the people who had helped Prince Roland in the past, as long as they did not have any bad intentions.

"Where's Wendy right now?" He turned around and asked Nightingale after taking care of this matter.

"She's probably on the top of the tower practicing her ability. Do you want me to summon her?"

"Yes, and get Sylvie, Lightning, and Maggie as well... we're going to visit the astrologers," said Roland. "And we'll be flying to them."

"I understand." Nightingale's eyes lit up.

"Even if someone wants to attack me, they can't pose a threat against a hydrogen balloon, so this is the best way to travel."

Roland had learned via carrier pigeon that Kyle was on his way, so he postponed his visit to the Alchemist Workshop. He was very curious about the Astrology Association, the other main academic organization in King's City.

Roland also had a great point of confusion that needed to be confirmed.

...

The Astrology Association was located on a mountain in the northern area of the outer city, and it was only the second in height to the twin towers of the palace. The Astrology Hall had a pretty unique design and it looked like a hexagonal stone tower with a flat top from above. It had a wide base and narrow top, and its silhouette was precisely symmetrical.

Roland knew what symmetry implied in that era.

Without advanced measuring and positioning methods, it was nearly impossible to build such a large yet perfect stone structure, a process even more difficult than building a giant city wall.

The guards had left earlier and surrounded the stone tower. As the hydrogen balloon released the air and slowly landed on the tower roof, its passengers were immediately greeted by Brian, Sean and Alva Taber.

"Your Majesty, this area has been completely sealed, and I promise that not a single rat will escape!"

"We have also confiscated all the astrologers' God's Stones of Retaliation, allowing Miss Sylvie to use her magic power, so you can interact with them freely."

"Good job. Stay alert." Roland nodded in approval and shifted his sight to the row of men in gray robes standing behind the guards. They were all aged over 30 years old, and they kept peeking at the hydrogen balloon in panic. They were obviously still rattled by his sudden appearance from the sky.

Roland turned to Alva. "Who's in charge around here? Tell him to come see me."

"Yes, my lord!" Alva spoke briefly with two old men in robes, and one of them cautiously walked to Roland with him. "Your Majesty, this is King's City's Chief Astrologer, Astrologer of Dispersion Star."

"Your Majesty Roland Wimbledon, your honored presence makes all the stars shine brighter."

"Why don't you use your real name?" asked Roland, raising an eyebrow.

"It's a tradition of the Astrology Association," explained Alva hastily. "Every astrologer dreams of naming themselves after a star image... and only people who discover new star images are allowed such an honor."

"So you discovered... the Dispersion Star?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," said the old man with his hand on his chest. "It forms a Dispersion Star ring with three other Dark Stars, and it represents death and rebirth."

"What about them?" Roland pointed at the other men in gray robes.

"These eight are star image masters of the Astrological Station, so they all made their own discoveries." Dispersion Star respectfully described them one by one. "They can explain the meaning behind anything from changes in the stars to dusk and dawn... of course, so can I."

"I'm not here to have my fortune explained."

The old man paused in shock. "Then... Your Majesty, may I ask why you're here?"

"I'm here to explore the stars." Roland shrugged. "Let's continue this conversation indoors. By the way, bring the diagrams of all the star images you've discovered. You have records for these, right? Mark the brightest stars and connect them with a thin line—yes, those things."

...

Stacks of parchment piled up on the table in the hall, some tinged with yellow due to their age.

Roland took a deep breath and used a pen to draw a "spoon" and "hourglass" on a piece of paper, and connecting the bright stars with lines according to the stars diagram.

"Your Majesty, what're these?" asked the scholar confusedly.

"They're two star images." He picked up the paper and showed it to the group of astrologers. "Have you ever seen images like these before?"

They all shook their heads.

"Search for similar images in all of these parchments," ordered Roland. "Everyone, takes a pile, and be sure to look at every single one."

His great confusion was: "Am I on a different side of the same planet?

It's not surprising that this place also has a sun and a moon. The sun is just a regular fixed star. There're billions of fixed stars in the Milky Way, and there're billions of galaxies like the Milky Way in the universe, so it's not unlikely that there's another fixed star system in the infinitely large universe.

However, I'm not sure about species' similarities. Biological evolution occurred by the coincidental outbreak, so there could be completely different organisms produced in the same environment. Whether it's demonic beasts or demons, I don't think they evolved from the same natural world as earth's."

He decided to use star images to address this confusion.

Fixed stars had life spans of billions of years, and their location barely ever changed, so they had always been used to determine the direction or hold symbolic meaning. Roland only remembered two star images: the commonly-known Big Dipper, and Orion. If he could find them among the constellations, he would be able to determine his location.

After an hour, no one had found the constellations.

Roland also used this time to ask Astrologer of Dispersion Star about a few of this world's most famous star images, but he had never heard of any of them. The Kingdom of Graycastle astrologers also did not know of the Zodiac star images.

In general, the Bright Stars on these star images were far denser than the star images he knew, which meant he was closer to the center of the galaxy. This was because fixed stars were closer together towards the galaxy's center.

Then it's very likely that I'm not on Earth.

This answer slightly disappointed Roland. He sighed and glanced around the hall. "How many members are there in the Astrology Association?"

"Your Majesty, there're 9 astrologers, 156 apprentices, and 67 handymen and masons," replied Astrologer of Dispersion Star.

"I plan to shut down the Astrological Station. Pack your bags and return to the City of Neverwinter with me."

The words instantly changed the expression on everyone's face. Alva said in a terrified tone, "Your Majesty, how, how could you..."

"I don't believe in astrology. I only believe in personal choice," said Roland nonchalantly. "And I'm the King of Graycastle, so I can shut this down if I wish to. You'll learn the truth about star images in the Western Region, and you won't see them as the meaningless pathways for fate anymore."

"With all due respect, Your Majesty Wimbledon, you can't do this." The Chief Astrologer slowly rose and said, "We have to watch the stars at all times without interruption—this order was passed by your ancestors."

Chapter 520 - The Star of Extinction

"Ancestor?" Roland blurted out, "What the hell?" He noticed everyone staring at him astonished. Roland cleared his throat and said, "No, I mean... who knows if it's true."

Then he felt his left shoulder being gently pinched.

"Your Majesty, it’s true, and I can prove it," the Chief lowered his head and said. "But you are the only one who can see it."

When the rest of the astrologers heard what the Chief said, they got up and left the room on their own. Roland thought for a moment and nodded to the witches and the guards, saying, "I'm fine. You guys go as well."

He would still have Nightingale with him as a last line of defense in case of any emergency.

The Chief Astrologer, Dispersion Star, entered a chamber next to the hall. After a long time, he returned to the long table with an iron box in his hands. He respectfully placed it in front of Roland.

"What's this?"

"It is the instruction left by your ancestor. He’d expected that this kind of thing would happen."

"You mean closing the Astrological Station?" Roland asked surprised.

"Yes, Your Majesty, and such a thing did happen before," the Chief said with a wry smile. "Although astrology and alchemy are both called the academics of sages, they are different. Alchemists can bring big profit to the kingdom while we have little output. Besides, the Astrology Association consumes many gold royals every year to purchase high-quality crystal and hire craftsmen. In order to prevent frugal future generations from dismissing the Astrology Association, your ancestor engraved the instruction and demanded that nobody interfere with it."

Roland opened the box. Unexpectedly, what he saw was a stack of gold sheets. It seemed that the Wimbledon Family had been willing to spend heavily on preserving this instruction.

He laid out the gold sheets on the table and counted. There were eight of them. Each one was about 3 millimeters thick and 2 palms wide, heavy in his hands.

What the Chief Astrologer said just now was engraved on the first sheet. "Nobody should interfere with the members of the Astrological Station in looking at the night sky, where lay mysteries which can show the fate of the world."

The latter part of the words caught Roland's attention and he became lost in thought.

In fact, this association itself was very strange. If the astrology really worked, King Wimbledon III must not be replaced by the church without any preparation. Instead, he should kill the High Priest first. Just now even the Astrologer of Dispersion Star himself had mentioned the Astrological Station had 'little output'... that meant he did not regard the divination as a product. Now he seemed helpless, totally different from the first time Roland had met him when he had looked like a church scoundrel.

As for the ancestor who had expended considerable funds and manpower to establish such an association and engraved instruction on the gold sheet at all cost to deter post-generations from closing it (for it had no practical use), Roland did not believe that he was simply an astrophile keen on studying things outside of the planet while his kingdom was so underdeveloped. Obviously, the astrologers must hold a task that had nothing to do with divination, but was very likely related to the latter part of the sentence.

He checked the other gold sheets again and again, only to find records of the basic star observation methods and the history of the Astrology Association. The last sheet even recorded the principle of enlarging crystal lenses and referred to a supreme commander. It seemed that the ancestor of the Wimbledon Family had also been Chief Astrologer of this association at the time. Roland recalled the Wimbledon Family history but could not think of anything related to the description on this sheet.

He picked up the first sheet again, pointing to the latter part of the sentence. "What does this mean?"

"I don't know," the chief shook his head as he spoke.

Roland felt a pinch on his right shoulder before the Chief had barely finished his words.

He could not help chuckling, saying, "Listen, the man is more flexible than the rigid rule, and this order left by an ancestor was probably correct while he was alive, but the times have changed, and I don't want to be bound by this rule from hundreds of years ago. I'm the king of the Kingdom of Graycastle, and I can do what I want. Do you understand?"

"What? No, you -" The chief stared at Roland.

"You yourself know it clearly. You're only wasting money. You remain ignorant about the mysteries of the fate of the world. Besides, when my father was murdered by the church, you couldn't even give him a warning. Why should I keep you here to stare at the sky? You can’t exchange the stars for gold royals. So, please pack up and come with me to the Western Region."

Hearing Roland’s words, Dispersion Star, who already had an unfavorable opinion of Prince Roland, who had been intractable and unscrupulous in the King’s City, suddenly looked dour.

After a long time, the chief said reluctantly, "You'll probably regret knowing this secret."

"How do I know if you don't tell me?" Roland smiled. It was really advantageous sometimes to intimidate others by pretending to be like the foppery Prince Roland. With these old men, this was the only way to get an answer for it was impossible to ask Iron Axe to grill them.

"We've been undertaking a mission that lasts for hundreds of years. It began when the first lord Wimbledon arrived in this region." The Chief calmed down and said, "This secret can only be revealed to the successor of the royal family when he becomes King, and has reached the age of 30."

"Why?"

"Because your ancestor thought that the successors might be too confused and panic if they knew it ahead of time and lead to the decline of the Kingdom." He hesitated for a moment and confessed, "In fact, we're looking for the Star of Extinction."

"What's that?" Roland asked in surprise.

"A scarlet star, or the Bloody Moon. When it comes, the world will fall into a disaster beyond redemption."

The prince suddenly felt a shock and began to wonder. The coming of the Bloody Moon had been mentioned not only in the ancient book of the remains but also by Agatha of the Union. Why did a secular association also pay attention to this? Did the Astrology Association have inextricable links with the Union? "Please be specific!" Roland demanded.

"What I know is all from the former Chief," Dispersion Star said in a deep voice. "It's said that there's a red star floating in the night sky. When it comes out like the crescent moon, the world will be destroyed. What we're going to do is to find it before it becomes a crescent moon. If its orbit can be found, we can predict the doomsday in advance. This is also the intention of the horoscope."

"Become a crescent moon?"

"Actually, it's natural that you don't know the star image," the chief explained. "The stars are always following a fixed path, such as the sun and the moon, and they appear at a fixed time. When they disappear, it doesn't mean they're gone. They just temporarily move to a position where we can't see. We call this path Orbit. In fact, most stars have an orbit of their own."

Chapter 521 - The Star Watcher

Though most of the astrologers' findings were just common sense in the modern world, Roland still could not help being surprised by the fact that the astrologers could be able to tell the orbital motions of the stars without any modern observation techniques.

"The Star of Extinction also moves along a certain path," he said, "and it appears every 400 to 500 years. That means, it must orbit within a much larger area than the sun and the moon that are near us in space and can run a circle around us in a day and a night." He panted for breath and continued. "Given that an object appears big when it's near and small when far, the Star of Extinction in the sky will change from dark to bright and then turn into a crescent when it's getting closer and closer to us."

"Have you found it?"

Dispersion Star shook his head. "The secret mission has been passed down for hundreds of years but doesn't specify the exact time when the Star of Extinction will come. Maybe it's still in some distant position we can't observe."

"For decades... you've buried yourselves in this job?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." The old man sounded very tired. "I became an apprentice in the Astrological Association 40 years ago. Since then, I've been watching the little changed starry sky every night. However, I had no idea of this secret mission until I became the Chief Astrologer. Besides observing the stars and recording the time and seasons, astrologers also work as fortune tellers in festivals and celebrations, but we only say what the king orders us to, instead of truly predicting the future. It's a secret between the king and us. Astrologers need to be venerated as sages, in order for our association to recruit more apprentices."

"You regret it?"

Dispersion Star shook his head. "I would regret that ten years ago, but since I became the Chief Astrologer and received this secret mission from my predecessor, Meteorite Astrologer, I've understood what I'm doing is meaningful and it's really about astrology and foretelling the future. The significance of the job is beyond compare, but unfortunately, I don't have much time left."

Looking at his gray hairs, heavily wrinkled face and countless brown spots on his forehead, Roland had to agree with him and thought, "That's true. I'm afraid he can only survive for another two or three years."

"Is there any strategy left by your predecessors we can take to fight against or escape from the devastating disaster?

"No, that's your problem, Your Majesty." Dispersion Star gave Roland a weak smile. "You're the one who leads the people to get through hard times. The Astrological Station is just your eye and will warn you about the coming disasters, thus increasing the chance of survival for the people. Given that, you can't close it."

The Chief Astrologer's attentiveness to his duty commanded Roland's respect. For most people, it was hard to persevere with such a boring job, but this elderly man had searched for the Star of Extinction in the sky night after night for decades without flinching. Roland now guessed the reason why ancestors of the Wimbledon Family made the rule that the confidential information about the star should never be revealed to the new king before he turned 30. If young successors of the royal family knew about it, they would probably indulge themselves and do everything in their power to enjoy the rest of their lives.

After a long silence, Roland raised his last question. "What about Astrological Associations of the other three kingdoms’? They're searching for the Star of Extinction, too?"

"I've no idea... I've never left the King's City and they've never contacted us here in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"I see, and that's all for today."

"You... decide not to close the Astrological Station?"

"No, let's keep it," Roland answered, stood up and then walked towards the hall outside. Before he left the room, he turned around to look at the Chief Astrologer and said, "I'll send you better equipment for observing stars and tell you about the real knowledge of star image."

"What?" The chief astrologer looked confused.

Without explaining anything to him, Roland continued. "Besides, even when the Bloody Moon comes, it's not our end." He paused a bit and spoke assertively, "We'll survive it."

...

The hydrogen balloon was blown up. Roland and the witches got in the basket and flew towards the palace.

"What were you talking about?" Lightning asked, clutching the basket from outside.

"I want to know, too, coo!"

"It's a story about a man who left his work half done," Nightingale said and shrugged.

"In that condition, how could I insist on closing it now?" Roland rolled his eyes and described what had happened in the hall to them. "I planned to send them to the Western Region, but let them finish what they're doing now at the Astrological Station. They've remained loyal to their duties for decades."

"You're indeed a merciful king," Wendy said with a smile.

"Coo, a kind man!" Maggie flapped her wings and crowed, stretching her neck.

"Ahem." Roland quickly changed the subject. "The Star of Extinction they're searching for should be the Bloody Moon mentioned by Agatha. When it appears, the world is going to come to an end. This prophecy must have something to do with witches."

"I think so, too," Sylvie said after a thought, "and there's an obvious proof. This used to be called the Barbarian Land. There were only villages and no cities at all. How could the people here suddenly start to pursue something so impractical? It must be the survivors from the Union. When they came here to rebuild their homes, they brought the information about the Bloody Moon here and then passed the task on to the earliest astrologers."

"And one of them is His Majesty Roland's ancestor?" Lightning said, excited. "What a wonderful adventure!"

"An adventure? Where's the danger, coo?"

"You fool, not every adventure is dangerous. Finding out a secret is rewarding enough for an explorer."

"Coo? But you've said that an explorer should pay more attention to the experience than the results." Maggie blinked her eyes innocently.

"Uh... A great explorer can choose either to focus on the experience or to search for the results. That's how we make each exploration enjoyable." Lightning said in a low growl. "You're a long way from being an explorer!"

"Coo..." The pigeon gloomily fell on Roland's head. "Is that true?"

The witches burst into laughter.

After they went back to the palace, Roland immediately went through the records of the Wimbledon Family history he found and then could not help frowning.

"What happened?" asked Nightingale.

"There's no record about astrologers in the family history." He pointed at the yellowing page. "The first ancestor is Monde Wimbledon and the first king is Taraq Wimbledon. Nothing about the Astrological Station or the supreme commander... Their recordings were erased."

"Who did it?" She was surprised. "The writers of the book must be the kings in the past, right?"

"Yes, recordings written by each king will be added to the family history. Nothing should be left out," Roland said slowly, "and when the people started to build the cities here, he or she already had the ability to have the orders carved on metal sheets, but why are there no recordings about that person at all?"

Did someone try to conceal something? But why did that person leave a trail of clues in the Astrology Association? Every king or queen of the Wimbledon Family should know the real purpose of the Astrological Station... What happened to the family 400 years ago?

Chapter 522 - A Drastic Change in the Northern Region

..

"What?"

Calvin Kant, the Lord of the City of Evernight and Duke of the Northern Region shouted. He rose suddenly and stared at the messenger with disapproval, toppling his water cup from the side table. The cup hit the floor with a smash, making a crisp, clear sound.

"Your Grace, I saw it with my own eyes!" said the messenger, further lowering his head. "The rebel king breached the city wall of King's City in just one day. Even the king himself failed to escape. I'm afraid he's probably dead now."

"How... could this happen?" Calvin murmured. "It's King's City!"

Its blue stone city wall is more than 54 yards high and guarded by thousands of soldiers equipped with catapults and snow powder. No one can break through that city's defenses unless he has an army of 20 to 30 thousands. Even if Prince Roland had such a huge army, it's still hard to believe that he captured the city in merely one day!

"They had invincible firearms," the messenger said in a trembling voice possibly caused by tiredness from traveling the whole night or the shock he had experienced in the battlefield. "They could fire without a break. Their weapons were just too powerful for the knights and even the crazed army of the king. No one could stop them. Anyone who got close to them died or was severely wounded... Compared to their firearms, the king's flintlocks were cheap, useless iron sticks."

Calvin's mind was a blank. His whole world was turned upside down. He felt it was all over.

He had received an order from Timothy, which had required that he should send an army to support King's City. As the new Duke of the Northern Region, he must follow the king's order and after some discussion, he had assembled an army of 2,500 by choosing soldiers from troops of the Horsehead Hawes, the Snow Fox Lista and his own families. This army had been planning to set out after the snow melted and to arrive at the King's City two to three weeks after he had received the order. He had never thought that the army would miss the war in King's City as a siege warfare usually took months.

The army was mostly comprised of mercenary and freemen. Not many knights or serfs were in it, since the plowing season was about to start. However, no matter what kind of army he had sent out, he had already done something that the rebel king would consider guilty of rebellion. He was afraid that his good days were going to be over very soon.

"Edith!" Calvin suddenly thought of his brilliant daughter. "Maybe she can think of something to save us."

"Go! Bring my eldest daughter to my room!" he shouted to a guard by his side.

Edith soon walked into the study, wearing fitting clothes and carrying a training sword. Her hair was done up in a bun, and her nose was dotted with small beads of sweat. She had been practicing with her sword as usual and now seemed slightly displeased. "I've asked you not to disturb me when I'm practicing."

"I know I promised but we're in big trouble!" Calvin urgently repeated what the messenger had told him and asked her, "What should we do?"

He looked at his daughter, eager to hear a solution. Edith Kant, the brightest Pearl of the Northern Region, was not only a beauty but also a naturally talented politician and strategist. She had contributed greatly to the success of her father's rising from an Earl to the Duke of the Northern Region and even the sons of the Kant Family were overshadowed by her.

She was startled hearing that Prince Roland had conquered King's City in just a day but quickly recovered and said calmly, "Now you understand why I didn't agree to marry Timothy?"

Calvin stared in surprise and asked, "You knew that he would end up like this?" Timothy had stayed in the Northern Region after he defeated the rebellious Duke Ise and like many other men, had his eyes on the Pearl of the Northern Region. But she skillfully turned down the messenger he sent to her. Her father was confused and even blamed her for refusing the king since if she had married Timothy and become the queen as many girls had dreamed of, the Kant Family's status would have been further secured.

"You mean his city was occupied in one day? No, I didn't expect that." Edith untied her hair band to let her long green hair down. "I just felt he was not the right person."

"Not the right person... Who is the right person is for you? Though his reign turned out to be quite short, he was still the king of the Kingdom of Graycastle at that time!" Calvin complained in his heart but did not tell his daughter what he thought. He had made his mind to pass his Duke title to Edith who he believed would bring a brighter future to the family, compared with her two brothers, if she refused to marry anyone.

"Anyway," Edith bent to pick up some broken pieces of the porcelain water cup. "First, you have to order the army to retreat."

"But they've been out for four days, and I've no idea which route they took. I'm afraid it's too late."

"That's not a problem," she arranged the broken pieces of the cup to represent the three locations and said. "You can send someone to Deepvalley Town today. If he sets out now from here, he'll arrive at the town by evening. Tomorrow, he can take a boat to King's City and reach it at least one day before the army. No matter which route the army took, they'll end up on the main road leading to the city's north gate, so if the one you send walks in the opposite direction to the army, he'll meet and stop them in the suburbs of King's City."

"I see." The Duke patted his head heavily and thought, "I should have thought of this solution. The news was just too sudden and astonishing for me to react calmly and quickly." He said, "I'll write a letter now! No, I'll send out a guard with my keepsake to deliver the command! Guard!"

A guard came to receive the order and then quickly left. Edith said slowly, "Father, do you think we can withstand Prince Roland's attack?"

A shiver went through Calvin. He knew that the outer wall of King's City, which had been twice as sturdy as that of his City of Evernight could not stand long in the suppression of Roland's powerful firearms. He replied, "I don't think we can."

"So, it's not enough just to withdraw the army." She shrugged and added, "Don't forget that it was Timothy who made you a Duke. It's natural for Prince Roland to consider us his enemies and it's just a matter of time for him to destroy us. Under such circumstances, we have to be more proactive."

You mean that I should swing to Prince Roland?" Calvin hesitated. "But why should he trust me?"

"Show your sincerity," Edith said softly. "Most nobles hearing the news will be intimidated by Prince Roland's overwhelming victory over Timothy and won't be able to fight in unison against him. Given that, we would have to surrender to him as early as possible. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way, so we have to show sincerity great enough to impress him."

"But... how?"

Before Calvin could work out what she meant, Edith drew out her wooden training sword and smashed two of the broken pieces of the water cup with a smile.

"I think the Hawes Family and the Lista Family would make great presents. What do you think, father?"

Chapter 523 - The Blood Pearl

In the evening, Calvin Kant summoned the nobles of the Northern Region to the castle.

The fireplace in the banquet room burned brightly with swaying flames, causing the guests' shadows on the walls to dance up and down as if they formed a very unusual painting.

Four long tables traversed the hall, each placed full of steaming hot meat dishes and wine. It appeared to be a highly sumptuous dinner, yet the atmosphere was not relaxed at all. This was even more so after the Duke announced that King's City had been seized.

"I've dispatched men to rescue the platoon that was sent out four days ago. Thankfully, they've returned alive," he declared in a deep voice while sitting on the host's seat. "But today, the question I want to ask you is... what should we do about the Northern Region?"

The nobles looked around the room blankly. Perhaps, the news that Timothy was defeated in a day was so astonishing that everyone in the hall was speechless and afraid to reply. Calvin could see the fear and regret in the eyes of the lower nobles. "Edith was right. We can't depend on these people to defend against Roland Wimbledon. Dividing the land was never an option from the beginning—there's only one path ahead."

However, for the nobles who had only recently sought refuge with Timothy, it was rather embarrassing to openly turn around and switch allegiance.

"Why don't we send a spy to eavesdrop on Prince Roland?" Someone in the room suggested after a long period of silence.

"If he doesn't disturb the Northern Region, we may as well endorse him as the new king." These words immediately garnered the approval of another noble. "These are the Wimbledon Family's issues. It doesn't make a difference to us who becomes the king."

Upon hearing this, Earl of Lista laughed grimly. "No difference?"

Calvin frowned slightly and knew that the keynote was coming.

Indeed, after the Earl spoke, everyone in the room became silent, and this made Calvin feel a little uncomfortable. In reality, the three families were equal in strength, while the Kant Family was slightly inferior to the others. It was only because he had heeded his daughter's advice and was first to play up to Timothy that he was able to obtain the position of Duke.

Of course, he also understood that this was one of the new king's balancing tactics. Timothy was probably glad that the other two families belittled and were dissatisfied with him.

"Have you forgotten about Duke Ise? He was arrested for treason and executed." Lista asked the room callously. "He didn't actively provoke Timothy. If we admit defeat so early on, the noose may be tied around our necks at any time, and it would then be too late to struggle! In Prince Roland's view, we've already participated in treason and none of us can deny our relations with Timothy!"

"What else can we do but admit defeat? If King's City couldn't even last a day, we would simply be throwing eggs at a rock..." One of Calvin's feudatories, who looked like he had lost his usual vigor, retorted softly, in accordance with the agreement. Under the incensed gaze of the Earl, he was unable to enunciate the latter half of his sentence.

"Even if we only have eggs, I'll try my best," Ed Hawes proclaimed. "The rebel king murdered my elder brother! He has to pay for it!"

"It may not be us holding the eggs. The Northern Region's full of hills and mountains, and dangerous roads are all over. Roland's army may be able to travel quickly over plains and rivers, but it'll be a whole new game here." Earl Hawes followed up swiftly. "At worst, the Horsehead Family will retreat to Coldwind Ridge, where I don't believe that his army will be able to reach."

"That's as good as baring your entire back to the church," Calvin silently thought. "Those f*ckers don't harbor any good intention for the Northern Region either." He had heard about what happened to the eldest son of the Hawes Family. "It appears that he died in a fight against the lord of the Western Region... but death is inevitable in any war. If shouting could injure or kill enemies, there won't be a need for weapons and armor."

The hall started to become rowdy. As the Lista and Hawes families stated their opinions, the voices which proposed to "halt the troops and get ready to fight the advancing enemy" gradually suppressed the ones which proposed to "actively pry on Prince Roland's position and express friendliness." Although Calvin remained silent throughout this discussion, he was beginning to feel quite anxious.

Surely Edith hasn't run into trouble?

"What does the Honorable Duke think?" His long silence had become suspicious, and Earl Lista was now staring straight at him.

Calvin's heart froze when he knew it was his turn to say something. "I brought all of you here tonight because I wanted to listen to everyone's opinion. This matter is important to the future of the Northern Region and we can't be too careful..."

Earl Hawes interrupted him impatiently. "Enough! I've got a feeling that you've already planned to swear allegiance to Prince Roland. Why else would all those who expressed cowardly opinions happen to be your feudatories? If we're to hand over power meekly now, we'll just become lambs to the slaughter!"

"You..." Calvin felt an urge to toss his wine glass at the Earl but managed to refrain himself in time.

"Since that's the case, we have nothing else to discuss." Lista stood up and headed towards the banquet hall's exit. "By the way, if you want Prince Roland to spare your pathetic life, you may offer Edith, all tied up, to him. I've heard that he highly appreciates beauty... ugh..."

The audience's laughter ceased as the Earl turned silent unexpectedly. A sword tip visibly protruded out of his back. The blood stains on the blade seemed to shimmer dimly under the light from the fireplace.

"Are you talking about me, Sir Snow Fox? I can't pretend that I didn't hear what you said."

The Earl's body collapsed onto the floor feebly. The tall and lean figure of an armored warrior appeared in front of everyone. She pulled her sword out nonchalantly, stepped over the Earl who was still squirming in utter pain, and walked into the hall.

It was none other than Edith Kant herself.

Calvin immediately felt a great sense of relief.

Her armor plates were stained full of blood, an evidence that she had just been in a violent fight. Even so, she was as composed and elegant as ever—she had the face of a beautiful smiling assassin. A platoon of warriors followed behind her and surrounded the hall in the blink of an eye. By now, everyone that was present understood what had happened.

"The guards!" Earl Hawes' eyes widened as he spoke. "What have you done to the guards outside..."

"How can I deal with you lot if I hadn't disposed of them first?" Calvin exhaled a sigh of relief and smashed his glass on the floor. "You seem to have forgotten that I'm the one in charge here!"

He had long awaited this moment. This kind of banquet was held every once in a few days, and as such, most of the nobles did not take many precautions. They were each accompanied by less than 100 servants, most of whom they instructed to keep watch outside the castle area. It was the perfect opportunity to capture all of them together. After the guards had been taken care of, the rest was easy.

Of course, the person who planned and executed this trap was his daughter—the Pearl of the Northern Region, Edith.

As the exit doors of the banquet hall were slowly shut, the flames in the fireplace seemed to wobble for the last time.

The feudatories of the other two families pulled out their swords. By contrast, the lower nobles seemed shell-shocked.

"Are you out of your mind?" Ed Hawes snapped angrily.

But Calvin had no time for a war of words. "If you put down your weapons and surrender, you'll be spared." All resistors will be killed!"

As the words left his tongue, two factions of people began to brawl.

Chapter 524 - A Night of Bloodshed

Chaos and confusion erupted in the hall. Wooden tables were flipped, while bowls and dishes fell all over the floor, creating a symphony of clanking and cracking noises. Spilled soup flowed along the crevices in the stone slabs until it was everywhere.

It was the first time for the Duke's two sons to witness such a life-and-death fight from such a close distance. The older son, Cole, held out his sword and stood in a rigid posture to defend his father. It was completely unlike his carefree attitude during training sessions. Meanwhile, the younger son, 17-year-old Lance, cowered behind his chair.

Calvin sighed in silence. If he did not have Edith, his sons would probably not look so useless by comparison. The gulf of ability between her and them could not be bigger. Perhaps, they were already resigned to this fact and had long lost the courage and motivation to catch up with her.

The Duke looked towards the center of the banquet hall. His wunderkind eldest daughter already had her eyes fixed on Ed Hawes, the strongest challenger around.

First, she took a bottle of ale and flung it at her opponent, forcing him to turn away. Next, she leaped up onto one of the long wooden tables and dived straight at him with her sword. Her quick and agile movements were like those of a cat. Ed adeptly parried her blows, and the clashing of swords caused sparks to fly.

She struck out half a dozen times within a split second, and her sword came together with Ed's to form a continuous clinking sound which seemed to signal the impending arrival of death. In this critical situation, Ed displayed frightening technique and strength to negate every one of her strikes. It was hard to pick a winner. While they fought around the long tables, many of the Hawes Family's knights had already succumbed in battle. Yet, Ed did not flinch or cower but instead became increasingly aggressive.

Calvin began to worry.

As evident from the blood stains on her armor, Edith had earlier been involved in another tough fight. Even if she was not wounded, her physical strength had been expended considerably. Furthermore, as a female, she was naturally disadvantaged in terms of strength. It would be unfavorable to her if the tussle drags on.

However, there was not a trace of fear on Edith's face.

Her eyes were fully focused on her opponent—her bright pupils were like twinkling stars that could illuminate the world. Beads of sweat flung out of her hair ends with every strike she made. Although her energy was visibly diminishing, she continued to thrust relentlessly at her opponent, forcibly keeping him in a defensive stance.

Ed seemed to take notice of this. With a loud roar, he changed to a technique which would deal great injury to both of them. However, Edith was not keen on exchanging blood with blood, and became the one deflecting attacks. The disparity in strength between them finally told. Edith lost her balance as her sword was sliced into two, causing her to fall off the long table.

The Duke's heart jumped into his throat. "F*ck, help her now!"

However, even the nearest guard was not able to assist—everything happened too quickly.

Instead of attempting to stand up immediately, Edith astutely used the remainder of her sword to slice off the legs of the long table. At this moment, Ed jumped onto the table with both of his arms raised, intending to finish her off with a powerful blow. He completely did not notice what she had just done.

Calvin stared in disbelief at what followed. The table, missing a leg, caused the knight to lose his balance. If the table toppled normally, he would have been able to leap off easily. But just at that instant, all of his strength was concentrated in his arms, while his feet were fixed on top of the table, and his body was hunched forward in the chopping posture. As such, he fell headfirst onto the floor with a loud thud.

There was no chance of a comeback.

Edith jumped onto her opponent's back and pulled out a dagger from her waist. She plunged it straight into his neck and twisted it. The knight's body began to spasm.

"Was it... a matter of luck? Probably not..." the Duke realized that Ed had fallen into his daughter's trap the moment he jumped onto the table. When Ed took over his opponent's high position, it made him feel as though he had turned defeat into victory. The advantage that he built up over the course of the fight caused him to think that strength and power alone would decide the outcome, and his confidence grew at the sight of his opponent's weakening resistance. This was why he placed all of his strength into his final blow. Under normal circumstances, Edith would not have been able to survive it.

But this turned out to be the perfect opportunity to trick him into losing his balance completely.

The resistance of the two families did not last very long in the face of opponents who outnumbered them by three to one. After less than 10 minutes, the hall quietened down again. The fireplace continued to burn calmly, while the only noticeable difference in the hall was the strong smell of blood that mixed together with the smell of spilled alcohol and other drinks.

The Duke returned to his seat and looked around the room. The lower nobles hurriedly lowered their heads and did not dare to look straight at him.

"Earl Lista and Earl Hawes conspired against King Wimbledon and have been duly punished. Right now, you all have a choice. Do you all want to serve these two corpses or the new king?"

This time, the responses were uniform and there were no extra remarks.

...

"So, it's settled?" In the study, Calvin used a handkerchief to wipe off the blood stains on his daughter's forehead. "Will His Majesty Roland Wimbledon accept us?"

"You were calling him a rebel king only yesterday," Edith quipped teasingly. "Are you going to pledge homage to him so soon?"

"Wasn't this what you said?" The Duke glared at his daughter. "Since we can't beat him, we may as well surrender earlier. If we don't win his trust, the nobles will hate us too!"

In fact, the execution of the two great noblemen without going through due process violated the bottom line agreed among the noble. If it was not for the fact that the Kingdom of Graycastle had been at war for two years and the lords of various lands had changed rapidly, as well as Timothy being a bad example, Calvin would never have dared to do things as his daughter had suggested.

"I don't know if we can."

"Wh-what?" The Duke quivered and nearly dropped his handkerchief. "You don't know?"

"Indeed. All we can do is to display our sincerity, but ultimately it'll be Prince Roland who decides the fate of Northern Region. You should know this, Dad," Edith said almost nonchalantly. "There's a chance he'll send his own people to take over Northern Region, and it won't be surprising if your rank is lowered. But I know that if we don't try, our Kant family won't have a chance to survive."

Calvin stood rooted for a long time before he sat back down, looking extremely displeased. He knew that his daughter was right, but yet he found it hard to accept her reply.

He did not want to lose the position of Duke.

Just then, Edith laughed. "Don't lose heart, Dad. You still have much work to do tomorrow. We'll seize the mansions and fiefs of the two Earls. Besides, the outcome of this matter will heavily depend on the level of competence we display to His Majesty." She paused for a while, before continuing. "Sincerity is our ticket into the negotiation, but ability is what will decide the outcome of the negotiation."

Calvin frowned in incomprehension. "What do you mean?"

"I'll bring these two heads to King's City, Dad." She laughed in a charming yet wicked way. "Let me be your messenger to His Majesty."

Chapter 525 - Return to King's City

"King's City! After a year and a half, I'm finally back!"

Barov's heart stirred as he watched the cyan stone wall gradually become closer and clearer.

In fact, he had been excited ever since he received the prince's orders. Prince Roland had defeated Timothy smoothly and easily, as expected. This once again showed that no one was able to resist the army of Western Region's Lord.

Of course, it was now rather inappropriate to call Roland the "Lord of the Western Region".

He was now the only surviving son of King Wimbledon III, and thus was the bloodline inheritor and rightful heir of the royal family.

The obstacles to his ascent had been completely swept away.

It was a matter of time that Roland would be crowned king.

As for Barov, he would soon become the Prime Minister, second in power only to the king. This joyful thought made him become steeped in reverie. "When those 'old friends' of mine, who're so concerned about me, see that I've attained a position that they can't even dream about, how will they feel? Shocked? Jealous? Envious? Or gnashing their teeth while putting on a fake smile and trying to please me?" These imaginations gave him immense pleasure. It would be even better if his former mentor, Treasurer Lauren Moore, could witness the scene of his promotion.

...

The concrete boat slowly docked at the pier in the outskirts of the city. Barov sauntered down the trestle bridge together with Kyle Sichi and other companions. Under the escort of the First Army, they walked through the familiar streets and entered the inner city palace.

The Palace of Twin Towers was still as majestic as it was in his memory. In the past, he could only look at it from far away in a small room in the City Hall. This time, he could walk into the palace boldly.

He was led straight up to the study, where he once again met Roland Wimbledon.

In a state of excitement, he got down on one knee and greeted, "Your Majesty, Kingdom of Graycastle is now yours!"

"Actually, not yet. Eastern Region and Northern Region remain under Timothy's control." Roland laughed. "Get up you, there's much for us to discuss."

To Barov, Roland looked and acted exactly like he did before. He spoke in his usual calm tone and was warm and friendly. He did not seem to be affected by his upcoming coronation at all. Barov's attitude thus became even more respectful. He stood up slowly, dusted himself and replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Our prior task at the moment is to maintain the administration of King's City. I'd made this clear in the letter." Roland poured a cup of hot tea and placed it in front of Barov. "Do you have a preliminary plan?"

Barov hurriedly received the cup of tea. "It won't be difficult to maintain the existing order. Your Majesty, how about you let me handle the lower nobles? They'll know what's good and bad for them. Also, I've brought over 10 of my most outstanding students from Border Area. Some are proficient in business and some in tax administration. Even when I'm not around, my students will make sure that those noblemen don't steal or do anything funny." He paused before adding. "But, Your Majesty, I hope you'll assign the left-behind soldiers of the First Army to assist in their supervision. Without military force as insurance, supervision alone may not have the right effect."

Roland appeared a little surprised. "You don't wish to remain in King's City?"

"Of course not, Your Majesty," Barov replied without the slightest hesitation. "The government affairs of City of Neverwinter are much more complex and important. As such, I can't be away for too long. And it'd be too exhausting for you to go and handle these issues yourself. Please, Your Majesty, let me continue to manage the City Hall of City of Neverwinter for you. It has suited me well to serve under you."

Barov had thought very clearly about this. His Majesty had confirmed that City of Neverwinter would become the new capital of Kingdom of Graycastle, and therefore, it was only a matter of time that it overtook this city. At present, the former's population and development potential had already surpassed King's City, and after the launch of the new batch of recruitment programs, its scale would be unarguably greater than any other city within the Four Kingdoms. Of course, he would get to listen to the mourns and wails of his "old friends" if he remained in King's City, but over time, he would inevitably get bored and sick of them. Furthermore, such mourns and wails could not provide him with more authority and influence, and on the contrary, would gradually pull him away from the power center. He knew that it was only by appearing regularly in front of His Majesty Roland that he would be able to leave a strong impression.

Roland gleefully observed Barov for a long while until the latter lowered his head out of his guilty conscience. Then, Roland consented. "Alright. But my condition is that the change of city hall officials mustn't cause King's City to fall into disorder. You should know that every single person in this city is important to me."

...

Subsequently, His Majesty enquired about the details of the situation regarding the mining and farming projects in Longsong Area. He paid particular attention to the latter. Barov had known about Roland's preference beforehand and thus had obtained information about the farming projects from Petrov. He replied smoothly to every question, such that Roland continually nodded in agreement.

The afternoon passed quickly. After asking his last question, Roland patted Barov on his shoulder to show his appreciation. "You've done well. I won't have to worry when I'm out leading the army into battle. Go and have dinner. We'll discuss the development plans of Longsong Area tomorrow."

"Yes..." Barov hesitated for a moment. He noticed that out of so many questions, Roland had not mentioned his coronation. "Your Majesty, may I know when you intend to be officially crowned and proclaimed King?

"Plans haven't been made," Roland replied calmly.

"What?" The City Hall Director could not believe his own ears. "These things should be arranged as early as possible! With it, your prestige will increase tremendously, and the people's hearts will unite as one. There aren't any downsides. Why don't you..."

"It needs too much time." Roland cut him short, stood up, walked over to the window, and looked down at the magnificent city under the dusk light. "I've asked the ceremonial officer. He says that a full coronation will require many months of preparation. Aside from making the gold crown and the gem scepter, invitation letters have to be sent to the church and the other three kingdoms. The ceremony can only begin after all of their emissaries have arrived. Even if we omit the Holy City of Hermes, Kingdom of Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart, it'll still require more than a month to contact Kingdom of Dawn. This will severely slow down our plans for the second half of the spring offensive."

"Your Majesty, you can simplify this process..."

"That would lower the prestige of the coronation, such that it might even have an adverse effect." Roland shrugged his shoulders in rejection of Barov's idea. "Even Timothy pays heed to this process. I can't appear to be more anxious and cheaper than him. However, my ambassador to Kingdom of Dawn will set off shortly. He'll notify them about this. When we get a formal reply from them, it won't be too late to consider this matter."

*******************

After Barov took his leave, Roland could finally exhale a sigh of relief.

There was another reason that he had not mentioned. It was the deep and pervading notion of "Focus on amassing grains, while slowly becoming king", in other words, "Become rich silently". At present, he only occupied Western Region, which was not even a third of the land area that Timothy occupied when he was king. It was best to be modest before the church officially attacked Kingdom of Dawn, and it would be troublesome if Hermes made him the prior target. Though he was no longer afraid of falling out with the church, he did not want to draw aggro on behalf of others.

Shortly, Roland summoned Kyle Sichi to his study.

He was hoping that his Chief Alchemist had already thought of a way to intimidate the Alchemist Workshop of King's City.

Chapter 526 - The Alchemist Workshop

The Refining Hall located in the east of the city was Retnin's favorite place to stay.

It was a place always full of vitality, often filled with students and apprentices constantly moving materials back and forth. He could see steam rising from various vessels and perceive the smells of sulfur and acid water. Occasionally, he could hear crashes of broken glass, usually accompanied by loud scoldings from alchemists.

Even though he was promoted to one of the three chief alchemists two years ago and had his own alchemical room, he preferred the busy and crowded Refining Hall for inspiration. Just like the Refining Hall where people of different kinds gathered and mingled, alchemy was a process of mixing various matters. Nevertheless, only a few, such as crystal glass and snow powder, could distinguish themselves from the ordinary and shine through the muddy mixture.

The charm of alchemy lay in the refining process, in which those grayish white sand and black charcoals could turn into such a splendor that nobody had ever foreseen. The same held true for people. The Alchemist Workshop accepted a large number of new apprentices every year, but only a very few of them would eventually stand out from the rest and become first-rate alchemists. Retnin was one of the very few. It had taken him 34 years to go from apprentice to chief. Although he was now nearly 50, with one foot in the grave, he felt content with his life, for having learned the aesthetics passed down from the sages.

The only thing that disquieted him was the recent round of incidents in the King's City.

The biggest overturn was the change of the king. After Prince Roland hanged Timothy, he had indubitably become the successor of the King. The news should have had nothing to do with the Alchemist Workshop. They needed to be responsible for alchemical production whoever the king was. However, he was not sure if they could stay out of this trouble once Prince Roland found out they had provided Timothy with snow powder as a war material.

King's City had gradually restored its peace. Yet the fact that the prince had visited the Astrological Station instead of the Alchemist Workshop gave Retnin an ominous feeling.

"Are you still worried about the Astrology Association?" asked a voice at his side. "Its not like you to sit here in a daze, brows furrowed."

Judging from the unguarded tone, Retnin knew it must be another chief alchemist. He turned around and found Rayleigh, whose hair was as frosty as his, sitting next to him. "What on earth do you think His Highness is planning?"

"He’s thinking those fellows who only care about stars are wasting money. What else can he be thinking about?" Rayleigh said carelessly. "It's a pity he didn't stick to his opinion. Those guys shouldn't be crowned as sages anyway. They should have been laid off a long time ago."

As the two major academies in the Kingdom, the Alchemist Workshop hired spies to collect information about the Astrology Association. The Alchemist Workshop somewhat knew the purpose of Roland's visit to the Astrological Station, but did not know what exactly the chief astrologer had said to Prince Roland in secret that made him change his mind about shutting down the Astrological Station.

"Are you worried that the Alchemist Workshop will be shut down as well?" He patted Retnin on his shoulder heartily. "Don’t forget the profit we bring to King's City! Once the limit in the production of crystal glass and perfume is lifted, the gold royals we'll earn can probably fill the prince's entire bedroom. How can he resist such a lucrative business opportunity and shut the Workshop down?"

"But we produced snow powder for Timothy."

"So what? Could we disobey the King's order?" Rayleigh grunted. "Any reasonable person should know it isn't us to blame. Besides, he also manufactured loads of weapons fueled by snow powder himself. I bet he must have gotten the formula from Boer, the traitor. In this light, we actually made a contribution to his victory. Perhaps he'll even reward us if we hand in the advanced formula."

"Hopefully." Retnin nodded, feeling a little relieved. Like Rayleigh had said, the Alchemist Workshop was the largest gold production organization. The prince might have been stuck in the middle of something and therefore failed to visit them right after the war.

Just as Retnin was about to instruct a group of alchemists, a student dashed into the hall. Out of breath he shouted. "M-Mr. Chief Alchemist, His Majesty is here!"

"What? Where?"

Hearing Retnin's exclamation, everybody in the hall was silent, looking at the student.

"Above the yard in the air." The student swallowed hard. "His Majesty descended from the sky!"

Retnin and Rayleigh exchanged an astonished look. "Bring Chief Alchemist Archer here. Everybody else, follow me to greet His Majesty."

"Yes, sir!"

...

A giant balloon that covered almost half of the sky was floating in the air outside the Alchemist Workshop. Soldiers armed with snow powder weapons surrounded the yard. After they had searched the Association thoroughly, making sure it was safe, the balloon started to land slowly.

"That must be the transportation device the prince used to visit the Astrological Station with the witches," Rayleigh whispered in Retnin's ear. "I didn't expect it could truly make a person fly."

"Anyway, he's here." Retnin felt alleviated. He grabbed Rayleigh's shoulder and said, "It doesn't matter how we address him in private, but you ought to show some respects in an official meeting. He is King of the Kingdom of Graycastle, even without an inauguration ceremony. Be serious."

"Don't worry. I know how to behave properly." Reyleigh assured him with a smile.

After the basket landed safely, a beaming gray-haired man came up to them under the protection of the guards. He was bareheaded, not splendidly dressed, and held no scepter in his hand. He was not as marvelous as he was rumored to be, yet the prince's every single gesture was majestic and dignified. Next to him stood an elderly man in a cope, who seemed surprisingly familiar to Retnin.

"Your Majesty, welcome to the Alchemist Workshop." The three chief alchemists bowed, followed by all the other alchemists.

Roland smiled. "My father used to talk about you often when I was still in King's City. He said both crystal glass and perfume are quite popular alchemical products, they have even been sold to the Fjord Islands. These products have brought great profits to the palace. So, I built an alchemical workshop myself after my father sent me to Border Town."

"Pft—" Rayleigh almost burst out laughing upon hearing these words, whereas Retnin restrained himself and managed to conceal his amusement. "That must not have been an easy business, Your Majesty. Every alchemical workshop requires a large amount of gold royals to operate."

"Really? But I didn't invest a lot of gold royals. You know how deficient the resources are in Border Town. At first, I could only do the experiments in a few wooden sheds. But now I'm able to produce various products, including glass and perfume." Roland continued casually, "So I'm wondering where those gold royals actually go."

"Your Majesty, what... what do you mean by that?" Retnin's heart sank.

"This is my Chief Alchemist, Mr. Kyle Sichi," Roland replied, pointing to the elderly man next to him. "He'll examine and evaluate your products. If there have been no innovations in recent years, I might as well shut down the Alchemist Workshop. After all, King's City was just ravaged by a war, and I believe tons of gold royals are needed for reconstruction."

The alchemists were outraged by the prince's comment.

"Your Majesty, I can't accept this!" Rayleigh was so angry that he couldn't bear it and stood to challenge him.

Chapter 527 - The Ultimate Goal of Alchemy

"Huh?" Roland turned to him. "Why?"

"Well, Your Majesty... You're likely to be deceived by someone since you may not know alchemy well." Retnin interjected immediately. He knew Rayleigh took great pride in his work and sometimes even failed to pay due respects to Timothy. Certainly, he disdained the notorious Prince Roland. If Rayleigh accidentally enraged Roland, the rest of them would all have to suffer the King's wrath. "Alchemy is a process full of changes. Every formula represents a potential product. However, not all products are as dazzling as snow powder. They may not instantly bring you gold royals, but they can help with the production of another extraordinary product."

"Exactly." Rayleigh rejoined indignantly. "Take snow powder as an example. One of its ingredients, ice nitrite, is converted from feces. The conversion itself is a sort of reaction. However, ice nitrite can also be mixed with other products and turn into snow powder. All these reactions and conversions are the result of long-term exploration and research. Even an experienced alchemy master can't readily jump to the conclusion that one specific product is useless. Your Majesty, you can't evaluate our work simply with gold royals." Rayleigh stared at Roland's chief alchemist with deepened brows. "If someone promises you that every single product can instantly bring you profits, he must be lying!"

"What's your opinion on that?" Roland the man beside him.

The chief alchemist looked quite unperturbed. He stroked his whiskers and remained silent until nobody else was talking. "Your Majesty, they say this because they haven't probed into the nature of alchemy. I can prove to you that their formulas are all outdated. I already know whether their products are useful or not."

The alchemists all gasped at these words.

Retnin was speechless for quite a while. Did this man know what he was talking about? He’d just said he understood every single alchemy formula! What a terrible joke he was making! The Alchemist Workshop in King's City had discovered more than ten new formulas in the past two years, and it would take several days just to read them through. How could he say there was nothing new?" Retnin was stunned but at the same time he was secretly delighted. It proved Kyle was completely insane. And if there was a single formula he didn't know about, he would be accused of lying to the King!

Just then, Archer, the quietest chief alchemist, came forward. He asked sternly, "How do you want to prove it?"

"Very simple." Kyle strode toward the three chief alchemists. Confidently, he suggested, "Give me the ingredients and I'll tell you the formula. How does that sound?"

Rayleigh was so furious he was ready to burst. "Very good. There are all kinds of ingredients in the Workshop. Feel free to use them. If you name one formula wrong, His Majesty will know you've been lying!"

"What if I'm correct?"

"That's impossible!" Archer shook his head. "A few alchemy formulas can be repetitive, but there's absolutely no way formulas can exhaust. You take alchemy too lightly!"

Hearing this, Kyle suddenly had a strange look on his face, as if he were studying them with sympathy or other mixed feelings. "I'm not taking it lightly. The truth is that your perception of alchemy is mistaken."

Retnin could feel his temples throbbing. "What did you say?"

"May I ask what you think alchemy really is?" Kyle remained undisturbed. "Do you think it is chaotic, volatile and too complicated to study? No. You're wrong about alchemy all the way from the beginning—or rather you know nothing about the nature of matter."

"Nonsense!" Rayleigh hollered. "Are you implying that the theories passing down from sages are simple and straightforward? If so, why are there so many derivations and why is every single rock different from another?"

To Retnin's horror, a winning smile fluttered over Kyle's face. "Ah, yes. It's simple and straightforward, it is."

"What are you..."

"As to the reason why the world is diverse and manifold, it's beyond the scope of alchemy," Kyle explained placidly. "In other words, it's a higher realm that I just got a chance to set foot in."

"Enough." Retnin stopped Rayleigh who was about to explode. "Ask the students to prepare the materials. I'm sure all this monstrous absurdity will be refuted by facts later."

If he let Rayleigh keep going, the latter might raise his voice and lash out at Kyle, and perhaps even start to criticize Roland who employed him.

The man was indeed crazy to think that alchemy is simple and straightforward, Retnin thought bitterly. He would definitely teach Kyle a lesson afterwards.

...

A long table was arranged in the Refining Hall, with three vials and three pieces of paper on the top. Each piece of paper contained the names of the ingredients.

After a heated discussion, the three chief alchemists each selected a formula for Kyle Sichi to prove his theory. In order to show fairness, as well as to stop Kyle's blabbers, the three wrote all the ingredients' names down. However, it would not be their business as to whether Kyle recognized them.

When everything was ready, Retnin turned to Roland's chief alchemist and said, "You can start now."

Kyle paced to the table and glanced at the first piece of paper confidently.

"Burn the mixture of saltpeter and green alum?" He was surprised by what was written on the sheet. "It seems you've also learned the double-stone acid-making method. The products of the reaction are multiple solids and acids, and the latter can dissolve metals." He wrote a long list of symbols on the paper as he answered.

Archer, who wrote the question, suddenly was very embarrassed. "Correct." He pronounced the word with gritted teeth.

The spectating alchemists started to exchange whispers. They had probably never expected Kyle could give the right answer to the first question within a second.

"Silence!" Retnin bellowed. "There are two questions left!"

"It was pure luck." Rayleigh stamped about with indignity. "I don't think he can answer the second question that easily. What is he writing on that piece of paper by the way?"

Retnin shook his head. His heart sank rapidly. To both Retnin and Rayleigh's surprise, Kyle gave the answer to the second question a great deal of thought and even saw through the trickiness of Rayleigh's question. "Green vitriol acid and copper? The reaction won't start if the acid is in deficiency. With sufficient acid, the liquid will turn blue when heated, and it will bubble as well."

When it came to Retnin's question, Kyle did not linger either. "Just take out the Stone of the Netherworld?" He picked up the vial, shook it, and studied the white solid soaked in the water. "This is quite rare. It will burn on its own in the air and produce white smoke and white solids. Am I right?"

"Um..." Retnin was totally shocked. He had obtained this queer chemical substance from the alchemists in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Few people had seen it before, and even fewer people could name its properties!

"Please feel free to raise questions." Kyle turned around and glanced at the spectating alchemists. "I can prove to you that I'm not lying."

The words stirred up the audience.

"What will happen when burning the mixture of ocher and charcoals?"

"Ocher is essentially a kind of special iron ore. If the temperature is high enough, we'll be able to get iron from it."

"Why are the colors of glass obtained via smelting different? Didn't you say alchemy is invariable?"

"Because of the different impurities in it. We need the purest gravel to produce crystal glass."

"Sir Kyle, I have a question!"

"Me too!"

To Retnin's astonishment, the atmosphere in the hall was changing swiftly. The alchemists were gradually convinced by Kyle's extensive knowledge and naturally started to show some respect to him. It suddenly struck Retnin that the alchemists were slowly accepting Kyle.

"Shut up, all of you!" Rayleigh cried abruptly. "These are all old formulas the Alchemist Workshop has known for ages. If you really understand all formulas, then write a new one that nobody has ever discovered. For example, the ultimate goal of alchemy!"

"That'll be impossible," thought Retnin, who swallowed hard. He believed all the alchemists here thought such a goal was as unrealistic as a mysterious legend.

However, he was astounded to notice a smile lingering on Kyle's lips.

Kyle Sichi smiled to all the members of the Alchemist Workshop, who rested their eyes upon him. "Are you saying turning stones into gold? Of course, I can. Let me show you."

Chapter 528 - Turning Stone into Gold

"Could it be that... you've extracted the Philosopher's Stone successfully?" Archer asked in a trembling voice.

The hall suddenly fell into pin-drop silence; it was perhaps an answer that everyone wanted to hear.

The Philosopher's Stone the culmination of alchemy and the rumors claimed that it had the ability to transform anything, which was the very reason why alchemy was called the art of philosophy. When used as a medium, it could transform a generic metal or lead into gold, creating unlimited wealth; it was also the origin of the term "turning stone into gold".

"A stone that can transform everything... it was simply an invention of the ancient alchemist who wanted to be lazy," Kyle waved a hand and said, "And, what I'm about to show you is the mystery of the world."

He pulled out a strange-looking pipe, which was made of crystal glass, from his bag and generously displayed it in front of the alchemists.

Everyone, including Retnin, was stretching their neck to take a peek at it. The pipe was as thick as two fingers and was sealed at both ends. It contained some matte-looking, brownish-red powder that looked just like some dried soil at first glance. It was hard to imagine how that powder had gotten inside.

Kyle asked for a glass of clean water before he picked up a green alum stone from the table and used it to smash one end of the pipe, shattering it into pieces.

This caused a stir among the crowd.

Even Retnin was feeling greatly distressed; the immaculate transparent color showed that the tube was obviously made from first-class crystal glass, which must have taken the craftsman a lot of effort to make into such a symmetrical shape. Yet, Kyle simply smashed it to pieces. However, he realized that Prince Roland was not lying when he claimed that the domain had developed crystal glass since the Alchemist Workshop of King's City would definitely not produce this type of strange vessel.

The water was quickly provided and Kyle poured the powder into the glass of water, and then the color of the water gradually turned into a yellow-green hue and the powder disappeared.

"Do you have any lead bars here?" he turned around and asked. "Give me two of the best quality."

"Hang on!" Rayleigh said, "Since it's an alchemic reaction, it shouldn't matter who does it. I've seen some street performers who're very good at covering-up; switching bronze royals into gold royals in front of a crowd... I'm not doubting you but it's better to be cautious on such an occasion." He looked at two of the other chiefs and said,"What do you think?"

"Indeed," Archer slowly answered.

Retnin hesitated. It was obvious that Rayleigh was doubtful and comparing Kyle to the street performers was indeed quite disrespectful. However, he had to support the Alchemist Workshop in this situation. "I... agree as well."

He was expecting the Chief Alchemist of Border Town to be furious. However, Kyle Sichi simply smiled and said, "Of course, there's no difference if the last step is carried out by either the alchemist or the apprentice. Just as I mentioned, the essence of alchemy is simple, orderly and straightforward. Who would like to do it?"

"I'll do it." Retnin was so excited that he did not dare look at Kyle, but he was not able to resist his curiosity towards learning the art of turning-stone-into-gold. "Can the glass of yellow-green liquid really transform the lead into gold?"

The apprentice quickly presented the materials—some green-and-white colored refined lead rods which were usually kept in a cotton-lined wooden box. They would be considered the best of the inventories. Retnin picked one up and carefully put it into the glass. To his surprise, he saw a golden tint appear on the surface of the lead bar!

He could feel his hands trembling uncontrollably.

"Look! It looks like something is growing out of it!"

"It's golden... Oh God, it's gold in color!"

"Is that gold?"

"It could be copper as well!"

The sounds of discussion behind Retnin grew louder. He turned around and realized that all of the alchemists and students were staring intently at the changes happening in the glass on the long table, with eyes wide open. They sounded surprised and unconvinced. All the while, Archer was looking lost and confused.

He was feeling the same at that moment... "Perhaps Kyle was right—alchemy is truly constant itself, completely simple and concise; and any self-assumed chaos is simply caused by making a wrong choice."

In that case, what's all of the decades of study for?

When the lead rod was lifted from the glass of water, there was already some filament blooming on the surface, resembling coral.

"These are all... copper!" Rayleigh was biting his lips and yelling with his last-ditch effort, "It's impossible for you to know the way to transform stone into gold!" It makes no sense! Otherwise, you'd have bought the entire Kingdom of Graycastle with gold royals, instead of simply becoming a Lord's Chief Alchemist of a small town!"

"I'm choosing this path, not for the gold royals but to understand the world." Kyle's voice seemed to come from far away. "If you don't believe, you can always examine it... I think as the Chief of King's City, you would know the differences between copper and gold pretty well, so do you?"

However, there was no reversal to be incurred for a post-verification, a piece of the gold wire was sliced off and baked on a plate in the fire. It quickly melted indicating that it was gold. It was obviously not copper because copper would darken into an ugly solid mass under high temperature, while the flowing metal solution on the plate looked as bright and golden as the sun in the sky.

True gold fears no fire.

It was indeed real gold.

The hall already seethed with excitement!

"The alchemic formula for turning rock into gold does exist!"

"Lord Kyle, what were the symbols you wrote down on the paper just now?" Was that part of a higher-level formula?"

"Where exactly did you acquire all the knowledge from?"

"Lord Chief, do you still accept any student? I'm willing to start as an apprentice!"

Kyle Sichi extended his arms, intending to suppress the cheering noise. "Listen, everything you have seen today comes from a more ancient subject. It not only includes all the possible alchemy formulas but also discloses the mystery formed within the world! From it, you can even predict those alchemy formulas that have never been seen before, and turning stone into gold isn't an exception! I could teach you all this, as long as you follow me to the Western Region!"

"To the Western Region?" Retnin became stiff, looking at Roland Wimbledon, His Majesty, who was sitting off to the side with a smile... "Is that the true purpose of why they're here?" However, it was too late for him to realize how effective it would be. The enthusiasm on the scene had totally gone out of his control. Imagine that who wouldn't want to work for the association if he could master the art of turning stone into gold? Perhaps, none of the alchemists in the hall would stay, and the hundred-year-old Alchemist Workshop of King's City had unexpectedly crumbled within a day.

Retnin noticed that Kyle was slowly walking towards him.

"Do you still remember the apprentice who wanted to configure the molten gold solution 27 years ago?" He leaned forward and whispered, "After failing the test twice, you took away his money and banned him from ever passing through the door of the association... In fact, the failure was mainly caused by a lack of acid concentration, which should have been provided by you."

"You were the apprentice who was audited by me..." Retnin said in shock—the pieces of memory in his mind were overlapping with the silhouette in front of him.

"That's right." Kyle nodded. "I'm just claiming what I deserve."

---

I recommend a book titled "The Noble Evil King", whose author is Kaihuang; the title may be slightly witless but the content is very good, please take a look if you are interested in~!

Chapter 529 - The Returned Witch

...

Two days later, Kyle Sichi bade farewell to Roland.

"Don't you want to spend a couple more days in King's City?" Roland jokingly asked, "This is the center of Graycastle, the best place to have fun within the Kingdom. If you miss it now, it may not be here next time."

"I'm not you; I don't want to have an unfinished romance here." Kyle rolled his eyes and said, "There's still a lot of work to do in the laboratory and the plant. It's best for me to return to the City of Neverwinter if you want the production line of gunpowder to run smoothly."

His reply made Roland depressed. After the situation settled down, the atmosphere in the city was a little strange: First, many women claimed to be his lovers, followed then by their illegitimate children. Of course, he knew these were all rumors. Nevertheless, he could not stop the rumors from confounding the truth. Especially, when his history was so notorious. No matter how bizarre the stories were, they would still sound convincing to some... He could only get Theo to come forward and compel the Rats to eradicate the rumors.

"Alright." He was speechless for a while before he nodded and said, "I'll arrange a paddle steamer to send you back to the Western Region. Thank you for your hard work over the past few days."

"As long as you know it," Kyle said while shaking his beard. He left after paying respect by covering his chest with one hand.

"This guy's really ungrateful." Roland twitched his lips but didn't take it personally. He even started happily singing.

"You seem very happy surrounded by so many women," said a cold voice behind him.

"Ahem..." He was almost choked by his own saliva. "What're you talking about?! They were just trying to get some money out of me by saying that. I'm sure you know that."

"How, how would I know?" Nightingale said in a panic.

"Oh? You really don't know?" Roland retorted. "I thought you've investigated everyone here."

"... Okay," Nightingale revealed herself. She turned around and sat on the table. Staring down at him, she said, "I have indeed gone on an investigation. It was, however, because I was worried about your safety and afraid you'll let dangerous people into the palace. Do you understand?"

"I understand," he said, trying not to laugh. But, the next words Nightingale said froze the smile on his face.

"Most of their statements were false. What about Miss Kingfisher and Mrs. Rother? They were not lying!"

"Damn Yorko, I didn't expect her to actually keep it in mind after the last cover-up." Roland silently cursed the "old friend" a million times. While staring seriously into her eyes, he said, "I didn't lie to you... The Prince Roland whom they were talking about wasn't me. You should be able to tell that I'm not lying."

Nightingale was feeling slightly uncomfortable being stared at and averted her eyes. "So, it's a misunderstanding? They thought it was you, but you weren't there? "

"Of course not," said Roland righteously. "In fact, I haven't seen them before!"

She looked slightly calmer and said, "So, you're just going to let the ladies who claim to have slept with you continue to make a scene? Theo said you didn't order them to shut up."

"Of course, it's exactly what they want—to be paid to shut up. It's too much to be violent, and it'll just increase the suspicion of the people." Roland was still unable to kill for this reason. "It'll be easier distracting people with bigger news than forcing those women to stop."

"Bigger... news?" Nightingale curiously asked.

"Yes, something they'll be discussing for weeks." He said smiling. "For example, King's City is to be renamed the City of Dawn; the City of Neverwinter in the Western Region is to be the new capital of Graycastle, etc. The rumors will subside after I leave."

Of course, there was more news, such as that the king is not having a coronation, as well as the competitive plan for skilled craftsmen recruitment... Cumulatively, this news should be able to fill up the public's leisure time. Currently, the Rats were slowly spreading fragments of the news to the crowd. This followed the posting of the announcement of the City Hall in order to achieve the best publicity effect. It was expected these would be the topics of discussions in pubs for a long time.

"So, you weren't happily smiling because of them just now?"

"Not at all!" Roland patted the list of names on the table and said, "I was happy because of this." The chemical presentation led by Kyle was a huge success. The effect was better than he thought—there were more than 320 people from the association who were willing to move forward to the Western Region, including alchemists, students, and the apprentices. The final number was confirmed at around 500, including the family members. "That's the sum of employees in the five chemical laboratories and two plants in the Border Area. Now the number is doubled in a blink of an eye and most of them are the proficients who could be assigned to work after some slight training. It's the biggest accomplishment after we conquered King's City." He paused and said, "It's not, however, what I'm happiest about."

"What's the thing you're happiest about?" Nightingale asked curiously.

"Take a look at this." He spread the list, pointing out the names at the bottom.

"Retnin... Rayleigh... Archer, aren't they the Alchemist Workshop Chiefs?"

"That's right, Kyle didn't refuse them," Roland softly said. "He said he had already taken back what belonged to him." Roland thought Kyle would have a serious initial retaliation after learning about the argument between the Chief Alchemist and the Alchemist Workshop of King's City; without even meaning to continue the hatred, Kyle had received the consensus he deserved and accepted the three of them on behalf of the City of Neverwinter. It warmed Roland's heart to see there was still a group of people taking the right path in a tough time; the kingdom would definitely be continuously improving by having them in the realm.

Right then, a rhythmic knocking sound came from outside the window.

Nightingale flashed out of the window and came back to the table in the blink of an eye with the messenger in her arms. "A secret letter is here."

"You scared it." Roland shook his head. He didn't know whether he should laugh or cry while looking at the stunned gray falcon on the table. He quickly glanced through the content of the letter lifted and said, "Ah... it was sent by Scroll. I think we'll have to leave as soon as possible."

"Is there anything wrong in City of Neverwinter?" Nightingale frowned.

"No..." he twitched his lips and said, "Lotus and Honey are coming back soon."

"The two little brats..." Somehow Nightingale sounded unhappy. "Do we really need to leave in such a rush? After all, there are only two of them. Lightning and Maggie can always go pick them up. They're much faster than the hydrogen balloon. They'll reach King's City within a day."

"We could definitely do that if it were just the two of them," Roland excitedly said. "However, the letter says Tilly's sending along new witches."

Chapter 530 - Lotus' Concerns

The surface of the vast sea regained its former clear blue hue. The Charming Beauty sailed forward, riding the wind and waves. The hull moved up and down in the glittering waves, making rhythmic creaks.

"Set the sail full! Boys, move!" One-eyed Jack shouted, "We can make it to the Shallow Beach today."

The sailors on the mast were singing a work song together and pulling the three-finger thick hessian rope, releasing the sail bit by bit. With the ever-changing weather on the sea, they had to repeat such release and roll-up movements several times a day. Lotus watched the sailors, as flexible as monkeys, climbing back and forth over her head.

"So troublesome," the old captain walked towards the witches and said. "It would be so much easier if I had a boat such as those in Crescent Moon Bay, they can navigate without sails. What's the thing called again?"

"Paddle steamer," Lotus said, raising her eyebrows. "It was made by His Highness, Prince Roland himself."

"Why don't you ask His Highness to build one for you?" Honey asked, teasing the seabird on her shoulder, " His Highness may not do others such a favor, but he may do it for you."

"You little brat, you make it sound like I'm very close to him."

"Well, you're close to Lady Tilly," Honey stuck her tongue out and said, "and His Highness Roland is very kind to Lady Tilly."

Jack smoked his pipe heavily, feeling a pain in his chest. "... Never mind. I heard from those merchants that one paddle steamer costs more than 1,000 gold royals. That's the amount I’d never have even if I were to sell all of you."

"That's not for sure," Breeze said jokingly. "In Sleeping Spell, the reward for Lotus is counted by hundreds of gold royals. Besides, last time a merchant named Durat Kimshoe intended to employ her for a long term with 1,000 gold royals. That's only Lotus, so the four of us would be worth much more."

"Breeze!" Lotus punched Breeze angrily. "You knew what he was up to. I don't want to hear that man's name ever again!"

"Just kidding." Breeze held Lotus into her arms and said gently, "How could I ever sell you. When Lady Tilly heard about Kimshoe's proposal, she practically negotiated with the entire chamber of commerce of Crescent Moon Bay. After that no one would dare do such a thing anymore."

"You two seem to get along well." Jack spouted some smoke rings. "But the other two over there do not seem to have much to talk to you."

On hearing that, the three of them fell into silence for a moment. A while later, Breeze broke the silence. "They were witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

The old captain felt confused. "Aren't you all the same?"

"They support Heidi Morgan more than Lady Tilly."

"Morgan..." The captain stroked his chin and thought for a while. "Is she a noble in the Kingdom of Wolfheart?"

"Only from a branch." Breeze waved one hand. "Nothing serious. It's just we haven't been together for long, so we can't open our hearts to each other yet."

The old man seemed to have realized something, so he did not pose more questions.

Lotus did not know much about the nobles in the kingdom. She only knew witches from Sleeping Island were not as close as the witches in Border Town were. Among the witches in Border Town, most of them were from the Kingdom of Graycastle, and a small group of them were from the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Since Tilly was the organizer of the migration operation and had the noblest status, all of them, including the foreign witches, just regarded her as the leader. But after the church in Fjord Islands was eradicated, the situation had changed.

Lotus, who had returned to Sleeping Island after the Months of Demons, could clearly sense it. After only a few months’ time, the witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart had moved in together, and they seldom talked to other witches when they ate in the dining hall. According to Molly, they were all members of the Bloodfang Association, an organization similar to the Witch Cooperation Association of the Kingdom of Graycastle, with Heidi Morgan as its leader.

In the beginning, there were just over 20 witches from the Bloodfang Association on Sleeping Island. They were a minority on the island, which was nothing special. The extraordinary thing was that 18 of them were combat witches. In other words, the Bloodfang Association had carefully selected its members before the enrollment, and only those witches who were powerful could join in, which was totally different from the way the Witch Cooperation Association and Sleeping Island enrolled witches. Because of this, the Bloodfang Association was very competitive. When Tilly had carried out her eradication plan, the small group of witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart alone took care of the Twin Dragon Island cathedral which had the most believers.

And because of this, Heidi Morgan thought the Bloodfang Association was the core of Sleeping Island. Although Morgan did not express her opinion in words, Lotus could feel it. Lotus did not like the argument that combat witches had higher status than non-combat witches, and she agreed with Lady Tilly's idea of "witch equality". Unfortunately, not everyone shared her opinion. While Lady Tilly was away, Heidi had fought several times with Camilla Dary, Chief Butler of Sleeping Island. Luckily, Camilla, who was also a noble in King’s City, did not appear dwarf in front of Heidi and calmly quieted the conflicts.

At this thought, Lotus sighed helplessly. She was not worried about Lady Tilly's safety. After all, Ashes, the most powerful witch from Sleeping Island, was a faithful supporter to Lady Tilly. Ashes was the only Extraordinary who could fight wearing a God’s Stone of Retaliation. In her presence, all the other witches from the Bloodfang Association would not stand a chance to win. What worried her was this trip. Honestly, she did not want to stay with the witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

And also, the witches being chosen for this trip were a weird combination—except for herself and Honey, two of the other three witches were combat witches. Normally, Lady Tilly should have known that His Highness Roland preferred assistance witches because those bizarre weapons he owned were enough to enable the commoners to defeat the Judgement Army of the church. To what end did she send the witches from the Bloodfang Association?

She racked her brain but failed to find an answer, so she decided to put these distracting thoughts aside.

Maybe Lady Tilly had her own concerns beyond her comprehension.

...

As the sun moved to the west, the golden Shallow Beach shone in everybody's eyes.

At the same time, a hot air balloon appeared, floating in midair along with a strange, giant bird.

"Oh God! What's that?" The sailors on deck exclaimed when they saw the strange bird fold its wings and dive towards the Charming Beauty. As the bird drew closer, its sharp claws and bloody mouth became visible to the sailors.

"Is there an enemy?" Hearing the shouts, the Bloodfang Association witches rushed out of the cabin and were startled by the giant beast. "What's that monster?"

"Whatever it is, just catch it!" The other witch soon calmed down. "A target's size makes no difference to us."

"Wait a minute... That's not the enemy." Lotus hurried to stop them. "It flew alongside the hot air balloon."

A witch from the Bloodfang Association quickly glanced at her. "A hot air balloon?"

"It's a vessel that His Highness Roland uses to transport witches." Breeze stepped in front of them to stop their argument. "Relax. You can trust Lotus' judgement."

The horrible giant beast was getting closer and closer, making resounding roars. But Lotus could feel the roars were not for intimidation.

"Oh-oh-coo!"

The giant figure of the beast disappeared just as it was about to hit the sail of the boat, and a white pigeon landed steadily on Lotus' head.

"You're here finally," Maggie rubbed her forehead and said. "Welcome back, coo!"

Chapter 531 - The Romance

...

"Is this really okay?"

"What?"

"Sending Iffy, Softfeathers, and Lotus to Border Town," Ashes hugged Tilly from behind while Tilly sat at the desk, and said, "It must have been Heidi Morgan's idea, am I right?"

Ever since she had heard about the existence of the Sealine, Princess Tilly spent almost all her time in the study room. Stacked on her desk were piles of books, some of which were from Roland, and the others retrieved from the ruins. Seeing Tilly's figure behind all these books, Ashes felt sorry for her.

"Um." Putting down the quill, Tilly slowly leaned back. "Morgan didn't want me to have connections with the commoners all by myself, and I had no reason to refuse her."

"But the commoner is your elder brother. What makes her think she can choose for you?"

"Because she's also one of the royal members." Tilly shook her head, smiling. "The higher the status is, the looser the blood ties are. It's true in every kingdom." Heidi knew full well about it, and that was why she had made the decision.

"She intends to fight for His Highness Roland's support with you?" Ashes frowned…

"Not just yet. This time I think she only wants to probe the situation."

"Then why did you agree with her?!" Ashes loosened her arms and said with a low voice, "It seems like I need to talk to her."

It was Princess Tilly's affinity and leniency that won her the trust of the witches who used to be abused and suppressed by the church, and now they could bond together. But it didn't mean someone could regard her lenience as weakness, and test her on the basis of her trust…

Ashes was about to turn when Tilly grabbed her arm. "Why not? As I said, I had no reason to refuse her. Sleeping Island is our home. All the witches here are freewomen. I won't stop them from doing anything as long as they don't harm anyone. And..." She let out a sigh. "Sending them to the Western Region isn't a bad idea."

"Not a bad idea?" Ashes asked with bewilderment.

"Have you ever thought about why the witches at the Bloodfang Association were initially the same as other witches, but gradually became different?"

Ashes pondered for a while. "Because their lives became stable?"

"Exactly." Tilly nodded. "In the past, the church posed a heavy burden on their hearts. Everybody had to stick together in order to survive. But now the churches in the Fjord Islands have been eradicated and Sleeping Island has offered a relatively relaxing environment, so people think differently. This is quite normal. The Witch Cooperation Association is different. We're a compound group made of several witch organizations, so blindly suppressing them won't work. In order to let them cooperate like in the old times, we need a powerful enemy."

Ashes frowned and asked, "Do you mean... demons?"

"The enemies deep in the Fertile Plains, the fiasco of the Union, the upcoming third Battle of Divine Will... they can learn all these by themselves, which will be more effective than me telling them." Tilly smiled and said, "Besides, in Border Town, there're much more to be seen."

Princess Tilly stood up, and walked through the door towards the castle in the backyard and opened the door. "They'll see that non-combat witches can play irreplaceable roles, commoners can be as capable as witches, and they'll witness the amazing effects when everybody works together. Just like this door. When it's pushed open, a broader world can be seen."

Ashes quietly stared at this woman bathed in sunlight, and could not utter a word. Tilly's gray hair flew with the sea breeze, reflecting the shining light. She was astonishingly beautiful even viewed from behind. Time stood still. What was left in this narrow study was only her and Ashes.

After a long while, Tilly turned and smiled slyly. "I have some special reasons to have chosen Iffy and Softfeathers. This must be perceptible to Roland."

*******************

Anna nudged Roland sleeping beside her.

"Time to get up."

"A moment." Roland turned over, cuddled her, and smelled her hair.

After returning to the City of Neverwinter from King's City, he had spent the whole night with Anna. The temporary separation had made their reunion particularly passionate. As a result, neither of them got out of bed the next morning. For the first time, Anna skipped her magic power practice, not because she did not want to, but because Roland would not let her leave.

Of course, she did not want to reject Roland's wooing either.

From noon to the dusk, their bedroom was filled with romantic atmosphere. When taking breaks, they just sat in bed and talked about the things that had happened in the two cities recently, and their lunch was brought to the bedroom by a maid. Of course, when the maid came, Anna sank her head into the quilt. Lowering his head, Roland could see a pair of sapphire-like eyes sparkling at his chest area.

When he gently caressed Anna's back, she involuntarily moaned as lightly as a cat purring. After a year's growth, Anna was not the weak, thin girl he had met in prison a year prior. Now when curling up her body, she could perfectly embed into Roland's arms. When he kissed her earlobe from the back, he could see her cheeks gradually flush and her eyelashes tremble. It made her look very cute.

After a long while, she pushed Roland away once again.

"Wendy and the other girls will be coming back soon. This time there'll be new witches. You need to go wash up." Anna turned around and faced him with a serious look.

"Mmm." Roland briefly replied. He knew that he could not postpone anymore, so he kissed her lightly on the lips and rolled out of bed. First, he helped Anna get dressed, and then put on a coat for himself.

The basin of water on the table had already cooled down, but this was not a problem for Anna. A line of Blackfire shot into the water, and steam began to rise in the blink of an eye. After washing up, Roland sent Anna back to the bedroom and returned to his office on the third floor. At least he could make it look like he was working diligently, before the other witches came back.

Fifteen minutes later, Lightning and Maggie flew into his office through the French window.

"Your Majesty, they're here."

...

"Who could have thought that you'd become the king of Graycastle in only a month." Breeze entered the castle hall first, followed by another four witches, among whom were Lotus and Honey. Roland was familiar with them, but he did not know the other two. "If Wendy hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have believed it. If Tilly finds out, she'll be very surprised."

Roland walked up to welcome them. "I haven't held an enthronement yet, so it's okay if you just address me with my old title."

"But you're indeed a deserved king," Breeze said, bowing.

Lotus and Honey imitated Breeze's move and bowed exaggeratedly, but yet the other two witches only greeted him by putting one hand on the chest. Two showed the joy of reunion, while the other two showed skepticism.

Roland felt surprised.

However, under these circumstances, he would not show his emotion. Making a gesture of inviting them, he said with a smile, "However, you had an arduous trip. Now enjoy tonight's feast. Make yourself comfortable. This is your home too."

Chapter 532 - A Tempting Idea

...

After the banquet, Lotus and Wendy were called into Roland's office.

"Did everything on Sleeping Island go well?" he said to Lotus with a smile, "I hope I didn't bring you any trouble during Tilly's absence."

"Of course not." Lotus nodded and then whispered, "Oh... well, you gave me a scarf as a present last time, and I haven't thanked you yet."

"Don't be so formal." Roland waved his hand slightly. He knew that they would become less familiar with him after a period of time away, but this did not mean their personal relationship would be broken. Actually, this unfamiliarity was just temporary... He believed they would soon be able to be comfortable in this union again as long as he treated them as usual. "It seems that a lot has changed here, but it basically remained the same as when you left—please just make the City of Neverwinter your home."

"Yes." Wendy touched her head. "You're still our sisters."

"Okay." Lotus lowered her head in a show of embarrassment, however, she seemed to be more relaxed.

"After you arrived at the castle, I saw something weird... Aren't Iffy and Softfeathers witches from Sleeping Island?" Roland changed the topic because he had noticed that, whenever they discussed and talked about the old days, the two witches seemed alienated from others. Although they would speak now and then, they appeared to be less communicative than Sylvie, Evelyn, Candle and other witches who talked with each other joyfully. He did not know if it was just an illusion, but he felt that Evelyn and Candle feared these two witches a little.

"Yes, they did come from Sleeping Island, however, they're a little different..." Lotus briefly introduced their background. "I don't know why Lady Tilly sent witches from the Bloodfang Association here, either."

"Iffy is a combat witch?" Roland asked a little shocked.

"Yeah. She can summon a cage made from magic power and thereby capture more powerful enemies than herself. Even Ashes, if she's not wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation, would find it hard to get out of, once trapped.

"What about Softfeathers?" Wendy asked with curiosity.

"Although she is not a combat witch, she is also powerful," muttered Lotus. "Any object she is touching becomes sticky as long as she touches it, and they can't be separated once they're stuck together unless the magic power fails—but according to what she said, the stickiness can last for a long time as long as she uses enough magic power."

"This kind of ability could be widely used, right?" Roland was very surprised and exclaimed. "That's unbelievable! The Wolfheart Kingdom's witch, Heidi Morgan, agreed to send these powerful witches to us?"

"Well, the members of the Bloodfang Association are very powerful. They not only have many combat witches but the rest of the non-combat witches have superior abilities as well. They did a lot for the quick construction of Sleeping Island." Lotus sighed and appeared to be very reluctant to admit this. "However, they always feel they're superior to others, and often bully the witches with less abilities. The number of witches in the Fjords would have dropped by more than half if it wasn't for Lady Tilly's great efforts to stop them."

"So, this may be the reason why Evelyn and Candle looked afraid in front of them," he thought. "OK, I got it. Just have a good rest today." Roland comforted Lotus and then looked at Wendy, saying, "Well, please arrange for their accommodation and keep the witches of the Bloodfang Association away from them. I'll test their abilities in detail tomorrow."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Wendy said while stroking her chest.

After the two witches left, Nightingale appeared beside him with a fillet in her mouth and asked, "Do we need to ask someone to keep an eye on them?"

"There won't be much of a problem since they still belong to Sleeping Island." Roland shrugged and said. "The witches to the Fjords have never had to experience life and death together like the witches of the Witch Cooperation Association. They're blended with many other witch groups. In reality, it isn't strange for them to have such opinions." As the saying went, it was very odd for a party to form without any smaller factions. Things like this will also happen in the Witch Union sooner or later when it expands. However, the competition among factions also has its merits. Internal competition will make the Union become stronger as long as the competition is benign. I'm just puzzled about why Tilly sent combat witches here. If she just wants me to train them on behalf of her, she can also send assistant witches here, not to mention the fact that Breeze still stands by her."

"She probably clarified it in her letter." Nightingale guessed.

"Oh, you remind me of the letter." Roland patted his forehead and took the envelope from the drawer. He spread it out on the table. In addition to the five witches, Tilly also brought a stack of ancient books and a letter in her own handwriting. Due to the banquet, he had yet to check them.

In her letter, Tilly introduced the background of the ancient books and the odd parts of these books in detail. Then, she put forward her ideas about Sealine and hoped that Roland could help Thunder build a ship that could go against the current. Actually, Thunder had told Roland himself about the latter part. What Roland was shocked most was about the first half. He thought to himself, "The books are from different ages and places and they were collected and put into these remains. Some of the contents of these books had even disappeared for hundreds of years, which meant someone had come across the remains on the seafloor. Who were these people?"

On the back of the letter was a brief introduction to the ability of the two new witches, and what Roland cared about most was the last paragraph at the end of the passage.

"What we know about this world is still vague and obscure, and our knowledge is not even as thorough as the Unions four hundred years ago. If we want to defeat our enemies, we should know about our enemies first—In this regard, their abilities could probably help us."

After reading the letter, he couldn't help but fall into his thoughts.

"Know about your enemies... offer help... what's Tilly trying to say?" He thought.

Roland read the introduction to their abilities again, and suddenly he came up with a shocking idea.

Does Tilly want...

"Oh, no, that would be insane," thought Roland. He shook his head quickly. However, once the idea had crossed his mind, it would not leave. "Though risks do exist, the reward would be very handsome. In fact, those boxes of magic stones left by Agatha are really tempting. If they are made into sigils, then they would be as significant as a steam engine..." Actually, he had thought about it before, but it was very difficult to put into practice. So, he had to give it up. Now, with the help of Iffy and Breeze, he seemed to suddenly get closer to his goal.

"What does the letter say?" Noticing his strange look, Nightingale bent down and touched his forehead. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Not very good. I almost had a heart attack." Roland laughed helplessly. "Unfortunately, Tilly just left me to make the decision without any explanation."

"What kind of decision?" She asked curiously.

"To capture the demons," Roland said slowly, one word at a time.

Chapter 533 - An Unexpected Incident

The next morning, Roland took the witches and other related personnel out of the city. They went to a place located in the North of the city wall near the Misty Forest to conduct a magic power test for Breeze, Iffy and Softfeathers.

Nightingale, Wendy, Carter and Iron Axe tagged along. The First Army sealed off the grasslands nearby and Leaf guarded the forest.

Softfeathers was the first to take the test.

She had long, brownish-red hair with bangs just nicely covering her eyebrows and looked as tall as Honey, who was at most 1.4 meters in height. Around the age of 16, she had already been awakened for four years, which was quite early among witches. It meant she had experienced the Demonic Torture four times. As a result, she had much more magic power than most of the young witches. The amount of her power was about half of the amount Anna possessed before her adulthood.

Softfeathers turned out to be very skillful in controlling her magic. She could turn an entire object into something very sticky or precisely make one side or a spot sticky. Softfeathers did this without consuming much of her power. Nightingale could hardly notice any changes in her power during the test.

"How long can this object stay sticky?" Roland asked.

"If I use all my power to make one stone adhere to another, it'll last for decades," she answered and then further explained, "but I've never tried that. It's my own guess based on the consumption of my magic power."

"Then what's the biggest thing that you've applied your power to?" Roland asked

Softfeathers answered, "A seawall." A little satisfaction could be seen on her expressionless face when she was talking about her accomplishment. "During a high tide, there was an arm-thick crack in a section of the wall on Sleeping Island. As Lotus was not there, I immediately turned the crack sticky and filled it up with linen and pebbles to seal the break. Otherwise, the wall couldn't have sustained the shock of the waves." She finished.

Listening to her, Roland somehow felt that she was asking for praise.

"Great job," he said while nodding.

Softfeathers quickly turned calm after she was recognized. From her words and actions, it was hard to tell that she was an underage child. Unlike other children, she was used to concealing her feelings. "It may be caused by her past. What kind of life had the witches in the Bloodfang Association lived before they went to Sleeping Island?" Roland thought and sighed.

Breeze was the next to take the test.

She gave a graceful curtsy and said, "I've regretted for a while that I couldn't stay longer in the Western Region. I'm so happy to get this chance now to come here again. If you need my help, just let me know."

"To make up for it, you must fully enjoy your stay here in the City of Neverwinter. If you need anything, you can ask Wendy for help," Roland explained with a smile.

Breeze was about 25 years old, a little older than Nightingale. She brought comfort and happiness to the people around her, like a spring breeze. No one would guess she was actually a combat witch. Her power was called "field control". She could control the bodies of anyone within five meters.

Her ability was of no use when facing long-distance attacks, such as crossbow bolts and spear throwers. However, she remained almost invincible in any close combat.

As an ability of summoning type, it would also be affected by the God's Stone of Retaliation. She could summon the "field control" over 10 times a day and each time she would only use half of her magic power. While performing it, she would not be hindered from freely moving around either. The "field control" was invisible to naked eyes, which made it extremely hard for the enemies to defend themselves from her surprise attacks. Once she got within five meters of her enemies, she would have the full control of the situation.

Obviously, it was an excellent ability to observe demons in the short distance.

The last witch to take the test was Iffy.

She seemed to be around 20 years old, lean and fit, and wearing a tight black leather outfit with knee-high boots. Her waist-length, chestnut brown hair looked shiny in the sunlight.

Iffy did not know that Tilly chose her to come to the Western Region because she possessed an indispensable skill to capture demons with her "magic cage". In a blink of an eye, she could conjure up cages formed by her magic to capture the enemies close to her and squeeze the cages to crush them. Anything in her cage was weightless as well. This meant, even if she captured an elephant, she could also easily carry it back to the City of Neverwinter.

As the "magic cage" ability was crucial to the success of his plan, Roland carefully asked all the details about her ability, "What's the biggest thing we can capture?"

"Different sizes have different demands for my magical power," she answered. "But even a whale in the sea can't escape from my grasp."

"How many can you capture a time?" Roland continued.

"Two," she said and then spread her hands. "I only have two hands, Your Majesty."

Roland continued his enquiry, "Can anything escape?"

"No, even Ashes can't get out of it unless I release her," Iffy explained.

"Uh..." When Roland paused to think about other curiosities he wanted the answer, Iffy took an initiative to make a suggestion. "Why don't you find someone to test my ability? I think Maggie is a good choice. I've heard that she's evolved and can transform into a strong monster. If you witness that even something like her can't get out of my trap, you won't worry about my ability anymore."

Roland could not help but agree with her since the monster Maggie transformed into was just like the mount of demons, which the witches would probably encounter in their quest to capture them. After thinking for a while, Roland nodded at Nightingale and said, "Tell Leaf to call Maggie here."

Maggie and Lightning would fly over the Misty Forest when they were not on patrol. Guided by Leaf, they could both have fun and eat delicious food, such as picking tasty Bird Beak Mushrooms and taking eggs from birds' nests in the forest. Because of all the treats, when Maggie was turned into a pigeon, she now was as big as a bald eagle. However, when she transformed back into her real self, she was still a little girl with very long white hair.

Soon, they appeared in the sky.

Maggie landed on the prince's head as usual and said, "Maggie is here. Coo! What can I do for you?"

Roland briefly told her about the test and said, "Please turn yourself into a giant bird demon and try to break free from Iffy's magical cage."

"I see, Coo!"

Maggie flew up. She instantly changed into a huge bird and obscured the sun. Looking at her, Roland somehow felt her monstrous bird form now seemed much bigger in size than the initial one she had during her first evolvement.

"Let's begin," he said to Iffy.

Iffy sneered, with a flicker of contempt in her eyes. She opened her right hand, spreading all the five fingers. Meanwhile, a dozen of purple light beams immediately appeared over Maggie's head and swiftly formed a sphere, trapping Maggie Inside.

The "cage bars" were not very thick, but they were so stagnant that no matter how hard Maggie tried to bite or scratch them, she could not free herself. Iffy controlled the cage with great ease and seemed to be able to capture a demon with her left hand at the same time.

When Roland was about to tell her to stop the test, Iffy suddenly squeezed her right hand into a fist.

The cage instantly contracted to tie up Maggie tightly, making her scream in pain.

Chapter 534 - The Value of Witches

"What're you doing?!"

"Let her go!"

Hearing so many complaints, Iffy twitched her lips and raised her right hand. The cage was gone and Maggie fell onto the ground.

"Damn you!" A fast-flying golden figure lunged at Iffy. It was Lightning!

However, just as she raised her fist, the magic cage locked her inside. It was impossible for her to touch Iffy even though she was only an arm's length away.

"Get out of here. This is none of your business!"

Iffy angrily tossed the cage away, sending it tumbling over and over on the ground. Lightning bumped inside the cage until it rolled out of the area that Iffy could affect.

She wiped the dirt off her face and was about to bound towards Iffy again, when she saw Roland walking toward her, hand raised.

WHACK!

The sharp slap left everyone stunned, especially Iffy.

She did not bother to cover her red cheek, staring at Roland in disbelief. After a while, she slowly lowered herself on one knee and said, "Pardon me for my lack of manners, Your Majesty."

Roland was also surprised by himself. He had been reluctant to slap a girl, but seeing Maggie fall onto the ground, he had burst into anger and stepped forward uncontrollably as if witnessing his own daughter being bullied by some mean, naughty kid.

"Why did you do that?" He shouted at Iffy.

"Your Majesty, her potential will explode during a crisis, giving her much greater strength. I just want you to have accurate test results." Iffy said in a cold voice as if it was simply something trivial. "It seems that even an evolved non-combat witch still can't compete with a combat witch."

Roland was speechless in shock. What made Iffy think that it was reasonable to hurt her own kind just to get the test results? What kind of environment had she lived in?

He then turned and looked toward Wendy carrying the white-haired girl in her arms. "How's she doing?" he asked.

"She's alright. She's not heavily injured, except for some reddening welts and swelling," Wendy answered. She rolled up Maggie's sleeve with a frown, revealing red bruises on her white arm from the magic cage.

"Coo." Maggie buried her head into Wendy's arms, sounding rather grieved.

"Relax, Your Majesty," Iffy said plainly, "I'm always aware of how much power I use. Those areas of redness will recover within two days..."

"Apologize to her!" Roland angrily interrupted.

Iffy opened her mouth in surprise and blushed with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty"

"No, not me. Apologize to Maggie."

She bit her lip and lowered her head, without saying a word. Looking at Iffy who was insisting on not apologizing to Maggie, Roland felt so annoyed he wanted to laugh.

It looked like the situation on Sleeping Island was worse than he had imagined. If the Bloodfang Association witches dared to behave like this in the territory of a Lord, they must be even more arrogant on Sleeping Island.

Roland now found himself in an awkward situation. He could neither change Iffy's attitude towards non-combat witches, nor send her back to Sleeping Island. He believed that no matter how hard he punished Iffy, she would never see anything wrong with her own deeds and attitude. If he simply punished her and asked her to go back, he would lose Tilly's trust because he would fail to solve the problem for Sleeping Island. He had promised Tilly that she could always count on him with any problem.

He would have to break her pride of her power, in order for her to realize her fault.

"You think you're more powerful than the non-combat witches, so you can despise them?" Roland asked in a cold, hard voice. "You're not that strong."

Hearing this, Iffy promptly looked up at him defiantly.

"You think combat witches are superior to assistant witches because you're the ones who can protect your kind, right?" Roland said, "This is ridiculous. You can't win a fight, entirely by yourself."

Iffy frowned tightly and looked angry. "Your Majesty, do you mean to say that a non-combat witch can defeat me?"

"Yes, you don't believe it?" Roland sneered. "Most witches in the Witch Union could easily defeat you, even if they've never used their power in a fight." He looked at Lightning who was standing aside, startled by his words at first. She quickly understood and nodded to him.

"That's just your imagination."

"OK, how about a duel between you and Maggie, " he said in a deep voice. "She'll show you why you should never look down upon the assistant witches."

"What?" Iffy's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean a fight between me and the dumb pigeon?"

"The duel is set for tomorrow, " Roland said each word slowly. "You'll see that you're not as strong as you think."

*******************

Returning to their place, they saw lunch awaiting on the table in the living room.

There was meat soup, bread, mushrooms and stewed vegetables.

Apparently, they did not need to go to the hall for lunch.

"Wow? We get meat and bread?" Softfeathers asked in surprise. "I thought we would only get cold water."

"Is this for the duel? He doesn't want me to fight in hunger?" Iffy sneered. "He has too much faith in that stupid bird."

"Maybe the dishes are drugged with something, like laxatives." Softfeathers suggested.

Completely ignoring the other witch's words, Iffy grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it into her mouth. "If you're worried about that, you can always just not eat it."

"I don't care. I'm not the one going to a duel." Softfeathers rolled her eyes. She climbed up to sit on a stool and took a dish of roasted mushrooms, saying, "Hey, do you have to do this? Lady Heidi asked us to confirm the situation here, but she never told you to irritate the lord."

"It's an exciting opportunity," Iffy said.

"Really?" Softfeathers asked with great interest. "That's why you're doing this?"

Iffy turned and stared at Softfeathers coldly until the little girl dropped her head and mumbled. "Fine, forget about it."

Ever since a group of Sleeping Island witches had come back from the Western Region, the atmosphere was bad for the Bloodfang Association. According to the returning witches, Lady Tilly's elder brother had built a domain where witches could live like ordinary people and even the assistant witches were well treated. This story had made the useless assistant witches on Sleeping Island very excited. Lady Heidi thought that it was Tilly who made up this story to gain the support of the many assistant witches. A lord would naturally value combat witches more, they could conquer and bring lands and power to him.

During today's test however, Iffy was really surprised to find that this lord seemed to treat all the witches equally,

But it was not what surprised her the most.

She was most surprised by Maggie.

Iffy could not believe that a stupid bird so clumsy in speech was so popular among the witches and liked by the lord, and that everyone was really beaming with a smile when they saw the fool. On Sleeping Island, Maggie was just a pet, a dispensable role!

Seeing Maggie, Iffy was full of anger and jealousy.

Iffy thought it was a betrayal that Maggie had left Sleeping Island and was living happily together with the witches here.

This was the real reason Iffy had targeted Maggie.

However, things had really gotten out of her control.

She still found it hard to believe that His Majesty had made such a ridiculous suggestion and arranged a duel between her and a pigeon.

She had to accept it. After all, getting information about the Western Region was one of her tasks here. Another task was to attract the lord's attention by showing her value and ability.

She was confident that she could make it clear to His Majesty that there was a huge gap between the combat witches and the weak assistant witches.

Chapter 535 - The Gun of a Protector

...

It was twilight when Roland returned to the castle with the duel affairs settled.

"Do you really think Maggie will win?" Nightingale appeared behind Roland the moment he stepped into the office.

"What're you worried about? You know that she's been learning marksmanship all this time from Lightning, your own apprentice!" consoled Roland. "She's brave enough, and she dared to fight with the demon in her beast personification at the critical juncture of Devil's Town exploration last time. The only thing to be concerned is whether she'll shoot at her peer."

Maggie would suffer more startle than pain, and Iffy was not doomed to death. Nevertheless, this disdainful attitude towards non-combat witches was no different from a bomb in the platoon. Until she learned this impressive lesson and repented thoroughly for her misdeeds, Roland did not dare to bring her out to catch the demons.

The most profound lesson would be Maggie defeating Iffy.

Undoubtedly, the gun was a weapon that could enhance the ability of assistant witches so that they could acquire more power for fighting. To avoid accidental death, Roland had deliberately had Soraya produce a batch of rubber bullets. The metal head had been replaced with a multi-layer wrapped coating. This softened the bullet from interior to exterior and prevented it from entering a human body without weakening its full power. Its huge kinetic energy would be totally imposed on a human body as the bullet was gradually deformed, causing a pain severe enough to make the target lose any ability to defend. That was why it was also known as the Ability-losing Bullet.

"I want to see her." With discontent, Nightingale disappeared into the Mist.

Roland sighed gently as he clearly heard the crack of an arming gun from his side. He would have called for Nana if Iffy did not loosen Maggie as was expected.

It was rather obvious that Maggie dreaded the witches of the Bloodfang Association, which proved that they were used to doing such things on Sleeping Island. When considering Cara of the Witch Cooperation Association and then the inferior feelings Evelyn and Candle had when they had initially arrived, or even the Witch Union more than 400 years ago, there was no doubt that the idea of combat witches being nobler than others came naturally. In other words, the capable combat witches would certainly grasp more power when oppressed by foreign enemies. However, the force of gunpowder and firearms was strong enough to shorten the gap, Roland mused. Tilly might believe in him further if he could convert their thoughts.

*******************

"You should remember there is nothing to be worried about and you shall shoot directly at her until you empty the cartridge. You need to make her burst into tears and kneel down begging for mercy. Do you understand?" Lightning shouted in a high pitch, "Even if you were using normal bullets, Nana is here, ready for any accidents. Plus, there is the coating head made by Soraya. Only by shooting more bullets towards her, can you release yourself!"

"Hmm..." Maggie was leaning on the bed with her hair shielding her cheeks. "I understand."

"Not yet!" Lightning pushed her long, white hair aside and said, "You don't want to beat her, do you? If you show her any mercy, I'll never take you exploring. A coward can never be an explorer!"

Maggie looked to be struggling. "I'm not..."

"She's definitely not a coward." Another voice came from behind them. "A coward does not dare to fight with a demon. Not to mention, she saved my life."

Appearing from the Mist, Nightingale walked to the bedside and strongly struck Lightning in the forehead. "Who has taught you to speak this way!"

Lightning held her forehead and then curled her lip. "I'm just worried that she'll have cold feet."

After heaving a sigh, Nightingale took Maggie's hands in her own. "Listen, this isn't just about you and her. His Majesty has made these arrangements with the purpose of making witches in the Bloodfang Association change their attitudes towards other witches and regret their mistakes. Remember Evelyn and Candle? There're many witches who had experiences similar to theirs on Sleeping Island. If you can teach Iffy a lesson, you're actually doing them a favor to some extent."

After a pause, Nightingale continued, "So, you're not just fighting for yourself. You're also fighting to protect us, just like what you did when fighting against the demon last time."

"En..." Maggie nodded gently, blinking her eyes.

"One more thing. His Majesty Roland also promises that if you win, the ice cream and pepper barbecue shall be supplied without limitation for one week, just for you."

"Coo!" Her eyes suddenly lit up.

*******************

The next day, in addition to the guards responsible for site-clearing, there were more than ten witches standing on the grassland outside the city wall. They were centered around Roland, congruously making bright cheers for Maggie.

"I won't cheer for you." Yawned Softfeathers. "You can't hear it anyway."

"You don't need to do that." Iffy scoffed as she slowly walked to the divided central field and looked at Maggie without emotion. Maggie stood opposite her, capped by her long hair. If victory was judged by the number of supporters, the church would have already unified the whole continent. "It's not too late to give in. I trust you don't want to let His Majesty down."

"I'll never give in, coo!"

She was slightly stunned. Since when did this bird dare to speak so affirmatively in the face of her? "Really? Then get ready to fall from the sky into a cage like a dog!"

"You can't trap me," Maggie raised her head and said. "The only one who can catch me in the sky is Lightning!"

The moment the start whistle rang, Iffy went straight towards Maggie. She was sure that Maggie could not beat a person with combat training like herself, even though Maggie was helped by the power of God's Stone of Retaliation. His Majesty Roland had wrongly judged the fighting ability of combat witches. They relied not only on their power for fighting, they could also convert their body into a deadly weapon. By virtue of extraordinary physical fitness and restorability, witches could always withhold harsher training. She was confident that she could make her opponent throw in the towel in ten movements, even if it were a knight armed to the teeth.

With her wings rapidly spreading, Maggie changed into a bluebird and aimed skyward.

"Is this the stunt that you mentioned?" Iffy stretched out her arms in the direction Maggie had escaped. Her magic power did not reach anything. "This is a duel. Do you think you have anywhere to flee?"

"Chirp, chirp." Flying higher and higher, the bird soon faded away. Only a series of silvery tweets remained.

Frowning, Iffy looked to the sky and suddenly a faintly discernible shadow in the direction of the rising sun appeared within her sight.

"Is she going to give me an unexpected attack hiding under the sunlight?" Iffy could not help but sneer. This might have been a good idea, but even with her eyes covered she was still able to sense any object within ten steps by using her magic power—a derivative skill that had awakened at her adulthood.

Moreover, what harm could a fist-sized bluebird do to her? To win, her opponent would inevitably have to change into that ferocious monster again!

While waiting for Maggie to return, the earth suddenly darkened as a cloud shielded the light of sunshine. Iffy then saw a bird falling from the sky.

What a wretch! It looked like Maggie was not lucky at all!

She extended her hands without hesitation. The victory would soon be hers!

But there was nothing... In front of her was only magic power. She felt no sign of Maggie whom she had expected to rush forward.

Maggie had abruptly stopped moving when 20 steps away from Iffy!

To Iffy's surprise, Maggie recovered her human avatar in midair and pulled a short silvery stick from her pocket.

Was she mad?

Despite not having wings, Maggie did not drop directly to the ground. Her white hair had lifted and opened in a wing shape allowing her to descend slowly. Meanwhile, the stick spurted a ball of flame with a loud bang!

Iffy was clear that something had intruded the boundary of her magic power, but it could not have been Maggie, a crossbow, bolt or stone. It was not until she fetched out her cage that her belly was severely assaulted by something like a hammer, followed by her thighs and then calves. The loud sound rang continuously with the mud on the ground continually splashing. She could not make any sound due to intense pain and her seemingly broken feet were unable to support her body.

Iffy fell to the ground and clutched her stomach with her whole body huddled up. Her consciousness was becoming blurry.

Dimly, she saw a white figure falling in front of her. With one last effort, she poised her hands, but the magic no longer responded to her summon.

"You lost, coo."

These were the last words she heard before she fainted.

Chapter 536 - The Dream (Part I)

"Annie, I'm tired." Iffy complained.

"Hold on for a little longer. We're almost there," Annie said.

They were walking on hard gravel. Each step they took would cause a drilling pain in their feet. Iffy really wanted to stop but Annie was strongly pulling her forward and tightly clutching her hand. Annie did not even slightly slow down her pace no matter if they were crossing through the brambles and thorns or the ice cold stream. From behind, she looked as determined as a mountain.

"Annie, I'm really tired..."

Iffy begged again.

She felt as if her soles were on fire, her entire body was in unceasing pain, and her chest was feeling compressed no matter how hard she inhaled. She felt as if she was dying.

Annie softly sighed and leaned forward to listen to the ground, and she pointed at a raised stone not far away and said, "Let's take a rest over there."

The very last trace of strength rose from the bottom of Iffy's heart once she heard that it was time to take a rest. She clenched her teeth and quickly walked to the giant rock and collapsed there; she even wished to stay there for eternity at that moment.

Annie did not instantly sit down. She surrounded both sides of the rock with the broken branches that she found nearby for camouflage. It felt like a cozy nest with both of the branches and the natural ceiling-like tilted rock. Unfortunately, they were still on an uneven, rocky ground that hurt their butts and the small space was not big enough for both of them to lie down.

"The church won't find us since we've run this far."

"Don't let your guard down, and it's still not far enough from them."

Annie was as alert as a wildcat, always with her ears up, listening and monitoring everything around her. However, she was a lot tougher than the wildcat. She was accustomed to the pain and compared with the cruel Judgement Army, Annie was more like a silent predator.

"Does the Bloodfang Association... really exist?"

They were two of the five witches who were searching for the Bloodfang Association. After leaving Graystone Stronghold, they had been intercepted by the church, so they had decided to act separately. Iffy had been walking towards the east for three days and nights before bumping into Annie while the others were totally out of contact.

"Of course," Annie said while rubbing her toes. "I heard that they're on the Wolf Tooth Island across the sea."

"But, how could we cross the sea?"

"Just walk towards the shore and look for a boat." Annie comforted. "Don't worry, just leave it to me."

"Okay," Iffy softly answered.

Annie took a piece of dried pork skin out of the baggage and held it in her hands. Some white smoke instantly sprung out of it while it became boiling hot and soft as the cloud. "Let's eat first, we'll continue the journey after eating," Annie said.

That was Annie's ability, whose palms could set the branches and sticks on fire and cook the food as well. Iffy devoured the skin like a wolf and then drooled over the skin in Annie's hand. Annie smiled and threw half of hers to Iffy and said, "You eat more. I'm not very hungry yet."

It was time to continue their journey after Iffy finished eating the other half of the skin and licking each of her fingers.

Iffy was struggling to get back on her feet, but before she could get out of the cave, the branches around it suddenly started to tremble.

It was not the swaying motion of the autumn wind, but a series of light and fast-paced trembles, as if something was coming in their direction.

Annie's eyes instantly widened in fear and said, "Horses! They're approaching on horses! Run!"

Iffy felt as if she was being pulled up and started to run subconsciously. The drilling pain below her feet returned. As her body did not really recover, it was very difficult for her to even stand, not to mention running.

She turned around and saw more than ten galloping horses appeared at the end of the rocky beach. Their speed was not too fast which might be because the soldiers worried about hurting the hoofs of their mounts. However, it was still fast enough to catch both of them who were running on bare feet.

Iffy thought that they could not escape.

Or rather, she could not escape.

Iffy wrenched her hand away from Annie's grasp and said, "You go first."

"I'll carry you."

"You can't run fast enough that way!"

"Just listen to me. Be quick."

The Judgement Army on the giant horses was approaching when Iffy was hesitating. Iffy noticed that some had lifted their hand crossbows and thrown spears.

The bumpy gravel ground suddenly collapsed at that moment and the riders in the front fell into the pit, screaming. The platoon hurriedly spread out to avoid the trap, but the horses suddenly knelt down on the ground one by one. A group of red-dressed silhouettes unexpectedly popped out in front of the church soldiers as if they were rising from the ground. The mass shooting of the close range arrows caught the Judgement Army off guard, and the soldiers who were lucky enough to avoid the arrows could not escape and were hunted down in the ambush. More than 10 soldiers from the church were all lying dead on the stone beach within seconds.

After that, they quickly stripped the armors from the soldiers, taking away their dry food and baggage, along with the God's Stones of Retaliation.

One of them walked towards Iffy and Annie.

"Are you looking for the Bloodfang Association?"

"How do you know?" Iffy asked in surprise.

"Yes, my Lord," Annie quickly pinched Iffy's hand and said. "We're both witches. The other three of us were lost on the way. Could you please help them?"

"We don't have the manpower to attend to the other witches." The woman took off her hood and revealed her short fiery-red hair. "If your partners couldn't reach here by themselves, they're not qualified to join the Bloodfang Association." She paused and said, "Of course, not everyone who gets here can join the Bloodfang Association either."

Iffy could feel that Annie was holding her hand tighter.

"What're your abilities? Show me."

After seeing their abilities, the red-haired woman looked at Iffy and nodded. "You can go to the Archduke Island." And then she looked at Annie and said, "But you can't."

"Why?" Iffy asked.

"My Lord, I..." Annie said.

"I'll be sending you to another witch association, but not the Bloodfang Association." The red-haired woman interrupted Annie in a cold, hard voice. "You can't become a combat witch, and the Bloodfang Association doesn't need a cook."

...

"What're you crying for?" The red-haired woman impatiently reproached Iffy. "The Lord's going to be angry if she sees your crying face."

"I... want to be with Annie..."

"Hopeless little brat, she's nothing but a burden."

"She's not, she saved me!" Iffy swallowed her tears and said, "Annie is the true combat witch that you need..."

"Pfft... Whether you're a combat witch or not is determined by the ability you got in the awakening, not strong limbs," the red-haired woman said relentlessly. "You think that she's more powerful than you. That's because she's five or six years older than you. In fact, you have far more potential than she does."

"Where are you... going to send Annie?"

"It's none of your business."

Iffy felt like crying again.

The red-haired woman frowned and said, "Listen, the Lord doesn't like cowards. You can't mention about the past if you want to survive in Archduke Island."

...

Chapter 537 - The Dream (Part II)

Deep inside the burrow, the crowd knelt down, worshiping a woman dressed in luxurious finery. Countless candles were silently burning, faintly glowing stars covering the ground.

"Is this the new kid? Lift your head and let me see your face."

Iffy lifted her head timidly, but could only see a mask reflecting cold light. She was almost screaming out loud at that moment.

"I'm Heidi Morgan. Don't be afraid, the mask was just to protect my identity." The woman's voice was softer than Iffy imagined. "You're a member of the Bloodfang Association from today onwards."

"Why... can't you accept Annie?" Iffy summoned up her courage to ask.

"Presumptuous!" The red-haired woman shouted.

The other witches were chuckling as if sneering at her stupidity.

"It's okay," Heidi said, waving her hand. She walked down from the stage to approach Iffy and said, "Because there's no way for me to support so many witches."

"She, she can find her own food."

"To live like a rat? Hide in the gutter all day and eat others' leftovers? Living that way will gradually make you more like a savage by the day," Heidi shook her head and said, "The Bloodfang Association needs beasts, not rats waiting to be slaughtered by others."

"B-beast?" Iffy could not help but repeat after her.

"Yes. Have you ever seen a cliff wolf?"

Iffy shook her head.

"They're the symbol of the Kingdom of Wolfheart and master of the mountains. They can give birth to three or four cubs every time, but not all the cubs can survive. Do you know why?" Heidi slowly explained. "Because the mother wolf will kill some cubs that she can't find enough food to support to make sure the rest of the cubs are well-fed. The future generation that was grown up in such circumstances could continue to live within the tough environment."

Iffy opened her mouth, but she did not know what to say.

"Cutting down the amount of feeding to each cub can also keep all the cubs alive. However, it's simply being alive—the young wolves without sufficient nutrition will not able to hunt for themselves when they grow up. They would not be able to step out of the nest, neither would they have a chance to reproduce. The cliff wolf clan would completely vanish in the long run. What do you think of that?"

"I..."

Heidi lifted Iffy's chin up with her finger. "My child, this is the inspiration the God sends to us: Witches must act like the beasts in order to survive in the oppression. And strong combat witches will naturally become the symbol of the entire race, for example... who you are now!"

The candlelight started to flicker. Iffy did not hear any cheering but she could feel their emotions. The combination of the emotions of excitement, inspiration, and joy was like the unspoken volcano.

After a while, she hesitantly asked, "What, what if there is sufficient food for every single wolf?"

"In that case, they're no longer the wolves," Heidi laughed and said, "but dogs".

...

The whip slashed on Iffy's back, making a crisp noise.

"Idiot, you can't even complete such a little practice, wasting all the food that was fed to you. Tell me, how many whips is this?"

"24" Iffy clenched her teeth and said.

She was responded to by continuous whips. Blood and sweat were flowing down from her back, drenching her pants.

"That's all for today. You'll get double flogging if the same happens for tomorrow's training." The red-haired woman threw a huge piece of rib into the middle of the four witches who were punished. "The dinner time is over. This is the extra food I asked Lord Heidi for. You divide it amongst yourselves. Remember, no magic power allowed."

The amount of the rib was enough to fill up four of their stomachs.

However, the fight training consumed a great amount of energy. The possibility to complete it would increase if they had extra food supply as supplement in between meals.

Like a beast...

Only strong witches can survive.

Iffy stared at the meat in front of her and pounced onto the witch nearest to her.

...

"The Secret Association was destroyed by the church. I heard that none of them escaped."

"Even the leader of the witches."

"The church is camping by the eastern coast!"

"The damned nobles." Heidi did not look well. "I'm going to tear them into pieces sooner or later!"

The influence of witches within the Kingdom of Wolfheart was eliminated one by one, leaving only the Bloodfang Association to barely support itself. Although Iffy did not quite understand why it was related to the nobles on the island, she could sense that the situation was getting critical.

"In this case, send Shaji and me to get rid of them." Iffy suggested.

"It's too late! The church has noticed the Archduke Island. We can no longer stay here," Heidi clenched her teeth and said. "Let's go to Sleeping Island."

"You're talking about... the witch association which sent the pigeon to deliver the letter last time?" Iffy asked.

"Exactly. We can draw some manpower from there to strengthen ourselves. It's only temporary; I'll be back here sooner or later! The Kingdom of Wolfheart is mine!"

...

"Damn. Why are these people willing to listen to the orders from a little girl?" Heidi angrily threw the glass onto the ground.

Iffy was speechless. The witches on Sleeping Island were like sheep in her eyes, as they did not have much power of resistance when they were facing enemies, including the so-called leader, Tilly Wimbledon. Without the Extraordinary beside her, she would not be able to hold the position.

"It's probably because she's preaching the equal importance of non-combat witches?" Shaji interrupted. "No one wants to be excluded."

"Ridiculous! She didn't even think about who defeated the church in Fjords! Who'll believe such a nonsense?"

"Tilly's elder brother, Lord of the Western Region seems to agree with that."

"That was all made up by them! No one knows what a lord really wants better than I do!" Heidi angrily said. "You thought that I built the Bloodfang Association for..." she suddenly stopped for a while and then continued, "No, I can't allow them to continue talking nonsense. You have to go to the Western Region and expose Tilly's lies! Bring my words to the lord. I can offer double for what Tilly Wimbledon has to offer!"

Somehow, Iffy felt that Lord Heidi at the moment was nowhere like a beast but an exasperated lamb.

"That's why you abandoned me?"

Annie's figure suddenly appeared in front of her. "You left me for this kind of master and such a ridiculous life, betraying my trust towards you?"

"No, Annie..."

Iffy was horrified to notice the blank space on Annie's face.

"Do you... forget about me?"

She quickly opened her eyes and everything that had been in front of her eyes just now suddenly disappeared, leaving the gray-white colored ceiling of the room and the hanging light.

Is this a dream?

She quickly closed her eyes again to recall Annie's face. Fortunately, Iffy still clearly remembered her look.

Iffy turned around and sat up on her bed, feeling slightly relieved. However, she saw a little girl curiously looking at her by the bed.

Iffy could tell from her eyes that she must be someone who had not experienced any suffers and struggles... someone who was also called the sheep.

"Who're you?"

"Nana," the little girl tilted her head and said. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Iffy could feel that her back was drenched in her sweat at that moment. "Did I... say anything?"

"Oh, yes. You kept mumbling that 'I'm a beast... I'm a beast...'," the little girl said with her arms open, "Why did you say that? You're not a beast."

She bit her lips and said, "You... have no idea."

"I have," Nana said, while covering her grin with her hand. "You're just like me. Aren't we both human beings?"

Chapter 538 - The Wheel of Time

After being supplied with food and equipment, the First Army was ready to set out once again.

This was the mission for the latter half of the spring offensive: seizing Willow Town and Fallen Dragon Ridge. Capturing Willow Town would unify the Western Region, and taking control of Fallen Dragon Ridge would enable them to have the easiest access to the Southern Territory.

Since these two towns were well fortified, Roland entrusted the command to Iron Axe and he himself would not partake in the expedition. Because they just conquered King's City, the soldiers were having high morale. Besides, those professional soldiers had gradually formed a prototype of soldiers in a modern army, which meant they could faithfully carry out combat orders without being led by Roland personally. Therefore, Roland was sure they would take the two towns. As long as they made a thorough investigation and used the artillery troops to steadily push forward, they would not face great resistance from the enemies.

The reconstruction of the post-war order should be his focus of attention.

Fortunately, Willow Town was not a large-scale town. He did not need to set a fully-functional secondary City Hall as the one in the Longsong Area, but only to set up offices for each department correspondingly. Nowadays, the Border Area could offer a batch of fundamental management staff, so it would not be hard to add Willow Town to the political system of the City of Neverwinter.

As for Fallen Dragon Ridge, he would hand it over to Countess Spear for management. After the fall of Timothy, Spear had sworn allegiance to Roland and agreed to accept the overall management model of Western Region. In order to help her take over the city and cleaning up the rebel nobility, Roland believed it was necessary to garrison the first army there.

Plus, in the future, whether to further annex the Southern Territory or to conquer Iron Sand City, Fallen Dragon Ridge was the key traffic artery. So, the other purpose of the garrison was to prevent accidents. No matter what, Roland had to take hold of this city.

"In this way, there won't be many left in the First Army," after knowing the plan, Iron Axe said, frowning. "500 of them are guarding King's City, 1,000 will be dispatched to Willow Town and Fallen Dragon Ridge, and the number of soldiers I can freely mobilize is no more than 1,500, most of whom are artillery. Given that, City of Neverwinter probably will temporarily lose the ability to launch the attack."

"How is the training for the new soldiers recruited during the Months of Demons going?"

"Not even close to the regular troops," Iron Axe said while shaking his head. "They need to be trained for at least two to three more months."

Roland could not help laughing. He remembered when he originally set up the Militia to resist demonic beasts, it went to the battlefield only after one and a half months' training. Now with the increasingly comprehensive construction of the army, the criterion of acceptability also greatly increased. In fact, as long as the soldiers could line up based on the order and take aim to pull the trigger, even in this era it was a strong army—After all, they only needed to aim and shoot without necessarily being under the attack of the enemies and risking their own lives.

"Don't worry. By then the garrison could be replaced by those new recruits, and it'll be a sort of training for them to fight against the guards of the noble." Roland said in a leisure tone, "When the emissary delegation for recruiting refugees returns, the population of City of Neverwinter will reach another peak. We can continue to expand our army then."

Seizing King's City was far from an end, and seizing Fallen Dragon was only a start. If everything went well, he hoped to annex the whole Southernmost Ridge before the arrival of the Months of Demons this year.

If he could get a stable supply of black water, he might be able to lead the industries of City of Neverwinter to a new stage.

Soon after Iron Axe left, Nightingale quietly appeared in front of Roland.

"Iffy wants to see you."

...

Looking at the witch from Bloodfang Association slowly walking into the office, Roland could feel some changes.

Her steps were not as firm as the time when she first arrived here; her maroon long hair was a little messy, which showed that she apparently did not care to take care of it. She did not look as vigilant and proud as before; instead, she looked rather confused and at a loss.

At this moment, she looked more like a girl at her real age.

Iffy bowed first, and then after a long silence, she opened her mouth. "Your Majesty, what's... the weapon that Maggie used?"

Roland had expected that she would ask about it. He nodded at Nightingale, and then Nightingale took the revolver out of her waist and put it on the table.

"What she used was a gun. It kills enemies with projectiles fueled by gunpowder." He skillfully removed the cartridge and poured out the bullets. "The projectiles used to shoot at you were modified in a particular way, otherwise you would have been killed on spot."

Iffy's lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but yet she swallowed her words in the end.

Roland picked up a bullet and raised it in front of everybody. "Do you see it? It is not much bigger than a finger, but yet it requires an extremely complicated procedure to manufacture it. The whole procedure required the joint work of hundreds of ordinary townsmen and three witches. Neither of the two groups is dispensable. And those are the non-combat witches who you think are useless. Do you still think so?"

"I..." She looked hesitated, but could not utter a word in the end.

Roland did not give her too much time to think. He continued, "Maybe they cannot compete with you in terms of abilities, but that doesn't prove anything. Although a commoner can't knock down a fierce beast with his bare hands, it's the human beings that rule the world, not the beasts."

"I prefer to call the non-combat witches as assistant witches. Through their own abilities, they can give the vast majority of ordinary people new forces, such as those guards who fight with long swords and shields—with the help of them, human beings can easily beat the beasts. In a sense, assistant witches are greater than combat witches."

"But the weapons you invented... can play a more powerful role in the hands of the combat witches," Iffy said in a low voice.

"The difference isn't very obvious, at least not obvious enough to change the outcome of a war." Roland shook his head. "Imagine this: while faced with ten ordinary soldiers armed with such weapon, what's the odd for you to win? In my territory, they can produce seven to eight such guns every day, but how many combat witches are there? Moreover, owning the weapons alone isn't enough. We also need to maintain them. To this end, we need a massive production and logistics team, in which assistant witches play irreplaceable roles."

He reassembled the gun and returned it to Nightingale. "I know that it's hard for you to understand the fact instantly. But the reason human beings are greater than the beasts is that human beings can use their wisdom to create power that the world has never had. To this end, magic power is undoubtedly the best tool, and yet you're wasting this talent." He paused for a moment. "Right, the First Army reserve will have a maneuver using loaded rifles this afternoon. I suggest you watch it so that you can use your own eyes to observe what the real power is."

"The time has changed, Iffy."

...

Chapter 539 - The Melting Ice

Agatha had a busy day. By the time she returned to the castle, the sky had turned completely dark.

Pushing the door open, she was surprised to find Wendy waiting for her in the living room.

"Why did you work till so late again?" Wendy asked, frowning, but in her tone, there was not the slightest meaning of blame. Only a little bit of concern. "I hope you can come back earlier next time so that we can at least have dinner together."

"Sorry, I lost track of time," Agatha said as she took off her coat and hung it by the door. "My mind was all on producing the last batch of nitrogen, so I didn't notice the sky already turned dark when I left work. You should blame the Lord, turning on the lights in the chemical plant, making it as bright as daytime."

"I brought you dinner," said Wendy as she sighed helplessly. "It's on the table. It's still hot. So, hurry."

"Thank you," Agatha said, feeling touched. "Wendy is the most respected witch in the Witch Cooperation Association and is deeply trusted by the Lord. If she were in Taquila, she would have been at least an executive officer under the Three Chiefs. It's absolutely impossible in the Union for such a person to bring me dinner."

"You're welcome." Wendy patted her on the shoulder. "If you feel tired, don't hesitate to ask Echo to sing a hot spring song for you... Don't forget you're also a member of the Witch Union."

The Witch Union...

After the door was closed, Agatha kept still for a moment, and then went to the table and opened the metal insulated box.

The box contained three dishes and one soup: a fragrant barbecue steak, fried mushrooms, sliced bread, and egg soup. To her surprise, in a corner of the box was stuffed a small dish of honey.

She could not help but swallow her saliva.

Even Wendy noticed that...

During their decades of fighting against the demons in Taquila, all kinds of materials became more and more scarce. Naturally, that included food. Although Agatha was a relatively high rank, her daily meals consisted mainly of grains and fruits planted by assistant witches. Of course, she could eat meat, but its supply was not very stable. Things like spices, sugar, and honey were out of the question—the first two were a luxury exclusive to the high-level Federation officials; as for honey, witches who were able to keep bees were all sent to the battlefield. This was because the Federation would not "waste" them on producing such unessential sweet stuff.

In fact, she was very fond of eating sweet stuff, especially honey.

During the barbecue feast, when most people would choose pepper powder and salt as a seasoning, she just quietly brushed a whole jar of honey. She did not expect that Wendy had noticed that.

She suddenly felt something strange happening in her heart—because she could not feel coldness, she was not very sensitive to warmth either. Also, she had rarely used hot water while bathing because she did not want to bother Anna. Considering her own identity and origin, Agatha asked Roland to arrange a separate room for herself, just as her residence on the top floor of the test tower.

But now, she felt a little cold in the room.

Perhaps living with others was not a bad idea...

Agatha took out the honey, evenly smeared it on the bread, and slowly put it into her mouth. At that moment, she genuinely felt the warmth brought on by the fragrance and sweetness of the food.

...

After dinner, she planned to read "Elementary Chemistry" for a while before sleeping. The knowledge within might not be able to help her to further promote, but at least it could save her from feeling embarrassed in front of the common people.

Recently, a batch of strangers came to the chemical plant. Paper told her that they were all from the Alchemist Workshop of the king's city. Every day, Agatha could see them walking between the laboratory and the chemical plant—sometimes led by Kyle Sichi, and other times by Kyle's student, Chavez. But, whenever Agatha saw them, their faces had an expression of disbelief—one could stuff an egg into any of their mouths—as if that was the only expression they could show. Besides, several of them were excessively curious and seemed to take her as a famous alchemist. Whenever they got a chance, they would pose questions to her. In the beginning, the questions were extremely simple, but gradually became somewhat difficult to cope with.

In order to maintain the dignity of the Senior Witches and the honor of the Quest Society, Agatha decided to keep her image in their eyes.

After spending those days with the commoners, she once again confirmed that what the Union did was wrong.

Roland has proven the wisdom of the noble, and the wisdom of these ordinary people is no less than that of the witches. It only took these ordinary people a few days to master the operation of the nitrogen equipment, while at the same time understanding the process of extracting nitrogen. In the beginning, they were arguing about the number of elements in the air, but now they were already discussing the composition of synthetic ammonia. Even a few white-haired old men, while smiling shyly, consulted with Paper, who was greatly startled.

Obviously, they're rapidly learning everything around them.

At this thought, Agatha felt overwhelmed with emotions. "The witches are neither the fortunate chosen by the deities nor the unfortunate abandoned by the deities. Essentially, they're no different from the common people, which is a certainty of the destiny." In this Battle of Divine Will, all should bare their corresponding destinies, and the witches are only a small cluster of people."

Perhaps this is the original intention of the deities. With any part missing, human beings can't win in this battle of destiny.

Suddenly, there came a knock on the door.

"Come in," Agatha said and turned around. "The door isn't locked."

Then, a tall, blonde, unhooded woman came in, but Agatha felt this woman was always shrouded under a shadow.

It was Nightingale.

"Anything you want?" Agatha asked her.

"His Majesty Roland wants to see you."

"If he wants to emphasize the theory of balancing work and rest and convince me to come back earlier, I already knew it and will pay attention to it in the future," Agatha said, twitching her lips. "No need to waste his precious time on me."

"Really..." said Nightingale, she blinked and felt Agatha was not bad-natured if one did not make an enemy of her. "This is only one of the reasons. His Majesty also said he wants to fight the demons."

Agatha was startled for a moment. "What?" Tossing the book on the table, she said, "Quickly, take me to him!"

...

Agatha rushed into the Lord's office. Before Roland could say anything, Agatha asked anxiously, "For the moment, we can't even put together ten Longsong Cannons and you want to attack Devil's Town? Do you think they're as fragile as human beings who throw away their helmets and flee after thousands of them are killed? You'll ruin the city and the good situation here!"

"Huh?" Roland looked astonished. "What're you talking about?"

"Aren't you planning to fight against the demons?"

He looked at Nightingale and chuckled. "No, that's not my plan. I don't want to destroy their camp. I only want to catch a few living demons."

Chapter 540 - Different Concerns

"Is that all?"

Upon hearing it, Agatha felt slightly relieved.

The demons' strength lay in their numbers. If faced only with a few Mad Demons, one or two Senior Witches would be able to defeat them.

"Have you found a way to confine them?" Agatha asked.

"The newly arrived witches are perfect for that," Roland told her their abilities. "After Iffy catches the demons, the cage can be easily carried by the balloon. Of course, I'll prepare some shackles, so it's not a big problem to tame them either. What I want to know is how long the Red Mist carried by the demons can last, and can the demons' blood be used to produce Sigils after they die?"

"No wonder..." Until that moment, Agatha had fully understood what Roland was up to. "In general, a can of Red Mist can last for about a day. Demons will decide the number of mist cans to carry based on different tasks. For example, to carry out a surveillance or patrol mission, a demon's mount will carry three to four cans which is also its ability limit."

"Why so?" Roland asked curiously.

"After leaving the strange Blackstone Pagoda, the mist will gradually lose effectiveness," she explained. "Otherwise, the Quest Society would have been keeping demons and Chaos Beasts and mass producing sigils. The Three Chiefs of the Union also tried that before. For example, they took the initiative to attack some of the demon's outposts to seize the small Blackstone Pagoda, but the enemies would always destroy it before their defeat, leaving the Blessed Warriors a withered stone pagoda."

"Withered?" Roland asked in great surprise, "Could stones wither too?"

"Nobody knew exactly what that thing was, but judging from the stone we brought back, "withered" was the proper word to describe it." Its once smooth surface became rough and dark; a lot of stone chips fell off when it was rubbed. It was totally different from its original appearance when the warriors first saw it."

"I see..." Roland pondered for a while. "If we can bring back a demon, can you produce the Sigil of Magic Stones?"

"If you can provide me with sufficient experimental materials, an independent laboratory, and 20 common people as assistants," Agatha said while counting on her fingers, "I have an 80% chance to produce simple Sigils, as to advanced Sigils... Ah, anyway, you don't have the related Magic Stones to produce them."

"These aren't the problem." Roland hesitated and then asked in a low voice, "The problem is, what if the entrapment mission draws too many demons?"

Agatha could not help but laugh. "You looked very confident. I thought you never worried about it."

"Ahem, I just want to be absolutely certain about everything."

Agatha then said with a relaxing tone, "Just take Miss Anna and me with them."

"You and... Anna?"

"You still lack a full understanding of the witches in your territory, Your Majesty." Agatha sighed. "You know, the Union, whose power covered the entire Fertile Plains, had just over 100 Senior Witches. Not more than 40 of them were combat witches. They held high positions in the Union and were the backbones of the Blessed Army. On the other hand, in your Witch Union, there're quite a few Senior Witches, and together with your strange weapons, their strength can be compared with the Wing of Holy Army. Defeating a group of demons won't be difficult for us. Even if we run into the Lord of Hell, Miss Anna can activate the Sigil of God's Will twice."

"Ah... I almost forgot about it." Roland suddenly understood, so he said, "Thank you for the suggestion."

"You're welcome. Defeating demons is my lifetime aspiration. Please don't let me down, Your Majesty."

When Agatha was about to leave, Roland stopped her.

"Well, there is another thing I don't understand."

"What's it?"

"Why did you resolutely oppose me attacking Devil's Town?" Roland raised his eyebrows. "Your previous attitude was very different from now... I remember at that time you not only demanded to attack the demons actively but also wanted to seize Chaos Beasts that may live in their camp at any cost, didn't you?"

Agatha suddenly felt her cheeks burning up. She knew they must be red even without checking.

"At that time, I didn't believe that you had the ability to defeat the demons, but you were bragging about your military forces, so I was saying that in a fit of pique." But it would be awkward to tell Roland the truth. But now the situation in the domain was sound. Given enough time, she believed the powers of humans would be increasingly stronger, so of course, her attitude had changed. "Did I? I don't remember saying anything like that."

"But you were..."

"Ahem, Your Majesty, I feel very sleepy." She forced a yawn. "Please excuse me now." Then she immediately left the office.

While she walked through the corridor leading to the Witch House, Agatha could feel the cool breeze gently blowing on her face, which gradually cooled her mood.

Looking at the numerous stars in the sky, she suddenly remembered what Wendy said.

"One day, he'll become the King of Graycastle and lead us to defeat all our enemies. This is what I believe."

When looking at Wendy's convinced expression, Agatha felt both envious and slightly sad. She envied that Wendy had not been overwhelmed by the brutal reality, and she was sad to the fact that Wendy's conviction could not reverse the strength gap between humans and demons.

But now, she began to believe it too.

*******************

Iffy did not remember how she got back to the bedroom.

Her mind was full of the memories of guns and cannons firing and roaring—hundreds of soldiers, neatly arranged in rows, aimed at the targets in front of them and pulled the trigger. She could see nothing but thick white smoke, and even if she could feel the bullets with her magic power, she did not have enough time to trap them with her cage.

"His Majesty didn't lie. The metal bullets are much more powerful than the special bullets Maggie used when she fought with me. The metal bullets can destroy wooden targets 100 steps away, while in that distance, all the witches can do was to wait to be beaten.

As for another weapon called cannon is even more terrible. Its attack range is several times of the guns, and one even needs a telescope to observe its shooting results. Moreover, the head of the guards said that's only the old-fashioned field artillery, and a weapon called 152 mm Longsong Cannon is the real trump card of the artillery troop."

Various sounds of explosion echoed in her head, which led to one thought.

"Heidi Morgan lied to us."

Iffy murmured.

"Maybe Heidi Morgan doesn't even know such a power is possible." Softfeathers looked complex. Apparently, she was also shocked by the army training scenes she saw in the afternoon, "What should we do next?"

Iffy did not answer. "No matter what purposes Heidi had previously held, at the moment, it means nothing because the Bloodfang Association simply can't afford what His Majesty wants—Tilly Wimbledon's assistant witches are more useful than the combat witches of the Bloodfang Association."

Looking back at the past few years, she found her abilities and growth experience which she was once proud of now looked more like a joke. Except for Annie, there was nothing else worthy of cherishing in her memory.

After quite a while, she raised her head. "I don't want to go back to the Bloodfang Association."

"..." Softfeathers nodded with an almost unperceivable movement. "Me neither." And she was shocked. "Are you crying?"

Iffy then tasted something salty flowing into her mouth. Wiping her face, something wet reached her fingertips.

"I don't know."

It had been a long time since she tasted tears.

Beasts never cry.

Even if they do, they don't do it for themselves.

If only Annie and I had run into the Witch Union from the very beginning.

Closing her eyes, Iffy felt the salty rain trickling out from her heart.

Annie, forgive me.

Chapter 541 - The Mists of Bloodfang Association

Two days later, Roland met Iffy in his office again.

Her complexion was much better now. In her eyes, they seemed to have more complex emotions, which made her look more fresh and alive, more "human".

"Heidi Morgan wants to see you, but she's not able to come over, so she asked Tilly Wimbledon to send us here." Iffy bowed to Roland, and her opening remarks surprised Roland slightly. "Lady Heidi doesn't like Her Highness, Tilly. She believes that combat witches are the real core of Sleeping Island, so the Bloodfang Association shouldn't just be treated as an ordinary witch organization. She wants to make a breakthrough with your help, and she promises to offer more than what Tilly offers. Of course... I know Your Highness doesn't need them."

"Tell me the details of the Bloodfang Association," said Roland with a hand propping up his chin.

"Yes..."

Her storytelling lasted about an hour, while Roland was frowning more and more. In the end, Roland could not help but ask, "Does Tilly know about all of this?"

"I don't know." Iffy shook her head. "Lady Heidi forbids us from revealing the past of the Bloodfang Association, and seldom talks with Her Highness."

"How about the other witch organizations in Sleeping Island?"

"They're closer to the witches from the Kingdom of Graycastle, especially after the building of the Sleeping Spell. Although some combat witches agree with Lady Heidi secretly, most of them don't want to confront Ashes."

"It turns out the pressure on Tilly's shoulders is not much lesser than mine." Roland felt impressed. "Different from the situation that I'm the perfectly justified ruler of the Western Region, witches of Sleeping Island are more like in a loose organization based on covenants. Although Tilly is the organizer, she actually doesn't have the authority over those small groups who came to join her." Especially because of this, it showed Tilly's merits were superior to others—uniting most of the assistant witches, and positively establishing connections with the secular rulers of other islands. In particular, the invention of the Sleeping Spell gave her a chance to manage all the other witches.

After all, "Assistant witches are equally important" should not be just a slogan. The witches' bounty guild just offered those assistant witches with various odd abilities an excellent stage to present themselves. When they completed missions and obtained a large amount of remuneration, they could then use it to improve the quality of their lives on Sleeping Island. Such a mindset would be formed gradually. After all, no powerful combat witch would like to spend her days chewing salted fish. Especially when the assistant witches had their status promoted, they would naturally favor Tilly. When the time came, as the leader of the guild, Tilly would undoubtedly gain a great power of speech.

This was probably why Heidi Morgan could not wait any longer.

In addition, the Bloodfang Association was full of doubtful points. As the daughter of Archduke Morgan, how could Heidi not be able to afford a group of non-combat witches? It was only fair to say that she did not intend to take those "useless" people in from the very beginning. Different from the fact that witches from the Witch Cooperation Association wanted to be united to help each other, all that she wanted was a team which could fight for her benefits.

Plus her obsession towards the Kingdom of Wolfheart, all of these made Roland vigilant against her.

He should probably write a secret letter to Tilly, telling her to carefully watch out the moves of the Bloodfang Association.

"Didn't Heidi forbid you from revealing the secrets of the Bloodfang Association?" He lightly knocked on the desk. "Don't you want to follow her instructions anymore?"

Iffy bit on her lips. "I want to join the Witch Union."

Roland stopped knocking and looked at her in surprise. Although he knew that the exhibition of the powers of the thermal weapons would greatly strike the powerful and arrogant combat witches, he did not expect the effect would be so... extraordinary.

"But you hurt Maggie." He contemplated for a while. "Right now I can't..."

"About that, you can punish me as you wish."

Iffy unbuttoned her robe.

Almost at the same time, a pair of hands covered Roland's eyes from behind. But Nightingale seemed to have forgotten that she was in the mist and that her transparent fingers could not block Roland's vision.

Iffy lowered her robe and turned her back to Roland.

Roland could not help but gasp.

He could see, on Iffy's back there were all sorts of whip scars. The restored wounds looked like numerous earthworms lying crisscross on her back, forming a sharp contrast with the surrounding delicate skin. As the wounds had been healed, even Nana could not do anything to them with her healing ability. Those scars remained as they were.

When Iffy talked about the rigorous fighting trainings in the Bloodfang Association, she only used very brief words. Now when Roland thought back, he could vaguely smell the bloody atmosphere in her words.

"Put on your clothes," he said with a low voice.

"But, Your Majesty..."

Nightingale had shown herself and pulled up Iffy's robe to the shoulders.

"If you want to join the Witch Union, then don't bring the Bloodfang Association's ways of handling things here." Roland suddenly felt a suppression in his chest. "You can apply to Wendy. As to whether the other witches would accept you, it'll depend on your performance." He paused. "Anyway, City of Neverwinter is the home to witches. Even if you don't join the union, you can settle down here."

Upon hearing this, Iffy's shoulders loosened. "Thank you... for your kindness."

...

After watching her leave, Roland stood up, walked to the French window, and let out a deep breath.

Till now, his team for arresting demons was fully assembled and yet he could not feel relaxed.

"Actually, she's very lucky," Nightingale walked to him and said.

"Can that be called lucky?"

"Compared with her friend Annie, at least she survived. If the Bloodfang Association is really the only witch organization survived in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, then its members will end tragically in case they get caught by the church or the nobility. That's also why the member witches yearned so much for the Holy Mountain."

A doubt suddenly emerged in Roland's heart. "Were those non-combat witches really sent to other witch organizations by Heidi Morgan? To avoid the exposure of their whereabouts, the witches seldom contacted one another, and their gathering places changed frequently. How did Heidi gathered such information? After all, the foothold of an organization is a matter of life and death. If not to particularly trusted persons, the organization leader probably won't tell other people of their gathering sites easily."

Even if Heidi knew all that, sending the witches to other organizations was highly risky of an exposure. Would the other organizations willingly accept whatever she threw at them?

The more he thought about it, the more he found it weird.

But Nightingale confirmed that Iffy was not lying.

Obviously, the problem lay within the founders of the Bloodfang Association.

In conclusion, Heidi seemed more dangerous now. Roland realized that he should convey the information to Tilly as soon as possible so that she could carry out an investigation and make some early preparations.

The daughter of Archduke Morgan was most likely not loyal to witches.

Chapter 542 - The Wicked Journey

"Sister, we've arrived." Cole Kant happily rushed into the cabin.

"I've told you twice during this trip to not call me sister." Edith raised her head and took a glance at him. "Have you forgotten?"

"No..." Cole shivered. "No, I still remember."

"Then who am I?"

"My, my Clerk, Miss Edith."

"Who are you then?"

"Father... No, the ambassador sent out by Calvin Kant, the Duke of the Northern Region."

"Great. Make sure that you don't make the same mistake for the third time." Edith stood up, stretched her stiff limbs, and walked out of the cabin. "Call all the members of the emissary delegation. Let's go to the inner city."

This was a little trick Edith liked to play. She liked to secretly observe the person she was about to negotiate with and then only revealed herself after having a rough understanding of what kind of person the other party was. In doing so, she could take precautions beforehand and impress the other. If the one she negotiated with was male, he would most likely be interested in her.

She never tried to hide her gender; on the contrary, she used it as a social advantage.

Since she was called the Pearl of the Northern Region, she certainly needed to make good use of it.

"How about... the heads then?"

"Leave them on the boat, unless you want to hold them in your bedroom." She twitched her mouth. "They have gone rotten."

Walking off the trestle, Edith noticed that there were many boats on the canal. Many people were at the dock, most of whom carried big luggage. Judging from their clothing, they looked neither like slaves, nor businessmen. She was quite curious about it because as far as she knew, people in the other walks of life seldom traveled at the spring plowing season.

She sent for a servant. "Go ask them where they're going."

"What does it have to do with us?" Cole asked in bewilderment.

"Since Roland Wimbledon has taken over this city, he must have issued some new policies to declare his authority. What he said can, in a way, reflect his characteristics. So, it certainly has something to do with us." Edith smiled. "Of course you can pay a few gold royals for the Rats to gather the information, but I personally prefer first-hand information."

"Is, is that so..."

"You need to observe more, think more, my dear ambassador." She said, "This is a rare opportunity."

On the other side of the city gate, the streets were filled with more pedestrians. There were booths on both sides of the road. He could hear constant cries from vendors. A few years ago, Edith had been to the king's city to participate in the fifth princess' adulthood ceremony with her father. This city had not changed much. It was still as busy as it used to be.

If it were in the City of Evernight, one could have never seen such a crowd except for a holiday or a celebration.

All of a sudden, a speaker on the street caught her attention.

"Hold on for a while." Edith ordered the troop to stop and joined the crowd with Cole.

"Can you saw wood? Can you lay bricks? Can you take care of cattle and sheep? As long you specialize in something, you're the talents His Majesty is looking for! Go to Western Region. There, His Majesty is building a new king's city—City of Neverwinter! Your talent will bring you a huge reward!"

"Talent?" Edith pondered on it for a while. "What an interesting name... However, what does it mean by a new king's city? The City of Neverwinter? Is there such a city in Western Region?"

Pacing forward a little bit, she saw another group of people.

"Witches are innocent. This is the repentance the High Priest wrote down right before his execution," another speaker said, waving the document in his hand. "They may be your close relatives, your daughter, your sister!" If you're still afraid of them, send them to the City of Neverwinter! They'll be well taken care of. If you hate to part with them, you can go with them! His Majesty has promised, the witches' families will get an accommodation to protect from wind and rain. Plus, you'll also get a decent job!"

"Has the High Priest been executed?" Cole said with his eyes wide open.

On the other hand, Edith frowned. "If this is Roland Wimbledon's new policy, the way he promotes it's quite melodramatic. Isn't he afraid to provoke the church to a full revenge? That'll be nothing like the fight among nobles, but a deadly war against the heresies.

No idea whether it's a blessing or a curse to serve such a king."

It took her an hour to walk through the street leading to the inner city. She found actually the street was full of such speakers who basically repeatedly told whatever His Majesty had done after conquering the king's city. Anyone who came to the king's city only needed to listen on the street for half a day to understand the changes His Majesty had made, without the need to get any help from the Rats.

"My Lady, I've found it out." The servant who was sent to inquire about the news caught up with the team, panting. "They're all going..."

"City of Neverwinter, right?" Edith interrupted him.

"You, you knew it?"

"Don't bother finding a hotel now. We're going to the palace to submit the emissary document." Her heart was filled with a vague sense of foreboding. "Now, hurry!"

...

"What?" Cole asked in surprise. "His Majesty left the king's city a week ago? Without even holding an inauguration ceremony?"

"That's what the receptionist said," the attendant reported. "At first His Majesty left a man named Barov Mons, his chief minister, behind to take care of daily affairs, but Barov Mons left the king's city yesterday too. Apart from the servants, there's nobody else in the palace. The receptionist said if you want to talk with the City Hall, he can pass the message for you."

"That's fine," Edith said in a cold voice. She did not expect her hunch was right. She had been traveling non-stop all the way, yet still was too late to catch up with Roland. "Roland was really planning to move the capital, leave this splendid city behind, and rebuild a new capital city in Western Region! What's exactly in his head? To build a city on such a scale as the king's city would take at least 30 to 40 years!"

"What should we do?" Looking at the stunned members of the emissary delegation, Cole asked quietly.

After a long while, she said sullenly, "Turn around. Head for the City of Neverwinter!"

"They've left anyway. No need to hurry," Cole said with a bitter face. "It's been a week since I took a shower last time. I feel lice are about to grow on my body."

Edith turned her head and found her collar also smelled weird. Finally, she sighed. "Let's find a hotel for the night. We'll set off tomorrow morning."

In the next morning, when the emissary delegation arrived at the dock, they found their boat had been burned to a skeleton.

"What happened?" For the first time, Edith felt confused.

"Ahem, don't be mad, sis-Miss Edith. Observe more, think more..." Cole waved his hand and stopped a passerby. "The dock will catch fire as well?"

"Ah, you mean that." The passerby enthusiastically explained, "No idea who sneakily hid bodies on their boat. The Rats who tried to steal something from the boat smelled it." You know, people are very cautious about such stuff. After all, half a year ago a demonic plague struck the city, which was exactly caused by the bodies distributed by the church. Anyway, to deal with them, burning is the safest way. The captain has been arrested by the guards for interrogation. Oh, do you know him?"

Edith was startled, not knowing what face she should put on. After a long silence, she uttered, "I don't know him. Thanks."

"It seems we need to find a new boat." She thought. "I guess this trip of loyalty won't go as smoothly as I imagined..."

Chapter 543 - The Turning Point

Barov was like a different person when Roland met him again.

He looked vigorous and radiant, and even his chest had risen considerably. His footsteps were powerful and conveyed a strong sense of confidence. He was not how a 50-year-old minister typically looked.

It seemed that the days he spent in the king's city was highly satisfactory.

"If I had known it, I would have called you back a little later." Roland joked.

"No, Your Majesty. Regardless of how prosperous the City of Dawn is, it can't compare with the City of Neverwinter personally created by you." Barov responded while smoothing his mustache. "Wherever I am, my heart will always be with you."

Why do these words... sound so weird and awkward?

Roland coughed twice and attempted to change the subject. "How's the situation over there?"

"Don't worry. With my students and the First Army around, the new assigned nobles aren't able to create trouble even if they intend to," the director replied smugly. "I've deliberately given them more space to fight for money and power among themselves. As long as they don't disrupt the normal livelihoods of the citizens, that is acceptable. I believe that, for a long period of time henceforth, they'll scheme and scramble among themselves to attain the tiniest amount of power—after all, they've had absolutely no qualification to enter the City Hall thus far."

"It's indeed a good idea." Roland commented and laughed.

Although he knew a thing or two about political balancing and other control strategies, he was obviously not as good at actualizing them as these old foxes who had been involved in politics for a long time. While they might not be the wiliest of foxes, they were definitely thick-skinned and vicious enough. It could be said that it was only now that Barov revealed the true extent of his talents.

As the king, Roland could stay out of dabbling in dirty political tricks himself. As long as he had the personnel, law and military power in his grip, nobody would dare to covet his authority.

"Your Majesty, may I ask where have you sent Treasurer Lauren Moore?" Barov revealed a little displeasure as he sighed. "The ceremonial officer told me that you didn't execute him."

"He siphoned off some of the relief rations distributed to the people, colluded with the former Prime Minister, and was involved in the exploitation of refugees." Roland shrugged. "His crimes didn't warrant execution, and while at his age, he wasn't suitable to be sent to the mines. The only thing I could do was to deport him."

"That's a real... pity."

"Why, you need him for something?"

"Of course not. Lauren was rather influential in the king's city. I was just afraid that the lower nobles wouldn't be able to handle him." Barov laughed and shook his head. "As my mentor, he bullied me for a long time. I regret that I didn't have the opportunity to see him begging for mercy."

Roland joined the laughter. "I believe that he could bring his whole family to the Kingdom of Dawn. Who knows, you may get to see him again one day." Let's not talk about this. I called you back because I intend to build a few factories. They're related to the upcoming series of major reforms in the City of Neverwinter."

"Do you need a lot of people?"

"Yes indeed, otherwise I'd only have to call Karl." Roland nodded. "I'll need at least 3,000 people."

Barov forced a smile. "Your Majesty, that's a huge demand worthy of you. In other cities, there's no chance that a project would require 3,000 people at the same time."

"The good news is, not every one of these 3,000 people needs to be literate. I'll only require more than 200 of them to have completed primary education."

"What do you want to build?"

Roland placed the records which were prepared long ago in front of the director. "A coke plant, a steel plant, and a forge."

"Is the steel produced by Miss Anna not enough?" Barov asked.

"The problem is that it's too inefficient." Roland sighed. "Her magic power should be used for more sophisticated manufacturing, rather than wasted on preparing the materials for steam engines. I hope that I can "de-witch" the basic industrial productions this year."

At present, the industries of Neverwinter had reached an turning point. If a breakthrough was not found, it would be hard to progress. This was because the source power machines heavily depended on Anna's materials, and therefore the scale of production could not be expanded. In fact, the steam engines could be produced without using such a high grade of steel. The first generation of steam engines was made out of iron only.

Now, the preconditions for a breakthrough had been fully satisfied. The coal mine was able to handle all of the coking processes—coke was one of the primary ingredients of large-scale steelmaking. The dozen or so earth blast furnaces in the Furnace Area also supplied an abundant amount of iron ingots. Steel could be smelted using a simple converter, while the steam hammers in the forge could be used to create components that the other factories could directly process. If these procedures could be made into a cycle, Anna would be completely liberated from her duties, and only normal people would be needed throughout the production process.

After Roland outlined the important tasks of the three projects, Barov quickly understood the meaning of "de-witch".

"I understand, Your Majesty. However, are these things really possible?" He appeared unconvinced. "Can we really obtain enough steel without relying on the demons'... ahem, witches' powers? You may not have known that in other cities, it's common for a piece of forged steel to cost 20 times the price of a piece of pig iron."

In this era, steel was forged by the blacksmith's hammer. The repeated hammering of the iron ingots caused excess carbon and other impurities to be oxidized until steel was formed. Of course, the efficiency of this process was unspeakably low, and a lot of raw materials would be wasted. A significant amount of iron would break off due to oxidation, and therefore several pieces of iron ingot were necessary to produce a usable piece of steel. This explained why a full set of body armor that was completely made of steel was the lifelong desire of many knights. It could even be passed down from generation to generation as a family treasure.

From a certain perspective, the laborious method of producing steel could give one the false perception that the effort put into it made it more exquisite and higher-grade. Now that City of Neverwinter could mass produce steel, believed by most people to be the witches' work, Barov's suspicions were not hard to understand. However, to Roland, steel was just iron with a different proportion of carbon.

"I won't say it's easy. Both coking and converter steelmaking require techniques that were discovered by trial and error. However..." Roland paused briefly. "These projects are definitely achievable. When they're completed, there'll be hundreds of chimneys in the industrial area. The monthly output of steel will exceed the current annual output. We'll then have an endless supply of steel to produce bicycles, ships, all kinds of machines, and even houses. Everything that you see will be made of steel. It'll be in everyone's homes, and even the common folk will be able to use steel utensils and tools."

Barov remained speechless for a long time before he finally replied, "I'll draw up a recruitment plan and financial allocation plan for you to review as quickly as possible."

"Okay, you'll be in charge of the preparatory work for this," Roland said in encouragement.

As Barov walked toward the office door, he abruptly turned back and bowed down at Roland.

"It'll be my pleasure and honor to see a world like that, Your Majesty."

...

Chapter 544 - A New Source of Power

"The prospect of a new world, huh?" Roland could not help laughing.

He then asked Nightingale to summon Anna in.

At these times, Nightingale would leave voluntarily to give the two of them privacy.

Anna was wearing a light blue one-piece dress, underneath which her knee-length black stockings were visible, and her feet were covered in a pair of moccasins. All these made her appear particularly lively. These modern-styled items of clothing were tailored under the guidance of Roland during his spare time using flow-coated fabrics that were provided by Soraya. They were extremely light, easy to wear, and highly durable. They were thus perfectly suitable for Anna to wear when she was crafting apparatus.

Whenever Roland looked into her sparkling eyes, he would feel a surge of happiness and smile uncontrollably.

Of course, he no longer needed to act as mannerly as he used to.

He wrapped his arms around her and sat her on his lap. Then he took a sniff of her hair and kissed her cheek before getting to the point. "I want to develop a new source of energy."

"Will it be something like the steam engine?" She turned her head back to face him. Her collarbone could be seen protruding along her fair neck.

Roland could not resist reaching his hand out to stroke her collarbone. It tickled her such that she began to laugh shyly.

"Your Majesty, be proper."

"Hehe, alright." He placed Anna on the seat and stood up to extract a stack of blueprints from the files on one side of the table. "Have a look at this first... How much can you understand it?"

"Um..." Whenever Anna was studying something, her expression would turn completely solemn. Roland would often feel an unexplainable sense of shame and inferiority when he observed her looking aloof—it felt to him as though he was sitting in a naturally well-lit classroom and peeking at the smartest student in the class.

In order to counteract this feeling, he thought of the naughty things he would do to her at night.

"I've more or less understood everything." After Anna looked through the last of the blueprints, she thought for a moment and nodded. "It's also powered by steam, except that the piston is replaced by windmill blades, and therefore saves energy on the reciprocating motion of the connecting rods. Am I right?"

"You're absolutely right." Roland discarded his wild thoughts and put on a serious face. "It's called the steam turbine. While it's also powered by high-pressure steam, its efficiency is much higher than the steam engine."

This was the revolutionary product which Roland had conceived for a long time.

It could be said that Anna was the main reason why he wanted to rid the basic industries of dependence on witches—only this way would she be able to focus on high-end mechanical production.

The steam turbine was his experiment within this field.

Turbines had many uses. They could be used to power ships and provide electricity, especially the latter—it could be foreseen that after Fallen Dragon Ridge was captured, Countess Spear would have to spend a long time sorting out government affairs. It would not be wise to rely solely on Mystery Moon's magic power to provide night lighting for the industry area, not to mention the residential area's electricity supply. Roland certainly did not want to admit that this was a planning failure caused by his lack of experience. In order to make up this mistake, he had to think of an alternative means of producing electricity.

Due to the natural flaws of the circulation principle, the electricity generated by steam engines was inconsistent. Furthermore, Roland had weak knowledge of voltage regulation. It was thus a more suitable choice to use steam turbines, which had more stable output power and higher thermal efficiency.

"What do I have to do first?" Anna asked.

"Remember what you did for the gunboat?" Roland showed her a blueprint of a blade. "You'll need to build an operable model of this. It only needs to be about one meter in length. The main problem you have to solve is the angle of the blade. It has to allow high-pressure steam to flow smoothly through every stator grille. If you can do this, more than half of the work would be done."

Yet, how could a usable end product be built without detailed data?

The only way was repeated trial and error.

As for the core of the turbine—Roland was not worried about the difficulty of altering the impeller because the cutting precision of Blackfire was much higher than any modern machining tool. He also did not worry about the strength of the materials—after all, impellers usually operated at a temperature of 500 to 600°C, and the alloy steel discovered by Lucia was more than competent for this task. The key problem was the angular coordination between the stator cascade and the impeller. The former was like a fixed barrier that could alter the angular direction of the passage of steam so as to prevent the steam from impacting with the impeller all at the same time. It also prevented directional disorder and the production of opposite forces. In essence, it was like a comb for airflow disorder.

If the model that Anna built was operable, Roland would mass produce it, and then there would be no more difficulties.

After the processing methods and the quality of materials were improved, the industrial results would be inevitably substantial.

"I understand." Anna's eyes gleamed, as though signaling that she was ready to begin work.

"No hurry." Roland held her hand tightly. "You should have heard from Wendy that I've decided to launch an attack to capture the demons."

"Yes," Anna replied, "will you be going along?"

Roland shook his head calmly.

"That's good." Anna rested her head on his shoulder. "The last time, I was almost frightened to death when I saw you injured."

"Really? But I've heard from Nightingale that you were the calmest person around. If it wasn't for your decisive plan, I might truly have..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Anna covered his mouth with her soft hand. "Don't say that word."

She only loosened her hand after Roland nodded in acknowledgement. He then continued, "Anyway, what I want to say is that you have to take good care of yourself, understand? If anything happens, use the Sigil of God's Will immediately without hesitation. It's okay even if you don't capture the demons... I'll be waiting at the castle for your triumphant return."

"Don't worry." Anna laughed. "I won't let them hurt the other witches either."

...

After Anna left, Roland stayed silent for a long time before he murmured, "Are you around?"

"Of course." Nightingale's figure appeared on top of the study table. "But I didn't eavesdrop on what the two of you said. I only returned after she left."

Roland stood up and walked over to the window. While looking towards the direction of the snow mountains, he explained to Nightingale the hunting plan that he had conceived. "Before setting out, you all will have to rehearse a few times to familiarize with the entire hunting procedure, as well as understand your own and one another's tasks. Moreover, this plan is only effective if you're facing a small number of demons. It'll have to be adjusted based on the situation." He paused briefly before continuing. "If you ever run into the worst kind of situation... and I mean the most hopeless and irredeemable situation, you must bring Anna back no matter what."

Nightingale did not say anything. Instead, she waited until Roland turned his head back to look at her, before replying with a disconcerting look on her face. "Is this the real reason why you aren't going?"

Roland could not deny the truth. "If not, you'd definitely choose to save me, right?"

"... understood." Nightingale sighed lightly. "I'll do my best."

"It's all on you." Roland patted her shoulders and enunciated.

Chapter 545 - Battle Rehearsal

City of Neverwinter, north of the border city wall.

Upon reaching the former test site, Iffy found that many witches were already gathered there. Among them were Maggie and her perpetual companion, a golden-haired young girl.

"She seems to be called Lightning." Iffy thought.

When the young girl saw Iffy, she viciously shook her fist and grimaced, before tugging Maggie to a far distance away.

If it were three days ago, Iffy would have made it a point to lecture the two of them that they have to maintain respect in front of a combat witch.

But this time, she simply laughed silently.

The young girl's alert expression reminded Iffy of Annie. "When I was at that age, Annie was just like that girl. She was always careful and vigilant, and always walked in front to protect me."

It's clearly only by chance that the two of us sought refuge together.

Perhaps, this is what the Union calls... "sisters".

"Since everyone's here, I'll begin to explain the mission. It's codenamed 'Melting Point' and Miss Agatha will be the commander." Roland proclaimed before he walked into the middle of the audience. "Of course, many of you already know the details of the mission. However, for the sake of the newcomers, I'll explain everything all over again."

Do the newcomers... refer to me?

Iffy immediately gathered her focus.

No matter what, this is the first mission assigned by the new lord. Since he has asked me to take part, it means that there's some battle involved. This will be a good opportunity to demonstrate the value of my abilities. Iffy thought.

"In order to understand the enemy's strength and hasten the research of the Sigil of Magic Stones, you all will be heading to Devil's Town behind the snow mountains. You'll draw the demons out to fight, and use ambush to capture them alive..."

...

After Roland finished his explanation, Iffy was unable to collect her wits for a long time.

Surely there's nothing wrong with my ears! God, is he serious?

Were these demons really responsible for destroying the witches' empire that ruled over the entire mainland? This blue-haired woman, who serves as the commander of this mission, is a senior witch from over 400 years ago? The Battle of Divine Will shall decide the fate of mankind? These nasty enemies are hiding somewhere not far from the Western Region?

How is any of this possible!

She maintained a stiff face as she glanced over at the other witches. However, she realized that there was not a hint of surprise on any of their faces.

It was apparent that all of them knew of these things beforehand.

"Now, Agatha will talk about the things you'll need to pay attention to during the mission, as well as brief you on the tactical arrangement."

Agatha nodded and stepped forth. "According to our intelligence, there's a vigilant Eye Demon in the demons' camp. This is crucial to our plan to lure the demons out. Anyone who sees it will be seen back by it. If our position is adjudged to be far away, the first group of enemies to be expected will be the Flying Devilbeasts. There aren't many of these demons, particularly in such a remote place. The last time we went, there were only two. I don't expect the number to have changed."

"We are disadvantaged in aerial combat, and therefore the best plan is to draw them towards the ground. If so, I'll be able to handle both of them myself. However, the Mad Demons which they may carry on their backs will be left to Miss Iffy to handle." Agatha glanced at the latter. "If you manage to capture them, our mission will be considered a success."

"She seems to be only slightly older than me, but yet it's said that she has lived for over 400 years?" Iffy remained in a daze for a while before mumbling incoherently, "I, I understand."

"You've never seen demons before, and so it's normal to be doubtful." Agatha seemed to have read her thoughts. "Wendy has records of the Association's encounters with demons. After the rehearsal, you may go and have a look. This will save you from being completely stunned when you see them in reality."

These words made Iffy frown involuntarily. "Completely stunned? Even if the enemies come straight from hell, they'll soon be crying piteously in the cage I set for them!"

"How do we pull them towards the ground?" Lightning asked.

"Abandon the hot air balloon and enter the Misty Forest." Agatha crouched on the ground and used stones to create a visual diagram. "When Sylvie notices the enemies chasing, you and Maggie will immediately escort those on the balloon into the forest. I've confirmed this with His Majesty. If it's a hydrogen balloon, Wendy will be able to operate it alone. Together with Sylvie making eye contact with the Eye Demon, the two of them will be able to escape at the same time."

"As the Devilbeasts approach the balloon, you'll then be responsible to lure them into the forest. Because their lines of vision will be obstructed, they'll descend to the ground and hunt. Be careful of the enemies' spears. I trust that you'll be able to evade them easily."

"Ooh, this plan sounds exciting." Lightning exclaimed with a wide grin on her face. "Count on me!"

"The forest is Leaf's natural home ground. Once the demons enter the ambush area, they'll be trapped. I don't have to tell you what to do next."

"What if there are more than two Devilbeasts?" A witch with jade green hair asked.

"If there are several of them, the demons will probably split up and hunt. What you can do is to keep a few more people in the balloon to conduct aerial surveillance, while the rest enter the forest." Agatha paused for a moment. "If that's the case, Anna will handle any enemies in the air. But remember, the lethal range of the Sigil of God's Will is limited. It's best to activate the Sigil only when the Devilbeasts gather together. Furthermore, Anna won't be able to use her own abilities while activating the Sigil. During that time, Leaf, you must make sure to protect Anna."

"How about me?" Nightingale questioned.

"You'll accompany Iffy. Her ability is only effective within a range of ten steps, and therefore she's vulnerable to the demons' spears when in an exposed position. You'll use your Mist to shorten the distance with the enemies quickly."

"Okay..." Nightingale turned her head and took a good look at Iffy. The latter immediately felt the aura of the former's magical power. It was sharp and cold, as though it was a substance of its own. "Don't you be a burden."

Iffy could sense that the former was also a combat witch. Not only that, the former had experienced many bloody battles and had a lot of blood on her hands.

"Alright, everyone shall begin the rehearsal." Agatha clapped her hands in encouragement. "We'll start with luring the demons out."

...

An hour into the rehearsal, Iffy already had a general understanding of the abilities of every witch participating in the mission.

She was surprised that there were many witches here who could be considered combat witches.

Take Leaf for example. She hid her in a tree trunk in the forest. She could manipulate the entire forest to do her bidding. This type of ability was almost inconceivable and was on a level that completely transcended the usual limits of a witch.

Or Wendy, who although was only in charge of controlling the balloon, could summon a small hurricane that turned stones and dirt into painful bolts.

Agatha's frost could serve both as a shield and a sharp blade. She was therefore equally proficient in offense and defense, at least when at close range.

Nightingale was even more terrifying. Once she entered her Mist, she could travel to almost any part of the world she wanted. The physical obstructions of the real world did not affect her at all. Having experienced the power of this ability, Iffy could imagine that in a real battle, it made its user invincible. By moving without trace and being impossible to guard against, Nightingale would make all enemies despair quickly.

Yet, the most curious talent of all was Anna. According to the mission plan, this young woman who looked like she was barely out of her adolescence was the real ace in the team. "How powerful does her ability have to be to vanquish all of the demons in one go?"

Iffy did not have to wait long to know the answer.

Chapter 546 - The Mystery of God's Stones

Anna's task was completely separated from everyone else's.

She only began to practice using the Sigil of God's Will after everyone else was completely familiar with the entire hunting process.

Although Iffy could not comprehend what kind of ability the Sigil of God's Will possessed, she could observe that the witches were all extremely excited about the rehearsal that was about to happen.

Did they rarely get a chance to see Anna display her ability?

Iffy's curiosity grew.

She watched as Anna strolled towards the middle of the field carrying an odd-looking sheet of metal in her hands.

Anna did not look like a combat witch at all. Her calm expression resembled the crystal clear water of a lake. From her movements and gestures, it was evident that she had never been in a life-and-death battle before.

The sheet of metal she was carrying also puzzled Iffy greatly. It was only about the size of a palm and was perfectly flat on both sides. Glittering gemstones were embedded on it. In no way did it look like a weapon.

"Let the balloons fly." Agatha gestured towards the direction of the Misty Forest. After a short while, several colorful balloons emerged from the forest canopy and flew up high into the sky.

"Go! Shoot them down!" She shouted.

"Wait... this is probably too far." Iffy mused. "The distance from the field to the edge of the forest is at least 250 meters. How would Anna be able to shoot these things down without flying? Unless, she's also able to transcend the usual limits of ability, and deliver the effects of her magic power to the sky?"

Anna nodded at Agatha. She raised the sheet of metal and pointed it in the direction of the balloons.

Shortly, Iffy witnessed a scene that she could hardly believe...

The four gemstones emitted a dazzling light at the same time. In a split second, the sheet of metal turned to gold in color. Thunderous claps were heard from the clear sky, while rays of light weaved together in the clouds and spattered. It was as if a new sun was being formed in the heavens.

Her ability can actually manipulate the entire sky!?

Before the crowd could even exclaim in astonishment, a blinding beam of gold light burst out of Anna's hands directly toward the balloons. The light rays in the sky were also controlled, and immediately, numerous thunderbolts could be seen following along the trail of the golden light and violently sweeping through the locations of the targets. It all seemed like a punishment that only God could have ordained! To Iffy, it was as though the deafening roars came from right beside her ears, causing her brain to buzz for a long time. By the time the light rays disappeared, she had yet to recover fully.

What kind of amazing ability is this?

Iffy's body continued to quiver uncontrollably as she stared at the empty sky above the forest. "Even if all of the combat witches of the Bloodfang Association gathered together, they would not be able to handle such a force. Did she rely on her own abilities or that sheet of metal to be able to do this?"

In the face of a show of strength like this, it would not make a difference if the enemies were the wild beasts which Heidi Morgan mentioned or just a flock of sheep.

Iffy suddenly remembered His Majesty Roland's suggestion.

Is this... the power of the senior witches?

*******************

It turned out that it was also the first time that Roland witnessed a complete demonstration of the power of the Sigil of God's Will.

The initial light rays seemed to leave an invisible trail behind them, allowing the golden thunderbolts that followed behind to take the same path. Furthermore, the location of the first thunderbolt strike was situated at the edge of the forest. This probably meant that the user of the Sigil was able to control it such that it only split apart when near to the enemies.

Another thing that Roland observed about the light rays was that they were only about as thick as an arm when released, but they quickly expanded in the shape of a fan, and the eventual range of each ray was approximately 50 meters. During the age of cold weapons, this was undoubtedly considered an apocalyptic weapon of mass destruction.

"Are all of those light rays... created by magic power?" Roland looked at Nightingale.

"I guess, probably, yes." The latter hesitated for a bit before answering.

"Probably?"

"In the mist, I could indeed see the frenzied surge of magic power, but..." She revealed a puzzled look on her face. "Its color is different from any magic power that I know or have seen before."

"What color is it?"

"Black, or should I say, the color of no light." Nightingale frowned. "They looked like black holes formed by the God's Stone of Retaliation."

Roland shuddered. "How is it possible that the color of the magic power of the gold-glittering Sigil is black in the misty world? Does this mean that the characteristics of their magic power are the same or at least similar?" In his brief trance, Roland seemed to think of something. "There's a relationship between the God's Stones and Magic Stones." It seemed as if he was on the verge of an audacious theory.

After he returned to his office in the castle, he summoned Agatha in.

"How many times did your people research on the Sigil of God's Will?"

"Not many. I've already told you everything that we found out. After all, only our chiefs were able to activate this type of sigil. Because their magic powers were crucial to our battles, there wasn't much that could be spared for this kind of experiment." She then asked curiously, "What's the matter? Is something wrong?"

"You mentioned before that the Sigil was able to penetrate the defenses of the God's Stone of Retaliation, right?"

Agatha nodded. "Not all the time. It depends on the quality of the God's Stones."

"Have you never observed the characteristics of the Sigil of God's Will's magic power?" Roland asked softly. "In the Mist, the magical thunderbolts invoked by the Sigil are the same color as the God's Stone."

"No... we've certainly done this experiment before. It was necessary that we recorded the characteristics of the magic power. However, during the activation of the Sigil, the Stone of Measuring would lose its monitoring function. And because our chiefs could certainly not visit the Quest Society every day, we simply recorded the observed color as gold." Agatha blinked a few times. "Wait, are you saying that it has the same color as the interference area of the God's Stone?"

"Indeed," Roland replied unhurriedly. "I have a theory that the God's Stone of Retaliation does not create black holes that neutralize magic power, but instead, it contains a great amount of magic power such that it affects and nullifies the operation of magic in its vicinity. This is also why the Sigil of God's Will causes the Stone of Measuring to lose its effectiveness. It creates a similar interference area as the God's Stone of Retaliation within its range of influence, and therefore the Stone of Measuring did not have any effect."

"But the trainee who's responsible for observing magic power has explicitly said that..." Agatha suddenly paused halfway through her sentence.

"Her observation was obstructed by the dazzling light emitted by the Sigil, like shadows being covered by light." Roland quickly opined. "Whereas in Nightingale's misty world, only magic power possesses color. She can even stare directly at the sun without being affected. This is why you weren't able to make this discovery."

Observing magic power was a derivative skill of the witches. It was limited by the witches' individual visual level. Furthermore, observations done in the day and night would yield different conclusions. Sylvie could fully prove this point. With her Eye of Magic, she could discover magic activity performed several kilometers away. Her detection range was far superior to Nightingale's.

This was why the Quest Society heavily trusted the results tested by the Stone of Measuring. Its accuracy was independent of the person operating it and the environment it was operated in, and thus it provided an overall highly accurate assessment of the magic power involved. It was almost as good as being able to observe under Nightingale's Mist. Therefore, the Quest Society would only accept the conclusion of the observer when the Stone of Measuring was unable to operate.

Chapter 547 - Operation [Melting Point]

Agatha exasperatingly paced to and fro in front of the mahogany table. "So, according to you, the Sigil of God's Will can penetrate the God's Stone of Retaliation because of its stronger magic power? The reason the Chaos Beasts modified the God's Stone was actually to reduce its magic power and thereby turn it into a specific type of Magic Stone?"

"That's what I think."

"No, that isn't right..." She paused abruptly. "If the dark hollow results from immense magic power, why does nothing happen to the witch?"

"The witch?" Roland was stunned.

"I mean Anna!" Agatha pondered and said, "Her magic power is strong enough to activate the Sigil of God's Will twice. She is even more powerful than the God's Stone of Retaliation. Her Blackfire, however, will still be affected by the God's Stone, and she cannot neutralize the magic power in her vicinity. It doesn't make sense based on your theory..."

"Well..." Roland was silent for a moment. A reasonable explanation to Agatha's question escaped him. A God's Stone of Retaliation of the poorest quality could easily render a witch powerless. Even Anna's Blackfire, strong as it was, would succumb to such a disturbance. Besides, Anna's magic power was shaped like a solid metal cube in the misty world, completely different from the hollow black hole.

"Another question. Why can magic stones only be activated by magic power?" Agatha went on. "Even the magic power has become less intense, and the amount of the power left in the stone shouldn't have been reduced. In fact, common people cannot operate the stone at all. The Quest Society has also confirmed that the magic power in the magic stone is not transferable. Therefore, magic stones cannot be used as resources." She paused for a moment and then continued, "My supervisor believed only living beings can retain magic power. Magic power just won't work on dead organisms. Its proof is witches' and demons' blood. Most researchers thought so. I don't mind you overturning their conclusion, but magic stones are no different from ordinary gems before they're charged with magic power or become sigils."

Roland was silent. It seemed his assumption about magic power intensity was a bit irrational. The Thunder of the Magic Power, however, which looked like black light, was so similar to the God's Stone that there must be some connections between the two entities... What else had he overlooked?

It was a pity there weren't any reliable observation or analyzing methods in this era. The only way to study magic power was through witches' abilities or via Stone of Measuring. Even so, what he would learn through this method was merely a very generic description of the features of magic power, which was hardly helpful to further research.

Roland thought for a while and finally decided to set the matter aside for the time being, hoping he would be able to find an answer during the sigil manufacture process afterwards.

...

Three days later, the plan for the "melting point" operation was prepared. Roland sent off the soldiers at the dock in person.

This was the first military operation on a big scale where witches acted as chief combatants. There were two ships in total, both of which were filled with experienced veterans from the First Army. Brian was the captain. These soldiers all had fought with demonist beasts with Roland upon the city wall before, and fully respected and trusted their lord. When Roland was screening them, he had stressed over and over again that the enemy would be very likely an extremely fierce monster, even more dangerous than demonic hybrids. He had emphasized that anyone who did not wish to participate in the mission could speak up. Nobody had quit, however, and Nightingale also confirmed that all of them made their decisions at their free will.

Despite their resolution and courage, Roland did not overestimate the fighting capacity of these hundred soldiers he was forced to choose, for people in this world naturally feared demons from the bottoms of their hearts. Unlike him, who had seen all kinds of violent scenes on television or in the cinema and would not be surprised by any ferocious monsters, these ordinary people would be horrified. The memory of this upcoming battle would possibly become a nightmare they would remember for the rest of their lives.

As such, the carefully selected soldiers would not directly participate in fighting, but would protect along the river two or three miles away from the actual battlefield. They would only take action if the witches were forced to retreat in the event of an accident.

The witches Roland selected were the most powerful ones in the City of Neverwinter, including Anna, Nightingale, Wendy, Leaf, Agatha, Sylvie, Iffy, Lightning and Maggie. According to Agatha, such a combination might be even more than enough to kill the Lord of Hell.

"Stay safe. Your personal security is your top priority." Roland remarked gravely. "You don't have to complete the mission. I'll wait for you all at the castle."

Anna went up to hug him. "Don't worry. I'll protect them."

"Me too, Your Majesty."

"Coo!"

The little girl and the pigeon hugged Roland, as well.

In the end, everybody hugged Roland except Agatha and Iffy.

Agatha snorted and muttered to herself. "It's just a simple hunting operation, not goodbye forever. If we bid farewell like you guys just did in Taquila prior to every departure, demons would have been right under your noses long before."

Iffy, on the other hand, was astounded. It was her first time to hear such a "casual" order—"You don't have to complete the mission but just need to come back home safely"—His Majesty was too lenient with witches. Was it not considered an encouragement of cowardice? When she was in the Bloodfang Association, she viewed every battle as a fight to the death. Indeed, there had unfortunately been a few combat witches killed in action during the past several years. The witches who had been unable to complete the master's tasks were severely punished, and were even regarded as useless by the Association members. Roland Wimbledon, however, appeared to carry a totally different attitude toward witches.

He treated witches neither as beasts nor lambs, but simply as "human beings".

...

Strands of smoke escaped from the chimney and with a whistle, the paddle steamer slowly thrust itself forward and took off.

Suddenly, Roland felt a pair of invisible hands holding his face. They were cold but soft.

"Take good care of yourself when I'm away. Don't leave the castle randomly." A familiar voice whispered in his ear. "I'll be back soon."

After, he felt something had lightly touched his lips.

Entirely different from the sensation on the face, the touch was a little sweet and wet. Above all, it was warm.

It was a fugitive and illusionary kiss. When Roland finally realized what had happened, he snatched at the air with his hand, only to find nothing was there.

*******************

As the steam-powered boat was far slower than the balloon, it took them nearly two days to reach the end of the Redwater River.

At the sight of the towering snowcap, the group of people was awestruck by the magnificent scene before them. As the snow on the mountain melted much slower than that in the forest, the snow water had been accumulating for months. The water ran straight down from the precipice and branched off into various streams upon the projected rocks. From a distance, those streams looked like multiple thin and feeble threads. Upon further exploration, however, they found the streams were as broad as rivers. The water roared and thundered when it flowed into the lake at the foot of the mountain.

Obviously, the Redwater River was only one of the exits to the lake. Otherwise, the river would overflow due to the surging water.

After a night's rest, the hydrogen balloon rose into the air as it was inflated. In the meantime, the fleet also retreated somewhere three kilometers away from the bank and started to build a defensive front along the river.

The "melting point" operation officially began.

Chapter 548 - Ensnaring the Demons

...

The Farsight carried Wendy and Sylvie to the Swirling Sea, while Lightning and Maggie hovered on each side of the basket, waiting to fetch them whenever needed.

Since their mission was not to investigate the Devil's Town, they did not fly too high. As soon as they flew over the snowcap, Sylvie could look straight through the rocks and cliffs along the bank and catch sight of the Eye Demon on the top of the Blackstone Pagoda.

According to Agatha, Eye Demons did not need to really "see" people, because they could sense and locate their enemies upon being noticed. Nobody could possibly escape their scrutiny, neither the invisible nor the ones descending from the sky unless blindfolded. Because of this, eye demons had caused a great number of casualties among the commando of the Blessed Army.

Another option was to restrain from looking at eye demons. However, this was fairly hard to achieve due to the fact that eye demons normally stood at the highest point of the campgrounds.

"How did things go? Did you see it?" Lightning flew over to ask Sylvie.

"I need to get a bit closer, otherwise I can't hold up well," Sylvie answered while rubbing her eyes. It took her a lot of magic power to look through obstacles with the Eye of Magic. Her sight was largely restricted, too. Although she had cautiously managed to reduce her vision to a straight line of sight, she still felt quite dizzy when she captured the details of the fractured precipice.

"I see." Wendy summoned a gust of wind. "Hold on."

As the rocks gradually got clearer, the thin red mist slowly entered their sights. Although it was a clear day, a cloud of mist still lingered around the cliff, except that it was a lighter color than the last time they had seen it.

Sylvie fixed her eyes once again on the mist. This time, she was finally able to see some earth through the dense mist. A few edifices shaped like towers loomed against the red mist, and the whole scene was like a deserted land.

She soon spotted the biggest black stone spire.

Compared with the random intrusion last time, the operation this time was carefully planned. They would first startle demons and then induce them to launch an attack. Unlike Lightning who was always airy and energetic, Sylvie just wanted to live an ordinary life. By no means, she wanted to be an explorer. However, as she was destined to fight the Battle of Divine Will, there was no way for her to stand by no matter how much she hated wars. Just like she had promised Tilly to come to Border Town for the purpose of checking whether Roland was manipulated by witches, she obeyed the order in the same way when Roland disclosed his attacking plan without much hesitation.

She had come to check upon Roland for the benefit of all the witches on Sleeping Island. Now she fought for the Witch Union and the entire Kingdom of His Majesty's.

Sylvie took a deep breath and moved her sight upward.

In an instant, hundreds of eyeballs came into her view. The black jelly-like monster was still sitting at its usual spot. Its body had fused with the tower top as if it had grown out of the stone. All of its eyeballs turned to Sylvie simultaneously. She could even catch a glimpse of her own face in those black gleamy eyeballs!

For a second, all her hair stood up on its end, and a chill went down her spine.

"They're coming!" She withdrew her power and shouted aloud.

"Let's go!"

"Aw!" Maggie immediately turned into a gigantic devilbeast and paused below the basket. Sylvie jumped off the basket and landed firmly on Maggie's broad back, while Lightning carried Wendy on her back and flew toward the Misty Forest. Unlike the last trip where they had been panicked and frightened, this time they were fully prepared. According to the plan, Lightning would return to where the empty hydrogen balloon was alone and further lure the demons into their traps.

Meanwhile, Sylvie turned around and looked back.

Five black dots emerged on the cliff. This number was higher than what Agatha had predicted, but it was still within the safe limit.

Nevertheless, she noticed something unusual with the help of the Eye of Magic.

Out of the five enemies, only four rode devilbeasts, and two of them were very different from regular mad demons. They did not have a big body build, nor did they have strong arms. They were not wearing animal skins or armors as mad demons usually did either, but were in a colorful cope that glowed like a rainbow. Sylvie could not figure out what the cope was made of at first glance. However, she could see something swarming and wriggling underneath the cope like numerous vipers.

The heads of the two demons were bigger than those of regular mad demons. Yet, their eyes and noses were not distinctive. Their faces were the creepiest kinds she had ever seen. They looked like two big scars, with red furrows and ridges extending from the center.

When she rested her eyes on the last demon, Sylvie was stunned.

The demon was wearing a weighty but delicate armor, with a giant heavy sword on his back. Nonetheless, he was not slow in the slightest but flew right after the four devilbeasts.

His face was totally covered by a helmet. Unlike the skull helmet mad demons normally wore, this particular helmet was made of metal, in perfect match with his armor. On both sides of the helmet engraved sophisticated patterns. Several sharp horns, which looked like Blackstone Pagodas at first sight, stuck out from the top. The part where his eyes should be was gleaming with red light, making the demon look vicious and aggressive.

"What kind of demon is he?" thought Sylvie.

Sylvie was taken by fright and horror. As Agatha had never told her how to cope with this situation, she wondered whether she should still follow the original plan.

Sylvie felt terribly uneasy.

She followed Wendy to the deep forest. When she descended from Maggie's back, she saw a golden figure sprang up into the air and flew toward the balloon at a tremendous speed.

It was impossible for her to stop Lightning.

After some hesitation, Sylvie felt necessary to inform Agatha of the news. She patted Maggie on her wings and said, "Take me to the ambush area!"

"What's wrong?" Wendy trotted to her. "Don't we need to meet with the First Army next?"

They had been instructed during the maneuver to leave the main battlefield and meet with the First Army as soon as possible after successfully luring demons into the ambush, given that they two were not strong enough to compete against demons.

"I saw some strange demons." Sylvie shook her head. "The enemies are not only mad demons. I've got to tell everybody!"

"But the ambush area is pretty large, aw!" Maggie threw herself flat on her face. "It may take you a while to find them even if you go."

"That's fine. Just take me there." She returned to the beast's back and turned to Wendy. "You go meet with the Army at the riverbank. I'll be right back."

...

Lightning flew as fast as she could. The wind whistled in her ears. She saw the earth, woods, rivers and beaches below quickly shrink and obscure, turning into various color blocks and distorted lines.

She must get back to where the hydrogen balloon was before the demons did so. In order to attract the enemies' attention, she had to pretend to be fleeing in a hurry.

When the vast ocean gradually came into her view, she finally caught sight of the Farsight, as well as the demons.

Chapter 549 - Agatha's Decision

Lightning flew to the bottom of the balloon, found the powder sac affixed to the airbag and pulled out the fuse. Upon seeing the white smoke exiting the powder sac, she immediately flew straight towards the sea.

It was a simple self-destruct device. Once the enemies began following the balloon, the decoys must destroy the "Farsight" to avoid an embarrassing situation where the demons became too occupied by the novel device instead of chasing the witches.

There was a loud explosion just as Lightning touched sea. With a flash, the sky lit up.

Lightning looked up and saw the airbag puff up and become a huge red fireball with a bright orange color in the middle with dark red smoke rolling on the edges. The flames, like the setting sun, stayed ablaze for quite a long time.

She watched a demon come too close to the roaring flames. It flipped over and set itself on fire before falling to the sea with its mount.

The other four demons, who fled from the smoke below, sprang up toward Lightning.

Until now, everything had been going as planned.

The demons were not that clever after all.

Lightning raised the corner of her mouth and flew close to the sea towards the forest.

The plan was to lead them to the depth of the woods where Leaf could control everything.

Everything was ready in the hunting ground, and Leaf was waiting quietly for the demons to fall into the trap.

The dense branches, vines and saw grass would inevitably be a nightmare for the enemies

—if they could dream.

...

Sylvie used the Eye of Magic to search the ambush area. The woods under Leaf's control glowed green. From the sky, it was like a flask had embedded in the earth with its mouth facing toward the Swirling Sea while its neck remained several kilometers away.

Despite feeling dizzy, she scanned the inner part of every tree. The numerous details swarming around her head caused great pain. Sylvie finally found Agatha who hid in a large tree close to the mouth of the flask.

"Why did you come here?" The trunk cracked open as Maggie fell to the earth. Agatha poked out her head and asked, "Was the plan for enticing demons unsuccessful?"

"No, it worked. Five demons followed." She jumped down from the mount's back and lifted the white-haired little girl who had returned to her human form. Sylvie hid in the tree hastily. "But three of them are different!"

"What's the difference?"

Sylvie detailed the odd demons she had seen and found Agatha in shock.

Her heart sank. "Are they difficult to deal with?"

Agatha took a long time to recollect herself and then said with an anxious look. "The demons with ropes are Fearsome Demons, they are horrible killers to common people. But witches don't need to fear them, as long as we avoid looking them in the eye. Underneath their charred face hides the real eyes of Fearsome Demons."

"I see," Sylvie muttered. In ancient witches' stories, their enemies would be terrified immediately by these demons and then they would feel afraid, timid, confused and desperate. A mortal troop of around 100 men could often be routed by only three or four fearsome demons. Most people were too fearful to think. They just knelt down in tremor waiting to be slain. Even if the God's Stone of Retaliation could weaken this effect greatly, it could not remove such feelings completely. The demons seemed to be born with this ability to control people's emotions, and no obvious fluctuation of their magic power could be perceived.

"What about the Armored Demon? It can fly alone, is it the Lord of Hell?"

"No!" Agatha spoke in a rough low voice. "If your description is correct, my guess is that it's probably a Senior Demon. We're in trouble."

"Senior Demon?" Sylvie was bewildered.

"The Union knows little about them, except that they possess many abilities and look like humans, except they are much larger. Both their strength and magic power are quite strong." She swallowed hard. "It's said that only Transcendents can compete against them."

"Transcendents? We don't even have an Extraordinary now." Sylvie was nervous. "Inform Leaf to stop this plan. We should retreat and meet the First Army."

Agatha bit her lip. "It can fly alone because of the Stone of Flight. In fact, it's not a big problem if there's only Lightning and Maggie because they can fly. However, it's impossible for us to escape from their attack once we're out of Leaf's protection. Although I've never seen a real Senior Demon, I was told by Alice before that witches must be concentrated on fighting with these crafty and strong demons, or we're likely to die because of just a tiny mistake."

She beat the trunk until Leaf's voice came from above. "I'm listening. What's up?"

Agatha said firmly, "The plan has changed. Please inform all the witches we are changing from plan A to plan B. Let Nightingale watch over the Armored Demon. Don't hesitate to kill it if Anna gets the chance."

Plan B meant dropping the pan of capturing and using the Sigil of God's Will to wipe out all the enemies.

"Will we really combat with the Senior Demon?" Sylvie could not help holding Maggie tight.

"Escape only leads to death while there will be a chance to survive if we try our best to combat with them." Agatha spoke slowly. "A Senior Demon always comes out with a number of other demons, but now they just have two Fearsome Demons as the guards. So we are likely to win even if there isn't a Transcendent!"

"I see Lightning," Leaf said again. "They're coming."

"Shh..."

Sylvie held her breath. She heard roaring sounds from the treetop, and then she heard heavy objects falling to the ground in front.

The sounds of the demons' rapid paces echoed in the jungle, and soon died away. Only the Devilbeasts' low roar remained.

"How is it going now?"

"The Armored Demon hasn't landed yet and it's still following Lightning. The other demons left their mounts outside the woods and followed her too. Wait! A demon is missing." Sylvie looked carefully at the surroundings. "There were only three Devilbeasts left near us."

"Good! Let me kill these fool reptiles first so that they can't escape even if they want to." Agatha opened the crack. "You're not a combat-witch. Please just stay hidden here."

"But they can fly!" Sylvie worried. "What if they want to escape by flying?

"Take it easy." She looked at the little girl who wanted to join. "Don't worry. We have Maggie."

...

A "Devilbeast" suddenly fell from the sky, appeared behind them, spread its wings while rotating its tail and roared loudly at the three Devilbeasts.

They were distracted immediately.

To Sylvie's surprise, the three Devilbeasts imitated Maggie and also spread their wings and wagged their tails, as if they were dancing! In order to gain more performance space, they pushed each other and refused to back off.

Were they entertaining her?

On the other side, Agatha snuck out of the forest. A layer of white ice crystal formed on the ground.

Chapter 550 - The Slaughter

It was Sylvie's first time seeing such an incredible method of movement.

As Agatha moved, a mirror-like road, paved by crystal ice, would appear just ahead of her. She seemed to be floating along the road, almost as if the ground was pushing her forward. In a flash, she had arrived at the rear of the first Devilbeast.

When Agatha stretched out her hands, the frost suddenly appeared around the grassland and it even started to snow! After a moment, the Devilbeast gave out a shriek and it tried to fly, only to find it could not move at all. Each of its four strong limbs had been frozen in place and the ice crystals continued to move up along them, completely freezing its body and wings in no time.

Almost simultaneously, Maggie threw herself onto the back of the dancing Devilbeast and snapped at its neck with her huge crimson mouth. The Devilbeast was in such a panic and it wanted to get rid of Maggie. However, Maggie was much larger. The Devilbeast was like a baby beast that was being suppressed by a full-grown beast. Then, Maggie got a grip and broke its neck completely. At last, the Devilbeast was defeated and with a final swish of its tail, it shattered the poor frozen beast, smashing it to pieces.

At this moment, the third Devilbeast began to realize what had just happened. Although it did not understand why its kind would kill each other, he knew something bad had happened and it spread its long wings and rose into the air.

But it was too late.

Agatha followed it and also "flew".

Or rather, she was walking in the air.

The ice crystals also extended to the Devilbeast and for a while, it formed a bridge in the air. Agatha ran along the ice bridge and soon she was close enough she could use her magic power to attack this Devilbeast.

Sylvie could not help but cover her mouth in shock.

Like a swift Viper, the ice bridge froze the tail of the Devilbeast and then quickly turned the rest of it into an ice sculpture.

Probably due to the heavy weight of the frozen beast, the end of the ice bridge tilted, cracked, and then snapped. Agatha began to fall from the bridge, fortunately, Maggie caught her. However, the ice sculpture fell to the ground and broke into thousands of pieces.

It took less than 20 seconds for them to kill all three of the demonic beasts.

This was the way in which senior witches engaged in a combat!

Sylvie could not help but feel envious of Agatha.

...

"Kacha."

After checking the bullets in the barrel, Nightingale shut the cartridge.

Just then, she heard Leaf's warnings about the changes made to the enemy attacks, and that plan A for the Melting Point Action had changed to plan B.

That meant Iffy's task had been canceled and it was her turn to combat these enemies.

But, what was most important was for them to provide opportunities for Anna to discharge the Sigil of God's Will.

Nightingale could not help but recall Roland's words once she thought of Anna.

"Anyway, take her back, please."

"I'll leave it all to you."

She clutched her chest and bit her lip.

This plan should be completed with ease but she found an indescribable emotion in her heart.

As the task became increasingly tougher, the emotion became unexpectedly stronger.

"If the most terrible thing happened, that would mean Anna could also die..." she thought.

"Oh, no—unless I die." Nightingale shook her head and suppressed this horrible idea. Roland trusted her the most, so she could not let him down. Even if Roland did not instruct her to do so specifically, she would protect Anna at all costs.

In a sense, Anna was the savior of all the witches in the Witch Cooperation Association.

She would never forgive herself if Anna died because of her selfishness.

"The enemies are coming!"

Leaf gave her a warning and Nightingale gathered herself. She was ready to outflank the enemies as soon as their direction was pointed out by Leaf.

Her world of mist was commonly a desolate and dull place. Anything mundane and not related to magic power would become nothing more than twisted lines and changeable black and white blocks. This was her first time seeing so many colors, thanks to the demons.

Beside the green forest, she could see a muted yellow arm from one of the Mad Demons and its inside emitting a shade of light blue. The other two demons should be the Fearsome Demons that Leaf had just mentioned. They had a stronger magical resonance and she could see many magic swirls inside their bodies, the one on their forehead was the most obvious.

Another Senior Demon, which they needed to keep a particularly close eye on, was not among them. If their intelligence was correct, it should be monitoring everything from above the forest.

Without a doubt, the Fearsome Demons, which would cause fear, should be the first to kill.

And, it should be done before they opened their eyes.

After the three demons passed through the ambush points, Nightingale held the gun with both hands and used her instant leap to travel more than ten meters in the twinkling of an eye. She pointed her gun at the back of the Fearsome Demon's head.

It was so close to her that she did not even have to leave her Mist. As long as she had some luck, the gun barrel would not be split in half by the powerful magic.

She immediately shot and for a moment, there was a thunderous roar.

In the Mist, the Fearsome Demon's head abruptly puffed up, as if the unstoppable bullet had been shot from inside of its head and blown outward. Its brain exploded, spilling brain matter in all directions. Next, a hail of fog soared skyward—Nightingale noticed its red mist vessel was hidden directly inside its body.

The other Fearsome Demon turned around quickly, and its bloody scar expanded across its face, trying to reveal its fearsome eyes. Suddenly several vines shot from the top of a tree, intertwining its head and pulling its head back before the eyes could be revealed. At this moment, a Mad Demon in the front turned around at the sound of the gunshot and ended up staring at the Fearsome Demon and could not help but tremble with fear.

Nightingale shot the three remaining bullets into the Fearsome Demon which had been forcibly pulled back by Leaf. Meanwhile, Anna leaped from her hiding place in the tree and cut the beast into pieces with her black fire before the Mad Demon could recover itself from the fear.

"Be careful!"

Lightning, who had been enticing the enemies into the air, shouted.

Nightingale looked up and found that a large sword was about to slash her.

She instinctively tried to enter the Mist, but unexpectedly, her misty world was broken into pieces by the enemy who was wielding the sword.

"What's this ability? It can break my magic power?" she thought.

It was too late for her to escape. Suddenly a black curtain spread out above her head and withstood the sword's attack. Unlike an actual curtain, it seemed to have more of a mirror-like surface and she could even see her shocked expression reflected on its surface.

This is... the Blackfire!

"Bang!"

The sword hit the Blackfire fiercely and Anna looked pained, her body shaking, but her Blackfire remained intact.

Without any hesitation, this time, Nightingale caught Anna quickly and summoned the Mist again, escaping to a safe place over 20 meters away, instantly.

Meanwhile, the armored demon also slowly fell towards the ground.

The death of its partner did not seem to have any impact on it. The demon calmly lifted the large sword, engraved with a strange pattern, and suddenly the magic power surged toward the blade of the sword.

The blade gave off a dazzling glow!

Chapter 551 - The Senior Demon

This is... the Sigil of God's Will!

Nightingale widened her eyes in surprise. But soon, she found something different. Through the Mist she saw a black hole formed in the enemy's palm instead of the characteristic dazzling light of the Magic Stones. It was not a sigil but an ability of the demon. Shining magic power was sucked into the black hole and became a fast-growing vortex which gave off such a strong light that it made it hard for the other witches to open their eyes. However, seeing it through the Mist, it was getting darker and darker.

The demon then thrust its sword into the ground, sending out a black shimmering light to cover the entire woods.

Instantly, the light of magic powers that were flickering like candlelight in the wind was put out. Nightingale's misty world was broken down again. Leaf was forced out of her Heart of Forest form and the trees promptly threw Leaf and Iffy onto the ground. Leaf was heavily injured. She was spewing blood and she was not able to stand up again.

Nightingale was shocked and she thought, "The demon sensed that the wood was Leaf!

No... Though Leaf hid well, it was still possible to see her movements from above. The really strange thing is why could it break the magic power like the God's Stone of Retaliation? Compared with Magic stones, the demon can release such magic power and is even more flexible in manipulating it, but there's no light when it was releasing the magic power!"

Nightingale did not have time to think about it anymore.

Enduring the discomfort after having her magic power broken off, she changed the cartridge and dashed towards the demon who was now walking to the paralyzed and defenseless Leaf after its previous black shimmering light attack.

When Nightingale came to a place about 10 meters away from the demon and was sure that she could hit it, she swiftly pulled the trigger.

The bullets hit its arm armor, creating sparkles and smoke. The demon seemed very annoyed at being disturbed by someone else at this moment. It roared in anger and then held its giant sword up in front of itself. Seeing this, Nightingale's heart sank. The bullets did not get into the demon's body through its armor to break its inner organs as she had expected. In fact, she was not sure whether the bullets had broken through the armor or not, let alone this giant sword which was as thick as a door plank.

As she had already used all the five bullets, she drew out her dagger and lunged towards the head of the demon.

In order to save Leaf, she had to try her best to stop it.

The demon promptly lifted up its sword to strike, with its eyes shining like bright red lights. Though it moved incredibly fast, Nightingale could still predict its action. She did not dodge the striking sword. Just at the moment when the blade was going to cut her in half, she disappeared in the Mist.

The demon's lightless wave could wipe out the effects of magic power in a large area, but it could not completely prohibit the magic power. After the vortex vanished, the witches could use their magic power again. Nightingale's keen eye caught this change immediately, as she had the ability to observe the flow of magic power.

In the world of black and white, she saw the giant sword's silhouette instantly distort and quickly found the "cutting point" in the blade. She slid "through" the blade and stabbed her dagger into a gap in the demon's helmet!

Surprisingly, the dagger cracked after a loud bang.

"This is... a Magic Barrier.

"Damn it, how many kinds of abilities does it have!?" Nightingale hurriedly retreated and soon the Armored Demon caught up with her. It used one hand to raise its sword and struck again.

She played the same old trick, hoping to escape in the Mist, but this time she was not that lucky.

The demon lifted his other hand into the air.

It pull Nightingale out of the Mist, as she was moving through the sword.

When she was pulled out, part of the blade was still inside her body. As she was thrown out, blood spilled out from a long, deep wound in her waist left by the blade. Even the protective clothing that had been specially made by Soraya was torn. Nightingale gave out a choked cry. Without time to attend to the wound, she made use of the force of falling to roll backwards, hoping to dodge the demon's coming attack. Unfortunately, this demon could move over two meters with a single step. It was impossible for her to escape from such a strong enemy that moved as fast as an Extraordinary.

When the sword was about to cut Nightingale, many purple beams of the light suddenly appeared around the demon and then quickly contracted inward to tie the demon tightly.

That was Iffy's Magic Cage!

"Crush it!" Nightingale shouted.

"I can't do it!" Iffy grated. "It's too strong!" She had squeezed her hand into a fist, but the beams of the light could not contract anymore. Instead, the beams shook as if the demon was going to break them apart.

The demon gave out a deafening roar and threw up its arms. The cage split up, but before it could raise its sword again, beams of light came back to trap it once more.

"Miss An-Anna use the golden thunder now... Be quick!" Iffy said in a measured voice. It was easy to tell from her face that the cage could not trap the demon for a very long time.

However, the demon was not far away from Iffy. The golden thunder of the Sigil of God's Will would probably strike both of them.

"Now, Anna!" Nightingale shouted to Anna in a distant place. "Activate the Sigil!"

Anna caught Nightingale's eyes and immediately got what she meant. She used all her power to lift the metal sheet in her hand.

A strong bright light lit up the woods and some beams of light also came down from the sky.

The demon howled. It might have seen this kind of scene before, as now it sounded angry and at the same time frightened, struggling even harder to get free.

Nightingale knew this was their only chance to win, as the demon now could not dispel their magic power.

The golden thunder struck!

Nightingale pressed on her wound and moved into the Mist. Before the dark lightning struck on Iffy's head, she suddenly appeared behind her, held her up and leaped aside, swiftly pulling her out of the Sigil of God's Will's attack range. She saved Iffy in only two steps

The move needed not only determination and courage, but also teamwork between Nightingale and Anna.

If Anna struck in a wrong place, Nightingale and Iffy could hardly escape from the coming golden thunder.

However, Nightingale trusted her. She believed that nobody could overtake Anna in terms of magic power control, and the result proved that Nightingale was right.

The strong golden light instantly covered the place where the Senior Demon stood and destroyed everything in the area, including the weed and vines.

Anna staggered. She finally couldn't keep her feet on the ground anymore and fell down.

"Anna!" Leaf cried out. She had just recovered a little and stumbled towards Anna.

"She's fine. She just exhausted her magic power!" said Nightingale. Every word she spoke was contorted by the searing pain caused by the wound on her waist. Luckily the inner organs were alright. As long as she avoided violent movements that would open the wound up again, it was not life-threatening.

"You... got injured? Let me bind it up for you," Iffy said. A mixed feeling was obvious on her face.

Nightingale nodded and she was about to roll up her clothing when suddenly... she froze, seeing a black figure slowly walking out of the smoke caused by the golden thunder.

Several thorns on the demon's helmet broke, looking like collapsed stone towers. Its delicate armor was cracked and covered by dirt. It had lost an arm and the giant sword, but it surprisingly survived the fatal strike.

The demon hissed hideously. Nightingale was not sure whether it was smiling but she could tell from its voice that it sounded excited and murderous.

Although it seemed that the demon could not move as rapidly as before and with a much dimmer red light, as if it would fall in any minute, Nightingale still thought no one could stop it now because herself and Leaf were paralyzed, Anna fainted, Lightning was missing and Iffy had nearly no power left.

Just at the moment, the witch beside her stood up.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Nightingale said in a low voice.

"Fight till the last moment," Iffy drew out a dagger and said. "It's the fate of a combat witch. Don't you still have some magic power left? Take them with you and hide. If you're unable to take all of them, at least, take one with you."

Nightingale suddenly thought of Roland's entrustment.

Yes... at least, I should take Anna back. That's what I've promised His Majesty. I have to do it no matter what.

A familiar howl from above suddenly interrupted Nightingale's thought.

"Aw..."

A huge shadow landed from the sky!

Chapter 552 - The Magic Slayer

The demon looked up, and the next moment it was instantly stomped into the ground by Maggie. Nightingale felt that the strong impact even made the earth tremble a little.

She thought that if it was an ordinary person, the impact would have definitely smashed its bones.

"Well done, Maggie! Stomp it to death!" Leaf said, clenching her hands into fists.

"Bite it! Whip it with your tail!" Iffy was so excited that she loudly shouted.

"Awh!"

Maggie howled cheerfully. She put Agatha down and was going to beat the demon again. Just at that moment, she uncontrollably transformed from a fierce Devilbeast back into a little girl, falling to sit on the ground, at a loss to understand what happened.

"It's a Magic Slayer!" Agatha yelled.

She was the first to react. She lifted up an ice spike from under the ground, which she crashed into the demon and sent it flying out, breaking several trees.

Giving the demon no chance to catch a breath, she immediately caught up with it and froze its feet.

"Now!" she shouted back at Maggie.

Maggie came to her senses and drew a pistol, aiming and firing continuously at the frozen target. Nightingale bit her lips and reloaded her gun. She asked Iffy to help her up to her feet and then walked to join Maggie. The demon's Magic Barrier shined on its armor, but it soon dimmed down. The red light in its eyes was flickering on and off.

Suddenly, it roared hoarsely and threw its hand toward Agatha and sent her flying backward without even touching her. At the same time, the ice crystals around its feet melted instantly. It jumped up and staggered, wanting to escape.

"Don't let it go!" Agatha shouted, "Maggie!"

"Let me stop it!" Leaf grabbed the Sigil of God's Will from Anna's hand. She had not consumed very much magic power in the previous fight, though she was severely injured when she was forcibly pulled out from her Heart of Forest form. During their regular tests, she was able to light up four stones of the Sigil, and now, immediately after she injected all her magic power into the Sigil, a bright golden light lit up the woods once again. The demon turned around and let out a strange sound in disbelief.

The golden thunder struck the demon again.

This time, he did not survive it.

...

"The demon is... dead?" Nightingale asked in a weak voice.

"Only half of its armor is left behind!" Maggie answered while dragging the "enemy" back. If it was not for the delicate glyph on the edge of the armor, it would be hard to believe that this charred mass was the demon itself. Apparently, it was not as strong as they had imagined.

Lightning was found, too.

When the demon released the black wave, she was affected and lost her magic power temporarily. She had fallen from above, hit her head on a branch and fainted. Luckily, as she had not been high up in the sky and the thick branches and leaves of the trees had acted as a cushion to her fall, she was not heavily injured, aside from a bump on her head.

However, she still looked upset and disappointed because she missed the fight. After making sure that everybody was alright, she said, "I'll inform Brian of the situation here and ask him to send someone to fetch you."

"You survived. That's a miracle" Agatha exclaimed.

"Yeah, I don't know how to tell His Majesty that all of us got beat up by just one demon." Nightingale heaved a sigh, enduring the pain.

"No, Nightingale, this isn't an ordinary victory. The enemy is a Magic Slayer!" Agatha shook her head and continued, "Maybe several Senior Witches could confront a Senior Demon, but they could never defeat a Magic Slayer. Only the Three Chiefs of the Union could compete with it."

"Only the Transcendents?" Leaf asked, frowning.

"Yes." Agatha confirmed and added, "The Union paid with blood for this lesson."

"What kind of ability does a Magic Slayer have?"

"Magic Slayer is just a title, instead of a certain kind of ability." Agatha explained. "Every Senior Demon has many kinds of abilities, and different from witches, demons don't have to get their abilities through awakening. Someone in the Union once witnessed a Senior Demon, who had led the enemy to attack Taquila many times, that evolved two different Magic Cyclones inside its body in merely several years. That means it gained two more abilities during that time. No one knew how it did that. The demons seem to be more naturally talented than us in manipulating the magic power.

A Magic Slayer doesn't refer to a demon with certain kinds of Magic Cyclones, but refers to an extremely powerful Senior Demon, who can release power to create the effects similar to those of a God's Stone."

The last sentence from Agatha made Nightingale's heart skip a beat. "You mean... it can prohibit magic power?" she asked.

"To be more accurate, it interferes with magic power." Agatha corrected her and continued, "The Magic Slayer is able to break through the defense of the God's Stone of Retaliation and can obstruct or diminish the magic power attacks. They can also dispel or stop magic power effects. They're really tough opponents for all the witches."

"I... don't understand." Iffy was confused and asked, "Is that not a special ability?"

"It's not," Agatha answered. "Take Anna for example. If she was a Magic Slayer, her Blackfire will remain effective even under the influence of the God's Stone of Retaliation, and at the same time, the place affected by Blackfire will become an interference region. That means, the other magic power effects near the Blackfire will be wiped out unless Anna's opponent is another Magic Slayer."

What Agatha said immediately reminded Nightingale of the demon's lightless black hole. She recalled the whole process of the previous battle, and remembered that there was only the dim shadow around the demon when she hit on its Magic Barrier and was caught by it in the Mist. She was surprised to find that the demon attacked as if it was the Sigil of God's Will, giving out absolutely no magic power light during the fighting.

She told Agatha what she had seen through the Mist during the fight and then asked, "That's why the first strike of the Sigil of God's Will didn't kill it?"

"Probably," Agatha shrugged and said. "But I'm not sure. This is the first time for me to encounter this kind of demon and the Union left no record about using the Sigil of God's Will to fight against a Magic Slayer."

"So the Chiefs of the Union depended completely on their own power to defeat the Magic Slayer?"

"Exactly," Agatha said while nodding. "Extraordinaries are really powerful, especially when they wear the God's Stone of Retaliation. They shine like the sun in the battlefields. Wherever they go, demons would melt like the snow in the spring, and Transcendents are the center of the sun. If you could see Lord Alice in a fight, you would be overwhelmed by her power."

Hearing that, Nightingale was deep in thought, "Counting all the Chiefs of the Union, there were only three Transcendents." She then asked, "No witch of the Union had become a Magic Slayer before?"

"As far as I know, no," Agatha answered, "and no one will. Witches and demons have fundamental differences. Numerous demons can evolve into Mad Demons, but not many of us can become someone like Alice, no matter how hard we practice."

Maggie, who kept fiddling with the demon's armor, found a little black box from the remains of the demon and said, "Look! What's this?"

Agatha took the box and tried to open it. "It's locked."

"Let me try." Nightingale observed the square metal box through the Mist and when its silhouette was distorting, she put her fingers into it and grabbed the contents out of the box.

Several glittering stones fell out of the air.

Chapter 553 - The Trophy

"Gems? Coo!" Maggie parted the white hair covering her forehead to reveal her curious eyes.

"They're Magic Stones," said Agatha. She picked the stones up to take a closer look and added, "I've no idea what kinds of Magic Stones they are, but judging from their color, they must have been high-quality God's Stones of Retaliation before being changed into Magic Stones by the Chaos Beast."

"The trophy we get from a Senior Demon must be something good," Leaf said while smiling. "I'm just surprised that it hid the box inside its body."

"Oh, you remind me. Are there boxes like this one in the other dead demons' bodies? Coo! I'll go and check!" Maggie said excitedly.

"Watch out for the tanks restoring the Red Mist!" Agatha warned.

In less than ten minutes, Maggie came back with two black boxes in her hands and said, "I found them in the demons wearing colorful clothes."

Nightingale pulled some Magic Stones out from the two boxes though they were dimmer and smaller than the stones of the first box.

Agatha gathered all the Magic Stones together and then could not help but frown.

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Nightingale.

"It seems that there are too many Magic Stones," Agatha answered.

"Isn't it a happy thing for you to get so many of them?" asked Nightingale.

Agatha shook her head slightly and explained, "The Union killed thousands of Fearsome Demons, but it was still hard to collect Magic Stones. That's why the Quest Society did everything to capture and raise Chaos Beasts. Why do they carry so many Magic Stones?"

"Maybe that's their savings, accumulated in over 400 years? It's just like an unlucky guy who pooled all his savings, hoping to start a peaceful life in his hometown, but got killed and robbed by us on the way." Nightingale suggested with a strained smile.

However, no one laughed. All of them knew clearly that if the numerous demons had been producing Magic Stones in the past 400 years, they now must have an incredible amount of war resources.

To break the dead silence, Agatha said, "Well, it's no use thinking too much. After all, we have to fight against them anyway. There're no two ways about it."

...

Guided by Lightning, the First Army finally arrived at the woods.

"Are you alright?" Wendy hurriedly jumped off Lightning's back to check the witches one by one. "Anna..."

"Don't worry. She just fainted because of magic power exhaustion." Nightingale comforted Wendy. "Everybody is alright."

"I've told her, but she just kept rushing me," said Lightning. Her head had been wrapped up, and only several wisps of hair could be seen on her forehead.

"Wh-What are these? Are they demons?" Brian asked in shock, looking at the bodies put in a row on the ground.

"Yes, dead demons. You have to tell your soldiers to bring them back, including their remains, armors, clothes and weapons. None of those things should be left behind. That's His Majesty's order." Nightingale shrugged and said.

"Yes! I'll take care of this." Brian's face suddenly hardened, hearing the order.

"What a pity! We didn't catch a demon alive. The plan to make Sigils has to be postponed again." Agatha said with a sigh.

"A living demon? There's probably one." Lightning tilted her head and said.

"What? Where?" All the people simultaneously turned to look at Lightning.

"I'm not sure, but if the demon can swim, maybe it's still alive," she said while blinking.

...

In the afternoon, the paddle steamers left the harbor and turned back to sail towards the City of Neverwinter.

The curious and surprised soldiers of the First Army crowded on the deck of a steamer.

"This is the enemy that we're going to fight against in the future?"

"It looks just so-so, except the huge, intimidating figure."

"Hush! What did you say? Haven't you seen that even His Majesty's powerful witches were heavily injured. Don't you know how powerful they are?" Someone interrupted.

"Yes, those dead demons must be fierce, at least, much tougher than the demonic beasts. Even the powerful lady Anna fainted." Another one added, "Yeah, she was the one who sealed the breach in the city wall and blocked a large group of demonic beasts on her own."

The other soldiers agreed.

"Yeah... I was there too. Lady Anna saved my life!"

"If it wasn't her, I'd already be stomped to death by the demonic boars."

"Unfortunately, Miss Angel isn't here. Otherwise, they would have been cured right now."

Hearing what the soldiers said, Nightingale and Agatha standing at the stern of the steamer looked at each other and then shook their heads with a smile.

Both of them found what they heard very incredible. Since she came from the time when the witches had ruled the human world and enslaved the common people, Agatha had a brand new feeling towards the ordinary people when she heard that they considered witches comrades-in-arms. Nightingale who had had to hide from the ordinary people for a very long time and had suffered from the coercion of the church also felt for the first time that the ordinary people were able to accept the witches and even willing to fight side by side with them.

"What do you think about it?" Nightingale asked.

"You mean the test target? I think we were so lucky to capture it alive when we believed that we were going back empty-handed." Agatha said with a smile.

The test target, the living Mad Demon locked in an iron cage attracted the soldiers to flock to have a look at it.

According to Lightning, the flames from the explosion of the hydrogen balloon hurt and battered this unlucky demon unconscious causing it to fall into the water. After it regained consciousness, it had struggled for half a day, trying to swim to the bank but had failed since it had been so badly injured. In the end, it was caught by Maggie who said that the Mad Demon must have mistaken her for a Devilbeast thinking that it had come to its rescue and had cried out loudly to catch her attention. It never expected that it would become the witches' captive.

As Iffy was pushed to the limit of her magic power and physical strength, she probably could not trap the demon for a very long time. After discussion, the witches decided to cut all its limbs and let Agatha freeze the wounds. By doing so, the demon could neither kill itself nor die before it used up the Red Mist.

"It's hard to believe that we can still complete the task after the sudden, terrible accident. We're so lucky." Nightingale twitched her mouth and said.

"Oh, don't you need some rest?" Agatha asked, pointing at her waist.

"It's fine after the herbal treatment. Before we met His Majesty Roland, Leaf took care of the wounds for all the sisters in the Witch Cooperation Association." Nightingale said lightly while throwing up her hands.

"I'm not prudent enough in this action. Fortunately, everyone is fine." Agatha said and heaved a sigh.

"You mean the Senior Demon? That's not your fault. No one could predict that they would appear in this remote place." Nightingale consoled her.

"And that's what makes me confused... The Senior Demons have never acted alone. They usually hid behind a huge army of demons and they were a few in number. During the decades of the battle, the Union had recorded all of the Senior Demons that appeared. There were less than 20 of them, including those killed in the battle." Agatha paused for a while and continued. "I thought I had to wait until the Bloody Moon came to see them, but now I'm not sure, after seeing the Magic Stones."

Nightingale soon got what she meant and that idea sent a chill to her heart.

"The demons' lifespan, growth limit, evolution way and reproduction way still remain unknown to us. What did they do in the past 400 years? Assuming they've accumulated so many Magic Stones, is it possible that they may also have many more Senior Demons now?"

...

Chapter 554 - Reaching the City of Neverwinter

...

"There are so many boats here,"

Edith thought, lying beside the porthole of the poop deck. She glanced over to see the fleets that were coming and going on the Redwater River.

Since she entered the Western Region, she noticed that many strange stone boats were sailing on the river with no wind sail, making the stream a very crowded one. And according to shipmaster's introduction, they were called paddle steamers. They relied on steam power to march forward and their speed could not be influenced by the wind. It was said that even if you sail upstream, they were faster than the sailing ship. A paddle steamer usually marched in front of other boats on the river with a string of black smoke lagging behind. No one could clearly explain how the steam pushed the big wooden wheel on both sides of the boat.

While one thing was certain, these things were made in the City of Neverwinter.

Edith secretively made some estimates that almost every hour there would be one paddle steamer passing by. If it was cargo that these ships carried, then there was no doubt that the amount of material the City of Neverwinter was importing would be astonishing. She learned from businessmen that a city could not be bigger than its ability to import materials. You could get a rough idea about how prosperous this city was and how many business opportunities it could offer if you just stayed for a couple of days on the city's main road. You would even know what the most popular goods of the city were if you were good at communication.

Obviously, the Redwater River was the most important main road for the Western Region.

And watching this busy stream way, she believed all the propaganda she had seen in the king's city might be more than just the bragging of His Majesty Roland.

In such a short time, Roland had integrated the Western Region into one new city whose permanent population and commercial trade had outperformed the old king's city. Such an outstanding heir to the throne actually had a bad reputation of being ignorant and stubborn... Thinking of these rumors, Edith was more interested in Roland Wimbledon.

"Miss Conrad, are you observing the boat again?" The door was pushed open, a well-dressed, brown-haired, handsome man walked in. "Want to go out to breathe some fresh air? You must be bored of staying here all the time?"

"No, this place is nice." Edith stood up and nodded to him. "Thank you for your hospitality."

"You don't need to thank me," he laughed and said, "I'm lucky to have such a beautiful lady's company."

Edith had heard too many of this kind of compliments, but she still replied with a delightful look, "Without your help, I'm afraid I may have had to crash with the cargo and refugees."

"Of course I couldn't stand by and let this kind of things happen," the man sat opposite and said. "There's not one jeweler who's willing to let jewelry be covered with dust, and you're just like jewelry to me."

This man was Victor, the owner of the Everspring boat. He was a jeweler from the king's city. After their original boat was burnt, Edith quickly picked out this two-master ship from all the ships that traveled to the Western Region. It was not a passenger boat, neither did it accept any employment. It was Victor's private ship. But for the Pearl of the Northern Region, as long as the ship-owner was a male, everything was fine.

She pretended to be a noble lady from the Northern Region, who came to the Western Region to find her missing relatives. With a couple of words, she made Victor feel sorry for her and invite her aboard the Everspring voluntarily. Compared with the common miniature sailing boats and freighters, the Everspring was spacious and bright, with a comfortable passenger cabin in the poop deck. Besides, it did not have the odors of the rotten wood that were caused by the longtime aquatic travel. Victor even arranged two servants for her, without charging a single gold royal from her.

Of course, the only price she needed to pay was to endure Victor's visits from time to time, showing his generosity and concern. For Edith, who had been good at running around the circles of the nobility, it was just a piece of cake as she had already gotten used to it. If he was good enough, she would enjoy the feeling of controlling him.

"Although these ships can sail without the push of the wind, it's all too crude," Victor said and poured a cup of black tea for himself. "I've boarded a paddle steamer and carefully observed it, it's noisy and shaking when sailing... it may be a good choice for transporting goods, but not the best choice for a long journey."

"Of course it won't be as comfortable as the Everspring," Edith laughed and said, "but why do I feel that these boats just popped out in a night? There weren't such kinds of boats in the Western Region before, I suppose?"

"Yes, you're right. They just sprang up overnight," Victor twitched his lips and added, "I used to travel for businesses to Longsong Stronghold and there weren't these kinds of strange things back then. After just a winter, they're everywhere now."

"Making 20 or 30 paddle steamers in one winter?" Edith thought in surprise. As the heir of the Kant Family, she knew exactly what the meaning of it was. Since a big city needed to import a lot of material, the city expansion was limited by the ability of its transportation ability for material. These kinds of non-sailing boats which could be produced so quickly were obviously good to improve the city's transportation ability, as they could continually transport food and commodities from everywhere to the Western Region. Given that, the expansion speed of the City of Neverwinter would naturally be beyond everyone's imagination.

As for the noises and shaking, it was not worthy of mention.

"Look, Miss Conrad, no need to worry about those ugly Concrete Boats. I have something more interesting here. It may help you to kill the time." Victor called the maid beside him, whispering a few words in her ear and then she nodded, turned around and left the room.

"What's it?"

"Something that can match with your beauty," he gloated and said, "it's also my old profession."

The maid quickly came back to the poop deck with an exquisite album in her hand. Victor spread it out in front of Edith. "Which one do you like?"

There were many dazzling crystal pictures on the parchment, which were definitely lifelike, with fine brushwork and bright colors. Obviously, the painter that made this album was an expert in doing his job.

"Are these... gems?"

"Precisely, they're rough stones." Victor explained to her patiently. "I set the prices in accordance with the album's standard when I purchased them. Compared with the polished jewelry, the rough stones have their own charms... If you're interested in any kind of rough stones, please let me know. Of course, if you prefer the polished jewelry, I could ask some jewelers to use these rough stones to make some jewelry for you when I get back to the king's city."

Nothing original, Edith just flipped over the album and then gave it back to him. "Thanks, but no."

Victor was surprised when he got the book. "So aren't you interested in these at all?"

"My relatives are missing. I don't have the mood to pick these luxury gifts. Please forgive me," Edith answered in a low voice. If she promised him now, he would pester her when they arrived in the City of Neverwinter, which would be a hindrance. Although most of the females would give in to these sparkling things, she would rather appreciate the steam engine that drove the paddle steamer. Compared with the jewelry which only spread among the nobles, those were much more valuable.

...

Soon after Victor left, there came a series of deep and rich ringing sounds from the direction of the bow... It seemed that a big fleet was about to leave the harbor.

Looking to the harbor, Edith could see the bulk head line becoming clearer and clearer in front of her.

Chapter 555 - The Beginning of the Negotiation

So this is Border Town... no, City of Neverwinter?

Edith could not help but feel surprised, seeing the busy and orderly scene in front of her after walking down the gangway ladder. She had had many assumptions prior to her arrival, but found that she had belittled this city. The harbor was three times bigger than that of the king's city. One side of the dock was crowded with sailing ships and concrete boats, busy unloading cargo. Mountains of minerals and coals were heaped up in the yard.

On the other side of the dock, 10 paddle steamers were departing in a row from the trestle. Many citizens stood beside the shore to see them off. All the crews wore uniforms, standing in straight lines along both sides of the boat. Edith could feel their high morale. There was a kind of expression on their faces, the same kind that appeared on knights' faces when they came back after defeating their enemies. Yet there was no doubt, these people were definitely not from the nobility.

The center of the dock was the gathering place for businessmen, refugees and migrants, most of whom had arrived via various types of sailing vessels. After they disembarked, they were separated by a group of men in black. They were asked to stand in line to pass the barrier after the examination. The floating population in the dock area was over 1,000. Even the king's city was overshadowed by such a splendid scene.

"The dock has grown longer again." Victor commented with surprise. "Does His Majesty plan to turn the whole river bank into the dock area?"

"Again?" Edith noticed his words.

"The dock wasn't this wide last autumn," he opened his arms and said. "There weren't so many people, either."

"What're they doing in the barrier, taking taxes?"

"There're no downtown taxes here. You need to pay taxes only when you have sold out your commodities," Victor enthusiastically explained. "Besides, in the downtown, people are not allowed to set up stalls unofficially. All transactions must take place in the Convenience Market. Those men in black act as patrol teams for the other cities. They set a barrier to register people's identities and to eliminate demonic plague."

"Not to blackmail?" Edith asked and winked at her brother who nodded and took out his wallet, ready to give money to pull strings.

"No, no, Miss Conrad, I said they're just like a patrol team." The jeweler, Victor laughed and waved his hand. "In fact, they never charge extra money. I know it's hard to believe, but this is the truth. I was as surprised as you when I passed the examination for the first time. Come with me. It's quicker to take the businessman pass."

Just as Victor had described, after the men in black verified his identity, they let them all pass the barrier without charging even one bronze royal.

"I need to find a clean and comfortable inn to check in, and then I'm going to pop into the Convenience Market," Victor said and turned around. "What about you, Miss Conrad? If you're unfamiliar with this place, I'm at your service."

"Thank you." Edith put on a grateful look, lifted her skirt and bowed, saying, "You've done me many courtesies during this journey. That's enough. I'll go to the City Hall to ask for help. I should be able to get some information about my relatives there."

"It takes no effort, My Lady. Besides, it's my pleasure to know a distinguished noble woman like you. Please don't mention it."

After several evasions, Edith finally got rid of Victor, but the businessman continued to wave at her while leaving. He said if they were in any trouble, they could go to the Holy Mountain Inn to find him anytime.

"Sister, how popular you are." Cole smacked his lips.

"Hmm?" Edith glanced at him. "What should you call me?"

"Ugh, well, Miss Edith." The Duke's second son could not help shuddering. "Shall we find a inn and check in?"

"No, we should go to the castle to hand over the document," she said without hesitation. "We should get in contact with His Majesty as soon as possible."

"But we don't have the heads anymore." Cole reminded her in a low voice.

"Then we'll do things under no-head circumstances." Edith shrugged. "Remember the things I've told you? Show our sincerity and the two heads alone won't represent the Kant family's loyalty."

Besides, even if we did have the heads, they would likely be rotten and smelly by now. It was not a good idea to offer two rotten heads to His Majesty. Everything had deviated from its original track since His Majesty left the king's city.

What we did next depends on the specific situation. In the end, it would be the negotiator's ability that determined the negotiation result.

*******************

"Your Majesty, an emissary delegate from the Northern Region is waiting outside the castle, and they want to see you," guard Sean walked into the office and reported. "The leader claimed to be Cole Kant, the second son of Calvin Kant, the present Duke of the Northern Region. Mr. Barov has already verified their voucher document and emblem. They weren't forged."

"The Northern Region?" Startled, Roland put down the design drawings. "Wasn't that Timothy's territory? Have they stated their intentions?"

"Yes, Sir Cole said that the Duke is willing to pledge his loyalty to you." the guard answered with excitement.

"Voluntarily pledge his loyalty..." Roland frowned at this news. It was a nuisance, for he did not need a federal Lord's loyalty. It offered no help in the development of the country and would have an impact on the present centralized system. Roland actually wished they would stay in their domain with a sense of chance, waiting for him to eliminate them all. Only when the old forces were completely annihilated, could the new centralization of authority be built up smoothly.

However, he could not just refuse to see them. They were emissary delegates asking for cooperation. If he ignored them intentionally, the other nobles hearing the news would stop expecting a fluke and gang up to fight against him. Though it was not a problem in the military aspect, he still worried that it might influence the citizens of the Eastern Region and Northern Region. Roland already viewed them as his treasure, and of course, he wanted to keep more population.

After a thought, he nodded slowly. "Bring them to the living room, and let Barov stay with them."

"Yes," Sean answered excitedly.

Looking at the guard's expression, Roland pondered if the guard might have thought that, in this way, the whole kingdom would soon be ruled by him. Unfortunately, it was not as simple as it looked.

At the same time, he made a decision.

No matter what they said, he would stick to his principle and take back the feudal nobles' rights. This point must be conveyed to all the nobles clearly to show his determination for the implementation of new policies and the reform. If rebel nobles dared to lay their hands on the citizens, he would ensure they paid a heavy price for it.

...

There were only two people in the emissary delegation, now seated on one end of the long table when Roland walked into the living room. One of them was the Duke's second son, Cole Kant, and the other, a gorgeous woman. She appeared to be an assistant to Sir Cole, but in Roland's eyes, she was more outstanding than Sir Cole himself.

Of course, witches were the shiniest pearls when it came to appearance, so Roland did not pay much attention to this. After all, in this era, a female assistant might also play the role of a mistress or maid.

"Your Majesty, I bring my father's regards to you." Cole stood and bowed respectfully to Roland, and then he expressed his intentions. "The Duke of the Northern Region has a gift for you."

Chapter 556 - The Bottom Line

"A gift?" Roland said, raising his eyebrow. "What's that?"

"The Hawes Family and the Lista Family from the Northern Region... Your Majesty, both of the earls were not only disobeying your rules, but also attempting to collude with the other nobles to rebel. My father looked through their scheme and punished both of the families." Cole said regretfully, "However, I didn't expect you to come back to the Western Region so early. Due to my negligence, their heads working as our evidence were destroyed on the way."

"Hold on, your father directly executed both of the earls?"

"Uh," he looked at his assistant and said, "yes."

The Kant's effort to offer his service was stronger than what Roland had expected... "Taking the heads of the two earls as tokens of pledging allegiance shows that they could hardly gain further support from the nobles in the Eastern Region. In this case, the possibility of them joining up to resist his rule of their domain was greatly reduced." Roland thought to himself, "However, I'm not sure if he's lying at this moment without Nightingale being around."

Pondering for a moment, he whispered to Barov beside him, "Are the two families mentioned in the Northern Region?"

"Both Horsehead Hawes and Double Spear Lista were reputable families of the Northern Region, even more influential than the five big families from the Western Region. Among them, Lista's ancestors armored up and went on an expedition for the Wimbledon Family. The double spears on the Kamon were taken from the Kingdom of Graycastle's flag." Barov unhurriedly said, touching his beard, "Of course, these happened more than 200 years ago. However, the name of the Kant Family was not very famous, I remember the family only appeared about 50 years ago... It was unexpected for Timothy to choose Calvin Kant to be the person-in-charge of the Northern Region. It may cause dissatisfaction with the older families. If the difference of their strengths were too much, it would be less effective, even though it's to pin down the two families."

"So what he said is true?" Roland automatically ignored the latter section the old director mumbled to show off his vast knowledge.

"Uh... it's unlikely a lie," Barov whispered. "However, this is a matter of the noble's glory. If it came through as a lie and you've accepted their allegiance, Northern Region will have botched it for themselves."

"That makes sense." Roland nodded slightly. "It doesn't really matter if it's a lie; the bottom line lies within ourselves. It could easily be discussed if the surrender of land ownership could be accepted. However, even the most expensive gifts are meaningless if it's about seizing power."

Thinking about it, Roland looked at Cole and smiled. "First of all, I'd like to express my gratitude to the Duke. Defending the honor of the royal family is the responsibility of every noble. Your father has done a good job. Secondly, both of the earls have received the punishment they deserved, and the kingdom won't further look into what Duke Kant has done."

"Is, is that so? Father will be very happy to hear that." Cole seemed more than relieved. "He's always wanted to serve the true King and he finally has the chance now."

"Is it? I'm also very happy to accept the allegiance of Duke of the Northern Region... But he must agree to obey the new regulations of Graycastle."

"The new regulations?" Cole was slightly surprised. "What're they?"

"The regulation to retrieve the manor power of the nobility." Roland was looking at Cole to measure his expression. He said word by word, "There'll no longer be any noble title in the kingdom. All the domains within the Kingdom of Graycastle will only have one lord, who is the King himself from now on."

"What?! Your Majesty, this..." Cole's expression drastically changed, he turned around and looked at his assistant again.

"Is he really the second son of the Duke? Although he looks a little younger, he shouldn't be worse than his female officer... His assistant at least managed to keep calm although she was shocked with her mouth slightly open. Of course, it was also possible that she couldn't understand what I said." Roland thought.

"No worries, nobles are still nobles. The munificent life you live won't change and you'll even have a chance to hit a new peak." Roland clapped his hands, summoning the attendant to prepare the "promotional manual". "Longsong Stronghold has fully implemented a new set of regulations. You can see many stories regarding the change and some real-life examples of the nobles in the manual. Although it may seem that the nobles have lost part of their privileges, in fact, it has also released the nobles from the manor to engage within the kingdom and even the dance floor of the entire continent."

Cole was totally lost. "But... I don't know..."

Cole's expression was slightly disappointing to Roland. "However, thinking about it, it's normal. As the second son of the Duke, he is, after all, just getting into his adulthood. He's probably just a messenger for this trip without the actual power of making any decision."

"Anyway, you can always send the message back to Duke Calvin. You can also stay in the City of Neverwinter and enjoy the unique scenery here while waiting for his answer—I think you'll love it here."

Although the Duke sending his second son on behalf indeed showed sincerity, Roland was not planning to waste it, so he was temporarily detaining the son to prevent the Duke from being reckless.

He thought that the meeting had come to an end, without expecting Cole to make another request.

"Your Majesty, may I have a tour within your domain to see how the paddle steamer and steam engine are made?"

It was a novel request. Roland looked at him with interest and said, "Are you interested in it?"

"Yes, I've heard about such a strange ship when I was in the king's city. I realized that they're everywhere here in the Western Region. I'm curious to learn how a paddle steamer moves without a sail." Cole said with one hand covering his chest.

"I see." Roland nodded with a smile and said, "I'll get Director Barov to arrange it."

...

Roland returned to the office after dealing with the northern envoy. He was just about to complete the drawing in his hand when he heard a rapid knock coming from outside the window. He turned around and saw two unexpected figures.

Lightning was lying on the windowsill while Maggie was crouching on her head, pecking on the glass window.

Roland's heart suddenly tightened. "It's only been three days. The paddle steamer shouldn't be able to return so soon. Could it be an accident?"

"Why did you come back first?" He opened the French window and impatiently asked, "What about the others?"

"Your Majesty! We've captured a demon!"

"However Anna, Leaf, and Nightingale were injured, coo!"

"Luckily, there's nothing serious!"

"However it's pretty painful, coo! Can you please allow Miss Nana to come with us?"

Listening to both of them scrambling to finish the story, Roland felt as if he was on a roller-coaster. He sighed and said, "Nothing serious?"

"No, coo!"

"I'll order people to fetch Nana." He turned around and walked out of the room. "Remember to finish telling everything at once next time!"

...

The next evening, two paddle steamers finally appeared at the west end of the Redwater River.

The First Army stayed behind and evacuated the No. 22 trestle, and prepared a covered carriage in order to prevent the crowd from becoming panicked at the sight of the demon. A temporary barracks was set up in the castle backyard, as a laboratory and a study of demons and Sigils, under Leaf's supervision.

Roland felt completely relieved when he saw Anna and Nightingale walking down the trestle. It was only four days since their departure, however, it felt like months to him. The time went by especially slow when he heard those two were injured.

"It's a difficult task this time." Roland grinned and opened up his arms to Anna.

Anna did not say anything but ran into Roland's arms and hugged him tightly.

Nightingale sighed. "You said you'd be waiting for us in the castle... The pier is not safe, Your Majesty."

"You too," Roland said and laughed. "You had a long day."

"Well..." she uncomfortably shifted her head and said, "It was actually alright."

Anna let go of Roland and pulled Nightingale in as well.

Followed by Wendy, then Leaf...

This time all the witches took turns to give Roland a hug, including Agatha and Iffy.

The figures of the crowd looked extremely long under the reflection of the maroon-colored setting sun.

Chapter 557 - Damage Testing

After dinner, Roland immediately rushed to the castle's backyard even though he really wanted to have some private time with Anna first. However, the Red Mist from the demon was limited and the experiment had to be carried out immediately.

Almost all of the members of the Witch Union were present, even those who were not taking part in the test did not want to miss out on the chance to take a closer look at the enemy.

The dissected Mad Demon was already under Breeze's control, quietly lying in the middle of the shed's floor. This was the first time Roland got to see an alien being that was different from a human. It had a huge body and was even taller than Iron Axe by a full head's height. Its frozen arms were as thick as a human's thighs, with ridges of clearly defined muscles, fully-covered by blue blood vessels that showcased its great strength.

The black-blue color of its rough skin was supposed to be normal, considering that the demon's blood was blue in color. Roland reached out his hand to feel its body. Clearly, the demon's body was warmer and that meant that their metabolism rate was faster. In other words, the higher their metabolism rate was, the lower their environmental adaptability would be.

Since the Mad Demon had a respirator which was connected to its helmet, its appearance was temporarily hidden. However, judging from its entire appearance, it was obviously an advanced chordate. A Mad Demon at least had a human-like appearance, especially when compared to the ridiculous Fearsome Demon and the Lord of Hell.

Of course, according to Agatha, the Junior Demon had lower intelligence and could not be compared to humans. When speaking of cunning and trickery, though, the Senior Demon was more like a human.

"Among the five demons, the Magic Slayer was melted by the Sigil of God's Will and one of the Mad Demons was dissected by Anna. Two bottles of Red Mist came from the remaining three and they were used on the way." Agatha rubbed her forehead, looking a little tired and her voice was much softer than usual. "The mist will only last until tomorrow evening. So, the experiment should be carried out before tomorrow afternoon, if we want to make the Sigil. I'll still need half a day to melt down the base of the Sigil and I may fail a few times during the process."

"The Red Mist is fatal to witches. How did you manage to change the gas tank?"

"We turned to the common people for help." She pointed at the sclerotin container that was set to the side and said. "I've brought back some of the empty storage tanks in case we needed them in the future."

Roland nodded and turned around to look at Breeze and said, "Can you control the magic power it used?"

"If it can do it," Breeze seriously answered, "I don't need to specifically manipulate its every move, but rather just give it an order and force it to follow the order. This command is beyond the limits of language and thought, so even the demonic beasts would follow it. But of course, it shouldn't be too complicated."

"That's good." Roland then instructed Nana. "Connect the limbs so I can see the power and intervals of a Mad Demon spear thrower."

"Hold on. In the castle?" Lily frowned.

Mystery Moon, Hummingbird, and the others immediately hid behind Wendy. However, Paper and Summer, who had not experienced the destruction of the Witch Cooperation Association did not have much reaction. Their expressions showed curiosity instead of fear.

"Will there be an accident?" Softfeathers muttered.

"Don't worry. We're watching it," Iffy calmly said.

Roland had roughly understood the process of the Melting Point Action during the dinner. The unexpected appearance of a Senior Demon caused a panic among the team, leading them into danger. However, the witches finally managed to defeat the strong enemy. Iffy played an important role, especially after the Sigil of God's Will became ineffective. Her determination to make time for everyone to escape had changed the others' perspective towards her and her attitude towards non-combat witches also became softer. However, it was so subtle that even Iffy herself probably did not notice the slight transformations.

Perhaps it would take a little longer for her to be accepted as one of the team. However, Roland could see the opportunity for both sides to reconcile.

Nana reluctantly squatted down to start treating the demon.

There was absolutely no way to complete the "surgery" with conventional medicine. In a situation where there was a lack of an anti-freezing agent, it would only prevent the limbs from becoming rotten, but it would not be able to prevent the cellular structure from becoming burned by the freezing. However, the poor condition of the broken limbs was clearly improving and even the mottled burns were fading, bit by bit, under the unreasonable magic restoration.

Once the limbs were completely re-connected, the originally black-colored skin was gradually turning green which signified the blood was starting to re-circulate.

After half an hour, the demon quietly stood up from where it had been lying on the ground and slowly walked out of the shed.

The witches followed it out one by one and this was different from their former swarming manner of just rushing in. Now they formed a long line behind Wendy and Scroll. The mixed expressions of fear and curiosity on Mystery Moon's and the others' faces made Roland laugh uncontrollably.

Leaf had already prepared the "shooting range" which was a target around 200 meters away from the wooden shed. There were a steel plate and a cuirass, which were hanging down from the grapevines located at the end of the garden fence after passing through the two rows of olive trees which lined both sides. It was also the conventional combat distance for a revolving rifle.

"Start." Roland signaled, looking at the demon with the bone spear.

"Yes."

Breeze just finished her words when the arms of the Mad Demon started to swell. The Magic Stone mounted on its arms was glowing with a faint yellow light. The demon stepped forward, with its body bent, and it threw the bone spear towards the target.

There was a flash of white, followed by the crisp noise of the cuirass, ringing in the distance.

His arms quickly shriveled, as if it had exhausted all its strength.

Probably due to its severe injuries, the recovery time was far longer than usual. Its arms only returned to their normal state after about an hour.

Of course, its throwing power was not weak.

The bone spear had completely penetrated the cuirass and it was firmly pinned to the fence. Pulling the bone spear out, it could be seen that the spearhead was broken from the impact of throwing. There would be more damage if it were replaced by the iron short spear. However, looking at the dressing of the Mad Demon, the enemy probably had less of an understanding of metal utilization compared to humans. Even the armor of the Senior Demon did not look like it was made of pure metal.

After thinking about it, it was probably due to the high-temperature flame needed to smelt the metal, and the Red Mist happened not to be resistant. If the information given by Agatha was accurate, the demons must be very careful with their use of fire. If the human civilization had originated from fire, then the demons were probably born to hate their fire.

The next test was the quick throw.

The Mad Demon was forced to throw two bone spears within a short interval of time. However, it was roaring in pain. Although its body was controlled, the sharp pain caused by the overuse of Magic Stones was not removed. Its arms were paralyzed after it finished throwing. They looked shriveled and dry like bark and could not recover again.

Both of the bone spears had been crushed against the three millimeters thick steel plate.

Thus, the most threatening technique of the Mad Demon could be compared to revolving rifles using black powder bullets, which if replaced by the bolt rifle, could easily pierce through a steel plate.

Chapter 558 - Beauty

After reaching the conclusion, Roland felt slightly relieved.

The basic combat capability of the demons did not exceed the combat efficiency of the conventional firearms as the machine gun and cannon were enough to crush all the enemies within the distance of 500 to 1,000 meters, while the spear thrower attack was obviously unsuitable for the trench warfare. A Mad Demon would not even stand a chance as long as the bullet production kept up with the pace since it would take three to five seconds for the Magic Stone to charge up and take effect.

It implied that at least the humans would be competitive on the frontlines of the battlefield.

"It would have been nice if you were born in Taquila." Agatha sighed while staring at the weapon in Roland's hand. "The number of common people on the Fertile Plains was 100 times more than those in the Kingdom of Graycastle, so was the number of witches. If each of them had a long-barrelled gun in their hands, the demons would have probably run back to where they came from."

Roland smiled but he did not agree with it in his heart.

After all, it was a witch-dominated empire 400 years ago. He thought, "If there were really a weapon that gave the common people power beyond that of the witches, would the seniors of the Union have lightly accepted such an existence? Witches have always been in the minority—there were millions of humans, yet the witches had numbered mere thousands. This has been the case since the Land of Dawn until the Fertile Plains. Would the long-oppressed common people willingly set foot on the battlefield? Once the actual strength was reversed, the disintegration of the dominance hierarchy would inevitably lead to civil strife. The idea of fighting for the survival of humanity was still an extremely vague ideal even after the awakening of nationalism, not even taking into consideration a group of humans who had been living like slaves to uphold such ideal values."

Of course, Roland would not talk about these conclusions in the public and Agatha was simply a researcher of the Quest Society, so it would be better not to involve her in the political matters.

After the damage test, Anna amputated the demon again and put it into a steel cage.

"Is that all?" Agatha asked.

Roland shook his head and said, "That's all for today. The injury test shall begin tomorrow morning."

"What's that?"

"We're going to test the resistance ability of the various parts of the demon to shooting, as well as the effects of the chemicals, Pill of Madness and Dreamland Water," Roland answered. "Oh yeah, and get Lucia to separate the composition of Red Mist and see what we can get out of it."

"Unfortunately, the demon can't be kept alive for the long-term. Otherwise, more comprehensive data could be collected by using Nana's healing power on the demon."

Agatha yawned and said, "Up to you. However, I'll need two witch assistants to help me make the Sigil and the materials must be prepared in advance as the blood doesn't last once the demon is dead. It's better to start melting the God's Stone of Retaliation when the demon is still alive." She paused and said, "By the way, what kind of Sigil do you want to make?"

"We can make any of them as long as we've sufficient Magic Stones?"

"Of course," she nodded and said, "the failure doesn't consume the stone itself but I... Oh no, nothing."

Roland raised his brows and asked, "What's with you?"

"Never mind. It was simply a slip of the tongue," Agatha curled her lips and said. "At most you'll only be losing some raw materials."

Roland did not continue pressing since Agatha did not want to go on. "Let me come back to you with an answer tomorrow morning after I study the 'Magic Stone Collection'".

*******************

It was bound to be a sleepless night.

Edith Kant was standing by the window, overlooking the city under the night sky. "Businessmen always refer to candlelight as wealth; the brighter a place is in the night, the wealthier it is." She thought that within the Inner City of the king's city, the scene of a brightly lit night would only exist near the taverns and theatres.

However, she could never really grasp the true meaning behind the brightly lit night here, within the Southern Coast of the Redwater River.

Looking from afar, the shore was as bright as if it were day. However, it was not the orange-glow of the bonfire but a soft-yellow light, looking bright yet stable as if it were a yarn-covered sunlight.

The entire factory area would be continuously producing a variety of goods at night, goods that they called industrial products.

The steam engine was one of them.

The afternoon visit had left Edith feeling an indescribable shock. A shock which was beyond the shock left by the fight on the battlefield or anything else... It was even beyond comparison with the removal of land command mentioned by His Majesty.

When she entered the factory, she saw some rough iron ingots that were being spun and drilled one by one, her attention was instantly caught, especially when the dirty iron slabs that were full of grease and scrapes transformed into shiny components that had been given a sense of newborn beauty.

The hard materials were processed into different shapes by the roaring machines that could work by themselves after being put together in a unique way—what a wonderful sight it was.

The factory was not a wonderful place with the running sewage and metal scraps all over the floor, in addition to the noise and humid air, but Edith had stayed there for an entire afternoon.

She could clearly remember the City Hall officer who brought the emissary delegation to visit was looking impatient and wanted to leave the noisy place early. The officer felt relieved when the group of people finally intended to leave and there was a statement she could freshly remember, "What's so interesting about this machine? Only His Majesty Roland will think that there's a hidden beauty within these black blotches."

"Hidden beauty?"

Edith suddenly felt a strong resonance.

That was right... It was the beauty that was brought by the pure power and that could knead and transform the metal without any restraint. There was an additional kind of beauty with the aid of a natural trend, especially after she understood the operational principle of the steam engine.

The beauty was far beyond the beauty of colorful gems and exquisite luxury clothing.

She could only feel that something had faintly touched her heart.

"How does His Majesty know these pieces of knowledge? What else does he know?"

Suddenly, a knocking sound outside the bedroom interrupted Edith's thoughts.

"Sister, I'm done bathing," Cole stuck his head in and said, "and the water is still warm. Do you want to take a bath as well?"

"Get the servant to boil a new basin of water." She ordered. "Do you understand the principle of the water intake here?"

"I've sent someone to ask around. The water of the pipeline seems to flow out from the standing iron tower." Cole touched his head while walking into the room. "As for how the water flows upwards from the well, they didn't really say anything about it. Oh yeah, there was something in the bathroom that you must try. It looks like a special fat but it smells really good after soaking in the water. It feels fantastic to clean the body with it. I can assure you that even the milk and rose bath is not as comfortable!"

"Is this deliberately arranged by His Majesty?" Edith could not help but ponder. The residence of the emissary delegation was located near the castle district. It was a four-story building with a top floor that was higher than half of the castle; not only could they enjoy the night view of the City of Neverwinter from there, but even the layout and facilities of the rooms were quite ingenious—although it was not big, it was comfortable to live in. A reception officer from the City Hall mentioned that it was the hotel His Majesty specifically prepared for the foreign emissary, which was calling the Foreign Affairs Building.

From what she could see, it was Roland Wimbledon's intention to show off with both the clear water that was pouring out from the valve once it was unscrewed and the washing material that Cole was praising about.

Chapter 559 - A Discussion about the System

"What do you think of it?" Edith sat back to the bed.

"The bathroom?"

"No, the new laws."

"Um..." Cole was a bit hesitated. "I'm going to write father a letter tomorrow and tell him His Majesty's terms. I don't think he'll agree."

"Really?" Edith neither approved nor disapproved.

Seeing Edith did not refute him, Cole ventured more confidently. "I've read the booklet distributed by His Majesty. Let's put aside the credibility issue for now and just look at the example. The top-ranking noble listed as the example is just an earl's son, who is currently equivalent to a duke without lands. To be honest, I'd definitely make the same choice if I were merely a knight. However, our father is the designated ruler of the Northern Region, Duke of the City of Evernight. He has far greater power and more distinctive social status than the oldest son of the Honeysuckle Family. If he agrees to His Majesty's terms, it means he's consenting to hand over his domain. This isn't a promotion, but a demotion instead."

"Good reasoning." Edith nodded with a smile, but soon went on before her brother could feel good about himself. "But you've missed one thing."

"What?"

"Whether we're able to keep our current status and power is uncertain."

Cole was a little stunned.

"You've apparently focused on the story in the latter part of the booklet, but I care more about the paragraph at the beginning." Edith picked up the advertising pamphlet from the nightstand and flipped over the cover page. "If this is really His Majesty's idea... I have to say it's quite interesting."

"The cause... of feudalism?" Cole peeped over her shoulder. "Have you figured out what it means?"

"It's just a made-up word. You can call it the current system or the system of nobility."

Cole looked confused.

Edith shook her head in silence. It seemed quite strange to put such an awkward paragraph at the very beginning of the booklet. The writing did not really flow at first glance, and the contents were also much drier than the following examples. Nevertheless, after probing into its underlying meanings, she realized that this opening statement was the basis of Roland Wimbledon's decision to implement the new laws.

It was her first time to come across such an innovative and eloquent argument.

"Have you ever thought of the reason we grant lands to subordinate knights and vassals?"

"To have them remain loyal to the Kant Family," Cole mumbled, "and also to attract more courageous men to work for us."

"What if our father becomes the sole ruler of the entire Northern Region?" Edith continued to ask.

"Do you mean to have all the lands go to our family?" Cole shook his head after some contemplation. "That won't work. If we hold all the lands, these knights will lose their properties and thus leave for somewhere else to seek employment, so will the lower nobles. The Kant Family will then become the only nobles in the town."

"Isn't it nice?"

"Of course not!" Cole winked, failing to understand why his sister asked such a self-evident question. "The Northern Region is way too large to handle by ourselves. It takes the guards around half a week just to march from the City of Evernight to the Palisade City in the event of an attack, not to mention the extra time we need to deliver messages. Plus, it'll be rather problematic to collect taxes and food. We can't wait for those lowlifes to voluntarily make the payment, can we?"

"So, we constantly increase our subordinates to keep our lands is fundamentally due to the potential war requirements and our limitations of management. These two factors are also what His Majesty thinks the main cause of feudalism." Edith said while caressing the booklet, "However, things have changed. No matter how we arm ourselves, it's futile to resist His Majesty's unstoppable army. Meanwhile, His Majesty firmly believes a powerful City Hall will be able to manage the whole region. As a matter of course, there'll be no need to grant lands to the nobles."

"Well..." Cole groped unsuccessfully for adequate words, failing because he did not know what to respond.

"Roland Wimbledon thinks such a change is inevitable." Edith pointed to the last sentence of the opening statement. "A well-functioning centralized government will unavoidably replace feudal nobles, because a unified management system will make better use of resources across the whole region and maximize people's potential, and thereby largely increase the productivity of the entire kingdom. Productivity determines the dominant power of the state."

"Nonsense." Cole bellowed. "What's productivity? Farming skills? A knight can knock 10 farmers down. Besides, where does he get so much manpower to... administer the whole country and take charge of tax collection? He still, after all, needs to rely on the nobles. In that case, what will be the difference? Those lowlifes won't care about who their King is."

"I'm as curious as you are in this regard." Edith curled up her lips into a smile. "But don't you think the person who is capable of jotting down such a plan will have full preparation for the implementation of the new laws?" She paused for a moment and then said, "Let's call on him again tomorrow. I'll do the talking this time."

"That fast?" Cole was surprised. "Don't you usually reveal your true identity only after they inquire about it?"

"I can't wait till then." Edith shrugged. "Also, don't write to father just yet. You've heard that he's let me take the lead on this meeting."

"Are you... going to agree to His Majesty's proposal?" Cole gasped. "Father will kill you!"

"Huh?"

"Um... No, I mean he'll resent you." Cole soon corrected himself. "After all, he sent you primarily for the purpose of keeping his title as a duke."

"Don't worry. I'm not that amenable." Edith raised her eyebrows. "Since the king has already placed his bid, surely I have to negotiate a better price, don't you think?"

*******************

The following day, Roland received multiple injury test reports in succession.

Demons were by no means physically stronger than witches. Although both guns and swords could fatally injure them, toxin could not due to their different physiological structure.

For instance, none of the chlorine, nitric oxide and carbon monoxide had any impacts on demons. Even if they did, it resulted from the decrease in the effective ingredients in the Red Mist.

Neither the Dreamland Water nor the Pill of Madness worked. The Dreamland Water had failed to make the demon fall asleep, and the Pill of Madness did not drive him crazy.

As to the ingredients of the Red Mist, it was composed of various gases and water. Kyle Sichi had confirmed through experiments that one part of the ingredients was flammable with an unpleasant odor. Another part was nitrogen, and the rest was unknown. However, demons appeared to depend on the feeble magic power swarming in the Mist rather than these ingredients to maintain their lives, which was also why the Red Mist could only be preserved for a short period of time.

Furthermore, the Red Mist would break down faster at a temperature of 300 ℃ and would even burn at 800 ℃.

Roland folded the reports and put them in the drawer. It seemed that other than regular firearms, the fire was also lethal to demons. At least, its high temperature could effectually break down the Red Mist. Given that, it seemed that they could instantly reverse the situation by setting a great fire on demons' campgrounds.

Chapter 560 - Uncovering the Truth

Roland was debating which kind of incendiary weapon was easier to manufacture when a guard came in. "Your Majesty, the ambassadors of the Northern Region requested to see you."

"It has been just one day..." Roland thought, feeling a bit surprised. "Are they planning to directly turn down my offer without even letting the duke know?"

"Bring them to the drawing room." He instructed after a momentary silence. "Also, ask Carter to block all the exits to the Foreign Affairs Building and stop the emissary delegation from getting out."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Since they had refused to agree to his policies, it left him no choice but to detain them by force.

...

When Roland entered the drawing room, he noticed that the pair across the long table had switched their seatings. The lady, who claimed to be the assistant to Cole, was sitting in the guest of honor seat, whereas Cole was sitting next to her with a book in his hand.

"Your Majesty, I'm the first daughter of the Duke of the City of Evernight, Edith Kant, Cole's sister. Please accept the best regards from the Kant Family." The lady rose and performed a perfect curtsy. "Please forgive Cole for not introducing me during our first meeting."

"Calvin's daughter?" Roland was intrigued by this turn of the events and after a short pause said, "So you're the real leader of the emissary delegation?"

"Yes." She placed her hand on her chest. "My father has authorized me to act on his behalf with respect to all matters concerning this visit and has also given me his seal."

It was fairly rare for a woman to participate in political affairs in this era, especially for a young and pretty one. Judging from Edith's confident expression, Roland could tell it was evidently not her first time to deal with heads of state. Every trait of her demeanor was impeccable. As to holding back her real identity, Roland knew it was simply a little trick to draw his attention. It was not a deliberate act of concealment or deception whatsoever, but just a disguise to mislead the other party. Most nobles would view it as a bold and playful move, which he had to admit was really effective.

"In other words, you can make the decision on behalf of your father?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. More accurately, he'll follow my advice."

"That's such a confident answer," thought Roland, who was amused to see Cole scratching his head beside his sister.

"Alright... So, Miss Edith, what's your purpose of this meeting?"

Roland had thought she would politely decline his terms or talk him out of implementing the new laws using a more "playful" tactic, but he did not expect to see her taking out a booklet from her backpack and spreading it on the table. That was the exact booklet he had drafted.

"I have a few questions to ask you." Edith came straight to the point. "You said feudal nobles will be obsolete as the centralized power increases. However, how are you going to guarantee the effective management of all the local authorities in the Kingdom without the assistance of nobles?"

"Is she... planning to discuss politics with me?" Roland thought.

From her sincere look, Roland knew she was serious.

It had been a long time since he had heard such an interesting question.

"By people and the development of technologies," Roland answered after pondering for a long time.

"Do you mean free men? What's the development of technologies?"

"Correct. A management team trained, paid and disbursed by the City Hall. Since the City Hall will provide labors and necessary equipment, administrators aren't required to have large properties or affluent manpower. Therefore, it doesn't matter whether they're nobles or not." Roland started to explain what a centralized government should look like and how ordinary people could get promoted, as well as the practical significance of technologies in domain control. It took him an hour to detail everything.

"How are you going to avoid dereliction of duty among the administrators of the king's city?

How will the trade be distributed after the unification of the Kingdom of Graycastle?

And can you really evaluate the performance of your policies with productivity?"

"..."

Edith's eyes glistened with excitement as she raised more questions. It had been about noon by the time they finally closed their conversation. She heaved a sigh of relief. "I see. You did have a thorough consideration before writing down the opening statement."

Roland sipped the tea in satisfaction. As a person who did not major in political science, this was all he could talk about regarding politics.

"Thank you very much for your time, Your Majesty. I didn't expect you would answer my questions in such detail."

"The very basic requirement for a City Hall in the new era is to publicize the policies and enable everybody to have a comprehensive understanding of its contents. Only in this way will things go well when it comes to the implementation."

Edith gave an approving nod and then switched the topic. "Could you provide the Northern Region with the equipment and workers for manufacturing steam engines?"

"I'm afraid I can't provide the workers as the City of Neverwinter is also short of manpower. But you're welcome to send your men to study here, provided that the nobles in the Northern Region waive their feudal rights and agree to be under the supervision of the City Hall."

"You'll also teach them how to manufacture paddle steamers?"

"Of course. As long as they're willing to pay gold royals, this won't be a problem. However, it'll be hard to move the production line to the north in a short period of time without the assistance of witches."

"I'm very surprised by your honesty, Your Majesty." She meditated for a while. "But there's one thing I don't quite understand. According to your plan, you can easily unify the whole Kingdom of Graycastle in ten years. By then, the new policies won't face any backlash from the public and you won't really need to care about our opinions. Why are you so anxious to implement these new laws?"

Roland was silent. It took him quite a while to reply. "Do you really want to know the reason?"

Edith did not expect he would speak in such a grave tone, so her manner tightened into formality as well. "Yes."

"Then follow me." Roland rose. "I'll show you one thing."

...

Roland led Edith to the backyard in shadows of trees and took her to the wooden shed at the center of the olive woods.

A demon, whose limbs had been amputated, was lying on a long table. There were all sorts of vials and flasks piling around him. Agatha was taking his blood samples to complete the final step of the preparation.

"My goodness, what's... this?" Edith had cried out in a low voice in disbelief, but Roland noticed she was simply shocked but not afraid.

"I should have locked the shed and asked Leaf to surround the whole yard." Agatha frowned. "Don't tell me that you plan to let a common people participate in the sigil manufacture. If I were integrating the God's Stone, I would have probably failed already."

"Of course not... We won't be here long." Roland coughed to conceal his embarrassment and then turned to Edith. "The creature you see is of a different race. It's what you rumored as a demon. They live to the north of the Impassable Mountain Range and are also the biggest enemies that human beings are to face. The war between the demons and mankind has nothing to do with domains or wealth, but with life and death."

"Demon? A war of life and death?" Edith muttered involuntarily.

"Right. It's a long story that the church has been keeping as a secret. It can be dated back to 1,000 years ago when people called it—the 'Battle of Divine Will'."

Chapter 561 - The Magic Power of Blood

...

Agatha was relieved when Roland and the woman finally left.

[Was I being too much just now? Perhaps I should be more kind towards the lord even in the face of the common people. After all, 400 years have passed, the world is different now.] Despite these thoughts, she still did not like non-witches entering the laboratory where the Sigil was produced and she did not want His Majesty to know the method of making the Sigil.

Of course, the latter would soon be revealed.

Agatha turned around to set up the six square wooden boxes she had prepared in the morning and inserted the God's Stones of Retaliation His Majesty collected into them.

It was the template for making the Sigil base.

Four Sigils of Listening, a Sigil of Screaming and a Sigil of Observing were what she needed to make.

As she had expected, His Majesty did not choose any combat Sigils, but instead, he chose the basic supplementary Sigils in accordance with the Magic Stones in hand. The action of using high-quality Magic Stones left by a Magic Slayer to make the Sigil of Screaming and the Sigil of Observing was considered a waste in the Quest Society.

Now that Roland possessed powerful firearms, the demand for the combat Sigils was of course, not as strong.

Not to mention that the stronger the Sigil was, the more magic power would be required.

A knocking sound came from outside the shed again.

It seemed that in addition to an independent research tower, she would also need a few servants. Agatha reluctantly put down the Magic Stone in her hands and opened the wooden door.

"What's the matter, Your Majesty? Anything else..."

"Thank you for waiting, Miss Agatha."

"Mmm hmm, do you need me to treat the demon again?"

It was Anna and Nana entering this time. They were the assistants Agatha had requested from Roland.

"No. Ahem," she corrected herself and said, "You're just in time. I've just finished screening. Let's put the materials into the boxes, and then we can officially start the production."

...

When the bright blue blood flew into the wooden box through the coated flexible tube, some incredible changes began to happen to the God's Stones.

When the blood dripped onto the stones, a series of bubbles emerged. Like a burning candle, the corner areas of the hard stones were melted into sticky liquid flowing down from the stones, revealing the God's Stones themselves.

The demon was desperately struggling, exhausting the very last effort it had left as if it was aware of what they were doing. Unfortunately for it, the struggle was futile under the confinement of the solid iron chain.

Soon, the six boxes were filled with the blood of the Mad Demon. The first box looked as if it were boiling. The surging liquid was mixed with fine sand, mercury, and the God's Stone, looking sticky and muddy.

Anna carefully observed the changes and asked, "Does the raw materials affect the quality of Sigil?"

"Yes, it mainly depends on the God's Stone of Retaliation and the magic power of blood. The Quest Society thought that the magic power transformed all aspects of the body. The physical quality of Senior Witches was apparently better than that of ordinary witches. Moreover, the transcendents had achieved their limitation at this point. In order to improve the efficiency of the Sigil, we would try our best to choose the blood of the strongest demon and the God's Stones of the best quality to make better Sigils. For example, Lady Alice's God's Sigil of Retaliation was completed with the blood of a dying Magic Slayer on the battlefield.

"Will the same happen when a witch's blood merges with the God's Stone?"

"Not the same. The God's Stone won't melt like a candle and the reaction won't be as intense. The liquid formed can flow freely like water now. However, the demon's blood will eventually solidify and become as hard as stone." Agatha said while inserting a piece of separating panel into the wooden box, "Therefore, the process of making Sigil is similar to melting metal. Before it's completely solidified, we have to embed the Magic Stones and complete the most crucial step—connecting the Magic Vein.

"Vein?" Anna was curious. "Like a plant?"

Agatha nodded. "Remember what I said previously? The Quest Society thought that only life could carry magic power, and without the Magic Vein, a Sigil will only be a dead object. The Magic Stones would still be individual entities but would not jointly produce the incredible power after the combination."

"Does this mean that the demon's blood can give these ordinary substances... life?" she asked in surprise.

"It doesn't happen with the demon's alone." Agatha calmly answered, "We need a witch's blood as well."

Nana was shocked. She covered her mouth with her hands.

"The Quest Society only discovered this secret by accident. Mixing the witch's blood with the demon's would produce a strange effect, keeping the melted God's Stone 'alive', like a plant. The vein would not lose the effect of magic power even if it was left aside for a long time... I'm not sure how to describe it. Anyway, you'll understand when you see it. "

The first box of liquid had cooled down, revealing a layer of grayish light. It looked like condensed blue wax oil.

Agatha removed the panel, leaving two hemispherical grooves and a strip of shallow groove in the box. Then she picked up the knife on the table and slid it across her wrist—the bright crimson blood gushed out thickly, filling up half of a wine glass. She said to the little girl, "Help me heal the wound, please."

This was the reason Agatha had chosen both of them.

Anna had the best learning ability within the union. She was suitable for the inheritance of the skill and Nana could help to effectively reduce Agatha's pain. Healing witches were the main forces of the front-line combat in Taquila, it was impossible to arrange for any of them to support the Quest Society. Most of the time, the laboratory could only use herbs to treat the wounds after releasing blood.

If it were not for the hope of defeating the demons Roland Wimbledon showed her and the unbiased treatment to all the witches, she would rather bury the method of the Sigil making for good. The fact that the witch's blood could be perfectly blended into the demon's blood was unacceptable to most people even in the union. Even with her personal exposure to this matter, she had once suspected the origins of witches. Such confusion was very detrimental to the Battle of Divine Will, thus, the making of Sigil was one of the secrets that the members of the union had strictly kept.

She did not want His Majesty to participate in the observation for this reason.

Especially there were the rumors about witches being minions that had fallen into the demon's seduction.

Agatha hoped to delay the time when Roland would find out even though he would find out sooner or later.

[It's probably a self-delusion.] She secretly sighed to herself.

When the mixture was semi-hard, Agatha embedded the Magic Stone into the groove and poured her warm blood onto it. The crimson blood was flowing within the shallow groove and the cobalt-toned blood clots surrounding it started to wriggle; the edge of both gradually blurred, forming into an interpenetrated form.

After that, she injected magic power into the Sigil.

Suddenly, the red-colored blood line projected fine rays of light and numerous light-spots were flowing within the vein. It was rhythmically expanding and shrinking with wriggling movements, as if it were breathing.

Anna and Nana understood the meaning of Agatha's words at the same time.

The Sigil had come "alive"

Chapter 562 - The Witnesses

"So... was it successful?" Anna softly asked.

"Yes. Then, it should be cut and sealed within the silver foil." Agatha nodded and said, "The final step is different depending on the type of Sigil. For example, the Sigil of Screaming should not be cut as it would be used a whole."

"What will happen if we fail?"

"The bloodlines won't be able to collect the magic power for some unknown reason. There's always a chance of this happening no matter how good the materials are. The solution is pretty simple as well, we just need to pry the magic stone off and redo it."

"But, it'd consume the blood..." Anna frowned.

"That's why the demon's blood was considered more precious than the witch's blood in Taquila." Agatha self-deprecatingly smiled. "No one cared if the witch's blood was wasted during an experiment. But we would be scolded and punished if we wasted demons' blood."

...

There were two sigils that failed out of the six in the end. Although the steps were completely the same as before, two of the bloodlines did not respond to the magic power injection. In other words, they did not come alive.

Agatha pried off the Magic Stones and took the reserved wooden box out to continue the second production.

She had to hurry up since the demon was almost dead.

The alien that was fixed to the wooden table started having irregular spasms and the black-blue colored skin started to gradually turn gray. The excessive blood loss had caused its breathing to become intense and the Red Mist below its helmet had obviously faded. Once the Mist had been exhausted, the demon would die shortly after and the blood would only last for about 15 minutes past death.

"Wait a minute." Anna stopped her when Agatha raised the knife. "Use my blood."

Anna had already cut the skin on her wrist open with her Blackfire when Agatha was about to object. "Nana can heal the wound but she cannot replenish the blood. His Majesty has mentioned that losing too much blood could cause dizziness and you may even pass out. It'd not be beneficial to you or your experiment. Of course, it'd be best for you to rest for a few days before resuming your practices and productions. You'll recover faster if you eat more meat porridge and liver during your recuperation."

"... Is that what His Majesty said?"

"Yes, every witch had to attend the injury self-help class," Anna said with a smile, "and, the main reason you selected me as your assistant was for me to learn the method of Sigil making, wasn't it? It's better for me to operate these two."

Agatha kept quiet for a moment and said, "In that case, thank you."

"You're welcome," she gently said, "I'm very interested in it as well."

*******************

"... The witch empire was split apart and completely disintegrated after the demon's attack. The people who survived traveled across the mountains and crossed the river to the Wild Places to rebuild the city. This is the third time—as well as the very last chance for us to prepare for the Battle of the Divine Will. It has become the truth of history."

With these words, Roland quietly observed Edith's expression with his chin propped on his hand.

The afternoon sun streamed into the room, shedding a touch of glory in front of the desk. The lady in deep contemplation looked just like a statue, and her green-colored hair reflected a pale-white color in the sunlight. Her beautiful face did not even show the slightest change at hearing the frightening news, but instead, Edith's eyes showed more of an excitement and curiosity as Roland had expected.

She kept quiet for a while and slowly said, "You wouldn't try to fool me by fabricating such an... incredible story. Are the demons really that powerful?"

"There's no doubt. Each of them is an aggressive individual and there're an astonishing number of them. My army could easily defeat Timothy's knightage but they cannot necessarily defeat the demons. After all, they've been lurking around the north-west region of the Land of Dawn, unlike the witches who will need to start from scratch. The most important danger is that there'll be no negotiating for this battle, and it won't end until one of the two parties is destroyed."

"In that case... are you planning to break the news to everyone?"

"Sooner or later." Roland sighed. "But not now, I'm not sure how the people will respond regarding the horrible and ruthless alien enemy and building confidence is a slow process."

"I agree with you. Panic is indeed scarier than any enemy," Edith nodded and said, "I've one last question. How far away from us is the Battle of Divine Will?"

"Five years or sooner... Nobody knows the exact time the Bloody Moon will arrive. I can only say that the war may break out at any time, and thus, I'm not able to slowly unify the Kingdom of Graycastle little by little."

She did not answer but stood up from her seat and kneeled down onto one knee and said," In this case, the Kant Family is willing to be at your service. Your law shall not be unimpeded in the North and your order will be the only voice there." She stopped for a moment and then said, "I also hope that all of your promises are honored."

"Are you still thinking about the steam engine plant?" Roland shook his head and smiled. "Your father may not necessarily agree with that and what can the Kant Family guarantee with..."

"Me," she said without hesitation.

"What?"

"Your Majesty, I'm the guarantee. If you're still worried about it, Cole can stay here as well." Edith spoke with confidence, "In this case, my father would have to agree even if he is unwilling to."

"You're saying you'll stay in the City of Neverwinter as a hostage?" Although Roland meant to do just that, speaking it out loud still made him feel slightly embarrassed. "Isn't that a threat in disguise in the eyes of the Duke?"

"Not as a hostage." she saluted in a knight's manner with a hand covering her chest. "Please allow me to join your City Hall; I'd like to witness the new world you have planned."

...

Roland received six of the newly-made Sigils that night.

"Thank you for all of your hard work." He looked at Agatha and nodded. "Did the process go well?"

"We failed twice with the first batch and Anna also participated with part of the making process," Agatha yawned and said, "Anyway, if you want me to make more Sigils, please give me a spacious independent laboratory instead of a simple shabby stable-like shed."

"I owe you a Spellcaster's Tower," Roland happily responded.

Nightingale stuck her head out from behind Roland's back after the ice witch left the office and said, "What's the use of these Sigils?"

"They're probably the equivalent of a phone, alarm, and camera?"

"What're they for?"

"You'll know after you try it," Roland said with a smile.

It was a pretty productive day today. The Sigils of Listening would temporarily solve the challenges of transmitting long-distance messages. Although they were scarce and could only be used by witches, they were still better than entirely depending on a carrier pigeon. The Sigil of Screaming tweeted at a high pitch when it sensed demon power and it also effectively suppressed any of the enemies' sneak attacks and the area of coverage was about the size of the Border Area. The Sigil of Observing could assist with Thunder's adventure plan. It would be a pity for Roland to miss the spectacular and strange sealine since he was unable to follow the fleet out to sea.

Of course, what pleased Roland the most was Edith Kant's pledge of allegiance.

Nothing was sweeter than the extra population and the added resources. If the North was really offering their comprehensive service to him, Roland's actual control of the territory would be doubled and the excessive power of the nobles at the Eastern Region would feel the pressure.

If everything went well, he might be able to accomplish the great reunification before the arrival of the Months of Demons this year.

Chapter 563 - Joan

The Swirling Sea, the Fjords Islands.

A mist began to rise over the sea, making them feel like they were sailing through the clouds. Shortly after they left Snowwave Island, it was out of sight, except for a vast expanse of whiteness. It looked as if the island had never existed. Only the splash of the water hitting on the bottom part of the ship let Margaret, who now found it hard to tell their location in the mist, know they were still moving forward.

Sailors considered sailing in misty weather a taboo.

Usually, if a captain asked them to do so, they would tie him up and throw him into the sea.

They would always, however, follow Thunder's orders since he was not only the captain of the Chase but also the most famous explorer of the Fjords.

No matter where Thunder wanted to go, be it a bottomless pit or a stream of lava deep inside a volcano, he would always be able to recruit some people willing to follow him.

"Captain, the Dark Reef Area is just in front of us!" shouted a sailor, who was familiar with the underwater terrain here.

"Lower the sails and slow down," said Thunder while clapping his hands. "Attention, everybody. That's our destination! Prick your ears up and keep your eyes open to watch the water around us."

"Yes!" they chorused.

Since Thunder secretly met His Majesty in the king's city of Graycastle and got Roland's support, he had not wasted a single day to prepare for his third travel to the Shadow Islands. In order to explore the secret Sealine and tides, he needed a suitable ship, outstanding explorers, and more importantly, a witch who could observe the tides below the sea.

The witch he wanted was Joan, a childhood friend of Margaret.

"Are we really going to find her here?" Molly stood on the Magic Servant's head and looked around and added, "I see nothing at all."

"Joan only appears when we're in trouble. She won't just turn a blind eye to a ship that's going into a dangerous area," Margaret said in a low voice.

"She had transformed into a fish now?"

"The last time I saw her, only her legs had changed into a fishtail, but it was over 10 years ago. I'm not sure how she looks like now," Margaret answered while shaking her head.

"It's a type of summoning magic ability. She can transform into any animal in the sea. If she's lived in the sea for all those years as you said, she must have passed the Day of Awakening smoothly. But as so many years have passed, is it true that she's still in this sea?" Camilla Dary, Chief Chamberlain of the Sleeping Island said after a thought.

"My lady, please trust us. Since I knew she was a witch, I've kept a close eye on this sea. Her singing voice is the symbol of Snowwave Island and I've heard that some merchants attracted by it even desired to capture and keep her," Thunder said with a smile.

"Did you stop them?" Camilla asked, raising her eyebrow.

"A shipwreck stopped them, and no one dares to do that again. I promise," Thunder answered and winked at her.

"I see... Thank you for helping the witches," she said with her hand on her chest.

"Thanks, Uncle!" added Molly.

"Hah-hah, I look that old to you?" Thunder touched his beard, and said, "It's not very long."

Seeing this, Margaret who stayed by his side, shook her head at the fact that he was still popular among girls. She knew on any island of Fjords, he was the most popular man and that was why he won her affection.

She thought it was a pity since he had his daughter Lightning, he had given up the idea of starting another marriage.

"Boss, I seem to hear a singing voice! In the northwest!" shouted someone suddenly, in the stern of the ship.

"Be quiet, everybody!" Thunder and the witches simultaneously run to the stern of the sailing ship, followed by Margaret.

Everyone held their breath and listened attentively. The tenuous, vacant singing voice gradually became clearer. It came from a certain direction instead of reverberating all around, acting like a beam of light coming through the thick mist to guide the Chase to a safe route.

"Reef the sails and drop the anchor! Put the landing shuttle down in the sea." Thunder ordered.

Ever since Joan awakened and became a witch, she always remained hidden to avoid being caught by anybody. As she guided the ships in distress with only her voice, very few people had seen her before. Given that, Thunder planned to let the Chase lay at anchor to attract Joan. Meanwhile, he took the witches and Margaret on a small boat to trace her by following her voice.

The Magic Servant dove into the water to carry the landing shuttle forward, saving the trouble of paddling.

They traveled in the thick mist for less than 10 minutes, and then Margaret suddenly saw a green figure in the sea.

"Joan!" she could not help but shout loudly.

The singing voice promptly stopped,

They saw a girl floating in the water while revealing only her upper body above the surface. She stared at the people in the boat and seemed at a loss. Her eyes widened in surprise, and her skin was pale white as if she hardly exposed herself to the sunlight. Her hair was like fluffy seaweed, hanging down to cover half of her face, but they could still see some markings like scales on her cheek and neck.

"It's me, Margaret! Do you remember me?"

"Yih-yih-yeh." The girl made some intermittent sounds.

"It's no use. She hasn't talked to people for too long. She can't speak now." Thunder interrupted decisively. "Now, let's leave this communication problem to you, Lady Camilla."

Camilla nodded and then put her hand on Margaret's shoulder.

Instantly, Margaret heard what Joan said in her head.

[Are you... bringing them here to catch me?]

"No, I come here to..."

"Say it in your heart. She can hear you that way and it's more sincere to communicate with your heart." Camilla interrupted.

Margaret swallowed to calm down, thinking about what she should say.

[You once saved my life. Joan, do you remember? I come here to ask for your help.]

After a long while, Margaret heard Joan once again.

[I remember you, Margaret. We often played together in the past.]

Amazed by what was happening, Margaret was lost in thought. [This is the ability of the witch. It's incredible... Luckily, Thunder predicted the language problem before we set off and invited Camilla Dary from the Sleeping Spell to join this travel. She can enable people to communicate with their hearts.]

[Who is Camilla Dary?]

[Oops, I forget all my thoughts can be heard by her now,] Margaret thought and quickly concentrated again. She "explained" in her heart. [Camilla Dary is the lady who is helping us to communicate with our hearts. She's a witch just like you.]

[The sailors don't catch witches?]

[Of course, the church has been completely destroyed. Now witches have settled down on the Fjords and the Sleeping Island is a town built by witches. If you want to go there, I'll show you the way.]

[Oh?] Joan sounded excited and asked further, [What has happened recently? Someone intended to spear me with a harpoon. I thought they must come here for the church's reward.]

[Nothing like that will happen again. Lord Thunder has solved the problem.]

[Thunder? You mean the most distinguished explorer!]

[Yes, he's right behind me. You don't know, but I joined his exploration platoon shortly after I left the fishing village.]

[Really? Tell me more about it.]

...

After a long time, Joan said, "Yeah!" and she dove back into the sea, leaving only ripples on the water surface.

"How's it going?" Thunder asked.

Margaret turned around and smiled, saying, "She's accepted our request."

Chapter 564 - The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Graycastle

Noise suddenly filled the coach, as it had arrived in the City of Glow.

Yorko could not help but open the curtain to have a look. There were all kinds of shop fronts along both sides of the road. Some of the shop owners had erected tents in the front and offered some tables and chairs for the people to have a rest there. Some had their goods laid out on the ground, stood beside them and cried out to attract business. The long street looked just like a market.

For a moment, he felt as if he had come to Eagle City which developed from a market,

But he soon thought of the fact that Queen of Clearwater had already burned Eagle City to the ground. And the shape of the lofty buildings in a distant place also suggested that this city was large and different.

"What do you think of the king's city of the Kingdom of Dawn?" A woman behind him asked drowsily.

"It's indeed the city of merchants. Even peddlers are allowed on the main street. If it's in the Kingdom of Graycastle, the patrol team will milk them dry. I'm afraid only the Fjords can compete with your city." Yorko exclaimed in admiration.

"The Fjords?" The women snorted. "They're just porters who transport goods to remote places and sell them, taking advantage of price variations in different markets. The islands have nothing to sell except for cheap salted fish."

"Of course, you're the most brilliant merchant," Yorko said and turned around, smiling.

"You're not bad yourself, my ambassador," the woman smiled and said, putting her hands on his shoulders.

This woman was a noble merchant Yorko met in a border city of the Kingdom of Dawn. Different from the Kingdom of Graycastle, most nobles in this kingdom had their own business and a rich merchant had a status like a noble since the wealth was comparable to noble titles here. The Kingdom of Dawn was also the main producer of agricultural products and the biggest exporter of textiles among the four kingdoms. Yorko had crammed for his job as an ambassador, studying the history and customs of this neighboring country for a long time before he set out. He knew that playing dumb now and then could please women but being an idiot who knew nothing would not.

The female merchant's name was Denise Payton. She was about 35 or 36, but still had beautiful skin that was smooth and full of elasticity. She did her light brown hair up, and a wisp of her hair was dyed purple. Yorko found it quite weird when he first saw her, but now he thought it quite nice when he got used to it. As an unattended noblewoman who went on a long journey, Denise was naturally open to all kinds of fun.

Yorko spent only two days to become a good friend with her and then won her affection with a bottle of perfume. They became attached to each other after a one night stand and traveled together after that. Denise even pulled him into her own luxury coach.

"Oh, yeah, what's the best business in the City of Glow now?"

"Why? You want to do business here?"

"Because of my old friend, no, the respected king Wimbledon, I'd probably stay here for a long time, 10 years or even 20 years. As it's the city of merchants, I'd better be one of them, just like what you've told me..."

"Good nobles are good merchants," Dennis added.

"Yes, good nobles are good merchants. In the Kingdom of Graycastle, an ambassador was equivalent to an earl in status. Having such a title, how can I not do business?" Yorko said while clapping his hands and smiling.

"That's right. The most popular goods on the market of the king's city can be divided into two types. One type is the utensils that you use every day but not the ordinary things, such as crystal glasses, spectacles, perfumes and fine fabrics. The second type is the novelties. There're no standard prices for these kinds of things. How much you can earn depends on how much your customers like them. Trade exhibitions will be held every weekend in the city. Exhibitions of different classes have different entrance requirements." Denise whispered in Yorko's ear.

"It sounds interesting!" Yorko said and his eyes brightened.

"It's indeed interesting. You never know what you'll see at the exhibitions. If you're interested, I'll take you to the top one, but there's another business that has overtaken those two types recently." Denise paused momentarily to arouse his interest and then continued, "The slave trade."

"Slaves? Aren't they very common for cargo?" he was dazed for a moment and asked.

"I said 'recently'. A business that requires no capital is always the best. You've heard that the church had almost conquered the Kingdom of Wolfheart? Thousands of refugees flock into the Kingdom of Dawn. You can take them to the market and sell them out to make a lot of money. As long as you offer them food. Now, many merchants have gone to the border to make money in the refugee tide, since when the war is over, there'll be no more chances." The female merchant explained.

"But why did you go the border of the Kingdom of Graycastle?" Yorko asked.

"I don't like trading people... especially women." Denise shrugged.

"So, leave it alone. No capital doesn't mean no risk. When the refugees become mobs, it'll be a real headache for the slave traders." Yorko said, holding her in his arms.

"You seem to really know something about business," she said while covering her mouth.

Just at that moment, the coachman in front of their carriage said, "My lady, we've arrived at the palace district."

"Let's call it a day." Yorko kissed her hard and continued, "Our time on the road was so sweet though it was very short. I'll bear it in my heart."

"Won't you come to my place and have a rest?" Denise said while ogling him.

"No, I have to go. I'm here on official business."

Yorko had to refuse her. Knowing that she was a married woman, he did not want to get beat up if her husband found out something when he visited Denise at their place. Yorko hurriedly hopped off the coach and waved to her, saying, "I feel we're going to meet again."

"I also think so and maybe we're going to meet sooner than you expect," she said while raising her eyebrow.

"Huh?"

Denise drew the curtain and left with a smile.

Seeing Yorko got off the coach, the emissary delegation that had followed behind the caravan now walked slowly towards him. "You really deserve the name of Magic Hand. What did you talk about for all these days?!" Hill Fawkes came up and exclaimed.

Hill was assigned by His Majesty Roland to work as Yorko's guard. He did not look like a military man at all, but even Yorko had heard that Hill had outstanding meritorious achievements before. "Business, of course. What else could I talk about with a merchant?" Yorko replied.

In fact, business was just a subject to start a conversation with the woman. Knowing what made a woman light up was the quickest way to get closer to her and Yorko could always sell what a woman bought, no matter it was language or a gift.

"What're you going to do now?"

"Hoist the flag of Hightower and hand in the document. Tell them the ambassador of the Kingdom of Graycastle has come!" Yorko said with an air of contentment.

Chapter 565 - A Delay

The welcome reception did not start until dusk.

The guests were warmly received at the palace hall by Deegan Moya, the first son of King of Dawn.

It was Yorko's first time to attend such an exquisite banquet. The entire hall, bright as day, was lit by numerous candles and oil lamps that dazzled like stars. There was a wide-open skylight window next to each of the chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling, which drove away the sultriness from the room.

Tables covered with white draperies were arranged in the shape of staircases that were littered with all sorts of glassware. There were red wines which glistened in the candlelight and glowed like rubies. The hall was so extravagantly lavished with silver mirrors and goldware that it looked as magnificent as the palace of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Nevertheless, what drew Yorko's attention most was those noble ladies wandering among gentlemen.

Some of them were young and innocent, while some corpulent and mature. Each of the ladies, whether they put their hair up or not, had a strand of highlight hidden underneath the accessories. Yorko thought of Denise and realized it was a style currently in fashion among nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn.

In addition to their hair, most of the ladies were wearing tight silk dresses that perfectly showcased their graceful bodies. Glints of fleeting light twinkled when they strolled across the room. Unlike the gowns girls normally wore in the Kingdom of Graycastle, these dresses were off-shoulder and cut above knees, beguiling and seductive.

Yorko was overjoyed. "It was indeed the right choice to come here."

Compared with reserved noble ladies in the Kingdom of Graycastle, the ones in the Kingdom of Dawn were exceptionally cordial.

Nonetheless, they showed affections only to good-looking young men and knights rather than plain nobles like him. Yet this was never a problem for Yorko, for he never relied on his appearance to attract women.

"Welcome to the Kingdom of Dawn." A slightly pale young man escorted by a large crowd came up to him. "I've read the introduction letter from Roland Wimbledon and the document issued by him. So, he has now unified the whole Kingdom of Graycastle?"

Needless to say, this man was the host of the banquet, Prince Appen Moya.

Yorko placed his hand on the chest. Since he represented the royal family of the Kingdom of Graycastle, he was not required to kneel. Yorko was a little surprised as he bowed. It was understandable that the king asked his eldest son to host the event since he might be caught up in some political affairs. However, it was kind of uncivil to let his son directly read the letter from His Majesty Roland. On a more serious note, it could be even considered as a diplomatic mischief.

Yorko answered Prince Appen's question and then asked pretty reluctantly, "Well, how is your father... "

"He's ill, very ill." Appen sighed. "That's why he couldn't receive you in person."

"I, I'm very sorry to hear that."

"No worries... Everybody in the City of Glow knows the king's been ill. He collapsed during a banquet one and a half month ago and has been sick ever since. He's only conscious for two or three hours per day and insensible for the rest of the time."

One and half a month ago... That was around the same time he set out from the king's city. "I'm sure His Majesty will be better. Please don't worry about it too much." Yorko comforted.

"Thank you." The prince managed to summon up a smile. "Enjoy yourself. I'll ask the ceremonial officer to arrange accommodation for you later."

"Thank you." While Appen was about to leave, Yorko suddenly thought of the real purpose of his trip. He ventured hastily. "Your Highness, what about the alliance between the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Graycastle?"

"I've heard about this matter too. But my father is currently too frail to deal with political affairs. Let's hold off on that until he's better."

Yorko was slightly relieved after the prince and his fellows walked off.

It appeared that he was quite a competent ambassador by nature. He did not make noticeable mistakes during his first meeting with a royal family member of high rank, although things did not go as well as he had expected. However, it did not really bother him, because he would live in the city for a pretty long time regardless and Moya IV could not remain sick for the next few years.

He should, instead, take this opportunity to pay more attention to the beauties in the hall.

"We've met again, Mr. Ambassador." While Yorko was pondering, he heard a familiar voice coming from behind.

Startled, he turned around abruptly and found Denise Payton, the businesswoman with whom he had spent a great deal of time with on the way here.

"How come..."

"I told you that we'd meet again." She smiled while raising a glass of red wine. "Cheers, to our reunion."

Yorko hurriedly glanced about to make sure no noble was staring in this direction.

"Are you looking for my husband?" Denise raised her brows. "Relax. He's not entitled to attend this reception."

"Are you saying..."

"I'm the one who manages the Payton Family, not him," Denise said bluntly, "and there're more than enough housemaids for him to indulge in. He's not allowed to seek pleasure outside without my permission."

"That's the reason..." Yorko's heart lightened. It seemed that Denise was the real heir of the Payton Family. In order to inherit the family, the daughter would normally seek a partner, often a diminished noble, to live with her. Due to the huge difference in their status, it was usually the male partner that changed his name.

"You should have told me earlier." Yorko put on a relieved look. "I don't want to split up such an affectionate couple and interfere with your special relationship."

"Really?" Denise smiled. "It wasn't special when you held out your hand to me." She paused for a moment and then asked, "Do you have any plans after the banquet?"

"Well, I guess no," Yorko answered while winding an arm around her dainty waist, "if you invite me."

"Then I know a good place."

"All up to you, darling."

*******************

After the banquet, Otto pulled Prince Appen aside, looking quite confused. "I don't understand, Your Highness. Even if His Majesty is ill, you can still enter into an alliance with the Kingdom of Graycastle, as this is also what your father intends to do. Why do you want to set the matter aside? With the church putting pressure on us, it isn't a good idea to fight alone."

"I've heard that father asked you to meet with Timothy Wimbledon rather than Roland Wimbledon?"

"We're allying with the King of Graycastle. The ambassador has also confirmed that Roland is the new king of our neighbor."

Appen Moya nodded. "You did a great job on the confidential trip to the Kingdom of Graycastle. But I have my own thoughts on the alliance. Leave it to me."

"Your Highness!"

"You don't understand." Appen interrupted. "I'm, for the sake of the Kingdom of Dawn..."

"It's for the safety of the Kingdom that we need someone to help us stop the attacks from the church!"

"I said leave it to me!"

Appen could not help raising his voice.

"I'm sorry. I lost my composure."

As the prince insisted, he had no choice but acquiesce. Just as he turned around, Appen suddenly questioned him. "We're friends, aren't we?"

Otto was silent for a moment and then answered, "Yes. Andrea, Belinda, Oro and me... all of us are your friends."

"If father can't make it," Appen spoke slowly, "you'll help me to the throne, right?"

Chapter 566 - A Promise and A Mission

Otto Luoxi locked himself in the study after he returned home.

He did not understand why things had turned out this way.

Ever since the king had been ill, Appen appeared to have been in a great shock until recently, when he was finally able to recollect himself. But the way he spoke and the manner in which he conducted himself were somewhat different than before.

To put it more accurately, he had become rather unfamiliar to Otto.

As Appen's playmate, Otto believed that he knew the prince very well. Appen was not that type of power-hungry person who would attain his ends regardless of the means. Sometimes he even felt the prince was too juvenile to be a competent king. Because of this, he planned to, in collaboration with Belinda and Oro, fully support Appen and help him with governmental duties after the prince ascended the throne. After all, the three families had been assisting the king since the foundation of the Kingdom of Dawn.

That was the reason he had replied "Yes" without hesitation.

However, Otto found that Appen did not care about his answer.

He asked him that question simply out of a sense of insecurity.

Although the three families were very willing to support the royal family, he had never thought about whether His Highness really needed their assistance.

At this thought, Otto felt Appen grow ever more distant.

He breathed a long sigh. Perhaps he should take the initiative to do something about it.

But what should he do?

Neither pharmacists nor alchemists could do anything about the king's illness. He had no knowledge of medical treatment and certainly could not completely ease Appen's mind.

"Or cheer the prince up?" Otto pondered.

He had vainly tried numerous times to do so. Perhaps it was impossible to raise the prince's spirits by himself.

The three families must cooperate and work together. Only in this way were they possibly able to find the reason behind Appen's behavior.

With this thought, Otto got to his feet abruptly and walked out.

"Master, it's late now. Where are you going?" The steward trotted to him as he passed through the hall.

"To Tokat's place. I'm staying over!"

...

Otto knew every turn of the road leading to the territory of the Tokats'. As Otto knew Tokat well, nobody in the mansion stopped him. Otto went straight to the martial arts room. As he expected, Oro Tokat was practicing with his guards.

"Hey, what brought you here?" Oro took off the sweaty headband and tossed the guard his wooden sword. "You need a wingman?"

"I have something to tell you."

He pulled Oro to the resting room next door where he spilled out his thoughts and plan. At length, he asked, "What do you think?"

"To find out why Appen has become so weird?" Oro twitched his mouth. "Sorry, I'm not interested."

"Hey, you..."

"He's a prince, the successor of the King of Dawn. He'll not be our buddy forever, don't you understand?" Oro shook his head. "Plus, Appen is 20 years old. He isn't a seven or eight-year-old any longer. We don't have the obligation to cheer him up every time he's ill-tempered. If he doesn't want to spill his guts, and then fine, I don't want to be nosey."

"Aren't you planning to assist Appen Moya?"

"It'll be called 'assistance' only if His Highness needs it. Otherwise, you're just being annoying."

"Did he also notice the change in the prince?" Otto thought with a quiver. "But we three families always support Moya..."

"Three families?" Oro smiled carelessly. "After Andrea died, there are only you and me." He turned around and walked out while waving his hand. "Since you're here, let me take you to Crimson Dream. Get yourself laid and forget about these trifles. You look so stressed."

"Andrea is alive."

Oro stopped abruptly.

"Sorry." Otto apologized in silence. He had failed to keep Andrea's secret.

"Andrea Quinn is still alive." He repeated. "I saw her in Border Town when I went to the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Oro instantly turned around and dashed to him, almost pushing him to the wall.

"What, what did you say? Is, is it true?"

"I saw her with my own eyes. She's with Prince Roland Wimbledon."

"With Prince Roland Wimbledon..." Oro's eyes were wide open. "Like they're in a relationship?"

"I don't know." Oro bit his lip. "But she's become a witch. Only Prince Roland is willing to accept witches out of the entire Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Hang on. You said 'witch'?" Oro was stunned. "What actually happened at that time?"

Otto Luoxi related all the details of what Andrea had experienced back then. He felt the sweetness of revenge as he watched Oro torn by his emotions. It was too late for Oro to do anything about it now because he firmly believed that the Quinns had fallen off the cliff at that time. Now, Andrea would fall in love with neither of them.

"That was the reason her father made it look like an unfortunate accident and had people believe that Andrea fell off the cliff..." Greatly depressed, Oro threw himself on the floor after hearing the story. "Damn! Why have I never thought of opening up her grave and looking into the matter?"

"Such a... cunning guy!" Oro snapped in silence. "Ahem. Therefore, we can see an urgent need to cheer Prince Appen up." Otto reminded him.

Oro gave his friend a side look. "Huh? What's the connection between these two incidents?"

"Of course there's a connection! Think about it. Appen's hesitating about forming an alliance between the two nations, and he didn't even give an explicit reason. If the plan of joint defense fails, we'll have to fight against the church alone in the event of an attack. If the church invades the Kingdom of Dawn first, you'll take the knights to defend the country, won't you?" Otto asked.

"Absolutely. It's my duty."

"If you're killed in action, you won't see Andrea again, correct?"

"Um, it sounds kind of rational. No, how can you be so sure that I'll be killed?" Oro challenged indignantly.

"Even the Kingdom of Wolfheart, whose people are famous for their strength and power, has been defeated by the church. What're your odds of winning?" Otto ignored his friend's protest and continued, "If the church, contrarily, attacks the Kingdom of Graycastle first, Roland has to fight back, right? If he's dead, Andrea will very likely die with him. Even if she's caught alive by the church, she'll suffer tortures more miserable than a clean death. If the two nations, however, enter into an alliance and agree to offer mutual assistance, the church won't boldly launch an attack. Both you and Andrea will be alive and will probably see each other in the future. In this light, do you still think the alliance is significant?"

"Yes..."

"We need the prince to help with that. Now, do you still think the two matters are relevant?"

"Yes."

"Are you in?"

Oro answered resolutely, "Yes!"

With these words, Otto and Oro clasped each other's hands tightly.

*******************

Yorko returned to his lodge, exhausted but pleased. As he pushed the bedroom door open, he heard a voice from inside. "You're finally back."

Yorko was shocked. Who would sneak in his room and wait for him right after his arrival at the Kingdom of Dawn? Could it be Denise's husband who married into the family? He was still debating whether he should run away or plead for mercy when the man lit the candle and walked to him. It was Hill Fawkes in the candlelight.

"You scared the hell out of me. Do you know?" Yorko heaved a long sigh. "Whatever you've got to say, can't you wait till tomorrow?"

"We can only talk unnoticed at nighttime." Hill threw up his hands. "Please understand that I have a habit of being cautious."

"Alright then." Although Hill was his guard, he was appointed to him by Roland and could not be treated as any other guards. "Well, say what you want to say since you're already here."

"It's now a good opportunity to recruit talents among the refugees from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. You can view it as a business and hire masons, literates, and anyone who has an expertise. His Majesty will disburse you all the necessary expenses. You'll get five silver royals for each person you hire."

"For God's sake, I know nothing about business! I talked to Denise just for a casual chat. You don't think I'll be really trafficking refugees, do you?" Yorko put his hand on the forehead. "Plus, slaves are usually traded on the border of the two nations. It doesn't look nice for me to go there as an ambassador!"

"This is His Majesty's order," Hill said in a steady tone. "You don't need to leave City of Glow. Tradesmen will sooner or later transfer slaves here, although at a higher price. It saves you trouble to screen them. As to the business side of the matter, you can discuss with Denise Payton. She's quite a well-known businesswoman around this area. It's a piece of cake for her to send refugees to the Kingdom of Graycastle. "We'll benefit a lot once the transportation route is determined. For example, we can disguise ourselves as tradesmen and retreat unnoticed when facing unexpected danger."

Yorko's jaw dropped. "Have you been to the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn?"

Hill shook his head.

"Then how do you know such details?"

"I was collecting information from people on the street while you were busy socializing."

"I thought you were just a great knight. I didn't know you're also a good tradesman." Yorko smacked his lips.

"I'm neither a warrior nor a tradesman, but I can protect you when there's a crisis. This is also what His Majesty entrusted me to do."

"So you are..."

"Just an ordinary... acrobat," Hill answered while smiling.

Chapter 567 - Explosive Shells

A suburb beyond the west city wall, Neverwinter.

A great roar attracted the civilians to ascend the city wall to watch from up high. The First Army had sealed the entrances to the Misty Forest in case anyone broke into the experiment ground.

Although the location was not close to the city wall, one could clearly see what was happening with a telescope from there. "It seems we have to look for a remote place as a special base for testing firearms." Roland thought to himself.

"Your Majesty, the second volley is ready!" An artillery soldier reported.

"Everybody goes into the bunker." Roland waved his hand. "Start the countdown after confirming no one is on the ground."

It was the test fire of the 152 mm Howitzer. While researching on the Sigil of Magic Stones, Roland included the advancement of firearms. Now with Timothy being killed and the Northern Region having announced submission, the situation in the Kingdom of Graycastle was fairly good. Now Roland had time to put his mind on further promoting the shells.

But he had to admit that the technical difficulties of developing a howitzer with an impact detonator were much greater than those of developing solid shells. Anna would make four howitzer shells for test fire every day. Yet three consecutive days later, none had successfully exploded. What's worse, on the second day, one shell exploded right after it got out of the chamber, which damaged the new artillery barrel too much for test firing. Fortunately, Roland took precautions by digging several trenches around the experiment ground, which successfully prevented casualties. The eardrums of a few soldiers who stayed close to the artillery were damaged by the roar, but Nana healed them in time.

"Is this thing really like what you said, exploding the moment it touches the enemy?" Agatha could not help but stick her head out to watch. "I've asked Anna. It's nothing but a few pieces of sheet metal put together. It's not alive, so how can it know whether it touches is an enemy?"

Agatha must be the most enthusiastic witch toward weapon test in the union. Upon hearing the test, she put aside her production work in the chemical plant and personally came to observe the research development of the new shell.

"It doesn't explode when it touches the enemy, but when it falls into the enemy's position." Roland corrected her. "It's a basic requirement the Howitzer has to meet—if there isn't a safety to make sure of it, the shell could fire accidentally at any time. That would be too dangerous."

The trigger safety was the most basic technology for the new shell, at the same time the focal point of the test.

To prevent explosions triggered by collision or accidental drop, Roland made great efforts to set three safety systems.

The first one was to separate, store, and transport the fuses and shells, and install them when needed. The fuse looked like a cone with a handle and was the size of a fist. With the threads on its bottom, it could be conveniently and easily screwed into the notch on top of the shell. The shell was filled with double base chemical gunpowder, a kind of material that was hard to ignite without a detonator, which essentially ensured the logistics work.

The second one was the inertia safety in the fuse.

The safety device resembled a gate lock. Unarmed, it could not move due to being held in place by a stiff spring; when the shell was fired, the tremendous inertia kicked back the lock cylinder, overcoming the resistance of the spring, pulling open the latch, and removing the safety.

The theory was easy, yet hard to put into practice. Roland and the witches spent most of the first two days on it. If the spring was too hard, the lock cylinder could not get enough recoil distance; if it was too soft, it could not guarantee safety. Anna had to gradually adjust it based on the test results. After eight rounds of test firing, they finally attained the relatively reliable statistics on the compressibility of the spring.

The last one was the centrifugal primer-detonator.

It was also the device with the most technology in the fuse. Simply put, it embedded the detonator in a coin-sized half-circle iron plate. Normally, while being fixed by a spring, the detonator would stand in the middle of the fuse at an angle. With such a set-up as this, the firing pin, detonator, and explosive powder were not aligned. This way, even if the shell fell off from high above, the firing pin would not touch the detonator, so as to prevent accidental explosions. Only when the latch was separated from the lock in the second safety, could the iron plate be mobilized.

After being shot, the grenade spun at a drastically high speed because of the rifling in the barrel. Under the centrifugal force, the tilting detonator gradually stood upright, just like a spinning top whose center of gravity gradually closed on its axis line. This process completed after the bullet had left the muzzle for 200 or 300 meters, so even if the muzzle was stuck or the bullet ran into tree branches, it would not detonate prematurely.

When the detonator returned to the upright position, it aligned with the firing pin and explosive powder. Under this circumstance, once the fuse touched the ground, the firing pin instantly inserted into the detonator, and then the explosive powder pushed the super-hot gunpowder into the warhead, which in turn exploded the surrounding enemies into pieces.

The advantage of the centrifugal safety lay in the fact that if the shell failed to explode, without the centrifugal force the detonator would be popped back to its original tilting position by the spring, which made the retrieving work much safer.

Besides, if the entire grenade was grasped or accidentally found by the enemy, it could only be used as a normal solid shell when it could not get enough centrifugal force from not being fired in a conventional manner. As for tearing it apart and replicating it, that would be merely impossible.

"Prepare to fire. Start countdown at five."

An observer gave the order.

The repeatedly lengthened lanyard was gradually tightened while the gunner in the trench retrieved the rope bit by bit.

"Fire!"

As the gunner yanked on the rope, the ground instantly trembled.

A roar and fierce wind from the muzzle passed across the spectators' heads. Roland felt numerous soil particles rushed at his collar. Even if he had his ears solidly covered, he could feel tremors coming through his feet.

"Found the falling point. Explosion failed. Repeat. Explosion failed."

Lightning's voice came from the Sigil of Listening in Nightingale's hand.

"I see. We'll be right there," she replied and took out a Magic Stone.

"... We failed again?" Agatha said with disappointment.

"Failure is too common while experimenting." Anna consoled her. "As soon as we find the correct direction, we can guarantee success in mass production."

"Nicely put." Roland praised her while patting her head. "Besides, now with the help of Summer and Sylvie, the research and development speed is astonishing."

Even in modern times, it was common if thousands of shells were fired during the grenade testing, so to find any problems with two to three shots was like mission impossible.

Reaching the falling point of the bullet, Anna cut the fuse with Blackfire to ensure the safety of the payload. The soldiers then collected the failed shell. Either the gunpowder or the metal shell could be recycled, so it would be a waste to throw them away.

"Summer, it's your turn," Roland said with a gesture.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Summer nodded. Exhibiting her playback ability, the phantom of a shell that was about to fall to the ground instantly appeared in front of everybody.

Although Summer's magic power was still at a low level—after four months' of practicing, she could only use it four times per day—with precise control on the magic power, she could fix the playback image at an exact moment.

Such an ability was to perfectly replay the scene. In other words, Sylvie could see the inside of the phantom—except being intangible, it had no difference from the real scene.

With the help of Summer and Sylvie, Roland was able to determine the spring tension after only eight rounds of test firing.

Chapter 568 - The Dry Distillation Tower

"Um..." Sylvie carefully examined the shell and checked it against Roland's design for a long time. She pointed at the detonator and said, "It seems this bronze tube is not aligned with the nail on the top."

"How about the spring?" asked Anna. "Is it still stuck at both sides of the iron pan?"

"One has gone bad."

"To the left or the right?"

Anna asked about every detail, and then wrote all the problems down in a notebook.

After collecting the reasons leading to the failure, they began the next round of test firing, where Summer's playback ability could be used four times. Thus the efficiency of the improvement had become unprecedentedly high.

Unfortunately, the next two rounds of test shooting failed again. Roland had to declare that the testing would continue the next day.

To Summer and Sylvie, their work for the day was finished. Afterwards, they could either go back to the castle to enjoy a delicious afternoon tea or go to the Convenience Market to check for novel goods. But to Anna and Agatha, the test firing of the grenade was merely a small part of their tight schedule, especially to Anna. She not only had to improve the fuse based on the reasons that were found to have led to failure, but she also needed to finish the research and assembly of the steam turbine.

Roland had planned to follow her to the North Slope backyard to check the turbine model, yet his guard Sean brought a piece of news from the City Hall.

"Your Majesty, Lesya, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Construction, wished for you to visit the Furnace Area. He said he had completed the construction of the first oven for dry distillation."

...

As the necessary equipment of the coking plant, 10 towers for dry distillation were planned, and they were to be located around the furnace cluster at the foot of the North Slope Mine area.

Due to the over-cutting of trees for the burning of bricks and iron making, the area that the furnace cluster took up enlarged from the original open space of less than 1,000 square meters to a wide open area stretching along the mountain. If Roland had not strictly prohibited the cutting of trees near the town, none of the trees at the northern part of the Border Area would have survived.

Although coal had been found, charcoal that was easy to get was still the major fuel for iron making. With trees available getting further and further from the furnace cluster, the workers targeted the top of North Slope Mountain. Every day there were hundreds of logs cut off and rolled down from the mountaintop. Watching from a distance, it looked like the green peak had a small "bald spot".

Normally, Roland would not ask the workers to protect the environment in this matter. As long as the dust that would have risen did not affect the town, he would not care even if all the trees on North Slope Mountain were cut down. After all, to the Impassable Mountain Range, this protruding mountain range was nothing but an insignificant corner. With Leaf maintaining the basic vegetation, there was no need to worry about soil erosion.

As to the ground reclaimed at the foot of the mountain, it naturally became the most suitable building sites for coking plants.

Followed by Nightingale and his guards, Roland walked through the noisy Furnace Area and reached the first tower for dry distillation. Lesya walked up to welcome Roland instantly, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, as you demanded, I've constructed this double layer furnace with refractory bricks. According to the drawing, the upper layer should be sealed with an iron gate while the interlayer should be equipped with a mobile iron plate. But I don't know who can make them. The same is true of the copper pipe and chimney on the small side furnace. Apart from these metal components, the rest has been completed."

Roland lowered his head and went to the interior of the furnace to have a thorough examination. He was totally impressed by what he saw. He had to admit that Lesya, the former member of the Mason Guild, the old friend of Karl Van Bate, was indeed excellent at masonry. The inner walls of this nearly six-meter high tower for dry distillation was evenly constructed; the spaces between bricks were all of similar thickness; the bricks were all interlaced, without two layers of verticals seams aligned. One could see that Lesya's laying skill was extraordinary and his working attitude was very serious. After all, the products different people made could be drastically different, even if they referred to the same drawing.

"Well done." After the examination, Roland praised him saying, "I'll arrange the cast of the iron gate and iron plate. You'll only need to cover with refractory bricks on the side exposed to fire."

"Your Majesty," hesitating for a while, Lesya asked, "could you please tell me how the furnace operates?"

"Why? Do you wish to become a coking worker?" Roland said jokingly.

"Of course not." Lesya hurriedly shook his head. "Since I've never built such a strange furnace, I had to build according to my speculation for the places that I wasn't sure of on the drawing. So if I can understand its function and working mechanism, not only can I finish the second furnace faster, but also I can improve the places that I wasn't sure about before."

"Ah, that's his reasons." Roland thought and said smilingly, "This kind of furnace is mainly used for the dry distillation of coal. You must have seen how the charcoal is burned. The burning of coal is similar but on a bigger scale. The lower layer is for burning, the upper layer is for baking, and both layers use coal as filling.

"Baking coal with coal?" Lesya surprisedly asked.

"That's right. After the dry distillation, coal can be transformed into coke. Coke can reach a higher temperature while burning, which makes it a better fuel for smelting steel. In addition, the process of dry distillation will create several by-products. The pipes on the tower wall are used to collect them, rather than to exhaust gases as a chimney does.

"Then... why do you build a small furnace at the side of the main furnace?"

"No air is allowed on the upper layer during the dry distillation, otherwise the coal will directly burst into flames." Roland pointed at the reserved holes between the two furnaces and said, "While burning, the limestone in the small furnace will produce a large amount of carbon dioxide—you can consider it as a sort of non-flammable gas..."

"Your Majesty, I know that," Lesya said, "I learned it from the night classes."

"That'll be easy then." Roland felt gratified. "It seems that the universal education has broadened its content under the effort of Scroll." He continued, "Through the pipes, the carbon dioxide will reach the upper layer of the furnace and push away the air, and then the coal can be dry distilled. As for the limestone, the off-white stones burned to make cement, are all over the North Slope Mountain."

...

After examining the dry distillation tower number one, Roland retraced his steps. On the way back, he took a short break at the Furnace Area.

Seeing this busy scene, Roland could not help but feel thrilled. Standing side by side, the various brick furnaces looked like an orderly red forest. Rising from the forest were tens of entangled gray, white, and black smoke columns, which constituted a rather modern picture when seen together with the plainly dressed workers and outdated equipment. Over ten steam engines were roaring, dragging the conveyor belt to carry chunks of materials and charcoals into the blast furnace. A track system was paved from the mine to the furnace and many mine wagons traveled between the two stops. The speed of transportation had greatly improved.

After finishing the construction of the steel plant and forge plant, this place would be another core location of City of Neverwinter. Ore exploitation and steel smelting proceeded the transformation of the steel into various raw materials which were then transported to processing plants. These processes symbolized an industrial flower arising from here. The human beings were bestowed with extraordinarily refining powers, which consequently gave them the courage to conquer everything.

Chapter 569 - Power Threatened

As the desolate spring came to an end, summer was drawing near. The population growth rate of City of Neverwinter enjoyed its first explosive peak.

The mission of attracting refugees in the southern and eastern areas began to take effect. With the experience from the previous year, the working efficiency of the envoy teams greatly increased. Every day, hundreds of refugees gathered in Redwater City and Willow Town, waiting for the boats from the Western Region to transfer them to City of Neverwinter, which was said to be rich and stable.

In order to appropriately accommodate these people, the City Hall also commissioned businessmen to rent temporary barracks at the gathering place, and offered porridge and water, to prevent any accidents before the refugees arrived at the Western Region.

The pier of the Border Area had become the busiest location of the city. Ninety percent of the police were dispatched to maintain order and register the population. There was always a long line of people in front of the barrier for medical inspections. The officers who were responsible for residential control divided the swarmed-in refugees into several categories and moved them into riverbank boardrooms, west-city cave dwellings, and formal residences accordingly.

For this reason, City Hall turned into a bustling place every day.

"Three sailing ships from Redwater City just arrived at the pier, 126 people are on board, a blue flag is hanging on the mast, and Bob is in charge."

"Again? How many batches have arrived today?"

"Four or five batches? Stop nagging. Go and receive them."

"Well, who'll take over Bob's job and go to Redwater City?"

"I will. Hang on, I'll be ready right away."

"Take some soap with you. You can't buy any there."

Listening to the noisy chatters outside of his office, Barov felt distressed, not because he was too busy though. Usually, when he worked in the City Hall, more work brought him more pleasure.

But recently, the situation had become complicated.

The reason lay in Edith Kant.

"Director, the Ministry of Justice is urging us for more personnel again," an assistant walked into his office and said. "His Excellency Carter asked us to recruit another 100 people as backup policemen. He said if he doesn't get more hands, the city's order will be out of control. If anything happens and His Majesty asks, we should take the blame as well."

"Now that he's the Chief Knight, he could put more words in front of His Majesty." Barov thought to himself. But for minor stuff like this, he did not have time to attend. While drafting a document, Barov said without raising his head, "Put it on the desk. I'll handle it later."

"Yes, sir!"

As the assistant left the room, Edith's voice sounded in his ears. "Is this the recruitment order? Since you're too busy, let me help you with it."

"Here she is!" Barov moaned in his heart. "Not even using honorifics."

"Of course, Edith is the daughter of Duke of the Northern Region, a status much higher than mine. Before I became the real Hand of the King, she could address me by name without using any respectful form. But no matter what, I'm about half a mentor to her, because His Majesty arranged for her to be an assistant to learn the departmental framework and government process of the City Hall in my office. Yet it seems she doesn't think so."

"Um... okay, that's fine," he said involuntarily.

No matter how reluctant he felt, he could not find any mistake in Miss Kant's behavior. If he repeatedly rejected her, he would appear in the wrong. Especially at this crucial moment, he could not risk leaving any bad impression on His Majesty.

He should never forget that Roland Wimbledon was a man with great insight.

"Thanks."

Soon, rustling sounds of writing came from the opposite desk.

Several minutes later, Edith put the recruitment order back onto Barov's desk.

"Judging from the drafts I went through recently, such recruitment orders usually require the personnel to be reliable and have a clean slate, but there aren't many such candidates left in the Border Area. Compared with posting recruitment bulletins on the square and asking for the candidates to apply for work at the City Hall, it'd be better if we extract the files of registered residence in the archives and select 100 unemployed locals. The Ministry of Justice is a large department in the City Hall. It provides relatively good salary and welfare. I think no one would turn down such a job offer. In this way, we'll save about a week over recruiting through normal procedures, and will, in turn, decrease the complaints from Chief Knight. If you approve it, I'll reply it on this recruitment order and give it to the archives."

Her voice was clear and sensible. It was hard to imagine that she joined City Hall only two weeks ago.

In the beginning, she was just quietly sitting aside and watching Barov review documents, seldom saying anything. But now, she could handle all sorts of affairs in the City Hall with high proficiency.

"Um... do it your way then."

For the moment, Barov could not find a better solution than Edith's suggestion. With his tight schedule, it would be possible that he ignored such petty things and just handled it in the usual way.

"Is this how a successor turned out to be after growing up in a duke's mansion and educated by the upper-level noble?"

Barov felt greatly threatened.

Yes, honorifics and respect were just minor details. What he really cared about was the power in his hands. "Now the propaganda that calls for submission is all over the Northern Region. If Edith is sent by His Majesty as an assistant to help set up a secondary City Hall in the Northern Region in the future, it would be no big deal. But what if she stays?"

"His Majesty is not yet married, and Edith is the daughter of a duke!"

At this thought, Barov could not help but feel distressed.

"This won't work. I must make her know that the management work in the City Hall can't be mastered that easily. His Majesty needs a minister who's able to take the whole situation into account."

When Edith returned to the office, Barov cleared his throat and handed her a statistics form.

"What's... "

"We're in trouble," Barov said with a low voice. "The grain stock in City of Neverwinter might not last until the wheat bumper harvest day."

"Um, is it caused by an overflow of population?" Edith glanced at the form and said, "According to the consumption rate, the remaining grain should be able to last until the end of the summer. We can harvest the spring wheat in the middle of July. It should be enough if we stop accepting new refugees."

"But the City Hall can't stop accepting new refugees."

"Because of the population target of 100,000 set by His Majesty?"

"No, that's not the point," Barov said while shaking his head. "There's still a constant flow of refugees from both the east and south sides of the country to the gathering place. If we abandon them, not only will Redwater City and Willow Town face the risk of a riot, but also the image we worked hard to build up will be destroyed overnight. If we ever want to recruit refugees again, it'll be very difficult. His Majesty once revealed to me that the realization of his development plan needs a large number of people. 100,000 subjects are just the beginning, so the City Hall won't disrupt His Majesty's plan because of the grain problem. We must tackle this problem and it's also my responsibility as a minister." He paused, and then looked at Edith Kant. "Do you have any good ideas?"

Chapter 570 - Edith's Reasons

In a sense, there was no solution to this problem.

The reason lay in the fact that the total amount of grain was limited. After the Months of Demons, the circulating grain in the kingdom would enter a state of shortage. Grain prices would definitely soar, and there would be none to be found in the market. The grain shortage could not be relieved until the new wheat was harvested. Autumn was the season in which grain was most frequently traded. After that, when the Months of Demons began, the situation would just worsen again.

Of course, the grain transactions were usually among businessmen and nobles. As for those penniless refugees and Rats, they would have to get through the winter with an empty stomach regardless the amount of wheat present.

According to Barov's years' worth of experience as an assistant minister, businessmen in the major cities were waiting for the ears of wheat to mature. Before that, they were unlikely to sell the grains at hand in large amounts. What remained in their hands might be enough to feed a few thousands of people, but never for ten thousands of people.

"Since we can't find more resources, we need to tighten the consumption.

"Cut the city's grain supply and reduce each person's quota for daily purchase. Change the subjects' diet from bread to oatmeal, and keep it that way till the day of bumper harvest. Those are the possible suggestions that Edith is going to make.

"Then I can refute her suggestions for the following reasons: they're against His Majesty's grain promises; they're contrary to the kingdom's intrinsic values; they might cause food panic and so on.

"Judging by Edith's expression, and reading the list with her eyebrows raised, I know she must feel it troublesome.

"It won't be long before she asks for my advice."

Thinking of this, Barov could not help but touch his beard. The so-called 'taking the whole situation into account' not only meant that the minister needed to be skilled and experienced in governmental affairs, but also needed to clearly know about the characteristics of the city. For example, when he was in King's City, he could recite the prices of the Alchemist Workshop's specialties, and the amount of Silver City's monthly silver ore shipment without hesitation. All those numbers could not be remembered in a short time.

The characteristic of City of Neverwinter was the witches.

Barov knew a green-haired woman called Leaf in the Witch Union who could make the wheat grow at an inconceivable rate. If not caring about the maintenance of the land, she could make the wheat ready for reaping within one day, and the ears they produced were not something that Golden Ones could compare to.

In other words, they only needed to ask her to manage a piece of wheat field for rapid production, and then the grain shortage could be easily solved.

Of course, he also knew that His Majesty had asked Leaf to control Misty Forest in the west, so as to build the early warning defensive line against demons. Given the emergence of such enemies, it needed several years, and so it would not matter much if Leaf took two to three months off.

But there was no way that Edith could know that information.

Even if she was super talented and took part in managing the Northern Region affairs since adulthood, there was no way that she could clearly know the city which was completely strange to her half a month ago, not to mention to know the abilities of each witch.

Also, she could not understand why the office of the Ministry of Education was adjacent to the archives, why the Minister of Education often appeared in the archives and had the authority to look at all the documents.

After a long while, Edith put down the list and slightly smirked.

"Actually, it's not a big deal."

"Em..." Barov nodded, then startled. "What?"

"Before the development of Deepvalley Town, most of the land in the Northern Region wasn't fit for wheat plantation. In every spring, grain shortage used to be very severe in this area, so the local lord set eyes on the Eastern Region and Kingdom of Dawn."

"You mean..." He suddenly realized something.

"Since they couldn't grow enough nor purchase any, the only choice left for them was to rob," Edith said with an easy tone. "Isn't it exactly the situation we're in? His Majesty's army is attacking Fallen Dragon Ridge. I heard Countess Spear's brother won over a lot of the local nobles in order to resist her. Is that right? Now that we have both the reasons and the means, we should directly go there and kill them one by one. Guess how many gold royals and grain is hidden in their basements."

"There's only a grain shortage because the amount circulating is too few. As a matter of fact, most of the grain output in the kingdom has been divided and taken by the nobles. They use that grain to control the freemen and farmers in their domains, and to earn many gold royals in a lean year." She did not talk fast, but yet her voice gave Barov a chill. "If we rake over Fallen Dragon Ridge, I think the problem of ten thousands of people's food will naturally be solved. If not, there are several cities in the Southeast Region awaiting His Majesty's ransack.

"But they're all nobles..." Barov shut his mouth before finishing talking. "That's right... After His Majesty took over the Southern Territory, they stopped being nobles. As long as we act fast enough, the captured grain will be able to refill the granary of City of Neverwinter."

Besides, different from King's City, Fallen Dragon Ridge has completely fallen into His Majesty's control, which is also the crucial pass on the way to the Southern Territory. By then, not only will the City Hall send people to assist Countess Spear to establish a new government, but the inner city will also adopt the laws, urban planning, and education system of City of Neverwinter.

What confused Barov was how Edith could accept His Majesty's will of eliminating the nobles so quickly. Even for himself, it would take a much longer time to get used to wholeheartedly supporting His Majesty's orders... let alone her who was the successor to the Duke of the Northern Region.

*******************

Edith returned to the Foreign Affairs Building. Pushing open the door, she saw Cole crouching on the desk and flipping through a thin book.

"What's that?"

"Um... I bought it from the convenience market. It looks like a picture book but it has stories. It's very interesting." The brother looked up. "You look happy."

"Do I?" Edith asked.

"In City of Evernight, you rarely smiled like this," Cole said, smirking. "Are we really not going back?"

"Only temporarily. Until father replies, His Majesty should allow you to return to the Northern Region." Edith sat down in front of him, closed the book to look at its cover and saw the words printed "The Witch Diaries".

"What about you then?"

"I'm going to stay here."

"Why?" Cold asked in bewilderment. "Is the City Hall that interesting?"

"What's interesting isn't the City Hall, but Roland Wimbledon's City Hall." She corrected him, smilingly. "Do you know how I got things done in City of Evernight?"

"You only had to tell father and it was done."

"More or less. I just gave an order, and then naturally there would be people who did it for me. When I think back to it, they did that not because of me, but because of my identity. They knew father would follow my suggestions... Of course, this only worked in the Kant Family's manor," Edith said with great enthusiasm, "but here, my identity not only doesn't help but rather hampers. There is barely any noble in the City Hall, and no one actually cares whether I'm the daughter of the Duke of the Northern Region. Everybody is relying on his or her own capabilities. Do you understand what I mean?"

Cole shook his head.

"People are willing to listen to you, not because who you are, but because what you're capable of. This rule applies even out of your manor. His Majesty is right about one thing: Feudalism seems to give the nobles great power, but it also set an upper limit for their power. Judging from the current situation, His Majesty is totally capable of enlarging his domain into the entire continent, then the City Hall will turn into a huge institution, and its prefecture will expand into every corner of Graycastle. As long as you're recognized in this organization, this entire kingdom might just operate based on one word you said. So, why would I settle for that small manor?

Chapter 571 - The Duke and Father

...

"Edith, you cruel wretch!" Calvin, Duke of the Northern Region grabbed the teacup on the table, wanting to smash it onto the ground but suddenly stopped with his hand in the air. He felt a little reluctant since the cup was made of the best quality crystal glass and worth two or three gold royals.

After a thought, he gradually lowered his hand and put the cup back on the table.

Needing to worry about such minor gains and losses made him even more depressed.

Edith's letter was also put on the table. He could not believe what was written in it. Beyond all his expectations, His Majesty wanted to reclaim the power of the nobility and his daughter who had always brought him profits before this promised to obey the king without hesitation this time. Besides, she even persuaded him to recognize the fact and stop resisting in the letter.

He felt that she wrote to him as if he were already a captive.

The duke thought bitterly that his daughter must be putting others ahead of her own father.

The guard outside the door probably heard the noise and looked in, asking, "my lord, what happened?"

"Get out, leave me alone!"

As Calvin was unwilling to vent his anger on the cup, he took out his fury on this guard who swiftly closed the door. The duke panted for a long time before he could return his gaze to the letter.

As he had eliminated the Howes Family and Lista Family, now he was in complete control of the whole Northern Region. If he chose to accept His Majesty's requirements, he would no longer be the ruler who dictated in this region and return to his original condition, or even worse.

But if he did not accept his daughter's suggestion, what would happen?

Edith also described the result of this choice in the letter.

"If you choose to do so, Cole and I will be doomed. He'll be held captive in prison forever, just like the heir of Duke Ryan. As for me, I'll end up even worse. What do you think Prince Roland will do to a defenseless daughter of a duke? I can list a series of tortments that'll excite a man without too much effort. When he gets tired of me, I'll be left in his dungeon to rot.

However, instead of worrying about me, you'd better worry about yourself first, since his army will besiege your city and your vassals and knights can hardly resist for half a day. After that, it'll be impossible for you to be an ordinary person, let alone a duke. How is it? Are you going to make such an unwise choice?"

Calvin was familiar with this tone and he could even picture his daughter writing the letter with a sneer on her face. Whenever it came to failure, she would always describe her fate in an extremely cold tone as if she was waiting for the moment all the time and when she talked that way, Calvin was immediately swamped. He knew that she was apparently threatening him, but he could not lift his spirit up to scold her.

After all Edith Kant was his own daughter and the only child he had with his first wife.

Despite the fact that Edith exaggerated the matter, he still had to admit the possibility.

He himself had also heard lots about that dandy Prince Roland.

The duke gradually calmed down at this thought.

But he was still wondering whether the black steel machines were as incredible as she depicted or not.

He thought in surprise, "Edith used a whole sheet of paper among the three sheets of the letter to describe what she had seen in Border Town, oh no, in Neverwinter."

The description was even twice as much as that of His Majesty Roland.

Edith claimed that the super powerful machines beyond imagination could easily complete tasks that were considered to be impossible by the ordinary people and that if they surrendered to the new king, the Northern Region would be able to import those black iron machines which would bring an earthshaking change to their domain.

Calvin could tell from the description that Edith thought highly of the machines.

In the last part of the letter, she suggested that Calvin should send His Majesty a formal document to take an oath of allegiance and to show the submission of the Northern Region to the new king, and meanwhile, dispatch servants who could read and write to learn the rules and regulations of the City Hall, getting the domain prepared for the new system.

"Besides, I sincerely hope that you can order Cole to stay in Neverwinter instead of calling him back to the Northern Region. If you agree, you can also send Lance here when he reaches an adult age. Given that the noble titles can no longer be inherited, only the men who well adapt to the new system of His Majesty can succeed the Kant Family and keep it thriving.

Your daughter, Edith"

After reading the letter, Calvin heaved a long sigh and put it away. He spread a new sheet of white paper.

Thinking that as Edith had already made the decision, he had to believe her and write His Majesty a letter showing his loyalty to the new king.

However, as a duke, he had to make his last efforts to ensure the family's profits. He believed that he would feel much relieved if he could bind the two families' interests together.

Such as... something like a marriage which would make his own daughter the queen.

*******************

By the Redwater River, Border Area, City of Neverwinter.

The sun was sinking into the mountains bit by bit, leaving the river afire with golden light.

Smoke rose in front of the shacks, and a faint smell of porridge made Snaketooth's mouth begin to water.

As he got closer, he could even smell meat.

"I'm back!" He caught Tigerclaw's attention as soon as he stepped into the battalion. Tigerclaw said, "come up here quickly!"

Snaketooth swiftly walked to him and asked, "what? We have meat today?"

"Yes, you came back late, so you've missed the message. This is granted by the lord."

Snaketooth rubbed his sore shoulders and said, "what for? You guys still need a long time to finish the construction of the residential area, right?

"It's for the completion of the Kingdom Main Street! Now the Border Area and the Longsong Area are finally connected together. I've heard that now it takes only one day to get to the Longsong Area riding a horse. In the past, it would take three days," someone nearby came up and said.

Hearing that, Snaketooth nodded his head. Every time when a major project was finished, they would get a bowl of meat porridge, just like what he had heard before in the square. He had been in the Border Area for two months, during which the construction platoon had never canceled a meal or deducted salaries. Now, he had already accumulated 14 silver royals and would get 7 more in the end of this month.

When his savings reached one gold royal, he could get a house from the City Hall and become an official resident of City of Neverwinter instead of a Rat, a nobody.

However, to own that house, he still had to work for at least 20 more years.

Nevertheless, he was confident that he could find a better-paid job, such as a furnace worker or a bricklayer.

Everything seemed to get better.

But he had not met Paper yet.

"When you get the meat porridge, remember to eat fast. Otherwise, you can't get a good seat," Tigerclaw whispered in his ear.

"What... seat?" Snaketooth was confused and asked.

"To celebrate the completion of the Kingdom Main Street, a new drama will be played in the square. I heard it's called 'The City of Love' and the Star of Western Region will be on the stage too. Oh my goodness... I can't wait to see it!"

"Go to see it with someone else. I'm tired and don't feel like going anywhere today," Snaketooth said in low spirits.

"Really? It's the premiere." Tigerclaw paused and then smiled meaningfully, adding, "All the locals know that the lord will take the witches to see the premiere of the Star Flower Troupe. Maybe you can see Paper there!"

Chapter 572 - The Song of Praise

...

By the time when Snaketooth and Tigerclaw came to the square, a huge crowd of people had already gathered up there. Snaketooth had never seen so many people get together in one place, even when Longsong Stronghold was distributing relief grains.

He counted roughly and estimated that there were probably over 5,000 people came to watch the play.

The square which used to be just a flat land was changed into a giant, sunken bowl in the ground, which was called an amphitheater. According to the locals, this was the third time that the square was rebuilt. Generally speaking, such a huge project would take one or two years to complete, but this amphitheater had been built in merely half a month and during the time, nobody had ever seen where the soil dug out went.

In this amphitheater, the audience could sit on the stone steps to watch the play, instead of standing until their legs were numb. It also enabled the audience to have a better view, as long as you could find a seat. As for those who came late, they could still stand on their tiptoes around the square to have a look.

Tigerclaw squeezed into the last row of the stone stairs and made a space enough for two people, saying, "Not bad, we still made it."

Snaketooth clutched a cloth bag to his chest and sat beside his friend with great care. As the bag contained all his savings in the past two months, he had to be alert in such a crowded place. In the Longsong Area, at places like this one, Rats would be on the spree. Though the Border Area had no Rats now, he still felt that he needed to watch out for the Rats who were "temporarily transferred to civilian work".

When the last afterglow of the sunset melted into the darkness of the night, there were only several burning torches giving light to the square. The stage was still enveloped in darkness. Snaketooth could not help but feel quite strange when he found that nobody came to light up the bonfire and that there was no firewood in the center of the square.

He could not help wondering how they were going to play without firelight.

Suddenly, a bright beam of light shone on the stage. It was dazzling but Snaketooth soon got used to this pure light. Then the second and the third beam of light appeared, gradually lighting up the stage. Gasps of amazement that were produced by the audience reverberated over the square.

"They're the lights used in the plants!" he thought.

"Oh, my goodness! Nightless light! They bring nightless lights here!"

Rumor had it that it was a magic light that trapped the lightning of the sky in an expensive crystal glass bulb. Snaketooth had only seen it several times when he passed by the industrial district.

"Nightless light? Come on, it's called electric light and consumes electricity. It's made by the machines created by the witches! His Majesty planned to have every household equipped with electric lights, but the witch who provided electricity was unable to support so many lights. That's why only the plants are using this kind of lights now." Someone nearby snorted and said.

"How do you know that?" Tigerclaw asked with interest.

That person shrugged and said, "You aren't official residents of City of Neverwinter, right? The City Hall has done propaganda about electricity to tell us how to use the electric lights safely. They're like fire. If you don't use them properly, it'll cause disaster."

"Not like thunder?"

"Uhm... almost the same. Don't bother so much. When you become subjects of His Majesty and finish the primary education, you'll understand."

"Is there any way that I can become a formal subject faster? What's the primary education?"

Snaketooth asked and wanted to ask more questions, but Tigerclaw suddenly grabbed him up when the crowd burst into deafening cheers.

The Star Flower Troupe stepped on the stage.

"Ms. May! Ms. May!"

"Ms. Irene!"

"Mr. Gait!"

The crowd cried out the names of the troupe members and the atmosphere reached a crescendo.

Seeing that, Snaketooth was filled with admiration suddenly.

He wanted to become someone like them, the focus of people's eyes. He wanted the audience to cry out his name loudly... They were neither nobles nor sages. They were not out of reach.

After the cheers died down, the play began.

This was the first time for Snaketooth to watch a drama played by Star and Flower of the Western Region. He never thought that he would be interested in such an elegant event usually enjoyed by the nobles, but when the music started, he was absorbed into the story without noticing it.

The leading roles of the story were not the nobles.

Instead, they were just ordinary people like himself... a free citizen, a refugee and a Rat.

They had both dreams for their future and misfortunes in their own lives. They all fetched up simultaneously at the same city, Star City. They met and helped each other. They confided their thoughts to each other. They suffered from the pain of leaving their hometowns and the sense of loss in the new city. After that, they pulled themselves together and found their own ways.

Nothing could be heard except the lines of the actors and actresses on the square. All the audience held their breath, as they were deeply involved in the story played on the stage.

At last, the roles on the stage finally settled down in Star City and lived comfortably ever after. Strangers that had helped each other in the past became friends and lovers in the end. Snaketooth felt being touched when a moving music was played. He pretended to rub his eyes to hide his tears and meanwhile found out that Tigerclaw was all tears though he did not look sad.

He was not the only one moved that much. Everyone around was just like him, lost in that moving story. No one had risen to cheer until the end of the play.

Even if no one said it out, everyone knew it clearly that the "Star City" was City of Neverwinter.

Snaketooth was lost in thought, "Even a Rat could have such a story?"

Right at the moment, a foreign-looking girl from behind the background plate stepped on the stage.

Like someone in a delicate painting, she was tall and had waist-length long bluish-gray hair, wearing a white dress which glinted.

She started to sing.

Totally different from the music played before, her song was powerful, praising the great and glorious workers. She sang in a way different from all the other female singers. She was inspiring and encouraging. Hearing her song, Snaketooth felt that he could even see the sweat of his own labor in the distant residential buildings and that all the foreigners who devoted themselves into the construction of this city deserved to be remembered.

The impact and emotions brought by the play were finally released at this moment. The audience flipped out and applauded with their greatest strength. The song promptly made their emotions run even higher!

They were all His Majesty's subjects!

The glorious workers!

The builders of City of Neverwinter!

...

After the show, His Majesty left with the witches via a raised platform which was built for temporary use. Snaketooth opened his eyes widely but still failed to find Paper in the crowd. Surprisingly, he did not feel as disappointed as he expected, since the song still reverberated in his ears, filling his heart with hope.

He believed that they would meet again sooner or later.

Like those foreigners, they would meet again right in this city.

Chapter 573 - The Battle of Fallen Dragon Ridge

BOOM!

When the fire blasted out of the 152 shipboard artillery, Iron Axe felt the steel ship he stood on wobble slightly.

A few seconds later, a cloud of smoke and dust exploded on the foreign city wall, and then the roar quieted down for a while. After all the smoke and dust dispersed, he looked through the telescope and found that there was a now large breach in the lower portion of the stone wall.

Different from King's City, Fallen Dragon Ridge seldom encountered attacks from external enemies, being located in the central south of the kingdom. Thus, its city wall was quite low, not even half as high as that of Longsong Stronghold. The narrow wall at the top allowed only one person to pass, and they could not set up large defense equipment like mangonels. Therefore, the Artillery Squad had expanded field artilleries to the open space 500 meters away from the wall.

To make sure that the several hundred soldiers of the Vanguard Battalion could enter the city efficiently, Iron Axe decided to make three openings in the city wall before action. Any enemies trying to fill in and defend the open spots would be bombarded mercilessly by the twelve pounds cannons. Now that the gate and the north wall had been chiseled through, he would make a final command to attack once they seized the last entrance.

"If only the witches could've come with the army." Iron Axe thought rather regretfully. It was a waste to use these precious shells on the stones.

If Lady Nightingale were here, they would only need three packs of explosives to destroy the whole city wall. After all, their defense was much weaker than King City's.

He was amused to realize the change in his belief. Half a year ago, he had insisted that the army should complete His Majesty's task independently. However, after conquering King's City with the help of the Witch Union, it suddenly occurred to him that the perfect way to fight was to use witches as their eyes or commandos.

"Sir!" a soldier on the observatory shouted. "Attention to the gate! They seem to be gathering horses!"

Iron Axe looked at the ruined gate through his telescope. With limited vision, he could only vaguely see the dust behind the wall.

"Do I need to adjust the naval artillery and fire in that direction?" Van'er asked.

"Not necessary. It'll waste at least two or three more shells." He shook his head and said, "Since they're horses, I think their plan is to gather knights and try to open the blockade line of field artillery through assault. There is nothing to worry about. While for you..." Iron Axe turned back to see Countess Spear. "After this assault, I'm afraid there will not be many knights left in your domain."

"They decided to stand on my brother's side. These people are no longer my knights." She answered quietly. "That's the price they have to pay for their betrayal."

"I see." Iron Axe paused for a moment and said, "Have you decided what to do with Redwyne Passi?"

Yesterday, he received a secret letter from the City Hall, which demanded all the noble except Spear's relatives to be escorted to City of Neverwinter. Anyone who resisted would be executed on the spot, and their domain would be blocked by the First Army. The officers from the City Hall would arrive and seize their properties.

Based on that letter, the nobles would probably be sentenced to the mines with heavy labor. Currently several mines in Stronghold Area lacked sufficient labor forces. There should be hundreds of people, including family members, cronies and servants. It appeared there would be more iron ores in City of Neverwinter this year.

As for the culprit, Redwyne Passi, the letter instructed that he should be handed over to the countess herself.

The hesitation on Spear's face showed that she had not made a decision yet.

Iron Axe sighed in silence. If he were her, he would chop off his head without hesitation. Nothing was more unforgivable than betrayal.

"They're coming!" the observer shouted suddenly.

Putting aside these trifles, he continued to look at the battlefield through the telescope.

As he had expected, a group of knights rushed out from the gate heading directly to the edge of the artillery field.

The sound of gunshots suddenly echoed in the wilderness and forest. Puffs of smoke floated in the air in front of the battlefield. More than 20 knights and their squires fell down to the muddy ground in succession after rushing out less than 100 meters.

If Duke Ryan had led his troops to attack Border Town, the knightage might have still been able to cause a small threat to the First Army by acting in unison. However, now these iron turtles were almost living targets with no ability to strike back.

Revolving rifles and two HMGs (heavy machine gun）alone could firmly block the enemies on their way to attack. The field artillery did not even need to reload with grapeshots.

After another round of shots from the naval artillery, the thin wall finally collapsed. Iron Axe commanded to blow the whistle and attack immediately.

Soldiers in the Vanguard Battalion poured out from the alignment and separated into three groups targeting to the three openings.

The battle for recovering Fallen Dragon Ridge had officially been launched.

...

Two hours later, the First Army took the castles and churches.

The enemies had been too frightened of the booming weapons for any resistance. The last batch of knights, who were destroyed immediately when they left the gates, had been all the soldiers the Redwyne could gather.

The church people did not show up at all, and all the goods and materials were cleared. Priest Rosad was also missing.

There was no secret tunnel or hidden side door in Fallen Dragon Ridge and there was no way to escape in a city of this kind, which was backed up by the mountains. Soldiers searched for the usurper and blocked him at the top level of the castle.

Iron Axe commanded to take away the ministers who were on their knees begging for mercy and ordered the soldiers to leave Countess Spear and her brother alone in the chamber. Of course, Redwyne was tied to the chair tightly, so he could not do any harm to the countess.

"I don't understand..." Spear said after a long silence. "What can you gain by being the lord? Our little brother and you know nothing about administration or trading. Even if you sit in this position, you just hand over your power to other feudatories. You think I'm less important to you than those strangers, don't you?"

"You're a witch, a demon's underling!" Redwyne craned his neck, crying. "Father was wrong about you. You cheated him!"

"But I'm still your sister!"

"You aren't!" He gritted his teeth and said, "You're just the bastard adopted by father!"

"Wh-what?" Spear was stunned.

"I heard with my own ears when he was drunk. You were the mistake he made when he was young. And you aren't a Passi!" Redwyne shouted with anger. "Why is it that you should inherit the family instead of me? I'm just taking back what was supposed to belong to me. You're the real stranger!"

Spear covered her head but she could not remember anything about her childhood. "The mistake he made?"

"If not, why do you look so different from mother? Can't you remember how you came to Fallen Dragon Ridge?"

"So... you are not my brother either."

"Exactly, I'm the true heir of my family, the Earl of Fallen Dragon Ridge! Release me immediately. I demand to be treated as a nobleman!"

Spear stumbled out the chamber. Iron Axe held her promptly and said, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." She took a deep breath. "Send my, no, send Redwyne Passi to City of Neverwinter. He has lost his mind. The mine is where he should be."

"As your wish." Iron Axe answered and nodded with agreement.

Chapter 574 - The Expansion of Education

Summer began with a heavy rain.

Raindrops spattered on the windows, making the outside scenery a blur. One could only distinguish between the town and the remote mountains through the silhouette of the colors.

Standing in front of the French window and looking at the blurry sceneries in the rain, Roland still felt the singing of "The City of Love" reverberating in his ears.

He did not expect that, combined with Echo's ability, the first drama show performed three days ago could have such a striking effect.

The whole room had fallen into silence when the show finished. The audience had been so touched that their eyes had been filled with tears. Roland thought this scene could only be seen in the high-end opera house of the era where he came from. Even the audiences in the commercial cinemas aimed at the masses of his era could seldom be moved that much, let alone the ordinary people who lived in this backward era.

Even Roland himself who had seen all the scenes that made people shed tears, could feel the shudder deep down in his heart.

That was the strength of the "Resonance Song".

Roland recognized the importance of the inspirational singing during an enduring war in which the machines would not tire, but people would. Even if the guns and ammunition could be unceasingly transported to the battlefield, people would still be struck down by the endless pressure of survival, especially when the tide of battle was unfavorable and the army suffered heavy casualties. This kind of emotion was easily magnified, causing the soldiers to lose their faith in the ultimate victory.

Throughout history, people had thought many methods to boost the morale of the army. This first type of method included making sure the soldiers could eat as much hot food as possible or air dropping ice cream. The second type was assigning a commissar or an army chaplain to go with the army. But these methods were impractical for Roland. The former required a very good logistical supply ability and the latter was hard, in such a short period of time, to cultivate a group of core members who had strong faith that were also good at encouraging people.

Echo's ability let him see a shortcut to boosting morale.

It might sound a little absurd, but it was more reliable compared with other methods.

While he was thinking, he heard a knock on the office's door and then Barov walked in.

"Your Majesty, the recent house purchase statistics are available now."

"What's the result?"

"Just as you expected." He excitedly unfolded a list on the mahogany table. "Since the first night of the new drama, people who come to the City Hall to apply for house renting and purchasing has significantly increased, even the people who apply for marriage registration has increased a lot too."

"Really?" Roland went back to the table to look at Barov's statistics. "The City of Love" was not just meaningless entertainment. Apart from advocating that labor was glorious and construction was great, it also transmitted another opinion which linked marriage with a stable residence. Instead of letting the outsiders develop a sense of belonging slowly and making the locals accept those foreigners step by step through daily contact, it was better if he set a simple standard himself to advance the fusion of the refugees.

That standard was housing.

"You're one of us if you have a house in our place." This saying might seem a bit rude, but it saved a lot of time in this special period.

To gain people's recognition and build up their own families, the foreigners had to have a house. And once they owned real estate here, they would defend everything in this place voluntarily. Of course, these ideas were unsuitable to speak out directly, but they would be naturally born in mind by the audience seeing the drama stories.

It was just like diamonds.

The classics advertising verbal's "A diamond lasts forever" made it the king of jewelry, and everyone would want one when they got married, making people completely forget its true nature which was not rare or precious.

Compared with diamonds, housing at least was far more practical.

However, in order to realize his goals, he could not set a too high standard, making people feel it was impossible to reach. In his city, now people could apply for renting a house with one gold royal and after that, they only needed to pay one gold royal as rent every year. When the rent they paid equaled to the house price, the house would belong to the renter spontaneously.

The target was not easy to achieve, as even the cheapest single room would cost 20 gold royals. That meant all the workers, for example, the temporary workers and handymen, would take 20 years to afford such a house which was less than 15 square meters and could only contain one bed, one table and one bathroom. People would call him a black-hearted realtor in the era where Roland came from.

All in all, according to Barov's statistics, "The City of Love" was undoubtedly successful in promoting his idea.

Most of the renting applications came from the several batches refugees and serfs who arrived in the Border Area first, and house purchase requests were mostly proposed by the craftsmen with higher salaries and the broken nobles who had carried properties with them. After they all settled down here, they would become part of the City of Neverwinter forever.

Based on this successful experience, Roland had already figured out the contents of a new drama whose theme was getting married and working hard to buy a big house.

"Well done." He rolled up the list and gave it to Barov. "Besides, the recent solicitation of the refugees should continue to expand its scope, the plentiful population is the base for the development of the City of Neverwinter and other tasks can be put aside for it."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Barov laughed till his mustache was curled up.

"By the way, go and get Scroll. I have something to tell her."

...

"Your Majesty, did you want to see me?" Scroll walked into the office in a black skirt and white blouse, looking very capable.

"I want to expand the education scope, which will cover the refugees who have just arrived at the City of Neverwinter." Roland poured a cup of tea for her. "If the education only aims at the official citizens, the refugees would have to wait at least one more year to receive primary education."

"I'm afraid this is untenable now," Scroll said after several minutes consideration. "There're too many of them. The current teacher couldn't take care of them all and the classrooms are not enough either. If we do as you ask, the number of the education ministry's staff would need to be doubled or tripled."

"I have a method which can reduce the teachers' pressure." Roland paused for a while and continued, "Let them study by themselves."

"Self-study?"

"Yes, every week we give one public lecture which only teaches them the basic reading and writing, and let them use the booklets with pictures and pronunciations to do some exercises by themselves in the rest of the time. There are no achievement tests and no mandatory requirements, and they learn according to their own free will."

"This..." She ran her fingers through her hair which was soaked wet by the rain unconsciously. "It's unlikely to have any effect. Your Majesty, without supervision, nine out of ten people won't learn well."

"It doesn't matter. I just want to offer them an opportunity," Roland laughed and said.

There was always someone who was unsatisfied with boring, low-paid jobs and was eager to achieve their goals quickly. In order to prevent these people from stepping aside, he must guide them to improve themselves in the right way.

In the future, more and more jobs would have literacy requirements, and the salaries for these jobs would be much higher than the handymen's. Given that, for those who wanted to buy a house and get rid of their poor and exhausting lives, it would be a better choice for them to learn how to read and write by themselves.

Through this method, those hardworking people could participate in the city's construction quickly.

To keep the new regime's vitality, the most important thing was never, ever blocking the way of promotion from the bottom layer.

That was what Roland believed.

Chapter 575 - Wendy's Expectation

Wendy woke up and found that after a whole night, the rain had finally stopped.

She yawned and got out of the bed. The moment she pushed open the window, the sweet fragrance of wet soil swarmed into the room. After the rainfall, the garden was a bright shade of green and she could see droplets of water falling from the olive leaves near the window. The morning's gentle sunshine shone on the wet grass reflecting gleams of light.

A new day had begun.

After putting on her undergarments and coat, she went back to the bedside and patted Nightingale's cheeks, saying, "Time to get up."

Nightingale gave an obscure snort, and buried her face in the pillow.

Only in times like this, would she expose herself defenselessly, instead of hiding in the Mist. Wendy smiled and shook her head. "Then I'll go eat breakfast first."

Nightingale's ears moved slightly, like unconscious trembles, but Wendy knew she had heard.

She gently closed the door and went to the bathroom to wash up before she walked toward the hall to enjoy breakfast.

The chefs always woke up extremely early since they had to prepare food for everyone before daybreak. The firewood in the oven could burn for a long time, so there was no need to worry about the food getting cold half way. If she wanted to eat something, she could just grab a bowl and spoon and fetch it in the kitchen. His Majesty said it was called buffet and it seemed to be a very common dining style for him, but for her, this kind of life could be called extravagant.

In the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy had never thought that one day she could eat as much as she wanted. Back then they were lucky to have sufficient food to eat, let alone to pay any attention to the taste, as the food was never enough.

But now, there were three or four dishes just for breakfast every day, such as porridge, toast, dried fish and fried eggs.

Even though she had been living in the castle for nearly a year, she still felt extreme satisfaction and happiness every time she ate.

Meanwhile, she was very grateful to the person who had brought all these things to the witches and let her sisters live a free life.

When Wendy picked up her bowl in the dining room, there was no one in the hall, just several used plates on the long table. Obviously, she was not the first to eat. The Witch Union had never set a time to wake up, so everyone came to enjoy breakfast one after another. Lightning and Maggie were always the first to leave the castle, followed by another group including Anna, Agatha, Lucia and others. She was usually between the two.

Nightingale was always the last.

This was because His Majesty loved to sleep late. When there was nothing urgent, he would get up at noon to deal with the government affairs. Nightingale was influenced by him.

She had once been the most discrete and acute person in the Witch Cooperation Association, alerted by even a small movement.

However, Wendy did not think this was a bad thing.

...

After breakfast, she went to the first floor of the Witch Building. This place had been transformed into the Witch Union's office.

Ring walked toward her as soon as she entered. "Sister Wendy, you're here!"

"Hello, Lady Wendy."

"Good morning ladies."

Another two young women from the City Hall bowed to her. They had graduated from the institute which was originally founded by Karl Van Bate. They barely counted as Anna's and Nana's classmates and had no prejudice towards witches. The older one was Pearl and the younger one was Grayrabbit. Together with Lucia's little sister Ring, they formed the first clerks of the Witch Union's.

Of course, since Ring was under 14, she was just a fill-in for now.

Anyway, the jobs here were very easy, and she could consider it as extra education.

With the clerks' help, the Witch Union was finally getting on track.

"Good morning." Wendy nodded, sitting by the desk. "How are the sales of the first volume of "The Witch Diaries"?"

"Very popular," Pearl smiled and said, "and people love the story of Border Town's little angel, especially the soldiers from the First Army. They come to buy it almost every day. This week we almost sold more than 60 copies a day. At this rate, we may sell out the 1,000 copies we originally printed within half a month."

Hearing that, Wendy was a little surprised. After all, as a book which was purely for entertainment, "The Witch Diaries" could not feed people or help them with their studies, but yet it could sell this well at such a high price. It was incredible.

The idea was originally put forward by His Majesty.

As a drama trilogy with an intricate plot and moving stories, "The Witch Diaries" had been praised by the City of Neverwinter's subjects. So, His Majesty decided to follow the pattern of the drama and illustrate the witches' life stories in the form of pictures to sell it in the Convenience Market's boutique. But unlike the drama, this time all the major characters in the stories were witches from the Union, and apart from the exquisite pictures, it also had some designed dialogues, making the readers feel as if they were watching a real drama play on the paper.

The main character of the first volume was Miss Nana Pine.

The 15-year-old girl had already been very famous in Border Town, with the ability to heal the pain of others and her natural affinity. No one could hate such an angel. Coupled with His Majesty's strong supportive attitude towards witches, as well as the first army's spread of her stories, she was even more popular than Anna.

After Wendy decided the plot of the stories, Soraya painted them one by one and stapled the book together. It sold for five silver royals per book. It was the refugees who needed to know about the witches most, but many refugees could not read and they were not interested in buying an exquisite album with half a month's salary. So, in the beginning, the potential buyers were locals and businessmen who came here to do business.

The former could spread the stories through the contact with foreigners and the latter could bring them to every city in the kingdom.

After seeing how popular "The Witch Diaries" was, Wendy felt inspired.

She could hardly wait to get the pen and paper, and was starting to think about the contents of the next volume.

"Have you considered the content of the next stories?" Ring asked curiously.

"Yes, His Majesty said Echo will be the major character of the next volume," Wendy smiled and said, "and what do you think of this title 'The Silver Moon Princess from the Southernmost Region, the Land of Swirling Sand and Volcanoes'?"

"Wow! It's awesome!" The little girl exclaimed smacking her lips.

"When His Majesty recaptures the Southern Territory, you can go to the princess's hometown to see the vast desert."

"Wonderful!"

It was her job, spreading stories about the witches and letting everyone know who they really were.

"The Witch Diaries" was just a part of it.

Echo had already gotten acquainted with the Star Flower Troupe, and all the actors were full of praises for her immersive music.

Evelyn had opened a tavern next to the Holy Mountain Inn, mainly offering mixed liquor with a unique flavor.

Hummingbird also joined the City Hall and became the deputy minister of the Ministry of Construction, and she was also the second witch officer in the City Hall next to Scroll.

The witches all worked very hard to build the City of Neverwinter. At the same time, they also made people accept their existence and equally treat them.

Wendy felt that the day which His Majesty had promised was just within their reach.

Chapter 576 - Deep Inside the Palace

Otto Luoxi and Oro Tokat lurked behind a rockery, in the palace garden, in the City of Glow, the Kingdom of Dawn

.

Of course, they were not completely sneaking. At least when entering the palace, they had passed through the door, right under the guards' noses. No guard would stop them from visiting any place in the palace, except for the forbidden areas, because all the guards knew that the Luoxis and the Tokats had always been loyal supporters of the royal family, and that these two young men would become the ministers of the eldest prince when they took over their respective families.

"Hey, are you sure about this?" Otto could not help but feel nervous.

If the Dawn castle where the King of Dawn spent time was a forbidden zone, his bedroom was even more forbidden. However, they happened to know a secret way from the garden to his bedroom. This narrow underground channel which they had explored with Andrea and Prince Appen in their childhood was meant to be one of the escape routes from the palace. They had considered it their own secret base and held small parties there occasionally.

Given that they were only 10 years old at that time, the worst punishment, even if they were found by His Majesty Moya, would have been being blamed. Now as grown-ups, if they entered the palace without permission, what would His Majesty think?

"Come on! Gathering the three families to find out the reason why Appen has been acting strange, isn't that the plan?" Oro twitched his lips. "And now, at this crucial time, you want to flinch?"

"I ..." Otto opened his mouth but he was speechless.

"But how stupid you are! To get messages from Quinn, you told him Andrea's recent situation. If you weren't Andrea's childhood sweetheart, the old man would have killed you," Oro said while looking around, "and now is the best time to tell the truth, will you do it or not?"

After a moment's hesitation, Otto gritted his teeth and nodded.

What Earl Quinn had told them was astonishing.

Since His Majesty had fallen ill, the prince often met with an alchemist in the palace, casting his visitors out. It was said that a special drug from the alchemy could resist disease and enabled His Majesty to remain awake for one or two hours a day. As the prime minister, Andrea's father naturally had access to the palace to obtain political suggestions from His Majesty. The old man had gotten a glimpse of the alchemist and to his great surprise, he saw that it was actually a young woman, covered with a black veil, only her bleak silver-gray eyes showing.

At this description, Otto immediately thought of the church.

If it were not for his recent trip to the Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not think this way. After meeting with Roland Wimbledon, the messages about the church secretly training pure witches, attempting to subvert the four kingdoms and accumulating its power to resist the Battle of Doomsday had rooted in his mind.

He did not tell what he knew from Roland to Earl Quinn. After all, the impact of the news was so huge that he must confirm his conjecture before deciding the next step.

Hearing from the Earl that the alchemist would appear today, Otto immediately thought of the secret channel from his childhood.

Now that it was impossible to get the support of the eldest prince, this was his only way to discover the truth.

With this thought, he nodded to Oro who immediately poked the knee-high weeds, using a dagger to pry a cover disguised as a stone from behind the rockery. Rusty steel bars appeared in front of them. The fence, which could only be opened from the inside, was about an arm-length in width, but this was not a problem for the two who were fully prepared.

Oro took a glass bottle from his pocket, opened the lid and poured the tawny liquid onto the lock catch.

A puff of pungent white smoke rose up and the steel bars gave off a sizzling sound, like butter being thrown into a hot pot.

The liquid was the iron-melting water created by a master alchemist of the City of Glow, and a fist-sized bottle cost more than 10 gold royals. Oro was told that iron would become molten in the blink of an eye when using it. But this was not the case. The lock catch first shrunk in half and did not fall off the fence until he had used up the second bottle.

The two men bent over to enter the hole, and Oro did not forget to turn around and close the slates.

After they had crawled more than 10 steps, the channel became slightly spacious, and they could walk. Otto skillfully fumbled for the oil lamp hung on the wall, flaming it with flint. The faint light illuminated the cliffs and the arched ceiling. This place was still the same even after more than 10 years as if time stood still here. When passing by the lounge halfway, they could still see the soft seats and wine glasses they had dragged here for parties.

The road began to shift upwards and Otto Luoxi knew that they had entered the Dawn castle.

Castle walls were divided into two layers, just like a sandwich. The middle part between the two layers was reserved for secret chambers and tunnels. Finally, the two arrived at the end of the secret channel which was the very back of the fireplace in the bedroom of the king.

As the mechanism needed to be opened from inside, they could not walk directly into the bedroom. But they could roughly see the scene in the bedroom through the small gap in the trap door. The voices of conversation in the room could be heard if it was quiet enough.

Otto blew out the oil lamp and peeked through the gap.

The King of Dawn, His Majesty Deegan Moya, was lying in bed facing the fireplace. And Appen, the eldest prince, was pacing by the bedside, looking worried.

They looked at each other, then tacitly nodded and carefully leaned against the door. It was obvious that His Highness was waiting for the alchemist.

About an hour later, there was a sound in the room.

They immediately turned their heads, squinting.

Two women walked into the bedroom. One was the black-veiled alchemist that Earl Quinn had mentioned, and the other was probably the alchemist's assistant. She carried a satchel, wore a red and white cope and cloak, and had beautiful golden curly hair.

"You're late!" Appen said, displeased.

"Sorry," the blonde bowed and answered, "we were delayed by an unexpected situation on the way."

"There's no need to explain. All we need to do is to wake his father up. It doesn't matter whether we arrive early or late." The woman in the black veil said this with an icy voice.

"You shouldn't say that! We still need the help of His Highness." The blonde took out a green porcelain bottle from her satchel. "It's good for both of us to maintain a harmonious relationship, isn't it?"

"Give me the medicine." Appen took two steps toward them, but was stopped by the woman dressed in black veil.

"Did you forget our agreement? This medicine is only effective if fed by me, and in exchange, you must meet the requirements of His Holiness."

His Holiness!?

Otto was shocked. This honorific could only be used to name the Pope. He wondered whether they were really sent by the church.

He could not help but bite his lip. Apparently, they were not alchemists, but Pure Witches instead.

Chapter 577 - The Silent Massacre

"I remember a month ago I told you to close the way to Kingdom of Wolfheart as soon as possible. Why are there still so many refugees flocking in?" the black-veiled witch said wryly, "and your knights should have arrived at the border by now."

"You know clearly that there are a large number of refugees!" Appen clenched his fists and said, "If they were prohibited from crossing the border, most of them would die from starvation. There are no cities nearby, and no places to provide food. It'll take at least a week to go back to Wilderness Town if they retract their original steps, and they..."

"Does that have anything to do with you?" The black-veiled witch interrupted impatiently. "If they suffer from starvation or thirst, they have only themselves to blame, after all, they've abandoned their kingdom. And you'd better pay attention to your father. Or do you want to breach the deal?"

"They abandoned their Kingdom? Ridiculous!" Otto thought, with a burst of anger. "It's the person like the black-veiled witch who has waged the war, displacing these people."

When it came to a breach of the deal, Appen showed obvious hesitation. After a while he said, "The rest of the road will be closed in a week, I hope you're satisfied with such a result. However, if they cross the border through the wildlands or the mountain ridges instead of walking through the official road, it's none of my business."

"Of course. I won't ram an impossible mission down your throat." The black-veiled girl took the porcelain bottle and sipped. She walked up to the bed and bent down to feed the elixir to the King of Dawn with her mouth. Otto and Oro, who were hiding in the path behind the fireplace, stared at her but saw nothing. After a while, she lifted her head and said, "The King of Dawn will recover as usual in an hour."

"Does the elixir have to be fed from your mouth?"

"Yes, it'll only work if fed by my mouth." She shrugged and said, "As long as you comply with the agreement, you can feel relieved knowing that the King of Dawn will recover totally, even much healthier than before."

"The next time we come back the border is to be completely closed." The blonde-haired woman smiled. "Do not let His Holiness down, Your Highness."

Just as they turned to leave, Appen suddenly asked, "You're witches, aren't you?"

"Ehn?" The two witches stopped abruptly.

"Is it because of the magic power of a witch that the elixir can only be fed by you?" he said slowly, "and no other reason could explain this. Although the existence of witches within the church is incredible, all you have done is nothing different from the demons."

"Are you sure you want to say this?"

"Come out!" The prince shouted.

The prince's words gave Otto and Oro a scare, but what they saw were several royal guards with light armor appearing from the closet and under the bed. The Pure Witches were hemmed in by a flock of guards.

"Oh," the blonde witch gave a whistle and said, "what an admirably, reckless move."

"And it makes no sense." The Black-veiled witch shook her head. "It appears that the church doesn't leave you with a great impression."

"Do not bluff!" Appen roared. "Your God's Punishment Warriors are indeed a miracle and are unimaginably strong. However, they're not here! We have God's Stone in the Palace, as many as we want. Do you think you'll have any chance to flee away?"

"Wait." The blonde witch smacked her lips and asked, "Are the witches we have encountered along the way your arrangement?"

"Those aren't real witches, they're tricks the Rats often used." Appen suddenly snapped as if the long-repressed rage was finally coming unleashed. "A handful of Magic Fire Stones should give us a clear picture of your strength. Are there any differences between the witches and the common people without the protection of God's Punishment Warriors? It's not too late to beg for mercy if you hand over the elixir. Just do as I've said. Otherwise, we'll break your arms and legs, and pull out your teeth. You'll become humanoid pots to hold elixir."

"The others will be very angry if they hear your words." She sighed. "Young bloke, you should neither doubt the existence of witches nor laugh at their power. You'd better not let her see you next time, or you may have a very rough time."

"What?!" The Pure Witches' deprecating attitude just infuriated the prince further. "Hope you can stay so stubborn in the prison! Guards, take them down."

Otto stuck his face tightly to the flagstone in the hope of seeing more, but his body was soon stiff. He was too surprised to believe his eyes.

Before the guards could touch the Pure Witch, they changed the direction of the blades and committed suicide.

In a flash, blood bubbled and spurted out everywhere. The guards fell to the ground, silently. The smell of blood pervaded the room immediately.

However, Appen trembled ceaselessly as if he had seen something extremely horrible. The previous confidence and rage dissipated instantly. Urine trickled down his legs as he pissed his pants in fear.

"Let him go." the blonde witch shrugged and said, "He's still useful for us."

"Just a little lesson," the Black-veiled witch said and snapped her fingers. The elder prince sat down on the ground like awakening from a dream. He rocked back and forth trembling.

"Don't worry, you're still alive." She satirized. "But I can't guarantee you'll be so lucky next time."

"Why? How? Here, we ha-have God's Stone of Retaliation," Appen said stutteringly. "How could the witches..."

"Because we're Pure Witches," The blonde witch said with a hint of a smile on her face. "Why don't you comply with the agreement? Your father will be safe, and the existence of Kingdom of Dawn will be extended. You can remain a member when the church defeats Kingdom of Graycastle. Even though your kingdom will be under the governing of the church, you can still live a well-to-do life, and your subjects can be free from the war. Are there any benefits to doing these silly things?"

"And, don't forget to clean up the spot. Your father will wake up soon. Presumably, you don't want him to face such a bloody scene when he wakes up," she added as she left.

Otto felt his back soaked with cold sweat. He chilled at the thought of the Pure Witches who had no fear of the God's Stone, and the church's plan to capture Kingdom of Graycastle and to take over Kingdom of Dawn. As His Majesty Roland said, the church had taken the Four Kingdoms as a safe bet.

...

Appen was the only one left in the room when the King of Dawn woke up. The blood-soaked carpet was covered with cloth.

He fed his father oatmeal spoon by spoon. He seemed to forget his illness, chatting desultorily about government and family affairs with Appen. It appeared as if there were no changes.

Otto dared not catch his breath at the sight of this quirky scene.

Oro and Otto did not leave the hidden path until dusk fell.

"What should we do?" Oro, who had always been unflappable, questioned, panic leaking into his voice.

"Tell all these things to Earl Quinn... and our parents." He gritted his teeth. "The problem is beyond our capability."

"But you've seen the Pure Witch resist God's Stone. What difference does it make if our families and Earl Quinn know the truth?"

"I know someone who can deal with them." Otto looked at his friend and said slowly, "We can ask for the help. Have a messenger of Kingdom of Graycastle send the news to His Majesty Roland Wimbledon!"

Chapter 578 - A Life-or-death Report

Yorko's life had been very comfortable of late.

With the King of Dawn still to recuperate, Prince Roland seemed to have forgotten about him as well. It was only the nobles who did not ignore this ambassador from a neighboring country.

He attended extravagant banquets and indulged in various pleasures with Denise, who even introduced him to exclusive clubs and brothels. The abundance and unique flavors of the capital were things he would never be able to enjoy in Graycastle.

His current life was only made possible because of his title as "Wimbledon's royal ambassador".

Although his rank was equivalent to an earl, yet in certain ways, he possessed more advantages than an earl. The latter could only do as he pleased within his own fief, while the former could enjoy the privileges of an upper noble in the other kingdoms as well.

This clearly showed him the benefits that status accorded.

The bodyguard assigned him to by His Majesty, named Hill Fawkes, was also a peculiar person.

Whenever Yorko made contact with a new person, Hill would sneak into that person's bedroom within the following three nights and later inform Yorko about that person's identity, status and interests. If the person was a big shot, nearly everything about his life (including his hobbies) could be found out. With Hill's assistance, Yorko was able to mingle within the noble community even more smoothly.

Furthermore, Hill's arrangements allowed him to make considerable progress on his plan to purchase slaves.

Once, after a great night in bed with Denise, he mentioned this plan to her and she immediately agreed to his idea—the existing caravan would be used to establish a slave trading route, through which he would purchase the refugees required by His Majesty from the other slave traffickers, and transport them to Graycastle where they would be resold. The condition was that the slaves had to each be given an identity as a free citizen, and not be treated merely as goods for resale.

Of course, merchants were merchants after all; even at a time of pleasure, they did not forget to negotiate the price. While Denise would not charge a commission, Yorko would have to cover all of the transportation expenses. After factoring in the manpower costs, meal costs, vehicle fees and other expenses, he calculated that the selling price of each slave had to be set at 10 silver royals in order for the business to reach his desired profit.

When Hill entrusted him with this task, he assuredly accepted and proclaimed that he would not let any more talented people end up as slaves. His attitude undoubtedly deepened Denise's attraction to him. After concluding the brief negotiation, the two of them returned to the bed for another passionate romp.

In the following days, Yorko sent Hill to negotiate with the other parties involved so that he did not have to take care of these trivial business matters himself.

Soon, when he heard that the first batch of slaves, comprising of 25 people, had been purchased the previous day, he realized that it made him eligible for the 125 silver royals which His Majesty had promised as a reward.

Is there another job where I can make money just by lying in bed?

Being an ambassador is simply awesome!

Just as Yorko was deliberating over where to go for fun today, a servant knocked on the door and walked into the room. "Your Excellency, the eldest son of the Luoxi Family, Lord Otto, wishes to meet you."

"Otto Luoxi?" Yorko was familiar with this name. He knew that Luoxi was one of the three powerful families of King's City of Kingdom of Dawn, and was only second in power to the Moya royal family. Denise had even warned him that he was free to court any woman except those of these three families, especially the Quinn family. His status as an ambassador would be insufficient to protect him in that case. 

Yorko did not have to worry since this was the reason as he had paid great caution in all of his love affairs. "Perhaps, he has come to invite me to another banquet?"

"Bring him in."

A young man entered the study. He first took a good look around the place, and then closed the windows in the room on his own initiative before he sat down on the chair intended for him.

His expression looked somewhat anxious. The dark circles under his eyes revealed that he had stayed up late and not slept much the previous night.

Yorko was against the idea of emptying one's vitality for the sake of enjoyment. In his opinion, the abstemious sexual pleasure was beneficial as it made both partners happy and healthy. In contrast, depleting all of one's energy in bed would harm one's physical potential in the long term. Prince Appen was a clear example of this. His face had turned completely pale, and if he did not change his ways, he would be incapable of seeking pleasure by the time he turned 30.

The young man did not say anything for a long time. This surprised Yorko. It felt discourteous, especially coming from one of the three families. He waited for a while before he decided to break the silence. "Greetings. You should be Lord Otto Luoxi. What brings..."

"You're able to contact His Majesty Roland Wimbledon, right?" The young man suddenly snapped. "I have an important report for him."

"Eh..." Yorko was puzzled. "What report?"

"It's all written in here." Otto took out a letter, placed it in front of Yorko, and added ten gold royals on top of it. "And this money is for reward. Please make sure that this letter reaches your king. The information concerns the survival of Kingdom of Graycastle!"

Yorko inhaled a mouthful of cold air. "The survival of Kingdom of Graycastle? This has to be an exaggeration." Otto continued to stare at him with gleaming eyes until he collected his wits and replied, "I understand. Don't worry, I'll do as you say and deliver this to His Majesty."

"Make sure it's done as soon as possible." After exhorting Yorko repeatedly, Otto got up and departed. His anxious demeanor clearly suggested that he was not lying.

Yorko hastily kept the ten gold royals in his pocket. Instead, he left the letter untouched. He was aware that it had to be handled with great caution and thus it was best to ask Hill for advice first.

...

At night, when Hill Fawkes entered his bedroom, Yorko went through what happened during the day.

After listening to Yorko's account, Hill pondered for a while before he pulled out a small knife and cleanly opened the letter.

"What're you doing!" Yorko exclaimed in shock. "Opening a letter intended for His Majesty is a grave offense!"

"Shh." Hill made a gesture to keep quiet. "If the information is truly as important as he claims, it would be wrong for us to use conventional means to deliver this letter. A messenger from City of Dawn to Western Region will take at least a month, while bad situations may occur on the road. It'd be too risky."

"What has that got to do with opening the letter?"

"Do you remember the gray falcons I've been keeping? They're the fastest couriers of all. They can reach City of Dawn within two to three days." Hill explained. "At City of Dawn, they'll pass the letter to another group of falcons, and within a week, His Majesty will be able to receive it. However, they're unable to carry such a large envelope. After I've read the contents, I'll rewrite the letter as a secret letter."

"Gray falcons are able to send letters like carrier pigeons?" Yorko was astonished. "I'd thought you raised them for hunting."

"They're much smarter than pigeons." Hill remarked. He then opened the letter and soon his expression turned grim. "Who would think something like this could happen..."

"What's written in it?"

"Do you really want to know?" Hill turned his head.

"Never mind." Yorko coughed twice. "I'd rather be able to sleep well tonight."

"A wise choice." Hill approved. "Also, it's best you don't mention to anyone that Otto Luoxi came to find you. All banquets in the palace should be canceled or postponed for now." He paused briefly before revealing. "They're in deep trouble.

Chapter 579 - Two Incoming Letters

Roland received a letter from Calvin Kant, Duke of the Northern Region.

It was accompanied by a fingerprinted memorandum that expressed the Northern Region's intent of loyalty to His Majesty.

The letter itself talked about more trivial matters.

First, it asked when Roland would stage his accession ceremony, so that the Duke could prepare his journey to attend. This was the convention every time a new king was soon to be coronated.

The next question asked about the new policies, such as how they should be enforced, what the remaining powers of the nobles were, how succession arrangements should be made and what the management scope of the city hall should be.

These questions were predictable. But it was the last question which surprised Roland.

At the end of the letter, the Duke proposed a connection through marriage. An entire page was dedicated to extolling the beauty and talent of his daughter, Edith. It also claimed that she would be able to handle all kinds of issues and affairs, whether they were domestic or foreign, and therefore, she was the most suitable candidate to be queen. Roland laughed heartily as he read through this section of the letter.

"What're you laughing about?" Nightingale's voice came from the direction of the deck chair.

"A very interesting... father." He raised the letter. "Have a look at this."

Nightingale came out of her Mist, took the letter from Roland, and read it. Then she frowned and asked, "You won't agree to it, will you?"

"Of course not," Roland replied lightheartedly. "I don't need marriage connections to preserve the stability of my throne. Furthermore, the letter makes her sound so able that I won't even dare to let her into the castle. Or else, it may become unclear who the king is."

"You do sound truthful." Nightingale remarked and visibly sighed in relief.

"Hey, don't you believe me?"

"It's not that I don't believe you, but you know that witches can't..." She paused for a moment before continuing. "After our awakenings, we can't be considered complete women anymore."

"I don't think that way." Roland shook his head in disagreement. To him, the social perception that infertility was a defect would be expunged as civilization gradually progressed. Conversely, the beautiful appearances, attractive physiques and incredible abilities which magic power could bring about would become increasingly important and desirable over time. As long as Mankind lived on, witches would inevitably rise up as a group. Fortunately, they could be born in normal humans, and furthermore, there was no specific method to trigger an awakening. These thus allowed witches and normal humans to live and work together or perhaps even to marry.

Just as Roland was about to expound at length on his personal view of witches, a gray falcon flew into the room through an open window and perched on Roland's desk with a loud thump.

A loop of yellow cloth was tied around its claws—this meant that it was a secret letter which arrived from the old King's City.

Roland swallowed his words, took a piece of dried fish out of a drawer, and tossed it to the gray falcon which was already waiting for its reward. Then he unwound the cloth and took out the neatly-folded oilpaper from within.

As the size of the secret letter was limited, the contents written on it had to be extremely concise.

The first sentence of the letter was enough to give Roland a huge shock.

"The palace of Kingdom of Dawn has been infiltrated by a Pure Witch who can defy the God's Stone of Retaliation to use their abilities."

"Witches who're immune to the influence of the God's Stone?" As far as Roland knew, only two kinds of beings could do this. The first was Extraordinaries with their enhanced bodies, while the second was senior demons that were called Magic Slayer.

As Roland continued reading, he realized that each successive line of news got more and more shocking.

"When Prince Appen attempted to resist the Pure Witch, they manipulated his guards to slit their own throats."

"The church's aim is to establish firm control over the Kingdom of Dawn before it places full concentration on attacking the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Otto Luoxi and Oro Tokat witnessed everything that took place. The three families hope to receive your kind aid."

Roland suddenly realized that his plans to recapture Southernmost Region would have to be adjusted substantially.

Three days passed.

Roland convened a strategy discussion meeting in the castle's reception room.

The attendees included City Hall Director, Barov; Commander of the First Army, Iron Axe; Chief Knight, Carter; Longsong Stronghold Consul, Petrov; Witch Union representatives, Wendy and Agatha; a representative of Sleeping Island's witches, Sylvie; and lastly, Pearl of the Northern Region, Edith.

"That's the current situation, basically speaking." Roland concluded after recounting the contents of the secret letter to the attendees. "Although we're unable to verify the information, if everything written in the letter is to be believed, the Kingdom of Graycastle shall unquestionably face its biggest challenge before the next Battle of Divine Will. After some consideration, I've decided that the Southernmost Region's battle arrangements have to be temporarily suspended." He glanced towards Iron Axe. "Will that be okay?"

As the chief commander of the spring offensive, Iron Axe had swiftly seized Willow Town and Fallen Dragon Ridge according to plan, and thus gave Roland control over the gateway towns that connected the City of Neverwinter and the Southern Territory. Iron Axe had intended to build on this success by completing the territorial expansion before autumn arrived. This would include bringing the Sand Nation under the domain of Roland's kingdom. The two people who would then be responsible for establishing good relations between the two races were Echo and Iron Axe. As both of them belonged to the Mojin Clan, they could serve as mediators in a racial conflict. Iron Axe had especially yearned to return to Iron Sand City to take revenge for being framed. Hence, allowing him to lead the troops to seize the Southernmost Region was the best reward that Roland could have given him. Now that the battle plans were suspended, it was understandable if he was disappointed.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Iron Axe did not reveal any expression, and his reply was as sure as ever. "I suggest that we let the newly-trained soldiers take the place of the First Army soldiers stationed at Fallen Dragon Ridge. They'll have no problems dealing with the nobles there, while this would allow the First Army to gather its greatest strength to fight against the church."

"We'll do exactly that." Roland nodded approvingly before he stood up and walked in front of the large map. "Presently, we face two main problems. The first is that we don't know when the enemy will attack. The second is that we don't know where they'll attack from. The church used to have only one route to invade the Kingdom of Graycastle. This would be traveling directly south through Coldwind Ridge to reach King's City. However, now that the church controls the Kingdom of Dawn, it's possible that the Judgement Army will attack us through their border. Does anyone have a good idea how we can cope with this?"

"No matter where they appear from, they'll first have to go through the Northern Region." Barov was first to speak. "Coldwind Ridge, Deepvalley Town, City of Evernight and Palisade City, all of these are places administered by Duke Calvin. I suggest that we allow Miss Edith to go back and inform her father about this. We'll then keep a lookout for enemies in the Northern Region. This is the most secure way. But, Your Majesty..." The City Hall Director rubbed his hands together. "Do we truly stand a chance against the church?"

This foolish question was badly received by everyone present. Edith unceremoniously replied, "If His Majesty says that we don't have a chance, are you going to wag your tail at the church and beg for mercy?"

"What nonsense are you talking? As the City Hall Director, I have to make contingency plans for the worst that can happen..."

Edith ignored him and turned towards Roland. "Your Majesty, while it's indeed necessary to send people to monitor every road in the north, it won't be an effective method on its own. The response will be slow, and by the time enemies are discovered, it'll mean that they have already begun to act. This'll give you very little time to respond."

"Do you have a better plan?"

"Of course." Edith replied confidently. "We should send people to Hermes."

"The church's holy city?" Carter frowned in disdain. "What use would that be? Do you think the Pope will inform you when he dispatches his army?"

"Also, the people living there are believers and zealots. It'll be difficult for spies to blend in." Petrov added.

"There's no need to enter the holy city." Edith laughed. "All we need to do is to have a nice chat with a nearby merchant."

Chapter 580 - The Tooth Extraction Campaign

"Tell me more." Roland could not help becoming interested in Edith's idea.

"The terrain of Hermes is very unique. There's a slope around this area of the Impassable Mountain Range. The old part of the holy city is located at the lower end of the slope, while the new part is built on a plateau on the higher end. The environment there is very harsh. Although there're natural barriers that keep demonic beasts away, the highland isn't really suitable for living, let alone for cultivating and farming. Thus the food and supplies of the new holy city have to be provided by the old one, despite the fact that the latter's mass land can only produce enough supplies for the 20,000 or so people living downhill."

Edith walked to Roland's side, pointed at the map, and continued, "This means that they have to gather supplies from other places. For example, they would buy plots of land from churches and related organizations in nearby cities. Or they would rent wheat fields for farming. Every year during autumn, dozens of horse carriages would arrive from the four kingdoms every day to provide supplies to the new holy city. The old holy city has become something like a market town where these carriages may rest, as well as a checkpoint where the church can control the flow of people in and out of the new city."

"In other words, whenever they mobilize the Judgement Army, the merchants here would definitely witness it. In fact, even before the army acts, we can observe changes in the transportation of supplies to deduce when they'll move out."

The young woman spoke as if she was taking part in a modern-day oratorical competition. Her eyes routinely swept across everyone present to make sure that they were paying attention to herself. The level of confidence she displayed was rarely seen in women of her era.

Roland silently thought to himself, "Perhaps what Calvin Kant wrote in the letter isn't all boastful bullsh*t. Judging from Edith's manner, she is indeed worthy of being called 'Pearl of the Northern Region'." 

"How do you know all of this so well?" Barov stroked his beard as he queried. "It's almost as if you came from there."

"I lived there for a period of time," Edith replied without a second thought, "because of the Agreement on the Months of Demons."

"What's that?" Roland asked doubtfully. He seemed to have an impression of what it was, but could not recall the exact details of it.

"How can you not know?" The young woman blinked in amazement. "To help the church tide over the disasters during the Months of Demons, the four kingdoms had to dispatch troops to aid Hermes and fight alongside the Judgement Army. Your older brother, Gerald Wimbledon, was the commander of Graycastle's border troops. I've fought under him before. However, there seem to be some mishaps over the past year. It's reported that the coalition of the four kingdoms has suffered many casualties, while the church's Judgement Army has suffered a similar loss."

"This is indeed so." Petrov corroborated what Edith said. "My friend, Rene Medde, completed his knight test in Hermes."

"Does every knight have to fight against demonic beasts before he can be granted his title?" Roland looked towards Carter. "Why haven't you mentioned this before?"

"Ahem, this is a method that knights from small towns love to use." Carter shrugged his shoulders. "The knightage of King's City has its own rules for that. Apart from valiant combat, a knight's loyalty and knowledge are also very important considerations. These can't be proven simply by fighting against some evil creatures."

"By the way, Your Majesty." Edith did not refute Carter's words and instead turned to face Roland. "May I inspect how your army fights in combat? I've always been curious as to how you managed to capture King's City in just one day. If I can understand how the First Army operates, I may be able to contribute in future battles."

This was not a big problem. There were no issues of secrecy. With the weaponry that the First Army now possessed, it was impossible to emulate their methods just by observing. As technology advanced, wars were becoming more and more expensive. Without a complete logistics supply system and industrial production support system, a batch of flintlocks would be utterly useless on its own. Furthermore, by displaying his military strength to the loyalists of the Northern Region, he could not only increase their confidence in him, but also deter them from having any secession ideas. As he thought about this, Roland nodded at Iron Axe and ordered, "Go and make arrangements for her."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, I suggest that you issue a decree, in the name of the king, to every city and town in Graycastle to expel their churches." Barov was unwilling to be outdone by Edith. "Or else, when the war begins, the churches of these places will become strongholds from where they devour the whole kingdom."

"There aren't many lords who would happily do so. The church is typically a major source of tax revenue, and its power can be quite frightening. The lords prefer to follow the way that the wind blows." Edith shrugged her shoulders. "This is also how the nobles usually act."

"In any case, it's better than not doing anything at all." The director glared at the young woman angrily.

"Of course." She laughed dismissively. "The Northern Region will fully comply with this decree."

"Then we shall do that." Roland nodded in approval of Barov's idea.

"This could be a very difficult battle." Sylvie's facial expression seemed rather anxious. "It's best that you inform Lady Tilly. The Sleeping Island witches may be able to assist you."

As Roland listened to Sylvie, he could not help laughing bitterly in his heart. Sleeping Island's problems amounted to no less than his. He had still not heard back from them after sending out the intelligence regarding the Bloodfang Association. If Tilly brought her subordinates to aid him while their internal issues were still not resolved, Sleeping Island might fall into big trouble. However, this did not mean that Sylvie's words were senseless. Witches were indeed the most effective way of dealing with the Pure Witch and their uncanny abilities. "I'll remember to write a letter to her," he replied.

"Don't forget to prepare God's Stones of Retaliation for your men." Agatha was next to chime in. "Throughout the Union's centuries of existence, there have been several witches with inconceivable levels of ability. Any normal person who didn't wear a God's Stone would have completely no resistance against them. One of these witches could easily take away the lives of thousands of people."

"Won't a flintlock or cannon work against them?"

"Let's not even mention a witch like Nightingale, who can move close to your army easily. Some abilities already take effect by the time you see the witch."

Roland was dumbstruck for a moment. The First Army, including its reserve forces, already comprised of 5,000 men. Where was he going to find so many God's Stones of Retaliation? Even if he used witch blood to split the God's Stones into more pieces, he would not be able to produce a sufficient amount in such a short time.

"Your Majesty, you can try extorting these Stones from the churches." Iron Axe suggested. "If we only attack the church halls and believers, while not affecting the lives of civilians, even the nobles would not dare to oppose you openly. This way, we can fulfill Lord Barov's suggestion while also obtaining a large amount of God's Stones for free."

The corners of Barov's mouth arched into a grin. "Do you mean we should send out the First Army to plunder the churches?"

"We'll destroy the strongholds of the enemy, just like breaking off the fangs of a poisonous snake." The commander corrected Barov. "This will also allow Miss Edith to observe the First Army engage in a real fight. Compared to a rehearsal, this would be much more informative."

"I also think so." Edith laughed in agreement.

"This is indeed killing many birds with one stone." Roland thumped the table emphatically. "Let's called it the 'Tooth Extraction Campaign'."

...

Chapter 581 - Late Night Talk

Late at night, Wendy called all of the witches into her bedroom.

The usually spacious room was now packed.

It felt like deja vu. A year ago, Wendy had done the same thing. She had gathered all of the witches to inform them of the situation in Border Town and quell their uneasiness.

At that time, only seven of their sisters were able to escape from the Barbarian Lands. The witches were left traumatized, and were unsure and afraid of what was in store ahead. Many came to Border Town with a mentality that "We've suffered so much that whatever happens next is a blessing". To them, survival itself was a difficult game, not to mention dealing with the church which perpetually hung over their heads like a shadow.

This time, the looks and feelings of everyone in the room were completely different from a year ago.

At present, the witches' consideration was gradually shifting away from focusing on survival to maintaining their relatively carefree lives.

There was no more oppression and hostility from other people.

No more worries about food and safety.

In essence, this place had become the witches' "Holy Mountain".

Furthermore, if they could help His Majesty Roland to defeat the church successfully, all of their nightmares would vanish and they would be truly liberated forever.

Wendy waited until everyone's eyes were fixed on her before she began. "The church is coming."

The daytime meeting did not offer much in the way of intelligence. Wendy quickly finished telling the witches about the contents of the secret letter, and the room fell into an awkward silence.

"Will His Majesty... win?" After some time, Mystery Moon asked almost inaudibly. "I'm willing to spend all of my time generating electricity for him at the factory area..."

"Oh come on, His Majesty would have to arrange someone to take care of you if so." Lily smirked. "It's best you don't give him more trouble at a time like this."

"What trouble!"

The witches in the room started to laugh. Now that the first person had spoken, more and more voices were heard in the room.

"I'll work even harder to produce white liquor." Evelyn resolved.

"But, would so much liquor be needed while we're at war with the church?"

"Aye... is that so?"

"I believe His Majesty won't lose. Didn't Carter also manage to severely injure Ashes, the Extraordinary Witch?" Hummingbird mooted. "And the God's Punishment Army isn't nearly as powerful as Ashes."

"Is that true? Even the invincible Ashes has lost before?" Softfeathers, who rarely spoke, looked surprised.

"I won't consider it a loss. Carter was battered into unconscious while Ashes was completely incapacitated. It's more like a tie."

"As far as I know, it wasn't a fair fight." Agatha disputed. "Had the Extraordinary used equivalent weapons to Carter's, she would have been in a stronger position."

"But Sleeping Island only has one Extraordinary, while there're thousands of soldiers carrying guns."

"Hold it, sisters. Your debate's heading in the wrong direction." Scroll shook her head in disapproval. "We're talking about the church and His Majesty now."

Wendy quietly heaved a sigh of relief. Although everyone was anxious, nobody seemed afraid of fighting against the church. This would have been completely inconceivable a year ago, when the might of the church seemed to be as steady and unshakeable as a huge mountain. None of the witches who fought against them were able to survive. The Witch Cooperation Association had to hide in various places, and only managed to shake off the chasing enemies by advancing towards the secluded Impassable Mountain Range.

Of course, this mentality change was, for the most part, down to the fact that His Majesty had never lost a foreign war.

"All in all, this war will be crucial to the future of the Witch Union." Wendy inhaled a deep breath. "Has anyone thought about what will happen if His Majesty completely defeats the church?"

Everyone in the room turned silent, but a strange and indescribable twinkle gleamed in their eyes.

"The entire kingdom... and maybe even the entire continent, will become safe for witches to reside in. In His Majesty's territory, we'll be able to create a new world together with other people, one where everyone enjoys equal honor and status. This is also what His Majesty has mentioned several times. I just didn't think that it could all be possible so soon."

Wendy paused for a short while. "However, going by His Majesty's usual way of doing things, I urge everyone not to work too hard. Just do your jobs as usual. We'll not fail if we can keep this confidence."

She did not comprehend sophisticated ideas, nor was she among the Union's most able and brightest witches. Now that His Majesty had placed her in charge of the Union, she simply did what she could. Every time before an expedition, His Majesty would give an impassioned speech to the First Army. Wendy could never think of a way to inspire the witches in the same way as him. In the end, she always resorted to speaking what she felt at the bottom of her heart.

"The intention to be considerate of other people is more important than anything else." She firmly remembered these words of Scroll.

"This place is our home and will serve as the turning point for the fates of all witches. I'll give all of myself for it!"

Wendy stretched out her left hand, with the back of her hand facing upwards.

Scroll was the first to press her hand on top of Wendy's.

Then, Nightingale and Anna followed.

"For His Majesty and City of Neverwinter!"

All of the witches gathered together with their hands stacked on top of each other's. The witches of the Bloodfang Association had hesitated for a while, as though they were unsure whether they would be accepted by everyone else, until Leaf pulled them into the circle. As per convention, they were only considered truly integrated into the group after they made hand contact with the other witches.

"I really don't wish to have to deal with this annoying bunch before fighting against the demons."

Although Agatha voiced her displeasure, she also stretched out her hand and joined in.

Lastly, Wendy placed her right hand on top of the stack and looked around at everyone.

"For the Witch Union!"

"For the... eternal Holy Mountain!"

...

After the witches departed, only Wendy and Nightingale were left in the room.

As Wendy was closing the door, she suddenly felt a breeze of cold wind behind her back.

She turned her head back, only to see that Nightingale had silently opened the window, and was now sitting on the sill and looking into the night sky. The night breeze blew her hair upwards, while at the same time, a faint fragrance whiffed by.

"Are you also worried about this war?" Wendy walked over to the window and asked.

"Worried?" Nightingale turned her head to face Wendy. Under the glow of the Stone of Light, scorching rays gleamed in her pupils. "The only thing I'm worried about is that I'll laugh myself to death."

"L-laugh?"

It was only at this time that Wendy felt the piercing aura that emanated from the latter's body. Unlike most witches, Nightingale could release her magic powers even when she was not actively using her abilities. To her, these powers were no longer elusive and intangible things, but instead were like sharp blades which created inaccessible regions of space. It was as if her misty world was slowly eating into the space around itself and beginning to take hold of the physical world. Ever since she came to Border Town, this feeling was becoming more and more pronounced to the people around her.

To an enemy, this would be the greatest portent of danger.

"I've waited a long time to take proper revenge on the church," Nightingale slowly explained. "Our sisters who wrongly died at the church's hands must also be looking forward to this day. The taste of revenge, from my experience, is truly unforgettable."

It was hard to imagine that this was the same woman who lingered in bed and did not want to wake up in the morning. Fortunately, she wasn't an enemy of the sisters.

Wendy reached her hand out to Nightingale. Upon contact, the piercing aura disappeared. She proceeded to cuddle Nightingale in her arms.

"You can continue to do whatever you want. Just remember to take good care of His Majesty... and also yourself. Is that understood?"

"Yes." Nightingale closed her eyes and replied softly. "I will."

Chapter 582 - Military Strategy

Once the war order was issued, Neverwinter immediately went into overdrive.

Bags of wheat plundered from Fallen Dragon Ridge quickly filled up the previously-empty granaries. A portion of these would be shelled and powdered into rations for the soldiers participating in the war.

Other than food, there were also firearms and ammunition. The soldiers recruited during the Months of Demons had already completed their basic training, and the outstanding cadets were hastily incorporated into the ranks of the First Army and given new weapons and uniforms. Those who performed average were placed in the reserve force and assigned to one of Roland's cities, where they replaced the veterans stationed there.

By doing so, Neverwinter's available military strength was rapidly increased to 5,000 men. In theory, this put them on par with the Judgement Army's numbers. However, due to limitations on transportation capacity, the further the battlefield was from Western Region, the fewer the number of soldiers who could enter battle would be.

Because Roland assessed that the Tooth Extraction Campaign would not be too difficult, he eventually decided to send out 1,500 men, with Iron Axe serving as the commander. In this expedition, the Adviser Department was absorbed into the First Army, and the key members were made up of nobles, knights and commoners from Longsong Area. This included Sir Eltek, who was Morning Light's father, and Trevor, Chief Bodyguard of the Honeysuckle Family. The criteria was that they had to have experience in artillery warfare, or had served in the Second Army.

Although the people Roland selected were not professionals in this field, Roland trusted that they could learn on the job, and in any case, it was good to have a few more people to provide counsel to the commander. They did not possess any actual power to command. It was entirely up to Iron Axe whether to adopt their plans and advice.

After considering that the First Army might encounter the church's Pure Witch during the expedition, Roland decided that "Eye of Magic" Sylvie and "Confinement Cage" Iffy would be following them as well. The former could detect magic power and alert the army to the enemies' positions, while the latter could capture Pure Witch under the right circumstances. Sylvie would also bring along a Sigil of Listening so that she could contact Neverwinter at any time. As a result of these preparations, an army with modern military structures, firepower, and communication capabilities slowly began to take shape.

The Tooth Extraction Campaign was mainly targeted at Redwater City, Silver City and Impassable Castle, the three cities which were closest in distance to Western Region. The preparation for the expedition required four days of time. Apart from choosing which of his reliable guards to send towards the old holy city, Roland spent the rest of the time discussing various details of the war together with the commander and the Adviser Department.

One such detail, which Roland found difficult to resolve, was the location where they would intercept the enemy.

Everyone had their own views on this issue, and nobody could convince anyone else that they were right.

The commander of the gun battalion, Brian, was adamant that the army should intercept the enemy within Western Region. His reasoning was very substantial. "The battle has to be carried out in Western Region for the First Army to fully utilize its advantage in firepower. With our paddle steamers providing logistical support, we'll be able to replenish ammunition and manpower in less than a day. No matter how long the battle drags on, we can be assured of victory. This distance from their base will also be extremely disadvantageous to the church. If they cannot break through within a month, they won't even have any food left."

Conversely, Edith was the main advocate of fighting outside the Western Region. "Do you really think that they'll have no food? Do you know how many church believers there are in the Kingdom of Graycastle? Even if all of the churches are burned to the ground, the Pope simply has to issue an order and these people will bring all the food they have to the Judgement Army. Mid-July is also the ripening season of wheat. As long as the enemy occupies one or two cities, they'll surely have a continuous supply of food. And this is not the scariest thing. Don't we already know that the church possesses Pills of Madness which can turn ordinary people into enchanted monsters? If the war situation turns bad for them, they may willfully force the commoners in these places to consume these pills, and manipulate them to fight against our army so as to wear us down. What will we do then?"

"You don't understand anything about gunpowder weapons." Van'er was on Brian's side regarding this issue. "Transporting cannons and ammunition is very costly and difficult. They aren't like swords, which can be used many times. A single battle will require many ships to replenish the supplies that are expended. If we do as you say and intercept the enemy before they enter our kingdom, what will we do when we run out of ammunition?"

"I admit that I don't understand gunpowder weapons, nor the specific methods which your army uses to fight. What I do know is that the objective is the most important thing in a battle. If we cannot achieve our intended objective, even victory will be a failure." Edith remained unrelenting. "His Majesty needs every one of his citizens. How can you allow the church to enter our kingdom and wantonly destroy the populace?"

"If we cannot win the battle, everything else is meaningless."

"What we have to do is to solve those problems that seem unsolvable."

The only two people present who could provide a final verdict were Roland and Iron Axe. However, whenever Roland was around, Iron Axe would never speak more than he needed to. No matter what order Roland issued, he would agree and execute it unconditionally. As both viewpoints in this argument had their pros and cons, Roland was not able to make a decision immediately.

The most effective way of using gunpowder weapons in battle was to set up a crossfire net and wait for the enemy to enter it. The Western Region was undoubtedly the ideal location for something like this. However, if the church indeed used his citizens as a vanguard for their army, his losses would be huge. While the army's weapons could easily subdue the enchanted people, the population loss would be hard to make up for in the short term.

It was only on the day before the army set out that Sir Eltek made a suggestion which brought an end to this dispute.

"Why don't we place our troops and supplies in the border cities in advance?" He suggested while stroking his beard. "This way, we can substantially shorten the transport distances."

Brian shook his head in disapproval without giving the idea a second thought. "That's only possible if we can know beforehand where the church will be attacking from."

"Sir, the Northern Region doesn't have enough riverways. If we gather our troops in the wrong positions, we may even be unable to catch up with the enemy's movement." Carter added. "Furthermore, the border between Kingdom of Graycastle and Kingdom of Dawn is very long. We won't be able to keep watch on every passageway."

"It's true that we don't know where the enemy will attack from. But we can induce them to attack from a particular point."

Everyone was stumped when they heard this suggestion. After a long while, Brian frowned and remarked. "I'm afraid that only the Pope can do something like this."

Meanwhile, Edith revealed a thoughtful expression on her face.

Sir Eltek was unperturbed by the sarcastic response he received. He candidly replied, "The truth is, I got the idea from Miss Edith. If we can estimate the time of the church's invasion based on the transportation of food supplies, then the church would also be able to detect the approaching of war based on changes in our border cities."

"Coldwind Ridge!" Edith suddenly exclaimed.

"Indeed." The old knight laughed. "If we amass supplies in Coldwind Ridge and station the First Army in the nearby Deepvalley Town, we can be confident of directing the enemy to attack from a certain route, agree?"

"How so?" Brian remained puzzled.

"Because Coldwind Ridge is too near to the holy city," Edith explained. "Rather than wait for the church to attack, it's better for us to assume an offensive stance and compel them to concentrate their forces in this area."

"I see." Roland was quick to understand what was going on. Deepvalley Town was the only town connected to the central network of rivers. Although it was far away, his fleet of paddle steamers would be able to ship large quantities of supplies over there within one or two months, while the last leg of the transportation journey, which had to be done by land, could be reduced to only three days. Although a number of supplies might not be completely sufficient, it would at least be able to maintain a large-scale battle for some time. Of course, a better way would be to set up a defense line below Coldwind Ridge and wait for the enemy to enter the position that was made up of bunkers, barb wires and trenches.

"What if they insist on not going this way?" Van'er enquired.

"Then the holy city of Hermes will be completely flattened," Roland answered.

Chapter 583 - Anna's Secret

When Anna opened her eyes, she saw that all around her was a fiery red. Scorching hot air blew directly at her face and scalded her skin.

Blazing flames.

The blazing flames were everywhere. Smoke billowed from the lower part of the shed and caused her to choke.

She heard cries from the back room, but was unsure if it was just a hallucination. As wood came into contact with the flames, they let out a crackling sound. Every now and then, she would notice sparks and splinters fall from overhead. She got off her haystack and tried to make her way towards the back room, but was quickly repelled by incoming heat waves.

Eventually, she scrambled her way out of the shed, and watched helplessly as her house was engulfed by the raging flames.

Her neighbors started to crowd around as well. Some tried to help put out the fire. However, the nearest water source was Redwater River, which was located outside the town. The few pots of water which they did their best to fetch had no effect on the fire at all.

After Anna rushed back and forth several times, she suddenly saw the figure of her father.

He had hurried back from the mines. He was still wearing his soiled coat and his face was covered with dark gray dust. He stood beside the house, which had been reduced to its wooden frames, and stared blankly at it.

As though she saw her tower of strength, Anna could no longer suppress the fear and panic in her heart, and tears began to roll down her face like pearls. She cried and screamed as she ran towards her father and held on to him tightly.

However, her father did not comfort her as she hoped.

"Where's your mother?" He grabbed her by the shoulder so violently that it caused her to squeal in pain. "And your brother!"

Anna shook her head, but did not expect that what followed would be a slap on the face.

"Did you actually escape alone? Why didn't you rescue them?"

"Damn, how can you only care about yourself?"

Anna suddenly sat bolt upright in her bed, panting heavily. The scolding voice continued to reverberate beside her ears and refused to go away.

This dream again.

She picked up a cup from the bedside table and gulped down the cold water. It took her quite a long time to recover fully.

On the first day of every month, Anna would dream of this scene. It was as if there was someone in her brain who had to constantly remind her of the past. She turned her head and examined the calendar on her desk. Today happened to be the last day of the first week of summer, and also the day of the month that the Witch Union distributed the salaries.

She washed herself simply and put on her clothes. Then she walked out of the castle and headed towards the Witch Building in the backyard.

"Sister Anna!" Ring grinned upon the sight of her. "You've come so early!"

"Good morning." Wendy greeted and laughed softly. "The weather today seems good. Will you still be going to the North Slope Mountain later?"

"Lady... Anna." Her two former classmates hurriedly bowed in respect.

"Call me Anna, just like the old times." She waved her hands, took a seat at one side of a long table, and pondered for a moment before answering. "I have some other things to do first. I'll only be going in the afternoon."

"Oh? That's rare." Wendy revealed a spirited expression. "Could it be that you and His Majesty Roland are..."

"Are they going shopping!" Ring shouted excitedly.

Pearl and Grayrabbit, who were listening on one side, laughed uncontrollably.

Anna shook her head in denial but did not say anything further.

Neither did Wendy continue to ask. She took out an envelope from a drawer and placed it in Anna's hands. "This is the month's salary. Two gold royals."

"Thank you."

Witches did not have to prepare what they ate or wore, nor did they have to pay for rent or transport. They would even be given free prototypes of the luxury goods sold in the convenience market, and could request for more or newer items easily. Therefore, most witches felt that their salaries were not of much use, and did not understand why His Majesty insisted on paying them. Only Anna was able to guess why Roland did so. Furthermore, this measure inadvertently did her a favor.

She walked back to the castle hall while holding onto her salary envelope. When she reached, she saw that the Chief Knight, Carter Lannis, was already waiting there.

"Miss Anna." Carter stood up and greeted her. "Shall we proceed as usual?"

"Yes." She took a gold royal out of the envelope and handed it to the knight. "Let's go."

...

During the reconstruction of Border Town, the natives were each given a new lodging. Anna's father was no exception.

After he sold Anna for a price of 25 gold royals to the church, she never had any contact with him again.

From that moment, she no longer considered him her father.

However, there were some things which Anna could not completely walk away from.

For example, the gold royal which she let Carter pass to her father as the cost of living.

Like most poor people who suddenly received a windfall, her father did not hold on to the sale money for too long. Within half a year, he became penniless by gambling, as well as being a victim of fraud and theft. At that time, Anna was not yet well known, but her talent was spotted by natives when she used her fire abilities to mend the gaps in the city walls. Her father tried to depute a neighbor to visit Anna, but was invariably rejected and ridiculed. When Carter, who was then in charge of organizing the militia, heard about this matter, he disclosed it to Anna.

From then on, she knew that she had to do something in order to keep her father quiet.

She did not wish to see him cause trouble to Roland.

She walked with Carter to a quiet neighborhood in the east of the city and went up to the second floor of a building.

Carter turned his head back to face her. "Miss Anna, wait for me here."

"Sorry to trouble you."

"No, it's nothing much." He walked up to a door and knocked forcefully on it.

After a while, the door creaked open. "Ah... it's you, Knight Sir, I..."

"Why did you take so long to open the door, are you deaf!" Carter yelled. "Move aside and don't stand in the doorway."

"Yes, yes..."

Perhaps this is the way things should be.

Anna leaned against a wall along the corridor and heaved a sigh of relief.

In all honesty, she did not want to care about her once father at all, but she knew that matters would only get worse if she completely disregarded him. Furthermore, she could not approach him by herself, or else, this bigoted and conceited man would act as though he was still her father, and the deterrence effect would be lost.

Rather than pleading him not to do anything, it was better to let him know that there was now a world of difference in their societal status. As the renowned Chief Knight, Carter was considered to be a great noble among the commoners of the Border Area. By having him deliver the gold royal as hush money together with a few sentences of harsh warnings, it should be sufficient to keep the old man quiet, and thus ensure that there would be no trouble for Roland.

Anna did not understand this kind of relationship in the past.

After she was captured and imprisoned, she lost interest in everything and her world turned completely dead gray. It was only when Roland rescued her that her world became colorful again. After living in the castle for a period of time, she gradually understood the complex relationships between people, and also the reasons why her father was angry at her.

But she abhorred these kinds of convoluted things.

She could only be truly relaxed when she was with Roland.

Or when she was reading the books which recorded intriguing knowledge—although they appeared complicated and incomprehensible at first, after prolonged reading, one would discover that the relationships between different things were simple and direct, and would not change because of new interests or desires. She wondered why the real world did not turn out to be as clean and tidy as the formulas which explained its workings.

The door opened again. After a brief moment of flattering voices urging him to stay, Carter returned to her side and said, "Miss Anna, it's done."

"Okay." Anna could breathe a lot easier now that the matter was settled. "Don't tell His Majesty."

"Of course... I understand."

She nodded in approval and turned to walk downstairs.

Although she could never get rid of these terrible feelings, she knew that with Roland, the pleasant things in life would only keep increasing. She could not wait to proceed to the North Slope Mountain to continue her research work.

That was a place she was actually fond of.

Chapter 584 - The Estuary

After nearly four months, Lotus had a different feeling when she returned to Border Town.

The town had developed rapidly, and even the heavy snow did not stop its expansion. She had this particular feeling every time she was on the Redwater Bridge.

The factories located on the south bank of the river were arrayed like a neat square, and the dock area across the river had expanded more than several times. Concrete boats with black smoke moving back and forth on the river almost covered the glittering surface of the river.

"It's much more crowded than Sleeping Island. There are a lot of people, and they look like ants down there." Honey leaned against the railings of the bridge looking down.

"I agree," said Lotus. She had not understood why His Highness had wanted such a broad bridge and felt that it had been a waste of materials when the bridge was being constructed. Now, however, she thought that his decision was proven to be right.

Occasionally, people moving across the river via the bridge would glance up at them, curious about their odd dress and appearance.

In other cities, Lotus would think about how to escape at moments like this, but she did not need to worry about her safety here.

In addition to the changes one could see, there were still many more improvements in life, invisible to the eye.

For example, the heating system that made people feel warm, the electric lamps that lit up the night and new, delicious food like ice cream and so on. Evelyn and Candle could talk about those changes in their life with her for a whole day, but those were not what surprised Lotus the most.

She thought the biggest change was the relation between witches and ordinary people.

This could be seen in Evelyn's tavern.

The tavern was funded by the Witch Union. Evelyn was the manager and bartender, serving guests who visited the Western Region delicious blended wines. It was His Majesty's idea that they should spend some of their savings on business instead of keeping it hidden inside their drawers.

Lotus had been invited by Wendy to have two glasses of iced apple fruit wine. The taste was exquisite, much more aromatic than oat wine and mixed with a delicate fruit flavor. The drinks also looked quite attractive, and you could see the clear pale green liquid through the transparent crystal glass. The environment there was not like that of the ordinary pubs which were often noisy and chaotic. Instead, the guests were sitting elegantly in their own seats, and the floor, tables and drinking vessels were all clean and tidy. She would not consider the place a pub, if it were not for the row of barrels behind the counter.

Of course, the experience corresponded with the high prices of the drinks.

Evelyn stood in front of the counter, having conversations with her guests and nobody reproached her because she was a witch. Instead, many foreign businessmen came over to drink due to curiosity. Lotus had seldom seen Evelyn smile so happily, and she knew Evelyn really liked the job.

Lotus recalled that most of the activities of witches had been basically within the castle area before she had left, and the witches had often been protected by His Majesty's bodyguards when they needed to go out. But now they were gradually being assimilated into every part of the town.

It was incredible that such changes could be made within just one season.

Talking with Wendy that evening gave Lotus a deeper understanding. She believed perhaps that was the reason why the witches of the Witch Union were willing to do their best.

They were not only building Neverwinter for His Majesty Roland, but also building their home.

"Let's go. Today we'll complete the transformation of the estuary if everything goes smoothly," Lotus said to Honey.

"Yay!"

...

When the last piece of rock sank into the ground, Lotus wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a deep breath.

"Awesome, you really made a road through the mountain." Honey applauded.

Meanwhile, the row of birds crouched in the treetop above her head tweeted.

"Of course, there's nothing I can't do," said Lotus proudly.

Unlike the reefs surrounding Sleeping Island, the rock layer here was much deeper and harder, so it was much more difficult to transform it. Fortunately, she did not need to transform the entire mountain into flat ground. According to His Majesty's plan, she just needed to build a passageway that could allow five or six carriages to pass side by side. Thinking of the iron bridge, this time she did not consider such a spacious road a waste.

Since the hills were more than forty meters above sea level, the easiest way to build the road was by sinking the ground gradually until it turned into a long, gentle slope.

In order to facilitate the passage of carriages, she purposely pressed the rock layer on the surface of the hills into a level road surface. By doing so, even if it rained, puddles of water would not form on the surface of the road.

Now, if you were standing on top of the slope, you could see the golden shallow beach and the blue sea, and you could feel the cool sea breeze blowing along the slope with a familiar salty smell.

"Did you bring fire?" Honey bounded toward her.

"No, what do you want to do?"

"Roast fish, of course!" Honey smiled and added, "How about you drive them out to the top of the water's surface when I attract them here? We can just put them under the sun for two days if we don't have fire."

The birds above her head tweeted even more merrily.

Lotus rolled her eyes and said, "I don't want to smell salted fish everywhere! Besides, haven't you got bored of it? You ate so many on Sleeping Island!"

"Hmm? I feel it was quite good," Honey said while tilting her head.

"Anyway, putting fish under the sun is forbidden here. His Majesty doesn't like the smell of fish, either." Lotus suddenly remembered Ashes and was not sure whether she was still plagued from eating fish soup on Sleeping Island. "His Majesty said he plans to build a harbor, so Lady Tilly can come here anytime she wants, and she won't need to come by hot air balloon anymore."

When Lady Tilly was mentioned, this attracted Honey's attention. "So... will she come?"

Her expression was even simpler than that of an animal. Lotus patted her fluffy hair, saying, "I have no idea, but soon His Majesty has to fight against the church, so she must come to help her brother."

Actually, Lotus was not sure, especially after she had heard all the details of the Bloodfang Association and Heidi Morgan. In the past, she had not liked the pompous attitude of the combat witches, but now it seemed that they were also quite pitiable.

After she stopped holding prejudice against them, she realized that they were actually not that different from herself. At least now, she could have a short conversation with Iffy once in a while. The combat witches on the island, however, would not be persuaded by Tilly easily.

"Yay, that's great!"

Lotus sighed inwardly. This little girl knew nothing about war. If Lady Tilly failed to solve the Bloodfang Association's problem, and the church attacked His Majesty Roland at the same time, it would mean big trouble.

Despite that, she still wished that Lady Tilly could come to Border Town again.

She also wished Lady Tilly could stay here forever.

Then the wish she had made in the winter would come true

"Thus, all the witches including myself could live happily in Border Town," Lotus thought.

...

Chapter 585 - The Day of Embarkment

Three days later, 1,500 soldiers of the Tooth Extraction Campaign boarded their ships and headed for their first destination, Redwater City.

At the same time, according to strategic planning, the other soldiers of the First Army would escort the ammunition and food to the Northern Region. They would follow the inland water path, pass through Redwater River, the King's City river, Sanwan River, and reach Deepvalley Town in the end.

In order to cope with such a large-scale deployment, Roland gathered all the paddle steamers in City of Neverwinter and also rented 30 sailing ships from Margerie's Chamber of Commerce to deliver war materials.

By doing so, he could send three thousand soldiers and artillery ammunition to the Northern Region within a month, which was even before July. In the modern world, transporting a few thousands of people could be completed by just three or four ferries in one trip. But in this era, this was an incredible initiative.

The vanguards would also move towards the Northern Region after they had accumulated enough God's Stones of Retaliation during the Tooth Extraction Campaign, and finally 4,500 soldiers would gather at Deepvalley Town and force the church to have a war with them at Coldwind Ridge.

Of course, there was always a plan B, in case the church responded too quickly, sending a troop of God's Punishment Army to move southward across the Impassable Mountain Range and launched a surprise attack at City of Neverwinter, or that they abandoned Holy City and tried to enter the kingdom from the border between Kingdom of Dawn and Kingdom of Graycastle.

The five hundred men defending City of Neverwinter were prepared for the first situation. Defenders always got a certain advantage, especially with the 152 mm stronghold cannon. As for the second situation, it would result in a lose-lose situation. Under such circumstances, the First Army would resort to a war of attrition and Kingdom of Graycastle would lose lots of people, meanwhile the church would lose Holy City of Hermes and their faith and status would also suffer.

Fortunately, it was almost impossible for the second case to happen. The population of Kingdom of Graycastle would increase after the war, but the church could not afford to lose Holy City, their foundation. As long as the pope was not frantic, they would never abandon their Holy City.

The Pearl of the Northern Region, Edith Kant, followed the first fleet to leave, too.

"Please don't worry Your Majesty, I'll write a letter to inform my father to send half of his grains to the soldiers, and the Lord of Deepvalley Town will also try his best to fulfill any request from the First Army."

"Aren't you going back to the Northern Region?" asked Roland.

"I'd like to follow the first army and to participate in all the coming battles instead of going back home," said Edith, who stood on the side of the ship. She raised her hair and bowed, saying, "Please take care of my brother for me."

"I'll take care of him."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I'll wait for you in Deepvalley Town, for the real great war."

After the ship left, Nightingale complained. "Tut-tut, the war is a life-and-death matter, but she talks about it as if she's going to a date."

"Uhm... does she?"

"Don't you realize it? The action of raising her hair… There's no wind blowing. Why did she take the trouble to do it?" Nightingale snorted and added, "of course, it may be her habit to seduce men with such a gesture and it's already a habit."

"Are you still upset by the letter?" Roland shook his head and did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I've told you, it's impossible. By the way, did she lie?"

Nightingale reluctantly replied, "Basically, no. At least when she expressed allegiance and talked about those combat arrangements, she said the truth."

"That's enough. Let's go back to the castle." Roland took a breath and said.

City of Neverwinter was under pressure due to the coming war, but there was good news too. The projects that had been planned during Months of Demons were completed one by one, and the basic infrastructure was greatly enhanced.

The most important finished project was the Western Region's own estuary.

After the estuary was completed, Roland informed the Ministry of Construction immediately. Soon some houses, warehouses and temporary docks were built on deepwater port. With a natural deep-water harbor, larger ships could now be built, but as Anna had already focused on producing military equipment, the shipbuilding plan would be postponed until the end of the war.

The supporting hub project, the construction of Highway 67, had also started. That road would begin from the bank of the Redwater River Bridge and connect the industrial area with the south of Shallow Beach. Its construction team was the same as that of the Kingdom Main Street project. Roland also fulfilled his promise, to make nearly half of the workers, that performed outstandingly, qualify as residents of City of Neverwinter and issued identity cards to them.

Besides, the first coke oven in North Slope Mountain was also put into production mode during this period of time.

To be precise, it could have started earlier, but it had had many setbacks during the test run. For example, at the first time of trial, the furnace had not been vented and the air used for dry distillation burnt directly. At another time, the temperature and timing had not been well controlled, resulted in coking failure. There had even been a serious accident, when the exhaust pipe had been clogged with dust and the flame had got out of the furnace. Fortunately, as Summer had the ability to playback what had happened before, the problems of the process were quickly identified and fixed. A new batch of improved coke ovens was in full swing construction.

Besides basic infrastructure, military production also stepped up.

The howitzer, an important new weapon designed for the war, was finally a success.

Despite the limited size of its shells and the limited speed of reloading, it was still a fatal weapon in the radius of ten meters. Combined with debris, it could affect an even bigger area, twice or three times as large as the original coverage.

Several 152 mm artillery could hit targets nearly ten kilometers away, which meant that they were able to strike the rear of the enemy directly, and now the shock waves and debris of the howitzer could destroy the defenseless enemy there completely. This kind of war was completely beyond the imagination of the people in this era.

Unfortunately, a heavy howitzer could only be delivered with the assistance of Hummingbirds and when there was no hard-surface concrete road, only two howitzers could be used on the battlefield.

Even so, Roland was not willing to give up such a powerful firepower.

In contrast, the news about the successful operation of the steam turbine was not so important.

After all, whether it was a new type of steam-powered boat or thermal power generation, there was not enough manpower for research and development. In a sense, after receiving the message from Kingdom of Dawn, the City of Neverwinter had entered the wartime system, and all of the resources had to divert to give way to the preparation for war, Anna being no exception.

In the morning, she processed artillery shells and fuzes, and in the afternoon, she cut key parts used in heavy machine guns. Those were what she had to do everyday.

The arsenal operated on three shifts for the production of bullets and revolving rifles. Thanks to Mystery Moon and Candle, all kinds of machine tools ran at maximum capacity in production without a big problem.

Shortly after returning to the office, Roland received a letter carried by the carrier pigeon from Fjords.

This is... the reply from Tilly?

Roland quickly opened the letter and soon finished reading the contents. Pondering for a moment, he asked Nightingale to get Maggie.

"Bring Soraya to catch the leaving fleet. Let Iffy do what's suggested in the letter."

"Coo!"

Chapter 586 - The Battle of Redwater City

After two days of sailing, blocks of villages and farmland began to appear on the desolate green field, and the city wall of Redwater City gradually came into sight.

As the biggest city on the Redwater River, its population and resources could compare favorably with the old king's city. If it was not for the advantage brought by the minerals in Silver City, ancestors in the Wimbledon family would have made Redwater City the king's city instead of the current City of Dawn.

Brian observed through a telescope for a while and asked, "What will we do when we arrive at the wharf? How about shocking them first with the naval artillery?"

"It may provoke their lord's hostility." Iron Axe shook his head. "Our main target is the church. Other things can be put aside. According to diplomatic process, we present the documents first."

When the fleet arrived at the suburban wharf, great turmoil began at once. The gate closed quickly, and the drawbridge of the moat was pulled up while the soldiers concentrated in line outside the wharf.

Brian sent out the documents and received a prompt reply.

"He said His Majesty's army is welcomed by the lord, but we are required to send an envoy into the city to explain the conditions. He will not open the gate and let us enter until he verifies the cause of the matter," the soldier reported.

"What conditions? We've already explained very clearly in the documents," Brian said crossly, "We are only against the church. Does he want to help those church scoundrels escape?"

"Is this also your rule?" Iron Axe turned back and looked at the accompanying members in the Adviser Group.

"Um... yes, it should be if they're nobles," Petrov's Chief bodyguard Trevor answered, "and it's normal for them to be skeptical, after all, His Majesty, Roland himself hasn't come and Redwater City is not in his jurisdiction. We only need to send an envoy with suitable status to explain clearly."

"Suitable status?"

"Someone from a large family who can earn the lord's trust," Trevor explained further, "like the Honeysuckle family in the Western Region."

Iron Axe, Brian, and Van'er looked at each other with embarrassment. Before they'd become the commanders of the First Army, one was of the Sand Nation, the other two were civilians. They didn't know how to properly converse with the nobles, nor did they have a suitable status which could help them to talk to the castellan equally.

"Why not blast the gate directly with cannons," Brian got angry and said, "Once they feel our attack they'll know what the right way is."

"Allow me," Edith said, "The Kant family is an aristocratic family in the north and my father is also a duke. I'm qualified."

"What if it's a trick?" Van'er hesitated and said, "If the Lord of Redwater City colluded with the church long ago, they might arrest you when you enter and force us to withdraw."

"It's not good for him and you won't compromise, will you?" Edith smiled and said, "As long as he is in his right mind, he won't plan such a move on the envoys or he would arouse other noble's antipathy. And it can't affect the overall situation. On the contrary, if he had colluded with the church, the city would have been blocked in the state of battle. There hasn't been any hot oil or bonfire set up in the top of the city yet."

"I'll go with her," Sir Eltek said, "I was once a knight and I can take care of her if there's a danger."

"I appreciate your concern, but the Pearl of the Northern Region doesn't need any care," Edith said with confidence.

"Bring a team of soldiers with you." Iron Axe made the final decision. "If we hear a shot, we'll start an attack."

...

An hour later, the gate was opened slowly, and the drawbridge was lowered.

They were stunned when Miss Edith and a chubby middle-aged man came out under the escort of a small group from the First Army and a group from the Silver Armored Knights. The man was well-dressed but courted Edith like a henchman from his obvious expression and behavior.

"This is the Lord of Redwater City, Earl Delta," Edith introduced the lord to them and added, "I also asked him to send the patrol to surround the church in case the priest and believers escape." Then she shifted her head and said, "These are the commanders of His Highness's First Army, Lord Iron Axe, Mr. Brian and Mr. Van'er."

"Iron Axe... and what?" The earl was stunned for a while to hear such kind of introduction for the first time.

"Never mind." She laughed. "This is His Highness's terminology."

"Ahem, I see." Delta cleared his throat and said, "I have heard that Prince Roland... no, His Majesty acts in a different style, really not common. So... welcome to Redwater City. Excuse me, His Majesty indeed just wants to wipe out the insurgents of the church?"

This was the Lord of the Redwater City? Brian wondered in amazement. He was quite different from what Brian had imagined.

"Yes," Iron Axe answered in earnest, nodding, "I think it's clear in the documents of His Majesty that the church is trying to occupy the Four Kingdoms and their rebellion has become a fact. You should have heard the calamity that happened in the Kingdoms of Everwinter and Wolfheart. We'll leave once we clear out the church's people."

"Well, it is not necessary to be in such hurry," Delta rubbed his hands and said, "and tonight I'll hold a grand feast in the castle. I hope all of you can attend."

Although he was inviting everyone, his eyes focused on the Pearl of the Northern Region.

Brian was going to refuse but Edith accepted without hesitation. "Thank you for your invitation. It will be an honor but we have to complete His Majesty's task first."

"Sure." The earl smiled with slanted eyes.

...

The First Army entered the city in order under the guidance of the knights. Avoiding the earl's attention, Brian walked close to Edith and chided her in a low voice. "Why did you accept his invitation? He definitely has other, indecent intentions!"

"This is the normal communication between the nobles. It would be too rude if we refused," she replied in a dismissive tone. "I don't know why His Majesty excludes the nobility from his army, but you represent His Majesty, Roland so you can't refuse these things entirely. And it'll be much easier to recover Redwater City on the basis of a good relationship with him. As for his indecent intention..." She twitched her mouth, "Is there any other facial expression a male noble can show?"

"Err..." Brian swallowed with difficulty and sighed after a moment. "So, you're used to this kind of life?"

"It's not bad, just a tad boring." Edith said with a little satire. "Well, haven't you ever admired the life of a noble?"

"I..." He opened his mouth but could find no words.

Suddenly, there was turmoil up ahead. It seemed that someone was shouting, and they could hear something fall to the ground.

"What happened?" the Earl called out.

Iron Axe clenched his right hand into a fist and shouted, "All soldiers, stand by! On the alert!"

The troops stopped marching immediately. The soldiers took their rifles from their backsides expertly and changed quickly from columns to rows.

At this moment, Sylvie warned from the middle of the team with a loud voice. "Watch out! There's magic reaction in front!"

Chapter 587 - A Nameless Victim

"Magic reaction?" Earl Delta turned around and asked, "What's that?"

"Tell your knights to step aside now!" Brian had no time to think about etiquette and shouted at him.

He had barely finished speaking when a group of believers, in indigo robes, popped out from around the corner and rushed into the guiding knights. The force was so great that the horses were immediately knocked over and several knights found themselves pinned under their heavy mounts before they even realized what had happened. The other knights immediately drew their swords and began to fight with the believers.

The people on the street panicked and ran, causing many to fall and get trampled by the fleeing crowd. The sounds of people crying for help could be heard everywhere and the site was a complete mess.

"Tr... Treason!" The Earl was shocked, at first, and then he became furious. "Damn it! Kill all the rebels!"

But, a piece of flying slate shut him up.

It had been part of the pavement and more pieces of slate rose up in the air and swiftly headed toward a knight. It happened so fast that all anyone could see was a fleeting green shadow. The first person who was hit quickly started to bleed profusely from his joints and eyes. His armor immediately crumbled and it would have been impossible for him to survive.

After that, more pieces of slate flew around, even taking out some of the believers. The vertical pieces of slate were shattering peoples bones, while the horizontal slates were cutting them in half.

Before Earl Delta could even feel shocked, Brian quickly pulled him aside.

"Fire!" Iron Axe ordered.

Gunshots continuously rang out across the street.

The people who were still standing erect got mowed down like a wheat crop and once the gunpowder plume dissipated there was a littering of wounded knights and believers across the battlefield. For a short time, the field had been pure chaos, now there were bodies scattered everywhere, some of them were still gasping feebly while others moaned in pain, continuing to writhe on the ground.

"Where are the enemies?" Brian stared at the street corner without so much as blinking, as if he were facing a formidable enemy.

"Enemies... They all fell, didn't they?" the Earl asked bewildered, apparently in shock. He obviously had not expected that His Majesty's troops would be so strong. A dozen silver armored knights and unstoppable believers became disabled in almost the blink of an eye.

"It's coming!" Sylvie said in a hoarse voice.

As if responding to her warning, a woman appeared from around the corner, she was rolling up the street slates like giant carpet wheels and making them float in the air one by one.

Heavy gunshots rang out again. Most of the slate was torn apart immediately while one piece of slate spun and swept along the crowd like a thick, unmanned sword.

Oh, no! Brian's heart sank. From the way it appears, a flintlock isn't going to break down the rotating slate quickly enough. He didn't want to imagine what was going to happen when the soldiers were hit. They were not wearing armor like the knights and the casualties were going to be significantly higher. And, yet, they had no choice but to continue fighting.

Just after Brian had this realization, a purple light suddenly appeared in front of the troops.

It was a cage made of magic power and it enveloped the incoming slate, shrinking rapidly, stopping the rotating rock abruptly.

"Is this an enemy... or a witch?" Earl Delta stood in a daze.

It wasn't until all of the floating slate had finally fallen did the First Army cease-fire.

The cloud of heavy smoke from the gunpowder blurred their eyesight. The smell of sulfur pervaded the air, but no one dared to rub their eyes or even cough. Except for the sound of guns loading, the field was completely silent, for the moment.

"What is it Miss Sylvie?" Iron Axe asked.

"The Magic Power... It disappeared," she said slowly.

This meant that either the enemies had fled the battlefield or they had perished during the fight.

After the smoke dissipated, Brian could see what had happened.

A woman was laying on the pavement in a pool of blood, her thick, curly, dark green hair mixing with the sanguine fluid.

Brian loosened his grip on the terrified Earl's shoulder and walked towards the woman, her red and white priestess' cloth revealing her identity.

There were two palm-sized wounds penetrating the stomach and abdomen of the Pure Witch, from which dark streams of blood drained. Apparently, the bullet still had force after penetrating the slate and had torn straight through her body. The multiple slices on her arms and legs must have been caused by the ricocheting stones.

Even though her enemies had the God's Stone of Retaliation, she was still able to roll up the slates and use them as shields. This way she could attack the enemies with the remaining slates and keep her enemies at a distance. However, she had not expected the flintlocks to be that powerful.

Looking back now, she might have been shot during the first round of gunshots but she was still able to manipulate the slate. Her willpower had been remarkable.

"Is she really a witch from the church?" Delta moved closer, cautiously.

"Wasn't His Majesty clear in the pamphlet that was distributed in King's City?" Brian replied with annoyance. "The church not only poisoned the common people with the Berserk Pills, but they also train witches to serve them in secret. Only the innocent girls that were framed by the church stand on our side. Have you not heard any of this before?"

"Actually, I had heard this before, but it seemed unbelievable..."

This is just a small portion of the despicable acts committed by the church, and the nobles weren't much better Brian thought to himself, but he didn't say a word.

Edith was also shocked by this brief conflict.

This was her first time seeing the combat abilities of the flintlock troops. The whole process looked like a storm and all the soldiers needed to do was stand still. In this regard, His Majesty's troops were physically at an advantage. One could imagine that the larger the scale of warfare the more obvious the guns advantage would be.

There was no doubt that the traditional combat forms, where soldiers fought with thick armors and sharp weapons, had now shifted to a newer model.

Moreover, with those machines roaring day and night, they could keep producing these weapons in the western region. This made it easy to imagine how great a war potential His Majesty had in his domain.

It wasn't until Iron Axe had ordered the troops to keep moving, that Edith was able to recover herself.

However, her belief was firmer that her choice was the right one.

The First Army took a turn at the street corner and soon came to the church's front door. There were several bodies lying on the ground and judging from their clothing, most of them belonged to the patrol team.

They soon realized what had transpired. Just as the patrol ordered the blockade of the church, more than two hundred enchanted people were suddenly killed and the lords were swept away. Some of the believers stayed to wrestle with the patrol team, while others created chaos in the outer city, where some people were attempting to break through the gate. Fortunately, the First Army was less than 300 feet from the church and they were able to confront the Pure Witch. If they had been even 15 minutes later, the Pure Witch would have likely escaped during the chaos.

Brian immediately lead a team into the church, where they eliminated the remaining resisters.

Next was ransacking the place to find any documents, letters, or usable goods. According to his Majesty, taking anything of value was a requirement.

Then, under Sylvie's guidance, the soldiers used small packets of explosives to blow up the iron gate blocking the basement. The people that were present all strained their eyes to see what laid behind the slowly falling gate.

In nice orderly rows, there were over ten boxes of the God's Stone of Retaliation, and surrounding it were tidy stacks of gold.

Chapter 588 - A Knight and You

At night, the halls of Redwater City Castle were glowing with light. Servants carrying wine glasses were walking through the crowd. Musicians were singing softly while plucking on the strings of their instruments. Enticing dishes were set on the table one by one, and goblets filled with red wine shone brightly.

The noblemen and women split into groups of two or three and chatted happily with wine in their hands. Edith was the focus of people's eyes. She was moving around in the hall with Earl Delta and very much seemed to enjoy such a social event.

Brian, however, felt totally alienated from the whole crowd.

He felt the collar of his bottoming shirt choking him and his slim fit coat restricting the movement of his arms, not to mention the extremely uncomfortable pointy toe high heel boots on his feet. He could not really understand how come the nobles could dart around on the very slippery floor wearing those shoes.

Brian could not help but envy Van'er who did not have to suffer from this as the guard of the First Army's battalion, but he immediately stood taller when he thought that Edith had reminded them that they were here to represent His Majesty Roland.

Someone suddenly patted his shoulder, saying, "You look quite tense. Is this the first time you've come to attend a banquet like this?"

He turned around and found that it was Sir Eltek who dressed in broad shoulder formal attire with a white scarf around his neck, looking completely different from his everyday look.

"Relax, you don't have to be so nervous."

"I'm not..."

"It's not a bad thing. No one is good at everything. It's not a big deal," Sir Eltek threw up his hands and said.

After a moment of silence, Brian asked, "where is Lord Iron Axe?"

"He's escorting the witches, Miss Iffy and Miss Sylvie. They seem as popular as Miss Edith." Eltek pointed to the other side of the hall and said.

Brian looked at that direction and saw the witches. They also looked very stiff in the dresses that Edith found for them in the last-minute rush. However, they were still attractive and seemed to be even more beautiful than the Pearl of Northern Region. "Those people have no idea who they are, and Lord Iron Axe is actually not protecting the witches," Brian said.

"Oh, is it?" Sir Eltek shook his beard a little.

Brian nodded and explained. "To be more accurate, he's protecting the nobles. If Miss Iffy is irritated, they'll suffer."

They then looked at each other and giggled simultaneously.

"Look, now you're relaxed and natural."

"I..." Brian froze for awhile and said, "thank you."

"Hah, you're welcome," Sir Eltek said and then he beckoned a servant. He picked up a glass of wine and turned to Brian, asking, "would you like a drink?"

"No... His Majesty has said that a military man on duty should never drink wine."

"No wine, even when he's resting?"

"It's a rule."

"Alright." Sir Elteck sipped the wine alone and added, "what a pity."

"You think..." Brian hesitated and continued. "What Miss Edith has said is true?"

"Such as?"

"A knight should never refuse invitations to such occasions at his will, because he represents His Majesty."

"Uhm... That's true." Sir Eltek nodded and said.

Brian felt dejected, suddenly saying, "I'm not qualified to be a knight. I can't behave in such a natural, relaxed manner like her on these kind of occasions."

"It's okay," Sir Eltek said while spreading his hands. "Some people are just naturally good at it and some are not. Indeed, a knight who stands out at a banquet can bring his lord glory, praises and even diplomatic advantages, but that's not all about being a knight. Actually, my son is also bad at social events for the nobles."

"You mean... Morning Light?"

"Yes, he seldom spends time with the other nobles and was even frequently absent from social events held by the lord. However, no one can deny that he's an excellent knight."

"I didn't know this side of Mr. Ferlin," Brian said in great surprise.

"There's a lot you don't know about him." Sir Eltek smiled and added, "he's stubborn as a stone. He filled me with rage by marrying a civilian woman. I cut him off at that time but then I found out that I was wrong. I could find no fault with Ms. Irene. She's as good as any noble lady, except that she doesn't have a noble title. It was hard for both of them at that time." Sir Eltek stopped and changed the subject, "I heard that you fought a bloody battle against the rebels to protect the grain preparation for Border Town?"

"Uhm... Actually, it was Lady Nightingale who stopped them. If it was not for her, I'm afraid I'd already be dead in the basement." Brian said with a little embarrassment.

"But at least, you stepped forward, right? It's much braver than most of the other nobles who have only the titles but not the courage to fight against their enemies. I think that His Majesty did not dub you a knight for your social skills. You're a qualified knight as long as you remain who you are."

"I see," Brian felt touched and said, "thank you for telling me that."

"It's all right. Take it as a casual chat between us. Seeing you reminded me of Ferlin, so I couldn't hold my tongue," Sir Eltek said while touching his beard.

After a while, Brian asked in a muffled voice. "So, what about the other thing that Miss Edith has mentioned? The social activities of the nobles are boring and dull..."

"You really care about her, don't you?" Sir Eltek watched Brian with interest.

"No, no! I'm just curious." Brian promptly waved his hands and explained, "she disapproved of these kind of activities at that time, but now you can see that she seems to enjoy it very much."

"Well," Sir Eltek smacked his lips and said. "What should I say? Some people can handle everything properly, even when they don't like to do some of those things. I think Miss Edith is a strong performer among those people."

"Properly cope with unenjoyable things?"

"It's not a rare thing," Sir Eltek shrugged and continued. "They're gifted and naturally good at many things, but that doesn't mean they like everything that they have to do. After all, as a Duke's daughter, social skills are already in her blood."

"His Majesty needs someone like her," Brian sighed.

"Maybe," Sir Eltek said noncommittally, "But that doesn't mean His Majesty doesn't need other kinds of people. As I've said before, no one is good at everything. Focusing on what you're best at is not worse than covering everything, as there's a limit to a man's energy. That's why you're also well recognized by His Majesty..." Eltek paused momentarily and added, "I think he's right based on the changes I've seen in the City of Neverwinter."

Chapter 589 - The Storm in the Fjords

A storm was brewing on the sea to the east of the Fjords islands.

Every now and then, lightning struck through the gray clouds that hung low in the sky. Muffled thunders like the angry roars of the gods in the sky sounded as if they came from far away.

Heidi Morgan's mood was no better than the weather.

She had not received any news since she sent Iffy and Softfeathers to the western region.

She understood that the long distance would make it difficult to send any message back, but she also knew that Honey was there in the western region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. That meant that they could threaten her and seize one of her animal messengers to send a message.

"What's really going on in the domain of the lord?"

Heidi thought and irritably shut the window to block the howling wind.

The situation on Sleeping Island was getting worse and worse for her. Since Tilly started the Sleeping Spell, all non-combat witches were on her side and facts had also proven that the ordinary people of the Fjords showed a greater need for assistant witches. As this place did not face any enemy now, the local chambers of commerce hired witches mainly for commercial purposes or opening new water channels.

Under such circumstances, the status of the weak witches was raised rapidly and now seemed on equal terms with the combat witches.

Besides, there were common people.

"Damn it, how come I didn't think of this," Heidi thought bitterly. She had thought that if she represented the combat witches all the time, she would not lag behind Tilly, as there were only two groups of people on the island. However, as more and more ordinary people immigrated to the island, the third group formed. Those people recognized and trusted only Tilly since they were only influenced by the local chambers of commerce. As a result, Tilly left the island almost routinely to visit the other islands as a distinguished guest, especially after she gained Thunder's support.

The thought of this drove Heidi into a blind rage. She believed that Tilly made friends with ordinary people in the name of promoting integration only for the purpose of increasing her own influence.

Heidi thought Tilly was deceiving everyone.

Tilly was selling the home of witches to the ordinary people bit by bit.

If things went on like this, she would never be able to replace Tilly Wimbledon.

This was the first time that Heidi found there was little she could do about a 20-year-old girl. Heidi's intention of leaving Sleeping Island with the combat witches was stronger than before. She wanted to ask Camilla, the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island, when could the Charming Beauty take them to the western region. But just at the moment, her door was pushed open.

"My lady, I've something urgent to report!" Skyflare rushed in and said, looking anxious.

"What's going on?"

Seeing the look on her face, Heidi could not help but feel surprised, as Skyflare was the best and had followed her for the longest time among the witches of her association.

"There's a new witch here on Sleeping Island. I heard that her name was Annie!"

"So what?" Heidi said in confusion. It's not a rare thing that wild witches came to Sleeping Island after the merchants got the news out.

"She's from Kingdom of Wolfheart!" Skyflare said in a muffled voice, "I've met her before!"

Thunder suddenly crashed in the sky!

Heidi's heart skipped a beat and soon realized what Skyflare meant by 'urgent', saying, "you mean she's the one Bloodfang Association has rejected. It's impossible! She may just be her namesake."

"I thought that way at the beginning, but she looked very similar to the Annie I had met several years ago. I hid in the crowd to steal a glance at her when she was carried into the palace."

"Are you sure?"

"My lady, I'm not sure about the other witches but Annie is different... Back then, she brought a friend with her. That was Iffy." Skyflare grated and continued, "Iffy cried all the way for Annie, wanting to go back, so I remembered her appearance."

"How could this happen? They should be..." Heidi grabbed Skyflare by collar and asked, "did you let her go?"

"No, my lady, I did what you ordered me to do! Please believe me. I'll never betray you!" Skyflare argued.

Heidi looked into her eyes and then slowly released her, asking, "what happened to her? You said that she was carried into the palace just now."

Skyflare took a breath and said, "she seemed to be infected with a cold epidemic and was seriously ill. The keep has already sent someone to invite Della."

Della cannot cure a cold epidemic but she could calm a patient down by cutting off the pain. Heidi paced back and forth in the room for a while and asked, "Tilly isn't here on the island, right?"

"Yes, she went to Twin Dragon Island two days ago. She seemed to be busy with the preparation for the exploration of the sea."

Heidi stopped and said, "bring Nightfall here and let Shaji go to get more information. Shaji has never seen Annie, so she won't be recognized."

"Yes, my lady!"

...

It began to pour. Raindrops pattered against the window, and Heidi sat by the table speechlessly. Skyflare and Nightfall stood aside, waiting for Heidi's order. The atmosphere was quite tense.

A burst of rapid footsteps broke the silence.

The door was opened and then shut again. Shaji returned and leaned against the door. She took off her wet clothing and straw hat and then heaved a long sigh. "That witch called Annie is already asleep. According to Della, her condition is not good, as the cold epidemic has already infected her lungs. She must have been ill for quite a long time."

"Is it? So what's Camilla planning to do?" Heidi said in a grave tone.

"She said there's a witch in the western region of the Kingdom of Graycastle who could cure all kinds of diseases. She's going to send Annie to the western region when the rainstorm stops."

Heidi felt so irritated that she wanted to laugh. Hiring One-eyed Jack for a round trip in the Fjords would cost nearly 100 gold royals. Camilla always found excuses to refuse her requests for traveling to the other islands or to the Kingdom of Graycastle, but now for a useless, strange witch, she was willing to send out the Charming Beauty?

There was another thing she found completely intolerable. If Annie went to the western region and met Iffy, what she had done before would be exposed.

No matter what, she had to make Annie stay on the island or shut up forever.

Heidi contained her anger and turned to Nightfall. "You can make her sleep forever, right?"

Nightfall winced and said, "you mean... Seed of Peaceful Death? Yes, I can, but why..."

"Because she's a traitor of Bloodfang Association! You don't have to know the details. Just remember she can't be excused." Heidi impatiently interrupted.

"Is she also a combat witch? Why not wait for Tilly before making the decision? If it's found out, we'll get in trouble." Nightfall questioned.

Heidi squinted, saying, "Bloodfang Association will 'take care' of its traitors. If we hand her over to Tilly, will the naive girl punish her? What's wrong with you? Do you want to disobey my command?"

"Of course, no... My lady, I'm willing to take care of this traitor for you." Nightfall shivered and promised.

Chapter 590 - The Witches War

"Damn it," Heidi thought indignantly, "These witches' minds have already begun to fall apart, and they would have never bothered to ask why they do what they do when they were in Archduke Island. The enemies of the Bloodfang Association must be taken care of."

The environment could influence a person. The ferocious cliff wolves lived in the mountains, and the dumb dogs lived in the warm house. Through the Sleeping Spell, assistant witches brought in many gold royals and goods for the island, turning this place into a haven. Even the combat witches had started believing Tilly's nonsense talk. Apparently, she did not have much time left to deal with it.

"You can control the attack time of the Seed of Peaceful Death, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, when you implant the seed in Annie's body, don't make it take effect instantly, and kill her silently when she boards the Charming Beauty," Heidi nodded and said, "Now we shall visit this traitor, Annie."

When Annie died on the ship as if from the cold plague, the crews would throw her body into the ocean to avoid infection. No one would ever know the truth.

"Shall I attack her in broad daylight?" Nightfall was surprised.

"It would be more suspicious if you did it at night. Besides, I'm not sure whether Camilla will let me into the palace or not." Heidi glanced over at her. "Shaji just learned that a witch from Kingdom of Wolfheart is sick. Isn't it pretty normal that the Bloodfang Association which represents Kingdom of Wolfheart come to visit her?"

"You're right, my lady." Skyflare lifted the Hood from behind her cope. "If anything happens to Annie, Tilly and Camilla would still suspect us even if we weren't there."

Opening the door, the harsh wind mixed with rain swarmed into the room. Putting on her raincoat and waving to the two of them, Heidi walked out into the storm.

She was determined to do it.

...

Camilla Dary appeared in the doorway as the three of them walked into the palace's compound. "What do you..."

"I heard from Shaji that a Kingdom of Wolfheart's witch has arrived here." Heidi Morgan shrugged. "It's said that her condition is pretty bad, so we came to visit her."

"Annie has fallen asleep under Della's conciliation. I suppose you'd better leave her alone."

"Her name does ring a bell, so we just want to have a peek. We suppose maybe she was a part of us and got lost when we ran away from Archduke Island."

"This..." After a moment's hesitation, Camilla said, "Okay, come in."

Heidi was fed up with this conversation. A common witch dared to treat this place as her own turf and considered herself as the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island. Heidi sneered secretively. This woman was just Tilly's dog. If she had not said 'come in' at last, Heidi would have taught her a lesson.

On Sleeping Island, most of the abodes relied on Lotus to rise from the underground, so there were very few multi-story buildings here. Tilly's palace was no exception.

Going through the long corridor to the side room, Camilla leaned over and said, "She's in the room."

"Mm." Heidi could not wait to walk into the room. She shook her head to give a signal to Skyflare.

After carefully examining the girl who was lying in bed with her eyes closed, Skyflare nodded slightly.

"So, who sent her here?" Heidi came up to Camilla and whispered to her. It looked like an act of concern, but it was actually to block her view, so Nightfall could implant the Seed of Peaceful Death into Annie's body.

Instead of answering her, Camilla gave her an odd expression.

"Why are you trying to kill her?"

Heidi was confounded. Before she could do anything, Nightfall behind her had already cried out, "This witch is a fake."

Turning violently, Heidi saw that the girl lying in bed had already disappeared, Nightfall could only see the magic power cohere as a small black ball suspended in midair.

"Seed of Peaceful Death. You really can go so far." Camilla shook her head. "I thought you were just speaking of the combat witch, but I didn't expect that you're a brutal murderer."

"Shut up!" Heidi's anger was out of control. She used a fatal magic power and flew at Camilla. But by the time she could reach Camilla, the girl's figure had turned into mist.

Now Heidi knew what had happened.

"Shadow, come out." She gritted her teeth.

There were hurried footsteps rising from the corridor. The witches hiding in the dark were evacuating from this place fully.

"Skyflare, get her!"

"Yes." The latter dashed out of the side room, took a deep breath, and breathed out a stream of red flames. The flames crept along the walls and chased the targets as if it had its own consciousness. It burnt the windows and doorframes along the way.

"Ah!" A scream came from far away.

Nightfall hurriedly said, "My lady, we need to get out of here as soon as possible! They lied to you. This whole thing is a trap!"

"Get away from the window." Shadow's scream made Heidi feel better, but she also knew that they could not stay here very long. She just could not understand how Tilly could know what had happened to the Bloodfang Association years ago.

Out of the palace, the three of them stopped.

In the heavy rain, a black-haired woman stood in the courtyard. Her eyes shone like golden stars, which could be clearly seen even in the mist of the rain. The three of them felt fear even though she stood without weapons.

It was the Extraordinary Ashes.

Usually, she would stay with Tilly Wimbledon.

Turning her head, Heidi saw two familiar figures appear in the palace's doorway,

Andrea and Shadow. Shadow was making faces at the three of them nonchalantly. Apparently, the previous scream had been fake.

If they were both here, it meant that Tilly had not left Sleeping Island at all.

Heidi was at an absolute loss after realizing the truth.

"Don't bother to explain. I can spare your life if you give in now," Ashes said this word by word.

No one would think she was bluffing. As an Extraordinary, she was a natural enemy of all witches as long as she wore the God's Stone of Retaliation. Heidi would have taken action earlier if it were not for her.

But there was still a chance they could win.

The breakthrough was at the palace's doorway. She could threaten Ashes if she could capture Ashes' two partners.

Without hesitation, she grabbed Nightfall and rushed toward the front door of the palace. "Skyflare, stop Ashes!"

As a combat witch, dagger and crossbow were the best weapons she could use when her magic power could not be exerted. Skyflare pulled out her dagger and dashed toward Ashes. Nightfall knew her intentions so at the same time she summoned the Seed of Symbiosis.

A threat was useless unless fear supports it. Heidi had already made up her mind to kill one of them, and leave one as hostage. Of course, Shadow who had taunted her for such a long time, was her main target.

But seeing Andrea hold a long bar in her hand calmly, she was shocked.

What was that?

Then a loud roar made her fall into a deep torpor.

---

.

Chapter 591 - The New Journey

Heidi slipped and fell in the rain, the flowing rain pouring into her mouth, nose, and collar.

It was hard to describe her true feelings. Although she did not feel much pain in her body, she was powerless after the fall.

"Don't worry about me. Go and kill her!" she shouted out not even bothering to examine her injuries.

But Nightfall disappointed her.

The combat witch from the Bloodfang Association hesitated, then stopped and came back to her finally, asking, "My lady, are you alright?"

"Moron! We could only turn the tables if we seized them. If we couldn't, what was the point of staying unharmed?" She wanted to vent her anger but found that she was too tired to open her mouth and say anything.

Behind her, she heard Skyflare's scream, and the sound of battle gradually died away.

It was very difficult for her to resist long when faced with the Extraordinary, Ashes.

The paralytic feeling in her body began to fade, but a nervous flush along her thighs which pricked painfully was very noticeable once she was soaked with the rain.

Heidi managed to look up but only saw Andrea walking slowly toward her.

"Don't you want to give up resistance?"

"Yes," Nightfall answered, she turned around and knelt down. "I give in. Please don't kill Lady Heidi."

Andrea wiped the water on her head and said, "If I intended to kill her, she'd be dead by now. Her Highness Tilly hasn't yet figured something out, so I must spare her life for now. As soon as all the evidence against her is certain, she'll be justly punished."

"Evidence?" Nightfall was at a loss. "Annie betrayed the Bloodfang Association's witches, this is why my lady planned to harm her."

"Oh? Is that what she told you? As far as I'm concerned, Annie never joined the Bloodfang Association." Andrea shrugged. "You'll know what kind of person she is when the truth is revealed." Then she turned and shouted to Shadow, "Go and fetch Pandora to stop the bleeding from her wounds, or she'll be doomed."

At that moment Heidi finally felt the pain, and her whole leg could not move. It felt like a mass of heaviness beneath her yet did not belong to her. A sharp pain in her leg replaced the burning feeling, making her feel a bit better.

It was over.

And she knew exactly what would happen next.

Tilly must had somehow learned the truth about her since she dared to do this. It was not difficult to find the truth with a bit of clue. Even if the Sleeping Island's witches could not find the truth, those people in the Western Region could.

She was afraid this had something to do with Iffy and Softfeathers.

She had belittled Tilly.

Heidi thought for a moment. Then she gritted her teeth and released her magic power with her last ounce of strength just as Andrea turned her head.

She could destroy anything hollow within 10 steps from the inside, whether they were living things or vessels.

She called it Power of Pulverizing.

Although a defeat was inevitable, Heidi was not willing to let Tilly win so easily. At least she wanted to teach Tilly an unforgettable lesson.

"No, my lady!" Nightfall noticed and cried out.

It was too late! Heidi sneered secretively.

But her power did not take effect.

An invisible barrier dispersed her Power of Pulverizing.

"You're wearing the God's Stone of Retaliation!" Heidi mumbled with dilated eyes. "Wait. The thing that had hurt me wasn't Andrea's new ability?"

"You do seem quite energetic, you incorrigible bi*ch," Andrea said with disgust, raising the iron bar and smashing it with all her might.

Heidi was instantly blind.

...

"This is the end." Seeing Heidi Morgan and Skyflare being carried away, Andrea asked Ashes, "So how are things on your end?"

"It's okay, but I'm afraid that Skyflare may not survive until the day when we arrive in the Western Region."

"Lady Tilly said to keep them alive if possible. Why did you do it?" she said with a look of disdain.

Ashes licked the raindrop at the corner of her mouth and said, "I never thought she would be so desperate and risk her life to win. Besides, she does have technical fighting skills. Of course, I could have captured her alive, but I worried that something might go wrong at the essential moment. So I had to do it quickly."

"You..." Andrea was speechless.

The Extraordinary sighed. "If you had shown the Glassbead earlier, maybe they wouldn't have risked their lives in the end. But you chose to hold the flintlock, how could they know what it was?"

"Stop arguing. Lady Tilly is still waiting for your report." Shadow reminded them helplessly. "Besides, you can't stand in the rain and argue. What if you get typhoid?"

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then exchanged a despised look to end this argument, walking side by side to the palace.

...

After giving her report, Andrea noticed that Tilly did not look well. After solving this great trouble, Tilly did not look happy or relieved. On the contrary, she seemed a little glum.

Ashes took her hands in hers and asked, "What's the matter. Are you sick?"

Tilly shook her head. "When I first saw Roland's letter, I didn't believe what was in it," she said with a sentimental tone, "We witches have finally found our own home. Why did they want to repeat the tragedy of the past years? Isn't it better to live in this place and be satisfied?"

"You've done a great job." Ashes comforted her, saying, "Not all the combat witches will unconditionally accept Heidi's way of doing things, especially when our living standards have improved. Some of them have already supported us, even members of the Bloodfang Association are no exception."

"She's right," said Andrea. Although she did not like Ashes, Andrea did not want to upset Tilly. "The fact that Nightfall didn't obey Heidi and fight to the death is proof. Given time, all the people will gather together firmly, just like the Witch Union."

"I hope so." Tilly took a deep breath. "Since Heidi did this, I can't indulge her anymore. But according to Iffy's view, most of the witches in the Bloodfang Association knew nothing about it, so later I'll ask Camilla to call them here. If they're willing to stay here and wait for results, we won't treat them as enemies."

The two nodded. Sleeping Island had finally become boisterous, so no one wished these people to leave.

"When the storm is over, we'll bring Heidi to the Western Region," she continued.

"To fight against the church?" Ashes was excited.

"Yes," Closing her eyes, Tilly said in a low voice, "To fight against the Judgement Army, God's Punishment Army, Pure Witches and the Battle of Divine Will. Just as Roland said in his letters, witches will embrace real liberation if we can completely crush down the church. I would help him even if he wasn't my brother, for it helps me too." She paused for a while. "Care to join me?"

"Of course," Ashes answered without hesitation, "I'll always be with you."

Andrea nodded, but oddly enough, the smell of ice cream bread appeared in her mind.

Chapter 592 - An Unexpected Change

Roland sat in his office while listening to the news from the frontline.

"The drawbridge... beep... of Silver City had been put down... beep... We're going... beep... to break into the church... beep..."

"Got it, be careful," Nightingale replied.

"It seems that this is the maximum range of communication." Roland spread the map, drawing a circle on the position of Silver City. "We should set up a relay station here in order to directly contact the Eastern and Northern Regions."

He had been obsessed with the feeling of being in complete control of the situation from far away since he had Sigils of Listening. The quick exchange of information seemed to bring him back to modern times. At this moment, he felt like sitting in a command hall, controlling every phase of the war situation.

Just like Tracking Sigil, however, which could not guide accurately beyond its valid range, Sigil of Listening was also limited by distance. The voice would not keep clear and steady if one sigil was too far away from another. To deliver his commands to the whole country, he needed at least one transfer station.

"But the number of sigils isn't enough. You've only made four pairs, and an action like the Tooth Extraction Campaign would need two pairs. It's not easy to catch a demon twice," Nightingale said and placed a piece of dried fish between her lips.

Roland noticed this problem, too. As the sigils permitted only one-way information transmission, the witches had to hold two sigils; one for sending the information and the other one for receiving, in order to achieve the effect of an instant message system.

It could be considered extremely efficient compared to a carrier pigeon or human messenger.

According to Agatha, the sigils could be further improved,

Its quality depended on the magic power of the blood mixed during the making process. For example, the effect of Sigil of Listening produced by Anna was better. Given that, mixing her blood with a senior demon's blood during the process, created a pair of Sigil of Listening that was powerful enough to cover the entire Kingdom of Graycastle.

"Beep... There's something wrong... Beep... Just wait a minute..."

Sylvie said intermittently. Hearing that by the table, Nightingale and Roland brightened into alert attention.

"Pure witches? Or the moving black holes of magic power?" Nightingale swallowed the piece of dried fish and asked.

They could directly fire at the former, but the latter, which could be believers of the church who wore God's stones or the God's Punishment Army who could naturally resist the magic power, were hard to deal with.

"No... Beep... I didn't see the reaction of... Beep... God's stones..."

"No God's stones?" Roland asked, frowning.

"No... There's nothing... beep... in the church..." The sound paused for a moment. "We... are going in... Beep... The basement is empty..."

Nightingale and Roland looked at each other, speechless, wondering whether the church had escaped or not?

"It's possible," said Roland, and chagrined for a while. "I was too cautious."

As of now, the First Army was the most unstoppable in the country, and no noble was stupid enough to go right into the king's line of fire, but some might still send secret messages to the church. For the church, it was a natural choice to retreat with all the supplies of the city, thinking there was no chance of winning. Different from the battles which captured Longsong Stronghold and Fallen Dragon Ridge, the nobles probably chose to be onlookers during this war. After he seized Redwater City, the churches in the other cities may have already received messages delivered via pigeons, which noted: "Prince Roland is searching for God's Stones of Retaliation".

"If we'd divided the army into three groups to attack the three cities at the same time, we would've conquered them all," said Roland.

"It's hard to say. After all, only Sylvie can see through the ambushes of the enemies. If one group had encountered powerful pure witches, the troops would have suffered a heavy loss. Your decision wasn't bad," Nightingale said lifting a piece of dried fish to his mouth.

Roland was taken by surprise. He bit the dried fish and said, "You become comforting now."

She gave him a sly grin and said, "Do you feel better now? If not, I can massage your shoulders. Wendy taught me a massage technique that'll make you relaxed."

"Wendy?"

Nightingale raised her eyebrows and said, "She's very versatile. You know, the Witch Cooperation Association trekked a long distance and suffered a lot. It was Wendy who took care of our sisters and stabilized our team. No one could do better than her. If it was not for her, Cara's bad temper would have driven everyone away."

Roland rubbed his chin for a while. There were not any government affairs to deal with for now, and the First Army had successfully entered Silver City. Given that, he thought it was just the time to have a break.

He was about to accept Nightingale's massage when the magic stones in her arms alerted again.

This time the voice was very clear, like a shout in the ear.

"It's Lightning, repeat, it's Lightning, do you copy?"

As the witches were lacking in entertainments, Roland chose some wonderful stories for them in nature courses to improve their interests in studies and enrich their knowledge. Since Lightning heard the story that sky could be conquered by pilots, she had been addicted to their advanced conversation mode.

Roland, however, still felt a little awkward communicating this way. After Nightingale activated another group of magic stones, Roland cleared his throat and said, "I've got you, speak please."

"The Red Mist behind the snow mountain disappeared... No, it's disappearing!"

"What? Are you sure?" Roland and Nightingale asked simultaneously.

"Yes, Maggie is here, too. You can ask her!"

"The Red Mist has indeed faded away! Coo."

"It's not right. You should say 'this is Maggie', and then report."

"Coo coo?"

"Where are you now? Don't get close to Devil's Town, and hurry back now," Roland said, trying to control their impulses to explore. If they chose to fly directly into Devil's Town to investigate and encountered a senior demon there, they would be in real trouble.

"Got it!" Lightning replied quickly.

"Get Agatha for me. Maybe only she knows what's going on," Roland said to Nightingale.

Since the witches killed the Magic Slayer, he had been monitoring the demons behind the snow-capped mountains. There was one Animal Messenger in each troop who guarded the coal carrier ships that went to the source of the Redwater River in batches of four or five. Besides, he ordered Lightning and Maggie to practice between the snow mountain and the Mist Forest in case of a surprise attack of demons.

The demons, however, did not take their revenge, and now even the Red Mist began to fade away.

Agatha soon came to the office, but after listening carefully to the report from Lightning, she was also puzzled. "The Union could rarely get close to Devil's Town, and I'd never heard of their retreat during battles, even in the wars that lasted for several decades."

"Keep monitoring them for now." Roland made the decision at last. "Perhaps the Red Mist will come back, we should be cautious."

He did not want to put any witch's life at risk for now.

Five days later, Lightning reported that the Red Mist behind the snow mountains had completely disappeared.

Chapter 593 - The Blackstone Forest

...

A reconnaissance platoon was established soon after confirming no trace of the demons in the camp.

To find out the cause for the Red Mist's disappearance, Maggie led the probe into the camp carrying Agatha, followed by Soraya and Summer who were not capable of escaping were thus protected by 50 soldiers of the First Army.

"We're about to arrive. Get ready to land!" said Lightning, who made a gesture towards Maggie,

"Awh!"

Agatha poked her head up and the Rocky Beach gradually came into her sight. As the little girl said, the heavy Red Mist had vanished completely, revealing the dark brown earth. Different from the dark green forest around, no trees were there in the camp area which looked as if the soil surface was torn off.

This was the first time that Agatha had approached a residence of demons.

As a member of the Quest Society, Agatha could not help but feel a burst of excitement.

"Lightning is landing! Repeat, Lightning is landing."

"Be careful! Remember to escape immediately if there is any danger." Roland's voice came through the sigil.

"Lightning understands."

Folding her wings, Maggie dived sharply towards the ground.

Agatha saw the landscape under her feet changing rapidly, from the blue ocean to the off-white rugged rocky wall, and then to the humid brown land. After a sudden shock, Agatha found that the huge Devilbeast had already landed safely.

"Do the demons really live in such a place? Looking from the sky, there's nothing special in this place but now it really looks weird," Lightning clicked her tongue and said.

Agatha felt the same way.

The swarthy stone towers stood high on the empty ground everywhere, like a black forest in picturesque disorder. These strange buildings were the black spots that they had seen from above. The height of the higher buildings was about three to four stories and that of the lower ones were just taller than their heads. In terms of the density, these building far surpassed that of a forefront battalion.

It seemed that these stone towers had some functions other than the storage of the Red Mist.

"I don't know what happened to them, but it must have happened not long ago," she said.

"Why do you say that?" Lightning asked with curiosity.

"As the stone towers haven't withered completely." Agatha pointed to a nearest Blackstone Pagoda and said. "Their surfaces simply dimmed, far from being rough and fragile. They look totally different from the barren land that the Union conquered in the frontline. That means, the demons didn't intend to withdraw, or... they just made a hasty decision to retreat." She paused momentarily and said, "let's go to the center of the camp, the highest tower, where the Eye Demon lived. Maybe we can find something else."

"Hope Summer can find the cause... Ah!" Lightning screamed suddenly. She was walking in the front, but instantly sunk into the ground. Seeing the frightening scene, Maggie transformed into a pigeon to fly up immediately, and Agatha also conjured up an ice barrier in front of herself.

Before they took any further action, the little girl flew out of the hole in the ground and said, "I'm okay." She flapped her body to clear away the dirt and complained. "Who dug a trap here?!"

"What a naughty gremlin!" Agatha sighed with relief inwardly and prepared to disperse the ice barrier. Yet the following words of Lightening made her heart jump in her throat again.

"Uh! Here's a demon!"

"It's true, but the demon seems to be dead," Maggie perched on the head of Lightning and said.

"Maybe. Otherwise, I would be in trouble," the little girl patted her chest and said, still quite scared.

Holding an ice spear in hand, Agatha came over to have a look. As Maggie said, a Mad Demon stood in the soil pit with its head slouching, and a chunk of its bare skin had dried and curled, like the salted fish exposed to the scorching sun.

"I remember Sylvie once said that the demons were hiding under the ground, right?" Agatha said and further confirmed her judgement. Whether the demons decided to withdraw or met with some other incident at that moment, it must have been some emergency. Otherwise, these demons wouldn't die by exhausting the Red Mist underground little by little before receiving the new orders.

"We'd better fly to investigate. I don't want to fall in a trap again," Lightning mumbled.

Carrying Agatha on her back, Lightening flew forward slowly, remaining close to the ground. After they bypassed rows of stone towers, they suddenly got a wider view.

An open field in the camp appeared.

"It's..." Agatha gasped and said. Judging from the spot, it was obvious that the open field was not left deliberately by the demons, as a huge cavern could be seen in the center of it. It had a size almost equal to that of the square of Border Town, and many debris of the stone tower scattered around it. The three witches stood by the bottomless hole and looked down attempting to see where it led to.

"It seems the same as the place where we found you. How about let me go down and explore first?" Lightning smacked her lips and said.

"NO! You can't."

"No, coo!"

Agatha and Maggie stopped Lightening at the same time.

"Okay," the little girl said and sighed with a look of regret. She had restrained herself a lot from her desires to take risks after being punished by His Majesty to do test questions. "So, let's take a walk around it."

The rest of the place in the camp had slight differences. Of course, the exploration of the three witches was not fruitless. Maggie found a large number of Magic Stones in a flat-roofed stone tower and a withered, dead Chaos Beast. Actually, she just wanted to perch on the top of the tower for a while, but happened to find a narrow entrance there, which may serve as an air duct that the demons used to imbue the Red Mist.

The First Army arrived at Rocky Beach two days later.

Lotus found a slit chapped in the mountain, and dug a path out in the rocky wall, which could allow only one person to go through. Maggie, at the same time, was responsible for transporting the important equipment like heavy machine guns. It took great effort to deliver 50 soldiers and witches into the inland area.

This was the first contact between the indigenous people and the alien demon race.

Even the hardiest soldier would felt dread and panic at the sight of such an incredible scene. Roland had expected that and ordered his people to pitch a camp nearby the entrance to the rocky wall to avoid overstraining themselves. As for Summer's replaying work, the First Army was not allowed to watch.

According to Agatha's judgement, the time at which the high tower in the camp disappeared should be between one and half a weeks to one month ago. The consumption of Summer's magic power would be accelerated if the retrospective time exceeded one week. As for the events that happened one month ago, they could only be replayed once a day. Under such circumstances, there was no shortcut except for trying again and again.

Among the Magic Stones brought back by Maggie, there were some practical ones. The quality of these Magic Stones could not match with those obtained from Fearsome Demons, but it was better than nothing. Now the Spellcaster Tower to be completed soon only lacks a living demon.

It would take a long time to find the accurate time of the incident that happened to the demons. Roland developed new gadgets as he waited for the result. He received the second secret letter from the Fjords.

It said that Tilly Wimbledon was about to arrive at Shallow Beach of the Western Region.

Chapter 594 - Shallow Beach and Reunion

"What a pleasant surprise," thought Roland.

Out of his expectation, Tilly herself would also come here instead of just sending several combat witches to help him. That meant she had already solved the trouble on Sleeping Island, or that she did not have to worry about the stability of the island for now.

The day after he received the letter, Roland waited for Tilly at Shallow Beach with Anna and the other witches.

After half a month, traces of chiseling could clearly be seen on the beach of sand and mud.

Simple wooden board houses and work sheds had already been built around the slope, which were the prototype of the future warehouse and sailor dormitory. The windward sides of the wooden houses were painted with an orange anti-corrosion coating to protect them from the sea wind, and meanwhile, the coating also made the houses look very nice and striking. A 30 meters long beachhead was leveled, and its external side was made of bricks. It now worked as a temporary dock, and the natural deep-water harbor here even saved Roland the trouble of building trestle. Even the three-masted ships could berth here directly by the side of the dock.

As it was the first time for most of the witches to see Shallow Beach during the development stage, they all looked around with curiosity.

"Is that huge pit the collapsed shipyard? What're they doing over there right now?" Anna walked to Roland and then pointed to a distant place where many workers seemed very busy with their jobs.

"Uhm, you've heard about it, too," Roland said with a little embarrassment.

"Of course, Nana told me on the day that three workers broke their legs."

The collapse of the shipyard and the explosion of the coke oven in a test run were both major accidents of this year in the Border Area. The latter could be considered as a price he had to pay during development and exploration. The former, however, was mostly caused by his own careless mistakes.

Given the soft ground condition in Shallow Beach, Minister of Construction, Karl, had proposed that the shipyard should be built near the hills as the place could provide them a more solid foundation. Roland, however, had refused Karl's suggestion at once because of the time limit. As it had already taken a long time to build the slope by sinking the hills, if they built the shipyard in the old way, he would have to wait until the next year to begin building the steam vessel for Thunder.

As for the soft-foundation problem, he had thought it was not a big deal, as long as he let Lotus build a steel structure of the shipyard and poured concrete in to protect it.

The project had gone well as he had expected in the initial stage. The vertical walls which had been designed to protect the steel structure had seemed to be quite sturdy after the concrete had set. Roland had been very pleased with himself at the time, thinking that those civil engineering experts were just so-so. To his surprise, an accident had eventually happened when the workers had been installing the portcullis.

As soon as the one arm thick portcullis had been released by Hummingbirds, it had fallen down with the concrete walls on its both sides, burying the installing workers inside. Even though the Hummingbirds had immediately made the portcullis as light as a feather, the workers had already been heavily injured at the time. None of them could survive, if it was not for Nana.

Later investigation revealed that during the process of pouring the concrete, some sand and mud had sunk under the workers' feet and fallen to the bottom, as a result, the vertical walls had not tightly clung to the floor and the seemingly sturdy joining parts between the floor and the vertical walls were just a thin layer of concrete. The moment when the heavy portcullis had been set into the wall, the steel structure had failed to sustain the weight and collapsed with the walls suddenly.

In the modern time, that was a grievous fault of Roland. In this era, however, casualties frequently occurred during construction and no one would take it seriously, let alone blaming the lord for it. Only Roland himself would feel guilty and deeply sorry for the workers.

He cleared his throat to gather himself together and said, "They're building earth-retaining wall with wooden posts."

"To prevent the earth beside the shipyard from collapsing?" Anna soon got what Roland meant.

"Uhm, it's just like roots of a tree. The wooden posts are crossed and inserted into the ground to increase friction, so the vertical walls won't fall down," Roland nodded and said. This time, he would carefully check whether there were sunk sands and mud in the structure when pouring the concrete in, as he had already got his lesson.

"Look, here comes a ship!" Mystery Moon shouted in a sudden.

All the people looked at the place where the sea and the sky met and saw a sailing ship with a pink flag moving slowly towards them.

No doubt, a ship traveling round Southernmost Cape to the inland of the Western Region must be the Charming Beauty from Sleeping Island.

When the ship got close to Shallow Beach, it teetered on the sea for a while to readjust the direction before it berthed by the beach. Apparently, they had not recognized Shallow Beach at the first sight.

Roland met Tilly Wimbledon, Princess Tilly of Kingdom of Graycastle, again.

He gave his right hand to her, and then shook hands warmly with her. They had not seen each other for several months, but seeing the smiling look on each other's face, they still felt closely connected.

"What a wonderful reunion," Roland thought.

The witches did not greet Tilly and her witches in such a reserved manner.

Honey, Candle and Evelyn immediately came up and hugged their old friends. Andrea bent her arm around Nightingale's shoulders, completely neglecting the manner of a noble lady. Wendy held Ashes' hand, asking about her recent situation. Softfeathers, however, was greatly surprised as she found that a witch of the Bloodfang Association also came with Tilly.

"Why did you come here?" Softfeathers walked to a witch who looked a little pale and asked, "Did Heidi Morgan send you here because she did not get any report from Iffy and me?"

"No, Lady Heidi is on the ship now," the witch answered while shaking her head.

"What? You mean she also comes to the Western Region?" Softfeathers exclaimed in surprise, catching everyone's attention.

It was not hard to tell from her voice that she was frightened.

"Who's Heidi?"

"She seems to be the leader of the Bloodfang Association?"

"Ah, yes. Iffy mentioned her."

"What's she going to do here?"

Roland looked at Tilly and asked, "Have you settled your differences with her?"

"If you mean controlling her right now, yes I do. My plan worked and Heidi did try to kill the Annie we faked. But she refused to tell me where the witches rejected by the Bloodfang Association went. She said she would only tell you when she saw you," Tilly said, spreading her hands.

"Me?" Roland asked confusedly.

"Yes, I guess she considers you her last life-saving straw." Tilly blinked her eye and continued, "Now you're the ruler of Graycastle, representing the secular nobles. She probably thinks if she gives you enough profits, you'll save her or even help her to regain her power in the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

"Are you reminding me of what I should do?" Roland could not help but laugh. He had to admit that Tilly was quite cute when she pretended to be careless and beat about the bush. "Trust me. If I'm a man who'll exchange witches' lives for profits, you'd never bring her here. Well, so who's this witch I'm going to meet? I think I've never met her before."

"Nightfall, a combat witch of the Bloodfang Association. If it's not for her who uses Seed of Symbiosis to sustain Heidi's life, I'm afraid Heidi wouldn't make it to City of Neverwinter," Tilly answered.

Chapter 595 - Germination

"Did Heidi get hurt during the capture?"

"Uhm, she got shot in her leg. We've stopped the bleeding, but she probably can't walk for now."

"How is everyone else?"

"A witch of the Bloodfang Association named Skyflare died last night." Tilly sighed and said. "My witches are alright."

Roland nodded and said, "I'll tell Nana to cure her. As for the other things, let's talk about them after we get back to the castle."

...

Compared with interrogating the leader of the Bloodfang Association, the church invasion was the top priority for Roland now. After he returned to his office, he asked first about the situation of Sleeping Island and then showed the letter from the Northern Region to Tilly and the other witches. Ashes and Andrea were also there as the three big families in the king's city of the Kingdom of Dawn were also involved.

Since Roland received the secret warning letter, he had contacted Hill Fawkes twice to get a clear idea of what had happened. After he told the witches all he knew, Andrea could not help shaking her head and said, "Foolish Otto, he still behaves just the same as he did when he was little. He would never dare to enter the palace without Oro."

"But at least, he succeeded in revealing what the church was doing to us. Besides, he did it mainly because of you," Ashes shrugged and said.

"Have you replied to him?" Tilly asked Roland.

"I urged him not to act rashly. As even the God's Stone of Retaliation could not affect the witch, it's almost impossible for ordinary people to defeat her. Besides, Prince Appen mentioned that there were God's Punishment Warriors too. The Kingdom of Dawn is too far away from the Kingdom of Graycastle. I can't offer him any help directly. Under such circumstances, it's a wise decision to pretend to know nothing about the church's secret until the church focuses on the Kingdom of Graycastle," Roland said while pouring tea for everyone.

"He may not be able to control himself well. Acting on impulses has been a habit of Otto Luoxi ever since he was a child," Andrea said with a frown.

"He'll control himself well, because I told him something else." Roland smiled and added, "I told him that Andrea was safe at my place, and the enemy could hardly hurt her, even if she had to fight against the church. I also warned him that if he died, he would never have the chance to meet his Andrea again."

"Very persuasive," Ashes whistled and said.

"Enough," Tilly promptly spoke at this moment in order to prevent a coming spat. She stared at Roland, blaming him for making fun of this matter and then changed the subject by asking, "What're you going to do about the church's invasion?"

"Ahem... I'm going to build a defensive line with guns and cannons under Coldwind Ridge," said Roland. He took a map out of his drawer and spread it on the desk. He pointed at the border of the Northern Region, saying, "Since I got the news, I've already sent the First Army to deliver war materials to Deepvalley Town and at the same time, to wipe out the influence of the church in my kingdom. Given that, Holy City of Hermes will soon sense the intention of Graycastle to garrison Coldwind Ridge."

"Do you want to purposely reveal your actions to your enemy? I hate to be blunt, but most of the time, the information deliberately leaked to the enemy must be false and delusive, right?" Andrea asked.

"But it's the only way that I can ensure where the church is going to attack first, and by doing so, my people will suffer less. A head-on confrontation is also what the First Army is best at in battles," Roland explained his plans.

"I see. It's a pretty good idea," Tilly nodded and said.

"But there's still a hidden danger, the pure witches. With strong firepower, we don't have to worry about the visible enemies but the witches of the church may cause unexpected troubles for the First Army, as we know nothing about the pure witches. Only our witches with magic power can guard against them," Roland added.

"That's why we're here. Trust me, my big brother. The witches of Sleeping Island will fight with you," Tilly replied.

*******************

Back at the Witch Building, Tilly had returned to her original apartment that she had lived in before.

The living room and bedroom looked exactly the same as she had seen them the last time. There was no dust on the table. Apparently, Roland must have often had this place cleaned.

Three wooden basins used for bathing were prominently displayed near the door. Clean clothes were nicely folded and placed in the basins and beside them, there were sandals that were easy to wear. Brought up in a royal family, Tilly had accustomed herself to taking baths regularly, but even she had never bathed so frequently like she did at this place where the warm water for bathing was available all the time.

When she followed the aroma of fresh food to open the cupboard, she found it was filled with various kinds of seasoning, dried meat floss and bread. She could easily fill her stomach any time she felt hungry.

Princess Tilly had never been a person who really cared a lot about material comforts, but she could not help but feel warm in her heart seeing the scene.

"Ah... I can use scented soap for bathing again. Huh, the towels in the basin seem to be brand new," Andrea talked loudly in the living room.

"Isn't it good for you to have new towels?" Ashes questioned.

"Yes for me, but not for you. It's a waste to offer you a new towel."

"What did you say?"

"I think that rag you brought will do. Why does a person who can tolerate bathing in salty, smelly sea water need a towel?"

Hearing the familiar bickering voices, Tilly smiled silently. She thought that everyone seemed to like Neverwinter, and even the Bloodfang Association witches changed after they came here.

She felt that she also liked this city as everyone else did.

The improvement in life quality might be one of the reasons for the other witches' changes, but not for Princess Tilly who had been adored by King Wimbledon III. Compared to her life in the palace, the life here was just fresh and interesting, but not luxurious.

What attracted the witches the most must be another thing.

Staying in this city, Tilly would naturally feel relaxed, and yet she had no idea about why she would feel this way until today. When Roland had been pouring tea for the witches himself, she had suddenly realized.

Roland truly accepted the witches and treated them as friends instead of just pretending to be friendly to witches who could offer him help.

No matter who he was, the lord, the prince or the king, Tilly could tell that his attitude remained the same all the time.

He did consider witches as his friends, which he was not faking at all.

"Are you alright?"

Hearing Ashes behind her, she turned around and saw that she gently closed the door of the kitchen.

"Huh?"

"Why did you call him big brother today? On Sleeping Island, didn't you say that you helped him only to help yourself? And... you said he was not like Prince Roland at all," Ashes hesitated and asked.

"I don't think he's the stupid, cowardly elder brother of mine and I don't care whether he's him or not." Tilly paused momentarily and asked, "Have you ever considered the meaning of this war against the church?"

"Retaliation?"

"No," Tilly shook her head and said, "It means freedom of life. Have you ever thought of moving here?"

Chapter 596 - Home of the Free

Greatly surprised, Ashes said, "What did you say? I've never thought of leaving you."

"That's not what I mean. To tell the truth, this place is not bad... and you like it, right?" Tilly explained, finding out that Ashes misunderstood her.

After a moment of hesitation, Ashes nodded and said, "The Witch Cooperation Association must have their reason to stay here and work for Roland, but we're different. We have our own home..."

Tilly interrupted Ashes, saying, "There are only three possible endings for us in this war. The first is that we get defeated by the God's Punishment Army and die in the last ditch in the Northern Region. Under such circumstances, neither Sleeping Island nor Neverwinter matters to us anymore."

"I swear, by my life. My lady, you'll never die at that kind of place," Ashes said and hurriedly covered Princess Tilly's mouth with her hand, and even used the honorifics in her haste.

Tilly kept looking at Ashes with a smile until Ashes removed her hand, and then said, "That's just a hypothesis. I don't think I'll get killed by the church, either."

"So don't say it out loud. A frequent saying of yours is that..." Ashes said with worry.

"It'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy," Tilly added. She walked to the small window of the kitchen to look at the castle backyard which was full of energy and vitality, and she continued, "That's why I tell you this hypothesis at first. The second possibility is that Roland loses the war but we survive. That way, the Kingdom of Graycastle will no longer be able to resist the church, Neverwinter will be caught in fire and Roland will have only one place to go."

"Sleeping Island?"

"Yes, we'll continue to fight against the church on the island until the Battle of Divine Will began. Maybe the human species will be extinct hundreds of years later but there's nothing we can do as we can't live that long."

"What about the third possibility..."

"If we defeat the church and take over Holy City of Hermes, all of the witches will be free from bullying and persecution, and the Sleeping Island's mission will be fulfilled."

"Ful-fulfilled?"

"Yes, it's just the witches' hide for now. If the church is destroyed, we won't have to confine ourselves on an island of the Fjords any longer. The Fjords can't offer us a pleasant environment to live because of its limited supplies and unpredictable weather... But, of course, we won't abandon Sleeping Island and we'll continue our Sleeping Spell. The only change is that we'll be able to choose to live in the cities we like, right?"

"I'll always stay by your side even in hell and besieged by numerous demons.

"And in the world full of salted fish and fish soup?"

"Uhm..." Ashes suddenly did not know what to say.

Tilly could not help but laugh. She said, "Relax, eating too much of them makes me feel sick, too. I'll probably come to live in Neverwinter for a while every now and then. I also want some changes in diet."

"Hey there, what're you talking about?" Andrea pushed the door open, craned her neck to look inside and asked. She wore a bathrobe and carried a wooden basin on her head.

"What're you going to do?" Ashes asked, frowning.

"To take a bath," Andrea twitched her mouth and said, "I have stunk after staying on the ship for over ten days. Of course, it's not surprising that somebody just can't notice even such a strong smell of fish. Lady Tilly, are you going with me?"

"Yes, wait for me. I'll change my clothes," Tilly replied.

"Ahem... so am I." Ashes pretended not to hear the satire and expressed her intention to join the bath.

"Come on, I did not invite you," Andrea rolled her eyes at Ashes and said.

"I'll accompany Tilly, not you. Don't take me wrong."

Looking at them who gazed at each other in a speechless confrontation, Tilly relaxed and began to imagine that all of them would be able to live easily and happily like they did now after they defeated the church.

*******************

Roland had been in a daze in his office for a long time until Nightingale came in with dried fish in her hand.

Out of his expectation, Tilly who had not recognized him as her elder brother the last time when she had been here suddenly called him big brother today. Roland felt overjoyed and at the same time confused, wondering whether she really considered him as Prince Roland or just a reliable friend and guardian.

"Yeah, she called you big brother. It's not a big deal. I can call you like that if you want," Nightingale said incredulously.

"You're three years older than me. Don't you nobles value your integrity?" Roland sighed inwardly and thought, "but it's not bad to have an elder sister as my... No, stop thinking about this anymore." Roland banished those thoughts and asked, "What do you think that changed her attitude towards me?"

"Who knows? Maybe she saw your sincerity, as you didn't use the Bloodfang Association witches to split Sleeping Island and you quickly declared war on the church. Compared with empty promises, those actions are more convincing. But that's just my guess. Maybe, it's just a slip of tongue," Nightingale shrugged and said.

"Yes, the reason isn't as important as the facts. No matter what made Tilly change, she did get closer to me. That also means I've gained wider recognition among the Sleeping Island witches," Roland thought. 

Then he said to Nightingale, "Now. it's time for us to meet Heidi Morgan."

...

Roland stepped into the jail in the basement of the castle and saw Heidi lying unconsciously in a bed made out of straw. The wound in her leg covered with black and red blood stains healed perfectly.

"To ensure Nana's safety, I knocked Heidi Morgan out before Nana started to cure her. Otherwise, it would be too dangerous to take off the God's Stone of Retaliation on her. I heard from the other Bloodfang Association witch that she tried to hold Andrea as the hostage when she was besieged," Nightingale whispered in Roland's ear.

"I see. You did a good job."

There were iron hoops mounted with God's Stones of Retaliation around Heidi's neck and wrists, and it was impossible to unlock it without special tools. They did this to her because she was a very powerful combat witch.

She could cause fatal injuries to all the objects within ten steps by making them collapse inwards. According to Tilly, this kind of collapse won't be affected by any other factors, as no matter what kind of vessels Heidi used her power to affect, they would collapse. A wooden one would be crushed, while a metal one would be squashed.

An abdominal cavity and thoracic cavity of a living being would also collapse and squeeze the soft inner organs out, which reminded Roland of squeezing toothpaste out of a tube.

From Roland's perspective, Heidi should work in the factory instead of combating,

Since she could act as a punching machine to process the raw material with molds, which was the most basic use of her ability. Roland believed that her potential would be great if she realized that there was a space between moles and between atoms during her studies.

But unfortunately, he also knew that it was too late for her.

"Wake her up," Roland said.

Nightingale nodded and dashed into the jail to lift Heidi up and drag her over to the steel bars.

Roland looked down at her, saying, "I'm Roland Wimbledon, King of Graycastle. I've heard you wanted a private talk with me. You can talk to me now."

Chapter 597 - Blood and Fang

It took Heidi quite a long time to figure out what had happened.

She first touched her thigh which had already been cured and then looked Nightingale up and down. After that, she finally turned her gaze to Roland and asked, "Your Majesty, did you cure me?"

"Yes, otherwise you'll make Nightfall exhausted," Roland replied. He then found a chair and seated himself in front of the jail, asking, "Tell me, where did you send the witches rejected by you?"

"That's... what Iffy told you?"

"Yes, the witch named Annie was her friend."

Instead of directly answering Roland's question, Heidi clenched her teeth. At the moment, Roland saw the hatred in her eyes.

"You could have given them a shelter. Archduke Island is the domain of Archduke Morgan and you're his successor. It's impossible that you can't even afford a dozen assistant witches. Even though all you needed to do at the time was to offer them some gruel a day, you still chose to abandon them. You thought they were useless, but, in fact, assistant witches are far more powerful than you can imagine. The gun Andrea used to hurt you is a weapon made by assistant witches and ordinary people. It's very easy to operate. Even a farmer who's worked in the fields for all his life can easily use it to kill an experienced knight," Roland said.

Hearing that, Heidi's face changed. She lifted up her head promptly, asking, "What did you say? Even ordinary people can use it?"

"Do you still believe I totally depend on the witches to capture the king's city and become King of Graycastle?" Roland leaned back in his chair and added, "If they had such a strong power, they wouldn't have been suppressed by the church and the secular lords."

"So... how did they make the weapon?"

Roland coldly stared at Heidi until she realized that she had asked an inappropriate question just now. After that, he mocked. "What? Do you think we're talking at a palace banquet?"

Heidi swallowed hard and said, "This lady beside you is..."

"Nightingale. She works for me, not for Tilly. I want to ask you again. Where did you send the witches rejected by you?" Roland said in a deep voice.

"I let them go to find the other witch organizations. I've no idea of where they went. Some of they might return to the nearby towns and cities, and some might go to the Kingdom of Dawn..."

"You're lying. None of this is true." Nightingale suddenly broke in before she finished.

"No, Your Majesty. She knows nothing about me..."

"Save it, Heidi." Roland shook his head and continued, "Nightingale can tell truth from lies. You can't lie about anything in front of her. Now, you know why Tilly brought you from the Fjords to the Western Region. You'll be tried here and if you don't want to suffer, tell me what you did exactly. My patience is wearing thin."

In the dim firelight, the expression seemed uncertain on Heidi's face. Apparently, she did not expect that Nightingale had such an ability. After a moment of silence, Heidi grabbed the steel bars and shouted, "Your Majesty Wimbledon, the Kingdom of Wolfheart has been annexed by the church, the king has been lost and now I'm the only descendant of the Morgan royal family. If you help me regain my kingdom, I'll bring you countless profits! Gold royals, gems and... yes, witches! The Bloodfang Association will also be at your command!"

"Is this what you want to tell me at last?"

"I'll give you half of the Kingdom of Wolfheart! The land on the west of Blackstone Cliff will be yours!"

"Stop!" Roland interrupted impatiently. "I just want to know where the witches went!"

"What? My kingdom can't yet compare with those witches?" Heidi said in disbelief.

Roland was fed up with this and said, "Can't you understand me? The Kingdom of Wolfheart isn't yours and I've no interest in the land far away from me. Due to the basic manner of a noble, I'm here to ask you first, but I have many other methods to make you tell the truth. As for torture, I think you know more than me. It'll do you no good, so tell me what you did to those witches when I'm still here. Maybe, I'll spare your life."

Heidi took Roland's last sentence as a life-saving straw and confirmed. "Your Majesty... you'll really spare me?"

"I'm a man of action."

Heidi lowered her head and said after a long hesitation, "I sent them to the nobles."

Roland's heart sank a little and then he asked, "Didn't you sell them to the nobles?"

"No, the whole thing is a trade-off." She took a deep breath and continued, "I could have never recruited enough witches for the Bloodfang Association if I had depended solely on the witches awakening on the Archduke Island. To attract more witches to come to me, I had to spread the name of the association throughout the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

"You could hire Rats to do the job for you. How come was this related to the nobles?" Roland asked. He had also tried to draw witches' attention via propaganda, but as Tilly started to spread the news earlier than him, he did not succeed in recruiting many witches.

"Rats themselves are manipulated by nobles. Besides, once the church had found out the secret of Archduke Island, I would have been in real trouble."

"So, you pay back with witches to the nobles?"

"Yes, I did this to ensure that the nobles and I were on the same boat. When they illegally kept witches, they would naturally notice the actions of the church and control the Rats properly. They would even deliberately divert the Holy City's attention from me. Only after making sure that the local lords were willing to accept witches, I would spread information in their domains. By doing so, I could minimize the risk," Heidi said in a low voice.

Roland did not have to ask to know what had happened next to those non-combat witches. They must have been locked in the dark rooms for the whole life, and most of them had died young when the magic power bit. Even for several lucky witches who made it to the adulthood, their fate had also been sealed. They must have been dead in the hands of the nobles who had used them just to sate their own lust or in the hands of the church who had forced the nobles to hand out the witches.

At the time, Heidi clearly sensed Nightingale's anger and impulsively moved backward, saying, "Your Majesty, you've promised!"

Roland stopped Nightingale with his arm outstretched and continued to ask, "Who did those things for you? Iffy said that you've never met Annie."

"Skyflare... she was killed by Ashes."

"Anyone else? Did the other witches of the Bloodfang Association know nothing about this?" Roland asked.

Heidi nodded.

"Say it out!"

"... yes."

Roland secretly let out a sigh of relief and said, "The last question. What's the purpose of your Bloodfang Association to recruit combat witches everywhere?

After a short silence, Heidi said, "I just wanted to help my father seize the throne which should belong to him."

Heidi stopped, but Roland could easily guess what she was to say. After the death of Archduke Morgan, the Bloodfang Association had become Heidi Morgan's tool to fulfill her own desire for power.

Walking out of the basement, Nightingale hold Roland's hand in a sudden, asking, "Are you really going to spare the life of that murder?"

"Heidi Morgan is a witch of Sleeping Island. It's not appropriate for me to execute her. Tilly wanted me to help in finding out the truth. That's why she took Heidi to the Western Region."

"You mean..." Nightingale's eyes started to shine.

"As for whether Sleeping Island will spare her or not, that's not what I can decide," Roland said, spreading his hands.

Chapter 598 - The End of Her Dream

The following day, Roland told the news to Tilly and the other witches.

"How dare she use witches as a reward to those filthy nobles?" Failing to restrain her anger, Ashes broke off before Princess Tilly could speak. If Andrea had not stopped her, she probably had already rushed to the dungeon straightaway.

"Has Miss Nightingale checked the credibility of her testimony?" Tilly asked placidly.

"She spilled everything after a few preliminary questions," Roland said and told them what had happened in the cell in detail. "I thought it'd take a while for us to get her to surrender, but she's weaker than we expected." He had not expected to obtain a full confession from the prisoner yesterday, for the questioning was simply a sort of intimidation commonly practiced before the official interrogation. Because of this, he did not take the God's Locket of Retribution off Heidi, and Heidi did not know that Nightingale actually detected lies through magic power rather than voices either.

"I see." Tilly nodded. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"Don't be silly. I'm your brother." Roland immediately grabbed this opportunity, trying to sound somewhat intimate. "Plus, Heidi Morgan is also, so to speak, a witch on Sleeping Island. She should be handed over to you."

"Fair enough..." Tilly was silent for quite a while. "What would you do if this happened in the city of Neverwinter?"

Roland gazed at her gemlike eyes and noticed a silent rage rather than poignancies in her gray pupils.

She had already made her decision.

"I'd do the same thing." Roland comforted her.

With this remark, Heidi Morgan was sentenced to death.

Tilly no longer hesitated. She whispered something in Ashes' ear. The latter nodded and left the office.

"I'll now excuse myself, brother."

Roland could tell that Tilly was greatly depressed by the incident, but he did not know what to say in this scenario. When he was about to escort her to the Witch Building, an exhilarated scream pierced the silence. It was from the Listening Magic Stone in Nightingale's chest.

"It's Lightning, copy. It's Lightning. Summer has found out when the incident occurred."

The little girl's report stunned everybody.

"Um, what did she see?" Roland asked.

"Two monsters, big mouth, and tentacles. I don't know how to describe them." From her voice, Roland knew she was extremely hyper. "This is something we've never seen. Good Heavens... Your Majesty, you'd better come see it yourself!"

"What's it..." Tilly was bewildered.

"They're exploring the Devil's Town behind the snowcapped mountains. The Red Mist there completely disappeared a week ago," Roland explained, "and I wanted to tell you about it today, but..."

"I almost forgot about demons." Tilly took a deep breath. "You can fill me in with the details on the way."

"On the way?" Roland was slightly surprised.

"Can't I go with you?" She winked.

Princess Tilly had indeed been strong since her childhood. She knew how to adjust herself and manage to be impersonal when facing something of great importance. Roland was secretly amazed at how quickly she could restore the tranquility of her mind upon a crisis, an essential quality for a ruler, which he, unfortunately, still had a lot to work on.

If he took Tilly with him, Ashes and Andrea would certainly tag along. The trip would be, therefore, much safer. He had no reason to reject her.

"Yes, of course you can." Roland agreed with a nod.

*******************

Heidi was leaning against the bars, waiting for Roland to get her out.

The Bloodfang Association was over. Tilly would definitely not allow her to return to Sleeping Island. However, as a member of the Morgan royal family, she had found a new path for her resurrection to the throne.

That was to rely on the imperial power of Graycastle and regain her throne.

Heidi had higher hopes for the reward she was going to propose than Roland's own promise. Roland did not directly make any promises probably just because he was Tilly's brother. He owed an explanation to Sleeping Island as to the whereabouts of these missing witches.

Heidi firmly believed that no noble could possibly resist such a great temptation. Half of the territory of Wolfheart would certainly bring Roland enormous fame and fortunes, and his name would also be passed down the history and become immortal.

As for herself? Her notoriety would be remembered by nobles in later generations. Nevertheless, she did not care about it. As long as she could successfully become the king of Wolfheart, she could abandon everything else.

Only in this way could she officially start her revenge.

She must avenge her father and herself on those nobles for their betrayal.

She swore she would hang those traitors one by one and hung their heads above the city gate, showing the public the fate of those who had framed Archduke Morgan.

The iron gate of the dungeon was suddenly flung open. Its squeaking sound appeared to be especially loud in the deadly silent dungeon.

Heidi immediately got to her feet and looked toward the end of the hallway by the bars.

The person who entered her sight, however, was not Roland Wimbledon, but sullen Ashes.

A chill went down her spine at that very moment.

"Wh-what're you doing here? Where's His Majesty?"

"You know exactly why I came here." Ashes slowly approached the cell. Heidi retreated as each step Ashes thrust forward, but she soon realized there was nowhere for her to take refuge. "You should have anticipated this when you handed those innocent witches to nobles."

"No!" Heidi shrieked. "His Majesty promised me he would let the matter go. He's already pardoned me. You can't disobey the king's order! Where's he? I request to see him!"

Ashes grabbed the iron bars and pulled them apart by force. She went into the cell while bending over. "Those witches came to the Bloodfang Association for your help, in hopes of having a good rest and being fed. Yet you failed them and sent them to hell with your own hands. The witches escaped the church's search but were betrayed by their own kind. Even if Roland has forgiven you, I can't just let it go like nothing has ever happened."

"Did Ashes... overhear the conversation between Roland and me? Or did Roland tell the secret to Tilly and the other witches?" Heidi thought. She snatched the God's Locket of Retribution on her neck in horror, but the locket was embedded in an iron ring. It was impossible for her to take it off barehanded.

"Let me help you." Ashes drew close to Heidi. She reached out her hand and lifted Heidi off the floor by her neck.

The iron ring started to tighten up and Heidi soon felt suffocated. She twisted and wriggled like a fish out of water, attempting to gain a foothold on the floor but in vain. Gradually, as her vision blurred, Ashes' figure started to become distant.

Why did I end up like this?

I don't want to die here. I'm the only successor to the throne, the future king of Wolfheart.

The Throne of Tusk seemed to be drifting away from her. She could once again hear the mockeries of nobles ringing in her ears.

At a "crack" sound, the iron ring sank into her neck and stopped all her struggles.

Chapter 599 - A Retrospection of Magic Power

By the afternoon, Roland was prepared to head to the snowcapped mountains.

The equipment he would take with him included a tent, adequate food, and a concrete paddle steamer. Since Devil's Town was coastal, he must set off from Shallow Beach. As usual, Hummingbird would be responsible for transportation.

He had to admit it was a pretty queer thing that Hummingbird, who was as petite as Nana, could hold up the entire concrete boat above her head. The scene reminded Roland of an ant moving rice ten times bigger than its own body. If Hummingbird happened to be on the other side of the boat, he would see a boat silently shifting by itself on the shore like a "ghost ship".

As long as Hummingbird kept her hands attached to the boat, she could help with the transportation continuously. It was a much more efficient way to move stuff compared with her earlier method, with which she had to spend a great deal of time reducing the weight of each item. The new method also saved Hummingbird a lot of magic power. The only drawback, however, was that she needed to follow enchanted goods, which meant she could only move two items at a time.

The paddle steamer heading to the west passed endless mountains and ridges. It arrived at Rocky Beach two days later.

Last time, Roland took a bird's-eye view of this land from a distance on the "Cloud Gazer". Now when he finally set foot on the beach, he found it was nothing but a vast and desolate wilderness.

Rocky Beach, merely ten miles apart from Shallow Beach, was a completely different world.

There were animal remains embedded in layers of gravel and crushed stones all over the place, some of which had corroded due to exposure, while others were in the process of turning into new rocks. A few bones, which Roland failed to determine their owners, were quite big, almost in the same size of an adult.

The steep precipice was also bizarre and mystic.

Numerous sharp stalagmites grew out of the rock surfaces. Unlike the ones suspending from the top of the cave, these stalagmites, which looked like countless hooks hanging upside down at first glance, were all sticking out horizontally with their tails pointing to the ceiling. They were totally unbounded by the gravitational pull. Roland did not see them clearly last time on the balloon; but now, as he was personally on the beach, he felt the hair on the back of his neck all stand up at the sight of this disturbing view.

No signs of life could be found on the long beach. No seagulls were nesting in the vicinity, and no seaweeds or clams were discovered either. Even at the rear of the rocks was an endless expanse of open country, as if demons' Red Mist had taken away all the lives on this land.

Roland and the others located the narrow crack leading to Devil's Town with the help of the marks left by Lotus. It was actually more of a fracture than a crack. As the gap, fathomless and confined, almost split the whole precipice in half. Lotus created a narrow path of one and a half meters wide at the opening.

When they stepped down the stairs and passed through the crevice, Nightingale involuntarily burst out an exclamation.

"What's the matter?" Roland asked.

"Look over there." She pointed to the bottomless crack. "There's a hole in the rocks."

They all stopped and took a peek. Close to the inky bottom, Roland spotted several round holes, which seemed to be manually drilled. "What's that?"

"I don't know. But I've seen similar holes in the Impassable Mountain Range, except the ones there are slightly bigger." Nightingale hesitated for a moment and then said, "I feel something is looking at me deep down there. The deeper I probe, the stronger this feeling is."

"...Something?" Roland was a bit surprised.

"There is more than one." Nightingale nodded. "In the valley on the way to the camps of the Witch Cooperation Association, there's a path leading to the bottom of the ground. I've never been down there."

"Take Sylvie to the Impassable Mountain Range after she's back." Roland took another look at the bottom of the fracture, managing to suppress the desire to explore. He then ordered the team to continue to marshal forward.

Although this continent was a part of Land of Dawn, on which human beings had settled as early as 1,000 years ago, they had a very minimal understanding of the world, as if mankind had deliberately forgotten to explore the outside world. Roland once told Agatha about drawing a map of the whole continent but was informed that the Union had done so for Fertile Plains. They had very roughly sketched out an outline of Land of Dawn. As to the land beyond, they knew nothing about it.

That was why Roland fully supported Thunder to explore lands overseas. He had thought it would be a matter of time to understand the whole world, but now he realized he was ignorant of even his own territory, the Kingdom of Graycastle in the Western Region.

Unfortunately, he had to leave these thoughts behind for the time being, as the war against the church was pressing.

They soon found themselves in an open field after passing through the crack. The First Army who garrisoned there led them to their camps at once. Roland then saw Agatha and Soraya.

"Where are Lightning and the others?"

"She's flying around with Summer." Agatha sighed. "She's too perky to be quiet just for a second. Devil's Town has almost turned into her playland."

"It really would be a national park that you need to buy tickets to enter in the modern world," Roland exclaimed.

"What did you say?"

"No... nothing." Roland coughed to conceal his embarrassment. "I'll use the Sigil of Listening to ask her to come back. Now take me where the collapsed stone tower is."

When the group of people reached the center of the relics, Lightning, Maggie and Summer arrived just in time.

"Lightning is landing!"

The blonde little girl slowly came down to the ground while stretching out her arms to the sides. She turned around and gave Roland a big hug.

Roland did not know whether to laugh or to cry since Lightning had reached puberty.

"Aw...!" Next Maggie joined, who stretched out her wings in the same way. She fell straight to the ground, almost shaking Summer off her back.

Roland understood that Lightning was one of the youngest witches in the Witch Union. So, it kind of explained why she was always so airy and jaunty. Maggie, however, was an adult witch. It did not make sense that she still acted like a child. There was only one plausible explanation: Lightning's fluttering manner was somewhat contagious.

"Since everybody's here, let's get started." Roland eyed Summer, whose legs were still trembling.

"Yes... Your Majesty." Summer stumbled to the hole and closed her eyes.

In a second, the large hole in the ground was replaced by a giant black stone tower. Meanwhile, the air was permeated with red mists as thick as blood.

Roland stepped back involuntarily while at the same time holding his breath.

"This was what it looked like here 26 days ago, right before the incident," Agatha explained, "If Summer traces back the time only once, she can maintain the illusion for nearly an hour. It thus allows us to see what exactly happened from the beginning to the end."

"Where's that Eye Demon that you talked about? The one with eyeballs all over that will attract the demons' attention once it sees you?" Tilly asked curiously.

"At the top of this stone tower." Agatha pointed to the high sky above. "The stone tower is too high for Summer to reach. We can't see it now."

Roland looked up and found the space above the tower was blank, as if it had been chopped off. It appeared that Summer could only reconstruct the area within a radius of five meters.

Just then, the ground started to shake.

"It's coming!" Agatha shouted in a low voice.

Chapter 600 - A Shocking Event

"Coming? What's coming?"

Before Roland had time to inquire about the details, the ground beneath had risen and cracked. The black stone tower was lifted into the air in a second. A giant gray monster jumped out of the crack and opened its huge crimson mouth, trying to devour the stone tower. The slimes on its skin spilled all over the place.

As Summer could only reconstruct the scene but not sounds, Roland felt like he was watching a vivid but intense silent movie. The witches, who had never been to a theatre, reacted more dramatically. They all cried out in fright and stepped back a few paces. Ashes even automatically pulled out her sword and stood in front of Tilly, in an attempt to protect her.

What was more horrid, however, was that there was more than one monster.

Underneath the black stone tower hid a Tentacle Monster, whose gleamy black body was almost completely fused with the stone tower, with only its tentacles poking out of the bottom of the tower like innumerable feet. Its scale, which glistened in a deep red light, was the only indication that the creature was alive.

Tentacle Monster was pretty much as big as half of the castle, but it was incomparable to Megamouth Beast who could engulf the entire tower. To avoid being swallowed, it strove to keep the megamouth beast from shutting the mouth by waving its tentacles. Meanwhile, clouds of blood mists that burst out of the scale started to gradually erode the skins of the beast. Evidently, the thick mist, almost of a black color, could cause harm to its rival.

Nevertheless, the megamouth beast was simply too large to defeat only via the red mist corrosion. As the stone tower was lifted off the ground little by little, the tentacle monster was finally crushed by the tower and became the megamouth beast's food. After that, the black stone tower slowly slid into the giant mouth as well. In the end, Roland saw the eye demon, which appeared to take no notice of the megamouth beast and sat motionless at the top of the tower during the whole process of being gulped down without the slightest intention to escape.

The illusion stopped at that moment. The red mists and the giant monsters vanished instantly. Peace was restored. They saw a massive hole in the ground and realized what they had seen did occur at some point in the past.

Roland heaved a long sigh. He was further convinced that he had done the right thing not to include the soldiers from the First Army. His heart was beating so fast as if it were going to jump out of his chest while he was watching. Even if the "movie" was now over, the fear still lingered.

"This is... the wriggling monster that ate Miss Agatha's lab?" After a long silence, Tilly broke off. "Why would it attack the Devil's Town?"

"We might be wrong earlier. It's probably not a demonic hybrid enslaved by demons. At least, it isn't controlled by the demons behind the snowcapped mountains..." Roland looked at Agatha and said, "What do you think?"

"I agree." Agatha nodded, apparently having been thinking about it for a long time. "There were no records of this kind of demonic beast whatsoever during the two Battles of Divine Will. If demons do have the ability to subjugate them, we won't be able to hold up long, and Taquila would have been devastated long before. Demons just need to order a few megamouth beasts to carry some senior demons and enter the city from the underground when launching an attack."

"If not demons, then who does?" Tilly's brows furrowed. "Judging from the transparent mantis that Miss Nightingale found, it's obvious that these demonic beasts have some sort of plans."

"Can't it be a random action?" Nightingale spread out her hands. "Hybrids are by no means ordinary demonic beasts. Based on their performances during the Months of Demons, they have already developed critical thinking skills. Perhaps they'll be even smarter than us if they live long enough."

Everybody laughed at her comment and felt less strained at once. Clearly, nobody would believe that those savage monsters, which knew nothing but wrestling in muds, would be more intelligent than fed and clothed human beings. The idea just sounded too ridiculous.

Only Roland remained silent. He gazed at the deep hole, dealing with crowding thoughts in his mind.

Was Mankind the most intelligent species?

He would not be so presumptuous as to boldly assume mankind was the smartest creature, especially when he was currently in a completely foreign world. When the living environment and the requirement for necessities changed, what was considered to be intelligent might be distinctive as well. Take demonic beasts for example. They would certainly not regard silk and bread as essential.

"Why was the eye demon unresponsive?" Andrea asked in confusion. "Didn't you say the whole campground will be startled once it sees you?"

"Because nobody saw it," Agatha explained, "Eye demons will see us only after we see them. But to that megamouth beast, it simply had no eyes. It has nothing but a big mouth."

"Because it doesn't need an eye." Roland continued, "Like an earthworm, the beast lives underground all the year round. It doesn't need an eye to see things. Naturally, it won't specially grow any light-sensitive organs."

"Grow... what?" Tilly questioned curiously.

"Light-sensitive organs, such as eyes. Some animals use skins to detect light." Roland did not go further but squatted down and pointed to the deep hole. "Lightning, do you want to go down there to take a peek?"

The little girl nodded immediately.

"That's too dangerous." Ashes attempted to stop her. "We don't know what's hiding down there at all."

"You don't need to probe into the tunnel, but just look at where the beast is heading," Roland said, "and Nightingale will stay here while monitoring magic reactions. It's going to be fine."

"Um, don't I need to follow it into the hole and catch it?" Lightning pouted.

"Not this time. He devoured demons after all, not Agatha." Roland stressed once again. "Get out of there and report to me right after you find where the tunnel leads. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Lightning took out a portable torch from her knapsack and plunged into the deep hole after lighting the torch.

"The exit is over here!" After a few minutes, Lightning's voice came out of the magic stone. "Do you see the torchlight?"

Nightingale soon found out the direction in which the tunnel ran based on the location of the torch. "It's good now. You can come up."

Roland's brows deepened when he glanced at Nightingale who was standing to the southeast of the hole, and the lofty snowcapped mountains behind her.

Apparently, someone shared the same view.

"It looks like we were indeed wrong." Tilly shrugged. "The wriggling demonic beast we met in the Misty Forest did not intend to go to the Devil's Town, but maybe to this snowcapped mountain?"

"It seems so." Roland looked up. The summit of the mountain loomed against puffs of clouds. The snow on its peak shimmered in the rays of sunlight. "It appears that we have to thoroughly look into this highest mountain in the Western Region."

Chapter 601 - The Stargazer

Observatory, City of Dawn in Graycastle.

With the collapse of Timothy's regime, the name of the king's city had gone with the wind. Astrologer of Dispersion Star had expected turbulence after that, but out of his expectation, the order of the city did not change a lot. People still moved through their daily routines. Farmers tilled their land in the suburbs, stonemasons worked on repairing the damaged city wall and blacksmiths banged over the armors in the store. The patrol team continued to play the cat-and-mouse game with the refugees in Black Street. It still seemed to be one of the most prosperous cities in the kingdom.

There were also some inevitable changes. For example, everyday people left the king's city to find new chances in the Western Region. The Alchemist Workshop in the king's city, the old rival of the Astrology Association, even moved out from City of Dawn. Some nobles, who had remained unknown to the public before, appeared within the palace now scrambling for the land and power left by the former noble families. As for the sages, they were completely forgotten. No one came to inquire about the future of the kingdom or ask them to foretell the future.

If it was not for the food and gold royals regularly provided by the officials left by His Majesty Roland, those apprentices of the Astrological Station would have already fled.

Luckily, they still worked for the Astrology Association even now.

As long as the Astrological Station existed, the mission of the astrologers would not be suspended.

"The Forever Stargazer"

The sun sank into the mountains in the west. The color of the sky changed from a gamboge to a dull red, and eventually to a deep purple... As the night fell, the astrologers started their work.

The wind-proof oil lamp had been ignited on a hathpace. The apprentices carried stargazing gears out of the warehouse one by one. They had to be extremely careful when moving these things in order to avoid any damage. Otherwise, they would be punished by lashes and salary deduction. The stargazing gears sent by His Majesty Roland were handled with the greatest care.

The Astrologer of Dispersion Star had not taken these instruments in the wooden box from Roland seriously when he had received them.

Admittedly, His Majesty had once promised to bring more advanced stargazing gears to the Astrology Association, but the preparation of the instruments was a process of extreme complexity. It usually took about a year to select the materials and manufacture a stargazing gear, and would cost approximately 100 gold royals.

If there were any similarities with the sage arts, the most obvious feature would be money-consumption. Astrology could hardly produce anything like the products obtained from alchemy, which could grow in popularity due to the nobles and rich merchants supporting the alchemists. Therefore, only the capital of a country could afford to build an observatory. Based on what he knew, Border Town had still been a shabby, poor place only two years ago. He had thought that even if the Western Region had plundered a large sum of money from waging wars, they were not necessarily willing to allocate these gold royals to the astrologers far away.

However, Astrologer of Dispersion Star had been stunned the moment he had opened the wooden box.

He had never seen such a tool for observing stars. Different from the bamboo-shaped instrument used by the Astrology Association, its metal cylinder was the size of a bucket. The glass mirror embedded was bright enough to reflect the image of the people. No trace of scratches could be found on it, no matter how close one got to see.

The active gear of the stargazing gear was an ingenious design. It was merely a thumb-sized rotary knob at the tail end and was very convenient to use. As long as you pinched it and rotated gently, the distance between the lens could be corrected, and there was no need to lock it after the adjustment.

His Majesty Roland gave him three batches of new-style stargazing gears, six instruments in total. The king had given them a simple name "astronomical telescope".

Dispersion Star did not want to give an eye to his original old-fashioned instrument after he used the astronomical telescope.

The rest of five telescopes were naturally handed over to the five most experienced astrologers in the Astrological Station.

"Master, all of the stargazing gears are in their places," Yun, the chief disciple reported.

"Have you finished the division of the constellation?"

"Yes. Astrologer of Brightsky Star who is responsible for the North One area, is ill today, and Astrologer of Void Star will take his place," he glimpsed at the log book in his hand and said.

"Then light the flame, we shall start to observe stars." The chief astrologer ordered.

"Yes!"

The fire blazed out from the brazier in the center of the Astrological Station, which symbolized the brightest Phospherus in the night sky. The whole hathpace was strictly arranged in accordance with the star image, and the astrologers stood around the brazier, like the companion stars of the Phospherus. By doing so, they seemed to be a part of the starry sky.

Apart from the invaluable stargazing gears, cultivating qualified astrologers also required a long time.

Their eyes were the only thing which they could depend on to do their job well.

Therefore, one of the prerequisites to be a qualified astrologer was to protect their own eyes. Although Dispersion Star was 50 years old, his eyesight was still better than that of most young people in City of Dawn.

It was really not an easy thing at all.

After being selected as the astrologer apprentices, what they could see in the night was only the stars in the sky. Reading books under the oil lamp and candles was absolutely prohibited. In addition, they had to avoid strong sunlight, and they were not permitted to go out at high noon.

The corresponding changes would be made for meals. It was of primary significance to eat animal innards and eyes. What's more, fish and spice were prohibited. According to the knowledge of the former astrologers, eating bloody meals was beneficial for the eyes. The fish was the property of water and the spice was that of the earth. The former would damage the element of fire in the blood flow while the latter would induce blindness.

Dispersion Star had stuck to those dietary requirements for more than 40 years.

He believed that the span of an eye's life was limited.

In order to use his eyes to observe the stars for as long as possible, Dispersion Star seldom read books and stellar maps. But he did not need to because the constellation had been deeply engraved in his mind.

Astrologer of Dispersion Star directed his eyes to the telescopic sight, which was like a tiny pipe, standing behind the tail of the stout barrel.

Obviously, a flat inclined mirror was installed here to refract light into his eyes.

What an interesting and practical skill!

Although the astrologers understood this principle, they never thought to apply it to the stargazing gear.

It appeared that the application of this principle could largely improve the environment for observing the stars. At least, the astrologers did not have to bend over when observing the high constellations.

Given that the effect of the telescope delivered by His Majesty Roland was far better than that of the old-fashioned stargazing gear, what the Astrology Association needed to do was to recalculate the positions of the stars in the existing constellations and draw the stellar map once again. Since the arrival of these six astronomical telescopes, they had found tens of Dark Stars which were unobservable before.

Dispersion Star swept through the area that he was responsible for as per usual. The constellation would form different images as the seasons changed. It may be difficult for the beginners to comprehend, but for Dispersion Star, the brilliant rays of the constellation were as familiar as the wrinkles on his own face.

After finishing observing the first constellation, a ray of negligible light came into his eyes as he prepared to move the telescope.

For an instant, Astrologer of Dispersion Star felt his blood curdle.

Holding his breath, he focused his eyes in that direction.

That was not an illusion...

A dim glimmer of light hid between Hexagram and Blazing Star, looked as if the glimmer of light would extinguish at any time. However, what was different from the stars around it was obvious.

It was red.

Chapter 602 - Star Omen

With his hands trembling, Astrologer of Dispersion Star thought it was not the right time to make the news public.

"When the scarlet star, or the Bloody Moon, befalls, the world will fall into a disaster beyond redemption."

He admittedly understood the meaning of this prophecy.

Taking a deep breath, the chief astrologer raised his head meticulously, for fear that the hard-won star would lose due to his unnecessary movement of touching the astrolabe.

Even though he could find the position of the star once again with his eyes closed.

"Write it down, East 3 Area, early summer, between Hexagram and Blazing Star."

"Yes," Yun replied, groping for his logbook, and then drew a circle at the corresponding position. That meant another star was included in the stellar map. "What's the name of the star ?" he asked.

"No name now."

"Master?" Yun startled slightly and said.

"Just do as what I've said, and there's no need to write the name down. Besides, gather the astrologers in the observatory and ask the apprentices to leave... right now!" Dispersion Star said.

His last sound sounded like a growl.

"I'll do it at once." Shocked by the growl of Dispersion Star, Yun ran to summon the other astrologers.

"May the deities in the heaven bless us!" Dispersion Star thought.

Soon, all the astrologers flocked together around the chief astrologer.

They seemed to realize something from his solemn look. The rumor about Star of Extinction was not a secret among the astrologers anymore since Roland had paid his visit to the Astrology Association. The young king had even suggested the chief astrologer show the patrimonial gold plaque to other astrologers, as it could enable them to feel responsibility and honor in their jobs and would encourage them to focus more on observing the stars. At that time, Dispersion Star somehow had felt that His Majesty had made light of the doomsday.

"Chief Astrologer... Do you?"

"I found a scarlet star," Dispersion Star nodded and said.

The astrologers all gasped out upon these words.

"But I'm not sure whether it's a light spot or just an illusion... Such a phenomenon is common in star observation, so..." Dispersion Star waved his hands and said.

"So you need us to re-check," Void Star said.

"That's right," Dispersion Star nodded and said, "and let's start with you."

...

An hour later, eight astrologers completed the stars observation. To rule out the instrument problem, twice changes in telescopes and the one time change in the old-fashioned astrolabe were made.

All the astrologers had got a clear look at the dim light no matter which telescope was used, except the old-fashioned astrolabe.

Maybe a blurred vision or an illusion would occur to one person, but it was impossible that eight astrologers were all in blurred vision.

The Astrologer of Rose Star, one of the eight astrologers, whose eyesight was the most excellent, even claimed she had caught the sight of star profile.

There was no doubt about the existence of the "scarlet star".

Subsequently, a moment of unusual silence pervaded in the Astrological Station.

Was it the blessing or the punishment of the deities? It was a question. What Dispersion Star could make sure was that all their efforts, from the day they joined the Astrology Association, were aimed to find Star of Extinction, which heralded the misfortune and disaster. Yet when they really found it, a burst of fear struck them.

Their hard work was paid off. To know beforehand about the disaster could save tens of thousands of lives. It was the moment that the Astrology Association had totally outmatched the Alchemist Workshop. The significance of the event could not even be measured by the gold royals. Their warning, however, was also tantamount to the most vicious curse to some extent.

Doomsday prediction would be a profound responsibility for those astrologers.

"What should we do next?" Someone asked afterward.

"Under the normal circumstance, we should report it to the king."

"Do you mean Prince Roland Wimbledon? Will he believe us?"

"The star won't disappear even if he doesn't believe us."

"No! I mean he won't believe in the prediction on the Star of Extinction."

"Anyhow, it's worth a try. It was he, after all, who delivered these instruments to the Astrological Station. It was impossible that he would turn up his nose at our words."

"Who knows? He's famous for his stubbornness in King's City."

"He wouldn't leave us if he was as stubborn as he's said in rumors."

"Stop! Just keep the message about the scarlet star confidential, we still need some other days to observe." Dispersion Star raised his hands and interrupted the discussion.

After looking at each astrologer around, Dispersion Star said, "It's far from enough to only know about its existence. We need to learn about the scarlet star's operational orbit, speed and the possible time to befall the world. The more clues we can collect, the more convincing our prediction will be. Understand?"

"As you wish, Chief Astrologer," All the astrologers made bows together and said.

...

Dispersion Star felt that the scarlet star was increasingly fathomless after one week's observation.

It shouldn't be motionless.

All the stars moved inevitably, which, sometimes, was in parallel with the skyline, and then raised in the mid-air; sometimes, they would fade away after midnight. Such changes were of regularity. Otherwise, the statement about the orbit could not hold water.

However, no signs of movement about Star of Extinction could be captured.

Hexagram tilted slightly in 7 days. As the autumn fell, the 6 transverse lines would change into 6 vertical lines, and the scarlet star would be moving away from the center between Hexagram and Blazing Star.

By contrast, Dispersion Star realized that the scarlet star did not move as if it was not a star but something fixed on the background of night.

Now that it could not move, it was impossible that the scarlet star would get close to the four kingdoms.

As the prediction revealed, Star of Extinction must befall into the world. In other words, the disaster would strike only when all the people could observe the star with their naked eyes. Did it mean the doomsday would never fall if what engraved in the gold plaque was true?

Besides, the light of the scarlet star kept changing.

This conclusion was drawn by the Astrologer of Rose Star, whose logbook revealed that the star was brightening gradually.

When the Astrologer of Rose star had first noticed such a phenomenon, Dispersion Star had not taken it seriously given the stability of the stars. A star would not constantly change its shape and luster like the moon. In the seventh day, however, the Astrologer of Brightsky Star who had just recovered from illness had put forward the same idea. Given that the Astrologer of Rose Star and the Astrologer of Brightsky Star were of the most excellent eyesight among the astrologers of the Astrology Association, their points of view had finally caught Dispersion Star's attention.

After a heated discussion in the night, the whim of the Astrologer of Rose Star, a female stargazer, made all the astrologers shiver with fear.

"If the advent of Star of Extinction refers to being seen by the people, is there a possibility that the scarlet star will come into people's eyes even though it keeps motionless all the time? Will the increasingly brightening light make it surpass Phospherus and become a torch hanging over the sky?"

Like a thundering roar, her remarks struck into Dispersion Star's mind.

The ordinary people did not know how to identify the constellation, but that did not mean that they could not see the stars.

The brightness of some stars was a match for crescent, which could be easily seen on the night of the sunny day.

How about the star being of unique eye-catching color?

The answer was clear.

"I'll write a letter to His Majesty Roland now, hoping it's not too late," The chief astrologer said with cold sweat dripping.

Chapter 603 - Prelude to Battle

Zero stood on the top floor of the Tower of Babel and peered down at the bustling Holy City of Hermes.

The number of church believers who came to the highland this year had doubled from the previous year, so had that of the new Judgement Army. The Kingdom of Everwinter alone supplied close to 20,000 people to the church. This allowed the manpower lost in the battles against demonic beasts and the Kingdom of Wolfheart to be quickly replenished. In fact, the numbers now exceeded that of before the war.

In a way, the only right decision that His Holiness O'Brien could make now was to unify the four kingdoms. Should Kingdom of Graycastle and Kingdom of Dawn fall into the hands of Holy City, the church would undoubtedly reach greater heights than ever before.

However, this was not enough for Zero. She felt that while the church would be more than capable of governing the secular kingdoms, it would still not be able to compare with the Union, which owned fertile plains.

The church will have to do more if it desires victory in the Battle of Divine Will.

"Isn't it supposed to be Isabella's turn?" Zero suddenly heard Tayfun's voice from behind her. She turned around and saw the three archbishops enter the hall.

"His Holiness has sent her to Kingdom of Dawn on a monitoring mission." She bowed slightly to pay her respects. "I'll be hosting the meeting in her place today."

"Is Supreme Pontiff really so busy?" El shrugged her shoulders. "No time to see us even?"

"Be careful with your attitude, El." Soli Daal frowned. "His Holiness has his own plans. You have no right to question him."

"I wasn't being serious."

"Considering his position, he's indeed very busy." Tayfun laughed. "When His Holiness O'Brien was still around, I often heard Mayne and Heather complain like this too."

"Indeed so." Zero beckoned to the three archbishops to follow her. Then she walked over to the small table in front of the window and said, "Let's hold the meeting here."

"Not in the secret chamber?"

"The church's situation is fantastic right now. Who would dare to eavesdrop on us and divulge what we say?" Zero replied calmly. "Even the most obstinate nobles know which side to pick."

"But there will always be people who like to go against the flow." Although Tayfun did not really approve her explanation, he did not insist on going to the secret chamber. Neither did the other two seem to mind.

"Are you referring to the fourth Prince of Graycastle?"

"Who else could I be talking about?" The old man sat down, drank a mouthful of tea, and grumbled on. "Our attempts to surround the Western Region have failed. Not only the pure witches but also the priests, have all come to run back to Hermes. This is utterly absurd!"

"It was His Holiness who allowed them to return," Zero explained assuredly.

"You mean... Mayne?" Tayfun was surprised.

"When one step is slow, the other steps will be slow too." She nodded. "Ever since Silverstrip was killed at Fallen Dragon Ridge, we've fallen behind Roland Wimbledon. As we only received the news three months after it happened, it was obvious that it would be too late to send out reinforcements. So, there's no need to blame the pure witches. If they remained in Graycastle, they would have easily been targeted by Roland."

"Is there really no need to punish them? I would have liked to take this opportunity to hone Emma's temper." Soli raised his eyebrows. "She's always questioning my orders."

"That means your orders have a lot of errors and contradictions for sure." El quipped. "We all know that it's very difficult for a Judgement Warrior to use his brain."

Before Soli had the chance to retort, Zero quickly chimed in. "It would be beneficial for you to listen to her questions. As for how you discipline your pure, I shan't comment as long as you don't be too harsh on her. Every pure witch is a precious asset of the church."

"Yes, Lady Zero."

"However... why did Roland seize the God's Stones of Retaliation?" Tayfun mumbled. "Could it be because of Silverstrip and Storm that he detected the pure witches' presence?"

"Or, maybe, he knew long ago." Zero did not provide a definite answer. "We now know that he started recruiting witches very early on, and also built up relations with the people of Sleeping Island. Witches have all kinds of strange and powerful abilities, and thus it's not surprising if they found out information about the church."

"After seizing such a large amount of God's Stones, there's no sign of him putting them up for sale. This doesn't bode well."

"Nothing is certain." She thumped the table so as to gather everyone's attention. "This is the reason why His Holiness has asked you to come today. The intelligence agency of the Pivotal Secret Area has recently discovered that there have been unusual patterns of grain purchases in Coldwind Ridge lately. Furthermore, the number of ships passing through the north of Redwater City is unprecedented. It's reported that at least one or two ships are sighted every day. Yet, our lookout in Silver City has not seen these ships sailing towards King's City or Sanwan River.

"..." The three archbishops looked at each other in puzzlement. "Where did those ships go?"

"The three of you have been busy reclaiming the war supplies deployed at Kingdom of Dawn. Hence it's perfectly normal if you haven't been paying attention to the situation in Kingdom of Graycastle," Zero said plainly. "After eliminating the east and west sides, there's only one place they can go—Deepvalley Town in the Northern Region. "That place has the only tributary connected to Redwater River. It's also the nearest town to Coldwind Ridge in the north of Kingdom of Graycastle."

By tapping on the Queen of Clearwater's memory, she perfectly understood the distribution of cities and towns in Kingdom of Graycastle. "In other words, Roland Wimbledon is amassing his resources in the Northern Region. I don't have to tell you what he wants to do."

None of the three archbishops were fools, and they quickly understood what Zero meant. However, understanding and believing were two different things. "Wait a minute, do you really think Roland is intending to invade Hermes?"

"It's not what I think. It's what the intelligence agency concluded from its analysis, and His Holiness has agreed with this conjecture. It's understandable that Roland is feeling confident after his victory in King's City and thinks he can do the same in Hermes. While it's true that his snow power weapons are far superior to Timothy's weapons, we aren't ill-prepared. That's why His Holiness has permitted the church's personnel in Kingdom of Graycastle to retreat temporarily." Zero shrugged her shoulders. "The nobles there are completely unable to prevent him from clearing out all of the churches in his territory now that he's ready to publicly declare us his enemy."

"He's mad!" Soli muttered under his breath.

"The entire Wimbledon family is a bunch of lunatics." El swallowed her saliva. "Garcia was like that, now Roland's like that."

"This information is of great significance. We should further confirm it." Tayfun said, and meditated for a moment before he continued, "How about I send my pure witches to Coldwind Ridge to find out more?"

"There's no need for that." Zero shot down his suggestion. "We'll invade Graycastle sooner or later, so it actually saves us trouble that Roland is gathering his troops. This way, we don't have to attack city after city, like what happened in Kingdom of Wolfheart. We just have to defeat Roland and the war will be over." She glanced toward Tayfun. "How much longer will the preparation of supplies take?"

The old bishop answered in a deep voice, "Around two weeks."

"What if we dispatch an advance force of roughly 1,000 men? Together with 300 God's Punishment Army soldiers."

"We can dispatch a force of this size tomorrow."

"Great." Zero got off her seat. "Rather than wait for Roland to trouble us, it's better that we target and seize Coldwind Ridge preemptively. Isn't he amassing grains over there? Perhaps we could even make up for our loss of God's Stones. Soli Daal, you shall be in charge of this advance force. I want you to take down Coldwind Ridge within three days."

However, she did not receive an immediate reply.

The three archbishops seemed to ponder for a moment before Tayfun asked, "Is this your idea or His Holiness Mayne's?

"..." Zero suddenly felt a surge of anger well up in her heart. "These idiots." As the true heir recognized by O'Brien, and the legitimate successor of the Union, she felt insulted to be doubted by a few mortals. She did her best to suppress her anger and pretended to be unconcerned. Laughing, she replied, "Of course it's His Holiness' decision. You may ask him personally if you have any questions. But, there's a lot of work to be done in the Pivotal Secret Area. Unless there's something truly important, it's best that you don't disturb his work there." 

"Yes, we humbly abide by His Holiness' wishes." The three archbishops placed their hands on their hearts and declared.

Chapter 604 - Anna's Determination

...

Lightning flew into the castle's office and passed the last bird's eye view map of the snow mountain to Roland.

"You've worked hard." Roland caressed the young girl's forehead. "Do you have any new discoveries?"

"There was only snow and more snow." She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling. "Don't talk about demons and beasts, I didn't even see any large animals."

"Is that so? Looks like I imagined too much." Roland took out the previous maps and examined them together thoroughly—although they were only drawn in sketch form, and were not as detailed and accurate as Soraya's "photographs", he could at least make out a full view of the snow mountain.

The body of the mountain was extremely large, and its height was approximately 4,000 meters. Standing on the mountaintop, one could clearly see the sea of clouds. The mountain peak was not as steep and sharp as Roland expected. Instead, it was a vast and flat area, and the middle portion was slightly concave, like a huge volcanic crater. The only difference was that the concave portion was filled with a frozen lake, whose entire surface resembled a spotless mirror. According to Lightning, she could see flowing water beneath the thick layers of ice.

"What did you imagine there would be at the peak?"

"Ruins, blackstone pagodas, remains of a town... these wouldn't be surprising." Roland laughed. "I find it more surprising that it's completely bare." He pointed at the newly-drawn map. "Is this the source of Redwater River?"

"Yes." Lightning turned her head and took one look at the map. "It's within the clouds. If it wasn't for the sound of rushing water, I wouldn't have noticed it. There are many cracks on the mountain's body, some of which are amazingly large. Their widths could be two to three hundred meters long. When near, the sound of falling water is comparable to that of thunder."

"Did you attempt to enter these cracks?"

"Uh..."

"Be honest."

"I did try, but I couldn't." The young girl pouted her mouth. "The cracks were surely big enough, and their heights were sufficient to accommodate half a castle. The problem was that the mist created by the rapids was too dense and thus I couldn't see anything. It was also accompanied by strong winds which pushed me back very quickly."

"Don't try something so dangerous in the future." Roland glowered at her. "Do you remember what you promised me?"

"I promised to ask for your permission before doing any kind of exploration." Lightning drooped her head low.

"That's right. I'll forgo the homework punishment this time. Go play with Maggie."

"Aye... how about the snow mountain?"

"We'll halt the work for now." He stacked the maps neatly and kept them in a drawer. "We shall wait until Sylvie returns before we talk about deeper explorations. I have to place my focus on the war with the church."

"Alright." Lightning nodded and flew out of the window.

"What do you think?" Roland looked behind him.

"I'm here, Your Majesty." Nightingale appeared on top of the desk, where she sat cross-legged. "The snow mountain is freezing cold. Who would choose to set up a camp in that kind of place?"

As she was not wearing shoes, Roland could not help taking a few more looks at her feet, which were cutely wrapped in white socks. "Eh... do you also think that the Megamouth Beasts are hiding within the snow mountain?"

"It's only a guess. If they are as skillful at burrowing as we believe, it won't be difficult for them to build dens in the mountain's body, and furthermore..." Nightingale seemed a little hesitant.

"What?"

"I was wondering, could there be a connection between them and the holes in the Impassable Mountain Range?"

...

Roland continued to ponder over Nightingale's words until it was night time. No matter how he looked at it, it was a truly terrifying conjecture.

If this bunch of scary monsters are everywhere and aren't restricted by natural barriers, how am I going to destroy them?

Something else puzzled him greatly. "If the Megamouth Beasts could reach the edge of Land of Dawn, then there should be signs of their activity in the fertile plains. Why didn't the Union leave any records of them?"

Unfortunately, the present situation prevented him from pursuing further exploration. The church had to be completely defeated for City of Neverwinter to have a future to speak of.

After more than a month of shipping, he had already transported close to 4,000 soldiers to the Northern Region, together with a corresponding amount of military supplies and rations. According to intelligence from the frontline, the field defense lines were being established according to plan, while the routes from Coldwind Ridge to the interior of the kingdom had all been cut off by the First Army. Soon, the final batch of soldiers would be setting off. Roland would be following them to the Northern Region to command this war, in which failure was not an option.

Right at this moment, he heard someone knock on the bedroom door.

Roland opened the door and discovered that it was Anna who was standing outside.

"I've seen Wendy's expedition roster, and my name isn't on it." She walked into the room with no trace of emotion on her face. "Pardon me, but I can't accept that, Your Majesty."

Had Anna stormed angrily into the room and started an argument with him, Roland would have known what to do. Instead, Anna's expression made him feel a little afraid. It was as though she had already made up her mind on something, and life and death did not matter to her anymore. Ever since he rescued her from jail, he had not seen her look this way in front of him.

Roland pulled her to take a seat at the bedside. After a long period of silence, he finally spoke, "I understand how you feel. However, the military production in the Border Area needs you. Whether it be the components of the heavy machine gun or the fuzes of the howitzer, your processing skills are required... and these are crucial to our victory."

"Not because the frontline is dangerous?"

"Although there's a definite amount of danger while fighting against the church, we'll definitely emerge victorious. So, you don't have to worry too much... It's a more appropriate choice for you to remain here."

He did not attempt to persuade Anna based on the perspective of war safety, as her expression had already made clear her attitude. The only way to convince someone as conscientious as her was to draw upon higher-level reasons, such as explaining to her how the military production played a key part in the outcome of the war.

"If that's the case, I can do the processing in Deepvalley Town as well." Anna remained unmoved nevertheless. "There's iron and copper production in the Northern Region too. I'm sure Miss Edith won't be stingy with their ore. Lucia has also agreed to follow me, and thus the refining won't be a problem. As for the issue of transportation, while the ships had to transport complete weapons initially, they only have to transport parts now, and the assembly can be done in the Northern Region. This will only increase our efficiency." Anna's reply was clear and irrefutable. It was obvious that she came prepared for this.

Roland was at a loss for words.

"Your Majesty, I can't accept being separated from you at a time like this." She reached out her hands and clasped his cheeks. "This is different from our separations in the past. You know clearer than anyone that the war with the church is the biggest challenge you've ever faced. Either Hermes gets completely destroyed, or the First Army perishes. I'll never avoid what I need to do or deceive myself. If you lose, there's a chance I'll never see you again. Furthermore, if I wait in City of Neverwinter, I'll only hear the news two or three months after anything happens. I don't want to wait in torment for such a long time only to bid farewell in the end."

Chapter 605 - Exchanging Promises

What followed was a long period of silence.

Anna's eyes were not as tranquil as Roland had thought. As the couple gazed silently at each other, he saw the surging undercurrent beneath the cerulean surfaces. It was comprised of anxiety, fear, but above all, resolve. This was the reason why her expression was always looked so steely.

As time slid away quietly, the feeling became more and more intense.

Roland finally realized that he was not going to change her mind.

He closed his eyes and exhaled a long sigh.

"Alright, but you must agree to one request."

"Say it."

"You must never go on the frontline. You'll always remain in the rear."

"Promised."

"If something happens on the battlefield..." Roland wet his lips. "I'm saying, in case, I..."

"If something like that really happens, I'll leave the Northern Region immediately," Anna said without reserve.

Roland seemed stunned for a moment.

"Are you worried that I'll try to avenge you and end up giving away my life needlessly?" She stroked his cheeks gently. "Only Nightingale and Ashes would do something like that. As for myself, I'll return quickly to the Western Region, bring all of your loyalists to Sleeping Island and settle down there, while continuing to resist Holy City. Your Majesty, although I'd like to follow you into death, I know that you'll never be agreeable to that." As she talked about this, she paused for a moment before continuing, "I promise you that I'll walk your path for you until your ideal world becomes reality, where witches and normal people can live together freely."

Roland did not respond—there was no need to. Anna's growth had exceeded his expectations. This was already the best reward he attained for coming to this world.

She reached out her hands to unbutton Roland's shirt.

Nothing else needed to be said.

The couple kissed as they flipped onto the bed.

Blackfire pulled down the curtains, while clothes and blankets were tossed to one side. In this moment, Roland's and Anna's fates were firmly connected, with the stars in the sky serving witness.

...

Two days later, Roland delivered his final speech before setting off in the square.

The people who came after hearing the news crowded the square until it was almost watertight. After a year and a half of development, Border Town of old no longer existed and was replaced by the prosperous and bustling City of Neverwinter. This had brought about massive changes to the lives of the people. This also meant that Roland's reputation and popularity scaled to unprecedented heights.

"Good morning, my subjects." As he went on stage, cheers rained down on him overwhelmingly.

"Long live our king!"

"Long live Your Majesty Roland!"

The people needed neither encouragement nor echoes to boost their volume. They consciously and enthusiastically cheered with respect for their king and waved their hands in the air.

The furore only gradually subsided after a full seven minutes.

"All of you should already know." Roland looked around at the countless pairs of revering eyes below the stage, and spoke in a deep voice, "Our kingdom is about to fight a war of self-defense against an invader. The enemy is none other than the Holy City of Hermes, which has already annexed Kingdom of Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart! Today, of the four kingdoms, only Kingdom of Graycastle and Kingdom of Dawn remain. Right now, they're targeting us!"

"I know that some of you used to believe in God and the church. There's nothing shameful about that! Your kindnesses were made use of and your hopes were cheated. Do you think I'll blame the victims instead of the liars and robbers? Of course not!" He raised his fist. "The church shall have to pay! Just by selling the God's Stones of Retaliation, they're able to make more than 100,000 gold royals per year—this money should belong to all of you!"

"Why? The reason is simple. The nobles were unwilling to fork out an extra sum of money to buy the God's Stones, and therefore this portion of expenses was transferred onto you through tax increases, property confiscation, and daylight robbery! And it's not only the God's Stones, but also the building of churches, the maintenance of resident priests and the holding of baptism ceremonies. I believe that none of you are unfamiliar with these things!"

The things that the masses most easily understood and hated were exploitation and oppression. The church's methods were not as flagrant as the nobles', but in the eyes of the highly-experienced Roland, it was not difficult at all to lay bare this thin layer hidden by fig leaves while at the same time smearing the name of the church.

"The church promised that this sum of money would be exchanged for God's blessings, but what happened in the end? Before I came to this town, the people had little to eat and wear, and as such, famine and severe cold came during the Months of Demons every year and took away the lives of many. As for those who survived... Is it really because of the church's or God's aid? No, they did nothing!" Roland raised his voice a notch. "The only thing they're interested in is sucking your blood dry!"

The natives saw these things happening with their own eyes, while most of the refugees from other cities had similar experiences. The square erupted into an angry uproar as everyone attributed all of their past sufferings to the church.

"So, I'll never surrender, and more importantly, I won't lose to these bloodsuckers!" Roland waved his fist in the air and declared loudly. "The First Army will pulverize them so that nobody will dare to rob my subjects ever again. You won't ever have to worry about paying money to build churches or to 'atone for your sins'! These bullsh*t taxes won't exist in the new Kingdom of Graycastle!"

"Facts have proven that without the presence of the church, City of Neverwinter will become an even better place, and so will the other cities!"

"Everything that you have has been created by your own hands and your spirit, not those illusory things. That's why I have repeatedly emphasized the glory of labor! Only labor can create wealth, and you people are the most glorious of laborers. You should be proud of this. Without you, there won't be today's prosperous City of Neverwinter!"

He pressed his hands down as a gesture for the subjects to pause their cheers. "The First Army has set off for the Northern Region, and they'll be fighting against the church. If we're defeated, we'll lose everything that we own and return back to the impoverished times of old... Tell me, are you willing to return to the past?"

The answers he received were self-evident.

"No, Your Majesty, we'll fight the church until the end!"

"Kill all of them!"

"Chase them out of our kingdom!"

"I'll protect Your Majesty with my life!"

There were all kinds of responses, but their expressions were impressively identical—they were willing and ready to defend everything that they had that was hard-earned.

"Well said. I don't need you to engage the enemy in battle. That's the responsibility of the First Army. Neither do you have to pay extra taxes to support the war—that's what the enemy does to its people. All you have to do is to continue living your lives, and continue to participate in the construction and production of this city. This would be the greatest aid your kin fighting on the frontline can receive from you." Roland placed his right hand on his chest and saluted. "We must attain victory! Long live the Kingdom of Graycastle!"

"For victory!"

"Long live this kingdom!"

The people repeatedly chanted these two phrases, even long after Roland had made his departure.

In the afternoon the same day, the last batch of soldiers boarded the paddle steamers. "The Roland", serving as the flagship, tooted to signal the beginning of the journey.

The destination was Deepvalley Town!

Chapter 606 - Father and Daughter

Edith had already waited in the hall when Duke Calvin walked into the Castle of Jadeforest.

"My dear daughter..."

She interrupted him ruthlessly. "Why are you so late? I wrote to you a month ago, telling you to cooperate with the First Army in assembling and war preparation. We need to meet all their requirements as much as we can."

"Yes, I notified Earl Haier in Deepvalley Town immediately, and then sent our butler to supervise the matter. Isn't it enough?" the duke said with his open arms poised in mid-air.

"Of course," folding her arms across her chest, Edith said disagreeably, "it can show our sincerity better if you come here in person. Besides, the war against the church is very important. We can't take it more seriously."

"But after all it's Earl Haier's domain..."

"Come on father, the nobles are going to disappear, and you're still fussy about the issues of domains and feudatory. I thought you'll be more decisive after the rebellion of Hawes and Lista families."

Duke Calvin was embarrassed and said, "I thought my daughter would at least give me a hug and say she missed me, instead of talking about the business before we sit down."

"Really?" Edith laughed. "So you didn't lose your temper in the study, calling me a bastard, and said I was an ungrateful bastard who bit the hand that fed her. If I'm right, you must have wanted to smash something but stopped because it's too expensive."

The duke choked. "I..."

"Damn it, who told her?" thought the duke.

Before he figured out how to respond, Edith had already walked toward him and wrapped around him with her arms. "Welcome to Deepvalley Town, father. Satisfied?"

His anger dissipated instantly. A mixed feeling struck him when he stroked his daughter's hair.

Sometimes he just did not know how Edith became such a talented, beautiful lady today. She was his first wife's daughter, but Edith's personality was quite different from her biological mother's and his. He almost doubted if Edith was his own daughter if it was not the resemblance she bore to his late wife.

When they hugged, however, the duke again felt that they were related by blood. She was still the Pearl of the Northern Region who was raised by himself.

After a while, Edith dreadfully pushed him away, saying, "You stink. I suggest you should go to get a shower first. I brought some scented soaps from City of Neverwinter. Try one. It's better than cassias."

"There's no hurry about that." Calvin looked around. "Right, where's Earl Haier. Why didn't he greet me in the hall?"

"I told him to go back to his mansion in the suburb."

"What?" The duke looked at his daughter in shock.

Edith shrugged and said, "He cares nothing about His Majesty's will or your orders. If I didn't arrive there in time, he might have pissed the advanced troops off. Not everyone can clearly see their present situation. Some of them may not even have the nerve to open their eyes or minds. For them, I won't waste a second. The wiser option is to drive him away."

"But he just handed over the castle and towns obediently?"

"Of course not, but I have the First Army." She smiled. "And it conquered King's City in one day, so what do you think a dozen of knights can do about them?"

"I don't know whether it's an illusion or not, Edith has changed a lot in the last two months. Her smile is more sincere, not the kind of the noble's fake smile which she puts on in public. And there's a glow in her eyes, which I haven't seen it for many years since she grew up," Calvin thought.

He realized that she loved her life now. At least she was happier here than in the Northern Region.

The change made him a little envious, accompanied with complicated feelings.

Maybe just like what his daughter had said, they did lose some of their rights after being deprived of their status as nobles, but it also freed them from their territories.

Now there was a great future in front of her. She could go to places other than the Northern Region and experience a different life.

After returning to the study, Calvin drank up two cups of black tea and let out his breath. "So now we should stay here and wait for His Majesty?"

Edith opened her notebook and said, "Not exactly, there's a lot we need to do. We need to deliver all the materials, such as food, horses, fabrics, herbs and all other necessities for the war to Deepvalley Town. And I received a new ciphered letter from His Majesty. He said the iron ingots and copper ingots have to be delivered here too. The more, the better."

"So he wants to loot the whole Northern Region," the Duke thought secretively. "Do you really believe His Majesty Roland can beat the church?"

"He may not be able to attack Holy City of Hermes and eradicate the church totally. But it's not a big deal for him to stop the church entering the kingdom from Coldwind Ridge." She paused for a while. "What His Majesty needs most is time now."

"Time?"

"You haven't seen his factory, so you don't understand how powerful City of Neverwinter is," Edith looked at her father and said, "and no matter who you are, a knight, a mercenary, the Judgement Army or a fervent believer, everybody shows no difference in front of bullets. Factories keep producing these bullets. Besides, it only takes a few minutes to teach a citizen how to use firearms and bullets to kill enemies. After one month's training, they can become a soldier and go to the battlefield to kill enemies. And three months, they'll become the indestructible First Army."

"What... is your point?"

"Father, the production speed of bullets is much faster than the growth rate of human beings. It's different from swords and armors. A blacksmith with ten apprentices can make ten suits of armors and 30 swords in one year. But one factory can produce thousands of bullets in one day. After killing the knights armed with swords, they can give the extra bullets to those who want to be a knight. The next day, these bullets can be sent to citizens; One month later, the amounts of the bullets can turn this city into a ghost town.

Calvin opened his mouth but did not know what to say.

"It's normal that you don't believe me. After all, these things may sound a little absurd. But I saw how they deal with their enemies with my own eyes when I participated in the First Army's Tooth Extraction Campaign," Edith said slowly, "so His Majesty will win sooner or later as long as the First Army can hold the defensive line. Three months later, City of Neverwinter will train a new army and produce the weapons they need. But the new Judgement Army may not be able to learn how to hold their sword in such a short time."

"..." After a little while of silence, the duke opened his hands and said, "Well, I'll believe what you said. But why do you not reply to my letters if you have such a good view towards His Majesty? I mean... to marry him."

Chapter 607 - Lighting the Beacon

Besides giving Roland Wimbledon a formal reply, the duke also sent a private letter to Edith which embodied his ideas enthusiastically. Since Roland had yet to marry, if her daughter could marry Roland, it would bring him peace of mind.

There was no true love in a political marriage, or at least it did not play the main role in such marriages. The Pearl of the Northern Region knew this clearly. The duke believed this was a great opportunity, especially when all of the territories of the nobles would be taken back later, which meant the king would be the only noble in Kingdom of Graycastle. His queen's position would be extraordinary.

Calvin believed his daughter could understand him.

However, neither His Majesty nor Edith replied to him.

"Don't tell me it's because you don't like him," the duke poured himself the third cup of black tea and said, "I haven't seen you like anyone before, and it doesn't matter... You considered marring Timothy, why can't you consider marrying Roland?"

"No, it's different, father."

"What's the difference? Aren't they both kings?"

Edith closed her notebook and said, "No, Timothy needed a reliable ally or subordinate in the Northern Region. The only way to ensure that was marriage. If I said no, he would kick the Kant family out and find another more obedient family. In other words, our family's position would be untenable if I could not be the queen. There would have been nothing we could do. So I had to drag this marriage in case... If Roland and his Western Region failed... I would play my role in marrying Timothy. But if Roland won, I don't need to marry him."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Roland chose me only because I'm capable, not because of my family, territory or wealth. All those things that're behind me aren't important in his eyes." His daughter stroked her hair. "Since the noble and rules won't exist anymore, why should I obey those old regulations?"

"You know," She continued talking, "few officers who help him manage City Hall in City of Neverwinter come from noble families. They're all common people who took the jobs after several rounds of examination. I have to admit they act badly in many ways, but when it comes to their own work, they don't lose to any noble."

"This is His Majesty's new rule. You don't need to worry about losing your position as long as you complete the work assigned by him. So you should get rid of the old rules as soon as possible, and get used to the new policy which is issued by City Hall so as that you won't hold me back."

"Even so, you could still be the queen. It's harmless to you." The duke did not want to give up, saying, "You could show him how capable you are and give birth to a prince... so the Kant family would be his inseparable ally. Your brother's future would be secured too."

"I..." Edith hesitated for a while. "I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why?"

"His Majesty Roland... he seems to believe in love."

"So he already has someone in mind?" The duke winced.

"Yes, a witch."

"What?" He did not believe what he had heard and wondered if his hearing was acting up.

"Scroll said His Majesty Roland will marry a witch." Edith confessed. "Scroll is also a witch who works as a Minister of Education in City Hall."

"So it's a political marriage?" Calvin could only think of this answer. "But it's too absurd. Witches can't have children."

"It's not a political marriage. He only wants to marry her because he loves her." She leaned back in her chair and played with the quill in her hand. "Yes, love plays a big role in this upcoming marriage. This may sound impossible, but after one month's contact with him, somehow I just believe what he said."

"Why?"

"You'll understand when you see him. Among all of the nobility that I have seen, he's the most unlike one," his daughter said with a little smile that twitched upon her lips.

"What about the heirs?"

"They'll find a way to solve this problem." Edith shook her head. "But it's not our concern. We shouldn't get involved in this."

*******************

Iron Axe was patrolling in the criss-cross trenches with a group of officer corps.

The primary use of these trenches was to evade thrower attacks and other ranged attacks from enemies. According to His Majesty's orders, the trench was divided into several paths. The distance between each path was 20 to 30 meters and longitudinal grooves interconnected the cross trenches so the soldiers could walk forward and backward. There were wood piles and barbed wire on the surface, preventing the enemies from conquering this place quickly. Machine gun castles were located on both sides of the battlefield. There was a low bunker in the front with a tall tower at the back, forming a well-proportioned firing network.

Behind the trench, was the artillery position. There were 50 field artilleries standing side by side. Going back, it was the shooting area for the 152mm Longsong Cannons.

To ensure the project schedule, Iron Axe specially applied to His Majesty for Maggie's express transportation and sent Lotus to Deepvalley Town in advance.

Just seeing the layout of the battlefield, the First Army's Commander Iron Axe felt victory was in sight.

This group of people walked to the end of the battlefield, gazing out over the tan-colored mountains far away.

This place was located at the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range's Big Gap, which was also the only way to go down the mountain. They could see the steep Impassable Mountain Range less than one meter ahead.

Coldwind Ridge just stood on the hillside.

Its strategic significance, same as Border Town, was to supervise Hermes. Once the signal fire was lit in the town, many of the villages in the Northern Region and the nearest Deepvalley Town would see the warning.

It was a day and a half's march from Coldwind Ridge to the ambush site, so the First Army had plenty of time to prepare themselves for confronting the enemy.

"Can't we just evacuate all the citizens in Coldwind Ridge in advance?" Brian who followed him to check the battlefield just could not help asking, "Holy City may turn them into the first batch of enchanted people to charge the front."

"If we do so, it'll alert our enemies that we've set a trap here. We can't take this risk before we finish the layout of the battlefield," Iron Axe said with little emotion, "Coldwind Ridge could only act as a bait rather than the main battlefield for it's too close to Holy City."

"Besides, no one would believe us," Van'er added, "You see, if someone run to a village and told those locals 'the war is going to begin, you should get out of this place as soon as possible, and please go to the foot of the mountain'... Who would believe him? Unless we force them to leave. But then Holy City would know our true intention if we did so."

Brian signed. "I know that, but..."

"Don't worry. We can finish our work here within three days," Iron Axe said in a low voice, "and then we can tell people to evacuate. According to the spy's information, the Holy City's large forces are still stationed in the campsite, so we still have enough time to evacuate the citizens."

"I hope so..." Brian said with his eyes widened abruptly, "Wait. What's that?"

Iron Axe's heart sank slightly while seeing the mountains far away from that Brian's eyes were fixed on.

A wisp of smoke rose from the back of the mountain, a black line against the gray cloudy sky.

Chapter 608 - Coldwind Ridge

...

Soli Daal satisfactorily went through the broken castle gate and entered the castle of Coldwind Town.

Just three days to take Coldwind Ridge? Apart from the two days he spent on the road, it only took him several minutes to break through the little town's city wall. Of course, that muddy fence could hardly be called a city wall. The few guards just fled without making any official resistance after two of them were slashed by the Judgement Army and fell to the ground.

Is this the town guarding the border area?

The Kingdom of Graycastle is nothing more powerful than that.

The only thing that upset him was when the church army was only halfway down the mountain, smoke came out of the Beacon Tower below as if they had known the church army was coming to attack the town.

Although sooner or later residents in the other domains of the Northern Region would be alerted, what made Soli angry was the disrespect the townsmen held toward the church—they had treated the army from Holy City as enemies beforehand, which showed their long-held sacrilege. Soli dispatched a squad of Judgement Army to head to the Beacon Tower, in order to arrest some soldiers for interrogation before hanging them.

"This way please, my lord." The knight leading the way said in a trembling voice. With swords placed upon their necks, those knights did not show any courage, nor did they try to protect their lord. Instead, they instantly knelt down and pledged alliance to the church.

Those soldiers without a belief are just ugly, weak, and hapless. They're nothing compared with the Judgement Warriors who fight for the deities.

After killing several guards on the way, the Judgement Army broke into the study of the Lord of Coldwind Ridge and sealed every window which might serve as an exit, although Soli did not think the lord had the courage to escape through a window at all. Soli slowly walked into the study, looking at the lord gradually slump on a chair with a pale face.

"Good afternoon, Lord Kevan Matten."

"How, how dare you break into Coldwind Ridge... Does Holy City want to make enemy with Kingdom of Graycastle openly?"

"He's done," Soli thought, "Fear has completely possessed him." Through the decades of defending against demonic beasts at Hermes, the archbishop had developed a unique ability, which was to relish fear. Some people could convert fear into the desire of survival, while others would only be devoured by fear. Converting fear into the desire of survival was regarded as the essential quality for a Judgement Warrior to be promoted to a member of the God's Punishment Army. Those who were devoured by fear would be eventually obsolete in the endless atrocious wars.

Kevan was obviously among the latter.

"That's right. Haven't you known it long before?"

"What? No! I don't know what you mean..."

"It's too late to regret, my lord." Soli interrupted him. "You offered high prices for grains and forbade merchants to go to Holy City. Don't tell me you did that on a whim. The King of Graycastle wants to turn Coldwind Ridge into an outpost for the war against Holy City. So, naturally, you can't blame us for an early counterattack."

"This is a groundless accusation." Kevan shook his head repeatedly. "I didn't do any of what you accused me of. The king has never sent ambassadors to Coldwind Ridge, not to mention to launch an attack against Hermes!"

"It's OK that you don't confess. Supreme Pontiff has his methods to find out the information he wants in your head. It'll do you no good if things have to go that far. So, you'd better tell me everything you know now."

"I, I really didn't do that. You can't wrongfully accuse me." He shrunk his obese body a bit and said, "I'm the Lord of Coldwind Ridge, an Earl of Kingdom of Graycastle! What you did has violated the 'Agreement on the Months of the Demons'!"

"Enough. You deserve it."

Soli Daal waved his hand in dread. The Judgement Warriors immediately dragged Kevan out of the study.

After the archbishop sat on the lord's chair, he vaguely felt something was wrong. "The lord has obviously been destroyed by fear, why did he refuse to confess? Is he so loyal to Roland Wimbledon that he would rather be interrogated in Holy City than disclose the king's plan?"

At that moment, a chief justice went into the room. "Milord Bishop, Pitsos has sealed the granary, but..."

"But what?"

"There isn't much food there, probably only enough to last the townsmen for one or two months. There is no way it could sustain a large army."

"Are you sure?" Soli frowned immediately.

"Pitsos searched every corner of the granary and asked the keepers. They said recently there was not a large amount of grain coming in and the wheat there was just the stock from last year," The chief justice reported in full detail.

"Why was there news about offering high prices for grains in the town?" Soli meditated for a while. "Go ask the merchants."

"Yes." The chief justice nodded. "Besides, we did a thorough search of the garrison camps in the west of the town. Most of the rooms there are empty. The surrendered knights said since the border army was completely annihilated at Hermes, no new soldiers have been recruited."

"That means Coldwind Ridge isn't ready for a war, which contradicts the information that Zero supplied." The archbishop's brows deepened. After a long silence, he ordered. "There must be believers of the church in this town. Call them together and ask about the changes in Coldwind Ridge in the last two months in detail. Question the local Rats and those who voluntarily submitted to the church. I want to know what's going on as soon as possible!"

The chief justice bowed and said, "I'll go ask them right away."

Soli leaned back on the chair and deeply sighed. The plan of attacking Kingdom of Graycastle had been made a long time ago. The process and the result did not matter, but yet he did not like any accidents.

What went wrong?

The next day, the chief justice put a report on the archbishop's desk, which was full of information he collected.

Soli opened it and went through the testimonies on the first page. "Two local merchants offered high prices for grains. Did they hoard wheat as much as 5,000 pecks?"

"That's only the two merchants' testimony." The chief justice said in a low voice. "After getting the information, I searched their houses right away. I did find a large quantity of grain, but it sufficed to requirement of only one person. In their basements, there are merely 100 pecks of grain in total. Besides, there was no one in their houses. I guess all fled after they saw the beacon fire."

"Do you mean... collusion?" Soli immediately got what he meant.

"Yes, my lord. Only when they collude with the peddlers outside the town, pretend to sell grains to those pedlers then secretly transport the grains back, could they create such a false image."

"Where do these pedlers come from?"

"From all the other towns in the Northern Region, such as Deepvalley Town, City of Evernight, Wuthering Castle... The purchase at high prices started a month ago. At first, not many people paid attention to it. Later on, the trade volume increased so much that it drew merchants' attention. We've put all the pedlers in the town into custody, but failed to find those who were in charge of transporting the grains."

If they're in collusion, there is a small chance of capturing them. Yet... what did they do this for? Just to draw the attention of Holy City to make Supreme Pontiff attack at an earlier date?

Soli skipped to the last few pages of the report, and then a piece of information caught his eyes.

"Are the patrollers on the Beacon Tower... dead?"

Chapter 609 - Entering the Battlefield

"All three died in a shack at the foot of the Beacon Tower," The chief justice nodded and said, "and the guards on the Beacon Tower take their shifts once a week. So when they were found dead, their bodies had begun to smell."

"Alright. It seems it was not them that kindled the beacon, but some others." Soli punched the desk angrily, and then burst into laughter. "Are they deliberately teasing us or provoking Holy City to wage a war?"

"The specific reason is not clear. But Milord, one Rat's testimony is interesting." The chief justice pointed to the report. "I deliberately wrote it on the last page."

Soli turned the report to the last page and hastily skimmed through it. "Two weeks ago, people set a barrier on the road beneath Coldwind Ridge, forbidding anyone to go to the Impassable Mountain Range, but allowing people to leave there?"

"Exactly. The Rat had planned to take his chance in Deepvalley Town, but he saw some merchants who should have headed for Hermes were stopped by soldiers."

"It seems the lord really didn't do this," Soli thought. "Wait a moment... two weeks ago? When was the last time the group of pedlers who sold grain appeared?"

"Three days ago."

The archbishop's face instantly clouded over. "That's to say, those pedlers were allowed to pass the Impassable Mountain Range which was alleged to be inaccessible?

The answer was clear as daylight.

"They're accomplices," the chief justice said, "at least they look like so."

"How many were guarding the barrier?"

"The Rat only dared to take a quick glance from afar. He estimated there were several hundreds of them."

"As long as we spot their weak point, we're fine," Soli Daal stood up and said, "Order the Judgement Army to gather here right away!"

"Milord, do you intend to go down the hill?" The chief justice was surprised, but he quickly explained. "Supreme Pontiff ordered us to station in Coldwind Ridge after seizing it, to ensure the road is clear and wait for the main army to come... If you want to inquire more about the situation, ask a small detachment to capture a few enemies for interrogation. That'll be sufficient.

"Not only will I catch a few of them for interrogation, but I'll also crush their barrier. This is the price they have to pay for making fun of Holy City." Soli waved hand impatiently. "If we start off now, by the day after tomorrow I'll be able to see their heads overhung above the city gate. This won't affect the Holy City's attacking plan, so His Holiness won't blame us."

"But if this is a trap the enemy set..."

"A trap?" Soli glanced at him. "I used to lead an army and attack Broken Tooth Castle of Kingdom of Wolfheart. It was a very tough battle. They took advantage of the geography and set up numerous traps. However, traps set up by commoners could only bring limited trouble to God's Punishment Army. So, what can a trap set up in the open field at the foot of a mountain do to us? Any attempt to ambush God's Punishment Army will be in vain. On the other hand, I kind of hope they have the courage to fight instead of fleeing." The archbishop paused, and then said, "Now you've understood it. Go and do what I ordered."

"... Yes, Milord!"

Looking at the back of the chief justice, Soli Daal sneered. "I'll never pardon these blasphemers."

*******************

"Is there a large troop taking off from Coldwind Ridge?" Iron Axe asked, looking at the fluffy pigeon which just flew into the tent.

"Around 1,000 soldiers, coo!" Maggie said while flapping her wings, "and there are no vehicles shipping grains or a militia. They're all armored. Some of them are carrying big shields and short spears, coo!"

"Big shields?" Iron Axe said in surprise, "How big are they?"

"Um..." Maggie looked at Iron Axe while tilting her head. "About the same size as yours, coo."

"I see. Well done." Iron Axe handed over the pigeon a piece of dried meat as usual, and then called for the guard who was standing outside of the door. "Ask Gun Battalion commander Brian and Artillery Battalion commander Van'er to come to my tent for a meeting. The enemy is in action."

...

After hearing the information provided by the witches, Brian could not help frowning. "How can they come so soon? It will take between two to three days for His Majesty to reach Deepvalley Town. The Longsong Cannons aren't in place yet..."

"The church indeed reacted faster than we've expected, but whether His Majesty is here or not, we need to stick to our posts and never step back," Iron Axe calmly said, "and no matter what, the enemy mustn't cross our defensive line at the foot of the mountain."

"Yes!" Brain and Van'er said in unison.

"Good. Here is my battle arrangement." Iron Axe licked his lips. "It'll take the enemy at least one day to arrive at the foot of the mountain, which gives us enough time to prepare. We have over 2,000 pieces of God's Stones of Retaliation. Assign them to as many soldiers as possible at the front rows. The machine gunners need more protection than anyone else, so they must wear God's Stones too." He roughly explained the plan he'd been conceiving. "In addition, I'll arrange 10 good gunners and a machine gun team to protect Miss Sylvie. They'll follow Miss Silvie's instructions based on her investigation of the scene to take care of the enemies who pose greater threats. Other soldiers will act in accordance with the instructions set out during the maneuver.

"I have a question," Van'er said in hesitation. "In the enemy's team, can the soldiers carrying big shields be..."

"They're most likely God's Punishment Army." Iron Axe nodded. "Judging from Miss Maggie's description, commoners won't be able to march carrying shields of such a size."

"Can a bullet penetrate it?" asked Brian.

"We won't know it unless we try," Iron Axe answered without hesitation. "If a flintlock can't harm the enemy effectively, your people just try to stop the God's Punishment Army marching forward and leave them to the artillery to take care of.

"Yes!"

"Eventually you have to rely on the artillery to solve the problem," Van'er said smilingly. "Leave it to me, Your Excellency."

*******************

Two days later, Danny jumped into a trench in the early morning, holding his beloved rifle.

According to the instructions yesterday, he quickly came to his spot—the right wing of a trench in the center of the battlefield. The shrubs and bushes in the surrounding areas had all been cut, leaving an open space for him to overview the entire battlefield and aim precisely.

Danny picked up a few stones from the ground, created a small rack on the side of the trench, put his rifle on the rack, and aimed at the front.

Through the sights, Danny saw dew drops suspending on leaves above the ground, a spider clinging to a wire fence, a red clay road full of horseshoe prints, and the Impassable Mountain Range at a distance.

An excellent sniping position.

He opened the bolt, pushed the first bullet into the chamber, and waited for enemies to appear.

As a hunter, Danny had always been patient.

Since he joined the Militia in response to His Majesty's conscription, he had participated in a series of battles, such as the defense battle in the Months of Demons, the operation` against the Duke of Longsong Stronghold, the attack of King's City, etc. The weapon he used had updated from flintlock to the newest bolt rifle. In terms of combat experience, he must be one of the most experienced soldiers in the First Army. If he had not insisted on staying at the front, he would have been most likely an officer of the Gun Battalion only second to Sir Brian.

Compared with commanding others, he preferred the feeling of hunting a prey.

Ever since the day he laid hands on a flintlock, he had deeply been in love with such a weapon.

It was handy and powerful. One only needed to have a good eyesight and a little bit of gift to master it.

Holding a gun in hands, Danny could feel the power surging from the bottom of his heart.

Chapter 610 - The Hunter

While Danny was waiting, a short guy ran toward him along the trench.

"Captain, you're early." He panted, took the sack off his shoulder, and put it at Danny's feet. "Here's your ammunition."

"If I was hunting in the mountains, I'd have come back by this time already," Danny said carelessly. "How much ammunition for me?"

"30 bullets."

"So few..." Danny murmured. "Bloody machine gunner."

The short guy was the youngest soldier in the army, only 16 years old. His name was Malt. He came to "protect" Danny.

Every sharpshooter was paired with a protector so that when enemies drew close, they could quickly suppress the enemies and buy themselves time to run away or switch to bayonets.

Danny did not think that he needed a protector, especially not an underaged one. The reason he accepted Malt was that he could not turn down Karl Van Bate's implore. He had been neighbors with the Minister of Construction for years, and they had lived in the same street of the New District. Naturally, he understood that Karl viewed all the kids graduated from Karl College as his own children.

Since the sharpshooter's position was usually at the back, the protector was actually at a safer place compared with the soldiers at the front line. Danny knew that His Majesty hated his employees covering up or colluding with each other, so taking Malt as his protector was one of the few things that he could do without offending His Majesty.

Looking at Malt who was squatting there picking bullets, Danny could not help asking, "Have you thought of changing for another job?"

"Leaving the First Army?" Malt answered without raising his head, "No, I like it here very much."

"But this isn't a game," Danny said, raising his eyebrows. "We could be killed at the battlefield anytime. You don't have to take this risk. As a Karl College graduate, you're totally qualified for a job in City Hall. There you can work quite decently and earn more than here in the army."

"But I don't like running errands for the officials every day. I just want to hold a gun to protect His Majesty." Malt put the 8 mm bullets he picked before the trench. "Besides..." He suddenly paused and seemed to be blushing.

"Because of Miss Nana?"

Malt did not reply, yet his cheeks reddened.

Danny could not help bursting into laughter. "At least half of the soldiers in the First Army admire Miss Angel. I don't think you even have a chance. Besides, her father is a baron. Even he currently doesn't have lands, his daughter isn't someone you can dream of."

"I, I'm not thinking like that," Malt said, craning his neck. "I'm satisfied as long as I can see her every day."

Danny shook his head and stopped persuading Malt. He knew how strong or stubborn one could be once he was in love. He himself was no exception.

Whenever he had time, the image of a green-haired woman would appear in his mind as soon as he closed eyes.

If she had not reached out to save him, he might have lost his life in the forest.

But at that time, she was still a minion of the demons', the embodiment of evil. Danny buried his affection deep in his heart and dared not to tell anyone. Unexpectedly, the second time they met, witches had been proved to be innocent. Consequently, she had moved into the Witch Building in the castle area and opened up various experimental fields in Misty Forest.

He could not enter the castle area as he wished, so whenever he was on a vacation, he would always pick up his bow to hunt in Misty Forest. He even decided that when he no longer served as a soldier, he would apply to the City Hall for the forest ranger job and take Misty Forest as his new home.

"Woo... Woo...!"

At that moment, he heard the blare of the horns.

It signaled the arrival of enemies.

Danny stopped his wandering thoughts and fixed his gun holder.

No matter what, he was still a warrior at the moment. He should fight to protect His Majesty and overthrow the church who was hunting witches.

...

As the sun rose above his head, a troop with shimmering armors appeared at the foot the mountain.

In order to siege the only road leading to the mountain, their defensive line was less than one kilometer away from the Hermes Mountains. The moment the enemies went off the mountain, they had stepped into the First Army's cannons' shooting range.

Danny knew full well that Iron Axe would not miss any chance to strike the enemies.

As if to prove his thoughts were right, a series of dull roars burst behind him, which sounded like thunders coming from far away. Danny vaguely saw lines of shadows flying over his head towards the enemies.

The battle started without a sign.

From a distance, Danny could clearly see the landing points of shells, where dust was sprung up like bunches of wildflowers. The enemies which were marching like a line of ants instantly went into a panic. That was a normal reaction, considering it was the first time they were stricken by opponents whom they could not even see. If it were for the mercenaries or militia, their morale could probably totally collapse after a few rounds of shooting.

But the troop of the church did not retreat. It began to accelerate. The soldiers seemed to be not as neatly lined as before.

By the time they got closer to Danny, they had suffered three rounds of cannon attacks. The combination of 50 field artilleries was enough to bombard continuously, which was a torturous experience to the enemies. Without war horses, they had to trod on this hellish road on foot.

The God's Punishment Army, which was said to have prodigious strength, held big shields upright and advanced in the front row. They formed a gray iron wall 500 to 600 meters away from the First Army's first trench.

But it did not mean much in front of bullets. As soon as a bullet hit a big shield, it would break the shield into pieces and threw the shield holder on the ground.

"This isn't good," Danny said while shaking head. "I'm afraid they will be annihilated before they even reach the first trench." He understood the First Army's fire arrangement: first, they took care of the enemies from 1,000-1,500 meters away with cannons; then when the enemies gathered before the wire fence, they swept the battlefield with machine guns; if the enemies got within 200 meters and began to rush forward, they used revolving rifles in close range combat.

"Why is it not good to destroy them?" Malt peered over the trench, standing on his tiptoe.

"Well, because then there'll be nothing for me to do." Danny collected the bullets he laid out into the waist pocket, lifted his gun, and prepared to leave.

"Where are you going?" Malt hurriedly pulled him.

"I'm going to the trench in the front row." Danny got rid of Malt's hand. "You stay here."

"I'll go with you."

"Don't follow. This is a captain's order"

With these words, Danny bent over to walk along the communicating trench.

The sounds of landing shells got louder and louder. At every dull crashing sound, crumbs came off the trench walls and fell into his collar.

He then knew that he was approaching the forefront bit by bit.

After crossing three rows of trenches, before a new round of shells landed, Danny stuck out his head to watch over the trench, regardless of the fact that other team members were looking at him confusedly. He could clearly see the big shields of the God's Punishment Army, and even hear the enemies' desperate shouting and yelling.

He was about 300 meters away from the enemies.

This is close enough.

Taking a deep breath, Danny set up his rifle, aimed the sights at somewhere a little over a shield, and pulled the trigger.

Accompanied by a crisp sound, some blue blood spilled behind the shield, which, together with the shield holder, fell to the ground, revealing the bewildered Judgement Warriors hiding behind.

Danny pulled open the bolt, took off the steaming bullet shell, and pushed the bolt back again.

The loading sound thrilled and exhilarated him.

"The first one," Danny thought.

Chapter 611 - Protected

Danny was constantly aiming, shooting, until the clip emptied. Another two big shields fell down. Danny would not waste his bullets on the Judgement Warriors. With the thin armor, the Judgement Warriors looked martial, but yet they could not even withstand the flintlock. Lord Iron Axe once said that the God's Punishment Army was a dreadful opponent because one of its soldiers could fight against 10, but at the same time, they were scarce and troublesome to train, so they were the targets worth hunting.

The reason he disliked the machine gunners was that he felt those arrogant fellows, although they used exactly the same bullets as he did, shot with an astonishingly low efficiency.

During the only two times of live practice, a machine gun squad fired several chests of bullets within one hour, which even made Lord Iron Axe's heart ache. But while checking the bullet holes, only around 100 bullets actually hit the targets. Danny felt it was totally a waste of resources.

Of course, he also understood the significance of the Mark I machine gun. At least while faced with swarming enemies, it could stop their attacking momentum. But in terms of hunting results, sharpshooters were more reliable.

One bullet for one enemy.

This was his aim for strict training.

Danny pulled out the clip, and skillfully reloaded it. When he was about to stand up and start shooting, he heard someone gasping. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Malt.

"Damn it! Didn't I tell you to stay where you were?" He shouted at Malt, "You violated a military order!"

"Lord Brian said that a soldier can never leave his position lest for exceptional cases, so you've violated a military order," saying this, Malt wiped the sweat on his forehead. "As your protector, I must stay by your side!"

"..." Holding back the impulse to beat Malt, Danny grabbed a handful of bullets from his pocket and threw them in front of Malt. "Fill the clip. Stay down unless there's an emergency!"

"Yes, Captain!" the short guy saluted and said smilingly.

After Danny killed five enemies, there appeared to be some changes in the enemy's troop.

The church commander probably believed that they would not make it to the trench if they kept on charging that way and so they made a change. The God's Punishment Army abandoned their big shields and charged toward the trenches. They moved at such a fast speed that even horses would not outrun them. They were getting closer and closer!

The sound of revolving rifles and machine guns rang out at the same time.

Suddenly, some blood fog appeared in front of Danny. The dust rising from the ground was denser than the time when the cannons bombarded. It looked as if there was an invisible giant hand severely beat the group of charging warriors. Facing this unstoppable force, the enemy's charging speed was greatly slowed down. Anyone touched by this invisible force was torn into pieces with blood splashing everywhere.

A soldier of the God's Punishment Army kept running forward even after one of his arms was shot by a bullet. When Danny aimed his gun at him, a 'sand snake' composed of dozens of lines of dust sloppily passed through the soldier's body, which was the unique trajectory of a machine gun. The soldier's chest suddenly waved like a pool of water, blue blood splashed out of his back, and his ribs were even broken by the scorching airflow of the passing bullets.

The soldier, though he lost his balance and was wrinkled up like a piece of rag, still managed to run for another three to four steps before falling to the ground due to the inertia. Danny noticed that his back had gone rotten.

"Watch out, Captain!" Malt shouted suddenly.

Danny was shocked. When he turned his head, he saw another soldier from the God's Punishment Army, appearing from the boundless dust and holding a spear upright.

Then the soldier bent over and threw the spear at Danny.

He barely saw how the soldier threw the spear.

"Too careless. I've been so focused on observing the enemies that I attracted their attention. A hunter shouldn't expose himself under the prey's eyesight for too long," Danny thought.

Before he could react, Malt heavily hit him on the body. Both of them fell on the trench ground. At the same time, a loud sound came above their heads.

Danny felt a pain came from the back of his head, and his body was completely covered by dirt.

Danny felt the sound of gunfires suddenly faded away, and an unbearable buzzing kept echoing in his ears.

After a long time, Danny recovered his senses. Touching the back of his head, he felt something sticky. "I must have hit on something hard when I fell on the ground. Since I could remain sober, it must be nothing serious."

With his blurry eyesight, he saw a teammate coming to him.

"Are you alright?"

Danny could only vaguely hear it. He managed to wave his hand, indicating he was fine.

"Give me a hand. Two people are wounded," the teammate shouted.

Soon, Danny and Malt were surrounded by more teammates and were dragged out of the collapsed pile of dirt.

At that moment, Danny noticed that the short spear had torn apart the edge of the trench, creating a crescent-shaped gap. It did not fly away over his head but instead it hit the trench edge, penetrated the thin soil, and struck into the trench wall. The dirt that fell on their bodies was from the spot where the spear's hit.

When he looked at Malt, his heart suddenly clenched.

He saw there was a bleeding wound as big as a bowl on Malt's shoulder, and his arm almost fell off, only a few strands of skin connected the shoulder, his white bones exposed.

"The spear wasn't thrown in vain. It hit Malt."

The teammates went back to the battle, leaving one soldier to take care of Malt. All the soldiers in the First Army understood that as long as a wounded soldier could survive till the end of the battle, Miss Nana would make him fully recover. So hemostasis and dressing was a compulsory course in the First Army. The soldier left pulled out a dagger, decisively cut Malt's arm off and then sprinkled the herbs in his pocket on Malt's wound before he wrapped the wound with gauze.

After suffering this treatment, Malt awoke from his coma, murmuring a faint groan.

"Lie still. You're not going to die." The soldier consoled him.

"Where is Cap-Captain Danny?"

"I'm here." Danny clenched his teeth, upheld his weak limbs, and climbed to Malt's side. "Why would you do that for me..."

"Because I'm your protector. Of, of course, I won't leave you behind." Malt's mouth slowly opened and shut. "How did I do? I fulfilled my duty, didn't I?"

Danny suddenly felt an unspeakable guilt surging from the bottom of his heart. "Sure... you did very well."

"Really?" Malt smiled with a difficulty. "This will pave my way to meet Miss Nana."

"That's right. Both of you can meet her." The soldier looked at Danny. "You can take care of him, right? I need to go back to my position."

"Yes, I can... Thank you," Danny said, nodding.

After the soldier left, Danny slowly picked up his gun from the ground, dusted off the dirt, and managed to stand up.

"I can still fight!"

"The enemy must pay for this wound with blood!" Danny thought.

However, the approaching army of the church was no more. In the pervading dust, the enemies were retreating in panic, and only their backs could be vaguely seen.

Cheers burst out from the trenches.

They had won!

Chapter 612 - Battle's End

...

Roland walked out of the cabinet as the gunboat staggered to a stop. He was fascinated by what he saw.

The arch-typed mountain rocks, which extended out from both sides, wrapped around the entire town like two huge arms. The rays of sunlight slanted along the finger-wide crevice, forming a wall of golden shimmers.

Numberless vines, which looked like green hair, grew out of the bottom of the rocks. Some bulky ones even reached the ground, tempting people to climb up.

When the sun rays sifted through dense twigs and branches and splintered up into glints of the muttering brook, Roland felt like he was in a untraversed forest. However, the area was not completely uncultivated. Along Soundless River stood different types of buildings constructed by men. Townsmen passed through waist-high bushes back and forth. Streaks of smokes could be detected from the distance. Everything around this area was in perfect harmony with nature.

Due to a lack of sunshine, the temperature in this town was slightly lower than that in other places. The colors of plants, naturally, were in much deeper shades. No wonder the town was called Deepvalley Town.

Roland and the witches stepped on the dock covered with mosses and met the people who had been waiting there for a long time. The three at the front were obviously the general commander of the First Army, Iron Axes, the Duke of the Northern Region, Calvin, and his daughter, Edith.

"We've met again, Your Majesty." Edith performed a curtsy. "Congratulations on the victory of your first battle."

"I've heard the news on my way here. You did a good job." Roland gave an approving nod. " Iron Axes told me you not only smoothed out the transportation of food and ammunition, but also successfully lured the enemies."

"These are the obligations of Kant Family," she replied with a faint smile. "The tradesmen in the Northern Region are happy to be at your service."

"But the owner of this town was still Timothy Wimbledon half a year ago," Roland said within himself. The tradesmen in the three cities probably had never heard of the new king. They were willing to offer their services and carry out his plan was simply because of Edith's advertisement and her tremendous personal influence over the Northern Region.

After giving a few words of encouragement, Roland turned to Iron Axes and asked, "Have you obtained the casualties?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Iron Axe administered a military salute and continued, "The detailed report has been sent to your office."

"O-office?"

"I've discussed this matter with Earl Haier. We've decided that you should use his castle as your palace during your stay at Deepvalley Town." Edith further explained. "Also, I've had the study refurbished, making it look like the one in the Border Area. Miss Maggie told me that you like a bright room. So, I knocked down a wall with a sunny exposure and replaced it with a floor-to-ceiling window.

"Really?" Roland asked with interest. "Then where will the earl stay?"

"In order not to disturb your work, he'll live in his mansion in the suburb." The Pearl of the Northern Region paused for a moment and then asked, "You want me to summon him?"

"No, that's fine. I bet he doesn't like partake in politics." Roland waved his hand. "Let's get into the castle first."

"Alright. Please follow me."

"Is this the wonder of power?" Roland thought while smacking his lips. "It isn't bad to have a taste of it from time to time."

...

Roland thought he was back at Neverwinter upon his entry to the study. The large mahogany desk, along with the coffee table and the recliner at the corner was exactly the same as those in the Border Area. The only big difference was the sceneries outside the French window. Here, he could see the green dale through the window instead of the somber Impassable Mountain Range.

He wondered what the previous owner, Earl Haier, would think about the renovation after he left.

Roland sat back to the desk and started to read the report.

Although he had learned how the battle had progressed, he felt exhilarated when he caught sight of the church's casualties.

This was definitely a victory worthy to be remembered.

His concern about God's Punishment Army dissipated when he saw 156 deaths among the God's Punishment Warriors. It appeared that these powerful, fearless killing machines were not at all unconquerable. After all, flesh and blood could not compete against bullets and fire. Roland believed there should not be many God's Punishment Warriors left, as every conversion required a witch's blood. Agatha estimated the army should consist of no more than 1,500 warriors, provided that the Bloody Moon did not arrive.

A casualty ratio of one to ten was already high enough for the church to lament their loss.

In addition to the God's Punishment Warriors, there were over 300 members of the Judgement Army killed in action, more than 20 of them severely injured and four commanders captured. These numbers were trivial. Despite the fact that Judgement Warriors were mostly strong-willed and skillful combaters, Roland did not take them seriously, as they were essentially the same as knights.

What was really lucky was that they had not encountered any pure witches who were extremely difficult to deal with. If they unfortunately had, they probably would not have won that easily just with Sylvie and Iffy taking charge. In fact, Sylvie had instructed the machine gun team to specifically tackle permeating pure witches.

"What about the casualties in the First Army?" Roland folded the report.

"Two killed and 21 severely injured," Iron Axe answered in a low tone. "All resulted from a close-range spearing from the God's Punishment Army. The wounded has now recovered and returned to service."

After learning that the church had launched the attack, Lightning brought Nana to Deepvalley Town in no time. Nobody could provide a better treatment than Miss Angel.

Roland knocked on the desk and ordered. "Arrange a boat to send the bodies of the killed soldiers to City of Neverwinter for a burial."

"Yes, Your Majesty." After a short pause, Iron Axe asked, "What will you do with the unit leader of the fourth premium shooting unit, Danny, Your Majesty?"

"That old hunter who shot five members of the God's Punishment Army?" Roland took up the teacup and sipped the tea that tasted exactly the same as the premium tea in the palace. "What's your opinion?"

During the rescue, Brian noticed that the injuries Danny and his protector sustained appeared to be inconsistent with their positions. The news soon reached Roland that very night via the Sigil of Listening. At that time, the war had just ended. Considering that the First Army was still absorbed in their celebration and that the protector was in a critical condition, Roland simply asked Iron Axe to first treat the wounded. Now, since they had arrived at Deepvalley Town, it was time to bring up this matter.

"I think although Danny disregarded the instruction and left his post without permission, he did make a big contribution to the victory. He shot five God's Punishment Warriors down by himself. Such a remarkable performance would be more than enough to make him a celebrity in the Army. Therefore, I reckon his merits offset his demerits." Iron Axes said slowly, "In the Iron Sand City, a fighter like him will even be rewarded by his master, so..."

"But the First Army was not any old-school army that rewards their soldiers based on how many they've killed." Roland interrupted. "Do you remember what I taught you during the first training session?"

Iron Axe swallowed hard. "You taught us discipline, Your Majesty."

"Only a well-disciplined army can become invincible." Roland rose to his feet and paced to the French window. "I hope you bear this in mind all the time. Now, tell me, how are you supposed to deal with him?"

Chapter 613 - Interrogation

"Suspension without pay and a detention of 15 days if no further harms are caused; dismissal and bring him to your trial, if further harms are caused, Your Majesty," Iron Axes replied immediately.

"Correct. You memorize it well. Do what you just said." As there was no military tribunal at this point, Roland had to try cases of serious misconduct in the army by himself. In this case, Danny's behavior was apparently not so serious as to put him on a trial. "In view of the upcoming great war, we'll first detain him for five days and have him serve the rest in City of Neverwinter."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"You don't need to worry about the reactions among other soldiers. This sets a good example and tells them that everybody will be subject to punishment if he breaks the rules, regardless of how great his contribution to the army is." Roland paused for a moment and then continued, "Of course, we won't forget what he's done for the army either. If somebody ever asks, just tell him that I have my own arrangement."

In fact, Roland knew that he was also partially responsible for such a wrong conductive behavior. Although he had created a premium shooting unit of 50 people, he did not separate those talented, experienced snipers from the soldiers of the ordinary gun battalion. He simply instructed all of them to serve as flanks and shoot with revolving rifles from a farther distance, for the purpose of stopping enemies who tried to sneakily enter the machine gun bunker from the marginal area.

Danny, however, actually acted more like a professional sniper. He chose his position and fired based on his own judgement to eliminate the enemies who posed the greatest threats. Roland had thought about specifically forming a sniper team, and yet such a team had higher requirements for guns, ammunition and especially its team members. He had to, at the same time, keep an eye on the snipers to make sure that every one of them was proactive and productive.

Perhaps, he would make some improvements in the current premium shooting unit after this war concluded.

"By the way, Your Majesty, the captured church's commanders have disclosed some... particular information." Iron Axes was carefully choosing his words. "It's about the God's Punishment Army."

"What's it?"

"They said the members of God's Punishment Army can't fight on their own. They can only complete the most basic mission after a commander orders them to do so."

Roland turned around. "Really? Anything else?" Ashes had already told him about it, which was the reason he dared to take his armies to the north and provoke the church. If God's Punishment Warriors could fight independently, only a very few of them would be enough to cause riots across the kingdom and bring him trouble.

"A commander can be an ordinary person or a pure witch, and can't be changed once appointed." Iron Axes recollected. "Any new members of God's Punishment Army will attend a ceremony to pledge allegiance. One captive admitted that he attended such a ceremony once."

Roland instructed immediately. "Take me to them. Also, bring Agatha."

...

Roland met the four separately-confined captives down in the dungeon.

Deepvalley Town was overall pleasantly cool and refreshing above the ground. Its underground surroundings, however, was freezing and damp. All four were blindfolded, drenched, with their hands tied behind their back. Although no visible wounds could be detected, they were all shivering. Apparently, Iron Axes had applied some unique interrogation techniques, which, as he suggested, few people could endure for one day.

Yet the church's believers were not ordinary prisoners. Their ardent piety made them extremely strong.

"Only the two on the right are willing to speak up." The man from the Sand Nation said in a low voice. "One of them is the chief justice of the church, while the other is the priest in Holy City. The other two refuse to tell us anything. Of course, they don't know their friends have already confessed."

Not really familiar with the institution and hierarchy of the church, Roland asked directly, "Who attended the ceremony where the God's Punishment Army pledges allegiance? Take him to the interrogation room."

The jailor soon dragged the priest to a small chamber next door. Iron Axes poured some cold water on his head to awaken him. "Farat, I. have a few questions to ask you."

He quivered violently and started to speak feebly, "I've told you... everything I know. Please kill me now." The priest's voice was weak and faint as if he were in great agony.

"Tell me about the ceremony for the God's Punishment Army."

Farat did not respond but simply shook his head.

"Listen. This is the last round of the interrogation." Iron Axe bent over and whispered in his ear, "I'll let you go once you've answered all the questions."

It took him quite a while to speak again. "The ceremony... is usually held in the Tower of Babel, which is only accessible to God's Punishment Warriors, the pope and commanders. Everybody... must be completely silent during the process. Even the slightest sound will ruin the whole ceremony."

"Why's that?" Roland questioned.

"Because new warriors recognize their commanders by sounds."

"The first sound they hear?"

"It can be more than one." Farat gasped. "The chosen commanders will read hymns together. God's Punishment Warriors will accept everyone during that time period."

"What about you? Are you also a commander?"

"I'm responsible... for a group, a group of ten God's Punishment Warriors."

"But that ten people also need to follow the orders issued by your superior, correct?"

The priest nodded. "All the God's Punishment Armies should obey the supreme pontiff's orders."

"That's how it works," Roland thought. He had thought they commanded this unconscious army telepathically or via brainwaves, but they actually controlled them through sounds. To him, it appeared to be a very unnecessarily complex and less efficient method. Not only did soundwaves easily diminish, but there was a big chance of issuing contradictory orders as well. Either of the problems would cause confusion to the God's Punishment Army.

"You said once a commander is appointed, he can't be changed. What if God's Punishment Warriors lose all their commanders?" Agatha ventured suddenly.

Hearing it was a lady, Farat was stunned.

"Answer!" Iron Axe got some more water.

"I... don't know."

"You're lying." Roland immediately received Nightingale's hint. "You'd better not play any tricks on us if you don't want to stay here for another half a month."

The priest clenched his teeth and finally said, "They, they'll go to Barbarian Land themselves. That's all I know."

"Barbarian Land?" Agatha echoed in surprise.

"It's just a hearsay... Usually, when this happens, some other warriors will stop him. But..." He hesitated for a moment. "It's rumored some God's Punishment Warriors, who weren't properly managed, fled to Barbarian Land many years ago, and have stayed there ever since."

"Do you know how the God's Punishment Army is converted?"

"Well... Only the supreme pontiff can host the ceremony..."

"When the pope retires, how does he assign his authority to control the God's Punishment Army?"

"I, I don't know..." Beads of perspiration started to appear on his forehead.

"Four hundred years ago, how was the church founded?"

"Have you heard of the name 'Alice'? How about the Union and Taquila?"

The priest was just irresponsive to any questions Agatha put forward afterwards.

"He truly doesn't know. Let's go. There's no need to continue with this interrogation anymore." After receiving the confirmation from Nightingale, Roland said.

When the three of them were about to leave the dungeon, Iron Axes trotted to them and asked, "Your Majesty, what about these captives from the church..."

"Do what you've promised earlier."

Chapter 614 - Agatha's Prediction

When they returned to the castle, Roland turned towards Agatha and asked, "Have you recalled anything?"

"Most likely, the God's Punishment Army was only successfully researched after Taquila fell completely. I don't understand it much," she replied, shaking her head. "But... it's definitely not as simple as what the church priest said. At least, it doesn't explain how a newly-crowned pope is able to take over control of the God's Punishment Army from the previous pope."

"Also, it's very odd that a runaway God's Punishment Army would actively advance towards the Barbarian Land." Agatha continued after a brief pause, "The Barbarian Land that you people speak of should be the Fertile Plains of 400 years ago. There's nothing there apart from the ruins of the holy city. And it's too far-fetched to say that they were enticed by the demons."

"Who knows." Roland casually commented. "You've also seen that their blood is blue in color. They can't be considered the same species as us." He was not highly interested in what exactly attracted the God's Punishment Army. What he most wanted to know at present was their Achilles' heel, and how to effectively guard against an assault on his lines. As could be seen from the previous wave of spear throwing, the lack of fortifications made the God's Punishment Army quite threatening. "If they're truly vulnerable to noise, maybe Echo's ability can..."

"I don't approve of doing this." The ancient witch rejected his idea. "There are a lot of risks that way."

"Indeed, it's quite risky to sneak close to their commander, but we can..."

"No, I'm not talking about Echo." Agatha interrupted his words. "I'm talking about you."

"Me?" Roland was surprised.

"If Echo is to sneak up to the commander, she would need Nightingale's Mist. When so, you would be left without protection. The church would only need to send forth a pure witch with special abilities to claim your life easily," she replied unhesitatingly. "Although you're a normal person who's weak and powerless, we can't do without you at present if we're to defeat the demons. So, protecting you is still the most important thing to do. We can't take any kind of risk with that."

"I really can't tell if you're praising or insulting me." Roland laughed bitterly. "When that time comes, I'll put on the God's Stone of Retaliation."

"The God's Stone of Retaliation is only a means of insurance. It's not a completely secure barrier." Agatha stated bluntly. "Even Nightingale isn't completely failsafe, but we don't have a better way."

"As long as I'm still alive, His Majesty won't come under any harm." Nightingale could not restrain herself from revealing her figure. It was apparent that she did not take kindly to Agatha's words.

"I hope so." The ancient witch did not dispute this point further. She turned to leave the study but stopped when she reached the door.

"What's the matter?" Roland asked.

Agatha remained silent for a while before she replied, "I don't know whether to talk about these things... Her immense power aside, the reason why Lady Alice was able to become Queen of Starfall City and also the Head of the Three Chairs was that her intelligence and methods were superior to most witches. On a few occasions, her decisions saved the Union from the verge of collapse. Without her, Taquila wouldn't have survived until then. Many people believed that if she was born before the first Battle of Divine Will, she would have ended this hopeless war early on."

"What're you trying to say?"

She turned her head back and frowned slightly. "What I mean is, the powerful warriors in whom she placed her hopes of saving the witches shouldn't have turned out this way."

"You feel that the present God's Punishment Army may not have been the same as the one 400 years ago?" Roland asked in surprise.

"The God's Punishment Warriors aren't afraid of magic power, never panic, and are extremely powerful. They indeed seem to possess a great advantage over the demons. But... they won't be able to make the decisive difference. Furthermore, they need a commander wherever they go, and don't have the ability to perform long-distance attacks. I feel that Lady Alice shouldn't place high hopes on this kind of warrior." Agatha sighed. "Of course, these are just my speculations. Only the church knows what exactly happened to the Union after Taquila fell."

A long time after she left the room, Roland was still stuck in his thoughts.

Agatha's words were indeed reasonable. Was it really possible that the God's Punishment Army project, which required the Queen of Starfall City to pay such a huge price to carry out, was only intended to produce an expensive yet cumbersome killing machine?

Just as he was about to head out of the castle to get some fresh air, the Sigil of Listening that Nightingale was wearing suddenly rang.

"This is Lightning here. My position is in the northwest, in the sky above Coldwind Ridge! I've just observed that the enemy is now retreating. I repeat, the enemy is retreating!"

"Retreating?"

"They're all running towards the holy city, coo!" Maggie added.

"I see." Roland immediately summoned a guard from outside. "Inform Iron Axe, Edith, Duke Calvin and all members of the Adviser Department to report here for a meeting."

"This is undoubtedly good news," Roland thought excitedly. He had not thought that the church's army would abandon Coldwind Ridge and retreat directly to the highland of Hermes. In this way, he would have a chance to evacuate all of the townspeople before the holy city recaptured Coldwind Ridge.

"They're afraid." Nightingale laughed.

"Perhaps so. But their retreat suggests that the church is unable to send out reinforcements on short notice." Roland surmised while stroking his chin. "Our earlier predictions weren't wrong. This contingent of more than 1,000 people was probably an advance force which the church came up with last-minute. If they don't take the initiative to attack our lines, I really don't know what to do with the church."

When he decided to use this tactic, he had already, in a sense, decided to give up Coldwind Ridge. After all, it was much closer to Hermes. Now that he had the chance to prevent the townspeople from becoming victims of the Pill of Madness, he felt considerably relieved.

The relevant members quickly gathered in the reception room. Roland retold Lightning's intelligence report to them and looked around at everyone present. "Are there any questions?"

"Your Majesty, why don't you guard Coldwind Ridge directly?" Duke Calvin asked in puzzlement. "It's strategically located, and there's only one route that leads to the holy city. Isn't it more advantageous than guarding the foot of the mountain?"

"It only appears so. In reality, it's surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the slopes pass directly over its top. The enemy only needs to use a rope to infiltrate our line of defense." Roland shrugged his shoulders. "We've discussed this in detail in City of Neverwinter. You can ask Edith for more specifics. Anyone else?"

Seeing that no one responded, he issued his order. "If so, the evacuation campaign will be carried out by the First Army. The grain reserves and gold royals can be left behind. Our concern is regarding the residents—whether by coercion or force, I don't want a single person to be left behind in Coldwind Ridge. In addition, the local nobles may have a better persuasive effect. I'm referring particularly to the famous Pearl of the Northern Region." He paused at this. "Iron Axe and Edith, you two will be in charge of this matter."

"Yes!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

"As for the Adviser Department." He glanced towards Earl Eltek and the others. "Your task is to assist the Duke of the Northern Region to make arrangements for the evacuated people. This will include computing the number of people, registering their identities, and finding food and lodging for them. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the crowd replied in unison.

"Excellent, let's begin immediately!" Roland thumped the table and exclaimed.

Chapter 615 - Wavering Faith

In the Tower of Babel of Hermes Cathedral.

The hurried footsteps of a guard spoiled the peace and quiet in the ring hall. Somewhat unhappy with this, Tayfun placed his breakfast down and glanced at the frantic comer. "Is there a problem?"

"Your Eminence, something's up in Coldwind Ridge." The guard moved close and whispered in Tayfun's ears. "It seems that Lord Soli Daal has been badly injured over there." He proceeded to explain everything that he had heard about the incident quickly.

"What!" Tayfun could not believe his own ears. "Our advance force has lost more than half of its men, while Soli was seriously bloodied?" The old bishop grabbed the guard by the neck and asked, "Where's he now?"

"Sent to the hospital."

"How about the God's Punishment Army?"

"They were ordered to hold their positions and await further instructions. Right now, they're gathered in the cathedral."

"Inform His Holiness and Lady El immediately about this matter. Also, gather and look after all those who took part in this expedition. Close the doors of the cathedral and prevent other believers from entering or leaving for now!" Tayfun seemed to forget about his breakfast. "I'll head to the hospital straight away."

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

How could this happen?

He could feel his heart palpitating non-stop. In principle, a 1,300-strong platoon, of which 300 were God's Punishment Warriors, should not have had problems dealing with Coldwind Ridge. Before Soli was promoted to bishop, he was a veteran chief justice, and one of His Holiness Mayne's most able subordinates. Even if they encountered demons or beasts, there should not have been so many victims!

Although fear clouded his heart, the old bishop remained very clear that the most important thing to do at the moment was to block the news from leaking out, so as to prevent the believers' faith from being shaken. The next most important thing was to find out exactly what happened to Soli Daal in Coldwind Ridge.

When he reached the hospital, El was already there—it was evident that the latter had an alternative source of information. The two of them exchanged looks and walked together solemnly into Soli's medical room.

A pure witch was tending to the archbishop's wounds. Soli was missing an arm, and the wound around the remaining flesh had been tightly dressed with cotton. When he saw the other two archbishops, his dazed eyes seemed to focus again, and he struggled to sit up.

"You may leave first." Tayfun urged the pure witch to depart and then assisted Soli to sit up. "How's your injury?"

"I want to see His Holiness!" Soli growled. "Bring me to the Pivotal Secret Area at once!"

"Tell us what happened first," El replied coldly. "Only then we'll consider whether to bring you to see the pope or to throw you in jail and await trial."

"Scoundrel, now it's not the time to quarrel." Soli gnashed his teeth. "Coldwind Ridge was a trap. Roland Wimbledon's firearms are far more terrifying than Timothy's. I have to let His Holiness know..."

"I don't want to be kept in the dark while covering your ass, Mister Soli Daal!" El raised her voice several notches. "Do you know how embarrassing your return was? When passing through the city gate, anyone could see how incomplete and defeated our advance force was. People in the holy city have already begun asking questions. If I didn't get the tribunal to detain a few busybodies, the whole city will be talking about these rumors tomorrow!" She grabbed him by the collar. "You should know how serious this will be!"

Tayfun knew that El was perfectly right. The loss of over 100 God's Punishment Warriors was equivalent to the loss over the past two years. And the enemy this time was only a small town in the mountains. This was an absolute disgrace to the church.

More critically, if the news spread, the faith of the believers would be immensely affected.

Ever since the God's Punishment Army started being sent to fight demonic beasts, there had been hearsay that it was all-conquering and invincible. It even appeared so. If even the enormous and savage demonic beasts were no matches for the God's Punishment Army, what kind of enemy could defeat it?

Just as Tayfun was about to give a few lines of advice, the room door was suddenly pushed open.

"Hope I'm not late." The white-haired witch, Zero, walked into the room. "The pope wants to see you, and requests that you don't divulge the specific circumstances of the battle. Are you able to walk on your own?"

"Lady Zero, we can't..." El protested.

Zero cut her off quickly. "Don't worry. The pope is only worried that the secret of the God's Punishment Army may be leaked out. After he has finished his inquiry into the matter, I'll tell you everything."

"What secret?"

"Forgive me, but I can't say." Zero laughed. "Because I don't know it myself."

"I... can walk." Soli struggled off the bed and took two steps before he fell down.

"No need to act tough." The pure witch snapped her fingers, and instantly, two Trap Area guards wearing blue cloaks walked in and lifted the archbishop up. "Once we're in the Pivotal Secret Area, you'll have a wheelchair to move freely in."

"F*cking b*itch." After Soli left with Zero, El spat on the ground angrily and walked straight out of the medical room.

Tayfun watched grimly as the pure witch's figure slowly disappeared into the distance, and did not say a word for a long time.

...

As Soli walked down the stone steps to the deep abyss below the cathedral, there was a look of excitement on his face. This was the first time that he entered the core area of the church. Even his breath became shorter and hurried.

"How do you intend to explain the heavy losses of the God's Punishment Army to Pope Mayne?" After he sat down on a wheelchair, Zero personally pushed him toward the Trap Area.

"The defeat this time was indeed caused by my carelessness. I'm willing to accept any punishment." The archbishop hesitated for a moment. "And, I... wish to apply to His Holiness to become a God's Punishment Warrior myself."

"Are you sure? You want to give up your archbishop position and become a minion?"

"They aren't minions!" Soli could not help arguing. "Every God's Punishment Warrior is a brave and steadfast soldier. That's why they are willing to sacrifice their lives and fight for the glory of the church! I've let them down and caused immeasurable loss to the church. The best way for me to compensate and make up for my mistakes is to throw myself into the fight!"

"Is that so?" Zero shrugged her shoulders. "I feel that the pope won't agree."

"I'll do my best to persuade him. I believe that Pope Mayne will definitely..."

"That's not the reason." She shook her head. "Converting into a God's Punishment Warrior requires witch blood, and every witch isn't easy to come by. Now that you've lost an arm, your fighting ability is much weaker than before even if the conversion is successful. Do you think the pope will waste witch blood on a handicapped person?"

"What're you saying? Wait... Stop!"

As Zero pushed the wheelchair along the long corridor, she paused at the end of the Trap Area.

"Is there a problem?"

"The incarnation ceremony of the God's Punishment Army is a secret that only the Supreme Pontiff knows. How do you know what the ceremony requires?" Soli's eyes widened. "It's impossible that Pope Mayne told you!"

"You're not wrong, he definitely wouldn't." She waited for the guards to open the cage and calmly placed the archbishop inside the cage. "But I don't need him to tell me, because... I'm the pope."

"That's... blasphemy!" Soli turned his head back in disbelief, only to see a beam of light heading in his direction.

Chapter 616 - The Violent Tide Rises

...

Harsh and piercing booms were everywhere.

All that Zero could hear between these booms were faint cries of pain.

The frontline was a vanguard formed by God's Punishment Warriors, while the backline was the slowly advancing Judgement Army. This was the "Big Shield" formation that was rehearsed to deal with the swarm attacks of demonic beasts, but it was equally effective against crossbows and flintlocks. The iron shields, which were each only as thick as a finger, were able to deflect volleys of arrows, and could not be penetrated by Timothy's imitation flintlocks. Their only disadvantage was that they were excessively heavy, and thus only the God's Punishment Army could carry them into battle.

However, this time, it lost its effectiveness.

Every now and then, a God's Punishment Warrior would be split into two by iron balls that came whizzing towards him, and even the people standing behind could be struck by the same ball. Blood quickly burst out of the bodily punctures created by these balls. Those warriors who did not die on the spot would clutch on to their innards or limbs and scream in pain, unintentionally sapping the morale of their comrades who were still fighting.

"This can't continue. Get the God's Punishment Army to charge!" an assistant shouted.

"I agree, Lord Soli." Another commander seconded while clutching his fists. "These iron balls can only travel in a straight line, and can't be fired too quickly. The right thing for us to do is to spread out, and then we won't be easily targeted anymore!"

"Got it. Pass down my orders to spread out our formation and perform a full charge!"

Zero heard Soli Daal issuing an order to attack.

However, right at this moment, a new kind of weapon entered the battlefield.

It sounded like an incessant sequence of raindrops, yet also like the buzz of gold daggers striking against one another. A cloud of smoke suddenly rose up in front of the charging warriors and caused them to fall on the ground like cut wheat. It was impossible for Zero to see where the attack was coming from.

The commanders' faces turned white all at once.

Everyone knew that the outcome of this battle was decided.

Zero heard a sudden hissing sound piercing through the air. It was sharp yet cryptic, like the utterance of a viper.

Danger!

She turned her gaze towards the direction that the sound was coming from. She subconsciously wanted to hide from it, but quickly remembered that the body she was in did not belong to her.

Unfortunately, Soli Daal did not have a fraction of her alertness.

A single iron ball fell from midair and bounced on the ground directly in front of him. As it rebounded up high, it brushed across his body.

Zero could only feel her vision spinning in circles before she fell on the ground.

Fresh blood gushed out from Soli's shoulders. The place where his arm should be had become vacant. He clenched his teeth to prevent himself from crying in pain.

The people around him frantically gathered around.

"Your Eminence!"

"My goodness gracious, your hand..."

"Retreat, get all of them to retreat!"

"Bring Lord Soli away from this place, and I'll stay behind!"

Her recollection broke off at this point.

Zero opened her eyes. In front of her once again were God's stone prisms and the Pivotal Secret Temple deep underground.

"So that's what happened." She lowered her head and grinned uncontrollably.

In this case, everything makes sense now.

Why Roland Wimbledon was able to become from the low-profile lord of Border Town to the new king of Graycastle; why he was able to defeat the duke's knightage and the 2nd Prince's crazed army time and time again, and was even able to seize King's City within a day—this was the reason.

The continuous booms, the smell of gunpowder smoke in the air... these things proved the existence of a new kind of firearm that was vastly superior to Timothy's imitation snow powder pipes.

If Zero had not "personally witnessed" it, she would never have imagined that snow powder weapons could be so powerful.

Of course, she knew that it was not a secret passed down within the Wimbledon family, or else Timothy and Garcia would not be ignorant of it.

Without a doubt, Roland had encountered something in Border Town which allowed him to have today's success.

Another possibility was that he had mastered the ancient tricks of some secluded family—ever since the Union was dissolved, a few builders and designers who had aided the local people were no longer in touch. Many of them possessed specialized skills and crafts, and therefore it was possible that one of them had devised these ingenious weapons.

Or, perhaps, the weapons were found in some ruins hidden deep in the Impassable Mountain Range. The historical records in the library had mentioned that there were a few strange ruins of unknown origin located around the border of Barbarian Land. In fact, it was the discovery of an underground labyrinth that had led to the eventual division of the Union.

But Zero was more inclined to believe that it was the ability of some witch that gave regular snow powder such deadly power.

This would also explain why Roland had changed his attitude, recruited witches in large numbers, and helped to clear the injustices they faced.

"Forget it, my speculation doesn't matter at all. No matter what the reason was, Roland Wimbledon knows best about it," thought Zero.

Zero knew that if she devoured Roland, she would get to understand everything about these weapons.

"Lady... Zero?" The guard captain standing at the cage exit asked worriedly, having not heard a sound from her for a long time.

Zero suppressed the excitement in her heart and waited until the grin on her face completely disappeared before she walked unhurriedly out of the cage. "I'm fine. Inform the intelligence agency to call back all of the pure witches that are still in Kingdom of Dawn."

"All?" The captain seemed astonished. "But the plan that you laid down before..."

"The decisive battle is about to begin," Zero explained slowly. "I want to see everyone."

There was no question that compared to Roland's knowledge, the Kingdom of Dawn's situation was insignificant.

"So powerful, such an amazing range of fire, and able to be used by anyone." Zero could understand its importance just by thinking about it.

If this weapon could be mass assembled before the Bloody Moon arrived, the Holy City's chances of defeating the demons would be significantly increased.

As for herself, she would be able to move one step closer to the divine will.

*******************

Deepvalley Town, the Northern Region of Kingdom of Graycastle.

After dinner, Iffy returned to her bedroom in the castle and immediately let out an uncontrollable yawn. In the past fortnight, apart from executing the Tooth Extraction Campaign, there was also no time for rest after reaching the small town. She not only had to assist the First Army in guarding their camp, but also then followed Edith and her entourage to Coldwind Ridge to resettle the local residents. Although she was extremely busy, she felt that her life was rather meaningful like this.

After her mood calmed down, she realized that the non-combat witches indeed possessed their own unique strengths. She also began to feel that aside from her abilities, she was not really different from most normal people.

As observed from her daily interactions with people, she was slowly being accepted by the members of the Witch Union. While she was performing a vigilance task, Maggie even said hello to her for the first time ever—despite Lightning looking unhappy about it.

Iffy did not expect them to forgive her, and instead, she hoped to make up for her wrongdoings through action. In fact, she did not care whether she could ultimately become a sister to them. She only focused on atonement.

Atonement for her one and only friend, Annie.

Just as she was about to go to bed, someone knocked on her door.

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see that it was the leader of Sleeping Island, Lady Tilly Wimbledon.

"I wish to talk to you about the Bloodfang Association." Tilly sighed softly. "As well as Heidi Morgan and... Annie."

Chapter 617 - The Rose of Coldwind Ridge

Iffy silently listened as Tilly explained the whole story of the founding of the Bloodfang Association, as well as Heidi Morgan's real intention. When she heard that Annie was given to the noble by Skyflare, she felt as if something was squeezing her heart.

"Heidi... where's she now?"

"She has been served her due punishment." Ashes, who was standing behind Tilly, answered. "During the arrest, Skyflare attempted to resist and thus had gone down the same path as Heidi."

"Oh... thank you," Iffy said softly.

She unclenched her fists involuntarily and suddenly felt at a loss.

Even though those who were responsible for all of this had got what they deserved, she could still not feel at ease. Instead, now that there was no more revenge to exact, she felt purposeless. Furthermore, as the only person involved who was not punished, she felt even more guilt.

"I hope you can help Sleeping Island to get back on the right track," Tilly said after a period of silence. "Like you, the surviving members of the Bloodfang Association were also deceived and framed by Heidi. They should not be implicated and discriminated against. While the combat witches were wrong to bully the assistant witches, it wouldn't be right to bully them in return."

Iffy nodded without too much hesitation and said, "I'm willing to help you, Lady Tilly."

Tilly seemed a little surprised, as though she did not expect Iffy to reply so promptly. "It's great that you're willing."

"What should I do?"

"Talk to the other members of the Bloodfang Association about your story with Annie. I'll tell everyone about Heidi's crime," Tilly replied. "After the church is completely wiped out, I'll send people to Wolfheart to find the witches imprisoned by the noble. If they're still alive, Roland will rescue them."

"I see."

She was determined to do her best in anything that could lighten her sin.

"Are you... alright?" Tilly suddenly stooped down and rubbed Iffy's cheeks. The latter immediately felt a warm feeling spread out across her face.

"I'm fine." She blinked her eyes a few times. "I'm just feeling a little... tired already."

Tilly gazed at her silently for a long while. "Don't be too upset. Get a good rest."

Iffy only lay down on her bed after the two witches' footsteps could no longer be heard.

She did not cry.

"This is just my body's natural response," she told herself.

It was neither sorrow nor cowardice.

It was simply proof that she missed Annie.

Tears flowed faster and faster.

*******************

Roland sat in front of his desk reading through the Adviser Department's evacuation statistical reports. He had not read under lamplight for a long time and thus felt not used to it. He once thought that he had brought civilization close to modernity, but now in Deepvalley Town, everything was back to square one.

There were no showers, no scented soap, no electric light... this place was not much better than Border Town when he first arrived there. The beginnings of industrialization had only just sprung up in the Western Region. He still had much work to do before chimneys and boilers became common throughout the kingdom.

Roland placed the reports down. Just as he was going to rub his eyes, a soft pair of invisible hands reached out to his forehead and massaged it softly.

"Thanks." He tilted his head and mouthed before he continued to read through the reports.

When Barov was not around, Sir Eltek took up the role of office assistant very well. At least, he did excellently in computing statistics and preparing reports, and was nearly as good as the staff in the city hall who had received specialized training.

"How many people here are willing to go to the Western Region?"

"At least 70 percent, Your Majesty," Eltek replied. "Coldwind Ridge is not really a suitable place to live. I have asked the duke about this, and he told me that if it wasn't to monitor the whereabouts of the church, there wouldn't even be a town there. The remaining 30 percent are mostly people who have their own farmland or factories in the Northern Region."

"Okay, great. You may now begin the planning. Try not to let the ships return empty. Have them bring along a number of people every time, so that more people may go earlier to the Western Region."

"But, over at Duke Calvin's side..."

"I'll explain it to him." Roland drank a mouthful of tea. "Anyway, after the war ends, no matter whether we win or lose, there'll be no need to station people at Coldwind Ridge anymore..."

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?" Eltek asked.

"No... nothing." Just after he said "whether we win or lose", Nightingale abruptly covered his mouth softly so that he held back those words. "Anyway, just do as I say and it'll be fine."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Just as Eltek was about to leave, a personal bodyguard, Sean, opened the door and walked in.

"Your Majesty Roland, there's a woman outside the castle who wants to see you. After she was stopped by the guards, she knelt on the ground and vowed never to leave until she sees you."

"Now?" He subconsciously took a look out of the window. The entire town was in the midst of a quiet night.

"Yes. It seems that she deliberately chose to come at this time. I have seen her twice before in the castle area during daytime. And..." Sean paused and hesitated. "She claims that she's Mrs. Wimbledon."

After hearing this reply, Roland nearly choked on his own saliva. "Impossible!" As far as he knew, the fourth Prince had never been to the Northern Region before.

When the woman walked into the study, Roland was impressed.

Her looks were not particularly outstanding, but her facial features possessed a peculiar charm. Her small and thin body had an inexplicable sense of steadiness and gentleness about it. To use a common expression, she was obviously not big in size but looked like a very capable housewife. The mud on her long dress even more brought out this blend of femininity and strength.

"Dear Your Majesty." The woman curtsied and greeted. "Olivia of Coldwind Ridge pays her respects."

"May I know what you mean by Mrs. Wimbledon?" Roland went straight to his question. "I heard from my guard that you deliberately waited until night to enter the castle? Are you clear about the consequence of using this name for deception?"

"Pardon me, Your Majesty. If I didn't do so, you won't even see me." She bit her teeth. "I can't be considered your elder brother's real wife, but we were once in love."

As expected, it was just a fraud. "Wait..." Roland suddenly shook. "What did she say? My elder brother?"

"You mean Timothy?"

She shook her head.

"Gerald?"

Olivia's face reddened, and she immediately knelt on the floor. "I know that Gerald had designs on the throne, but he's now dead... Your Majesty, can you please help me on his behalf? I beg you!"

Chapter 618 - A Posthumous Child

Hearing what Olivia said, Roland could not help sighing with mixed emotions.

It was not a complicated story. When Gerald Wimbledon had served as the commander of the frontier guards, he had made his customary visits to Coldwind Ridge during each year's Months of Demons to assist the church in fighting against demons. In one of his stays here, he had met a bar girl called Olivia in a tavern and fallen in love with her.

Given Olivia's status, it had been impossible for Gerald to marry her or make public their relationship. In the end, he had secretly bought a residence in the town as their love nest. Roland could not judge from the story whether it was true love or not, but he knew from Prince Roland's memories that Gerald had indeed refused marriage alliance with other nobles and had had no other lovers in King's City. As what Gerald had done was quite incredible for an adult prince, there was even a rumor remembered by Prince Roland that Prince Gerald was a homo.

The content of the encrypted letter that was presented by Olivia was even more incredible. According to the bar girl, Gerald had determined to make her his queen, and instead of just paying lip service, he had even written it down. If the written evidence had leaked out, King Wimbledon III would have given Gerald a really hard time.

Good times had not lasted long for Olivia. Quickly after the news that Timothy had sentenced Gerald to death had reached the Northern Region, her quiet life had come to an end and miseries weighed on her life continuously. The guards left by Gerald had left without saying goodbye and then her house had been burgled. With no source of income, she had had to go back to work as a bar girl in the tavern again.

Yet her bad times was not over. The owner of the tavern was still bitter about her sudden leave before and started to paw her now and then. He even coerced her to sleep with him.

During the most recent six months, Olivia's life was terrible. The owner's wife did not dare to complain in the owner's face, so she vented all her anger on Olivia. The owner often ignored what had happened, and sometimes even joined his wife in bullying and humiliating Olivia.

Roland would never criticize her for being weak-minded, as it was not surprising to him at all that she submitted to the unjust treatment. As a helpless ordinary woman, she had to face the biggest challenge in her life now, which was surviving. As for the disappearance of the guards and the following theft, Roland thought that it was not a coincidence. Given that the thief had been able to break into her house precisely when she had been away and had easily spotted the place where she had hidden her money, it must be an inside job.

"So what can I do for you?" Roland asked Olivia.

He decided to help her. It was not because of Gerald, a person who he had never met and could even be considered a half enemy based on Prince Roland's memory, but because Roland just wanted to help this remarkable woman who had endured such a misfortune but still waited patiently for a chance to save herself.

Besides, for Roland now, helping her was a simple task.

He did not covet his elder brother's wife as one would expect.

He swore!

"I want to leave the tavern... Your Majesty. Could you find a new job for me?" Olivia answered in a low voice.

"Are you sure you still want to stay in the Northern Region? If the owner of the tavern can't forget about you, he won't let you off easily. You can go to the Western Region by ship. You'll get a job, food and even a house there," Roland said while spreading out his hands. He did not want to degrade himself by getting involved in a civil dispute like this.

After a little hesitation, Olivia replied in an even lower voice, "Your Majesty... I, I want to stay here."

"I think she's afraid of you. As an ordinary woman, she's at least half as beautiful as Edith. It makes sense for the tavern owner to drool over her," Nightingale whispered in Roland's ear.

Roland said in silence, "Nonsense." After talking to Nightingale with the lip language, he nodded to Olivia and said, "Alright, I'll tell Duke Calvin to fetch you to City of Evernight. It's getting late now, Sean can find a hotel for you to sleep tonight."

"I shall never forget your kindness, Your Majesty." She knelt down again and said, "But... I have to go back tonight."

"It's up to you," Roland raised his eyebrow and said. He turned to Sean and ordered. "Give this lady a ride."

When Olivia reached the door, Roland suddenly asked, "By the way, do you have... any child with Gerald?"

She seemed startled and after a while answered, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty... I didn't have any child to carry on his family name."

...

After she left with the guard, Nightingale stepped out of the Mist and said, "Her last sentence is a lie."

"Uhm, I know." Roland twitched his mouth and said. "She isn't a good liar, and that explains why she was forced by the tavern owner."

"For the kid?"

"The owner must know that it was Prince Gerald Wimbledon who took her away. He was also clear about what would happen to the kid if Timothy found out the truth. To protect the kid she had with Gerald, she had to do what the owner wanted. I'd guess that's probably the case."

"Do you need me to investigate it for you?" Nightingale asked.

Roland stared at Nightingale for a long time and then summoned up a meaningful smile gradually curl his lips. He said, "Are you worried that I'm planning to bury this secret forever like Timothy? Relax, I won't harm innocent people. Even the family members of Duke Ryan are still under a house arrest in City of Neverwinter."

A feudal ruler would spare no one in his enemy's family but Roland did not like this idea of collective punishment, let alone killing a bastard child of a civilian woman, who apparently was not a threat to the throne.

"No matter what you say, I'll carry out your commands," Nightingale said slowly.

"I see. Well... give me a massage now," Roland took her hand and placed it on his shoulder and said.

*******************

Olivia went back to her wooden cabin which was built for immigrants. Her footsteps woke up the sleeping baby.

"Wah-wah-wah."

The baby cried.

The tavern owner's wife immediately started to shout in the next room. "Damn it, make him shut up! Otherwise, I'll put him down in the toilet and dump him into Soundless River!"

"I, I'm sorry. I'll quiet him down right away."

Neglecting the coolness of the night in Deepvalley Town, Olivia hurriedly took off her dirt-stained dress and held the baby in her arms. The baby instantly pressed close to her, skillfully searching for the nipple.

She finally let out a sigh of relief.

She felt lucky, as she was right about the tavern owner who had not come back yet.

Since they left Coldwind Ridge, he had become more and more ill-tempered. He spent most of his time in the local taverns and gambling houses, and seldom touched her. That was why Olivia had the chance to slip out of the cabin in the evening to ask Gerald's younger brother for help.

She did not dare to tell Roland that she had a child with Gerald or to go to the Western Region which was under complete control of the king. She was afraid that His Majesty would not want this child to exist. When that happened, she would be unable to protect her child anymore.

Olivia gently touched the baby's head. In the dim moonlight, she could see gray hair on his head, which was the feature of the Wimbledon family.

She felt it was a great pity that Gerald had not got the chance to meet his own child. She had not known that she was pregnant with the prince's child until she had received his letter in Coldwind Ridge.

After being fed, the baby happily hummed and fell asleep again.

Olivia lowered her head to kiss the baby on his forehead.

She made up her mind to raise him up alone, no matter what she had to sacrifice.

Chapter 619 - An Unstoppable Path (Part Ⅰ)

The red bricks and gray tiles of the cathedral gradually came into Isabella's sight, as her ship was slowly approaching the old Holy City.

It looked fairly prosaic. Unlike the new cathedral on the plateau, it did not have a magnificent chapel or a lofty building similar to the Tower of Babel. It might even be smaller than the churches located in the capitals of the Four Kingdoms. Despite that, in the heart of most believers, this old cathedral together with the cloisters, the Hall of Military Affairs and the Hall of Arbitration formed the palace of deities on the ground.

They considered this old cathedral the source of the church and the beginning of everything.

Isabella, however, rejected this saying.

She knew that the real place of origin for the church located inside the high mountains behind the old cathedral and that the truth was always kept as a secret from the believers.

As for the old Holy City?

It was just built to cover the secret.

After the sailing ship was anchored off by the dock, Isabella walked down the trestle bridge alone with light bags. Seeing this, the guard who came from Pivotal Secret Area to fetch her was taken by surprise and asked, "My Lady, where are the other pure witches?"

"They'll come one or two days later. I know His Holiness is rushing for us to return, but they still need some time to make some arrangements," she shrugged and replied.

"But Lady Zero said..."

"She wanted to see everyone." Isabella interrupted the guard. "I knew, but she didn't say that she wanted to see all of us at the same time."

She was puzzled by the recall order. Requiring all the pure witches to come back to Holy City would apparently ruin the plan to control Kingdom of Dawn. Without the medicine, the king would die in endless sleep. She could not think of a reason for Zero's abrupt change of plan, nor did she receive any explanation in the order.

"She's getting more and more like a real pope," Isabella thought, feeling a little unhappy.

Nevertheless, she had to still hit the road as soon as she had received the command. It had taken her a whole week to rush back to Hermes.

She turned around to ask the guard while boarding the cart, "By the way, do you know what happened in Holy City?"

"The advance force of the church fought a battle against the army of Kingdom of Graycastle at the foot of Coldwind Ridge," the guard hesitated for a while and answered, "and I think you'd better ask Lady Zero for the details."

"Did... the advance force lose?"

The guard slightly nodded to her without saying anything. He quickly left to mount a war-horse and then shouted to the coachman, "Let's go!"

Inside the carriage, Isabella let the curtains down and she was lost in her thought.

There were certainly many God's Punishment Warriors in the advance force, as top leaders of the church only reacted when there's a heavy loss to God's Punishment Army.

God's Punishment Warriors aren't immortals. They'll also suffer from heavy casualties, facing the harms more than they can bear. Since the church launched the attack at Kingdom of Everwinter, Holy City has already lost nearly 100 of them. I thought Zero had already got used to this situation, but maybe I was wrong. What heavy loss could it be in this battle, which led to Zero's decision to recall all the pure witches.

The coach traveled through the busy streets of the old Holy City and came to a battalion near the cliffs of the Impassable Mountain Range. Like the cathedral, this place was also heavily secured. Isabella got off the coach and stepped into a tunnel which was cut into the cliffs. She passed through many iron gates, walking into the mountain.

In the cold light of the God's Stone prism, the towering silhouette of Pivotal Secret Temple was presented in front of her.

Guided by the guard, she directly went up to the library on the top floor. When she opened the door of the circular hall, the present pope was standing by the window and looking out, who seemed lost in thought.

"What's this sticky business that makes you forget about Kingdom of Dawn?" Isabella came up to Zero and whistled to her. "No matter what it is, why don't we leave Gentlewoman and Blackveil there to stabilize the situation?"

Zero did not answer her question. Instead, she pointed down to the people, asking, "What do you think they look like?"

Isabella frowned and asked, "Is that related to what I'm asking?"

Zero ignored Isabella's question again and said, "Those humble, ignorant people are on the go all day long without knowing what for, just like ants. Maybe that's also how deities think of us... We devote ourselves to bloody wars and then die on the battlefields, knowing nothing about the cause of this situation. Only standing on the top will give one a view of the whole world. Fortunately, now I get one more step closer to Divine Will again."

"What... is your point?"

"As long as I can devour the new king of Kingdom of Graycastle, my chance of winning the Battle of Divine Will will significantly increase." Zero smiled, her eyes were shining with an unusual excitement. "I somehow feel that... it's deities who send him to me."

After a moment of silence, Isabella said in a deep voice, "I just want to know how many God's Punishment Warriors were killed in the battle at the foot of Coldwind Ridge."

"150 were killed on the battlefield and 11 died on the way back to Hermes. However, the enemy hadn't even got a scratch. Neither big shields nor spear throwers could break through the defense line of Roland's army," Zero said while staring at Isabella with her gleaming eyes.

Isabella's heart vibrated in a sudden and her mind was in a tumult. "How come the God's Punishment Army suffered even a heavier loss in this single battle than it did in the battles during the Months of Demons and the actions of capturing Kingdom of Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart? What makes the Prince of Kingdom of Graycastle so incredibly powerful?"

The witches? The knights? No, not them. Even a mountainous Fearful Beast of Hell will die when it's besieged by God's Punishment Warriors. How did he manage to do this?

"A dreadful snow powder weapon," Zero said as if she saw through Isabella's mind. "Even mortals could operate this kind of weapons. They could shoot targets a thousand steps away. They broke the armors plates and iron shields, and they're firing non-stop. Our warriors became easy targets for them."

After hearing the process of the battle, Isabella took a deep breath and the look on her face was uncertain. After a long while, she said, "So, you've lost."

"It's indeed a defeat for the church, and Soli Daal took the enemy too lightly..."

Isabella suddenly interrupted and said, "No, I didn't mean the battle. Do you remember? You told me only the winner was the deities' chosen one, and now you're clearly not the one."

"You think... Roland Wimbledon is the one who can win the Divine's Smile instead of me?" Zero peacefully asked.

Isabella could not help but raise her voice, arguing, "Don't forget about our goal! We must defeat the demons in order to enable mankind to survive. I don't care whether the church is the one to realize that goal! Given what happened during that battle, it's clear that even if you pool all your strength to defeat and devour Roland, it'll do no good to our goal. His army and witches will be slaughtered, God's Punishment Army will also suffer a heavy loss and in less than half a year Months of Demons will arrive again!"

For one split second, Isabella thought Zero was going to kill her, but Zero did not react until she finished.

"So what do you want me to do?"

The pope asked softly after a long silence.

Chapter 620 - An Unstoppable Path (Part Ⅱ)

"Tell Roland Wimbledon our goal, the truth about Battles of Divine Will during this 400 years and the secret of the church... No, I mean secret of the Witch Union," Isabella said explicitly.

Since Zero became the pope, all the pure witches who belonged to the Pivotal Secret Temple had been able to come to this library and know the true facts about Battles of Divine Will.

"What if he doesn't believe us?"

"He will! Bring him to the Illusion Room in the Reflection Church. He'll believe everything we say!"

"Or, he'll consider it a trick of the witches. Are you sure he'll devote all his time to fighting demons, once he knows the truth about the Union?" Zero said slowly.

Isabella was stunned. She opened her mouth but failed to say anything.

"Both of us know those nobles very well. They're interested the most in expanding their domains, increasing their wealth and enjoying their lives. Maybe they'll lead their people to fight against demons when the Bloody Moon arrives, but how can you be sure that the dandy prince will fight till death facing an adverse forecast?"

Zero held Isabella's hand and walked with her to the roundtable at the side and continued, "Isabella, he's just a fragile, weak mortal. His life is short and his willpower will vanish as time goes on. A common cold plague can easily end his life. Even if he believes in us and chooses to fight to his death against demons with the Union, nobody can promise that his people and successors will do the same thing. Are they willing to give up all their comforts and pool all resources of the kingdom to fight such an endless, brutal war? Only the church can do this, as our believers have a strong faith in deities and in us."

"At least... We should first send a messenger to talk to him."

Zero shook her head and said, "Negotiations can't solve problems like this. Indeed, devouring Roland will cause heavy loss to Hermes, but giving in to a secular lord will also crumble the people's belief in the church and destroy Holy City. Roland won't spare us or our God's Punishment Army as a way of stabilizing his own witch organization. These two choices aren't very different in terms of the outcome. Given that, why do you rest your hope on a mortal man?"

Isabella hesitated.

She saw the point of Zero's argument. Fighting against the prince would probably lead to a lose-lose scenario, but surrendering to him could not prevent Roland from seeking revenge for his witches. If he did so, the church would pay a heavy price and things seemed to return to the beginning.

Zero continued to say, "The knowledge of weapons isn't exclusive to a mortal, but a mortal can never have a body like that of a witch. Winning each Battle of Souls, I'll get my opponents' knowledge and lifespan. I'll stay energetic and determined for all my life and I'll be able to prevent our efforts from being ruined by later generations, no matter how long Battle of Divine Will will last. In the past 200 years, I've witnessed too many talented people being consumed by the time. No matter how brave and brilliant they were when they were young, they would become dust in the end. This fact alone suggests that I'm much better than him."

"But..."

"And most importantly, I'm the deities' chosen one, Isabella. No matter who's my opponent, I've never lost a battle. Thousands of souls absorbed by me can testify!" Zero emphasized the fact that could not be controverted.

Isabella heaved a long sigh.

She was persuaded.

"Well, what's your plan? If we can't get close enough to him, I can't eliminate the effect of God's Stone of Retaliation for you."

"Don't forget about High-Level Sigils left by the Union," Zero answered with a chuckle.

"No one can use 'Divine Will'... and 'Infinite' is a one-time sigil. Are you sure that you're going to use it for this?" Isabella said, frowning.

"It'll turn the tables on Roland. It's not a waste to use it on ordinary people or demons, as long as it can ensure our victory," Zero said with finality.

"I'll exhaust all my magic power. It's not a good feeling at all," Isabella twitched her mouth and said.

Zero nodded, adding, "And, you'll faint. Yet it won't do any harm to your body. Once I can approach Roland Wimbledon, the war will end soon."

"If you lose, we're finished."

Zero disapproved Isabella's guess, saying, "I never lose. When you wake up, you should be lying in the bedroom of the cathedral."

With these words, Zero poured a cup of red tea for Isabella and comforted her. "I know you're still hesitating, but don't forget you're raised by me. I chose you as His Holiness O'Brien's pure witch after your awakening and taught you knowledge and combat skills. You know my strength and my determination to defeat demons better than anyone. Generally speaking, I'm the better one to lead human beings in the coming Battle of Divine Will."

"Well... I hope so.," Isabella took a sip of tea and said, "but according to the books, 'Infinite' is not really limitless, and the magic power can only remain effective for a short time when you're in the soul form. If you fail to catch him, you won't have another chance."

"So what we need to do first is to find him," Zero said with a smile.

*******************

"Finish reloading!"

"Angle 22, pitch 13, fire!"

Immediately after the order, the 152mm Stronghold Cannon set at the very back of the battle line gushed out bright orange flames and a strong airflow which kicked up the dirt and dust in the front into the air. Roland could still hear the deep roar of the cannon with his ears plugged.

The soldiers were tiptoeing and stretched their necks to look at the distant mountains, but they still could not see the falling point this time.

"This is Lightning speaking, the shell landed at... almost the middle part of the slope." The little girl's report came to him through the Sigil of Listening.

"Good, mark it down," Roland replied.

He was busy with directing a long-range shooting amending of two new fatal weapons, he started after all the residents of Coldwind Ridge left. As it cost a lot to make these ultra-long-range cannons, he won't let his artillerymen shoot them after spotting the enemy, thus creating the first beyond visual range strike in this era.

Roland was clear that he could not rely on the soldiers to correct the angle of the cannon according to the position of the target, so he used this basic shooting amending method. He recorded the point of fall and angles of the cannon for each shooting after the shell landed on the slope. With these recordings, Lightning would report the file number to the artillerymen once she found enemy stepping into the shooting range of the cannon in a battle, and then the artillerymen would adjust the cannon accordingly and fire directly.

These two Stronghold Cannons were enough to give a crushing blow to the enemy when they were moving down the mountain.

Chapter 621 - Sleepless Night

"This is simply... God's Punishment." Iron Axe sighed. "They can only be passively attacked as they can't even see the shadow of their opponents. There's no way for the ordinary enemies to complete the mountain path with the gunfire on their heads."

Witnessing the power of howitzer, the chief commander of the First Army naturally knew the amazing effect when it fell within a densely gathered marching platoon. The first shell landed as far as five kilometers away in front of the battlefield. The enemy was running madly throughout the way, or consuming all their energy before the war, or moving forward fearlessly with the incomplete platoon to the battlefield. Of course, the most likely scenario was dispersing in an uproar and turning into escape instead of marching in.

"Unfortunately all the enemies we have to face is not normal," Roland smiled and said, "and not to mention that there's only a limited amount of shells, otherwise, we can easily wipe out the enemy with the two Longsong Cannons."

As Longsong Cannon was firing with the complete ammunition, the firing speed was as high as eight shots per minute. The firing efficiency could definitely be considered as an absolute insanity in this era. Since the alchemist from King's City moved into Neverwinter with a large batch of apprentices, the production of double base propellant had been rising steadily, and the number of shells had become the biggest limitation—the fuze trigger could only be manually produced by Anna currently, and its extremely precise mechanical structure had restricted the production of howitzer.

"Your Majesty, all the 20 cannons have been completely fired," Van'er, the battalion commander reported after several repeating fires. "A total of six valid target data was obtained, and most of them were roughly distributed in the second half of the mountain road."

"That's good. That's all for today." Roland nodded.

Afterall, the test shells required customized production. Although it was utilizing the solid bullet, the shape and counterweight were exactly like the grenade with the fuze installed—only Anna could handle such an exquisite task, so she would make time to produce a certain amount of test bullets every day for the Artillery Battalion test shooting purposes.

"Do you need to go anywhere else to have a look?" Iron Axe asked.

"No, I'll go back to the camp first, and you continue to arrange the training for the soldiers," Roland contemplated for a moment before he shook his head and said.

"Yes, Your Majesty," he bowed and said.

Returning to the campsite, Roland sighed extensively while leaning back against the couch. He realized that there was nothing much left for him to do, or perhaps, he had done what he could and the rest could only depend on the fate.

The church finally responded five days ago. According to Maggie's report, the city door of Holy City was opened, and countless men and horses gushed out from the city, heading towards Coldwind Ridge in an orderly line. Looking down from the sky, the shining silver armors of the warriors looked like a river of striking waving light flowing through the Impassable Mountain Range.

At the same time, the spy placed around the area of the old Holy City and Hermes highlands had sent a secret letter, stating that the scale of action of the church was unprecedented, even the crowd in the city activities was dramatically decreased.

Obviously, the enemy was swarming over.

After receiving the news, Roland immediately rushed to the front line. And his arrival had boosted the morale of the First Army to the maximum, the war that decided the future of both parties was approaching.

There were more than 4,000 elite soldiers: one team of reserved knights offered by Duke of the Northern Region, the preliminary investigation group organized by Lightning and Maggie, Sylvie's fire guide that never missed, and the combat witch who scattered around the campsite. It should be a complete preparation. Even the movement of the church was totally in accordance with the battle plan formulated by the Adviser Department, and the residents in Coldwind Ridge were evacuated. Thus, even if the enemy intended to use Berserk Pills, they would only consume the believers in Holy City or the forced residents in the other kingdom.

The opening was considered pretty perfect.

However, Roland was a little worried.

He was worried about the pure witches.

It was still unknown for the form they would appear to be and in what capacity would they intervene in this battle.

In order to prevent the casualties caused by the enemy's sneak attack, the witches in the front line had to be very cautious these few days. They were all gathered in a hall. Sylvie and Nightingale were divided into two groups to take a turn on night watch. The entire camp would be awakened by Echo's siren once the magic reaction was encountered.

As a result, the church had not taken any further action other than sending soldiers to take over Coldwind Ridge. Roland did not even see any pure witch.

He was not sure whether the enemy was planning an earth-shattering conspiracy, or simply disdained to disturb, and planning to crushed him into pieces on the official battlefield.

Anyway, all he could do now was to continue to wait.

...

Roland was lying on the bed early after dinner. However, he could not fall asleep until the bright moonlight was shining through the window slit onto his bedside. He put on his clothes and walked out of the bedroom. Nightingale who was staying outside the house immediately flashed over to him.

"Is there anything wrong, unable to fall asleep?"

"Slightly, it's probably due to too much straw below the bed." Roland rubbed his neck and pulled out a wheat leave from his clothes. "It feels like something is poking my back when I lie on it."

"I feel the same." Andrea who was on the same early midnight team agreed. "Not to mention moving a big comfortable bed over but at least it should be layered with two extra silk pads. Duke of the Northern Region is too stingy."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're at war, not on an outing," Ashes angrily said, "It's considered good to have a shelter, don't be so demanding."

"Of course, it makes no difference for someone who has thick and rough skin."

"It's better than being weak and fragile."

"I think we'll need to have another duel to see who the weak and fragile one is."

"You'll understand after we finish with the church."

"Hold on... Can I place a bet?" Shavi put her hand up and said.

Nightingale pulled Roland aside and said, "Don't bother about them, it's a nightly routine."

Roland shook his head while smiling. "I would not put them together if I knew it earlier." Due to the fact that Nightingale's scope of investigation was far smaller than that of Sylvie, the combat mission of the early midnight team was handed over to the three poker players group. They would be the strongest offensive group with Nightingale. While those who were arranged for the late midnight team were mainly defensive-based. The members were Agatha, Breeze and Iffy, no one could manage and block the enemy better. "What about the others? Can they adapt?" Roland asked.

"Sisters from Witch Cooperation Association aren't as picky as you are," Nightingale blinked and said, "and they had experienced the days without shelter and food during their escape, so they could simply close their eyes and fall sleep in this situation."

"Well, looks like I'm the most impatient one..." Roland sat on the step and kept quiet for quite a while, looking up at the stars and finally said, "What will we do when all these come to an end?"

Nightingale sat beside him and said, "You're getting nervous, aren't you?"

Roland touched his nose in guilt and said, "I'm just being a little emotional. If we can't defeat the church..." He then thought, "Will Neverwinter continue to run under the current order? Will the kingdom be completely devoured by the church, or will it return to the previous path of the noble ownership? And what about Anna and the rest of the witches... Can they really safely flee to Sleeping Islands?"

He had devoted to forging the land and developed a strong feeling towards the people unconsciously.

"Don't worry," Nightingale held onto his hand and softly said. "As I mentioned before... You won't be hurt as long as I'm still alive," she paused and said, "not to mention that our story has just started."

Chapter 622 - The Flames of Thunder

Roland had just come to the command post with his breakfast when he received Maggie's report in the next morning.

"The church is on the way, coo!" Her nervous voice could be heard from the magic stone. "A team has left Coldwind Ridge and it's moving forward to the defense line, coo!"

"How many of them?"

"One, two, three... five of them in total!"

Roland who was preparing for the frontline battle conference sat back down and said, "What? Five?"

"They're dressed in shimmery armors, holding the Holy City's flag up high. What a show-off, coo! Do I need to report to the cannon markers?"

"Uh... No, you just continue to keep an eye on what Coldwind Ridge will do." Roland put the bread into his mouth, wondering, "What's the church thinking?"

"They're probably coming to beg for mercy?" Nightingale twitched her lips and said.

"If this is the case, the church shouldn't send the army to invade Coldwind Ridge." Roland frowned.

One and a half days later, the platoon reached the frontline of defense. The priest who led the troop claimed that they were the emissary delegation sent by the church to meet with Roland, His Majesty. At the same time, there was a hand-written letter from Supreme Pontiff for the young King of Kingdom of Graycastle.

"What do you think?" Roland gathered the Adviser Department and the witches, and asked, "Could it be a trick of the pure witches?"

"I'd like to ask for your thought before this," Edith spoke, "Will you accept their peace negotiation if the church wants to surrender?"

Roland rejected the possibility without any hesitation, "Unless they dismiss the God's Punishment Army and bring all the senior management and those who kill the innocent to trial. However, I don't think the church will accept terms like these."

"Indeed," Edith instantly answered, "In this case, you shouldn't meet the emissary delegation. Not to mention if there's any conspiracy, the negotiation process may affect your determination."

"I agree with you." Agatha nodded. "Even though there's no magic reaction on five of them but a witch's ability can be quite strange, no one can be sure what's going to happen next."

"Perhaps we should just capture them for interrogation and get rid of them secretly after we know the actual purpose of them coming here," Iron Axe made a cut-throat gesture and said.

"Your Majesty, Kingdom of Graycastle isn't Iron Sand City," Sir Eltek quickly advised, "It's better not to do so, it's going to ruin your reputation when the news spread."

"I know." Roland contemplated for a while and looked at Iron Axe. "Get them to leave the letter and send them off."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Roland could not help but wonder. "What would the supreme ruler of Hermes say?"

"Is that going to be an advice or an inducement?"

After several inspections by Sylvie and Agatha, the hand-written letter by the Pope of Holy City had finally reached Roland.

Opening up the exquisite cover, the handwriting on the letter was surprisingly graceful.

And the content of the letter surprised Roland.

The Pope described the origins and purpose of the church in an honest note and revealed the existence of the great enemy of mankind—the demon.

If he did not know the four-hundred years old secret before this, the content was probably enough to make him confused and inconceivable.

Is this the strategy of the enemy?

Confusing the opponent with the dust-laden history truth and taking it as the sincerity for peace negotiation?

As a result, after the first platoon returned, Coldwind Ridge sent another platoon of soldiers. And there were also five of them.

Of course, Roland did not meet up with them as well but asked them to simply leave the letter behind instead.

The content of the letter was more in-depth this time, and it had mentioned the Battle of Divine Will other than the brief introduction of the Union before the church was formed—the pope believed that the 400-years cycle battle of the different races was a deities ' test towards the mankind.

Roland was contemptuous towards this idea but he could feel a slight uneasiness in his heart.

Coldwind Ridge had continuously delegated several emissary delegation troops to send a few hand-written letters by Pope to the frontline battalion within a week time after that. The letters did not reveal too much new information, and the content was getting shorter and shorter. Roland simply turned a blind eye to the suggestion to combine the efforts from both sides to confront the demon which was written behind the letter.

The church only stopped sending any new messenger when the hot summer days arrived.

The enemy had come in full force this time.

*******************

"This is Lightning, the enemy has entered the ninth zone! Repeat, the enemy has entered the ninth zone!"

Hearing the voice that came out from the Sigil, Cat's Claw nervously flipped through the booklet in his hand. "Uh... Ninth, ninth..."

"Quick!" Rodney shouted, "The shell is already installed!"

"It's already at the fastest speed!" Cat's Claw shouted, "Ah... It's here, angle 26, pitch 15!"

Nelson quickly swang the handle. "26... 15, complete!"

"Ready to shoot!"

Cat's Claw quickly covered his ears upon hearing the order.

"Fire!"

Jop quickly pulled the matchlock, the 152cm Longsong Cannon instantly issued a stirring roar, the sound wave mixed with the air flow blowing in the face. it was like a hammer beating on the chest of the Cat's Claw, making his blood boil. He could feel the ground below his feet started to tremble under the activation of the huge recoil.

"This is power," Cat's Claw thought to himself, "Longsong Cannon is the weapon that's more suitable for the men to operate, comparing to the 12 pounds of small metal pipe."

The only regret was that he was not able to see the scene when the shell landed.

Acting boldly, Cat's Claw came close to the Magic Stone in Leaf's hand and said, "Uh... Miss Lightning, did we hit the target?"

"Ah ha... Nicely hit," the little girl replied.

...

Comparing to the rear cannon operator, Lightning and Maggie could observe the enemy's movements and strikes taken more directly.

Lightning was floating at an absolute safe height and looking down with the telescope in her hand. She realized that the howitzer launched just now fell on the west area of the ninth zone about four meters deviated from the estimated falling point. It was probably due to the change of wind. However the actual effect was not too bad. The mighty army of the church had filled the entire mountain path. Given that, a scarlet flower would instantly blossom as long as the shell fell on top of the army.

It was just like the previous hit.

She could not see the entire process of the flight of the shell until the landing. The first thing that came into her eyes was the dark red light, following by the highly-sprung dust and gravel and a fleeting ripple spreading from the light, leaving a trail of dust. The sound of the explosion would not be heard until a while later as if both did not happen at the same time.

When the smoke was blown away, the shell's point of fall was left with a burned black mark, and around it was a hideous mess of dead bodies; the residual limbs could be seen everywhere, and the sticky blood and organs had dyed the shiny armors with a touch of bright red color. The Judgement Warriors at a further distance looked totally different, and there were no obvious wounds on their bodies, but they were still spitting out blood and fell on the floor. Some of them could still walk for a few meters before falling, and the crooked way they walked made them looked as if they were drunk.

Only one shelling could cause the church to lose nearly 50 men.

Lightning was waving her fist happily and said, "You deserve it!"

And she shifted her gaze to the next shelling zone.

"Attention, the enemy is passing through the twelfth zone, please fire, repeat, please fire!"

Chapter 623 - Battle to the death

Under the artillery bombardment, the church disorganized and gradually separated, while the God's Punishment Warriors, who were unaffected, hastened their advance and left the Judgement Army behind.

Suddenly, Lightning noticed a strange scene.

A rider dressed as a priest, shining with yellow light, quickly traversed the rugged hill road from behind and stabilized the scattered army again. The army proceeded along with the rider's guidance. This time, instead of being lined up in orderly rows, they were dispersed so that the later grenades failed to achieve the first significant results.

That was a pure witch.

She was preparing to arrange two cannons to attack the area where the pure witch of the church would soon pass, when she heard Maggie screaming.

"Careful!"

Lightning suddenly pulled her figure more than 10 meters upward, before a swarm of locusts passed beneath her feet like a brown cloud.

After failing to attack, they twisted together to form the vague appearance of a man. "Rotten bastards, how dare you to go against the church? Go to hell!"

"Maggie, continue to guide the cannons!" Lightning pulled down the windbreak, pointed a pistol at the swarm and said, "Killing compatriots make you feel so glorious? Go die!"

...

Enemies entered Danny's vision. This time they had many more warriors than previously. The misty mountains were covered by the sheen of armors. The God's Punishment Warriors did not use the tactic of a slow forward covered by shields, but rather charged right from the beginning.

Looking at the ocean of rushing enemies, he could feel their great momentum. His sweaty palms made his gun sticky. He had only seen this scene on the wall when the Months of Demons came, thousands of demonic beasts, regardless of death, insanely charged at the walls. Anything in their way would be ruthlessly torn apart. But now, the First Army was facing enemies more powerful than the demonic beasts.

But Danny did not fear it. The demonic beasts could not break that low stone wall that the Militia was fighting atop of, and now the corps of the church would be barricaded by the First Army's defense in flesh!

What was more, the woman he wanted to protect was just behind their position.

When Danny stepped into the trenches in the morning, he saw a familiar figure in green that turned around and smiled at him. Despite knowing that it was out of courtesy, that smiling face was still like a blooming flower bud rooted in his heart.

He had never thought that she would come with Roland to this battleground.

Anyway, he would not allow the enemy to break through the line of defense.

It was a pity that Lord Iron Axe expelled him from the precision shooting team after he violated military discipline. If his weapon had not been replaced with a revolving rifle or he would have taught the God's Punishment Army a lesson.

"They just crossed the 300-meter line!" Malt reported the distance of the enemies. "Spear throwers!"

"I see it." Danny patted the little man on the head. "Take care of yourself."

Malt, who was the victim of his own actions, after his injuries had healed, was demoted back down to normal flintlocks. However since he was an accomplice, rather than confinement, the commander-in-chief was lenient and only docked him a month's salary.

The truth was that this time the enemy's offensive charge was so rapid that four machine gun forts failed to completely suppress the God's Punishment Army. As dust in the wake of the God's Punishment Army and smoke from the field artilleries filled the air, several loopholes in the interlaced fire network appeared.

The God's Punishment Army soldiers that rushed ahead crossed the musketeers' red warning line.

"200-meter line, throwing spear!"

"Lie down!"

"Lie yourself down!"

Continuous cries came from the trenches. Danny shot all five bullets in a round at a stretch and then fell down to the ground. At the same time, he reloaded the gun. After the attack of the spears, he got up and pulled the trigger, firing toward the nearest enemy.

At that distance, revolving rifles were as powerful as the new weapons. Danny could almost see the stony faces of the God's Punishment Warriors which looked as if the surrounding artillery and gunfire had nothing to do with them. Until a bullet penetrated the God's Punishment Warrior's chest and neck and blew his head, did he tremble to stop and spray the blue blood.

As more and more enemies crossed the line of fire, Danny quickly used up three preloaded cartridges. According to the predetermined plan, he quickly brought a gun to the second trench.

Just as he got into the trench and saw his team-mates, a black shadow fell from the sky. Suddenly a God's Punishment Warrior jumped up and crossed the barbed wire in front of the trench waving a big sword to split him apart!

"Run!!!" He caught Malt behind him and pulled him to his bosom.

There was a loud noise!

Danny suddenly felt that his hand was numb and fell down.

When he opened his eyes, Malt, who was in his arms, was cut off at the waist.

Malt watched him, with his mouth open. He spat blood but could not speak anymore.

Danny felt a buzz in his brain and shouted, but the God's Punishment Warrior had already rushed over him. Danny's arms were sliced off and his face was nearly split by the God's Punishment Warriors.

Suddenly Danny could even see the rough blade, stained with his blood.

Just as he thought he was going to die, another cold light flashed in his eyes. The two swords rubbed burst into flame and the God's Punishment Warrior's weapon was dropped to the ground!

A woman with a long black ponytail that hung down to her waist and eyes flashing with a golden light appeared above the tunnel like an insurmountable mountain.

The God's Punishment Warrior that lost his swords did not flinch at all and punched to at her.

In an instant, he fell to the ground dead. Without any resistance, his head was crushed.

The blue-white mixture splashed on Danny's face.

"Let's go."

She glanced at the frightened soldiers and spat out her words coldly before engaging the other two God's Punishment Warriors that had rushed over.

"This guy is hurt!"

"Get him out of here!"

"With Malt," Danny said in a hoarse voice, hugging the little man in what was left of his arms.

"He's dead!" Someone shouted. "Do you want to kill us all?"

The teammates behind him grabbed his severed arms and pulled him towards the back of the trench as the lifeless Malt gradually disappeared from Danny's vision.

...

Lightning flew to the back of the swarm at full speed and pulled the trigger.

She had figured out the details of the enemy. Killing every insect in the swarm would be an arduous task, and the pure witch had already lost some magic, especially given that Maggie metamorphosed into the natural enemy of the locusts, a swallow. Maggie kept herding the swarm over and forced it into a ball before pulling out a pistol shooting it. Finally a vicious curse and then a roar entered her ears.

The pure witch could not survive for too long.

When Lightning was to about to withdraw and reload, the locusts suddenly turned around and rushed toward the ground.

"Maggie!"

Cried the little girl.

"Owh!"

A goshawk folded her eagle wings and swooped down to the swarm below with her ferocious mouth.

"What's this? It's... impossible!" The sound of the locusts turned into a cry. It wanted to turn around to escape but it was too late.

Maggie swallowed the swarm effortlessly and chewed twice. "Terrible!"

Lightning shrugged and stuck her pistol in her belt. "Because they aren't roasted or seasoned."

Until then, she had not noticed that there were more bloodstains on her body. During the first explorations, she came into contact with the swarm several times and the teeth of these locusts were like hard rasps. If they were ordinary people maybe they would not easily avoid this flexible attack.

Looking at the camp covered with craters and corpses, Lightning took a deep breath. "We don't need artillery guidance here. Let's support His Majesty."

"Awh!"

Chapter 624 - Devastation

"This is an absolute slaughter."

Nail thought sitting on the top of the tower, hands on his machine gun grip.

As long as the trigger was depressed, this steel weapon would keep spouting out the flames and shoot bullets toward the enemies. The position targeted by this weapon would be covered by a network of death; where all lives would become fragmented like fallen bowls from the table.

Being able to dominate the battlefield from such a high position left him feeling passionate.

So did his comrades in his team.

"The 66th! Look, that poor guy has been disintegrated."

"What're you counting? That's obviously the 68th!"

"Look over there, a guy is still rolling on the ground. Just kill him."

"His intestines have already spilled out, save your ammunition and let him slowly struggle!"

With a click, the fabric tape slipped down and another box of bullets had come to its end.

"Cover the third trench. I'm going to reload!" Nail cried to a machine gun team in the tower.

"Don't worry, and just leave it to us."

His teammates quickly brought over a box full of bullets. He put on a single thick glove and gripped the smoking barrel of the machine gun with a special caliper. He held the pipe with one hand, disassembled it easily, and placed it lightly in the open space.

According to the requirements of training, soldiers could not fire continuously except under extraordinary conditions. So the barrel must be replaced after a box of bullets was shot to avoid barrel deformation with overheating. It was said that this kind of black steel pipe which could fit the thread of the gun chamber perfectly was made by the witch, Miss Anna. Every pipe cost about 50 gold royals, which made the team members treat their guns like their children.

After they installed the cooled barrels, the jarring percussive sound once again rang out from the tower.

"Look, there's a witch in the east of the first trench!"

Suddenly a cry rang out around him.

"That's not a witch, idiot! That's a pure witch, Miss Nana's enemies!"

Nail also saw the target his teammate pointed out.

The woman in a red robe might have been hit on the leg by a flying bullet. She was on the ground and slowly crawling forward. The robe behind her dragged a light blood stain.

He aimed the gun at the pure witch but a feeling left him feeling a little overwhelmed and he did not pull the trigger.

From her figure, she looked as though she may have not yet grown up.

"Shoot, what're you waiting for?"

"I..."

A string of sand quickly swept over her body the moment he hesitated.

She stopped struggling and blood spread from her belly, like a small red flower.

"Hell, we just lost a result!"

"Stop saying that." Another one interrupted him while patting Nail on the shoulder. "You're tired, leave it to me."

He took a deep breath and said, "No, I'm fine."

Nail recomposed himself.

This was a war with the church. Regardless of age, the enemy was the enemy and they were still not strong enough. Nail secretly clenched his teeth and left his compassion behind him.

"Wait, what happened in the middle of the third trench?" The observer in another team suddenly exclaimed. "The ground collapsed?"

"My god, what's that?"

"Damn... pure witches! More than one, just kill them!"

Nail quickly turned the gun and saw a square pit suddenly appear in the middle of the third trench. Its walls were flat as though they had been cut by a knife. A woman in a black veil jumped out of the trench and stood straight with her hands behind her back.

When he fired, he faintly heard a sharp sound of wind.

The moment he turned his head, the butt of a rifle hit him in the face.

Nail suddenly felt everything go black and fell to the ground. Before losing consciousness, the last scene he saw was that his teammate raised a rifle toward him.

...

Roland stood on the command platform with a telescope, watching the defense line where the situation gradually became clear.

Some of the enemies had crossed the first three trenches and were making their way to the fourth. However, soldiers retreating from the front line made the subsequent defensive firepower more and more concentrated. Under the continuous fire of two machine guns that were occupying the high spot on the towers, the God's Punishment Army's offensive momentum obviously showed a decline.

By such a trend, they were not likely to make it to the remaining five trenches and artillery positions. The fire on the ground was too fierce and many church corps had been bogged down into a trench. The First Army would inevitably set up a blocking point at each exit of all longitudinal grooves, the advancing speed of the enemy would be drastically reduced and the speed advantage of the God's Punishment Army would no longer be obvious.

At this moment, the Judgement Army gradually stepped onto the battlefield. This army suffered heavy losses under the attack of the Longsong Cannon, but had not yet been totally routed, which this was out of Roland's expectations. It was due to the pills of madness that made the soldiers berserk. But compared with that of the God's Punishment Army, their threat was clearly much lower. The pills of madness could not make people immune to fear. When the Judgement Army soldiers were subjected to the double attack of field artillery and machine guns, the will of Gods could not save them.

In fact, the greatest contributor to this battle was the bunkers on both sides and the eight Mark I type heavy machine guns in the tower. In order to ensure that they could fire continuously, not only did they need enough bullets but each team was equipped with nearly 10 barrels.

The only problem was that in order to employ this strategy, they had emptied their reserve of bullets. Of course, it was extremely economical to eliminate all the main forces of the church here.

During this time, Sylvie sometimes observed their magic reaction. But those pure witches had not played a significant role in the war. They followed the God's Punishment Army marching forward, but soon disappeared into smoke and artillery fire.

The outcome had been set!

Church of Hermes would soon become the dust of history.

Just as Roland thought that, suddenly there was an emergency!

"Pure witches ahead of us!" Sylvie, who also stood on the high platform, warned. "Four, no, five!"

The surface of the third trench suddenly rose, as if something was lifted up, and then it quickly fell down pulling the surrounding barbed wire and stakes together into the ground.

A woman in black veil appeared in the collapsed position. She did not take any action, she just looked straightforward.

A strange scene then occurred.

Numerous soldiers in the trenches turned their guns, aimed at their chin and then pulled the trigger.

A mass of mist burst from the trenches like a red fountain.

Four machine guns forts misfired at the same time.

Soldiers who were not affected shot her as if they just woke up.

Suddenly there were several shots in her body and she fell into the pit on her back.

Seizing this chance, the Judgement Army, under the effect of the pills of madness, rushed toward the defense line.

Chapter 625 - The Decisive Battle

...

"Lady Zero, Margie appears to be worn out."

Vanilla turned around and said with an anxious look.

"Hold on."

Zero watched overhead with a grim expression. Although she was underground, she found a beam of light shone on the dome. The God's Punishment Army was moving forwards along the rampant trenches, encroaching on the enemy's position gradually. They, obviously, progressed slower and slower.

They could only choose to attack in a roundabout manner as each strategic pass was heavily-guarded. Therefore, they would be inevitably shot down by the snow powder weapons while throwing the spears. The gap between trenches could only be filled with the bodies of the soldiers, and the blue blood overflowed in the pit bottom.

It was even harder to march atop the ground.

Although the God's Punishment Warriors could leap over the wire entanglements which could not be destroyed, they would be likely exposed to the enemy's firepower. The flame was blazing all the way, in particular, in four towers in the rear of the defensive lines, which blazed as if it would kill people at any time.

The third trench would probably be the ultimate limit that the God's Punishment Warriors could march to.

Dame it! She did not ever expect that things would actually come to such a deadlock.

She thought that she had prepared well for the arrival of this day,

Such as locating the accurate position of where Roland Wimbledon was.

The mission of the messengers was nothing more than a pretext to meet Roland, but it did not matter if they did not meet him. The letter written in the name of the pope revealed the secrets of the church and the Battle of Divine Will. People would not take it seriously when hearing such impossible information, but it would be much more convincing if the letter was written in the name of the pope.

Besides, what she wrote was true. Roland could still not make out her real intentions from the letter, even though he had witches skilled at handwriting recognition.

A special powder was daubed on the letter. It was an alchemic product developed by Pivotal Secret Authority that emitted a smell that ordinary people could not detect. Each time a person touched the letter, the smell would accumulate and be imbibed into the skin, making it hard to remove, even with water.

Zero firmly believed that the letter would be delivered to Roland as no rulers would not be interested in these kinds of shocking secrets. Other people had no chances to read the letter and so in this case, Roland would have the strongest smell on his body. Although there were no differences between Roland and other people, Vanilla could easily sniff it out by virtue of the smell.

Vanilla could sniff out various unimaginable smells when she cast her ability. In her opinion, bloodstains after a month would still emit a faint stench and there would be a strange odor on furs when animals were in the rut.

At the moment, Roland was just a thousand steps away from them.

Zero even took all costs to use the God's Punishment Army and Judgement Army to divert the attention of the Graycastle's defensive line. Some Pure Witches of less importance even became the sacrificial lambs in consideration that there were witches who might perceive magic power in Roland's Camp. However, she, the evil backstage, was hiding underground and moving between the rocks by means of Margie's Magic Ark.

Blackveil was the real game-changer to win this war.

As one of three pure witches of the highest rank in Holy City, valued by His Holiness O'Brien, her ability was extremely terrible for common people who had no defensive abilities. The people that had seen her would feel the inner feeling of dread when she was young. Her power was further strengthened when she was in adulthood. The strong sense of fear would occupy people's minds as long as they saw her eyes, and thus they would kill themselves or hurt people around due to their maniac surmises.

At the same time, the derivative ability was also powerful after Blackveil's awakening. The simple eye-to-eye contact could cause not only fear but also unclear illusions. Although her ability could only impact one person at a time, it would also play a vital role at a critical juncture. That was also why Archbishop Tayfun did not doubt the pope's orders.

At the gaze of the Eyes of Death, Zero took it for granted that Roland's troops would be defeated instantly.

Everything seemed to go smoothly, and Zero did not realize that she had the wrong idea until the war begun.

She did not expect that she had still underestimated the power of snow powder weapons.

Dense smoke and fire enveloped the mountain pass. With the help of snow powder weapons, Roland launched attacks from 5 kilometers away, and the troops of the church were heavily hit before touching the defensive lines.

She changed the battle tactics at once to attack the position but found that the God's Punishment Army was also in difficulty.

The seemingly shallow trenches were much harder to seize than the towering walls. The warriors wrested the transverse trenches from the flying bullets. However, they had never expected that the enemies did not care about the loss of the battle line and just retreated in order. They left the pass to the God's Punishment Army that had suffered a heavy cost and then continued to intercept them, relying on the following passes. During this period of time, Zero even saw an extraordinary witch.

Margie's Magic Ark could not be operated all the way to her target as her magic power had declined along with the combat capability of the God's Punishment Army. However, the current situation was still a far cry from her expectation.

Isabella perceived that less than half of enemies were wearing God's Stones. Under such circumstances, she had to gather them together if she wanted more people to see her. The God's Punishment Army was now marching forwards to the third entrenchment and the enemies were too sparse in the rest of entrenchments.

Once Blackveil was exposed to the enemies, she could only have a limited time to cast her power. How many enemies would notice her in an instant? She would be hit by the snow powder weapon before they came back to their minds.

"Your Holiness, the ark... will be torn apart soon..." Huge sweat had emerged from Margie's face, her voice slightly trembling. Obviously, the excessive use of her magic power was a heavy burden on her. At the same time, there were cracks in the walls and the dome became dim. Zero realized that she had to make a choice.

Or rather, she had no other choice at all.

"Go up! Take action as scheduled!"

Margie took a breath and started to operate the ark to draw close to the ground. In a second the ark rushed out of the earth's surface, her magic power dissipated at once. A pungent smoke taste, boring and continuous roars along with a bloody smell, suddenly filled all around.

Blackveil turned around and glanced at Zero profoundly, and then leaped over the square-shaped pit left by the ark.

Foreseeably, it was the last time that she would serve the church.

The battlefield quietened down unexpectedly as if an invisible giant hand nipped people's throats.

"Isabella! Start using 'Infinite'!" Zero ordered.

After several ringing peals, a bunch of bloody flowers appeared on the back of Blackveil, and then she dropped down into the pit like a rootless fallen leaf.

Grinding her teeth, Isabella took the sigil in her hands.

The black and bright magic stone turned dark and gloomy at once as if it absorbed the sunshine around. Under the function of 'Infinite', an invisible ripple spread out and extended all over the battlefield. The amplitude of the fluctuation of the ripple was exactly the same as the God's Stone Roland wore but in an opposite direction. Under the influence of the ripple, the black hole formed by the God's Stone of premium quality vanished into the air.

Almost at the same time, Zero magically changed into a beam of light and flew towards the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle a thousand steps afar.

In a second flying out of the pit, she overlooked the whole battlefield from the sky.

There were hundreds of soldiers, who were also common people, lying down in the trenches,

Looks of shock and panic on their faces.

The Extraordinary was galloping fast.

While the Judgement Army was charging forward.

Everything seemed to come to a standstill until the lethal fire on the tower appeared again. And the whole battlefield returned to its normality. The yell of fighting, howls and explosive sounds mixed together, forming a thrilling ode.

She saw the prince with gray hair and felt the smiles from God upon her as she got closer and closer to the platform.

...

Nightingale witnessed the quirky change. In the misty world of white and black colors, the magic power of the beam of light was extremely expressive, like a mass of blurry cyclones coming towards the rear of their position at a tremendous speed.

She knew that it was the last and the most critical strike that the pure witch had launched.

"Protect His Majesty!"

Shavi stretched her hands to prop up a wide magic barrier, large enough to cover the whole platform.

Andrea summoned the Magical Longbow to shoot at the beam of light with arrows of light, bright as the sun.

In a bid to withdraw, Nightingale grabbed Roland who had lost the protection of the God's Stone as she had realized that the beam of light was targeted at His Majesty, Roland.

But it indeed moved too fast.

Instantly, the beam of light passed through the arrow of light and the magic barrier and easily caught up with Nightingale and Roland, even the Mist could not block its tracking.

Nightingale pushed Roland away without any hesitations and turned around to crash straight into the beam of light.

However, all of her efforts did not work. It all happened in a split second. The beam of light pierced through her body and went into the body of Roland.

"No..." Nightingale cried out, heartbroken.

With his eyes widened, Roland's body shook hopelessly and fell backward feebly.

Chapter 626 - Battle of Fate (I)

Was everything... a dream?

Roland blinked his eyes as he walked step-by-step to the fence in order to look down at the school's panorama against the sunset.

No one was in the spacious playground. Under the orange sunset, the goal looked lonely and its very long shadow was reflected on the ground. Far away were the familiar library and dormitory and the sunset painted the luminous windows with a ray of gold.

Roland had studied here for almost seven years so that he had been familiar with everything. He knew that he was standing on the rooftop of a teaching building and that this was his favorite place to spend his spare time.

Roland had many memories here.

Such as that iron gate behind him that was driven by the warm wind to open and close constantly.

This iron gate was billed as a unique view of the teaching building's rooftop, and its cover looked as ancient as a cultural relic excavated by archaeologists. When he had come to this school, the gate had already been torn and tattered. As long as it was pushed lightly, it would make noise continuously as if it were out of breath. Yet it was extremely quiet after it was opened and then closed. As far as Roland was concerned, the gate would fall apart soon, but still, at the time of his graduation, it stood still on the rooftop.

"But since this was a dream, why did I look the same as Prince Roland?" thought Roland.

Roland lowered his head to see his slender hands, and then touched his gray hair on his shoulders. Apparently, the height and shape were different from what they were when he indulged himself in his studies.

"So... What had happened?" thought Roland.

Roland frowned, after a while he remembered that the last scene he had seen was that Nightingale had pushed him away, and then after a flash, he had only seen her panicking and despairing face.

"Who in the world... are you?"

A tactful and intangible female voice suddenly appeared beside him.

Roland was scared and abruptly turned around only to find that a lady with long white hair was walking toward him. She had a pair of ruby-like eyes and her red and white robe dropped down to the ground with a golden pattern embroidered on its bottom, which obviously did not belong to this era. Besides, the golden throne of her head showed her identity.

"You're a pure witch of the church?"

"Yes. But I'm also the 15th Pope of Holy City of Hermes." She paused and continued to say, "I'm Zero, while you're definitely not Roland Wimbledon."

Well, Roland frowned and said, "So did you create this place?"

Everything made sense. The flash should be Zero's ability that Nightingale had wanted to help him to escape from. And the scenery before him should be an illusion or a virtual space, something like that. The moment he opened his eyes, Roland thought that he had come back to the modern world again.

Even though Roland knew that perhaps the church was originally the Union, it never occurred to him that the pope was a pure witch. Therefore, it was so incredible to see that these witches boldly turned other witches into inhumane monsters.

"No, you created this place." Zero walked toward him step-by-step and said in an exciting tone, "The place is hidden deeply in your memories and appears frequently in most of your daily life. But I'm curious as to where this is. We both know that Prince Roland of the Graycastle would have never lived in such a place."

"Why should I tell you?" Roland moved to the other side of the fence and kept a distance from her.

What could he do to shake off the illusion? Roland thought of many ideas in his mind. Maybe he could jump off here? Based on his experiences of nightmares, he would instantly wake up from a nightmare if he jumped off of a high place.

Zero smiled and said in a sweet tone, "It's okay that you won't tell me. I'll spend a little of time finally figuring out who you're, where you're from and why you've become Prince Roland."

Would she finally find out? "You mean to tell me that you'll read my memories?" Roland asked in a very cold tone, "Don't flatter yourself."

Zero suddenly stopped and said, "You know what? I would explain to each one trapped in the illusion the effects, rules, and the impact of my ability. Everyone except for you."

"What?"

The moment Roland asked, he found that Zero had appeared in front of him. And a sudden pain made him lose his hearing.

Roland trembled and lowered his head to only find that a knife was inserted into his chest. Roland wanted to shout, but he could not make any sound. His chest was destroyed completely and the opening and closing of his thoracic cavity could not squeeze even a little air into his throat.

Just like an electrical current, the strong pain spread over his body. Roland would rather die immediately than suffer one more second.

"Because I don't like anything that's confusing."

At the other end of the knife was Zero's calm face. Half of her body was splashed and wet by Roland's gushing blood. Due to hypoxia and the self-protective syncope of his brain, he quickly became unconscious.

But the next second, Roland stood still beside the fence, his body intact. In addition, Zero also stood far away from him, like she had never left that spot.

"What had happened?" Roland took deep breathes. "Was it just an illusion?" He covered his chest that was moving up and down fiercely, and the wound still hurt. Looking down, he saw the shape of a pool of blood.

"Damn, what had happened just now was true," thought Roland.

Staring at the knife held by Zero, Roland was quite surprised in his heart because there had been nothing in her hand before.

"Could she create something out of nothing?"

Just at the moment, Zero rushed toward him again. She was so quick that Roland could not see her clearly.

Roland instantly turned around to escape, but just after a step, he felt a pain in his abdomen.

Then, Roland experienced death again. Zero wielded her long knife to cut him into two halves. The pain this time lasted longer than last time and he fell down into his own blood and outflowing guts. The lasting pain made him shout so miserably that even he was frightened by his own voice.

After his second resurrection, Roland had realized something.

This is a nightmare that can't be broken by jumping off of a high place or from feeling fierce pain. It's like a cyclical arena.

Damn it. What're conditions of escaping from this? What about defeating the white-haired witch in front me?

"Zero can create weapons out of nothing, but what about me?" Roland gritted his teeth and started to concentrate his spirit. "If I had had a shield, I would be able to fight against her."

A blue light flashed.

A transparent anti-explosive shield appeared in Roland's hand. He had stopped her attack, but there was a deep scar left on the shield. What was worse, Roland was blown away by the huge clash.

"Well, this was what had happened," Roland said a dirty word in his heart.

When rolling over, Roland dropped the shield and manifested an automatic rifle.

When Roland raised the rifle to shoot, Zero disappeared.

"What was going on?" thought Roland.

"I'm right here."

Her voice emerged next to his ears.

After a white light flashed, his arms dropped to the ground, so did the rifle.

Chapter 627 - The Intertwined Battle of Fate (II)

"I must admit that I'm surprised by your ability to comprehend," Zero walked to him and said while squatting down, "You're the first one who can comprehend this and counterattack without being given any explanation."

The Pure Witch picked up the rifle on the ground, carefully explored it for a moment and said, "Rare materials, exquisite processing techniques... Is this a snow powder weapon as well? The items you created are really scary, however, they do not pose much threat to me. I've been watching the entire battle closely. Most of the slender tubes in the tunnel and the thick iron tubes behind the camp rely on the operators and you could not even see my movements." She shook her head and said, "It's impossible for you to defeat me, I've devoured over a thousand warriors and even an Extraordinary over the years."

Suddenly, a green plastic box appeared between them.

A loud explosion suddenly rang through the roof. The glass in the classroom crunched and even the entire floor of the building was blown up with a hole in it. The air current swept the old iron stairwell door to the ground.

"It's not because I have a strong ability to comprehend, but your stage setting is too lousy!" Roland reappeared in the corner of the rooftop. He was gasping for air as the sharp pain was still fresh in his memory. He could now understand the feeling of those who were amputated before they died. He 'made' an explosive to bomb both Zero and himself into pieces at the same time as he could not tolerate it anymore.

"Lousy?" Zero who was newly born raised her eyebrows and said, "It's in your memory."

"However, it's created through your ability. It's six o'clock in the evening, the busiest time on the campus! How is it possible that there's no one on the field? It seems exquisite but it's just a setting full of loopholes." He was thinking of a countermeasure while delaying for time. "Is this the way you devour your opponent? Force them into despair so that they'll give up and obediently dedicate their knowledge and skills to you?"

The skills of the Pure Witch were somewhat similar to the Extraordinary, or at least Roland had only seen such power and speed on Ashes. The Pure Witch could only be hurt by powerful explosives from which he could not escape either as it was difficult to hit her with only a normal firearm.

However, was it really that simple? After three resurrections, Roland could already feel his sweaty back. His heart was pounding faster than before as if he just ran around the field and he was physically weaker.

Perhaps the number of the resurrections was limited.

In this case, it was not a good idea to bomb an entire building with high explosives... The score was already three to one now and he must quickly regain the position.

There was no doubt that what he needed was a weapon that could both attack and defend.

"Although I don't quite understand what you're talking about, however, isn't it good to surrender?" Zero said with her head tilted to one side, "It's a wise choice even if it means that you have to give up as death is a torture to anyone."

"You can keep those words to yourself." Roland loudly shouted. "Ironman!"

A red metal armor suddenly appeared in front of him and he quietly recited "Start the program" in his heart after walking into the armor from behind.

A narrow display screen appeared at the front of the helmet, however, the armor did not close up by itself and no artificial intelligence responded to his command.

The armor fell to the ground straight away, even before he managed to move forward.

Zero's blade had already cut into Roland's neck when he got up.

The entire world suddenly turned upside down and he could see his body helplessly kneeling down before he passed out.

"You should at least give it some joints if you're trying to create a plate armor," the Pure Witch knocked on the empty armor and said, "However, I don't think that a hollow and thin iron sheet has much effect."

Roland's heart quickly sank after his fourth resurrection.

Although the death was not painful, Roland had realized a harsh truth, the thing he created without understanding its principle was just an empty shell. For example, the display screen on the helmet was simply a camera.

"Damn, I can only use the stupid method now."

While Zero was still pondering on the metal armor, a few pieces of steel plates as thick as 10 centimeters appeared out of nowhere and fell beside him, forming into a blockhouse that could hide only one person. A protected weapon control station rose on the top of the blockhouse and it was carrying 40 millimeters grenade machine gun. Roland quickly plunged into it and locked the entrance while controlling the weapon station to fire at the Pure Witch.

This attempt had finally worked.

Zero could not avoid the destruction scope of the grenade machine gun even when she approached the blockhouse again. Roland continuously shot the grenades around the blockhouse and the flying fragments had pierced through her body while making a banging noise as they hit the thick steel plate.

Unfortunately, Roland was unable to find Zero's resurrection position at once and she had quickly retracted to hide in the corner of the stairwell to avoid the explosive grenade that was coming towards her.

A radiant splendor appeared in the darkening sky when he was just about to 'create' another weapon. A golden light was swirling above the clouds and the dazzling tassels had replaced the sunset which was cast into the shade.

The scene was familiar to him.

Suddenly, a myriad of golden thunder fell on top of the building and Roland was instantly engulfed!

…

After the fifth death, Roland was drenched in cold sweat as if he just came out of the water and his calves and arms were uncontrollably twitching.

The blockhouse was completely melted by the Sigil of God's Will. However, it had not caused much damage to the ground other than the ground was charred. The unreasonable magic power was still working in this battle.

"Just give up." Unexpectedly, Zero did not closely pursue. "Your energy has already reached the limit. Any additional battle is meaningless as you'll not get anything other than endless pain."

Roland clenched his teeth and strongly held on to himself. "Why does she keep asking me to surrender when she can obviously win this battle if she continues to pursue and attack? Is the output going to be different for her if I surrender myself instead of being killed after exhaustion?"

"You should now understand that both creation and death consume energy. The exhaustion of energy means failure. Everyone has a different energy level and it's beyond my expectation that you can last until now." She stretched out her arms and said, "By the way, I have an over 200 years of experience. That will be doubled if it includes the time I spent in the soul battle. In other words, my energy is enough to endure hundreds of deaths and your efforts will only make you more desperate."

"Hundreds... Is it a boast or the truth?" However, Roland felt that Zero was not lying as she looked relaxed.

And, Roland did not have much energy left to consume.

Chapter 628 - The Intertwined Battle of Fate (III)

Roland's experience from dying five times led him to realize that the biggest difference between the two lies in them themselves. The powerful weapons could easily affect himself and the fixed bunker would become the target of the Sigil of God's Will. Not to mention, in all likelihood, Zero knew the recipe for snow powder, if she became desperate to perish with him or the roof directly collapsed, he was not confident of the outcome as he did not have many lives to consume.

He would lose this battle for sure if he could not control the Pure Witch.

"What should I do now?" thought Roland.

"A cage? An oriented mine? A power grid? A laser fence?" Roland had rejected all the answers that were constantly appearing in his mind as none of them could really confine Zero. The position after death could not be defined as it could be at the original spot or any corner of the roof. His energy had obviously hit bottom and constantly creating consumables was just wasting his remaining resurrections. The next failure might be his real death.

"I have to deprive her of her mobility."

"And, I have to also keep the roof intact."

"I have to also kill her hundreds of time in a shot..."

"Is it... Is it possible?"

Roland took a deep breath and asked, "During these 200 years, how many times have you fought such a battle?"

"Over 1000 times or more, however, only a few that really impressed me," Zero answered, "They had a stronger will than you do, however, they were still defeated by the endless deaths. There are only a few people who'll choose to continue being tortured while facing a hopeless ending." She paused and said, "Are you still going to stick to your previous approach?"

"I indeed don't have much hope, however, I simply want to fulfill my curiosity before everything comes to an end. You've never failed in over 1000 battles?"

"I would not be standing here if I failed."

"How come?" Roland slowly sat down to save the little energy he had left. "Did no one think of creating lava or a deep sea to defeat you before you attained such great power?"

"This isn't a new idea, but unfortunately, no one can do it." Zero walked in front of him. "Just changing the place that we're standing in consumes no lesser energy than death. Changing the world is just a delusion and only God can do it."

"There's no God in my world," he said lamentably.

"So, have you decided to give up?" The Pure Witch Zero bent down to lift up his chin and she said, "In this case, submit to me and follow me."

"Sorry." Roland smiled while holding on to both her shoulders and gently pushed her away. "I still want to try again."

Zero arose and pulled out her weapon, however, she found that the distance between both of them was constantly growing larger.

Her expression quickly changed as she realized that she was unable to move any closer to Roland. Her body was still sliding backward even when she was running at full speed! Zero looked down and noticed that the floor beneath her feet had become as smooth as a mirror without her knowing.

However, she would not slip even if the ground was so smooth which was contrary to her common sense. Her body remained relatively still as if it was nailed to the ground regardless of what she was doing.

"Your amazing mobility doesn't seem to work anymore," Roland said, "Even a monster like you can't move a step closer without the support of friction."

"What did you do?" Zero bent down and tried to slow down or change the direction using both her arms and her legs. However, it was futile.

"I simply made a small change to the battlefield." He changed into a more comfortable sitting position and said, "It seems that the energy consumed for changing the environment won't be too far off as long as the changes aren't too big. Have you ever heard of the law of inertia?"

"Inertia...?"

"When an object is not subject to external forces, it will either stay still or be in constant linear motion. Of course, you can also call it Newton's First Law." The ground dramatically changed as soon as Roland hit the railing of the roof and stopped!

The steel frame grew out of the ground and continuously extended into the sky followed by the metal sheet cover which was wrapping up the black frames. Soon, a monument with glowing cold light appeared behind Roland. Each layer of the monument was evenly divided into around 10 rectangular units which looked like an elongated Rubik's cube. There was a black hollow steel tube coming out from the center of each of the rectangular units which were pointing towards Zero who was still sliding at a constant speed.

"It's my turn now."

Zero noticed something was wrong. She held up her longsword and the golden light appeared again.

However, this time Roland was faster than her.

The nearly 100 steel tubes roared at the same time. The burning gunpowder instantly heated up the air to over 1,000 degrees and the rapid expansion of the air generated by the high pressure pushed the shells out of the tube towards the Pure Witch, Zero with a speed of 1,900 meters per second. The loud roar was deafening and the campus which had just fallen into the night was instantly lit up as if the sun just rose from the roof.

There were a hundred billion turrets and trillions of starlights!

The night sky was lit up by the fireflies which just flew in. The densely-gathered light spots drew a dazzling track in the night sky and poured onto the ground in a crisscrossing motion one by one. The fireflies were making a shrilling noise while struggling to flap their wings as if they were announcing their arrival to the world.

Then, they crashed to the ground.

The light of the fireflies was magnified by tens of thousands of times at that moment, their bodies turned into broiling broken pieces which splattered all around... A roaring explosion noise was followed by the dazzling light which was combined with the echoes of a whistling sound in the sky. However, Roland was no longer able to hear the sonata formed by the intertwined metal and gunpowder as his eardrums were already broken by the high-pitched sound of the first flame that was emitted by the black monument. The gigantic barrel was roaring below him and the boiling hot air had hurt his cheek. However, he was very happy.

The world had become quite different as he was standing on top of the square monument.

The entire roof was divided into equal parts, like a chessboard. Each block was pouring with cannon. He could see that Zero was being thrown up and down by the explosive air currents, like the falling leaves in a storm. Nothing could live under the coverage of gunfire. The deadly fireflies would follow and devour her again once she was reborn. She was unable to avoid this as she could not even change her direction on the non-friction ground but helplessly she watched the numerous light spots with a long flame tail landed in front of her with a whistle.

"It's impossible!"

Zero shouted incredulously. "You can't create things that don't exist out of nowhere, this... doesn't exist!"

The ground was still as clean as new without a trace of scratch after the wash of gunfire as if it had nothing to do with the flying fireflies in the sky. "It's smoother than a mirror and stronger than steel. It's impossible for such thing to exist!" The Pure Witch Zero hysterically screamed.

Although Roland could not hear her, he could guess what she felt. He could not turn himself into Superman, but he could create a power that was no less than a superman.

He changed the distance between atoms within the ground surface.

Atoms were closely attached to each other with a strong interaction, like the soldiers who neatly lined up. This surface was almost absolutely smooth and incredibly strong. The tetrahedron carbide was as soft as water in front of it.

Zero was completely confined as she could not run or hide and was surging up and down with the gunfire. It was nothing to do with will but the great disparity of knowledge.

She had tried to activate the Sigil of God's Will several times. However, the continuous gunfire would not give her any respite and she gradually lost the sustainability of her appearance.

"Please, let me go!" Her voice was ringing in Roland's heart.

"Are you going to kill your sister?" It became Garcia's plea after a moment.

"Stop, you're such a monster. You're killing your family member!" Followed by the reproach of King Wimbledon III.

However, Roland remained unmoved.

"It's time to end it all," he answered in his heart, "I'll defeat the demons on behalf of you. Rest in peace!"

"No, I won't let you go!"

A dazzling blue light lit up the entire night sky along with Zero's scream.

After that, the entire world fell apart.

Chapter 629 - After the Decisive Battle

There was clamor outside of the tent. Nail, who lay on the ground in a daze, turned his head to see that the thick curtain had been lifted by a corner and that His Excellency Iron Axe was bending down into the tent.

"Co-commander." He had never expected that the commander of the First Army would come to visit him. He quickly sat up straight and saluted.

"No need for etiquette." Iron Axe walked to his bedside and sat down, crossing his legs. "How's your injury?"

"It doesn't matter. Only two teeth were broken." Nail touched his swollen cheek. "I'm not that hurt."

"All right." Iron Axe then added, "Miss Nana has been so busy these days that, and since your wound wasn't too severe, you'll be recovering on your own. When the rescue is over, you can inquire and see Baron Pine to repair your teeth, and the First Army will pay for it."

"I can fully understand, and there's no need to bother her with such a little injury. After all, Miss Nana is very tired..." Nail hesitated for a moment before continuing. "How about Hound? He..."

Hound was the one who had grabbed a teammate's spear and hit Nail to the ground, stunning him with the butt. Nail could still remember the moment that the other side had aimed a gun at Hound.

"Don't worry. He's alright," Iron Axe said to comfort him, "He was pulled down by the guards the moment the other side raised their gun. He attacked you because of the pure witch's magic. So he won't be punished and has returned to the team to train."

"Really?..." Nail was a bit relieved. "I thought I was dead at that moment. What about the other teams?"

According to the arrangement before the war, each bunker had been arranged with two machine gun teams and a five-man guarding platoon. So, even if the enemies approached a bunker, they had the ability to defend on site. In addition to the two or three soldiers in charge of carrying ammunition on the team, all the others wore God's Stones of Retaliation. The seemingly perfect action appeared flawless.

"These accidents happen," Iron Axe said with his hands outstretched, "but, it didn't cause much harm, or we wouldn't be standing here."

"Was the church forced back...?" The minute he asked, Nail realized that it was an idiot's question. "Um, I want to know what happened after."

"The enemies launched their final charge but failed to cross the fourth trench. Both the God's Punishment Army and the Judgement Army were completely defeated, leaving more than two thousand bodies at the front of their position. They fled in haste... We won the battle."

What confused Nail was that Iron Axe was not very excited, and instead, he said all this in a neutral tone. Iron Axe did not offer the reason, and Nail was not bold enough to ask.

Then there was a long silence.

After a long while, Iron Axe sighed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Since you're alright, have a good rest, and I'll go visit the other wounded guys."

Seeing that Iron Axe was about to leave, Nail gathered his courage and stopped him. "Your Excellency..."

"What's up?"

"I, I want to leave the First Army." He whispered.

Iron Axe frowned. "Why?"

"Maybe, I can't be a machine gunner anymore." Nail lowered his head in shame. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see the scene where that young woman in the red cape was sprayed by a machine gun. "I wasn't able to immediately shoot at the enemy..."

"Your target was an underaged pure witch, right?" Iron Axe interrupted him. "Your team already reported that to me in their postwar summary. I don't think that your idea is correct, but it can't be wrong. So, I'll just ask you one thing, are you going to betray His Majesty?"

"No! Your Excellency, of course not." Nail quickly denied. "My life belongs to His Majesty."

"So, I'm not going to approve your request," Iron Axe said without hesitation, "This is currently the most critical moment for the First Army and even City of Neverwinter. I demand that everyone in the army abide by his duty and guard His Majesty Roland Wimbledon at all cost. And, we have to spare no effort to do it! You can't be a gunner. Well, you can be an observer or a protector, but you're absolutely not allowed to leave the army, understand?"

That last sentence from the commander was in an authoritative tone.

"Ye-yes! Your Excellency!" Nail said, punctuating with a military salute.

"That's all." After Iron Axe left, without looking back, Nail felt deeply startled.

"Were we not victorious? Why is the most critical moment now? And, why did His Excellency Iron Axe so solemnly command the First Army to protect His Majesty Roland at all cost..." A terrible thought suddenly occurred to him. "Did his? Did his majesty have an accident during the battle?"

As soon as he thought this, he shuddered.

***************

"How's it going?" Calvin Kant walked into his daughter's bedroom to see that she was picking up clothes.

"The First Army and the witches have surrounded the castle tightly, and even I can't get in." Edith curled her lip. "But, if he gets better, the news will leak, so... I guess, he was the same as before."

"What about you? Are you ready for a long journey?" Duke Calvin Kant picked up a black veil evening dress from a mountain of dresses on the bed and looked at it carefully. "Is this one too revealing?"

Edith rolled her eyes. "I didn't say that I was going to pick it, and wasn't that a gift from you? At the time, you intended to let me wear it to attend Timothy's dinner party."

"Ahem... really." Calvin put down the gown sheepishly. "Do you think that His Majesty's troops will withdraw to City of Neverwinter?"

"Probably." Edith stuffed several coats into the open suitcase. "Although the church has been totally defeated, much of the First Army's supply was consumed. Adviser's Department will take about a month to regain operational ability. If His Majesty Roland is fine, there's no reason for him not to stay in the Northern Region for a while. But, if he's unconscious, no one can guarantee the overall morale. Under this condition, Iron Axe absolutely wouldn't dare to continue attacking Holy City, so what he'll do shouldn't be difficult to guess. "

"Are you determined to follow them back?" Calvin asked with concern, "If something terrible happens... to His Majesty, the kingdom may fall into civil strife, so it'll be safer for you to stay in the Northern Region."

"That's why I'm going to City of Neverwinter." Edith stood up and slipped her long hair over her shoulder and onto her back. "It has become the new starting point for the kingdom there—whether Roland is there or not makes no difference. And, his coma presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Kant family."

Duke Calvin Kant could not help inhaling a cold breath. "Are you going to..."

"Your thoughts are too simple." Edith shrugged. "The only one who can replace Roland is his sister Tilly Wimbledon, and I'm afraid that no one can connect the ordinary people with the witches except her. But, there's the problem that she's also a witch herself, so when dealing with the affairs of nobles, she needs greater help from the ordinary people." She paused. "That person will undoubtedly be me. Dad, this is the best shortcut to climb that pinnacle of power and I don't want to miss it."

Chapter 630 - The Captive Pure Witch

Never before in her life had Nightingale felt so remorseful and regretful.

She thought that as long as she stayed with Roland, no one could hurt him.

However, without any bruises on her body, Nightingale stood in the bedroom of the castle in Deepvalley Town while Roland lay unconscious on the bed.

There was not any magic reaction inside Roland's body and his internal organs were all intact. Therefore, Roland was neither cursed by a Seed of Peaceful Death or something like that nor hurt by a powerful ability capable of destroying organs. Even though Agatha was knowledgeable, she could not distinguish this ability, let alone its breaking method.

The witches had used all of the regular wake-up means they could think of, but they were all useless. Roland did not respond to any outside stimulus. If he was not breathing, Roland would have been considered dead.

Now, Nightingale finally understood the warning from Agatha.

There was no absolutely safe defense, even in front of the witches' abilities.

But her understanding was too late.

At this moment, hurried footsteps came from behind the door. Then Lightning opened the door and shouted. "The pure witch has woken up!"

The witches in the room all instantly got excited.

"Everyone stay calm. It's useless for us all to go and investigate her," Wendy said, "besides, we're not clear about her ability. For the sake of safety, Miss Agatha and Nightingale can go and figure this out for us."

Respected deeply by the other witches, they all quietened at Wendy's calm tone.

Nightingale took a deep breath and nodded to Wendy. "I'll handle it."

Based on her experience from being a runaway for several years, Nightingale was fully aware that her negative mood would not help to change the existing situation. She could not shirk her responsibilities because of a mistake she had made, no matter how big and especially at such a critical juncture.

She must bring His Majesty, Roland back.

"Let's go," Agatha sighed and said.

When leaving the room, Nightingale could not help but look back to see that Anna was sat motionless on the bed with her eyes staring at Roland, as if no other things could draw her attention.

Nightingale felt even guiltier in her heart.

…

A servant room on the first floor of the castle that had been altered into a special detention room. Dozens of God's Stone of Retaliation were embedded behind the four walls forming a black hole, and thus, an anti-ability prison had been readied. Only by standing in the center of the room could a witch cast her ability.

Nightingale was very clear about the target she was about to investigate.

After the battle, the First Army found three pure witches that were still alive in a square-shaped pit within the third trench. One was detached, one was in a coma and the last one was conscious but trembling. According to the last one, there were five pure witches hidden underground, Zero, Isabella, Blackveil, Margie and herself, Vanilla.

According to Vanilla's intelligence, she and Margie were only responsible for identifying the location of His Majesty, Roland and sneakily escorting the other three to the battle. Thus they knew little about other arrangements. As for Zero, Isabella and Blackveil, they all were directly affiliated with the pope and had the same status as an archbishop. Besides, their abilities were hidden by the Holy Church so that few knew the details. Blackveil was already dead and Zero had disappeared, so they could only get the breaking method from Isabelle.

After an examination, they had found out that the reason that Isabella was in a coma was that she had used all of her magic power. Therefore, Isabella would fully recover in one or two days. In addition, Agatha got a strange sigil on her hand, but she could not identify it because the magic stone was completely ruined.

Unexpectedly, Isabella had been in a coma for five days and so Nightingale had been quite anxious, even wanting to forcibly wake her up with a knife. Lest for Wendy, she would have done so.

"Was she woken up?" Agatha asked Lightning.

Lighting shook her head and said, "She woke up by herself. When it was Ashes' turn to examine her, Isabella sat on the head of the bed and told us that the prison was useless for her."

Nightingale's face became dark, asking, "Is she challenging us now?"

"We'll find out," Agatha said calmly.

Having passed through the layers of the strict guards of the First Army, Nightingale and Agatha walked into a narrow room where there were no windows. A rosined torch was hung high above their heads which gave off a dim light. There was nothing in this room other than a vertical wooden bed and a short table.

Isabella sat motionlessly on the head of the bed. Her curled hair dropped naturally on her shoulders and became golden-red under the firelight. She was still dressed in that bloody robe of priests with dust on her face that had solidified into yellow spots.

"It seems that Zero has completely failed," before Nightingale asked her, Isabella took the initiative to say, "Finally, she isn't blessed by God."

"Blessed by God?" Nightingale smiled coldly.

"Don't worry and I'll tell you everything I know," as if she did not hear the sarcasm, Isabella sighed and said, "then, I'll be at your disposal."

Nightingale was stunned by Isabella's attitude because she knew that Isabella was telling the truth.

But it was a little too late to be a lamb. "You've claimed that this prison can't hold you, haven't you? But now you choose to submit to fate?"

"I'm capable of making the God's Stone of Retaliation lose effect. As long as I have a platform, God's Stone would be useless, even if there are as many stones as you have here," Isabella said slowly, "Except for that, I can neither walk through a wall nor escape away underground, so it's a waste to arrange such a room for me."

"You're capable of influencing the God's Stone?" Agatha was very surprised and asked.

Isabella said frankly, "They indeed look like bottomless black holes... but I can make them lose effect."

"You mean that it was you who made the God's Stone worn by His Majesty, Roland lose effect?" Nightingale clenched her hands into fists.

"I had no other choice at that moment. Zero had become blinded by God. She believed that only one of the two can be blessed by God."

Agatha covered Nightingale's hand and calmly asked, "Is it Zero who made His Majesty unconscious? What's her ability?"

Isabella frowned and said, "Unconscious? There should be a winner and loser instantly when a Soul Battlefield begins. If Roland didn't become Zero instantly, it means that Zero failed. Is he unconscious because he can't accept the huge volume of memories?"

Nightingale and Agatha looked at each other. "Soul Battlefield?"

"Yes," Isabella said with her voice down, "that's a battle about spirit and will. The winner gets everything, while the loser loses everything. Since Zero was awakened to be a witch, she's never failed in the Battle of Souls. She's engulfed numberless commoners and witches and absorbed their memories, knowledge and longevity. So for the time being, Zero has lived for over 200 years." Speaking of which, Isabella closed her eyes sadly, saying, "I never thought that she would be defeated by a common prince."

Chapter 631 - Promises Then and Now

After hearing the description of the Soul Battlefield from Isabella, Nightingale began getting depressed. "Do you mean that you also don't know how to make His Majesty wake up from the coma?"

She shook her head. "This is unprecedented, and I have no idea how to deal with it... But Zero was absentminded for a while when she was devouring Garcia. At that time, she explained that she had found some interesting things in Garcia's memory and so it took her a long time. Zero has had a more complicated life than anyone else, so if Roland wants to accept these parts of Zero's memories, it may take some more time. But as long as he's alive, he'll wake up naturally."

Nightingale could not be sure whether this was true or not, but she could tell that Isabella did not lie. At least these conjectures were heartfelt thoughts from Isabella.

But Nightingale also knew that the situation was not at all optimistic.

Would the 200 years of memories from the church or His Majesty's memories dominate Roland? Or would Roland get lost in these complicated memories and never wake up?

Even if Roland accepted all of Zero's memories, would he be that Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince of Graycastle that he used to be when he woke up... The one I look forward to seeing?

The many thoughts made were almost impossible for Nightingale to control her mind.

Then Nightingale also understood why Wendy had asked Agatha to come with her.

"Let's talk about the church," Agatha said after hesitating for a while, "How much do you know about the Union, the predecessor of the church?"

"I know almost all that Zero has learned." Isabella responded frankly. "Are you still doubtful about the words in the letter? Since Zero took over the pope's role, all of the pure witches that have been approved for the Pivotal Secret Authority can enter the library and read the history of 400 years ago. The records about the Witch Empire and the demons in the letter are true."

"The limited information in the letter isn't valuable to us." Agatha smiled. "The Witch Empire is just history for you, but for me, it's part of my life. I'm a witch in the Union."

Isabella was surprised at this turn and asked, "What, what did you say?"

"I came from Holy City of Taquila more than 400 years ago and witnessed the destruction of it. The demons aren't rare and still occupy most of the lands of Dawn Ridge. There are demon battalions at the end of Misty Forest and Redwater River to the west of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Roland has encountered them before."

Isabella was stunned in place, speechlessly.

"We'll fight with the demons eventually. We all know that the Battle of Divine Will is coming soon. Roland chose to fight this battle now in order to relieve the oppression of the church." Agatha paused and continued to say, "What I want to know is, how did the Union transform into the church?"

"This is..." It was a long time before Isabella became calm again. "As mentioned in the history book, during the escape, a civil war broke out in the Union in the northwest of the Impassable Mountain Range. There were no detailed reasons. We just know that the Union was separated into two groups since that time. One group, the Taquila witches, got into the maze remains of the mountains. The other group, led by the witches of Starfall City, inherited Lady Alice's will to move northward and settled down on Hermes Plateau, which finally became the church."

"A civil war during the escape?" Agatha frowned and said, "This is undoubtedly suicide."

"The writer of that history book also thought so. The Union suffered heavy losses in the civil war. Two Transcendents were lost and totally separated from the migration team of the common people. When the group going north arrived at their destination, most of those common people fled." Isabella sighed. "As for the war of faith later, it was to kill those non-combat witches who didn't belong to Starfall City. Only in this way could the church completely bury the history of the past."

"Is burying the past a reason to hunt witches wantonly? Even to go so far as to create the unconscious God's Punishment Army?" Nightingale said in a cold tone, "You are all crazy."

"Without this civil war, the four kingdoms would have been controlled by the Union from the beginning. The size of the God's Punishment Army would have been far larger," Isabella said peacefully, "Of course, since Roland Wimbledon now has a better way, Holy City of Hermes isn't necessary any longer."

"You have no nostalgia for the church!" said the Nightingale sarcastically.

"As long as the demons can be defeated, I don't care who'll take charge of the continent. That was also the Union's original intention," Isabella closed her eyes and said, "Although Zero was crazy, she had greater faith in fighting against the demons than most people, and that's why I chose to help her."

Hearing this, Nightingale could not help pulling out a dagger.

"If killing her can wake Roland up, I won't stop you." Agatha whispered.

After a long while, Nightingale indignantly put the dagger back into the sheath.

"By the way, one more thing," as soon as the two were ready to leave, Isabella suddenly spoke, "although Zero allowed pure witches to enter the Temple to read the books in the library, she prohibited anyone from visiting the prayer room. Even moving close to it. She told me that it was only by standing there that she could meet God directly."

…

Nightingale smashed the wall vigorously when going out of the captivity room and said, "Damn it! We still can't find a way to awaken His Majesty!"

"We've done what we can, all we can do is to continue to wait," Agatha said with comfort, "anyway, let's report what we've got to everyone first."

"I promise that she'll pay the price!"

"As long as she's alive, she's important for us to tackle Holy City and explore the secrets of the God stone."

Soon, the witches gathered outside the bedroom and began to listen to the intelligence about the pure witches from Agatha. But Nightingale's mind had already drifted away.

She quietly stepped back to the corner, cast the ability of the Mist, and went into Roland's bedroom.

Except for her, there was only Anna left in the quiet room.

Nightingale slowly walked to the bed and saw Anna holding Roland's right hand, whispering something.

Only by holding her breath could Nightingale hear the whispers of Anna.

"Do you remember what I said to you?"

"If you're dead, I'll go to Sleeping Island with those who're willing to follow you and fight against the church to the end."

"But you're still alive."

"You're just sleeping."

"So I'll wait forever."

"As long as you still can breathe, I'll always be there for you. For one day, one year or even my whole life."

"You can sleep soundly."

"I'll take care of you."

Nightingale felt her heart fiercely tightening up. The feeling of heartbroken was even more unbearable than that of being badly hurt. Somehow, she bent over uncontrollably and covered her chest tightly.

A warm river blurred her eyes.

Chapter 632 - Out of Deep Sleep

When the light pierced through the darkness and his blur vision adjusted to the light source, the white ceiling was the first thing that Roland saw. It took him several seconds to get rid of his dizziness and he felt increasingly weird as his vision became clearer.

"Where exactly is this?" thought Roland.

He suddenly sat up and noticed that he was actually sleeping in a modern-looking bedroom. He was sleeping in a soft bed with a table lamp and a box of napkins on one side and a maroon-colored wardrobe on the other side. The dazzling sun shone through the blinds and evenly poured on the mat and his arms, making him feel slightly warm.

"Damn! Is this fight not over yet?" Roland's sleepiness completely disappeared in a sudden.

He rolled off the bed and stretched out his hand to summon a gun for self-defense but his hand was still empty after several attempts.

His heart sank.

"Can it be... the rules of the battlefield have changed again?"

"It's too bad. If I have to be unarmed, I would only be beaten up by the pure witch with her skills and speed."

"And, what about the deal of choosing my most impressive scene as the battle ring? I did not have any impression of this d*mn room!"

Roland quietly walked to the bedroom door and leaned against the door to listen for a moment. He heard an intermittent voice, which seemed that someone was talking outside.

He carefully held onto the door handle and slit the door. It was a more spacious room which was furnished as a living room. The old fan beside the empty couch was rattling and continuously buzzing. There were a tea table and a wall-hanging television with a constantly flashing screen in front of the couch. It was probably where the voice came from.

Except that, no one was in the living room.

Such situation was a little weird.

Roland took a deep breath and slowly walked into the living room.

The red ribbon on the fan cover was dancing along the wind and the gently blowing cool wind refreshed him. He realized that the room was a little stuffy at the moment, and the echoing chirr of the cicadas signified that it was the summer season.

A few magazines were scattered on the couch. Roland picked up one of them and flipped through it. The content was actually extremely childish. They were fashion news, horoscopes, and divination that were only read by immature little girls.

He frowned even more deeply.

This was apparently not his house as he would not buy such magazines at all, be it in the past life or the present life.

The news on the television at this moment attracted Roland's attention.

"Yesterday evening, an unexplainable explosion happened at a local university. A school building was damaged. The pictures of the scene showed that the entire rooftop had collapsed and there were scattered broken glasses everywhere. What actually happened? Now, let's contact the reporter at the scene."

He dropped his jaw as he could hardly believe what he just saw.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I'm standing beside the school building where the explosion occurred." A female reporter appeared on the screen and the background was the building where he battled with Zero! "According to the witnesses, the flame lit up half of the sky with continuous explosions. Fortunately, there were no casualties as not many students stay on campus due to the summer holiday. The entire campus is currently sealed by the police and the students on campus are also transferred to the nearby hostels to be guided by the teachers. However, the cause of the explosion hasn't yet been clarified so far."

"What's your thought about the accident?"

"We can only say that it's very strange. Everyone knows that it's impossible to even install a natural gas pipeline in the teaching building, not to mention the center of the explosion was on the top floor," The female reporter said in one breath, "Some people speculated that it was a plane crash, some thought it was small meteorites or some even say that it could be the alien arrival. Anyway, I'll immediately return with the message once the police have a definite conclusion."

"Thanks." The host nodded. "Then, let's look at the next news. It's a hot summer and the heat is unbearable. Students should enjoy the long-lost holiday life at home instead of participating in the extracurricular classes. The Department of Education has issued a notice to prohibit private tutoring. Please call the hotline if you encounter any of such cases..."

Roland was not able to continue listening as the scene of the collapsing campus had filled his mind. "Wasn't the Battle of Souls a fictional illusion?" "How could it be possible?"

After standing stoned for a while, he quickly ran towards the door of the living room as he had a sudden realization. A hot wave suddenly poured into the house when he opened the security door.

A modern city appeared in front of him!

The high-rise buildings at a distance formed a dense concrete jungle. It was a busy street not far away with endless crossing cars and pedestrians. And, he was standing in the corridor of an apartment building. He turned around and saw a gold plate with number 0825 hanging in the middle of the low-grade door. If he did not misunderstand, it meant Room 25 on the eighth floor.

"Excuse me. Please don't block the corridor, will you?"

Roland was slightly surprised. He turned around and noticed that the neighbor's door was opened before he knew and a middle-aged woman was impatiently staring at him. The woman coldly hummed while walking past Roland after he tilted his body to one side. The strong smell of low-quality perfume flowed into his nose at the same time.

"What the heck, having no work and running around with only singlet and underpants. How can an adult be so shameless?" the woman muttered to herself and her voice just happened to float into Roland's ears. Such technique seemed to come in handy for middle-aged women.

Roland walked back into the house and loudly closed the door.

"Come out! Zero!"

"Don't waste the time hiding!"

"Is this your newly designed trick? Piecing pieces of my memories together?"

"Don't be ridiculous. It's simply an illusion!"

Nothing happened in the room even though Roland shouted for a while.

Roland grabbed a glass cup on the table and smashed it on the wall. The cup was instantly broken into pieces.

"Is this how you defeat me?" He sneered to himself. "Trying to trap me in this consciousness forever? You won't be able to lock me up, Zero!"

He immediately acted without any hesitation.

"How can I get away if this is another illusion of the Battle of Souls?" thought Roland.

Suicide was definitely the last option, and Roland decided to start with a simple one—to create a fall.

He moved a few chairs over and stacked them from big to small ones with the back of the chair against the couch so that he would not be wounded even if he failed.

When it was completed, he stepped onto the constantly rocking chairs and climbed slowly to the top. His head was almost touching the ceiling at the moment, and falling backward was indeed scary.

However, this psychological barrier was nothing to Roland as he had experienced different ways to die by now.

He could hear someone unlocking the door from the outside when he was on top of the rocking chairs.

"Perhaps the real owner of this house has returned?" Roland thought.

The highly-stacked chairs collapsed before he could balance himself.

Roland struggled to turn around during the frantic fall and saw a young girl who was about 11 or 12 years old walking into the room with a backpack. However, he could instantly recognize her from her white long hair and light red eyes.

"Zero!"

And, she was obviously surprised to see Roland at the same time.

"What're you doing?! Uncle!"

The picture became twisted in a sudden as if the world was being reversed. Roland quickly bounced up and gasped for air twice. The familiar room reappeared in his eyes.

The gray stone wall with tiny cracks, thick velvet curtains, and the Magic Stone that was silently glowing...

This is... the city of Neverwinter?

"Plunk."

It was the sound made by the wooden pot dropping on the floor.

Roland followed the sound and found that Anna was blankly standing there. The pot that dropped on the floor was spinning and the spilled hot water had wet a huge area of the map.

And, the girl quickly ran to him.

Chapter 633 - [Welcome Back]

After clinging to each other for a very long time.

Roland stroked Anna's face and said in a gentle tone, "You've... become thinner."

Even though there were tears in her eyes, Anna's eyes were still as pure as lake water. Roland could clearly see his shadow in her blue eyes. But Anna looked much thinner. Through her clothes, Roland could feel her slightly raised backbone and see her prominent collarbones. Her face was not as mellow as before.

"I'm so sorry for letting you worry about me." Smelling the fragrance of Anna, Roland felt quiet in his heart again. It was just a blink of an eye but they felt like that they met each other after a few centuries apart.

Anna shook her head and wiped her tears with his collar, saying, "I'm okay, as long as you woke up."

"For how long was I in a coma? Three days or a week?" Roland was not sure about the numbers when seeing that Anna had become so skinny.

"Over a month."

"What?" Roland was astonished.

"To be exact, it was 52 days." Seeing his stunned face, Anna could not help bursting into laughter and said, "It's Fall now. You should notice that those curtains were changed."

"I was unconscious for nearly two months?" Roland disbelievingly moved his arms and secretly curled his toes. But he did not feel any discomfort.

"How did I eat?"

"You didn't eat anything." Anna leaned on his shoulder with her hands tightly holding his clothes, as if she was very afraid that Roland would fall asleep again. "Someone has eaten in your stead."

"Uh... Is that possible?"

"It's the ability of Nightfall of the Bloodfang Association. She planted a Seed of Symbiosis in your body and so she just needed to eat more than usual."

"A witch's ability could be used like this!" Roland thought that it was amazing because this kind of symbiosis did more than just sustain his life. Due to the fact that the muscles in his hands and feet did not shrink, it was able to connect two living bodies together to share one circulatory system.

Roland sighed for a while and looked at a wooden tub on the ground. "Thanks for taking care of me these days."

"Without a doubt, there must be someone who had cleaned his body and changed his clothes in order to keep him clean in the nearly two-month coma. Besides, this process was very complicated and only Anna who was patient and loving could do it day after day," Roland thought.

"Compared with what you've done, I've done nothing," Anna said gently, "You've honored your commitment to the witches. You've defeated the corps of the church. Each witch of the Witch Union would like to show their gratitude to you, even without me, someone would take care of you."

"But I would prefer that you take care of me." Roland stared at her and lowered his head to kiss Anna.

After a long while, they parted with each other reluctantly. With her cheeks blushing, Anna said, "Well, I must tell the other witches. They've waited for this day for a long time."

"We could continue?" Roland said with a smirk.

Anna slanted her head subconsciously and said, "You've just woken up and you should take a good rest..."

"But I feel like I'm full of energy."

"Even so, we can't continue." Anna raised her hands to hammer him a few punches and then turned around to pick up the tub. She walked towards the door reluctantly and said, "I'll be back soon."

"I've had enough sleep, so don't be worried." Roland gave her a smile.

After Anna closed the door and Roland frowned.

"Why have I slept for such a long time? Does this have a relationship with the strange phenomenon in my dream?" Roland thought.

Roland felt a deep sense of unease.

Generally speaking, after people woke up from a dream, they would forget its content quickly, and even completely forget it in less a day. But until now, Roland still clearly remembered what had happened in his dream.

"Was the little teenage girl really Zero?"

"But why did she call me uncle?"

"Besides, she could not disguise the shock in her face."

The more Roland recalled, the more he considered strange.

The city in his dream was absolutely not where he had lived in the past. The school in the TV represented compelling proof of that. The university should be built beside a mountain and was part of a scenic area. Towering buildings were not allowed around the university, but he had seen a gray skyline formed by skyscrapers in the background of the news story that played.

Something was also wrong with the apartment. Those walkways connected side by side, which were the most outdated tube-styled apartments. They were built in the 1970s and 1980s and were ill-adapted to both the busy streets hundreds of meters away and the skyscrapers afar.

Besides, the ink-green anti-theft door and outdated desk fan looked a strange match to the hanging colorful TV. If an owner did not have a special hobby, no one would decorate his own living room like this.

Everything seemed to be real while everything was problematic.

Before disappearing, Zero had hysterically shouted at Roland that she would never let him go. Were her words a curse or a threat to Roland? Did she count on creating such a bad dream to confuse him? After all, it would only be a little bluff if she only made him dream several nightmares.

When Roland was still lost in thought, there were noises behind the door.

A group of witches rushed over to the bedroom and surrounded him. In front of them, Roland felt somewhat embarrassed.

"Ahem... In a word, I'm alright. These days..."

Before Roland finished his words, Lightning jumped onto the bed and hugged his neck.

"Thank God," Wendy put her hands on her chest and said in an excited tone, "You finally woke up."

Lily curled her lip and said, "What a troubling guy. You made us worry for such a long time."

Mystery Moon murmured, "Are you worried about others? This is very rare."

"Compared to witches, commoners are much more fragile." Agatha pulled out a Stone of Measuring, watched it before Roland and continued to say, "En, there isn't any magic reaction, and it seems that you didn't inherit Zero's abilities. What can you remember? How about the memories of the Pope."

Roland felt a little surprised and asked, "Do you know this ability?"

"We've held a pure witch of the church captive. We've heard of it from her."

"Re-really? It seems that I didn't receive her memories."

"Wait a moment. What if he isn't the previous Prince Roland. Maybe he's been dazzled by the memories of over 200 years?" Ashes stood up and asked, "Who can prove that he's Roland, not Zero?"

"Come on, don't make trouble. Can you not?" Andrea rolled her eyes at Ashes and said.

"I'm quite sure that he's His Majesty, Roland." Nightingale's voice came from the other side of the bed, but to Roland's surprise, Nightingale did not appear her usual self.

Then Nana, Scroll, Leaf... Among all the caring voices from the witches, Roland felt warmth all over his body.

The last one was Tilly.

She held Roland's hand and said with a smile on her face.

"Welcome back, my brother!"

Chapter 634 - Nothing to Fear

An hour later, Roland finally figured out what happened when he had been in a coma for more than a month.

Undoubtedly the church had been hard hit as nearly all of the soldiers of the God's Punishment Army were killed, and half of the soldiers of the Judgement Army died on the battlefield. Among the more than 2,000 enemies who fled, most of them had taken the Pill of Madness and would corrode due to the magic power sooner or later.

What was worse, the pope disappeared and most of the senior commanders died in battle. After this battle, Holy City of Hermes would never have the chance to invade the border of the Kingdom of Graycastle. It would even have difficulty in surviving the Months of Demons which would come soon.

But the First Army also suffered heavy losses.

That was mainly caused by the sudden assault of the witch, Blackveil. All those soldiers who saw her eyes and did not wear the God's Stone of Retaliation had been affected to some extent. Of the more than 700 casualties, 80% were caused by her.

The fall of Roland had also greatly undermined the morale of the army.

In such circumstances, Iron Axe had to issue an order to withdraw the troop.

Fortunately, at this time, the function of City Hall had been faultless. With concerted efforts all around, it did not encounter any problems. The statement to the public was that His Majesty was wounded in battle and needed to stay in bed. The funeral of the First Army soldiers killed in battle was also held by Iron Axe and Barov.

After listening to the account of the witches, Roland's interest in the captured pure witches was piqued.

"You just said, they don't have much affection for the church?" He turned to Agatha. "And that witch named Isabella is willing to help us fight the demons?"

"Neither Vanilla nor Margie were cultivated by the archbishop. They were just chosen from the cloister to carry out this task. Nightingale has confirmed it." Agatha replied. "It's strange that Isabella seems not to care about whom she serves, as long as they can defeat the demons. She said she got that idea from the last pope."

"What's your opinion on that?"

"I suggest keeping Isabella for the time being."

"But she's a pure witch raised by the church. She's our enemy!" Scroll frowned and said, "If it were not for her, that witch named Zero wouldn't have had the chance to hurt His Majesty at all."

"As far as I know, Wendy was also raised by the church."

"She's different! She's never used her power to hurt anyone."

"Isabella also did not directly hurt any witch. Her ability only works on the God's Stone, while the witches rarely take the initiative to wear the stones." Agatha refuted. "Nightingale confirmed that she did not lie."

"Is that right?" Roland looked to the other side of the bed.

After quite a while, he heard a reluctant reply from there. "Yeah."

"Most important of all is her ability," Agatha continued, "Isabella mentioned any black-hole formed by the God's Stone of Retaliation had a unique tremor, and she could create an opposite tremor so that the stone would lose its function. Perhaps this is the key to figuring out the secret of Supermagic. I even suspect that she's a natural Supermagic. If we can figure out the relationship between the God's Stone and the magic power, the other witches may also be able to do the same."

Hearing that, the crowd could not help gasping in astonishment.

For most of them, the God's Stone of Retaliation was a shackle which they could not throw off. Due to the restraint of the God's Stone, they were subjected to oppression and exile, and they were helpless in the face of capture by the church and the noble.

Roland thoughtfully stroked his chin. "Creating a tremor to cancel out another tremor? This is basically the same characteristics of the wave. Does it mean that magic power also spreads in accordance with the way a wave spreads?"

"In that case, leave her aside," he said after a moment of pondering, "Wait until I see her."

...

Obviously, the witches were not the only ones in Neverwinter who were concerned about his safety. In the afternoon, Barov, Iron Axe, Karl and other high officials received the news and came to the castle one after another. Everyone had a relieved look after seeing him, especially City Hall Director Barov, who even sobbed when hugging Roland.

As he just awoke, instead of asking too much about political affairs, he just casually chatted with them in order to placate them. His long period absence due to his coma had panicked the insiders of Neverwinter. Now the most important thing to do was to cheer them up and inform everyone that their king had recovered.

In the evening, a sumptuous feast was held in the castle. Almost all of the officials of City Hall and the First Army were present, the lines of tables full of food were even extended to the yard.

What was more, Roland also ordered that they should send carts of hot oatmeal to the square so that all of the citizens could also participate in this celebration.

After having dinner together, Roland went to his bedroom.

"Nightingale," he said softly.

No one responded.

"Nightingale." He repeated. "I know you're here."

Still no response.

Roland sighed, turned and walked out of two steps. He reached out and felt Nightingale standing there.

He held her up before she prepared to kneel down after appearing out of the Mist.

Well, he seemed to have become stronger.

But that was not important. Roland stared at her fiercely and said before she opened her mouth. "I know you feel guilty. But it's not your fault and I'm safe now. So don't blame yourself anymore. Do you understand?"

"Agatha had reminded me, but I still... Ah, Your, Your Majesty?"

Roland directly hugged her.

This was the first time he brought himself to hug Nightingale.

Roland had originally prepared a lot of words to comfort her, but he changed his mind when he was going to open his mouth.

He knew what she really needed.

Before he was hit by the shadow of Zero, Nightingale pushed him away, regardless of her own safety. The scene where she stood in front of him to protect him was still vivid in his memory. She was prepared to sacrifice herself for him at that moment. So what else should he expect from such a woman?

"Wait for me." Roland whispered. "I'll settle it."

"Settle... what?"

He did not reply, but he knew that Nightingale knew what he meant. Her slightly eager breath was the best proof.

The silence was often an invisible injury.

Since he could not ignore it, he had to take on the responsibility.

Even if it was a path through the thorns.

He felt Nightingale gradually relax in his embrace. After her anxiety was finally relieved, she became determined again.

When someone was vulnerable, a promise would be enough.

Then the expectation was not in vain.

"Ah, I'll wait." She wept.

Her eyes were full of tears, but the sadness disappeared.

The wet and warm tears also filled Roland's heart with determination.

After Nightingale left, he slept soundly that night.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that white ceiling again.

Well... it's this awful dream again.

As he had already known how to get away from the dream, he was quite calm this time.

Rubbing the back of his head which was still aching, he walked out of his bedroom. He saw that white-haired girl carrying the plates out of the kitchen.

"You got up finally." She frowned. "Did you go mad yesterday, uncle?"

Chapter 635 - The Apartment of Souls

"Zero?" asked Roland hesitantly.

She rolled her eyes and bent down to lay the plates before sitting cross-legged at the coffee table.

"What're you doing there? Don't you want to have breakfast?"

The little girl had a soft tender voice and a slender figure. She wore a light blue dress and white silk stockings. Her feet were about the size of his palms. She was totally not like that crazy Pure Witch who threatened to kill him.

However, she did not deny the name, which meant that she admitted that she was Zero.

"What should I do? Kill her?"

"Now that she's just a little girl, isn't it impossible for her to tear me into pieces bare-handed like an Extraordinary?"

Roland snuck into the kitchen and hid a fruit knife which he got from the knife shelf into his belt before he slowly walked toward the coffee table.

There was a fried egg and two fried bread sticks on his plate. Well, he got one more than her.

The fried egg had a golden outer ring and slightly scorched edge, its lightly bulged center revealed a faint orange. It was obviously a perfect fried egg with a soft yolk.

Zero skillfully picked up the fried egg with her chopsticks and devoured it in a few bites before she began to eat the fried bread sticks. "What were you doing yesterday? Had you seen some cockroaches on the ceiling?"

"No... I found it a bit dirty so I wanted to clean it." Roland casually made a reason.

"Really?" She glanced at the ceiling and asked, "Why didn't you clean it with a rag tied on a clothing pole?"

"It didn't work. Anyway, it's clean now," he coughed and asked, "you made the breakfast?"

"Uncle, are you alright?" Zero appeared to be a little worried now, "Since I moved here, isn't it I who has always made the breakfast?"

"Since you moved here? So where did you live before?" Roland opened his mouth but did not ask. Obviously she would suspect his identity if he kept asking.

Zero quickly finished her breakfast. She stretched one of her hands in front of him and said, "Give me some money to buy food."

"What?"

"We are running out of food in the refrigerator. I have to go to the food market to buy some. How can I go without money?"

"A middle school student already knows how to buy food from the food market?" Roland thought while fumbling in his pocket for his wallet but found nothing, "Well..."

"In the second drawer of your bedside table," said Zero with a sigh.

He returned to the bedroom and found a nearly empty wallet, in there were about 300 Yuan and several lottery tickets.

"How much do you need?" Roland returned to the living room.

"20. I can't carry more food anyway."

Since it was not his money, Roland generously gave her a fifty Yuan bill and said, "You can keep some for the next time."

Zero took a surprised glance at him and tucked the bill into her coin purse.

"Your hand..." Roland noticed the two band-aids on her fingers.

"I was hurt when I picked up the broken glass. It's not a big deal. Of course, it would be better if you don't litter." She shrugged and carried her schoolbag before walking to the door, "I'm going to school. I won't come back in the afternoon, so remember to clean the dishes."

"Wait, isn't it summer vacation now?"

"Of course it's the tutoring center," said Zero, putting on her shoes and poked her head out from the door. "Uncle, if you think your head is still hurting, go to see the doctor. And don't do stupid things anymore."

After half a minute, Roland walked out of Room 0825 and looked down while leaning over the corridor railing.

Soon he saw Zero walk out of the building. Her white hair was particularly eye-catching in the crowd. Strangely, people on the street seemed to be used to it as no one walking by her would cast any curious glance at her. She waited a while until another two blonde-haired girls skipped toward her and they left together through an alley.

"So she has made friends in this world?"

Roland could not help rubbing his forehead and thought, "What an absurd dream!"

"What should I do next? Should I follow her?"

He did not believe that Zero could really create a complete city.

When Roland turned around and wanted to go back to the room, looking for the key, he was suddenly startled by what he saw.

A pretty woman walked toward him.

She had long gray hair, high eyebrows and her nose and lips bore a resemblance to those of Tilly. However, she had a cold and arrogant temperament that kept men at arm's length.

He never met her before, but Prince Roland's memory obviously told him that she was his elder sister, Princess Garcia of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Garcia Wimbledon!

Roland subconsciously reached for the fruit knife in his belt.

"Step aside. Get out of my way," the woman showed a disgusted expression, "Let me pass."

"You... You don't know me?" He was very surprised.

She sneered and said, "Why should I know you? Because your hair is dyed the same color as mine?"

Roland stared at her, slowly getting out of her way, "You are Garcia, right?"

"So what?" Her expression became gloomy, "Since you know my name, you should know what will happen if I am annoyed. I warn you, you will bring trouble to yourself if you trouble me." She stretched out her right hand and curled her fingers one by one making cracking sounds with her knuckles as if she had prepared to fight.

"She doesn't know me, but why she doesn't feel surprised that I know her name?" Roland found it difficult to understand.

Garcia returned to her room, and the door banged shut behind her. He wandered around along the corridor and took a quick glance when he passed by her room.

The room number was 0827, so she lived next to his neighbor.

Looking at the numerous security doors along the long corridor, he suddenly had a horrible speculation.

"How many households are there in this apartment?"

After all, the corridor was terribly long. Standing in front of Room 27, he could not even see the end of the corridor.

He could not help thinking about it.

He returned to his room as soon as possible, fumbled the key in to the front door and then he locked the door and ran along the corridor toward the further end.

It was not shorter than a 400-meter straight track!

Panting and running to the end of the corridor where it was close to the stairwell, Roland saw the last room number, 0899.

This was simply incredible. Who would design a tube-shaped apartment with nearly a hundred households on one floor? In accordance with the style of the 70s and 80s, a row of more than a dozen households had been considered large-scale.

Roland then climbed up the stairs.

Most of the green paint of the iron staircase handrails had peeled off and he could see the obvious rust and dust. There were numerous small advertisements along the corridor revealing distinctive characteristics of the times. These kind of 'psoriasis' advertisements should have long since disappeared in the big cities.

The top floor was the 22nd floor.

On the security door at the end of the corridor, there was no nameplate or barred window.

He checked one by one until he saw the first number, 2245.

Through his rough calculation, he found that there were 2,124 households in the entire apartment building.

"It's impossible for you to win. I have devoured thousands of soldiers and even an Extraordinary over the years!"

He suddenly recalled what Zero said during the fight for life on the rooftop.

Are all people living here the losers of the Battle of Souls?

Roland was stunned by this speculation.

Now, Zero seemed to have become one of them.

Chapter 636 - Illusory Reality

Roland climbed more than a dozen floors all at once. When he relaxed his muscles, he felt the intense soreness in his legs.

There were no elevators in this old building. Even if this was only a dream, Roland still felt fortunate that he did not appear on the top floor.

Undoubtedly, Zero must be the one that created this, but this would not only be the act of Zero. No one would retaliate against Roland by using this kind of method.

Why would she spend so much effort to create such a bizarre dream, just to let me witness her failure? This not only took away her memory as a pure witch but also turned her into a fragile middle schooler.

At that moment, many evil ideas flashed through Roland's mind.

With Zero's current status, she would not be able to fight back no matter what Roland did to her.

Would this count as retaliation?

It could be only said that at this moment, Zero indeed did something which created an irreversible twist of memory. However, the final result was something that was far from what she expected.

If this gigantic tube-shaped apartment was the honest reflection of Zero's memory, this was merely just an apartment.

Far away, there was a multitude of skyscrapers, swarms of cars and pedestrians on the street. Apparently this belonged to Roland's memory, a soul that came from the modern world.

Zero and those she engulfed appeared in this dream as modern people. This testified that her scheme was a failure.

That would be a more reasonable speculation.

"What about myself then?"

Roland was pondering this question as he slowly walked down the stairs.

He did not belong here, or at least, he did not belong to this loser tower. One obvious characteristic was that his memory remained intact, and he knew that this was a dream and that he could leave this place anytime he willed it.

Of course, next he had to make a more convenient falling tool, and then go back to the sofa to hit his head. This time Roland could still feel a slight pain which means that the authenticity of the dream could already compare to reality.

That being the case, which step can be done to a greater degree?

Is it encompassing or is it an empty shell?

...

Roland returned to room 0825 and once again examined the residence.

It had a standard layout of three bedrooms and one living room with no terrace. The three single rooms were Roland's bedroom, Zero's bedroom, and one storage room respectively. There were big objects in the storage room. For example, there was an old bicycle without wheels, a sewing machine, and a rusted iron gate. They would not even be worth any money for recycling.

Next, he walked to Zero's bedroom. There was a sign on the door that said, "No unauthorized entry".

Such a caveat was nothing in Roland's eyes.

He pushed open the door without hesitation. A slight but pleasant scent floated into his nose.

It was a tiny room with all the furniture neatly organized. All the blankets were folded, the desk was neat, and the floor was spotlessly clean.

Roland walked around. An anime diary on the corner of the desk soon caught his attention.

Has she the habit of keeping a diary?

This would be a great opportunity to learn about Zero's past experiences.

There was no emotional pressure on Roland in regards to taking a peek at a little girl's diary in a dream.

Roland picked up the pink book and found that there was a plastic lock on the side of the diary.

However, that would be not enough to stump Roland.

The plastic lock merely served as emotional comfort for kids. It would not actually prevent someone from peeping at the diary. Roland found two toothpicks, stuck the toothpicks into the keyhole and moved the toothpicks back and forth. He opened the plastic lock after only a few tries.

Roland flipped to the first page. The handwriting on the page seemed immature, but there were rarely any ink dots or whiteouts. Apparently, she was very serious when she wrote the diary.

"February 16th, due to the relocation of school, I've been sent to a house in an unfamiliar city. The house-owner is called Roland, a somewhat untidy uncle. He works at a bar and always sleeps during the day, leaves the house at night, and comes back very late at night. He always has this disgusting smell of alcohol on him." "I don't really want to live here. But my family said that he only asks the minimum rent and provides meals. My family will send me to the countryside if I make another complaint about this house."

"What kind of absurd setting is this?" Roland could not help but seethe. He went to a bar only a few times in his life, not to mention working at a bar. Despite such absurdness, the dream itself was an unreasonable place that often connected numerous unrelated fragments, and no one would notice any difference in the dream.

With that thought, Roland did not feel like fretting over this dream anymore.

"February 27th, school has started. Uncle Roland seems to have lost his job. He looks very depraved. Dinner yesterday was a cup noodle that I bought."

"March 2nd, I've spent all my allowance buying cup noodles recently. This isn't a good sign. The magazine said that at age 12, the body is developing and so there needs to be enough nutrition for growth. I have to talk to uncle. If he beats me up then, I, I'll endure a bit more. I'd rather not go to the countryside."

"March 3rd, he agreed with my suggestion. That's great! Every month he would give me living expenses to buy fresh food. But if I'm not in school, I'll be responsible for making the meals. Who is taking care of whom? I feel like he should give me a salary for this. Never mind, I always do the chores back at home too. I'm used to it."

"June 8th, it has been three months since I arrived in the new city. I've made lots of friends. I have the best grades in my class. Although Uncle Roland is untidy and always seems careless, he's actually not a bad guy. At least he doesn't beat me. The only thing is that he still hasn't found a job yet. Looks like he's giving up soon and that isn't a good sign. We wouldn't be able to survive just depending on the living expense that Uncle Roland's family sends to him. I have to help him."

"June 22nd, umm... It's so difficult to make money. I sold some anime drawings to students in tutoring class and only got 15 yuan. That isn't even enough to buy two days of food. Am I too careless when I speak to uncle? In the end, he's still an adult. I feel like I've been impolite, but I just couldn't control myself. Have I reached my rebellious phase?"

"June 25th, Jesus Christ! I was so frightened today. I saw that Uncle Roland fell from a chair. Good thing that there was a sofa beneath him. Putting the chair that high, was he committing suicide? This was so frustrating. What if he injured himself? That would make him less likely to get a job! Whatever, tomorrow I'll ask him what happened."

Besides the trivial details, Roland spent only half an hour to finish the whole diary. He now understood the reason that Zero had been living with him.

The dream made up backgrounds for everyone that matched with his or her modern identity. This was undoubtedly a very complex structure. He would not be able to accomplish this just by using his brain. No wonder he was in a coma for almost two months after the soul dual.

He put the diary back to the original place. Roland noticed something that made dazed him for a moment.

There was a stack of books next to the desk. It seemed to be that little girl's textbooks.

Roland swallowed and moved all the textbooks to him.

The first textbook was a literature book and the second was a social science textbook. When Roland saw the third textbook, he was out of breath for a moment.

It was an 8th-grade chemistry textbook.

Its content was simple with only a few words. The majority of the book was pictures. From a glance, it almost looked like the book I Wonder Why. When Roland flipped to the last page, a folded long page fell out.

Roland flattened the page, a complete periodic table of elements appeared before his eyes.

Chapter 637 - Development Plan

…

Waking up from the Dream World, Roland sprang out of his bed. Unable to contain his excitement any longer, he draped his coat over his shoulders and hurried to his office. He took out several blank papers and started to write down the missing parts of the periodic table of elements and "Elementary Chemistry" from his memory.

He also concluded some rules from the previous two trips to the Dream World. First, the time passed at a different pace in that world. This was easy to understand, as even a nap was enough for a long, vivid dream. Roland thought it might be caused by the increased response speed of the brain. In a dream, it just needed to pull all the sensory inputs out from the memory and entered them into a dream instead of uploading and processing information from all five senses.

Take the last trip as an example. He had left the Dream World at 3:00 p.m. by falling from a standing herringbone ladder in his bedroom before Zero had come back. Until that time, he had spent eight hours in that world. However, when he woke up in the real world, it was still midnight and the moon was shining high in the sky.

Second, his brain had been so excited in the vivid dreams that traveling to the Dream World did not mean having a rest. This was a tricky problem, as in this way he would be busy for the whole 24 hours of a day. In the day, he had to handle state affairs in the real world, and at night, he needed to make money to raise the family in the Dream World. He was surprised to find that he himself had become one of the model workers of Neverwinter... and the most hardworking one.

By now, he had not yet tried to sleep in the Dream World. Due to the time differences, he guessed sleeping in it would be more efficient.

Third, the Dream World was different from ordinary dream experiences.

This world was clear, stable and had its own rules. This must have been caused by Zero. She had created this new world about which he knew just a little bit.

He wondered at this world, thinking, "Does it have boundaries? How many fragments does it mix? How much hidden or forgotten information will I discover there?"

He waited out the night until the dawn reached. After having breakfast, he summoned all high officials of City Hall to the reception hall of his castle.

He needed to check on the progress of their works after the whole month, and more importantly, he wanted to work out the development plan for the next development stage for the coming challenge.

Now that the church was no longer a major threat, he had to get ready for the upcoming attacks from demons and put his all into the preparation for the Battle of Divine Will.

Roland set his eyes on the other kingdoms.

Barov wiped his forehead and said, "Uhm... you mean we'll recruit people not only from each domain of Graycastle but also from Everwinter and Wolfheart? Your Majesty, it's a very big project."

Roland said in a deep voice, "The news that the church has suffered a sharp defeat will soon spread all over the continent. After that, Holy City of Hermes can hardly control Everwinter and Wolfheart. Seeing the sign of weakness, those local noble men driven to the church by the wars will turn their backs on it soon. This offers us an exciting opportunity to draw their people to Graycastle with gold royals or even violent measures."

Not being affected by any form of nationalism, people of this era did not care very much about who they worked for, as long as they could bring their families together with them.

Roland continued to explain, "In the next spring, the seaport of Neverwinter will be put into use. All you have to do is to formulate a recruiting plan, rent ships from the Fjords merchants and find places to accommodate the newcomers in the city. I know this will cost City Hall a huge sum of gold royals, but we've got to do this no matter what. All of you know it clearly that the church isn't our ultimate challenge."

As City Hall had lots of related experiences, Roland was confident in this ambitious plan to expand population in a short time.

For example, City Hall had sent emissary delegations to the Southern Territory and the Eastern Region to recruit people many times before this plan.

As for resettlement work, it also had rich experiences and a whole set of regulations.

City Hall of Neverwinter had already become a reliable and mature administration body.

However, it had no experience in sea transportation. Roland planned to ask Thunder and Margaret's Chamber of Commerce to assist it.

"By the way, in order to lighten your workload, I'll officially hire Miss Edith Kant to work as your adjutant in City Hall." Roland paused a little and continued, "I find no fault with her previous performance in Coldwind Ridge battle and the work in Adviser Department. I believe you'll feel much easier with her help."

Barov said anxiously, "Thank you, Your Majesty, but I can do it on my own..."

Roland interrupted him. "I've decided. Just do what I say."

After that, he turned to look at Scroll, saying, "Education is another focus in the next development stage. How did the training of the secondary teachers go?"

Scroll shook her head and said, "By now, only Ferlin has passed the assessment test. Your Majesty, I'm afraid this method won't work."

"I see." Roland was not surprised by the failure of the plan. As most of the Neverwinter's primary teachers were knights, using the teaching materials written by Scroll, they did not have any trouble teaching the students to read and write.

However, when the Education Ministry wanted to improve the quality of the teachers, it met a problem. The only reason for the knight's reading and writing abilities was that they had had access to education. Being literate did not necessarily mean that they were good at studying.

To become secondary teachers, they need to be qualified in disciplines including math, physics, and chemistry, which were not easy to learn.

Roland thought for a while and made a decision, saying, "Given that, let's pick new secondary teachers from the students. To encourage top students to continue their studies at school, we need to include a scholarship scheme in the budget for the next year."

"Sch-scholarship?" Scroll thought for a moment and continued, "Do you mean the reward system we've adapted in Longsong Stronghold?"

Roland explained, "No, not at all. That reward system was designed to attract more people to the school, but this scholarship scheme only rewards the top students. It aims to attract them to continue studying in the school by offering them money as much as most workers can make."

Generally, when a student completed universal education and got a diploma, he would try to find a job to raise his family as soon as possible instead of furthering his studies at school. To make sure that people who were good at studying would get better trained, he must build a special fiscal fund, namely, a scholarship scheme, to subsidize those people.

Roland continued to explain his plan to Scroll, "First, you can set high standard score to pick out only 20-30 students who'll be paid for with scholarships, and then you work with Ferlin to teach them. Their learning speed must be much faster than that of those knights. After the training, anyone who passes the assessment is qualified to become a secondary teacher whose starting monthly salary is 50 silver royals, and the ones who fail in the assessment can apply for the other jobs."

When he got the first batch of secondary teachers, he planned to soften the terms of the scholarship scheme and promote the higher level of knowledge and education among the people.

Chapter 638 - The Temptation of the Periodic Table of Elements

Barov said, "Your Majesty, City Hall has no problem with this program, but... we don't need that many secondary teachers, do we?" Knowing that Edith would soon become an official member of City Hall, Barov looked a little unhappy but still focused on the subject of the discussion. Roland was pleased to see this mature reaction.

The prince ticked off the other jobs those students could do, saying, "they don't have to become secondary teachers. With better education background, they can choose to become researchers and managers in the plants. They should understand the principles behind the machines instead of simply knowing how to operate them. They should know how to train workers, how to maintain or, perhaps, improve equipment. The Ministry of Education must make efforts to turn our people into industrial personnel. Otherwise, it'll be meaningless to have a large population."

"Industrial Personnel?" Scroll repeated Roland's words in a low voice and then asked, "does it refer to the people engaged in industrial production?"

"Almost." Roland confirmed and continued to explain his idea. "the people who have finished universal education can become ordinary workers, namely, junior industrial personnel. By having more of them, we could scale up our industrial production, but industrialization isn't just about scale... City Hall won't be able to take care of everything, so I want to see two to three out of a hundred people get secondary or even higher education level. They can be placed on both production and management positions, so did the secondary teachers. By doing so, we'll see that the plants will become independent organizations who can develop themselves following the instruction of City Hall."

Without education, Neverwinter could not enjoy its population dividend no matter how many people it had. Due to the limited education resources, he could not make secondary and higher education universal right now. To quench his thirst for talents, he decided to use this scholarship scheme to quickly select and foster a batch of capable people for the city. As to the other people, in his plan, as long as they finished primary education and became literate, they would fill ordinary production positions, like a cog in a machine.

"I see," Scroll said.

Roland tapped on the table and added, "There's another thing. Add ideological education to the universal primary education. I'll give you a detailed teaching plan later." He could not help but recall the contents of the textbook of ideological and moral education he had read in Dream World. In this era, strengthening ideological and moral construction was as important as adapting steam engines.

Seeing Scroll nodded, he stood up and glanced at everyone in the hall, saying, "to sum up, this year and the next, City Hall should focus on expanding the population, enhancing education and upgrading industrial production, especially the first two tasks. They'll determine how far we can go. I hope that all of you will do your best before the arrival of more dreadful and powerful enemies!"

"We'll do our best for Your Majesty!"

All the officials stood up and said simultaneously.

"And it's also for yourselves." Roland heaved a sigh of relief and continued. "That's all for today's meeting, and... Kyle Sichi, come to my office."

...

Chief Alchemist followed Roland to the office. As soon as he closed the door, he asked straightforwardly, "Your Majesty, do you have any new idea or new product to make? If not, I hope I can go back to my lab earlier."

Roland could not help but smile, saying, "You're still so impatient. Come on, sit down. I've something important to give you."

After Kyle took a seat with incredulity on his face, Roland slowly picked up his cup to sip some tea and asked, "How are the alchemists from the king's city?"

Chief Alchemist replied with a frown, "I guess they're just fine. I don't talk with them very much, except about the chemical experiments. If you want to know, you can ask them directly."

Roland could tell from Kyle's reaction that alchemists of Alchemist Workshop of the king's city seemed to have formed a little clan of their own. They had brought many students here, which was helpful for the chemical industry production but at the same time put pressure on Kyle and his students.

Keeping this thought to himself, Roland changed a subject. "Now that the two acid liquids and smokeless gunpowder have gone into mass production, I plan to set up an independent department to meet with ever-growing demands for these products." He paused a while and continued. "Do you want to work as Minister of Chemical Industry?"

Kyle answered without any hesitation, "I remember you've mentioned it before, but... I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I just can't give up my experiments in the labs for some trivial management work, so my answer is still the same."

"Do not hurry to refuse me." Roland shrugged. "I know that you don't want to waste your time on this kind of things, as you devote yourself to chemistry and want to explore its mystery... But what if I can directly show you what you want to know? "

"What?" Kyle Sichi was startled.

Roland took something out from his drawer and slowly spread it in front of Kyle. It was a white paper with many squared on it — the periodic table of elements, which he had written last night.

"Th-This is..." The old alchemist's eyes went straight to it. Stretching out his trembling hands, he wanted to snatch it from the king but meanwhile was so afraid to tear it.

"Didn't you say... you forgot the contents in the blanks?"

"I've remembered lots of details recently, including some about the book "Intermediate Chemistry". This time it'll be completed." Roland pulled the table back a little so that Kyle could only stare at it.

"Your Majesty, I..." Kyle stopped here and closed his mouth, since he had already got what the king meant.

Roland smiled and said, "That's right. If you become Minister of Chemical Industry, I'll give you this periodic table of elements, complete 'Intermediate Chemistry' and maybe even 'Advanced Chemistry'."

Roland admired the Chief Alchemist's enthusiasm toward chemistry but also knew that limited by this era's conditions, Kyle could hardly know more chemical knowledge than a senior high school student did in modern times. Now that he had complete chemistry textbooks, he decided to show them to Kyle. By doing so, he could enable Kyle to have more time to teach more students and effectively reduce the influence of Alchemist Workshop of the king's city.

He also believed that although Kyle preferred chemical experiments to trivial matters in management, as the former Chief in the Alchemic Workshop of Redwater City, he must have a sound knowledge of management, and basic organization and coordination skills.

"I... get it." Kyle bowed after hesitating for a moment. "I'll serve as your minister."

Somehow, Roland found that compared to imposing his will on the others, he became increasingly fond of this method of offering conditions that could not be denied as a bargaining chip in negotiations. He wondered was this syndrome of a person in power.

No matter what, he believed that it was a win-win option.

He folded the periodic table of elements and handed it to Kyle, saying, "When you've more students, you'll have less trivial things to do by yourself. Here's your bonus paid in advance. Do your best, and your name will be recorded in the history of chemistry."

Chapter 639 - Isabella

If not for the shackles on her hands and feet, Isabella would have forgotten that she was a prisoner .

After she had told Roland's witches that the God's Stones of Retaliation embedded in the walls of the cell could not affect her ability, she had been transferred to an ordinary bedroom guarded by some guards. When she had been sent back to the Western Region of Graycastle, she had got a "cell" similar to the previous bedroom. It was not damp or cold and had no dirty water flowing on the ground. In this quite spacious room, she was offered a bed, a bench and a toilet in a cubicle. All the windows of the room were blocked by iron strips, but warm sunshine could still get through them into the room. The conditions here were much better than that of the secret jail of Pivotal Secret Authority.

Having outstanding looks, she had thought that she would get some "normal" treatment of prisoners of war, but nothing had happened. No one had sneaked into her room at night. She had not been humiliated or tortured. The guards at the door never spoke to her except when they delivered meals to her.

The most frequent visitors to her cell were two of Roland's witches. One was said to come from 400 years ago and another one who was blonde always wore a hood. No matter what they had asked, Isabella had answered them honestly. She had even asked them to bring her papers and a quill to write down some recordings of the secret history and demon documents she had read in Pivotal Secret Temple's Library.

The witches had never tortured her either, but she could tell that the blonde witch wanted to give her a hard time. She felt confused seeing her leave with a cold face every time when she finished answering all their questions.

She knew that they would not believe whatever she said, and based on what had happened during each of their visits, she was sure that one of them must be able to detect lies. She guessed that the blonde witch was planning to punish her when she caught her lying, but this thought made her even more confused. She just could not think of a reason for this action, as they could do whatever they want to a prisoner.

She felt increasingly oppressed by worry as the time went by.

She wondered why Roland Wimbledon had never appeared during the past two months.

She could think of only two answers to this question. First, the king had not woke up yet. Second, he never planned to meet her. Neither of these was good news for her. She believed that after she confessed all she knew, she would be put on trial and then executed.

Ready to devote all she had to defeat demons, Isabella had no complaints about her current situation, but waiting to die day after day still stressed her out.

She sighed and walked in chains to her bed. She sat down, picked up her quill and spread a blank paper on her laps, thinking that if she could finish writing down all she remebered quickly, she would be able to come to her end sooner.

At this moment, she heard footsteps outside.

It sounded like more than two people were coming to her cell.

Isabella's heart vibrated.

Her door was pushed open. She put down the quill and turned around. Besides the two witches, here came a gray-haired young man. Based on the previous information she had received, she knew he was Roland Wimbledon, the King of Graycastle.

He woke up?

"Does he come to sentence me?"

Keeping those thoughts to herself, she stood up and slightly bowed to him.

She said with feigned indifference, "I thought you would never come to meet me."

To her great surprise, Roland said calmly, "You're Isabella, right? You're the witch who made my God's Stones of Retaliation lose effect. I didn't meant to postpone this meeting with you. I had an incredible long dream and just woke up. I fought against Zero in the dream and I defeated her in the end. However, as the winner, I didn't get everything, her knowledge or skills, as she said."

"It's impossible!" Isabella blurted.

Roland asked with great interest, "Why? I guess I can't get what she had, as I'm a man who can never become a witch."

"It's nothing to do with gender." Isabella shook her head. "The trophy a winner will get in Soul Battlefield is memories and lifespan, which can be owned by any human being, and only the creatures who have those two things can step into Soul Battlefield. As for the abilities of witches and magic power, they can't be absorbed by the winner. Otherwise, Zero would have absorbed me."

"What do you mean... There're creatures she can't invade and absorb?"

Isabella explained, "Animals can't get into the Soul Battlefield, as they've no intelligence. Even if they did and win, they can never understand human beings' memories."

"That may also be caused by the difference between species."

"As far as I know, among the thousands of souls she absorbed, there're some demon and some hybrid demonic beast." She sighed and continued. "But it happened before I was born. I've just heard her mention about it when we were chatting."

"Demon and... demonic beast?" Hearing what Isabella said, Roland and his witches could not help but look at each other at a loss for words.

"Why didn't you tell us about this?" The blonde witch shouted this question to Isabella.

"Because this will only increase your anxiety and hardly helps you." Isabella paused and slowed down to explain. "Even Zero herself admitted that the memories of the other species were so crazy that they placed a heavy burden on her. She said she had never tried it again after that."

The king did not seem to be scared. Instead, he smiled and said, "Interesting. By the way, did Zero mention to you what would happen to the losers in Soul Battlefield?"

"They'll disappear from this world as if they never exist."

Roland raised his eyebrow and asked, "Any difference between the losers who give up voluntarily and those who fight to death?"

"All of them will disappear, but..." Isabel continued after a thought. "Zero seemed to have said that the memories she absorbed could be divided into two kinds."

Roland seemed particularly interested in this issue and asked, "What are they?"

"One kind of memories were disorganized with residual consciousness of the losers. They would affect Zero herself. The other kind of memories were completely open to her. She could read them whenever she wanted." She paused for a moment and continued. "She said that it was harder to recall and easier to forget the first kind of memories... She casually mentioned it once. I didn't ask her for more details at that time, but I'm sure you're an exception. I've never seen anyone like you before, who get no memories at all."

Roland closed his eyes and knitted his eyebrows, he seemed to be thinking about something extremely complicated. He remained speechless for nearly 10 minutes and then heaved a long sigh, saying, "I see."

"What on earth was he thinking?"

Curious as she was, she still kept her mouth shut.

She knew that she should never ask such a question as a prisoner.

Roland said to her, "Now, let's talk about you."

Chapter 640 - Dream World Hypotheses

Isabella slightly lowered her head, waiting for her sentence in silence.

Roland sounded calm. "You should thank your own ability, not because it's unique, but because it can't kill anyone. No matter how felonious an act you're involved in, such as assisting Zero in attacking me, you're just an accessory offender. I can spare your life, but you still have to atone for your sin, like the others who violate the law."

Roland's words somehow took a weight off her mind. She was not afraid of death, but not fond of it, either.

"As long as you can defeat demons, I'm willing to do everything for you."

Roland said slowly, "demons are enemies of the mankind. I'll certainly fight against them till death, but my way is different from that of the church. I won't try to win the Battle of Divine Will at the cost of destroying human beings' potential. Given that, you've got to change some of your habits. From now on, you're no longer a Pure Witch of the church. Instead, you're an atoning witch."

Zero, you were wrong. He knew about demons and the Union a long time ago and is even ready to fight the Battle of Divine Will. Indeed, he was a common man whose life and belief would come to the end after decades, but now, he gets your limitless lifespan. Given that, he must be the chosen one of the deities.

At this thought, Isabella knelt down with her shackles. She lowered her head, letting all her long hair spread over the floor, and said, "yes, my lord."

When she stood up again, Roland opened his mouth and said, "here's not the Holy City of Hermes, and you're not a servant to me. You're just an atoning person, but I won't send you to the mines to do hard labor for twenty years. All you have to do is to cooperate with Agatha in her research on the magic power.

Isabella was startled, wondering, "that's all I have to do for him?"

Roland continued to say, "your atoning period is five years. I'll ask Wendy to arrange a new place for you to live and during this period of time, you don't have to wear any shackles, but you only have limited freedom. That's to say, besides your living place and Agatha's Spellcaster Tower, if you want to go anywhere else, you'll have to act under the Witch Union's surveillance."

"Yes, I see."

"By the way, are you sure that there are no other witches in the Holy City?" asked Roland.

She had answered this question for many times since she had become a prisoner. She thought for a moment and still shook her head, saying, "for this decisive battle, Zero converted all the useless new witches into God's Punishment Warriors and took all the other witches to the battlefield. There're still many girls in cloisters, but awakenings of new witches seldom happen before Months of Demons. Vanilla, Margie and me are probably the only three remaining Pure Witches of the church."

Having heard what she said, Roland said nothing. He turned around and walked toward the door. The blonde witch came up and unlock her shackles.

Seeing herself get free hands again, Isabella could hardly believe what had happened. Is this my sentence? No jail time, no humiliation and no torture. Is he serious?

She suddenly spoke out, "Your Majesty, what about Vanilla and Margie..."

Roland looked back at her and said, "they're better than you. They were just influenced by the distorted ideas of the cloisters' education, far from being crazy. If they can give up those thoughts, they may even join the Witch Union."

Roland and the two witches left. The cell door creaked shut.

"So that's it," Isabella felt completely relieved. She lay on her plank bed in the sunshine coming through the window. Despite the glaring light, she squinted up at the blue sky behind the steel bars.

"What a lovely day," she thought.

***************

Back in the office, Nightingale expressed her discontent, saying, "her punishment is too light. She almost killed you."

"It's Zero who almost killed me, not her." Roland handed her a piece of dried fish.

She took it with her mouth and mumbled, "she created such a chance for Zero. Otherwise, it was impossible for you to be dragged into Soul Battlefield.

Roland explained patiently, "but you can tell she really wants to fight against demons, can't you? She didn't commit an unforgivable crime, and I'm just alright. That's enough for her punishment. By doing so, we show all the people that we're willing to spend a thousand pieces of gold to buy outstanding talents."

"Spend a thousand gold royals...and what?"

"Uhm... I mean propaganda effects." Roland coughed twice and continued. "Seeing her example, more people will understand that as long as they don't break legal bottom line, they'll still get a chance by making atonement. After all, our enemy is demons. To increase our odds of winning the Battle of Divine Will, letting her redeem herself by good services is the best choice."

Nightingale twitched her lips and said, "well, I'll watch her for you."

Roland walked to the French window and recalled what Isabella had said.

The memories Zero absorbed could be divided into two kinds. One kind of memories was disorganized with a residual consciousness of the losers. They would affect Zero herself. The other kind of memories were complete and open to her. She could read them whenever she wanted. She said that it was harder to recall and easier to forget the first kind of memories...

Is this the reason why she repeatedly persuaded me to give in during the Battle of Souls?

She suffered no side-effects in absorbing the surrenders who willingly gave her all their memories. That's why she stopped at all the crucial moments.

She wanted me to give up fighting, in order to get my complete memories.

He found that this process seemed similar to the one in which he possessed Prince Roland's body.

As Prince Roland's memories were just like that, complete and always there in his head. He could easily recall the prince's memories anytime he wanted to and put them aside when he did not need them. They were like archived files. He did not have to memorize any detail of them, but even after a year when he opened them again they still remained the same as before.

Given that Prince Roland had been killed by Garcia's assassin and had no willpower to resist his death at that time, he thought he could be considered a loser who gave up in the Battle of Souls.

Now, he was wondering what the strong-willed losers would do?

Based on what Isabella had said, this kind of memories with the residual consciousness of the losers would affect Zero herself, including changing her thoughts, personality, and even beliefs. Absorbing thousands of souls had made her complex, technically, a very different person from who she had been before.

If she had wanted vengeance on him, she would have poured all those crazy memories into his mind.

When that happened, she would end up being shattered, but Roland would not be the same Roland as before.

In this chaotic storm of memories, each unyielding soul's willpower would strive for predominance in his mind. Zero would take this chance to come back again.

However, out of Zero's expectation, he was not a man of this era.

The amount of information a person living in the modern age absorbed in one day was equivalent to that of a person in ancient times did in months or even years. As a man from an era of information explosion, he read and memorized various kinds of information in every waking moment. His mind could keep the useful information and eliminate the meaningless ones by instinct.

As a result, all the memory fragments were swallowed up and reorganized, forming a strange new world, his Dream World.

Unfortunately, he could not ask Zero to confirm this speculation.

She had lost all she had including her memories and turned into an innocent child in Dream World.

...

Chapter 641 - The Door to the Fragment

Now he was responsible for raising the newborn.

Roland yawned while getting up from the bed. He noticed that the ladder that he had used for falling was still laid on its side and that beyond the blinds, it was bright.

He had been wearing clothes when he fell from the ladder, and yet now he had nothing on but a pair of boxers. "Was this caused by the inertia of the subconscious?" It seemed that every departure from the Dream World would continue for some time until he fell asleep again, which would ensure that every time he entered the dream, it would be the exact moment he woke up in the Dream World... "How formalized was that?!"

He decided to depart the Dream World at midnight to see if he could eliminate the sleepwalking-like unconscious behavior.

In addition, Roland also felt exhausted from the lack of sleep, totally unlike someone who had just woken up. His eyes were bloodshot and dry, and his mind was fogged. He also could not stop yawning. He had stayed up for more than 20 hours if he counted the time in the Dream World too.

Roland thought that maybe he had better catch some sleep in the afternoon.

Roland put on a short-sleeved shirt and walked into the living room where he saw the diminutive figure again.

"You're up so early today?" Zero looked a bit surprised. "I haven't even started to make breakfast yet... You wait here for a while. I'll go and prepare it now."

Obviously, Zero just got up as well. Her white long hair hanging disorderly over her shoulders with wisps of hair sticking up, she looked completely different from the usual her who was neat and quick. She was still wearing the pale blue dress with white stockings, which, if Roland was not mistaken, had been worn for three days. Since Zero had kept her bedroom tidy, it must be definitely due to her shortage of clothes to change into rather than laziness or insanitation.

Somehow, Roland felt quite bitter in his heart.

Not only for her, but also for himself.

Roland could not believe it when thinking of the 300... no, 250 yuan in his pocket. How could he, the founder of the Dream World, and Zero, the trigger for the Dream World, descend to such a state? It could not be more tragic.

Roland would not let the situation worsen, since money was necessary when he wanted to buy books or explore this Dream World. He had to find a way to seek a stable income. 250 yuan could not even pay for a taxi, let alone to pay food and utilities.

When Roland was absorbed in thought about how to make money, Zero had busied herself in the kitchen.

She rapidly lit the fire to heat the pan before pouring in oil and heating it up. With a single hand, she cracked an egg and splattered it into the pan. Although the pan was too heavy for her to shovel up and down, she could just use a spatula to scramble the egg.

As the heated oil was sizzling in the pan, the tantalizing aroma of an omelet soon filled the living room.

Because of the limited cost of living, their breakfast had barely changed. Roland had two fried fritters and a fried egg, just as usual, and Zero had only one fried fritter.

"Were these fritters bought yesterday?" Roland took a bite and found it no longer crisp.

"Of course." Zero grunted. "They were the last fritters in grocery store last night, so they were especially cheap. Sometimes the owner would give me some of the raw flour dough from which I can simply make several fritters on my own."

Roland was surprised and asked, "Did you do the same thing at your home?"

"Almost." The little girl shook her head, saying nothing more. She seemed unwilling to talk about her family. After breakfast, she dressed up simply before carrying the bag and heading off to school. She walked to the door and said, "Uncle, as usual, I'll be out until noon. You have to wash the dishes."

"Ah, just go. Take care!" Roland nodded.

Zero could not help but get startled. After a while, she said yes and went out.

Well, it was time to check and count his property.

He returned to his bedroom and checked every corner of the bedside cabinets and wardrobe, sorting out all his belongings.

Firstly, it was the wallet that also contained an ID card and a credit card as well as the over 200 yuan. It looked so shabby. Roland, of course, threw some expired lottery tickets straight into the trash can. Even if those tickets drew prizes, they were overdue. Moreover, he simply did not believe anything with such a small probability would fall on him.

Secondly, there was a cell phone that had a completely empty contact list except for the bank information that showed him the cash flow in his card. Having read the message from the bank, Roland noticed that Zero's parents would send 1,500 yuan to him at the end of each month. But now, four days to the next remittance, there was only 20 yuan left in the card, which would be only enough to save him from starvation. In this case, there was no way for him to do other things.

Finally, there were some pieces of jewelry seemingly made of gold, and yet Roland was not sure about it. He wondered if they were prepared for marriage. If he sold them to a gold shop, Roland might earn almost 1,000 yuan, which could be used for emergencies.

This was all his disposable wealth.

But it barely helped the current situation, Roland sighed. He then turned his eyes towards the furnishings in the lumber-room.

He opened the door in the far end of the suite and looked at some old items in the room.

The iron bicycle and sewing machine, which was covered with dust and cobwebs, would presumably be worth 30 to 40 yuan due to its material, especially the latter one which was extremely heavy and hard for him to move alone. And the big iron door, which could count as scrap iron, might be worth over 100 yuan. These piddling amounts of money might seem of little importance in Roland's eyes at the usual time, but they were quite precious to him now.

If he went to a secondhand bookstore to buy abandoned schoolbooks, over 100 yuan would be enough to cover the used books of all subjects.

He made up his mind at the thought.

Roland remembered that there were small ads posted on the stairwell, which included the phone number of a recycle station. But before selling them, he had to clean them up first.

Roland thought that maybe they would be worth more if he made them cleaner.

Gasping, he carried and dragged the bicycle and sewing machine to the living room, and then he found something wrong.

The thick, big iron door did not seem to lean against the wall of the lumber-room, but was built into the wall!

"Damn it. Which bastard did this? What's the meaning of making a door on this wall? It's the outer wall of the apartment. Is it to make it more convenient for someone to commit suicide?"

"And there's also a lock hanging ridiculously on the door!"

"Wait..." It occurred to him that two keys were attached to his key ring.

Roland immediately went and fetched his keys which included the key to the main door. He put the other key into the keyhole. Unexpectedly, they were well matched.

With a click, the rusty lock flicked open and fell from the bolt.

Roland did not bother to pick it up but just pulled the bolt and forcibly opened the iron door.

The cold wind tangled with the snow and stormed in. This made him, who wore a short-sleeved shirt and a boxers tremble.

To his astonishment, there was a snow world behind the iron door.

He could dimly see a greige city surrounded by snow mountains that waved up and down far away. Built along the walls on both sides of the crack in the mountain, the city was wrapped in a big breach. In the center of the city, a towering building stood erect in the howling wind, like a pillar connecting to heaven.

Although it was the first time for him to see such scene, Roland immediately realized where it was.

"New Holy City, Hermes"

A stronghold city was built on the fractured area of the Impassable Mountain Range.

It was also a symbol that signified the mightiness and toughness of the church.

Chapter 642 - First Exploration

"Bang!"

Roland fiercely shut the door and took a deep breath.

The Snow that adhered to him quickly melted into water.

Although he had long understood that dreams were variable, this scene still shocked him.

Roland walked to the window of the lumber-room and looked out to check the outer wall. The wall was flat and neat without even a trace of being inlaid a door or repaired.

In other words, the door was inlaid into the wall while the apartment was "finished", rather than being built in afterwards.

So... was the door only in room 0825, or in every flat?

If the door was also built into other flats, what kind of scene did they have and where did they lead to?

Roland felt excited about this idea.

He returned to his bedroom and rummaged through the wardrobe before slipping on a set of winter clothes. The dilapidated coat he picked looked like it had lost most of its feathers and the wool in the knitted scarf was forked, but since he did not have a better choice at this moment, he had to get accustomed to them.

It was a hot summer day, after he put on the warm clothes, Roland felt he was surrounded by stoves, sweating profusely, his body temperature soaring.

Once again he walked close to the iron door. He kicked off the flip-flops and replaced them with a pair of green leather shoes before pushing open the door and stepping out.

The moment he entered the snow world, the cold wind howled through the gaps of his collar and cuffs and drilled into his body. When the cold wind met the hot sweats on his skin, he felt extremely icy cold and could not help sneezing.

"Wait, if I keep this door open, does it mean that I'll have an air conditioner that costs no power?" Roland thought.

He wondered what Zero would think this scene.

Roland rubbed his nose and looked back. The door looked like it was connected with a basement that was half buried in the slope. There were many similar low storehouses around this area which were obviously built by farmers or merchants who lived outside the city. But Roland noticed that these storehouses were unguarded, as if the entire campsite was abandoned.

However, what really marveled Roland was the scene that was hundreds of meters away from the slope.

He saw a clear boundary of this world.

As far as he could see, the snow slope was abruptly cut in the middle while spall floated in the mid-air as if they had become weightless. Violent cyclones and endless darkness took place in that space. Occasionally a bolt of scarlet lightning crackled through the sky, illuminating the border area, and even so, the darkness stretched out beyond what he could see.

This scene was appalling but extraordinarily magnificent. If he could put words on it, it was like a lonely island floating in the void. The boundary had spread along the mountain land until it disappeared in the snowstorm. Undoubtedly, there must be another similar boundary on the other side of Holy City, but it was too far away for him to see it now.

Was this the memory fragment that remained in Zero's mind?

Roland did not dare go near the boundary to see through it. Both the violent wind that ripped the spall and the lightning that crackled the sky were dangers to him. He also did not immediately move towards Holy City. Overlooking from here, he estimated that it would take him at least half an hour to reach the city. It would take longer if he had to wade through the ankle-deep snow. He needed sufficient preparation.

After that, Roland wandered through this suburban campsite.

He could not find anything alive, whether in half-buried storehouses, dwelling houses or tents. All of the people just seemed as if they had vanished.

It was somewhat like the Soul Battlefield for him, nothing more than a stage built with memory.

Accordingly, Holy City should be unmanned as well.

Although there was no trace of life around, the storehouses were well filled, like a freeze-frame of the memory from when it was spun off.

Those fresh grapes in Roland's hand would be an example to illustrate his point.

Roland found them in the small basement next door. The iron lock on the door could not stop him. He simply twisted off the lock and the bolt with a wrench he found in the house. There was plenty of food in it, like cured jerky, fillets, wheat, and even a small half-box of grapes.

The grapes looked very fresh. They must have been carried from the old Holy City beneath the plateau. When Roland put one into his mouth, he could still taste its cool sweetness.

His biggest gain was a small iron box he had found in a hidden compartment in the basement. It was not because of his careful searching but simply because it had opened when he entered the basement. An oil lamp was lit beside it, as if someone abruptly vanished at the moment he was putting things into the compartment. The compartment was left open, revealing the half-hidden iron box.

The box contained over 10 gold royals and several translucent gemstones that were clearly of high quality. Roland pocketed all of them without hesitation.

After he confirmed the things in the memory fragment could be taken into his flat, he got busy at once.

After two hours of hard work in the snow ground, Roland moved anything valuable into his house. It included lots of food and several armaments, such as armor, short swords, and crossbows. The former would save on the expense of food while the latter might be worth some money if he sold them online.

Roland kept carrying things from the campsite into the lumber-room until the room was filled. After that, he had no choice but to lock the door with reluctance.

He felt so good after picking up so many things for free.

He could not hold back laughing when he thought there was a whole Holy City for him to plunder.

The wealth of the whole city would probably make him rich overnight. Living expenses were absolutely no problem for him now.

Roland was panting as he took off his clothes. When he was about to go and have some water, a turn of sharp dizziness suddenly struck him.

"What's going on?" He stumbled towards the tea table. But before he made it, he felt his field of view turn upside down, followed by a bang and then darkness took him.

...

When Roland woke up again, he found himself in his bedroom lying on the bed, aching all over as if he had been through a marathon.

The night had enshrouded the city outside the blinds, indicating that he had been asleep for more than one or two hours.

Roland thought that it was probably because of his overtiredness, as well as the heatstroke caused by the alternate strike of coldness and heat. And that he probably should have caught some sleep before his labor.

But to his surprise, he did not feel much feeble at this moment. Instead, he was full of energy and so he disregarded the ache. It seemed as if a warm current was running through his body over and over again, causing his sense of touch to be super acute.

That was when Roland sensed a faint breath near his pillow.

He turned his head slightly and found Zero who was leaning beside him.

She was holding a wet towel, half her cheeks illuminated by moonlight, her eyelashes trembling slightly, her back moving up and down along with her breath.

Probably because the room was excessively sweltering, her dress was soaked and her arms covered with fine beads of sweat, sending out a unique aroma.

Roland knew that it must be the little girl who dragged him from the living room into the bedroom. Moreover, she tried the basic way to cool him down. He smacked his lips and could still taste the residual of the patchouli liquid in his mouth.

"How did she manage to pour the liquid in?" thought Roland.

Roland shook his head with resignation at the sight of Zero who slept defenselessly. He got up quietly and carried her to the bed. After that, he walked softly back to the living room. Zero who cared so much about the tidiness of her bedroom must have been unwilling to go to her own bed before taking a bath. He just simply left her on his bed.

Anyway, it was dirty enough.

Lying on the couch, he noticed that the ache was fading and that he could increasingly sense the warm current in his body.

Roland realized that it was not an illusion.

But something hard to describe.

He dug into his trouser pocket for a gold royal that he had brought out from the memory fragment and held it in his palm.

He willed the warm current to gather in his palm.

Roland clenched his fist, and when he unclenched it, the gold royal had been folded into a half-moon shape.

Chapter 643 - How to Make a Fortune

The next morning, Roland opened his eyes as the first ray of sunlight shone into the living room.

The fan had kept blowing hot air all night, and cicadas were shrilling their familiar songs outside the window.

Now he had confirmed that the sleep in the Dream World would not get him back to reality, and Roland thought that he could rest during sleep.

Although this may sound a bit weird... Who cares. It doesn't matter if it works.

Yawning, he got off of the couch. When he was about to go to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, he heard Zero screaming in the bedroom.

After a moment, she appeared at the door, her face blushed. She pointed to Roland, stammering. "Yesterday I... You..."

"I slept on the couch last night." Roland shrugged. "Please, you're sweaty and unwashed. I would certainly not sleep with you."

The little girl pulled her collar to take a sniff and then she blushed even more like a ripe apple contrasting with her long white hair. In a flurry, she ran back to her bedroom, fiddled for a while, and rushed into the bathroom with clean clothes.

Soon came the sound of showering from the bathroom.

By the time she came out, Roland had finished preparing breakfast.

Today's breakfast was much heartier than the usual ones. Fried bacon, salt pepper egg, roasted dried fish, and a plate of fresh grapes.

Of course, they were all made of what he had taken from Holy City behind the iron door.

"You bought meat?" Zero asked in surprise, her hair wrapped in a wet towel. Roland could see her throat slightly stirring, apparently swallowing.

"Yeah, I bought a lot and put it all in the fridge." Roland handed her a pair of chopsticks. "I found a new job."

"Did you?" she asked suddenly with an excited voice, seemingly forgetting what had just happened.

"Yeah, I'll get paid soon." Roland laughed. "These were bought for celebration."

The little girl was relieved. "I thought you finally crossed your bottom line and did something irreparable."

"What does she mean by 'something irreparable'?" he thought inwardly, "Did she really think I would steal or rob? Uh... Robbery doesn't seem a big deal in the Dream World."

"So the reason that you had heatstroke was due to staying out in the sun too long looking for a job yesterday?"

" Probably..." he said as he threw a grape into his mouth, "In short, there's no need to worry about money anymore."

"You're so weak," Zero curled her upper lip and said, "When will I be able to stop worrying about you?"

Roland was almost choked by grapes as Zero said that. He retorted. "You make me feel like you've been worrying about me all the time."

"Uh..." This reduced her to silence. After a while, she glared at Roland. "You've really wasted ingredients when cooking breakfast. You added salt to the salty bacon!"

"She seems really good at changing the topic," Roland thought as he picked up a slice of bacon and place it into his mouth. "I think it's quite good except some corners of it were not well fried."

"You should leave it to me in the future." Zero complained, but she quickly gulped down the food on the dishes. Then she took her bag and was about to leave. "You just leave the dishes there. When I come back, and I'll wash them together with dishes for dinner."

"Wait," Roland stopped her and asked, "Is there a secondhand bookstore nearby? Do you know where it is?"

...

This time he had stayed in the Dream World for three days before detaching from it. When he woke up in Neverwinter, the sun had risen high in the sky.

It seemed the speed of time in the Dream World was eight times faster than here, which meant a night in Real Word would count as two days in the Dream World. Moreover, if he delayed his departure until the third day, others would just think he woke up late in the morning.

The first thing Roland wanted to do after getting up was to find a gold royal and clench it.

It turned out that the gold royal did not change even a little bit, but his fingers ached.

Roland sighed at the fact that the inexplicable power seemed to only exist in the Dream World as expected. He put the gold royal back to his pocket, slipped on a coat and sat at his desk.

Roland intended to copy out the key knowledge he had reviewed in the Dream World while his memory was still clear. It included the missing parts from every basic subject, as well as detailed designs for some large industrial equipment.

He had made the best of the last three days in the Dream Word. Selling those goods he stole from the campsite behind the door went quite well. He found a local second-hand goods forum where he posted the armor pictures and claimed that he had a number of imitated medieval crafts to sell at low prices. Before long, some buyers who were attracted by its absurdly low price and exquisite craftwork started to contact him.

In the end, armor, 500 yuan each suit, crossbows and daggers, 100 yuan each, were all sold out. The prices were incredibly low in the eye of others, but since Roland did not pay the cost of these goods, he was not distressed when selling them. However, he did not expect that gold royals would be much more difficult to sell. Even if he kneaded them all into round shape, the bank still would not accept the gold that was not traded in a formal way, whether it was gold bars or gold jewelry.

Roland could not manage to sell them to a gold shop nearby either, where they only accepted the accessories they had sold and the customers also had to pay an additional fee. A salesman was kind enough to give him an address of an old pawnbroker that accepted unidentified gold at half the market price. When thinking that he had only a dozen gold royals with a texture far from solid gold, Roland simply threw them all into his wardrobe.

He might as well move more suits of armor out of the campsite instead of wasting time on selling gold.

Meanwhile, Roland had no idea of where to sell three glittering gemstones. In the end, he just left them unsold.

With money in hand, he immediately swept through the secondhand bookstore near the apartment, buying all the textbooks he had ever read. Those he had not read were completely blank except for the covers. Obviously, the Dream World did not exceed his range of awareness, so it seemed impossible for Anna to cover all fields now.

However, thanks to his wide range of hobbies, he had browsed a large amount of all kinds of knowledge on the internet. And now he could get any detailed answers to any designs that he had ever run through, even something he had only just glimpsed upon.

In addition to those that were essential to quickly boost the technology in City of Neverwinter, Roland also bought two new sets of clothes for Zero, as well as a set of winter camping equipment for himself. As a result, he spent all of the money that he had just earned.

Roland could still remember how shocked Zero was when she received the new clothes. She tried to turn down the offer several times before accepting them, unlike any other girl of her age that should not worry about so many things. Roland learned the reason for her behavior after he asked about it. Strangely, this was the first time for Zero to receive a gift, which was something she dared not crave, as her parents beat her at home.

As the creator of the Dream World, Roland felt a strange sense of guilt.

Roland had been busy until noon when Nightingale quietly showed up in the room.

"Didn't you go down to have breakfast?"

"Yeah," Rowland said without looking up, "please fetch lunch for me. I'll eat it in my bedroom."

"Is that what you've been doing all morning?" Nightingale said as she surprisedly weighed the stack of papers at the desk, "How did you come up with so many ideas in such a short amount of time?"

"They've always been in my mind. I just forgot them temporarily." Roland rotated his wrist. "Take a look. What do you think?"

"Describe the electromagnetic field in... a certain volume... mathematical model using the form of... integral?" Nightingale put her hand to her forehead and said, "Your Majesty, I felt a little dizzy. I'll go and bring your lunch first."

Roland could not help but smirk before saying, "Go then."

"By the way, don't you have to go to the office today?" she turned to look at him and asked when she reached the door.

"Why?"

"Barov has business with you. He said there were two letters for you to read personally."

Chapter 644 - Diplomacy in the New Era

...

After lunch, Roland summoned Barov into the bedroom.

Barov, the Director of City Hall, who came to Roland's bedroom for the first time, seemed more cautious than usual but looked very excited.

Seeing his behavior, Roland could not help thinking of a story that a celebrity in history ran out to receive his subjects with his clothes in disarray, which considerably touched the visitors. It felt like his lazy behavior unexpectedly aroused a strong feeling of trust in his Director of City Hall and he had not intended it to.

He had to say that male official had a unique advantage in loyalty. For example, he could talk with him overnight, share one bed with him, and so on. But if it was Edith Kant, those things would be regarded as gossip.

Roland smiled and shook his head, setting aside those distracting thoughts. "How many letters have you received during the time I fought and slipped into a coma in the Northern Region?"

"A total of 16." Barov quickly reported. "Most of them are from lords of various domains asking for trade or visiting, and two confidential letters are from the Eastern Region asking for a peace negotiation. I've answered them all as you've required."

They had concluded the arrangements in a council meeting before the war. When the king led the army and marched on war, Barov would temporarily deal with the administrative affairs of Neverwinter in the king's absence. He would be responsible for reading all letters that were sent to the king. And the letters which were of particular importance and beyond Barov's power to answer would be sent to the battlefront by carrier pigeon.

"Just for a peace negotiation?"

"Yes... They're unwilling to surrender the right of enfeoffment. Moreover, they advise you to keep the tradition and honor of nobility."

"Next spring, those people will naturally know what kind of choice they should make." Roland shrugged. "Where are the letters for my attention? Where are they from?"

"One came from Astrology Association of the city of Dawn, the other from the Kingdom of Dawn," Barov said, handing over two sheets of paper, "They arrived in the moment you were in a deep slumber, and it tells something that is a bit... weird."

"Weird?"

Roland first spread out the parchment with the constellation pattern on it.

It was written by Astrologer of Dispersion Star. He had spent the first half page on greetings and gratitude. The astronomical telescopes Roland had sent to observatory had been put into use. Certainly, they should thank him for that, Roland thought, but the rest of the letter numbed him for a while.

"They've tracked the Star of Extinction in the sky?"

"A star that was sparkling red and was located in a permanent place?"

The first thing that came to Roland's mind was a synchronous orbit.

Judging from his poor knowledge of astronomy, he knew that only objects that traveled on a synchronous orbit could remain relatively still with the planet.

"If Bloody Moon appeared on this orbit, it would definitely influence the planet. Plus the observation also showed that its size should be extremely small."

"So Bloody Moon was not a natural celestial body, but a man-made satellite?"

After thinking for a moment, Roland denied his speculation. "If it was a satellite, how could it be descending to Earth?" According to Agatha's view, the moment Bloody Moon showed up, the entire continent would witness it. It was greater and brighter than the moon, and its scarlet light dyed the walls of Holy City bloody red. Even on a bright day, one could see its outline.

"It made no sense."

He was silent for a while before putting the letter aside. "Write a letter. Invite the astrologers to come to Neverwinter."

"But they rejected you last time," Barov said with hesitation, "I'm afraid this time..."

"Things have changed. Now that the Astrology Association has found the star they want to pursue, they'll just observe the sky where the star is located," Roland tapped the table and said, "You told them in the letter that Neverwinter has developed a better astronomical telescope and found some ancient books about the Star of Extinction. I believe they'll come."

"Yes."

He spread out the second piece of paper, or a slip of paper as he would call it. As per usual, a message delivered by a carrier pigeon was always very concise.

"The King of Dawn died, and his eldest son Appen Moya succeeded the throne."

"He ordered the elimination of believers of the church, cut off the trade route to the Holy City and has begun to hunt down witches."

"As a result, a rebellion broke out on the border that affected our caravan."

"The original plan may temporarily be suspended."

Roland could not help frowning. He knew that it was normal for Barov, who was unclear about what the church had done to the Kingdom of Dawn, to be confused. After Isabella and others retreated, the King of Dawn would sooner or later die of a lack of pills. He just did not expect that Appen would hate the church so much that he even involved witches.

Of the policies Appen had given, eliminating believers seemed reasonable. But the unilateral ban on trade basically cut off the source of wealth for border lords. The church must be behind the rebellion. Yet, hunting down witches was something that absolutely went against Roland's interests.

An order of such impulsion could not be drawn from the ideas of the three powerful Families. The only possible explanation was that the new king had lost his mind when seeking revenge for his father.

Roland had thought that the Kingdom of Dawn would be a potential ally, but this fact had disappointed him.

"Send a formal diplomatic letter to Appen," Roland said slowly, "First of all, it's to congratulate him for his coronation, and then warn him to stop hunting down witches. A pure witch isn't the same as a common witch and Graycastle has established a formal witch organization. Anyone who treats them as enemies will be against the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Uh... Your Majesty." Barov wiped the sweat away from his forehead. "Are you sure you want to put those words in the letter?"

"Are there any questions?"

"He won't take it seriously. He may think you're threatening him."

Roland was very clear that sometimes even the feudatories under the local lords would not follow the king's order, let alone foreign kingdoms. But the era had changed. If the kingdom did not understand diplomacy, he did not mind teaching them what it really was.

"I'm threatening him," he answered nakedly, "If Appen Moya insists on his way, I may as well support a new king of the Kingdom of Dawn next year when we conquer Holy City, a wise king who'll fight with Graycastle against the Battle of Divine Will. Andrea of House Quinn will be a good choice."

Diplomacy in the new era would be built on steel firearms. Anything he failed to earn on the negotiating table would be taken by force. To deal with other kingdoms, intervening in their internal affairs, changing heirs, supporting oppositions, and directly stationing the troops into their lands would be common ways. Roland did not want any other kingdoms to stand in his way before Bloody Moon came.

Therefore, the core of this diplomatic letter meant to show "Don't say that I didn't warn you."

"I, I got it," Barov Mons answered with a complex look in his eyes. He was astonished, excited, and undisguisedly awed... He bent down deeply and said, "I'll send your will to the Kingdom of Dawn."

Chapter 645 - Farewell and Promise

Finally, Roland could not stay in his bedroom all day and he had to go to the office.

It was almost dusk when Nightingale informed him that Tilly wanted to meet him.

Roland had to put on a coat, comb his long hair, and take a pile of writing papers to the office. He opened the door and found that Tilly and Ashes were there waiting for him.

Seeing Roland holding heavy stuff, Ashes immediately took the thick stack of papers. This left Roland feeling quite surprised as he never expected that Ashes, who had always been dissatisfied with him, would help him one day.

The sunset pierced through a French window, dying the walls orange-red. At the same time, it also left a ray of gold on them. All of this somewhat gave them a sense of parting.

Roland had already guessed Tilly's intention.

Though Roland did not want them to leave, he knew that this day finally would come. Besides, it was very sincere of them not to leave when he was in a coma.

"I'm here to say goodbye to you," Tilly said calmly, "I have to go back to Sleeping Island to resolve the Bloodfang Association issues."

Roland stared at Tilly's dainty face and eyes which reflected the sunset. After a while of silence, Roland said, "I see. When does the Charming Beauty arrive in the western region? I'll make a farewell dinner for you. Wait a moment..." He was suddenly stunned and asked, "You mean that you'll come back?"

Ashes could not help but cover her mouth.

Tilly directly chuckled and asked humorously, "Well, won't you welcome me? Brother."

"No, I mean... Why do you..." Roland opened his mouth in surprise but had nothing to say. After a while, he asked, "Is it because of the Months of Demons?"

"Could it not be for something else?" Tilly stretched her hands and said, "Don't you have higher expectations for me?"

He was completely astonished.

"Will you..."

"Yes, what you thought is right." Tilly outspokenly said, "I'll take the news to Sleeping Island that you won the battle against the church. I'll also tell them they needn't live a troubling life and hide on the small island any longer, because the church has completely lost control of City of Neverwinter of Graycastle in the western region. When you're ready, I shall bring the witches who would like to come to the western region to settle down here. At that time, I hope you won't to complain that they eat too much."

Roland's heart was filled with indescribable excitement as he said, "They're welcome in the western region at any time!"

"But your castle isn't big enough to accommodate so many witches. If only half of them would like to come, the number is still several times bigger than that of the Witch Union. What's more, most of them aren't combat witches. I'm planning to hire ships to deliver them when the Months of Demons are over, for the routes are much safer at that time." Princess Tilly revealed a sly grin.

He promised without any hesitation. "There wouldn't be any problems, for Karl will build enough accommodation before the next spring."

Tilly stretched out three fingers and said, "In addition, I hope that you can promise me three extra conditions, brother."

Tilly was so serious that Roland subconsciously sat upright. "Go ahead."

"Firstly, you can't constrain them if they want to leave City of Neverwinter for other towns."

"No problem," he replied instantly, "but at the moment, the Kingdom of Graycastle isn't unified and I can't guarantee that people in other domains will treat witches equally. Thus, for the sake of safety, I advise them to just settle in the western region or upon Sleeping Island temporarily. It won't be late for them to leave the western region by the time I'm able to control the entire kingdom."

"It's just a hypothesis." Tilly nodded with satisfaction and continued, "Secondly, you can't force them to work for you if they aren't willing to."

Roland poured two cups of tea for them and said, "Can I allure them to work for me?"

Tilly gave him an affirming look and said, "It's okay if you don't use forcible methods."

"Deal." He could not help smiling.

Since they were busy seeking shelters after basically awakening, it was quite easy for Roland to make those naive little girls plunge themselves into the waves of industrialization. He had a massive rewarding mechanism to absorb them. Except for salaries, it would be attractive enough for them to work for him if he set the rule that only working witches had the rights to enjoy scented soaps, delicious wine, and ice cream.

Capital sugarcoated-bullets were far more compelling than pure violence.

"Lastly, I hope that Sleeping Spell can exist independently." When speaking of this point, Tilly appeared to be somewhat hesitant because she thought that this condition was a little harsh. "Of course, I'll hand over a part of the money earned by Sleeping Spell to City of Neverwinter."

"The Sleeping Spell?" Roland was in a daze. He remembered that this bounty organization was formed to resolve the conflicts between combat witches and assistant witches while making profits for Sleeping Island. In other words, almost all of the witches on the island belonged to the Sleeping Spell. If the organization became independent, it meant that Tilly got the control of all witches in it.

He soon realized why Princess Tilly had been hesitant to say the words. If the Sleeping Spell settled down here as an independently self-administrative organization, it was the Sleeping Spell that would still decide to accept bounty missions or dispatch witches to the Fjords. So what Tilly had asked for looked like she was taking precautions against him.

However, Roland agreed instantly. "Of course it can. Though only if they abide by the internal laws of the western region."

"Isn't the Sleeping Spell like a private company?" Roland thought.

Actually speaking, the minute he realized that the witches on Sleeping Island would settle down here, he had mixed feelings of joys and worries, not knowing whether he should conscript them into the Witch Union or not.

As one of the three major administrative agencies along with City Hall and the First Army, the Witch Union must be controlled by Wendy who was loyal to him, so that he could rest assured. But there were too many witches on Sleeping Island. Once all of them joined the Witch Union, Wendy's control would be abated and it would be less righteous for him to intervene and manage at that time.

But if they did not join the Witch Union, he did not want to seem callous towards those witches. As such, with Tilly's condition, Roland now felt relieved. In addition, it was normal for Tilly to feel a little worried, for trust itself needed time to build. Tilly gave more trust to him than before, which was huge progress.

"Really?" Tilly felt somewhat surprised at his quick answer.

"Don't worry. I always keep my word." Roland smiled.

"Well..." Tilly now felt relaxed, saying, "Then I shall go back to my bedroom to pack my stuff. The Charming Beauty will arrive in three days. Except for the combat witches who followed me, I'll take Iffy and Softfeathers with me. Once the Bloodfang Association issues are resolved, I'll send them back."

"You won't come back until the Months of Demons are over?"

"You've asked me whether it was because of the Months of Demons, and I've also said that I don't deny that." She blinked her eyes.

"That means you'll come back in advance?" Roland asked her closely.

Tilly nodded and said, "Just like last year, brother. I'll fight with you against demonic beasts until the heavy snow stops."

Chapter 646 - Hotpot

...

When the two were about to leave, Ashes, who walked behind Princess Tilly, suddenly stopped and turned around to say, "Your Majesty, I owe you an apology."

This was the first time that Ashes had used polite words when talking to Roland. "Well. As for those episodes happening in the palace, I'm very..." Roland explained to Ashes.

Ashes shook her head and said, "We all know that he isn't you. He can neither lead us to defeat the church nor offer enough freedom and trust to us witches. I didn't believe this until you defeated the church and I'm very sorry for that." She paused and continued, "Each witch will remember what you've done, and you're more qualified to be Lady Tilly's brother than him."

If Ashes said such words, these would also be Tilly's thoughts. They did not believe that he was Prince Roland. Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. Was this some kind of recognition?

Staring at his smiling sister behind Ashes, he abruptly realized something.

The Extraordinary covered her chest with the right hand and slightly bent. Her black ponytail hung down upon her shoulders and her golden eyes were like the shining stars in the evening.

"Envoy Ashes salutes you, Your Majesty."

***************

Three days later, the farewell dinner which Andrea had long waited for finally arrived.

What she had awaited was not the farewell but the new delicious food His Majesty promised.

Since the last farewell, she had always remembered that there had been more delicious food than just ice cream. So Andrea had expected to taste it this time. But the battle against the church was of great significance and so she was reluctant to suggest it. But now, she could have a taste.

The dinner was not held in the castle but in the expanded castle backyard.

Through a long corridor formed by olives and entering the center of the backyard, Andrea smelled a thick scent before seeing any food. "Was it crystal fish from the Everwinter's glacier? Or was it flavored egg from the Wolfheart's cliff? Or was it the rainbow trout from the Fjords that's known for its delicious taste. No, no, no! I haven't smelled anything that bears a scent so tempting before. No matter how rare the material is, it can't make such delicious food."

"I'm suddenly hungry." Shavi shouted.

"Have you always led such a life in the western region?" Molly licked her lips and said, "What an enviable life!"

Breeze embraced Lotus and Evelyn together and then explained to Molly. "I haven't had many chances to enjoy it. It's them you should envy."

Candle explained. "This kind of dinner isn't held every day and the dessert is only served every three days."

"Only served every three days..." Molly held her forehead and said, "Why do I feel like you're showing off."

"No, I'm not."

Ashes took a glimpse of Andrea, though she could not control her saliva either, she said, "Hey, don't drool out."

If it was at an ordinary time, Andrea would have sneered back, but now her attention was completely drawn to round stumps at the side of the backyard.

They appeared to grow out of the ground at the first sight. The tree trunk was so thick and sturdy that as many as seven or eight people could encircle it. The hot air coming out from its inside made it look like something was burning.

When she walked closer, she found that the tree trunk had been hollowed out. A huge iron pot was erected on top of the stumps and the thick scent was coming out from it was soup.

In addition, there were various different foods on the short table beside the trunk. They were various but common at the dining table. What made her more confused was that the food was raw.

This was the first time that Andrea had seen such a kind of dinner. There were no attendants, no white cloth, no music and no crowds of people. Each one sat around the stumps in a circle. It looked like that they had to do it by themselves.

What Andrea thought was true. After all of the witches arrived, Roland clapped his hands to indicate that the dinner had begun. He explained to all of the witches, "This is a hotpot dinner. It's very easy to eat, simply put all the food you like into the pot and enjoy it when it's cooked."

Fall was the best season to enjoy hotpots. As a very popular cooking method, it was quite easy to make a hotpot. Even the simplest vegetables could be delicious. The most important thing was that hotpots were very down-to-earth. Eaters would gather together to enjoy fine food from the same pot. Therefore, they were much easier to promote relationships among people than traditional banquets. As a farewell dinner, hotpots could reduce people's sadness and depression.

A hotpot's essence lay in its soup stock. In this age, cooking methods were largely monotonous. Usually, one ingredient had only one taste and people had to pay more attention to the quality of materials themselves. Roland had ordered chefs to mix various ingredients that had distinguished flavors and put them in a pot before to cook them. They included whole chickens, porcine bones, bird beak Mushrooms, seafood, spice and so on. So the soup stock was very rich in taste, a taste that could not be made by only cooking one or two raw materials.

It was Leaf who made the hotpot table that had a style of nature. She had cast the power of Heart of Forest to make the plants grow quickly. At her will, they had become what Roland had asked for without any extra transformations. They were covered inside with a thermal insulation coating. Even if the spirit lamps were lit, they would not set the tables on fire. Instead, the temperature of the inner walls would spread gradually over to the entire stumps. If they put their hands on a tabletop, they would feel a lukewarm heat.

As Andrea put some cooked meat into her mouth, she could not help but hum because of the strong and rich flavor.

As tens of delicious food materials assailed her tongue and the hot soup flowed down her throat into her stomach, Andrea could not stop eating, though this feeling was totally different from ice cream bread.

According to the table manner of the nobles, they should not take new food until they had finished the food upon their plates. However, they could not keep that manner with the hotpots created by His Majesty, otherwise, they would have nothing left after finishing their food.

The other witches on the table were no longer elegant. In other words, a hotpot had nothing to do with elegance. There were even several plates of delicious food in front of Lady Tilly. Even Ashes had picked up food several times from the plates in front of her.

Ashes imitated Andrea's tone and said, "'The essence of food lies in its original flavor. Without seasoning, the boiled soup can be closer to the original flavor.' Who has said these words? In my memories, someone considered salt and spices a barbaric way of cooking and said that real nobles will never use them to cook, but today, what I've seen is different from what she said."

If it was before, Andrea might argue with her. But now, she had realized what was the most important thing.

It was more important to enjoy the hotpot than play words with Ashes.

She lightly glimpsed at Ashes. Without hesitation, she pushed Ashes' spoon away and scooped a piece of floating meat into her bowl.

This time, Andrea ate contently.

Chapter 647 - A Confession

Roland spent all his time copying the textbooks after Tilly bid her farewell.

He first started with the basic courses. As he had just got a chance to revisit the knowledge long forgotten, naturally, he needed to take the advantage of it and add the missing information to the textbooks previously drafted based purely on his memory.

Second, he had to improve the designs of the current equipment used in the city of Neverwinter. Roland knew there was still a big difference between an acceptable machine and a good one. A more comprehensive design could further enhance the productivity and efficiency of steam engines and machine tools.

Based on the new design, Anna had finally completed the first steam turbine.

Roland hurried to the backyard of North Slope soon after he heard the news. He and Anna both sat on the workstation, appreciating the charm of this colossal apparatus. At this moment, Roland felt his relationship with Anna was totally different from the ones he used to have with other girls in the modern world.

The machine was nearly six meters long and was connected to an external preheating boiler and a steam boiler. For the most part, it looked like a huge metal roller tightly wrapped around by dense impellers. As its spindle was driven by high-pressure steam when the machine was heated by coal, the new turbine was much more efficient than old reciprocating steam engines, and it also produced far fewer noises and vibrations.

As a power source of a new generation, the first model of the machine turbine would be used to help with Thunder's naval exploration.

Unfortunately, in spite of its versatility, Roland did not plan to build a second turbine for the time being. For one thing, the plant did not have the capability to manufacture a similar one within a short period of time yet. For another, Anna would soon need to focus on improving machine tools.

"How do you like it?" Anna turned around and nuzzled up to Roland. "I'm good, aren't I?"

Unlike most girls, Anna could not be happier whenever she turned a paper design into a physical reality. Every time she completed a major project, she would not conceal her delight and satisfaction.

Roland could tell that Anna was contented with the life she had now.

"Of course you are, but I'm just a tad better than you." Roland wiped off the dirt on her cheeks with a smile, leaving a hint of gray streaks on her face.

Every time he gazed into her clear blue eyes, he swallowed back the words he had prepared to say, the words that he had promised Nightingale to convey to Anna. Although Roland had resolved to make his confession, he did not realize how hard it actually was until he really tried to do so.

No justifications could lift the burden off his shoulders.

For the past few days, he had occupied himself by preparing books and drafting designs to temporarily forget about the possible consequences of this inevitable talk.

However, his indecision was also hurting the people he cared for, especially Nightingale who had been eager for an answer.

Roland knew he could not keep dawdling like this.

When the boilers gradually cooled down and the steam turbine eventually came to a halt, Roland took a deep breath and whispered in Anna's ear. "Come to my bedroom tonight. We need to talk."

...

Roland sat in front of his desk after night descended. He could hear his heart throbbing frantically in his chest.

"Nobody in this era cares about how many women a noble owns as they do in the modern world."

"I'm just following my heart."

"Nobody will think it's something that breaks a social norm."

Roland revolved rapidly a multitude of reasons in his mind but turned them down one by one. He felt two voices in his head debating and wrestling with each other. He wanted to add the last missing part to the book, only to find his quill suspending in the air, not a single word written down.

His anguish ended when Anna pushed the door open.

The heated argument in his head instantly stopped. Roland put down the quill and fixed his eyes on the girl.

Anna looked nothing unusual. She was cloaked in an over-sized pajama. A strand of damp fringes was clinging to her forehead. A faint, placid smile was lingering in her eyes, and she looked as serene as ever.

Roland somehow remembered that after the Months of Demons of the first year, Anna had voluntarily waited for him at the stairs.

She never whined or complained, but simply told him her thoughts and what she wanted explicitly.

Now it was his turn.

Roland pulled her to the desk and slowly confessed what had bothered him all this time.

An ensuing silence fell between them. The silence was so long that Roland thought Anna would turn away abruptly and leave the room. To his surprise, however, he did not perceive a noticeable change in her expression when he slowly looked up at her.

"That's it?"

Roland failed to come up with an answer promptly. "What?"

"I've been wondering when you'll tell me this." Anna seated herself next to him. "I don't want you to spit it out that fast, but at the same time, I wish you could talk to me as soon as you can... Now I finally don't need to worry about this matter anymore."

Roland gaped. "You've known it from the beginning..."

Anna replied bluntly, "I can tell that you have feelings for Nightingale. The more hesitant you seem to be, the more it shows that you care about me. But I also hope you can open up to me earlier because I would like to share your burden no matter what it is."

Anna let out a sigh at these words. "I never dreamed that I would win a royal family member's affections. I thought I would be very contented to just be with you. After you told me that you would one day marry me, I changed my mind—Roland, I won't share you with anybody."

"I'm sorry. I..."

"You don't need to apologize, for love knows no right or wrong. Plus... I feel glad that you've picked this moment to confess to me." Anna paused for a second and then said, "You aren't a man from this world, are you?"

Roland's heart stopped with a queer jerk.

"Nobody, whether he's a noble or a civilian, will ever feel hesitant or restless because of this kind of problem, unless he was brought up in a completely different world." Anna continued, "Likewise, people in this world may treat a witch fairly, but they'll never befriend her. Do you remember our bet? In the book, I wrote that you were a guest from another world, a world that wasn't hell or an abyss, but a more pleasant place. You brought knowledge we've never heard of. It was God that sent you to me."

At this point, Roland realized there was no need for him to continue to conceal his identity. He replied, "You're... overall right, except some little details."

Anna giggled. "I also wrote that you would tell me about Nightingale in the book. It appears I've got at least two things right."

Roland suddenly found Anna was not only good at learning. She also had terrifying perspicacity.

Before Roland could make a reply, Anna had taken his hand. She pronounced her words slowly but decisively. "I can't give my consent to your request, at least not now."

Roland was dumbfounded. What did she mean...by not now? Did Anna imply that she would agree someday later?

"I know what's bothering you. Don't worry. I'll talk her through. It's time to sleep." Anna pressed her kiss to Roland's forehead and said, "Goodnight, Your Majesty."

With a creak, the door was closed. The room became quiet and tranquil again. It took Roland quite a while to fully recover from the shock he had gone through after Anna left.

...

Chapter 648 - Otto's Request

The king's city of the Kingdom of Dawn was currently undergoing extreme political turbulence. Even Yorko, who did not normally partake in politics, could easily perceive the underlying tension.

Since the new king ascended the throne, residences had been constantly broken in and searched by soldiers. Rumors about rebellions of lords at the border remained afloat in taverns. Foreign commodities on the exhibition had largely reduced, and even Yorko's caravan had suspended the slave trades.

According to Hill, Appen Moya had not only taken in slaves from the Kingdom of Wolfheart but had also liberated them from slavery. It was a good deed, but unfortunately, the act impeded Roland's plan.

Yorko did not worry the slightest about the interruption of the business, for he did not see any potential losses from it. The cavaran was provided by Denise, and there was no overhead cost of trading in slaves. He did not really care about that little money he had earned from the trading. As long as he was still the ambassador of the Kingdom of the Graycastle, sooner or later he would find the other profitable business opportunities.

On the other hand, there had been some progress in the formation of the alliance.

Three days after the coronation of Appen, Yorko was summoned to the palace and was inquired about the details of the alliance agreement by the new king. After Appen learned that the church had suffered a serious defeat at Coldwind Ridge, he delightedly put his fingerprint on the agreement.

Yorko was pleased that after numerous restless nights, the first task His Majesty had assigned to him had, at length, officially come to an end.

His good mood, however, did not last long. All his self-complacency was blown away that very night by an airy comment of Hill's.

"It was too late. I'm afraid this alliance has lost its due efficacy," his guard said. "Besides, His Majesty may not like the way the new king treats witches. Timothy, who carried the same hostile attitude, was the best example. You may keep the parchment for yourself as a souvenir."

It was a well-known fact that Roland Wimbledon liked witches. However, Yorko did not think Roland would be that defiant and stupid as to break the deal with the neighbor because of them.

Even if His Majesty dreaded the attitude of the King of Dawn toward witches, he could do nothing about it. After all, the Moyas had been reigning over the Kingdom of Dawn for generations, and Appen, as the ruler of the country, could manage his realm however he liked. Nobody could ever interfere in their domestic affairs.

Having said that, Yorko still sided with his old friend. He wondered as pretty and remarkable as witches were, how they could possibly be demons' minions.

Yorko swayed his head, trying to shake off these trifles that had been bothering him. He was merely an ambassador, whose sole duty was to take messages for His Majesty. As to political commotions and changes in the situation, they had nothing to do with him.

As he still got some time, Yorko planned to first meet Denise and then decide his leisure activities tonight.

He was just about to set out when the eldest son of the Luoxi Family suddenly pounded the door.

Yorko regarded this unexpected visit as evil forebodings. This man had never brought any good news to him. Otto had earlier claimed that the information he carried could determine whether the Kingdom of Graycastle would preserve or devastate. Later, he had whined about the disastrous change in the new king's character. Every piece of news he had brought had delivered Yorko a headache. If Hill had not insisted on keeping in touch with Otto Luoxi, Yorko would have simply chosen to ignore his presence.

He sent for Hill at once and ushered Otto into the living room.

"You've got news from the palace for His Majesty again?"

"No, not for now." Otto poured himself some tea as a matter of course and asked, "You've got plans tonight?"

"Yes." Yorko lied. He hoped Otto would back off. Denise would bestow him a romantic evening, whereas Otto would only give him a fitful night.

"Put it off then. I want to ask you a favor." Otto handed him a black envelope.

Yorko opened it and found an invitation card with a seal of a pitch-black dragon head on it, one identical to the pattern on a gold royal.

After reading the letter, Yorko shook his head. "You want me to go to the exhibition with you? I don't have money to help you bid."

In fact, Denise had taken him to this kind of exhibition a few times. The commodities were indeed of extreme rarity, but their prices were also astonishingly high. A bid of 1,000 gold royals was fairly common in an auction. Yorko wondered where these wealthy merchants had collected all their money from.

Otto drained the teacup. "You don't need to worry about money. By helping me, you're actually helping your king."

"Tell me about it." Hill, who seated himself next to Yorko, put in.

Otto answered in a low voice, "I've heard that there'll be a witch for sale in this auction."

"Hell." Yorko cursed within himself. He knew it was not going to be good news. Everybody knew that the new king was now hunting down witches. If it was at a normal time, he would definitely tag along with pleasure. At present, however, he would rather stay away from witches. "Aren't these people worried that they would infuriate King Appen Moya?"

Yorko left the rest of his words unsaid. "The three families shall unite together and fully support the king. It appears that you oppose his order."

"Although City of Glow was the Moyas' domain, there are still some places his arm can't reach." Otto shrugged.

"Is the exhibition hosted by Rats?"

"They won't be Rats if they're financially capable of hosting this auction," Hill replied nonchalantly.

"You're correct." Otto gave an approving nod. "The exhibition isn't that formal but is still organized by some of the most powerful local merchants. They call them the Black Money. These people often conduct underground businesses, a big part of which is slave trading."

Yorko asked, "There's a slave market right in the outer city. Why do they have to go underground?"

"You'll know when you get there."

"Can the Paytons join us?" Yorko's interest was now aroused, but he did not want to blindly follow Otto's instructions.

"Are you talking about the businesswoman you usually hang out with? No, she can't," Otto said flatly. "The Black Money has the strictest selection of their guests. She's a relatively reputable merchant, but she isn't well-known enough to be eligible for the exhibition."

"Do you want to buy the witch?" Hill turned the subject.

"Not me, but Mr. Ambassador does." Otto pointed to Yorko. "The Luoxi Family is too close to the royal family. It'll attract unwelcome attention if I bid on her. However, it's quite understandable that the Ambassador of the Graycastle wishes to take a witch as his bed wench. I'll take care of the payment. I hope you can transport her to His Majesty Roland's domain via the trade route you've opened before. Nobody will raise suspicions if she's hidden among the delegation."

"But the slave trade has suspended." Hill spread out his hands. "We don't know when the business will restore."

"You can hide the witch in your fleet among other cargos."

"Why do you want to do that?"

"Because of... an old friend." Otto hesitated for a moment. "She's a witch. I thought she fell off the cliff and died, but I later met her in the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle. His Majesty Roland Wimbledon once told me that every witch was precious and that they shouldn't die because of the church's malicious slander and false accusations. I also want her to have some companions."

"Well, with respect to this matter, I need to..." While Yorko was still rummaging for excuses to decline the request, Hill Fawkes grasped Otto's hand.

"I see. Leave it to Mr. Ambassador."

Chapter 649 - [Black Money]

"Thank you. I'll call on you again tonight."

Yorko's jaw dropped. His eyes flitted across the two people in dismay. It appeared something was wrong here. They had just ignored him, who was the real Ambassador of Graycastle!

After Otto took his leave, Yorko could not wait to start his questioning. All his complaining, however, caught in his throat when Hill said, "This is also what His Majesty wants."

Yorko put his hand on his forehead. "Are you sure? I represent the Kingdom of Graycastle. If the King of Dawn knows I'm transporting a witch, the relations between the two nations will again deteriorate and all the work we've done will be in vain. What should we do then?"

"Appen Moya won't focus on these trivial matters. Even if he does notice it, witches are far more important than the alliance." Hill affirmed. "As a matter of fact, my men have already checked whether there were witches hidden among refugees when they did the screening."

"And?"

"None." Hill shook his head. "There are two possibilities. One is that there are no witches among refugees at all. The other is that they disguise themselves pretty well and have completely blended in. Anyway, if you can bring a witch to His Majesty, he will surely shower you with rewards. You know how much His Majesty treasures them."

Aware that it was his old friend's request, Yorko had no choice but to acquiesce sullenly.

He tried to sooth his resentment by convincing himself that the exhibition was just another way of exploring this country. Yorko was indeed curious about what kind of slaves would be sold on an exhibition that even Denise was not eligible to attend.

Otto arrived at the entrance of the mansion punctually in the evening.

Yorko climbed into a splendid coach bearing no emblem. Furnished with thick fur rug, the wagon was also equipped with two chains hanging down from the ceiling. Yorko did not need to ask what they were for.

"I didn't expect you have such a peculiar taste." Yorko whistled.

Otto blushed. "Ahem... it isn't my wagon. This kind of carriage comes in handy when you need to lock someone up while at the same time avoiding curious eyes."

"You don't have to explain. I understand." Yorko stroked the cuffs at the end of the chains and asked, "Can I borrow the wagon for a few days after the business is over?"

"Naturally. 50 silver royals per day and the lease includes the service of a coachman." Otto picked a comfortable spot and lay down after telling the coachman their destination. "It'll take a while. You may take a rest here."

"How long?"

"Around an hour. It's in the suburb of City of Glow."

Yorko gasped. "Then we won't be able to return to the king's city tonight! After the sun sets, the city gate will be closed, won't it?"

"'Black Money' will provide accommodations and food. In fact, they'll provide everything you can get from the city of Glow."

"Sounds like a marketplace."

"Pretty much. The only difference is it's underground." Otto explained, "I went but once, so I don't know if there have been any changes in the procedure of the auction. But I think there shouldn't be a problem as long as you follow the guide. After you win the bid, you don't need to wait until the auction ends but just directly take the witch from the backstage. A servant will lead you to your room..."

"Hang on..." Yorko stared at Otto in surprise. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"There's only one invitation card."

"What about the payment?"

Otto smiled. "The black letter represents money. It's a pass issued by the Chamber of Commerce. With the letter, you can directly place your bid."

"Without a limit?" Yorko's eye bulged.

"Of course there is... but it's way higher than what the cost of a witch is supposed to be. As far as my knowledge goes, it cost about 1,000 gold royals to purchase a witch several years ago. As King Appen has ordered to eradicate witches, the current final bidding price should be a little lower."

"1,000 gold royals!" Yorko smacked his lips. "Those upper nobles just like throwing their money away, don't they?" Yorko knew even all the brothels in the king's city altogether would not cost that much! Could he be too outdated to understand what real extravagance was?

"Also... in order to win her trust, you'd better not touch her." Otto coughed. "She isn't a real slave after all, otherwise it'll cause unwanted trouble on the way."

"I certainly comprehend." Yorko breathed out a sigh. She's His Majesty's woman, whom he would not have the guts to lay a single finger upon.

"In any event, put a mask on her when you get out. I'll meet you tomorrow."

The carriage conveyed them to the west after it passed through the city gate. It did not slow down until darkness closed in and swallowed the last drop of the sun rays. Like Otto had said, they arrived at the destination in an hour.

The venue of the exhibition looked no different from any other ordinary residences at the first glance. There was an empty yard lined with jagged fences, at the center of which stood a house made of mud and straw. Behind the yard lay bare farmlands where wheat had been harvested. The fields were dappled with piles of wheat-straw that looked like lumps of bumps bulging from the ground.

The only thing that stood out was numerous torches on the farmlands, a sign that indicated somebody was guarding this place.

Normally, nobody would guard the yard of a civilian's residence.

After the guard checked the invitation card, Otto and his men all remained in the yard, whereas Yorko entered the mud house with a guide. After going down a wooden staircase and passing through a man-made narrow tunnel, he found himself in a natural limestone cave.

The cave was about half the size of the square in the king's city. By the flickering torchlight, Yorko could see numberless small caves on either side, all pitch-dark, leading to somewhere only Gods knew.

The ground at the bottom of the cave had been polished and tiled. It was so lavishly furnished that only the stalactites overhung above his head showed what kind of place it originally was. The hall had been crowded with people waiting for the commencement of the exhibition.

Yorko now understood what Otto meant by "not that formal". Based on what he saw, the assembling was quite similar to one of the Rats' meeting.

"Sir, this way." The guide ushered him to the seat marked on the black letter and sat next to him. "I'll be at your service during the whole exhibition. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions regarding our products." With these words, the guide placed Yorko's arm on her soft bosom. In the dismal light, Yorko could see a pointy chin and plumped lips underneath the mask.

"Is this also a part of your service?" Yorko fumbled her breasts as a matter of course. "What's your name?"

"Of course, sir. You can call me No. 76." Her breath was heavy with fragrance, but her reply was not breathless in the least.

Yorko had to admit his previous assumption had been wrong. Rats could never hire such well-trained servant girls. If every attendant was accompanied by such a guide, the cost just for hiring these girls would be tremendous.

"Is it always so dark here?" Yorko stroked the soft arm while raising his eyebrows. "I can't see the products on the stage clearly with this poor lighting."

"You'll see soon." The girl chuckled.

No. 76's words were soon verified by the metal scraping sound from above. In a second, several iron cables were dropped off the ceiling, each of which was attached to a weird stone at the end. The glow emanated from those stones was several times brighter than that the torchlight. All of sudden, Yorko could see the stage at the front perfectly.

The murmuring across the cave instantly died away.

The torchlight appeared to be even fainter compared with the soft, bright illumination of the stones. The whole cave had slipped into darkness, except the stage, upon which everybody rested their eyes.

A man in a tuxedo walked on the stage and bowed to the audience.

"Thank you for waiting. Now I announce that the 'Black Money' exhibition officially begins!"

Chapter 650 - A Special Slave

"What's that?" Yorko stared at the illuminating object in surprise despite its dazzling light. "Is it also something you sell in the exhibition?"

"It has several names. For example, Sun Stone and Light Crystal... but we prefer to call it Magic Stone because it's said the stone comes from the lairs of demons." No. 76 explained in a low voice. "'Black Money' once sold them in an auction, and the final bidding price was around 2,000 to 3,000 gold royals. They're expensive and rare, so they won't be sold in every exhibition. At least, it's not included in the list of products for sale tonight." She paused for a second and asked, "Sir, is this your first time to come here?"

"Well... sort of." Yorko stroked his nose to conceal his uneasiness. If one stone cost that much, then all the magic stones used for illumination on the stage would be worth more than 10,000 gold royals. This was just such a lavish exhibition!

The guide seemed to perceive Yorko's uneasiness. She drew close to him and whispered in his ear like a perfect lover. "That's nothing, Sir. Every guest who attends the exhibition for the first time is shocked by the magic stones. This is also a means through which 'Black Money' showcases their power."

"You're also one of their means, aren't you?" Yorko had probably not presented himself in such a sumptuous exhibition as much as those great nobles had, but he knew how to talk to women. As his discomfort gradually faded away with the soft whisper of the guide, Yorko wrapped his arms around the girl's waist and drew her to his chest.

"Not until I get your approval."

"You've got my approval already. Well, after the exhibition..."

"I'll still be at your service, sir." She gently nodded.

Yorko started to slowly like this place.

By the time his eyes were back to the stage, he had missed two rounds of the auction. The products for sale were apparently not that appealing to the audience, for few people showed interest in them.

Just like the exhibitions he had attended with Denise, the first few rounds were nothing but the less savory aspect of the auction. The main course usually came at a later phase.

Otto reckoned the sale of the witch should not be too close to the end and estimated that the final bidding price would be no more than 700 to 800 gold royals. These merchants sought more thrills and stimulation than pure beauties.

The audience finally stirred a little bit when the first person up for auction was pushed to the stage.

It was a young woman, pretty plain overall except for her fair skin.

Yorko noticed the girl, unlike slaves sold in the slave market who were usually stark naked, were glamorously dressed in expensive garments only nobles could afford. In other words, she looked exactly like a highborn lady.

"What's that about?" Yorko pinched the waist of No. 76. "To dress up a slave as a noble so that you can sell her at a higher price?"

The guide corrected him with a smile. "Not a slave masquerading as a noble, but a noble slave."

"What's the difference... Hold on." Yorko's eyes widened. "What did you say?"

"She's a true noble." No. 76 gestured Yorko to tone down his voice. "Not a remote relative or a branch, but a noble lineage, the legal heir of a big family."

"Gentlemen, do you see this lady here?" The host announced in a loud voice. "Aphnie Tanfek, the daughter of the Earl of Rubble Woods from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Since her father was unfortunately killed in the battle against the church, she's now legally the new Earl of Rubble Woods. The Tanfeks is a prominent family that can be dated back to 300 years ago. However, compared with their family history, I believe everybody is more impressed with the jade incident 20 years ago. This is a good chance to retaliate! The starting price is 300 gold royals. Please feel free to place your bid!"

"310!" Someone shouted immediately.

"350 gold royals!"

"400!"

"You're... crazy!" As the bid went higher, Yorko commented in disbelief. "To sell a real noble as a slave? It's a capital offense no country will tolerate!"

There was an unwritten rule among nobles, which was to place noble blood above everything. Anyone who posed a threat to that rule would be considered as a mutual enemy of all aristocracies. That was also why ransom was commonly paid for the exchange of nobles in the event of defeat. As long as their bloodlines still existed, the family would eventually rise to power again. The rule had remained unchanged for several hundred years, and it held true especially for royal families.

This auction, nonetheless, was an open confrontation with the entire aristocratic class.

No. 76 spread out her hands. "It'll be fine if you don't advertise it. Nobody will attribute the end of the noble bloodline to 'Black Money', for the church was the real culprit."

"How will these nobles end up? The host just said 'retaliate', right?"

The guide burst into laughter. "The Tanfeks tried to lower the price of jades with some evil intentions 20 years ago. Many jade traders suffered a lot back then. So their retaliation will be... certainly cruel. But these nobles lost their chance to stage a comeback from the beginning, just like witches."

The next few products were all nobles from the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, men and women. The male nobles had a wider age range and were more popular than the female ones.

Compared with the heirs, the women merchants perhaps preferred nobles who experienced in managing the operation of the family more.

Yorko now understood why Otto had said the auction had to be underground. He also came to know the reason for their strict selection criteria. Apart from wealth and backgrounds, "Black Money" probably also attached great importance to whether a guest had a genuine intention to make a purchase. In other words, they would only accept people who were their potential buyers, people who were in the same boat.

The witch Yorko intended to bid was the 10th product.

It was undeniable that although in tight bondage, the witch was considerably more beautiful than any of the noble ladies previously presented. Her disheveled brunette hair tumbled unbound down her shoulders. Underneath the thin burlap garment, a few whip marks could be detected on her bare hands and feet. Evidently, she had been tortured a great deal since being caught. Despite her emaciated frame, she had enchanted facial features and possessed an ineffable charm.

The host exclaimed. "A nameless refugee witch from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. She can heal herself with demons' power. Thanks to the report of our kind citizens, we've got a real piece of treasure here. Think about it, a witch who can heal by herself. You can use her in any way you like! If you dread petting her, 'Black Money' can help you with that as well. Start from 500 gold royals. Please feel free to bid!"

"510."

"560."

"600."

Yorko did not place his bid immediately, for he knew he had to wait until the end when the biddings started to slow down. Only in this way could he possibly win the big ticket.

To his surprise, however, the bidding price soon exceeded 800 gold royals that Otto had formerly estimated. Presently, it went over 1,000. The bidding continued and there was no sign that it would stop anytime soon.

Yorko felt his palm started to sweat.

Chapter 651 - The Auction

Perhaps that was the witch's ability.

Yorko realized that the eldest son of Luoxi family had only heard that a witch would be auctioned, but he had neglected her ability. A dangerous and eccentric ability would obviously reduce a witch's value, as no one wanted to be killed. Whether witches were affiliated with demons or not, they were not commoners and it was very hazardous to buy them off.

But the ability of this witch sounded not formidable. Self-cure was not able to hurt people, instead, it met some curious people's needs, so the price would be unexpectedly high.

"Sir, don't you want to bid a price?" No.76 firstly took the initiative to ask.

"Uhm... wait a moment." Yorko wiped the sweat from his hands, thinking, "Otto said that the Black Letter was money, but how much is it worth? 1,000 or 2,000 gold royals? If the witch's price turns out to be much higher than his Black Letter's worth, will the Black Money admit the deal? What if they ask me to pay the extra money?" A series of questions occurred to him and made him feel extremely anxious. He did not have even 100 gold royals, let alone 1,000 ones.

At this time, the bidding competition started to slow down. Each rise would be kept about 10 gold royals and intervals became longer and longer.

"1,260 gold royals!"

"Is there a higher bidding?"

Yorko knew that he would lose the witch if he kept silent.

He gritted his teeth, thinking, "If the Black Letter was maxed out, I'll show the Black Money my identity as the Ambassador of Graycastle. They won't dare to hurt a country's messenger. After that, I'll let Otto pay the extra money tomorrow morning."

"Bid, 1,500 gold royals," he said with a deep voice.

"Yes," No.76 raised her right hand instantly and said, "1,500!"

Hearing that, all the guests began to stir.

The significant rise of nearly 300 showed the buyer's resolution to get the witch. Besides, it also gave implications to other bidders that they need not bid anymore. Since only the wealthiest and most powerful people could get the invitations of the Black Money, it was much more important for the bidders to keep a good relationship than to bid a replaceable entertainment commodity. Under such circumstances, the other bidders usually would stop bidding.

He hoped that he could utilize this bidding technique he had learned from Denise to make other bidders stop competing with him.

However, he did not get what he wanted.

"1,800!"

A new bidding voice came out of the crowds instantly.

His heart abruptly sank.

The same jump bidding trick meant that the bidder was also as determined as him to buy the witch.

"Sir?" No.76 asked.

"2,000." Yorko tightly clenched his teeth.

After his guide said the price, the other bidder continued to raise his bidding price, saying, "2,300!"

Damn it! This price was crazy even for a witch with self-cure ability. In the slave market, a top female slave with good looks and excellent skills was less than 100 gold royals. With that much money, one can get a dozen of them, with worrying about violating the laws of the Kingdom of Dawn. Isn't that better than buying a witch?

With these thoughts in mind, he turned to look, and to his surprise, he noticed that the guide who had spoken for the other bidder was a male.

"A guide is decided by the bidder's gender, right? So the other bidder is a lady? Why does she want to buy a witch, just for watching?" Yorko indignantly asked No.76.

"What you've said about the choice of a guide is true, unless the guest has special needs," No.76 nodded and then asked, "Do you want to raise your bidding price again?"

"You raise 200 gold royals each time until she gives up."

Yorko decided to buy the witch at all costs. He did not believe that the other bidder was richer than the three families of the Kingdom of Dawn. After all, this was what Otto had asked him to do. If there were any trouble, Otto would take care of it.

As they were competing, the other guest whispered to each other, showing great interests in this scene.

When the bidding price amounted to 4,000 gold royals, the other bidder finally stopped bidding.

But the price was five times higher than that expected by Otto.

"4,000, the first time!"

"The second time!"

The host said steadily and slowly, which made Yorko even more anxious. He felt a desperate urge to replace the host to strike the small hammer that was used to decide the price.

Luckily, the nightmare-like bidding voice never sounded again.

"The third time and it's a deal."

Yorko took a deep breath and leaned on the bench, feeling his back soaked with sweat.

"4,000 gold royals...This witch costs a fortune that I can't make in my whole life. This is how the great nobles spend their money?" At this thought, he suddenly felt that his licentious life back in the king's city of Graycastle was nothing but a joke.

His guide smilingly said, "Sir, congratulations! No.10 commodity is yours now!"

People sitting around him all looked at him with respect, as he had just spent 4,000 gold royals on a short-term consumable commodity.

In the Kingdom of Dawn, wealth stood for identity.

Regardless of the anxieties and concerns during the auction, Yorko was very pleased to undergo this wonderful experience, because, for the first time, people fixed their eyes on him out of respect instead of contempt.

Yorko enjoyed this feeling for a long while and asked, "Are the following commodities all slaves?"

"Yes, except the last one. It's said to be a very rare thing that costs the Black Money lots of efforts to get," No.76 replied.

"You don't know what it is, either."

"Yes, my boss wanted to emphasize its mystic quality by doing so. He only told us that it's an ancient relic embedded with magic stones," she replied.

"So it can shine? You've told me that there aren't any magic stone to be auctioned," Yorko twitched his lip and said.

No.76 explained. "There's not only one kind of magic stones. Some stones can't shine, but they're the best-quality jewelry, such as the Blue Star sold out at the price of 3,400 gold royals six months ago. It was a magic stone that can't shine, but in the dark, you can see numerous shining stars inside it. It was much more precious than common gemstones."

"And it's far more expensive than common ones. What a beautiful magic stone could it be, as it's sold out at such a high price?" Yorko thought and could not help feeling curious. Now that he had finished what Otto had asked him to do, he planned to leave the rest of the time here to the eye-opening commodities which he could brag about to Denise.

However, seeing the last item on the auction, he felt quite disappointed.

It was a sword.

Four colorful gemstones were inlaid in the handle. He wondered whether the host was going to introduce it as a piece of jewelry or a weapon.

The host started to brag about it. He claimed that it had been found in an ancient monument located in the Impassable Mountain Range. Based on the wall paintings around the place where it had been found, the sword had belonged to an excellent warrior. She had been able to use it to change astronomical phenomena, and her enemies had been demons from the hell. Yorko laughed at these ridiculous words. "It would be more practical to sell those four gemstones alone. The host should not advertise the sword other than gemstones."

The sword was auctioned with a starting price of 50,000 gold royals, which made all the guest burst into an uproar. As a result, no one wanted to bid and this round of auction ended in a haste.

"Where's the witch I've bought?" Yorko shifted his attention from the auction into the witch. He touched the thigh of No.76 and asked, "Has she been put in my room?"

"Of course, Sir." No.76 chuckled. "The Black Money has arranged everything for you, so this way please."

Chapter 652 - The Witch and Accident

When they were leaving the dark limestone cave, the guide held Yorko's hand and they walked straight into the cave with ease.

Yorko could hardly see the ground, but the guide did not even slow down. Moreover, he could feel that No. 76 was no weaker than himself. The bumpy calluses on her palm totally did not match her slender body. Other than serving the guests, she was probably also be treated as a guard for the underground exhibition. It would be nice if such a person could be purchased from "Black Money" as cultivating one was not easy.

Although Hill Fawkes looked smart, he definitely would not follow him forever as he was still the man of his old friend. Not to mention that it would be a little... boring for a man to be his guard. It would be more appropriate to replace the man with No. 76.

Of course, Yorko was simply thinking about it. After all, the Black Letter did not belong to him and 4,000 gold royals were far more than Otto's budget. Spending an additional amount of money privately would probably cause a fall-out with the Luoxi family, which was one of the three families.

After entering the cave, Yorko realized that most of the channels were naturally formed and the light of the torch seemed brighter due to the narrow terrain. Moreover, the dark sky could be faintly seen through many of the shafts at the top of the cave. The crisscrossing paths led into the deeper limestone caves where some were already transformed into hotels, while others were hung with barrel signs, just like an underground town.

It seemed necessary to arrange a guide for each customer or it would be very time-consuming to even look for a room.

"By the way, how do I pay for this auction?" Yorko softly asked while there was no one else around.

"You can simply pass the invitation letter to me before you leave the underground, after you confirm the goods are fine," No. 76 said with a smile, "I'll complete the rest of the procedures for you. You can also visit our pub, casino and hot tub. 'Black Money' provides any services, both for fun and relaxation."

"Is all the money written down in the Black Letter?"

"Yes."

"What if someone wants to buy the guide?"

"You just need to pay 500 gold royals to 'Black Money'," No. 76 smoothly answered as if she was accustomed to such questions and asked, "Sir, do you want to buy me?"

"Getting along is not about how long we've spent together, but how much fun we've got," Yorko avoided the question and said, "what do you think?"

"You're right." She chuckled.

"Anyway, may I see what you look like?"

"No way," No. 76 shook her head and said, "Unless you buy the guide, the guide isn't allowed to privately take off their mask. It's the rule of 'Black Money'."

"But you mentioned that you can provide any services..."

"Of course," No. 76 touched her red lips and flirtatiously said, "it doesn't hinder me from serving you, sir."

Yorko felt even more excited.

"We're here. This is your room." No. 76 brought him to a wooden door at the end of the cave carved with 'No. 76', the same as her number. "The room is divided into the inner room and outer room. I'll sleep in the outer room tonight. You can call me whenever you need anything."

Yorko lifted his eyebrows and asked after he opened the door, "This is the outer room?"

The cave was narrower in the front and wider at the back, and the outer room was only big enough to accommodate one person. It was probably similar to sleeping in the stable, as the ground was only covered with a layer of wheat-straw.

"After all, it's difficult to find a suitable room under the ground." The guide indifferently waved and opened the second room door for him.

Additionally, the inner-room was not spacious either. It could not accommodate anything other than a big bed and two soft chairs.

"Mmm! Mmm!"

Yorko saw the witch he bought from the auction once he walked into the house. She was firmly cuffed by the iron hoops on the wall with both her arms and legs opened wide while her mouth was stuffed with a piece of clean white silk. She struggled with fear once she saw that someone walking in.

He was immediately scolding "Black Money" in his heart while twitching his lips twice. He thought that the house was at least divided into several compartments with a cage especially used to imprison the slaves, but it turned out to be so shabby.

"How could I enjoy a long night with No. 76 in this case?"

"Performing a live porn in front of a witch?"

"Give me a break. It'll be even worse than directly doing anything to her." Yorko frowned even deeper when he thought of Otto's order to earn the witch's trust.

"Does 'Black Money' have other rooms? I mean those with extra charges," he helplessly asked.

"Considering some of the customers have higher requirements of the room, we also offer the semi-open houses which are closer to the ground and rooms next to the underground river."

The way that businessmen make money was indeed outrageous.

"How much is the cheapest room?"

"Three gold royals per night."

"This price is enough to pay for a half-a-month stay at the hotel in the inner city of the King's City." Yorko unspokenly criticized. "However, this amount is nothing as compared to 4,000 gold royals. Otto Luoxi shouldn't mind. Consider it as a processing fee."

"You go out and wait for me for a moment," he pondered for a while and said, "I have something to talk to the witch about. I'll call you when I'm done."

"Yes, sir," No. 76 said respectfully and left the room.

As Yorko took off his coat and walked toward the witch, she struggled even harder and looked terrified.

He sighed while covering her body with his cloth and said, "Listen, I'm entrusted by someone to come here to save you. As long as you don't make any noise, no one is going to hurt you. Everything will be fine. Please nod twice if you understand."

The witch stopped struggling and stared at Yorko for a long while as if she could not believe what she had just heard.

The ambassador had to repeat it as softly and slowly as possible. The witch was very beautiful, but the childish little girl was really not his cup of tea.

She finally nodded this time.

Yorko was relieved and he reached out to remove the silk cloth from the witch's mouth.

"Who're you?" she asked after coughing slightly.

"Someone who has come to save you," Yorko sat down on the bed and asked, "do you have a name?"

"Amy," she paused and said, "Why don't you release me if you're here to save me?"

"What if you run away? I don't have another 4,000 gold royals to buy you again if you get caught," Yorko opened his arms and said, "You'd better be chained for safety and it'll prevent raising any suspicion. I'll set you free tomorrow after we leave, okay?"

"Really?" Amy suspiciously asked.

"She's so gullible. No wonder she was discovered and reported," he quietly thought. "She's lucky to bump into me this time."

"Not only that, I'll introduce you to a place where the witches gather. There are a lot of companions waiting for you. You don't have to keep hiding," Yorko stood up and said, "So, you just need to patiently wait until tomorrow. Do you understand?"

"Hold on, where are you going?"

"I'm going to enjoy a sweet night, of course." He grinned.

When Yorko was just about to call for No. 76, There was a sudden noise in the outer room along with the noise of heavy items muffling. It happened very quickly and the outer room returned to silence after a few seconds.

"No. 76?" He probingly asked but no one answered.

Chapter 653 - An Unexpected Guest

Damn it!

Yorko was not sure what had happened outside but it definitely would not be good.

"Is 'Black Money' not supposed to be a regular auction, organized by the powerful local businessmen except for the goods being illegal?" He cursed Otto for 10,000 times in his heart. "The auction price was first wrongly estimated and now someone is coming for me. I wouldn't have agreed with him if I knew it would turn out like this."

Yorko looked around and tried to find something to defend himself, but there were no weapons in the room except for some tools to torture the slave.

At this moment, someone pushed open the door and nipped in.

Yorko knelt on the ground without any hesitation and said, "Please spare my life! I'll give you anything you want..."

However, the person did not stop but pounced towards him.

After he finished saying, he subconsciously held his head down and leaned to one side, hoping to dodge the attack.

"No, Annie!"

Amy shouted at the same time.

The cold wind that swept by his cheeks suddenly stopped along with Amy's voice, Yorko tilted his head and noticed that it was a wooden stick, which looked like it was broken off from the chair.

He would probably immediately pass out if he was really beaten.

Then, he was pressed onto the bed from the back after he was grabbed by his shoulder and held up high by a big hand.

"Did he hurt you?" The voice sounded a bit hoarse and it was difficult to distinguish between men's and women's.

"He said... he's here to help me get out of here."

"You've been cheated again, Amy," she said while shaking her head. Then, she twisted Yorko's arms to his back and expertly tied them. "Saving a strange witch with 4,000 gold royals? It's not a small amount of money. It's a lifetime of savings even for your father."

"Aye... Is, is that so?"

She was really the one who was bidding with Yorko as she knew the auction price so clearly. However, how could she recognize Yorko and follow them all the way to the room No. 76 when everywhere else was dark other than the bright displaying booth in the limestone cave?

Yorko knew that it was about his life and his persuasion this time would be for himself instead of his old friends or damn Otto.

"I didn't lie to her! I'm the Ambassador of Graycastle, and saving the witch is the king's order!"

"Ambassador of... Graycastle?"

Yorko knew that this approach worked when the hand that was holding him down from the back slightly shook.

"Yes, have you heard of Roland Wimbledon? The fourth son of King Wimbledon III, King of Graycastle who's especially kind to the witches! He firmly believes that there are no differences between the witches and ordinary people, and he even fought against the church in order to allow the witches to freely live in his domain! These're all true, I swear!"

Annie might not know who was Roland, but the news that the church was defeated by the Kingdom of Graycastle in Coldwind Ridge was indeed well-known among the people in the city of Glow. He even knew that the news was spread by Hill Fawkes and his assistants. The church had always been the greatest enemy of witches, it was likely that whoever defeated the church would win the witch's kindness and respect for whatever reasons.

The hand that was holding him down on his back was a lot more relaxed as expected. And then, he had been turned over and pulled up from the bed. Yorko could only see the attacker's appearance now.

Annie... was probably a woman but she looked extremely handsome and her body was exceptionally burly even when it was covered by a cope. Both her dashing eyebrows were slightly pointing upwards and her narrow eyes looked energetic. Her hair was tied up into a high-ponytail and her forehead was clearly shown. Yorko would believe that she was a man if her voice was deeper; however, her look made him a little jealous.

"In this case, why didn't you unlock Amy's lock latch?"

"It's the same question again..." Yorko had to repeat the previous statement again. "It's for the sake of her safety. It'll be even more dangerous if she doesn't believe me and sneaks out."

"Where are you going to take her?" Annie, who was obviously not as easily persuaded as Amy, was doubting Yorko's statement. "Giving her to the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle?"

"Of course... not." He quickly changed his words after saying half-way. "My old friend doesn't treat witches as slaves. There were a lot of witches living in his domain like the normal people and they even formed an organization to specialize in protecting the witches' right."

"Enough!" Annie angrily interrupted.

Yorko quickly shut his mouth. He heard all these from Hill when they were talking. He heard that His Majesty curbed the disease spread by the church with the witches' help during the outbreak of demonic plague in the king's city. It was obviously a good thing, but Yorko was not sure why Annie did not look so happy about it.

"It sounds just like the Bloodfang Association," Annie coldly said, "They used to promote themselves in this way as well."

"Blood... what?" Yorko startled but his heart sensed something wrong.

"Witches can only believe is themselves, not the noble's promises." She scanned the room and quickly found the key hanging on the wall.

"Wait, are you bringing her with you?" It's underground here. Don't you see the guards outside the cave when you came in? How're you going to get out?"

You don't have to worry about it. I have my way." Annie unlocked and released Amy. After that, she grabbed Yorko and locked one of his foot on the vervel.

"You really don't want to think about it?" Yorko got bolder when he realized that Annie was not trying to kill him. He was trying to convince her for the last time while he obediently let Annie locked him up. "It's more appropriate for me to bring her out and I'll give her to you when we leave the courtyard. It'll neither easily raise any suspicion nor causing any problem in this case."

"It does sound great, but it's also possible that I'll be welcomed by swords and God's Stone instead," Annie remained unmoved and said, "I had made a big mistake because of my credulity before and it won't happen again."

After Yorko was firmly locked, Annie dragged No. 76 in. She tied both her hands to her back and locked one of her foot as well.

"Why didn't you kill her?"

He could see the blood stained on No. 76's head, who was apparently badly beaten up and still currently unconscious. However, she was still alive judging from the slight movements of her chest.

"It'll not be too late for me to kill both of you after I rescue Amy." Annie's words made Yorko shivered. "But I'll not kill you now as we perhaps owed the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle a thank for defeating the church. However, it doesn't mean that I'll believe him unconditionally."

"I'll bring your words to His Majesty. Besides, you can come to the embassy to look for me if you need any assistance." "Of course, it's best not to as we can also save a lot of effort," Yorko quietly thought to himself, "and it may be for the better as I've tried my best. Even my old friend can't blame me as I can't force them if they're not willing to go to the Kingdom of Graycastle."

Annie turned around and stared at him for a long while before she carried Amy and left the room.

Chapter 654 - The Compensation of [Black Money]

"Hey, are you okay?" Yorko pushed No. 76 with the other foot, but the latter was completely irresponsive.

He sighed, drew close to her, and then picked up the coat on the ground with his mouth to cover both of them.

"Forget the romantic night. Just suck it up for this single night."

After such unexpected turns, he found himself surprisingly calm. The underground auction, the 4000 gold royals he wasted on a witch, the public attention he drew, and then the attack of the witches... Over one night, he experienced more than he had ever experienced during the past twenty-some years of his life.

"Hmm.. this thrilling and stimulating feeling seems not to be as bad as I imagined?"

Of course, Yorko would never agree to experience it once again.

He had a fitful night. It was already noon the following day by the time they were found by a servant of the "Black Money".

Then Yorko was quickly transferred to a spacious and comfortable room. Not only was he served soft bread and freshly squeezed juice by the servants, but he was checked by the maids from head to heels as well, even including his manhood between his legs.

Also at his request, Otto Luoxi, who had been anxiously waiting outside, was taken into the limestone cave.

"What happened?" As soon as Otto saw the Ambassador, he asked eagerly, "I heard that you got injured."

"I need a private minute with this gentleman." Yorko dismissed the servants sent by "Black Money" before describing the whole story in detail, "I was almost killed because of you. It was so close! I nearly lost my life! Fortunately, they found I was so kind and tender to the witch that I bought at the auction. If it were someone else, he would certainly be dead and cold now!"

Complaining had been an ace up his sleeve, which brought him good fortune in the Kingdom of Graycastle for many years. Even if he could not get any practical benefits, at least he could make others feel guilty or sympathetic for him, which he might take advantage of in the future. Otto seemed to be so worried now, so he would certainly do something to compensate him.

As expected, Otto appeared very uneasy and said, "This happened due to my negligence. I will certainly compensate for it after we go back."

"What about the 4000 gold royals?"

"The witch escaped from your room. That's the territory of "Black Money", so I guess they won't charge you for the auction."

"Then didn't you save a lot of money?"Yorko teased, "you saved the witch, and at the same time made good use of the Black Letter."

"The black letters will be re-made for each exhibition, so I can't say it's wasted or not," Otto forced a smile and said, "but it did save us the gold royals."

Yorko suddenly remembered what No. 76 had whispered in his ear.

"You just need to pay 500 gold royals to Black Money."

"Sir, do you want to buy me?"

Compared to 4000, 500 seemed to be a more reasonable number. Perhaps he could let Otto pay again as the compensation for the shock he experienced.

Yorko cleared his throat and prepared to speak when the bedroom door was pushed open. A man with a silver mask came, accompanied by two attendants. He appeared to be quite old, as his dark brown hair was mixed with white hair. He wore a loose silk robe with a particularly eye-catching black dragon head logo on his chest.

"I'm in charge of the exhibition. You can call me Silvermask," he said with a slight bow, "'Black money' apologizes for what happened to you. Fortunately, you were not injured in the accident. We have begun to investigate how the witch fled, and we'll inform you once we found her whereabouts. We won't deduct the payment from the Black Letter unless you still want the witch when we capture her."

"Ahem... I see," Yorko cleared his throat. After all, he, instead of Otto Luoxi, was the one who bought the witch, so he had to continue to feign his interest in her, "Don't give her to anyone except me. The 10th round will always be valid."

"As you wish."

"By the way, I wonder how the attacker got in the exhibition."

"These villains hijacked other visiting guests. At an outskirt house, we have found two other victims who were robbed of the Black Letter," Silvermask replied.

"More than one villain?"

"Yes, this was a premeditated act," he nodded. "We didn't expect the witch would have other accomplices, or that they would dare to launch a raid under King of Dawn's intense search of witches. Did the villain who hijacked you leave any clues?"

"Well... No, she fled after hearing that I was the Ambassador of Graycastle." Yorko shrugged and said, "Hasn't the 'Black Money' ever thought of a more reliable way of checking the identity? If anyone can enter just by an invitation letter, I am afraid it is not the first time that this kind of thing happened?"

"You're definitely right," said Silvermask with laughter, "but it's also the charm of 'Black Money'. Compared to the risk, people prefer to get their favorite goods without revealing their identity. Of course, when issuing Black Letter, we will carefully consider our clients, including how much they care about the Black Letter and their ability to keep it. No matter how the two hijacked men got the Black Letter, they certainly won't have a second chance to get invitations."

"Alright," said Yorko, shrugging. "So how did she escape from the underground cave? I remember there were many guards in the passage from the cave to the yard, and she could not possibly get out while carrying an injured witch. Is it possible that they are still hiding somewhere in the cave, waiting until you're off guard?

Silvermask shook his head, "They crept out of the vent. Several iron bars were burned, which should be caused by a witch's ability."

"So this is the escaping route prepared by Annie. And it seemed that more than one witch participated in this rescue. Otto did everything for nothing."  "In that case, there's nothing you can do about it," said Yorko. He then pretended to ask casually, "how's my guide now?"

"She'll be severely punished by 'Black Money'. As a guide, it's her responsibility to protect her distinguished guests. She's no longer qualified for this position."

"Can I see her?"

"Do you mean... you want to punish her personally?"

"No," Yorko looked at Otto. "I want to buy her."

"But she's already a prisoner of 'Black Money'", Silvermask said hesitantly.

"500 gold royals? I'll pay it with the Black Letter."

"Wait a minute... Mr. Ambassador?" Otto asked in surprise, "what guide?"

Yorko pressed Otto's hand but did not answer.

Silvermask nodded after a moment of silence, "I see. If you insist, we'll give No. 76 to you as a gift."

"A gift?" Yorko was first stunned and then felt very pleased.

"Since she can no longer be a guide, it's a better choice to give her to you. Just take it as the compensation of 'Black Money' for this accident," Silvermask bowed again and said, "I hope we can meet here again."

Chapter 655 - In the Depth of the Limestone Cave

...

Holding the Stone of Lighting, Banach Lothar walked step by step toward the depth of the Black Money.

It was such a steep ramp that he had to stumble along it even with the help of his servants.

"I've finally become old." Sadness suddenly appeared in his heart. Since he was 20, he had taken over the family business and had created a giant Chamber of Commerce which was rich and powerful. His struggle and excitement during those years were beyond description. Even if he only received an honorary title as a knight, his reputation and status were not lower than that of the three noble families in the Kingdom of Dawn.

However, it did not mean that his great achievement could be passed down to future generations. In fact, as the scale of the Chamber of Commerce continued to expand, the foundation was already at stake. In those days, in order to consolidate the strength of the Chamber of Commerce, many large businessmen, even the upper noble, were invited to join the chamber. When he was alive, they might be reliable supports or worthwhile tools, but what if he passed away? Would they be willing to stay in their current position?

There was hardly any need to answer this question.

Banach had five sons and one daughter, among whom the most outstanding one was his fourth son, Victor Lothar. Even though he was only 21 years old, he had shown extraordinary business talents. But at this age, he could not overpower those crafty partners yet. The Chamber of Commerce was not the private property of the Lothars; therefore, if he forced them to accept Victor to take over his position, he was afraid that he would face strong oppositions.

By that time, the Chamber of Commerce would be broken into pieces, and what was worse, his children might lose their lives.

What if he abandoned the giant chamber he had created in his whole life? Banach was indeed unwilling to do so.

Pondering over this, he suddenly slipped.

"Sir, watch your steps!" The servants around him immediately held him on his arm.

Banach stumbled about a few steps before he managed to stand steadily.

Obviously, his body had lost the vigor of youth.

He was already 69 years old, and how many times could he try to walk along such a steep ramp? He had to hurry up.

Once he thought of the promise given by the Oracle, flames of hope were lit in his heart again.

Only after he became one of them, could he solve this seemingly insoluble problem forever.

Gradually, the ramp downward became flat, and the air became moist. Banach faintly heard the sound of the undercurrent hitting the rock like continuous thunder, dull and solid. Honestly, he did not like such a place, which was secretive enough but gave no sense of security. He always feared that one day the water would crush the cave walls and completely engulf the cave.

In fact, quite a few similar cases had already happened in this cave group. Several tunnels had turned into deep pools due to the flow backward of the undercurrent and eventually had to be closed. The Black Money only occupied a small part of the cave group. If Banach had enough time, he could even make it into an underground city.

When he arrived at the bottom of the ramp, the light instantly became bleak. The Stone of Lighting was still shining, but it was no longer bright enough for him to see the rock walls on both sides, as the size of the cave suddenly increased several times larger.

The sound of the undercurrent became extremely loud. It seemed that a branch was passing underfoot.

In the deep cave, two yellow flames were shining in the distance. They were the guards sent by the Oracle to pick him up.

"OK, stop and wait here."

"But Sir, it's still a long way..." the servants said with worries.

"That's all right. I have to walk the last part of this road by myself," Banach slowly said.

The servants dared not to persuade him anymore due to his years of authority, so they just said, "Yes, Sir, please mind your steps!"

After leaving the cave hole, he carefully walked to the center of the cave. The cave at the bottom of the limestone cave group was very strange, which was shaped like an island. It was surrounded by bottomless gullies and the central bulged Rockhill was connected with the ramp by a narrow stone bridge. When he walked through the bridge, he was surrounded by darkness while the Magic Stone could only illuminate as far as several dozen meters. If he were not directed by the yellow light at the end of the bridge, Banach would even feel as if he was walking in the abyss of hell, and the roaring sound of water at the feet was the whining of the ghosts and evil spirits.

Mist gradually rose around, and the scope of the light was further reduced due to the too much water vapor. He knew he had to be particularly careful, as green moss was likely to grow on the bridge. If he had slipped down from the bridge, even the Oracle could not save him.

In the moist air, Banach Lothar finally reached the central stone island.

He was panting when the guards of the Oracle turned to walk backward and said, "Come with me. Master Oracle has been waiting for you for a long time."

Having no time to complain, he took a deep breath and followed the two guards' footsteps.

The top of this isolated island-like Rockhill was about 100 paces wide, and the place to meet the Oracle was located within the Rockhill. Before stepping on the rock stairs around the hill, Banach noticed that behind the limestone cave there was an extremely spacious cave which echoed with the ramp he had met earlier to form a straight line. That cave was larger and much closer to the Rockhill. In the light of the Magic Stone, he found that it was a standard round cave and its edge was very smooth as if it was carved by men.

If he guessed right, the guards of the Oracle entered the Kingdom of Dawn through these underground passages.

When he finally entered the Rockhill, he had been too tired to stand straight.

Fortunately, the Oracle would not mind his posture when meeting him. The guards brought a soft cushion and asked him to sit down in the stone room which covered about 10 square meters. Then they drew the heavy cloth curtain to block the sound of the undercurrent.

"Are you ready?" One of them asked.

"Yes, please allow me to meet Master Oracle." Banach wiped the sweat from his forehead. Though his body was exhausted, his heart was full of expectation.

At these words, the Stone of Lighting on his hand suddenly flashed, and so were the magic stones in the hands of the two guards.

Then the three magic stones were extinguished in turn, and darkness enveloped the stone room. As it was not the first time that he had seen such a scene, Banach did not feel surprised; instead, he was full of amazement and awe at the power of the Oracle. Soon a purple light curtain rose from the ground, turning the darkness around into a different view.

It was also the deep underground, but red lava flowed beneath it. Countless rivers of flames gushed from the rock holes and converged at the bottom to form a cobweb-like picture. Above the flames was the body of the Oracle, a giant blob hanging on the rock wall with numerous plant-like roots. The tangled epidermis bulged rhythmically as if it was breathing hot air.

It had neither eyes nor mouth, but it could see and talk to him by directly echoing in his mind.

This was the real appearance of the Oracle.

It did not need to transform into a human figure because itself meant extraordinary.

Banach Lothar respectfully lowered his head.

Chapter 656 - The Oracle and the Chosen One

A female voice directly appeared in Banach's mind. "Please feel free to talk to me. What happened above?"

Instead of speaking, he only needed to whisper in his heart to give the answer. He found that although this way of communicating was hard to get used to in the beginning, it was actually a faster and more effective way. Meanwhile, he also found it harder to lie in this way.

Banach told the oracle what had happened through his thoughts. "Holy oracle, something unexpected happened. They didn't accept the invitation from Ambassador of Graycastle. This is my mistake. I didn't expect that it would be so hard for them to drop their guard."

The oracle did not blame him but said wistfully, "it's hard to predict what people are thinking. Do you have any remedial measure?"

"They've got to accept the ambassador's invitation. It's just a matter of time." He paused for a moment. "Because of His Majesty Appen Moya's new policy."

"Tut... common man."

Banach was startled and asked, "what can I do for you, holy oracle?"

"I don't like this witch removal policy. Can you guarantee that nobody will be hurt?"

"I..." Banach did not know what to say, because he knew that once this policy was implemented, it would be inevitable that some witches were caught or even killed. Given that the oracle had only ordered him to drive the witches to go southwards into the Western Region of Graycastle without ensuring the safety of their lives, he thought it would be none of his business to care about how many would survive during the journey.

"Is this what you think?" The oracle raised her voice in a sudden. All her tentacles wriggled and the underground hot lava started to surge, showing her anger. "Don't forget what I said. Before the doomsday, every witch is crucial!"

From the way she reacted, Banach gathered something had gone wrong and then realized that he had been talking with her through the thoughts. In this way, everything he thought would be directly transmitted to her. He quickly explained, "no, holy oracle, I remember every word you've said. I don't want to hurt anyone innocent, either, but if I do it that way, it'll take a longer time and require rearrangement of my people. After all, not everyone has the courage to defy the king's rules and at the same time keeps this secret."

The oracle quickly replied, "I'll send my guards to help you. How long will it take?"

Banach breathed a sigh of relief, as he had witnessed those guards' abilities. Generally speaking, knights were not able to compete with them at all, and some less capable ones could not even see their movements clearly. If two or three guards fought together, they could easily defeat 20 to 30 knights, which also showed the extraordinary power of the oracle.

"I can complete the third step of the plan in two weeks."

"All right, just do it."

"Holy oracle..." Banach hesitated and continued. "Are the witches that important? Do the deities only bless them? In terms of wealth or power, I'll make a better—"

The oracle interrupted, "a better choice for the Chosen One? You've got no idea. Neither wealth nor power will be useful when the doomsday is approaching. The deities are looking for a savior who knows how to use the divine power instead of a secular spokesman. Common man, you're helpful, indeed, so when the mission is completed, I'll give you an appropriate reward, such as immortality, but you also need to recognize your own position."

Banach knew about the doomsday. Every 400 years, a bloody moon would appear in the sky and then the Gates of Hell would open. Demons would come swarming out of the gates, slaughtering the human beings across the continent, and the person who could resist these cruel enemies was the Chosen One. Today, he knew more about the Chosen One through the talk with the oracle. She seemed to be searching for someone who can directly connect to the powerful deities and this someone must be a witch.

Not wanting to give up now, he asked again, "but... are you sure that the Chosen One was definitely among the witches in the Kingdom of Graycastle?"

The oracle remained speechless for a while, which was an unusual thing. After that, she said, "no one knows the answer. This is just another try, and we've tried this for many times in the past hundreds of years."

"What if we still can't find the one this time?"

"We'll keep searching until the doomsday when the human world is completely destroyed."

Thinking that it would be meaningless to become immortal if all the human beings died, Banach smiled bitterly and promised, "I see, I'll do my best to complete the task."

All the blob's tentacles danced simultaneously, which indicated that the oracle was content. "Here's another thing I want to ask... Is the church really defeated?"

Since the news that the church had suffered a crushing defeat had reached the Kingdom of Dawn, the oracle had paid particular attention to this issue. She had even ordered Banach to send his men to the Coldwind Ridge to confirm it.

"Yes, at the foot of the Coldwind Ridge, the battlefield looked as if it had been trampled by demonic beasts, with deep pits and trenches everywhere. Around it stood thousands of grave mounds. According to the locals, they were built by the King of Graycastle. He had bought all the dead bodies of his soldiers back to the Western Region and burnt and buried all the church's dead people at the spot. Merchants who came back from the Hermes Plateau told us that prosperity had already left the Holy City and there was only a dead silence in it."

Hearing this, the oracle's voice instantly turned soft. "This is their end..." After a moment, she quickly recovered and said, "that's all for today's conversation. I'm tired."

"Yes, holy oracle," Banach bowed and said.

The underground scene went out like ebbing tides, quickly leaving them in darkness. The Magic Stones flickered several times and then lit up the stone room.

Everything that had happened was just like a dream now.

A guard came up to Banach and gave him a porcelain bottle, saying, "here's the medicine for this time. Drink it. Holy oracle was very pleased with your recent work."

"Th-Thanks, your holy oracle." With great excitement, Banach took the bottle and swigged down all the liquid inside it.

Right after this, he felt a warm torrent flow out of his stomach to rejuvenate his whole body. This medicine could make him feel dexterous and quick in action, but this effect would not last for a very long time. It could not make him live longer, either. Based on what the oracle had said, it could only improve his health and relieve fatigue and restore the body's vigour in a short time. She had said that before he was bestowed immortality, he needed to take this medicine to mend his weak body. Otherwise, the great pain during the process of turning into an immortal would tear him into pieces.

Her honesty in telling him the truth about this medicine further strengthened his faith in her, as he believed that if this was a fraud, she would only need to offer him this magic medicine whose rejuvenating effect could attract lots of noble men and wealthy merchants like him.

Three years ago, he had had to move around sitting in a wheelchair pushed by a servant. Now, at least, he could stand and walk on his two feet. This was the improvement the medicine had brought him.

He was confident that if he could get immortality after completing the mission the oracle had given him, all the knotty problems he had now would be solved smoothly.

He lifted the curtain door and walked toward the rock stairs of the hill with his back straight and his head held erect.

Feeling totally different from the time he had walked to the stone room, now he felt energetic even in the humid cold winds. His steps were steady, and the roaring underground river sounded like horns encouraging him to move forward.

Chapter 657 - A Secret Shared by Two Girls

...

Roland poured himself a cup of tea and looked at Nightingale. "Would you like some?"

"Yes, thank you."

Lying on the couch, she was reading a newly written play by May with great interest. She was holding the book with one hand and a piece of dried fish with another hand.

Since Anna had talked to her, she had disappeared for two days. When she returned, she looked relieved, free and easy, as she had been before. Since her return, Roland felt that she kept smiling at him and sometimes peeped at him with eyes full of vitality.

Take what she was doing now as an example.

She put her feet on the tea table and moved her robe to one side, revealing her long slim legs in black tight stockings. She did not avoid him at all and would only conceal herself when someone else came into the office. This attractive posture made it hard for the prince to focus. He could hardly stop his eyes from involuntarily moving to the side sometimes. As a result, he had not finished even a single blueprint in the first half of the morning.

He complained in his heart,"I knew I shouldn't have asked Soraya to paint these stocking-like leg warmers."

He took a cup of delicately fragranced tea to her and said, "here's your tea."

She put down the book and took the tea with both hands. She sniffed at it and said, "ah... nice tea. Could you please add a lump of sugar for me?"

He found that she enjoyed both salty and sweet food, and no matter how much she ate, she would never get fat. When he had been in his lethargy, she had lost lots of weight and looked much thinner than before, but after he had woken up, she had quickly gotten back her normal weight. Her weight seemed to have an upper limit. When she reached it, she would stop gaining any more weight.

He had nagged her to stop eating too much or she would get fat, but now he realized that was not a problem for her at all.

He added a lump of sugar to her teacup and returned to his desk. After painting several strokes on the paper, he still could not stop himself from being curious and said, "Nightingale..."

"Uhm?'

"What indeed... did Anna tell you?"

"Well..." She nimbly slipped out of the couch and instantly appeared on his desk. "It's a secret."

"Can't you even tell me?"

After a little hesitation, she shook her head and said, "no, I've promised Anna. If it's just about me, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but this is not... She asked me to keep it up my sleeve for now."

"Well, I see." Roland took a sip of his tea and stopped asking. He could go to ask Anna directly, but as a person of normal EQ, he knew he must stop mentioning this thing repeatedly.

At least, from Nightingale's reaction he could tell that Anna was not angry.

When he picked up his quill again, Nightingale suddenly said, "thank you."

"What?" Rowland was stunned and looked up, his gaze met hers.

In the warm autumn sunshine, her long blonde hair shone, her skin glowed and her face looked exceptionally beautiful. Time seemed to stop at this moment.

"Thank you for telling her what I feel."

...

In the afternoon, good news came from the Ministry of Construction. Neverwinter's first converter steel mill, a steelmaking facility recently designed by Roland, was completed at the North Slope Mountain.

Despite that it was called a steel mill, it looked more like a simple iron shed with a new large piece of equipment in it. Different from all the previous furnaces, this equipment was made of pure steel, supported by an angular grate and covered with heat resistance coating. Its surface was dark gray and dull, making the machine look towering and thick in the sunshine.

When Roland arrived at this new Furnace Area with his City Hall officials, this new furnace had been surrounded by a large number of curious experienced workers.

"Your Majesty, can this stove make steel? It doesn't even have a fire place." Lesya of the Ministry of Construction had asked the same question, but he had still built it up in strict accordance with Roland's design. This converter's components were all processed by Anna. With Hummingbird's help, their heavy weight had not caused any trouble during the construction which was finished in just a week.

Roland smiled and said, "In nature, fire isn't the only thing that produces heat. Let the workers get ready for the equipment's first test run."

Roland had compared three most frequently used steelmaking facilities, open hearth furnace, converter, and electric furnace. He had firstly ruled out electric furnace because of the lack of necessary conditions and decided on a converter after a long and thoughtful consideration.

With the simplest structure among the three choices, an open hearth furnace was similar to a traditional smelter in terms of operation, but it also had a significant drawback in energy consumption. It required a huge amount of fuel in steel making, which would definitely pose a threat to Neverwinter's limited supply of energy resources. Given that its coal mines were located far away at the source of the Redwater River and that its coking plant was just put into use and could barely meet the demand of the blast furnace iron smelting, adapting open hearth steelmaking would soon lead to an acute shortage of fuel.

Choosing a converter would avoid such a problem, as it hardly cost any fuel. It kept the liquid iron at a high temperature to continue the smelting process, using the heat generated by the oxidation of impurities contained in pig iron, such as manganese, silicon and carbon.

The other shortcomings of an open hearth furnace included occupying a too large area and a long smelting time. To make the best use of fuel, a regenerator should be built for an open hearth furnace to heat the air in advance, and making each batch of liquid steel would take this facility over half a day. By comparison, a converter took up less room, as it needed no additional device and its orbit could double as a transmission line for the liquid steel. It also worked more efficiently. Each of its smelting processes only took dozens of minutes and this smelting time could be further shortened to 15 minutes when the technology was mature.

In view of these two points, Roland decided to choose converters as the main facilities for Neverwinter's steel production.

The workers used a steam engine to put a batch of crude iron ingots into the furnace shaped like a pear.

"Anna, make a fire," Roland said.

She nodded and walked up the stairs to the top of the converter. She summoned her Blackfire to melt the Iron Ingots into liquid iron in a short time, and the hot red liquid soon lit up her face.

He planned to use the liquid iron produced by the blast furnace for this steel mill in mass production. That was the reason why he built it here in the Furnace Area.

He said to the leader of the steelmaking team, "now, follow my instructions. Insert the blowing pipe into the furnace mouth."

This was the first time for them to use a converter, but for these experienced workers who had operated similar equipment, controlling this pipe was as easy as controlling a trailer. In the booming noise of the steam engine, a steel pipe slowly fell into the furnace from the top.

The other end of the pipe was connected to a coated flexible tube which led to an air pump driven by a steam engine. When the oxygen-rich air was inhaled into the converter, raging flames sparked to life at the furnace mouth. Orange sparkles splattered from the furnace, looking like fireworks. Glaring white flames made it hard for people around to open their eyes.

All the officials marveled at this spectacular sight.

Roland got a sense of fulfillment, feeling the hot air blowing on his face.

He saw these flames as an emblem of human beings entering a new era.

Chapter 658 - Dreams and Steel

As the liquid iron rolled over and over in the converter, the silicon and manganese in it were oxidized first after which it was the turn of the carbon in the pig iron.

At a temperature of nearly 1,500 degrees, the carbon reacted with the oxygen in the air, producing carbon monoxide and a lot of heat which made the liquid boil in the furnace. The flames gushing out of the furnace mouth almost enveloped the blowing pipe and the grate. That was why Roland made them coated with heat resistance coating.

A large amount of hot carbon monoxide were forced outward. It mixed with the air outside and burnt violently, looking as if the furnace were set afire. The noises caused by gas expansion even downed the booming sounds of the steam engine. As this scene easily evoked an image of an erupting volcano, all the people moved backward simultaneously in fright, except Roland who still stood in the place, with both of his hands behind his back. He faced the strong hot winds, totally besotted with the awe-inspiring roars of the surging steel liquid.

He thought it was a pity that he could not use pure oxygen in this process at present due to technological limitations. Otherwise, the flames would shine even more brightly.

When oxides of phosphorus and sulfur, which were the last elements that were oxidized, reacted with limestone and became furnace slags, the flames began to dim and the liquid iron became molten steel. As the furnace slags were lighter, they were floating on it. The workers could pour the liquid steel out through the steel-tapping hole by tilting the furnace as easily as pouring a cup of tea.

To prevent the slags from entering into the steel ladle, a modern steel mill would use a slag-stopping ball, a slag-stopping spear or infrared detection, which was beyond Neverwinter's technical capacity. Given that, Roland came up with a simple solution which was not pouring out all the liquid. He instructed the workers to erect the furnace when there were still some liquid steel in it, and then he asked them to dump all the left liquid steel together with the furnace slags. As he was not pursuing productivity efficiency, he did not care about such a little waste. Besides, when he collected enough wasted liquid steel, he could put them back into the furnace to make steel again.

To ensure the quality of the steel, the last step was to eliminate excess oxygen in the liquid steel.

The alumina poured in Neverwinter from Longsong Stronghold could make excellent deoxidizers. A bucket of pure aluminum extracted by Lucia was added to the liquid steel, and soon aluminum oxide furnace slags and excess liquid aluminum started to float to the surface. At this moment, the whole steelmaking process was accomplished.

Seeing the bright molten steel being poured into the mold and turning into steel ingots, all the officials of City Hall were too stunned to utter a word.

In this era, people usually relied on blacksmiths to hit on the hot iron repeatedly for a long time to produce steel, and a whole set of steel armors would be treasured as a family heirloom. No one had seen that steel could be made this way. "Star of Steel" had been able to produce lots of steel, but it was run by magic powers. They all knew that without Anna and Lucia, it could hardly produce anything.

However, this time was different, as converter steelmaking required no magic power but common workers. They realized something after witnessing this whole manual operation.

They were clear that they could not create another "Star of Steel", but they could certainly build more converters and train countless workers.

Given that, steel was no longer a rare material. A huge amount of this solid metal would be produced at the foot of the North Slope Mountain to replace those soft and fragile materials, such as wood and bronze.

Roland was happy to see the surprise and excitement on the officials' faces. He believed that they would not be excellent leaders if they were not thrilled by this brand new steelmaking process. Common workers might only be amazed by the steel ingots in front of them, but the officials should see the changes and the future brought by this new technology.

By now, Neverwinter's coal & iron compound manufacturing industry had been formed. Mining, ironmaking, steelmaking and steel-casting processes could all be completed by common people. With a fast-growing population and a rapidly expanding education, Roland now felt that he could hear the steel wheels rolling over the ground, ushering in a new era.

As to the quality of this first batch of rolled steel, he decided to let Lucia check it. After that, he could base on her results to adjust the air blowing time and to improve the slags removing methods. He felt good seeing this achievement.

...

However, he did not want to have a rest after that, as he still had lots of work to do with the memories he retrieved in the Dream World.

As he had completed all the primary textbooks, he planned to search for some professional books on machinery. He needed high-performance processing equipment as Neverwinter would soon be able to produce a large amount of steel. Those simple machine tools he had made previously could hardly process some high-end products, such as Longsong Cannons, heavy machine guns, and grenade fuze.

Where could he find those books?

He believed that the library of the school was the place he should go. It had been said to be a place full of romantic encounters, but he had had none during all his visits to that place when he had been a student. Despite that, he had really read lots of books there, including many on mechanical design.

After dinner, he went to bed early.

As traveling in the Dream World could not count as a rest, he would be very tired for the first day in that world. Besides, it was impossible for him to take an afternoon nap in his apartment there without an air conditioner in hot weather. Under such circumstances, he had to sleep early and save energy for his activities in the Dream World.

Waking up in that world, it was still a clear sunny morning in the midsummer.

He looked at his mobile phone at the bedside and saw a dozen missed calls. He touched the screen and found that all of them were from secondhand goods dealers. They had also sent him many text messages.

"Hey, bro, do you have any more armors? One of my friends wants to buy some to shoot a film. If you do, call me."

"I can offer you a higher price this time, 700 yuan. How's it?"

"The price for the swords will also be increased by 200 yuan. I'm a true pal, right? But don't sharpen the blades. Otherwise, that's way too scary."

"If you're unsatisfied with the prices, we can talk about it."

"Come on, bro. Could you give me an answer?"

Roland slid to the last message. It was from his bank, telling him that the remaining balance of his account was 3,600 yuan and 1,500 yuan of it was remitted by Zero's parents as her living expenses.

The money could support him for quite a long time.

He tapped with his finger to delete all the messages and put on his T-shirt and shorts before going into the living room.

At this moment, Zero was still in bed.

Not wanting to wait for the little girl to wake up and make breakfast, he directly walked downstairs and found a small rice noodle restaurant in the lane.

He sat in it and said, "a big bowl of rice noodle with shredded meat, please."

"Yes!"

He thought that as he had money now, he must give himself a treat which was not available even in the king's city of Graycastle. After all, the kingdom had no rice at all.

Soon, a steaming bowl of rice noodles fresh from the pot was served for him. While eating the breakfast, he looked at the apartment building.

By now, he had only visited the secondhand bookstore and the small Internet Cafe two blocks away, busy with making money and memorizing books. This was the first time for him to have leisure to sit down and observe the residents of the Apartment of Souls.

Chapter 659 - Rules of the Dream World

Apparently, the Dream World had accepted all the losers in the Soul Battlefield, as no one in this world found it strange seeing their various hair colors and different facial features.

For example, Roland himself had long gray hair, light gray eyes and a straight nose with a high nose bridge, which would attract all the attention when he walked in the streets of the community where he had lived in modern times.

However, in this world, all these strange looking people lived just like the common ones. On their way to catch buses, young men were rushing about with their newspapers and briefcases under their arms, while chewing deep-fried dough sticks. Elderly people gathered in twos and threes on the open space in front of the apartment building. Some were moving their limbs and doing their morning exercises. Some laid out Chinese chess boards, ready to play with their friends.

The chirping of cicadas, the city noises and the sounds of morning reading, babies crying and hucksters shouting were all wafted to his ears by the morning breeze, creating a characteristic symphony of the tube-shaped apartment building.

Roland cherished the scene which was full of life.

Right at this moment, a woman running along the lane was getting near to him.

Seeing this woman, Roland nearly dropped his chopsticks involuntarily. To his great surprise, she was Garcia Wimbledon.

She tied her hair up and wore light sportswear, baring her white thighs and hanging a towel around her neck. Her sweat had soaked her collar and pinpricks of sweat covered her arms. She must have been running for quite a long time.

He was more surprised seeing all the people in the lane fixing their eyes on her and some even whistling at her. These people looked so excited as if they were looking at a star.

However, Garcia did not give a fig to the crowd. She continued running through the lane as fast as the wind and disappeared into the corridor entrance of the apartment building.

"That's Garcia!" someone in the rice noodle restaurant exclaimed.

"Now you believe what I told you. If you get up early, you'll get the chance to see her. As long as the weather is good, she'll run for an hour here."

"It's the first time for me to meet a TV star."

"She looks much better than on TV."

"Oh yeah, Garcia will have an important match very soon."

"I'll support her anyway. I hope that she'll win the final."

"Of course, she will. She's such a genius!"

Everybody was talking about her, leaving Roland dumbfounded. He wondered why all the residents here were so familiar with Garcia and what the match they were talking about was. He thought, "is she a rising sports star or something?"

To confirm his guess, he took out his wallet after drinking all the remaining soup in his bowl and asked the owner when he came over to clean the table, "what was going on? Is that woman famous?"

The owner looked at him in disbelief, saying, "you're not living here, right? Who in this Tongzi Street doesn't know Miss Garcia?"

Hearing this, he became even more curious and said to the owner, "I've just moved in recently. What does she do?"

"She's a martial fighter!"

"Pfft." Roland nearly spat in the owner's face. "Ahem... what?"

"Come on, go to watch TV by yourself. She's the most famous person in this area, and it's because of her that we can continue to live here."

"Why?"

The owner pointed somewhere behind Roland and said, "look there."

He turned around and noticed something he had missed when he had come here. On the wall opposite to this restaurant, there was a big word saying "Removal".

"House removal?"

"Yes, some development company has long wanted to pull down the whole Tongzi Street to build a new skyscraper here. That company said that this block was too old and unsightly for a downtown zone. Bullshit, it's clearly a cultural relic building!" The owner sighed while searching his bag for Roland's change. "Those guys want to relocate us all to the suburbs. If Garcia didn't expose their plot on TV and gain wide support for us, the developer would start to drive us away at this moment."

Roland's mouth twisted. "That's really... an outrage."

"That's why all of us support Miss Garcia." The owner smiled and tamped the change into his hand. "Since you're now a member of the Tongzi Street, you'll become her fan soon!"

...

Roland understood that the Dream World might use some incredible methods to piece together irrelevant memory fragments, but what had happened just now was too bizarre to believe.

What's a martial fighter? Some new Olympic event?

And demolition of Apartment of Souls? No kidding! All the doors connected to the memory fragments are here in the building, and so is the creator of this world!

And I have to thank my elder sister for making it possible for me to live here?

With complicated feelings, he returned to his No. 0825 apartment, and Zero happened to get out of her bedroom with sleepy eyes.

Her hair was in a mess and her dress was wrinkled. One side of the dress's neckline dropped down, revealing half of her shoulder. She said, "uncle, you get up? I'll go to make breakfast right now."

"No, I've had breakfast and I brought you something to eat."

He put the omelet, steamed pork dumplings and milk he bought on the table and then turned on the television.

With a puzzled expression on her face, she sat by the table and asked, "why do you get up so early recently?"

"I told you that I got a job, so I can't sleep late in the morning anymore. Your parents remitted your living expenses to me, and my company paid me my first month's salary. We don't have to worry about money for now."

"Use your money wisely. Who knows how long will it last. Besides, we haven't finished the food stored in the refrigerator yet." Having said that, Zero still quickly devoured her breakfast.

Roland asked her, "by the way, do you know Garcia?"

She twitched her mouth and said, "of course, sister Garcia is such a talent. She joined Martialist Association at the age of 20, and I heard that she held an unbeaten record in the preliminaries. All my classmates regard her as an idol, but I think it's boring to watch this kind of fighting matches on the stage. "

Though he was a little bothered by the fact that he was called uncle while Garcia was called sister, he still put this aside and focused on what he wanted to investigate. Based on what the little girl had said just now, the martial fighters in this world even formed their own organization.

He asked, "are there... many martial fighters?"

"There are only a few." Zero darted a look of disapproval at him. "Uncle, please stop thinking about it. Not everyone has such a talent. Only those awakening with Force of Nature will get the chance to become martial fighters, and awakening is just the basic requirement. Without determination and perseverance, even an awakened talent will become a puppet of some great power and bring troubles to the people. "

"Uhm... how do you know so much about them?"

"Our teacher told us. He also said that as compared to imagining ourselves becoming martial fighters, we'd better do more exercises and try to become useful people for the community." She went to the bathroom to get washed and then walked to the door carrying her schoolbag. "I've got a full day today, bye."

When Zero left, Roland opened his hand, feeling the strange power in it.

Is this Force of Nature?

His interest in the Dream World increased dramatically. The "puppet of great power" somehow reminded him of a magic power bite. He wondered how this world integrated all the devoured memories and what the rules behind it were.

He had planned to go to the library of the school.

However, now he had a new idea.

Chapter 660 - Manifestation of Power

Roland spent the whole day searching every TV channel.

He watched several martial arts fighting programs. Different from the traditional fighting matches, this kind of competition was held in an arena as large as half of a football field. With no judge in the arena, the fighting was extremely intense. It was not a rare thing to see the fighters break the floor in the heat of a match, and loud sounds like muffled thunders could be heard when the fighters exchanged blows, which were like special effects added to this match.

In terms of competitiveness and charm, it was indeed better than boxing and freestyle fighting. All the martial fighters fought in a literal sense, with no rounds being counted for them and no half-time intervals interrupting the competition. No wonder the audience would get so excited watching this kind of fighting. Roland could not help but knit his eyebrows whenever he saw a martial fighter spit out blood or get massively injured, thinking, "these martial fighters really go too far. Aren't they worried that they'll die before they get the chance to spend their competition bonuses?"

Those matches aside, what he was most interested in was still the martial fighters themselves.

They obviously had much greater physical strength than the common people, and the Force of Nature seemed to give them some special abilities other than just improving their power or speed.

Each of such abilities would be given a special title which would be promoted as the martial fighter's nickname. For example, in the show Roland was watching, there was a man named Hurricane. His nickname was Mighty Storm, as he could punch numerous times at a super high speed in a second.

Roland was surprised by this propaganda method which would clearly show the trump card of a fighter to his or her opponent before the match began.

He was even more surprised when he saw a demon in this fighting match.

It was a typical Mad Demon which was tall and had big arms. As it wore no mask nor iron gloves, all the audience could see its fangs and three-fingered hands, which were obviously not human features. However, no one seemed to be scared and the commentator referred to him as a foreign martialist.

Roland was amazed by this weird and powerful Dream World again.

To rationalize the existence of the demon devoured by Zero, this world even made it a racial minority. Roland could not help but wonder what would the hybrid demonic beast become in this world, and then quickly thought of Lifts-her-tail who was full of vigor.

When he heard his own stomach growling, he suddenly noticed that the sun was setting.

He could not help frowning.

Zero usually came back long before this hour.

He had read her diary and knew her school was located at Zhongshan Road. It was only three kilometers from this apartment building. If she took a bus, she could get home in 10 minutes. Her cram school was over at 5:30 pm, but now it was 6:15 already. He got a little worried, "anything happened in her school?"

After a thought, he decided to get out to buy something to eat first.

He thought she might be hanging out with her friends right now. As in a summer day, it was not going to get dark until 8:00 pm, she probably went to a park or some game room to play with her friends.

Given that, even if he came to her school right now, he would probably not meet her there. As her landlord not her nanny, he did not want to be nosy.

She's just a little girl. No matter how hardworking she usually is, sometimes she may also want to relax.

So I'll cook... no, I'll buy today's dinner for us.

Right at this moment, the image on the TV flickered and the martial fighting broadcasting was changed into The News Studio.

"Good evening, viewers. Now, we interrupt our programs for a newsflash."

Holding a stack of papers in hand and with a worried look on face, the host said, "a No. 29 bus was hijacked at Zhongshan Road. The hijacker had a knife. Now traffic police have sealed the road. We warn all the city residents living in that area to avoid going out for now. We'll broadcast follow-up reports on the most recent progress of the case."

After that, it was swiftly switched to the crime scene on the TV. Roland saw a big crowd gathered outside the police cordon, who showed no inclination to leave.

Wait, isn't this Zero's regular route?

At this thought, his heart suddenly sank. Is she abducted?

That was not good news to him. He was worried what would happen after the death of a key figure of the Dream World like Zero. Based on his other dream experiences, when subconscious failed to rationalize a thing, it would stop working. To avoid causing any disruption to the subconscious, he was even reluctant to delve into Zero's family background.

He was afraid that when the subconscious stopped working, he would wake up and forget everything happened in the dream.

He did not want to finish this dream before he dug out all the information in his deep memory.

More importantly, he would be able to know more about the real world if all the residents of the Apartment of Souls had doors connected to their memory fragments as he guessed.

It was also possible that Zero's death would not change the Dream World, but he did not want to take this risk.

Now that he had this strange power surging inside his body, he decided to go to the crime scene to help.

After he left the Tongzi Street, he ran all the way through the busy roads, feeling a warm flow circulating inside his body. Surprisingly, he did not feel tired and could easily control every part of his body while running at a high speed. He dodged all the pedestrians with agility and arrived at the spot in merely eight minutes. He felt this three-mile long-distance running was like a 100m Sprint.

Out of his expectation, when he finally squeezed himself into the crowd, he found that the hijacker was already captured. In a flood of tears, he was telling the reporter that he just did this on the spur of the moment. The crowd responded with boos and catcalls and then quickly left. Traffic police began to clean up roadblocks, getting ready to restore the traffic.

With his mouth corner twisted, he complained in his heart, "who says that policemen always come after the problem is solved."

Besides, he did not see Zero in the hijacked bus. He sighed inwardly, "it looks like I've run all this way for nothing."

When he was about to leave, he heard a vague call for help coming out of a narrow lane on the side of the road.

He was startled and looked into the lane. At this moment, the sun did not completely fall behind the mountains, but the lofty buildings on both sides of the lane blocked all the light. It was dark inside. He saw nothing in it.

Was that an illusion?

After several minutes, when he slowly walked past the entrance of the lane, he heard the weak voice again.

There must be someone inside!

I should ask the police for help.

He turned around, only to find that all the policemen had got into their cars with the hijacker and were driving away. It was too late to stop them now.

Should I pretend that I've heard nothing?

However, he clearly felt something inside the lane was attracting him.

The moment he had got near to the entrance of the lane, the warm flow in the body had started to surge. It felt like an uproar or an excitement, which urged him to get in.

He stepped into the narrow lane.

After his eyes quickly adjusted to the very weak light inside, he saw nothing but a man who stood with his back toward him.

"Are you calling for help?" Roland asked, frowning.

The man did not answer or turn around. Instead, he rotated his head 180 degrees to look at Roland. Seeing this movement, he sucked in a breath of cold air.

He was even more shocked seeing the man's face.

With black skin and lots of blisters, it seemed as if it were burnt. A dark red cyclone shining in the dim light was twirling on his forehead.

Chapter 661 - The Star Cyclone

"Is this... magic power?"

The twirling cyclone on the man's forehead immediately reminded Roland of Nightingale's description about the form of magic power, but seeing it now for himself, he thought it was more like a galaxy. Several spiral arms were revolving around the nexus, the brightest point which was located in the center. Despite that it was only about a palm size, when he carefully looked at it, he could notice numerous details and felt some surging power in it.

"Are you a martial fighter?" The man suddenly opened his mouth to ask in a hoarse voice.

"No, I'm not." Roland was fully alerted.

"Yeah, I guess so." The burnt-face man turned his body toward Roland without moving his head at all. "You taste sweeter."

Roland looked for weakness in the man's body while saying, "if you were a girl, I might be a bit interested in hearing these words. Are you a man bit by the magic power... no, Force of Nature?"

"Force of Nature?" The burnt-face man snorted contemptuously. "They've no idea where this power came from and knew nothing about its essence."

"Don't talk as if you know everything." Roland retorted. thinking, "come on, this is my dream!"

The man opened his mouth which was full of bleeding blisters to say, "I can't tell, but I can feel it. It doesn't belong to this world. It's a gift from the deities. I thought the hijacker could attract at least one or two martial fighters to come here, but he surrendered too fast. Fortunately, my efforts finally paid off, as you came here..."

"Crack!"

Roland struck first to gain the initiative before the burnt-face man finished his sentence. This was a trick he had learned from his fighting experience in childhood. He could tell from the way the man acted and talked that he was a dangerous guy. Given that, it was not a wise choice to act after he finished talking.

He straightly punched the man on his forehead, as fast as a flash of lightning. As he found his strength had increased sharply, he did not punch with all his power. However, he still clearly felt the man's bones cracking under his fist.

His strike sent the burnt-face man up into the air.

Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body began to surge, dancing with joy for such a good start.

The man landed and rolled on the ground until hitting a wall. When he staggered to his feet, Roland came up to launch another attack without any hesitation.

He believed his own judgement, as this was his Dream World.

Moreover, his opponent was obviously not a human being.

When his face bones were broken, he seemed to feel no pain and did not beg for mercy at all. No human being suffering such a sharp pain could react this way.

Roland felt that his mind was clearer than ever before.

The violent warm flow filled his body, but did not make him woozy.

He knew that at this moment, he should beat up the underdog, which was another trick he learned from his childhood fighting.

This time, he hit the man with all his strength.

He punched with no skills as if he was hitting a sandbag, keeping the burnt-face man constantly moving to defend. Apparently, the man did not expect this at all and started flailing as Roland's blows were raining down upon him. Roland soon started to feel that hitting the man was like hitting tofu, as his muscles were torn loose after his arms, sternum and ribs broke. If he were a normal man, he would be dead at this moment.

Roland scolded while giving the man a good thrashing, "You asshole! Turn your head 180 degrees. You thought you were making a horror movie?"

He was very upset by the fact that as the creator of this world, he had been scared by the burnt-face man when he had seen him in this alley.

"This... is... impossible... Why... I can't use it..." The man's voice changed completely and soon Roland could hardly hear anything he was saying.

"Use what?" Roland noticed that the cyclone on the man's forehead was twirling slower. He tried to reach out his hand to touch it and found that it became somewhat tangible. "You mean this cyclone of magic power?"

"No, don't touch it..."

Roland knew that he must do what his enemy did not want him to do. He held his head down and grabbed the cyclone. When the warm flow in his body began to boil, he tore it down.

Suddenly, the burnt-face man quieted down and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed and lifeless.

The cyclone turned from dark red to a bright color when it fell into Roland's palm. Now it was white in the center and blue on the outside, more resembling a galaxy.

It began to twirl again and quickly left his palm, turning in to a beam of dazzling light. It shot up into the sky, leaving a trail like a silver wire and disappeared after several seconds.

Meanwhile, the warm flow inside his body calmed down, giving him great satisfaction. He felt good from head to toe.

He had completely lost his mind.

He thought that this world might be more complicated than he imagined.

Looking at the dead burnt-face man on the ground, his mouth corner twisted and then he turned away heading for the exit of the alley.

It was dark when he returned to the towering tube-shaped apartment building. A swarm of flying insects attracted by the light in it were buzzing noisily in the corridor.

He fumbled to take out his key and inserted it into keyhole. Before he turned the key to open the door, he heard a burst of rapid footsteps behind it.

Zero opened the door with a frown, but he still saw some worry in her eyes.

"Where have you been?"

"Where have you been?"

They asked simultaneously.

"The cram school added classes today. We'll get a day off tomorrow as some teachers will come to check."

"I had gone to look for you."

"Look for me?" the little girl asked doubtingly.

"Yeah, you didn't come back on time." Roland laughed while rubbing her head and then walked into the apartment.

Three dishes and some soup were already placed on the table, but all the bowls and chopsticks remained neat and clean. Obviously, Zero had been waiting for him to come back.

That was why she had run to the door as soon as she had heard the sound at the door.

Roland sat at the table and said, "Let's have dinner. I'm starving."

Zero stared at him, asking, "Were you worried that I was cheated by some stranger? I'm not a kid anymore. Next time, you can just wait for me at home."

Roland could not help but roll his eyes at this, thinking, "Nowadays, junior high school students are so mature? I remember myself at this age, I was terribly naughty. When I still had some allowance, I would go to the game hall and when I didn't, I would go into the mountains to catch chafers. I would never come home until it was dark. How come this little girl behaves so well?"

He somehow felt a little embarrassed for himself at this thought.

"Oh, you've got a day off tomorrow?"

"Uhm, what?" Zero still seemed a bit annoyed but looked relaxed.

Roland said while eating, "Come to the library with me, I'll buy something for you on the way."

"Buy... What?"

"Well, I bought you some clothes last time, so this time, let's buy some dresses, shoes and pajamas... you have to get something new to replace what you are wearing now." He smiled. "I'll buy you a cellphone. We need to stay in touch in case something like this happens again."

Chapter 662 - The Defensive Line

Having stayed in the Dream World for two days, Roland saw the grey slated roof of his castle again.

He stretched out his hands, repeatedly bending and stretching his fingers. Except for the strange heat current, he had the same feeling as he had in the Dream World. Luckily, he could take advantage of falling down to get rid of the Dream World, otherwise he could not even tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

"Could the brain simulate such a realistic world?"

Roland could not help feeling confused about that.

Especially the cluster of stars which was particularly like the Magic Cyclone. Even though he had never seen the real look of magic power, if the Force of Nature was shaped based on the magic power, everything in the Dream World should be fuzzy.

Plus the eccentric burnt-face man and the heat current that resonated with the cluster of stars... He suddenly was not sure about his previous presumptions.

He felt like his small brain could not contain such a complex and huge Dream World.

But if the Dream World did not exist in his subconsciousness, where was it?

After thinking hard for a long while, Roland could not find a satisfactory answer.

He shook his head and made up his mind to temporarily put these things aside.

Since he could not figure it out, he thought that he should focus on the more important things.

After he took Zero to the library, he learned a lot of useful design knowledge. Even if he just looked through a book, he could precisely reproduce its content.

One of the books also covered the proportioning and property of some alloys, which could greatly save the test time for Anna and Lucia.

Under such circumstances, it would be less difficult to create the third-generation machine tools used to forge higher precision parts.

Of course, he had to personally instruct the first operational workers.

People in different domains in Graycastle were continuously gathering together in the western region. Some people who had settled down here passed the universal education test and got jobs. Upon thinking of this, Roland felt extremely heartened.

This was a gradual process, but he had paved the way. When Graycastle was unified next year, Neverwinter might have an opportunity to be on the threshold of the industrialization age.

Once they entered the industrialization age, the domain would certainly undergo a tremendous change.

In the afternoon, Karl Van Bate, Minister of Construction, brought the news that Route 67 had been accomplished in less time than that of the Kingdom Main Street. Apart from a shorter distance, the workers had become more proficient in construction.

As they promised before, the batch of workers who had been developed by the Ministry of Construction had been affiliated with the border area.

"Your Majesty, if you don't have any other road-building plans, I'm planning to send them all to construct residential quarters." Karl said, "Though there will be extra salary expenditure, Neverwinter is in urgent need of residential quarters."

Roland also knew this condition. There were altogether about 5,000 people in the construction team, half of whom were busy building new residential communities in order to accommodate the large population which had been persuaded by City Hall to come to Neverwinter from the other cities. Over just one year, the town had been enlarged at least over three times, which did not include the new farming land to the south of Redwater River.

"The road-building can wait." He spread out the map of Border Area and pointed to North Slope Mountain, saying, "I'm planning to build a railway directly connecting the mine and the pier so as to load the coal which comes from the west."

"There is already a road..." Karl suddenly stopped and continued to say, "Are you saying a railway?"

"Yes, a railway or railway track." Roland nodded and said, "It's similar to the orbital transportation system of the mine, but it's made up of steel."

"I see," after a while of thinking, Karl said, "but a railway doesn't need many workers, either."

"It doesn't indeed need many workers to construct a narrowly hardened pavement." Roland smiled but did not point it out. Honestly speaking, he knew that Karl did not understand what he had said at all. In the mine, the coal depended on simple ropes, steam engines and horses to carry the loads outside. But that was not what he thought and it was for more than carrying coal.

What he wanted was trains.

Since its invention, the train had caused tremendous changes for land transport.

And this short-distance railway was an attempt.

It was not difficult to understand the principles of steamed trains, but a railway system was gigantic and complex. Even if Roland did not know how many years it took to test and improve before the train and its supporting facilities were put into practice, he thought that it must be a long process.

"Luckily, I can find the knowledge in the Dream World."

He had been so obsessed with the gigantic trains which stood for industrialization.

No matter how heavily they were loaded, the trains steadily travelled through forests and mountains as they puffed white gas. Black connecting rods drive many wheels to rotate, giving out a rhythmical clang and shortening the vast land to an acceptable distance. Afterwards, no matter what changes had taken place in the driving force, the nature of trains has never changed.

Apart from the hardware facilities, a train also needed driving by a batch of railway workers who should be responsible for their own duties. So it was much more complex than simple steam engines and machine tools.

According to Roland's plan, the railway connecting with the North Slope Mountain and the pier was not only a technological test but a training base for developing the first-generation of railway workers.

"Send 200 people to pave the roadbed towards Misty Forest to the outside of the second city wall." Roland decided.

Karl was anxious, "Your Majesty, but the railway will be exposed to the attack of demonic beasts."

Roland carelessly explained to him, "they have no interest in steel. The railway won't be finished before the Months of Demons. Besides, we won't hide behind the short mud wall next year. Don't you feel that the border area is becoming more and more crowded?"

"You mean…"

Roland pointed to the vast area to the northwest of the Impassable Mountain Range and explained to him, "we should expand the border area to the Barbarian Land where the resources are no less than Graycastle. A thin mud wall is far from enough to defend against the demons."

If the Battle of Divine Will broke out and the demons build the third Obelisk in Tuqaila, the outpost would approach the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range. Hence, it was doomed to fail if they just set defensive lines in the breaches of the western region. If the Witch Cooperation Association could follow a mountain path to the Barbarian Land before, so would the demons to enter Graycastle.

Even though the demons gave up the mountain path, his troops would struggle to deal with a group of flying Devilbeasts who flew through mountains to harass them each day.

"Only if the Impassable Mountain Range became the city wall, would Graycastle be safe."

If the Longsong Cannon were set up on each of the mountain tops, the area covered within the shooting range would be his new town.

There were no rivers in this area connecting to the inner land. If resources such as coal needed quickly transporting to the Barbarian Land, they could only rely on a railway.

"The defense plan of the future is a big project but I believe that you can do it."

It sounded fascinating for any mason to bring the Impassable Mountain Range into the territory of Graycastle. If a mason could build such a city, he would certainly be remembered by history.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Karl said with an excited look.

Chapter 663 - The Spectacle

"In addition, I intend to build a landmark in the city of Neverwinter," Roland continued to say.

"Landmark?" Karl quickly composed himself after the excitement. "Do you mean an eye-catching architecture such as a monument or a clock tower?"

"You could also call it a spectacle." Karl was without a doubt a top figure in the Mason Guild of the king's city, judging by his quick response to such a new terminology. Roland nodded at first, then shook his head and said, "But I'm not going to build any useless landmark."

After the battle with the church, the First Army suffered serious losses. Although Iron Ax reported that the army's morale was still high, the casualties caused huge grief to the families.

In order to strengthen the confidence of the subjects, especially those who came from out-of-town, he came up with this amazing idea of the spectacle. Some spectacles in history were built entirely to satisfy the lust of the rulers without having any benefit to the builders. Even if this could highlight the power of the state, Roland would not build such a white elephant.

"I plan to build a residential building on the south bank of Redwater River, behind the industrial park."

Karl did not reply as he must have realized that this was no ordinary building.

Roland was very satisfied with Karl's calmness. "It'll have about 15 floors, with a height of three and a half meters per floor and an overall building height of more than 50 meters. In other words, it's close to the height of the four old city walls of the king's city—was that the biggest project you've ever been involved in?"

Karl gasped. "Your Majesty, this would be the Tower of Babel!"

"I wouldn't consider it the Tower of Babel. It's just an ordinary high-rise building." Roland said laughingly, "It just happens to be suitable as a landmark in this era."

The 15-floor height meant that it would tower over the castle. It would be visible as soon as one entered the city of Neverwinter. It would not only symbolize the power of Neverwinter but also make up for the shortage of housing now. After all, high-rise residential buildings had a higher plot ratio than cottages. This explained why more and more skyscrapers were built in the future.

"Could residential buildings really be built so high?" Karl seemed a bit skeptical.

"This is still far from the limitations of concrete." Roland thought for a moment and said, "I'll personally guide you through it."

Although a change of profession often meant a different field of knowledge, mechanics and structural principles were still interchangeable. Before coming up with this idea, he already considered many factors: the height might seem alarming, but in fact, it was not. For example, the Pyramid of Khufu which was constructed in 2,000 BC possessed a height of over 140 meters and relied only on the pilling up of stones. China also had wooden pagodas with a height of more than 130 meters—as long as the foundation was sturdy enough, the height would not be an issue.

Provided stability would not be affected, future generations minimized the volume of the pillars and walls to reduce the cost of materials. Neverwinter already had a surplus of cement production, hence using it to build a concrete building was a good choice.

It would also be advisable to use a multi-podium and towering building design for the structure. Although that would mean occupying more land, it would also greatly enhance the structural stability and reduce the difficulty of construction.

More columns could be added if stability was an issue. Reinforced steel bars could also help with its quality. As long as the foundation was solid, it would be almost uncollapsible.

The last issue was the casting of the concrete—Roland had already considered it and decided that Maggie and Hummingbird would rise into the sky, while Hummingbird would carry iron cans and pour concrete from the air. This would almost be as efficient as using the pump.

Karl already had experience from building the Witch Building which had the same concrete structure, and this time it was just on a slightly larger scale. The bamboo tendons and the steel wires would also be replaced by reinforced steel. He was highly confident about this project since he also had the Witch Union as technical support.

***************

"Time's up. Everyone, please put your pens down." Scroll knocked on the table.

"Phew..." Evelyn let out a deep breath. This meant that the second semester at Border Town... no, the city of Neverwinter, had finally ended. She ultimately managed to catch up with everyone else this year and participate in the final exam.

She kept her charcoal pen and looked around—Anna was still nowhere to be found. According to Wendy, Anna had already reached a mysterious realm. Ordinary people who read her books would only feel dizzy and fall into a deep sleep as if they had depleted all their magic powers.

Candle was also looking at her. When their eyes met, Candle even gave a thumbs up, to signify that she did well at the exam.

Nightingale, who was sitting at the back, still looked dejected. Since the reading and writing tests were scrapped, her scores fell drastically, which made Evelyn quite puzzled. As far as she knew, Nightingale came from a noble background and received her education much earlier than other people. She should have an easier time when it came to learning. Perhaps Nightingale's ability was too important, hence she was kept busy all day handling tasks for His Majesty, and this, in turn, affected her studies.

After all, Nightingale even fought alongside Lady Ashes as a combat witch. In Sleeping Island, she would be someone that Evelyn could only admire from a distance.

The others seemed both happy and sad. For example, Agatha, Lucia and Lily from the first tier always obtained high marks easily. Learning seemed to come naturally to them. Especially, Miss Agatha was already getting closer to Anna and Tilly. She was also a combat witch, thus making Evelyn extremely envious.

For the remaining few, one could guess from the expression on their faces that Honey, Hummingbird and Echo would come last if there were no mishaps.

Of course, this did not include the new members of the alliance, Paper and Summer—they were still not up to speed, and at the moment they were taught by Teacher Scroll alone.

But Evelyn was most excited about Maggie—looking at the guileless little girl, she could not help but want to laugh out aloud.

There are no multiple choice questions in the test!

Since the previous final exam results, Evelyn remained heartbroken. She thought she was already very close to her goal and did not expect to lose by one point to Maggie.

She even looked for Scroll to check if the results were wrong. In the end, she discovered that Maggie did very well for the multiple choice questions, which proved she failed miserably.

In the coming year, Evelyn spent most of her time on learning.

She was able to display her ability quite quickly. She only needed to go the winery two or three times per week, and it took her less than 10 minutes before she could cast all her magic power. Even when the bar was open later on, it still did not affect her performance.

She never once had a match with the poker trio. When she had spare time while working at the bar, she would always flip open her exercise book to consolidate what she had learned that night. She did not let even her favorite perfume collection affect her learning. Evelyn would go shopping with Candle at Convenience Market only when the new flavor of perfume started selling on the shelves. She did all this in order to achieve the goal she set for herself.

And this time, she was confident about winning!

Chapter 664 - The Mystery Moon Detective Squad

Three days later, Evelyn got her grades for the final exam.

She scored an amazing 113 points out of 150. This was a very high score, judging from her usual standards.

Since Scroll accompanied His Majesty Roland to the Longsong Area for inspection work, Sister Wendy was the one who told her about the results. She even patted Evelyn on her shoulder and said encouragingly, "Good work. Her Highness Tilly will be very happy when she gets to know about this. Keep up the great work."

"I'll continue to work hard!" Evelyn nodded firmly and turned round to look for Candle. "How many points did you get?"

"91 points, which is still a pass," Candle answered, "Looking at your happy expression, you must have done very well on the test."

"Um!" Evelyn blurted. "113!"

"Really? This score is probably close to Lucia's!" Candle said excitedly, "Would you like me to find out?"

"I don't think so. They must have done better." Evelyn waved her hand. "I only want to know Maggie's result."

"Perhaps my next goal could be replaced by Lily or Lucia," she thought. She was aware her ability was indeed very bad, but she was born like that which was unchangeable. Learning, however, was something that could improve with efforts. Even ordinary people could excel in learning, and hence she did not want to lose to anyone.

She also wanted to be a learned and talented person like His Majesty Roland.

After class, Evelyn found Maggie, but Maggie's reply was unbelievable. "Cuckoo—I scored 117!"

How could this be possible?

She stood there motionlessly for a long time, feeling incredulous even after Maggie left.

"How could this be? Scroll must have made a mistake in her results." For a moment, Evelyn thought she heard her own voice. She blinked, only to realize that the one who had spoken was Mystery Moon. She happened to hear the conversation and had a similar puzzled look on her face.

"What's so strange about that?" Lily stared at Mystery Moon. "Don't doubt the ability of others, just because you fared poorly."

"But I was sitting right in front of her." Mystery Moon tried to justify herself. "When I collected the test, I saw that she drew honey jerky all over the blank paper."

"Are you sure?" Lily frowned.

"I swear on my electromagnetic force!"

"Hah... that's not in the least bit convincing at all." Lily shrugged and prepared to leave, but was pulled back by Mystery Moon.

"Wait a minute, what I said was all true! Maybe we should investigate."

"I'm not interested." Lily snarled. "If you have any doubts, you can check with Scroll when she comes back."

"That would defeat the whole purpose of exploring, ah," said Mystery Moon with an expression of mischief. "Evelyn, let's help you to find out the truth!"

"Don't count me in!"

"What happened?" Candle called out.

Evelyn hesitated and then revealed her confused thoughts.

"Hmm... what would you do if you wanted to investigate?" Candle touched Evelyn's head and said, "It takes a few days for Teacher Scroll to return, right?"

"Now that both His Majesty and Nightingale are away, don't think that I'll allow you to sneak into the office." Lily glared at Mystery Moon. "Don't think I'm unaware of what you plan to do."

"Steal the tests? I'm not that stupid." Mystery Moon shook her fingers. "I just want to find out where Scroll marks the tests."

"You mean..." Candle's eyes lit up.

"We just need to call Summer." She smirked.

Evelyn instantly understood Mystery Moon's plan. Summer could replay the illusion where Scroll was scoring the test for Maggie, and the mystery would be solved. "But... Teacher Scroll usually does so at City Hall. Won't it be inappropriate for us to be there?"

"What's wrong with that? In the city of Neverwinter, everyone can easily access City Hall, so there's no reason why we can't go." Mystery Moon shouted. "It's not His Majesty's office, so I think some people should stop worrying unnecessarily."

"I have to remind you," said Lily, "Most people only have access to the lobby of City Hall. The office of the Ministry of Education is on the second floor. Do you think those officials will let us enter?"

"Well, this..." Mystery Moon was at a loss for words.

"In that case, let's forget about it," Evelyn said. She did not want to bother the others. "I'll wait for a few more days."

"No, I have a way around it." Candle pondered as she touched her chin.

...

Candle's method was very simple, which was to involve Nana. According to her plan, since Summer would already be involved, it would not matter if they called another person as well.

And as it turned out, this method did work.

Evelyn was amazed by Nana Pine's popularity. As soon as Nana entered City Hall the next day, she was greeted warmly and stopped by no one. This was probably due to the popular image of the little angel, or the fact that her father was a well-known noble in the Border Area who had been personally praised by His Majesty. Anyway, she entered the office of the Ministry of Education effortlessly.

There was no one in the room.

Few teachers would come here unless there was a meeting.

"We're in!" Mystery Moon said excitedly, "Let's start backtracking!"

"Are you sure... this is alright?" Summer was a little hesitant. "Only officials are allowed to be here."

"Officials are no different from us. Hummingbird is even the vice minister of the Ministry of Construction," Mystery Moon patted her chest and said, "Don't worry, as long as we don't say anything, Scroll would certainly not mind that we visited her office."

"If I find out that you're lying, I promise I'll tell Scroll," Lily said coldly.

"I thought you said you weren't coming?"

"Hmm... I, I'm here to supervise you and prevent you from making a big mistake, got it?"

Looking at the both of them arguing, Evelyn suddenly felt that her decision might be a mistake.

Finally, Candle managed to persuade Summer. When the illusion appeared in the office, everyone held their breath.

It was pretty clear that the exact time when Scroll marked the papers had to be the day after the exam and before she left for Longsong Stronghold. Summer quickly found the exact scene with a quick flashback.

Everyone quickly squeezed behind "Scroll".

As long as the time had not lapsed for too long, Summer would be able to maintain the illusion for 30 minutes. Soon after, Evelyn saw Maggie's paper.

"Look, I wasn't lying!" Mystery Moon shouted.

"..." Lily could not help but frown.

There was indeed a large amount of blank space on the paper. Other than the easier fill-in-the-blank questions plus the question-and-answer type of questions in front, almost no words were included in the calculation section. Some of the items even had drawings of roasted meat underneath them. Even "Scroll" was shaking her head unwittingly.

It was very clear that this test could not have attained a score of 117.

"Could it be possible that Maggie was lying?" Evelyn thought.

Chapter 665 - Chaos

"Scroll" quickly scanned through the entire examination paper, then wrote down at the front of the paper the total score of the three subjects: 17.

The result was missing an entire 100 points.

"Well... so the problem lay with Maggie?" Nana tilted her head.

"So, that's the result?" Mystery Moon was greatly disappointed. "So it wasn't Scroll who purposely gave a high score to Maggie in exchange for honey grilled meat—oh!"

Lily slapped the back of Mystery Moon's head, "Shut up!"

"Should we continue to watch?" Summer asked timidly. "We should leave as soon as possible so that we won't get ourselves found out."

"Let's wait for a second," said Candle. "Perhaps something went wrong when it was copied."

"There's no need. I already know the result so it's fine..." Evelyn shook her head. If it were the original method of writing, it would indeed be possible to confuse the figures in a compact arrangement. However, in the universal education popularized by His Majesty Roland, the figures were replaced by simple, easy-to-remember single strokes, so the chances of committing mistakes were very slim.

"I think it was Maggie who flew in from the window, making the jerky—stop!" Mystery Moon covered her head, "Don't do it. I will stop talking."

They saw "Scroll" check all the papers and begin to copy the scores onto a form. Maggie's column still reflected a score of 17 points.

"The problem really didn't lie with Teacher Scroll," said Candle relievedly.

"Can we go now?" Summer said anxiously.

Evelyn was about to reply, but "Scroll" suddenly stood up and looked toward the doorway. Six people immediately followed her gaze, then they noticed that the door was opened and a town hall apprentice appeared in the doorway.

"What are they talking about?" asked Mystery Moon.

There was no sound in the illusion, so they could only judge the conversation between the two by lip reading.

"It appeared to be Lord Scroll... His Excellency Barov... is sending for you?"

Then "Scroll" nodded, and followed the apprentice out of the office.

The moment the door closed, perhaps because of the air current, a cold wind suddenly picked up within the room. All the papers were blown and scattered messily all over the floor.

"Ah... the window," Lily mumbled.

Evelyn saw it too—the window that was previously closed was now open with a small gap. Scroll did not shut the window tight, and hence the open door generated an air current that forced the window to open. The autumn wind outdoors caused the window to swing back and forth, and open wider and wider. It was not long before a strong wind severely smashed it back to the window frame. Although the sound could not be heard, one could imagine the strong impact from the glass tremor.

Something unexpected happened.

An air current swept through the office again and caused the pen holder to fall on the desktop. The quill that was in the ink bottle suddenly flew up and landed exactly on that exam sheet.

After crossing an arc in mid-air, the tip of the pen dropped on the table, leaving a stroke on Maggie's column and turning the original 17 into a three-digit 117.

Probably someone heard the loud noise coming out of the office, so the door was pushed open again. That apprentice reappeared to have a quick look around, and then came in astonishedly.

She went to the window, shut all the windows tight, and then crouched to clean up the office for Scroll.

She did not leave until she was satisfied that all the documents had been re-organized and neatly placed on the desk.

"Was this what had happened?" Evelyn and Candle looked at each other.

It was neither Scroll's error in copying the marks nor Maggie's intention to lie but an accident caused by the unexpected wind?

Evelyn was then able to guess what happened next. Scroll received the order of His Majesty to make a trip to Longsong, so she passed the score sheet to Wendy. Wendy was not the person in charge of marking the exams, and even if she was puzzled by Maggie's performance, she would not question Scroll's judgment.

"Ha, under the insistence of Mystery Moon, the truth has finally been revealed," Mystery Moon looked up and said, "the culprit was... Teacher Scroll!"

"It was the wind!" Lily gritted her teeth.

"But if Scroll had closed the window tightly, the wind would not have been able to blow the tests, nor the quill, right?"

"How could you say this!"

"No," Nana said thoughtfully, "in that case, it would have been His Majesty Roland's fault. He built the City Hall here, and not only did he expand it, he also built two more stories. Without this additional second story, Scroll would not be able to mark the papers here."

"Uh... you're right, so the culprit was—His Majesty Roland?"

"Enough, all of you!"

"Excuse me... can I stop now?" Summer seemed like she was about to burst into tears.

"Sorry, that's enough," said Evelyn patting her shoulder. "Thank you, let's go."

"Hey, should we just leave like that? Maybe we can find the next quiz in the office?" Mystery Moon stood in front of everyone to stop them.

"This was the real reason you wanted to come here!" Lily rushed forward, "I will never let you make trouble!"

"I, I was just kidding!"

…

The investigation ended in a farce. After bidding farewell to Candle, Evelyn returned to the Witch Building alone.

Although the truth had come to light, her mood was not calm at all.

Somehow, the flying paper and the falling quill continued to emerge in her mind—both actions were erratic and yet at the last minute formed ingenious and perfect results.

The paper, the pen, the airflow caused by the door, and the time when the apprentice went in and out, all led to this result. Without any one of these conditions, the change of the score could not be achieved.

However, these conditions were unconscious and chaotic.

In that case, this could also be applied to mixing cocktails.

A variety of ingredients are added to the alcohol, but you can't taste each and every ingredient. They are fused in the liquid and affect each other, creating a new taste that can be accepted by people after numerous attempts. Sometimes, a rare combination that happens by chance could also create those unique tastes.

Evelyn could not help but think of the microscopic balls that His Majesty Roland mentioned —they continually make disorderly disturbances, each of which seemed irrelevant yet could portray marvelous traits.

She closed her eyes and felt that something in her heart was ready to burst out.

The world was full of chaos.

But the results were hidden in the chaos.

As if it were all meant to be.

Evelyn forced her eyes open and reached for the cup on the table.

Ripples appeared in the cold water, and then the color changed as if a drop of paint fell on them. The water gradually turned into a reddish orange, and a fragrance she had never smelled before drifted into her nose.

She hesitated for a moment, then started licking the liquid.

An indescribable sweetness suddenly covered her tongue—slightly bitter, with a strong mellow flavor, that was unmatched by any type of drink.

It was not only like a mixture of fruit juice and milk but also like a mixture of tea and honey. Evelyn could not accurately describe the flavor, but she was sure of one thing.

This was definitely not wine.

Chapter 666 - The Good and Bad News

A week later, Roland returned to the Border Area from Longsong Stronghold.

As soon as he entered the castle, he received two pieces of good news. The first was brought by Barov. "Your Majesty, the astrologers of the old king's city arrived in Neverwinter three days ago. A total of 312 people came including artisans, apprentices, and their families. I've arranged nine astrologers to stay in the Foreign Affairs Building, while the others have been temporarily arranged to stay at the reception area.

"This group of people is finally here," Roland thought for a moment, and then commanded. "Let's hold a welcome party in the square this evening. I want the subjects of Neverwinter to know that there's now another school in the town."

As with alchemy, astrology had a high reputation among the general population. Usually, only the king's city would possess both schools of thought. Now that the Astrology Association was approaching the Western Region, Neverwinter would become more accepted as the new king's city.

However, Roland did not need this school of astrology divination. Instead, he really attached more importance to the astrologer's computing power. For this era, they were absolutely regarded as the forefront of the mathematicians. Both analyzing the calendars and estimating the orbit of the stars needed a lot of calculations. If they had relevant knowledge of middle and advanced mathematics, they could undoubtedly be better on the previous foundation.

He intended to set up a School of Mathematics to allow these people to devote most of their time to calculating, apart from the occasional observation of the Star of Extinction—in this era where there was no computer, many scholars working together to complete some complex operations was the most efficient choice. Whether it was for laying of railways in the future, constructing large ships, installing Longsong Cannon in the mountains or writing shooting manuals, these all required their help.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Barov nodded, and then asked, "I don't know if your trip to Longsong..."

"I encountered a lot of problems." Roland did not need to conceal anything in front of Barov, the City Hall Director. "The secondary City Hall of Longsong Stronghold has already started to show signs of dereliction of duty and corruption. Scroll has found many fake accounts, and two corrupt men were even arrested from the batch of officials from the Border Area."

At this sentence, Barov could not help but swallow his spittle. "Are they my disciples?"

Roland was amused by the cautious look on Barov's face. He shook his head reluctantly. "Even if they're your disciples, I wouldn't put the blame on you, so you can rest assured."

"Your Majesty is wise," Barov said hurriedly, "So are they the original people from the town?"

"Well, they were the second batch of graduates. After passing the assessment, they entered City Hall and then they were transferred to the Longsong Area with the entire team." Roland sighed. "As of today, it has only been less than a year."

At the moment, City Hall had cultivated a group of semi-leaders. One group came from the Longsong area, which followed the exact model of Border Town. Together with the locals Honeysuckle Petrov, Elk Rene and some minor nobility, they were a well-equipped group, just slightly smaller in numbers.

The other half was a small batch that went to Fallen Dragon Ridge. In addition to assisting Countess Spear to maintain the political situation, their secondary task was to establish a framework for the secondary City Hall.

There were also scholars from the Northern Region that came back with Edith Kant to learn about the management of City Hall. Together with these scholars, Roland could probably make up the other half in a short period of time.

He had already allocated these people to the Southernmost Region.

It was undoubtedly the local officials who could carry out Roland's will who were the rarest of talents.

Without them as the foundation, even if Roland conquered the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, he would not be able to centralize the kingdom's resources quickly—local governments were an important part of the centralization of authority. He could use the witches to promote science and technology, but he could not create a bunch of grass-roots officials from thin air.

The sub-aristocrats would never obey his orders willingly. In the eyes of the feudalists, the only important thing was the small acreage that they occupied.

Therefore, every person who had administrative experience was a rare treasure. After losing a few of them, Roland naturally felt depressed. Despite the inevitable corruption of the organization, he thought that they could persevere for more than a decade. He really did not expect to encounter such a problem in less than a year. The fact that the two corrupt people were born civilians also proved in some ways that once they had the power, they might be more likely to lose their way than the noble.

"Those who violate the law..."

"All have been dealt with severely." Roland conceded. "To set an example for everyone else."

This should help to maintain everything for a few years—Nightingale and Scroll's ability temporarily preserved the integrity of the organization. But he also knew that the situation should be resolved in an alternative method, otherwise, the witches could easily be at risk again. And this time the enemy would come from the internal departments.

"Summon every one of City Hall to gather in the castle hall tomorrow. I'll personally give them a briefing to talk about the importance of discipline and responsibility."

Of course, there were also rewards and punishments—they should know how to choose when faced with the pressures and prospects of the Battle of Divine Will.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Barov bowed.

Looking at the old director's back as he left, Roland was satisfied and had a sip of his tea.

He knew the reason for Barov's loyalty—Barov enjoyed the satisfaction that the power brought whilst chasing power, and also made good use of his power at the same time. Barov was undoubtedly a very suitable person for the new regime. Perhaps in the future of City Hall, only he could contend with Edith.

The second good news came from Wendy.

"Evelyn's ability has been evolved?" Roland was a little surprised when he heard the news.

As far as he could remember, Evelyn's magic indicators were very balanced and did not seem prominent. He was quite surprised that she actually became the first witch on Sleeping Island to evolve.

"Yes... Agatha has confirmed this, but..." Wendy bitterly smiled. "The evolved ability is so weird that I don't know how to describe it."

"Take her to my office," he said excitedly.

…

Evelyn went to the third floor of the castle, together with several glass bottles.

Roland noticed that each bottle was filled with different colors of liquid.

"Her magic power looks like a gray ball..." Nightingale whispered in his ear, "but the shape isn't fixed."

"What's the total amount of magic power?"

"The level of improvement is good. At the moment, she's between Soraya and Maggie."

Roland nodded and looked at Evelyn. "What's inside the bottles?"

"The drinks that I've made with my ability in these days." She seemed a bit dejected. "They taste different, and I absolutely lose control of the last result... The only thing in common is that they all can be drunk."

"Drinks?"

Roland's curiosity grew immense.

He found a few cups and poured himself a glass from each bottle.

When he first tasted the light blue drink, it was indescribably delicious, like a fruit juice mix, but also with a hint of refreshing coldness.

Just drinkable? This is way too good a drink!

Chapter 667 - Chaos Drinks

The following cups of drinks were real eye-openers for Roland.

Some tasted like coffee, a bit bitter but with an intense exotic fragrance. Some tasted like soup, delicious and having the function to warm the stomach. The unique one was that he could not find the corresponding taste in his memory. If he had to name it, Fire Dragon Wine might be the most appropriate.

The wine was not made of pitaya, but something like the imaginary dragon flame. The scorching impact of the first sip was like lava gushing into the mouth, and then a mouthful of a burned scent followed as if the tongue was roasted. The faint taste of succulent fruits finally came, mixed with the light flavor of the wine.

The longer it was kept in the mouth, the longer the aftertaste would remain. It absolutely would be the best drink of the winter.

It was likely that Nightingale saw Roland's intoxicated looks, she could not help but show herself, moistened her lips and asked, "Your Majesty, it really tastes so good?"

"You'll know after you try it." Roland handed her a cup of drink.

Immediately, Nightingale contentedly exclaimed, with her eyes bent into a slit.

"I've tasted it," Wendy said with the same look, "and it's really hard to resist such a delicious drink."

After they drunk all of the Fire Dragon Wine, Roland revealed a little reluctance as he let out a burp. "Is there more drink like this?"

Evelyn shook her head and said, "I can't copy the last drink... The new ability is totally random."

"Can't copy?" Roland was somewhat amazed. He finally understood what distressed Evelyn after Wendy explicitly stated the details of the test.

The ability could turn the fresh water, wine or other liquids into drinks. However, which drink would be the final product was uncontrollable. In other words, the final product each time was totally different.

The consumption of magical power to transform these drinks was much more than that of to transform alcohol. The magic power could only be cast once per day. The quantity of transformed drink was limited, which was equal to the capacity of a barrel. Roland had seen that kind of round barrel in the tavern, which could store about one cubic meter of wine in each barrel.

Until now, Evelyn had just cast the new ability five times, getting five drinks with different tastes.

Roland felt regret at the prospect, not knowing whether he would get the chance to drink Fire Dragon Wine again.

It was possibly the reason that Evelyn felt so depressed.

High awakening could be considered as a rebirth for witches, for they even had chances to upgrade from being a non-combat witch to a combat witch. Although Roland stressed that each witch was of incredible potential, Evelyn, who came from Sleeping Island, still could not change her mind.

Roland knew that Evelyn had no confidence in her brewing technique. She felt far more depressed despite the fact that her new ability upgraded a lot but did not change in essence. Most of the drinks were transformed from wine, and she could not even control what she could make at all.

He had no better ways to change her long-held belief, but it was a matter of time. Roland believed that their state of mind would change as the assistant witches in the city of Neverwinter showed their extraordinary talents.

He held no confidence in saying her ability was useless.

The pursuit of perfume ushered in the Modern Navigation Times, the Silk Road thrived as the porcelains and silk trade boomed, which all served as the evidence to people's demands and desire for luxuries. These drinks, however, would be the true luxuries. The delicious taste and unique experience would inevitably gain popularity among common people no matter which era they were in, and it even brought a refreshing feeling to this mundane world.

Moreover it was almost cost-free!

For example, it was no surprise that the weight of the Fire Dragon Wine could be converted into the same weight of gold royals if it was sold to the Fjords and other kingdoms.

Because there were always some rich merchants and nobles that could pay for it.

As for the war caused by the desire for luxuries... They should feel gratified that Roland did not scramble for these drinks. Waging war for luxuries to Neverwinter was nothing short of committing suicide.

Admittedly, Evelyn would bring him countless wealth.

And these drinks would not only be used for trade.

He had learned from the past experience that the matters widely popular with people could serve as a bridge for culture and ideology.

Besides, in these hard war times, it could boost morale for those soldiers who were fighting on the outer edge of the Impassable Mountain Range if they could have such drinks delivered from the city of Neverwinter.

He would never reject these kinds of drinks which could enhance cohesion and strengthen the subject's confidence to resist the Battle of Divine Will.

"In addition to the alcohol... in the future, it'll be the transformation of high-grade wines, I'll create a special drink storage building for you," Roland made a decision and said, "You can use your new capabilities to their full potential. I believe everyone who has a drink will be obsessed with it."

"Alright, alright... Your Majesty." Although Evelyn agreed, she was still nonetheless skeptical.

She did not realize her own worth.

Roland did not say aloud what he was thinking. He firmly believed Evelyn would see the changes brought by her power of chaos sooner or later. As long as she kept doing as he required.

"As for the names of these drinks, chaos drinks is okay," Roland said with a smile.

***************

After the welcome dinner came to an end, Astrologer of Dispersion Star went into the study of His Majesty Roland.

He had successively worked for three King Wimbledons, and Roland Wimbledon was the fourth king he worked for.

But he was also the king whose thoughts were elusory.

Regardless of those rumors about his ridiculousness and flighty behavior from the king's city, the young ruler was somewhat different from the former kings and it was hard to understand what he was thinking. He was neither arrogant nor pretended to be imperturbable, as if, as if his thought was beyond common people's understanding, making him hard to catch up to.

That letter of reply was the best proof.

Dispersion Star had never seen any king who was so indifferent to the news about the Star of Extinction. Part of the content of the letter was greetings, part was to invite Astrology Association to move to the Western Region, declaring that he had the better astronomical telescope to meet the demand for star observation. The end of the letter unhurriedly mentioned that the city of Neverwinter also found new clues about Bloody Moon, and that he needed to discuss it with astrologers.

No surprise, no fear, he stayed calm and read the letter as if he just said "yes, I know" nonchalantly.

In fact, even when Roland first visited the observatory and learned of the existence of the Start of Extinction, he did not act very surprised.

Although it was the blessing that the subject had such a composed king, he still felt downcast because of the finding, also his lifelong pursuit, not arousing much attention.

The study was still brightly lit, and His Majesty Roland was writing something. There were piles of documents on the desk, Dispersion Star had not seen such a scene for a long time.

"My Revered Majesty, good evening," he bowed and said with gratification, "The Astrology Association shows its respect to you."

"Ah... you're here." Roland put his pen aside and beckoned him, saying, "Sit down, I've something to talk to you about."

Chapter 668 - Dispersion Star Astrologer

"Is it regarding the prophecy of the Bloody Moon?" Dispersion Star sat down.

"Well, that's a part of it. Since you've touched on that point, let's start with the prophecy then." The young king rose to his feet and poured a cup of tea for the astrologer who was totally struck by such an act of condescension. Apparently, Roland was much more easygoing than Timothy.

"With respect to the prophecy of the Bloody Moon, it can be traced back to over 1,000 years ago when there was neither the Kingdom of Graycastle nor the Wimbledon Family."

"But Your Majesty, the records show that our history only dates back to over 450 years ago..."

"The missing part was indeed documented but was later deliberately concealed by someone." Roland switched to a more comfortable sitting position and said, "It's a long story, which I'll need some time to fully explain to you."

What the astrologer heard afterward was inscrutably astonishing.

The story brought him back to the uninhabited Barbarian Land and the Land of Dawn 1,000 years ago when demons and human beings had had a prolonged war of life and death. It talked about the symbolic meaning of the Bloody Moon, the witch empire, the origins of the Four Kingdoms, as well as that of the church... If it was not out of the mouth of the king, Dispersion Star would definitely condemn the speech and describe it as horrendous and absurd.

Nonetheless, from Roland's expression, Dispersion Star could tell the king was absolutely serious.

After Roland finished the speech, Dispersion Star felt suffocated. He had firmly believed that the doomsday was simply a God's punishment. The shaking seabed, the cracking earth, the underground fire and thunderbolts from the sky, as terrifying as they were, would not completely destroy human civilizations. As long as men got prepared in advance, a great part of cities could still survive these catastrophes.

According to His Majesty, however, the Bloody Moon was a signal of the commencement of the war from demons.

It seemed that the war between human beings and demons had lasted for a thousand years. Men had been defeated twice, and with but one more loss, they would be completely eliminated from the earth.

"Your Majesty..." Dispersion Star almost lost his voice. "Where did you learn these?"

Roland stuck out two fingers. "The witch empire and the church. They both have something to do with the establishment of the Four Kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Graycastle. I've actually encountered demons to the west of the Western Region. They were, veritably, of a foreign race, who have developed their own civilization and built their own armies."

"And... what's the smile of deities?"

"Nobody knows. Perhaps we'll only find out the answer after the Battle of Divine Will."

Dispersion Star fell silent. He was not sure whether he should believe this appalling narrative, but then he soon realized the story connected to the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Graycastle and the thriving of the Wimbledon Family. As the king of the realm, Roland had no reason to lie to him.

There was no point for him to do that.

Suppose everything Roland had said was true, it would then make sense why His Majesty trusted witches so much.

Suppose witches' power did not come from demons, naturally, they would no longer be men's enemies.

In this light, the rumors about the innocence of witches circulated in the old king's city were simply a tip of the iceberg of the truth. Without a doubt, it was pretty wise and cautious of His Majesty to selectively disclose the information and hold back the part that would potentially spark panic among the multitude.

The only thing that Dispersion Star failed to understand was how the Bloody Moon in the sky bore a relationship to the Gates of Hell.

"Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

Dimly, Dispersion Star was aware that it was probably not out of any astrological reasons that the king had asked the Astrology Association to move to the Western Region several times. Roland apparently knew much more about the Star of Extinction than any astrologers. If Dispersion Star was not informed of this secret today, he would never possibly know what had happened 1,000 years ago.

"This is what I want to discuss with you next, which may be even more important than the secret I told you earlier," Roland answered with a smile and handed a book on the desk to him. "Take a look at this first."

Dispersion Star took the book and noticed the title on the cover was a combination of phrases he had never seen before.

"Analytic... geometry?"

The word was quite a mouthful. Surprisingly, it was printed in a blue color that could only be produced with very fine and expensive blue pigments.

"Take your time. It's fine if you don't understand. You'll need to learn a lot of things in the future."

Although the lighting in Roland's room was relatively decent even without a candle, it was still not comparable to daylight. As such, Dispersion Star felt reluctant to read the book right away, as late night reading could more or less cause eye damage.

As an astrologer, he should well protect his eyes.

Nevertheless, Dispersion Star did not want to directly decline the king's request and thereby infuriate him. So, he decided to just quickly skim it through and read more carefully tomorrow when there was adequate lighting.

His eyes, however, were glued to the contents after he read the prologue on the first page.

"To describe the orbits of objects with arithmetic formulas? To calculate the entire orbit with only a few key parameters?"

Next came several groups of intersecting straight lines, each of which constituted a coordinate system consisting of four planes. In each coordinate, there was a simple shape. Some were just diagonal straight lines, some a section of a curve, some ovals and others a combination of multiple curves. They looked nothing strange, but Dispersion Star's attention was soon caught by the arithmetic formula next to the circle shape.

"That should be an arithmetic formula," thought Dispersion Star.

The formula contained a plus mark and an equal mark, starting and ending with the same symbol. Dispersion Star did not have the faintest idea what the formula represented, but somehow he perceived the beauty of it. Every symbol possessed a unique charm and was in perfect harmony with the others.

Although each shape was distinct from each other and by no means display the same type of orbit (for example, a straight line and an oval), there was no noticeable difference between their arithmetic formulas.

An idea suddenly flashed across his mind uncontrollably.

"Is it possible that every shape in this world can be described with a corresponding arithmetic formula?"

The astrologer turned to the second page hurriedly in excitement.

...

By the time Dispersion Star closed the book, his neck was sore. Evidently, it had taken him more than an hour to read the whole book. Meanwhile, Roland appeared to be quite absorbed in his occupation. He was busy drafting the document on the desk and had not interrupted his reading.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I..."

"Done?" Roland looked up and smiled at the astrologer. "I bet there's a lot you don't understand."

"Yes. I don't recall any court mentors have taught you those... those symbols and formulas..." Out of ten court mentors, nine were from the Astrology Association. However, what His Majesty had written had totally blown his mind. "They're very interesting, but I just can't have a good grasp on these complicated formula conversions."

"That's because you haven't learned equations. You've got to learn this in order to comprehend analytic geometry." Magically, the king produced a stack of books from the desk and presented them to the astrologer, the titles of which were either in blue or green. All of the titles sounded weird and mouthful.

Dispersion Star's hands started to tremble. "Can I take them back home?"

"Certainly." Roland nodded. "Actually, I want not only you but also all the astrologers and the students in the association to learn them." After a pause, Roland continued, "The second thing I want to let you know is that you don't need to worry too much about the Bloody Moon. Once you fully understand everything in the books, the Astrology Association can play an irreplaceable role in the war against demons. These books mean to simply enlighten you. There'll be something more profound and difficult coming next. By that time, you'll not only be able to calculate the orbit of a moving object, but also that of every tree and every stone on the earth, every star in the sky, everything that you see on this planet. How does it sound like? Are you willing to accept the challenge?"

"Yes, I'd like to, Your Majesty!"

Astrologer of Dispersion Star gave an affirmative answer immediately, now completely elevated from the dejection he had sunk in when Roland had ignored his discovery of the Star of Extinction.

He now foresaw thousands of stars moved along the paths he calculated.

The young king, in the meantime, smiled. The smile was so strange that it reminded Dispersion Star of a hunter who watched an animal slowly falling into his trap.

"Awesome. But please don't be discouraged. It's going to be hard, and it's perfectly normal that you come across some obstacles. I believe you'll eventually get the hang of them."

Chapter 669 - Diplomatic Turmoil

No. 76 had gradually taken Denise's place since becoming Yorko's maid.

It did not mean that Yorko forgot about his old lover. The truth was that he had to spend some time taking care of his poor guide. In fact, Yorko had been totally shocked when No. 76 had been sent back by her superintendent Silvermask the other day. The punishment had been indeed as severe as "Black Money" had earlier claimed. There had been whip marks and bruises all over her body, and she had looked nothing like the girl he had met half a day ago.

Yorko was happy that he had made the request to retain No. 76 as his maid in a timely fashion. Otherwise, the girl would probably be wrecked by the battery. That was why Silvermask had said she could no longer be a guide, for customers definitely would not want a disabled girl to serve them.

Fortunately, No. 76 was not as fragile as most girls. She had a pretty strong body, especially her abdomen and back, on which several faint muscle lines could be detected. She had quickly recovered from the injuries after medication and was now able to run errands for the household, which, of course, also included some personal services.

For example, the service like she provided today.

"Sir, do you want me to massage your shoulders?"

After No. 76 cleaned the house, she drew close to Yorko smilingly. Although according to general rules, maids were not allowed to approach their masters without permission, No. 76 was apparently still employing the old method she had learned from "Black Money" to please her "guest". Yorko did not feel offended in the least. On the contrary, he liked the flirty way she communicated with him.

If No. 76 was simply a maid who strictly followed rules and obeyed his orders, it would be a little too boring to his taste.

"Come and sit here." Yorko put down the anecdote book in his hand and lay down on the recliner. No. 76 took off his shoes and sat on her knees so that Yorko could rest his head on her thighs comfortably.

She then started to slowly massage Yorko's shoulders with her five slender fingers. Apparently, No. 76 had received professional training, for she used much greater strength and applied more techniques than other ordinary massage girls, who usually flirted with Yorko in the guise of massage. The labor delivered by No. 76 really worked and made Yorko feel less stressed.

Yorko could clearly see No. 76's countenance when he lay on her thighs. After "Black Money" had sent her over, she no longer needed to wear that copper mask to conceal her identity.

Frankly speaking, No. 76 was never a beauty. Her overall appearance was just a little above average and certainly could not compare to witches. Nevertheless, Yorko liked her red, plumped lips in particular. When he looked up at her, he was always aroused by the faint smile lingering on her lips.

In comparison, her toned body was more appealing to Yorko. It was actually Yorko's first time to see a woman's body full of such incredible strength. Unlike corpulent noble ladies or scrawny peasant girls, No. 76 had well-proportioned limbs, beautiful skins, a prodigal projection of bosom and a flat tummy. When her body tensed up, Yorko could sense her bulging muscles underneath. As a man who always sought thrills, he was more drawn to a perfect body like this than simply a delicate face.

When Yorko was about to take the next step, the door was flung open.

It was Hill Fawkes.

Yorko let out a sigh of disappointment. It appeared his leisure time for today was over. He erected himself and asked, "I hope you aren't asking me to save some witches again."

Hill did not respond but simply eyed No. 76.

The girl soon took the hint and withdrew respectfully.

Yorko shrugged. "You're being overcautious. She's just a servant."

"You'd better remain vigilant these days when the current situation in the Kingdom of Dawn is yet to be optimistic."

"Denise is more reputable than No. 76, and she's from a more distinguished family. Why don't you keep your eyes peeled for her?"

"Because Denise Payton is a public figure, whose background was no hidden secret. You can get the information about her one way or another, but there's no way whatsoever for you to check the background of a guide trained by 'Black Money'." Hill seated himself opposite Yorko and placed a letter on the coffee table between them.

"But I feel I've already known what kind of person she is and where she's from now." Yorko smiled triumphantly. "Do you care to hear it?"

"Oh, really?" Hill's brows went up a fraction of an inch. "Surprise me."

Yorko grinned. He was satisfied to know that the guard appointed by his old friend appeared not be omniscient after all. "It takes a lot of time to train a perfect guide. It'll at least take 10 years to perfect her pillow skills and tone up her body. Those skills she obtained from years of training have already become a part of her, and it has become so natural to her to please and serve her customers. How old is she now?"

"Around 21 or 22... No more than 25."

"Correct. That means she was only a five or six-year-old kid when she started her training. Unless she's a monster who never ages or dies, she can't be a person outside 'Black Money." Yorko spread out his hands. "There's no conflict of interest between us and 'Black Money" anyway. They conduct much dirtier businesses than trafficking slaves and protecting witches, not to mention that we haven't actually managed to protect a witch yet." Yorko went on with self-mockery, "I don't think witches need protection from us."

Yorko was in a very complacent mood when he saw Hill Fawkes remain silent. His self-satisfaction, nonetheless, soon disappeared a minute after he opened the envelope and unfolded the letter.

It was an official diplomatic letter signed by King Roland.

The content of the letter made Yorko quiver in terror.

The King of Graycastle intended to stop the King of Dawn persecuting witches? Yorko was overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of the event. This was the capital of the Kingdom of Dawn, not the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle!

Was his old friend under the impression that Appen Moya would listen to his counsel?

The series of threats following seemed to be even more ridiculous. Roland advised the King of Dawn not to go against the stream and warned him that the ruling of the church, which was starting to decay, provided the best example. He also stated that the Kingdom of Graycastle would not stand by and would take further steps if necessary. Roland hoped that Appen could use his best judgement in all situations.

Although the letter was phrased very politely, Yorko believed everybody in the palace would be sensible enough to sniff out the threatening voice between the lines. Roland was obviously indicating that the Kingdom of Dawn would be his next enemy if their king refused to follow his suggestion.

How could he say that to the King of Dawn directly?

Yorko returned the letter to Hill sullenly. All his contentment faded into restlessness.

Hill was right. To His Majesty, witches were more important than the alliance. He wondered, however, what else these threats would bring about other than growing repugnance among great nobles in the Kingdom of Dawn. The letter could be nothing but another conversation piece.

"What should I do?" It appeared that he had no choice but to rely on Hill's counsel.

Hill took a quick glance at the letter and replied, "Do as His Majesty says. This is your duty as an ambassador. As to the consequence, I bet the worst scenario would be that Appen Moya expels you from the court in rage. You won't run into any danger."

"Then we'll be done with these nobles." Yorko said gloomily, "People in the city of Glow will regard us as crazy and laugh about it in their cups, and Roland will become their new topic of discussion... What will His Majesty benefit from such a bluff?"

"A bluff?" Hill neither agreed nor disagreed. "Do you really think it's a bluff?"

Yorko's heart suddenly stopped beating with a jerk. He looked at the guard in dismay. "No... that can't be..."

Hill said slowly, "Timothy Wimbledon also thought so before the old king's city fell. Based on what I know of His Majesty, he never wastes his time."

Chapter 670 - The Sad Ambassador

Yorko requested to present himself on the court meeting the following day.

As the two kingdoms had just formed an alliance, his request was soon approved, and two magnificently armored knights escorted him to the palace hall.

Over the past two to three months, Yorko had made numerous vain attempts to see King of Dawn. He wished now, however, that King Appen could have ignored him like he had usually done.

Unfortunately, the reality was always cruel.

By the time he entered the hall, the court meeting was close to its end.

The young king was leaning against his throne, talking animatedly with the ministers. He did not sit up until Yorko bent his knees. "Please rise. I've heard you've brought a letter from Roland Wimbledon?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Yorko answered mechanically. "He congratulates on your coronation and has expressed his earnest desire that the two kingdoms will establish a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship."

Appen Moya smiled. "That was surprisingly refreshing. Did he send any presents?"

"Well, of... course." The Ambassador revolved his reply rapidly in his mind. "The fleet carrying those presents are currently on the way. The letter was actually delivered by post horses."

"I remember when King Wimbledon III was crowned, my father sent a delegation of 200 people to celebrate his coronation. There were 11 wagons full of presents, including goldware, fine wines, silk as well as pretty maids. I'm very curious about what Roland would gift me as a return."

The ministers in the hall burst into a fit of laughter.

Yorko swallowed hard, completely having no idea how to shoot back an answer. He doubted the validity of the story and wondered why Roland had not said anything about presents in the letter. As an ambassador, he had a good reason to be ignorant of the matter. However, for Roland, he should have known the gift-giving etiquette.

"Did he say anything else?" Appen asked.

For a second, Yorko wanted to excuse himself. Yet when he weighed the consequence of such an act, he forced himself to stay put. The outcome of infuriating King of Dawn would be no more than being shut out by nobles in the king's city. If he disappointed Roland, however, he would probably be relieved from the position as an ambassador.

Yorko ground his teeth. "His Majesty... um... also hopes that you stop persecuting witches and treat them as free peoples. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Graycastle would have to employ force to settle the matter, just as what they did to the church."

The hall was deadly silent after he finished.

The ambassador felt sweats started to bead on his forehead.

After quite a while, Appen Moya broke off. "Did Roland Wimbledon really say that? Give me the letter."

A knight approached Yorko at once and snatched the parchment from him.

Yorko could sense the coldness in King of Dawn's tone even without looking at him.

He was almost about to wail at the thought of the lengthy condemnation and warns in the letter.

As he expected, Appen threw the letter to the floor straight away after reading it. The young king obviously had a hard time controlling his temper. He rose to his heels and growled in a red rage. "So this is the attitude of the Kingdom of Graycastle to its ally? Witches are innocent, so we have to set them free? Rubbish! Look at what those damn witches did to House Moya. They invaded the palace, killed the guards and took my father as their hostage to force me to yield to the church! If they didn't poison my father, he should have been right here, alive and well!"

"But he's dead, and it's his death has made you the king." Yorko left the remaining word unsaid.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. As far as I know... witches trained by the church are different from innocent ones, just as there're good and bad ones among ordinary people..."

"Shut up!" Appen hollered. "You don't have the faintest idea how vile these people in possession of demons' power are. Even God's stones fail to stop them! Tell me then. How could it be possible that such a community, which is literally bounded to nothing, submits to our ruling? The Kingdom of Dawn will be more peaceful without witches. I have to fulfill my obligations of protecting my people!"

Looking at Appen's purple face, Yorko realized reasoning would no longer work. The shadow of his father's death was still haunting him. Although Appen was of about the same age as Roland, he was almost as petulant as the old Roland back in the king's city, and perhaps even worse.

In merely a year after Roland had left the king's city, he had become the real sovereign of the state. Appen, on the contrary, was still acting the boy.

"I'll write a letter to the King of Graycastle and advise him to be vigilant about the Fallen. It's just ridiculous to threaten the Kingdom of Dawn because of those Devil's minions!" Appen paced back and forth indignantly. "It's true that the Kingdom of Graycastle is powerful. but don't forget who bestowed him such power! Without the support of local nobles, Roland couldn't garrison his troops in here! If he invades our royal domain out of such absurdity, he'll suppress his feudatories in the same way he treats us. By that time, neither my people nor nobles in the Kingdom of Graycastle will support him like they always did when he battled against the church!"

"Well, It appears that Roland has already weeded out the nobles." Yorko thought to himself. He did not really know how His Majesty had defeated the church, but he dimly remembered that Roland had not relied on any nobles when conquering the king's city. At that time, out of the entire Kingdom of Graycastle, few people had believed that Prince Roland Wimbledon would have eventually won the game of thrones. All the great nobles had later been rooted out during the trial, which was why he could get this job as an ambassador.

In the end, Yorko was ordered to leave the palace by Appen Moya just as Hill had anticipated.

Fortunately, none of the ministers in the court chimed in. They were simply too dumbfounded to utter a word. This was better than what Yorko had expected.

But Yorko was pretty sure that after they read the letter on the floor, they would dismiss it with a laugh.

As soon as Yorko returned from the palace, Otto Luoxi paid him a visit.

"King Roland really views this matter in this way?"

"Do I sound like I'm lying?" Yorko collapsed in the recliner. "Well, are you mocking me now?"

"No... I just think Appen's new policy is rather thoughtless. He does want civilians in the Kingdom of Dawn to have a peaceful life, but the hunting measures he takes actually terrifies people."

"Then you should talk him out of it."

"He doesn't listen..." Otto smiled bitterly. "He acts like a different person every time we talk about witches. You can't blame him though. If you witness what happened in the palace..." Otto bit his lip. "No, nothing. The death of the late king greatly shocked Appen. Technically, he shouldn't have ascended the throne until he comes of age five or six years later. I've heard King Wimbledon III was also killed by the witch from the church? If only Appen can be as composed as King Roland."

Yorko gazed at Otto in surprise. He felt like Otto did not sound like the eldest son of one of the three major families in the Kingdom of Dawn but a noble from the Kingdom of Graycastle. Had Roland become so invincible that he could now make nobles in the neighbor country stand on his side?

"Anyway, I'll try to talk to Appen again. He doesn't even listen to Earl Quinn now."

Otto was about to take his leave after the tea when No. 76 suddenly darted into the room.

"Sir... the witch you purchased has come back!"

Chapter 671 - A Turbulent Situation

Yorko lamented in silence.

"Hell, didn't they agree not to meet each other ever again? It's just a courtesy to say 'please feel free to contact the ambassador if you come across any difficulties'!"

He exchanged a look with Otto. After hesitating for quite a while, Yorko said, "Send her in."

If it was not because the real buyer was here, Yorko would rather make up some excuses such as "The ambassador was currently not available. Please come again later" and shut her out.

No. 76 soon led the girl to the room. As he had expected, it was the 10th item in the "Black Money" auction, Amy.

The witch grasped Yorko's arm anxiously as soon as she came in. "Sir, please help us. Annie and the others are in danger!"

"Danger?" Yorko feared that it was not a good sign. "Slow down, slow down. Take a seat first." Yorko patted her on the shoulder. "Tell me what exactly happened?"

"We've... been found!" Amy uttered a series of broken words breathlessly. "A large number of... patrol team surrounded the orphanage and blocked off the roads in the vicinity. I saw more than one platoons of knights... They're searching for witches one block after another. The other witches are still stuck in there... Please, help them!"

"Are there other witches apart from you and Annie?"

"Yes, Hero and Broken Sword. Hero lost her legs, so Annie has to carry her on the back."

Yorko gasped. One was already enough for him to worry about, and there were four! "How did you escape?"

"Our food is running low, so I went out to buy some groceries. By the time I came back... by the time I came back, they had been everywhere!" Her voice trailed off into a barely-suppressed sob.

Yorko found himself in a very difficult position. Although titled with Ambassador of Graycastle, he did not have any actual executive power. Therefore, it was impossible for him to stop the patrol team. Further, the operation was commanded by the King of Dawn, whom he had just vexed a great deal during the court meeting. If he now stood out to protect the witches, he would probably face a more severe consequence than being expelled from the palace.

"Don't worry. They'll be OK." No. 76 consoled Amy while gently stroking her back. "Sir Yorko must know how to bring them back safe and sound."

"Not at all!" Yorko snapped in silence. If Amy could have sought Roland for protection as he had suggested earlier, nothing of these would have happened.

"What about that Mr. Hill?" Otto questioned.

"I don't know. He never reports to me, and often time I can't find him anywhere." Yorko frowned. "If you want to see him, I'm afraid it has to be after dinner."

"I see... I'll look for Earl Quinn first. He's the king's prime minister and is in charge of the patrol team. Perhaps he can help them escape."

"Hang on. Will he listen to you?"

"I've no idea, but it's worth giving it a shot." Otto gave a look full of mixed feelings. "Do you still remember the witch friend I talked about earlier? Her name is Andrea Quinn. She's the daughter of Earl Quinn."

...

Time slowly slipped away. Yorko could do nothing other than looking out of the window while waiting.

Meanwhile, No. 76 did an amazing job in comforting Amy. The agitated girl finally calmed down and fell asleep in the recliner. Yorko could tell that the long journey had cost the witch a great amount of energy. Having said that, it was still pretty... gullible of her to sleep at a place like this.

By evenfall, Hill Fawkes was back to the ambassador mansion.

"Where did you go..." No sooner had Yorko finished his sentence than he found three people followed Hill to the room.

Actually, it was two and a half people.

One of them was even half a head taller than Hill, her face stained with blood and her bright eyes observant. It was the same Annie who had taken away Amy from "Black Money" the other day. She was carrying a purple-haired girl on her back. Out of convenience, the girl was closely attached to Annie with two straps clutching her waist and her shoulders.

From the dangling pants, Yorko knew she must be legless Hero.

The person who entered last was about the same height as No. 76. She had shoulder length silver hair, gaunt and frail, with her hands at the waist, as though she had sustained severe injuries.

Awakened by the patterings of footsteps, Amy was stunned for a second before throwing herself to Annie. "You all escaped... Thank God! Did those knights hurt you?"

"I'm fine, but Broken Sword... She consumed a lot of magic power."

"I've been so worried about you..." Amy could not hold back her emotions anymore and broke out into tears.

"Annie's here. Nothing to fret about now." Hero offered her solace.

Yorko gaped. "How did you meet them?"

"It's a long story. They must leave here as soon as possible." Hill grabbed the ambassador's hand and pulled him aside to the bedroom. "Listen, you guys must leave the city of Glow before the city gate closes. Our wagons are ready, five in total. The first two will carry wheat and fruit, and you'll get on the other three..."

"Hold on for a second," Yorko interrupted. "You just said... 'you guys'?"

"You and the witches, not including me." Hill stressed each word with due strength. "In order not to obstruct His Majesty's plan, we have to keep in touch with the Kingdom of Dawn."

"But I'm the ambassador!"

"That's exactly why you need to leave." In a critical moment like this, Hill appeared to be even more self-collected than usual. "Look, I didn't save these three witches."

"What?" Yorko was shocked. "Not you?"

"My birds are always hanging around the Tourney Square. If I can't find the witches, it would be a better idea to see how my rivals locate them. I received the news right after the knights set out. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the block had been under a siege. Only Rats from the Black Street know how to get in there."

"So you bribed the Rats?"

"I've been keeping in contact with local Rats since I arrived at the Kingdom of Dawn. Although it has cost a big chunk of money, they do sometimes help me in the event of a crisis." Hill said in a low tone, "But the three witches had already fled by the time I found their traces with the help of the Rats."

"Isn't that perfect? I'll ask Denise to get them out of here. Let's pretend nothing has happened..."

Hill shook his head. "It isn't that simple. The King of Dawn already knew where the hiding place of these witches exactly is. He has manpower sufficient enough to turn the whole block inside out. How did they escape? There's only one possible explanation: they let the witches go. Perhaps Appen wants to expose more hidden witches in this way... or rather—he wants to find out the person who supports them."

Yorko swallowed hard.

"If that's indeed the case, it would be too risky to linger in the city of Glow. The best option is to leave as soon as you can." Hill continued, "If you can bring four witches to His Majesty, the payoff of that would be significantly greater than fulfilling your duties as an ambassador."

"What about you..." Yorko asked hesitantly. "If you get caught..."

"They can arrest a person with a legit name, but not a nameless man who secretly hides in the darkness. In their eyes, I never exist." Hill chuckled. "Nobody will ever notice one guard in the delegation is missing, and Lord Otto will also cover for me. Do you remember what I said? I'm just an ordinary acrobat. Next time you and His Majesty visit the Kingdom of Dawn, you'll probably see a brand new acrobatics troupe in this prosperous city of Glow."

...

Chapter 672 - Hero

At length, Yorko followed Hill's advice. In the golden glow of sunset, their coach departed the city of Glow.

All the coachmen worked for Hill, who were said to be former employees of the acrobatics troupe. After transporting slaves with the caravan for several times, they had known the retreating route by heart. The fleet did not slow down until the sun completely disappeared behind the mountains. They still, nevertheless, continued with the procession for about two hours after night fell with the help of an oil lamp before pitching their tent in the wilderness.

The coaches arrayed in a circle around a bonfire. A young man who called himself Clown quickly fetched some water and started to make porridge. A tall guy named Rockhill went to feed the horses. The magician was responsible for patrolling and putting out sentries and Chom Brothers setting up booby traps... These people were more like members of an army than of an acrobatics troupe.

Yorko found he did not need to do anything other than waiting for the delicious porridge to be served to him.

Apart from the porridge, he also got a plate of bacon and an apple.

He now understood why Hill had decided to include wheat and fruit in their cargo.

The food in the two wagons, the so-called "goods for sale", would suffice to feed all of them throughout the journey even if they had to commute for one to two months.

Yorko wondered if Hill had prepared to flee the Kingdom of Dawn long before, for it had not taken him a considerably long time to load all the food. He had heard from his guards that Hill had kept in touch with Black Street Rats. "Dear lord... Is that guy really just an acrobat?"

Yorko resolved to ask his old friend about it after he returned to the Kingdom of Graycastle.

All the coachmen strode off with their porridge and stayed at the outer-ring respectfully, leaving Yorko, No. 76 and the four witches in the circle.

"I apologize for what I said and did the other day," Annie said cordially. "You didn't hand us to the King of Dawn, but I still can't fully trust you."

"Why?" Amy looked confused. "He doesn't look like a bad man."

Yorko blushed at this compliment, as he had never considered himself a good man. Fortunately, the flush was so faint compared with the light of the bonfire that nobody perceived it. "Ahem, I reckon that Miss Annie still feels suspicious of the simplicity of the witch organization in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Simplicity?"

"For example, some powerful nobles love to keep some witches and use them as their playthings..."

"That's just one of my concerns," Annie interrupted. "Whether it's in Wolfheart or Graycastle, all such organizations will be essentially the same if they intend to lure and abuse witches with lies. If the one in Graycastle does operate in the way you claimed, I'll certainly make a formal apology to you."

"It doesn't matter to me." Yorko shrugged. "My task is to bring you to King Roland. What happens next doesn't have anything to do with me. Even if you want to apologize to me, you may not have a chance to see me in the future."

There was an awkward silence. For a second, no audible sounds could be heard except the "crack, crack" of the bonfire.

Yorko was usually very good at socializing and making conversations. He did not feel like talking, however, with these witches. They had not only disturbed his peaceful life as an ambassador but had also put the emissary delegation in a risky position. There was nothing wrong about being cautious, but the fact that his every single act was under scrutiny really irked him.

In the end, No. 76 broke the silence.

"Are you all from the Kingdom of Wolfheart?" she asked. "Amy told me that you've known each other for quite a while."

Annie nodded. "You're correct, although... we weren't born in the same city."

"Wolfheart is now taken by the church. You've certainly suffered a lot on the way to the Kingdom of Dawn." No. 76 stooped over and touched Hero's dangling pants. She asked in a low voice, "Did she lose her feet during her escape from the church?"

Hero bit her lip bitterly, head lowered.

"They were chopped off by the people she aimed to protect." Annie's answer surprised everyone. "Hero stood out when Wolfheart City encountered the biggest crisis in the history of time, but all she got was hatred from its people."

"Hurt by... the people she protected?"

Annie nodded. "I can explain to you if you want to know. But it isn't a happy story."

No. 76 gazed at Hero for a moment and replied in a serious tone, "I want to know."

Yorko pricked up his ears, though he pretended to be fully absorbed in the bacon he was eating.

"When the church army attacked Wolfheart City a year ago, they threw a large number of bodies infected by the demonic plague into the city, in an attempt to bleed off the strength of the king's city, just like what they did at Broken Tooth Castle," Annie added two more twigs to the bonfire, which soon splintered up into glitters of sparks. "But Hero stopped the demonic plague from spreading with her ability. She could transfer the disease to other living creatures. That was why the plague got under control."

"What kind of living creatures?"

"Rats, cats, dogs, cows, sheep, etc... also including human beings," Annie replied slowly. "Citizens dug a huge hole at the slum. People who got infected would gather there and ask Hero to transfer their disease to animals. They would then burn the animals in the hole. Gradually, people started to view Hero as the lifesaver of Wolfheart City and began to call her Hero. Amy and I also received her treatment."

"But things turned for the worse. A large animal was enough to bear the disease from five or six patients, whereas cats and dogs could only bear one or two. As the church continued to spread the demonic plague, even if people of Wolfheart could catch all living creatures, it would not be enough for all patients. They just couldn't save everyone."

"As the war prolonged, people started to lay their eyes on man."

The word made Yorko feel chilled to the bone.

No. 76 drew close to Hero and gently pressed the witch to her bosom. "That wasn't your fault."

In the flickering light, Annie's face was masked with ice. "Of course it wasn't her fault. Those people never gave her a chance to choose from the beginning. First, they burned prisoners, criminals and volunteers. Then they started to burn the elders, wounded soldiers, and captives from the Judgement Army."

"But Hero didn't do what these crazy men asked her to. She just couldn't kill innocent people, especially those soldiers who yearned for life and minors who had yielded. So, the attitude of the public toward her changed. People started to believe that she colluded with the church and were protecting their enemies. The saver had thus become a traitor. Hero was later imprisoned. If it were not because of her ability, she had probably been sent to the gallows long before."

"Afterward, the church launched another attack. It only took them one day to seize the city wall of the king's city. On the day the city fell, the jailer, who had once been treated by Hero, chopped her legs off with an ax and then set the cell ablaze. He argued that the fall of the Kingdom of Wolfheart was the result of the collusion between Hero and the church. He said as a traitor, Hero couldn't go anywhere but should be burned and destroyed together with the city."

At these words, Annie fell into a short silence. "But the jailer never anticipated that Hero, who lost the ability to move, would be saved by captives from the Judgement Army in the cell."

Chapter 673 - A Sacrifice

Would church believers save a witch?

Yorko did not realize that he had already forgotten about the bacon and had been all ears as Annie continued with the story.

"They helped Hero out of the cell. With their help, Hero successfully escaped the search from the church. After the war, the survived Judgement Warriors even provided her with food and clothes for a period of time, until their army returned to Hermes and they had to bid farewell. Before they departed, all the Judgement Warriors who had been imprisoned in that cell expressed their gratitude to her."

Yorko knitted his brows. "But regarding the title 'Hero', could it be..."

"She's a hero." The whip was in Annie's voice again. "No matter how the citizens who received her treatment look at her, she did save thousands of people in Wolfheart City, including me and Amy. She deserved such a title."

The ambassador let out a sigh. He had not known that witches suffered far more than he had imagined. If he were unfairly treated in that way, he would view everyone as his enemy and kill all of them to avenge himself, and certainly would not trust anybody.

Yorko's indignation for being under constant suspicion gradually dissipated.

"Her legs... can probably be healed."

"Really? Are you serious?"

"What should we do?"

All the eyes rested on Yorko in a second, including Hero's. She could be no more than 18 or 19 years old by her look. Although misfortunes had weighed down upon her, she had not been devastated by all the snares and toils she had been through during the war. Her eyes were still full of hope instead of numbness and confusion.

"Ahem, I'm not sure." Yorko rubbed his nose."Hill once said there're over 300 witches in Graycastle. Their power of the devil... No, I mean their abilities should vary, right? Perhaps somebody can regenerate amputated limbs or even grow a new one."

"300?" No. 76 exclaimed in surprise. "How did the King of Graycastle get so many witches?"

"It's a long story. My old friend is a born king. He saw through the church's scheme a long time ago. Not only does he allow witches in his domain to live a normal life, but he also insists on the innocence of witches and advertises this concept throughout Graycastle. Gradually, more witches turn to him for protection and work for him." Yorko took this opportunity to lavish praise on Roland. "So you don't need to worry about your future life at all. His Majesty claims that everyone in Neverwinter will be suited to a job, including witches."

"What kind of jobs?" Amy's eyes were glistening.

"How should I know... I haven't been to Neverwinter," Yorko thought to himself. "Um, naturally, it depends on your ability. For example, if you can manipulate flames, you can be a blacksmith. If you can conjure whirlwinds, you can work at a mill to activate windmills, something like that." Yorko rambled. "Anyway, His Majesty is planning to build a new king's city in the Western Region, and he certainly needs people. Even if your ability can't help with anything, you can still work as an ordinary person."

"Sounds pretty good indeed." Annie eyed Amy who apparently wanted to voice out. "But lies always sound better than reality. At present, I..."

"I got it. I got it. You haven't fully trusted me yet, right?" Yorko spread out his hands. "Then trust your own eyes when you get there."

"By the way, how did you know Hero?" No. 76 put in.

"When Wolfheart City fell, I happened to live at Amy's place. I noticed the curious behavior of the Judgement Army soldiers', so I followed them and discovered Hero," Annie answered while fiddling with the bonfire. "We met Broken Sword several months later. She was caught by church believers who garrisoned there and was to be sent to Holy City. I ambushed the unit who escorted her and thus saved Broken Sword."

"You alone?"

"If I'm fully prepared, it actually isn't any harder to raid a group of soldiers than a pack of animals," Annie said placidly. "After that ambush, however, the church intensified their searching operation by several times, and we had nowhere to hide. So we joined refugees and left Wolfheart. We went all the way to the south until finally settling down in the orphanage in the city of Glow."

"What a dramatic escape." No. 76 commented with a sigh.

"But it's far from the end," Yorko thought, "Although the hunt by the Kingdom of Dawn isn't as nerve-racking as the one by the church, the number of the armies running after them is more than enough to kill them all." Yorko hoped that all Hill's concerns were just groundless fears, otherwise Appen Moya would never set them free. As long as they were still within the territory of the Kingdom of Dawn, they were not considered to be safe.

He shook his head to put these annoying thoughts behind. "Let's finish the dinner and sleep soon. We have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow."

…

Surprisingly, they did not encounter any obstructions in the next few days. They took the route planned out by the magician and managed to avoid entering any cities. Instead, they exclusively picked paths in the rural area. Five days later, they reached Wind Ridge of the Kingdom of Dawn. Another day of traveling toward south would bring them to the North of the Graycastle.

Yorko felt a little relieved.

He did not like the feeling of being alert all the time, for even the slightest sound at night would wake him up. In comparison, No. 76 was more self-collected. She took good care of both witches and Yorko.

Within a few days, No. 76 had totally blended in with these witches. She was, in particular, close to Amy, the most naive one, who had almost viewed No. 76 as her fourth sister.

Yorko leaned against the soft cushion while looking at the endless winding mountains and yellow fields outside the window. He started to hum involuntarily.

He had failed to fulfill his duties as an ambassador, but instead, he brought his old friend four witches. If Hill was right, how many rewards would His Majesty bestow him?

While he was still absorbed in his dream, the magician responsible for security suddenly came to him from the rear of the fleet. "Sir, we may have trouble. It looks like we've been tailed."

"What?"

Yorko's heart leaped into his throat. He quickly poked his head out of the window but did not find anything unusual.

"There're knights seven or eight miles away from us. You can't see them from here." The magician spurred his horse into a small trot in order to keep up with the coach. "They don't march very fast but we're even slower. If things go on like this, they'll sooner or later catch up and spot us."

"Are you sure they're our enemies?"

"No. I took a glimpse from a distance but I can't take the chance. There're around 20 to 30 people, all fully armored. They don't have any extra relaying horses. It's probable that they tracked us through our hoove prints."

"Then what should we do?" Yorko instantly panicked out.

"We must get off the carriage and walk. There's a wood close by where horses can't go through,which can impede the procession of the knights," The magician replied in a low voice. "But this will only bring down their speed to the same level of ours. Once we're caught up, all of us will be doomed. If we want to successfully get rid of them, one person has to lead the fleet to move on and divert them to the main road."

He paused for a second and went on, "In other words, somebody has to make a sacrifice."

Chapter 674 - No. 76

The carriages had stopped and all lined up along the side of the road while the Chom Brothers were busy tying them together. This way, it was possible for one person to drive all the vehicles.

After an intense argument, Annie had finally convinced the witches, taking them to follow Clown, plunging into the forest.

Now, it was the remaining people and Yorko's turn.

Rockhill carried a bag of food and walked passed him, saying, "My lord, we must leave now. If the enemies notice us, then all of our previous efforts will be wasted."

"Wait a minute. I want to talk with her."

He thought it would take him awhile to make a decision, but he actually needed less than 15 minutes.

No. 76 voluntarily stepped forward.

As did Rockhill and Annie, but as the leader of the group, Yorko eventually selected No. 76 to stay behind to cover their retreat.

"I went through five years of combat training at the 'Black Money'. I'm a fast runner, too, so don't worry about me." No. 76's words were simple, as simple as an ordinary farewell. "Isn't there a village nearby? When I drive the carriages to the village and sneak into the crowd, they won't be able to find me at all. After this crisis, I'll join you guys again—right at the border city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Please remember to wait for me there."

Meanwhile, the magician was quietly whispering to him that the village was more than 10 miles away. Given the distance, it would be impossible for anyone to make it there before the knights arrived, and after taking the time to tie the carriages together, their chances became even slimmer.

If our pursuers haven't been ordered by the King of Dawn to capture witches, there isn't a need for concern. However, if what the magician had predicted happened to be true... Yorko could easily imagine how the knights would vent their anger once they found out No. 76 had deceived them.

Yorko had a sinking suspicion that if the carriages happened to be stopped by the knightage from the king's city of Dawn, he would be the sole survivor. Appen Moya would likely ask Roland for a ransom, and he might ridicule and make him a laughing stock among the nobility. However, he would not hastily send him to the guillotine, unfortunately, anyone else that got caught would end up being executed without remorse.

He thought, perhaps, he should be the one to stay behind to attract the attention of their pursuers.

He wanted to step forward numerous times but he kept chickening-out every time he tried to open his mouth.

"An ambassador represents his king. I can't let them catch me and mock me because that would be the same as humiliating the King of Graycastle." Yorko comforted himself. Unfortunately, he now was unable to look No. 76 in the eye.

"Goddammit! She's just a bought slave."

Yorko walked over to No. 76 and just as he was about to say something, she spoke first, "My lord, this is my decision. This has nothing to do with the 'Black Money'—even though Silvermask always instructs us to be ready to sacrifice ourselves for it, however, I don't like it at all. I thought I would be living underground for my entire life to adulate those customers until I grew old and became the new Silvermask. Or, sent off to become a handyman also to never to see the sun again. Fortunately, you brought me out of that place. You made it so I could feel the vastness of the outside world and I've no regrets now. Please hurry into the forest. You're running out of time."

"But..."

No. 76 smiled and said, "Thank you, my lord. If you hadn't said anything, I would have been beaten to death in that underground limestone cave. My life belongs to you, and I may survive this crisis. If I do, let's meet in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

The Chom Brothers were behind Yorko urging him, "My lord, we have to go now."

Yorko took a deep breath, turned around, and left.

"Yes, she's just a slave."

"This is the best option."

Yorko believed this, but he still felt an indescribable uneasiness in his heart.

Before he entered the forest, he turned one last time to look back. The carriages had begun to move slowly, driven by No. 76. She didn't linger and she didn't wave to bid farewell, she acted as if this were a common departure.

Just like the way she volunteered.

Soon, the shade from the forest blocked his view.

***************

No. 76 did not drive the carriages all the way to the village.

After traveling for about 300 feet, she reined in her horse and stopped the carriages.

She wouldn't be able to see the entrance of the forest anymore if she walked further.

She jumped off her horse and sat on the back of the last carriage, quietly waiting for the arrival of their pursuers.

She had been waiting for quite some time, however, it felt as if only a moment had passed. Waiting was a habit she had developed over her very long life, so she had become accustomed to it.

As the sun began to set in the west she could finally see the knight's figures appearing at the end of the road.

They didn't wear an emblem or ribbon as the knightage of the king's city did but based on their exquisite armor and high horses they were from some big city.

No. 76 tactfully counted the number of knights. There were 35 of them, half of which were squires whose equipment and actions seemed to be more refined than the knights from a small town or village.

The leader of the knights frowned when he saw the carriages waiting on the side of the road. He cracked his whip and the knights swarmed forward, surrounding them.

"Sir Lougan, there's no one else in the carriages!"

"Interesting... It looks like our Ambassador of Graycastle sent out scouts." Lougan smiled scornfully, "Caro, Jester, you two go back and check for footprints on both sides of the road. Since they've abandoned their carriages and fled, they must have left some trace."

Lougan's words conveyed his intent.

"Sir, what about the woman?..."

"Cut off her hands and feet, then interrogate her. Unfortunately, since she dared to stay behind, you probably won't get any information from her."

No. 76 stood up as she said, "There's no need for an interrogation. They fled into that forest not too far behind you, but..."

"But, what?" A knight drew his sword with one hand and stretched out his other to try and grab her arm.

Apparently, the knights were not going to spare her life, even if she told them what they wanted to know.

"But, you guys won't get the chance to see the witches again."

With her impressive speed, No. 76 lifted her hand and clutched the wrist of the closest knight. She pulled his arm, sending him up into the air, flying involuntarily toward her.

She took this chance to slip his head under her armpit, getting him into a headlock.

She used her shoulder and squeezed. His armor made an unpleasant rattling noise and then with a snap, his helmet was dislodged, leaving a fist-sized gap in his armor near his throat.

The knight cramped violently, mouth gaping like a fish that had just been pulled from a river.

"Let go of Charlie!"

"Goddammit! Kill her!"

The other knights all pulled out their swords and thrust them towards No. 76.

No. 76 tossed the dead knight toward them, forcing them to pull back their swords. Taking her chance, she picked up the dead knight's sword and struck out at the nearest enemy.

Chapter 675 - Last Hope

The blade cut through the armor neatly, blood splashing out from the cuts like red strings.

The knight did not make any sound as she had expected but instead grabbed her hand firmly as if to gain more time for his companions.

Unfortunately, he misjudged the difference in their power.

No. 76 easily escaped from his grasp, kicking him away while drawing out her blade.

Her kick felt like a blunder blow and his armor was entirely deformed. The knight spat out a mouthful of blood and smashed on the ground, no longer making any sound.

It seemed like her fists and kicks were more convenient. No. 76 glanced at her already dull blade, threw it away and jumped towards the rest of them with her bare fists.

The hunters instantly became the prey.

She jumped high and started jumping on the clumsy knights' shoulders. Every time she landed on a knight's head, she would clamp his helmet with her feet and then spin with the help of her body inertia, which resulted in a crackling noise as his cervical spine broke.

Compared with No. 76's swift movements, the knights' counterattack and dodging were not different from that of a pile of wood.

There was no problem even if she was unable to land on their heads, as she could hit their joints to make them lose their balance and then finish them off with a fatal kick. She could also easily trap her opponents with her physical gestures and lead them to attack her simultaneously only to end up killing themselves in the end.

"This... is impossible!"

"A damn monster!"

After a few rounds, the knights realized that their enemy was not normal. Not only did she possess extraordinary strength but was also an expert in the art of fencing and close combat skills. She was obviously an experienced fighter and her killing skills did not match the look of a twenty-year-old girl at all.

"Everyone move aside!"

With a loud cry, Sir Lougan led his horse in the crowd towards No. 76.

The rest quickly closed in around her, trying to trap her among them.

No. 76 sneered, did not retreat but instead went straight ahead and grabbed with her hands the horse's front legs, immobilizing it while it neighed nonstop.

No one could believe in their eyes when they saw what happened next. She lifted both the knight and his mount in the air and threw them to the others around her. The ones that got hit sustained wounds ranging from fractures and bleeding to immediate death. The knight himself sustained the worst impact naturally. As he fell from the horse's back, his body was distorted into an unnatural shape.

The surviving pursuers instantly scattered.

They jumped on their horses rushing to escape from this "monster". But No. 76 did not plan to give them this chance.

As soon as the enemy gave up resisting, a massacre started.

…

The night had already fallen when No. 76 finally finished cleaning up the battlefield.

The bodies of the knights were thrown into a nearby field and were covered briefly with some wheat straws. Discovering them was only a matter of time but by that time the witches would have already retreated to the Kingdom of Graycastle.

She crawled in the most extravagant coach, removed the cushion that Yorko usually slept on and carefully took out a colorful sparkling magic stone ring under the mattress. Even under the weak moonlight, one could see a cyclone swirling inside the transparent crystal.

After carefully examining the ring, No. 76 put it in her robe, fixed the cushion and lay on her back.

Next, she only needed to reach the next village and hire a wheeler to take her to the Kingdom of Graycastle.

They would probably not stay long at the border, maybe not even one day, but as long as her destination was the Western Region of the Kingdom of Graycastle, she would be able to meet those witches one day.

Looking at the bright moon outside the window, she sighed.

400 years had passed. The Union that used to reign the world had disappeared like dust in the wind. The only thing that remained unchanged was the stars in the sky.

Only when she looked up to the sky, would she feel like she was still alive—not just being alive underground or in the present after the disappearance of the Union, but actually living at the Holy City of Taquila 400 years ago.

That extremely prosperous witch empire.

The road to escape afterward... that could not be counted as living anymore.

The only thing that kept her going was a last remaining hope.

…

"So, how does it feel to have a female body once again?" someone asked, "Do you feel like you're being yourself again?"

She took deep breaths and moved her wrists and heels. "The distance is shorter."

"Of course, because this body is kind of small. A body too sturdy wouldn't be convenient to serve those humans." The voice laughed. "Furthermore, female God's Punishment Soldiers are already so rare. Don't be so picky."

"Appearance and age are also very important," someone else said, "Assuming the tastes of humans haven't changed a lot, none would want those body shells that look like men. Just looking at them makes one feel disgusted. You can ask Elena if you don't believe me. She would prefer a male body instead of a defective product like that."

"Correct. Among everyone, yours is the best looking."

"You know what I mean, Pasha." She shook her head, staring at the huge blob in front of her with the moving tentacles. "Like this, I have to practice my limb control from the start. From sewing to holding a blade, each move would require a long time to master."

"It's okay." A tentacle dropped down and slowly poked her forehead. "We have got all the time in the world."

…

"Why do we need to deal with common people?" Alethea, who was soaking in hot magma, blew a chain of bubbles in dissatisfaction. "Can't we bring the witches here to test their talent?"

"Are you confused because of the long sleep?" Pasha refuted her. "It's not like 400 years ago anymore. One or two would be alright but do you plan to catch a hundred witches and bring them all in the mountains? I don't want to be regarded as a monster from the later generation."

"Even so, can't we let a witch execute this task? Don't forget that all of these bodies are actually enemies of the witches."

"First of all, she must completely trust us and possess the ability to protect herself. Where can we find someone like that?Nowadays the common people control the world so it's inevitable to deal with them—just like in the Land of Dawn at the first Battle of Divine Will."

Pasha paused, stuck a tentacle out and pointed at her. "What do you think?"

She played with her sword, threw it in the air and just by slightly moving her body she let it slide into the scabbard. "I don't have any preference… as long as I can see Taquila's glory once again."

Chapter 676 - The Pursuit

…

Sometimes, when she didn't want to train anymore, she would also enter the deepest area of the maze to see the magic core that the survivors of Taquila had so many high hopes for.

"This is the completely repaired instrument of Divine retribution? Are you sure it's useful?"

The biggest core looked like a simple spindle apparatus, nearing the size of a Senior Witch's experiment tower. Dozens of white brackets like visceral ribs were releasing magic power into it. Its uniqueness was obvious as it was floating mid-air of the maze without any hangings or support. Due to the cold light that the core emitted, the floor was no longer plain red.

"Of course, I've been studying it for 385 years!" A piece of blob appeared from above and landed next to her using its tentacles. "The more I study it, the more I feel like it's a creation of God. Comparing with it, the things that had been researched by the Quest Society like the Sigil of Magic Stones were literally trash. Well… they were not even close to the essence of the magic power. If we had found this ruin 400 years ago, there would never have been the second Battle of Divine Will."

Celine would always become extremely excited whenever talking about the magic core, so she could only pat her rough exterior. "Have you verified the other cores?"

"Of course, Pasha even used the phantom instrument to display a miracle at the extremely far kingdom of common people. Oh, you were probably still asleep at that time, so you didn't see it."

"That far?" she asked surprisingly.

"Correct, much farther than any ability can reach, even the Infinite Sigil can't be compared with it," Celine replied while shaking her tentacles, "This is the power of the magic core. It allows the witches to possess power beyond their limits. That common person who kneeled down in shock because of the miracle is the best proof. The magic core should have been our aim, not the damn God's Punishment Army! Long live Lady Natalia!"

"But without the God's Punishment Army scheme, we wouldn't be able to survive until now." She pointed out.

"Eh.... well, long live Lady Alice too," Celine murmured reluctantly.

"But I heard Pasha saying that in order to activate the instrument of Divine retribution, the Chosen One is also required, is that right?"

"Correct, the Chosen One! This magic core is too immense and complicated. Without the Chosen One, it would be just a dead object unable to become a new deity!" Celine used her tentacles to grab her hand. "This is why all of our hopes rest with you. You must find her."

"If she does exist."

Hearing that, the voice of the blob became heavier. "Yeah… if she does exist. Why can't I become the Chosen One?"

…

"I heard that Starfall City has been defeated! They've been defeated by the common people!"

After receiving the news, the magma underground started boiling, and all the Sleeping Ones and the Waking Ones started shaking their tentacles excitingly, which was the only way they could express their emotions.

But not everyone was excited by the news.

"How can this be possible?" For instance, Alethea's dancing expressed shock and anger. "How can they be defeated by common people?"

"Is the news credible?" someone asked.

"I'll ask the Chamber of Commerce of Dawn to investigate this." Pasha moved her tentacles to quiet them down. "Behave yourselves, don't shake the whole burrow!"

Surprisingly, even though they all looked alike, huge blobs with several tentacles on their epidermis, she could still recognize each of them easily.

It was probably due to the fact that they had been living here for so many years that she could distinctly remember everything from their breath frequency to their tentacle movements.

Pasha bent her huge figure and immersed in the lava. "For Taquila."

All the blobs that could still move dropped down and many voices sounded. "For Taquila."

The turbulent lava soon calmed down.

"Once the news has been confirmed, I suggest we immediately retrieve the divine relic," Elena said, "Starfall City no longer fits to possess it."

"But in that case, a fight with the God's Punishment Army will be unavoidable and I don't believe that they'll be unprepared. Even though they lost to the common people, it doesn't mean that Hermes would also be vulnerable," Alethea said in doubt, "Who knows how the common people won? Maybe they just killed a few hundreds of God's Punishment Soldiers and then believed to have claimed an important victory."

"This is also possible."

"I also think so."

Many expressed their approval.

"The other common people will help us understand," Pasha said, "and right now, the most important thing is to find the Chosen One. Banach Lothar has already set up the stage. Now, it was time for the actors to perform."

"If she can succeed in finding the Chosen One in this trip, the demons will definitely perish and the witches will eventually reach new heights!"

…

She walked to the exit of the ruin and stopped.

There was a huge palace, half of it being covered by dirt. At the center of the palace, there was a patio that reached the ten-meter-high surface.

Bright white light shed down the patio, forming a gentle beam of light which lit up a piece of land at her feet.

Opposite from the patio, there were two tombstones.

In contrast with their shabby and dirty surroundings, there was no trace of dust on the tombstones.

Obviously, for hundreds of years, someone who had been sweeping this area clean, had also planted a small plain white flower for the person in the tomb.

She bent over, with one knee in front of the tomb.

This was where the greatest witches were buried. No matter what kind of disagreements they had before, or how intense their disputes were, it was ultimately for the survival of the witches. Thus, even after death, they were put together, never to be separated.

Two of the Union's Three Chiefs.

Alice, the unstoppable Queen of Starfall City.

Natalia, the dazzling Queen of Sunchaser.

"May the deities be with you."

After praying, she stood up and nodded to the top. "I'm ready, and please send me away."

A tentacle appeared from the dark, rolled up around her waist and rose towards the patio. The sky looked bigger and bigger until there was nothing but the sky anymore.

She blinked her eyes trying to get used to the bright light, then slowly opened her eyes and saw the long-awaited world unfolding before her eyes.

"I can only come this far." Pasha's tentacle waved from the hole's exit. "This body can't be exposed to the sun."

"I know." She bent over and hugged the tentacle for goodbye. "Wait for my good news."

"Oh right, you can't use your previous name anymore. The Chamber of Commerce of the common people will arrange a new identity for you, as well as a new more appropriate name—No. 76."

"Sounds nice." She smiled. "I 'll be going then. Take care."

"You too."

So, in order to pursue that faint hope, a new journey had begun.

Chapter 677 - The Promised Reunion

Even though walking in the forests slowed them down, it was a sound trip.

Three days later, Yorko encountered a team of soldiers of the Graycastle miles away from the boundary. They were searching along the road. They wore unique brown leather uniforms with long metal rifles on their backs, which clearly showed their identities to him.

He understood what had happened when he met Duke Kant after he followed the team and returned to Evernight. Having received the letter from Hill, His Majesty Roland had directly sent two confidential letters away. One was to order the platoon of the First Army that stationed in Deepvalley Town to divide into four troops and enter the Kingdom of Dawn from the four junctions of the boundaries so as to reinforce the retreating diplomatic personnel. The other one was to inform Duke of the Northern Region to be ready for a war. That meant that the Duke began to prepare military materials, such as grain, cotton, and horse carriages. When the main army arrived in the Nothern Region, they could declare a war to the Kingdom of Dawn.

Fortunately, the emissary delegation had had a sound trip.

The Duke exhaled a long breath of relief when he was saying this sentence. Yorko felt flattered.

But what touched him the most was how his old friend had responded to this incident.

Though he clearly knew that the four witches in the delegation were more important, but his name was ranked at the top of the list in the letter. He felt that he had nothing to complain about his suffering and scary experiences at the thought of such a good treatment.

Yorko wrote a long letter about what had happened during the process of the retreat. He handed it over to the Duke who would pass the letter to His Majesty. He hoped that His Majesty could put an end to the military tensions in the Nothern Region. Now, he understood what Hill had said was true. His Majesty took it much more seriously.

Additionally, he was quite surprised by the responding speed of the First Army. Apart from the time for carrier pigeons to deliver letters back and forth, the army, which originally bore responsibilities to defend against the remaining force of the church and demonic beasts, could carry out the operation on the very day they received the order. As far as he knew, nobles used to spend half a month summoning knights, mercenaries, and free peoples, let alone dividing them into groups to carry out missions. Once the troop spread out with less supervision, those mercenaries paid aforetime would escape over one night.

This might be the reason why his old friend could conquer the king's city in one day.

Now, Yorko dimly understood that the military force of His Majesty was much better than that of the other nobles, not only in terms of weapons but actually beat them in every other aspect.

As a messenger, he was not alone. The whole kingdom backed him up and fought with him as his sharp sword. He felt exhilarated at this thought like there was a flame burning in his chest.

Now, No.76 was the only one he was worried about.

According to his promise to her, the first person who arrived at the destination would hang a four-colored flag at a visible spot. Yet Duke Kant ordered his men to search each corner of Evernight but did not find such a flag. Now that they lived in the house arranged by the duke, Yorko directly set up a flagpole in front of the door with a four-colored flag fluttering in the wind. Once No.76 entered the inner city, she would immediately see the flag and find them.

Actually, he was not the only one that worried about No.76. Through windows, Yorko often saw Annie and Amy standing under the flagpole and waiting for No.76's safe return. As they knew each other better, Annie gradually changed her attitude towards him. At least, she would not stare at him, full of vigilance.

Hill's men had talked to him several times and they had hoped that he could go to the Western Region as soon as possible. The magician had directly told him that the chance that No.76 successfully distracted the knights while at the same time staying alive was narrow. If those knights had not targeted at them, she would have arrived at the border village one day later and arrived in Evernight earlier than they had. Now, nothing happened at their meeting spot, so No.76 was very likely dead already.

Yorko knew that the magician was right, but he wanted to wait for another few days, just for the words she had said when parting.

"When the situation turns better, I'll meet you again, right in the border city of the Graycastle. Make sure that you wait for me there!"

After they parted, Yorko finally knew why he had that strange feeling.

Although No.76 was a slave in name, he never treated her like a slave, neither in the Black Money nor in the Kingdom of Dawn.

Yorko had decided to give her freedom if she came back alive.

But the decision came too late.

Three more days passed. While he was thinking about leaving the Northern Region the next day, things seemed to turn for the better. A carriage stopped beside the flagpole. The coachman seemed to be very anxious and wanted to ask the guards about something, but he was afraid to come forward to ask. Yorko witnessed everything through the window, but before he came out, Annie and Amy had gone up to the carriage.

No.76 came back!

Each member of the delegation had heard the news and even Duke Kant, out of curiosity, came to see the brave maid who had sacrificed herself.

But her condition was not good.

When Yorko saw No.76, she had bruises all over her body. She was unable to move due to her broken right hand and left foot.

"Sir..." No.76 blinked her eyes and managed to summon up a smile, "thank you for waiting for me!"

All of a sudden, he felt completely relieved.

"I'm glad you came back."

They then stayed in Evernight for another week until No.76 was in a stable condition. After that, they went to Deepvalley Town where they took a ship and left the Nothern Region.

In the following days, Yorko got to know what had happened to her after her departure.

The knights of Glow had caught up with her before the sunset. In order to gain her some time, she untied the reins of all the horses and spurred them to run in the opposite direction to stop the knights who were speeding up. At the same time, she had attempted to flee to the mountains on the roadside. After a short while, however, she had been stopped by a creek.

Considering that she would die after being captured, she thus had ridden off the cliff that was 30 meters high. Luckily, there were branches and cane vines on both sides of the precipice, so she had smashed into pieces. However, during the long drop, her head bumped into the rock and bled. Her right hand and left foot were broken by the rocks that jutted out. By the time she had reached the stream, she had sunk into a coma.

The knights stopped chasing, probably because they had not found a safe path leading downhill or they had thought she was dead. It had been midnight when she had woken up. She had used splashed chilling stream water to keep herself awake. Sometimes she had been able to catch several small fish and shrimps.

Two days later, fishermen around there had found her and saved her life.

Hero could remove her pain, but could not cure her wounds. Now, they had to go to the Western Region and see whether there were witches who could cure her.

Anyway, she's come back alive!

Satisfied, Yorko stood in the wind at the bow. The ship sailed towards Neverwinter with its sails stirring in the air.

Chapter 678 - The New Orders of the Fjords

A long-lost guest was ushered into Neverwinter on the end of the autumn twilight.

She was the businesswoman, Margaret.

Roland had prepared an extremely high-standard courtesy for the friend who was the first to come onboard and brought generous returns to Border Town during its difficult time. She was not only welcomed by the First Army's cannon firing but Roland had come to Shallow Beach to welcome her in person.

"That's very kind of you, Your Majesty," Margaret smiled and said, "I'm simply an ordinary businesswoman."

"The western region wouldn't be so developed today without your help," Roland said in ease, "Neverwinter will never let such a friend down."

Margaret's Chamber of Commerce was a great help in both the initial acquisition of a large amount of food and also in leasing ships to transport the refugees in the later days. Even Theo had depended on Margaret's network and support to gain a firm foothold in the old king's city. Although these were not provided free of charge, Roland was very clear that many things could not be done with only the money.

"It's my honor to be your friend," Margaret slightly bowed and said, "Other than to fulfill the previously signed perfume contract, I've brought you a new business opportunity this time." She pointed to her back and said, "They're the most popular businessmen in the Fjords and they're very interested in the plan of the steam-powered boat."

"Really?" Roland smiled. "Would you please give me a brief introduction later?"

According to his usual practice, eating and talking was the way to deal with the businessmen. The long table in the living room was filled with a variety of delicious food and the overseas visitors seemed to be particularly happy without eating fish. They had been trying to control themselves and behave as elegantly as possible as noble etiquette was not popular in the Fjords, but after a few drinks, the imitated etiquette was gone as the atmosphere was increasingly heated.

Roland did not really care about this as he preferred a lively dining environment as opposed to the complicated dining rules in the palace.

He also had a brief understanding of the visiting business group through the chit-chatting session. Other than Gammon and Marleen who first came to visit Border Town, there was also the Chamber of Commerce from Sunset Island and Shallow Water Town. Both of the islands in the south and the north next to Crescent Moon Bay formed a closely-connected business circle.

Although the three islands were not very big in size, they held the most population and power as the first residential area in the Fjords. Besides, it was very competitive among them as could be seen from the size and scale of their ships. Each of the three-masted ships parked at the dock of Shallow Beach could carry around 300 people and cargos of similar weight. The price of such sailing ships was around 5,000 gold royals each excluding the sailors. It was obvious that both of the Chamber of Commerces did not want to fall behind Crescent Moon Bay in the competition of respect and power.

After the desserts were served, it was time for the official discussion.

"Margaret mentioned that you want to purchase the steam engine?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Nibelung, the person-in-charge of Shallow Water Town's Chamber of Commerce was the first to speak. "However, other than the steam engine, we also hope to own a steam-powered boat like the one you sold to Crescent Moon Bay."

"I heard that the modification fee you previously quoted was 1,800 gold royals and Sunset Island is willing to pay an extra 200 gold royals to modify 5 ships at the price of 2,000 gold royals each," Atiyer, the businessman from Sunset Island said as he was unwilling to be left behind, "Sunset Island's Chamber of Commerce can pay half of the deposit upfront."

They were apparently referring to the paddle steamer that Crescent Moon Bay purchased a year ago which was an almost obsolete technology to Roland. However, it would be a very cost-effective transaction to him as he could train the workers with this order while earning a good amount of money.

"It'll take two to three months to build a paddle steamer and it'll take around a year to build 5 ships. Barov, the City Hall Director, will sign the contract with you if you can accept that."

"That's not a problem at all. However, Sunset Island has a small request," Atiyer cleared his throat and said, "We hope you can hire the craftsmen from the Fjords to build the ship."

"What do you mean?" Roland lifted his eyebrows and asked.

"It's just like the steam engine factory of Crescent Moon Bay, we'll provide you with a group of craftsmen and the ships they build will be first used by Sunset Island and then they can choose whether to leave or stay after the completion of 10 years."

"Shallow Water Town also hopes to sign the same contract," Nibelung added, "Five sailing ships are only for the first order. There'll be at least five ships to construct every year after that if you agree with our request."

"I see," Roland thought, "So, this is a big order which lasts for 10 years in which every completed transaction each year costs up to 10,000 gold royals. Additionally, they won't be controlled by others after 10 years as they'll have learned the detailed construction method by then."

In fact, he did not mind to spread this method at all. The paddle steamer was apparently outdated as compared to the steam turbine that was under development, along with the triple-expansion steam engine that was already in production.

His initial purpose of signing a 10-year contract with Crescent Moon Bay, rather than to prevent the technology leaking out, was was for the craftsmen to adapt to the life of the western region, and afterwards, they would refuse to return to the Fjords and become a member of Neverwinter.

It was just a seemingly beautiful castle in the air apart from the industry-based technology.

Thinking about it, Roland knocked on the table and said, "There's no problem in principle, but there could be some amendments needed on the details, such as changing the 10 year duration to five years..."

Speaking of it, both of the two businessmen looked extremely happy about it. It was an even better choice for them if they could master the construction method of the steam-powered boat earlier.

"I can even give a 20% discount on the price if Shallow Water Town and Sunset Island are willing to let the craftsmen stay in the western region. What do you think?"

"This..."

Both of them immediately hesitated as it was difficult to train a craftsman. However, it was hard for them to determine if it was a cost-effective deal for reducing the duration to five years with a few hundreds of people and an additional annual saving of 2,000 gold royals.

"Your Majesty, may I answer you later after I discuss it with the others in the Chamber of Commerce?" Nibelung asked.

"Yes. Of course," Roland made a gracious hand gesture and said.

"Please excuse me temporarily." Atiyer subsequently left the living room.

"So..." he shifted his gaze to Gammon and Marleen and said, "Are you not here for the steam-powered boat?"

The representatives of Crescent Moon Bay had been very calm when both the Chamber of Commerce was fighting to be the first to discuss the business. They only occasionally talked about their previous business with Border Town and it felt like they were not here for business but casual chit-chatting... Such actions had raised Roland's curiosity.

"No, Your Majesty. We're also here for the steam-powered boat," Gammon took a sip of the white liquor and said, "but not the wooden paddle steamer. Crescent Moon Bay wants the indestructible steel ship that can split the storm, just like the one you built for Sir Thunder."

Margaret's look immediately changed after hearing this.

Chapter 679 - A Generous Return

"Your Majesty, I absolutely did not disclose the information conferred between you and Sir Thunder to anyone..." She quickly explained.

"I know," Roland waved and looked at Gammon with great interest. "Where did you hear about this?"

Although he did not regard the matter as confidential, it was almost impossible for the outsider to know about the steel ship as there were still a couple more months to go until it was fit to launch. Plus, only the bottom of the hull was completed at the moment and it was built in a totally enclosed shipyard. All the workers they had selected were the most skillful local residents.

They would have to pay special attention if any locals were secretly in contact with the Fjords.

"It's big news in Fjords that Sir Thunder is recruiting new crews and that the campaign is on a much bigger scale than any of the recruitments in the past. It isn't a surprise that many people from Fjords have joined his team since there are many outstanding captains in Crescent Moon Bay." Gammon said with a smile, "The news regarding the magical steel ship also came from Thunder. He must take some hard measures to dispel the concerns of others about an in-depth exploration of the ocean to the west of Shadow Islands."

"How many people know about this?"

"Not many, Your Majesty. The captain would not have revealed anything to us if he didn't receive a great help from Crescent Moon Chamber of Commerce earlier. After all, Sir Thunder is a lot more highly respected than us businessmen."

"I see," Roland nodded, "however, I can't meet your demand since we cannot build a second ship in a short time as this kind of ship is extremely hard to build."

"We understand, Your Majesty," Marleen said, "We're just hoping that you can sell the second steel ship to us after you complete the transaction with Sir Thunder. Crescent Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce is willing to pay 10% deposit up front and we'll pay 40% of the remaining once the project starts."

"They have already started to talk about the deposit before they even know the price." Roland once again realized the Fjords people's adventurous spirit. Perhaps they smelled the great potential of the ship much faster than any ruler of the Four Kingdoms. At least, he had never seen any great nobles who would pay a high price for something he had never seen before.

"The city of Neverwinter also needs more than one steel ship, so it'll be two or three years later by the time the shipyard has time to build you one." Roland slowly said, "Have you not considered to send your craftsmen to participate in the construction and sign a new ten-year or five-year contract? That might speed up the construction process, and you can also learn the relevant techniques."

"You're kidding me," Gammon felt a little embarrassed and said, "We absolutely don't mean to covet it. We won't dare to ask for such techniques. With a steel ship like this, you can definitely become the most popular partner in the Fjord Islands, provided that it's really like what Sir Thunder described."

"I'm not kidding." Roland took a sip of the drink and shrugged.

"..." It was their turn to be shocked this time.

After a moment, Gammon said in disbelief, "You mean... you're willing to disclose the technologies to the Crescent Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce?"

"As long as you can provide enough craftsmen as I need not only blacksmiths and carpenters but apprentices as well," Roland replied without hesitation. "I'll need 2000 of them. You can recruit literate civilians to make up the number if you don't have that many. You need to provide the laborers within five years. In that case, we'll start the ship construction next year. Of course, you'll still bear the expenses incurred on shipbuilding."

"I really don't know what you're thinking, Your Majesty," Gammon said with a wry smile. "Perhaps it's not your most valuable technology just yet?"

Roland shook his head and said, "The steel ship I'm building for Thunder is the most cutting-edge technology that the city of Neverwinter has so far."

He was not making a fool of himself. "So far" was indeed no exaggeration at this point of time... Who knew what would happen five or six years later?

"Then, why are you..." Gammon startled. Then he waved with resignation and said, "No, I'd better not ask. The Crescent Moon Bay is willing to make the deal."

Why? Since the development of technologies could not be achieved without a foundation, not to mention those of ship construction. Fjords would not have enough manpower to maintain this huge industry, even if they were given mines, machines, and converters. When the first steam engine was introduced, the manufacturing industry could no longer be copied by a pair of skilled hands or a hammer.

Roland could not help but remember the answer of the Black Sea Shipyard director when he was asked about the need of Varyag's construction, "It needs the central party committee, the State Planning Commission, the military-industrial commission and nine Commissions of Industry for National Defence." Although steel ships were not so highly demanded, it was also the result of the entire city of Neverwinter's joint production. Other than the core power parts and hull welding work that Anna was in charge of, the remaining parts had been distributed in batches to the assembly plant and processed by the common people.

It would be an inevitable trend of industrial development.

Therefore, he needed more manpower to achieve his goal rather than protecting the technologies from being stolen. The population of the city of Neverwinter was increasing drastically but it was not fast enough for Roland. However, he did not need to explain this to a businessman. The man would eventually understand five years later.

"What a wise choice! The steel ship will not let you down," Roland lifted the glass and said, "cheers."

"Cheers... what?"

"It means drink up the wine in a gulp for celebration," he calmly explained. "The new etiquette of the king's city."

"Well, really? In this case... cheers." Both of the businessmen from Crescent Moon Bay were forced to drink up the white wine in their glasses.

After a while, Nibelung and Atiyer also returned to the living room and agreed to sign the contract.

As a result, the City of Neverwinter received the biggest order they ever had. It included a renovation deposit of 4,000 gold royals (the remaining 4,000 gold royals would be paid upon the completion of the construction), and a prepayment of 5,000 gold royals for the construction, both of which would be received by the end of the year. There would also be a total price set out according to the subsequent construction progress. He could already imagine Barov's grinning face. Once City Hall had such great revenues, they would be financially more capable of arranging a job for every citizen.

Nibelung changed the topic after they had reached an agreement of the business, "Your Majesty, we also heard that there are a lot of perfumes for sale here other than the ships, I wonder..."

"Miss Margaret had signed a contract with me six months ago. She'll be my sales representative and will be responsible for the sale of perfumes in the Fjord Islands after we open the Shallow Beach port. So, you should talk to her instead if you want to buy perfumes."

Roland added after seeing his regretful expression, "However, the city of Neverwinter is also preparing to promote a brand new merchandise. Perhaps you will be interested."

At these words, he clapped his hands, and the guard who was on-duty outside the hall quickly came in with three glass bottles.

The bizarre color of the clear liquid in the bottles immediately caught the businessmen's attention.

Chapter 680 - The Joint Chamber of Commerce

"What's it? A new fruit wine?" Margaret curiously asked.

"If it's just a fruit wine, it won't be as easily sold as the perfumes," Nibelung shook his head and said.

"That may not be the case," Gammon said while looking at the glass bottle with interest, "Not to mention the contents of the bottle, simply the unique container is worth several gold royals."

"Is this a new product of Alchemist Workshop of the king's city?" Marleen added, "I've never seen such a big crystal glass bottle before."

"The appearance isn't important, and the key lies within the product itself." Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry for a moment as he did not expect these businessmen to be interested in the glass bottles first. The total cost of the colorless glass vessels was low as all it needed was to master the formula. However, he did not sell only the glass vessels as all the glasses produced in the city of Neverwinter was to supply for the chemical laboratory, perfume plant, and beverage plant.

"It's called Chaos Drinks as it's chaotic and unpredictable just like the name. Each of them is a unique treat." He cleared his throat and pretended to be mysterious. "I bet you've never tasted the same taste. You may try it if you don't believe it."

All three bottles of drinks were carefully selected by Roland from Evelyn's beverages warehouse. They not only had their own characteristics, but two of the bottles had also been specially processed. One of the bottles was iced, which was freezing cold and pleasantly cooling. The other bottle was added with dry ice, which could be described as the world's first carbonate beverages.

All the five merchants looked astonishing after taking a sip of it as Roland expected.

"How exactly was it brewed?" Atiyer smacked his lips. "Those fruit wine has an indescribable taste as compared to the others."

"Looking at this cup of green apple juice, it's still gushing air... Oh God, is it breathing?"

"Apple? Even honey isn't so sweet!"

The businessmen were each expressing their views while the toasting did not stop. They were continuously drinking until the three bottles were empty.

"Lap..." Gammon licked his lips as if he could not get enough of it. "Your Majesty, your... Chaos Drinks... are fantastic!"

"Do you think it'll have a market if it was sold as a merchandise?"

"Of course!" The businessman from Crescent Moon Bay said without thinking, "There may be a slight difference in the popularity of the three drinks, considering the difference of personal tastes, but they definitely are all rare wines! I bet no one will be interested in the top-grade fruit wine from the Kingdom of Dawn anymore after tasting these wines."

"You're pretty honest." Roland could not help but smile. Most businessmen would pick the flaws to keep their prices down if they wanted to buy the goods. Such straightforward praise was very rare.

"I don't dare to deceive Your Majesty, and I don't want to lie to my tongue," Gammon paused for a moment and said, "but I don't quite understand one thing."

"Tell me about it."

"Why would you give it such a weird name?" He picked up the iced empty bottle which had a thin hoar on it. "For example, this... can be called 'deep-sea icing'. I can assure you that it'll appear on every banquet in the summer."

"I think that bottle of numbing, green-colored drink can be called 'roe manna'. The feeling of numerous fish eggs hatching on the tongue is really memorable," Marleen added.

"I think so, too." Margaret laughed. "Although the word 'chaos' sounds very novel, it can't highlight their distinct characteristics. It'll sell better if you name it separately."

Roland pretended to be regretful and said, "Unfortunately, these drinks are a unique enjoyment. In fact, these three bottles are the last stock."

"Do you mean... they're no longer brewed?"

"Yes, I can't tell you the process of brewing chaotic drinks. However, the end result is always changing and their only common point is that they're all very tasty. That's why I named it 'Chaos' and the quantity reduced with every mouth taken."

The crowd took a deep breath at the same time and everyone showed an unbelievable look. The scarcity was valuable and these items had an excellent quality of uniqueness... It could definitely bring the Fjords... and even the four kingdoms a trend.

Gammon was the first to speak. "Your Majesty, please let me be your agent for this. The Crescent Moon Bay fleet is spread across the coast of the four kingdoms and only we can bring you the most generous returns."

"Crescent Moon Bay's maritime trading center has always been in the Kingdom of Dawn, when was the Everwinter trade route expanded?" The representative of Shallow Water Town Chamber of Commerce interrupted.

Atiyer quickly added, "The merchant ships that head to the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter are mostly from Sunset Island. You're deceiving His Majesty."

Roland stretched his arms out and interrupted the arguments of the three. "In this case, let's set up a Joint Chamber of Commerce."

"Joint... Chamber of Commerce?"

"Yes, participants need to sit down and negotiate the area they're responsible for, and the city of Neverwinter is solely responsible for delivering the goods in order to avoid malicious competition to bring down the price." He described the concept of regional agency as clearly as possible. "You can plan for the division according to your own strength as all of you have a long-established business and your own familiar selling towns. In this case, you can quickly sell the goods and won't have to compete with the peers. The final income of sales will be divided according to the proportion of the contract. As a result, everyone involves will be protected."

The businessmen quickly understood the simple principle. "Sounds good, but how to determine the specific area and division ratio? The beverages sent to the Kingdom of Everwinter and the beverages sold in the Fjords would have a huge costs difference."

"The cost of transportation is definitely something to consider, and there are also manpower costs, selling prices, product output, etc. In general, agents with the highest costs will receive an extra credit due to the limited supply. The details of the provisions will definitely need to be gradually discussed to all parties' satisfaction."

It looked like it was decreasing the total income at the first glance. However, without malign competition, their profits would be much higher with the strengths of the three chambers of commerce.

A lot of the products from the city of Neverwinter had so far only been consumed internally by the Convenience Market due to the lack of sales channels. The businessmen from the Fjords who built their fortunes by selling merchandises were the best channels for Roland. It was undoubtedly the most economical way for him to provide them the merchandises to be sold to every corner of the mainland in the future.

"I'm willing to join." Margaret was the first to show her support.

The others also wanted to give it a try after seeing her declaration.

Roland smiled and said, "Rest assured, cooperating is always more powerful than standing alone. This will be a win-win situation for everyone as long as we work together."

Chapter 681 - The Preparation of Sleeping Island

Sleeping Island in the Fjords.

As the winter approached, the sea breeze swept through as the island became colder. Tilly could hear the sharp howling when the cold wind blew through the gap even with the window closed.

Not many people would stroll outside the house at this time. However, there were always celebrations in the square of Sleeping Island with a grand bonfire that lasted for several days and pots of boiling hot fish soups. The witches had transformed the square into a lovely paradise with their abilities.

Tilly also wanted to join the carnival and share the joy of the church's defeat, if only she did not have so many things to deal with.

The witches' life had changed radically since she brought the news back. It was not the change of their living conditions but they had become mentally different. Everyone seemed to have their burdens lifted off their shoulders with more vivid eyes while they had clearly looked and spoke more freely and comfortably.

They finally did not have to live in fear and worry anymore. The stress that had been pressing on them had finally broken down and the densely-gathered clouds disappeared. Their enthusiasms could not be dispersed even by the howling cold wind.

"This is probably the 'liberation' Roland mentioned," Tilly thought.

This was when Camilla Dary, the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island came into the house after knocking.

"Your Highness, I've completed the preliminary statistic for the witches who're willing to go to the Western Region," she said while sitting crossed-legged opposite of Tilly and she put a list down on the low table, "and almost half of them have signed up to help the Western Region."

"Really? It's better than I expected. You've done a good job." Tilly smiled and nodded while picking up the list to take a detailed look.

Regarding the relocation to the Western Region, Princess Tilly had told the witches that they could go to support the construction of the city of Neverwinter in order to withstand a greater catastrophe, which was the Battle of Divine Will.

In order to make sure everyone voluntarily made their choices, Tilly did not hide the facts about the witches' empires, the Union, and the demon. She had told everyone that the church was only part of the Union and that the real enemy of the human beings was the demons instead. They had no mercy or pity, so helping the Western Region was also helping themselves. Of course, she also made it clear that they could live a peaceful life on the island, if they did not want to leave.

She had initially thought that many sisters would decide to stay on Sleeping Island as they might be intimidated by the new enemies or they had become fed up of dealing with the common people or they had doubt about the uncertain future. However, the statistical results showed that nearly half of them had decided to help. The demons that they had never seen were far less scary than the church and the witches' wish for the broader outside-world had not extinguished.

"They're interested in Prince Roland who defeated the pope and wanted to see how the lord who eradicated the witches' enemy looks like." Camilla helplessly sighed. "And, most importantly, your elder brother also gained a lot of extra points for himself with this identity and they had transferred the same trust they have in you to him."

"You seem worried."

"Of course, he's a noble and a common person after all. He's fundamentally different from us... And, to be honest, blood sometimes can be a hurdle to the benefit." The chief butler frowned and said, "Your Highness, I'm neither questioning your decision nor saying that your brother is a hypocrite, but what if... I mean what if what he seeks is in contrary to the interests of the witches, and kill us like the other nobles?"

"I understand your concern, this decision was made after my repeated consideration." Tilly put down the list and held Camilla's hand. "The witches may be different from the common people but we all have the common goal under the threat of Battle of Divine Will which is to stay alive. Why don't we take this opportunity to integrate into the world while forming an integral community of interests with the common people rather than completely dodging it? As our abilities go deeper into all sectors, Roland can't leave the witch's power even if he regrets and wants to cancel the agreement with Sleeping Island."

"However... will he let go of his control on us?"

"Based on what happened in the past six months, Roland did not seem to impose any additional restrictions on the witches. Otherwise, the Witch Union in the Western Region would not be supporting him without holding back." Tilly smiled. "And, I believe in my instincts more than these general principles."

"Instinct?"

"Yeah... I don't think he'll do that," she slowly said while tapping the table.

Camilla hesitated and finally laughed as if she was surrendering. "Thinking about it now, your instincts are never wrong since I knew you."

"It'll be the same this time." Tilly smiled.

"I understand, Your Highness. I'll finish the preparatory work for the witches' relocation as soon as possible," the chief butler said with a hand covering her chest.

"Thank you."

Princess Tilly was clear that Camilla who was born as a noble had lost her confidence to the nobility as she had seen them stop at nothing to get powers and interests. However, she did not know that Tilly could feel that Roland was obviously not simply a traditional noble through her deeper contact developed with Roland. Roland treated everyone differently, not only the witches as compared to the nobility. She called him "brother", not because of the relationship between her and the previous Prince Roland, but she simply liked this kind of barrier-free and unbiased relationship.

When she talked to Roland, she could always feel relaxed and comfortable which she had not felt for a long time. She believed that the other witches also felt the same.

"Oh yeah, I recently heard some bad rumors." Camilla changed the subject.

"What's the rumor?"

"It's about the news you brought back. Some of them think that they should also imitate the Union and create an organization with witches as the superiors to regain the glory of their ancestors since the witches had once created a huge empire that rules all the common people."

"The source?" Tilly lifted her eyebrows and said, "Is it the witches from the Bloodfang Association?"

"No... they believe in loyalty to the strong. The Western Region could defeat the seemingly invincible enemies, and Iffy, Softfeathers, and Nightfall further confirmed them in this belief. The combat witches were the first to register to go to the city of Neverwinter." Camilla shook her head. "I've surveyed and the source should be some other witch organization."

The witches in Sleeping Island were a large aggregation which was similar to the Witch Cooperation Association in Seawindshire. There were a few scattered groups other than the Bloodfang Association. These groups were generally built to evade the church's arrests and to help each other before Tilly's appeal. However, they did not have the power of Bloodfang Association and they had rarely gossiped about her policies.

"I understand." She nodded.

"Do we need to talk to their leader?"

"No, let them be," Tilly said, "and they'll naturally understand that the Union has become history when they reach the Western Region. And, a completely new path is waiting for us."

Chapter 682 - A Never Lonely Road

After Camilla Dary left, Ashes stepped out of the study.

She sat on her knees on the rug, hands stretching out to Tilly, and said, "come here."

"I'm fine..."

"Don't pretend to be okay. There are no other people." Ashes interrupted her.

Tilly twitched her lips and finally moved her body. She thrust herself into Ashes' chest, back facing her.

Hearing the strong heartbeats of Ashes coming through her clothes like rhythmical drumbeats, Tilly felt calm and reassured.

"Thank you," Tilly said softly.

"Don't push yourself too hard. If we make a wrong decision, the worst scenario is that we go back to the Sleeping Island." Ashes gently smiled and said, "If you leave, I'm sure Roland Wimbledon won't stop you, for you have all the witches in the Witch Union backing you up." She paused for a while and continued, "besides, you don't need to speak so resolutely. In this way, you don't need to suffer such great pressure now."

Princess Tilly shook her head and said, "I must be convinced before persuading the other witches to trust me. If I'm somehow hesitant and confused, the decision will go nowhere."

Though she appeared to be very confident in the decision, she was still a little concerned. She was not worried about Roland. In fact, he had expressed his attitude when he had agreed to continue to use the Sleeping Spell to manage the immigrated witches. She was only concerned about two things. After living an exclusive life for nearly two years, could those 300 some witches smoothly fit in Neverwinter? When the Battle of Divine Will was over, would common people change their views about witches?

These were unknown risks and also the problems Tilly had to think about. In the eyes of the other witches, she looked very confident and spunky, but only several witches understood her concerns. After all, from now on, she had to bear responsibilities for over 300 witches, not just for herself. It could be said that all the witches on Sleeping Island felt more relaxed after the church was defeated, except her, for her responsibilities were even greater.

"Just do what you've thought." Ashes embraced her from her back. "The immigration won't start until the end of the next Months of Demons. If you still feel worried, you can spend the remaining months conducting a thorough investigation."

"Is the Charming Beauty ready to sail?"

"Anytime."

"Don't forget your textbooks and exercise book. You can learn some new knowledge on the way."

"Uhm...If I read books in the cabin, I'll be seasick."

"If you want to protect me, you have to become stronger than this. For example, you can try to be a legendary Transcendent... How can you be stronger without studying?"

Ashes mumbled agitatedly, "OK, ok, I got it."

"Don't worry. If there is something that you can't understand, you can ask me at any time. You should know that I have nothing to do on the ship."

"Yes, yes, yes. As you wish, Your Highness."

"Fortunately, I am not alone anymore." Tilly thought.

No matter what will happen to them afterward, someone would always accompany me.

"Yeah," Tilly replied her. She closed eyes and felt the warmth coming from her back. It felt like her heavy responsibilities were greatly reduced.

The wind was still chilling outside the windows while the inside was warm like in spring.

***************

To establish a Joint Chamber of Commerce was a complicated matter, for each treaty needed repeated amendments. Roland left it to Barov and Edith and then turned his attention to the winter operation plan.

Undoubtfully, Months of Demons of this year came much later than that of last year. Today was the last day of late fall, but there were no signs of snow, except for a grey sky outside the windows.

It was good news to Neverwinter. The later the Months of Demons came, the more residential buildings would be built by the construction team.

Based on the reports of City Hall, the Western Region was richer in all materials this year than past years, especially in grain. The Stronghold Area had yielded ten times higher grain than the average amount of the past years. Luckily, Petrov had built grain storages in time and half of the wheat was sent to the Border Area, as the stronghold could not house such a large amount of grain.

With enough grain, he felt more secured to do anything.

Besides, there was enough ammunition. After Anna had improved the new generation machine tool and processing machinery, they were first used to process and load bullets, so the productivity had enhanced a lot. At the same time, the shortage of bullets after the battle with the church was pretty much filled.

Due to the fact that he had enough grain and weapons, Roland could not help thinking of other plans.

The First Army took priorities to prevent demonic beasts and guard Neverwinter, but it seemed a waste to have thousands of soldiers all in the city. After all, most of demonic beasts would attack the big breach of Hermes while only a small part of separated beasts would attack one side of Misty Forest. Additionally, the firepower capability of the First Army was more than ten times stronger than that of last year. In such a case, some common demonic beasts could not even approach the city wall.

Besides, why he was eager to make other plans was that there were no rivals on the whole continent against the First Army, not even demonic beasts. When fighting against Duke Ryan, he had had to spare no efforts and used all guns and cannons. But now, he just needed to dispatch a team of 500 soldiers, and they could defeat all knightage who dared to directly confront them.

So when an army defended the city wall, he could also dispatch another unit to open a second battlefield. Was it possible to be a way of reducing the burden of next year's expedition?

Roland found it not a tricky question. As before when Months of Demons came, endless heavy snow completely blocked the entire Western Region. However, since Neverwinter had dozens of cement carriers, land transportation was no longer a problem. Further, the First Army could also utilize Redwater River to transport soldiers and materials to their destination.

As long as he made a good plan, Neverwinter could be totally capable of winning two battles at the same time. "Ah, it sounds somehow like a monopoly."

After receiving Hill's letter, Roland ordered the Nothern Region to be ready for a war. That was not a bluff. If the King of Dawn, Appen Moya, indeed neglected his warnings and arrested the messenger's party, he would have to change his plans and take the priority to force Appen to free them. However, a cross-border war required a considerable logistic support. If there were fewer soldiers, they could not continue fighting. Plus, Hermes Plateau which was guarded by the church would fall apart at any time. Therefore, it was not an appropriate time to declare a war to a neighboring country at this moment.

But luckily, the delegation arrived safe and sound, so he could target a place closer to the Western Region.

"Your Majesty, did you request to see me?"

As the door of the office was open, Iron Axe strode in.

"Are you interested in returning to your hometown in winter? If you go back now, it won't be so hot there yet." Roland spread out a very roughly-drawn map of the Graycastle and pointed to the bulging corner in the south. He smiled and asked, "I remember that both you and Echo come from the land of the desert?"

He wanted to conquer the Southernmost Region in winter, the habitat for Mojin Clan.

Chapter 683 - The Desert Plan

"Your Majesty, do you plan to go on an expedition of conquest to Southernmost Region?" Iron Axe's ever peaceful face showed a rare agitation. "But the Months of Demons are drawing near..."

"How many soldiers do you think should be left in Neverwinter to tackle the swarming demonic beasts?"

"Well..." Iron Axe deeply inhaled to suppress his agitation. "Judging from the number of demonic beasts from last year, 1,000 soldiers would be able to guard the city wall."

"So to be on the safe side, 2,500 soldiers would be sufficient to guard the city. Besides, a new round of recruitment has begun, which will safeguard Neverwinter," Roland said, and then walked to the French window, "so tell me about Southernmost Region. You should be the most familiar with the people there."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Iron Axe saluted. "Over a half of the land in the Southernmost Region is composed of yellow sand. Oases are scattered along the western side of the desert along Silver Stream. Over 90% of the Mojins live amongst those oases. There's a city built on top of the biggest oasis, which is also the only city in Southernmost Region—Iron Sand City."

"So Silver Stream is a river?"

"It could be counted as half a river." Iron Axe explained. "Most of it is buried underground, just like an underworld Styx's River; the parts that appear above the ground have formed oases. For this reason, the Mojins also call it the River of Life."

Roland turned around, asking curiously, "Where did it come from? Judging from the map, there were no high mountains or lakes near it."

"It originates from the sea, so it's a gift of the Sea God." Iron Axe walked to the desk and pointed at the juncture of the west of Southernmost Region and a piece of green land. "There's a huge limestone cave located here where the sea water constantly flows backward into. One could feel the trembling underneath the feet when standing on the ground."

"Do you mean Silver Stream originates from the sea? But it has bred oases."

Since it breeds oases, it means Silver Stream is freshwater—seawater contains too much salt, which makes it unsuitable for irrigation or drinking. So what Iron Axe said did not make sense.

"Mother Earth absorbed the salt in the seawater. White salt residue can be seen on the ground all over that area, which also isolated the grassland of the Kingdom of Graycastle. When people need salt, they only need to lift a bucket and scoop the salt from the ground."

"Is this the superb craftsmanship of nature? The dirt underneath the yellow sand filtered the salt and made the area into saline-alkali soil." Roland could not help but exclaim. It seemed that besides petroleum, now he had one more sort of resource to exploit.

"How many residents are there in Iron Sand City?"

"Around 40,000."

"Even more than the old king's city of Graycastle?"

"Your Majesty, the city of the Sand Nation is different from the king's city." Iron Axe smiled. "There's only one nuclear urban area which provides residence for the power-holders of the six clans. The surrounding areas are filled with tents or thatched cottages. After layers of extension, the city became the way you see it now—as soon as one steps onto the oasis, one enters the domain of Iron Sand City."

"Then how about the Mojins that live in other oases? There should be quite a few of them, right?" Roland asked. Human resource was the key to quickly convert the local specialty into a practical resource. But it was unlikely that he would send a lot of people from the city of Neverwinter to mine petroleum, so he had to rely on the locals to work for him.

The commander-in-chief nodded. "There are no statistics about it, but I think there are at least 100,000 residents."

Then I could build several mining stations and one pipeline, which should be enough. The next problem would be deciding how to control the residents.

"Well, last time you mentioned the holy duel. What was it about? How did the Mojins determine the right to rule?"

Iron Axe gave a very detailed reply to those questions. It took almost half an hour before Roland finally understood the Sand Nation's ruling structure and succession.

Putting aside the promotions within the clans, strength was the only thing that was considered trustworthy to those aliens who upheld force. The ruling parties in Iron Sand City were usually constituted by six clans who did not get their powers by inheriting but by fighting with strength. But in order to avoid the clans from losing too many of their own whilst pursuing power, which would consequently weaken their combined strength in the face of external danger, picking a few representatives to duel became their best choice.

Over time, this rule was universally acknowledged over the Sand Nation and was bestowed with a sacred meaning—the big clans which were stationed in Iron Sand City and the newly born small clans that lived in oases all respected the result of the holy duels. Anyone who tarnished the duels would be condemned by all the civilians of Sand Nation.

"Do you mean the prime rulers of the Mojins are the leaders of each clan?" Roland asked in confusion, "Don't you have a figure like the chief?"

"The chief?"

"I mean a leader who rules all the clans, someone like the King of the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Well..." Iron Axe hesitated. "Among the clans, they used to say that there were two ways that the Sand Nation civilians would obey willingly—one was to get the acknowledgment and blessing of the Three Gods. The other was to open up the unmeasured vastness of oases for the nation to eliminate the overwhelming sandstorm, so as to remove the threats of thirst and death for the Sand Nation."

"The acknowledgment of the Three Gods... How does that work?" Roland asked, frowning.

"In the Land of Fire, one is supposed to offer the sacrifices to the Three Gods who're the Giant Scorpion with Armor that governs the earth, the Unicorn Sea Beast that dominates Southernmost Cape, and the Four-winged Eagle that rules the sky." Iron Axe stopped for a while. "These three beasts appear and disappear mysteriously. They've taken numerous lives yet their dens remain oblivious to the humans. Baits and traps don't work on them—I assume they're some sort of hybrid demonic beasts which might have gained basic wisdom."

"Both ways aren't easy to achieve, especially the second one. To make an oasis out of a desert is almost like the power of God." Roland fell into a deep meditation. By making Echo the chief again as revenge for being framed five years ago won't help much with my integration of the entire Southernmost Region. Although the six clans have different social status, they don't have a direct affiliation, not to mention those Sand Nation civilians scattered in the oases. I have to find a way to make myself the Grand chief of the Mojin Clan.

Besides, I should also consider the way of the holy duel. The First Army probably could defeat the guards of Iron Sand City like smashing rotten wood, but to make the Sand Nation civilians submit to me willingly isn't that easy.

The most suitable way to annex would be by following the rules made by the Mojin Clan itself.

"Can an outsider be invited to attend the duel?"

"That's not a problem," Iron Axe replied with affirmation, "I'm a mixed-blood, but I could also attend a duel representing the Osha Clan. As a matter of fact, brave gladiators are usually well-liked by the big clans. This is also the only hope for the small clans to have a chance at climbing the ranks—if there are three or four brave warriors among their descendants, they have a better chance to get a good rank during the holy duels."

"Is that so?" Roland said with a smile, "That makes it easier."

Chapter 684 - The First Winter Snow

Three days later, namely the second day after winter arrived, Barov delivered the message that the Joint Chamber of Commerce contract had been successfully signed.

The result of the negotiation was that Margaret got the dealership of the inner land of the Kingdom of Graycastle; Sunset Island and Shallow Water Town got the dealership of their own lands, Kingdom of Everwinter, and the Kingdom of Wolfheart; Crescent Moon Bay got the dealership of the Fjords islands and the Kingdom of Dawn.

To Roland's surprise, he saw an equation on the contract, which set some conditions into unknown numbers that would be determined according to specific circumstances. In this way, the annual shares could be derived for that year.

"Who wrote this?" Roland asked with curiosity.

"My student," Barov smilingly replied while stroking his beard, "While summarizing the numbers, he found a complex annexed table which could be better expressed by this formula and all three parties agreed with its precision."

"But I remember such a formula wasn't covered by the universal education."

"Didn't Your Majesty start an intermediate class? I bought each of my students a set of maths textbooks and asked them to attend Lady Scroll's class whenever they had time." Barov exclaimed. "I'm too old to catch up with these young fellas at learning, so I had to leave this opportunity to them. If I were 10 years younger, I would carry these materials that Your Majesty wrote and study them all day."

Roland was very much pleased by this flattery. His minister must have had good foresight if he realized that maths could be helpful to finance and administration.

"How about Edith? How did she perform during this negotiation?"

"Just so-so." Barov coughed twice. "Although those merchants were fascinated by her, when it came to the specific trade terms, she clearly showed a deficiency in experience. I guess she had little contact with maritime merchants. After all, the commerce and trade in the Northern Region are underdeveloped, unlike the old king's city where the Treasurer had to attend to visiting the Fjords merchants every day. There was a time..."

"I see." Noticing Barov was starting to reminisce, Roland immediately interrupted him. "Since that's the case, please put more effort into teaching her."

The old minister was startled. "Um, this... Your Majesty, actually she's..."

"It's decided," Roland said gloatingly. Judging from the frequency that Nightingale pinched the back of his shoulder, he knew that Barov was not telling the truth. But he did not meddle with such little snitching tricks among his subordinates, as long as they did not screw things up. "Well, what's the increase in population in Neverwinter? Has it reached our expectation?"

Although there was about one month before the end of the year, since the winter had come, the immigrant emissaries would gradually return to Neverwinter so it led to a drastic reduction of people moving away. The current figure would already determine whether the goal of population increase had been realized.

Once this was mentioned, Barov's face expanded into a smile. The wrinkles on his face were almost squeezed into ravines and the awkwardness also vanished into thin air. "Your Majesty, City Hall has made a calculation. The subjects that immigrated from other places exceeded 80,000, with 50% of them coming voluntarily. If we include the natives of the Border Area and the Longsong Area, the population in Neverwinter has now reached 110,000."

"Oh?" Roland was elated. "50% of them came voluntarily?"

"Most of them were from the center area of the kingdom and the Eastern Region. It was not obvious in spring and summer, but in autumn this percentage began to increase. At this rate, those Rebels who supported Timothy will become anxious next year."

This must have been a result of Theo spreading the message of the church's defeat in the Eastern Region, but yet Roland had hoped that those nobles would resist longer. He was looking for an excuse to eradicate them altogether so as to give the Eastern Region subjects a stable and orderly new kingdom.

"Have you made preparations for winter?"

"Yes, City Hall completed preparations two months ago," Barov replied with complete confidence, "The Ministry of Construction had entrusted Miss Lotus to build a batch of cave dwellings between the Impassable Mountain Range and Redwater River, in replacement of the air-leak shanties. We've also hoarded a large volume of charcoal to ensure every civilian gets one basket."

After Roland's repeated emphasis, City Hall had finally gotten used to the slogan of "no one freezes or starves to death" as their administrative goal and implementing it to every policy.

Roland nodded with gratification and said, "Good. Please pass my word to Scroll and tell her not to forget about education during winter."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Besides, I plan to wage a minor scale war on the premise, obviously without affecting the normal operation of Neverwinter. My target is the Southernmost Region. When Iron Axe has done the specific battle plan, please coordinate with him to assemble the supplies." Looking at Barov who was hesitating about replying, Roland walked to him and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. I've everything under control."

…

After Barov left, Nightingale showed herself. She asked with bewilderment, "Are you sure this is alright? What he said about Edith was clearly far from reality. One doesn't have to use magic power to figure that out."

"But if I criticize him for that, he may never dare to suppress Edith openly again," Roland said with his hands laid out, "In order to maintain the balance in City Hall, there has to be someone who can restrain the Pearl of the Northern Region. As far as I know, Barov is the only one capable of that."

"But why do you want to restrain her? If she has the capability of managing City Hall, it wouldn't do you any harm."

"Because..." Roland opened his mouth but did not know what to say.

Right, why would I want Edith to be restrained?

Am I worried about her getting too strong?

That's highly unlikely. As long as I'm the king, I could get her replaced with one word. Besides, City Hall isn't allowed to interfere with the army, so even if she controlled all the departments of City Hall, she would still not pose a threat to my throne.

As a matter of fact, since all the employees in City Hall were selected according to the recruitment notices and paid by the treasury, the possible influence caused by replacing a manager would be minimized.

Am I worried that she would go behind everybody's back to falsify my policies?

At least it would not happen in Neverwinter because all the comments on his policies would reach Roland's ears. And since the city's area was limited, messages traveled in real-time.

Before he arrived in this world, check-and-balance was the method that he hated the most. Especially in his workplace, his boss regarded it as the Monarchy trickery, and thus he viewed his boss with contempt. But when he came to power, he began to realize its importance... If Nightingale had not reminded him, maybe he would have become the kind of person that he hated the most.

Indeed, check-and-balance was needed but it should not be achieved by playing the game of powers with another person or several other persons. Instead, it should be regulated by policies, structure and laws. Without violating any of these frameworks, an employee should be encouraged to put his or her ability into full play.

Roland let out a deep breath and curled his lips. He was about to thank Nightingale for her reminder when he realized she was staring outside of the window wholeheartedly.

"Look, it's snowing." She whispered.

Roland looked over and found that countless white flakes silently appeared from the gray sky and slowly descended as soft-footed elves.

The Months of Demons had begun.

Chapter 685 - Overwhelming Disaster

Underground Pivotal Secret Temple, the Holy City of Hermes

Tayfun had not slept well for over two consecutive months.

Every time he closed his eyes, the screams of Ayr Archbishop would reverberate in his ears. She had got shot in her stomach by the enemy's weapon and been dragged back by the Judgement Army. All her intestines had been in a mess, and no herbal treatment in the holy city had been able to cure her wound. After two days' struggle, she had finally died in great pain.

Tayfun had become skeptical about the Graycastle's real power when the church's spearhead led by Soli Daal had suffered a sharp defeat. He had repeatedly suggested His Holiness Mayne think twice and do more investigation before the action, but the Pope had remained unmoved and ordered the church's main force to immediately launch an attack against the defense line of Graycastle at the foot of Coldwind Ridge.

He had expected that the church was going to pay a price for this hasty decision, but he had never thought that it would be such a terrible price.

More unexpectedly, the church's elite troop, the invincible God's Punishment Army had also been defeated.

The moment he had heard this unbelievable news, he had coughed out blood and passed out on the top floor of the Tower of Babel.

He had found out more inconceivable things after that.

None of the Pure Witches had come back and His Holiness Mayne had been no where to be found after the war. Not until he had taken a bold decision to break into the Pivotal Secret Area had he known the truth from the guards there.

They had told him that Mayne was not the real successor of His Holiness O'Brien and the one who had received scepter and crown from the previous Pope was Pure Witch Zero.

Given that, the Holy City had even lost the Pope at that moment.

Under such circumstances, the only thing that Tayfun had been able to do was to keep this secret underground forever. He had made all the people who had come down here with him join the Pivotal Secret Temple. He himself had started to serve as the Pope temporarily.

In the following month, Tayfun had spent all his time on restoring the order of the Holy City and reading the secret history stored in the Library.

His reading had enabled him to know all the truth, including the secret reasons for hunting and killing witches, the creation of God's Punishment Warriors, the origin of the church and the collapse of the witches' empire.

These records had overthrown his worldview.

He had never thought even in his wildest dreams that the church had been built by witches.

Such a powerful witch empire ruling the whole Barbarian Land still failed to eliminate the demons. What about the church? The God's Punishment Army and the Sigils of Magic Stones we treasure are nothing but a legacy of those exiled ancient witches.

Tortured by these unsettling thoughts, he had quickly fallen into a torpor. After two months which had seemed like two years to him, his face had become heavily wrinkled like the old Bishop and his movement slow like a dying man.

However, knowing that if he fell down now, the church would be finished, he had kept on working and refused to stop.

He had promoted many soldiers of the reserve force as Judgement Warriors and chosen new Archbishops from middle-ranking believers at the fastest speed. He had called on his people to defend the Holy City to the last man, stabilizing the situation at a very difficult time.

However, he himself was clear about all the troubles behind the stable facade. Nothing could rapidly compensate for the loss of the God's Punishment Army. The young soldiers from the reserve force could hardly compete with the experienced warriors in terms of fighting capacity. If it was during peace-time, he would get a chance to make up for the loss; but now Months of Demons were approaching, if he could not stop demonic beasts, the church would have no future.

To survive the coming Months of Demons, he planned to assemble all the nobles' troops in Wolfheart and in Everwinter to defend the Holy City in the same way the Four Kingdoms had jointly defended on the Hermes defense line before.

He expected that it would not be an easy thing. When those nobles who still kept their domains and knights got the news about the church's defeat, they would probably plan to fight against the church again. Given that, after most of the Graycastle's army left the Northern Region, he sent out the remaining God's Punishment Army of over 100 soldiers in the Holy City to the kingdoms with the emissary delegations as a means of forcing the nobles to obey his orders.

After those God's Punishment Warriors left, both the old and new Holy Cities' defense was weak as never before.

Now, Tayfun had no choice but to pray that the emissary delegations would bring Hermes reinforcements before demonic beasts started to attack.

He rubbed his sore eyes and closed the ancient book about the incarnation ceremony of God's Punishment Warriors. When he was about to make himself some coltsfoot tea to relieve his headache, he heard an outburst of fighting sounds.

Trembling with shock, he dropped his teacup and smashed it into the ground.

How come invaders could get here?

With this question in mind, he walked to the window and looked down. In the dim light of the prism of magic stone, he saw a crowd of people continue to move toward Pivotal Secret Temple.

They were incredibly fast and killed every guard who came up to stop them with only one strike. The guards' armors seemed completely useless in protecting them from the invaders' blades. Soon, the grayish-white steps were covered with blood and the invaders arrived at the gate of the temple in the blink of an eye.

At this moment, he heard a loud bang on the door. A Praetorian Guard rushed in and said to him, "Your Eminence, Pivotal Secret Temple is under attack. Please leave right now!" This guard was the Pope' bodyguard. He was followed by a dozen God's Punishment Warriors.

Tayfun shouted in a hoarse voice, "how did they get in here?"

He could not believe what he saw. "To come down to this underground area, they've got to take the cage or get through the secret stronghold of the old Holy City. Nobody, even the soldiers of the Graycastle, can unobtrusively capture both the old and the new Holy Cities and control the entrances to this place unless they have wings!"

The Praetorian Guard looked pale. "The enemies are from the depths of the cave. Please, Your Eminence, come with me immediately. Otherwise, it'll be too late."

"The depths of... the cave?" Tayfun echoed in disbelief, as he knew that place had nothing except some circular holes.

Shocked and puzzled, he followed the Praetorian Guard to a secret tunnel along the wall and quickly got to the bottom floor of the temple.

The Praetorian Guard opened a stone trapdoor at a corner and said to him, "Your Eminence, as no one guards the cage, it may not be a safe passage now. I'll escort you to the tunnel leading to the old Holy City. Please take more people here to defend the Pivotal Secret Temple as soon as possible."

When he got of the tunnel, his heart sank to the bottom.

A dozen invaders already waited there with their swords, seeming to have known they would come out from there.

A man came up and said, "I thought I would never get a chance to set foot in the Holy City again. The successors of the Queen of Starfall City are nothing more than this." He wore strange-looking armors which looked like a stack of sheetmetal and carried a sword whose blade was stained with black-blue blood.

When Tayfun fixed his eyes on the man's face, all his blood froze in a second.

He had seen this man before.

"He's Ellington, the Chief Justice of the Sixth Legion's advance force. This brave man volunteered to join God's Punishment Army three years ago. Before he went to his incarnation ceremony, he came to say goodbye to me," Tayfun recalled.

He felt that a strange chillness crept up through his spine and burrowed into his head. Terror seized him and made it hard for him to move his tongue.

"Wh-What... monsters... are you?"

Chapter 686 - The Legacy of Deities

The man who looked like Ellington sneered, "Monster? Isn't this body created by you? You made this kind of extraordinary warrior with the witches' blood and God's Stones of Retaliation, but unfortunately, they were defective. Because of the lack of key steps, they don't have souls, but you still placed great hope on them. You believe these soulless semi-finished products can compete with demons on the battlefields, but now when you see a real finished product you call it a 'monster'?"

"A real... finished product?" Tayfun's heart began to thump, as he found this man seemed to know better than himself the process of creating God's Punishment Army, a top secret of the church.

"All-out attack, kill them all!" the Praetorian Guard ordered.

The ten God's Punishment Warriors following him quickly came to the front to protect the Archbishop. They moved incredibly fast, lunging at the invaders.

However, these invaders were also God's Punishment Warriors and even stronger than them.

They did not outnumber the church's warriors, but they fought much more skillfully. They lured them close and broke them apart. Every time one of the church's warriors was fighting against someone in front of him, he would soon get attacked from behind. Under such circumstances, even Tayfun could tell it was better to retreat. However, a church's warrior would not know how to react unless his controller, the Praetorian Guard, gave him further orders. Controlling 10 warriors at the same time, the guard was unable to take care of every situation in this fight, so the church's warriors were clearly at a disadvantage to the invaders who were equally strong but could act independently.

These extraordinary warriors of the church soon lost their combat capability when they were separated.

The invaders quickly killed them all without any casualties.

The leader of the invaders, "Ellington", easily hacked the Praetorian Guard to death at the end of the fight. After that, he lifted his sword and put it on the old Bishop's shoulder, who was standing petrified with shock.

The black-blue blood of the church's God's Punishment Warriors and the red blood of the Praetorian Guard mixed on the blade and dripped into Tayfun's collar.

Tayfun said with a trembling voice, "You... can't kill me. If I die, the Holy City will collapse... When that happens, who will stop the demonic beasts? If they break through the defense line of Hermes, I'm afraid the four kingdoms will fall into—"

The leader of the invaders interrupted, "Fall into ruins? Save it. You can deceive ignorant believers with this story, but we know what those demonic beasts are looking for. If it was not you that brought them here, why would those dumb beasts swarm to this trap of ice and snow during Months of Demons when the magic power is at its peak every year?"

"What... I don't understand what you mean..."

This leader looking like Ellington shrugged and said, "What? It seems that you've not even seen the relic. What a pity."

The bishop was about to say something, but suddenly he felt cold in his neck. Soon endless torpor and coldness occupied his mind.

***************

Elena kicked the old man's head up, sending it flying and saw his body slowly fall down to the ground. She took back her sword in satisfaction and said, "Let's go. Time to finish our task."

Someone pulled her back from behind, saying, "Wait, you're hurt. Stop the bleeding first, or your body will get out of control."

"Where's the wound?"

"In your waist. You've got to take off the armors first."

Elena cursed, "This damn body. It doesn't feel a thing at all." She took off her chest and back armors, revealing a well-built upper body.

"Gee, look at this. It would cost at least fifty gold royals back in Taquila. To be honest, have you ever looked into the mirror and..."

The one who was treating Elena's wound interrupted, "Come on, Betty. Isn't that kind of fantasies like torture for us? I don't even dare to recall the days in Taquila. As compared to the life in the past, my life now resembles being imprisoned in a cage of endless void."

Someone immediately agreed with her, saying, "Carol is right. If someone can make me feel what it's like to sleep with a man again, I'll give anything to marry him... No, I'll even treat him as my lord."

"A man? Come on. I'll be satisfied if I can eat delicious fried steak with butter again."

"I just want to do some sunbathing..."

"Damn it, who brought up this subject?"

"Miss Betty."

"I just wanted to make some casual conversations. This is the body I wanted to have in the first place..."

Elena got a little upset and shouted, "Stop it! Don't forget the purpose of our trip! The others were still waiting for us at the top of the tower. Concentrate your mind!"

She led the team into the secret tunnel after Carol finished treating the wound.

They got up to the library through the tunnel. Another group of witches looking like God's Punishment Warriors were waiting there.

These witches were the remaining members of the Union.

Elena sighed in her heart,"Lady Natalya, have you seen? We win in the end."

She asked, "Have you found the location of the relic?"

Zooey, the leader of the other team, came up and said, "The old place. Everything is arranged in the same way as that in the Holy City of Taquila. By the way, why did you spend so much time down there? Are you sure that you didn't let go of a person?

Elena coughed twice and said, "Of course, everything went well, so by agreement..."

"We'll touch the relic together."

She nodded, saying, "That's it. Let's get started."

This relic, the deities' legacy, was the origin of Battles of Divine Will and the top secret of the Union. In fact, before the collapse of the witches' empire, none of them had known about it. When the old order had disintegrated and they had hidden underground, all the survivors like them had finally heard it from the Three Chiefs.

From then on, they had become equals and formed a classless group searching for the way of defeating demons, as they had been clear that each and every survivor of the Union would have been equally important in this process.

Thinking that she was going to touch an object created by deities, Elena felt her heart was beating faster.

However, she knew it was just an illusion, as she could feel nothing in this body.

Following Zooey, she walked through a trapdoor behind a book shelf and got up to the top of the library.

Up there, she saw a narrow room without a window, which had nothing inside except a Magic Stone giving out the dim blue light above her head.

"Is this the Prayer Room mentioned by Pasha?"

"Yes." Zooey lifted up an iron hammer and smashed it against the wall. With a dull thud, it left only a small white spot on the wall.

"It doesn't seem to be here," she said and chose another position to hammer. After several attempts, the wall area opposite to the entrance cracked.

"Find it! Come here to help me," Zooey said.

Elena drew out her long sword and came up. They struck at the wall together and soon opened a gap which was half their height.

Looking at the gap, they found that the broken wall was almost as thick as half an arm's length and both sides of the wall were brushed with a thick layer of mortar. Given that, they could never find this section of hollow wall simply by knocking at the walls and listening to the knocking sound. Looking through the gap, they found an even smaller secret chamber instead of another passage leading to the underground.

In this chamber, Elena saw the relic of deities.

Chapter 687 - The Secret of the Relic

The relic was a piece of transparent carmine crystal. Similar to the magic core in the maze ruins, it was also a spindle apparatus, but it was much smaller, only half a man's height.

When Elena stepped into the chamber, however, it looked different. Its smooth spherical surface changed into a sharp right angle. From above, it seemed to be a quarter a sphere.

It stayed afloat by itself in the air as the magic core did, which proved it was uncommon.

"Is this the thing that determines the fate of the mankind?" Elena thought.

She was filled with doubts and at the same time felt a little irritated about the deities.

According to Pasha, no one knew how it had appeared in this world, but the moment it had come, it had been bound to the fate of human beings. If the mankind loses it, all people including witches and the common people would die in an instant. In order to protect the relic, countless people had fought bloody battles against demons and died on the battlefield. Seeing the suffering of the mankind, deities, however, had never given people any instruction. They just kept watching what was happening in silence, waiting for the ultimate winner.

Elena felt disgusted at this game.

At this moment, Zooey asked her, "Are you ready? Remember what Pasha said to us? Control our minds and never try to connect with the deities when moving the relic."

Elena replied with a nod, "Don't worry. I remember. I'll count to three and then we'll move it together?"

Zooey gestured a "yes".

"One, two, three." They lifted the relic while moving outward. It could float in the air, but was not as light as a feather. With a strong body of a God's Punishment Warrior, Elena still felt it very heavy on her arm when she lifted it. It was exhausting.

If Pasha had never told her the truth about this feeling, she would have been thinking that it's her senses long time forgotten coming back to her after hundreds of years.

This "sense of fatigue" was mental.

The relic attempted to connect with them.

Elena shook her head, trying to banish those thoughts, but suddenly she remembered that she should not empty her mind. Given that, she thought she had better think about something during this process.

What should I think now? A man... or tasty food... or a soft bed?

A voice got into her mind all of a sudden. "What you want is feelings, comfort, happiness, pains, coldness, hotness, and so on. I can give them to you. Relax and look at me..."

"What to look at? No, no!" Elena's eyes widened in surprise. "Who's talking? Is it the relic?"

She turned to look at Zooey and found her eyes dull. Now she seemed like an empty shell without a soul.

"Damn it, what's going on? Pasha didn't tell us that something like this would happen!" Elena thought anxiously.

The voice in her head started again. "Don't worry, she just follows her own heart and integrates into me."

'Let her out!"

"I can't. You must come in to take her out..." The voice in her head started to change, from a raucous sound to a soft female voice. For a moment, she could not tell whether she was communicating with the relic or with herself.

"Get in to take her out?"

At this moment, Pasha's warning flashed across her mind.

"Never try to connect with the deities."

But she could not just stand by seeing Zooey lose her mind. A shell without a soul would die soon. Given that, she decided to pull Zooey out of the relic first.

"I just need to look at the relic?" she wondered.

She took a deep breath and then looked at the carmine crystal.

She saw it distorting, and then darkness possessed her. When she started to see things again, she found she was in a totally different world.

It was an incredibly lofty and spacious hall. Its dome was the scene of a starry sky with a Bloody Moon in it. She could see magic power flowing on the surface of the Bloody Moon like boiling lava, and then four giant paintings silently draped and surrounded her.

The hall, the Bloody Moon and the paintings filled her with awe beyond description. She had only heard about this world from Pasha. This was the first time for her to witness such an unbelievable scene.

"Zooey! Where are you?" she shouted.

But no one answered.

The paintings were the only things in the hall now.

She forced herself to calm down and look at the paintings.

Immediately after she cast a glance at them, she felt her back was covered with cold sweats, as she found they were looking back at her at the same time.

In the first painting, she saw a demon wearing fine armors stood up from its throne. Its pupils were giving out dreadful red light, and it was moving toward her step by step.

In the second painting, she saw a giant eye, in which there were many pupils arraying in a triangle shape in the eyeball. They opened at the same time like giant mouths that were going to devour people up.

She could not help moving backward, but she still encouraged herself in silence,"Don't panic. They are just moving pictures."

However, she lost her composure in just a few seconds.

All of a sudden, six or seven black tentacles which had small hands at the end poked out from those two paintings, trying to grab her.

Too frightened to react, she was caught by them.

Each group of tentacles tried their best to pull her into their own painting, not wanting to give her to the other group as if she were a rare trophy. Hung between the two painting, she felt she was going to be torn apart. The unbearable pain made her scream.

Wait... I feel the pain?

At this moment, she was shocked to find her appearance had changed back to a witch again.

So the last feeling I get before death is the pain of being torn apart. That's alright... at least, I won't die in an empty shell, in a God's Punishment Warrior's body. Her consciousness slowly escaped her as the pain increased.

Before she blacked out, she found something strange in another painting.

She saw that the God's Punishment Warrior shell she had was lying on the ground with twitching limbs, and Zooey was holding her legs and dragging her toward a trap door.

She wondered, "What's going on? Didn't that silly girl merge with the relic?"

Right at the moment, the hall collapsed instantly. The Bloody Moon, the paintings, the tentacles and her pain all disappeared in a sudden. She blinked her eyes and found she was in the library again.

"Is that a... dream?" she murmured.

Zooey gnashed her teeth and said, "What dream? You really disappointed me. Remember what Pasha told you? Never try to connect with the deities! I reminded you before we moved the relic!"

"But I saw you lose your mind..."

Zooey interrupted impatiently, "And I saw you being swallowed by the relic. It was nothing but an illusion created by the deities! If I didn't pull you out, you would stay inside forever."

Thinking of the powerful tentacles, the demon and the giant eye in the paintings, Elena found it hard to believe they were just illusions. She still felt uncertain. Since Pasha had never personally experienced the relic, it was reasonable that she had not reminded her of those illusions. However, based on what she had experienced just now in the relic, it was not an illusion at all, as the things in the painting had noticed her the moment she had glanced at them.

Betty interrupted, "Sorry, I don't mean to butt in, but what should we do next?"

Zooey glanced at Elena again and said, "Someone else needs to come here to help me move the relic out. The Prayer Room has been broken in. We've got to put the relic into the God's Stone box as soon as possible, otherwise, those demonic beasts will follow us to the underground caves."

Chapter 688 - Arrival at the Western Region

...

After nearly half a month, the ship finally reached the Western Region.

The north wind became much stronger after they sailed past Willow Town. Lying in the cabin of the ship, No. 76 could still hear the sound of the sail fluttering in the strong wind.

"It's snowing outside!"

Amy excitedly ran into the cabin with some snow in her cupped hands, but before she showed it to No. 76, it had melted into shimmering water drops and dripped through her fingers. "Everything outside is white. I've never seen such a big snow."

No. 76 struggled to sit up in her soft bed and said, "really? It seldom snows in the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn."

Meanwhile, she thought to herself, "but it wasn't a rare thing for Taquila. Every year in Months of Demons, we needed to clean up the snow repeatedly, which was pretty tiresome; but fortunately, the demons would postpone their attack during this period of time, making this white scenery more adorable."

Amy said with a big smile, her eyes in the shape of a crescent moon, "I know. The city of Glow is warm as spring all the year round. Do you want to go to the deck to have a look? I can carry you out."

"Stop it. Her wounds haven't recovered yet. She can't stand cold winds," Broken Sword interrupted, who was decocting some medicinal herbs aside.

"Oh... sorry."

No. 76 shook her head and said, "it's fine. What about enjoying the snow together when I recover? His Majesty's city is more on the west side than here. We are going to see more beautiful snow scenes there."

Hearing this, the two witches by her bed looked sad, but Amy quickly dispelled her sadness and nodded to No. 76 vigorously. "No problem. I promise."

No. 76 was not surprised seeing them feel sad for her. As she had a God's Punishment Warrior's body, all the superficial wounds she got would heal in three or four days. In order to cover up her identity, she had smashed her own thighbones and elbow to prevent this body from having a perfect recovery. By doing so, she made the others believe that it was lucky enough for her to survive. They all thought that if she failed to meet a witch who could heal her in the Western Region, she would not be able to move around by herself and spend the rest of her life suffering from physical disability and mental distress.

They had no idea that this body was merely a tool to complete a mission for No. 76, and as soon as she went back to her underground maze , she would get a new one. Facts proved that the story she had made up was very convincing. She could tell from Annie's eyes and actions that she felt guilty seeing her seriously injured, and the other witches all showed trust and gratitude to her, especially Amy. Since they had escaped from the "Black Money" together, this little girl had taken her as a companion and almost followed her everywhere. Every night, she would come to No. 76 and coax her to sleep by telling her folktales in a soft voice.

However, every time this little girl would fall asleep before No. 76 did.

No. 76 was satisfied seeing this result, as she needed the witches' trust. In this way, she would get to know more witches and find out the Chosen One, which was the mission Pasha had given her.

Broken Sword walked to her bed with an earthen jar in her hands, saying, "time to change your wound dressing. You may feel a little pain, so it's better to close your eyes."

"Don't worry. I can take it. You can start now." No. 76 pretended to be suffering from a great pain by clenching her teeth, but in order to react properly, she did not close her eyes. As she had no feelings, if she did not look at it, she would never know whether Broken Sword began to dress her wound or not.

The herbal medicine out of the jar looked like sticky mud. From the looks on the faces of Amy and Broken Sword, she knew it must smell bad.

Applying the stuff all over her wounds in such a tightly enclosed small cabin was not an easy task for the witches.

After the treatment was finally done, No. 76 heaved a sigh of relief and lay back in her bed, sweating.

She had quickened her heartbeat to raise her body temperature and speed her blood flow, making herself break into a sweat. Together with her trembling limbs and facial expressions of pain, she made everyone believe that she was suffering.

She did not care at all whether this common people's remedy would work for her wounds or not.

After a long while, she said, "thank you."

Amy picked up a towel to wipe the sweat on her forehead, saying, "no, don't say that. This is what we owe you. We are the ones who should say thank you."

Broken Sword added, "Amy is right. Have a good rest. When we arrive at Neverwinter, everything will be all right."

When they left, No. 76 touched the magic stone ring on her chest, which she had hid under her clothes, and slightly sighed, lost in thoughts.

Only when we find the the Chosen One, everything will really be all right.

If we fail to defeat demons, all of us will die. No one can escape from the predestined war, the upcoming Battle of Divine Will.

However, until now we still have no idea whether the Chosen One exists or not.

In accordance with the descriptions in the remaining documents in the maze ruins, magic power was a gift bestowed on uncommon people by the deities. Everyone who could use it must have a Key to unlock the Source of Magic Power. That was why only a few could use this prevailing power.

More importantly, each Key was different.

Some witches were extremely powerful, who could summon strong storms or make the dead come back to life, but some were only able to use their power to cook a bowl of oatmeal or mend broken clothes.

What caused such great differences among the Awakened?

This question had baffled the Union for hundreds of years until the remaining witches of the Union had found the documents in the maze ruins. By studying those records, they had found a vague explanation for this phenomenon.

The differences in the witches' abilities and power were caused by the differences between their Keys.

A Key had nothing to do with a witch's magic capacity but was closely related to the essence of the magic power. Every time a witch used her ability, she would turn part of the magic power into reality. As this was an extremely complicated process which could not be completed by the witch alone. The deities would also take part in it.

However, as the deities had a preference for some witches, the Keys varied in terms of how complex the processes were. Some were very simple, but some were exceptionally complicated. A Key's complexity determined the upper limit of the amount of magic power a witch could use.

No. 76 had not quite understood this explanation until Pasha had given her an example, the Magic Stones. A witch could use them to realize various magic effects without any change in her own Magic Cyclone. That meant the magic power used by different witches who had various abilities was actually the same thing. No matter she was an Extraordinary or a Senior Witches, she used the same power.

If that was the case, would it be possible that witches had a chance to prevail demons when there was an omniscient Magic Stone that could enable witches to realize any effect they wanted?

A magic core worked just like this. It mimicked the workings of a Magic Cyclone, trying to ask for power from the deities directly. In some sense, it could be considered as an extremely powerful man-made Magic Stone, way stronger than the Sigils, simple and crude toys as compared to a magic core, which could only increase a witch's power. However, experiment results showed that deities would never give a Key to a lifeless thing. Only a witch who had a matching Key could activate this thing.

Such a witch was the Chosen One.

Chapter 689 - First Contact

Using this colorful magic stone ring, No. 76 could observe the "dialogue" a witch had with God as she performed magic.

This dialogue appeared as a pale orange light which connected the witch with the vast sky.

According to the documented records, demons and some hybrid demonic beasts could produce the same type of orange light.

God did not show tender care for the world.

Every time she thought about this, she became worried.

When compared to the innumerable demons, the witches were not as powerful a nation. Their powers could not be inherited and also could not be cultivated. The only way of awakening a witch's power was luck. Moreover, their magic powers were weaker than that of the enemies.

Fortunately, the Key was not a predestined thing.

They could change the Key through a High Awakening. By doing this, they could receive a more powerful force through God.

Since leaving the Kingdom of Dawn, No.76 had observed the orange lights of Amy, Annie, and Hero. Hero was the strongest of them, while Annie was the weakest. However, in general, the differences between the three was negligible. They were all about the same size, the width of a finger, and they were all far away from the request of starting the Instrument of Divine Retribution.

She had reasons to believe that a Senior Witch was the Chosen One.

The cabin door opened suddenly and Yorko, the Ambassador of Graycastle, entered. He arched his eyebrows, went to the bedside and said, "The smell of this herb is more nauseating than the latrine. Why would someone use such a malodorous thing in medicine?"

"Maybe the sailors thought that the demonic plague could be cured by its pungent smell," No.76 said as she smiled smugly. "Regardless, my body feels better and my wound is just a scar now."

Of course, this had nothing to do with the medicine, rather, it depended on the individual bodies of the wonderful God's Punishment Army.

"If it's useless, I'm going to absolutely put their heads into the latrine. So they can become familiar with the smell of this medicine." Yorko chose a bench and sat down.

"Those poor sailors," she whispered. "Amy told me that you asked them if they had any special prescriptions."

"Ahem. Lying to a noble is a grave crime and they can only blame themselves," the ambassador said. "If you can't get a real answer, just tell them to drink it with hot water and honey. Even if it doesn't cure their wound, they will still leave smiling and satisfied. Oh... I'm not referring to you!"

No.76 smiled with abandon. During the long boat trip, Yoko visited her at least once a day. The visits were short, but they always had a nice talk. She thought that perhaps Yorko was an average person, but when he spent time with a woman, he was more humorous than many of the other nobles. Even if they were in Taquila, he would have become famous. After she lost most of her senses, verbal communication had become one of the most pleasant ways to pass the time.

After chatting for a while, the ambassador unusually became quiet.

No.76 thought for a moment before she propped up her body with one hand and tentatively asked, "Sir, do you need me to serve you? Although my body is inflexible…"

"I've said it many times before, you aren't my maid. Don't use the word 'serve' every time you meet with others. You're a free person in Graycastle now, understand?" He held his forehead and said, "You're still wounded and I'm not one of those upper nobles who have a morbid addiction."

"So, you just want to talk with me?"

After hearing that, Yorko's facial expression changed a little. He cleared his throat and said, "Er… Actually, I have a question to ask you. After you arrive at King's City, what do you plan to do?"

"Er… Go to a tavern and become a maid? Maybe work at the gambling house, that would also be OK." No.76 tilted her head as she said, "That is if the witch can finally cure my body."

If she could stay in Neverwinter, she would be able to do anything. She had gained the trust of the witches of the Kingdom of Dawn, so she would finally get a chance to become familiar with other members of the Witch Union.

"You should do something else," Yorko dissuaded her, "since you are free, you should try something new."

"How? The 'Black Money' only taught me how to serve men. Although I wanted to become a guard, my repaired limb won't be as flexible as before."

"The people from Neverwinter will teach you. I heard from His Majesty that his kingdom provides everyone with formal work." Yorko said, before pausing... "If you meet with any difficulties in the future, you can come to me at any time, as long as I haven't left."

"Did he hesitate for so long time, only to say these words to me" No.76 couldn't help feeling a little emotional. When she was in the Kingdom of Dawn, she clearly saw how troubled a person he is. Perhaps making a promise like this was difficult for him.

"Um… I'll try." She lowered her head before saying, "Thank you!"

...

After four days had passed, the sailors brought good news. They had finally reached the new city in the western region of Graycastle— Neverwinter.

The witches all gathered in No.76's room, they were anxious and waiting for their next order. Among them all, Annie was the most anxious. She opened the window and glanced at the dock every now and then. If she found something worrisome, she would get everyone to jump into the cold river without thinking.

But, No.76 felt it was too noisy, the loud bugle was incessant and the river continually lashed the side of the ship and there were like a thousand other boats floating around them.

"It's the Months of Demons now. Even though it is summer, how is the dock so busy?"

However, she couldn't move, so she couldn't see the scene outside her window.

"Where are the sails on these boats, Sister Annie?" Amy was asked in astonishment.

"Maybe the sailors are rowing under the deck." Annie suddenly stopped and leaned against the window, "Be quiet! Someone is coming!"

Broken Sword felt anxious and asked, "How many people are out there?"

"Only four people, I don't think they noticed us." Annie knitted her brow, "And… they're all women."

"They're all witches?" Amy stood up suddenly, "I knew that Mr. Ambassador hadn't lied to us!"

"The members of the Bloodfang Association are all witches, but they aren't the same as us," she said in a low voice, "essentially, just follow my non-verbal orders like before."

"OK!" Everyone nodded.

Soon someone knocked on the door and the four girls entered the room. The leader was a red-haired lady. "Welcome to Neverwinter, sisters!" she said with a smile.

Annie was astonished, she hadn't thought they would be so friendly. Even No.76 looked surprised. Although in Taquila the witches were abundant, they were not friendly enough to welcome a newly awakened witch… "Do they even differentiate the witches abilities?"

The fact a combat witch could be compared to a non-combat witch was an unrespectable thing.

At that moment, No.76 suddenly found a blonde-haired girl looking directly at her. Her beautiful smile confirmed her identity and her sharp eyes seemed to see through them all.

Chapter 690 - Witches vs. Witches

No. 76 pretended to be timid and shifted her head.

She had prepared to be examined by the Witch Union if she wanted to have contact with them. The Union knew the abilities of the witches the most, and it was normal that an organization with such a large scale had some detective means like the sense of magic and Magic Stone of Observation. She had no need to trek to the Western Region of Graycastle if she could not pass the examination.

Different from the senseless God's Punishment Army soldiers, she could easily control every part of her body and the release of anti-magic areas. Any witch could master this skill after two or three years' practice. As long as she did not use her magic power to cause any distorted barrier, she would appear the same as common people.

After all, the anti-magic areas and the blue blood of the God's Punishment Warriors were all caused by the magic power. If they were senseless, they would behave like beasts and fight by the instinct of the transformers. They naturally did not know how to use the ubiquitous magic power, either. Only after the shell was possessed by a witch's soul, it would be fully utilized. Even though the witch could not cohere the Magic Cyclone as in the past, and would lose her combat instinct, the immortal soul could gain power and skills no worse than the Extraordinary through years of training.

"Why don't you... ask about our abilities first?" Annie asked after a long silence. Obviously, she was extremely wary of them.

No. 76 was equally intrigued to know their answer. During the journey, she had a deeper understanding of the suffering of Annie and other witches. She heard that Annie was once refused by a witch organization due to her ability defect and was almost sold by them to the nobles.

It was well understandable for No. 76 that the combat witches were highly valued. Especially when the wild witches were severely suppressed by the Starfall City, self-protection and protection of the organization were necessary means of sustaining the organization. However, it also indicated that these witches just had a primary understanding of the magic power. The High Awakening could bring great changes to some non-combat witches after their promotion, and their seemingly useless abilities could experience transcendent transformation. Therefore, it was an extremely stupid choice for the Bloodfang Association to refuse the non-combat witches and even sell them to the nobles.

But it was also too weird if they did not care about the abilities at all. It could be described as jumping from one extreme to another one. After all, High Awakening was always rare, and thousands of witches could not be promoted throughout their lives, not to mention that the combat witches also had the promotion opportunity. Therefore, in any case, the status of combat witches was always higher. Their equal treatment was simply incredible in the eyes of No. 76.

No wonder Annie would be so wary of them.

"The ability test is usually arranged in three days," the red-haired witch laughed softly and said, "after all, you must be tired after such a long journey. We'll wait until you have a full rest, so the test results will be more accurate. What do you think of it? By the way, my name is Wendy, and I'm in charge of the Witch Union. You can come to me if you have any questions later."

Annie did not relax at her words. She continued to ask, "What if the test shows that... our abilities are useless?"

The witch, who claimed herself as Wendy gently responded, "Both His Majesty Roland and the Witch Union hold the notion that 'there is no useless power'. I know what you're worried about, and this is a process which most witches joining Neverwinter will experience. In fact, an ability test is just for His Majesty to know your situation better. It doesn't mean that you have to be a member of the union."

Annie was stunned. "What do you mean?"

"It means that, even if you don't want to work for His Majesty, you can still live in the city like common people."

No. 76's heart skipped a beat at her words, as she knew that emergence of Senior Witches relied heavily on a relaxing environment. For example, in Taquila, every witch could practice her ability as she wished, and anyone with even a little talent would be specially cultivated by the Union. In the Holy City where the more the witches were in charge, the more witches were promoted to get a higher ability.

And if a witch had to flee from a place to another and lived in horror, she even had few opportunities to practice her ability, then how could she be promoted? If they were not lying, and Neverwinter indeed provided the witches with a free and stable life, then they really had the conditions for the birth of Senior Witches in a sense.

Maybe the Chosen One was not among them now, but what about several years later? No. 76 was full of thoughts now. "Maybe I should find an opportunity to talk with the Witch Union in private and it's the best choice to make them a branch of the Union."

"Can I choose not to work for the King?" Annie seemed not to believe what she had heard.

"Yes, Witch Union won't force any sister to sign the contract. But if you're a member of the union, you'll benefit so much and your work will also be easy, so everybody joins this family now."

"Sorry, Lady Wendy..." Broken Sword said, "Can you tell us what a witch's daily job is?"

"Don't call me Lady," Wendy shook her head with a smile. "We're sisters, aren't we? As for work, it depends on your ability. For example, Miss Evelyn can brew delicious wine, so she opens a wine factory in the city. And Miss Mystery Moon is responsible for the light in the factory, as she can magnetize objects. And Miss Nana Pine... Her excellent healing ability makes her an angel in Neverwinter. I heard from Mr. Ambassador that some of you need curing, right?"

"She didn't give any examples related to combat witches," No. 76 frowned and thought, "Don't they care about the differences between the abilities of the witches? Then how did the king of Graycastle defeat the God's Punishment Army of the church?"

"Can you really cure the feet of Hero?" Amy immediately became excited.

"We have to let Nana try first," Wendy nodded to the blonde witch. "But before that, can you introduce your backgrounds and names?"

No. 76 did not care about whether she could be cured. Instead, she had focused on the other four witches.

The colorful magic stone on her chest became slightly hot, which meant that someone was using magic power. The heat was not from the skin contact, but a direct response of the soul.

She realized that the examination started.

From Annie to Hero, everyone briefly told their past story. Wendy also raised several questions, while the older brunette witch recorded the contents on a notebook. The magic stone remained the same temperature during this period.

When the inquiry was over, Wendy looked at No. 76.

"Are you... not a witch?"

"She's our friend," Amy said. "If it were not for her to stall the knights of the Kingdom of Dawn, we would've all been taken back to the dungeon."

"I used to be a guide, or a waitress, in an underground exhibition in the City of Glow. And Mr. Ambassador bought me from the Chamber of Commerce." No. 76 slowly uttered the words she had prepared. She had a vague awareness of their means of examination now. Those questions were not casually raised, but had clear purposes and could not be replied with vague answers.

Some of them might be able to detect the lies.

No. 76 was not worried about it. She could accurately control every movement of her body and also temporarily cut off her control of any part of her body. The usual subtle changes when people lied did not exist for her. Her words would be impeccable unless they could directly invade her mind,

Her guess was proved.

After her answers, Wendy did not show any strangeness, "I see. Thank you for saving them, and if you have no other place to go, you may live with them in the Foreign Affairs Building."

"Thank you for your consideration," she said gratefully.

"Wait..." Just then, another green-haired witch who had been silent before suddenly asked, "Can you tell me where you got the ring on your chest?"

Chapter 691 - The Path into the City

Her words surprised No. 76 a little.

It seemed that they were examined checked by more than one person.

However, 400 years of training had taught her how to hide emotions, not to mention that her body could be separated from her consciousness as she wished. A sudden interrogation was not enough to make her panic.

No. 76 pretended to be astonished and then reluctantly took a ring out of her robe. She hesitated for a long time before saying, "It was... stolen from Black Money."

At the same time, she gave a higher rating of the Witch Union in her heart. Originally, she had thought that they were too casual in welcoming newcomers, but it did not seem to be the case. They had sent a witch to detect the lies and another one with the ability of Clairvoyance. They could not be more cautious.

"Black Money?" The witch with green and long hair picked up the ring in her hand and looked it over for a moment. "This ... seems to be a Magic Stone, but it's a little different."

No. 76 frowned at her words in her heart. "They actually know the existence of Magic Stone? Then it's troublesome now. Although it's activated in a different way from the ordinary Magic Stone, they'll figure it out sooner or later. I have to distract them from it. After all, I don't have a second stone."

"Black money is the underground exhibition where I've always worked... There were often auctions of things from ancient ruins. The boss often said that those things had unbelievable power and the more exotic, the more popular. In addition, they occasionally had auction... auction..."

"What?" Wendy asked.

"Auction of witches," whispered No. 76.

Hearing these words, the four witches showed unmasked anger on their faces, and their concern over the ring became a bit less. Obviously selling witches as slaves was abhorrent to them, which also illustrated indirectly that the Witch Union in Graycastle would never agree with the idea of the Starfall City.

"No. 76 didn't lie. I was almost sold to the nobles by the Black Money," Amy echoed. "Fortunately, Mr. Ambassador saved me."

"They're bound to be punished sooner or later," said the blonde witch coldly.

"That ring..." No. 76 pretended to be timid.

"Although Miss Agatha will be very interested in this thing, let's wait until you are familiar with Neverwinter," the green-haired Witch said, shrugging. She did not keep the ring; instead, she put it back on her hand.

No. 76 was slightly surprised for a moment. "Agatha? The name sounds quite familiar. It seems that I have heard of it somewhere."

"I promise you'll no longer encounter such a thing," Wendy comforted them. "No one will dare to attack you in Neverwinter. His Majesty, King Roland, believes that the era where witches and mortals live together will soon come. By that time, not only in the Western Region of Graycastle but also in the whole kingdom, no one will regard us as the Devil's minions."

"Will there be such a day?" said Broken Sword rather in disbelief.

"Of course, that is why we built the Witch Union," Wendy laughed. "Anyway, let me take you to rest."

…

No. 76 was slowly moved onto a stretcher and carried out of the cabin by the sailors. The moment she left the sailing ship, she finally saw the whole picture of the pier. Heavy snow flying in the air did not stop people working busily at the pier. Dozens of people lined up along the pier sweeping the snow on the ground. Farther out were the weird freighters unloading goods. Just as Amy said, without towering masts and sails, yet they were able to navigate in the river.

"Those boats seem to have no pdddles..."

"And are they made of stones?"

The witches lowered their voices and discussed with each other. She clearly saw on Wendy's face a proud smile, which still gave off warmth even in the heavy snow.

However, No. 76 was surprised by much more things.

As they entered the city, the sight of Neverwinter slowly appeared in front of her.

This new king's city bore little resemblance to the cities of common people she had ever seen or the Holy City of the Union. Its broad, solid streets stood straight like black vertical lines. The falling snowflakes had no effect on road access, as the snow was orderly piled on both sides of the road, which looked like small white hills.

The trees were neatly planted to beautify the scene, and their bald trunks were decorated with colorful ribbons. It was conceivable that there should be green trees in midsummer season, branches crisscrossing one another overhead to form a natural awning.

Blocks of square-framed brick houses stood side by side with almost the same size. Except that, No. 76 did not see any bungalows or shabby thatched cottages.

It was already the Months of Demons, yet many people still walked in the heavy snow. Quite a few of them that were passing by would stop and greet the dark-haired witch with a nodding. Their expressions were sincere and enthusiastic, so they were obviously not compelled to do so.

This was what she cared most about.

For the first time, she was witnessing witches and common people getting along harmoniously with each other. Although she heard of a non-interference period between the witches and common people during the first Battle of Divine Will, it was, after all, 800 or 900 years ago. And in this city, it seemed that they had taken a step further, as they were not separated but instead were living harmoniously together.

"His Majesty, King Roland, believes that the era when witches and mortals live together will soon come." She suddenly recalled Wendy's words.

It was not a joke. In Neverwinter, they were on the threshold of it.

During a-month-long voyage, she had had some knowledge of Prince Roland of Graycastle. He became a much-anticipated king from an obscure lord of Border Town. Besides the low-level battles with common people, he also defeated the church with numerous soldiers of the God's Punishment Army, which might prove his strength. Was it related to the view in front of her?

If it were not for pretending to be wounded, No. 76 would almost sit up to have a close look at the city.

According to Pasha, they were bound to deal with the common people sooner or later. To defeat the demons, they had to temporarily conceal the past of the Union. After all, the strong enemy was approaching while they could not easily leave the maze ruins, therefore it would be not easy to solve the tricky problems left by the Starfall City. As long as the witches could survive, they would be able to reproduce the glory of Taquila one day. At this point, both Lady Alice and Lady Natalyae hold the same view.

…

After arriving at the Foreign Affairs building, No. 76 and Hero were lifted back to bed and the other three witches, sitting by the fire, excitedly talked about what they saw and heard along the way. There was no doubt that in a short time, Neverwinter had left a deep impression on them.

Before long, Wendy walked into the room with a little girl.

"This is Nana. She's able to heal wounds, no matter new or old."

"Even broken legs?" Amy could not wait to go to the bed and opened the blanket which covered Hero.

The little girl reached out her hands for a try and slowly shook her head, "No. Unless you still have her broken legs. If the whole legs were lost, I can only join them with other legs, but I can't make her legs grow again."

"You mean, we have to find two new legs for her?"

"Well, it's best to be newly cut," Nana replied earnestly. Childish as her voice was, it made all the witches invariably shuddered.

Chapter 692 - A New Hope

"Nana!" Wendy said giving her a reproving look.

"I'm not kidding. Besides joining the amputated limbs, His Majesty also told me to do a lot of experiments, like exchanging the wings of roosters and grey eagles to see if the rooster could fly. And exchanging the limbs of frogs and mice, the bodies of cows and lambs..." the little girl said, counting on her fingers.

The four witches all gasped out upon these words.

No. 76 was full of interest in her words, however. "Fully studying the mysteries of an ability, rather than fearing and avoiding it. This was apparently the style of the Quest Society members. No wonder this king is willing to accept the witches. Judging from this point, at least he isn't stubborn and conservative." "What happened then?" She could not help asking.

"Most of the experiments failed at first, but since His Majesty told Lily to join the trial, the success rate has been raised a lot. It's a pity that the limbs basically lost their functions after I joined them, so I have to exchange them back again, " Nana paused for a moment and continued to say, "ah... I forgot to mention, these are Heterogeneous connections. If I exchange the limbs of the same species, there will be nearly no difference after treatment. So if you have two legs... em..."

"Ahem, please don't mind her," Wendy covered the little girl's mouth and said, "About the legs, we'll find a solution. It may take some time, but Hero will stand up one day. You can rest assured."

Everyone looked at each other, not knowing how to respond for a moment.

"Anyway, let's treat your friend's wound first," Wendy patted Nana's head embarrassed and said, "hurry up."

No. 76 pretended to be expectant and scared, looking at the girl coming to her and pressing her hands on her broken legs.

The ring on her chest became hot again.

She suddenly realized that she had a troublesome problem.

"What expression should I wear when I'm treated?"

No. 76 did not know how it felt when the crushed bones and joints were being healed by magic power. "Is it painful or soothing? Or should I feel nothing? Should I cry out aloud or bite my teeth to moan?"

She was still thinking of how to respond, when the little girl had already withdrawn her hands and said, "Your legs are fine now. Next, I'll heal your arms."

She tried to lift the broken legs and found that she was able to move them now.

In a moment, the twisted elbows also returned to normal state.

"Your mental condition is really good, " said Nana with a curious look at her. "Most people will fall asleep once they have been healed, and you're the first one even without a yawn."

The heart of No. 76 suddenly sank. She pretended to be terrified and replied, "I, I just..."

"However, sleeping is only a natural reaction of the body, and immediate waking up won't have any damage. Don't worry." The little girl interrupted, "If you haven't moved for a long time, you'll feel awkward in the first days. You'll soon get used to it."

"Is that... Is that true? Thank... thank you."

Fortunately, the blonde witch who had checked their identity was not present. No. 76 secretly glanced at Wendy and found that she was talking with Hero rather than paying attention to her. She was slightly relieved.

"Are you really healed?" Amy asked with concern.

No. 76 lifted her originally broken right hand and waved to her, "Ah, it has been cured. Miss Nana has a really incredible ability..."

Seeing that, the worries in the eyes of other witches gradually faded away. Amy bit her teeth and made up her mind. She walked to Wendy pulled her sleeve and said, "Please use my legs to cure Hero."

"What?" Wendy was obviously shocked.

"My ability is self-recovery, so my legs may grow back if I cut them."

"No, Amy, don't..." Hero hurriedly said. "You've only suffered minor injuries. What if they can't grow?"

"I'm willing to give it a try," She insisted.

"Annie, stop her!"

"Amy, don't say that. Even if you make Hero stand up, she'll feel sad for a long time."

"But..."

"Well, stop arguing," Nana suddenly said. "There may be another way to cure her legs."

Everyone looked straight to her.

"I'm 16 years old now. In two years, I'll enter my adulthood and then my ability will be greatly enhanced. Maybe at that time, I'll be able to directly make the broken limbs regenerate," She pursed her lips and said, "another possibility is ability evolution. If I also possess an ability evolution like Sister Anna and Sister Leaf did, maybe I can even make you have two more legs."

"Ability evolution? What's it?" Amy asked, staring in shock.

"That means the magic power in your body will cohere and transform into a whole new look. Haven't you ever seen it?" said Nana proudly. "Anyway, it's very amazing. As long as you study hard, you also have the opportunity to evolve new abilities."

Listening to the excited narration of the little girl, No. 76 felt her heart became tumultuous.

If she was not mistaken, the evolution that Nana mentioned was the High Awakening.

But she also felt like listening to a fairy tale... "Are there actually several Senior Witches in the Witch Union, who appeared only in the last two years?"

"How could this be possible?"

Senior Witches were not like the wheat in the field, which you could harvest as long as you planted the seeds. Every promoted Awakened was a precious treasure of the Union, and it required talent, diligence and luck to be promoted. Even before she was transformed to be a God's Punishment Warrior, she was just an ordinary combat witch.

"Why did Nana think most witches will certainly evolve?"

"'As long as you study hard, you also have the opportunity to evolve new abilities.' What a nonsense! If you are more experienced and knowledgeable, you can indeed enhance your possibility of enlightenment, but just a tiny bit. If it were really so easy, the Union would not have experienced the problem where no witch had been promoted in nearly a hundred years and thus becoming short handed in the late period of the Battle of Divine Will."

"But... in front of a group of wild witches who have never heard of High Awakening, is it necessary for Nana to lie?"

If it was not for pretending to be a "common person", she would have asked the little girl more questions to find out the truth.

"What could be sure is there are indeed some Senior Witches in the Witch Union; otherwise, Nana could not clearly explain the High Awakening. But the number of Senior Witches should be exaggerated by her. Or maybe the high ranks of the union are very powerful and have little contact with the new witches. So this little girl who has just awakened mistook them as promoted persons."

With this in mind, No. 76 felt so heartened.

Maybe she really had the opportunity to find the Chosen One in Neverwinter?

Chapter 693 - The Ideal Place

…

Dinner was served by a servant.

Before the servant opened the covers, Annie had already smelled the mouthwatering aroma. In the iron box, there was a pile of thick bread which was baked golden. Just one glimpse, and she knew that the bread was made up of fine wheat flour that had been kneaded and fermented after being peeled. Besides, there was also a small packet of butter and a pot of meat broth, which was enough for five people to enjoy.

"The spoons and plates are all in the wooden cupboard. Tomorrow morning, breakfast will also be served, so you don't need to keep leftovers," the servant said, "Before getting a Resident Identity Card (ID), you can't leave the Foreign Affairs Building at your will. Additionally, you aren't allowed to go to the basement. If you want to practice your abilities, the rooftop is available. There's a service room on the first floor, where I sleep. If you need anything, you're free to come to me. Unlike most inns, all services here are free."

The five people were all in a daze and did not even regain their senses after the servant bowed and left.

"Is this the hospitality of the great nobles? It's exactly the same as the play," Amy was the first to sigh and said, "except for some of the lines that needed to be changed."

"Such as?" Broken Sword and Hero asked curiously.

"Like Your Honorable Excellency, it's my pleasure to serve you... that's how it usually starts."

"We aren't nobles, so of course he didn't talk to us like that." No.76 smiled gently. "Anyway, let's eat first. I'm starving."

"You made a good point." They all swallowed their saliva in agreement.

This was not good. Was the ruler of the Kingdom of Graycastle using delicious food to seduce them? Annie began to feel concerned. It looked like the king was trying to rope them in, but the leader of the Witch Union did not even ask them about their abilities. Their behaviors were so inconsistent that she could not figure out their real intention. Since she was not alone and there were four other people, she had to be more cautious and not commit mistakes that she had made before.

Undoubtedly, the safest way was to stay away from the Western Region. The church had been defeated, so their greatest enemy was gone. What they needed most was to find a village or a small town closer to bigger cities so that they could live there with hidden identities, just like what they had done in the Kingdom of Dawn.

However, this method would not work now.

She could not help but sigh when she saw No.76 stumbling beside the table. Anyway, Witch Union was capable of healing the wounded and the prospect they had described was inviting. Now that there was a ray of hope that Hero could stand up again, she could not simply take them away.

Well, I'd better eat.

When Annie put a piece of bread with butter into her mouth, her mouth was instantly filled with a glutinous soft sweetness which she had never tasted before. The bread was very delicate without any gravel and it melted in her mouth the minute she bit into it. She did not even need to chew and the bread flowed easily into her throat.

Damn it! They could easily be seduced by the delicious food.

Although she was thinking like this, she could not stop her hand from grabbing another piece of bread.

Almost each one in the room was busy eating the bread and no one was talking.

They let out a deep breath when only crumbs were left in the iron box.

"Will we still be able to eat such food in the future?" Broken Sword licked all her fingers reluctantly.

"I'm afraid... that's unlikely." Amy held the pot and poured the aromatic broth, dividing it equally into five bowls. There were some scallion and oil circles on the surface, which made it more delicious. "Only the upper nobles can afford to eat such bread and even my father only used to eat coarse bread."

"It's good enough to eat coarse bread. I remember that we always stayed hungry when we first arrived in the Kingdom of Dawn." Hero blew the hot steam and eagerly took a big sip, and then she exhaled the heat. When she murmured, there was a long-awaited satisfaction in her tone.

"Lady Wendy has said that we can enjoy many benefits after we join Witch Union... do these benefits include delicious food?"

"She had also said that she would show us around Neverwinter and Witch Union before she left. We can ask her then."

"I hope that the food would be included in these benefits."

Witnessing that the other four witches were discussing the treatment which might be given by Witch Union, Annie had a faint prediction that they would stay in the city for a very long time.

…

After a shower, they went to bed early—the apartment consisted of one living room and four bedrooms. After a short discussion, they decided how to allocate the four bedrooms. As the strongest witch among them, Annie would certainly choose to sleep together with Hero who could not stand up.

The bed was very soft and there was no mildew at all. It was obvious cleaning was often done here. There were only a few small flames in the fireplace and the shaking and dim light reflected the furniture on the white stone walls. The dark shadows were slightly shaking as if they were dancing to the chilling wind outside the window.

She put Hero under the bedding and blew out the candles.

Annie cast her ability to make the bed warm through her heated hands. Hero clung to her bosom and gently asked, "It's been almost a year since we left the Kingdom of Wolfheart?"

"Yeah... it's been one year and two months if we count the days since we set foot on the border of the Kingdom of Dawn." Annie nodded.

"How long has it been since we left our hometown?"

This question made her silent. In fact, Annie had forgotten the exact date when she left her hometown and she only remembered that it was a remote village to the northwest of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Since her identity as a witch was exposed, she had to continuously escape toward the east and traveled almost half of the entire Kingdom of Wolfheart. She only settled down in the suburbs of the king's city after Bloodfang Association betrayed her.

It was the same for Broken Sword and Hero.

They were forced to leave their homes and escape due to different reasons. They suffered a lot on the road and only when they met Annie in Wolfheart, did they all escape together as a group.

"It has been almost five years since I left my hometown," Hero said in a lowered tone, "In the five years, I've never settled down in order to avoid being captured by the church. I thought that I needn't run away anymore in the king's city but to my surprise, I still had to escape, even if I've lost my legs."

Annie could not help hugging her even more tightly.

"Lady Wendy has said that this is the home of the witches. Can we really settle down here?" Hero's voice was on and off, like the faint sound of winds outside the windows. It sounded like she was asking Annie, and yet it also sounded like she was murmuring. "I don't want to escape any longer."

Annie's eyes started to well up. "Don't worry. We'll have a house of our own and you'll regain the use of your legs. You can go anywhere you want to for leisure instead of running away."

"Really?" Hero paused for a long time and asked, "If only I were born in the Kingdom of Graycastle." In the end, Annie could not even hear her voice.

When Annie opened her mouth and was about to say something, she heard even breathing sounds.

The girl in her bosom had fallen asleep.

Chapter 694 - "Beams of Light"

After Roland fell asleep, Nightingale entered the Mist and quietly left the castle.

Her destination was the Foreign Affairs Building.

Even at night when the land was cloaked in darkness, in the misty world, she could still see everything clearly in black and white. Taking advantage of distorted outlines, she could jump several meters in one leap. With merely a few steps, she passed through the courtyard wall around the building.

Roland had called this way of moving 'Flash'. He described it as a masterstroke to move with super speed, which required no buffering time. She liked the name 'Flash' the first time she heard it. Just as it implied, such a movement was as quick as a flash of lightning and as quiet as a shadow. She could come out and disappear anywhere in a sudden, making it hard for anyone to predict her movements.

She liked such a description but did not quite understand what the buffering time meant.

But she did not mind it, as she had already got used to this old talking habit of his. It was not a rare thing for her to hear some strange words from him.

After getting out of the Castle District, Nightingale did not follow the ramp that she often took to descend the hill, but directly leaped high above the hillside and walked in the air. She followed the lines that appeared in the air, and after several strides, she landed straight on the top floor of the Foreign Affairs Building.

The building was located in the area between the Castle District and uptown, a four-story structure as high as the upland where the castle stood. It was the second concrete building after the Witch House.

Initially, it had been built to detain some important prisoners, such as the family of Duke Ryan, who had been kept in the dungeon. As far as Nightingale could see, Roland treated them with much more respect than what they deserved. Although they were given the titles of prisoners, this new place was much better than the previous dungeon, and they were also offered the chance to walk outside to relieve themselves.

Maybe His Majesty thought he would not have many enemies to detain here, so he used the rooms overground as the first place to temporarily accommodate the new-come honored guests, such as the alchemists of the Alchemist Association of the King's City, the sages of the Astrology Association, as well as sea traders from the Fjords, who had lived here for some time.

Since most of the rooms in the Foreign Affairs Building were unoccupied and the location was quite far from the central heating system, it was merely supplied with tap water. As the residents in the building had different backgrounds, His Majesty had deployed some of his guards here in order to show his respect for the guests, as well as keep an eye on them.

Nightingale, of course, would not take the corridor in case of alarming the guards. She passed directly through the walls of the top floor, heading for the bedrooms where the witches from Wolfheart lived.

She did not find anything strange about the witches in the afternoon examination. The Magic Cyclones they showed were very stable, and their capacities were quite ordinary, which meant that they belonged to the most common type of witches. In the inquiry, she knew that they basically told no lie except for some vague, subtle answers they offered about their past. With her derivative skill, she captured those details, but she thought that this kind of concealment was reasonable. These withes were tortured, hunted, and even treated in ways they were simply unable to speak of. All they had suffered had become shadows in their hearts, which they were unwilling to talk about.

If they were the only ones coming to Neverwinter, she probably would accept them as new sisters at once.

But they came with the ordinary woman called No. 76, and she was the one arousing Nightingale's suspicion.

She had no magic glow or different demeanor, but Nightingale could still sense something strange about her. When she recalled afterward, she realized that it was the woman's attitude in answering all her questions that bothered her. She had hidden nothing from her, which was really weird.

Nightingale had seen that many people tell everything they knew when they were dying. Yet, this woman who had once served as a maid for the underground Chamber of Commerce, told the truth about herself to a stranger she met for the first time. This was indeed a rare attitude.

But Nightingale could not judge whether the woman was using a fake identity or not based on what she knew now.

After all, No. 76 did not lie.

That meant that by now, what she said about her past and background was authentic. In addition, the testimonies of Yorko, Amy, and Annie could corroborate that. She indeed was a guide who had served the exhibition 'Black Money' and been bought by Yorko because of getting involved in the witch auction.

That's why Nightingale decided to visit No. 76 at night and watch her behavior in the Mist.

If No. 76 harbored any malicious intentions, this would be the easiest moment for her to show some flaws.

She went through the bedrooms one by one, and soon she found the room where her target was.

Most of the witches had fallen asleep, but No. 76's room was still lit up. She was sitting on the bed, playing with a ring in her hand by the candlelight, eyes full of joy and intoxication.

"Is it because of the fair gemstone on the ring?" Nightingale wondered.

She walked close to the bed, quietly watching No. 76.

But she saw nothing suspicious about her behavior, all she did was play with the ring, like a lucky woman who was too excited about harboring a treasure to sleep.

The ring was glittering with a faint magic glow, but it was not a rare thing for a guide in the exhibition, which often auctioned relics of unknown origin, to have such a Magic Stone.

One hour later, she was tired and sleepy, drowsily dropping her arms and closing her eyes. At this moment, Nightingale gently sighed.

She thought, "It seems that I'm over-scrupulous."

After giving No. 76 one last glance, Nightingale reached out her hand to extinguish the candle and turned to pass through the wall, entering the howling snowstorm.

***************

The heat of colorful Magic Stone subsided, showing that the one who used magic power had left the bedroom.

No. 76 slightly let out a sigh of relief.

Even if they had gained infinite life by the way of Soul Transfer, it did not mean that they could stay awake overnight. When she disconnected her soul from her body, she could rest far more efficiently than taking an ordinary sleep. In this way, it would only take her two or four hours to rest every day to fully recover herself.

Given that, she went to bed much later than the witches.

But she had never expected something incredible to happen because of this habit.

No. 76 opened her eyes, looking at the empty bedside where the visitor had stood. Through the magic stone on the ring, she had seen a bright beam of orange light there just now. It had been as thick as an adult's trunk, directly rising up to the ceiling. No. 76 had been surprised to find that this 'Key' had surpassed the remaining Senior Witch of Taquila, Pasha, and was on par with that of the Three Chiefs of the Union. Although she had not been able to see the visitor, she knew that her ability must be very complicated, rather than a simple invisibility skill.

She wondered if the visitor was Anna or Leaf mentioned by Nana.

Judging from the light, she knew that there was still a certain gap between the visitor and the Chosen One, but that strong beam of orange light was enough to thrill her.

It was very simple to activate the colorful magic stone ring. As long as someone nearby was performing some magic, the Magic Stone on the ring would absorb a small part of the surging magic power and indicate the complexity of the magic skill through the beam of light she could observe through Magic Stone. The thicker and stronger the beam was, the more complicated the 'Key' was.

No. 76 became increasingly excited as she thought of it. She simply walked out of the room and went to the top of the building.

The snowstorm was blowing against her face, but she was not able to feel cold at all. This lack of feelings usually made her sick, but now as her heart was filled with excitement, she felt vigorous standing in the wind and chasing the last glimmer of light.

She raised the ring and pointed it at the castle, according to Wendy, that's where the witches lived. Now that the first Senior Witch had appeared, would the Witch Union give her more surprises?

She was looking forward to it.

However, something abnormal happened in a sudden.

The ring in her hand started to shake, as if it was resonating with something.

Through the Magic Stone, she saw a beam of light she had never seen before. It was almost like a wide high wall, filling half of the sky.

Chapter 695 - The Encounter

"How, How could this be possible?"

No. 76 felt as though a bomb was exploding in her heart, and stood petrified on the spot.

Since she knew that the colorful Magic Stone was only able to respond to the fluctuation of magic power within a limited range, which, in theory, was around 100 steps, she had just casually raised the ring and not expected to see anything in the castle at this distance. She wondered how this happened?

She took a deep breath, then blinked, and again put the ring before her eye.

The beam was still there, what she saw was not an illusion but a solid sight.

A surge of indescribable excitement rose in her mind, making it impossible for her to stay calm now. She got in touch with her people through thoughts.

"Pasha, what kind of people are eligible to be called the Chosen One?"

"Have you seen the edge of the ring? The one whose beam of light can fill the entire field of vision will be the Chosen One we're looking for."

"This is too dramatic. Even Lady Eleanor's beam of light is only capable of covering half of the ring's view."

"Hence that person must have more potential than the Three Chiefs of the Union combined. I admit that the requirement is hard to meet, but we have no choice other than this. Remember, the Key neither represents the strength of the magic power nor equates to fighting capacity. That's why you have to make sure to check every witch."

"The edge? Fill the field of vision?" Number 76 repeated it in her heart.

"No... Pasha, the miracle I'm seeing now is far more than that." Even seeing through the ring which had been put closest to her eye, No. 76 could not see the entire beam. The width of the beam extended beyond her sight so that only by moving the ring horizontally she was able to see the vast panorama of the huge light wall.

"Deities finally smile at human beings."

"Lady Natalia, you're right."

"I've found the Chosen One here."

***************

When Roland entered the bathroom, yawning, he saw that Zero was washing up before the sink.

"Mm... Where's the toothpaste?"

"Here." The little girl slightly stood aside and handed him a tube of toothpaste that had almost run out.

"Thanks." Roland took a glass of water and stuffed the wet toothbrush into his mouth. Looking at himself and Zero, a tall person and a short person, in the mirror, crowding before the narrow sink and making synchronous elbow movements to brush their teeth, he suddenly felt that this scene was hilarious.

Zero spat out the foam in her mouth and shot Roland a glance. "What're you sneering at?"

"You're such a shorty." Roland returned with his nasal voice.

Then he felt a kick in his calf.

"Remember to shave, or you'll look old," she said as she swept back her white hair and began to tie a ponytail, "Don't shame me today."

"It was only a parents' meeting." He sighed and rinsed his toothbrush clean. "I'm not your true family. There's no need for an agent to be so formal."

Given that his wardrobe was filled with cheap clothes, he would be thankful to find something that would make him look virtuous, not to mention a formal suit.

"By the way, I think you look better with hair hanging down," Roland smacked and said, "but if you insist, I suggest the twin tail that'll suit you more."

"None of your business!" Zero retorted.

Then he was pushed out of the bathroom.

"It seems that her temper has worsened after summer... Do I indulge her too much?" Roland pondered.

As the times he came in and went out of the Dream World increased, Roland had mastered the trick of how to enter the Dream World. In other words, it depended on him. If he had not intended to enter it, the strange Dream World would not appear, and he just slept through the night without any other dreams.

Thus, he could easily control the passing of time in the Dream World.

Over two months, apart from further explorations of the Holy City of Hermes, Roland had spent the rest of his time in various libraries searching for some half-remembered books he had read long ago.

In addition, he found that the peculiar power flowing in his body also worked in the memory fragment. For that reason, his venture to the snowfield turned out to be much smoother than he had imagined. With the purchased climbing ropes and drilling machine, he could reach deep into the cave under the cathedral, where the Pivotal Secret Temple was located and do an investigation. Although Roland did not find the Prayer Room that Isabella had mentioned, materials recording the secret history and the research on Magic Stone were really mind-blowing to him.

But he failed to enter the old Holy City by passing through the secret passage in the Pivotal Secret Area because when he was halfway in the passage, he saw that the road ahead just disappeared, leaving nothing but endless darkness and scarlet lightning, as if the void had consumed the other end.

It seemed that when Zero was defeated, her will to resist was still very strong and that only a small area, New Holy City, was saved in the memory fragment.

Roland's deposit was accumulated rapidly by selling the armor that he had moved out from the Holy City. Finally, he bought an air conditioner and installed it in the living room, as well as a bigger refrigerator to replace the old and small one, significantly improving his living conditions in the department.

Of course, there were still some troubles. He had not expected that some people had taken some photos of him when he had been running incredibly fast on the street to save Zero. Those photos were not only posted on the internet but also reported by the local news channel. But fortunately, since no one clearly captured his look and he also discarded his clothes right after the accident, Zero did not suspect him.

As a result, the topic of who this martialist-like man was and why he would wear such a casual suit of vest and shorts had gone viral on the internet for some time.

And about this, Roland had to say... "Ahem, my apology for being too poor to buy some decent clothes."

Now that he did not have to worry about his livelihood, he naturally turned his attention to his neighbors in this building.

He wondered if there were similar doors that opened into the memory fragments hidden in these people's rooms.

Apart from cheating, the simplest way to knock open their doors was to pay them.

"I'm ready, uncle. Let's go," Zero said as she finished dressing and walked to him with a bag on her back.

Today was September 12th, the first day of the new term, the attendance of every student's parent was mandatory.

Roland was impressed by Zero's new look.

She had put on a black short-sleeved shirt paired with a short pleated skirt and a pair of white stockings and sneakers, which made her look quite youthful and lovely.

She had tied her soft white hair in a twin tail that hung on her shoulders along with yellow hair ribbons, her lineament impeccable, her skin fair and translucent, her pupils light red, as if she was an elf walking out from the pictures.

Roland could not help reaching out his hand to rub her head and said, "That's right."

"I just happened to want to tie my hair like this, it's not because of what you said..."

"Yeah, I know."

"It's true!"

"I didn't say it's not true."

"Why do I think you're lying to me?"

"That's because you think too much," he said, pretending to be serious while holding back the laugh in his heart. "Let's go, or we'll miss the early bus."

…

All Roland needed to do in the parents' meeting was sitting in the back of the classroom and listening to the children reporting their goals and guarantees in the new term. Students at this age were not accustomed to lying and would work harder to meet the goals they had promised in front of their parents.

Roland had thought that it would be a peaceful morning, but he did not expect that the Dream World would be so unpredictable.

"Why is it you again?"

A crisp female voice rang in his ears.

He turned his head and found that it was Garcia who was sitting beside him.

Chapter 696 - Victory of the Wise

Garcia wore a low-key outfit. She had on a plaid shirt and a pair of jeans paired with a pair of sunglasses and a cap on her head, probably not to draw unwanted attention. But Roland's impression of his sister was very deep, so he could immediately tell from her voice who she was, even if her face was veiled tightly.

Roland glanced at the note on the arm of the chair to make sure that he did not take the wrong seat before he asked, "Why can't it be me?"

"Well," she let out a nasal sound to show her dissatisfaction, apparently having seen the name on the note too.

"Anyway, I can't believe you have kids!"

This was totally mind-blowing. Did Zero take possession of both Garcia and her child who she gave birth to at the Port of Clearwater in the battle of Everwinter?

"My cousin," she spat out coldly.

"Well... It only seems to be a substitute." Roland thought.

Somehow he felt a bit strange about the change in Garcia's attitude towards him, from the contempt and disgust when they first met, to the current impatience which was open and obvious.

As attendees trickled in, the parents' meeting finally began. After the teacher on stage finished talking about his plan for the new term, it came to the part where every student had the right of speech. As soon as Zero rose from her chair, her pure natural white hair and crystal red pupils that looked remarkably unique, coupled with her beautiful appearance, triggered a sudden surge of argument among the parents and drew fixed gazes from all of the children. Her beauty was something that every witch maintained in the Dream World, something that could be counted as a huge advantage in Roland's opinion.

Roland had no choice but to enjoy the "eye salute" from other attendees since he had to stand up to accompany Zero who was about to make a speech. He could sense the doubts and jeers in the other parents' eyes, thinking that Zero certainly belonged to another family and he was unqualified to be a parent. He could sense all that from their eyes and smiles. Roland had to admit that his casual outfit, a cartoon short-sleeved shirt paired with a pair of knee-length pants, made him look extremely different compared with the rest of them.

After Roland returned to his seat, he sensed Garcia's secret gaze, which depressed him even more. With a pair of sunglasses, she could gaze at him as freely as she wanted to, but if he stared back to her and found out that she was not actually paying any attention to him, that would be quite awkward.

It was not long before he felt his elbow being nudged by Garcia and a note was passed to him.

Roland frowned and unfolded the note. Her handwriting displayed such a sharpness and sternness that even someone who could not appreciate calligraphy could feel the power behind it. As Roland read the note, his heart thudded slightly.

"You're the mysterious martialist who pelted in the street the other day, right?"

"Hell, how did she know that?" Roland cursed in his heart.

Roland could not help but turn to look at Garcia, unexpectedly finding that she was still writing something.

Soon came the second note.

"Don't deny it. Martialists have a very acute sense of judging body figures and a sharp memory to capture the details of the movements. When I first saw you in the news, your figure gave me a familiar feeling, but now I'm sure it's you. Tell me honestly, did you just awaken your Force of Nature not long ago or did you mean to hide who you really were from the beginning?"

Remembering his figure? How dramatic! Even if a video was placed in front of him, he was not sure he would be able to recognize himself. Anyway, Garcia could not go so far as to ask every man in her eyes that had a similar figure. That meant that she must be, in a sense, extremely observant in order to connect the mysterious martialist with him.

"Is this why she changed her attitude?"

Roland hesitated for a moment, and then as soon as he raised his hand, a pen was given to him.

He had intended to deny it, to argue about how absurd it was, but an idea suddenly hit him as his pen touched the paper.

To be honest, his interest in the martialist was as much as that of any onlooker. He did not even have the slightest intention of picking up the gauntlet. In the Dream World, he could be regarded as half of a creator God, so winning a fight was no big deal, yet losing would be undoubtedly humiliating. Moreover, in nine cases out of ten, according to what he saw on TV, he would most likely lose without any formal training.

Actually, compared to collecting materials and exploring the memory fragments, the studying of the Force of Nature was not a top priority, yet he found out that he might as well take this encounter as a nice breakthrough. It would obviously be good if he could take this opportunity to improve the relationship between him and Garcia. He could use it to get the chance to visit her in her apartment.

Following his mind, Roland wrote down the answer on the back of the note, his handwriting crooked.

"What is Force of Nature? I don't quite understand what you mean."

"Even kids know that. Why are you acting like a fool?"

After tossing back the note, she also took off her sunglasses and cast a stern glance at Roland out of the corners of her eyes.

"So the Force of Nature is the reason why my strength grew suddenly?"

"The Force of Nature can do more than that. Haven't you paid any attention to the propaganda of the Martialist Association?"

"I am neither interested in fighting nor concerned with what you said."

"Besides participating in the competitions, being a martialist also comes with the responsibility to preserve urban order and ensure social security."

"What is that?"

"It's complicated. We'd better find a place to discuss more details."

Excellent, Roland applauded himself for his own intelligence in his heart. Things seemed to be moving in the exact direction he had hoped.

"Really? But I have to go to the company this afternoon. What about visiting you in the evening?"

Roland got everything under his control. He thought if he promised Garcia now, they would probably find a cafe or a small restaurant nearby to have a talk, but if he made up some excuses to delay the talk until evening, she would find it hard to refuse his visit her home. After all, room 0825 and 0827 were so close that made it much more reasonable to have the talk in her home at a time that was between dinner and midnight.

As Roland expected, Garcia hesitated for a while and then nodded.

The students and parents took turns to speak on the stage. When it was Garcia's cousin's turn to stand up and make a speech, the murmuring of the audience burst out again.

But this time they focused on his social class and background rather than his school performance and his appearance.

"Is he the little lord of the Clover Group?"

"He didn't come with his parents."

"How could famous entrepreneurs like them have time to attend this meeting?"

"Does this lady also belong to the Clover Group?"

"It should be. Apparently, she specially dressed up to avoid unwanted attention."

"It would be nice if I could accost her."

"Stop daydreaming. How would a lady like her ever talk to you?"

"The Clover Group? What the hell is that?" Roland rolled his eyes. "Sounds like an extraordinarily big company, but in that case, how could a relative of the owner of the Association live in the shabby tube-shaped apartment?"

Moreover, Roland noticed a little strange expression on Garcia's face. Although her eyes were hidden under the sunglasses, her clenched fists and sinking mouth gave up her emotions.

Roland had a feeling that there was more to it, but he did not think more about it. Tonight, he would have the chance to check whether his assumption was correct.

Chapter 697 - Meeting Garcia at Night

…

After finishing his dinner and waiting for Zero to return to her room to do her homework, Roland arrived at the doorstep of apartment 0827 as promised.

The door creaked open after he knocked on it a few times.

Garcia, still wearing that ice-cold expression of hers, said,"Come on in."

After entering, Roland found that the decoration of her apartment was much more luxurious than his. The flooring was changed into real wood. There was a shoe shelf by the entrance, and a crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. Even the walls were painted over with fine white paint. It was definitely not the original cheap paint that covered the walls of this tube-shaped apartment building before.

"I don't have extra slippers. You can wear mine for now." She pointed to a pair of slippers decorated with furry rabbit ears in the bottom layer of the shoe shelf. "I love wearing large slippers so they shouldn't be too small for you."

Roland put the slippers on. They were not small but they were winter slippers. He felt hot the moment he put them on. He could not stand the pair of furry rabbit ears and could hardly imagine what Garcia looked like when she wore these cute slippers.

She seems so standoffish. How can such a pair of slippers match her dry personality?

He walked to the sofa and sat on it. "By the way, could I have some water? Dinner was a little salty."

Garcia frowned and gave him a look. "Only cold water."

"Cold water is fine."

When she turned around to fetch water from the kitchen, Roland held his head up and looked around the room. All the apartments in this building had identical layouts. Every two adjacent apartments were symmetrical. Based on the layout of his own apartment, he was certain that this corridor facing the entrance must lead to the storage.

As he expected, he saw a similar room at the end of the corridor, but Garcia had redecorated it. She even changed the door into a louvered sliding door. Normally, this type of door could not be locked, which was good news for him. But he was still worried that she might have also dismantled the iron door and refurbished the outer walls when decorating.

When Garcia returned to the living room with a glass of water in her hand, Roland had stopped looking and leaned on the sofa to watch the TV.

"Thank you!" Roland said as he fetched the glass. "You live here alone? But in the parent's meeting this morning, they all said that you're the daughter of the Clover..."

"No, I'm not. I've got nothing to do with the Clover. You could even say that they're my enemies." Garcia interrupted in a cold tone.

"Enemies?" Roland was stunned. "Then your cousin..."

Garcia seemed somewhat depressed. She explained, "They're taking advantage of my cousin by getting him to talk me into going back, but if I leave here, the Clover Group would demolish this building."

"So it's the Clover Group that launched the mall expansion project next door?"

"Who else would dare to demolish such an ancient building?" Garcia looked confused and asked, "You live here. Why don't you know this?"

This is going to be bad! She isn't Zero. She's a mature grown adult. If she inherits the characteristics of Princess Garcia, it would be even more difficult to fool her.

"Ahem... I've paid little attention to what's going on around this place. Plus, I've lost my job earlier and haven't stepped out of my apartment for almost six months." Roland shifted the topic in a hurry. " You've told me that a martialist has some other jobs besides participating in contests?"

"Yes. For a martialist, to participate in a contest is just equivalent to training. The most important mission of us is to fight against erosion from the outside world instead of winning prizes and publicizing the martial arts to the audience."

"What erosion?" he was stunned and asked.

"You should know the Fallen Evils. They're one kind of the erosion and also the most common. They aren't people who lost their control over the Force of Nature after awakening. Instead, they're those who were eroded by the outside world, thus turning into another lifeform. Conventional means can barely harm them, so we need to stand up and fight against them." Garcia explained to him with a low voice.

Roland swallowed hard as a sense of unease grew in his heart. "The Dream World is eroded?

"What's the meaning of the outside world?"

"I can't tell you more about that unless you join the Martialist Association and obtain a hunting license."

"Why?"

"Because not all people who have awakened their Force of Nature will choose to side with the martialists." Garcia pronounced her words one by one. "Some people even hope that forces from the outside world would break into our world. These people are hostile to all human beings. Hence, a hunting license would not only allow a person to fight against Fallen Evils, but also permit martialists to kill those awakened people who want to destabilize the society."

"So that's why it's called the hunting license?" Roland was frightened upon hearing this. In other words, if I confirm that I've awakened with the Force of Nature and refuse to join their Martialist Association, wouldn't I be considered as their mortal enemy?

Garcia shook her head as if she saw through his concerns. "A small part of the awakened refused to join the Martialist Association or to work for those forces of evil. They're called the centrists. Our Martialist Association won't take action against them, but the Fallen Evils are different. Most centrists act alone, so they would frequently get attacked by them. If you don't plan on joining the Martialist Association, you'd better hide your power forever."

Seeing as Garcia had told him so much, Roland could not help but feel awkward. He initially thought that she was a callous person, but actually, she was not that difficult to talk to. When they first met each other in this world, he had even thought that she was an arrogant woman who thought she was above everyone else.

"When we first met each other, your immediate reaction was to reach for the weapon on your back, so why should I be nice to you? You should feel lucky that you didn't actually pull your weapon out. Otherwise, you would already be lying in a hospital bed." He finally loosened up and let go of his earlier doubts, but all he got was a blank stare.

Just at this moment, Garcia's phone started ringing. She glanced at her phone and frowned, saying, "I've got to take this call."

After saying that, she took the phone into her bedroom and closed the door behind her.

Apparently, she did not want Roland to overhear her phone call.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" Roland thought.

He stood up right away and took off the slippers fashioned with furry rabbit ears. He then quickly walked to the end of the corridor with bare feet.

Through the gaps in the louvered door, he was able to get a glimpse of what was inside. Garcia had redecorated it into a walk-in closet where there were various types of female clothing, including some female underwear.

However, nothing could stop him from exploring the truth of this world.

He pushed the louvered door without hesitation, and while smelling the fragrance of those female clothes, he walked into the closet.

After walking through layers of clothing, he found a dark turquoise gate at the far end of the closet. He noticed that it was unlocked and its handle was covered with a thick layer of dust which stood out of place among the clean surroundings.

Has Garcia never entered this Gate of Memory?

But this was not the time to think about this. Roland took a deep breath and lightly turned the handle.

The smell of seawater immediately filled his nose, and the sound of waves lapping the beach came from afar. The deep blue sea slowly unfolded in front of him like a vast curtain.

Chapter 698 - Nightingale's Suspicion

…

It was the morning of the next day when he woke up from the Dream World.

Roland excitedly swung his fists in the bed as he found out that his guess was right. Every household in the Apartment of Souls has a gate leading to a memory fragment, just like his, and the world behind each gate was a place on which the loser living in the room, had once placed their biggest hope.

Given that, Princess Garcia must have left her last memory in the Port of Clearwater, the location of her lifetime's work and the starting point to compete to be the new ruler of Graycastle.

Due to the fact that Garcia could have hung up the phone at any time, Roland had not entered the gate to further explore its inside world. After all, he had been in an embarrassing position and it would not have been a pleasant experience if the martialist had considered him an underwear thief. Before leaving her room, he had tactfully asked her about the memory portal by complaining about the useless iron door in his own room, but her response was quite cold, even boring.

It meant that either she was telling a lie or she still did not notice the weird iron gate.

If the latter was true, it deserved to be thought through.

Perhaps, except for him, all of the people in the Apartment of Souls had no access to those sealed memories and he might be the only one that could see and open the memory portal.

It was simple to prove this thought. Next time he would ask Zero to clean up the lumber-room, and at that time, he would know the answer.

Anyway, it would be an exciting discovery.

Since the demons swallowed by Zero held the key, it was not necessary for him to explore each household thoroughly. The demons had become the residents of the Apartment of Souls. Finding them and entering their memory fragments might help him find some useful information about the Battle of Divine Will.

…

When he went to his office, Wendy had been waiting for him for quite some time.

There was a stack of resumes on the desk, which was the detailed information about the four witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Although he had known the general situation from Yorko, he was also willing to conduct a whole review of it, especially those things happening in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Roland read each page of the document co-written by Wendy and Scroll. In the end, he fixed his eyes on the name of Annie.

He felt quite familiar when he first heard of Annie. After Nightingale reminded him, he remembered the resentful history between the Bloodfang Association and the witches of the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

However, Annie was a quite common name, especially among the poor people in the lower class. At least, five or six out of 100 girls were named Annie, so it was normal to repeatedly hear the name. But the resume clearly recorded that she had indeed looked for the Bloodfang Association, and that she had not only been rejected but also almost sold to the nobles, so she was probably the "sister Annie" mentioned by Iffy.

"I have to say that such a coincidence is really filled with dramas."

A week ago, he had received a confidential letter delivered by a carrier pigeon from Fjords. The letter read that Tilly and the other witches had started their trip. They should have done half of the trip by now. He did not know what the scene would be like when the two met.

Although the reunion was not all about joys, and Iffy would certainly have a mixed bag of feelings of happiness and guilt, would Annie forgive Iffy who had betrayed her?

Roland secretly sighed and hoped that the time would heal the trauma between them.

He closed the resume and looked up to see Wendy asking, "Which places have you decided to show them around today?"

"Your Majesty," Wendy replied, "I want to give them a tour of North Slope Mine, the steam engine assembly plant as well as the Chaos Drinks plant."

The proposal was put forward by Wendy that the Witch Union would lead new witches to show them around Neverwinter. As far as she was concerned, this method would let newcomers be familiar with the local life and eliminate some unnecessary precautions and misunderstandings at the same time. After a two-day visiting tour and one-day resting, they could voluntarily choose to sign a contract or not, which had become a usual practice for the Union. Since Roland left the management of the witches to Wendy, she gradually got to the right track.

Judging from the visiting spots she had picked, these places all demonstrated that witches could collaborate with the subjects and also proved to them that the assistant witches could cast their abilities for other purposes, not only for fighting.

Roland nodded in satisfaction and said, "So I leave all this matter to you. Please take Lightning and Maggie with you. If something unexpected happens, they can help you control the situation."

After all, Wendy was not good at fighting and he also thought that every new witch would not be as nice as Anna. If there were two assistants flying in the sky to keep them alerted and Wendy had a revolver, she could deal with most unexpected emergencies.

"I see."

"By the way, what do you think of the guide?" He changed the topic.

"You mean No.76?"

"Yeah." Roland took a sip of tea. Usually, he would not spend his precious time on a normal slave, but Yorko spoke highly of her. Additionally, after hearing the story told by his old friend, he also respected such a lady that would sacrifice her own life to save others. If there was no problem in her identity and background, he would like to offer her a good job.

"She gets along with the four witches, especially Amy who considers her as a relative. As for me, if No.76 were vicious, she wouldn't have saved others' lives at the expense of her own life at the critical junction."

"We have the same thought. What if she is appointed to be a clerk of Witch Union? I remember that there are only three or four people in your office. If you have more subordinates, you'll find it easier to manage the organization."

This position did not have extra requirements. The salary was acceptable and the job was quite easy. As long as she got on well with the witches, she was eligible to do the job.

Wendy smiled, "I've no problems if she's willing to take the job."

"No, Your Majesty," Nightingale abruptly appeared and interrupted him, "don't offer her any job at present."

Roland was stunned, then asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

"I... I can't tell," she hesitated for a while and continued, "but I can feel something isn't right."

He took a weird look at Nightingale and kept silent for a while before saying, "I got it. Put this job thing aside."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After Wendy bowed and stepped out his office, Nightingale anxiously held Roland's hands and asked, "Sorry, You Majesty. Am I going... too far?"

"For the sake of safety?"

"Yes."

"That's what you should do." He tapped the backs of her hands and comforted her, "You're responsible for the internal security of Neverwinter and you're not the one to blame if you're extra cautious about that. But no records in your documents suggest that something is wrong with her. What in the world is the problem?"

Hearing that, Nightingale relaxed a bit. "No.76 didn't lie and my ability can also prove it. But..." She paused for a moment and spoke out her doubts. "I think that she doesn't behave like a normal slave when she's faced with strangers, so it would be safer, if I'm given more time, to observe her."

Chapter 699 - An Unappeasable Mood

When No. 76 entered the living room, the other four witches were sitting around the round table and enjoying the new food that had just been provided by the servant.

"Good morning," Amy was the first one to greet her, "Come over here and have breakfast. Besides bread, we have fried eggs and milk this time! I haven't had such a sumptuous meal in a long time."

"Sure," She agreed, a happy look on her face, as she took a seat beside Amy. After losing her sense of taste, food was only consumed to sustain life, while the process had become torturous. Having this affliction for hundreds of years now, she could calmly engulf the trash-like, tasteless food. She would then provide the appropriate praised based on her distant memories. "This is really delicious!"

"Isn't it?" Amy mumbled as she chewed some egg, "It has been over a year since I last ate fried eggs..."

"Don't complain, at least you ate it a year ago." Broken Sword objected, "I haven't eaten fried eggs in almost 10 years."

"Ahem..." Annie cleared her throat and said, "there is someone who has never eaten a fried egg."

"Who?" The three echoed, all in a daze.

"Me." Annie pointed to herself before continuing, "When I was in my village, my neighbor raised a flock of old hens. I always wanted to crawl into the henhouse and steal an egg so I could have a taste. But, my first attempt ended with me almost being beaten to death by my father, with a rolling pin, after he discovered me."

"Your father is honest." Hero said in a respectful tone.

"Honest?" She shrugged and said, "he was only afraid that the neighbor would discover me and make a claim for damages. As for the eggs, I had stolen, they were eaten by my father and younger brother."

The living room instantly fell into a brief silence.

"Ahem, let's have our breakfast," Hero deflected, somewhat embarrassed.

"Pfft..." Amy was the first to burst into laughter, "Hahaha...so that's what happened...haha..."

As soon as Amy laughed, the rest of the witches were unable to restrain their laughter.

Even No. 76 could not help but smile herself. After struggling to survive for so long, these witches finally found a peaceful home. From here, she felt like she could see the epitome of Taquila in its heyday.

No, it was not the epitome any longer. She told herself that Neverwinter would be the new Holy City and that the witches would be bound to regain their glory.

Because The Chosen One had appeared.

"Huh, you didn't sleep well, did you?" Amy stretched out her hand to wipe the corner of No. 76's eyes, "You have dark circles under your eyes."

"Oh...maybe," No. 76 lowered her head as she replied, "I was too excited to fall asleep last night."

Even though she only needed two hours of deep sleep to replenish her spirit, she couldn't go days without sleep. If a soul was overused, the effects were reflected in the physical body, which was a big taboo for witches. After all, a damaged and senile body could be remedied while a traumatized soul would remain perpetually withered.

How could she sleep though! She did not want to fall into the dark dormancy at all, she was afraid that everything was just a dream and that when she woke up, The Chosen One would have disappeared into thin air.

What she needed most was to find the one with the orange light and to contact Pasha.

It really wasn't going to be easy.

According to Wendy, most of the witches lived in the Witch Building of the Castle District. However, she wasn't a witch and she couldn't enter the castle by joining the Union. It was unlikely that she could depend on these witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Of course, she could risk being discovered and try to sneak into the castle. That way she could confirm The Chosen One, unfortunately, that was not a smart option. She didn't know if The Chosen One would believe her and the green-haired witch, that had the ability for magic perception, was difficult to deal with. No.76 wasn't sure if she could smoothly extract The Chosen One through the maze ruins while being pursued by combat witches. God's Punishment Army was born to battle witches, but they were not invincible.

There was also the local lord that happened to be dreadfully powerful, which acted as a type of deterrent. Since the lord could defeat Starfall City they feared him taking possession of the many soldiers of God's Punishment Army.

Since they lost the ability to repopulate, they needed humans to help them restrengthen their numbers, even if the demons are defeated. Hence, Pasha being right about them needing to, sooner or later, cooperate with the Four Kingdoms.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Taquila wouldn't turn against the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Of course, if the king wanted to kill The Chosen One, it would leave her no choice. Even if she had to sacrifice herself, she would protect The Chosen One, who could dominate the Battle of the Divine Will.

"Can't you nap later?" Amy hid her smile as she said, "The servant informed us that lunch and dinner will be served on time, so unlike before, we don't need to go out and spend the day finding our own food."

"No worries, Miss Nana completely cured me." No. 76 stated while patting her chest, indicating her energy had been replenished. Then she hesitated before asking, "Is Lady Wendy going to show you around Neverwinter later? I...I don't want to stay alone."

"You can come with us," Amy responded instantly.

"But..."

"Don't worry about it, we can hang around the streets. Plus, if you come, you can help carry Hero."

"I understand," Broken Sword echoed, "I don't like staying alone in the room, either."

"I'm sorry if I am any trouble for you," Hero smiled at No. 76.

Annie calmly said, "Don't worry. I'll talk to Lady Wendy about it."

"Thank you..." No. 76 bowed deeply, lowering her head.

She had to admit that she had some affections for this younger generation. Even though they weren't considered a combat witches, the survivors of the Union had gradually started to change their minds. After 400 years, with the constantly shifting fortunes from prosperity to poverty and their hopeless lives in the deep cave, their moods were finally starting to shift.

However, they did not have to take turns carrying Hero as they had expected.

Wendy brought a delicate wheelchair.

"You can push the wheels to drive it back and forth. If you rotate the wheels you can change directions." She personally demonstrated this as she explained, "Anna and Soraya worked together overnight to forge this wheelchair. With it, Hero can go anywhere, within a limited area."

Hearing the name of Anna, No. 76 was startled. Wasn't Anna the High Awakened claimed by Nana? Would they really go through so much trouble for a common witch who had lost her legs?

"Thank you...My Lady," Hero said, choking back tears.

"You're welcome. Please regard Neverwinter as your personal home." Wendy said gently, "As I've mentioned, all the witches here are your sisters."

While Hero familiarized herself with the wheelchair, Annie asked Wendy, the leader of the Union, if No. 76 could join them.

However, Wendy didn't respond quickly, instead, she turned to look at her. After a moment passed Wendy nodded, "Sure, what's one person more." However, the long pause caught No. 76 off guard.

Somehow, the pause made her feel uneasy.

Is my inspection not over yet?

Chapter 700 - The First Senior Witch

It would be meaningless to fret over the matter now as she had to follow those four even if that would catch attention from others; this would be the best opportunity to observe the city and the Witch Union closely. If she waited until the witches entered the Castle District, it would be much harder to keep in contact with them.

With that thought, No.76 showed Wendy a somewhat timid smile. "I'm sorry to have caused to so much trouble."

"See, I told you that Miss Wendy wouldn't mind," Amy said with a grin.

Instead, it was Annie who sensed something strange. She looked at the two people and did not say a word.

"Let's go." After Hero became a bit familiar with using the wheelchair, Wendy clapped her hands and smiled. "Our first stop for today is the central area of Neverwinter, North Slope Mine!"

"Mine?" All five of them were dumbfounded for a moment.

"What's the point of visiting a mine?" That was the first thought came to No. 76's mind. She could bet that the rest of the group were having similar thoughts. In both Taquila and the Kingdom of Dawn, labors such as mining were all distributed to slaves or prisoners. The working environment in the mine was extremely hazardous. It was common to have deaths and injuries for heavy labors like mining and transporting. Only the valueless ones would be left in the mines to perish.

"Perhaps Wendy's purpose is to exhort newcomers like us to behave ourselves by showing us the consequences of disobedience?" No. 76 guessed.

However, there were no hints of threat in Wendy's tone. "Instead of a mine, it's more like the source of power to Neverwinter. The more steel that one could produce, the more qualified the one would become to represent justice. This is a sentence that His Majesty always says to us. It's a mouthful, right?" There was a lingering smile in her eyes when she talked about the king. "Anyways, you guys will know when you guys see it."

"Represent... justice?"

No. 76 pondered this phrase several times in her mind and still failed to figure out the relation between steel and justice.

When they walked out of the Foreign Affairs Building, the snow on the street had been cleaned. They did not know what kind of magical method that the locals used, there was now only a puddle of water at where the heavy snow had previously piled up. New snow was flowing from the sky, but much less compared to that a few days ago. Hectic freemen were everywhere on the street, seeming to have endless work, they walked hurriedly through the streets and allies in the snow. It was the serene time of severe winter and the Months of Demons, but the whole city was filled with liveliness.

The Five-Colored Stone heated up again, she looked around and soon found her target. There were two people above her head... no, it was a human and a bird, presumably coming to keep an eye on them.

The Witch Union had impressed No. 76 furthermore this time. Such means and conscientiousness were comparable to the small city-state during the Taquila age. It did not seem like a wild witch organization after the decline of the Union.

Besides, she also confirmed that her judgment was accurate, with the clairvoyant power of the green-haired witch, plus the tracking of the flying witch, it would be impossible for her to escape from this place after having exposed her identity.

"Since we've got some time on the way to the mine, let me simply introduce the identity of the witch along with some knowledge regarding witches' power." The red-haired witch led the group to the north and said, "Since the awakening stage, witches are facing the trouble of the magic power bites. The church used to call it the Demonic Torture. However, it's actually a natural reaction due to the continual growth of magic power. You guys must have already known this point by now."

Annie calmly nodded and said, "Yes, otherwise it would be difficult to survive through adulthood."

Amy raised her hand and added, "I heard about it from Broken Sword."

Broken Sword said with a little embarrassment, "I used my powers quite frequently at the time when I wandered in the wilderness. I was just randomly guessing though."

Wendy exclaimed with a sigh. "The Witch Cooperation Association said the same words too. It's a blessing that we all made it through. Once we've stepped into adulthood, the original power of the witch will be solidified and a witch might even develop a derivative skill. The specific symptom is that the magic swirl in her body will expand and becomes distinct."

"What's that?" Amy asked in curiosity.

"Something that every witch has, it's like an air current that never ceases to stop swirling." Wendy patted the young girl's head lovingly. "Only a few witches are able to observe them. It's the exact form of the magic power, the specifics of its form determine the type of magic power."

"Is, Is that so?" Amy asked in astonishment.

Wendy smiled and said, "Wait until the day to test your magic power. These are all the items that need to be recorded. By that time, you'll know the look of the magic swirl inside your body."

No. 76 could not help but frown, thinking, "Has this kind of knowledge about the survival of witches become a secret? What did Starfall City do? The more witches survive, the more ingredients they'll have to establish the God's Punishment Army. Why did they block information like this?"

"Or perhaps, in these 400 years, the witches of Starfall City deviated from the will of Lady Alice?"

Wendy continued to explain, "However, the day of adulthood isn't the end of a witch's magical power. Besides the consolidation of power, there's even the evolution of power. There are no limits on the number of times a power can evolve. It'll not be confined to the original power either. As long as a witch continues to strengthen her understanding of herself and magic power, her ability will continue to evolve."

"Really?" Amy exclaimed in excitement. "Someone like me could evolve too?"

"Of course. As long as you study hard." With these words, Wendy took out a thin silver plate with a red crystal embedded in it and said, "Come to me, I want to introduce a new sister to you all."

No. 76 could not believe what she saw. "That's... The Sigil of Listening?"

Her pupils contracted all the sudden. "How can a wild witch organization own the heritage of the Holy City of Taquila?"

"No... they would have such a chance. They might find a couple of remaining Sigils of Listening from the scattered ruins of the kingdom. This equipment was usually distributed to Blessed Warriors. I remember... the Quest Society never made such crude Sigils of Listening."

"Yes, it looks like an incomplete sigil. Like a temporary test target made by some unknown witch."

As soon as the red-haired witch finished her sentence, the silhouette in the sky rushed down and perched on her head.

It turned out to be a lovely blonde girl and a fat white pigeon which No.76 thought must be the girl's pet.

The group still stood agape as they were shocked by the speaking crystal.

"Hello, everyone." The young girl showed a bright smile. "My name is Lightning, the greatest adventurer of Neverwinter!"

"I'm Maggie! Coo-Coo!" Pigeon said and spread its wings.

"Gosh, the bird is talking!" Amy widened her eyes.

"They're witches," Annie said calmly, "The power is most likely related to changing the body shape."

"You guessed right." Wendy stretched her arm to allow the Pigeon to rest on it. "She's a sister of ours that went through the evolution of power."

"So it's not a pet..." No. 76 blanked out for a moment. "Wait, what did she say? That pigeon called Maggie is a Senior Witch?"

She stared at the pigeon. It rubbed Wendy's cheek amiably and spread its wings and lifted its head up when being introduced to the group. It seemed to be presenting its strength by doing so. She could not help but wonder, "Is, is it really a Senior Witch?"

"Back in Taquila, she would be able to join the upper class of the Union and become one of the rulers of the Holy City!"

"I should show respect to every Senior Witch. It's an unbreakable rule of the Union, but..."

No. 76 felt something cracked in her heart.

Chapter 701 - A Hundred Years of Evolution

"Wow! I didn't know that Maggie had such great power!" Amy exclaimed.

"Coo, coo!"

"She does?" Lightning expressed some unsatisfaction. "She's just older than us. When I reach adulthood, I'll surely develop even stronger, new abilities!"

"Oh... then, can you tell me what new ability Miss. Maggie gained once she reached adulthood?"

"She transformed into a flying monster for the first time. In that form she's massive and fierce looking, her body even shadows the sun when she soars through the sky. That form isn't lovely at all."

"Coo..." Maggie dropped her head in despondency.

"A flying monster... I'd love to see that!"

"Me too!"

The group of witches surrounded Maggie and Lightening. No. 76 felt anxious and thought to herself, "These imbeciles are all amateurs. They don't seem to understand at all. Who cares about a Senior Witch looking cute or dreadful? Isn't the point supposed to be about the relationship between your evolution of power and the Magic Cyclone, as well as about how to become a Senior Witch?" No. 76 struggled to maintain her smile and she felt her mouth as it started to twitch.

Sensing that the subject of the conservation had been diverted from the point, No. 76 had no choice but to speak, "Maggie appears to be exactly like any normal pigeon... how do we know that her power already went through an evolution?"

There was a possibility this question could expose her identity, but No. 76 didn't care much about that at this point.

No. 76 decided to take the chance regardless. "Perhaps they knew a way to discern the difference between the Day of Awakening and the solidification of adulthood. Even so, they may have confused a derivative skill as a High Awakening, sometimes a lucky person received multiple derivative skills."

"We differentiate it by the magic power," Wendy answered No. 76's question, "if we say that a normal witch's magic power is like a cyclone or a thin mist, the magic power will cohere and become a bright new form, after the evolution. For instance, Maggie's magic power now takes the form of stretched white wings, very different from the foggy mist in her past."

"Her description of the reconstruction of the magic's cohesion is exactly the same as the definition presented by the Union."

Wendy's words eradicated the last of No. 76 doubts. If Wendy wasn't lying, then Maggie was indeed a Senior Witch.

Although No.76 didn't have the ability to observe magic power directly, Wendy's confidence in her words, and the accuracy of her theory, showed that she had a comprehensive knowledge regarding the magic evolution.

"I see how it is," No. 76 tried to conceal her inner excitement as she pretended not to understand the issue, "Your power... is like that too then?"

"I haven't cohered my magic power." Wendy said frankly, "Compared to Anna, I still have a lot to learn."

"So, she became the manager of the whole union as an 'Original Witch' and even befriended the higher ascendants?" Observing the intimate and amiable look of the pigeon, No.76 suddenly had a thought, she had indeed slept for too long. This world was drastically different from the Taquila era that she had known.

The witches of the Kingdom of Wolfheart didn't sense No. 76's complex emotions, except for Annie. The three witches were playing with Maggie and laughing.

As the group climbed the mountain, No. 76 deliberately slowed down and dropped to the back of the group.

She moved her hand, which bore a ring of Five-Colors Stone, up to her eyes and pretended to rub her eyes so she could observe Lightning and Maggie through the gleaming Magic Stone.

Since Lightning and Maggie were using their powers, two conspicuous orange lights appeared before No.76's eyes.

The beams of light above Lightning's head were similar to that of Annie's. They were about a finger width wide. Maggie's beams of light were thicker and about the width of an arm. This aligned with the theory that the Key to gaining a Senior Witch staus was more complex.

When compared to the beams of the light from last night's infiltrator, their beams of light were much thinner, not to mention the gigantic, wall-like beam of light that had been in the Castle District.

"None of them are the Chosen One."

No. 76 felt an uneasiness in her heart as she remembered the name of the two.

...

After they had entered the North Slope Mine, the noise surrounding them became louder and louder. The witches were surprised to see that the mine was still in full operation, despite the snow and frigid winds. The busy miners could be seen everywhere on the street.

To their surprise, none of the miners wore ragged prisoner's cloth. Instead, the miners were all wearing thick leather coats with different colored cloth belts wrapped around their heads. The cloth seemed to represent different work. The ground near the entrance of the mine was covered with iron bars of the same width. Four-wheel carriages moved on the iron bars, but there were no drivers or horses.

Colorful banners were hanging down from the orbit. There were big letters on the banners—labor is the most glorious act, use your own hands to win the future, ten years of working and a hundred years of housing...The scarlet banners, white snow, and black railway composed the main colors of the mine.

"Before His Majesty became Lord of Border Town, the seasonal ore from Border Town would only exchange for a few hundred gold royals. During the winter, workers were unable to produce any ore due to the Months of Demons. Locals couldn't even feed themselves with the money they could get." Wendy slowed her pace and turned around, "After His Majesty arrived in the Western Region, and saved a witch named Anna, the door to cooperation between witches and humans was thus opened."

"Do you see those black steel machines? They are hand-made by Anna. They can dig tubs, drain water without the drive of magic power, and can be operated by anyone. With this equipment, the production of the mine increased more than ten times. People's salary now, not only filled their stomachs but also allowed them to buy new cloth or homes. The obvious profits allowed the town's people to accept the existence of witches."

"You guys asked recently what the witches job is. The answer is to create a better life." Wendy stroked the red hair on her forehead and said proudly, "If you guys joined the Witch Union, we could build this city together and fight for this big family. The citizens will firmly remember your names in the future."

They could tell that even Annie, who was usually very composed, had been shaken by Wendy's words. Her hands that held the wheelchair flexed and fully showed her emotions. The rest of the people seemed dazed after they heard the words 'family of witches.' To refugees like them, there was nothing more enchanting than a cozy place to live.

Only No. 76's heart was filled with doubts. "The key point of the change in Wendy's story was not the witches, but the black machinery. A local citizen would be a lowerclassman, even among the common people. How had they known how to build those machines? An awakening would only bring a boost to the person's magic power and physical strength, however, it would not bring them unseen knowledge."

...

Wendy's next sentence almost caused No. 76 to have a heart attack.

"Since we have reached the North Slope Mountain, let's go see Miss Anna." Wendy smiled softly, "She is not only the busiest witch in the union but also the only genius that has gone through two evolutions."

Chapter 702 - Someone Impossible to Meet

...

Passing through a mountain path guarded by numerous guards, No. 76 could see the red brick wall looming in the snow forest.

Judging from the outposts set along the path, No. 76 was sure that she would not have been allowed to enter such a restricted area if she had acted alone. Senior Witches were finally treated in a way befitting their position. At least, such a massive display of guards would not be disgraceful to these promoted people.

Although she did not understand why a witch so gifted would build her home on the North Slope Mountain Ridges.

Furthermore, No. 76 still was not fully convinced about what Wendy had said. Anyhow, it sounded too incredible to her that a witch could experience awakenings twice so soon after she had come of age. She knew that even though the number of times a witch awakened did not represent one's strength or ability, yet the perseverance, intelligence, and perception one required to achieve awakenings twice were much more than she could imagine. Even in the entire Union, there were hardly any witches who was as exceptional as this one. She was really surprised to meet such a witch in the kingdom of the common people.

As they walked close to the walls, No. 76 noticed something strange.

"Is this really where the witch lives?" Looking over the top of the walls, No. 76 could only see a few roofs put up with canvas. There was no castle or stone tower here, not even a one-story house.

"Here we are." Wendy knocked on the gate of the yard, "The backyard of North Slope Mountain is the research and development center of all kinds of mechanical equipment in Neverwinter. Apart from studying, Anna often spends her time working here. To ensure her safety, His Majesty has blocked the entire mountain path to prohibit unauthorized people from entering."

"It's only an institute..." No. 76 frowned secretly. "The guards on the path don't belong to Anna but are sent by the king. It looks like he's watching her rather than protecting her."

"Sister Wendy." A lively little girl opened the door. "I've been waiting for you for a long time!"

"Good girl, where's your sister?"

"She's doing a machine tool test with Sister Anna."

"This is...?" Amy asked.

"Lucia's sister, Ring White." Wendy introduced, "She's now a probationary clerk for the Witch Union and hasn't awakened yet."

"How are you?" The little girl greeted politely. "Please come in."

"Lucia White also spends a lot of time here working with Anna and she's responsible for the research work on metal materials," Wendy said as she led everyone inside the yard, "By the way, her ability also evolved when she came of age, and the improvement of her magic power is quite dramatic, like Anna's. She's among the few witches who could drive a Sigil of God's Will."

No. 76 almost stumbled over the threshold as she heard this.

"Wait, what she's talking about?"

"Sigil of God's Will?" No. 76 could not believe her ears.

Luckily, someone soon asked, "What's a Sigil?"

"A Sigil of God's Will." Wendy repeated with a smile. "It's a weapon that requires a tremendous amount of magic power, most people find it hard to light the four Magic Stones on it. His Majesty has hung it on the wall of the castle's hall for everyone to test their magic powers. If you join the Witch Union in the future, you have the chance to experience it yourself. At the moment, only four members of the Witch Union are capable of lighting the last Magic Stone on Sigil. Everyone is now guessing who the fifth will be."

"Hang it on the hall? Only four witches?"

No. 76 felt like she was listening to a fantasy. Even hearing the name of Sigil of God's Will was enough to surprise her, let alone caring about where they found it. In the Taquila age, the Sigil was the exclusive weapon for the Three Chiefs of the Union. Expect for Transcendents who spent all of their time on training, there was no one who had the required magic power to drive the golden thunder.

"But here they actually have 'only' four witches who could activate the Sigil? Don't be ridiculous! Does the Witch Union possess even more Transcendents than the Union?"

"Moreover, from what Wendy said, both Anna and Lucia aren't Extraordinary witches now. Then how could they advance to become Transcendents?"

"What sounds crazier to me is the way that the king of common people deals with the Sigil of God's Will. Since there are witches who can activate it, he must have seen the tremendous power it could cast. Then why has he placed such a precious weapon in the hall for all the witches to play with? The Sigil is a war trophy for the slaughter of a Senior Demon. Does this guy not have any common sense?"

No. 76 suddenly felt a slight pain in her brain.

The information that Lucia was also a Senior Witch had numbed her.

No. 76 had seen three promoted witches in just one morning. All she wanted to do now was to ask someone why a border city ruled by common people would harbor so many Senior Witches. What was more mind-blowing to her was that they did not have any awareness of how to be a superior. For example, Lucia had been introduced by Lightning and had already integrated herself with the witches of Wolfheart. Anna was much calmer, but No. 76 could see from her face that she did not have any complaints about being managed by an Original Witch, Wendy. Through their conversations, you could see that Anna and Wendy had an affinity and trust between them.

When No. 76 could not hold back her curiosity any longer and be about to blurt out her questions, she heard someone finally mention this point.

"May I ask how many people in the Witch Union have evolved abilities that are new?" Broken Sword's question was as sweet as the sound of nature to No. 76.

But shortly after that, No. 76 was shocked by Wendy's response. She saw Wendy counting the number with her fingers. "Well... one, two, three... nine, ten, just ten."

"10..."

No. 76 was so overwhelmed she had no energy to be shocked.

If the information provided by 'Black Money' was correct, there were only about 20 witches that lived in the Western Region of Graycastle. In her plan, she merely viewed Neverwinter as her first stop, her target was Sleeping Island in the Fjords, as it was the place that had the most witches.

But she did not expect to find 10 Senior Witches here.

"Was this a mockery of the incompetence of the Union?"

Drawing a deep breath, No. 76 no longer stayed close to them but put the ring before her eyes, taking advantage of the time when they were showing their abilities.

The beam of orange light shining from Lucia was almost twice as wide as that from Maggie. And the beam of light from Anna was much more eye-catching, almost as wide as her trunk and was nearly the same as the uninvited guest who sneaked into the Foreign Affairs Building that night.

Undoubtedly, neither of them were the Chosen One.

It seemed that the 'wall of light beam' in the castle belonged to another person.

But was this possible? Was there any witch that was more exceptional than Wendy's genius, Anna, and had even experienced awakenings twice?

At the moment when No. 76 was wondering, the gate of the backyard was suddenly pushed open and a blue-haired woman came in.

"The anticorrosive results you asked for have arrived. These are the test samples." She placed several glass bottles in front of Anna. "Aluminium alloy sample No. 1872 had the best result like His Majesty had predicted."

"Thank you for your hard work, Agatha."

"Goodbye then." The witch, whose name was Agatha, nodded and turned away without paying any attention to the rest. Her demeanor gave No.76 an impression of the imposing manner that a superior would have in the Taquila age. But the moment Agatha turned around, No.76 felt like a thunderbolt flashed in her heart!

She realized that she had seen this person before.

Chapter 703 - Coming from the Past

No. 76 knew her. She was sure about it. Even though over 400 years had gone by and she barely remembered the witch's name, the scene back then was still vivid in her mind.

She remembered the blue-haired witch dropped to one knee before the Three Chiefs of the Union, solemnly took over the cope and scepter which symbolized being a higher ascendant and accepted the personal blessing of the Quest Society's leader.

No. 76 was deeply impressed by the witch's figure when she turned to the audience and raised her scepter that as the youngest Senior Witch born in the Taquila age, her pride and confidence was deeply engraved on the minds of all the bystanders at the scene.

At that time, No. 76 merely served as an original combat witch for the garrison. When she looked up at her junior who was standing on the stage with boundless enthusiasm, she felt a sense of infinite admiration tangled with a hint of inferiority.

So the witch was Agatha.

In a split second, the dusty memory fragments were pieced together in No. 76's mind.

She even remembered in the later years that Agatha had been excluded from the central research group. Due to her errant behavior, she had violated the Quest Society's principle of never recruiting common people.

But Agatha refused to repent. Instead, she decided to establish her own research tower outside the city of Taquila.

Her status and distinction had saved her from the impediment of other people. If any Original Witch dared to go against the Quest Society openly, she would definitely be dispatched to the frontlines and be engaged in fighting bloody battles until she would end up as one of the casualties.

Back then, No. 76 was discontent with Agatha and considered her behavior quite out of place at that time when there was a war to fight. For the Quest Society, losing her meant losing a young and talented promoted person. For Agatha, being excluded meant she would be deprived of most of the resources and bases for exploring the mysteries of Magic Stone. Both of the consequences would be a loss to the Holy City of Taquila.

However, for No. 76 who had experienced the fall of the Union and had waited for more than 400 years, all her discontent had vanished. Now, her heart was brimming with happiness... and a kind of incredulous surprise.

The happiness came from the unexpected chance of being reunited with a Taquila witch here.

While the surprise was she that could not understand how a Taquila witch could survive until now.

It was obvious that Agatha had maintained her body, even her look, and her age of that time. It seemed everything about her was frozen since then without even a trace of aging.

However, the bodies of other survivors had long ago turned into ashes, leaving only their souls that were being kept through unique methods.

No. 76 fought the urge to stop Agatha and instead silently watched her walk away until the gate of the yard was closed once more. After that, she took a deep breath.

She already knew what to do next.

...

When the light began to fade and the howling cold wind turned sharp as it usually did every night, Nightingale noticed a slight change of Sylvie's expression and so she asked, "Why? What did you find out?"

"No. 76 has left the Foreign Affairs Building by jumping out of the window on the corridor of the second floor," Sylvie replied.

"Has she?" Nightingale raised her eyebrow. "Those windows are sealed with iron railings, aren't they?"

"Maybe they were rusty. The whole window frame could fall off easily by shaking it." Sylvie stood before the French window, looking down at the city slowly hiding in the darkness. "She climbed over the wall and the guards at the doorway didn't realize anything."

"But she couldn't escape our attention." Nightingale could not help but raise her lip. "I'm right. She must be plotting something."

Since keeping Roland safe was more important, she called Sylvie to the office in the castle to keep a watch on the tour of the new-comers with her.

There was nothing strange about the behavior of the Wolfheart witches in the morning. After their lunch, No. 76 suddenly seemed quite uncomfortable. Sylvie could tell from her lip movements that No. 76 was tired because she had stayed up overnight. At last, No.76 listened to their suggestions and went to bed to get some rest. She skipped the tour in the afternoon.

Nightingale had thought it would be a quiet and peaceful day, but things changed unexpectedly when it was almost twilight. They noticed that No. 76 started to act.

"You've really guessed correctly," Roland said with great spirit, closing his book, "but an ordinary person who could avoid your lie detection does possess some extraordinary talent."

Nightingale coughed slightly. "Sooner or later I'll figure out how she did it after I seize her."

"No. 76 is moving south along a small street outside the Castle District. Wait, she stopped beside the street," Sylvie continued to report, "Looks like she is... waiting for someone?"

"She has neither magic power nor a weapon. It looks like she's here either for intelligence or is in collusion with others and planning something big." Nightingale analyzed with soaring spirit. "If it's the former, she would have lurked for a little longer. Judging from her hasty reaction, maybe she'll attack tonight."

"Attack? Attack whom?" Sylvie asked.

"Um... well, we'll figure it out later."

After 10 minutes, Sylvie's voice turned harsh. "Why? She's moving again... and is now she's targeting... Oh no, isn't that Agatha?"

"It's nothing unusual for her to be here since it's time for the workers to change shifts..." Nightingale frowned. "Are you sure No. 76 who doesn't have the God's Stone of Retaliation is targeting Agatha, a combat witch?"

"Agatha reacted! No... How's this possible!" Sylvie shouted incredulously. "No. 76 shows the response of God's Stone."

The information shocked Nightingale and Roland.

"Nightingale!"

"I'll be right there." Before Roland could finish, Nightingale had entered the Mist. "Sylvie, protect His Majesty in my absence."

...

Agatha's hands were suspended in mid-air, and her heart sank abruptly.

It was a small street she was walking on, leading to the Castle District, few citizens would pass by usually, especially at nightfall. When she noticed someone approaching from behind, without the slightest hesitation, she turned around and summoned Ice to freeze the attacker's feet.

But, after Ice emerged in the mid-air, it lasted no more than one second, as if it never existed.

"It's... God's Stone of Retaliation?"

"No, if she wears a God's Stone, Ice shouldn't be able to get near her."

Just in front of her, a few seconds ago, the icicle she summoned was formed by magic power before it vanished.

"How could this be possible?"

But Agatha understood that it was not the right time to probe into that.

She was sure that the attacker had been well prepared as she had been following her in this quiet street and was capable of dispelling her magic power. But when she was ready to strike, what the attacker did shocked her.

She saw the woman place her elbows at a level position and press her overlapped fingers on her chest, before bending down deeply.

She had not seen this etiquette for a long time.

It was a standard etiquette that was performed when a member of the Union met a superior of the Taquila age.

"You're..." Agatha could not stop asking.

"My respects to you, Lady Agatha, the youngest High Awakened," the woman said slowly, "Can we find a place to have a talk?"

Chapter 704 - A Cross-era Talk

No. 76 closed the door to cut off the noise in the tavern lobby and then walked back to sit opposite Agatha.

No. 76 knew it would be much easier to expose herself once she acted alone and left the witches of Wolfheart, but concealing her identity was no longer her priority now.

"I thought you'd take me somewhere out-of-the-way." Agatha looked around the cubicle. "I didn't expect you to bring me here."

"The tavern has always been a good place for exchanging information and keeping in contact, my Lady." No. 76 poured Agatha a mug of ale. "I hope you'll forgive me for failing to provide a more elegant environment for our talk. After all, this is only my second day in Neverwinter."

Now that No. 76 was no longer concerned about being exposed, talking in the tavern would actually make the other party less wary to some extent, for they would certainly feel safer in a place with so many people coming and going rather than in a dark alley. Neither of them feared the cold, but Agatha would not accept the request for a private talk in some desolate place from a complete stranger who appeared out of nowhere. Even No. 76 would not accept such a request.

Most importantly, since she had neither hostility toward Neverwinter nor the Witch Union, she need not consider herself as their enemy, her previous plan of hiding was only for the purpose of finding the Chosen One. Now that she had found a better way, there was no need for her to follow the original plan.

Common people and witches were now faced with a mutual enemy. The danger loomed ahead.

"How did you find me in only two days?"

"I tried to find out where you worked, the hours when you would return to the castle and the route you would take... I made the witches of Wolfheart ask Wendy about the first two things and I heard about your usual route from the residents." No. 76 was brief and to the point. "After I knew that you belonged to the Witch Union, I decided to take the initiative to contact you."

"I see." Agatha gazed at her keenly. "So there are other witches of Taquila who survived?"

"You could say that, but we're no longer witches." No. 76 knew that the only reason Agatha was willing to talk to her was that she had news about Taquila, so she did not conceal anything regarding this. "There was no way to preserve the body for hundreds of years and so we could only adopt another method to extend our life. For example, the body you're looking at now belongs to a God's Punishment Warrior of the church."

"You mean... not only can you control the body but you also have the power to activate the domain of God's Stone?"

"Indeed, this was also the ultimate goal that Lady Alice was fighting for, a God's Punishment Warrior that was formed by combining a witch and a common person that could combat the demon. Even losing half of his blood would not kill the witch as long as the witch's soul was transferred to another body to form another perfect transcendent warrior."

"I knew her plan was not that simple." Agatha remained silent for a long time before finishing her ale. "But judging from your tone, it sounded like the other survivors didn't agree with this method. And... Why did you come here?"

"Before I give you the answer, I'd like to ask you something very important," No. 76 said in a low voice.

"Go ahead."

"Have you already revealed the information about the demon, the Battle of Divine Will, and the Union to the Witch Union?"

Agatha nodded.

No. 76 suddenly showed a hint of excitement. "How did they respond? Did they believe you?"

"Not only did they accept the information, they've also started preparing for the third Battle of Divine Will," she replied, "In fact, a short time ago, the Witch Union confronted the demons and killed a Magic Slayer along with two Fearsome Demons."

No. 76 could not help but clench her fist. All the things had turned out as she had expected. Agatha had really revealed the information to the local witches. In that case, the Witch Union and Taquila have become natural allies, which meant that she no longer needed to hide her identity and could get straight to the point.

Although she was also curious about the victory of the battle between the witches of the Witch Union and the Senior Demons before the fall of Bloody Moon, there was something more urgent that she had to discuss.

Without hesitating, No. 76 told Agatha everything about the fight between Natalia and Alice as well as the plan of the Chosen One. "I've found the witch who can start the instrument of Divine retribution and annihilate the demons lives in the Castle District, and I hope you could help me to identify her."

Agatha was a little shocked. "Is there anyone who can really do that?"

"Lady Pasha told me so." No. 76 took off the ring and handed it over to Agatha. "As long as anyone summons her power, I can see the orange light that symbolizes the 'Key' through the colorful Magic Stone."

Agatha puckered her lips before taking the ring. She observed it for a moment and said, "I think you should talk to the Lord of Neverwinter."

"Of course, I'll tell Wendy everything... Wait!" No. 76 was surprised. "The Lord of Neverwinter? You mean... The local leader that is a common person?"

"Yes, Roland Wimbledon, a common person who looks ordinary and is even a little rash." Somehow, a faint smile appeared on Agatha's lips. "He's the actual core of the Witch Union."

No. 76 frowned and said, "I don't quite understand... what do you mean?"

"I was just like you at the very beginning." Agatha handed back the ring. "I realized later that without Roland, the Witch Union wouldn't exist, Neverwinter wouldn't be the way it is now, and Graycastle would never defeat the church. All of the achievements came from this common person. If you want to find and take the Chosen One with you, it's Roland you need to speak to, not Wendy."

"But..."

"Don't worry, he knows much more than you could ever imagine." Agatha chuckled. "You know what he told me after I woke up in the Frozen Coffin, when I was shattered and bewildered by the fact that the Union had disappeared long ago? He said that common people could defeat demons."

"This is too..."

"Arrogant, right?" She interrupted. "And I thought so in the first place. But in fact, I saw hope in him. That hope was something the witches of Neverwinter would believe in wholeheartedly. Hence, you must earn Roland's approval if Taquila wants to work with the Witch Union to fight against the demons."

For a moment, No. 76 could not believe her ears. If it was a wild witch who identified with the rule of a common person, she would think it made sense. After all, more than 400 years had passed since that period when the Union ruled the mainland, and the witches were superior. But she could not understand why Agatha, an authentic Taquila witch, would have so much faith in a common person. Additionally, the faith was not merely about recruiting common people as assistants for her experiment.

Although she had been engaged in missions involving the secular regime before, she did not expect the mission to begin like this.

No. 76 put the ring away and remained silent for a moment before saying. "Please let me think about it."

After that, she rose to salute Agatha once again before leaving the tavern.

Chapter 705 - The Hand

"You can come out now." Agatha looked at the empty corner of the room.

After she spoke, there was a faint shadow on the wall. Nightingale then came out of nowhere and blocked the dim candlelight.

"When did you discover me?" She sounded a bit surprised.

"When I took the ring from No. 76," Agatha said as she shrugged her shoulders and raised the jug, "would you like a cup?"

"If it's your treat." Nightingale sat down opposite the Ice Witch and said, "Can that magic stone sense magic power?"

"It's not magic power but an orange light beam, or perhaps I should say... the 'key'." She took out an empty cup, filled it readily and pushed it to Nightingale. "Your beam lit up half a room. It was hard not to notice it."

"Did she notice that too?"

"Most likely," Agatha nodded. "She didn't mind revealing her identity in front of her own kind."

"She and I aren't the same, just like Pure Witch and I aren't the same," said Nightingale, "did you believe what she said?"

"Yes, I did."

"But you didn't take her ring."

"Because I really want to help her and get her on the right path." Agatha also poured herself a glass of ale and then drank it all—the quality of the drink was rather poor, a far cry from Evelyn's fruity liquor and the strange-tasting Chaos Drinks. In spite of this, the sour bitterness still could not suppress her pleasure.

Agatha was elated.

At the very moment when No. 76 revealed her identity, the recurring sense of loneliness disappeared from her heart. It turned out that she was not the last survivor of Taquila, and there were other witches like her from the Union who had come to this era after crossing a time span of more than 400 years.

Although most of the Witch Union members were very friendly, and Wendy was very affectionate toward her, Agatha constantly felt lost—she knew there was a gap between her and the other witches caused by the accumulation of centuries, which could not be erased in a short time. She could not confide to the witches in this new era, so she tried to numb herself by burying herself in work.

The only exception was Roland Wimbledon. She felt a sense of comfort when she was alone with this weird common person. At first, she found it hard to understand. She realized later on that Roland had the same kind of undefinable estrangement as if he were out of touch with this world—the only difference was Roland hid it much better than her, and hardly anyone noticed it.

Finally, she was no longer alone.

It was for this reason that Agatha hoped No. 76 would make a request to visit Roland Wimbledon in her official identity as a Taquila witch.

She looked forward to the both of them standing side by side in the Battle of Divine Will.

She was already in love with the life here at Neverwinter, and naturally, she hoped that her own kind would feel the same way about this place.

Furthermore, Agatha had a small hidden desire.

She wanted to prove to the witches that what she had said was wise and correct—co-operation between the common people and witches was the best way to fight the demons.

"This was why you neglected her deliberately?" Nightingale looked perplexed, as this was the first time she saw Agatha's real thoughts.

"No. 76 will understand after she's been here for some time." Agatha curled her lips. "Wasn't I the same?"

This batch of survivors did not think of liking the church... They did not agree with the plan of the God's Punishment Army and were reluctant to use the witches as sacrificial materials. They even split up with Lady Alice over this. This was one reason why she decided to help them.

Afterwards, Nightingale was silent for a long time. Only when the rocking candle was burnt to its bottom, did she gradually disappear and return to the darkness. "I hope she will make the right choice."

"She will," Agatha smiled and said, "I believe that."

*******************

No. 76 went back along the same path to the Foreign Affairs Building, where she bumped into Annie and the others, who had finished visiting the beverage plant.

"I woke up and felt much better," she said voluntarily before anyone had the chance to ask. "It was a bit stuffy in the room, so I took a walk in the yard."

"You should put more clothes on so that you won't catch a cold," said Broken Sword with concern.

Amy held her hand and said happily, "It's a shame you didn't come with us this afternoon! The Chaos Drinks made by Miss Evelyn were simply out of this world!"

"Chaos... Drinks?"

"Yeah, initially she could only change the taste of the drink. But after her ability evolved, she started to create delicious drinks that had unique tastes. I swear even the nobility in Wolfheart City would not have tasted something so amazing." Amy said excitedly, "Whether it was black tea, honey milk or fine wines, they would not be worth mentioning compared to her drinks."

Another Senior Witch... No. 76 had become numb. Although it was unclear what Wendy and Nana meant specifically by learning, there was no doubt that in the training of witches, the Witch Union was already more advanced than the Union. According to Agatha, it seemed that all of these were started by Roland Wimbledon, a mere common person, and that was what she could not understand.

Did common people understand magic power more than witches?

"I can testify," Hero echoed. "For a moment, I even thought that all the tribulations I suffered before had been worthwhile."

"If I could have such a drink occasionally, I'd never leave Neverwinter!" Amy stuck out her tongue.

"Then we should join the Witch Union," Broken Sword suddenly said, "as long as we're staying here, there's always the opportunity to drink it again, right?"

"I agree!" Amy immediately raised her hand.

"Yes... Me too." Hero nodded earnestly.

The three looked at Annie, so she said reluctantly, "I'll listen to you."

"Wait... You guys agreed to stay here just for a strange drink?" No. 76 could not help but feel startled."And Annie, didn't you say that we had to observe carefully and be cautious? We should at least decide after tomorrow's tour. If Wendy heard the reason that prompted them to make up their mind, she would certainly not know whether to laugh or cry."

All of a sudden, she felt envious.

Simple requirements and easy decisions. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, they could move forward without hesitation.

What about herself?

…

After everyone had fallen asleep, No. 76 quietly left her room again and climbed on the roof.

Against the howling wind and snow, she raised her ring in the direction of the castle, and narrowed her eyes to see afar—a light beam as wide as the city wall appeared again in front of her eyes. It still miraculously appeared in her field of vision, even without the activation of magic power and being out of the theoretical detection range.

She needed to find the chosen one for the Taquila witches. This was the main purpose of this trip.

Anyway, the chosen one's significance to the survivors and the meaning of the Chaos Drinks for Amy and the others was almost the same.

She made her decision.

...

When Wendy came to the Foreign Affairs Building the next day, No. 76 handed her a letter that she had written overnight.

"I am Phyllis, the Taquila witch from the Maze of Desperation. I have brought news of the Providence and the savior. I would like to request an audience to see the Lord of Neverwinter, to discuss our co-operation in the Battle of Divine Will." She did not avoid the Kingdom of Wolfheart's witch but solemnly said so in front of everyone.

Amy and the others opened their eyes wide in disbelief as if they had heard something incredulous.

"No. 76... what're you talking about?"

"You're a witch, too? That's great!"

"Phyllis... is that your real name?"

The three of them each responded differently, only Annie was silent.

Wendy did not seem surprised and did not report this situation to the castle. Instead, she received the document and smiled at her encouragingly. "Come with me, His Majesty is already waiting for you in his study."

Chapter 706 - The Formal Meeting, the Before and After of the Dispute

Roland had learned about the situation of No. 76 from Nightingale. In fact, he was very interested in the distant history of Taquila and the intelligence about the Battle of Divine Will that the Taquila witch claimed to have. He had saved a lot of time and effort now that she had shown up by herself.

Other than Nightingale, Sylvie, and Scroll, there were also Leaf and two potted plants in the office to prevent accidents from happening. Once the plants' abilities were cast, even if No. 76 used the God's Stone, she would not be able to eliminate the crazed vines—as soon as she stalled her footsteps, Nightingale would be able to retaliate and defeat her.

Potted plants looked like decorations, and were harmless when not triggered by magic power. Therefore Roland also did not need to deploy a handful of guards to surround the room—he did not want his intentions to be revealed before even starting the negotiations.

When No. 76 followed Wendy into the office, Roland smiled and said, "Welcome to Neverwinter, do you need any tactical eyepieces?"

"..."

"..."

Everyone was expressionless. Nightingale even rolled her eyes and pinched his shoulder in the Mist. "Your Majesty, please don't talk nonsense at this time."

"Ahem, okay..." Roland cleared his throat and returned to his usual calmness. "So you're Taquila's No. 76?"

"My name is Phyllis, My dear King," with one hand placed on her chest she slightly bowed her head and said," No. 76 is just my disguise as a common person, and since you have discovered my identity, the name has lost its meaning."

The formal salute with the chest gesture was used when the nobility met with royalty, or when ambassadors visited other countries. It was clear that Phyllis was not ignorant of secular etiquette. Roland did not mind the honorific title and slightly inappropriate wording. He was more concerned with actual interests, rather than verbal fame.

"Let's sit down and talk," he nodded. "I have so many questions to ask you."

"If I'm able to answer, I will," said Phyllis solemnly.

It was probably due to the fact that she hadn't spoken for such a long time to a "common person" like him, so her expression was quite rigid. She probably wanted to be polite and at the same time, not lose Taquila's arrogance of being the previous ruler of the world.

Roland was amused when he remembered Yorko's description of Phyllis. When she was disguised as a maid, she blended into her role seamlessly. Now she had regained her formal status and she was still determined to maintain that pride even if the Witch Empire had disintegrated long ago. Without a doubt, the name of Taquila had long been part of their faith.

"The first is information about you. After all, if we want to work together against the demon, it is always better to know more about each other." Roland drank his tea, and asked unhurriedly, "To be honest, I have always been very curious how the Union was divided into two factions. Since you were all witches, why did the church pursue its own kind? Especially after knowing the existence of the perfect form of the God's Punishment Army, the doubts intensified. Could you enlighten me on the details?"

Phyllis probably did not expect him to ask this question first, and she hesitated for a moment before replying, "No one expected things to turn out like this before entering the ruin of the maze."

"Did you mean that this was related to the ruin?"

"Without the discovery in the ruin, the God's Punishment Army could not be created. The remaining witches would not be able to survive... but unfortunately, we discovered that too late." She sighed softly. "Other than finding the method of Soul Transfer in the maze, the fugitives also found something else... It was because of them that Lady Natalya and the Queen of Starfall City split into factions, and this led to their ultimate break."

"Something... else?" Roland frowned.

"I can't reveal more at the moment. I can only discuss more in detail after we have found the Chosen One—at that time, Lady Pasha will speak to you personally."

"Who is Pasha?"

"She's the successor to the Three Chiefs of the Union as well as the trusted leader of the survivors," explained Phyllis.

If he were not mistaken, the Holy City had already collapsed at that time. Whatever it was that caused a group of dying fugitives to even settle their problems by fighting amongst themselves had to be a weapon stronger than Providence.

"Couldn't the two sides coexist? Since the perfect form of God's Punishment Army didn't cost the witches' lives, it would have been enough to select volunteers to attend the incarnation ceremony. Why did Alice want to overturn the remnants of the Union?"

When these words were asked, Phyllis's face showed a rare bitterness. "Not cost the lives of the witches? No... Your Majesty, things were not as simple as you thought." The shell I used initially came from one of the God's Punishment Warriors who failed to transfer. Do you know how long it took me to adapt to that shell?"

"10 years?" Roland pondered.

This was also the time normally required to train a knight.

"Nearly 50 years," she shook her head and said, "when I became familiar with manipulating a body that I didn't own, the original shell of the God's Punishment Army was already aging."

The witches at the scene could not help but gasp.

"The magic power that melted into the blood destroyed most of the senses, including touch, taste and smell... so the God's Punishment Army didn't feel pain and hence didn't feel scared of being injured. But for us, it was the equivalent of subverting the past memories. Walking, talking and forming a fist all needed to be re-mastered... At the beginning, one couldn't even stand up and hold a cup required a huge amount of effort. It took decades of daily repetition to train the brain to remember these actions. If you counted weapon and combat skills, it would take hundreds of years." Phyllis paused and said, "So you can imagine what happened next."

Roland frowned for a moment before saying, "Alice needed a lot of empty shells."

"That's right. Once a witch didn't die, one of the God's Punishment Warriors who had lived for hundreds of years would be much more powerful than a newly converted warrior. In order to continue this power that had been accumulated during years of experience, she had to create more shells to let the souls live on. Even if the new shell took some time to adapt to, but compared to starting from scratch, this time could be shortened to a few years."

"And the shell's providers were just weak witches, therefore Lady Alice had to replace the Union so that she could become the absolute ruler of the witches. This was the only way that she could easily use some of the witches as sacrificial material." Phyllis closed her eyes. "Under the threat of the Battle of Divine Will, she was almost close to success. Most of the Union's senior staff had acquiesced to her behavior... and if it weren't for the new discoveries in the ruin, the God's Punishment Army would have been the only way to survive."

Chapter 707 - The Queen Of Starfall City's Path

"It sounded just like she had explained," Roland thought. Ashes once said that the difference between the God's Punishment Army and the Extraordinary was not their strength nor reaction, but their wisdom. If a God's Punishment Warrior had a witch's mind and were immortal, her combat experience which was accumulated over centuries would reach a horrifying level. Such fighters would be even stronger than the Extraordinary.

If he were fighting against the full version of God's Punishment Army in Coldwind Ridge, the result would most probably be reversed. The church only needed to split the whole corps into many squads to infiltrate the base of Kingdom of Graycastle. These squads could start battles through widespread harassment and he would not be able to guard against them.

So it seemed that the long adaption was not the main issue. As long as the soul could continue to transfer, it would be natural to keep the powerful veteran warriors.

Only one question remained. How many God's Punishment Warriors did Alice save before the Bloody Moon? The powerful shells also had a higher tolerance than normal people. They would enter the old age when they were about 100 years old. If one were involved in the incarnation ceremony at the age of 20, it could be used for seven or eight decades. Even without calculating the failure rate of the transformation and soul transfer, a witch could only create two shells. This directly restricted the number of the corps. If one wanted to create an army of thousands of God's Punishment corps, the number of witches consumed in the succession of 400 years would be terrible.

When he asked this question, Phyllis bit her lip and replied, "All."

Roland was startled, and suspected he had heard wrongly, "What?"

"Other than the Transcendents, she planned to transform all the witches into the God's Punishment Army, to withstand the final doomsday." She repeated.

"Wait a minute, how could this be done? If you wanted to overpower the Senior Demons, one had to be a very well-trained God's Punishment Warrior. But to get such warriors, wouldn't many shells needed to be reserved to transfer the souls?"

"That's right, but there was another way to preserve the soul, and that was to move it into other vessels first."

"Other... vessels?"

"We call it hibernation." Phyllis's words caused Roland to shiver. "During this period, the person hibernating did not need to consume anything, and felt nothing, until it would be awakened again. How else do you think we could survive that difficult period of the early days? After the fallout with Starfall City, we did not have any usable shells of the God's Punishment Army, so we survived purely on hibernation. Of course, with the exception of some witches... such as Lady Pasha."

"What about her?"

"When you see her, you will understand." Phyllis did not elaborate. "In short, Lady Alice intended to train and form sophisticated God's Punishment Warriors in a century, and then let the souls hibernate in order to cut down on the consumption of the shells. As a result, Starfall City would be able to continually transform the God's Punishment Army. When the Bloody Moon arrived, all the souls would be awakened, and the number of the God's Punishment Warriors would far exceed the limits that the witch community could bear."

This meant that every witch alive on the eve of the battle would be transformed.

Wendy, Sylvie, and Leaf lost the color from their faces. Although he could not see the expression on Nightingale's face, Roland knew she would certainly look gloomy as well.

"And Alice herself... Was she also going to participate in the transfer of souls?"

"No," Phyllis sighed. "And that's what I later heard from Lady Pasha. Queen of Starfall City and her followers never wanted to extend their lives from the very beginning. They wanted to devote the rest of their lives to the recast of the new order, in order to ensure that the plan of the God's Punishment Army would not deviate from the intended track. Only when she was transcendent, would she have the strength and prestige to govern the Union... And only that flaming red hair would symbolize the neverending morale of Starfall City."

At this point, her eyes revealed a touch of extremely complex light, with fear, sigh, and respect.

Roland vaguely understood her intentions. They were both obviously in disagreement, yet he was still shocked by her spirit. In order to defeat the demons so that the witch group could continue to live, the Queen of Starfall City would be willing to pay any price and move forward without hesitation. Such an opponent would certainly be worthy of respect.

The gaps of the incomplete historical records had finally been filled. Perhaps the complete version of the God's Punishment Army was too cruel. Hence a split became unavoidable when something was uncovered in the ruins and the plan of God's Punishment Army no longer became the only viable solution to fight against the demons. After the split, the Union was severely battered. The Starfall City witches evolved into the church, and after Alice's death, they gradually swayed from the Queen's original path.

"Were the vessel, Soul Transfers, and The Chosen One all related to what was found in the ruins?" He asked.

Phyllis recollected her thoughts and answered, "You could say that."

"And you still can't disclose it now?"

"Only Lady Pasha can make this decision."

"How would The Chosen One be able to defeat the demons?" Roland frowned and said, "I can't possibly agree to work with you without knowing anything."

"I'm not sure about this either. The person in charge of researching... the instrument of Divine retribution is Celine." She said slowly," We could first identify The Chosen One, and then continue this discussion. Confirming the candidate will pose no danger to the witches of Neverwinter. And Taquila would never harm its own kind in order to fight the demon. Otherwise, no one would follow Lady Natalya until the end."

"What do we need to do?"

"It's quite simple. Every member of the Union would just need to demonstrate their ability once." Phyllis raised her ring. "Through it, I can see the witches who have the talent of The Chosen One."

Nightingale had already briefly described to him the fact that the Magic Stone could cast a strange beam of light. Roland considered for a moment. "After finding The Chosen One, will Pasha be able to come immediately to Neverwinter?"

"It's impossible for Lady Pasha to leave the maze, but she will talk to you directly... with the help of some magical means." Phyllis replied, "She'll be able to sense my position instantly once I crush this Five-Colors Stone. So I can only call her after I have found The Chosen One."

"I got it," Roland nodded finally. "In the afternoon in the castle garden, you would be able to see all the witches of Neverwinter."

Phyllis looked a lot more at ease after she got his approval. She did the formal salute again touching her chest and bowed. "Thank you for your promise. After the defeat of the demon, your name will be revered just like Taquila. "

However, Roland did not care about how long his name would circulate. He promised her request because he had a strong curiosity about The Chosen One and what was found in the ruins, but the rest was due to Agatha's trust in him. Since she wanted to help these survivors, he also did not mind helping out.

Chapter 708 - Testing the Light Beams

...

For the first time, Phyllis felt that waiting was like agony. She thought that after four centuries of training, time would be the last thing she would be bothered about. She did not expect to feel restless after just one morning.

If Celine's argument was correct, finding The Chosen One would mean the end of the Battle of Divine Will. The instrument of Divine retribution had the ability to destroy all the demons and her mission would then be over.

Without the shells made by the church, most of the survivors would fall into a deep sleep that they might never be awakened from; or they might fuse their souls with Lady Eleanor to contribute their last breath.

Every time she thought of this, she felt an indescribable confusion. Aside from the long-awaited relief, she also felt a trace of disappointment. A life imprisoned in the shell, even if it could be sustained, was still a form of torture. Once the war was over, she could finally rest forever. But she also found it hard to imagine that once she closed her eyes, she would never again see the glorious world of Taquila.

The two conflicting emotions kept afflicting her until the afternoon came.

"Are you ready?" Wendy appeared in the castle hall.

"Always," Phyllis immediately stood up.

"Come with me."

Accompanied by Wendy, she walked through a promenade made up of olive trees in the castle backyard, into a small open space. It was surrounded by fences and covered by dense vines, so she could only see a glimpse of the overhead sky, and the "walkway" she saw when she came. The only way out from here was to follow the same path when she entered.

Phyllis instantly understood the reason for this. The witches under observation would appear one by one at the end of the promenade. This distance did not affect the observation, yet also guaranteed the safety of the Union members.

If she had any unforeseen movements, this promenade would definitely be a huge obstacle for her.

Phyllis did not feel repulsed and instead, she started to have a better impression of the king who was a common person—at least he did not regard the witch as an optional accessory. His behavior was completely understandable before he could fully trust her.

At the moment, her impression of the Witch Union was on the same level as the Holy City. A witch organization that was large and had various means would not be able to assert its influence if it suffered from secular suppression. Now they also had a strong footing in the king's heart, so the Witch Union was starting to look more like the Union.

Shortly after Wendy left, the first witch appeared quickly in her field of vision.

It was Agatha.

When the youngest promoted person of the Taquila age summoned a clear, pale blue ice crystal, Phyllis observed that the beam of light was like Maggie's, hence she was not The Chosen One she was looking for.

After the test was completed, Agatha did not leave the promenade but walked straight to her.

"My Lady?" Phyllis was a little surprised.

"I used to be a member of the Quest Society, and I'm very interested in things such as the Magic Stone. I hope you don't mind if I stay to observe?"

"Of course not," Phyllis shook her head first, then politely gave her a salute for the Senior Witches. "By the way, I haven't yet thanked you for your help. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been able to pick The Chosen One that quickly. "

"It was your own choice as well," said Agatha, waving her hand. "Let's continue watching."

"Okay."

One by one, the witches displayed their ability at the end of the corridor. She placed the ring between the two people. Other than observing the intensity of the light beams, Agatha also recorded the results.

During this period, Phyllis also found a lot of dazzling orange lights. For example, the width of the light beam of the witch named Soraya was more than that of her shoulders and she was even better than Anna or Nightingale. There was another witch called Evelyn, whose light beam had an alarming intensity which was almost twice that of Anna.

Echo and Summer were those who had stronger orange lights. Both also reached the same level of body width.

The most prominent member of the union was Leaf.

When she cast her magic, Phyllis thought for a moment that she had seen Lady Eleanor. Countless orange lights with as wide as fingers rose up to the sky, just like a fence connecting heaven and earth—these light beams came from each plant in the garden. They echoed the magic power of Leaf, like living creatures. The beam of light above Leaf's head was close to the edge of the Five-Colors Stone and did not pale in comparison to Lady Eleanor.

When her beam of light was cast, Phyllis felt her heart was about to jump out of her chest. She thought that Leaf was The Chosen One that all the Taquila survivors had been praying for. However, after forcibly suppressing her mood, she found that the beam was still a little bit away from the edge of the Magic Stone—the "key" would not change the orange light beams that it reflected, regardless of the distance of the target. As long as it was placed in front of the eye, the scene would reflect the real performance of the key.

Although the entire castle backyard was full of raised light beams, they were not that light wall she had seen before. The misty light beams were magnificent, but still did not connect.

Neither of them was The Chosen One.

After she let out a deep breath, Phyllis lowered the ring and waited quietly for the next witch to appear.

She still did not see that thick light wall after it ended.

"You have seen all the members of the Witch Union," Agatha closed the notebook, "Is Leaf The Chosen One that you are looking for?"

"The Chosen One isn't amongst them..." Phyllis whispered after a moment's silence, "Although her beam of light is amazing... but it's still a long way from what I have observed at night."

She began to feel anxious again. "Why is this happening? Did Roland Wimbledon hide The Chosen One? Or did someone in the Witch Union not come today? Is Roland actually unwilling to unite with Taquila to fight the demon, or is he still wary of the Witch Empire that once ruled the entire continent?"

Many thoughts flashed through her mind, and she rejected all these ideas. "No, it doesn't make sense. It's impossible for him to hide The Chosen One without the Five-Colors Stone. And Lady Agatha will never collude with the common people to deceive me. I need to stay calm at this moment... Unfair accusations and doubts will only make things worse."

"At night?" Agatha frowned. "The witches generally didn't practice their abilities in the rooms, and you should have been at the Foreign Affairs Building at that time. Can the Magic Stone observe from such a distance?"

"I did see the light beams of The Chosen One... Not only was the breadth much more than I could imagine, but its distance was beyond the reach of the Magic Stone, which was truly a miracle." Phyllis said in a gentle tone, "I swear in the name of Taquila."

"I got it," Agatha nodded. "In that case, give me the ring."

"Your Lady, you mean..." She was a little surprised.

"I know Nightingale's character. She'll never let you enter the Castle District at night. If The Chosen One is really in the castle, I'll help you to find her."

Chapter 709 - A Different Key

One night passed quickly, and Phyllis stayed up for almost the entire night.

She shut herself up in the room and silently waited for the result. Calm as she appeared, she made countless conjectures about the reasons for the disappearance of the Chosen One; she even suspected that Roland secretly imprisoned the witch as a plaything and concealed the truth from the Witch Union.

When Wendy and Agatha came to the Foreign Affairs Building the next morning, Phyllis showed a rare tiredness—mental consumption was overwhelming for the soul and she knew that her control of the body was declining. Even her hands and feet had lost their usual flexibility.

However, she knew that she would not be able to close her eyes anyway until she heard the result.

Through cutting off consciousness, she could temporarily get rid of the shackles of the body, but her soul would still remain awake. Unless her soul could be transferred to the magic container, otherwise hiding within the consciousness would just be a way of deceiving herself. Phyllis even faintly missed the "long sleep" now. "The result is…"

"We found the beams of light that you mentioned."

She did not expect the first words of Agatha to crush the burden in her heart. Phyllis blinked her eyes and whispered again for fear of missing the words, "like a light wall?"

"That's right, like a light wall. It does exist in the castle," Wendy said. "But we can't be sure whether he's the Chosen One you said."

In other words, she was not mistaken.

They found the owner of the orange light!

"No... it can't be wrong," said Phyllis, hearing a voice in her heart cheer. "Praise the deities! Praise the Holy City of Taquila!" "If she can emit such a beam of light, then she must be the Chosen One we're looking for! Is she a Senior Witch? What's her name?"

Instead of answering her, Wendy gave her an odd expression—it seemed that she was withholding her laughter and also feeling sorry for her.

"Well, this... I'm afraid that I'll have to disappoint you." Wendy covered her mouth and gently coughed.

"Could something be wrong with the Five-Colors Stone?" Agatha returned the ring to her and said, "I think you'd better contact Pasha quickly."

Something was wrong? What on earth happened?

"Hold on..." Phyllis suddenly felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

What did Wendy say before?

["But we can't be sure whether he's the Chosen One you said."]

He?

Phyllis could not believe what she had heard and gasped. "Is that orange light..."

"It's from His Majesty Roland Wimbledon," Agatha said with a shrug. "Besides me, Nightingale, Anna, Wendy... all the witches living on the second floor of the castle saw it. I also tested him with the Stone of Measuring and he had no magic power as usual."

"The weapon you mentioned to defeat the demons... must its manipulator be a witch?" Wendy finally could not resist chuckling. "It would sound good if His Majesty could become a hero who defeats the demons."

Phyllis's heart suddenly sank. "Although the instrument of Divine retribution doesn't require much magic power of the Chosen One, it doesn't mean that it can be activated without magic power. After all, it's a type of magic core, and the total amount of magic power of its manipulator determines how many times it can be used."

It's impossible... maybe something is wrong.

"But yesterday I didn't see the orange light above his head..."

"It's strange indeed. The beam of light disappeared after Roland woke up," said Agatha, stroking her chin, "and that's why you could only see it at night. Of course, we also asked His Majesty about it. His answer was that Zero's Soul Battlefield led him to another fictional world in his dream, just like an extra part of his memory."

"Zero? Soul Battlefield?" Phyllis asked hastily, "What's that?"

"The last Pope of the Church of Hermes," Wendy briefly explained the battle in which Roland defeated the church, "perhaps this caused the misjudgment of the magic stone ring. His Majesty was also quite surprised by the result. He also said that if you wanted to verify it, you could do so again at noon."

After a long silence, she gritted her teeth and said, "Yes, I want to see it again."

…

Agatha and Wendy did not deceive her. Under the supervision of the witches and guards, Phyllis once again saw the beam of orange light as wide as a city wall, and its source was the sleeping king of Graycastle.

At that moment, she felt all her energy was drained and a strong dizziness hit her. She trembled and fell on the floor, leaning against the door frame. She had already been mentally exhausted, and in an instant, the boundless darkness engulfed her.

When Phyllis regained consciousness, she found herself lying in bed. She saw darkness outside the window but did not see any stars or moonlight. The north wind hit the glass rhythmically and caused intermittent tremors of the window frame.

"Are you awake?"

A familiar voice emerged next to her ears.

She turned her head and found that Agatha was sitting at her bedside.

"How long was I in a coma?"

"For about half a day or so," said the Ice Witch, reaching out to smooth down her hair on her forehead, "your reaction really shocked Nightingale."

"Sorry, I'm fine now..." Phyllis whispered.

Though she tried to comfort herself, she did not feel better at all. She had finally found the so-called Chosen One, who turned out to be a common person. It was no less shocking than the fall of both Natalia and Alice.

The belief of Lady Natalya, the persistence of Taquila survivors... and plan of the Chosen One, were the reason all of them had been preparing for hundreds of years, yet it all finished in such a dramatic manner. Even though there were hundreds of witches on the Sleeping Island and Leaf's quality was close to the requirements of the Chosen One, she could predict that it would still be an insurmountable gap.

Perhaps their choice was not much better than that of the Starfall City.

"I don't quite understand how you view the Chosen One, but... even without such a witch, we have fought the demons for hundreds of years, haven't we? I thought witches who have survived such disasters would be able to handle any situation," Agatha said slowly.

"But we have failed twice, and we were forced to retreat from the Land of Dawn to the corner of the Wild. If we lose again..."

"Then let's defeat the demons," Agatha interrupted her. "I don't know what you have found in the maze ruins and why you devoted all your hope to it. However, I think if it's really effective, it shouldn't be a part of the 'ruins'. During these 400 years, the common people outside haven't stopped making progress, and there is more than one way to defeat the demons. Just like Roland said, common people could also defeat the demons by reasonably using the hidden forces of the world."

Phyllis looked at Agatha with tangled feelings. She was about to present her doubts but could not bring herself to do so in front of Agatha's confident demeanor.

"By the way, he added that there was more than one key to the deities, and that he had one as well. Maybe you should have a look before you contact the witches of Taquila."

"His... key?" Phyllis was shocked.

"Well, the key of 'art'," Agatha replied.

…

Chapter 710 - Elimination and Innovation

In retrospect of what happened in the morning, Roland still felt incredulous.

How could an ordinary time traveler suddenly become the Chosen One? Should he recite some poems now to express his surprise?

When he woke up in the early morning and Agatha reported the observation to him, he thought there was something wrong with his ears. Since the witches all confirmed this, he decided to agree with them for the time being. Meanwhile, he knew the Taquila survivor would certainly not expect this result, so he invited her to visit him during his afternoon nap, as a way to strengthen the trust and credibility between them.

He probably grew calmer since he became a king, or he was simply lazy... anyway, after lying on the bench in the office and reading a few pages of Advanced Mathematics, he fell asleep easily. When he was awakened, the first scene he saw was Nightingale pulling out her pistol and Phyllis falling down unconscious.

However, Roland did not believe that the so-called "Chosen One" was really chosen by the deities. It was just because the Taquila survivors had devoted too much hope to what they had found so that they regarded the witch who could activate it as their savior.

Undoubtedly, what they found in the ruins must be extraordinary, for it made the Three Chiefs of the Union oppose each other in times of the tremendous disaster. However, he doubted whether it possessed power comparable to the deities and could destroy the demons in one fell swoop. After all, if it was really as powerful as the creation of the deities, how could its creator quietly disappear in the underground maze?

Of course, he had to communicate further with the survivors for more details.

And the fact that his dream could be observed indirectly proved his assumption. The Dream World was indeed not entirely created by his consciousness. Its profuse details were far beyond the capacity of his brain. Someone else created the world based on the abundant material he provided.

He had assumed that the witches were the terminals of magic power transforming. Now it seemed that there was a barrier between the terminal and the magic power. This barrier caused the amazing changes of the magic power. It was like a mysterious black box which carried out the orders of the witches. In other words, the realization of the witches' ability was similar to his Dream World. The only difference was that he did not have the magic power to visualize it.

It reminded Roland of the relationship between the wizards and the Magic Net. The wizards could connect with the Magic Net through gestures, incantation, and reagents so as to acquire the power they needed. Comparing the barrier with the Magic Net, he could see lots of similarities between them.

After he defeated Zero, he unexpectedly gained access to the barrier, but nothing more. The complexity of the orders was probably determined by the difficulty of visualization, rather than the strength and usage of the ability. On the contrary, the closer the abilities were to the essence of the magic power, the easier its transformation would be. For example, the direct conversion of the magic power into light and heat was certainly much easier than creating things, but its power was absolutely earth-shaking.

This was also one of the major reasons why Roland was full of interest of the ruins. The beams of light presented by the Five-Colors Stone was a special means to "send orders" in his opinion. An artificial thing was used to replace the witches and forge orders... the study of the magic power reached a level beyond that of the Union. Besides the divine titles such as "the Chosen One" and the instrument of Divine retribution, it might mean the seeds of new technology.

This alone was enough to prompt him to communicate with the Taquila witches.

Considering the fact that "the Chosen One is actually a common person" might give a heavy blow to their confidence in the fight against the demons, Roland decided to invite Phyllis to visit the forces of the new era before going into further negotiations .

In order to achieve a better "persuasive" effect, he summoned Iron Axe to his office.

"How is the situation of the demonic beasts recently?"

"Your Majesty, there are just scattered demonic beasts. They can be easily solved by the patrol team on the city walls." The man of Sand Nation replied after a standard military salute.

"Well, I intend to stage a cannon exercise in the city wall area soon. It needs to be impressive, yet also minimize waste."

The commander-in-chief of the First Army pondered for a while and asked, "Are you saying... a false one?"

Roland could not help laughing. It seemed that Iron Axe had more and more knowledge of the gunpowder now. He said, "To be more accurate, it needed to be half true and half false. When you display accurate shooting, use real bullets; when displaying fire coverage, use embedded black powder. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Iron Axe nodded immediately.

Empty ammunition was commonly used in exercises, for it was not necessary to waste the precious howitzers just to impress the audience. The embedded explosives ignited by electric wires could also create a shocking effect or even a better one.

Roland briefly outlined the idea in his mind. "I hope the final explosion is dramatic enough. For that you can prepare more black gunpowder."

"Your Majesty, this may affect the operation of the artillery battalion..."

Roland shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter. In fact, I intend to phase out the black powder weapons, such as the 12-pound field artillery, which is no longer suitable for the fight in the future."

Its heavy barrel, slow launch speed, and small power of the solid balls had restricted its further usage. The battle under Coldwind Ridge fully demonstrated the limited lethality of the field artillery, especially in the face of dispersed-attacking and quick-moving enemies. Most of the soldiers of God's Punishment Army were killed by machine guns and Longsong Cannons, while only about 100 unlucky ones were smashed by the iron solid balls.

In addition, it was so difficult to transport the cannons that they could not be used to coordinate with the infantry attack or urban warfare, which further restrained its usage. The revolving rifles could still be used for a while. After all, the gunpowder consumption of the bullets was much smaller; even if they used half of all the bullets, it would not have much effect on the total stock of the gunpowder.

With the help of the Dream World, Roland's new chemical reform plan was already in preparation. The steady increase in the production of double base gunpowder had enabled him to eliminate the black powder weapons.

Iron Axe's eyes brightened and he said, "Have you designed a new alternative weapon?"

Roland smiled and took a piece of paper out of the drawer and spread it on the desk. He explained, "It's a type of rigging-angle cannon which can shoot at short distance or long distance. It can be disassembled to be carried by several people, and has excellent power. It's also easy to manufacture and operate. What do you think of it?"

Iron Axe bent down to carefully read the drawing for a while before he said, 'Er... I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I can only figure out its appearance... it looks like an iron pipe, but can it really launch shells with such a thin wall?"

"Of course, the key is the specific shell. However, it's still much easier to manufacture than a 152mm howitzer."

"Does the new weapon have a name?"

"You can call it a mortar," Roland replied.

Chapter 711 - Bare Heart

During the cannon's research, he had considered many possible plans.

There was a saying that there was no perfect weapon but only the most appropriate. After taking into consideration his opponents, the battlefield environment, and the manufacturing capabilities of the City of Neverwinter, he finally decided to use the mortar to replace the obsolete field artillery. The mortar could be used in both short and long range combat and had a relatively low manufacturing cost.

Its shooting range could effectively reach 200 to 3,000 meters. It could cover the blank space between the HMG (heavy machine gun) and the Longsong Cannon, while at the same time strengthening the firepower of short-range attacks

Due to the existence of defense lines, the most important function of the mortar would be to cover those blank areas. One of its advantages over other similar weapons was that it could be easily carried by soldiers across all kind of terrains. They could set up an artillery station anytime it was required. Furthermore, the gaps in the heights of the mountains were quite common and this allowed the mortar's rigging-angle to be as effective as possible

But the biggest reason that made Roland decide on creating mortars was the production level of Neverwinter.

The construction of the mortar was much simpler than that of the howitzer. The artillery shell of the mortar could be made by pig iron and since it didn't require rifling, it was much easier to produce without affecting the production of the 152 mm cannon. On the other hand, if he were to develop a smaller field artillery, no matter if it was the duplicator, the rifling cannon barrel or the artillery shell, they would all come into conflict with the Longsong Cannon that was currently being produced.

Before the new machinery tools and technology could be used, they had to pass all the required tests. Even if they failed in the attempt, Anna could still act as an emergency option and make up the key components of the Longsong Cannon with Blackfire without causing too much impact on production. But coupled with the new field artillery, the production needs would inevitably rise and the First Army would be at risk of not having enough cannons to use.

Roland also considered the development of individual grenades as a supplementary weapon and had even made a few prototypes for testing, but the performance of the prototype filled with black powder was extremely poor. It might have been useful in the city fights when unifying the Kingdom of Graycastle, but when it came to fighting against evil beasts and demons, its power was far from being enough.

Considering that the chemical industry production capabilities of Neverwinter were not sufficient to put a double based gunpowder grenade in every soldier's hands, he could only give up on this idea.

…

When night fell, Roland descended to the second floor and knocked softly on Anna's door.

Upon hearing the knock, Anna opened the door, a look of surprise crossed her features when she saw it was him.

Her surprise only lasted a few moments and soon her cheeks turned red.

After Roland entered the room, he hugged her from behind and brought her to the bed before lying on their back.

"Why did you come today?"

Anna's blue eyes were shining like gemstones in the night sky.

She usually went to Roland's bedroom two to three times every week as she believed a frequency like that would not affect their work routine. Of course, if Roland insisted, she would also not turn him down. Since confessing his feelings for Nightingale to her, Roland had been feeling guilty and had been avoiding asking anything of Anna.

This was also the first time that he had visited Anna's room. She was the only witch living alone, but due to the poor insulation and the fact that Leaf and Scroll lived next door, they would usually only meet upstairs.

"I want to talk to you about the Dream World," Roland said softly in her ears, "I didn't have the time to talk in detail this afternoon. You must also want to know more... about my past experiences."

"You dreamt of a different world?" Anna quickly guessed the truth.

"You're right. The world was created in accordance with my memories, but it also contains special elements, such as the Force of Nature which resembles magic power."

The night that he told the truth to Anna, Roland found out that she was not ignorant of his feelings for Nightingale, but rather she had been waiting for him to bring it up first. Since that moment, he finally understood Anna's way of handling things. She would not normally hide her emotions or thoughts in front of him, but for some things, she would wait patiently because she did not want to embarrass him.

This caused Roland to feel a little worried as he did not know where her boundaries were. If one or two things kept accumulating, she might eventually become more close-lipped and would wait for the outcome in silence. Compared to being silent because she was afraid to hurt him, he much preferred this version of Anna. This version of Anna spoke her mind and believed in him with all her heart.

So, Roland decided never to hide anything from her, even if she didn't ask him herself, he would tell her everything.

Anna, who apparently understood his thoughts, smiled and said, "I know. Let's start from where you live. In the dream, do you also live in a castle?"

"No, it is a tube-shaped apartment, just like an apartment house where everyone owns a regular size studio. Also, guess who is living with me."

"Hmm... don't tell me it's Zero?"

"Oh—ahem, why?"

"It's simple. You said that you started having this dream after you defeated Zero in the Soul Battlefield, thus the dream's existence must be partly attributed to you and partly to her. In a world created by both of you, it's not strange that you and her appearance in one place. But...she did not attack you anymore, did she?"

"No, she didn't. She had lost all her memories before awakening and has become a ten-year-old kid. The kind that even though she knows nothing, she still acts like a know-it-all."

"10 years old plus living together... did she become your family?"

"Um, Zero has been left to me by her parents. She is more like a tenant."

"Is that so? Then you should take good care of her."

"Why? That is just a dream."

"But didn't you say that it's not different than the real world? If that's the case, why do you differentiate it?"

Roland was once again surprised by Anna's unique way of thinking. The discussion was seemingly taking a different direction, but he didn't mind as he saw Anna's radiant look and tone that were full of interest.

They talked from the Apartments of Souls to the memory fragment, and from the Force of Nature to the Martialist Association. As they were about to finish, Anna's voice began to lower and she leaned over Roland's arm, her chest moving lightly, her breathing calm. Even though she was asleep, her other hand was firmly grabbing his waist as if she didn't want him to go. This being the case, it was impossible for him to go back to his room without waking her up.

"Nevermind." He decided he would spend the night here and hope that no one would notice him leaving Anna's room the next morning.

Roland kissed Anna's forehead and closed his eyes with her in his arms.

Chapter 712 - Parade Plan

On the second day, Roland got up late as usual. When he woke up, he found Anna was nowhere to be found. What was left of her was only a few flaxen hairs on his elbow, with a hint of a relaxing fragrance.

Lying on the bedside table was his breakfast which was obviously brought up by Anna from the kitchen. Beside the dish, there was a note with a short line written on, "I know that you like sleeping. I'll leave you alone for your breakfast."

"Even on this occasion, she can't forget about her work and got up on time... She is a serious about her work."

Roland shook his head helplessly and got off of the bed. Even though the castle was supplied with heating, it was not easy to leave the cosy quilt in winter. The water in the wooden basin Anna used to wash her face was still warm. Roland used it to wash his face too, then carried the breakfast and walked up to his office on the third floor.

When he pushed open the office door, he saw Barov and Edith were already waiting for him. Nightingale was at her usual place, her exclusive lounge chair by the fireplace. She was reading a picture-book about witches while chewing dried fish. The relaxing expression on her face looked no different than usual.

"Oh, you came early." Roland casually greeted them as if there was nothing out of ordinary. "Sit down before you tell me what you came for."

"Ahem." The City Hall Director cleared his throat, which looked as if he was used to Roland's reaction. "Your Majesty, the logistics preparation for attacking the Southernmost Region has been completed. The recruitment work for reserve soldiers is going smoothly. The scale of the First Army will reach 7,000 soldiers next spring, which is unparalleled in the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"It's only in the Kingdom of Graycastle," Edith interrupted unexpectedly. "The forces His Majesty has to deal with aren't those stupid knights and nobles."

Roland smiled. He opened the report on his desk and said, "Indeed, if we were to fight against the demons, neither the work of population proliferation nor army construction can be stopped. On the premise not to affect production, the First Army should have as many soldiers as possible."

Although unwilling to submit, since the king had given his order, Barov had to obey while staring at the Pearl of the Northern Region.

Normally, things like soldier recruitment and logistics for combat readiness should be done by the First Army. But Iron Axe and the few generals under his leadership were lowborn, which meant that they might be good at leading troops for military operations, but they lacked the slightest knowledge of financing and administrative management. So when it came to the issues of money and food, Barov had to offer a helping hand to get things done.

As the scale of the First Army further expanded, such staffing issues would obviously prove difficult. The simple management structure that Roland impetuously established would not meet the requirements for future development. Maybe it was time to make a new round of reform of the military system.

Roland resumed his focus on the report. According to the plan drawn up by Iron Axe, 1000 soldiers were to attack the Southernmost Region. 500 veterans set off from Neverwinter and met with 500 new recruits stationed at the Fallen Dragon Ridge. They then charged toward the Iron Sand City along the Silver Stream Oasis.

As long as they took two 152 mm Longsong Cannons with them, there should be no problem for such a force to conquer the Iron Sand City. But the key to conquering the Sand Nation did not lie in seizing the territory, but in the holy duel, so the role the First Army played was more to escort the leader and maintain order.

The City Hall could manage the logistics work of 1,000 soldiers with high proficiency, and the details involved were getting more and more sophisticated. The situation that the leader had to personally attend to everything had long gone. The preparations were so sophisticated that they were often beyond Roland's expectation, which was obviously a result of accumulated experience after several actual battles.

"Alright, that's settled." Roland closed the report and looked at the Pearl of the Northern Region. "Do you have anything else to say?"

Roland thought that if she was only there to report about the logistic matter, Edith should not have come with Barov,

For she was never that kind of person who liked to grab credit.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Edith replied, nodding. "I heard from Iron Axe that you're planning for a cannon exercise?"

"That's right."

"I wonder... can we involve the civilians of Neverwinter as spectators." Her words triggered Roland's interest. "If your subjects could witness such a spectacular scene, it might greatly increase their enthusiasm for joining the army and their confidence of fighting the demons in the future."

"How could you involve the civilians in such a matter?" Barov said, frowning, "Haven't you seen the explosion scenes? What if they're frightened and think of it as a God's Punishment?"

"It would then be a God's Punishment under His Majesty's control. As long as the propaganda work is well carried out, the fright could be minimized," Edith said bluntly, "Even a fief lord might occasionally hold public traditional martial arts competitions to decide which knight is more brave and resourceful in battle. Besides offering some entertaining activities to the nobles, it could also demonstrate military power to the subjects."

"But cannons are nothing like the wooden spears in the hands of knights."

"We could mark off the viewing territories on the city wall and dispatch police to maintain order. Considering the limitation of space, selling admission tickets could be a sound choice... Two silver royals for one ticket could not only prevent the civilians swarming in but also bring in extra income." Edith talked with ease and confidence, which obviously showed that she had given thorough consideration to her proposition." Besides, even the spectators should be sifted. Those who're qualified to purchase tickets should be between the age of 15 and 30, who would be the main force in every walk of life in Neverwinter in the future. Increasing their faith is helpful in fighting the Battle of Divine Will. For people in some critical departments, such as the City Hall officers, I think watching the exercise should be mandatory for them..."

Roland was very surprised. "Isn't this exactly a parade? Such a proposal not only connects a live ammunition parade with performance activities, but could show polical sensibility and earn funds. The talent required for the military reform could be right in front of me."

At this thought, Roland nodded and said, "This sounds good. Do as you proposed."

"Indeed, Neverwinter needs some inspiring news."

***************

When May passed through the square with a basket full of Bird Beak Mushrooms in her hand, she found that there was a crowd in the square. Although it was snowing lightly, it did not affect people's enthusiasm for surrounding the noticeboard.

She walked up out of curiosity. A publicity agent was shouting in the crowd, "His Majesty the king is going to have an open cannon drill three days later, on the west side of the city wall which is the first line for fighting against the demonic beasts. Do you wish to see with your own eyes how the newest and most advanced weapons explode the demonic beasts into pieces? Do you want to sense the shock as a heavenly rage? Go and sign up in the City Hall! As long as you're qualified, with your ID card and two silver royals, you could get yourself a chance to appreciate the heroic fighting bearings of the western region soldiers. The seats are limited. The opportunities are rare. If you miss it, you'll have to wait until next winter!"

"Is this a new idea of His Majesty? Even the propaganda wording is so unique." May twitched her mouth. "Carter probably will be very interested by it. But he doesn't need to buy a ticket in City Hall. As the Chief Knight, he surely would accompany His Majesty and attend this drill."

As to herself, she never fancied such stuff related to fighting and killing.

Chapter 713 - A Better Performance

Not long after May left the square, she heard a sound of soft footsteps coming from behind her.

"Mrs Lannis, please wait, Mrs Lannis!"

It took her quite a while to realize that it was referring to herself. When she turned back, she saw a girl, aged 17 or 18, running toward her.

The girl's hair was tied up like ram's horns, and her cheeks had gone red in the freezing wind, but her cotton-padded clothes and leather boots were brand new with good quality. If it were two years ago, May would have imagined the girl as someone's daughter from a rich family. But now more and more civilians could afford new clothes, it was not such a safe bet to judge a person's status from one's appearance anymore.

The girl ran to May's side and handed May one of her two salted fishes while gasping the cold air.

"Mrs Lannis, this is a little token of my gratitude. Please do accept it."

May was stunned and then asked, "A token of gratitude?"

"I've always wanted to meet you. If my father had watched your show, he would have been very gratified!"

"But I don't know you or your father... Can you tell me exactly what this is about?"

It took the Star of the Western Region half an hour to roughly understand the whole story.

The girl's name was Jasmine. She was on her way back from the Convenience Market when she happened to recognize May from behind. Giving May fish was only a hasty decision to express her gratitude.

Jasmine's father was a former soldier of the First Army who was accidentally killed during the battle against the church and left Jasmine and her mother behind. The generous compensation from City Hall and the recruitment priority policy relieved them from worrying about their livelihood. Jasmine grieved for her father's death for quite a long time. It was not until the staging of the new play "The Hero's Life" did Jasmine pull herself together.

In the play, all those soldiers who bravely sacrificed their lives for protecting their families and the kingdom were bestowed with the title of Hero by His Majesty.

"Mother said that father used to be a common hunter. She never expected him to gain such an honor after death. She told me to thank you if I ever got the chance to meet you." Jasmine deeply bowed to May. "Now people call me the daughter of a hero, which makes me feel that father actually didn't leave me. If not for the rule that the First Army doesn't take in females, I'd have carried a flintlock and fought against those hostile enemies."

"..." May remained silent for a while, then asked lightly, "But you might be killed on a battlefield. Aren't you afraid of death?"

Jasmine nodded, then shook her head. "In former winters, every family in my area would migrate toward Longsong Stronghold. Many people died on the way there and had their bodies were cast into the Redwater River. Every sound of something dropping in the water meant a person had died. When we reached the slum, death became more frequent. After heavy snow, the streets were always filled with frozen bodies. At that time, I often shivered out of fear. I feared when I closed my eyes, I could be the next victim."

"Since I don't want to live like that again, there needs to be people to stand out and fight for a new life," she said word by word.

That was a line in the play.

Suddenly, May felt that something soft, deep in her heart was touched.

She reached out her hands to touch the girl's hair. "Even if you'll lose everything?"

When this line of narration sounded in the theater, May vaguely remembered the whole square was in silence, the audience were holding their breath and waiting for the impersonator of the hero to answer.

At this moment, Jasmine's answer was as powerful as the "Hero" in the play, "Because it is worth fighting for."

"I accept your gift."

"Mrs Lannis, please take care!" The girl waved her hand happily, turned around and then ran toward another street.

May stared at the heavy salted fish in her hand and recalled the time when she consulted the drama master Kajen Fels when she played in the grand theater in the former king's city.

"What's the best performance?"

"To firmly attract the audience's attention on you and make them think that you're the character you play. What they're watching isn't a drama, but your whole life... If you can achieve that, it'll be the best performance."

To that end, May practiced hard at acting, thought over the character's mood and manner, put herself into the story in the script whole-heartedly and tried to present every detail flawlessly. When she was 25 years old, her hard work paid off, she became an actress known to all. As a person from the western region, she gained a firm foothold in the king's city. During her prime time, even the famous actors in King's City's Grand Theater could not overshine her.

However, her opinions changed.

When "The Hero's Life" was shown, was her performance perfect? Not at all. His Majesty's script came out so fast that the actors and actresses only had two to three weeks to rehearse before putting the show on stage, during which, remembering the lines took her one week. Very often the crew had to improve themselves during the performing process. For example, when she played the Hero's wife, she sometimes forgot her lines or used the wrong facial expressions. And it was not a love story in which she excelled in acting, so she had to conjecture many things, making the show far from perfect.

But was the response to the play not good?

Judging from the audience's applause, "The Hero's Life" was nearly as popular as "The Memoir of a Prince's Search for Love". When the leading actor said the line "because it is worth fighting for", the audience's shout of agreement almost shook off the snow covering the mountain tops.

"Maybe that was the best performance..." May thought, "In King's City's Grand Theater, such a scene would never appear. Nobles might drop tears for the characters in a play, or clap out of joy, but their focus was on her, an outsider's life. But here, the audience saw themselves through the characters, through the play... People see the future they want."

...

When May returned to her residence, she coincidentally met Irene and Morning Light.

"Ah... May, you're back right on time." Irene instantly stood up from the chair and grabbed at May's shoulder. "I was just asking Lord Carter to preoccupy some good seats for us. Let's go and watch together."

"Go to where?"

"What's the problem? Why everybody is talking perplexingly?" May rolled her eyes, pushed away Irene's hand and put the Bird Beak Mushrooms and salted fish in the kitchen.

"The cannon exercise, of course," Irene followed her and said impatiently. "I heard this exercise will be the largest scale exercise since the establishment of the First Army. There is already a long line in front of the City Hall. Aren't you interested?"

"Not at all." May shrugged. "If I had that time, I'd rather read my script a few more times."

"How about just accompanying me... will you?"

This little girl was really sticky, but May could not bring herself to scold Irene, because she knew, different from others, Irene showed her affection to others out of genuine emotion. May had learnt that when they were in the Longsong Theater.

May intended to refuse the invitation, but she swallowed the words she was about to utter. Indeed, she did not like things related to fighting and killing, but fighting and killing were not always terrible and unbearable. Maybe taking a look at it would help her to experience how the soldiers truly felt and she could better put herself into the next play?

Of course, she definitely did not agree with Irene for her begging.

"Okay." After a moment's hesitation, May sighed. "If you insist."

"Haha, really? Wonderful!"

Looking at Irene full of spirit, May shook her head helplessly. "Alright. I'll just take it as a sacrifice for a better performance."

Chapter 714 - A New Life

After the couple left, Carter approached her to ask, "Do you really intend to go there? You can stay at home if you don't want to."

"Why? Are you unwilling to have my company?"

"Of course not!" He shook his head wildly, completely not like a grim-faced knight, "I want to be with you all the time."

Even in those tragedies of love and death where actors and actresses expressed love to each other, their lines would not be more exaggerating than that. She had never expected to meet such a dramatic person in real life. She glanced at him and asked, "Oh, who do you want to stay with, His Majesty or me?"

"Uh... Well," Carter did not know how to respond. Probably he had never considered how to choose between responsibility and love.

May was amused and gently patted his cheek. "OK, it seems that I'm as important as the king."

The Chief Knight was relieved and hugged his wife with his arms. His hands, in the meantime, started to move down.

"Stop! It's still during the daytime," she tried to stop him when she suddenly felt like throwing up, "Ugh..."

Carter immediately stopped and asked with concern, "What happened? Do you feel uncomfortable?"

May shook her head, pushed the knight away and took a deep breath. Although she knew she was not sick, she still felt nauseous as if her stomach were turning. She walked to the bathroom and retched, but nothing came out except for some saliva.

"I'll go to call Miss Lily." Seeing this, Carter became more worried. He put on his jacket and was ready to leave.

"Wait... Wait," May stopped him. "I didn't catch a cold."

"But you're so ill... His Majesty's textbook mentions that the early symptoms of a cold are vomiting and diarrhea. Miss Lily's ability can cure the disease quickly. It'll become more serious if we don't receive treatment now."

"Maybe I'm not sick..."

"Not sick?" Carter frowned. "Why do you vomit?"

"This fool doesn't have any common sense," May thought, her cheeks flushed. She heard from people that when a woman was..., she might have similar reactions. But she had no experience of it. If she was wrong, she was afraid that she might be mocked. She was delighted to see her husband behave in a funny way, but she could not make mistakes on such an important issue, otherwise she would be teased by him for the rest of her life.

"In the Witch Union... I remember there's a green-haired girl who can see through things?"

"Do you mean Miss Sylvie?" Carter nodded. "She does see hidden things that ordinary people can't see... But she can't treat illness."

"Can you ask her to come?" May slowly returned to the bedside. Though she was just guessing, she still sat down slowly as if she were scared to disturb the little life in her. "Maybe Miss Sylvie knows the reason."

"You mean..." Carter also realized it at this moment. He opened his mouth with surprise and his eyes lightened up, and then he firmly clenched his fist and said, "I'll go to find Lady Wendy. If she's in the Inner City, there should be no problem. "

…

After the door was closed, May gently breathed out. This feeling was really wonderful as if the meaning of life had become different just in an hour. The possible new life warmed her whole body up. She closed her eyes, and could not help recalling the look of Jasmine when she had handed her the salted fish.

"This is probably... the taste of hope."

On that night, her guess was confirmed by Sylvie.

She was pregnant.

***************

Roland got the news the next day and patted the shoulder of Carter Lannis who was extremely excited, "Congratulations! The baby should be born in several months, so you still can't forget about your work. When she's about to give birth, I'll give you a long holiday so that you can accompany her."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Carter saluted, one hand pressing his chest.

"By the way, how do women give birth to children?" Roland suddenly thought of a very important thing and asked, "Is there any midwife in Neverwinter?"

"Midwife?" the Chief Knight asked in confusion, "What's that?"

"It's a person who helps the delivery. When the child is born, there has to be someone... um, help to deal with it." While answering the question, Roland also searched Prince Roland's memories but found that the palace mentor did not teach any relevant knowledge. "We can't expect the mother to cut off the child's umbilical cord by herself, right?"

"Ah, it's usually done by the elders. Most of them have had similar experiences."

"What if there is no such an elder?"

"Well..." Carter was dumbfounded, "I'm not too sure."

Aristocratic families would naturally not suffer from the shortage of manpower, but civilians certainly had no such privileges. Neverwinter had been established for a year now, and most residents came through recruitment and immigration. So, not many people had babies yet. However, once the lives of residents had stabilized, the fertility rate would definitely rise sharply. It was foreseeable that a large number of new lives would come to this world every year from the following year.

The problem was that there had not been any reliable medical system in Neverwinter up to now.

Roland could not be blamed for being careless, as there were no midwives in other cities, either. Sick people could only pray to deities, or buy some weird herbs from pharmacists with several silver royals. Thanks to Nana and Lily, disease and pains were almost eliminated in Neverwinter, which was the reason he had delayed the establishment of the medical system.

He initially had thought if the science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds and that they directly entered an information age, highly advanced modern medical science would still be nothing compared with the two little girls' abilities. That was why he kept postponing the matter.

Yet Roland now found it absolutely necessary to have a medical system for a city of over 100,000 people, no matter how underdeveloped it might be.

For example, it was impossible for Nana and Lily to handle childbirth... They would be too busy, and once the war with demons started, they had to rush to the front. In that case, residents had to deal with patients in the city themselves.

After Carter left, Roland opened his notebook and recorded his idea of a primary medical institution.

Anyway, since it was a blank area, maybe he could start from childbirth.

Establishing hospitals, cultivating medical staff, democratizing health knowledge and the most basic means of treatment... Fortunately, the First Army had already had a basic understanding of these matters, so he only needed to make minor changes to the brochure used in the First Army and use it as a part of the teaching material for the public. He could also choose the first group of medical teachers from the First Army.

Though knowing nothing about modern medicine, Roland clearly remembered what an important role sterilizing medical instruments and the prevention of wound infections would play in child delivery in the future.

As for other parts of medical science, he could conduct further research in the future.

In the afternoon, he received a piece of good news.

Tilly Wimbledon was coming to the Western Region with Ashes and some other witches.

Chapter 715 - The Feelings of Combat Witches

The sky was overcast as if covered with a thick layer of curtain. Numerous tiny white dots drifted down along with the wind as if they had wanted to fill the entire world. Yet the blizzard appeared insignificant before the great sea embracing the sky.

The Charming Beauty gradually approached Shallow Beach in the heavy snow and wind.

Roland had waited here for a long time. Standing in the chilling sea wind, he opened his arms to Tilly who stepped on the pier and said, "Welcome back, sister."

She took off her hood to reveal her soft gray hair, smiled and gently embraced him. Everything seemed so natural. She said, "The Months of Demons seem to have arrived earlier than I expected. I hope I'm not too late."

As their conversation continued, the pier became more bustling instantly.

"Your Majesty, there will be a welcome dinner at night, right? Can you arrange a hotpot again?" Andrea approached him to ask, her voice full of expectations.

"Ahem, mind your manners," Ashes reminded her.

Maybe she got to know him better, or she was influenced by Nightingale, her elegant noble demeanor seemed to escape her little by little. Of course, her beauty was so impressive that she still appeared graceful and pretty even when she was eagerly asking what to eat in the evening.

"Of course," said Roland, nodding. "In fact, winter is the best season for hotpots."

"That's what I'm thinking too," said Andrea, her eyes sparkling, "you're indeed a royal noble and indeed the man Nightingale is interested in... " Before she finished her words, her mouth had been firmly covered by a pair of invisible hands.

Ashes put her hand on her forehead and turned around as if she had seen nothing. Instead, she started to talk to Wendy.

Tilly seemed a bit surprised. She glanced at Roland and then looked at the where Nightingale stood thoughtfully.

Roland also blushed. Before Tilly started to ask, he coughed and said, "It's windy here. Let's go back to the castle and have a talk then."

…

Along with Tilly, the witches coming to Neverwinter were the card-playing three, Iffy, Softfeathers, and Nightfall, the former members of Bloodfang Association. It was not the first time they came to the Western Region, so it saved Roland time to arrange their accommodations. After they put away the luggage, Roland summoned everyone to the living room and then told them what had recently happened in the Kingdom of Dawn.

As their partner, he believed that he should share information with the Sleeping Island witches and let them know the Taquila survivors as soon as possible.

In the end, all the witches could not help laughing. Ashes even asked him bluntly, "So you are the witch that Taquila witches are looking for... The Chosen One?"

"Or the first wizard in history," Tilly said jokingly. "My brother is always so different."

"I don't have any magic power, so you can save the title of witch or wizard," Roland said, shrugging, "The Chosen One is just what the Taquila witches refer to. We won't know what the Instrument of Divine Retribution is until we have further communication with them. Before that, I plan to hold an artillery exercise outside the city wall of the Western Region so as to help them regain their confidence."

"At the same time, it's also a kind of deterrence, right?" Ashes, though not as reckless as she appeared at first, still spoke straightforwardly, "just like the defensive battle of demonic beasts you had shown to us."

"I just don't want to have any misunderstanding between each other," Roland replied, without saying yes or no. "And the exercise is not just for the Taquila witches. It's also open to the public so that Neverwinter subjects can see the power they have. Then they'll be full of courage even when facing demons."

No misunderstanding meant to let them clearly know his strength so as to dispel some unnecessary ideas. This was also the basis for diplomacy in the new era.

"Since it's an exercise, I don't think we are going to conduct it when demonic beasts attack us, right?" Andrea suddenly said, "I have a good idea."

"What's it?"

"How about using demonic beasts as the targets of shooting?" She raised her eyebrows and said, "Compared with simple wood targets, real demonic beasts will be more impressive."

Roland was a little surprised and agreed that it was a good idea. If he wanted to organize the public to watch the exercise, naturally he could not wait until demonic beasts came and then arrange them to stand on the city wall. It might cause a lot of chaos, and the demonic beasts would have reduced to meat sauces under bombards by the time everyone arrived. So he originally intended to use some wooden targets for accurate shooting and asked Soraya to paint some fake targets.

Andrea's proposal was obviously more enjoyable. Nothing was more exciting for the Neverwinter residents than watching evil enemies, who had troubled the Western Region for so many years, be bombarded and turn to ashes.

"Those demonic beasts as the targets..."

"Just leave it to us," said Andrea, patting her chest.

"Ah, why not stay in the room playing cards?" Shavi responded with a bitter look.

"I'm also willing to help," Iffy echoed. As long as it was related to a battle, Iffy would always like to participate willingly.

"But will it be dangerous to catch demonic beasts?" Wendy said, appearing to be quite concerned.

"If we choose to catch them in the Misty Forest controlled by Leaf, there should be no safety problem," Nightingale said eagerly. "She can monitor the movements of all witches and demonic beasts in the area and drive away powerful demonic hybrids. Even if we meet a Fearful Beast of Hell, we have the Sigil of God's Will anyway."

"Then how about a competition to warm ourselves up before the artillery exercise?" Tilly laughed. "Let's divide the sisters in Neverwinter into three groups to see which group can catch more demonic beasts."

"Divide into... three groups?"

"The witches of Sleeping Island, the Witch Union, and Taquila," she grinned and said, "The reward can be a month's Chaos Drinks. I'm really curious about how delicious it is since you said it's far better the taste of ice cream bread."

"Wait... Will Phyllis join us too?" Roland said in surprise.

"This will visualize the power of gunpowder weapons and help her have a better understanding of it, isn't it? Killing a demonic beast may be easy for a God's Punishment Warrior, but if she sees a common person can also do it easily and more efficiently, she will definitely have more confidence in the power of Neverwinter."

"Of course, if she doesn't want to participate, it's ok," said Andrea, shrugging. "Since it's a competition, it's based on her personal will."

"So that's why..." Roland looked at Ashes and the others who had an eager look, and roughly figured out why they made this proposal. Although Tilly's statement was somewhat sensible, their original intention was more to satisfy themselves. After all, they came to help them peacefully go through the Months of Demons, but they could do little since the First Army was sufficient to handle the situation. For most of the time they could only stay in the castle, playing the "Fight the Landlord" card game. Compared with busy assistant witches, they seemed to be useless.

They were combat witches after all.

In this mass production campaign, he might have indeed ignored these witches' feelings.

"Then let's do it." Roland gave a nod of approval.

Chapter 716 - Seeing Annie Again

After finishing the proposal for hunting the demonic beasts, the witches went back to their rooms for a short break and waited for dinner to begin. Before Iffy wandered off, Roland pulled her aside so that he could speak to her alone.

"I have something to tell you now so you won't be too shocked later on." He spoke as softly as possible, "I remember you once said that you had a friend named Annie before you were taken to the Bloodfang Association, right?"

"Yes... Your Majesty." Iffy blinked and was unsure as to why he suddenly raised that topic.

"Among the witches who arrived at Graycastle from the Kingdom of Dawn, other than the Taquila survivor who disguised herself as a maid, the rest all came from the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

Iffy's eyes opened wide. "Your Majesty, you mean..."

Roland nodded and said, "One of them was called Annie and she had also been rejected by the Bloodfang Association."

She was stunned and only managed to mutter after a long silence. "Is this true?"

At that moment, Iffy's face portrayed joy and yet it also reflected worry and guilt. She still blamed herself for not choosing to leave with Annie back then.

This was why Roland did not intend to surprise both of them at the same time. He could not be sure how Annie felt towards Iffy and if she still had a grudge toward the girl that had deserted her, it would be very awkward if an intended happy reunion turned into a confrontation.

"3009," said Roland.

"What?"

"3009. That's her room number," he exhaled and said, "at least for the time being. She's like the one you described and if you want to know the answer, you can go by yourself to take a look."

Iffy was silent for a moment then bowed her head to thank him. "I understand, Your Majesty. Thank you!"

"Go on. Sometimes time is the best cure for everything."

"Yes!"

Roland touched his chin as he observed her running hurriedly out of the living room. "This is as far as I can help you," he thought.

***************

"Room 3009, room 3009..." Iffy was silently chanting the room number while running toward the Witch building. She didn't even bother answering the questions of Softfeathers and Nightfall asked her along the way. She passed through the snow-covered castle backyard and the white-capped olive groves, went up the stairs, and quickly reached the third floor.

However, once she got closer to her destination, she began to slow down.

She began to feel more and more uneasy.

Back then, Annie took care of her throughout their journey to Archduke Island. When she learned that Annie could not join the Bloodfang Association, she did not insist on staying. The guilt had always been torturing her. It got even worse after she thought that Annie had died in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. There were many sleepless nights that followed. In the end, she vented her hatred on the nobility and presented a mask of power and fearlessness as a shell to cover up her remorse.

But now, this shell could no longer protect her.

She was instinctively fearful.

If Annie refused to forgive her, what should she do?

Iffy stood in the doorway but did not dare to reach out to knock on the door.

"I knew you would do that," a voice came out of nowhere and shocked her. She bowed down only to find out that the small figure of Softfeathers had appeared beside her and a breathless Nightfall was in the corridor.

Iffy could not help but be touched that they had caught up with her because they seemed worried about her.

"Every time you encounter something that concerns Annie, you always behave like a completely different person."

"Did you... all hear that?"

"Of course. His Majesty was speaking to you alone. How could we not eavesdrop?" The little girl curled her lips, "In the case that he wanted to coerce you, we could help to stand guard at the door, right?"

"What kind of help is that?" Iffy did not know whether to laugh or cry, and her nervousness started to diminish a little. "You actually came to see me be embarrassed!"

"Something like that." Softfeathers shrugged her shoulders. "Are you ready?"

"Ready... for what?"

Knock! Knock! Knock! Before she could react, the little girl had already struck the door a few times before running toward Nightfall. "Remember just say what your heart really feels!"

"No, wait..."

However, it was too late as the sound of footsteps could be heard behind the door. In a flash, Iffy felt herself tense up all over.

With a click, the door was pushed open, and a tall witch appeared in front of her.

It happened to be Annie who opened the door.

She will never forget this face.

Annie's eyes had a sharp gaze and her brows were slightly raised. Her compassion for her companions was hidden under her face of perseverance. Iffy had thought that she would never meet Annie again and had been afraid that she would soon forget Annie's appearance. When she saw Annie again, she realized that everything was just like before and that her memory of Annie's figure was just temporarily covered in dust and now it was brand new again.

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

"Annie, I'm tired..."

"Annie, you should go."

"Why can't Annie stay?"

"No... I want to be with Annie..."

Fragments of memory continued to emerge in her mind and her outer shell collapsed. She seemed to have returned to the past and once again became that helpless and bewildered girl. She wanted to greet Annie, but somehow she could not make a sound. As soon as she opened her mouth, her eyes felt a stinging sourness.

Iffy could not control this herself. She embraced Annie and then sobbed softly before bursting into full on tears.

"I'm sorry... woo... Annie... I'm so sorry..."

Beasts did not cry.

From this moment on, she was no longer a beast.

***************

Annie remained a little dumbfounded.

When she opened the door, she did not remember who the witch standing outside was and yet she felt some form of familiarity. Only when the witch clutched Annie and apologized while weeping, did she recall the journey to the Bloodfang Association.

It would be a lie to say that there was no resentment in her heart. When the Bloodfang Association tried to sell her to the nobility, a part of her anger from the betrayal also transferred onto Iffy.

However, seeing her crying so uncontrollably, Annie suddenly felt all the anger vanish. Back then, Iffy was as thin as a monkey with a muddy face and a permanent timid look. It would have been impossible for Iffy to resist the orders of Bloodfang Association and stay above of everything.

Annie gave a deep sigh, extended her hands, and gently held Iffy. "... I don't blame you anymore."

Upon hearing this, Iffy shuddered and started to cry even more loudly.

...

Over the next half an hour, Iffy was able to gradually pull herself together.

Throughout this time, Annie learned the whole story of the Bloodfang Association. When she learned that Earl Morgan was dead and the other witches were out of the control of the Bloodfang Association, the twisted knot in the heart finally unraveled. And it was all due to Roland Wimbledon and his sister, Princess Tilly.

Things seemed to be moving in the right direction.

Annie made up her mind after looking at Iffy, who was sleeping in her arms after crying and a curious Amy, who was there with the other witches.

"Let's sign a contract with Wendy and serve the king."

Chapter 717 - Hunting Competition

Burying the black gunpowder and detonators took more time than Roland had expected, mainly because transporting barrels of gunpowder to a preset location outside the city wall was troublesome. The snow that piled up to knee level had caused inconvenience to the movements of the carriage. Transportation had to be interrupted every time they encountered demonic beasts. Even though Lotus was there to help dig trenches and fill them, it still took nearly a week before everything was properly arranged.

All the buried gunpowder would be detonated by an electric detonator to ensure the best detonating effect—the principle was very simple. Since storage and transportation needn’t be considered, the detonator would comprise of a small section within a sealed copper barrel and two wires. The copper barrel would be filled with gun cotton, and a thin copper wire would link the two wires to form a short circuit. When the electric current passed through, the thin copper wire would be burnt out, and the surrounding flaming cotton would be detonated at the same time.

The detonated wire would be buried in the ground by Lotus. Its depth was nearly five meters so that the route would not be damaged by ground artillery or demonic beasts even though it had no casing protection. In the end, all the wires would lead to the city wall's main control tower. Any area could be detonated just by turning the corresponding hand-cranked generator.

Hence, the preparation for the exercise was just missing a live target.

"Ahem, competition comes after friendship whilst hunting the demonic beasts in this exercise. Safety is the highest priority and no one is allowed to leave Leaf’s surveillance area. Is that clear?"

Roland stood on the city wall and turned toward the row of "contestants" that had lined up in front of him.

In order to be fair and to reduce the burden on Leaf, the participating witches formed three groups with a total of six people. These groups were Sleeping Island's team consisting of Ashes and Andrea, Neverwinter's team with Lightning and Maggie, and Taquila's representatives, Phyllis and Agatha.

He initially wanted to make Iffy and Annie form a team to represent Wolfheart, but Annie was unwilling to participate in hunting, plus the other Wolfheart witches had no combat capability, so he had to give up his idea.

"Yes!" The crowd replied in unison, especially Andrea Quinn, who was full of energy. Ever since she tasted Chaos Drinks, Andrea who came from one of the three big noble families of Kingdom of Dawn had been obsessed with the unique taste of the Fire Dragon Wine. She even hoped to use her one month's share of Chaos Drinks in exchange for the very last barrel of the Fire Dragon Wine that was half-filled.

In response, Roland replied that everything could be allowed for the winner.

"The rules are really simple. There is a time limit of one day, and whoever catches the most demonic beasts will emerge as number one. However, only beasts that are trapped in the cage are counted. "Roland pointed to the iron cages below the city wall. "In addition, if someone is caught out of Leaf's area of surveillance, then her team will be immediately disqualified. Well then, the hunting of demonic beasts officially starts now!"

"Oh!"

As soon as his voice faded, Lightning and Maggie took the lead in the sky and flew toward Misty Forest. The remaining two teams could only rely on their legs to trek.

"Who do you think will win?" Tilly asked with a cheerful smile after all the three teams had left the city wall.

Roland had felt there was a hidden meaning behind her smile. "Well... I guess it would be Lightning and Maggie. Their abilities aren’t the strongest, but we are only counting the demonic beasts that are in cages, so speed is undoubtedly an advantage."

"Let's make a bet, brother." She curled her lips and said, "I think Sleeping Island team will win."

"Andrea and Ashes?"  Roland pondered. "Andrea's a professional long-range combat witch and Ashes is an Extraordinary so they're strong without a doubt. Though annihilating the enemy is easy for them, capturing the beasts alive would be much tougher. If they want to transport the demonic beasts back smoothly, they would need to beat every beast half-dead. Far more energy would be spent when compared to just killing the target, so it could be difficult for them to win."

This seemed to be a bet that Roland would win for sure.

"Ok, what are we betting on?"

"If I win, uh... I hope that from now on, half of the revenue from the sales of Chaos Drinks can be used to reward those witches who have made outstanding contributions to urban development."

Evelyn also came from the Sleeping Island. Since this practice would help attract even more witches, it was not a bad thing. In fact, even if Tilly did not mention this, Roland also had a similar plan.

"Sure, and what if you lose?"

"I'll live in Neverwinter from now on. How about that?"

Roland was slightly startled and tilted his head to look at Tilly, but she did not seem to be joking. "Really?"

"Of course," said Tilly whose eyes flashed a hint of slyness, "but you may not necessarily win, let's wait and see."

"I think so too," Nightingale whispered softly in his ear while she was in the Mist. "I forgot to tell you... Andrea's magic has cohered."

*******************

"There’s a wild demonic boar approaching you that’s 125 meters ahead from your left."

Tree trunks started to sway and a string of snow clumps fell. The rubbing sound of branches and green leaves made up Leaf's unique intonation—in this way, Leaf could talk to everyone and monitor them at the same time.

"Well... how far is 125 meters?" Andrea was still not quite used to the new unit of measure set out by Roland. She frowned thoughtfully. "One meter is two steps... then 125 meters are... "

"There's no need to count." Ashes rolled her eyes and removed her beloved sword, "Messenger of Ashes" from her back. "I can already hear its footsteps."

A moment later, a black figure appeared in the jungle. It was a demonized wild boar with roughly the size of an adult and grey tusks that were as thick as arms.

"Don't attack. We have to capture it alive," Andrea blew a whistle toward the demonic beast and shouted, "come!"

"Hiss—hiss—" The wild boar spit out clouds of white gas and stared with its bright scarlet eyes before rushing straight toward the blonde witch who provoked it. If ordinary hunters encountered this scenario, they certainly wouldn’t think of confronting the boar. They would most likely climb up the nearest tree as quickly as possible, or wait for a chance to escape. As to whether they could even survive the demonic beast's tusks would be a whole other story.

But Andrea was motionless. She did not even take her beloved rifle down. She flattened her hands and opened her index finger and thumb to form a rhombus square. Through the center of the square, she saw the boar was no more than 10 steps away from her. She could almost see the dripping of saliva and the shiny bristles of its mane.

"Bang." She whispered softly.

Suddenly, a powerful airflow shot out from her palm and made an explosive roar. The demonic boar seemed to have hit an invisible wall and its whole body was lifted off. The snow at its foot was swept away by airwaves and formed a dense white fog. The demonic boar's huge body churned two rounds before it crashed to the ground. Before any screams of agony could be heard, it was already vomiting blood and had fallen with its back flat on the ground with its twitching limbs facing the sky.

This was Andrea's new ability—by observing the difference between the bow and gun on top of being forced to study by Princess Tilly, she realized her evolutionary direction: since both abilities gave energy to arrows or projectiles, why couldn’t she not directly provide the magic needed to shoot energy? After more than two weeks of journey on the ship, she gradually mastered this new fighting skill.

Even if she did not have pellets in her hand, the impact alone could kill the enemy. And this type of shooting skill was related only to her magic. Its power far exceeded the previous shot and was more like a bow and flintlock. When all the magic was released in one go, the projection could hurt even her.

Chapter 718 - Loyalty to Her Belief

"I've scored the first point!"

Andrea gracefully lifted her long hair to shake off the snowflakes, turned toward Ashes and said, "It's now your turn to transport it."

"Wait... Why me?" Ashes stared at Andrea.

"Because you're strong," she said flatly, "this is a team competition, and naturally we'll need to work together. Don't forget that we represent the honor of Sleeping Island. If we lose the match because you were too slow in moving the beasts, I'll report you to Princess Tilly."

"Overwhelming victory! Nightingale, did you see that?" Andrea looked proudly toward Ashes and felt an immense satisfaction. Ashes looked displeased yet had no choice but to bend over and carry the unconscious demonic boar.

After all, Andrea would not be able to move such a heavy thing.

"Stay here and don't move. I'll be right back," said the Extraordinary to Andrea, as she placed the sturdy demonic boar rack on her shoulder.

"I know. Hurry up."

After Ashes left, Andrea looked up to the forest and asked, "Leaf, could you please tell me where the next demonic beast is?"

"It's on your right about 450 meters away. It's a snowwolf." The branches swayed. "But aren't you going to wait for Ashes?"

"Of course not. That'd be way too slow." Andrea thought for a moment and said, "Hmm... that's about 900 paces away. I'm going to head off. Could you please let Ashes know my new location?"

Leaf was silent for a moment before replying, "I understand."

"Don't worry. It's only a stupid wolf. With you around to remind me, it can't touch me."

Even the gigantic demonic hybrid she met last time was defenseless in front of her new abilities—the original magic arrows were incredibly powerful but only had a range of 10 paces. Now as long as she had enough power, she could shoot to a distance of more than 100 meters. She even had a derivative skill that allowed her to hit accurately without fail. Even if the demonic beast had two pairs of wings, it would not be able to escape her attack.

This time, she was confident about winning!

*******************

"I'm sorry. I didn't think he'd get you involved in such a trifle." Phyllis looked at Agatha who was walking in front of her and said, "I only casually agreed to it at that time."

When Phyllis first heard about the proposal, she did not think too much about it because she had lost her palate and the Chaos Drinks were no longer appealing. What made her agree to it was simple curiosity—anyway it was better than being idle and she could take the opportunity to observe the Witch Union's fighting ability. She did not expect that this hunting game was actually a competition and that her teammate would be Agatha, once the youngest Senior Witch.

"It doesn't matter. This is much better than staying cooped up in the lab and researching the Magic Stone. It's good to go out and get some exercise," said Agatha, shrugging her shoulders. "If I didn't have time to spare, I wouldn't have promised His Majesty in the first place."

"Is that so? Then... shall we just grab a few demonic beasts to make up the figures?"

"How could we do that? This is a competition."

"But I thought the king of the common people said that friendship was first and that competition came second? The others also agreed to it."

"I don't think that's what they really feel. You could tell from their expressions what they were thinking. Even without the Chaos Drinks as prizes, Lightning and Andrea would still be unwilling to lose." Agatha paused and said, "If it's just a normal game, then that doesn't matter. But now we're a team that represents Taquila, right?"

"Yes..." Phyllis suddenly felt that Andrea was full of fighting spirit.

"In that case, if it's a competition then we need to win." Agatha paused in her footsteps and some crystals condensed in her hand.

Leaf's voice could be heard almost simultaneously. "A wolf-eagle demonic hybrid is 200 meters behind you and approaching quickly!"

Phyllis retreated two steps and looked behind toward the snow-white forest. A slender white-haired monster appeared in the snow with a howl. Its wings glided as if it were sliding on the ground, and the beast made almost no sound. It was no wonder Phyllis did not notice the enemy approaching from behind.

As the temperature near Agatha plummeted, the snow suddenly became hard ice. As the enemy approached, she threw the sharp ice crystals in her hand to force the hybrid to dodge and then caused it to lose its balance on the smooth ice.

The Senior Witch remained stable on the ground. She effortlessly glided to the side of the monster, placed her hands on its fur and instantly turned it into half an ice sculpture.

Phyllis admired Agatha's flowy uninhibited way of fighting and could see why she was a part of Taquila. Although Agatha was a member of the Quest Society and had never experienced a real battle, she could still see that Agatha had put in a lot of hard work in combat training. In particular, when she combined both pace and ability, she was in an advantageous position to take the initiative—any enemy fighting with her on the ice would certainly fall under her control.

"How did you manage to find it?" Phyllis asked curiously.

"I summoned a thin piece of ice at my feet that could help me to detect the enemy as soon as it entered the snow."

"I see..." She looked at the mixed species whose body had been covered with ice crystals, except for its head that was hanging out. "Should I drag it now to the city wall?"

"Just leave it here. Since it won't freeze to death that quickly, we can wait until we catch a few more." Agatha waved her hand and said, "We have to find the next demonic beast as soon as possible."

Phyllis realized that she was serious. This young Senior Witch did want to win the competition.

Is it because she represents Taquila? So in the future negotiations, will her loyalty lie with Neverwinter or the Taquila survivors?

This question left Phyllis feeling uneasy.

She only took a few steps before she could not resist saying, "Lady Agatha..."

"Don't address me like that. Just call me Agatha," she said as she turned her head. "Didn't you say that the Taquila witches were no longer ranked in terms of ability, but that everyone was equal?"

"Yes... there has been a gradual consensus since Lady Eleanor sacrificed herself and fewer and fewer companions have survived... Neither the higher ascendants at the Union nor the most common Original Witches should ever be separated by rank. It was Pasha who suggested 'Every witch is equally important'."

"And I'm no exception." Agatha nodded her head and said, "The people in the Witch Union call each other sisters, and sometimes I think they'll be the heirs of the new era."

"I see," Phyllis hesitated and said, "Can I ask you a question... What exactly do you think of the Taquila Witches and Neverwinter?"

"I guess you wish to find out which side I'm loyal to?" Agatha said as she stopped in her tracks.

Phyllis did not avoid looking at Agatha and this was very important for them.

"I'm loyal to my own belief," Agatha replied.

"Belief?"

"That's right, so I hope you'll be able to move to the Western Region of Graycastle and join hands with Neverwinter in the fight against the demons under the leadership of Roland Wimbledon."

Chapter 719 - "The New Union"

Suddenly the snow forest became silent. Only the occasional wind brushing against the treetops could be heard.

Phyllis was silent for a long time. "I thought you would stand by Taquila," she said reluctantly, "you were willing to represent the Taquila Witches in the competition and willing to help..."

Her voice quickly lowered. "That's right. I shouldn't impose too much. This is just a game. Compared with the Taquila Quest Society who had ostracized her, Neverwinter that saved her life was certainly more trustworthy. And in Agatha's eyes, they might still not be legitimate successors of Taquila... After all, they have lost the possibility of exerting magic after converting to the God's Punishment Army."

However, Agatha's next sentence rekindled her hope.

"I'm a Taquila Witch and this won't change."

Agatha's voice was smooth and honest as if she were recounting a most simple statement.

"Then why do you think we should accept the leadership of a common person?" Phyllis felt sincerely puzzled.

"Taquila... Starfall City, Arrieta, or the dozens of cities on the Fertile Plains all unanimously decided to accept the leadership of the Union, simply because the Union was established by witches?" Agatha sighed softly. "Did you forget the original purpose as to why the Union was set up?"

The Union's original... purpose, whether it was the roundtable parliament at the very beginning or the Three Chiefs system that was set up later on, was just for one thing. "Overcome the demons," Phyllis said softly.

"Yes, it was to defeat the demons and it had nothing to do with whether one was a common person or not. After the first Battle of Divine Will, the witches diminished the authority of the common people and unified the Fertile Plains, only because they were too weak and their cooperation couldn't help to resist the demon in any way. Now the common people have shown their power, so if we serve the Union and Roland Wimbledon, what difference would that make? Only he can unite the secular regime and at the same time accept the witches of this era."

Agatha's words flashed like a bolt of lightning across her mind—

Phyllis realized that she had apparently misunderstood something, and the newly emerging idea astonished her.

"Do you mean... Neverwinter would be the new Union?"

"It'd be a part of the Union," Agatha corrected and said, "of course, His Majesty may not like the name. But no matter what it's called in the future, its essence is still the same—in order to win over the Gods, Taquila, Starfall City, the Witch Cooperation Association, the Sleeping Island... and the secular kingdoms will unite to fight a bloody battle against the demons. It's not a question of where my loyalty lies, but a question of being able to continue. The only reason I was able to survive the Frozen Coffin was to see the day the demons would be defeated."

That was why she replied that she was faithful to her own belief.

Phyllis finally understood Agatha's ideas.

Agatha hoped to win the competition on behalf of Taquila, yet this was not a conflict with her serving Roland Wimbledon. Just as 400 years ago, all the cities of Fertile Plains were loyal to the Union. The only difference was that the leader of the New Alliance had changed from the Three Chiefs to one common person.

"Your assessment of him is really high," she said in a rather complex mood. "If the goal was only to defeat the demons, we're also constantly working on it, and the situation will be reversed once we find the chosen one."

"But we haven't found it yet, right? Or in other words, we have found an unexpected 'chosen one'." Agatha started to chuckle. "Rest assured, if there's such a witch, His Majesty will certainly not stop you from ending the Battle of Divine Will. In fact, he'll only help you to find her. This is why I hope you'll move to the Western Region of Graycastle—the witches who choose to settle here will surely increase, and you'll have more chances to find the chosen one, won't you?"

Phyllis found herself being convinced. Even if she didn't want to admit it, Agatha did make sense. "The truth is he's really able to stop the demons... do you really have faith in the common people?"

"I think I can expect it from a common person who connects the witches and all the common people together." Agatha raised the corner of her mouth and said, "Isn't His Majesty preparing a gunfire exercise for you? After it's finished, maybe you'll be able to understand where my belief comes from."

The so-called artillery exercises should showcase the key to what she calls "art." Although it was unclear whether the two had anything to do with combatting the demons, but since the genius Senior Witch already said so, she decided to look forward to it as well.

Just then, a string of loud roars came through the forest, causing the branches to tremble—"Ow—Ow—"

Phyllis's expression changed suddenly.

She was familiar with this sound. It was obviously the hissing of the flying Devilbeast. "Why are there demons here?"

"It's Maggie," said Agatha, curling her lips. "Her evolved ability is becoming anything that can fly, and the demon is no exception."

Phyllis let out a sigh of relief when she realized it was caused by magic ability. But soon she frowned again. "In this case, it's too easy for her to seize the demonic beasts, isn't it?"

Lower breed demonic beasts were senseless, so it was easy for them to surrender to more powerful creatures. In the face of the flying Devilbeast, they would only be scared motionless on the spot and be easy prey. Not to mention that transporting prey from the air was much faster than dragging it from the snow. So how could Phyllis and Agatha win?

"Don't worry." Agatha seemed to have looked through her thoughts. "We're not without a chance. Maggie's ability is really convenient. But neither she nor Lightning, nor all the witches here, have ever withstood the rigors of combat training. In other words, they can't use their magic power to its fullest ability."

Whilst Agatha was talking, a black shadow flew over her head, grabbing a wild demonic toward the direction of the city wall—we can see that her stature was staggering, even the adult Devilbeast would be much smaller than her.

"Are you saying... Maggie won't be able to last until sunset?"

"The Devilbeast's breath is too strong, and will expel in advance all the prey in the area of activity. In that case, she will most likely change into the pigeon and join Lightning together to search for targets, and then suddenly evolve into Devilbeast to capture the demonic beasts. Change is a very exhausting process of magic and once her magic power is depleted, it's difficult to rely on Lightning alone to maintain the efficiency of capturing." Agatha smiled and said, "So the next demonic beast will be attacked by you and I'll only be responsible for holding it down."

Phyllis's eyes brightened. For them, learning how to squeeze their potential was a required strategy of combat. At this point, the newly promoted Senior Witches were indeed no different from the fledgling newcomers.

"Yes, leave it to me!"

...

Chapter 720 - The Competition Results and Admission Ceremony

Just as Agatha had anticipated, it was uncommon to hear Maggie's carefree roar in the afternoon.

When a witch was engaged in fighting, their highly tense mind would consume not only their magic power but also their physical strength. So, the Union concentrated on the key points needed to make the best use of the fighter's time. Allowing her to relax her mind and restore her physical strength during combat training. After all, when the demons came and swarmed them, only by relying on reasonable shifts and cooperation would they be able to survive on the battlefield.

This meant that while Phyllis was urging and luring the demonic beasts, Agatha would take the opportunity to rest some until several beasts had been gathered together... They took a quick break at noon, only eating dry food with snow for lunch. After Agatha managed to freeze three or four beasts, she would then shape the snow into a smooth ice track that would slide their captures to the Western Region's city wall.

As the sky dimmed and became grey, Leaf informed them that the competition had ended.

When they returned to the starting line, they were surprised to find that there were dozens of demonic beasts trapped in wooden cages. The number of caged demonic hybrid beasts had increased to around 30. The biggest one among them was a wolf-bear demonic hybrid. It was almost as tall as the wall, with limbs as thick as stone pillars, and it was so strong that even a God's Punishment soldier and Devilbeast were unlikely to defeat it.

"Which team caught that one?"

Phyllis's face barely changed, even as feelings of loss flooded her. After all, they had done their best—22 small-sized and medium-sized demonic beasts, a score that she had thought would be high enough to stand out, but now it seemed that their score might be at the bottom.

How were the other two teams able to catch so many demonic beasts?

Wendy walked in front of them, relieved to see everyone safe, "You've all worked hard." Then she pulled out a notebook and began to announce the results.

"Neverwinter, seven points, well done."

"Wait... seven points?" Phyllis thought in shock. "Neverwinter isn't first? Could it be that the remaining 80 beasts were caught by the two members from the Sleeping Island?"

"It's all Maggie's fault," Lightning said, touching her forehead, "If she didn't leave halfway through, to steal eggs from the nest of a winter hawk and then spend two hours roasting them, we would have caught a few more."

"It was you who let me go coo..." the Pigeon perched on Lighting's head grumbled her grievance, "Not to mention, you ate more roasted eggs than me, what's more, you even wanted some Bird Beak Mushrooms, saying that eggs would taste better with mushrooms coo..."

"Nevermind, it's okay as long as all of you come back safely... well, next is Sleeping Island, fifteen points. Ashes, you really are a fighter," Wendy continued.

"She just ran the captures for us," Andrea griped, "I was the one who knocked down the beasts. Too bad that we came across so few monsters on our way. Besides, she didn't run fast enough."

Ashes shot her a petulant look. "Why don't you try carrying those demonic boars back and forth, 15 times, in the snow?"

"Muscular barbarians are more suitable for this kind of job."

"They are better than someone so delicate and fragile."

"You—"

"Ahem," Wendy quickly interrupted the growing dispute, "the last is Taquila's team with a total of 22 points! Congratulations, the month's share of Chaos Drinks reward is now yours!"

"Ah, so enviable!" Andrea said begrudgingly.

"I want to drink that too coo..." Maggie eagerly looked at Agatha.

However, Phyllis was very startled, "There are clearly hundreds of cages containing demonic beasts..."

"Oh, Leaf caught them along the way," Wendy said waving her hand while smiling.

As the person in charge of the Witch Union said this, every participant automatically turned their eyes to the green-haired witch standing beside them.

Leaf touched the back of her head bashfully as she said, "I was afraid that there would be too many demonic beasts entering the hunting area, so I set a 3,000-foot radius trap on the outer-ring, only allowing some beasts to pass through specific passages. After that, I thought that since the beasts were already trapped in a vine trap, I could simply drag all of them to the edge of the forest and add more targets for His Majesty."

Suddenly, everyone fell silent.

Alone she had caught more beasts than the three competing teams combined. Moreover, she had done it while keeping watch over the competition. No one had ever considered that there would be a combat witch that powerful hiding among the higher ascendants in the Witch Union.

Even a Transcendent wouldn't be capable of catching so many demonic beasts within a day.

"Why do I feel unutterably depressed and overwhelmed...?" Phyllis wondered to herself.

Suddenly, she felt that winning the competition wasn't as important.

***************

The following day, Neverwinter finally finished all of the preparation necessary for the artillery exercise.

When Roland arrived at the West Wall, the top of the wall was packed with 2,000 citizens, in their sold-out seats, eagerly waiting to watch the exercise. According to Edith, 80% of the seat holders were former residents of Border Town. This clearly showed that spending two silver royals to participate in an activity, where the king was present, no longer posed a financial burden for the locals.

The Western Region's weather seemed to accommodate the exercise. After a long night of heavy snowfall, it had stopped at the break of dawn and the howling northern wind had eased as well. The vast field to the west of the city wall seemed to be covered with a layer of silver-white carpet. The rutted track marks and footprints left behind from carrying the demonic beasts had been covered by the snow, making the ground appear clean and untouched.

The Demonic beasts, being the targets, had undoubtedly caught the attention of the audience. The numerous captures had been divided into three rows, each aligned with one of the three firing distances; 1,000, 1,600, and 3,300 feet. The more brutal demonic hybrid beasts had been lined in the rows closest to the attendees. It was obvious that that being able to witness these mighty monsters being turned into a bloody pulp under the heavy artillery fire would bring them unparalleled enjoyment. A sweet revenge for the residents of Neverwinter who had suffered so much during the Months of Demons.

The smaller beasts were meant to be fodder for the embedded gunpowder. It was too far to see any details so it was just for embellishment. However, in Roland's opinion, the number of beasts was more important. In the last row, the cages that trapped demonic beasts lined up with a length up to 330 feet, waiting for the most resplendent blaze.

Iron Axe climbed up the wall and reported loudly, "Your Majesty, the artillery battalion for the First Army is ready."

Roland exhaled a white breath and turned around to look at Echo, who was standing beside him, "Play the Parade March Song."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

As the magic power spread from Echo's fingers, the familiar resonance instantly rang out across the wall. Even though Roland had heard this song before, since it was practiced over and over on the school's sports days, his heart still skipped a beat once the melody echoed in the air of Neverwinter. It was as if the song had the power to bolster him as he waited for the soldiers' arrival.

The people who had been chatting were hushed and they all turned their eyes towards the end of the long street that was near the city wall. There they saw a team of soldiers, in uniform, marching up the street towards their positions in an orderly manner.

Roland remembered the first time he experienced the Months of Demons two years ago when the city had been like a palm-sized land. People with less than two months training had to fight against demonic beasts on the rubble-built cement wall with lances and spears. At that time, even a common demonic hybrid could put the Militia into a frenzy. However, now, they would remain calm and composed while faced with a higher level challenge. The seemingly powerful demonic beasts had now become the targets that will help to declare the strength of Neverwinter. The apparent contrast made Roland extremely excited.

As the soldiers slowly climbed up the wall through the gentle slopes, a euphoric applause broke out among the crowd, wave after wave, almost as if it would never stop. He knew that there was no need for him to make a speech at the moment, everyone was waiting expectantly for the melodious roar of artillery.

So, Roland just loudly announced, "Let the artillery exercise begin!"

Chapter 721 - Artillery Exercise

Ferlin Eltek was quite surprised seeing the parade of the soldiers of the First Army climb up the wall in order.

Known as the star knight of the Western Region he was naturally familiar with the training of knights, and knew how difficult it was to ensure that people kept order while marching in a group. Whether for knights or mercenaries, when they were under a Lord's purview, their numbers in each row would be no more than five, for if the horizontal line became too long, it would be very easy to become disordered, giving the audience whose seats were far away the sight of a messy eyesore.

In general, the difficulty of keeping order increased exponentially with the number of soldiers. But in this group, the number of soldiers was over 100, with more than 10 soldiers in each column and row, and all of them were in uniforms of the same color with bright ribbons diagonally across their chests, making them look like a moving square.

This visual impact gave Ferlin an unstoppable momentum, once the formation was maintained, the advantage of keeping a large group became most incisive.

This could also be seen from the enthusiastic response of the crowds around him.

"Look at the third row. There is my boy!"

"They're marching in such good order!"

"All of them look like one person!"

"If two armies are confronting each other on the battlefield, I'm afraid that the enemies will be frightened out of their wits just by seeing this kind of formation."

"Ha, I think they'll be fleeing just on hearing the name of His Majesty."

"What's the name of this song?"

"I don't know, but... I feel full of strength!"

"That's the effect made by Miss Echo's magic power."

"It's a pity that May couldn't witness this," Irene said, holding the arm of Morning Light. "If she were here seeing it, she'd surely have been able to reproduce the exciting scene in the drama."

"She's pregnant. Of course, she can't stand on the city wall in the chilly wind with you," Ferlin shook his head and said with a smiling face. "Rest assured that you'll definitely get another chance. I bet there'll be more and more activities like this in the future."

Both the review of knights and artillery exercises were the means for the lord to show his power. The current strength accumulated in Neverwinter was beyond everyone's imagination. There was no doubt that his Majesty was capable of conquering more territories. With such a troop, it would not be surprising that he could even take all of the four kingdoms under his dominion when the time came. Demonstrations like this one would be absolutely necessary in order to overawe the people.

"My dear, would you like to join this team?" Irene asked abruptly.

"What?" Morning Light was a little shocked.

"I can feel it," Irene said, smiling at him. "Your heart is beating fast."

"Is it..." Ferlin exhaled a white breath. He realized that even if his father did not say the words at that time, he would not be a teacher for his whole life.

Sir Eltek was right. If he really liked books, he would not have decided to be a knight at the very beginning and would not have done his best to earn the reputation, the well-known Morning Light.

The army was the best place for him.

He wanted to join the First Army and become His Majesty's sword, to fight for the king and to play a role in expanding the kingdom's territory to an unprecedented scale.

Although His Majesty had said that he, a knight who had surrendered, would have no chance to pick up a weapon again, there were other ways to join the First Army, according to his father.

He wondered to what extent His Majesty's Adviser Department had developed now.

He watched the artillerymen entering the shooting positions as if he had seen himself in the future.

...

The music stopped.

This was an indication to be ready for the firing.

Van'er gave the order to take aim.

Six Longsong Cannons that were set at the widened area of the city wall dropped the barrels to point at the cages 300 meters away—a distance to which shells would keep flying straight to the target without falling. Because it was uncertain whether the demonic beasts' bodies would trigger the fuze, they must keep the muzzles lower so that the shells would hit the snow under the cages.

"My God, this one is so ugly." Nelson whistled. The mortar team he was in charge of was aiming at a large wolf-bear hybrid. The beast probably had felt a gloomy foreboding and was struggling to get rid of the shackles. The huge body crashed hard against the bars, making the cage shake constantly.

"Be serious," Van'er frowned and warned. "This isn't the usual training. Everyone is watching us."

"I'm a little nervous," Cat's Claw said, his voice a bit stiff. "Being stared at by so many people makes me want to pee..."

Many members at the scene shared the same feeling.

"Yeah, it's more uncomfortable than confronting the duke's knightage before."

"If you miss the target, you'll be laughed at by all of the citizens."

"Just do it as you did in the previous exercise. No more nonsense!" Van'er shot Cat's Claw a glance, "Remember not to mistake the live shell with the headless shell. If something goes wrong, detention will be waiting for you. Now, load!"

After entering the loading process, everyone at the spot suddenly got busy. No matter how they felt now, they had been so familiar with the procedure after the long period of training that they would be able to complete it even with their eyes closed.

The loading of the 152-mm Longsong Cannon was much faster than the twelve-pound field artillery cannon. After all of the six cannons were ready, Iron Axe's voice of countdown was heard from the top of the wall.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

At the same time, the noise of the audience came to an abrupt end, as if everyone was waiting for the moment when the muzzles burst out flames and thunder.

But Van'er was unexpectedly calm in his heart. Looking at the demonic beasts roaring crazily in the cages, he recalled the days four years ago when his younger brother had died of famine and cold in his arms, when he had practiced day and night for eating one more egg, when he had fought the demonic beasts on the rubble-built city wall with pikes.

The changes that had taken place in recent years were vivid before his eyes.

"Five, four, three..."

He had only been an ordinary miner in the old street of Border Town. He did not make up his mind to stay in the Militia to defend His Majesty's land against demonic beasts until His Majesty had said to him, "I have faith in you. Keep it up." But even so, he did not expect things to come to this state today.

Van'er secretly turned his head and looked at the gray-haired man in the distance, Roland Wimbledon, who had made him calm. As long as His Majesty stood behind him, no matter what kind of enemy stood in front of him, he would not retreat.

"Two, one! Fire!"

"Fire!"

Van'er waved down his arm abruptly.

At the same time, six Longsong Cannons spewed out long flames and green smoke, accompanied by the huge boom that turned the snow on the wall into flying white mist. Within a blink of an eye, the shells shot across the distance of 300 meters. When people heard the deafening bombarding bang, the shells had dropped in front of the hybrid demonic beasts.

The compressed fuze triggered the double-base gunpowder in the warhead, blasting away six mud pillars in a flash and smashing the wooden cages—the beasts' seemingly sturdy bodies were like paper swirling in front of rampant waves. The flakes of wood mingled with hot and bloody flesh were flying straight up into the sky. Meanwhile, intestines and broken limbs scattered all around.

The crowds suddenly burst out fanatic cheers.

Chapter 722 - Resplendent Blaze

According to Roland's plan, the firing would not stop once it had started.

The first, five rounds of the volley turned around 20 beasts in the first row into ashes. Then, in the free shooting time, the rapid firing, emptying ammunition, paired with the ignition of black powder, created a grand roaring momentum.

Thus, as the firing continued to ring out, the atmosphere created by this scene ushered in a new upsurge. The frequent blasts created a cloud of almost endless dust that made the surrounding 1,500-foot radius look like an impending doomsday. Occasionally a ricocheting stone would crush a cage and if the beast survived it would flee, choosing to run away, instead of rushing to the wall.

Fear had overridden their bloodthirsty instincts.

However, only a few would escape this land of the dead.

The strong waves radiating from underground had already begun to rupture their guts, deafen their ears, and blind their eyes. Most of the fleeing beasts did not make it far before they fell back to the ground, where they were devoured by the continuing explosives.

"This is nothing when compared to the war against the church," Andrea shouted while covering her ears, her face full of pride. The witches from Wolfheart stared at Andrea, eyes wide with shock. "At that time there were only two cannons, but we still had hundreds of flintlock gun and iron cannons of a smaller sizes. The enemy wasn't demonic beasts in cages, but the men of God's Punishment Army who were fast and strong. At the moment when the battle was most fierce, the bullets were flying all around the entire battlefield. If anyone were to poke their head out from the cover they would definitely get themselves killed. That was a real battle."

Amy looked shocked, "Really?"

"No wonder the church lost the battle." Hero sighed, "It's beyond any human being's skills."

"Aren't you afraid of seeing such a scene?" Broken Sword looked admirably at Andrea.

Andrea smoothed down her billowing hair during an interval between the explosions and said, "Of course, you'll become accustomed to it after you've seen more. I have witnessed the whole process of a battle and personally killed two soldiers of the God's Punishment Army!"

She had completely forgotten that she had been as just shocked and astonished by the scenes of battle when she climbed up the city wall for the first time. It seemed that she now regarded Neverwinter as her second home and she couldn't even control her feeling of pride when she was talking about its weapons.

Most of the witches only stood there watching the show, however, Phyllis observed the events more carefully.

When the demonic beasts in the first row were bombarded, she didn't care too much—Mad Demons from this distance would also threaten the soldiers on the wall with their spears. When the common people were confronted with the bone spears, that dropped from above as violently as a Mighty Storm, how long would they be able to hold their defenses against the enemy even though their weapons, the so-called Longsong Cannon, were dramatically more powerful?

However, when they turned their fire to the second row of cages, her expression changed.

Was that the common king's reasoning for arranging the beasts in this manner? So he could gauge the cannon range? The last row of cages was over 3,000 feet from the wall. If the Longsong Cannon was able to hit that area, it meant that the cannon had a shooting range that rivaled that of the Siege Beasts', with a much higher lethality.

The Siege Beast had always been the most troublesome demon weapon for the Union. This weapon has a striking distance that is farther than any mangonel or ballista. Which made the witches have no choice but to rely on Transcendents to lead the Blessed Army to charge into the enemy's position. In this way, even if they succeeded in crushing the Siege Beasts, they would not be able to avoid a large number of casualties. However, if they had a long-range striking weapon like this, it wouldn't be impossible for them to successfully defend the Holy City of Taquila.

Phyllis wondered if this was the ultimate weapon of Neverwinter as well as the reason why Agatha had such faith in Roland.

After she asked Ice Witch this question, she just shook her head and smiled.

"Setting the target 3,000 feet away was only to meet the needs of the audience... because a target further away would affect the view of the exercise. According to His Majesty, the shooting range for the new cannon was over six miles, ten times further than its present range," Agatha turned her head to whisper in Phyllis' ear, "In other words, it could hit somewhere out of the manipulator's sight."

Ten times? Phyllis was astonished. Although she did not quite understand what foot and mile meant, a distance that was ten times that of the current range could cover some of the demon's outposts. Did that mean, if the cannons were placed on the wall of Taquila the shells could directly hit the demons' lair?

How was that possible?

How could they ensure that the weapon would hit an enemy that's out of our view?

Agatha noticed her abstraction and continued to elaborate, "But, to hit a target so far away is not easy. It requires a lot of calculation and improvement of the aiming equipment, and I've heard that the astrologers are working on it. It appears that His Majesty intended to write a shooting range list from which they will be able to calculate the location where the shell will hit on the basis of the pre-launch data. Through this method, the shell should hit the enemy precisely, even if it is thousands of feet away."

"Are you sure?" Phyllis clenched her teeth. "Doesn't that mean that as long as we make a few more cannons, the demons won't even be able to get near the city wall?"

"Yeah, His Majesty said that this kind of strike would be called a scrubbing..." Agatha shrugged and said, "probably a name pulled from the idea of 'scrubbing' dirty things on the ground. It's a little hard to pronounce but it sounds very appropriate."

Phyllis hesitated for a second before whispering close to Agatha's ear, "Er... Can you make the cannons?"

Agatha looked at her for a moment and waited for a new round of explosions to pass before saying, "I know what you are asking. I did provide some of the materials in the shell, however, it takes way more than two people to make it."

"Even witches?"

"Far from enough... Do you know how many common people work in the chemical plant of Neverwinter? Nearly 2,000 people and the number is still growing!" Agatha sighed, "But, what they do there is no more than make explosives from acids, greases, and gases, while the production of a cannon is a completely different system. The necessary mine and smeltery have more than 3,000 people working in them, the processing plant has over 1,500 workers, and corresponding technicians to maintain and operate the finished product. How many common people did we have that could work for us even in the Taquila age?"

Phyllis became silent. After Arrieta and Starfall City fell, one after the other, the human beings' territory retreated to the corner of the plains with a plummeting population. By the time Taquila became the last shelter for all people, the number of the common people controlled by the Union was a mere 30,000 to 40,000. However, they were playing the role of supporting the combat witches, logistics, and keeping the city on course etc., it would be impossible to find enough people to manufacture the Longsong Cannons. If Agatha didn't lie to her, even the witches of Taquila at that time were unable to make it, let alone the ones who had been struggling to survive in the underground maze.

Suddenly, the booms from the cannons stopped.

The demonic beasts, in the first two rows, had completely merged with the snow, turning into puddles of blurred flesh and blood. An unearthly silence hung over the wall and no one there spoke. Everyone was staring at the furthest cages as if they were waiting for something.

Phyllis looked quizzically at Agatha, who just smiled back at her.

"The key is coming."

Before Agatha finished speaking, a bright light radiated from the ground, glimmering like a shining sun!

Chapter 723 - Power to Shake the Sky

There was no sun in the Months of Demons, which was something that had not changed for thousands of years.

The sky was always like a gloomy dark curtain where the snow was invariably flying and swirling in the wind. People barely noticed the difference in the weather other than the intensity of the snow. Like the weather today, that only one or two occasional snowflakes drifted down might be regarded as a sign that the snow had stopped. Most of the time, the white snow would swarm the entire sky, the heavy fall of snow would float and cover the whole land at all times.

Therefore, this white light was particularly eye-catching under such a background. The moment it broke out of the earth, the glow brightened the surrounding snow in an instant, as if the entire gray world was lit up slightly.

Phyllis could not help but hold her breath.

Her gaze was fixed on the light in this moment when everything seemed swift and yet slow.

As the light dimmed quickly and turned into an orange fireball, the ground 1,000 meters away from the wall was rooted up!

This was not an illusion. She clearly saw the flat snowfield rising upwards and forming a soft arc as if the land under the snow was not made of soil and rocks, but made of water that could randomly change its shape. At the top of the arc, the red fireball was rising as if it wanted to get rid of the shackles of the earth.

It succeeded! The next scene happened almost in the blink of an eye. Smoke and clouds of dust and flames erupted from the ground and tore the curved surface into pieces! The fireball skyrocketed, along with billows of black smoke rising tens of meters high, spreading a high wall that almost obscured the original light of the sky in Phyllis' vision. Both the cages and demonic beasts turned into ashes in front of the fireball. By then the earth-shattering roar came to her ears, making her tremble and her heart thud.

"Boom! Boom!"

Suddenly, the earth shook!

Phyllis subconsciously clutched Agatha, to whom she moved her lips and wanted to say something but was blocked by the coming airflow. The people on the city wall also reeled from the blowing and did not come to themselves until a long while later. They, stunned by this scene, had forgotten to cheer and applaud. The only thing they could do was look up at the rising wall of smoke.

"Is this... the key?"

Swallowing, she had never thought that common people had mastered such a terrible force nowadays. Even a Senior Demon could not survive in such a turbulent underground fire.

The red sun was dimming, leaving only a few scarlet flames looming in the dark smoke, but the billowing smoke had shot up to midair as if it connected the clouds. The specks of dirt and demonic beasts' pieces that had been blown up into the sky now dropped like a rain of blood and dirt in the surrounding snowfield.

Looking at this scene, Phyllis finally understood where Agatha's confidence came from.

With this earthshaking power, common people would even have the opportunity to contend with brutal demons.

But she still could not understand why Roland Wimbledon would call it art.

"Was the explosion art?" She wondered.

...

Retnin was completely intoxicated by the cold wind that was filled with the smoke of gunpowder. The boom of the blast thoroughly awakened his desire.

This was chemistry!

This was the real chemistry!

He looked to his companions beside him, the former Chief Alchemist of King's City, Rayleigh, along with Archer, whose eyes, he noticed, were shining with the same light, which was irreconcilable with their aging looks. He vaguely remembered that last time he showed this kind of radiance was when he was enrolled in the Alchemic Workshop as a disciple at the age of 10.

Retnin felt that he finally found the goal to which he would devote his whole life.

That was to attract everyone's attention like the sun, only chemistry could help him achieve this goal!

Unfortunately, he was nearly 50 years old. How nice it would be if he had seen this scene 20 years earlier and understood the real power of chemistry ahead of time, which was not flames and fumes given off from the burning of rough snow powders but the purer light and heat.

Fortunately, he finally knew it.

Looking at the stunned astrologers beside him, Retnin could not help smiling.

Since then, the lore of Sage would only record one name, while the other would soon be forgotten completely.

He wanted to let everyone experience the power of explosions, to make them praise the greatness of chemistry!

He could not hold back his urge to start more experiments. He had so many chemically explosive plans in "Intermediate Chemistry" to try.

"What are we waiting for?"

"Let's apply for a lab from Kyle Sichi."

"That's what I'm thinking."

The three alchemists spoke out their ideas and suggestions at the same time.

Retnin gave the column of smoke that lingered in midair one last look and then walked swiftly towards the laboratory.

...

"Now do you understand why I want you to stay in Neverwinter?" Edith fumbled Cole's head.

The latter was silent for a long time before asking in a husky voice, "For this?"

Clearly, he was really frightened by the formidable force of the explosion, with his face still being pale and one hand clutching his sister's arm.

"For no one can withstand Roland Wimbledon." Edith said slowly, "The aristocrats, though holding their titles and lands, mean nothing compared with this kind of power. He would make a kingdom in any way he wants it to be. When he ordered the abolition of the nobility, those aristocrats should have handed over their lands and rights. But it's a pity that most people still haven't realized it."

Although she regarded it as a pity, the Pearl of the Northern Region showed no expression of pity, rather she showed a feeling of gloating.

Cole Kant pouted his lips. "We... are aristocrats too."

"But we're no longer titled aristocrats." Edith said, taking her younger brother to the edge of the wall. Now that people were gradually leaving the city wall and the area had become much more spacious, Cole could clearly see the dark burned ground far away as if it had been ploughed severely. Edith continued to say, "Aristocrats are respected for their wealth and power, not the pieces of land under their feet, which means the nobility won't truly disappear. Just like this plain, whether its surface is broken or neat, snow-covered or grassy, its nature won't change. Neverwinter is the starting point of the new era. If you want to be an aristocrat in this era, you have to integrate yourself into the new rules set by His Majesty."

For a moment, Cole felt he had seen and not seen the point at the same time, but he still nodded under his sister's commanding manner accumulated over the years. "I'll stay here and no longer argue for going back to the Northern Region."

"That's right. Don't you think it's far more interesting in exploring new rules and new forces than running pieces of immutable land?"

Cole looked up at her sister's pretty profile.

Her long hair was blowing, like the silkiest satin, in the northerly wind. Her long, narrow eyelashes tilted up, accented with her elegant curve of nose and lips, giving a sight of unspeakable beauty.

The only thing that puzzled him was the flush on Edith's face, something that women would have when they were excited.

"Is my sister interested in the skyrocketing column of smoke?" Cole doubted.

Cole turned away his eyes, hiding his doubt deeply in his heart.

Chapter 724 - A Higher Level of Power

After the exercise, Phyllis once again came to Roland’s castle accompanied by Agatha.

When they entered the office, she noticed that Roland Wimbledon wore the same expression as he had last time. He did not show any self-satisfaction, as if the exercise was nothing but an insignificant matter in his eyes.

However, Phyllis felt that the importance of this common person sitting behind the mahogany table had apparently grown a lot. She unconsciously addressed him with honorifics. "Your Majesty, please allow me to ask you a few questions before contacting the Taquila witches."

"Go ahead." Roland nodded.

"Can the weapons you demonstrated be mass-produced?"

In Phyllis' view, if the plan of seeking the Chosen One did not work out well, the war against demons would undoubtedly last many years. If the production of this weapon really required nearly 10,000 common people and the output could not meet their needs, Neverwinter would still be faced with a hard war.

By that time, she would be able to strive for more positions for the Taquila survivors.

After all, a force of about 100 God's Punishment Warriors controlled by witches was definitely formidable. When the Longsong Cannons could not stop the Siege Beasts that came from all directions, Roland would have to rely on them to break through the tight encirclement.

Roland smiled and gave the answer. "The first thing I must point out is that the Longsong Cannon isn't merely a defensive weapon. It may look too heavy to be carried by manpower or livestock, but for some vehicles, carrying them is no longer a problem. In fact, with a little improvement, it can turn into a weapon that can be used for both offense and defense."

"Ve… Vehicles?" Phyllis repeated. She had heard from Agatha earlier that His Majesty often said some awkward-sounding new words, most of which were straightforward, and that if she did not understand, she could ask directly. Generally, the king would be very happy to answer the questions.

As expected, Roland rubbed his hands and said, "It would be anything that can carry the cannons, such as, the simplest... three-masted big sailing ship, which can be regarded as a vehicle."

"But suchlike big ships can only sail in the Swirling Sea."

"I'm just giving you an example. There will be a free-wheeling vehicle on land in the future. Neverwinter has already embarked on developing such a vehicle, though it can do much more than simply carrying a cannon."

"An equipment that is capable of carrying such a heavy weapon as well as moving freely on the ground? But from the king's statement, it seems not to be prepared for cannons specifically." Just as Phyllis wanted to ask some more, Roland went on, "As for the output, after a new generation of processing tools is commonly used, I believe the cannons will cover all the walls of the border in a year or two."

Phyllis secretly gasped at the answer. "Covering all the walls of the border in a year or two? Even Mangonel and Ballista cannot be produced in such a large number in such a short period of time."

"If so, it will be hard for the Taquila survivors to play a role here."

To Phyllis, it was an answer that disappointed and satisfied her at the same time. Perhaps their positions would be lower than other witch organizations, but, it was always good to have less casualties in war.

However, in light of her previous experiences, she decided not to question him but rather to change the subject.

"I understand, Your Majesty. My second question is, I noticed during the artillery exercise that the last explosion was not caused by the Longsong Cannon, I’m wondering if it's your most lethal weapon?"

When she asked, Phyllis noticed a strange smile appear on Roland's face before he answered. "Judging from the technology we've mastered, it can only be counted as the simplest one."

"The simplest... one?" she said in astonishment. "You can make a weapon that could create a more violent explosion?"

"There's no end in the development of explosion." Roland shook his head. "The current level of weaponry Neverwinter possesses can be viewed as the second level, the third level will be better. At that level, it won't be impossible to burn a city into the ground in one go."

Phyllis was completely startled. She instinctively wanted to consider this statement as nonsense. "Crush a city in one go? No common people or witches can have this kind of power. Only deities can do it." But when she saw Roland's peculiarly shining eyes, she found it hard to deny what he had said.

In the end, she had no choice but to ask in a low voice, "What kind of weapon is that?"

Roland did not give a direct answer. He drank some tea before saying slowly, "What does the scene of the last round of explosion look like in your eyes?"

"Is this about my doubts?" She closed her eyes and a moment later said, "Like a sunrise."

If the smoke and dust were taken as clouds, the rising orange fireball would undoubtedly be the sunrise at dawn.

"Yes, it's just like the red light of the early morning sun. But the third level of weapon is the real sun." Roland raised the corner of his lip, as if he was narrating a thing made by God, "You can't look straight at it because it'll burn your eyes, neither can you come too close to it, for the glittering light will burn you all over. Its core temperature can turn stones into gases, and the air billow it generates is strong enough to smash houses."

The description made Phyllis shudder. She was unable to distinguish whether what he was saying was an overestimation or the truth. "How can we make it?" she asked.

"We have to accomplish two epic tasks. One is called resplendent radiance, while the other is called the distance to the sun, and..."

"Your Majesty!" Agatha interrupted him, frowning.

"Please don't talk nonsense at this time." Nightingale's voice also came to Phyllis' ears.

"Epic tasks? Resplendent radiation?" Phyllis found herself unable to understand even one word and Agatha was shrugging helplessly.

"Ahem, in short, it's very complicated, so I need more witches to push forward the research and speed up the technological development in Neverwinter." Roland coughed a little. "Of course, the things you found in the ruin may be helpful, so I hope we can start a deeper negotiation as soon as possible."

With a complicated feeling, Phyllis looked at the king, who was a common person, before taking off the ring on her finger. "As promised, I'll contact Pasha and other survivors for you. When I crush this Five-Colored Stone, they'll sense my location, but if you want to talk directly, I'm afraid it'll take one or two more days… I don't know when Pasha can get a magic core ready."

"Can we have a conversation anywhere?"

"Yes, but if the condition permits, a spacious place will be much better."

"Well then, you can crush the Magic Stone in the hall, that will make it a little formal." Roland said before he turned to Agatha and said, "You take her there for me."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After leaving the office, Phyllis took a deep breath.

She had done all she could do, next was to wait for the response from the rest of the survivors.

Chapter 725 - Bet And Promise

The effect of the live-fire artillery exercise exceeded Roland's expectations.

He had indeed got what had paid for. In the last round of explosion, he had ignited 70% of the total black powder reserves and had got an explosion as intense as that of the roadside bombs in the modern world where he had lived before. While the soldiers had been burying the powder, he had had a sudden thought and had mixed some aluminum powder with the gunpowder. As a result, the fireball of the explosion had become even more bright. The moment it had shot out of the ground, it had looked a bit like the rising sun.

With the success of this explosion, the First Army's explosives had been officially upgraded from black powder to chemical gunpowder. As for the nuclear explosives, he could only fantasize about it at this moment. There was quite a lot of uranium in the earth's crust, which was even more than silver and gold. He could have simply asked Lucia to collect uranium, but he was unable to prevent radiation damage from nuclear fallout or manufacture qualified lead plates.

The most important thing was that he didn't know whether Nana could heal radioactive diseases, namely, the biological deformation in genes caused by particle ionization.

So unless he was left with no choice, Roland did not plan to start the "Bright Radiation", a task as epic as the mythical stealing of fire.

After all, it was too dangerous.

After settling the issue of the Taquila witches' meeting, he invited Tilly into his office.

It was time to discuss the bet with her.

Roland poured her a cup of Chaos Drink, cleared his throat, and said, "About the hunting competition...."

"Even though Agatha is a member of the Witch Union, her team didn't represent the Neverwinter city." Tilly seemed to have already guessed Roland's thoughts and narrowed her eyes. "Brother, our bet can only be considered as a draw. I won't accept it if you intend to count Leaf as part of the Neverwinter team."

"Of course, our bet did end in a draw. But I still want you to stay," Roland said honestly.

His straightforward attitude made Tilly stutter, "Ugh...."

"So, how about we count it as a double win?" This was the first time that he saw Princess Tilly's speechless expression, which was actually rather adorable in his eyes. "I'll use one-third of the profits of Chaos Drink as a fund to reward anyone, a witch or a common person, who contributes to the Neverwinter city. And you can take up residence in the Neverwinter city, either in the Witch Building or somewhere else together with the Sleeping Island witches."

As they started discussing business, Tilly soon regained her focus and coughed as if nothing had happened, "Only one third? We had initially agreed on half of the profits."

"Because I estimated that even one-third of the profit would still be a shocking amount. It'll be enough for one lifetime." Roland explained, "The rest of the money will be used for the Neverwinter city's infrastructure, including the witches accommodation and necessary facilities, as well as salary distribution. In general, it'll be used for all the needed areas. If you need more, you can directly take it."

"Even if I spend all the earned gold royals?"

"Of course, they would be wasted anyway in the warehouse if left unused," he replied naturally. In the future, when the metallic currency was no longer able to meet the productivity needs, it would be the time to start using credit currency. When that happened, the gold royals would become just a number for the government, which would print out the money directly. Given that, storing metallic money was not important for him.

Tilly smirked, "Sounds like a good deal."

"That's why it's called a double win," Roland said, "don't you think?"

She sighed and said, "Since you already spoke your mind so clear, I can only agree with you." Even though she acted like she was reluctantly agreeing, her smiling eyes could not hide her real feelings.

Roland could not help but smile too. He had only seen a look of suspicion on her face one year ago, but now she put on a relaxed smile. It seemed like she finally believed that he could bring a stable and comfortable life for the witches.

"Oh right." After some casual chatting, he wanted to change the topic and focused on the retrieval of the Southernmost Region. "I plan to integrate the Sand Nation's domain into the Kingdom of Graycastle this coming winter. Their traditions and power inheritance methods are very different from the ones in the Four Kingdoms. Thus, I need your help to completely conquer it."

Next, Roland described to her the laws and holy duel ceremony of the Sand Nation.

"I don't have a problem with Ashes joining the duel." Tilly said after thinking for a while. "But why do you want to integrate the desert? Since the Kingdom of Graycastle was established, no ancestor had ever shown any interest in that land."

"It only looks deserted, but the underground fire that has never been extinguished for the past dozens of years and the plain covered by white salt are all proofs of the hidden treasures of that land." Roland waved his hand. "If I'm not mistaken, Southernmost Region will be an indispensable part in the future development of Neverwinter."

"In that case, I'll explain to Ashes." Tilly did not ask for more details but nodded in accordance.

Nowadays, the trust between them was slowly increasing. It was obvious that in the future, the Witch Union and the Sleeping Island witches would have a close relationship.

Roland was very pleased as he thought about that.

...

After sending his sister away, he immediately called Echo.

The holy duel could only earn the right of speech for him, but it was not a long-term solution. He did not just need a clan's right to live in the Iron Sand City, but numerous Mojin people that would follow him. For this, he had to become the legendary great chief.

Roland did not have the time to lead the army personally, so he had to find a representative.

As the princess of the Osha clan, Echo was a key figure in persuading the Mojin people.

"I wonder if Iron Axe has discussed with you about returning to the Southernmost Region?" he said directly, "this winter the First Army will enter and station in the Iron Sand City, and I wish you'll go there on my behalf."

"No....he didn't mention anything," Echo looked surprised, then bit her lips and said with a sad expression, "Your Majesty, don't you want me anymore?"

Hearing her first sentence, Roland was happy to know that Iron Axe understood that any military action was the kingdom's secret and had not mentioned anything about it even to his own clan member. However, her last words almost made him choke. Even though he knew what she actually meant, still, those words could be easily misunderstood. At the same time, he felt a cold breath behind him, and Nightingale's hand firmly pinched his arm, "Of course not, this is temporary—once I become the great chief of the Sand Nation, you can return with Iron Axe to the Neverwinter city. I won't force you if you don't want to."

Hearing that, Echo relaxed, "I understand, but the holy duel won't be enough to subdue all the Mojin people."

"Of course, I've another plan," Roland laughed and then slowly described it to her.

"This...." Echo was shocked and expressed her disbelief. "Can this... really be done?"

"Definitely, I'm the king of Graycastle, I give you my word," he said emphatically.

"By the name of Three Gods, the Sand Nation will never forget your kindness." She was not hesitating anymore, but instead she knelt and bowed respectfully, "Echo is willing to complete this task for you."

"Very good," Roland stood up to help the Mojin girl who had suffered a lot to rise. "I'm counting on you."

In this way, the preparations for the retrieval of the Southernmost Region were completed.

Chapter 726 - Tide of Demonic Beasts

In the depths of the maze-like cave, the tremor above their heads grew louder and louder.

Pasha knew that they were quickly approaching with unstoppable numbers.

She stretched her tentacles into the soil and rose above ground, where she "saw" everything that was happening outside the mountain—the dark mass of demonic beasts were rampaging between the mountains and all of the entrances to the maze ruins were blocked by Fearful Beast of Hells. The demonic hybrids behind them were furiously tearing apart the flesh and bones of the beasts until they could open up a space between them—they had no choice, or else they would be crushed to death by the rest of the demonic beasts behind them at the cave entrance.

Despite the desperate struggle of the hybrids, the passage would soon be blocked once again by the flood of demonic beasts and the only way to get through was to repeat the previous actions. This had resulted in a bloodbath in front of the entrances before the demonic beasts even launched their attack at the core area.

Chaos ensued underground as the Wilderness Beasts crawled around within the different layers of the earth. Their head full of tentacles could easily sense the weaker parts of the ground, and the oil-like substance on its skin allowed it to burrow through the ground effortlessly, carrying within its long tube-like body a large number of demonic hybrids. Once a monster like that broke through the defensive line, it would often incur a massive amount of casualties within the ranks of the defenders.

Even some mutated Flying Beasts had appeared in the sky, but they could only hover in the air as they were unable to enter the underground ruin.

This was an unfathomable experience. She did not directly witness the scene unfold in front of her, but whether it was the shrieks coming from above the mountains, the tremors within the layers of the earth, or the sounds of rock and soil mashing together, they were all accurately transmitted into her mind through the thousands of tentacles, forming countless vivid images.

This was the largest scale invasion of the demonic beasts since the beginning of this winter.

Pasha withdrew her limbs and descended to an even deeper layer below.

From time to time, some loose clumps of dirt would fall from the ceiling and smash into the braziers at the sides of the passage—she did not need the flames to see every single stone in the ground, but those who had turned into God's Punishment Soldiers did need them. She extinguished the flames in the braziers on her way back when everyone had already moved to the maze hall.

"How's the situation above?"

As she entered the hall, she heard Alethea’s voice in her head.

"The closest Wilderness Beast to us has reached the third layer," Pasha transmitted her words to everyone's consciousness, "How's the situation below the maze?"

"There is nothing unusual," Alethea replied, "I only saw some charred black corpses."

Pasha's perception and understanding of fighting had changed dramatically since her body's transformation. The originally flat world had suddenly become three-dimensional, and since their enemies were able to move freely in the ground, the survivors had to keep an eye out for the situation beneath them—As long as they were not standing at the end of the abyss, they should not ignore the deeper hidden threats.

Fortunately, a lava river flowed endlessly beneath the ruin, which sealed the larger part of the bottom of the maze and thus spared them a lot of effort. Up until now, there has not been a demonic beast that was not afraid of fire.

"How long before the Instrument of Divine Retribution is ready?" Pasha looked at Celine.

"I don't know. Half an hour, maybe one hour?" the latter replied anxiously from the magic core's direction, "I've tried my best, but the damaged position in area 43 has just been repaired and Lady Eleanor needs more time to calculate the core!"

"Don't worry. They won't arrive that fast," she calmed her, "The bigger demonic hybrids will be blocked outside of the cave entrances and we'll only have to handle the smaller ones."

"You're right. We can just treat it as daily training," Elena said, "as long as we're here, the demonic beasts will not be able to enter the hall."

"I don’t think it may have been the best idea to retrieve the relic of gods so early. Wouldn't it be better to have let Starfall City consume a bit more of their strength?" Someone asked.

"They would still have to defend Hermes. But without the God's Punishment Army, those common people are worthless." Alethea refuted her.

"The walls can effectively block the demonic beasts, and the hot oil and mangonels can also give those beasts a good beating. We would just need to stay hidden in the Pivotal Secret Temple and wait for a break in the city’s defenses to retrieve the relic."

"There are many traps hidden under the cathedral. What if the enemies accidentally triggered such a trap? We would have been buried alive, which is still nothing compared to the relic falling into the hands of the demons. No matter what, we can't afford to risk it."

"Stop bickering," Pasha interrupted, "Since we've already brought the relic back, we no longer have a choice but to continue with the plan. Have you already forgotten Lady Natalya's words before the attack on the Queen of Starfall City?"

After she spoke, the others were immediately silenced, all quietly agreeing with her.

During the age of Taqila, scenes like this were rare. The low-level witches had to obey their superiors unconditionally, and anyone who broke the rules would receive severe punishment. The Union's largest-ever conflict was the one between Natalia and Alice. Before Natalia cut all ties with Starfall City, she said those words to all her followers and then initiated the sneak attack on the Queen of Starfall City.

Since that day, the survivors of Taqila no longer held rankings in mind, and thus internal disputes became more frequent. However, Pasha did not mind this change at all—compared to the previously rigid system, she actually preferred an organization full of energy.

Just as the others changed the subject and started to discuss ways to block the demonic beasts, Pasha suddenly received an unexpected signal from one of her tentacles!

A violent tremor sounded through the earth as if a heavy object experiencing free fall crashed into the ground without any resistance. It quickly broke through several layers of the maze, and is now fast approaching the depths of the hall!

How can this be possible?

The ground was densely packed with soil and stones, not allowing any large movements and even a Wilderness Beast would take at least half an hour to drill through a layer. How was it able to move so fast through the ground?

Pasha quickly moved more of her tentacles to the direction of the movement—the more tentacles she used to watch an area, the more "pictures" she would receive.

Then, her heart sunk.

A horizontal crack of six to seven miles had suddenly appeared in that area, splitting the ground into two. It looked like a long chasm that stretched all the way to the darkest depths. A wild beast was just crawling down the soft soil along the hill, tumbling down straight towards the hall.

"Prepare to fight" Pasha warned at full volume to everyone through their consciousness, "At the direction of the magic core!"

Suddenly, while everyone was still in shock, the ceiling of the main hall exploded into pieces, and a long-necked Wilderness Beast slipped down through the gap, covered with scratches and bruises, emitting a sinister dark blue light due to the influence of the magic core. It had sustained massive damage from the crash, but even so, it completed its mission with its dying breath.

The moment the beast fell to the ground, several hybrid demonic beasts tore out of its belly and lunged towards the nearest victim, Celine.

Chapter 727 - The Instrument of Divine Retribution

"No—!" Pasha screamed at the top of her voice.

Right after Celine took out the tentacle out of the Instrument of Divine Retribution and knocked two demonic hybrids down, she was bitten by another demonic beast. Her cumbersome blob-like body instantly cracked open. Scales and gray body liquid gushed out and splashed all over the place. Several sneaky mutated wolf species even crept up her coarse skins and clambered to her head, in an attempt to bite her main tentacles on the top.

The other witches all unsheathed their swords and came to her rescue. Springing up like a streak of silver light, Elena was the fastest one. She struck a demonic hybrid who came to block her way and slashed it in half. Afterwards, she dashed into the crowd of demonic beasts and slew fiercely. The beasts' blue blood spilled behind her. Apparently, these monsters, which scared common people so much, were as impotent as normal beasts in front of these God's Punishment Witches who were as powerful as Extraordinaries. Even in the start of this fight when the beasts had still been in their prime, they had apparently not been in a prevailing position in terms of speed or power.

As more witches joined the battle, demonic beasts were slaughtered one by one. After the short chaos came to an end at last, Pasha withdrew all her tentacles and rushed to the center of the hall, heart in her throat.

Unlike a God's Punishment Witch who could easily switch her body. They, unfortunately, were stuck in the blob they had entered without an option to switch to a new one. Once their bodies were on the brink of shutting down, they would have no choice but to merge with Lady Eleaner.

Pasha was completely satisfied with her fate. After she had resolved to follow Lady Natalya, she was prepared to sacrifice herself anytime. But Celine could not end up like this. Among all the survivors, she had done more research than anybody else on the magic core. If she was merged by the central carrier, nobody would be able to reboot the Instrument of Divine Retribution until a considerable amount of time. It would be perilous for everybody in the Months of Demons when danger constantly lurked around.

"Are you OK?" asked Pasha anxiously, who landed next to the blob covered with wounds and scratches.

"Well... not bad." Celine's answer relieved Pasha instantly. "I'll be fine as long as the holes in my body are blocked. The problem lies in my tentacles. Several of them are broken and it's awfully painful."

"You shall find yourself lucky to still be able to sense pains... I yearn to feel them again." One voice complained.

"Exactly. If Phyllis hears you say that, she'll be jealous. Poor Phyllis. She can only take solace spiritually now."

"Don't say that. She was sent to serve ordinary people for the sake of Taquila." Elena frowned.

"She's now called No. 76, isn't she? I wonder how the plan of the Chosen One goes at the moment."

"It has been only a short time. The Union no longer dominates the whole continent these days. It'll take us at least another two or three years to complete the mission since we can't even reach those hidden witches that easily."

"Or wait until the Army of Demons besieges and defeats us at the arrival of the Bloody Moon." Another voice put in.

"Damn, do you really want to say that like we don't know?"

Everbody burst into laughter at this remark.

"Shut up, all of you. We're still in danger." Alethea grunted. "What should we do? There's a hole in the ceiling. If there's one fallen beast, there'll be another. Shall we split up and leave some of us here at the bottom of the cave?"

Pasha contemplated for a while and made an objection. "No. If the fallen demonic beast fights with the witches who stay here only, then that won't be a problem. What if they turn around to attack the outer defense line? In that case, people who guard the entrances will be besieged. Even if we're as strong as God's Punishment Warriors, it'll still put us in a very difficult position."

Elena gave an approving nod. "I agree with Pasha. We'll be easily split up and surrounded. By then, we'll have nowhere to retreat. I bet it would be better for us to stay close together than separate. Let's gather at the center of the hall to guard the relic and the core. Once the Instrument of Divine Retribution is repaired, we'll all be able to stay alive."

"I agree."

"So do I."

"At any rate, this sounds better than being bitten by a demonic beast from the back."

"Then let's do it." Pasha swayed her tentacles. "Abandon the bottom floor and focus on the defense of the magic core."

That meant they would have to confront the hybrid demonic beasts that swarmed in at the center of the hall. Without a doubt, there was going to be a fierce battle ahead of them. Fortunately, strong, gigantic Fearful Beasts of Hell and flying species that no defense could effectively ward off could not penetrate the maze; otherwise, the situation would be much worse.

Pasha felt a little distressed. The number of the demonic beasts was astonishing, but they God's Punishment Witches were not possessed of incessant physical strength. If the Instrument of Divine Retribution could not be repaired in a short period of time, Pasha feared that they could not hold up for very long with so many monsters swarming in.

If she had known this would happen, she should not have allowed Celine to continue with the test of the cores in the Months of Demons, at least not this most important one.

An hour later, demonic beasts appeared at the bottom floor of the maze, and the battle officially began.

All the witches fought at their best. Beyond a doubt, the result of this battle would determine whether human beings were able to survive. Pasha also joined the fight. She drew lava from the lava river and sprayed on demonic hybrids' heads. Scorching, slimy red water set the monsters' furs afire. Flames flared out. The air was heavy with a burning smell.

In spite of this, the monsters still continued to swarm in and darted toward where the relic was located. The God's Punishment Witches soon formed a wall of flesh and blood to stop them. For God's Punishment Witches, as long as their skulls were not injured, they would never truly die. As such, the battle was a bitter one. Some witches were terribly bitten, but they still managed to chop off their enemies' legs and rip them open while struggling on the ground.

Just at this critical moment, Celine's thrilled voice reached everybody. "The core calculation is completed! The magic power mode has switched to the foreign species annihilation mode. The Instrument of Divine Retribution is ready to go!"

"Pasha, I'll take care of the matter here. You go activate it now!" Alethea ejected a mouthful of lava and forced one of the demonic beasts nearby to retreat. She rushed to the front to cover Pasha.

Among all the survivors, Pasha's key was the biggest and strongest among the keys that could activate the instrument. It was second only to Lady Eleanor's.

Pasha nailed her main tentacle into the slate and sprang up. In a second, she was next to the Instrument of Divine Retribution. She stuck out all her tentacles and tightly wrapped around the spindle-shaped core suspending in the air. Instantly, her magic power streamed from her body, and the gleam of the instrument frame started to become increasingly bright as well.

Pasha could sense her magic power gradually condensed into a strange, semi-transparent polyhedron at the center of the spindle. The polyhedron looked very complicated, with numerous facets and edges, almost ineffable. Pasha realized that this was the core to annihilate foreign species. It worked the same way as the magic representation of Senior Witches, except it was much more powerful. When the ghostly black-blue light turned blinding pure white, the frame of the spindle opened abruptly and lit up the center of the hall, making it as bright as day!

"Right Now!" Celine yelled.

Pasha ordered the other witches to apply their abilities. A pale blue lightwave immediately escaped from the core and rippled around the hall. Within a blink, the lightwave reached every corner of the hall!

Chapter 728 - A Surprising Communication

When the lightwave went through her body, Pasha felt a queer pulling force disquiet the little magic power left in her body, as though the magic power was going to be hauled away.

The magic power deprivation only lasted for a few seconds before peace was restored. In the meantime, the hall also fell silent as the magic power was tranquilized.

Through the short tentacles on her back, Pasha could see that the hybrid demonic beasts in the area reached by the lightwave all stiff like a statue as if they had been petrified. They then fell to the floor without uttering a sound.

It was evidently the most efficient massacre. Nothing, not even soil, rocks or brick walls, could possibly stop the wrath of heaven from advancing. Pasha could imagine what the upper floor of the maze looked like even without actually seeing it. There should be piles of hybrid demonic beasts lying dead like swarms of insects. Their magic power, which was their lifeline, would disperse in no time. Without the support of magic power, their mutated bodies would immediately lose the ability to move.

Of course, there would be a few less mutated ordinary demonic beasts with meager magic power surviving the slaughter, but these unintelligent monsters could no longer pose a threat to the relic.

This time, Celine had finally managed to repair the instrument in a timely fashion.

Pasha pulled out the tentacle breathlessly. She looked at Alethea and said, "Go check the upper floor." Then she came to Elena and asked, "Are you holding up well?"

Elena was covered with black and blue blood, half of her arm gone, her hair drenched in sweats as though she had just been dragged out of a river. "I'm fine. Everyone's alive."

Pasha breathed a long sigh of relief.

Looking around, she saw the witches who were still able to move were in a defense mode with their shields in their hands. As for the exhausted ones, they all sprawled across the floor, in hopes of recovering their strength as soon as possible.

Although they had just undergone a fierce battle, they did not look weary or despair by any means. Instead, they all grinned and waved at her, appearing to be pretty relaxed. Apparently, everybody shared the same thought. They viewed every battle as their last one. Even if they had to devote everything to Taquila, they did not regret a bit.

The scene almost brought Pasha to tears. She felt a gust of warmth slowly crept into her heart like a hot spring.

Every witch was equally important. Over the past 400 years, no new witches had joined them, and they had developed an inseparable bond among each other. Nothing could be better than hearing that everyone was alive.

"I have to change to a new body though." Elena sighed. "It took me a long time to find this one. I don't know if there will be any new bodies stronger and more good-looking than this one."

"..." Pasha did not know whether to laugh or to cry. It was definitely not a good time to discuss this kind of matter. She tapped Elena's head with her tentacles. "Anyone else needs to change their bodies?"

"Five or six, I reckon." Elena counted with her fingers. "Betty got her stomach cut in the battle, while Isa was burned by lava when she was covering Alethea. Her entire body was gone except the head. The others either lost an arm or a leg like me. They've been transferred to reserve their souls."

"So you decide to first pick a body you like before transferring?"

"Of course. As I can't feel anything now, I should at least pick a body that meets my taste," Elena answered while twitching her mouth. She sheathed the bloodstained giant sword and carried it on her back, but she soon fell to the ground after stumbling a few paces. "Gee, this damn body."

God's Punishment Warriors could not feel pains or get tired, but they knew when their bodies were shutting down. Even if they were spiritually animated, their bodies of flesh would become extremely weak as though it had got out of their control.

"Let me take you there." Pasha scooped up Elena with her tentacles and strode to the chamber next to the hall. That was the room where all the God's Punishment Warriors from Hermes without a commander gathered, from whom the survived witches would choose their new bodies. "I saw some good-looking ones among the new warriors."

"Wow, you also care about that?" Elena studied Pasha with some interest.

Pasha coughed. "Don't you forget, I'm also a witch like you."

After all the wounded received treatment, Alethea and Celine brought one piece of good news and one ill. The good news was that the demonic beasts in the maze were practically all dead and that all the flying species hovering outside had fled as well. Therefore, there would not be any attacks on a big scale in a short period of time. The bad news was that two parts of the Instrument of Divine Retribution broke down, which might be attributed to the hasty manner in which the new core had been constructed. In conclusion, they were not going to be shielded by the instrument in the following week.

The bad news made Pasha uneasy. "If an activation like the one today can bring damage to the core, then how is instrument supposed to cope with the activation done by the Chosen One? Does it mean that it can only be used once?"

The more complicated the Key was, the broader the effective area of the wrath of heaven was. The effective area generated by Pasha's activation could only cover the whole maze, which was about a radius of several hundred meters, way too limited to defeat demons. By the time the instrument was filled with magic power, both she and the instrument would have been destroyed by a spear thrower. If the Chosen One activated it, however, she could spread the lightwave somewhere at least 10 miles away, making the Instrument of Divine Retribution the most powerful and lethal weapon against their enemies.

Celine said drily with a look of resignation, "we don't have good quality materials that could sustain magic power, save some fragile bone ware from the relic, so it's perfectly normal that they don't meet the core's standard. The instrument is, after all, the deities' product. If only the Quest Society still existed. We can use as much gold and silver as we want and don't have to mend it every time we use it."

"Anyway, don't test it again this winter. I don't want to go through such drama every day." Alethea complained.

"Well, we won't have such an opportunity anymore... What?" Celine's words caught in her throat. "Hang on."

"What's the matter?" Pasha asked.

"Look at the phantom instrument." Celine glided to another smaller magic core with the help of her main tentacle attached to the roof. "The sheen of the core has changed. The Five-Colored Stone is broken!"

"What?" Both Pasha and Alethea exclaimed with a start. A sense of evil forebodings prevailed them.

Only when Phyllis had to contact the maze would she break the magic stone. It was very unlikely that she could find the Chosen One within merely a month or so. There were two possibilities: one was that Phyllis encountered some trouble and had no choice but to turn to the maze for help. The other was that... the ring had been destroyed by somebody. Either was not considered to be good news.

"Can you locate her?" Alethea questioned in a low voice.

Celine inserted her tentacles into the core. "In the southwest direction, about... She should be in the territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle, close to the entrance of the Fertile Plains."

Numberless thoughts flashed across Pasha's mind. "The Western Region of Graycastle. It looks like that Phyllis has reached the destination of this trip. What could then force her to break the magic stone? Has she exposed herself by accident, or rather—witches in the new era keep a hostile attitude toward her? Can it be... No, it can't be." Pasha shook her head, trying to put these ideas behind. Most likely Phyllis had run into some difficulties.

"What are you going to do?" Alethea looked at her.

Pasha said ponderously, "turn on the phantom instrument a day later as planned."

This was the shortest time within which they could manage to have the instrument ready.

If the Magic Stone was broken by somebody with malicious intent, they would probably be exposed to ordinary people earlier than they desired. Nevertheless, in any event, Pasha would not abandon Phyllis. They were the last surviving witches from Taquila, who shared the same fate and destiny.

Chapter 729 - Recasting the Broken Sword

"Welcome to the Witch Union."

Wendy unrolled the contracts on the desk and said to the witches from Wolfheart happily, "sign after you read the pledge on the back of the contract and then you'll officially become a member of the union."

They should have gone through this procedure earlier had Princess Tilly not suggested a hunting contest. Wendy did not care about who the winner would be, but she had been concerned about whether all the preparation work for the hunting had been completed. On the very day of the contest, she had been restless. Every minute had been torturing for her. Due to her concerns, she complained to His Majesty for quite a while and the subsequent cannon exercise further postponed the matter. To her surprise, however, Annie, who was always the more self-controlled one, ventured to see her first.

"Wendy, don't you usually test our abilities first?" Amy asked.

In the ten days after their group had arrived in Neverwinter, this airy, dainty little girl had won everybody's affections. Due to her innocent character, Amy soon established bonds with the other witches. She now felt very comfortable calling Wendy "sister".

"We normally test your ability after you sign the contract," Wendy answered in a soft voice. "If you have any questions or concerns regarding the terms of the contract, please don't hesitate to ask me now."

"Alright!"

Out of the four witches from Wolfheart, Amy was the only literate one. So Annie, Broken Sword, and Hero all sat around her to listen to the terms while exchanging their thoughts on the matter.

Wendy studied the murmuring witches attentively. She recalled the day when she had signed her contract.

At first, she had thought the terms were a little too generous to be true and they were very likely just an empty promise through which the Prince showcased his benevolence. The terms would probably be changed completely shortly afterward, or there would be another set of implied rules that actually regulated the witches' activities. But as she soon discovered, she had been totally wrong as the basic frame of the contract had gone through very few modifications in the past two years. Thinking back on it, Wendy believed that she had made the greatest decision in her entire life.

"Wow, one gold royal for us each month!"

"Can we buy whatever we want?"

"A paid vacation... Is it true?"

"Witches are entitled to terminate the contract in the event that His Majesty fails to fulfill his obligations to provide safety, food or accommodations... Is this really not a lie?"

Wendy answered all their questions with a smile as they asked the questions that she had done so herself. She pretty much knew exactly when the four witches would utter an exclamation of surprise as she had been equally astonished by the contract when reading it for the first time.

In granting the witches freedom and acknowledgment, His Majesty had given them what they desired most and the fate of the Witch Union had been intertwined with that of Roland Wimbledon's ever since. Wendy believed nobody in the union would ever abandon His Majesty, even in the event of a crisis in which Roland could no longer shelter or support them.

Such a bond was not explicitly expressed in the contract, but was much stronger than any plain words or language could describe.

However, she could also foresee that these thoughts and feelings of contentment would gradually diminish as newly awakened witches would have a completely different living environment. It would be a time where there was no threat from the church and no hostility from their relatives or their close family members. With that being the case, new witches would naturally feel less grateful for the new life than old witches did.

Following the terms came the pledge and the signature line.

There were no mandatory rules of any kind in the pledge. That part only stated that Roland and the Witch Union should act with honor and utmost good faith as it was totally voluntary to join the union. After the four witches read and signed the contract, Nightingale pinched Wendy to confirm to her that they had signed it with a genuine intention.

"Now, we're sisters." She hugged everyone happily.

The Witch Union now had four more members.

…

The ability test location was outside the Witch House and could be found at Leaf's "Yard Forest."

Annie was the first to take the test and Wendy had learned a lot about her ability beforehand from Amy. Although Annie could increase the temperature, she could not create fire like Anna as only her palms turned warm. During the earlier stages after Annie had awakened, the best she could do was making an object as warm as a torch. After entering her adulthood and her ability had consolidated, she could heat up ironware until it glowed red. In addition to ironware, she could also melt lead and bronze.

During the entire process, Annie looked upset. Wendy could tell that she did not have much confidence in her ability. Wendy fully understood why she felt this way because Annie had once been rejected by the Bloodfang Association. In fact, Wendy had seen many witches like Annie who seemed to only have "useless" abilities. For example, Mystery Moon and Echo were once deemed "useless". Yet no matter how stupid their abilities appeared to be, they all eventually found a suitable position in Neverwinter and put their abilities to good use.

"A great ability." Wendy encouraged her. "The machining plant in the industrial zone would love to have you."

"Re…really?" Annie replied in surprise, "Even if I can only warm up my own palms?"

"Of course, and on top of that, the furnace area and chemistry lab would also be glad to have you. You'll certainly become a busy woman in the future." Wendy wrote down several advisable positions on the notebook. As far as ability assessment was concerned, King Roland had a better insight into each witch's ability. Wendy knew she was not the perfect person to do the evaluation and often recorded her thoughts and ask His Majesty to review them. In this way, she could, little by little, improve herself and thus do a better job in the future.

Her ability was not as powerful as most sisters and her grades were not the best either, and yet His Majesty entrusted the Witch Union to her. She dreaded failing him.

Annie stepped aside, looking doubtful. The second one to take the test was Amy.

Wendy felt reluctant to conduct a full assessment of her ability because Amy actually had to hurt herself in order to showcase her power even though self-healing sounded very appealing. The only good thing about Amy's ability was that Amy did not need to worry about the negative impact of magic power bite as she constantly received minor injuries and used her power all the time.

After a brief interview, Wendy noted down the position of a healer. It appeared that Amy's ability could only be used for healing.

The same applied to the third witch, Hero.

Since she could only transfer diseases rather than offer treatment, the only place she could work at seemed to be the hospital. Wendy remembered that the so-called plague was caused by microscopic creatures and thought that Hero could potentially help Lily conduct research on microbiology. With this in mind, Wendy marked Hero's name with a circle. She believed once Hero received universal education and gained a basic understanding of Natural Science Theoretical Foundation, her ability might experience some changes.

The last one was Broken Sword.

Unlike the previous three witches, the silver-haired witch had never shown her ability to Yorko or Phyllis. With this being the case, Wendy had never heard anything about her power.

"You can go ahead now." She nodded toward Broken Sword.

Broken Sword took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As she summoned her magic power, her body started to glow and radiate. Soon she was surrounded by a blinding, flaring light.

Wendy squinted her eyes and stepped back a few paces. Judging from Broken Sword's performance, Wendy judged that she was stronger than any of the other witches from Wolfheart.

When the light dissipated, Wendy gasped. She could not believe her eyes.

The silver-haired witch had vanished into the thin air. In the snow, where her feet had just been, stood a strange-looking sword.

Chapter 730 - News from the Mountains

"This is... your ability?" It took Wendy quite a long time to recover from the shock.

Annie answered, "she can't hear you. After Broken Sword becomes a weapon, she'll be completely cut off from the outside world. Only when you hold her can she regain her senses through you."

"I didn't know it worked this way," Wendy thought. She held up the hilt gently after a moment of hesitation. In a second, she sensed another mind in her head. The blade acted with her as one as if it had become a part of her body. Meanwhile, Wendy also felt her sight and hearing improved a lot. She was full of energy and strength.

"Wow, this is..."

"Co-existence." Broken Sword's voice popped up in her head. "When you hold me, you'll gain all the strength and senses I have." There was a hint of regret in Broken Sword's voice at this moment. "The sad thing is that I've been always weak since I was a kid, so what I can give you is very limited. Even if I'm fused with you, I can't be of much help."

Wendy now knew that it was Broken Sword's ability that made her feel powerful.

Wendy held up the weapon and studied it carefully. The hilt felt warm and soft like a living thing. The shape of the blade appeared weird. It was at an arm's length but was as slim as a finger. The front part was flat and the part close to the hilt round. It looked more like a magnified needle than a sword. If taking a closer look, she could see dense stripe patterns on the blade, as though the sword were tied up with numerous fine threads.

It reminded Wendy of Broken Sword's distinctive silver hair.

"How long can you maintain the sword shape?"

"If I don't constantly switch back and forth, I can be a sword as long as you like."

It seemed that Broken Sword's ability worked the same way as Maggie's. Only the transformation would consume a large amount of magic power.

"Maggie? Are you talking about that giant pigeon?"

Wendy did not realize what had happened until a moment later. She was a little uneased to learn that Broken Sword could read her mind when they were combined together. There was always something she did not want anybody to know.

"You seemed to be a little perturbed... What's this? A cloth strap?"

"Nothing." Wendy put the blade back to the ground immediately and looked to Annie. "Ahem, can anyone merge with Broken Sword?"

Annie inclined her head. "Technically, yes, as long as she's willing to accept that person, even if he's just an ordinary man. However, in that case, Broken Sword will simply act as an extremely sharp and deadly weapon. Only witches could demonstrate her real power."

"Witches?"

"Yes." Annie seemed to perceive what Wendy was thinking and replied placidly, "By the way, the connection between you and Broken Sword doesn't mean that she can read your mind. As long as you don't concentrate on your thought, Broken Sword won't know what you're thinking."

"I see." Wendy managed to calm herself down and once again reached the hilt.

"Did I say something that upset you? I'm... sorry. I won't recklessly ask you such questions again." Broken's Sword anxious voice came to her head at once.

"No, nothing..." A question suddenly flashed across Wendy's mind. "What will you see if I put you down without notifying you?"

"It'll be pitch-dark. I can neither hear anything nor sense anything like I'm floating in the air."

"It must be terrible to be deprived of all senses," thought Wendy. At this thought, she tried to sound as friendly as possible. "It's me that has to make an apology... Don't worry. I won't abandon you at random anymore."

Broken Sword appeared to be struck. She responded a "yes" in a soft voice at last after a long silence.

"Right. Annie just said that only witches can demonstrate your real power?"

"That's right. If I just fight as a normal weapon, I'll also get hurt when the person using me strikes too many blows. But witches could sharpen the blade or expand its attacking range by filling it with magic power. In that case, I'll be able to stab enemies without even touching them."

Wendy started to apply her magic power to the blade as Broken Sword had instructed. The silver steel was instantly obscured by a thin layer of white light that stirred like milky fog. In the meantime, she felt the magic power in her body was decreasing rapidly. Apparently, she could not keep things going like this for very long.

Urged by Broken Sword, Wendy swung the long sword at a branch of an olive tree. A gust of air streamed from the tip of the sword and cut the twig in half brusquely.

"This is... wind?" Wendy asked in surprise.

"The magic power you put into the sword will more or less reflect your strength. I didn't expect you're a combat witch." Broken Sword was also a little astounded. "If Annie holds the sword, her power range won't exceed the length of the sword."

"I see." Wendy somehow thought of Anna's Blackfire. What would happen if Anna gave the sword a full swing with all her strength? It would probably be an earth-shattering explosion as intense as the Sigil of God's Will that summoned thunderbolts. Nevertheless, Anna was the most crucial witch in the union and also the beloved one of His Majesty's. It was very unlikely that she would partake in the war personally.

As to the other combat witches... Wendy contemplated for a while but could not find a perfect match. Therefore, she put a circle next to Broken Sword's name as well and decided to let His Majesty determine which one Broken Sword should pair with.

***************

Roland put down the quill in his hand and stretched himself when he heard a high-pitched whistle from the dock.

The whistle blew thrice, one long and two short. Its sound reverberated across the whole shipyard. That was the signal that commanded the army to get ready for the journey.

After the preparation for the war was completed, the expedition corp of the First Army spent the whole morning boarding the boat. Accompanied by the roar of the whistle, the concrete boat carrying the first batch of soldiers departed the city of Neverwinter and officially commenced her voyage for Fallen Dragon Ridge.

There would be more boats transporting supplies and ammunition later. Indeed, the battle to retrieve the Southernmost Region would not start until both new recruits and veterans assembled at Fallen Dragon Ridge.

But at least, he had taken the first step.

Roland glanced at his desk covered with draft plans of the internal combustion engine. As the second generation power source that had fully replaced steam engines, internal combustion engines had played an irreplaceable role in the development of industries. They had even, to some extents, changed the course of history. Whether it was the simplest piston compressor, the more complicated combustion turbine or the latest jet, they were all powered by internal combustion engines. Roland could confidently say that internal combustion engines had, at one time, dominated the entire industry, until they were later substituted by electric motors.

Beyond a doubt, as one of the most significant machines in the history of time, internal combustion engines would definitely benefit Neverwinter a great deal in the near future. The oil project at Blackwater in the Southernmost Region was pivotal to the whole program. If they could, by any chance, extract fuel oil, the subsequent industrial development would be a matter of course. If they, unfortunately, could not, he would then have to consider alcohol as a substitute. In that case, the industrial expansion would be greatly limited even with advanced technologies.

Just at that moment, Agatha pounded the door and entered the room.

"Your Majesty, Taquila's witches have gotten back to us."

Chapter 731 - The First Contact

In the center of the main hall, the phantom instrument had been completely laid out. With magic power filling it, its core gave off a somber and cold purple light.

After the instrument had been activated, it would activate a light curtain thousands of kilometers away. Unfortunately, such an ability was way beyond the power of the witches. This was directly endowed by God.

Pasha looked back and found that all of the blobs were hanging down and touching the ground. The God's Punishment Witches stood abreast the mounds with serious looks on their faces. The dead hybrid demonic beasts were deliberately placed on opposite sides and under the purple light, their light blue blood reflected fluorescent spots, it looked gloomy and terrifying.

If a group of common people witnessed this, they would have been frightened by such a hellish scene.

Pasha did not want things to turn out like this either. After the start of decomposition, the demonic beasts' remains were going to become sticky and disgusting, and difficult to clean up. Even though the God's Punishment Witches would be unable to smell it, she would sense it with her tentacles. Over 400 years, the hall had come to be their home and no one wanted to mess it up, but she had to prepare for the worst.

That was to say, Phyllis ran into danger and the ring had been broken by someone else.

If such a disaster really happened, it would be necessary to create the most horrific atmosphere to intimidate or even threaten those who might pose threats to her.

The western region of Graycastle was near the entrance of the Fertile Plains, so each year many lost demonic beasts would attack it. Whoever put Phyllis in danger, whether it was witches or common people, would conclude from the stockpiled dead demonic beasts that they were very difficult to deal with.

Only by making the other side clearly realize that the survivors of Taquila possessed great power, would they be able to bide time for a rescue.

"Activate the instrument," Celine said, "we need to figure out Phyllis' situation."

Pasha touched her main tentacles and gave an order to the instrument.

Everyone immediately noticed the purple light dim as a huge purple curtain made of light enveloped the whole hall and an illusion of a scene appeared on the other side of the phantom instrument and in it the Five-Colored Stone had been broken into pieces.

Pasha was stunned and puzzled.

The place in the scene was not a murky dungeon, nor a remote wilderness, but an open and spacious hall.

The hall was very bright and clear and a long wooden table stood in the center of it, topped by a white tablecloth that held flowers and teacups. There were no signs of fighting, so it looked like the place had been deliberately chosen to just destroy the Magic Stone.

Phyllis was currently standing by a window as she chatted with another witch. She noticed the light curtain and turned around with a very surprised face as she asked, "What happened? Was the hall attacked?"

"Uh..." Pasha didn't know how to respond at the moment. Phyllis' situation did not match her assumptions. Phyllis had not been attacked or tortured, and she wasn't even in danger. In fact, she was in higher spirits now than when she had departed. Looking carefully, Phyllis wasn't wearing that cheap and vulgar maid suit. Instead, she was wearing a fine fluffy cloak and against the gorgeous clothes, naturally, she had a good complexion.

Everyone was as shocked as Pasha. They glanced around at one another, but no one opened their mouth to speak. Luckily, they became expressionless after they became blobs, otherwise, it would have been very embarrassing.

"Recently, the demonic beasts launched an attack, but the magic core and the relics of gods are safe and sound. We're also all alive, so don't worry." As the most seasoned, Pasha was the first to regain her senses. She then added, "But, the bodies are many and we haven't had enough time to clear them out."

"Really?" Phyllis doubted.

"Of course, ahem..." Pasha waved her tentacles towards the God's Punishment Witches behind her for emphasis. "Well, you continue to clean up the remains and remove them from the labyrinth before their fluids dry to the ground."

The witches, who stood abreast with their serious looks, appeared to be extremely disappointed.

"How can we throw away so many bodies?"

"It takes us the whole day to pile them up."

"I don't want to touch those sticky and disgusting bodies."

"You're right. Although we can't smell it, they look incredibly disgusting."

"Stop complaining. Are you really willing to sleep with those bodies?"

"Can we throw them into the lava? At most, it'll only smoke like a fire."

"I can't believe you! Do you want to turn the entire ruin into a chimney?"

"Pfft..." The blue-haired witch standing beside Phyllis couldn't keep from laughing. "My guess is, they thought that you were in danger, so they arranged this scene to intimidate us."

Pasha found her voice somewhat familiar and when she looked at her carefully, her name suddenly came to her mind.

"Are you Agatha?"

"What?" Celine questioned in surprise. "The youngest Senior Witch in history?"

"That's impossible. She fell with Taquila, didn't she?"

"Even if she managed to escape from the Holy City, how could she still have the same appearance as she did over 400 years ago?"

Both of the promoted people temporarily living in the meat lumps and the God's Punishment Witches made sounds of perplexity.

"She's indeed that senior witch," Phyllis stated. "After she had been attacked by the demons in the research tower of the Misty Forest, she used the multi-layered frozen coffin to completely freeze herself and it killed all of her pursuers at the same time. When the Witch Union discovered the stone tower ruins, she was rescued."

And, that was what had happened.

As she heard this, Pasha felt instantly excited and an encouraging idea aroused from her deep heart. Agatha had not fallen with Taquila and Phyllis quickly revealed her identity to the witches of Graycastle. Besides, she also encountered a promoted person from Taquila, so Phyllis must have a clear purpose to contact the maze. Perhaps, this Senior Witch would be the Chosen One they had been looking for.

Upon hearing this, Phyllis gave them a look of embarrassment and she hesitated.

She first glanced at Agatha before saying in a low voice, "Could you give us a moment? It won't take long."

Agatha nodded. "When you're done, I'll inform His Majesty." Having finished, she turned around and left the hall.

Then Phyllis took a deep breath and looked at Pasha again. "I've indeed found the Chosen One claimed by the Magic Stone, but he's different from the people in our plan."

"Wait a moment, he?" Pasha was stunned. Before she could ask further about it, Phyllis began to tell her about her absurd experience.

About how the witches could closely collaborate with common people.

About the powerful army that defeated the church.

About the powerful gunpowder weapons.

And, the most incredible thing... The Chosen One was one of the common people.

Chapter 732 - An Ideal Beginning

When Phyllis told them the news, all the witches in the hall were excited.

"How can common people contact God?" Alethea's voice was full of astonishment and incredulity. "You must be wrong about that!"

"Are you sure that the orange beam of the light was from his body? Have all of the witches in the western region of Graycastle checked it?" Celine directly asked the key point.

These two questions were the exact thoughts of everyone.

"I've seen it personally. Besides, his Key is so much more complex than Pasha's requirements that the Five-Colored Stone can't contain the mountain-like orange light." Phyllis uttered her words slowly, "I couldn't believe it at the beginning either, but it's the truth."

"Does he have magic power?" Pasha asked with the last shred of hope in her heart.

"It's a pity that he can't activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution."

It was a great surprise to find the Chosen One, who has such a sophisticated key, in such short time, but what Phyllis had said disappointed all of them. Now that the surprise unexpectedly arrived, no one would have predicted that the Chosen one had the key, but did not have magic power, a discovery that completely overturned their previous idea.

Although the Chosen One had the Key, he could not connect to the core due to the absence of magic power, not even with the help of witches. They had fully proved in the Taquila age that common people could not endure the harm brought by magic power, even the tough ones could only sustain for about 30 minutes. They were unable to master the key points of using it.

She had thought that Senior Witches were likely to become the Chosen One and that it would be easier to find dozens of eligible candidates in the age when the Union controlled the Fertile Plains. However, what worried her the most was that the news brought by Phyllis totally broke her illusions. There were over 10 higher ascendants living in the small city of Neverwinter.

With such a surprising number of higher ascendants, the Witch Union was equivalent to some core organizations of the Union, such as the Quest Society and the Blessed Army that did not have more higher ascendants. Even so, Phyllis could not discover another Chosen One among them.

There were two totally different ideas in her mind. One was that it had been easier to eliminate the demons and that they had missed the opportunity, for they discovered the ruin too late. The other one was that they, in fact, did not have access to their targets at all and that it totally was their one-sided will to execute the plan of the Chosen One. If those Senior Witches could not meet the requirements of the Chosen One, would they be right to follow Lady Natalia and to determinedly resist the God's Punishment Army plan of the Queen of Starfall City?

Pasha felt terrified when thinking of this idea. She shook her head to calm the surging thoughts down and then asked, "Did you mention that the king of the common people wants to cooperate with us?"

"He wants to know us and is willing to fight against the demons with us," Phyllis said, "but I'll only know the detailed requirements after a negotiation."

"Do you think that he's capable of fighting against the demons?"

"I'm not sure... his weapons are astonishingly powerful, but I pitifully know little about that." Phyllis hesitated for a while and comforted them, "But Agatha is very sure about that. In her view, if Neverwinter is given two or three more years, it's very likely to confine the demons to the west of the Impassable Mountain Range."

"What does she think of the relationship between us and Neverwinter?" Alethea asked in a deep voice.

"In Agatha's view, she's a witch of Taquila, but she'll work for Roland Wimbledon, the king in the secular world." Phyllis paused and spoke out her thoughts of the New Union, "She thinks that the most urgent mission at the moment is to defeat the demons. Additionally, all forces on the continent should be unified and fight together to face the third Battle of Divine Will."

"Working for common people? Has she lost her mind?" Alethea shouted, "Did she forget how we lost to the demons in the first Battle of Divine Will?"

There was a discussion amongst the crowd. Almost all members of the Union must learn that period of history. There might be one extraordinary person amongst the common people, but as a whole, they had behaved badly.

For example, they opened the city gate to surrender to the demons and they were all killed. The army of witches marched on from thousands of kilometers away to rescue them, but they were rejected outside the gate by the lord, who then witnessed those witches being killed by the demons. In many cases, common people were clambering to escape from the battlefield. Sometimes, a huge army had as many as 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers, but its fighting capacity was no better than that of a witch team with about 100 people. In some places, common people even utilized God's Stone of Retaliation against witches, which exacerbated the breakdown between them.

If not so, the human beings would not have been forced to withdraw from the big Land of Dawn to the Fertile Plains.

With such bad behavior and their struggle to get food and resources, it was quite reasonable for witches to completely replace the regime of common people.

Seeing Alethea wriggling the whole body to express her dissatisfaction, Pasha had the same concerns in her heart. From the descriptions Phyllis gave, Roland Wimbledon, the king of Graycastle, was probably an extraordinary person, but he alone could not change the entirety of common people. If other kings committed stupid and rudimentary mistakes, which side would he back? If the war lasted for 20 or 30 years, would he be as determined and energized as he is now?

Not all people would be willing to possess an empty body so as to lengthen their lives at the expense of senses. Even if he was willing to do it, would his offsprings agree with this in 40 or 50 years? Would they be willing to be heirs all of their lives?

These were all the questions that Pasha needed to think about.

Generally speaking, any cost would be worthwhile if they could defeat the demons. Both Alice and Natalia firmly believed that as long as the human beings and witches were alive, the witches would regain their glory one day, which was exactly the innate difference between God's Honors and common people.

However, what she was concerned about was that even though they paid a price, would they still totally defeated? After all, they would not get another chance to try.

"Let's first talk with Roland," Celine pressed on the indignant Alethea with her main tentacles. "When I was in the Quest Society, I had dealings with Agatha. Though she was sympathetic to common people, she would think twice before taking action. Additionally, given that we were planning to communicate with the kingdoms in the secular world, now that there is a king such as Roland who doesn't discriminate against witches and makes preparations for the Battle of Divine Will in advance, isn't this an ideal beginning for us?"

"I agree with you. We alone can't defeat the demons."

"We can also expand our influence among all witch organizations with the help of common people."

"What's more, he's helping to rope witches in... so Phyllis is more likely to find another Chosen One."

"I'm curious about those gunpowder weapons. If we're equipped with them, will it be as easy for us to kill the demons as it is to kill demonic beasts?"

The God's Punishment Witches talked it over with each other.

"Celine was right." Pasha sighed and thought that since they had to collaborate with common people, such an open king like Roland, was the most suitable counterpart to discuss the matters with, regardless of the idea of the New Union. They could not decide their road afterwards until the discussion. Perhaps, Roland held the same thought.

Thinking of this, she nodded her tentacles toward Phyllis and said, "I know. Please let's talk to His Majesty Roland Wimbledon."

Chapter 733 - The Time Before the Past

...

When Roland stepped into the living room, his attention was suddenly drawn by the light curtain that sheltered half a wall.

The edges of the light curtain exuded a flickering purple light as if a passageway connecting with different planes was dug through the wall. On the other side, the scene was quite dark, which looked like a huge hollow cavity under the ground. The reflections of the red river which flew in thin streams like cobwebs, lightened the rocky walls and the dome, vaguely showing the ancient ruin and its silhouette. Judging from the vivid visual effect, it should not be a built-up illusion, but a live broadcast transmitted from tens of hundreds of kilometers away.

A giant sarcomatoid monster with its tentacles spreading was facing Roland. A strange voice sounded in Roland's head.

"I'm sorry for keeping you waiting, my respected king of Graycastle, Your Majesty Roland Wimbledon. I'm Pasha, one of the survivors of Taquila. I think you must've heard of us from Phyllis."

"Ah, this is what direct communication means." Roland sat down facing the light curtain while being joined by Nightingale, Tilly, Agatha, Wendy and Scroll. "It's good that you've talked to each other, I don't have to introduce myself."

"You don't seem to be surprised by my appearance at all." Pasha was a little surprised. "I thought it would take quite some time before you could accept the idea that I am indeed a witch."

"Because I'm really not a stranger to the sort of concepts such as appendages and prosthesis," Roland thought to himself, but he said in a peaceful voice, "With the Bloody Moon drawing near, time is precious for both of our sides. Rather than concealing from each other and suspecting each other, it's better that we just be honest with each other from the very beginning. Since you've been the rulers of the continent, I guess you all agree with me?"

Pasha was startled for a moment, then burst into a light laughter. "Phyllis was right. You're indeed a rare and extraordinary person."

"Only because I stand on the predecessors' shoulders," Roland said with his hands laid out. "Let's get to business. We have a common goal, and that is to fight against the demons. The purposes you sent Phyllis out with were, to search for the Chosen One and to communicate with the worldly kingdom, am I right?"

"Totally," Pasha admitted frankly. "At first we wanted to infiltrate secretly, then gradually recruit or control some common people to search for the Chosen One. But the failure of the church made us realize another way to success, which is to show ourselves above board and gather all the witches."

"So you chose Graycastle as your destination?"

"According to the information that we collected, the Sleeping Island in Fjords possesses the hugest witch organization, the leader of which is your younger sister. Moreover, Graycastle is a big country which defeated the church, so choosing it as our first destination in search of the Chosen One was quite plausible. But I didn't expect that Phyllis would connect with you so soon and bring us an astonishing message. To be honest, I thought it'd take us two to three years to achieve this."

"Great. It seems we've saved two to three years of precious time. Our meeting is worthy of being written into history for this accomplishment alone," Roland said, smiling.

"It seems so," Pasha also smiled and said, "but the premises are that we defeat the demons and then live and prosper in the Land of Dawn."

"Sure, as long as the commoners and witches could drop the misunderstandings and cooperate hand in hand, demons aren't an indestructible enemy." Roland paused and said, "I could also help you in your search for the Chosen One. After all, it's not a bad thing to have one more powerful weapon to compete with the demons, but our cooperation must rest on mutual understandings. What do you think?"

"Agreed." The tentacles on Pasha's body waved tidily. "If there is anything you want to know, please just ask, Your Majesty."

Roland turned around, looked at Tilly and all the other witches, then said slowly, "After hearing about the buried history, my biggest confusion is, what on earth did you find in the ruin? For that, Taquila took on the huge cost of breaking with Starfall City, which then led to the collapse of the Union."

This was also one of the key reasons why Roland decided to actively contact the survivors. The technique of Soul Transfer was something that even modern science and technology could not tackle. The Instrument of Divine Retribution which the witches believed could replace the God's Punishment Army plan and thoroughly destruct the demons, must be extraordinary. He would not blindly believe the scientific and technological knowledge he possessed was perfect. Drawing on each other's merits and raising the level together was common sense to modern people.

As a matter of fact, he had always wanted to combine this seemingly omnipotent magic power with science and technology. When he saw the witch precisely transmit live images onto the western region castle with the aid of the objects taken from the ancient ruin, he was determined that this meeting was absolutely necessary.

There was no doubt that this must be beyond the witches ability limit.

"Pasha!"

"Are you sure you want to tell him all about it?"

"That's God's secret!"

"We made a big sacrifice to..."

Instantly, several voices full of worries or dissatisfaction rushed through his mind. Roland then realized that many other Taquila witches were also witnessing this meeting.

"It's exactly because we've made a big sacrifice... We shouldn't do that in vain." Pasha interrupted the crowd's discussion. "If we can't withstand the demons massive invasion, do you wish for us to bring this secret to the grave, like those tombstones we found?"

Her loud retort quietened the crowd. It was probably because she made a crucial point, nobody else stood out to object to her anymore.

This reaction drew Roland's attention. "It seems that what Phyllis said about the survivors was mostly true. They have, to some extent, eliminated the influence of class and status, otherwise, they wouldn't have argued about such a major issue on the spot. But generally speaking, Pasha remains of relatively high prestige among them."

"Sorry, this information is indeed of vital importance..." Pasha's tentacles drooped toward the living room as though they were expressing an apology. "Under these circumstances, it can't remain a secret anymore. At least not between each other." After a moment's silence, she added, "To be precise, it wasn't that we found the ruin, but it was the ruin which reached out to us."

Roland frowned, "It reached out to Taquila?"

"Not Taquila, but a time prior to ours... approximately not long after the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will."

"By 'us', does Pasha mean the entire human race?" Somehow, Roland felt a chill spreading from under his feet. "That was almost 800 years ago."

"That's true. Unfortunately, we didn't get its meaning then." Pasha sighed. "What reached out to us was a civilization. One that had disappeared underground."

Chapter 734 - The Root of the Divergence

"Underground... civilization?"

Roland could not help but think of the turnoffs on the North Slope Mine and the cluster of grottos running through the Impassable Mountain Range... In his memory, no geological movement could create such unique landforms. At first, he thought that they were created by some sort of mutant hybrid demonic beasts. But according to what Pasha said, maybe they were traces left by the underground civilization?

"At that time, people didn't realize it, nor did they intend to communicate with it. Our forms were so different that we even considered them as a new type of demon, which was why there was a huge deviation on the recorded history. It wasn't until the final phase of the second Battle of Divine Will that there was a breakthrough discovery." Pasha's voice was low and deep. "By then, Taquila was the only city left of the three holy cities. The Union had reached a vital moment of survival or extinction."

"What do you mean by a breakthrough discovery?"

"With the help of the remaining lithograph, the Quest Society figured out the way to store souls and verified it on an unhatched original carrier. Since then, the Three Chiefs embarked on the research for the transformation of the God's Punishment Army."

"I knew nothing about that..." Agatha said surprisingly.

"Soul Transfer was the top secret of the Union. Its classification was even two levels higher than that of the God's Punishment Army plan in which witches were used as the experiment mice. At that time, only the Three Chiefs and a few senior officials knew of it," Pasha replied. "I only learned this astonishing information with the fall of Taquila."

"So Natalia supported the God's Punishment Army plan in the beginning?" Roland asked, frowning. "What's an original carrier?"

"Because she was left with no choice. As to the latter... it's what we look like right now." Her tentacles drooped more and her body got closer to the light curtain. "My weird, ugly shell is the evidence that the underground civilization existed. It's the only tombstone that it left. It's a long story. Your Majesty, please allow me to slowly tell you."

Roland nodded, poured himself a glass of Chaos Drink, leaned back in the chair and began to sense the consciousness transmitted from Pasha.

"According to the clues on the lithograph, the evanescent civilization left a city in the Impassable Mountain Range. The Quest Society searched for a long time without gaining anything. Then one day it occurred to them that since this civilization was used to moving underground, could this city be built underground as well?"

"After extending the search area, the witches finally found this magnificent city. It consisted of four layers with an area of about half the size of Taquila. On each layer there were countless turnoffs and hollow cavities, which were as complex as a maze. Without the guidance of a witch who could sense directions, one could easily get lost and never get out. For this reason, the Quest Society also called it the maze ruin."

"Unfortunately before the Quest Society could carefully explore it, Taquila was occupied by the demons. Everybody had to escape from home. After paying a heavy price, we finally arrived at the maze. According to our plan, the Union would take away the original carrier stored in the maze, leave for the Hermes Plateau, and then build a new Holy City to restore orders at the east coast of the continent."

"But no one would've guessed what would happen next."

Pasha paused and the scales on her body dimmed. Even without looking at her facial expression, Roland could sense the grief in her heart.

After quite a while, she resumed transmitting. "Although it was after an interval, the Quest Society found the maze ruin that had been preserved in good condition. One can even say that it was an entirely new city. Besides the original carrier, the bottom layer of the ruin stored many unconceivable secrets, the most important three of which were the magic core, the central carrier, and the record of the evanescent civilization. Afterwards, the idea came to our minds that as early as the first Battle of Divine Will, the underground civilization had intended to lead us here." Pasha inhaled deeply. "The maze ruin was prepared for us."

"What for?" Tilly could not help but ask.

"For revenge." Another voice appeared in everybody's head. Compared with Pasha, this witch's tone was much colder. "It hoped that we could destroy the demons and take revenge for its clan's extinction."

"It's only Lady Natalia's speculation. It wasn't recorded in the document." Pasha waved her tentacles like shaking a head. "It could be that they simply wanted their civilization to be passed down. Anyway, from the remaining record, the Quest Society retrieved many research materials related to God's will and magic power. In order for us to understand the details, most of its conclusions were expressed in lithographs."

"And the record about the magic core is the very root of the divergence between the Queen of Sunchaser and the Queen of Starfall City. One of the most important messages in the lithographs is, 'magic power offers infinite possibilities and the pursuit of God's will is the ladder to mastering magic power'."

Roland sensed the key point coming. "What's the magic core? Does it have anything to do with the Instrument of Divine Retribution?"

"You can take the core as an artificial Magic Cyclone. It's not confined to a witch's body and can adjust its forms at any time. This bizarre device almost overturned the Union's knowledge system." Using one of her tentacles to point at the light curtain, Pasha said, "For example, the phantom instrument we're using for our communication is a minor scaled magic core. When necessary, it can be converted into other instruments. As to the Instrument of Divine Retribution, it's the biggest magic core in the ruin."

"I see..." Roland instantly realized the superiority of this instrument. Compared with the witches abilities which were inherently unchangeable, the magic core was virtually a universal terminal. Most of all, its effective distance far exceeded the five-meter limit. Either for production or for military use, it was way more powerful than the witches.

"But it's just the primary usage of the magic power. Just as the relationship between the original awakening and the high evolution, the lithograph predicted that with the deepening of the development of magic power, one day we could finally be equivalent to God..." Pasha said with a sense of loss as if she was not saying something significant. Instead, she sounded like someone who had lost their way.

Roland realized the point of her last words.

"But you ran out of time."

"You're right. At first, we didn't know how long it would take for that day to arrive. It could take a century or a millennium. In order to approach the magic core, several Quest Society members had lost their lives. Obviously, witches can't touch those bizarre instruments. We wanted to solve the problem, but didn't know how to do it, so our exploration came to a dead end. The lithograph could only show very limited information. If we were to carry out our research, we had to follow their instructions. Only when there were enough people integrated with the central carrier, could we comprehend their language so as to further read their more profound documents and records."

"But we didn't have enough time. We'd spent three years figuring these things out. Many common people who had joined us earlier tried to get rid of our control and knowing how many witches were needed to integrate with the carrier remained unknown. But at that time, our resources could only sustain one attempt of research. If it went on like this, the great plan of the Union to restore order would have lost its foundation."

"The most important thing is that Lady Alice's plan of the God's Punishment Army has an irreconcilable conflict with the concept recorded in the underground civilization's documents. If a witch abandons her body to become a God's Punishment Warrior, she'll not only lose the chance to be promoted," Pasha paused, then said, "but also lose God's Will forever."

Chapter 735 - Legacy of the Civilization

Roland could easily guess what had happened next.

After knowing that God's Punishment Army was not the only way to compete with demons on the battlefields any more, the Taquila survivors who didn't want to reduce their own kind to the materials for shells must have caused a great conflict with Alice.

Given that, the Battle of Faiths recorded in the written history of the the church probably is just a story made up to cover the truth of this dispute.

As for the root of this disagreement, it did not just lie in the difference between the faith in God's Punishment Army and that in the Chosen One. At that moment, all the leaders of the Union must have been very clear that neither of the choices was able to guarantee their victory in the war against demons.

According to Phyllis, the plan proposed by the Queen of Starfall City to have God's Punishment Army rest in an everlasting sleep would indeed create 3,000 to 4,000 powerful, experienced extraordinary warriors before the third Battle of Divine Will, but the survivors of the Union had also noticed a fatal defect in this plan. As souls needed lots of time to adapt to their shells, once this army suffered an inevitable loss during the wartime, it would be impossible for the Union to replace casualties with new warriors in a short time. As a result, this army might only be able to block demons for a decade, or even, by any chance, retrieve the ruined Holy City of Taquila, but they could never recapture the whole Land of Dawn.

As for the choice to search for the Chosen One, they had thought it as an even more risky plan because of its extremely slim chance of success. However, they had also seen the benefit of it. If they found the one, human beings would be able to win the war at little cost and would even get closer to the deities based on the records on the lithograph.

For the survivors of the Union, searching for the Chosen One meant betting on the future while the God's Punishment Army plan the present.

"What about the result? Did you defeat the Starfall City?" Roland asked.

"Taquila was not the final winner. No one would be in this conflict. When both sides lost their Transcendents, Lady Eleanor stood out to stop this internal disaccord and integrated herself into the central carrier. She was the first witch merging with it."

Shocked, Agatha asked, "You mean, in the ruins of the maze, all the Three Chiefs were..."

Pasha said plaintively, "Yes, the Union lost all the three Transcendents in this internal struggle. It was also the end of the Three Chiefs system. As a result, the ruins of the maze became an indispensable part of the Union. Both sides decided to stop fighting and then reached an agreement through negotiation. As agreed, the survivors of Taquila stayed in the ruins studying the magic core and those of the Starfall City went to Hermes and built a new Holy City there. Due to the limited number of the original carriers, the survivors of the Starfall City also agreed to offer us a certain number of empty shells in the next 100 years. "

"We also agreed that if we failed to make a breakthrough in the Chosen One plan or found no leads of her, they would have the right to take back all the research results in the ruins, including the soul containers and the original carriers. They claimed that by then they would come with their God's Punishment Warriors and that if we broke the agreement, they would never compromise again."

Notice something was wrong here, Roland interrupted, "wait... After 100 years, the church didn't come to you, did they?"

Based on what he knew, in the past hundreds of years, the witches of Taquila had hid underground and never had a say in the world. Meanwhile all the church's God's Punishment Warriors had been soulless. Despite the defect in the warriors, the church still greatly outnumbered the Taquila witches, yet it had never sent any troops to the ruins of the maze. Roland wondered whether the church people had totally forgotten about this agreement.

Pasha sighed. "For a long time we were unable to know what was going on in Hermes or any other things that happened outside the ruins of the maze since the original carriers could not be exposed to the sun and the witches who transferred their souls into new bodies needed a long time to adapt to them. When we were able to go outside, we were surprised to discover that they didn't follow lady Alice's will when building the new order."

Agatha said through her teeth, "I knew that! I knew lady Alice would never create such rules. As compared to her plan of God's Punishment Army, what the church did was destroying the foundation of the witches!"

All the Taquila survivors agreed with her at once.

Roland waited until they calmed down and changed the subject. "What's a central carrier? Is it different from the original carriers?"

Another voice started to explain, "They're all shells. As the living beings of the underground civilization were extremely fragile, they had to live in shells. These things were immortal, but we can't find any detailed information about where they came from in the documents left in the ruins. Based on what we know now, the original carriers are the most common shells, whereas the central carrier which looks similar to them stores many unconscious memories. You can consider it as an original carrier which had been used for many years but had no self-awareness. We need to integrate all the memories into it to understand the remaining documented experiement records in the ruins." She sounded soft and elegant, different from Pasha and the angry witch.

Listening to this voice, Roland quickly pictured in his head an academic woman who had a long thick braid and wore a pair of black-framed round glasses. He said to her, "Thank you for explaining this to me, you're..."

"My name is Celine, Your Majesty. I was a member of the Quest Society and used to work with Agatha."

Agatha got closer to him and whispered in his ear, "I'm not familiar with her. We worked in the same research tower but on different floors. I heard that she was a quiet girl, but every time when it came to magic power, she would become passionate, acting like a totally different person."

Hearing this, Roland thought, "Only someone like this woman would become a faithful follower of Natalia." He cleared his throat and asked her another question, "So, are the witches who merged with the central carrier still alive?"

Celine replied, "not really. Apart from the dozen witches who severely injured in the internal battle, there was another thirty-six of us who volunteered to follow lady Eleanor to merge with it. Not everyone was willing to turn into such a monster or spend the rest of her life trapped in a body that can't feel anything. Their sacrifice finally activated the central carrier, but unfortunately, it can only say yes or no in a dialogue but can't make a normal conversation."

Roland was intrigued at once. "It can answer yes or no to any question?"

Celine also grew a little more excited. "It only answers a question it understands and it'll respond more quickly if you specify your question. It enables us to mend or adjust the magic core. It's essentially a combination of all the Taquila witches' willpower. The more witches merge with it, the faster its reaction is. For us, to accompany Lady Eleanor was the last we can do to contribute to the search for the magic power."

Meanwhile, Roland was excited about something else. "Doesn't the mechanism of input and feedback sound like a primary bio-computer system? If I set all the conditions, will the central carrier be able to solve an equation or complete some complex calculations by itself? I really want to take this thing to Neverwinter and thoroughly study it here!"

Knowing that it was not the time to make such a request, he decided to put those thoughts aside at this moment and express his wish in future negotiations.

He drank all the Chaos Drink in his cup and said, "I see. Now I've got a basic understanding of your situation, but I still have one question. You, the church and those ancient books have repeatedly mentioned the Divine Will, and I heard that one could even feel the existence of the deities in a secret chamber exclusive for the Pope on the top floor of a secret temple under the Hermes Plateau. Could you tell me what the Divine Will is? "

Chapter 736 - The Giant Paintings and the Divine Will

Pasha was astonished at Roland's question for a moment and then said, "Phyllis is right. You do know lots about us. As for the Divine Will, we didn't know much about it until the fall of Taquila, so it's impossible for you to get this information from Agatha."

Roland put on some airs by propping his chin with interlaced fingers and said, "Don't forget it, the church was defeated by me. All the Pure Witches who held management positions in the Holy City of Hermes now are imprisoned in Neverwinter."

"I see."

With these words, Pasha became silent, as if she were looking at Roland carefully. Even though she had no eyes, he could still felt her gaze. After a long time, Pasha's voice appeared in his head again. "I can tell you what the Divine Will is, but you have to promise you'll keep this secret forever and so do the others in this meeting. If people are running after or protecting something intangible, they won't easily fall into despair, but when this something becomes tangible, they'll probably get stressed out. I mean if this information is leaked out, it'll do no good to human beings."

Roland made an eye contact with all his witches to confirm that they would keep this secret and then asked in a deep voice, "So that's to say, the Divine Will is something tangible?"

Pasha slowed down, as if she was talking while recalling. "Yes, it looks like a transparent God's Stone of Retaliation, shaped like a spindle apparatus, but it can't affect the use of magic power or has any other special function. As long as you open your heart near it, you'll truly feel the call of the deities and see something incredible."

"Like what?"

"You'll see an infinitely spacious hall with the Bloody Moon high above your head and four giant paintings around you. The paintings seem to be alive and change all the time..." The ancient witch described the illusion created by the Divine Will in detail.

Tilly could not help asking, "What do those paintings stand for?"

Hearing this question, all of them held their breath waiting for the answer.

Pasha's tentacles stood up at once. "This question baffled the people for nearly 1,000 years. The Quest Society kept on looking for the answer but failed. We had no idea about it either until we decoded the contents in the documented records in the ruins of ruins. The four paintings the deities showed us respectively represent the mankind, the demons, some unknown enemy and the underground civilization. The shape of the Divine Will corroborates this speculation, as it's not a complete spindle apparatus but a quarter of a sphere which we called the relic of the deities."

Roland knitted his eyebrows. "Four Giant Paintings and a quarter of the relic of deities... Do you mean every civilization pictured in the paintings has a relic like this?"

"Not everyone. The underground civilization lost its part of the Divine Will. As a result, one of the paintings showed by the deities is always black. It turned black right after the end of the first Battle of Divine Will. According to the documented records in the ruin of the maze and those in the ancient documents of the Union, we surmise that the underground civilization is already removed from the Battle of Divine Will forever." Gooseprickles crawled up everyone's arms when they heard Pasha's answer.

They were shocked to learn that all the civilizations had fought for hundreds of years just for some relic, and more importantly, for each civilization, losing its part of relic would mean losing everything.

Hearing such a shocking news, Roland knitted his eyebrows even more tightly together. As compared to some unknown enemy in this war, what he cared more about was who had set up the whole thing. He wondered, "is it merely an accident or carefully arranged. Did it happen randomly or due to human being's doomed fate? What's the purpose of leaving behind this relic? Does it have anything to do with the Bloody Moon which emerges periodically? More importantly, did the Taquila survivors understand these things correctly?" He was lost in thought and meanwhile felt he caught a vague clue...

He thought,"What if I replace the word 'deities' in this story with something else?"

When he was absorbed in thought, Tilly asked, "If we collect all of the four parts of the relic, what will happen? Didn't the deities give you any guidance?"

Pasha calmly replied, "No one knows the answer, and the deities have never responded to our calls. The deities don't love people. They only favor the winner."

Wendy exclaimed in disbelief, "How come... we've fought for hundreds of years just because of a useless stone? The Divine Will is... so cruel."

The ancient witch tried to comfort her. "So it appears. I hope these words in the documented records in the ruins of the maze will solve your question, although they are quite hard to understand. 'All of us are the deities' children, but only a few of us will be able to see the dawn. Since we sensed magic power, we've been destined to lead a life uncommon. This competition has lasted for a long period of time. We are already one-in-a-thousand elite. Birds weren't birds, and we weren't us. Fighting makes things thrive, and competition makes living beings eternal.'"

Something flashed across Roland's mind like a bolt of lightning.

He abruptly interrupted, 'What did you say?"

"All of us are the deities' children?"

"No, something after this."

Scroll replied, "'this competition has lasted for a long period of time. We are already one-in-a-thousand elite.' Your Majesty, I've memorized all of it."

What does that sound like?

This thing described by the underground civilization resembles the process of evolution! From barbaric period to civilized age, every civilization that exists now has defeated numerous opponents during its development course.

And all the four different civilizations we know have a thing in common, which is they all know how to use magic power.

Among human beings, witches are the ones who can use this kind of power, and demons and the underground civilization seem to be even better at controlling it. Given that, the other unknown enemy must also be able to use it.

If that's true, everything will be consistent with the underground civilization's description. The "children" in the sentence "All of us are the deities' children" probably refers to the species who were gifted to manipulate magic power.

In this way, the Battles of Divine Will aren't caused by the deities' relic. Instead, they are just a means of accelerating evolution or the basic rules of this magic world. This also corroborates the underground civilization's conclusion that elevating magic power is the way to get closer to the deities.

Pasha's voice reverberated across Roland's head. "Your Majesty, are you all right? I feel your mind is a little out of order."

"Oh? Are you able to see what I'm thinking?"

"No, I can only know what you are thinking when you are ready to communicate with me through your mind. For example, now I'm willing to talk with you through my mind, so you are able to hear what I'm thinking." Pasha paused for a while and asked, "It'll be more efficient to communicate that way. Do you want to give it try?"

Roland shook his head, smiling. "No, I prefer to express myself using my throat and my tongue. As for the confusion... I just thought of something interesting. But relax, it won't affect our communication."

Thinking that sometimes rules were just rules, and there might not be a reason for them, he felt it was acceptable to consider them as something created by the deities. As far as he knew, the origin of life and the Cambrian explosion on earth were also puzzling things. Life is said to form out of lightning and boiling water where organic molecules constantly collided, merged and split and then formed a molecular chain which could reproduce itself. The chance of that is as slim as that of a hurricane assembling a Benz sports car by whirling lots of metal parts into the air.

As for the Cambrian explosion, it was even more mysterious. A sea which only had had some simple creatures such as algae and mollusc for several hundred million years seemed to be filled with various kinds of animals overnight. In a short span of time in the Cambrian period, most major animal phyla of the earth appeared in a sudden. No matter how living beings on the earth evolved in the following years, they can all be traced back to their origins that formed in this period of time.

As these two great changes which gave a strong impetus to the species evolution on the earth are both events of extremely low probability, some people attribute them to some mysterious power beyond description. They believe that it's an invisible hand that pushed the world on the earth to develop into what it's like today. What about this strange magic world? Does such power really exist in here?

Chapter 737 - The Leader

Roland was clear that it was nothing but his own speculation.

I can't jump to a conclusion based solely on the documentation of the underground civilization since their contents still need further verification. For example, the underground civilization thought that they successfully survived a series of competition, but what about their opponents who probably were also able to use magic power? Where did they leave their traces? What about human beings? Did witches first appear before the first Battle of Divine Will— or rather, was the mankind gifted with the sense of magic when they were still primates or even at the beginning of the Mammalian age?

Maybe, human beings in this world didn't go through such a long process of evolution at all. Could they directly become what they are now through mutation after gaining a victory?

He was afraid that to answer these questions, he would need a great number of outstanding explorers like Thunder.

As compared to those researches, his top priority still remained to be human survival, but he believed that it was just a matter of time for him to find out the answers.

He looked at Pasha, asking, "Before you moved this part of relic underground, had it been kept by the church... no, I mean the Starfall City all the time?"

Now that he knew the importance of the relic, he started to care about its safety.

"Yes. Due to the existence of the giant paintings, burying it underground can't prevent the Divine Will. Therefore, it's always kept by the most powerful witch organization. During the Months of Demons when magic power reaches its peak, demonic beasts will come for it. That was why they launched frenzied attacks at Hermes during those months before." With these words, Pasha moved her giant body away, revealing the scene behind her. Two piles of dead bodies of demonic beasts stood there with light blue blood dripping down and flowing all over the ground. Pasha continued, "After we knew the Starfall City had suffered a serious setback, we took back the relic as soon as we could. Now it's very safe in our hands."

Wendy gasped at the sight. "How did you kill that many hybrid demonic beasts?"

"The Instrument of Divine Retribution can deprive the targets of their magic power, and these monsters will die soon without the power in their bodies." Pasha briefly described how this instrument worked and continued. "But it'll only become a mighty weapon when it's activated by the Chosen One."

Roland caught the keyword immediately. "Deprive them of their magic power? So does it mean that it'll do no harm to normal animals? Can God's Stones influence the instrument?"

"No, it directly affects magic power, and God's Stones can't do anything about it at all."

Learning that this instrument could affect an area within a radius of over 5,000 miles without causing any side effects to living beings without magic power, Roland had to admit it was really an environmentally friendly weapon. Unfortunately, however, its start-up requirement seemed too harsh.

He wondered whether the underground civilization had really tested this instrument's power or not. "Maybe they've just done it in theory? Otherwise, they wouldn't end up losing its relic in the war. Wait, did they create something they couldn't use? This kind of absurd things could only happen in this strange magic world."

Thinking that the underground civilization had an advanced magic theory and demons were able to cultivate various kinds of abilities, he realized human beings seemed to have no advantage in manipulating magic power at all. The witches were not a stable group. Their awakenings happened randomly among people and their abilities were hard to predict and control. Given that, he believed they still need a long time to evolve, but now there was not much time left for human beings.

Roland suspected that by the time the Taquila witches found the Chosen One, Neverwinter's armies equipped with advanced steel weapons had already gained an upper hand in the war against demons.

Despite all those thoughts, he would never try to deny the existence of magic power in this world.

He decided to carry out research on both science and magic power at the same time. In this way, the new findings of magic power would increase their productivity. In the meantime, the development of productivity would generate more resources for the studies on magic power.

He believed all research projects could be successfully carried out as long as there was plenty of money and manpower, including the one on magic power.

Now that he knew the basic situation of the Taquila survivors, he thought it was time to negotiate with them.

He said, "Pasha, thank you for telling me your situation and research results. As demons are obviously our common enemy, we should work together and pool our resources to fight against them. How about we building a united front of Divine Will to further our cooperation and coordination?"

Pasha tapped with her tentacles. "I agree. We only hope Your Majesty will continue your policy to gather more witches. All the Taquila witches want is to find the Chosen One among them. We'll send another God's Punishment Witch to bring you a new Five-Colored Stone."

"I'll continue the policy anyway. Even if you don't say that, I'm still going to expand the witch organization in my kingdom, but..." He paused for a while. "I think you'd better move to another place, such as the western mountains near Neverwinter."

"Well..."

Before Pasha gave her answer, all the witches in the reception hall stirred. "Your Majesty?"

"What about demonic beasts?"

At this moment, all the witches were staring at him. Some seemed worried and some nervous. Only Agatha gave him an approving look as if she had known that he was going to make such a request.

Roland surveyed them and signaled the witches to calm down and relax. After that, he turned to look at Pasha on the light curtain again and said, "To be honest, I can't agree with your plan to protect the relic on your own. Once you lose it, all human beings' efforts will be wasted. Demonic beasts aren't tough enemies, but without the defensive line in Hermes, are you sure you can protect the relic when demons launch a surprise attack on you?"

Having heard that the underground civilization diminished probably because they lost its part of the relic, he thought it was better to put this thing under his own protection or somewhere near him. He would feel better if he would be able to send an army to support them immediately when they were attacked.

Celine seemed to be disagreeable. "As long as we change the annihilation core, demons will become easy targets as demonic beasts."

"No, they won't. Demons are way more powerful and intelligent than demonic hybrids. I can tell from the packed dead bodies that those demonic beasts were once very close to your core region. If I guess correctly, the Instrument of Divine Retribution isn't far away from the phantom instrument." Roland noticed that the little tentacles on Pasha stiffened for a moment when she heard this sentence. "If some Mad Demons who can throw spears attack you guys, how many magic cores will be able to remain intact?"

"But..."

Roland continued to explain patiently, "If you still think I won't do any better than you or worry about that demonic beasts would be attracted by the relic, you can settle down on the side of the western mountains close to the Fertile Plains and I'll build a road to connect your place with Neverwinter. In that case, I'll be able to help you whenever you're in trouble: Trust is the foundation of cooperation, and placing the relic where both parties regard as safe is the first step to build our mutual trust, isn't it?"

Pasha remained speechless with her tentacles intertwined with those of the other blobs. They seemed to be communicating with each other rapidly in this way. After seven or eight minutes, she started to talk again.

"Before I give our reply, I'd like to ask a question first. If we do form a united front of... Divine Will as you said, who'll lead us to fight against demons?"

Chapter 738 - Only One Leader

Surprised by this sudden question, Roland fell silent for a moment and then asked with a smile, "You seem to have something else to say?"

Pasha replied, "As this united front is related to the survival of all human beings, we hope that every decision we make here can be given full consideration. To this end... we the survivors of Taquila suggest we adopt a co-governance mechanism for the united front. Under such a system, all decisions will be jointly made by the heads of the most powerful groups after negotiation. By doing so, we'll be able to avoid misjudgment and ensure an equal interest of every party."

"Uhm... it sounds like the Union's Three Chiefs system."

The ancient witch further explained, "A triumvirate can ensure a quick and well-balanced decision-making process, but it's not the only choice. Regarding the current situation, we'd better build a system to include the Four Kingdoms and all the witch organizations. In the early days of the Union, there were 11 leaders planning our military campaigns at the roundtable."

Hearing this, Roland had to admit they were quite clever in this matter since this co-governance mechanism they proposed would surely guarantee their own status in the united front. At this moment, except his Graycastle, all the kingdoms and witch organizations such as the Witch Union and Sleeping Island could hardly compete with the Taquila survivors who had taken over all the magic power instruments left by the underground civilization and owned over 100 God's Punishment Witches. They had accumulated rich fighting experiences during a decades-long battle against demons and were overwhelmingly powerful when fighting with other witches and common armies.

Roland believed that if he agreed, the Taquila witches would naturally become one of the policymakers of the co-governance system. They would further ensure their own interests by stressing their identities as witches to gain recognition from and establish good relationships with the other witch organizations.

He thought that they made such a request probably because they wanted to protect themselves not because they were planning something like restoring their rule over human beings or overthrowing the kingdoms. He understood that every group would be prudent and want such a self-protecting measure before joining in a large organization. If he had been the old Prince Roland who had recently become a lord of Border Town, he would have accepted this suggestion of the Taquila witches, but now he was different.

With an air of authority, he said, "An interesting suggestion, but the united front won't adopt a co-governance mechanism. It'll have only one leader. That is me. This is the most efficient and reliable way of managing it."

He agreed that modesty was a virtue but also knew that now was not the right time for him to be humble, since he was clear that the Three Chiefs system might be a good choice for the Union but not for him.

He was the only one in this world who knew what industrialization was and how to make the best use of all the resources in his domain.

To see rapid industrialization, he had to make all his administrative departments do what he said and work together like a set of machines toward the same goal. He wanted every order issued by his City Hall to smoothly reach all his subjects and all the resources within his domain to be allocated and managed in accordance with his plan. Adopting a co-governance system under which he would have to explain and convince all the other policymakers to carry out a policy obviously would slow down the process of industrialization.

Seeing Roland reject Taquila's idea outright and bluntly, all the people in the meeting was fell into an awkward silence, including those ancient witches.

Roland cleared his throat and calmly continued. "The united front is built to guarantee that we'll work together to fight against demons, but I don't require you to join in it at the very beginning. I want you to move to the Western Region to build mutual trust first. As compared to some oral agreement, the facts you'll see here will be more convincing."

"What... are we going to see?"

He explained, "You're going to see our strength and determination to fight against demons and the current situation of some other organizations, both those that are a part of the united front and those not. After that, you can make a decision to join in or not. Even if you don't join in, we'll still be able to cooperate on many other projects, such as experiments and the search for the Chosen One. I promise I won't interfere with your internal affairs."

Celine interrupted, "You won't mind if we don't give you the relic and the magic core?"

"No, and in fact, I've never planned to depend on those instruments in the ruins of the maze to defeat demons. Regarding the relic, as long as it's kept in a safe place, I won't have a problem with it. Like I said, working together to look for the Chosen One and protect the relic is the first step to build our mutual trust. As for further cooperation, we can take it slow."

The cold voice which remained silent for a long time appeared again. "I've got to say you're very uncommon, you common man, but have you ever thought that controlling the united front on your own can be very risky. If the Battle of Divine Will lasts decades and during this period of time you inevitably become old and weak, how can you ensure that your successors will follow your will to lead us in the war? Only a co-governance mechanism can effectively prevent such a problem."

"I don't think it'll be a problem at all. I'm not sure how long will the war last, but I'm afraid my life will be longer than all of yours combined." At this moment, he felt he needed to bluff. Although, he was not sure whether he had got Zero's lifespan as he obviously did not get her magic power. He knew that to convince these ancient witches, he had better explain his decision with some incredible power rather than persuading them that a special system which they had never heard of would guarantee that his successors would carry on his work.

He described to them the Soul Battlefield in detail and many witches chimed in. After that, there was a long silence.

He saw that the tentacles of the blobs knotted together again and the scales on their bodies turned from grayish brown to reddish brown, which indicated that they had a heated discussion now.

After a long time, their tentacle hang down.

Pasha said solemnly, "I understand, but we need at least a month to move all the things we need. I hope you can offer us some building materials as one cave isn't enough for all our things. We need to build a palace and a laboratory inside the western mountains."

Roland was surprised and asked, "Wait a minute, how can you build something like that underground?" It was not easy to conduct an underground construction, for the environment below the earth was wet and dark. As such he had planned to ask Lotus to connect some underground caves in the western mountains for the Taquila survivors since their bodies would not require very comfortable living conditions. However, they seemed to have mastered better construction skills than him and even planned to build a new palace underground.

Pasha explained, "Our devouring worm will do the job. It's a big shell looking like a wild beast. We've got one in the ruins. That was the shell we used to sneak into the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn."

Chapter 739 - The Handshake

Roland felt a jolt, thinking, "Why do these things sound similar to the giant demonic beast in the snow mountain?"

When he was about to raise this question, Agatha asked Pasha, "Are you the ones who entered the Devil's Town and devoured the Blackstone Pagoda?"

Pasha was confused, saying, "Devil's... Town? No, we didn't. We've only used our devouring worm to mend the ruins and build the tunnel to the City of Glow. We can't afford to use it so frequently since it eats a lot."

Roland described the witches' adventures in the Misty Forest and the Devil's Town located to the west of the Western Region. After that, he asked Scroll to take out the pictures of the scenes drawn by Soraya and explained, "this monster, much bigger than any wild beast, seemed to move toward the great snow mountain."

Seeing the vivid pictures, Pasha took a deep breath and said, "Yes, it's indeed a devouring worm. I'm afraid that there're also some ruins left by the underground civilization in the snow mountain you mentioned. According to the literatures we read here, this civilization once could be found everywhere in the Land of Dawn. This record is reliable, as now we can easily find tracks and numerous tunnels left by devouring worms in every high mountain."

"But you think the underground civilization has already perished."

"Yes, we do, but the worm was just a shell like an original carrier. A soul can get into it and then move it."

Hearing this, Roland's heart sank in a sudden. He glanced around and found all the witches in the reception hall looked solemn at this moment. Obviously, everybody guessed that the one who sent the worm to Agatha's research tower and the Devil's Town must be the unknown enemy in the Battle of Divine Will.

Roland wondered whether this enemy had happened to find the ruins and some worm shells in the snow mountain and transfer souls into those shells.

If this was the case, he believed it would not be a big problem.

However, if they had also found some magic cores and a central carrier, he believed he would have big trouble. Will these things drastically improve their magic theory and even enable them to create some Instrument of Divine Retribution against the witches?

He thought they had an excellent chance of finding some shells and even instruments in the snow mountain. Unlike the Impassible Mountain Range and the Dragonspine Mountain Range, it did not stretch very long, but its major peak was the highest mount in the Western Region. According to Pasha, such a great mountain was a perfect place to build a large underground city for the underground civilization. Given this, he decided that he must do something about it.

Celine anxiously said, "Your Majesty, please assist us in exploring the snow mountain as soon as possible, in case there're some remaining instruments."

"And the various kinds of shells recorded in the literature. If the unknown enemy gets them, I'm afraid it would cause us lots of trouble." Compared to Celine, Pasha still sounded calm, but all her tentacles were waving rapidly, showing her anxiety inside.

This news apparently caused a stir among the blobs, as it was getting noisy behind Pasha.

Roland quickly got why they were so excited.

Living in the God's Punishment Warriors' bodies for hundreds of years resembled being imprisoned in endless emptiness, which explained why they were so interested in the new carriers. However, compared with living in the bodies of God's Punishment Army, the carriers at least enabled them to have some feelings including a sense of smell, though they would not look like human beings anymore.

Roland pretended to hesitate, saying, "I see your point. I'd been planning to explore the snow mountain of the Western Region, but as I didn't have any suitable means of transport and didn't want the witches to take any risk, I had to postpone in the end. If I could get the help from your devouring worm for this exploration, I think it'll be a good opportunity..."

Pasha immediately promised, "We'll start to move as fast as we can."

Roland, who had been thinking about how to start the cooperation with the Taquila survivors, was also happy to get this chance. In fact, even if they didn't ask him to explore the mountain, he would do it sooner or later in order to eliminate potential threats around Neverwinter and satisfy his own curiosity toward the big carriers which were able to drill huge tunnels underground.

He could easily think of a long list of things these carriers could do.

He had planned to use the Impassable Mountain Range as a natural barrier against the demons, but current engineering techniques did not allow him to do so. The transportation of cement and bricks alone would be a tricky problem, as the mountain paths were rugged and sinuous and the weather condition there was very unstable. If some soldiers were garrisoned on the mountains, he would have to build barbette for them. Near the military facilities, he would also need to build barracks, roads, and necessary living facilities, which would be a big challenge for Hummingbird and Lotus.

However, if he had a devouring worm, he could solve all those problems by drilling a straight underground tunnel connecting the barbette on the mountain with Neverwinter and building underground ammunition reservoir and barracks which could keep them away from the snow storm. He could even build a railroad in the tunnel so that steam trailers could be used to transport soldiers and goods.

With reinforced concrete blockhouses on the ground and convenient transportation lines underground, that would be the natural chasm defense line he wanted.

This devouring worm could also be used to build underground utilities and sewage discharge system for the city. When that happened, he would proudly announce that in this age, Neverwinter was the first city to have an underground drainage system in which people could walk freely. He believed that this worm would be praised highly as a magic tool in the civil engineering field before the invention of tunnel boring machine and would be considered as important as the magic core and the bio-computer.

Roland rose and walked to the light curtain, extending his right hand toward Pasha. "I hope this is the beginning of building our mutual trust."

"Your Majesty, this is..."

He looked at this monster who was several meters taller than himself and calmly explained, "It's a handshake, representing a preliminary agreement between us."

After a little hesitation, Pasha dropped the thickest tentacle on her head. It moved in a spiral and touched his palm in the end.

He thought, "What a pity. Soraya isn't here to witness and record this moment worthy being memorized forever."

When the image of Pasha started to distort, he suddenly asked, "Ah... wait, you said every high mountain might have ruins left by the underground civilization. What about the mountains in the deep sea?"

Pasha was surprised, saying, "Are there mountains under the sea? According to the literature, they did not go to the sea and only lived on the Land of Dawn. I think they might not be able to move around in the sea, as most of their carriers were heavy and clumsy. Why did you ask about this?"

"Nothing, I'm just curious." Roland shook his head and lost in thoughts.

They only lived on the Land of Dawn... so the weird underwater spire and telescope have nothing to do with the underground civilization, but who owns the Giant Stone Gates that Thunder saw through the old telescope and the land which only appears during flood tide? The unknown enemy in the Battle of Divine Will?

I hope Thunder can find the answer.

At this moment, the purple light curtain distorted and then disappeared.

The reception hall got back to normal.

Chapter 740 - A Beautiful Night

As night fell, Wendy went to the door of Scroll's bedroom.

She held out her hand, hesitating whether she should knock or not. However, just at that moment, Scroll opened the door.

"I knew you would come find me." Scroll smiled. "I also wanted to talk to you, just like we used to."

Scroll had apparently taken an early shower as her long, wet hair was randomly hanging over her shoulders instead of being tied up. She had also placed a towel on her shoulders in order to avoid getting her night robe wet. At first glimpse, she appeared to be a little younger, with her flowing hair covering the wrinkles on her forehead. After leading an increasingly comfortable life in Neverwinter, she looked more mellow.

Only her wise and mature eyes remained unchanged.

Wendy could not help smiling and asked, "In your bedroom or mine?"

"Yours. Nightingale will come back much later than Leaf."

"Ok."

"You serve the Chaos Drinks."

"What?!?"

"Of course you do, whoever initiates the conversation is also responsible for the drinks. That's our old rule and you know it."

"So that's why you waited for me behind the door?"

"That's right. Patience is the most important thing and also one of the lessons l draw from life. Now, have you learned your lesson?"

"Fine..."

As they went back to Wendy's bedroom and cleared up the desk, Wendy took two glasses and a bottle of Chaos Drink out of a drawer and poured it into the glasses. The orange-red drinks reflected a flame-like light against the light from the Magic Stone.

"That's what you got?" Scroll took a sip of it. "You're lucky. In winter, it's as good as Fire Dragon Wine..."

"I'm jealous of you." Wendy stretched her hands.

"Don't put it like that. We can enjoy such a drink thanks to Miss Evelyn."

Roland figured out a very interesting way to distribute the Chaos Drinks of various tastes to each witch of the Witch Union. Each witch, every month, had an opportunity to pick up a bottle of the Chaos Drinks created by Evelyn. No one knew what kind of flavor they would get as they would only see a number before the draw was revealed.

Therefore, on that day, the witches used to exchange their drinks or drink others'. Somehow, Maggie always got the most popular drink, making everyone wonder if Evelyn had revealed it to her.

As they took their time to enjoy the orange-red drink that warmed their hearts, they heard the sound of the cold wind outside the windows. They felt tipsy in the warm bedroom. They talked little as they could understand each other just by looking at one another.

In fact, Wendy had nothing specific to say and just felt very happy at the moment. When she closed her eyes, Roland Wimbledon's earlier declaration would appear in her mind.

"Only I can be the leader."

Before this, Roland, in her opinion, was very approachable. She was concerned that he would mess up or show weakness on some critical issues, which was unbecoming of a king. But now, he was much better than she had expected. Judging from his tone and expression in dealing with other people, he had become more mature and developed his compelling authority thanks to the last two years of experience.

To her surprise, Roland was much better at being a dominator. Even so, he treated the witches and common people the same as before. It seemed that it was his nature to be nice to witches, which was very odd, especially for a royal noble.

She knew that Scroll also had felt this change, so she had waited at the door for her.

It was a habit they had kept since they were in the Witch Cooperation Association. When they had some good news to share, Wendy, Scroll, and Cara would always get together to drink some cheap ale and talk about it overnight. However, they had to drink wild fruit-water instead of ale when their conditions became worse later on.

Sadly, they gradually talked about their concerns and problems instead of good news or plans because Cara had a different purpose from them, leaving Wendy and Scroll behind. As the eldest witches and the founders of the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy and Scroll had to be strong, because if they gave up, all witches would lose their faith in seeking the Holy Mountain. That was how they survived through all the suffering and tough times.

And now, those times became the past once more.

Wendy drank out of the drink, let out a deep sigh, and said, "Well, after the meeting, I handed the test results of the witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart to His Majesty."

"Oh? What kind of abilities do they have?" Scroll leaned on the bench and replied casually.

Wendy gave a general description of each of their abilities but was deliberately vague when it came to Broken Sword. "Can you guess who he assigned Broken Sword to?"

"Uh, probably Nightingale or Ashes...only they can make full use of Broken Sword's power." After some more thought, Scroll said, "Anna and Leaf indeed have strong magic power, but they and other witches aren't able to fight against enemies face to face. Additionally, there are few combat witches in the Witch Union."

"Great minds think alike, but His Majesty didn't think so." Wendy revealed her gentle smile. "He didn't assign Broken Sword to anyone."

Scroll was stunned. "Why?"

"According to him, a weapon needs to be carried by the owner personally at all times, but in that case, Broken Sword would have limited freedom. Besides, the enemies won't always launch an attack at her working time and her sword's aura isn't as powerful as gunpowder. Hence, she can partner with each witch to test their overlapping effects rather than to be a weapon. Then, based on how interesting the combination is, His Majesty will assign her job."

"Assign her a job based on how interesting the combination is?"

"Yeah, those were His Majesty's words exactly."

He attached more importance to her feelings instead of giving her a role that limited her. Perhaps, that was the reason why Nightingale chose to support him with her entire heart.

Now in hindsight, it was fortunate that they chose to believe Nightingale's judgment.

Thinking of this, Wendy could not help smiling. After filling her glass again, she held it before Scroll. "To us, for finding such a good king."

Scroll smiled, holding the glass to gently clink hers. "Yes, to our Holy Mountain."

"Ah... it's empty." Having drunk the last sip, she found that the bottle had been emptied out when she wanted to fill the glass again.

"Do you want me to return to my room to get mine?" Scroll also wanted to continue drinking.

"No, we must follow the old rule." She waved her hands and took a bottle from another drawer. "But next time, I'll wait for you to knock on my door."

"Wait a moment. Isn't that Nightingale's?"

"Yes, but she doesn't mind at all."

They cheered up again and continued to talk on this warm and wonderful night.

Chapter 741 - The Art of Sound Transmission……

...

Roland wiped the fine sweat beads from Anna's forehead and held her in his arms.

In the dim light, he could still see the attractive blush on her face.

Roland had the feeling that Anna had become more active in this regard since the last time they talked about the Dream World. She also tried to learn some new tricks—though her progress was much slower than her learning from books. Anna's clumsy and serious manner gave him an entirely new experience. His visual enjoyment far surpassed the sensory experience and he could not help but feel a sense of superiority as an old hand.

Of course, they would not miss the storytelling session after their time of joy.

As he was indulging in Anna's fragrance, Roland started to narrate in detail the news brought by the Taquila Witches as well as his speculation about the Battle of Divine Will.

"Although we've already known that where we live is no larger than a corner of the mainland, I didn't expect that there were actually completely different civilizations scattered beneath the mountains... this world is really full of unknowns!" Anna sighed and said, "Perhaps one day, we can also set foot on that faraway land to see what kind of secrets are hidden in that world across the sea."

"I promise that day will come," Roland answered with a smile.

Even if they could not travel by sea, they could still fly over it—any land that could be seen through the telescope would not be too far away. As long as they had the internal combustion engine, the large airship could come into play.

"But does God really exist? He left relics causing us to fight against one another... maybe he is now looking at us from somewhere."

"Are you afraid?" Roland could not resist holding her even closer.

"No, I want to thank him."

"What for?" Roland was a little surprised.

"For he sent you to me." Anna looked up and whispered.

Roland saw the rippling blue lake in her eyes—that was her unconcealed emotions.

He felt a warm current surging in his heart.

"I'll always be with you."

"But you can't stay with me all the time."

"I..."

Anna covered his mouth before he could finish speaking.

"You're the king and also the future commander of the army that will combat the Army of Demons. How could you stay forever in Neverwinter? I can't possess you entirely just for my personal desire. The soldiers who fight in the front line need to see your presence and your subjects in the other cities want you to be with them," she said softly, "Roland, I'm already very content that I can listen to your stories like this."

Roland was silent for a moment. "You're right. But wherever I am in the future, you will always be able to hear my stories... I promise you this."

Anna blinked, as if she had heard the meaning behind his words. "Without the Sigil of Listening?"

"Exactly." He nodded.

How could they speak out their words of love if they had to communicate through the Sigil of Listening?

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll let you know tomorrow." Roland rolled over and lay on top of Anna, then kissed her neck... and slipped all the way from her neck to the clavicle, leaving a shallow mark on her fine, tight skin. "But, now it's my turn."

Once again, they became one, and their sweet breathing sounds rising and falling for a long time before fading away.

…

The next day after breakfast, the invigorated Roland walked into the backyard of North Slope Mountain with Anna.

"Good morning, Your Majesty." Lucia, who had arrived even earlier, put her work aside and bowed before him.

"Good morning, Your Majesty! Good morning, Sister Anna! Sister Nightingale!" Ring followed the actions of her sister, and started to bow and cry out cheerfully.

Roland waved his hand with a smile, indicating that they did not have to be too formal. Then he walked to the workbench and pulled out a piece of white paper on which he started to draw a design. He intended to carry out the promise he had made last night to Anna before the Taquila survivors moved to the Western Region—a communication tool that he could use to speak to Anna at any time without magic.

That would be the wire telephone.

The principle of the telephone was very simple and that was the most basic application of electromagnetic induction: the sound wave would vibrate the metal reed in the voice tube causing the change of the magnetic flux formed in the magnetic field, and finally a fluctuant induced current would be generated. While the earpiece, on the contrary, would use the magnetic force generated by the electromagnetic coil to vibrate the membrane and reduce the current into voice.

In other words, it was fundamentally the same as a generator or an electric motor, except that the latter turned the vibration into a rotation and had a much larger power.

As soon as he articulated his idea and design, Anna immediately understood how this unprecedented calling tool worked.

"Let me get Mystery Moon and Soraya!" Her eyes shone with excitement.

"Electric current... exchange with voice?" After hearing what Roland had said, Nightingale still had a vacant look on her face, and when she turned to see if Lucia had understood, she found Lucia was also pondering.

"Electricity and magnetism originate from each other, and the magnetism turns into power... I see."

Even the little girl Ring also showed off her knowledge. "Sister, are you talking about something in the second chapter of 'Elementary Physics'?"

All of these reactions suddenly frustrated Nightingale. She gloomily picked up a dried fish and walked into the Mist.

Roland could not hold back his laughter at this scene. He knew that although the principle was simple, it was not that easy to make a functional phone, and the problem lay in the signal transmission.

The electrical signal would abate.

That was the reason why the phone was not widely used in the early stage after it was invented—once the distance between the callers was too long, it was hard for one side to hear exactly what the other side was saying. The phone was not widely used until the electron tube that could amplify the signal was invented.

Roland was not very good at electricity, so he barely wrote about it in his books. Even now that he had the help of the Dream World, he still found it quite problematic to make an electron tube.

Since he did not intend to amplify the signal, there was only one way to do it—by reducing the attenuation.

For example, increase the size of the wire and reduce the loss of the signal in the route.

The former was very simple to achieve. The required copper wire could be accurately processed by Anna's Blackfire. According to the knowledge he had acquired from his Dream World, a 4 mm diameter wire could be used to maintain a 50 or 60 km communication without a repeater, while the general telephone connecting wire was only 0.4 to 0.6 mm in diameter. Although it was somewhat wasteful to use the thick wire, it could effectively avoid the trouble of having to make a signal amplifier.

The latter could be achieved through coaxial-cable—the so-called coaxial-cable was made by wrapping the wire with a layer of metal mesh which would be sandwiched by the two wires that were coated with insulating materials and turned into a Faraday cage so as to minimize the divergence of the electrical signal. Before the telephone came into widespread use, the technology of wrapping the metal layer was not mature yet, so at that time, people used the loading coil, which meant overlapping the wire with a spirally wound coil casing to reduce the signal loss. But Roland did not need to follow this rule since he had Anna's processing skill and Soraya's special coating that could complete it in one step.

Chapter 742 - Love From a Distance

Combining the two techniques should allow the telephone signal to be read as far as a few hundred kilometers without a relay, which basically lets it cover most of the residential areas in the Western Region, and would allow Neverwinter to receive real-time updates from the defensive line in the Impassable Mountain Range.

If he wanted to further extend the range, he would then have to use a signal relay.

The reason why Roland chose to develop the wire telephone was not only because he was inspired by Anna's words, but also because of the vast usage and practicability of this tool. It would serve as a crucial piece for controlling the political situation, enhancing the centralization of the government, and commanding the wartime efforts.

More importantly, the industrial projects in Neverwinter had already reached a saturation point.

The new immigrants still had to pass the primary education before they can be absorbed into the various industries. The four major industries—civil construction, mineral processing, machine manufacturing, and chemical production—had occupied over 90% of the workforce. According to current predictions, it would not be difficult for these four industries to employ 60,000 to 70,000 new immigrants once they pass through primary education.

As these industries were vital for future war efforts, their production could not be interrupted. On the other hand, the bicycle plant, which was enthusiastically built by Roland in the beginning, wasn't even able to meet the demand of the First Army. The city hall would first shut down the bicycle factory whenever there is a power shortage and reallocate the workers to the steam engine plant whenever there is a shortage of manpower.

Even though construction on Kingdom Main Street and Route 67 had already been completed, and Border Area neither raised horses nor stables for horses to rest in, the roads were still mainly used by carriages that came from the Longsong Area or other cities. Also, with the construction of the railway already underway, the citizens never did start riding bicycles between the Border Area and the Longsong Area.

Of course, Roland would never admit to Barov that he had made this strategic mistake. Since then, he would always take into account of Neverwinter's production capability when planning for new facilities.

The phone happened to be a good product that wouldn't burden Neverwinter's output, and it also does not require much maintenance.

First of all, Roland would not provide telephone to the market. He would only provide it for military communication purposes and basic communication between the Border Area and the Longsong Area. Roland only intended to lay down a one-to-one cable that connects both sides. In this way, it would save him the time and energy of setting up a complex wire network.

Secondly, starting with a limited number of telephone systems meant that it would only require Anna, Mystery Moon, and Soraya to help out during their spare time without having to utilize Neverwinter's labour force.

Moreover, once they manage to produce vacuum tubes, they could develop telecommunication for the public.

Therefore, the wire telephone is the most appropriate project to start with before exploring the Great Snow Mountain with the Taqila survivors.

…

The prototyping stage of manufacturing phones went smoother than he had expected. By afternoon, two basic telephones containing magnetic speakers appeared in the backyard of North Slope Mountain.

It had no shell and looked like an assembly of a coil of wire and magnets. It was equipped with a hand-operated generator and a "Mini Dawn" battery. Due to the low power requirements, the battery was only as thick as a finger and could last for at least a month, saving him from the trouble of making an independent dry battery.

"How does this work?" Mystery Moon asked curiously, "Can my ability really do this?"

Roland naturally ignored the second half of her sentence. "It's very simple. Watch carefully... This hand-operated generator is used to start a call. When the user rotates it quickly..." He grabs the handle and rotates it forcibly, and the magnetic bell on the other side suddenly rang out a sound of "jingling". "That ringing means that there's a call coming."

He gave Anna a glance, and she picked up the earpiece and the voice tube.

"When the earpiece is picked up and the switch pops up, it means the voice line is connected and people on both sides can start talking. The current that transmits the electrical signals is provided by Mini Dawn, so without this copper bar enchanted by Mystery Moon, the telephone can only ring but no sound would be transmitted."

"Oh, I see!" Mystery Moon thrust her chest out and vigorously nodded her head twice.

"Your Majesty, may I try speaking through it?" Soraya was eager to try.

"And me." Ring raised her hand up high.

"Of course... It was created by all of you, and naturally, you're eligible to be the first few to experience this era-defining communication tool." Roland laughed. There was no need to explain the significance of the phone, since it completely changed how humans could communicate with each other across distant worlds. "There will be no signal attenuation in such a small yard, so connecting the phone with ordinary copper wire will do."

In a quiet, snow-covered forest, a crisp bell rang out continuously. Obviously, they could talk through the phone directly, but they insisted on starting over again, from the step of rotating the handle to generate electricity.

"There really is a voice!"

"It sounds like Lucia!"

"Uh, what should I say?"

"Let her guess who you are!"

The witches, who were separated by the wall, were vying to shout at the voice tube. For a few moments, peals of laughter echoed from both ends of the yard.

Roland also tried out listening twice. To be honest, he thought the prototype wasn't very good. The voice he heard fluctuated a lot and there was a lot of static. Anyways, it was definitely not up to standard. But he knew that as long as he kept adjusting the size of the metal reed and the space between the electromagnets, he would find the right parameters for the best call quality.

Soon, the voice tube reached Roland's hand once again.

He shook his head with a smile and placed the earpiece beside his ear and habitually said, "Hello?"

He heard nothing but interference from the weak conductance of the copper cable.

For some reason, he knew who it was on the other side of the phone as if their hearts were linked.

"Anna...?" Roland whispered.

After a moment, he heard a slightly distorted reply.

"I like you... Roland."

***************

After protecting Roland for a whole day, Nightingale returned to her bedroom in a bad mood.

This was not the first time she felt like this because she did not understand anything that the others were saying. And every time this happened, only dried fish and ice cream bread could comfort her.

Well... now there were also the Chaos Drinks.

She truly envied the intimacy between Roland and Anna. Meanwhile, a faint but unceasing bitterness flooded her. She thought that she would get used to it sooner or later, but it turned out to be harder than she had imagined.

The more invested she got in her feelings, the deeper the thorns dug into her heart.

Now Nightingale somewhat understood what Wendy had told her.

She walked to the table and pulled open the drawer, but she found out that the bottle inside was empty.

Did I take the wrong one?

So she pulled open another drawer and found that bottle inside was empty too.

"Wendy? My Chaos..." As soon as Nightingale turned around, she was hugged by her roommate, and Wendy's ample bosom almost squeezed her out of breath.

"Nightingale, how many years have we known each other? You've been with me since you left the Gilen Family in Silver City, right?"

"Yeah... almost four or five years, but my Chaos..."

"We've experienced so many dangers and hardships along the way before today. Nothing can undermine our friendship, right?"

"Of course, I've always treated you like a sister, but my Chaos..."

"I drank all your drinks. I'm sorry!" Wendy held her even closer. "I'll definitely make it up to you with my share next month."

What? All of them?

Nightingale fumbled the bag of dried fish and felt that it was empty too.

Only dried fish, ice cream bread, and Chaos Drinks can comfort her.

Now, all of them were gone.

Nightingale heard a crack in her heart.

In an instant, the bitterness flooded her once again.

Chapter 743 - The Desert Mission

Even with his eyes closed, Iron Axe could still smell the unique odor of the yellow sands around him.

Today was the fourth day since he had entered the desert and the third week since his army had left Neverwinter. After the end of this week, two-thirds of the winter season would have passed and the coldest period, mid-winter, would start. However, unlike the snowy Western Region, the Months of Demons had less influence here, leaving the area almost untouched. Although the sky maintained a shade of oppressive gray, there was at least no piercing northerly wind and icy snow that could freeze the whole desert.

As Silver Stream did not converge with any other rivers and flowed mainly underground, the army had no choice but to make its way on foot. Rather than following the original plan, which was to wait for the 500 new recruits who were stationed in the Palisade City to be ready and then incorporating them into the army to move together, Iron Axe decided to leave those recruits to Brian and marched alone so that he could reach Iron Sand City faster.

Recruits might perform well during on-the-spot firing, but they would not be able to survive a journey of continuous marching on foot. Moreover, the situation would barely be improved even with the addition of 500 people.

He understood very well that His Majesty's mission could not be accomplished by cannon attack or aggression. The First Army would be there to ensure victory, but it would not be the means to conquer the Sand Nation.

Mojins had a set of traditional solutions.

As for the 500 recruits, all they needed to do was seize Silver Stream Oasis to ensure that the frontline troops would not be flanked.

In the Southernmost Region, an oasis was a lifeline. Whether people intended to attack or flee, they could not live without an oasis.

The tribal people of the Sand Nation could feel the formidable vigor coming from the veteran soldiers who were marching orderly on the road even without witnessing the power of the flintlocks. No one dared to walk up and question the soldiers coming from Graycastle but just whispered behind them after they had filled their water packs, got fed, and set out again.

Iron Axe estimated that, at this rate, the First Army should be able to reach Iron Sand City before nightfall.

"I'm a little confused. Can one initiate the so-called holy duel at any time in any season?" A beautiful blonde woman walked toward Echo and her fine skin was in sharp contrast to that of the princess of the Osha clan. "Even noblemen could refuse the honor challenge between themselves if they were unwell. On such a cold day, everyone would want to stay near a warm stove the entire day instead of going out and fighting, right? I mean... what should we do if someone refuses the request for a holy duel?"

Iron Axe remembered the lady's name was Andrea, a combat witch who often followed Princess Tilly. As His Majesty once said, there ought to be just one Extraordinary, Ashes, to help them, but somehow Andrea ended up joining the campaign as well.

"No matter how unwilling you are, you have to fight when someone picks up an axe, rushes into your house, and kicks your stove." Ashes curled her lip. "Do you think this contest which, to some extent, determines the life and death of a clan will follow the hypocritical rules of the nobility?"

"That's called a sneak attack or a massacre, not a duel," Andrea said disdainfully, "even though Mojins are barbarians, they're still able to distinguish between the two. Do you think that everyone is as ignorant as you?"

"I can see you really are a 'well-learned person' by saying that in front of Echo."

"Stop misinterpreting my words!"

Iron Axe was not bothered about being called a barbarian as he knew that people in Border Town were not judged by their identities. This was something His Majesty had told him personally. Other than being a Mojin, he had a more important identity and that was being a resident of Neverwinter.

Iron Axe did not respond to the dispute between Ashes and Andrea until he received Echo's gaze calling for help. He cleared his throat and explained voluntarily. "Lady Andrea's concern was not misplaced. Certainly, the holy duel can't be refused and must be done when both opponents are well prepared to earn the approval from the Three Gods. But it doesn't mean that the duel can be initiated at any time by anyone's will. The first requirement for the duel is that the challenger must be qualified to fight."

"What kind of qualifications are needed?"

"First of all, it must be an entire Mojin clan," Iron Axe said briefly, "One person can't represent a clan and this rule applies to even a chief or a princess. This rule is to prevent a situation where a dozen people occupy one-sixth of Iron Sand City. In addition, the rule also excludes foreigners. Iron Sand City allows foreigners to fight for the clans but excludes them from the central power positions."

"Does that mean that we are not eligible at all?" Ashes raised her eyebrow. "It has been years since Echo was exiled and the Osha clan has disappeared long ago. Or should we start by looking for her surviving clansmen?"

"No one is able to survive Endless Cape," Iron Axe said as he shook his head, "but we can use another method. For example, making Lady Silvermoon the chief of a new clan is allowed."

"Is this... possible?" Andrea was surprised.

"Mojins don't value bloodlines like you people do. They value one's ability more than lineage." The commander-in-chief of the First Army said calmly, "After satisfying the first criterion, any clan that is able to stand their ground in one of the small oases around the Iron Sand City qualifies for the duel. There are a total of four small oases that newly rising clans always fight in and that's why these four oases are also called the bloodstained place."

"They are like admission tickets, right?" Ashes did not take it seriously.

"You could say that. In fact, these clans generally fall into two categories," Iron Axe paused, "challenger... and watchdog."

"Watchdog?" The blonde witch's curiosity was piqued.

"These are the obstacles set by the top clans who are unwilling to see the order in Iron Sand City change too much." Echo was the one who replied this time. "They rely on their huge resources and influence to recruit a large number of warriors to form a mixed clan that has its roots in the small oases. Watchdogs won't seek a holy duel with their owners, yet they occupy the positions of the challenger. Despite not being allowed to enter Iron Sand City, they live quite well relying on the water and food supplied by the small oases."

"They sound like hounds that are willing to eat leftovers." Ashes sneered. "That is a very appropriate name."

"As the holy duel is full of variables, the big clans would try to rope in or bribe the potential challengers stationed in the bloodstained place. My father was reluctant to be a watchdog so he was determined to initiate a holy duel with Iron Whip clan, yet he ended up with..." Echo's voice became despondent as she was reminded of her distressing past.

"They'll pay for their insidious behavior that year, Lady Silvermoon." Iron Axe comforted her. "Death is coming for them now."

"So we need to find a challenger first, whose chief will be replaced by Echo, before we challenge the six big clans?" Andrea asked.

"Once people start to settle down, they'll lose their motivation to go forward. One who has occupied a small oasis and doesn't challenge others immediately will very likely become a new watchdog. After that, it won't be easy to overpower him by words or by force," Iron Axe said slowly, "since we are under the king's order and carrying thunder and grace with us, there is no need to do it in such an inconvenient way. Any humble clan will become unstoppable with the First Army backing it up. We will just crush anyone who dares to stand in His Majesty's way."

Chapter 744 - One Who Seeks a Revenge

Thuram's favorite activity was sitting on the second floor of a tavern and watching customers coming and going downstairs.

This was his tavern and his territory, so Thuram named it "Skull Cup" for his own preference and re-decorated it. He even hung a string of incomplete skulls at the entrance as the sign of the tavern.

However, it was not called this name five years ago.

"What was it called at that time?" Thuram wondered.

"Was it called Elf Forest... or Elf Garden? Anyway, it doesn't matter now." Thuram drank some spirits with fire lantern fruit in them, letting the hot taste flood his tongue. "Such a delicate name didn't fit the bloodstained place, since there's no elf or elf-like woman here but quite a lot of bones."

After each battle, a pile of dead bodies would be left outside the Iron Sand City. He preferred bones, especially the skulls, which had been baked in hot sands, rather than perishable flesh.

First, the skulls were intimidating, so it would let troublemakers understand what kind of place this was.

Second, it indeed could hold wine, saving him from buying more wine glasses.

After all, the former did not work for everyone. There were always some idiots born with deformed brains who thought that they could treat everywhere like their own backyards and that their adversaries were no better than women who knew nothing but weeping. In a place where troublemakers appeared frequently, brittle pottery and glass were not ideal vessels.

Gazing at every customer was a habit that Thuram had developed in recent years. People who traveled in and out of this land were generally divided into three kinds: the half-dead ones, the moribund ones, and the dead ones—he preferred to distinguish people in this way rather than by their identities. The half-dead ones' purpose of coming here was very simple, which was drinking, gambling, and women; as long as they maintained their current state, they could basically finish the rest of their journeys. The moribund ones were mostly watchdogs or challengers who came to inquire about the situation. They had already put their lives under the blades that would swing and behead them at any time.

As to the dead ones... they were undoubtedly the troublemakers.

Thuram's attention was fixed on neither the half-dead ones nor the dead ones, for the former were very boring, and the latter gave him joy only when they were dying. It was the moribund ones he liked most because he could see in them a mirror image of his younger self.

At that time, he was just like them, holding a sharp knife in his hand and fighting in the bloodstained place, an admiring place for many clans, yet he always had his sights set on Iron Sand City.

His courage, audacity, and strength were being drained from him until one day someone replaced him as the new owner of the small oasis... He had to beg for a chance to survive. At last, he became part of the bloodstained place, yet he turned from the moribund one into the half-dead one during this alteration.

The moribund ones, though they had already placed their lives under the blades, still had the chance to skyrocket when the time came. They could break out of the cocoons or rise from the ashes. But the half-dead ones would never have this kind of opportunity. They could only seek some form of entertainment to comfort them for the rest of their lives.

Such as, watching the travelers who pass by these oases... who might perish in the sands or take over as the new owner of this place.

At this moment, one of his men pushed open the door, walked to him, and whispered in his ear.

"Oh? Are you sure about that?" Thuram was startled.

"He said so, and from the look of the woman beside him... she is probably a Divine Lady."

Thuram pondered for a while, then a malicious smile appeared on his face. "Take them in. Remember to take away their weapons. This guy is a hard nut to crack."

"Yes."

"See? There's a big fun coming now," Thuram could not help thinking.

…

There were a total of two visitors whose bodies were hidden under loose ropes, but Thuram could still distinguish that they were a man and a woman. When the tall man took off his hood and showed his face, Thuram could not help but squint. "I didn't expect to see you one day, Iron Axe."

"The things that you can't expect are way more than stars reflected on the oasis. Nothing strange about that." Iron Axe served the woman her seat, and then calmly walked over to sit opposite him. "But now... you should know what I'm coming for."

"Probably." Thuram shrugged. As an old citizen of Sand Nation, he knew every holy duel held in the Land of Fire. Some of the moribund ones could indeed rise from ashes, but most of them turned into complete dead bodies, and the Osha clan was one of them... Although he had heard that some accidents happened during the duel, it made no difference to the end result. "But you shouldn't have returned, for Iron Whip clan is no longer the way it was."

Thuram had thought of recruiting Iron Axe who used to be quite a renowned hybrid warrior—Thuram didn't let his initial ambition die away even after he had to serve a watchdog, and he always imagined that his clan would one day reoccupy the small oasis and enter the holy land of the duel.

But it was years ago.

But now... he just wanted to have some fun.

"Yeah? That's exactly what I want," Iron Axe said with disapproval, "I thought they'd been thrown out of Iron Sand City by the other challengers and were now rotting away in some isolated corner. Now it seems that the Three Gods haven't completely fallen asleep."

Thuram frowned, for he did not remember that this hybrid warrior was a man of grandiloquence. "I understand your eagerness for the revenge. But a revenge carried out by someone who's not qualified is nothing less than suicide." As he said this, he turned to look at the silent woman. "Even though the Osha clan owns a Divine Lady, it won't narrow the gap between your clan and the Iron Whip Clan. Moreover, since most of the exiles of that year had already died, what difference can you make with just the two of you?"

"That's why I have come to you, Thuram," Iron Axe said. The words he said seemed very natural to himself but made Thuram's heart thud. Iron Axe continued, "Your clan is still located in this oasis, am I right? Eight years ago, it was a challenger, just like Osha clan, and should have had a chance to control part of Iron Sand City but ended up being a watchdog, and later... It became less than a watchdog. Seeing your clansmen reduced to being slaves of other clans, didn't you feel remorseful? Now we offer you a chance to, once again, touch the wall of Iron Sand City if you pledge your loyalty to Lady Drow Silvermoon."

Thuram was stunned for a moment before he burst into laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha ha..."

It was indeed a rare joke since there was nothing more interesting than seeing a mad avenger destroy himself, but Thuram did not expect that this man was trying to divert the joke to him.

"So you want to make this little girl the new chief of a clan before initiating a holy duel? Even her father is not above me, and now you want me to serve her? Perhaps you can find some good helpers who will be able to do some tricks in the duel, but what can I benefit from this? Call my slave clansmen to fight against the watchdogs till they are left with a mass of injuries, and then warmly send you to Iron Sand City?"

Thuram's tone turned a bit hideous on the final words. "Tell me, Iron Axe, what benefits can you offer me so that I won't tell the Iron Whip clan the whereabouts of this Miss Drow Silvermoon in exchange for a generous reward? I guess they'll be very interested in torturing a Divine Lady of their former enemy."

Chapter 745 - Furious Thunder

Iron Axe didn't fly into a rage as had been expected, he didn't even have a change in facial expression, which surprised Thuram slightly. Thuram remembered that in the past, this mixed-blood would never allow anyone to threaten the princess of Osha, not even verbally.

He couldn't help but look over at Drow Silvermoon, only to find the Divine Lady had no reaction either. It appeared as if she did not care about her own safety at all.

What were they thinking?

Thuram felt for the God's Stone of Retaliation in his pocket, his fierce expression frozen on his face.

"In fact, I'd never rest our hope on you to defeat the watchdogs. Since you didn't do it eight years ago, I know you don't have the guts... At least you're not as brave as you claim," Iron Axe slowly said, "I'm not returning only for revenge."

His first half of his words stung Thuram to his core, but the second half slightly shocked him.

"Not just for revenge?"

"I'm going to challenge the six clans to make Osha the strongest clan." Iron Axe said word by word.

Although the clans in Iron Sand City managed the oasis together, they were not considered equal. It was universally acknowledged that the strongest would occupy the best area in the city. If another clan desired that area, they had to challenge the clans that ranked above them. For the Osha clan, which had nothing, it meant they had to defeat all six of the clans to take the core area of Iron Sand City.

Only a crazy person would try to do that.

The path of challenges could not be interrupted once it had started, which meant that they had to win six challenges in succession. Each battle would require a ridiculous amount of physical exertion. This will make people desperate, not to mention their opponents would be first-class Mojin warriors. Generally speaking, it takes clan warriors over six months to recover from a holy duel. If a warrior died a new one had to be re-cultivated or recruited.

Basically, the clans with the most resources have the most solid foundations. Wildflame, the First Clan, had occupied the position for decades.

Avengers varied greatly, so it was hard to classify them.

Some of them hit their mark on the first shot, while others lost everything. It was not unusual to see some of them hesitate or even give up during preparation. So they might be half-dead, the moribund, or dead... Undoubtedly, only a crazy man would belong to the last type.

That left nothing to talk about.

Thuram found that he no longer enjoyed listening to them. They were biting off more than they could chew by attempting to avenge the Ironwhip Clan. Not to mention they were even claiming they would challenge the whole Iron Sand City? Just thinking of it made him anxious. He had no intention of being implicated in the trouble, so he directly shouted, "Boys, catch this guy as well as that woman!"

There were four clansmen standing in the room and two standing outside the door, all of them were holding sharp blades and God's Stones. They already had an advantage in numbers; in addition, Iron Axe and the Divine Lady's weapons had been confiscated before they entered the room. No matter how strong Iron Axe was, it would be impossible for them to escape.

"I should be greatly rewarded for killing the mixed-blood and for giving the descendant of Osha to the Iron Whip clan," he thought. "Maybe I can regain my position as the watchdog for this small oasis."

Just then, the princess of Osha stood up and sneered, while she took off her hood, removing the thin veil that covered her face.

Her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders as her beautiful face was revealed. She was indeed a Divine Lady, but... she was not Drow Silvermoon who Thuram was familiar with.

None of the Sand women would have a snow-white complexion like her.

Her long dark hair spilled down her back like a waterfall and her golden pupils shone with dangerous light.

"Who... are..."

Thuram hadn't even finished his words, while the woman easily dodged a strike from a clansman in front of her and then punched another clansman in his face.

The dark-haired Divine Lady didn't need to use a weapon, her fists were actually more powerful than iron hammers. With a muffled thump, the clansman directly in front of her had been knocked into the air and smashed through the wooden wall, falling from the second floor!

"...you?"

As he finished his query, a second clansman had been hit and also thrown through the wall.

The tavern immediately fell into chaos.

A chilly gust of wind blew in, swaying the flames in the fireplace.

The Divine Lady didn't stop fighting, instead, she moved as if dancing with the wind. Her shadow was amplified by the firelight and it horrified Thuram. "Why? Didn't my clansmen all wear God's Stone of Retaliation?"

He had bought the God's stones from Graycastle with lots of gold royals. Common people deserved to have a chance when fighting the Divine Ladies, but why was she not restrained by the magic stone at all?

The fourth clansman fell to the ground, spitting blood. He had been kicked in the spine by her from behind and almost snapped him in half.

Even a diving Four-winged Eagle couldn't hit more powerfully than that!

No one lasted more than one round. In just a moment, Iron Axe, the Divine Lady, and Thuram were the only ones left standing.

"Damn it, come here quickly, all of you. Someone is causing trouble on the second floor."

"Where's our Head?"

"Why the hell didn't you watch the door?"

"A guest has been smashed to death!"

Rapid footsteps could be heard on the stairs. By the sound of it, many people were coming to the Head's room, unfortunately, the tip of a blade had been placed against Thuram's throat.

"Wait, don't come in, all of you!" He shouted at the door, regardless of the piercing pain where the blade had nicked his skin. A cold sweat oozed from the pores on his forehead.

"Head?"

"Go downstairs! Now!"

Thuram sadly found that Iron Axe had been right, and his courage was indeed less than what he claimed. In the face of a death threat, his first thought was to compromise rather than fight against it. Perhaps, from the beginning, he was never a moribund who had the hope of rising from the ashes like a phoenix. Instead, he was a half-dead who was trapped by his hesitation.

"Now can we talk about it?"Iron Axe said calmly.

"Even if I promised, nothing would change! The watchdogs here are supported by the Iron Whip and Cut Bone clans. You have made such a mess here. Do you think they won't know it? Iron Sand City will hear the news tomorrow!" Thuram growled, "It's impossible to summon the clansmen within such a short time. Besides, most of them have become slaves to other clans. Even if they're willing to come back, they'll be defeated easily by the warriors cultivated by the larger clans. If you don't want to die here, you'd better escape from the oasis now!"

"As I said before, I didn't expect you to defeat the watchdogs."

Thuram grit his teeth and thought, "What does he mean? If he really is so powerful, why doesn't he become a challenger directly? Why does he want my support?"

Unless... Unless the force he gathered hadn't been from the Southernmost Region!

When the realization hit, the old Head felt his heart tremble in horror.

Did they launch the holy duel in the name of another clan?

Suddenly, they heard thunder dully break twice outside the window. It was not very loud and seemed to come from a great distance.

Surprisingly, Thuram did not see any lightning streaking across the sky. Common sense would dictate that lightning should precede thunder.

Suddenly, the expression on Iron Axe's face finally changed.

"Listen, thunder is coming."

Chapter 746 - A Burning Night

The light from the explosion flashed like a firefly in the night.

Van'er raised his telescope and looked toward the oasis.

The burning torches became the best way to find their targets. The torches became more intensive the closer they were to Iron Sand City. Thousands of flashing flames clearly illuminated the camp of Sand Nation, which was the main target of the artillery battalion.

After a while, the sound of a large explosion came from the depths of the oasis.

"The landing locations seem a bit unorganized," muttered Cat's Claw who was also observing.

"That's the best we could do. You know, it's difficult to set the cannon on the sand so we can only use the first shots as tests." Jop replied while loading the shell into the barrel for the next firing.

"Anyway, try to shoot further. If the shell falls on the head of His Excellency Iron Axe, we'll be done for."

"Rest assured. The tavern is far from the camp. If we hit it by mistake, the shooting manuals written by the sages should be rewritten." Rodney tightened the firing rope and shouted, "Ready!"

"Fire!" Van'er nodded.

The two Longsong Cannons fired again with deafening roars. Flames that escaped from the muzzle briefly lit up the ground in front of them and raised enough dust to hit them on their faces, causing the crowd to shut their eyes.

The small oasis was not really a town. It was merely a fortress formed by the clans outside Iron Sand City. None of the houses were made of brick and stone, and most of them were just tents of leather and cloth except some small buildings and watch towers.

Therefore, the damage from the Longsong Cannons was surprisingly good.

Van'er noticed that no matter where the shell landed, the area would be dark for a second but soon light up again. The explosion knocked over tents and torches, and then the oil of torches mixed with other flammable building material, forming more dazzling flames.

This was the first time the artillery battalion of First Army had to use the method of measuring distances and arranging artillery positions according to the firing table. The result could not be described as ideal, but fortunately, the vulnerable and flammable targets made up for this flaw. After several rounds of shooting, the camp of the Sand Nation had been lit into a large fire, while several bright flames were spreading with the help of the roaring evening wind. It was going to ignite the entire oasis. Though he was not experiencing the power of artillery first hand, Van'er could imagine exactly what sort of predicament the so-called watchdogs were now in.

Overwhelming and unavoidable, this was the Lord of War praised by His Majesty.

Praise the cannon!

Praise the large-caliber cannon!

He proudly glanced at the Gun Battalion, lying in ambush, and the machine gun squads on both sides and once again felt fortunate that he had made the right choice.

The future of warfare would be dominated by cannons. As for flintlocks... they would only be suitable for supporting the cannons or clearing the battlefield, but nothing more.

…

It was after quite a while before Thuram recovered from the earth-shattering explosions. Until now, his ears had been buzzing, as if he had been slapped in his face.

Was that the thunder that Iron Axe had mentioned?

After deep thunder and sharp howls, a watch tower not far from the tavern was suddenly engulfed by a fireball and the whole tower split into pieces within seconds. At the same time, the roar of the explosion caused his ears to lose hearing for a moment.

Through the smashed holes in the wall, he saw many tents were ignited by the splashing bonfire and then became even larger bonfires. People screamed and ran out of the fire, rolling, and struggling on the ground in an attempt to quench the flames. Unfortunately, few of them were lucky enough to do that.

Some of the sand people near the watch tower fell down unconscious. They were not fatally injured, but they could never stand up again.

Damn, this was not thunder, but heavenly fire falling into the mortal world!

Only the Heavenly Father could have such a terrible power.

Thuram thought such a violent attack would not last long, but he soon found himself to be wrong.

He heard the sound of thunder every couple of minutes which was then followed by fireballs and explosions. He also noticed that the fireballs were scattered at the very beginning, but soon concentrated on the center of the oasis. That was where the watchdogs lived. Different from the vassal clans, the watchdogs occupied the most fertile land in the oasis.

However, at the moment, it had become a hell.

A fire raged as if the sky was burning.

He looked at Iron Axe differently now.

"By the name of Three Gods... you do not have such strength!" Thuram asked with a husky and trembling voice, "Who did you submit to? Those northerners?"

"A merciful king," Iron Axe replied, "he'll bring order and safety to the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan."

"This is imposs..." He subconsciously wanted to say "impossible", but when he saw the sea of ​​fire spreading throughout the oasis, the last syllable got caught in his throat and could not be uttered.

"Unfortunately, not all people are willing to accept such a system. The oasis feeds the Sand Nation, but at the same time imprisons their thoughts. Killing and framing came from fighting for survival. How ironic that the oasis, that should support life, is soaked with blood. As for the watchdogs, the large clans keep them in power and make our clansmen suffer in sand and drought. I have to say, that's a stupid and short-sighted thing to do."

"If these words were spoken by the northerners, I would not be surprised, but by you, Iron Axe..." Thuram shook his head painfully. "As a mixed-blood grown up in the desert, how can you be so naive? Did you forget that the oasis is limited and can't support the growing population if we don't fight for the territories? Unless Mojins are able to overpower Graycastle, we can't leave the desert. Cooperation and submission will end up in death as the northerners will never really trust us. The fall of the Black Bone and Sandstone Clans is the proof of that!"

In order to receive rich territory, these two clans ,which should have the opportunity to live in Iron Sand City, chose to offer their service to Garcia, Queen of Clearwater. What did they get? It was understood that everyone was fed a strange pill and eventually turned into rotten flesh and the Queen's promise became meaningless.

"Can we never gain real trust?" Iron Axe said with a slight sigh, "I used to think so, but the evidence that I have seen tell me that some people are born to break routine."

Suddenly, Thuram heard a burst of galloping outside the tavern, which became more and more frequent. He knew that the counterattack team of the watchdogs was assembling.

They might lose the courage to fight, but their skills and horsemanship were not lost. As long as any enemies emerged near the oasis, they would go for them like bloodthirsty sandworms. When he was about to remind Iron Axe, he was grabbed by his collar and drawn to the window.

Not far away, he saw more burning torches moving toward the desert outside the oasis.

Apparently, these watchdogs picked up the attackers' scent.

However, both Iron Axe and the dark-haired Divine Lady were at ease. It seemed that they did not care about this cavalry team.

"What did I say before? Not everyone is happy to accept the new order... The watchdogs thought they can stop the thunder," the mixed-blood whispered in his ear as if he was pronouncing his fate, "But whether you accept it or not, the new order will come."

Chapter 747 - The Sniper

The night was not the perfect hour to fight.

The sun and the moon both became invisible during the Months of Demons. Dismal light spilled across the heaving desert, faintly tracing the curve of sand hills. The area which light failed to penetrate was, in contrast, pitch dark.

Given the poor lighting condition, torches became necessities for either attacking or defending.

When glitters of fires emerged here and there in the oasis' direction, Danny polished his clip, slipped it into the loading port and bolted.

"Attention, enemies are coming."

"I saw them."

He first mimicked Malt's voice and then replied to himself.

In this way, he could pretend that Malt was still fighting beside him as his protector, although Malt was no longer a member of the sniper team.

Shortly after Danny had been released from his detention and sent back to the gun battalion, Brian had come to see him and brought him a brand new flintlock.

It was exactly the one he was holding right now.

Although the new flintlock did not look any different from the bolt gun used by the sniper team, he knew at once that it was a masterpiece after weighing it in the hand.

Like longswords that bore a similar looking, some of them were casually forged by blacksmiths just for training purposes; some of them, however, were splendid weapons, whose blade could bite into flesh as easily as cutting through cheese.

The metal part of the barrel gleamed, its surface as smooth as a maid's skin. The joints were all polished like a work of art. The gun was perfectly molded without any prickly feelings.

What surprised Danny most was the monocular telescope on the top. The lens was engraved with two straight, crisscrossed fine lines, the intersection of which exactly aligned with the place where a bullet should land.

Danny did not understand why the distant target, which had been blurry and tiny earlier, became clear and visible instantly when he looked through the telescope. This meant that the shooting range of the gun had, in a way, been extended. During the testing shooting session, Danny had further verified his theory. He had noticed that the new flintlock was much more accurate than an ordinary bolt gun. When there was no or little wind, he could successfully hit the humanoid target 500 meters away with a headshot at an accuracy of 90%.

When he had learned that the weapon had been specially made for him by His Majesty, Danny had almost burst into tears. Despite his misconduct, he was still given high hopes by his Majesty and was even granted the power to freely choose his shooting positions. Danny knew he had nothing to pay back the king for his benevolence but his own life.

When Brian had asked him whether he wanted to select a protector, however, Danny had declined the offer immediately.

He had his own protector already.

It was this gun.

And Malt.

Like his commander had predicted, more firelights emerged and they covered the desert like fallen stars. Before every battle, the superiors would usually disclose the operation intention and operation target to each team in detail so that soldiers would know when they should expect to see the battle end.

For example, the cannon unit would light bonfires at their rampart and fire every seven minutes or so to entice enemies to start counterattacks, for the purpose of bleeding off strength from the watchdog clan and thereby preparing for the general attack at dawn. The lit battlement would attract enemies' attention, whereas controlling the firing rate was to avoid a fierce, swift bombard that tended to directly disperse the roving enemies.

Of course, Danny knew the artillery battalion did not have the capability to control their firing rate.

Soldiers from the artillery battalion had no idea how many resources were available for them. They were all arrogant, incompetent fighters who probably could not even transport basic equipment to the desert had the witch named Hummingbird not helped them. Compared with those useless idiots, soldiers from the gun battalion were much more productive. Each soldier in the gun battalion was responsible for carrying both weapons and ammunition.

There were a dozen carriages in total, over half of which carried cannon and machine gun shells. One wooden box was only able to house two howitzers. If they fought in the same way as they did during the exercise, two Longsong cannons would consume all the ammunition they took with them in an hour. If the ammunition was exhausted, they would have nothing to fire.

Although Danny admitted that the exercise was magnificent, he always thought tons of gold royals were burned each time they fired. Unfortunately, too ignorant and conceited to understand that all the expenses incurred were actually borne by His Majesty's treasury, the soldiers from the artillery battalion simply viewed such remarkable power as their own. If one day His Majesty stopped financially supporting them, these soldiers would be absolutely nothing compared with the gun battalion!

Therefore, the real reason for controlling the firing rate was to reserve some ammunition for future emergencies, rather than avoid the dispersion of enemies. They probably had to wait for another one or two weeks before new recruits provided supplies and new ammunition to the oasis.

When the firelight at the very front was lured into the First Army's ambush, Danny raised his telescope.

"Norther...ly wind, relatively strong. Your target is about 700 meters away."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Danny muttered to himself, his hand on the trigger.

Considering the accuracy would be greatly affected at night, he did not position himself too far away from the battlement. Instead, he decided to shoot across the field. In this way, he would not lose sight of his enemies even if they were charging forward on their warhorses.

The Sand Nation was indeed barbarians good at fighting on horseback. The dispersed firelights had gradually formed a straight line by the time they charged. The patterings of hooves drummed the ground in a chorus and gradually grew faster. Meanwhile, those warriors tossed the torches and drew out their swords. As their swords reflected no light, the roaring battlement of the artillery became the most distinctive landmark Danny could see.

Just then, numerous flickers suddenly appeared at the two sandhills flanking in the shadow.

"Tuk, tuk, tuk..."

The sharp, crisp sound of machine guns mixed with the drumming horse hooves officially marked the commencement of the battle. As there was no field artillery, heavy machine guns became the weapons with the longest shooting range. Bullets streamed out and swept over the charging warriors. The desert instantly began to thunder. Danny could hear people shrieking, cursing and yelling. Shadows seemed to move even faster in the darkness.

Danny paid them no mind.

His eyes were fixed on the enemy at the very front.

"500 meters. I got you."

It was not easy to locate his target at a moonless night. He could barely discern the figure of the charging enemy. However, the battle was not an exercise either. He did not have to shoot his head to score. A shot in any parts of the enemy's body would be enough to take him down. This applied to both the mount and the rider.

Danny pulled the trigger. The barrel slightly trembled. He was exhilarated by the smoke of gunpowder.

Danny did not see where the bullet landed, nor did he notice any spilled blood. The enemy simply died with a quiver and fell off the horse.

"This is my hunting ground," thought Danny. "This is where I should stay."

"Did you just see that, Malt?"

"Don't be distracted. Your next target is coming."

"Ah, place the matter in my hand."

Chapter 748 - A New Osha Clan

As dusk deepened and the darkness seeped through clouds, both parties found it difficult to continue with the battle.

Evidently, once the landing spots of bullets and their targets were indiscernible, the shooting accuracy of the machine gun squad would drop drastically. Although the number of machine guns invested in this operation was not comparable to that in Coldwind Ridge, they could still stop the cavalrymen from charging quite well. When their enemies tossed the torches, there would always be a few dozen people making their way through the barrage fire, howling while dashing toward the artillery and thereby becoming Danny's shooting targets.

On the other hand, the enemies could not tell where their real threats lay. They neither saw their companions shatter under fire nor did they know what weapon exactly stood between the two sand hills on either side.

Without a torch, the cavalrymen behind did not quite know what had truly happened to their companions at the front. They could only hear the roar of cannons not far away and see the flickering lights on the sides. To them, the thundering cannons were apparently more threatening than unmanned sand hills on the sides.

Because of this, the watchdog was not crushed at once but they continuously charged forward like endless foaming tides.

For those seasoned clan warriors, they believed constant slashing and charging was the best way to dismantle enemies' wills and lower their morale. Speed represented power. No slave or mercenary could ever defy their ceaseless attack. They believed once the defensive line, no matter how impregnable it was, was broken through by cavalry, their enemies would soon fall into chaos.

This created a perfect opportunity for Danny to prey.

It was not long before he shot the 20th enemy down.

Meanwhile, Danny also noticed a strange phenomenon: many times he took aim at an enemy at the very front, only to find that his prey had been taken by someone else.

As if someone were competing with him.

It was more than that, however.

What thrilled Danny was that this sniper hiding in the darkness appeared to be an exquisite hunter.

Because all his enemies fell to the same side.

If his competitor was facing enemies like him, the target would fall backward when being shot in the torso. If he hit the mount, then the enemy would be thrown off the horse and fell forward. Danny did not really know the mechanism behind this, but his prediction was mostly accurate.

The fact that the target fell to one side meant that the shooter was close to one of the sand hills and always shot his enemy in the torso rather than his mount.

What does that imply?

It indicated that the hunter could not only capture the darting horserider in the dismal light but could also predict where his target was heading before each firing. As the crisp winds in the desert were always variable and unforeseeable, the fact that the hunter could still maintain such an astonishing accuracy really showed that his shooting was a masterstroke.

Is there really such an excellent sniper in the army?

Is he a member of the precision shooting squad, or a person like him, a soldier from the gun battalion who was picked out by His Majesty and given a new bolt gun?

Danny could barely suppress his excitement. He sped up what he was doing.

He did not want to lose to his rival.

Especially when Malt was looking up to him.

"Only one left on your right hand, 250 meters away from the defensive line."

"He's mine now."

...

The roar of thunders finally died down in the second half of the night, but Thuram did not hear the cheers of returning warriors which he had been anticipating.

Although the watchdog was caught unprepared, based on the number of torches, there were nearly 2,000 summoned warriors who participated in the battle. No matter they had lost or won, he should have heard something back from them by now. Nevertheless, after thundering yells and shouts gradually faded away, the night fell deadly silent, as though the 2,000 people had all been engulfed by a giant monster, both flesh and bones.

Thuram sent all the clansmen who came to rescue to put out the blazes as Iron Axe had instructed. The fires in the oasis were thus gradually quenched.

He was not sure whether he should rejoice or lament.

Watchdogs had never ceased their oppression of his clansmen. Thuram had always dreamed that they would, one day, meet some misfortunes, for example, enraging the big clan in the city or being miserably defeated by some challenger who rose abruptly. He would take delight in any woes that rested upon them.

But he had not expected that this new challenger was Iron Axe.

It seemed that Iron Axe also planned to involve him in this tumult of battle that aimed to select the strongest clan.

Perchance he should persuade Iron Axe to first hold the bloodstained place before considering to take the next step. It was true that the golden-eyed Divine Lady coming with him was powerful, but... the one from Raging Flare clan was not so easy to deal with as well. As Raging Flare clan was the biggest clan among all, they could decide how the duel should take place. If they chose to have a one-on-one hand-to-hand combat, Thuram did not think the Iron Axes' Divine Lady would win.

A holy duel was said to be the most open and fairest competition, it was actually, however, more a competition between the two clans. Each of the clan could not only set up traps for the other prior to the duel, but they could also frame their rivals in the ring as well. Skillful warriors were definitely not a guarantee of an eventual victory. For that, the exile of Osha clan had provided the best example.

What bewildered him the most, nonetheless, was why the King of Graycastle had a sudden interest in the desert.

To northerners, the desert always represented barbarism and primitiveness. Northerners forbade Sand Nation to set foot in their kingdoms. They did not want to meddle in disputes among clans either. Only tradesmen traveled back and forth between the desert and kingdoms, and they usually traded slaves only.

Plus, what did Iron Axe mean by "order and oasis"? It was rumored that only Three Gods Emissary could cultivate an oasis in the desert and stop storms. Another saying was that the Southernmost Region had originally been a verdant land covered with green grass and trees, interspersed with singing brooks. It was the death of the emissary that made the land patched and wasted like the one today. When Three Gods dispatched their new emissary, the Southernmost Region would once again become prosperous. However, it was simply a legend shrouded in mystery. Nobody had ever made this happen; otherwise, Sand Nation would not fight for water and food all the year round.

While he was waiting in anxiety, dawn finally broke in the east with a dagger of daylight streaking the sky.

Then Thuram heard a distant, strange roar of horns. The sound was not as dull and low as the blare of an ox horn, but it was sharper and crisper like a repetitive ticking...

Shortly afterward, a peculiar army emerged at the border of the oasis.

The soldiers lined up horizontally and approached the bloodstained place with an irresistible force. They then started a bitter battle with the watchdog. It might not be that fierce though, for a group of clan warriors, who dashed forward with swords, all fell to the ground after a series of "crack, crack" of lightning. The rest of the warriors dispersed immediately, paying their moaning companions no mind. After the soldiers entered the oasis, they quickly occupied the several watchtowers and encircled the tavern.

When that blue-gray haired, dark-skinned lady came into the room, Thuram knew he had no other choices. Although he had not seen her for seven or eight years, he could still perceive some resemblances between her and her mother.

Thuram went to his knee in front of Drow Silvermoon, his forehead touching the cold floor. He said in a raucous voice, "I swear to Three Gods that my clansmen and I will be at your service. From now on, you'll be the chief of the new Osha clan."

Chapter 749 - Osha's Present

The moment Rubaka Bloodwhip got out of the bed, he heard the news about the change in the ownership of the small oasis in the northwest.

"Really?" His brows furrowed. Although he had also seen glimmers of fires in the oasis, he had not expected Howling clan would be obliterated over one night. He tried to think of a newly established clan that possessed such impressive power but could not name any.

Rubaka patted his concubine lying next to him to usher her out. After the woman wrapped herself up in a blanket and withdrew, he turned to his men and said, "Fill me in."

"Yes, Chief. According to the people who fled from the oasis, it appeared the fire wasn't caused by the challenger lurking there but was actually a fire from heaven induced by the Father God..."

"Nonsense!" Rubaka coughed out a spittle. "Those cravens just blame everything on Three Gods when they come across trouble. I'm going to hang all of them above the gate of Iron Sand City!"

The clansman replied hesitatively, "but... I sent someone to the camps at the small oasis this morning. What they found seemed to be consistent with the description... There're many holes as black as pitch in the ground. Corpses and fragments of building materials are everywhere. It doesn't look like a simple arson."

"Fragments?"

"Yes. Men were torn to pieces as if a huge sandworm or burrow scorpion had plodded on the campground." The clansman was careful to choose his words. "Most people who stayed in the camp died miserably, while those who went to seek pleasure outside fought back. Yet they were vanquished even before they saw their rivals."

"In other words, those fools were ambushed and all ran for life without even approaching their enemies? So what now? Haven't they even figured out which clan took the small oasis?" Rubaka started to suspect whether he had been too generous to the watchdog. He had made a great effort in persuading them to work for him, but their performance was indeed disappointing. Could it be possible that they had lived too comfortably for so long that meat and mead had made them more drunken and lecherous than he desired them to be?

"My men are investigating and we should soon receive some information from them." The clansman hesitated for a moment and then said, "I heard some refugees say that they've seen many northerners."

"Northerners..."

Hearing this, Rubaka began to take this matter seriously.

He walked to the window, naked, and looked in the northwestern direction. The fires had been extinguished long before. He could only see tendrils of dark smoke rise into the air at a distance.

Although Howling clan was drawn over to his side and served as his watchdog through the joint effort of both Ironwhip and Bonegrinding clans, he did not care much about their survival. After Rubaka settled down in Iron Sand City, he came to understand that the challenger system was actually more a safeguard established by the six clans than a qualification test.

A holy duel was simply a small fight, whereas battles provoked by challengers for the ownership of the small oasis could be considered as a full-fledged war. It was common for two small clans to drown each other in blood, for the oasis was a fat piece of meat that every clan who wished to strengthen their power drooled for, even if they did not plan to set foot in Iron Sand City. No matter which party eventually won, the victory usually cost dear and both parties would need a considerably long time to recover.

During the time when challengers were recuperating, big clans could easily convince those small clans to work for them as watchdogs through either bribing or duress. It was particularly easy to persuade those who believed that the compromising was just temporary and that they would sooner or later challenge the big clan to another duel. Practically, in the end, none of them managed to toll the holy bell of Iron Sand City.

Because by that time, new challengers would emerge and struck out the old watchdog.

In this way, big clans were able to remain in a relatively secure position without being consumed by the war.

Now, since Ironwhip had risen to the fourth place on the ranking, it was unlikely that challengers would seek him as their rival even if they planned to start an immediate duel. That was why the change of the ownership of the small oasis had not really alarmed him.

But the appearance of northerners had changed the whole story.

Queen of Clearwater, for instance, had created quite a big commotion in Iron Sand City. In fact, many people yearned for the evergreen land in the north and were even willing to reduce to slaves or sellswords to live there. The departure of two potential challengers had once left the small oasis unmanned and thus attracted many people who wanted to rule this land to start Divine Challenges. It was the chaos created by this temporary disorder that made Rubaka's clan the fourth biggest one.

What game are they playing this time?

"Keep an eye on those people and let me know what's exactly happened." Rubaka turned around and instructed his clansman. "Which city are those northerners from? How many of them? What weapon do they carry? What do they want? I want to know all of these!"

"Yes, Chief!"

Perhaps it was time for him to discuss the matter with the other big clans.

The rule in the Southernmost Region was that no outsiders should meddle in their affairs!

…

Nonetheless, Rubaka Bloodwhip received a piece of incredible news in the afternoon.

"What did you say? Osha clan?"

"That's what they say. The banners in the oasis have all been replaced with ones with the sigil of Osha clan. I also saw Princess Osha who was traded as a slave. She's now a Divine Lady and is calling on her clansmen. There're a lot of people responding to her call!"

How… can this be possible?

Rubaka was not ignorant of the kingdoms in the north. A Divine Lady was viewed as a representation of evil in Graycastle. Their social status was even lower than that of a slave girl in Sand Nation, not to mention a Divine Lady slave. He wondered how she won the support from northerners and returned to the Southernmost Region to exact her revenge along with her northern followers?

Rubaka smelled sheer folly but was also a little rattled by the news.

Mojins had been forced to confine their activities to the desert up until now not because they preferred the desert as their dwellings, but because they did not have the capability to confront Graycastle. If Osha clan supported by northerners planned to wage a war against Iron Sand City, all the clans would come together to fight back. If they, however, only intended to weed him out, would the other clans help Ironwhip?

The answer was there.

Damn!

Rubaka smashed the wine glass to the ground and stomped on it. It instantly broke to pieces.

"If you want to avenge your father's death through a holy duel, then I'm right here waiting for you!" Rubaka said within himself insolently. "Northerners may have finer weapons and they might outnumber us, but when it comes to a duel, Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan are the most valiant warriors! I'll let you know the taste of despair!"

Just at that moment, another clansman entered the hall. "Chief, Osha clan has sent a present to us."

"What?" Rubaka felt his temples throbbing. "A present?"

"Yes. It's right in the yard."

"Take me there." He ground his teeth.

…

It was a huge wooden box, as tall as a grown person, its width half of its height. The box, which was assembled by a few ordinary planks, with an iron nail staked at each corner, looked nothing unusual from the outside.

"Where's the courier?" Rubaka asked.

"Already gone."

"How many of them?"

"Well... only one."

"Only one?" He raised his brows and kicked the box. The box rolled over on the ground, producing loud clanks and clinks. Obviously, there was something in it. Yet based on the weight of the box, the stuff seemed to be pretty light as though the box were hollow.

Rubaka wondered if there were torn limbs and flesh, or human skins in it. Apart from a bluff, he could not think of anything else.

Rubaka commanded coolly, "Take it to Stone Castle. Let's see what game they're playing."

Chapter 750 - An Unexpected Thunder

After his men opened the wooden box, he saw the "present" in it.

It was a coffin.

A finely crafted coffin.

The coffin was hemmed with luxurious gold foil, decorated with beautiful lacquer paintings. The pattern on the coffin's lid was a black short whip, which was exactly Iron Whip clan's sigil.

Rubaka Bloodwhip stiffened before breaking into a half-sneering smile

"That's it? I thought they would give me something scarier than this." He shook his head. "I was expecting a head, ears or a man's skins... which is how Iron Sand City normally handles this kind of matter. A coffin? The Southernmost Region doesn't need such a frivolous thing!"

The dead here would all be dumped in the desert, buried in scorching sands and eventually reduce to skeletons. No matter how prominent and distinguished he once had been, death made them all equal.

Only people from the north needed those awkward wooden cases.

They seemed to like locking themselves up in this cage of eternity after their deaths.

"The whore of Osha thought this would frighten me?" Rubaka breathed heavily. "Perchance she's forgotten how a Sand Nation usually makes threats after being a slave in Graycastle for so long."

Nonetheless, the humiliation made Rubaka's blood all rush to his head.

"Get me the ax!" he yelled.

Soon a clansman entered with a huge cast-iron ax on his shoulder. The hilt of the ax was nearly of a man's height, its glinty black blade as big as a man's skull. Although Rubaka was the chief of Iron Whip clan, his favorite weapon was this giant, heavy battle ax. It worked perfectly for slaughtering desert beasts and beheading his challengers.

Nothing could possibly compete with the absolute power of this ax. Once being hit, the person would die instantly at a single blow even if he was wearing an armor which northerners typically wore.

The ax had also tasted the blood of Osha clan, including women's and children's.

Rubaka had forgotten to tell Drow Silvermoon that those exiles did not make their trip to Endless Cape because he had taken a detour aforetime and arrived there ahead of them. They had all been slashed in the desert.

He did not fear retribution but simply enjoyed killing.

A coffin?

Get lost.

Rubaka coughed out a spittle and howled. He held up the battle ax, aimed at the coffin lid patterned with the iron whip and then gave it a full swing...

"Crack!"

A number of sparks flew off the blade as if it had hit something hard like iron or stones.

The coffin did not split in half as he had anticipated. From the vibration of the hilt, Rubaka knew the pretty wooden case was actually stuffed with items rather than being empty!

But it was too late.

Following the sparks, a streak of dazzling light came out of the coffin and soon lit up the entire hall. The lit area expanded immediately as the light spread and flared out.

Rubaka, however, did not see any of these.

When the light flitted across him, his eyes and tongue were torn to bits by the strength of rapidly expanded airwaves. Subsequently, his head, limbs and inner organs were all torn apart...

All the residents in Iron Sand City witnessed an incredible scene when they heard a ground-shaking bang.

Flames and smoke escaped from the bottom of the stonewatch of Rising Sun like raging underground fire; the garden wall was practically wiped out by a giant visible hand. The whole stone castle sprang up abruptly before it collapsed in the heavy smoke.

First, the wall sank, followed by the pillars and the roof. As more stones fell off, more smoke erupted from the ground. In the end, a column of smoke rose out of the crumpled stone castle, soared into the clouds, and then finally blended with the overcast sky.

"A Tower of Babel" seemed to be suddenly erected in Iron Sand City

...

Thuram in Oasis Tavern also witnessed the explosion. He did not understand what the story Iron Axe had told him earlier exactly referred to until a moment ago.

The coffin filled with snow powder, the weight reduced by the Divine Lady, the flint closely attached to the lid and the lanyard connected to the ceiling... All of these would trigger a roar of thunders no matter how the coffin was opened. Whether by force or through a regular procedure, the explosion was inevitable. Although he had no knowledge of snow powder or lanyards, he understood what a thunderbolt was.

Thuram could imagine how frightful this unexpected thunder was, for the blast, although distant, could be heard somewhere several miles away, and the column of smoke could be even detected at the bloodstained place.

If the coffin was truly the cause of such a horrific scene in Iron Sand City, it was very likely that the chief of Iron Whip clan had already died.

The only thing that Thuram had failed to predict was that Iron Axe actually took action on Iron Whip clan, the fourth strongest clan, prior to the duel, not to mention the vengeance was inflicted in such a blatant way.

"You..." He stared at Iron Axe, who remained unperturbed, in astonishment, failing to articulate his sentence.

Iron Axe explained nonchalantly, "Rubaka Bloodwhip profaned the holy duel back then. He also failed Three Gods' expectation. How can I have a fair fight with a guy who has been disqualified at the Land of Fire? Rubaka and his clan are all cowards. I've never treated them as my rivals since the beginning."

"But... Ironwhip is essentially a big clan..."

Iron Axe shook his head. "That's exactly why I let them die in this way rather than allow them to die with honor in a ring. Plus, Osha clan won't violate Three Gods' rules. Once our rivals yield, we'll lay down our weapons and exempt them from death." He paused for a second and then said, "Think about it. Were you the chief of Ironwhip, what would you do when you're informed that Osha clan has come back?"

Thuram instantly understood what Iron Axe meant.

It was true that a person who had once broken the rule was very likely to commit wrongdoings again. A person who disobeyed Three Gods' rules would cause incessant trouble. Even if he attempted to reverse his defeat eight years ago through a holy duel, he would probably keep harassing and framing his rivals before and after the fight. It would be better to completely destroy him than constantly having your eyes peeled.

"But... if Rubaka didn't open the coffin or destroy it, your plan would have failed." Thuram blurted out his last question.

"The chief of Ironwhip is, in nature, aggressive and savage. He liked to destroy and slaughter. It's as easy to read his mind as to read a monkey's." Iron Axes curled up his lips into a smile. "Plus, the coffin full of snow powder was just the very beginning of my plan, an appetizer, so to speak. Even if Rubaka luckily survived, there was much more awaiting him... Now it seems that Three Gods won't protect a traitor."

Thuram shuddered at these words.

He had sworn to Three Gods when he had pledged fealty to Drow Silvermoon and the new Osha clan.

Iron Axe's last sentence was also a warning to him.

"Now we can crack into the business." The mixed-blood patted Thuram on his shoulder, utterly unabashed. "The reason I've picked you is that you know everything about Iron Sand City. People in the oasis told me that there's nothing about the desert that you don't know."

"It's simply because I've been living here for a long time and heard a lot of stories." After witnessing how the watchdog had been defeated overnight and how the explosion had brought upon Iron Whip clan a swift destruction, Thuram showed more respect to Iron Axe, Princess Osha and Graycastle that supported them. "I'll tell you everything that I know in detail."

Iron Axe inclined his head. "Very good. If you want to win the holy duel, you have to first thoroughly investigate your rivals... Let's begin with warriors from various clans and their Divine Ladies."

Chapter 751 - [Devourer] Fran

...

"Currently, the plan for taking the Southernmost Region is going smoothly. The Iron Whip clan has fallen. Echo entrusted me to send her gratitude to you."

"It takes some time to prepare for a holy duel, and I expect that the clans in the Iron Sand City will head for the Land of Fire in a week."

"During the interim, I've hired some clansmen to mark the location of the underground Styx River. I believe we'll soon find a Blackwater River relatively close to the coast."

"In addition, Your Majesty, how are you going to deal with the Divine Lady of the clan?"

"With my great respect, Iron Axe."

"Your Majesty, this is the message we received from the Southernmost Region."

The Sigil of Listening flashed slightly, emitting a red light. Countess Spear paused after reporting, apparently waiting for Roland's reply.

Then Nightingale handed another Sigil over to Roland.

She placed the Sigil next to her slim legs on the table where she was seated and Roland couldn't tell whether she did it on purpose or not. Even though it was not summer, she was still wearing a pair of skinny pants that accentuated her perfect figure. Roland would have to get close to her legs if he wanted to talk into the Sigil.

For Roland, this was a dilemma.

He did not know whether to gaze directly at her legs or glance at them casually.

"Ahem, well done... I mean, Iron Axe."

"Your Majesty, are you all right?" the Countess inquired. "Your voice is husky. Please, keep warm this winter. You aren't as strong as witches."

"I'm fine," Roland said as he cleared his throat. "Tell Iron Axe to go forward with the plan if the situation is close to what we expected. As for the Divine Lady, he can endeavor to persuade her to come to Neverwinter. But, if she's unwilling to leave the Southernmost Region, there's no need to push her."

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. I'll let you know if I have other requirements."

"I see, then I'll take my leave, Your Majesty."

The red light from the Sigil went out.

Roland raised his head and exhaled gently.

Why was he feeling like he had lost something?

Nightingale smiled as she put away the Sigil before slipping off the table and returning to the lounge chair where she could continue to read the picture-story book, "The Witches' Story," while she chewed on dried fish.

Roland curled his upper lip and started to concentrate on the real business at hand. They had applied all of the Sigils of Listening in the Desert Mission. The Countess Spear Passi of Fallen Dragon Ridge is transferring the messages to enable them to reach an instant contact between Neverwinter and the advance troops—although calling was still somewhat inconvenient, it was much faster than the traditional way of delivering a message that would cost them a dozen days as well as a carrier pigeon which, though having saved them a lot of time, still took several days.

He finally felt he would be able to get an overview of the situation without going out of his territory.

Unfortunately, a Sigil of Listening would only work if a witch provided the power. Which meant, at least two Sigils and two witches are necessary for a conversation to transpire, meaning that it would never replace the current communication tools used by common people.

Currently, the laying of the first telephone line in the Western Region was underway. It would directly connect the castle office to the City Hall of the Longsong Area. Meanwhile, the second and third lines were also being planned, which, as expected, would connect the City Halls in both areas so that any commands could be passed with just one call in the future.

Erecting electrical poles was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and furthermore, even the finished poles were vulnerable to the snow and ice. Considering this, Roland decided to do it in a convenient and safe way by setting the cable along the mountains and burying them in the ground through Lotus' ability.

Once the mountain defenses have been established, inevitably the lines would need to increase in order to connect with his office. However, by that time there would be a 10 hand-operated system in place.

Aside from that, Roland was also concerned about the relocation of the ancient Taquila witches.

Maggie and Lightning had taken on the role of patrol. They increased their scope of investigation to 30 miles north of the mountains. This way they could signal an early warning in the case of a large-scale demonic beast attack.

After all, the relic of deities that was liable to determine the life and death of the Taquila group deserved to be handled with care.

He had talked with Pasha many times over the past two weeks.

Their idea was very simple. They decided to let the worm carrier open up a mountain channel leading to the Western Region first, and then choose a place where the rock formation was stable and had fewer forked roads and there they would build a palace. After that, the ancient witches would gradually move carriers, materials, and shells for the God's Punishment Army to their new dwelling before transporting the Instrument of Divine Retribution and the relic of gods.

So far Fran had the best experience relocating, or perhaps Roland should call her... a devouring worm.

Roland was unexpectedly shocked when he saw her squirm her chubby body so she could squeeze before the phantom instrument to express her gratitude to him, mouth gaping.

Later, he learned from Pasha that witches who integrated into carriers would no longer be able to be stored in God's Punishment Warriors. Both, their perceptions and consciousnesses, were consolidated within the new bodies. The advantage was that the carriers could be used in a rush, but once their current bodies were damaged, they wouldn't have any other alternative carriers.

Indeed, if witches did not use this method of bonding, they would not be able to manipulate the body even with a lifetime of practice—how would a person, accustomed to using fingers and limbs, learn to manipulate countless tentacles or a body that had to inch along like a worm? On the contrary, once they had adapted to their peculiar carriers, it was unlikely for them to return to their previous way of life.

When Fran was not in use, ancient witches had to put her soul back to the soul container where she would fall asleep forever, for the devouring worm must consume a large amount of food to keep alive. Certainly, it was not a good experience for Fran at all. In a sense, she sacrificed her future for the continuation of the Taquila group, and she had paid a higher price than Pasha and Alethea who had transformed into the original carriers.

At least the latter could always watch the world and feel the changes happening in the outside world.

So, her gratitude to Roland was palpable.

Another key point that made her feel so grateful was that Roland boasted that there would be ongoing work in Neverwinter waiting for Fran. That meant he would be offering her enough food to keep her energetic. Fortunately, the worm was omnivorous and could accept both cereal and meat.

"I want to eat hot and seasoned meat porridge, as well as a whole veal with its skin roasted to be greasy!"

As Fran said that, her mouth began to water.

Although the worm's appearance was a bit ugly, they, like the blob, could sense their external environment in a unique way, which included taste, pain, and temperature.

Roland accepted her gratitude in his heart with both laughter and tears.

It seemed that no matter the world, the construction industry would always be a huge behemoth that devoured gold.

Incidentally, he also asked Pasha what the original and central carrier ate to sustain life. Her answer was mud and high temperatures—which was why they liked to stay in magma.

The answer relieved Roland slightly, This meant he wouldn't have to be responsible for supplying food to those who were nearly immortal. Presumably, the blob was more like a plant in the way it gathered energy when compared to the devouring worms.

Just as he considered how to plan the mountain defense so the underground military facilities would have an effective connection with the current byroads or even the palace of the ancient witches, there was suddenly the sound of an explosion coming from outside the window.

Roland turned and looked out the French window in surprise. He saw black smoke, mixed with some looming flames, rising from the corner of town, where the school would be located.

"Nightingale!"

"I'll make Sylvie and Phyllis go and take a look. Your Majesty, please don't leave the office. I'll be right back!" As Nightingale said this, she entered her Mist and disappeared completely.

Chapter 752 - Detective Group, Another Strike!

"Lily, Lily, have you heard?" Mystery Moon rushed into the bedroom and leaned over to put her face close to Lily's. "Something happened in the school district!"

"Stand away. You're blocking my light." Lily pushed Mystery Moon's face away and continued to adjust the focal length of her microscope, but she sighed inwardly, thinking that her duplicate test today was going to be chucked out again.

"It's said that there was an explosion as well as a big fire. Who do you think was responsible for that? The church or the demons?"

"The church has been defeated by His Majesty, and the demons are thousands of kilometers away from us!" Lily glanced up at her impatiently. "I suppose it was some idiots who stole the waste of the chemical lab and brought it into the classroom."

Similar things happened before. Such as the accident two weeks ago, when a researcher had brought the failed gun cotton back to his home and wanted to use it as a kindling for his stove. As a result, it was ignited by his child accidentally and nearly burned the house to the ground. Hearing about this accident, His Majesty blew up, scolding the person responsible in a voice so loud that it echoed throughout the whole castle.

After that, the regulations in the chemical lab were strengthened a lot. Lily had seen the new rules from Scroll. It turned from a thin piece of parchment into a book that was as thick as adult's forefinger.

"But this time there's an explosion. How can you be so indifferent to what happens in Neverwinter? This is our home!" Mystery Moon said eloquently.

"Stop bluffing. You are just too curious to wait for the answer!"

Lily was a little angry. "That's why we should leave it to some more professional people. By the way, what I'm doing is also for the development of Neverwinter!" She paused. "Yet, all you've been doing is interfering with my experiment and idling about all the time!"

"Oh?" Mystery Moon revealed a strange smile. "Then what have you achieved so far?"

"Er..." Lily suddenly felt short of breath.

"None, right? You've been staring at that microscope for more than a year and yet you've done nothing helpful for His Majesty, while my electromagnetic power has brought light to His Majesty so that the people could even continue their work at night," Mystery Moon said, having her nose high in the air. "Oh... but I, as always, don't dislike you, my old friend. To find out the truth of the problem, is also to do His Majesty a favor."

"Please dislike me," Lily replied spitefully.

She still did not know why she still was still failing to transform the parent population into some specific types of tiny worms. She had already managed to control the shape of parent worms and make them as accurate as possible to the goal worm she wanted the parent worm to assimilate, but she still failed.

The young girl faintly felt there must be something missing between them, but she could not find any particular clues. So, other than healing some cold plagues, she had spent most of her time at the microscope after her ability had evolved. The fact that she could neither promote productivity in Neverwinter like Anna and Soraya nor bring joy to everyone like Evelyn still rankled in her mind.

Lily did enjoy observing the complex world that could not be seen with naked eyes, but... she also did not want to be a freeloader and contribute nothing to His Majesty, though she would never admit it verbally.

Thinking that even the fool, Mystery Moon had surpassed her in achievements, she felt so unpleasant that her heart wrenched.

"No, I won't. I'm sorry... Just take it as keeping my company, Okay?" Seeing that pushing Lily did not work out, Mystery Moon immediately changed her strategy. She recovered her beseeching face and held one of Lily's arms, crying. "It's not harmful to go out and take a walk. You'll be suffocated staying indoors all day!"

Lily found it was hard to turn her down when Mystery Moon acted like that.

She impatiently drew her arm out of Mystery Moon's holding and looked at her, sighing. "I know, but don't make trouble for His Majesty and Sister Nightingale."

"I promise!"

How did she not notice that Mystery Moon would become so clingy after they got familiar with each other?

If she had known it earlier, she would insist on being paired up as roommates with Leaf or Scroll.

"So... are we going there now?" Lily asked.

"Hang on for a while. Some sisters also want to find out the truth. I'll go and get all of them." As Mystery Moon said, she rushed out of the room, and after 15 minutes or so, she came back with several witches. "Now everyone's here. Let's go!" Mystery Moon announced.

Lily gaped at the five witches behind Mystery Moon. "You're going to take so many people there?"

"We also want to be of some help!" Amy raised her hand and replied. She, who bonded fast with others, looked even more sprightly than Mystery Moon.

"If His Majesty permits..." Margie, who was a little timid, expressed her idea.

"And, I..." Vanilla tried to say something. "No need to be curious about why she is here, for she must be forced by Mystery Moon," Lily said in her heart.

"The thing Mystery Moon said is very interesting. I'll go with you." Evelyn gave her reason. "Oh, God, even Evelyn is here... Doesn't she have to make wine today?" Lily could not help thinking.

"I suppose I'll just do it in the same way as last time, when we read the test papers in secret. I won't do my power with someone else staring at me." Summer said at last. She looked rather nervous, but more itching than last time.

"Doomed, these guys are all enchanted by Mystery Moon. But she came to you guys for nothing more than more shoulders to carry the responsibility in case of being blamed by His Majesty."

But Lily felt relieved to see Summer here, for she knew that if Nightingale or the Ministry of Justice did not take Summer with them to the scene, it meant that the accident in the school was not grave, which, as she had surmised, was witnessed by many people and did not cause any dire consequences.

At last, Lily decided to leave it at that and accompany them to hang around.

...

Margie summoned the Magic Ark to carry the party to the school district. Through the ark roof, Lily could clearly see things on the ground, which was a fantastic experience for her. Traveling under the ground gave her a feeling of swimming in the seawater, as if when she looked up, she could see the pure blue, rippling sea surface.

A police cordon had been pulled up around the school and black-uniformed policemen were guarding each crossing. But this symbolic closure meant nothing compared to the Magic Ark, the party passed through the street and the walls and they entered the school.

It was originally a mansion belonging to an aristocrat of Stronghold. After being further expanded by His Majesty, it became the elementary institution of Neverwinter today. However, rather than the houses in the residential district that were made of red brick and cement, most of the rooms here were still made of wood. At this moment, the flame had long been extinguished. Judging from the burned outer wall, they located the place that caught fire on the second floor of the main teaching building, where some wallcoverings had fallen off and the ground was scattered with a pile of glass debris that was probably caused by the explosion.

The party waited for a moment under the ground, making sure that no one walked in the school and that the whole building was empty before letting Margie control the Magic Ark to surface from the ground near the school building.

Chapter 753 - The Truth Reappears

They sneaked into the building and quietly made their way up to the second floor.

The smell of burnt wood was still present in the corridor where books and pieces of paper were scattered around the floor, presumably left behind by the students who left in a panic.

The group of witches followed the smell and soon found the site of the accident: a classroom located at the end of the corridor.

After entering the room, Lily noticed that a corner of the room had been charred black and the entire wall had cracked open. The cracks even reached the floor. However, the fire did not seem to have spread very far. Lily could easily see the marks on the ground that were caused by the changes in the intensity of the flames. The pitch black wood near the source of the fire and the obviously less burnt wood at the outer rims formed a ripple-like pattern on the ground. She knew that this was not a fire that started naturally.

But what Lily was worried about the most were the cracks that snaked down the wall.

They looked almost as if they were the result of ax swings, and the openings seem entirely carbonized. Lily could even feel a faint residual warmth when she touched it with her fingers.

"This must be the place." Mystery Moon walked around the corner and said, "Summer, we'll leave the rest to you."

"Okay... But please stop me if someone were to come," Summer walked into the center of the room and summoned her magic power.

Thanks to them knowing the exact time of the explosion and the fact that only less than a day had passed since the accident, Summer soon found the time right before the accident. As her magic power gushed out, the damaged walls recovered, and order was restored back to the messy room. Many students appeared in the room, some were taking a nap on their desks while some were happily chatting together. There was no teacher on the teaching podium, meaning that this was probably during a lunch break.

Margie and Vanilla, who saw this sight for the first time ever, gasped and could not help exclaiming, but they quickly covered their mouth as were of disturbing Summer. They became quite flustered and almost tripped over as they tried to step back to dodge a "student" who walked over and passed through them like a ghost.

"Don't worry. These are just illusions," Evelyn explained enthusiastically. "Summer can create flashbacks of scenes that have already happened."

"What... a great ability!" Amy praised with admiration. She wasn't scared at all even though it was also her first time experiencing Summer's flashback creating ability.

"Haha... it's actually no big deal." Summer touched her head bashfully. "My ability is nothing compared to Sister Nightingale's."

"Nightingale? Do you mean the blonde sister who always follows His Majesty around and barely shows up?"

"Yeah, she's the most powerful witch in the Western Region, or maybe in the entire kingdom!"

"Awesome!" Amy said with sparkling eyes.

"Wait," Mystery Moon suddenly interrupted them. "Look!"

Lily frowned. "This is..."

"Bullying?" Evelyn whispered.

They saw five or six ten-year-old kids corner two girls, arguing fiercely. Each of the two girls reacted in completely different ways: one stood in the front, reaching out her hands to block the other kids away from the other girl, while the other was cowering behind her with a frightened look.

As the universal primary classes did not set a school age, the oldest student in the bully group looked like to be 15 or 16 years old, taller and stronger than the two girls combined. However, the short-haired girl was not intimidated by the other side's numbers or size and just stood on bravely.

The witches could conclude from lip-reading that they were quarreling about where they came from... insults such as "go back to the Eastern Region," and "dogs of the rebel king" were being thrown around.

Soon, they started to push at each other. The tallest kid struck first, intending to push the girl down to the ground, but as soon as he grabbed the girl's shoulder with his hands, his knee was kicked by the girl and he fell hard on the ground.

The situation in the classroom immediately turned awry.

The short-haired girl slipped out of the encirclement as agile as a slippery loach, and aimed another kick towards a fatty, drawing all the attention to herself.

At this moment, everyone stopped caring about the currently weeping girl. They all sprang together towards the short-haired girl, who, cunningly, used the other students in the classroom as cover to dodge the attacks. Her small figure helped her to accurately kick the pursuers' knees or ankles, making them hunch over in pain.

"What a ferocious little devil!" Mystery Moon was astonished.

"Come on. Knock them down!" Amy could not help clenching her fist as if she was actually at the scene.

"But... she doesn't have enough strength," Vanilla said with concern. "And continuing to attack the same places will do her no good, since it won't work a second time."

"Oh? How did you know that?" Mystery Moon looked at her in surprise.

"S-Sorry, I just used to..."

"The Church taught you that, right?" Evelyn comforted Vanilla. "That's okay. You've passed His Majesty's examination and proved that you're different from the evil Pure Witches."

Lily frowned without a word. She agreed with Vanilla. Although the students who had been kicked down looked flustered, they were able to struggle onto their feet after some time and continued to chase the girl. This time, they were more cautious and guarded their legs so that the girl had less of a chance to hit them.

Suddenly, the tallest kid lifted a chair and moved to strike her from behind with it while her attention was distracted by two other kids.

"Watch out!" Amy shouted.

But a warning shouted at someone who was in the illusion was meaningless, as the illusion only recorded what had already happened.

The chair leg hit the girl's head hard and knocked her down. However, at the moment she fell, the girl managed to roll out and away from the attacks from the two other opponents in front of her and squatted on the floor with her hands on her head and her teeth clenched tight.

The blood had stained her fingertips.

The blood slowly trickled down past her ear, and dyed her face red.

The tallest kid was a little stunned by the fact that the girl was able to take the strong blow. He hesitated for a while before tossing the chair away and then walked up to her.

At that moment when everyone thought that she was done for, her face suddenly twisted into an anguished look as she opened her mouth to shout out loudly. Although the witches could not hear her voice, they were able to gauge the pain she was in from her look, which she did not even display when her head was hit by the chair.

Then a bolt of lightning burst out from her fingertips and were soon followed by a second, a third... The lighting spread along the floor, leaving behind twisted orange-red trails, and as soon as it touched the window, it turned into a sudden burst of light.

In a split second, a blinding explosion occurred and a loud bang sounded. The window shattered, and a large hole was blown through the wall. Everyone panicked and ran away, leaving behind the short-haired girl shrouded in lightning.

Chapter 754 - The Master of Worms

"This is... an awakening?" Evelyn said in surprise.

"Most likely." Lily nodded. The pain from the first awakening was far more painful than the gash on her head due to the magic power gathered in her body and it felt like a bite. Many witches would unconsciously exert their power at that moment, which would most likely expose themselves. If it was two or three years ago, those who awakened openly would almost certainly be doomed.

Soon the lightning vanished, but it had ignited the floor and outer wall of the classroom, leaving an orange-red trail of fire along with clouds of smoke.

The short-haired girl struggled to return to her stunned friend, shouted, and grabbed her hand to drag her out of the danger area.

Lily raised her eyebrow in appreciation. It was known that the first bite had a good chance of not being fatal, but it was a feeling that a witch had never experienced before. Usually, after the bite, a witch would be weak and sweaty. It was very rare for a teenage girl to be able to control her body under such conditions, let alone, remember to come back for her companion behind her.

Since the fire triggered by the lightning was very small, the flames did not spread very fast. By the time the second half of the classroom was enveloped in flames, all the people had escaped from the teaching building.

Seeing the truth of what had happened, Summer ended the flashbacks.

"Good, we have a new sister." Lily raised the corner of her lip. She could foresee that, regardless of her ability, the girl would be a rather good witch, at least, with respect to her bravery and her will. This girl gave Lily a feeling that not every witch would be as bad as Mystery Moon.

She deliberately turned to glance at Mystery Moon who, against her expectations, stood there shocked, without giving any visual clue that she was paying attention to what was being said.

Ugh. What's wrong with this fool again?

"We have to tell Sister Wendy immediately!" Amy suggested. "There's a new witch in Neverwinter!"

"Agreed." Evelyn nodded. "Let's go to the castle now."

"Wendy probably already knew," thought Lily and shrugged, but she did not speak her thoughts out loud. She had intended to return her bedroom to continue her observation of the tiny worms after the incident and the castle was on the way back.

"Mystery Moon?" When they were about to walk toward the castle, they noticed that Mystery Moon was still riveted to the floor.

"Ah... I'm coming." She shook her head clear of any distractions and went to keep pace with the others.

"Are you alright?" Evelyn asked as she touched Mystery Moon's head.

"I'm fine..." Mystery Moon replied under her breath, looking quite different from the excited version of her when she first arrived.

"Such an odd girl." Lily could not help thinking.

Lily twitched her mouth and then took Mystery Moon's hand through which she injected a magic parent worm into her body. "Although the fool should not be infected with a cold, what if she was?"

They traveled back to the Witch Building via the Magic Ark and immediately reported to an angry Wendy, who, as they had expected, scolded them.

"There was no need for you girls to investigate the matter. Sylvie noticed the magic reaction in school when she was in the castle and has since learned everything after questioning the people there." Wendy knocked every witch's forehead with her hand. "Sneaking through the police perimeter and entering a potentially dangerous place, you are spending too much time with Lightning. Do you want to be confined to the classroom and take three practice tests like her?"

Everyone's faces changed as they heard Wendy's words. They shook their heads immediately.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Evelyn suddenly clapped her hands and said, "I have to check the tavern's stock before dinner."

"I also have a problem to consult Isabella about." Margie bowed deeply. "I'll leave first."

"Me too." Vanilla hurriedly followed her out.

"Eh?" Amy stayed for a while, still failing to come up with a reasonable excuse and ended up being dragged out of the office by Summer.

Lily sighed at the sight. "Do you really think you could escape from punishment if Wendy really intended to penalize you? It's not even a bad thing to spend a night finishing three practice tests to review what we have learned."

After Lily pushed Mystery Moon's head forward so they could apologize with a bow, they left for their bedroom.

"Now can you can tell me what happened?" After the door of their bedroom was closed, Lily rolled her eyes at her roommate who looked very sad. "Are you acting like that to gain my sympathy?"

"Lily..." Mystery Moon sniffed. "The new witch can let out electricity!"

"What is the issue then?"

"Electricity is magnetism and magnetism is electricity. In other words... I can be her and she can be me," she said worriedly. "What if her power is stronger than mine and His Majesty no longer needs me?"

"Pfft." Lily almost choked on her saliva. "Why would you say that? Even if both of you have the same ability, His Majesty will never deliberately kick someone to the side to be unused."

"But he'll always compare..."

"But you are never the same..." As Lily said that, she was suddenly stunned, "Never... the same?" The words resounded in her mind. Then she asked, "Wait, what did you say before?"

"Electricity is magnetism?"

"After that."

"Uh... she can be me."

"That's it!" Lily felt a lightbulb turn on in her head as a new idea emerged in her mind. No longer caring about Mystery Moon, she ran to the desk, picked up a drop of water from a cup, laid it under the microscope, and started to adjust the focal length intently.

"What do you mean by that?" Mystery Moon protested. "Hey, can't you comfort me for a little longer?"

"Leave me alone!" Lily waved. "If you don't want to be overlooked, start to study more attentively from now on. By doing so, you may have some hope."

There was always a difference when comparing things. She had drawn and compared many pictures for her target worms and created parent worms based on the pictures and compared the results. However, no matter how hard she had tried, she had still failed to create a replica of the target worm. This was because she could never draw out every detail of a target worm based on her observation. Once the microscope was adjusted or a target worm moved, she would get a very different picture. A parent worm created by her based on this kind of observation would never be exactly the same as the original.

If she wanted to turn a parent worm into a particular worm, the two should first become the same thing.

Lily soon set a goal. A transparent worm looked like a rotten grape. They were very common in water and were often chosen as her test subjects.

She gently touched the slide and summoned a magic parent worm that was invisible to the naked eye. She first restrained the parent worm's urge to assimilate the worms around it and then slowly moved its tentacles toward the transparent worm. When the two worms stuck together, the parent worm started penetrating into the target worm until its whole body turned a light purple.

Now the parent worm was the target worm and the target worm was the parent worm.

When she let go of the restriction on the parent worm's assimilation power, for the first time, she saw the parent worm did not return to its original state as it usually did. Instead, it swam in the form of the transparent worm. As time went on, the worms around it were all transformed into transparent worms as well and soon enough, the transformation spread throughout the entire droplet.

Seven or eight minutes later, she could no longer find any other tiny worms except the transparent worms.

Chapter 755 - Crisis Management

Barov and Scroll walked into Roland's office together. "Your Majesty, here's the statistic analysis of the accident."

"Oh? So what exactly happened?" Roland asked with concern.

"Fortunately, no one was killed in the accident. Six students were injured. Three got fractures as they were escaping from the classroom. Two lost their hearing, which should be caused by the deafening explosions and one got severely burnt. All of them were cured by Miss Nana." Roland felt relieved after hearing City Hall Director's report.

Scroll added, "It happened during a lunch break. Hearing the loud noise, the teachers in the office immediately organized the students to evacuate. Ferlin Eltek told them that it was the First Army on maneuver and that the soldiers were simulating a counterattack against enemies attacking the school. He ordered the students to calm down and act in coordination. By doing so, he successfully controlled the panicked students except those in class six. That class witnessed the awakening of the witch and the all the injured students mentioned by Barov were in this class."

Roland praised Ferlin at once. "He's indeed Morning Light. To take advantage of the prestigious First Army as a way to restore the order and calm down the students. What he did significantly reduce the impact of the accident. As long as we take some proper remedial measures afterward, most people won't think that the awakening of a witch may be a dangerous thing."

The newly awakened witch had done her best to control her power, this was to some extent, prevented this accident from turning into a disaster. The loud bang had been caused by electric current striking through the air which formed an electric arc with the metal bolt on the window. Similar to a thunder, it was something very loud but not extremely destructive.

Agatha had quickly come to the school after the accident. Naturally adept at fighting fires, she had frozen the source of the fire in several minutes to save the main teaching building. Despite that, Roland still considered replacing the old teaching buildings with modernized concrete in case similar accidents happened again.

Barov asked, "Your Majesty, what remedial measures are we going to take?"

Roland tapped on his desk and asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

The City Hall chief thought for a moment and answered, "We have to notice two points in this accident. The first one is the reason behind the students' fight. Based on our investigation, this conflict was caused by a quarrel between some kids from the Southern Territory and Eastern Region. They were fighting about whether the Eastern Region was the home of the rebel king, as Valencia was Timothy's domain. This area hasn't surrendered to you, so..." Probably not willing to talk too much about the infighting of the royal family, Barov paused for a moment before he finished his sentence and then continued. "The kids could never know these kinds of things unless their parents were talking about them at home. To avoid such disputes, we'd better punish the parents of those kids and ban any discussion about Timothy."

"Well... you can go ahead with that."

"My second point is how to prevent a witch's awakening from causing harm to the public. My suggestion is that no matter what you decide to do about this accident in the end, we should make it a rule in law to avoid disputes."

Without any comment, Roland gave Barov a meaningful glance, excited about his improvement.

These two years working as the chief of City Hall had indeed opened his eyes and helped him understand things in new ways. Now, he was not the assistant of the Treasurer anymore and was able to dig out the root cause of a fight among students.

However, Roland also noticed some limitations in Barov's thoughts. Times were different now, as a strong central power had started to replace the feudal aristocratic order. With greatly increased power, City Hall had to shoulder greater responsibilities. Writing a decision of the king into the law could not guarantee that everyone would uphold it. Sometimes, when it went against most of the people, making it a law would even sow the seeds of rebellion. This hidden crisis would break out sooner or later and become a thorny problem.

"What do you think?" Roland looked at Scroll.

"Your Majesty, I've some different views. Now that most subjects of Neverwinter are from different places across Graycastle, we're going to see various beliefs among them. If we ban all the disputes they have, the law will become too complex bogging down City Hall management. I suggest we guide them to mediate and to know right from wrong. This approach may work better than the law in preventing this kind of disputes."

Scroll paused to think for a moment and continued, "Regarding the second point mentioned by Barov, I think you should ask Miss Agatha for suggestions, as Taquila must have rich experience in coping with these kinds of accidents caused by the awakening of witches."

Roland picked up his teacup and slowly took a sip.

He agreed with Scroll about guiding public opinion. As compared to a 'one size fits all' solution, namely the law, offering proper guidance to the people was a better choice and at the same time a very feasible plan. Unlike feuds fueled by nationalism in the world he had lived before. The disputes happening between these different regions were much simpler. Having never been infected by any form of nationalist sentiment, the human beings in this world would easily accept the propaganda that all the people in Graycastle and in the other kingdoms were the same. Thinking about this, he decided to deal with the students involved in the fight leniently.

He also planned to write this view into teaching materials to tell all his subjects that all of us were the same kind, honest people, except for a small number of rebels with ulterior motives and that innocent people should never be blamed for those rebels' sins.

For him, the really difficult part was how to harmonize the witches' relationships with the common people.

He wanted the witches to be well accepted and thought of as part of the people instead of being an isolated group. However, the witches were very different from common people, making it an arduous task which might last throughout the human history in this world. He could not think of a perfect solution to the problem at this moment, he decided to take it slow and follow Scroll's suggestion to learn from Taquila first.

Fortunately, this accident hadn't turned into a disaster, so he could still easily deliver his policy of integrating witches with the people.

With these thoughts in mind, Roland said, "Let's handle this dispute as an ordinary fight among students. The one who beat the girl and injured the witch with a chair must be verbally criticized and pay their medical expenses. The Witch Union will pay the medical expenses for the other wounded students in class six. City Hall needs to mend the teaching building as soon as possible to open the school again."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Barov and Scroll replied simultaneously.

"As for the remedial measures, let's do what Scroll suggested. Guide the people's opinions. I'll draft a plan for you later." He heaved a long sigh of relief. "By the way, that witch..."

"Her name is Sharon, Your Majesty. Do you want to meet her?" Scroll asked.

"No, let her have a good rest to recover for a few days. You can ask Wendy to see her and tell her the basic situation of the Witch Union."

"I see."

After Barov and Scroll left the office, Roland called Agatha and Phyllis next.

Before taking a seat, Agatha said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I've got something to tell you. The awakenings of witches in Neverwinter doesn't seem quite right."

Chapter 756 - Magic Power Tide

Roland was startled, "Is there anything wrong?"

After a little hesitation, Phyllis said, "Here's the thing... We heard that within the last year, only one witch awakened here. Is it true?"

Roland took out a name list that was made by Wendy from his drawer. He could easily look up each witch's Day of Awakening and Day of Adulthood on it, it was prepared in the case that he would forget these important dates.

After checking the list, he nodded and said, "Yes, two witches joined the Witch Union last year during Months of Demons. One is Paper, who awakened three years ago, the other one is Summer, who awakened last year on her Day of Adulthood."

Phyllis knitted her eyebrows, saying, "That's not right, Your Majesty. How many people did Neverwinter have in the last year? 20,000 or 30,000?

Roland could not help but feel proud when talking about the population growth. "Probably 50,000, and this year there are already over 100,000 people in the city."

"A city of over 100,000 people resembles Arrieta in the early days. When we retreated from the Fertile Plains, Taquila only had 250,000 people. However... do you know how many witches awakened every year in those two cities?" Phyllis' voice turned deep. "Even when the magic power tide touched the bottom, Arrieta had at least 10 newly awakened witches every year... Taquila's number tripled that."

"Magic power tide... touched the bottom?"

Agatha explained, "Yes. The magic power prevailing in this world has ups and downs like tides. Two years after the arrival of the Bloody Moon is the peak of magic power, during this period of time, new witches will awaken everyday. After the peak, the power will decline around the world. With the magic power at low tide, this period between two arrivals of the Bloody Moon will only see witches awaken during the Months of Demons."

Roland had heard it from Agatha that more awakenings of the witches would happen when the magic power was strong. However, he had only known that the power would have a peak every year during the Months of Demons and never thought that it had several-hundred-year cyclical fluctuations. He was surprised, saying, "But the third Battle of Divine Will is close."

Phyllis looked worried, saying, "This is what we're worried about. Fearful Beast of Hell appeared, which means the Bloody Moon is about to come. During this period of time, the magic power should get stronger than usual, and it will, according to Celine's test results. Given this, lots of witches should awaken now. If they are not in the city, they should awaken in nearby towns and villages. Back in the Taquila age, our domains around the Holy City offered more witches than the city did. Based on the Union's experiences, a city with a growing population should see a significant increase in the number of newly awakened witches. But why don't we see many new witches appearing in Neverwinter?"

Agatha said slowly, "At first I guessed it might be because the city deliberately avoided recruiting girls or because the newly awakened witches were too afraid of the church to expose themselves and join Neverwinter. However, now it seems that I was clearly wrong. We've discussed with Pasha and come to a conclusion. We think that some unknown factor may be affecting the awakenings of new witches... and its influence is gradually expanding."

After a long thoughtful pause, Roland asked, "If that's the case, will you be able to find out the factor?"

Agatha and Phyllis looked at each other and then shook their heads.

He threw up his hands, saying, "As you don't know what to do about it now, let's assume that the deities are just having a rest. No matter how many witches awaken every year, we still have to drive the demons out of the Land of Dawn."

With that being said, he had to admit that if he had not established the basis of industrialization, which significantly reduced his needs for the God's Punishment Army or the Chosen One, this news would have been terrible for him.

Surprised by Roland's reaction, Phyllis remained speechless for quite a long while before she said, "You're... right. We've got to defeat the demons no matter what."

"That's it." He smiled. "Ah... by the way, I called you here because I want to ask you something about the Union. Recently, I'm a little worried about the harmful accidents caused by the awakenings of new witches. How did you handle these kind of things back in Taquila?"

"Your Majesty, it's simple. At that time, all the people knew the 'half-quarter of an hour rule'." Phyllis was now speaking to Roland with a greater respect.

"'Half-quarter of an hour rule'?"

She further explained, "Yes, Your Majesty. There's a warning before each awakening. The free magic power will need about half a quarter to cohere inside a new witch's body. During this period of time, she will initially feel a slight sting and a mild burning sensation in the stomach, after, the the pain will keep on getting worse until she feels the first magic bite. Usually, stronger girls will be able to endure greater pains, but even they will still feel a prick in the beginning."

She paused for a moment and continued, "According to the 'half-quarter of an hour rule', when a new witch loudly announced that she was about to awaken, all the people nearby had to leave as soon as possible. If they stayed in the place and thus got hurt or killed, the Union wouldn't pay them any compensation. We only paid for the damages she caused to a place."

Hearing this, Roland thought to himself, "This is indeed a nice solution, but it only works when everyone is very familiar with witches, especially young girls. They must learn when to announce their awakening instead of taking the sign as a common stomach ache."

He asked, "What if the new witch caused harm to the other witches?"

"If she didn't make the announcement, she would get fined or a caning punishment based on the damage she caused. If she did, the Union would take full responsibility for her. However, things like this were rare, since only a few of us were combat witches and a newly awakened combat witch could seldom cause harm to anyone."

"This is to say, back in the Taquila age, if some common people failed to escape from the scene where a witch awakened, the Union would only say it was their bad luck. It's understandable as witches were superior to the common people at that time, but not in this age," Roland thought and decided he simply could not copy this rule.

Meanwhile, he also noticed the good part about this 'half-quarter of an hour rule'. At least, it had raised the public awareness of the dangers that might be caused by the awakenings of witches and made the people understand that witches were human beings and every girl might have a chance to become a witch. This rule reminded him of traffic signals in the world where he had lived before, everybody knew red for stop, green for go and had to follow this rule to prevent damage.

As now it was not the Taquila age anymore, he decided that he could not let the witches get away with all the damage they caused during awakening. He thought, "I'd better revise this rule, treating the witches and the common people as equals. Let City Hall take care of the damages caused by a new witch who makes the announcement before her awakening. As for the witches who don't make announcements and cause severe damage, they must be put on trials for negligently injuring others... Or, I can formulate a special law to regulate the witches' behavior, which may be able to ease the tension between the witches and the common people."

Chapter 757 - Sharon

...

Wendy walked into the hospital with a dinner box in hand and there she saw Nana's father Tigui Pine talking with a man and a woman. They bowed and then bent their knees, acting as if they were going to get down on their knees, but Viscount Tigui stopped them at once. This went on for quite a long while and then they bowed to him and left reluctantly.

When they got out of the hospital, Wendy came to him and asked curiously, "Who're they?"

Tigui shrugged and said, "Who else could they be? They're the parents of the new witch. They were worried about leaving her alone in the hospital and were asking whether they could take her home. After I told them it was the king who wanted her to stay here, they immediately changed their attitude and expressed gratitude to His Majesty." Wendy sensed a little disappointment and pride in his last sentence.

Wendy couldn't stop herself from laughing, "You think every parent is like you, who dared to break into the lord's castle for his daughter."

She knew why he felt disappointed. He believed that parents should never hand their kids over to anyone else, even if a king asked. When Nana had awakened, he had gone directly to Roland's castle without a letter of introduction. Fortunately, the kind and merciful Prince Roland had never intended to do any harm to her, so this incident had ended up becoming a moving story. If he had intruded into the castle of Duke Ryan or any other great noble in the Western Region to save Nana, he would have never been able to get off so easily.

Although that story had happened before Wendy had come to Border Town, she had heard it from Nightingale repeatedly. That was why she naturally understood where Tigui's pride came from.

"At least, they're way better than Summer's parents," Wendy sighed.

Summer's parents had hurriedly sent her to the castle to get one gold royal when she awakened to be a witch. They had treated her like a slave they had sold to the king and the Witch Union and warned her not to refuse any of their requests. If it hadn't been for the money they would've got, they probably would not let her return home.

Disappointed by her family, Summer did not return home as often as before once she got used to living with all the sisters in the Witch Building.

As a witch, she could be considered as lucky.

However, as a daughter, she had been abandoned by her parents.

Tigui nodded and agreed with Wendy. "Indeed, they are. One of them works in the Furnace Area and the other is a handyman in the construction team. They had no idea what happened to her until they finished their jobs, but as soon as they heard the news, they hurried here without even having dinner. I can tell from their faces, they do care about the girl."

Wendy smiled and said, "It looks like I was right to bring this dinner box with me. Could you take me to Sharon?"

Tigui touched his beard and said, "Of course, please follow me."

...

After the restructure and extension, this hospital now had an inpatient department, but only a few patients would stay here, as Nana and Lily could cure most of the patients in Neverwinter in a short time. They usually just needed to stay in the hall of the hospital for a while to fully recover.

Considering that the influence of the church might still exist, Roland had asked the hospital to let Sharon stay. He was not sure whether all the people who had immigrated from the other districts of Graycastle could accept the witches as one of them. By keeping her in the hospital, at least, he could ensure that she would not become homeless or get hurt by her family.

Tigui and Wendy came to the recovery ward. He gently pushed the door open and waved to Nana by the bed. "It's dinner time. You can talk to your friend later."

"She's not going to have dinner with us?" Nana asked surprised. She then saw Wendy and said, "Sister Wendy. You also came."

Wendy smiled and patted the dinner box in her hand, saying, "I brought her dinner."

Nana said, "Oh, I see. You guys talk first. I'll come back later." She said goodbye to Sharon and left the ward with her father.

Wendy walked to the bed and put the dinner box on the bedside cupboard. She turned around and met Sharon's eyes. The new witch was looking at her, her face curious. Wendy asked, "How do you feel about becoming a witch?"

The girl had a childish face and short rosy hair. It was a rare hair color in Graycastle and reminded her of a rosebud. Wendy knew for sure that she would become more beautiful after her awakening. She could already imagine how extraordinary she would look once she would enter adulthood.

Sharon replied, "I felt that something got into my body... Miss Nana told me that was the magic power." She pursed her lips and continued, "Are you a witch, too? Does it always hurt the first time?"

Though her second question could cause some ambiguity, she knew exactly what she was talking about. "Yes, I'm a witch. You can call me Wendy. As for your second question, not really... It's not that important anyway. As long as you learn how to use the magic power, it'll become part of you, like your arms and legs." With these words, she opened the iron dinner box and put the steaming food on the bedside cupboard.

Sharon swallowed twice to prevent herself from drooling, but she could not stop her stomach from growling.

She blushed with embarrassment at once.

"Are you hungry?" Wendy smiled and immediately placed a Bird Beak Mushroom soup in front of the little girl.

Some scallions were floating in the light yellow soup. The oil on the surface was shimmering in the firelight. Compared to a light vegetable soup, the smell of the meat made this soup much more tempting.

Wendy had learned this trick of using nice food to reassure people from Roland who liked to hold a banquet to welcome new witches.

Sharon nodded vigorously.

Wendy said softly, "Drink some soup to warm your stomach first before you eat other food."

Soon the little girl started to gobble down her dinner, making even Wendy feel hungry, too.

She asked, "Where's your friend? Did she go home?"

Sharon said while devouring her food, "I don't know... probably yes."

Wendy was surprised. "Didn't she come to see you?"

"No..." Sharon shook her head. " She probably did not trust me completely. After all, I also came from the Southern Territory like those students who bullied her."

Wendy was startled. "What? You're from the Southern Territory?"

"Yeah." The little girl stuffed a piece of Bird Beak Mushroom into her mouth. "Mapleflower Town, a small town near Eagle City... but now it's uninhabitable."

Wendy exclaimed, "I thought you're from the east just like her. I thought that was why you helped her."

"I shouldn't help her as we're from different regions?" Sharon blinked her eyes and said seriously, "the disputes among the nobles obviously have nothing to do with her. Those guys just wanted to find some excuse to bully her. No matter where we came from, wrong is wrong. If I didn't stand out to stop them, nobody would correct such a mistake."

She remained speechless for a while, lost in her thoughts.

Your Majesty, you were worried about nothing. This girl doesn't need me to comfort her.

I can tell from the expression in her eyes—She's absolutely certain about her decision.

Chapter 758 - Inherited Belief

"Did you learn this from your parents?"

Sharon nodded and said, "Yes, mainly from my father. He often told me that many things in the world were wrong because no one corrected them, and then people would get used to these wrong ideas as time went by. He taught me that many common things might be wrong and that if none of us stood out to fix them, we would repeat these mistakes and thus make the world worse and worse."

Wendy said slowly, "But unfortunately nobody would be willing to stand out unless the bad things happened to himself. Just like before, when the church persecuted the witches, most people only cared about the gold royals they could get from the church instead of thinking whether those hanged kids were really evil."

Sharon said, "What they did is wrong. They thought those mistakes would do no harm to themselves, so they could repeat them for their personal interests. However, the mistakes will make the world worse, and then it'll become everyone's problem."

Surprised by Sharon, Wendy could not help but feel curious about her parents. She pretended to ask casually about them but instead got an unexpected answer. "They're not my real parents," Sharon said.

"They're not?"

As the girl began to talk about her parents, she started eating slower. "Well, my parents are dead. The war destroyed Eagle City and the order of the Southern Territory. After that, homeless refugees and beggars were everywhere and so were robbers. My parents were members of the patrol team, fighting against them, one day, they just didn't... return home. In the end, the lord of the town fled. Seeing that, all the townspeople left, too. Nowadays, Mapleflower Town had already become a deserted domain."

"In other words, this tragedy was caused by the 'Royal Decree on the Selection of the Crown Prince' ." Just as her father said, this absurd decree which seemed to be irrelevant to the people turned out to be a disaster for them."

Wendy gently touched Sharon's head to comfort her, saying, "I'm sorry... for bringing up these things."

The little girl quickly stopped mourning her parents' death. She dispelled her sadness and recovered, saying, "That's alright. They were already prepared to sacrifice themselves... My father often said that since mistakes would cost us greatly in the end, we'd better pay the price to correct those mistakes in the first place, which was an honor actually."

Wendy was moved, thinking, "Honor... Most patrol team members wouldn't give a damn. They behave like Rats, placing personal benefits above those of the public. When order and discipline stand in the way of personal interests, they won't hesitate to break them. Given that, Sharon's real parents were really rare and respectable."

After a long silence, she said, "Those people who came to see you..."

Sharon licked her fingers and said, "they're my father's friends. He helped them before. In the past two years, I've lived with him, uncle Cormac, and his wife. They don't have any kid and treat me like their own daughter."

Wendy fell silent, thinking, "They did do their best to take care of Sharon. That's quite a rare thing for an ordinary family."

After that, she did not say anything and just looked at Sharon eating her dinner.

The little girl finished her last deep-fried pork cutlet and heaved a long sigh of relief, looking satisfied. 'Thank you. This is the best dinner I've ever had."

Now that Neverwinter was able to provide plenty of food for the people, no one in the city was worried about being hungry anymore. However, meat was still a rare thing on tables of ordinary families. People of which would feel greatly satisfied to simply have a piece of dried meat in their oatmeal. As for this kind of deep-fried half lean meat, only highly paid people such as the alchemists and officials in City Hall could afford them.

Wendy took out a handkerchief to wipe Sharon's oily mouth and said, "after you join the Witch Union, you can eat dinner like this everyday."

Sharon's eyes shined and asked, "Really? I'll be able to have meat every day?"

Wendy put the dishes back into the dinner box and said, "of course, and you'll have fresh boar meat instead of the cured meat in the Convenience Market. His Majesty prefers the streaky pork, but not every boar has that quality... Only the extra fat ones will have this kind of pork. If it's steamed, it'll be soft and tender and melt in your mouth. If it's fried, it'll be crisp and smell really good. Ah, by the way, he likes to call this kind of pork 'Five flower meat'... but I really don't get why it's related to some flower."

Thanks to Lightning and Maggie who liked to hunt and toast their preys in the wild whenever they were on patrol. The Witch Union members could enjoy the tasty food every day. In the past, they could only bring back few toasted rabbits and bird eggs, but since Maggie had the ability to evolve into a Winged Devilbeast, the number of their preys had increased drastically. They could bring back boars and snow wolves now, and if Roland required them to bring meat back, they could fill the castle's basement with their preys within a day.

Wendy once had wondered why His Majesty had called the Misty Forest a great treasure trove which had not been fully utilized yet, but now seeing the tasty food on the table everyday she believed what he had said.

"How come you know this sort of thing? Could it be..." Sharon asked surprised, with her hand covering her mouth.

Wendy could not help but smile. "Yes, that's right. As long as His Majesty isn't very busy, he will always eat with the witches."

"What about the one gold royal..."

"That's also true."

The little girl pointed to herself. "May I..."

"Join the Witch Union?" Wendy chuckled. "Of course, you can. The union will guide you to use and improve your ability and at the same protect and take care of you. We accept all the witches who're willing to work for His Majesty and Neverwinter as our sisters."

"After joining it, do I have to live in the castle?"

"It's up to you. If you want to spend more time with your family, you can still live at home," Wendy explained. She could tell that Sharon had already taken uncle Cormac and his wife as her family, though they were not related by blood.

"What about the school..."

"The union offers special courses for the witches. As we're able to learn faster and need to learn more, the universal education doesn't suit us." Wendy paused to think for a moment. "In your case, you'll be required to practice your ability in the beginning, as you're still very young. As for the courses for witches, they're usually arranged in the evening. If you can manage to go to school at the same time, you'll be able to finish your universal education and get a diploma."

Without any hesitation, Sharon nodded vigorously, saying, "I want to join the Witch Union. I want to become someone like Miss Nana."

Even if she hadn't said it aloud, Wendy could still see the answer from her eyes' expression—Just like in her questioning before, the girl was certain about every decision she made.

Wendy thought, "It seems that I can move up the date of her ability test and the contract signing."

Chapter 759 - Second Transformation

The next day afternoon, Roland received Sharon's ability report.

"That's fast." He raised his eyebrows as Wendy handed him the test sheets. "Has she accepted that she's now a witch?"

"Yes, and in a calmer way than we'd expected." Wendy laughed as she recounted the meeting from the previous night. "I've to say, her parents have brought up a fine child."

"Hmm..." Roland was rather impressed himself. In this era, someone who could make such far-sighted considerations would already be considered a pioneer. Perhaps, this was how history had always been driven. As a belief was passed down the generations, more and more people were imbued with the same aspiration, and when the numbers reached a certain level, the world would undergo an extraordinary change.

As they say, a little spark can kindle a great fire.

Perhaps, Mankind had reached civilization by taking small steps like this.

He examined the details of the test, particularly the evaluation of magic power. As a witch who was awakened at the young age of 15, Sharon's magic cyclone ability was of an above-average standard. It was even noted in the report that this was comparable to adult witches in Taquila. Evidently, Phyllis was present during the test - among the witches in Neverwinter City, she was often the one who was most receptive to the arrival of new witches.

Sharon's ability was to generate electric currents. However, Wendy's write-up on this section was rather vague, perhaps because the study of electricity was one of the more difficult topics within elementary physics.

When she increased the intensity of her electric currents, the consumption of magic power would rapidly increase, but her electric currents would become strong enough to break wooden planks and melt iron. At a weaker intensity, she would need to touch the object to produce an effect, such as lighting a light bulb, albeit she was prone to burning the filament.

As Sharon had only recently awakened, her control of magic power was very unstable. Wendy's conclusion was that she was most suited to be a combat witch, while also having potential to assist in production.

Roland had no plans to do a retest. After all, he had no tools to measure electrical voltage and current, and therefore would not be able to obtain exact values.

Furthermore, Sharon would have to expend a lot of magic power to release high-voltage electric current. Her ability to maintain the transmission of electricity was obviously not as good as Mystery Moon's Dawn I, let alone an electromagnetic gun.

But most importantly, all effects that were produced by magic power, whether it be Anna's blackfire or Sharon's electric current, did not necessarily comply with the related theories. Only when the abilities were transformed for a second time into other effects would they correspond with the knowledge he had.

In sum, it was already clear that Sharon's ability had a lot of potential. Roland was certainly eager to know what kind of progress could be made when the essence of electric current was fully understood, as well as to see how much Sharon's magic power would improve by as she grew older. But for now, it was best to follow Wendy's recommendation to allow Sharon to practice on her own and focus on her studies, in which she had some catching up to do.

Roland thought about her strong sense of justice, and suddenly had an idea to admit her into the judiciary one day.

"An electricity-generating young lady patrolling the streets and arresting criminals... this seems to be exceptionally familiar."

Without revealing his thoughts aloud, he nodded at Wendy and said, "We'll do as you've recommended, many thanks."

"My honor, Your Majesty," Wendy bowed.

...

When Roland returned to his office after dinner, he discovered that Lily and Mystery Moon had joined Nightingale in the room. The trio were gathered around the desk and seemed to be in an argument.

"Take a look at this." Nightingale gestured towards Roland. "My goodness, they look so real!"

"What is it?" Roland walked up to the desk curiously, and only then noticed the two pots of bird beak mushrooms placed on the table.

"Eh... what's with these mushrooms?" One pot of mushrooms seemed rather shrivelled like kitchen stock, while the other was much fresher and juicier. He pinched a mushroom stalk from the latter, causing its sap to gush out immediately. "This is quite fresh. Were these recently picked by Lightning?"

Nightingale and Mystery Moon turned to look at Lily in unison.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "I used my magic power to create them."

"Oh... magic power?" Roland casually replied before he startled violently. "Wait... what? You used magic power to create them?"

"Your Highness, her cohering ability has changed somewhat," Nightingale explained. "If, let's say, it was only a purple worm after the first evolution, it has now added patterns on its back. Her magic power capacity has also increased." After a brief pause, she continued, "In other words, Lily's ability has evolved a second time."

"But still, they're worms!" Mystery Moon chimed in. Of course, this provoked a look of disgust from Lily.

"Is this so?" Roland joyfully picked up another mushroom and examined it carefully. He quickly understood how she had created them. "You're now able to make a magical swarm of worms turn into a particular form that you want?"

"Yes. But they must at least be visible through a microscope, and a suitable target must be found, before the next step of assimilation can be transacted." Lily nodded. Although she acted very calm, the glimmer in her eyes gave away her inner delight. "Because the worms produced by bird beak mushrooms are relatively easier to observe, I chose them for this experiment."

She was most likely referring to fungal spore, which was also the building block of fungi. Roland started to feel excited. Perhaps, to Lily, organisms which were invisible to the naked eye, such as microscopic bugs, could now be controlled.

"Excellent!" He reached out his hand and caressed her forehead.

Unexpectedly, Lily did not move away or roll her eyes at him. Instead, she lowered her head and accepted his compliments.

"How is that any good." Mystery Moon grumbled. "Your Highness, my bedroom is no longer inhabitable! There are bird beak mushrooms everywhere, even on my bed, which now resembles the Misty Forest after a rain!"

Lily's cheeks suddenly reddened. She glanced at Mystery Moon and said, "I... I don't know why it would be like this either... At first, the worms couldn't turn into bird beak mushrooms at all, and I even thought that there was a problem with the parent I was using. After I changed the parent, I didn't imagine that the whole house would grow full of mushrooms."

When Roland understood the whole story, he could not help but laugh aloud. From the little knowledge of biology he remembered, unlike a seed which could grow into a large tree, a single mushroom spore could not grow into a mushroom, no matter how much assimilation was done. Only after the parent mushroom was changed, two spores might combine and grow into mushrooms. The reason why they grew everywhere was likely to be because the parent was discarded within the room, where it drifted around and assimilated bacteria into bird beak mushroom spores.

"We shall have a mushroom feast for lunch tomorrow." He announced gleefully.

Indubitably, after Lily's second transformation, her ability was no longer limited to sterilization and disinfection. Any observable thing could be wholly transformed for next to no cost, and could be multiplied and expanded like a regular microbe, so as to form a complete 'microscopic' army of its own. Whether it be food production or war preparation, she would be able to play a great role from now onwards.

Chapter 760 - Land of Fire

...

Flames spouted out of the ground like monstrous giant trees. The flame tips were the branches, while the billows of thick smoke were the leaves. These "trees" were interconnected in such a way that they formed a vast black canopy.

As Thuram walked underneath these fiery trees, he felt the temperature around him continuously rise. Pea-sized beads of sweat sprung from his forehead, while he felt that his entire back had already turned sticky. This place was a world apart from the cold desert outside, all because the chilly winds of the Months of Demons had no way to encroach into the core area of Mother Earth.

"Is this why it's called the Land of Fire..." The golden-haired Divine Lady looked around the place curiously. "I never thought there would be such an interesting place in the Southernmost Region."

Having interacted with Iron Axe's party members for a week, Thuram was beginning to know them a little. For example, the Divine Lady who spoke was called Andrea. Her excellent proficiency in archery was a class apart from even the most seasoned hunter in Sand Nation. There was no doubt that she would be participating in the imminent holy duel alongside the almighty Lady Ashes.

"Interesting?" Ashes puckered her lips. "I feel that this place is like a steamer, where any ordinary person would turn into cooked food after just two days."

"I'm not surprised you would say this sort of thing." Andrea shrugged her shoulders. "Someone with no taste and style would naturally be unable to appreciate the ambience here."

"Did you lose your towel? You don't look any stylish with all that sweat on you."

"Buzz off!"

Thuram felt a little affinity with Lady Andrea. To him, the most beautiful place in Southernmost Region was not the Silver Stream Oasis where the Mojin Clan lived and reproduced, but instead, was the flame-spouting Land of Fire as well as the Endless Cape. Although these places were fraught with danger, they also symbolised great strength and were the habitats of the gods, and therefore were the sources of the Ironsand people's faith. The former of these places was used to contend for status and power, and was where clans showcased their bravery and tenacity to Mother Earth. The latter was used to make offerings to the sea deity, in hopes that he would bless the clanspeople and inject more blood into the Silver Stream so that new oases could form in the desert.

The terrain of the Land of Fire was caved downwards, with a slight upward bulge in the middle. Its shape was like that of an inverted basin, and its size could accommodate several Iron Sand Citys. The ever-raging flames had caused the surrounding sand to harden and consolidate, such that walking on the sand felt as though stepping into a palace paved with stone bricks.

On both sides of the wide and firm pavement were dark abysses and shafts. The underground fire spouted out of these shafts and continually baked the earth. The most astonishing thing was the colors - the first time any Ironsand person walked into this holy ground, they would certainly be fascinated by the gorgeous hues. Beginning from the abysses, the palisades on each side displayed varying tints of a crimson luster, which became darker as they approached the surface. This assortment of colors was akin to that of a carbon stone which had been burned until it was bright red and underwent continuous cooling.

However, once the palisades reached the surface, the color abruptly changed into a bright verdure, such that the sand seemed to be paved with a layer of glittering jade stones. The glass-like bodies, which were created through the melting and recrystallization of the gravel, refracted a dazzling glow under the flames.

Above that was, of course, the timeless motif of the place - the orange-red raging flames. A dozen pillars of flame spouted out of the basin and, as if to welcome the arrival of a new challenger, encircled the high platform in the central zone, which served as the most important place in the Land of Fire: the site of the holy duel.

Here, shades of red and green intermixed, and were further complemented by the underground blackwater and the faraway golden dunes. At first glance, it seemed like all the colors of the desert were gathered in this place. If it wasn't during the Months of Demons, one could even see the sun rays permeating through the dense smoke in the sky. Only the underwater Endless Cape, which also roared with flames, could compare to this extraordinary sight.

"I agree that this place is really beautiful... but it would be even better without the fighting and bloodshed," Thuram's new owner and the princess of Osha, Drow Silvermoon, suddenly spoke. "As His Highness Roland said, if it simply remained as a scenic place, it would have been a famous..."

"National natural park?" Another petite Divine Lady, Hummingbird, suggested.

"Yes. That's what His Highness said after he checked out Devil's Town behind the snow mountain."

"It's certainly fitting of a king to think exactly like me." Andrea tipped up her chin.

"C'mon, have you ever seen the place he was talking about?" Ashes scoffed.

"It doesn't matter if I didn't because I have a good imagination. From his words alone, I'm sure it's a place of magnificent scenery. Of course, a person with limited experience won't understand."

"Heyy!"

Whenever Iron Axe or the Divine Ladies spoke, they would inadvertently mention the King of Graycastle's name. Thuram was terribly curious about exactly what kind of person Roland Wimbledon was, that the Ironsand people and the Divine Ladies trusted him this much, particularly the latter. He once heard a traveling merchant comment that the Divine Ladies revered by the Mojin Clan were actually evil figures being hunted down by the church in the Four Kingdoms. Yet, judging from the way they spoke of the king, things were considerably different from what the merchant had said.

When the party climbed on to the platform, the awaiting Cut Bone clan warriors started to make hissing noises, while the other clans looked on contemptuously. There was no question that the thunderous might of Iron Sand City had greatly frightened them. It was later on that Thuram learned that the Stone Castle which the chief of Ironwhip, Rubaka, lived in had collapsed amid the explosions, causing him to perish along with his kin and men. Thus the six large clans swiftly became five, and for a long time, this loss could not be replaced.

However, revenge was an unalterable part of the Ironsand people's identity. The blood feud between the Ironwhip and Osha clans was no secret. And, as no warrior of a different clan had ever invaded Iron Sand City, Drow Silvermoon's plan for revenge seemed impeccable. Thus, the other clans could only watch on with shock and fear, or otherwise remained as indifferent as possible.

What they did not know was that this time, the Osha clan's goal exceeded everyone's imagination. Thuram mused, "The Cut Bone clan is only the beginning. Every one of the clans present will be challenged to a duel sooner or later. They'll either have to try their best or be crushed by Drow Silvermoon."

The chief of the Raging Flare clan, who was serving as the duel's arbiter, walked in front of the audience and announced, "May Osha's chief step forth."

Drow inhaled a deep breath, took a step forward, and slowly replied, "I am."

The former nodded stolidly and continued, "Great. This isn't your first time participating in a holy duel, and thus I expect that you already know the rules. Cut Bone clan shall be sending out 22 men for this battle. You may start to select weapons for your warriors. While the promise you made to the Three Gods mustn't be broken, you're allowed to give up or surrender at any time. Otherwise, the side with the last man standing will be declared the winner, and be conferred the right to enter Iron Sand City. The duel shall commence when both sides are ready."

Chapter 761 - Holy Duel

Weapon shelves were placed on both sides of the platform for the convenience of both dueling parties.

Most common weapons were available, including knives, swords, and whips. For the sake of fairness, neither party was allowed to bring their own weapons. After all, a large clan would definitely be capable of forging superior blades, while a poorer challenger would have to rely on their crude equipment. This disparity would cause the duel to lose its meaning.

However, Thuram knew full well that there were ways around the rules. As a matter of fact, Iron Whip had defeated Osha previously by covertly swapping the provided whips for Blackwater versions. Although the arbiter punished the weapons supervisor later on, the result had already been finalized, and no one would contest a large clan on behalf of a fallen clan.

However, it was completely unexpected that Osha would rise from the verge of death.

Even the strongest of clans now felt pressured by its ferocious might.

This was the first time Thuram had seen the chief of Wildflame look on at the new challenger with a solemn look in his eyes.

"Is every warrior limited to one weapon?" Ashes suddenly asked.

"Err... there's no such rule." Thuram regained his attention. "You're allowed to carry as many as you wish."

"Great, I'm ready." She attached two scimitars around her waist, weighed a large sledgehammer in her hands, and further took up a wooden shield. "These should be enough to last me until the end."

Thuram gulped in amazement. Although he long knew that this black-haired and golden-eyed Divine Lady was extremely powerful, it now seemed like he had underestimated her. Most people required many years of training to use the double-handed sledgehammer, yet she was able to wield it with a single hand and with the ease of a small rapier. She would certainly be a nightmare opponent for any enemy. Clearly, she did not exert her full strength during the conflict in the tavern, or the entire place would have been demolished.

"I'm ready too." Andrea casually chose a short bow and deliberately reduced the number of arrows in the quiver to just 22.

"Get on the platform," Iron Axe muttered.

"Wait!" Thuram froze in surprise. "Just four of you?" He took a glance at the Graycastle warriors behind him. The 50-strong contingent was scattered around the place with their backs against the weapon shelves. They peered vigilantly at the onlooking crowd, with no intention of choosing weapons.

"There's no rule on the number of participants either, right?" Ashes coolly replied. "Four's enough."

According to the rules, the number of participating warriors from each side should be between 15 to 30 people. The upper limit was set out of consideration of the space on the platform. However, there was also a stipulation that the number of participants from the challenger clan should not exceed that of the challenged clan. That meant that if the opponent sent out 15 warriors, Osha would be allowed to send out no more than 15 warriors too.

This stipulation was borne out of a harsh truth: no matter which side won or lost, heavy casualties were expected, and it was common for more than half of the participants to be either critically or fatally wounded. There had certainly been duels in which only one warrior was left standing. Thus, the greater the number of participants, the heavier the losses of each participating clan would be. It was uncommon for one side to send out 30 or more warriors, unless the challenged clan knew beforehand that the challenger clan would not be able to send out an equivalent number of warriors, and might hence use this method to obtain a numerical advantage.

Cut Bone's decision to send out 22 men certainly took into account that even if they lost the duel, there would not be too much impact on their clan's strength. It would not be the end of the world if they lost control of Iron Sand City to the challenger. As long as they still had brave warriors in their ranks, they would have the chance to mount a comeback in the future.

For Osha, the right thing to do would be to send out an equivalent number of participants. Although the Greycastle warriors looked short and frail, and did not seem brave enough for a battle like this, Osha would still have a huge advantage with Ashes around. Her innate strength, while unaffected by God's Stones of Retaliation, would be sufficient to determine the duel's outcome.

But the scenario would be completely different with just four people. The Divine Ladies were certainly adept at leading and helping people to survive in the harsh conditions of the desert, and were rightly revered for that, but that did not mean they were equally suitable for combat. Furthermore, the opponents were more than likely to equip God's Stones of Retaliation, which would easily suppress the Divine Ladies' abilities, such that they might even become weaker than regular people.

If Drow Silvermoon and Andrea lost their combat abilities, only Iron Axe and Ashes would be left to fight. No matter how strong the latter was, it would be impossible for her to handle being surrounded by 20 or so opponents who were each willing to sacrifice their lives in order to secure the victory. With only two hands and two legs, she would certainly not be able to parry every blow.

Thuram had thought all these would be common knowledge to Iron Axe since he had participated in holy duels before. Having not been asked to attend the strategy discussion, Thuram did not pay much much attention to their decisions, in line with the principle that "he who asks less lives longer". Yet, he never expected the latter to be this negligent.

He stood aghast as the four of them walked on to the platform nonchalantly. He shuddered involuntarily and cold sweat began to pour from his forehead. Yet, at the same time, he felt like he was standing naked in a frosty desert... as though the fire "trees" surrounding the place were no longer able to shelter him from the cruel winds.

He should know that he's a member of the Osha clan!

If he fails, would I still have a place in the small oasis? I'll probably not even be able to remain in Southernmost Region!"

"If I'd known, I would have thrown all the clanspeople to him. Then he won't dare to take this sort of risk."

The appearance of the four people on the platform shook the crowd greatly too. Although sending on fewer participants than the opponent was a symbol of confidence and courage, in this case pitching four people against 22 battle-hardened tribal warriors was virtually suicide.

The hissing noises dissipated at once.

The eyes of every onlooker widened, and the apathy on their faces turned into astonishment and dismay.

"Do you confirm that the Osha party shall consist of just the four of you?" In view of such a strange sight, the chief of Wildflame felt compelled to inquire.

"That's right." Ashes grinned slightly. "Let's get on with it. By the way, have you guys written your wills?"

The audience burst into an uproar.

"Who's this lass?"

"She must be delusional!"

"Surely even Divine Ladies won't be able to resist the God's Stone Arrows?"

"Wait, I've a feeling she's serious..."

"I feel the same. She seems to have as much blood on her hands as me."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm a warrior and know this from experience. My heartbeat also says that she's absolutely frightening."

"But there're just four of them!"

"We'll know the answer shortly."

In a matter of minutes, the situation on the sidelines had changed greatly. Everyone's attention was fixed on the platform, and the initial apathy was replaced with a warm excitement. Even if it was a suicide mission, the courage of the Osha party was praiseworthy. And the Ironsand people were never reluctant to show respect for those who were truly brave.

Upon hearing the rumblings from the audience, Thuram began to hesitate. "Are they really confident of victory in spite of the huge numerical disadvantage?"

As a flurry of confused thoughts ran through his mind, the arbiter rang a gong that was hung at one corner of the platform.

"Without further ado, I shall announce that the holy duel between the challenging Osha clan and the challenged Cut Bone clan begins... now!"

Chapter 762 - Music, Rapid Fire, and Strength!

Once the announcement was made, the Cut Bone warriors immediately drew their weapons, and without performing the slightest of probes, they encircled the four opponents from both flanks.

No matter how well-thought-out Osha's plan was, they were but four people.

It was impossible for them to control even their own half of the arena. When the 22 warriors completed the encirclement, the Osha party would face attacks from all directions.

These warriors lived to duel, and thus had no apprehension toward a life-and-death battle. From the moment they stepped on the platform, they had already dedicated their lives to the Three Gods.

This was not only a contention for power, but also a fight to delight the gods.

Suddenly, they heard a sad and mellow singing voice.

Drow Silvermoon's song swiftly drowned out the blusters from the underground fire and the Styx River.

The melody was ethereal and smooth, and sounded as if it came from the distant horizon. Deep feelings of loss, suffering and grief were embedded in the song, such that anyone who heard it could not help bursting into tears.

This made the Cut Bone warriors pause their footsteps.

"No... stop that!"

"What... are you doing?"

"Stop it! You're blaspheming this holy place!"

"Heretic!"

"I'll kill you!"

The onlookers' expressions changed dramatically. Some pointed at the Cut Bone clan and berated them, while others hid their faces and cried as if they had encountered a sorrowful incident.

Thuram could not believe what he was about to see.

The Cut Bone warriors turned with murderous intent towards their own clanspeople. In a flash, the audience stand was covered in fresh and boiling blood as the warriors slashed at the abdomens of their kin. Heads rolled one after another onto the platform, permanently seized in an expression of consternation and disbelief. The accompanying sorrowful melody seemed to record and narrate this horrifying massacre.

It lasted only for a brief moment.

When he blinked his eyes again, the scene he had just witnessed disappeared without a trace. The 22 warriors were still lurching forward, albeit with much slower footsteps than before.

Their sluggishness could not be helped. Their clanspeople were supposed to be their greatest source of strength, support and spiritual sustenance. They lived and died for their clan and its quest for power, while their people cheered them on as heroes. Unfortunately, it was all messed up now. The cries and curses of their clanspeople made them feel highly uncertain of what had just happened, while even the other clans which supported them now glowered at the warriors as if they had done something unforgivable.

Warriors are never fazed no matter how powerful an enemy is, but they can't disregard rebukes from their own people.

Could this be the Osha princess' ability?

"But... how?" Although Thuram had seen mind control abilities before, such as that of Kabala of Sandstone Clan, he had never seen or heard of these abilities being used at a range exceeding ten footsteps! He touched the God's Stone of Retaliation that he wore on his neck and glanced at his new owner. Drow Silvermoon was visibly standing at a distance far greater than ten footsteps from the audience stand. "Was it really her singing voice which compelled those people who didn't adorn a God's Stone to cry bitterly?"

He believed that the Cut Bone warriors probably held the same doubt.

And in a duel, doubts were fatal.

Everything happened in a split second.

The instant they slowed their footsteps, Andrea seized the initative.

Without using the short bow she carried on her back, she flung an arrow at each of the four nearest enemy duelists.

Perhaps because they were affected by what was happening outside the platform, or because they lowered their guard as they saw that the opponent was not holding a bow, they took no responsive action. By the time they saw the arrows flying straight at them, it was too late to evade.

The handful of arrows traveled as powerfully as the hardest shots a bow could make!

Each arrow penetrated its target slightly below their right clavicle and wedged in their bones. This caused their dominant hands to lose all energy and become unable to wield weapons. The four warriors thereby became entirely incapable of battle.

This created a gap in the encirclement.

The song which reverberated on the platform suddenly changed from sorrowful to passionate and high-pitched. Intense drum-beating sounds seemed to throb on every listener's heart and inspirited them.

Ashes' figure was like a black shadow, which once again attested to her inexplicable strength. She was visibly carrying a sledgehammer and a shield, yet her footsteps were so light that she seemed to be drifting. Her left hand was used for parrying while her right hand wielded her weapon. Nobody was able to guard again her strikes. Instead of smashing her opponents with powerful blows, she held the sledgehammer horizontally and dashed in all directions around the platform, and this way could subdue six or seven people in no time.

The numerically-superior Cut Bone warriors now found themselves in a dilemma.

If they attempted to continue flanking the Osha party from both sides, they would struggle to parry Andrea's arrows, and moreover would have to find a way to get around Ashes and mend the gap. Even if they held up their shields, the arrows, which seemed to have eyes on them, could still puncture their legs. The Magic Stone arrows which they could fire amidst their panic would barely even threaten the opponent, and when the God's Stones fell on the floor, Iron Axe, who served a defensive role, would simply step and crush these expensive playthings that were worth dozens of gold royals each!

Yet, if they decided to abandon the encirclement, their numerical advantage would become useless.

"Everyone, close up to me!"

Perhaps seeing that their initial plan was no longer viable, one of the warriors gave a loud cry for the dozen or so standing men to gather together. At this point of the duel, it was clear to everyone that, despite Ashes' cocky proclamation at the start, not a single participant had died.

If she truly intended to kill them, none of them would be able to resist her hammer blows.

Every warrior was a precious asset of his clan. Thus Ashes' method garnered the respect of the onlooking clans, including the duelists of the Cut Bone clan themselves. While they were not afraid to sacrifice themselves for the purpose of the holy duel, it had to be a meaningful death, instead of simply perishing blindly. Mother Earth was not a bloodthirsty deity. Though she was fond of courage and strength, she would not wish to see needless deaths.

The warriors sheathed their weapons and lined up in a row. They each stretched both hands in front of them such that their intentions could not be clearer.

"Humph."

Ashes laughed easily and placed down her shield. Subsequently, she dashed directly towards them while raising up the sledgehammer horizontally.

The sledgehammer collided powerfully against the wall of men.

"Ow!"

"Don't fall back!"

"Hold on!"

Some shouts were heard from the audience stand, but neither clan's name was mentioned. It was as if at this stage, nobody cared who won or lost as long as they could witness a brave and magnificent contest. Those who were crying only a moment ago now clenched their fists and stared at the center of the platform. For some reason, Thuram did not feel that anything was strange - the drum beats continually grew more intense, as if calling for the audience to move forward courageously. Every listener was now in such a highly excited mood that they felt themselves to be a participant in the duel instead of an onlooker!

Ashes stretched her upper body into a long and slanted line and bent her legs, before she engaged in a physical standoff with the Cut Bone warriors. Her arm muscles formed a perfect arc, such that they were perhaps the best visual depiction of strength with beauty.

But of course, this was not a duel between one person and an entire clan.

Once Iron Axe, Andrea, and Drow joined in the scrimmage, the stalemate was broken.

The four of them slowly pushed their opponents towards the edge of the platform. Every step was greeted with shouts from the audience. Thuram could not resist joining in the clamor and waving of arms.

After a period of crescendo, the melody finally reached its climax.

The advancing footsteps became synchronized with the drum beats. At this point, the warriors had no energy left. The Osha quartet roared in chorus and pushed their opponents off the platform!

The music abruptly stopped as this happened. Yet, the stirring melody continued to reverberate non-stop in everyone's ears, and would not dissipate for a long time...

"The winner is the Osha clan!"

Chapter 763 - The Female Lycanthrope

As Guelz Burnflame approached the training hall, he could hear a thumping noise from its interior. There seemed to be a rather intense activity going on, as if a heavy and blunt instrument was repeatedly hitting against a sandbag.

"Chief!"

The guard at the door lowered his head and bowed.

"Is that Lorgar practicing inside?" Guelz pointed towards the ajar gate.

"Yes, she came here early in the morning, and said not to disturb her."

"I'll have a look."

"But Chief..."

"What?" He cast a glance at the guard.

"Nothing, you may enter." The guard shuddered slightly.

"Seems like my daughter is becoming more and more dignified." Guelz did not feel the least bit disgruntled by the guard's obstruction and instead raised his eyebrows with interest. The way things were going, the Raging Flare clan would have a new successor when he could no longer climb on to the Burning Stage.

He opened the door to a training hall which was assembled from thousands of leather pieces, hemp ropes and wooden poles. In Iron Sand City, only the Chief himself, who owned the largest Stone Castle around, could build an indoor training ground like this.

The hall was not paved with dirt or stone, but fine yellow sand instead. Thus, it felt like one was walking in the desert. The sand was fine and small but not soft, and many sharp objects were concealed in it. These were often broken teeth or weapon fragments left behind by the trainers. There was also a considerable amount of blood that seeped through, which therefore caused a portion of the sand to turn dark red.

Guelz' grandfather once said that if all of the yellow sand was dyed red, Wildflame would forever occupy the position of the strongest clan and remain peerless in the Southernmost Region. This was because he had considered that if the clan was ever defeated, they would have to vacate this Stone Castle, and as a result, the overhead leather tentage, as well as all of the yellow sand, would have to be brought away. Even if they could not rebuild a training hall like this, at least they would not need to dye the sand again when they retook the first position.

A row of metal bars was erected on one end of the training hall. His daughter was here barefooted, with her pants and sleeves rolled up. She repeatedly threw heavy punches at the hanging sandbags. Guelz had no doubt that if these punches were thrown on a person's body, the viscera would be split into pieces.

"Hmm, excited after seeing the Osha clan's performance?" He smiled at her.

Lorgar turned her body and performed an aerial kick at a rebounded sandbag. Her slender legs moved as quick as lightning and sent the sandbag, which was as tall as a person, flying. The hemp rope holding the sandbag was finally overwhelmed, and snapped halfway through the violent swaying. The sandbag spun through the air and fell heavily on the floor, causing the interior sand to spill out.

"Hoo..." She exhaled loudly, causing her bestialized hands to return to normal. "You don't have to tell everyone, Papa. You already know what I'm thinking."

"You admire that Divine Lady called Ashes, right?" Guelz laughed heartily. "After all, in one-to-one combat, it's hard to find you a suitable opponent from this city."

Lorgar puckered her mouth. "Unfortunately, they've just won the right to enter Iron Sand City, and there's unlikely to be another contest for some time. Even if we issue them a challenge invitation, they'll probably decline."

"Of course. As the newly-promoted clan, they'll have many trifles to sort out in order to gain a foothold in this city. Perhaps there'll be a new challenger during the next spring. Nobody would want to waste their energy at this time."

"And that's why I can only hang out with these sandbags for now." Lorgar sighed. "Did you come to see me just to say this?"

"You would rather hang out with these sandbags than talk to Papa?"

"Err... that's not the case." She shook her ears and lowered them as if to admit her mistake.

"Ahem, watch your expression." Guelz controlled the urge to stroke his daughter's soft and fluffy ears, and instead issued her a solemn reminder. No matter how cute she looked, it was not befitting of a future clan leader to reveal such an expression. She should remain serious at all times, because this was the only way that her subordinates would revere and obey her.

"Oh." Lorgar immediately straightened her ears and replied seriously.

Guelz gave a nod of satisfaction. Ever since his daughter had awakened as a Divine Lady, she increasingly enjoyed fighting, while her strength and ability consistently improved. From the Mojins' perspective, there was nothing wrong with these. However, as she grew older, the abilities gifted to her by the Three Gods were beginning to show signs of sequela. At first, Lorgar looked just like a regular person, except that she would transform into a large desert wolf when she used her abilities. After many fights, she mastered the technique of transforming a single limb, and thus had an assured means of controlling the God's Stone of Retaliation. As the effective range of the God's Stone was only two to three steps, she was able to bestialize her arm by keeping a distance away from the stone. The force which her arm could then exert was too great for any normal person to resist.

She thereby became unbeatable in a duel. The clan's warrior contingent, which had suffered a severe loss of personnel through the process of defending the first position and was showing signs of instability, became rejuvenated and stronger than ever before when she joined. Nobody had dared to challenge Wildflame's position for five years now. But, after many years of practices and battles, a section of Lorgar's body had permanently become wolf-like, such as her pointy ears and a half-visible tail. These did not revert to normal even when she withdrew her abilities.

Therefore, at present, Lorgar was a half-human, half-wolf monster.

As could be imagined, she would never be able to live the life of a proper Divine Lady. No charming warrior would ever be attracted by her body and looks, while Lorgar herself was not fond of those who were too unqualified.

Perhaps only her dear father did not mind whether she was a human or a beast.

Thus, she set her heart upon becoming the chief of Wildflame. Only by standing in the position which everyone had to look up to could she silence the questions about her.

"What do you think about the holy duel?"

"It looked exhilarating, but in truth, it was just a trick by Osha's chief, Drow Silvermoon. Aside from Ashes, there was nothing impressive." Lorgar wagged her tail.

"I must say, this tactic was brilliant indeed. She used her ability to bring the audience into the duel while steering clear of the restrictions, and completely controlled the direction of the duel." Guelz remarked, stroking his beard. "Not one person died to determine the outcome of the duel. I'd never seen something like this for many years. I believe that when the Cut Bone clan looks back on what happened, they won't hate Osha for it."

"This type of trick can only be used once," Lorgar retorted disapprovingly. "I'm willing to bet that in upcoming duels, the audience will start to adorn God's Stone of Retaliation as well. Although Osha's methods may have won their opponent's respect, it may backfire one day. You can't fill your stomach with respect. Who knows, maybe their first challenger will be a resurgent Cut Bone clan after a short period of recovery."

Guelz patted his daughter's shoulders relievedly. That she was able to notice these things, and place the clan's interest at the top of her considerations, were signs that she had the makings of a chief. Although she was keen on a well-matched and entertaining contest, she would not deliberately look for such opportunities and thereby ignore threats to the clan.

Just then, the guard who was keeping watch outside the training hall walked hurriedly up to the duo. After saluting, he reported, "Chief, I've just heard the news that the Osha clan has issued another request for a holy duel!"

"What?" Guelz was taken back and his face changed color. It had, after all, only been a day since they gained entrance into Iron Sand City. "To who?"

"The fourth-placed Sandstorm clan."

"Aren't they moving into Iron Sand City from the small oasis?"

"No. I've even heard that they rejected Cut Bone clan's arrangements to move out."

Crazy, what are these people thinking? Was it not their intention to move into Iron Sand City?

"Looks like we were wrong." Lorgar had remained silent for some time before she laughed softly. "Perhaps, a duel with Ashes isn't as unlikely as I'd imagined. What do you think, Papa?"

Chapter 764 - The Miracle Route

At night, the Skull Cup became the liveliest place in the small oasis.

"I watched the duel between Osha and Sandstorm with my own eyes!" A customer swilled down a jug of Firelantern Wine and exclaimed. "The black-haired Divine Lady was simply unstoppable! The instant the gong was rung, she charged straight up to the opposing Divine Lady and knocked her out with a single blow from her shield!"

"Isn't the Divine Lady from the Sandstorm clan called Sandra Sandrain? She can use sand to create armor and launch attacks. How did she lose so easily?" Another customer questioned. "Even if she couldn't respond in time, the sand armor she was wearing should be tougher than the Northerners' armor. How did it not block the attack?"

"You think I'm lying? I wasn't the only one who saw it!" The customer bawled disgruntedly. "The sand armor may be tough, but I didn't see it work at all. The moment that Osha's Divine Lady charged up to her, the sand covering her body spattered on to the floor, and her face took a full blow from the shield. Don't you remember that in the first duel, Osha's Divine Lady stood up to a dozen Cut Bone warriors on her own? With that kind of strength, it's only out of mercy that Sandra isn't dead!"

"Spattered on to the floor...? Was she wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation?"

"Maybe, but I'm not sure about that. The Cut Bone and Sandstorm duelists were certainly wearing them, however. Maybe these things don't work on her."

"A Divine Lady who isn't affected by God's Stones...? How's that possible?"

"Will you stop interrupting?" Someone whined. "Give this man some more liquor and let him finish speaking!"

"Thank you." The customer took a sip of his newly-filled jug and continued, "Sandstorm clan probably didn't expect their Divine Lady to fall first, and quickly lost their formation. They had only sent out half of the quota, and Sandra was surely their side's linchpin. Once she fell, there was virtually no chance of victory."

"Not one person died, again?"

"Indeed. All 15 of them are alive. They were either struck by arrows on their shoulders and knees, or were knocked out by Osha's Divine Lady!"

A flurry of whispers was heard amongst the crowd.

"But this is nothing." The customer suddenly became even more excited, and stood on to the bar counter so that everyone could see him. "The duel two days ago was the truly unforgettable one! Osha versus Black River, a large clan infamous for its audacity and cruelty! I'm sure everyone has heard its name before. Of the duelists that fought against them, very few managed to survive! Though they don't have a Divine Lady, they are entirely made up of top-top-class warriors, and always send out a full strength of 30 people. Compared to the other two duels, a lot more blood was spilled this round, but..."

The entire tavern quietened down when they heard the word 'but'. Everyone was eager for the customer to complete his sentence.

"But... once again, not one person died on the platform!" The customer exclaimed.

Everyone in the crowd gasped.

"That's impossible! When I did some trading in Iron Sand City today, everyone was discussing the news of Black River clan's heavy losses. They even hung a black flag on the Stone Castle for mourning. And you claim that not one person died?"

"Ha, you really need to listen more carefully." The customer twitched his fingers. "I said that not one person died on the platform!"

"I can attest to that," someone swiftly chimed in, "I was also watching!"

"That's right. Although I wasn't in time for the second holy duel, I was able to make it the day before yesterday. The platform could be said to be flowing with rivers of blood, hence it's extremely impressive that no one died!" Another person added.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"Please elaborate for everyone's sake."

"Miss, give him another three jugs!"

"It's easy to understand. The Divine Lady gave them a chance, but even when their limbs were broken or fractured, they tried using their teeth to bite her. Under this circumstance, she was forced to nullify their counterattacking ability completely...," The customer deliberately paused for a moment. "She used a long knife to sever their limbs before she kicked them off the platform one by one!"

"If just an arm or a leg was severed, they would have been able to survive after some treatment. But without all four limbs, they weren't able to hold on until they reached Iron Sand City. The blood loss alone killed them. Can you really blame Osha for this?" He gulped down a large mouthful of wine and repeated his question. "What do y'all think? Speak up!"

"Probably not... they hadn't done so in the previous duels, and were forced to do so this time."

"That nobody died on the platform is sufficient proof that the Divine Lady had no intention to kill."

"That's right!"

"In my opinion, Black River deserves it. They didn't even know who their opponent was, and thought that their usual appearance would intimidate Osha!"

"Well said!"

"Barkeeper, give everyone another jug of Firelantern Wine. It's all on me tonight!" Someone shouted towards the second floor of the tavern.

Thuram, who had all the time been leaning against the window on the second floor, clapped his hands and replied, "No need. This round is on me. To Osha..."

"To Osha!"

The first floor of the tavern burst out in cheers.

Thuram finished the drink in his hand and let out a long sigh.

In the past week, the number of customers to Skull Cup had been rising. The first floor, which had been considered spacious, became overcrowded instead. Everyone was busy discussing only one thing, and that was the holy duels.

In fact, it was not only the tavern but also the small oasis which became packed. Wherever he went, he would see moribunds and half-deads from various clans inquiring about news of Osha. This was something that could never have happened in the past.

An upsurge in population was a huge burden for the administrators of the small oasis. The granaries never had enough stock to begin with, and furthermore, it was easy for people who came with bad intentions to blend into the crowds. According to the watchdogs' usual practice, the small oasis only allowed in Ironsand people who were able to bring benefits to the place - they had to be either merchants or warriors who sought refuge.

That the clanspeople from all corners of the Silver Stream Oasis were now free to gather here was entirely because of the orders of the new owner, Drow Silvermoon.

If he was the Thuram of old, his daily work would simply be intended to earn a few gold royals for the watchdogs, and at the same time set aside some money for himself. The transformation was more than he could ask for. At present, his fate was firmly interlocked with that of the Osha clan. It was exhausting enough to make sure that his men maintained order in the small oasis.

Fortunately, the new owner had already considered his circumstance. After the first duel, Drow allowed him to remain in the small oasis and focus on the domestic situation.

To ensure an adequate food supply, Iron Axe not only brought back a batch of food from the Cut Bone clan, but also offered gold royals to two other oases. When one of them rejected the deal, they were raided and seized by Graycastle soldiers the very next day, and their territory was exchanged for food from the food-abundant Silver River clan.

In reality, by this point in time, Thuram did not have the faintest idea what the Osha people's intentions were.

They not only accepted the challenge of a clan which had been previously unharmed, but also spared the warriors of Cut Bone and Sandstorm clan, allowing them to recover their full strength after a short rest. Even if they desired to be the top clan, doing so seemed completely meaningless!

The one thing that comforted Thuram was that the Divine Ladies brought back by Drow Silvermoon were indeed extremely powerful. The party always consisted of only four people, yet they had already beaten three large clans in succession. There were, at present, only two clans to go.

And tonight, there should be news from the Land of Fire once more.

The outcome of Osha's challenge against the Wildwave clan.

Chapter 765 - The Last Battle

At midnight, a messenger came running to the tavern, panting.

"We won.....we won!" He said with a husky voice, without even drinking a drop of water, "Sir, the Osha clan has won!"

To return from the Land of Fire to the small oasis on foot it required a day, and if one could arrive on the same day if traveling by horse. It was obvious that once the fight was over he had immediately rushed back to the oasis.

The whole "Skull Cup" shook with the news.

"Ha, I knew they could win!"

"What was the course of events?"

"Tell us, how did they win?"

"No casualties as always?"

Talking and asking, everyone surrounded the messenger while at the same time the best fruit wine was delivered in front of him.

Thuram also felt relieved. After all, the stronger Osha was, the better life he would have as a member of the clan. He did not care much about the fact that it was not him who had led the clan to score such a victory in the fight. As long as he could make his clan members shed the half-dead and dead status, he would always believe that he had made a good bargain with Graycastle.

He clapped towards that clan member. "Take a breath first and then tell us the details of the fight."

"Yes!" The messenger satisfied his thirst with some fruit win, took a deep breath and said, "The two sides didn't fight as the Wildwave clan reached an agreement with the Osha princess and willingly gave up the second seat!"

"What?"

Everyone in the tavern remained quiet for a while and then suddenly all of them started talking so loud that the roof seemed to shake!

"The two sides didn't fight?"

"Willingly giving up...does this count as surrender?"

"Doesn't this mean that Osha is one step away from becoming the chief clan?"

"Winning a series of four holy duels while not killing anyone. This has never happened before!"

"I also heard of this so I came as fast as I could."

"Haha, me too. If it wasn't' for this, who would want to leave the Silver Stream Oasis during the cold winter.

"Damn, it was worth coming here!"

"To the Three Gods from Osha!"

"To Lady Drow Silvermoon!"

Thulam was also stunned for a moment. But not because of Wildwave clan's surrender—this kind of action was understandable. Saving their strength by keeping temporarily the third seat, waiting for Osha and Wildflame to both weaken through their battle and then finding the opportunity to regain second place, or maybe even becoming the chief clan. After all, they could afford to retreat, unlike Wildflame.

What surprised him was that he had suddenly come to realize, during all the chatting, what was his new master's purpose.

They were quickly gaining popularity!

There has never been a holy duel before that attracted as much of Sand people's attention as this one—the vengeful return of the Osha princess, the continuous challenges just like a mighty storm, no matter how many the enemies were... always fighting with four people, plus the extraordinary record of not killing anyone. All of these, as unbelievable as they may sound, greatly attracted people's curiosity.

Even though the holy duel was an important ritual in deciding each clan's position and power, but for many of the Sand Nation's people, that was very far from them. Some clans, from their establishment until their disappearance, would never leave the Silver Stream Oasis and so naturally would not care about the challengers and the fights between the clans.

After all, being able to stand out from a myriad of clans was so rare that the news of a normal alternation of power was not even as attractive as the news of the Osha being framed by the Ironwhip. But it was different this time. A clan member who had been subjected to exile and the daughter of a chief who was sold as a slave still had the opportunity to turn things around. Just by considering this, most of the weak clans had unconsciously taken the side of the Osha. But the things that happened afterward were even more bizarre and thus in just one month, Osha had turned from an unknown challenger into the center of Sand people's discussions.

The full of people tavern was the best proof.

No matter if they were full of expectation or sarcasm, or if they were just curious to see how far could Osha go, at least Drow Silvermoon had now become a household name. It was not hard to imagine that at the time of the last holy duel, numerous people would go to the Land of Fire to personally watch Osha's battle to ascend to the top.

Thuram naturally understood the meaning of such a reputation.

The last clan chief whose name spread throughout the entire Southernmost Region had almost unified the whole desert, and even though later he had fallen in the war with Graycastle, he was widely considered as the Three Gods Emissary.

Did the new master also have this goal in mind?

The only difference this time was that the Osha did not need to oppose Graycastle— the power supporting them was actually the northern kingdom which was suppressing the Sand Nation.

"His Majesty Roland Wimbledon will bring order and oasis to the Mojin Clan."

Thinking of Iron Axe's words, he suddenly realized that once Osha really became the chief clan, maybe something great would happen.

That would probably change the fate of all Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan.

***************

Two days later, outside of the small oasis, at the camp of the First Army.

"Your injury... is it ok?" Echo looked at Ashes worryingly. The battle with the Black River clan had stained her whole body with blood—even though most of it was her opponent's, she still didn't come out unscathed.

"Don't worry, it won't affect our plan." Ashes carelessly untied her dark hair letting it fall on her loose cope. At times like that, it was impossible to see that she was an experienced fighter, but more of a graceful beauty. "Leaf's herbs are also very effective, the deeper cuts are almost healed."

"They are only a few exterior injuries, Extraordinary witches are physically better than us. After all, all of the nutrition goes to the muscles instead of the brain." Andrea shrugged. "When she was fighting alone against the church, she was hiding in places that even mice were not willing to stay, surviving on dead animals. If that didn't kill her then don't even mention these small injuries."

Ashes rolled her eyes but instead of arguing with her like usual, she leaned on the chair and closed her eyes.

"This is how a veteran should act," Iron Axe next to her thought, "apart from eating and fighting, the rest of the time should be used for resting, in order to restore both physical and mental health. The other witches of Neverwinter may also be strong but not many of them would be able to do that."

This is why His Majesty had delayed his plan only to wait for her.

"What're we going to do next?" Echo asked.

"We have done our best according to His Majesty's instructions." Iron Ax recalled Roland's instructions before their departure. Although some words were very hard to understand, such as creating hype being the most important thing, by creating a topic, a legendary duel, so that the whole desert could hear their voice and so on...but overall, the plan was to draw as much public attention as possible. Nowadays, more and more people were coming to watch the holy duel from various locations of the Silver Stream Oasis, so their plan was successful. "All that is left is to defeat Wildflame, and then, at the holy land, in the presence of everyone, you tell them what His Majesty has instructed you.

"I...Understood," Echo remained silent for a while and then clenched her fist as if motivating herself.

"Don't worry, lady Silvermoon, His Majesty didn't require everyone to understand this, you don't need to feel too much pressure." Iron Axe said. "You only need to do as usual and let your voice be heard everywhere in the Land of Fire. No matter how many people respond to us, the new order will spread in the whole Southernmost Region down the Silver Stream.

Suddenly, Thuram entered the room.

He saluted the four of them and took out a letter. "The Wildflame clan responded to Osha's challenge request, but...they require specific people to participate in the battle.

"What do you mean?" Andrea frowned.

"It says in the letter that Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan wishes to have a one on one fight with Ashes on the Burning Stage," Thuram replied respectfully.

Chapter 766 - Ashes Against Lorgar!

The holy duel between Osha clan and Wildflame clan was about to begin as planned.

The Land of Fire had never been as lively as it was today, with the spectators almost surrounding the high platform—in order to ensure that more people enter the holy land, Iron Axe also released on loan a box of God's Stone of Retaliation. As long as one clan had no more than 50 people, the rest of the clans would not say anything.

Even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to stop them.

Osha nowadays was already the popular second strongest clan. As long as they did not oppose the Three Gods, anything they required had to be taken into careful consideration.

Under the cheerings of the crowd, Ashes slowly walked on the platform—the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan were full of respect for real fighters and her performance the past month had earned her everyone's respect.

Some were even calling her the strongest fighter in the Northern kingdom.

Thus, this fight was regarded as the battle between the strongest of the Nothern kingdom and the strongest of the Southernmost Region.

Ashes was still dressed like usual, her long hair tied into a ponytail and hanging down her waist. She was wearing a black robe without any armor and not carrying any weapons.

But it wasn't because she was arrogant.

The Wildflame clan's request for an "unarmed fight" meant according to Thuram, a fight without any weapons, armor or other supporting items including God's Stones of Retaliation. Obviously, banning God's Stones would help Lorgar to some degree, since it would inadvertently weaken the Extraordinary's combat strength. Ashes believed that it was a coincidence, because in the past month, she had found out that they were not aware of the categorization of witch's powers. As long as one had awakened, she was regarded as a Divine lady, but they did not know of the most special type of witch: the Extraordinaries.

The opponent probably just wanted a good fight.

She ultimately agreed to this request, after taking into account that the ability of Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan still belonged to the melee type—this information had not only been confirmed by Thuram's description but also from many other sources. The Divine lady Lorgar's ability was almost similar to that of Maggie's, as she could turn into a monster while obtaining strength and agility far beyond that of ordinary people. This made her extremely excited. Who would be stronger, a transformed witch or an Extraordinary?

If it was an opponent like Anna, Ashes would have never accepted.

The unpredictable Blackfire could both defend and attack so there was no way to fight against it. Without the protection of God's Stone, it would almost be impossible to get closer than ten meters.

On the other hand, an equal combat would also be beneficial for her.

Since she found out about the Transcendent, Ashes was always thinking of improving her ability.

According to Agatha, becoming a Transcendent required everyday practice as well as continuously battling with strong opponents. This way, through life and death situations, one could achieve high evolution.

This was the main reason that led her to accept the opponent's request.

At that moment, a sudden cheer burst from the crowd as a woman wearing a hooded cloak swiftly jumped onto the platform, heading towards Ashes. Being the strongest of the Sand people, their cheering for her was slightly louder. There was no doubt that she was the opponent she had to face today—the Wildflame clan's Divine lady, Lorgar.

"You are Ashes?" she took off her hood and revealed her red curly hair as well as...a pair of tall fluffy ears.

Ashes was stunned, "Are these..dog ears?"

"Wolf ears!" Lorgar corrected her and her face instantly became red.

"Oh, you aren't wearing shoes? Isn't the ground too hot?" She gazed down at her bare feet.

"Mojins are never afraid of the hot sand," She tiptoed while taking off her cloak, exposing also a fluffy tail behind her.

Judging by her expression, it was obvious that it was hot...Ashes shrugged, "You are getting used to the consumption of magic power by always maintaining your transformation? It seems like a good way to practice."

"I don't understand what are you saying," Lorgar waved her tail. "This is the price for this ability given by the Three Gods, it's not some kind of practice—I have no way to transform back to human form so I can only live on as half human and half beast."

So that was the case, Ashes realized. Because she did not want to expose her appearance, she had to wear a cloak even in such a hot place... and revealing her animalized form once she was already on stage would make everyone think that she had transformed because she had entered the battle.

So what the intelligence referred to as a monster, was actually a wolf?

She wasn't sure whether it would be effective or not to decrease Lorgar's fighting capacity by using a bone to allure her and distract her.

At least for Maggie, that would be extremely effective.

"What are laughing at?" Lorgar frowned. "Are you underestimating me?"

"No, nothing," Ashes suppressed her smile, "I just remembered a funny friend...since you are ready, let's begin."

"My thoughts exactly." Lorgar raised both of her hands and the once smooth female arms transformed into a pair of thick wolf claws. "Father, please knock the gong!"

Is this...partial animalization through free will? Ashes raised her eyebrows. Even though she was ignorant of the mysteries of magic power, she was still able to control and utilize her power properly. This was hard even for Maggie and only in dangerous situations was she able to do it.

As the chief of Wildflame hit the gong, Lorgar pushed with both feet and lunged towards her.

The Wolf girl's speed was pretty fast but in the eyes of Ashes, it still wasn't that different from ordinary people's. She could even determine where the opponent's landing position would be and thus prepare her own attacking position in advance.

But she didn't do it.

Lorgar was obviously not using her full power but instead was planning to test her strength through such a move. So, Ashes decided to oppose her head on in order to make her realize that she had no chance to defeat her unless she completely transformed first.

She held out her hands and firmly grabbed Wolf girl's paws like a pincer. Then she turned her body and, using her opponent's momentum, she held her above her shoulders and smashed her forcefully on the ground.

This was the advantage of an Extraordinary. Partial animalization meant only partially strengthened power for Lorgar, but as for Ashes, each of her fingers, each of her tendons were strengthened at all times. Magic power would strengthen her body every day, continuously and no matter the time she would always feel her body surging with power.

She punched downwards, smashing the ground where Lorgar was lying. As for the latter, she had rolled over to dodge her and then put her hands upside down, bent her knees and kicked towards her.

But the kick that would have caused a viscera rupture on any adult was single-handedly grabbed by Ashes, who instantly squeezed it peeling off the skin of Lorgar's calf, almost breaking it. At that moment, Wolf Girl realized the danger through her pain, kicked towards Ashes' head with her other foot while simultaneously transforming her foot into a wolf leg!

Ashes loosened her five fingers and bent to escape the sweeping strike. Lorgar finally escaped and did not dare to keep on testing so she transformed her other leg into a wolf leg too—as a result, all four of her limbs had been completely animalized, which not only increased her height quite a bit but also improved her speed and strength.

As far as Ashes was concerned, her opponent's situation did not improve that much though. Any parts of her body that had not been animalized were obviously her weak spots.

For example the head and the abdomen.

The Extraordinary fiercely punched with two fists, forcing Lorgar to also use both of her paws to stop her. Then, she smirked and before the Wolf Girl could realize what happened, she forcefully hit the other's forehead with her own.

"Woo—"

Princess Lorgar couldn't help but utter a painful cry, with tears and blood coming out simultaneously. The huge impact had crushed her nose and she was forced by the the intense pain to close her eyes.

Ashes turned around, kicked Lorgar's soft abdomen and sent her flying!

Chapter 767 - Extraordinary Training Method

The noisy field quietened down suddenly.

No one could have expected that Lorgar would have fallen into a disadvantage so soon after the fighting began. From the looks of this round, Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan was definitely wounded heavily.

Only Ashes knew that she had not used her full power in that attack. At that moment she struck Wolf Girl, the other party had already speedily retreated backward and had slightly curled her body. Therefore the attack was not taken at a full blow. In the face of a heavy blow, Lorgar consciously avoided being in the scope of the enemy's attack. This indicated that even if she had not experienced the real battle of life and death, at least she had put in a lot of efforts in training.

The girl fell to the ground and rolled around for two laps. Her body rapidly started to inflate, causing the clothes on her body to get torn to shreds. Her smooth skin exposed was covered by the fluffy light yellow mane.

"Um... she looks different from Maggie." Ashes pondered. "Fat Pigeon wraps herself up with hair and then transforms into a bird species, so this could be considered a purely physical change. No wonder she chooses to fight barefoot before, as she knows that every time she animalizes into a beast, she'll ruin a pair of shoes. That will be a heavy burden even for a big clan."

By contrast, Maggie was much more economical. Not only would she not damage her clothes, but she could also wrap her package in her hair and most of the time that meant she could carry an extra luggage.

"Ow ow ow woo—!"

When Lorgar stopped rolling, her body had completely changed its appearance.

A huge desert wolf appeared on the platform. Ashes had seen these wolves with yellow fur on her way to and from the Land of Fire. Compared to the snow wolves at Western Region, their fur was not only stubby and hard, but they were also thinner in shape. After sunset, their eyes would occasionally emit a green light, and they constantly had an insatiable look. Obviously, they led different lives from their same kind in the Misty Forest. Other than the lack of rich rations, they also faced the threat of other brutal predators.

But this wolf in front of her was way too large.

Even a horse would be dwarfed beside her. Just her limbs alone were already half a head higher than Ashes. If Lorgar stood on her hind legs, that would be the height of two adult men.

And her severely damaged nose was also reflected in the animalized body. The cocked bridge of her nose had a collapsed part, and the nostrils also blew out hot air and streaks of fresh blood.

Lorgar howled loudly and caused the onlookers at Sand Nation to gasp in astonishment. Not only Ashes, but it was the first time for everyone around to witness the changing process of the strongest goddess in the Southernmost Region. It was natural for them to feel great pressure and fear standing under such a burly body.

Without waiting for their inhaling sounds to subside, Wolf Girl sprang forward toward Ashes again.

This time Ashes looked more serious, as the latter's speed had almost reached the level of the God's Punishment Warriors. And with such a huge figure, its power certainly could not be underestimated.

She avoided Lorgar's thrust by moving aside and immediately realized that she had made the wrong move.

Wolf Girl's range after animalizing was too wide. Compared with the God's Punishment Army warrior that had the same size as common people, she often only needed to move one step to dodge the attack. And with two or three steps she could even counterattack. But for the giant beast, the number of steps needed to be increased at least several times.

Right now, Ashes barely avoided the attack, before the other party struck with her right claw and hit her like a huge wall.

"Boom—!"

Being unable to avoid the attack, she had no choice but to lift her arms to block the attack head-on.

Although the collision gave both sides exactly the same impact, the advantages of body shape at this moment were very clear. Lorgar's whole body trembled due to the impact, while Ashes was completely thrown out flying.

...

Under the platform, Echo could not help grabbing Andrea's wrist. "Ashes... Will she be alright?"

After animalizing into a huge beast, the situation was reversed. Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan kept pursuing Ashes, and the latter could only use most of her energy to defend and dodge with almost no way of fighting back.

Although both were unarmed, each of their kicks and punches was as sharp as an iron hammer at this level. Several wounds appeared on Ashes's body, and the blood gradually dyed her robes red.

"Don't worry, an attack like this won't cost her her life. She still hasn't given all her force." Andrea continued and said, "Ashes may not have many strengths, but she is exceptional at resisting attacks."

"Not yet given her... all?" Echo was startled and said, "But she's obviously panting, and she doesn't look at all relaxed!"

"Do you know the Extraordinary Training Method during the Taquila age?" Andrea asked in return.

"No, what's that?"

"It's a way to speed up the consumption of magic power so that one can be in training mode all the time... According to His Majesty Roland, this was both ancient and inefficient, hence it would be better to study two more books to analyze how muscles and bones can convert chemical energy into mechanical energy." She chuckled and said, "But I think for someone with the intelligence of Ashes, she might be particularly suitable for this stupid method—after all, letting her read a book was simply too difficult."

"Is that so?" Echo widened her mouth in surprise.

"Of course," said Andrea gracefully while she smoothened the ends of her hair. "Look, she's going to fight back."

...

As soon as Ashes managed to distance herself from her opponent, she pulled out a black tape from within her arms.

"What's that?" said Lorgar, who stopped in her tracks and shouted, "is that a weapon?"

The crowd was also stirred up.

The agreement of the holy duel was sanctioned by the Three Gods and deserters would be eternally spurned. So no one violated this even if it was not checked by anyone.

Ashes smiled and casually threw the cloth strap on the ground. It looked like a waist strap, but it made a dull crash when it fell on the ground as if she had thrown a heavy stone, instead of a gentle piece of cloth.

Wolf Girl's howlings suddenly contracted.

However, this was not the only burden.

Then she crouched down and took the two pieces of black tape that were tied to her ankles.

They looked ordinary but were handmade by Soraya. If they were ordinary fabrics, even the most sturdy canvas would not last more than a week. The cloth strap was divided into three layers. The innermost one was hollow, and filled with special iron bars. Each short part weighed about ten pounds. The cloth strap for the waist would be equivalent to the weight of carrying an adult person.

When she stood up again, she felt her whole body full of strength again and the long-lost sense of ease once again returned to her body.

"Extraordinaries wear this kind of thing to practice. The faster the magic is consumed, the stronger the body gets." Ashes still remembered what Agatha said at that time. "Even many people bring them to the battlefield, and at the most crucial moment, the most unexpected power could be released. If all went well and you persisted for five to six years, you could even hope to break through the body's shackles and become a Transcendent."

And now, just over a year and three months have passed.

Chapter 768 - Bloodbathed Battle

This was the first time Ashes initiated the attack since Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan had completely animalized.

Lorgar also did not back down and lifted her body toward her opponent. But this time she found that her attacks could no longer be coherent, and even with a wide range of Sweeping Strike, it was difficult to force the other party to block or counterattack. She was always a little slower than Ashes. She could hit Ashes before, but now she could only tear off a corner of her clothing.

And more often than not, she could not reach anything.

After fighting for a moment, Wolf Girl had to use a strong tactic. When her right claw was unsuccessful, she had to use the remainder of her strength to rotate her body, and use her stout tail to hit the other party—this tactic allowed her to instantly place half of the platform within her attacking range. Even if Ashes were quick on her feet it would be impossible to retreat completely, unless she had no intention from the start to approach. A tail like an iron whip could easily scrape off fresh flesh, and most of the wounds on Ashes were left behind by this move.

However, the expected crash did not come.

Sounds of exclamation could be heard coming from the platform.

Oh no!

Lorgar's heart suddenly had a bad premonition and at the same time, she saw a fallen figure from the corner of her eye.

She—can fly?

All the bystanders were staring with their eyes wide open. They saw Ashes levitating even over the top of Wolf Girl who was half a head taller than her, and she landed directly on the turning head of her opponent!

Tail attacks had a wide range, yet could only sweep close to the ground raid without being a threat to mid-air targets. However, it would be extremely difficult for most people to jump over such a great distance. As it would be easy for opponents to judge the landing point leading to the inevitable next attack, so few people would jump into a duel.

Unfortunately, after Wolf Girl rotated her body to do a sweeping strike, her tail part became her blind zone.

Ashes no longer chose to show mercy, but smashed her fist into Lorgar's eye, causing the eyeballs to split open suddenly. A mass of blood splashed over half of her body, and severe pain caused the latter to scream out hoarsely. Even if the body could bear the attack, the organs such as the eyes were still very fragile parts. After losing one eye, the duel had quickly tilted its balance in favor toward the Extraordinary.

However, just as Ashes inteded to withdraw her fist and give her opponent a chance to surrender, she found that Lorgar's eye was closed and her right hand was gripped tightly by her eyelids and face muscles. In the meantime, a giant claw came flashing toward Ashes—even if this claw managed to wound her, it would also increase the trauma of Wolf Girl's eye.

Lorgar showed that she was determined to fight.

Normally, imprisonment like this would be unable to trap the Extraordinary witch, but just slow down her actions by a little. But at such a critical moment, even a breath of time could be extremely deadly.

Ashes knew very well that she could not avoid it, so she did not hesitate and lifted the other arm to face the attack head-on.

She seemed to have heard the sound of her broken bones caused by the tremendous impact.

She sprayed out a mouthful of fresh blood.

This was probably the first time after the duel started that she was really hit.

As the two separated, Ashes noticed that her left arm had been bent into a weird shape.

"Roar——!"

Lorgar roared loudly and rushed towards Ashes with her mouth wide open, ready to bite.

Instead of retreating, Ashes rolled forward. She escaped the other party's bite and crawled under the blind zone of Wolf Girl's neck. Then with one hand holding the ground, she kicked both legs to the other's forelimb.

With a loud noise, the forelimb bent out like a folding door. And at this point, the three-legged Wolf Girl almost lost her ability to attack.

"Lorgar, that's enough!" The head of Wildflame Guelz shouted.

"No, I can still fight!" Lorgar replied breathlessly. "Her situation isn't much better. I just need to hold on for a while... hold on for a while and it'll be alright!"

Ashes licked the bloodstains from the corner of her mouth, and could not help but laugh.

Her opponent was right as her situation was indeed not too good. The heavy blow caused her whole body to ache and her internal organs felt like they had shifted positions; her arm was also broken and drooping weakly beside her. She looked as pathetic as the one-eyed giant wolf that was standing with three legs.

However, a man could move by two legs, but a wolf could not. Coupled with the loss of one eye, the limited vision would further hinder Wolf Girl's action. If she could not accurately hit the enemy, then being strong and powerful would be meaningless. This was what she had learned from her experience of fighting with the God's Punishment Warriors.

The other thing that could be confirmed was that she was now a lot stronger than she was a year ago.

This was particularly obvious when she received that great impact. Ashes could clearly feel the magic power in her body flow faster than ever before, and time seemed to slow down in that instant. She could even see the claws and meat pad that kept coming close toward her. And most of the magic gathered in her forearm, so she had an unprecedented strength.

If it were her in the past, this strike would not only have broken that arm that was used as a shield, but would have also cracked her ribs and internal organs.

But for now, she just felt pain and not numbness nor weakness.

Was this what Agatha meant by the life and death sentiment?

She felt as if she was standing in front of a thick door.

If Wolf Girl could partially control her magic power to partly animalize her own body, could the Extraordinary apply the same method each time to attack with a strength beyond the limits of her own power?

This may be a worthwhile exercise.

Of course, the most important thing now is to resolve this duel.

If I break even the other eye, she will have no choice but to admit defeat, right?

Anyway, with the help of Leaf's herbs, she could stay alive. As long as she could be towed back to the Western Region, Nana would be able to heal her back to brand new.

Ashes took a deep breath and bent down slightly.

Lorgar also got ready for an attacking stance and exposed her fangs at the same time.

Both of them knew that the next blow would be the final blow for both parties, no matter what the outcome was. Only one person would be standing on the platform.

The heavy atmosphere infected all the spectators and the entire scene was silent, leaving only the sound of the burning ground.

Just as Ashes was about to move, there was a sudden scream from Echo. "Be careful, overhead!"

She rapidly looked up and saw a huge monster rushing down that had expanded wings even wider than the platform. Its claws were like open blades, and as thick as an arm. Only when it got close to the ground, could she hear the hiss of the air stream passing over its wings.

Ashes jumped aside with her greatest strength to avoid the monster's diving attack range.

And through the corner of her eye, she saw that Lorgar was also trying to dodge its attack. But because of her broken forelimbs, she was unable to and got hit directly by the enemy.

With a boom, the platform was smashed into several cracks by this meteoroid-like impact.

Lorgar cried out piercing screams.

Chapter 769 - Unyielding Will

"By the name of Three Gods! That's... the Four-winged Eagle!"

"How dare this beast break into the Burning Shrine!"

"Help, help me!"

"Guards, where are the guards?"

Screams of panic and disbelief came from the crowd. Some of the Sand Nation people pulled out their weapons and climbed up the platform to save Lorgar, while the others wanted to flee. The scene suddenly became quite chaotic.

Ashes could see clearly through the smoke that the bird was actually a giant demonic beast. It resembled a demonic hybrid of an eagle and a beetle. The back, lower abdomen, and head were covered with a striped shell. It had six claws and each section could be clearly seen. The front pair was the thickest and held Lorgar firmly on the ground like an iron clamp. The four pairs of wings, which should have been as thin as cicada wings were thick like bird wings and became its most striking feature.

Nature could never produce such an ugly monster.

The demonic beast kept trying to peck her neck while pressing down Wolf Girl. Its claws could not be avoided, and Wolf Girl could only sway from left to right to avoid the attack. The inability to move her body greatly limited the range that she could dodge. In a short time, her cheek already suffered a few scratches, and the fresh blood stained her fur. By the look of things, she would not be able to hold for a long time and would be killed by the demonic beast.

Ashes would definitely not allow it to happen.

Ashes assisted Iron Axe in participating in the Desert Mission because of Tilly; using the holy duel to decide victory was also the choice of the latter. She had the aid of Leaf's herbs and Nana's treatment, so she took this matter very seriously in order not to let Lorgar down. However, Lorgar was still a witch, and so long as she was not evil like a Pure Witch, there was no way Ashes could sit by idly and let her die in the hands of the demonic beast.

"Echo!"

Ashes shouted, and then plunged toward the demonic hybrid. She clung to its mouth at that moment when it was trying to peck again.

The sharp corner of its mouth scratched her arm and the blood dripped bit by bit on Wolf Girl's face, but she was still motionless.

Wolf Girl looked up at Ashes weakly with her remaining eye. Her dark pupil revealed a complex look.

At the same time, Echo's lullaby could be heard. The music gradually dispersed everyone's panic and soothed the crowd that was trying to escape.

Without the interference from the surrounding crowd, repeated gunfire sounds could be heard from where Andrea was standing.

She was different from the First Army that might accidentally wound the witch. Her precise shooting ability ensured that as long as there was a glimmer of space, she could hit the target perfectly.

Ashes saw Lorgar's claws tremble fiercely. Then several rounds of bullets hit the same joint position, breaking the Four-winged Eagle's claws directly into two pieces.

After losing the clamp, Lorgar rolled up and kicked the beast's belly, and kicked it out. The latter flapped its wings and rose again. Only now did the First Army squad ring out the gunshots for the very first time. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to hit a flying target that could circle or swing up and down and was behaving more like an erratic insect than a bird.

"Are you ok?" Ashes took off her black robe and covered the diminishing body of the huge wolf.

"Temporarily... Ahem, I won't die yet..." Lorgar that had regained her human form, coughed out a mouthful of blood foam, and struggled to climb up but failed several times.

"Don't move around or else you will aggravate your wounds." Ashes groped along her body and discovered that one side of the chest was sunken down and she could feel the bumps of the raised bones. It was clear that several ribs were broken in the previous violent impact. It was fortunate that the wolf form could resist the impact of the heavy attacks. If she had retained her human form, that attack would have probably taken her life.

Wildflame clan warriors also surrounded the area with their short bows and aimed toward the demonic beast in the sky. But even firearms could not be effective at this distance, therefore arrows were even more useless.

"Watch out! It's coming again!" Echo warned everyone again.

"Everyone get out of the way!"

Ashes hugged Lorgar and rolled on the spot to avoid the grazing attack of the demonic beast. Several clan warriors were unable to avoid it and were thrown out with their chests heavily deflated, so they were unlikely to survive.

The Four-winged Eagle obviously had a high level of intelligence. It seemed to realize that the only thing that could threaten it was the rifle held by Andrea. When it was diving and attacking Lorgar, it would always use its abdomen's shell to face the blonde witch. It also followed a rocking motion and a polyline flight path. When Andrea was refilling, the demonic beast would throw the people it captured toward Hummingbird and Echo to obstruct her filling action and also rotate the direction of attack.

Andrea avoided the danger several times by a thin thread. In addition to paying attention to the movements of the demonic beast, she also had to take care of the other two partners. If she had not mastered the new evolutionary skills that enabled her to release a strong air stream at close range, she would have been thrown down ages ago by the demonic beast.

Ashes could not help frowning as this Four-winged Eagle seemed like it was targeting the witches.

If it simply wanted to prey on food, the platform was full of people, and no one would have stopped it from taking away one or two people. But it dived repeatedly to attack Lorgar or would stare at Andrea and the other witches. It showed no interest in the ordinary people and was vastly different from the rumored brutal and bloodthirsty assailant.

The First Army had only 50 soldiers that entered the Land of Fire and were no help in dealing with a flexible target in the air. Ashes thought it was necessary to lead it to the top of the large army and hopefully, it could be shot down with more intense gunfire.

But... what exactly needed to be done?

At this moment, Lorgar grabbed her hand.

"Throw me upwards." Wolf Girl gasped and spoke one word at a time.

"What?"

"Ahem... Throw me up!" She repeated. "When it's coming toward us, that's the only... the only chance I can catch it. I can't act on my own, I can only depend on you!"

"If you don't succeed, you may die here," said Ashes.

"A warrior's second home has always been the battlefield," said Lorgar, with her ears drooping down. "So at least I've resisted until the very end. You are the most powerful warrior I've ever met... Ahem... You've given me the chance to experience such a wonderful fight. Thank you."

Ashes saw a firm resolve from her expression and nodded after a moment of silence, "I see. But you're mistaken, it's not our last fight."

"Even if I... manage to stay alive, it will be impossible for me to stand like a normal person. You don't need to comfort me." She laughed at herself.

Even if she could recover from such heavy wounds, she would still be disabled. Perhaps death would be a better option for her.

"There's a witch called Nana in Neverwinter of Graycastle, who can heal any man back to brand new. Even someone who's breathing his last or whose limbs are entirely broken," said Ashes, slightly widening her mouth.

The wolf's ears became erect in the blink of an eye.

"What you just said... is that true?"

"Of course, I have gone through no less than a hundred battles like this one, and there were even more powerful enemies. And if you want to hone your skills, you can find opportunities at any time. So if you live..." Ashes stopped here without finishing what she wanted to say, as she realized that the other party's remaining eye now reflected a brand new light.

"I'll survive, for sure."

"Well, come up then."

Ashes no longer hesitated and grabbed Lorgar's foot with one hand. She took advantage of Four-winged Eagle diving toward the center of the platform, to fling herself around for two turns before throwing Lorgar out—

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan was like a flying arrow with her black robes, aiming at the monster that was flying straight down.

Chapter 770 - Echo and Drow Silvermoon

"Siyaaaaa!"

The Four-winged Eagle let out a peculiar high-pitched sound as it probably did not expect the other party to take the initiative in attacking it.

It opened its beak and without a moment to spare, immediately attacked Lorgar without bothering to dodge.

What happened next shook the hearts of the onlookers.

Lorgar instantly transformed into a massive Desert Wolf and smacked the strange bird's face with thunderous strength! The eagle's head bent to one side and its beak that was originally able to pick up an adult with ease suddenly broke away.

It was then already too late for the demonic hybrid to adjust its balance, so the two beasts just fiercely collided with each other.

Lorgar once again spits out fresh blood, but she still tightly grabbed on to the demonic beast, and her teeth sank deeply into its flesh.

The demonic beast sensed danger from the Desert Wolf clinging on to her and desperately flapped its wings trying to fly up. However, no matter how hard it moved its wings, it was unable to gain altitude due to the Wolf Girl who weighed as heavy as itself.

"Andrea!" Ashes shouted at her companion.

"I knew that you would have to depend on me eventually," said Andrea. She threw her rifle back to Echo and leaped up the platform while summoning the Magical Longbow.

At the same time, the two beasts smashed down heavily onto the platform.

With a flash of white light, the Desert Wolf which was sitting on top of the Four-winged Eagle suddenly disappeared. Ashes knew then that Lorgar had already reached her limit. But fortunately, the outcome of this battle had already been decided. She took a dead Sand Nation warrior's robe and rushed toward the demonic beast.

Upon closer inspection, she could see that the demonic beast's back and the abdominal shell was pockmarked with several wounds. Some were scratches, while others were small holes that oozed green slime and blue blood. These wounds were probably left by the First Army, but none of them had inflicted fatal damage to the demonic beast.

She quickly found the motionless Princess Lorgar in the gap between the wings and carried her down the platform.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the longbow in Andrea's hands shining with golden light.

The hybrid demonic beast that had been wounded quite severely had its head swaying and was staggering on the ground when it suddenly found something resembling a golden sun next to it.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Andrea laughed mockingly. "Fly away if you can."

"Shriek—!" It finally recovered its senses and tried spreading its wings in a panic to escape. But it was too late.

A blinding ray of light shot out from the Magical Longbow, and with a thundering whistle, it pierced through the demonic beast's body. In a flash, its body suddenly started emitting countless beams of golden light, as if a sun was trying to break out of its body and began engulfing it in its glow!

As it quieted down, a circular crater a few meters wide appeared in the middle of the platform. All that was left of the Four-winged eagle was a piece of its body lying on the edge of the gap, and its remaining body parts were splattered all over the place like tiny droplets of rain.

Andrea stood proudly in this torrential rain of flesh and gore, with her golden bow giving her long hair and alluring figure an eye-catching silhouette.

"Why are you still materializing your longbow? Are you wasting your magical power?" Ashes who was under the platform got grumpy and stood up.

"Of course, it's for the people here to remember my heroic appearance... ah, sh*t." She suddenly covered her mouth halfway through her sentence. "It's all your fault for making me talk. What if some bird meat fell into my mouth?"

Ashes could only roll her eyes at that.

...

The Wildflame chief Guelz had an ashen face as he gently received his daughter from Ashes. With his shoulders slightly quivering, he said, "Is Lorgar… "

"She's still alive, but it doesn't look good. Even the best herbal remedies can only delay her death." Ashes shrugged and said, "Unless we treat her immediately."

"You... have a way to cure her?"

"That's right, and she can be as healthy as she was before the duel."

Guelz stared with his eyes wide open and gazed at the Extraordinary witch for a while before finally slowly opening his mouth. "Then... what's the price?"

"You'll know soon enough," Ashes tugged her hand and said, "But what I want to know is... Will you acknowledge the result of the holy duel?"

"Wildflame isn't Ironwhip, and we won't deny a victory that was won through blood and honor. Furthermore..." Guelz sighed and said, "no one can deny that you are currently the strongest clan. If you don't believe, you can listen for yourself..."

Ashes have certainly heard it.

Be it on the platform or the Burning Road, every single person present was shouting a single name in unison.

"Osha! Osha! Osha!"

It was among this cheer, that Echo climbed up to the platform.

"I am the chief of the Osha clan, Drow Silvermoon, but I also have another name, Echo of Graycastle's Witch Union!" Her voice sounded clearly above the noise of the crowd and reached everyone's ears. "I have lost everything since the betrayal of the Iron Whip clan. Not only was my clan exiled, but I was also sold into slavery, from the Port of Clearwater, all the way to the King's City in Graycastle. I was fortunate enough to be rescued by a witch organization. After that, I was transferred to a small town in the Western Region, where my name has been changed to Echo."

She paused momentarily, then said, "I prefer the name Echo more than Drow Silvermoon—though I have been through some painful experiences, I am so much happier than I ever was in the desert. That town, which was once a desolate town on the border, has now become a bustling city. Most of the growth during this period was brought by a Lord, His Majesty Roland Wimbledon of Graycastle, and he was also the one who changed my destiny!"

Ashes was stunned. "This... doesn't sound like the rehearsed speech."

"Well," said Andrea, with a light chuckle, "it's what she's been wanting to say the most. And besides, all we can do now is applaud her."

In the beginning, Echo seemed a bit nervous, but once she started talking about Neverwinter's interesting lifestyle, she began to talk with increasing confidence. "I know you are curious as to why I'm saying all these things, after all, it's just someplace in the North. No matter how beautiful it is, it has nothing to do with our people in the Sand Nation. That's right... Maybe this was the way it used to be, but now things are not the same!"

"His Majesty's catchphrase is that Neverwinter will never discriminate based on origin. His city has people from all kinds of backgrounds: ordinary people from Graycastle, witches, and even people from foreign clans! This is enough to prove his kindness and benevolence. Now he intends to save the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan from this blood-soaked, barren desert and grant you all a better life, just like he did when he helped the witches—and I'm carrying out the will of His Majesty, Roland Wimbledon, to deliver this news to all of you in the name of the strongest clan: he has decided to become the chief of the Mojin Clan to unify the entire desert and treat us all as his people!"

Chapter 771 - Desert Promise

"What is... a chief?"

"Sounds like the head of all the clans..."

"Isn't that the same as the Three Gods Emissary?"

The crowd began to discuss. At that moment, the head of the Black River clan that had descended to fourth place, jumped onto the platform and questioned loudly, "But the king of the northern kingdom you mentioned, Roland Wimbledon, is not a Mojins. How could he rule the entire desert?"

"Here it is," Ashes thought. "This is one of the key problems that they have to deal with if they want to put the Southernmost Region into the prefecture of Graycastle. I'll see how Echo handles it."

Echo looked at him and asked peacefully, "Were the Three Gods Emissaries who used to rule the desert... Mojins?"

Her voice was not high, yet with the help of her magic power, it traveled to everyone's ears. The head of the Black River clan was startled when he heard it. "Um, well..."

"We all know that the answer is negative." Echo noticed his silence, so she looked under the platform and said, "The Three Gods Emissaries were real giants. It's said that they didn't have uniform looks. One of them had four feet and three hands and another had more than one head. Undoubtedly, they were not Mojins."

At this point, she began to speak in a much higher pitch, "The few words left by the emissaries have become principals that are abided by all Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan. The laws carved onto the slate tells us about the desert rulers, one is being blessed by the Three Gods, the other is opening up boundless oases and keeping all the clans away from hunger, thirst, and death. Anyone who could accomplish any of those can become the ruler of the Southernmost Region."

The discussion in the crowd quieted down. Nobody wanted to object the laws left by the Three Gods Emissaries at the Land of Fire. In fact, the holy duel was a way to decide power distribution originated from the laws.

"But the Three Gods Emissaries did bring green land to the desert." The head of the Black River clan did not want to be neglected. He pointed at Echo and raised his voice, "It's said that 1,000 years ago, this area was an oasis! Is the king of Graycastle capable of that? Don't be deceived by false benefits. Anyone who owns that kind of power is not different from the deity."

"So as long as he could bring new oases to the Sand Nation, you'd admit that His Majesty is qualified of ruling the Southernmost Region and consider him as the chief, right?" Echo said with a smile.

"That's right. Not only me, I'm afraid all the other clans would agree with me!" The head of the Black River clan kept his mouth shut for the first condition and took most of the audience's opinions as his own.

"Indeed, His Majesty can't convert the Southernmost Region into a green land, but he's willing to take our land into the territory of Graycastle and offer us residences near lakes and forests to keep us from the threats of thirst and sandstorm forever." Echo returned to the platform and said word by word, "This is the promise His Majesty made. He'll bring you a new oasis, the vast and rich northern area is exactly the boundless green oasis whose color will never fade."

Everybody was startled and could barely believe what they had heard.

Thuram was equally shocked.

This is the real purpose of the Osha clan!

That is the meaning of the new oasis and new order Iron Axe mentioned!

It has always been every Mojin's dream to live in an oasis that is forever green. Such a temptation is unimaginable, especially to those small clans that are too weak to grab a piece of the Iron Sand City. Although big clans might be hesitant and unwilling to see a drastic change in the Southernmost Region's order, they could not prevent the transmission of this message, probably within half a month, this astonishing message would spread through the entire dessert by the clansmen on spot from every Silver Stream Oasis!

"No, this is absolutely nonsense. It's a lie, a fraud!" the head of the Black River clan shouted. "Have you forgotten the tragic ending of the Black Bone Clan and the Sandstone Clan? Didn't they die out and become extinct because they easily believed what Garcia, the Queen of Clearwater, said? Offering us an oasis and the source of water? The cunning northerners will never do that. They'll only give you a pond, or a piece of land as big as my palm, making you fight for these resources unceasingly as you did in the Southernmost Region where you have to work to death for them."

Thuram imperceptibly sighed. "If it were before the holy duel, this speech could have suppressed people's aspirations, but it's too late now."

In five duels, no one was killed. The merciful image of the Osha clan had spread through the small oasis. People could easily imagine that the northern kingdom's king who was supporting Osha was equally merciful. Obviously, someone merciful would not oppress the Sand Nation people as the Queen of Clearwater had done.

Even challengers like Black bone and Sandstone were willing to sell themselves cheap to Garcia, which was an indication of how attractive a land of survival was to them. Even if it might be a trap, some clansmen would like to take the risk. If the King of Graycastle sincerely wished to take the Southernmost Region into his domain, those pioneers would definitely become the examples for other clans to follow. As long as it started, the northwards migration of the whole Sand Nation would become inevitable.

This king obviously had all his moves well planned, making a show of strength to draw the clans' attention, killing nobody in duels to build a merciful image, becoming the chief of all clans by indisputably winning the holy duels and making the other forgiven major clans reluctant to turn against Osha under everybody's attention.

Thuram thought he would play a fairly important role in the process of the Osha clan settling in the Iron Sand City, but now he found that his role was only to supply Osha with his clansmen and information about the major clans in Iron Sand City. As to the real plan, he was totally kept in the dark. Echo did not take stationing in the Iron Sand City seriously and revenge was only as easy as lifting a hand to her. Thuram could not help but feel lost.

But after a short while, he rose with spirit again. If everything would go as the new leader said, Osha would undoubtedly become beyond the strongest clan. Then as a member of the Osha, he obviously would gain great benefits. In the face of this promising future, why bother feeling lost for the moment?

As expected, Echo slightly shook her head, "You're wrong, chief. What Garcia needed are mercenaries, not common clansmen, which was her biggest difference with His Majesty, which was also the reason why she picked Black bone and Sandstone who had stronger fighting capacities. Yet His Majesty won't do that. He considers all the Mojins as his own subjects, so any clans here can go to the Kingdom of Graycastle, regardless of how many young adults they have or whether they're powerful. His Majesty doesn't need the Sand Nation people to die for him, no merciful king would sit by and watch his subjects dying in vain!"

"What do you want in return? We ought to pay something for that." The Wildflame chief Geulz stood up and said, "He won't help the Sand Nation for nothing. I don't believe there is such a thing as free lunch!" He clenched the teeth, "Tell me. I'm willing to accept it."

"What His Majesty wants from you is simple, which is to work," Echo said frankly. "Like the other tens of thousands his subjects, work for the kingdom, work for yourself! You'll get paid, improve your lives, receive education and bring up children... That's all he wants."

"Is that... Is that all?" Guelz was startled.

"That's right. A way of living your life without fighting and struggling!" Echo raised her tone again. "Everyone knows that there are fewer and fewer Silver Stream oases... In my childhood, I could occasionally see oases near the south point of the Endless Cape. But now, the white wasteland near the northwest area is constantly expanding. The oases are deteriorating into sandy soil. Even the small oases around the Iron Sand City have shrunk. Do Mojins intend to keep on fighting and killing for living places, immersing the yellow sand with your blood and eventually disappearing with the oases in the Southernmost Region? Tell me, are you willing to accept this consequence?"

"No, my Lady."

"I'd like to go with you, Lady Silvermoon!"

"Please take me with you!"

Noises, like rolling waves, spread from the center of the platform to the surrounding areas.

Looking at the extremely pretty girl on the platform who'd drawn most of the clans' attention, Iron Axe could not help kneeling down with warm tears shedding.

He had dreamed of this occurring countless times, especially that night when the Osha clan became qualified for a duel participant. But when he woke up, the clan had disappeared and the princess had become a slave. He thought he would not live to see this happening.

But now, what Echo had accomplished was even further than he had dreamed. Although he even dropped tears over this, within his heart he was fulfilled and proud.

"Osha finally gains the Three Gods' favor."

"I understand there are still people hesitating, but soon what I said will be proved." Echo raised her right hand and said, "Those clans who want to follow me to the southern territories of Graycastle may pack right now and meet me at the small oasis before departure. Those who can't leave right away need not worry. I'll leave staff behind to guide those who wish to find suitable living places in the northern kingdom. As long as you abide by the Graycastle laws, you're His Majesty's subjects and will be protected. Graycastle's door is always open to you."

Nobody knew how the cheer started. But it was like a drop of ink falling into water, soon it rippled and spread to the entire Land of Fire.

The major clans still remained silent. But compared with the crowd under the platform, they were insignificant.

The sounds of the clans from every corner of the Silver Stream exceeded that of those from Iron Sand City for the first time.

A crack appeared on the primitive and stiff order.

A new order was taking shape at the riot of sounds.

Tiny and immature as it might seem, but it exuded infinite vitality.

The crowd began to kneel down to cheer for the new strongest clan, as well as to bow to the chief. Not everybody had the nerve to be a pioneer, but there were always people who were brave enough to sacrifice everything for the evergreen land in their heart.

On that day, the cheers spread unceasingly through the Land of Fire.

From that day on, the desert had a new leader.

Chapter 772 - The Arrival of the Relics

With the help of a Sigil of Listening, Roland received the result for the last holy duel, including everything that happened in the Land of Fire, by that afternoon.

Instantly he summoned Maggie, Lightning, and Nana to his office.

"There is a severely wounded witch in the Iron Sand City who needs your treatment." Roland looked at the three energetic girls—no, two girls and one legal girl, and said, "Prepare tonight and leave tomorrow. No need for haste as long as you arrive at Fallen Dragon Ridge by tomorrow evening and reach Iron Sand City the following day. Ashes will be there to receive you."

"Do both of us need to go?" Lightning asked, indicating Maggie and herself.

"Yes. I feel better when you're together," Roland said, nodding. "Besides, Maggie needs to be assisted when tying Nana onto her back, doesn't she? Remember to wear more clothing, it's hard to fly in freezing weather."

Nana couldn't help but shiver when she looked out the window at the falling snow.

"Understood. I promise, she will be delivered on time!" Maggie said as she raised her hand.

"Flying there is not a problem..." Lightning pouted, "but, if you want to start exploring the snow mountain, please wait until I come back! Missing it would have me in tears."

"Um... the moment when a great explorer cries... that's definitely a scene worth recording." Noticing the serious expression on Lightning's face, Roland couldn't help but laugh. He knew that since the news about the possibility of a relic on the snow mountain had spread, Lightning had been looking forward to it. "Of course, you're all crucial members of the expedition. I can assure you of that."

"That's settled then." Lightning patted her chest in relief as she said, "You can counting on us, we'll cure the wounded sister."

"You can also tend to other Sand Nation civilians along the way. But, don't stay for too long." Roland kept on going, "You should return on the day Nana has exhausted her magic power and take the same route when you return. Understand?"

With the relocation of Taquila survivors drawing to an end, he should start an expedition to the snow mountain. However, without Nana staying in Neverwinter, he did not dare to hastily send the witches to that unknown land.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Alright."

"Coo!"

The three of them answered simultaneously.

After they had left, Roland leaned on his chair and let out a sigh of relief.

Nightingale stuck her head out from behind Roland as she asked,"Does this mean that you've successfully taken over the Southernmost Region?"

"I'd say we've only taken the first step," Roland said, smiling. "There are still many things to do."

After over a month of fighting, the Desert Mission had come to a temporary truce.

Unfortunately, the following migration was going to be the challenging task.

Roland fetched the map from the corner of his desk and laid it out. His sight landed on the southern territory of Graycastle. He had conveyed his plan to offer the Sand Nation civilians a new oasis before Iron Axe had departed. The preferred location would be the border area that had lost a lord and most of its populace. It had been successively struck by civil wars, that had been started by Timothy and Garcia. The main cities like the Port of Clearwater and Eagle City had been turned into ruins. The surrounding small towns and farmland had also been destroyed..

With the refugees flowing into Neverwinter, the southern territory became a desolate wasteland. Rather than leaving them to ruin, Roland decided to let the Sand Nation reclaim them. They could start at the junctions, between the desert and green land, and gradually rebuild the Port of Clearwater.

By doing this, workers who were exploiting Blackwater could start off at the Port of Clearwater, and reach the southern point of the desert by sea. According to Iron Axe's report, most of the underground Styx's Rivers lay to the south of the Land of Fire, mostly under the Endless Cape. In that area, Blackwater tributaries flowed close to the ground and near the coastline. When compared to the danger-ridden land route, traveling along the coastline was much safer apparently. Given the present technology level of Neverwinter, the coastline was undoubtedly the preferred exploitation location.

It would take some time for these events to take effect in the Southernmost Region. Clans that heard the news might not leave for the Southern Territory immediately. Regardless, the temptation of an oasis would be irresistible to the Sand Nation civilians. Even if only a few clans move there in the beginning, eventually more would follow and ultimately become Roland's subjects.

Thus, not only would he gain a large labor force and prevent the land from going to waste, but the revived residence would also stop the roving bandits that traveled inland. This made it so Roland didn't need to deploy a large force of manpower to work in the desert and the subjects that wanted to live in the Southern Territory would also find an abode.

Of course, there were hidden dangers as well.

One challenge would be merging his people with the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan.

Yet, Roland wasn't overly concerned.

Leaving aside the unawakened democracy, this world's religions were thought-provoking enough—they didn't require one to be too religious, but more like a pure nature worship. Both of the nations used the same language; the Sand Nation's lifestyle and customs were not so much a special culture, but more of an adaption to the desert. Iron Axe and Echo were perfect examples. The two of them had roamed all the way to Border Town, and fit in well without too much difficulty.

As long as his law enforcement was strict and the punishments and rewards were fair, Roland believed that the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan would also become qualified workers.

Just in case there was a rebellion, the First Army that had been stationed in the Southern Territory and Fallen Dragon Ridge happened to be more than mere ornaments.

The more pressing issue Roland cared about was following up on the hybrid demonic beasts Iron Axe mentioned, that had attacked the witches. If his recollection was accurate, it sounded like an unavoidable accident had caused the desertification of the Southernmost Region. Geographically speaking, this piece of pointy land adjacent to the mainland was not far from Graycastle, which made such an abrupt change happening highly unlikely. Unfortunately, for the moment, he was too short-handed to explore the Southernmost Region, so he would have to ignore this quandary temporarily.

While what the demonic hybrid did was inconceivable—this abnormal lifeform owned a modicum of intelligence. Roland had learned this from his own experience, so, what had driven it to attack the witches despite the risk? If the inland demonic beasts had sieged the human cities under the influence of the relics of gods, then the Four-winged Eagle had obviously attacked witches for some other reason.

While Roland was thinking hard, Wendy and Phyllis knocked on the door before they walked in. "Your Majesty, the last batch of facilities that had been shipped from Taquila will arrive at the Third Border City soon. Pasha invited you to meet her underground."

"Finally they arrived." Roland became excited when he heard the news. The so-called Third Border City was actually an underground bunker that had been built under the Impassable Mountain Range. This place functioned similar to a city and essentially served as a secret stronghold. The last batch of facilities was the Instrument of Divine Retribution and the relics of gods. To ensure their safe arrival, the First Army that had been stationed at Neverwinter provided the escort.

"What about the demonic beasts? Any movement?"

"No sign of a massive gathering for the moment."

"Is that so..." Roland stood up and said, "Let's get started then."

Chapter 773 - The Third Border City

The entrance to the cave was located to the north of Neverwinter. It could be found in the juncture between the city and the mountain range. On the nearby hillside, there was the ever-busy mining and furnace areas.

Near the foot of the mountain, a solid concrete wall appeared in front of everybody. Although there were many facilities still under construction, this place had already become the most heavily guarded area in Neverwinter. There was a watch tower on each one of its corners and wired netting lining the top of it. There was also a machine gun blockhouse on each side of the gate.

The guards saluted Roland as he walked through the gate and into the yard.

Upon walking into the yard, he faintly felt as if he had traveled back to the modern world.

What he saw in here was definitely not supposed to be in this era. There was a huge cave that had its entrance covered with concrete. The cave was over ten meters wide and over 5 meters tall. The two grand iron doors were oversized compared to the entrance and their thickness reached an astonishing one meter. They were not solid poured but were rather jointed by several layers of steel plates. This was on par with many doors at modern military strongholds.

Since the iron doors weighed so much, the entrance had to be modified and slideways were installed on the ground to support the doors. Even with the slideways, they could not be pulled open by manpower alone.

Due to this, one of the two steam engines in the yard was used to provide the driving force to move the doors.

If the demonic beasts broke the defensive line set up by the Taquila witches, as long as the relic of gods got retrieved, these two doors could block any following demonic beasts outside.

Standing in front of the doors that were as big as a multi-layered building, Roland could feel their solidness. Almost 1/3 of Neverwinter's winter steel output was used to build these two doors. Their simple rectangular shape might seem easy to produce, but their size alone required a higher level of skill.

On the day the doors were installed, Roland had witnessed the scene as they were opened and shut. Listening to the toneless roar of the steam engine, the harsh grating on the sliding tracks, and watching the slowly closing doors, Roland felt as if he was in charge of the entrance that protected them from doomsday.

On each side of the two iron doors, there was half a line of words. Combined together, they meant the Third Border City.

Roland and the crowd of people that followed him walked into the cave. The light suddenly dimmed.

Phyllis took out the Stone of Lighting and walked in the front of the team. She began to lead everybody down the deep cave.

"Your Majesty, I don't quite get why you call this place the Third Border City." Wendy said with bewilderment, "If the outside Border Area is the first Border City, then where is the second Border City?"

"Because the third is the proper title," Roland replied.

"Ah?"

"Anyway, don't you think the number three goes quite well with a stronghold? Besides, it doesn't matter what name we give it. What matters is people can remember it," Roland said with his hands laid out.

"Alright, as long as you like it," Wendy said, twitching her mouth.

After they stopped talking, the only sounds in the cave were the echoing footsteps and water dripping.

Due to the lack of spraymecs, only the floor of the cave was paved with concrete. On the two sides of the floor was a ditch and a mine railway. If materials and food were needed, they would be transported by carts hauled by the other engine at the entrance. Roland had heard from Phyllis that the God's Punishment Witches were once interested in measuring the power of the machine, and they found out that even five of them pulling a rope together could not stop the steam engine from dragging them forward.

Since the walls and ceiling of the cave could not be covered with concrete, leaking became inevitable. Luckily, the temperature inside of the mountain would not get too low so the water inside would not freeze. While devouring worms would leave a trail of mucus behind while crawling forward, when its mucus dried out, it would glue the dirt together as if smearing a layer of paste on the surface of the walls and ceiling. Because of this, there was no danger that the cave would collapse.

After about a half an hour's walk, the cave got brighter.

"We're almost there." Phyllis slowed down. "Your Majesty, do you need..."

Roland knew what she wanted to say and interrupted her. "It's ok. Take me there now."

The God's Punishment Witch turned back and looked meaningfully at Roland, "... Ok, I understand."

Upon exiting the narrow cave, they entered a large cavern. In front of them was a spacious dome building that was the size of a football field. Throughout the cavern, tens of light beams were projected onto the dome and cast bright spots on the floor. With the help of this light, people would not feel oppressed in this area even though they were deep under the mountains. Besides the witches, the First Army was also dispatched to guard this place. Each of the soldiers had been examined by Nightingale personally to make sure they were Roland's strongest supporters.

The deeper into the dome they went in, the more they got away from this light. In the center of the spacious dome, there were only a few rhombus shaped magic cores. They were the three Taquila Senior Witches... or in other words, original carriers.

Roland walked to the three of them with a smile on his face. He stuck out his right hand toward the leading blob monster. "Finally we could meet. You must be Pasha, aren't you?"

At that moment, Roland could feel someone panting behind him and felt that a hand was on his shoulder. Undoubtedly, if anything went wrong, Nightingale would drag him into the Mist instantly.

The blob being fell silent for a while then a familiar voice sounded, "I'm surprised, Your Majesty. Before today, we've only been communicating through the Illusion Core. Perhaps the illusionary images weren't that frightening, but at this moment, in front of me, the calmness you're showing is astonishing. To be honest, you're the first one who's seen this shell and reacted as if nothing had happened. Even when the Taquila witches first saw this form, they weren't as calm as you are. I'm curious, aren't you afraid at all?" She paused, reached out a tentacle, and gently tangled it with Roland's hand. "But you're right. I'm Pasha. Thanks for supporting the Taquila witches."

"He hasn't supported us. It's hard to say whether the group of common people he sent are meant to help or supervise us," a cold consciousness came in. "It won't be too late to tell him after he finishes exploring the big snow mountain."

"Alethea! We made an agreement!" a third voice interrupted.

"Alright. I'll shut up."

It seemed the other two were Alethea and Celine, who often appeared beside Pasha. Roland did not mind their tones. Firstly, those ancient witches had lived in an era where witches were superior and so it would be difficult for them to change their mindset. Secondly, compared to having their attitudes changed, he wished more to make some substantial gains.

"The Fjords' most famous explorer once said that fear comes from unknown. No matter how you look, your souls belong to Taquila witches," Roland said, smiling, "and I'm no stranger to the latter. Agatha has become an essential member of the Witch Union and a beloved and trusted member at that."

Roland noticed that Pasha's tentacle was rather coarse and the surface of it was not as dry as it looked. The surface of her tentacle felt moist. Perhaps it was because she constantly crawled in the dirt. Roland could clearly feel the warmth beneath her skin. This giant blob in front of him was, undoubtably, a fresh lifeform.

"...I see," Pasha's voice sounded sentimental, "and you're right. Our cooperation had begun long ago."

"Faced with the threats of the demons, everybody should let go of past prejudices and try hard to join hands." After some short casual conversation, Roland came to the main subject. "The relics of gods have arrived, right? Can I have a look at the things that determine mankind's lives?"

Pasha waved the main tentacles on top of her head. "Of course. Come with me."

Chapter 774 - "Divine Domain"

Roland curiously observed the Taquila Senior Witches as they moved. Their tentacles played different roles. The short ones twisted like snakes so they could stand and walk while the long ones constantly inserted themselves into the mud to correct directions. Some tentacles were amazingly long. Based on the height of dome's ceiling, the tentacles were over 100 meters long and could shrink freely like arms.

Even the strongest muscles could not support such long tentacles. Roland guessed that the magic power in the blob enabled them to walk freely, just like the giant demonic beasts that apparently broke the limits of gravity.

After walking a couple dozen steps and passing two magic cores, Pasha stopped in front of a cube which seemed to be made of gemstone.

"That's a God's Stone of Retaliation. I can't get too close..." Nightingale whispered in his ear to remind him.

Roland nodded silently and asked Pasha, "is the relic in it?"

"Yes. While keeping it locked up, we can limit its summoning range. If we did not put it in a box made of God's Stone of Retaliation, I'm afraid the residents in your city would be unconsciously affected by the relic." Pasha stretched out a few tentacles and placed them on the box without immediately opening it. "Before you have contact with it, I have to clarify some points lest you have an accident."

"Is it... dangerous?" Wendy stepped forward and subconsciously stood in front of Roland.

"Don't be too worried. As long as you don't stay alone with the relic, it'll be alright," Celine interrupted.

"What do you mean by that?" Roland asked, raising his eyebrows.

Pasha became more serious and said, "as I have said before, if you open yourself up in front of the relic, you can see some incredible sights. Either a witch or a common person can be summoned. But remember, what you see isn't completely fictional. It's different from the phantom instrument, what you see in the painting scrolls will have an impact on reality. That's the first thing I want to clarify. Don't accept the summoning of deities alone at any time."

Roland immediately felt a chill creep up his spine, thinking,"The sight in the painting can affect reality? Isn't that the same as Sadako Yamamura climbing out from television?"

"Why is it not dangerous when there are more people?"

Pasha explained, "Because once you're trapped in the Divine Domain, you'll have some obvious reactions, for example, glazed eyes, dull body, ravings., etc. The people around you have to drag you out of the range of the relic. In the historical records, many people had once been summoned by the relic alone and then their souls could not return to their bodies. Two or three people having contact with it that take turns effectively reduces the risk."

Roland glanced at the Taquila witches and said, "I got it. In other words, since there are at least five people here, it's not that dangerous at all, right?"

Celine nodded. "If this wasn't so, we wouldn't allow you to watch it at close range."

Alethea coldly said, "there's another point we need to warn you about. You should know that the huge painting scrolls in the relic display the demon civilizations. If you have a chance to see them, they may... No, they'll definitely try to hurt you. We can help you wake up from the summoning, but we can't help you resist the horror of it." She paused for a moment and continued with a sneer in her tone, "if you're too scared and make a scene at that time, don't blame me for not warning you."

"That's what you wanted to clarify?" Roland remained undisturbed. "Anything else you want to say?"

"You..." Alethea probably did not expect him to be so indifferent and could not help feeling slightly stifled.

"If not, then open it."

Roland sighed silently. As a modern man who enjoyed all kinds of monster, alien, thriller and horror movies, he had a much broader horizon than the ancient people. If he was unprepared, he might be scared. But what Alethea said was, in some sense, sort of a spoiler . As long as it would not cause him real harm, he did not think that he would give up exploring the mystery of the deities.

"I see," Pasha shrunk her tentacles and opened the God's stone box to reveal a spindle-shaped red crystal.

It floated up from the box by itself and then it, like the magic cores, quietly floated in the air about a meter above the ground.

"It can't get out of the range of the God's stone. You need to get close to it and relax, then you can enter the Divine Domain."

"Your Majesty..." said Wendy, grabbing Roland's hand with some concern.

"Don't worry. It won't be dangerous since you're here. I know what I'm going to face," he said, gently patting the red-haired witch's hand to comfort her.

Other than the information given by the Taquila witches, he also learned some information from Isabella's memory and his exploration of Pivotal Secret Temple of the Church in the Dream World. They proved that something could indeed bring people into an incredible "Divine Domain".

Roland sat down cross-legged beside the relic and closed his eyes.

...

Meanwhile, Pasha stretched out her tentacles to connect with those of her companions.

Their consciousness quickly connected together and reflected what they intended to say in each other's mind.

A furious Alethea said, "how dare he be so arrogant? I can't wait to see him scare and tremble. Otherwise, he'll never truly realize what terrible enemies he'll face. When he wets himself, I wonder what he'll say."

Celine glared at her angrily. "What good will that do us? Any ordinary king is very concerned about dignity and prestige. If you make him disgrace himself then I'm afraid he'll hate us. How can we explore the snow mountain and look for the Chosen One if we lose his support? Even worse, what if he becomes terrified of the demons? The whole world will lose hope!"

"He said he was not afraid of anything. Anyway, I warned him. Do you think you can stop him?"

Celine muttered, "it was a mistake to bring him here to contact the relic. I didn't recommend doing so from the very beginning. At least we should have waited until we reach a basic level of trust."

Pasha softly sighed. "So should we just hide it from him or prevent him from approaching the relic then? We'll never get his trust that way. Put yourself in his shoes. Would you trust an ally who is unwilling to allow you to know about the key that determines the fate of human destiny? No matter how you explain, he won't appreciate it. Only after he experiences it in person will he understand our sincerity."

"But…"

"But it's also unnecessary to be too worried. The demon and the Giant Eye don't show up every time. Besides, even if he's too scared and made a mistake, we can promise that we'll keep our lips buttoned and never reveal it to other people. I think he'll understand." Pasha said to reassure Celine and herself,

"What about the two witches coming with him? Will they keep that secret too?" Asked Alethea with malicious intent. She, undoutedly, regarded it as a pleasure to see a common person lose face in front of witches.

"That's not our business."

...

When Roland opened his eyes again, he found himself in an infinitely spacious palace.

Chapter 775 - Hello, World

The sky dome, the Bloody Moon, the Giant Paintings... They were all just as Pasha described.

All of them were extremely magnificent. No wonder they called it the Divine Land. Only when he was in here could he truly feel its vastness.

Was this a broadcast or perhaps a way of controlling the subconscious mind?

Roland squatted down to lightly stroke the floor. It seemed to be made of polished stones but it was as smooth as a mirror. He could feel both its coldness and toughness through his fingers. It appeared what he saw was real rather than fictional.

Due to having had similar experiences in the Dream World before, which was already extremely real, he would not freak out over seeing this.

Roland looked up at the dome. The huge Bloody Moon hanging above the Giant Painting was like a round pancake. With a careful observation, he could see the surging ripples on its surface. To be more exact, the moon was like a sea. It was not as bright and dazzling as the sun. Though it appeared to be scarlet, he could not feel its light or heat. The red ripples were waves or vortexes, densely covering the entire Bloody Moon.

The only problem was that this circle was a bit too perfect.

It looked like a flat circle rather than a sphere.

Perhaps the Bloody Moon was too close to him?

Roland stared at it for quite a while but failed to associate it with the Red Meteor observed by the astrologers. It was neither a planet nor a star. If the Battle of Divine Will was really caused by it, then how could it come to earth?

An idea suddenly popped into his mind.

If Astrologer of Dispersion Star, the Chief Astrologer, came to be summoned by the relic, could he figure out whether this stuff among the flickering stars was indeed the Bloody Moon?

Of course, he could not guarantee that the poor old man would not directly faint out of fear.

Roland shrugged, stood up, and looked at the four Giant Paintings around the Bloody Moon.

They showed a throne, a sea, a black screen, and himself.

Besides the underground dome in the Third Border City, he had already read the records of these paintings in the library of Pivotal Secret Temple. They were not that strange. A relic was like a recorder which constantly reflected the world around it. According to the description of Pasha, the Giant Painting that became a totally black screen was the eliminated underground civilization.

Roland greeted Wendy and himself in the painting, but they did not respond. They apparently could not hear him.

Seeing this, he wondered why Pasha said that the Divine Land would have an impact on reality.

He approached the painting of the throne and touched the painting scroll with his fingers. It felt like a soft and smooth cloth with a delicate texture. The image was just an image as he could not cross its border and walk into the painted world.

Roland walked around but made no further discoveries. He planned to walk outside the palace to find out whether the land was boundless when he suddenly heard some noises from the painting scroll behind him.

It was extremely loud in such a quiet place. It sounded like the rubbing of steel objects or the echo of a hard object hitting the ground.

He immediately felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up!

"What the hell! No one mentioned these giant paintings could also make a sound!"

He stopped and suddenly turned around.

In the first painting, a dark-armored warrior had suddenly appeared, sitting on the throne. His scarlet eyes looking down at him.

There was also some movement in one of the other paintings.

With many bubbles surging upwards with a soft gurgling sound, a huge eyeball emerged from the dark sea. It got closer and closer to the edge of the painting as if it intended to escape from the frame. There were three pupils in a triangular shape that stared at him at the same time. It was making him really uncomfortable at first glance.

Did you invite each other to come together?

Roland could not help feeling relieved. As long as they did not hide and play tricks on him, he was not afraid of these two monsters. They were not at all frightening in appearance.

They were just a Senior Demon and a guardian of the relic of an unknown civilization.

He walked to the center of four Giant Paintings and looked up to stare at the two alien creatures.

"Good afternoon. Did you also come to participate in the Battle of Divine Will?"

"Must we fight to the finish? Can't we just sit down and talk about it?"

"Can you understand me?"

"Say something even if you can't!"

"Hey, is this a winking game? If you wink, you'll lose?"

Roland tried to communicate with them some more but never received any response.

He did not know whether it was an illusion, but he felt that the demon was breathing more and more rapidly and the huge eyeball gradually trembled.

Was this the side effect of staring at each other? Were they just able to stare at him until their eyes felt sore? How could it be described as dangerous? It was not a problem for him to visit here alone.

He rolled his eyes and intended to end this boring staring contest by turning around, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that a group of black tentacles had suddenly appeared in the painting scrolls!

They stretched toward the demon and the eyeball, moving like a snake and wrapped around them very tightly.

"What... the hell?" Roland was stunned.

The demon finally moved. He tightly grasped the throne and screamed with a weird voice. Flames and transparent blades emerged around him to fight the tentacles; however, the tentacles outnumbered them. The soft and tiny hands at the end of tentacles could easily break the weapons summoned by the demon.

The demon seemed to be fighting a very powerful, invisible enemy and his screams became even fiercer. Roland could feel the tension in his tone. As an electric light burst out from the armor, the tentacles finally shrank and loosened their control. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the demon, with some difficulty, pushed himself out of the throne and ran out of the range of the Giant Painting without hesitation. He had even broken a piece of the throne's armrest in panic.

The Giant Eye was not doing any better as several tentacles had already pierced into the eyeball. Roland could even feel its pain when looking at it. Light blue liquid flew out from the holes like tears. Instead of screaming like the demon, the Giant Eye constantly gave off harsh lights from its three pupils to block most of the tentacles.

Suddenly, all the pupils of the Giant Eye simultaneously opened and a looming ripple dashed toward the Giant Painting. Roland immediately felt an overpowering stench blowing towards him and he could not help but take a step backward. At the same time, the tentacles let go the eyeball and the eyeball quickly retreated back in the direction where it came and disappeared into the darkness in a blink. The rippling blue water turned darker and darker as the eyeball sank and it became completely black after a while.

"Uh... What happened?"

Roland glanced at the painting of the throne, which was a mess, and observed the painting of the sea which had turned dark again, not knowing how to respond for a long time.

Chapter 776 - Contrary to Common Sense

"It has been nearly ten minutes, it seems that he hasn't met anything," said Celine in relief,

"It's a pity that he has really good luck." Alethea responded much less excitedly.

Celine complained, "I don't want to count on chance. Please choose a safer method next time."

"Let's not talk about what has already happened. Let's guess how long the king can stay in there. Isn't the longest record for a common person less than 15 minutes even taking into account the those who tried in the Land of Dawn?" said Alethea, changing the topic.

"Witches do not fair any better. How long you can stay in the Divine Land has nothing to do with your magic power. Even in the Union, the relic was constantly monitored by a group of common people in turns. However, considering the king's age and experience, he should come out soon."

According to all the records that Celine had read through, the warriors who had been to the battlefield and fought the demons generally persisted longer, whether a witch or a common person. The highest record was held by Lady Alice, who had stayed there for almost two hours. As a king who had never been to the battlefield, Roland had to be very skilled to last so long.

"Maybe he'll want to stay longer. After all, it's his first time to witness such a marvelous scene."

"Then he'll feel dizzy and even fall unconscious." Celine suddenly realized something and looked at Pasha. "Did you forget to tell him that?"

"A coma isn't too bad and won't cause him any real damage." Pasha shook her tentacles and said, "on the contrary, when he runs out energy, this kind of unpleasant thing can reduce his interest in getting in contact with the relic again. It's better for everyone this way."

"So... you didn't forget to tell him?"

Pasha did not directly answer. "Sometimes it's better to not explain. None of us would like to have so many restraints when we explore the Divine Land."

"I now understand why Lady Natalia chose you as one of the candidates for the Three Chiefs," said Alethea, smacking her lips.

Celine agreed with Alethea. Compared to the disgrace of being scared, a coma due to energy exhaustion could be regarded as a result without side effects. It could reduce the curiosity of the common people while not destroying their relationship with them. Pasha obviously had more foresight than them.

After a while, she began to frown slightly and asked, "It's been more than a quarter of an hour. Is he okay?"

"It seems... nothing is wrong. This king seems to be full of surprises." Pasha replied after glancing at the sitting Roland Wimbledon.

"It's a new record for common people. Should I say congratulations?" said Alethea, shrugging her main tentacle.

Celine gave no response. She felt a little uneasy like something was wrong.

The waiting that followed seemed to validate her guess.

Another 15 minutes later, Roland still remained motionless and she was getting more and more anxious.

Having lived for over a hundred years, she should feel disconnected from time; however, the almost constant heart pulse of her shell could accurately tell her the change of every second. A 45 minutes exploration was too long for someone who was not a warrior or an Extraordinary. He should have run out of energy by now.

Celine wondered, "was... there some unobserved accident in the Divine Land?"

Wendy could not help stepping forward and tried to wake up the king, but was immediately stopped by Pasha.

"If you get too close to the relic, you'll be affected by it too."

"Then let me enter the Divine Land and bring His Majesty back!" She insisted.

"Even if you go there, you can't bring back your king. No matter how many people are simultaneously summoned by it, they'll see a different Divine Land."

Celine noticed that the other witch that had been hidden had begun to move. From the vague magic reaction, Celine knew that she had taken something out of her pocket. Based on the information collected by Phyllis, it should be a unique weapon of Neverwinter.

She passed her concerns along to the other two and then Pasha nodded and took immediate action. She stretched out her tentacles to wrap around the king and pulled him back to Wendy. Though it was not the ideal way to end the exploration, the safety of Roland was top priority. If both sides conflicted with each other, the consequences would be disastrous.

...

As the relic was put back into the God's Stone box, Roland suddenly opened his eyes.

"Your Majesty... Are you okay?" Wendy asked eagerly, helping him to stand up.

"There is nothing wrong... I'm fine," he answered, rubbing his sore legs. "I met alien monsters who were guarding the other two relics and talked to them. Unfortunately, they did not understand my words."

Celine was shocked. "Wait, what are you talking about? Did... you meet the demon and..."

"And a huge eyeball. It seemed to stay in a boat that can move underwater... but I'm not sure if it's a boat or something else," Roland answered.

Even though she could not see her companions' expressions, she could feel their shock through their shared connection, especially Alethea's. Among all the survivors, she had stayed in the Divine Land for the longest time. Her experience in Blessed Army enabled her to persist for about an hour but only when nothing appeared in the painting scrolls.

If she met the demon or an unknown enemy, the speed of energy consumption would be doubled!

"What happened then?" Pasha continued to ask.

"I'm not really sure. Anyway, some black tentacles suddenly popped up in the painting scrolls and attacked them. Those tentacles were so powerful that the monsters had to retreat from the paintings. It happened in only a few minutes."

Did he mean that he had met the guardians of the other two civilizations at the same time and defeated them while not being injured at all?

Celine felt as if she was listening to a fairy tale.

She was not surprised by the presence of black tentacles. As the energy of the user declined, the relic would have an greater impact on them. He might hear imaginary sounds, see imagery scenes, tentacles or something else one by one. They were not merely mental disturbances but they could do real harm to the body. That was why Pasha emphasized that they were more than illusions. If they interrupted the summoning before any real harm was caused, the user would not have a serious problem.

Of course, it was impossible for ordinary people to defend themselves against the spiritual erosion. Even a witch who had experienced thousands of battles would quickly feel tired and eventually lose control of her body.

But what Roland faced was a completely reversed situation and the black tentacles had rushed toward the enemy. She had never heard of such an instance.

Looking at the king, who seemed not to care about what had happened, Celine suddenly had an incredible guess.

Was this ordinary person comparable to Lady Alice, Queen of Starfall City and Head of the Three Chairs, in terms of mental power?

However, he did not seem to be aware of it. After stretching his arms and legs, he laughed and said, "Anyway, thank you for pulling me out. I intended to see if there was any border to the Divine Land, but it was too large and I did not want to walk all the way back."

The three witches remained speechless for a long while and then Pasha finally broke the silence. "Ahem... that's all right. Do you still want to continue exploring the relic?"

Roland shook his head and said, "not right now. There are just four painting scrolls and it won't make much difference to have another look at them. Take me to the central carrier."

Chapter 777 - Question and Answer

Ever since the previous meeting with the Taquila witches, Roland had looked forward to meeting with the central carrier.

To decipher the literature left by the underground civilization, many Taqila survivors had sacrificed themselves by merging their souls, but it could only answer yes or no questions. Otherwise, it was basically a useless object. Thinking of this solemn story, he felt that an air of mystery shrouded this central carrier.

When Roland finally saw it, he gasped in shock. It was chained up in a secret chamber under the hall.

This blob, much bigger than any original carrier such as the one occupied by Pasha, was heavily chained. Its thickest tentacles were forced apart and nailed to the walls or the ceiling. From its badly scarred skin and its broken tentacles, he could tell that it was not the first time she was treated this way.

He remembered that it was able to feel things just like the original carriers.

It was able to feel the heat and cold, taste the sweet and bitter, and feel pain.

He could not help knitting his eyebrows, asking, "Why? I remember the volunteers integrating with the central carrier were all witches, even including one of your Three Chiefs, E..."

"Lady Eleanor, Your Majesty," Pasha sighed. "We had no choice. Carriers are as powerful as God's Punishment Warriors. Their tentacles can drill into the earth and build a light well in the dome. They can also attack enemies and tear a prey in half. If we don't keep her here, she'll subconsciously move around and cause us lots of trouble. If that happens, she'll be even harder to deal with than those hybrid demonic beasts."

Roland quickly understood Pasha's feelings of powerlessness. He guessed that this tentacle blob might be a combat unit created by the underground civilization, but if it lost its mind and got out of control, it would be a serious threat to the relic of gods and the magic core. He believed that the Taquila survivors did not want to take this risk and as a result, they had no choice but to keep it trapped here.

However, knowing the reason did not make him feel any better.

He felt sad for the witches who had willingly sacrificed everything for Taquila only to end up imprisoned in this dark corner.

Seeing Roland contemplate these emotions, Pasha said with a mixed expression of gratitude and sadness, "We tried to ask about their feelings, but we were unable to get a response. The souls merged with the central carrier cannot be separated again by the magic core, so we have no idea whether they're able to feel what's going on."

Alethea, who remained quiet suddenly spoke again, "All the Taquila witches, including us, have determined to follow Lady Eleanor forever. You don't have to feel bad for them. They knew what they were getting into." Roland somehow felt that her voice wasn't as cold as before.

Well… If it had been as cold as dry ice, it's now only cool as iced water.

Celine added, "When we asked the central carrier whether we should chain her, all her three main tentacles answered yes. If she hadn't agreed to this, we would not have tied her up so tightly."

Roland nodded and said, "Maybe the Witch Union can help you with this problem. Soraya can produce flexible fabrics to replace the iron chains, and a little girl named Softfeathers can stick things together. If they work together, they may find some way to constrain her without hurting her. If you don't mind..."

Pasha slightly lowered the main tentacle on her head and said, "That will be great. You have my gratitude."

"Don't worry about it." Roland replied then asked. "What did you mean by 'all three main tentacles answered yes'? She can say yes with one main tentacle and no with another at the same time? When that happens, how can you make sure of what she's trying to say?"

"Let Celine explain that to you."

Hearing that there may be a way to alleviate the pain of the witches in the central carrier, Celine seemed quite excited and answered, "The central carrier is different from us. It has three main tentacles, which enables her to express more complicated information without communicating through telepathy, which is what I'm doing right now."

With these words, Celine's main tentacle on her head emitted a beam of dim red light.

"Oh? It can even shine?"

"Yes, before we learned how to communicate through thoughts, we often used this method to express our feelings and emotions. But now we don't use it as much anymore." She moved to the center of the secret chamber, pointing at the three main tentacles which were hanging from the central carrier's head and were nailed to the ground. "Without consciousness, she can't express her feelings. She's only able to reply yes or no through the red light. If a main tentacle shines, it means yes. If it doesn't, it means no."

She continued to explain, "However, when we were deciphering the literature of the underground civilization, we realized that a simple yes or no couldn't quickly help us find the correct answers. For example, if we mistake the sentence 'I'm a Taqila witch' for 'I'm a witch' or 'I'm Taquila", she'll answer no. With this method, we would have to spend a lot of time on confirming each simple sentence."

Roland immediately understood what she meant. "So you counted her shining main tentacles to see how close you got to the right answer."

Celine exclaimed, "You really are smart. That's right. When we read her something closer to the right answer, she would show us more red lights. When all three of her main tentacles shone, it meant that the answer was either 100 percent correct or she couldn't agree more."

Roland felt touched yet again by these witches, thinking, "So that was how this fusion of all the witches' souls including Eleanor's confirmed that they should be constrained underground? Even though it was unclear whether these souls made this decision for the sake of safety or based on their own feelings, this choice was still quite moving."

He took a deep breath, asking, "May I ask her some questions?"

Celine moved to the side and answered, "Yes, of course. You can just ask her directly."

Roland approached the central carrier and asked slowly, "Suppose now I've two baskets. Each basket has two apples inside. After I dump out all the baskets, there are four apples on the ground. Is it right?"

All the three tentacles shone at once.

Celine was startled, "Uhm... Is that what you wanted to ask?"

Wendy also felt a little embarrassed at this moment, asking, "Your Majesty, what're you up to now?"

"It's just a test," Roland remained calm and continued to ask the second question. "Now suppose that I've got 12,345 baskets, and each basket has 54,321 apples. If I dump out all the baskets, how many apples are there on the ground?" He took out a paper strip and continued, "I guess there are this many apples. Am I right?"

He read out the correct answer he had prepared in advance, which was a nine-digit number. The calculation required to get this number should be considered quite complex at this age. He believed that people who had never gone through Neverwinter's Mathematics education could never get the right answer in a short amount of time. This can be seen from the shared silence amongst the Taquila Senior Witches.

However, all the three main tentacles of the central carrier shone red without delay after hearing what he said. Just as they did to the first question.

Chapter 778 - Commandeering a Meeting

Amazed by the result, Roland was lost in thoughts.

This central carrier can figure out a nine-digit multiplication! No matter the method she used, whether it be using summation or column multiplication, she managed to find the correct answer instantly. This must mean that her calculating skills far surpass those of the common people. Even if she's only able to answer yes or no, she'll still be of great assistance to the Arithmetic Academy. At the very least, she can check the calculation results of the academy members which can help minimize the mistakes of large and complex calculation projects.

He squatted down excitedly and with a child-like grin, patted a main tentacle of the central carrier, "You're brilliant."

The red light went out.

Pasha reminded him, "Your Majesty, she can't communicate with you directly."

"She can understand my words and even give me yes or no answers. This already counts as a kind of communication." Roland believed that communication, in essence, is just the receiving and sending of information. The central carrier can at worst be described as having troubles expressing her thoughts and thus couldn't "communicate" as a normal person could. He was not discouraged by this in the slightest and intended to continue finding out whether the central carrier was really limited to just giving out yes or no responses.

After pondering for a while, he said, "Now let's suppose lighting one main tentacle means one and lighting two tentacles means two. Can you give me a three with your red light?"

The question seemed to be much simpler than the five-digit multiplication, but it served an entirely different purpose. If the central carrier could display a correct answer to this question, it would mean that she was able to give more elaborate feedback to questions. Moreover, she might also be able to display calculation results directly in some way.

However, the central carrier did not instantly answer like before. After a few seconds, one of her tentacles started to glow, another one only glimmered, while the last one remained dark.

According to Celine, the central carrier meant that what Roland said was 30 percent correct.

However, this signal did not last for long.

The light of the glimmering tentacle went out very quickly and was soon followed by the glowing one.

"So the answer is a no?" He wondered.

"This is..."

Celine slightly sighed and explained, "This is beyond her capacity. She had to express her agreement in a more complicated way to your question and thus got confused." She paused before continuing, "We've tried to ask her to express simple ideas and even some short sentences. However, once she found out that she could not answer a question simply with a yes or no, she would respond much slower and also easily get confused like how she just did."

Roland said, frowning, "Does this mean I have caused some sort of a logical barrier in her brain? Is she... alright?"

Celine waved her tentacles, answering, "she'll be alright after a moment of rest. I once tried asking her some contradictory questions. As a result, she ignored the rest of our questions for several weeks."

Now Roland was certain that this bio-computer was going to be difficult to handle, but he still did not want to give up his plan of creating a new communication system to help the central carrier express more complicated ideas by answering yes or no. As she could check the calculation result, he thought that she must have known the correct answer and just did not know how to display it with her tentacles.

However, formulating this system was well beyond his area of expertise. As engineers and programmers tend to not get along very well, he knew very little about computer programming. After a bit of thought, he decided to give up on the idea of studying this central carrier all by himself.

"By the way, I remember that you said the carriers needed mud and heat to continue functioning. Is there any magma here?"

Pasha replied, "Fran hasn't drilled that deep yet, but we've found a boiling underground river here. So we should be able to find lava flow nearby soon. Also, I often smell sulfur from this underground river. It's good for us to take a bath in it, too. As for the central carrier, we pump water from the river to shower her every few days, so you don't need to worry about this."

Hearing that magma was not a must for the carrier and that hot water could be used as a replacement, Roland was excited to think that he would only need a boiler to heat some water for this central carrier if he wanted to move her to the Arithmetic Academy one day.

He knew it was still not the time to make this request, as it would feel like he was overstepping his boundaries with the Taquila witches who had just moved here and had not yet joined the united front with Neverwinter. Besides, he was worried that those astrologers from the academy wouldn't be able to keep their composure once they saw this gigantic tentacle monster.

He would first have to build trust with the witches during the exploration of the snow mountain before he could make this sensitive request.

After Roland left the secret chamber and ended his tour of the Third Border City, he began to contemplate about the plans for this place. At present, only a rough frame of this underground city had been constructed, and it could only serve as a temporary underground residence for the witches for now. Only after tunnels connected the numerous peaks of the Impassable Mountain Range could they consider this a real hidden stronghold. With the artillery installments and military fortifications above ground, it would then be incorporated into part of Neverwinter's outermost defense line.

As soon as he returned to the castle, he summoned all the department leaders of City Hall to his reception hall. A purple curtain of light slowly materialized in front of them before eventually enveloping the whole room.

Despite the fact that Roland informed them in advance about what they were going to see, the officials' faces still drastically changed when they saw this incredible scene. The young Minister of Agriculture, Sirius Daly, even accidentally knocked over his teacup on the table in shock; Barov kept on wiping the sweat from his forehead; Kyle Sichi and Astrologer of Dispersion Star stared at the light curtain in fearful disbelief. If it had not been for the king who was still sitting calmly in his chair, they probably would have already run away with their tails between their legs.

Roland glanced around and found that the only person who remained relatively calm was the noble lady from the Northern Region, Edith, who only jumped a little from the scene but at the same time her eyes seemed to be filled with excitement and curiosity. He also noticed that she was now looking at him with more respect in her eyes.

He had to admit that trying to figure out women was quite the difficult task.

Aside from Edith, all the other City Hall officials' reactions were within his expectations.

As he was determined to form a united front with the Taquila survivors to fight against the demons, he knew that he could not hide them from the officials forever. Given this, he thought he had better introduce the witches to the officials before anyone in the City Hall noticed something strange in the mountains to the north of Neverwinter.

He also believed that two years of working in the City Hall should have broadened their outlooks and made them more open-minded toward new things.

However, after he explained to them who these tentacle blobs were, why they came here, and how he planned to explore the snow mountain together with them, most officials did not seem to be all that supportive at all. If they had not been familiar with the witches in the Witch Union, they would have already treated those ancient witches as alien creatures like the demons.

Barov, the City Hall Director, said that it was too late to come up with new budget plans for this exploration since it was already the time for the Finance Department to work on the final accounts of the year. He also expressed his worries about Border Area's possible vulnerability if they were to dispatch additional troops for this expedition, given how a force was recently just sent to the Southernmost Region.

With an obvious distrust in the Taquila survivors, Chief Knight Carter doubted the safety of this joint action and even argued that dangers might arise due to internal conflicts of the expedition team.

Sirius, Minister of Agriculture, stuttered about how the grains in stock could hardly support this plan alongside the ongoing military expedition and this news about the shortage of food might cause panic among the residents of the city.

Karl, the Minister of Construction, expressed his concerns about the instability of the mining area above the place hollowed out by the ancient witches in the mountain range.

Hearing them giving various reasons for canceling this exploration, Roland was clear that all they were doing was persuading him to think twice before cooperating with those tentacle monsters.

The discussion had become bogged down over this contentious issue.

If this had happened in a place such as a democratic parliament, he would not have been able to carry out his plan.

However, he did not forget that he was the lord of Neverwinter, the king of Graycastle and the one who had the final say in this matter.

He knew that it was now time for him to take over the meeting and forcibly carry out the plan.

Just like he did when he decided to protect the witches in his domain.

Chapter 779 - The King's Decision

Roland knocked on the table and everybody in the hall instantly quieted down.

He rose from this chair and paced over to stand behind the officials. "When the Months of Demons end, we'll welcome the new year as the most important year for Graycastle. I'll unify the entire kingdom and hold the coronation ceremony to officially become the king and you'll all become my ministers to help me govern this country. "

Two years ago, everyone would have considered Roland's promises to be the crazy ravings of an arrogant prince.

One year ago, they would have thought that his plans were long-term goals.

However, today, no one doubted what he said.

All officials rose and placed their right hands on their chest almost simultaneously. They lowered their heads and said, "Your Majesty, it's our honor!" Suddenly, all their complaints and doubts disappeared. They looked excited as they understood the power of Neverwinter after working these two years in City Hall.

They knew, for sure, that once His Majesty made up his mind to unify the whole kingdom, he would definitely bring all the regions and areas of the kingdom into his control.

When that happened, they would rise from the officials of a city to the most powerful ministers of a kingdom.

Roland made a gesture, indicating them to sit down and said, "It's more than that. My Graycastle will become unprecedentedly large. My kingdom will include the Hermes Plateau in the north, reach the Endless Cape in the south, expand westward to the Barbarian Land, and eastward to the Fjord Islands."

He further explained, "To make that happen, the First Army will become the busiest department and thus leave fewer soldiers to guard Neverwinter. Given this, I've got to explore the snow mountain now to eliminate hidden threats to the city. I don't want my king's city to be attacked by some unknown enemies from the mountains when the main force of the First Army isn't here."

Carter suggested to the king in a low voice, "Your Majesty, maybe the First Army and the Witch Union will be enough to explore the snow mountain..."

Roland interrupted, "No, in a dark underground cave where the landscape is extremely complex, guns and cannons have only a limited effect. We don't have any maps of the cave or any preset firing position there. If they happen to meet some demonic hybrids, how much do you think it will cost the First Army to defeat them?"

The Chief Knight fell into silence at once.

"This is why we must work together with the Taquila survivors. Their God's Punishment Witches and the Witch Union have complementary advantages in this exploration. The First Army will set sentry posts along the way and cover their retreat if need be. This is the most prudent arrangement." Roland paused and then suddenly raised his voice. "You all listen to me carefully. Don't tell me it's difficult to implement this plan. You're sitting here to solve problems for me! If you can't, my City Hall doesn't need you anymore!"

He paused and looked at the City Hall Director. "Barov Mons?"

Barov shuddered, answering, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Is there any problem with the final accounts and logistics for the exploration?"

"No... I believe." The old man wiped the sweat from his face. "I'll give you a plan five days later."

"Three days," Roland corrected him with an air of authority. After that, he turned to look at Minister of Agriculture. "Sirius Daly?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"If Border Area's food stocks are low, you can get some from the Longsong Area. We've got enough concrete boats for this. Do I make myself clear?"

"Ye-Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Karl Van Bate!"

The Minister of Construction answered immediately, "Your Majesty, I'll carefully check the geological condition of both the mining and furnace areas."

"Good..." Roland smiled. "Then the next one."

...

This time, all the problems could be readily solved since all the officials saw the king's determination and accepted the tasks without any hesitation.

After assigning the tasks to the officials, it was time to decide who would go for the exploration.

Pasha's voice resounded in everyone's head again. Most of the officials got scared again, but as soon as they saw Roland calmly talking to the tentacle monster, they calmed down a little and did not flee the hall in panic.

Since they had already promised His Majesty to work with the Taquilla witches, they thought that all they needed to do at this moment was force themselves to remain seated and listen to the voice. To avoid seeing the tentacle monster, they all closed their eyes and lowered their heads, pretending that they were engrossed in their thoughts. They acted as if the sound was some evil spell from the hell instead of a female voice.

Seeing them, Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Edith was the only official who dared to look at the light curtain.

Sometimes, she even tried to talk with the Senior Witches of Taquila like Roland did.

Not wanting to be upstaged by his opponent, Barov managed to lift up his head several times but failed to say anything in the end.

Roland had expected this and had planned to not get the City Hall officials heavily involved in the conversation.

At last, the Taquila witches agreed to send 50 God's Punishment Witches to team with the Witch Union and these witches were the main force for the exploration. The First Army would send a group of 500 soldiers with Brian as their commander to join this exploration as well.

The remaining troops in the city would be temporarily handed over to Carter and continue to fight against the demonic beasts at the border.

When both parties agreed on these arrangements and Roland was about to end this meeting, Edith suddenly raised her hand.

"Your Majesty, I wish to apply to join the Snow Mountain Exploration Team and go to the Western Region snow mountains together with the First Army soldiers."

Barov's mouth corner twisted, saying, "Come on, you're not a witch or a soldier. Don't mess up His Majesty's plan."

She insisted, "I used to serve as a fencing coach in a knight battalion and defeated each of my opponents including demonic beasts within five rounds. I can protect myself."

Roland asked curiously, "What's the reason for this request?"

Edith explained, "The Battle of Divine Will is getting closer to us, but none of the officials sitting here know what the demons or the underground creatures look like. As we know nothing about our opponents in the upcoming war, I'm afraid that the City Hall won't be able to reach Your Majesty's expectations. I know that someone may think that since the First Army will fight against the demons, his own department won't get involved into the war-related stuff. However, once the battle begins, all the departments such as the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Agriculture will have to satisfy the needs of the war effort. This is inevitable and so to do a great job in City Hall, we also have to know our enemies well."

"You..." The City Hall Director wanted to retort but did not know what to say at this moment.

Roland could not help smiling, thinking that what she said might sound a little belligerent but was quite interesting. He also derived an inspiration from her statement and thought it might make a great new rule that only allowed promotion of the officials who had worked in the cities located on or near the front line during the battle. In this way, he could guarantee that the officials of the City Hall would never underestimate the importance of this fatal war or make some unrealistic government decrees during wartime.

Besides, he believed that it would be alright to let Edith join the First Army's action as she indeed had battle experience.

He nodded to the Pearl of the Northern Region.

"Well, please go get ready for the exploration."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Edith smoothed back her hair that was hanging beside her ears and bowed with a smile.

Chapter 780 - Edith's Little Game

"Sister, are you... going to some place far away?" Cole Kant's voice could be heard from behind Edith.

She continued sorting out her clothes without turning her head back to her brother. "Not very far away. I'll just hang around somewhere in the Western Region."

He came to her side and asked again, "How long will it take?"

"I don't know."

Cole started to look at the clothes piled on his sister's bed. "You didn't pick any formal dress, girdle or your favorite corset... Aren't you going to visit some nobles or attend banquets?"

Edith gave him a quick glance. "You've got stronger observation power now, but you don't always have to tell the others everything you notice."

The boy winced at once and said, "You were the one who taught me how to improve my observation ability."

"Now I'll teach you another thing. When you're talking to a woman, remember to remain graceful all the time and choose your words carefully, understand?"

"But you're my sister..."

"If I wasn't, you would suffer a lot."

Cole shuddered and said, "I, I see."

"Good." Edith shrugged. "How do you feel working in City Hall?"

"It's alright... Just like you instructed, I've never revealed my identity as a noble. All I do there is just writing and recording, which are easy for me. But I really don't understand..." He hesitated. "Why didn't you put me in your department?"

Since Cole Kant had watched the artillery drill, he had given up the idea of returning to the City of Evernight. He and Edith had also moved from the Foreign Affairs Building to a spacious house near the lord's castle. Now they were official residents of Neverwinter. As a noble who had received a traditional education, Cole had found a job easily in City Hall. Including the hundred or so scholars and servants from the Northern Region, Edith managed to gain a certain status there.

These people would not stay here forever, but she knew that His Majesty would never reject more people from the Northern Region coming to learn the new system. The young king was thirsty for talents, and now the Northern Region was the only one that was willingly providing him with talented people. As long as her father kept on sending new people here, she would always keep her status in the new system of the king.

Edith smiled and answered Cole, "Because it's not necessary and it may cause us troubles. The City Hall Director always keeps an eye on me. If I put you in my department and he manages to find out your mistakes, I'll be faced with a dilemma. If we ruin the Kant family's reputation, it'll influence His Majesty's opinion of me." She paused for a moment and continued. "Even if we don't get along with each other, the others will still think of us as a whole as we share a common surname. So no matter what you do in the future, you've got to remember you represent the whole family, not just yourself."

The boy looked down with a contemplative expression on his face. Edith did not know how much he could understand, but she had said all there was to be said about this matter. Even when the feudal aristocratic order was totally replaced by Roland's new system, their family reputation would still have a long-term influence on them and might even draw more attention to them in the short run.

Their common surname had replaced their noble identities to become the most important thing for them now, just like the way the moon became the brightest thing in the sky after the sunset.

After quite a long while, he nodded and said, "I'll be careful."

Their father had said that Cole was timid, irresolute and weak, therefore not a suitable heir for the Kant Family. He was worried that this son would not be strong enough to lead his knights to guard the domain as a lord, and if it was wartime, his style would easily put him in an invidious position.

Edith knew another point that the duke had never mentioned.

Cole Kant took after his father in personality.

If Timothy had never planned to ally with some less powerful noble in the Northern Region to break the existing order there, the Kant family would not have been able to get where they were today.

Now that they were no long a lesser noble family in some remote place of the Northern Region, their father thought a more capable child, Edith, was a better successor and thus had great expectations of her.

However, Edith was clear that Cole's shortcomings were not going to hold him back in Neverwinter. On the contrary, being prudent, introverted and a fast learner meant that he would adapt well to the job in City Hall.

The moment she had known that a group of common people with snow powder weapons in hands had captured Timothy's city in merely one day, she had realized that personal strength and courage were not that important as before. This was also why she had insisted on keeping her brother in Neverwinter to learn new things.

Cole casually picked up a long dress and lifted it in front of him, acting as if he were checking whether it fitted him or not. He asked, "Oh, sister. Where're you going indeed? I don't want to stay in such a large house alone. I'll get bored."

"But it was you who asked me to buy a big house. It's five hundred gold royals, which is quite expensive even for me. Now you think it's too big?" Edith asked him in a cold voice.

The boy was startled and almost dropped the dress on the ground. "No... no... I'm very satisfied with this house."

"Wait until next summer. Our little brother will come here to keep you company." She glanced at him and found that the dress seemed to suit him well. "As for where I'm going, it's a secret of Neverwinter, but it's not something I can't tell you. According to the old rules, you have to pay a price for this."

Cole hesitated, as he was familiar with this little game and had been tricked into doing many silly things this way. However, in the end, his uncontrollable curiosity still took over his fear. He said to Edith, "I want to know."

She smiled and said, "I'll go to the Great Snow Mountain of the Western Region with some soldiers from the First Army."

He was surprised and asked, "You mean the source of the Redwater River? Is there anything special?"

"Some unknown demonic hybrid monsters or alien species. We'll probably meet anything there." Edith said and then continued to describe the Taquila witches she had seen during the meeting. "Now we've entered into an alliance with those tentacle monsters. I can't wait to witness our monster allies fighting against the monster enemies."

Cole listened with his mouth agape and then stuttered, "Wait... wait... Aren't you afraid of those things? And His Majesty made a deal with some monsters? Even the demons don't look that scary, do they?"

"So?" She threw up her hands and said. Not seeming to care much about her brother's worries, she continued to ask, "Isn't it a good thing for us?"

He could not believe what he had heard and asked, "A good thing? Sister, are you crazy?"

"What?"

"No, I mean..."

Edith sighed and explained, "Do you remember what we want to achieve by serving the king here?"

Cole replied with great care, "To achieve... greater power?"

She looked at him with shining eyes and said, "Not exactly, but at least it's not wrong. Greater power comes from a bigger domain and a larger population. If the ancient witches, some alien species and even the demons all rush to the king's side, the power of this kingdom will extend from the human world to some alien lands. Do you understand?"

He gasped at what she had said.

She continued and said, "A lesser noble who owns just a village can easily remember the names of all his subjects, but a lord of a city can never do that. The diversity of the people in a domain indicates how vast the domain is... and I remember no king had ruled over any alien species in the history. This is the new opportunity our family wants to seek. We left the remote and backward domain for this, so why are you worried about it?"

Hearing this, Cole stood at the place for quite a long while before he could open his mouth and said, "But..."

Edith interrupted. "But they're not our kind. That's what you want to say, right?" She twitched her mouth and continued. "As long as His Majesty is still at the helm, he will be able to do whatever he wants with those alien creatures."

Her words made him sense a chill in this warm room.

"Now, it's time for you to pay back." With her eyes squinted, Pearl of the Northern Region pointed at the long dress and said with an affected drawl. "Put it on and let me have a look."

Chapter 781 - Sand Road, Wolf Heart

This was a long dream.

A dream that Lorgar knew she was in.

The moment the Four-winged Eagle landed on her, the pain of the broken bones in her legs coursed through her veins. Her legs were, in her view, as crushed as the wheat under the millstone, in which she had seen her clansmen process food purchased from the north in spite of her lack of knowledge of how to grow wheat.

There was no way for her to stand up again for the rest of her life, not to mention fight.

But now she was standing.

Thus, it had to be a dream.

For only in a dream, what was made could be unmade.

Taking a deep breath, Lorgar looked into the space before her, where a sand road started from her feet and stretched as far as she could see. She stepped forward and, from time to time, she would encounter an opponent, one of those that she had defeated before, walking towards her with neither a hint of laughter nor mockery. One by one, they passed by her and disappeared into the endless sand behind her.

A sandworm was the first to come.

It was her achievement in her first hunt when she was 12 years old.

The sandworm would be most vulnerable when it was moving in the sand and leaving a clear tail, but once it was skulking in silence, it would be hard for the hunter to spot it. However, that could not baffle the civilians of Sand Nation, who might be more deceitful than any other creature in the desert. Lorgar attempted to disguise herself as a common bush and wait for the sandworm to come. By the time it was close enough, she shoved her spike into the sand as well as the sandworm beneath it.

Her excellent hunting performance had exceeded her siblings and even in the big clans of the Iron Sand City, was unmistakable. As a consequence of that hunt, she fell in love with the happy feeling of confronting and fighting.

The sandworm coming now did not take the cover of sand but raised its head as it traveled slowly in the sand like a snake. For a moment, Lorgar thought it would spit venom at her that would deform her face, but nothing happened. It went by quietly.

A Scorpion and a Desert Wolf came next... her second and third opponent.

The Scorpion passed by, but the Desert Wolf stopped, who, after a moment of hesitation, walked up to her, wagging its tail. It snuffed her calloused bare feet before turning around and walking by her side.

Lorgar recalled the brutal challenge between her and the wolf. Constrained by the fact that much more effort was required for a Mojin woman to be a qualified duelist, she had to seek for the next prey right after the hunt of many sandworms and scorpions. She aimed at the wolf pack.

But the wolves moving in packs were more fearful than she had thought. A sandstorm had struck them and untied the hunting team. By the time it subsided, numerous wolves emerged on the horizon.

The Sand Nation people hemmed in by wolves had fought valiantly, but they were outnumbered. One by one, they fell under the sharp claws and fangs coming from all around. Lorgar had thought she was doomed. At the last moment, a sharp pain took her and then she awakened to be a Divine Lady.

She became the giant King of Wolfheart.

Standing on the sand that was soaked in blood, she looked down at the wolves, whoever met her eyes huddled down, as if they were greeting their dominating God.

The road after her awakening turned much broader.

As strong performers of her age, clan fighters, and battle-tested warriors... approached her one after another and disappeared. Lorgar's heart tensed.

Perhaps the dream would come to an end when the last opponent passed by her.

There was not much time left for her.

She wanted to slow down... but it did not help.

Soon the earth darkened as if something large was passing over her head. Lorgar looked up and saw the Four-winged Eagle.

The last moment was coming.

At the same time, with a shaking roar, the Desert Wolf broadened its muscles and jumped at that sky-dominating beast.

The two beasts collided hard, sending blood and feathers all around. They fought their best as if wanting to finish the duel on the Burning Stage that had not played out yet.

Lorgar held her breath and gazed at her last battle. Her body would precisely record every feeling during the fight, which was exactly the reason why she could improve much more rapidly than ordinary people. If she got the chance to fight the beast again, it was certain that she could persevere longer and even snap its head before Ashes lent a hand.

What a pity that the opportunity was beyond her grasp.

As the battle was reaching fever pitch, Lorgar wanted to join and fight alongside the giant wolf, but her body was stiff and she even lost the feeling in her feet.

She realized it was time to wake up.

The fear grasped her heart and she began trembling all over.

She did not want to be confined to a bed, disabled.

She wanted to stand up!

To continue to fight!

However, she felt increasingly confined. The feeling had crept from her legs to her neck and she could not even manage to move her throat now.

Suddenly, the Desert Wolf howled agonizingly from the pain of its torn abdomen ripped open by the eagle. Its intestines poured out as it faltered to Lorgar. The wolf only managed to move a few steps before its last strength evaporated and it fell in Lorgar's direction. Even at the last moment of its life, it attempted to block the rest of the strikes from the enemy for her.

The strikes on its back were like the beats on her heart.

No!

Lorgar abruptly opened her eyes and sat up.

The sand road and the beasts were suddenly all gone. Beside her came the cry of her maid, "Princess... you, you woke up!"

"Yes..." She was in a trance for a while. "I woke up."

"Which means the time I can stand is... Wait!" Lorgar was bewildered. She could clearly see the maid approaching her bedside in panic and feel the touch of the towel on her skin when the maid wiped her sweat. In her sight, the roof of the old tent, the knife hanging on the wall, and the burning brazier were all incredibly vivid.

But how could she capture such a clear vision with only one eye?

Subconsciously, she touched her left eye... To her surprise, it was intact.

No, not just the eyes, both of her arms were good and her entire body was painless, even her feet!

Throwing back the covers, she scrambled out of bed and stood with both her feet on the ground firmly.

"What?" She looked at the maid who had been shocked by her behavior.

"The new Divine Lady brought by the northerners healed you," the maid stuttered, trying to explain. "She didn't even use any medicine. With a slight touch of her hands, your wound healed over."

"There's a witch called Nana in Neverwinter of Graycastle, who can heal anybody, even someone who's breathing his last or whose limbs are entirely broken."

So what Ashes had said was not to comfort her, but was real. There indeed was a witch who possessed such a miraculous power.

"Where are they now?" Lorgar quickly slipped on a coat and asked, "I have to thank her."

"They've gone."

"What?" She frowned. "What about Ashes?"

"She's not in the Iron Sand City either. Two days ago, the Osha clan took the first batch of Sand Nation people to the Southern Territory."

"Is she..." the Wolf Girl slowed down. "How long have I been out?"

Timidly, the maid held up three fingers and then added three.

"Six days. What a long dream." She sighed. "Is there anything else that happened in the Iron Sand City during that period?"

"Yes, the Wildwave clan annexed the severely buffeted Black River clan and challenged us..." The girl looked a little depressed. "Lord Chief didn't, didn't take the challenge, but gave up directly. The rank of Wildflame has dropped to third... We couldn't keep the Stone Castle any longer."

"Really?" Lorgar raised her eyebrows. "I need to see my father."

"Ah... Wait My Princess, you forgot your hood and cloak!" The maid followed Lorgar to the doorway with some clothes. "Many people have come to the castle recently, some coming for negotiation, some for..." Her voice lowered as she spoke.

"Driving us out, right?" Lorgar reached out her hand to touch her pointed ear and then smiled at the maid. "Keep them, for I no longer need them."

"What? But..."

Her father had told her to conceal her unique unhuman-like features before she succeeded the chief, for even a Divine Lady would be excluded and mistrusted for an abnormal look. But she had understood what she really wanted after finishing the long sand road in her dream.

Half woman and half beast? A Monster?

That did not prevent her from continuing her fight, did it?

Lorgar waved her hand, giving no more words, she then walked directly towards the top floor of the Stone Castle.

Chapter 782 - Say Goodbye

Along the way, she witnessed her clansmen coming and going with bags on their backs, their sad faces displayed an obvious reluctance to leave their homes.

Since their ranks had dropped down to third, they would be distributed to the much smaller houses of Stone Castle. It would be even worse for the people who were no longer be eligible to live in the castle. They were going to be moved to the campsite in the outer street. Even though it belonged to the Iron Sand City, it would be inconvenient when compared to the central area.

After all, the big clans Stone Castles controlled the limited pieces of land around the lakes and oases.

Lorgar etched their expressions in her mind and stored it in her heart.

As the guard stationed outside her father's bedroom saw Lorgar coming, he couldn't help but smile. "Princess, you... are healed!"

"Yeah, as good as I was," Lorgar joked. "Is my father in his room?"

"Lord Chief is always in there, however..." The guard hesitated. "He is not alone."

She had an idea who they might be so she didn't bother asking.

That's when she heard the sounds of an argument coming from behind the closed door.

"I thought we settled this already. Your clan would vacate the main castle within three days. So, why are you still here?" someone inquired loudly. "Are you defying the vow of the Three Gods?"

"Mind your attitude, Kabucha!" a voice chastised. If she had correctly identified it, the voice belonged to her oldest brother Rohan. "Now that you've absorbed the Black River clan, you should make them vacate, so we can move in. We can't share a space with them while they are still mourning their loss, they still have white linens hanging on the walls."

"You can send your men in to tear down the linen. Our Lord Chief wants results, not your excuses."

"You—!"

"Ha, since your clan conceded during the holy duel, you shouldn't bother trying to be arrogant. Your chief still hasn't spoken and yet you dare to criticize us? Stay out of the way and be quiet."

Others started to join in, "Exactly, accept the results or we can defeat you again!"

"Cang—"

Subsequently, the sound of swords being unsheathed rang out.

Just as the guard outside the room drew his weapon to join the fight, Lorgar stopped him.

"Leave it to me."

"But..." The guard murmured as he attempted to argue. However, his next words were quelled by Lorgar's peremptory gaze, he lowered his head as he replied, "I understand, My Princess."

Lorgar pushed open the door and walked in, her face sullen.

The warriors of the Wildwave clan stood with their arms crossed, defiant, as they ignored the sharp blades near their throats, betting that the Wildflame clan wouldn't dare to swing them.

The warriors had guessed right. Both, her brother and the guards, only dared to threaten harm, making the Wildflame look weaker.

Guelz Burnflame was seated behind a square table and his eyes reflected the rooms unsettled flames. Momentarily, the room was silenced.

"Stow your weapons."

Lorgar's voice broke the tension.

Guelz smiled, "Finally, you're awake."

"Sister, you... are... no, I mean... this is great!" Rohan sputtered in disbelief as she approached them. At first, Lorgar wasn't able to read her brother expression. She couldn't tell if he was shocked or surprised.

Lorgar suddenly realized that her father hadn't told anyone about the Divine Lady of the North. Only her father and those who had cared for her knew, the rest still remained ignorant.

Even her brother was surprised, not to mention the Wildwave warriors.

"Lo-Lorgar? Weren't you... badly wounded during the holy duel?"

"It's impossible! I saw clearly with my own eyes that her legs had been crushed and bloodied, as she was carried off the platform!"

"What's that I see... a wolf's ears and tail?"

"She's a monster!"

Lorgar, unmoved, walked over to the Wildwave warriors, who had clearly lost their cool as they continued to argue, "Anyway, Wildflame yielded during the duel on the Burning Stage, which was witnessed by the Three Gods! You have to wait six months before your next challenge."

This rule about participants who yield not being allowed to challenge the winner before six months had passed was a safeguard against planned surrender for the preservation of power and it was well known and accepted throughout the Sand Nation.

"We accepted the results, just like we believe in the Three Gods." Lorgar gave the answer which relieved the tension in the warrior's chest, unfortunately, it wouldn't last long. What she said next tensed the room up again, "So... who's Kabucha?"

"I am!" the head of the Wildwave warriors had no choice but to step forward. "Now that you have promised to respect the results, move out immediately. You are no longer the strongest clan. Do you really still want to cling to this castle?"

The reply was a right hook to the face.

Kabucha was indeed a good fighter, even so, he wouldn't be able to defeat a wolf claw that had instantly emerged in front of him. He had been blown away, breaking the door, before he landed outside in a crumpled heap.

"You—" The other warriors glared at her, and yet, none of them dared to charge at her.

"Even though Wildflame dropped to the third clan, the dignity of the chief can't be ignored, especially by someone standing in the middle of our land. How dare you be so insolent?" Lorgar accused. "Take that punch as a lesson and get out, all of you!"

The moment Lorgar entered the room, the table had turned. Annexing Blackwater had contributed to a great part of Wildwave's force, so they hadn't feared the holy duel or the possible private challenge, they were confident they would transcend Wildflame. But, when Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan appeared before them, in the flesh, their confidence vacated them. They had to admit, even if Wildflame had decided not to duel with them in six month, they still wouldn't be able to afford losses to the giant Desert Wolf, who could sneak up and assault them, from time to time, in the future.

Their day of reckoning would come, for they challenged them in the first place.

For the Sand Nation People, revenge was as sacred as the holy duel.

Wildwave warriors carried the bloody-faced Kabucha and left without a word.

"Father, now that my sister has healed, can we move back to this Stone Castle in six months?" Rohan asked excitedly, his fists clenched. "Or perhaps you could negotiate with the chief of Wildwave and save us from the trouble of moving—since they wouldn't stand a chance in winning the next duel, he should allow you the favor."

"Yes, our Prince is right," the guards echoed in excitement.

"Let me go and stop everyone who is packing."

"Also, don't forget to throw out the Wildwave clansmen who have been lingering in our castle."

"Don't forget to tell them to take their belongings with them."

They prattled on delightedly.

Guelz Burnflame softly coughed and looked at his daughter, "What'd you have in mind?"

That brought silence to the room. Everyone turned their eyes towards Lorgar and waited for her answer. Rohan was among them, slightly biting his lips, his eyes shadowed.

Lorgar barely noticed. She took a deep breath and said clearly, "Father, I want to leave and I'm here to say goodbye."

Chapter 783 - Where I Belong

Her words shocked everyone.

"Sister, no... what are you talking about?" Rohan was the first one to recover from the shock. "You want to leave the oasis? What will our clan do without you? How will we deal with the holy duels in the future? Where do you plan to go?"

Lorgar gave no answer. Instead, she looked at her father quietly.

A rueful smile came over Guelz's face. He exhaled a long breath and waved to the others. "Leave us alone."

"Father..." Rohan opened his mouth, trying to say something, but swallowed the words.

The guards were as surprised as Rohan, but respecting the family's privacy, they obeyed the command and left in bewilderment.

Soon Lorgar and Guelz were alone in the room.

"You want to go to the north?" Guelz asked straightforwardly.

"Yes," Lorgar answered honestly without hiding anything. "I'll go to the Southern Territory of Graycastle to find Ashes, and then travel to Neverwinter with her."

"What about the Wildflame clan?"

"Go to the Southern Territory. You can find fresh oases there, without having to fight for food or water." She paused for a moment. "I'll bet that you had already made that decision long ago. That's why you didn't accept the challenge from the Wildwave clan."

Guelz raised his eyebrows, but denied nothing.

Lorgar continued. "It doesn't mean that you're afraid of them. Wildflame has been the strongest clan for decades, even before I turned into a Divine Lady. You would never spare them without making them pay an unforgettable price for their insolence, even if they did surpass us after taking Blackwater. It's this kind of spirit that we have always relied on to hold our ground in the biggest Stone Castles of Iron Sand City."

"The only reason that you wouldn't accept the challenge would be if the holy duel to determine the rank of the clans in Iron Sand City had already become meaningless. Our clansmen may fight and bleed to secure the future of the clan, but you would never let them fight a meaningless battle and die in vain. Am I right, Father?"

Guelz stared at her with a poker face for a long time before curling his lips into a smile. He shook his head and said, "I don't know whether you were born a genius or you have the nose of a wolf. Or maybe both? In fact, I kept putting off the discussion of this matter because I wanted to seek your counsel on our relocation after you woke up."

"I don't think I truly understand. Besides, I have neither the intelligence nor the wolf's nose you just mentioned. I just have trust in my fists." Lorgar shook her ears.

"Fists?"

"Yeah, I can figure out what kind of a person someone is once we've had a fight. You taught me to fight from a young age, and I've tasted both your punches and your weapons. It's only natural that I can perceive your true intentions."

"I'm so glad to hear that." Guelz laughed. "What about Ashes? Can we trust her?"

"For me, she's as unapproachable as a mountain... but a mountain is always silent and doesn't care enough to lie. She also gave me a feeling of a strength and safety," Lorgar said slowly. "Those under her wings must feel very warm and comfortable."

"I'm relieved to hear you say that." Guelz seemed to have made up his mind. "Since we're all going to the Southern Territory anyway, why don't you wait a few more days and join us?"

"I don't want to wait anymore, Father... I feel my heart beat fiercely when facing the north," Lorgar said, pressing her chest with her hands. "It's urging me to set out as soon as possible. If I get there earlier, I can see whether they really intend to keep their word to offer every civilian of the Sand Nation an oasis just as they've promised."

"Didn't you just say that you believed in them with all your heart?" Guelz laughed.

"It's Ashes I trust, not the 'Chief' behind her. Ashes may not be lying, but it doesn't mean that she can't be cheated." Lorgar waved her fist. "If the King of Graycastle deceives us, I won't let him stay in peace."

"What if Drow Silvermoon's words are true? Will you swear fealty to him if he treats the Ironsand people of the Mojin clan as well as he does his own people, or even serve him in the same way your mother did?" Guelz asked with great interest. "If all you want to do is to challenge his men for your own entertainment, I'm afraid he won't welcome you."

"I... I won't! Who would be interested in a monster that's half man and half beast?" The short fur on Lorgar's tail bristled and her eyes turned away. "I've heard from Ashes that there are extremely powerful alien enemies there. That's what I'm going for, not to serve the king. I'll pay them myself if I need any cures or treatment from the witches."

The chief of Wildflame stopped teasing her and waved at her. "Come over here. Let me have a good look at you."

Lorgar walked up to her father and sat down, placing her head on her father's lap as she always did.

Guelz gently stroked her hair and fluffy ears, whispering, "You'll be back, won't you?"

"Yeah." Lorgar closed her eyes. "If the people of Graycastle people can come to Iron Sand City, then so can I. It'll also be easier for me to pay a visit after our people move to the Southern Territory, as it'll be closer. If you don't want to be the chief anymore in the future, hand the position over to my brother. He's far more suitable for the position of chief than me. He'll be an excellent leader for when we don't have to constantly fight for the oasis."

"Don't bother yourself with those things at this moment," Guelz said. "Remember to write me some letters even if you don't have time to come back. Since we are going to move to the north, it won't be bad for us learn their ways."

"You can put up with my ugly handwriting?"

"Silly," he grunted. "When our people leave home, they always leave something behind. If you don't want to leave a word, I don't mind keeping your hair."

"Uh... I'll leave a word," Lorgar said, wagging her tail.

...

After night had fallen, Lorgar left Iron Sand City carrying a bag that was much larger than herself.

No one saw her off. There was hardly anyone who knew that the Divine Lady of Wildflame was about to begin her own journey.

Having passed through the small outer oases, she entered the desolate desert, where she looked around to make sure that she was alone before taking off her clothes.

She folded every piece of her clothes neatly and packed them in her bag. After that, she stood up slowly in the cold wind, naked.

But she felt no cold. Instead, she felt an ineffable sensation running throughout through her body—as if a huge invisible hand was caressing her, and the things that bound her and held her down had vanished. She had been renewed in the cold wind.

Fine hair began to grow out of her skin, and her body was expanding. A few seconds later, a huge desert wolf stood in the vast desert.

She raised her head and howled without restraint.

"Ow——Ah——Woo——"

Her howls echoed and lingered in the air above the desert. Lorgar believed that all of the Wildflame clan must have heard her howls.

The heavy bag now looked small and lightweight. She lowered her head to grab the strap of the bag with her teeth. After confirming the direction she was supposed to go, she began to run towards the Southern Territory of Graycastle.

Chapter 784 - Together with Worms

On the last day of midwinter, a scouting team consisting of the Taquila survivors and witches and soldiers of Neverwinter finally commenced their journey to the western area beyond the Western Region.

Roland stood by the wharf and watched the concrete boat, which carried so many people, slowly depart the dock.

The exploration could be considered as the most complex operation in the history of time, for the First Army, the Witch Union, and the Taquila witches were all going to collaborate and cooperate with each other to conduct a thorough search of the Great Snow Mountain. If everything went well, they would arrive at the headwater of Redwater River in three days. Then, they would pick a sheltered place shielded from winds to erect their tents.

They would first send their vanguard to locate the ruin with the help of Margie's Magic Ark and then use the devouring worm controlled by Fran to open a tunnel in the precipice for the rest of the party to enter the mountain.

This operation was indeed no different than a grave robber's business. Roland was burned with curiosity and was eager to see the ruin of the old civilizations in the Great Snow Mountain. Unfortunately, he was stopped by Wendy and Scroll, who had been insisting on his stay in the castle ever since a demon had thrust a spear through his chest.

Nonetheless, this did not mean that the scouting team would lower their guard. In view of the possible presence of invisible enchanted beasts that had once emerged in Misty Forest, Roland also included Nightingale in the team. It was a big party, so it was practically impossible for Sylvie to attend to the whole team, especially in the event that they had to split up. Meanwhile, the Taquila witches also brought the last three Five-Colored Stone to detect any objects that contained magic power.

According to Pasha, there would be a beam of light at the top of an object that possessed magic power. This theory also held true for demons and hybrid demonic beasts, except that their beams were extremely fine and tiny.

Roland believed his team, constituted of 50 God's Punishment Witch, 500 soldiers from the First Army and a large group of the High Awakened, was definitely an invincible army on the continent. If the operation was successful, it would indubitably lay a solid foundation for the future collaboration among ordinary people, extraordinary warriors, and various witches.

"Let's head back." Roland brushed off the flurries of snow on the nose and said to Anna.

"OK." Anna looked up at him and smiled back.

During the time while Nightingale was away, Anna was responsible for the safety of the king. As Roland and Anna were having an intimate relationship, both of them felt very comfortable to stay close to each other.

Roland held Anna's hand and walked to the castle.

...

He did not, however, expect that Phyllis would be there upon his entry to the hall.

"You didn't go to the Great Snow Mountain with them?" Roland raised his brows. "I thought you would be interested in exploring the underground ruin."

Phyllis replied with a shrug, "I am, but Pasha prefers me to stay here. I know the castle better than anyone else, and most of your men have seen me. If they want to pick a person to take charge of the defense of this castle, I would be the one."

As a matter of fact, the Taquila witches had suggested that one of them should be stationed in the castle. Although Anna was powerful, her magic power would render useless in the vicinity of a God's Stone of Retaliation. Further, Anna presented much more academic talent than combat skills. Once she was stripped of her power, both Roland and Anna would be in a perilous position. In consideration of the potential danger, Pasha insisted that a God's Punishment Witch should stay in the castle to serve as their protector.

Since God's Punishment Witches could manipulate anti-magic areas however they pleased, they could easily vanquish any witches. Their bodies of flesh, which were impervious to any illness or injuries, allowed them to fight under extreme conditions. Even if their enemies happened to be Extraordinaries, God's Punishment Witches still stood a chance to win.

"Well, then I thank you in advance," Roland naturally replied.

Phyllis gave a nod. "That's my duty. I'll normally stay in the hall. If anything ever happens, I'll come to you as fast as I can."

Roland understood that Phyllis made this decision was to avoid any unnecessary conflicts or suspicions. The ample buffer spaces between the first floor and his office enabled both the protector and the protected to have some privacy without feeling agitated about the awkward presence of the other. It was a delicate balance to keep. If the Taquila witches, on the contrary, demanded the guardian should be in the office, it would only irritate Roland more even if they meant no harm.

Pasha probably had also taken that into account when she had picked Phyllis as the protector, as the latter apparently knew the union witches better than any other God's Punishment Witches.

Nevertheless, Roland would not completely rely on his ally when it came to safety, although the protection from a God's Punishment Witch did greatly reduce risks. He also put some guards and members of the First Army at the staircase at each floor and the bedroom door. They would rotate their shifts every eight hours to make sure nothing would go amiss.

When Roland returned to his office, Scroll was waiting for him by the French window.

"Your Majesty," Scroll dipped in a perfect curtsy and handed him a report. "I've confirmed Lily's derivative skill."

"Really?" Roland's eyes lightened up. He immediately took the report and started to carefully read it.

Winter was almost close to its end. Although it was still the Months of Demons, most of the witches had peacefully made their way through their Days of Awakening. Among them, Lily was the most special one. Her magic power had entered its "adulthood" a week ago.

Like what he had done for Lucia, Roland had also spent the Day of Adulthood together with Lily. Apart from a substantial increase in her magic power, Lily also found there was something new in her ability which she felt delighted to see.

Without a doubt, Lily was lucky. On the day she had entered her adulthood, she had also attained her derivative skill.

However, Lily encountered some difficulties in understanding her derivative skill. Unlike the main ability, a derivative skill was usually more subtle and thus harder to perceive. Witches did not sense their derivative skills as easily as they did their main abilities. In fact, it had taken Scroll two years to learn how to utilize the Book of Magic after the entry to her adulthood.

But this was not a big problem. According to Agatha, to overcome this obstacle, witches only needed to practice their main abilities over and over again and thereby slowly searched for the solution.

Few witches would obtain a derivative skill entirely irrelevant with her main ability. The relationship between the main ability and a derivative skill was analogous to that of roots and twigs and leaves. Derivative skills could, to some extents, supplement and strengthen the main ability. Sylvie's ability to distinguish magic power and Soraya's painting brush were both solid proofs of this theory.

Roland was surprised by the report. "Is she now able to absorb a parent population into her body and keep it in there?"

Scroll inclined her head. "Not only one. It was actually an accidental discovery made by Lily when she did her experiment. She found some assimilated parent populations enter her body and remained in there ever since. She thought they would disappear once she summons parent populations again, but in reality... they could still get out of her body upon her call and continue to assimilate other microscopic creatures."

Roland soon realized what that meant. After the second evolution, the little girl had learned to turn parent populations she had seen into some specific microscopic creatures. Now, her new derivative skill simplified the matter. Lily did not need to actually "see" parent populations on the spot, but simply needed to "remember" them. In other words, she could collect converted parent populations aforetime and released microscopic worms when needed. Her new skill largely accelerated the assimilation process.

Roland could envision, with the enhancement of the accuracy of microscopes and the increase in the parent population types Lily carried, Lily would eventually become a walking "biochemical bomb".

Roland was amused by the notion that a harmless assistant witch, after receiving continuous education in Neverwinter, had, in the end, become a combat witch who carried a potentially lethal weapon. He felt both lucky and relieved that Lily at least belonged to the Witch Union. He just wondered, however, if demons would ever get sick or infected by any diseases.

Chapter 785 - An Intruder

After Scroll withdrew, there was nobody in the office except him and Anna.

Roland opened the half-completed textbook, planning to finish the latter half, but words seemed to elude him. For a long time, his quill in the air, he did not write a single word.

Roland noticed that he always involuntarily looked in Anna's direction, as though his eyes were glued to her.

"What's the matter?" Sensing his gaze, Anna put down the parts she was working on and smiled at Roland.

"No, nothing." Roland slightly shook his head. "If you feel bored here, we can go to the backyard of the North Slope Mountain."

Anna curled up her lips into an imperceptible smile. "I don't feel bored at all. I can finish the work here. Most importantly, I don't mind where I am as long as I can be with you."

These words might bring the color to a maid's cheeks, but they just came out of Anna so naturally.

"Alright." Smiling, Roland dropped the matter.

He knew Anna would never lie to him.

As Anna was the first witch with whom he got acquainted after coming to this world, Roland knew her quite well. Apart from a few academic discussions and pillow talks, most of the time Anna was quiet and poised, particularly when she was focused on her work. Roland did not think her a dull person in the least. Silence, to them, was also one means of communication.

Sometimes, a simple, occasional eye contact was sufficient enough for them to understand each other.

Roland decided to forget about the textbook for the time being. He put down the quill and started to study Anna's face.

Her side face always fascinated him. Her ash brown hair, which had grown quite a bit, tumbled down, revealing only a tiny bit of her milky-white neck. The azure in her eyes was as clear as lake water as ever. She was dressed in a puffy, pastel yellow sweater and a pair of comfy black flannel pants, looking dainty and airy. Roland was happy that he designed these modern apparels himself.

Since Anna had sliced the metal ingots (whose composition had undergone a precise modification) into palm-sized cubes beforehand, she would only need to process them with Blackfire in the office once they were delivered to the castle. Roland was impressed by how fast those metal ingots be converted to complete parts in Blackfire. To some extents, the conversion was more a performance of art than a plain demonstration of Anna's ingenious techniques and skills.

These little parts, which appeared to be so insignificant, would eventually be delivered to the plant and become one of the key parts of a machine or a weapon.

It was definitely not an easy task. Roland knew very well that the length and the width of the Blackfire were both needed to be controlled by Anna's magic power. To summon several Blackfires and direct them to cut from different angles would be even harder than using both hands to work on two separate tasks simultaneously. It required incredibly high concentration. Probably, only a person as hard-working as Anna was able to continuously dedicate to and eventually excel in this job.

The girl, who used to practice fire manipulation in the castle garden, had undoubtedly changed a lot, but there seemed to be something still remaining the same.

The day slipped away unnoticed.

After night fell when Roland sank into a slumber with Anna in his arms, the other world just woke up.

...

Yawning, Roland turned to the calendar on his nightstand.

It was Saturday, October 14.

Although time went much faster in the dream world than that in the real world, Roland did not come to this world every night. As long as he was not dreaming, time was frozen here.

Breakfast was ready when Roland entered the living room

"Why are you so late today?" Zero asked while chewing a fried dough stick.

"It's a weekend. Grown-people have their nightlife, so it's normal for me to sleep in." Roland went into the bathroom and picked up his mug and toothbrush. "Are you going out later?"

"No, I'm writing my homework," the little girl replied. Then she said to him as much as to herself, "Nightlife? Come back home even earlier than me yet talk about nightlife. This old grumpy man is nothing but a loser with no friend or career..." Roland knew Zero said it on purpose, for the mumble was just loud enough for him to hear.

He almost choked on his mouthwash. Roland was very displeased to hear Zero call him "uncle", now his title had directly skipped to an old grumpy man? He looked himself in the mirror. His appearance was not so much different than in the real world. By the look, he could be no more than 23 or 24 years old. Although not splendidly attired, wearing only an undershirt and shorts, he could not be considered as a "loser" or an "old grumpy man" by any means.

Roland blamed the child's poor judgment.

He decided not to argue with the little girl but simply said, "In that case, I'll leave my key here. I need to go out later, and you should open the door for me."

"Got it!"

By the time he brushed his teeth and washed his face, Zero had finished her breakfast and retired to her room.

Roland waddled to the table and turned on the TV with the remote.

He needed to meet Garcia today.

Within several months, he had pretty much obtained all the necessary textbooks and materials and had shoveled them to the bedroom. The only work left for him now was to copy them. However, the search for other memory fragments met some obstacles.

No tenant in the Apartment of Souls was willing to let out his room. To this date, Roland had only persuaded two tenants, but there was nothing valuable behind the Gate of Memory. There were over 2,000 residents in the apartment, but it was hard for Roland to collect large capitals just by selling armors, for armors are no real antiques. His act would probably raise as much attention from the police as he broke into someone's residence.

After a full reflection, Roland concluded there were only two possible ways: one was to increase his revenues and the other his reputation.

If he could be as distinguished as Garcia around Tongzi Street, he could then easily persuade his neighbors to move or rent his apartment. If he became financially capable, another solution would be purchasing the whole building.

Either way was a big investment, and currently, the more feasible way to access such big funds seemed to be joining in the Martialist Association.

According to Garcia, anyone who participated in hunting Fallen Evils would receive competitive compensation. If a skillful and powerful martialist was willing to partake in the operation, the association would give him full support. When Garcia mentioned about the remuneration, however, she looked quite contemptuous, as if she slew Fallen Evils just to protect human beings rather than for the money.

Roland spoke highly of her valor and gallantry. He then inquired about the detailed rules pertaining to the rewards.

If truth be told, Roland felt this organization, which boasted of responsibilities and personal dedication, sounded quite fishy. He somehow tasted conspiracies and shady underground business. Given that, he felt reluctant to work for them, and certainly would not work for them for free. He decided to be a member of the Martialist Association simply because this was his last hope after numerous fruitless, vain undertakings over the past few months.

When it was 10 o' clock, Roland put on a suit and took off. Although they were going to meet up in Room 0827, Roland felt it advisable to be formally dressed since this was, after all, an official application.

But no sooner had he stepped out of the room than he heard a screeching child's scream behind him.

It was from Zero.

The shriek apparently startled Roland. He turned around and found the little girl dash out of the room, frightened and unnerved.

"What's the matter? Is there a mouse?"

Zero stammered out, "There, there's someone in the room."

"Someone?" Roland frowned and poked his head into Room 0825. He instantly stood rooted to the ground.

In the center of the living room, which had been empty just a minute ago, stood an unknown woman.

Chapter 786 - The First Dreaming Experience

The woman had tawny long hair, her side-swept bangs clipping to one side, revealing half of her forehead. She had soft facial features, giving Roland an impression that the woman had a gentle and delicate character. Yet under the current circumstances, her exquisite beauty did not strike Roland but actually gave rise to his increasing suspicion of her being a ghost.

Apart from that, Roland also noticed that her gown was a little too shabby. A few stitches were coming out, and the cuffs and corners of the garment were torn and ragged, as though it were picked up from a waste station.

"I, I heard you go out, so I wanted to check if the door was properly locked. When I turned around, however, I saw she was standing there!" Zero was ghastly pale, evidently terrified by the event.

The woman seemed to also notice the commotion. As she raised her head and looked at the door, her expression changed abruptly.

Roland curled his hand into a fist in secret. He was ready to take the blow.

But what the woman said next completely blew his mind. The woman uttered an exclamation of surprise. "Your... Majesty?"

What?

Your Majesty?

"Um... you're..." Roland tried to figure out what had actually happened.

"I'm Phyllis, Your Majesty. What's happened here?" The woman was as puzzled as he.

"Phyllis?" Roland revolved a multitude of thoughts and questions in his mind rapidly "Is she the God's Punishment Witch in the castle hall? Why would she intrude his dream? Is this dream world now opening up and connecting to the other world? Where's Anna? Why hasn't she appeared?"

"Hold on, you know each other?" Zero realized something was wrong here. "What does she mean by 'Your Majesty'... Are you role-playing now?"

"Ahem, she's a... remote relative of mine." Roland suddenly realized that it was not the time for him to stand in a daze. "As to the way she addresses me, it was just a jape. We grew up together and it's normal that she comes up with some particular names."

"A relative?" Hearing that the woman was not some random ghost, the little girl soon slipped back to her usual bold, defiant manner. She started to become more skeptical as well. "You just asked who she was."

Utterly unabashed, Roland shot back, "Did I? I only saw a crying craven who almost wetted her pants."

Zero reddened to her temples. "You, you liar!"

"Didn't you just shriek? This lady was in the room earlier. You were just too occupied with your homework in your bedroom to notice her."

To Roland's dismay, the woman soon took the implication. "Sorry, I... I didn't mean to startle you. I was in another room when His Majesty was leaving. I was about to say hello when you cried out and rushed out of the room."

Roland put a final touch to their improvised show. "I guess that was it. She asked what had happened. The truth is that you scared her. If I find a little girl scream like crazy when I get out, I'll be as confused as she was."

"I... I..." Zero groped for words that did not come. She could not deny the fact that she did scream, for she was not in a habit of lying. Caught in such a dilemma, the little girl felt her eyes moist with tears.

Roland realized that was a bit too much for the little girl to bear, so he bent over and ruffled her hair. "Anyway, it was a miscommunication. Go back to study now."

He could not help feeling a twinge of guilt for Zero because he knew a child like her could not possibly see through the intricacies of guiles and subterfuges deployed by adults. Her life would only be complete after experiencing deception and lies of grown people, as this was an inevitable step, a ceremony she must receive, to inaugurate her adulthood and become mentally mature.

Roland had thought Zero would run into her bedroom in tears, but she actually sniffed and dried her eyes quickly before kicking him hard in his legs. "Uncle, you such a jerk!" With these words, she rushed back to her room in a fury.

Roland twitched his lips. Her reaction was a little different from what he had anticipated, but... overall, she had learned the lesson.

"Haha." The woman who called herself Phyllis burst into laughter. "It seems you aren't those common people's mighty king here."

"But I'm the creator and ruler of this world." Roland gestured the woman to come in. "Let's talk inside. I also have a lot of questions to ask you."

...

After half an hour, Roland was finally convinced that the woman was Phyllis.

She not only talked about Taquila but also about what she had experienced in the castle, as well as the fact that she used to disguise as a guide in "Black Money" under the name "No. 76". Moreover, she further corroborated her story by disclosing some details Roland had not been very clear about.

It was impossible to develop such a well-organized and logically consistent narrative by simply reading his memory. Roland was thus certain that the woman was not a sentient being automatically formed in this world.

Plus, the current body presented to him was exactly what Phyllis originally looked like.

Then the question was very clear.

Why would she enter this dream world?

Phyllis shook her head. "I don't really know either... It was pretty late at that time. The First Army just changed their shift. I was going to disconnect my body and have some deep sleep to restore my strength. When I woke up, I was here." She paused for a moment and then continued, "You call it... a dream world?"

"Correct. This is a world operating only in my dream, but I don't know if this rule still applies now." Roland felt there was no need to hold anything back from her at the moment, for he had to find out the reason why Phyllis could enter his dream as soon as possible. Although Roland knew this complicated world did not exist in his head, it was still... pretty shocking to see someone come uninvited. After all, he was positive that the dream world was created precisely according to his memory. An intrusion meant somebody entered his memory without his permission.

Roland unfolded the ladder behind the door and put it next to the bed. "Perhaps we can do a small test to find out why you came here."

"What's this?" Phyllis asked in surprise.

Roland explained to her, "When I fall off the top of the ladder, the dream will come to an end. You can try it first to see if you can return to the real world. I'll terminate the dream later. If both of us can successfully get out of here, you then wait for me in the hall. I'll be right back."

"Hang on... Your Majesty." Phyllis reached out her hand in an attempt to grasp him.

Roland was astounded at her behavior. It was definitely an act of extreme insolence in Neverwinter. Could she have completely abandoned all her manners and customs learned over the past hundreds of years after coming to a totally foreign environment? Roland thought that was very unlikely.

Phyllis asked in a low voice, "Could you... pinch me?"

"What?" Roland was stunned.

"With the greatest strength that you have, please." Phyllis rolled up her sleeve and presented her pale arm to Roland.

"I've confirmed that pain won't end the dream."

"I just want to experience some pains... Please."

"Experience?" Roland soon thought of Agatha's description of God's Punishment Witches and immediately understood what Phyllis meant. After a moment of silence, he pinched the witch's wrist with his right hand.

Phyllis clenched her teeth, yielding to an articulate moan of satisfaction. She trembled in such excitement as a thirsty traveler who had a delicious drink once tasted and long since forgotten.

It was after a long time that Phyllis finally opened her eyes and exhaled a long breath.

"God almighty, I can feel pains again!" Phyllis looked like a completely different person, her radiant eyes fixed on Roland, glistening with exhilaration.

Roland spread out his hands. "You can do it yourself too."

Phyllis shook her head and suddenly went to her knees. "That's different, Your Majesty. Perchance, this world is only a dream for you, but I would like to do anything just to stay in here. I'm afraid I would never be able to come back after I leave. Could you allow me to dream just a little longer, at least for now?"

Chapter 787 - Go! To the New World!

Roland fell silent.

Phyllis was right. To Roland, sensations were something so natural that he almost regarded them as inherent elements of the world. As to his dream, due to its bizarreness and incompleteness, he viewed it as a fictional world created by his imagination. To Phyllis, however, this world was her dreamland. It was the light at the end of the tunnel. No matter what snares and toils awaited for her, Phyllis would try her best to reach for it.

If her intrusion was indeed an accident that would not recur and if she just left like this, she would probably lose something beyond Roland's imagination. If pains were the only thing that Phyllis would experience in this long-lost dream world, that would be too cruel for her.

Roland breathed out a sigh. At length, he held Phyllis' hand and said, "I see. Let's do the test in the evening."

Two days in the dream world roughly had the same timespan as a full night in the real world. He would just wake up a few hours later if he stayed in the dream until evening. So, that should not cause a problem. These few extra hours, however, would allow Phyllis to have a thorough exploration of this brand new world.

"Thank you, Your Majesty..." Phyllis rose and once again placed her hand over her heart, a particular salute normally conducted by senior members of the Union. "I now come to understand why the Witch Union fully supports you."

Roland was about to make a response when suddenly, somebody pounded the bedroom door. He heard Zero's voice outside the room. "I made some tea. Do you guys want some?"

"What the hell... is she doing?" thought Roland. Usually, Zero would disappear for quite a while when she was inflamed. She definitely would not boil water or make tea. "What trick is she playing now?"

Roland opened the door, brows remaining clouded, only to find there was nothing in Zero's hands. The little girl cast Roland a stare and then poked her head into the room. She studied Phyllis critically, eyes full of alert.

"Hey, where's the tea?"

"In the living room. Go fetch yourself." Zero grudged him a grunt. "By the way, don't you guys produce weird noises. You distract me from doing my homework!" At these words, she stormed away.

"Um... so that's the reason." Roland shook her head, speechless. Children these days seemed to be more sophisticated than he expected them to be. If it were him, he would just have inquired about their health with some concerns and asked if they would like to go to hospital rather than forming those crazy, inappropriate ideas in his head.

Roland shrugged after closing the door. "Pay no mind to her. A child born in the 2000s is supposed to be like that. It's a different age after all."

Phyllis looked quite confused. "The 2000s? A different age? What's your relationship with her..."

"Just a roommate," Roland explained to Phyllis without giving her the details. He simply waved away her questions. Although Roland had once told her that his battle with the pope was a Battle of Souls, he had not told her that this little girl was actually the former pope the pure witch. Zero had started a new life in the dream world. Her past was now a history. Roland did not feel it necessary to connect her with the other world again.

Phyllis bit her lip. "I see. Well... please continue. You can use other methods. I'll try to keep silent this time."

Roland put his hand on the forehead, feeling a little amused and frustrated.

"Is she addicted to pains now? There is so much fun in this world. She absolutely doesn't have to stick to this one sensation solely."

"Ahem." Roland cleared his throat. "Since you've come to the dream world, let me show you around."

"Can I go out... like this?" Phyllis asked in surprise. "It's apparently very different from Neverwinter here. Won't I cause you trouble if somebody notices my presence?"

Phyllis had clearly observed the dramatic change in the surroundings, but evidently, she thought people in this world still acted the same way as those in the four kingdoms where witches were repudiated by the mass. She believed people who looked different would always be subject to discrimination or persecution.

Roland smiled at her. "If you were a witch, you would be nothing but a celebrity here. I've told you that this is a brand new world. Being different brings you no harm. Instead, you'll have a lot of fans who admire you. Of course, all of these is on the premise that you don't break the laws."

"Is, is that so?" Phyllis instantly cheered up. "There're taverns and inns here as well, aren't there?"

Roland curled up his lips. "Do you want to try some wines and food here? There're more food and drink than you can ever imagine."

"So her original plan was to stay in and feel pains over and over again?" Although the idea of torturing such a pretty, kind-hearted lady sounded quite thrilling, Roland thought this would lead him to do something irrevocably wrong.

That was such a narrow escape! He almost made a huge mistake.

"By the way, since you're now in your own body, are you still able to use your magic power?"

"Ah... I almost forgot about that," Phyllis exclaimed in a low voice. "Let me try."

She shut her eyes and held her breath. Nothing, however, happened in a while.

"It doesn't work?"

"Yes... I can feel the magic cyclone. It's just a bit rusty since I haven't used it for a while," Phyllis answered, a little embarrassed. "Just a moment... It's coming out."

At these words, two black, scrawny claws suddenly grew out of her back and spread out on her shoulders. At the first glance, they looked like a pair of devil's hands or wing skeletons.

Roland stroked his chin. "This is..."

Phyllis breathed out a long sigh. "I call it Blade Claws. The claws are retractable and can stretch as far as my ability allows. They're much sharper than ordinary ironware. When I fought with Army of Demons, those claws protected me from the attacks from behind and also helped me defy strong Senior Demons."

"So you were a combat witch."

"That's right. In the Taquila age, I was the guard of the Three Chiefs." Phyllis took a pause. "But there's one thing that I don't really understand. Based on the research conducted by the Quest Society, magic power comes from the Bloody Moon. Why does magic power also exist in your dream world?"

Roland spread out his hands. "Although this world is created by my imagination, it probably also has something to do with the Bloody Moon. I'm still trying to figure it out. I'll fill you in when we're outside. Since we've decided to do the test in the evening, we'd better get started rather than wasting time here."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Phyllis replied with excitement.

As it was Saturday, Roland decided to take Zero with them. Otherwise, this little girl might hold a grudge against him for quite a long time.

"Also, you don't need to call me 'Your Majesty' in the dream, just Roland. There's no king in this era."

"Well... in that case, please excuse my impudence."

Roland was not quite sure if it was an illusion, for Phyllis paid more respect to him than before, and her respect seemed not to be feigned. Roland felt this accidental intrusion would not appear to be that bad if he could win the support of a witch from Taquila in this way.

Chapter 788 - Gourmet Journey

"You're not coming? Hey, what do you mean by that? Not only are you late, but you just told me that you decide to bail out at the last minute?"

The yelling from the other side of the line got Roland to move his head away from the speaker. Even though he could not see Garcia, he could clearly sense her anger.

"I have an unexpected visitor whom I have to receive." While Garcia was panting, Roland explained quickly, "I have no other choice. You know that besides me, there's only a 14-year-old girl in my apartment. How can I rely on her to receive a guest?"

"Your room number is 0825, right? I'll come over and talk to you."

"Um... I'm not in the apartment right now..." After uttering those words, Roland squinted and prepared for the next round of vocal attack.

As expected, Garcia raised her volume again. "Don't you know that I've made an appointment with the seniors of the association? I thought you were finally able to take some responsibility. How can you just bail on me? Do you think I don't know what you're up to? Come back now!"

"Taking responsibility... what the hell is that supposed to mean? It's such a misleading phrase," Roland said to himself.

When he saw the taxi driver with an expression of "Man, well done, I totally understand you", Roland knew that further explanation would not work.

"What did you say? The reception isn't too good. I've just entered Oriental Road. Hello, are you still there? Hello... hello?" After putting on this self-directed show, Roland hung up the phone. He also turned the phone off, just in case she called back.

He had probably completely offended this Martial Arts star.

He had not expected that Garcia would care so much about whether he was going to join in Martialist Association. Her reaction once again confirmed Roland's speculation that she only appeared distant to strangers. As soon as he was recognized as the Awakened of the Force of Nature, she revealed her real personality.

"That was so cliche," Zero at the back seat said coldly, "do you think we're living an exclusive life in a deep forest? How can we encounter a reception problem when we're still in the city?"

"Aren't you smart." Roland took a glance at the back seat. Phyllis was still sitting close to the window, stupefied by everything outside. She had been sitting there, motionless ever since she had crept into the car. It was no surprise to see her react like this as high rise buildings, busy traffic, huge advertising bulletins, and wall hanging screens could bring a certain shock to an ancient person. As a matter of fact, the increase in productivity resulted in drastic changes in the era. The radicality of those changes, which might even shock the locals, could make a city look completely different within merely two decades and would certainly overwhelm a Taquila witch.

Before this trip, Roland helped her change from her raggy robe, allegedly the Taquila uniform, into his own clothes. A T-shirt and shorts were unisex and so there was no problem for Phyllis to wear them. Oddly enough, those cheap clothes looked rather casual and fashionable on her. It seemed a person's appearance could make the ugly become beautiful. The only problem was the bra. In the end, Roland had to request Zero to wrap a cloth around her chest to solve the issue.

The purposes of this trip were specific. They were taking the God's Punishment Witch to eat and buy her a new set of clothes. What if she could enter his dream again? She could not always wear his clothes and be wrapped in cloth.

"Here we are, Green Valley Park," the driver pushed down the taximeter and said, "25 bucks."

This park was not far from Roland's apartment. It was also a piece of fine green land that Roland discovered during his city exploration. There were not many people here and a business street was just nearby. Most importantly, there were KFC and McDonald's chain stores nearby.

Right, these two were Roland's first choices as roadside food stands offered too poor dining environments and there was no guarantee that they tasted good. After all, this trip was meant to let the guest from the other world have a good time. So naturally, flavors and the dining environment were the two basic criteria. There should also be enough food to feed the witch and make her feel full. Starred restaurants obviously had a better environment, but if the witch indulged herself... Roland was afraid he did not have that kind of financial capacity.

Therefore, fast food restaurants were obviously the best choice.

Besides, Zero had been talking about eating fast food for a long time though this was probably due to the doll toys coming with the kid's meals as it greatly appealed to kids like her.

He brought the two to a KFC restaurant and picked a window seat. Roland went to the counter and directly ordered two family buckets and one kid's meal.

"Why did you buy so much?" Zero asked in surprise upon seeing Roland put so much food on the table. "Uncle, although you have a job now, you shouldn't squander your money."

"I am rarely generous. Why don't you just enjoy it?"

"Ok!" She finally stopped pouting upon seeing the toy in the kid's meal.

"Eat with us. If you want more, just tell me." Roland handed a piece of fried chicken to Phyllis. After being fried in a high-temperature, high-pressure environment, the chicken skin appeared a tempting golden color. One would get a good appetite by purely smelling at it. The chicken cooked with the modern method not only had its tender and smooth flavor, but the meat also had the fresh tastes of spices like black pepper, thyme, garlic, and salt. The flavor was entirely different and the plain boiled chicken in old times couldn't compare to it.

Although modern men always complain about the high calories and the universal taste of fast food, it was absolutely a delicacy in an area where food and seasonings were always in deficiency. It would definitely blow Phyllis away, who had not tasted food for the last few hundred years.

On the way there, she perfectly followed Roland's instruction and regardless what strange things she saw, she would not ask. She would try her best to imitate how others behaved, but the moment she bit into the fried chicken, she could not control herself any longer. Hot tears filled her eyes and trickled down uncontrollably.

"What's wrong, sister..." Zero was stunned.

"Um, nothing. It's just she's been starving for too long. Phyllis' families didn't treat her well... They've always wanted a boy, yet weren't able to get one... Anyway, you're too young to understand that. You only need to know that she didn't live a happy life there."

"I see..." The little girl's expression softened, probably out of sympathy.

Roland did not intend to make a fuss about why Zero called Phyllis sister, yet himself uncle. Watching the ancient witch gulp food down while weeping touched him.

For the witches, the mundane pleasure of enjoying food was a dream that they were willing to pay anything for. He felt sad for the unfairness of it all. Fortunately, the experience today gave Phyllis a little solace although it was hard to say whether there would be another chance next time.

What he could do for them was to try his best to fulfill her wish during this one-day adventure.

Chapter 789 - A Guess on the Soul Transfer

"This is... awfully delicious!" Phillips finally slowed down after gobbling the food for quite a long time.

People who passed by were all shocked at the boxes of hamburgers and egg tarts piling up on their table. These food was apparently enough for five or six people. However, they only saw three people sitting here and two of them were slender, attractive girls who did not seem that they could eat a lot. Given this, most people passing by thought it must have been the man who had devoured so much food and despised him for being such a greedy glutton.

Seeing those disdainful looks on their faces, Roland felt helpless but at the same time rejoiced over his wise choice of picking a cheap fast food chain store instead of an expensive restaurant. Otherwise, this meal with Phyllis would definitely bankrupt him. He said to Zero, "Wipe her mouth."

The little girl took out a wet wipe to remove the tear and oil stains on Phyllis' face. Thanks to the natural beauty of a witch, she did not need any make-up. Otherwise, she would look terrible after eating this brunch in a flood of tears. This was probably the first time for the little girl to meet so miserable a person that even a KFC meal would bring her to tears. Her attitude toward her totally changed because of a sudden flush of compassion.

Seeing her finish the brunch, Roland took a sip of his coke and said to Phyllis, "Here're some ice cream cones, but let's talk about the Dreamland first. Before you entered it, did you find anything unusual?"

"But..." She glanced at the little girl sitting beside her and hesitated.

He blinked at the ancient witch and said, "That's alright. It's just a dream you had in your childhood."

She immediately got what he meant and said, "Oh, well. It happened long before. Let me think... No, nothing special. I just leaned on the wall and disconnected myself. In this way, I can quickly refresh myself without being totally off guard."

"Can you sense the changes in the surroundings even after disconnecting yourself?"

She nodded. "Yes. By doing so, I just stop my control over the body and send my consciousness into the darkness. In the dark, I can still sense the dangers nearby, but I don't see or hear them. This feeling is hard to describe. It's like someone else reminding me of the dangers in the dark. Celine calls this phenomenon a subconscious connection. Only when we're kept in soul containers will we truly become unconscious."

Zero twitched her mouth. "What're you talking about? Who's this Celine?"

"A shrink. Don't interrupt when adults are talking." Roland gave her a glance and continued. "If you get bored by this, go to the park to watch people fishing or flying kites, but don't walk too far away from us."

She snorted and left unhappily with an ice cream cone in her hand.

Looking at the little girl through the French window, Phyllis asked, "Is it safe to let her go out alone."

Roland shrugged and said, "It's fine. It's pretty safe in this era, and she's not easy to deceive. Let's go on."

"Yes, once I'm in a deep sleep, I won't be able to do anything except drifting about in the endless darkness where there's no light, no sound, nothing at all." The ancient Witch paused. "However, this time, in my deep sleep, I saw your residence in this Dream World. My astonishment was beyond description at that moment. Fortunately, I saw you soon."

After a little thought, Roland said, "Well... The only special thing about your deep sleep this time was that you slept in my castle."

"Yes, just that." Phyllis swallowed her last ice cream cone and heaved a long sigh of satisfaction.

Seeing the cone disappear into the ancient witch's mouth, Roland suddenly thought of an idea. "Beams of the light!"

"What?"

"You told me that when I fell asleep, there would be a beam of yellow-orange light as huge as the city wall, didn't you?"

Phyllis was startled and then seemed to realized something, too. "Yes, I did."

"And you also have a beam of the light, don't you?"

"You mean... our beams of the light overlapped?"

"Yes. The lord castle of Border Town is just an ordinary stone building. It doesn't have the power to bring you into this Dreamland. I've thought this thing over and over. Only our beams of the light can do that." Roland suddenly clapped his hands. "But I guess the overlapping is just one reason for this. Meanwhile, you've also got to cut off your consciousness to get here. Otherwise, Anna, Nightingale and some other witches would have come to this Dream World long before you."

At the same time, Roland thought of something else. He had been baffled about the word "soul" in Taquila witches' stories.

They had transferred their souls into different shells, such as God's Punishment Warriors and those strange carriers left by the underground civilization. In this way, they had successfully controlled these shells, but they had never explained to him what souls were.

Based on his understanding, a person's soul was his or her thoughts and memories, which were generated by the communication between neurons through electric currents. He had believed that a soul was not something real or something which could continue to exist when it left a human body. However, the Taquila witches had told him that the underground civilization's soul core could not only extract one's soul but also transplant on something else.

He had attributed this to the wonders created by magic power, but now he thought it differently.

What if memories and minds could be analyzed? Supposing beams of the light and magic power all come from the Bloody Moon, these so-called souls may also come from it. Once the soul core is activated to extract someone's soul, his or her memories and minds will be somehow copied and stored in the Bloody Moon. The beams of the light just serve as the transmission passages in this process. That's how the Soul Transfer works.

Pasha used to say that as the process of transforming magic power into something real was extremely complicated, the deities took over this job and gave different witches beams of the light in different sizes. No matter she was right or wrong, her theory, to some extent, can explain why the beams on the heads of the God's Punishment Witches became much thinner after the Soul Transfer. Transmitting someone's mind and memories is much easier than transforming magic power into some effects or some objects in the real world. Given that, this Soul Transfer process won't need a wide transmission passage.

My Dream World is far more complicated than most of the witches' abilities. That's why my transmission passage, namely, my beam of the light is as wide as the city wall. When Phyllis cut off her consciousness within my beam of the light, her thoughts and memories stored in the Bloody Moon overlapped with my Dream World. That's how she got into this world.

Roland was thrilled at this discovery, since this theory seemed to be able to explain all the things that had puzzled him for a very long time. If overlapped beams of the light did bring Phyllis into the Dream World, that meant this world was also a part of the Bloody Moon. Through Zero's Soul Battlefield, he somehow created this world in the "Divine Domain" of magic power.

When he was about to tell this discovery to Phyllis, a loud bang broke out in a restaurant next door, coupled with lots of glass window fragments flying out. People fled the place in panic, crying and screaming, making the diners in the KFC restaurant nervous and confused.

Chapter 790 - A New Fallen Evil

"Run! It's a Fallen Evil!"

"He changed just a moment ago. Call the police, hurry, hurry!"

"He-Help, I, I sprained my ankle."

"He's coming, watch out!"

"Ah—"

Roland followed the crowd out of the KFC store and found the restaurant next door was in a chaos. The diners all scrambled to the door, crowding together in the hallway leading to the only exit. Most people nearby turned around and fled the moment they heard a Fallen Evil appear, and some of them turned on their cellphone cameras to record what was happening while retreating from the scene. Only a few voluntarily stayed behind to help, carrying the people who got hurt or frozen in horror out of the dangerous place.

Phyllis burped and asked, "Didn't you say that this age is very safe?" She touched her full stomach, happiness lingering in her eyes, completely undisturbed by what was happening nearby.

"Ahem, this is just an accident. Don't worry," Roland said, feeling a little embarrassed. He just wanted to have a meal outside, but this cruel Dream World chose to let its creator run into another attack instead of taking care of his emotions.

He also noticed the name "Fallen Evil". He had come across it repeatedly in news reports in recent days. He was not sure whether it was an illusion. It seemed that recently a growing number of people had awakened with the Force of Nature, but most of them had turned out to become monsters that were unable to control themselves.

He knitted his eyebrows, thinking of "the Erosion from an alien world" mentioned by Garcia two months ago.

Phyllis asked, "Who's our enemy? Do you need me to take care of it now? Or go to find Zero first?"

Roland turned to look at the park behind them and shook his head. "She'll be safe staying there. Let's kill this monster first." He still remembered the first attack he had encountered in this Dream World. The moment he had met the burnt-face man, the strange man had made it clear that he had been trying to lure and kill martialists. Given this, Roland thought it was not a good choice to leave this enemy here.

More importantly, he really liked the queer sense of replenishment he had got when the Magic Cyclone of the Fallen Evil had disappeared in his hand, as though a gust of warmth had filled his body and made him feel more energetic and powerful.

"The enemy is probably a new Fallen Evil. You can consider it as a hybrid demonic beast. The Force of Nature protects it from all ordinary weapons. Given that, you've got to use the same force to defeat it."

"The Force of Nature?"

"Yes, it's the magic power in this world except that it has no gender restriction here. Look at me." Roland bent to pick up a stone. He summoned the flowing energy in his body and then pulverised the stone.

Phyllis was startled. "You've... become an awakened."

Roland nodded with a completely straight face, but meanwhile secretly took pride in the extraordinary power he had obtained in this world. He explained to her, "But, unfortunately, my power is only effective in this Dream World."

The ancient witch was so impressed that she exclaimed, "You're not common in either of the two worlds."

"We must hide and attract the monster to a secluded place to kill it. These two chain stores must have hallways connected to the indoor shopping mall behind them. Let's go."

Roland and Phyllis went back to the KFC store and found a door leading to the shopping mall in its staff area. As he had expected, the loud bang had scared most shoppers away. They only saw a mess behind the door.

Instead of getting into the McDonald's where the Fallen Evil had awakened, he asked Phyllis to summon her Blade Claws and release her magic power in the mall. Based on what he knew, a Fallen Evil would sense the power and eagerly run after it. The burnt-face man had been attracted by him in this way and had even mistaken him as a martialist.

Soon, with a loud explosion, the back door of the McDonald's was torn apart. A roaring man rushed out of its staff area in the smoke and darted at Phyllis without a word.

As the miraculous power had drastically improved Roland's dynamic vision and reaction speed, he clearly captured the appearance of the enemy. Different from the burnt-face man, this Fallen Evil's red cyclone in his left hand was much smaller and dimmer. That meant he had just awakened. This time, Roland did not feel a strong thirst for this newly awakened Fallen Evil' cyclone, since the circulating speed of the warm current in his body did not significantly accelerate.

According to their plan, Roland and Phyllis were going to drag this man into the KFC first. However, he suddenly stretched his left arm toward Phyllis and opened his left palm.

In an instant, the air in front of the Taquila witch expanded rapidly, creating surging waves visible to naked eyes. Roland had a chance to escape from the coming explosion, but he still decided to stay behind Phyllis to protect her, since the latter did not have a strong God's Punishment Warrior body in this world. The explosion sent them flying toward the KFC's kitchen. He caught her from the back, cushioning the blow for her.

The blast sent them through a wall built with soundproof panels before they fell heavily to the ground near the KFC counter.

Covered by dust, Roland coughed and then tried to slightly move his lower back. He found that his resilience seemed to increase together with his strength, as he felt alright except for some numbness at this moment.

Meanwhile, he was surprised by this Fallen Evil's ability. No hybrid demonic beast in the real world had any attacking method like this, and even the burnt-face man who seemed to be more powerful had not revealed similar ability in the last attack he had met in this Dream World.

He looked at the witch in his arms. "Are you alright?"

"Sorry... I was too careless, but trust me, the fight will end soon." Phyllis lowered her head while slowly getting on her feet. The cheap short-sleeved shirt she wore had several tears, and one of her claws on the back was broken. Apparently, she had used these claws as a shield to protect herself in the explosion.

Before long, the Fallen Evil walked into the KFC, breathing heavily. As soon as he saw Phyllis, he smiled ferociously and stretched his arm toward her again. "Time to die, martialist!"

At this moment, he did not notice that the broken claw at his feet was not dead yet. Instead, it sprang up from the ground all of a sudden and struck at his neck.

With a flash of a dim light, the ferocious smile of the Fallen Evil froze. His head slowly slid to the side, hitting the ground like a ragged bag, and his blood spurted from his broken neck.

Phyllis immediately controlled the broken claw to cut off the man's left arm and precisely slit the arm to take out his Magic Vortex.

The headless body finally crumpled down to the ground.

"As long as a broken claw is within a distance of 10 steps, I can still control it. For my enemies, it'll be even more dangerous than the intact claws. Since most of them never expect those broken claws to move again, they can seldom escape from this kind of fatal strikes from the back." She smiled and handed the crimson vortex to Roland. "Is this the Force of Nature you said?"

"Yes, it's like a Magic Cyclone, isn't it?" Roland had noticed that the vortex had stopped twirling the moment it had left the Fallen Evil and had become something like a shining gemstone. It remained to be so in Phyllis' hand. However, when he picked it up, it started to twirl rapidly again, its color changing from red to light blue. In the end, it turned into a beam of dazzling light shooting toward the roof and then become a silver thread gradually disappearing into the air.

He felt greatly satisfied again, as the warm current inside his body began to calm down.

Chapter 791 - A Coming Crisis in the Dreamland

Phyllis asked in surprise, "What's this light?"

"I don't know. It's probably to send magic power back to this world." Roland shook the dust off his hands. "We have to leave this place as soon as possible. If someone sees us here, we'll have trouble."

"But, isn't this guy our enemy?"

He explained, "Yes, he's our enemy, but in this age, not everyone has the right to kill him or any other nefarious murderer. A special organization and its professional staff are in charge of arresting and punishing these bad guys." As for Fallen Evils, Garcia had told Roland that the martialists with hunting licenses granted by the association also had the right to kill them. In fact, these licenses not only allow the martialists to kill any suspected Fallen Evil but also gave them the right to kill any Awakened who probably harbored evil intentions. Roland believed that if this secret was made public, it would inevitably spark a public outcry.

"What a strange age," Phyllis commented.

They walked out of the KFC and found it was less chaotic. Seeing the Fallen Evil leave in a sudden, all the people still stuck in the McDonald's felt relieved.

Roland soon saw Zero dash toward him while pushing through the crowd.

She looked worried. Her hair band had slipped off, her long white ruffled hair tumbling down to her shoulders. Some people around her tried to make her stop, but this little girl managed to elude them with adroit movements. When she finally reached Roland, her anxious look yielded to a joyful smile.

However, the smile lasted for only a few seconds. She quickly straightened her face and shouted angrily. "Why did you come out so late? Even a tortoise runs faster than you, uncle!"

A flush rose to her cheeks because of the recent exercise and she panted heavily. Looking at her, Roland could not help bending over to touch her head. "Sorry to make you worried."

Zero gritted her teeth and glared at him. "Who was worried about you? This is her first time to visit this city. What if the crowd separated her from us?"

Despite what she said, the little girl still willingly accepted his touch.

After that, Roland spent a lot of efforts explaining to her what had happened to them and why they had come out so late. He made up a story to explain what had been dragging their feet, and Zero finally calmed down after hearing that they had been affected by the Fallen Evil's attack and had nearly lost the chance to escape.

Fortunately, they had a smooth, happy journey after the attack. Roland took the girls to shop clothes and then to have dinner at a hotpot restaurant. As a unique cuisine, hot pot featured a strong flavor and various ingredients. More importantly, it was relatively inexpensive. He ordered a lot of potatoes, starch noodles and lotus root slices, which could easily make them feel full. By doing so, he could still afford this meal even if they overate.

Phyllis' behavior here was no better than her gluttonous actions back in the KFC. With constantly watering eyes, she kept moving her chopsticks to gorge herself with these spicy, tasty food. Roland was not sure whether she was too moved or was simply burnt by the spicy flavor. At the end of their meal, she even picked up the pot to drink some red, oily soup, making all the people around gape at her.

They went back to the tube-shaped apartment building at 9:00 pm. When they walked up to the 8th floor, heading for Roland's apartment, they unexpectedly ran into Garcia.

She stood in their way with a long face, giving them a considerable pressure.

Roland thought, "Has she been here waiting for me since I hung up the phone?"

His lips flinched. In embarrassment, he tried to explain to Garcia, "Look... I did hang out with my relative—"

She interrupted directly, "So, can we talk now?"

Her tone was quite sharp, making Phyllis frown. After a burp, the ancient witch said, "Please mind your attitude. He's this world's lor—"

Roland hurriedly stopped her and said to the girls, "Ahem, it's fine. You go home now. I need to talk with her first and I'll be back soon."

He had been worried a lot that a proud person like Garcia would have flown into a rage and never wanted to meet him again since he had told her such a tenuous excuse and hung up the phone. Anyone being stood up like that would naturally explode with anger. However, beyond all his expectations, Garcia had still waited here for him. Given that, he thought the association might be really short-staffed.

He followed her into Room 0827. Instead of inviting him to take a seat first, she turned around and asked directly, "Have you thought it all over? Or is this... an excuse you made up to reject joining the association?"

She gazed at him, her eyes glaring as if she had wanted to see through his mind.

Roland shrugged and then walked to sit on the sofa. "Do you have any water? Ice water will do."

At this moment, he thought he saw blue veins throbbing at her temples.

Hearing this, Garcia took a deep breath and then said through her teeth, "I'll go to get you some."

"Thank you."

Roland took a sip of ice water and slowly asked, "I've got a question. I've seen a growing number of reports about Fallen Evils recently and even ran into a newly awakened one in the street today... Does the association have trouble?"

Garcia knitted her eyebrows. "Have you been somewhere near the Green Valley Park today?"

"You know it?"

"Yes. Someone called the police, but it's the association's job to take care of these things. All the martialists close by received the news from the association and I was one of them."

"That monster..."

Garcia said in a deep voice, "It was dead when we got there, and its Natural core was gone. Someone acted faster than we did."

Roland pretended to know nothing about the truth and asked, "Who?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to tell you that." She shook her head. "In fact, I shouldn't tell you anything about this incident. It's the association's secret. As for your first question, yes, we did have trouble. The Erosion of the alien world is accelerating, and our world will soon face a major crisis. "

"The Erosion again..." Roland quickly captured the keyword. "What kind of crisis?"

"No one knows. Maybe our world will be destroyed in this crisis. Or, all of us will lose our minds and become some monsters. That's why the association needs more people to stand out, fighting against the Erosion. It's the whole world's crisis and has nothing to do with gender, races or nationalities. Everyone who has awakened with the Force of Nature has to shoulder this responsibility!" At this moment, Garcia significantly raised her voice. "As martialists, we may get killed in the fight against the alien world's Erosion, but it's our duty to do so! I can understand if you feel afraid and hesitant. But think about it. If we refuse to fight, who else has the power to protect our world?"

Roland fell silent, surprised at her frankness. She had explicitly admitted that they were understaffed and joining them meant great responsibility and even sacrifice. He believed that no one would act like Garcia in a negotiation. In order to attract more people to join the association, she should have tried to conceal the difficulties the association had instead of being so blunt about the risks of joining it.

Having heard what she said, he understood why some awakened people would rather fight on their own than join this association.

Her eloquent rhetoric about heroism could hardly attract people in this age, as normal people usually placed their personal interests above the benefit of all human beings.

In the beginning, he himself had also planned to join the association just to gain rewards and reputation for himself, but now he realized that this thing was not that simple. As one of the creators of this world, he thought now it was the time for him to find out the cause for the mutation of the Force of Nature and the truth about the alien world's Erosion with the help of the Martialist Association.

He somehow felt that these phenomena must have something to do with the Bloody Moon.

Chapter 792 - The Reason Behind the Decision

When Roland was lost in thoughts, Garcia could not wait any more and asked, "I've answered your question. Now, I want to hear your answer."

It took him a few seconds before he made a reply, "Ah, yes, I'll join the association."

"What?" She seemed surprised.

He spread out his hands and said, "I'm willing to join you. Isn't that what you're asking for?"

"Yes... I was just thinking that you..."

"You thought I got cold feet?" He chuckled. "I really just went shopping with my relative in the afternoon. Why can't you trust me? But can I apply to join the association now? You said that the senior is the referee."

Garcia stared at Roland for quite a long time with a serious look, as if she was discerning whether or not this application was sincerely meant. After that she shook her head and explained, "No, she's not a referee. She's my master. I invited her to come to show you how to better use the Force of Nature, but she'll never want to meet you again."

Hearing this, Roland thought, "Uhm, is it because that I stood her up today? She must have been very upset and it seemed that she even reproached Garcia."

She pulled out a piece of paper from her tea table and gave it to him. "You just need to fill out this form to apply. Your signature is required."

Roland was startled. "Is it so simple? It's an association secretly protecting the whole world. Don't you need to hold a ceremony or test my ability first?

Garcia sneered coldly. "Come on. Do you think we are the ancient Priory of Sion or Knights of the Holy Temple? It's modern times now. Your signature just indicates that we protect your right to know. When the association receives your application form, it'll check your identity and file for social security and grants in your name." She paused. "As for the ability test, anyone who has awakened with the Force of Nature is eligible to become a martialist. You can get much stronger if you work hard. Given this, a test for a newly awakened doesn't determine anything."

Roland felt it was really weird to hear a person brought up in an ancient royal family to talk like this.

When he picked up the pen and was about to sign, she stopped him.

She said solemnly, "I have to remind you again. Once you become one of us, you'll no longer be an ordinary person. You'll enjoy the rights granted by the Martialist Association and meanwhile have to fulfill your obligations. If you betray us or disclose our secret information, you'll immediately become our enemy. When that happens, we won't bring you to a court. We're allowed to punish any betrayer according to our own procedure. I hope you think it over before you sign."

She had fervently hoped that he could join the association, but now she was reminding him of the risks of joining it. This changed his attitude toward her. He found Garcia in this Dream World was totally different. No matter how devious and cruel the Queen of Clearwater had been back in the Kingdom of Graycastle, she handled everything open and aboveboard in this world.

"I know what I'm doing." Roland nodded and signed his name. "Now, can you tell me the truth about the Erosion?"

"No." She folded the application form carefully and put it in a wooden box under the tea table. "It'll take about two days to verify your identity. You just filed an application. You're not an official member of the association, so I can't tell you anything about it."

"Well... then I've another question. You said that a martialist could get a generous reward by killing a Fallen Evil. Is that true?"

"I've clearly explained this to you before," said Garcia, seeming a little disappointed hearing this question about pecuniary returns.

"I'm not asking about how much the reward is. I just want to know how can the association check that I'm the one who killed the Fallen Evil." Roland shrugged. "During a mission, I guess I won't be able to fight against a Fallen Evil while recording the whole process with a camera by myself. Do I have to invite another martialist to witness the fight? Or, you guys adopt the ancient way, counting the heads I bring back?"

Garcia got grumpy and said, "Is money that important to you? No matter who kills a Fallen Evil, the world will end up being clearer. Why do you square accounts in every detail and are so particular about personal gains?"

Roland argued, "You're a well-known martialist whose reward for winning a match is equivalent to a common person's yearly income, but just two months ago, I was still a jobless guy. I have to take care of myself and the little girl. You're right. Money is very important to me!"

He deliberately made use of her misunderstanding to delude her into believing this lie. After all, he just wanted to find out the cause of the Erosion through the Martialist association rather than devote himself to the association.

Besides, money was indeed very important to him.

Garcia stared at him for a moment, still seeming a little annoyed and then said, "To prove that you've killed a Fallen Evil, you just need to give its mutated Natural Core to the association."

"I can hand this thing over to the association?" Roland was slightly surprised. Now he thought that it might not be an accident that the core of the Fallen Evil who had awakened in the McDonald's had remained solid in Phyllis' hand.

"Of course. It's the source of the Fallen Evil's power. Once a mutation occurs, it'll never recover. It can prove the Fallen Evil is eroded. If we don't collect these mutated cores and lock them away, they'll infect other people sooner or later. Ordinary people will lose their minds simply by touching it."

"You mean... a mutated core can be used by different people?"

Garcia said with resentment, "Yes, that's why some people are collecting them. We know exactly what they're thinking. Don't they worry that they'll destroy our world by doing so?"

Hearing this, Roland immediately realized that another group of people were organized to collect the mutated cores and act against the Martialist Association. Garcia who had just let this information slip in a fit of anger was reluctant to divulge any more details about those people.

"But the association must have stored a great number of mutated cores. Aren't you afraid that they'll find the location of the cores or some martialist will betray and leak the secret to them—"

"It's impossible!" She interrupted without hesitation. "Although you're not allowed to know these things at this moment, I can assure you that those crazy guys will never break through the defense line guarding the core area of the Martialist Association. Before they get to the place, the four Defenders will tear them into pieces!"

He really wanted to ask her where this core area was and who the four Defenders were, but he knew for sure that he could not get the answers from her today. Given this, he suppressed his curiosity and thought to himself. What if I get into the place where those mutated cores are stored and release all of their Force of Nature into the air. When that happens, what'll happen to this Dream World and to myself? How strong will my power and the warm flow circulating in my body become?

No matter what'll happen at that time, I really look forward to it.

Chapter 793 - The Ancient Witch's Discovery

Roland went back to his apartment after bidding farewell to Garcia.

Phyllis who had been sitting in the living room waiting for him asked, "Your Majesty, who's that person?"

"She's a warrior. You can consider her as an Awakened with magic power in this Dream World." He waved his hand. "You don't have to mind her attitude. No one in this world knows I'm a king."

"But after all, she's also created by you like everything else in this world..." Phyllis still did not want to let it go. She showed him much greater respect after he had granted her request and treated her to tasty food.

He sat opposite to her and explained, "They don't think so. All the people in this world have their own ideas and memories. Their whole lives have nothing to do with me. This world has its own rules which I also need to follow."

When he was talking about this world, Phyllis' eyes shone with excitement. She had been deeply shocked by her experiences here and had been meant to ask something about him. Now, she finally got the chance.

She looked at Zero's bedroom and then whispered, "Your Majesty, is this the real place where you used to live? Please excuse me for being blunt, but I guess you're not Prince Roland of Graycastle, are you?"

Roland raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Why did you say that?"

Phyllis was excited. "Because your Neverwinter looks just like this world! When I first came to your city, I didn't quite understand why you built so wide, flat roads for carriages even inside the city where space is limited... But now I know you didn't build them for carriages. You did it for those fast four-wheeled vehicles! Your amazing weapons, your ambitious plan to build a 10-floor building, your powerful machine powered by boiling water and many other things in Neverwinter all seem to have something to do with this world."

After a little thought, he said, "I'm indeed Prince Roland, but when I came to Border Town, some different memories just somehow popped into my head in a sudden. They're some abstract, incredible knowledge, and I've only mastered a small part of it by now." He decided not to tell her his time-travel story that he only wanted to share with his closest witch.

Phyllis did not doubt what he said at all. "Then those memories must be something from the deities. Taquila witches often said that the deities didn't love human beings, but now it seems that we were wrong. You've got the deities' smile. As long as you are with us, we'll be able to defeat demons!"

Roland was startled hearing her share this idea with a decisive air. He had been trying hard to convince the Taquila survivors that he was able to defeat demons, but it was the first time a Taquila witch expressed confidence in him. He was a little uncertain since he had only brought her to a park and some restaurants instead of a scene of the military exercises.

He subtly mentioned his uncertainty, and Phyllis frankly told him what she thought. "Because of those four-wheeled iron vehicles."

"The vehicles?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. Back in Taquila's age, we had to use lots of horses and carriages to send supplies to the front line camps. Some witches did have the ability to move fast but they could hardly complete this kind of tasks. Once the weight they carried exceeded a certain point, the consumption of magic power would increase by many folds. I believe you've know this phenomenon already."

She continued, "We felt great pressure when the Union seized the demons' Siege Beasts. Such a big thing, hundreds of times heavier than a person, could be operated by only one witch. When its iron shield and bolts on the top were removed, its loading capacity was equivalent to that of four to five carriages. Judging from this, we all knew that demons were much better at manipulating magic power than us. At that time, the Quest Society also believed demons' fighting potential was far greater than ours. Given this, Lady Alice started to pin her hope on the God's Punishment Army plan."

"So you guys judge an opponent's potential by their transportation capacity?" Roland asked with interest.

Phyllis nodded. "Yes. The method to transport goods, manually carried or horse-drawn, determines how far we can go. The species who're able to travel farthest are the strongest." She paused here and could not help smiling. "In this Dream World, I saw a four-wheeled iron vehicle move several times farther than a carriage could travel. They're as fast as the wind while carrying over 100 people. That shows this world's strength. If your weapons are also created based on something from this world, I believe they'll easily crush demons."

Having heard her explanation, Roland was touched and lost in thought. Limited by their knowledge and era, the Taquila witches failed to defend the Fertile Plains, but that doesn't mean they're stupid. Phyllis is quite smart to infer this world's strength from some crowded bus. Such an insightful observation is really impressive even for people in modern times.

He suddenly thought of a topic frequently discussed by netizens in forums, "How can we defeat aliens who come to invade the Earth?"

In fact, this discussion was meaningless. Human beings worked hard only to send several astronauts to the moon, the closest celestial body to the Earth. This achievement was nothing when the alien invaders were able to travel hundreds of light years or even across the galaxies to the Earth. The energy they had consumed in their travel was enough to burn the Earth to ashes. How could human beings defeat such strong enemies?

He believed that if a civilization was able to travel in space and expand its power to another solar system, it would be strong enough to destroy human beings on the Earth. The moment we saw these alien invaders would be our time of death.

To his surprise, he found Phyllis or the dominators of Taquila also knew this truth about war very well.

In the end, the ancient witch stood up and bowed to him with hand on her chest once again. "Though you aren't a witch and unable to activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution, I still believe you're the Chosen One the deities sent to us."

Hearing this tenuous conclusion, Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he did not point out her mistake. He knew that with Taquila witches' support, his Neverwinter would have a brighter future.

He took a deep breath and rose. "We don't have much time. Let's start testing."

They had to move fast and carefully in case that they would wake up Zero at night.

After setting up a ladder, Phyllis climbed to the top and turned her back to the bed. She fell down from the ladder, but nothing changed after her fall.

That meant she could not leave the Dream World by falling.

Now, there were only two possibilities.

She would leave here when Roland left this Dream World. Or, she would be trapped in this world forever.

When he climbed up the ladder and sat on it, ready to fall, Phyllis walked up to him.

"If I can't leave this Dreamland, don't worry. It's a nice place for me. If I can never come back after I leave here, I'll never forget all the things I went through today and will be always missing this world."

Roland nodded and then fell backward.

In an instant, the world was dark again.

Chapter 794 - A Sweet Dream

When he opened his eyes, Roland sensed the weight on his arm.

Gently tilting his head, he saw Anna's serenely sleeping face. She lay on her side, pillowing her head on his arm and slightly curling her lips. She seemed to be having a sweet dream.

Fortunately... he could still get out of the Dream World in this way.

He carefully pulled his arm out and sat up. After covering the quilt for Anna, he quietly left the room.

When he walked downstairs, the soldiers guarding at the corridor hurriedly stood up and saluted him one after another.

He waved his hand to indicate that they could do away with formalities and went to the hall on the first floor.

Then he saw Phyllis.

She was standing in the center of the hall with a look of loss on her face. She bent her head and looked repeatedly at her clenched hands as if she was still amazed at the moment when her body regained its senses.

It seemed the answer was the former one.

The Dream World was still under the control of his consciousness.

When he woke up, the world would come to a standstill, while the outsiders would be expelled from it.

"Your Majesty, I..." When she saw Roland, she pursed her lips to force a smile and said, "I woke up from the dream."

Apparently, the God's Punishment Witch had thought of staying in the Dreamland for a split second. She originally had no other choice but to transform into an immortal soul so as to keep fighting with the demons. But the price she paid became increasingly expensive as time went by. It was not surprising that she would change her mind in the face of a new world.

But she eventually suppressed her desire, either due to the Taquila witches, or her hatred of the demons, or both. Whatever the reason was, Roland was full of admiration for her self-discipline.

"We're not certain yet," he smiled and replied, "we've just finished half of the test. We can't know whether it's an occasional or certain result after the integration of light beams until the end of the test. Let's continue here."

Phyllis was a little surprised, asking, "Won't you go back to your bedroom?"

"That may wake Anna up," Roland shook his head and replied. "Anyway, there's heating in the castle and sleeping in the living room is the same." He said a few words to a guard, who widened his eyes in surprise but still faithfully executed Roland's order.

Half a quarter later, the long table in the living room was spread with a layer of soft cushion and quilt.

In this way, the living room was tightly guarded by a group of completely confused soldiers while Roland was sleeping in it alone. Phyllis, as well as the others, stayed in the hall, waiting for the emergence of the light beam.

He had to admit that it was really difficult to fall asleep after he woke up, especially when it was time to reveal the answer to the puzzle.

Roland tossed and turned for several hours until he finally fell asleep at dawn.

The new world instantly recovered operation.

To his surprise, in the Dreamland it was not the early morning of the next day. Outside the window, the neon lights were still flashing. The ladder was still at the bedside. Phyllis's eyes became clear little by little. She suddenly awoke from her dreamy state, bent her head and looked at Roland in disbelief.

"Your Majesty, is... is this true? Am I dreaming?"

He could not help smiling.

The answer was self-evident.

Whether it was a dream or a real world, it might not matter for this God's Punishment Witch.

What was important was that she finally got her compensation after assuming the pain and responsibility for hundreds of years.

...

This time, they only stayed in the Dream World for a short period of time.

Roland had thought that she would eagerly go out and hang around. He did not expect that she would get down on one knee and plead with him to allow her to share the news with her other companions. She promised that the Taquila survivors would remember his kindness forever and would make every effort to serve him.

In the face of this plea, Roland did not respond immediately as usual.

He was not reluctant to welcome the Taquila witches, but he did not know how to feed so many people. More importantly, Zero had already been suspicious of Phyllis, and he could not claim that these additional 100 witches were all his distant relatives.

Roland would never want to get the little girl, the second creator of the Dream World, involved in these things. If she sensed any problem of this world, he could not predict what would happen. Just to be on the safe side, the Taquila witches could not stay at his home.

Then he would need a place for the witches to live, for example, an entire apartment building. And the daily expenses such as food and drinks would also be a heavy burden for him.

After thinking about it for a while, Roland finally decided to let the witches solve this problem by themselves.

His temporary silence probably made Phyllis misunderstand him. She bit her lip and bent the other leg, kneeled down and begged again. This gesture, which was only employed when ordinary people met the dominator of the Union, had gone beyond the ordinary salute of Taquila witches. Roland tried to pull her up, but she insisted. She begged him not to refuse her companions' entry into the new world.

At this time he finally realized what she was thinking, and explained his plan to her, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. After hearing his explanation, Phyllis let out a long breath of relief.

In fact, for Roland, accepting Taquila survivors was not a difficult choice as she had thought.

In the Dream World, they would no longer be a group of God's Punishment warriors who had brutal force, but they would be witches of various types of magic power that were not limited by the God's Stone of Retaliation.

With the help of such a group of people, the means and efficiency of exploring the Dream World could be greatly improved. And they could also help him to memorize and copy the knowledge. In the long run, they might also learn various kinds of knowledge and use modern equipment to study the essence of magic power. Of course, the most important point was that even after the Battle of Divine Will ended, the Taquila witches could still find a place to live in the new world.

After leaving the Dreamland, Phyllis could not wait until dawn before she bade farewell to Roland and rushed to the Third Border City in exhilaration.

Roland yawned and went back to his bedroom.

He climbed into the warm quilt and hugged Anna in his arms again. She also opened her bleary eyes and vaguely murmured, "Why did you wake up so early?"

"Well, I hung around in the Dream World," he said as he kissed her on her forehead. "I ran into something unexpected, and then I couldn't fall asleep again."

"Oh?" The girl's breath was like a soft feather gently sliding along his neck. "Was it a sweet dream?"

"Of course." Roland changed into a more comfortable posture and let her pillow on his arm again, "It's a sweet dream for everyone."

Chapter 795 - A Kind Heart

Anna leaned on him while listening to how the God's Punishment Witch accidentally entered the Dream World.

"So they can all recover the feelings they lost, and return to the normal life?" She took a deep breath and answered delightfully, but with a bit of melancholy and regret. "That's so good... If only I could also see the world that you had lived in."

"That means that you have to transform your soul into a light beam. It would be too high a price to pay for you," said Roland, stroking her hair and earlobe. "And we can build Neverwinter into an ideal place which can be comparable to the Dreamland, can't we?"

"That's all right," Anna chuckled. "But are you feeling a little guilty now?"

"Er?" Roland was a little stunned, "No, I just..."

"No need to answer. Just let me listen to it." Anna put her head on his chest and whispered after a while. "Uh-huh. You're a little guilty and worried. You're guilty because Phyllis is a woman and also very pretty. And you're also worried that I'll be suspicious. Am I right?"

"Well..." Roland did not know how to respond to her answer which could not be more correct.

Anna tilted and said, "But you're honest, so don't be worried. I trust you." She paused and said with a more serious tone, "Roland, you've made this decision to help them, just like what you did to help the Witch Cooperation Association and me. How could I be suspicious of your kind action? It's your duty as a king, isn't it?"

Roland felt slightly relieved.

If it were Nightingale, he could not be certain that she would not be suspicious. But Anna was different. If she said she believed it, then she really did. And from her expression, Roland knew that she really supported his decision to find a home for the Taquila witches and help them to regain their lost consciousness.

Anna had a kind heart, which had never changed since the day he met her.

"But from now on you must tell me what you do in the Dream World. Promise me." She blinked her blue eyes and whispered in his ear.

Roland nodded, "I promise."

Anna contentedly smiled, slowly climbed onto him and held his cheeks with both hands. She murmured, "Now you're mine."

She gently bit his collar all the way down...

Their sweet breathing sounds could be heard coming from the bedroom.

...

When Phyllis brought the amazing news back to the Third Border City, the witches burst into a commotion.

"As long as we cut off the consciousness in the range of the light beam, we can return to our original appearance?"

"It's not important at all. The most important thing is that we can restore the sense of touch and smell!"

"Is KFC really that delicious? More delicious than roast meat with honey sauce?"

"Could... could you take me to the Dream World?"

"Me too!"

"I would also like to..."

They surrounded Phyllis, eagerly asked her all kinds of questions and behaved totally different from their ordinary calm selves. They had never been so excited, not even in the face of a swarm of demonic beasts invading the underground maze.

"Stop! If we go to the castle together, they'll suspect that we want to occupy Neverwinter!" Alethea shouted and put a tentacle on Pasha, "What do you think of it? Is this a trap by the king of the common people?"

"Even if it were a trap, I'm afraid that they would probably willingly walk into it," Pasha replied with a bitter smile. Until now, she had not recovered from the shock after listening to the story told by Phyllis. A highly developed Dream World, a place where all souls could regain their new life, was a temptation which none of Taquila survivors could refuse. From the king of the common people, they also found the answer of how to defeat the demons, which they had sought for a long time. After suffering for hundreds of years, they finally saw a glimpse of hope. This incredible feeling struck her with a rare dizziness.

It had been a long time since she dreamed.

Subconsciously, Pasha hoped that all this was true, but she was not entirely convinced that such a good thing could happen. A common person without any magic power became the savior of Taquila witches? No wonder Alethea would be vigilant and suspicious.

Luckily she was aware that she had to send someone to verify what Phyllis had said.

That did not mean that she did not trust Phyllis. After breaking with the Union and going into exile, the survivors treated each other as sisters.

She was just worried that Phyllis might have been deceived.

After all, this sounded like a fairy tale and a sweet dream. She had to examine it with great caution.

Thinking of this, Pasha transmitted her consciousness to everyone's mind, "Is King Roland really willing to let the others enter the Dream World?"

"He said so, but not now," explained Phyllis. "That world has rules that must be followed just as in the real world. To avoid unnecessary changes caused by any exposure, the first batch of people must fulfill his requirements to enter the world. They'll assume the pioneer mission and prepare for the admission of more people in the future."

Hearing that, Pasha became a little less worried. If it were a trap, then he would try to let more people fall into it instead of giving the Pioneers a chance to warn others when they realized it.

"What kind of requirement?"

"Well..." Phyllis hesitated for a moment. "He needs witches who can move fast, sneak around, control and attack."

"That means he needs combat witches?" Alethea questioned, "But didn't you say that the power of that world is far above the demons? Isn't his requirement too self-contradictory?"

"He doesn't intend to let us fight against the whole world, but..."

"But what?"

"Well... to loot in private," Phyllis answered with embarrassment. "Of course, the targets are evil people who deserve it."

The crowd fell into a brief silence.

"Wait a minute. Did he think that we're gangsters and thugs? We're respected..." Her voice was overwhelmed by the sound of the crowd before she could finish her words.

"It sounds interesting!"

"Those guys have no God's Stone of Retaliation, right? Is there anyone who can stop my continuous fireballs?"

"You'll make too much of a loud noise. His Majesty obviously needs quiet actions. My Shadow Dagger is perfect for it."

"You can only shoot within ten steps, not to mention your weak attacking strength."

"I can cover for my teammates. Let's go!"

Pasha soothingly patted the back of Alethea and said, "Don't mind them. They have just been bored for too long."

Chapter 796 - First Action of Pioneering Team

The worries and doubts of the Senior Witches lasted only a day or so, and were completely dispelled by the subsequent news.

Everything that Phyllis said was real.

The Third Border City began to seethe with excitement.

In this case, no matter how reluctant Alethea was, she could not stop the other witches who were looking forward to entering the Dream World. At this point, the choice of Taquila was obvious.

Through the phantom instrument, Pasha conducted a meeting with Roland about the covenant.

The God's Punishment Witches in the underground city walked passed the light curtain one by one, lifting the elbow and pressing on the chest to greet the lord of Neverwinter, King of Graycastle and acknowledge him as the only leader of the united front. The Senior Witches who were transformed into original carriers also bent down their main tentacles to show their allegiance. This was a type of salute which had only been received by the Three Chiefs of the Union, signifying that Taquila now had a ruler from the common people after more than 400 years.

Alethea was the last one to show up in front of the light curtain.

As a higher ascendant, Alethea joined the Blessed Army when she was 20 years old and had fought with the demons for more than a decade to defend the glory of Taquila. Pasha was worried that she would do something unexpected. But ultimately Alethea had chosen to put the Battle of Divine Will and the expectations of her companions in the first place and bent her main tentacle to Roland. Regardless of how reluctant she was at the moment, her decision still made Pasha feel relieved.

If it were still in the Taquila age, this would definitely be an incredible scene.

However, a long period of more than 400 years could change many things. The ambitions and convictions that "all mankind will surely defeat the devil under the leadership of witches" were gradually diminished. When a common person showed his amazing potential and grace toward the Taquila survivors, their resistance would seem pointless.

Pasha believed the unanimous view of the Three Chiefs of the Union, that the witches would eventually stand out from the human community. Common people like Roland were only a minority, and the witches would one day return to the position of the rulers. But by then, the relationship between the two sides was bound to be much more harmonious than that of the Taquila age. After all, if they could survive the third Battle of Divine Will, the idea of the witches and the common people working together to maximize their strength would undoubtedly gain in popularity.

She did not mind welcoming such a future.

...

It was already three days later when Roland actually implemented his looting plan.

To ensure that Zero would not suspect, he rented a warehouse near the tube-shaped apartment to serve as a temporary "landing point" for the witches to connect to the Dreamland. As long as the witches assembled here before he interrupted the dream, they would still appear in the warehouse when they entered the next time.

Of course, the first connection would inevitably be Room No. 0825 of the tube-shaped apartment. Roland was puzzled about this and found no explanation for it. Probably Zero was the reason why this room became the key point connecting the real world and the Dreamland. Therefore, he had to wait until Zero went to school every time when a new witch came to the Dreamland.

During these three days, Roland selected four God's Punishment Witches, including Phyllis, as the first pioneers. For the first two days, he bought some fast food and drinks to entertain them and satisfy their extremely strong desire for food and drink. On the third day, he could only afford some instant noodles and mineral water. But even then, they still enjoyed every bite and nearly licked the seasoning packets.

Actually, they had tried but were stopped by Roland.

That would be a discredit to the united front.

As his savings started becoming less, he had to carry out the plan now.

When the night fell, Roland told Zero that he had to work overtime and would go home late. Then he went with the four witches to the villa area outside the third ring of the city in two cabs.

The witches did not just stay in the warehouse to enjoy food and drinks these days. As a former member of the Quest Society, Faldi had a strong detective ability. She was able to create a Magic Bug Nest, link her consciousness with bugs such as moths and bees, and release them to spontaneously search for other Sources of Magic Power. This was very effective in preventing the attack of demons and could also be used to search for some areas inaccessible to ordinary people.

Although the bugs could not provide visions for Faldi, they helped her to feel the types and sizes of the magic power, including the Force of Nature.

After three days of searching, she found more than a dozen magic reaction sources, including Garcia living in 0827.

After excluding the same type, there were still six targets.

Among the six targets, the one living in the villa area was most worthwhile to loot.

That was Roland's plan—searching for the Fallen Evils through effective magic inspection and looting their Force of Nature and property. These mutated monsters did not easily leave their habitats, so even if they were destroyed, their neighbors would not notice. Moreover, even if their bodies were found by the police, the case would be transferred to the Martialist Association. By then, the Association would only believe that they were killed by another group of the Awakened. They would not suspect that another group of superpower bandits were in town.

After getting off the cabs, they came to a dark corner and stood around Dawnen. She then summoned the "matte curtains" to wrap everyone together.

This magical ability could make her companions within the reach of the curtain disappear, but it was far beyond being invisible, as the vision, smell, and magic breath would also be blocked. No one could sense the existence of the hidden people without direct touch. Undoubtedly, Dawnen would play a crucial role in a surprise attack.

With Faldi's guidance, the five people passed straight through the main entrance and walked all the way towards the foothill of the villa area.

Here was the residential area of the rich people in the city. Most villas were built by the hillside with wide yards. Hardly anyone walked around in the evening, which made it a perfect place for Roland's plan.

"Here we are. The target is in it." Faldi stopped and pointed to a vast, detached compound on the side of the road. Its parvis was almost as large as the tube-shaped apartment.

"Damn the enviable rich people..." Roland glanced at the flashing surveillance camera, turned around to look at Ling, the last member of the looting team—no, the pioneering team and said, "It's your turn to help us sneak into the house. Just do as you practiced before."

Ling nodded and slowly faded into the shadow as if she was sinking.

None of the Taquila survivors could directly walk through any obstacles like Nightingale or Margie, but Ling's ability was enough for this task. She could melt into any shadow and move freely like water. Especially in the night when the shadows spread around, the entire parvis became her domain, and she could easily walk through the gaps between the doors and windows.

"Crack!" The door of the house was open with a slit.

Chapter 797 - Body of Magic

"Not bad at all." Roland waved towards the black shadow which had deftly entered into the drapes.

A smiling face emerged from the darkness as if to acknowledge his encouragement. This would have been a frightening sight if he had not known that it was a witch hiding inside.

"Your Majesty, enemies are within the hall. I can sense that their magic powers are nearly as strong as hybrid demonic beasts." Faldi cautioned.

"Can you handle them?"

"Don't worry. Ling and I won't have any problems as long as they aren't like Senior Demons." Phyllis replied.

"Then let's act according to plan."

As Roland passed through the long porch, he discovered that the villa's windows were all covered up with boards and tape. There were only a few lights within, making the hall seem rather dim. Due to the weak air-conditioning, he felt as though he had just entered from early autumn into winter. Furthermore, the rancid and putrid smell which filled the air caused him to feel nauseous.

A man dressed in a suit stood motionless in the center of the hall - he was clearly this trip's target. The instant Roland stepped into the hall, he felt a warmth begin to swell inside his body with an intensity several times stronger than when he first saw the fake man.

From the looks of it, Faldi had snagged a big fish.

However, what distressed Roland was a sculpture of a huge monster hung on the two-story mural wall which the man was facing. He could not tell if it was made of wood or seasoned leather. It had a human face and a pair of wings, while its brawny hind legs and slender front paws were curled up in front of its body - a completely mismatching appearance. It was close to four meters in length, while the carvings of feathers and veins on its body were highly lifelike, thus marking out its high value.

"The grotesque taste of rich people," Roland muttered to himself. Judging from the craftsmanship, it was worth at least a million gold royals.

"Time to act." He looked away from it and placed his attention on the target.

"Yes."

Making use of the matte curtains to sneak two meters behind the enemy, Phyllis initiated the first attack.

A claw protruded from her back and lashed with lightning speed toward the suited man. The interference of magic caused the curtains to ripple. At this time, the target seemed to sense something and turned his head sharply. However, at this distance, even an Extraordinary would have no time to dodge. The claw slit through the man's neck and out from his lower back, thereby cutting him diagonally into two.

The enemy's eyes stared wide in disbelief as he collapsed on to the floor, and dark red blood spattered all over.

From the looks of it, even if the natural core of a Fallen Evil was not stripped away, it would not be able to survive if its body was heavily damaged.

"That's all?" Ling peered out from the shadow beside the sofa.

"The plundering we now have to do is the main point," Roland answered while covering his nose. The putrid smell in the air had intensified once more, though he was not sure if it was his own false perception. "Do you still remember what I taught you?"

"Gold ornaments, red paper, and chests with orbs!" Ling raised her hand. "Coins are worthless, and leave the gemstones!"

"That's right. In particular, the more red paper, the better." From his experience of plundering the Holy City of Hermes, he knew that the price of gemstones fluctuated too greatly, and hence it was difficult to sell them off at a suitable price. Gold was certainly far more stable. Of course, the best of all was cash notes. He mused to himself, "Hope this fella isn't too fond of online shopping."

As Roland bent his body and intended to convert the Force of Nature which was mounted on the belly of the man, Faldi suddenly frowned and remarked, "Hold on, why do I still sense the presence of magic reaction?"

"What?" The other three people startled at once.

"The source of magic power isn't gone. Instead, it's growing bigger!" She lifted her head and looked around the hall in search of something. Her eyes fell on the sculpture. "Damn it, that monster is alive!"

Just as she finished speaking, the sculpture abruptly opened its mouth and revealed a frog-like tongue which thrust directly at Roland.

"Careful, Your Majesty!"

With no hesitation, Phyllis shielded in front of Roland and used her claws to obstruct the path of the incoming tongue.

But Roland was much improved from his former self. He anticipated the monster's attack, before catching hold of Phyllis' waist and rolling toward one side in order to avoid the tongue which was as sharp as an arrow.

The tongue thrust into the half-section of the corpse lying on the floor. It entwined the natural core and jerked away violently. With that, the crimson core flew in the direction of the sculpture's mouth.

Roland noticed that the Force of Nature, which had entered into a solid state, began to rotate once again upon the monster's touch.

The monster's movements caused a large swarm of insects to fly out from its back and panickedly flee in all directions. They had obviously been attracted by the monster's magic power, but because Roland could not share what he saw with Faldi, she was not able to discern that there were two different sources of magic reaction in the hall!

"Hah... what do I see, a bunch of martialists delivering themselves to me?" The sculpture swallowed the core and began to speak. "Thieves like you have no place in this sacred territory. Go to hell!"

It raised its neck as if to inhale a deep breath, and then blew a gush of bloodred air at the people in the hall.

It was magic power in its purest form!

In a flash, the furniture in the room was ripped into smithereens. As the matte curtains were struck, Dawnen and Faldi, who were hiding within, suffered several wounds on their bodies and fell heavily on the floor. Fortunately for them, they got away from the central and most powerful region of the magical attack by a hair's breadth, or they would have suffered the same fate as the furniture.

On the other hand, Roland was in much better shape. As the magical attack came upon him, the warmth inside him spread all over his body and protected his vital organs like a piece of armor.

"What form of attack is this?" Roland was disconcerted that its ability was completely different from that of witches. He had never seen magic power directly turn into a potent energy before. Ever since he acquired the strange force, he was able to better understand how magic power worked. The monster's attack was certainly not something a Fallen Evil was able to perform.

The expressions on the witches' faces were also that of extraordinary surprise. It was clear that the monster's understanding of magic power was a level above theirs.

"Its magic reaction... is close to the Senior Demons'!" Faldi bit her teeth. "How's this possible?"

"Demons? Is that what you call my ancestors?" The monster grinned and laughed wickedly. It easily snapped off the rivets which fixed its wings to the wall, then leapt onto the floor and stooped like a gargoyle in front of the party. "You try to take energy from the Divine Domain without permission, and now call the Chasers 'demons'? Sheer stupidity!"

"Divine Domain? Chasers?" Roland began to frown involuntarily. "What's it referring to?"

Suddenly, a beam of black light sprung from the shadows behind the monster and flew against its cheeks. It was Ling's shadow! A crisp clicking sound was heard as she stuck a dagger into its eyes and out from the back of its head. Without pausing to contemplate her success, she escaped back into the shadows. The entire surprise attack was as smooth as flowing water.

"Beautiful!" Phyllis clenched her fists and commended.

"Beautiful?" The monster did not collapse like the Fallen Evil did. A crack appeared on its wooden-like face, and it now spoke in a shrivelled voice which sounded cold and indifferent. "You think this piece of common metal and tiny amount of magic power can harm me? You have no idea what the Divine Domain's all about! Now, I shall let you witness the true might of the Lord!"

Before it finished talking, a series of rupturing sounds broke out. The crack on its face extended to its entire body, and subsequently, its pitch-black shell split into fragments and peeled off. The now-revealed interior emitted a dark red glow, as though it was flowing with burning blood.

When all of its true body was revealed, Roland gaped in shock and horror.

Underneath the shell had been a body which was purely formed by magic power. Small clusters of star jades glistened inside its body, and gradually converged into a huge astrolabe at its chest.

It was what you could call a magical creature.

Chapter 798 - The Will of the World

"What's your Lord's name?"

Roland somehow sensed that this creature was much more emotionally rich than the Fallen Evil. He thus hoped to gather more intelligence by asking it more questions. While doing so, he gestured towards behind him for the two wounded persons, Faldi and Dawnen, to leave the place at once. If a situation arose where the party had to flee quickly, he would certainly run faster than these witches.

"My lord's a being that's everything and nothing at the same time. A presence that none of you can fathom." The creature spread its phantom wings, which emitted a red glow, and stretched its hands towards the floor. "Your clever tricks are useless here. You want them to escape now? Too late!"

Scarlet blood flowed from its body and rapidly extended across the surfaces of the room. In the blink of an eye, the floors, walls, and ceiling of the hall turned into a bright red.

Ling, whose hiding place was now uncovered, was pushed out of the wall by an unknown force, and she fell by Phyllis' side.

"What... what's this?" Faldi cried out softly from behind. When Roland turned his head, he saw that spiked tentacles had emerged out of the red and black void and ensnared the witches' legs. He recalled that he had seen something similar before.

But he had no time to contemplate further as the situation was fast deteriorating.

With the warm current in his body spinning ferociously, Roland gathered all of his physical strength and charged directly towards the strange enemy.

"Ooh? You aren't affected?" Astonished, the magical creature raised a palm at him. "How about this?"

An extremely powerful force burst forth from its palm towards Roland. It felt like a huge hammer blow upon impact, and sent Roland flying and crashing into the wall. After a heavy thud, he felt like his back was burning, and that all of his organs had displaced.

"Keke..." He coughed involuntarily, and smelled something sweet yet fishy that had expelled from his throat.

"Your Majesty!"

Phyllis let out an urgent cry. She was, at present, the only person who could move other than Roland. The blade claws on her back danced up and down, hurriedly cleaving the tentacles which had protruded from the floor. However, with an endless number of them to deal with, she was not able to draw close to Roland at the moment.

It was now the crunch time.

But Roland's mind remained exceptionally clear.

There was entirely no fear in him, as if he had deleted the feeling of fear from his brain.

The warm current in him surged ever faster, accompanied by the vigorous beating of his heart. He could feel that an extraordinary change was occurring in his body.

All of the world's magical power was gravitating towards him.

Even the red glow that extended across the walls became sluggish. The trails of blood circumvented his body as they passed by, and wherever he touched, a blue mark would appear.

This process was entirely out of his control - he was unclear about what was happening himself. A strange sound reverberated beside his ear, while the tones of the tumultuous cries seemed to harmonize.

"Kill it, kill it!"

The monster had also begun to notice that something was not right. With a slight fluctuation in its dry voice, it asked, "What's happening... what've you done to my magic power?"

Roland did not reply. He could feel that the warm current had swelled to its limits, and his body subconsciously arched. The next thing he knew, he was charging directly at the enemy like a cannonball!

"Kkkkkiiiiilllllllllll iiiiittttt!!!!!"

"Die!" Repeating its old tactic, the monster raised its hand towards him once more.

But this time, Roland was not struck down by the monster's force. For the first time, he saw the warm current rush out of his body to form a pair of blue light curtains in front of him. When the pair collided with each other, a dazzling radiance burst forth and hovered above his head, which then brought him flying directly into the monster's chest.

He swung out a punch.

The impact of his fist on the monster's chest was not as he had expected. It felt as if he had just struck a lump of soft liquid. He saw his arm sink into the monster's body only a fingerbreadth away from the star jades. Gritting his teeth, Roland opened his fist and grabbed hold of the most prominent astrolabe on its chest.

At once, the monster let out a deafening roar. "No... this is the Lord's strength, how did you... touch it!"

The galaxy-like ring began to quiver, and it gradually changed from its rich red into blue and white. This, however, occurred at an extremely slow rate, and there were several relapses. At this moment, Roland felt as if he was tussling with a fierce bull. Fortunately for him, more and more magical power flowed towards him, and it felt like the entire world was blending into one with him.

"So that's it... I understand now!" A vortex-like eye on top of the monster's head opened. "You're... the one responsible for creating this world! It was you who defeated my Lord!"

"Didn't you already call him 'everything and nothing'? How could I even touch him?" Roland laughed sardonically.

"You fool! My Lord may be almighty, but he can't stop all of this himself... Go back and never return here, your actions are destroying everything... Hssst... All living things, and not only yourself, will perish because of you!"

Its voice became increasingly unclear, as if it was affected by severe interference.

Roland could feel that the resistance of the astrolabe was weakening. The color change also became faster.

"All living things?" He turned his head and glimpsed at the witches sitting feebly on the floor, before he continued in a low voice. "No, the only ones who shall perish are your kind... I've no idea where you're from, or what intention you possess, but certainly, this world will be better without you!"

"From... hssst... Bottomless Land... no intention... hssst... this is rule..." The monster was no longer able to spit out a complete sentence. Roland further noticed that it was not as emotionally expressive as it was. Its voice had turned flat and monotonous, as if it was one of those answering machines which provided a fixed response.

When it finished speaking, the resistance in Roland's hand vanished instantly.

The astrolabe began to spin rapidly, and drew all of the surrounding star jades towards itself to form a dazzling white light. For a moment, Roland seemed to hear the heartbeat of the earth.

This time, the scene of the surging of magic power was even more spectacular than the previous two times. The monster shrunk into a round mass and released a column of silver light that shot straight to the ceiling for an extended period of time. Standing in front of it, Roland felt an indescribable satisfaction and bodily pleasure which exceeded the sum of his previous two encounters. There was nothing which could compare to the sight of this light column.

The witches' conditions were nothing too serious, except that they had expended all of their magic power. They were still able to walk on their own. According to Phyllis, when Roland was in a deadlock with the monster, the magic power of all four witches was taken in by him. This was something which could never have happened in the real world.

However, it was simply one more thing to add to a night when so many unimaginable events had already taken place.

After a quick search, Roland, carrying a heavy safe together with the car key taken from the suited man, led the witches quietly out of the foothill villa.

Chapter 799 - Changes

Thankfully, driving lessons were all the rage during his university days, and he, too, had signed up for them together with his friends. But he had never thought that the first time he would touch a steering wheel after receiving his license would be in the realm of dreams.

"Your Majesty, what exactly was that monster?" Faldi asked faintly. "Can a Fallen Evil also possess such strength? It seems theoretically unjustifiable that they can obtain so much magic power in such a short time."

While evading the first round of magical attacks, it was Dawnen and her who received the greatest damage. Half of her beautiful violet curls had fallen off as a result. Fortunately, none of her wounds were fatal, and her head (except for her hair) and torso were practically unblemished. In other words, she had chosen the optimal form of evasion against the sharp yet unpredictable attacks. It, therefore, has to be said that all of the Taquila survivors were highly-experienced warriors, as evident by the fact that even a witch who was mainly not combat-type could perform this well.

Because of this, the pioneering operation did not end in failure. Although Roland did not know what would happen if one died in dreamland, he hoped that there would never come a day when this doubt would be addressed.

"Did the Union never have a similar ability?"

"Of course they did... what we call biting, is precisely caused by the damage inflicted by magic power on a body." Faldi gasped as she spoke. "As a witch increases her capacity for magic through continuous practice, her body will become more used to this kind of damage, and her recovery speed will also improve. Whether it be for us, demons, or hybrid demonic beasts, our levels of magic power can only be slowly cultivated."

"I get it now," Roland thought, "this is the first time she has seen a living thing that's purely formed by magic power. In other words, she was only cognizant of life that's formed of flesh and bone. Therefore, it was natural that she couldn't understand an enemy she had never seen before."

He did not have such doubts himself. From the moment the monster revealed its translucent body, he had already regarded it as a spirit or an elemental, and he believed that because it was formed by magic, it was certainly not going to be affected by magic.

However, this was not an easy problem to explain, and his conjecture was not necessarily accurate. He recalled that when the blue light in the monster's body held the upper hand, the monster's visibly declining mood and consciousness could have caused it to revert to a more conventional living form. At last, Roland could only shake his head and reply, "I don't know what it is either. But I can confirm that it's not a Fallen Evil."

"Are there many more monsters like this in the Dream World?" Ling asked, still in a state of shock. "When the shadows in the room were covered by the black and red void, I felt my body freeze, as if there was something extremely frightening that was observing me all the time. I swear, even facing the Senior Demons wasn't as scary as this."

"I believe there aren't that many, or else the Dream World would have been seized by them long ago," said Roland reassuringly. The Martialist Association could handle the Corruptors, which were not affected by conventional force, but against this type of monster, even 12 martialists might not be sufficient to win. If there were many of them, the Association would probably have been destroyed by now.

In retrospect, he realized that he could finally confirm Garcia's assertion that the corruption of the outside world was inseparably related to the Bloody Moon. The tentacles which protruded from the void was similar to the scene in the Divine Domain.

Yet, why would the Bloody Moon corrupt the dreamland? Isn't this world a part of it? Who's the Lord that the monster spoke about? Is it a real deity or a source of magic power? If it truly detests the Dream World, why did it remain silent when he touched the divine relics?

Roland also took extra note of the "Bottomless Land" which the monster mentioned last. It was perhaps due to linguistic assimilation that the structure of this term was similar to that found in the Land of Dawn. It was only when referring to an entire continent that it would be phrased this way. For example, although the meaning of "Divine Land" was similar, it was expressed in a different way.

Supposing that the Bloody Moon is perpetually observing the real world because of the Battle of Divine Will, does that mean that what it reveals is an actual continent, just as I've understood?

These questions were best left to an explorer to solve.

Of course, not every witch was still contemplating the events of the battle that just happened. Phyllis, who sat in the front passenger seat, had already cast aside the heavy emotions she felt during the battle, and was much more interested in understanding the operation of this limousine. When she was seated in a taxi previously, she was instructed to remain silent due to the presence of an outsider. This time, she could no longer control her wild curiosity, and stared unblinkingly at Roland, as if she was trying to memorize every action that he made.

"You want to learn driving?" Roland asked jokingly, having also relegated his thoughts to the back of his mind.

Phyllis immediately nodded.

"We'll have to perform a few more tasks first." He took the opportunity to entice her. "When the time comes, we'll be able to enjoy different cuisine every day, and having your own room and private car won't be a problem."

"Will the food taste better than KFC and hotpot?" Faldi added.

"Those are entry-level stuff. Once we have money, you'll find out that even if you ate something different every day, you'll never be able to taste all the different types of cuisine in the world."

Though Roland did not turn his head back, he could sense the glowing gazes from the witches behind him.

"When Dawnen's fine, let's move on to the next house. I've already marked its location." Faldi's voice remained soft, but it was not as faint as previously.

"I'm okay. We can set off tomorrow once our magic powers have recovered." The petite Dawnen replied in a positive manner. "This bit of injury won't be a hindrance."

Even Ling, who had been traumatized, was moved by Roland's alluring words. Though she did not echo the others' words, her eyes were glimmering, as Roland saw through the rearview mirror.

Roland felt deeply touched. It turned out that boosting the team's morale was truly a simple thing to do.

...

In order to prevent policemen from popping by their place, he decided not to drive into Tongzi Street, and instead parked the car next to the neighboring Clover Group's construction site, which was still under demolition and hence was a surveillance blind spot. From there was a nice little pathway which led to the rented warehouse.

Subsequently, it was time to examine the spoils.

Regrettably, there was not much cash in the safe, amounting to only 100000 dollars or so. However, there was a considerable amount of jewelry, consisting of jades and pearls. It was not possible to place a fixed valuation on them. To his surprise, he also discovered several solidified Forces of Nature. It was these small yet exceptionally heavy things which gave him the false perception that the trip was indeed fruitful.

Are cash transactions already out of vogue for these people? Forces of Nature are now a currency?

By the time Roland returned to 0827, it was already half past 11. He gently opened the door and discovered that the lights were lit in the parlor. Zero was lying by the tea table with her back arched and slightly undulating, as if she had already entered dreamland. In front of her were a stack of textbooks and a pencil box. It was evident that she had been revising her homework while waiting for his return.

There was only supposed to be a tenant-landlord relationship between them, but there seemed to be a sense of family now. Roland's heart softened as he gazed at this sight.

He walked up and gently carried Zero to her bed. After taking off her shoes, he covered her in the warm quilt.

Oh right, the textbooks.

If she forgets about them tomorrow, she'll blame me again.

Roland shook his head and laughed. He brought the textbooks on the tea table to her room and stacked them neatly on Zero's desk. At this moment, the bold print on a textbook cover caught his attention.

Junior High Math Olympiad.

This was an extracurricular subject which appeared impressive but was thoroughly impractical. He recalled that he was uninterested in math when he was in junior high, and, thinking that Math Olympiad was simply a higher level of math, he kept his distance from it, and would rather spend his summers learning sketching and calligraphy than attend Math Olympiad lessons. Therefore, at present, he had not the slightest idea what the course was about.

Strangely, he began to take interest in its content, if only for a moment.

He could feel his breath becoming shorter.

He took a deep breath and slowly flipped open the first page of the textbook.

The neatly-arranged examples, together with Zero's elegant handwriting, caught his eye at once.

Chapter 800 - The Revived Harbor

A flat yet spacious concrete ship slowly made its way into Clearwater Bay and berthed in front of Simbady.

Its size was much larger than that of the small boats which occasionally appeared in the Silver Stream, and its weight made it practically impossible to be rowed by manpower. On its top stood two long metal cylinders that puffed out billows of black smoke. Its sides were painted an eye-catching tangerine color, which together with the smooth gray deck made the ship look like a belly-up rainbow trout at first glance.

Like most of his brethren, Simbady had never left the desert, and rarely if ever saw the ocean. Thus, when he saw that this ship was not made of wood, he could not help but exclaim in marvel.

There was a stir of excitement among the ranks.

"Pah!"

Osha's supervisor immediately snapped a whip towards their heads. "Keep your mouths shut! Line up and get on the ship, faster!"

Simbady felt the crowd begin to stream forward. With the people behind him jostling, it was impossible not to move. As he was carried by the momentum of the crowd on to the ship, a slight fear arose in his heart.

Perhaps, he should never have left Silver Stream Oasis to come to this foreign land. Though there was an endless supply of water here, there was a chance that the Three Gods could not watch over such a remote place, and therefore would not hear their cries for help if the ship carried them into the abyss of Styx's River.

"Hold on to me and watch your step!" Molly's voice caused him to regain consciousness.

A delicate hand wrapped around his palm and led him on to the gangway. Every now and then, someone from beside him would fall into the water with a splashing sound.

Though the people on the pier would quickly pull them ashore, to fall into the river in this sort of weather essentially meant that they lost the qualification to work.

When they pleaded to be reallowed onto the ship, the standard reply they received was a lash from a whip.

Simbady remained close to Molly and followed the flow onto the concrete ship. As his foot met the deck, he did not feel the wobble he had expected. The ship was completely still, and it felt no different from walking on land.

When the gangway was withdrawn, the honcho of Osha clan, Thuram, appeared on the high platform in the middle of the large ship and drew everyone's attention. "Do y'all still remember what I said? The chief values order and discipline above all else! Take a look at your clansmen who fell into the water. The original plan was for everyone to board smoothly and receive a work opportunity, so that you may obtain ample food even in the Months of Demons. But now, they'll have to starve until the next opportunity comes about! This was all caused by your stupidity!"

"It was nothing but a fall. All they need is a change of clothes...," an Ironsand citizen retorted, but before he could finish his sentence, two supervisors had pressed him down on the floor and subsequently tossed him into the water.

"Discipline is everything! There's no collective that accommodates the individual, only individuals who submit to the collective!" Thuram rebuked angrily. "Unlike the clan wars of the past, it's no longer lurking enemies who are being eliminated, but rather your own kin! Take this as my first lesson to all of you and remember it!" He paused before continuing, "Of course, those who lost their jobs today will only go hungry for a while. However, in the future, anyone from the Sand Nation or tribe who doesn't observe order shall be banished from this evergreen land!"

As his voice fell, a booming noise erupted from the metal cylinders and rolled across the sky above Port of Clearwater.

The giant metal wheels on both sides of the hull gradually began to rotate. After a violent shake, the concrete ship slowly sailed out towards the mouth of the river.

" Thank you. If it wasn't for you..." Simbady glanced at Molly.

The latter laughed and narrowed her eyes to slits. "It's nothing. It just happened that I was ahead of you in the order."

"Really..." He lowered his head with some embarrassment.

He and Molly were both members of the Fishbone clan, and they had conversed with each other on occasion. He had always been fond of this hazel-eyed, black-braided-hair girl, but having heard that she already had a sweetheart, he had thought it wiser not to reveal his feelings to her.

After some silence, he gazed at her while she leaned over the side of the ship, curiously observing the scenery on both sides of the river. He could not help asking, "Are you not the least bit worried about where we're going?"

She turned her head back. "Blackwater Valley?"

"Indeed. I've heard from the other clansmen that it's close to the Choke Swamp and Rotten Wasteland, and has been cursed by the Three Gods. Anyone who enters without permission will never be able to come back alive."

"So, did they apply for permission?"

"Eh, about this..."

Molly laughed involuntarily. "Don't they hope that as little people as possible get this job, so that their own clansmen may receive more money? You've also heard from Lady Drow Silvermoon that so long as you do things according to the chief's instructions, you'll never have to worry about the material needs of your family, while your tribe will also receive resource subsidies." She puffed out a mouthful of white air. "Besides, do we have a choice?"

The last sentence truly shut Simbady up. Indeed, the first clans to willingly follow Osha to the Southern Territory of Graycastle were predominantly small tribes which found it hard to continue in the Silver Stream Oasis. Fishbone was one of them. The oasis which they had occupied was currently being devoured by the desert, while the increasingly dry tributary of the Silver Stream made it impossible to guarantee the survival of the clan. In order to survive, they either had to join another big clan, or venture towards the Southern Territory.

"Thinking positively, at least the chief has fulfilled his first promise. We no longer have to worry about starving to death in the desert, right?"

Simbady could not refute this point. According to Lady Silvermoon's explanation, even those who were not able to attain a job out at sea would be able to receive a basic ration. As long as they could perform odd jobs for the reconstruction of the Southern Territory, they would not starve to death.

"Besides, there are Osha people following us to Blackwater Valley. You don't have to worry too much." Molly laughed and pointed at a ruined port in the distance. "Look there... the land allotted to our clan should be near to that black tower, right? It'll be great if we can stay here forever."

Simbady looked towards the direction she pointed at. The Port of Clearwater appeared to have been divided into two. Half of it was a burnt-down wasteland which seemed to have been forgotten and deserted, with damaged houses and scorched wooden frames everywhere, and the courtyards were filled with weed. Conversely, the other half already possessed a budding vitality. Here, the Ironsand people had set up a series of tents, and people could be seen moving within the camp area. The damaged houses were being knocked down one after another, while freshly whittled wood was continuously being transported into the area.

Molly's smile caused a surge of anticipation to rise in his heart.

"Perhaps, after I'm done with the next three months of work and return here, near to the tower will be a line of brand-new wooden houses?"

The being-reconstructed town slowly disappeared in the distance, until the ship began to bobble up and down on the waves. The only scenery at present was the clear and boundless skyline.

They had entered into the ocean.

Chapter 801 - Endless City

"Is this... really OK?" Through the commanding post's window, Echo saw those Sand Nation civilians being whipped and tumbling on the ground. She could not help but feel sorry for them.

"They never knew what discipline was. They lived by the rule that 'the Weak are Prey to the Strong'. If we're to put these people into use sooner, other than sending them to war, this is the only way." Iron Axe replied in respect. "You hadn't been in the Southernmost Region for long and during that period, the chief was very concerned about you, so you might not be familiar with the small clans' natures. Such a kind of discipline isn't severe. One can even say it's necessary, otherwise they would consider Osha a clan with no authority, weak and easy to bully."

At this, he showed a rare hint of hesitation. "I think the reason that you're not used to it is probably that... His Majesty is sometimes too benevolent."

"Completely agreed." Andrea, resting her upper body on the window sill, shrugged. "There is a saying among the nobles 'carrots combined with sticks make the best way of ruling the subjects'. The bigger the carrots are, the more benevolent the Lord will be."

"What are carrots?" Hummingbird asked in curiosity.

"They're kind of food, similar to His Majesty's corn, a sort of specialty of the Kingdom of Dawn," Andrea explained. "But no matter how big the carrots are, they should always be much smaller than the sticks, which indicates that punishment should be more severe than awards so that the subjects would appreciate the favor. A Lord such as Roland would be considered a black sheep in the City of Glow."

"Rare as it is, truthfully, I agree with you," Ashes said while pouting.

"His Majesty is especially eloquent?" With her chin resting on her hands, Hummingbird thought for a while and said, "The words he taught Thuram to speak sound very reasonable... The collective power is definitely stronger than an individual's power."

"But Thuram merely repeated what Roland told him to say." Iron Axe shook his head, smiling. "Without seeing Neverwinter personally, one can never imagine what an inconceivable new order His Majesty has established. I believe that one day in the future, Graycastle will become another Neverwinter, but that day is definitely not today... To make them remember the rules in the Soutern Territory, whips are more powerful than words."

Echo slightly sighed without saying a word.

"Commander-in-chief." A soldier suddenly walked into the commanding post and said, "There is a riot breaking out in the Fallingstone Clan and the Spring Clan. Some people are confronting the Defending Army."

"For boarding the ship?" Iron Axe asked solemnly.

"Yes. Those who were squeezed into the water called for their families. They asked for the same amount of food and reward. They argued that it's not that they didn't want to go to the Blackwater Valley, but that the Osha had turned them down."

"Alright. Who is guarding the camp?"

"The Second Battalion of Flintlock."

"Call up two squads and those young Osha lads who wanted to join the First Army. Tell them to gather at the riot spot. I'll be there right away."

"Yes, Sir!"

Seeing that Iron Axe was about to leave, Echo could not help but call him and said, "Please don't be too harsh on them."

Iron Axe stood in the doorway quietly for a moment, bowed to her and then said, "I understand, Miss Silvermoon. I'll do it in moderation."

After Iron Axe left, Echo returned to the desk, feeling melancholy. The process of the Sand Nation's relocation at the north did not go as smoothly as she expected. Although they could lead a well-off life as long as they follow His Majesty's instructions, some people still took the message that Roland asked her to deliver as a lie. Even those who had gained a piece of fertile land did not completely trust her nor His Majesty.

Now she was sort of missing her life in Neverwinter.

Compared with leading the strongest clan, she preferred the time when she stood on the top of the castle, overlooked the mountains and the city, and sung the songs composed by His Majesty. When the melody that she had never heard of sounded, she could feel genuine freedom and happiness.

She had not sung for a long time since coming here... She wondered whether Roland had written any new songs.

"When can I sing out aloud again?"

...

"Oh!" Simbady felt as though everything in his stomach was overturned. Along with the rise and fall of the Concrete Boat, some gastric acid welled up from his stomach again. Regardless of the vomit along the side of the boat from other people, he directly bent over the handrail and began to throw up.

"Hi, are you okay?" Molly patted him on his back. His face was slightly pale. The Concrete Boat, steady as the ground while in the bay, became a swaying leaf when upon the sea. Bobbing in waves, it nearly hit the offshore beach several times. The horizontal waving never stopped. It was a total torture for the Sand Nation civilians that were experiencing the sea for the first time.

"Ahem... Almost fine." After throwing up, he laid on the deck lifelessly. "Do you know how long we've been on the sea?"

"Today is the fifth day."

"This isn't right..." Simbady gasped and said in a low voice, "Do you remember what the Clearspring Clan said? They... live in the oasis by the sea. We passed the Iron Sand City at first dusk, which means the Concrete Boat travels really fast. Yet why haven't we arrived at the Blackwater Valley?"

"You mean…" Molly asked.

"The destination of Osha isn't the Blackwater Valley. Thuram lied. The place he's taking us is further south than the Choke Swamp!"

"Further south?" Molly started to worry. "But there is nothing there. Could they be lost?"

"The boat has been travelling along the coastline, which means it is highly unlikely for them to get lost." Simbady pressed at his forehead. "If we're going somewhere closer to the south point than the Choke Swamp, it'll only be..."

"Everybody, cheer up!" Before Simbady finished talking, Thuram suddenly appeared on the center of the deck and his words interrupted Simbady's, "I've some good news. We're arriving at our destination. Pack your luggage, line up, and prepare to disembark. Remember, be careful not to fall into the sea anymore, because no one will rescue you this time!"

Simbady propped up his upper body and peered beyond the shore. On shore it was still barren, no oasis to be seen. His speculation was confirmed by the rolling water vapor and gusted smoke columns on the sea in distance.

There was only one place that could give such an inconceivable view,

the Endless Cape. The exile place of the Mojins.

More and more Sand Nation people civilians noticed the anomaly and became quite on edge on the deck.

"This is not the Blackwater Valley! You lied to us!"

"Why did you bring us to the Endless Cape? Do you want to abandon us here?"

"I want to go back. Please, let us leave!"

"Shut up!" At this moment, Thuram felt there was no need to conceal anything anymore. "Have I said that we were going to the middle area of the Blackwater Valley? The valley tributaries run through the entire southern region, of course it includes the cape area. Any underground Styx's River is extended from the valley, am I right?"

"This is sophistry!" Simbady thought angrily. If they had been told to work in the exile place, he was afraid that not many would apply for it.

"Nobody is going to be abandoned here. People from Osha and Graycastle will join you in developing this area!" Thuram raised his arm and spoke loudly, "Listen carefully. From now on, Endless Cape is no longer an exile area. It'll be a newly born town! This is the order from the chief!"

Chapter 802 - Ironwhip Discipline

"To build a new city... in this place?"

Simbady found it hard to believe his own ears. The Silver Stream got slimmer as it went south, finally it was entirely devoured by sand until it reached the Blackwater Valley. Hence came the name "the Land of Exile".

Without water and an oasis, how could they survive in the vast desert?

All the Sand Nation civilians on board were shocked by Thuram's speech, several of them stated their doubts like the one that Simbady had.

"We can create water by ourselves." Thuram spoke loudly. "But before that, the vanguard troop has found a usable water source. You'll see it when you get off the boat."

This aroused even more severe discussion.

"Create?" some people shouted. "How do we do that?"

"Silver Stream is a gift from Mother Earth. How could we create it?"

"By the name of Three Gods, only deities' emissaries could turn the desert into an oasis..."

"If we can't succeed, can we return the Southern Territory?"

"Right, you won't leave us here and go back alone, will you?"

Confronted by these questions, Thuram hesitated for the first time. Simbady noticed that Thuram peeked at the Graycastle civilians before he thundered, "The chief is capable of anything. As as he said we can, we can definitely create water. What you need to do however, is to follow instructions. Besides, Lady Silvermoon has promised, if we can't succeed, you'll be sent back to the Port of Clearwater in advance and paid with three months salary!" At this, he patted at the whip upon his waist. "Of course, I won't return without you. If anyone loafs on the job, be prepared to taste my Ironwhip!"

"That explains it..." Simbady realized that the leader of the team was not Thuram, but those poker-faced people from Graycastle who were standing behind Thuram.

During the holy duel, he had heard of the mightiness of these people more than once. Different from the Queen of Clearwater, they did not appear short of strength even when confronted by the warriors of big clans. But at this Endless Cape, even though they could defeat the watchdogs overnight, they still meant nothing in front of this endless sea of sand.

Both the northerners and the chief might have far underestimated the power of the desert.

Unfortunately, for them, there were not many options left.

About an hour later, the Concrete Boat slowly pulled in to shore. Dragging his sore and exhausted body, Simbady slowly walked off the boat. The moment when his feet touched the soft beach, he felt a long-lost relaxation.

Finally, his world stopped shaking.

"Look, what's that?" Molly pointed somewhere remote on the inland. "A Watch Tower?"

Simbady looked in the direction that Molly was pointing at and saw a black iron tower standing in the sand not far from the beach. At the top of the tower were two flags, one of which was scarlet, the other was with a complex embroidery pattern.

Ordinarily, Simbady would wonder why the girl who he only had an occasional conversation with would stay with him all the time, but now he was too weak to consider things in this aspect. "Has someone... arrived ahead of us?"

"Let's go and take a look."

"Later." He shook his head. "We'd better wait for Sir Thuram's instructions."

Those Sand Nation civilians who had fallen into the water previously left a vivid memory in Simbady's mind. He did not wish for the girl that he had a crush on to be whipped in front of everybody.

"Molly, finally I've found you!" Molly's clansmen gradually came to her. "Simbady, what a surprise to see you here."

"I thought you had passed out on the boat from seasickness."

"Haha..." The crowd smirked.

Simbady lowered his head in embarrassment. Indeed, he was the weakest among his clansmen, be it in strength or guts. Usually, he would not mind being ridiculed, but today, in Molly's presence, he felt especially shameful. In fact, his performance in this voyage was even poorer than Molly's.

"Look, there is an iron tower!"

"How did people transport something so heavy to this place?"

"Probably by boat? I heard there is a direct shipping lane from Graycastle to the Endless Cape."

"Will we camp there tonight?"

"I guess so. Endless Cape is way more dangerous than an oasis. It must be guarded at night."

There were only just over 20 men were from the Fishbone Clan, which made them a fairly small group, but they were all of the young and strong members of the clan. One of them was called Carlone. Carlone was a strong performer among his peers, he was tall, handsome and skillful, which won him the favor of his clan chief. The moment he opened his mouth, he drew everybody's attention, "I once escorted the exiled for Iron Sand City. According to my observation, the sizes of sandworms and scorpions in this area are much larger than those in an oasis. There's even a rumor that a Giant Scorpion with Armor that dominates Earth also moves around here. We must stay alert at all times and set our tents as close to those from Graycastle as possible."

"Do you think Sir Thuram is telling the truth? Can the chief really create an oasis out of this desert?" somebody asked.

"Most unlikely," Carlone smacked his lips and said. "If he were really capable of that, he could have been the ruler of the desert without going through the holy duel. Why bother developing this area then?"

"What should we do next?" The crowd began to stir.

"Relax. The chief didn't have to go through all of this trouble, only to exile us here." Carlone's voice was full of calmness and confidence. "The chief might have decided on this action on the spur of the moment. When the people from Graycastle find that their goals can't be realized, our work will end. As to three months of salary, Osha can't get away with it!"

"That's right, or no one will ever trust them again!"

"That's reassuring. I'm Ok as long as we can go back."

The clansmen nodded, indicating their agreement, except for Simbady. He did not entirely agree with what Carlone had said. It was true that Graycastle had undervalued the desert and their plan of turning Endless Cape into a town was destined to fail. But looking at those soldiers in uniforms whose facial expression was nothing but solemn, he faintly felt the chief did not decide on this action on the spur of the moment.

By then, the crowd began scattering and some people began to move toward the iron tower. Thuram was still talking with the people from Graycastle, totally indifferent to what was happening around him.

"Shall we go there too?" some clansmen proposed.

"I think so," Carlone said, nodding. "If we're really going to camp around the iron tower, we can get a better place if we go earlier. Everybody, follow me." He took a look at Molly especially and asked, "Do you want my help with your luggage?"

Molly hesitated, shook her head and then said, "Simbady said we'd better wait for Sir Thuram's instruction... Didn't he always emphasize the importance of following the discipline?"

"It's not like we refused to get off the boat. Why does he care about this?"

"Simbady, you're not intimidated by the Endless Cape, are you?"

"Perhaps he's still sick." The clansman who ridiculed him previously, did so again.

"I'm just worried." Simbady raised his head. Just when he was about to justify himself, a burst of a hasty whistle interrupted him.

"Everybody, gather now!" Thuram, who previously ignored those who left, quietly walked in front of the clansmen, stuck out three fingers and grimly said, "I give you three breaths of time, after that, every breath means one whip. This is the second lesson I'm teaching you. Do remember that!"

Chapter 803 - "Festivity"

Simbady had thought it was just a bluff. He had never expected Osha clan was serious.

When the warriors from Osha clan were about to execute the order, a clash broke out between the two groups. Over 50 people, who regarded the punishment as unreasonable and attempted to escape the discipline, started to tussle with the ones who tried to catch them.

Unarmed, the wrongdoers soon lost their battle to Osha clan equipped with clubs and shields. They were, as a result, stripped naked and prostrated to the sandy ground.

Thuram whipped them himself.

The whipping scene inflamed some of the spectators, who were on the verge of starting a virulent altercation but were eventually deterred by the flintlocks carried by Graycastle men.

Everybody had learned the miserable defeat of the watchdog in the oasis that night.

Even cavalrymen swift like winds had failed to penetrate Graycastle's defensive line.

What had crushed them was exactly the same shiny iron weapons in those soldiers' hands.

In a second, screams and shrieks filled the bank.

Osha did not plan to flog those clansmen to death. After he showed their bleeding backs to the whole group, he instructed them to treat the wounds with herbs and bandage them with gauze. Normally, there was rarely any plague in the freezing Months of Demons. As long as they were physically strong, they should survive the whipping.

Carlone and most of the clansmen were outraged, except Molly, who rejoiced over the punishment.

After the fearsome whipping was over, the group formed two lines and headed to the depth of the desert under the guidance of the whistle.

Thuram did not utter a word, but everybody became automatically self-disciplined. The procession was in an exceptional order.

When they were close to an iron tower, Simbady discovered a drying oasis, or rather a pond. This was probably what Thuram referred to as the water fountain for the vanguard. No shades of trees overhung the pond, except a few dying bushes around it. The pond was very shallow, the depth of which was no more than a man's height. Perhaps, it had been a verdant oasis a few decades ago. However, as the water vein of Silver Stream gradually diminished, the oasis, in the end, reduced to a cup of sand.

The pond would not even suffice to provide drinking water for the few hundred labors working here, let alone to nurture a tribe. That water could still be seen was because of the remnant of underground streams. Once summer came, those meager water would soon evaporate under the scorching sun. Even if no one drank the water, the pond would become completely dry in no time.

Simbady had seen many ruins of oasis like this.

In other words, if those Graycastle men failed to find a new water source within two or three months, they would have no choice but to leave this land, not to mention establishing a new town.

Thuram did not pretend that he was not aware of the scarcity of the water. He hollered at the team, "Do you see this pond here? This is going to be the only drinking water for us in the next couple of months. So, make your water elsewhere. Are you all clear?"

"What about... food?" someone asked.

"Somebody will deliver food to us. If there isn't enough, we can go fishing," Thuram replied.

Hearing they would at least have food and water, all the clans relieved a little bit. The group thus dispersed and pitched their tents based on the instructions of the supervisor from Osha clan.

How to quickly set up and take down a tent was a must-have life skill for every sand nation. A tent made of sheepskin could shelter three to six people, and usually, one person was responsible to carry all the required tools and equipment. There were only four women from Fishbone clan who had applied for the job, so they erected three tents which arrayed in a triangle shape, each of which was fastened by a rope. The door of each tent was flung open facing outward, as a way to alert each other in case of danger. This was the simplest tent arrangement among all.

In the afternoon, Thuram whistled again and summoned everybody. He then took them to a place close to the beach.

Simbady was surprised to find out that northerners had conducted a thorough search here.

On the flat sandy ground stood numerous short wooden poles, each pole tied to a white rope. Like dividing domains, these ropes and poles segmented the land into many huge rectangles. Each rectangle was 60 meters in length at least.

The most incredible thing was that all the rectangles were of the same size, every edge and corner of which was precisely marked and measured. Simbady wondered how they did that within a distance of 60 meters.

There were 50 or 60 rectangles marked out by white ropes by a rough count. Simbady also saw some Graycastle men keep marking the land with wooden poles, with strange tools in their hands. It seemed they planned to continue to do so until all the land in their sights was covered.

"You're finally here." A tall man came up to Thuram. "My name is Kencury. I'm a former member of the Mason Guild in the old king's city... Well, you've probably never heard of this organization. Even in Graycastle, few people remember the Mason Guild these days. Thanks to the benevolent king who's willing to hire us, we're able to settle down. Otherwise, we probably don't know where we'll end up ... Um, that's not quite right. Let's leave this matter at a later date." The man coughed and patted Thuram on his shoulder. "Anyway, I'll be responsible for the construction of Endless Cape. I assume you're the supervisor appointed by Miss Echo, right?"

Echo? Isn't it Lady Drow Silvermoon's nickname? Simbady was shocked by the fact that the Graycastle men named Kencury sat as equal with the chief at the same table!

Not custom to the small talks and Kencury's overelaborate formalities, Thuram made a stiff smile. He stepped back and bowed. "Please call me Thuram. As to those lads, just let me know what they should do. If anyone slacks off, I'll punish them severely."

Apparently, Thuram had received instructions from the chief of Osha clan, for he paid great respects to Kencury. But Simbady knew it was those Graycastle soldiers guarding this area that Thuram was truly afraid of.

Kencury stretched out his arms. "Very well. Guys, there's no tavern or woman here. Ahem, I mean that kind of woman. So, concentrate on the construction! The first task for you is very simple, which is digging holes. See those white rectangles? Dig a hole in each rectangle until the sand has reached your knees!"

For a moment, nobody responded. There was an embarrassing silence.

Thuram's brows went up. He bellowed, "Are you guys all deaf? Get your ass moving!" He sounded quite ill-tempered, but a hint of triumph in his eyes betrayed his complacency.

But Kencury raised his hand and stopped Thuram. "Hang on... No need to rush. I haven't explained to them why we have to dig those holes."

"Sir, you don't have to explain to them..."

"No, no, no. His Majesty once said something that I can't agree more. He calls it pro... proactivity. Right, that's the word!" Kencury clapped his hand. "It roughly means that once a person knows the reason behind his labor, he'll become more productive. So, listen carefully... These holes will determine whether we can live here in the future! These holes..." He paused for a second and then continued, "are the key to converting seawater to drinking water!"

The group immediately stirred up at these words.

"The mechanism behind this is very simple, but only King Roland thought of it. It's just like boiling water—we are going to first feed these holes with seawater. Once the water is heated up by the sun and turns into water vapor, we collect them to get pure drinking water." Kencury even used his hands to further explain the matter, "It's OK you don't understand. You just view the ocean as a giant pool of bitter water saturated with salt. If we can separate the salt from the water, the whole Swirl Sea will become our drinking water source!"

Simbady was rooted to the ground. He doubted if this project was realistic. Put aside the validity of the theory in the latter half of his speech. He wondered how they were going to collect such intangible things as water vapor.

Kencury clenched his fist. "The production will naturally be very limited. One rectangle can only provide water for a dozen people. Therefore, we have to build a large number of conversion sheds to supply water for hundreds of workers here! You should all feel lucky, for His Majesty pays special attention to the construction plan of Endless Cape. This is also the second town named by the king other than Neverwinter. To celebrate the unification of the Southernmost Region, His Majesty endowed the town with the name 'Festivity', and you guys are not only the builders of Festive Harbor but also the first residents who settled down here!"

Chapter 804 - An Accident at the Snow Mountain

As soon as Lightning returned to her tent at the campsite, she took off her goggles, peeled off her gloves, and put her frozen, numb hands above the brazier.

Her fingers soon started to tingle.

Although it had been almost half a month since winter had ended, flurries of snow persisted without any sign of turning lighter. On the contrary, it grew increasingly heavy. Every time Lightning returned from an investigation, her hair was drenched with melted snow, and it always took a while before sensations came back into her skins.

After her hands were a bit warmer, Lightning placed a stool next to the brazier, took off her soggy leather boots, and cocked her feet above the blazes. She could clearly see a wisp of white steam stream out of the tip of her socks. A tinge of warmth went through her cold toes. She was a little abashed by the smell of her feet. Having worn the same boots for such a long time, it was natural that the feet gave off some odor.

Now she understood why her father always stressed that a great explorer should be supported by a great team. Had the First Army not set up the brazier or made hot water aforetime, she would not have been able to fully dedicate herself to the exploration. Her burning enthusiasm for exploration would definitely be quenched by the frustrating thought that she had to light a fire and boil water herself after returning to the campground, all soaked and exhausted.

Lightning thought perhaps, only King Roland's team had the capability to supply hot water 24 hours a day. Her father had once told her in one of his adventure stories that it was indeed very difficult to have a hot water bath in midwinter. The obstacles lay in dampened wood, rotted leaves covered by snows, and the time and effort to collect those materials. As such, most of the time his crew members would thoroughly cleanse their bodies only after they fulfilled their undertaking.

But the machines invented by His Majesty completely solved these problems. As the campsite was not far away from the riverbank, the boilers on the three concrete boats, which had been in operation since the first day of their arrival, were able to continuously provide the camp with hot water. If she required hot water, she just needed to take a bucket to fetch some.

The same applied to food.

A peculiar concrete boat was responsible for food supplies for the whole team. The upper floor of the boat constituted a mobile kitchen, where a large amount of oatmeal was cooked every day with the steam produced by the boiler. They ate the oatmeal with some dried meat and salted fish, so much better than tasteless solid food.

It was probably the best logistics team in the world by her father's standard.

After her hands and feet became warm again, Lightning took out her notebook and began to write journal entries.

"Spring, 16th, we were still digging. The mountain greatly impeded Sylvie's and Margie's abilities, especially Margie's. They had to consume a lot of magic power in order to penetrate thick rocks. Out of safety concerns, we must reserve sufficient magic power to head back to the camp for each operation. As a result, we didn't gain much progress."

"Due to a limitation in the distance, Sylvie could just roughly pick a few directions for Miss Fran to dig. By the way, Miss Fran is a very nice lady despite her misshapen figure. She looks even scarier than Maggie when eating. I really hope that I can, one day, see what she originally looked like."

It had been 13 days since they had arrived at the foot of the snow mountain. The only thing they were positive for now was the existence of a big hollow space, which appeared to be connected by multiple caves, in the mountain. It was hard to successfully find the main cave where the ruin was located, let alone to open a tunnel wide enough for the First Army.

Both she and Maggie could not help much in this respect. They could only put sentries outside the mountain or sneak into those strange caves to investigate the ruptures and crevices that the Magic Ark failed to reach.

Compared with the exploration of the ruin itself, finding a correct path leading to the destination was always the most time-consuming part that often required the most efforts and work.

Just as what her father frequently said, an explorer was always on his way.

Lightning cupped her mouth and exhaled a breath which soon turned into a cluster of white steam in the cold air. She continued to write the followings:

"Last came the latest finding of Lightning, the greatest explorer in Graycastle."

"We spied a long, dark figure underneath the ice at the peak of the Great Snow Mountain. It looked like a huge fish. I had no idea how long it took the creature to grow so big, but it must taste good. It was a pity that Anna didn't come with us. We couldn't break the ice to catch it. Maggie could only leave some scratching marks on the ice with her claws, for it was forbidden to employ explosives at the top of the mountain. We probably have to wait until summer when the snow melts."

At these words, Lightning licked her lips. Because of the exploration, she had not tasted barbequed fish for a long time. Perchance she could fly to Misty Forest with Maggie to get some food before nightfall. She probably also needed to get food for Wendy so that she would not blame her for her roguishness.

Lightning continued to write, "Further, there was another significant finding. We had noticed some demonic beasts group up to the east of Misty Forest, but His Majesty's city wall should be able to block them."

After writing all these down, Lightning put the sheepskin notebook into a watertight bag and slipped it back into her knapsack. As an explorer, she must record everything she saw on a daily basis. Like a captain's logbook, the journal was not only an explorer's badge of honor but also important references for future explorers. When the owner of the logbook was unfortunately killed in an accident, other explorers would be able to analyze his journal and avoid trodding the same path.

Just at that moment, Lightning heard running footsteps outside the door.

It was Wendy outside her tent.

"Agatha and the others are back." Wendy sounded a little anxious. "We've had an accident. Fran's missing!"

"What?" Lightning rose in surprise. "Missing?"

...

By the time the witches stationed at the campground arrived at the end of the tunnel created by the devouring worm, the soldiers from the First Army had lit a fire and put sentries. They found Agatha and the Taquila witches arguing over something.

Lightning poked her head and gasped. She saw a fathomless hole in front of her, its ceiling and bottom indiscernible. She could only hear the sound of running water coming from above.

A part of the tunnel's edge had collapsed. Lightning took out the Stone of Lighting and bent over. The crack was covered with slimy liquid.

"Did Miss Fran fall from here?"

Edith answered, "Looks like so for now... Sylvie picked the right direction, but Fran was just unlucky. She opened the path leading to the big cave but did not notice the precipice at the front. Then she fell to the bottom."

"Looks like?" Lightning noticed her particular wording.

Edith shrugged. "At that time Sylvie and Margie were searching on the other side, a location where they could exactly see what Fran was doing. According to Sylvie, Fran's magic reaction suddenly disappeared from her sight. I don't really know how your magic power works, but Miss Sylvie's Eye of Magic should be able to see very distant objects, right? Yet when they got here, they couldn't see anything at the bottom."

"Couldn't... see?" The little girl was stunned.

Edith spread out her hands. "They couldn't see the bottom or the devouring worm. There're two possible explanations: one is that the hole is so deep that it goes beyond the visual field of the Eye of Magic. The other is that something has blocked her vision. Neither of them bodes well." Edith paused for a moment and looked at the arguing Ice Witch and the others. "What they're arguing about is whether they should dive into the hole to rescue Fran immediately."

Chapter 805 - Down the Abyss

Lightning was silent.

She knew Edith was right. If the hole was indeed extremely deep as Edith had described, she could almost predicate the fatality of the fall. If it was because of some intervention of Fran's magic power, the situation would then be even more complicated. There could be a gigantic God's Stone of Retaliation at the bottom, in which case, she foresaw no great treachery. If there was, however, a trap set up by some unknown enemies, it would then be too dangerous for the rescue team.

There was a big chance that those swift sickle monsters and the worm carrier that had once devoured the demon's Blackstone Pagoda were still lurking around the Great Snow Mountain. Without any alerts from Nightingale and Sylvie or the protection of the First Army, even the God's Punishment Witches found it hard to bring Fran back safe and sound.

The little girl took a deep breath.

Exploration was essentially a risky business.

A good explorer should save his companion no matter under what circumstances.

She thus came up to the arguing witches and said, "Let me take a look down there. However we're going to do that, we have to first know what's going on before taking the next step."

A blond man turned around and asked, "Your ability is..." Lightning remembered he was called Elena. Although she looked like a man by her appearance, the soul beneath the shell was literally an ancient witch from Taquila.

Lightning tapped her goggles on the head. "Flying. Judging from the current situation, I believe I'm better at scouting than you."

Agatha frowned. "This isn't a matter of convenience. How are you going to head back if you can't apply your ability at the bottom of the cave? His Majesty said nobody should act alone in this operation, whether she's a witch from the Witch Union or Taquila. Everybody should work together and cooperate with the First Army."

"Tie a rope around my waist then." Lightning disclosed all her plan. "Even if there's really an anti-magic zone created by a God's Stone of Retaliation, as long as you pull me up after I reach the bottom, there shouldn't be a problem."

To save a companion did not mean acting recklessly. Her father had told her numerous stories regarding horrible emergencies when she had been little. Lightning believed that most accidents would end up well as long as they took proper measures.

Because she was the greatest explorer even without her magic power!

Nightingale intercepted, "Let me go with her. I can walk along the precipice easily, for there's no upside or downside in the misty world. Even if an enemy does emerge, I can come to her aid immediately."

Wendy shook her head vigorously. "That would be as dangerous as acting alone. If there's a trap down there, you two guys won't be able to save yourselves. Don't forget that there're formidable enemies like Senior Demons in this world."

"We'll never abandon Fran. If you don't go, I'll go myself!" Elena blurted out in a low voice.

"Have you forgotten to obey orders after 400 years?" There's a faint starchiness in Agatha's voice. "In the name of the Taquila senior witches, I forbid you to act alone!"

"..." Hearing this, all the God's Punishment Witches fell silent. Elena bit her lip. At length, she stepped a few paces back and made an apology by placing her hand on the chest.

"You don't need to argue about it." Edith ventured. "His Majesty instructed that we three parties must work together. Therefore, we just need to send the First Army down there, don't we?"

"Did you find the way there?" Brian, the superintendent of the First Army, asked in surprise.

"No, but I found this." Edith pointed to the cliff closed to the entrance. In the torchlight, the reflective light specks on the river splintered up into flickering glimmers as the water ran. "There should be some lifting equipment on the concrete boat used to make oatmeal, for I often see the soldiers transport food from the supply boat through a crane. They don't do it manually."

"Ah... that's the gondola." Brian nodded. "It can transport a lot of goods at a time, but it requires a steam engine."

"So, we just need to move the machine here from the boat and send two machine gun squads down there along with the witches," Edith stressed each syllable with a stroke. "The length of the rope can be adjusted through a connector; the God's Punishment Witches shall have no problem in handling heavy machines. The water here can guarantee a constant operation as well as a retreat route required by His Majesty. The only question is how to take it down. I believe the First Army shall know how to do it, right?"

Brian replied hesitatively, "We definitely can take it down, but it's hard to put it back..."

Edith raised her brows. "Then you'll only lose a boat and a steam engine, which totals no more than 500 or 600 gold royals. What choice do you think His Majesty would make if he were you?"

Lightning twitched her lips. 500 or 600 gold royals was absolutely not a small number.

It did not take long for Brian to make his decision. He soon gave a nod of approval and said, "I see. You'll soon find a steam engine ready to go."

...

An hour later, a roaring machine appeared at the entrance to the hole. As they found it hard to fix the arm of the gondola to the rocks, they abandoned this part of the device in the end but only used a capstan as the lifting apparatus. The capstan rotated swiftly as the flywheel of the steam engine moved. It thus dropped the rope down the hole little by little. In order to prevent chafe, Agatha summoned her power and wrapped the mouth of the hole with solid ice so that the rope could move up and down without rubbing against the cliff.

A huge iron basket, which could at least carry six to eight people and two Mark I type HMGs, was attached to the end of the rope. In that case, the witches would be still well protected by the powerful machine gun squads even if they lost fighting capacities.

Agatha, Elena, and six soldiers from the First Army crawled into the basket first, followed by Lightning and Nightingale.

After testing out the lifting equipment, everybody slowly sank into the deep hole. The torchlight above became increasingly dismal.

Lightning hovered somewhere a little below the center of the hole to lead the way, with a rope around her waist. She felt a little uneasy without Maggie flying beside her, but she knew someone must be stationed outside the snow mountain. In comparison to monitoring demonic beasts, she preferred to uncover the mystery of the underground ruin.

Every time she dropped 10 meters lower, she would turn around to see if everybody was still there.

Darkness swallowed up the meager light of fires lit by the sentries. The only source of light now was the two Stones of Lighting in the basket. In the steady, soft light of the stones, Lightning detected two pale golden "ribbons" running along the cliff. They were the ice created by Agatha. The solid ice smoothed out the protruding rocks, making them as reflective as a mirror, and thus ensured them a safe ride down to the bottom.

Lightning's heart gradually sank after she flew for a few hundred meters.

An ordinary man would hardly survive such a long drop. She now only hoped that the devouring worm could be stronger than that.

Just at that moment, Lighting noticed a strange reflection underneath.

The light was hardly perceptible. It was merely a thin thread of flickers like an eye that suddenly opened in the darkness. Lightning signaled the rest of the party with the Stone of Lighting. She plunged into the hole while holding her breath, after which, she stepped on a solid, smooth rock.

Lighting bent over and gently touched the "ground". The gleamy black rock was as polished and glassy as a crystal. Its dark reflection was mixed with a thick cluster of a bright red color...

She had seen this.

It was the giant Blackstone Pagoda in the Devil's Town.

Chapter 806 - An "Egg"

"It looks like that the worm found its lair." As soon as the basket reached the ground, Agatha glanced about the surroundings while holding the Stone of Lighting. The furrow between her brows deepened. She asked, "Did you see Fran?"

"Miss Fran isn't here." Lightning had inspected every corner of the cave. "The Blackstone Pagoda seems to be stuck in here. There're some empty spaces on either side of the tower. Could she fall off the top and roll over to the side?"

The diamond-shaped stone tower spanned across the deep hole like a bridge, with its two ends rooted in the rocks. Nobody knew how it ended up like that. The tentacle demon and the Multi-eyed Demon could not be found anywhere either.

"The tower doesn't affect my magic power," Nightingale revealed herself from the mist.

"But you can't walk through it like you walk through a wall, can you?" Agatha squatted down and produced an ice piton. She threw it toward the Blackstone Pagoda. The ice piton immediately broke to pieces, whereas the stone tower remained intact. "There's a rumor saying that this tower is made of God's Stones of Retaliation. Although it won't affect magic power on a mass scale like the prism of magic stone, it can block it."

Elena corrected Agatha in a low tone, "It's not made of God's Stones of Retaliation but it creates them. Corrosive magic power can change the mineral vein of the magic stones and thereby shapes them into a rectangle stone tablet. Only the mineral vein born under the Bloody Moon, however, has the capability to create Red Mist. The others simply help slow down the dissipation of the Red Mist. This was a top secret in the Union age. We learned it from Lady Eleanor after the fall of Taquila."

Nightingale was displeased at the delay of the information. "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"

Elena snapped, "You didn't tell me there's going to be a demon spire. There're so many things that can possibly affect magic power. How am I supposed to know which one it is?"

Lightning flew in between them and intercepted their confrontational conversation. "We have to keep going down, as we haven't got to the bottom yet. I just managed to dive a little bit more and heard distant running water. It's very likely that there's an underground river down there. If Miss Fran did fall down from the side of the stone tower, she might still be alive."

Elena's voice brightened. "Really? Is it possible that Sylvie didn't find Fran because of this underground river?"

Agatha nodded. "Very likely. As the stone tower has blocked most of the vision of the Eye of Magic, Sylvie couldn't see the bottom. If Fran was flushed down by the water, naturally she couldn't detect her magic beam." She then turned to Lightning and said, "You fly up to tell Wendy first. Ask her to instruct Margie to send some God's Punishment Witches down here... as well as the soldiers from the First Army. Advise them to also put sentries here. We'll continue with our search."

The little girl nodded. "Alright, leave it to me."

...

With the help of the gondola and the Magic Ark, they soon had enough people to rescue Fran.

Lightning took advantage of this interval and thoroughly investigated the area below the Blackstone Pagoda. As she had expected, the vertical cave wall soon moved into a sloping position. The air also dampened. After she descended for another 30 to 40 meters, she saw a wide underground river.

Snow water trickled down the cave wall and pooled before cascading into a thundering waterfall that poured down in torrents from the mouth of the cave. When the little girl drew close, she could feel a crisp chill play upon her cheeks.

As a result of the moist air in the cave, at the bottom of the hole grew various mosses and mushrooms, one of which gleamed a ghostly blue light that lit up the surrounding area. Even without a Stone of Lighting, Lightning could clearly spy the outline of the cave. With the fireflies floating about, the underground area looked like an entirely different world.

When the ark took the witches and the Taquila survivors to the bottom, they were all fascinated by what they saw.

Nightingale exclaimed, "If only we can grow those glowing fruit in Neverwinter. In that case, everybody can clearly see the road at night."

"Let's bring some back and grow them!" Lightning rubbed her hands in excitement. To discover and grow some new species was one of the most common enterprises for explorers. Sugar canes and corns, for instance, were brought to the Fjords from other small islands by explorers and later flourished. Lightning was not sure if these giant mushrooms and illuminating cattail fruits would be as sweet and delicious as bird beak mushrooms.

Agatha started a head count. "Let's finish our business here first. Margie, you stay here to help the First Army to establish a sentry post. We'll continue with the procession along the underground river. If Fran is more than two miles away from us, we'll pitch some temporary tents."

Nobody made an objection. Lightning, Nightingale and Agatha all knew how to escape and protect themselves. The 10 God's Punishment Witches led by Elena were all exceptional combatants as strong as Extraordinaries. They did not constitute a huge group, but it was actually the most powerful combination in the united front.

Once in the limestone cave, the roar of the rushing water rang off the rocks and down the underground river, producing thunderous reverberation. Lightning had to keep a close distance with the group so as to hear everybody.

Agatha asked, "Can the devouring worm swim?"

Elena shook her head. "Nobody has seen it swim. But the worm is colossal, so I think it shouldn't be far away from the deep hole even if it was flushed downstream."

"Are you able to tell where this river comes from and head?" Another God's Punishment Witch put in. Lightning vaguely remembered that her name was Zooey.

Nightingale answered, "If I remember correctly, it comes toward us and heads to the snow mountain. In other words, it's a water vein from the Western Region heading to the hilly area in the south."

It was a known fact that there was plenty of underground water in His Majesty's domain, but Lightning wondered why those rivers ran toward the south, for there was not a single river there. She was curious where all that water went.

Suddenly, she saw something flutter on the rock not far away.

"Hang on, I saw something move there!"

Hearing her warning, everybody halted and drew out their weapons.

Nightingale immediately gave an affirmative answer. "No magic reaction is detected, but there's indeed something over there..." She then paused and slowly approached the object. "It looks like a semi-spherical... egg?"

"What?" Agatha was a bit surprised.

"Since it doesn't have magic power, it poses no threat to us." Elena waved at the God's Punishment Witches coming with her and said, "Follow me."

They soon successfully surrounded the egg. When Lighting made a close study of the tremulous egg, however, she knitted her brows.

A layer of gray skin was clinging to the rock, completely blending with the surrounding environment. When she held up the Stone of Lighting and gradually approached the skin, she spied many stomas opening and shutting as if it were breathing.

Elena coughed out a spittle. "What the hell... is this? It's gross."

"If it's really an egg, how big should its parent be?" Lightning roughly measured the area of the skin with her fingers and concluded that it was about three meters in length and width. The swollen part in the middle could almost house a full-grown dairy cow.

"The shape... No, it can't be..." Zooey took a sharp intake of breath. She drew out her longsword and gave the skin a fierce stab, after which she pulled the steel upwards.

A large amount of slimy liquid gushed out of the "egg" as a piercing shriek rang off the cave wall. Then they saw a black shadow come out of the swell and collapsed to the ground.

To Lightning's dismay, it was a Mad Demon.

Chapter 807 - Inside the Ruins

Almost at the same time, the entire "skin" shrunk and rolled, and a worm climbed out of the stone wall. With runny mucus pouring out of its skin, it then quickly climbed towards the top of the cave.

But Nightingale was much faster.

She suddenly appeared from the Mist and hung upside down on the cave ceiling as agilely as she was on flat ground and blocked the worm's way ahead. Before falling to the ground, she stabbed a shining dagger into the worm's head and nailed it firmly to the stone wall.

The worm struggled for a while, and then all of its six legs drooped. It was dead.

At that moment, Lightning finally noticed that the "egg" was merely the worm's torso. With its head and legs buried in stones and blocked by its giant belly, its torso did look like an egg.

The worm's figure was out of proportion. Its front part resembled an enlarged ant, with the length of no more than half a meter. Its rear part, namely the "skin" part that enveloped the Mad Demon, was big enough to hold three large barrels inside. Although over a half of the mucus had spilled out and the swollen "skin" had shrunken, its area was still astonishing.

"Is the demon born out of its belly?" the little girl asked in surprise.

"I've never heard of something like that." Agatha crouched and carefully studied the demon under the light of a Magic Stone. "This Mad Demon... is completely mature. Look at its arm. The scar here is caused by the inlay of a Magic Stone. Its girth is larger than the other arm, meaning the demon had constantly thrown pikes with magic power."

"Then where is the Magic Stone?"

"No idea. It's probably been taken away."

"So was it taken by this worm?" Elena asked impatiently. "It swallowed the demon and digested it while hanging itself on the wall. Unfortunately, it came across us. Its Magic Stone was either digested by itself or lost during a war. Does this make sense? Don't worry about this disgusting worm, looking for Fran is more urgent."

"It swallowed the demon?" Lightning questioned in her heart. "Its mouth is not big enough for an adult human being to go through, not to mention for a strong Mad Demon of nearly three meters tall."

"That's weird..." Nightingale's voice came from the void. "Obviously it's dead, but why didn't its magic power dissipate until now?"

"What?" Agatha was surprised. "Do you mean this is a demon?"

"Yes, its magic power is as thin as mist. I didn't notice it until it rolled out of the worm's belly. But it's surely dead. Judging from the decomposition level of its skin, it died one or two days ago." Nightingale then asked with bewilderment, "I thought that it was impossible for magic power to gather on a dead body?"

"If you saw it right, it is indeed weird..." Zooey nodded. Inserting the sword deep into the stone wall, she then said, "Perhaps we should take these two bodies back for further investigation. Let's leave a mark here and collect them when we finish camping."

As they walked forward, they ran across more "egg worms", and again, though not all were buried under the stone wall, some were standing right beside the river bank or were in a cluster like mushrooms.

Being experienced, the witches could now make sure their strikes hit right at the worms' crucial points or cut their heads off, which were buried under the dirt, one after another. Cutting open the worms' bellies, they found that there were not only Mad Demons inside, but also Fearsome Demons and human bodies.

That startled the witches.

Beyond the Border Area, there was no human residence. How did the worms hunt humans?

Could it be that the worms had stretched their legs into the domain of Neverwinter without a trace?

At that moment, Nightingale suddenly alerted, "There is a magic reaction ahead. Wait, no... is that, Fran?"

"Where?" Elena did not rush forward, but fanned out with the other God's Punishment Witches, holding their swords and guarding all around.

Lighting understood that in the misty world, everything was black and white, and most of the objects she saw were constituted by visualized and twisted silhouette lines, except the magic power, which was in bright colors. That was why the dark underground environment had no influence on Nightingale.

"Front-left, 200 meters... about 400 steps. She seems to be entangled by something." Nightingale's voice went further and further and was blurred under the noise of water sprays. "I can't see... I'll go first... Wait!"

A moment later, two gunshots sounded.

"Bang! Bang!"

The firing of the flintlock sounded particularly loud under the ground. The God's Punishment Witches took a look at one another and walked forward while maintaining their formation. Lightning was faster. She flew over them and toward the gunshots while firmly holding the revolver in her hand.

Luckily, what she had worried about did not happen. Soon, Nightingale held up the Stone of Lighting to guide the way.

Lying under the witches feet were two monsters with sickle-like forepaws. The flintlock shots made two holes on the worms heads and blue blood flew on the ground.

"Are these the demonic beasts that you mentioned which can hide their figures?" Floating in midair, Lightning asked.

"Yes, but no matter how skillful they are, they can't hide from my eyes." Nightingale put away her revolver and patted at Fran who was tightly stuck, she asked, "Am I right?"

Fran struggled a bit and groaned something, but it seemed that her mouth was sealed.

Nightingale noticed that both sides of the worm carrier were winded with white jelly which firmly fixed Fran on the ground. Her giant mouth was blocked too. Other than that, her strong body was full of wounds. Apparently, when she fell out of the deep hole, it hurt her badly.

Furthermore, to Nightingale's surprise, there was more than one such giant worm. Another two devouring worms quietly lay on the ground, as if they were in deep sleep.

"Is this..." An idea flashed into Lightning's mind. She quickly landed and pushed aside the moss on the ground. A mottled slate appeared in sight.

"Oh?" Nightingale whistled. "Nice, it seems that we've found..."

"The legendary snow mountain ruin!" she said with excitement.

"What happened?" The others arrived one after another. In order not to stretch their formation too loosely, the God's Punishment Witches had moved at a fixed speed. Walking in the front had always been Elena, which slightly changed Lightning's opinion on her.

"I've found Fran, and two monsters who seemed to want to make a meal out of her," Nightingale explained briefly. "Fran is alright, but stuck on the ground. This is already part of the underground ruins, which means enemies could be around. Let's take Fran out of here as soon as possible and call the First Army to set up sentry posts."

Elena nodded, pulled out the heavy sword on her back, and neatly and quickly cut open those resilient jelly things. When Fran's giant mouth regained its freedom, everybody heard her low growling.

"Don't look up!"

When Lighting heard it, she had subconsciously raised her head.

It was pitch-black overhead, nothing could be seen at first sight. At this spot, the cave extended upward, creating an enormous dome-like space. The Stone of Lighting could only illuminate a very limited space on the ground, offering no detailed vision atop. The next moment, Nightingale felt that the fine hairs on her body rose up.

In the darkness, appeared one scarlet eye, then two eyes, three eyes...

She did not know how many eyes were staring at her at that moment. She saw those tens of thousands of eyes, like tens of thousands of stars, cohere into a gigantic red plate... which looked like a "Bloody Moon".

Chapter 808 - Close Quarter Combat

"Did you hear any sound?" Edith looked at Brian who was instructing the soldiers to arrange an underground defense line.

"Any sound?" Brian stopped what he was doing, looked around in puzzlement, and said, "No, Miss Edith, I haven't heard anything except the sound of running water."

"Really?" Edith frowned. "Am I mistaken?"

"What kind of sound was that?"

"Like the sound of a horn, very muffled... similar to the sound of water," Edith paused. "It seemed to come from the south."

That was the direction where the witches went for a deep exploration. The turbulent underground river went from north to south, and disappeared in the pitch-black underground cave. Although there were weird illuminating plants on both sides of the river, they could not provide light for far away places. The entire waterway was like an entrance to an abyss which devoured everything she saw.

"That... I think probably because we're deep in the mountain, which deprives us the vision of the sky, plus the lack of the light of a fire, you might be hallucinating." Brian smiled thoughtfully. "For the soldiers who have been to a battlefield, this isn't a big problem. It's no wonder that you might feel nervous. If you feel uneasy, Miss Margie can accompany you to return to the aisle exit."

A familiar look, familiar words... Edith was not surprised by the speech of the Gun Battalion commander. Although she was in light leather armor and a helmet, with a walking sword hanging on her waist, most of the people there still took her as an observer from the City Hall, or... as a pearl-like girl, just like her title, pretty and fragile. That was also the reason why people cared and pleased her all the way.

What those people did not understand was that the pearls produced by the giant clams in the Northern Region had been soaked in blood.

The blood of fish, of water beasts... or even of the fishermen.

That was why they could grow so big, into the size of a fist.

Roland Wimbledon was probably the only one who ignored her appearance in the beginning and even took her as an opponent.

"Thanks, but I'm better off here. If I run back, doesn't it mean I'll humiliate His Majesty's City Hall?" Although Edith did not tell Brian what was in her mind, she rejected his suggestion with a smile. For a moment, Brian was lost in her smile. After a long while, he shunned away in embarrassment.

"I don't think His Majesty or Barov would mind it..." Brian coughed twice. "I just don't understand why you came with the First Army to such a dangerous place?"

"For only in this way could you trust me," Edith said frankly.

"W... What?"

"You must have heard of the Battle of Divine Will," she said calmly. "When such a battle that determines human's lives comes, it'd be hard for His Majesty to consider every aspect of the war situation. He'll need many officers to assist him to command the army, and the army will depend on the City Hall for logistics. By that time, will you trust an officer who has fought with you shoulder by shoulder or one who sits in the office every day dealing with paperwork?"

Brian was startled. After a moment, he said, "You're really brave to make such a speech."

Edith understood what he was referring to. Even an indigenous former Patrol Leader understood what she meant. At best, what she wanted to do was called assistant commanding... or it could be called power interference, which was totally unbearable in the eyes of other lords who claimed total control of their knights.

But now, the number of soldiers of the First Army had exceeded 5000, so the knightage's management method was obviously outdated. As a matter of fact, the Adviser Department assembled by His Majesty was an organization between the army and the City Hall, which was eventually under Roland's control but the commanding right underneath would further spread. Because Edith understood Roland's ideas, she dared to make that speech. It was not that she intended to join the Adviser Department, but she wanted to extend her influence as much as possible.

"If it was any other kings, I'd definitely not do that, but His Majesty is different..." Edith said, smiling, "You know that it was me who proposed that anyone who wants to be promoted in City Hall needs to go to a battlefield first. This being said, it's better that I set an example for the others."

"Has His Majesty... agreed?"

"Not really, but he didn't object to it."

"Um, doesn't it mean that he agreed?" Brian asked confusedly.

"In politics, you can't interpret things this way," Edith said with her hands laid out. "Even an oral commitment may change anytime before it gets written down, let alone the silence the king gave me for my asking."

"I see..." The Gun Battalion commander said with mixed feelings, "Politics is really complicated."

"That's true."

Apart from that, she also planned to get closer to the witches, to understand their abilities and characters, and to spend more time with them.

Undoubtedly, His Majesty had exerted big efforts on the witches, and the construction of Neverwinter could not carry on without the witches. To reach the peak of power, she would need their support.

So far, her plan had gone very smoothly. Probably because they were the same gender, her contact with the witches did not draw their rejection, yet Barov was not that lucky.

"Are the God's Punishment Witches the next batch to come?" Edith changed the subject.

"Yeah, I think so. Miss Margie can only deliver five to six people per time. To set a sentry post, she would have to run about 10 times," Brian replied accordingly. "Where do you think the second machine gun should be positioned?"

"Somewhere high... Um, I remember there is a suitable location near the rock behind..." Right when she turned around to observe the cave behind her, an illuminating plant seemed to distort in a certain way, as if something broke the stability of the air, making everything look blurry.

"What's that?" she asked.

Before she could alert the First Army soldiers, the air was again acutely distorted. This time the air behind the machine gun squad members rippled.

A light sound came, then a soldier's head fell off his neck, with a smile frozen on his face.

"Enemy attack!" Edith shouted out, "It's invisible!"

Almost at the same time, two more soldiers' chests were pierced through. When their blood spurted, the ripple was dyed red.

"There is more than one!"

Edith thought swiftly. Throwing a dagger with one hand toward the place where the first soldier fell, she pulled out her sword and raced to the enemy. When her dagger was knocked away by the invisible thing, she pricked her sword to the root of the ripple from another angle.

Edith clearly knew that if they chose to retreat, they would end up being attacked from front and back. There was a bonfire at this place, which was their only source of light to find the enemies' whereabouts. Without light, they could find no way to resist these nearly invisible monsters, so escaping should be their last choice!

While they could roughly locate the enemies, offense was their only chance to win!

Through the sword-tip came a sense of softness, as if it was pricked into some skin and flesh, which thrilled Edith.

If she was not wrong, whether humans or beasts, the contacting point of a weapon and a body was definitely a weakpoint—such as a hand holding a sword or a tip of a claw, which if hurt, would not regain its attacking ability in anytime soon.

Just as Edith was about to draw back her sword, a chilly wind swept towards her from another direction, coming at a speed that was so fast that she felt coldness hitting right on her face.

"Damn it! This thing has two weapons?"

Years of experience in fighting and killing made her subconsciously loosen the sword-holding righthand and roll on the ground. At that moment, she felt something touching the back of her head and then her long hair flew about like fallen petals scattering everywhere.

Having no time to get up, she shouted at Brian, "Now, shoot in my direction."

Chapter 809 - The Moment of Crisis

By the time that the soldiers realized what was happening, it was too late for them to adjust another machine gun in order to take aim, so they directly pulled out the revolving rifles tied on their backs to fire at the enemy.

The long sword shoved in the invisible monster's body was now giving away its trail, making it an easy target for it to aim at. At such a short distance, Brian and all the other men fire all their bullets at once. The hail of bullets swept over Edith's head and she could even hear the whoosh sounds as the bullets tore through the air.

She turned back and saw the distorted air had solidified as a monster emerged out of the void. It was bloodcurdling. The monster wore a taupe shell all over and was nearly two meters tall while standing. A height that would allow it to tower over most ordinary men. Apart from a pair of forelegs as sharp as sickles, it also had seven or eight pairs of supportive legs sticking out of its abdomen. Luckily, the bullets were fierce enough to pierce through its shell, and they finally cracked open the monster's thin, long and locust-like head. It twitched a little and fell to the ground, bathed in blood.

"Get out of my way!" Suddenly, someone roared behind Edith.

A heavy sword proceeded the voice, piercing through the air with a strong power that caused the blade to buzz. It smashed right in the space before the first machine gun squad, blowing away the other two monsters and dispelling the invisible rippling air.

Hard on the heels of Ashes' strike, several God's Punishment Witches moved forward to slash the enemies, tearing their bodies into halves before they managed to get to their feet.

"The reinforcements finally arrived." Edith let out a sigh of relief as she realized it.

The enemies had lost their advantage of invisibility, plus with their small numbers, it had not taken long before the Transcendent Warriors dismembered all of them.

Edith noted that as the monsters inched nearer to the God's Punishment Witches, their form turned weird, half of their body invisible in the void while the other half was revealed in the light as if their hiding skills had been abated.

"Are you alright?" Margie pulled Edith to her feet. "We spotted these enemies on the cliff and moved as fast as we could, but we're still a little too late."

"You spotted them with the colorful Magic Stone?"

"Yes." Another tall man came up to her. "Weapons of common people don't work well in this kind of situation. You'd better inform the people above to bring more God's Punishment Witches down here."

Edith remembered her name was Betty. She asked, "You're capable of destroying their camouflage?"

"It's a trick that works the same way as the God's Stone of Retaliation." The man shrugged. "So far, it can only deactivate their invisibility skill for a short period of time."

"But they also wear God's Stone of Retaliation. How could they not see the enemy?" Brian asked with his teeth gnashed, as he looked at the three dead men on the ground.

"It's not surprising," Betty answered calmly. "For light, distance, and attention will all affect our sights. A general God's Stone works only within the area of one or two paces. Since the enemies only exposed in our visions for less than a second, it was reasonable that they couldn't see the targets, not to mention in such a dim place."

Edith could not help sighing. Betty was right. They had not noticed the sickle monsters until they showed their half bodies during the fight. The beasts' long forelegs and invisibility skills had given them a great advantage. It was undoubtedly too late for ordinary people to react, even though they had sensed something wrong. There would have been no way for the First Army to defeat them unless they had buried God's Stones beforehand to give them a clearer view to see through the enemies' disguises.

"Damn it!" Brian wielded his fist fiercely. "I should have sent down the wire netting first!"

"I think we should go back. I have a feeling that something unpleasant is going to happen in the hole," Betty urged again. "The weird shriek almost startled the entire snow mountain."

"Did you hear that too?" Edith asked in surprise.

"Losing most of our sense of touch has made our eyes and ears extraordinarily sharp..." Betty studied Edith for a little while before replying. "I didn't expect that a common person would be capable of hearing the sound too."

Sure enough, it was not her illusion to hear the sound. Edith nodded as she removed her God's Stone of Retaliation and threw it next to the machine gun. She and the other men gathered around Margie who weaved the Magic Ark. Together they descended to the bottom and then ascended along the steep wall. Brian, the leader of the Gun Battalion, was slightly reluctant to hand over the frontline to the Taquila witches, but had to follow the trend. After all, once the God's Punishment witches were involved in the fight, they could not ignore the witches and fire at the enemies recklessly.

The men who were stationed at the Blackstone Pagoda were unclear of the details of the battle at the bottom of the hole, so they kept sending down equipment such as tents, God's Stones, guns and ammunition etc. After Brian commanded the soldiers to stop transporting, they did not transfer to the vacant steam-engine-powered elevator but continued to ride the Ark to ascend.

Just as they were approaching the worm passage, a hail of gunfire broke out above them, causing a sound as if a mighty storm were striking. That meant that the First Army which was guarding at the sentry post, had opened fire without leaving themselves a loop-hole.

Their faces changed. Margie pumped up all of her power to accelerate the Ark.

As the Magic Ark dashed out of the hole, Edith could not help widening her eyes.

Body parts were showering down from the upper cave. Three machine gun squads that were lined up in one formation were firing at the pitch-dark ceiling of the cave under Sylvie's command. The revolvers and precision shooting squad concentrated on handling the blind corners above them, firing at the cave wall without taking aim.

"What are you fighting against?" Brian caught one man and asked.

"Demonic beasts, my lord!" the man reported as he was loading ammunition. "A pack of demonic beasts charged down from snow mountain!"

"Damn it! Why do they bother us at this time?"

A thought suddenly flashed through Edith's mind.

"Could the muffled buzz be the sound of it summoning its own kind?"

It was something she had read from His Majesty's book, a unique sound in this world that was inaudible to the human ear but was particularly clear to some creatures. Some species were even able to make such sounds to help them communicate with each other in their own way. Was it possible that the sound they had heard was a kind of signal between the same species?

However, Misfortunes did not come alone. When Brian was watching the battle, one man ran in and reported to him, "My lord, Lady Maggie spotted the abnormal trail of demonic beasts in the east to Misty Forest. They seemed to be marching on the snow mountain, moving towards Neverwinter as we expected."

"What? This..." The leader of Gun Battalion was stunned for a moment.

"My lord?" the man asked urgently. "What do we do?"

"How can this... How can this be..." Brian muttered repeatedly, his face grim, his forehead sweaty.

Edith frowned at Brian's inexperienced behavior. In her view, a leader should never wear a bewildered look openly, especially in front of his men.

"Ahem," she interrupted, "things are simpler than you think. First, if we summon back the First Army deployed outside the snow mountain and gather them to guard the cave, the battlefront will be much smaller and only a few machine guns will be needed to stifle the attack of the demonic beasts."

Brian turned to look at her. It took him a long while, but he managed to compose himself. "Exa-Exactly," he stuttered.

"Second, tell Lady Maggie to contact His Majesty and ask for reinforcements, just in case. After all, our ammunition and food are supplied through Redwater River. Once we give up the entrenched passage, our battle couldn't last long because of the lack of replenishment." Edith said calmly and clearly. "The beasts can't swim, so we should keep the cement ships and deploy a dozen of men who will help to pin down the enemy as well as guide the reinforcements."

"Lady Sylvie'll be responsible for annihilating the demonic beasts on the ceiling of the cave. Temporarily, we should collect everyone's God's Stones and bury them at the sentry post in case of sneak attack from the enemy. Lastly, remember to send the Taquila witches to the bottom of the hole to support Betty so that she'll have enough men to march on the south of the riverway to look for Agatha and the other witches." Edith's composed voice eased the tension and discomposure among the crowd. "We must send the witches to Betty as soon as possible. If I'm not wrong, the source of the weird sound will be the key to solving our problem."

Brian inhaled deeply and said, "I see. Let's do as you suggested."

Chapter 810 - A Dilemma

"Uh... I feel so... disgusting."

Agatha covered her mouth and retched as she crept along the worm carrier's narrow esophagus to get out. "I feel like I was in some kind of mucus-filled bag that was flung onto the wall dozens of times."

"You couldn't find any words better than that?" Nightingale asked as she walked out of her Mist leisurely.She stared at the others who were bathed in mucus. "If Fran hadn't collapsed the cave's mouth, we'd be in great danger." The advantage of walking in the Mist, that enabled her to travel seamlessly between spaces, had saved her from needing to hide in the carrier's stomach. Ultimately saving her from being bathed in the foul and corrupted mucus.

"Sorry... did I act impulsively?" Fran asked warily, however, Agatha was too busy retching from the stench to reply.

"For me, it was okay." Lightning said as she wiped mucus from her hair before smelling it. "Being swallowed by a giant worm and then crawling out safely is an unparalleled experience, an adventure that no other explorers have gotten to taste."

"Don't be too greedy." Elena rolled her eyes and said to Agatha, "For us, who have no senses, even smelling the reek and feeling the clammy touch is enviable."

Other God's Punishment Witches echoed her sentiment.

"Fine... let us say no more." Agatha coughed and interrupted in a hoarse voice, "On to the next problem, what should we do?"

There was fear lingering in every witch's heart as they recalled the accident from minutes ago. Despite Fran's quick warning, in that moment, the instinct to turn their eyes towards the source of the weird buzzing was faster than their minds could process the warning. As a result, more than one of them failed to keep their head down as the sound rang out.

No one had been able to see the actual visage of the monster, all they could see was it's ten thousand scarlet eyes.

They believed that the cluster of eyes belonged to the watchful Multi-eyed Demon that had coiled on the top of the tower. The only image they could associate it with was the black stone tower that had been swallowed by the worm. However, unlike the ordinary Multi-eyed Demon, the scope of this one's eyes had been much wider, as if the demon's body had been flattened and considerably stretched.

After the buzzing had subsided a large number of hybrid demonic beasts emerged from the deep ruins and charged towards them. All Nightingale had been able to see while she was in the Mist was the sudden appearance of numerous magic power light spots. They had abruptly appeared out of the void and from every corner of the cave. They had come from the stone walls, the streaming water, and the dark dome. The monsters had gathered together, creating bright streams, and their noisy, raspy roars drowned out the tinkling of the running water. It had been as if the entire mountain had come alive to chase off the intruders.

In that moment of peril, it had been Fran who made the executive decision.

She swallowed everyone, except for Nightingale, and turned so she could bore into the cave wall. Once her whole body had been submerged in the stone wall, the demonic beasts approached and started to snap at her tail fiercely. Even with Nightingale proving cover, she had been able to drive away so many enemies.

Although she had been in pain, Fran persisted and tunneling about 30 feet into the rock formation before she rolled back onto her rear and smashed the demonic beasts with her giant body. Subsequently, she gathered all of her strength into her tail and whipped it hard against the ceiling of the tunnel, knocking down the stones. By blocking the mouth of the tunnel, she finally eliminated some enemies.

During the struggle, the witches hiding in Fran's stomach had had an unforgettable experience. They tumbled and rocked inside the worm while she was fighting and they nearly threw up. As if the rolling and whipping wasn't enough, they had also been confined next to the rotting meat that was in the digestive cavity and it had reeked.

Ultimately, at least, all of them were safe.

"First we have to figure out what's going on." Elena looked at Fran, "How did you get stuck down here?"

"I think the rock formation must have been eroded by years of water washing so it collapsed abruptly as I twirled in the passage. It all happened so fast that I was already fallin by the time I realized what had happened. Then I knocked into something and blacked out," Fran said limply. "When I woke up, I found myself being transporting by dozens of invisible worms and then they left me in this place."

"I see... They've taken you as a vacant carrier." Elena raised her eyebrows, "At least, we're lucky."

"We're indeed, very lucky, especially since we were not eaten on the spot," Fran muttered. "It's a pity that I accidentally glanced up at the ceiling of the cave when I was about to escape.

"Is it really a watchful Magic Eye?" Agatha asked in a deep voice.

"I don't know. The moment I saw it, it spotted me as well, but I'm not sure what it really was. This monster was much bigger than the Multi-eyed Demon." Fran sighed, exhaling a nasty wind that assaulted the people around her. "Ah, sorry... since Elena and the other God's Punishment witches lost their smell a long time ago, I stopped paying it any attention..."

"Ahem, it's fine." Ice Witch Agatha held her breath for a long time before saying, "Did you happen to get an overall view of the monster?"

"After I had been bound, it landed and took its time as it bathed in the lake..." Fran paused for a moment as she looked for the words. "I don't know how to describe it. The monster looked like a failed experiment, it's like a lump of flattened guts that has been laid over the body of the Multi-eyed Demon. The two parts don't mesh naturally and they look more like a forceful patchwork. I also noticed that it had tentacles writhing in the gaps between the parts. I am not sure if they were living worms or a physical part of the monster. Regardless, that lump of the guts was much larger than the Multi-eyed Demon, even bigger than the Fearful Beast of Hell."

"Is it possible that the monster is consuming demons?" Nightingale frowned, "I believe it can't be considered a simple hybrid demonic beast."

"I think we should figure out how to get out of here before we try to figure out what it is." Elena patted Fran's huge mouth. "Next time, remember to alert us before telling us the details. Do you understand?"

"Um..." Fran answered gloomily.

"Can you move now?"

"I can't. I've run myself out..." Fran shook her head. "I consumed all the food in my stomach during the time we have been trapped here, so I need food for fuel."

"What if we give you the last of our food?" Lightning suggested.

"That's barely enough for her to tunnel 100 steps." Elena took a deep breath, "All we can do is wait or risk it and break out."

"Waiting isn't safe either," Agatha said calmly. "The space in here is too small and we'll all suffocate in less than a day if we don't find a way out." "Even if Sylvie manages to locate us, they will have to destroy the beasts before they can try to save us." She paused, "Don't forget the enemy also possesses devouring worm carriers."

"Unfortunately, if we charge out now, it's unlikely we won't be devoured by the numerous beasts." The God's Punishment Witches hesitated. "Besides... what do we do about Fran? She can't escape and there's no way for her to defend herself from so many enemies."

"Anyway... let me check the situation outside first." Nightingale turned, unwilling to be involved in this dilemma.

"If you guys figure out a way to escape, don't worry about me," Fran said suddenly. "Taquila witches don't fear death. I'll always belong to them no matter what I've become. By the way, I've got something else in my stomach that may be of some help." She wriggled her body, slowly spitting out several sticky iron boxes.

"What's..."

"The garrison supplies that the First Army asked me to carry," Fran said, coughing. "They said these things were too heavy to carry and asked me for help, so I swallowed all of them."

Agatha opened the boxes one by one—there were building tools and materials in them, such as shovels, spades, wire nettings, etc. As the things in the last box were revealed, Agatha froze for a moment.

The iron box was not very large but it was especially heavy. Apart from the shockproof wheat-straw stuffing, there were a dozen wooden boxes labeled "the second chemistry plant, sample 64, qualified".

If she remembered correctly, most of the nitrogen generated during decomposition had been sent to this factory.

This box actually held explosives.

Chapter 811 - Battle in the Mist

"You mean these things are capable of cracking the mountain and the earth?"

Elena widened her eyes after she heard the Ice Witch's concise introduction about the explosives. She condemned angrily, "What if these things explode in Fran's stomach? How could they not think of that?"

Fran's giant body could not help quivering at the thought.

"It's the lab sample that easily explodes," Agatha said as she rummaged through the box for a bag of copper pipe and showed it to Elena, "not these kind of explosives, which won't ignite on ordinary impact or heat. The only way to make them explode is to put these pipes in explosive containers."

The explosives had aroused the other God's Punishment Witches' interest, who had heard of the splendid scene of the artillery exercise long ago from Phyllis, the God's Punishment Witch who they called No. 76. They had witnessed the First Army's battle against the incursion of demonic beasts a few times since moving to the Western Region of Graycastle and were not unfamiliar with gunpowder. But this was their first time to be so close to this kind of weapon.

"Is it really okay to burn it? The thing that can create such a loud sound when it explodes should be very volatile at ordinary times."

"It looks very much like a brick..."

"How to make it work? Does it explode once the copper pipe is put into it?"

"Who dares to do that?"

The questions troubled Agatha too, for she only knew the general principle of those firearms that His Majesty had made. Her knowledge of how to use it was no more than her Taquila fellows.

"The thing with the red mark on it is the detonator that must be ignited for it to work." Lightning suddenly leaned over and said professionally, "The blue-marked one is the detonator that is needed to pull out the string to trigger it. I remember there is another kind of detonator with a yellow mark that will be activated by electric current, but this bag only has the red and blue ones."

That got Agatha amazed, and she blurted out, "How did you know that?"

"Because I'm an explorer!" The young girl touched her nose. "I was basically present at every new weapon test that the First Army held."

"So, should we bury these things in the cave mouth beforehand and blow our way out or cast them along the way as we retreat and carry Fran with us?" Elena tried to work out a solution. "If the explosive could hold back the enemies, I believe 10 God's Punishment Witches are able to move Fran."

"It doesn't matter, leave me behind..."

"Shut up!" Elena cut in. "Even though we're not afraid of sacrifice, we'll never give up our companions easily. Don't forget what Lady Eleanor has told us."

"Every witch is of equal importance." The rest of the people joined in and nodded.

"I'm afraid... neither of your plans work," Lightning muttered. "One bag of explosives is enough to tear us into pieces if you set it to work at the mouth of such a small cave. But if we put the explosives in a larger cave, the explosion will be unsatisfying." She looked at the shovels and spades on the ground and went on, "The explosives should have been used to make caves or open passages. They're not formal weapons, and the fire and air current created in the explosion is only able to kill the beasts within 10 paces."

A silence came over them, who knew that the explosion might be fearsome enough to drive away general beasts, but not the swarm of demonic beasts that were obviously summoned by the monster on the dome of the cave. They'll never stand a chance to get out unless most of those demonic beasts were destroyed.

"Maybe we have one more choice." Nightingale chimed in suddenly. "Bring down their boss."

"You mean... the monster dwelling in the dome?" Elena frowned. "We can't fly."

"Even if you could fly, that's too dangerous!" Agatha said before Lightning found her words. "It's not a defensive battle where we have support whenever we ask. We all know that it's not uncommon that some hybrid demonic beasts are able to fly, and Lightning loses her speed and flying height considerably as long as she's load-bearing, so it's highly possible that she'll never get herself close to the monster once the enemies spot her and besiege her."

"I'm not proposing to make Lightning do it," Nightingale said word by word. "I'm planning to put this bag of explosive into the monster's mouth with my own hand, given it does have a mouth."

"You?" Agatha was shocked. "Don't be ridiculous... You should know that your Mist can't hide anything in front of Magic Eyes. Wherever you see it, it notices you too."

"Its ability to see me doesn't mean that its underlings can notice me. I'm confident that I can get through them, even if they are under their boss's order to intercept me." She paused. "Do remember that the Mist can do much more than concealing."

"But..."

A cacophony coming from the rock formation interrupted Agatha's next words. It sounded as though numerous cicada were eating leaves, or gravel was clashing, being smashed and ground.

The witches' faces changed. The sound was not unfamiliar to them.

"Damn it. They've sent the devouring worm," Elena said with a stern face. "The enemy is coming. Get yourself ready."

A worm carrier was hardly a threat, but as soon as their concealed vantage point was uncovered, they were to be faced with endless demonic beasts that traveled through the worm's stomach.

"Don't worry about me. No one is more competent in this kind of mission. Back at the time when the Witch Cooperation Association was running in the old king's city, my title was well-known everywhere in the central region of the kingdom," Nightingale said as she packed four bags of explosives in her bag and bound it tightly on her back. "At that time, people used to call me 'Shadow Killer'."

"Wait..."

"Rest assured. I'll finish that deformed thing before the worm tunnels its way here."

Before Agatha could say anything to stop her, she disappeared into thin air.

The last sight Agatha had of Nightingale was a thumbs up.

...

In the world of black and white, directions meant nothing to Nightingale, and everywhere would become flat and level if she wished.

It felt as though she was the manipulator of this world where everything was under her order.

Passing through the collapsed stones, she straightway jumped up to the steep cliff and rushed to the dome of the cave.

Suddenly, her vision changed the angle by 90 degrees. The monster that should have been above her hid somewhere was ahead of her now. The turbulent underground river looked like a ribbon beset on the precipice, while the broad subterranean lake now rose up like a huge window.

By then, she had caught sight of the monster, and it had her in sight as well.

Nightingale did not look away.

With her eyes fixed on the monster's star-like eyes, she sped up to it. In the Mist, the glare radiated from the monster's powerful Magic Cyclone and looked like a bloody moon, outshining the crowded light spots.

This monster could not be a simple hybrid demonic beast, she thought.

Its magic power outperformed even Anna's.

For a moment, Nightingale sensed her mind had been connected with the monster's.

The feeling was chaotic and unspeakable, but she was sure that both of them had received the undisguised hostility from each other.

She grinned.

The monster raised its tentacles.

With a low roar, the demonic beasts in the cave flocked to her.

Chapter 812 - Segmentation

Nightingale soon discovered that she was right.

Most demonic hybrid beasts could not locate her, so hardly any beasts could clamber onto the cliff to block her. The flying beasts swooping in the mid-air looked terrifying but always missed her like an arrow that missed its target. As long as she kept moving, it was uneasy for those beasts to hold her back.

The only beasts that could "spot" her were those mutated ones with sickle-shaped forelegs. They writhed their robust bodies and nailed their supportive legs in the stones so that they were able to move about the cliff. Under the command of the monster, they moved towards the dome of the cave, intercepting Nightingale and the alerted Magic Eye.

She had to destroy those beasts before meeting head-on the monster.

The vast dome of the cave had become Nightingale's personal battlefield. Fighting alone had been an experience she had not had for a long time.

She had been walking alone in the Mist in the past and had been forced to serve her wicked aristocratic relatives until Wendy had found her and helped her out of such miseries.

But her feeling at present was dramatically different from the feeling she had had when she had roamed in the Silver City.

Alone she was, she felt no boredom or hatred in the least, for she volunteered to participate in this dangerous duel without being compelled or threatened.

Her mind was saturated with the faith to protect her companions.

Nightingale did not feel alone at all, for she was in the protective suit made by Soraya, with the explosives produced by Agatha in her bag, and the gun designed by Roland around her waist, which was engraved with the words "To Veronica".

All of these gears gave her a feeling that everyone was fighting alongside her.

As she revolved a multitude of thoughts in her head, the enemies were drawing near. The beasts started to close up, their sickle-shaped forelegs in the air.

There was a total of 16 of them.

Nightingale took out the pistol, pulled the safety, and waited until the nearest beast was within a few paces. Then she went out of the Mist as she pulled the trigger.

The beast lurched to her at the same time.

Its powerful tail and supportive legs enabled them to dash forward. The strike was completed in a split second, as quick as a predator plunging at its prey.

It was more like that the beast struck the bullet itself than the other way around.

Even though the beast was shot, the shockwave of the bullet could still wound Nightingale.

But she had prepared for this.

The moment the bullet left the muzzle, Nightingale re-entered the Mist and stepped onto a fast receding borderline that represented the contour of the earth.

This was perfect timing.

An outsider might think she leaped backward all of a sudden for a few meters; but in fact, it was the ground underneath that was moving backward.

"Bang!"

The bullet smashed into the sickle monster's pointy head and blew it up. Its shell and brain splashed like a blooming flower. The magic glow dissipated quickly and its invisible body twitched and reappeared. The lifeless beast fell to the subterranean lake like a stone dropping into the water. Yet in Nightingale's eyes, the dead body moved headlong upward, as if it were sucked down to the bottom of the surging lake.

Taking advantage of the changeable lines in the Mist in this way, Nightingale chased and fought against her enemies. Even though the beasts moved very fast, they succumbed to the negative impact of the gravity. When Nightingale lured them into the battlefield on which they had had a fight earlier, they had to slow down to make sure their legs were deeply rooted in the rock, as the previous battle, which had left hundreds of holes in the rocky walls, greatly reduced the friction between their legs and the surface.

But her tactics were not flawless. Because she had to step out of the Mist and expose herself temporarily to fire at the enemy, she had drawn increasing numbers of beasts to her. What was worse, she had become more vulnerable to the flying demonic beasts because those deformed winged monsters had started to hover in the air close to the dome to bide their time, rather than "swoop down" blindly as they did before. When she fired at the enemies, those flying beasts would dodge the bullet so that she had to hide in the Mist again to relocate her target. Sometimes she had to relay on the borderline in the Mist to dodge the massive attacks from the enemies.

Nightingale got injured in less than seven minutes after the battle began.

After all, she could not find a good hiding spot in the Mist every time after she fired. The change of the lines in the Mist was not subject to her will, so the misty world was as perilous to her as to everybody else. A battle of such high intensity was a challenge both to her physical strength and her mentality.

The greatest injury was to her ribs.

She had failed to dodge a strike when being besieged by two flying beasts. Their razor-sharp claws had torn her coat, leaving a deep cut from her flank to her waist. The coated protective suit made by Soraya had saved her from being gutted, but the coating could not block the power of the strike. The pain almost took away her breath, and she had to rest for a long time to recover herself.

Evidently, it was Multi-eyed Demon that manipulated the frantic demonic hybrid beasts, for those hybrid beasts, which were usually prone to fight against each other, actually worked together and launched fierce and continuous attacks this time. That made Nightingale even more determined to destroy the demon. She did not understand why it would rather hide in this Great Snow Mountain than attack Neverwinter. But the demonic beasts with a commander would be a great threat to Prince Roland.

Her 10 bullets had all been used up, and there were still four sickle monsters left —10 of the beasts had been killed directly by the bullets, and two fell into the lake during the battle. Judging from the turbulent currents of the lake, Nightingale believed that the two beasts barely got a chance to survive and come back to the battle.

The violent attack from the demonic beasts left Nightingale no time to reload the bullets, and neither did she intend to. She tucked the pistol back to her belt and leaped over an invisible beast and reached its back when a swarm of demonic hybrid beasts came to her. She then pulled the invisible beast into the misty world.

The beast got shocked as his vision changed from the battlefield to the world of black and white.

Nightingale's magic power streamed from her fingertips. The following beasts that clashed with the first one were all pulled into the mist subsequently. As the number of the beasts entering the Mist increased, her magic power exceeded the consumption limit and began to drain. Just at that moment, one of the lines constituting the dome the misty world curled up and went flying toward her.

This was the moment she had been waiting for. As more beasts had been pulled into the misty world, her magic power quickly drained and the misty world became unstabilized. The twisting lines had thus become a lethal weapon, although at other times they helped her leap a few meters away.

The white line swept over the beasts, and their figures suddenly froze.

It was like those beasts had vanished instantly, and in a split second, a "blank space" emerged in the sky of the misty world. But when the beasts reappeared, the weirdest thing happened. The lower parts of their bodies remained in the place where they had disappeared, while the upper parts several meters away as if a sharp longsword had cut all of them into halves with one swing and the body parts had been transported and floated in the air.

The bodies suspended for a few seconds before they hailed down into the lake, creating numerous water columns.

Chapter 813 - "Monster"

Suddenly, Nightingale's view was no longer obscured.

Seeing this shocking event unfold, the demonic beasts slowed down and instead of crazily trying to surround her, they refused to move forward as if they were scared of her.

These demonic hybrids were scared.

The monster hanging on top of the cave waved its tentacles and roared furiously, but it didn't achieve the desired effect. The only ones who still followed its orders were three sickle monsters. They were now powerless and could no longer threaten Nightingale. The tight line of defense had now been broken.

No enemy could now stop her.

Nightingale gathered what was left of her magic power and rushed towards the dome center.

As she was closing in, she finally understood what Fran meant by abnormal.

The opponent was not so much a creature as it was a pile of exposed organs. It had neither epidermis nor muscular tissue while vascular intestines, tentacles, and organs that couldn't even be named were all stacked up, looking both unstable and horrible.

Obviously, throwing explosives into the monster's mouth was not possible. Nightingale turned her gaze to a pack of vibrating "meatballs". Although she was not certain whether it was a vital organ of the monster or not, it was at least placed much deeper and had flowing magic light inside. She guessed that the explosion of the explosives would inevitably cause more damage there.

It was a risky plan, but she only had one chance.

This fight required one fatal blow.

The more she was closing in, the more she could feel its size. Those complex intestines were as thick as a house while the rest of the stacked up organs looked like a castle.

The only difference was that this castle was alive.

Seeing that the sickle monsters could not stop her, the monster started moving.

It shot several slender tentacles from within its body, trying to stop Nightingale. Some of the tentacles were like steel whips, which could easily break the rocks in the mountain, but were not very difficult to deal with. As long as she observed the silhouette of these tentacles in advance, she could use the empty spaces between them to avoid them. It was similar to penetrating a wall.

A few tentacles that contained magic power and could use different abilities were a different problem altogether. Those colorful magical beams were particularly striking in the black and white world and Nightingale definitely did not want to experience what was like to get hit by them, so she used flash to avoid them. This, in turn, would greatly increase the consumption of her magic power.

Thankfully, the distance between the monster and her was not huge.

Only a few moments had passed before she stepped on the monster's huge body, who roared furiously, but in fear of hurting itself, stopped attacking recklessly with its tentacles. Nightingale instantly felt very relieved. She didn't hesitate to open her backpack, took out a pack of explosives, and rushed straight towards the meatballs.

She pulled off her next moves instantaneously. She pulled the fuse, stuffed the green smoked explosive and the backpack into the meatballs, and then returned to the misty world, hanging upside down. Then, she pushed with both of her feet and lunged towards the underground lake like an arrow.

The monster also noticed her movements but it did not seem to understand why the enemy would try so hard to get near just to leave a moment later without doing anything. As for the bag, in the monster's eyes, there was no threat at all. For a moment, it even forgot to move its tentacles to chase after the witch who was quickly falling.

The most dangerous place in the misty world was in midair. She would break into pieces if she hit some airflow silhouettes when she was falling and so she stopped exerting her ability and waved goodbye to the monster.

Curiously, at that moment, she thought of Roland.

Whenever they were testing gunpowder, he would always turn his back to the testing ground and say that real warriors never looked at an explosion. Even though both Agatha and her would roll their eyes at him, he didn't mind as if he had just completed a ritual that only he knew about.

Thinking about that, Nightingale coudn't help but smile.

But right now, she didn't want to imitate him.

It was not about being a real warrior or not.

She simply wanted to watch the monster explode into pieces.

Just as soon as the sound between the lake and the underground river meeting eachother could be heard, a red light suddenly lit up the ceiling of the dark cave.

In a place where there was never daylight, a ray of light seemed as bright as the dawn. The darkness quickly faded, leaving behind the long shadows and for the first time, bright waves appeared on the lake's surface.

What followed was a thunderous roar—

Suddenly, the whole cave shook!

Nightingale clearly saw, among the dazzleing fireworks, the body of the monster convolsuing fiercely, as if it was suffering greatly. Half of the "Bloody Moon" covering the dome suddenly disappeared and some of the organs were shot out like volcanic eruptions. As for the area close to the explosion, it was instantly set on fire, generating a thick , dark smoke.

Splash!

She crashed into the water.

The world momentarily became quiet, leaving only the sound of her beating heart.

The fast spinning of the water formed a bottomless black hole under her body and it seemed like it wanted to drag her into the abyss. In the face of such force, any struggle would be meaningless.

But, thankfully, Nightingale was prepared.

She released what little of her magic power that was left to summon the Mist and used the spiraling white lines to climb to the surface as if climbing the stairs.

At this point, the magic power in her body had been completely depleted and the after effects of overuse began to appear. Her brain was attacked by intense pain and dizziness, her limbs could not stop trembling, and she could hardly control her body anymore.

As she struggled to get to the lakeshore, Nightingale knew she was running out of strength. Before losing consciousness, she saw a worm breaking through the wall and a golden figure flying towards her in a hurry.

...

"Nightingale... Is she ok?" Fran asked anxiously.

"It's nothing serious, she just exhausted her magic power," Agatha briefly examined Nightingale and then handed her to the God's Punishment Witch, "You carry her. We must leave this place at once."

When Nightingale left, everyone decided that no matter what, they would go to meet her after the explosion and decided to let Fran eat all their remaining food. Even though it was not certain she could find a way out, she could still crawl with them to the camp site.

But they did not expect the explosion to be so effective. It not only stopped the worm carrier inside the walls, but it also made the rest of the demonic beasts flee the area.

"Leave her to me," Elena personally took Nightingale. After witnessing the battle, the Taquila survivors became more respectful toward the blond witch.

"Don't we need to finish it off?" Lightning looked at the struggling monster, as if not satisfied, "It doesn't seem to be dead."

"Dying beasts are the most dangerous and you can only bring one pack of explosives at most, so it's better not take this risk," Agatha said with a deep voice, "by the time the First Army has been assembled, it'll be dead sooner or later.

"Uhm... fine," the little girl hesitated before nodding.

Just when everyone was ready to leave, the monster suddenly issued a cry. Following the dull and muddy sound, the lake suddenly changed.

Under the sparkling flames, a huge skeleton came out of the water and opened a row of rib claws towards the top of the cave. Even in such a fast current of water, it remained steady.

The monster loosened its tentacles that were clining to the top of the cave and fell into the skeleton. The sinking skeleton suddenly stirred up layers of waves, making the lake water push toward the shore. Even the surging underground river flowed backwards for a time. The ribs began to close, as if wrapping up the monster into a package and then slowly sunk back into the lake. The instant it came into contact with the water, the burning flames on the monster turned into white smoke and emitted a pungent odor.

Right before the monster vanished, everyone saw its densely packed eyes. Although half of them were gone, the rest of the eyes expressed a strong sense of hatred toward them.

Moments later, the swirling lake engulfed the monster as if it had never appeared.

Chapter 814 - Impartial person

"The demonic beasts have fled! They all fled!"

Cheers were heard across the battlefield. The demonic beasts that were previously gathered at the entrance of the cave had all fled away leaving several corpses behind them. The machine gunner released the trigger only to find out that his finger joint had gone numb. Because there was no time to change the gun barrel, it had turned red which, according to the shooting regulations, meant that it was scrapped.

"Their numbers were intimidating, but once we start fighting them, they didn't look so scary."

"The Church's God's Punishment Army was much more fierce."

"They are only beasts after all."

"Beasts? Why are you talking nonsense? Go fight them with a bow if you dare. Three years ago, these things were terrorizing the Western Region. Everything changed because of His Majesty, do you understand!"

"Ye-Yes, Captain!"

"Instead of celebrating, change the gun barrel."

Edith was standing in the back of the battlefield. She had a thoughtful look while watching the busy yet orderly First Army. After following Roland's army to participate in the Tooth Extraction Campaign and the Church's destruction, she always tried to imagine how would she command the army in order to achieve the maximum effectiveness of the firearms.

Without a doubt, this was a completely new kind of army and so the combat strategy was different from that of the knightages and the mercenaries from before. It was not easy to forget her previous successful experience of fighting through charging, relying on excellent weapons, and personal bravery. But when she realized that knights could no longer compete against the new army, she promptly discarded all of her previous experience and started watching all of His Majesty's actions closely. Through today's battle, she was able to verify that her thinking was basically correct.

The most notable feature of the firearms was their ability to kill opponents with extreme efficiency before they could get closer without regard to the spacing between soldiers and their physical condition. Therefore, the narrower the shooting area, the more intense the firepower would be. As long as the ammunition supply did not stop, they could fire from morning to night.

Two platoons of soldiers could be arranged in a battlefield where previously only three to four knights would be able to charge from. They could only arrange three machine guns not because more could not fit but due to limited ammunition. But even so, their fierce firepower still made it hard for the demonic hybrids to advance—they did not even get tired or need to aim. They just had to pull the trigger. Whenever the opponents were too close together, she would even see a thick blood red mist arising in the entrance.

If His Majesty was in command, he wouldn't have done anything different.

The only thing she did not understand was the behavior of the demonic beasts.

Obviously, some of them had basic intelligence. When it got difficult to attack the cave entrance, many of the demonic hybrids began to wander outside the cave, occasionally howling, but still not advancing as if they were encouraging the other demonic beasts to sacrifice themselves. But since they had the ability to think, why did they still obey the weird commanding voices? The demonic beasts apparently did not need a relationship between lords and subjects, which was about mutual support and protection. As long as they escaped into the Barbarian Land, they could totally survive alone, unlike humans who had to be part of a group in order to survive.

Could it be that there was an inexplicable connection between the demonic beasts and the owner of that voice whose importance was above the beasts' own survival?

It was hard for her to imagine that.

She thought she should ask His Majesty Roland after the search was completed.

Currently, the only thing in Neverwinter that she found surprising and hard to figure out was His Majesty's thoughts. Whenever they were talking, she would always ponder over the same question: how vast could the human mind be?

"Miss Edith, you were very helpful this battle..." Brian's voice interrupted her thoughts. She turned around and saw the young officer's face full of gratitude. "I'll definitely mention your contribution to His Majesty in the battle report!"

"I only did my job," Edith smiled, "I wasn't sure it would be successful at that time so you don't need to mention my suggestion in the report."

"Unacceptable!" Brian shook his head again and again. "His Majesty said that in the army, the result and not the process is the only thing that matters. A victory is a victory. If I don't mention your contribution, then I'm no different than a thief. Plus, it's also unfair to you!"

"Fine... " The Pearl of the Northern Region shrugged. "If you insist."

"Of course." At this point, he paused and then made a military salute. "Furthermore, I now understand more what you said before about trust. The First Army thanks you for your advice. I'll leave now as I also have many things to attend to."

Looking at the captain leaving, Edith suddenly understood why His Majesty chose a patrol captain of the border to serve as an important military officer. Battle achievements were the basis for the knights when requesting a reward from the lord and the last thing they would want was to share with others. There were countless cases that involved faking and lying, and not even her trustees could resolve them.

In general, though the First army was different in many aspects, promotions and rewards were still linked to battle achievements. She was not a member of the army so even if the other party had completely concealed this matter, she wouldn't have personally argued her case to His Majesty. To be able to calmly share with others whatever benefits he had gained just to be fair, in fact, compared to other knights, this former patrol captain was actually much more of a knight.

Loyal to his king and honest, this was probably why Roland entrusted him with such an important task. Commanding and knowledge could both be learned, but a person's character was hard to change. Edith had noticed very early on that the spirit and manner of His Majesty's First Army were completely different from those of the knights. It was something new completely. Probably the key to creating such an army was abandoning the noble's power and selecting only civilians to enlist, coupled with the ideological education in the primary textbooks.

And now, she had also left her name in the army.

...

Half a day later, Roland received intelligence that the situation had been resolved. At this point, the one hundred emergency reinforcements had already embarked on the boat while the rest of the reinforcements were also preparing their belongings, waiting for the dispatching order. Even the newcomers of the Witch Union—Annie, Broken Sword and the rest were prepared to go support them. From the City Hall to the First Army, the whole of Neverwinter was nervous as if the city had been attacked by demonic beasts, but in the end, it all proved to be just a false alarm.

The messenger was, once again, Maggie. Looking at her tilted head and slightly opened mouth, Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry. He took out some beef from the drawer and threw it on the table. She immediately picked it up happily.

However, taking morale into account, he eventually did not order the first platoon to return but instead replaced Annie's team with Soraya and Summer in order to conduct a more comprehensive exploration of the ruins.

Chapter 815 - Discoveries and Decisions

In the next three days, the reports and messages about the exploration in the Great Snow Mountain had been sent back to Neverwinter one after another

. Roland had felt his heart skipping a beat the moment he had heard that Nightingale had exhausted her magic power and passed out during a fight. Fortunately, she had been alright when this news had arrived. In order to reassure His Majesty, she had also asked Maggie to let Roland know that she was alright.

The exploration results showed that inside the Great Snow Mountain there was indeed a city in ruins, which was left by the underground civilization. However, as compared to the maze inside the Impassable Mountain Range, this city was not that well preserved. Most caves in the newly discovered ruins had collapsed long before, and several intact compartments were just filled with spoiled food, bug eggs and corpses. Near the underground lake, a broken magic core was found by the Taquila witches. According to the scouting team's reports, they found no documented records there, and the best part of their journey was the discovery of an original carrier and two devouring worms inside the mountain.

He was surprised by the results.

If this monster with many eyes was just a dumb beast who happened to settle down in the ruins, he would never find its destructive behaviors strange. However, it was obviously not just a stupid animal. He still remembered that something in this Great Snow Mountain had sent devouring worms to swallow Agatha's laboratory and the Blackstone Pagoda in the Devil's Town. These actions were clearly not just for food. In this exploration inside the mountain, the team had also spotted both human beings and demons trapped in the strange bug eggs. These facts made him believe that the unknown enemy must have been trying to collect information about the other two species it was going to fight against in the Battle of Divine Will.

When he received the first batch of "bug egg corpses", he noticed that their decomposed skin was apparently not caused by corrosion but corpse wax formed by long-term storage. That meant these corpses had been kept in the egg for a very long time and were apparently not stored as food.

Only an intelligent individual would make other creatures into specimens. In that case, he really did not understand why the monster had destroyed this underground city.

He wondered whether it was because that the monster did not care about the things treasured by Taquila witches.

He scanned through Soraya's pictures of the scenes inside the mountain and became lost in thought.

He found that the moment before the monster sank into the water, its remaining hundreds of eyes seemed to be filled with resentment. He did not know whether this was a false impression or not. He felt its eyes became different when it was severely wounded. In the beginning, those eyes appearing on the cave roof were simply gazing at the witches, but after they hurt it badly, its eyes showed an obvious emotional expression. When he put those two pictures together to compare, he felt as if the monsters in those two pictures were not the same one.

As for the underground lake in the bottom of the ruins, where the monster sank in, Sylvie confirmed that it was connected to a water vein leading to the Swirling Sea.

On his current technical level, he was not able to track the enemy once it entered the Swirling Sea, and let this monster successfully get away. What he could do next was to block the water vein by collapsing the dome of the ruins with powerful explosives. By doing so, he could ensure the safety of Neverwinter.

The exploration team had also sent him good news.

In Lightning's reports, he read about some bugs. They looked the same as the "egg bugs", but had once gushed out very sticky jelly to tightly trap Fran. The mucus they spat out was able to become a consolidated, sticky thing like spider silk in certain circumstances. These bugs were neither intelligent nor aggressive. According to Agatha's studies, they were not from the Fertile Plains.

In other words, these bugs were probably brought here by the "monster".

However, what intrigued Roland most was not the origin of these bugs but the fact that their mucus could solidify quickly. According to Lightning's description, these bugs could be bred in captivity.

Therefore, in his reply, he asked Agatha to make a detailed report on the living and eating habits of these bugs and to investigate what kind of harm they might cause. He also required the team to collect the strange plants and fungi in the ruins. He was particularly interested in the fruits which gave out dim, cold light in the dark and the giant mushroom as big as an adult.

When he was about to review the wonderful pictures of the underground caves, someone knocked on his door.

Phyllis walked into his office.

She bowed and said, "Your Majesty, Lady Pasha would like to talk to you about the ruins."

He immediately nodded to agree. He had sent all the exploration reports of these days to the Taquila survivors and he also really wanted to hear the ancient witches' views of the monster.

"Good, let's hold a video meeting."

"Vi... what?" Phyllis was stunned and took a few seconds to realize what it was. "You mean a meeting through the phantom instrument?"

"Yes, in the usual place at the reception hall on the first floor." He could not help but grin as he was so happy to finally find someone who could understand his "nonsense".

"I got it." She laughed and said, "I'm going to inform Pasha."

...

When he walked to the reception hall, Faldi and all the other God's Punishment Witches all rose and bowed to him with both hands on the chest as if they were saluting a higher ascendant. They looked solemn, and were completely different from the they looked in the Dream World.

Since he had taken them into his Dreamland, he was now venerated as someone similar to the Three Chiefs of the Union. He could tell from their etiquette and attitude toward him that now they did not consider him as a common man anymore, though they still used the phrase "common people" to describe his subjects.

Though they had agreed not to care too much about etiquette as he had required, they still saluted him more formally than his own guards. Seeing this, he had no choice but to let them do whatever they wanted.

Inside the hall, he saw Pasha through the light curtain waiting for him.

"First of all, I have to express my sincere gratitude to you." She said while bending her main tentacle. "Your help is of great importance to Taquila in exploring the ruins and in restoring the God's Punishment Witches' lost feelings."

"I'm helping myself by helping you since we'll be fighting together in the upcoming Battle of Divine Will," he replied with a smile. "Well, what're you going to do with the newly discovered shells in the ruins?"

"There're only two ways to deal with them... Moving them here or moving the soul instrument to where they're located." She paused to think for a minute and continued. "I prefer the second method."

When the magic core was turned off, it would look like some dry skeleton. He could use a concrete boat to carry it, but he was afraid that he could not transport shells, even empty ones, in this way. The big blob and worms were too scary for the common people. He was clear that the universal education of Neverwinter had not yet prepared them to accept these dreadful shells that looked like monsters from hell.

Roland agreed with Pasha's suggestion of the second method, though the transportation of the instruments still posed a problem.

"So have you picked out the witches who're willing to accept the Soul Transfer?"

Half a month ago, Taquila survivors had been eager to search for ruins left by the underground civilization in the Great Snow Mountain, since they had earnestly hoped to find new shells in the ruins. Most of the God's Punishment Witches at that time had longed to merge with them to regain their long-lost feelings, such as touch, taste and smell, even though they had known that by doing so, they would look like monsters and would never change back into human forms.

However, now the situation was different, as they had another choice.

Chapter 816 - [Deep Sea Demons]

Now everyone in the Third Border City knew that a God's Punishment Witch could regain her appearance and feelings when she entered the Dream World by cutting off her consciousness. Roland had repeatedly heard Phyllis describe their enthusiasm for the Dream World. According to her, every time she got back to the underground, they would follow her and keep asking about her experiences in that world.

He wondered whether they would still be eager to merge with shells when they found out this new method to restore their feelings.

However, it was not a perfect solution to their problem, as they could only regain their appearance and feelings in their sleep. By contrast, being in shells, they could always have some feelings, and these shells were almost immortal unless they were heavily damaged.

It would be difficult to make a choice between these two alternatives.

He thought of another possibility for them. If they had kept the news about the Dream World a secret, they would have been able to send the instrument and God's Punishment Witches there to carry out their Soul Transfer. This way, the volunteers would never be able to go back even if they regretted afterwards. However, he believed that Pasha would not delude her witches into accepting the shells. Based on his observation in the past month, though the Taquila witches had lived in seclusion for hundreds of years, they did not turn into a conservative organization. They were still open to new things and had abolished class inequality in their group. Apparently, the sacrifice of the Three Chiefs had deeply moved them, and the threat posed by demons had kept them working to make greater progress.

Pasha seemed to read his mind. "You don't have to worry about this problem. With more shells, we'll be better equipped to defeat the demons. Original carriers can operate the magic core, and devouring worms can speed up the construction of the defense line. They'll do everything to win the upcoming Battle of Divine Will without hesitation. In fact, the volunteers have decided to go to the Great Snow Mountain together with the instrument."

"Volunteers aren't afraid of any sacrifice..." Roland thought while biting his lips. "It seems that I've worried too much. I'll send ships to transport the instrument for you when the exploration has finished."

"Thank you for helping us," she said happily.

He nodded and laid Soraya's pictures on the table. "All the information I've sent you before were written materials. I finally received these pictures of the ruins today. I would like to know your thoughts on this monster."

"Please wait for a moment." She waved her tentacles to summon Celine and Alethea, who had been repairing the Instrument of Divine Retribution. Three blobs came to the light curtain to study the pictures together."

With their tentacles connected, they remained silent for an unexpectedly long time, and communicated though their minds. As they were not able to show any expression on the outside, he felt as if this video call had already disconnected.

After a long time, he finally heard Pasha in his head again. "Sorry to have kept you waiting. We're shocked by some pictures, so we have to discuss them thoroughly."

"It's neither a demonic beast nor a demon, right?"

"Yes," said Celine, "and the skeleton that fell into the water has appeared in Lady Natalia's description about the Divine Land."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. We've stayed underground for hundreds of years, but we would never be so foolish as to forget such an important piece of information. In fact, carriers have a much better memory than human beings," said Alethea, grumpily. "Lady Natalia saw the sea and skeletons in the third painting scroll. This thing in the pictures matches her description. More importantly, this lake is connected to the sea. We can be sure it's the thing mentioned by Lady Natalia."

"So, now we can say it's from the unknown civilization?" He asked while touching his chin. He was not surprised at their conclusion. When he had found the devouring worm also swallowing things in the Devil's Town, he had suspected that it must have been sent by some neutral party who had decided not to help anyone in the Battle of Divine Will. Alternatively, it could also have been the unknown enemy in the upcoming battle. He had made up this exploration plan not only to help the Taquila survivors but also to eliminate hidden threats for Neverwinter and spy on the unknown enemy.

He had read a similar description in Zero's memory fragment, but it was vague. Now, as the Taquila witches also thought the monster belonged to the unknown enemy, he could confirm that suspicion.

"It's highly possible, but..." Pasha hesitated for a while and continued. "There're still many things we don't understand, such as the demonic beasts."

"These beasts across the Land of Dawn are mutated animals. They should have been affected by the Erosion of magic power, just like witches. But why did they follow this monster's orders? It's different from the demons who enslave the demonic hybrids. The beasts seemed to willingly obey this monster's orders."

Roland had also pondered over this question. He thought that if the unknown enemy were intelligent creatures who had demonic beasts as part of their civilization, they would have accumulated these hybrids first and then used them to eliminate both human beings and demons. He could not understand why the unknown civilization wasted these beasts in the Months of Demons every year.

Maybe the origin of those mutated beasts might not be as simple as they had believed.

"We'll know the answer when the Battle of Divine Will starts." He shrugged his shoulders, pretending to be relaxed. "They'd better be the monster's relatives. In that case, we'll never see these ugly beasts on the snowy plains after we have defeated all our enemies in the battle."

Pasha was stunned and then started to chuckle. "Yes, you're right indeed. No matter where they come from, we'll still have to defeat them in the Battle of Divine Will."

After that, they discussed the defense line construction project and the method to block the underground river in the newly discovered ruins. When the meeting was about to finish, Roland suddenly raised a question.

"Ah, yeah, as we've caught some clues left by the hidden civilization now, we have to give it a name, don't we?" He cleared his throat. "Just like what we did with the first painting scroll. We call the guys in it demons."

"Is this important?" Pasha tilted her main tentacle. "Demons is just their most widely known name. They were also called Blood Beasts, the Deformity or Polluters back in the Union."

"Of course, a proper name is very important for propaganda and motivational campaigns. We should make it sound as evil as possible so as to arouse the people's indignation."

"So... do you have any idea?"

"Well, since these hidden enemies stay in the sea for most of the time, shall we call them 'Sea Monsters'?"

"..."

All the people in the meeting fell silent.

"Uhm... isn't that good?"

"I thought the name 'the Third Border City' was bad enough. I never expected you to make up something even worse," Alethea mocked, "'Sea Monster'? It sounds like a giant octopus."

"Alethea!" Pasha moved her main tentacle to give Alethea a knock on the head. "Your Majesty, if you think it's alright... I think... we don't have a problem with it."

The ancient witch agreed on the name, but reluctantly. Roland picked up his cup to sip some tea whilst trying to conceal his embarrassment.

"Ahem." Scroll who was by his side and taking notes for this meeting coughed suddenly. "Your Majesty, how about calling them Deep Sea Demons?"

"Deep Sea... Demons?" He repeated.

"Yes, since the concept of demons has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, they'll understand what this new name refers to without us clarifying. This way, we don't need much efforts to describe the unknown civilization for the people. It's better for the City Hall to carry out the propaganda campaigns, and the people won't feel that we've got to fight many enemies at the same time," explained Scroll, with a quill in his hand.

Though he was unwilling to accept the fact that someone else came up with a better name, he still twitched his mouth and said, "It seems to be a little better... Let's use this name."

Now the civilization depicted in the second painting scroll got a formal name.

Chapter 817 - Meeting Ashes Again

Lorgar slowed down when she saw the first forest in her journey.

For the first time ever, she set foot in the domain of a northern kingdom. She had heard many people describing the evergreen woodlands, flourishing grasslands and steadily flowing water in this place. According to them, one would feel how soft and moist the soil was by simply inserting a hand in it, and would never have to worry about being bitten by some hidden sandworm when fetching water. The north was said to be a place full of life and vitality, like the Southernmost Region in the past.

However, she did not feel the same way about this place.

She thought perhaps it was still the Months of Demons, so this domain did not look any greener the Iron Sand City's big oasis. The trees here had nothing but stark branches, and the ground was covered by withered weeds. Only the dark brown soil under her feet reminded her that this place was not a desert.

She looked around and quickly found a place of shelter from the wind. In this shelter, she transformed back into a girl and put on her clothes. After that, she continued to track the caravans by following their smell that was left in the air.

That was how she traveled these days. When night fell, she would transform into a wolf and run toward the north. She lived on sandworms and Giant Scorpions and had even attracted some Desert Wolves along the way. In the daytime, she would walk on the Silver Stream trade route in her human form. This way, she could get her water bag refilled when she ran into some merchants there.

Her journey was not smooth sailing all the time.

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan was always generous, thus she would attract some people who were coveting her bag of gold royals. But she had vigilant ears that were erected on her head, so she was always able to know the merchants' ulterior motives in advance. At the very beginning of her journey, she had made all the vicious guys pay a bitter price, but now she decided just to follow those caravans from a distance and used the smell they left to confirm their direction.

Half a day later, she heard the sound of sea waves.

As this new harbor town built by the northern kingdom did not have thick city walls, she could see everything clearly by standing on a high slope. Tents stood along the river. Many people gathered near the sea and seemed to be busy with constructing some square, flat buildings. What she found most surprising about this bustling scene was that most of the workers were northerners. She could only see a small number of Mojins there.

Shortly after stepping onto the territory of Port of Clearwater, she found the First Army's camp.

She identified herself to the guards and soon met the black-haired woman again.

This woman she had been eagerly looking forward to seeing was Ashes.

Before she could think about what to say, Ashes opened her mouth and said calmly, "I knew you'd come." Her golden eyes gave the Wolf Girl a feeling of familiarity, making her feel as if they had just said goodbye to each other yesterday.

Lorgar could not help but shake her ears. "How did you know?"

"Because you're just like the old me." Ashes curled her lips into a smile. "In your heart, there's a goal you want to pursue."

Her eyes lit up immediately. "You were pursuing combats, too?"

"No... I just wanted revenge." The Extraordinary shook her head and turned away. "Come with me. Echo will be very happy to see you again."

"Revenge?" Lorgar was stunned and thought to herself. After a while, she finally realized that Ashes had just meant that they both had goals but not the same one. The Wolf Girl caught up with the Extraordinary and asked, "Who did you want to get back at?"

"Church of Hermes." Ashes shrugged. "At first, I did this just to vent my hatred. As time went by, it became a habit until I met Her Highness Tilly. She made me see that there were more important things in this world than killing all the church people."

When Ashes mentioned Her Highness Tilly, the Wolf Girl perceived a feeling of tenderness in her tone, which was rare for the Extraordinary. She guessed this Tilly who was able to change such a determined and strong-willed person must have been very uncommon.

She secretly bore this name in her mind.

When they passed a flat building under construction, Lorgar raised another question. "I heard that the Port of Clearwater has become burned ruins ever since the Queen of Clearwater left this area. These people aren't local refugees, are they? Why do they seem to outnumber the Mojin immigrants?"

"Of course, they aren't. They all come from Neverwinter."

The Wolf Girl could hardly believe what she had heard. "Neverwinter... you mean the domain of King of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon? He ordered his own people to build residences for the Mojins here?"

"He didn't need to force anyone. All of these people came here voluntarily because the construction project here pays them better. They can get a pay raise of five to ten silver royals by working here. The workers said that soon after the Ministry of Construction issued a recruitment notice for this project, City Hall was packed with applicants."

The Ministry of Construction? City Hall?  The Wolf Girl felt lost hearing these strange words. She wagged her tail and asked, "What about... the Sand Nation?"

Lorgar remembered the first batch of immigrants consisted of several small clans and were about 2,000 to 3,000 people. She wondered why the great chief still wanted to send his own people traveling all the way from the north to the Southernmost Region when he had so many Mojins to work for him. She started to doubt his true motives.

"As His Majesty wants to build a new city in Endless Cape, most Mojins went there," Ashes answered quickly, "so did the people from Osha clan. Only by participating in the construction task, could the Mojins get new homes and food supply just like the subjects of Neverwinter."

Lorgar was surprised to hear that the king planned to build a city in the uninhabited wasteland which had no oasis. If it was not for Ashes, a proud person who was loath to lie, she would never believe this.

"What's the King of Graycastle thinking about?" she wondered.

"Then... what about the people who are unable to go there?"

"If they've got to stay due to health problems, they can help the construction team here to build the Port of Clearwater. By doing so, they'll get the same treatment. In other words, as long as you're willing to work, you'll never have to worry about going hungry." Ashes sighed with mixed feelings. "Her Highness Tilly once said that the ideal world in her mind was a place where you reaped what you sowed and made a fortune by your own hard work instead of exploiting the others. It sounded incredible, but her useless brother did make it happen."

Lorgar automatically ignored the last comment made by Ashes. "But... why does the great chief want to build a city in Endless Cape? That place has nothing..."

"There's Blackwater. His Majesty wants to collect as much of it as possible," Ashes said while spreading out her palms.

"That's the reason?" The Wolf Girl was stunned, rooted to the ground. "He did so much work just to collect Blackwater? He can simply buy it from the Iron Sand City, just like the Queen of Clearwater used to do!"

Lorgar did not believe in goodwill for no apparent reason. Most dominators just wanted wealth and lands, but the king apparently was acting contrary to this principle. He gave the land to the Sand Nation and spent a lot to reclaim the desert and to station troops in this place. She believed that the money he spent on these things was enough to buy hundreds of barrels of Blackwater.

"If what Ashes said was true, then the king's deeds were really strange," she thought and then started to worry about her father's decision.

She expected Ashes to refute or explain further, but the Extraordinary just raised her brow and said, "Yes, that's true... Who knows what the hell he's thinking?"

"What?"

Ashes said casually, "Even in Neverwinter, there're only a few who can understand his absurd theories. Andrea may be able to know what he's thinking. After all, they're both nobles, and their friendship is one mind in two bodies. The others probably won't be able to explain this to you. Anyway, who cares. I'm not here for him. As long as Lady Tilly thinks it's a good idea, I'll be fine with it." She stopped walking after saying these words, and then said, "Here we are."

Chapter 818 - The Neverwinter Power Rankings

Just like Ashes had said, Drow Silvermoon was overjoyed at Lorgar's arrival. The Osha princess immediately gave her a warm hug. The Wolf Girl was surprised and did not know where to put her raised hand. Usually a chief of a clan only greeted another chief with a hug. Lorgar had intended to greet the new chief of Osha clan by bowing to her with a hand on the chest, though Silvermoon was one or two years younger than her.

During their conversation, the chief did not put on an air of superiority. When she heard that Lorgar was planning to go to Neverwinter with them, she immediately regarded her as a sister. She asked the Wolf Girl to call her Echo and happily introduced her to the new life of the witches in Neverwinter.

Lorgar did not believe everything that Echo had said. According to what she knew, no matter how abundant Graycastle's resources was, it could never eliminate hunger. She guessed the chief might be exaggerating by describing the place as a Kingdom of God, where no one worried about hunger and illness which could be cured by witches.

Though this was the first time she left the desert, she had heard many tales about the northern kingdoms. She knew the kingdoms were just like the Iron Sand City where only a small group of people in high places could lead a luxurious life. She believed that as a Divine Lady who was no longer an heiress to the Wildflame clan, she would never be as lucky as the Osha princess who had gained the king's appreciation.

But this was not a problem for Lorgar.

She just wanted to improve herself by fighting all those strong opponents in Neverwinter.

When she told them that her clan also considered moving to Port of Clearwater, they did not appear pleasantly surprised as she had expected. Iron Axe, Osha's faithful dog, even knitted his eyebrows. Only Echo smiled and asked, "Really?" The Osha princess seemed excited and continued to say, "Great! As soon as the Wildflame clan comes here, it won't be long before Port of Clearwater restores its prosperity of the past. His Majesty's goal can be achieved earlier!"

"Ahem... Lady Echo." Iron Axe eyed Echo. "It's just their plan, and it won't necessarily come true."

"Ah, yes, I was too impatient." Echo smiled, slightly embarrassed.

Lorgar immediately understood the reason for their cold response. As the former strongest clan, Wildflame had more than 5,000 people in total, significantly outnumbering all the Mojin immigrants here. More importantly, she believed that the northerners must have found that these small clans who were competing with each other were much easier to control as compared to some powerful big clan. She thought that they probably never expected that a clan in the Iron Sand City would decide that quickly to move here since the six big clans in the city did not have to worry that their oasis would dry up. These bigs clans were considered to be the most reluctant ones to leave the city, and most people even believed that they would never turn to the King of Graycastle.

She did not continue talking about this matter for she knew that the Wildflame clan moving here would increase the northerners' influence and at the same time change the balance of powers in this area. She had to admit that it was not a bad thing if the Osha clan or the king failed to control the situation at that time and let her father grasp the power.

After all, she was still Prince Lorgar of the Wildflame clan.

...

In the next few days, Lorgar would walk along Clearwater Bay whenever she got a chance. As she had met Ashes here, she was not that eager to leave for Neverwinter. She decided to use this period of time to examine carefully this evergreen land where Wildflame decided to settle down.

She soon discovered that the construction speed of Graycastle's workers was way beyond her imagination. On the bank of the river, they built a row of hemispherical furnaces which could produce a new batch of bricks each day with a mixture of earth and river sand. And these furnaces did not burn wood but some gray-black stones shipped from the northwest. They only needed to be filled with these stones once in a day, since these stones could keep burning all day long, which seemed much better than charcoals.

Brick production was the part where more Mojins, mostly women and seniors, were involved. They were divided into several groups, digging earth or carrying black stones. For each basket a worker dug out or carried, the supervisor would press a mark on his or her arm. According to the Wolf Girl's observation, the marks determined how much food a worker could get each day.

As for the construction work, she seldom saw Mojins engage in it. The northerners did everything. They mixed the water with some gray powder to make paste and used it when they stacked bricks. Each house was built with the same size, style and method. She could notice new changes in these buildings almost every day.

Another thing that greatly surprised her was how differently the Mojins and the people from Graycastle reacted when they saw her half-animal looks.

Since leaving the Iron Sand City, she no longer covered her fluffy tail and ears. Most Mojins would avoid her eyes when they saw her and try to back away from her, even though they had the same skin color. She was no stranger to this kind of reactions and was prepared for this.

Whereas the people from Graycastle did not show even the slightest bit of fear or hatred in front of her. Some braver ones even took the initiative to say hello to her and seemed to be used to this kind of looks.

She was baffled by their behavior and asked Ashes about this.

"Ah... you mean this. Isn't it a usual thing for the witches?" The Extraordinary said while spreading out her palms. "Half human and half beast isn't a rare thing. Someone can even totally transform into a beast." She continued to explain, "For example, there's a witch named Maggie. She looks much more scary than you after transformation. However, after she acted as a rescuer several times, everyone got used to her looks. Even if you don't look human, they won't ostracize you."

Lorgar wiggled her wolf ears and thought, "Uhm... Is that true? In that case, my determination to embrace my defects and accept my true self was not necessary at all?"

She suddenly thought of another question. "Ah, are you the strongest witch in Neverwinter?"

"Well..." The Wolf Girl did not know whether it was an illusion, but she did feel that Ashes looked more serious now. "That depends on the types of my opponents. One type of witches can wear God's Stone of Retaliation. The other type of witches usually don't wear them."

"They're not able to use their abilities wearing God's Stones, are they?"

"Yes. Without God's Stone, I'm not sure I can defeat some witches in the Witch Union."

"Even you can't defeat them?" Lorgar was shocked.

Ashes nodded. "I believe I could before they evolved, but their improved abilities were beyond common sense. They're not something you can fight with using just speed and strength. For example, there's a witch called Leaf. When you fight with her within the area controlled by her Heart of Forest, she'll become as powerful as the deities. It'll be extremely hard to escape from her trap in the woods, even if you wear God's Stone of Retaliation. If I have to fight against the witches of Neverwinter, she's definitely the last one I want to meet."

The Wolf Girl was thrilled when she heard this. "Who else?"

"Anna. Although she's not good at combat, her ability is impeccable. Without God's Stone, I can't imagine how to defeat her. I mean in a duel. But since she's the most important witch in Neverwinter and Roland's sweetheart, you'll never get a chance to fight her." Ashes continued while counting on her fingers. "And Nightingale. If you often challenge the Neverwinter witches, you'll definitely attract her attention. As she's touchy and has a really weird ability, you'd better avoid fighting her."

Lorgar wagged her tail, imprinting the names on her memory one by one. "So... what about Maggie? You said she could transform into a big beast?"

"Yes, she'll make a well-matched rival for you in a duel, but I'd advise you not to do so." Ashes seemed to think of something and smiled meaningfully. "That's because all the people who challenged her could not get rid of bad luck, and if you accidentally hurt her, you'd incur the wrath of the entire Witch Union."

Chapter 819 - A Graceful Lady

Lorgar nodded to Ashes as she considered Maggie as one of the top dogs in the Witch Union. In her mind, the witch was still an ugly, cruel, but very formidable beast.

"So... what about the witches wearing God's Stones of Retaliation?"

The Wolf Girl knew that once her opponent used God's Stones, her ability would be significantly limited. Under such circumstances, she would not be able to freely transform all her body parts. If this opponent were just another warrior from the desert, it would be fine. However, if they were an Extraordinary like Ashes, it would be impossible for her to come out on top. Her ability was useless when she was faced with such a strong witch who also wore God's Stone. Given this, she had ranked Ashes as the best fighter amongst the witches from Neverwinter.

The Extraordinary remained silent for a while before replying. "Suppose there's someone whose strength and speed is in no way inferior to those of an Extraordinary. At the same time, she's an almost unlimited lifespan and will never be harmed by any injuries. Even if she suffers fatal blows, she'll be able to completely recover, given time. How strong do you think she would be?"

Lorgar could not help but gasp in astonishment.

Being an experienced warrior herself, she was well aware of the importance of fighting skills and experience.

In the holy duels, the toughest opponent to deal with wouldn't be those brave young fighters, but instead, the seasoned warriors who were in their 30s. These veterans were usually the backbone of a clan, and they often served as combat tutors and supervisors for a clan's newer generation. She would never underestimate such warriors who not only matched the younger fighters in strength but were also much more experienced, having gone through numerous life or death situations. However, when warriors turned 40, their body would inevitably become less agile, and the wounds suffered over the years would gradually accumulate and worsen. Even if their skills became more and more refined over time, they would no longer be able to move as fluidly as they once had done.

Lorgar wanted to go to Neverwinter to hone her fighting skills was because she knew that there was an overpowered healing witch who could heal all sorts of injuries. Now she was more intrigued by her future trip to the Western Region as there was even a witch who was impervious to pain and had an unlimited lifespan.

She believed that anyone who lived long enough would be able to become a very accomplished fighter. Even just thinking about going against such a warrior made her scared… No, excited.

"Is there really such a person in Neverwinter?" Lorgar asked excitedly.

"Yes, there's this witch in the city who's called Phyllis," Ash replied, "I've never fought her, but..."

"But what?"

The Extraordinary said slowly, "One time when I was practicing with my sword in the castle's garden, she happened to pass by and give me a few suggestions. Later, I tried practicing again while following her pointers and found that my sword strokes did get noticeably smoother. Unfortunately, I left Neverwinter soon after and haven't gotten a chance to ask her for more pointers."

"Did she really only watch you practice for a short while?" Lorgar's tail wagged even faster. Most tutors, even the very experienced ones, had to exchange a few moves with their students to spot the errors in their movements. That was the reason the big clans built their Halls of Military Affairs for their fighters to train in. The more a student matched a tutor in his or her skills, the more difficult it was for the tutor to find faults within the student's techniques. Ashes was undoubtedly an excellent fighter, so the Wolf Girl believed that the immortal witch, Phyllis, was indeed a mighty warrior for quickly finding Ashes' shortcomings just by watching her practice.

Lorgar thought that now it seemed like Phyllis was the best fighter in Neverwinter. Since when it came to a real battle, no one could rely solely on the off chance that the opponent was not wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation.

She ranked Ashes as the second because she was also immune to the effects of God's Stones. This powerful Extraordinary was the ideal role model that she was chasing after. As for the witch who was blessed with infinite life, the Wolf Girl believed that it was some miracle created by the Three Gods and that it was not something that she could ask for.

Lorgar couldn't wait to find out how she would fare against these powerful fighters.

She was now, even more, looking forward to her journey to the west.

Ashes seemed to see through the Wolf Girl's mind and smiled meaningfully again. Instead of ending their conversation right there, she patted Lorgar's shoulder and slowly said, "By the way, I forget to tell you. There are over 100 witches like Phyllis in Neverwinter."

"What?"

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan was stunned and began to wonder, "Over 100 witches with infinite life? When did the miracles of the Three Gods start happening so frequently?"

"Come on." Ashes curled her lips into a smile. "You've still got a long way to go. You'll never have to worry about finding a suitable opponent there."

...

Beside Ashes, Lorgar also occasionally ran into another witch, Andrea. She had witnessed this blonde witch's powerful Magic Longbow on the Burning Stage. Though she had never fought against her, she thought Ashes was quite right about her. She was a noble just like the King of Graycastle. They were cut off the same cloth. The Wolf Girl always felt distanced from Andrea, as if she was living in a different world.

Every move Andrea made was so graceful, be it when she was talking to the others or when she was gazing far out to the sea by herself. Watching her, Lorgar began to notice that she had a lot of shortcomings in comparison to Andrea.

Princess Lorgar decided to give it a try anyways and said hello to Andrea when nobody was around. The blonde witch greeted her calmly, not showing as much warmth and hospitality as Drow Silvermoon did.

However, when she put forward the question that Ashes failed to answer, Andrea suddenly became enthusiastic.

The blonde witch said, "As for this question... of course, Ashes wouldn't be able to tell you anything. That muscle-brained witch can barely count to a hundred, she knows nothing about managing a city. His Majesty Roland's policies are way too complicated. I had to ponder about them over and over before understanding their logic." She paused for a moment and asked, "But are you sure that you really want me to tell you? It's much harder to understand than fighting."

"Yes." Lorgar nodded seriously. "My father said that there's a common truth in everything. Learning knowledge in other fields can also promote my fighting skills."

"It's obviously nonsense..." Andrea rolled her eyes back and slightly sighed. "Fine, I'll tell you. If the king just buys Blackwater with gold royals as you suggested, Neverwinter will have to spend some of its wealth to get what it wants, right?"

"All transactions in the world are like that," Lorgar confirmed.

"So let's assume that these deals go flawlessly one hundred percent of the time, and 20 years later, the king will see no change in his kingdom, except the loss of a large number of gold royals."

"Lo-Loss?" The Wolf Girl was startled. "Why do you call it a loss? Doesn't his current plan cost him much more?"

"Of course not." Andrea put her hair up, bent down, and started drawing on the ground with a stick. "Now that the Mojin immigrants in the Southern Territory have been assimilated into Graycastle, any expenses they make will eventually be circulated back into Graycastle's economy, this is because all the things the Mojins need to buy come from Neverwinter, therefore, the income they receive will eventually make its way into His Majesty's hands in a process known as "the circular flow of income". During this process, the overall amount of wealth circulating in the kingdom will gradually grow and eventually reach an astonishing amount over that 20 year period. To achieve this, His Majesty only needs to invest in this initial stage, but even this initial investment can't be considered a loss as the wealth is circulating through the cities of the kingdom."

Chapter 820 - The Journey

Lorgar stared at the circles drawn by Andrea on the ground for a good while before she voiced out her thoughts. "But if you want to keep this circulation going, you've got to keep investing money... so, there's still a large amount of wealth that isn't in the hands of the great chief."

"That's it... This is what makes His Majesty different from all those other nobles, and it took me a while before I could figure out this point." Andrea then drew a larger circle around the small circles. "From the very beginning, he's regarded the entire Graycastle as his own domain. Given that, no matter which city accumulates the wealth, it still belongs to him."

"But he's the king, so shouldn't it be natural for him to think that way?"

Andrea retorted, "When Wildflame was the strongest clan, were you able to lord over clans in the Silver Stream Oasis? I'm guessing you couldn't even control the other clans inside Iron Sand City. It's the same for the Four Kingdoms. The nobles are like your clan chiefs. They won't let anyone else intervene in the affairs of their land and neither would they consider any other noble's domain as their homeland."

"..." Lorgar remained silent for a while. "We can't control our subjects simply by thinking them ours."

"Yes. You're much smarter than Ashes. Stay away from her in the future or your brain will be slowly filled with mud, like hers." Andrea patted Lorgar's shoulder. "The key lies in the combination of military might and the implementation of His Majesty's policies. The former can discourage the nobles from having any second thoughts, while the latter will gradually help to centralize the kingdom's power. This is a brilliant innovation. What's even more amazing, is that the king had already put this into practice since the beginning. Only having stayed in Neverwinter for so long can I now recognize the intricacies of this plan."

"It's indeed a bit... complicated." Lorgar scratched her head, and she was a bit surprised. She never expected that this blonde-haired girl who usually distanced herself from the others would answer her question so enthusiastically and in such great detail. Her guess was that Andrea might have been eagerly looking forward to sharing her findings and thoughts with someone else, but had failed to find a person to talk to.

"Of course, politics is 10,000 times more complicated than fighting." said Andrea, proudly, "and that's just one part. The other part is that the king is going to acquire more than just wealth—he'll also have you guys. "

"Us?"

"This principle is much simpler. When Mojin immigrants get food and houses through working for the king, they would become part of this circulation. You'll gradually get used to this lifestyle of using your wages to buy all kinds of goods and comforts produced by Graycastle. In the end, you'll never be able to stop living in this kind of a comfortable manner and will eventually become a genuine citizen of the kingdom."

Andrea impaled the wooden stick into the ground, wiped her hands clean, and stood up. "This is inevitable. The oases are shrinking, and the survival of the Mojin clans are being threatened. Under this circumstance, the king has offered you a way to survive without fighting each other for water, so more and more Mojins will choose to leave the desert. Meanwhile, there are many deserted lands lying in the Southern Territory. It's only natural for the king to bring the Mojin people there to reclaim those lands—and create wealth for him."

She paused for a moment and asked, "Now do you understand? By doing so, 20 years later, His Majesty Roland will not only get all the Blackwater that he desires but also an accumulated wealth as well as most of the Mojins of the Southernmost Region. Do you still think that buying Blackwater from the Iron Sand City would be a better option?"

Lorgar did not answer but instead faintly felt her heartache. As compared to the answer itself, what shook her more was Andrea's attitude—She believed that Andrea revealed all the reasons behind the king's arrangements probably not out of trust, but because no Mojin could reverse this situation.

Lorgar admired this intelligent blonde witch who could actually figure out the king's true intentions. However, she respected the great chief himself even more. He always thought of the bigger picture and was able to become an irreplaceable figure in his subjects' hearts through meticulous planning. Not to mention his revolutionizing ideas. She believed that if he had been born in Iron Sand City, he would have definitely become an outstanding warrior.

Perhaps he was the example she should chase after.

"Thank you for your guidance, I feel my fighting skills have been further enhanced!" Lorgar said while making a fist.

"My pleasure, as long as you can understand... wait, what? Did you just say fighting skills?"

"Yes. I'll go practice now, so please excuse me." Lorgar said before she turned around without a moment to spare and hurriedly ran for a nearby dune. There just happened to be an open and gravelly ground that was suitable for combat training.

"So you turned out to be just like Ashes... an idiot."

After running for more than a hundred steps, the Wolf Girl still could hear Andrea call her an idiot, but the blonde witch did not sound as cold as she had been before.

A week later, Echo informed Lorgar that the Wildflame clan had officially decided to move to the Southern Territory. As agreed by both parties, this immigration plan would be carried out in three phases to reduce Graycastle's burden, and the lands the clan was granted with were the most fertile fields near the estuary in the old town, which were located between Clearwater Bay and the port.

The whole migration process would last more than a year, and the first batch of immigrants would arrive in several weeks. In order to properly settle the former ruling clan, the Osha Princess, who was missing Neverwinter the most, volunteered to extend her stay in the Port of Clearwater. Her decision was approved by the king, but Ashes, Andrea and Hummingbird would still leave as planned, taking "The Roland" to the Western Region.

As for whether Lorgar would leave with the witches or stay behind to wait for her clan, Echo allowed her to choose for herself.

The Wolf Girl did not think twice before she chose to leave with Ashes.

She believed that her father and brother could properly handle inter-clan affairs without her. The Southern Territory was no longer a place where survival opportunities needed to be won by force and duels. In this place, even small clans could manage to get their stomachs full, not to mention the Wildflame clan. More importantly, she did not want to cause any misunderstanding by meeting them shortly after she abandoned her right of succession. As she had to leave sooner or later, she decided to leave earlier with the witches.

The things about Neverwinter and the Witch Union which she heard from Ashes and Andrea, filled her heart with wild expectations. Be it the legendary combat witches, the formidable enemies in the wilderness hiding under the cloak of the Red Mist, the great chief who did not have enough strength to strangle a chicken(according to Ashes), she looked forward to meeting them all.

The next day, Echo sent them on to the steel ship with a smile.

Standing on the deck, Lorgar felt that those large Concrete Boats were nothing as compared to this steady steel ship. The amount of metal used to build the hull for this ship might already exceed that of all the Mojins' weapons and armors. With mixed feelings in her heart, she held the railing on the deck and dropped her fluffy ears as she nodded to Echo to say goodbye.

With a deep whistle from its horn, "The Roland", carrying the witches and Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan, slowly but steadily sailed towards the Western Region.

Chapter 821 - A Meeting

"My lord, your guest is here, " said a maid who pulled the curtain and poked her head in.

"Send him in," Otto Luoxi handed a silver royal to the bar girl beside him and said, "I need a private minute with him. I'll call you later."

"Yes, my lord!"

"Is this the covert place you mentioned?" The man who came in removed his hood and glanced around. "If I hadn't seen the Luoxi guards standing outside, I would think I'd come to the wrong place."

"It isn't easy these days to see you, I had to take extra precautions, " replied Otto, grinning.

The guest was Hill Fawkes, a member of the emissary delegation who "betrayed the King of Dawn, killed the guards and knights and escaped from the City of Glow with some fallen minions". Ever since Yorko's secret departure, Appen Moya, the King of Dawn became so furious that he claimed it was a blatant provocation to and contempt of the Kingdom of Dawn on Graycastle's part. He also said that it was a witch that killed his father and he absolutely did not allow such an evil existence in his domain.

Of course, Otto knew far more than that. For example, that while Appen was searching for the witches, he also dispatched a group of knights to chase the emissary delegation. He ordered that any member of the emissary delegation, other than Yorko, could be killed on the spot, especially the witches who dared to collude with the neighbor country. At the same time, investigations were carried out in the King's City. Denise, a businesswoman who had an intimate relationship with the ambassador, was taken to the palace several times for inquiries. Hill and the others who voluntarily stayed as contacts, on the contrary, disappeared.

Otto did not hear anything from Hill until a few months later when the event no longer received so much public attention.

This was their first meeting after their last departure.

"Would you like some drinks?" Otto patted the soft couch beside him and asked, "I guess you usually have no chance to enjoy it."

Hill did not sit down; instead, he walked to the window and looked around. "We're on the second floor. Where's the reliable path you mentioned in the confidential letter?"

Otto, the eldest son of the Luoxis, sighed, stood up and opened a board under the soft couch, revealing the dark passage beneath it.

"Slide down from here, you'll arrive at the back garden. In the yard, you'll find a secret door and a dry well. You can choose either way to leave."

"Nobody else knows this path?"

"Of course, both the back garden and the tavern belong to the Luoxis." He said, shrugging, "No wonder Sir Yorko said you're a fox. You're still as cautious as you were before."

"If I were not like this, I'm afraid I would have been hanged on a gallow now," replied Hill, who took a coin from his pocket and dropped it down the tunnel. After listening to the sound for a while, he closed the board. "If you want to tell me any information in the future, write me an encrypted letter. It's not safe to meet in this way."

"But an encrypted letter is also not safe for me. If the information in the palace is leaked, King Appen will certainly suspect our families." Otto sighed and said, "He's no longer my good friend who talked about everything with me."

Hill raised his eyebrows without denying. "Does the King of Dawn have any new plan?"

"He intends to attack the Church of Hermes and avenge for his father," Otto slowly told him what he heard during the court meeting, "although the ministers tried to dissuade him, His Majesty still persisted. Now they start to collect grains in the City of Glow. When snows melt after the Months of Demons, he'll immediately take actions. The royal knightage will go together with Duke Carb who is in charge of the Western Field."

"No wonder the porridge is a bronze royal more expensive than before... Fortunately, the supplies in the Kingdom of Dawn are rich enough. If it were in Graycastle, the lord would not prepare for the war during the Months of Demons unless he wanted to trigger riots." Hill said meditatively, "Is there any problem with Hermes?"

Otto knew why he asked. Though the church and Graycastle had a battle on Coldwind Ridge and it was said that the Holy City was severely defeated, later it was reported that both of them retreated to their own domain. The ministers all agreed that the church might have suffered heavy losses, but had not been completely defeated. Otherwise, the King of Graycastle should have led his army to loot the Holy City. As the core city of the church, it should be where all the wealth church had accumulated for hundreds of years was.

Maybe Appen was deeply impressed with the God's Punishment Warriors brought by the Pure Witches. He just dispatched more scouts for further information without any further actions.

Since he changed his mind, it was possible that he had discovered something there.

As for whether it was to avenge for his father or take advantage of the chaos, it did not matter at all.

"His Majesty didn't tell us many details. But I heard from the businessmen coming back from the west that many refugees appeared in the old Holy City."

"Refugees?" Hill nodded while rubbing his chin. "I'll report this to Neverwinter."

"There's one more thing," Otto hesitated for a while and said, "in the court meeting last month, the Minister of Foreign Affairs mentioned Graycastle. He said that Roland Wimbledon could not be counted as the real ruler of Graycastle, as he hasn't either held enthronement or lived in the palace. What's more, many nobles in Graycastle oppose him, especially in the Eastern Region. Since he trampled on the alliance of the two countries, the Kingdom of Dawn needs to be cautious of him and suppress his power. For example, We should support those nobles to resist the rule of Wimbledon."

"Well," Hill immediately became serious and asked, "What did the King of Dawn respond?"

"His Majesty did not respond immediately, but his expression... showed that he has a great interest in the matter."

Otto did not know why he told these things to Hill... or, to Roland. Judging from the current situation, he could see the relationship between Graycastle and Dawn was deteriorating. He should have stood on the side of Appen Moya, just as the family of Luoxi had assisted John Moore's royalties for generations.

But he could not persuade himself to accept His Majesty's policy. Killing all witches meant that Andrea Quinn should also be killed, who was definitely not evil as Appen described. He had tried many times to explain the differences between witches and Pure Witches from the church to His Majesty, but his explanations were futile.

Appen no longer regarded him as his hand.

Otto also found that although he still addressed Appen as His Majesty, he did not have the same respect as he had for the old king.

He had pondered over it for a long time. Maybe he admitted that he was unable to change the situation and had to put his hope on Graycastle. In Neverwinter, he met Andrea who had a free and easy life. In order to let her continue to have such a life, he hoped that Roland's rule could continue.

"I see," said Hill in a lower voice. "Don't worry. His plan won't succeed."

Otto nodded, took a deep breath and asked, "Then... can you tell me how Miss Quinn is doing these days?"

Chapter 822 - Traitors

"She's fine. She lived on the Sleeping Island in Fjords for a while and has returned to Neverwinter now." Hill laughed and said, "I heard that Miss Quinn is especially close to Princess Tilly, His Majesty's sister. So His Majesty will definitely treat her as a distinguished guest."

Afterwards, Hill told him some trivia about Andrea. Otto learned that Andrea loved playing cards and improving her marksmanship. She occasionally argued with another card-playing buddy, but on the whole, she got along well with them.

Her news made him nearly forget about the passage of time.

Until he heard arguments outside the room.

"What happened?" Hill stopped talking and quickly walked to the door, peeping through the door slot, and then he said, "Something is wrong on the first floor."

"Let me send someone to check it," Otto indicated Hill to sit down first. He then yelled toward the outside, "Who's making noise outside? Go to see what happened!"

"Yes, my lord," replied the maid who had been at the door.

"Maybe someone is drunk." He then said to Hill, drawing the blanket on him, "It's unusual, but does happen in the tavern. You mentioned Miss Quinn participated in a Neverwinter hunting competition. Who won?"

Instead of replying, Hill raised a finger to his lips as a sign of silence and gently leaned his ear on the door.

After a few seconds, his face clouded over.

"Those people downstairs are armored and armed."

"What?" Otto was a little stunned.

"I heard the sounds of iron boots and sword hilts hitting the ground and chairs. Do you think anyone would wear a full set of armor when drinking?" Hill no longer waited for the maid but directly opened the soft couch. "I don't think a drunk would like to dress up as a knight. We're in trouble."

"How... how is it possible?" Otto frowned and said, "Please believe me. I absolutely didn't..."

"Of course. If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't be here," Hill interrupted.

"Well... We can meet next time. You leave first. If they're really coming for you, I can stop them." Otto replied. "After this meeting, I don't know when I will learn about Andrea again," he thought regretfully.

"Won't you leave with me?" Hill was slightly surprised and asked, "Apparently, they aren't coming for a visit. You'd better go back to your own domain."

"Rest assured. I'm the eldest son of Luoxi family. They can't do anything to me," Otto shook his head. He did not tell his father that he tried to rescue witches and secretly contacted Roland's scouts. If people outside the room came to search for the emissary delegation members while he ran away, it might raise the suspicion of the king. Then he would really be in trouble. "No one knows the secret path, but it isn't difficult to find it. If they saw an empty room, they would be suspicious. I'll stay in the room. Only in this way can you withdraw more safely."

"Then, good luck." Hill did not insist. He loosed his hands and slid into the secret path.

Otto rearranged the blanket and quilt and lay on the soft couch again.

A short while later, he heard heavy patters of footsteps at the staircases accompanied by the scraping of metal. The maid who left to inquire about the situation never appeared again.

Without knocking or asking for admission, they directly broke in.

A group of full-armored knights rushed into the room.

"What're you doing?" Otto furiously questioned, "This is the private property of Earl Luoxi! Are you planning to commit treason?" He intended to stand up and drive the rude knights out of the tavern. Out of his expectation, the knights stepped forward and tightly pressed him on the soft couch.

"I'm sorry, Sir. We aren't committing treason, but you are." The leading knight replied, shrugging. Though they wore the gold armors and royal knightage emblems on their chests, Otto found that he had never met this group of knights.

Hell, where did they come from?

"Let me go!" He struggled and shouted, "That's a slander!"

"Say this to His Majesty," said the knight. "You fail to live up to his trust, my lord."

When he heard the name Appen Moya, Otto's heart suddenly sank.

...

It was two days later when he saw His Majesty again.

"I heard that you haven't eaten anything for two days, but insist to see me?" Appen said. He still seemed to be a little weary, but looked more mature. His eyes revealed emotions which Otto was unfamiliar with. "Now your requirement is satisfied. Start to eat."

"Where am I?" Otto asked in a hoarse voice, hands on the steel bars, "Why did you do so? What did you do to my father?"

"Are you not satisfied with the room?" Appen said, looking around, "It's decorated according to your room in the Duke mansion. It's not large, but you have a bed, a desk, chairs, and a bookcase. I think you can live a comfortable life here." He paused and said, "As for where it is... Of course, it's under the palace. I can only feel at ease when you're kept here."

Otto gritted his teeth and said, "Your Majesty, I need to talk to you. I didn't..."

"Betray me?" The King of Dawn interrupted him, "Do you think I'll still believe these lies and continue to be deceived by you? It took me two months to find some clues about the witches. I have never thought that you were actually involved. You asked Yorko, the Ambassador of Graycastle, to 'Black Money' to participate in the auction, and also helped him leave the City of Glow. Wasn't that betrayal?" He raised his voice, as he apparently did not want to suppress his anger anymore. "That day in the palace, didn't you hear how the King of Graycastle abandon the covenant and trample on my father's feelings?"

"I..."

"Do you want to talk about the traitors or the witches who should go to hell?" Appen asked in a tone full of hatred. "Enough, Otto Luoxi! If you were not my friend since childhood, the eldest son of the three noble families, I would have long sent you to the gallows! I still need the support of the three families now. But that doesn't mean I need you forever. This is my last chance for you. Don't force me to do that!"

Otto's heart sank at his words. He had never seen his playmate show such a ferocious look. Thinking of those "royal kights" he never saw before, he suddenly understood something.

Perhaps they had lost the trust of the new king since the death of the old king.

"But the way, you just asked what happened to your father." Before leaving, Appen suddenly said in a cold voice, "Nothing happens to him. He still attended today's court meeting. As long as you eat food, Earl Luoxi will still be a good loyal noble. Stop this stupid hunger strike. That's good for both of us. If you persist, I have to take the hard way."

Chapter 823 - Dark Clouds over Hermes

Although it was snowing slightly, it was a fair day in the Northern Region.

Nail was rubbing the oil stick on the gun barrel out of sheer boredom. He occasionally glanced at the Impassable Mountain Range with the telescope. Since they had been stationed here, he did not observe the mountain as frequently as he did before. He usually checked it two or three times a day and spent the rest of time on maintaining the flintlock and chatting with his companions.

Maintenance of weapons required a person to be detail-oriented. Every half a month or so, they would get a portion of a thumb-long "oil stick" wrapped in hard paper. It was heard that the oil stick was made of abandoned oil from the soap factory. When they used it, they needed to heat it up and then rub it onto the special double-ended brush, which had a large and a small brush on either end, to be inserted into the gun barrel and cartridge. In the past, every squad was equipped with only one set of cleaning tools. But nowadays as there were more and more factories and workshops in Neverwinter, the brushes became accessories to the guns and everyone had one.

Of course, when there was no bonfire, they could heat the oil stick by body or mouth temperature. Though the soldiers in the First Army was forbidden to eat the abandoned oil, some people still secretly rubbed it on their dried food as a seasoning.

As a squad leader, he usually chose to turn a blind eye.

After all, the teams responsible for guarding the Northern Region were basically veterans. Some of them were even over 20 years older than him. If he had not attended the primary education class, he would not be selected as the squad leader. He could only smile to those who used to be his neighbors in the past.

After assembling the parts one by one, the rifle became shiny again. He pressed the trigger several times to ensure the empty gun could shoot normally before he once again checked the front.

He was still unable to forget the defense battle in autumn. Once he closed his eyes, the image of that young woman wearing a red cope would emerge in his mind. It was in this blockhouse that he witnessed her death. He knew that she was an enemy and a Pure Witch of the church, but her struggling in the gunshots still made him uncomfortable. If it were not Iron Axe's command and his loyalty to His Majesty, he would have chosen to leave the army and return to his previous job as a steam engine operator in the mining area.

Although he still served in the First Army, Nail made up his mind to leave the machine gun team and instead became an observer who protected machine gunners. He knew that he was deceiving himself, but he had no other way to overcome the obstacle in his heart.

The battlefield, which had been soaked with blood, was restored to the ordinary look as if nothing had happened. The barbed wires had long been removed, leaving only a dozen of crooked stakes. Trenches were also filled with snow. If there were no blockhouses, one could not distinguish this field from the wild field around. Aside from them, no one knew that over 2,000 people had once died here, just several hundred meters in front of the first line of stakes.

"Chief, we're running out of firewood. Let me go to fetch some," said a soldier who was nearly as young as Nail. The firewood he mentioned was the stakes once used to fix the barbed wires. He said, "Otherwise the other squad will blame us for not adding more firewood after using it."

"But it's duty time now..." Nail shook his head and said, "You may be seen by others."

"They won't say anything," another veteran said, laughing. "It's so cold today. No one will care if we go to get firewood to warm us up. It has been several months since the cowards of the church retreated. Do you think they'll come today?"

His words were agreed by everyone else.

Nail also knew the veteran was right. At first, Iron Axe required 500 soldiers in the camp keeping stationed at the foot of Coldwind Ridge to guard against the last struggle of the church or the invasion of the demonic beasts. However, to their surprise, no enemies appeared. Maybe the superiors believed that enemies would not come, so they transferred over 200 soldiers to other places and divided the rest of soldiers into patrol teams, whose mission was to stay in the blockhouses to monitor in the northwestern direction in turns.

Nail hesitated but finally agreed with that soldier. He said, "You alone will be too slow. Go there with more people."

The soldier whistled and replied, "Yes, Head!"

Nail turned back and picked up the telescope to look toward the snow-covered field. What he could see was the white snow. Nothing changed.

Just when he was about to wipe his pistol, he suddenly saw two or three dark spots which were especially striking in a white background.

He was startled, and then shouted, "Wait!"

The soldiers who had reached the stairs stopped immediately, and the others around the stove hurriedly stood up and drew close. "What's wrong?"

Nail wiped the lens with his wool neckline and looked back in the northwestern direction. He saw more dark spots. He held his breath and observed them for a moment, only to find that they were a group of people slowly walking in the snow.

"Blow the horn to alert the soldiers! Someone is approaching the front!"

"Woo—woo—woo—woo—" As the horn sounded, the entire camp was seething at once.

With a rifle in his hand, Nail led his squad members out of the blockhouse and stood in a line around the blockhouse, placing their gun barrels on the sandbags covered with snow. As the trench was filled with snow, they had to shorten the front line, assisting the heavy machine gun to defend.

"Are they from the church?" someone asked.

"Who else will come?" muttered the former veteran unhappily. "Coldwind Ridge has long been abandoned by His Majesty. Only people in Hermes will come from that direction. I underestimated their guts."

"I hope they're not the monster-like warriors. We don't have the support of the Artillery Battalion this time."

"We have nothing to be afraid of. I don't believe they can run quickly in the heavy snow." The veteran spat. "If they wear armors, they'll sink in the snow and become our targets."

"Head, their distance?"

"At least 1,000 meters away," replied Nail, frowning at the suspicious group. "It's so strange. Something is wrong..."

"What's wrong?"

"They... aren't like the God's Punishment Army."

"Does the church send the Judgement Army?" All soldiers were relieved. If they were just ordinary Judgement Warriors, it would be impossible for them to approach in the crossfire of machine guns on the blockhouse.

"No, not the Judgement Army... They're not armored. Actually, they're so ragged." said Nail, holding the telescope and said in surprise, "Gosh, how did these people come down from the mountain? They're like... a group of refugees! "

"Or maybe the God's Punishment Warriors disguised as refugees," the veteran shrugged. "Hey, where are you going?"

"I'm going to tell them to stop!" Nail said without turning back, "Otherwise, the other squads will shoot them!"

Chapter 824 - The Symbol of the Fall

As he approached the front, he could clearly see the group of refugees without the telescope.

Men, women, old men, and children. They were all ragged and staggering, looking weak and frail. They were even weaker than common militia, not to mention the Judgement Army.

Nail was more sure about his judgment.

But he knew that the church had a pill which could enhance the taker's physical strength within a second. Considering that they might use the Berserk Pills, Nail told his squad members to hold up the heavy machine guns within the suppressing shooting range before he approached alone and shouted, "This is the border defense line of the Kingdom of Graycastle. You're forbidden to step forward. Freeze, or we'll fire!"

Apparently, those people also saw him. They did not stop moving; instead, they accelerated their pace in excitement.

Nail shot twice upward and repeated his warning, but they continued to run toward him.

"Mr. Nail, come back!" Cried the veteran behind him. "They don't even know what flintlocks are. They won't stop no matter how loud you shout!"

Hearing that, Nail hurriedly shouted that he would shoot arrows, and those people finally responded. Nevertheless, after a moment's hesitation, they continued to move forward and waved both hands toward the First Army, yelling while running.

He could only tell that they were crying for help.

"No, stop!" Nail was still trying to stop them until he was dragged back to the defensive line by his teammates. When those people crossed the first line of stakes, flames spurted from the two blockhouses at the same time. Whistling bullets flew overhead and fell near the stakes, splashing snow dust and submerging their cries.

There was immediately a mist of blood among the crowd.

This time they finally stopped moving forward.

Except for the refugees who had been shot and fell, the others fell on their knees one after another and then threw themselves down in the snow. Terrified as they were, they did not turn around. It seemed that they were more afraid of some even more dreadful things behind them.

"Stop! Stop! Don't fire!" Nail took off his jacket, got up and waved toward the blockhouses, risking being hit by a stray bullet. The machine gun squads finally released their triggers. Probably they noticed his strange move, two more squads left the blockhouses and approached the front line.

Walking through the still-smoky field, a five-man squad held the rifles, followed Nail and slowly approached the strangers. Those strangers were trembling but dared not to move again in spite of the chilling snow.

"Where are you from?"

No one answered.

"Haven't you heard the question of our squad leader?" cried the veteran. "If you don't answer it, you'll be treated as spies and hanged."

"My, my, my... my lord," someone finally spoke this time. "We... we all came from Hermes."

"So you're believers of the church?" Nail asked, frowning.

"Yes... No, no, we aren't," answered the man, banging his head on the ground again and again. "In the past, we were deceived by the church. But we regret now! The deities did not protect the church. We were wrong. Please give us some food."

His words stirred up the crowd. They begged, "My lord, please, please give us some oatmeal. My child is starving!"

"The army of the church was after us. We had to drop our luggage."

"My lord, I haven't eaten anything for three days."

"So they would rather be shot by machine guns than run away?" Nail thought. He could not bear to look at the withered faces and bleeding bodies. After they fled from the Holy City, Graycastle was their only hope to survive. He reached his dried food in his waist pocket and was about to throw it to them while a veteran grabbed him by his wrist.

"Hey, what're you doing?"

"Give them some food."

"Are you sure? These guys are believers of the church." The veteran lowered his voice and stressed, "They're our enemies."

"But now they aren't. Didn't you hear it? They admitted that they had been deceived."

"Hmm, deceived?" The veteran replied disdainfully, "When they can't survive, they'll even worship demons. Compared with those Judgement Army soldiers fighting for the church, these people are just timid drifters."

"Head, Uncle Sang is right. Maybe they made the weapons and armors used by the church army."

"Who knows whether they've hurt the First Army?"

"They deserve it. That's what they'll end up with since they've fought against His Majesty. I'll definitely not give any food to them."

Nail took a deep breath and made a gesture to tell them to be quiet. He said, "Listen to me. We all know what Border Town was like before His Majesty came. At that time everyone was deceived by the church. But His Majesty didn't abandon us or treat us as betrayers. Then how could we despise them? Of course, I agree that we should spare none of those who committed a crime. Give them some food, and then bring them for interrogation. That's what we should do."

"Eh, well..."

"And His Majesty once said in his book that the Kingdom of Graycastle is a whole. As long as someone isn't guilty and is willing to pay allegiance to Graycastle, he should be treated as a subject of the king, rather than being persecuted and excluded." Nail continued to say, "If there are innocent people among them and we watch them die in front us, aren't we against His Majesty's wish?"

The crowd fell into silence for a moment. Then the veteran grinned and said, "Head Nail, now I know why Sir Blair chose you as our squad leader. You've become so different since you went to school. In the past, you always stumbled when speaking in front of a crowd. If Iron Head knows it, he'll be proud of you."

Apparently, he did not agree with Nail's remark that "anyone who pays allegiance to Graycastle is the subject of Graycastle", but since everyone in the First Army admired King Roland, they did not oppose Nail's decision anymore. The veteran said, "But you can't directly throw food to them. That'll cause a chaos. Pick up some starving ones and order them to come up one by one."

...

As more and more soldiers came, Eagle Face, the deputy battalion commander who was in charge of Northern Region garrison, also came to the front line. This tall man, who had round eyes and a pointed mouth like a grey eagle of Western Region, was one of the excellent hunters who joined the Militia with Iron Axe. He asked, "Can someone explain what happened?"

Nail stepped forward and saluted, and then briefly told him the incident.

"Escaped from the Holy City?" Eagle Face asked thoughtfully. He ordered them to bring a refugee forward and said, "What happened in Hermes? If you tell me the situation in details, I can give you food."

"My, my lord..." The refugee nervously swallowed and replied, "The Cathedral of the New Holy City... collapsed..."

"What?" Nail was shocked for a moment. He had heard that the Hermes Cathedral was a symbol of the immortality of the church. Before the completion of His Majesty's Miracle Building, the tower had been the tallest building built by mankind. At the start of the defensive battle under the Coldwind Ridge, he also had dreamed to follow His Majesty into the Hermes Plateau and occupy the tower that could reach the skies in the legend. But this magnificent building... did not exist anymore?

"I heard that a big pit suddenly appeared below the church and the entire tower fell..." The refugees stumbled, "The Judgement Army blocked the scene, but a big building disappeared without a trace, and the mighty bang... Everyone knew what happened. The church is over, my lord, the deities no longer favor it. The outside residents have begun to flee. We were a little later, and then we ran into the Judgement Army who was chasing us. Among the hundreds of people, only we escaped..."

"That means the Holy City is a mess now?"

"A mess, a mess..." That man nodded and said, "Beside the Western Gate, the Southern and East Gates are also open and unguarded. Obviously, the guards have also run away. I heard that the situation in the old Holy City is even worse. I really haven't seen any caravans come into the city for a long time."

"Got it. You're excused."

After the soldiers took the men away, Eagle Face looked excited. "This is an unexpected good news. Maybe we'll occupy Hermes before the arrival of the army."

Nails naturally knew why the deputy battalion commander was glad about. If he became the first Commander to lead the army into the Holy City, it would undoubtedly be his great achievement. But Nail did not pay much attention to whether he would win more achievements; instead, he cared more about those refugees who had suffered hunger and coldness.

After Nail told his concern, Eagle Face looked at him thoughtfully and answered after a moment, " It's impossible for the camp to keep these outsiders. Give them some tents and food, and allow them to encamp in places where the heavy machine guns cover."

"In this utterly unsheltered field?" Nail said worriedly, "If the weather becomes worse and there is heavy rain or storm at night, they probably won't survive the night."

"As the head of the garrison in the Northern Region, I must give top priority to the safety of the First Army." Eagle Face was unmoved and said, "I will inform Duke Kant to accommodate them. Before the arrival of the helpers in Deepvalley Town, these people have to pray to have a good luck."

Chapter 825 - Dusk Tolls

Tucker Thor climbed up the fortified city wall of the New Holy City and slowly walked to the blotchy parapet.

It was probably the most peaceful Months of Demons after the establishment of the stronghold.

As a tactic to defend against demonic beasts, the city wall was cleaned up regularly, covered with no ice or snow, but stood out in the bleak, vast whiteness like an ash-gray giant all the year round, no matter how big the snow was. At present, however, Tucker could easily leave his footprints on the snow-covered wall.

All traces of the battle had been wiped out by thick snows, including lumps and bumps on the flagstone pavement, and blood that seeped through the crevices between the slabs, as if nothing had ever happened. It would be an incredible scene in the past.

Nonetheless, the recent drastic changes had completed overshadowed such aberrancy.

Tucker had thought the Holy City of Hermes would be razed to the ground by swarms of demonic beasts. In fact, all the believers had determined to remain in the cathedral to the last, but they had not anticipated that few enemies had actually appeared. Those who did come to attack had not even made an attempt to crawl up the city wall.

While everybody was still absorbed in profound astonishment and celebration delight, the subsequent event, however, came as a heavy blow in such a cruel fashion that they were once again reminded of the volatility of the deities.

As the church had suffered a great loss during the war against Graycastle, the top priority in winter had become the election of three new archbishops and other senior executives. In order to maintain the order in the Holy City and restore believers' faith in God, many young believers had been promoted to key positions. Tucker had also been elevated from Chief Justice to one of the acting bishops.

Just when the situation was about to turn for the better, the abrupt collapse of the cathedral at a windless night, which had killed a number of senior executives, destroyed all hopes of the war survivors. At that time, Tucker had happened to be patrolling the campsite and therefore had narrowly escaped death.

Nobody knew how it had happened, although rumors about a great fire in the core underground area beneath the church remained afloat. It was also rumored that the area had once been attacked by demonic beasts. Yet without the permission of the pope, they could not access the secret trap on their own, notwithstanding the mysterious disappearance of the acting pope Reverend Tayfun.

The sag of the Hermes Cathedral could be considered as a more miserable defeat than the war. The loss of the war could be attributed to the poor and confusing communications between commanders and soldiers, or to the treachery of their enemies, but the collapse of the Tower of Babel, which represented the spirit of the church, meant that they had been abandoned by God.

The incident had almost become their last straw in consideration of their already precarious situation. Although the church had blocked the scene immediately, the news still spread out. Residents in the Holy City started to flee Hermes, beginning from masons and tradesmen living in the outer part of the city, who did not put much faith in the church in the first place. Then, like a contagious plague, terror slowly spread to the outer city and the inner city, except this time there was no divine cure for the disease.

Tucker had once organized a reverent pray ceremony on the city wall with all the members of the Judgment Army and priests, hoping that the deities would once again divert their attention to this last human stronghold and protect living beings behind it from the evil power in Hell, but the deities had not responded to their prayer.

Tucker Thor remembered that Pope Mayne had once taught him that power was the only means to defy evil. However, he could not think of anything other than praying to God to re-establish the church's integrity.

"Your Eminence... here you are." A woman's voice came from behind. "The army responsible for pursuing fugitives has returned, but..."

"Some of the units fled, right?" Tucker turned around and said in a soft voice.

As he had expected, the reporter was Farrina, one of the commanders that survived of the Judgment Army who took over his previous position. The resemblance on Farrina's face reminded Tucker another woman, Alicia, a warrior from the advance battalion who had sacrificed herself for the church. As one of the few female Judgement Warriors, they both had a tough character. Alicia had fought to her death when over half of her comrades had been killed as demonic beasts had approached the wall of the cathedral. Farrina, on the other hand, assumed the critical role of the commander of the Judgment Army when their very survival was threatened to keep the situation from getting out of hand.

Farrina stomped indignantly. "Yes. Those new recruits who just joined recently cannot be of any use. More than 20 people went to catch fugitives but only one or two returned. I know they haven't received much training, but it's very unlikely that they would be killed by refugees. If I ever find them, I'll definitely let them know the consequence of betrayal!"

Tucker sighed. "It's inevitable. How many people are left in the Judgement Army?"

"564. They're all guarding the inner city gate of the Holy City, so they should be able to stop residents in the inner city from leaving."

Tucker knew that these soldiers plus around 100 God's Punishment Warriors down the ruin of the church were the only forces left. He concluded that human beings were doomed, for it was impossible for these 100-odd soldiers to stop demons.

Tucker had learned this powerful enemy from Pope Mayne. What the church had been striving to achieve was to help human beings survive the Battle of Doomsday and ensure the continuation of the human race. That was the reason they developed powerful warriors like the God's Punishment Army. But that was not sufficient. The church also had to unify the Four Kingdoms before the great battle and combine all human power in order to gain the eventual victory.

What was the point of keeping the hold of this plateau stronghold when there is no hope?

There was little he could do, but for those 500 odd people, they could be relieved of the burden of protecting the whole human race.

Tucker finally broke the silence. "Go to the east. The Kingdom of Everwinter or the Kingdom of Wolfheart, whichever it is, pick somewhere close to the coast. We can build a new holy city there."

He believed in that case, even if demons invaded the Four Kingdoms, they could still, if lucky, flee by boat from the harbor to some distant islands and spend the rest of their life there before human beings were wiped out.

Farrina was stunned. "Leave Hermes? But Your Eminence, if we leave, who will defend against demonic beasts?"

"We can blame Graycastle if demonic beasts invade the inner continent from the breach. Our current top priority is to reserve our strength. We can always build a new cathedral but we can't let our believers suffer. When the Four Kingdoms are permeated with demonic beasts, people will naturally remember our power again."

"Demonic beasts don't really matter, as they aren't our true enemies. The greatest threat is from the depth of Hell, but there's nothing you guys can do about it. What I can do at this last moment is to keep you as far away from the battlefield as possible. You've done enough to protect human beings," Tucker said within himself.

Farrina's slender brows furrowed. "Those pious believers who resolve to fall with the Holy City may not agree to abandon Hermes."

Tucker replied after a moment of silence, "The Holy City lies where you stay, child. Explain to them, and they'll understand. This is also the order of the acting pope, which is to preserve ourselves and the spirit of the church. Do you understand?"

"Let those fugitives leave as they please and spread the news of the fall of the Holy City. By that time, the King of Graycastle will probably be anxious to take them in," thought Tucker.

"I understand, Your Eminence... No, Your Holiness," Farrina bit her lip. At length, she curled up her hands into a fist, placed it over her chest and bowed.

Just then, the somber sky was overspread by a haze of dusk. Tucker turned around and saw the orangey red rays of the setting sun slowly streak through clouds and that the fresh white snowfield was basking in slanting beams of sunshine.

"Does this mean... the Months of Demons has ended?" Farrina's face lighted up.

"Yes. The snow will melt in no time. Go and tell the news. If they start to prepare now, we'll be able to take off in two or three weeks."

"OK. Please excuse me!" She nodded and ran to the inner city.

At that moment, the bell in the Holy City tolled, announcing the arrival of evening. The bell tolled nine times to tell believers that it was time to close their eyes and pray to God.

Yet Tucker Thor did not pray.

Because God was not listening to them anymore.

He took off the crown on his head and placed it on the balcony. Then he ascended the city wall and gazed at the last splendor of the setting sun.

He had one more thing to do to persuade people to completely abandon Hermes.

But Tucker did not mind it because by doing so, he would be able to reunite with his old battle companions who had once fought with him.

It was not only a twilight for the church, but also for the whole human race.

Tucker shut his eyes and stooped over.

...

Farrina heard a gentle thud behind her as if something had slipped down the wall and into the valley.

When she turned around, however, there was nobody on the city wall.

.

The End of the Volume: The Bell of Twilight

Chapter 826 - Conference of Agriculture Mobilization Movement

The Months of Demons this year lasted for nearly five months. By the time murky clouds that overhung the Western Region were dispersed by warm sunbeams, it was late spring.

Roland faced a pressing issue.

It was spring plowing.

Although the war against the Southernmost Region during the Months of Demons, when the other powers were all sort of in a state of dormancy, had won him a lot of time to prelude the unification operation, it was also undeniable that he had consumed tons of food in winter.

Due to the lack of food input and the rapid increase in the population, the food in the granary in the Border Area was, for the first time, exhausted. Roland was secretly happy that he had entrusted the seeds of Golden Ones developed by Leaf to Petrov and had ordered him to promote engineered food to the public right after the seizure of Longsong Stronghold; otherwise, they would not have peacefully made their way through the Months of Demons this year.

The concrete boats traveling between the border and the Longsong area was the lifeline of the First Army, for they transported pancakes made from coarse-grained wheat flour to soldiers fighting at the front.

As a result of the urgency of the matter, Roland convened a spring plowing conference right after the celebration of "Victory Day".

On that day, not only the Ministry of Agriculture but the whole City Hall, including secondary officials in the Longsong area, the district governor, Petrov, and the governor of Fallen Dragon Ridge, Spear, were all summoned to the Neverwinter castle. It should be noted that Spear Passi was directly transferred by Maggie. Ghastly pale and frightened, she complained about her rough flight when she landed and bowed to Roland.

Calvin Kant, the lord of the Northern Region, was absent, but he sent his daughter Edith and his second son Cole to attend the conference on behalf of him. Roland was not sure if it was an illusion, but he noticed, somehow, that the Pearl of the Northern Region had become more radiant since her return from the Great Snow Mountain. Compared with her resplendency, Cole seemed increasingly frail and insignificant. Roland also wondered whether his attire was a little too... androgynous?

Anyhow, the attendees of the conference came from all parts of Graycastle, except the Eastern Region, whose lord had yet to pledge fealty to Roland, and the Central Region, where Roland had yet to establish a well-functioning city hall. Without these two regions, the conference could be considered as the first National Congress.

Roland surveyed the hall in satisfaction and then tapped the desk.

Everybody instantly became silent. All the eyes rested upon the king.

"You must be wondering why I wrote the word 'operation' on the banner." Roland pointed to the red banner on the wall behind him. "Because this is essentially a war. It determines whether we can successfully implement our strategic plan this year and whether we're doing the right thing for people in Neverwinter! I promised to refugees when I took them in that as long as they worked hard, they would never starve."

"In the past three years, I fulfilled my promise. My domain expanded from a small, underdeveloped border town to more than half of the territory of Graycastle. I see no reason that we can't make it happen this year. Our kingdom would only be stable when our subjects aren't worried about food. Therefore, I need every one of you to take spring plowing seriously. All of you have to reach your agricultural production target this year in accordance with the plowing regulations and guidelines drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture." Roland paused for a second and then continued, "Also, starting from this year, there'll be an assessment specifically targeting the agricultural progress in your jurisdiction, which will include evaluations on how much virgin land you've cultivated, the number of farmers in your domain, as well as the agricultural production. These factors will be incorporated into the criteria for a competent governor!"

Perceiving the confusion among all the attendees, Roland smiled faintly. "It's OK you don't know about these evaluation items, because Sirius, the Minister of Agriculture, will later spend one day explaining to you in detail. In conclusion, if you fail to meet my criteria, it tells me that you aren't competent to rule the region and are no longer suitable for the governor position."

Nobody uttered a word, but Roland could clearly sense the tension among them from their expressions.

This was exactly the effect Roland wanted to achieve. The abortion of the feudal system not only meant the cancellation of feudal rights but also meant the abolishment of the hereditary system. Roland allowed those officials to receive benefits from the government, but he would not tolerate any delays of his development plan.

The agriculture assessment was simply a start.

Roland uncovered the curtain behind him, revealing the big red number underneath, and said, "I'll set an easy target for you for the first year in terms of other criteria. But in terms of agricultural production, I want you to reach this number!"

Everyone gasped. "2,500,000 kg?"

Roland was not surprised at their reaction. The average production in this era was 500,000 kg for a mid-sized city and 750,000 for a big one like the old king's city. The first time they had grown Golden Ones in Border Town, the food production was a little over 350,000 kg, which had been considered as an unprecedented big harvest at that time.

Of course, the actual food production was largely influenced by farmland areas and the number of farmers. Unlike Border Town which relied heavily on high-return crops, big cities totally depended on the surrounding villages and small towns, as well as the work of thousands of farmers to obtain such a big quantity of food. Because of this, he decided to include farmland areas and the number of farmers in the evaluation.

The fewer farmers were, the more workers would be in the factory.

Roland signaled everybody to be quiet. "In fact, when you see the testing field for Golden Twos, you'll understand this target isn't that unrealistic. After numerous repeated tests by Leaf, Golden Twos can now yield food more than two times Gold Ones per unit. The wheat-straw in the field is overloaded by ears of wheat."

Petrov exclaimed in surprise. "Your Majesty... is it true that Golden Twos can yield two times more?"

Among all the officials outside Neverwinter, Petrov was the only one who was impressed by the amazing production rate of Golden Ones. During the war in the Months of Demons, the Longsong Area had provided the First Army with over half of the total supplies, thanks to the cultivation of Golden Ones that had generated a huge amount of excess. In comparison, the normal wheat they had previously grown could not even suffice to feed people in one city.

"That's right, but Golden Twos aren't perfect either." Roland looked at Leaf standing next to him and announced, "Now I'll hand over to Miss Leaf from the Witch Union, who will talk about the features of Golden Twos in detail."

After a slight nod, Leaf walked up to him with a bag of grown wheat in her hand and showed it to everybody. She said, "Golden Twos are different from any wheat you've grown before. It can only be grown once. So, you have to come to Neverwinter annually to get new seeds. I've strengthened the root of the plant so that it can absorb nutrition from the soil deep down the earth. That's also the reason it requires a lot of fertilizer; otherwise, we'll have to adopt a fallow system by marking out three farmlands and using them in a rotation. Also..."

Roland stroked his chin in satisfaction while watching Leaf become more confident and comfortable to speak in public. Golden Twos could be viewed as a new type of wheat that produced its own "Jinkela". Its roots could extend four to five meters underground and absorb nutrients more efficiently. Apart from being unable to reproduce, it surpassed Golden Ones in every aspect.

This sole defect of Golden Twos was actually a merit for Neverwinter. As the plant could not reproduce, the other cities would have to rely on the new king's city's supply once they started to grow Golden Twos. At the same time, other low-yield wheat would be obsolete and pushed out of the market. In a sense, Golden Twos enabled Roland to create a food monopoly, and the government would definitely benefit a lot from the control of the food resources.

Roland believed no farmers would want to grow normal wheat again after they tried out Golden Twos.

The promotion of the newly-developed seeds throughout the whole nation would largely alleviate the problem of food deficiency.

With more food... he could feed more people.

Because now, he no longer contented himself with ruling just Graycastle.

Chapter 827 - War Supplies

Edith was the first to raise questions after Leaf finished. "Your Majesty, is it safe for us ordinary people to consume the magic-engineered wheat?"

It was probably the problem that the people here were most concerned about. After the Pearl of the Northern Region brought that up, not only Petrov but also Spear were anxious to get a straight answer.

Roland replied with a smile, "First of all, there's no significant difference between Golden Twos and Golden Ones, for both of them are developed by Leaf. The only difference is that Golden Twos yields more food than Golden Ones. Second, although it's enhanced by magic power, the plant itself doesn't contain any, so you don't need to worry that it will cause harm to ordinary people. In fact, the oatmeal and the pancake I ate a few days ago were actually made from Golden Twos in the testing field."

Roland somehow remembered the fervent discussion about natural food, hybrid food, and genetically engineered food in the modern world. Some people stressed that the best food was natural food, but they had forgotten what natural food had originally looked like.

The origin of Golden Twos was very complicated. To fully explain it, Roland had to educate them on genetic mutation and the mechanism of heredity, a part of knowledge that even Leaf did not know much about. Although Leaf's ability could induce great changes to plants in a short period of time, she had to constantly supply the plants with magic power to sustain the change, and the change could not pass down to next generations. If the change was too great, the plants would die instantly when the supply of magic power suspended.

Therefore, when Leaf cultivated golden wheat, she used her ability mainly to create genetic mutations and accelerate the growing speed of the plants. Then, she picked out those fit for survival and eliminate those that were not. After numerous rounds of selection and reproduction, she finally cultivated a species with a distinctive character. The process was no different than traditional farming, except it was a lot faster. The selection process, which usually would take hundreds of years, had been completed in merely two years.

Roland had once seen what an original watermelon looked like. It was a fist-sized fruit wrapped in a hard shell with several pieces of yellow flesh in it, pretty much like a mandarin. By the 17th Century, however, the flesh had turned to a red color and the fruit itself had also become much larger. Unfortunately, over half of the fruit was filled with white tissues, with only four or five spoons of eatable flesh.

Apart from watermelon, many fruits people often saw nowadays looked quite different from what they had looked like in the past. In fact, the same held true for plants and animals. The most typical example was dogs, an originally non-existent species that had transformed from wolves as a result of generations of human influences.

Therefore, the so-called natural food was also a product of repeated human selection and filtering. The true, original food was most likely tasteless.

Plus, not only human beings but also other species, from mammals all the way to microorganisms, were all constantly changing to adapt better to the environment. In Roland's opinion, it was as natural for human beings to build a power station as yeasts ferment bread, because life itself was a part of nature.

Roland knew these theories were beyond the understandings of these local officials, so he simplified his answer to two sentences: a) It was safe to eat Golden Ones, and it was certainly OK to eat Golden Twos; b) I ate them as well. The best way to persuade them in this era was that the king set an example for his people.

Seeing that everybody was now convinced, Roland went on, "Furthermore, like what we're doing in Neverwinter, all food trades in your city should be supervised and controlled by the secondary City Hall. Private food sale is forbidden. Barov, the Governor-in-Chief, will talk about the detailed implementation of the policy."

Countess Spear Passi raised her brows. "Your Majesty, if Golden Twos does provide high yields as you've described, there must be a large excess after all subjects are fed. That'll create a huge financial burden for the government if City Hall plans to buy back all the excess. The population in Fallen Dragon Ridge is just a little over 10,000. Considering that, do we also have to produce so much food?"

"Yes, because we aren't going to consume the excess of food but to store it."

"Store it?" Spear was a little surprised.

"For the upcoming Battle of Divine Will." Roland pronounced the words slowly.

Other than attracting immigrants to Graycastle, the other reason he forced local officials to promote Golden Twos was this battle that was going to determine the survival of all human beings. Since Roland was born in peacetime and had not experienced the cruelty of a prolonged war, he could only make war preparations based on what he had learned from histories.

The worst scenario Roland could think of was that the population reduced by 30% and that all young, abled ones went to war, leaving women and children working in the plant to provide supplies to the front. In that case, the farmland would be very likely deserted. If, however, they had food excess that could last two to three years, they might be able to survive the most difficult wartime and wait until things turned better.

Roland had discussed the matter with Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction. The latter believed that a granary that was well-designed, well-structured and well taken care of could preserve grains for at most five years. Although stale grains of one or two years old would not taste as good as fresh ones, nobody would give much thought of it when they were overwhelmed by the bitterness of a war.

It was worth noting that there were high-yield crops other than wheat in Leaf's testing field. After two years of experimenting, Leaf had successfully enhanced other imported crops, such as sugar canes, corn and potatoes, and cultivated their high-yield breeds. Corn and potatoes, in particular, genetically produced more food than wheat. The reasons Roland chose to promote Golden Twos rather than these two plants were: a) he could not easily create a monopoly on food trades as they could reproduce; b) their storage life was shorter than grains'.

Of course, agriculture was a very complex industry, which involved food for both human beings and animals... For example, poultry relied heavily on fodder beans. However, Roland had no time to carefully plan that part out at the moment, as the food problem in wartime was already a project big enough for him to worry about.

Since most of the attendees knew what the Battle of Divine Will stood for, nobody raised questions on the policy pertaining to the survival of human beings again. At the end of the conference, Roland fastened his eyes onto Scroll and said, "I hope that we add agriculture to our secondary education as a subject so as to train people into experts who specialize in farming various plants and crops."

As the education level in other cities was incomparable to that in Neverwinter, Roland felt it hard to realize the democratization of education throughout the whole Graycastle. As such, he believed it was easier to dispatch some trained professionals from Neverwinter to supervise the agricultural industry in other cities. The movement would set a precedent for the other industries, such as chemistry, architecture and medical science. He did not expect his subjects to conduct their own research or construct new theories, but simply to apply what they had learned to the mundane operation of the industry.

After the conference, Wendy brought Roland a piece of news.

The witches who were exploring the snow mountain of the Western Region had safely docked at Neverwinter.

When Roland arrived at the wharf, someone dashed to him and threw herself into his arms.

Her blond hair tickled his cheeks. The air was impregnated with the scent that Roland was so familiar with.

"I'm back," Chuckling, Nightingale whispered in his ear.

Chapter 828 - Nightingale's Secret Plan

Roland was too overwhelmed by the swell of emotions to develop an immediate response. He wanted to reproach her for risking her own life, but his words, which were about to come out, finally yielded to a look of resignation when he saw Nightingale's beaming smile.

In the end, he patted her on the back and said, "Be more careful next time."

Nightingale nodded and then shook her head. She whispered to him in a voice that nobody but he could hear, "Unlike Anna, I can't convert those drawings to physical entities... This is the only thing that I can do for you." She then paused for a moment and went on, "But please don't worry. My top priority is to protect you... and stand by your side. I won't recklessly put myself in a dangerous situation."

Nightingale flushed at her own bluntness. Although her voice kind of trailed off in the middle, Roland still clearly heard the word "you".

The act had probably consumed all Nightingale's valor. With these words, she disengaged herself and vanished in the Mist.

It was hard to imagine that the girl, who had to obviously muster all her courage to proclaim her feeling, would actually challenge a fearsome monster to a duel in the ruin, with nothing but a flintlock and some explosives in her hand.

Roland was deeply moved.

"Please let me continue to protect you in the future."

Hearing Nightingale's calming voice from behind, Roland somehow felt a sense of security which he had not experienced for a long time.

Next, as a common practice, he gave all the other witches a welcoming hug.

Nonetheless, Roland was a little discomforted by the look of the Taquila survivors.

Unlike the laughing and cheering union members, the Taquila witches, following their leaders, landed in an orderly manner, each with a black box on the shoulder. When they passed Roland, however, they stared at Roland, eyes fastened onto him, full of ardent desires and a feverish aspiration that made Roland shudder uncontrollably.

Roland knew very well the reason behind their lusty gazes. Apparently, Pasha and some of the other witches had informed the God's Punishment Witches at the snow mountain of the Dream World. Apart from exploring, the purpose of their expedition was to transport the soul device to the Great Snow Mountain and transfer their souls to the devouring worms.

Roland did not mind wild gazes from women, but the problem was that most of the God's Punishment Witches had a male appearance. Roland understood that due to the limitation in the choices of shells, they were forced to pick male God's Punishment Warriors. However, for Roland, it was a very unnerving feeling to be stared by a person of the same sex.

Even though he knew the souls beneath these shells were female, he could not help feeling a little queasy under the scrutiny of a group of big, strong "male" warriors. It was even worse when the stares were overflowed with some ineffable eagerness.

After the greetings, Roland returned to the castle and found Nightingale had reappeared at his desk, her slender legs dangling in the air.

"So it's true... that those shells can enter the Dream World?"

It seemed some union witches had also learned the news.

Roland shrugged. "I was surprised at first as well. They will intrude the dream if they disconnect themselves in the area covered by the beams of light. Those beams are more a transportation channel than a connection with the deities."

Nightingale pursed her lips without uttering a word. Her eyes, however, brightened as she listened. She even cocked her feet to Roland's knees. Evidently, she was much bolder when they were alone.

"No!" Roland immediately objected. "I know what you're thinking. You want to convert yourself to a God's Punishment Witch and enter the dream. I won't allow you to do that."

Roland had learned long before that Nightingale, unlike Anna, was more audacious. So he instantly renounced her crazy idea after noticing what she was planning on. If he did not, Nightingale would probably really plunge into action.

"But I..."

"There's no room for negotiation," Roland interrupted her decisively. "Entering the dream world doesn't mean you're fused with my mind, nor does it mean that you'll become immortal. It's just a fake, strange world which has been eroded by some unknown power. Perhaps someday it'll just vanish. Plus, even if you enter my dream on a daily basis, that's just one night. What about all those other moments? Are you planning to live in a shell that doesn't feel forever?"

Nightingale lowered her head. After a long silence, she muttered, "I just feel it's too unfair that they can go to places you once visited."

Roland was amused by her brooding tone. "It's an unimaginable price they've paid for that chance. A senseless life of eternity is more terrible than a life of imprisonment. The Dream World is simply a small comfort to them. There's no need to envy them. You said 'My top priority is to protect you and... stand by your side'. Are you planning to break your promise?" Roland mimicked her voice. "I don't want a bearded God's Punishment Warrior to stick around all day."

Abashed, Nightingale turned her head immediately. "I, I got it! I didn't say that I would live in a shell. You did though."

Roland smiled. "Would you like some Chaos Drink?"

She instantly turned back. "Yes!"

"Well, she's really easy to please," thought Roland.

Roland produced a pack of delicious dried fish from the drawer and put it on the desk, after which, he uncorked a new drink coming in a sky-blue bottle and filled Nightingale's glass. Roland said, "Thank you for your help. Agatha told me if you did not severely wound that monster, everybody would have been in danger."

Nightingale gulped down the drink and exhaled a long breath. She nibbled one piece of dried fish and rubbed her nose. "Anytime. You're being over-polite."

Roland shook his head. "No, I'm not. If all the members of the exploration team of the Witch Union are killed in this operation, it'll be a permanent loss for Neverwinter. Therefore, your job is equally important as Anna's. You just specialize in different things. Do you understand?"

Hearing this, Nightingale could not help smiling. She soon continued to chew her dried fish as if to cover her joy and the intricacies of her little mind. "Um... right, you said the Dream World has been eroded by an unknown power. What does that mean? Will you be in danger?"

Roland was amused by the stiff manner in which she switched her subject, yet he did not point that out but simply replied, "That's a long story, but one thing is for sure, which is whatever that world becomes in the end, it won't affect the real me. No beams of light will appear if I don't want to dream."

As to the unknown power, Garcia said the Martialist Association would eventually lead their new recruits to uncover the mysterious veil of the dream world. No matter what she referred to, Roland would only know what she was talking about after seeing it.

Compared with the erosion, Roland cared more about the newly amended Mathematical Olympiad textbook.

Chapter 829 - Findings at the Snow Mountain

The Mathematical Olympiad textbook itself did not bear much significance, but the premonition attaching to it did. During the initial exploration of the Dreamland, Roland had discovered that the books that he had never read were all blank, and this theory applied to both the books on bookstands and those in the library. Most books were nothing but blank sheets topped with a cover. He even speculated that those book covers were productions of some thin threads of his memories fading into oblivion. If he had never seen a book, it would never exist in the dream world.

But the Mathematical Olympiad textbook on Zero's desk debunked his theory.

He wondered why he had not noticed the peculiarity at the beginning. Had he overlooked it during the exploration in the first two or three months, or it was actually a change that occurred later?

If it was the latter, he had to probe into it.

If the Mathematical Olympiad textbook could come out of thin air and gradually restore its original appearance, would other books do the same trick? What about things he had never beheld?

Roland tried to figure out the connection between the three events, which were the strange power he had obtained, the extermination of Fallen Evils, and the release of the Force of Nature. He was eager to find out if they were the driven factors of the changes to this world.

"Your Majesty?"

Nightingale's voice interrupted his train of thoughts.

Roland looked down and found that he was stroking Nightingale's feet with his hands without noticing it. The thin fabric of socks did not prevent him from touching Nightingale's smooth skin and dainty toes.

Nightingale looked a little embarrassed. "I changed my socks, but since I couldn't take a shower on the ship, I'm probably still a bit dirty... Would you mind if I take a shower first?"

Roland was abashed. He did not know why he did that when his mind was apparently on some serious matters.

Plus, the equivocal remark "take a shower first" seemed to contain some unintended meanings, but his action was absolutely unintentional!

While he was rummaging for an appropriate answer, the knocking on the office door greatly alleviated his trouble. After Nightingale vanished in the Mist, Roland cleared his throat and said, "Come in."

Agatha came into the office. After an unceremonious bow, she asked, "All the samples from the Great Snow Mountain have been transferred to the Third Border City. Do you want to take a look?"

Roland managed to calm himself down in the guise of contemplation. He then gave an approving nod. "Of course, let's go now."

Agatha replied a "yes", but she soon turned around at the door and asked, "Are you not feeling well?"

"Why did you say that?" Roland was a little surprised.

Agatha answered in a serious tone, "Your voice sounds a little weird, which is a typical symptom of a cold. Although the Months of Demons has passed, it's still the coldest time of the year when snows melt, and people are most vulnerable to diseases at this time around. You aren't a witch, so you should take care of yourself, not only for you but for the whole human race. Do you understand? Before we take off, I suggest sending for Lily and asking her to check on you."

...

The physical examination did not take long, but Roland drank a bottle of "anti-illness water" made by Lily in great amusement. Under the protection of both his guards and the witches, Roland descended to the bottom of the Impassable Mountain Range.

He was a little relieved when he saw the Taquila survivors.

Since all of them were frequent visitors of the Dreamland who had experienced the pleasure of the Dream World except Pasha and Alethea, they looked more approachable. The visitors included Phyllis a.k.a. "No. 76", Faldi a.k.a. "Magic Bug Nest", Dawnen a.k.a. "Matte Curtains", and Ling a.k.a. "Shadow Walker". Among them, Phyllis was the only one who had a female appearance.

Alethea ventured, "I've heard that you plan to raise those unknown bugs in our hall and tame them? Mortal king, I have to say you're as bold and crazy as those researchers in the Quest Society. You know one day, your curiosity will eventually destroy you. Those are species left by enemies from the deep ocean!"

Roland shrugged carelessly. "That's why I want you to guard them. The captured bugs aren't aggressive. They can't even drill holes. One secret chamber would be enough to confine them. Plus, according to Agatha's observation, these bugs don't have self-consciousness but the instinct of feeding and reproduction. There's a chance that the multi-eyed monster regains its control over them. However, if Neverwinter is so defenseless that even a creature as stupid as that can approach our city wall, we would probably have been wiped out long before."

"Isn't Agatha also a member of the Quest Society?" Alethea swayed her tentacle disapprovingly. As she had also been a higher ascendant before her conversion, she did not pay as much respect to the Ice Witch as Phyllis did.

Agatha, who happened to become the subject of their conversation, simply twitched her lips, apparently having no intention to involve herself in this altercation.

"If you really want to make a fuss about it, Celine is also a member of the Quest Society. If she hears you say this nonsense, she'll certainly go against you." Pasha came forward and apologized to Roland, "Alethea meant no offence. She's just worried that those mutated bugs will have negative impacts on Neverwinter."

Roland waved his hands. "That's fine. Let's go take a look."

He knew that Alethea's fear was not baseless, but what Agatha and Lightning wrote in their reports carried a significant meaning. If he exterminated the bugs because of some potential risks, it would be like throwing out a child along with the bath water. Placing them at the bottom of the mountains was already a safety measure.

"OK. Please follow me." Pasha nodded.

...

Across the spacious hall and a narrow corridor, they found themselves in an empty room almost as big as four or five castles. In the light of several Stones of Lighting in the wall, they detected the obscure outline of the room. Littered with loose soil, the ground underneath appeared to be excavated thoroughly. On the other side of the room, they could hear interminable patters of running water.

Pasha introduced the room to the visitors, "This is a culture room newly set up by Fran. It's absolutely safe in here, for there's only one exit and the underground water was the seepage from the rocks. Are you... really planning to grow mushrooms and mutated bugs in here though?"

Agatha further explained, "Because those huge mushrooms were exactly what the bugs feed on. If they can grow in here like they normally do in the natural environment, we can obtain a large number of mutated bugs effortlessly.

If they could not transplant the mushrooms, they would have to resort to Lily's artificial cultivation method. Roland thought It was a pity that the mushrooms down the ruin at the snow mountain were not edible because of their poisonous nature, for from their size and quantity, they were definitely high protein food that could serve as a meat substitute.

"What are those bugs for?" Phyllis asked out of curiosity. "If you want to study them, just grow a few and that should do."

Roland eyed Agatha and answered, "They'll probably play a big role in the development of Neverwinter if the report is correct."

Agatha responded with a nod. She picked a strange bug crawling on the mushroom and dropped it to the ground. Then, she nailed the bug with two ice pitons in its joints on its head and around its waist.

The bug soon became motionless after a fierce struggle.

Chapter 830 - The Function of the Mutated Bug

As what the Ice Witch had written in her report, the bug, which resembled a hairless spider or an ant with a big belly, had a slim upper body with projected joints and a prodigious lower body almost as big as a grown man's torso.

It was evident that this was not the largest size the bug could grow up to, for, to stuff a Mad Demon into its abdomen required its belly to swell out to be at least two or three times its normal size. Based on the "photographs" taken at the scene, when the bug had a Mad Demon inside its body, it would tuck its head into the ground, leaving its swollen belly up in the air. Therefore, it looked like a huge, fully-grown egg at the first glance.

"Did you kill it?" Phyllis asked.

"That'll save us some trouble. It wasn't aggressive, but it ran pretty fast." With these words, Agatha thrust the long sword made of ice into the bug's belly.

Some stinky, milky-white liquid instantly gushed out.

Agatha said, "The slime can be used as a preservative. It's fluid under normal conditions, but it'll slowly solidify and turn into something like egg white as time goes by."

"And... are we going to eat it?" Faldi frowned.

Agatha shook her head. "I haven't eaten it, but I guess it won't be very tasty. The key lies in another liquid in its body."

This time, after spending seven or eight minutes flaying the bug's back, Agatha took out a slimy green organ.

"It looks like a gallbladder." Phyllis poked out her head in excitement.

"But it isn't gall in here." Agatha carefully cut it open and added two drops of dark green liquid to the slimes on the ground, after which, she produced two ice pitons and quickly mixed the two liquids together. "What comes next is the key."

Roland held his breath, watching the "preservative solution" slowly change.

Before long, the liquid gradually thickened and the Ice Witch's movement slowed down. In about two or three minutes, the ice pitons were stuck in the slimes as if it was glued to something.

Roland stuck out his fingers and pressed the liquid surface, only to find that the slimes had turned into a gel-like substance. Although it felt soft, he could only make a dent of several millimeters in it.

Phyllis exclaimed in surprise, "This is..."

"Biological rubber," Roland answered excitedly. "This is what made Fran get stuck in there."

Roland had noticed in Agatha's first report the peculiar feature of the bugs down the ruin. He had thought it was similar to spiders' cobwebs, but after he had read subsequent reports, he had found the solidified slimes were as flexible and tough as rubber. It could not only cling to the surface of an object but could be also molded into various shapes. These two properties made it highly practical.

Indeed, Roland had been asking people to look for rubber plants. He believed once he found a sample, Leaf could enhance it and subsequently turn it into high-yield crops that could grow on a mass scale. Unfortunately, his search for either rubber trees or rubber grass was fruitless. Nobody, not even people from the Kingdom of Dawn, which was famous for its diverse species, had heard of such plants. As a result, he had to rely on Soraya's ability to produce elastic materials.

The lack of natural elastic materials greatly limited the productivity of Neverwinter.

With more new machine tools being invested in production and a substantial increase in the plant's productivity and processing level, the deficiency in rubbers had become a prominent problem. Roland knew very well that rubber, which could be both natural and artificial, was simply a generalized term for all elastic materials. Nevertheless, he had no knowledge of specific rubber production procedures.

While Roland was suspecting that there were probably no rubber plants in this world, the reports on the exploration of the ruin at the snow mountain came to him as a pleasant surprise.

That was why he decided to cultivate these mutated creatures brought by monsters in the deep ocean despite potential risks.

Now that he had seen the bug in person, he knew that he had made the right decision.

Roland did not care much about the lasting power of the solidified slimes. As long as the material could seal and fasten moving parts, it could veritably be classified as rubber.

Agatha said slowly, "After reviewing the scene reconstructed by Summer, we found it was exactly those bugs that made Fran glued to the hole. They tied her tight with a net of slimes that streamed from their tails. However, the liquid in their belly alone won't solidify. Only when it's mixed with the liquid in the organ at the back will it become sticky and gooey. If Sylvie didn't find Fran with the Eye of Magic, we would have looked for her for another 10 to 15 days."

Pasha nodded. "I see. This is a really good material for making fishing nets and ropes."

Alethea retorted flatly, "Maybe good for fishing nets but not for ropes. It's too soft and stretchy. Nobody will like a rope that stretches infinitely. Plus, I don't think our learned mortal king would bring these unknown bugs to Neverwinter just to have some more salted fish." She paused for a second and then turned to Roland. "No matter what crazy research you want to conduct, don't forget that now you're representing parties other than Graycastle."

Her comment stunned Roland for a second. Roland had never expected that Alethea, who had been brooding on him being the sole leader of the united front, would understand his research intention, and certainly had never expected her to say something that, in a sense, acknowledged his leadership.

At this thought, Roland managed a smile. "Of course. If everything goes well, you'll soon see its wide variety of uses in the near future."

Pasha asked, "By the way, how do we make the bugs eject slimes without the monster that controlled them? We can't kill them every time, can we?"

Agatha put the organ into a leather bag and wiped her hands. "This is what we're going to research later. If nothing else works, we'll have to grow them on a mass scale."

Apart from the "rubber worm", Roland also checked some other new species taken from the ruin, such as the fruit plant that emanated a ghostly glow and a type of boneless transparent fish which lived in the underground river, but they were nothing next to the mutated bugs.

The glow of the fruit plant, which could not be used for street illumination, was simply an offspring of symbiosis, where a large number of glowing beetles nested in the fruit. Once the flesh was gone, those beetles would disperse while spreading out the seeds. The fish could hardly survive in the daylight, but could only live in an underground river. Although it was tasty, Roland did not think they could farm them on a large scale. They could only serve as a luxury for a few.

Having said that, Roland certainly did not expect that every new species would surprise him like the "rubber worm". He was content with the findings in the exploration of the snow mountain.

Before leaving the Third Border City, Pasha brought him two God's Punishment Witches that Roland had never met.

"Your Majesty, they volunteer to transfer their souls to become new devouring worms. But before that, could you take them to the Dreamland to let them experience the wonders of that incredible world once?"

Chapter 831 - A Decision with No Regrets

Two days later, a strange-looking concrete boat slowly departed the dock of Neverwinter.

There was a huge swell, which looked like a moving hill, on the deck of the boat. It was completely covered with burlap cloth and guarded by fully-armed soldiers standing erect on either side of the boat, and a dozen God's Punishment Witches.

The boat was the "Victory". It was en route to transfer the soul device to the Great Snow Mountain where the Taquila witches would complete their incarnation ceremony and be integrated into the worm carriers.

Out of the confidentiality reason, the witches did not bid farewell. No whistle was blown as the boat took off, and even the loading job had been completed the night before without being noticed by anyone.

Roland stood at the sodden dock built with bricks and slabs, watching the shadow of the boat gradually fade away. He knew once the conversion was completed, there would be three worm carriers in Neverwinter, which would provide great help for both municipal construction and the defensive line project. However, Roland somehow did not rejoice over the progress as much as he had anticipated.

The two volunteering witches were called Jasmine and Lyra. From their original appearances in the Dream World, the pair looked just a little over 20 years old, almost the same age as Tilly. They both have outgoing personalities.

In order to let them have a good time, Roland had taken the two girls, Phyllis and the other witches to the amusement park in the suburb, where they had hopped on a Ferris wheel, ridden a roller coaster, experienced the haunted house (during which Jasmine had accidentally broken a ghost's head dropping down suddenly) and taken a spinning pendulum ride. He had also allowed them to eat as much as they had wanted. Had Roland not earned some money by killing a few Fallen Evils a few days past, he probably would not have been able to afford such a revelry.

Jasmine and Lyra, in the past two days, had been in a total shock, but they had followed Roland submissively without raising a single question. They had screamed as everybody had when the roller coaster had inverted and had laughed like any girls next door when they had had strawberry sundaes. All in all, they looked no different than ordinary people.

If he had not known it beforehand, he would have never believed that these two girls had made a decision to sacrifice their human bodies and devote themselves to the battle against demons, just like the decision they had made 400 years ago at the bottom of the ruin in front of the magic core.

When the dream had ended, they had looked more serene than Roland had expected.

Roland had wanted to console the two girls, but words had caught in his throat. There was no point to dissuade them from converting to devouring worms, for it was an action neither in his interests nor in the interests of the united front. Words, in this case, had all become frivolous and more sounded like feigned kindness.

In the end, Roland had become the one who had been offered solace.

He still clearly remembered their words and the expressions on their faces back then.

"Thank you," Jasmine had said with a smile, "and..."

"We don't regret it." Lyra had finished the latter half of the sentence.

At that moment, Roland could hear the throbs of their hearts.

They liked everything here.

But they did not regret making that decision.

"Your Majesty?" Phyllis, who came to send off her companions as well, looked at Roland. "Aren't you... going back to the castle?"

The words pulled Roland back to the reality. By the time he realized it, the "Victory" had disappeared from his sight, leaving a haze of fogs behind it.

Roland put the thoughts out of his head. He took a deep breath and asked, "They really can't disconnect themselves after being integrated into the carriers?"

As if to know what he wanted to convey, Phyllis lowered her voice. "A God's Punishment Witch is different from a carrier. The former retain some basic consciousness even without a soul transfer. Our conversion to a God's Punishment Witch was more like giving commands than a fusion. But carriers are different. They're specific vessels that seal the soul permanently once the integration is completed, although those vessels will become dormant if not used for a long time. Nobody has ever managed to get out of one up to this date, at least none of the witches, not even Pasha, is able to do that."

"But there're beams of light above the carriers, right?"

"That's right." Phyllis nodded. "Without magic power, those cumbersome bodies can't move independently."

"Perhaps one day, we can also find a way to have their souls return to the Dream World," Roland looked up at the distant, azure sky and said slowly.

After a moment of silence, Phyllis turned her eyes in the same direction. "Well... perhaps one day."

...

To Lorgar, the jungles covered with snows in the Western Region were something completely new.

For more than once, she had heard from traveling tradesmen what snow looked like and envisioned them as some cold, white sand. When she saw it in person, however, she found snow was way finer and whiter than her imagination, even finer and whiter than the purest river sand in Silver Stream.

The whole world was wrapped in a different color.

According to Ashes, although the Months of Demons had passed, it would take at least half a month for the snow to melt completely.

Lorgar thought that was exactly what she wanted, for, in that case, she could see a pure white snow city.

There was little she could occupy herself with during the voyage. Lorgar had turned the steel ship inside out but still could not find its source of power. Even Andrea failed to give her a definite answer. She only said evasively that a machine that continuously boiled water was pushing the boat forward. As to its detailed mechanism, Lorgar was informed that only King Roland and Miss Anna knew about it.

Lorgar did not know much about King Roland, but she had heard from Ashes that Miss Anna had a place on the "Battle Strength Ranking of Neverwinter".

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan thus became more impressed with and also more interested in powerful and intelligent Anna.

When she mentioned the ranking to Andrea, the latter, however, dismissed it with a scornful smile.

"A battle strength ranking?" Andrea cast a sharp, sideways glance. "A man is different from a wolf. No individual can compete with a group of people. Isn't it animalistic to only make an emphasis on individual fighting capacity?"

"Wolves are also social animals," Lorgar corrected her.

"Well, fine. Then just take another animal as an example, like tigers and snow leopards." Andrea coughed. "Anyway, Anna is the power source of Neverwinter. It was Anna's ability that enabled the First Army to quash the watchdog and Iron Whip clan with one blow. I bet Ashes didn't tell you that she was almost beaten by an ordinary man."

As Andrea had expected, the wolf girl was taken by surprise. Andrea went on, "That ordinary man used the exact weapon made by Anna. There's no point to discuss fighting capacities without talking about those weapons. If you want to become stronger, I suggest that you ask His Majesty to grant you a set of professional weapons." At these words, Andrea patted the long-barrelled gun on her back and said, "If you can carry these big tubes on your back after your transformation, that would be more useful than any combatting skills."

Lorgar did not really agree with Andrea, but she took a note of her advice.

Her father often told her to listen and observe, and also to always remember what she had wanted in the first place.

As they moved against the current and as the water suddenly rose, the iron ship slowed down drastically. On the fifth day after they had entered the Western Region. the wolf girl saw a beautiful, big, fat pigeon.

It hovered in the air for quite a while before darting straight toward Ashes at the bow.

When Lorgar thought she would have an extra meal for lunch, she noticed that Ashes, smiling, produced a bag of cooked solid food and fed the pigeon. The pigeon, on the other hand, nuzzled up to Ashes as if they were old friends who had not seen each other for ages. It was when the pigeon started to speak that Lorgar realized that it was actually a witch.

"Coo, coo coo!"

"I got it. Tell Princess Tilly that I'll be there soon."

"And me!" Andrea did not like being left behind.

"Coo!"

The pigeon gave a nod, spread out its wings and took off. It soon disappeared in the northwestern direction.

Lorgar asked, "She's..."

Ashes turned around. "Maggie. Like you, she's also a witch who can perform a full-body transformation."

"I see..." thought Lorgar, but she then suddenly remembered that Maggie could transform into a fierce, aggressive and frightful giant monster. She wondered why Maggie would turn into a pigeon.

While Princess Lorgar was still in a daze, Ashes patted her on the shoulder. "Time to pack up. We'll soon reach Neverwinter."

Chapter 832 - An Encounter with the King

As the whistle blew in a low-pitched tone, The Roland staggered to a stop at the dock. Lorgar noticed the passerby dock all came to a halt and raised their right hands, saluting the towering ship when she stepped onto the trestle. It was probably because the ship was named after the chief.

The soldiers from the First Army on the ship responded to the public with a salute in the same manner.

Lorgar gathered that should be a special form of greeting.

However, unlike any of the greetings she had witnessed, where there was usually a party more superior than the other, the greeting here did not stress such a status difference. The equality between initiators and receivers confused Lorgar. She did not understand why they had to greet each other with such a ceremonious air when they were equal. In her opinion, the whole point of formalities was to pay respects and submit to the receiver, no matter it was kneeling and worshipping, or placing a fist over one's heart.

Apart from that, she also noticed that even the children playing around the dock saluted in the same way, chest out and shoulders back. During the process, nobody looked reluctant or inferior. Instead, their eyes were all full of joy and energies. The salutation seemed to have built a connection between each other that words had failed.

Ashes broke the silence. "This is a military salutation. I didn't know why they did that at the beginning and thought it was an etiquette imposed by Roland Wimbledon to his subjects. Later I found it wasn't what I thought."

Lorgar raised her brow in surprise. "Does it have nothing to do with The Roland?"

"Correct. They'll salute voluntarily every time a boat carrying the First Army docks, because the return of the boat means their family members have come back home safe and sound from their expedition."

"But they don't look like... families," Princess Lorgar remarked hesitatively. If they were, the greetings should be more emotional. Plus, practically all the soldiers on board were male, but there were few females at the dock. Could every one of them happen to have a brother?

Andrea shrugged. "All the members of the First Army are from Neverwinter, which means most residents have a family member who has joined the army. There's also a lot of them from neighboring streets. The First Army is totally different from mercenaries who drift around looking for potential employers, nor do they work the same way as an enlisted militia. They take pride in their jobs. They celebrate the safe return of family members for each other. I believe this is probably what His Majesty refers to as the significance of a 'people's army'".

"So it's an army... built by all subjects?" Lorgar questioned herself in silence.

The wolf girl followed the witches into Neverwinter, still lost in thoughts.

What the new king's city of Graycastle first impressed her was its tidiness. Despite streaming pedestrians, both houses and streets in the city were aligned in straight rows, including roadside trees. The compact arrangement gave Lorgar a suffocating feeling. Although the city looked quite magnificent at the first glance, she did not feel as comfortable as in Iron Sand City.

Moreover, to her great disappointment, there was little snow in Neverwinter. Even the solid-surfaced road underneath was dry. She could only spy some remnant of snow at the tips of tree branches and on the roofs.

Her plan to visit a pure white snow city was frustrated.

Of course, there was still something appealing to her.

Lorgar was overwhelmed by the huge boards that overhung some of the houses on the street, on which various signs and logos were printed, such as Old Hunter Leather, Straw House, North Slope Gem House, etc., although some of the boards were blank.

In addition, she was surprised to find that there was a sign at every intersection, clearly showing where each branch head, as well as the name of each street.

For example, the street she was currently pounding was called Glow Boulevard.

The wolf girl soon found these signs very helpful to newcomers of Neverwinter. These street signs provided her with a basic structure of the city and told her where to shop and where to find a hotel, saving her trouble to seek local gangs or Rats for information.

During her conversations with tradesmen traveling between the Southernmost Region and the north, she had learned numerous entrepreneurial stories that stressed the arduous and laborious undertaking of establishing oneself in a foreign city. To expose your foreigner identity would immediately put you in a defenseless and disadvantageous position.

But the street signs, although trivial, greatly eased visitors' minds. She even felt a sense of embracement at the sight of these signs, as if the city were welcoming her.

Probably that was the reason the city appeared so vigorous and prosperous everywhere.

Lorgar, however, did not have much time appreciating this foreign city.

Because Ashes soon took her to the Lord's castle. After she waited in the hall for a while, a guard brought her a message from the King of Graycastle. "Please follow me. His Majesty has agreed to receive you."

For some reason, Lorgar suddenly felt a little nervous.

She took a deep breath in secret and followed the guard to the third floor, after which she found herself in a bright, spacious study.

Behind the mahogany desk close to the French window sat a ridiculously young man. He was wearing a plain robe, bare-headed, whose gray hair cascaded over his shoulders, with no rings or diamonds on any of his fingers. He was fondling a quill and studying her with great interest.

This is the chief who utterly routed her clan and turned the whole Southernmost Region upside down?

For a moment, Lorgar could not connect him with the person she had previously pictured.

She thought a knowledgeable man who possessed a profound understanding of martial arts should be at least 40 years old. His forehead should be wrinkled, his beard braids should reach his chest, and he should have fathomless eyes of an old man. Even if northerners did not like the idea of braiding their beards, he should not be this young!

At this very moment, Lorgar realized that she had inquired about everything including powerful warriors in Neverwinter, but had forgotten to ask about what the chief looked like, one of the most important businesses.

After a moment of hesitation, Princess Lorgar decided to salute in accordance with Mojins' customs.

Shaking her ears, Lorgar went to knees and slowly lay down on her stomach. She had heard that gray hair was a typical facial trait of a Graycastle royal descendent.

"You're the Divine Lady from Wildflame clan, right?" The king did not let her lie there for a long time. As soon as her forehead touched the floor, he broke the silence. "Please rise, sagacious wolf. Welcome to Neverwinter. I'm Roland Wimbledon, the King of Graycastle and also your chief."

Lorgar slightly frowned at the word "sagacious wolf". The addressing was simply queer. She had never heard people call a wolf sagacious before.

Yet she quickly got to her feet in an airy manner as if she had never heard Roland's words. "My name is Lorgar Burnflame. As to the title Divine Lady... I believe it was more appropriate to regard me as a witch here. Further, my father Guelz Burnflame sends his best regards on behalf of Wildflame clan, in hopes that your sovereign will be as long-lasting as the oasis."

This time, however, she did not hear a response at once.

Wondering, the wolf girl secretly raised her head, only to find that Roland's eyes were fixed on her long, droopy ears.

Chapter 833 - An Unexpected Conversation

Lorgar's heart sank at Roland's unscrupulous gaze.

She knew what she looked like. Back in Iron Sand City, she had heard many people call her lycanthrope monster, half man or the Abandoned One secretly behind her back. Fearing these names would hurt the self-esteem of the third daughter of the chief, nobody had ever dared openly address her in that way.

But she was currently not in Iron Sand City and was no longer the princess shielded by the Wildflame clan, so she had to face these venomous comments on her own.

"Are your ears... and tail both real?" The chief hesitated for a long time before eventually blurting out. "Do you have to use magic power to maintain this shape, or they've become a part of your body?"

Lorgar bit her lip. Instead of answering the question, she pushed her hair back, revealing her one side of her face where her normal ear had disappeared. "I can't tuck them back, Your Majesty. I know they look very strange, but this is what I really look like. I don't want to hide my imperfection... If you insist, I'll try to avoid going to public places so that I won't scare people out."

Although Lorgar had resolved to embrace herself long before, she still had a mean opinion of herself on such an occasion when being directly questioned. Divine Ladies were viewed as powerful and beautiful beings by Mojins, who were favored by all the clans and admired by all young warriors, but she, unfortunately, was an exception.

She had been ignored after her awakening. Her legitimacy had been questioned even by her own clansmen, which was the reason her father had decided to name her as his heir. Lorgar dedicated herself to physical training and pretended that she did not care about those floating rumors, but sometimes, it was just hard to remain indifferent when so many people pointed finger at her back.

She had certainly anticipated these scenarios, but since she had chosen her path, she would not easily cede to her fate no matter what difficulties were awaiting her. The endless sand road in her dream had pointed where she should go. At these thoughts, the wolf girl erected herself, trying to look audacious.

The chief smacked his lips. "Strange? Why did you say that?"

Lorgar, who was prepared to receive any vicious remarks, stunned for a second. "Huh? Isn't it because..."

"They don't look like human ears?" Roland shrugged. "Ordinary men don't have magic power either, and these two ears aren't affecting your hearing or mobility. So, how can you say they're defective? They're simply a unique feature of yours, a very interesting one indeed. Don't you think these two ears look pretty?"

"Ahem, Your Majesty, please mind your language." At that moment, Lorgar heard a woman's voice behind the chief. The voice was very low and soft, but she still captured it.

Yet she was, at that time, too absorbed in the chief's comment to think about anything else.

Pretty?

Lorgar had never associated herself with the word "pretty". For a second, she failed to come up with an answer, her cheeks burning, her brooding courage almost gone.

How is a half man pretty?

"Anyway, I don't require you to conceal your face or wear a hoody in public... You can do whatever you want." Roland went on, "Perhaps someone will point and stare at you at the beginning, but they'll get used to it eventually. One solution is to ask Soraya to draft a picture-story book about you, or you can join Star Flower Troupe to star in a play and become an idol. This would be the fastest way for the public to get to know you."

Lorgar was overwhelmed by a series of unfamiliar words like "picture-story book", "Star Flower Troupe" and "idol". She stood rooted to the ground, failing to utter a word. Fortunately, Roland returned to their previous subject just in time.

"Right, Ashes told me that you came here to defend against demons?"

Relieved, the wolf girl answered, "And also to train myself, Your Majesty. I've heard there's a witch called Miss Nana in Neverwinter who can treat any wounds inflicted during a battle. This is very important to a warrior. You must know that it's a warrior's dream to fight and gain combatting experience without the fear of getting injured. Of course, I'll not only fight against your enemies but also bear all the medical expenses incurred."

Roland nodded. "I see. If you're willing to join the Witch Union, you'll have a big chance to fight..."

"But I prefer to act alone, Your Majesty." Lorgar interrupted him quietly. "Like a mercenary, I don't want to be distracted by anything other than fighting."

She knew that was just an excuse. The reason behind her lie was that she wanted to have a better understanding of northern kingdoms before pledging alliance to the chief. Lorgar had not forgotten that she was essentially a Sand Nation. If Roland failed to keep his promise made at Land of Fire, those Sand Nations moving to the south would eventually sever all relationships with Graycastle. If things really got to that point, the King of Graycastle would be her enemy. Hence, she could not make her decision without a thorough consideration.

"Really..." Roland reflected upon her words for a while and then spread out his hands regretfully. "Then I can't satisfy your demand."

"Why?" Lorgar was surprised. She thought a mercenary with exquisite combatting skills would be popular everywhere, not to mention that she was willing to provide her service for free and bear all medical expenses. No sensible people would ever decline such a generous offer. How could he refuse her?

"Because this is going to be a full-fledged war, not some minor disputes between several clans."

Lorgar felt all her blood rush to her head. She was outraged at Roland's insulting comment where he basically renounced all Sand Nations' fights as silly jokes. She perked up her tail and was about to shoot back when Roland suddenly switched the topic. "You've fought with Ashes, right? What do you think of her?"

Suppressing her anger, the wolf girl replied indignantly, "Very powerful. She would be a first-class warrior even in the Southernmost Region."

Roland said slowly, "This is the power of an Extraordinary. There're even Transcendents much stronger than them. The latter has gone beyond all physical restrictions of the human body and possess an inconceivable power. In other words, nothing can stop them from improving themselves."

"Tran... scendents?" Roland's words completely had Lorgar's attention. She wondered how powerful that person had to be when even Ashes admired her.

"However, even with three Transcendents, dozens of Extraordinaries, and thousands of combat witches, we failed to stop demons, and a great empire thus collapsed overnight. Now, it's our turn." The chief's every single word seemed to directly go to her heart. "The reason I declined your offer is very simple. This isn't a one-on-one duel but a fatal war between two civilizations. No matter how strong you are, individual operations won't work... More importantly, I don't want you to die for nothing."

Chapter 834 - Let's Drink and Celebrate

...

Lorgar did not know how she had exited the castle. She watched people pass by in a great haste, leaving her standing in the middle of the street at a loss.

The encounter with the king was beyond her expectation in every aspect.

She had thought the chief would have held a hostile attitude toward her because of her abnormal half-human appearance. An unkind king would not hesitate to conceal his feeling, whereas a calculating one would normally remain expressionless. However, she was certain that his attitude would change once he was informed of the purpose of her visit, because a free warrior was highly demanded everywhere, not to mention that she agreed to help Neverwinter defy demons. Who would decline such as a generous offer?

Lorgar envisioned that she would then settle down in the castle area, living in a hotel in the inner city and be treated as a clan guest. During her stay, she would get acquainted with more witches, especially the ones with great combatting skills, and obviously including Miss Nana. Although not everyone would like to know her, she believed there must be someone like her, who would like to advance their fighting techniques through dueling. This practicing method would benefit both parties and was certainly more efficient than punching sandbags.

When she got everything ready, she would then go find demons to further challenge herself. Ashes told her that those enemies were all hiding in the uninhabited Barbarian Land in the northwest. Lorgar was not afraid of camping in the wild, nor did she care about the treachery of the enemies' hiding places, because wolves were the ruler of the wilderness. She believed her acute sense of smell and excellent hearing would help her locate their lair.

But the truth was a total reverse of everything she had pictured.

It was Lorgar's first time to hear somebody praise her ears and call them pretty since her awakening. Even her father, who had never been averse to her appearance, had never appreciated her look. Often he said, "You'll definitely be one of the most stunning girls in Iron Sand City if you don't have that deformity."

Will wolf ears... really look good on her?

She had been so shocked by the unexpected comment that her head had been in the clouds during the latter half of the conversation. The chief had accepted her physical appearance but had refused her free service of fighting against demons. By the time she had left the castle, she had still not recovered from the blow.

"No, no, this is just a small defeat, " Lorgar consoled herself. She patted her cheeks and took a deep breath. As long as she stuck to her path, nothing was impossible. Actually, when she thought it over, the rejection did not affect her initial plan very much. She could still explore the city, investigate demons and get to know other witches, except that it would take a little longer than she had anticipated. Although Roland had rejected her, he did not impose any restrictions on her and even hinted that she was welcome to the Witch Union anytime if she changed her mind. Since Lorgar had decided to act alone, this would probably work better for her plan.

At these thoughts, Lorgar pricked up her droopy ears, wagged her tail and clenched her fists. She thought to herself, "That's right! If demons are really that strong, why did the chief build his king's city here? If demons come from the northwest, the first human city they come across will be Neverwinter. Isn't it safer to stay as far away from such a danger as possible when there's no guarantee that he can conquer demons?"

The words "I don't want you to die for nothing" were probably a feigned kindness to dissuade her from challenging demons individually. Nobody knew who would gain the eventual victory until he tried out! If she really got injured, the chief would definitely ask Miss Nana to cure her, because if he did not, he would then break his own words.

Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan cheered up again after thinking over the matter in her head.

She still had over 100 gold royals, more than enough to pay the hotel bills. Even if the medical expenses were insanely high, she did not think they would charge dozens of gold royals at a time. The money she currently owned would allow her to live here for several years without her worrying about expenses on food, drinks, clothing, herbs and desert guides. She firmly believed that without the support of the King of Graycastle, she would still be able to pick on demons by herself.

Lorgar felt greatly relieved after she had a plan. She looked around, starting to study the boards that hung above the surrounding premises. Since she had determined to take things slow, the first thing she should do was to find a place of abode.

As it was still bright and that she was not in a hurry, she decided to celebrate her safe arrival in the Western Region of Graycastle in accordance with the customs of Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan.

A tavern thus became her first stop.

No sooner had Lorgar set out than a pretty board caught her attention.

On the wooden board was a lifelike drawing of several glasses, in which there were colorful drinks, topped with some fruits whose names she did not know. They appealed to her just by their looks.

Underneath the glasses was the store's name: Evelyn's Complex Wine House.

At the end of the board was an additional line in a smaller font: New release of Chaos Drinks. 50% off on your first drink. Feel free to try out.

Chaos Drinks?

Lorgar's brow went up. She thought this was a pretty lame name, for the two words bore no relationship whatsoever. A person who had never tried it out might not know what kind of drink it was. No wonder they had to put it on sale to attract people.

But the store name clearly suggested that it was a tavern.

Since the name suggested multi-flavor drinks, Lorgar believed they must offer wines. Judging from the spacious, bright interior and customers coming and going, she concluded the drinks should not be too bad.

Lorgar patted her money bag over her chest and headed to the tavern.

...

"She wasn't telling all the truth," Nightingale commented while chewing her dried fish, "especially the part concerning the reason she refuses to join the Witch Union. I could sense a great fluctuation in her emotions. To make sure, it'd be better to ask Wendy to conduct a '10-question' test."

Roland shook his head in amusement. "That's the screening procedure for an applicant. She hasn't even submitted her application to join the Witch Union, so there's no need to probe into her background. Plus, Lorgar came to Neverwinter to fight against demons and train herself, of which, you're positive, right?"

"She didn't lie on that for sure." Nightingale twitched her lips.

"So that's it. We founded the Witch Union initially to provide you with a place where you belong. There's no point to force people to join. Plus, it's normal for a person to take precautions when coming to a foreign city. Let her be." Roland waved away the subject, pretending that he did not care, although he indeed felt a little disappointed.

He had an urge to stroke the wolf girl particularly when he saw her twitchy, fluffy, long ears. Also, her waggy tail intrigued him a great deal. Roland wondered whether his strength would leave him as it did in the modern world when he touched the root of the tail.

But he managed to suppress his incessant crazy ideas in the end.

He had to act accordingly with a majestic air, definitely not because of the presence of Nightingale, but because he was a king.

While Roland was thinking about checking upon the construction of the "Miracle Building" at the scene, Barov, the City Hall Director, suddenly knocked on the door and presented himself.

"Your Majesty, the members of Joint Chamber of Commerce have arrived at the castle district. They wish to see you."

Chapter 835 - Multiple Ways of Selling Chaos Drinks

It took Roland a while to remember that Joint Chamber of Commerce was a supply and marketing cooperative organization formed under his leadership, whose main members were wealthy merchants from several big Fjords islands.

Although they had reached a basic mutual understanding last fall, the number of Chaos Drinks produced by Evelyn at that time had not been high enough to meet a wholesale's standard. As a consequence, each Chamber of Commerce had simply taken a few samples and had yet to officially put them on the market. This time, they came here to finalize the unfinished business.

Since the whole Western Region was preparing for the unification of the kingdom and that Roland was preoccupied with the upcoming winter attack and the desert mission plan, Joint Chamber of Commerce seemed to have, temporarily, slipped out of his mind. Now their arrival saved Roland trouble to look for them himself.

"Take them to the drawing room. I'll be right there," said Roland. After Barov replied a "yes" and withdrew, he turned to Nightingale and said, "Send for Tilly and Wendy here as well, for this is essentially the first collaboration between the Witch Union and the Sleeping Island."

All the merchants rose and bowed to Roland when he entered the drawing room.

It took Roland some time to match the faces with their names, except for his old acquaintance Margaret, Gammon and Marleen from Chamber of Commerce of Crescent Moon Bay. The others were Nibelung from Chamber of Commerce of Shallow Water Town and Atiyer from Chamber of Commerce of Sunset Island.

As soon as they sat down, Nibelung ventured, "Your Majesty, the samples we took last time caused a big stir among merchants on the island. Everybody fell in love with it after tasting it. I assure you that Chaos Drinks will be the most successful and popular commodity in Fjords in the history of time once we start selling them!"

Atiyer chimed in. "And it isn't just a drink. For example, that fiery red spicy juice. Although it doesn't quench thirsts, it's a great sauce for steamed fish or barbeques. Besides, it can warm you up and refresh your spirit in a more efficient way than your white liquor. At least, white liquor will make you dizzy if you drink too much and it doesn't come in handy when you're on a ship, whereas that juice doesn't have such problems!"

Margaret nodded smilingly. "True. Not only merchants but many explorers are attracted to Chaos Drinks. A drink that can keep them warm without creating any side effects may save them in the event of a shipwreck."

Atiyer continued, "In this light, I suggest marking Chaos Drinks with various price tags. A drink with special functions like this should definitely have a higher price tag if we do a bit of marketing, not to mention that the number is limited."

Roland cast him an approving glance. Apparently, Atiyer had viewed the drink as some sort of energy drink. It was indeed true that successful merchants from Fjords were all good at sniffing out great potential business opportunities. They were able to notice the distinctive features of various Chaos Drinks just through a few samples. They knew selling them at different prices was the best way to reap profits.

Roland clapped his hands. "Since it has a good reception, we can move onto its sale according to the contract we signed earlier. I think none of you has objections to the pre-order price or the distribution for each district. However, you need to put a 30% deposit to pick up your orders. You should have brought sufficient gold royals, right?"

Since they had reached an agreement on the primary terms on Joint Chamber of Commerce last year, there were now not many details left. The main reason Roland sent for Tilly to witness the signature was to prove that he did not tamper with the commission rate. Since Tilly had promised to stay at Neverwinter and had agreed to send the witches on the Sleeping Island overtime to the Western Region, Roland felt it necessary to return something to demonstrate his sincerity.

Based on the "win-win contract" signed during the Months of Demons, it was agreed that 30% of both the deposit and final sale profits should go to City Hall, the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell.

"Of course, Your Majesty." Nibelung grinned. "There's no cargo on my ship this time, but only shiny gold royals plus some masons and sailors."

"Then let's go check the goods out." Roland smiled.

...

The drink factory specially built for Evelyn was across the alcohol plant. In fact, the building looked more like a fully-guarded warehouse than a factory.

It did not take a lot of spaces. The first floor was only a little over 100 square meters. The building itself was constructed of concrete and bricks, windowless, with a solid iron gate posed as its sole entrance. Like an invaluable military base, the premises was guarded by the new recruits of the First Army.

After Roland led the merchants across the yard, into the building and down the basement along the staircases, they found themselves in a spacious room around three or four times bigger than the ground floor. Like a villa's wine cellar, the basement was segmented by neatly organized wooden wine racks. To avoid fire losses, no open flames or connected wires were allowed in here. They used skylight for the wine cellar's illumination. Because of this, the place was a little dim.

On each wooden rack rested two rows of wooden barrels, but not every barrel contained Chaos Drinks. Evelyn only produced one barrel of drinks every day and there were currently just 100-odd barrels in total, minus those consumed by Roland and distributed to the members of the Witch Union monthly.

Roland tapped the barrel, and the liquid in it produced a dull churning sound. "We can provide 20 barrels of Chaos Drinks per month. Each Chamber of Commerce will have five barrels on average. As long as our production remains the same, you'll get the same amount of products every time, no matter how long it takes you to sell them out. Whether you come to pick up your orders every three months or half a year, our stocks won't change. All the 100 barrels you can pick up this time are here on the wooden racks in the first row. Once you've checked the goods, I'll send men to deliver them to the dock area."

"You don't let us have a taste before the delivery?" Gammon was surprised.

"This isn't wine whose flavor grows mellower as time passes by." Roland shrugged. "Some Chaos Drinks do have a relatively long shelf life, but not every one of them does. Therefore, after the brewing is done, we have to first sterilize and preserve them.

"S, sterilize?"

"Like food, they'll go bad. The hotter, the faster. Sterilization can slow down the process. You don't need to know how it's done, but you ought to remember that once we open the wooden barrel, the drinks won't keep the taste as good as they initially do." Roland spread out his hands. "You can sell them as fast as you can or stock them. As long as you store them in shades and keep them cool, they should last for at least one or two months."

"But... as Atiyer has mentioned, each Chaos Drink is different. Some may be more popular than the others. If you don't let us taste them first, how are we going to choose the better ones?" Gammon questioned hesitatively. "Could you divide the drink in each barrel into four equal portions and then preserve them? In that case, we don't need to worry about which one we should pick."

Roland thought that would add Soraya and Lily's work by several times. He would certainly choose not to do something that consumed more industrial production resources but yielded no benefits. So he replied, "Sterilization isn't easy. If we divide the products into four portions, each Chamber of Commerce will have fewer stocks but more varieties of drinks, which would do no good to the sale. As to their flavors..." Roland paused for a second and then said, "The Northern Region and the Western Region have completely different needs for wines and drinks. The unpopular drinks here may be well received there. As merchants who transport goods to various places all the time, you should know it very well."

"Um, well..." Gammon was at a loss for words for a moment.

Roland secretly twitched his lips. He certainly would not allow them to taste the drinks, for he had already put a lot of efforts in the distribution of the products itself. Further, according to their contract, it was agreed that the drinks should be sold in barrels and that there were no specific terms stipulating the product quantity. If there were a few unpopular drinks that they were not willing to purchase, Neverwinter would suffer losses, because every barrel of drinks required the same amount of Evelyn's magic power.

"Anyway, the flavor isn't the point, but your selling method is. You should get most out of each drink and find your niche." Roland tapped the barrels again. "Well, come pick the Chaos Drinks you like."

Chapter 836 - Signs of Change

Despite some hard selling happening, the Fjords businessmen still finally accepted this method of selection. They all knew that if they quit now, the others would only take over their share. Eagerly wanting to become distributors for these exclusive products, they did not mind such a little compromise.

And they also could not deny that what Roland said had some truth to it. The samples that they had brought back before, despite the notable differences in taste, could not be matched by the fruit wine or other drinks on the market. So the difference lay mainly in the amount of profit. Since they were all responsible for sales in different regions, the possibility of competition was not high, thus further reducing the risk of selecting an inferior product.

Roland was chuckling to himself as he observed Gammon and the others pacing back and forth around the barrel. Some were nose sniffing and even trying to find some residual appearance of the beverage. Though the buckets looked ordinary from the outside, the interior had a layer of membrane made by Soraya. This completely isolated the air inside and outside, therefore the nose would certainly not be able to smell any difference.

Taking advantage of the crowd picking out the Chaos Drinks, he quietly pulled Margaret aside and whispered, "The buckets on both sides of No. 10 and No. 24 have quite tasty drinks. At least I personally like them very much."

The latter looked astonished. "Your Majesty..."

"You can take that as a gift," said Roland with a light laugh. "If it wasn't for the first batch of businessmen that you brought, the Western Region might have taken two or three years more before it could look like this. Though your intention wasn't to do business with Border Town, the town still reaped the benefits, so this reward is nothing." He paused and said, "But of course, it would only be for this time. After all, if you get good cards each time, the others will certainly become suspicious."

He had pretty much said all the facts. At that time, the steam prototype had been cumbersome and difficult to operate, and had only been suitable for the simplest drainage and haulage work. There had not been too many sales markets in the Western Region. Had she not introduced it to the Silver City mineral traders, thus opening up a high-profit trade route, the initial accumulation would have been more difficult.

Not to mention Margaret's Chamber of Commerce was responsible for the sales in the Graycastle area, so monopolizing the local market through the first batch of higher quality products was also a good choice.

"In that case, I accept your gift." The businesswoman did not do much to refuse—in dealing with people, she really resembled Thunder who was cheerful, generous, and uncalculating. After briefly saluting Roland, Margaret laughed and said, "Since I have received your gift, I can't do nothing in return. I might as well reveal to you a good news."

"What do you mean?" Roland asked, raising his eyebrows.

"The first group of businessmen you mentioned, which includes my old friend Hogg, plan to visit the Western Region this period." She lowered her voice and said, "But from his letter, it seems that this time it would be more than just him—the machines that you sell have spread in the Central Region of the kingdom, and almost all the mining businessmen are now asking him about the rail-transport system. And in about six months, your plant will be busy all day long."

"Is that so?" Roland was a little startled, then smiled and nodded his head. "That does seem like a good news to celebrate."

However, only he knew that there was a heartfelt sense of accomplishment after hearing this news.

"This day has finally come," he thought.

Over the past two years, he had sold a total of nearly 100 steam engines, of which only 30% belonged to the kingdom. At the beginning of the establishment of Graycastle Industrial Co., the monthly output was only an appalling two or three units. This output could hardly meet the demand of his own domain, but he still sold a part of it to Silver City. He had been looking forward to this day.

Such a scarce source of power is almost negligible for the industrial revolution, but it was a sign of a change from manpower to machinery and of a new mode of production. When everyone noticed the power of this new source of energy and wanted to follow suit, the change would start.

He believed that this interest-based change was almost impossible to stop. Its effect would be more than 10 million times better than just selling and promoting products, and its energy would be enough to change the whole era.

Today, Neverwinter was no longer like before. The output of one day in an industrial park today was equivalent to one month's output in the past. After the plants adopted three shifts, it would grow even more. Most importantly, a large number of apprentices who had received elementary education were steadily turning into workers—they had never touched a hammer nor built a sword, but had learned how to use machinery to produce machines. As long as the time was ripe, there would be an unprecedented eruption of productivity in Neverwinter in this era.

From Margaret's news, Roland seemed to envision that this moment was now not far away from him.

...

Two days later, the Fjords merchants left Neverwinter with their selection of Chaos Drinks, and Barov eagerly went into Roland's office with a thick pile of books.

Judging from the chief's smiling expression that almost covered his eyes, Roland knew that the results this time must have been quite good.

However, after opening the statistics sheet, he did not linger on the deposit amount but instead focused his attention on the new arrivals.

According to the agreement of the last meeting, Sunset Island and Shallow Water Town would each provide 300 craftsmen in exchange for completing the transformation of the paddle steamer in five years. The wealthy Crescent Moon Bay was even more direct and used 2,000 people and 50,000 gold royals to purchase a steel ship with no sails. Although both were aiming to get the knowledge of shipbuilding technology, Roland did not care about this and instead treated it as a bargaining chip—as long as they were willing to leave their people in his city, he would be fine with giving them not only manufacturing methods and techniques, but even design drawings.

Therefore, they also made a lot of effort this time. According to Barov's statistics, the number of craftsmen brought by the Fjords trip was 10% to 20% more than the agreed number. Most of them were old-timers with many years of experience in shipbuilding and carpentry, hence its intention was self-evident: Neverwinter did not prohibit technical skills from being mastered by other cities. This meant that when the contract was completed, other than those who were treated as part of the transaction, the others would learn all the skills and return to the Fjords.

Unfortunately, they did not understand the technical terms of the new era.

Roland could not help but raise the corners of his mouth. The people of the Fjords would soon realize that if they wanted to produce their own steamship, they would have to buy raw materials, equipment, key parts and components from Neverwinter... In the end, they would only be more dependent on Graycastle, like small countries without complete industrial capabilities in the modern world where he had lived.

He lifted the quill, drew a circle below the total number of these tradesmen, and returned the statistics sheet to Barov.

"Help the arrivals to settle in and call Karl Van Bate so that together you can make a financial plan based on what the industrial park is doing right now," said Roland. "We have to build a few more plants."

Chapter 837 - Letter to the Sleeping Island

Tilly was at her desk, writing a secret letter meant for the inhabitants of the Sleeping Island.

Since she would be using the carrier pigeon, she had to reduce the size of the letter, and use the most concise language to express herself.

The content was actually not complicated and could be completed in two to three sentences, but, somehow, she could not stop writing. She was in an uncontrollable mood and felt like she was writing a long family manual—letting her thoughts run wild was certainly a rare occurrence for her.

However, Tilly unexpectedly found out that it was not a bad feeling to do so.

Since it was not a matter of life and death, she decided to go with this feeling.

Slim ink marks slowly moistened the letter, and she could not help but feel a sense of warmth.

"Dear Camilla,

"The Months of Demons is now over and the Western Region is calm again. Victory Day celebrations were particularly interesting. Do you remember the hot pot that I told you about? Roland moved this cooking method to the town square, with four huge woks of boiled soup, and then the meat, vegetables, whole chicken and Bird Beak Mushrooms were thrown into the soup. The fragrance could be smelt across the other side of Redwater River. He also said the pot was a feature of Neverwinter that definitely had to be tasted."

"With Roland's encouragement, everyone put all kinds of food in their pots. I have to say that with a thick soup, no matter what I ate, my mouth was full of flavor. There was no difference between City Hall officials, the Witch Union, or ordinary subjects. This scene would have been impossible in the past. It is hard to imagine that a cruel war that will determine the fate of the world will follow this passionate scene. It is also precisely because of this, that this kind of joy was especially precious."

"I'm writing these to tell you that Neverwinter is really an incredible place—and I'm not trying to change your views of the nobility, but Roland Wimbledon is not a noble at all. Unsurprisingly, I just confirmed our speculation. He is exactly like us, the so-called noble identity was only a passage of time or a cover-up. So you should also take a look at this new city. Sleeping Island, certainly needs guarding, but I don't want you to view this responsibility like a cage."

"And by the way, during this Months of Demons, our witches finally no longer just stood idly by. Roland's plan of the Southernmost Region was carried out by Ashes, Andrea, and Echo. As for the interesting things happening in the desert, I won't go into details here and we can talk about it later on. I believe that the Sleeping Island will inevitably become even more important after the other sisters have come."

"To the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island?" Just then a hand suddenly came out from behind Tilly and placed a cup of azure drink in front of her.

"Well," she smiled, and she knew that it was Ashes without turning her head. "I was just writing about you. Would you like to take a look?"

"I'd better not," Ashes rubbed her shoulders and whispered. "I still have to prepare today's dinner."

"Then you'd better go. I look forward to your delicious dishes," Tilly laughed. The witches generally dined with Roland in the castle's living room, so the small kitchen in their apartment was less likely to be used. But since they had been separated for months, Ashes wanted to share their dinner alone, and of course she would not refuse. Not to mention that Ashes also mysteriously claimed to have obtained a magical condiment from the Southernmost Region.

After she drank the Chaos Drink that was refreshing as an icespring, she then continued writing.

"After chitchatting so much, now let's talk about serious stuff."

"According to my agreement with him, spring is when the relocation will take place. The time has come for action, and my idea hasn't changed. Everything has gone as expected and even more perfectly than anticipated, hence we should just follow the plan—I believe you are already well prepared."

"After the Months of Demons ends, the Fjords' trade roads will soon be busy and I'm afraid it will be difficult to hire enough ships and sailors. If you encounter such a problem, you can ask Thunder for help. He's currently seeking Sealine adventurers, so ships and people are not a problem. Before the steel ship that Roland built for him is ready, Thunder will remain at the Fjords. As long as we can get in contact with him, he will surely help us."

"In addition, do not forget to advertise to the lords and merchants of Fjord Islands about our whereabouts. Also, inform them that the Sleeping Spell will continue to be open to all. Don't worry that, after the relocation, part of the witches will be too far away from the Fjords. Now that Western Region's Shallow Beach has been put into use, and Roland also intends to build a new port in the Endless Cape for replenishment, this means Neverwinter vessels can easily reach the Fjords."

"I have a hunch that it will not take long before this route becomes the busiest trade route between the mainland and the islands; it will become a normal thing to cross the Straits, especially once the converted paddle steamer in the harbor is completed."

"It is important to remember this, Camilla. Migration to the Western Region does not mean giving up the Sleeping Island." Neverwinter is the front line against the demons and the most dangerous place once the battle of Divine Will starts. As a part of humanity, we should try our best to make a contribution to fight against the enemy. Even Roland cannot guarantee victory. When the Western Region is captured by the enemy, the only place we can go to would be the Fjords islands."

"Although it would be better if such a thing did not happen. Anyway, we still have hope as long as the Sleeping Island is still there."

"Take care,"

"Tilly Wimbledon."

Princess Tilly let out a deep breath after writing. Camilla Dary, originally a noble of the old king's city, knew quite well the dirty secrets among the nobility and that caused her to completely lose faith in them. Although Camila still supported all the decisions she had made, the last time that they had spoken, the housekeeper had faintly hinted that she would stay behind in the Sleeping Island forever.

However, Tilly felt that although Sleeping Island was important, it should not be a place to stay alone. The guardians could take turns, and everyone should have the opportunity to come to Graycastle to re-experience normal life. This was what she would like to see. Of course, this letter might not completely convince Camilla, but as more and more witches came to the Western Region, she believed that Camilla would change her original view.

Tilly put down the quill, rolled the paper into a circle of paper, and then fastened the string.

When Honey was called over, she was shocked to see five or six scrolls of paper on the table.

"Will they be sent to the Sleeping Island?" she asked.

"Yes, and all of them have to be sent to Camilla," said Tilly, nodding her head, "... Is that too much?"

"It doesn't matter, since it's Your Highness Tilly's letter, it'll have to be sent no matter what!" Honey patted her chest and said, "now I'll go to catch two seabirds for you. Whether it's a secret document or even a honey grilled fish, it can also be sent!"

Looking at the girl jumping up and down as she left the room, Princess Tilly could not help but walk to the window and look towards the direction of the Fjords.

Before long, the witches that were forced to leave their homeland would once again set foot on this piece of land.

Starting with Neverwinter, everything thought about witches would change for the better.

By that time, the Western Region would be even more livelier than it was now.

She was sincerely looking forward to that day.

Chapter 838 - A Special Day

When the sky was just turning white, Broken Sword was already completely awake.

She stood up, walked to the window and pushed it open. The slightly chilly morning breeze suddenly poured into the room, bringing with it a chill of melting snow, with the fragrance of the coming spring. The faint blue sky was not yet completely illuminated, but from the sparse clouds, it could be seen that today would be a good day.

After putting on her clothes, she walked to the living room and discovered that a plate of roasted nuts and a can of vegetable soup were already laid out on the table for four people—amongst them, Annie always got up early, and would not only be the first to finish washing, she would also occasionally make breakfast.

After they officially joined the Witch Union, they moved from the Foreign Affairs Building to the Witch Building and could have their meals anytime at the castle, but Annie still chose to prepare breakfast herself sometimes. In the first month after receiving her salary, she went to the convenience market to buy cooking materials such as firewood, butter and salt. She also went to the wild to collect some wild fruits and vegetables every week.

Broken Sword curiously asked why she did so, and Annie's answer was simple. She said survival in the wilderness

 was a skill, and if not practiced for a long time, it would be forgotten. If it was time to escape again, how could they ensure survival?

Broken Sword could not understand why Annie was always ready to wander. But having said that, occasionally tasting these wild fruits was not bad.

"Good morning." She sat at the table and pulled at her nuts. "Are you going to the factory today?"

"Yes." Annie nodded and finished the remaining hot soup in the bowl. "There are some big objects that can't be pushed out by the workers. The machine can't plug in that big thing, and it can only be joined by small iron pieces. Miss Anna was doing it all before, but it's all up to me now."

From her voice, Broken Sword could hear a trace of vague satisfaction and sense of accomplishment, which was probably the most significant change since the four came to Neverwinter—their ability was no longer something meaningless. Working for His Majesty and getting paid was like a craft. The experience of relying on oneself instead of swindling or relying on the charity of others gave Broken Sword a sense of being reborn. She believed that Annie had the same feeling, or she would not get up early every day and be the first to head to the factory, even without any pressure to survive.

But today was a special day.

"Don't forget that today Hero..."

"I know." Annie looked a lot more serious. "Rest assured, I'll finish my chores earlier and come in time."

Broken sword became more relieved. "Well, she can feel more at ease with you around."

"Then I'll make a move first." She got up and left.

"Go, I'll take care of Hero."

"The hot water is in the kitchen and the rest is up to you." Annie did not speak much and quickly left home.

Broken Sword went to the kitchen to get a basin of hot water after eating her share. She crept lightly into Hero's bedroom. As Hero had lost her legs, she would still sleep with Annie even if there were enough rooms. In the daytime, the other three witches would take turns to take care of her. Miss Iffy and Lady Wendy would also come to help sometimes.

What was surprising to her was that Hero was already awake and sitting on the bed. She was looking out at the brightness through the window. The soft shimmer of her lilac hair and fair complexion made her look extremely pleasant. And under this light, it was hard to imagine how brutal a treatment she had been subjected to.

However, Broken Sword quickly regained her senses and realized that Hero might not be as calm as she looked on the surface. That could be why she woke much earlier than usual.

"Good morning," she said.

"Ah... good morning," said Hero, as if she was recovering from a daze, and said apologetically, "sorry to trouble you again."

"It's no trouble at all," said Broken Sword, sticking out her tongue. "No one would think so. And maybe after today, you'll be able to do it yourself."

Suddenly, Hero's eyes flashed a very complex look of tension, anticipation, fear, and excitement... After a while, she managed to control her emotions and forced herself to smile. "I don't know if I can—I have forgotten completely the feeling of walking, even if in a dream, I..." She bit her lip and continued, "I can only crawl forward."

"So you can learn from the beginning. It's not a big deal," said Broken Sword, pressing on her shoulder. "Even God's Punishment Witch can do it, and surely you can as well. Come, try to raise your legs."

Hero took a deep breath, opened the quilt, and saw two thin, branch-like legs exposed—they were different from a few months ago. Her legs which had been severed from the knees grew much longer, almost to the ankle position, and the ugly scars had also become smoother. They looked crumpled and different from normal legs and seemed as if they could snap off at any moment. But at least, they were much better than before.

This result was the joint effort made by the Witch Union.

At first, Nana could only recover minor wounds such as severed fingers, and the regrowth of the whole limb could not be achieved until the four witches joined the Witch Union. Broken Sword followed the instructions of His Majesty Roland to complement Nana with her strengthening ability and achieved a breakthrough—holding a sword which Broken Sword transformed into, Nana's healing ability had been fully upgraded, and even a hunting dog with broken feet could grow new claws.

This new discovery brought a ray of hope to Hero's recovery.

However, the test that started later was not that easy.

First of all, Nana's healing effect only took effect on the wound, and Hero's broken leg had already healed. If they wanted to recover her legs, they had to create new wounds in them. Secondly, even with Broken Sword's magic, treatment could only last for dozens of minutes, which meant that the recovery process had to be carried out in several stages. The combination of these two points posed a formidable challenge to both the healer and the patient.

Hero had to repeatedly suffer the pains of wounds in her broken legs, and Nana had to cut her legs several times to make them grow. This treatment program was problematic from the beginning.

Fortunately, Lady Wendy noticed this problem and mobilized the entire Witch Union.

Broken Sword realized for the first time that they called each other sisters and this was not just a term, but they felt like a family from the bottom of their hearts. Though the four of them came from the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and joined Neverwinter not too long ago, they were not stingy about their affections for each other.

Miss Leaf used a special plant called the sleeping fern to cultivate unconscious herbs that when consumed, one would not wake up for hours. Thus this helped to relieve Hero's suffering.

Cutting was carried out by Miss Anna. Under the sharp Blackfire, the formation of a new wound could be completed instantly, and Nana only needed to focus on her ability.

Finally, Marquess Spear Passi, the lord of a city, did not return immediately after the meeting at Fallen Dragon Ridge because of Hero. The previous treatments had been cautious—Nana's magical powers had been depleted every time to recover sections of legs which were as short as a half of a finger. Once her ability had been exhausted, the open wounds would have soon become lethal. Therefore, the recovering process had been extremely slow. With the help of Marquess Spear, recent treatments had made considerable progress.

If everything went smooth, Hero would regain her full feet after today.

Chapter 839 - Hero's Tears

Broken Sword put on the protective socks for Hero, and carried her to the wheelchair. She gave Hero a simple wash and breakfast... Amy, her next door neighbor, also woke up. When everything was ready, they pushed the wheelchair and went to the hospital.

Hero was much more nervous than usual and hardly spoke along the way. Fortunately, Amy helped to make the atmosphere more lively, so that the tension would not affect Broken Sword.

As for Amy herself... probably optimism was her nature, so she could smile at any moment, even when she was fleeing to the Kingdom of Dawn—this always made Broken Sword envious.

It was almost 9:00 am when they arrived at the hospital. When they had just entered the courtyard, the three of them saw Lady Wendy waiting at the entrance.

No, not only Wendy, but there were also Scroll, Anna, Leaf, Mystery Moon and Lily... Almost all of the Witch Union members were gathered there waiting for their arrival.

Although she was not the patient, Broken Sword still felt a sudden surge of warmth. She even felt her eyes getting sour and tearing up.

There was a slight tremor in the wheelchair and she knew that Hero was becoming emotional.

"His Majesty and Marquess Spear have been waiting for you in the medical room," Wendy said with a smile, touching Hero's head. "Don't worry, you'll regain your freedom soon."

"His Majesty?" Broken Sword sounded surprised. "His Majesty Roland has come?"

"Who else could it be," exclaimed Mystery Moon, "only His Majesty could make Lily put down her microscope and the weird worms."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Lily shouted and tried to cover Mystery Moon's mouth.

This made the three chuckle, and eased their nervous mood a little.

Wendy shook her head reluctantly. "Let's not let His Majesty wait too long."

Broken Sword pushed the wheelchair into the medical room, and after saluting the king and the Marquess, carefully carried Hero to the bed.

Just as Hero was about to take the herb, Annie finally rushed over.

She grasped Hero's hand gently, just like in the past and said, "I'll be here until you wake up."

This sentence seemed to have an incredible magic, as Broken Sword saw the girl finally settle down on the bed.

On the long flight to the Kingdom of Dawn, it was Annie who had been busy taking care of these three girls that had no experience of the wild and had brought them safely there. In the process, they had all regarded Annie as the backbone, believing that as long as she was there, any problems could be solved.

Shortly after swallowing a pill, Hero fell asleep.

"Let's get started," Wendy said to Broken Sword.

She nodded and closed her eyes—in an instant, the five senses disappeared instantly, just as if they been thrown into the void. However, this feeling lasted only for a few moments, and soon she "watched" things around again—through the eyes of Miss Nana.

Her experience after exerting the ability was amazing, and she could even see herself as a short, thin "dagger," with vibrant, greenish soft lights flowing between the blade.

This willow-like dagger was a suggestion made by His Majesty. He said waving a sword in front of the bed was too weird, and it would be better if she could become a short dagger. He also gave this kind of weapon a weird name, a scalpel.

Suddenly, a surging magic burst into her body, and her sense of fullness made her start to hum. Of course, only the girl holding her could hear this slight moan.

"Still very uncomfortable?" Nana brought the scalpel in front of her.

"Much better than the previous ones," Broken Sword took a deep breath—though it was only her subconscious move. After all, the weapon did not breathe. "It doesn't matter. I can stand it. Feel free to use it."

This powerful magic Broken Sword felt came from Leaf when Spear Passi connected the two of them together. Fortunately, Miss Leaf's ability itself had the characteristics of vitality and moisture, so after adaptation it would not be too uncomfortable. This was unlike Anna's Blackfire, which was hard, sharp and cold, as if it were covered with steel needles. This, plus her magic capacity, was almost unbearable for Broken Sword.

Therefore, when working with witches, only a few cooperated with Miss Anna.

After becoming a blade, she could have a conscious connection with the user but also became faintly aware that the witch's magic and her own character were not unrelated. Most witches' temperament could always be felt from the fluctuation of magic. So it was very difficult to understand, how Anna who looked so approachable and smart, though she spoke very little, could give her such a feeling magically.

Anna removed Hero's socks, and her fingertips showed a dark, thin line, that bound her legs like a rope.

Broken Sword could not help but shiver.

She had seen it with her own eyes, that when necessary, this Blackfire was able to instantly melt the metal and burn it up. But for now it felt just like Anna's magical power, a hard and cold icy filament.

The black line soon vanished, and Broken Sword knew it had shrunk into a tiny black spot. In this shrinking process, in which the skin, blood vessels, and bones were neatly cut—because the cutting surface was too flat, so it took a while before a circle of bloodstains gradually emerged.

The sliced ​​amputated limb was less than a finger thick, and Nana already stripped off the epidermis, driving the magic to wrap the wound.

Broken Sword has seen the next treatment many times.

Bloody red wounds began to grow forward under the old skin and grow out new pink skin. The magic of the two bodies also flew quickly, without a steady input from Leaf, they would soon be depleted.

About half an hour later, a complete pair of feet finally appeared in front of everyone.

Nana's energy also reached its limit, throwing off the scalpel. She was holding the bed and gasping with her forehead covered with fine sweat beads.

And Broken Sword was not much better. The whole process for her, was like constantly inflaming the internal organs. Even after the restoration of the original appearance, the whole body was still sore.

The little girl was brought by Wendy to the next room to take a break, but Broken Sword insisted on staying.

She wanted to be with Annie and Amy, to see Hero wake up for the first time.

...

After the sleeping fern's effects faded, Hero slowly opened her eyes.

"How are you feeling?" Wendy helped her sit up in bed, softly asking, "Can you feel them?"

She shook her head first, as if she wanted to throw the drowsiness out of her mind, then widened her eyes and stared at her own feet where there had only been bald broken legs with ugly scars, nothing else.

Everyone held their breath, and cast their gaze on the back of her foot. The medical room was silent for a moment.

Suddenly, her slender toe trembled slightly.

Broken Sword's heart also fluttered. She even thought it was her own illusion so she blinked and looked again.

The toes fluttered twice and like rusty scissors that had not moved for a long time, jerked and slowly bent.

Her uneasy heart finally felt assured and she just wanted to cheer. But she saw Hero's eyes flash two drops of tears. She was stunned, as even during the most difficult period, she had never seen Hero shed a tear.

"Than..." Hero swallowed as soon as she opened her mouth, and for a long time failed to complete her sentence, but all the people present understood her meaning. "Thanks... thank..."

Annie leaned over and Hero burst into tears in Annie's arms.

Chapter 840 - Black Blood

After Roland returned to the castle, Roland still could not feel peace in his heart. As the saying goes, people would shed tears of delight. But in his view, Hero cried not only out of delight but it was also a way to pour out all her suppressed emotions after suffering years of unfair treatment, pain, and false accusations.

In other words, the fact she put on a tough look did not necessarily mean that she did not feel pains. It was rather a mask underneath she hid all her true feelings. It was not an unnormal reaction for a girl who had just come of age before the misfortunes had weighed upon her. She had done very well in being strong and hopeful.

The treatment turned out successfully, and she regained a pair of normal feet. After being unable to walk for such a long time, it might take a while for her to control her feet again. However, since she could feel her new feet after the treatment, her feet nerve must have been well connected with her spinal nerve. With rehabilitation, she would be able to walk again sooner or later.

This treatment had also helped Roland to further confirm Broken Sword's ability—to increase the witch's "magic power limit".

Every witch had her power limit. Take Hummingbird's ability for an example. There were limits to the volumes of the objects of which she reduced weights, the lasting power of her magic and the extent of weight reduction. Once she passed one of the limits, the consumption of her magic power would multiply. It was like a rising index which could not go far beyond its normal value. To think it in another way, Hummingbird was unable to turn a huge mountain into something as light as a feather, nor could maintain her power effective forever. It would probably require an unimaginable amount of magic power to achieve that.

The same applied to Nana. The magic power she needed to regrow the limbs was far beyond her magic power limit. That was why she could replant broken fingers but was unable to regrow limbs, not even with Leaf's help.

Broken Sword's ability helped increase such limits so that something that had been impossible became nearly possible. With Broken Sword's help, the witch did not have to consume a considerable amount of magic power at a time but they only needed to apply their ability several times.

From the drawer, Roland pulled out a stash of Wendy's reports that recorded the test results when Broken Sword worked with other witches and spread them on the desk.

The result showed that most witches' abilities sharply strengthened with the help of Broken Sword. The heightened limit enabled them to enhance the effectiveness of their work. For example, the Dawn I enchanted by Mystery Moon would work longer, from the previous five days to the current two weeks. The improvement was highly precious for Neverwinter, for the city was not in a position to generate electricity on a mass scale at present. After all, as the number of plants grew, the power supply for lighting was hitting a bottleneck.

Also, the consolidation effect enchanted by Candle could maintain longer with the Broken Sword's support, which was quite beneficial to the increase in service life of machine tools as well as the advancement the processing level. Now that so many green workers were sent to the plants, it was no surprise to see them break a dozen of boring cutters or several machines every day if Candle did not help.

In addition, Broken Sword also offered significant assistance to witches like Soraya, Agatha, Lucia, Paper, etc. who worked in the plants. Thanks to those witches, the industrial development in Neverwinter was still phenomenal even without a well-established regulatory agency and sufficient labors. Without the witches, there would be more accidents and breakdowns of the system due to the dangerous and primitive production methods. Now with Broken Sword joining in, the production process would be safer and more efficient.

Roland concluded his report with his prediction that Broken Sword would be one of the busiest witches in Neverwinter.

In the afternoon, his guard Sean entered his office.

"Your Majesty, the Minister of Chemical Industry, Sir Kyle, hopes you can pay a visit to Lab Four. He said that there has been some progress in what you asked for."

"Oh?" Rowland's eyes brightened. "Rearrange my schedule. I'll be there immediately."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Roland, escorted by guards, arrived at Lab Four.

With the establishment of the acid plant and the nitration plant, the humble bungalows, which had been originally constructed as small workshops for both experiments and production, had become the veritable research center of Neverwinter. Now near the Redwater River, walls had been set up to separate the buildings. The research center was now guarded, equipped with a logistics team, and even the interior had been renovated. The outer wall of the building was repainted in a cream color, looking magnificent and grand.

Kyle Sichi did not show up at the gate of the building of Lab Four to greet Roland. Only the vice minister Chavez stood there, looking a little embarrassed, but Roland did not take it as an offense. He had known the Chief Alchemist a long time ago and was aware of what kind of person he was, so he just waved his hand and entered the building without a word.

Kyle was standing before a long lab table, his eyes glued to the liquid in the condenser pipe as it trickled down the beaker. The amber liquid was transparent, giving off an old and familiar smell. There were some more beakers around it, in which there were liquids of different shades of colors.

Roland could not help drawing a deep breath.

It had been a long time since he smelled the scent of gasoline.

Certainly, gasoline was an inappropriate name for this crude product that was definitely incomparable to the widely used fuel in the modern world, although they did have the same scent. Roland still had a long way to go before it became a steady energy supply.

"Your Majesty." The Chief Alchemist, who just noticed Roland, placed his hand on his chest. "You're right. The Blackwater in the Southernmost Region indeed contains many liquid components. I've done some experiments according to the approaches described in 'Intermediate Chemistry' and found out that the components could be separated through distillation, but..." He paused to point at the beakers on the table. "If the sample is further distilled, the composition of each component present little difference."

"That means you did it right," Roland said carelessly, for he knew that they were all hydrocarbons, and Lucia would obtain the same result if she did the experiment. "Did you dig out something else?"

"The components are all combustible, and the upper layer of the liquids obtained from the distillation are more volatile in nature, like this one..." Kyle picked up the beaker with the amber liquid and slightly shook it. "It's like an explosion when it's ignited! Your Majesty, are you planning to make a more powerful explosive out of it?"

Roland chuckled as he gazed at the animated old alchemist, who, in his opinion, had finally improved and become a real chemist, because now, he could associate combustible materials with explosives.

In fact, the Blackwater was sampled in Endless Cape.

From the very beginning, he suspected it was the eruption of oil wells that caused the so-called underground fire to burn constantly. Oil belonged to a big family. As oil was the lifeline of the modern industry and the essential material that had greatly influenced the World War, Roland had learned a lot about it. In fact, the difference between the oil sampled in the east and the west continents was so great, even greater than the skin colors of people in these two areas, that they could be considered as two entirely different liquids. The color of the oil varied dramatically, from golden, dark green to black, maroon, and even transparent. Some of the oil was as runny as water, while some thick and sticky; some could not be burned directly, while some highly inflammable...

In terms of their components, any mixture of hydrocarbons consisting of hydrogen and carbon could be taken as a kind of oil.

So, it was not strange to classify Blackwater as oil.

In other words, it did not matter whether Blackwater was similar to the oil in the modern world, as long as they could obtain combustible oil from it. After all, even people in the modern world had not been able to completely figure out where the oil came from, neither had they completed a thorough research on all the members of the oil family. Roland had heard people proclaim that oil would be used up in 50 years when he had been young, but it turned out that the reserves of the new oil fields discovered every year grew much faster than the consumption of the oil. Moreover, the summation of all the reserves of discovered oil fields had far exceeded the amount of the oil calculated based on the biotransformation hypothesis.

Chapter 841 - The Application of Blackwater

However, the "underground Styx's River" that where Blackwater converged in the Southernmost Region was very unusual. According to Iron Axe's report, along the way from Choke Swamp to Endless Cape, Styx's River became less thick and the stagnant fog turned thin. Several Styx' s Rivers intersected at Blackwater Valley where men could even hear the roar of the water splattering onto the rocks beneath them when they were standing at a higher spot.

Roland speculated that the composition of the Styx's River water changed as it flowed. For example, the stagnant fog Iron Axe had described in his report might be a kind of toxic gas emitted by Blackwater, or a product of the reaction between some subterranean materials. That might explain the reason why during centuries of evolution, the natural lightning or man-made fire did not set the Blackwater Valley ablaze, and why no one could survive in Choke Swamp.

The stagnant fog shrouding the Styx's River not only stopped the Sand Nation people but also blocked fresh air, and thus guaranteed a steady flow of Blackwater toward the south. But as the underground river drew close to the Cape, it became thinner and finally disappeared. Only some part of the underground river would escape from the ground under pressure. Among them, some would set aflame, while some would turn into tiny streams and shallow puddles on the ground. Additionally, the stagnant fog dispersed at that point, providing a perfect environment for them to develop mines.

Roland had no idea about how many components could be separated out of that unique crude oil, so he just asked the Chief Alchemist to have some experiments first before making a further plan.

Luckily, the distilled components so far showed a very inspiring prospect.

"No doubt that Blackwater can be used to make dreadful weapons, but it can do far more than that," Roland answered as he picked up the beaker and studied it carefully. "There's much we can benefit from it, even only from its high combustion heat. I'll let you know one day."

The best way to motivate a straightforward man like the Chief Alchemist would be raising his interest with new knowledge.

Roland laughed in silence as he saw the old man's desire was apparently not satisfied. He continued, "As to the experiment, it's not enough to just use several retorts and condenser pipes if we mean to put Blackwater into use. You have to figure out some plans, like the way we produce dioic acids, that will enable mass production"

The principle of oil separation was very simple, which could be regarded as the most basic chemical knowledge. Upon being heated, the raw oil would turn into steam that would later enter the connected distillation tower, where the steam of different components would successively condense due to their different boiling points. During this procedure, the finished oils such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, heavy oil, etc. could be collected. The process was a complete physical transformation, so it would be very easy to achieve those materials under the current experiment condition.

Although the utilization rate of the raw oil of the modern world had been significantly improved as the technology of refinement was diversifying, the traditional distillation was still useful. As such, distillation was still the first choice when they did not take the cost factor into account.

Kyle Sichi was too well aware of the difficulty they would face if they wanted to upscale any lab experiments to a more complicated mass industrial production. He had to take lots of details into account if they were going to put the distillation into practical production.

The old alchemist stroked his beard and said, "Um... I need a few days to plan it out, and I want the Witch Union's assistance."

That was a good sign that he asked for assistance from the witch voluntarily. Roland nodded. "Just let me know if you want anything. I'll see to it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Kyle said, weighing his words. "Apart from this, I have one more small request."

"Oh? Go ahead."

"May I have the honor to see the new invention made from them when it's ready?" His voice was full of curiosity.

Theoretically speaking, the old alchemist had gone a little overboard since the project was meant to remain confidential. It was just like an engineer responsible for extracting uranium ore wanted to know the entire Manhattan plan. But Roland agreed after a short contemplation. After all, a little incentive could raise his passion for work, and Roland was confident that there was nobody who could compete with Neverwinter in terms of science and technology level in this era.

"You have to work hard." Roland pointed at the separated liquids and said, "The sooner you get the finished product, the earlier you will know the answer to your question."

"Pardon me, Your Majesty... Do you mean all of them?" Kyle asked in amazement. "They were indeed all combustible, but the liquid distilled in the lower tower was no better than snow powder. It produces thick smokes and doesn't burn well, not even good for lights. "

"This guy, whose mind was still clinging to the explosive, takes any products that are less active as wastes," Roland thought. It was true that the light distillates in the upper tower were more inflammable and its flame was more vigorous, but their usages were unexpectedly limited in practice. Without additives, even the slightest mistake would set them off, so they were barely helpful under the current condition. Instead, he favored the diesel and heavy oil distilled in the lower tower.

No doubt diesel would be a perfect fuel for the internal combustion engine. Even those mixed with impurities resulting from the inferior process were usable in practice. Their only problem was creating thick black smoke and thereby caused pollution when they burned, but that barely troubled Roland at this moment.

Heavy oil would play an essential role in navigation and was the optimal fuel for steam-powered boats. The current coal-powered boat might work well in inland rivers, but it was not powerful enough to sail on the sea, where the boat required huge power that coal failed to provide. To be honest, it had already been a laborious task for the boat to travel form Fjords to Shallow Beach of the Western Region. Therefore, Roland wanted to build Festive Harbor at the Endless Cape where he could supply oil to the steam-powered boat that was planning to cross the Sealine and enter the open ocean.

Furthermore, the requirement of producing heavy oil was the lowest. The roughly distilled heavy oil, even those mixed with asphaltic residue, was usable, so it might be one that could be most easily obtained in the oil family.

Of course, Roland would not tell Kyle about that. He could not guarantee anything before he got the finished oil. If the final result ran countered to his original deduction, it would taint his reputation for being omniscient. So he just shrugged and said, "All the oil components, including the residues and scraps, must be collected and categorized. They'll be useful for me."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the Chief Alchemist said with his hand across his chest.

"By the way." As Roland walked out of the room, he suddenly stopped at the lab doorway. He turned to look at Kyle and added, "Set up a tutorial session."

That took Kyle by surprise. He blurted out, "What?"

"I thought I've made my idea clear in the last agriculture meeting. We need to add an agriculture class to our secondary education curriculum. That will help us to train enough qualified men to handle the situation even if when we are going to spread Golden Twos to the entire kingdom," Roland elaborated. "And new plants will require more skilled people. As far as I can see, there're many people who intend to join the chemistry industry after finishing their universal education. You'd better have them trained before using them in case they mess everything up in the plant due to the lack of experience."

Letting people choose courses they were interested in was the same as college students select their own majors. Here in Neverwinter, the process took place earlier in middle school. Roland had thought on this matter for a long time, and he believed that since there was no time to train people with various skills currently, he had better start with training professional workers as soon as possible.

"Your Majesty, wasn't Lady Scroll supposed to... be responsible for that?"

"She handles the sections of recruitment, class composition, evaluation, and payroll, but the teacher must be from Ministry of Chemical Industry, so you have to see to it."

Kyle let out a sigh of relief as if he would have obeyed everything as long as Roland did not push him to teach students. His miserable memory was as fresh as yesterday. He had suffered enough during the process of recruiting and training some alchemy apprentices in order to earn "Intermediate Chemistry" from Roland. Kyle replied, "I see, Your Majesty." "I think the alchemists from the king's city, who were adept at public speaking and advertising, are quite qualified for the teaching position. Do you think so?"

Chapter 842 - Chicken-and-duck Knight

Prius Dessau's life had been going quite smoothly recently.

Like a dream, his service at the Elk Family had faded into oblivion over time. His skill and training as a knight had been long forgotten. His big belly could not fit in his old clothes. Instead, he bought baggy fabric pants and short silk robes, which not only were easy to manage but also enabled him to act like a gentleman—although he was aware that in His Majesty's domain there were no real nobles anymore.

Of course, his knighthood, which was not truly a dream, could still be evidenced by the shining armors displayed in his living room. Oddly enough, when he had been a knight of the Elk Family, he had disliked those armors so much that he had even considered selling them to a blacksmith at an unusually low rate. But after starting serving His Majesty, he began to feel these things pleasing to the eye. One of his hobbies now was holding his toddler and rambling about his 'valiant and heroic' fighting stories.

But in those stories, Prius had completely avoided mentioning Duke Ryan, as if he had always been an impeccable loyal minister to Roland Wimbledon.

After joining the City Hall, he had been continuously moving up in his career. Seizing the opportunity when the population of Neverwinter was rapidly growing, he expanded the chicken and duck aquiculture zone several times, and it now eventually turned it into a huge poultry factory. That was right, the poultry factory he created on his own was not by any means worse than the machine-manufacturing factories. After learning the term 'factory' from His Majesty, he immediately hung the board for his factory over the yard gate.

Nowadays factories sprang out in Neverwinter like mushrooms after rain. It was currently the most popular word in the City Hall. Naturally, he did not want to be left behind.

After all, he had more than 100 employees; in his factory, there were almost 10,000 chickens and ducks which needed several baskets of fodders and earthworms each day, a scale he had never dreamed of. As to being called 'Chicken-and-duck Knight', he did not mind it; instead, he rather enjoyed it.

Now that his career was on track, Prius became idle. The first batch of apprentices had gained the skill of distinguishing poultry genders, feeding, filtering baby chickens, etc. Furthermore, they could even train newbies, which gave Prius much free time. Fowl plague, the most dreadful thing for raising poultries, could be easily dispelled by that witch Lily, so the scale of his factory could actually expand as large as he wished. Now, he only had to do planning and statistics work, and then the Minister of Agriculture would do the rest.

In fact, most of the other knights who had been captured with him were doing pretty well, except a few who were too stubborn to cooperate. His superior Sirius Daly, for instance, a former knight of the Wolf Family, had now become a minister, and he had the highest rank among all of them.

Morning Light, who had been promoted to an intermediate teacher, earned about the same as Prius. While doing small talk, Ferlin Eltek seemed to have mentioned that he had plans other than keep on teaching. It was hard to speculate where this former star knight would work, but it must be somewhere not too bad.

The other knights like Halon, Valsa, Kazan.... were either teaching or operating a business. Prius often met these old acquaintances when he had time, to chat about their daily lives, their work, and their expectations for the future. But not everybody was sincerely convinced by His Majesty. For example, Halon was not satisfied with the policy that forbade captured knights to join the army. As such, during their meetings, he was often in state of despondence because of his unfulfilled dream. Prius did not agree with him. Everyone knew that flintlocks were very powerful weapons. If he were in charge, he would be unwilling to entrust these weapons to a defeated army.

As to himself, he laid eyes on the annual Award and Honor Ceremony—judging from His Majesty's emphasis on agriculture, he felt sooner or later he would stand on the platform in the square, being admired and respected by audiences. Not only would he accept the medal bestowed by His Majesty personally, but he would also get a prize of 100 gold royals, which was a much promising future than joining the army.

While he was on the way to City Hall, humming, and was about to greet Sirius Daly before going to the poultry factory, the minister stopped him.

"Ah, here you are. His Majesty is waiting for you."

Prius slowed down. "What's the matter?"

"The guard didn't tell. He only told me to tell you to go to the castle when you're here."

"I see." Prius pretended to be calm and self-collected, although his heart beat faster. "It's not long after the conference of the agriculture mobilization movement. Is His Majesty thinking the same as I do, to promote me as an honorary example?"

Full of expectations, he entered the castle. Under the guidance of a guard, he came to His Majesty's office door on the third floor.

"Come in," after introducing himself, a familiar voice came from the other side of the door. "I've been waiting for you for quite a while."

"Officer of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prius Dessau sends his best regards," as soon as he entered the room, he got to his knee and held a fist over his chest as a knight greeted a king. But due to the extra fat on his belly, the gestures he made were far less handsome than before, and he almost trapped himself while kneeling down.

"Please rise." The king was sitting behind a long desk, smiling at him, and said, "You've been doing such a good job recently that even Barov can't stop praising you, which is rather rare. Therefore, I have a new task for you."

"I'm at your command." Prius stood up respectfully.

"Listen carefully... This is a top secret. Even in the City Hall, not many people know it," Roland said in a serious tone, "and it's so significant that it concerns the future development of Neverwinter. As soon as you accept it, you can't tell anyone what you see and hear without my permission. The reason I chose you is that you're the most suitable candidate considering there's nobody else who has done it before, although you're not indispensable. If you can do it well, the compensation won't be an issue. I want your answer now."

Prius was startled. He did not expect His Majesty to make such a proposal at all. It had nothing to do with the medal, but His Majesty actually planned to give him a really tough task.

"Ah, forget about the significance, the competitive compensation... They mean nothing but trouble. To be involved in the king's secret is like a suicide." Subconsciously, he wanted to decline it, but he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue. "Wait a minute. Who do you think the person is? He is the Lord of Neverwinter, the King of Graycastle!"

"When the King wants an officer to do something, does he need to consult the officer in advance? Unless the officer has planned to rebel and hide in his territory. Otherwise, he should take the order no matter what it is so as to not suffer a king's wrath. His Majesty doesn't order me directly is to care for my feelings, not to give me the chance to refuse."

Prius swallowed a mouthful of saliva. "Even though this king Wimbledon is different from most other lords, and he means every word he says, didn't I just tell him 'I'm at your command?"

"I just expressed my loyalty, then I directly tell him that I don't want to or I'm unable to do it? If I were the king, I guess I would hold a grudge if not flying into a rage on the spot. In that case, not only won't I get promoted, but I might not even be able to be a common official either, not to mention the Award and Honor Ceremony and the abundant prize."

At this thought, Prius really wanted to slap himself.

After hesitating for quite a while, he eventually blurted out, "I'd like to take this task."

He could not afford to lose his position. He had lost his identity as a knight, and if he went on losing his official position as the superintendent of the poultry factory, he would really have nothing left at all.

At this moment, the only thing that comforted him was His Majesty's words 'you're the most suitable candidate considering there is no precedent'. "At least, this means a sort of confirmation of my capability?"

"Alright." Roland smiled and whispered something to the empty space beside him, and then looked at Prius and said, "Now follow me to a place."

"Where?" Prius asked immediately, anxious and a little panic.

"The Third Border City," the King said while raising his eyebrow. "Have you heard of it?"

Chapter 843 - The Conduct of A Loyal Official

Prius had never heard of this city. Border Town had become a place of residence because it was to serve the mine, and it had nothing to do with a 'city', let alone to prefix the city with 'the third'. Before His Majesty arrived in the Western Region, only the Longsong Stronghold deserved to be called a city.

When they arrived at the cave at the foot of North Slope Mountain, Prius understood what His Majesty had meant.

He had always been curious as to why the Ministry of Construction established a fortress-like building in Neverwinter. The location of a strategic point being guarded by the First Army was a bit strange. At its back was the North Slope Mountains, and to the left and right, there was too great a distance from the borders to defend against army invasions, let alone allow them to properly guard His Majesty's castle.

He asked some of his colleagues in City Hall, but none of them gave him a satisfactory answer. Some said the construction team there was under the direct management of Minister Carl, and others had no authority to inquire into it. Such being the case, Prius stopped asking. After all, he was only curious. There was no need to go so far as to get himself into trouble.

However, he never thought he would personally step into this military position.

When Prius saw the manmade underground aisle and a large cluster of caves, his jaw almost dropped.

"How did they make this?"

"One year ago, there was nothing in this area. Now, it's like the interior of the whole mountain has been connected. It's not exaggerating to call such a spacious underground area a city... but, could this have been done by men?"

Prius cast a furtive glance at His Majesty, to whom his awe deepened.

Duke Ryan had indeed picked the wrong opponent.

The Lion overwhelmed the other big families and had ruled the Western Region for over a decade and they made the once barren land as solid as a piece of iron. This was a manifestation of his perfect methods and capability, but... after all, he was just a human being.

What happened next shocked the Elk knight even more.

As he arrived at a flat and open hall, by the trailer, Prius saw two men dressed like warriors walk over to them—since the popularization of flintlocks in the First Army, guards dressed in this attire were rarely seen.

One of them looked Prius up and down before he turned to ask His Majesty, "Are you sure it's going to be alright?"

"Sooner or later, my subjects will know about it. Instead of concealing it, I think it's better to give them some time to accept it," Roland replied. "Let's start with the City Hall officials."

"Alright then..." The guard sighed helplessly. He then waved towards the dome above the hall. A flash of black shadow descended and quietly fell in front of the crowd.

Prius' heart pounded in his chest and he almost cried out!

"Oh my god, what the hell is that?"

Looking at the blob monster, full of tentacles, in front of him, he felt a chill as it crept up his spine "Even a demon from hell wouldn't look as horrible as that." The knight wanted to retreat but found that his feet had gone numb. The only reason he didn't fall to the ground was the calmness His Majesty exuded.

Then he "heard" a voice.

However, the soft female voice did not come from next to his ear, but from directly within his head, "Your Majesty, nice to see you."

"Nice to see you too, Pasha," Roland said with a smile. "How are the worms?"

"Their number has increased. As long as there are mushrooms, it seems they'll just keep on eating."

"They do seem easy to feed."

"Yes, you can totally count on us."

"When the war starts, you won't have many hands to spare. Besides, I want to raise more than a thousand worms, so it's better to let them get familiar with it sooner."

Prius was startled—His Majesty talked so freely with the monster, just like he was talking with a common official. Not to mention the respect the monster showed towards His Majesty was totally different from the intimidating demons. "If ghosts and monsters in books talked like this, perhaps they wouldn't be as scary."

He took two deep breaths and he felt his racing heart slow down.

"What does His Majesty want me to raise? Worms?

"Besides... is this the big secret he warned me about? At the foot of the North Slope Mine is a concealed horrible nonhuman entity?"

His Majesty seemed to read his mind. Patting Prius on the shoulder he said, "This is... Miss Pasha. She used to be a well-renowned lady. Although she's been cursed by demons, which is why she looks the way she does now, deep in her heart she's still human. There's no need to be afraid."

"La... Lady?" Prius was startled and took a moment to come to himself.

"Exactly." The King sighed. "Come, walk with me and I'll tell you the details."

That's when Prius heard an unbelievable story. There were more monsters like Pasha. 400 years ago, they lived in the Barbarian Land and even built their own towns, but they failed to resist the combined invasion of demonic beasts and demons. Most of them died in the wilderness, only very few escaped to the Western Region. The demons' curse turned them into monsters and made them immortal, which meant they had to live forever with that pain. Now, Roland took in those survivors. They would become Roland's ally for fighting against demons, as well as the subjects of Graycastle.

"I... understand," Prius murmured.

"But, as you can see, their looks can easily give people a negative first-impression, so I have to keep it top secret and only very few have been told." Roland stopped for a while, his eyesight freezing. "If you speak of this, you know the consequence."

"I'll keep my mouth shut, Your Majesty!" Prius hurriedly swore. Although this odd news was more inconceivable than the horror stories from grannies' mouths, he did not intend to dispute how much was truthful. He would believe whatever His Majesty told him. That was the fundamental conduct of a loyal official.

"Glad to hear that." His Majesty nodded.

With the blob monster... no, the ancient Lord Pasha as their guide, the party passed through a long aisle. She then turned back and said, "Here we are."

In front of Prius, there was another huge cave. The bleak underground space was suddenly full of movement. Despite the unprecedented plants and cavernous view, the huge worms crawling among the mushrooms alone were enough to keep his attention.

Prius found that much stimulation, over a short period of time, had desensitized him.

"Is this... what I need to raise?"

His Majesty seemed to have been observing Prius the entire time. Finally, he nodded with satisfaction before saying, "That's right. It's called a rubber worm. Its secretion is a widely used industrial material, which is as important as meat and eggs. The expedition team found it in the Great Snow Mountain and brought it back. Unfortunately, it could only live underground, which is why it has been left to the survivors from the Third Border City to take care of." At this point, Roland suddenly changed the subject. "I heard in order to feed the chickens and ducks, you raised earthworms?"

"Essentially... yes." After quite some time, Prius finally caught up with His Majesty's thought. "I can reduce the poultry's foraging area, which will subsequently enable them to grow faster."

"These worms are no different than earthworms, I don't mean the breeding method, but the nature of the two." Roland kicked a rubber worm resting on a mushroom. The worm didn't move until it hit the ground, then, dragging its huge belly, it crawled off into the thick grass. "They're not aggressive; their favorite food is mushrooms. They are massive, but they are passive, so you won't be bitten. The only thing you need to do is regularly collect the mucus in their bellies."

"Mu...cus?"

"Have you seen a milk cow? The point isn't the cow, but what the cow produces."

"By collect, do you mean, squeeze it out?"

"It'd be best if you could find a way to harvest it." Roland smiled gently, "However, like I just said, the worm itself isn't important. Sometimes it's faster to kill the worm to collect the mucus. Afterall, their reproductive speed is much faster than a chicken or a cow."

Prius suddenly shivered, for no clear reason he got the impression that His Majesty did not like the vital worms.

As this thought flashed through his mind, in the blink of an eye, Roland returned to his usual tone, "Written in this notebook are some of the habits of these worms." He handed Prius a booklet, with a cowhide hardcover. "You can read it for reference and compare it to your knowledge. Then see if you can find ways to make them grow faster and collect mucus easier. I wish to see what you accomplish by next month."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Prius swallowed hard and took the booklet, as he inquired, "How am I to do this on my own..."

"The First Army stationed here will assist you," Roland said with a smile. "Work hard and there will be a place for you in this year's Award and Honor Ceremony."

Chapter 844 - Messages Arriving at the Same Time

The decision to have the Ministry of Agriculture farm rubber worms was not Roland's latest flight of fancy. In his opinion, farming rubber worms was as important as exploiting oil, so he naturally wanted to have that industry under his control. If it was not for the potential threats the worms might bring to people, he would not have any intention to place the feedlot in the Third Border City.

After discussing with Barov, Edith and other people, he decided to adopt the explanation of "her ladyship and the fallen city", which would be more acceptable to people than the saying of "the witch empire". As now, only the City Hall's senior officials and the main force of the First Army knew the truth of the Battle of Divine Will and Taquila, so it was very difficult to make the upcoming war known to the world. However, they worried about a blunt announcement would make people panic, so they had to rephrase their proclamation before unveiling the truth to the public. A good way to do so was to slowly send the reworded information out to minimize subsequent shock created among the public.

Roland would rather keep the dark history of the witch empire covered forever for the sake of the stability of the united front. If humans were fortunate to win the Battle of Divine Will, it would be easier to make them accept that unique period of history by the time archaeologists unearthed the lost record.

Knight Elk was left alone in the wormhole to do the research on his own, while Roland, invited by Pasha, entered the subterranean hall.

"They're back, Your Majesty."

"Who?" Confused by the random words, Roland could not help raising his eyebrow,

Pasha did not reply. She raised her tentacles and pointed at the deep, secluded passage on the other side of the hall, looking enigmatic.

He looked over his shoulder at the dark passage where there was a flash of white shadow swinging by. Moments later, two giant devouring worms crept out and crawled towards him, wriggling, their mouths wide open, revealing tusks and fangs.

"Your Majesty, do you remember us?"

One of them greeted Roland merrily.

Roland, slightly surprised, asked, "Are you Jasmine... and Lyra?"

How could Roland forget them? He could still remember the moment they had bade farewell and the calm look when they had said that they harbored no regrets before boarding the concrete boat heading to Great Snow Mountain. Even now, Roland could still feel their unfailing determination in their tones.

"Yes, we are. You do remember us!"

"Mind your manner!" Another worm poked her companion with its tail. "Whatever we looked like, do remember we are the Taquila..."

"Worm?" Jasmine finished the sentence for Lyra deliberately.

"Witch!" Lyra cried.

"They just arrived at Neverwinter. They persist in seeing you before their dormancy, so I have to keep them waiting beside the hall. I hope I didn't frighten you." Pasha drooped her main tentacles. "Thanks again for your assistance."

"No, you didn't frighten me. Honestly, I've been waiting for the good news of the successful transfer too." Roland waved one hand and did not take it seriously. "Why... do they have to go dormant?"

"For we couldn't afford to sustain the worm carrier, Your Majesty," Lyra said solemnly. "Fran alone is capable of handling the daily tunneling and transportation. There's no need to keep all three carriers awake. Even Fran was dormant for the most of her time before coming here."

Roland remembered that Lyra had the same bright and bubbly personality as Jasmine's before her transfer. But now she gave him an impression of maturity as if she really grew up instantly after the Soul Transfer.

After staying with Phyllis and the other witches for a long time, Roland learned that not all Taquila witches had lived a long life. At the very beginning, due to the lack of carriers and God's Punishment Warriors' shells, they were forced to either to merge with Eleanor, one of the Three Chiefs, or to be transferred to a soul container and enter a state of dormancy.

In other words, only a few witches had lived for centuries. Most witches waited for a long time until the church was established in the Starfall City that could provide shells for them. Phyllis had changed two shells so far and had stayed awake for merely 150 years. The actual time when she was conscious was indeed shorter as there was a period of time at the very beginning when she felt bewildered and had to adjust herself to the new environment. Still, she was regarded as "the elder" among the Taquila survivors.

Jasmine and Lyra were among the youngest transferer. Apart from the time they spent in getting familiar with their shells, they were often asleep. So, their mental age was close to their real age. Roland was really impressed with the change in their mentality.

Moreover, the most estimable thing was that they still kept their spirits up even in the shells of devouring worms, which, as far as Roland could see, exceeded many people.

Now it seemed that there was a good reason for the Union to unify the continent. Apart from its absolute power, they had many other merits worth noting as well.

"If I intend to turn the Impassable Mountain Range into a defensive barrier, three worm carriers aren't a lot," Roland said while looking at Pasha. "Keep them awake. They'll be very helpful to the upcoming new project. In addition, there're also many places in Neverwinter that need reconstruction. No need to worry about food. The City Hall will take care of it."

"Really?" Jasmine yelled excitedly.

No one liked to spend most of their time sleeping, especially the Taquila witches. They had slept too long.

"As long as you don't ask for meat for every meal." Roland spread out his hands. "If they have Fran's stomach, I estimate they would just need the same amount of food as those for 100 people."

"Now that you've got a plan, I will leave them to you." Pasha, who seemed to have already known the answer, said with a smile.

...

Roland felt more relaxed after the encounter with Jasmine and Lyra. As he returned to the castle, he received a message from the First Army.

They had successfully accomplished the task to blow up the snow mountain. The passage that connected the underground river and the sea had been blocked completely by the explosion, and the rising water would head to the west after the ruins submerged. Most of the men would return to Neverwinter shortly except the Gun Battalion, who would stay at the snow mountain and monitor the change of the watercourse.

Things had turned out as Roland had expected. As the Taquila witches finished searching the underground ruins and gained the devouring worms, their exploration was approaching an end.

Thus, there was nothing Roland needed to worry about as far as the Western Region was concerned for the time being.

When Roland unsealed the other letter, the content surprised him.

It was from the Northern Region, not sent by a carrier pigeon but by a rider under Duke Kant's order entrusted by the garrison. With four full pages, it detailed what had happened in the Holy City of Hermes and the collapse of the Tower of Babel. Eagle Face, the commander of the garrison believed it was the perfect time to launch an attack. After taking the thick wall around the city and the huge mangonel into account, he asked for an reinforcement from one or two cannon teams. He wished to gain the first victory in the new year for his King.

After Roland finished reading the letter, he could not believe that the church jointly built by the Union and Starfall City had come to its end like this.

Roland could not help wondering whether this information was true or false.

Doubtlessly, the church still had a number of God's Punishment soldiers, and it might make a desperate attempt to save itself by involving the First Army in a street battle. Roland had planned to let the God's Punishment Witches participate in the battle to provide close-range attacks that the First Army was in lack of. In the meantime, the new mortar would be put into use as well to further drive enemies into a corner. Although it was advertised that the goal of the war was to unify the whole kingdom, the real purpose was actually to exterminate the church.

But now came the signs that the Holy City was fraying at the edges from inside.

Just as he was about to summon people to have a discussion, he heard a tapping sound from the French window behind him.

He turned around and saw Nightingale pull the bird directly through the glass into the room.

Roland took the letter off the carrier pigeon's leg. The bird was apparently at a loss. When he spread the letter out and glanced at the content, he immediately stood up.

"How dare he?"

There was only one sentence on the paper.

"Appen, the King of Dawn, schemes to disturb the Eastern Region of Graycastle. The situation in the Holy City is volatile. Otto Luoxi has been imprisoned."

Chapter 845 - Eye of the Branch Nest

"It hurts!"

"It hurts a lot!"

"I can't bear it!"

The monster beat its tentacles against the seawater in vexation. The "blade" and "foot" hiding inside its body were shivering, apparently frightened by the overwhelming anger.

For the monster, pains were not unfamiliar.

From the moment of its birth to the life as an Eye of Sectional Nest, the monster had fought numerous battles against enemies. All that it had experienced—injuries, annexations, evolutions, and pains— enhanced and sharpen its senses. They were necessary sacrifices for absorbing magic power.

But it was not the pain that annoyed the monster. It was... a feeling that the monster had never had before.

The monster tried to match the emotion with other reactions of life but soon found it unnecessary—the feeling lay in the instincts of most species. No matter how considerably the species varied, they all had, without an exception, this kind of feeling.

Fear.

A kind of feeling the monster had experienced for the first time of its life.

The feeling somehow bewildered the monster, and the anger rose before it noticed it.

"kill!"

"Kill her!"

"How very much I want to kill her!"

"How dare her, a tiny bug, to break into my body and challenge me with the speck of magic power? One day I'll tear her to pieces and put her head on her skeleton, in a way red mist insects have done."

Yet, neither anger nor fear was a necessary emotion that the monster had to experience in order to grow up. The monster had never been scared of pain, nor had it been upset by a momentary defeat. To be honest, it had never thought of such kind of thing before.

The monster had thought of nothing except the evolution.

Evolution was more important than mere survival, for the former represented the sublimation of the species, whereas the latter only stood for the interest of individuals.

The monster realized that there was something wrong with its body.

But what was it?

Even thinking about the question gave it a serious headache. The hot flames had not only taken away one-third of its body but also made its head swimming.

"I need time."

"Time to regenerate a new body."

"And time to find the answer."

The monster suppressed the fear, anger, and all sorts of various subtle feelings that it had never experienced before and sank to the bottom of the ocean.

...

Over 10 days later, the monster crept out of the hiding place and released all the "blades" and "feet" locked within its body.

The monster had suffered great losses in the battle, but it did not care much, for as long as it recovered completely, it would regenerate new parts of its body.

Now the food was more urgent for the hungry monster.

Meanwhile, it had come up with some conclusions to the problems.

Firstly, the monster found that it had lost many pheromones that it had taken from various types of bugs before. The pheromones could help to indicate the evolution direction of its group, so collecting them was the chief task for every eye of the branch nest. The monster's loss was understandable—with a huge blast, the monster lost the control of its body in the hot flames and heat waves, its body parts twisted and broken, and among them, some were the brains that stored pheromones. Even though most parts of its body were healed, the pheromones in these brains were gone. This was like when you popped water bags. Repairing them would not help with the matter.

"That's not a big deal. There're bugs everywhere for me to recollect."

"And I've succeeded in keeping the most important red mist multi-eyed insect, so the loss is acceptable."

"But the problem is I've lost the connection with the mother of the nest."

"I can't believe it!"

Since the monster was born, its connection with its own kind was so close and inextricable that as long as they were in the same water area, it could always sense the central nest, no matter how far distance was laid between them. Through the water waves, it could deliver the collected pheromones, as well as share the evolution instructions among its kind.

But now all of them were gone.

The monster had scarcely concerned about this kind of problem since it got wounded. By the time its mind was clear enough to smoothly deliver the pheromone of the multi-eyed insect, it suddenly realized that where the indescribable feeling came from.

It could not catch the voice of the central nest even when the tide fell and waters became one.

At first, the monster wonder if the problem lay in its incomplete regenerated body. Then it thought of the fact that any individuals separated from the central nest would never lose the connection as long as they were not utterly dead. The monster checked its body over and over again and finally noticed a part of its brain had blended with the red mist multi-eyed insect, rather than engulfed it

"That tiny insect must have taken advantage of my fragile moment and had a desperate struggle."

Aware of the truth, the monster was scared and angry at first but soon calmed down.

In its eyes, a less evolved insect was merely a lesser creature, nothing more.

The insect did not benefit much from its behavior even though it indeed made some difference.

Now the monster could not sense even a little bit of the multi-eyed insect inside its body. Instead, it had taken over all its queer eyes, through which the monster could "see" many primal creatures looking at it.

After a long thought, the monster finally found the answer to its problem.

The reason why it could not reach the central nest lay in the merging, which involuntarily made it have some of the weird feelings of the insect.

For example, fear.

And anger.

And... egoism.

Under the circumstances, the monster should have returned to Zenith Sea first and informed Mother of the Nest what had happened here. After that, it should hand itself over to the Mother of the Nest, for when the message could not be passed through water waves, annexation would be a perfect way for the group to retain all the pheromones and thereby obtain useful evolutionary instructions.

Of course, the monster knew that evolution was more important than survival, a very basic understanding among the whole group.

But now it hesitated.

The monster found that it had pondered over more things in recent 10-odd days than what it had done in the past 100 years altogether. Back then, fighting, annexing, collecting, and growing were like its instincts, yet now it seemed to lose such instincts...

In addition, the monster was aware that the restrictions on using pheromones were lifted.

Every step of evolution was a choice made out of an abundance of caution. The pheromones collected by every nest eye must be passed to the central nest, where it would analyze them and then sort out the valuable parts that would be reconstructed and turned into evolution instructions. Evolution did not only involve the change in nest eyes but also involved every part of the group, from the central nest to "blade" and "foot". All of them grew up in this way little by little.

Therefore, there were not many differences between each eye of the branch nest.

But during the time of recovery, the monster had accidentally used a pheromone coming from a primal creature with a self-healing ability. That was why its serious wound, which would have taken months to heal up, faded away so quickly within merely a dozen days. The monster also noticed something unusual about itself.

It was no longer a usual nest eye.

Its "foot" quickly hauled plenty of food—the primal aquatic creatures nearby, or what insects normally referred to as fish. The "blade" neatly cut off their heads, which then gave off a fishy smell that would soon attract more fish. In this way, it would not be long before the monster filled itself up.

The monster did not know why those primal aquatic creatures, which enjoyed the same resource as them, still lived as the weakest among all. Somehow, as the monster watched the foolish fish gathered, it thought of itself.

Since the monster had developed an emotion called "fear", it no longer wanted to go back to Zenith Sea. The red mist insect's feelings had influenced the monster. It now realized that survival was more important than anything.

The monster was afraid of being swallowed up by Mother of the Nest and being disturbed again by the erratic little bug.

It also wanted a revenge. The anger was still there, but it hid it temporarily.

As the monster continuously felt both anger and fear, it found itself yearn for more. This was something it had never considered before.

Evolution would be the only way to get what it wanted.

The monster hastily engulfs a pack of fish and then started to take action.

The monster had never been so impatient before. Back then, every nest eye did the same job, and it did not matter whether the monster was quick or slow.

But things had changed now.

The pheromones the monster was going to collect and the evolution it would make had nothing to do with the group.

This time, those tasks would be done for its own sake.

Chapter 846 - Factional Conflicts

"Otto Luoxi is our ally and he deserves better. They've harassed the Eastern Region this time, next time they may dare to cross the boundary and invade the kingdom!" Brian said loudly. "Your Majesty, please give the order! No matter how far the enemy is, the First Army will crush them for you!"

"Invading us?" Barov raised his eyebrow. "If the army of the Kingdom of Dawn could enter Graycastle so brazenly, why on earth would you be here?"

"My lord, it's just an example—"

"A baseless example won't convince anybody," Barov interrupted. "More importantly, why do we need to involve the army in a problem that could be solved by diplomacy? Do you remember His Majesty's primary goal for this year? Do you think the eldest son of a noble family from the City of Glow would be more significant than our king's enthronement?"

For a moment, Brian was speechless.

"Alright... let's take a break." Roland clapped his hands. "Eat something before we continue."

As the clapping sounded, a servant waiting at the doorway entered wheeling a trolley. Some officials in the hall started to help themselves to snacks while others went to the bathroom. Thus, the tension within the room subsided.

This scene had come up repeatedly in their discussions during the three-day meeting. After Roland had received the intelligence reports from the spy, Hill Fawkes, and the garrison in the Northern Region, he had summoned all of the relevant officials to the castle to plan out a solution to the current situation.

Roland could clearly see two different factions forming among his men. The City Hall faction, headed by Barov, was more conservative. They preferred to concentrate on the development of the kingdom and were more focused on the Western Region, and they planned to gradually expand the population and increase the strength of Graycastle until the unification of the kingdom. To make the King of Dawn, Appen Moya, pay the price for his action was in their plan, but it was not considered urgent.

The other faction consisting of the First Army under the leadership of Brian, favored by the Adviser Department, was more aggressive. But they were not as united and as close as the City Hall faction. The men of the First Army were influenced by Brian, who boasted of new concepts like "defending against the enemy abroad", "acting before the enemy even notices," and "striking the enemy unprepared", so they insisted on taking immediate action, delivering retribution upon the Kingdom of Dawn and saving the detained Otto Luoxi. As for the members of the Adviser Department, they probably chose to stand with the First Army for their own benefit as they had no way to earn themselves rewards unless there was a war to fight.

Additionally, some members of the Adviser Department were from Longsong Stronghold, so they were not as familiar with Neverwinter as the men of City Hall. More often than not, their ideas were refuted and unappreciated, making their voice seem even less important.

Hence, there were several times that Brian's speech was countered by Barov easily. Honestly, in terms of eloquence, Brian was far behind Barov, so he had already done a great job of expressing his ideas in front of the ministers in the meeting so far. After all, Brian, the leader of the Gun Battalion, was young. He grew up as an ordinary villager of Border Town, less tested and inexperienced, which was something that could be seen from his report of the defensive battle in the snow mountain.

Roland had kept silent during the discussions. For the moment, the aggressive side was at a disadvantage and was losing control of the debate. To Roland's surprise, Barov's ability had grown greatly in the past three years. He might have been well trained while serving the previous Treasurer and all he needed was a chance to take off.

The only thing that surprised Roland was that Edith had made no speech and kept silent over the three days of the meeting.

Among the officials, she, the Pearl of the Northern Region, might be the only one qualified to argue with Barov.

To prevent internal conflict between Edith and Barov, who both liked to compete against each other, Roland had deliberately set up a new department in City Hall, the Ministry of Defense, specializing in external military affairs. This new department included the Adviser Department as one of its subordinate organizations. The Ministry of Defense would be responsible for the external military affairs and the Security Bureau. In this way, the framework of Graycastle's brute strength was roughly finalized.

As expected, Roland was the minister of this new department, just like he was for the other departments. Edith used to be Barov's assistant, learning to deal with affairs in the City Hall. She had done her job very well, but it was not until now that she got her formal approval and became a member of the new department. To be given a such an honor so easily would be so great that no other reward would be a match in the future and other newcomers would take her as an example, believing that they were also qualified to get such a title easily.

After all, times had changed. Roland was no longer in a shortage of people and would not appoint anyone of little competence to a major position again.

So, Edith now worked as a clerk in the Ministry of Defense, playing the role of an adviser to serve Roland.

Roland believed that a person like the Pearl of the Northern Region would never feel frustrated at such an arrangement which could give an impression that she had to start all over again to gain power and that she would surely understand his intentions. Although she left the chief's office, she earned a chance to be promoted without interference. So, it was very unusual for her to keep quiet on an occasion that fit her skills and interests, and let Barov control the topic.

...

Roland glanced at Edith, who looked relaxed as she enjoyed her Chaos Drink. It was as if Barov's imposing manner held no interest to her.

"What a strange woman," he thought to himself.

He shrugged and said to Scroll beside him, "Show me today's meeting records."

"Okay," Scroll said as she put down the quill and handed a notebook over. "Here's all the records."

After three days of discussion, they had come up with a mutual conclusion to the information Roland had received.

Hill Fawkes, who had sent back the secret messages, had placed the three pieces of news in order according to their importance. That meant the enemy harassing the Eastern Region required the most concern and the thing about Otto in custody was less important. Given that, the meeting members believed that the eldest son of Luoxi Family was not, for the moment, in mortal danger. Appen Moya, who was new to his throne, still needed the support of the three big families.

Even though Appen Moya wanted to replace the Luoxi Family, he needed time, and they thought he would need at least a year or two. Otto might suffer in the prison, but he would survive.

The news Roland got about the volatile situation in the Holy City was confirmed by the report from the garrison in the Northern Region, so the meeting members thought it must have been true. Now even the City of Glow started to stir, they thought that Moya family might also be aiming at the church. The Moya hated the church, and they were eager for the large amount of wealth in Hermes that the church had collected and saved for centuries.

As for the harassment, the meeting members thought it might refer to secretly provoking and supporting the rebels. Other than that, the things the enemy could do, that was practical, was very little. No one believed that Appen would dare to march his army upon Graycastle, for defeat was nearly guarenteed. But the rebellion truly happened within the domain of Graycastle, which meant it could not be ignored. No matter how weak the rebels were, their action would cause damage to the kingdom, so it was reasonable for Hill to regard this piece of news as the most important.

Chapter 847 - Now Is the Time

Both factions agreed to recover the Eastern Region and destroy the church, which had been incorporated into the plan in the previous meetings.

The only thing still in dispute was when to retaliate against the Kingdom of Dawn.

Roland had made his diplomatic posture very clear to his men, so this time no one tried to compromise on this matter or sweep the problem under the rug. But the officials of the City Hall still wished to negotiate with the Dawn Crown after Roland's enthronement, for they believed that at that time King Roland would be more rightful to stand out for Greycastle, and meanwhile they kept the choice of using force when it was needed. Apparently, they had been persuaded and tempted by the meeting held in the Months of Demons aiming at the future, so they were so eager to support Prince Roland to take the throne officially and become the veritable King of Graycastle. They also wanted to ascend from the local officials to the ministers of a real kingdom.

Lots of men and resources would be required to invade deep into the Kingdom of Dawn, which would doubtlessly affect the enthronement. No king would send out his elite men and hastily hold the ceremony of coronation at the same time. That was disgraceful either to the king or his people.

Of course, it was Roland who had the final say.

In the past three days, he had been watching the discussion without showing any obvious preference which was a sharp contrast to the unyielding attitude he had shown in the letter he had sent to Appen. But thanks to his silence, the attendants finally got a chance to have as many arguments as they wanted.

Roland did not change his original intention but was biding his time.

He was waiting for an opportunity to profit the most while paying the smallest price.

By nightfall, there came someone who knocked on Roland's door.

He let out a slight sigh of relief as he saw the visitor was Andrea.

Finally, she came.

Had she not taken the initiative, Roland would have gone to visit her sooner or later though he was sure that it was not a good choice and he might not be able to achieve anything by doing so.

"Here, have a dried fish," Nightingale said as she showed up and gave a piece of honey fish to Andrea, who might be the only witch who could get a share of snacks from Nightingale with the exception of Wendy.

Was it because of the bond among nobles?

"Thank you," Andrea, who did not seem in the mood for snacks, said as she took the snack and pocketed it. She put her hand on her chest and saluted Roland, "Your Majesty, I..."

She paused, finding the words.

"You want me to save your childhood friend, Otto Luoxi, don't you?" Roland spoke out Andrea's thoughts. He could not allow Andrea to hesitate any longer. If she changed her mind, the three days Roland had spent waiting would be in vain.

Roland also roughly guessed why Andrea could not make up her mind. He was certain that Otto was the one who fell in love with Andrea, who, on the contrary, only just took him as her friend. That was why she did not know how to make her request. To save Otto because he was her childhood playmate? After so many years, Andrea no longer missed her life in the Kingdom of Dawn because of what her father, Earl Quinn, had done to her. Her father did not protect her after he knew she was a witch. Instead, he used an accident to create a fake death for her. Of course, that was not something pleasant to remember.

When Otto visited Neverwinter last winter, Andrea had clearly made known her attitude that she wished not to be involved in her life in the Kingdom of Dawn. She now came to Roland just because of her kindness and her wish to offer some help.

"Yes..." She drew a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"But as you've heard in the meeting. At least over 3,000 men are needed to make Appen yield plus the men that were required to attack the Holy City. The total number will reach about 5,000, which accounts for 80 percent of the First Army."

Regardless of the argument, the City Hall and Adviser Departments finalized a rough plan. There was no river connecting Graycastle and the other two pieces of land, Hermes Plateau and the Kingdom of Dawn. Under such circumstances, they had to rely on carts and men to transport supplies which significantly increased the number of the men engaged in the logistics team. In addition, 20 percent of the First Army must be left to garrison every region of the kingdom so they had to leave for the next battlefield right after they won the first battle. The First Army did not even have extra men to take care of the land they had just conquered. By taking every aspect into account, it turned out that they would be busy all around without making a profit or even worse.

"I just counted the manpower. If you put in the materials... all kinds of cost, like the money for horses, carts, food..." Watching Andrea becoming more embarrassed, Roland attempted to illustrate more facts to make her suffer, but all of a sudden, he paused.

"Your Majesty?" The blonde witch in front of him was slightly surprised.

Roland's abrupt stop was not because he noticed something wrong, but because Nightingale had pinched him hard on his back and then whispered to him in a voice that no one else could hear, "Stop pushing her. Can't you just say what you mean."

"Ahem... I'm alright." Roland coughed. "That's the situation now, but we can turn the tables with some effort. It just depends on the three families and to what extent, they are willing to cooperate."

"The three... families?"

"It's obvious that the new king no longer trusts them. Our action may succeed in saving Otto, but our direct interference will break the relationship between the Moya royalties and Luoxi Family. Even if Appen is overthrown, how could the next king forget this?" Roland touched his chin and went on, "Now I've got strong demons to fight against, so I can't put too much concentration and men into our neighbor country. The future of the Kingdom of Dawn depends on the three families."

Andrea seemed to realize something. She said, "Please go on."

"We need someone to replace the Moya royalty," Roland said word by word.

Andrea was quiet for a moment, and then she said, "I see. Do you have a plan?"

She was a true highborn girl, who could keep calm even in the face of scheming to overthrow a regime. That made the next talk so much easier. Roland went straight to the point and asked, "Are you interested in being the Queen of the Kingdom of Dawn?"

"Your Majesty?" Andrea's face finally changed. The question indeed took her by surprise, "No... I don't want to leave..."

"Why not?"

She bit her lip and said, "No reason...I'm just not interested."

That was something Roland had not expected, not her answer of not wanting to be the Queen of Dawn, but her expression. She was clearly swayed by the considerations of gain and loss, which was something rarely seen with Andrea, whose manner was usually so elegant.

Was there something more precious to her than being a queen?

Roland sipped his tea, his face emotionless. Luckily, he had a second plan.

"How about your father? Is he interested? Will he stand out?"

The Quinn Family was his best choice. In addition to its superior strength among the three families, Andrea, who was loved by Otto and Oro, also played a key role. To some extent, she could speak for the three families.

The people that graduated from Neverwinter's current education system were not enough to run Graycastle, so there was no way for Roland to put men in place to fully control the Kingdom of Dawn. It would be easier to support a regime that was friendly to Graycastle and if Andrea gave her approval of the plan, he would be able to get the neighbor's resources at a low price.

"Of course, the other two families will also benefit. In fact, the coup will make every participant win, and more than that, the threat that hangs over your heads will be completely lifted," Roland said slowly. "In this way, Neverwinter will save the trouble of marching army and investing coins, and all I need to do was to assist the Quinn Family in taking the throne."

Andrea did not hesitate for long this time. After a moment of thought, she gave her promise. "I think... my father will agree."

She paused and corrected herself, "No, he'll definitely agree."

When Andrea gave those words, Roland knew that she had fully understood what he meant.

Now was the time.

"Neverwinter will soon take action. Don't worry... Otto Luoxi won't be detained for too long."

Chapter 848 - Mission Pure Witch

"I'd thought you wanted to be the King of Dawn yourself." Nightingale twisted her lips and spoke after Andrea had departed. "Turns out you weren't joking about making her the monarch."

"I knew you would figure it out soon." Roland shrugged. "As for myself..." Several explanations had run through his head, including the lack of able personnel, Andrea's communicative abilities, as well as the constraints on time and resource. Instead, he settled for a simple line. "I'm just not capable enough."

"Really..." Nightingale patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sure you can count on Andrea. You can't go wrong with the Quinn family."

"These two certainly appreciate each other a lot." Roland began to laugh within. However, as Nightingale had been a dependant of a family in the past, her political foresight was a level below his own. He personally believed that family background was not a factor, as long as Andrea was not blindly devoted to it. He was certain that she, like most people, would gladly accept and cherish a glorious opportunity like this which did not come at much cost.

But he kept these thoughts to himself, for it was much too adorable to see Nightingale speak nonsense in the most serious of manners.

Just at this moment, someone knocked on the office door.

"Come in."

The door creaked open, and the person standing outside turned out to be Isabella.

Roland had not expected this. The latter was not a member of the Witch Union and hence could not access the Castle District under normal circumstances. However, once he saw Agatha's figure behind her, he understood how she was able to get through.

"Your Majesty." The Pure Witch, formerly of the Church, bowed and quickly got to the point. "I've heard from Agatha that the Church of Hermes is on the brink of collapse, is that so?"

If it was not for the mildly grim look on her face, Roland might even have mistaken that she was here to plead on behalf of her former overseers.

"That's what the intelligence says, but we're still finding out the specific details." Roland was puzzled as to why the Ice Witch had revealed this information to the latter, but instead of denying the matter outright, he replied as vaguely as he could. "Refugees from the Church have begun to appear in Coldwind Ridge and the western part of Kingdom of Dawn. They've testified that the most popular cathedral in the Holy City has collapsed overnight."

"Your Majesty, I hope that you can send troops to Hermes as quickly as possible."

"Why?"

"Don't you remember what I'd mentioned? The millions of Berserk Pills there." Isabella replied in a disgruntled voice. "There's bound to be some people who now know where they're stored... if word gets out, your plans will be disrupted." She paused before continuing, "This stuff will be highly useful for the Battle of Divine Will. Best if you can collect and transport all of it back to Neverwinter."

It was only now that Roland remembered the latter had mentioned this in the intelligence she had provided. It seemed that Zero's plan was to unite all of Mankind in a life-and-death battle against the Army of Demons, and her trump card was indeed to be these Berserk Pills. As he was personally contemptuous of these drugs, he had almost forgotten about the matter.

However, the situation had changed greatly. Isabella was right; if someone distributed the pills, such that they fell into the hands of nobles from Graycastle, the Kingdom of Dawn, or worse, the rats of Black Street, there would be considerable trouble. Perhaps, they would still not be able to take on a fully-equipped army, but individual officials and regional governments would certainly be under threat.

"Where are the pills stored?" He glanced at Isabella.

"They're separately stored in hidden warehouses all over the Hermes Plateau. It's hard to explain where they are exactly." The latter hesitated for a moment before she continued, "If Your Majesty trusts me, allow me to follow the army there. I was once the Pope's ordained executor, and with this identity, I may be able to slow down the internal collapse. Otherwise, the army will find it difficult to stem the flow of refugees."

"But who'll know if you use your identity to do other things?" Nightingale interjected. "Perhaps you'll secretly release those believers... you have friends among them, haven't you?"

"I wouldn't lie to His Majesty," Isabella refuted. "Zero has already shown up who's the real God's pet. I've no need to do such useless things. If necessary, the army can lay a trap for me to lead the believers into and kill them off. That's another way of maintaining order, aside from making use of my identity, as I mentioned."

"Ugh..." Nightingale rasped and spat out a mouthful. "I guess that's something a Pure Witch would think of."

Roland felt somewhat disconcerted. It was not often that Nightingale would be at a loss for words, which was a sign that the latter was being serious about her suggestion. Though she had committed her full allegiance to him the other day, this was done on the basis of fighting the demons. Unlike most other witches, she had been educated and trained as a Pure Witch, which meant she had long been taught that the lives of normal people were unimportant as long as she could accomplish her objectives.

After pondering for a short while, Roland slowly opened his mouth and spoke. "I'll allow you to travel with the First Army, but you shan't intervene in any battle. All you have to do is to find the pills and destroy them on the spot."

"Your Majesty." Her brows visibly furrowed. "These drugs may overwork the body, but when it comes to a life-and-death battle..."

"Say no more." Roland cut her short. "And speaking of maintaining order, I've another task for you."

Isabella immediately lowered her head and responded, "As Your Majesty commands."

"There should still be a few cloisters left in the old Holy City, right?"

"Yes, but there are no witches left." After some contemplation, she amended her words. "Perhaps a few Awakened Witches may have appeared during the last Months of Demons, but there's only a slim chance that they're still alive."

"That doesn't matter. Free the orphans, take care of them, and bring them back to Western Region."

Isabella was taken aback. "All of them?"

"Yes. You shall be in charge." Roland nodded.

Supposing that Pure Witches truly disregarded the lives of others in order to complete their missions, Roland wanted to see what Isabella would do when her task was to save lives. Though he might not be able to change what she had done in the past, he hoped that she would be able to rectify her ways.

"This task has its purpose, which I must thank you very much for reminding me about. That is, if the upper hierarchy loses the ability to maintain order, the cloisters are likely to turn into living hells. Right now, Neverwinter requires a large amount of labor, and there'll also be jobs for women. I'd heard that the church had started basic education for the orphans, no? I'm sure they're all of excellent potential, and shouldn't be left to starve to death behind those high walls. I want you to bring all of them here without exception."

Isabella remained silent for a long while before she noted, "That'll require a lot of food."

"I'll have people to prepare all the food that's required."

An intricate expression appeared in her eyes. Roland had seen it before on the day she was pardoned, her chains were removed, and she was granted "limited freedom" status.

If her thoughts could be heard, they would certainly comprise of a loud "Why?".

She slowly bent her waist and bowed.

"As Your Majesty commands."

Chapter 849 - The King's Orders

When Edith returned to her abode, she took off her coat and casually tossed it on the hanger at the door.

She could not help taking in a deep breath of the rich fragrance which pervaded from the living room, and her dry mouth welled up with saliva at once.

She had not felt any hungry during the meeting at the Ministry of Defense, but she now realized that her stomach was growling terribly.

"Why so late today?' Cole's voice was heard before he stuck his head out from behind a doorframe, visibly holding a spoon in his hand.

"The war will start anytime now, and naturally, the Ministry of Defense has more work to do. In particular, the circumstances of the Kingdom of Dawn are making things more complicated." She took off her leather boots and replaced them with a soft pair of socks before she entered the living room. "If I return late next time, you should go ahead with dinner."

"Nah, I'm fine with this." Cole twitched his lips. "But, isn't it that His Majesty has yet to decide what to do regarding the King of Dawn? If he employs the strategy offered by Barov's side, won't the plans you're making now be a complete waste?'

"Do you really think he doesn't have his own ideas?" Edith patted her younger brother on the head as she walked past him. "Roland Wimbledon isn't the sort of king who blindly goes by his subordinates' ideas."

"What've you found out this time?" Cole put on a curious look.

"I can tell you, but then I may have to kill you." She swept a glance at him which caused him to quiver and not speak another word.

On the dining table were placed two dishes and a soup, all of which the main ingredient was Neverwinter's specialty - Bird Beak Mushrooms. Recently, either because there was a growing number of hunters who gathered these mushrooms, or because a new source had been discovered, a large supply of mushrooms which were exceptionally fresh, delicious and juicy was being sold in the Convenience Market, and at a lower price than before. As such, the sale of these mushrooms was on the verge of surpassing that of meat products.

It was a pity that the plumpness of the mushrooms was difficult to preserve for long, or otherwise they would sell excellently outside of the Western Region as well.

Edith placed a grilled mushroom in her mouth. The slightly burnt flavor of the mushroom cap blended together perfectly with the melted butter, and after a satisfying crisp sound, she felt her entire mouth filled with mushroom juice, causing her to croon in delight.

She realized she had belittled her dear younger brother all this time.

Although he was not good with the sword and possessed an indecisive character, his talent for learning was far greater than what she had expected. Take cooking for instance - he had learned how to prepare these mushrooms simply by eating them once or twice at banquets organized by His Majesty, yet the taste was almost identical. This would not be possible without an ingenious mind. It also applied to his clerical work at the City Hall. He had been on the job for merely a few months, but had already served as the official scribe at important meetings held at the Lord's castle. This speed of promotion far exceeded that of people of the same age group as him. Even the bunch of young nobles from the Northern Region, who considered themselves to be peerless in their excellence, might not have been able to do better than him.

Of course, what Edith appreciated most was that he always listened to and obeyed what she said.

As she thought about this, she felt the dinner taste more delicious than ever.

After all, the greater the ability of the people under her charge, the easier it would be for her to get certain things done.

"Sis..." Halfway through the meal, Cole could not resist speaking up once again. "Why have you stayed silent for the past few meetings?"

"Uh?" She placed her spoon down and visibly raised her eyebrows.

"The questions which His Majesty asked were all within the realm of your expertise, no? Since you were able to read his intentions, why didn't you speak up for him?" Cole grouched. "Did you not see the way Barov was looking at you... he was nearly bursting with delight."

"This is also a secret. According to conventional practice..."

"Ugh..." He lowered his head and revealed a distressed look. After much hesitation, he shook his head abjectly as if to suppress his inner curiosity.

"But, on account of this delicious dinner, I'll take it that you've paid up." Edith began to smile slightly. "How much do you know about Andrea of the Witch Union?"

"Andrea?" Cole thought for a short while. "Her name has never appeared on any scheduled plan, and her ability is meh..."

"Her ability is irrelevant." The Pearl of the Northern Region snapped. "It's normal that you don't know much about her. She's a combat witch, and rarely shows up in public. Only a few people know of her background. From what I've gathered, she's a noble from the Kingdom of Dawn, and her family's a highly honorable one. She's also an old friend of Otto Luoxi. You can more or less infer the rest of the secret from these details." Subsequently, she provided a simple outline of her own speculation. "Do you now understand why I didn't speak up during the meetings? Had I revealed the favoritism involved, some things that could be achieved would no longer be possible. His Majesty might even have held me responsible!"

Cole's eyes widened. "How did you know all this?"

"Did you really believe I offered to go to the Great Snow Mountain simply to back up what I'd said, that 'only people who've served on the front line should be eligible to become key officials?' That's only one of several reasons." She shrugged her shoulders and continued, "Had I not made this trip, it would be difficult to make close contact with the witches."

Cole strained his brows and contemplated for a long while. "No, that's not right... granted that the news you'd heard was accurate, how could you be so certain that His Majesty would choose Andrea as a quick fix for the problems in the Kingdom of Dawn? There's absolutely no relation between these points! Couldn't he have made it a priority to recapture the kingdom and organize an ascension ceremony?"

"There's certainly no necessary relation. However, His Majesty's behavior during the meetings makes it hard for me to believe otherwise..." Edith responded assertively. "During three days of meetings, he'd glanced at Andrea a total of 17 times. She's neither a City Hall official, nor a key decision-maker, and as such, unless they're having an affair, this should be the secret plot."

"You... even noted this?"

She raised her bowl of soup and reenacted her posture during the meetings. "By sitting like this, I can observe His Majesty with the corners of my eyes. He certainly wouldn't expect that while he was watching Andrea, someone else was constantly observing him."

"..."The younger brother puckered his lips into a peculiar expression and muttered something inaudible.

"What did you say?" Edith questioned icily.

"No, erm... nothing much." Cole hastily waved his hands in denial. "But I would like to ask - when you spoke to Andrea after one of the meetings, was it also because of this? What if your guess was wrong?"

"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow in amusement. "You saw that?'

"I wanted to ask you what time you would return home that day. But... you seemed to remain in front of her for only a very short while..."

"I didn't need to divulge all of the conjectures in my head. Because it's a matter of favoritism, all I had to do was to give her a gentle nudge on the back," Edith calmly replied. "I simply said to her, 'His Majesty is a very benevolent king, and besides, he has met Sir Otto briefly before. As long as you speak up, he'll almost certainly agree to save the latter.' This way, if my guess was correct, I would have served to help His Majesty, while if I was wrong...," she paused briefly before finishing her sentence, "Who actually cares if the Kingdom of Dawn's nobles are dead or alive?"

...

The next day, the routine meeting lasted for only half its usual duration.

Roland Wimbledon, who had been quiet for the past three days, figured that he had heard enough of the ministers' discussion, and therefore announced his decision at the start of the meeting - in Neverwinter, the First Army would split up into two routes; the first route would be to enter Hermes Plateau through Coldwind Ridge, while the second would be to cut through the Eastern Region directly towards the border of the Kingdom of Dawn. The aim was for these two offensives to link up in the City of Glow by early autumn.

After Roland had issued his decree, everyone at the meeting discontinued their arguments and acknowledged his orders in unison. Even Barov, who was the leader of a group which held a more conservative opinion, bowed in agreement as though he had not said what he did previously.

The entire Western Region became busy in the blink of an eye.

Chapter 850 - A Lone Wolf

"One, two, three, four..."

Lorgar dumped the gold royals out from her bag on the table and carefully counted them twice, her brows tightly knitted together.

There were only 21 of them.

In less than half a month, she had used up three-quarters of her savings. She was certain that if she continued to live this way, she would have to flee back to her home in disgrace, dumping all her pride and lofty aspirations into quicksand.

The prices in a big city are so high, particularly in Evelyn's Complex Wine House!

The drinks are outrageously expensive. It's like an open robbery.

"No..." Lorgar whimpered as she lowered her head in dejection, her ears dropping as well. She had to admit that the wine shop had never robbed her and she had willingly taken out her gold royals to buy the drinks. In fact, the shop owner had even expressed worries for her many times when she had spent lots of money there. The owner had also told her that after joining the Witch Union, she would have been able to get one bottle for free each month. However, what the owner said failed to register in her brain.

I was defeated by my own desire.

Or by my curiosity.

But...

It's not my fault. Those Chaos Drinks are so enchanting. Even the morning dew of Arturo Oasis doesn't taste that good. Their amazing flavors are beyond description and each one of the colorful drinks is unique and tasty. Complex Wine House does deserve its reputation.

If all the wine house' drinks had the same flavor, even if they were as tasty as the Three Gods' brew, Lorgar was confident that she could control herself. After all, she knew that drinking a proper amount of wine would do good to a warrior, but drinking too much would be destructive. However, Chaos Drinks were too unpredictable. She just couldn't wait to try another flavor and had unconsciously spent her money like running water.

Feeling frustrated, Logar moved her head from side to side, rubbing her forehead against the cold table, trying to clear her head.

No, I must stop indulging myself.

She had been intrigued by the wine house in the city. She found that the place that sold horrendously expensive drinks also turned out to be a really good spot to broaden her horizon and collect information. Sitting anywhere inside the wine house, she could overhear conversations of merchants coming from all over the northern kingdoms. Unlike the traveling traders in the Southernmost Region, most merchants here were wealthy and able to give insightful comments on the things that the Wolf Girl had never heard before. She had benefited a lot from hearing these talks. She could also meet some of the witches here, through whom she could also learn some inside information about the Witch Union.

Unfortunately, her remaining money could hardly support her plan to stay in the city to wait for those kinds of opportunities.

She had to take action now.

To overcome her desire for the drinks, she was going to find someone to fight and she had better leave the city to do so. This way, she would be able to stay away from Neverwinter's Complex Wine House and forget everything during combat.

When the Wolf Girl closed her eyes, the sand road arose in her mind.

Yes, that's it. This must be a challenge the Three Gods give me.

She cheered up at the thought.

She patted her own cheeks to refresh herself, put all the gold royals back in her bag, and started to pack her belongings.

She had not wasted the entire half month in the Complex Wine House. Ashes had introduced her to her lifesaver, Miss Nana Pine, and now she knew that Nana, Lily and Leaf were the three witches who had a curing ability in Neverwinter. She was happy to find that they did not just serve the great chief. These three witches ran a hospital in the city and all the residents here could pay to get their treatments which were much cheaper than Chaos Drinks.

Under such circumstances, the Wolf Girl was able to get medical care whenever she needed, even if she did not work for the great chief. This was better than what she had expected.

Among the three witches, Ms. Nana had the strongest healing power, but it only worked directly on the patient. Fortunately, Lily and Leaf could create magic medicines, such as this bottle of gray powder in Lorgar's hand, which was called "special medicine for metal-infected wounds". It was made by Miss Leaf and could rapidly stop bleeding.

Another bottle of liquid medicine named "Cleansing Water" was produced by Lily. It looked like ordinary water from wells but was able to resist infections. Lorgar thought its effect did match its name. When a warrior's wound was exposed, infection was even more fatal than blood loss and pain. This common knowledge made Lorgar quickly recognize the value of this potion. If it did not have a shelf life, she would definitely buy all the purification potion she could find.

She could buy both of these medicines at the hospital. Given their effects, she thought their prices were not high at all. They were undoubtedly the best safeguard for any warrior who wanted to challenge their limits and fight strong opponents. She was confident that she could defeat any strong enemy as long as she could use these medicines properly.

The other things in her plan had not gone as smooth. Firstly, all the tricks she had prepared to explore the northern kingdom had turned out to be useless since Neverwinter had no "Rats Association" that the traveling traders had mentioned to her. Secondly, the residents here seemed to know nothing about demons. She had asked several dozens of people but had still failed to get any clue. Instead, she had aroused suspicion and even been followed by some men in black.

By now, she had only known demons from Ashes' descriptions and a conversation she had overheard in Complex Wine House. They had once appeared in an abandoned city in the wilderness to the north of Neverwinter.

According to her past experiences, she should not take initiative to attack an opponent whom she knew so a little about. However, she still urged herself to action, since she was eager to get rid of the Chaos Drinks' temptation and prove herself to the great chief.

She thought that since this journey was a challenge, it would inevitably be filled with obstacles and setbacks.

She was well prepared in her heart.

...

Outside the City of Neverwinter, she found an uninhabited dense forest. She took off her clothes and transformed into the big wolf, darting toward the north with her pack held in her mouth.

She did not know the specific location of the abandoned city or when she would be able to meet a demon, but she had enough patience. As a Desert Wolf who had acute hearing and smell, she believed that she could easily live for a long time in this wilderness which was a dangerous place for an ordinary person. This ability had enabled her to discover and kill hidden enemies again and again back in the Southernmost Region.

She was confident that she would be able to copy her success again.

Stepping on the soil mixed with melting snow, she somehow felt that the Three Gods would lead her to meet the real enemy.

She did not run very far before she heard a sudden whistling sound in the air. It sounded as if something was rapidly crackling through the air.

She knew that someone was swooping down toward her!

This familiar sound alerted the Wolf Girl.

In the holy duel on the Burning Stage, the Four-winged Eagle had launched a surprise attack at her with this method. She had not been able to dodge such a quick blow at the time, but now she had enough experience to deal with it.

As an excellent Mojin warrior, she would never allow herself to be hit twice by the same kind of attack.

Lorgar balanced on one leg while turning her whole body to the side, planning to meet the coming attacker head on. She held the ground tightly with her sturdy hind legs, tensed her muscles, and opened her claws, ready to ferociously counterattack when the enemy landed.

In the next moment, she saw a big monster hit the ground where she had been, splashing a lot of snow water into the air. Its wings were even broader than those of the Four-winged Eagle. When it landed, the ground seemed to tremble.

Meanwhile, she heard it whine as if it was greatly surprised by the fact that it missed its target.

"Coo?"

Chapter 851 - An Invitation from the Neverwinter Exploration Group

Lorgar found that this wild, ugly flying monster who had hairless wings and terrifying strength sounded somewhat familiar.

"Wait, doesn't it sound like the white pigeon who's very close to Ashes?" The Wolf Girl thought. A fierce image of the bird she had imagined flashed across her mind again.

"Maggie?" The name slipped out of her mouth before she realized.

"The wolf can actually speak, coo!" The monster gave out a strange cry and hurriedly retreated many steps with its eyes widely open. Seeing this, the Wolf Girl froze in the place, unable to decide whether she should spring at it. She did not know why Maggie launched this sneak attack at her but still thought this incident was a good opportunity to challenge Maggie. However, the panicked monster's actions made her think that Maggie was the one being ambushed.

"It's a witch, idiot." A crisp, immature voice suddenly came from the monster's head. "Who're you? How do you know us?

Lorgar looked up. She had to slightly narrow her eyes to look hard and found another witch floating in the air with the sun behind her. In the glaring sunshine, the Wolf Girl could only vaguely see her short blond hair flying in the wind and a weapon reflecting silver light in her hand.

Lorgar was surprised that this little girl seemed to have a lot of fighting experience. This technique of using dazzling sunlight to hurt an opponent's eyes was not very easy to master.

Knowing that these witches did not come to challenge her, Lorgar let herself relax. She liked challenges, but she did not want to pester her opponents. Besides, she still remembered what Ashes had said about Maggie, "All the people who challenged her could not get rid of bad luck". With this in mind, she decided to avoid this trouble when she was strengthening her fighting capacity alone.

She dropped the pack that was in her mouth and transformed back into her human form. "I'm Lorgar Burnflame from the Desert. I came here with Ashes and Andrea. Ashes mentioned you on the way, Maggie."

"Ah, I remember." The big monster shrank in the blink of an eye and turned into a little girl whose height was only up to her waist but had long white hair almost touching the ground. "I've met her when I went to pick up Ashes. Coo!"

"Didn't Ashes tell you anything about me?" The blond little girl grumbled.

"You're…"

"Lightning, the greatest explorer in the Western Region, no, in the entire Kingdom of Graycastle!" With these words, she plunged down and landed in front of the Wolf Girl. "You've got to remember it!"

"Coo... why did you take off your clothes?" Maggie curiously looked at the Wolf Girl's chest and then touched her own. "Is that something you can conjure up? Coo!"

Lightning gave Maggie a knock on the head. "Stop staring at her. That's just individual differences."

Lorgar put on her coat. "So why did you attack me?"

Lightning stopped being so confident and seemed even a little embarrassed. "I thought you were a mutated snowwolf. It's our job to keep watch on the northeast, eliminate wandering demonic beasts in the Barbarian Land, and bring fresh preys back to the castle."

"And stealing birds' eggs from their nests, picking honeycombs, and roasting food in the wilderness!"

"Those aren't our work!" Lightning instantly interrupted Maggie. "In short, there's almost no one in this area, plus the Months of Demons just ended, so..."

"I see." Lorgar nodded. She accepted this explanation since she had repeatedly heard that the border regions of northern kingdoms would become very dangerous during Months of Demons every year. After the fight against the Four-winged Eagle, Ashes had also told her many things about hybrid demonic beasts. It was sensible that these witches up in the sky had mistaken the big Desert Wolf she had transformed into as a wolf demonic hybrid.

"What about you?" the little girl asked. "This is the Barbarian Land. Many demonic beasts wander this place and something even more terrible may also hide here. What do you want to do out here alone?"

"Something more terrible... Do you mean demons?" Lorgar calmly said. "If so, I think I've come to the right place."

"You know about the demons? Coo."

"I'm looking for an abandoned city. I heard the demons have appeared there." She paused for a moment. "I want to hunt them."

Lightning was stunned for a moment and then looked at Lorgar with a strange facial expression as if she was trying hard to stop herself from laughing out. "Who told you that?"

"Is there anything wrong?" Lorgar asked.

"Demons did appear in Taquila, but it was over 400 years ago." Lightning grinned. "Of course, they may return at any time. That's why we patrol this area. But if you really want to go to the abandoned city, you'll have to run for seven or eight days. More importantly, the Barbarian Land is too large. Once you head in a wrong direction, you'll never see the city. You have to know that this place is originally called the Fertile Plains and it's larger than the entire Kingdom of Graycastle... no, even larger than the Four Kingdoms combined."

"Really?" The Wolf Girl could not help but frown. She did not worry about the long distance since she had once traveled in the wilderness for two consecutive months to practice her fighting skills. She did not worry about the time either due to being a seasoned hunter. She had enough patience to wait for the demons. In fact, she really hoped to live in the wild for some time as she would never spend her gold royals unconsciously here. However, failing to find the abandoned city was totally unacceptable for her.

"Yes, but I admire your courage and adventurous spirit!" Lightning stood with her arms bent. "You're brave enough to begin an exploration based on limited information. That means you've got the potential to become a good explorer. I don't know why you refused to join the Witch Union, but you can join the Neverwinter Exploration Group. What do you think? Do you want to explore this continent wrapped in mist together with us?"

"And to join our barbecue!" Maggie cheerfully raised her hands.

"No, thanks." Lorgar could not help but sigh in her heart, feeling that things had deviated from her expectations. For example, Maggie who looked as fierce as the Four-winged Eagle, turned out to be an immature little girl instead of a qualified warrior. Lorgar came here to challenge her own limits and climb the peak of fighting skills, not to play with some child. She decided to search for the city on her own and considered this as another challenge arranged by the Three Gods.

When she was about to leave, Lightning stopped her. "Wait. I'll take you to the Taquila ruins...if you join the Neverwinter Exploration Group."

"Have you been there?" Lorgar's ears erected at once.

"Of course, we're the only ones who've touched its city wall in over 400 years," Lightning proudly announced, "and I know much about demons and have even fought a very powerful Senior Demon. This will be unique information for you. Think about it."

Chapter 852 - A Like-minded Friend

...

When the sun was setting, the shadow of the Impassable Mountain Range started to grow gradually and it seemed as if the mountain range itself was growing constantly. In the end, the shadow together with the sky mixed in darkness which engulfed the predominantly brown land that was dotted with some green areas.

This was the first time that Lorgar saw such a scene. When flying in the sky, a huge monster like Maggie could only cast a small shadow on the ground. The darkness seemed to approach slowly, but they just could not get rid of it no matter how fast they flew.

The pure vastness of the Barbarian Land filled her with awe.

Lightning moved closer and whistled. "Let's go down. We're here."

"Ow!"

When the beast was going down, the Wolf Girl on its back felt as if she was about to float up in mid-air. This feeling frightened her. She could not help but firmly grasp the beast's skin.

Before long, the three witches successfully landed on a hillside.

"This is..."

"Our Exploration Group's secret base." Lightning waved at Lorgar. "Come with me."

The little girl suddenly disappeared behind a big tree stump. The Wolf Girl came up and found that the stump turned out to be hollow. It had a small door facing the steep slope and behind the door, she was surprised to see that there was a pile of firewood and some simple stone chairs inside.

"It'll take two days to fly to Taquila. We'll spend the night here and continue our journey early tomorrow morning." Lightning opened the window opposite to the door to let the air flow. Most of the decaying smell inside the stump instantly disappeared. "Now it's our barbecue time. Wait to try my yummy toast."

"Did you... build this place?" Lorgar curiously looked around. She had accepted Lightning's invitation and joined the so-called Neverwinter Exploration Group because the little girl had promised to bring her to the abandoned city and to provide her further information about demons, which precisely peeked her curiosity. After all, the Wolf Girl believed that the more she knew about her opponents, the easier it would be to defeat them. She had to force herself to leave the city knowing little about demons and the wilderness, but now as she finally met a reliable source of intelligence, she decided to make some "sacrifices" to keep it.

She felt it was not a big deal to spend some time playing with these two little girls.

"I didn't build it. I just found a place created by nature." Lightning quickly made a fire, lighting up the room inside the stump. "It was eaten hollow by some worms and the upper part of it collapsed during a storm. Its branches and leaves happened to form a natural roof. As for the window and door, they were cut out by Maggie. We've many bases like this in the Barbarian Land. An observant explorer is always able to spot a shelter in the wild."

Upon hearing her reply, Lorgor felt this little girl was quite trustworthy.

In the flickering firelight, she noticed that there were bolts behind the shabby door and window that could be locked to ensure safety. She also saw that a part of the roof above the open fireplace could be opened for venting smoke and this outlet could obviously act as a double for an escape hatch in the event of an emergency. All the firewood was shelved in higher places to avoid being soaked in water and two ditches were dug out in the ground to ensure good drainage. Although there was a decaying smell in the room, it was not humid.

She noticed many other similar details in this room and it did not seem like these arrangements were made by a little child.

She started to doubt whether she had underestimated this exploration group.

Maggie took out some jerky from her backpack and cooked it over the bonfire while humming a tuneless melody. Lightning picked out many condiment cans which had been wrapped around her waist and evenly sprinkled them on the surface of the jerky. The smooth cooperation between them suggested that this was not their first time to do such a thing together.

Soon, a tempting scent spread throughout the stump.

"Try it." Lightning handed some roast meat to Lorgar.

Lorgar grabbed it and, after a little hesitation, slowly put it into her mouth.

Extremely rich layers of flavor immediately filled her mouth. It was warm and oily, and fresh and salty because of the spices being used. The meat was tender inside and it had a crispy crust. It was hard for the Wolf Girl to believe that something cooked in the wild could be as delicious as the food in the finest feast of the Iron Sand City.

She could not help but happily wag her tail and then breathed out the aroma lingering in her throat. "So...So yummy..."

"Of course, it's not common meat, coo!" said Maggie proudly. "It's the meat of a giant lake frog in the Icespring of the Great Snow Mountain. I made a huge effort to catch it! Each of its legs is the size of Lightning. It's so big that we can only preserve it and eat it slowly."

The Wolf Girl was stunned. "Lake frog? What's that? Is it really edible?"

"Don't worry. We explorers exist to explore unknown secrets and different food is one of them," said the little girl, as if she had seen through Lorgar's mind.

The Wolf Girl bit her lips but failed to close her mouth in the end. She closed her eyes and swallowed the remaining meat.

After enjoying the aftertaste in her mouth, she looked at Lightning and asked, "Are there only two members of this Neverwinter Exploration Group?"

"Currently, there are three," the little girl corrected.

"What about the other witches in the Witch Union? Why do you want me to join this group?" After thinking, Princess Lorgar still chose to be blunt. "I came to the Western Region to challenge strong opponents and improve my skills. Exploring the unknown doesn't intrigue me..."

Lightning fell silent for a while, which was rare for her. "That's because the other witches seldom leave Neverwinter. Even if some of them want to do so, few of them would like to wander in the wild. As compared to exploration, they've more important things to do... such as staying in factories to produce machines. My father said that one person alone could hardly complete a real adventure so I've got to build my own team to become a great explorer. You're the only witch we've met in the Barbarian Land."

Lorgar suddenly realized that this little girl was serious about the exploration group. This was not just a passing fancy for her but a dream she cherished. Judging from her lonely tone, the Wolf Girl could tell that most people just considered Lightning's plan as a childish game instead of something serious. This was similar to what she had thought in the first place.

For a moment, Lorgar saw herself in this little girl. Before she had won all those challenges and become a real warrior, few people had been able to understand her passion and dedication toward fighting since, even in the Iron Sand City, female warriors were rare.

With this thought in mind, the Wolf Girl slightly sighed and pretended to be casual. "Since I'm a member of the exploration group now, what should I do next?"

Hearing this, Lightning's eyes lit up. She fished out a parchment map in her pocket and gave it to Lorgar. "The areas that we've not yet explored are all marked on this map. If you happen to step into these areas, please draw the things you discover on this map, such as bird's nests, honeycombs, wolf caves, etc. Anything will do."

"But you can't enjoy them alone, which is the most important rule of our exploration group. You've got to wait until we come back and we'll eat them together!" interrupted Maggie.

Lorgar opened the map and saw many bizarre drawings on it, with quite a few notes. For example, two chicken drumsticks and four eggs were drawn in a spot named eagle nest. Seeing this, the Wolf Girl did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Why do I feel that I've been deceived?

She put the map away. "Ahem... well, I got it, but what do you mean by 'come back'... Are you leaving for Neverwinter?"

"His Majesty Roland is about to send troops to the Eastern Region and Hermes. At that time, we'll probably leave with the First Army. It'll take at least a few months before we come back. After all, His Majesty has to depend on us if he wants to investigate the enemy's situation or carry out shooting corrections for the cannons." Lightning patted her chest. "When we're away, you'll be in charge of the exploration job in the Barbarian Land."

Chapter 853 - Preparing for the Battle

After a night's sleep, the three witches set out on their journey again. After a half-day flight, Lorgar finally saw the "Abandoned City".

She could not help but hold her breath.

The city was much larger than she had imagined!

She saw a vast expanse of green land below and some damaged brown walls standing down there. Lightning had told her this city had been abandoned over 400 years ago, but even now, Lorgar could still discern the incomplete sections of the city walls.

She found that the ruins of this city covered an area that was five or six times larger than Iron Sand City and was big enough for over 100,000 people to live in. Looking at its fragmented wreckage, she could still sense its greatness. Based on the rule that each person in the city needed to be supported by 10 people in the surrounding towns and villages, she was surprised to find that there might have been nearly 1,000,000 people living in this wild land.

This is incredible!

How did a kingdom that built such a large city lose to the demons in the end?

Lorgar suddenly recalled what His Majesty had told her. "The Battle of Divine Will isn't a clash between two tribes, but a comprehensive war that determines which civilization can survive." At the time, she had been irritated hearing it, but now she somehow understood. At this moment, she now believed that the king had not been trying to intimidate her when he had said "I don't want to send you to die."

All of a sudden, she felt much better.

When Lightning gestured, they started to lower their height. In the end, they landed on a relatively complete section of the city wall.

The top of the wall, though damaged, was still as wide as 20 plus steps which was wide enough for two four-wheeled carriages to travel side by side. In the walls covered by moss and vines, they saw a few round holes and wondered how much force was required to create such damage to these huge stone walls.

The little girl came over and said, "You may know this already, but this city was the last line of defense for the witch empire. Unfortunately, they failed to resist the demons' attack in the end."

Does this mean that the over 400-year-old witches mentioned by Ashes are actually survivors of this witch empire? Did the Four Kingdoms and the church that treated the witches as heretics all rise after the failure of those witches?

The Wolf Girl suppressed these questions since she believed that the ones who knew the story must have been deliberately blocking this information. She had never heard anything related to it from the traveling traders and even the residents of Neverwinter seemed to know nothing about it. She thought she had better not get to the bottom of it as she was not a member of the Witch Union.

She opened the map Lightning had given her yesterday. "Is Taquila located on the edge of your patrol area? If demons want to attack Neverwinter, which direction will they usually come from?"

"They'll come from anywhere to the west of the ruins, but it's extremely dangerous for us to go that deep into the Barbarian Land even though we can fly."

The Wolf Girl asked, "Why?"

Maggie replied, "It's because of the mist. Sometimes even the sky will turn red."

"What's... that?" Lorgar frowned.

"It's a life-support thing for demons, just like the air we breathe." Lightning looked to the northwest. "Today's a nice day, so the sky looks blue. But if it's rainy or cloudy, especially when dark clouds gathering in the sky, we'll clearly see the red mist on the horizon when we're high up in the sky. This mist is toxic to witches. Even if we manage not to inhale any of it, we may still get badly hurt simply by touching it. Since we don't know how far it can reach, we seldom cross Taquila to go further west."

After that, the little girl outlined some weak points of demons.

"I see." The Wolf Girls wiggled her ears. "As long as I can pull out the pipes behind them, they'll become weak and vulnerable."

Lightning added, "But it's not easy to do so. Just like the Senior Demon I told you about last night, it has almost no flaws in a fight. If you really meet the enemy, you'd better retreat immediately and inform His Majesty, Roland."

"Don't worry. I know how to deal with it properly."

Lorgar patted her own chest, full of fighting spirit.

Demons are tough opponents, but that's what makes fighting stimulating and rewarding. Besides, being invincible as a group on the battlefield doesn't necessarily mean that they're strong as individuals. I can seize a chance to hunt a solitary demon and even if no demons appear on my journey, I can still fight the hybrid demonic beasts.

She had already spotted several big demonic beasts when she was on Maggie's back flying up in the sky. She looked out at the uninhabited wildland, feeling excited about her journey again.

The road she had dreamed about had become much clearer now. It extended further, with the sand replaced by green areas.

She believed that she was going to stay here for a long time.

...

Every day, Roland had one or two meetings to attend since he had issued the order to go out to battle. From the battle plan to the logistics arrangements, everything needed his approval. He had enjoyed this tingling feeling of absolute power at first, but he soon got overwhelmed by the heavy workload as he got deeper into this preparation process.

Now that Neverwinter managed more than just a city, a whole team had to work on plans that had previously been made by one person. After discussing such trivial matters everyday, Roland gradually came to understand and even sympathize with those "brainless leaders" in the history, who did not like to deal with state affairs. Imagine that you have to listen to some people nagging about things that you neither remember nor understand every day. You would naturally get annoyed with it. Had Scroll not integrated and filtered the numbers in the reports for him, he would have also preferred to be a distant leader.

After all, he had been just a mechanical engineer before traveling into this world.

As compared to the complicated logistics arrangements, he paid more attention to the battle plan proposed by the Ministry of Defense.

The First Army planned to concentrate all its fire on the Holy City of Hermes that was surrounded by tall and thick city walls. They made a plan based on their experience in the Great Snow Mountain and were going to prepare enough cannons and ammunition for this attack. It was a joint operation involving the First Army soldiers, witches and the Taquila survivors.

Roland had to admit that the Pearl of the Northern Region was indeed talented. In the plan, she put forward the concept of collaborative operation, such as utilizing the abilities of the witches and Taquila survivors to launch surprise raids in all directions. She suggested that by doing so, Neverwinter troops could quickly disrupt the defensive formation of the enemy and could attack them from both the sky and the ground. Though many of her ideas were not yet prepared enough, they were certainly impressive ones to have in this era.

Roland believed that it was a wise decision to put her in the Ministry of Defense.

To successfully implement this plan, he had to make sure that the God's Punishment Witches of Taquila would willingly obey orders rather than doing whatever they wanted regardless of the commands.

This was the first problem he needed to solve while everyone was busy preparing for the battle.

The solution was very simple.

For instance, he could invite all the survivors who were going to participate in the upcoming battle to enter his Dream World.

Chapter 854 - An Unexpected Invitation in the Dream World

...

They say that practice makes perfect and Roland was inclined to agree. He was now very adept at getting into the Dream World. As long as he thought of something specific from the Dream World with his eyes closed, he could quickly activate the huge beam of light and then wake naturally up in the morning of that world.

However, this time, he was woken up by cellphone's ringtone.

Fortunately, this was not really sleeping and so he didn't really feel tired. He sprang up and picked up the phone on the bedside table. To his great surprise, it was Garcia.

"Hey, do you know what time is it?"

"It's 6:30 in the morning, which is not too early," Garcia interrupted, "and how do I know whether you'll have some other relative who suddenly came to visit?"

The corner of his mouth twisted, knowing that she was still sore about being stood up by him last time. "Uhm... is there anything I can do for you?

"Didn't you always want to know what the Erosion is? The Association has set a time for new members to visit this afternoon. After you finish your breakfast, come to Room 0827."

"Didn't you say it's in the afternoon?"

"You're not the only new member. It takes time for us to go join the other new members from the other districts." She raised her voice. "What? Are you going out with some relative again today?"

"Yes, and more than one," he replied in his heart but did not dare to speak it out loud otherwise she would definitely come to stand in his doorway. More importantly, he was indeed very curious about the "Erosion", so he answered, "Oh, I see, but I slept late last night, so... you know, I don't smell very nice. Let me take a shower first. Sorry to keep you waiting."

"..." She was silent, but he somehow still felt her contempt for him. "Please be quick!" she shouted and then hung up the phone.

Now he had to hurry up.

He put on his clothes, walked into the living room, and found Zero busy frying eggs in the kitchen. She skillfully used the spatula in her hand, not looking like a junior high school girl at all.

"Good morning," he said, "I'm going out now, but I'll be back very soon."

She revealed a suspicious expression. "Uncle, are you going to do your morning exercise?"

"Well, yes..." he replied casually, "by the way, there's a staff meeting in the afternoon. I may come home late today so don't wait for me to have dinner."

"Got it," the little girl pouted.

Outside the apartment building, the street was bustling again. Wisps of steam were coming out of the rice noodle restaurants and fried bread sticks were sizzling in the work at the stall. There was also broadcast sounds and traders' peddling. It was late autumn and most people wore thick clothes, however, some elderly people, who wore only short-sleeved shirts and sweatpants, kept practicing in the morning. They were running as fast as young men around the apartment building.

Roland walked into an alley not far from the apartment building and stopped in front of a closed shop. On the door, there was an eye-catching leasing advertisement with a big word "rented" written on it.

He took out a key and opened the side door.

Inside the shop, more than 20 witches simultaneously knelt to him saying, "Your Majesty!"

For a moment, he felt as if he had returned to Neverwinter.

Walking into this shop was like entering another world for him.

"Welcome to the Dreamland," he nodded and said.

...

"Do you mean to say that we have a special task today?" On the second floor of the shop, Phyllis, Faldi, Ling and Dawnen were waiting for him to give further orders. As the first batch of pioneers entering this Dreamland, they had known something about this world and would serve as guides for the rest of the Taquila survivors here. They could tell them how to enjoy the life here and could instruct them how to hunt Fallen Evils, which reduced the burden on Roland.

This store was one of his rewards for the last hunting trip and he had hired an agent to rent this place. Compared to the warehouse before, it was much more spacious and private.

He told them about the Martialist Association's invitation. "According to Garcia, the association is planning to tell the new members the inside story. We'll be taken to the association's headquarters whose location has remained a secret so I want to take this chance to find out the base where they store the Force of Nature. I need your help."

"Let my bug stay with you." Faldi summoned her Magic Bug Nest and picked a bug. "So I can know where you are all the time."

After he agreed, the witch placed the beetle on his collar. It quickly climbed into his long hair to hide. Though he could clearly feel a thing on his neck, he still looked the same from the outside.

He suppressed the feeling of discomfort and turned his head to look at another two witches. "Phyllis and Ling, please come with me. Do you remember how to take a taxi?"

Phyllis nodded. "Wave to stop a taxi and tell the driver to follow the car in the front. Then pay him when we arrive."

"Don't chat with the taxi driver and no matter what he asks, we'll just remain silent." Ling added, patting her chest, "Rest assured, Your Majesty, we remember it clearly!"

"Good," said Roland, "when you arrive, let Ling try to sneak into the headquarters first. Although there's no God's Stone of Retaliation in this world, the Martialist Association may have some other methods to affect your magic power. If you can't break in, don't force yourselves. Your most important task is to keep yourselves hidden. Got it?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," the three witches replied simultaneously.

"So... Your Majesty, what about me?" Dawnen pointed to herself while eagerly looking at him.

"You stay here and take care of the other Taquila witches." He took out ten 100￥ bills from his wallet and gave them to her. "Here's the money for takeouts, including breakfast, lunch and dinner. Let's postpone the entertainment plans until tomorrow. "

"What... But I'm also very good at sneaking into places." Dawnen was disappointed.

"That's why you have to stay here. If something unexpected happens, you're the only one who can lead the witches to leave this place without being noticed." He patted her shoulder. "Of course, if you successfully take care of everyone here today, I'll choose a day to take you to a movie theater."

"I... got it." When she heard this special reward, she suddenly cheered up. "Please leave it to me."

He had taught the four witches how to order take out food and all the quick learners had already mastered this skill. He believed that as long as Dawnen was here, they would be alright.

Now he was well prepared for his trip to the headquarters of the Martialist Association.

Chapter 855 - Power and Responsibility

After making all the arrangements for the trip, Roland rushed back to the apartment building as fast as he could. Unfortunately, he underestimated Garcia's diligence.

In the corridor, he saw a familiar figure leaning against the wall near Room 0825 while talking on the phone and watching the bustle downstairs. She wore a gray and white T-shirt, loose black pants, and ankle-high skate shoes, looking both youthful and full of energy. If he had never known her, he would have thought of her as a girl-next-door type of woman, a lively and cheerful character often seen on TV.

Judging from her face, she was still a little angry but not cold and harsh as the Garcia he remembered. He could not deny that Princess Garcia Wimbledon, Queen of Clearwater, looked surprisingly good in this sports outfit.

When he came close to the door of the room, she saw him. "Alright, I've got something else to do. I'm hanging up and don't call me back if it's only to try to persuade me."

"Is the Clover group calling you again about the demolition matter?" He pretended to be casual and asked.

"It has nothing to do with you." She put away the phone, her expression skeptical. "Where have you been? Didn't you say that you wanted to take a shower?"

"Do you know how many ways there are to get rid of an odor? One is cleaning, another one is covering it with a new odor." He talked nonsense while keeping a straight face. "The tenant, that little girl living with me, needed to use the bathroom. She didn't want to be late for school so I really couldn't fight with her. I thought I could get some sweat to cover my smell so I went running outside." "But, surprisingly, this body just doesn't sweat very much. Now I see why you martialists always look neat and clean. Well, this isn't important at all. Anyhow, I didn't sneak away. You see that I'm standing right in front of you now, don't you?"

"..." Garcia stared at him for a long time before opening her mouth. "I don't want to interfere with your private life, but it's not good to indulge yourself. More importantly... it's also about education."

"What?" Roland was stunned.

"I mean those girls who came out of your apartment... Why can't you get things done somewhere else? Why do you have to bring them home? Have you already forgotten that there's a little girl in your home," said Garcia, frowning, "

He almost choked upon hearing such words. He had deliberately arranged the Taquila witches to cut off their consciousness and get into the Dreamland once Zero had left for school, but he had never expected what the other residents would have thought about these women coming out of his home. Garcia had the complete wrong idea based on what she had seen.

"It's true that some martialists will become less decent when they become famous. In the face of money and fame, a man will easily lose himself, but don't forget that we're fighting for this world and always have to maintain a high morale. Overindulgence will only make your movements slow..."

"Ahem, I got it." Feeling that she wanted to give him a moral education lecture, he immediately interrupted her. "We can talk about this matter later. Could you please let me change my clothes first? I don't want to be late for our visit."

She closed her mouth in displeasure and glared at him. "...Be quick."

...

He dressed up by putting on his new suit. Under Zero's gaze, he put a fried egg into a sandwich bag to eat as breakfast and walked out of the apartment.

"You..." At the door, Garcia blinked at him.

"It's my first time visiting the headquarters and I thought that I should dress formally." Roland shrugged. "I'm a new member of the association and casual clothing seems disrespectful for such an occasion. What do you think?"

"Hah... whatever you want." She shook her head. "But to my surprise, you look... quite good in this suit."

"Of course, you get what you pay for. This trim custom-made suit cost me a lot of my 'robbery income'. After all, the clothes make the man. An ordinary-looking man would look great immediately after dressing up and, as an added benefit, I'm slim and have nice long gray hair. Back in the world where I lived before, people would believe that I'm an elf prince," he thought to himself.

They went downstairs together and waited outside the residential area. A large bus soon came to fetch them. He noticed that it did not have a number plate and all its windows were covered by black curtains. He could not see anything inside it.

"Get on the bus," Garcia whispered. He somehow felt that she looked much more serious now.

When he stepped onto the bus, he pretended to casually look back at the street side. He saw that Phyllis had already stopped a taxi.

When the door was closed, he found that it was surprisingly bright inside. All the lights along the aisle were turned on and quite a few people were sitting on the bus.

Most of them were dressed in various styles and looked like a group of performance artists. Only a few seemed like normal people, but they all were engrossed in their own affairs instead of greeting Garcia. He soon noticed that some guys, who obviously harbored ulterior motives, had fixed their eyes on him since he had gotten on the bus.

Garcia did not say anything. She held Roland's hand, which was very unusual, and walked with him directly to the back of the bus.

"Are they your colleagues?" he whispered to her when they sat down.

"The Martialist Association isn't a company." She rolled her eyes at him. "Most people in this bus are newly awakened people just like you. It's also the first time for me to meet them."

"So many of them?" He was a little surprised. He roughly counted and found there were over 20 people in this bus.

"Yes, there are quite a lot of them. The last time I went to the association, there were only five or six new members... but that's not surprising," she replied. "although ordinary people know nothing about the changes in the world, the ones awakened with the Force of Nature can still sense them. I've told you that not all the awakened ones choose to join us. The centrists aren't less than the association's martialists. Now, as the Erosion intensifies and the number of Fallen Evils rapidly grows, the situation has become more dangerous for the centrists. More of them are going to join our association in the future."

"So you mean most of them are wild martialists or self-training martialists?"

"You did find more appropriate words to describe them." She curled her mouth into a smile. "I guess so, but that's just between us. Don't call them that publicly. They don't like restrictions. That's why they refused to join the association. Gaining great strength will boost a person's ego, making him or her become arrogant. This not only hinders their progress but also gives them a very odd attitude."

"As for the odd attitude, I think I've already experienced it," he said casually.

"In the past, a conflict had happened where some wild... martialist joined the association and killed several martialists when they were performing a hunting job. In the end, the Defenders stood out to kill the wild martialist. You'd better ignore their provocations as the association will severely punish such behaviors."

"The wild martialists are that strong?"

"Yes, these people often get attacked by Fallen Evils and, compared to newly awakened ones, they're much more experienced in actual combats and are better in reacting quickly in emergency situations, but they're usually obsessed by worldly affairs. If you stop overindulging yourself and practice hard, you can rapidly improve yourself."

She sighed and continued. "The Force of Nature is a gift from the deities. It's an ability to protect ourselves rather than a tool to exploit others. If we fail to stop the Erosion, the entire world may cease to exist. Many awakened ones just enjoy the pleasures brought by their power, but completely forget their responsibility."

He found what she said sounded familiar... He thought for a moment and realized that perhaps this was also the reason that those witches, who had been aware of the harm caused by demons, established the Union 800 years ago.

Suddenly, it quieted down outside. The grating sounds made by the bus wheels rubbing against the road became deep and simple as if the bus was traveling alone in a spacious tunnel.

Half an hour later, the bus finally stopped.

Just when he thought that they had arrived, the bus started to shake slightly and he felt weightless all of a sudden.

The bus was sinking into the ground.

Chapter 856 - Prism City

"This is..." Roland looked at Garcia.

"It's a lift," she proudly responded. "Wait a moment, soon you'll be able to see."

Not long after she had finished talking, the light outside of the window turned from red to green and then the curtains were automatically lifted, revealing the view outside.

Roland immediately understood the reason for her pride. The bus was parked on a huge iron plate, surrounded by yellow and black warning signs painted on concrete walls with five or six metal orbits embedded in, which continuously issued a gear grinding sound.

They were traveling down a tunnel with each descending level marked by dazzling spotlights and huge number signs. Within a few minutes, they had descended more than 100 meters, but the numbers were still growing.

Seeing the continuously rotating orange alert lights in the outer edge of the iron plate, which was like a scene from a sci-fi movie, he suddenly felt that as compared to this sophisticated way of entering, his way to get into Third Border City was way too backward, which was still reliant on hemp ropes and steam engines.

His respect for an organization that could construct something like that was instantly increased by a few levels.

Without substantial economic and political power in the background, a bunch of martialists would never be able to construct something like that.

No wonder Garcia was so proud of it.

Even those strange tempered wild Awakened were stunned by the scene. They started discussing in the bus while looking out of the window, as if they wanted to explore how deep the place was actually hidden.

"This was actually a good move," Roland thought. The closed curtains before were probably meant to keep new people from knowing the specific location of the headquarters, but after entering the ground there was no such need anymore, so they could let everyone admire this spectacular project, which could also pose as proof of the association's power.

He was curious to see if Ling who was following them could find a chance to infiltrate.

When the number became 235, the iron plate finally stopped descending and many holes appeared on the wall. Then, the bus moved again and headed into one of them.

The trip was very short this time as they soon reached their destination.

Roland followed Garcia out of the bus and discovered that there was a wide underground square in front of him, being illuminated with dense headlights, almost as bright as daylight. If not for the previous part of the trip, it would have been hard to believe that he was deep underground. A sculpture was erected in the center of the square. At first glance, it looked like a big hand holding an irregular polyhedron. There were also several buses parked next to the statue. It seemed that they were not the only newcomers.

"Are these people from other cities?" Roland pointed at the crowd around the sculpture.

Garcia nodded in agreement, "the association owns many divisions, but it's only two Headquarters. In order to get into contact with the Erosion, one must come to these two places."

He was briefly stunned, "The erosion from the outside world... Can it be seen directly from here?"

Not only it can be seen, but you can also touch it—though you would never want to do that." Garcia rolled her eyes. "Did you think that we're just a cult which asks people to fight the evil? The purpose of visiting the headquarters is to show newcomers the real danger that the world is facing. Some things, unless seen by your own eyes, are impossible to believe them—disaster is close at hand."

Just then, the lights above them suddenly dimmed down and darkness suddenly came from all directions, making everyone's vision to focus on a small area in the center of the square. As though a curtain was opened on stage, two bright beams of light fell from the dome, one shining on the sculpture and the other shining on a black dressed lady.

She was standing on a platform at one side of the square, looked around thirty years old, wearing a classic Martial Arts garment with her long black hair tied up on her head. One of her eyes seemed to have been damaged and was covered by an eye patch. The Force of Nature in the Dream World was not limited to gender, and it did not have the kind of effect that the magic power had in affecting the appearance. She looked no different than an ordinary person, not too tall, but with more of an imposing manner.

The woman waved at everyone and then said loudly, "Dear Awakened ones, good afternoon. I am Lan, Chief Disciple of the Rock's defender. Welcome to Prism City!"

"Prism... did she mean the polyhedron on the sculpture? " Roland thought and heard whispers coming from the wild martialists, who appeared to be quite dissatisfied with her words.

Before he could ask Garcia, Lan continued, "Of course, welcoming the new students was the responsibility of Defenders, but unfortunately, Sky City encountered some problems so my master and the other three defenders all left two days ago. In order to avoid wasting time, I'll be the one to welcome you all."

"I know that some of you awoke many years ago and can't be treated as real newcomers. However, the situation has changed drastically. Since you're willing to come here, it means you've approved the ability of the association and you should naturally put all the past temporarily behind you. Combating the Fallen Evil should be your priority now. The association doesn't care about your past identity and status, but only your future performance—the more critical the crisis is, the more the awakened should be united. If you don't accept the practice of the association you're still free to leave right now! "

While she was talking, the black dressed woman made a waving gesture, but no one in the square moved, and even the noisy discussions quieted down.

"This Chief Disciple is quite adept," Roland smirked. With the increase of the Fallen Evil, the endangered wild Awakened had no choice but to apply to join the Association. No matter who they were before, they could only follow this option now. The woman was aware of that, so deliberately acted as if giving them a choice, but in reality, gave them no choice at all.

Strength was an important criterion when persuading an opponent. Being the Martialist Association that could protect others, demonstrating their own strength would be the most effective way in this case.

Garcia looked at Roland with a perplexed expression for a while and said softly, "She's my master."

"What?" He was stunned. "Your master?"

"She's the senior that I mentioned the other day," Garcia sighed. "Unless you have to, try not to be around her too much. My master doesn't like irresponsible and not punctual people."

"Oh, so that was the case," Roland thought.

"Since you've all made your choice, then the association welcomes any new blood." Lan gazed upon the square and nodded with satisfaction. "I'm not going to say much. Nothing is more impressive than personally experiencing it. Now, please come with me and see for yourselves the imminent crisis of the world—you'll soon realize that the Battle of Divine Will isn't far away from us! "

Chapter 857 - The Nature Of the Erosion

Hearing those words, Roland could not help but tremble.

Why would there be Battle of Divine Will in the Dream World too?

He looked at Garcia but her expression didn't change at all as if she already knew or she didn't care about it.

Roland could only keep his doubts to himself and under the lights, followed the crowd towards the square.

Reaching there, he noticed that there were many passages embedded in the towering rock walls like the structure inside a honeycomb. Whether it was entering from the ground or transitioning between the aisles, people had to take elevators on the rails. Now that the square was not as bright as before and his sight got used to the darkness, he could see dozens of elevators going up and down like floating fireflies. They gave off a feeling of a futuristic city.

Even though this design was beautiful, it was extremely inconvenient to use. If it was built in the city center as a landmark it would be alright, but buried under the ground like this, who would be able to see it? And in case of a fire, power outages and other emergencies, it would even be hard to escape from here.

Of course, building the Headquarters underground was already irrational even when considering the aspect of preventing others to infiltrate or the necessity of keeping it a secret.

There must have been another reason to do that unless the Martialist Association had too much money to spare.

As they entered the aisle number 24, Roland realized that the ground he was standing on was actually a moving ladder and he only had to stand on it to keep moving.

Adopting such a design in an underground structure was actually quite shocking.

As if realizing his doubts, Garcia shrugged her shoulders. "There used to be a mine here, and we used the abandoned mine tunnels to built all the elevator aisles you see on the walls—but of course, part of them were newly excavated. This depends on the speed of the Erosion.

"The Erosion happened in the mine?"

"Not exactly but for now you can think of it as such."

"So the reason for building the Headquarters underground is to prevent the Erosion from developing?"

Garcia looked at him with a weird expression, "No, it's not to prevent the Erosion from developing but to guard against Awakened ones with an ulterior motive."

When she saw that he wanted to ask more, she shook her head and said, "You'll soon understand."

The passage soon led them into another hall, which looked a lot like a lecture hall, with descending levels, forming a podium at the bottom. The defensive measures here were obviously much better. There were martialists everywhere, wearing the same cloths, standing expressionless on either side of the hall and staring indifferently at the newcomers, showing no welcoming gestures.

"Aren't warriors supposed to be straightforward and passionate? With an attitude like that towards the newly awakened ones, no wonder people weren't willing to join them," Roland thought.

Once everyone has sat down, the Chief Disciple Lan stood up on the podium.

Without saying anything, she opened a curtain on stage, exposing the bottom of a huge glass chest.

Roland couldn't help but frown.

A dark red "crystal" was placed inside the chest. It seemed weightless as it floated midair. It reminded him of Taquila's magic core. But the Force of Nature in the Dream World was not displaying ever-changing effects like the magic power. Additionally, this crystal did not seem to be realistic. It actually looked like a bad sample of a 3D-model. But seeing Lan's serious expression, it didn't look like she was joking.

"This is…"

"Erosion," Garcia said with a deep voice, "or actually a 'loophole'".

"What?" Roland was stunned.

"The one on stage is just a small part of it," she sighed, "Our world is becoming riddled with holes. That's the essence of Erosion."

"I think some of you may have already guessed or felt it—" Lan gazed through the audience and said word by word. "An evil force has entered our world. It allows the Fallen evil to multiply in numbers quickly, posing a serious threat to the safety of the awakened ones. But as far as I am concerned, this notion is incorrect. It was never an evil force, but rather an... overlay from another world. "

The audience suddenly uproared.

"What do you mean? Can you elaborate?"

"What's this other world?"

"When did the Martialist Association become an academy of science?"

"So what're the Fallen Evils, aliens?"

In sharp contrast with the real newcomers, those who had awakened the Force of Nature long ago started yelling loudly, without respect to the Chief Disciple.

"Quiet, " Lan said unmoved, "I'll answer your questions after the following demonstration."

As she said that, the glass chest slowly rose, exposing the "crystal", and then three hanging rods fell on top of the podium with a camera hanging from each of them. At the same time, the wall behind Lan also lit up—it turned out to be a huge screen showing three different pictures, shot respectively from the three cameras.

Roland quickly noticed a phenomenon that shocked him.

No matter from which direction you looked at it, the crystal always showed the same appearance.

How's that possible?

In order to look like this, it's got to be a perfect sphere.

An angular thing represented discontinuous changes when it was rotating. It should have appeared visually different on each side. However, he was stunned when he didn't find any difference or movement in the three pictures as if it was not a moving object but rather a red spot on the screen.

His brain had subconsciously identified it as a virtual image as if the crystal itself didn't exist.

But Lan's next move once again surprised Roland.

The Chief Disciple took an iron bar and inserted it straight into the red crystal. However, the stick did not penetrate the virtual shadow as he expected but instead disappeared in it in front of everyone. Through the screen, they could see that all the three cameras captured the original look of the iron bar, clearly showing its polishing traces and angles, but the red spot in the three pictures looked still the same. It seemed as if there had been three iron bars inserted from a different angle... into one same spot.

When Lan pulled it back, the bar in her hands had become shorter.

The hall suddenly went quiet.

Seeing such a strange scene, everyone remained silent as if someone had clamped hand over his or her mouth.

After a while, someone said, "Can I come up to see?"

"Help yourself." Lan nodded.

The man walked to the podium and stared at the red crystal for a long time. Suddenly, with a shout, he reached out to it—his skin was lightly colored in Silverlight. Apparently, he was using the Force of Nature. Not many warriors could achieve that. Garcia had once mentioned to Roland that those who were able to spur out the Force of Nature like that, resembled a lot the Fallen evil. Normal weapons were unlikely to hurt them. To be able to master such a skill, one had to be extraordinarily talented, or very experienced through life and death situations over the years. Thus, they were far stronger than the average martialists.

This was probably the reason for their arrogance.

Lan stood still, without any intention of stopping him.

His palm went through the crystal unobstructed, without catching anything, and just like the iron bar before, it disappeared. Soon after, the man screamed—he raised his hand, showing only the half of a bloody palm!

Everyone gasped in astonishment.

Roland finally understood what Garcia meant with those words, "You definitely don't want to touch it", because everything that came into contact with it turned into a void.

After the victim was taken to be treated by the martialists, a couple more stood up, hoping to come up and have a closer look. Lan allowed all of them, but they were much more cautious while observing. In the end, the Chief Disciple simply arranged for everyone to take turns to experience the incredible phenomenon from a close distance.

Roland was no exception as well.

When his turn came, he acted carefreely and circled twice around the crystal, but he suddenly felt his heart sink.

Its internal red rippling light seemed very familiar!

He had once seen a similar scene in the Divine Land too.

But in that domain, the red light hanging above him represented the Bloody Moon.

Chapter 858 - The Membrane Overlaid

"You're Roland, aren't you?" When Roland was contemplating the "Erosion", Lan suddenly spoke.

"Ah... it's me." He recovered from his solemn thoughts and Garcia's words flashed across his mind... "Hang on, would she be trying to find trouble with me for having stood her up?"

"I've heard Garcia mention you several times." She did not face Roland, so he could not see her expression. "She said you're a rare and independent awakened who's not disturbed by desire and ambition. This is very rare for the average person, so she's very happy that you've agreed to join the association."

"Uh... Is that so?" Roland replied reluctantly.

It was clear to him that Lan must have been implying that he was a 'wild' Awakened when she said 'independent', but he wondered why she said that Garcia was elated when he agreed to join the association. He clearly remembered that Garcia had been expressionless when she had let him fill out the application.

"Although I hate people who aren't punctual, this is a common problem for many. After all, you can't feel the change of time nor can you hear it ticking, so for some special people, it's not an unforgivable flaw."

Inexplicably, Roland felt that there was a glimmer of emotion when the Chief Disciple said these words.

"There's one thing you should know about special people. Though they're uncommon, there're still quite a number of them. If they don't treasure their special feature and maximize it, they'll be eliminated sooner or later."

"Is this a warning that I should work wholeheartedly for the association and not cause problems like the other wild Awakened ones?" Roland secretly frowned as he really did not like this kind of preaching. Perhaps he would not have minded it before, but after he became the King of Graycastle, he had also changed his mentality.

"After you've finished watching, you can leave," Lan finally turned around and said calmly, "listen carefully to what I'm going to say next as it might help you. Next—!"

Roland twitched his mouth and did not take this brief conversation to heart.

He was overwhelmed by a cloud of confusion.

Whether the Martialist Association could defeat the Erosion and save the world was something he did not care about.

After returning to his seat, he still frowned.

What are the "deities" thinking about?

According to the research data of the underground civilization, the Bloody Moon is the key to transforming the magic power, and also the basis for the existence of the Dreamland—in a certain sense, it's the equivalent of the mastermind behind the scenes, existing like a background. Even if one wanted to annex the Dream World, there's no need to show their original appearance, right?

The witches can see the real body of the Bloody Moon because that's the real world, yet this Dreamland is a domain purely founded on his and Zero's memories. Wouldn't this mean that the mastermind had seen the circuit signal operating behind the world?

Or could the speculation be wrong? Or maybe I had misunderstood some information that had pointed me in the wrong direction?

"So do you believe it now?" Garcia glared at him. "That's definitely not something that can exist in reality."

"I've never doubted you." Roland shook his head and tried to suppress his distractions. "But your master wasn't as scary as you'd described."

"Was there something wrong with the master?" She was a little surprised.

"She said quite a lot about how special I was and how the association thought highly of me," Roland said sarcastically, "by the way... she said you were elated about me joining the association. Was that so? I really couldn't tell at all."

He looked at the ex-Princess Garcia in anticipation, as he wanted to see what kind of expression she would reveal. Would she deny everything completely or attempt to conceal herself hurriedly? No matter what she did, it should be very interesting.

But he never imagined that she would portray a look of "you're really such a fool".

"What're you talking about?" said Garcia as she rolled her eyes. "When you were on the platform, the master didn't speak at all... Do you think that I'm blind?"

Roland could not help but be stunned.

"This distance might be considered far for ordinary people, but I'm a martialist. I could even see clearly how many strands of beard you had on the stage. Don't try to lie to me. You're still too inexperienced," she said with a note of disdain.

Didn't... speak?

Just as he was about to ask more questions, Lan had already re-closed the glass chest. She clapped her hands and made everyone focus their attention on the podium—this time round, there was much less talk in the hall.

"Our world isn't flat, it's a membrane. Some can understand this and others can't. But it doesn't matter. Just listen to me." She turned around so that the screen behind showed what was being said. "The membrane has a curvature that, in popular terms, is like an arc—and in some places, this change is even more pronounced. If there are other worlds beyond this one, then there'll be a possibility that the two worlds will intersect, and this intersection is the Erosion."

"Of course, this is only a speculation, but it's the only explanation for the vision that we saw—since the Erosion was discovered, all nations have kept up their research on it, but unfortunately the world there has completely different rules. Any means of detection are declared null and void, and even if the matter here can't be stabilized beyond the borders. As you've seen for yourselves, the iron bar was the proof."

"Huh? What's the connection with the Fallen Evils?" someone asked.

"Of course there's a connection. The strength they gain comes from another membrane—and that's why the Fallen Evils aren't afraid of ordinary weapons in this world. The overlapping membrane temporarily connects the two worlds, and I don't know what kind of effect that would have on the other world. But for us, the rules still work: the movement of energy from high to low creates a series of phenomena that is incredible." Lan raised her voice and said, "To be exact, not just the Fallen Evils, any Awakened person would be related to this energy."

"What did.. you say?"

"My power belongs only to me. It's not related to any goddamned membrane!"

"Does the Martialist Association think that we're the same as the Fallen Evils?"

The hall suddenly burst into a commotion.

This time Lan did not say anything to stop the commotion but waited until everyone became silent by themselves before she went on to say, "Of course there's a difference, we can control it, yet the Fallen Evils can't. But we have to admit that in some sense were quite similar to the Fallen Evils—especially on this point about being able to resist injuries caused by ordinary weapons. Has everyone considered another point? How come the martialists can't dominate the entire world even when they can freely manipulate the Force of Nature and can't be hurt by ordinary weapons?"

"Well... " The crowd started to whisper.

"Because the Erosion won't last forever," Lan said straightforwardly, "as the curvature changes, the overlapping membranes will gradually separate until the next reunion—the cycle can be long or short. A short one could be a day while the long one could be millions of years. And we encountered the Erosion about 2000 B.C. and the overlapping lasted only less than a century. Once they separated, the Force of Nature will disappear without any trace. Given that, even the Awakened ones managed to dominate the whole world, two thousand years of interval would be enough for this empire to vanish."

"How can you be sure about what happened thousands of years ago?" Although someone still questioned her theory, his attitude was much less aggressive.

"I don't know," said the Chief Disciple, frankly. "It's just an assumption. Even 2000 years ago, there wasn't even a scientific way of observation and recording. If you want to validate it, we'll have to wait until 2000 years later. But we mustn't forget that history is always full of surprising coincidences. By comparing the biographies and history books of different regions, you'll find that many epic heroes and legends were born during that period, and then further on the myths emerged—and most myths were related to doomsday and the salvation. Can we assume that it was the Erosion that caused this?"

There was a brief silence below the stage, and after a while, someone asked, "And even if those epic heroes are the Awakened ones of the Force of Nature, what does that have to do with us? According to what you said, the Erosion will end by itself, so what's the purpose of the propaganda of your association against the Erosion?"

"Don't forget that apart from us, there are also the Fallen Evils," Lan answered quietly. "This is what I said at the beginning. There's no evil force. The energy just spreads according to the rules. It has no malice, but that doesn't mean the affected people will also have no malice. We're just at the beginning of the membrane overlap, so such loopholes will continue to increase and expand. The Fallen Evils will also increase in numbers. And only the Martialists that use the same kind of force can defeat them—this is a competition of the survival of the fittest, and only one party can survive. If we can't defeat the Fallen Evils, not just the Awakened ones, but the whole human existence will be completely destroyed by them."

Chapter 859 - Two-Pronged Attack

...

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty?" Nightingale's voice woke Roland from his daze. "The City Hall Director is still waiting for your reply."

"Ah, I already know about this," said Roland as he blinked his eyes, trying to concentrate. He handed over the report in his hand to Barov and said, "Let's proceed according to what you said."

"Yes," said Barov. As he saluted Roland, he also solemnly added a sentence before leaving. "Please take care of your health, Your Majesty."

After the chief left the office, Roland asked Nightingale, "Does my face really look that bad?"

"Well, you look okay," said the latter after some deliberation, "it's just that you've been daydreaming more recently. Could this be related to the Erosion of the Dream World?"

Roland shook his head. "The changes in Dreamland can't really affect me. It's just a few strange things in retrospect that have been bothering me. There's nothing to worry about."

"That's good to know," said Nightingale while she pursed her lips.

This was already the fourth day since he had left the Dreamland. Although Faldi had succeeded in locating the headquarter of the association, Ling had failed to sneak into it—according to her, there had never been a place like that one. It was built underground, but it had been impossible for her to find any hiding spot there and some shiny "light band" had covered her head. It had just kept glowing, no matter how long she had waited.

Afterward, Ling had even despondently requested for Roland to punish her for failing her task, but naturally, Roland had refused to do so.

The next play plan had been executed smoothly, and Roland had brought more Taquila witches into his Dreamland, but what he had seen and heard in the headquarters that day still troubled him immensely.

The whole incident had so many strange factors that could not be explained.

The first was the conclusion about the membrane world.

He had always believed that the Dream World would present a modern society filled with the Force of Nature in order to integrate both his and Zero's memories and keep his internal government self-consistent. In other words, no matter how many weird phenomena there were, they were all rules based on the needs of being self-consistent—most of these rules came from his consciousness, which he understood and was able to accept.

However, those words spoken by the Chief Disciple Lan completely exceeded the scope of his knowledge reserve.

The only thing Roland knew about the membrane theory was that it evolved from the superstring theory. These two theories were particularly profound and he had never carried out in-depth reading on them. Unlike Quantum mechanics, he had at least read through one or two popular books about it. In the Dream World, these theories should have been hidden as if they were invisible, just like those blank books that only had covers.

However, both Lan's explanation and the derivation formulas and evidence displayed in the lobby screens seemed to be logical—this was the first time he saw something totally unintelligible in the Dreamland, as if a High school student had dreamed about the Grand Unification Theory in physics which was absurd and incredible.

This even made him think that the Dream World today was completely different from the world when he had first entered.

As if something was growing wildly out of his sight.

Another weird thing was the Chief Disciple herself.

After Garcia had reminded Roland, he had recalled that the vision, hearing and reaction of the martialists was better than ordinary people. If Lan had spoken to him on the stage, not only would the defenders, but even the first two rows of new people in the lobby have been able to hear something. But the fact was that no one at that time had shifted their attention to them. It had not sounded like a whisper to him, yet, surprisingly, it had not attracted any attention. At that time, he had not paid any attention to this point. But later on, when he thought about it, he questioned why a newcomer who was shown special attention by the Chief Disciple did not cause public concern?

The things Lan said also left him scratching his head.

"Listen carefully to what I'm going to say next as it might help you!"

How would the knowledge about the origin of the Erosion, the relationship between the martialists and the Fallen Evils help him? Even if he wholeheartedly wanted to join the association and become a savior of the world, knowing these would still not be important to him, right?

All these weird signs made Roland form some resistance toward the Dream World. He intended to temporarily stop the connection with Dreamland, once all the God's Punishment Witches had gone in once to enjoy themselves.

It would be better to behave cautiously whilst the Battle of Divine Will was approaching.

"Your Majesty?" Nightingale's voice once again could be heard, but this time with some urgency. "You look like you're in a daze again."

"Ahem, I'm fine," Roland shook his head and threw his distractions behind him. "It's just that I've got a little more things to consider lately and so I'm a little sleepy."

"But why do I feel that you're hiding something behind those words," Nightingale sat on the table, propped her feet up and said, "don't tell me that in the Dream World, you and the witches..."

"That's impossible!" He suddenly felt dumbfounded. "I just took them to experience the taste of different flavors only!"

"Well... that's true," Nightingale blinked and revealed a cunning smile. "I'm a bit worried about that world that I can't enter. There's no way to protect you at all times, and in case they suddenly make trouble, that would be problematic. After all, they've passed hundreds of years of unconscious days. And now that they've finally recovered their senses, I'm sure they would try to revisit all their past feelings. But that's more than 20 women. How could you cope if they all swarmed towards you?"

"You're getting more ridiculous." Roland glared at her and said, "Who did you get these ideas from? Can't you spend more energy on studying?"

Nightingale covered her mouth and said, "I was just joking."

"If I had your ability, it'd surely remind me loudly that you were lying," Roland snorted and said, "from the very beginning, you wanted to ask this, right?"

"Well, I admit it... But this was not just my own opinion," Nightingale stuck her tongue out. "I was also asked by someone else to raise this question."

"Asked by someone else?" Roland did not have the time to ask who it was as there was knocking on the office door.

He had to temporarily withdraw his questions and said, "Come in."

The door opened and a tall man quickly walked in, neatly closed his legs and then raised his hands to salute Roland. "Your Majesty, Iron Axe is here to report to you!"

From Port of Clearwater to Neverwinter took almost four or five days, and by boat it was a rather laborious thing. But on the face of this foreign officer, he could not see a trace of exhaustion. His eyes reflected an energy that was full of war spirit.

"Fine," Roland nodded reassuringly. "I think you already know about Neverwinter's combat plans?"

"I've heard Brian talking about it," said Iron Axe. "The First Corps will be divided into two roads from east and west to regain Graycastle before crossing the border, and striking Kingdom of Dawn's Glow City. But there's something that I don't understand. If you asked Brian to take over my task and stay in the Port of Clearwater to protect Miss Echo, who's responsible for the Eastern Front?"

It seems that even before the task had been assigned, Iron Axe had already placed the responsibility of leading the Western Front attack on his shoulders. Roland could not help but smile. "Brian is still lacking in experience. Leading a garrison isn't a problem, but he could still be prone to accidents if he had to lead an entire army alone, so Eastern Front Army will be your responsibility."

Iron Axe was slightly stunned and replied, "Then what about the Western Front..."

"I'll lead it personally," said Roland slowly.

Chapter 860 - Their Respective Journeys

When the last statistics report was handed over to him, the City Hall Director finally let out a deep breath and waved his hand toward his subordinate. "You can leave now."

"Yes, my Lord."

The latter bowed respectfully and closed the door of the office on his way out.

The only person left in the room was Barov.

He opened the drawer and removed more than a dozen forms from inside, flattened them on the table, and neatly stacked the newest one on top.

As a result of this recent addition, all the necessary supplies for His Majesty's expedition were now fully prepared.

Barov gently rubbed the paper, as if he were stroking a girl's tender, smooth skin. The rows of numbers seemed like a complex password to ordinary people, but in his eyes, it was a wonderful music score.

It took only a week and a half, for Neverwinter to complete a large-scale logistics transfer. Whether it was food or gold royals, they had surpassed the quantities of any previous expedition. Through his proposals and statistical tables, he could see ships carrying wheat flourishing from the inland river to the Northern Region. And he could hear the melodious sound of gold royals colliding with each other.

He was unable to control this feeling of indulgence.

If he wanted to name this score, "power" would undoubtedly be the most appropriate name.

Now, the power lay in his hands, and he could play in any manner he wanted.

After only three years, Neverwinter's prowess had reached an incredible level—not just in terms of military might, but also in all other aspects. When he had been an assistant to the Treasurer in the old king's city, he had known a great deal about the financial situation of Graycastle. And it was precisely because of that, he realized how amazing Roland Wimbledon was.

Now Neverwinter's resources were probably equal to all the other cities' strength in Graycastle combined.

Unfortunately, no one could share this joy with him.

Barov removed his monocle and glanced at the empty table opposite him.

There was only one other person who could understand these figures and experience the joy that came with it: the Pearl of the Northern Region. Sometimes he felt that the latter was the same type of person as he was.

However, this regret dissolved very quickly. Compared to the option of possessing exclusive power, everything else paled in comparison.

He stood up and walked to the window. He pulled out a peculiar coin from his breast pocket and flattened it in his palm. Engraved on the coin's surface was a mountain. It glittered in the late spring sun.

This was the emblem of the Witch Cooperation Association. He had found this coin three years ago in the forest of the Western Region.

He secretly retained it. He originally wanted to use it as evidence of the Lord colluding with witches in return for his own safety, when the church attacked the Western Region. But now, this emblem had become his lucky charm.

His Majesty, who protects the witches, is evil? Of course not! The evil ones are those who were defeated by His Majesty. They had no strength, but they still acted arrogantly. This was the biggest crime as even the demons in the Barbarian Land were not as bad as them.

Fortunately, this situation would not last too long.

Although His Majesty's plan to attack the Kingdom of Dawn was delayed by a little, he had already waited for two decades, so waiting for another year was not an issue at all.

Graycastle should be handed over to a more capable man.

Barov knew that the day His Majesty unified the kingdom and was officially crowned as king, he himself would also climb to the pinnacle of power.

He touched his beard and could not help but laugh.

***************

"Today's test will stop here. Have you packed your luggage?" Agatha asked while sorting out the experimental data, "Tomorrow is the day of departure, so don't forget anything."

"I don't have many clothes and I don't need to carry any items," Isabella shook her head and replied calmly. Living in Neverwinter was much simpler than she had imagined. With the exception of repeatedly displaying the god stone to allow the ice witch to observe the records, she controlled the rest of her time as long as she did not leave the diplomatic building. She was neither harassed nor humiliated. She had thought that the witches would have treated the Pure Witches very differently. However, sometimes she felt that Agatha's attitude toward her was the same as the other witches. There was hardly any difference.

"By the way," she said and added another sentence, "about what happened last time... thank you for telling me."

"You mean the news about the church?" Agatha shrugged. "If it were me, I'd still think of going back and taking a look, whether it'd be a farewell or a break. But let's not talk about that now. You can't go on your journey like that... This is certainly due to my negligence as I've just found out that you've been wearing the same thing all this time." She dropped the notebook and frowned as she walked over to Isabella. She grabbed Isabella's sleeve and felt it. "It's gone all white, and it's winter clothing. When the weather turns hot, aren't you going to get overheated?"

"That's nothing." Isabella wanted to say that she had been subjected to more rigorous training, but thought for a moment and decided to hold her tongue.

"This expedition isn't just a matter of a month or two. Let's not mention the fact that you might not be able to wash your clothes daily on the road and even your companions won't be able to stand it." Agatha said decisively, "Now that we still have time, I'll take you to the convenience market and we can pick a few pieces of clothing."

When she heard the words "companions", she became slightly surprised and hesitated for a moment before answering, "But... I've got no money."

She was atoning for her misdeeds, and naturally, she would not get a monthly payment like the members of the Witch Union.

"Well, I do," said Agatha nonchalantly. "You can think of it as a loan," she said.

"But it'll be after five years..."

"Five years is a short time compared to the Taquila witches waiting for hundreds of years, isn't it?" The Ice Witch interrupted by saying, "The Battle of Divine Will won't end that easily. You won't always remain like this unless this is what you want." She placed her hand out. "So what're you hesitating about?"

Isabella did not answer. She suddenly felt that the sunset rays were a little dazzling.

Through the golden rays, Agatha's body gradually faded away, and only her hand could be seen.

Isabella lowered her head and took the latter's palm.

At that moment, the sun seemed to be linked with her.

*******************

"Are you sure it'd be alright for me to come with you?" Anna asked while she was lying in Roland's arms, blinking her lake blue eyes.

As he had been busy settling the God's Punishment Witches recently, it had been a long time before the two could spend some quiet time together. It was exactly for this reason, that even late at night, the two were still whispering, trying to catch up on all the words that they had missed during their absence.

"We've been preparing this for such a long time, and besides, it's alright to take a rest at times," said Roland, stroking her smooth back, "furthermore, this expedition isn't just for the sake of combat. Propaganda is also very important. For example, when socializing with everyone and attending banquets, it would be unacceptable if I weren't accompanied by a female companion."

Anna nodded in agreement and buried her head shyly. Roland saw a touch of pink on her cheek due to the bright moonlight.

It was clear that Anna was intelligent enough to understand the meaning of this remark.

In formal occasions, appearing as a king's female companion was a statement.

"I said that one day, all the subjects of Graycastle will know who you are, even if you are a witch," he said earnestly.

Anna did not ask questions such as "Is this really alright?" or "What if everyone opposes it?" Instead, she replied in the same earnest tone, "Even if I'm a witch, I want to be with you, no matter what happens in the future."

Roland lifted the corners of his mouth. This answer was really in her usual style.

"So we're both in agreement."

...

The next day, the Neverwinter port was crowded with concrete boats that shipped the First Army and their war supplies. They were arranged neatly in a column before slowly leaving the Redwater River.

At the front of the fleet was "the Roland". At the top of the flagship, the symbol of the Graycastle, a High-Tower and Spears flag, was waving in the wind and attracting everyone's attention. Everyone in Neverwinter knew that when their Lord returned again, he would become the only king of the land.

Someone shouted "long live the king", and the whole pier continued to shout out in unison.

It sounded like thunder rolling over the sky, or the horn of departure.

The war began in the midst of the lively voices of the people.

Chapter 861 - The Redwater Plot

On the 10th day of the expedition, they were at Redwater River.

Roland was in quite a heroic mood as he stood at the front of the shallow water gunboat, looking at the sparkling river in front of him.

Behind him was a huge fleet, and despite the fact that some of the ships had turned eastward three days earlier, the remaining ten steam-driven paddle steamers remained a rare sight on the river. The chimneys, standing like a forest of iron, were painted in a striking snow white color, and the black smoke that erupted created a "dark cloud" over the river.

After entering the Central Region of Graycastle, there were significantly fewer vessels, which meant that the Kingdom's trade center was moving westward. However, the influence of several major cities in the central region was present. Compared to the many single-masted boats in the Western Region, most of the sailboats that were found here were more exquisite and beautiful.

All the merchant ships that they encountered along the way kept their distance. Bold sailors would lie on the ship's side, and point to the flagship of steel exclaiming endlessly. The captain or businessman who recognized the High-Tower and Spears flag would even bow and salute the vessel.

Roland was very satisfied that he could amass so much after three years. But he was even more gratified about these young officials who were brought up by the City Hall.

They did not have a lineage of 100 years nor did they have a rich and powerful family background. They just had a short-term universal education and a mastery of literacy. If this was the past, at best, they could only work for the nobles by doing some miscellaneous administration for a living. But in Neverwinter, they gradually became the backbone of all the departments.

Because of the lack of patronage, the new generation of officials fully supported Roland—other than him, no one else would use normal civilians that had no status.

Because they had never held any management posts, they would act cautiously in accordance with the rules and regulations. When they encountered any problems, they would make the effort to ask their superiors for help and would not be arrogant or conceited like the nobles.

As they were selected from ordinary subjects, they were used to carrying out tasks on their own. The Ministry of Agriculture officials led the farmers to grow wheat and the officials of the Ministry of Construction demonstrated the characteristics of cement to the new workers. This scene was a common sight in the city. A powerful, centralized government needed to have strong control over the people at the grassroots level in order to exert its fast and efficient potential. This action by the civilian management was exactly what was needed.

Of course, the civilians that jumped to the management level did not come without flaws.

Just like a poor man who had never owned property and suddenly came into fortune, it was easy to fall into the trap of greed and shortsightedness. The level of education at Neverwinter was not high, so they probably would not possess personal standards and professional ethics. Fortunately, there were Nightingale and the internal review by the Security Bureau that could effectively curb this tendency. After several screenings and severe punishment, those who remained in City Hall had understood the limits of His Majesty.

The ever-growing number of young officials had become Roland's guarantee of expanding his own power. It could even be said that his plan to regain the kingdom was based on the number of officials available.

Now, he finally had the foundation for unifying the country.

"Notify the Adviser Department to go to the observatory for a meeting." Roland turned toward Nightingale. "How should we go about taking over Redwater City? It's about time that they come up with a plan."

...

In fact, it was not the first time that the Neverwinter fleet visited Redwater City. As early as six months ago in the Tooth Extraction Campaign, the First Army had visited this central city.

The Adviser Department's opinion was reasonable: "Your Majesty, Redwater, in terms of the Central Region, is considered second only to the old king's city. Not only does it own a vast territory, there are also many nobles. I'm afraid we can't force them to hand over their power like what we did with Willow Town."

Sir Eltek, Morning Light's father, further elaborated by saying, "Earl Delta, the lord of Redwater City, isn't an ambitious man. This can be seen from the city's tax revenue—he could easily request for more as he controls the intersection of the inland rivers. The Delta family had managed this area for several generations. Even if they gave up their manor, they would still have a comfortable life. As compared to rebellion, the Earl would certainly know how to make a wise choice."

"But this doesn't mean that the other nobles will follow suit. It's by no means easy to consolidate their opinions, especially the Tririver and Rock Ridge families. It's rumored they're not on good terms with Earl Delta." He pointed to the map and said, "And once your claim is officially proclaimed, it's likely that this will bring the opponents together similar to what had happened in the Western Region before, so we speculate that the First Army may have to fight and force them to surrender their power."

"Of course, this isn't bad. Destroying rebels can reduce the trouble for the management later on, and your great strength will certainly deter the rest of the misfits. So we suggest that you summon Earl Delta alone to convince him before announcing the decree—although those nobles should more or less already know about your intentions. If someone disobeys later on, you can just send troops to clear them out."

Roland nodded and silently looked at the map.

He did not mind using military action to persuade his opponent. The First Army was used to doing that. However Sir Eltek's words, "just like what happened in the Western Region before" gave him some concern. The time he had spend to eliminate the five big families took a lot longer than the seizing of Long Stronghold and king's city. The reason back then was that the area of a fief had been far larger than that of a city. He had to take a few extra days just for a detour. Redwater City had an even larger manor around it compared to the Western Region cities. If he really wanted to clean it up, it would take more than two to three weeks, plus the subsequent placating measures.

"Isn't there a faster way?"

"Well, Your Majesty, faster means..."

"I don't want to spend too much time on this. Later on, there'll be several other cities. If they all require such measures, by the time we get to Coldwind Ridge, half of the summer would have passed."

"This..." The Earl and the others were silent for a moment.

"There's a method but it might be detrimental to your reputation," muttered Edith suddenly, "bring them together and announce to everyone on the spot."

"Oh?" Roland looked at her. "Go on."

"I've encountered a similar problem, but it was even worse," said Pearl of the Northern Region and then she gave a detailed account of her plan to eliminating the Hawes Family and Lista Family. "I'm afraid that if I'd followed the tradition of the nobles, and had declared before taking action, the Northern Region would have still remained in their hands."

After listening to her plan, the staff of the Adviser Department could not help but gasp.

"Your Majesty, this..."

"It's hard to be convincing without evidence and trial!"

"If it gets found out, I'm afraid that it'll bring suspicion from the other nobles."

"Have you forgotten that there should be no other nobles in Graycastle other than His Majesty?" Edith said flatly. "No trial was needed when the former nobles dealt with civilians." She turned toward Roland and said, "But it depends on whether you want to carry it out, after all reputation—"

"Only the victor is qualified to write history," Roland interrupted her, "for example, if you don't say anything, no one will know you've done something like this. I have to thank you for your trust in me, and anyway, this matter won't be found out. As for the takeover of Redwater City, let's follow your idea."

He then saw a strange glimmer in the latter's eyes. At that moment, the Pearl of the Northern Region's breathing seemed to quicken.

However, she quickly masked her unease and bowed her head.

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

Chapter 862 - Obstacles

In his mansion in Rock Ridge, Earl George Nery finally received the letter from the Western Region. He unsealed the letter and glanced over it, his face clouding over.

"What did it say?" Asked a restless Baron. On his chest, there was a kamon of God of River, indicating that he was from the Levitan family, whose domain was located at the intersection of river courses and was regarded as a fairly famous family in the local area.

There were over twenty nobles like him in the study room.

Nearly half of the feudal nobles around the Redwater City had gathered here.

Instead of answering him immediately, George glanced at him coldly and handed the letter to Guye Yurianne, the Earl of Tririver. After the latter read through the letter, George began to speak slowly, "Roland Wimbledon has taken away all the power of the Willow Town lord and occupied his domain as well."

"The new king... really did it?"

"Hell. So what does he want to do? To deprive us of our titles just as the news we received has suggested?"

"How can he do that? That title is passed down from my grandfather!"

Someone suddenly said, "Willow Town is too close to the Stronghold and it's very small. It doesn't mean that he'll do the same to Redwater City, does it?"

"I guess He didn't seize the entire king's city before is because he doesn't have the capacity. Maybe we should wait."

Hearing that, George could not help sneering in anger. He said," To the Western Region, is Redwater City farther than the City of Evernight? Are your domains larger than the whole Northern Region? Are you blind or stupid? It's not news that Roland Wimbledon wants to take away the power of all nobles. You see what happened in the Northern Region. The businessmen have hinted it repeatedly, and now the Willow Town provides the best example. And now you're wondering whether you will be the next?"

"Please mind your language, Your Excellency."

His mean and rude remarks made the nobles frown.

"Let me explain," said Guye, waving his hand toward the Earl of Rock, "In fact, I believe everyone is aware that our new king is definitely not an ordinary person. Since he went to Border Town, everything he has done is beyond imagination. So it's meaningless to judge his actions by the old standards and your past experience. I have sent my men to the Western Region. Roland Wimbledon doesn't conceal his real thoughts. He plans to abolish the noble's feudal power and just reserve their titles... This has basically become his mission of his ruling, and the slogan has been openly put up in the city square."

His calming voice eased the mood of the nobles. He continued to say, "You may say that Redwater City isn't his domain. But the Longsong Stronghold wasn't his either, let alone the Northern Region. Roland Wimbledon will be the King of Graycastle sooner or later. When that day comes, even if he claims that the whole kingdom is his domain, what else can we do other than accept it? And that will definitely happen." After a short pause, Guye said, "If we lose our domain and subjects, what else do we own?"

"But what can we do?" Huth, another Baron, interrupted impatiently, "King Timothy was defeated, so was the church. Who else can stop him? Last time when the Western Region army came to Redwater City, we saw how they fought. Within 60 meters, the snow powder weapon is irresistible, and even heavy-armored knights can't approach. How can we resist such power?"

Hearing that, the crowd chimed in.

"Of course there's a solution," George said in a cold voice. "Although the snow powder weapon is powerful, it has some flaws. It can only be used in an open space. The bigger space, the more powerful. But when in a confined environment, its power is limited."

"A confined... environment?"

"The Lord's castle, for example," he said word by word while glancing at the nobles who were present, "When Roland Wimbledon arrives at Redwater City, he'll definitely live in the castle. Only a few guards can live there, so as long as we can arrange more men there, we'll be in an advantageous position."

"Did Lord Delta agree to cooperate with you?"Levitan asked in surprise.

"You know his personality. It's impossible for him to do such a thing. Even if he was pointed by a sword to his neck, he would not resist." said George, shaking his head dismissively, "But he really did me a lot of favor. In the castle, there're lots of secret paths which lead to the outer city area. As long as we send our people in the castle ahead, they won't be found."

"How did you... know it?"

"Thanks to Earl Delta, he likes to dig here and there in the city, and I bribed the masons for the information. As the saying goes, a crafty person has more than one hideout. I don't know whether he's cautious or timid," George sneered and said, "I originally planned to kill him in this way, but I think it'll work just as well on Prince Roland."

"But this is treason..." Huth muttered, "And if Roland Wimbledon were killed, his army would likewise flatten us!"

"Who said we're going to kill him?" replied George, knocking on the table with displeasure. "As long as we seize Roland, we can have the situation under control. Since the new king is alive, his army won't dare to put his life at risk. Maybe we can even force his army to retreat. Once the news spreads, those nobles will definitely side with us. Don't forget, the Western Region is the only domain he's truly had his hands on. When that day comes, it's hard to say whether the Duke of the Northern Region will still support him."

"But after all, he is..."

"He hasn't been a real king yet, Baron Huth." Guye Yurianne interrupted him, "He hasn't held the coronation, nor did he proclaim himself as a king. We can select another Wimbledon, who believes in aristocracies and follows the traditions, as the king. We'll find such a man in the king's city as long as we try."

"By that time, maybe someone will stand out before we look for him." George lowered his voice, "And we should know how much we'll benefit from this. Losing everything or glorifying your family, what are you hesitating about?"

His words immediately caused a stir among the nobles. Obviously, they already knew what they should choose.

George Nery was not surprised by the result. The nobles he summoned had been in favor of Timothy before. Even if Timothy was dead, they would not choose Prince Roland with whom they had a conflict of interests. Further, the prospective benefits were enough to tempt this group of cowards to take a bold action.

However, their ability was limited. If no one led them, they were nothing but a rabble. He was the only qualified person to assume the post of the lord of Redwater City and run the Central Region.

After a moment, Levitan and his party seemed to have made their decisions. They asked, "What're we going to do next?"

"Put some of your reliable knights under my command... Then, just wait," George said with confidence.

Chapter 863 - A Prelude

Two days later, the fleets of Roland Wimbledon arrived at the pier of Redwater City.

Earl Delta, who had received the message earlier, took the matter very seriously. At his command, the pier was not only thoroughly cleaned, but was also decorated with eye-catching satin and banners. On the day when Roland arrived, Earl Delta led the nobles outside the city gate and greeted Roland in the suburb. He was much more enthusiastic than he had been upon the arrival of the First Army earlier.

As the great nobles in the Central Region, George Nery and Guye Yurianne were naturally among the greeting crowd.

He had to admit the new king's presence was indeed impressive. It was not the first time for George to see the steel ship named after Prince Roland. However, after seeing it again after half a year, the ship still shocked him in the same way as it had done before. Following it, concrete ships were neatly lined, much more than last time. Their snow-white chimneys and heavy smoke seemed to reach to the sky. When he saw the soldiers who wore uniforms of the same color walk down the pier, he could not help admiring it. If he had such an army to serve for the Rock family, it was not impossible for him to fight for the throne in the royal palace of the king's city, not to mention Redwater City.

"This fool. I really don't know how he's smartened himself up." George spatted and said, "When I was in the king's city about five or six years ago, he was obviously the stupidest one. He was totally incomparable to his elder brothers. Even his little sister, who had scarcely been out of the shell back then, was much better than him."

"Doesn't that mean that Prince Roland is the most sophisticated one?" said the Earl of Tririver, shrugging, "Since he can develop the border to such a degree and overshadow all of his siblings, he's definitely not a fool. Remember to smile and show your hospitality."

"Of course I know," George replied carelessly. "After all, he's a member of the royal family. Even if he's a fool, I'll do my best. Rest assured."

"That's great."

At this moment, a loud horn sounded in the direction of the pier and a stir was aroused in the crowd. He knew that Roland Wimbledon, the ruler of the Western Region, or the new king of Graycastle, showed up.

"How's your preparation going?" George asked under his breath.

"I've already sent 51 men to the castle," said Guye, who remained still in his position, pretending to be eager to see the arrival of His Majesty, "In two days, I can send the rest of them."

"Me too," said George, smiling faintly, "so we still have lots of time. Then we'll have a bigger chance."

He had talked with Guye several times what Roland would do after he entered Redwater City. Roland was most likely to reach an agreement with Earl Delta before he announced to forfeit their feudal power. After all, Redwater City was a large city and there were lots of nobles with domains around it. Therefore, it was impossible for him to act as quickly as he did in Willow Town.

Since Delta was indecisive, it might cost him several days to make up his mind. And then it would take another few days before the news spread and the other nobles responded to it. During this time period, George could fill the secret paths with a sufficient number of his people without being noticed.

Then when the bell at midnight tolled, their men would rush into the castle altogether. The snow powder weapon would be useless. Since they had more people they needed and they were in a favorable geographical position, it would be impossible for Roland Wimbledon to escape.

"He's coming," Guye reminded George.

George immediately put on a smile and stepped forward. Among the greeting group, the first row was the family members of Earl Delta, and the second row was great nobles like him.

Earl Delta stood beside the new king and was introducing the nobles with a flattering smile. When George saw his round face with his broad grin and quivering double chin, he could not help having a bad turn in his stomach.

He still remembered that the Earl had been the same obnoxious toady when Timothy the second prince had led his army into Redwater City.

"Your Majesty, this is the lord of Rock Ridge, Earl George Nery." Delta finally walked to him.

"I'm greatly honored, Your Majesty," said George with his most cordial tone, pressing his chest with his right hand and bending deeply, "Rock Ridge has the most fragrant tea and fruit wine. It'll be my great honor if you can pay a visit."

"Really?" The reply from Roland took George by surprise, "Where's your domain?"

"As a ruler, shouldn't he say that the honor is his and that he would pay a visit at his convenience?" George thought, but he quickly replied, "Just on the east of Redwater City. Two kilometers to the east and behind the first mountain you see is the domain of the Nery family."

"It sounds like a nice place. I hope you'll treasure it," said the new king, who patted him on the shoulder and smiled.

Treasure it? What does he mean?

George frowned without Roland noticing it. Without betraying his suspicion on his face, he replied, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Nothing out of normal happened during the greeting ceremony. After everyone met Roland, Earl Delta announced that he would hold a grand banquet at the Lakeside Villa. Then he ordered the knights to clear the road ahead and escort the king to the city.

Everything went as planned and even a little exceeded his expectation. The new king's army did not rush into Redwater City. Instead, they were stationed in the pier area in the suburb. Roland was followed by less than 100 guards. When they lived in the castle, about 20 guards would be able to guard outside his bedroom.

He was certain about the result.

However, he felt a little restless out of no reason. Roland's smile seemed to be weird... He could not tell the reason, but he could not help feeling an ineffable chill looming over his heart.

George shook his head and put all the thoughts behind. "Maybe I was wrong," he thought, "Even if he's brooding on something, they'll be meaningless the moment he entered the castle. When he's in my hands, I'll talk with him about what happened earlier."

By that time, I won't have to try to please him, and he'll not be in a mood to show such a strange smile.

The night fell.

Everyone in the city knew that the last prince of the Wimbledon family was in Redwater City. As he was most probably the king of Graycastle, the whole city celebrated it. The vast Inner City was as bright as the day, so was the Lakeside Villa. It had always been the place to entertain distinguished guests, and the dining hall, which was built above the lake, was linked with Redwater River and supported by dozens of hundreds-year-old larches. A trestle-like corridor led to the shore and there was even running water in the hall.

To please the new king, Earl Delta spared no effort in bringing all the seasonal gourmet food in the surrounding area to the table, and some of them were something George first laid his eyes upon.

However, he did not pay much attention to the food.

In addition to Roland Wimbledon's action, he had to also keep an eye on those nobles who supported the Lord of Redwater City.

After the new king showed up in the dining hall, George could not help frowning.

All of those guards around Roland turned out to be women.

Chapter 864 - An Announcement

George silently counted and found that there were altogether 10 women. The number did not exceed what the royal family was allowed to have. Among them, six were guards, wearing short robes and leather pants for convenience. As soon as they entered the hall, they scattered and each took a position at a corner.

It was not surprising for a lord to keep some female guards. Actually, George also kept two in his mansion. He did not really expect them to fight but just had them for fun, especially when he went hunting in the wild. It always aroused him when he took off their seductive leather armor and cleaned their feet landing on top of them.

But it was weird to bring them on such a formal occasion.

In terms of physical strength, women were born to be weaker than men, and the gap between them was insurmountable. Therefore, most outstanding guards and knights were men. Except for having fun, no one would bring those women guards who were mere eye candies.

Not to mention the appearances of these women were... so unbearable.

George was not picky, but he believed that these women would be kicked out even in some low-grade brothels in Redwater City.

From their homely faces and rough skin, he guessed that they were about 30 or 40 years old. Wrinkles and dark spots spread nearly from their foreheads to chins. They had a slender figure due to long-term exercises, but their faces really turned any men off.

Did Roland Wimbledon have such a special taste?

However, when he turned his eyes to the woman holding the new king's arm, he immediately repudiated his previous assumption.

That was a gorgeous young woman who looked perfect from every angle. Her lake-blue eyes were like crystal gems and attracted anyone who looked at them. No doubt they were the most beautiful eyes George had ever seen.

Once she entered the hall, the crowd fell into silence for a moment. Even the appearance of Edith Kant, the Pearl of the Northern Region, had not created such a stir. If the girl had not stood beside the new king, she would definitely have been surrounded by most of the nobles in the hall.

The last two women were veiled. It seemed that they did not want others to see their faces.

That was rare at a banquet, though acceptable. If you did not want to be seen, you could choose not to attend it. Dressing in this way would attract more attention.

"Have a drink?" Guye came over with two glasses of wine at the moment.

"Thanks," he took the glass, followed him to a corner of the hall, and asked, "Did you notice anything?"

"The woman beside Roland is... a little weird," whispered the Earl of Tririver. "Don't you think she's too gorgeous?"

"Did you notice that too?" George touched the God's Stone of Retaliation in his pocket and whispered, "I guess... she's probably a witch."

"I also think so. If she were from any noble family, it's impossible that we had never heard of her."

If was not a secret that Roland recruited a lot of witches. News of this kind spread from the king's city to Redwater. At first, the news only spread among the Rats, but then after the king's city was occupied and the church was defeated, more and more people talked about it. The new king did not publicly proclaim his attitude, but people gradually stopped persecuting witches, as no one dared to go against the new king regarding this matter. However, few nobles took the "recruitment" seriously.

In their opinion, a witch was like a woman guard. She would be kept for appreciation, and be used when they had special needs. After all, witches were renowned for their beauty. Even during the period when the church and Timothy were hunting down witches, some people would hide witches at risk of their lives.

Nevertheless, it was not understandable as to why Roland brought a witch to the banquet.

Did the constant victories make the new king lose his head and start to act recklessly in his private life? Or was he really serious about the woman...

George immediately denied his second guess.

Witches were infertile. That alone made it impossible for her to be his wife. Perhaps he brought her to the banquet on a whim.

However, that was good. When Roland was in his hands, this was undoubtedly excellent "evidence" of his crime.

He could blame Roland for ignoring the noble traditions, and even for insulting the ladies who came to the banquet with the nobles. Of course, the criticism would not affect a royal family member much but would definitely incriminate that witch. As for how to punish her, of course, it would be decided by him.

Earl of Tririver apparently also had the same thought. He grinned and said, "You can't have her alone."

"Of course I won't forget you, old friend," said George, raising his glass, "I'll surely let you take the first shot."

They looked at each other, and could not help laughing after a moment.

The banquet went well. After drinking a toast with the new king, the nobles with similar titles gathered together. The men talked about their recent hunting, harvest and affairs, while women talked about their delicate silk garments and luxurious jewelry.

George Nery was also surrounded by lots of nobles. At least it appeared that his supporters were no less than that of the lord of Redwater City. Some people who had been on the fence also started to approach him, as they had apparently heard the rumor that the king was prepared to abolish their feudal power. George had more confidence now, and his previous inexplicable uneasiness gradually faded away.

That was right. He had enough time.

Roland Wimbledon, after all, was an outsider, and he had to make exponential efforts if he wanted to make any changes. However, the Rock family had been living here for hundreds of years, so he was naturally at a geographical advantage. This advantage became even more palpable when Roland appeared to be reckless and arrogant. Now George even believed that they could directly capture the new king just with the guards of his and those of the earl of Tririver's, as well as Levitan and other nobles.

However, after thinking for a moment, George gave up this idea. After all, the Lakeside Villa was an open space and was hard for them to hold. They also have difficulty in transferring troops, so it would be more appropriate to carry out his plan when Roland lived in the castle.

Just after two days, the young king would be a caged bird.

"Please be quiet." Just then, Earl Delta suddenly clapped his hands and drew everyone's attention to the center of the hall. He said, "His Majesty wants to tell you something."

George put a piece of juicy spareribs into his mouth and thought, "Is he going to make the closing speech? Finally, the banquet is over."

"First of all, I would like to thank Earl Delta for preparing this sumptuous banquet. I'm also pleased to see so many people be invited here," said Roland, looking around the hall with a smile, "If I remember correctly, nearly all the nobles around Redwater City have come?"

Seeing his smile, George could not help feeling a chill. He thought, "It's that smile again... A fake smile. His smile simply hanged his lips... What's he thinking?"

"Except for two who are ill, the rest of the invitees are here, Your Majesty," Delta nodded.

"Well, I'll take this opportunity and tell you directly," said Roland slowly, with his hands behind his back, "From now on, Redwater City and the domains around it will belong to me, the king of Graycastle. It won't be conferred in the future. In other words..." He paused and said, "None of you will be hereditary nobles any longer."

Chapter 865 - Mind Reading

"Wh—at?"

George blinked. For a moment, he couldn't believe his own ears.

Looking at Earl Tririver next to him, he saw that the Earl was bewildered too. At that moment, all the nobles' expressions resembled Guye's. The room was shocked into silence, so much so that you would have been able to hear a pin-drop in the room.

This... wasn't a part of the plan!

Could this mean that Roland Wimbledon has already persuaded Earl Delta?

He then looked at the Lord of Redwater City and his assumption was immediately dismissed. The Earl was no calmer than the others, and with his eyes wide open, he looked at the new king with disbelief. Obviously, he did not expect the new king to have this plan up his sleeve when he himself was the one who invited the guests over to the banquet.

To Delta, it was only routine to be attending the banquet in Lakeside Villa.

As was the same for the others.

This is just Roland's selfish move!

Is he... mad?

"I think most of you have noticed that the feudal system has severely hindered the flow and specialization of personnel, which in turn has restricted the development of our nation's productivity. Considering that Graycastle... and even the entire human race may soon fall into a major crisis, I have to make this tough decision, which is to take back all the land and power in your hands so that people in the Graycastle can work as one."

"Specialization of personnel? Productivity? Major crisis? What the hell is the guy talking about? Who understands those things?" George thought and swallowed hard.

Yet the new king seemed not to care about the nobles' opinions. He kept on talking as if there was no one present, "For the moment, I believe that this decision is both right and necessary. Take The Western Region and the Northern Region of Graycastle as examples: the disappearance of feudal nobles didn't cause chaos in the two regions but instead brought them order. The unified Neverwinter decrees, planning, and deployment of policies have propelled the city into the industrial age, with large factories taking over from household workshops as the workhorses of production. At the same time, a large amount of wealth has been created, and people who actively participated in this process have benefited greatly. These are undeniable facts, and I think you can all see it."

"With that said, I don't mean to eliminate the entire noble class. I just want to tell you that losing your manor and the title doesn't mean you'll lose everything. In this new system, you will gain better, more abundant opportunities. Imagine a cake the size of your palm. Although you might be able to barely satisfy your hunger if you swallow it all, if you were to enlarge that cake to the size of a table, you will have more than enough even if you only get a slice of it. Since this reform is beneficial to both you and your subjects, it shouldn't be hard to understand why we want to make it a comprehensive reform across the kingdom. Many of you must have heard of the reform, right?"

"Indeed, many nobles know what you're up to, but they didn't expect you to be so impatient." George thought quickly. After the initial shock, he gradually regained his composure. To his surprise, he found that this accident was not necessarily a bad thing, and it might even be favorable for him!

It was almost impossible to reach a consensus with the amount of nobles present. On the contrary, it would aggravate the preexisting conflicts between them and the new king. George was happy to see that the king's talk actually saved his effort to make himself look good in front of all those present. After all, compared with making his move after persuading the Redwater City Lord, what the new king did was too reckless. This could quickly push those who previously wanted to support Earl Delta to his side.

As expected, when the nobles came to their senses, one of them said, "Your Majesty... I'm not too familiar with the situation in the Western and Northern regions. Would Your Majesty be so inclined to give me a couple of days to decide?"

"Yes, this matter is of utmost importance and would decide the fate of my house. I can't make the decision on my own."

"Your Majesty, can you guarantee that each of us will get more wealth?"

"What if the reform fails? If we lose our lands, doesn't it mean that even the original small cake would be lost?

"Your policy must be wise and brilliant, but... I'm not a merchant, Your Majesty!"

"That's right. There we go," George gloated. The more questions they throw towards the new king, the more insightful he himself would appear. If Roland were unable to assure the nobles of his reformation plans, he would be stuck in quite an awkward spot.

Roland, however, kept his unwavering facial expression. After the crowd rambled on for a while, the King raised one hand and silenced the room. "You seem to be misunderstanding something—what I just said was not a suggestion but an order—did you think that you had any say in this to begin with?" His tone turned less friendly and colder. "I don't even need your consent. I'm fully aware of who'll stand on the wagon of progress and join me, and who'll act as the stubborn rocks blocking the wheels just to be crushed into dust."

"How... do you know that?" Earl Delta said with surprise.

A smile crept up Roland's face. "Because I can read minds."

"What... did you say?"

"When faced with things beyond your comprehension, it's normal to be suspicious." Roland turned over, signaled to Edith, then said, "In that case, I'll demonstrate it to you."

The Pearl of the Northern Region nodded. She smiled to the nobles and said, "His Majesty's ability can be easily proved. As long as you repeat every word that I say, you'll understand it instantly. No lie can escape the detection of His Majesty's mind reading. The Wimbledon's rule of Graycastle depends on the mastery of this ability. I want to make it clear that anyone who doesn't repeat after me will be considered as one of those rocks to be crushed."

"Nonsense! This is absolute nonsense. There's no such a thing as mind reading. It would have been more credible if a witch had said that."  George Nery retorted in his heart. Wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation, he was not afraid of the bewitchment of any evil force.

He wanted to call for the other nobles to help him put a stop to this farce, but he found that many nobles in the crowd looked like they were going to go along with Edith's suggestion. Many believed that they would have nothing to lose even if they tried, so they were actually waiting for Edith to continue speaking. George was not sure whether they were waiting for the King to make a fool of himself or were afraid of openly offending the King.

Edith smiled. "Everybody, please listen carefully. The first sentence is—I completely agree with His Majesty's new policy, and I'm will willingly cooperate with the officials dispatched from Neverwinter."

The nobles repeated carelessly; a few even failed to hold their laughter, feeling that what they were doing was rather ridiculous.

"None of you are telling the truth." Roland gave his judgment. "Although a little regretful, it's actually understandable. If it were me, I guess I also wouldn't have easily believed in the king who had stayed at the border area of Graycastle the whole time. Please continue."

"Wait a minute... Something's wrong." George frowned. "Would any king accept this result so calmly?" Being the Lord of Rock Ridge himself, although he was aware that not every one of his subjects was sincerely obedient to him, he never would want to hear that right to his face. "Shouldn't he be embarrassed and annoyed? Why is Roland Wimbledon so calm?"

"The second sentence—Althought I don't understand what His Majesty wants to do, the feudal power isn't something I can't live without. I am willing to cooperate as long as the opportunities for me to acquire more wealth exists." Edith licked her lips and said in high spirit. "Please repeat after me word for word. Do make sure to speak clearly."

Chapter 866 - Smashing a Glass

Things took a sharp turn after Edith's second question.

Four nobles were escorted out of the crowd by the new King's guards.

The crowd began to stir.

"Your Majesty.. what..?"

"Hmm, you guessed right. The four of them were telling the truth," Roland said with his hands laid out. "Their courage and their willingness to try earned them the qualification to come aboard my wagon. What we need for a reform, is people who dare to try" He then turned to the chosen nobles, "Do your best. Don't waste this opportunity that has landed in your hands."

"Yes, yes... Your Majesty!" the four nobles said, feeling somewhat flattered.

"Nonsense!" George could not help but growl in his heart. "Courage? Qualification? You must be kidding! Those guys are nothing but Barons who are on the verge of going bankrupt. They are title to nothing but barren lands with pathetic yield, poor management, and a lack of manpower. The output of their lands can barely make ends meet. So of course, they won't have a problem giving up on their lands. The lands under these "nobles" are but symbolic. Upon losing the lands, they won't even be invited to the banquet. People like them actually got the new King's special attention? Or... perhaps they've colluded with Roland Wimbledon to put on this absurd show?"

"Wait a minute..." He suddenly recalled an unsettling story that came from the King's city not too long ago.

There were only a few witnesses to this story about Prince Roland. It was said that after taking over the King's city, the Prince held a trial in the holy palace for those great nobles. Judging from the result, almost all the nobles who had controlled real power in the King's city had been swept away. Even Timothy was not spared. He had been sentenced to death. Rather than a trial, it would be more fitting to call it a purge.

The proceedings of the trial were extremely bizarre.

He heard that Roland had convicted the nobles with a Q&A game.

The nobles had been asked to answer ten questions. If they responded to any question incorrectly, they would be sent to prison—it was said that this seemingly ridiculous rule was due to mind reading.

Back then, George didn't heed this rumor any mind and had considered it a story fabricated by the nobles who had luckily escaped punishment to conceal their guilt and cowardice. He firmly believed that this so-called mind reading was just Roland judging the nobles based on his personal preference as he would never spare the former king's ministers.

But now, George was not so sure about his original judgment anymore.

"Could... the rumors be real?"

"Here comes the third sentence. Listen carefully," Edith's voice sounded once again, "I have no intentions of giving up my land and power, but in front of overwhelming power, I wouldn't want to lose my life over them either." She gestured to the crowd. "Now your turn."

The atmosphere in the hall changed.

Those who initially repeated after Edith carelessly were now filled with mixed feelings after they saw the first batch of nobles being escorted out the crowd after earning the new King's recognition.

This time, even the timing of the responses were off.

Yet the guards still picked out more nobles.

To George Nery's surprise, Earl Delta was also among them.

"What's going on?" Guye quietly moved to George and asked with a low voice. "Does this mean the new King has persuaded them?"

George did a head count. Altogether, 21 nobles had been chosen, among whom a few actually discussed with him the plan to fight against Roland not long ago. Without those nobles and their servants, the crowd was downsized a half.

"Im-Impossible. If Roland had contacted so many of them, I would have noticed." George gritted his teeth. "They must have been chosen on the spot."

"Then... why didn't they say so?" Baron Levitan also scooched closer to George. "That guy Huth was still with us in the beginning!"

"What?" George glared at him. "'My lord, you have wronged me. My lands are more important than anything else. I'd rather die for it'. Would you say something like that?"

"Um, I..."

"What an idiot." Georgy thought angrily. "The point here isn't the nobles who are being chosen, but those left behind. Roland Wimbledon could just close his eyes and pick anyone as his follower, then suppress those who are left behind. But how could he make sure those who support the Lord of Redwater City instead of himself aren't left behind?

If he chooses wrongly, it will only push those who have supported him to the opposite side. Such a trick has no other meaning than giving the nobles a warning. Or, could he just wanted to show off his mind-reading skill?

Looking around, once again George made sure that the new king only took six guards with him. Even though only one or two nobles were left behind and the new king wanted to punish them as a warning to the others, these six guards most likely would not be enough to control the crowd.

At least, he and Earl Tririver would not sit idly by and do nothing.

"Submitting before power is nothing to be embarrassed about," smiling at the second batch of chosen nobles, Roland said. "Since ancient times, the powerful have ruled the weak. Being able to size up the situation correctly and act correspondingly is no less commendable than having courage. Your ancestors were able to take over a spot for themselves in Graycastle and even continued their bloodline instead of getting forgotten through the passage of time. This achievement alone is a proof of their capability. I'm glad to see that you all have inherited their wisdom. Moreover, I promise that you won't be treated differently from the previous batch of nobles. I only hope you remember what you said today. When you have to make similar decisions in the future, just make sure to keep in mind the might of Neverwinter."

Then he looked at the Pearl of the Northern Region. "Next sentence."

Edith nodded. "The fourth sentence—I don't want to give up either of them and I don't know which to choose."

This sentence was very short. However, from amongst the remaining nobles, only five or six of them repeated it; most of the others chose to be silent, perhaps because they had noticed that they were being differentiated.

Among those who repeated, the guards only chose three.

"Ahem. Your Majesty, we believe that you can read minds. So let's call it off now."

"Yes. After all, this is a welcome banquet. You see..." Earl Delta and Earl Tririver tried to appeal to the King one after another.

"There are fewer neutrals than I've imagined." But Roland acted as if he did not hear them. "Being irresolute and hesitant can't actually be counted as positive characters, especially so when facing the tide of reformation. But you still belong to the category that is reformable. Why don't you guys stay here for now? You will probably change your mind in a moment."

He paused, then said to the remaining nobles, "Here comes the last sentence, but I'm guessing that you already know what it is about. In this case, I'll spell it out for you myself—"

"No matter what, I'll not hand over my lands or power. For this purpose, I am willing to take a risk—as long as I can defeat the King, my house and fortune will live on!"

In a split second, the hearth seemed to sway without any wind.

Nobody in the hall dared open their mouth. The air felt icy cold.

"It doesn't matter even if you don't speak. As I said before, this isn't a suggestion but an order," Roland spoke slowly. "People who don't repeat will lose their qualification to get on my wagon. Your road ends here."

"What do you mean?" George scowled. "How can you convict us without any evidence or a proper trial?"

There were still 27 nobles remaining, which was far more than George had expected. According to their titles, each had two to four attendants with them. So altogether, there were more than 60 people left, some of which were probationary knights. "What good would it do for the new king to corner us like this?

Doesn't he worry about backlash from the nobles?

"Your Majesty, if you're just kidding, I think it's already gone far enough." Guye still managed to keep his kind face and said patiently, "Your last sentence carried the joke too far. We can't say it out. How can you be sure that's what in everybody's mind? At least I myself will never betray the Wimbledon Family."

"That's true... I'm wronged. I've never thought about anything like that!"

"Your Majesty, please reconsider your words!"

The nobles were shouting out their pleas one after another in loud voices.

"You know what? Mind reading works in such a way that the more you talk, the better it becomes" Roland was not swayed. He took over a crystal glass from Edith. "You can save your words for the shovels and ores."

"O-Ores?"

"That's right. You'll be escorted to the North Slope Mine to labor for 20 years in punishment for your conspiracy—after all you haven't actually acted against me," the new king then spoke in a dangerous tone, "but... if you resist my verdict in any way, your conspiracy will become treason. When that happens, you'll be sentenced to death."

Roland drank the wine in his glass with one gulp, then tossed it.

The glass traveled along an arc before it fell at George's feet, where it shattered into pieces.

"Arrest them!"

Chapter 867 - A Meaningful Smile

Insane, this guy is... absolutely crazy!

George Nery could hardly believe that the relation between the Redwater nobles and the new king would deteriorate to the present state. He just could not understand why the king would assume that the nobles would allow themselves to be seized without putting up a fight.

The new king brings only six female guards to fight against more than 60 people. Does he really believe that his guards are as hard as nails?

Though he's supported by the witches, they can't guarantee victory in front of the nobles that are wearing the God's Stones of Retaliation!

Immediately after Roland gave an order, one of his guards went to the door while another one stayed with him. The remaining four all drew their daggers and approached the nobles step by step.

All the nobles and their men unsheathed their swords. None of them wanted to put down their weapons and surrender to the king when they themselves significantly outnumbered the king's guards.

"Your, Your Majesty!" The lord of the Redwater City looked pale. "Everybody calm down. If you've any issues, we can discuss it!"

Unfortunately, it was too late. George exchanged a knowing look with Guye. They decided to change their plan and fight in this villa!

Although this place was hard to defend, it was still good for them to take action here since most of the Redwater nobles were gathered in this villa today. George believed that seizing Roland here would quickly swing them to his side—just like Prince Roland had said, strength decided everything. But unfortunately for the prince, the Redwater nobles were the more powerful side in the Lakeside Villa.

"I can't accept it!" Guye shouted and then walked out of the crowd, holding his sword in his hand. This seemingly amiable man looked irritated now. "I can't say anything if this is a judgment based on valid evidence. Please excuse me for being blunt. Nobles should never be trifled with. Even if King Wimbledon III himself had asked me to do this, I would have refused him! Your Highness, you forced us to act this way!"

All the four tall guards following Earl Tririver held their heads high, stood unyielding and unafraid in front of the new king. They seemed to be more impressive than the king's attendants.

"Well done. Being a noble himself, the royal prince can't deny this high-sounding rhetoric. It's both inspiring and provocative. Now, all we need to do is catch Roland and we will have the final say!" George thought to himself.

The new king would surely not have expected that this old man with gray, grizzled hair would turn out to be an excellent fighter.

Guye Yurianne was born with supernatural strength. At the age of 15, he had led two knights and managed to eliminate a band of robbers based near the river estuary. When he had reached young adulthood, he had mastered all kinds of weapons and had been unrivaled in the fighting matches between the nobles. Some people called him "Guye the Giant" and firmly believed that he would have been remembered as one of the strongest knights in history if he had not been born a great noble.

Moreover, each of his four servants qualified as a probationary knight. If they were engaged in combat with the king's guards, Roland Wimbledon would not be able to escape from Earl Tririver by himself.

"Go and help him, and keep an eye on Miss Edith," George told his attendants.

"Yes." A few more people stepped out of the crowd.

Guye strode toward Roland who smiled even more merrily now, seemingly undisturbed by the ongoing tension. The earl could not help but clench his fist and thought, "Go ahead and laugh. This is your last chance to be arrogant. Next, you'll be so shocked that you can't even cry out your fear!"

"Attack!" Guye dashed forward and struck his sword at the female guard beside Roland when the earl and his men were only ten steps away from the new king.

His strike was so powerful and fast that people around even heard the whistling sound of the sword cracking through the air.

No one could dodge this attack. It could only be blocked!

Once the guard evaded it as they had expected, Roland would be left unprotected.

"Clang——Sizz——"

George heard two consecutive sounds. The former was a clear, melodious collision sound of metal weapons, and the latter sounded like a blade cutting through flesh. A piece of broken sword shot into the air while spinning and then got thrust into the wooden floor.

Soon the head of Earl Tririver hit the ground too.

It slid smoothly to one side and then fell from his neck, bouncing twice on the floor before stopping. The blood from the wound left a bright red trail behind it.

What... happened exactly?

Did someone just behead Guye the Giant and break his sword in half with just one strike?

How's it possible?

Before George recovered from the shock, the crowd began to stir. Clashes of swords and awful screams were everywhere—the broken sword was like a signal for the four female guards to simultaneously launch their attacks from different directions and start this bloody fight. George was terrified when he realized he could hardly follow those guards' movements through the naked eye. Their strength was very impressive too. Anything in their hands could be used as a lethal weapon. They were nothing like human beings and could even hurt people with just their fists and fingers. The nobles felt as if they were fighting steel warriors!

"Monsters. They're are a group of monsters. No mortal body can be that strong!" he screamed in his heart.

"But... if you make any rebellious action, your conspiracy will become concrete facts. When that happens, you'll be sentenced to death instead of ending up in the mine."

He suddenly remembered the new king's words.

It was like a bolt of lightning flashing across his mind.

Maybe he was waiting for this moment?

He turned his head with some difficulty to look at Roland Wimbledon.

An unstoppable chill crept from the soles of his feet up to his spine—at this moment, he finally understood the meaning behind that smile.

This is definitely a trap!

The new king deliberately left the First Army outside the city except for about 100 guards and took only six guards to this banquet. He pretended to be tough and uncompromising only to lure us into attacking him!

He threatened to send us to some mine. No... he lied and had no intention of letting the remaining nobles live. He would have been really disappointed if we had decided to surrender.

That's it... that's a smile of expectation.

He was waiting for us to walk into his trap step by step and was amused to see us digging our own graves. This is a vicious smile. That's why I can't sense even the slightest bit of happiness in this cold face.

"Spa-Spare our lives..."

"Your Majesty, I surrender!"

"Me too. The Levitan family pledges their allegiance to you!"

"I'll give you whatever you want! Please spare me!"

The situation was deteriorating rapidly for George. Though the remaining nobles still significantly outnumbered the king's four female guards, they knelt down to beg for mercy as they were the ones that seemed to be at a disadvantage.

George dropped his sword helplessly. The nobles had already exposed their intention to rebel and overthrow the new king the moment they had drawn their swords.

Disobedience, discontent, fear and anger kept going back and forth through his mind, and then all the feelings dissolved into nothingness when a long sword struck him on his back.

The sounds of fighting and begging faded away. The last scene he saw was a sloping hall and a pool of blood that rushed toward him.

Chapter 868 - The Black Pearl

"This feeling... is so great."

Edith took a deep breath while savoring the tang of blood in the air.

She was intrigued by the panic spreading among the crowd.

The God's Punishment Witches were rapidly tightening the ring of encirclement. The so-called resistance lasted only for a short period of time. For the Taquila survivors, these nobles were no different from the common people that had no titles, and they would never hesitate to kill these self-satisfied common people who had no magic power.

Edith was clear that they killed those nobles because another common person ordered them to do so.

She was also confident that under the influence of this common man, these God's Punishment Witches would also follow her commands, even though she was just a common person like him.

This was the charm of power.

Through bonds and negotiations, a common person could manipulate people's interests, goals, desires and aspirations to create a force which was much more powerful than his or her own strength.

When the last rebel was struck down, No. 76, Phyllis, dropped her sword which had many breaches now and reported to Roland. "Your Majesty, the filtering procedure is completed."

The floor was littered with over 60 corpses. Their blood solidified into dark red blocks, looking like red wax in the flickering light of the bonfire.

There was a dead silence. All the remaining nobles clenched their teeth and were afraid to make any noise. None of them wanted to become the next corpse. All the three "unsteady" nobles had already collapsed to the ground and were trembling with fear.

Even without Nightingale, Edith herself could guess the replies of the remaining nobles if they heard the same question again at this moment.

Fear was a guarantee of loyalty.

And none of the nobles killed in the filtering procedure was innocent. During the first half of the banquet, Isabella had wiped out all the effects of their God's Stones of Retaliation in order for Nightingale to use her lie-detecting ability. By doing so, she could make those nobles believe that Roland had a mind-reading skill.

The biggest mistake of the dead nobles was that they had overestimated themselves.

These great nobles who had wielded absolute power over thousands of subjects turned out to be vulnerable in the face of greater power. The new king took back over half of the domains around the Redwater city through this fight. As compared to such a great achievement, Edith thought her success in eliminating the two great noble families in the City of Evernight was not worth mentioning.

Fortunately, this plan worked. His Majesty had shown her enough trust, and the witches had followed her commands. The king had even adapted all the five statements she had composed without changing a word.

The only thing different from her original plan was the glass cup he had tossed.

She did not understand why His Majesty had insisted on sending the signal by dropping the glass. Judging by common sense, she believed that this step would have been unnecessary, since this action would have been noticed by the enemy and the sound of it would have been drowned by some other noises. She had doubted this decision and had considered the preparation of the wine and glass as a waste. However, together with the lie about Roland's mind-reading ability, she realized that smashing the glass had indeed constituted a mystery atmosphere which had really scared the nobles.

She had to admit that the king was better at tactics.

She licked her lips in excitement.

Choosing to serve Roland Wimbledon was really a right decision.

With this thought in mind, she could not help looking at the king and was hoping to share with him the joy of success. However, she failed to find any excitement in his face and could even see a vague attitude of exclusion and boredom in his eyes.

"Is there any other banquet hall in this villa?" Roland asked in a deep voice.

"The-There's one next door," said Earl Delta, swallowing hard.

"Let's move next door. I've something to say." He nodded. "As for these insurgents, please ask your men to count and make a name list for me. I want to see this list, tonight."

"Yes, Yes... Your Majesty!"

"By the way, please open all the doors and windows in this hall and get rid of these dead bodies as soon as possible. This smell of rust is really disgusting."

"I'll send my servants to take care of these things right now!"

"I see." Pearl of the Northern Region thought in her heart. "The king was not looking forward to this massacre. What he desires is a city managed by a well-operating City Hall when the nobles relinquish their power. For the king, killing is just a more effective way to intimidate the bystanders as compared to sending the rebels to the mines. Now it seems that he doesn't like killing and even gets disgusted by the smell of blood."

Her excitement suddenly died down. She even started to doubt herself...

Was my plan too cruel?

If I had killed half of the rebels inside the hall and the other half outside, would it have looked any better?

Though it was largely a matter of personal preference, she was still afraid that such a difference in attitude between her and the dominator with regards to killing would block her advancement in Roland's government.

When everyone moved to the hall next door, the new king finally stopped knitting his brows. He cleared his throat and said in a cheerful voice, "Don't worry. Only the insurgents would be severely punished and their rebellion has already been suppressed. Now the top priority is restoring the order of the Redwater city and I need your help to do this."

"Your Majesty, please let us know what you want us to do!"

All the nobles knelt down together.

Roland nodded with satisfaction. "Please get up. This is the first task I am giving you. Now that you've returned your manors to the kingdom, it'll be meaningless for you to stay in your previous domains. I hope you'll gather in the Redwater City. This includes letting your freemen, serfs and their livestock immigrate to the city, and not just the members of your mansions."

"But... Your Majesty, where can we find enough food for those people if they all move to the city," Earl Delta felt that he had no choice but to voice his objections. "And we don't have that many fields around the city, if you're planning to make them work the land. I'm afraid that we may cause famine and riots if we drive them into the city..."

"First of all, you'll get new wheat seeds called 'Golden Twos'. The yield of this kind of wheat is ten times higher than that of normal wheat. Secondly, what Redwater city can't accommodate can be moved to the Western Region. I'll take in all of them, no matter how many they are."

All the nobles gasped in astonishment.

"Ten, Ten times higher?"

"Is there really such a kind of wheat?"

"But our subjects..."

Roland interrupted, "When you give up the fiefs, those people will naturally no longer be your subjects. They can decide to stay or leave by themselves. The efficiency of land usage in the past was too low, and all your lands were sparsely populated. A domain which was nearly 7 square kilometers could only support several thousands of people at most. Such a widely dispersed population is extremely inconvenient for the implementation of policies. Therefore it's inevitable to compress and move the people into certain big cities. I know you're still uncertain about the reform, but I can tell you it's the exact reason for the prosperity of Neverwinter. Don't worry if you still don't know what to do. I'll send some people here to teach you how to profit in the upcoming change."

"Teach... us?" Earl Delta stuttered.

"Yes, some officials who've been well trained in the City Hall of Neverwinter will come to build a new administration system here to replace the former lords and manage these regions for me. You can join them to gain power and status, but by doing so, you can only get limited salaries. Alternatively, you can seek opportunities in the development of mass production to create endless wealth for yourselves, but if you choose to do so, you won't be allowed to interfere in government work and will have to follow all the government decrees and finish all the tasks given by City Hall." Roland explained slowly. "You don't need to make a hasty decision. This managing department will be set up tomorrow. You can consult them first before making a decision, but keep in mind that whichever choice you make, you'll achieve much more than the value of a piece of land."

Half an hour later, the nobles started to leave the hall.

Roland heaved a sigh of relief. "Now the situation in the Redwater City is stabilized."

"And next, we're going to the Silver City and the old king's city. We've finished the filtering procedure in the latter, so all we need to do is send some officials to manage it," said Edith.

"I wonder how everything's going in the Eastern Front." He looked out of the window and saw a bright moon hanging in the sky and the glassy surface of the lake shimmering with silver light. "If nothing goes wrong, Iron Axe will arrive at Valencia tomorrow."

"Ugh... probably," said Edith. When thinking about what she had told Iron Axe before the battle and how the king had reacted to the bloody killing today, she felt her heart suddenly skip a beat. She was somehow unsure of herself now.

"I hope that everything goes well." Roland shrugged. "Go back to the Adviser Department. You still have lots of work to do tonight."

According to the plan, after getting the name list of the insurgents, the First Army would go to clean up these rebels' domains at night as quickly as possible. That was why the troops had been stationed outside the city.

"Yes... Your Majesty, I'll excuse myself." Edith replied absent-mindedly.

"By the way," he suddenly spoke when she was at the door of the hall, "your plan was very clever. Good job."

Good... job?

Did I hear that right? His Majesty didn't mind what I did.

At that moment, Pearl of the Northern Region felt an unprecedented sense of gratification.

She suddenly realized that her worries were completely unnecessary and this was actually a correct choice for her to gain greater power. As His Majesty did not like these devious plans and tricks, he needed someone like her to do this stuff for him.

This was exactly the part she was adept at.

Edith bowed her head to salute the king and then quietly walked into the darkness.

Chapter 869 - The Eastern Front Offensive

"That's Valencia?" Iron Axe adjusted his telescope and was observing a city which looked gray and brown in the distance.

"It should be Valencia according to the map. After all, there's only one Sanwan River. We can't get it wrong," said his lieutenant, Bearpaw. Like Iron Axe, he was also a former hunter living in Border Town and among the first batch of Roland's militia soldiers.

"It looks a little weird..." Iron Axe frowned.

"Why?"

"Valencia is a major city in the Eastern Region and a well-established trading center of Graycastle. Together with the old king's city and the Eagle City, they formed the most thriving Central Region of the kingdom. I heard about its name even back in the Southernmost Region," said Iron Axe, "but don't you think it's weird we've seen very few merchant ships here these days?"

"I've no idea about this," Bearpaw shrugged his shoulders and said. "The previous pirate attacks might have terrorized the merchants, so they might not dare to come here to do business again."

"The attack happened two years ago. No matter how much damage it caused, the merchants should have recovered from the shock by now."

The city wall looked mottled and bloated. It seemed to have been thickened recently, but probably because of the lack of stones, they just plastered up the original brown wall with some red mud mixed with a lot of gravels and wooden materials, making it look like the early rubble wall in Border Town. In addition, the surface of this city wall was covered with a layer of glittering things. Because of the distance, Iron Axe could not clearly discern what they were.

However, it was obviously not a comprehensive reconstruction of the city wall. The plastered wall sections now were twice as thick as the old wall, but some other parts still remained the same as before. Looking from a distance, it seemed rough and bumpy and looked nothing like a construction of a city famous for its wealth.

"Who cares. No matter what, we must occupy this city." Bearpaw fished out a fire lantern fruit and threw it into his mouth. "His Majesty ordered us to capture the whole Eastern Region, so we have to seize every city we see in this region, even if it's not called Valencia."

Hearing that, Iron Axe helplessly shook his head. Bearpaw was still a short-tempered person as he had been in the past. Once he had set his target, he would go for it with a javelin in his hand, and when he had returned with his capture, the other hunters would still be busy with setting traps and sending hounds to stalk their preys. It had been said that even the most ferocious animal in the forest, the black bears, would have been reluctant to confront him. That was how he had gotten his name Bearpaw.

Iron Axe believed that Bearpaw would have been promoted to a position higher than a lieutenant if he had learned to use his brain. Even Van'er was already the commander-in-chief of the Artillery Battalion.

Bearpaw continued. "But what matters isn't the battle itself but how to restore order after it. If we mess up the Eastern Region, City Hall will certainly find fault with us. However, if we don't resort to violence, it'll be hard for those officials to control the situation here. Did His Majesty tell you how to deal with these cities?" Iron Axe was a little surprised by Bearpaw's thought.

"No, His Majesty just entrusted me to make decisions depending on the situation."

"That's a real headache for you. But you're the boss here and I'll follow your instructions." Bearpaw grinned.

Iron Axe was intrigued. "Oh? What do you mean by this headache?"

"You really don't know or are you just testing me?" Bearpaw leaned his palm against his brow. "You're definitely going to have a headache when you have to think about how to deal with those nobles. They've held this land for such a long time, waiting for a chance to fight back, but only get to see His Majesty getting stronger. The situation here is complicated. When you seize a city here, most of the nobles will surrender, but without Lady Nightingale, how are you going to make sure they're telling you the truth?"

"Continue." Iron Axe nodded and realized that Bearpaw was not totally mindless.

"Hey, you've really never thought about this?" Bearpaw glared. "This Eastern Front Army doesn't have many soldiers. We can only station a limited number of them in each city we capture, and they can barely take care of the inner city, but this region used to be Timothy's domain! It'll be alright if the nobles are willing to cooperate with us, but what if they're malicious and still think about seizing back the power? Even if there're only a small number of such people, we'll still have no peace from them. Once we leave a city, they'll make City Hall a puppet or even kill the officials we send here. They've many ways to achieve this, such as poison, assassination and bribery. These problems can't be prevented by flintlocks."

"Do you have any suggestions?" Iron Axe asked curiously.

"Boss, that's your business." Bearpaw rolled his eyes and spat out the seeds into the tumbling river.

"Let's assume that now you're the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front Army. Come on, let's just talk about it hypothetically."

"Well..." Bearpaw thought for a long time and then heaved a long sigh. "There's no perfect solution to this problem. If Lady Nightingale can't come to help us, we can only count on time to solve this issue. Or we can hire more Rats and take some preventive measures. We can follow the example of Neverwinter and build a police team to preserve the order. Meanwhile, we must use as less local nobles as possible until the end of this war."

"Sure enough..." Iron Axe whispered.

"What?"

"No, nothing." Iron Axe put the telescope away. "Now you can go to inform the people on the other boats to get ready to land. We're near the suburb's wharf."

"Got it!" Bearpaw was thrilled to hear that a battle was coming. "I've been floating on the river for too long. Now, I'll finally get to be in combat here!"

Seeing his lieutenant leave excitedly, Iron Axe exhaled relaxedly and leaned over the porthole in the command room, lost in thought.

He could not help but recall the scene where Edith had had a talk with him before he had left Neverwinter.

The place Edith had arranged for this talk had been a private room in Evelyn's tavern, which was not a place for formal discussion. Iron Axe had expected that Edith, an official of the Ministry of Defense, would have congratulated him beforehand on the success of this military action, trying to build a good personal relationship with the army. However, when he had come into the room, he had seen no one else but Pearl of the Northern Region herself and had heard from her something totally beyond his expectation.

What they had discussed was exactly the problematic thing mentioned by Bearpaw.

Iron Axe still clearly remembered everything Edith had said.

Back then, he had been stunned by her first sentence. "Do you know why His Majesty let you command the Eastern Front Army?"

"I only obey his orders and never ask for the reason."

"But orders don't include all the details for an action, especially those which could not be exposed." Pearl of the Northern Region had said slowly while sipping her Chaos Drink. "You thought you were chosen because you were the most suitable one. But is it true? You know the guys in the Eastern Region better than me. Any well-trained regular army consisting of 500 or 600 soldiers can defeat them like crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. In other words, any regular battalion commander will be enough to cope with the battle in the Eastern Front. By contrary, the Western Front Army has to fight against the Holy City of Hermes. The combat there will be more complicated and dangerous. If it had not been for something special about you, the king would have asked you to help him in leading the Western Front Army and found someone else to command the Eastern Front Army."

"..." Iron Axe had been lost for words at that time but had somehow agreed with Edith in his heart.

Edith then had explained further. "As for this special thing about you, it's simple. That's your attitude toward the nobles. As a Mojin man, naturally, you won't fear or tolerate the Graycastle nobles, and dealing with the rebellious nobles is the key to recapture the Eastern Region."

Just like Bearpaw, she had also analyzed the situation for him. Her analysis was so detailed and convincing that he had to agree that ordinary methods could not stabilize the situation in the Eastern Region.

His Majesty needs resources of people and materials, and he doesn't have so much time to deal with this bunch of scum.

The only problem is... His Majesty didn't give a clear order for it.

He had raised this question to Edith and she had replied by saying, "His Majesty is a merciful lord and can't give any clear order for this, so he needs us to take care of this thing for him. Besides, he did hint about it. This time, City Hall will send 265 officials to the Eastern Region together with you. His Majesty has spent a lot of money and effort training these officials and plans to send them to manage the region for him. There are more than twice the number of Eastern Front Army soldiers than the officials in this region. You should know the reason for this."

Iron Axe remembered that a bolt of lightning had flashed across his mind at that moment.

Edith had reminded him in the end. "Don't disappoint His Majesty."

Suddenly, a report interrupted his thought. "My lord, the First Army is ready to land. We can come to the dock anytime!"

Iron Axe took a deep breath, and ordered in a deep voice, "Let's land and camp. Get ready for battle."

Chapter 870 - Siege

The sounds of brass trumpets came from afar and broke the silence of the noon. The birds in the courtyard stopped tweeting, which seemed like an omen. At this moment, this hall in the castle looked solemn and dull.

Duke Wilion Berger knew that it was the time for the decisive battle.

He moved his eyes from the portrait of the former king Timothy to a set of delicate full armor, which was inherited from his grandfather. He had repeatedly patched and polished it. Each piece of it was soaked with grease which formed something like a skin on its surface.

His family's motto engraved on the right arm armor read "Undying loyalty".

In this set of armor, he had caught the rebellious old duke alive on the battlefield in a rain of arrows. For this brilliant achievement, Timothy had bestowed on him the title of Lord of the Eastern Region.

Although Timothy was gone, the duty of a lord would not be interrupted by this incident.

He made up his mind to keep his honor.

"My lord, Prince Roland's army is approaching Valencia. They didn't carry any big firearm with them." A servant walked into the hall and reported to him.

"Good." Wilion nodded. "Tell the others to get ready. I'll come over very soon."

"Yes!"

He took off his coat and walked to the armor. "Help me put on the armor," he said to his Chief Knight, Galina.

"Yes." She rolled up her sleeves and started to help him change his clothes. Her hands were rough and calloused but now moved slowly and gently whilst removing his clothes. It was hard to believe that these hands could also hold a spear to penetrate armor and stab her enemies on the battlefield.

Whenever he saw her killing whilst in combat, he would be enchanted by that scene.

"Do you... regret it?"

"Of course not, my lord," Galina replied calmly. "The moment you decided to make me your Chief Knight, I made up my mind to stay with you forever. No matter what happens, I'll do my duty."

"But this time, the enemy is stronger than ever. If it's possible—" The duke was interrupted by the belt suddenly tightening around his waist.

"So why did you refuse to ally with King of Dawn, if you think that our opponent is that strong. You even openly kicked his messenger out of Valencia. When the envoy sent this information back to Dawn, the king must have blamed you for being unable to appreciate a favor."

"Tut, I highly doubt whether the City of Glow is able to resist the attack of Prince Roland's troops, and Appen Moya really crossed the line to ask me to provide him harbors and permanent military bases." Wilion curled his lips in contempt. "Is there any difference between him and Roland Wimbledon? The former king granted me the Eastern Region. If I had promised Appen, I would have failed my king."

"So my answer is still the same," Galina said without any hesitation. "The Berger family is not alone in rating loyalty as the top quality, so my lord, please don't say that anymore. It's an insult to me."

Wilion fell silent. A moment later, he said, "Unfortunately, most nobles have forgotten this point... I see, let's go to war together. Although the enemy is powerful, I won't let them seize Valencia easily. I've been waiting for this battle for a long time."

"Yes, my lord." The female knight smiled.

"Bale!" He shouted out his Clerk's name. "Come here!"

Soon, a bald middle-aged man came into the hall. "My lord, what can I do for you?"

"Write down what I say. After a whole night's rest, the kingslayer Roland Wimbledon's minions plan to officially launch an attack at Valencia today. Duke of Valencia, Wilion Berger, determines to defeat them in the name of the former king, and his brave, loyal Chief Knight, Galina Wynne decides to go with him to the battle with resolution. May the deities bless them." Willy paused. "Surely... if you think this record seems too subjective, you can omit the last sentence."

Bale nodded while rapidly noting down what the duke said on his notebook with a charcoal pen. "I think that it'll be alright if I write down the last sentence, my lord. There's no absolutely objective record in this world. Since I'm Clerk of Valencia, it'll be totally acceptable if my favor goes to this city. This is also a part of the reality."

"So keep it there, but no matter what happens next, you have to faithfully record the outcome of the war, understand?" Willy emphasized. "It's your mission to record the reason and the whole process of this war."

"Please be assured, my lord." The Clerk bowed. "I'll let the people remember this event."

Without a word, Wilion picked up his steel sword hanging on the wall and went out of his castle without looking back.

...

When the duke and his Chief Knight climbed up to the lookout tower on top of the city wall, the bonfire had already been lit up. Oil was boiling in the pot and emitted a pungent smell. The duke's soldiers were busy going up and down, mounting stones and logs on the city wall.

He had known from the war in the king's city that Roland's most powerful firearm in a siege battle was a snow powder weapon called cannon which could shoot much farther than a mangonel. Unfortunately, Timothy had been unable to produce a similar weapon to compete with it to the day when the city had fallen. But on that day, the former king had managed to send his right-hand man to give the duke the formula for making snow powder and the design and manufacturing process of the weapon. Timothy's purpose was self-evident.

Wilion had invested a lot in this new weapon and meanwhile had also found many weak points in this kind of firearms. First, it was very heavy and needed to be placed on a flat ground to give full play to its strength. Second, it was slow to set up and thus this assembling process needed to be covered by flintlocks. In general, it was more a defensive weapon than an offensive one.

He had done everything in his power to get well-prepared for this war. He had thickened the city wall and installed barbs on it. He had also sent his men to destruct all the roads in the suburb and make all the farmland marshland by flooding them with water from the river. He had erected many hidden stumps in the Sanwan River, making it hard for any big inland river ship to travel in this waterway. These measures he had adapted had totally changed this place in the past two years. Now, it was inconvenient to carry any heavy thing into the city using manpower, let alone carriages drawn by horses.

These war preparations cost him dearly. Without convenient connections to the other places, this city of trade could not be prosperous anymore. The destruction of the farmland had led to a sharp reduction in the population. However, the duke firmly believed his measures were correct, as now he could not find any cannon in the approaching enemy troops.

They must have realized that they could never drag their cannons here if they did not build a road first.

Next, it was time for a tough battle.

Though Roland's soldiers were equipped with highly efficient flintlocks, they could not hide themselves at the foot of the wall or climb up this wall with barbs on the surface. Furthermore, the duke had set four mangonels and two cannons in the city, which could hit target 1000 steps away. Now it was difficult to tell who was winning.

"They're coming," Galina warned.

A group of soldiers dressed in brown stepped out of the enemy troops, steadily heading toward the gate of the city. They did not move very fast but their steps were exceptionally firm. Soon they seemed to be unable to stay in formation on the muddy ground and then split into groups of two or three, starting to work in the fields like old farmers. They carried on their backs dark gray long spears and barrels as thick as thighs. The duke thought that something so light was obviously not a kind of cannon.

Wilion estimated the distance, raised a red flag and waved it to the soldiers behind him.

"Huge rock cannon, fire!"

Chapter 871 - An Extraordinary “Cannon”

A thick tendril of dark gray smoke rose from either side of the city wall, accompanied by two huge booms that shook the entire floor of the lookout tower. After the loud noise subsided, a gale of cheer came from the bottom of the wall. Apparently, their first strike significantly boosted their soldiers' spirits.

But Wilion knew that was all that the first round of firing could make.

Judging from the locations of mud splash in the field moments later, he knew he had missed the target. Neither of them had hit the enemies, but they actually landed pretty far away from the default landing spot set in the previous exercise. The shell bounced up after its landing and rolled over for a few meters, leaving a ten-meter shallow groove in the muddy battlefield.

As it was a breezy day today, he had to have a few trial shots before he could accurately hit the target with the huge rock cannon.

Wilion knew very well that the culverin in Roland's army was way better than Valencia's cannon, although the latter cost a ton. The gap between them was even more unbridgeable than that between the flintlocks.

The biggest defect of the huge rock cannon was its non-portability.

The cannon barrel had cost all the bronze wares they could find in the city, and they even melted the ancient bell on the bell tower to prevent the cannon from exploding. After numerous experiments and tests, they forged a cannon with a barrel wall as thick as a man's arm, so heavy that no wagon could support its overwhelming weight. They had no choice but to build a specific turret to place the cannon. A strong rope was used to control and adjust its firing angle and direction, and it took them at least 15 minutes to load the weapon.

What was worse was that the spherical shell made of granite did not create as much as damage as Roland's cannon had done when he had attacked the king's city. Wilion had tried shells filled with snow powder, but their performance fluctuated. As the outer part of the shell was made of iron, the production rate was low as well. He wondered where Roland found so many materials.

So the Duke had decided, from the beginning, to do their best to prevent his enemies using cannons.

He believed that as long as they forced the enemies to approach the city, his cannon would eventually manage to hit them.

Roland's army halted after their first firing, appearing to be shocked by Wilion's expected attack. They started to retreat until they were about 100 paces away from the shell's landing spot.

"What're they doing?" Galina asked, puzzled.

Wilion raised the telescope, through which he saw the enemies, about 100 men, who had taken their equipment off their backs and started to dig in the ground. It seemed they intended to create an empty space in the field.

"I guess they must be afraid and plan to reorganize the troops to have a prolonged battle."A viscount who watched the battle at the lookout tower with them said, "It's rumored that Roland Wimbledon abandoned all the knights and has formed an army of uncivilized farmers. He did not suffer any setbacks in the previous wars because of his fine firearms. But now he must be very hesitant to launch an attack at our defensive line. You turned soil into mud. What a nice move, my lord."

"But our incomes have reduced drastically, and we lost many squires as well," another man said, frowning. "Many people fled in the Months of Demons of this year, abandoning half the workshops in the city. I suggest it'd be better to negotiate a truce with Roland Wimbledon."

"We have to win an equal position before jumping into a negotiation. Let's just win another battle first."

"Shut up, all of you," Wilion said agitatedly. "I'll never bend to the kingslayer. If you would like to sacrifice your noble titles and betray King Timothy, I'll lock you up with the nasty mob in the cellar first."

That silenced everyone instantly.

Such a great price had Valencia paid to prepare for this battle. The former trade center had not only converted to a stronghold, but Duke Wilion had also bent his rules as well. However, in his opinion, all the sacrifices would pay off. If Prince Roland had decided to form an alliance with nobles to rule Graycastle in the first place, he would have been defeated long before. In fact, the prince intended to overthrow the entire feudal system and have full control over the kingdom, a monstrous decision that would outrage the whole high class. This bold move actually gave him a perfect reason to resist.

If he could thwart Roland's army this time, the other nobles would change their minds and support him in keeping in charge of the Eastern Region. Meanwhile, more protesters would emerge in Graycastle. He would say that it was not only a battle for King Timothy but also a defense for the feudal system.

"Huge rock cannons are loaded, my lord," a servant reported.

"Are we going to keep firing?" Galina asked.

"No, hang on... it was hard for our cannon to hit the enemies now unless we add snow powder." Willian shook his head. Now he regretted his proactive strategy a little. He had thought that an early firing would help to finish the adjustment earlier, but he did not expect the enemy to halt after seeing their first firing. Now the sight of the enemies busy in mud gave him a disturbing feeling.

The 100 men, dividing into a dozen teams, shoveled and created an empty space that could merely accommodate two people. It was unlikely that it was prepared for camping. After the cleaning, they started to fiddle with those green long barrels.

Through the telescope, Wilion could spy the enemy's every movement. It seemed that the long barrel was only a component supported by a tripod beneath it and was padded with a concave iron plate at the bottom. Other than that, a few sticks were strangely attached to the barrel. All the parts were separately carried by a different person, but it only took those men less than 15 minutes to assemble all of the components. How ingenious the design was!

However, the Duke almost could not believe his eyes as he saw what happened next.

A spindle-shaped can was put into the barrel before a puff of white smoke ejected out of the mouth of the barrel.

As the nobles were wondering what that thing was, all of a sudden, a dozen dark red fireballs blasted on either side of the city wall, followed by a series of thunderous booms.

As the houses close to the inner side of the city wall had been replaced with all kinds of traps and obstacles, the explosions did not cause much damage, but the mighty scene gave Wilion an ineffable shock.

At that moment, there was only one voice left in his mind.

"That is a cannon? Really?"

How can it be?

The Duke had not witnessed Roland's cannon troop, but he had heard so much of it. The cannons they equipped could categorized into two types based on their lengths: one portable type that could be placed on a wagon, and the other must be transported by boat. Nither was, however, light enough to be carried by ordinary men.

It took all the craftsmen and materials in Valencia, and two years to forge the two cannons that barely worked. Wilion admitted that it all attributed to the lack of techniques and experience, but he believed that the principle they had applied was no different from Roland's. He was confident that with a few more years, his craftsmen would surely be able to make similar weapons.

But what happened in front of him totally blew his mind.

How could such barrels with such thin tubes bear the enormous pressure generated by the explosion of snow powder?

"It doesn't make any sense!"

"Replace the rock shell with half a bag of snow powder!" Duke turned around and growled to his servant. "Fire right after you finish loading. 10 gold royals for one man you shoot down."

The servant was a little uncertain. "Half a bag? My lord, that may destroy the cannon..."

"If we let them strike our wall without any defense, the huge rock cannon will be useless!" Wilion grabbed the servant's collar and said, "Do as I say! Now!"

That was when another cloud of white smoke rose from where the enemies were stationed.

"How could they fire again within no more than 30 seconds?"

This time, Wilion heard a soft buzzing, like birds' singing or the whistling sound when arrows pierced the air.

"Whew——"

The next moment, several blazing fireballs soared on the top of the wall. Scalding heatwaves spread and knocked down the bonfires and the oil basin. Within a blink, the wall was ablaze.

Chapter 872 - The Last Charge

In the end, these huge rock cannons never managed to fire for the second time.

The Duke had built these six tall firing platforms within the city walls to provide a clear view for the cannons and the mangonels. As long as the platforms were higher than the walls, no enemies will be able to escape the weapons' firing range.

It should have been a sound strategy, for such a commanding view would not only improve the accuracy and the range of projectiles, but it would also provide overwhelming pressure to the besiegers.

But faced with the might of Roland's army, these imposing platforms served no other purpose other than being live target practice for the opposing army's cannons.

These fifteen minutes felt like an eternity for Wilion.

The thunderous sounds of explosions never ceased on top of the wall.

Just as Wilion's men finally managed to load the snow powder, a cannonball from the enemy landed on the platform right next to them.

At that moment, it was as if a radiant sun emerged on the platform, growing in size as it engulfed the huge rock cannon as well as over the 20 unfortunate men who were by its side. The blazing flame then spread out in all directions, and the shockwave swept throughout the city. Dust clouds rose up and blew everywhere.

A large chunk of bronze was blown away by the explosion and crashed onto the stone wall of another platform before falling directly on top of a group of workers who were transporting rocks. The weak and fragile human bodies were instantly pulverized into a cloud of red mist. The bronze chunk rolled twice after it hit the ground, running over those who were lucky enough to survive the initial crash, leaving a thick trail of flesh and blood behind. The victims who only had their limbs scrunched still lingered on with their last breath of life, letting out agonizing cries, hoping for the mercy of a quicker death.

However, Wilion's attention quickly moved away from the tragic scene below.

The lookout tower upon which Wilion and the nobles were standing on equally stood out in the enemy's line of sight, and since the enemy's first barrage turned the city wall ablaze, those nobles no longer dared to watch on and immediately evacuated. This was obviously the best move, as the enemy's rate of fire was far beyond their expectations. It took the enemy no more than 30 seconds to reload, and each shot was more accurate than the last, turning the areas near the city wall into no-man's land.

At first, the fireballs were only impacted the outside of the city, but soon they started to go off within the walls. The explosions engulfed the tall platforms and the city gate. The air inside the city was dense with smoke, cannonball fragments, and dirt, while the constant blasts combined with sounds of wailing made the situation in the city resemble a scene from hell.

By the time the enemy stopped firing, the six platforms had been completely destroyed, and the city gate was breached.

The Duke's men should have, as had been planned, immediately put down the iron barriers or lowered the heavy stone gates to block the passage and prepared to hold the line. But after witnessing such horrifying firepower, it was impossible to continue to have them stand their ground. The flames spread everywhere as it followed the oily liquid, and charred bodies began to litter the city wall. Even if someone had managed to survive the downpour of fire and explosions, their courage would have already been thoroughly crushed. As for the civilians who were hastily drafted? They were simply out of the question.

Those who were still capable of escaping were long gone, abandoning the rest who were either frightened out of their wits or severely wounded.

Although Wilion had thought of the possibility of defeat, he did not expect it to happen so quickly.

Their defense line crumbled before they even had a chance to touch the enemy. "What... has Roland been doing in the past two years?" He could not help but wonder.

"My lord, there's... no way for us to fight back..."

"We'd better surrender."

"Indeed my lord. Surrendering does not mean we are giving up forever. There will always be other opportunities as long as we stay alive."

"He's right. We could bide our time and rebuild our forces as long as they stay in the Eastern Region."

"Even King Timothy wouldn't blame you if he was here. You've done your best, and the enemy was just too overwhelming."

Wilion remained silent for a moment, before turning to look at Galina.

The woman's face was streaked with two black marks, and part of her hair had been burned by the flame when she had tried to block a burning beam that crashed down to protect Wilion during their evacuation. Even so, her eye shone with the same kind of brightness that she has always had, without the slightest trace of frustration or embarrassment. "I'm at your command, my lord," She said.

The Duke took a deep breath before saying, "You all should surrender."

"My lord... What about you?"

"I did not prepare for these two years just so that I can surrender in the end," Wilion said slowly. "I will have Roland understand that his almighty army cannot conquer everything, and I need to show him that King Timothy's feudatories are not all cowards who would bow beneath a tyrant. Galina, where are my knights?"

"They're all standing by in the second ambush area," Chief Knight said decisively.

"There's no need for an ambush. summon them to the city gate." Wilion gave the command. "Viscount Ariburke, disable all the previously placed traps."

"Disable them? But why?" the nobles asked in surprise.

"Those simple tricks aren't going to help us hold back the enemy. We might as well let them in and confront them fair and square. Things have already come this far, and someone has to face the consequences." The Duke had not expected himself to be so calm in his final moments. However, what he was going to do would be recorded down in the annals of history, and he would then be able to face His Majesty with pride.

...

Half an hour later, Roland's army finally showed outside at the city gate. A small team was first sent in to remove the debris blocking the entrance and also to take control of both sides of the city gate before the main force marched into the castle. As soon as they entered the city, they started to set up a rough perimeter in the middle of the long street. Within a short amount of time, they finished their work and placed two peculiar flintlocks in front of the fortress.

Wilion no longer cared about what the enemy was doing. He softly flicked the reins and led the knights around the corner of the street and formed a single line across the street.

Seven knights and 15 squires—his last counterattack.

At this final moment, these warriors who dared to stand alongside him further convinced Wilion that the system of nobility was essential and superior.

Only the nobles who understand the meaning of loyalty, honor, and duty were brave enough to charge towards the enemy under such unfavorable odds.

Seeing more and more invaders gathering and preparing on the street, he pulled down the visor on his helm, held up his spear, and let out a long breath.

"We may have lost the battle today, but history will remember us. For our names will be recorded in verses and sang in songs. Muster your courage, stand strong, and fight until your last dying breath! Knights of House Berger, on me!"

"To victory!"

Wilion flicked the reins and sent his destrier into a gallop and sped up in the long street, leading his men in this final charge.

Clouds of smoke and the lingering flames around them had perfectly painted the battlefield, forming a scene so serene that for a moment the Duke thought that he could ask for no better place than here to finally rest.

Soon he was halfway to the enemy, and he reached his top speed, but he did not hear the drum-like patter of the hooves that was supposed to come from behind him. As he looked back, Wilion was shocked. The over 20 men that started the charge with him now were now gone with the exception of Galina who rode close after him.

This street was not closed but intersected with many smaller roads and alleys. In that moment, Wilion understood what had happened.

"What... happened?"

He wanted to ask the knight who was charging fearlessly behind him, but when his eyes landed on Galina's eyes that were filled with meaning and emotion, it seemed as if nothing else mattered to him now.

An end like this seemed not too bad for him.

"At least I have you by my side."

Wilion laughed and pointed his spear towards the nearest enemy soldier.

Before a hailstorm of bullets rained upon him.

Chapter 873 - Nobles and Prisoners

As Iron Axe entered the once proud city of Valencia, he was surprised by the devastation that the new weapon had wrought, but he did not let this emotion show on his face.

Even though he had participated in many drills with the mortar, witnessing these weapons in a live battle was a completely different experience.

It was unfathomable how this mobile device that can be easily carried by a group of five people could cause such havoc even with just a limited number of rounds.

He knew that the mortar's rate of fire was much faster than the previous field artillery, and he knew that they can cause large-scale destruction if dozens of them were to fire at once. But it seemed that he had much underestimated this new weapon now that he witnessed it in action.

Even though a single shot of the mortar cannot compare to that of a Longsong Cannon in sheer firepower, the mortar was easier to control, more mobile, and could be transported without the witches' help. Furthermore, its shooting trajectory allows it to attack enemies who are hiding behind walls. With sufficient ammunition, the weapon could give the enemy a barrage so devastating that even the highly disciplined First Army might not be able to withstand if they were the ones on the receiving end instead.

"No... it is only normal to flee under this circumstance. Who wouldn't piss themselves if a rain of fire were to descend upon them?"

Iron Axe finally understood the confidence His Majesty had shown when he threw all those seemingly sophisticated field artillery back into the Furnace Area. To be honest, those weapons that shot out solid rounds at the enemy seemed useless compared to the mortar.

Well, in the end, probably only King Roland could afford such a firearm in the entire Graycastle.

It was said that each shell cost around three to four gold royals, so what the First Army used earlier by bombarding the city with hundreds of shells was as good as throwing away solid gold. Moreover, the shrapnel used by the Longsong Cannons were far more expensive. By the time they confronted demons, will the gold royals in the Neverwinter's coffer be enough to sustain the First Army until the end of the Battle of Divine Will?

Fortunately, he did not need to worry about this problem.

That hard nut was for Barov to crack, as for the army, their only obligation was to obtain victory for His Majesty.

Iron Axe and his men passed through the long street that was filled with the smoke of gunpowder.

They soon arrived at the center of the city square, where the First Army had rounded up all the surrendered nobles.

Iron Axe's eyes moved over the captives whose appearances were in complete shambles. Before he could say anything, a nobleman stood out and said, "I'm Shipbay Lord, Earl Kasyn. May I ask where King Roland is?"

Valencia was built on a piece of land that was surrounded by water, and many nobles had named their lands with bays and beaches. Iron Axe dimly remembered that Shipbay was a large piece of land sandwiched by Valencia and Seawindshire. A family that held such a superior place should have been admired and awed by his subjects. However, at this moment, the nobleman's raised chin and pretentious manner looked ridiculous to Iron Axe. "His Majesty is too busy to handle the business in the East Region. He entrusted me with full responsibility over this front." he answered.

"You?" Earl Kasyn frowned.

"Is he joking? He is obviously not a person from Graycastle."

"Roland Wimbledon would let a man from the Sand Nation manage his army?"

"How could he not personally lead his army on an expedition as large as this? Was he not afraid that his men would scatter and flee?"

Shipbay Lord was not the only one in doubt. The other nobles were also questioning the new king's decision.

"His Excellency Iron Axe is without a doubt the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front Army. We can all testify," Lieutenant Bearpaw could not help but cry out.

"Eastern Front Army? What's that?" Kasyn asked.

"It is the army sent to recover the Eastern Region, of course—"

"Bearpaw!" Iron Axe interrupted sharply. The lieutenant, suddenly aware of his mistake, hastily covered his mouth with one hand.

Lady Edith was right. Even though His Majesty was hell-bent on having the nobles relinquish all their feudal power and abolishing nobility once and for all, those nobles still had an influence on the people. Bearpaw, who used to be a hunter, might not look servile in front of the group of nobles but he was obviously affected by these nobles' titles, or he would never have made such a basic mistake.

It seems only Iron Axe can maintain indifference in front of these highborn.

Iron Axe then said in a low voice, "Believe it or not, the truth won't change. Why are you the one asking the questions? Where is the Duke of Valencia? Isn't he the person in charge of the Eastern Region?"

"The Duke has sacrificed himself in the battle," Kasyn shook his head with a look of grief. "He insisted on leading the knights in a head-on charge. We couldn't stop him."

"So the rider who was riddled with bullets was the Duke!" Iron Axe raised his eyebrow. "He's definitely qualified to be called a warrior." He looked at the nobles who was still armored and asked, "But my men only reported two defenders. Where's the so-called knightage? How could it be that there's only one knight serving the Warden of the Eastern Region?"

"Well, this..." Kasyn was speechless for a moment.

"Stop concerning yourself over those irrelevancies. Now that we know you're the head of the army, we will just tell you our request." Another nobleman stood out and said, "We would surrender and serve Roland Wimbledon only if he meets us personally, or if His Majesty is too busy to be here, we could also send messengers to him."

"And you are?"

"I'm Viscount Ariburke," he said impatiently, "Till then, we hope to be treated properly. If it's a ransom you want, simply say the amount."

"But what you've done is treason," Iron Axe said, emotionless. "Even your titles won't spare you from a trial."

"First of all, Duke Wilion Berger was the one who committed treason, and he has already paid for it. We didn't ask to be here, and according to the law, our crimes should be less severe."

"Exactly, we're not his feudatory, but we're just under his jurisdiction." Kasyn seemed to have come to and echoed, "Secondly, His Majesty should be the one giving us the final verdict. Don't tell me you are planning to sentence us yourself?"

It did not take long before Iron Axe realized why those defeated nobles still put on airs. When they noticed that Roland Wimbledon was not here himself, they became less interested in negotiating. It was common practice for the punishment of the defeated to be given out by the King. In their opinion, the so-called sentence was less of a punishment but more of a business transaction. In general, those who failed to pay up would be eliminated, and those who could pay would be able to get off relatively scot-free.

It was probably not their first time facing a defeat, so these nobles were confident that they could offer up something of interest to the King as ransom.

Unfortunately, the King Iron Axe served is no ordinary noble.

Iron Axe shrugged before saying. "You're right. I don't have the authority. But be as it may, you are still traitors who have committed treason. Before His Majesty reaches a decision, I will have to detain you until my King has summoned you."

"How long will it take?" Shipbay Earl said unpleasantly. "And just as we said before, we haven't done anything that could be called betrayal in the eyes of the law unless you can show us some concrete proof."

"At most a month considering the speed of carrier pigeon." Iron Axe gave a rare laugh, ignoring the Earl's second half of the sentence. "Rest assured, the food and clothing will all be up to the standards that you deserve."

…

Late at night two days later, Bearpaw, panic-stricken, dashed into Iron Axe's tent.

"Something happened, my lord! The castle's dungeon is on fire!"

Chapter 874 - Men of Sin

Despite the fact that there were numerous functioning wells around the castle, the servants were still unable to control the flames. The fire started without any notice, and by the time people outside realized that something was wrong, thick columns of smoke already filled the whole interior of the dungeon and held back any potential rescue attempts.

The First Army promptly retreated out of the castle and sealed off the area. The fire lasted for hours, and by the time most of the smoke had finally dissipated, there was already nothing left of the prisoners previously held inside.

Without delay, the First Army started to clean up the scene and investigate the incident. The officers who came with the army set up a temporary City Hall and began to take over the administration of Valencia.

Soon they found out the cause of the fire: a group of Rats had sneaked into the dungeon through a secret passage and ignited the stacks of wheat on account of their resentment for Duke Berger who turned this once prosperous trade city into a husk of its former self.

Therefore, this was an egregious arson, a significant threat to the order of the Eastern Region, and an act of open defiance to the First Army of Neverwinter.

Apart from propagandizing the investigation result, the First Army and the City Hall started a city-wide operation to root out the Rats; leniency to those who confessed, punishment to those who resisted, silvers for those who reported, grains for anyone with information. Moreover, the food liberated from the mansions of the nobles was recirculated back into the market and was also used to succor the starving. The previously near-dead city now regained its vitality.

The night the command to exterminate the Rats was given, Bearpaw entered Iron Axe's tent once again.

"Chief, we've spotted some signs of the evacuation of the big families. A dozen carriages exited through the West City Gate, seemingly heading for Seawindshire. Some of the furrows left behind by the carriages were particularly deep, so I think they must be loaded with..."

"Gold and jewelry." Iron Axe put down the quill in his hand. "I've made myself clear at the start that I will only want their food, so they can take anything else as they wish."

The commander-in-chief was not at all surprised when he heard about the nobles' hasty evacuation.

The moment the dungeon was on fire, any trust between the First Army and the nobles had crumbled. At that point, fleeing this place was, in their opinions, the only way to survive. A noble family could bear losing its lords and some knights, for the title could be inherited, and more knights can be accoladed, but they have already lost the courage to confront the First Army directly.

Instead of staying here to wait for their inevitable demise, they had much rather take the remaining family members, servants, and fortune to somewhere far away in hopes of new opportunities. Their lands were very important, but naturally, they much more cherish their lives.

Also, to prepare for battle, Wilion Berger had gathered all the nearby resources to Valencia, thus leaving the surrounding lands in such a sorry state that it would take at least two or three years of hard work before they were of any value again. Otherwise, those nobles would not have made up their mind to turn tail and run away so soon.

"Chief, I have one more question..." Bearpaw paused, his next words frozen on his lips. This was very rare for the simple-minded lieutenant.

"Go on," Iron Axe said seriously.

"Were you the one who set the dungeon on fire?" Bearpaw hesitated for a long moment before he asked this under his breath.

"What makes you say that?"

"The secret tunnel was designed with a partition door made of solid iron that was far beyond a few Rats' skills to open. Also, I don't think our stationed brothers were so lax that they would be completely unaware of the arsonists. I've checked the dungeon, and the burning marks suggested that the fire was more likely to have started in the corridor rather than in the cells. Lastly, from the look of the burnt wreckage, I believe the blaze was fueled by oil."

"You're right. The fire was set under my command." Iron Axe nodded.

Bearpaw, who was startled by his boss's unreserved confession, was stunned for a while before he found his voice again, "Why?"

"I think it's better that these kinds of things are left for me to handle. The more people that know of the plan means a bigger chance for something to go wrong."

"That's not what I mean." The lieutenant shook his head. "I mean... didn't they already surrender?"

"I see..." Iron Axe meditated for a moment and said, "To be frank, I don't have the time to discern whether or not they were sincere in their surrender, nor does His Majesty has time to judge one by one. This is why His Majesty had given me full control over the Eastern Front before the army left Neverwinter."

"But..."

"Are you going to tell me that a sentence without a trial may kill the innocents among them?" Iron Axe said brusquely, handing his lieutenant a book on the desk. "Have a look."

"Is this a... demographic report?"

"Yes, we found it in the library." The chief nodded. "Five years ago, 220,000 people were living in Valencia and the surrounding lands. It was the most prosperous area in the Eastern Region. But by this year, the population has dropped to a mere 60,000. The refugees we've taken in from the Eastern Region are about 30,000 to 40,000 people in total. If we round it up to 40,000, the deficit still stands at about around 120,000 even without considering the growth in population. I believe you are aware of the cause for this."

Bearpaw gasped. "The farmlands that were ruined by floods..."

"And they have also distorted Valencia beyond recognition." Iron Axe arose and walked up to the candlestick, his hands on his back. "Wilion apparently called up all the people who lived nearby to work for him. They were sent to block the roads and reinforce the walls. He alone should never have been entitled to this kind of authority. This would never have been possible unless he was backed by someone more powerful or, even worse, assisted by the other nobles. As a result, the massive dislocation of people had severely interrupted trade and left much of the crops unattended to. In other words, all those nobles are accomplices of the Duke. Now, do you still believe that His Majesty will accept their allegiance?"

Bearpaw was dumbfounded for a moment.

"But they did not lie about believing in their innocence," Iron Axe continued, "For all they care, what they've done was no big deal. Even with half of the farmlands ending up being devastated, their mansions were still crammed with food, and even... human. After all, meat can save for longer than wheat when properly stored."

Bearpaw's pupils suddenly contracted.

"To put the cherry on top, what they've done critically hinders the progress of His Majesty's plan. Our king values the population more than any other resource, but they squandered their human resources wastefully. Can you imagine how the battle would have turned out if we didn't have the mortars with us? You know how difficult it is to move the field artillery in the mud. We would have had to resort to storming the city or prolonging the battle. I don't think the nobles would have yielded before they used up all their people had we not have come prepared." Iron Axe turned around. "Any other questions?"

For a long moment, Bearpaw kept his head down. Finally, he glanced up. "You're right. It would be too merciful to let them just burn to death... But His Majesty didn't give this specific command, did he? What if he hears of..."

"What do you mean 'what if'?" Iron Axe raised his eyebrow. "Do you think that I'll hide this from my King? No, he'll know. I've included everything that has happened in Valencia so far in the report for him, and I'll take full responsibility regardless of the outcome."

Chapter 875 - Objective History

The chaos that he had expected in Valencia did not come in the end and the situation completely exceeded Bale's imagination.

Having worked as a clerk for several lords, he naturally knew what the breaching of the walls meant—plunder, massacre, disorder, exile... whether the intruders were knights, mobs, or pirates, it did not make much of a difference. That was the case with His Majesty, Timothy, and also with the ascension of the new Duke.

The city's food and wealth were the best rewards for intruders. This had always been the norm, just like nobles who were born to be superior to the common people.

This was recorded in the history books numerous times, proving its credibility.

However, this time the situation was completely different. Roland's army not only spared the city people's lives, but also tried to comfort and calm them. The piles of wheat that were found in the Duke's castle were cooked into oatmeal and distributed to the hungry people. A large number of job offers were posted in the main square, which stated that the participants could not only get food but also salary! Didn't Roland's soldiers mind giving out what originally belonged to them to a bunch of people they did not know? Did Prince Roland come all this way to conquer Valencia only to squander his own treasury?

Within the records of all kinds of books, Bale had never seen such a behavior before.

Still, all this just made him a bit surprised. But there was something else that actually made the Clerk feel a deep fear.

And that was the castle fire several days ago.

The rumor that the fire was set by the Rats had many loopholes. Bale had served three Dukes and lived in the castle for more than 20 years, yet he had never found the entrance of any secret path.

When it came down to life or death situations, the design would have been very secretive and safe. This way, even people on the inside would not be able to discover it, not to mention those from the outside. If those rats actually had the ability to discover something like that, they would have never degraded to Black Street Rats in the first place.

That fire must have been set by Roland's people.

Once he realized that, Bale felt a sudden grip on his heart.

For the first time, nobles were no longer more important than common people. Their lives had the same value as those who lived within the city walls, without any insurance anymore.

Maybe in even more danger.

As for the big families that had also realized that and had not yet been apprehended by Roland, they swiftly reacted and escaped Valencia. They probably even left the Kingdom of Graycastle.

So, what would happen next?

Would something like that also happen to him?

In the past few days, the clerk had lost a bunch of hair and the bald spot on his head had grown bigger.

His fear was not without reason because, in the past 10 years, he had been called a noble without a title, or more accurately, the closest a civilian can be to a noble. He had served several lords, had plenty of experience, knowledge, and had read many more books than normal people. It was exactly because of that, whether it was Garcia's sacking or Eastern Region's change in power, he had safely survived both. Even if the people in the city were killed like the straw being cut in the field, he still observed and vigorously recorded those events.

But now, he was too afraid to even fall asleep.

Even though the formidable army had not acted against any non-noble so far or even against those common people who had worked for the big families, he still was not certain whether they would not do anything in the future.

He could not ask those families to take him with them since he was a common man after all, but he also did not want to just stay and wait around. He felt he had to do something.

Under the swaying candle, the Clerk's gaze turned to the unfinished history book about Valencia.

Thinking about all the stuff he wrote, Bale couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine.

That's right, I almost forgot that...

He quickly turned to the last page, tore it into pieces, and burned them until each and every one of them had become ash.

No, this is probably not enough.

Bale thought for a moment, then took out a quill and prepared to write.

"No matter the consequences, you must record the truth. Do you understand?" Duke William's words sounded echoed throughout his mind.

Of course, he would record the truth, even now.

This was a Clerk's duty.

But in this world, nothing was absolutely objective. He was now living in a city governed by Roland. So, being a little bit biased was not strange. In other words, this was also part of being objective.

Bale took a deep breath and started writing.

"The ambassador sent by the great King Roland Wimbledon arrived in his loyal city of Valencia today..."

***************

Outside of the City of Redwater, at the camp of the First Army.

"Your Highness, there is a secret letter from Eastern Region."

Nightingale jumped out of the Mist while holding a grey Goshawk in her hands. The latter tugged its claws towards Roland and grunted with dissatisfaction as if complaining about the letter being too heavy. There were six notes tied on its paws, almost covering both of its feet. Only when Nightingale handed out a bunch of grilled fishes, did the carrier pigeon finally calm down.

Well, this could not be considered a secret letter anymore.

Roland opened the six densely written notes one by one and had a quick look at them. They were sent by Iron Axe and they were mainly focused on the post-war summary and the situation reports.

The first part was exactly the same as he had expected. The Eastern Front Army had easily occupied Valencia. During the battle, the mortar's effect was significant. Faced with the firepower of the twelve-pound field artillery, even though it was a siege, the enemy still had no chance to fight back.

But when he read the last part, Roland was a bit surprised.

"What happened? Did something happen there?" Nightingale asked.

"Well... not really a problem, it's just a bit strange." He passed the fifth note to her. "Look here."

"Burning the dungeon where the nobles were imprisoned?" Nightingale immediately found the key point after a glance. "This wasn't your order?"

Roland shook his head, "No, I told him that he has full authority at the battle of the Eastern Front."

"So... what's strange then?" she asked confusedly. "Since he has full authority, any measure he takes should be acceptable, right? Not to mention that those people had ulterior motives anyway. They still haven't surrendered to you after so long, so apart from sweeping them up, we could also use this chance to clear the Rats. Seems like a double win."

"You're right..." Roland said while stroking his chin with his hand. Deep in his heart, he still felt this approach was too soft. The Eastern Region was the Second Prince's home for a long time. Seizing the city was only the first step. The following political battle with the surrendered nobles would be a key point in achieving full control of the city. It's for this reason that he had arranged over half of the novice officials trained in the City Hall to go to the east and had appointed Iron Axe, who was from the Sand Nation, to be the commander of the Eastern Front Army and deal with the complex intricacies of the relationships with the nobility.

He believed that after occupying Valencia, in order to eliminate the enemies, Iron Axe would almost certainly use his interrogation techniques to the fullest. When it came to the Mojins' torture, even the High Priests of the church were not able to resist, not to mention those weak nobles. Through bloody trials and executions, he would destroy their power step by step and establish a new order.

However, setting a fire directly was not Iron Axe's style at all.

Roland thought for a while and decided to leave this matter alone for now. Once the two armies met, he would find out more about it—after all, just like Nightingale said, the result of this fire was far too good. It made the nobles fear for their lives, leaving the territory en masse without caring about their lands anymore.

At this speed, Seawindshire and the rest of the domain would be under the complete control of the City Hall within a month. At first, he had thought that the Eastern Front situation would last for a while but, unexpectedly, it had even surpassed the Western Front's progress.

Chapter 876 - Silver City

Roland shrugged, it seemed that he had to work harder. Being overtaken by his own subordinates was never something to be proud of.

Thankfully, Redwater City was now back to normal. Out of the remaining filtered nobles, 70 percent had decided to continue doing their previous jobs while the rest wanted to try their luck at the City Hall even though the basic requirement to apply for the administration exam "literacy of sentences" was easy for them. Roland still believed that after the final tests, these people would not have too much of a chance to become official members.

After all, it was hard for nobles to change their habits.

But certainly, becoming a normal clerk was much better than losing your head.

There were even three nobles who wanted to join the First Army. They were knights originally and when being observed by Nightingale, they did not conceal any evil thoughts. However, he still stood by his original decision and refused their applications.

Having solved the issue of the feudal power, the work efficiency of Redwater City and the surrounding areas had greatly improved. In just over a week, more than 20,000 people had boarded the ships for Neverwinter, whilst more and more people continued to arrive at Redwater. At first glance, abandoning the small towns and villages seemed to decrease the amount of land they could control, but in fact, it drastically increased his capability to control the City Hall.

In such an age where even roads were scarce, the implementation of government decrees in the countryside was something he could only dream of. Arranging a few leaders within the course of a year was rather doable, but asking them to go around implementing the decrees was quite difficult. Barov had asked him more than once why he persisted in sending people to Neverwinter, instead of unifying the kingdom and leaving everything as it was. He had never fully answered him.

It was because the City Hall Director could not imagine how many people could actually be absorbed by the compounded industry of coal and iron, nor understand how much energy and time it actually took to build such an industry.

And the most important part was that those remote territories could not operate effectively and thus, from the perspective of resource utilization, keeping them would just be a waste.

Thus, it was more suitable for the current situation of Graycastle to gather the population in several major cities with convenient transportation.

It was from that moment of land reform that Roland finally acquired jurisdiction of the Redwater area.

As for his next target, that was Silver City.

Compared to the huge City of Redwater, the old king's city district was much easier to deal with. It was originally a common city, not much different from the several cities encircling the king's city. However, its existence became more special when the first silver mine was discovered there. As more and more precious mineral veins were being excavated, the city became busier and busier, and eventually reached its current size.

Considering the great importance of Silver City's output to Graycastle's economy, the latest Lords were only appointed by the family of Earl William, the "good old man" who was loyal to the Wimbledons. In addition, their power was also restricted and in the next couple of years, the city was almost never allocated to other nobles.

In other words, as long as the lord of the city declared it, Silver City would always be a thing.

Roland believed that "persuading" the other side was not a difficult task, considering he was the descendant of King Wimbledon III and the most suitable heir to the throne.

However, he was somewhat concerned about the fact that the city, which was built on mineral veins, was Nightingale's hometown.

Every time he asked her about it, he would get the same answer "I have cut my ties with the Gilen Family, so you don't have to worry about my feelings." He still felt Nightingale was hiding something, but because of his busy government affairs, he did not have much time to think about it so he could only leave this be for now.

Four days after receiving Iron Axe's secret letter, the First Army of the Eastern Front Army entered the Silver City territory through the canal.

...

It was almost the same with the trip to Redwater City. Earl William led his platoon out of town to greet them and after a warm greeting, he followed up with a dinner invitation. The difference was that in Redwater City, they were welcomed by the city's nobles while in the old man's platoon, there were more merchants, including their old acquaintance Hogg.

That evening, the Earl's opening speech set the tone for the feast. He was willing to hand over his feudal power and fully supportive to His Majesty Roland's new government. A warm applause sounded immediately at the meeting and the latter swallowed back the words that he had prepared to say.

And through Hogg's efforts, the feast became a business fair.

"Aren't you always asking me how the machine in my mine operates?" He talked proudly in front of a bunch of merchants. "Its real inventor is currently standing in front of you—it's His Majesty Roland himself! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You don't even need to go to the Western Region. You can get the answer directly here in Silver City!"

The merchants immediately swarmed over.

"Your Majesty, could you tell us why its power is so strong?"

"If you're willing to sell more rail systems, the Daymond's Chamber of Commerce is looking forward to working with Neverwinter."

"Your Majesty, do you remember the Fastsail Association? Two years ago, we provided you with several sailing ships to transport refugees from the Eastern Region—in terms of trade strength, we're definitely one of the best Chambers of Commerce in the Central region. If possible, the Fastsail Association wishes to buy a complete set of the manufacturing equipment for a steam engine. And naturally, at a very generous price!

Remembering the"good news" the female merchant Margaret had revealed to him, Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry—"Hogg will bring a large number of merchants to the Western Region". Unexpectedly, he had actually met them beforehand.

The world would have been such a nice place if everywhere in Graycastle was like Silver City.

After satisfying the merchants' curiosity, he finally found a chance to speak privately with the old lord.

They walked through the hall and went to an open air balcony, temporarily putting behind the buzz of the party.

Roland held his wine glass and after staring at the city for a long time, he finally said, "To hand over your city power like this, aren't you feeling any regret?"

"It was never actually mine to keep, so what's to regret..." Earl William smiled. "Your father, as well as his father before him, though they never said it clearly, they would have never allowed Silver City to have its own cluster. And it's a rule for the William family to never have their own cities. As far as I'm concerned, this power isn't so important." He paused for a moment."Not to mention that I don't actually need this power."

"You don't need it?" Roland could not help but ask curiously.

"The actual reason for the city a province is to expand and consolidate your power to prevent others from looking down on you. But Silver City does not have this risk—anyone who wants to attack this city will blatantly provoke the authority of the Wimbledon royal family. So as long as my family stays loyal, I don't need to worry about getting attacked." The Earl had a sip of wine and continued, "In turn, feudal power is also in a sense a weakening of your own power—through it, one has to allocate part of his own resources to others in order to gain their allegiance. Compared to giving out these resources to other people, I'd prefer to manage them by myself. Do you know how much the output of Silver City has increased in the past 20 years?"

Roland shook his head.

"As much as 16 times, after all, I put most of my energy into it..." The old lord said with high spirits, "At first, it was just an open-air silver mine, but right now the excavated mineral veins have reached more than 10 different kinds. In addition, at first there was only an excavation team sent by the royal family, but now, not only are there are all kinds of ore and jewel merchants, but also many auxiliary industries have been developed through mining, such as oil lamp, mining shovel manufacturing, etc. Your steam engine can also be considered as one of them, am I correct?"

"Indeed," Roland said with a smile.

"This feeling is like raising a child and watching it slowly grow up. Why would I be willing to split and share it with others? That's why I don't need such a power." After saying that, the Earl sighed. "Your Majesty, do you wish to let me continue managing this city of shimmering Silverlight for you?"

"Of course, if you wish to." Roland lifted his wine glass towards him, they smiled at each other and then touched their glasses gently.

"Oh right," Roland changed the subject after finishing his drink, "do you know about the Gilen Family?"

"Gilen?" Earl William pondered for a while before raising his eyebrow. "I think I remember them but not very clearly—after all, it's been for a long time for a new noble family to appear in Silver City. All those families were here before the discovery of the silver mine. If I remember correctly, the last Gilen must have changed his family name two years ago and his land now belongs to the Somi family."

When he said those words, Roland instantly felt Nightingale's grip on his arm.

Chapter 877 - The Long-Forgotten Hometown

"He changed his family name? What happened?" Roland frowned.

"Probably because it's easier to merge with another family than to manage the territory all by himself." William was surprised that Roland was paying particular attention to some petty noble. "It requires a huge amount of money to live a decent life. If one isn't really capable of managing domestic affairs, his domain would be a burden rather than an asset."

"Could it be possible that he was compelled? For example, somebody wanted to take his land by force?"

The earl replied meditatively, "Not... very likely. I've seen them attend some banquets before, although I didn't really talk to them. That Gilen, who changed his surname, seems to be pretty happy with the Somis. I don't see he was forced by any means. If you want to know about this, I can send for Viscount Dott Somi..."

"That's fine." Roland interrupted him after receiving Nightingale's whispery instructions. "I was just curious. Not a big deal. But it appears that the Gilen didn't show up this time?" He thought that Nightingale should have recognized him if his brother Hyde had attended the banquet.

The senior lord clapped his hand over his chest and said apologetically, "That's my fault. I usually stick to our tradition when sending out invitations."

Roland immediately understood what he meant. Even though the Gilen had changed his name and become a branch of the Somis, he was still not considered for a place on the invitation list. Although the booming mining industry in Silver City stimulated commerce and trades, making the city more or less similar to City of Glow in terms of its livelihood and style, people in here apparently attached greater importance to wealth and power than titles and reputations. William's answer, in a way, also reflected that the glory and pride of the Gilen Family had almost diminished and faded out of people's memories.

Roland knew Hyde had inherited his father's viscount title after the departure of Nightingale.

It was really pathetic to see him be reduced to such poverty.

Roland returned to the campsite. As soon as he shut the tent curtains, Nightingale revealed herself and explained voluntarily, "Your Majesty, you must know that I have no interest in prying into Hyde's business. Ever since I left Silver City, I've severed all relationships with the Gilens. Please trust me... I was just, just a little surprised at that time."

Roland could barely suppress the urge to tease Nightingale when he saw the latter try to convince him with a look of absolute honesty. Nevertheless, he soon changed his mind at the thought of Nightingale's incredible obstinacy, for he did not like to seek trouble. As such, he simply coughed and nodded airily. "I know. You never lie to me in this regard."

"You don't believe me... Nope, you don't believe me at all!" Nightingale retorted immediately.

Apparently, his reply was not quite convincing, for Nightingale had discerned the mocking tone of his remark with her ability. He thus took a deep breath and cleared his mind. Then he looked into her eyes and said more seriously, "I believe you."

This time, it was Nightingale's turn to feel abashed. A rosy blush rose to her cheeks. She immediately looked away. "I was just surprised. I have nothing to do with the person who betrayed me."

Although Roland wanted to tell her that it was normal to show some concerns for her brother, he felt it more advisable to tag along in this situation. So, he asked, "Why were you surprised?"

"The Somis once had a good term with my father..." Nightingale replied in a low voice. "After my father passed away, they often came to see me at the old Gilen mansion. However, after my family knew I'd become a witch, old Gilen forbade me to see them. I didn't expect that Viscount Somi would adopt Hyde."

Roland, who had lived in this world for so many years, instantly understood the underlying implication. If the two families did have a good term, the Somis should have helped Nightingale's brother revive the house after the decease of old Gilen. Indeed, it was common for a noble to help an heir of a diminished family regain its power. The latter would then return his benefactor with incessant wealth and even further a union through the marriage of their children. It was a kind deed people loved to talk about.

Yet to ask the sole heir to change his surname would be a totally different story.

That meant the end of the Gilen bloodline as well as their viscount title.

Since Roland had determined to forfeit all feudal rights, the noble status did not matter anymore. However, from the point of view of a traditional noble, having an heir change his family name was far worse than stealing his property. It did not sound like something that a family with whom the Gilens had a good relationship would do.

"If you sense something unusual, look into it." Roland sat back at the desk and unrolled a stash of parchment to review the statistics of the local population and the financial status of the local government, a routine task that he always did when visiting a new city. "Sylvie and the God's Punishment Witches will protect me here. I'll be perfectly safe at the campsite, so you don't have to stick around all the time."

Nightingale hesitated for a moment. "But it's the business of the Gilen Family. I have nothing to do with them..."

"It's your father's domain essentially, so you're more or less involved. Plus, the mansion where you grew up is also within that domain, right? Since we've already arrived here and that the church is no longer coming after you, just take this opportunity to revisit your old abode." "Although all the land now belongs to the kingdom," Roland remained the rest of his words unsaid.

Nightingale appeared to be persuaded by the notion of "the old mansion where she grew up". After a long silence, she made her decision. "OK, but you have to promise to summon me when you want to leave the campground. It would be a quick trip. I'm not going to do anything."

"You got it." Roland shook his head in amusement. He had this weird feeling that he was forcing Nightingale to return to her native town, but he believed the historical issues of her family would only be solved after she confronted them with courage. Avoidance would never help with the problems.

If truth be told, Nightingale was still a little... too young to understand the philosophy of life.

***************

Nightingale left the campsite at dawn. She headed to the east of Silver City along the main street.

She remembered it was a grand mansion. There was a farmland close to the two-story building, vast enough to hide all footprints. A brook, which originated from the depth of the forests, wrapped around the farmland, where she used to hunt for crabs in summer. In the farther east lay a deep ravine, which was where her families had believed a gem mine was hidden. Her family had once promised that they would pick the biggest gemstone down there as her dowry.

Nightingale had not known that her family's domain was actually the smallest among nobles until she had left Silver City with the Witch Cooperation Association. Their land was pretty much of the same size as the domain of an ordinary knight if compared to nobles in other towns. Since their only water source was this brook, the expansion of the farmland was greatly limited. The so-called gem mine down the ravine was probably a pure dream of her families'. Even if the mine did exist, they would not have enough gold royals for further development and operation.

This place did not change much during her prolonged absence. Although the bushy farmland both appeared to have shrunk a little bit over the past several years, the reminiscence of her childhood seemed to have brought life back to this place, making it as fresh and vivid as ever.

Nightingale somehow started to understand the underlying meaning of Wendy's words, "erasing the nightmares of the old days doesn't mean abandoning the past".

When Nightingale approached the mansion, however, she was astonished.

She had thought the deserted house would be dilapidated, but to her dismay, it was not only refurbished but had also expanded a great deal on top of the original building. She walked through the yard fences and saw many people inside, all poorly dressed, some of them even as shabby as beggars. Several servants were passing porridge to the crowd, and the crowd, from time to time, expressed their gratitude to their benefactor.

Nightingale wondered if they were distributing relief food.

Over the crowd at the end of the yard, she noticed a man standing at the entrance of the mansion, smiling back to the grateful peasants. His attire and every act of demeanor revealed that he was a well-bred aristocratic gentleman.

As Nightingale had expected, the man was her long-forgotten brother.

Hyde Gilen.

Chapter 878 - Nightingale's Investigation

Based on the description of the lord of Silver City, the fallen Gilen Family should not have the financial capacity to support peasants. In other words, Viscount Somi was the real philanthropist who had not only helped with the extensions of the house but had also supplied warm porridge to the poor.

Nightingale didn't understand why they had chosen to take Hyde in rather than offer him aid and assistance in the revival of House Gilen as what nobles were normally encouraged to do. Nevertheless, Viscount Somi did not seem like a bad man, she thought. A person who was willing to provide food to people in destitution should be, overall, generous and kind in nature. Further, Hyde, in a way, had also benefited from such a benevolent act.

Even if Hyde was currently in a desperate situation, she would not interfere.

She just wanted to visit her old home and... indulge herself a little bit in nostalgia.

When Nightingale was about to depart for other places, a strange feeling suddenly struck her.

She came to a halt. "Hang on... what's exactly wrong here?"

She surveyed the yard and frowned at the ragged peasants, the servants maintaining orders, the mansion guards, and the noble hosting the event...

Hyde was not wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation, not even the kind of the worst quality.

Through the Mist, she could clearly see Hyde's physical appearance and his clothing. When she rested her eyes on the guard at the entrance, however, she could only spy the scabbard at his heel, since a big black hole in front of his chest blocked her vision.

Now Nightingale perceived the aberrancy: it was absolutely abnormal for an heir of a viscount not to wear any God's Stones of Retaliation.

Even the guards were wearing one!

She wondered whether it was because Hyde now held an impartial and unprejudiced view of witches, but she soon denied such a possibility. She still remembered the abhorrence with which his brother had said over a decade ago, "I'd rather not have you as my sister. All witches should go to hell and be in company with demons." Even though she could not tell truth from lies with her ability back then, she knew Hyde had meant it. His eyes had betrayed everything.

Nightingale then assumed that Hyde probably could not afford a God's stone. It might happen to a fallen noble, but since Hyde had joined the Somi Family, he should be able to purchase one.

After a moment of hesitation, Nightingale turned around and walked toward the yard.

The moment she passed the mansion gate, she overheard two guards' conversation. Both of them were speaking in a suppressed voice.

"Nobles are so horrific creatures. He's no better than us but just a pup used to please his lordship. Who would know he would turn into a completely different person once splendidly dressed? Is it what his lordship usually refers to as the bearing of aristocracies?"

"Stop the nonsense," the other guard hooted. "His lordship is in the house right now. If somebody overhears us and tells him what you just said, you'll lose your salary this month."

The previous person shrugged. "No need to worry. I have good ears. I'll know when somebody approaches. Plus, I didn't lie. He's truly a pup. Everybody, both downstairs and upstairs, has heard his lordship bellow at him in a hot red rage."

"You know his lordship is somewhat faulty in regard to temper, and you still try to irritate him." The other guard grunted. "No matter how ill-tempered his lordship is, he's still a noble. What about you? Are you related to anyone who bears a relatively prominent family name? Even the foreman in the neighboring village is more distinguished than you. If your uncle didn't ask me to look after you, I wouldn't have given a damn about what you say."

"OK, OK. I'll shut up... What the heck?" The first guard suddenly stiffened.

"What's the matter?"

"I somehow feel someone just passed us..." He looked around and then murmured. "Probably I'm just being paranoid."

...

Ignoring the guards, Nightingale directly walked through the wall and soon located the viscount's room based on the domain of God's Stone. Normally, the higher one's status was, the better quality one's God's Stone would be. Nightingale had often used this method to locate her target when she had been employed as an assassin, and her method had rarely failed.

When she learned that Dott Somi was in here, she was dimly aware that the food distribution in the yard might not be as simple as it appeared to be.

Apart from the viscount and a fully-armed knight posed as his guard, there was an old man in a robe standing in front of the desk. He looked like a scholar from the old king's city.

"Lord Dott, you shouldn't have yelled at Lord Hyde yesterday. He did submit to you, but your occasional generosity and kindness will help him play his role better."

Dott Somi, who sat in a high backed armchair, whacked the desk in vexation. "I know, but I can't control myself! It took me decades to get what I have. I was only this close to obtaining the two lands in the east, but a random order from Roland Wimbledon just shattered everything! Did you hear what that old fool said? He's willing to hand over his feudal rights and fully support His Majesty's new policy! Has it never occurred to him that other people may need those rights that he doesn't think he needs? That really pissed me off!"

"Smile, Your Lordship... smile. You vented last night already." The scholar stroked his beards. "Since you're so reluctant to implement the new policy, why don't you refuse to hand over your feudal rights on the spot?"

"Um..." Dott was at a loss for words for a second. He then replied resentfully, "Do you think I'm in a position to defy the king? Even Timothy's royal knightage was defeated by Roland. Do you want me to die on the spot?"

"Therefore, your complaints don't help with anything but only worsen the matter. Such being the case, do you still want to continue with this meaningless grumble?"

"... damn!" The viscount cursed under his breath after a long silence.

"As His Majesty has forfeited nothing but feudal rights, you can follow the example of Earl William. As long as you properly manage your current domain, you won't suffer great losses."

"But without the executive power over the jurisdiction, those greedy patrol team will sooner or later come here. How am I supposed to stop them by then?" Dott shook his head vigorously. "You know what I sell. Once they find out, no doubt I'll be sent to the gallows."

"Then abandon that business," the scholar answered immediately. "I've told you this isn't going to last long. Since you've already raised enough capitals and that the church no longer imposes any restrictions on you, you can now turn to some regular businesses. Why did you put so many efforts in gaining control of the Gilen Family in the first place? Didn't you want to expand your territory and your authority to be in a more secure position?"

The viscount was apparently having some difficulties in washing his hands of the whole matter. After hesitating for around seven or eight minutes, he finally gave a nod with a flash of heroism. "I see. This will be the last food distribution. After Hyde is done, I'll talk to him personally."

"Don't just suspend the business all of a sudden, as that'll raise unwelcome suspicions. You can still do it for a short while but just tell them not to come pick up orders again."

"Alright. I'll do what you said." After resolving to leave what the scholar called a "shady business", Dott was completely alleviated. He leaned backward in the armchair and laughed aloud. "The two Gilens must have no idea what they've missed. Since they don't know about anything, I obviously become the perfect person to take care of the Gilen Family. I bet Hyde still thinks his parents died in that refugee riot, doesn't he? Hahaha..."

The words enraged Nightingale so much that her pupils suddenly contracted in anger.

Chapter 879 - Excuse For Betrayal

Why did Dott Somi mention the riot?

It was true that many years ago, a tragic mine accident had resulted in hundreds of deaths among mine laborers. Since at that time the mine owner had only been willing to indemnify the losses for freemen, his indifference toward those underpaid refugee workers outraged the victims' family members, which had thus led to a huge riot in Silver City. Swarms of refugees had escaped from the mining area in a fury, looting and plundering every residence coming into sight. After an extensive pillage, the riot had finally been quashed by the knightage in the king's city, and peace and order had been again restored.

That was the last time she had seen her parents. It was until she and her brother had been escorted to the old Gilen mansion that they had learned the death of their parents.

But now it appeared that it had not been the case, based on what the viscount had just said.

Nightingale did not expect she would overhear a completely different side of the story decades after the accident. If the viscount was indeed telling the truth, she would have to investigate something other than the relationship between Hyde and the Somis.

Nightingale exited the room quietly. She reached the basement floor and turned on the Sigil of Listening she took with her.

The Sigil was initially to facilitate the communication between her and Roland in the event Roland wanted her immediate return. She did not anticipate that she would use it on such an occasion.

"It did seem quite fishy," After hearing the account at the other end of the line, Roland replied. "So you want to stay at the mansion a little longer?"

"Yes, I plan to ask Hyde in person at night... Perhaps he knows something." Nightingale hesitated for a moment and then apologized. "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I..."

"No need to apologize." Roland quickly interrupted her. "I'll wait for you at the camp while you're conducting your investigation. Don't worry, it's very safe in here. As long as I stay in, I'm not breaking the promise. You need to take care of yourself and stay safe. Don't act rashly. No matter what you discover, you have to report to me every four hours."

Nightingale felt the warmth of Roland's words wash over her. After a moment of silence, she replied in a soft voice, "Yes, I understand."

...

When the moonlight faded away outside the skylight, Nightingale left the cellar for Hyde's room. She had confirmed the location of her brother's room earlier. The slant of the moonlight indicated it was a quarter past midnight, a perfect time for her to take action, for most people were in a deep slumber at this hour, and even vigil guards sometimes dozed off in the dead of the night.

Hyde's bedroom was on the first floor of the mansion close to the backyard, a place usually for servants or insignificant guests. This room arrangement further corroborated the testimonies of the two guards. It not only showed that Viscount Dott did not take the heir of House Gilen very seriously but also suggested that all the kindness the Somis had perpetrated in the past was feigned.

Due to Hyde's low status in the household, the entire hall and the hallway were unguarded, which provided Nightingale ample time to escape in case of an emergency.

After entering the bedroom, Nightingale dragged her brother out of bed straight away. Before Hyde completely woke up and realized what had happened, he felt the chill of a dagger around his throat.

"Any screams, cries or wailings will bring you an instant death. You got it?" Nightingale whispered behind Hyde.

Hyde nodded immediately.

"Very well. Now turn around and look who I am."

Hyde soon submitted to Nightingale's order. His pupils dilated instantly after he figured out who the assassin was in the dismal moonlight. If it was not because of the dagger to his throat, he would have shrieked.

But he managed to keep silent.

Nightingale slowly withdrew the dagger after making sure that her brother was tranquilized.

"Why... why are you here?" Hyde could barely suppress the tremor in his voice. "Didn't you die a long time ago?"

The moment Hyde spoke, his words resurrected all the thin threads of her old bitter memories. For a second, Nightingale felt as though she were in the old Gilen mansion again. The revived pain of the betrayal from her own brother and the agony of being abused and used by her remote relatives blurred her vision and perturbed her mind.

This is the person who exposed the most tender part of her heart to vicious strangers.

Nightingale bit her tongue to let the smell of the blood disperse the multitude of thoughts in her head. She asked, "Why did you say that?"

"Because, because..." Hyde swallowed hard. "Timothy searched the entire king's city and the surrounding towns. He announced that all witches were executed. But Veronica, I mean, sister... I don't want you to die. I was shocked at the news at that time as well. I thought if you didn't leave by yourself, you probably wouldn't have been persecuted."

"Veronica..." thought Nightingale. It was a name she had not used for years. However, after years of self-improvement and personal training, she was no longer as gullible as she used to be.

The tremulous magic power inside her body had told her that the latter half of Hyde's speech was a complete lie.

"Why are you with Viscount Dott Somi?"

"Well..." Hyde paused for a second. "After the death of old Gilen, there were constant disputes within the family. I didn't know much about the details, but by the time I was about to inherit the title, there were not much savings in the household. It was at that time that the viscount called on me. He basically didn't leave me many choices." [lying]

"Did he force you to join the Somi Family?"

"Yes. He said if I didn't agree, he would weed me out..." [lying]

"Then what're you doing for him at present?" Nightingale asked nonchalantly. "Are you helping peasants?"

"No." Hyde gritted his teeth. "He's just using me to sell Dreamland Water! There're Rats disguised as peasants coming here to pick up orders. I didn't discover his scheme until very recently!"

The first half was true, while the second was still a lie.

Nightingale found she was not annoyed but actually quite relieved. This was the exact feeling when she normally communicated with strangers. Lies and truth always went together, and people were always treacherous and weaselly. Sometimes, even a blood-related tended to be unreliable and deceitful. Ever since her awakening, Nightingale had been used to the caprice of human nature. Over the past few years, she had developed the ability to grasp the truth out of a bunch of lies through threats and coaxing while remaining unperturbed at the same time.

As such, she actually felt uneasy to speak with Roland sometimes, for the latter rarely lied to her.

Now, the Shadow Killer who had once made nobles in the Central Region tremble returned.

"What's your plan next?"

Hearing these words, Hyde suddenly prostrated to the floor and implored Nightingale, "Please help me, sister!"

"Help you?"

Hyde crawled forward. "I know I was wrong... but I'm your brother! The viscount never views me as a real noble. You've seen it. He puts me in this servant's room. The renovation of the mansion is just to fool the public. If I continue to stay here, he would sooner or later kill me!"

"So you want me to get you out of here?"

"Get out of here? Then I'll lose everything, won't I?" Hyde shook his head in a fright. He then pronounced his words through his teeth. "You killed old Gilen, didn't you? I don't know what ability you've employed, but you can easily get in here, so you must know how to enter his bedroom. Sister, kill him! Once he's dead, I'll have a chance to become a real noble of the Somi Family. After, after that, you can kill the other successors one after another. By that time, I'll own this domain... and all the properties of the Somis!"

Nightingale looked into his eyes. When Hyde could no longer bear the awkward silence, she ventured. "Before that, I want to ask you a question."

"Sure, sure..." responded her brother instantly.

"Why did you betray me back then?" Nightingale stressed each word with due strength.

Chapter 880 - Destitute

The answer came faster than she had anticipated.

"Why..." Hyde did not reply immediately. "Just because you're a witch..."

There was no reaction of the magic string, which indicated that Hyde was telling the truth. In a second, Nightingale seemed to understand many things. The notion that witches were Devil's minions and the representation of the Fallen was so permeated among the public that people no longer viewed a person as a human being once she turned into a witch. The dehumanization process had thus further given rise to an alienation between the brother and sister. The so-called betrayal was simply an automatic self-protection mechanism. Perhaps, Hyde still believed he had done the right thing, and that was why he could blurt out his response so naturally.

Afterwards, Hyde said something else. He reproached himself for his ignorance and claimed that he had not known the rumor about witches was a fabrication created by the church. He also said he had truly repented for his sin and hoped that Nightingale could forgive him. Nightingale, however, could not really register his words, for she was still absorbed in her own thoughts.

So she shouldn't blame Hyde because everyone would have made the same decision under the same circumstances?

For Hyde, he was not betraying his own sister but a demon who would sooner or later lose all her attachments to humanity. Since he thought she was a demon, there was no trust between them whatsoever.

But... is it really true for everyone?

Nightingale thought of another person, although she was currently confronting Hyde.

That person was also a noble. If exposing a witch was a matter of course, he should have sent Anna, a witch to whom he was not related and had never met before, to the gallows a long time ago.

He did not fear witches, nor did he hate them, but was simply curious. His eyes were always so clear that she could always easily see through his mind. He had remained open to her even when she had held a knife to his throat.

All the memories came flooding back. Nightingale then remembered that snowy day.

It was the first winter after their encounter.

"... I don't think she'll die during the Months of Demons."

"Why?"

"She said she wouldn't lose to the Demonic Torture, and I believe her."

"You even believe a witch. We're cursed by demons."

"Really? I believe you, too."

The pictures in her head faded away.

Nightingale took a deep breath and pulled herself back to the reality. "Wait here. If anybody comes to look for you, do what you normally do like I've never shown up."

"Hold, hold on... Where are you going?"

She put the dagger back to her waist and stepped into the Mist. "To do what I should do."

...

Nightingale knew Hyde was right. She could easily invade Viscount Dott Somi's bedroom and threaten him to spit out all the truth with a dagger. Most nobles would lose their minds at the sight of a sharp blade and automatically disclose everything without further coercion. Some stubborn ones, however, might insist on their silence for a while, but would eventually pour their hearts out after she denailed their ten fingers. This was a theory she had developed after years of assassination experience.

If the death of her parents did have something to do with the viscount, she would definitely make him pay with his life.

Yet Nightingale did not want a brutal revenge at this moment.

Especially after she confronted Hyde.

She was now no longer alone.

She had a person she could trust her life with and a person who equally trusted her.

Compared to the traditional method employed by her as a Shadow Killer, Nightingale intended to solve the problem in an alternative way. She believed if it were Roland, he would definitely not want to see her cause so much bloodshed.

Nightingale walked out of the Mist and entered Dott's study. Several pitch-dark black holes, which resembled inky spheres, appeared in the black and white world. Ignoring the dozing guards at the door, she rested her eyes on the domain of God's Stone next to the bookshelf.

Nightingale slowly walked to the wall, and the wall soon twisted and distorted. The outline of the wall curled up like dry, tangled hair, revealing what was hidden beneath.

Through the distortion, Nightingale could perceive the details that eyes of ordinary people could not penetrate. She saw a metal rod hidden in the wall, one end connecting to the bookshelf and the other attached to a "black ball".

It was a very common trap.

Nightingale broke the bell hung below the trap effortlessly. She then picked an ordinary-looking book and pushed it. Without a sound, the trap door was open.

The secret vault was embedded with God's Stones of Retaliation, but that did not pose an issue to her. Before she had entered her adulthood, old Gilen had hired a Rat leader to teach her all the skills that should be possessed by an experienced, cunning thief. After years of training, she had learned every deft trick of burglary, including how to open various lock catches with a copper needle.

After breaking open three or four iron vaults, Nightingale found what she wanted.

It was a recent ledger that kept a record of all the Dreamland Water transactions, including the order number, the name of the purchaser, and the quantity of the stocks for each transaction. As she had expected, nobles tended to hide important stuff somewhere they believed was most secure.

Both the ledger and the stocks in the mansion would provide solid evidence of the viscount's crimes.

Nightingale returned to the basement and reported everything to Roland.

The following day when it was scarcely past dawn, the First Army who had received instructions surrounded the whole mansion.

...

Three days later, when Hyde was just released from the prison, Nightingale came to him again. His frame was emaciated and his countenance expressed a deeper despondence. Wan and lost, he looked like a walking dead. It was the presence of Nightingale that finally brought some color to his cheeks.

There was a tinge of anger and hatred in his eyes.

"Viscount Somi is going to be hanged. His family members were sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. The two domains of his were subject to civil forfeiture. This is what you want me to have?" After they entered an empty alley, Hyde could not contain himself anymore. He growled at Nightingale, "You snatched everything from me and left me nothing!"

"You should feel fortunate that you haven't been treated as a member of the Somi Family." Nightingale said placidly, "Compared to the viscount, you're at least alive."

"That's because you want to see me continue to suffer, to live as laughingstock! You ruined my life eight years ago, and you did it again now... Do you know what life I had after you killed old Gilen? I finally got a chance to obtain the Somis' lands, and you ruined it! I was a fool to believe you would help me!" Hyde clenched his fist. "Now, I've no title, no land. Are you happy now? You've never forgiven me, Veronica! You're such a liar... you just want revenge! I should have known it long before!"

His hysterical hollering, in the end, yielded to a suppressed sob. He curled up his body and started to weep. "I've got nothing... nothing..."

Nightingale was silent for a while before she spoke, "You're right. I've never forgiven you, and I never will. A betrayal from a sibling is more intolerable than one from a stranger." She paused for a moment and then continued, "But you do have something. At least, I've given you freedom."

Hyde looked up, his face covered with dirt and snot.

"Nobody, neither old Gilen nor the Somis, can manipulate you now. Whatever path you choose in the future, whatever you're doing, they'll be solely on your own decision. You'll no longer live like a puppet as you did in the past. Whether you think it's a punishment or a torture, I don't care. That's your own choice — we're officially done as of today."

With these words, Nightingale turned around and headed to the end of the alley before she disappeared from Hyde's sight a minute later.

Chapter 881 - A Hundred Times Yes

The sun gradually sank behind the mountains and forests, gilding the surrounding clouds. The color of the sky was shifting slowly from blue to white then to red. In the end, the last drop of sun cast a crimson shadow on the thick grassland.

At the end of the Gilen Family's domain, there was a bulging slope. Standing on top of it, Nightingale could see her family's houses, farmlands, and forests adjacent to the mountains. When she had been little, she had liked to sit on his father's shoulders and ascended the slope to see the complete picture of their property. When her parents' bodies covered with bruises and wounds had been sent back and her servants had asked where she had wanted her parents to be buried, she had chosen the slope without hesitation.

At the time, she had been extremely upset at her parents' death and had had a hard time believing they were actually gone. She had wished at some point her parents could open their eyes. In that way, they could see her and her brother, no matter where she and her brother were in the mansion.

Now she once again visited her parents' tombstones, but with a totally different attitude.

There was not much dust on the tombstones. Obviously, somebody had been constantly dusting them. Bending over, she put a pile of neatly folded white paper in front of the two tombstones.

It was Viscount Somi's judgment.

Faced with the indisputable evidence, the viscount soon collapsed. After Roland promised his underaged children would not be punished for the crime he had committed, he had admitted his crime of smuggling Dreamland Water and had also confessed the entire process of taking the Gilen Family's properties.

It turned out, beneath the valley that between the two families' domains, there really are buried treasures, although it was not a gem mine but possibly a gold mine.

The one who had discovered it was a farmer working for the Somi Family.

Due to the different geographical positions, what the Gilen Family referred to as "valleys" was actually at the ground floor of Somi's domain. Farmers of the Somi Family had often fetched water and bathed downstream. One day, a lucky guy had found gold dust in the spring water coming down. He had then asked others to help further search for more gold, which had thus attracted Dott Somi's attention.

Instantly, he had prohibited them from spreading the news and sent his men to search for the origin of the gold dust.

Yet the result of the search had greatly disappointed him.

His men had indeed found more gold upstream and they had speculated that the coarse golds in the river had been a result of the sag of rocks caused by constant water erosion and seepage. However, an increasing amount of evidence had shown that the gold ore might be close to the Gilen Family. As such, they had had no choice but to suspend the exploration.

Due to the special status of Silver City, the numbers of knights and supporters local nobles were allowed to own were more or less limited, so Dott could not just take the gold mine. Seeing that he really wanted this huge treasure, he had laid his eyes upon Viscount Gilen.

He had started his plan with old Gilen, a distant relative of the Gilen Family.

He had a simple yet ruthless plan. Considering old Gilen had no title nor manor, he had tempted old Gilen to cooperate him and promised he could make old Gilen the master of the Gilen Family under the condition that old Gilen would give him a piece of land. Old Gilen could not resist the temptation of becoming a real noble, so he had agreed to help Dott.

Dott bribed the Rats to kill Nightingale's parents during the refugee riot then old Gilen took the chance to take in Hyde and Nightingale and helped to manage their domain. Old Gilen planned that when Hyde entered his adulthood, he would force Hyde to waive his manor and title, which was as easy as pie—after all, an heir without parents was just as helpless as a bird in a cage. If any other nobles had a problem with it, they could only blame old Gilen for being too greedy.

His plan would have been completed, but Nightingale's awakening had sabotaged his plan—on the day of her adulthood, she had killed old Gilen and disappeared into thin air. Old Gilen had never got the title he had dreamed of even in his last moments.

Dott Somi had to alter his plan—he could win old Gilen over, but he could not get everyone's support from the Gilen Family. After all, he had only had one bargaining chip—the title. He had to make the best use out of it.

Ironically, he had turned to Hyde in the end.

When Nightingale had first heard about it, she had found it ridiculous—the thing that was meant to be Hyde's was used as a bargaining chip for Hyde to earn; yet Hyde was naive enough to believe Dott would help him. So he did not hesitate before agreeing to Dott's proposal, the man who had murdered his parents.

With the Viscount's support, Hyde stood out from all his relatives, who were contending for power and wealth, and successfully kept his title of nobility and became the official heir of the Gilen Family. According to their agreement, he would merge with the Somi Family. He had done so not because he had wanted to keep his promise, but because he had had no other choice—after going through internal strife, his family's industry was on the verge of collapse and most of his subjects had left.

After plotting for 10 years, the Viscount had finally gotten what he had wanted. He had even saved enough capital to exploit the mine little by little by smuggling Dreamland Water. Once the mineral vein was located, the wealth that the Somi Family could gain would last for centuries.

But Roland destroyed his ambitious dream.

For a likely gold mine, Dott had murdered fellow nobles, making several families fall apart... A vicious scheme, which led to the death of nearly 20 people, ended with a noose around his neck.

From beginning to the end, he had not been able to take a glance at the gold mine.

Taking out the flint, Nightingale burnt the judgment paper.

She had heard, from Roland, of an ancient way of mourning, which was to shape paper into the appearance of the item one wished to deliver, burn it, and then the deceased would be able to receive the present. Since a fire could connect spirits, smoke and fire with special wills had a chance to pass through the gate connecting the worlds of life and death, especially at dusk when the two worlds were the closest.

Through this ritual, Nightingale wished to deliver the message that the murderer had been executed to the spirits of her parents. Although Roland also said that he actually did not agree with the idea of the worlds of life and death, she did not care that much.

She was not so much comforting her parents as she was comforting herself.

By the time she walked off the slope, the sky had turned completely dark.

Roland was waiting for her not far away. The moment she saw the familiar figure, she felt relieved and safe.

"Is this really okay? Letting him go unscathed?" Roland twitched his mouth. "I've been longing to teach him a lesson."

"Oh? As who?" Nightingale asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Ahem..." Roland coughed twice. "Of course as a king."

Nightingale shook her head, smiling. "It's over. I'm done with him. If you really want to teach him a lesson, you can send men to take him back and beat him up again."

"Since you've dropped the matter, I'll let him go," Roland said, spreading out his hands.

"Em, right..." Nightingale suddenly stopped walking, knelt down, saluted with her hand across her chest as she did when she had pledged her fealty for the first time. She said, "Your Majesty, could you allow me to always stay by your side and serve you?"

"Why do you suddenly mention this?" Roland was startled. "Haven't I agreed?"

"Because I want to hear it again." Nightingale insisted.

Roland shrugged helplessly, walked to her side, stroke her head, and said, "Listen carefully—em, Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes... 100 times Yes. Are you satisfied?"

The magic string did not vibrate. Instead, it was as peaceful and soft as the earth under the curtain of night.

I'm so lucky to have met him.

Nightingale curled her lips into a smile and said, "As you wish, Your Majesty."

Chapter 882 - The Return of the King

The king was coming!

Since Roland Wimbledon's troops were stationed in Redwater City, the discussion over this event filled the streets and alleys of the old king's city and reached its peak when the Lord of Silver City submitted to Roland. Although a fraction of people repeatedly emphasized that Roland did not ascend the throne, compared to his previous titles as rebel king and invader, most of the civilians still believed that the future King of Graycastle was none other than Roland. A coronation was probably the exact purpose for this trip.

The new king did not seem to be in a hurry as he stayed in each one of the cities for several weeks. By the time he made his way toward Redwater City, it was already mid-summer.

The increasing temperature did not decrease people's enthusiasm, however. Taverns were still full of voices talking about Roland's inauguration; main streets were decorated with colorful ribbons, houses over two stories near the palace were all leased out. The desolate old king's city seemed to have been restored its former glory. Perhaps only during such occasions the citizens in the city were reminded of the style and features a king's city should have.

It had been over a year since Roland last stepped onto this piece of land.

The moment he walked through the city gate, pedals collected by the local girls covered the sky; cheers from the audience instantly ignited the city—they were not praising the new king's wisdom and benevolence, it was merely a habit of the people here.

Nini and Pod were among them.

The two of them happened to live in a tower building close to the main street, which offered them the best seats that overlooked the entire scene. Their parents were too busy serving potential tenants to stop them, enabling them to freely climb to the top of the tower, lie on the red-brick roof, and watch the grand occasion of the army going into the city.

"Here they are... Is that His Majesty standing in the carriage? He looks so much younger than the Second Prince," Nini shouted with surprise. "Wow, look! He's waving at us! Lord Timothy would never do that!"

"He's waving at everyone in this direction." Pod shrugged. "We climbed so high. There is no way for him to see us."

"We're also included in everyone, am I wrong?" Nini said righteously. "Judging by his appearance alone, he looks much nicer than the Second Prince."

"So the nice king hanged a big batch of nobles, including His Highness Timothy—his biological elder brother. The temporarily constructed gallows are still standing in the square. He must be the ruler who has killed the most people in the king's city, even if you include the Rats."

"Hey, why do you always talk contrary to me?" Nini glared at Pod.

"I don't like him," Pod said with a pouted mouth. "He's never taken this city as his home. He advocates that in Western Region, there are more working opportunities and encourages people to go there, but what about us? Nowadays the number of customers that come to father's tavern has reduced by half. Isn't he the one to blame?"

"So who do you like? The Second Prince?"

"I disliked him too. In order to catch witches, he caused turmoil over the entire city... The old king is the best, at least he wouldn't—"

"God! Look at the girl next to His Majesty!" Before Pod finished talking, Nini had put aside the topic they were discussing. Pointing at the carriage the king was standing on, she cried out, "She's turning back. Oh God, she's so beautiful!"

Pod had no choice, but to sigh.

Her discovery seemed to have attracted the crowd's attention—if one could ride on the carriage with the king, the significance of that person was self-evident. Discussions in the streets got hotter. Obviously, people were full of interests toward this strange yet pretty girl.

Suddenly, Nini and Pod heard a clear, peculiar roar.

Before they realized it, a gray figure, like an arrow shot from a bow, dashed in front of them and went directly into the tower building. Downstairs, a series of sounds followed as panic shouting, someone falling on the ground, and wine glasses smashing to pieces filled the air.

"What was that?" Nini asked in surprise.

"I've no idea, but it seems it came from our home!" Pod hurriedly stood up. "Let's get back and take a look."

"Ok!"

They climbed down the brick wall, the same way as they went up, and hopped into the tavern from a window. To their surprise, several armored warriors were surrounding the guests. On the floor, there was sprayed alcohol, water, bowl and cup fragments, and a few feathers everywhere.

The first thing that came into Nini's head was that Pod's complaint about His Majesty was overheard by somebody, and she wanted to muffle Pod's mouth, hide somewhere , and make no sound no matter what they saw.

Yet she could not manage to do that.

In actuality, when Nini and Pod came in from the window, the warriors had noticed these two "uninvited guests". The warriors did not come to arrest them. Instead, they smiled at them. After a few minutes, the warriors went out one after another, leaving Pod's astonished parents and the guests behind. A man who seemed to be the head of the warriors even took out 10 silver royals and put them into Pod's father's hand.

Waiting until the warriors all left, Nini hesitantly went to her parents and asked, "What happened?"

"It was unbelievable," out of excitement, her father answered with exaggerated body gestures, "when the king's honor guards passed by the street corner, a guest suddenly took out a loaded crossbow and aimed at the king!"

Nini could not help but gasp in astonishment. "And then?"

"We were frightened. If that arrow had been shot, all of us would have been in trouble. Luckily, at that moment, a bird, no, a person flew in and stopped that guy!"

"A person?"

"Not exactly. When she flew in she was a bird, but when she hit that guy on the head she became a person—a little girl about your age." A guest then said, "We didn't come back to our normal selves until the crossbow fell to the floor. We went and tightly pinned down the assassin, then those warriors broke down the door."

"Are you sure about what you saw?" Pod asked doubtfully, "That bird, no, the person who can transform into a bird, where is she? Could it be that you secretly drunk Dreamland Water and were hallucinating?"

"By the time we had subdued the assassin, she had already left." Pod's father raised his palm and slapped at the back of Pod's head, which made Pod stagger. "You dare doubt what I said. You're in for punishment!"

The crowd burst into laughter.

The feathers attracted Nini's attention—they had similar colors to ordinary Goshawk's feathers but were much wider and softer. She carefully collected those feathers, pined them to her head, and looked up and down at herself.

She felt she could fly too... Her heart was full of satisfaction, thinking she could use them as a headpiece.

This seemingly thrilling assassination did not draw much attention. Soon enough, people began to talk about the king and his followers. They were not aware of it but at least ten such incidents had already happened.

Fortunately, with Sylvie on guard, all the individual assassinations that relied on luck ended up in failure. Furthermore, the patrol team silently caught most of the criminals before their plans could be carried out.

"Well done." While constantly waving towards the audience, Roland took a second to nod and said toward the carriage behind him, "I didn't expect that there were still so many remnant factions left in the old king's city. It seems the situation isn't as stable as we imagined."

"My pleasure, Your Majesty," Sylvie replied.

"Since you knew it wasn't stable, you shouldn't have chosen to enter the city this way," Agatha said coldly—not sure whether it was age related decision, Roland felt her temper had become more and more similar to Scroll when it came to the matter of security. "Common people like you are too fragile. Sometimes an obscure wound can kill you," Agatha said.

"I'd stop any attack," next to Agatha, Anna said calmly. "Besides, Nana Pine is also among the security team."

"You are spoiling him."

"Ahem..." Roland hurriedly cut in. "In order to improve myself in the eyes of the people, such a risk is worth taking. After all, as a new king, I need to become acquainted with my subjects."

In the carriage, there was Sylvie, Agatha, Isabella, Phyllis, and Zooey. Additionally, the elites of the First Army were in the surrounding area. Theoretically, such a powerful combination of guards could guarantee zero chance of an incident occurring.

"That's irrelevent. You could have chosen a safer way, such as standing on a platform in the palace and speaking to your subjects."

Indeed, he did this for no other reason than to enjoy the fun of making an inspection tour. If he could, he'd prefer setting up two voice tubes in front of the carriage and greet his subjects with words like "Hello, my people...".

"Your Majesty, we're arriving at the palace," his guard said, which also had the effect of stopping Agatha from complaining anymore.

Roland sighed in relief. Through the redecorated inner city gate, he saw a group of nearly 100 men standing respectfully, waiting for his arrival. Some of them were the Western Region's old officials, such as Theo and Barov's disciples, some were new officials who were originally surrendered small nobles, but most of them were newly enrolled scholars and civilians.

Since the completion of the previous reform, the entire Central Region of Graycastle was officially in his control. When the Eastern Front Army took over the Seawindshire region, Graycastle would basically be an integrated kingdom.

When the carriage stopped, Roland lifted his cloak in high spirit, got off the carriage step by step, and waved toward the audience behind him.

"Let's go. Follow me to the palace!"

Chapter 883 - A New Generation of Officials

"Respects to Your Majesty!"

Following the ceremonial officer Blanche Orlando's lead, all of the officials knelt down in unison such that they formed a low human wall along both sides of the palace.

"Respects to Your Majesty!"

Next to follow were the servants and maids who took charge of the palace's daily cleaning and routine matters. As Roland swept his eyes across the hall, he saw that everyone's heads were lowered, and their facial expressions were filled with both respect and fear.

"Respects to Your Majesty!"

Last to follow were the soldiers of the First Army, who knelt down behind him. Their voices were the loudest of the three groups, sounding almost like an unceasing succession of tidal waves.

Roland had thought that he would be unmoved by such a scene, having observed numerous large crowds and spectacular military parades in his time. Yet, at the moment of experience, he realized that it was invariably heart-warming to be revered by so many people, no matter how many times it had happened before.

As the crowd continued to cheer loudly, Roland walked up the steps toward the core area of the old King's City - the Holy Temple of Double Towers.

After he had sat down firmly on the throne, the officials made their way into the hall one after another and arranged themselves in three rows in front of him. Roland could not help feeling a little emotional as he observed these nearly 100 people. The City of Dawn was indeed worthy of being the Kingdom of Graycastle's former center - it had taken only a year to recruit all of these officials, who were already equipped with literacy skills. Even more commendable was the fact that most of them were from humble backgrounds. This level of education was perhaps only rivaled by Neverwinter City.

"Your Majesty, this is your scepter." Blanche respectfully handed him a shining gold staff. Exquisite patterns were engraved all over it, while a translucent blue sapphire was embedded on its tip. "It's forged by a goldsmith who specializes in making these things. Every king's scepter is furnished with its own unique features."

Roland was normally uninterested in such meaningless symbols of power. He felt that people might get the impression that he was a young upstart if he acted overly unceremonious and rude. However, he quickly discovered that the artifact was not simply for display. After all, it was not easy to gather everyone's attention in such a large and spacious hall.

And the scepter was the best tool for this purpose.

He raised it up high before tapping it on the floor. With that, the crowd became quiet at once.

"All of you know who I am already, so I shall skip the introduction." Roland scanned the entire hall and spoke at a slow pace. "My goals for this expedition are simple. The first is to eliminate threats, and the second is to put things back in order. My definition of 'threat' isn't confined to military opponents, but includes anyone who hinders the implementation of the new policies, whether he be a noble, merchant, freeman or a rat. These people shall be dealt with no differently than rebels."

"To achieve the second goal, an administrative system similar to that of Neverwinter City will be put in place. By now, all of you should've heard that anyone who becomes a City Hall official shall receive generous rewards and benefits, while promotion won't be based on ancestry or family background. In other words, based on ability, a commoner can rise to the ranks of a minister or even the Prime Minister!"

A flurry of whispers and murmurs arose in the crowd at once. Before this announcement, even the minor nobles, let alone the commoners, could not imagine attaining such lofty positions even in their wildest dreams. The story of Barov, who rose from being a treasurer's apprentice to becoming a figure only second to His Majesty in power, was already well-known in these parts. Everyone's eyes began to sear as they contemplated their chance of becoming a minister one day.

"Of course, not everyone will be admitted into the city hall. You'll need to pass the examination first." Roland continued calmly.

The discussions grew even louder.

"Your Majesty, what'll be tested?" Someone from the crowd boldly asked.

"Questions that seek out the individual's reliability. This is no different from that done in the Neverwinter city hall," he explained with a smile. "A candidate shan't have to get every question right to pass, but there'll be a minimum score that has to be met. The specific contents of the examination shall be announced just prior to it."

In truth, the question set was adapted from the Ten Questions of Loyalty compiled by Scroll, plus a few more questions concerning the candidate's work attitude and expectation. The main purpose of the test was to ensure the purity of the administrative team, albeit it was not called a loyalty test as that might scare off people who thought too much. During this era, disloyalty was considered a terrible sin and could take several forms. For example, insulting the monarchy in one's mind, or discussing the king's deeds and misdeeds over drunk conversation, were considered acts of disloyalty by law. Yet, which citizen had never complained in private before? Not to mention the nobles. If people knew that loyalty was being tested, many would certainly stay away from the examination.

Of course, when the scale of recruitment expanded in the future, Nightingale would be unable to examine every candidate thoroughly. However, at this preliminary stage, Roland hoped that the dependability of the administration could be ensured as much as possible. After all, many of those handpicked at this stage would eventually become stalwarts of the administration as long as they could adapt to the new system.

"Anyone who's recruited into the city hall will have to relinquish their businesses," he added. "No official shall be allowed to have dealings with merchants, or they'll be heavily punished if caught. I hope that everyone will consider this point carefully."

These words had the effect of a pail of cold water, and the hall became somewhat quieter at once.

Unlike Bordertown, most people in the old King's City held long-term jobs, and thus it was a difficult choice for them to forsake all that they had built up and commit to a new job.

However, this was a necessary measure to promote the concept of professionalism. Perhaps, some people would simply hand their businesses to their distant relatives or hire other people to run their businesses for them, but nevertheless, it was important to maintain this policy on the surface at least. Roland fully knew that genuine "officials" did not exist in the Four Kingdoms; ministerial appointments were granted to nobles whom the king trusted, and as such, working for him was viewed as a form of glory instead of duty. And when their glory was not under threat, they would consider their personal interests first.

Through professionalization, the selected personnel would be bound to their jobs, and they would be held accountable for their departments' success such that it would be impossible for them to seek fraudulent benefits. The only way for them to obtain more benefits would be through the increasing prosperity of the kingdom.

By separating business and politics, it would also help to prevent situations where an individual was a competitor and an arbiter at the same time.

"My final point is, I shall personally record the name of every city hall official, regardless of his position." Seeing that the mood had dampened, Roland decided to throw out the sweetener he had long prepared. "Your position, as well as the benefits it warrants, won't only be effective in this city. All territories under my rule shall recognize your authority."

This was the biggest draw of a professional bureaucracy.

The significance of becoming a bureaucrat was self-evident. It was not only a form of recognition but also offered the greatest security. Though the people in the hall might not be aware of its entire scope of benefits at the moment, they would understand the wonderful taste of "eating national food" over time.

As the old King's City had already been through several screenings, the noble class had all but disappeared, and thus the city was much easier to reorganize than the previous few cities. Many people retained doubts about the proposed plan, but nobody came forth to openly oppose it, while many more were willing to give the examination a go. A long queue quickly formed at the registration area after the convention ended.

Roland returned to his study and was about to invite Theo, Yorko, and other old pals over for a private chat when a guard hurriedly entered the room.

"Your Majesty, we've just received a report from the unit stationed in the Northern Region. They've caught sight of the Kingdom of Dawn's army to the west of Hermes."

...

Chapter 884 - The Impact of War

"How's the situation in the west?"

As soon as Nail and Uncle Sang entered the central tent, "Eagle Face", the commander of the garrison in the Northern Region, inquired about the state of the war.

"They're still increasing." The veteran administered a military salute and briefly reported the findings of his observation over the past week. "I was indeed surprised. I never thought there'd be such a great force in the Kingdom of Dawn."

"How many of them?" Eagle Face poured two cups of tea for them, looking completely unperturbed. "8,000? 9,000?"

"I'm afraid it's over 10,000." Uncle Sang drained the cup. "There's a nearly one mile stretch of encampments, along with more than 20 banners whose names I can't tell. I have no idea where they've found so many people that are willing to cast their lives away."

"Over 10,000?" Eagle Face stopped his writing.

"Ask the unit leader if you don't believe me." Uncle Sang pointed to Nail next to him. "In order to get an estimate of their number, we went very close to the old Holy City under the risk of being discovered. The entire suburb is filled with troops commanded by the nobles from the Kingdom of Dawn. They've blocked the path that connects Hermes and the kingdom. Most refugees have retreated toward the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter. I bet they've also deployed forces at Coldwind Ridge as well. At least, I've seen several detachments of more than 100 people on the way back."

"That's true," Nail added with a nod. "On the part of the Kingdom of Dawn, they're now waiting for the rest of their troops to get there whilst enhancing their defense of the surrounding areas. I suggest that our scout team not get too close to the old Holy City in the future, lest they're discovered by their patrolling knights."

Ever since they had noticed the unusual situation in Hermes, the garrison in the Northern Region had started to slowly proceed to the plateau area with the assistance of Duke Kant, not only to gather more intelligence but also to prepare for the upcoming battle. However, His Majesty did not approve Eagle Face's probing and attacking plan, only asking him to instead stay alert and continue to scout. With morbid disappointment, instead of waging a great war, the deputy battalion commander instead picked some capable soldiers from the garrison, instructing them to disguise as refugees to monitor both the new and the old Holy Cities in a rotation. In the meantime, he continued to update Neverwinter on the progress of the investigation.

Nevertheless, Eagle Face had still made a few accomplishments over the past few months. After he had confirmed that the deployment of corps in the Holy City was not a trap, the garrison in the Northern Region had retrieved Coldwind Ridge.

As for the army of the Kingdom of Dawn, they had only appeared two to three weeks ago.

"Sir, do you fear that those people will impede His Majesty's plan?"

"Hahaha, how is it possible?" Eagle Face burst into laughter. "Even if their number doubles, they're no more than some waddling targets. Even the God's Punishment Army failed to break the defensive line under the bombardment of machine guns. How can they possibly approach His Majesty? I'm actually happy to see they have tons of people. Let them attack the city wall of the Holy City first so that they'll know how fortified the church is. I really hope that the fight would bleed off strength from both of them. By then, I'm sure His Majesty will agree to my proposal." Eagle Face paused for a few seconds and then said, "Good job, scouts. You can take a rest now."

"Yes, sir." Uncle Sang saluted.

Nail, however, did not leave immediately. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "Can't we... beat them off now?"

Both Eagle Face and Uncle Sang were stunned. "What?"

"His Majesty doesn't allow us to attack Hermes on our own, but it doesn't mean he doesn't let us fight against the army of the Kingdom of Dawn ." Nail bit his lip. "If we wait until they launch an attack on the Holy City, the villages at the foot of Mountain Hermes may have already been razed to the ground."

The veteran sighed.

"Did you see something?" Eagle Face frowned.

"Pillage and massacre..." Nail clapped his hand over his forehead, reluctant to revisit the intense and inhumane scene. "They didn't enter the old Holy City but simply encamped outside. Soldiers have mounted nearby residents on sharpened wooden stakes and used them as the parapet of the battalion. They treat women even worse..."

"Enough." Eagle Face interrupted him. "This is common in a war! Both the church and the Kingdom of Dawn are His Majesty's enemies. It's better for the enemies to consume each other than we doing it for them! Also, don't forget we're soldiers, the swords of His Majesty! It's our duty to kill."

"But that's different!" Nail persisted. "We fight to help His Majesty achieve his goal, but they... they kill just for the sake of killing. Those villagers aren't believers, but they're treated worse than animals."

"Sir, Nail is just overreacting a little." Seeing Eagle Face's face cloud over, Uncle Sang explained immediately. He then turned to Nail and reproached. "Seriously? Do you know what you're talking about? As long as the church is still there, we can't cross the Hermes Plateau. How can we stop the army of the Kingdom of Dawn if the church is in our way?"

The New Holy City, which functioned as a great stronghold, connected all the flat areas of the plateau together. The four city gates in the outer part of the city were facing the four paths leading to the four kingdoms. Although the gates, currently unguarded, were accessible to refugees, it did not mean the church would allow the First Army to drive straight in, pass the Holy City, and enter the territory of the Kingdom of Dawn without any resistance.

Nail certainly knew that. He took a deep breath and said, "Actually, there's an alternative pathway."

"A pathway?"

"I talked to some of the refugees on my way back. One of them told me that there's a path wide enough for two people to walk abreast in the steep cliffs on the outer side of the plateau. The road will be blocked by snow and ice in winter. However, when the snow melts, the path is again accessible, and you can directly cross Hermes without intruding upon the Holy City."

Eagle Face gazed at him for quite a while and shook his head. "Forget about it."

Nail dropped his head and fell silent.

"You also know very well that this isn't a reliable plan... no, it's an unachievable plan I should say." The deputy battalion commander was surprisingly patient. "First of all, it's questionable whether this passageway exists or not. Also, even if it does, and it successfully leads us to the old Holy City, we can't defeat a force of 10,000 people at once. His Majesty said very clearly during the night session that logistics always comes first before any operation. It would be hard to transport supplies on a path only wide enough for two people, not to mention machine guns and ammunition. Besides, there're only 500 people stationed in the Northern Region. The ammunition we're currently equipped with isn't enough to conduct a prolonged war. Once we're routed, we'll be defenseless. It's likely that the whole army would be wiped out!"

Eagle Face rose to his feet and walked up to Nail. "I want to fight a battle of annihilation more than you do, but that's just my personal opinion. As His Majesty and Sir Iron Axe have entrusted the army to me, I have the obligation to first think about the issue of safety and seek the best interests of the army when it comes to decision-making, whether it's regarding the current decision or the previous one with respect to the refugee settlement. Do you understand?"

"... Yes, sir." Nail clenched his fist but at length performed a military salute.

"Off you go."

When the two were about to retire, a soldier lifted the curtain and entered. "Sir, a reply from His Majesty."

"Really? Give it to me." Eagle Face unfolded the encrypted letter in a haste. No sooner had Nail and Uncle Sang left the tent did he stop them. "Wait a minute!"

"His Majesty has new instructions?" the veteran asked.

"Yes. The First Army has set off from king's city by boat and is now heading to the Northern Region at full speed. They'll be arriving at Coldwind Ridge in about 10 days."

"That'll be too late... after 10 days." Nail lamented within himself. The army of the Kingdom of Dawn could reach the old Holy City anytime and turn the villages at the foot of Mount Hermes into an earthly hell within a couple of days. For a moment, he seemed to see the lady who had struggled under musket fire again, denouncing what he had done.

"Before their arrival, His Majesty wants us to take action immediately to prevent the army of the Kingdom of Dawn from entering the old Holy City. At least, we have to prevent them plundering the monastery."

Nail raised his head abruptly.

"Can we... manage that?" Uncle Sang scratched the back of his head.

"It's going to be very hard. That's why His Majesty has dispatched special reinforcements who will arrive in the Northern Region tomorrow night." Eagle Face closed the encrypted letter. "Only the witches can get here that fast." He then turned to the two men. "Call a meeting with all the unit leaders! By the way, what's the name of the refugee who knows the secret pathway?"

Chapter 885 - The Unlucky Tradesman

Tangen thought himself very unfortunate.

He was merely an ordinary tradesman who traveled between the City of Evernight and Hermes, selling furs and flannels produced in Graycastle to the church and bringing amulets or sculptures dipped in the holy water back to Graycastle. It had taken him nearly 10 years to finally establish himself and survive the fierce competition among his peers.

Tangen had decided to use the extra money he had to expand his business. Therefore, he had purchased a residence with an additional warehouse at the skirt of the new Holy City to store his inventory. When he had been about to launch his business, however, the situation in the north had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. A great conflict between the new king of Graycastle and the church had broken out, which had resulted in a rapid decrease in the need for tokens of faith like amulets. As a consequence, he had not profited anything from the sale and instead had suffered a loss of around 20%.

Nevertheless, Tangen believed he could still earn something by selling furs. As the tension between the church and the king increased, the price of furs actually went up. At that time, he had firmly believed that the church would gain the eventual victory. As a frequent visitor to the Holy City, Tangen knew how fortified the church was. Even the most skillful knight in the kingdom might not be able to compete against a Judgement Warrior, who was subject to the most intense training in Hermes.

However, to his dismay, the church was defeated and it was a miserable defeat. His business had thus totally failed. Although he had reduced the price by 30%, nobody made a purchase. It was only until the Holy City had descended into a state of chaos and that his inventory had been stolen that Tangen had finally realized that the Holy City was no longer safe.

In fact, he had had an ominous feeling ever since the collapse of the cathedral. However, unwilling to abandon his entire business that he had developed and been working on for so many years, he had taken a chance to stay. The arrival of the army of the Kingdom of Dawn at the foot of the Mountain Hermes, unfortunately, was the last straw. It was obvious that those soldiers had come here for the wealth that the church had accumulated for centuries. Tangen was sure that with intense avarice, those soldiers would have not only have robbed his furs but also taken his life if he continued to linger.

After making the difficult decision with a flash of determination, Tangen had headed to the south with many other merchants. Through toils and snares, they had, in the end, arrived at Graycastle a few days later. They were treated fairly by the garrison troops at the border, asked some simple questions by the soldiers, and taken to a campground specifically for refugees. Afterwards, they were told that a fleet sent by the Duke of the Northern Region would take them back to the city in two days.

Although his life work had been cast to the wind, Tangen was much more fortunate than his rival "miser" Socas who had died on the way. After all, he was alive and still had a place to live in the City of Evernight, where his wife and children were waiting for him. At this thought, Tangen felt much better and thought all his misfortunes had finally come to an end.

But his heart soon sank when two soldiers sent by the new king found him and took him out of the campsite. He tried to bribe the pair for some information with a few silver royals but failed miserably.

Do they want to take advantage of me when I'm most helpless and strip all my money?

Tangen clasped his money pouch over his chest. This was the last bit he had. If he lost it, he would not be able to survive.

Yet he was too scared to refuse these soldiers' request, for he was certainly not strong enough to resist the ferocious army that had even crushed the church. If he infuriated these monsters, he would probably suffer a more painful death.

Tangen wailed in silence as he walked. "Why am I the misfortunate one? Why did they pick me rather than anyone else? Am I now cursed by the Gods because I dumped all the overstocked amulets and sculptures into the ditch?"

Filled with the bitterest sensations of despondence and lamentation, he did not hear the question posed by the deputy battalion commander until a moment later.

"Wh-what... pathway?"

The deputy commander did not fly into a rage but repeated his question patiently. "One of my soldiers told me that you know a pathway that would allow us to take a detour around the new Holy City and directly reach the foot of Mountain Hermes. Is it true?"

"The one you told me about. You said some tradesmen often use that pathway to smuggle valuable goods. You did it a few times with them as well." Another person put in.

"Hold on... So they aren't coming for my gold royals?" Tangen stole a glance at the person and found it was the young soldier he had met on his way. He remembered his name was Nail. Since Nail looked like a pretty nice guy, Tangen had had a little chat with him and had also attempted to impress Nail by disclosing that he had once evaded sales taxes imposed by the church by using the pathway. He never expected that it would bring him such trouble!

But there was no point regretting it now.

"Well, there's indeed a pathway. The locals call it Cloud Ladder." Tangen forced an answer."But it only appears after the snow melts, and it becomes inaccessible when it's rainy or foggy. It's rumored that the pathway leads to different directions, but I only know the one to the Kingdom of Dawn.

"Very well." The commander nodded. "You show my men the way. If they successfully reach the foot of Mountain Hermes, I'll reward you for your service."

"Mercy, sir!" Tangen went to his knees immediately. "I don't want a reward but just to go home after it's done."

"Unfortunately you can't." The commander's reply sent a chill down his spine. "To make sure everything goes smoothly, you must stay with us for the next few days until we no longer need you."

"But, but sir..." Before Tangen could finish his sentence, the commander tossed him five gold royals.

"This is the deposit. There'll be another five after the mission is completed." The commander interrupted him. "You should know very well what 10 gold royals can afford in most parts of Graycastle."

Tangen swallowed hard. 10 gold royals could afford a life. After doing business for so many years, his entire cash flow was merely a little over 30 gold royals. It was obvious that the commander intended to buy out his life with 10 gold royals, and there was no ground for him to negotiate.

"Will... you really let me go?" Although Tangen already knew the answer, he still asked.

"Naturally. As long as you work hard as a guide, I assure you that you'll be escorted to the City of Evernight."

...

Tangen left the campground apprehensively and found the two soldiers who accompanied him were the young man named Nail and an elder soldier.

"You really cooked my goose." Tangen smiled dryly. From the look of the two people, Tangen learned that it was simply a coincidence rather than a deliberate frame-up.

"How is it possible?" Nail knitted his brows. "10 gold royals isn't a small amount. As long as you act with utmost good faith, you don't need to worry about running into any dangers."

"Rest assured. Our commander is a man of his word. If he says you can go, you definitely will." The elder soldier put in. "Plus, 10 gold royals for just showing the way? I'd be more than happy to do that."

"Sir, you're..."

"Just call me Uncle Sang. You don't need to address me with such formality. If you really insist, do it to Nail. He's the unit leader, my superior."

"R-really?" Tangen looked a little embarrassed. He had thought the young man was just a soldier of the lowest military rank.

"Just Nail." Nail waved his hand casually.

"Can either of you tell me what the mission your deputy battalion commander referred to... exactly is?"

"We have to go around the Hermes Plateau and stop the army of the Kingdom of Dawn at the old Holy City."

"Unit leader!" Uncle Sang reminded Nail.

"It's OK. He'll stay with us in the next couple of days. Plus, he won't go making any random and blind conjectures if he's informed of a little bit. This will help us complete our mission. Besides, I'll shoot him down immediately if I find him plotting something."

Tangen shivered at Nail's words, but his attention was drawn to the former half of the speech, which sounded even more inconceivable...

"To stop the army of the Kingdom of Dawn?" Tangen's eyes were wide open. "That's impossible. The pathway is scarcely wide enough for two men to walk abreast, and some parts of the road have collapsed. One misstep you'll fall off the cliff." "Even if you walk from dawn to dusk, you can only transfer several hundred people in a week. How are you supposed to fight against those knights? It's also probable that the church will attack you from behind!"

"We aren't fighting alone," Nail answered placidly. "His Majesty's reinforcement will be arriving at Coldwind Ridge soon. You'll see just how the First Army does battle."

Chapter 886 - Weapons and Arts

"Reinforcements? Did he understand what he was saying?" Tangen thought to himself while twitching his lips. "It would be useless if the reinforcements could not cross the pathway. Or did he mean reinforcements that could instantly pulverize Hermes to the ground and stride across the ruin of the Holy City? If that were the case, they would need at least a dozen days to get prepared for the strike."

Noticing that Nail did not have any intention of speaking more on the matter, Tangen decided to drop the topic.

One of the entrances to Cloud Ladder was on a cliff, not far away from Coldwind Ridge. They entered from a cave that was barely visible from the outside. When they could see the sky above their heads again, they found themselves seemingly in midair. The air was wet with clouds and fog filling the road. They suddenly understood why this passage was called Cloud Ladder as they felt like they were climbing to heaven.

Despite the dangerous road, as long as the weather was good, the path was reliable. Tangen had exaggerated how unsafe Cloud Ladder was, to prevent the First Army from going there. He didn't tell Nail that a couple of merchants reinforced the stability of the cave and strengthened the road with planks and wedges so that they could continuously use the pathway to evade taxes. As a result, the rumors of the dangerous road were false.

Within half a day, Tangen had led Nail and his men up and down the path three times. Without any mountain roads or passes set up by the Holy City, the pathway had shortened the distance considerably. It was more efficient for light infantry to travel via the path than via the main road.

Tangen noticed that Nail was repeatedly making notes in a small book. Apart from the everyday language widely used throughout the continent, there were also some unfamiliar symbols he had never seen. Tangen was surprised that a soldier could not only read and write but also had knowledge he couldn't understand. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he probably wouldn't have believed it.

Tangen had joined a Chamber of Commerce to learn bookkeeping and how to record transactions. He had spent a whole gold royal dedicated to just his primary business education.Tangen did not understand that if Nail could read and write, why he had still selected such a high-risk career, working as a soldier and putting his life on the line. Although Roland Wimbledon's army was impressive, there was no war without death. Nobody could guarantee that he was not the next.

However, during their conversation, Tangen learned that reading, writing and map drawing were not considered "advanced skills". It appeared that every member of the First Army possessed such skills.

"What are they all thinking?!"

Tangen was even more confused.

By the time they returned to the campsite, it was almost nightfall. There was quite a buzz around the tent. Tangen saw a group of soldiers excitedly discussing something. All their eyes were locked on the bonfire in the center of the campground.

"It seems that the reinforcements are here." Nail grinned.

"I think so, too." Uncle Sang smiled. "I wonder which familiar faces we will see this time."

"Miss Lightning and Miss Maggie must be among them." The unit leader accelerated his paces. "Let's go take a look."

Wh-what... Miss?

The reinforcements they've been waiting for were... women? 

Tangen followed at their heels. He picked an open space, stood on his tiptoes, and looked in the direction of the crowd. Upon seeing the "reinforcements", he felt like he was going to pass out.

What the hell? They're the reinforcements?!

These are just a bunch of kids!

Especially the one whose hair nearly reached the ground. Judging from the kid's round face and bright, sparkling eyes, Tangen thought she couldn't be more than ten years old!

The others were only a bit older. They all looked frail and tiny; whose legs and arms were not even as thick as Tangen's fist. He thought they would not be of any use on the battlefield, for they probably couldn't raise a sword.

"This is ridiculous — Wait..." Tangen paused for a second and suddenly became a little uncertain.

One of the reasons for his uncertainty was the physical appearances of those girls. They looked much prettier than ordinary women. Tangen had not noticed their unique beauty at first, but when a group of them stuck together, he immediately came to realize that they were probably witches.

Witches were not as horrible as people thought them to be. If it were true that they were as powerful as demons from hell, they would've destroyed the church and the worldly kingdoms long before. As an experienced, well-informed tradesman, Tangen knew that with a God's Punishment Stone, even a knight could easily kill several witches at a time. Witches weren't stronger than ordinary people when their power was rendered useless.

But everything became trickier when another person's influence was factored in.

Tangen held his breath and rested his eyes on another green-haired lady.

He had seen her once... at the celebration ceremony in the City of Evernight. Although she was not the most beautiful girl among the group, she was more attractive than anybody else he had seen at the celebration. Nobody would ever forget an elegant lady with such a strong and distinctive character.

It was Edith Kant, the daughter of the Duke of the City of Evernight, who was also known as the Pearl of the Northern Region.

She could be charming and enchanted in daily life but also valiant and fearless enough to behead her enemies on the battlefield with her longsword. It was rumored that her skill in fencing was as stunning as her appearance. What people feared most, however, was her unpredictable and even slightly eccentric work style. All the people who had once scorned her had paid a steep price for their insolence. When it came to anecdotes regarding the Pearl of the Northern Region, the residents in the City of Evernight could ramble on and on for several nights.

It appeared that Duke Kant had sided entirely with the new king; otherwise, he would never allow his beloved daughter to come to the barracks alone, unguarded. Further, from the respectful attitude with which the deputy battalion commander treated Edith, Tangen judged that she would not disgrace her title "Pearl" even if she were out of the Northern Region.

The new king's army was so powerful that they could even defeat the church.

Combining the assistance of the witches and Edith Kant with his invincible army, the new king would probably cause great trouble for the Kingdom of Dawn's army.

Apart from the "reinforcements", Tangen was also intrigued by something else.

He saw a strange-looking iron frame next to the bonfire. The symmetrical structure looked like a shoulder pole at first glance, with one basket attached to either end of the pole, each containing four rows of metal cylinders. All the cylinders had pointy tails and fat heads. Tangen could not immediately figure out what they were made of.

He somehow felt a little disturbed at the sight of the metal objects.

After studying them for quite a while, Tangen finally understood from where his anxious feeling came.

The nine cylinders, which were as tall as a full-grown man, were almost identical. From their fat heads to their pointy tails, all of them had the same smooth curve!

This discovery made his hands sweat. Tangen knew that as the hardest material in the world, metals needed to be repeatedly smelted and hammered before being beaten into shape. All the blacksmiths he knew had told him that it required a great amount of skill to forge nicely-shaped, smooth-surfaced ironware.

What a fantastic technique it is to be able to shape a five-foot iron shard into a smooth curve! 

And to use that same technique to make nine replicates?

If he told this story to any of the blacksmiths in the City of Neverwinter, they would mock him for his ignorance.

It would be more understandable if all nine cylinders were refined art pieces, but surprisingly they were not.

Tangen knew from their grayish color and the sloppy way they were stored that these cylinders were not expensive, delicate pieces of art.

They were likely some unique weapon since they had been transported here to the barracks by the "reinforcements".

Nevertheless, these sturdy and durable weapons somehow gave a particular aesthetic pleasure as if they were pieces of art. The intense shock brought by this sheer contrast was unprecedented and indescribable.

Tangen swallowed hard and realized that he probably could not label himself as "well-informed" anymore.

For these people, war seemed to have become something else.

A realm beyond his imagination.

Chapter 887 - Bomber Action

At this time, in a big tent located at the center of the Northern Region Garrison's camping ground, everyone was busy preparing for the upcoming battle.

Eagle Face was astonished by Edith's plan. "Leave the entire front to the witches? I trust their abilities, but there are at least 10,000 people in the army of the Kingdom of Dawn and many of them wear God's Stones of Retaliation. If the witches fell into a bitter fight there, it'll be hard for us to save them."

"Those were my initial thoughts of this plan." Edith smiled. "In fact, it's not the Adviser Department's plan but His Majesty's idea."

"Do you have a formal record of this?" asked the deputy battalion commander.

"Here you are." The Pearl of the Northern Region gave him a confidential letter marked with a red seal. "By the way, you can see that in the last part of the letter, the king has temporarily given me the power of commander."

In accordance with the rules of the First Army, any pre-war combat strategy must have a paper record which should be audited and signed by officers at a corresponding level, and a plan signed by His Majesty himself must be unconditionally executed.

After confirming the validity of the signature, Eagle Face promptly stood straight and made a military salute. "The Northern Region garrison promises to fulfil the mission!"

"Good." Edith smiled. "But remember, your purpose is to give the enemy a destructive blow when they retreat in disorder. Please note the prerequisite. If they're not fleeing hurriedly, you should consider it a sign of failure and backtrack to Cloud Ladder. No unauthorized military action is allowed. You must clearly explain this order to every solider."

"Backtrack? Do you mean... retreat?" Eagle Face was stunned. "Isn't His Majesty sure about whether this plan is feasible?"

"We've never tried this before, so who knows? If it doesn't work, we must consider other strategies... That's why His Majesty sent me here." The Pearl of the Northern Region said sraightforwardly.

"What about the witches?"

"They won't be in any danger even if they fail."

"Got it. I'll go prepare for this task. Our troops will set out tomorrow morning." Eagle Face saluted again.

"This operation is named Bomber Action and once your troops are in place, the battle will begin." Edith made a military salute to him. "Well, go."

"Yes!"

Although Eagle Face did not really know what "bomber" meant, he had faith in this thing. He was firmly convinced that all the kings' new inventions were extraordinary, just like the steam engine.

***************

After two days of waiting in the camp, Lightning finally received the order to take action.

Sylvie's voice came through a Sigil of Listening in her hand. "Margie has transported all the people into place. You can set off now. The Kingdom of Dawn's soldiers have taken down their tents and packed. They are beginning to form up for battle. Hope you can catch up with them."

"Don't worry. We'll be there soon." With these words, the little girl turned back and waved to Maggie and Hummingbird. "Come on. It's time to go!"

In the past two days, she had flown in the sky to check the map of Cloud Ladder and survey the situation of all the surrounding areas. His Majesty's plan was not complicated. The six witches were divided into two teams. One was in charge of transportation and logistics and thus mainly relied on Margie's Magic Ark to complete their task. Sylvie and Lily were also in this group. The former was able to detect distant enemies to ensure that they could seize the initiative on the battlefield. The latter could prevent the church's demonic plague in case the church got desperate and spread it to kill the Kingdom of Dawn's soldiers who broke into the old Holy City.

The other team was the heart of this military operation.

"Oh!"

"Coo!"

Hummingbird sat in the bomb carrier and held the connecting rods on both sides of her seat. She made her magic power constantly circulate throughout this iron structure which Roland named "The East Wind". Soon, the weight of this bomb carrier and the eight bombs it carried was reduced by 99% and was just within Maggie's carrying capacity.

The white-haired girl transformed herself into a big beast and leaned over the bomb carrier. Lightning went to tie the cloth straps and ropes, binding Maggie and "the East Wind" together.

As Hummingbird's ability could not effect on the living things, Maggie was actually carrying a witch and "the East Wind" which was now as light as the witch. As long as Hummingbird could maintain the weight-reducing effect, Maggie would be able to perform precision strike missions for a long time.

Roland had used the hydrogen balloon to bomb the king's city and had achieved remarkable success. Based on the post-war reports of that attack, he had made a few improvements.

Maggie's role in this mission was to replace the balloon since she flew faster and moved much more flexibly. More importantly, she could swoop before dropping bombs, which would save Lightning the trouble of revising the direction and allowed her to focus on detection and navigation.

Limited by her magic power, Hummingbird was unable to sustain the weight-reducing effect for "The East Wind" throughout the day. Though her power had increased a lot since she had started to practice carrying cannons, she could only manage to lift these bulky, heavy bombs for half a day at most. After all, most of the time, the bomb shells, warheads, and ammunition were transported separately.

Fortunately, the Kingdom of Dawn's army was not far away. Half a day was enough.

"The road is clear. You can take off. Repeat, you can take off!" Lightning put on her goggles and leaped up into the air.

"Ah... it's coming again." Hummingbird sighed.

"Ow ow ow!"

Maggie, now in the form of a giant flying beast, flapped her broad wings and took off, casting a huge shadow on the ground. The tents in the camp had begun to shake due to the airflow caused by her wings, which was as strong as a howling gale. She adjusted her direction and headed for the Hermes mountain.

An hour later, the three witches were in the sky above the old Holy City and easily spotted their target, an army of over 10,000 people. As seen from above, this army resembled a stream outside the city but inside it, the soldiers dispersed. They seemed like colorful ants creeping around slowly and nibbling the old Holy City's territory away.

Lightning did not like the church at all and felt no pity seeing it suffer from this plundering. However, she also knew that countless people inside the city were innocent, especially those orphans who had been taken to the monastery by the church.

She thought they should not be buried here together with the old Holy City.

The little girl inhaled deeply and kept ascending until she felt some breathing difficulty. She opened her arms and dived along the middle of the stream of people, moving in the opposite direction to the army of the Kingdom of Dawn.

This sharp descent made her feel as if all her internal organs were moving backwards. It was not a pleasant feeling but she was still thrilled by the high speed.

She did not look back for she was sure that Maggie must have been closely following her. After spending these years together, they could cooperate flawlessly.

The people and things on the ground rapidly became clearer and some knights apparently also noticed the shadow falling from the sky. She could even see the scared looks on their faces.

When the girl and the beast flew down to the middle part of the stream of people, the girl suddenly flew up while shouting. "Now, drop the bombs!"

Hummingbird, who was sitting in the bomb carrier, immediately pulled the switch.

Chapter 888 - Heavenly Divine Retribution

With a clicking sound, the bolt loosened. Two bombs, each as heavy as Nightingale, slid out of the bomb carrier and fell toward the crowd due to their inertia.

After leaving the East Wind, the bombs instantly regained their weight while maintaining their high speed. This change gave them great momentum. As they sailed through the air, they made a friction sound which was like a strange whistle or the howling sound made by a gust of wind blowing through a cave. People on the ground simultaneously looked up at this incredible scene.

At this moment, the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn felt relieved.

They thought these two things falling from the sky were nothing compared to the big flying monster. In their view, though these things dropping from that height were able to crush anything they hit on the ground, they could, at most, kill three or four unlucky guys.

They believed this would not be a problem for such a large army. Hearing Appen's call for an expedition to the west, both great nobles such as dukes and lesser nobles like the new knights had been actively preparing their horses and eagerly recruited servants. Numerous people joined this expedition, hoping to get a share of the profits from the church that was already on the verge of collapsing.

Having an army of over 10,000 people, the nobles would not care at all if serval guys or even 30 to 40 people got killed by the things falling from the sky.

They still thought of the formidable Devilbeast as a genuine threat. Once it dived into the crowd to bite and stomp, it would easily slaughter over 100 people, let alone the casualties and loss that would occur when the panicked serfs began to run away. Given that, they firmly believed that as long as the monster did not land, they did not need to worry too much.

They also reckoned that the enemies in the sky, who were probably witches, did not have enough courage to openly fight against the army of the Kingdom of Dawn. Since they came here to rob the church of its treasures, all the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn wore God's Stones of Retaliation and brought many weapons specially made to fight witches.

At this moment, many knights put down their longbows and Magic Stone arrows and bet with each other on whose soldiers would be hit by the black stones.

No one on the ground moved out of position. No one lied down to cover themselves from the coming explosion. They just watched the two bombs flying towards them like two arrows and kept advancing steadily.

A moment later, two scarlet flames broke out in the middle of the stream of people!

People within the bombs' landing zones were instantly turned to ash. The heated air rapidly expanded, forming hot, strong blast. Everyone that bumped into it felt as if they had hit a steel wall and quickly got blown to smithereens. Soon, broken limbs and internal organs were littered everywhere.

The blast quickly died down and could not tear apart people that were 100 steps away from the center of impact, but this explosion was not the only destructive thing.

The Kingdom of Dawn's troops could hardly find any shelter, since unlike the king's city, this area connecting the Kingdom of Dawn and the old Holy City was a vast and open plain. When the bombs exploded, the defenseless people became easy targets for the explosion waves, debris and numerous iron balls shot out of the shells. They traveled through the crowd at a speed several times faster than that of the sound. Each iron ball could pierce through a dozen of people before it stopped, and the steel shell fragments were even more destructive.

Due to the terrain advantage, the bombs caused damage over a wide area.

The witches in the sky saw the black smoke rise in a flash and form something like a high wall, which choked off the movement of the stream of people on the ground.

Before the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn recovered from the shock, Lightning had already ascended to the highest point possible, ready for the second round of diving.

"The East Wind, launch the second attack!"

Maggie immediately closed her wings and followed closely behind the little girl, falling all the way from the sky with a loud howl.

"Ow ow ow—!"

They had loaded four bombs on each side of the bomb carrier, so they could choose to carry out four bombing raids or drop all eight bombs at once. In order to achieve the best effect, Lightning intended to dive four times to throw bombs into the middle and the rear parts of the stream of people.

Beyond her expectations, during the third round of attack, the army of the Kingdom of Dawn totally collapsed.

For those who were still alive, these explosions were more like divine retribution coming from heaven. Places struck by god's thunder were all scorched and littered with corpses. Neither the serfs without protective clothing nor the fully armored knights could escape from these hellish, raging flames. This seemingly endless catastrophe made them feel desperate, and the deafening explosion noises and screams of the seriously wounded crushed their spirit.

The biggest crisis for them was that in this inconceivable series of attacks, they could do nothing except praying that the black stones would not land near them. They had no chance of hurting the giant flying monster either since it kept hovering or swooping beyond the range of their arrows.

This kind of battle was totally beyond their understanding.

The nobles came for the wealth, but never wanted to risk their own lives in the process. No matter how much money they got from this city, they would not be able to enjoy it if they died here. They could not even carry the wealth back home if all their servants got killed in this attack.

With this thought in mind, they made a swift decision to escape.

Seeing the nobles, who had strictly prohibited the serfs from running away, turn their steeds to flee the battlefield one after another, the whole army quickly slid into chaos. As more and more people joined the fleeing knights, the stream of people started to move again, but this time, it was heading in the opposite direction. The people outside the city that had marched orderly in the beginning now stopped entering the city and started to escape in disorder.

The nightmare for the army of the Kingdom of Dawn began at this moment.

When they swarmed to the main road, the First Army's soldiers hiding in the fields on one side of the road calmly pulled their triggers

This was a typical flank attack.

The panicked nobles just wanted to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible and completely forgot about detecting enemies and protecting their flanks. Five squads of the Northern Region's garrison lined up along the road and shot the soldiers of the Kingdom of Dawn with revolving rifles and heavy machine guns. As their targets were within 300 meters, they did not even need to think about accuracy. They just kept firing, trying to shoot out all the bullets in their guns as quickly as possible.

Before sunrise, Eagle Face's troops had already hidden themselves away in the fields where the wheat-straws were waist high. With the help of Sylvie, they could hide here without being spotted by the enemy's scouts and remain informed about the enemies' movements.

Obviously, there was a huge gap in information gathering technology between the two factions.

'Crack!' The moment the first shot rang out, the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn were astonished to find that they were ambushed by some enemy forces hiding in the fields. If this had happened when they had been marching toward the city, they would have concentrated their forces to fight back. However, now the situation was totally out of control. The soldiers of the Kingdom of Dawn were hurriedly running for their lives and wishing that they could grow extra legs to rapidly move as far away from the bullets as possible. The nobles sent their mounts rampaging through the crowd, squandering their subjects' lives.

The wide road turned into an avenue of death.

Chapter 889 - A Key Person

Tangen, who had been compelled to follow the First Army, found that he had seriously underestimated this army's strength.

During the battle, they never fought in hand to hand combat against the army of the Kingdom of Dawn, and Tangen did not see a shower of arrows nor any brutal fighting scenes in this 500-meter-long front. The First Army soldiers just kept firing at their enemies and the people in the army of the Kingdom of Dawn kept falling down at the sound of the guns.

This scene seemed like a flashy show to him.

But the loud, shrill cries from the main road reminded him that it was an extremely fierce battle. This easy victory of the First Army clearly demonstrated its strength to him.

He finally understood the combat method of The First Army that Nail mentioned.

He had never seen such a well-organized, disciplined army in the past and thought that the First Army soldiers were as outstanding as their lethal weapons. In this army, hundreds of soldiers acted in unison as if they were one person. They moved quietly in the darkness to get into position and got ready for the ambush before daybreak. They silently lurked and launched an attack according to their plan. Even with no supervisor overseeing the fight, the five squads still worked closely together. The commander, Eagle Face, also came to join the ambush rather than staying in the camp. Every soldier was highly concentrated and attentive to his duty. Each order was promptly executed. He believed that if it had not been for these excellent soldiers, the First Army would have not been able to achieve such great success solely relying on their fierce weapons.

After witnessing the battle, Tangen could not help but feel glad that he had chosen to leave Hermes in time.

He thought that if he had stayed in the Holy City, a merchant like him probably would have been accused of financing the enemy when the First Army seized the city.

He secretly sighed. Well, it's really dangerous to do business in the outside world. If I can return home safely this time, I'll never leave the city of Evernight in the future.

I can carry on business within the city. Although I won't earn much money that way, I'll still be able to raise my family.

And my Fuer in the "Paradise on Earth". She must miss me very much.

I really had hoped to get home earlier. Tangen was absorbed in thought.

***************

Towards the evening, Eagle Face stepped into a temporary tent for a meeting. He saluted Edith and handed a report to her. "The battlefield has been basically cleaned up. Here are the reports from each squad. I've briefly summarized them."

"Thank you for your hard work." The Pearl of the Northern Region received the report and roughly glanced through it. Just as she had expected, the casualty figure for the First Army was zero. As for the army of the Kingdom of Dawn, more than 1,000 people were found dead and about 600 were wounded. This fight was estimated to reduce the number of Dawn's soldiers by 20%. Most of them were killed in the explosions of the bombs and the panic-stricken stampede. The guns and bullets had greatly increased the turmoil but had not directly killed many people.

This result corresponded with the Adviser Department's predictions. The garrison of the Northern Region did not have many soldiers and the Magic Ark could only carry a limited amount of ammunition. Without effective methods to pursue and wipe out the enemies, they could only let most of them run away, but as long as the garrison managed to drive them away, this action could be considered a success.

At the end of the battle, more than 1,800 people had dropped their weapons and surrendered and 25 of them were nobles. The one with the highest rank was an earl who claimed himself to be the lord of Bloom, but Edith was more interested in a baron named Remin Payton. According to the reports, all the nobles had promised to pay the ransom and demanded preferential treatment, except this baron. Remin had repeatedly emphasized that he had known a distinguished official of Graycastle for a long time and was a friend of the king.

"Did he really say that?" she asked Eagle Face while shaking the pamphlet in her hand.

"I assumed that it was just nonsense. Or perhaps, this guy still thinks the king is Timothy Wimbledon," the deputy battalion commander frowned and said. "What are you going to do with these nobles?"

"It's impossible for us to let their families ransom them, so throw them into the dungeon." Edith thought for a moment. "They may be useful for us in the future. As for the civilian captives, release them now. We don't have the extra food to feed them."

"Yes."

"Did you find the King of the Kingdom of Dawn, Appen Moya?"

"We've checked all the corpses and found no one that looked like him." Eagle Face shook his head. "During the interrogation, a captive said he had seen Appen and his knights fleeing the battlefield. According to him, Appen and his men changed clothes and brought with them no flag or anything bearing the coat of arms of the royal family, and the others who wanted to join them to escape were all stopped by the king's knights. However, he also admitted that he was not sure about this for he saw this from a distance and at that time, the army of the Kingdom of Dawn was in chaos."

"Where did this captive see this?"

"Inside the old Holy City."

"There's a strong possibility that it was Appen." Edith shrugged her shoulders. "It's imperative for him to personally lead such a large army and if he was marching with the army, where do you think he was?"

"Ugh... at the head of the procession?" Eagle Face expressed some uncertainty.

"To be accurate, he should be behind the vanguard units," she answered. "As the old Holy City has no walls, the first one getting into the city will collect the most trophies in the robbery. In order to make sure that he was the first to be there, he must have made his own knightage the vanguard to eliminate threats and ensure his own profits."

"Do you mean that he and his knights were already inside the city before the Bomber Action started?"

"Well, yes. That's why Appen survived the air attacks launched by Maggie and Hummingbird and had enough time to identify the situation and choose the correct direction to escape. I have to say, he was quite wise to put aside his dignity and act decisively to escape in disguise." Edith slightly raised the corners of her mouth and quickly licked her lips.

"Damn it! We let the big fish escape," Eagle Face said angrily. "If I had arranged another group to chase..."

"No, it's of no use," she interrupted. "On such a broad plain, it's not easy to catch him unless you know his escape route in advance. We succeeded in the ambush on the main road just because we took full advantage of their retreating habit and herd mentality. If they had chosen to escape to the wheat fields on the other side of the road, we would not have achieved such an easy victory."

"..." The deputy battalion commander did not refute this but still looked very vexed at his failure to catch Appen.

"You don't need to blame yourself for this. It's not necessarily a bad thing for us." Edith smiled.

"Why?" Eagle Face raised his head in interest.

"It's complicated to explain. You only need to know that fear is contagious and when the people of the Kingdom of Dawn realize how formidable we are, they'll never belittle His Majesty's warning." The Pearl of the Northern Region paused. "Appen Moya will have a difficult time."

Knowing that she did not want to explain further, Eagle Face stopped pursuing the matter. "So what should we do next? Directly go to occupy the old Holy City?"

"No, it's impossible. The five hundred people we have are far from enough to fulfill this task." Edith denied his suggestion without hesitation. "Let's wait. Miss Maggie has gone to pick up a key person for this task. With her help, we may be able to seize this city effortlessly."

Chapter 890 - Your Holiness... Isabella

Chapter 890 Your Holiness... Isabella

Isabella was overwhelmed by her emotions when she saw the city again.

Unexpectedly, in only a year, the church, who had been the only hope of humanity to defeat demons, became a barrier to the human race's success in the Battle of Divine Will.

She had lived here for a long time but was not sentimentally attached to the church. The teachings of His Holiness O'Brien, kept ringing in her ears and reminded her that the result was always more important than the process. She was certain that if humanity could not defeat the demons, all their efforts would be meaningless.

She followed out O'Brien's instructions all her life. She had chosen to support Zero instead of Archbishop Mayne since the soul swallower had shown more potential in defeating the demons. After Zero had lost to Roland Wimbledon, she had chosen to serve the king. If even now, she could find a leader more powerful than Roland, she would choose the more capable one again without hesitation.

She did this for good reason.

In her view, the continuation of the human race was far more important than any personal interests.

Despite that, she still could not let go of some strange regret deep in her heart. She did not understand why she felt this way until she returned to the old Holy City.

She discovered that she had been feeling sorry for Zero all this time.

Back then, the Pure Witches had believed that the gulf between them and Zero, who had lived for hundreds of years, would have been exceptionally wide and many of them had secretly complained about the soul swallower's sudden change in moods. However, Isabella had gotten along well with Zero. She found that, in comparison to the other Pure Witches, who had planned to follow their personal interests throughout the Battle of Divine Will, Zero was much more straightforward and strong-willed.

She believed that Zero was not very different from herself except that she was more accustomed to being an assistant while Zero was used to being the leader.

She was afraid that it was not Zero's nature but an inevitable choice for an experienced witch who had lived for more than 200 years.

She guessed that the Holy City would have looked very different if Zero had been able to meet Roland ten years earlier.

Unfortunately, everything had happened too late.

After circling the sky twice, Maggie landed in the camp outside the city.

"We're here. Let's get off," said Agatha, who was behind Isabella.

Isabella nodded and leaped off the beast. Some soldier that was waiting around immediately came over. "Lady Edith is waiting for you in the tent. Please come with me."

Roland had asked Maggie to bring the Ice Witch with Isabella to the old Holy City and had explicitly told Isabella that she had to act under the watch of another witch during her "prison term". She had willingly accepted this condition. For her, this was already unexpected preferential treatment. She did not have to wear any God's Locket of Retribution or shackles on her hands and feet. Even her clothes were brand new.

After walking into the tent, she saw a woman who stood behind a desk with a smile on her face. "I'm Edith Kant, a member of the Ministry of Defense and temporary commander for the Holy City campaign."

"A great-looking common woman," Isabella thought. "I thought you would control the Hermes Plateau first and then seize the old Holy City."

"That was the original plan, but the army of the Kingdom of Dawn moved faster than we expected." Edith gave a rough explaination of the situation. "His Majesty's order is to ensure the safety of the monastaries, which isn't a problem. The real problematic thing is how to orderly evacuate the orphans from the monastaries. If I remember correctly, they are all nurtured and brought up by the church. I'm afraid it'll hinder our plan if we have to force them out. I think you may have a solution to this problem. After all, His Majesty assigned this task to you before the expedition."

Isabella could not help but frown. "Wait... you said you came here through Cloud Ladder?"

"Yes, is there something wrong?"

"That place is of great importance and is usually heavily guarded. How come there was no one protecting that passage?"

"Is that so?" Edith's voice got deep. "But the merchants thought it was just a little-known, secret passage and Sylvie didn't find anything special about it."

"The church has been based in this place for the past several hundred years and is meticulous about everything here. It's impossible for the church's people to neglect such an important path into the city, which isn't under the control of the city wall." Isabella shook her head. "They just intentionally let the smugglers pass freely and planned to use this passage against the Coalition of the Four Kingdoms during the Months of Demons. Its sentry posts were hidden in natural limestone caves in the mountain. That was why the merchants didn't see any guards there."

"This passage is left unprotected now. Is it because of the breakdown of order in the Holy City?"

"Cloud Ladder is guarded by forces outside the city wall. Theoretically, its sentry posts won't be affected by the situation inside the city. If it's okay with you, I think it's a better idea for me to go to Hermes to have a look." With that being said, Isabella was quite stunned by this situation in her heart. She thought to herself, "Does this look like a breakdown of order? No, it's more like giving up the city and escaping."

"Let's address the issue of the monastaries first," Agatha said. "Is it possible for us to investigate the situation inside them from the sky?"

"Yes, Miss Lightning has examined all three of the main monastaries and found a big issue. It seems that the orphans are organized by someone and are determined to defend their homes to death. That's one of the reasons for us to delay this action." "All my soldiers were unharmed during the battle against the army of the Kingdom of Dawn. I don't want to see any casualties inside the city." Edith said with her hands laid out.

"Somebody organized the orphans?" Isabella pondered for a moment. "Let me go in and talk to them."

"By yourself?"

She was about to say yes but soon realized something was wrong and swallowed her words. Instead, she said, "No, Agatha will go with me."

...

"La-Lady Isabella!" Seeing Isabella, Margie suddenly stood upright and put her right hand on her chest unconsciously.

"I've told you countless times. You're not required to use the courtesy title anymore. Just call me by my name," she said with a straight face. "We're no longer Pure Witches."

"Yes, my lady!" Margie hurriedly nodded.

Isabella secretly sighed. His Majesty had only limited her movement but did not restrict Margie or Vanilla. These former Pure Witches still kept to their old habits from the monastery and occasionally came to the Foreign Affairs Building to talk with her about the interesting things they discovered in the Witch Union. Fortunately, Agatha did not mind it.

"Take us into the city." She pointed to the city that was not far away.

Margie summoned the Magic Ark and turned back to look at Edith, who came to see them off. "The First Army isn't going with us?"

"They won't go into the old Holy City until you make sure that it's safe."

The ark quickly sank into the ground and the soil above their heads turned into a transparent ceiling. Through it, they could see Lightning who flew in the sky and showed them the way.

There were four monasteries inside the old Holy City, but they could be thought of as a unified institution. They were built around the Reflection Church, linked together by underground tunnels and connected to Secret Temple inside the mountain through a secret path. New witches could be easily sent to the incarnation ceremonies through these underground passages, but they were sealed since a newly awakened Extraordinary had burnt down one of the monasteries.

The Magic Ark quietly sneaked into the outermost monastery, the Western Zone Monastery. Just like Lightning had said, no one was in the huge courtyard except for two skinny girls. They stood at the lobby entrance with spears in their hands, which were much taller than themselves.

"Here we are. Go up now," said Isabella.

"Don't you need to slip in to check first?" Margie asked in surprise.

"No, there are too many hidden God's Stones inside. We don't have to take the risk." Isabella was certain that in important sites such as the monasteries, the church usually placed giant God's Stones, whose power could reach up to 100 steps away and she was unable to eliminate their effects.

The ark swiftly popped out of the ground, causing panic among the guards. In their eyes, these two women seemed to appear out of nothing.

A shrill whistle immediately rang out. All the closed windows were opened one after another and a dozen of nuns that leading a group of orphans swarmed into the courtyard, holding swords, wooden shields, short bows, and hand crossbows. Agatha summoned her Ice in her hand and planned to cover Isabella with it if they began to shoot arrows.

"Wai-Wait! Stop!" Suddenly, the leading nun shouted loudly.

"Are you... the Pure Witch beside the Supreme Pontiff... Lady Isabella?" Another nun asked with a shaky voice.

Hearing this, all the people stopped.

"Yes, it's me." Isabella nodded calmly.

Seeing that these nuns still remembered her, she thought that the task given by His Majesty could be completed smoothly.

However, the next moment she was caught off guard by the abrupt change in their attitudes.

"You really are Lady Isabella! That's great. We're saved!"

"Lady, no, Your Holiness Isabella! Your Holiness, please help us!"

"Supreme Pontiff! Please don't leave us!"

More and more people dropped their weapons, knelt down, and chanted loudly, "Your Holiness."

Chapter 891 - The Cloister's Bitterness

"I'm not the pope, Supreme Pontiff was—" Isabella had the urge to refute, but was stopped by Agatha as she placed a hand on her shoulder.

"The task at hand is more important. I don't think His Majesty will mind."

These words seemed irrelevant however Isabella quickly understood what Agatha meant. She knew that this form of deception was a simple solution however these sorts of methods are often seen as a red flag for liege lords that valued power.

Isabella decided as she recalled all the things she seen in Neverwinter and quickly swallowed her disbelief. Instead, she asked, "What do you mean needing us to help you? Where are the Judgement Warriors and priests?

"They all fled!"

"Not exactly, some were recalled to the Holy City!" Another nun refuted.

"We committed crimes. We even killed the priests..."

"That's not her fault!"

"We have no food, no clothes... and we haven't received supplies throughout the past two months. Are we abandoned?"

"Nonsense! Don't you see Her Holiness here?"

The nuns and orphans started to bicker and shout among themselves.

"Quiet! I only need one voice," Isabella shouted impatiently. Her eyes moved over the crowd and then she pointed at a nun who seemed to be their leader, saying, "You first. Arise and tell me."

"Yes, Your Holiness." The nun respectfully pressed her forehead on the ground before laboriously struggling onto her feet. "It's been over a month since we received news from Hermes..."

It took Isabella around an hour to get an overall understanding of what had happened here.

After the battle of Coldwind Ridge, each day the amount of the supplies the cloister received steadily declined. At first, portions of food decreased, and then delivery times were slashed. Times were hard yet order was maintained, largely thanks to the secure management the three cloisters had adopted and limited information they received from the outside world reducing panic. The priests and Judgement Warriors stationed here encouraged the orphans and nuns to pray more and be strong to get through the hard times claiming that the hard times were almost over.

However, such a time never came.

What the nun had said about church's final order to transfer all the Judgement Warriors and priests back to Hermes was six weeks ago.

The nuns did not exactly know what the order was at the time however they remembered how desperate those believers were. Those who were left behind, looked as if they lost their souls as they left the Great Hall.

Since then, the cloister destabilized.

The institution had vacant positions which would be replaced automatically by lower ranking subordinates. These positions offered the remaining believers the rights to proclaim themselves as the new priests. However they abandoned all the duties and responsibilities a priest had to uphold. Neither did they follow the discipline of saving resources set up by their predecessors. Instead, they wantonly squandered the meagre rations left and even deducted portions that would've gone to the orphans.

It was only when the nuns went to the new priests and bargained for food did they know of monstrous news that the Hermes Cathedral collapsed.

The church had reached a point where its very existence was at stake.

In order to fight the enemy with all their forces in the last battle, the church's executives decided to give up the old Holy City and recall all formal members to the highland. The last order they gave to the people left in the cloister was to resist the invasion on their own, until the last moment of their lives.

The turn of events seemed too unrealistic to believe, but the fact that the passage leading to the Reflection Church had been sealed off validated the news.

The grievous news had split the nuns into two factions. One called "The new priest faction" consisting of those who were completely disappointed by the old regime. The other faction made up by those who were hesitant and bewildered. The leading nun explained that the church used to be so powerful that there was no need for them to think or even consider their own fates... That was why they were so disturbed by the news. It was like their old, familiar world had suddenly shattered.

It was the new priests' selfish deeds that broke the situation.

Those new priests came from the bottom, and their usual positions were just a little higher than the nuns'. They often assisted the managers to deal with internal affairs without any possible promotion. As a matter of fact, no capable man would be deployed to here. So as soon as they tasted what the power could give them with no one looking over their shoulders, they would naturally become audacious and get out of control.

For example, the "Blessing" of the choir and the ritual class.

In fact, it should have been banned, but because of the Holy City's lax supervision of the cloister. From time to time many dignitaries that had some special interests would come and have some fun, which was no secret here. It's only when that young extraordinary escaped did the church increase supervision.

However, now that the security is gone, the new priests didn't have to care about punishments.

At first, in the name of "Blessing", only a few girls were forced, then the whole class had to obey, and at last. The situation became so incredibly hideous that the girls had to give their virginity in exchange for food. This kind of behavior not only violated the laws of the church but also pushed away those hesitating nuns and resulted in their alliance with the orphans.

Although girls of different ages were plundered from everywhere in the Four Kingdoms. The nuns had spent time with them, teaching them to read and sing and imparting the knowledge of ethics and rites to them, so naturally they bonded with the girls. That and the order that the church had given them pushed them to defy the new priests. They frequently stole food from the warehouse for the starving girls.

But no matter how much they tried to save the food. They could not stop the decreasing trend of the stock. As priests suspected the nuns' "betrayal", conflicts between them broke out. Two nuns were caught red-handed when they were smuggling food out of the warehouse and were executed by the priest who wanted to intimidate their subordinates. This backfired however and ended up disturbing the rest nuns to revolt. Under one nun's leadership, the nuns and orphans planned and prepared. One night when the priests were indulging in entertainment, they launched an attack. The nuns crushed those priests once and for all.

Additionally through the underground tunnels, the leader got contact with the other two cloisters. Together, they overthrew the disgusting believers in the same way.

When they attempted to send a representative who would find a way to cross the high wall and report the plight here to Hermes, the army from the Kingdom of Dawn appeared on the border of the old Holy City.

Since they had been abandoned, they had no choice but to resist by themselves. Everyone knew that once the enemy took the cloister, even surrender would not do them any good. That was why Isabella saw them in a hasty defense stance as she came in.

...

Isabella was very confused after she heard the nun's recount.

The corrupt custom in the cloister was not unknown to her, nor was she surprised to see the incompetent believers deprave so quickly after they gained power. However what surprised her was the order from the church.

In order to do battle with the enemy one last time? If that was true, they could never ignore to guard the mountain path if they were intending to give up the outer city walls. It was like they had handed over the first defense line to the enemy voluntarily.

Even though the Holy City had run so short of manpower that it could not keep an eye on the Cloud Ladder. It was impossible for them to bring out any words like "give up the Old Holy City".

Isabella knew, without a doubt that there was a secret area of the church that was hidden from most of the believers. Neither the New Holy City in the highland nor the Old Holy City at the foot of the mountain was the heart of the church. It was the Pivotal Secret Area resting deep under the ground that was the church's one true core, a 400 years old place where they mined the God's Stone, studied the Sigils of Magic Stones, and held the incarnation ceremony of God's Punishment Army.

The Old Holy City had a secret path leading to the Pivotal area, and even the main exit of the path led here. How could they abandon such a crucial site so easily?

The order was full of flaws, a complete lie!

Chapter 892 - The One Well Received

Either the Church is hiding something or the nun is lying.

Isabella could not think of a reason for the nuns to make up an order. After all, they were abandoned and discarded. Judging from their pale, emaciated look, she guessed that probably one more fortnight of starvation would kill them all.

But if the Church was lying, what were they going to do by recalling all the members to Hermes and leaving Cloud Ladder and the Old Holy City unguarded?

Trying to set aside her speculation, Isabella looked at the leading nun and asked, "What should I call you?"

"I'm Qiu, Your Holiness."

"Didn't you ever think to get out of here?"

"What, why?" The nun seemed surprised.

"Although the walls are high and the gate is thick, they're not impassable. Six weeks should have been long enough for all of you to make a wooden ladder or stack the firewood at the bottom of the gate to burn the planks and melt the chain. You're free to do anything that could get yourself out of here," Isabella said confused whilst trying to ascertain the validity of the situation. "Since you could send a representative to report to Hermes, why didn't you get out of here together? With the food supplies severed, you're facing certain death even without the army of the Kingdom of Dawn's invasion."

It took Qiu a long moment to come gather herself. She muttered, "Where... Where could we possibly go if we leave here?"

All the residents of the monastery lowered their heads at the question.

"I've never left the monastery ..."

"Nor have I."

"Although there's not much, we, at least, have something to eat. I don't think the outside world would be better." Some orphans joined in.

"If we start to beg for food, then our lives will revert back to the one we used to have."

"The book told us that we shouldn't take begging for granted."

"I don't... want to live like that anymore."

Looking at their bewildered looks, Isabella finally realized that it was not the church's order that bound them. They knew nothing but their sheltered life. The situation seemed neither good nor bad. It would be easy to cope with the nuns. Just kill the ones who were still loyal to the Holy City and be done with it. But if all the orphans here had become obstinately loyal, then they would become a thorn in His Majesty's side.

"I have one more question." Isabella drew a deep breath and asked in a low voice, "Why do you address me as the Supreme Pontiff?"

"Well..." Qiu looked intimidated. She hesitated for a while before saying, "Pope Mayne is dead, and so were the three archbishops. There's no new nomination declared in Hermes. So, according to the rules of replacement, we have to promote all the subordinates to fill in the gaps and you're the one closest to the holy temple."

"Pope Isabella! Please help us!"

"Please don't leave us behind. We'll bear whatever punishment you give us!"

"Please take us back to Hermes!"

Again, the nuns started to plead.

"It appears that they did not call me Her Holiness for any particular reason other than to get a chance to regain the church's attention," Isabella thought. Although the rules of replacing a superior was not suitable for the top-level executives in the church as they were already at the top, the ones who were drowning at the bottom of the hierarchy could not care less. They would clutch to anything that could save their lives as tight as they could, even it was a fragile straw.

As Isabella thought of this, she an idea popped into her head. "I'm here to tell you an important thing. Listen carefully!"

All of them held their breaths.

"The church has changed," Isabella said loudly. "Mayne was not the real pope. He not only betrayed Lord O'Brien but also stole the throne! In fact, there was another successor to whom Lord O'Brien meant to pass his power to."

The words were like a stone that created numerous ripples as it was tossed into the water. The listeners burst into an uproar.

"The successor was his first Pure Witch, Zero," Isabella said. She did not know what His Majesty would think of her words, but since she started, she would do her best. "Graycastle isn't our enemy. Instead, in order to defeat the real enemy, Lord O'Brien hoped to ally the Church with the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Do you mean... the demonic beasts?" Someone could not help asking.

"They're more fearsome monsters out there." Isabella shook her head and said, "They're recorded in the books within the church that only a very few people could see. Mayne did not want to let the Pure Witch seize the throne, so he secretly revolted and framed Zero as she was about to leave for Graycastle as a messenger. That's the cause for the battle of Coldwind Ridge." Fortunately, Mayne's trick didn't work. I survived that battle and the masterminds of the rebellion died shortly there after. There was no doubt that they were punished by the deities."

"There's no need to fight for the wrong cause, so you don't need to make a last stand to protect the monastery," she paused. "You're safe now."

Both the nuns and the orphans looked as though they could not believe their ears.

"What about... our punishment... for killing the priests?"

"What they did was not worthy of being a member of the Church, so I decided spare all of you."

There was a moment of silence. Then they started to cheer wildly. "Thank you, Your Merciful Holiness!"

"Long live Pope Isabella!"

"Long live Your Holiness"

Isabella raised her hands to make them calm down before she continued, "Just as I said beofre, I am not the Pope. The rules don't really make me attain that role. I'm just the executor of the Supreme Pontiff. The same as I was before."

"But you still represent the Church of Hermes!" Qiu said, thrilled.

"I have a mission for you," Isabella said clearly and with certainty. "Of course, that's after all of you eat your fill."

The nuns and the orphans knelt again after they had just jumped to their feet in celebration. They said as one, "At your service."

Isabella knew very well that those people did not side with her because they were convinced by her. They had been forsaken and should have been done for. Now that they were given a chance to return to the church, they would naturally devote anything, even if this "church" was not real.

Even if the real Church of Hermes was still standing, they might mull over whether they had made the right choice after they removed themselves from their plight and calmed down. But that was impossible now. By the time the First Army arrived, what she had said would definitely come true.

Only by breaking their old beliefs of the church and instilling a half-true story she had made up as the new "truth" would King Roland be able to control this land.

"It's very simple. I want you to restore order in the Old Holy City," Isabella said methodically. "Qiu, first gather the residents of the two other monasteries and retell them my words. You must also see to it that every child gets their portion of food before nightfall. The First Army of Graycastle will answer your call and help you. Since they know that it was Mayne and his followers that betrayed the Church, they wouldn't make things difficult for you. After that, all of you must walk out and inform every household of the news and note the names of whom have left and stayed respectively. If you run into the treasonous priests or the believers, report to me immediately."

As the order was issued, the nuns responded quickly and then turned around to get to work. Although there was no substantial improvement of their situation, the look of each person's face at the moment has become very different.

They quickly ripped down the gate and when a nun was about to take the girls out of the monastery, one girl suddenly bowed low to Isabella.

"Thank you, Lady Isabella."

The other girls followed her behavior one after another.

"You're so nice, My Lady."

"I'll remember you forever."

Every girl in the line echoed these kinds of words.

"They are...thanking me..."  Isabella slightly closed her eyes, lost in thought. She had received much hatred and many curses since the day she became a Pure Witch, yet this was the first time she was being thanked.

But what she had done was not for gaining gratitude, but for her overall goal. She would also put those same people to death without the slightest hesitation if that was needed to achieve her goal. So... this kind of gratitude seemed unwarranted to her.

Although that was she had been thinking, Isabella felt something she did not recognize emerge from her heart. It was feeling she had never experienced before. She could feel a soft distension occuring in her heart and warmth that felt like a fire. Isabella thought she should resist the feeling, but... it was not as annoying as she had expected.

Was this King Roland's intention all along?

Isabella let out a small breath and then slowly followed the end of the line to the camp.

Chapter 893 - Fate Passes On

Two weeks later when summer was already nearing its end, Roland finally arrived at Hermes.

He was welcomed at the gates of the Holy City by the witches and the First Army garrison from the Northern Region. He also spotted several nuns in black church clothing amongst the group of people.

Although Roland had heard from Lightning that all the top-level figures of the church had disappeared, he still couldn't believe what had happened as he entered this, now empty, stronghold. The fierce battle that he had once thought awaited them never came. Neither the God's Punishment Witches nor the new mortars had been used. There was no doubt that things couldn't have gone any better, but this turn of events felt somewhat anticlimactic for Roland.

He had made a right decision in letting Isabella come along with the First Army to this expedition. According to the reports from Eagle Face and Agatha, the former Pure Witch was quickly alerted to the strange happenings within the Church and promptly suggested the army to investigate the Holy City of Hermes right after they finished taking care of the orphans in the cloisters.

To their surprise, the entire city was empty except for the people who lived in the surrounding areas. They never had the chance to leave in time, thus creating a facade that the church was still under operations. In reality, those people had no idea about what was really happening in the inner city, and all they heard was that the church was preparing for the last battle.

After that, the nuns, organized by Isabella, entered Hermes and visited as many houses as possible to explain the situation. As a result, the number of evacuees started to decrease, and at least no more large groups of people were spotted fleeing towards Wolfheart and Everwinter. The church abandoning the Holy City was such a shocking turn of events for the people, such that it had utterly ruined the church's reputation. Compared to those cowards who ran at the first sign of danger, the nuns who came out and tried to restore order seemed more like the rightful successors to the old church.

"How did they escape?" Roland could not help asking. The message he had received did not include many details, so Roland wanted to know where the remnants of the church had gone. "There ought to be thousands of people in the Inner City. How could they have managed to leave the plateau without passing through the city wall?"

"There are many tunnels under Hermes, some of which go under the city wall. If they evacuated in batches, it would have been possible for them to escape without alerting the residents in the outer city." Isabella explained. "The tunnels were designed to work only one-way so that intruders wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. Moreover, the tunnels can only be used once. I've checked a lot of tunnel entrances, and most of them were already destroyed."

"Where do the tunnels lead to?"

"Only people who have used them would know," Isabella said as she shook her head. "If they had planned the escape beforehand, it would be near impossible to track them now that they already had six weeks to run."

"So the church is like a cornered lizard, cutting off its tail to escape, and hoping for a chance to come back in the future?" Roland frowned as he pondered over this. "But giving up the Holy City meant that they abandoned their base of operations, which is far worse than just losing a tail, as this was as good as them losing everything. How could they be so confident that they would be able to find a new base that can rival Graycastle? Or are they going to scatter into different places and harass my land?" Thinking about how he had to keep an eye out for fanatical believers in the coming years gave Roland a headache.

"No need to worry, Your Majesty. They won't come back anymore," Isabella smiled, as she read Roland's mind.

"Why?" Roland was surprised.

Isabella replied, "They left behind a messenger."

...

In a small church on the north side of the Holy City, Roland met the messenger that Isabella mentioned.

He was a grizzled old man in a brand new red priest robe hemmed with gold. Seized by two guards, he walked out with a thick book held in his arms.

The old man hobbled towards them unsteadily, but he kept his chin up as he tried to strike an imposing figure. He cast a cold glance at Isabella and then looked at Roland. "Are you the King of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon?"

"Yes, that is I."

"You have your father's grey hair and grey eyes," the old man said slowly. "My name is Jacob, the High Priest of the Holy City. In your terms, my position would be similar to that of a duke. ... But of course, I don't own any land, nor do I need that many servants."

"I heard that you've insisted on waiting for me here?" Roland shrugged. "What happened? Why didn't they take you with them when they turned tail?"

"I wanted to stay." the old man said solemnly as if these were his last words. "I'm too old to run... Even if I could go with them, there won't be much time left for me. I'd rather be buried in this city than start a new but short life."

"New life?" Roland quickly seized the keywords.

"Yes. Let go all of all of our duties and live a new and peaceful life for the rest of our days." Jacob's voice sounded satirical. "You've won, Your Majesty. The church won't be fighting against you anymore. This city will become yours with everything intact, and so will our nightmares. if you so desire."

"Oh?" Roland said noncommittally.

"What other reasons do you think that made us guard this barren plateau?" The old man's voice rose. "Look what you've done. Humans are going to perish because of you!"

"Really? What a harsh accusation. However, I don't see why I have to bear it." Roland said as he roughly understood the High Priest's intention. Surely enough, the church would not let him take the city so easily, and even though they did not have the force to fight back, they would try to obstruct him mentally. Zero had tried the same trick before the final battle between them, although their intentions were different. If Roland knew nothing about the Battle of Divine Will, then the news about how the demons would soon annihilate humankind would have definitely taken him by surprise. Additionally, if the church manipulated the truth and made it seem like he was at fault for mankind's imminent destruction, then they would have succeeded in breaking his will."

"Accusation? Sigh... what gibberish. Do I look like I'm kidding? O, young and untested King, it appears that Her Holiness, the Pure Witch didn't tell you the truth." Jacob gave Isabella a meaningful look before he continued. "The church was laden with a heavy responsibility that is beyond imagination and is unknown to all but a few superiors of the church. You have no idea what kind of enemy we've been preparing to fight over the past few centuries. Now that you've ruined the church, like it or not, you must take full responsibility for what is going to happen. When the end comes for us all, you will only be able to helplessly watch on as your kingdom get razed to the ground!"

"It seems that this man is not only attempting to attack me mentally but is also trying to take any opportunities to alienate me from Isabella. It's a shame that he has misjudged me and sent the wrong signals." As Roland looked at the self-righteous old priest, an old quote came to mind: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

"You don't have to believe me, but a truth is a truth." As the priest said this, another sentence emerged in Roland's head: People die if they are killed. Jacob let out a long breath after he finished those words. He then flipped open the book in his hands and handed it over, saying, "This is the Canon of the church. You'll understand all the foolish things you've done after you read it! Our... no, I should say the human beings' true enemy is—"

"The demons, right?" Roland chipped in casually. "You built the Holy City here not to fight against the demonic beasts, but for the God's Stone mines in the mountain. There's a Pivotal Secret Area under the cathedral, where you mined the God's Stones and made the God's Punishment Army, and that's the true form of the church. Of course, I don't know if you've learned this information, for only the pope was entitled to know of the incarnation ceremony of the God's Punishment Army. Oh, were you going to tell me the Battle of Divine Will or the Divine Smile? The battle that occurs every 400 or so is no news to me. Furthermore, the demons are not some invisible ghosts either. In fact, I've fought against them before. So... what else do you want me to know?"

"You—I—" At the moment, Jacob was so shocked that he opened his mouth, stammered, yet failed to make out any words. He looked like he would pass out at any moment. After a while, he pointed his shaking finger at Isabella and said, "It's you..."

But Isabella shook her head softly. "I didn't tell him that," she said, "From the very beginning, he knew much more than we had expected. You have underestimated him, or maybe, just perhaps, we all did."

"Now that you've finished your story, let me tell you mine," Roland said, giving a cold laugh.

Chapter 894 - Worthy To Save The World

Since there were still some First Army soldiers present, Roland omitted the origin of the Battle of Divine Will in his story. He briefed the old man only on the part of the history of how the witch empire of old had transformed into the church.

Despite the fact that Roland had only briefly mentioned bits and pieces of the story that he knew, Jacob was still shocked when he realized just how much Roland already knows about humanity's past. His eyes widened every time the church's highly confidential information just slipped out of Roland's mouth as if it was worth nothing. In the end, Jacob's eyes got so large that they looked like a pair of lanterns. Every time the old man wanted to refute what Roland had said, his words would end up being caught on his lips. A lot of what Roland said was beyond his understanding, yet it all fit perfectly with the rumors that went around within the church.

Roland paused as he saw the old priest gasping for breath. He didn't stop talking because he had nothing else to say, but out of concern for the old guy who looked like he would pass out any second now. Of course, Roland didn't really care if the old man were to pass out; he just wanted to enjoy the face-smacking some more.

He did not continue until Jacob had finally caught his breath. "It looks like you were never told about the inner workings of the church. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been so shaken by these trivial facts. You can't berate me for talking nonsense even if you want to because you can't help but find what I said just now similar to the clues you have found out yourself in the past. I believe that all the knowledge of the demons and the Battle of Divine Will had been passed down by generation after generation by the popes, to keep the goal... or should I say, the faith, unforgotten. However, the current fools who call themselves the successor of the church have a fear of witches that runs so deep, that they dare not reveal the truth of the past. Not to mention the will of the first Pope. You people proclaim to be fighting for humanity, yet how many believers in the entire Holy City of Hermes are even aware of the existence of the demons and the upcoming Battle?"

"But this isn't how things are run in Graycastle. Information about the Battle of Divine Will is no secret in Neverwinter. Every minister working under me knows of the demons. The planning and preparation for the upcoming Battle of Divine Will form one of Neverwinter's fundamental policies. Be it farmers or blacksmiths, all my subjects are doing their best in contributing to the inevitable fight against evil. That's the largest difference between us. I've been preparing Graycastle to withstand the onslaught of our enemy for years." Roland took in the look of distraught apparent on the old man's face with joy before he continued, "Do you still think that the church is the one and only savior of humankind? Don't you think you've been thinking too highly of yourselves? Even if we set aside the fact of whether or not I will be able to come out victorious against this powerful enemy, one thing is still for certain—"

He walked over to the old priest and spelled out his next words slowly, "How can the church hope to save the world when they can't even defeat me? Stop dreaming!"

"We..." Roland's words had caused Jacob's face to turn pale as if the last sentence had pierced through his heart. Jacob had indeed questioned the church's strength in his mind before, but he had always kept his doubts hidden. Now that the truth was brutally shoved in front of his face, he had lost even the last bits of his remaining determination.

The old priest then felt strength leave his legs and he collapsed on to the floor, and the dignified look deserving of a respectful figure that he initially displayed quickly disappeared from his face without a trace.

"Take him back to the dungeons," Roland ordered, waving one hand. "He is too old to work in the mines. Keep him alive until the Bloody Moon comes and have him witness how my people fight against the demons. I hope by then he would still remember how to repent to God."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The soldiers pulled Jacob up and carried him away by his arms.

Roland turned to look at Isabella and said, "Well done. Without you, we wouldn't have restored order in the Holy City in such a short time."

Isabella, being unlike her usual self, looked away from her King and said in a slightly shaky voice, "Is this really okay? Do you really want me to be the one to give the orders as the Pope's representative and gather those who were abandoned?"

He had received reports from Edith, Eagle Face, and Isabella herself, and understood their proposal to rewrite history to split up the church once and for all. The Pearl of the Northern Region had praised this move, saying that it would help Graycastle conquer both the old and the new Holy City and take over all the influence that the church had accumulated over the centuries. Even if the scattered believers somehow found themselves an opportunity to start up a new organization, they would look like illegitimate rogues in comparison to Roland who had actual control over Hermes.

Roland, on the other hand, looked at this move in a more practical way. Located in the middle of the Impassable Mountain Range and facing the big breach, this piece of plateau would be a major choke point for them to defend in the Battle of Divine Will. Roland had intended to take over the place since the day he planned to wage war on Hermes. Now that they could utilize the local workforce and resources to their advantage and cut down expenditures for Neverwinter, Roland didn't see why they shouldn't go ahead with the plan.

"What would I have to mind if what you did turns out to be effective?" Roland said, smiling. "However, your sentence still stands."

"I never had that kind of intention..." Isabella said hurriedly.

"But of course, I can't leave you unrewarded for your help either." Roland waved his hands and said, "If there's ever a day when you're required to intervene as a representative, then in that day you shall be treated properly, in a way that is befitting of a representative. What do you think?"

"In a way that... is befitting of a representative?"

"The representative would be equivalent in status to the Prime Minister or the Hand of the King." Roland smiled. "Of course, this wouldn't give you the equivalent authority or power, but only the accommodation and food, such as a commodious, a posh suite, delicacies served by imperial cooks, all the Chaos Drinks you could ever desire, and more. If you don't want them, you're allowed to take an equivalent amount of gold royals—"

"No, Your Majesty." Isabella shook her head. "The former is good. I mean... just have it your way."

"Well, that's settled then," Roland said pleasantly.

…

As the main body of the First Army joined in the investigation in the city, the detailed workings of the foreign city slowly became clear before Roland.

To his surprise, the old priest did not exaggerate when he said: "with everything intact." Apart from the collapsed Hermes Cathedral, all the buildings were in excellent condition. Even the broken parts of the city wall had been repaired, and the mangonels that stood upon the wall were left untouched.

In addition, a large number of Berserk Pills that Isabella had mentioned in her report rested quietly in the underground cellar. According to the inventory count that they made, there were around 240,000 pills in total. Thinking that Zero planned to use millions of berserk soldiers to fight against the demons, Roland was relieved that her plan never came to fruition.

After the inventory count, they set up a big fire on the high city wall to burn the pills into ashes that were eventually swept down off the wall and left frozen in the dirt. At last, the threat of a crazed army that had bothered him all this time eventually came to an end.

But the investigation report included some even more interesting things.

Such as, food.

And weapons.

Every day since the investigation began, the First Army would find new hidden goods that had been amassed in frightening amounts. The resources they have found so far were enough to equip and maintain several orders of knights. No wonder that Appen Moya, the King of Dawn, and his feudatories were willing to travel thousands of miles to plunder this city. Roland noticed that the top-level executives of the church had only taken the gold royals and jewels, leaving most of the war supplies untouched, which partly proved that they would no longer return and were instead fleeing away to start a new unfettered life.

The leviathan that nested in the northwest of Graycastle had finally bitten the dust.

Roland had a lot of free time now. All he needed to do was to wait for Iron Axe to annex the Eastern Region and march the army to the border of their neighboring country where they could join forces. After that, they would work together to outflank the Kingdom of Dawn.

With free time he didn't usually have, Roland wanted to look around the city that the church had run for hundreds of years. After all, the Holy City of Hermes was incomplete in the memory fragment.

The place he would like to visit the most would undoubtedly be the place of the phantom, the Reflection Church that Isabella had told him before. It was said that it was by phantom playback that Alice, the Queen of Starfall City, managed to pass down her faith across hundreds of years. That was also the place where Zero finished her transformation from a Pure Witch to the Pope.

Chapter 895 - Reflections of The Past

In a way, the Reflection Church was not only the place for the transition of power between Popes, but also a museum.

The busts of the past influential figures of the church radiated historical significance, not to mention the Sigil of Magic Stones which could replay major historical events in the form of holographic images.

If it were to become a tourist attraction for future generations, it would definitely be very profitable.

But if Roland wanted to enter it now, he would have to spend quite an effort—although the Reflection Church was right beneath the old Holy City church in a totally mirrored way, the two churches were not connected. The slate and clay between them were as thick as 10 meters with God's Stones of Retaliation mixing in the wall, so forcefully digging through with manpower or phasing through it by using the Magic Ark would both be extremely troublesome.

After inquiring about the details with Isabella, Roland decided to instead enter the Reflection Church through the tunnels under the cloister.

After all, those tunnels used to be unobstructed. Although they were purposely sabotaged and blocked, it would still be easy for the Magic Ark to go through them. More importantly, the abandoned tunnels were not under the influence of God's Stones. Compared with the entire cave that was under the influence of the God's Stone mineral vein, the tunnels seemed to be a much safer and reliable choice.

To avoid getting lost, Roland asked Sylvie to scan the whole underground structure to determine the best route for this sightseeing trip.

The witches were alerted by all the preparation that was going on and so learned about Roland's upcoming trip. On the day of his departure, Roland found a crowd of people gathering outside his tent, with the little girl, Lightning, being the most excited of them all.

"Your Majesty, how can you leave me behind for such an important expedition!" She pouted after saying that as she felt that she had been wronged. "Am I not your chief explorer?"

"Coo, coo! Adventure, coo!" Maggie agreed.

"Um... this is only a sightseeing tour. There won't be anything exciting in the places where Popes conduct the transition of power, let alone any danger."

"But I want to go with you... can I?" the little girl asked with her sparkly puppy eyes.

How was Roland supposed to say no to this?

Now that the floodgates were opened, the witches' requests came one after another.

"Your Majesty, take me too," Hummingbird asked in a low voice. "I can help you with the luggage."

"As a member of the Quest Society, how can I miss such a key moment. Am I right, Your Majesty?" Agatha asked.

"I'll go wherever elder sister Anna goes!" Nana said with a clear voice.

"What if the underground building is infected by the demonic plague? Didn't you say that places which lack ventilation are the perfect environments for bacteria to grow?" Lily asked seriously.

"Since the Queen of Starfall City is there, I'd like to see her again..." Apart from the witches, even No. 76 Phyllis came to express her desire to join.

"Wait a moment, was she not an enemy of Taquila?" Roland curiously asked.

"But she was still a respectable leader—if not for Lady Alice, we wouldn't have even survived until the split between Taquila and Starfall City."

... In the end, pretty much everyone was able to get the free trip to the Reflection Church that they wished for.

Originally, Roland only planned to take Anna, Nightingale, Sylvie, and Isabella with him. But now, due to the increase in participants, Margie had to go back and forth several times before she was able to transport everybody into the abandoned tunnel.

Although these complex tunnels were shut down long ago, they were still in good conditions, with no sign of leakage or erosion. Although the tunnels were quite dusty, the group still traveled through them without much of a hitch.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, they arrived at the upper region of the Reflection Church. Under the guidance of Isabella, they soon arrived at a grand hall. The hall's width was nothing impressive, but the ceiling extended so far that Roland could only see the pillars extend into the darkness above.

In other words, its height was much greater than its width.

Despite its grandness, Roland felt claustrophobic the moment he entered the hall. It felt like he was walking through an extremely deep valley. Even though Stones of Lighting illuminated both sides, their faint yellow light was only able to light up a small part of the hall.

"This is the Prayer Room. The portraits of all the previous Popes are hung on the walls of this hall." Isabella explained while walking, "On the day of power transition, O'Brien, taking Mayne, visited here too. But the Archbishop did not know that O'Brien took someone else with him."

"That was Zero," Roland said with a low voice.

"Yes. Normally, a Pure Witch would strictly be forbidden from entering this area; even the witches used to instill magic in the Sigils were chosen from those soon-to-be sacrificed. As soon as they saw the phantoms, they would then go through the God's Punishment Army's incarnation ceremony." Isabella nodded. "The moment that Zero arrived here, she had become a candidate for the Pope."

"Disgusting!" Nightingale snarled, although it was unsure whether she was referring to the incarnation ceremony or Zero.

Isabella shut her mouth sensibly.

When everybody arrived at the end of the hall, a full-length portrait taking up the entire wall appeared in front of them. Different from the passage under the dim yellow light, this portrait's frame was surrounded by Stones of Light. Every detail of the portrait was vividly exhibited under the soft light.

Although Roland had heard many times about the appearance of the Queen of Witches from Agatha and other witches, when he saw her portrait with his own eyes, an unspeakable feeling rose from his heart.

In the portrait, Alice was holding a sword with both hands and looking at the front. She looked as if gazing into the unpredictable future, while at the same time examining Roland.

There was no single word that can describe her accurately. She was soft yet strong; cold yet fiery. One could never forget her as soon as one laid eyes upon her. However, if a pretty face was all that she had, Roland would not have been too surprised. On Alice, there was the overwhelming aura of a natural leader—an aura so intense it seemed as if she was born with God's Honor; leading her followers to victory until the end of time.

"What a beautiful woman," Anna said with complicated feelings. "Fortunately, she's gone."

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" Roland patted her head slightly. "Even if Alice were alive, would I have been head over heels for her?"

But seeing Nightingale who was by his side, he decided not to voice out his thoughts.

I have nothing to hide, but if... if she judged that what I said was not the whole truth or partly-true-partly-false, what can I do then?

After appreciating the looks of the Queen of Starfall City, they walked into the Illusion Room concealed behind the giant painting.

"Nine Sigils of Magic Stones are stored here. I haven't seen all of them. Some of them seem to have been passed down from the older generations." Isabella pressed at a Magic Stone. "If you wish to see all of them, I'll activate them one by one."

"Then let's begin." Roland nodded.

Their surroundings suddenly became pitch-dark.

Chapter 896 - Dust-laden Secrets

In the darkness, Roland felt that two hands had simultaneously grabbed him. Nightingale said alertly, "What's going on?"

"The illusion created by this sigil is directly projected into everyone's brain," Agatha explained. "It will seem like you have been teleported to another world alone, but the reality is unaffected. We're still standing in the grand hall."

"If you don't want to watch it, you can just walk out of the effective range of the sigil" Isabella added.

Not long after, the darkness gradually faded away, and the transparent glass dome, marble floor, and spacious roundtable appeared in front of their eyes. Sitting around the table were witches in the Union-style copes, among them was the impressive Queen of Starfall City whose hair was as fiery red. Although this was a scene from 400 years ago, everything in the phantom looked so realistic. Even the tea on the table was giving off puffs of hot steam. It felt as if a moment that had long been buried history had been revived to the present once again.

If such a technique had existed from where Roland came from, historians who had worked their asses off in the dirt to search for a few pieces of text fragments would definitely be moved to tears.

Seeing that there was no danger, one hand let go of Roland. However, the other one did not loosen its grip at all, but instead moved down and eventually the two's fingers were tightly intertwined with each other.

Roland instantly knew who that was.

He smiled and softly squeezed the other person's fingers before he shifted his attention to the center of the phantom.

Isabella activated the magic stones one after another. The locations in the phantoms changed from the witches' escape route to Taquila, then to Starfall City. As Alice became younger and younger, the appearing witches kept on changing, and by the end, only a few familiar faces could be seen. Undoubtedly, during this prolonged brutal war, the Union suffered tremendous losses, and very few senior witches were able to survive until the escape.

This was the result of the witch empire's systemic flaw: the more powerful a witch was, the higher ranked she would be. It sounded logical, but when war erupted, the high-ranking witches had to fight on the front lines themselves, instead of commanding the war effort from somewhere safe. Roland had heard from Agatha that Alice evolved into a Transcendent during an extremely dangerous battle. During her reign, she went through several massive battles just like that one. In other words, if she had made even a single mistake, then the history of the Union... or maybe even the history of the entire human race would have turned out differently.

Such was the case for the Head of the Three Chairs, let alone the other high-ranking witches.

As a matter of fact, that system did not provide a suitable place for leaders to be developed—a rookie only had to survive one or two battles and taste some fresh blood to become a veteran, yet a high-ranking officer had to go through quite a few battles and witness thousands of deaths to genuinely mature. Having the leader personally lead a charge was indeed the best way of enhancing an army's morale, but this should only be used as a last resort. If everything went well, the troops would keep on fighting with high morale without the need for a leader to make an appearance.

Leaders and common troops do not have the same value—when faced with a large-scale war where large numbers of casualties were inevitable, such a practice was truly reckless.

Roland was not expecting to find any astonishing secrets through the sigils. He believed the past Popes must have repeatedly watched these phantoms, so if there were records about the origins of the Divine Will or the nature of the relics of gods, then the church wouldn't have fallen to such a sorry state today. The purpose of his trip was, apart from satisfying his curiosity, to gain some more experiences for himself.

He found that what had happened was more or less the same as he had imagined. As the phantom played out, the group mostly saw scenes such as important conferences, festivals, and battle mobilizations. It was understandable that the Sigils of Magic Stones were only used on such occasions.

According to Agatha, sigils that were able last for such a long time cost quite a fortune.

Soon enough, they came to the last phantom—Alice and the other two chairs were nowhere to be found, and instead, there was a crowd of senior witches in disheveled clothing. The image quality was also visibly worst than the previous playbacks.

Agatha asked with surprise, "Are those people..."

"The founders of the early Union?" Phyllis asked.

"Who are they?" Roland asked, raising his eyebrow.

"The Extraordinaries who survived the first Battle of Divine Will. It was them who founded the Union. Look at the documents on the table! Could this be..." Phyllis asked in surprise.

"Indeed." Agatha's voice was full of joy. "I never expected to witness the well-known vow of the three queens with my very own eyes!"

Roland was bewildered. He raised his head and tried to get a better look, only to find texts written with magic power, which were only readable to witches.

"Can someone explain what the vows were about?"

"Allow me." Agatha's voice came from in front of him. "It was considered as a symbolic event in the history of the Union where this loose organization integrated into a centralized power. This event was something every awakened witch had to learn about. After the end of the first Battle of Divine Will, the Union, which was entirely under the witches' rule, was founded. At that time, different opinions were circling around the young organization, whether it was about the ruling of ordinary people or the methods of fighting against demons. Such debates lasted for years until three major powers emerged. Over time, the three forces grew until they finally overpowered the other lords and city-states, after which the Union ended up with the oligarchic organizational structure that we all know about."

"Were the three powers Starfall City, Taquila, and Arrieta?" Nightingale asked.

"That's right. Due to the special positions of these three Holy Cities, their lords were often crowned as 'Queen,'" Agatha replied. "The Three Chiefs of the last tenure in the Union were the Queen of Starfall City Alice, the Queen of Sunchaser Natalia, and the Queen of Moonradiance Eleanor."

"No wonder." Roland thought. To witches in that era, the vow of the three queens was more or less the same as the founding constitutional amendments of a nation. This event signified the point after which the Union had transformed from an unofficial alliance to a unified political entity. No wonder witches like Agatha and Phyllis were this excited about the vow. Indeed, it had important historical significance. Although the Union ended up in a disaster, without the Three Chiefs system, it would have been defeated much sooner in the second Battle of Divine Will, let alone leaving behind the numerous witches who took on "resisting demons, recovering Taquila" as their lifelong mission.

But such information was not particularly interesting to Roland. With his mind drifting away, he laid eyes on the minor details in the phantom such as the witches' clothing, the cups and stationery they used, and the furniture and decoration in the hall. Since Alice came from a time several centuries ago, the furnishings of her age were much shabbier. Obviously, after the defeat of the first Battle of Divine Will, the domain of the witches ended up in an extremely underdeveloped stage.

On the walls of the conference hall, Roland saw over ten portraits, and surprisingly, two of them were men. He guessed that they were probably some outstanding heroic figures from the war.

Apparently, at that time, the Union hadn't started to consider ordinary people as lower beings, since men could still attend such an important conference.

Just when Roland was about to ask Agatha whether she knew who they were, he felt as if all the blood in his body suddenly froze.

An indescribable chill rose from the bottom of his feet and penetrated through his spine. The panic was so intense that goosebumps sprung on his arms and his fingertips started to shiver slightly.

"What's wrong?" noticing his uneasiness, Anna asked urgently.

"That, that painting..." swallowing his saliva, Roland was able to barely stutter out his words.

"Painting?"

"The person in the painting... I've seen her before."

It took him quite a lot of effort to utter those words—although the phantom was not as clear as the previous ones, he could still distinguish the silhouette of the person in the second to the last portrait. It was a middle-aged woman, not outstanding in appearance, with her black hair coiled on the top of her head, one of her eyes covered with a patch, and was sitting on a high-backed chair with her hands crossed over each other.

Her appearance was exactly the same as Lan, Garcia's master in Roland's Dream World!

Chapter 897 - Jungle Fiesta

The heavy rain in the jungle had washed away most of the corpses' bloody smell.

An ordinary hunter might have found it hard to search for his target under this kind of condition. But for Lorgar, the faint smells that were mixed with the rainwater were more than sufficient for her to hunt.

For example, she knew that a number of animals had died at the same spot. She could sense that the within the different smells of blood, some still smelled fresh, while others carried a rancid odor. This means that several animals had all died at the same place for some time.

It was unlikely for the smell of small animals such as rabbits, rats, and foxes to spread for so far, and even if it did, the smell shouldn't have been so distinct. In other words, this scent most likely came from the carcasses of large animals no smaller than bulls or horses.

The creature that dragged all these large animal carcasses around must have possesed a certain level of strength. Mass storing food this way was also a frequent habit among the carnivorous predators.

Such places were often the nest of these predators.

Most importantly, Lorgar caught an indescribably foul smell within the stench of blood. This was the smell unique to those of hybrid demonic beasts. Had she not turned into a wolf, she would've been only able to smell some odor in the end. Only when she used her ability to transform could she detect the subtle differences in the damp air.

There was a hint of magic power in that smell.

Not every demonic hybrid could absorb magic power, but this one must be a demonic hybrid since its blood contained traces of magic power, making the beast much stronger than ordinary demonic beasts.

It was also one of the improvements she made through hunting in the jungle for these past few months.

If she could have mastered this technique before the holy duel, the Four-winged Eagle that attacked her from the air wouldn't have even been able to touch her.

Although the climate, the environment, and the preys in the Barbarian Land were far different from those in the desert, the technique for hunting was fairly similar. Basically, when it came to hunting, it was all down to being cautious, meticulous and patient no matter where he or she was.

Lorgar's current target was a large demonic hybrid bear.

When it stood up, its height was as tall as three men standing atop one another, and it looked like a mobile iron tower. Lorgar could not tell which demonic beast it managed to integrate with. The monster's skin was as thick as armor and could not be bitten through even by her sharp fangs. Its head looked even crazier. It had four eyes, two in the back, which made her sure-kill techniques such as a sneak attack from the back and biting the throat lose their usual effect.

Five days ago, Lorgar had encountered the demonic bear. After a harsh fight, she broke two claws while the bear lost half of its forefoot and ran away with its stomach cut open. This bear-like beast was probably the trickiest prey to deal with within the Barbarian Land ever since Lorgar had gotten there. It was just about as strong as the legendary beast of the desert. If this monstrosity were instead the first opponent that she had to face after arriving in the Barbarian Land, then she would have been the one running for her life. But now, things are different. She was able to get plenty of battle experience from all the other demonic beasts she had killed before this.

Nevertheless, it was a hunt. Not a duel. She brought herbs cultivated by Leaf and the Cleansing Water made by Lily for this trip. Also, she did not need to worry about minor injuries as she had excellent healing ability after transforming into a wolf. During these days, apart from healing the wounds, she spent the rest of time searching for the demonic bear.

As the smell became stronger and stronger, Lorgar knew that the chase was about to come to an end, and the victor would soon be decided.

She lightly jumped across a puddle. Her paws sank into the wet mud without any sound. She chose to start her attack from a downwind position since this would make it difficult for the beast to detect her presence through smell. She approached the source of the bloody little by little, pinpointed the position of the enemy using her hearing, and slowly lifted the vines in front of her with her front paw.

The demonic hybrid bear then appeared in front of her.

It was not aware of her arrival as it was busily biting into a stout buck, with blood stains on both of its cheeks. The bear's broken limbs that exposed the bones inside made the scene look even more appalling. For ordinary animals that suffered such severe wounds, they would typically opt to hide and recover first before doing anything else. But the bear seemed not to care about the wounds and instead acted as if nothing else mattered other than filling up its stomach.

The Wolf Girl tensed up her hind legs and went into a prone position. This time she intended to destroy its four eyes first so that it would have no chance to escape.

Just as she was ready to go, footsteps could be heard coming from the depths of the jungle.

Lorgar was stunned for a moment.

Why are there such orderly footsteps in the depths of the Barbarian Land? 

The new group's footsteps were very heavy and loud, and they apparently didn't care about making their presence known. The alternating sounds of one-two footsteps meant that they were humans, and there were more than one.

Did some hunters from Neverwinter lose their way?

"No…" She immediately rejected this idea. It would take over ten days to come here from the border of Graycastle. Considering the dense forest and wild grassland, it would take more time if they had to walk on land. Not to mention the fact that there were fierce beasts and snakes everywhere once you pass the grasslands. Moreover, hybrid demonic beats roam the grounds around the Taquila ruins. Even if someone had lost their way, they wouldn't have been able to reach here alive.

Lorgar suddenly thought of an answer.

A seemingly reasonable answer, and one that was much-anticipated by her.

At that moment, she felt the hair on her body stand up straight, and her heart started to beat violently. Though she was extremely nervous, her body instantly entered a battle-ready state.

The demonic bear also noticed this unusual sound. It dropped the half-eaten deer leg, climbed up and roared toward the direction of the footsteps.

The bush shook, and the staggered branches were pushed open. Two ugly and ferocious monsters then emerged out of the shadows.

They had dark brown skin and muscled arms, and also wore skull helmets and held deadly-looking bone spears.

Exactly the same as Lightning had described—

They were the demons!

She had finally found them!

The moment the demons appeared, the demonic hybrid bear launched its attack.

It lifted its still-intact front paw and plunged toward the newcomers who dared disturb its feast at a speed which far exceeded that of which should be possible for something as large as itself.

In addition to the demonic bear's power, the charge was further strengthened by the momentum of its entire body. This move was no less deadly than the Four-winged Eagle's dive from the sky. If it were Lorgar facing the charge, she would definitely try to avoid it. After all, she was not an Extraordinary and would have to pay a huge price to block this strike.

But instead of dodging, one of the demons stepped forward, and one of its arms quickly swelled and clashed directly against the giant palm of the demonic beast. With a muffled sound, the two monsters crashed into each other!

It was a stalemate!

Neither the demonic bear nor the demon could push further. But the demon was much shorter than the bear, so it would be unfavorable for the demon if this had dragged on.

However, there was more than one demon!

Another Mad Demon had taken the bone spear and aimed it at the hybrid demonic beast.

The fight was going to end in a moment, and Lorgar had but moments to spare if she wished to take action.

Leave or stay?

"Although the tube on the back of the demon is its weakness, it is still difficult to deal with." She suddenly recalled Lightning's warning. "If you meet the enemies, you'd better immediately retreat and report it to His Majesty."

Reason also told her that she needed to retreat, but her instincts were telling her otherwise as a burning sensation surged through her body.

No, this was not something that she needed to think about.

It was dangerous, but this was what she came for, wasn't it?

According to the information, the Mad Demon would experience a significant period of weakness after its arms had swelled. Lorgar could take advantage of this even if she were fighting against two demons!

"Shoo—"

With a piercing sound, the bone spear shot through the air.

At the same time, Lorgar pounced out of the shadows and bit towards the demon which was still struggling against the bear.

Chapter 898 - Dark Tide

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

　　With a flash of white, the bone spear directly pierced the demonic bear's chest. It had happened so quickly that it could not be captured by the naked eye. If it were Logar that was the target, with that kind of distance, she could not have avoided it.

　　It seemed that the demon was aware of the giant wolf that leaped out of the bush, but it was unable to block or avoid the attack as its right hand was still struggling with the demonic bear's paw. It only managed to raise its other arm to protect its head by instinct.

　　This action protected its throat but left its left arm exposed to Princess Lorgar.

　　Without the slightest hesitation, she bit into the demon's arm and tore it apart. The heavy taste of blood immediately spread into her mouth.

　　Compared to the enormous demonic bear, which had near-impenetrable skin, the Mad Demon's skin was similar to a human's in softness. Even though they had bulging muscles, their flesh was still as soft as a piece of cloth between Lorgar's fangs.

　　The effortlessness with which Lorgar's fangs tore apart the demon's arm gave her an immediate confidence boost!

　　Lorgar then moved past the demon and created a distance between them.

　　She remained unhurt while one of her enemies had lost the means needed to continue the fight.

　　That was undoubtedly an extremely successful attack.

　　The badly hurt Mad Demon did not move until the hybrid demonic beast fell. It then stumbled back a few steps and roared at her angrily. However, it had lost its left arm and its right arm had now shrunk. It was barely able to keep itself up, let alone be a threat to her.

　　But at this moment, the other demon's actions surprised Lorgar.

　　She saw it take out a horn from its pocket and began blowing into it.

　　"Woo————"

　　Its deep sound broke the silence of the forest and scared off a group of birds.

　　What does this mean?

　　Are there other demons nearby?

　　But she had already scouted out the area. With the exception of beehives and bird nests, which Lightning had asked her to mark, she did not find anything else worthwhile around here.

　　Lorgar decided not to think about it and would first kill the one-armed demon.

　　Even if they had reinforcements, there would only be corpses waiting for them by the time they arrived.

　　She rushed forward and pounced towards the demon. The demon dropped its horn, pulled out a stone ax that was hanging on its waist, and slashed towards the Wolf Girl!

　　If this had happened six months ago, Lorgar would have chosen to avoid its edge, stepped back, and looked for another opportunity; however, after the battle with the Extraordinary, the Four-winged Eagle, and many kinds of hybrid demonic beasts, she had made many improvements in terms of her combat skill.

　　Lorgar lowered her body and extended her hand and leg to one side, and sprung from this seemingly awkward angle with her body nearly flying out sideways!

　　The ax missed its target.

　　However, this move by Lorgar wasn't merely just a dodge. When the demon's attention was distracted by her movements and fixated on her mouth and claws, she launched her real attack. Lorgar curled her huge tail and swept it towards the back of the demon's head. This blow took full advantage of her body's momentum and was just like an invisible hook.

　　"Thud!"

　　With a muffled sound, the surprised demon flew away and hit a nearby tree. Its stone ax was flung to the ground.

　　"Roar——!"

　　Just as Lorgar was ready to seize the opportunity to deal the finishing blow with her claws, she suddenly heard a shrill roar from behind.

　　Her instincts warned her of immediate danger. She turned around and swept her paws sideways to block the one-armed Mad Demon which had rushed towards her. Her claw struck hard and cracked the ribs of the demon, even piercing through the leather armor on its body.

　　This was a suicidal attack. It seemed that the demon had deliberately embraced her giant paw with its body.

　　Why?

　　Lorgar immediately knew the answer to her question before the thought had barely left her mind.

　　The shrunken right arm of the one-armed Mad Demon began to swell up again!

　　Wasn't it only supposed to recover after seven minutes?

　　Lorgar was shocked and tried to get away from the enemy. However, her claw was tightly clong onto by the demon as if pinched by an iron plier.

　　Why? Does it...

　　She quickly turned to the other demon that was struck by her tail, and her heart sank.

　　The demon's arm also swelled up, and a few veins even burst out of its dry skin.

　　Wait a second... She suddenly remembered what Lightning had said. When they encountered the demons on the hot air balloon in the Great Snow Mountain of the Western Region, the Mad Demon did show the ability to throw spears twice within a short period of time. However, the strength of the second throw had decreased dramatically, and the demon's arm, which was embedded with magic stone, was rendered useless. It could be described as a suicidal technique, and not very threatening. She was stupid to believe what Lightning had said.

　　She couldn't believe this. Lorgar had almost got herself killed by the words of a foolish girl!

　　Although this desperate struggle by the demons would cause them severe backlash, it could also cause huge trouble for their opponent, especially in a life-and-death situation such as this one. There was a common saying in the Sand Nation which could explain this current situation: "Beware a cornered fighter." Since they had already put their life aside, their last blows would naturally be deadly.

　　The demonthat was holding Lorgar's arm was not able to completely restrain her actions. This would only be possible for an Extraordinary. However, Lorgar understood that her opponent's purpose was to slow down her movement. Even if she tried to turn around or dodge, she would not be able to escape the other demon's fatal blow.

　　In just a few seconds, the Mad Demon's arm had swelled to its maximum size, and blue blood spurted out from the cracked skin as if the whole arm was going to explode at any moment.

　　It held its last bone spear and aimed it at the Wolf Girl.

　　At this moment, Lorgar could only take a gamble!

　　Lorgar opened her eyes wide and focused on every movement made by the enemy. For a moment, the world seemed to have turned silent. The only sound she could hear was her own heart beat.

　　As soon as the Mad Demon threw the spear, she cut off the surging magic power in her body.

　　Her body began to quickly shrink in size, creating a huge gap in the initially tight grasp of the Mad Demon. To the spear throwing demon, it basically had its target swapped out at the last moment.

　　The bone spear, which flew through the air like a streak of lighting towards the head of the huge desert wolf, pierced the broken-arm demon instead. At this point, she had already finished transforming back to her human form.

　　She won the gamble.

　　The spear thrower did not expect her to do this. Stunned, it held its now withered arm and uttered out two syllables when Princess Lorgar walked in front of it.

　　"Ta...qui..."

　　Lorgar then transformed one hand into a wolf's claw and crushed the demon's helmet.

　　As the Red Mist dispersed, the demon collapsed to the ground with a soft thud

　　Only then did Lorgar dare to relax and let out a long breath.

　　She had won!

　　One versus two!

　　The demons were not that strong after all.

　　Even though the demons were amazingly powerful after strengthening their arms, they had no combat skills at all. They mainly fought by instinct, which was a waste of their physique and talent. In terms of the warrior's path, the demons had not reached very far at all. She believed that hunting would become easier for her if she had a few more encounters with these demons.

　　The vast Barbarian Land that spread out around her would become the best place for training.

　　Then Lorgar heard the sound of tremors. It was as if the earth itself was shaking. It felt as if an immense force started to roll over the lands like a tsunami.

　　"Sh— sh— "

　　How is this possible?

　　She frowned a little and raised her ears towards the source. She was in the land close to Graycastle. This was not like the Southernmost Region, which was close to the sea. She was not supposed to hear waves here. Was it a flood? But there was no mountains or rivers here, so a flood wouldn't be possible.

　　Lorgar looked around and climbed up the highest tree she could find.

　　The tremor came from the direction of the Taquila ruins.

　　The next moment startled the Wolf Girl as she stood at the end of one of the tree's branches.

　　She saw countless demons appear on the horizon, moving forward like a dark tide. Above the tide were hundreds of Devilbeasts, flying back and forth in formation. Most inconceivable of all was the group of colossal monsters stomping their way toward the ruins. They were as tall as ten-story buildings, and the four twisted legs could almost climb over Taquila's city walls directly. Anyone standing in front of them would look insignificant. That's not even considering how hard it would be to launch an attack against it. Even just standing in front of it would make a person lose their will to fight.

　　Lorgar looked up at the sky, which was particularly blue after the rain. A soft breeze would blow past every once in a while and the white clouds floated in the sky. Everything was as it should be and it seemed so quiet and peaceful.

　　Lorgar neither saw the Bloody Moon that symbolized the doomsday described by Lightning nor did she see the gloomy and depressing Red Mist.

　　But she knew that disaster had come knocking.

Chapter 899 - The Witches From Afar (Part I)

"I see the port!"

Molly's sudden exclamation immediately drew the attention of the witches on deck.

"Where? Where?"

"Sigh...We're finally almost there. It has been about half a month since we started to float around the sea..."

"That silver speck over there is another ship, isn't it?"

"Didn't somebody said that only the 'Charming Beauty' sails on this route?"

"Then it's probably a fishing boat."

Everybody went to the railing and stood on tiptoes to get a better look at where Molly was pointing to.

Seeing the witches all excited and cheerful, the old captain Jack "The One-eyed" shook his head with a smile. He turned to Camilla Dary, who unlike the rest of the witches, had a stern look on her face, and asked, "You don't look quite excited. What's wrong? Today is a good day."

"Good in what way?" Camilla replied indifferently.

"Good to be home." Jack shook his pipe and said, "Is returning to your homeland after so many years not worth celebrating? It is obvious that you guys never considered the Sleeping Island as your home. Not that I'm saying you dislike living at the Fjords, but after all, a refuge is still just a refuge."

Camilla didn't know what to say to that. She did not know whether Jack was right, but she knew that most of the witches who were willing to go to the Western Region of Graycastle had increased after the arrival of Princess Tilly's letter. Initially, only half of the witches wanted to go, but the number had risen to around 80% after. If the first batch of witches were able to properly settle in Graycastle, then it would be hard to say how many of the witches would still be left in Sleeping Island.

Sleeping Island should have been their home. It was a place where they wouldn't be hated for being who they are, and also where the church did not constantly threaten their lives. Although the island was relatively underdeveloped compared with the kingdoms on the continent and had a huge difference in terms of local customs and traditions, she believed that Sleeping Island would prosper given ten more years. Perhaps, it would not even take one generation before newly-awakened witches treated the island as their real hometown.

After a long silence, Camilla spoke in a low voice, "I wish what you said was true."

"Hmm." Jack stroke his beards. "You don't trust the new king?"

"How did you know?" Camilla looked up.

"it was written on your face." The old captain smiled. "Do you remember what you looked like three years ago when you sailed out for the first time?"

"Three years ago..." The steward of Sleeping Island contemplated for a while. That was when Princess Tilly started to gather the witches and encouraged them to leave Graycastle. As one of the few captains who did not discriminate against witches, Jack and the "Charming Beauty had smuggled a large number of witches from harbor cities to the Fjords with the risk of getting caught and being sent to trial. That was why Sleeping Island had built a long-lasting and intimate friendship with the one-eyed captain.

"Perhaps worn-out and frightened?" Camilla answered hesitantly.

"Worn-out and frightened?" Jack burst into laughter. "Just that? You were no better than a bunch of walking dead at that time, all beaten-up and desperate. Look at yourselves now. Don't you feel completely different? The past is the past. You should look ahead. Some of the witches had already been to Neverwinter several times. If it were really that miserable of a place, they wouldn't have such bright smiles on their faces right now."

"But the nobles are all two-faced..."

"But are you?" The captain interrupted her. "If I remember correctly, you're also from a noble family, aren't you? You were better dressed than anyone else the day you left Graycastle. Civilians can't afford silk fabrics. If I detested nobles like you do back then, what would have had happened?"

"..." Camilla opened her mouth, grasping for words that did not come.

Jack "The One-eyed" slowly blew a tendril of white smoke. "I don't think you can judge a person only by his background. Other than the Three Gods, who can choose their own family? The same goes for witches... Don't you think that you hating nobles because they are nobles is the same as people blindly hating witches?"

The words sent a faint shiver through Camilla's heart.

"Perhaps you could say that you understand what the nobles are because you were one of them. But don't forget that your prejudice could potentially harm someone innocent, as long as there exists a person that doesn't fit your mold." The old captain paused for a second and said, "Sorry, child... I am probably not the best person to lecture you on this, but I don't want to see you let your past cloud your judgment—what I said doesn't only apply to this matter. After all, people can't always live in the past."

"No, nobody else would say something like this to me," Camilla thought to herself. Princess Tilly must know that people should look forward to the future and not live in the past. That was why she had voluntarily traveled to Neverwinter. However, Camilla knew Princess Tilly would never be so open to her, and certainly would not criticize her hatred for the nobles. Their intimate relationship and the respects Tilly had for her prevented the princess from giving her further counsels.

Perhaps, the old captain was the only person on Sleeping Island who would view her as a child.

Camilla breathed out a long sigh and said, "You may be right."

"Right?" Jack chuckled. "I'm old and happen to have a lot of similar experiences. If I don't always keep optimistic, I wouldn't have been able to sail on the sea for this long. But the things are most likely going to get tough in the near-future."

"Why?"

"Who else would board the "charming Beauty once you witches all return to the main continent? I've heard from those big Chambers of Commerce that a new type of ship that doesn't require a sail will soon replace the current wooden boats and be used by the majority of the merchants at Fjords. Those new ships would be a lot faster than this old baby and can also carry a lot more. I bet nobody will ever use her again. Not even for transporting cargo."

"I can probably talk to Princess Tilly about this..."

"Talk about what? Do you want to support me for the rest of my life?" The old captain tapped his pipe. "That'll be a little too early. My legs haven't given away yet! In fact, I plan to join Sir Thunder's expedition team after you guys arrive at Graycastle."

"Expedition?" Camilla echoed in surprise.

"That's right. If I can find something in an unexploited sea across Shadow Islands, the money I can earn from that will be more than enough to let me build my own fleet if I wanted to. Not to mention supporting myself." Jack "The One-eyed" turned around and looked at the vast ocean spiritedly. "Although I'm getting old and my legs are no longer as nimble as they were used to be, I can guarantee you that no captain in the entire Fjords 's better at navigating the seas than me!"

"Really..." Camilla asked in her heart. She glanced at the Fjordian old man as if it were the first time she met him. His appearance was nothing extraordinary, but the current expression on his face perfectly demonstrated his fearlessness in facing the unknown future. 

"Captain, we are nearing the shores!" The lookout perching on the mast yelled.

"Do I still have to tell you what to do next?" Jack looked up and stared at him. "Take in the sail and slow her down!"

Camilla looked toward the dock area and found there were red banners of different kinds everywhere, all of which read "Welcome to Neverwinter." Among the people who came to greet them, there were not only witches but also ordinary people. She even saw a column of children around 11 to 12 years old, each of them with a bouquet in their hands. The children were standing next to the trestle waiting for the witches' arrival.

"Such a marvelous reception." The old captain whistled. "Just for the way the King is greeting you, you should give him some more credit, right?" He then waved his arm at the busy sailors on the deck. "Lads, get ready to dock. We've arrived at Neverwinter!"

Chapter 900 - The Witches From Afar (Part II)

"Is this really alright?" Wendy said quietly as she pointed to the ordinary people on the dock. "I mean, we hired random people to greet the witches from Sleeping Island... If the witches knew the truth, they surely wouldn't be pleased about it."

"Are you able to find any residents who truly welcome their arrival?" Scroll asked in an equally low voice.

"... No." Wendy hesitated for a moment and shook her head. Indeed, it was hard to find even one or two residents who would welcome the witches from the bottom of their heart, let alone a group of them. Although citizens in Neverwinter had gradually started to accept the witches under Roland's influences, and some witches were even adored by the public, the immigrants from Sleeping Islands were strangers to them. It was basically impossible to ask people to stop their work and greet a group of witches they had never met.

Without Kind Roland's presence, only the families of the First Army could be persuaded to do so.

"Therefore, there's nothing wrong with His Majesty's arrangement." Scroll shrugged. "All the expenses incurred in this welcoming has already been included in Neverwinter's budget, including the expenses for those big red bouquets, banners, and family greeting teams. If you don't use that part of the money, the other departments will. His Majesty originally planned to have the welcome reception on a much bigger scale than this."

"Well, you might be right..." Wendy swiped at the non-existent sweat on her forehead. His Majesty had been extremely excited ever since Princess Tilly had told him that the witches on Sleeping Island were coming here. Apart from what Scroll had just mentioned, Roland had also listed many other welcome events on his memo, such as ceremonial parades, a musical, and fireworks. Had the news from Hill Fawkes not prompted Roland to carry out his war plan immediately, Roland would have hosted the ceremony himself, which undoubtedly would have made things even more jubilant and spectacular.

Scroll said smilingly, "That's why directly hiring people is the best option. We don't just recruit random guys. Those selected ones are all families with good city hall records. You don't need to worry." She took a short pause and continued, "The witches are coming. Go meet them, Ms. chief of the Union."

"Scroll!" Wendy raised her voice, looking at the former reproachfully. Then she gave Princess Tilly a curt nod before walking up to the guests who came here all the way from the island.

"Nice to meet you!" As the two groups of witches met each other, Wendy opened her arms and greeted them with her most gentle voice while smiling. "I'm the superintendent of the Witch Union. Welcome to Neverwinter!"

...

According to the agreement, the witches from Sleeping Island were only considered as ordinary subjects of the Western Region and would not be under the management of the Witch Union. As such, Wendy decided to take them to the residential area first and have a rough head count so that the City Hall would know how much food to provide to the new group of witches. As for the subsequent tour and work schedules, she planned to discuss that with Lady Tilly only after everybody settled down.

The construction of the residential area exclusively for the use of the witches from Sleeping Island had been completed two months before their arrival. It was located close to the Miracle Building and was named Sleeping Spell, the same name used by the Bounty Guild.

Some of the witches gasped at the sight of the "magnificent building" which was now six stories' high.

They were especially impressed with the polished and glossy surface of the concrete.

"Are these real stones? Why do they look so smooth?"

"We're not going to be staying here, are we?"

"Stop dreaming. This must be the Lord's castle."

"The view from the top floor must be breathtaking."

Seeing everyone was burning with curiosity, Wendy took this opportunity to make a brief introduction. "The building is only half-complete at the moment. Once the construction is done, it will reach 55 meters, which is 180 feet and 5 inches. But His Majesty doesn't live here. His castle is only three stories' tall and is located in the center of Neverwinter."

"That's so tall... Aren't you afraid that it'll collapse one day?" someone questioned in surprise.

Wendy smiled. "His Majesty invented a special construction material that can convert fluid slimes to solid stones. This is simply a pilot project. He told us that we will be able to build architecture as tall as the mountains with this type of material. Of course, the whole project cannot be successfully completed without the help of the witches. In fact, this building is the result of the joint efforts of the witches and numerous construction workers. Am I right, Lotus?"

"Hey, did you really build this?"

"But isn't your ability elevating earth?"

All the witches rested their eyes on Lotus.

A little embarrassed, Lotus scratched her head and answered, "I just build slopes for the workers. When they need to add another floor, I elevate the surrounding earth to create a platform next to the building to make it a bit more convenient for the construction workers."

"Did... they hate or show disgust at you because you're a witch?" As expected, someone raised the question that everybody was most concerned about.

"I haven't come across anyone like that yet. I think they've already started to treat me like a normal person." Lotus waved her hand. "Sometimes, the workers will even share pancakes with me if I went to work early."

This was the exact effect Wendy desired to achieve. "Perhaps a lot of you are still cautious of the people here and wonder how you'll be treated in the future. That's perfectly normal, after all, Neverwinter to you is a completely foreign city. I don't think I have to go on about the miseries that had fallen upon us witches over this past century. However, I assure you that you'll feel at home here, just like the city name endowed by His Majesty suggests. I understand that you aren't a member of the Witch Union, but please don't hesitate to ask me for help if you encounter any difficulties. No matter how small it seems to be, I'm here for you."

"Good job." Scroll gave Wendy a thumbs-up and whispered to her approvingly.

...

Wendy did not expect, however, that the first problem arose when she tried to gather the personal information of the witches.

"Why do you need such information?" A red-haired witch protested after Wendy distributed the forms. "Didn't you agree not to force us to stay here? I just plan to stay here for a couple of days, so I don't think it's necessary."

"Me too. Princess Tilly told us that we could leave Neverwinter whenever we wanted to. I want to go back to the Eastern Region right now."

"Since the church is gone now, I don't think it's necessary to disclose our personal information. It'll put us in a very disadvantageous position if the information leaks to someone with malicious intent."

There were quite a few witches who opposed to registering their personal information.

"I knew it... It's Azima and her little clique again." Ashes knitted her brows.

"Azima?" Wendy asked in surprise.

"A witch organization from the Eastern Region. Sorry, they don't really acknowledge my leadership," Tilly explained in a low voice. "But they're at least much better than the Bloodfang Association." Tilly turned to the red-haired witch and said, "I understand that you yearn to return to the Eastern Region, but this is not a good time. Although the church has fallen from power, the public is still unfriendly to witches, not to mention those nobles. The situation is particularly bad in the Eastern Region. Before Roland officially retrieves that area, the attitude of people toward witches would not change much over there."

"How do you know that if you haven't been there?" Azima persisted. "Or maybe you're just favoring your brother?"

"Mind your attitude." Ashes retorted coldly.

"Why? Are you going to pick a fight with me here, like you did to Heidi and Skyflare?"

Wendy bit her lip. She did not foresee such a bitter confrontation, but she could not find a proper way to ease the tension between the two parties.

Just at that moment, Scroll stepped forward.

"Mind if I ask you a few questions?" She asked.

Chapter 901 - The Witches From Afar (Part III)

"What do you want to know?" Azima said as she glanced at her.

"Scroll..." Wendy held her hand, looking pretty worried. If what Tilly said was true, these people did not come to Neverwinter voluntarily. Their visit was instead due to internal conflict among the witches from Sleeping Island. If this problem was not properly resolved, not only would the Witch Union be involved in the mess, but would also lose the newcomers' trust. That would have defeated the whole point of getting the new witches to come here.

"Don't worry," Scroll raised one of her eyebrows and then turned to the witch who wanted to return to the Eastern Region. "You miss your hometown, which means that you most likely weren't abandoned by your family. Like other refugees who fled to Sleeping Island, you were forced to leave the Eastern Region under the pressure of the church. Right?"

"So what?" Azima cut in.

"Let me tell you about the current state of the Eastern Region." Ignoring the red-haired witch's provocation, Scroll replied indifferently, "That area has not been fully recovered by the King ever since Garcia the Queen of Clearwater plundered Seawindshire and Valencia. The area was first devastated by the demonic plague spread by the church and was then ravaged by the army of Timothy. Farmlands in all surrounding areas are deserted, and people can't sustain themselves. Many of those people have become refugees."

The witch showed a troubled look but was not willing to relent. "If we don't go take a look ourselves, who knows whether you're telling the truth?"

"Two years ago, His Majesty Roland started to take in those refugees. Now the population of Neverwinter has exceeded 100,000, 70% of which are from other cities, with the majority of them being refugees from the Eastern Region and the Southern Territory," Scroll spoke calmly. "Your family members are most likely amongst them. Can you tell me where you lived before? Name a town or a village, a specific landmark, or a local specialty."

"Do you plan to find her family only with those clues? She wasn't born in a big city where each street and alley has its own name and where people in the same community knew each other!"

Scroll did not reply to Azima but instead gently pushed her hair behind her ear. She looked on at that witch encouragingly like a teacher patiently waiting for an answer from her student in the class.

"My village... didn't have a name," after hesitating for quite a while, the witch answered in a low voice. "There were no other villages nearby, and it was very far from Valencia, so far that if you want to sell wheat, you would have to sell them to a merchant traveling there at a meager price. This isn't official, but some people call the village 'Sixteen.'"

"Six...teen?" Wendy echoed involuntarily.

"Because when they returned from Valencia, it's the sixteenth village that they would pass by."

Scroll closed her eyes and asked slowly, "Let me see... There's a branch of Sanwan River winding behind that village, right?"

"There're numerous branches of Sanwan River in the Eastern Region." Azima grunted. "How can a village survive without a river to irrigate their farmlands?"

"But that branch is different." Scroll waved her hand. "It isn't wide nor deep enough for boats to pass, and even the riverbed would show in a dry season. That's why the villages nearby can't transport food and supplies by ship. But the branch converges into a huge lake at the sixteenth village, which will never dry up even if the river water dried up. Because of this, the wheat in the village always grows better than those in others. Am I right?"

The witch's eyes were wide open. "Have you been there?"

"I heard from somebody else," Scroll answered after a short silence. "The one who told me this is currently in Neverwinter, but he wasn't a resident of the Sixteenth Village."

"What do you mean?"

"You should ask him yourself." Scroll turned to the City Hall clerk responsible for the registration. "Bring Watt here. His ID number is 0024578, and he's a furnace worker. He should be recycling slags in Zone 2 at the North Slope right now."

"Yes, Ms. Scroll." The clerk left to carry out her order.

Half an hour later, the clerk and a ruddy man showed up in the residential area.

"I don't know him..." The witch studied him and shook her head, denying their acquaintance.

"What else do you have to say now?" Azima sneered. "There're so many people in the whole Eastern Region. How can you just randomly pick one..."

"Ah, are... are you Tillan's daughter?" The big man blurted out in excitement, paying no heed to Azima. "Thank God, you're still alive and have grown into a big girl!"

The witch was stunned. "The 'Tillan' you're talking about... Is she my mother?"

"Who else could I be talking about? You've got her eyes. Especially for the mole underneath the corner of your eye, it's identical to your mother's!" Watt cried. "But you're much prettier than your mother. Hold on, you don't remember me? Well, not that it's your fault. You were just a little girl when I left the village. When I returned, you weren't there anymore. She called you... Little Orchid back then, right? Tillan loved to call you names after beautiful flowers."

"That was just a nickname when I was little..." The witch was embarrassed. "My name is now Doris."

"I see. Well, that's a nice name, too. You know, when I dug trenches in the Sixteenth Village, people talked a lot about you. They all thought witches had abducted you, and..."

As Watt rambled on, Wendy started to figure out what had happened gradually. The big ruddy man had been a resident of a neighboring village next to the Sixteenth Village. Based on the naming rule, his village should be called the Fifteenth Village. As the two villages were geographically close to each other, he had kept in touch with his neighbors. As he envied his neighbors for their water source, he had traveled to Valencia to learn trench digging. After he learned the skills, Watt had returned to his village and encouraged some villagers to help him expand the lake toward the Fifteenth village. He had thus lived in the Sixteenth Village for quite a long time because of this project.

"Are my parents and elder brother... still living in the village?" Watt had apparently convinced Doris. After Watt finally finished, she asked hastily, "Or they've come to the Western Region with you?"

At this moment, Scroll let out a short sigh.

The sparks in the ruddy man's eyes seemed to fade out at that instant. He replied in a sorrowful tone, "They didn't make it... The second prince's army robbed our food stock. By the time we got to the king's city, starving and thirsty, a huge plague broke out. The nobles in the city shut us out, leaving us crying for help at the foot of the city wall. A large number of villagers from the nearby lands had died due to the nobles' selfishness. By the time His Majesty's rescue teams arrived, there were just a few that were still alive." He paused for a second and said, "Your family members... weren't among them."

"No..." Doris cupped her hand over her mouth. She stood transfixed for a moment before she started to sob uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry, child." Watt instantly panicked. He wanted to comfort her but did not know what to do. In the end, he came up to the girl and patted her on the head. "Tillan called your name over and over again before she passed away. If she knew you were still alive and well, she would definitely be happy. So... don't cry anymore, girl."

Doris bit her lips fiercely and nodded slightly but cried even harder after that.

Chapter 902 - An Ominous Sign

Upset with the sudden change in the situation, Azima looked to the side and stopped talking.

The crowd was silent as Doris wept and wept. After Doris had finally calmed down, Scroll spoke up again. "I believe many of you are just like her. You've constantly been on the run and never had the chance to contact your families. Even if you found an opportunity to return, you would only find a hometown in ruins. This is why we want you to provide your personal information to the City Hall. With this information, we'll be able to send each one of you the latest news about your hometown once any of your fellow townsmen come to Neverwinter. Among those people may even be your relative."

"Besides, City Hall has already sent staff to gather the refugees from all around Graycastle and to bring them back to Neverwinter. It'll be a long process, but eventually, the news will spread and more and more refugees will come to Neverwinter. It'll be easier for you to obtain information about your families if you stay here. Of course, if needed, the staff can concentrate their search on the areas around your hometowns. His Majesty is fully capable of doing that."

"Are you serious?" Azima looked up and stared at Scroll. "Are the big shots in the palace willing to help us find our families?"

"If your 'big shots' refers to City Hall officials, I'm also one of the big shots," Scroll said with her hands laid out. "We run the city with a completely different system compared to the nobles. As long as you can pass the exam, even a witch can get involved in the administration and become an official of the kingdom."

These words stirred up a commotion in the crowd.

"As for the question you asked, the answer is yes," Scroll then continued with her explanation. "Neverwinter never intended to stop you from leaving here nor would we want to limit your freedom. But I do have to warn you against leaving Neverwinter right now. The war rages on and famine ravages the country. Numerous towns and cities were left deserted. Not only would traveling outside be very dangerous, but it would also likely be an unnecessary venture. His Majesty is currently leading the army to recover his country. When he unites Graycastle and restores order in all the four regions, you can then head out to wherever you wish."

Scroll paused and picked up the registration form again. "So, do you still think it's not necessary to fill out these forms?"

This time, no witch objected.

...

On the way back to the castle, Wendy could not help but exclaim, "You were so brilliant, Scroll. I could hardly think of what to say during that moment. They must have been quite impressed by the Witch Union."

"I just took advantage of my position," said Scroll, with a smile. "There were only 46 witches in the first batch. We'll be very busy for the next few days."

"Well..." Wendy's voice sank to a whisper.

"What? Are you going to say you aren't suitable for the position of manager again?" Scroll stopped walking. "You have to know that His Majesty chose you because—"

"Because I've some qualities that the others don't have, right?" Wendy chuckled. "Rest assured. Since the last talk I had with His Majesty, I've already made up my mind. I was just thinking about how to welcome the arriving witches. Back then, I never thought twice about accompanying my sisters to find the holy mountain no matter how harsh the journey got. Things are much better now, and if I keep saying such nonsense, I would truly feel unworthy of the Chaos Drinks that I stole from Nightingale."

"Now that's more like it." Scroll said, relieved. "I almost forgot about the drinks until you mentioned them just now. I helped you a lot back there. Are you not going to buy me a drink for it?"

"How about tonight? I'll ask the kitchen to prepare some toasted mushrooms and fish fillets. Let's drink and hang out in my room, just like what we did the last time. If there aren't enough Chaos Drinks, we can borrow some from Nightingale. After all, she isn't here in the city right now; I can make it up to her later."

"That's settled then," Scroll said smilingly.

"By the way," Wendy examined Scroll's forehead with a curious look. "Do you really remember all the personal information of more than 100,000 citizens? Don't you get confused by all that information?"

"I don't know how to describe it." Scroll pondered for a moment. "At the beginning, when I wanted to remember something, I had to recall it from the bottom of my memory. For example, if I wanted to look for a name, I needed to recall the date when this person registered and then the exact page in the registration book. It was very troublesome, and I would get a headache whenever I overthought. However, I found that the contents of my memory became more organized over time."

"What does that mean?"

"It's as if all the details are sorted through automatically... and as soon as I start to recall something, I'll see all the relevant stuff right away." Scroll paused for a minute and appeared to be weighing her words. "And the strange thing is that I can read a lot of the related items at the same time, in detail. Maybe this is what they mean by practice makes perfect."

"I see," said Wendy, greatly impressed. "His Majesty once said that a person's memory was far more powerful than we could imagine. I found it unbelievable at that time, but now I believe that it's no exaggeration."

"Indeed, it's a wonderful feeling," Scroll nodded and said. "Now, whenever I begin to search inside my head, I'll feel omniscient. But I'm not sure whether I'm going to be able to remember everything after His Majesty unifies Graycastle and extends his new management system to all the domains."

Wendy was thrilled by this idea and thought, "What does that mean? So if Scroll is still able to remember everything at that time, then all the people's life stories will be kept in her head.

That means she'll be history itself."

When Wendy was about to say something, sounds of hurried footsteps came from behind them.

"Lady Wendy, I finally found you," a young City Hall clerk bowed to the two witches and said. "There's a guy who came to the hall and refused to leave. He insisted on meeting the head of the Witch Union. We've told him that we'd pass on his message, but he said that he has something he must tell you face to face."

"Why did he come? What's his name?" Scroll knitted her eyebrows and asked.

"His name was Posack," answered the clerk. "He told us the reason, but we think he might be mistaken. He said that he'd found a girl covered in blood when he was tending to the cattle. He thinks that she's a witch, but the girl was unconscious, so she couldn't respond to his questions. We've checked the work plan for today and didn't find any witch scheduled to work out of town. Do you have any idea as to what this might be about?"

"Posack, he's a local man and has a good record. He's even among the first batch of students of the Agriculture class. I believe he doesn't mean to make trouble for the City Hall." Scroll was puzzled and asked, "Might the witch be Leaf?"

"That's impossible. Under the protection of the Heart of Forest, no one can hurt her." Wendy immediately denied Scroll's guess. Roland had decreed that all the new domains he seized this year should be sowed with Golden Twos. To fulfill this goal in time, he had asked Leaf to stay in the Misty Forest to continue cultivating the seeds instead of going to battle with the First Army. "If some enemies were to break into the region of the Misty Forest that she controlled, we would have heard something about it. Don't forget that there are a group of workers responsible for carrying wheat seeds and also border guards monitoring the northern side of Neverwinter. If there was an attack, we should have heard the alarm by now."

"So then he must be mistaken?"

"Anyways, let's meet the man first. We can still help the heavily wounded girl even if she's not a witch." With that being said, Wendy felt a hint of anxiety in her heart.

Am I forgetting something?

Chapter 903 - "The Demons Are Coming"

In the city hall, the man named Posack was brought before Wendy and Scroll.

He was approximately 40 years old and looked like a typical farmer: swarthy and burly. There was still some dry mud and grassroots stuck onto his trousers.

"I, I know you..." The man rubbed his wrinkled hands and looked a little nervous. He bowed to Scroll and said, "You're the minister. My daughter learns how to read and write in your school. She's a really slow learner. I sincerely hope that you can bear with her faults."

"Don't be nervous," Scroll laughed and patted his shoulder. "I used to catch fish for living before I came here, but my harvest wasn't as steady as yours since the sea was too unpredictable. Furthermore, when it came to something like knowledge, it's never about a learner's background. No matter how clumsy the learner is, he or she will master the knowledge eventually given enough effort and time. Don't worry; your daughter will be able to graduate without issues."

Hearing that, Posack relaxed a lot and grinned. "I've given up my work on the farm for grazing in recent two years because His Majesty said the salary for the new industry will be higher." With these words, he bowed to Wendy. "You must be the manager of the Witch Union. I thought I didn't have the chance to meet you today."

Although Wendy was not as influential as Scroll among the ordinary people, she was still the head of the Witch Union, and thus had to make appearances at various major events. That combined with her bright red hair and thick body, it was not at all surprising for people to recognize Wendy. "Call me Wendy. I heard that you claimed to have found a heavily wounded girl who was covered with blood. What makes you think that she's a witch?"

"Because... an ordinary person can't have animals' body parts, right?" Posack scratched his head. "At first, I thought it was a rag smeared with blood and planned to tear it down and throw it away, but this thing turned out to be connected to a girl. I took a second look and found that it was actually an animal tail!"

An animal... tail?

Wendy felt her heart skip a beat!

She suddenly recalled that a strange witch had come to Neverwinter more than two months ago, but she only knew her from Nightingale's description since this peculiar girl did not join the Witch Union or have any intimate contact with the sisters. She had a wolf's ears and a long tail, but surprisingly, His Majesty had praised that this weird half-animal was very pretty. Wendy now remembered about this strange incident that had repeatedly been mentioned by Nightingale.

That strange witch is called Lorgar, and she's a princess of a tribe in the Southernmost Region.

Could she be the girl Posack found?

"Where's she?" Wendy urgently asked. "Take us to her right now!"

...

The farmer had not taken the injured girl home. He had left her in a temporary rest shed in the pastoral area.

Seeing the Wolf Girl in blood-stained clothes lying motionlessly on the bench, Wendy's heart sank to the bottom.

From the girl's currently disfigured and bloody ears, she was sure that this girl was Lorgar and wondered what in the world had happened to her.

It was not an exaggeration to say that she was drenched in blood. Evidently, the wolf girl got herself injured more than just a few days ago. In some parts of her body, the blood had already dried up and turned into dark brown stains, while in some other parts, the blood was still dripping out of her wounds. They could not see her injuries directly for she was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, but anyone could easily tell that she was seriously hurt.

"My lady, she's a witch... isn't she?" Posack asked.

Wendy was too stunned to say anything, so Scroll replied, "Yes, she's a witch. Your first-aid was done very nicely."

"It's great to know that. His Majesty has said in an announcement that we're obliged to inform the City Hall if we were to find a witch." Posack heaved a sigh of relief, but soon he expressed his worry. "Can she... still be saved?"

Hearing this sentence, Wendy awoke with a start. She answered in a deep voice, "I don't know, but we'll try our best. Scroll, please help me take care of her. I'll go to meet Her Highness Tilly!"

"Okay, leave her to me."

Neither Nana nor Lily was in the city, and Leaf's herbal medicine could only heal some minor injuries. Right now, receiving injuries this severe was no different from getting a death sentence.

Fortunately, the first batch of witches from the Sleeping Island had just arrived at Neverwinter. Wendy thought that if that witch was here, she might be able to save the Wolf Girl!

With that in her mind, she ran even faster.

Every second counts.

Although Lorgar was not an official member of the Witch Union, Wendy felt that the Wolf Girl was already somewhat related to the union because this girl must have received some divine guidance and thus came to this city.

Wendy did not want to lose a sister again.

...

Three days later, Wendy walked into a bedroom carrying a basin of hot water that gave off a strong smell of medicine.

"How's her condition?"

"She's still alive, but other than that..." Ashes shook her head. "Such serious injuries are way beyond what can be handled by her self-healing capacity, and it was a miracle that she even made it to the city. If she had not been that strong-willed, she would have died in the wilderness without anyone knowing about it."

When it came to treating wounds in the emergency, the Extraordinary was the most experienced one and thus took over taking care of the injured girl. She stripped off the Wolf Girl's bloodstained clothes for a general check-up. When the bandage was removed, all the witches were shocked by the injuries all over her body. Some cuts were so deep that one could see her bones. Cleaning her wounds alone cost them almost half a day.

"But you don't have to worry too much." Ashes pointed to Nightfall who was lying in a bed nearby. "Don't you notice that she looks a lot better than yesterday?"

"Do I?" Nightfall asked in a weak voice. "How come I don't feel any better?"

"You'll have steamed chicken, fried eggs, salt-roasted Bird Beak Mushrooms, and a bottle of Chaos Drink for dinner tonight," Ashes smirked and said. "So, how are you feeling now?"

Nightfall's mouth watered. "Well... Actually, I think I'm feeling better now."

"That's great, see?"

Wendy breathed a sigh of relief and nodded to Nightfall. "Thanks a lot for helping us."

"My pleasure," Nightfall forced a smile. "You guys helped Iffy. That means you've helped us. Now, please just don't let this girl die, otherwise I..."

"We won't. You can rest assured."

Nightfall was the person Wendy had thought of earlier. This witch of the former Bloodfang Association had an incredible ability called Symbiosis. She could connect her own life to another one's by planting her magic seed in the person who would then become her Symbiont. Through this connection, she could share the Symbiont's pains and sufferings and thus helped the person recover faster. More importantly, half of the nutrition she got during a Symbiosis period could be absorbed by her Symbiont. Given that, this ability was currently their best option to keep a near-death person from dying.

Roland had been unconscious and unable to drink or eat anything for months after the Battle of Souls against Zero, and the only reason he was still alive was due to Nightfall's help.

But of course, Nightfall was not the only one who came to help the Wolf Girl.

Her Highness Tilly had sent another witch called Pandora, the primary healer for the Sleeping Island witches, to stop Lorgar's internal and external bleeding, which had significantly reduced the pressure on the symbiosis. Pandora's ability had been proved to be very helpful during their campaign to crush the rebellious action of the Bloodfang Association. Leaf's herbal medicine also helped to keep the wounds from worsening. The Cleansing Water, which was stored in the castle's basement together with the ice blocks in case of an emergency, prevented any infection from getting out of hand.

Everyone did their best to help.

However, whether Lorgar could come back to life still depended on her willpower. Three days ago, they had sent Animal Messengers to the Northern Region. In the following days, they would have a difficult time waiting for information.

Suddenly, Lorgar's finger flinched when Wendy was about to wipe her body.

At first, Wendy was dumbfounded and believed that it might just be an illusion, but then she saw the Wolf Girl's lips tremble slightly.

"..."

Lorgar appeared to be whispering something, but her voice was so feeble that her words were indistinguishable.

Wendy's heart raced uncontrollably. She forced herself to calm down before she quickly bent forward and placed her ear close to Lorgar's mouth.

This time, she was able to make out the girl's faint words.

"Demons..."

She repeated the word.

"The demons are coming."

Chapter 904 - Battle Alert (First Half)

Vader would go out and patrol every time dusk came.

Most of the time, he would circle Neverwinter with two or three of his subordinates. But sometimes, he would choose to head out alone—in theory, he was already the chief of the police department and the third most authoritative person within the kingdom's Security Bureau, so he didn't need to do any patrols personally. But he continued to do so as he preferred to get himself involved in the field rather than doing paperwork in the office.

He had already been in Neverwinter for a year and a half, and there were two things here that impressed him the most. The first was the exponential rate at which the city was expanding. It took him only half an hour to walk around Border Town when he first arrived, but now it would take him at least three times as long just to circle the city. That's not even including the harbor to the South and the farmlands to the east.

Secondly, the law and order of Neverwinter could only be described as amazing. The most common crimes were theft and brawl, but they were also the most serious ones. Crimes such as homicide, robbery, kidnapping rarely happened. The security of Neverwinter had deteriorated before when there was a massive influx of refugees, but with the combined efforts of the police department and the Witch Union, the troublemakers were swiftly dealt with.

His Majesty's promise on solving every single crime was not a bluff. In the face of Summer's retrospective ability and Vanilla's tracking ability, no criminal was able to escape the law. Due to the high risk and cost of crime, coupled with zero tolerance for Black Street Rats, Neverwinter's public security was able to experience a visible improvement.

He insisted on his daily patrols as he wanted to feel this peace—he would feel an immense sense of pride and satisfaction whenever he saw the carefree passersby strolling around late at night and seeing the trusting look on their faces as they saluted to him.

He was surprised himself that he could turn out to become a law enforcer respected by all instead of ending up a street thug that was condemned by the public.

He had never experienced such a feeling when he was in the patrol team.

Both of these jobs were designed for the same purpose. Even the procedure and the tasks were similar, yet they lead to entirely different results.

The main difference would probably be the capabilities of the rulers.

"Chief, should I go with you?" he was greeted by Whistle who had just dispersed his troops outside the city hall.

"Oh? Are you not going to spend time with that lady today?"

"You... even know about that," Whistle's face suddenly began to turn red, "Well... it's not necessary to stay together every night."

Some of the passersby burst into laughter at his remark.

"Then you'd better be careful, or else she will get stolen by someone else."

"Shut... shut up!"

Vader shook his head with a smile. " I'll be fine to patrol alone today. You should finish up and head home."

"Well... in that case, thanks, Chief!"

Looking at Whistle's back as he went away excitedly, Vader became a little emotional. When he had first left Valencia, he was alone and had thought that he would spend the rest of his life in solitude. He did not expect that he would be able to accomplish so much in his life. He started to consider finding his significant other after buying an adjoining house for his father Cacusim and himself.

Just as Vader was about to walk out of City Hall, a shrilling alarm suddenly went off in the city.

"Woo—woo—"

His face froze.

The sound of this alarm was utterly different from the ones that were used before. It consisted of a crescendo that was in an endless repeat. It was the kind of sound that would not be forgotten when heard once—it represented the highest level of alert that was not heard even in the Months of Demons. In fact, he had only rehearsed it during a drill, so this was the first time he had actually heard the alarm blare across the city.

According to procedures, when the highest alarm sounded, Neverwinter would be placed under martial law. The city gates had to be all closed. The police would be responsible for clearing the streets, while the First Army would form a defensive perimeter.

"Cheif!" Whistle and the rest that were with him rushed out of the office.

Vader turned around and saw that the entire City Hall was at a standstill. Everyone was so overwhelmed and stunned that they were frozen stiff on the spot.

His Majesty is now leading the troops to recover the Kingdom of Graycastle, so this is definitely not a drill! 

Just what exactly had happened that would make the Garrison sound this alarm?

Damn it, it just had to happen now when Neverwinter is at its most vulnerable! 

He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Stop standing there! Hurry up and get into action! Whistle, recall everyone that's on vacation! Firehead, take the rest and follow me to the wall! Do what you did when we carried out the exercise. Do you understand?"

Vader's thunderous voice not only awakened the police members from their daze, but it also shook the city hall officials into action.

"Yes, I understand!"

The City Hall became busy instantly, but Vader was in no mood to bother about those officials. He rushed out of the castle area with a group of police.

When he saw the confused residents on the street, Vader felt completely stressed out.

Since this alarm system was only put into practice after the new year, it had not even gone through a citywide drill. Perhaps His Majesty did not expect such an emergency to happen so soon. But now that it did, it can only be considered as a careless mistake by the Garrison. If the decision were up to him, he would have sounded the regular alarm bell at the same time, as to evacuate the people wandering on the streets.

But anyways, now was not the time to complain. Vader clapped his hands and made the surrounding residents focus their attention on him. "Everyone listen up! Go home right now and stay indoors! This is an alarm of an enemy attack. I repeat! Everyone go back home now!"

"Go home immediately and don't stay here!" Firehead and the rest also started to follow his example and shouted out to warn everyone.

Fortunately, the police department had the trust of the residents. Coupled with the fact that the administrative department had also gone through multiple drills with the routine alarms, everyone started to move to the residential quarters after hearing the warnings.

In this manner, a group of people started to shout as they ran towards the city wall.

The soldiers were everywhere on top of the city wall, and flags were flapping widely against the setting sun. The artilleries on the platform were readied and aimed towards the vast grassland in front, waiting to fire as soon as they see any slight movement. Witnessing this scene, Vader was able to calm down a little.

As long as the First Army was around, no army can breach through this invincible defense line.

This was a point proven battle after battle.

The police quickly committed themselves to on-site security and ensured a minimal level of order... But Vader was puzzled as to why while the highest level of alarm was sounding, the grasslands and jungles of the Western Region remained motionless.

Where are the enemy?

In the meantime, another group of people started quarreling in one of the meeting rooms at the Lord's castle.

"Because of an unknown witch's mumbling, you triggered the alarm of the highest level?" Barov looked at Wendy with an expression of disbelief. "Do you know how much trouble and loss this will cause us? We don't even know whether this woman named Lorgar can be trusted. And if I'm not mistaken, your only evidence is her sleep-talk! It's ridiculous to shut down half of Neverwinter only based on this! How do you expect me to explain this to His Majesty if we end up not being able to accomplish our previously assigned tasks?"

Chapter 905 - Battle Alert (Second Half)

According to His Majesty Roland's plan, the City Hall, the Security Bureau, the First Army, and the Witch Union were the four major organizations that constituted the administrative body of Graycastle. Except for the Security Bureau, for the other three organizations to take action, they would first have to get approval and support from the other departments.

This set of rules was initially made to utilize the full potential of the kingdom. When His Majesty was around, hardly anything would go wrong. However, the problems would usually arise whenever when His Majesty was absent from Neverwinter; it was difficult for the three parties to reach consensus on any given topic in a short time. Hence, when Wendy heard "demons are coming," she thought the best course of action would be to sound the alarm first and ensure the safety of Neverwinter before going through the process of holding a meeting.

It wasn't as if she didn't know how much trouble this would cause for the City Hall. There were wheat fields in the Misty Forest that produced hundreds of bags of Golden Two seeds every day. Those seeds need to be transported to the docks by workers before they can be shipped to the Northern Region, the Southern Territory and the other newly conquered territories of His Majesty. Also, the supply of timber, mushrooms, and fruits from the forests would be negatively affected. The livestock farming in the grassland pastures would also be stalled. Barov's scolding was not entirely uncalled for.

Originally, the plan was to build a new city wall before the third Battle of Divine Will. This new wall would cover the north side of the City and encompass half of the grassland. They would form multiple layers of defense together with the existing walls, thus effectively improving the defense line of the Impassable Mountain Range. The ore smelting area and factory in the north of the city would then be much safer. The flow of resources from the forests and the North Slope Mine would not be cut off even after battle commences.

But this plan was after all still, a plan. No one expected that news of the demons would come so soon. Compared with the financial and trade losses, Wendy made this decision out of caution.

"Are the demons not a good enough reason, mortal?" The curtains hanging down the walls of the conference room started to sway as Alethea's voice resounded in everyone's mind. "You cannot slack at all when dealing with the demons. They're no foolish demonic beasts. They won't wait for you to prepare before attacking—I don't think you're aware of how terrifying our enemy is. That's a real pity. After witnessing your King's brilliance, I thought you common people have made significant progress over the past few hundred years."

As an ally in the fight against the demons, Taquila survivors and members of the Sleeping Spell naturally had the right to attend the meeting. Both Pasha and Tilly expressed their approval regarding Wendy's decision to sound the alarm of the highest level.

Barov was so angry that he nearly laughed out of frustration. "Yes. It is true that I do not know how scary these demons are because I've never actually seen them myself. But are you saying that these guys can launch an attack out of thin air? You kept mentioning how we have to be well prepared for their attack, and that I agree with. However, the problem is that we can't even spot the enemy's shadow right now! There's the witch controlled Misty Forest to our west and the Watchtowers on the Impassable Mountain Range to our east. Between the two is a flat, coverless grassland. Any movements made by the enemy will be seen from miles away. Do we have to be even more cautious?"

It was clear that the City Hall Director was wholeheartedly devoted to Neverwinter's expansion tasks that were entrusted to him by His Majesty himself. Wendy remembered that at the last meeting, Barov dared not even breathe loudly in front of the monstrous original carrier, yet now he even rebutted her directly. Not to mention the obvious sarcasm in his voice.

"I think it's necessary," said Ashes. "In fact, I was the one who suggested the idea to Wendy."

"And what's your reason? Is it still because of the mumbo-jumbo of a half-asleep witch that came from who knows where?" Barov slammed his palm on the table. "Don't tell me that you believe her. If her words can actually be trusted, or if your relationship is that close, then why isn't she a member of the Witch Union yet?"

"That's not the reason. I judged the situation based on facts," Ashes explained calmly, "I have fought with her before, and I am aware of her capability. If it were just one or two hybrid demonic beasts, she wouldn't have ended up in such a dire situation. According to what we know, a Mad Demon without the support of the Demon Stone is about the same with a demonic hybrid in terms of combat prowess. Furthermore, even if Lorgar couldn't overpower them in a confrontation, she could have simply just turned into a wolf and escaped."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"She most likely ran into more than ten demons. There must have also been a flying Devilbeast that could track her from the air that caused her to be so severely injured." Ashes said matter-of-factly, "Besides, we also found a map on her. If we are not mistaken, the characters on it were written there by Lightning. Although we don't know the details of her trip, one thing was certain: She had ventured out into the wasteland after she left Neverwinter. If there were suddenly so many demons in the Barbarian Land, then we'd better start preparing to deal with whatever they are planning."

"I also agree with this judgment." Pasha's voice was much softer than Alethea's. "Distance means nothing to the Devilbeast. If they really wanted to attack Neverwinter, the news of their attack might still be on their way from the watchtowers when the Devilbeast has already landed in the city."

"Not to mention that most people don't even know about the demons. If the enemy were to just drop into the city without any preparation on our side, the result would be catastrophic." Tilly added and said, "The alarm would at least give people the time to go back to their homes home and hide. This allows us to control the panic to a certain extent."

"Uh, but..." Barov was at a loss for words.

To him, compared to the first few people who voiced their opinions, the words of Princess Tilly certainly held more weight. It was not because she was the leader of the Sleeping Island witches, but it was due to her being part of the Wimbledon family. As she was a member of the royal family and the sister of the ruling king, the City Hall Director naturally had second thoughts about blatantly refuting her words.

He turned toward the head of the First Army garrison, who was a quiet, middle-aged hunter, trying to pull someone to his side. But the man remained silent and just stared straight ahead as if he was not paying any attention to the argument.

Seeing the atmosphere tense up, Wendy took a deep breath and stood up. "I've already sent the message to the Northern Region, so His Majesty should be informed about Neverwinter's current situation and issue countermeasures soon. Lorgar could also wake up any moment now. So I hope the Director can stop worrying so much—as long as we gain a clearer picture of what's happening, we can easily call off the martial law. But before that, everyone should still be more cautious." She paused and said, "As for the tasks set out by His Majesty beforehand, we can make it up through other means."

Barov frowned and asked, "Such as?"

"We might be able to use the devouring worm to transport the wheat. All the Neverwinter workers would have to do to is transport the wheat from the Misty Forest to the Third Border City." Wendy looked at the Taquila survivors in the light curtain and said, "This way, the wheat can still be loaded onto the transport ships even without having the workers leave the perimeter of the city."

"What?" Alethea was displeased and said, "We're soldiers, not porters."

"But as allies, this is something we can do." Pasha stretched out her tentacles and curled them around Alethea's body—although Alethea did not appear to have a mouth at all.

Wendy nodded thankfully and said, "Livestock can be transferred in the same way, and since Honey has a lot of control over animals, we don't have to worry about them being scared by Fran. The Western Region has an abundance of grasslands, and the lands along the shores of the Redwater River can be used as temporary pastures."

Barov's expression still did not look satisfied, but his frown had loosened up a bit.

"I know these measures can't completely erase the damage caused by imposing martial law, but right now, Neverwinter's safety is our utmost priority." Wendy knew perfectly well that it would not be enough to rely on tenderness if she did not want to let His Majesty down and carry out her role as head of the Witch Union... She must step up and become a person that people can rely on. "If there are any losses caused by this decision, I'm willing to take full responsibility!"

Chapter 906 - Unveiling The Mystery (Part Ⅰ)

In the following week, the atmosphere within the castle was incredibly tense. Hour-long meetings were held every day, during which all the ministers from each department would come to report and discuss the current situation.

"So? Are you still unable to find a trace of the demons?" Barov sipped his tea as he glanced at the people around the table.

He looked much more relaxed than he had been a couple of days ago. Wendy's promise to take full responsibility for her action seemed to have lifted a heavy burden off his mind. Either that or the smooth implementation of the plan for transporting the Golden Twos likely relieved some of his stress.

"The first army's lookouts have already expanded their surveillance range to the edge of the grassland, but they still couldn't find anything," the garrison leader replied concisely." Further north lies the Barbarian Land which is covered by a dense forest. Without sufficient supplies, it would be tough to expand our perimeter any further."

"And that's all you can do, common people. You'll probably die to the insects living in the forests before you even get a chance to see the demons." Alethea seemed keen on scoffing at the people of Neverwinter at every chance she got. "Just leave it to us. A team of ten God's Punishment Witches has already gone 15km into the Fertile Plains and set up a small outpost at the Pearl Lake."

"The Pearl Lake?" Wendy asked.

"It's marked with a lot of bird's nest on the Wolf Girl's map. The place was once full of lakes and springs, but now most of it has already turned into a swamp."

"There shouldn't be any dangers, right?"

"Rest assured. When it comes to fighting demons, we're far more experienced than you people. Any God's Punishment Witch can deal with three to four Mad Demons at the same time. With five witches as a team, they would have no problem wiping out a small demon patrol," Alethea said confidently. "Of course, if the Wolf Girl did run into a patrol team, then I'm afraid that the enemy's main force is most likely already closing in on us."

"Are they incapable of acting alone?" Barov asked out of curiosity.

"Due to their reliance on the Red Mist, it's impossible for the demons to stray too far away from their supply line," Pasha explained. "After all, demons can't move around freely like human beings who only need to breathe in air."

"Well then... As the enemy is still quite far away from Neverwinter, why can't we call off the alert now?

"Unless we can set up a web of sentry posts around Neverwinter, we won't be able to fully eliminate the possibility of the enemy sneaking into the city."

"But even then, the sentry posts would mean little to us," another Senior Witch added. "Without enough Sigils of Listening, the sentries won't have enough time to send back the warning even if they were to catch sight of the Devilbeasts."

The extreme environment of the Barbarian Land formed an invisible barrier which barred any news from going through in time. It was as if a layer of mist shrouded the whole area to the Northwest of Neverwinter, and all they could do was to search for tiny clues in the wilderness. When Wendy realized this fact, she could not help but sigh in her heart.

Lorgar's news truly came at a bad time.

If His Majesty had not left for the expedition, it would have taken only a day or two for Sylvie, Lightning, Maggie, and Nightingale to scout out the current situation of the entire Northern side of the Impassable Mountain Range. 

My own ability isn't particularly helpful in this kind of situation.

Suddenly, Tilly asked, "Mr. Director, you may feel that I'm being nosy, but could you please tell me how the people of the city have reacted to the situation these past few days? Were they scared or panicked?

"That will be my pleasure, Your Highness." Barov hastened to put down his teacup and bow to Princess Tilly with a hand on his chest. "Everything in the city is within the control of City Hall. Recently, our clerks have received lots of inquiries, but most people just want to know where the enemy is and whether the First Army needs help. So the news has heightened our people's morale rather than stressing them out, even the productivity of the night shift has significantly improved. Please rest assured. No one blames the Sleeping Island witches for the coming demons."

"Well... That's good then."

"Of course, we've also received some complaints about the price increases for Bird Beak Mushrooms and pinecones." City Hall Director eyed Wendy blankly. "If we don't cancel the alert in time, the prices of eggs will also begin to skyrocket"

"Let's put aside those matters for now. I think we need to raise the awareness about demons as soon as possible. Since the demons are completely different from all our previous enemies," Tilly said worriedly. "If someone takes this chance to stir up troubles and stigmatizes the witches as Devil's minions again, the trust between the common people and the witches will be destroyed."

"This..." Barov hesitated. "I have to consult His Majesty about this matter."

"So let's write it down in today's report." Tilly looked at Wendy.

"Understood." Wendy nodded. When she was about to summarize all the reports today, a burst of rapid footsteps interrupted the silence in the conference hall. They heard Ring's voice before seeing her. "La-Lady Wendy, the Wolf Girl woke up!"

"What?" Everyone stood up in surprise. Wendy could hardly wait to meet the girl and said, "I'm coming right now."

"Ahem, I'll also go to have a look—" Barov was about to follow, but Ashes stopped him.

"That's a girl's bedroom you're talking about. I think it would be better if you just stayed here and waited for our news."

…

The moment Wendy entered the room, she saw that Lorgar was struggling to get up from the bed, and beads of sweat were welling up on her forehead. She looked pale. Her broken ears drooped, and her hair seemed dry and dull.

"I can't believe it... I'm still alive." She panted and then turned her head to look at the crowd pouring into the room. "How long have I been unconscious?"

"Ten days have passed since we found you." Wendy gently pressed her back into the bed. "Don't move. Your limbs, bones, and even inner organs have suffered severe injuries. Ten days isn't enough for them to recover. You survive these days because of Nightfall's Seed of Symbiosis, but you still ought to stay in bed and rest before Nana comes back."

After knowing the use of Seed of Symbiosis, Lorgar slightly inclined her head to greet Nightfall who was lying in a bed nearby and said, "Thank you."

"That's alright." Nightfall shrugged her shoulders, trying to appear casual. "And I think it's quite good to be able to lie in bed and have Chaos Drinks every day."

"What exactly did you meet in the depths of the Barbarian Land?" Ashes asked in a deep voice. "You've mentioned demons many times in your sleep."

"Yes, I did encounter demons... many of them." Lorgar closed her eyes to recall what had happened. "At first, I met two demons by themselves when I was chasing a hybrid demonic beast. They might've been scouts, or perhaps they were just out hunting for some demonic beasts." She took a deep breath. "I managed to kill them both, but I never expected that these two demons are but droplets in the vast ocean when compared to the army of demons that I spotted soon after. Countless demons swarmed the Taquila ruins, and among them were several colossal monsters."

Hearing the Wolf Girl's description, all the people in the bedroom fell silent.

Chapter 907 - Unveiling The Mystery (Part Ⅱ)

Roland and Lightning had once told Lorgar that if an opponent was too strong for her to take on alone, it would be better to withdraw and report the news back to Neverwinter as soon as possible. Lorgar always kept this in mind. When she discovered the demon army, she decided to return to the Neverwinter immediately.

After all, she had already proven herself in her previous battles, and she knew that she would have plenty more chances to fight against these demons once they invaded Neverwinter.

Despite having made that decision, Lorgar did not leave the vicinity immediately and instead decided to scout out the movements of the demons from a higher vantage point. She did not want to embarrass herself by telling everyone in the city that she fled at the sight of the demon army. Lorgar thought that if she were able to bring back more information about the demons, then even the great chief would owe her a huge favor.

All this time, she had been trying to prove herself and gain the great chief's recognition rather than his apology. It did not matter whether his words that day were out of genuine concern or just mockery. Simply put, for the Wolf Girl, this was about her honor. But for the entire Wildflame clan, this would significantly improve their status in the great chief's heart.

That was why she chose to stay in this dangerous place.

Of course, she would never tell the witches what went through her mind as she did this. She would simply tell them that she was just curious.

She began to describe her experience to the witches. "I quickly found an abandoned stone tower that was covered by moss and vines near the ruins of Taquila. Half of the tower had already crumbled down, but it was still the best spot in the area for me as a vantage point."

"To be able to transform and run away any minute in case of an emergency, I took off my clothes and stored them in my backpack. I wrapped myself in a cloak and climbed up to the top of the tower."

"As I reached the top, I happened to find an opening in the tower walls that was covered by vines. This was a perfect hiding spot for me, as many Devilbeasts flew over my position without spotting me."

"Only then, I was finally able to get a clear picture of the massive beasts."

"Those are actually not living creatures!"

"They're not... alive?" Much surprised, Wendy could not help but interrupt.

"I think so," Lorgar said in a low voice. "Those monsters didn't seem to have any characteristics of a living creature. They were more like..."

"Like what?"

"Like the iron bridge that your people built over the Redwater River."

The witches looked at each other in bewilderment. "A bridge?"

"I also couldn't believe it back then, but that's how they look like." Lorgar coughed twice weakly. "Those monsters had straight backs which looked like the deck of a bridge. On either side of its torso, there were two long legs which resemble the pillars that support the bridge. However... neither its torso nor its limbs were covered by flesh. I was able to see right through its body with the empty gaps between its bones and metal pieces."

Wendy gasped in fright.

A walking steel bridge? Is this a new invention of the demons?

After resting for a short while, Lorgar continued, "Each skeleton monster is nearly 30 meters tall with many demons secured to the top of it. From a distance, it looked as if insect eggs covered its surface. A huge sack hanged on one side of its abdomen, and it looked like some inner organ that had fallen out of its body. l could see it pulsating with a dark red mist surging under the skin." She clenched her fist and then gently placed it on her chest. "By the name of Three Gods, those monsters looked like evil incarnate."

Ashes frowned, "... and then?"

"These monsters laid down by the ruins, and hundreds of tubes came out of the sack and inserted themselves into the ground. Within seconds, all the soil surrounding them turned into dark brown clods and the weeds and trees around withered, as if life was somehow drained out of them. After that, most of the demons sank into the ground, leaving only a couple hundred of Mad Demons and a dozen of Devilbeasts in the ruins. I guess they were responsible for some scouting or patrolling tasks."

"Have you ever seen a demon which has countless eyes and tentacles? It usually stays at a higher place; it looks like a wiggling blob at first glance." Wendy asked while noting down the Wolf Girl's description.

"Do you mean a Multi-eyed Demon?" Lorgar shook her head. "Lightning mentioned this dangerous monster to me, but I didn't find anything like it in the Army of Demons."

"So how did you get hurt?"

"I underestimated the enemies." Lorgar looked a little depressed. "I hid at the top of the tower for three days. Many Devilbeasts flew across this area during this period, but it seemed that none of them were seriously patrolling the place. When I heard a Mad Demon blowing a horn, I thought it wouldn't attract the attention of the main force, but when I started to run away, I found that several squads of demons had already been lying in wait nearby for me."

"Wait... Do you mean they ambushed you?" Nightfall asked, surprised. "How come the demons were able to make this kind of arrangement? You guys said before that they were nothing but strong, simple-minded beasts?"

"The demons from the lowest rank are indeed stupid beasts, but once they get a commander, the situation will be different," Tilly said in a low voice. "There must have been a senior demon among the enemies that besieged Lorgar."

"In the face of an unknown enemy, no one can come up with a perfect battle tactic," Ashes patted the Wolf Girl's shoulder. "You were able to escape from such a formidable enemy and return to Neverwinter alive. That in itself is already an impressive achievement."

This was the first time Wendy had heard such a compliment from the Extraordinary.

"Maybe. Fortunately... the senior demon didn't come to capture me personally." Lorgar forced a weak smile. "Immediately after I knew that I was spotted, I transformed into a wolf and tried to escape under the cover of the night. During the pursuit, their spear throwers were unable to hit me in the darkness. I don't know how many enemies were after me at that time, but some Devilbeasts were always hovering over my position."

"You, You killed all the demons chasing you?" Tilly asked confusedly.

Hearing that, Wendy also began to wonder. If Lorgar couldn't get rid of the enemies besieging her, she would remain in a passive position under attack. The fact that she had suffered severe injuries also proved this point. It seems that she was in quite a desperate situation.

"No... they gave up hunting me," Lorgar replied. "I don't understand why... If they had chosen to run after me for another day, I would have died from exhaustion. But surprisingly, they all just suddenly withdrew."

"Red Mist!" Tilly quickly responded. "They must have been afraid of wastefully using up the Red Mist that they brought with them. Do you remember the place where they started to retreat?"

Lorgar thought for a moment while rubbing her forehead. "It's probably about 2,500 or 3,000 meters away from the grassland."

"Where's the map? Give me a map quickly."

Seeing Tilly measuring distances on a map, Wendy gradually realized what the skeleton monsters mentioned by Lorgar might be. She thought of the church's Siege Beasts and guessed that the skeleton monsters were possibly also some machine driven by magic power, which was used to transport Red Mist. If that was the case, everything in Lorgar's description would make sense. The demons sinking into the ground and the soil polluted by Red Mist was just like the scene in the Devil's Town behind the snow mountain.

"According to Lorgar's report, the Devilbeasts that set out from the Taquila ruins could only make it to the edge of the Barbarian Land. Does this mean that Neverwinter is still safe?" Wendy wondered.

After recounting her experience to the witches, Lorgar was exhausted and some blood began to leak out of her wounds and had stained her bandage once more.

Seeing this, Wendy comforted the Wolf Girl and asked her to take some rest before Nana's return. After that, she led the witches out of the bedroom and gently closed the door behind them.

Chapter 908 - A Bloody Road

Back in the meeting room, Wendy read out the newly acquired intelligence from the beginning. However, Alethea rudely interrupted her when she started to talk about the safety measures.

"There is no such thing as a safe distance when it comes to the demons—Taquila paid a heavy price before realizing this, and it would be extremely risky to use the Red Mist's consumption area to plan for the war zone. For instance, Devilbeasts are capable of carrying multiple gas tanks, thus extending their attack range, Or they could bury a batch of gas tanks in advance and then replace them as they marched. Naturally, the most direct measure would be to build outposts and use them as links to extend the attacking range. Fighting to gain control of these outposts will be crucial in the Battle of Divine Will. Unfortunately, it will be tough to find all the hidden sentry posts in the vast plains. Never forget that the demons are always more cunning than you can ever comprehend."

Wendy could not help but imagine the scene Alethea had described: the overwhelming army of demons would be launching fierce head-on attacks while at the same time setting up outposts everywhere to store their Red mist. If they succeed, the whole area would be quickly overrun by an endless horde of demons. This would have had cut off the communication and transportation of resources within the old Union's territories, which in turn would also endanger the surrounding areas. It would be like a stone rolling down a slope; the more land they lose, the harder it would be to resist the demons. In the end, they would no longer be capable of fighting back.

"In your opinion, what are the chances of them attacking Neverwinter city?" Tilly asked calmly.

"I must say that you are fortunate—or rather we are all very fortunate," Alethea said while stretching her tentacles. "even though we can't use the Red mist to determine the enemy's attacking range, at least we can determine their intentions through it. I don't think the demons are likely to launch a large-scale attack on Neverwinter city in the immediate future"

"Could you elaborate?"

"The Red mist." The ancient witch nodded its blob head, "Any movements the demons make are based on their supply of the Red Mist. The fact that they went underground and left only their patrol team above ground instead of building a camp means that there aren't enough resources for them to use. Even if there were attacks at the border, it would probably only consist of a few small skirmishes. Of course, whether or not this situation will change in the future will have to depend on whatever happens from now on."

Tilly shifted her gaze to Pasha.

"Alethea's judgment is credible," said the latter while shaking her main tentacles. "during the days of the Union, she led a small platoon of the Blessed Army and successfully attacked the Devil's Town multiple times... but her temper is rather bad."

"My patience is only used on things that are worth worrying over," Alethea said bluntly. "Compared to the Devilbeast's long-range sneak attacks, I'm more concerned about those new war machines."

"I would like to ask... how did the demons transport Red mist before?" Barov finally found a chance to talk.

"Pretty much in the same way we would transport our supplies," Pasha sighed, "with low-level demons, carts, enslaved demonic hybrids or transformed Siege Beasts. The time they require to prepare for war is also close to that of ours. Everytime a battle was about to start, one could see dozens of red mist supply lines running across the entire Fertile Plains."

"To stop the transportation of the Red mist, everyone including the Blessed Army, the combat witches, and the common troops would have to go all-out. When we had to face a well-guarded Red Mist transport platoon, the blood of our soldiers would dye the whole plains red. As a result, those red mist supply lines were both the demons' and our troops' line of life-or-death." Alethea added.

Everyone in the room was a bit startled by those words.

Even though they have not officially fought against the Demon army yet, everyone could already feel the pressure that this fierce race had put on humanity 400 years ago.

Under the guidance of His Majesty Roland, even Wendy could understand the importance of logistics. Transportation of supplies was undoubtedly a measure of an army's capability in sustaining itself. Suppose the demons did have the ability to construct such a large vehicle to transport Red mist. This would mean that they would be able to provide large quantities of supplies for the front-lines without expanding too many forces. Fewer supply lines would mean that there would be a higher concentration of troops guarding the transport teams. Perhaps the scene that Lorgar saw would become standard for the demons' inevitable march.

If it weren't for Roland Wimbledon, she really would have no idea how the third Battle of Divine Will was to be fought. It was clear that the demons have changed dramatically. There are now Senior demons who can move around independently; not to mention the appearance of the gigantic skeleton monsters. Other than Neverwinter city, the rest of the human kingdoms' strength was probably even weaker than during the Union's time. She did not even dare to imagine a scene where those noble knights would charge into the sea of demons.

"All in all, the current situation does not completely refute our previous assumptions—only the time was misjudged." Aware of the fact that overemphasizing the hardships of war was probably not good for morale, Alethea coughed twice and changed the subject. "The BlackRock spire, which can produce Red mist, needs to be built on the God's Stone mineral veins. So it's not surprising that the enemy chose to capture the ruins of the Holy City. After all, Taquila is now the easternmost God's Stone mining place on the Fertile Plains. Once the demons construct the spire, the range of the Red mist will directly cover the Impassable Mountain Range. At that time, any resistance will be futile."

No one could object to the fact that if the demons were no longer restricted in their movements, they would be able to launch attacks from any direction. And their flying Devilbeasts were much more flexible than the hydrogen balloon. It would be highly possible to get attacked by them if one left the city area... In a situation like this, it would be unlikely for humans to be able to resist for more than a couple years and in the end, they would be annihilated.

Though Wendy was not very familiar with the intricacies of war, she still had participated in these kinds of meetings multiple times. She knew that both His Majesty Roland and the Church of Hermes were adamant in stopping the demons' plan to occupy the Taquila ruins.

It seems like the three parties were in agreement on this point.

"Fortunately, the demons have exposed their intentions prematurely, and considering how the Bloody Moon won't appear for another 3-5 years, we can still prepare ourselves to the fullest before launching a decisive attack." Alethea continued. "Even if we fail, the nearest Blackrock spire to the demons is in the Fertile Plains, which is hundreds of miles north of the Dragonspine Mountains. So in terms of supply lines, they don't have any advantage over us. But anyways, one thing is certain. War is now upon us."

Wendy suddenly felt that her shoulders had become a lot heavier.

"Wait, wait..." Barov suddenly shouted. "How you decide to fight the demons does not concern me. However, we can't keep the gates closed forever, right? Since we now know that the Army of Demons is still far from Neverwinter city and that they won't attack us for the time being, shouldn't we call off the alert and get those farms back up and running?"

"I believe that Neverwinter requires a more reliable alarm system," the head of the garrison followed up, "His Majesty mentioned before that establishing a deeper defensive line would allow a higher margin of error when it came to the alarms. I was wondering if it's possible to ask Miss Lotus to construct a few Beacon Towers along the plains. Of course, it would be even better if we utilized what His Excellency Carter had mentioned: a communication tool that can connect dozens of miles instantaneously. This way, the City Hall's work wouldn't be delayed."

The first option was easy but the second required both Anna and Roland since nobody knew how to actualize it. Also, delivering news through beacons may not be necessarily faster than a Devilbeast ambush.

Wendy hesitated for a moment but before she could reply, Pasha's voice sounded in their heads.

"Leave this to us."

"Hmm? What do you plan to do?" Ashes raised her eyebrows.

"Since we already know the location of the demons' camp, it makes things a lot simpler," Pasha stretched out her tentacle and showed it in the light curtain, "through this, we can create a complete surveillance system to watch the demons, similar to a light curtain."

In her tentacle, there was a Five-Colored Stone.

Wendy immediately remembered what No. 76 Phyllis had done before. "Do you plan to use it to locate the phantom instrument?"

"Exactly, once shattered, the magic core will unfold the light curtain in the corresponding position. But the number of these magic stones are limited. Each time we use one of them their number will decrease. At the same time, they are also essential in finding the keys of the Chosen One. Therefore, I will only be able to use it in extremely important situations."

"But—" she instantly thought of another problem, "this requires someone to get close to the Taquila ruins, correct? But the demons have already..."

"Rest assured. There is no need for you to worry. Since it's our idea, we will be the ones executing it." Alethea said. "Taquila would never do something as cowardly as proposing a plan only to have others execute it. This is but a small matter. All God's Punishment Witches are prepared to sacrifice themselves.—"

"But it's still the best if you do not have to sacrifice yourselves," Tilly interrupted the other side with a smile. "Leave the task of placing the Magic Stone to the Sleeping Spell. Though their fighting capacity is limited, they do possess a variety of skills. Also, being the newcomers in the Western Region, they must also contribute in order to gain everyone's approval, isn't that right?"

Chapter 909 - A Problem in Dreamland (Part I)

"Your Majesty... Roland?"

The voice was soft and distant.

It wasn't until Roland felt a tickling sensation around his ear that he suddenly realized someone was calling his name.

"You spaced-out again." Nightingale leaned dramatically on the long table, looking right into Roland's eyes. She held her chin in her hand, with her head slightly lopsided, and one pale index finger was swaying from side to side. It was obvious that she had used that finger to fiddle with Roland's ear.

"Um... really?" Roland cleared his throat, pretending that he was reading the statistical report that had just come in. "Probably because of the warm weather today. It makes me doze off easily."

"This isn't the first time to you started daydreaming." Nightingale walked back to the recliner on the other side of the tent. "Ever since you came back from Reflection Church, you've constantly been in a daze. Has anything happened?"

Roland was about to deny what she had said, but the words got caught in his throat. He knew Nightingale could tell lies from truth, and he could not continue to deceive himself either. Even though it had been almost a week; he still could not understand what was going on.

"I did find something wrong... But the whole thing is so creepy and weird that I don't know where to start."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Nightingale stared at the sky above, her hands behind her head. "I'm not as smart as you anyway. Even if you were to tell me, I wouldn't be of much help. Perhaps Anna would be more useful in this area..."

"I haven't told her either." Roland shook his head, forcing a smile.

"Oh... is that so?" Nightingale turned over immediately. "Why not?"

"Because it's so bizarre that I'm afraid it's beyond the scope of my understanding," Roland said flatly. "As much as I hate to admit, it doesn't affect anything. In other words, this is completely personal. Telling her wouldn't help any, it would only make her worry."

"I see." Nightingale blinked as if sudden enlightenment had struck her. Roland, however, knew she did not understand anything but just thought the whole idea cool.

"Don't tell her that I frequently daydream." Roland reminded Nightingale. "This is something nobody else can solve."

"Of course!" Nightingale's face somehow lighted up. She patted her chest, produced a slice of grilled fish from the sack and shoved it into her mouth, looking quite satisfied.

After obtaining Nightingale's promise, Roland sighed internally. The data on the statistical report did not make any sense to him, What Roland had seen in the secret chamber of the church cluttered his mind.

Why would a legendary figure appear at the early stage of the foundation of the Union? From her portrait, it seemed that she had existed even before the Union age.

Roland had later made inquiries to Isabella, Agatha, and Phyllis, but none of them had given him a definite answer. It was such a dim and distant past that nobody could tell who the person in the picture was. They could only conjecture that she had, at one time, been prominent.

Roland used to think that there were only two types of people in the Dream World. One was those defeated by Zero, whose souls were permanently bound to the Building of Souls but who still more or less maintained a feeble connection with the real world. The most typical features of them were the astonishing resemblance of their physical appearances and the memory fragments in their rooms.

The other type were fictitious characters who came out of thin air directly from the Dream World. They were fabrications of his imagination and the Dream World itself.

Roland was now not sure about his theory, however.

Isabella told him that, according to her service records during the time she had served the Pope, Zero should be between 200 to 250 years old. Therefore, it seemed impossible for Zero, the pure witch who never aged, to "imprison" a person living 800 years ago. Although Zero was much older than ordinary people, numerous figures in history had had much greater longevity than her.

Zero had been born after the establishment of the church. Based on seniority, Agatha and some other witches were old enough to be her grandmother.

"Could the person in the picture intrude the Dream World by herself?"

This hypothesis was even bolder and more inconceivable.

"How can a woman from an ancient civilization survive in modern society and disguise herself so well? Where was her soul before the existence of the Dream World?"

Also, Lan's physical appearance contradicted this hypothesis.

She was elegant and graceful indeed, but she was by no means attractive, which meant that she was not a witch. Without any extraordinary power, one would, without exception, return to the earth 100 years after one's death, no matter how great they used to be.

The most reasonable explanation, although the least creative one, other than the above-noted two assumptions, was that the two people happened to look the same. In other words, it was a pure coincidence.

It would save Roland a lot of trouble if he adopted this theory, but he had a hard time convincing himself. "Is it really a coincidence?" 

To find the answer, he probably had to ask her in person.

Roland felt a little reluctant to enter that increasingly bizarre Dream World. At the same time, however, he did not like the feeling of throwing himself into the unknown and being kept in the dark either.

In theory, it was better to pick the lesser of two evils. After hesitating for about a week, Roland finally made up his mind.

It was worth mentioning, though, that the nagging Taquila God's Punishment Witches and the free time after the tour of the Holy City of Hermes had also contributed a great deal to his decision-making process.

...

Roland was now accustomed to entering the Dream World. When he woke up, he noticed the calendar still showed the date on which he had last left. The surrounding had not changed a bit during his one month's absence. The picture of the martialist trainees on the nightstand still looked new as if they were recently brought back from the headquarter of the Martialist Association.

Roland took out his cell phone and dialed Garcia's number.

He soon got through and heard even breathing on the other end of the line. "Hello?"

Roland glanced through the window. The first hint of dawn was faintly visible in the east. "Are you doing morning exercises?" Roland asked.

"Cut the crap," Garcia snapped as she usually did, but her voice was no longer as crisp as before. "What's up?"

"Well, I want to discuss something with you. Is it a good time for you? I can come over now. We can have breakfast together, my treat."

"Is it that urgent?" Garcia was silent for a moment. "Come down. I'm in the alley right in front of the apartment."

"Wait for me." Roland hung up, got changed as fast as he could and dashed out of the room. When he passed the living room, however, he found Zero, still not entirely awake, half-dressed. It was apparent that the little girl had just woken up. Her wrinkled pajama tumbled down to one side, revealing half of her lovely fair shoulder. She was waddling in a pair of oversized men's slippers, which were apparently his.

Roland clapped his hand over his forehead. He had no choice but to turn around and help the little girl get dressed.

"Just a moment... I'll make some water downstairs..." Zero mumbled.

"That's OK. I'll bring you breakfast. You just wait here for the food after you brush your teeth and wash your face." Roland patted her on the head and pushed her into the bathroom before he scurried out.

Chapter 910 - A Problem in Dreamland (Part II)

"Beef stew soup noodles for two, here you go!" The restaurant owner placed two bowls in front of them, exhilarated and gleeful. He even gave the table another quick wipe. Apparently, he believed that the arrival of the martialist had enlightened his simple premises, for Garcia was, after all, a celebrity in the apartment.

"Thank you. Can we also have a fried egg, please?" Roland drew out two sets of chopsticks. "One for each."

"No problem!"

"If I were you, I would definitely not pick this place to eat breakfast with a lady." Garcia rolled her eyes. "No wonder you're still single."

"This is slander!" thought Roland. If he wasn't such an honorable man and above flirting with the God's Punishment Witches, they would have taken him long ago... 

"Um, Zero has to go to school later, and I need to bring her breakfast. If it's too far..."

"I understand. That's why I say this shouldn't be regarded as an example." Garcia interrupted him. She split the disposable chopsticks and mixed the green onions and beef together. Soon the soup noodles turned an appealing brownish red color. She first blew on the noodles to cool it down and then slurped them as if they were long, flowing ribbons.

The slurping sound made Roland's mouth water.

"Wow." Roland twitched his lips. "You know how to eat fast food pretty well. I thought you weren't used to this kind of street food."

"That's just your assumption." Garcia shrugged. "I've been here for almost 10 years and have tried every restaurant around this area. It's just basic manners for a host to pick a relatively decent restaurant. Plus, I don't like being stared at by strangers all the time."

Roland now noticed that not only did customers in the restaurant look in this direction from time to time, but random passersby as well. Apparently, Garcia's distinctive gray hair and toned body attracted a lot of people's attention.

"Oops... I forgot about that."

"So let's get down to business." Garcia cast him a cold glance. "Why did you suddenly need to see me? The Martialist Association won't help you with anything illegal."

Roland wondered why she was so alarmed. He had just returned from the headquarter yesterday and did not do anything illegal. Was there anything more illegal than the hunting license?

Roland hesitated for a while before answering Garcia's question. "I want to meet your master. Can you book an appointment for me?

"Huh?" For a moment, Garcia did not follow him.

"Your master... Ms. Lan." Roland soon made an excuse. "I feel regretful for bailing on her last time, so I want to apologize to her in person."

Garcia studied him with great interest as if he were a stranger to her. Then she waved away Roland's request and said, "Really? Now you know how important to have my master as a reference. Save it. She won't see you anymore."

"Perhaps Ms. Lan doesn't hate me as much as you imagine."

"Do you want to tell me that she was nice to you at the orientation? " Garcia said carelessly, "Get over with yourself. You've missed the chance I once gave you. My master will never waste her time on a person who doesn't even abide by the basic etiquette of punctuality, not to mention meeting them."

"Regardless, make a call first." Roland insisted.

Garcia seemed to notice something. "You... you don't really want to make an apology to her, do you?"

"If I can learn some training methods for martialists from her, that would be even better." Roland managed to keep a straight face.

Garcia twitched her lips. She was about to dissuade Roland from pursuing such an unrealistic idea, but she, in the end, picked up her cell phone.

"By the way, what's your master's number..."

"You can't get through anyway. You have to get a SIM card from the association to connect to the headquarter." Garcia gestured him to keep silent and then spoke to the person at the other end of the line, "Hello, it's me..."

But she hung up within three minutes.

"I knew it."

"You knew what?"

"That she would refuse! She even reproached me for calling her again." Garcia grunted. "She's completely disappointed in you. Her tone dropped by at least an octave when she heard your name."

Roland was surprised at the unexpected result and did not understand why. Based on the attitude of Lan toward him at the orientation, she had seemingly not been very angry with him for standing her up for the first appointment. Instead, she had thought quite highly of him. Roland had felt her use of a hidden language was a demonstration of her excellent skills of applying the Force of Nature, so it did not surprise him that Garcia knew little about it. Now he wondered if he had been hallucinating.

At first, Roland had not been very eager to solve the mystery. Even after he entered the Dream World, he was hesitating, but the little defeat just now made him decide to get to the bottom of it.

"Oh, well." Roland took a small sip of the soup. "So when can we visit the headquarters again?"

"After you can deal with the erosion yourself and officially become a martialist. You're as green as grass at the moment."

Roland thought this requirement was reasonably straightforward to meet, but he managed to not reveal his thoughts. "I'm looking forward to that day. By the way, do you still remember the opening speech of Ms. Lan when we arrived at the underground hall?"

"What about it?"

"She said the Battle of Divine Will is around the corner. What does that mean?"

"Well, that..." Garcia replied resignedly. "My master is very fond of a book written 50 years ago, by the name of 'Raison d'être.' She recommended it to me, too. The book develops some theories on how a civilization emerges and evolves. The author calls it the deity's choice. This deity isn't a personified character, but actually a rule, or rather the purpose for the continuity of everything. But these theories are too abstract for people in this world, and they have nothing to do with us. As the book is only circulated in the Martialist Association, few people know about it."

Garcia's answer alarmed Roland. Without a doubt, it was a book he had never seen before, which meant it was a creation of the Dream World itself.

"Can I take a look at it?"

"The book is in the headquarter. I can borrow it from the library next month when I report my work." Garcia glanced at Roland curiously. "If I still remember."

Noticing that Garcia was starting to be suspicious of his motives, Roland wolfed down the noodles and excused himself.

He breathed a long sigh after waking up from the Dream World the following day.

Everything in the Dream World seemed to be normal when it was not associated with the Martialist Association, but anything that involved the Association appeared to be sketchy.

Although the investigation this time did not go well, it was not wholly fruitless. One big success was that the God's Punishment Witches, who had waited for so long, had once again been able to gain various physical sensations in the Dream World. Seeing them have a good time, Roland felt the trip was worthwhile.

Roland was about to take advantage of his recovery to have a few more trips to the Dream World to get things moving faster when Lightning suddenly flew into his tent with a swallow-tailed eagle under her arm.

"Your Majesty, your express mail." The little girl mumbled. "It's an encrypted letter from Neverwinter."

Directly from the Western Region? This isn't a short trip. Did anything happen in Neverwinter? 

To save on messengers, regular mail such as reports on governmental affairs were typically sent to the old king's city by water and forwarded by Theo and his men to him. A swallow-tailed eagle was the largest among all the animal messengers, and it required the highest power. The good thing about using a swallow-tailed eagle to deliver mail was that the animal was at the top of the food chain and it was relatively secure. The drawback of this method was that it would consume a significant amount of the witch's power. It was relatively hard for Honey to control such a fierce bird, due to the energy required for a swallow-tailed eagle was three times that of a gray eagle.

Roland stroked the limp animal messenger and took the sealing ring off its claws. He stood rooted to the ground the moment he unfolded the letter.

"The Demons' army has appeared in the Barbarian Land?" This was earlier than he had anticipated! 

Chapter 911 - The Gleaming Star of Doom

Four days later, Roland had assembled all the leading staff that was campaigning Hermes and the Northern region. An emergency meeting was held in the First Army's campground within the suburbs of the Holy City.

Despite everyone feeling the great urgency of the meeting, no one panicked. Both the General Staff and the military officers of the Western campaign were making conjectures as to whether His Majesty had had new plans in mind. The murmuring of the discussion did not cease until the king entered the tent with a long face.

"I call a meeting, to those present." Roland tapped the desk. "We must return to Neverwinter at once."

A commotion between the staff instantly broke out after this curt announcement.

Ever since Roland had first received the encrypted letter, he had his doubts. The source of this information was questionable at best. Although the news was shocking, there was not a single shred of solid evidence corroborating Lorgar Burnflame's statement. There weren't even any details about when and how she encountered these demons. The threat of an entire demon army couldn't be ignored, however their whereabouts are still unknown and there would still be unrest in this region if the current operation changed dramatically. Roland remained hesitant.

Waiting a few days however, Roland received no shortage of rattled animal messengers that directly flew from the Western region. There must be no doubt a state of emergency has been declared in Neverwinter.

The letters confirmed this. He had details about Lorgar's injuries, the demon in delirium and the problems extended to internal conflict with the arrival of Sleeping Island witches. These letters should have been arriving at his desk chronologically, where the most recent mail should have been the last to reach him. The reality however, was a complete reverse.

The messages that had the most urgency also used some of the largest birds. As a consequence, he had received the most recent encrypted mail first.

After reading all the letters, Roland had developed a rough idea of what had happened. He had learned from the third encrypted letter that Lorgar had actually used Lightning's map to locate Taquila ruins, intending to train herself and improve her combat skills by fighting demons and large demonic beats.

After talking to Lightning, he had confirmed the validity of the news.

And at the same time showed a favorable impression towards the wolf girl's persistence.

Roland wondered if he had been too harsh on her when they first met.

Fortunately, Lorgar had survived with the help of Nightfall's Seed of Symbiosis. With the statements Lorgar has given. If he returned to Neverwinter in late autumn, his enemies would have already established themselves on the Barbarian Land.

This is indeed a great piece of intelligence. Roland thought she even deserved a Special Award for the Service of Neverwinter. Maybe he should also fulfill her dream of becoming a top-notch warrior and equip her with a full set of heavy weapons. That sort of support would further her combat development immensely.

"That's the situation we're in now." Roland relayed the key information of the encrypted letters to the people on the floor and surveyed the audience gravely. "We have to suspend our current plans in this region. As of today, all companies should start making preparations for a retreat. I'll withdraw first and restore the situation in Neverwinter as fast as possible."

Tensions in the room increased dramatically. Most of the people on the floor had heard about demons and knew full well that they were the biggest enemies to the entirety of Graycastle and a threat to mankind. Despite being knowledgeable about the rumors, none of them actually faced a demon. The leading staff was not quite sure on how deal with the current situation and the whole tent fell deadly silent.

Roland understood that the news caught everyone off guard, they needed time to adjust to the matter at hand.

After quite a long silence, one of the officers of the General Staff, Sir Eltek, raised his hand. "Your Majesty, can we trust the information we're getting?"

"It isn't easy to forge Soraya's mark or Honey's animal messenger," Roland answered positively. "Although I haven't double checked yet, I think we can treat the situation as a special case because after all, it isn't easy to handle matters with demons."

"True... but what about matters with the Kingdom of Dawn?" The Duke of Evernight asked the most important question.

"We'll save him for sure. Graycastle won't abandon any of its allies." Roland cast a glance at Andrea who looked pretty worried. "The King of Dawn will have to pay for what he's done. The wrath of Wimbledon might be late, but it'll come sure enough. I'll make other arrangements, however the First Army won't be involved."

Nobody raised objections after seeing Roland's determination. The general staff was thus ordered to draft a proposal for the troops.

The First Army was familiar with an emergency operation. The troops knew the objective at hand. They could launch an attack and retreat in an orderly manner. Therefore, Roland wasn't too worried that he's leaving control.

The secondary city hall in the Northern Region supervised by Duke Kant would be responsible for the provision of supplies and allocate staff to the new and old Holy Cities. Isabella, together with the New Committee of Nuns and the garrison in the Northern Region, would stay behind until the transfer was completed so that the dregs of the church would not have the opportunity to resurge. The Hermes Plateau had been thus, successfully annexed to Roland's territory.

As to the New Committee named by Roland. He had it had been instilled with a new doctrine of ideas that pushed for loyalty towards him and ease pressure off the witches. Roland believed he would leave the assessment of the organization to the future and decide whether it could replace the previous church and function as a tool of political propaganda to help with his ruling at some point later. His current top priority was to re-establish the order in the Holy City so that it would not be a deserted land before the arrival of the Battle of Divine Will.

These policies had indeed been more or less implemented before he had received the encrypted letters. Now he just had to expedite the process. The only thing he needed to do now was to continue the war against the Kingdom of Dawn, but with different means.

After the meeting, Roland asked Andrea to stay.

"Without the support of the First Army, we'll need a change of plan." He went straight to the point.

"Please don't worry. Princess Tilly and the witches from Sleeping Island will make sure nothing happens to Neverwinter." The blonde witch comforted him, although she looked a little apprehensive. "You've done your best. You don't need to force yourself if you really can't."

"You're wrong..." Roland shook his head. "Without the First Army, we can opt for another solution I had in mind. Do you think Appen Moya's castle and knights can save him if I aim for his head? And, If we forego the open battle, we can even probably save Otto Luoxi as well. If this goes to plan, we can overthrow the king and take control the region much quicker than we had originally anticipated."

"Faster?" Andrea was confused. "Are you planning to..."

"I am." Roland curled up his lips. "It won't be easy to persuade them, for they're now so close to having their final confrontation with their lifetime enemies, the demons." Roland paused for a moment. "50 God Punishment Witches are as powerful as 50 Extraordinaries. You can never underestimate them even in the age of the Union. Nobody but I can stop their effectiveness in a battle. Neither God's Stones of Retaliation nor the swords of knights can effectively protect them. Appen is living on borrowed time."

Chapter 912 - An Idealist (I)

"Dealing with The King of Dawn never posed a real problem for me. The real problem lies in maintaining order in the Kingdom of Dawn. You should know very well that it isn't our intention to pick another Moya, or a person who favors the royal family as the subsequent sovereign." Roland looked directly into Andrea's eyes and continued, "I thought my interference would justify this political movement, but now I'm afraid the three families have to come forward and take over from here."

It was pretty obvious that someone had to be there to clean up the mess after Appen Moya fell from power. As the reputation of the King of Graycastle and his impregnable First Army was a powerful deterrent to all the nobles, even if Earl Quinn did become the regent of the kingdom, the nobles would naturally believe he was the puppet controlled by the Wimbledon Family.

Under the new plan, an intervention from Graycastle had become impossible. Since the God's Punishment Witches were not politically involved, Roland had to carry out his plan in the name of the three families; otherwise, the diplomatic battle would turn into a revengeful assassination, which Roland wanted to avoid.

The new plan would bring the Quinn Family both upsides sides and downsides. The downside of it was that the Quinns would become the target of criticism, whereas the upside was the potential increase in their reputation and prestige. If Earl Quinn could take this opportunity and successfully exercise control over the City of Glow, he would have a chance to elevate himself from regent to the new King of Dawn. It was definitely a trade that would bring more benefits than harm to Earl Quinn, especially considering his actual personal qualities and influence over the region.

Andrea quickly understood the key implications after a ponderous moment. "But then you'll... gain little from this new plan."

"Better than Appen continuing to plot against me. At least, it can save Otto's life." Roland did not approve or deny. "Like I said earlier in the meeting, I won't abandon anyone who has made a contribution to Graycastle that easily."

"I see..." The anxious look on Andrea's face gave way to a look of gratitude. "Miss Edith is right. You're truly a kind king. "

"Wh-what?" Roland was taken by surprise. "Edith Kant? What did she say?"

"Well, she predicted that you would save Lord Otto before we marched for the war. In fact, I probably wouldn't have decided so quickly if the Pearl of the Northern Region hadn't advised me to do so."

Really?

Roland managed to keep a straight face while nodding nonchalantly. "Well, since you've made up your mind, I'll write a letter to Earl Quinn detailing the operation procedure and alliance with Graycastle. Also, although most people would make the right choice under such circumstances, I want his consent to be guaranteed. Therefore, I need you to go to the City of Glow with the God's Punishment Witches to make sure he does what I told, and follows operation procedure. To be completely honest, I trust you not your father, so I have to ask you to hang in there for a bit longer. Once the problem is solved, you can come back to Neverwinter with the witches."

Relieved, Andrea once again exuded her dignity as a noble. She lifted her skirt and dipped in a curtsy. "I certainly cannot turn down your request, after all, you've done so much for us already. Also, I have a letter for Princess Tilly and hope you can forward it to her."

"Naturally." Roland agreed smilingly.

After Andrea withdrew, Nightingale frowned. "What the heck is she doing?"

"Are you talking about Edith?" Roland stroked his chin. "Um... they probably brought up that matter during a chat. After all, both of them were present at the pre-operation meeting. What, you didn't think she would view me as a nice person?"

"I don't think she'd say anything good about you even if you were the best man in the world." Nightingale shrugged. "She doesn't seem like the sort of person who talks about things like kindness..."

Roland was about to say something in reply when the guards outside the tent suddenly lifted the curtain and reported to him. "Your Majesty, Lady Edith Kant requests to see you."

Oh-ho, things are becoming a little interesting now.

He exchanged a look with Nightingale before instructing the guard. "Send her in."

"As you wish, Your Majesty!"

The Pearl of the Northern Region performed a bow unceremoniously after she entered the tent. "Your Majesty, I wish for you to change your plan and stop interfering with the affairs of the Kingdom of Dawn."

Roland drew his brows together. "You should have brought that up during the meeting if you wanted to say something. Now I've already made the decision, and it would reflect poorly on me if I change it again."

"That's why I come to see you alone after the meeting," Edith said slowly. "You can still carry out your plan but with some small adjustments. In this way, people will think it's due to some unforeseen circumstances that the mission has not been completed as planned. At the same time, you'll still be able to keep to your word."

At these words, Nightingale could not hold back anymore. She revealed herself and confronted Edith directly. "What exactly are you plotting? You asked Andrea to turn to His Majesty for help. Now you want us to stop interfering in the affairs of the Kingdom of Dawn. Don't tell me that there are no conspiracies going on here!"

Normally, people would feel embarrassed or hesitant when someone pointed out their contradictory behaviors, but Edith remained unflappable as if she had known this would happen. "The situation has changed," she answered calmly. "You can detect lies, can't you? So you should know that I'm telling the truth."

"State your reason." Roland was intrigued.

"The unstoppable pincer attack would make your name known to the whole Kingdom of Dawn. Even if Earl Quinn becomes the regent, civilians would know who the real ruler of the country is. When the demons aren't a threat, you can slowly exert your influence over the policies of the Kingdom of Dawn and gradually convert it to your territory. As people fear the powerful First Army, you could have easily achieved this effortlessly. However, your advantage is now gone."

Edith drew up her hair and explained methodically, "The entry of the army of Graycastle to the city and the coup perpetrated by Earl Quinn are two completely different stories. The latter would largely increase the earl's authority in the region. As for whether other nobles would choose to submit to his rule or plot against him? It'll be none of your business."

"Then we just let Appen Moya continue to conspire against Graycastle?" Nightingale questioned.

"Even if Your Majesty doesn't do anything, it would be hard for Appen to keep his throne. At least, he can't call his bannermen anymore. After the battle in the old Holy City, Appen's authority and integrity are being called into question, so he's no longer able to rule the state like he used to. The Kingdom of Dawn will soon descend into chaos." Edith's tone was so flat as if she were merely laying out the facts. "During this political chaos, Earl Quinn still has a chance to win the game of thrones, but his influence will definitely be limited. Moreover, If Otto Luoxi is lucky, he'll survive. Even if he doesn't in the end, Andrea won't blame you because it isn't your 'fault', Your Majesty." She stressed.

Andrea must have also thought about that. That was why she reminded Roland that "you'll gain little from this plan".

Roland knew it very clearly as well. However, he attached greater importance to a reliable ally than personal gains. Even if Earl Quinn would not give him full support, he believed the upcoming Battle of Divine Will would eventually eliminate all the misunderstanding and mistrust between people. When there is an enemy that threatens the very survival of human civilization, the most important thing they should think about is how to jointly eradicate the enemy.

The Pearl of the Northern Region should know what their top priority was, for as far as Roland could tell, she was definitely not a shortsighted person.

If she did let her lust for power cloud her judgment, Roland would be truly disappointed.

Chapter 913 - An Idealist (II)

Roland gazed at Edith after disclosing his thoughts. "Do you really think it would be better to leave the Kingdom of Dawn as it is than have it ruled by Earl Quinn?"

Edith looked as if she had already known Roland would ask that. "In fact, I don't think the two choices would be much of difference in a short term. A reliable ally can provide you with resources, people, and assistance in the Battle of Divine Will. You can trust Earl Quinn since you've got his daughter Andrea, but you can't say anything about other nobles."

"She... admitted that?" Roland was now confused, wondering what the "short-term" she referred to meant. He had thought Edith would focus on the untrustworthiness of the nobles to establish her argument.

"On the other hand, if the Kingdom of Dawn sinks into a state of chaos, in order to re-establish order, a war would be inevitable. The Kingdom would definitely be weakened in wartime and the state would inevitably fail. By that time, refugees and deserted lands would be all that is left in the Kingdom of Dawn, just like the Eastern Region and the Southern Territory in Graycastle. You can obtain these lands populations effortlessly, and unlike the first choice, these people would belong to you forever."

"But didn't you just say that an ally can provide not only population but also resources and assistance for the war effort?" Nightingale questioned agitatedly. "How does it make sense to you that one benefit is the same as three? Besides, has it never occurred to you that those refugees would die of hunger or exposure to the elements during relocation?"

Edith instantly shot back. "It seems that three sounds certainly more promising than one, but there's a condition. In order to make full use of the ally's resources, His Majesty would first have to make some investments, for example, a steam engine, Golden Twos and even ammunition and weapons. Without these, the Kingdom of Dawn has nothing to compete against demons with, let alone supporting Graycastle on the battlefield. It's a significant investment, although with quite a high return. However, we can't just ignore such a sumptuous amount of money when we can barely satisfy the need of Neverwinter itself. Therefore, I hold that the benefits of the two plans are approximately the same."

Roland raised his brow. He knew very few people in Graycastle understood risk and reward in investing. Barov, for instance, would definitely refuse to provide his own technologies and products to support a neighboring country.

"Then why do you think leaving the Kingdom of Dawn as it is would be a better option if there's no big difference in gains?"

"Because of witches, Your Majesty." Edith's answer surprised both Roland and Nightingale.

"Witches?" Roland was stunned.

The Pearl of the Northern Region stuck out one finger. "Yes. Please think it over. If witches are no longer persecuted in the new Kingdom of Dawn — or rather, under the influence of Andrea, Earl Quinn starts to follow your example and hire witches to help with the production and construction of the country, newly awakened witches facing no death threats, would stop moving to Graycastle. This is one of the potential losses."

"Second, the Kingdom of Dawn is geographically more advantageous than Graycastle. Witches in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter would move south in the event of demon invasion or persecution from the dregs of the church. However, once the situation in the Kingdom of Dawn is stabilized, will they still move to Graycastle? The answer is no. It's probable that the number of witches in the neighboring countries would exceed that in Graycastle in several decades. I'm actually more concerned about this than the loss of current witches."

"Isn't it good... that everybody lives a happy life? What're you so concerned about?" Nightingale's voice was less provoking than before.

Edith ignored Nightingale but directly looked into Roland's eyes. "Has it ever occurred to you that one, or several witches with incredible abilities, would instantly make one kingdom outstrip another?"

"A witch like Anna?"

"That's right. Anna, Agatha, and Soraya... they all have incredible abilities. The moment you won their support, Neverwinter surpassed the domains of other nobles. This is also why you've achieved such great accomplishments so far." Edith said slowly, "Apart from that, you have a wider breadth of knowledge and greater wisdom than anyone else. As long as you're still the king and no one leaves the Witch Union, few could challenge Graycastle's position, except demons."

Edith paused for a few seconds at these words. "But what about the future in over 100 years when the government of the neighboring countries operates the same way as Graycastle's and when witches are employed in various areas? The knowledge you wrote would inevitably spread to cities and towns outside Neverwinter. By that time, people will study the method of machine manufacturing and learn everything you've taught them... If there's one single awakened witch in the Kingdom of Dawn possessing an irreplaceable ability, Graycastle would probably fall behind!"

"That's im—" Nightingale immediately attempted to refute Edith's theory, but she swallowed her words halfway.

"Plus, you now largely rely on various magic powers such as Anna's ability to carry out your construction and development plan. Can you guarantee, however, that Anna's power is the farthest a witch can go?" Edith stressed each syllable with due strength. "If a new witch possesses a more ingenious ability than Anna, will the future King of Dawn still view Graycastle as his ally?"

Roland almost wanted to applaud her speech.

Edith was not focusing on immediate gains but was actually envisioning a scenario in the distant future. Ordinary people may only foresee changes in a few years' time, but Edith was picturing what would happen a century later!

Furthermore, Roland somehow sensed an upcoming explosion of technological innovations in her speech. As a person who had learned about the history of the industrial revolution, Roland knew very well that major technological changes expedited over the past few hundred years. It took apes thousands of years to learn how to make fire, but it took only a decade for human beings to enter the Information Age from the Steam Age. A person living in the modern society might experience technological changes that would otherwise take thousands of years in the past.

Now, the presence of witches might further shorten the interval between each technological change, and the emergence of one or two powerful witches might bring a new technological revolution. Edith was right. If Anna had awakened in the City of Glow, Roland would have no idea how far he could go.

Roland could almost foresee what the future would look like when the members of the Witch Union gradually entered their years of decrepitude while new powerful witches appeared in the Kingdom of Dawn. This was also the reason Edith insisted on leaving the Kingdom of Dawn as it was if Roland was not able to get full control over it.

Roland believed if he were a lord born in this world, he would have definitely been convinced by Edith just now. All kings wanted their kingdoms to endure through time, and for their descendants to perpetuate their glory. They would never create a rival that would potentially pose a threat to their own country.

Roland could still change his mind and abandon Otto to his fate. To do that, he just needed to break his promise and deceive Andrea.

However, he was not that kind of person.

It wasn't the country that Roland really cared about.

He did not care about what his kingdom would look like after his death. Compared with an everlasting kingdom, he was more interested in the advancement of the entire human race. No matter who his successor was, Roland did not have an obligation to assist him in ruling the state. His life goal in this world was to improve the standard of living in Graycastle and take it to the next level while at the same time unveiling the mystery of the Battle of Divine Will.

As for which of the four kingdoms was the strongest? He would leave the choice to people living here.

Last but not least, he wanted to stick to his principles of being an honest and righteous man. He realized that he could never easily break his words for personal gains, nor could he lie in negotiations. His instant resistance to Edith's proposal made him understand that he would never truly become an outstanding politician.

"An excellent argument." Roland looked at Edith with satisfaction. "However, I won't take my words back."

"Your Majesty..." Edith was surprised.

"I know what you want to say. You want to say that a wise king should always seek the best interests of his country and that it's normal to cheat." Roland interrupted Edith. "But there are rulers in this world other than kings..."

"Other... rulers?" Edith echoed in confusion.

"That's right. For example, an idealist."

Chapter 914 - Anna's Prediction

After taking care of the affairs regarding the Kingdom of Dawn, Roland returned to his mansion deep down the campsite.

The manor, which consisted of several attached two-story stone houses, a huge front yard, and a backyard, used to belong to a wealthy merchant. Since its original owner went missing during the Hermes riot, Roland used it as his temporary residence.

When he entered the master bedroom, he found Anna sitting at his desk reading the book he had retrieved from the Dream World. The sunlight that fell through the window blazed off her bangs and gilded her pale face with a rim of gold.

"Is the meeting over?" Hearing his footsteps, Anna turned around and asked him happily.

"Yes, I told them everything they should know. Nana and the others will take off first thing in the morning."

"Have a foot bath first." Anna rose and put a water basin on the stool next to the bed. She then helped Roland take off his shoes and socks. The boots Roland wore on the plateau were made of sturdy leather, quickly giving him sore, smelly feet. Therefore, the first thing Roland did after work was to take a foot bath and put on a pair of light, soft shoes. At first, he insisted on doing it himself, but Anna was determined to help and refused to take no for an answer.

"How's the temperature?" Anna put her Blackfire into the water and let it sink to the bottom.

"Maybe a little hotter than this... Ah, that's perfect." Feeling the warmth wash over his feet, Roland sighed deeply.

Apart from heating up the water, the Blackfire could also turn into a rollerball to massage the back of his feet and soles. It would then cover his feet and dry off the water residue.

This is such a pampered life. 

"What about you?" Anna sat down next to him. "Are you leaving with Nana?"

"No, but Sylvie is. Her monitoring ability is irreplaceable for the garrison." Roland held Anna's hands. "My return would certainly ease their minds, but they have to learn to solve problems without me. Besides, the main force of the First Army is not ready so I would be of little use. Once Maggie transports Nana and Sylvie, she'll transport us."

Since Hummingbird's ability did not apply to living beings, Maggie could only take around two people on her back at a time. The maximum number of people depended on the weight of each individual. Lightning could also carry one passenger, but she would fly much lower when loaded, almost touching the tips of the trees. Her service was thus considered not very safe for a long-haul flight but could serve as an alternative in the event of an emergency.

It was a long trip from Hermes to Neverwinter. Even if Maggie continued to fly after the sunset without taking a break to search for food, it would take nearly three days to cover the distance. Roland had no choice but to gradually transport witches based on how urgent their tasks were needed.

Fortunately, the troops would slowly advance toward the south along the inland river, which would shorten the wait time for the transportation services.

"If only there were a faster commute." Anna looked up. "For example, a machine that soars through the sky."

"That isn't easy, unless —" Roland was about to say that it was impossible to build a real aircraft without an internal combustion engine when an idea suddenly flashed across his mind. He instantly withdrew his previous remark and said something else instead. "Hang on, that's probably doable."

"How?" Anna's lake-blue eyes flickered with excitement.

"By using Wendy's and Mystery Moon's abilities," Roland answered meditatively. "If it's an aircraft with the purpose of transportation, it might work if we combine their abilities!"

Roland was actually inspired by Maggie's bombing plan. If he did not pursue generalization and mass production, a lot of witches' abilities could actually replace machines.

After three years of research and development, he had successfully obtained light aluminum materials in Neverwinter and had also established an Arithmetic Academy capable of performing large-scale computing. Together with a central carrier used to verify computing results, there was a significant chance that he could build a glider that required little or no power.

The most important part of this attempt was Wendy's control of the wind and an electric motor that powered Dawn I.

Simply speaking, an aircraft can fly because its engine produces thrust that pushes the plane forward. In the meantime, a pressure differential created by the airflow on the upper and lower surfaces of the airplane wings generated a lifting force.

Due to the limitations of the current technologies in Neverwinter, the electric motor presently in use was not powerful enough to lift a plane. However, Wendy's wind could provide a lifting force to the aircraft by directly creating an "air pressure differential" beneath the wings. In that case, the electric motor would only need to provide a horizontal thrust force. In the same way, in which Lightning had adjusted the direction of bombs in the air, Wendy was required to apply moderate force to help the plane take off.

"To enhance the flight's duration, the glider's wings should be as long as possible." Roland became increasingly excited as he recollected what a glider looked like in modern society. "But to maximize the lifting force before its takeoff, the aircraft must have a wide wing to fully embrace Wendy's wind control area. Also..."

A regular, well-designed glider, relied on hot airflow to increase its flight altitude and enhance its flight duration. Roland's unique glider, however, would be supplied continuously with upward airflow generated by the witches. This meant that the aircraft could operate as long as Roland wanted to, provided that the magic power didn't run out.

In other words, once a runway was built at the destination, the aircraft could transport at least 10 people at a time. Even the slowest glider could reach a speed of more than 200 kilometers per hour, which was three times faster than Maggie in the form a Devilbeast. With such a glider, they could reach any city in Graycastle within a day.

Needless to say, it would be a slow and time-consuming process to manufacture the prototype and train the pilot. Even if he started the project now, by the time the glider was launched, the witches and the First Army would have already arrived at Neverwinter.

Nevertheless, the idea of inventing a glider exhilarated both Roland and Anna, who dwelled on this subject for quite a while. For human beings who came from and returned to the earth, flying was their biggest ambition. Unlike a lame hydrogen balloon, a glider allowed people to truly soar the sky.

Edith gave Roland wise advice on ruling the kingdom, whereas Anna shared his thoughts and ideas on new technologies and innovations. She was the only person capable of having a conversation with him on such an academic level.

"By the way," Anna carefully organized and put away the sketch of the glider and meeting notes, "was there any good news during the meeting? You haven't looked as relaxed as today ever since you received the letters from Neverwinter."

"Well, sort of." Roland curled up his lips into a smile and told her about his conversation with the Pearl of the Northern Region briefly.

When Anna heard Edith's reasoning, she could not help bursting into laughter.

"What's wrong?" Roland asked curiously.

"I want to say that she's overconfident in our learning ability. To understand everything you've taught us? I'm having a difficult time learning advanced mathematics, let alone physics and chemistry..." Anna grimaced. "I feel like I'll never completely understand the orange book even if you give me another 100 years."

"Haha." Roland laughed. "There are many similar books in the Dream World."

"And I don't think the future will turn out the way she thinks."

"Really? What do you think will happen?"

"She thinks it's better to let the Kingdom of Dawn sink into chaos if you aren't able to secure a dominant position on the continent through a flanking attack. However, I, believe there's more than one way to win people's respect. When you lead us to fight against demons and eliminate all those fearsome enemies who invade our kingdom, you'll be treated with reverence, an honor that no other king can possibly attain," Anna said in a serious tone. "When you eradicate the church and win the Battle of Divine Will, the witches would all remember your great services and the Taquila witches would also be proud of you. Your name will be found in every book you've written, and you'd be permanently associated with the knowledge you've brought to the masses. You'll not only become a part of our history but will also be remembered by everybody in present time. You would enjoy such high prestige that the lords from other kingdoms would come to seek your protection and request to be under your jurisdiction. Nobody would challenge your authority because those who betrayed you have already provided an illustration of what happens when they commit treason. In the foreseeable future, there would probably be only one kingdom, with its territory reaching to the Fertile Plains, where mankind is vigorously reviving the glory of the human race..." Anna paused for a second and then asked, "Is there anything wrong with my prediction?"

Chapter 915 - To the End of the World

"Of course there isn't." Roland poked her forehead affectionately. "On the contrary, I feel it's exactly something you'd dream."

"Why are you so happy about what Edith said then?" Anna asked in bewilderment.

"I'm not happy about her prediction. History itself has a lot of variables and possibilities," Roland replied smilingly. "It's already hard to learn from the past, let alone to predict the future. For instance, we may survive the third Battle of Divine Will but suffer a miserable defeat in the fourth one 100 years from now. Another option is that the enemies lurking at the bottom of the ocean are too powerful for us to conquer them, causing us to be exterminated from Earth's surface... By that time, we don't even know whether the human race could persevere, not to mention the continuity of our kingdom."

"Hmm... this is something too typical for you to think about," Anna commented, mimicking Roland's tone. "What makes you so happy then?"

"Her vision on things." Roland spread out his hands. "When she said something like that, she became a governmental officer rather than a regular noble with a title."

"A governmental... officer?" Anna tried to repeat the mouthful word.

"Correct. She wasn't speaking as an official from the Northern Region but as one who governs the entirety of Graycastle. She's making policies based on the direction the entire kingdom is heading toward, which is a rare and invaluable quality for people born in this era. It's something that even Barov fails to pay attention to. As a City Hall director, he always weighs pros and cons from the perspective of Neverwinter."

It was indeed a game changer. From the beginning, Edith Kant, as an ordinary noble in the Northern Region, had been assisting the ruler in governing the state, while at the same time seeking benefits for her own local region. It was the most common mindset among local nobles. Only the territory granted to their family was what truly belonged to the noble, causing them to place their own benefits over that of the king, although they had pledged alliance to the monarchy.

"Another thing is her attitude toward witches." Roland went on, "It's foresightful of her to associate witches with technological revolutions and then incorporate their abilities into the development strategy."

Roland knew it was entirely different to blindly follow an order than to understand the reason behind it. Although he had developed the idea of "science and technology constitute a primary productive force and witches are the best driving force" in his book, most City Hall officials did not really see the significance of treating witches fairly. They did so merely because it was the king's order. The public did not understand the rationale behind it either. They gradually accepted witches because of the convenience the latter brought to them. Their mutual relationship was, as a matter of fact, as delicate and fragile as a thin thread that could easily snap off upon a conflict or a misfortune. Only when people fully recognized the absolute necessity of witches would they engage more deeply.

In fact, Roland was more pleased with the shift of Edith's attitude toward witches than the change in her political mindset. With the centralization of power and the diminish of feudal rights, more officials would eventually accept the concept of unity. However, it would probably take a much longer time for them to grasp the nature of the witches' abilities.

Having said that, Edith was not perfect. Although she was more insightful of the future than most people, she failed to see some other possibilities besides the continued dominance of the Kingdom of Graycastle. Her thoughts and ideology were still primarily bound by the era.

Nevertheless, Edith was, after all, a young woman about the same age as Nightingale. It was thus healthy for her to have an ambition of building an everlasting empire. Roland was curious what kind of governor she would become in 20 or 30 years when she had been imbued with all sorts of modern concepts and ideas Roland was currently striving to advertise.

After hearing Roland's explanation, Anna tilted her head and asked, "Since the future is unpredictable and you don't care about what Graycastle would look like after your death, what are you planning to do if we survive the Battle of Divine Will?"

"You already know, don't you?" Roland looked into her azure eyes.

They had discussed their future several times when they had been cuddling in bed. Roland intended to visit the Land of Dawn across the Fertile Plains and even take a look at the demons' territory. He also planned to cross the Sealine and reach the other end of the ocean. Apart from that, he wanted to unveil the mystery of the deities and learn the truth of the world. To this end, Roland would use every resource available and force not only residents in the Kingdom of Graycastle but every single person on the continent to contribute to his entrepreneurial undertaking. Anyone who attempted to stop him would be viewed as his enemy.

"Remember to take me with you." Anna grinned. "I don't want to miss the adventure."

"Of course. I'll definitely take you wherever I go, even to the end of the world." Roland pressed a kiss to her lips.

***************

Neverwinter and the Third Border City.

Tilly stood captivated before the magic core, watching its every movement. Its outer frame dilated and contracted as the magic power rose and declined, like blue sea water as if the core was breathing. At the center of the pyramid flickered a yellow light orb. Like a gemstone washed and polished by tidal waves, the orb got Tilly's full attention.

As long as the orb was illuminating, the Five-Colored Stone would be fine.

"If you feel tired, go take a rest." Pasha's voice suddenly popped up in her head. In the meantime, Tilly heard a rustle behind her. "If I notice something, I'll let you know immediately."

Tilly turned around and found a huge blob drop down from the ceiling. Although all the Senior Witches looked the same after their conversion, she could somehow tell them apart after staying with them for a few days.

"I'm not tired. It's been just five days..." Tilly yawned at these words. "... I'm a bit drowsy, that's all."

"When I still felt sensations, there was no difference between those two." Pasha swayed her tentacle. "Don't worry. The Magic Stone is intact, which means that the witches are still safe. If they do encounter demons, they will break the stone."

Tilly also knew that, but she could not find peace in her mind. She regretted staying behind and felt a little annoyed at the fact that she had been persuaded by Ashes' silly argument.

Technically, the operation should not be too dangerous, all the selected witches were excellent combatants who had participated in the battle against the church. The way they insinuated themselves into demons' lair would also be pretty much the same as that they had attacked the church at Fjords — Lotus would be responsible for creating an underground shelter, and Orbit would dig a short passage for the rest of them to travel in between two locations. With this method, the enemies would only be able to find an enclosed cave beneath the earth even if they saw something out of character.

The key lay in the final step. To expand the visual field of the phantom instrument, they should break the magic stone somewhere with a relatively high altitude. Tilly had planned to locate the spot with the Stone of Flight herself, but Ashes took over her job.

Tilly had confirmed through the few maneuvers before the operation that it was highly unlikely for demons to spot her if she took action at night. However, Ashes insisted that a leader should not put herself in danger. As a result, she was left behind with the magic core, unable to do anything.

Chapter 916 - A Second Trip to the Ruin

"... I used to be like you." Pasha suddenly broke the silence. "Every time my friends went to war, I would wait at the city gate. The Union even built a high tower there for people to rest. They would know immediately if someone came back."

"Are you talking about Taquila?" Tilly asked.

"Yes, but after a few years, nobody but the garrison visited there. Do you know why?"

"..." Tilly did not reply but she already knew the possible answer.

"Because all we got was disappointment and grieve in the end." Pasha put her tentacle on Tilly's shoulder. "Witches are connected through magic power. Our bond is much stronger than blood. Once we get to know each other, everyone would become our sister, no matter if she was an ordinary combat witch or a member of the Blessed Army. However, the intimate relationship also generated negative emotions on the tower. It was frustrating to see bodies be sent back from the front on the day of return. When our outer defensive line gradually shrank and nobody needed to depart for war, the Union ordered the high tower to be torn down."

"Are you trying to say that it's unnecessary to wait for them?"

"Quite the opposite. I want to say that the fact that you're still longing for their return means that you haven't truly lost something," Pasha said in a slow and gentle tone. "I hope you'll never turn into someone like me, who views sacrifice as the new norm."

"I have lost a lot of things. I made many decisions when I left the palace for Sleeping Island. A lot of them were decisions of loss and gain, and I had to abandon some of my closest friends... As long as I choose the right path, I won't hesitate. But there's someone who is different. There's always one or two people that hold a special place in my heart, who always make me restless." Tilly held the stone ring of Lightning in her hand tighter. It was no problem for her to control the two Magic Stones alternatively, but Ashes could not even fly a straight line with the two Stones. Therefore, she had to keep the ring to herself.

Nevertheless, Tilly did not reveal her thoughts but simply nodded slightly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I'll go check how the digging of defensive line at the border is going. There's a room with a bed near the entrance to the hall. You can sleep there if you want."

"Got it."

After Pasha headed back the way she had come, Tilly suddenly had a cold feeling around her palm.

She spread out her hand and found one corner of the magic stone fixed by the ring had come off. The fragment sank into her flesh and left a tiny bead of blood on her hand.

...

"It's been five days. Why haven't we seen the ruins yet?" Lotus grumbled. "It's so boring hiding underground all day."

"How do I know? In any case, I'll go wherever your tunnel is heading." A girl with braided hair shrugged. She threw a piece of dried meat into the air and then opened her mouth. With a flash of blue light, the dried meat disappeared and her cheeks puffed up. "Yum... So it isn't a lie. Life in Neverwinter is indeed luxurious. Even their rations are so delicious."

"T-tunnel? Do you think I'm a mole?"

"Pretty much."

"Um... you'd better go easy on the food." Iffy sighed. "I don't want to return with an empty stomach."

"I don't want to be lectured by a witch from the Bloodfang Association." The girl jerked her head away from Iffy. "I've heard that you once conspired against Princess Tilly. If I were her, I wouldn't even share wheat cakes with you, let alone dried meat."

Iffy rolled her eyes.

"Enough." Ashes cut in with a resigned look. "It wasn't their fault in joining the Bloodfang Association. If Tilly heard you say this, she would definitely give you a good lesson."

"Oh... well." Hearing Princess Tilly's name, the witch finally became quiet.

"This is another witch who is too hyper for her own good." Ashes thought to herself while breathing out a sigh. This witch, who took particular attention to her appearance, was called Orbit. Despite her flamboyant style, she played an indispensable role in this operation.

Orbit's ability was incredible. Before she had become of age, she could create an invisible passage connecting two locations. The passage could not be detected by the naked eye and it covered no distance. In other words, she could transfer herself from one place to another within a blink of an eye. If there was something like a wall or a door in-between the two places, Orbit would act as if it didn't exist. As long as she continuously applied her ability, the passage would remain open.

Nonetheless, her magic power could only affect an area within a radius of 15 meters. If she was the entrance of the passage, this number would drop to around 7.

After she had entered her adulthood, Orbit had obtained a derivative skill called "Magic Mark" that largely increased the practicality and the coverage of the passage. The passage would be visible to a person marked by Orbit, whereas one without a mark could not stop Orbit from moving around even if he knew where the passage was.

There were also certain dangers with this ability. For example, Orbit could withdraw her ability when a marked enemy was just halfway through the passage. The enemy's body would then be snapped in half and appear in two separate locations when the passageway was sealed.

Tilly thus proposed that Lotus and Orbit should work together to open a secret tunnel with an invisible exit so that the enemies could not locate the witches even if they found the hole. By the time the demons realized there were many similar tunnels, the witches would already be several miles away. Hence, the operation plan was, technically, absolutely safe.

Using the stone tower where Agatha had initially been found as their starting point, they left Misty Forest and headed to the northeast. As the forest close to Neverwinter was completely under Leaf's control, they did not need to worry about any threats from hybrid demonic beasts.

However, Ashes soon found a practical problem they had not anticipated during their maneuver and that was navigation. During the trip, they had only needed to cover a distance of a few kilometers. Yet when this number increased by dozens of times, it became very hard to determine which direction they were exactly heading to. Although they would use stars for orientation, nobody knew whether they were on the right track.

"How about checking the map Lorgar brought back?" Lotus turned to Ashes for advice. "Perhaps we can find a couple of landmarks that would help us navigate. Then we would know how far we were from the ruin."

Ashes nodded, although her hopes were not high.

On the map were some bird nests, beehives and bears' caves, which offered them few clues as to where they were. Perhaps only Lightning and Maggie could read the map and find the right direction.

"Shhh!" Iffy suddenly gestured at them to keep quiet.

The three of them instantly fell silent.

Soon, they heard patterings of heavy footsteps overhead. The shuffling sound indicated there were at least four or five people. Since hybrid demonic beasts rarely acted in groups, they were most likely the patrol team of demons.

The footsteps soon faded away. It was obvious that the enemies did not notice someone was hiding beneath the earth.

This was the second time today.

The attack of the wolf girl apparently had alarmed the demons a great deal.

After all the demons scurried off, Iffy let out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least that tells us that we're in the right direction."

"But the problem is that we can't see the ruin of the city and thus can't place the light curtain at the right spot." Lotus shook her head. "In order to use the phantom instrument as an alarming device, we have to put the light curtain five or six miles to the southwest of the ruin. This way, the Taquila witches would see Devilbeasts when they fly toward the Western Region."

After pondering for a while, Ashes made the final decision. "We'll march for another night. I'll go up and check where the Taquila ruins lay at dusk tomorrow."

Chapter 917 - Ashes' Plan

"Ashes, the demons aren't blind!" Iffy quickly refuted Ashes' suggestion. "As soon as you see Taquila by the setting sun you'll be immediately spotted! There's no place to hide in the sky. Do you want to expose yourself with no way to fight back?"

"Iffy is right, it's too risky of a move." Lotus added. "Lady Tilly told us that the Stone of Flight only lets you fly up and down and not laterally. Once you're discovered by them, you can't escape. Can't we at least do this at night?"

Ashes felt incredibly touched by all their comments, especially the one coming from Iffy. Just a year ago, she was at her neck when she was with the Bloodfang association and the leader of the association, Heidi Morgan, had been plotting to kill her and Tilly. If Tilly had not insisted on tolerating the Bloodfang Association, she would have waged war against them long before. Ashes had never expected Iffy to start showing concern for her since she thought that rift between Sleeping Island and Bloodfang Association would never be completely healed.

Ashes suddenly felt that she and Iffy were on the same team now.

She was happy to see these changes happening. Ashes understood that teamwork was what was needed to go forward.

"But I can't see anything in the darkness of the night. Taquila must be covered in vines by now and I also can't find the ruins if there's no light around. I think early dusk is the best time," Ashes insisted. " And maybe we didn't go astray and the ruins are just behind some big tree or by a low hill. All I have to do is to fly up and crush the Magic Stone in my hand."

"But what if some flying demon nearby spots you?" Lotus knitted her eyebrows. "You'll only be able to use, at most, 10% of your strength in the air right?"

"Don't worry. I've already figured out a strategy to handle these problems," Ashes calmly explained while holding three fingers up. "Depending on the situation, I'll use one of three different plans."

"Oh?" Orbit came closer curiously. "You sound like Lady Tilly now."

"Really? How do these plans of your work?" Lotus also appeared to be intrigued.

"Listen to me carefully, the only enemies who can discover me must be some Mad Demons riding flying Devilbeasts, so I came up with three different situations. A different plan if one, two or more than that come to attack me."

"Oh my..." Lotus felt helpless and covered her forehead.

"Bahaha, you really plan to get caught?" Iffy broke into a chuckle.

"Hey, don't interrupt. Let me finish talking about my strategy and then you can comment."

"If I were Maggie, I would raise both flags in favor for you." Orbit said with seriousness. "Now I know why she enjoys taking part in your plans now."

...

In the end, Ashes managed to get everyone to hear her out.

After hearing Ashes' strategy, the witches agreed on her plan since none of them could think of a better one. In Lotus' view, although the three situations Ashes talked about in the beginning sounded a little absurd, her countermeasures were unexpectedly good. In Iffy's eyes, Ashes' plan was just based on her animalistic intuition and accumulated fighting experience.

After another day of traveling underground, the light coming through the vent began to dim. At first, the white clouds seemed to be hazed with a fiery red and then they gradually melted into the evening sky. Obviously, the sun was now going down over the Fertile Plains and it was the time for them to act.

Orbit patted Ashes' back and gave her a Magic Mark. It was a light blue spot above her head and looked like a shimmering puddle which made the witches feel as if they were standing underwater and looking up at the blue sky through the intermittent ripples.

Ashes knew that this was not the real scene outside, but just how the magic corridor looked.

After confirming that there was no demon patrol team around, she nodded to the other three witches and injected her magic power into the ring. An indescribable feeling came over her afterward. She felt as if an extra arm or leg was growing out on her body. Tilly described this process as getting invisible wings.

It was difficult for a person who was born with no flying ability to suddenly control these wings like how birds soar through the sky. Among the Sleeping Island witches, Tilly was the only one who uses the Stone of Flight with ease.

Ashes closed her eyes, imagined herself flapping the wings, and jumped!

After a moment, the absolute silence of the underground space was replaced by a variety of sounds. She felt the fresh air blowing across her face and heard a rustle of leaves ringing beside her ears. She also heard birds tweeting, buzzing insects, and the whistling sound of the evening breeze which caressed her cheeks.

She opened her eyes and saw everything clearly. Everything on the ground quickly shrunk and the exit of the magic corridor was now just a tiny spot of light.

She had to admit that it was quite an experience worth trying once in a while.

Ashes controlled her excitement and gazed to the north, where Taquila should be, however Ashes' heart quickly sank.

As Ashes looked at everything ahead of her, she did not find anything that looked like a ruin let alone the skeleton monster mentioned by the Wolf Girl. She found nothing except some shrubs and meadows crimsoned by the setting sun.

Did we head in a completely wrong direction?

She wanted to find the Impassable Mountain Range to help determine her location. However, when she turned around, she was stunned by the sight of massive monsters that crouched among the jungle in the southeast a few hundred meters away. Those huge things were obviously manufactured by demons and the broken walls of the Taquila ruins stood right below them!

The witches had thought that they had not yet arrived at the ruins, but now Ashes realized that they had already passed the ruins due to their accumulated deviations!

If the witches drew a line from where they had started their journey to Taquila and where they were now, it would only be a few degrees between. However, in reality, such a small deviation could determine whether their location was in the front of or behind the Taquila ruins when they arrived.

Ashes hesitated. If I go back now and ask the team to turn around and head south, it'll take us at least two or three days to arrive at Taquila. However, If I flew towards the ruins at the same speed as I flew up, I'd only need less than half a day to fly to the ruins to locate the place and return to the team. The only problem is that I'm only able to fly vertically. I've never tried to fly horizontally.

What should I do?

Before Ashes made a decision, a burst of dull horn sounds blared from Taquila.

A dozen Devilbeast on the back of a skeleton monster leaped up and flew toward her! Meanwhile, numerous Mad Demons emerged out of the earth around the ruins and closely surrounded the Holy City of Taquila.

"Well, it seems they're quite vigilant and there's obviously more than three of them. This is much worse than I imagined" Ashes thought.

She took out the Five-Colored Stone and crushed it without any hesitation and flew directly towards the ground.

For any warrior, the most important ability was to act appropriately according to the situation. She intended to capture the enemy alive if there was only one Devilbeast, eliminate all of them if there were two and retreat if the number of enemies numbered higher. She was never afraid to fight that many demons however she wouldn't be able to defeat them all before more reinforcements came and endanger her whole team.

As for the current situation, it was way too risky to fly to the Taquila ruins. She had to crumble the stone now even though she did not get to an ideal position.

She was not as talented as Tilly who could control the invisible wings like using her own arms, but she had her own way of making flight faster.

Ashes needed to inject more magic power into the Magic Stone.

As the magic power grew in the stone, Ashes felt that the invisible wings on her back gradually swelled to the limit and each imaginary flapping of them could cause a howling gale. She descended sharply from the sky at a speed which was almost three or four times faster than when she flew up.

Under such circumstances, even the precise spear throwers of the Mad Demons couldn't hit her.

The only problem was that inertia was too great to overcome at such extremely fast speeds. Because of the limited depth of the Magic Corridor, Lotus could only create an empty hole, which was at most as deep as five or six meters. Within such a short distance, she could hardly stop the downward momentum by herself.

All Ashes could do was to put some faith in her teammates.

After several seconds of falling, Ashes saw a small blue light appearing on the ground. That's the Magic Corridor.

She folded her hands and put them on her head while tightening the muscles all over her body.

The moment she penetrated straight into the magic corridor, she saw several purple lights emerge out of the air and firmly grasp her. It was Iffy's Magic Cage!

In an instant, the cage stopped her from falling rapidly, and when she completely stopped, she found that there was just an arm's length between her head and the bottom of the hole.

"You're really heavy," said Iffy, her hands clutching the cage. She shrugged and added, "Now, do you know where we are?"

"Of course, but let's not discuss about this right now." Ashes looked at Orbit. "Retreat to the Misty Forest right now. The demons are coming!"

Chapter 918 - The Only Definite Thing

...

Three days had passed. Tilly was walking around anxiously until she saw the four witches when her mind was finally put at ease. Judging from their dirty faces and forced smiles, she could easily tell that their trip must have been filled with accidents and risks. Fortunately, they were safe and lucky enough to escape from the demon army after being discovered by them.

Tilly was about to say some words of comfort, but after seeing Ashes' unapologetic face, she became upset and began to reprimand the Extraordinary, albeit slyly.

"I've never expected that a person who boasted of experiencing hundreds of battles in the wilderness would get lost," Princess Tilly satirized. "Tell me how you managed to get from Hermes to kings city and not just wander into the Southernmost Region? This is unlike what you've shown me."

"Uhh... well there were so many church people chasing me at that time. Everytime I was lost, I would catch one of them and have him tell me where the correct direction was," Ashes shrugged. "And we didn't deviate too far away from the planned route this time. At least, we could still see the Taquila ruins. If the demon army hadn't gone into action, I would have been able to see..."

"Without adequate Red Mist, they'll never send out all their troops. We sent you to gather information about the enemy since we need to guard against the Devilbeasts' surprise attacks. But when you crushed the Magic Stone, we could only see the demon army from behind and at a very bad angle!"

"Everyone is back safe and sound. It's the ideal outcome. Besides, the angle isn't that bad," Pasha interjected. "His Majesty Roland has sent back the first batch of witches from the north and Sylvie was among them. With her, our scouting ability will be greatly improved. And we've seen the enemy's rear, which will help us to judge the scale of the enemy's main force and reinforcements. You can go back and have had a good rest first."

"Oh? We got messages from the Northern Region?" Ashes raised her eyebrows and asked.

"Yeah, lucky for you, if these messages didn't come you wouldn't have easily gotten away with this." Tilly snorted. "Well... Excuse me, I have to go now!"

"Wait." Ashes looked at Pasha with a vague smile and then hurriedly caught up with Tilly.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"No, nothing, let's just head back." Ashes twitched her mouth and said.

After they returned to the Witch Building, Ashes wrapped her arms around Tilly from behind when the princess closed the door.

"I'm so sorry, I worried you and-"

"Did Pasha tell you to do this?" Tilly asked without turning around.

"Uhh, how'd you know?" Ashes was slightly startled.

"I clearly see it on your face." She broke away from Ashes' arms. "I'm guessing that Pasha told you that I didn't have any good rest these past few days and that I've stayed around the magic core most of the time. She must have told you to forgive my bad mood and to try your best to comfort me since I'm exhausted."

"Amazing... to think you could guess all of that," Ashes stood astonished.

"So, could you apologize to me first?" Tilly turned around.

"What? No." The Extraordinary shook her head.

"No?" Tilly glared. "So, you think it's right to worry me?"

"There should be no problem, you're not in any danger. And that's all I need for a decision."

"Ashes, you don't understand." Tilly was furious. "Any risk can be calculated, measured and evaded. The person who performs the task is also included in the calculation. If the person isn't good at the task, even a perfect plan will be ruined. Do you understand? If it was me, the situation would never become so dangerous!"

"Calculate, measure, evade... You sound more and more like Roland Wimbledon now." Ashes shrugged and said.

"Don't divert the topic." Princess Tilly remained unmoved. "Isn't it true?"

"But there's always risk. And I want to be the one to take it, even if accidents are likely to happen. After all, I've already had countless accidents in my life." Ashes, who was much taller than the princess, bent forward and put her hands on Tilly's shoulders so that their eyes were level. "Listen, I have a very good reason to not apologize to you. Now that we've decided to stay here to fight demons, I'll have to take more chances to risk my life and go to dangerous places. One day, I may be unable come back and I don't want to owe you lots of apologies."

"Hey, don't pull this on me!"

"Listen to me please, Tilly," Ashes said seriously. "I'm not as talented as your brother and it's too difficult for me to think about things like the future of witches. so taking risks is the only thing I'm good at. If you're determined to return to the Sleeping Island now, I'll immediately promise you that I'll never let you worry about me, but I can't guarantee that here. I would never ask you to apologize to me if you make me worried."

Tilly was speechless. She looked into Ashes' golden eyes and felt that this black-haired witch in front of her seemed to be more reliable than ever before.

No, Ashes is talking nonsense. Tilly denied it in her heart.

"Ahem," she turned her head aside and said. "I guess I can forget about this incident for now, but you have to tell me about the whole thing later. Now go take a shower. You stink."

"Alright." Ashes breathed a sigh of relief. "Do you want to take a bath together with me?"

"No, not now!" Tilly grumbled.

Tilly watched the Extraordinary leave and then lifted her right hand to check a tiny wound.

On her right palm, there was a spot which was pricked by a ring. It was already healed, but the pain was still fresh in her memory.

Fortunately, the worst didn't happen.

Perhaps, I'm thinking too much.

...

When Lorgar woke up from her long slumber, she felt an incredibly comfortable sensation in her body. It felt as if she was soaking herself in a warm spring and was completely free of dizziness and pain.

Yes, I remember now. It was Nana Pine. The Wolf Girl vaguely recalled something had happened before her sleep. Nana had run into her bedroom while panting. The lovely, little girl had probably got back in a hurry without any rest. The first sentence she heard from Nana was "Have a good sleep now. You'll be alright when you wake up." She also remembered that she had seen her friends from the exploration group, who had uttered many words besides her bed. However her mind went blank when she tried to remember what they said back then.

The feeling of Nana's magic power flowing through her body was so wonderful that she had forgotten almost everything.

"So I'm fully recovered now? I should express my thanks to Nana,"  Lorgar thought.

Unexpectedly, after she opened her eyes, the first person she saw was a gray-haired man.

She was stunned. "Great... chief?"

"It's me." Roland nodded. "How do you feel now?"

"I... don't know how to describe it." She tried to move her finger. It was still clumsy, but she managed. "I think I'm fine. How long have I slept? Where's Nana? And...what are you doing with your hand..."

"Oh, this? I just thought that they looked interesting, I hope you don't mind." Roland stopped touching Lorgar's wolf ears and took his hand back. "I've been curious about how they feel like. Do you feel... well, ticklish when I touched them."

"No, they're just ears," Lorgar was surprised and said. "You can touch them if you want. I'm fine with it if you don't mind them."

With these words, the Wolf Girl wiggled her long ears.

"I'm done with it for now." He coughed twice and continued. "You've slept for about three days. This is a normal duration since you were severely wounded. Of course, you would still recover if you didn't take this long sleep. But in that case, you would feel extremely tired and uncomfortable during the recovery process."

Lorgar was slightly surprised. "Do you mean I've slept for three days in a row?"

"Yes. If Nightfall didn't stop the Symbiosis, you would've slept for longer." Roland smiled. "Your body woke you up. After you get up, you'll feel hungry soon."

"Oh, yes, Miss Nightfall. I have to go to thank her and the other witches." The Wolf Girl wanted to get up, but Roland gently pressed her down in her bed.

"Don't rush. Take your time to deal with these things," Roland said with a smile. "But before that, on behalf of the City of Neverwinter, I have to thank you. You did a good job, Lorgar Burnflame. Neverwinter will reward you."

Chapter 919 - Repay the Great Chief's Kindness

"Now will you admit that I'm qualified to fight the demons?" Lorgar felt refreshed all of a sudden.

"I've never denied your ability to fight against them. In fact, even an ordinary woman who's unable to tie up a chicken will end up being involved in this mighty war, albeit behind the main defensive line." Roland reiterated his concern. "I only objected to your desire to fight them by yourself. If the Sleeping Island witches had come any later, without Nightfall's Seed of Symbiosis, you would have been buried in the Western Zone Cemetery by now."

"But if I hadn't gone that deep into the Barbarian Lands, Neverwinter would never have received the news about the incoming demon army," Lorgar retorted.

"I can reward you for a good result but I still wouldn't ever approve of your wrong behavior because of it." Roland shook his head. "What I'm happiest about in your actions this time is your bringing the message back to Neverwinter instead of fighting the enemies alone in the Barbarian Lands. Even if you were to ask me this same question again, I would give you the exact same answer. No, I don't want you to go to fight the demons by yourself. I'll ask the sentries to step up vigilance from now on, in the case that you might someday come back to the city more dead than alive."

"What?"

"This is the great chief's command!" Roland remained unmoved. "Let's talk about your reward first."

"Well..." Lorgar found that the look on the great chief's face was far more serious now than when he had been touching her ears. "That's fine."

"There are three types of rewards. You may choose between gold royals, Chaos Drinks, or a piece of equipment custom-made for you."

"The first two choices are easy to understand, but what's the last one? Is it some kind of iron claw or steel tusk for me to use in my wolf form? I had previously considered obtaining this kind of weapon back in the Wildflame clan. However, when I transform back into a girl, these weapons that are inconvenient to carry will become a burden for me." Lorgar thought to herself.

She raised this question to Roland.

"I don't have a specific design for the weapon in mind right now, but I can tell you that it'll be a mighty firearm that can dramatically improve your combat capability," Roland explained. "Ashes told me that you could transform selective parts of your body into their wolf form while in your human form, and that in this half-animal form you would have half of the strength of a God's Punishment Warrior. Since this equipment is specifically designed for the God's Punishment Witches, I think it'll also suit you."

This firearm mentioned by Roland reminded her of the fierce weapons used by the First Army to destroy the oasis watchdog. She remembered that Lightning also had such a weapon. It was indeed powerful, but it also depended on the operator's skill. More importantly, she knew that it used a very special kind of "bolt" that could only be produced by Neverwinter. She believed that the great chief would never give her any of these "bolts", as he would never allow her to leave the city on her own. Without these "bolts", this firearm could only be placed at home as a showpiece and would not give her much help.

After all, it was just a weapon. Compared to this external force, she had more faith in her own teeth and claws.

After a little thought, Lorgar said, "Can I choose to join the Witch Union?"

This choice was completely beyond Roland's expectations. He was surprised and replied, "Yes, you can, but earlier you told me that..."

"I changed my mind." The wolf girl wagged her tail. "Both the gold royals and the Chaos Drinks will be used up one day and I've no other special skills besides my fighting ability, so I think I'd better join the Witch Union. As a member of the Union, I'll get gold royals and free drinks every month, right?"

"Well... yes, that's right."

"In addition, I've promised Lightning and Maggie that I'll explore all of the Barbarian Lands together with them. Since both of them are members of the Witch Union, it'll be more convenient for me to take action with them after I join the Union. Under such circumstances, you wouldn't stop me from going deep into the wasteland, right?"

"Ahem, you're technically right, but you still need to place your own safety as your most important priority."

"Then this is the reward I want," said Lorgar. "I'm sorry I rejected your kindness before."

"Well, it's up to you." Roland laid out his hands and shrugged.

"Now, do I need to sign a contract?" she asked with a solemn face.

"Of course, Wendy will tell you everything later." Roland stood up. "I'll ask the kitchen to send you something to eat. Have a good rest first. You'll have many chances in the future to thank Nana and the other witches."

Having seen Roland leave the room, Lorgar's ears drooped and she lay back down on the bed.

There was one thing that she had kept a secret from Roland.

It was the genuine reason why Lorgar finally decided join the Witch Union. She had not been attracted by the free drinks and the gold royals.

As a Mojin, she was more convinced by facts than words. From the very beginning, she had doubted Roland's promise to the Mojin people and had refused to trust a nobleman from a northern kingdom. She had believed that she would one day return to the Wildflame clan and become Roland's enemy again when he ultimately betrayed the Mojin. Besides, Roland's comments during their first meeting had indeed irritated her. She had never anticipated that he would show any concern for a Divine Lady of a Mojin clan. Even though the conflict between the Mojin people and the northern king had already been resolved, her suspicion of him still remained.

However, her opinion of him had begun to change.

During the Symbiosis period, the Witch Union kept telling her that she only needed to hold on a little longer to get Nana's treatment, since they had already sent a number of letters to appeal to Roland Wimbledon for help. Back then, she would never have expected that the great chief, busy recovering his territory, would send Miss Nana back from the Northern Region of Graycastle only for her sake.

In Lorgar's memory, it was an exceptionally long journey from Iron Sand City to the Endless Cape, and Roland's kingdom was several times larger than the Southernmost Region. Given that, she had suspected that it would take at least one or two months for Nana to return to Neverwinter.

However, the great chief had sent Nana back in time. Surprisingly, despite being a healer of great importance to the army, she had turned out to be the first witch to be sent back from the north. With this in mind, Lorgar found that it was hard to doubt Roland's sincerity.

Even Maggie had to fly for three days to take a round trip between the Northern Region and Neverwinter. If the great chief did tell her the truth, that meant Nana had come to her rescue the moment she had arrived at the city. Such kindness would make any warrior in the Southernmost Region willingly take an oath of allegiance to the lord.

Lorgar could hardly be regarded as a professional warrior, but she was a pure Mojin.

Faced with the facts, she wondered, "Why not believe in the great chief more?"

...

Roland left the bedroom and went downstairs to the reception hall on the first floor.

The guards at the gate opened the door, and all the people inside the hall stood up simultaneously at the sight of the king.

Before he arrived back at the Western Region, Lightning had brought his convening order back to Neverwinter. He steadily stepped into the crowded hall while taking a glance at everyone assembled before him.

There were more than 50 people here, including the City Hall department heads, the commander of the Garrison of the First Army, the representatives of the Witch Union and Sleeping Spell, the governor of the Longsong district, and the Senior Witches of Taquila. They wore various kinds of facial expressions. Some seemed to be bewildered by the unknown enemy and some showed unmasked hatred towards the demons, while most of them looked solemn and serious.

The war was close at hand, no matter whether they were prepared or not.

Chapter 920 - The War Plan

After Roland took a seat, the people in the hall bowed before sitting down.

Under his leadership, the small and remote Border Town had rapidly developed into a major city. Roland could clearly see that he had become a spiritual leader in the eyes of the conference participants. He had never felt anything like this when he had given lectures to students at a primary school or when he explained his designs to his clients. All the people who attended this meeting were not only listening but also preparing.

They were always ready to execute his plans and orders.

He had a sense of achievement from seeing his administration bear fruit. Three years ago, only a few people in the castle had served him wholeheartedly whilst all the local nobles had ridiculed him. Now, however, he had a splendid team to assist him.

He went straight to the point. "Neverwinter can't allow demons to take root on the Fertile Plains, especially somewhere so close to our border. Although the enemy came a little earlier than expected, we've also made rapid progress recently. We've recovered the lost regions and can now focus on fighting the demons." He paused to glance around and said word by word. "Our next goal is driving the demons out of the Taquila ruins. We must do our utmost to achieve this goal. Do you have any questions?"

"No, Your Majesty!"

Everyone responded in unison.

Even Barov who usually preached against wars did not raise any objection since he was aware of the fact that most refugees came to the Western Region for the good order, capable king and safe environment. If the demons set up a base at Taquila and then kept harassing Neverwinter, the people would be terrified and even flee the city. Without enough population, City Hall could no longer sustain the development of Neverwinter. He learned this lesson from the decline of the Eastern and Southern Regions.

"So let's talk about our war plan and policies now. Any department can share their ideas."

"Your Majesty, I think the top priority is relocating the industries in the north of the city as soon as possible." Barov was the first one to stand up and reply. "The people outside the city wall are the ones most vulnerable in the face of the demon invaders. Even when we finish constructing the new wall to protect the people, the flocks of sheep and herds of cattle will still hinder our troop deployment in the north. It's just like what happened when the whole city was placed under the strictest martial law." He paused to eye Wendy. "Due to the alert, the city gates remained closed, which blocked the transportation of wheat seeds and forest resources. Fortunately, City Hall had done everything in its power to minimize the impact."

Roland had already learned this from the previous reports. As Barov mentioned it again, he could not help looking at Wendy. Surprisingly, she seemed peaceful and undisturbed. He thought she must have meant it when she said that she would take full responsibility.

"Not everything in the north can be relocated. We can use paddle steamers to carry wheat seeds, mushrooms, and other resources into the city via the Redwater River. However, we can't move the North Slope Mine to another place. Additionally, it'll cost us a lot to rebuild the Furnace Area." Roland decided after a moment of pondering. "We should increase our vigilance over the mine region so that we'll be able to fight back when the Devilbeasts attack. As for the alert, I need to elaborate on this issue. When the city is under martial law, we need to evacuate the idle personnel on the streets and in the market, but all the factories must resume production and keep working from today onward until I give a new order."

"I see... I'll make a list of the properties and business we can relocate, and report back to you." Barov immediately changed his tone since he realized that Roland did not want to place blame on Wendy.

"By the way, please include land-use planning in your report." Roland knocked on the map behind him. "Now that the threat in the Great Snow Mountain has been ruled out, all the area in the west can be used. With the help of Leaf, Misty Forest can serve as a natural barrier protecting our left flank."

On the map, the Barbarian Land could be divided into three parts. From left to right, they were: Misty Forest, Neverwinter grassland and the Impassable Mountain Range. Misty Forest looked like an inverted triangle, occupying almost half of the Barbarian Land with its vertex located at the snow mountain of the Western Region. The Redwater River that originated in the mountain and flowed through the border area of Neverwinter could be considered one side of the triangle whilst another side started from the vertex and headed to the Dragonspine Mountains in the north. This triangle formed a large buffer zone for the city.

At present, Leaf could cover the entire western section of the Redwater River and thus provided a safety net for the concrete boat platoons to transport coal and forest resources back to the city.

Aware of the situation there, Barov readily accepted Roland's request. "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, I think we need to tell the public about the demons' origin as soon as possible," Wendy said. "Otherwise, our people will easily get panicked when seeing them suddenly. As you usually say, propaganda job is the most vital part of our administration. If we don't work to control the public opinion, some evil-minded people may take advantage of the people's fear."

"I agree," Alethea who appeared on the light curtain added. "Although common people have limited personal ability, together they can form a noteworthy strength. Fear resembles a whip. Most of the time, it's daunting, but it can also be used as a driving force for us if we handle it properly."

The early appearance of the demons disrupted Roland's original propaganda plan which was scheduled for after the unification of Graycastle and his enthronization ceremony. He thus chose to leave this problem to Barov. "You decide the content and the propaganda means by yourself. Remember to make sure that all the subjects understand that demons are enemies of the whole humanity and that we'll fight against them till death. Meanwhile, you should emphasize that in the face of guns and cannons, demons are nothing different from demonic beasts, no matter how hideous they look."

"As for the rumor mongers and troublemakers," Roland sneered and looked at the two police chiefs, Vader and Rene Medde, "I think I don't need to tell you what to do with them."

They hastened to nod. "Of course, Your Majesty."

Once Neverwinter finished discussing the wartime order and the related policies, Pasha raised a question which was likewise the greatest concern for everyone. "How are you going to attack the demons near the Taquila ruins?"

"The safest way is to set up artillery positions near it to destroy the demons' Red Mist supply equipment." Roland measured roughly on the map with his fingers. "Now our Longsong Cannon can hit targets 10 kilometers away. After some adjustment, it'll shoot even farther. Without Red Mist, the demons in the ruins will quickly die."

Roland did not brag about his weapons at all. Considering the operational convenience and the limited transportation capacity, he had not adopted 152mm caliber for the first generation Longsong Cannons. As a result, they could not match an ideal cannon whose caliber was 152mm in many respects. However, he was able to quickly convert them by enlarging their chambers and using separate-loading ammunition instead of fixed ammunition. By doing so, their range would be remarkably increased even if the other parts of the cannons, such as the barrels and wheels, remained unchanged.

"Got it. Your Majesty, the Taquila witches are willing to fight this battle for you."

Taquila survivors were undoubtedly the most aggressive ones in the Battle of Divine Will. They would take the lead without any hesitation when combating demons.

"But, I still need to solve a few key problems to implement that plan." Roland shook his head. "Without adequate preparation, it's hard for us to gain a foothold when faced with an attack from the demons." He retracted his hand and flicked his finger at the spot of the North Slope Mine. "The first issue is how to solve the transportation problem."

Chapter 921 - The Locomotive Era (Part Ⅰ)

The North Slope Mine of Neverwinter was going to witness a great event.

A new railway linking the ore stacking yard and the furnace area was being cleaned for the last time.

Different from the iron coated wooden rails in the mine, the new railway was wider and could support heavier cargo loads. It was made of pure steel and looked very heavy. The amount of steel used to build it was enough to make the armor and swords for a regular knightage, but now it was fixed on the ground and exposed to wind and rain. Any lord of this era would think of this construction as an enormous waste of iron and believe that only a spendthrift would leave metal to rot like this.

When Roland led the conference participants to the ore stacking yard, most of the officials were astonished by the railway and begun to stir since not every department in City Hall knew the details of what it was. The officials from the Longsong Area stood agape while fixing their eyes on it. It impressed everyone with its imposing size and its aura of strength, even if most of them had no idea what it was used for.

They would never believe that their king who had greatly surprised them so many times during the past years was a spendthrift, but they could hardly recover from their shock. In their view, laying cast steel bars on the ground was no different from using gold royals to pave a road.

This was cast steel which could be sold at a high price in any city.

However, Neverwinter could afford to build such a railway.

After the blast furnace for ironmaking and the converter for steelmaking were completed, Neverwinter's industrial foundation no longer relied so heavily on the witches' power. The converter still needed Anna to heat and melt the iron for the first step, but it was much more advanced than the "Star of Steel". It could be called a miracle in this era.

The smelting industry of the North Slope Mine had also been significantly upgraded due to the reconstruction efforts made by the Ministry of Construction. With the help of Lotus, they had taken bold actions to blast away the ceiling of the mine. By doing so, they had made part of the mining area a huge open pit and most of it was an iron mine.

Neverwinter's steelmaking industry had stepped on a brand new stage in the last year. In Graycastle, its monthly steel output was greater than all the other cities' combined.

This result was within Roland's expectation. He took it for granted that modern factories would be far more efficient than blacksmiths. Otherwise, he would not have worked so hard to create the industrial equipment.

As for the railway here, it was part of his experiment of using a railway to connect the mining area, the smelting area, and the wharf.

As the narrow-gauge rail did not differ from the broad-gauge rail in terms of material usage and load-carrying capacity, he made 1.5 meters the standard railroad width. The number was easy to remember and building roadbeds for this width of railroad was within the reach of Lotus' ability. The sleepers were cut out of wood logs and the ballast was from rubble collected during the mine reconstruction. The railway looked exactly like a railroad in modern times.

But it was still a half done project. Because no factory had been involved in this project yet, Anna had used her Blackfire to process and install the railway for the experiment by herself. Since the Graycastle unification war, the construction of the other half of the railway had remained suspended.

To further satisfy the officials' curiosity, Roland instructed the workers to unveil something that was placed at the end of the railway. When the canvas, which was dusty and covered with fallen leaves was removed, the people saw a black steel vehicle standing right in front of them.

"Your Majesty, is it a... steamer carriage?" Petrov, the governor of the Longsong Area, stuttered in amazement.

Roland was not at all surprised by Petrov's thought. With more and more steam engines being put into use in Neverwinter, the officials were getting familiar with these cumbersome, but powerful machines and even actively adopted them in some traditional fields, such as irrigating the farmlands and loading and unloading cargo on the wharf. Given that, they immediately recognized the steam engine which was shaped like a barrel and installed in a steel frame in the main part of the vehicle.

In the beginning, the factories producing steam engines and the accessory equipment had only been able to handle orders from Roland, but now they could also handle some requests from City Hall. City Hall's orders usually had special demands, but the factories could easily meet them by changing the combination of gears, shafts and engine holders.

Roland considered this change to be a good start. The people of this era were becoming more proactive in creating things.

He thought that the reason why Petrov called the vehicle a steamer carriage was that the concrete boats driven by steam engines were called paddle steamers.

It sounded like an acceptable name but Roland did not want to give up the naming rights.

After all, it was a vehicle of era-making significance.

From its birth, it had a profound influence on the world, even though its first prototype was slower than a horse-drawn carriage. It had many different shapes and engines during its development, but its name remained unchanged.

"It's a train." Roland corrected Petrov. "It's the key to solving the transportation problem."

"Do you mean that you want to build a railroad like this one across the grassland for a... train?" Barov had a hard time getting his tongue around the new word. "What if the demons suddenly attack the workers and cause trouble for the railway construction project?"

"First of all, I want to build two railways side by side to ensure a smooth flow of traffic. Secondly, I'm not proposing building a railroad across the grassland. I intend to build one that starts from the Misty Forest and then turns to the east at a spot near the Taquila ruins." Roland told everyone his plan. "By doing so, Leaf can protect our railroad system from the demonic beasts during the Months of Demons every year. As for the demons... it's a close contest between us. Any place we can get to by train can be our battleground since the train can transport enough cannons and shells for us. Even if the demons manage to destroy some sections of our railroad system under heavy shellfire, we can still solve the traffic problem by building and repairing the railways at a higher speed."

He had discussed the construction speed problem with the Advisery Department. They found that they could build the railway sections between the Misty Forest and the Taquila ruins faster than the sections on the grassland, despite the former being longer than the latter. This was because the former sections were located in the forest controlled by Leaf. With her help, the weed and vines would clear the ground for the construction workers, saving them the trouble of doing it themselves, which was tremendously helpful to them. She could also create slopes for water drainage and structure the forest to help Hummingbird transport the construction materials.

Lotus would be in charge of building the roadbed for the railways. The Ministry of Construction would send workers to pave the ballast, install the crossties and railways, and Anna would seamlessly weld the metal parts together. With everyone working together, they would be able to complete the railway sections between the forest and the Taquila ruins before the end of the winter. When that happened, the Taquila ruins would be within the range of the Longsong Cannons.

Chapter 922 - The Locomotive Era (Part Ⅱ)

"In just half a year... Will it really be possible for us to extend the railway deep into the Barbarian Land?" Hearing Roland's plan, Barov, who had already witnessed many "miracles", still widened his eyes in disbelief. "It took the Ministry of Construction more than half a year to complete an ordinary road linking the Border Area and the Longsong Area, and this Kingdom Main Street was less than one-fifth of the distance between the forest and Taquila. Are you sure that Mr. Karl will be able to complete such a task?"

The officials began to whisper among themselves. The Kingdom Main Street was the first large-scale construction project Roland had initiated after Longsong Stronghold merged with Border Town. It had employed about 2,000 workers and had been considered a waste of resources by many people back then. Now this new railroad project was even more unbelievable. Considering its limited construction period, many officials believed that it would be an impossible mission, even if all the workers in Neverwinter were to be hired for this project.

Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction, remained silent and seemed to be racking his brain for a proper solution.

Roland was clear about their concern. At present, there were many ongoing construction projects in the city. They were justifiably worried that the expense of this railway project would be too enormous for the city's limited resources. However, in fact, as compared to the road's cement pavements which needed high-quality materials and roller compaction, the railway's roadbed building and ballast pavement were much easier.

As for the final step of installing the rails, it only looked complicated, but it was actually the fastest step of the entire construction process.

Roland had watched Anna's demo of welding the metal parts with Blackfire. She could weld a bar to two tracks at once, and the average time for welding each joint was less than 10 seconds. In comparison to the traditional bolts or the hot-melting connections used in the modern world, her ability not only substantially improved the wielding quality but also saved a lot of manpower and material. Roland felt that her work couldn't be any more perfect.

The experimental railway in front of everyone was an almost seamless rail made by Anna. To compensate for the distortions that could be caused by thermal expansion, there were still invisible gaps left in between the tracks, but on the surface, they were seamless. This meant that when the train was running on these tracks, the passengers inside it would not experience the frequent shaking or hear the constant clatter that were part of modern trains.

Anna had finished welding this section of the tracks in just half a day.

This was why Roland made the construction period for the railroad project so short.

Leaf probably needed only five days to place the crossties and rails in a section of a given length, while the workers used to take 10 days to build and pave a roadbed of an equal length. Meanwhile, Anna needed just one day to weld the same section of railroad. She had ample time and was able to take it slow. Maggie could take her to work in the morning and bring her back to the castle in time for lunch.

Roland did not want to explain the details of the witches' abilities to the officials, since not everyone knew the witches well. Meanwhile, he predicted that the construction period could be even shorter if he could find some relevant witches from Sleeping Island who were willing to offer help for the project. However, he had not yet had a chance to ask Tilly about her witches' abilities, since he had gone straight to the wolf girl and then to the meeting immediately after he had arrived at Neverwinter.

Seeing Roland ignore Barov's question, the officials turned their eyes to the train.

In contrast to the seamless rail, which appeared very futuristic, the train itself seemed to be an antique. Its steam locomotive was divided into two parts. The front part consisted of a fourth generation steam engine and a transmission device, and the rear part was a coal car. A driver's cabin was located between these two parts, from where the drivers could control the speed of the train, add coal to the boiler, and blow the steam whistle.

Due to the interruption caused by the Gyaycastle unification war, this steam locomotive was still just an unfinished prototype, yet it was already much better than the first generation steam locomotives of the world where Roland had lived before. Its steam engine adopted crankshafts instead of flywheels and drive belts. Instead of gears, which could easily get stuck, a mechanical linkage which moved seamlessly was utilized to connect the wheels on both sides of the locomotive to the engine.

Roland had simplified his design for the locomotive as much as possible. As a result, it looked as if he had just patched all the main components together. When compared to a modern train, it had numerous defects. It had no mechanical brake and needed manpower to turn the capstan to stop the train. As the drivers' cabin was on the connecting beam that linked the front and rear parts of the locomotive engine, the drivers would be disturbed by the constant shaking and vibrations caused by the steam engine when driving the train. It was not equipped with any electrical device, so the drivers and the other workers on the train had to blow the steam whistle or shout to each other to communicate. However, it was already the best design possible based on the current technological capabilities of Neverwinter.

He had to build this prototype first, and then gradually improve it, just like what he had done with the first generation steam engine.

"Your Majesty, what's the carrying capacity of this thing?" Kyle Sichi, the Minister of Chemical Industry, asked with curiosity. "Is it any higher than that of a concrete boat?"

"I think its cargo capacity should be almost five or six times that of a concrete boat." Roland was satisfied seeing the surprised looks on the officials' faces. "But this is just the beginning. With technical progress, it'll be able to carry cargo which needs 100 concrete boats to transport at once."

"A, A hundred?" Barov swallowed hard. As the City Hall Director, he was well aware of the meaning of the number.

"So... what about its speed?" Petrov asked in a trembling voice.

"I'm not sure. I'm still waiting for the test results, but it definitely won't be slower than a concrete boat."

In this era, horse-drawn carriages and some other pack animals were the principal forms of transportation on land. On the bumpy and soft ground, their transportation efficiency was low. Besides, carriages did not have any rubber tires or any other kind of shock absorption measures, so their wooden wheels often got shattered by the repeated shaking on the road. Under such circumstances, the Kingdom of Graycastle used ships as the main mode of transportation. In the inland rivers, the steam-powered boats, which did not need to move with the help of the wind, quickly outshone the traditional sailing ships. Given that, in the view of the officials, the concrete boats were already extremely fast and efficient carriers.

Hearing that a train would be able to travel faster and carry more cargo than a concrete boat, they fell into silence.

They instinctually wanted to deny such a possibility but felt reluctant to do so, since they were afraid that it might turn out to be true. Seeing the bewildered officials, Roland could not help but feel proud. If he had told them such a thing two years ago, he would have been regarded as a lunatic. As the war was fast approaching now, and he had failed to improve the boats, he wanted to use this new invention he built to boost his subjects' morale.

After all, he had not exaggerated the strength of the train.

After all, the steam engine was only the first generation of industrial power sources.

Once the trains could be equipped with internal combustion engines, they would become the dominant mode of transportation on land.

"Your Majesty, could you please show us how it works?" Barov asked after a while.

"Yes, but not now. It still lacks some key components. We need another week to complete it." Roland shook his head.

"According to the plan you gave to the Ministry of Construction before the unification war, you intend to use the railway to connect the mine to the wharf, right?" Barov asked.

"Yes." Roland sensed that Barov had something else to say.

"Such a powerful vehicle will boost our people's morale and greatly help the City Hall in our war propaganda work," Barov spoke out his idea. "Is it alright to let all your subjects witness this incredible scene on the day of the train's test run?"

Roland immediately understood what kind of propaganda effect Barov wanted to achieve and was pleased to see that his City Hall Director had learned to guide the people's opinion during these years.

"As you wish," he smiled and said.

Chapter 923 - A Deliberate Provocation

A shrill alarm rang and grabbed everyone's attention.

"Woo—woo—"

Everyone stood agape.

It was the highest alert again!

Wendy was the first one to recover from the shock. "Your Majesty, please retreat to the castle right now!"

However, Roland did not move since he was greatly surprised by Tilly and Ashes, who came close to him swiftly after hearing the alert. The Extraordinary stood in front of them and Tilly grabbed his wrist.

He felt something as cold as a metal around his wrist.

He looked down and saw the ring on Tilly's finger shining a bright blue light. Obviously, she was ready to fly with him down into the mining area in case of emergency.

Somehow Roland forgot about the danger and focused his mind on Tilly.

Unlike Nightingale who trusted him wholeheartedly, Tilly had not yet recognized him as her brother.

She was too smart to be deceived.

She called him brother just to maintain good relations with him.

In fact, there was still an invisible barrier between them, and because of Tilly's attitude, Ashes always seemed a little restrained in front of him. He was unable to explain to Tilly that what Prince Roland had done to her back in the palace had nothing to do with him. Given that, he had lied to her and never expected much from her. However, now he felt relieved.

He found that he had already won her trust and recognition as an ally, even if she might still have a doubt about his identity.

"Yes, this place is too close to the city wall at the border. Your Majesty, please leave here as soon as possible!"

"Guards, where are the guards?"

"Come, clear the way for His Majesty!" The officials also came to their senses now and started to shout.

The people' voices, together with the alert, turned the scene into pure chaos.

The noises recalled Roland from his reflections. Seeing such a tense situation, he could not help knitting his eyebrows and thought, "Maybe the frontier guards have already spotted some demons?"

He looked to the west and was lost in thought. "Now that Sylvie is on the watch for demons, the alarm can't be false. And the frontier guards' highest alert must be about the demons. I heard that they should remain dormant for some time since they don't have enough Red Mist. Did their supplies arrived at the Taquila ruins recently?"

He wanted to go to the city wall to have a look personally, but he quickly gave up the idea. He did not want to increase the burden for the frontier guards since Nightingale and the main force of the First Army had not arrived yet.

When they walked down the North Slope Mountain, he summoned Wendy and said to her, "Regardless of the situation, send me any news from the City Wall as soon as you receive it."

"Yes," Wendy promised with a solemn face.

...

Watching the enemies approaching quickly, Sylvie felt her hands were wet.

It was not the first time for her to see demons, but they still made her feel stressed out.

"One, two, three, four, five, six." She counted the number of the Devilbeasts who were flying toward Neverwinter in a horizontal line. In the Eye of Magic, every detail of the enemies was clearly discernible. Just like Alethea had mentioned, not every Devilbeast took a Mad Demon on its back. Two of them looked just like pack horses and carried bone vessels which looked like bumps on their backs.

She zoomed in and saw the Red Mist surging inside the bumps.

Obviously, they were their mist tanks for this long-distance raid.

But... why are the demons launching an attack so early?

For the moment, they should stay close to the God's Stone mineral vein at the Taquila ruins, waiting for the Bloody Moon.

Sylvie was bewildered by the sudden appearance of the demons. Fortunately, the frontier guards' quick response made her feel relieved. They had already removed the cannon covers and gotten ready for the combat. If the enemies continued to fly in this direction, they would come within the cannons' range in seven or eight minutes.

"Miss Sylvie, someone called to ask which direction the enemies were heading for. And if they plan to enter the city, can you estimate which blocks they will fly over?" The guard who was in charge of communication asked.

In order to transmit the information about the enemies' situation on time, Roland had moved the wind-up telephone prototype, which had been made in the backyard of the North Slope Mountain, to the city wall. Apart from the telephone line linking Neverwinter and Longsong Stronghold, it was the first telephone line in the city. Limited by the length, the telephone at the other end of the line was installed at the entrance of the Third Border City. Roland had arranged two guards to assist Sylvie in communication and had sent two God's Punishment Witches to protect her.

"Road No.5 or No.9," Sylvie wiped the sweat from her hands. "But they may also fly toward the square. There're still some people left behind."

She was worried that once the Devilbeasts rushed into the crowded market, the consequences would be disastrous.

"I got it." The guard picked up the phone and repeated what Sylvie had to the person at the other end of the telephone line.

"Wait!" Sylvie suddenly raised her voice. "They're ascending!"

"Are they planning to fly over the city wall?" The guard was anxious.

"But they slowed down at the same time. Now the guards on top of the city wall should be able to see them directly."

Before she finished her sentence, she heard the vague noise of gunshots coming through the phone.

The guards of the city wall were elite soldiers of the First Army, who had taken part in the snow mountain exploration. They remained calm at the sight of the demons. Several teams took turns to fire and tried to maintain a low rate of fire in an attempt to conserve bullets.

At this moment, Sylvie noticed a problem.

For the guards, hitting targets in the sky was much harder that shooting down some demonic beasts or God's Punishment Warriors on the ground.

As they were unable to predict the enemies' movements in the sky, they had no idea which angle they should use. As a result, the Devilbeasts remained intact after several rounds of firing and now they were only about 150 meters away from the city wall

They stayed more than 100 meters above the ground and thus the guards had to lift their barrels to aim at the enemies. The soldiers drastically increased their firing rate, but still failed to hit any target.

At the moment, the Devilbeasts stopped flying forward and hovered in the sky.

The Mad Demons' arms were swelling rapidly.

"No!" Sylvie could not help crying out. "Inform the guards to retreat from the city wall as soon as possible!"

"What?" The guard was confused. "Retreat?"

Unfortunately, it was too late. The demons had already thrown their bone spears. In the blink of an eye, four beams of white light came down to the city wall and struck at the defenseless guards. The wall built by Lotus was unable to protect them from attacks coming from the sky.

Beyond Sylvie's expectation, instead of launching the second round of attacks, the demons only emitted some weird noise after their arms withered and threw several animal skins down. After that, they turned around and flew toward the grassland. That was where they came from.

This sudden attack ended just as suddenly. After a while, they disappeared over the horizon.

Sylvie could not bear to see the situation of the city wall. The guards who got impaled by the bone spears were dead. No matter how hard the other soldiers shook them, they would not open their eyes again. The blood coming from their wounds formed a pool of blood under their bodies.

The animal skins left by the demons were slowly falling through the air, turning out to be pictures.

The most striking one among them was a portrait of a big wolf.

Chapter 924 - An Old Trick of the Demons

"What's the meaning of these things?" Roland asked in a deep voice while looking at the animal skins on the table. His face was expressionless.

The demons had launched a surprise attack on the city wall and had left behind a provocative message. However, now was not the time for him to react to this provocation. Furious as he was, he still tried his best to keep control of himself.

The officials nervously glanced at each other, but none of them dared to answer the king's question.

No one wanted to further irritate the enraged king by vocalizing the meaning of the self-explanatory pictures.

Undoubtedly, the big wolf was Lorgar.

The other pictures depicted common people who were down on their knees, a witch who was tied up, a city wall that was on fire, and the ruins of a city littered with corpses respectively.

They looked like quick, crude drawings, but they were still easy to understand.

This series of pictures was a threatening ultimatum.

The demons wanted Neverwinter to hand the Wolf Girl over to them, and they asked the common people to lay down their weapons and surrender. Otherwise, they would totally annihilate the defenders and burn down the city.

Roland glanced around and exhaled deeply, trying to calm himself down. He found that the officials had lost a lot of their fighting spirit, and some of them even looked terrified. Fortunately, none of them tried to advise him to give the witch to the demons.

"Your Majesty, this isn't just a threatening letter from the demons. It's a trap!" In the middle of this stressful atmosphere, a beam of light suddenly appeared and expanded next to a wall and then Pasha's voice rang in his head. "Sylvie has told me what happened. Never believe anything the demons say. It's another one of their old tricks."

She sounded anxious as if she was worried that the king might make a hasty decision.

Roland immediately comprehended the implications of her statement.

"Did something similar happen to you before?"

"To be exact, it happened to a lord of the common people," Pasha said seriously. "During the first Battle of Divine Will, the demons used this trick to create a divide between the common people and the witches. That was how they nibbled the Land of Dawn away step by step."

The ancient witch continued to explain the "trap".

"During the first Battle of Divine Will, the demons not only acted aggressively on the battleground but also plotted against the withes. They often lured a lord of a city to hand over the witches to them in exchange for postponing the attack on that city. Back then, the common people and the witches lived together peacefully. Though the witches were only a minority, they did not have to hide their abilities. As a result, they could be recognized easily."

"Hoping to survive the war, the cities where the witches were in a weak position usually chose to make a deal with the demons. As a result, many witches who had just returned from the battlefield were caught or executed by people of their own cities. In such a situation, the estrangement between the witches and the common people was gradually aggravated, and then, after a complete betrayal, the witches broke irretrievably with the common people."

"In the middle of the first Battle of Divine Will, two major cities located in the central part of the Land of Dawn built two coalition forces to fight against the demons. One of the coalition forces was controlled by the witches, and the other one was led by and consisted of the common people. During a fierce battle, the common people's army surrendered to the demons all of a sudden. The witches' army withdrew but was besieged by their former ally. The common people even used weapons made of God's Stones of Retaliation to fight them." "The witches were exhausted and had lost more than half of their warriors during the previous battle against the demons. They resisted strongly but still lost. After that, the leaders of the witches were beheaded in public, and the common people sent some of the remaining witches to the demons while enslaving the rest of them."

"The Union named this incident the 'Red Betrayal'. We consider it a profound lesson for us. From that day on, the witches and the common people have grown apart."

"The cities that surrendered to the demons did not survive as long as they had hoped. Forcing the common people to betray the witches was just the first step of the demons' plans. If the demons' outposts were close enough to the cities, they would never hesitate to conquer them. The Lord who initiated the 'Red Betrayal' was no exception. He followed the demons' orders and helped them in building mist storage towers and outposts. He even provided them with intelligence services. However, in the end, he couldn't enjoy his old age in peace. It's said that he was imprisoned in his castle by the demons and was starved to death. There were also some rumors that said that he was killed by a group of vengeful witches when he fled his domain after finding out that the demons planned to eliminate all of humanity. After the first Battle of Divine Will, human beings lost the Land of Dawn and most of our domains became uninhabitable. Since then, the sight of the Red Mist on the horizon had become a lingering nightmare."

"The Witch Union rose from the ashes of this defeat and became the ruler of the Fertile Plains for next few hundred years."

At the end of the story, Roland heard a shocking rumor from Pasha.

"There was also hearsay among the witches in the upper levels of the Union, according to which the demons learned this trick from the human beings themselves."

"What did you say?" Roland asked and then quickly realized that Parsha only told the rumor to him.

All the officials in the hall looked startled, wondering why the king raised such a question.

"It was rumored that long before the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will, back when the demons were no different from beasts, some person got in contact with them and taught them knowledge," Parsha said in a low voice. "A few people believed that this explained why the Senior Demons looked like human beings, but the Three Chiefs thought it was absolute nonsense and forbade the people from talking about it. As a result, only the witches in the upper level of the Union still remember this rumor."

Roland held his breath and tried to talk to the ancient witch through his mind, "Do you believe it?"

"I'm not sure." To his surprise, Pasha was uncertain about the rumor. "If it's true, then it means that we have to be extremely careful when communicating with the demons."

After a moment of thought, Roland asked Parsha about a specific detail of the rumor. "Was the person in the story a witch or a common person?"

Parsha sighed lightly. "Some people said it was a witch and some said it was a common person."

"What an unreliable rumor," Roland thought.

He agreed with the Three Chiefs of the Union on their decision to stop the rumor. After all, no matter how the demons came about to become the enemy of all of humanity, they still had to guide their followers to defeat them. He changed the subject. "If a lord remained unmoved by the demons' offer, what would they do?"

"They'd keep harassing him, or even send an army to the city to besiege it until the lord surrendered," Pasha said. "This old trick had proven to be very effective in conquering small towns and cities."

"Do you mean to say that the demons will come back again?" Roland sneered. "Barov."

"Yes!" The City Hall Director stood up immediately.

"Soothe the subjects first, and then we'll hold a memorial ceremony for the soldiers who died in combat. It's the best way to raise the spirits of the mourning people." Roland stressed each word with due strength. "As for the demons, I'll let them know that things are different now. This isn't the first Battle of Divine Will anymore."

Chapter 925 - The Air Defense System

Roland had mentioned several problems that needed to be solved. The lack of an air defense network was as big of an issue as the transportation problem.

The importance of achieving air supremacy stuck in his head. He had learned this lesson from the history of the wars in his previous world. An army who had the aerial advantage was always able to launch an attack from any point at any time, and before the invention of the radar, no one on the ground was able to detect enemies coming from the vast sky, let alone defeat them. Bearing that in mind, he planned to enhance his army's air defense capabilities as soon as possible. Otherwise, he would never be able to build an artillery position near the Taquila ruins.

He guessed that after Lorgar's escape from their pursuit, the demons had probably had flown to the border of the Western Region several times to investigate, and they would have likely concluded that most of the residents of Neverwinter were common people. That was why they thought they could repeat the old trick that they had used in the first Battle of Divine Will.

The demons' investigation teams had somehow managed to avoid the sentry posts in the Impassable Mountain Range as well as the God's Punishment Witches who had gone deep into the Barbarian Land. If Sylvie had not taken over the scouting job, the frontier guards would not have been able to detect the approaching demons until they came near the city wall.

The battle on the city wall had highlighted what was lacking in the current technology, and proven that the sky had already become the biggest vulnerability in Neverwinter's defensive line.

After all, the people in this era could hardly imagine aerial forces, let alone countermeasures for aerial attacks.

Roland had been pondering over the air defense problem ever since the moment he had seen the demons with their flying Devilbeasts, but he had never expected them to come to the city so early. He had not started the development of air defense weapons yet, or even finished building the Impassable Mountain ground defense line and the telephone network.

The fact that the frontier guards had not been able to shoot down any demon or Devilbeast during the earlier incident did not surprise him at all. It had been his decision to use revolving rifles to fill up the blind zones of the machine guns and the cannons for now, and they had proven to be quite effective in suppressing enemies on the ground. However, resulting from the low pressure in the bore, a revolving rifle had a relatively short range and a low accuracy, which became a very serious defect against airborne enemies. Furthermore, its hit rate was low and its firepower was limited, since each of its cartridges could only contain five bullets. Last but not least, it had no suitable tripod or aiming tool for targets in the sky. With these defects, it could hardly serve as an ideal ground-to-air weapon.

He felt that he had better begin to replace all the revolving rifles with bolt rifles.

It was already part of his plan, but Anna was unable to mass-produce that many parts that were necessary for the large-scale production of the bolt rifles. Given that, he had only equipped the sniper team with bolt rifles for now. Fortunately, the workers had started to get familiar with the operation of the new machine tool which was put into use recently, and they were already able to assemble rifles on their own. Once they could improve their work efficiency and guarantee the quality of the products, the output of bolt rifles would be substantially increased.

Though bolt rifles could shoot farther and more precisely than revolving rifles, they could hardly serve as ground-to-air weapons. Their rate of fire was even lower than the revolving rifles, and their tracer ammunition, which had a complex structure, was not easy to manufacture, especially when the ammunition production line was already working at its full capacity. Even if he began to focus on tackling the key problems for the mass production of bolt rifles now, he would need several months to achieve this goal. By the time he succeeded, the Months of Demons would already be over.

Under these circumstances, he decided to create new ground-to-air firearms as the primary air defense weapons and use the bolt rifles to assist these new weapons in a fight.

Based on the existing technologies, he was not able to equip his army with any kind of high-tech fire control system, so his only choice was to create a hail of bullets to stop the enemies in the sky.

The easiest way of achieving this effect was to convert some of the Mark I type heavy machine guns into anti-aircraft machine guns, which had been a tried and tested solution in the modern world's history and would not increase the burden on the manufacturing and logistics sectors. A Mark I type HMG equipped with an aiming tool and an adjustable tripod would be able to shoot low-flying enemies out of the sky.

In any case, his Mark I type heavy machine guns were easy to convert, as he had planned for the air defense usage in advance and had equipped them with air-cooled barrels instead of a water-cooled casing when designing these machine guns.

A heavy machine gun was well-suited for hitting long-range targets, while also having a remarkably high hit rate at shorter ranges. It fired its shells extremely fast, and thus had overwhelming firepower. With these features, they could effectively suppress the spear-throwing Mad Demons who rode the flying Devilbeasts. If the city wall had been equipped with two such converted Mark I type machine guns before the previous skirmish, the outcome would have been very different.

With this plan in mind, after he concluded the meeting, he immediately headed for the Arithmetic Academy instead of returning to his office.

This new academy was located to the south of the Castle District, next to the chemistry laboratory. Most of the researchers working in the academy were the former Astrology Association members. Being venerated as a school of sages, it had recently been attracting quite a lot of the talented citizens who had just completed their primary schooling. It received almost 20% more job applications than the Alchemist Workshop next door.

Roland speculated that the frequent explosions and accidents in the lab might also have played a part in discouraging prospective job applicants.

Astrologer of Dispersion Star welcomed him in the main hall.

After bowing to the king, the Chief Astrologer began heaping praise upon the profoundness and beauty of mathematics.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me for nagging you. That book you gave me, 'Analytical Geometry', must be the deities' work! I had never imagined that I'd be able to see the world so clearly with my mind instead of my eyes. Even if I were to one day become dim-sighted from old age and lose the ability to observe the starry sky, I would still be able to describe the world just as clearly as before. For example, now I can even describe your wavy hair, your clothes, and even your boots using numbers and symbols..."

Fearing that he would go on and on, Roland interrupted him. "Have you mastered all the knowledge in the book?"

"I can't say I've mastered all of it, but I did master most of it." Dispersion Star calmed himself down and continued. "In the past six months, apart from the calculation missions you gave us, we've been working on a huge project. We recorded the stars' celestial coordinates and our previous observation results in the mathematical language. Now we can be sure that the Star of Extinction, the Bloody Moon in your words, always stays at the same spot in the sky. It doesn't move at all."

Roland had once paid close attention to the Bloody Moon, whose coming was said to herald the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will. Now that the demons had already begun to take action, he no longer had any interest in the star.

"I've come to give you a new mission. You'd better finish it as soon as possible." He said explicitly. "It's not a pure math problem like the previous missions. You need to solve a practical problem for the First Army."

"Do you mean creating something like the cannons' firing table?"

"It's more complicated than that," Roland shook his head and said. "You need to work with the craftsmen to produce a tool which can predict the movement of a target in the sky. You'll need two equations to describe this kind of movement. One describes the horizontal displacement of the target and the other describes the vertical displacement. I have a general idea of the design, but you have to determine the specific parameters through more detailed measurement and calculation."

What Roland wanted was an aiming tool for the new ground-to-air machine guns that could determine a target's distance and forward direction in the sky. With these parameters, a soldier could adjust the weapon to get the proper high angle and advance angle, and then riddle the flying enemy with bullets. This aiming tool was a manually operated mechanical device rather than a piece of electronic equipment, so all that the shooter needed to operate this weapon would be an accurate firing table and some basic knowledge of mathematics and geometry.

Chapter 926 - Quitting Math for Dummies

The anti-aircraft machine guns were just the first step to enhancing Neverwinter's air defense capabilities. The most effective way to protect the city's airspace was still building a functional air force.

Back in the days when the Union had ruled the human world, witches had guarded the skies.

A small number of witches endowed with a flying ability, as well as a few Extraordinaries wearing Stones of Flight, had performed this air defense task. They had been recognized as the strongest warriors of the Union, and thus their status had been higher than that of the other combat witches in the Blessed Army. According to Pasha, throughout the history of the Union, all the Three Chiefs had always been former members of this air defense troop.

As for the common people who did not have the talent to use magic power or the Magic Stones, the only solution was to create a kind of machine which could serve as their wings. When that happened, they would be able to get rid of the constraints of gravity and fly up into the sky.

In order to dominate the battle in the air, Neverwinter had to build up its own air forces.

To achieve that goal, Roland needed to create airplanes.

This was no easy job, as it involved tackling many technical problems at the same time. He was not familiar with aircraft design, and even the structure of a biplane from World War I was complicated enough to give him a headache. He was able to get away with the simplified power transmission systems and braking systems of the train for the initial prototype. However, the flight control surfaces of a plane could not be half-assed and had a much lower tolerance for error. More importantly, he had never flown a plane and thus had no idea whether the mechanical devices he created would work or not.

Fortunately, he could choose another kind of aircraft—the glider.

Wendy, who was able to sense wind direction and wind power accurately, could work as his test pilot. With the help of Lightning and Maggie, who could ensure Wendy's safety, he believed he would be able to write a flight manual for the operation of the gliders without risking anyone's life.

"Your Majesty." Astrologer of Dispersion Star spoke, interrupting Roland's thoughts. "I understand what you mean. The Arithmetic Academy will make this aiming tool for you as soon as possible."

"Good." Roland nodded in satisfaction. He was happy to be able to talk to this astrologer, who could immediately understand his intentions. He felt that it had really been a wise decision to bring the whole Astrology Association to the Western Region.

As a school of sages, the Astrology Association also required hands-on practical ability just as the alchemists did. The astrologers were not only excellent at mathematics but also good with their hands. Since no blacksmith knew how to make a telescope, they usually designed and assembled the telescope parts by themselves.

Just as Roland was about to leave, he noticed that Astrologer of Dispersion Star still seemed to have something to say.

"Is there anything else?" Roland asked.

"Here's a thing I can't figure out, Your Majesty." The scholar cleared this throat by coughing several times. "I don't understand why there's the word 'Intermediate' on the cover of the book, 'Analytic Geometry', and on every cover of the mathematics books you gave me."

Roland chuckled. "That's the thing you want to ask?"

"Please forgive me for being so bold, if it's a thing can't be disclosed." Different from Kyle Sichi, Dispersion Star had stayed in the old King's City since his birth. He had served several kings and was always on his best behavior. However, Roland could tell from his eyes that he was just as curious as the Chief Alchemist.

Roland could not help but smile while recalling that he had used "Intermediate Chemistry" to lure Kyle into working for Neverwinter. In order to get his hands on the book, Kyle had recruited students, given lectures, and even taken up the post of Minister of Chemical Industry. Nevertheless, Roland felt that he would not need to repeat this carrot-and-stick trick on Dispersion Star.

He explained plainly, "It's because there's a book called Advanced Mathematics. It's not just about geometry or arithmetics. It's advanced mathematical theory. You can imagine the primary and intermediate books as the trunk of a tree and advanced mathematics as the top of the tree. But this book is much harder to understand, so it has another name."

"What might that be?"

"Quitting Math for Dummies," Roland answered with his hands laid out in a shrug.

Obviously, Dispersion Star did not understand Roland's implication. He stared blankly at the king, and then he said, "Your, Your Majesty... I'll never give up, even if I have to spend the rest of my life to grasp the theory! Could you please show me..."

Seeing the sincere look on the scholar's face, Roland somehow felt a little embarrassed about himself, since he had regularly dozed off in his advanced mathematics class. He cleared his throat and said, "Of course. After finishing this project, you may come to the castle to get the book."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Dispersion Star knelt and replied with excitement.

...

After that, Roland left the Mathematics Academy for the backyard of the North Slope Mountain.

Apart from the anti-aircraft machine guns, he intended to make some special weapons for the God's Punishment Witches.

After having spent several months together, he was firmly convinced about the Taquila survivors' burning desire to wreak havoc upon the demons. Neverwinter had to fight the demons to survive, but the Taquila witches just wanted revenge. In the hearts of the ancient witches, the demons had been the source of their pains for the past hundreds of years, the enemies who had killed their families and friends, and the nightmare they longed to get rid of.

Roland felt that it would be a complete waste for these mighty warriors to use only swords and spears to fight the demons. He also noticed that they were able to fight with weapons that were too heavy to carry for conventional soldiers. This meant that he could equip them with fiercer firearms and turn them into high mobility heavy battle units.

His initial plan was to design a portable Mark I type HMG for the God's Punishment Witches, whose ammo box could be carried in their backpacks. With these weapons, the God's Punishment Witches would become mobile fortresses. Once they encountered a pack of demons, they could immediately turn them into Swiss cheese.

However, now he had changed his mind.

Some heavy machine guns were going to be converted into anti-aircraft machine guns, and a new variant of the Mark I guns would soon begin production on a large scale. In the near future, the bullet consumption speed would be incredibly fast, but based on the current efficiency of Neverwinter's bullet production, he could not ensure the supply of ammunition for so many guns. Under such circumstances, even if he were to manufacture 300 guns for the God's Punishment Witches, they would not get enough bullets to be able to achieve the target effect of a walking fortress

To solve this problem, he needed to create a powerful and simple weapon that used fewer bullets while also being easy to maintain.

He quickly sketched the outline of the new weapon on paper.

It was a grapeshot gun, a gas operated weapon with a 40mm caliber.

The prominent advantage of a grapeshot gun was its wide killing range and the long-distance shots resulting from the enlarged caliber. It shot automatically and its shooter did not have to be very accurate. It could help the revolving rifles and bolt rifles in suppressing the enemies who managed to break through the cannon blockade line. It could also be adopted in a sneak attack. In such a battle, the grapeshot gun shooter could take the initiative to approach the target.

Judging from the demons' fighting methods in the second Battle of Divine Will, they were still in the era of cold weapons. In a direct encounter, they usually fought hand to hand instead of throwing spears.

Given that, Roland was confident that the God's Punishment Witches equipped with automatic grapeshot guns would be able to give them hell in a close combat fight.

...

Five days later, Sylvie spotted some Devilbeasts again.

The number of enemies had doubled this time. Twelve Devilbeasts, looking like a dark cloud in the sky, were flying towards Neverwinter.

Chapter 927 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part I)

Roland had added two short telephone lines connecting his office with the command center of the Neverwinter garrison and the Taquila survivors so that both stations could instantly contact him if the need arises. Therefore, the castle, the camp of the First Army, and the Third Border City received the news almost at the same time.

"This happened too soon." Pasha was a little doubtful. "Based on our experience, we should have had half a month or even a month before the demons would launch their second attack; especially for a city like Neverwinter since they can't arrive in one day."

"Why?" Roland asked.

"Because they need time to let the panic spread. By that time, no matter how the lord of the city tries to calm his subjects, it will be all for naught. The second attack would crush the people's confidence and snuff out any remaining hope. That's why they normally waited for some time before commenced the second attack." Pasha explained. "The demons seem a bit hasty this time."

"I see." Roland nodded. Pasha was right. In an ancient city, people were too busy working every day just to feed themselves every day. In such a disconnected society incomparable to the one where Roland came from, five days were only long enough for the news to spread among the Rats and the patrons of a few taverns.

Somehow, the old rumor seemed a bit more credible to Roland now. After all, the demons' strategy was so similar to the humans'. It was highly unlikely for them to act so human-like without a human guiding them.

"What are you going to do?" Alethea chimed in.

"What else can I do? Just kill them all!" Roland said decisively. Time seemed very limited. They had only managed to add the new aiming tool on the Mark I HMG recently, and the machine gun squad they hastily assembled only had one trial, with balloons as the targets. But since many witches, including Nightingale, Lightning, and Maggie, had returned, they could now take the initiative to attack.

Roland looked at Nightingale and the other witches. "Just follow the plan. Remember the most important thing is..."

"Safety. Lightning perfectly understands!" The little girl raised her hand.

"Maggie too, coo!"

"Don't worry. I'll take care of these two little ones," Nightingale said, smiling.

"Who's the little one?" Lightning protested, raising her chin.

"Of course it's you, coo."

"Why?"

"I'm bigger than the two of you combined after transforming! Coo!" Maggie spread her wings.

"That's not what I meant!"

The two hadn't even finished arguing before Nightingale picked them both, one girl in each arm, and went out of the meeting room.

"I'll leave the defense task of the city wall to the witches of the Sleeping Island," Roland said to Tilly.

Tilly answered without hesitation, "They'll do their best."

"Good. Then I shall stand by the phone and wait for your good news," Roland said and then commanded word by word, "Move! Now!"

Pasha did not speak until Roland was alone in the room. Her voice sounded serious. "Are you serious about this? The demons would change their mind once they spot so many witches, and they won't see Neverwinter as a city ruled by the common person but by witches. They would then have completely different tactics in store for us."

"I know. You've already warned me about that." Roland exhaled softly. The ancient witch had told him about her concern when they made the defense plan. In her opinion, if the demons thought Neverwinter was a Holy City under the dominion of the Union, they would undoubtedly strengthen their defenses and attack with increasing aggression in the coming battles. In other words, they would start to view Neverwinter as an even opponent. The demons only took the witches seriously and completely disregarded the common people.

"I thought... humans would prefer to avoid a war like this."

"They'll come sooner or later, right?" Roland arose and walked up to the French window, and looked off into the direction of the border. "Since that's the case, it's better to fight a battle we have prepared for instead of heading mindlessly to war. The First Army is made up of men who used to be common hunters, miners, and farmers, and the army was not exceptionally powerful in the beginning. Now that they have to face an enemy that is not in the least like the ones they faced before, every chance of confrontation would help them gain experience and prepare them for the Battle of Divine Will. The so-called elite soldiers are simply those who have survived several times on the edge of life and death."

"I must say that your resolve has moved me." Alethea whisked her tentacles. "You're better than most of the common people just from this point."

Roland shook his head and said, "Common people didn't earn the label of 'common people' because they're incompetent, but simply because of their large population. Therefore, their strength is often easily ignored. There're stories in the Dream World telling of tales where powerful entities, whether they be ancient gods or colossal dragons, underestimated the might of the humans, and ended up being slaughtered by mere 40 ordinary people."

"I have never heard of such a legend."

"But they're not entirely false. I dare say that as technology advance, we will only need 25 common people to do the same job." Roland shrugged. Then he turned around and said seriously, "Furthermore, we can mislead the demons by letting them believe that Neverwinter is a city ruled by the Union. They will conclude that the bizarre attacks they're about to suffer are from the witches abilities and ignore the most important point—Neverwinter is neither a city ruled by a common lord nor one under the Union's rule. It is is an industrialized city that has managed to merge the essence of both."

***************

Fish Ball widened his eyes, and stared unblinkingly at the grassland to the North, so as not to miss any sign of the enemies.

He had heard of the existence of the demons from His Majesty a year ago, but the first time he saw what they looked like was during the incident five days ago.

When he witnessed the scene of the enemies' bone spears piercing through his fellow soldiers' chests, Fish Ball felt the dread he had not felt for a long time flood back over him. No human beings could attack like that. Even the demonic beasts could not threaten the city wall with that huge distance between them and the wall. For the first time since he joined the army, he met an enemy whose range of attack was comparable to that of the flintlocks. However, he failed to strike back due to the limited angle range of his weapon, which made him a conspicuous target to the enemies if he had held his ground on the wall.

At that moment, Fish Ball wanted to run away.

But he stayed his ground. It was, at first, his trained reflexes kicking in that prevented him from fleeing, but then, a strong feeling of fury and detestation flooded over him. He was furious about the previous deaths of his companions and his powerlessness.

He used to be a wimp that was known for his cowardly nature to people in the old Border Town. People laughed at him wherever he went, and for a time, he nearly believed that he was a real coward. But that all changed the day Van'er had tricked him to join the then-new Militia with two eggs. In the first confrontation with the demonic beasts on the wall, he was so scared that he peed his pants, but ever since he returned from the wall that day, no one had laughed at him anymore.

Now, Van'er was already promoted to the head of Artillery Battalion, yet he was merely transferred from the Flintlock Squad to the Machine Gun Squad and became a squad captain. Fish Ball had neither gripe nor jealousy, for he knew that Van'er was much more capable than him. Van'er even had guts to speak in front of His Majesty, and that was something he would never dare do. But that did not mean that he did not want to be a better person.

Ever since he decided to serve His Majesty, he had witnessed things far beyond his imagination. He had traveled on a concrete ship that could make its way upstream without sails, and he had attacked the nobles' capital city. He had also helped defeat the arrogant Church of Hermes and claimed the desert of the south in Graycastle for his King.

He had already seen so many things. So why should he be afraid of the demons?

Suddenly the observer shouted, "Attention. Suspicious targets spotted at 10 o'clock!"

In the same instant, Fish Ball also noticed some indistinct black spots on the horizon.

He pulled off the rifle bolt of the Mark I and raised its muzzle towards the sky.

No one knew that he was still ashamed of what had happened five days ago.

Only the blood of the enemies could help him was this disgraceful memory away.

Chapter 928 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part II)

"Targets confirmed. The demons are coming!"

"They're heading this way!"

"They're coming from two directions. Demons also spotted at 12 o'clock!"

The observers of the different squads took turns watching their targets through the telescope, giving warnings continuously. Fish Ball's eyes were glued to the second group of enemies that appeared in the shooting area he was assigned to.

The demons in his field of vision were tiny as the leaves flying in the wind, and only when the devilbeast flapped its wings could they tell the difference between them and regular birds. Having learned by heart the firing procedures, Fish Ball placed one of the demons in his aiming reticule and then adjusted the heading indicator of the aiming tool.

The new aiming tool on top of the gun looked very odd. It contained two concentric rings: One was equipped with a Devilbeast model that could spin; the other consisted of several paratactic tiny holes that could rotate with the model.

Fish Ball knew nothing about the principles behind this aiming tool, but he knew that since His Majesty had designed it, it would be as fabulous as any of the other ingenious things the King had made. He spent a whole night memorizing every step he needed to go through before firing the weapon. The first step, he remembered, was to move the heading indicator, the Devilbeast model, to where it was parallel with the target.

In a short amount of time, the enemy in the air as aligned with the tiny hole in the aiming ring.

Right after that, he glanced at the model and shouted to his partner beside him, "A quarter!"

That meant the area of the target to that of the model was four to one, indicating that the demon was in the shooting range of the Mark I HMG.

Lord Astrologer of the Dispersion Star, who assisted in training the squads, had hammered it into them that any distances judged by the naked eye were bound to result in inaccuracies; it could only serve as a rough estimate of the range to the enemy. To ensure maximum effectiveness of the Mark I, it would be safer for them to round the distance up.

That sounded easy enough for Fish Ball to understand. A premature spray from the Mark I would be guaranteed to hit the target while firing too late might just waste bullets.

After making the call, Fish Ball only needed to wait for his partner to find the corresponding number on the shooting table before he would pull the trigger.

It only took a few seconds to finish this procedure, but the process felt excruciatingly long to him. As this was happening, everything around Fish Ball seemed to slow down for him, and the shouting sounds of his fellow soldiers in the background started to fade away. For a moment, he even heard his own rapid heartbeats and heavy breathing clearly.

He could feel a slight amount of moisture in his palms. He knew that the cowardly Fish Ball was still inside him somewhere.

But that only helped him steel himself for what was to come.

As the demons flew steadily towards the wall, they gradually rose, going for the same pattern they executed five days ago. Now that they were at least 800 or 900 meters away, they fully extended their wings so that their bodies were as stretched out as possible. This made them such thin targets that even marksmen of the sniper team would be able to guarantee a clean shot on them.

"But we are different," Fish Ball thought.

The scholar had told him of many principles, most of which was beyond Fish Ball's understanding. But he had remembered one point very clearly.

"Once the enemies are close enough to throw spears, you're free to aim and fire. But before they get in that range, you don't need to worry about hitting the enemies but rather just send as many bullets as you can in their path and wait for them to fly into the bullets."

"Use the fifth hole!" At this moment, his squadmate behind him shouted.

Fish Ball took a deep breath and raised the muzzle, "placing" the Mad Demon that he was aiming at in the fifth hole and pulled the trigger as hard as he could.

Suddenly, a gush of flame flashed out of the muzzle.

The sound of gunfire was ear-piercing, and it seemed to have resumed the flow of time which had previously appeared to slow down. Almost simultaneously, the other squads had also started to open fire. The area atop the city wall instantly heated up.

This all felt rather bizarre to Fish Ball.

The muzzle of the Mark I was not aimed at the demons but a vacant space in front of them. No one knew if they would hit the target. All they could do was keep their fingers tightly on the trigger, and pray for the best as the cartridge box was emptied one bullet after another.

Fortunately, this did not last long.

After three seconds or so, a "flower" of red bloomed among the group of demons at their 12 o'clock.

Along with the explosion of red, Fish Ball could also see a half-broken wing and body parts flying everywhere.

The Devilbeast that had been shot were jolted and spun in mid-air, like pieces of thin paper being crumpled up. It was only then that Fish Ball got a rough view of the demon's appearance. However, from the scattering limbs, he did not spot any body parts resembling those of the Mad Demons. This unlucky devilbeast must have been one of the ones who were responsible for carrying the red mist canisters.

Subsequently, two Devilbeasts swayed away midair and dropped down like stones. Fish Ball could not tell from their movement whether they had been urgently dodging the bullets or seriously injured. But they failed to recover their speed and smashed directly onto the grassland.

Apparently, the sight inspired the soldiers, who started to cheer rapturously.

"And another one! Partner, well done!"

"Air Defense Squad, it's all yours now!"

"Come on, kill those nasty things!"

"Long live King Roland!"

The demons seemed to sense something wrong. They started to disperse and accelerate, charging towards the wall without any sign of retreat!

"Three fourths!" Fish Ball grabbed the gun handle tightly and kept adjusting the shooting direction. "No... four fourths!"

The enemy in his vision was the same size as the model, meaning that the enemy was now within spear-chucking range.

"Open Fire!" the observator shouted, "All gunners, fire at will!"

The soldiers armed with revolving rifles also joined and opened up at the approaching devilbeasts.

All the guns were blasting away, cracking continuously at the wall. Four devilbeats were already shot down, however, ever since the enemies became aware of their attack and started to dodge the shots, few bullets succeeded in hitting them. At this moment, Fish Ball noticed a Devilbeast dart through the sky and dove towards him. As the deformed monster was snarling down at him from the air, he could faintly see that the Mad Demon on raised up a bone spear and aimed it at him.

A piercing chill instantly rose from the soles of his feet, crept through his body, and caused his hands to tremble involuntarily.

Now that the demon in his vision was bigger than the model, he didn't have to estimate how far the demon was anymore, for this distance was short enough for the bullet fired by Mark I to maintain a perfectly straight trajectory through the air. All he needed to do now was to raise the muzzle, aim, and keep firing until the demon's body was riddled with bullets.

But, that spear would also pierce through his body without mercy.

Flee or die.

The familiar feeling crawled up like a shadow, and the cowardly Fish Ball seemed to have grabbed him by his hands.

"Ah———!" In the next moment, Fish Ball bellowed, "Go away. I'm no longer———!"

At the same instant, the barrel of the gun spat out flames of death toward the demon.

The bullets released from the gun whistled toward the demon, tore through its muscles, shattered its bones, and ricocheted in the demon's body before exiting the other side. The impact was so intense that its body swelled a little as its guts were smashed to smithereens.

The Mad Demon threw the bone spear at the moment the bullets flew into him.

Fish ball had foreseen his ending when he pulled the trigger.

But he did not let go of his finger. He stood firm even though he was trembling violently with fear.

"—a coward!"

Bang!

Just one meter away in front of Fish ball, the shadow-like bone spear shattered as it flew into a semi-transparent barrier that had appeared out of nowhere. The barrier only shook a little but otherwise remained intact.

Fish Ball finally came to himself and realized that a short-haired and short witch had appeared on the battlements, and blocked the spear with her incredible power.

"What are you shouting for?" She let out a long breath and slowly withdrew her hands. Then she turned around and smiled at him. "Of course you aren't."

Chapter 929 - Air Defense Battle At The Border (Part III)

Sylvie, who was observing the battle, could finally breathe out a sigh of relief. The Mad Demons' first volley this time did not cause as much damage as compared with their previous attack. With the help of the witches of the Sleeping Island, the spears were either blocked or strangely missed their targets. Only one spear managed to hit a heavy machine gun and shatter it, blasting the splinters everywhere. The explosion forced the squad to cease fire temporarily, but none of the soldiers were fatally wounded. Nana would be able to heal them all as long as they held on until the end of the battle.

The Mad Demons had to let their swollen arms recover before they could attack again, while the First Army could just keep firing. The longer the demons stayed in one spot, the easier a target they became for the First Army gunners. Sylvies knew then that the enemies' defeat was inevitable.

The demons seemed to sense that too. As a horn rang out, the surviving Devilbeasts scrambled to turn around and accelerated away towards the west.

Compared to the evasive movements the devilbeasts displayed when attacking, the beeline they made in the air after turning tails turned them into easy targets for the soldiers. The hail of bullets managed to snap off one escaping Devilbeast's wing. The beast then fell into the Misty Forest with its body bent in an odd angle.

By now, there were only five flying Devilbeasts left, and only three carried the Mad Demons.

Sylvie informed the last of the Neverwinter attackers, who were currently lying in ambush about this information through the Sigil of Listening.

They were the last nail in the coffin for these demons.

"Copy that," said a familiar voice from the other end of the Sigil. "I'm on it. Enjoy the show of a great explorer!"

"Be careful..." Before Sylvie could even finish, sounds of wind whooshing past already blocked out the rest of her words.

That was a signal of falling from the high sky, and an omen of death for the enemies.

The last thing the demons controlling the devilbeasts expected was that someone would attack them from above. They were proud of their natural ability to strike from the air. However, in the face of the witches above the clouds, the odds were not in their favor this time.

Lightning accelerated so fast that the goggles started to crack.

120 kilometers per hour!

That's almost twice as fast as Maggie in the Devilbeast form.

If she flew any faster, the turbulent airflow would very likely blow away her wind goggles.

What she needed to do now was no different than what she did to blow up the king's city.

Adjusting the horizontal direction of the "bomb" so that it would hit the flying demons.

But, the "bomb" she carried this time was Ashes.

It was a tentative decision to add an Extraordinary in the battle. Ashes could fly with the help of the Stone of Flight, but she could not fight while she was controlling the stone. It would be a waste to leave such a mighty warrior on the ground, so they finally came to a solution where the little girl would carry Ashes to attack the enemies. This operation turned out to be surprisingly smooth. Ashes could keep floating in the air by her will so that she would not be a burden to Lightning, and at the same time, the Extraordinary's body was strong enough to bear the violent airflow due to high-speed flight.

As they broke through the thick clouds, their vision suddenly cleared up.

The five Devilbeasts Sylvie had told them about appeared in front of them.

The enemies were still unaware of what was happening above them.

Lightning mustered all her strength and threw Ashes towards one of them.

Ashes unsheathed her long sword and slashed at the demon head-on.

It was not until the demon had heard the blade whistling through the air did it finally become aware of the danger that was fast approaching. But by then, it was too late. The demon swelled its arm and put the spear in an attempt parry the strike, but Ashes' slash was unstoppable. Her sword cut through the spear before cleaving the demon in half. The last thing the demon saw was the Extraordinary's pair of golden eyes.

The rest of the demons were startled, and they screamed out as they made their devilbeats swerve to the sides. They all raised the spear, ignoring the Devilbeast whose master had just been slaughtered. At that moment, a terrifying roar distracted them.

"Woo——Ooo——!"

The giant Devilbeast that Maggie had transformed into dashed out of the thick clouds and swooped towards the demons.

The enemies could not help but put their focus on the gigantic Maggie instead of Ashes. They knew that it was not a real Devilbeast, for they could see a witch on its back.

Two spears hurled by the demons sped towards Maggie like a pair of shadows.

The next second, the Devilbeast suddenly vanished and the spears passed through thin air. The demons then saw a white pigeon floating proudly where the Devilbeast had been.

"Coo!"

Just in a flash, Nightingale showed up in front of the enemies.

Although the peculiarness of the misty world had restricted her movement in the air so that she could not act as freely as she could on the ground, she would not let any enemy within one "flash" escape.

As long as the enemy was pulled in the misty world, Nightingale would dominate the battle.

Without God's Stones of Retaliation, the demon would never see her. The Devilbeast' narrow back was as large as a town square to her.

While Nightingale shot down the demon with her revolver, she pulled the reins on the devilbeast that is now masterless and had it crash into the last devilbeast still with a rider. The Mad Demon atop the last beast attempted a desperate struggle and threw two spears towards Nightingale while paralyzing its own arm. As the Magic Stone was flashing blue, it did not only drain the demon's magic power but also made half of its body wither up.

Nightingale, however, did not even dodge the spears. She merely turned the black and white world upside down so that the sky became the ground, she then stood on the abdomen of the Devilbeast who, instead, took the spear for her.

The turbulent misty world also concealed Nightingale and her mount. Then abruptly, the Devilbeast, controlled by Nightingale, smashed into the last pair of the enemies.

The misty world absorbed the demon in instantly.

This was a strange world for the demon, and the distorted space and lighting of this world instantly distracted it. By the time the demon realized what had happened, the borderlines that were fine as silver yarn flooded over it like a tsunami.

When the enemies reappeared, both the Devilbeasts and the Mad Demon had been minced into pieces, and their remains showered down to the ground below.

Maggie re-transformed into the beast and quickly caught Nightingale who was falling, while Lightning flew to catch Ashes, who had finished dealing with the other Devilbeast.

"Two to one, I win." Nightingale showed two fingers to the Extraordinary.

Ashes shrugged without a comment.

After they landed safely on the ground, Lightning produced the Sigil of Listening from her bag. "Sylvie, can you find the other two escaped Devilbeasts?"

There was a moment of silence before Lightning heard the answer. "Yes, I see them. They are about 2,500 meters away to the Northeast of you."

"Great, please guide me there."

"You want to go alone?"

"No, Maggie'll go with me. Don't worry," Lightning said as she clapped her chest. "They're just two beasts without a master."

"Noone will escape!" Maggie returned to a pigeon, fluttered to the top of the little girl, and said with her erect bird head.

"Be careful with the red mist cans. Remember not to come into contact with the mist." Nightingale warned.

"Retreat immediately if you see any new enemies," Ashes added.

"Got it. You can count on me!" Lightning raised a thumb and took off with Maggie, heading to where the enemies were fleeing.

...

Chapter 930 - A Letter from the City Hall

After waiting by the telephone for an hour and a half, Roland finally received the final battle report.

The witches who were responsible for the ambush did not let any demons escape, and they also seized a lot of cans containing the red mist. Also, they acquired the corpses of the enemies shot down by the air defense squad, and Leaf also captured the final surviving Mad Demon that was wandering around the Misty Forest. All in all, they had gained more from this battle than he had expected.

First, and most importantly, the victory had boosted First Army's morale. The battle had let them realize that even though the demons were not an enemy that could be easily defeated like the knights or wild demonic beasts, they at least had the power to fight back. The demons that everyone had heard so much of was not supernatural and fearsome as the characters narrated in the old stories. In terms of defense, the demons, who were flesh and blood like human beings, were no better than the God's Punishment Army in front of His Majesty's powerful firearms.

Second, the captured enemy would make the anti-demon propaganda in Neverwinter much more effective. Roland believed that once the migrants saw what the demons looked like, they would no longer discriminate against the witches; it was impossible for the demons, a kind of monster that shared none of the similarities with humankind, to brainwash the witches' minds and make the witches their servants.

Lastly, the corpses of the demons would also be quite useful. For research purposes.

Since the magic blood could not save up separately and would lose its power quickly after the host had died, Roland had not counted on applying the enemy's blood to new sigils. But Celine had volunteered to take on the job of making sigils in Agatha's absence. Celine told him that Agatha was indeed among the most outstanding in the entire Quest Society, but the knowledge of sigil making was essential to every formal member of the society.

She also stressed that apart from the quality of the Magic Stones and demon blood, the appropriate method of carving the vessels on the stone was also crucial to making a good sigil, albeit it being a less important factor. One could directly use a stick to draw a straight line if the time was limited, but carving intricate patterns on the stone would be able to fully bring its power into play.

She was proud to say that no hands could be more exquisite and precise than her tentacles. In terms of sense of touch, control of strength, and not to mention the numerical advantage, the human hand was no match against her tentacles.

As Celine goes on bragging about her tentacles, strange ideas kept popping up in Roland's mind, and it took him a long while before he could get back to reality. Fortunately, Celine could not read his thoughts when their minds were communicating. Otherwise, there would be no way for him to explain himself out of this.

But of course, there was also the bad news.

It turned out that the anti-air effectiveness of the Mark I type HMG was mostly unsatisfactory. By looking at the overview of the battle, Roland found that the hail of bullets fired when the enemies were closer to the wall was the most deadly. The demons, at first, did not expect that they would be attacked, so they flew in slowly cramped up into two tight formations. This made them perfect targets for the guns. However, out of the twelve devil beasts that came, only four were shot down by the guns. After the demons changed the tactic and started to disperse as they entered the effective range for the Mad Demon's spears, no bullets succeeded in bringing any of them down.

Fortunately, the demons' ideal range of spear throwing was about 200 meters, a distance short enough for the bullets of Mark I to keep a straight trajectory. After three more Devilbeasts were hit, the rest of the demons stopped fighting and retreated immediately. However, if the enemies' attacking range was farther, or if they chose to approach the walls in a more spread out formation, this battle would have been much harder to win.

After all, in the face of the enemies that could maneuver freely in the air, the disadvantages of the immobile defenders on the ground were apparent.

Roland would try to improve the Mark I after this, but there were limited things he could do with the design. He might add a protective steel plate around the gun or convert the guns into small forts to protect the gunners. Also, he would increase the production of Mark I to deal with the war after the Bloody Moon arrives. However, Roland understood that there was no way for them to eliminate the Devilbeasts' threat unless Neverwinter had a comparable air force.

But let him put the concern aside for now. Roland put down the quill and let out a long breath. Finally, he won the air defense battle. No matter how insignificant it was, the battle would be regarded as the first battle in the human history that was won with the help of firearms.

At the thought of that, Roland sent for Barov Mons.

"Hold a celebration ceremony in the central square tonight. Make it as good and as lively as possible as the ones we have on Victory Day. It'll be a part of the propaganda. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov responded with a hand on his chest.

***************

Five days after the ceremony, Snaketooth received a letter from the City Hall.

"Who was knocking?" Tigerclaw slurred behind him. "Don't we rest today?"

"Don't worry. It's not the foreman. Just go back to sleep."

Snaketooth returned to the low table and craned his head to look out of the window. The Sun had barely set, and there was still a faint trace of light outside as if a misty veil covered the sky.

Snaketooth had been sleepy when he was awakened, but he could not be soberer now. Seeing the City Hall's red seal on the envelope, he vaguely knew what was in it.

His life had changed significantly in the past a year and a half. After he moved in Border Town, he no longer had to live a rat-like life. Instead, he, like most people, started to make a living by himself. But, still, he had not believed such things would happen to him until he got his first pay, for he was so, so familiar with hirers who were notorious for exploiting their workers. Those corrupt people would cheat workers out of receiving their wages. This was especially so for a worker like him, who was a migrant. However, on the contrary, he got a full pay every month.

So, now he couldn't even imagine how much his life would continue to improve in the days to come.

With a salary of 12 silver royals per month, he could save up one odd gold royal for a down payment on the cheapest house in the residential area of Neverwinter. And if he took a part-time job, he might be able to buy the house much earlier. Now that he was clear about how long it would take him to achieve his goal, he started to look forward to it.

As His Majesty's promises to the people were getting realized one after another, Snaketooth started to hope for more.

Snaketooth carefully unsealed the letter and poured all the contents onto the table. There were three pieces of paper of different sizes and colors.

The first piece was the thickest and palm-sized, with only a few words on it, but it made his heart thud.

Without any doubt, it was an identity card of a formal Neverwinter citizen.

Unlike the temporary card, this card was wrapped up by a transparent and hard film that gave a smooth touch. On it read not only his name and the day of his birth but also a vivid portrait of him.

Finally, he had become a member of this city, and a subject that was acknowledged by the King.

Snaketooth tried to compose himself before he looked at the second piece of paper.

It was a written notice. There were many paragraphs he could not fully understand, as he was only able to spend limited time on night classes since coming to Neverwinter, but he was able to grasp the general idea of the content.

As he had expected, his application for participating the railway construction in the Misty Forest was passed by the City Hall.

Chapter 931 - Your Name

The scuffling noises woke Tigerclaw up, and he yawned and scooched next to Snaketooth. "What's this? A letter?"

Snaketooth immediately pushed Tigerclaw's face away, afraid that he would drool on the letter. "What's wrong? Why don't you get back to sleep?"

"I'm hungry. I want something to eat," Tigerclaw said as he rubbed his belly.

"Then go boil some water and cook. I want oatmeal, by the way."

"Okay," Tigerclaw replied and then remembered something. "You haven't answered my question."

"It's my identity card and an offer notice," Snaketooth said impatiently.

"Oh?" Tigerclaw's eyes brightened and leaned in again. He threw one arm round Snaketooth's neck and shook him excitedly. "You finally got your ID card! Haha... This is worth celebrating! We need to have something better than oatmeal. Let's go to the market and buy some dried fish and mushrooms."

"I'm still trying to save money."

"I can lend you some," Tigerclaw said unconcernedly. "You've been waiting for your ID card for so long. How could we just let this moment pass without a nice meal for celebration? Did you forget what you said the day I got my ID card?"

Snaketooth knew he couldn't reject Tigerclaw kind intentions.

Tigerclaw was a tall and sturdy man. He worked hard and was often much more efficient than other workers, especially when he had enough food. His foreman was aware of this and started to value him more and later even chose him to be the model worker of the third construction team. He earned a higher wage and also got a bonus, so he actually had enough money to pay for the down payment of a house.

Any migrants would get their ID cards if they gained permanent abode. The day Tigerclaw got the key to his new house and his ID card, Snaketooth egged him on holding a feast for celebration and even moved his belongings into the new cement house.

"Okay, okay. I got it." Snaketooth said helplessly. "Let's go later."

"Well, that's settled then!" Tigerclaw was satisfied and returned to his bedside and rummaged for something to wear for shopping. "By the way, what's in that notification?"

"It's an offer from the railway construction team." Snaketooth drew a deep breath and said, "It won't be soon before I go to work in the Barbarian Land outside Graycastle's borders."

"What?" Tigerclaw hands stopped abruptly. "When did you apply for that? Why didn't you tell me?"

"What if you insist on going with me? This house will then be left unattended."

"I wouldn't go with you. No... I mean, why would I go to such a dangerous place?" Tigerclaw's voice raised. "You know what happened recently. There are demons outside the city!"

The demons' recent attack on the city wall had stirred up major unrest amongst the citizens. At first, the alarm went off again and again, then, there were weird monsters dropping into the city, and then the ceremony held at that night was just mind-boggling to everyone.

King Roland announced publically that they were the enemies humanity will have to face sooner or later. He also stressed that the so-called Barbarian Land was not deserted at the beginning but instead a place that was once had a nicer name: "Fertile Plains." That was where humans used to live. It was not until demonic beasts and demons started to harass them did people began to retreat to where the Four Kingdoms are now.

Some of the people who fled from the Fertile Plains established the church. They lied about the enemies, describing them as being omnipotent, and falsely accused the witches of being related to the demons, out of fear for their magic powers. But the victory Neverwinter had achieved this time proved that even though the demons were cunning and frightening, they were not invincible.

To expand the territory and protect Neverwinter from the enemies' attack, the King decided to march on the Barbarian Land as soon as possible to reclaim the land that had once belonged to humans! The King's declaration during the celebration inspired countless cheers, and as the First Army served meat porridge and roasts to the audiences, the atmosphere at the square reached its peak.

In the next five days, you could hear people discussing about the demons everywhere you went. Snaketooth's colleagues in the construction team were no different They were the most interested in the topics like "demon and demonic beast, which one is stronger?" "Should Neverwinter expand to the northwest?". Meanwhile, the City Hall issued a series of recruitment announcements, one of which was the job of building the railway in the Misty Forest.

Snaketooth barely cared about the answers to these question, yet he felt what His Majesty had said somehow enlightened his mind. Suddenly his mind became clear. He had never thought about where he had come from and where he would go. Now he finally understood that all of them had migrated from the "Barbarian Land." The world was much larger than the Four Kingdoms, and its boundaries stretched far beyond the Fertile Plains, which by itself was several times larger than Graycastle.

Also, he was tempted by the good pay.

Tigerclaw turned around and grabbed Snaketooth by his arm, and said, "You were always the insightful one, so I think you should understand this clearer than me. The demons are not as easy to deal with as everyone thinks they are. How could the demons drive humanity to the brink of extinction if they were weak? His Majesty said there used to be hundreds of city and millions of people living on the Fertile Plains."

"Of course I know that. That's why I have made up my mind." Snaketooth remained unmoved. "The pay is 35 silver royals per month, and they will even pay me the first six months' salary before I start work. Furthermore, I'll be eligible to buy a suite of two rooms. Chances like these are hard to come by."

"A suite of two rooms..." Tigerclaw twisted his mouth. "You are really obsessed with that aren't you."

"Of course." Snaketooth made a fist. "It's got a hot water supply system, and the kitchen and bathroom are separated. That's what a house should be like."

Although he did not get paid as much as Tigerclaw, he had saved up about one gold royal by now. Ever since he had seen their foreman's home, he had decided to buy a suite of two rooms of his own in the residential area in the inner city. But because down payment would cost him three gold royals, which was much higher than normal houses, he hadn't been able to do so.

Most importantly, although Snaketooth did not tell others, two bedrooms would be more comfortable for the both of them, unlike the single room where they had to share a small bed.

Seeing that Tigerclaw was still trying to discourage him from taking on the job, Snaketooth shook his head to stop him and said, "I know this is a little risky, but when we were Rats, we took risks almost every day. The only difference was that most of the risks we took at that time ended up being in vain, while now we could at least ensure that our effort will pay off. You all think I have a quick wit, but that's scarcely useful in Neverwinter. If we wanted to have a safe and settled life, why did we move to a foreign city to begin with?"

"You know that I can never win an argument with you." Tigerclaw raised his hands in surrender. "I have no objection as long as you have thought things through."

"Don't worry. I'm not so reckless as to care only about profit." Snaketooth said as he spread his palm. "The First Army will be responsible for the security, and it's said that some witches will set out with the construction team. Even if we were to run into demons, they wouldn't make us fight the enemies with our poles and shovels. Relatively, it's a safe job."

"I hope that's true," Tigerclaw muttered. "I'm going wash up. My stomach is growling. Now that you got a job with a better pay, I will make the most out of this meal."

Snaketooth rolled his eyes at that.

As Tigerclaw was washing, Snaketooth unfolded the third piece of paper and he was a little shocked by the content.

It was a transfer contract.

In short, it said that no matter what happened, the City Hall would not go back on anyone's salaries and rewards. The workers could choose any person to whom he or she would sign over their property in case of major accidents. That person would receive the notification from the City Hall as soon as the transfer contract is valid.

Snaketooth closed his eyes, some figures flashing through his mind: Joe, Sunflower, Tigerclaw... At last, the frame froze at a skinny, fair-skinned girl.

Snaketooth picked up the charcoal and wrote the name carefully in the blank space provided in the contract.

"Paper."

Chapter 932 - Someone Impossible to Meet

…

Horford Quinn stood in front of the french window with a filled wine glass in hand and stared at the city covered by the night sky.

This was the center of the Kingdom of Dawn, also known as "the city that never sleeps." The lights started from the Rising Sun Avenue and extended to both sides like a lush tree of light. At the top of the tree was the most famous market of the kingdom, where countless rare products were sold. For the merchants, the night was when their day started.

To maintain the glittering glory of the city, the daily consumption of candles, firewood, and kerosene in the king's city was astonishing. The fish fat from the eastern harbor and the wood from the northern hills were continuously imported into the city ship after ship. This industry alone could feed nearly 10,000 people and more than 100 merchants.

And this was only a small part of the commercial trade of this city.

Normally, Horford's greatest pleasure was to enjoy the glow of the night city. Under the joint governance of the Moya family and the three families, the city changed from a wasteland into today's famous bustling place. This was also due to the continual efforts of their ancestors.

But today, he felt tired seeing all of this.

The night scene of the City of Glow looked the same as before. It remained captivating and touching. Yet just outside the range of its glow, was a dark undercurrent could no longer be ignored.

Even while faced with such a brightly lit domain, he still felt a great deal of anxiety

Maybe he was getting old... Horford sipped his wine, but the bitterness in his mouth overpowered the wine's sweetness.

"Father." The study door was pushed open, and a young man came in. "Baron Alfonse from Northwind City would like to meet you."

"No," replied Horford, without turning his head. "Just say that I'm sick."

"But..." He hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand at the old butler.

The old butler immediately nodded, then turned and walked out of the study.

Seeing that only two of them were left in the room, Hawn started to voice out his worries. "Father, this is the 12th noble that you have rejected. Even I know that there's a problem in the palace. These foreign nobles' intention for entering the city was very obvious. If you refuse to see them, I'm afraid they will mistakenly think that..."

"Mistakenly think what?"

"Mistakenly think that..." He bit his lip and said, "That you're still on the side of His Majesty Appen Moya."

"Hawn..." Earl Quinn turned around and frowned at the heir to the Quinn family. "Do you think it's a mistake that the three families are on the side of the King of Dawn?"

"But now His Majesty no longer needs us," said Hawn, as he mustered up his courage. "Since our army suffered a huge loss in Hermes, he no longer asks for your consultation! You're the Prime Minister, and you can't even enter the Royal Palace. And now even the patrol team has been replaced by mercenaries. Just look at the kind of people who are summoned into the palace these days. There are only clowns, dancers, and geishas!"

The earl did not answer but just stared silently at his glass of wine.

Hawn was only eighteen years old, but even he could see what the arrival of the nobility from all over the country to the king's city meant. The other local nobles must have also already sensed the changes in the castle. In fact, when he learned of the defeat of their supposedly unstoppable army, he had already expected that this day would come—more than 10,000 troops and most of the lords of the towns were involved in trying to get a piece of fortune from the husk of the once mighty church. However, not only did they not earn any benefits, many of the troops even lost their lives.

It would have been fine if that was the only consequence, but the King of Dawn had come back alive with his knightage in shambles. The news of Appen's shameful return had spread like wildfire as it fulfilled two conditions at the same time—the need for someone to be held accountable for this failed mission; and the fact that the power Appen held was no longer enough to dispel the greed of the other nobles.

These nobles that sneaked quietly into the city at night gave out a clear signal. They undoubtedly wanted to see the reactions of the three big families before deciding whether to support or unite—but no one would ever agree to uphold the status quo.

Horford could guess the thoughts of these people even with his eyes closed. Since there was such a huge loss of resources in Hermes, they would obviously try to find ways to make up for that loss.

"Father," Hawn spoke hurriedly as he saw that his father was silent. "Things are not like they were ten years ago, and Appen Moya is no longer His Majesty Moya. Look at the house of Luoxi! Otto Luoxi is still locked in the palace cell! You're the Prime Minister of the Imperial Palace, and you're held in high esteem by the people. If you make a stand and get the support of the two other big families, I'm sure the nobles will be happy to follow your lead!"

"Make a stand?" Earl Quinn's eyes narrowed and his voice portrayed a hint of danger.

"Uh..." Hawn stammered, and he lowered his head in panic. He replied in defense of himself. "You don't have to stand on the side of His Majesty Appen, right? Otherwise, why would you claim to be sick, and refuse to receive anyone? If it were the old king, you would have personally persuaded those nobles to consider the stability of the kingdom first."

Horford sighed and realized that his son was still too young. "And if you're right, do you think that Appen Moya wouldn't have seen that coming?"

"What?" Hawn was stunned for a second.

"I bet there are eyes watching us just outside of our mansion. They're spying on who I've met and where I've gone recently, and I'm pretty sure Appen is kept well informed of this." The earl returned to his desk and sat down. "Imagine what would've happened to me had I just went ahead and met those nobles. Don't forget that even if he lost his entire knightage, the control over the kingdom still wouldn't be that much weakened. From the day Appen ascended the throne, he had already begun to change the guards and the castle guards to his people! Rebel right under his very nose? Do you think that those noble lords will come to rescue me when he puts the noose around my neck?" He slammed the table. "And now do you understand why the Luoxi family and the Tokat family hadn't come to find me, but only the foreign nobles?"

Horn gasped, "Then why don't you go back to the domain first? At least your knights and mercenaries are there, together with the recruited serfs, so even if he wants to plan anything against you..."

The Earl shook his head and said, "The Quinn family has already settled down here for far too long. Our connections, distant relatives, productions, power... Even if I could slip out of the city alone, I wouldn't be able to bring everything out. Our people will suffer greatly at the hand of the King if they so much as make any suspicious moves, so I can't make such a rash move. In fact, my stay in the City of Glow is a guarantee in and of itself. Feigning illness was already the most that I could show. Other than that, there really isn't much that I can do."

Being closely tied to the workings of the king's city used to be a source of pride for their family, yet it has now become the Quinns' fatal weakness. This was certainly a kind of irony.

"Really... but I don't think so." Just then, a strange voice came from outside.

Horford's face changed drastically, as the speaker was obviously not a servant or guard of the household as intruding upon them like that was a serious offense. How did this person get through the guards? Why didn't anyone respond when the person spoke?

"Who's that?" Horn was equally shocked. He turned around in panic and looked for a weapon, but could only get his hands on a candlestick.

"It's me." The door opened, and a blonde-haired girl appeared before Horford Quinn. The strange girl for some reason looked familiar to him. "Do you remember me? My lord."

Chapter 933 - The King's Orders

Earl Quinn froze, and he did not even realize that he had dropped the wine glass he had been holding.

The moment he saw her, he couldn't help but think of the name of two people—One of the two had stayed by him for more than half of his life, but because she had lost someone she loved, she fell into a depression that eventually led to the end of her life. The other person was the loved that was lost, and she was also someone he was supposed never to meet again. Nearly ten years had passed, and even though she was now much taller and more beautiful, Earl Quinn could still recognize her. But the two had such a striking resemblance that he almost blurted out the wrong name.

"Father, do you know her?" Hawn's words made him regain his senses.

Horford stood up slowly and asked calmly, "Are you... Andrea?"

"What? Are you saying that she's... the one, the one that had passed away..." Horn stared back and forth between them as he in muttered disbelief.

"Master, it really is Miss Andrea!" The old housekeeper was more excited than anyone else in the room. "I can't be mistaken. She has inherited all the characteristics of Madame!"

"It seems like you remember me," said Andrea, in an expressionless manner, "in that case, our negotiation will be much easier."

Horford could not help but feel rattled in his heart. The fact that his daughter had awakened as a witch was a secret hidden from everyone. Even Andrea's mother, his wife Fenancy, had no idea about this. When Andrea's maid had informed him about the incident, he instantly chose to drown the maid by pushing her into the river and had his men cover it up as a fake accident.

Although he knew that doing so might make his daughter hate him forever, at least this way she would remember who her father was. But upon meeting again, the decision he made all those years ago had turned into a sharp thorn in his heart.

This stabbing sensation became even more apparent, as he started to question whether he made the right choice back then.

But the earl knew that there were more pressing matters now—why Andrea would appear in the City of Glow and whether her identity was true or false. Moreover, he couldn't figure out what she meant by "I don't think so." These questions were more important than pursuing past mistakes.

He suppressed all the doubts and thoughts in his heart and waved at Horn. "You can go out first."

"Father!" Hawn responded worryingly.

"Just do as I said!" Horford replied firmly.

Seeing that he could not change his father's mind, Hawn left the room reluctantly.

"Don't alarm the others," the earl said to the steward, "and at the same time close the courtyard door and put out the lights in the hall. If someone in the government asks, just say that I'm drafting some documents and that no one should be allowed to disturb me. Do you understand?"

"I will do that right away! But..." The butler touched his head and said, "What about those friends that Miss Andrea brought?"

"Friends?" He glanced over at Andrea, suspiciously. "Take them to the ballroom and take care of them properly."

"Yes, Master!"

As the door shut with a squeak, the study suddenly plunged into silence. The pair stared at each other for a long time, until the earl could not resist anymore and broke the silence first. "Although you and my daughter are a bit alike, I can't confirm so rashly that you're Andrea. After all, she was only 16 when she left, and now ten years have passed..." He paused and said, "Do you have other ways to prove your identity?"

In truth, he had already believed that this was his daughter, so the question was just to confirm that—even the best kind of face-morphing abilities could not change one's soul. From her every move, the earl could see the shadow of the Flower of Glow.

Instead of answering, Andrea opened her hands, and a bow of magic power appeared in her palm. The glittering, longbow converged and diminished little by little, evolving into a distinctive appearance—that was a gift that he had made for his daughter's birthday, a long time ago.

At this point, Horford no longer had any doubt. This bow and arrow for beginners had long been destroyed together with the carriage, and even now he could not accurately describe its appearance.

Andrea, who was especially interested in shooting at an early age, clearly still remembered this gift.

"It's you..." said the count with a long sigh. "Why did you come back? I gave you away in the first place so that you could continue to live safely."

"Was that the only reason?" Andrea withdrew the longbow and said, "and not because you feared that others would find out that the Prime Minister had a daughter who had become corrupted under the temptation of the demon? I didn't think I was being protected. It felt more like abandonment. There was no safe place for a witch like me. If it weren't for my luck that I got to meet a group of people who had the same fate as me, I would have died ages ago in who knows where."

He opened his mouth but could not refute her argument because that was indeed one of his concerns back then. Once people found out that Andrea was a witch, the whole family would be in danger—not everyone would be comfortable with sending their family to the church or the other nobles. Rather than let the entire Quinn family face this difficult choice, it would be better for him to make that decision alone.

"But those were all in the past, and I'm not here to dig up old wounds." Andrea said positively, "You must be curious as to how I could enter the earl's residence so easily, even though the guards wouldn't easily believe my rhetoric. And when I saw the butler, I deliberately waited for a while outside the door. Is the one who called you father the heir to the family? When did I have such a brother?"

"He came from a branch... Your mother died a year after you left, and the Quinn family needed a successor," Horford whispered.

If that incident did not happen 10 years ago, this position would have belonged to the eldest daughter.

After hearing this news, Andrea was stunned at first; then her eyes started to turn dim. After a moment's silence, she spoke, "In any case, the family leader of the Quinn can't be changed at the moment, and His Majesty would like you to go one step further and not back down now. In the current situation, other than Earl Quinn of the three big families, he won't recognize any other agent."

"What does that mean?" Horford was a bit confused about the meaning of her words, "The Majesty you referred to is—"

"Who else but the king of Graycastle, His Majesty Roland Wimbledon. I've come here this time under his orders." Andrea took a deep breath and spelled out her next words one by one. "My lord, how do you feel about being the new King of Dawn?"

Chapter 934 - Rise of The Glowing City

"What are you... saying?" Even Earl Quinn, who had been through countless storms in his life, was left completely dumbfounded by Andrea's sentence.

But what he was surprised of was not her mention of a "new King of Dawn," but that she was under orders of His Majesty Roland Wimbledon. These words carried a whole different meaning when said by different people.

Hawn had essentially suggested the same thing earlier, but the earl knew very well that the Quinn family alone had no way to rid Dawn of its current royalty. What Hawn meant by taking a stand was just an unrealistic fantasy.

However, now that the one speaking had the support of the King of Graycastle, those words carried more power.

"Just as you have thought." Probably due to the news of her mother's death, Andrea's tone was no longer as sharp. "His Majesty Roland doesn't want to have Appen Moya stay on the throne but nor does he wish for a destabilized kingdom. It's, therefore, necessary to support a new king with the backing of the populace to successfully control the situation as soon as possible.

After confirming that he didn't mishear her first sentence, the earl muttered, "But why me?"

"His Majesty doesn't have many people that he can trust in the Kingdom of Dawn, so he chose me at first. But I refused."

Just because of this?

Because the daughter refused, so the throne was thrown to her father. This kind of behavior was like that of a child's... But strangely, Horford did not think that this was a joke.

Although Appen had completely banned people from talking about the defeat at Hermes, it was impossible to block the flow of all the information related to the battle because too many nobles had been involved with it. Horford knew very well that the enemy he encountered was not the church; it was Graycastle that took over the holy city. The 10,000-strong army was defeated in an instant, and many of those who had survived could not even describe what happened during the battle. They only saw flames continually falling from the heavens amidst the chaos. The thunder-like flashes of fire smashed into their ranks, reducing both common serfs and armored knights into piles of ashes.

If the news was anywhere near accurate, this meant that Graycastle's power had far exceeded the expectations of the nobles. With such great discrepancy in military might, it would not be unreasonable for Graycastle to appoint new kings for neighboring countries anyhow they liked.

The only question left was why the King did not come himself.

"If the nobles in the Kingdom of Dawn were willing to group their forces under a single banner and start a rebellion together, the Earl would have definitely chosen this option." Andrea seemed to have anticipated that he would try to raise this question. "Simply said, right now, His Majesty Roland has more important enemies to deal with, so he does not have the time nor resources to try to integrate the Kingdom of Dawn into Graycastle in the next three or four years. After all, even though destroying the current ruling royalty was simple, restabilizing the country afterward would be a lengthy process."

"More important... enemies?"

"Yes, the demons." Andrea said slowly, "Otto Luoxi should have already mentioned that all the church's actions were due to the news of the Battle of Doomsday. That was just a small part of the mystery. The name of this war was called The Battle for Divine will and has lasted for nearly a thousand years."

After listening to his daughter's story, Earl Horford felt the cold sweat run down his back.

The Four Kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Dawn, was merely a corner of a continent? As of now, humanity had already suffered defeat in two consecutive wars and was unable to stop the advance of the demons, and a third defeat would lead to the extinction of humankind. Under such dire circumstances, Roland Wimbledon still dared to bear this heavy burden and go to battle with a mighty enemy to gain Divine Will.

How much will and courage would a man need to do this?

Just thinking about it was already enough to cause the Earl to forget to breathe for a couple of seconds.

"Why?" said the earl hurriedly. "How would this benefit him? Does he not fear the consequences of failing?"

"I don't know..." Andrea sighed and said, "This has been mentioned by Her Highness Tilly previously, but her speculation was even more puzzling."

"What did she say?"

"She said that he's not doing it for humanity, but for himself..." She hesitated and said, "It was as if he was looking for a new challenge, and we just happened to be the beneficiaries in this situation."

The earl did not answer, because he did not know what to say. He had seen many different nobles, but none of them was anything like Roland Wimbledon. Eventually, he put this question aside and returned to the main topic. "What does he require of me? To fight for him?"

"No," Andrea shook her head. "Your only job would be to maintain the stability of the Kingdom of Dawn, and provide resources when needed. This includes manpower, raw ore and other kinds of resources. As for the specific amounts and types, His Majesty will later send someone to discuss with you in detail."

Horford was relieved to hear that there was a price to pay for Graycastle's support. If Roland wanted to support the Quinn family without asking for anything in return, he would certainly be suspicious of any conspiracies behind it. Of course, even if there was a conspiracy, with the current situation in Dawn, he could only bite the bullet and agree.

Feigning illness was only a delaying tactic to reach a balance between Appen and the other nobles. If those nobles turned out to be capable of overthrowing the Moya family, Quinn's family would undoubtedly be excluded from the ruling circle of the king's city due to them just remaining a spectator. That would actually have been the ideal result. If anyone wanted to overthrow the three big families, it would not be at all difficult to spread rumors about them still owning allegiances to the royal family.

This was a rare opportunity.

Not to mention the involvement of Andrea.

She might hate me, but she would never cause her family any harm.

As soon as he thought of this, Earl Horford immediately made a decision.

"Please inform His Majesty Wimbledon, that I'm willing to serve the King of Graycastle." He spoke in a serious manner. Although he was speaking to his daughter, she was now the king's messenger; hence the earl gave a slight bow according to the rules of the nobles. "When would he like to take action? It would take at least two to three months to prepare for Graycastle's troops to infiltrate the city."

Even if Appen took away his power to run the patrol team, Horford was still confident about letting dozens or so Graycastle men into the city. After all, as the prime minister who had served two different kings, his still had a certain degree of influence within the city. The earl believed that those foreign nobles who wanted to persuade him over to their side also realized this point.

According to the strength that Graycastle had demonstrated in the previous battle they fought with Dawn's troops, dozens of the Graycastle soldiers should be more than enough to take control of the city gate.

However, Andrea's following words went far beyond his expectations.

"Now that you've promised to our request, we will act immediately," she said lightly. "His Majesty Roland had emphasized that he did not want a political assassination, but rather a complete defeat of Appen Moya in front of the public. Not only does everyone need to witness the end of the Moya family, the greedy nobles who had selfish intentions would also have to be convinced that any resistance is futile."

"What?" He did not believe what he had heard. "But how?"

"Do you know how I got here?" Andrea laid out her hands and said, "I came in from the main entrance. Those guards did try to stop me, but they couldn't do it."

Horford immediately realized that the friends she brought were the key. Barging into the earl's residence at the king's city was not an impossible feat, as this was not his home territory. But to do so without raising any alarms was quite astounding. This meant that the guards were most likely subdued within an instant.

There is no doubt that this was not Andrea's doing, as each of those guards was armed with a God's Stone of Retaliation.

"Wait till you meet them. All of your doubts would naturally vanquish by then." She continued and said, "So what the Quinn family needs to do right now is to cause a scene—the louder the noise, the better it is. Everyone in the Glowing City should have their attention on this so that Appen Moya will have no choice but to come out and face you in public."

Chapter 935 - A Glimpse of Hope in the Dark

Otto Luoxi was woken up by loud noises.

He struggled to lift his heavy eyelids and looked around. The candles on the candlestick had already burnt to the bottom, and the remaining flickers of flame weren't enough to light up the dark room.

He could not tell day from night in this underground cell, and the candle became his only measure of time. The guards would replace the candles every six hours when they come to bring him food.

But that was only in the beginning.

Now they seldom came, be it with candle or food. Sometimes, he would wake up from hunger and find that the cell was still completely dark.

How long had he been locked here? Otto pressed and shook his forehead, trying to squeeze out any last bit of remaining energy. The prolonged lack of sunlight had made him haggard, and constantly waking up in an isolated and pitch-black environment made him feel helpless and abandoned. As if he forgotten by the world.

But he must live on.

Because both his father's entire Luoxi family's fates are in Appen's hands.

Otto propped up his frail body, rolled out of bed and limped slowly to the railings. Other than replenishing the plates and jugs, he also hoped that the caretaker could give him a razor blade. His long unshaven beard had long since covered his cheeks, and bits and pieces of leftover food and grease could be found stuck there. Over time, his face smelled like rotten orange peels. If his caretaker were worried about the blade being a potential weapon, Otto wouldn't even mind letting the caretaker shave him instead.

Afterall, he was still a noble, and the request for grooming shouldn't be something unreasonable.

Otto then heard the sounds of a conversation outside the iron gate.

"What were those people thinking? The person imprisoned here is the eldest son of the Luoxi family!"

The ones who were speaking did not try to cover up their voices so it seemed that they did not mind their conversation being heard by Otto.

"Jokes and ridicule... Isn't that what clowns do?"

"Are they crazy? Normally, if these acrobats dared to offend the earl's son, I'm afraid that they would be fed to the fishes next day. They're nothing more than a group of homeless wanderers!"

"Well that was when times were normal. Back then, would the eldest son be kept in the dungeon? Now His Majesty likes to see these guys perform. Without the approval of the King of Dawn, I don't think they would dare to do such a thing."

"Pui, you're just speaking nonsense."

"I'm just saying. You don't have to believe me, and even if you don't, what can you do? Are you going to trade dinner with that lord in the cell?"

"Sigh, forget it. It's just a few mouthfuls of saliva. He won't die from eating it." Then the sound of a bunch of keys jingling around could be heard.

"That's right, and if this is what His Majesty wants to see, they aren't you just asking for trouble? Go ahead. I still have to retrieve the food tray."

The iron gate made a screeching sound, and the warden walked in while holding a tray of food.

"Oh, Milord, you're already awake?" He was a little surprised to see Otto already leaning against the railings, but he quickly hid his awkward expression. "Well then, you might as well finish up today's dinner now. I'll change the candles tomorrow. The chief steward forgot to send new ones over."

Otto did not answer. He suddenly felt his heart fill with sorrow and he even forgot to request for a razor blade. Although the exchange between the two people was short, he was still able to figure out the gist of the conversation. The clown of the circus troupe happened to bump into the man who was responsible for delivering his food, and he spat a few mouthfuls of saliva into his food in an attempt to amuse Appen Moya.

The shame made his cheeks burn as if they were being baked in an oven.

The warden did not care about Otto's reply and quickly changed the dinner tray before leaving soon after. Although the room was decorated like the room from a duke's mansion, the sense of repression that could be felt inside was unbearable, and no one would want to spend more time in there than they needed to.

As the footsteps went away, the silence once again washed over Otto.

In that very moment, he wanted to scream out loud, curse the warden for his negligence in duty, and reproach Appen for his ignorance... yet he did not do so.

Because that would be meaningless—the former would only delay the next replacement time of the food and candles, while the latter would just gladly let him fall into the trap of his "old friend."

As for the dinner that was used to humiliate him, he had no intention to touch it.

Otto could not help but wonder if he had been doing the right thing.

Just as he was ready to go back to bed, his whole body suddenly started trembling. In the corner of his eye, the oatmeal started to turn into a bowl of black water!

Luoxi's eldest son rubbed his eyes, slowly moved closer to the plate, and carefully lifted the bowl of oatmeal.

That was not an illusion, nor was it the shadow of the weak flame. The oatmeal had turned black, like some thick ink.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.

Acrobatics troupe, clowns, tricks... was all this arranged by that person?

"Yorko said you were an ordinary acrobat. Is that true? How did you come to know His Majesty, Roland?"

"It was a coincidence. As to why His Majesty would choose me was probably because my acrobatic performance wasn't bad."

"Oh, can you demonstrate it?"

"Ok, I'll perform the simplest trick of the thief who spits ink."

Otto stared blankly at the oatmeal for a moment, and suddenly inserted his finger into the bowl! After groping around for a little while, at the tip of his finger, he could feel a rough touch.

"How... how did this happen? Why did the water suddenly change color?"

"It's not done yet. Look at this chiffon. Can you see there's nothing on it? Now I'm going to put it in the water to make it wet and then use the fire to dry it. Guess what will happen next?"

"There's nothing, right... uh, wait, that's... a word?"

"Can you see what's written?"

"Let me see, is this… your name?"

"You're right, Hill Fawkes is my name."

Otto gently pinched that rough item, and slowly pulled it out of the oatmeal—it looked almost transparent, and he couldn't tell if it was immersed in the oatmeal. The chiffon could only be felt with his fingers.

He held his breath, walked quickly to the candlestick, and spread it out a little.

The faint black water marks began to fade, while the candlelight started to waver.

"Hurry... hurry... hurry... hurry up." His heart was shouting anxiously. The swaying shadow seemed to come from all directions, and it was as if the black chiffon he held in his hands was the only light in the whole world.

At the moment the letter marks appeared, the candle went out.

Darkness then engulfed the entire dungeon.

Otto could not help but laugh heartily.

He pressed down on his trembling shoulders and stuffed the chiffon into his mouth. Then he crawled back to the railing and swallowed it with the oatmeal.

The warmth spread through his throat and stomach and filled his whole body with strength. However, compared to the oatmeal, it was his heart that felt warmest.

As he drank the oatmeal silently, a tear rolled down from the corner of his eye.

His determination was finally worth it.

There were only a few words on the chiffon. They were written with beautiful handwriting and gave him a nostalgic feeling for his childhood.

"Don't be afraid. I'm coming."

Chapter 936 - Close Combat

"What did you say?" The King of Dawn pushed away the dancer in his arms as he suddenly stood up.

The dancer, a beautiful woman with nothing more than a pink silk scarf wrapped around her half-covered body, fell to the ground. Though she was hurt badly, she did not dare to voice out her pain.

The rest of the servants, performers, and jugglers also lowered their heads in panic. The entire palace abruptly became silent.

"Your Majesty..." The Secretary of State gulped and said, "Your Prime Minister has rebelled."

"Are you sure he has truly rebelled and isn't just supporting those idiots on the outside?" Appen didn't know whether it was him who had misheard his minister or it was the fault of his staff blowing the news out of proportion.

Of course, he knew about the plans of those traitorous nobles—everyone who had returned alive from Hermes had witnessed the destruction of the king's personal knightage as well as his miserable escape. It would have been naive of him to expect them to remain loyal to the royal family.

Some amount of rebellion was only to be expected. Gathering support and forming alliances with the three major families in the royal capital would clearly be their first choice. Appen had long been wary about this, but he believed that, going by the characters of the three old veterans, they would most likely play by the rules and lie low behind closed doors. After all, the king's city was still in his hands, and any act of defiance was tantamount to suicide.

He did not expect that the first to cause a problem would be the Quinn family.

The collision with the smaller lords had already violated Appen's bottom line. Perhaps the old earl just wanted to leave a way out for himself or make a stand... But no matter what the reason was, punishment was absolutely inevitable for such an impertinent act. For example Otto Luoxi—Appen had already shown mercy by not killing his childhood friend on the spot.

But... what does 'rebelling' mean?

Earl Quinn is still in the City of Glow, and he has neither subjects nor soldiers here. Does he want to rebel with just his dozen or so guards alone? That would be ridiculous. How would he be able to rebel?

"The earl did contact the other nobles, but not in secret. He issued an invitation!" The minister wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "And he publicly invited all the nobles to his mansion to persuade them to support the Quinn family!"

Appen was stunned and almost unable to understand the news he had heard.

This move could indeed be perceived as a rebellion, but the way he did it was incredible!

Instead of asking for help from the nobles, he's asking them to support the Quinn family—does Horford really know what he's doing?

He had already become a dangerous vessel that could sink any time. How could he still think about getting the support of the nobility? This act was undoubtedly going to turn both sides into bitter enemies, and there was no way Moya could ever tolerate such a grave act of provocation. The sheer stupidity of the situation would only make those nobles look down on him.

But still, was the Prime Minister such an arrogant person in the past?

Appen brooded silently for a long time before finally saying, "Pass my orders down. Commander Duke Bachov is to lead the patrol team to the earl's residence, arrest Horford Quinn, and bring him in front of me." "Everyone else in his residence is to be temporarily locked up in custody. If anyone opposes him, he may kill them on the spot! I would like to see how the earl is going to explain this."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

After this news, he was no longer in the mood for seeking pleasure. He dismissed everyone in the hall and sat paralyzed on the throne.

He didn't really want to drown himself in pleasure, but once the surroundings became quiet his ears would echo once again with the roar of the sky thunder.

The war that ended more than a month ago had left a deep impression on him that he could never forget.

No... it was not a war, but a one-sided massacre.

His troops had no strength to fight back.

Whether it was the knights or the serfs, it made no difference when they were faced with the attack from Graycastle.

After he got back to the king's city, Appen found that he no longer had the courage to confront Roland—the failure on the battlefield caused him even more heartache than the death of his father.

What made things even worse was the fact he knew that the Moya family had effectively lost the entire Kingdom of Dawn. What was the fate of offending a powerful neighbor? There was no doubt that, sooner or later, the other party would annex the country that he inherited from his father, and there was nothing he could do about it!

When he ascended the throne, he was full of ambition and was bent on governing this kingdom well. He wanted the citizens to live a stable life, and no longer have to worry about witches, demonic beasts, or other foreign threats. But just a year after he took over, and he was already completely disillusioned and had lost interest in political affairs and commerce. He was just waiting for the enemy's army to attack and leave him hanging on the city wall.

As he thought about this point, Appen's hatred toward the king of Graycastle kept growing immensely, and he wanted to eat him alive!

If not for Roland Wimbledon, he would have left a mark in the pages of history as a famous leader of his generation!

All this was the latter's fault—Graycastle's new king had been bewitched by witches!

He slammed his palm on the armrest, and the burning fire in his heart had nowhere to be vented.

When Earl Quinn has been captured, I will make him have a taste of a king's anger!

However, in the afternoon, his newly appointed minister ran into the palace in a panic.

"Your Majesty, Sir Bachov is dead! The patrol... The whole army is gone!"

"What...!?" The King of Dawn grabbed his collar in shock. "Did they have traps set up in the mansion? Or did they hide in ambush?"

"Yes, they had hidden bodyguards," the minister quickly replied, "I saw it with my own eyes. At first, Bachov asked the earl to come out and barged directly into the house after being denied. But he was immediately killed by the earl's guards. Not only that, these guards also rushed out of the courtyard and ambushed the patrol team that was outside the mansion—they were like madmen. They had all kinds of weapons in their hands, including boning knives, wooden sticks, and even stone bricks... in less than half a minute, the platoon collapsed!"

"How many people did they have?"

"Probably... seven or eight."

"Bastard!" Appen struck the minister to the ground. "You call seven or eight people an ambush? In the City of Glow, even a businessman has a dozen guards. Have you been scared out of your wits!? The patrol team has about one or two hundred people. How can they be defeated by seven or eight guards? Even two hundred wild boars wouldn't fall so fast—don't tell me they can't even compare to pigs in the hunting grounds?"

"Your Majesty, those people... aren't human beings. They're monsters," the Minister cried out his grievances. "Most of the patrol team couldn't even block a single one of their blows. That wasn't the strength and speed of a man!"

Appen suddenly jerked up his head.

He seemed to have seen this type of scenario before.

That's right. He remembered now that his father's killers, the two Pure Witches from the church, had shown him the terrifying prowess of the God's Punishment Army.

Could... Earl Quinn be connected with the church?

An uncontrollable anger suddenly rose from his heart!

"Riseth!" Appen yelled.

A knight came in quickly from outside the hall and knelt on one knee. "Your majesty, what may I do for you?"

"Immediately summon all the mercenaries in the City of Glow and bring in the crossbows and fire arrows. I want you to burn Earl Quinn's residence to the ground!" He yelled, "I want them all to be burnt to ashes regardless of whether they are human beings or monsters!"

"But... that's the Inner City," the knight hesitated and said, "If it causes a big fire, I'm afraid it will be difficult to control it."

"Shut up and do what I say!" Appen growled hysterically, "If you don't burn him, you don't have to come back to see me!"

Even the God's Punishment Army, when faced with an opponent a hundred times their number and armored with crossbows, would not have a chance of victory. If they wanted to collude with the church, they would only be facing death!

...

The next day, the King of Dawn once again received news from the watchdogs that the entire mercenary group that had been prepared the night before had failed to even reach the earl's residence.

While passing through the Rising Sun Avenue, the mercenary team was attacked by an acrobatics troupe.

He had to make sure he hadn't misheard the minister's report.

An acrobatics troupe performing on the street suddenly attacked the mercenaries in the middle of their performance. The mercenaries caught off guard and suffered heavy losses. It seemed those actors fought the same way as Earl Quinn's guards.

But this time, the weapons in their hands were no longer random debris; they were wielding the daggers, iron hammers, and wooden shields that had belonged to the former patrol team

Chapter 937 - The Sting

In the next few days, the situation had changed so rapidly that it was beyond everyone's expectations.

People in the king's city had never thought that they would witness such a scene. The Quinn family, who had served the royal family of Moya for hundreds of years, publicly opposed Appen Moya.

This was not a secret conspiracy, nor a conflict of interest between noble families which civilians simply could not understand. Everything was on the table. The Prime Minister of the City of Glow stood in front of everyone and publicly declared his ideals and purpose, which was overthrowing the rule of the incompetent tyrant, and promising a bright future for the Kingdom of Dawn.

In his speech, the Earl exemplified the signs of the decline of the city and the tyranny of the new king for more than a year, and he used precise evidence to describe the inevitable fall of the Kingdom of Dawn. Since no noble ever told the people the principles and inside information of running the domain and the speaker was the Prime Minister who had served the king for over a decade, his act surprisingly caused a heated discussion. From the auction house of the Chamber of Commerce to the taverns on the Black Street, nearly everyone was talking about it.

"I have heard that hundreds of people starved to death in the slums last year. It turned out to be caused by the reduction of cultivated land in the outer cities."

"Actually, more people died in the outer cities. There is nothing wrong with His Majesty's decision to occupy the land for the expansion of the palace, but the Earl said that the amount of grain saved is gradually decreasing. What should we do?"

"No wonder the price of food is so much higher recently."

"I heard that the peasants in suburban towns were forced to serve in the army. Now that the army was defeated, few people are able to come back."

"Doesn't that mean that the food prices will be even higher?"

"Oh, I hope we won't starve during the Months of Demons this year."

"Well, do you want to support Earl Quinn? He has promised, if his promises hold, that there will be no need to worry about the food in the City of Glow and everyone will be able to get enough food in the future."

"Hey, I didn't say that!"

The speech of the Prime Minister quickly spread throughout the City of Glow through these discussions.

Quite a large portion of the people were doubtful about the contents of the propaganda and it was the conflict itself that drew their close attention to this issue.

How often could they witness the conflicts between the great nobles and the royal family of Moya?

For the general public, they usually only heard, from the tavern, the exaggerated and modified rumors or boast of the nobles. These days it was simply too exciting for them.

This was not a show of drama, but a real treason!

King Appen did not remain indifferent. He had ordered several groups of men to stop Earl Quinn, all of which ended in failure. Earl Quinn possessed advantages beyond imagination, and an incredibly powerful guard team became his solid shield, which not only defeated the king's team in spite of a numbers disadvantage, and expanded from a dozen to forty or fifty members.

What was more exciting was that the Earl explained his plan directly. He would move the frontier line 200 meters toward the Castle District every day until the King of Dawn gave up his throne or was forcibly removed off the throne.

In other words, the confrontation would come to an end in five days or so.

...

"Bang!" "Bang!"

Appen threw everything from the desk on to the carpet. The delicate room became a mess, but it could not quench his anger.

"Damn, damn! When did I occupy the farmland outside the city? Isn't it the problem which my father ordered him to investigate? How dare he blame me for the cause of uncivilized suburban villages and towns! It's Roland Wimbledon's fault!" He almost roared, "It was his witches who killed them, not me!"

"Your Majesty, please appease your anger..." The minister and Chief Knight said, "Now the most important thing is to stop the pace of Horford Quinn so you can dispel his arrogance. The nobles in the kingdom are waiting for your move!"

"I should have thrown them all into jail at the very beginning," Appen thought in anger and then asked, "How many people do we have now?"

"There are still 1,500 knights, lifeguards, and mercenaries in the palace. And if we use the maids and servants, then we have an additional 2,000 hands." The Chief Knight replied, "Outside the Castle District, the stone wall can block the enemy. Though it's not as thick as the city walls, they can stand on it and easily kill the enemy even without much training."

Originally, he intended not to show his hand until he dealt with other lords, especially since the palace lifeguards were nearly as strong as the knights and were equipped to teeth. He had begun to cultivate them before his father passed away, but now he had to use them in the defense of the palace.

"Bring the boxes in the vault and tell the servants that they can get a reward of 100 gold royals as long as they kill a monster!" Appen said, gnashing his teeth, "If they can stop the treason, I'll give them titles and domains! Or promote them it if they already have!"

"Yes!"

The God's Punishment Warriors of the church were not impervious to blades and spears, which he had confirmed from the Pure Witches. Even though the monsters were powerful, it was impossible for them to remove the entire stone wall by hand!

As for the fact that the monsters were increasing in number, it must be a trick played by Earl Quinn. He must have arranged for them to hide somewhere beforehand, and then disguised themselves as if he had more and more helpers.

No noble would believe that there were so many fierce warriors in the City of Glow and that they did not emerge until now. The stupid civilians might believe it, but their opinions had little effect on the situation.

"Has Horford gotten the support of other nobles yet?" Appen turned to the minister.

The latter immediately became embarrassed and replied, "Uh, well..."

"Speak!"

"It is rumored that 'Black Money' started to come into contact with Earl Quinn, but the specifics of the situation is still not known yet—"

"Those greedy wolves!" Appen clenched his fist and angrily said, "My father treated their underground kennel as part of the market. In my opinion, I should have confiscated their property much earlier!"

However, he also knew that he could do nothing but express his anger. The organizers of Black Money were all rich businessmen in the City of Glow, and their status was no lower than that of the great nobles. Moreover, a large amount of wealth accumulated by the Moya family came from those people.

"In addition, the Tokat family has openly supported the Quinn family," the minister swallowed and said. "But Your Majesty, please don't be too worried. I heard that the Luoxi family had rejected Horford Quinn's invitation several times. "

"These were the three families which my father was so proud of..." Appen sneered silently and thought, "Now two of them have become traitors, even faster than those minor nobles who are sitting on the fence. And the reason why the last family doesn't act is because Otto Luoxi is still in my hands."

But this might be his weapon.

"Send someone to tell Earl Luoxi that if he wants to prove his innocence, he must immediately bring his knights and squires to support the palace," said Appen coldly. "Otherwise... I will not show any mercy toward the rebellious family."

"It will be done!" The minister quickly replied.

Four hours later, the King of Dawn received a message that Earl Luoxi was willing to comply with his demands, which made his anger somewhat abate a little. He managed to mark a little comeback in the face of bad news.

Appen did not care too much about Luoxi's knights. Most importantly, he knew that the younger generation of the three families was close friends. He wondered whether they would still be line with the family when they knew one of them would die if they opposed to the king.

This was undoubtedly a stinger which they could not remove.

Soon, the deadline announced by Horford Quinn, the Prime Minister, arrived.

Chapter 938 - The First Shot

When dawn's light shed over the city walls and into the inner city of the king's city, it showed that everywhere in the city was crowded with curious people.

It had never been so busy and lively in the City of Glow.

This was different from the auction exhibitions which were only available for the rich tradesmen and nobles, this was a "carnival" for all the people in the city. They originally had no connection with the upper class. Even the knights, the lowest level of nobles, were superior in their eyes. However, they now had an opportunity to witness the changing of power at the highest levels. Especially when they followed Earl Quinn's team to move forward, they even had the illusion that they were also making the change.

Now, few people mentioned the word "treason"; instead, it was replaced by "fighting for the throne".

This battle would give a clear answer to who would be the ruler of the Kingdom of Dawn.

"It seems that in everyone's eyes, your reputation is extraordinary," said Hill Fawkes, who was riding a horse side by side with Earl Quinn. "I thought the public opinion won't change until you occupied the Castle District."

"That's probably because I have reorganized the patrol team and dealt with the domestic affairs of the country for half of my life," the old Earl said with a sigh, "Is this also what you gathered when you ran the circus?"

Although Hill Fawkes was just a civilian without any title and the status of an acrobatics troupe performer was even inferior to a freeman, Horford did not dare to despise him. According to what Andrea said, Hill was the real representative of the King of Graycastle, and he had a higher position than Yorko the Ambassador. After Yorko retreated, Hill did not leave; instead, he began to run several acrobatics troupes. This way, he hid his identity and scattered eyes and ears to every corner of the city. In the face of such a skilled man who was deeply trusted by Roland, he had to show his respect even though he was an Earl.

In addition, he also needed his help at the moment.

"The wishes of the civilians are very important, my lord." Hill nodded. "In the eyes of the great nobles, they may only be humble grains of sand or tax-offering lambs, but sometimes the sand will bury people and lambs can ruin the herdsman. If this occurs in Neverwinter, I think the result probably will be completely different."

"What will happen in your opinion?" Earl Tokat, who was riding on the other side of the Prime Minister, curiously asked.

"As long as there is such a sign, the people will already report the revolters to the City Hall before His Majesty does anything," Hill replied with a smile.

"Hill... Sir," Oro Tokat, Otto Luoxi's good friend, coughed and pointed to the team following them, "Did you summon the Rats following behind us?"

"I happen to have some connection with their chief," Hill frankly said, "so what do you think of it? This gathers much more momentum for us."

"That's right, " the old Earl thought, "After wearing the leather armors offered by Black Money, the team of over a thousand Rats looks quite plausible." Otherwise, his team would not be such a deterrence since there are only about 40 Extraordinary warriors, as well as the guards of Earl Tokat and his own. However, Rats were useless in other aspects. Moreover, as a great noble, he felt quite uncomfortable to march together with the Rats on Black Street.

In addition, the Rats were infamous for being double-crossers and asking for more than they should. Earl Quinn wondered what kind of deal Hill made with them.

"Don't you worry that they may rebel?" asked Oro, who apparently could not hide his feelings, "You know that they're not unfamiliar with betrayal."

"That also depends on what they can get," Hill turned to Earl Quinn, "I promised them the identity of freemen in your name. If you successfully become the King of Dawn, they'll be rid of the unstable life and become the citizens of the City of Glow under your protection."

Horford could not help frowning and said, "Although the Rats are indeed hated and despised by most people, the real reasons why they are degenerates are because of poverty and hunger, rather than the recognition of others. If this isn't changed, even though I can spare them of past crimes, the new identity is useless for them. They'll become Rats again sooner or later."

"Since these people are willing to take such a risk to get an identity, they're not stupid or lazy. Maybe they just lack an opportunity." Hill replied casually, "As for the cause of degeneration... Rest assured. When His Majesty's messengers come next time, you'll find that there are much more job opportunities than you expect, and you don't need to feed them... Because they'll feed themselves at that time."

The huge crowd walked through the market and entered Rising Sun Avenue. The wall of the Castle District was right before them.

Behind the stone wall was where the Moya family had lived for generations.

Looking at the palace and High Tower where the dawn shone, Horford suddenly became nervous. He had been the Prime Minister for over a decade and had experienced too many twists and turns. Except for the moments where he found that his daughter was a witch and Fenancy died of disease, he seldom felt so unease. Today, he stood at the threshold of a new field out of luck.

Even though the real ruler would be the King of Graycastle while he would be just a king in name, the Quinn family would reach the pinnacle of nobles, which was, to become the royal family of a country!

He had disobeyed the advice of his ancestors, but he also made it possible for his family to reach a new summit.

In such a complicated mood, the old Earl could not help asking, "Is it really okay.. to let my daughter participate in this battle?"

"Of course, you may not know, but Andrea is no longer the noble lady who couldn't leave without your protection. She's now an outstanding combat witch and she'll fire the first shot of the siege. "Hill smiled, "Please prepare your speech before the final attack. It's not to the Extraordinary warriors and Rats, but to the people who accompanied us here. Tell them that the new age of the Kingdom of Dawn is coming soon."

...

Andrea stood on the top floor of the belfry, observing the palace in the wind.

This was the only place in the inner city where she could overlook the stone wall of the royal palace, though it was about 600 meters away. From afar, it seemed that she could embrace the grand palace in a hug and the people in it were little ants.

For the Castle District, this was an absolute safe distance. Even a heavy catapult could not threaten the stone wall here.

From here, she would open a gap for the God's Punishment Witches in the battle.

Just then, she saw a red flame flying upwards over Rising Sun Avenue, which was a sign that indicated the start of the battle.

She took out the bolt rifle, which was specially made by Miss Anna, loaded the ten-bullet clip, opened the aiming lens, and raised the gun.

She saw a fully-armored knight.

Andrea took a deep breath and began to control the magic power in her body. It was a wonderful feeling. The magic power seemed to turn into a pair of gentle hands that lightly held her arms, elbows, and fingers. In such an embrace, she felt that she entered a mystical state, as tough as a rock and as light as a feather.

The former made the weapon in her hands undisturbed, while the latter made her become part of the wind, swaying gently with the breeze touching her cheeks. When the two combined into one, Andrea snapped the trigger—

With a great roar and heat, the high-speed revolving bullet flew out of the barrel and fell toward the stone wall!

Chapter 939 - Andrea the Marksman

Without bothering to check the result, Andrea pointed to the next target with the aiming lens.

The magic power consumed in precise shooting varied with the difficulty of the shooting. The more difficult the target was, the more magic power she had to consume.

That meant that her magic power, which could have been sufficient for arrow or stone shooting for two to four hours, would be exhausted in about eight minutes from shooting from such a long distance.

She had to shoot as many bullets as she could.

Her ability responded to her will.

Andrea felt that she was dancing rather than shooting. The adjustment of the gun, the rising and falling of her arm, and every movement of her body seemed to integrate with the world in harmony.

Shooting at every breath, Andrea soon used up ten bullets and immediately changed to a new clip. The whole process was as smooth as water and as proficient as a well-prepared performance.

However, it was not so easy for the people on the stone wall.

Death was flying to Appen's army within seconds, while they were completely unaware of it.

The knight who was commanding the mercenaries to adjust the crossbow machines became the first victim.

The shooting range of these crossbow machines was about 120 meters, and the cast-iron arrows would easily penetrate the large shields and armors of knights within 30 meters. This weapon could be described as the best weapon for defending the palace in terms of a normal attack.

In order to withstand the monster soldiers of extraordinary strength, Appen had ordered them to move all inventory from the warehouse on the wall. Eight crossbow machines were arranged on the wall segment that directly faced Rising Sun Avenue. Considering the limited width of the avenue, any invader, no matter how strong he was, could not hide from the intensive shooting of the iron crossbows.

The mercenaries heard a muffled sound and saw the knight who had been giving orders fall silently back onto the ground, with his chest sunk in.

"Someone is attacking!" A warning immediately came from the top of the wall.

They drew their swords but failed to find out where the attack came from.

Followed by the second and third attack—

Death raised his Scythe again and again. The guards constantly fell, while the enemy did not appear. An inexplicable fear overwhelmed them. Death was not surprising for these people who had been used to fighting all their life, but it was a different story when they could do nothing but wait for death.

Especially for a few mercenaries who were confident about their abilities.

They found that their increasingly proficient skills were useless as their opponent did not even give them a chance to counterattack. Clumsy servants or experienced knights were no different in the face of such an unexpected attack. They saw their enemies in the Hermes battle at least, while they were just waiting for the call of Death this time.

Less than a minute later, over twenty people were killed on the wall segment. Upon hearing the painful moaning of the wounded, most people were about to collapse.

"Look for cover. There is a witch!"

Just then, the order of the chief knight somewhat woke them up, "As long as we hide behind the battlements and big logs, we can avoid the attack! Bring out the God's Punishment Arrows and shoot toward any possible direction to force that damn witch out!"

Andrea also noticed the change on the stone wall.

A knight wearing golden-lined armor seemed to be commanding their actions. Those guards were moving closer to him and hiding behind various obstacles while shooting arrows without targets. Some of them even threw arrows by hands. Their purpose was obvious.

The actions of the enemy were not threatening to her at all. However, if she could not completely destroy the enemy, it would hinder the actions of the God's Punishment Witches in the siege.

The position of the commander was a blind zone for Andrea from the belfry. She could faintly see his arm, which was out of the battlement, and a small part of his helmet.

Usually, it was impossible for her to hit such a target; however, she had a different idea since watching the First Army's cannon show.

Andrea constantly drew the magic power to fill her arms. Pushed by the invisible hands, the gun in her hand continued to rise up until it pointed to the sky.

When the familiar feeling of harmony appeared again, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.

At that moment, Andrea felt that she saw the trajectory of the bullet. It was thrown high in the air but did not lose all speed after passing the apex. On the contrary, it dived toward the target with forward momentum. Although the distance between the two was about 600 meters, it had flown a longer distance in the air, so the time for this bullet was much longer than the previous ones she shot.

Then she lowered the barrel, aimed at the knight's helmet and fired. The second bullet arrived earlier and accurately hit the edge of the battlement. Bricks immediately splashed, and the deformed bullet spun to hit the upper part of the helmet and knocked it away. The huge impact made the knight lose his balance and fall forward, and exposed his soft neck.

At the same time, the first bullet arrived and, as expected, pierced into his skin from an angle, and fractured his cervical vertebra into several sections. The chief knight had no time to react. He just heard a muffled sound behind his head, felt the chill on his neck, and then lost consciousness.

This shot almost consumed all the rest magic power of Andrea. A strong sense of dizziness overwhelmed her and the consequence of excessive consumption made her hands tremble. She even had difficulty holding the butt of the gun.

Nevertheless, the fall of the chief knight also became the last straw for the mercenaries. The defensive line of the stone wall immediately collapsed. Everyone turned around and ran toward the stairs, lest they would become the next target of death. No one even paid any attention to the big logs, hot oil, and crossbow machines, which were seen by the God's Punishment Witches.

"Woo—————"

The horn for attacking was sounded.

Elena, who was in the siege team, rushed in first. In addition to carrying her commonly used tools, she brought a bundle of hemp rope in her hand.

Just as she approached the foot of the wall, she threw the rope. At the end of the rope, she had tightly tied a square-shaped hook.

A moment later, there were several "hanging cables" available for climbing the stone wall. The stone wall, which was about five meters high, was difficult for common people, but in the eyes of the God's Punishment Witches, it was a fence which they could directly climb over. Elena casually climbed to the top of the wall via the hemp rope only to find out the Castle District had been a mess.

The supervising and preparatory teams arranged by Appen did not play their roles. Just when the guards on the stone wall were defeated, the guards of Earl Luoxi suddenly drew their swords toward the guard team of the Kingdom of Dawn. The guards on the stone wall wanted to run away as soon as possible, so the three parties created chaos on the spot.

Elena raised her lips, took out the huge sword on her back, and leaped over the stone wall.

No one could withstand her frontal blows. As long as they were included in the range of the giant sword, the enemies were severely wounded or killed. By her power alone, she created a path in the crowd.

As the God's Punishment Witches joined the battlefield, Earl Quinn had the situation well in hand.

Chapter 940 - Fading Past

"Earl Luoxi! That damn traitor, how dare he —!" Appen, who was watching the battle from the top of the castle, furiously said, "I'm going to kill him and his son! Ministers, where are my ministers?"

"Your Majesty, Lord Kerlong said earlier that he was going to... handle some things," after a while, the chief guard hesitated to reply, "but I think... he may not be back."

"What did you say?" The King of Dawn turned suddenly and gasped at the latter.

"You agreed," said the chief guard hesitatively. "In addition to Lord Kerlong, Lord Wirant and 'Gold Hourglass' Neal also left. Your Majesty, everyone is gone but me."

It was only then that Appen noticed that only the chief guard and several servants were in the huge hall.

He instantly understood what the chief guard meant by saying "may not be back."

"Traitors!" He threw the scepter to the ground and said, gnashing his teeth, "Traitors, traitors... My reign is ruined by these traitors."

He consented to their departure indeed, but what were their reasons? One said that he was going to check the defense of the stone wall, another said that he was going to the inner court to supervise the maids preparing for war. Those were originally their duty, but they now turned out to be their excuses!

Were his ministers ready to flee before the enemy had launched their attack?

"Your Majesty, those cowards are bound to be punished in the end, but the immediate priority now is to withdraw from here as soon as possible!" The chief guard approached and said, "Those mercenaries won't win us much time. Even the imperial guards could not withstand the enemy for over an hour. It'll be too late then!"

"No, I want to see the traitors be punished!" Said Appen, pushing the chief guard away, "Go to the underground cell and bring the head of Otto Luoxi to me!"

"But…"

"This is your king's command!" He yelled at the top of his voice.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the chief guard took a step back and bowed.

After his only subordinate left, Appen felt that his fingers were slightly trembling, and his eyes seemed to swell and even his vision was covered by a layer of light red.

He slowly sat on his chair and stared at his hands, hoping to tear the traitors alive!

It was over.

When the mercenaries on the top of the city wall fled for no reason and gave up the stone wall, his failure had been assured. The rebellion of Earl Luoxi was insignificant. But he could not understand why Earl Luoxi would risk losing his eldest son to betray him. Why would Horford Quinn get the complete support of the other two families? He was unable to explain it. Though the three families in the City of Glow were seen as a whole, their respective interests were not exactly the same. In this challenge which might cost their lives, he could not figure out who would be trusted by them to such a degree.

Appen found that he did not know the city or the three families so deeply as he had thought.

In the end, he did not get the answer of the chief guard.

A team of warriors, whom he had never seen before, opened the hall door. Their weapons were still dripping blood, and their armor was also splashed with blood stains. However, there was no trace of exhaustion on their face. They were so relaxed, as if they had just gone through a street fight.

The chief guard declared that they could resist for an hour, but, in reality, they failed to even hold out for a quarter of an hour.

The rebellon had overwhelming superiority.

Then he saw the usurper, Horford Quinn, who had vowed to always support the Moya family.

In addition to Earl Quinn, two other traitors entered the hall together, along with their successors: Oro Tokat and Otto Luoxi.

When he saw the latter, Appen knew that the revenge he wanted had become impossible.

"Why is this—"

"Are you surprised as to why Otto is still alive?" Oro interrupted him, "It's not too hard to hide two warriors in the secret path of the palace, not to mention that the ordinary iron gates and fences could not stop their actions. As for how they got into the Castle District, you'd have to go to ask the guards. I don't think those guards, in their panic, may care much about the members of an acrobatics troupe ."

Appen's pupils suddenly shrank. "If that's not a bluff, does that mean that they could have entered my bedroom at any time?"

"Yes, just as what you think." Oro spread out his hands and said, "The King of Graycastle needed to create a tribute; otherwise, you would have already been beheaded by them. To be honest, I'm so disappointed in you, Your Majesty... I thought you imprisoned Otto just out of anger. I had never expected that you would use him to threaten Earl Luoxi and even intend to kill him." He sighed and continued to say, "I had thought... Even if we're not friends anymore, you would not forget the days when we were."

"You mean Roland Wimbledon? So that was all his doing?" Appen did not care about the second half of Oro's words, as "King of Graycastle" mentioned by Oro had attracted all his attention. He said,"Do you know what you're doing? You're helping a demon. You not only betrayed your ancestors' vows but also sacrifice your kingdom and subjects to him! You're foolish!"

He pointed angrily to Horford Quinn, "And you! Do you think you can really sit on this throne? In fact, you're just a puppet! Haven't you thought about it? Why did he start the mutiny? Why did he fight against me if he were not attempting to annex the Kingdom of Dawn? Don't forget, since these people can easily overthrow me today, they'll easily push you into the abyss one day!"

"You're wrong," suddenly a woman from outside said, "he did it for two reasons, to save Otto and to protect the witches."

"Absurd—" Appen was ready to scold her presumption and ignorance, but his voice was suddenly stuck in his throat, "You, you're..."

She seemed to be very weak and could not stand up without the help of others. Even so, her superior beauty could not be hidden. Her long blonde hair and vaguely familiar face reminded him of a person who only existed in his memory.

"Andrea Quinn," her reply confirmed his guess. "It's been a long time since we met, Appen."

For a second, all the questions in his mind were answered. The reason why the Tokats supported Earl Quinn and why Earl Luoxi took risks— indeed, there was one person who could gain the trust of both families at the same time. That was because both of their children had been in love with her.

The anger in his heart was quenched and replaced by desperation all of a sudden. He murmured for a moment and finally asked, "Why?"

Why did you finally choose them and not me?

If I'm doomed to be defeated by Roland Wimbledon, why did you also betray me? I can give you more than he does. If it were not for that accident, you would have ruled the kingdom with me.

Andrea seemed to read his mind and replied, "Because I'm a witch, Appen. A Fallen who deserves to be killed in your mind."

Chapter 941 - Baring his Soul

Appen suddenly froze.

In other words, that accident years ago was a lie specifically set up by Earl Quinn to cover up the fact that his daughter became a witch?

Andrea was a demonic Fallen one all along...

He never knew...

But the fact remained that the ones who murdered his father and brought destruction to his kingdom were indeed witches. If it weren't for their unimaginable abilities, the current situation would be totally different.

His wish to avenge his father... was it wrong?

The two thoughts were colliding in Appen's mind, bringing him an unbearable headache.

"Your rule ends now." Earl Quinn came forward. "No matter what, the Kingdom of Dawn must not continue to act according to your will. The witches will get their deserved recognition and obtain the same status and rights as the common people. They will be able to walk the streets freely, hold official positions, claim inheritances from their families, and even govern this kingdom." He paused for a moment and looked at Andrea. "As for you—"

"What, do you intend to kill a member of the royal family?" Appen glared at him with a ferocious scowl. "Did you forget your oath to your ancestors? Did you forget my family name?! Answer me, Horford Quinn!"

His sharp questioning made everyone who was present retreat a step in fear—except for Andrea and the God's Punishment Witches.

"I am a direct descendant of the royal house of Moya and the one and only heir! Even if I am no longer a king, you will carry the title of Kingslayer from now on!" he shouted, "The order of the Kingdom of Dawn will be destroyed by you and the great noble families will never trust you again!"

"I won't kill you," Horford sighed, "If my family wasn't at stake, I would have never chosen to act like this. But you need to swear to leave the Kingdom of Dawn forever and never come back. This way, you can take whoever you want with you and leave the king's city. The only alternative is that I imprison you in the castle's dungeon, just like what you did to the eldest son of the Luoxi family."

"Is this decision supported by all three big families?"

"The Tokat family doesn't have any objections." Earl Tokat touched his chest.

"The Luoxi family agrees as well." Earl Luoxi continued.

"We aren't as cold-hearted as you," Oro Tokat said, "Fortunately, your order was one step too late, or else..."

"Enough," Otto interrupted him, "Say no more."

"Such a group of considerate people. But when faced with the huge differences in power, how long will you be able to sustain such a ridiculous friendship?" Appen gazed at the nobles in the hall coldly and thought for a long time before saying, "I choose the first option."

He could not let himself be imprisoned in a place where he might never see daylight again. As long as he was alive, he would always be a member of the royalty of the Kingdom of Dawn. Whether it was the Kingdom of Wolfheart or the Kingdom of Everwinter, he would still be treated according to his status. Leaving was preferable to being held in a cage. And it was impossible to guarantee that neither Horford Quinn nor the King of Graycastle would ever make a mistake. So once a dispute eventually arose, the nobles from the other territories would definitely remember his existence.

"Then... please take an oath." Earl Quinn nodded.

Once Appen Moya finished his oath in the name of the ancestors, the matter was finally resolved. But only Andrea noticed that when the guards escorted the King of Dawn out of the hall, Elena, who was supporting her, had a cold smile on her face.

While leaving the castle, Otto suddenly called Andrea from behind, "Andr... Miss Quinn...thank you for saving my life. Mister Hill told me in general about what happened in Neverwinter City."

She smiled and asked, "Why are you being so formal with your savior and once childhood friend?"

"No... I'm just—" Otto was struck speechless for a moment, his eyes revealing a somewhat happy expression.

"Then call her big sister!" Oro came forward and grabbed his neck. "Don't forget who the leader among the four of us was back then, unless of course, you want to take her position!"

"Oro!" Otto struck the latter's chest with his elbow.

"Ahem, fine, I'm just joking around because you were too tense..." Oro acted as if he was hurt. "It's been so long since we last met. Today, the Flower of Glow is back with us, we must have a good gathering tonight. How about at our usual old place?"

"The Silver Antler Tavern?" Andrea raised her eyebrows. "That place still exists?"

"It is, after all, a Luoxi family business. It won't close so easily. The manager is quite incapable though."

"Hey—"

"I don't have a problem."

"Then it's decided. I'll leave you two alone for now. I have somewhere to be." Oro waved.

"An, Andrea..." Otto took a deep breath. "I want to talk to you in private."

Even though he didn't know why his old friend was willing to let go of such a chance to catch up with Andrea, for him this was an extremely rare opportunity.

He did not want to borrow Oro's words anymore to tell her that he had missed her. And he could feel the difference in Andrea's attitude from the time they met in Neverwinter city. Even though it seemed like she was still in conflict with her identity as a lady of the Quinn family, at least she did not treat her childhood friends as strangers. This was obvious from the way she had smiled before.

"..." Andrea thought for a moment and then nodded. "Let's go to the courtyard."

Otto felt his heart suddenly beating faster.

The person supporting her did not follow them, so the two of them, one behind another, walked into the courtyard.

"Are... are you alright?" Looking at the witch's back, which was shaking as she was walking, Otto wanted to but did not dare to help her. These kinds of gestures had been so common back when they were children.

"This is just a side-effect of excessive use of magic power, it's not really harmful to the body. Actually, we all have to go through this in order to improve our magic capacity. I'll be back to normal in two days so don't worry," Andrea said while shrugging her arms, "It's just the two of us now, what would you like to talk about?"

Otto bit his lips. "Do you still remember what I told you in Neverwinter city? That Oro would go to your grave every year and leave flowers..."

"I remember."

"In fact, there's one more thing that I didn't tell you..." He took a deep breath. "I also did the same every year—because I couldn't forget you. Back at the dungeon, when I heard you saying 'I am here', I almost can't describe the feeling of joy that I felt in my heart. At that moment, I decided that no matter what, I have to say this to you. Andrea, can you stay here?"

Andrea didn't seem surprised. She only smiled and said, "Thank you, but you are too late."

"What do you mean by too late..."

"I already have someone I want to always stay beside, so... I won't be staying in the City of Glow." She replied seriously in a soft and quick manner, "If you had asked me ten years ago, maybe I would have agreed."

Otto's heart sank. "Is it His Majesty Roland? If you mean him, then he's definitely a better choice than me..."

"I would never compete against Nightingale," Andrea interrupted him, "I am her most trusted ally."

"Huh?"

"Um, no, nevermind..." She coughed twice. "Well, it's not what you think. Otto, witches can't continue the family bloodline and in fact, I don't want to be restricted by the rules of nobility. Ten years is a long time. I'm no longer the Flower of Glow that you used to know. It's better like this, do you understand?"

Otto opened his mouth and was about to say "I'm willing to give up everything about the nobility", but there was an invisible force that stopped him before he could.

He was also not a capricious child anymore, who could just avoid taking any responsibilities.

It would be the greatest disappointment for his father and sister Belinda.

In the end, Otto could only watch as Andrea's back disappeared through the courtyard's entrance.

Chapter 942 - Only A Mortal

Two days later.

Palace of the City of Glow.

"You're leaving today? Can't you stay here a little longer?" Horford Quinn, with mixed feelings in his heart, looked at Andrea, who had come to bid him farewell. "Otto and the others must also want to spend a bit more time with you."

"It's been a long time since I left Neverwinter city, and there are people waiting for me there," Andrea said frankly. "Today is the day that the old regime of the Kingdom of Dawn will be replaced by the new one. Considering their identity as their families' heirs, they shouldn't be wasting time on banquets and games. Since we are friends, meeting once is enough already."

"She has indeed changed," Earl thought to himself.

She has matured.

"About the subsequent negotiations with Graycastle... Do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't know much about government affairs—in Neverwinter city, the ones who are responsible for them aren't the nobles but rather freemen, after passing some kind of examination. If you want to know more details, you'd better talk to Hill Fawkes. He has always been in contact with the Western Region." Andrea paused for a moment. "If you want my advice, don't make the same mistake as Appen."

Horford revealed a wry smile. "Continuing to resist Graycastle even after personally experiencing the power that Roland Wimbledon possesses, that would be quite stupid."

"It's not only about that..." Andrea shook her head. "The upcoming Battle of Divine Will concerns the fate of all of humanity, so any infighting between us would only accelerate our destruction—no matter whether it's Graycastle or the Kingdom of Dawn, none of us can survive alone in this upcoming calamity. So you have to keep in mind what will be more beneficial for our families."

"It's in our best interests to survive." Horford quickly understood the meaning of his daughter's words.

"As for our hope to survive, it now lies entirely with His Majesty Roland." She waved her hands and said, "So maintain order in the Kingdom of Dawn and cooperate together with Graycastle to get through the Battle of Divine Will. That is my only advice."

Earl Quinn nodded slowly. "...I understand."

Just as Andrea turned around, he stopped her once again.

"I..."

"You don't need to see me off, there are still many things you have to do today. And you don't need to worry about my safety, the God's Punishment Witches will be coming back with me to Neverwinter," she said without turning around.

"No, I wanted to say... I'm sorry, my dear daughter." When he said those words, Horford suddenly felt a lot older, but his heart felt like it was relieved of a great burden. In fact, he had so much more to say. Such as how sending her away at that time was indeed for the sake of the family but it was also to protect her. Or how much he regretted not discussing that issue with his wife. If he had a chance to choose again, he probably wouldn't have acted as harshly as he had. And finally, how happy he felt when he found out from Otto that she still alive and well...

However, Earl Quinn understood that the damage was already done. No matter what he said now, it would only sound like an excuse, nothing more than made-up words. This was the price of his decision. Andrea had now become so mature, he couldn't act too badly in front of her.

Without saying anything else, the old earl closed his eyes.

"Well... I'll be going then."

His daughter's steps slowly faded away and finally disappeared from his ears. Though he did not hear the word 'Father' that he yearned so much for, at the same time, he could feel that her attitude was not as cold as before. At least, she no longer addressed him as Lord Earl.

This was acceptable too, he thought. After all, this is just a temporary goodbye. They would have the chance to meet again in the future.

Time heals all wounds.

His decision ten years ago had made him lose so much.

But Horford Quinn was determined to use the same amount of time to redeem himself.

***************

Leaving Whitewave Bay, the ship entered the sea.

Appen put down the map in his hands and looked out from the porthole.

This route was one of the main commercial routes to the Wavelight Port of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. From time to time, one could see merchant ships coming and going. Occasionally, some fishermen's boats would approach them trying to sell some fresh fish and vegetables.

If he was still the king, the ships sailing around him should have been three-masted galleons flying the imperial flags, and if he wished to eat some fresh food, he would be naturally served by his maids.

Those damn traitors were to blame for everything!

It had been a week since he was brought down from his throne. During this time, he could not stop thinking about the day of his fateful return. Even if he couldn't do anything to the King of Graycastle, he would never let the three big families enjoy his city and the fruits of their rebellion.

After careful consideration, Appen finally chose his first destination—the Thousand Blade Fort of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. That place was right next to the borders of the Kingdom of Dawn, and it was rumored that its Lord had blood relations with the nobility of the Kingdom of Dawn. So he would not be too harsh on the Moya family. But most importantly, due to the close relations between the nobles residing in both the kingdoms, if his identity was ever to be needed, then they would be able to easily contact him.

Those Lords were always conspiring against each other, but at the end of the day, everyone only cared for their own benefits. Since he was no longer the ruler of the City of Glow, their interests would not be in conflict.

Furthermore, his lineage could actually come in handy for achieving their new interests.

For the sake of revenge, Appen decided to suppress his feelings of chagrin for now. When the time was right, he would make everyone who underestimated him pay dearly!

Thinking about that, he started to cheer up. At the same time, he felt a sense of hunger.

It would be nice to have some fruits now as the ships on this route would become more scarce as they left the Kingdom of Dawn's coasts. He had just heard the sound of a fishing boat docking with his boat.

Appen shook the thin string on his table, which was connected to a bell outside. Whenever it rang, the maid would have to come in.

Yet, there was no response from the outside this time.

His eyebrows were instantly raised.

He could not believe that he had fallen so low that even his maid would dare to be lazy. He felt the urge to murder someone rising.

Fine, because of her negligence she could serve as an example. Among his group of followers, other than the Moya family members and his loyal knights, the rest of them really needed to be taught a lesson.

He had to let them know that even on a ship, as long they were in his presence, they had to act like they were in the palace.

Appen exited the room but found no one outside. Not only the maids but even the sailors, his guards, the slaves... nobody was left. The cabin was strangely silent, and the only thing that could be heard were the waves crashing against the ship.

He suddenly felt a cold sweat running down his spine.

Something was wrong!

Was he abandoned? No... that was impossible. Even if the mercenaries and the servants wanted to leave, his loyal knights that were trained by his family would have definitely stopped them. Not to mention there should have been at least some noise due to a dispute!

Appen decided to climb out of the hold onto to the deck to have a look. There should still be some sailors there no matter what. Just as he was about to turn around, he saw a bloodstained dagger being pointed at his neck.

The one holding the dagger was an extremely ugly woman, but with eyes as bright as stars.

Appen instantly realized that she did not belong to the ship crew. He would have noticed a person with such distinguishing features.

She must be an intruder!

"Who sent you? Do you know what are you doing, lowlife? I am the King of Dawn, the Moya family's—"

His voice suddenly stopped.

He realized he could no longer breathe through his throat, it was clogged by the gushing blood. A striking pain starting from his neck spread down his chest and a coldness swept through his body, taking away all of his strength.

As he fell down, he only heard a whisper above his head.

"Well, you are only a mortal after all."

Chapter 943 - The Spread Blackflame

"All clear?"

While looking at Zooey, who was walking down the deck, Elena asked.

"Yes, it took some time." Zooey wiped the fresh blood on her face. "Luckily it's all cleared now."

"What are we going to do next?" Betty asked, shrugging, "Write a report to His Majesty, Roland?"

"Leave it to Elena. I'm not good at summarizing. After all, His Majesty didn't take it very seriously. He only told us to maintain the stability of the situation with whatever necessary means. Just write Appen as a man who resisted change and was full of evil intentions. Such a person is better off dead."

"That's the truth," Betty said as if she thought this over already. "If he had no evil intentions, why would he choose a border town nearest to the Kingdom of Dawn?"

"His Majesty may not take it seriously, but we can't do the same." Elena cleared her throat. "I'll lay out all the details about the cause and effect, and the analysis basis, including what you just said—just like a record of a meeting in the City Hall."

"I bet you just want to get His Majesty's compliment to win a few more visits to his Dream World." Zooey rolled her eyes and said.

"Wha-what did you say!"

"Really? Why didn't I think of that..." Betty looked at Elena with excitement. "Can you teach me how to write an official report?"

"Um... let's see." Elena coughed drily. "Let's get the work done first."

"Right." Zooey put away her mocking look. "But don't put what we've just said in your report."

"I know." Elena looked at the other end of the deck and waved at a few men in black robes. "Come here."

The lead man, supported by another two men by their hands, walked to the witches and bowed. "Lady Oracle, what can I do for you?"

"Since you were willing to follow me here, it means you're fully prepared, right?" Elena asked seriously.

The old man was none other than the founder of "Black Money," the legendary merchant of City of Glow, Banach Lothar. Although the God's Punishment Witches were incomparable in terms of combat capacity, they still needed the assistance of common people in such a matter as intercepting Appen on the sea and making sure his death could not be traced back to Graycastle.

To a common person, regicide was an unimaginable crime, especially when it was to terminate the whole royal bloodline. Ridiculous as it was, even wealth, no matter how enormous it was, was no match for such worship of descent, which was shown from Banach's shivering shoulders. Nevertheless, he still managed to make a move, indicating his ambition abundantly clear.

"Yes... I'm willing to serve you."

"Take it easy." Elena patted his shoulder with satisfaction. "In the deities' eyes, the identities of common people are meaningless. What's the big deal about a king? It's nothing but a title. Tell me, what do you plan to do next?"

Banach eased up a bit. "Among the three plans, I'm in favor of the first. I think to disguise it as a shipwreck is the safest method. Each year, along this route, dozens of ships sink for various reasons like a rainstorm, tsunami, stranding, etc. What's more, on the sea along the borderline, there'll be a rainstorm two days later. We only need to drive the ship further into the sea and dig a hole in its bottom. Nobody will know what exactly happened."

He gasped and added, "As for disguising it as a pirate robbery or noble's revenge, I think they aren't unreasonable. Although we could divert people's suspicion to certain targets, false facts won't hold under intense investigation after all. Even if people fail to find any trace, those nobles could just produce some flaws by themselves."

"So for the shipwreck, you can make all the clues vanish?" Zooey asked coldly.

"Yes, my Lady," Banach said with a determination. "Even the sailors I brought with me will disappear with the ship. They are the silent warriors raised by Black Money to clean things up. There is no way the information will leak out."

"Silent warriors?" Elena looked at the two servants beside him. "Are those two among them?"

"Yes. They can't hear, nor speak, and need to be given specific gestures to be commanded. That's why they're called silent warriors."

"They must have paid a hell of a price..." Elena knew how troublesome it was to train a deaf-mute into a warrior. At best, the success rate was only one out of ten, given that the trainees were actually in fairly good conditions. But how did an underground Chamber of Commerce find so many well-conditioned deaf-mutes? They probably chose well-conditioned men then turned them into deaf-mutes with medicine.

Of course, she did not care how common people treated other common people. Even in the era of the Union, they had never stopped bullying people weaker than them.

"This time I took 50 silent warriors with me, who take orders from nobody but me. They're more than enough to take care of those sailors. So this plan is perfectly safe." Banach said while bowing.

"Alright, just do it." Elena looked at Zooey and Betty. "But I have one more thing for you to do."

The old businessman swallowed his own saliva. "As long as it's in my ability, I'll spare no effort."

If it were only to create an "accident", she did not have to conceal it from His Majesty Roland, but the following order was not from Roland but Pasha.

"It's simple. 'Black Money' has made contact with the new King of the Kingdom of Dawn, Horford Quinn. On the one hand, the Chamber of Commerce will continue to appear supporting him, on the other hand, you need to input as many as informants as you can into his new regime to observe the Quinn Family's acts and moves. Do you understand?"

"But... isn't he the puppet supported by you?" Banach asked confusedly.

"Just in case. After all, common people have a short and fragile determination. When the real challenge comes, who can guarantee the puppet will behave as loyal as he should?" Elena paused. "Besides, it's not reliable to rely on one family to manage the Kingdom of Dawn. I hope your 'Black Money' can be a part of it."

If a person had always yearned for power, he would be extremely exhilarated at such a hint, yet Banach did not show much of joy. He asked worriedly, "This is a long-term plan and I'm able to do this, but, as you know, my physical condition..."

Elena took out two bottles from behind her and handed them over to the old man. "Take them. Drink them when you don't feel well. But remember, don't drink them within the month of each other. With another six bottles of this, your body will meet the basic criteria for modification."

Excitement filled with Banach's eyes. He anxiously took over the bottles and put them into his pockets carefully. Deeply bowing, he said in excitement, "I guarantee the success of the mission!"

"Work hard. When it's done, we'll turn you into an immortal." Elena said softly.

Chapter 944 - The New Witch Group Part I

Roland felt relieved while he received the message that the rescue mission had succeeded.

Although they failed to take control of the Kingdom of Dawn as a conqueror, after a little deviation from their original plan, the neighboring country at least overthrew the Moya Family's rule and basically maintained stability. Before the Quinn Family could thoroughly gain a firm foothold, it would remain Graycastle's most faithful ally.

Besides, Andrea was also in Neverwinter. If everything went smoothly, the alliance with the Kingdom of Dawn could at least last until the next generation.

Roland did not believe the third Battle of Divine Will would last for a century.

Andrea, along with the other God's Punishment Witches in the expedition, was estimated to return to the Western Region in about a month. Roland intended to make use of this time to make a sound plan for Graycastle's future development.

After all, with the destruction of Timothy's remnants, the counterforce had temporarily disappeared and the kingdom was integrated in name. Although it would take some time before the secondary City Halls in the various cities to take effect and make Graycastle a highly efficient authoritarian country, he could already start to prepare for it. When the time came, the strength of Graycastle would enjoy an unprecedented leap, lifting it to a whole different level from the other three countries.

The key point in his development plan was to put the witches' abilities into full play.

After all, they were the reason for Neverwinter's high productivity.

Within half a month after Anna's return, the city had enjoyed a series of changes, with the most prominent ones happening in the castle. His mahogany desk was double its former size; on the desk were over 10 wind-up telephones connecting with the Witch Building office, the City Hall, the barracks, the Third Border City, Longsong Stronghold, and so on. In case of emergencies, the guards did not have to run to deliver messages anymore.

Furthermore, the first public telephone appeared in the central square, connecting the city with Misty Forest. It extended with the building of railways and satisfied the workers' demand to communicate with their families as they could not meet face to face over a long period of time.

Of course, the fare for using this telephone was time-based, and the number of people to use it was limited and application must be made in advance. If one found it pricey, one could choose to use carrier pigeons or railways to deliver their messages. Thanks to the popularization of preliminary education, text-based communication in Neverwinter had become increasingly popular.

In charge of the operation of these systems was the Ministry of Communications, a newly established department in the City Hall.

Its work covered every link of the delivery process, from taking care of carrier pigeons to providing home delivery, as a result, its subdivisions instantly grew to a colossal size which was only second to the Ministry of Construction. It offered about a thousand jobs and almost all the newly graduated Neverwinter civilians were taken in.

Through this department, Roland could vaguely see the silhouette of a future large group.

That was merely the result of Anna's own ability.

After solving the problem of demon's attack, Roland put most of his efforts on the statistics work of the witches' abilities from Sleeping Island.

With the arrival of the second batch of migrants, 96 witches had joined the Sleeping Spell. To test their abilities alone was stressful enough for Wendy and Scroll. Besides, not all witches were cooperative, which made the first step of data collecting quite difficult. Luckily, with Tilly's prestige and Wendy's conciliation, the registration work was more or less finished smoothly.

The black notebook in front of Roland was the result of the preliminary examinations of all the witches' abilities.

He had read it over and over in the past few days and figured out the uses of most of the witches' abilities.

Now he felt that the former way of classifying the witches' abilities as intensifying, summoning, and attaching magic type was too rough and unfit for expressing their usages directly. Hence, he reclassified the witches by their work assignments. For example, witches good at processing were classified as manufacturing type; witches who were pro animals were classified as the cultivating type; witches whose abilities had not found a usage were put under the type of undetermined. Thus the City Hall could clearly see the number of witches which could be employed for production work.

Besides, this batch of witches had shown Roland how drastically different their abilities could be.

Although they were all Awakeneds, some of them could make flowers bloom from a crack in a stone and some could create big and tall Magic Servants. It was no wonder the Union could not withstand a long term war, because if a combat witch died, it would take years before the role she played could be replaced.

Obviously, the most reliable arrangement for a witch was to put her in a factory.

Among the list of nearly 100 witches, Roland put special emphasis on four of them.

They were No. 26 Darkcloud, No. 43 Azima, No. 44 Doris, and No. 89 Slimwrist.

Darkcloud's ability was to dye. She could dye any object she laid her hands on into any color she wanted it to be, without changing its original nature.

Theoretically, it was an ability of attaching magic. Its effective time was limited, its consumption was closely related to the target's size, and its effect was free from the influence of God's Stone of Retaliation. But Darkcloud's dyeing ability was so powerful that its effective time was strikingly long. This was probably because the change of color barely affected the object and she only needed to use a little bit of magic power for the dyeing effect to last for years. In other words, if Darkcloud exhausted her magic power, the dyeing effect could last for a century.

But the size of the object still mattered. She could not, like what Hummingbird did, release her ability in an instant and reduce its effective time, so if she ran into a large object beyond the upper limit of her magic power, her ability would not take effect. Things like changing color of the sea in one breath would be impossible for her.

In fact, according to Wendy's test, Darkcloud could affect an area with the length and width of two arms-length, roughly 1.5 square meters.

To Roland, such an area was big enough.

After all, an object could be divided and combined.

In a manner of speaking, Darkcloud's ability filled in a gap in Neverwinter—the dyeing technology. In the current era, the dyeing method mainly depended on extracting colors from nature, which in later ages would be a big selling point. But the truth was the performance of colors extracted from nature was terrible—too many impurities, fading easily, poor oxidation resistance, and too few varieties. As a result, only nobles could afford colorful clothes, and the colors mostly came from embedded gold and silver threads.

Dyes had a broad usage. Apart from the traditional textile industry, other areas like education, printing, chemical, and biology all needed them. To some extent, Darkcloud could reduce the burden on Soraya's shoulders, which basically made her a great jack of all trades.

But witches No.43 and No.44 gave Roland a headache.

Azima and Doris were the kind of witches, according to Wendy, who were unwilling to cooperate. In the initial meeting, they had expressed their dissatisfaction about Tilly and wished to leave Neverwinter as soon as possible. Although this plan was temporarily put off by Scroll, the crack still existed. Whether the two wanted to be recruited and devoted to work remained unknown.

Unfortunately, their abilities were very peculiar—Azima's ability was "Source Tracing", although unique, yet not irreplaceable. But Doris's ability of "demonification" enabled Roland to see the possibility of using magic power on a large scale.

Chapter 945 - The New Witch Group Part II

Simply speaking, Azima's ability could trace an entire object through a piece of it, or through a microelement to trace its concentrated spot.

Undoubtedly, for a Sleeping Island witch, this was a type of survival ability. For example, holding a drop of fresh water, Azima could find a creek or a lake; or judging from the kernel of a fruit from an animal's feces, she could estimate the fruit tree's location and size.

Due to the contribution her ability made to the team, quite a few Eastern Region witches gathered together under her leadership and made a tight group out of themselves.

In Roland's eyes, Source Tracing was undoubtedly the best way for discovering natural resources, whose general purposes were even broader than Sylvie's Eye of Magic.

The logic was simple. When Sylvie looked through the ground, her magic power consumption would drastically increase and her perception of distance would greatly decrease. She was totally qualified for marking ore beds in the North Slope Mine area, but perceiving mineral veins deeply buried was beyond her ability. Even for resources in superficial layers, she could barely tell their category or scale. She could only tell something was underground, but not what it was.

Roland did not worry about Azima in this aspect. She could not only know a single resource's exact location, but also its reserve. If her ability could be combined with Lucia's ability of purification, Roland might be able to mark the entire periodic table of elements on the map of Graycastle.

When Roland learned geology, what impressed him the most was a colorful national map marked with resources. Now that Graycastle had united under his banner, he should aim at broadening his raw material sources to the entire country, or even to the Kingdom of Dawn, the Fertile Plains, etc.

Even if Azima was unwilling to help, it was not disastrous to Neverwinter. After all, the resources were not going anywhere. Given enough time, he could eventually succeed in his goal.

Yet Doris's enchantment ability was not the same.

Since he lacked good observing methods, Roland's research on magic power did not have a good start, which left the witches as his only source to harness magic powers.

Enchantment was an incredible ability.

In her notebook, Wendy described as the ability attach magic power to a dead object to recycle, thus greatly slowing down the object's exhaustion process and makes it look lifelike.

Roland had reservations about her ability description. He knew it was only the witches' customary expression that a dead object could not have magic power. Under most circumstances, this rule applied, with only one exception—the God's Stone of Retaliation.

The joint experiment carried out by Isabella and Agatha showed that God's Stone did have magic power, or... it at least had the ability to attract magic power, which was originally exclusive to the Awakened. When Isabella smoothed the area under the disturbance of a God's Stone, she could see extremely tiny magic power residues on its surface, although for only a few seconds. Throughout the entire process, no third party had injected more magic power into it, so those magic power residues must belong to the God's Stone itself.

In another word, unlike what he had expected, the God's Stone of Retaliation did not have high-density magic power which could disable other magic powers. But it did have magic power, only the amount was very little. As to how it isolated the effects of magic powers was to be discovered. One thing he could be sure of was that "magic power was incompatible with dead objects" was not entirely true.

Considering a God's Stone could soon become a common stone after Isabella's adjustment, Agatha made a bold speculation: The magic power of the God's Stone of Retaliation would keep on running out, but it would also constantly absorb new magic powers as a living entity did, which formed a magic power circulation. Just like sand on a beach, which absorbed heat from sunlight and raised its temperature during the day and released the heat at night. This could explain why Isabella could completely alter the nature of a God's Stone without interfering with its structure.

Agatha also believed that Isabella "killed" the God's Stone.

Wendy's description was obviously made based on Agatha's conclusion.

Roland did not mind it. He still believed that the mineral vein of God's Stones was indeed dead objects. Whether an object could take in or push out magic power was not connected with whether it was dead or alive. The reason that they could not explain its working theory was that they knew too little, much like before the invention of the microscope, mankind knew nothing about the microworld.

In his eyes, enchantment was, in a manner of speaking, a kind of "conversion to God's Stone".

Of course, disregarding the theory, this ability was undoubtedly effective. According to the tests, it could take effects on targets as Magic Stones, Sigils, objects of enchantment, etc. Magic powers injected into them could be supplemented by itself, and create a circulation.

For instance, when Dawn I was fully injected with magic power, it could generate electricity for five consecutive days, but when Mystery Moon held Broken Sword, Dawn I's working time could be prolonged by 10 more days. No matter what, the magic power injected in the bronze stick was constantly running away and would not stay forever in an enchanted object.

That meant even if Mystery Moon's magic power could reach the same level as Anna's, it could only sustain a few more Dawn I at the same time. It could barely satisfy the needs for the factory's illumination and the equipment's operation, let alone be put to use on a larger scale.

And a Dawn I enchanted by Doris could absorb the ubiquitous magic powers to compensate for its magic power consumption, therefore keeping the magnetic poles working. Although its loss and gain of magic power were not entirely equal, the improvement was still astonishing for a short-term enchantment.

It meant Mystery Moon could be relieved from the maintenance work of energy charging and become an energy manufacturer.

It also meant that, besides the factories, many other places could get stable electricity supply.

At the same time, many enchantment abilities, which were originally of little value, would gain purpose.

Additionally, Agatha and Isabella could get a pile of test targets similar to God's Stones, which would greatly help their research on magic power.

As for the issues with enchantments, such as taking too long to take effect, low efficiency, magic power circulation could be broken off by God's Stones, etc, were nothing compared to the ability itself.

So no matter what, Roland needed to keep such a witch.

After thinking it over, he felt the only strategy that could work was the sugarcoated-bullet.

—after all, in the art of tempting people, he had found no one who could do better than himself.

As for the last witch, No.89 Slimwrist, she was just like her name.

She was the daughter of a jeweler and was born to be good at carving. She not only had slim wrists but also flexible fingers which enabled her to carve complex patterns. After her awakening, her gift was greatly improved. Not only could she carve much faster, but could also carve on anything.

On first glance, Anna could easily do that with her Blackfire, but she was a genius who had gone through two revolutions. Even in the Union, she was among the top Senior Witches, a completely different level than Slimwrist.

What Roland liked about Slimwrist was that she could take some workload off of Anna. Besides, there could never be too many precision manufacture practitioners. Back on the Sleeping Island, she could only be a top craftswoman polishing jewelry for nobles, but in Neverwinter, she could propel the advancement of society together with the other witches.

Chapter 946 - The Payment Problem

Roland closed the notebook and gently sighed.

The arrival of numerous Sleeping Island witches would undoubtedly instill the industry of Neverwinter with immeasurable vitality, yet... a few intractable problems lied in front of him,

with the toughest one being the issue of payment.

Those witches belonged to Sleeping Spell. Theoretically, they were under the leadership of Tilly, so whether they were willing to be employed was totally up to themselves. Although Tilly's attitude toward him had greatly improved, it was still hard for him to back up his former promise and make use of his connection with Tilly to propel the witches forward.

That was to say the position planning in the notebook was only his own intentions for the witches. To what extent those intentions could be realized was dependent on the number of witches who were willing to join in the tides of production.

To instill them with slogans like "labor is glorious" or "labor changes fate" would bring little effect, yet to boast the idea of "fighting for our homeland" seemed less meaningful. After all, to them, the only place which could be called their home was Sleeping Island.

Roland believed that anyone would fall in love with this city and take it as his or her home after living here for a few years, but it was not the right time yet—naturally, a newcomer would be cautious and suspicious of a strange, new place. He could not wait for a few years to pass before developing the industry, so he had to offer intriguing payment.

Simply speaking, there must be a desire that propelled them to work.

Prior to this, Roland had asked Tilly about the witches' payment. In Sleeping Island, the bounty service the witches offered to the Fjords merchants or explorers were quite costly, most of which cost between tens to hundreds of gold royals. Although Tilly used that money for basic living materials, the witches still got paid according to a primitive quota allocation system. They lived a fairly poor life, but it did not mean they had not seen much money.

Besides, nowadays 30% of the profits made from the Chaos Drink trade was at Tilly's disposal. It was predictable that she would take a small portion of it to improve the witches' living standard. In other words, even if a witch who chose not to work would not starve to death and could live a better life than the one on the island.

So a few extra gold royals might not be enough to get their interest.

Besides the low payment, there could be the issue of comparison. Most of the witches in the Witch Union were paid with one to three gold royals per month. Why would the outsiders get better paid? Even if Roland raise their payment as well, there could also be a criticism. Some witches might ask "our payments have been kept at the same level for almost two years, why do we get a raise as soon as the Sleeping Island witches arrived? Do senior witches like us have to depend on the newbies to get a salary raise?"

Even though the union members would not put it that way, Roland would rather not take that path.

At this thought, he could not help but look at the girl resting on the lounge chair reading a picture-story book—Nightingale.

Nightingale must have felt his gaze and turned over to ask, "What's wrong?"

A perfect curve.

"No, now is not the time." Roland cleared his throat and asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Two years, 11 months, and 26 days." Nightingale sat up. "Why do you ask?"

So precise?

"If I remember correctly, your primary payment was two gold royals a month, right?"

"Ah, at the time," Nightingale showed an ambiguous smile and said, "that would be right. It was twice as Anna's payment. At first, I even refused it. Later under your repeated appeal, I, sort of, reluctantly agreed to be your guard."

"What appeal? You, after seeing Anna pass through her Day of Adulthood peacefully, went back to stop Cara but ended up having a falling out with her, then decided to stay!" Roland rolled his eyes internally. "But during your stay, have you felt that what you gain is not proportional to what you give, and at any point considered to leave?"

"What did you say?" The smile on her face froze and was replaced by a hint of anxiety. "Why...why would I leave?"

"No, it was just a figure of speech," realizing what he said could be easily misinterpreted, he hurriedly corrected himself. "The emphasis is the former half of my words. Are there witches who feel their payment is too low?"

After confirming that Roland was serious, Nightingale sighed in relief and flashed before his desk. "How is that possible? One gold royal is already half a year's income for a common person. We're not working harder than those workers, so our payment being 'out of proportion' is also out of the question. Besides, even if we get a large amount of money, we wouldn't know how to spend it. After all, we don't need to worry about making a living, which was out of our imagination in the old days."

"Perhaps not every witch thinks so..."

"Why not!?! If you don't believe me, you can ask Wendy," Nightingale said confidently. "She knows our fellow witches better than I do."

"Alright," Roland shrugged and said, "I need her opinion on another matter anyway."

"What matter?" Nightingale asked curiously.

"It's a secret, but soon you'll know," Roland answered with a smile.

...

"Your Majesty, I've never thought that!" Unexpectedly, Wendy's response was even more intense. "Even without payment, I'd have done my best to build this place. I used to say that Neverwinter is the new Holy Mountain to the witches, and the other sisters are also serving you with the same expectation! If the City Hall is in a shortage of money, I'd like to give you the gold royals I've saved."

"Um... alright, I'm only collecting opinions." Suddenly, Roland felt very touched by her remarks. Touching his nose, he turned away his head and asked, "Is there anything you want in particular?"

"This..." Wendy was startled, and Nightingale began to quickly blink to her. "If you must ask, I feel... that... perhaps... if each one of us could get one more bottle of Chaos Drinks every month... that'll be great."

"Do you agree?" Roland looked at Nightingale.

"Is this some sort of wishing game?" Nightingale gently smiled. "Since we're asked to freely express our wishes, I think two more bottles would be better."

"No doubt." He then had a rough framework of the reform of the witches' payment.

If there were things more valuable than money, it would be the things that money could not buy. Evelyn's Complex Wine House was often visited by some witches, but its high pricing kept most of the witches out. They turned to the cheaper fruit wine—not because they could not afford visiting Evelyn's wine house, but their consumption stopped them from spending a large amount of gold royals on such luxuries.

Besides, the Chaos Drinks sold in the wine house were all old varieties. Their low sales made it very hard to replace the inventory, and their freshness could not be compared with the new products released each month.

What if I just change the Chaos Drinks from a welfare item to a special item to be purchased?

One can call it a points system or a dual currency system. But to entice the witches to work by rewarding them with something gold royals can't buy, won't it make the work itself more attractive? At the same time, it could perfectly avoid the witches' sense of unevenness brought by raising the payment.

Besides the Chaos Drinks, Roland had many more ideas for special items that could be purchased, which could maintain their own attractiveness and at the same time not to be imitated by any other companies.

Want it? Work hard!

Chapter 947 - Return of the Eastern Front Army

After solving the payment problem, Roland planned to break through another wall on the road of development.

This was to formulate standard units.

The universal education in Neverwinter had taken millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer, and some other distance units into the textbook, replacing the original distance units such as inch, foot, yard, and so on. So far, it was quite effective. The measuring instruments produced according to the new units, due to their high precision, had been universally acknowledged in construction and industrial production departments.

The benchmark prototype for centimeter, namely an iron bar as wide as Roland's nail, was stored in the study of the castle.

What he wanted to do next was integrate the other units and popularize them in the entire Kingdom of Graycastle.

The reason that he waited for long to do so was that the early levels of production and education did not urgently require new units, and the technique for the units' popularization was not mature enough.

After all, to merely have standards was meaningless. If they could not be produced by measuring instruments, people could not use them in practical life.

For now, none of these things were a problem anymore.

For example, he defined the volume of a vessel of one cubic decimeter as one liter, the weight of one cubic decimeter of water as one kilogram, and a one-meter long pendulum's swing at a period of one second... Hummingbird could precisely replicate the vessels for one kilogram and the pendulum could be used for time. With the prototypes and models, factories in Neverwinter could produce numerous replicas.

Or Anna would have to take care of all the production of measuring equipment, which was a waste of time and effort.

When the industrial technology reached a certain level, the popularization of more precise measuring units would become inevitable and smooth.

Roland did not worry that those standards might not be "pure" enough. In fact, those prototypes in human history had always been under improvement with the advancement of times.

...

Three days later, Iron Axe, leading the Eastern Front Army, finally returned to Neverwinter. Arriving with him was Echo, who had spent almost half a year in the Port of Clearwater.

Looking at the two Mojins reporting into him in front of his desk, Roland was overwhelmed with emotions. The two of them had been exiled criminals—one of them with a concealed identity and hunted for a living in Border Town; the other was sold as a slave and lived a dangerous life. But now, they had become indispensable members of Neverwinter.

Having shouldered the heavy responsibility of commanding an army all by himself and working busily for months, Iron Axe showed no trace of fatigue, but rather appeared perfectly fine. His gestures and expressions exuded the qualities of a senior general. Echo had changed more dramatically. The influence her slavery life had faded away and her blue-grey eyes radiated confidence. Her temperament matched better with her status as the chief of Osha.

It seems experience can indeed change a person.

Echo's report was quite simple. The Wildflame Clan stuck to the agreement and the first batch of migrants had been stationed at the Port of Clearwater. Affected by the choice of the first clan in Iron Sand City, a few relatively smaller clans came up to her and expressed their wishes of serving the chief. The entire plan was carried out quite smoothly. After receiving all the people from those clans, the emigrant population in the Port of Clearwater was estimated to reach 30,000 at the end of the year, a number which could compare favorably with that of the old king's city.

She also brought a letter from Spear, the ruler of Fallen Dragon Ridge. Without reading it, Roland was sure it was a request for more labor and food.

"Spear said that as she was only a manager of a small manor, she lacked the experience of taking care of so many people, and she was quite bruised and battered." Echo said, imitating Spear's tone, "Although the skilled hands in the City Hall were good at work, according to their suggestions, there had to be two to three hundred more clerks to help those migrants settle down. If Your Majesty doesn't kindly take more care of her, she said she had the impulse to shrug off her burden and run off to Neverwinter to become a common witch."

Roland could not help, but laugh. "Who said a common witch is idle. Soraya and Leaf will be watching you. How could you be worthy of such a useful ability as magic power channel if you don't exhaust it every day?" Roland thought to himself. "I see. I'll dispatch her more officials from the next batch after they had been approved. You must be tired after this mission. Rest for a few days."

"Yes." Echo bowed and then asked, full of expectation, "Your Majesty, have you been... composing recently?"

"Um...have you learned all the other songs?"

"Yes... they all have good effects, especially when inspiring people," Echo replied with a smile. "When I'm confused, I often sing the songs you taught me. If not for those songs, I might not have lasted till this day."

It seems to coordinate relationships among the clans and maintaining order in the Southern Territory isn't as easy as she reported. It's just she bears the difficulties and setbacks all by herself.

"I see," Roland said slowly. "I'll have someone write down the new songs and send them to your room."

Echo bowed deeply. "Great. Thank you."

No matter how bad he was at composing, he could always rummage through the Dream World. After all, he could never refuse such a request.

After Echo left, Roland looked at Iron Axe.

"It's been a hard task."

"It's okay, Your Majesty," Iron Axe bowed and said hurriedly. "It's an honor to fight for you. I don't find it hard, on the contrary, I enjoy it."

"Really?" Roland smiled, without giving his opinions. "What happened to the nobles who escaped to Seawindshire? You didn't burn them, did you?"

"I wanted to, but they ran too fast," Iron Axe said seriously. "After the First Army finished clearing Valencia and arrived at Seawindshire, the suburb had become a piece of wasteland. Other than that, several granaries in the downtown area caught on fire. Obviously, the nobles would rather ruin the city than hand it over to you in one piece."

"That must have been the last revenge from the rebel king's remnants,"  Roland thought to himself. "If the Eastern Front Army hadn't had sufficient preparations and the dozens of cement carriers that kept on transporting supplies day and night, this battle would have stopped there because the hungry city dwellers would have robbed from the First Army. As soon as the army suppressed them with violence, restoring order would be out of the question."

"Where did they escape to?"

"Some went to Fjords, others went to the other three kingdoms," Iron Axe said with regret. "Unfortunately the First Army was not equipped with ships, otherwise there was no way I'd let them go."

"Don't worry. As long as they dare to use their original family names, I'll clear them away sooner or later," Roland said slowly. At least the batch that fled to the Kingdom of Dawn were none better than flies throwing themselves into the net. They probably were Timothy's last loyal followers. Roland did not worry that they might come back. The reason he wanted to remove them once and for all was that they gave him a headache.

After inquiring about the rehabilitative measures in the Eastern Region, Roland suddenly remembered something he had doubted awhile ago.

"Right, and luring the nobles to prison then setting it on fire... did you come up with this idea?"

Iron Axe's expression instantly froze.

Chapter 948 - Unexpected Punishment

"Your Majesty, I..."

To Roland's surprise, the latter did not immediately divulge his reply as he would normally do, and seemed somewhat hesitant. It was rare to see the First Army's commander-in-chief behaving like this.

Roland had simply asked the question casually, but he now grew in interest. He had expected Iron Axe to get worked up over this - after all, the punishment for complete responsibility in the matter could include death by burning or hanging. He was, however, curious because the latter had not violated his orders in any reasonable sense, and thus there was surely another explanation for the latter's uncertainty.

However, he did not press on with his charge, and instead leaned back in his chair awaiting the Mojin's reply.

After much contemplation, Iron Axe suddenly knelt down and replied, "No, Your Majesty... though it was Miss Edith who planned the elimination of the enemy's nobles, it was I who carried out the plan, and thus I'm wholly responsible."

"Edith?" Roland was taken aback. "Could this have been planned by the Adviser Department?" Having not seen anything related to this in the submitted proposal, he wondered if this was arranged in secret.

On second thought, he realized why the latter was being hesitant.

In the present era of mercenaries, any military-related affair was considered to be the exclusive concern of the lord, and was extremely sensitive to intervention from outsiders. If the matter took place in another noble's territory, the clandestine agitator would certainly be punished. Iron Axe appeared diffident because he did not want to implicate Edith, yet had no intention to lie.

"From my understanding, you handled the affairs on the Eastern Front very well. The city hall will soon determine your reward amount based on the battle results. You may go for now."

Iron Axe was stunned. "Your Majesty, you won't punish me?"

Roland could not help laughing. "Why? What have you done wrong?"

"Um..."

"My orders were to purge the rebels in the Eastern Region and bring those cities under my rule. You were entitled to act according to circumstances," Roland explained. "If you listened in on two of your soldiers having a strategy discussion in the barracks and decided to adopt their ideas, do I have to punish you and these two soldiers? Edith is a member of the Adviser Department after all, and it's normal for her to have thoughts on strategy."

"So... Your Majesty, you don't think either of us did any wrong in this matter?" Iron Axe lifted his head.

"I didn't say so." Roland shrugged his shoulders. "Just because you're fine doesn't mean that Edith won't have anything to answer for, but that has nothing to do with you. Go back and have a good rest."

Iron Axe opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but instead he just stared on and decided to obey orders. "Yes, Your Majesty."

After the commander-in-chief of the First Army left, Roland immediately got on the hotline to the city hall. "Inform Edith to come to the castle."

Less than 10 minutes later, the Pearl of the Northern Region arrived at the doorstep of his office.

"Your Majesty, I'm responsible for this matter," Edith spoke without prompt. "I'll accept whatever punishment you impose."

Roland looked at her amusedly. "I haven't opened my mouth and you already know what I'm going to say?"

"When the Eastern Front Army returned to Neverwinter, the first person you would summon was certain to be Iron Axe. If he hadn't reported to you the burning of the nobles, I doubt you would summon me this soon."

"It's always easy to talk to smart people." Roland thought. Her frank manner even made him feel that she was a loyal subordinate who was being wronged.

However, at times, the smarter the person, the more prone they are to getting trapped in a self-created cul-de-sac.

"From the start, it was I who asked him to do this. It simply isn't his style to dupe the nobles together and pass it off as a fire scene. That aside, since you feel that you're responsible, where do you think the problem lies in?"

"I arranged to meet the First Army commander in an unofficial setting without asking for your permission..."

"Wrong." Roland swiftly interrupted her. "Your problem's that you violated the Adviser Department's rules, which state that any battle plan must be recorded on paper and submitted to me for review."

Edith had clearly not expected him to say this, and her eyes widened involuntarily. "Your Majesty?"

"Is that not so?"

"But...," she said with a puzzled look, "this operation was carried out in Your Majesty's name. Won't the other officials see it as something you did?"

"You're not wrong." Roland smiled slightly. "Is there an issue with that?"

"Actually..." Like Iron Axe earlier, Edith displayed a rarely-seen look of confusion. "They may be rebels, but... they're also nobles. To other nobles, your actions could..."

"I know what you're saying." Roland shrugged. "But if I'm not able to handle the backlash, do you think you can?"

"I..."

"Relax, it's fine. Let me ask you, do you think it's right for me to scapegoat my subordinates when an issue arises?"

"Scapegoat?"

"Ahem, that means to shirk my responsibilities," Roland explained. "This matter was clearly done on behalf of the Kingdom of Graycastle, yet you face death instead of glory. If I feel justified to approve of that, do you think those officials will remain wholly loyal to me?"

Edith kept quiet.

"As the king, I'm the most suitable person to take responsibility. Only this way will the subordinates be able to work without burden. This is also why I have to review the Adviser Department's final plans, in case it's something I'm not well-versed in, understand?"

After quite a while, the Pearl of the Northern Region finally nodded and replied, "I was too self-important."

"For violating the rules, your contributions towards this double offensive shan't be recognized, which would otherwise have got you a promotion." Roland took a sip of his tea. "This matter shall now be closed. You may go now."

"Yes, Your Majesty. Please allow me to take my leave." Edith bowed respectfully.

***************

"So... what you did was all for nothing?" Cole Kant carefully placed a plate of honey-glazed mushrooms in front of Edith and watched as she viciously stuck her fork into the mushroom slices. "Your colleagues were all able to obtain promotion, but not you?"

"Yes, only me." She munched loudly on the brownish Bird Beak Mushrooms as if to vent her discontent upon the dinner. "Listen to what His Majesty had to say, 'If I'm not able to handle the backlash, do you think you can?' It was so unbearable that I need an outlet right now. Of course, I wouldn't have done what I did if His Majesty was more like my father. But knowing that he wouldn't ignore this, I felt that it wouldn't be a bad investment and that the risks were manageable. Yet, he dismissed everything I did in a few sentences, and even griped that I think too much. Is it really so naive to be an idealist?"

"Uh... Elder Sister, are you angry?" Cole wiped the sweat off his forehead.

"What, you can't tell?" Edith glowered at him.

The latter shrunk his neck hastily. This was the first time he saw his elder sister display such an expression during a non-ceremonial occasion. Having lived together for more than 10 years, Cole was familiar with her great love for power. If, as she put it, she had just lost an opportunity for promotion, it would be normal for her to be annoyed or disappointed. But... her expression informed him otherwise. It seemed more like a... strange smile mixed with anger.

Unless he misunderstood, this sort of grumble was usually called pouting.

"Gosh...", as he thought about this, Cole could not help letting out a shudder. Who knew that the Pearl of the Northern Region, who's usually a face of indifference or cunning affection, could smile displeasedly? And, unlike during the banquet when it was deliberate, she seemed to be completely unaware of her present expression. Was this really the Edith Kant he knew?

"Uh?" Having not received a reply for some time, Edith sharply squinted her eyes.

Cole suddenly felt the hair on his back raise. "No, there's no doubt she's my sister." "I just think... maybe His Majesty has his own considerations?"

"As he wishes." Edith placed the last mushroom in her mouth. "I just wonder how far an idealist can go. But..."

"What?" Cole faintly sensed a bad premonition.

"But my unhappiness is real." Edith perked her thin lips. "You shall be my punching bag in the meantime."

Chapter 949 - The Future of Witches

The new Sleeping Spell was not just a single building, but a residential district of nearly 7000 square meters.

As a key construction zone, it was not only equipped with water and heat supply, but the buildings were four-story frame houses that utilized the fully-tested concrete-pouring technology. The interior plan was exactly the same as that of the Witch Building.

Apart from that, Roland also established in the middle of the neighborhood a two-story conference hall for the Sleeping Island witches to organize activities.

On the first night that migrants arrived in Neverwinter, their welcome banquet was conducted here. And now, half a month later, the hall was once again packed full of witches.

Under the gaze of the audience, Tilly walked on to the podium and announced the recruitment order from Roland Wimbledon, as well as a brand-new salary system.

"... Work arrangements will be like this. 30% of the revenue brought in by witches shall be granted to the Sleeping Spell. This money will be used to improve everyone's lives, expand the scale of the district, and for other necessities," she spoke fervently with a slight smile. "It may seem, on first impression, that I've been undercut by my elder brother. After all, you may know that when we were in Sleeping Island, we collected all of the commission paid by the Fjords' merchants, but in reality, they took the opportunity to put forth several conditions, such as making sure we purchased their grains and products at high prices, and thus the money we obtained at the end of the day was heavily reduced. There aren't as many strings attached over here."

"This amount that Roland is offering will certainly exceed our income in Sleeping Island. Plus, the work will generally require nothing except magic power, and there won't be any excursions to dangerous places. Hence, our work lives will be much easier. On comparison, it's clear that I didn't get undercut, and I can even be said to be the one taking advantage instead."

Her words induced soft bursts of laughter from the listening crowd.

"But!" Tilly abruptly raised her voice. "There's more reward which I haven't mentioned. In the past, no matter how much money we received from the Fjords' merchants, the money had to be pooled because of how destitute Sleeping Spell was. In the end, the only things handed out to everyone were bread, cotton, and other such common things."

"But now, everyone will receive substantial rewards and not a bunch of intangible numbers. It'll be up to each person to decide how these rewards are used. Please open the envelopes on your tables now."

Molly had long noticed the envelope marked with a Graycastle High Tower stamp but had held off from touching it. She wasted no time tearing it open at the instant Lady Tilly made the request.

"Is this... Gwent, the new card game?" Shadow, who was sat beside Molly, bent her head over curiously.

"Take a look at your own." Molly turned her body sideways to block the latter's sight.

"Gee."

The envelope contained a palm-size paper which could not be any more glossy on appearance, yet that felt uneven on touch. Although it could be bent easily, it did not leave creases like normal paper.

Molly knew she liked the paper from her first sight of it.

It was, quite simply, a work of art.

Although it was much alike the Gwent cards which were popular within the Witch Union, she could tell the difference between them. It was extremely exquisite in design; the patterns on it were not just gorgeous and colorful, but also highly intricate, as if the lines were drawn using threads of hair. More than simply filling up space, they formed a variety of images and words.

For instance, on the front side of the paper was a High Tower and Spears emblem, while the rear side displayed a high mountain being shone on by the rising sun. Under each image were written the captions "Issued by the Graycastle Royalty" and "For exclusive use by witches", while the four corners of the paper were inscribed with three "10"s and an unknown symbol.

The thing that Molly was fond of was that the images on both sides would reflect golden light when the paper was rotated slightly, as if the patterns were lined with gold.

"Uh... I guess it isn't a Gwent card." Shadow had also discovered the paper's uniqueness. "I remember that the numbers on the cards were all on the same side."

"Is this a gift from His Majesty Roland?"

"But Lady Tilly clearly said that this is a reward."

"Oh... yours is the same as mine?" Orbit came over from the other side of the hall and joined in the conversation.

"Everyone's should be the same."

"What does this symbol mean?"

"Not sure, but I seem to have seen it somewhere..."

A flurry of whispering voices emerged in the conference hall. The witches were all fascinated by these lovely pieces of paper they had just obtained. It was only when Lady Tilly began to speak again that the discussions abated.

"The thing you're holding is called a note. It has the same function as coins, the difference being that this type of note is only given to witches and can only be used by witches."

"Lady Tilly, you mean that it's a gold royal made of paper?" Someone asked.

"You may understand it that way. But it can be used to buy certain things which are hard to purchase with gold royals." Tilly nodded. "For example, the 10 yuan note that everyone's holding can be used to obtain a full bottle of Chaos Drink or five servings of strawberry ice cream in the Castle District."

Molly began to salivate irresistibly.

She still fondly remembered the few types of delicacy she tasted at the welcome banquet; they were above anything she had ever imagined. In particular, the latter's rich pink color, soft texture, and luscious flavor seemed to bring together the finest descriptions she could conceive of. When compared to it, the salty fish soup of the Fjord Islands could not even be called food.

And now, this beautiful piece of paper could be used to redeem a whopping five portions of the delicacy she could never forget.

Judging from the fervent reaction of the crowd, she was not the only one who was hugely excited about this.

"And, of course, there'll be more than just food to redeem, such as things to wear and use. Any new goods produced in Neverwinter will be first available in the Castle District's shops." Tilly continued aloud. "To put it simply, notes will be your reward for responding to this recruitment drive. The amount that you receive will also be adjusted according to your number of working hours. I should, however, point out that it isn't a living necessity. Even those who choose not to work will be well looked after. It can more accurately be seen as a prize that adds a little extra to life. Thus, whether or not to accept recruitment shall be left to each one of you to decide."

Surprisingly, a boisterous discussion did not ensue. All of the witches continued to place their attention on Lady Tilly, perhaps knowing that their leader had more to say.

"But, my sisters, this matter isn't only about enjoyment." Tilly slowed her tone. "Remember the unfair treatment we faced after our awakenings? At that time, most of us had the same thought - that it would be good enough for there to be a place where witches may live together with normal people."

After a short pause, she continued in an assertive tone. "So, this concerns the future of all our sisters. There won't be a better opportunity to allow more people to understand us."

Chapter 950 - The Art of Persuasion

Molly nodded her head heartfeltly.

In the past month, she had been deeply touched by the Neverwinter citizens' attitude towards witches. They acted neither overly familiar nor discriminatory, and instead seemed a mix of curiosity and accustomedness.

While strolling around the Harbor District a few days prior, she saw a fierce gust of wind blow down a pile of empty wooden crates on the pier. Her subconscious reaction was to summon her magic servant to catch the falling crates. Instead of screaming and fleeing, the working crowd expressed their great interest in the transparent and legless giant.

This was an experience Molly never had before. Even the migrants on Sleeping Island had never been so close to witches. Although they abided by Her Highness Tilly's command on the surface, they still considered witches to be a different species from themselves. The customary practice of most Fjord islanders was to maintain a respectful distance - only the explorers and some merchants did not mind the powers that the witches possessed.

This was not to mention how terrible the situation was on the continent where the Church had had deep influence.

The first time Lotus brought home news from the Western Region, Molly only half-believed it. Only when she personally came over did she discover that Lotus' stories merely scratched the surface.

Now, she felt a glimmer of envy seeing Lotus leading a large number of people up and down the tall buildings, Evelyn running a perpetually bustling tavern, and Candle, who used to be seen as useless, being warmly welcomed by the factory workers.

It was only because Molly did not want to disturb Her Highness Tilly that she had not actively sought employment.

She was never one to remain idle, even when in Sleeping Island.

"And, let's not forget that we still have the biggest enemy to take care of - the demons." Tilly looked around the audience. "All of you already know what the Battle of Divine Will means - even the Church of Hermes is nothing compared to them, and therefore, work shouldn't only be for your own enjoyment. Every note represents your contribution to Neverwinter and the entire human world. This brings glory to the witches as a whole because through this, we can prove to the world that witches are an indispensable and decisive part of the human race!" She raised her right hand with her fist clenched. "Sisters who accept recruitment, please walk up on stage now..."

...

"Out of 86 jobs, 69 have received responses. This is a fairly good result." Tilly handed the name list to Wendy after the meeting was over. "And most of the non-repliers are just hesitant. I believe that more will accept recruitment after some time."

"It's more than just fairly good," Wendy quipped excitedly, "This is way beyond His Majesty's expectation."

"Oh?" Tilly seemed curious. "How many did he guess?"

Wendy laughed and extended three fingers.

"30?" Tilly became somewhat peeved. "He belittles the Sleeping Spell way too much."

"Rather than saying that he underestimated the witches' enthusiasm, you can claim credit for it." Wendy dropped her smile and bowed earnestly towards Tilly. "Your Highness, your last statement wasn't necessary."

If it was a normal recruitment talk, 30 people might already have been an optimistic prediction. It was Tilly's rhetoric about working for the sake of all sisters and bringing glory to witches which moved the majority of the crowd. As the former custodian of the Witch Cooperation Association, Wendy naturally understood what her compatriots most lacked in aside from a stable home: recognition from other people.

After all, having lived as normal people for more than 10 years of their lives, it was not easy for them to cut clean from their past.

"The way I spoke during the meeting was also for my own sake." Tilly smiled and shook her head. "Roland has allowed me to see a wide range of interesting things and understand what an incredible city this is. If we lose the Battle of Divine Will, all of these will disappear, and thus I have to put in effort so that I'll be able to see more wonderful stuff. It's wise to cuddle together for warmth before doomsday winter arrives, right?"

"... Your Highness is right." Wendy began to laugh.

"It's a pity that not everyone agrees with me." Tilly shrugged her shoulders resignedly. "Like the Eastern Region witches, who may never accept recruitment even until the end."

"Your Highness, you mean the small group led by Azima?" Wendy asked puzzledly. "If she doesn't get along with you, why did she go with you to the Fjords?"

"It didn't start out this way." Tilly let out a sigh. "Before they arrived in Sleeping Island, they'd already became acquainted with Bloodfang Association. The latter assisted them many times to fight off the church's chasing army during the escape, and therefore Azima and her people came to trust Heidi Morgan. This was nothing at first, but later on, when tensions broke out between Bloodfang Association and Sleeping Spell, our relationship fractured."

"So that's what happened..."

"And when I fought against Heidi without informing everyone, I incurred even more of Azima's disgust. I thus consented when they asked to leave Sleeping Island on Sleeping Beauty." Tilly continued slowly. "In fact, if Scroll hadn't dissuaded them, they probably wouldn't have remained in Neverwinter."

"That's not your fault," Wendy said consolingly. "Heidi Morgan deserved it for deceiving the Wolfheart witches."

"But she'd certainly helped Azima." Tilly seemed disinterested in pondering any further over this issue. "If I was in their place, I would probably be peeved as well. They aren't bad people at heart."

"Oh..." Wendy remained silent for a brief moment. "I may have a way of persuading them, but..."

"But what...?"

"It may cause them to break away from Sleeping Spell."

"That'll be no different from how it is now." Tilly replied without any misgivings. "If your idea can benefit Roland and them, go ahead."

***************

"Is this... really okay?" Doris revealed a worried look upon returning to her residential building. "We've already offended Lady Tilly. If we refuse the lord's employment this time and thus further displease her, we might..."

These words received agreement from several other Eastern Region witches.

"I think Doris is right. Roland Wimbledon isn't a typical lord, and is currently the king of Graycastle. Even if we manage to return to the Eastern Region, it's also his territory."

"Plus we aren't combat witches. If they use force against us, we won't have any ability to resist."

"Come on. Even if we fight, how can we beat a lunatic like Ashes? I dare bet that she has long disliked us."

"Actually... I feel that the Witch Union has treated us pretty well."

"Forget about it. They'll certainly side with the king over this. It would be good enough of them if they don't help His Majesty to arrest us."

"Hold your tongues." Azima cut short the ongoing arguments. "Roland Wimbledon would never use hard methods, or else the image he has built up would be completely undone. If we accept the recruitment order, what would all our earlier persistence be for? We'll be forced to rely on Sleeping Spell in the end. To outsiders, we'll be no different from the other witches."

She said these words with some reservation. In all honesty, the Witch Union had, for the past half a month, provided them with assistance instead of the expected oppression, and treated them as equals. The witch named Wendy even came several times to discuss this matter with her. In fact, Wendy's friendly attitude caused her to feel a long-lost sense of home.

However, Azima knew that she had to continue acting indifferent. She forebode that once she relented, it would become difficult to pull away from the Sleeping Spell ever after.

Right at this moment, someone knocked on the main door of the building.

"Who's it?" She turned her head with some annoyance.

"It's me, Wendy." A familiarly gentle and calm voice was heard from outside. "Miss Azima, I have something to discuss with you."

Chapter 951 - Red and White (Part 1)

After closing the door, Wendy swept a glance across everyone and finally stopped at Azima.

"Speak what you have to say." The latter opened in a harsh voice. "If you're here for today's recruitment, you may as well save it. We aren't going to change our minds."

"Azima..." Doris murmured involuntarily.

Azima raised her hand to stop Doris from speaking further. "I'll firmly remember your care for us in the past half a month, but these two matters aren't quite the same. As was said when we first arrived in Neverwinter, now that the Church has been destroyed, I'll have to leave Western Region sooner or later."

"I have some better news for you first." Wendy maintained her gentle expression and replied. "The city hall has received a report stating that a large group of Eastern Region refugees shall arrive in Neverwinter within a week. The numbers shall be as many as 12,000 people. There's a high likelihood that your relatives are among them."

The room seethed with excitement at once.

"Is... what you said true?"

"Certainly. The Sea Transport Department is really stepping it up to fetch them over." Wendy replied smilingly. "The Redwater River is currently teeming with concrete boats headed towards the Eastern Region. These boats are loaded with dry stock and winter supplies, as it's after all already winter."

"I used to live in Archbridge Town. Are there any refugees from there?"

"How's the situation in Valencia?"

"It's certainly a mess."

"Uh... I hope my family isn't among them... it was my father who chased me out in the first place."

"He was bewitched by the Church. Maybe he has now repented."

The commotion in the room went into overdrive.

"Relax, there're 12,000 people." Wendy clapped her hands together. "That should cover most of the cities and towns from Valencia to Seawindshire. It'll be more difficult not to find any of your townsmen. Once Scroll has compiled the census, we'll be able to screen out people with similar backgrounds as yours. And it'll be okay even if we can't find any among this batch as this is only the beginning of a long flow of people to Neverwinter. As long as you remain here, I'm sure you'll get to meet them someday."

She then turned her attention to the witch who appeared anxious. "There's no harm even if you don't want to recognize him. But isn't it better to have some news rather than none at all, Whitepear? If they've repented, at least there's a chance for them to redeem themselves."

"That's... true." The girl by the name of Whitepear lowered her head embarrassedly.

"Are you intent on shifting the entire Eastern Region to Neverwinter?" Azima suddenly questioned.

"Not just the Eastern Region." Wendy laughed. " The Northern and Southern Territories, as well as the Central Region, are also part of the migration plan. These places will eventually be left with only a few large cities, where the residents from the towns and villages will be shifted into."

"Why... is the king going to such trouble for this?"

"This is very difficult to explain. It's called... an urbanization process or something like that. In the past, it was because of food issues that large plots of farmland were necessary to feed a city, and hence the population was very diffuse. But now that food is no longer a problem, the prevalent concern is that most of the people in the towns and villages are settled in non-administrated zones, where they cannot be effectively organized and utilized. Moving them to the cities will allow the city halls to exercise better control." Wendy patiently explained. "Because of this, the Western Region of today is no longer 'the region of the west' per se. If you decide to leave, what will your sisters do? Do you really want them to also forsake their kin and wander the wastelands of your hometown with you?"

"..." Azima frowned and did not reply for some time.

"Frankly, this is just a show of cowardice." A chilly voice was heard from behind the witches' backs.

The witches' faces changed color as they hurriedly turned to see who it was. A woman shrouded in a black robe had stealthily sat herself on the square table, with her body bent slightly forward, her legs raised, and one hand under her chin. She watched the crowd with amusement, as if she took no heed of their uneasiness.

"Who are you?" Azima asked huskily.

"Nightingale! What are you talking about?" Wendy fretfully yelled. "Relax everyone, she has no malice. She's the Union witch who's responsible for protecting me in secret."

"Did I say anything wrong?" She took off her hood to reveal her beautiful blonde curls. "What do you think these people are hesitant about? It's simply because of their relationship with Bloodfang Association that they're unwilling to serve Her Highness. Yet in reality, they continue to depend on Sleeping Spell, and have no intention of changing."

"What a bunch of nonsense!" Azima clenched her fists angrily. "If it wasn't for Doris, we would have left long ago! Besides, what do you even know about the matter between Bloodfang Association and Sleeping Island!"

"Is that so?" Nightingale raised her brows. "Then why aren't you working?"

"What..."

"Let's do a quick calculation. The cost of transportation and food from Neverwinter to Eastern Region is around 20 silver royals per person. Once there, 10 to 12 bronze royals will be needed per day to purchase food. But don't forget that, because of war and migration, most of the villages have turned into wastelands. So, to live over there, expenses will be a few dozen times higher than in the past. This is also why the refugees are moving to Neverwinter." She explained with great composure. "In other words, it won't be easy to leave Sleeping Spell without a sackful of gold royals. If it were me, I would grab this opportunity to apply for work everywhere so that I can accrue as much money as possible. This is the basis for the group to be able to survive independently. Yet, what have you people done in this half a month? After enjoying the food distributed by Sleeping Spell, you still hope that Her Highness will provide you with your travel expenses?"

"I..." Azima was momentarily stumped. She wanted to refute the accusation but did not know where to begin.

"To me, this is simply cowardice. That's why you sided with the Bloodfang Association under pressure from the Church, and further on, it was because of this sketchy relationship that you felt outraged by the destruction of Heidi Morgan. Yet you have no guts to stand up against an Extraordinary." Nightingale shrugged. "It's indeed true that I'm unclear about the matter between Bloodfang Association and Sleeping Island, but the members of Bloodfang Association, who are in Neverwinter now, certainly know better. Do you really think Heidi regarded you as sisters?"

"Nightingale! Enough!" Wendy hollered.

"When I travel to a foreign land, I'll also seek to draw support from the locals. Your abilities were of great help to them. If they didn't destroy the ears and eyes of the Church, more and more people would track and encircle them. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Let me just ask, if Heidi was really friendly to you, did she inform you about her plotting in Sleeping Island to overthrow Tilly?"

Azima bit her lips tightly.

"If you truly want to prove your resolve, then you should get started with the most basic things. You can find a pack of excuses if you were living on your own deserted island, but over here, Sleeping Spell may be unable to restrain you any further."

Nightingale gave Wendy a blithe smirk before disappearing in front of everyone.

Chapter 952 - Red and White (Part 2)

"I'm sorry. She's always this straightforward, but like I said, she has no malice." Wendy hastily apologized. "You don't have to take her words to heart. If you break off from the Sleeping Spell, your situation will be much tougher than now..."

However, none of the witches could speak a word, especially Azima, whose expression seemed exceptionally unpleasant. The heaving of her chest revealed that she was in a highly intense state of mind.

Had it been a regular mockery, she might have been able to laugh it off, or perhaps even protested and argued against it. Unfortunately, Nightingale's words left her completely speechless. Aside from the accusation of cowardice, the other words were like nails that pierced into her heart.

When they were still wandering about the Eastern Region, all of them worked very hard for survival. Holding a copper sheet in one hand, she would tirelessly search, like a dirty little rat, for dropped bronze royals and exchange them for bread and other food products. This would be sufficient for her to live in any city or town had she been on her own. The problem was that she had a large number of companions to take care of.

On days when the yield was insufficient, they would be forced to bear the hunger.

Azima was adamant that she was not a coward, or else she would never have had the courage to leave home and venture into unknown territories on her own. Similarly, it wouldn't have been possible for her to acquaint with so many companions and become their leader.

But Nightingale was absolutely right. Ever since her group met the Bloodfang Association, they began to gradually lose their independent spirit. After all, compared to picking up scraps to sustain a living, it was much faster for these combat witches to act directly against the rats. If luck was good, they could snag in one day as much money as she did in half a month of toil. And it was only when passing through wild and uninhabited areas that her guidance was needed.

The immense fighting capacity of the Bloodfang Association provided them with a guarantee of safety. She no longer needed to worry whether she had enough bronze royals to purchase the necessary food, or to afford the escort of a caravan. This situation did not change even after they joined the large forces.

After a long time, Azima finally gritted her teeth and spoke. "How tough will it be?"

"I don't know the precise amount of money that Sleeping Spell will distribute for living expenses, but it shouldn't be any lower than that of the Witch Union. That means at least one gold royal per month, which is four to five times that given to a normal person." Wendy replied with an anxious look. "This money can be used for food and accommodation, but there won't be much for luxury."

"Most importantly, even if you leave Sleeping Spell, the Witch Union will temporarily be unable to take you in. The reason is simple. His Majesty doesn't want there to be a rift between the Witch Union and Sleeping Spell, and this sort of thing will easily lead to misunderstandings..."

"Is that it?" Azima snapped indignantly. "20 silver royals per month for each person, that means 120 silver royals in total. Does she really think I can't manage that on my own? That's not funny! I'm not a girl of noble birth. I've rummaged sewers and garbage dumps all for a little bit of food. How can I be fazed by a little hardship like this? This is absolutely nothing. I'll show you, Nightingale! I know you're still here!"

"Miss Azima..." Wendy was about to attempt another round of persuasion but was held back by Doris.

"I know that you mean well for us, but I also feel that what we've done has been a lil' too much. I feel red-faced after that telling-off from Miss Nightingale." She embarrassedly touched her reddish cheeks and spoke in a soft voice. "Perhaps Heidi Morgan was like what she said and never took us seriously, but we cannot continue on like this. I support Azima's decision this time."

"Me too. If Azima's a coward, then what are we?"

"Me too!"

Everyone nodded their heads in unison.

"I've decided that I want to leave Sleeping Spell. And I won't just make enough for survival. I'll eventually return all that I owe to them!" Azima bellowed at all corners of the room. "I'll make you eat your words, Nightingale!"

Wendy sighed and remained silent for some time before replying, "Since you've decided, I'll explain it to Her Highness Tilly. I'll also try my best to get His Majesty to maintain your special allowance. This way, when you accept the witches' recruitment, you'll also receive an extra portion of money which will make life a lot easier."

Azima turned her curtly. "Do as you like."

...

Wendy let out an uncontrollable sigh as she walked out of the residential area.

"What's the problem?" Nightingale's voice was heard from behind her.

"Nothing, I just feel a little... ashamed suddenly," she muttered. " I'm not what they think. My desired outcome is for them to work for His Majesty Roland."

"But you still did it this way, didn't you? Because you know that this would be better for everyone. If things remain in the present state, their defiance may affect Her Highness Tilly and thus bring harm upon Sleeping Spell." Nightingale revealed her figure. "I've seen too many people like this. Instead of using reason, it's much more effective to hit them hard until they wake up. There're some even more stubborn people who only repent when death stares them in the face."

Wendy laughed involuntarily. "I guess enlisting your help was indeed the right decision. You completely silenced a person who dared to express her discontent directly to Tilly. Truly the Shadow Killer who awed King's City."

"I simply followed your plan." Nightingale puckered her lips. "All I did was make my tone a little meaner."

"Well, your tone was the key," Wendy exclaimed. "I probably sweated a little on her behalf. I wasn't just acting when I shouted 'Enough!' If I were her, I probably would have come to the same decision."

"Wait... why don't I see this to be a compliment?" Nightingale grumbled.

"Of course it's a compliment. A few Chaos Drinks shall prove that." Wendy laughed and held Nightingale's hand. "Let's exchange 10 dollars for some drinks tonight, shall we?"

"Alright, I believe you."

***************

After reading through Wendy's report, Roland could finally feel assured.

Most of the Sleeping Island witches had accepted recruitment, and the minority groups did not cause too much trouble - everything was shaping up like he had hoped. If the progress in this matter was smooth, there would soon be witches in each and every production industry. Everywhere that people went, they would be able to see the figures of these young and beautiful women, which could be said to form the unique and unparalleled landscape of Neverwinter.

More importantly, the addition of more than 70 new witches would be a significant boost to the overall industry of Neverwinter. Just thinking about it filled him with hope.

Right at this moment, the telephone on his desk rang.

The signal was from the city hall.

He picked up the phone, and heard Barov's voice on the other end.

"Your Majesty, the Fjords' explorer, Sander Flyingbird's, fleet has arrived in the Shallow Port."

Chapter 953 - The Invited Explorer

Two three-masted ships with black and white flags were unloading their cargo when Roland walked into the harbor surrounded by his personal guards. The City Hall officials were circling around the stacked wooden boxes while occasionally making sounds of excitement.

"Long time no see, Your Majesty!" Margaret quickly came forward and bowed with a smile. "Please forgive my appearance... It's not suitable to wear long skirts while sailing at sea, so I hope you don't mind."

The man next to her also bowed. "Your Majesty, Sander Flyingbird of Twin Dragon Island pays his respects to you—are you satisfied with what I'm wearing?" He then winked at him as he asked, "Don't you think this quite matches the words 'High-flying seabirds'?"

In fact, even before he spoke, Roland had already noticed his distinguishing dress. To be honest, it would have been impossible to remain unnoticed when there were so many feathers on one's body. His clothes were those of an ordinary sea merchant from the Fjords, but they were covered with bird-feathered tassels everywhere, from the bandana on his head to the soft leather shoes on his feet. However, after the long sea journey, most of the feathers had become stiff and, though still attached to his clothes, they had now lost most of their luster. Looking at such a scene, one could only be reminded of a bird that had been shot out of the sky.

"No... you've misunderstood," Roland said. As far as he was concerned, "Sander Flyingbird" was just a well-known blue icon, and every male of his age, as well as every female, would experience the same impatience before opening a package with this mark. "Though you want to avoid being recognized by Lightning, I can promise you that if you were to enter the castle looking like this, you would definitely attract her close friend Maggie's attention, Mr. Thunder. In that case, you wouldn't be able to disguise yourself even if you had a fake beard on your face."

"Hahaha... Is that so?" Thunder laughed with his clear voice. "That's a pity. I was quite proud of this disguise. Did you know that ever since I found a tailor to make this dress, it has become the new trend in many islands?"

"Is this the power of a model?" Roland thought and rolled his eyes silently. On the other hand, it was no wonder he was the most prominent explorer of the Fjords if he could maintain such a young mentality despite being at least forty years old. Nobody else would bother to put in so much effort for just a temporary made up name.

Everything began with that letter before the expedition.

Now that the steel ship was completed, it was time to finally test it. Roland's feelings towards the unpredictable sea were full of awe. He was clearly aware of the actual level of his first steel ship—there was no doubt that even with all the equipment and other gimmicks installed on it, it was still far from sea-worthy.

It required more than a pile of iron pieces which could float and move back and forth to make a qualified sea ship. Due to the violent waves, the ship's mechanisms would have to be completely different from the versions on the inland riverboats. In addition, considering that it was the first time they were using the steam turbine, the reliability of its power system was also still questionable.

However, the most troubling aspect for him was that he was not familiar with the operational procedures of a ship or the human-engine interaction aspects. Whenever he had trouble with the principles of machinery, he could just go to the Dream World to find a solution, but this could not work for the sailing of a ship. Before the development of electronic control systems, each ship would have to be calibrated and handled separately. Hence, there was no other solution left other than to keep researching by himself.

Thus, inviting Thunder to test it out was the best option he could think of.

Not only he was an experienced navigator but also the leader of an Exploration Group, with hundreds of excellent sailors at his command. His feedback would be invaluable.

Roland was planning to use this chance to both test and adjust the ship while recording all its sailing data. That would undoubtedly be helpful in his preparations to build the next ship. Furthermore, this data would bring Neverwinter lots of wealth.

Since this part of the whole process would take two to three months, Thunder would have to stay in Neverwinter City for a while. In order to conceal his identity, Roland created a fake identity for him in the letter—that of Sander Flyingbird. Surprisingly, not only did he accept it, he even added in a bunch of customizations. His enthusiasm and playful spirit really left the King of Graycastle feeling amazed.

"Oh, Your Majesty, were you really able to finish the construction of the steam-powered boat this fast?" Thunder changed the subject. "At the Fjords, even with the most suitable materials available, the best craftsmen would still need a couple of years."

"That's far too slow. Ater all, the processing of steel is easier than that of wood as it doesn't need to be soaked in preservatives, and there is no need to wait until it's dry. It only requires ample heat." Roland shrugged his shoulders. "It is currently in the shipyard of the harbor. If you are interested, we can go see it right now."

"I can't wait!" Thunder's eyes instantly lit up. "I just couldn't stop thinking about it on my way here!"

"But what are all those crates of gold royals for?" Roland pointed at the boxes that were being unloaded continuously whilst their number was being counted by the City Hall. "As I said before, you'll only be charged the cost of production of this boat, nothing more."

"Of course, we wouldn't dare to refuse your generosity," Margaret replied, "These are the profits from the perfumes and the Chaos Drinks."

"That much?" He was a bit surprised. "It's not yet the delivery date stated in the contract, right?"

"Well, since we were on our way here anyway, we could reduce some of the burden from the next delivery like this." Margaret smiled. "But Your Majesty, your guess was correct, those two products have become very popular in the Fjords, especially the Chaos Drinks. The sales volume is incredible. The value of the most delicious ones sometimes rises up to ten times the original value even if they are second-hand. People are willing to collect even the ones that don't taste as good. In short, Chaos Drinks have now become a symbol of strength in the feasts of all the Chambers of Commerce."

Roland couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. It seemed like he made the right choice in letting a professional merchant handle this business.

"Your Majesty, there is a magic reaction within the crowd." Suddenly Nightingale's voice sounded next to his ear. "Is there a witch in their group?"

That's when he realized that not far behind Margaret was a peculiar woman looking towards them. Half of her body was hidden behind a maid and she was showing only half of her face. When their eyes met, she quickly hid her face as if she was a scared rabbit.

Roland vaguely remembered the female merchant mentioning her in their letter. "Is that person your previous witch friend?"

Following his gaze, Margaret nodded softly. "Yes, Your Majesty, she is Joan."

Chapter 954 - New Great Wheel

"Oh, she's already able to come ashore..." Roland said with much interest, "I remember you said that after she chose to settle in the sea, she didn't come into contact with humans for a long time."

"It's thanks to Her Highness Tilly and Miss Camilla's help." Margaret sighed. "Without the ability to communicate directly through the consciousness, she probably still wouldn't have been able to adapt to a normal human life. Also, Joan has completely forgotten how to speak. Even though Lord Thunder introduced many scholars to her, the results have not been very positive. Right now, she can't speak more than a few words, and she isn't even able to hold a simple conversation."

At this moment, the female merchant paused as if she didn't know whether or not to continue.

"What's the matter?" Roland asked.

"I don't know whether or not it's because of her long-term transformation, but some of her body parts are no longer the same as those of humans." Margaret bit her lips. "As far as I'm aware, as long as they don't utilize magic power, witches should be no different from humans. But Joan can no longer change to her previous appearance. Her cheeks, neck, arms, and legs are covered by cyan scales, just like those... Sea Ghosts."

Roland immediately thought of Lorgar's long ears and tail. Well... a skin covered with scales was quite the style—ahem, no, now wasn't the time to think about that. Considering that the Sand Nation people even feared the cute ears of Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan, it was only to be expected that the reaction to Joan's situation would probably only be worse.

"Did anyone harm her?"

"We tried our best to prevent it, but it was still inevitable that someone would spread the news." Margaret sighed.

"If we want to teach her how to adapt to human life again, then it is inevitable that she will come into contact with other people," Thunder said helplessly, "Her appearance is not well received even at the Fjords—since taking her in, three maids and two scholars have already been scared away from her. There are even rumors that I am raising a Sea Ghost. Maybe the sea is most suitable for her after all."

"If my friend truly disliked life on land, I wouldn't force her to stay on the island against her will." The female merchant continued. "But Joan didn't really mind the process of coming into contact with other people. Even though she has to stay for many hours in the sea each week, she still likes to hang out with those maids that accept her. Furthermore, compared to the raw fish meat she used to eat previously, she now prefers it well-cooked."

Still, this kind of environment was only limited to Thunder's premises—Roland understood what she meant, but he couldn't think of a good solution. Changing one's point of view required lots of time, not to mention, her situation was much more serious than that of the other witches. Throughout history, animalization, deformation, or in general inhuman appearances would always be faced with discrimination and social exclusion.

"It will get better eventually," he reassured her. "May I take a closer look at her?"

If the problem was indeed that serious, the only thing to do for now was to conceal her appearance—just like Lorgar's ears, who would look like a normal person as long as she wore a hat.

"Of course." Margaret waved at Joan and said, "Come here, dear."

But the latter only took a quick look at them and then hid again.

"Uhm... Your Majesty, I'm sorry but she probably isn't used to such a big crowd." Margaret bowed apologetically.

"It seems like you scared her." Nightingale gloated next to his ear.

Roland glared at the space next to him, coughed twice and said, "It doesn't matter. She has to stay in Neverwinter for a while anyway. She will get used to it eventually. Let's head over to the shipyard for now."

...

In order to build the steel ship, Roland specifically cleared an empty space of nearly a hundred acres south-west of Shallow Beach and asked Lotus to build a wall around it, forming a barrier which prevented anyone from peeking in from the outside. Apart from setting up sentry towers at its four corners, he also arranged the First Army to guard it. Therefore, apart from the onsite workers, not many people knew how this massive ship, which required the agglomeration of all the top industrial production lines within Neverwinter City to be built, looked like in the end.

As they entered through the wall and arrived at the bottom of the zigzagging staircase, an exclamation of uncontrollable amazement erupted within the group.

Everyone's attention was drawn by the huge structure displayed in front of them.

That was definitely not an exaggeration.

When admiring the ship from below, the first thing one would see was the towering ship hull—different from the round hulls of the three-masted sailing ships, the side of its hull was perpendicular to the ground while the base was so flat that there was no sign of any extruded keel. Since their view was limited, everyone felt as if they were standing under a towering steel wall, and one could only succumb the feeling of pressure that it gave off.

"In the name of the Three Gods... am I dreaming?"

"How heavy it is? Must be more than 20 thousand tonnes."

"Even the biggest sailing ship wouldn't be able to withstand an impact from it!"

"Don't even mention sailing ships. I'd bet that even deep-sea monsters would flee in its presence!"

"Thunder... no, Lord Flyingbird, you didn't tell us that we were going to sail on such a monster!"

The order within the group was instantly scrambled as the sailors ran towards the ship. They started touching and knocking its hull, unable to contain their enthusiasm.

All of them were the most experienced sailors of the Fjords, and even though they had never seen something like this before, they still understood its uniqueness.

As for Thunder, his shock on his face was no lesser than the rest. In fact, it was even more.

When Roland had mentioned in his letter that the ship was made entirely of steel from top to bottom, he had assumed that he was exaggerating—after all, even in normal wooden ships, the best wood and materials would only be used in the key parts of the ship. Therefore, when recruiting his men, he had only described the ship as an ocean-going vessel without sails, which contained a steel skeleton strong enough to withstand the huge waves of the Sealine.

But what his eyes saw now proved that was not the case.

Even though he knew that Neverwinter was very adept at ship construction, yet he had never imagined it would be to such a level. The amount of materials alone were so terrifying that it would be impossible to gather all them in the Fjord Islands, not to mention the technique that was used to join the hard steel together.

How valuable is steel?

Among the various commodities, iron ore was not considered luxurious as a palm-sized crude iron ingot could be sold for about 30-40 silver royals. But if it was forged into steel, then its price would multiply by over tenfold. It would be so valuable that knights would usually treat their steel armor as family heirlooms and pass them on from generation to generation.

The reason for the high price of steel was how time-consuming its processing was. In an entire lifetime, a blacksmith could only make about seven or eight sets of qualified steel armors. In other words, even if all the blacksmiths of the Fjords were gathered, they would not be able to make so much steel even over a dozen years.

What he first ordered from Roland was just a steam paddle steamer, which, according to the Fjords' Chamber of Commerce, cost around three to four thousand gold royals. So when the other side said they would only charge the production fee, he did not really consider it as a large favor. That was because the worth of a new Sealine was far more than the cost of the ship itself. Since the King of Graycastle only wanted to exchange intelligence, this trade could not be considered as him taking advantage of the other side.

He had even planned to pay Roland the full cost of the ship after the exploration of the Sealine, as a reward for him taking care of his daughter and because he wished for Lightning to have a better life in Neverwinter in the future.

But now Thunder finally realized that, even by considering only the cost of the materials alone, the price of this ship would still be an astronomical figure.

He could not help but feel sorry for his purse.

Chapter 955 - An Unexpected Reunion

When Thunder brought up his question, Roland could not help curling his lips into a smile.

He had to admit that the explorer was very good at grasping the nature of problems. By the standards of this era where everything was handcrafted, the price of any massive industrial product would be an astronomic number. However, Roland would definitely not charge Thunder based on the actual overhead cost of shipbuilding. It would just sound too businesslike and would definitely not help foster a healthy and sustainable relationship between them.

As a matter of fact, the immediate launch of the two concurrent projects, the steel ship and the railway train, was largely attributed to the newly built steelmaking facilities after the success of the converter experiment in Neverwinter. The steel mill, which had now become completely independent of the witches, had created a virtuous cycle for efficient production. The whole steelmaking process, which included ironmaking in the Blast Furnace Zone, charcoal production in the coker unit, obtaining liquid steel, and forming ingots had become mechanized.

Other than a few workers, there were only auxiliary machinery powered by steam engines in the entire plant. The steamy water vapor mingled with the ashes formed a unique phenomenon at North Slope Mountain known as grey fog. People would notice the mountainside was overcast by a layer of "smoky clouds" when they looked up at the Impassable Mountain Range from somewhere high in the city.

As the steel mill was currently in full swing, the average daily output these days exceeded the annual output of a city in the past. The astonishing production rate thus lay a solid foundation for all the industrial projects in Neverwinter. With the introduction of automatization, everything would experience a drastic change, although few people understood what it actually represented.

"We can talk about money later, but I assure you that it would be much cheaper than you think." Roland smiled faintly. "Because money isn't an issue, I've said that the exploitation of unknown seas means a great deal to the entire human race. As the King of Graycastle, I would love to be part of that project."

Thunder's expression changed. He said, "I'm very impressed with your foresight... Few people are willing to spend money on something intangible. Even the Chamber of Commerce at the Fjords is more inclined toward investigating new routes that would bring potential benefits. Although you can't participate in the exploration yourself, you have a much larger ambition than many explorers."

"So, you were just speaking civilities back in the old king's city?" Roland thought indifferently. He believed nobody had a stronger desire than him to explore the world, for it concerned the origin of the Battle of Divine Will and the big secret behind it.

"Anyway, let's board the ship first." Roland smiled and changed the subject. "Since you're here, I'll show you around."

"That would be great, Your Majesty!" Thunder grinned.

...

Since Roland had no reference or precedent, the steel ship was a "nondescript" as it adopted different features of various classic ship models. Its front end resembled an ironclad, the bow of which slightly leaned outward, with an embolon underneath the waterline. The middle part of the ship was broadened to help the vessel maintain stability in severe sea conditions. The rear was flat like a modern ship. The total weight of the vessel was about 2,500 tons.

Roland had once attempted to incorporate some new and unusual technologies, such as a bulbous bow and a fin stabilizer, into its design to optimize its performance. However, a bulbous bow should be crafted separately based on the design and the speed of the ship, whereas a fin stabilizer required complex mechanical linkage to adjust its angle. In consideration of the time limit and the practicality of the project, he had abandoned these pursuits that apparently exceeded the abilities of the current technologies.

Nevertheless, it did not mean that this was an enlarged version of "the Roland", the shallow water gunboats. The steam turbine assembled by Anna alone was beyond the scope of Thunder and his party's understanding. Apart from that, it was the first time that a wind-up telephone was used for communication. Several telephone lines connected the command room, the machinery room, and the watchtower together. Compared to an on-and-off acoustic tube, the telephone worked much better. The captain could hear reports from various parts of the ship clearly with the telephone despite the loud noises of the sea.

It was also worth mentioning that the wind-up telephone was equipped with a bewitched Mini Dawn battery that could last long enough to complete a prolonged trip.

"This is... incredible." After the tour, Thunder exclaimed in the bright, spacious tower bridge. "It doesn't look like a ship to me but a moving castle above water."

Roland was amused at how fast Thunder had changed his thoughts of the ship. He said, "How about it? I didn't let you down, did I?"

"No, Your Majesty. I'm flattered." The explorer did not conceal his contentment at all. "She's the most beautiful ship I've ever laid my eyes upon. It exceeds my expectation from every aspect. I feel I can rule the whole Swirling Sea with her."

"Don't rush to a conclusion yet." Roland waved his hand. "To be completely honest, I know nothing about shipbuilding. Therefore, it's just a very complicated machine at the moment and not a real ship yet. It all depends on how she performs in the upcoming test. You have to provide me with a series of statistics, including her speed, stability, your crew number, the quantity of your food, etc. If things go well, you'll be able to set out for Shadow Sea after the Months of Demons this year."

"Know... nothing?" Thunder clucked his tongue. "If the old craftsmen at Fjords hear you say this, they would plunge into the sea out of mortification. By the way, if you can build such an amazing steel ship while knowing nothing about shipbuilding, what would you build if you did know something?"

"You'll get the answer to that question tomorrow." Roland left Thunder in suspense. "Enjoy the feast tonight first."

***************

The castle hall was alive with flickering lights as night descended.

Stones of Light that emanated a soft and steady glow replaced candles. The old long wooden table was replaced with a round one covered with white cloth. Wine glasses were replaced with a champagne tower. The band started to play violins. Ever since the treasure of the city hall had been filled with golds, the whole city had been freshened up and taken on an entirely new look. Even banquets had started to adopt the extravagant style of those in the old king's city. Most guests were prominent figures in Neverwinter and other cities of the alliance. The Witch Union was, of course, invited like they were every time.

"The man next to His Majesty is an explorer from your native town?" Lorgar cast a glance at the man with some interest and then turned to Lightning. "Aren't you going to talk to him?"

"His name is Sander Flyingbird, right?" The little girl shrugged and fed the pigeon hovering above her a slice of grilled mushroom. "I've never heard of him, so he must be a nobody. I have nothing to say to him. You don't know that there are numberless explorers at Fjords, most of whom are captains who only had a couple of long voyages. They didn't even experience hurricanes or huge waves." Lightning paused for a second and then asked, "By the way, why do I not see Mystery Moon yet? Didn't she say that she wanted to have a competition with us, the Exploration Group?"

"But a person that the chief receives shouldn't be a man of normality," "Like me..." Lorgar thought to herself while wagging her tail, "Perhaps he's got some information about your father."

After Lorgar joined the Neverwinter Exploration Group, she learned more about the other two members' backgrounds.

"I agree, coo!" Maggie chimed in. "It doesn't hurt to ask, coo!"

Lightning twitched her lips indifferently. "Since you insist, I'll go and say hello to him."

Chapter 956 - Thunder and Lightning

Although Lightning promised to go talk to the explorer, she did not have high hopes.

Roland also knew that she was seeking Thunder. If he had heard anything, he would have told her. Since he had not, it was most likely that the explorer knew nothing about it.

But anyway, she would do what Maggie and Lorgar had suggested so she could put their minds at ease.

Lightning walked up to the explorer but frowned immediately when she got a close look at the person. She was shocked by his florid fashion style.

The explorer from the Fjords named Sander Flyingbird appeared to be around 30. His right eye was masked. The eye mask was embroidered with a fresh rose. More than half of his face, however, was covered by the tattoo of rose twigs and leaves. Apparently, he had a horrible fashion taste.

Although an outstanding explorer should not judge a book by its cover, she was not impressed with his act of demeanor either.

It appeared that Sander Flyingbird was boasting about one of his thrilling adventures to other guests. It turned out he was just talking about Searing Flame Islands, but the words and expressions he used to describe his experience made people believe that he had reached the end of the ocean or the edge of Hell. It was true that Searing Flame Island was a perilous place, where lava constantly ejected from the bottom of the ocean and formed huge columns of steam that tended to block the view and burn crew members... Nevertheless, after generations of exploration, a full map of that area had been drafted. Adventurers simply needed to follow the correct route and enter the Island at a right time in order to avoid the dangers.

She had visited the main island of Searing Flame Islands, Flaming Mountain, with her father when she had not even reached the age of ten.

For the people of the Fjords, they only considered those who discovered new sailing routes, islands or relics as explorers. Since there were thousands of islands scattered around the Swirling Sea, a lot of people called themselves explorers, there were huge differences among them in terms of skills, experience, and abilities.

There were very few people who, in Lightning's opinion, could sit equal with her father, and Sander Flyingbird was obviously not one of them.

She instantly lost interest in him. While Lightning was hesitating, someone suddenly held her hand.

She looked up and found it was Aunt Margaret.

"Good timing, little girl." The female merchant beamed at Lightning. "Let me present Mr. Sander to you. He's an explorer from Twin Dragon Island and also the chairman of Dragonhead's Chamber of Commerce. He's also one of your father's admirers."

"I've already known his title." Lightning grumbled under her breath. However, since Aunt Margaret had already started the conversation, she had no choice but to manage a smile and say, "Hello, my name is Lightning. I am also from the Fjords, although I wasn't born on the Fjord Islands."

"Ah, so you're Sir Thunder's daughter?" Sander replied gleefully, "Ms. Margaret told me that the daughter of the greatest explorer is currently in Graycastle. We have finally met. Hmm... you do sort of look like Sir Thunder!"

"He's lying. Dad has never said I look like him. I look more like my mother whom I've never met." Lightning twitched her lips. "Thank you. Do you have any news about him?"

"I've only heard rumors. Some say he's ended up on an unknown island while others maintain that he's actually returned to Fjords. Because he encountered something unusual after the shipwreck, he keeps a low profile and is now recruiting new crew members for his next undertaking. I don't give a damn about other theories... especially those groundless rumors that harbor ill designs." Sander rambled on. "Of course, I'm personally inclined to the second theory. There're quite a few reefs around where the storm took place. Sir Thunder could definitely get himself out of trouble. In fact, many of his crew members survived the catastrophe."

This speculation was quite close to her own. Lightning felt the man was less distasteful.

She didn't really care if her father was looking for her or not.

As long as she stuck to her path as an explorer, she believed that they would meet again at some point in the future.

"By the way, can I ask which island you discovered?"

"Um..." There was a tinge of embarrassment in Sander's voice. "Well, I can't lie to His Majesty, but I became an explorer largely because of your father. The discovery of Shadow Islands has tempted many people, including the Chamber of Commerce, to further explore the area. We planned to deliver some supplies to a transfer island. Unfortunately, my fleet deviated from the original route due to an unexpected attack from a Sea Monster halfway, which later led us to the discovery of an island not yet marked on the map."

As Lightning had expected, Sander Flyingbird was that type of really lucky explorer who had just had a few expeditions.

"I see, but this is also the beauty of exploration, isn't it?" Lightning put on a serious look. "I'll let you and His Majesty talk." She then turned to Roland and performed a curtsy. "Your Majesty, please excuse me."

Roland seemed to be a little absent-minded because it took him a while to reply. "Ah... off you go," he said blankly.

Although she noticed that His Majesty looked a bit weird, Lightning did not take it seriously as she thought Roland was subject to Nightingale's protection. Instead of worrying about Roland, she should get prepared for the upcoming competition. It was literally the first contest after the foundation of the Exploration Group, so she must not allow a defeat!

...

Watching the little girl scuttle away, Roland was dumbstruck.

Thunder is a born actor!

His acting was so seamless that even his own daughter was not suspicious!

"No, that isn't technically right." If he had not known that the person in front of him was Thunder, he would have never associated with the "Sander Flyingbird" currently standing right next to him with the person who had gotten off the ship.

The primary reason to hold this particular feast was to give an appropriate explanation for Thunder's presence. Therefore, Roland had intended to arrange two separate reception halls, one big and the other small, where the small one would be used for receiving guests of honor. It was also a common practice among nobles. However, Thunder thought it was unnecessary for such formalities and insisted that one hall would do.

Roland had no issue with it either way. After all, Thunder was the person who did not want to meet his daughter. Yet to Roland's great dismay, Thunder had completely turned into a different person when he had shown up at the party with his fur coat off. Thunder told Roland that the change of his appearance was actually the joint effort of a gel substance and pearl powder. The dramatic tattoo and eye mask were also for the purpose of diverting people's attention to prevent them noticing the difference between the gel substance and his naked skin.

As for the change in his voice, it was a skill Thunder had developed over years of exploration.

But Roland did not buy his explanation.

He believed that everyone had his own distinctive character. Even if he could change his voice and appearance, it was still not that easy to escape the scrutiny of his own daughter who had lived with him for over 10 years.

Nonetheless, Thunder's acting made Roland believe that there were people who possessed this extraordinary talent. In an instant, the original 40-year-old explorer had been replaced by a dandy, boastful young leader of Dragonhead Chamber of Commerce.

Roland only knew one other person who had the same level of acting skills and that was May.

Chapter 957 - A Challenge from Mystery Moon

"Thank you." When there were just Margaret and Nightingale around, Thunder dropped his fake smile and said to Roland sincerely, "I'm very happy about her current status. Now I know that I made the right decision back then. I'll leave her in your care."

"She's grown up..." Margaret remarked impressively. "The way she mimicked the tone of adults made you just want to press the poor little thing to your bosom."

"Hey, that's what you're really thinking, isn't it," Roland said within himself. Then he said, "But Lightning hasn't given up on her undertaking. Although she lives here, she formed her own exploration group, despite that there are only three members. She would eventually catch up unless you lock her up now."

"If that's unavoidable, then it's her destiny." Thunder forced a smile. "But not now at least. I hope she can live a happy and safe life before that day comes."

Having said that, the Battle of Divine Will was right around the corner. Even Lightning stayed away from the ocean, she was not safe there. Once Neverwinter, which was at the very front of the battle, fell, the entire human race would be doomed. Roland did not tell Lightning about this greatest crisis that human beings would ever encounter, for he knew the war itself was the most magnificent adventure Lightning would ever run into. She would definitely not miss the opportunity to personally participate in it. Since he could not persuade her to withdraw from the upcoming battle, he did not want to burden her with such an unnecessary premonition of imminent disaster.

"Rest assured, I'll take good care of her." At length, Roland patted Thunder on his shoulder and said slowly.

...

"What did he say?" Lorgar put Maggie, who was perched in her arms, back onto Lightning's head and asked, "Did you hear anything about your father?"

The little girl shook her head and replied, "As I expected, there's nothing about his whereabouts. But don't worry, I prefer to find him myself with my team. That would be more interesting!"

"I agree, coo!" Maggie flapped her wings.

"By the way, is Mystery Moon here yet?"

"Nope."

"What the heck." Lightning twitched her lips. "Is she just going to bail on us? She promised us with such confidence before."

"By the way... what's the challenge she issued to us?" Lorgar was curious.

"I have no idea, coo!"

"Huh?"

"We, the Exploration Group, are ready to accept any challenge, no matter what they are," Lightning said triumphantly.

"That's right, coo!" Maggie chimed in while craning her neck.

"Ugh..." The Princess of the Wildflame Clan clapped her hand over her forehead, totally speechless. She started to wonder what a chaotic group she had joined.

"Sorry, I'm late..." Just then, they heard Mystery Moon's voice coming from behind them. Lorgar turned around and saw Mystery Moon and Lily trotting toward them, followed by Summer and Sharon.

"I thought you weren't coming." Lightning folded her arms.

"Why wouldn't I?" Mystery Moon cried. "I was just tied up with some investigation work. This is also a necessary step for the contest to run smoothly."

"Alright then." Lightning shrugged indifferently. "Now can you tell us what the contest is?"

"Of course I will. However, before that, I'd like to introduce my team first." Mystery Moon opened her arms and pushed the other three girls forward. "I announce that this is the date for the official establishment of Neverwinter Detective Group. These are the new members I just recruited!"

"Huh?"

"Detective... Group?"

"What's that, coo?"

"No, I'm not a member!"

The witches reacted differently to the remark. Lorgar and Maggie both stood stupefied, having no clue as to what was exactly going on, whereas Summer and Sharon were clearly confused. Lily, on the other hand, yelled in annoyance.

"It was His Majesty! His Majesty!" Mystery Moon explained hastily. "Wendy told me that His Majesty knows that we went to the academy to investigate the arson. He then taught me this word, which means uncovering the unknown and searching for truth. In addition, he gave me a special title as well."

"Really?" Lightning looked incredulous.

"You can ask Wendy. I remember it's called front-load... front-load washing machine." Mystery Moon scratched the back of her head. "But Wendy doesn't know the exact meaning either."

"Searching for the truth of a crime..." Sharon muttered ponderously. "If it helps with the security of Neverwinter, I'd like to be a part of it."

"Would there be any problems if I join?" Summer pointed to herself. "Miss Nightingale said I'm already a member of Security Bureau."

"It would be fine." Mystery Moon gave a thumbs-up. "Lightning also needs to scout for the First Army from time to time, doesn't she? As long as we put priority on His Majesty's orders, there shouldn't be a problem."

"Sorry, but please don't count me in." Lily rolled her eyes. "There are tons of samples I need to record in the laboratory, and the size of the mushroom plant has to be doubled again. I really don't have time for your game. Call me a traitor if you like, but it won't change anything!"

"Traitor!"

"You..."

"Wait, my bad. Let me finish." Mystery Moon nagged. "I'm serious this time. You should all know that His Majesty received some guests from Fjords, right?"

"That's quite obvious." Lily snapped impatiently. "What do you think this feast is about?"

"But my point is that there's a witch among them." Mystery Moon continued, "I was inspecting the illumination at the port when they arrived..."

"You were just idling about, weren't you? Nobody would turn on lights during the daytime."

"Ahem, and then I noticed her." Mystery Moon ignored the blatant flaw that Lily had just pointed out in her story and said, "I've heard that the Fjord people will be staying at Neverwinter for quite a few months, and this includes the witch. So, she'll be the very subject of our contest."

"Oh, really?" Lightning was intrigued, "Tell me about it."

"The first team that successfully persuades her to join their group wins the game!" Mystery Moon proclaimed. "The Detective Group is considered the biggest organization under the Witch Union because we have four members. However, since the Exploration Group was founded earlier, I would say we're tied for now. The winner of this competition will thus decide which team is the stronger of the two!"

"Haha." Lorgar almost bit her tongue. She could barely suppress her laughter. "To team up with a stranger witch?"  Although she knew the contest did not have to be as formal as a holy duel, she was both amused and astonished at the playful manner in which they set up the competition. 

To Lorgar's surprise, however, both Lightning and Maggie looked grave, particularly Maggie. She was apparently in a state of alert, as her tail was high up in the air.

Princess Lorgar cried in silence. She wondered if she could still withdraw from the competition.

"Although I don't think you can judge a team by the number of its members, I accept the challenge!" Lightning patted her chest.

"Coo, coo!"

"Don't ever take it lightly." Mystery stuck out one finger. "First, the witch named Joan can barely talk, so it's hard for her to communicate with others. Second, she's so frightened that the poor thing senses danger from any invitations from strangers, just like us back then when we were wanted by the church. So, it's going to be a time-consuming project. As for the rules of the game, whichever team that first wins her over wins the game. How does that sound?"

"I have no issue with it." Lightning nodded.

"Hang on... I have a question." Lorgar made the last attempt to get herself out of the contest. "If what you said is true, she would only be here for a few months. In that case, there's no point to argue which group she would join eventually. Whether it's the Detective Group or the Exploration Group, it'll make no difference to her."

"That isn't true." Mystery Moon refuted gravely. "If we can help her walk out of the shadows and open up to us, everything would be worthwhile. Perhaps, it means nothing to an ordinary person, but to her, it will be the sunshine that lightens up her life, and this was also what His Majesty did for us in the first place."

In an instant, Lorgar's heart missed a beat. It suddenly occurred to her that these girls were probably not as juvenile as she had thought them to be.

"Hold on, who told you all this?" Lily drew her brows together.

"Well..." Mystery Moon was at a loss for words.

"Did you—" She cast a suspicious glance at Mystery Moon and then at Summer before she uttered an exclamation of surprise. "Did you ask Summer to use her ability to eavesdrop on His Majesty?"

"No, no!" Mystery Moon explained quickly. "We simply went back to the time when they visited the dock. It was nothing confidential, as His Majesty made a speech in front of everybody!" With these words, she stole an embarrassed glance at Lightning. "I swear in the name of electromagnetic power!"

"You were way over the line this time. I'm going to report to Wendy!"

"Trai — no, I swear I'll never do it again!"

"I don't trust you!"

"I'm serious!"

"You always lie to me!"

"If I lie to you again, I won't have any more Chaos Drinks. Hey, don't go!"

While the Detective Group was experiencing an internal conflict, Maggie leaped into flight abruptly and flew to the other side of the hall.

Only Lightning and Lorgar saw her leave.

Lorgar saw the pigeon flit across the hall and descend on a round table. It picked up a piece of barbeque meat with its beak and landed on Joan's shoulder.

The girl seemed to be startled at first, but she was soon attracted to the bird. Afterward, she even took the barbeque meat the bird offered her.

The wolf girl turned to Maggie and lifted up her ears.

Shortly afterward, she captured the conversation between them.

However, she could barely understand it.

"Coo."

"Ya."

"Coo, coo—coo!"

"Ya Ya."

"..."

Around seven or eight minutes later, Maggie rose in the air and landed on Lightning's head again.

"She agreed to join the Exploration Group, coo!" Maggie announced triumphantly.

Chapter 958 - A Heartbreaking Friendship

"What happened there?" As Roland and Margaret were talking, Margaret uttered an exclamation of surprise. "What's Joan... doing?"

Roland also noticed the commotion on the other side of the hall. He saw Margaret's witch friend leave her spot and, escorted by her maid, slowly walk toward Lightning and the other witches.

Maggie, on the other hand, was flying back and forth, seemingly delivering messages for her.

At first, Joan was so nervous that she clung to her maid the whole time. She only poked her head out when Maggie was around. However, when she and Maggie gradually got to know each other, the situation soon changed.

She not only started to talk to the witches but even reached out her hands to touch Lorgar's ears and tail in a gentle manner.

"Now I see." Roland could not help smiling. "Lightning is indeed quick at making friends."

"That's... unbelievable." Margaret clapped her hand over her mouth. "You know how long it took me to persuade Joan to come ashore? It took me a good two months, and I had to ask Ms. Camilla to help me."

"How did she do that?" Thunder was also surprised.

"She doesn't have to do anything, but just take Maggie and Lorgar with her," Roland explained with a smile. "What Joan truly fears is the abhorrence with which people treat foreign races or people of different appearances. Perhaps, Joan views both the pigeon and the wolf girl as people of her kind."

"Her... kind?" Margaret echoed.

"Yes. You've met Maggie before, but Lorgar bears more similarities to Joan than Maggie." Roland then told Margaret about some of the animal features of Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan. "Anyway, you don't need to worry whether she would be able to blend in."

"Has the witch called Lorgar... never been rejected by anyone?"

"If she wasn't, she wouldn't have come to Neverwinter. Even in the Southernmost Region where witches are generally treated as Divine Ladies by every clan, one with a mishappened figure would still be regarded with evil forebodings." Roland shook his head. "Of course, not everyone in Neverwinter accepts them, but the discrimination would be a lot more subtle than in other places. As for the Witch Union, nobody would ever discriminate another because of her look. Everyone has gone through the same pain and fully knows the nature of their abilities. They would be more than happy to have a new member."

"People fear the unknown." Thunder sighed. "What first motivated me to become an explorer was purely money, but now I want to cover as much untrodden land as possible before I die. There are so many mysteries in this world that await us. If people are just satisfied with the place where they were brought up, they would probably be bound by fear for the rest of their life."

"This is also the reason I support you." Roland raised his glass. "There's an old saying: a person will eventually become as great as his thought. You'll go down in history if you can think that way."

"Thank you," Thunder replied with a smile and clunk his glass. "I'll try my best to not disappoint your expectations. You can count on me."

Margaret gazed at Joan for a long time, as if she were lost in thought. After quite a while, she turned around and bowed to Roland, with her hand on her chest. "Your Majesty, I have a bold request."

"Say it."

"I planned to take Joan back to the Fjords and persuade her to settle down where she was born after this exploration is over," Margaret said in a soft voice. "The life on the sea is too lonely and I don't want to see her continue this way. But now I changed my mind..." Margaret paused for a second and then asked, "Your Majesty, can I entrust her to you?"

"You want her... to stay in Neverwinter?"

"If Joan stays at the Fjords, she would probably ground herself and speak to very few people. But she can make some true friends here." Margaret nodded. "She left the ocean, which she is so used to, and followed me here. I don't want to fail her trust. I truly feel nowhere is more suitable for her than Neverwinter."

"That's not a problem." Roland smiled faintly. "This is exactly what the Witch Union was founded for."

"Now that I have your promise. I'll fully trust you on the matter." Margaret dipped in a curtsy, relieved.

***************

Lily returned to her bedroom, yawning, and hung her wet towel on the rail. When she was about to read the biology book before going to bed, she heard Mystery Moon mutter behind her.

"We lost... we lost... we lost..."

Lily rolled her eyes, pretending she did not hear the repetitive mumble, and opened the book indifferently.

The murmur, as she had expected, grew louder immediately.

"The Detective Group lost... the Detective Group lost... the Detective Group lost..."

"Are you done or not?" Lily felt her temples throbbing. She sat upright and yelled, "Can't you just go to sleep?"

"But we lost." Mystery Moon buried her face in the pillow and grumbled resentfully. "Aren't you sad at all? I already had a plan on how to make her side with us. I was so close! Look at the way they communicate. It doesn't seem that they understand each other. How did they do that? Did they know each other from before? Now the Exploration Group is equal to the Detective Group in number, and we're no longer the biggest organization..."

Lily had no comment. Mystery Moon was not, evidently, very close to winning because the Exploration Group had literally defeated them before they had even started. "Why do I have to feel sad about it? I have nothing to do with you." Lily interrupted her never-ending whining. "I reiterate. There were just three people in the Detective Group at the beginning and now you have lost the game and are outnumbered. You are flattened. You'd better dissolve the group before it isn't too late."

With these words, she returned to her book and was determined not to talk to her roommate anymore, no matter how hard she tried to get her into a conversation.

To her surprise, however, Mystery Moon stopped bothering her. For a moment, the room was unusually quiet.

This isn't right. 

Lily was a little worried and wondered if she had been too harsh on Mystery Moon. Although Mystery Moon could be a bit annoying sometimes, she meant well. If there had not been such a ridiculous competition, Joan would probably have never opened up to them so quickly. Although Mystery Moon should not have eavesdropped on His Majesty, it was, essentially, not a mistake with serious consequences... Maybe she had been a little too serious over the matter.

Suddenly, an idea formed in her mind.

Unlike her, Mystery Moon used to be very reserved and timid. Due to her ability, she had constantly been scolded by Cara back in the Witch Cooperation Association and everybody had treated her as an invisible person. Thanks to the Witch Union, she had finally become more outgoing and sociable. Lily wondered whether her reproach would make Mystery Moon slip back to her old ways and sink into a state of dejection again.

At this thought, Lily regretted yelling at her so severely.

She swallowed hard and slowly turned around, about to apologize.

But she was met with a ten dollar note in her face.

Mystery Moon was standing behind the bed, arms out. She thrust the note right under Lily's nose.

"Wh-what're you doing?" Lily was frightened.

"I beg you not to leave the Detective Group. I'm willing to offer you a bottle of Chaos Drink in exchange!" Mystery Moon screwed up her face. "If you leave, there's not a single chance for the Detective Group to turn the situation around!"

"I already said I'm not one of you. Can't you listen?" Lily clapped her hand over her forehead, speechless but at the same time relieved. She was happy that Mystery Moon was not as fragile as she had thought.

After a long silence, Lily took the ten dollar bill from Mystery Moon.

"You agreed?" Mystery Moon's face lightened up.

"No." Lily tapped the desk. "I have many things to deal with and have absolutely no time to play games with you. But I can give you a hint as a return for your 10-dollar note. I can also give you my counsel provided that it won't take up my work hours. At least, my advice would be much more practical than befriending some random witch."

"What hint?"

"I'm not the right person to help you expand your team. Not everyone in the Witch Union is as busy as Soraya. You can turn to those idlers." Lily felt guilty for selling out those witches and muttered an inaudible "sorry" under her breath. "Think about it. Who else helped you find the clues in the arson of the Academy?"

"Um... do you mean Evelyn? No, I can't ask her. Although the group activities won't take a lot of time, she still needs to manage her own tavern."

"Not her."

"Um... then Amy?" Mystery Moon looked hesitant. "But she isn't from Graycastle and she has her own companions as well..."

"Isn't that even better? Once she joins the Detective Group, all the other witches from the Kingdom of Wolfheart would follow." Lily counted on her fingers. "Annie can be busy, but neither Hero nor Broken Sword is. Plus, you have a joint project with Broken Sword... Does it really matter to you where they come from? Joan's from the Fjords. Why don't you have a problem with that?"

"I see!"

"And then there are the combat witches who previously belonged to the Bloodfang Association. They have a lot of free time and shouldn't refuse if you ask. Now the Detective Group will have a lot more members than the Exploration Group. At least, you outnumber them. But remember not to bother His Majesty, nor should you challenge the Exploration Group at random." Lily advised. "I just feel that it's impossible for you to beat them, although I don't know why."

"Because you favor them." Mystery Moon pouted.

"No, I don't! Anyway, that's all that I want to say. Now go to bed and don't bother me again." Lily waved.

"Alright..." But Mystery Moon soon turned around again.

"What's the matter?" After experiencing some mood swings, Lily found herself be more patient than before.

"Well, it would be better to get things straightened out now than have a problem later," thought Lily.

"That ten dollar note is your reward if you join the Detective Group..." Mystery Moon said hesitantly. "Since you've decided not to, can I have it back?"

At that moment, Lily heard something break in her heart.

" NO WAY! GET OUT OF HERE!"

Chapter 959 - Witnessing History

The next day was Neverwinter's fourth holiday in autumn and the first weekend in mid-autumn.

As there weren't any stories such as Genesis told in this world, most people were busy all year around looking for food. Since Roland implemented the rule of "one day off every seven days", his subjects owed their gratitude to him. No one would complain about such a kind lord who let them take a day off without deducting their pay.

In particular, all the refugees, who moved in from other cities, were so determined to settle in Neverwinter after they had experienced the life here, that even the demons that City Hall had announced all over Neverwinter could not scare them off. Compared to hunger and poverty, even the demons had become insignificant to them.

According to Barov's report, the rest day system scarcely impacted the production of Neverwinter and after it was officially popularized, workers could take rests of their own free will. Many people chose to work on the holiday to get paid more. Moreover, the trade of the city grew substantially, largely thanks to the booming business in the square where people visited every weekend. The square had attracted not only local merchants but also the traders from other cities, who would set up their stalls on weekends and then replenished their stock with the specialties of the Western Region during the weekdays before they went back their homes and made a fat profit by selling them.

With more concrete boats put into use, the goods circulated much faster in the market with a cycle time shortened to just weeks, which was something beyond imagination a year ago. In the past, the nobles and dealers in the inland cities, such as Redwater City, could only eat pickled fish, yet now refrigerated fresh fish shipped from Shallow Port was able to be served at their dinner table.

In light of that, Roland decided to set the activities, like important speeches, demonstrations, and all kinds of commendation ceremonies, on rest days, trying to take advantage of people's shopping habits to further boost trade. As the goods were sold and the deals were made, he could collect more taxes, which would certainly make up for the wages he paid to his people on rest days. In summary, it was a move that served multiple purposes.

This weekend was no different. Under the cloudless sky, the last hint of the warmth of summer mingling with the cool breeze of autumn had created another perfect day for people to go out. From the dock of the inland river to the northern city wall, the streets were packed with people who were waiting in anticipation.

Yet, this time, they were not on their way to the Convenience Market, where they could buy some good meat, but were here to witness their king's new invention.

An unprecedented transport, "the train", was about to make its first trial run.

Victor, the jeweler, was among the crowd.

After hearing the news of the trial from the City Hall's propaganda, he immediately handed over the big deal he was negotiating to his men and embarked on the concrete boat traveling from the old king's city to Neverwinter that very night.

Victor was definitely among those who were highly impressed by the changes in the Western Region over the past few years. He had visited the lord of the land when it was merely an isolated, small town and only had a hazy memory of the lord, who was a fat middle-aged noble and always complained about how barren his land was. If it was not for the fine gemstones that he could get from the town, Victor would never have traveled beyond Longsong Stronghold.

Victor used to only visit the Western Region once a year, and whenever he came, the small border town was as dilapidated and decayed as it had been before. But in the last three years, he had visited here much more often, and the frequency had grown to once per month, particularly after Roland Wimbledon announced that he was building a city here.

It was as if the Western Region of Graycastle had become different world.

Time must run quickly here as a single day turned into the equivalent of months of progress and those months turned into years as he could not see how Neverwinter had changed so fast.

As Victor entered a tavern by the street, the owner immediately came over and welcomed him, "I knew you would come. The table by the window on the third floor has been specially reserved for you."

He quickly pulled out a silver royal and tossed it to the owner. "Lead the way."

"Alright. Please follow me."

Victor, who had been a regular of the tavern, naturally did not have to stay with the crowd on the street. There were also many people on the third floor, but at least he could have a better view.

People around him had been in heated discussions about the demonstration today.

"The train is going to run on that narrow street? That's too far from the square and residential areas."

"Street? Ignorance! That's called a railway, the thing used in the mining area," someone said, laughing. "Since it's not built for people to ride, it's better to be placed somewhere less crowded. Do you take it as a wagon?"

"You mean the thing in the Silver City's mine?"

"Yes, it was manufactured here and needs a steam engine to work."

Victor could not help joining the discussion. "I've seen the cart driven by the steam engine. Its great advantage is that it is immune to different terrains. But if it's put on flat ground, even mules are able to replace it. So I don't think it works as simply as you said, or the City Hall wouldn't call it 'an era-defining transport'."

"Perhaps it's only a stunt," a man murmured.

"Go away," the people around the man cried immediately. "Is this your first time in Neverwinter? King Roland never boasts."

The man looked unconvinced and wanted to argue but was abruptly interrupted by a loud whistle from far away.

"Woo——————"

"It's coming!" The atmosphere of the room went wild. Everyone looked out of the windows and stared unblinkingly at a small street near the Castle District. Some of them even took out telescopes.

Victor also looked at where the sound came from.

A long and black beast appeared behind the houses, coming slowly in sight. It was huge, and above its two wheels was its head that looked like a metal pail, on top of which there was gray smoke pumping out, just like a working steam engine.

A wagon ran alongside the head of the train, drawn by two horses, moving as fast as the train, as if the two were competing. However, since the wagon was laden with ore, the driver of the cart must keep whipping to drive the horses forward, and every step the horses took was strenuous. If the hub of the wheel was not iron-forged, the wagon would have collapsed already.

As the full exterior of the train was revealed, Victor, despite himself, felt the hairs on his back stand up.

Carriages, one after another, followed the head of the train. Each was four or five times larger than the wagon and laden with ore. In terms of volume, one carriage was almost on a par with a cargo sailing ship on the inland river.

The point was that the train contained more than one carriage.

For a moment, all the audience exclaimed with admiration.

"Four...the fourth!"

"The fifth!"

"There can't be more!"

"My God! The sixth!"

"There's more, the seventh!"

The monster-like head trailed a total of seven carriages, moving steadily across the clearing before the castle.

Now Victor found the answer to his question.

There was a big difference between a steam engine that was fixed in the entrance to the mine to power the carts and a steam engine that could move independently and freely.

The latter could carry goods to wherever the railway stretched. The weight would no longer be the bottleneck of land transportation. On the contrary, the capability of the train would outstrip that of the river transportation. His Majesty could even empty a city in a short time by carrying everything away on the train if he wanted.

Being born as the son of a merchant, Victor naturally knew the importance of transportation, which was often the reason why most cities were built near rivers. Obviously, such kind of transport would bring limitless possibilities for the circulation of the resources, so the word "era-defining" was far from being over dramatic.

An unspeakable feeling came over him, he could feel content and lost and... It was like he had witnessed history yet meanwhile he had been forsaken by history. The lords in other kingdoms were still drowning themselves in pleasures and traveling by horses and mules on the road that was paved with bricks and full of mud.

They, however, were entirely unaware of what had happened here and still felt good about themselves.

Somehow, an idea emerged in Victor's head.

The future had already come, yet it did not arrive at all places equally.

Chapter 960 - New Enemies Spotted

In the days following the train's demonstration, there was an air of enthusiasm in Neverwinter.

Even Roland could feel it in the castle. It was not his opinion but a conclusion based on the data in a report sent from City Hall.

Barov held the report and said, filled with joy. "The applications for citizenship we've received In the past three days are 60% more than that of normal times, and half of the applicants, about 725 people, have just moved in less than two months ago. In other words, it only took us three and a half months to get the number of applications that should have taken us five months to collect! The number of applicants decreased slightly after the demons' attack, but now it not only offsets the difference, but also shows a surge, which means that we don't need to worry about people's concern over the demons anymore. Your Majesty, the demonstration is a huge success."

Since Roland introduced the Data Statistics and Comprehensive Analysis to the management, the City Hall Director started to put numbers in his report. As time went on, more numbers were adopted and went into detail. It seemed to Barov that no conclusion could be brought forth without comparing data. Besides, he also invented some formulas for analysis, and one of them was called "period between the Arrived and the Settled".

Barov explained that the formula showed how determined the migrants were to become the citizens of Neverwinter. After the identity card was added in the city's rules, any refugees who wanted to be an official citizen had to come to the City Hall and submitted their application. Generally, one who had any specialties or a permanent residence would be eligible. In addition, the applications from people who had passed the examination of City Hall and had no bad records would be accepted by City Hall as well.

The newcomers, in spite of themselves, started to look forward to the card. In addition, because they made livings in different industries, it took them different periods of time to be able to afford a downpayment. Hence, Barov tried to calculate the average period of time those people spent, and in his opinion, the shorter the period was, the more loyal the people were to their king and the more faith they had in the new king's city.

However, Roland took a different view of that conclusion. He never trusted the loyalty of strangers. They might have real faith, but ultimately, they cared more about whether their own welfare was secured.

At any time, it was reasonable for anyone to side with the stronger, so showing the strength at the right time could significantly increase the cohesiveness of the people. The train was a good choice. Even though most people did not know what it really was, the overwhelming feeling that the huge size, the hundreds of tons of weight, and the roar of the cylinder had brought to them was unmistakable.

Even Thunder was awestruck by the train when it ran through the railway near the Castle District in an unstoppable way. Unlike ocean transportation, the weight of goods had always limited the land transportation, yet the train would apparently break that barrier. Thunder even joked that when he was too old to have any more adventures, he would move his whole family to Neverwinter, where the life was also a kind of adventure, for there were so many new things emerging all the time.

If the train could amaze the most famous explorer in Fjords, then its shock to the common people was beyond expression.

Where else could they find a place so promising?

Barov continued, "Also, we've received invitations from many merchants, some of which come from the Chambers of Commerce in Redwater and Silverlight. They've eagerly begged an audience. I think they want to know more about the train."

"Refuse them all," Roland said, smiling. "The train is not for sale at present, and they can't afford it even if I was willing to sell it. But you can promote other goods to them, like the first and the second generations of steam engines retiring from the mining area."

Neverwinter was not the poor border town any longer, and not all Chambers of Commerce were eligible to be received by Roland. For those who did not have a special association with him, the City Hall Director would be enough to handle them.

"I see." Barov touched his beard and said.

"Since the people were in high spirits, how about carrying out the new reserve force system?" Roland changed the subject.

Barov nodded. "No problem, I think. But... Your Majesty, do you really think the war would go that badly?"

"It's just in case. In a war that determines the fate of all human beings, shouldn't we take it more seriously?"

After Roland returned from the war, he had ordered the General Staff to draft the new reserve force system. It mainly contained two parts: Military education and training, and expanding the reserve force. Military education and training would be introduced into the primary education in order to train the students' basic awareness of discipline and knowledge of fighting. Expanding the reserve force would be carried out without interfering with the production. During the progress, the people would be trained in batches with all kinds of fighting skills. It could be regarded as a sort of militia.

Since the new military system was mandatory, it would not be more appropriate to carry it out at the moment when the people were enormously enthusiastic. Once the system began, Graycastle's military would become an organism that would be able to heal itself. That meant when the front line lacked men, the rear was able to send back up soldiers without any delay, while in the past, every batch of recruits had to run through two or three months' training all over again before they were qualified.

Roland planned to recall the Second Army, which had been turned into reserve troops, to Neverwinter, because the threat from the Timothy and the church had been lifted in the Longsong District. In addition, the previous two-pronged attack had reminded him of the necessity to set up a second army. When the Battle of Divine Will broke out, he did not need to personally march an army on the front line.

"Meanwhile, you can start preparing for the next military conscription," Roland commanded. "When the Months of Demons end, I want to see the soldiers in the official troops exceed 10,000 men, whose equipment was also well matched. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov promised without hesitation.

"Good, you can leave now... Wait!" Roland suddenly frowned.

"What else can I do for you?" Barov stopped and asked at once.

Roland's attention, however, was completely caught by Nightingale's words right now. She said, "News from Sylvie has just arrived. It's reported that she had spotted new movements from the demons. It seems that the Devilbeasts have expanded their patrol area and are building a new camp."

"Call them back immediately," Roland commanded her under his breath and then turned to Barov and said, "Convene a meeting of the officials from all departments. Something happened in the north."

...

Soon, the meeting room was full of people.

Sylvie, who had never been in a such a meeting, looked nervous when she was stating the details. Fortunately, Lightning quickly joined her and helped her tell the whole story.

It had been a routine investigation.

Due to the threat from the flying Devilbeasts, Roland had banned Lightning, Maggie, and Lorgar from going to the relic area of Taquila alone for safety reasons. Yet in order to keep an eye out for a sign of the demons, Maggie would carry Sylvie to investigate the edge of the area every four days. The phantom instrument had failed to locate the target precisely so that they had to rely on the witches to make up for its failings.

Thanks to the Eye of Magic, that could see far beyond the demons' range, they only needed to frequently fly out and watch the area from a safe distance.

But this time, the investigation team had spotted a trail of Devilbeasts within the distance that they thought was perfectly safe.

Chapter 961 - Two Plans

"What do you think?" Roland asked, looking at the light curtain on the wall. There was no doubt that Taquila survivors were the most qualified to analyze the demons' intention.

"It's an old trick of them," Alethea snorted coldly. "Due to intimidation failing to work, they will do it the hard way. As I've said before, they're great at combining intimidation with force to deal with the human lords. If it were a city of witches they confronted, they'd slaughter all the citizens once and for all."

"But last time you estimated that it would take them about half a year before they pushed towards us."

"Ahem, that's a result calculated from the average time they need to build a large camp. Maybe they're hasty this time." Alethea's voice sounded a little awkward. "The war situation is always changing. One would be foolish to stick in the mud. I didn't tell you to let down your guard."

"What? Are you kidding?" Roland knew it was necessary to keep watch on the enemies. But when and how to fight back was planned according to the time she had calculated. If the enemies had to spend half a year taking hold, his railway would've been able to stretch before them. By then, with an armored train and railguns, Roland was confident that the demons would have no energy to build any outposts.

"Alethea didn't mean to hide that on purpose. I agreed with her before," Agatha said, seeming to read Roland's doubt. "The Union had paid a high price for the timetable regarding the expanding of the red mist supply line. It remained right even before the Holy City fell. Half a year is the shortest period the demons need before their next move."

"You mean the demons need less time now and that the timetable that had cost so many lives is useless?" Edith shrugged. "Of course, it's understandable to see 400-year-old intelligence become invalid."

Roland felt his eyebrow twitching. The Pearl of the Northern Region, without any doubt, was among the ordinary people on the scene who dared to confront the blob monster. Considering that he was not a typical virtual person in this world, Edith would be the only one here who had the guts.

As expected, Alethea howled, "Common person, how dare you!"

Pasha chimed in before Alethea lost her temper. "Perhaps, it's the giant skeleton that makes the red mist supply line expand faster or the demons are planning something else. If they don't aim at attacking, they surely can set up an outpost earlier. After all, the supply of the red mist will determine how big the outpost will be. Hence, there is no need to quarrel with each other about it. It's his Majesty who gets the final say on how to tackle this problem."

Pasha lived up to the title of the real leader of the Taquila survivors, Roland nodded to himself. What she had said not only put down the possible quarrel but also took his feeling into account. Conversating was indeed an art.

The problem was still there. Whether the demons were plotting something else in the dark or they wanted to march toward Neverwinter soon, the result was that due to this change, Roland could not watch the relic of the Holy City anymore. In fact, Neverwinter did not have many choices. If phantom instrument could locate the target precisely, he might have more time to observe the enemy and see what they planned to do, but now he had to root out this obstacle before him as soon as possible.

"Get the First Army ready to march." Roland drew a deep breath and commanded Iron Axe.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Iron Axe answered briskly as he always did.

"A bold choice," Alethea praised. "Turning a blind eye to the coming war is no better than suicide. Only by keeping a close eye on the enemies' movement could we be better prepared."

"General Staff, come up with, at least, a plan before tomorrow nightfall." Roland cast a glance at Edith on purpose. "I also want to see how you deduce the plan."

"Your Majesty," Ferlin Eltek, Knight Morning Light, who had formally changed his career, said grimly. "According to Lady Sylvie, the flying Devilbeasts have taken over the place. It's almost impossible for the First Army to march on while staying unnoticed. Once we give ourselves away, we'll get stuck."

Roland knew that too. That was why he wanted to know the exact inference of the plan before they acted. He who designed the weapons for the army certainly knew that Ferlin had made his meaning clear in a tactful way. The anti-aircraft machine gun would lose most of its power if the soldiers could not set it up and take aim in advance. Moreover, unlike the defensive battle on the city wall, the enemies would come from all directions, which made it hard to preset the suitable barrage.

Besides, the construction of the railway was not finished yet, so they had to travel by foot to carry the war materials, and if the enemies intercepted the transport corps, it would be a significant loss.

There were about 400 kilometers between Neverwinter and the suspected outpost. Even though they subtracted the journey in the Misty Forest, they still had 170 kilometers to go, which could not be traveled in one day. Besides, the army would need to set up a camp, and according to the number of soldiers, there will be many tents to pitch. As a result of this, all the steps to make the camp would increase the risk of being spotted by the flying demons and that would become his army's Achilles heel.

Roland did not have as many men as Sylvie who could keep every transport corp away from the enemies during their journey. Nor did he depend on those recruits to fight back hard when they were attacked. If the army's supply line was destroyed, it might not be able to pull out, let alone push forward.

But he could not let anyone see his irresolution at this crucial moment. "I need to see the plan before we work out anything else."

"As you command, Your Majesty," Ferlin said with a hand on his chest.

...

A night slipped away unnoticed. The General Staff handed over the plan in the afternoon the next day.

There were two of them.

Edith Kant would be the reporter.

"You've stayed up all night?" Roland asked, noticing some slight puffiness under her eyes.

"Everyone was working so hard. How could I take a rest alone?" Edith shrugged. "Just take it as compensation for the mistake I made last time."

"Is she complaining?" Roland could not help asking inwardly. He then waved his hand and did not take it seriously. "Tell me the conclusion."

"Okay." She pointed at the left sheet of paper and said, "If we march on, as usual, the Devilbeasts will surely spot the main body of our troops. By then, the commander's ability will determine how the battle will turn out. Because the General Staff doesn't have the corresponding information, we just assume the worst. Our conclusion is that the First Army can accomplish the mission. However, they'll be routed by the demons and only half of the army, about 2500 men, can retreat to Neverwinter. The witches won't be in great danger, and all of them can safely escape if they don't make any rash moves."

"The result doesn't seem good." Roland rubbed his forehead. "Is there anything wrong with the logistics?"

"Yes," Edith said bluntly. "Once the demons attack the supply line, the First Army has to send reinforcements. However, it's impossible to stifle the enemies completely. As time goes the casualties get heavier, men's morale lower and the soldiers at the front get disheartened too. A week later, the attack from the enemies will become harder to track, and meanwhile, the main army starts to attack the enemies' camp, which can be regarded as the simplest part of the whole war. Your army will succeed in destroying the enemies' outpost, but the rear will be on fire."

"You mean Neverwinter?"

"No, it's a fire in the Misty Forest set by the demons, who have noticed something wrong in the forest. The fire will burn down the safe passage opened by Lady Leaf so that the transport corps have to take a detour, which is three times longer. That means the supply for the First Army will be cut off completely. As a result, the army starts to lose its advantage and has no choice but to withdraw." Edith cleared her throat and continued, "Of course, the number of the demons might be assumed a little high, but there is no certainty about that. Judging from the enemies' urgent action, I'm afraid they won't give up the outpost so easily."

Roland was amused. "The assumption of the high number of the enemies seems tolerable. But who the hell bring up the idea of a fire in the forest?"

"It's Knight Morning Light," Edith said imperturbably. "But after the analysis, we believe it's possible if the war lasts long enough for the demons to notice something wrong in the Misty Forest."

Roland had been ready to see any result, but he was still depressed by such an adverse inference. "What about the second plan? Don't tell me you came to the same conclusion. Are you busy all night for a negative answer?"

Roland also knew that if he wanted to rival the demons on the Fertile Plains, he needed to face the limit of the land transportation sooner or later. He would not bother to build a railway so hastily if he could quickly send the ammunition and the food to the soldiers at the front.

"No, Your Majesty." The Pearl of the Northern Region chuckled. "The second plan is different. Since we can't guarantee the safety of the supply line, we just let it disappear."

Chapter 962 - The Invisible Supply Line

"Oh?" Roland asked, raising his eyebrows. "Go ahead."

"Since the Taquila devouring worm can tunnel through the mountains of the Impassable Mountain Range, they can also be used to open up a passage under the Barbarian Lands," Edith said, as she held up two fingers. "Two worms working in parallel will be able to create a passage wide enough to allow a wagon to pass through it. I've already asked Minister Karl about it. The result he arrived at is that the unstable structure of the mud lands may make it impossible for us to open up a space that can accommodate an underground palace, like the one in the Third Border Town, but if we go deep enough, we should be able to open up a passable tunnel."

"How do we go about it?"

"The construction work should start within the main camp of the First Army. The entrance to the passage can be a shaft heading underground from the center of the camp, covered by a tent and disguised as an ordinary structure."

"What are we going to do with the passage after we retreat?"

"We seal the shaft and cover it with soil, leaving behind only a vent to maintain air circulation."

"How long the construction will take us?"

"It's expected to take two weeks more than the time needed to march the army to the combat zone. In fact, considering possible harassment from the demons, it's reasonable to assume we'll march slower. In this way, the greatest disadvantage of the First Army can be bypassed as well, as the army will appear in the shape of a fist, while the logistics tail behind it will be hidden. This 'fist' would instantly attract all their attention."

Roland could not help curling his mouth into a smile. It seemed that after a long night of consideration, this plan had already matured quite well.

"Were you the one who proposed this idea?"

"Kind of," Edith admitted honestly. "But it was a result of the cooperation between many departments. In addition to the Ministry of Construction, the Arithmetic Academy also joined in, though they weren't aware of the details of the second plan."

Roland wanted to praise Edith as being well-deserved of her reputation as the Pearl of the Northern Region. The most valuable point of this plan was not thinking the novelty of the idea itself but how she had exploited all the resources and tools available to refine the idea.

Ordinary people would never have taken the monster-like worm into account.

Also, the Arithmetic Academy had just been established for less than a year and, apart from the star observation, it had only been working on the tasks given by Roland. But she had already been trying to use the more professional personnel from this new department to perform the calculations and statistics for the underground passage.

It was gratifying to find someone had such accommodating views and extraordinary foresight.

In addition, somehow he had a faint illusion that the Edith in front of him seemed more remarkable than before, as if he had uncovered a deeper layer of her talents.

"Nice work," Roland encouraged. "Just follow this plan."

"Yes," Edith paused. "But there's one more thing I need to point out. Even if we adopt the second plan, casualties will still be unavoidable. Moreover, it won't be an easier battle than the one against the church at Coldwind Ridge. After all, the demons have the initiative this time, so before the First Army reaches the destination, they won't be able to set up stations and blockhouses to defend themselves as they did before."

"So, are you inclined to halt the troops and bide our time?"

"No, I intend to crack this nut, no matter how hard it is," she said slowly. "If the Battle of Divine Will is as cruel as the Taquila witches have said, it's absolutely necessary for the First Army to experience a trial of blood and fire before that war. It's only you who, I always think, cares so much about the soldiers' lives that you have to think twice before taking every step. Now that our new enemies, the demons, are unknown to all of us, and also possess inhuman abilities, so please be prepared for some casualties."

"This feels a little weird..." Roland thought. In the past, Edith was unlikely to say such words to her superiors, for her words would definitely have been viewed as an insult. Edith was too clever to make such a simple mistake at this level.

"Is it a backlash triggered by my reprimanding her last time?"

"But who cares?"

"As long as she serves me well, the rest is irrelevant."

"I see. You may take your leave," Roland said.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

When Edith withdrew, Nightingale showed up looking discontent. "How could a lord be wrong to care about his men? She obviously crossed the line!"

"I don't think she's wrong." Roland smiled. "Everyone has the right to their own beliefs. A wise leader must listen to all the different points of view in order to make a right decision." However, Roland disagreed in his heart. He had to think twice and take all aspects into consideration because he could not bear any losses at present. His soldiers were not a rabble of mercenaries and serfs. Almost all of them were literate. Some officers even understood charts and were able to make reports. He would take any action to reduce casualties.

Just as Nightingale was about to say more, the Sigil of Listening hanging across her chest suddenly glowed.

Roland's heart skipped a beat. He asked, "Is there some new movement from the demons?"

The communication was short. Almost right after Roland asked out loud, Nightingale gave her answer, her hand still pressed onto the sigil on her chest, "No, it's good news. The third batch of the witches from Sleeping Island, led by Lady Camilla Dary, will arrive at Neverwinter tomorrow evening."

"It was Tilly who sent the news..." Roland felt relieved. "Go and tell Wendy to welcome them in the same way did the last two batches."

These witches would be the last batch to move in, which accounted for almost half of the total witches of Sleeping Island. Now that Neverwinter had built the framework of Sleeping Spell, Roland could rest assured that Wendy would be able to take care of everything, including counting all the witches' abilities and recruiting them. For the rest of the witches, he believed that they would sooner or later accept the fact that the Kingdom of Graycastle was different from the one they remembered.

"No problem." Nightingale seemed to have already forgotten Edith's words. As she was about to enter the misty world, Roland suddenly stopped her.

"Hang on... Did you say that it was Camilla Dary leading the witches? The one who is preparing to go to the Sealine with Joan?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"Let me see..." Roland pondered for a moment. "The scenario Edith presented assumed that the demons always had the initiative. But maybe I can reduce their range of vision."

"Ugh, are these two things correlated?" Nightingale asked in a state of confusion.

"I'm not sure, but I have to try," Roland said with great interest. "I need to talk to Camilla personally when she arrives."

***************

As the boat sailed along the Redwater River into the Western Region, the fields on both sides of the river turned yellowish-brown, a color of harvested straw mixed with soil.

Judging from the high piles of straw, this year must have been another bumper year.

Standing at the bow of the ship, Andrea gulped the refreshing air of autumn. It mingled with a unique smell of the sun-baked farmland, giving her an inexplicable feeling of relaxation and contentment.

She did not know whether it was the lingering charm of the harvest or her anticipation of finally coming home.

Maybe both.

"Don't... they collect the straw?" A curious voice suddenly came from behind. "They make good kindling."

Andrea turned around and saw that it was a God's Punishment Witch who was speaking. Her name was Carol, if she remembered correctly.

"You know about it?" Andrea had asked her father about the straw when she had been a little girl. She had wondered why the farmers collected, baled, and piled the straw up after cropping the wheat. Her father told her that they had done it for the sake of living.

He had said, "They don't have enough money to buy firewood, so they have to collect anything that can make be burnt to keep them warm against the cold winter winds. The straw is a very good fuel, flammable and accessible, which is also preferred by many nobles who often use it to start a fire. When the people are short of clothes, they often use the straw as quilts. Although it produces thick smoke when it burns and pricks your skin when you sleep on it, it keeps the people from freezing to death. You may think the straw is useless, but for those who need it, it's as integral to their lives as the ear of wheat."

Chapter 963 - The Ultimate Form of a Gun

At that time, she did not understand the question. It was only after she was exiled from the City of Glow and experienced those days without shelter and food during the escape that she began to realize the heavy burden of "life".

However, Andrea did not expect to hear this question again from a Taquila survivor.

"Why shouldn't I know about it?" Carol asked, winking and smiling at her.

"No, I didn't mean that..." Andrea was a bit embarrassed and answered, "I thought you ancient witches never had to pay any attention to these matters."

"Because the common people took care of everything?" Carol asked, leaning on the railing, "In fact, I was never very different from those common people."

Andrea was a little surprised and asked, "How could that be true?"

"Although there is a fundamental difference between a witch and a common person, how could the Union spare too much energy for a weak non-combat witch? Unlike Phyllis, my ability and magic power were of the lowest rank after awakening, so I was almost forgotten by the Union during the latter part of the war." She looked at the waves as if she was recalling the past days. "During the days when I lost the allowance, I lived with a group of common people. After the city was invaded, I also relied on them to persist right up till the very last moment."

"But in the battle in the Kingdom of Dawn, your abilities were completely unlike those of a non-combat witch..."

Even Ashes the Extraordinary would not have been able to defeat her.

"Training for hundreds of years is enough to change everything," said Carol, opening her hand and clenching it slowly. "In fact, when compared to those previous companions, I even feel a little fortunate that I've become a God's Punishment Witch. At least I've become stronger now. I'm no longer ignored, and I'm able to do something for everyone. Since we met His Majesty, it's also been a new kind of reward."

Andrea suddenly realized that she might not have started talking to her for no reason. She asked, "Why... do you tell me these things?"

Carol looked up and answered, "Because I envy you."

Andrea was stunned and stared blankly at her.

"With your ability, even in the days of the Union, you would have been an excellent combat witch. Since you were able to have a High Awakening at such a young age, you could have become one of Taquila's superiors.", The God's Punishment Witch said lightly, "Did you know? At that time, my greatest wish was to join the Blessed Army and get a blessing from Lady Natalia before a battle. You could achieve it easily. Now I've lost the possibility to become stronger. On the contrary, you're still far from your limits."

Carol paused and said, "The stronger you are, the more challenges you'll meet and the more setbacks you'll encounter. But don't forget, no matter how much hardship you experience, you're already enviable."

Hearing that, Andrea suddenly understood.

She was comforting her.

After her father's belated apology and the farewell to her childhood playmates, she had been feeling down for quite some time. It was only as she was getting closer and closer to Her Royal Highness that her mood gradually improved. Apparently, the God's Punishment Witch had noticed this and chose to share her past experiences with her at this time.

That was right. These kinds of twists and turns were nothing to a Taquila survivor. As a witch, what she blessings she still had were far more than what she had lost.

"Thanks," whispered Andrea, after being silent for a moment.

Carol shook her head and replied, "I just told the truth." Then she stood up and walked back toward the cabin.

"By the way, about what you just asked," Andrea said loudly towards her back, "They bury the straw as fertilizer. After all, they don't need it for a fire in Neverwinter now."

The God's Punishment Witch did not look back, but made a gesture of "I understand".

Andrea also could not help raising her lips. She turned back to face the direction of Neverwinter, her heart full of expectation.

I wonder what Her Highness is doing right now? Ashes must make sure she stays next to her.

Needless to say, Shavi must be missing me. When I go back, I'll absolutely play cards overnight with her.

And when I traveled with Lorgar last time, Maggie helped to inform us of our journey in advance. At this moment she must be in the wastelands with Lightning, watching the demons' every move.

"Coo!"

A chirp came in the sky.

"Uh... Is this an illusion?" She seemed to have heard Maggie's cry.

As soon as Andrea looked up, she saw a fat pigeon descend from the sky and head straight for her face.

It's her indeed!

She could not find another pigeon heavier than Maggie.

"Ahem, you've become heavier!" Andrea pulled the pigeon down and spat the feather out of her mouth, "What about the demons in the northwest? Don't tell me that you're slacking off again!"

"Definitely not, coo!" Maggie argued, "It was His Majesty that told me to pick you up, coo!"

"But I'm coming soon..."

"I don't know either, but I'm absolutely not in the middle of nowhere, coo," said Maggie as she landed on the deck and turned into a Devilbeast. The ship immediately sank by a meter. "Hurry up. They're waiting for you, coo!"

For fear that the ship would soon turn upside down, Andrea immediately climbed onto her back and asked, "Wait... who... are 'they'?"

"Countess Spear and Miss Camilla, coo!" Maggie spread her wings and carried her toward Neverwinter.

...

They were not waiting for her in the Witch Building or Roland's castle.

An hour later, Andrea was directly brought to the outside of the boundary wall by Maggie. Besides Spear Passi and Camilla Dary, Anna, Sylvie, Lightning, Summer, and some other witches were also waiting for her on the grassland.

Roland was naturally there, as well.

"So you let her pick me up just to test a new weapon?" Andrea could not help holding her forehead after listening to the explanation. "Even if she hadn't come, I would have arrived at the inland river pier by tonight."

"But we can't afford to be delayed for a day," said Roland, simply telling her the news about the demons' strange move. "The First Army will start off tomorrow. Before it arrives at the entrance to the tunnel, the weapon specially made for you must be adjusted to a usable state."

"Is that so..." Andrea slightly frowned. The demons' actions always gave her a feeling of unease. There was still a while before the appearance of the Bloody Moon, so the demons seemed to be far too active right now. Anyway, they would have to attach great importance to any movement of the demons. The overnight card playing plans had to be temporarily postponed. She replied, "Got it."

She turned to look at a peculiar "gun" among the crowd. It was strange to describe it as a gun, as it was far too large. The barrel was as long as an adult. It did not seem to be the type of weapon which could be carried by an individual while marching and fighting.

It was only possible for Ashes to move around with it.

"What kind of weapon is this?"

"Anti-armor... No, you can call it an anti-Devilbeast sniper rifle," Roland replied.

Chapter 964 - Birth

According to Sylvie's observations, the reconnaissance team of the demons was usually made up of two Mad Demons and three Devilbeasts. They would patrol a set region back and forth at fixed intervals to cover a broad surveillance area with overlapping regions between the teams. It was like the "Wall of Eagles" in modern times.

Owing to the excellent field of vision of the flying demons, if the First Army were to enter the detection area, they would instantly be discovered. Roland intended to create a no-fly zone in the air, a blind zone of vision for the demons.

It was certain that there was neither any kind of radar system nor any instantaneous long-distance communication technology for the Mad Demons. As long as they did not blow the horn, the disappearance of a patrol team would not draw any attention. The Devilbeasts that were responsible for delivering the Red Mist cans could enhance the patrol range of the team, but this increased range would also delay the feedback of information. It was possible that the enemies would not notice the death of the Devilbeasts until the time they were supposed to return to their nests in the evening.

Even then, it would not be easy for the demons to locate the attacker immediately as the sniper team would attack from outside of their range of vision, not to mention that the patrol teams could not act at night, while the First Army could. As long as the blind zone in their surveillance network was reasonably arranged, it would gain time for the First Army and weaken the opponents' mobility.

Roland did not expect this strategy to completely block the opponents, but even a delay of two or three days would be a great help to the army. After all, the sooner they arrived at the shelling site, the greater the chance they would have.

The anti-Devilbeast sniper rifle was the product which would realize this hope.

In fact, it could barely still be called a gun. To ensure the long-range lethality and ballistic stability, its caliber was set at 20 millimeters, which was the demarcation point between a gun and a cannon.

As for why it was not designed to be larger, it was because Andrea's ability had a distinctive feature—it needed to be held and fired by hand. This point had been tested during the artillery training. Once she let go of the barrel, even if she gave oral instructions, the soldiers could still not adjust to operating the weapon.

What about opening fire in spite of the recoil of the cannon?

Tilly would be furious!

It was too awkward to call it a sniper cannon, so Roland decided to keep calling it a gun.

The new weapon itself did not employ much new technology. Its structure was much simpler than the Mark I type HMG, with an air guide backseat, semi-automatic shooting, bullet clip... The only extra part was a muzzle brake that was used to reduce the recoil, which had already been applied in the main artillery of the shallow water gunboats.

It only took two days to make it.

One and a half days were spent just on selecting the materials and post-processing.

Lucia created the alloy, Anna shaped it, Candle consolidated the shape and then Doris demonified it... This weapon was created together by several witches and could be regarded as a legendary product. In addition to its materials and processing technique, the gun barrel would not be deformed even under high-temperature gas and enormous pressure, which was also a key factor to ensure continuous and accurate shooting.

"Is this a sniper rifle?" Andrea looked at it for a moment and noticed something unusual. "Where is its aiming scope?"

"It doesn't have one," Roland shrugged and said.

"Doesn't have one?" She was stunned, "I can't hit a target I can't see."

"An ordinary scope wouldn't help with the range we want, so three more people are here to help you," said Roland, looking at Sylvie, Spear, and Camilla who were standing by his side.

"Do you mean... to let Ms. Camilla connect me with Sylvie to aim, and have Countess Spear take charge of replenishing our magic power?" Andrea finally understood what Maggie's words "They're waiting for you" meant.

"Although I don't want to leave Fallen Dragon Ridge at all... ah, a-choo... Since Your Majesty was so kind to send an invitation to me, I can't say no." Countess Spear said with pretend reluctance, "But next time I wish to be informed earlier rather than let Miss Maggie bring me here by flight. I'm old and not strong enough. I'm still sick because of the cold wind."

Roland silently rolled his eyes. She had already drunk Lily's Cleansing Water and asked for the next batch of students trained by City Hall, but she behaved as if it was unpaid labor. After all, she had been an experienced politician for many years, and she was used to complaining about being hard up.

Camilla's response was much simpler, "Her Highness hopes for me to do my best."

"But I'm not sure if my ability will still be effective under the Eye of Magic." Andrea had never considered a similar issue before because the range of stones and bows was much lower than the limit of her visual range.

"So it's necessary to test it," said Roland. "Then... let's start."

***************

Carter Lannis nervously paced back and forth outside the bedroom.

There were few days in his life where he had felt so disturbed.

In retrospect, except for that moment when His Majesty approached the witch Anna without any defenses, he had never been as nervous as he was now.

May, his wife, was about to give birth.

"As she said, 'Her status is as high as His Majesty's'," Carter joked at himself. "Have some courage. Be a man. Look what you have become. She's just giving birth to a child. Miss Nana and Lily are both here, and several nurses have also come from the hospital. Everything will be okay. Even if she has difficulty, they can cut her belly open to take the child out and keep both of their lives."

But this idea had just come out for a moment when he began to doubt it. "Can they really cut someone's belly to help her give birth to a child? No, no, no, that's too horrible. I hope it's the normal way."

Bastard, how dare you doubt the knowledge of His Majesty!

But... I 've never heard of anyone being born like that.

These two voices were arguing in the chief knight's mind and made him feel like his head was splitting into two.

"Rest assured, Sir," said Irene, "Sister May will surely be okay, because... she's the toughest person I've ever seen."

The other members of Star Flower Troupe who had come to visit also nodded.

"Thank you," Carter said, but his worries were not abated at all. He felt sweat flow down his forehead.

All of a sudden, he heard a storm of cheers outside the window.

He went to the window and saw numerous people cheering for a troop who were dressed in the new style of military uniforms and were walking slowly over the street toward the frontier wall. The brown and green fabrics seemed disorganized but presented a sense of solidness, like a rock. The whole army was like a flowing chunk of land.

"Does the army start off today?" Carter could not help asking.

"Yes, my husband is there, too," said Irene, smiling with some reluctance but full of pride. "He's been looking forward to this battle for vengeance for a long time."

"Vengeance?" He echoed unconsciously.

"Yes! To comfort those who were killed by the demons! He told me so."

The once famous knight was now fighting for those ordinary people; the ideal country that His Majesty mentioned in the past was now becoming reality bit by bit. He was supposed to be one of them and should have been the first one to fight for His Majesty. Somehow, he was getting farther and farther away from them.

For a moment, the annoyance replaced the dispute in his mind, and his attention temporarily wandered.

Until a tender cry came from the bedroom.

Suddenly, all thoughts faded away.

The body responded faster than the brain. Before he knew it, he had already pushed open the door and rushed to the bed.

A baby with wrinkled skin was crying over the pillow next to May, while nurses were cleaning up in an orderly manner.

"Congratulations, my lord. It's a very healthy boy," someone laughed.

"Is... is it?" Carter moved to the bed step by step and kneeled on one knee, staring at May who had sweat all over her head in the candlelight. For a moment, he forgot what he wanted to say.

The long-lasting cheers from outside mixed with the child's cries, like a chorus to celebrate the new life.

May opened her mouth and tried to say something, but she was too weak to utter any words.

But Carter still understood what she wanted to say.

In that moment, tears poured out of his eyes.

"Now, you're a father," she had said.

Chapter 965 - Secret in the Forest

It was in the hinterland of the Misty Forest, northwest of Neverwinter.

Snaketooth felt that ever since he had joined the railway construction team one and a half months ago, these days had become the most incredible period of his life.

"No..." He thought, "It's not appropriate to describe it as the most incredible. From time to time, I can always see something incredible. It seems that I have never really had a chance to know about the real Neverwinter."

He finally understood why the workers had to sign a confidentiality agreement.

The agreement required them not to share what they saw with anyone. Any kind of oral or written record would be regarded as a crime against the laws of the kingdom, and the punishment ranged from fines and confiscation of income to forced labor in the North Slope Mine. The agreement also stressed that they could quit from the construction team if they were unwilling to comply with the requirements. However, if they dared to violate it, the Security Bureau of the kingdom was responsible for checking them, and no one could escape from the ubiquitous supervision.

Snaketooth had once thought with disapproval, "It's possible to check all written records, but how could they police oral records as well? If they arrest anyone who is reported, then the project won't have enough people to be implemented anymore." However, he had a completely different view now. It was beyond his imagination how many secrets there were in Neverwinter. Maybe in some place which most people did not know about, there was a surging and amazing power.

What he was most impressed by were the witches.

Though Paper was also a witch, in his eyes she was just a little girl who needed his protection. The church claimed that the witches were evil as they inherited the power of the devil, but he did not care about that. If the witches were really so powerful, why would they be chased by the church and not dare to show up in public?

But this idea was changed by a witch called Lady Leaf.

Snaketooth never imagined that anyone could control the entire forest on her own.

The Misty Forest which the construction team entered was like the belly of a huge beast. This was especially obvious when they were paving the railway. The vines formed an endless network at the top of the roadbed. The iron tracks were wrapped and dragged forward to the appointed place by the vines and then fell to the ground like grapes in a vineyard. Wherever the railway was being laid, the trees on both sides would separate themselves, which even saved them the effort of cutting down the trees. At the same time, the surrounding trees would grow especially densely, covering the entire sky so as not to attract the demons' attention.

In addition, the forest could take the initiative to attack the beasts approaching the construction team. If they got a bowl of fresh meat soup someday, that meant an unfortunate beast ran into the domain of Lady Leaf.

Snaketooth had once seen her, but he could not be sure whether Lady Leaf was still human. Her body glowed with a strange green radiance which resembled a gem. When she moved, she could walk freely among the branches as if she had no real body.

If it had been the him from the past, he would surely have screamed loudly. With such ghostly deeds and an incredible appearance, it was not surprising that she would be regarded as one of the Devil's minions. His only thought was that Paper was lucky to not look like that.

However, Snaketooth did not hate her, and instead even had sincere respect for her, as His Majesty had mentioned at the Awards and Honor Ceremony that he was able to feed everyone in Neverwinter thanks to Leaf's help. Anyone freed from hunger and suffering was a beneficiary of her ability. By this merit alone, Leaf should forever be remembered.

Snaketooth was naturally one of the beneficiaries.

Apart from the witch, another discovery probably was his own personal secret.

It was after the First Army entered the Misty Forest.

Ever since the demons had attacked Neverwinter, the voices demanding a counterattack had become more and more fierce. Even in the Wild, the workers were also discussing this issue. He was not surprised that this day had come.

Every day a large number of soldiers marched to the front. Apparently, His Majesty intended to wage a war against the demons. Unlike the knights he had seen before, the soldiers were mostly acquaintances and neighbors of the workers. Whenever the army passed by, the workers would always greet them with enthusiasm. He had thought paving the railway away from the border would be dangerous and lonely hard labor, but it turned out to be the opposite.

Snaketooth did not have too many acquaintances, so he preferred to go and observe the train alone, and he even climbed up and touched it when it stopped.

However, what he had experienced two weeks ago was horrifying.

It was a locomotive dragging six carriages, which stopped in the section where he was participating in the construction, the latest section of the railway. There were two gigantic objects piled on the topless flatcar. Each of them was over 20 meters in length and covered with a layer of canvas. He had no idea what they were.

This was originally normal. If the goods delivered had nothing to do with the construction team, it must have been military supplies, and he did not want to find out what it was. However, he had an upset stomach that night and had to run out of his tent at midnight. While he was looking for somewhere to empty the bowels, he was shocked to see the canvas creeping up by itself!

After several warriors who dressed distinctively different from the First Army soldiers untied the ropes fixing the canvas, a huge mollusk monster crept out of it! What was more horrifying, the monster could speak, and its voice was quite pretty! Its first words were: "I'm hungry! Do you have any food?"

At that moment, Snaketooth felt the hair stand up on the back of his neck. He could almost imagine the cold reply of the warriors, "Ah, yes, all the workers in this camp are your food. Enjoy yourself."

But this did not happen. The warriors embraced it affectionately and then moved ham, vegetables, and bread from the last carriage... They were all packed in barrels as tall as a man. The two worms gobbled up the food in a hurry and then disappeared into the depths of the forest with the warriors.

Snaketooth did not dare to breathe. He hid behind the trees until the footsteps faded away. Once he confirmed that they had left, he looked down to find that he had wet his pants...

Within two days, a strange station was built next to the track. It was an arched building made of cement and bricks, and inside it was a deep and bottomless hole. Though the workers walked in and out of it, no one knew where it led to. There were several steam engines beside the hole, constantly blowing wind inside. It was really weird.

He also firmly hid this secret in his heart.

Snaketooth had thought that he would be afraid and want to quit from the railway construction team. In reality though, he recovered faster than he had imagined. "This is an exciting life! This is the real image of Neverwinter!"

When he had just left his friends and arrived in the forest, he always felt that he was like a rootless piece of duckweed, not attached to anyone. Especially when the workers received letters from their families and happily shared them with him, loneliness haunted him. But he was gradually attracted by various novel things, such as the perfectly connected tracks, the beautiful songs in the forest, the huge desert wolf which appeared and disappeared secretly but would not be attacked by Lady Leaf, and the mysterious man who came here and whispered to himself on certain days...

This made him feel that he was a little closer to the unknown side of Neverwinter, and also gradually integrating with the city.

Snaketooth wanted to keep all these things in mind and wait for the day that he could tell his friends. There was no better proof of being a citizen than knowing the depths of a city. Even if he did not have so many familiar neighbors, no one could deny this.

The duration of the confidentiality agreement was five years.

He was looking forward to that day.

Chapter 966 - Operation Summit

Two weeks after the counterattack plan, named "Operation Summit", was launched Roland received a report from Lightning, who was scouting on the front line. The battalions of the First Army had successfully completed the first step of the program and joined forces at "Forest No. 2+1.76" of the Misty Forest.

He borrowed the naming system of the turning points from the railway mileage identification method. The first half was the planned sectional station and the second half was the revised distance. That was to say, the turning point was located 1.76 kilometers ahead of Station No. 2 of the Forest Railway. The advantage of this method was that Roland could accurately see the military's route on the big map.

It was also the end of the current tracks. From here, the First Army would begin the second step of the plan—to leave the Misty Forest and march toward the northeastern direction of the Barbarian Lands without cover from Leaf.

Whether they could destroy the demons' outpost depended on this step.

As long as the Longsong Cannons and machine guns were set up, they could return to their tried and tested battle tactics from their training and previous encounters.

"I got it," Roland said, making a mark on the map. "How about the demons? Is there any sign of a response from them?"

Lightning's reply rustled through the Sigil of Listening, "Sylvie said that they haven't made any kind of response. They're still concentrating on building their own outposts, and have set up several black stone pillars. In addition, the red mist supply line has appeared behind the outposts. The Adviser Department's judgment is that the number of those long-legged monsters is limited."

This was good news, as Agatha had once stated that the only thing that limited the demons from overthrowing the humans was the Red Mist. If they had found a way around this restriction by the third Battle of Divine Will, it would spell bad news for everyone. For example, the mobility of the flying Devilbeasts and the horrifying fighting capacity of the Senior Demons would make the long border of the four kingdoms impossible to defend.

Roland now knew that the stone pillars at the outpost were different from the legendary Blackstone Pagoda, though they had much in common. The former could only store Red Mist and slowly release it to form a special mist environment for the demons to absorb. Within this environment, the demons' strength and self-healing abilities would be enhanced. In other words, it assisted the demons in battle.

The stone pillar could double the effect of the Red Mist; however, it could only consume reserves of it. On the other hand, the original Blackstone Pagoda could generate the Red Mist and also had much broader coverage, so it basically formed the core of the demons' main cities.

In addition, the stone pillar could not begin working as soon as it was planted. It had to be cultivated for about a month after being planted before it could release Red Mist. Until then it could only be used as an enlarged Red Mist can.

Sylvie's observations made him more confident about his judgment. No one wanted to see their enemies come back again after being driven away for a few days. It would be worse if they could recover and bring a bunch of reinforcements. At the current rate of railway construction, the First Army should be able to launch an attack on any new outpost before the stone pillars begin functioning at full capacity.

"In that case, keep up the scouting and let me know if you find something new. Remember that safety should always be the first priority."

"Roger that. Lightning out."

Then the light of the Sigil of Listening went out.

Roland picked up a ruler and measured the distance on the map. The First Army was supposed to enter the demons' reconnaissance perimeter in six days, by the beginning of late autumn.

Even for the army that was accustomed to fighting on the ground, this would be a tough challenge.

"Why are you worried?" Nightingale put away the Sigil and asked, "Weren't the results of the new weapon's tests pretty good?"

"In the end, that was just a test. No one can know what will happen in a war before it has even begun," Roland shrugged and said, "Not to mention that Sylvie will be occupied with the fight in the air, so the First Army has to depend on themselves to set up and maintain the defensive line."

"It's already pretty incredible that Andrea could consistently hit a balloon five kilometers away. She won't let us down as long as she has that weapon," Nightingale smiled and said, "Though Sylvie won't be available to keep a lookout for the army, Lightning and Maggie are still there. Hasn't the First Army experienced a scenario like this before?"

Roland raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked, "When did you learn to comfort others?"

"I'm just being honest," Nightingale whistled and said, "Of course, I'm also good at persuading people. I remember that every single noble I ever visited agreed with what I had to say."

Uh... that's just because of direct intimidation.

"Ahem, I guess you're right," Roland said, twitching his lips, "I'm going to have a nap in my office. Don't wake me up unless there's some urgent news."

Nightingale seemed to realize that something was unusual and asked, "Right here? Should I inform the Taquila witches?"

"No," said Roland, "Don't even allow them to be near the castle."

"I see," she understood and said, "Don't worry. I'll make sure no one walks into the range of the light beam."

...

Roland rarely napped, unless he was particularly tired or for a special reason.

For example, this time was a special reason.

It had been a month since the last time he talked with Garcia in the Dream World. Now she had returned from her Headquarters. She had promised that she would bring back the book that was written half a century ago which first mentioned the Battle of Divine Will. For some reason, Roland felt it better to not let the Taquila survivors know about it for the moment.

He had considered it for a long time. No matter what he found in the book, he would probably be able to remain calm, while those witches who regarded the Divine Will as their ultimate fate could not. There was a battle looming on the horizon, so it would be better to not bother them with this.

Entering the Dream World was more like flipping a switch in his mind now. As long as he concentrated on it, he could fall asleep within a few seconds, which saved him the trouble of tossing and turning for hours.

After Zero went to school, Roland could not wait to pick up the phone.

"Hey? Did you get the book?"

"If I say no, would you be so disappointed that you'd throw your cell phone?" He soon heard Garcia's familiar sarcasm, "Relax, you reminded me three days ago. I'm not so forgetful that I'd eat my words, unlike a certain someone."

Roland was relieved and replied, "I won't. I still need to feed my family. I can't afford to throw it."

"Feed your family? Isn't the salary of martialist enough for you? Hey... Have you gone down the wrong path somewhere?"

"What are you imagining?" He whispered in his heart, "I'm trying to feed a group of people who haven't eaten for hundreds of years." He said, "I have to say, even if we are acquaintances—"

"Now you're going to accuse me of slander? It's a new era. Stop using this cliché, okay?" Garcia interrupted him.

Roland almost choked on hearing her words. It felt terrible being mocked about clichés by a woman from the middle ages...

He simply asked, "All right, so where's the book?"

"Of course, it's in my apartment. Come and get it." She replied.

Chapter 967 - The Dreamland Book

Garcia walked into the main hall of room No. 0827, looking as if she had just taken a bath. Her morning tracksuit was now replaced by a red and white martial arts robe. Her cheeks were still flushed from the heat of the hot water; her beauty due to the Wimbledon family genes and her silky wet shoulder length hair made her a real sight to behold.

"Would you like something to drink?" She swayed the glass in her hand.

The first time that he had come to her house, there had been a cold and distant expression on her face... Well, she still hadn't changed much even after all this time.

"No, that's alright, thank you." Roland was curious and asked," Do you have a competition today?"

"Have you ever seen an athlete who had to change and get ready at home? Staying warm right before a competition is one of the most important preparations for any sport." Garcia poured herself a glass of milk and sat opposite him. "Even the worst sports stadiums would still have a changing room—sometimes I really wonder if your common sense was also swallowed by the Erosion."

"Haha..." Roland tried to laugh off his embarrassment and said, "I thought martialists might have their own unique preparations before a match."

"In the eyes of the public, it's no different from any other sport. The only difference might be that it's generally more exciting and the prizes are better," she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I'm wearing this uniform because we need to take advantage of the influence of the martialists later."

"Huh? Are you going to shoot an ad?"

"It's a protest!" Garcia cried out in frustration, "Don't you ever read the papers? The Clover Group is going to tear down the walls around North Tube Street. If we don't do anything, that their next demolition target will end up being this tube-shaped apartment. Your home will soon be in ruins!"

"Uh..." Roland had almost forgotten that there was such an event going on today. "Well... I wish you all the best."

"You—!"

"I've never competed before and no one's ever heard of me. I'm a complete newbie. I don't even own a martialist uniform." Roland feigned a regretful expression and said, "Even if I go, I won't be of much use."

"We can achieve anything through our combined efforts. Don't you know that?" Garcia picked up a list from the coffee table and shoved it in front of Roland. "Look at the people on that list. How many of them are martialists? They're all the lower-floor occupants of the tube-shaped apartment, yet they're all willing to go and protest with me! If we choose to be silent just because we're not well-known, then everyone will ignore our existence!"

Looking at the determination in Garcia's eyes, Roland felt his motivation rise along with her words. Whether it was facing the Erosion or her daily life, this seemingly cold and indifferent girl was far more enthusiastic than most people.

Is this the only place she can stay? No, with her background and abilities, she should easily be able to buy a new residence in the center of the city. She's doing this only for the sake of the other residents of this building. They're mostly ordinary people with meager salaries, there's no way they could afford to find a new apartment that has half the facilities and connectivity of this locality.

He was aware that they were all just phantoms of the Dream World, and that these occupants of the tube-shaped apartment were the defeated souls captured by Zero. However, with the world progressing toward an unknown future on its own, he became doubtful about his original ideas. He could no longer distinguish between the phantom and real people. For example, he found it really hard to treat this vibrant and shining girl in front of him as an imaginary and empty shell. The longer he stayed in the Dream World, the more intense the feeling became.

Anyway, she did bring back the book for him. The least he could do was accompany her as a sign of gratitude.

Just as Roland was about to agree, he suddenly saw a familiar name on that list.

"Barolotsim".

That was the name of the tenant staying in apartment No. 0510. That was also the name of the only resident that was a demon.

This long name was particularly eye-catching among the information of the residents that had been collected by the Taquila witches. Hence just a glance was enough to leave a deep impression on him.

Roland was startled to see the name of the demon on that list, as it meant that 'he' would leave the tube-shaped apartment and join the residents in their protest—this could be a perfect chance to peep into his memory fragment.

"Ahem, I'm afraid that I already have an appointment for the afternoon... so I can only give you moral support." He glanced away, and pretended he had not seen that name.

Anyone else would have used the rights to the book as a bargaining chip.

But Garcia was different. She just stood up in a fury and said, "I should've known that saying all these words to you would be a waste of my breath." Then she walked into the bedroom in a huff, and soon she walked back out with an old leather red book.

At first, she looked like she was going to slam the book down in front of him, but she quickly became softhearted and changed her mind. "This is the book that Master often mentioned to us. Since you have it now, you may leave!"

Roland casually opened a page and realized that there was no name of the author, but just the word "Unknown" in its place.

"Doesn't anyone know who the author is?"

"Why would it be marked as unknown if the author were known?" Garcia replied firmly, "Amongst the many books that are a part of the Association's library, this book wasn't famous due to its content, but rather because of its author. Apparently, the author died before he could finish writing the book, and the Association couldn't find any records of who he really was."

"He died when he was writing the book?" Roland was stunned for a moment and wondered if it was a sudden death. He had originally wanted to sit down for a private chat with the author—half a century was not considered long. If he was lucky, the author could still be alive. Even if he was dead, there would still be some news of him. At that time, recording cases was already part of the judicial system, and the author was even a martialist that had awakened the Force of Nature.

There was something fishy going on here.

"What's wrong? Are you afraid?" Garcia laughed and said, "Did it bring to mind those stories about being cursed and chased by ghosts? Don't worry, there's no evidence to prove that anyone who has read the book will die. Otherwise, I would never have recommended this book to you. But if you still don't want to read it, I won't make fun of you or tell anyone."

No, I'm sure you will...

Roland grabbed the book and nodded at her. "Thank you."

"Hmm." Garcia turned her head and did not say any more.

Roland went back as quickly as he could to apartment No. 0825 and locked the door. The protest would only start in the afternoon, so he still had a few hours to satisfy his curiosity.

Just like Garcia had mentioned, the title of the book was called "Raison d'être".

The cover was made of a type of red leather that could no longer be found in this era. The cover was backed by a thin layer of wood, hence it looked quite sturdy. Roland had thought that since it was related to the deities, the content would be full of spiritual stuff that he might not understand. However, once he turned the first page, he was immediately captured by the exquisite handwriting.

The text was on the left while the pictures or the excerpts were on the right. At the bottom, there was numbering that matched the content accurately. It did not look like a book of premonition, but more like a rigorous derivative thesis.

Those pictures had already faded and turned yellow, while the excerpts came from newspapers and magazines. In this day and age of the internet, it was already very difficult to see handwritten text and pictures made by using scissors and glue. The whole book felt old and antique, but the content was unexpectedly smooth and easy to understand. He had no problem reading it.

The first sentence was, "We have been deceived by the deities."

Chapter 968 - A Piece of the Mystery Unravels

Roland's heart sank.

This style of opening resembled the eulogies of the Union survivors—that common people would never be able to defeat the demons. Through the handwriting, he could even imagine the pessimism and despair of the writer.

"The world is so distorted, yet we are totally unaware of it."

"Though we know that the Force of Nature comes from the Erosion loopholes, yet we still treat it as a gift from the deities simply because of the vast powers it gives us."

"This granting of power lets us feel lucky to be a part of it, yet it has also blinded our eyes."

"It is time for us to awaken."

"Though I don't know if it is already too late."

A single short paragraph had already caused Roland to become quite agitated. As the creator of the Dream World, he felt that these words were implying something. Could it be that someone had realized this world was just a made-up dream and wanted to warn everyone to wake up from it? Roland could return to reality upon awakening, but where would these people end up?

Regarding that paragraph about the Force of Nature, he strongly empathized with the author's thoughts.

The feeling of empowerment derived from transforming into an Extraordinary was far greater than that of being a political leader. No one would want to attribute all their power to a catastrophe. Even if they knew the truth, they would not bear to lose their power and hence would not even entertain the thought of stopping the apocalypse.

In the next dozens of pages, the book did not delve further into the conclusion made in the opening but changed directions—questioning why only mankind was capable of exerting the Force of Nature.

The photos and extracts were all from different modern scientific experiments and archaeological findings. Their descriptions and contents were all related to the main theme of the book.

"There is already enough evidence to show that intelligence is not the key to awakening the Force of Nature. Throughout history, there have been Fallen Evil that were mentally retarded, as well as martialists who had their powers from the moment of their birth. Without human intelligence, we are fundamentally the same as other animals, and in fact, we are highly similar. Our genes are the same, and so are our origins, as well as our behaviors and instincts. Whether it is a frog, a snake or a lizard, the warm sunshine will treat everyone equally, so why doesn't the Force of Nature behave in the same manner?"

"Is it because humans are the lucky ones on the evolutionary path?" Roland suddenly came up with this idea and found that the writer seemed to have read his mind. "Most people use luck as an excuse, just like the geocentric theory of the past—but in fact, the Earth is not the center of the universe. Humans are not the only species that can use the Force of Nature."

"Through observing history, we can see that records of civilization sometimes shown a fission-like split in development that occurs in sporadic bursts. For example, in the myths that have spread to the present, the descriptions of extraordinary abilities are mostly focused on a period around 2000 years ago—this was much earlier than the anthropological records of man. It seemed as if we had a sudden awakening, and from that, we derived unbelievable strength. The number of descriptions of the enemies also increased accordingly. Whether it was demons, beasts, monsters, or aliens, they all had different shapes and forms, but they also had a common point: a common person could not defeat them, and only the awakened heroes were capable of being their worthy opponents."

"Although there is no direct evidence, I have always believed that those alien species were not figments of the imagination that the ancients conjured up out of thin air but rather real living species. Their abilities were like ours, and that was why the mythology of that period was so vivid."

"At this moment, the reader might think of excuses such as the ancient mosquitoes who could preserve their remains in amber, yet these alien species did not leave any remains. This excuse might sound a little far-fetched. On the other hand, it is because they disappeared without a trace despite so many mentions of them that they grab our attention, right? There are so many incredible relics in the world, many of which are buildings and monuments that were completely different from the construction styles of the people of that era. Some of these buildings were even far too advanced to be built by the people of that era. However, we have still stubbornly classified them as divergent branches of our own civilization and credited the works to the local indigenous leaders. This is a gross overestimation of the capabilities of humans."

"In order to find more answers, I have visited each of those monuments one by one. Throughout this journey, I made some surprising discoveries—although the aliens did not leave any bones or hair, the markings engraved on the stones have not disappeared. In a secret chamber inside a volcano's ruins, I saw the record of an alien civilization written through the various carvings on the walls."

As he turned to this page, Roland was convinced that this was indeed a book created in the Dream World—he had never seen the black and white photos of the ancient buildings before his transmigration, and what was even more conspicuous was that the volcanic remains that the martialist mentioned at the end looked eerily similar to the demons' Blackstone Pagoda!

"It was not a coincidence that they acquired the Force of Nature and then fought against humankind. This was like a meeting arranged by the deities, and they regarded defeating the adversaries as a repayment of the power bestowed upon them by the deities."

"I know that it is hard to describe the carving with words alone, but I could feel it—if humans could learn their language, then I think the most appropriate term would probably be the Battle of Divine Will."

What Lan was referring to... came from here?

Roland licked his slightly dry lips and continued reading.

"But this is not what I meant to focus on—if this power was granted just for a single war alone, then it would have ended a long time ago. No matter what the deities were, they would have no longer have had anything to do with mankind after that war. However, some things are worse than we thought. According to the writing on the sculptures... this was not the first time that they had done something like this."

The handwriting slowly became less tidy, as the number of ink dots and emotional words increased. It seemed as if the writer was hesitant about whether or not he should continue writing.

"These aliens did not live on the same planet as us from the very beginning. The outbreak of the war had brought about a drastic change in their home environment, though they were well-prepared for that change. It was not as simple as a forest degenerating into a desert, or a nomadic tribe progressing into a farming civilization step by step. Dammit, I don't know how to express this part of the concept. I can provide a less appropriate example. Such a change is like electrons jumping between energy levels in an atomic transition. Before the change, it was at a certain stable level of energy. But then, the change happened, and it immediately gained energy, directly transitioning to a higher level, with no process or intermediate stage. It was like their civilization jumped to a higher level in the blink of an eye."

"Frankly speaking, I do not even want to imagine how many such changes they have already gone through. But now that they no longer exist, why does the Erosion and the Awakening still continue? Or does this mean that... the Battle of Divine Will had never ended in the first place?"

"The more I wonder about this question, the more I feel terrified. What kind of world are we living in? Are the Fallen Evil really martialists that have been tempted by power? I feel like I have been caught up in a vortex."

"If the answer is no, then what exactly are we facing?"

"The so-called gifts and rewards are all lies."

"The only difference has been the change in—"

The writing stopped abruptly and left only a long line of scratches behind. It seemed as if the author had suddenly lost all his strength and let the pen fall down.

"—Doesn't anyone know who the author is?"

"Why would it be written as unknown if the author were known? Apparently, the author died before he could finish writing the book, and the Association couldn't find any records regarding him."

As he recalled the previous conversation, Roland could not help but feel a chill rise from the soles of his feet.

It would be unnecessary to elaborate as the book had too many parts that were filled with a strange atmosphere—it was clearly recounting the Dream World, yet there was always a feeling of deja vu.

He could not wait to pull out the phone and call Garcia.

In any case, there were just too many questions in his mind that he needed Garcia to answer.

Just then, his elbow knocked aside the book, and a red note slipped out of it.

Roland was surprised for a second, after which he bent to pick it up.

He saw two rows of small print.

"When the divine meaning appears, meet at the appointed time."

"Rose Café, No. 302."

Chapter 969 - Into the Abyss

"Ring... ring."

The phone got connected while he was still in a daze.

"Hello? Why are you calling again?" The voice on the other line seemed impatient. "If you have something to say, do it quickly. I'm going out soon."

Roland shook his head and forced himself to concentrate. "Ah, so... I've just read the book and its content is quite..."

"It's quite horrifying, right?" Garcia seemed to have guessed his reaction. "This is usually how most people behave when they see it for the first time. But since it's fictional, you will forget all about it after you've slept."

"Fictional?" Roland frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Literally." Laughter could be heard on the other end of the earpiece. "The Martialist Association investigated the volcanic ruins mentioned by the author, and discovered that it was engulfed by magma 200 years ago—that's an active volcano. Although it has never had a big eruption, it hasn't been completely dormant for thousands of years either. So unless he can replay the past or live for two centuries, while also being able to tolerate the high temperature and thick smoke, that author has been making stuff up."

Her reply really surprised him, and so he hesitated for a long time before saying, "In that case... he made up all the content in the book?"

"It could be true or false. Anyway, I've never had much interest in archeology. Master once said that if wasn't for the fact that the author was wearing the martialist robes and died in the Association's library, the book wouldn't even have been kept and recorded."

"But the association didn't know his identity..."

"So the author himself became more famous than the book for that reason. This could be considered an unsolved mystery of the Association. But I doubt you'll be able to solve it. According to my master, the management went through every nook and cranny of the records department, and still weren't able to discover anything." Garcia said, "Anyway, there're so many rumors about the book. Have you finished? I'm going to hang up now."

"Hang on, wait—" Roland said hurriedly, "After you brought the book this time... did you read it again?"

He actually wanted to ask about the note, but eventually changed his mind.

"I flipped through a few pages on the way back. What happened?"

"No, nothing... I just wanted to ask."

"Click." The line got cut off on the other end—apparently, this teasing question made Garcia lose her patience.

He could even hear the door closing over at apartment No. 0827, even though they were separated by two walls.

Roland could not help but sigh. If he was not direct, then this sort of question that he asked would only cause annoyance and nothing else.

Firstly, only half of the book "Raison d'être" was written, and the red note was most likely caught in the last few blank pages. There would be no guarantee that it would be noticed even if you were to read the entire book.

She had also taken the shuttle when she came back from the Association. He could easily imagine that she would not have had much time to go through the book seriously during her journey back.

Regardless of how Garcia answered, he would still not have been able to judge whether she had seen this note.

No—it was a definite no.

According to Garcia's character, if she had seen it, she would certainly not be indifferent to it.

So it would seem that these two sentences were either a prank of some sort or a hidden message.

Roland could not help but wish that it was just a prank.

The other alternative was just... too absurd.

Who was the note for? Was it meant for anyone who discovered it, or did it have a specific target?

Rationally speaking, he was more inclined toward the latter—the book was not top-secret, and most of the martialists had already read it due to its fame. It would not be surprising if there was a reader who did not discover it, but it was very unlikely that it remained undiscovered even after so many people had read the book. So it was probable that the note was not placed in the book from the beginning, but rather it was put in there fairly recently.

But it was this logic that made him feel creeped out about the whole thing.

What did that imply?

It meant the Dream World, this fantasy world that was envisioned by him, had been discovered by someone. This was similar to being in a dream when a person in the dream suddenly turned around and smiled slyly at you.

Roland patted his cheek and tried to suppress the chill in his heart. He tried to repeatedly convince himself that there was nothing to be scared of. Although this was just speculation at the moment, even if it was true, as long as he left, this world's time would stop. Who could be in a position to threaten him?

Moreover, the message on the note only implied that they would wait to be contacted instead of taking the initiative. This could help to explain some of the problems.

As for the location of the Rose Café and what the "divine meaning" meant, that would be best left to the Taquila witches to investigate.

He did not forget that he still had other things to do next.

He looked up at the wall clock and confirmed the time before taking the key that he had already prepared from his bedroom. He then locked up and went downstairs.

In order to explore the memory fragments of the tube-shaped apartment, Roland had already completed a lot of preparations ever since the arrival of the Taquila witches. For example, he made duplicates of the keys to every apartment and even bought an unlocking tool online—since he was the only person who could see this "non-existent'" Gate of Memory, if he did encounter one that was locked, he would have no choice but to roll up his sleeves and do the work himself.

If it hadn't been for the expedition for the unification of Graycastle, this part of the investigation would have been completed a long time ago.

Roland went down to the fifth floor and found room No. 0510 quite quickly.

Most people would be taking a nap at this time. The late autumn sunshine made everyone feel lazy. The whole corridor looked quiet and serene, which was a stark contrast to the rush of traffic outside in the streets.

He inserted the key into the lock and turned it gently.

The door opened.

A weird aroma suddenly poured into his nose and made him involuntarily hold his breath.

Although the Dream World changed itself to accommodate the demon, it did not amend some of the details, such as body odor. In order to cover up their smell, the extensive use of perfume had become the last resort.

Roland spent two minutes thoroughly searching the room again. Once he confirmed that there was no one, he locked the door, remove the hydraulic bolt-cutter from his backpack, and walked straight to the storage room at the end of the walkway.

This iron door was one of the few that were locked.

Evidence had already proven that although the world connected behind the door was mysterious, the lock of the door still couldn't withstand the forces from a tool that utilized the laws of physics. A few seconds later, the lock was silently broken into two pieces.

He swallowed hard and pushed open the heavy door—

Roland was immediately attracted to the marvelous sight in front of his eyes.

He seemed to be standing on top of a bottomless cliff. The top of the cliff was circular. It was more than 10 km in length and he almost could not see the opposite side. This peculiar terrain was encircled by an extremely magnificent lake. However, the lake was not formed of water, but dazzling Red Mist!

The mist and the peak were hundreds of meters apart. If he looked down, it would look like a shining red crystal, like a thick and rich substance. If it was not for the occasional mist that rose from the bottom and ran straight up the gust of wind to form a "mist pillar" that stood over the horizon, it would be very hard to relate that to the dirty and dark "bloody fog".

Roland felt like he was standing on the surface of the sun and admiring the torrential solar flares, while he watched the haze that was thicker than the castle, appearing continuously and shining more brilliantly than molten steel. However, it did not radiate a hot, unforgiving heat. As the height increased, the color of the fog quickly faded, and it finally diffused into the air to form a Red Mist layer.

And this was not all that he saw.

Towering black stone buildings surrounded the circular cliff—most of them were tower-shaped and differed only in some minor details. As the sun was shrouded in red mist, the whole world seemed particularly dim. Only when there were gushes of red mist at the bottom of the Red Mist Lake could these black towers be faintly seen reflected in the lake.

Like a dense stone forest.

Chapter 970 - Demon City

"Is this... the city of the demons?"

Roland could not help but feel amazed. He thought the memory fragments would be connected to a certain decisive battlefield. He did not expect to have the opportunity to face the enemy's lair.

However, the scene in front of him had many differences from the mirage that was seen by the Witch Cooperation Association.

At least, he had taken a good look around but did not find that most prominent main tower which was the core—the giant Obelisk that was made using the mineral vein of the God's Stone and that could grow and create red Mist.

After all, there were too many towers here.

Some were even standing above the cliffs. Most of the towers leaned outward, just like apartments floating in the sky.

How did they manage to build such a magnificent complex?

And this was not the city complex that Leaf had seen, so where could that be?

Or could it have been located in a more distant place... for example, the rumored birthplace of the demons?

Just then, Roland noticed that there was a flash of light at the sinkhole near the Red Mist Lake.

Unlike the glittering mist, that seemed to be a natural burning flame.

He was a bit surprised to find that the Red Mist could burn since an open fire should have been banned in the city of the demons.

He decided to go down to the bottom of the pit to satisfy his curiosity—judging by the architectural style of the opening, he should be able to find the stairs leading down or a hanging basket nearby.

However, Roland suddenly stopped before even walking a hundred steps as all the muscles in his body started to tense up!

A team of demons actually walked out from around the corner!

Judging by their appearance, they should all be Mad Demons. They had bone armors and held short spears. The two in front even wore gloves, and their burly figures almost blocked half of his path.

The distance from the two of them was less than ten steps away!

"Wait a minute... How could there be living creatures in the memory fragments?"

He had never seen a knight from the Judgement Army nor a priest of the church when he was wandering in the Hermes Cathedral at home!

This accidental encounter left Roland a bit shocked, and unsure of how to react.

"Should I escape?"

He had seen the strength and precision of the Mad Demon's spear throwing skills, so running away from the enemy was undoubtedly a dead end.

Charge and overthrow them?

The Dream World's power was still running in his body, so his skills at the moment were stronger than those of ordinary people. However, compared with these bloodthirsty monsters, his fighting skills still remained at the level of street fighting. He could probably deal with an opponent one on one, but dealing with six Mad Demons? He felt that the odds of winning were very slim, especially against the leading Ironhand demon, as its powerful electric shock ability was definitely the nemesis of close combat.

However, before he could make a decision, something astonishing happened again.

The demons did not seem to realize the existence of the uninvited guest, and they walked straight past him without pausing.

Roland was stunned, then subconsciously turned around to touch one of the Mad Demon's arms.

His finger passed through its skin, but his fingertips did not feel anything as if he was touching a phantom.

"So... it's like this?"

He thoughtfully recovered his hand and bent over to touch the ground.

His palm could clearly feel the dampness of the black soil eroded by the Red Mist.

Roland had a faint idea of the answer.

It appeared that the devoured person's resistance would determine the extent of the memory fragments, and it could also affect what would be displayed in the scene—the content saved in this memory was obviously much more than that left by Zero.

If he thought along these lines, his mind naturally came up with two new doubts.

One was the question of the church warrior who deliberately sacrificed himself to save Zero. To what extent could his memory be enriched? Was it impossible to talk to the dead after entering the memory fragment?

And the next was Zero's level of resistance—how much hate and unwillingness did she have after being defeated by him? It was even stronger than that of the demon.

Suddenly, he had an urge to go back to the house and lift the little girl up to smack her butt.

Roland took a deep breath, put away his distracting thoughts and hastened his steps back to the destination.

...

Just as he expected, there were many ramps and stone steps leading to the pit at the edge of the circular cliff. Some of them were very spacious and did not lose to the main roads at Neverwinter.

The more he walked down, the more he was impressed about the size of the Red Mist Lake.

Even if the upper half of the Western Region's Great Snow Mountain was flattened, it would not be that wide. Standing on the cliff, he could not help but feel how small he was. He felt as if the whole world was far away from him, leaving only the turbulent red mist and the looming stone towers that could be seen on and off.

It was hard to imagine how this sinkhole could form naturally.

What was more incredible was that the demons had transformed this place to become their permanent residence.

How many hundreds of years would it take to dig this deep and even leave roads for carriage access as well as coat these roads with a hard black stone layer?

If this was a measure of the demon's technical level and social organizational skills, this meant they could be regarded as an extremely difficult enemy.

The humans today would not be able to win by chance. If they want to win the Battle of Divine Will, the Four Kingdoms will have to give it their all.

As he got closer to the flames, Roland noticed that there were more demons showing up on the roads.

Not all of them were armed. Most of them wore skins or robes, and their appearance and sizes were more varied. It was hard to imagine they were all of the same species.

As mentioned in Pasha's report, the Union had once captured some demons that had no magic power and were not combat trained. But it was still not certain whether they were a part of the demons or a slave tribe enslaved by the demons.

However, Roland did not find any superior demons of a supervisory level around him. Their actions seemed completely spontaneous, which meant that the answer should be the former.

This division seemed to be more thorough than the division between witches and normal humans. They were not only differentiated by ability, but even their form had a complete change.

It was still not clear whether they were born from the same origin, or were born with different methods or parents, without a possibility of changing between the forms.

"Do the demons have masculine and feminine forms?"

"Or, was their reproduction completely different from that of mankind and therefore could not be generalized?"

Armed with these thoughts, Roland finally arrived at the bottom of the sinkhole.

He discovered that the source of the fire came from a bonfire—he could see a stone bridge hanging on the side of the cliff, that was connected to a circular island.

Although it was an island, there was no support below, and it seemed like it was supported directly by the slender stone bridge. It looked so unstable that you would worry that it might fall at any time. The bonfire was set up around the island. When the mist soared, the top of the flame would burn brightly, as if it were echoing the roar of the mist lake. Sometimes the flame would rise up to 10 meters in height, and that was why Roland noticed the blinking below.

It seemed that although the Red Mist could burn, it was not something that would burn instantly.

In the vicinity, there were at least tens of thousands of demons. They densely occupied all the ramps on the rock walls, platforms, and caves. Colored pennants were flying up and down in the wild wind, and the unidentified howls almost covered the roar of the air flow in the hole.

Roland blinked his eyes in shock.

"Were the demons... carrying out a ceremony?"

Chapter 971 - A Frightful Experience in a Demon's Memory

Hearing the prolonged blast of a horn, all the demons fell into silence simultaneously. The Red Mist which looked like a crystal a moment ago started to surge like boiling lava inside the gigantic sinkhole.

Two demons stepped out of the crowd and walked on the slender stone bridge.

Roland found that one of them was clearly a Mad Demon whilst the other looked like the Lord of Hell Agatha mentioned.

Though the former was the biggest Mad Demon he had ever seen, it looked mediocre in front of the giant crawler shaped Lord of Hell.

Neither of them wore armor, however, the relationship between them was obviously confrontational. They were pushing each other all the way to the island.

Seeing this situation, the demons around the island did not show even the slightest surprise. Instead, they all seemed very excited.

What're they doing? Is it a duel?

Roland guessed that it was a kind of ceremonial battle which most barbarian races enjoyed. It was a duel to the death and a show of strength. The one who survived in the end would be venerated as a hero.

He despised such duels. It was not because of racial prejudice, he just thought that it had no meaning except providing the audience with an exciting fighting show. Besides, it may cause the race more harm than benefit. People on Earth also enjoyed these kinds of shows long ago. The only difference was that they usually watched some slave fighting a wild animal. Thus, no matter which party died, they would not feel sad.

As the only human being here, Roland did not care about the demons in the duel at all. Instead, he decided to take a closer look at this fierce battle. To the demons, he was now intangible and invisible like a ghost. Given that, he walked directly through the crowd and followed the two demons to the stone bridge.

When he got onto the island which was as large as Neverwinter's square, he found that someone was already there.

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the creature clearly.

It seemed to be a female demon!

He was not sure about this impression at first, but he could not deny that it resembled a woman in many ways.

Besides, she looked quite attractive.

Wait, it's not scientific at all!

He became alert.

"How can an alien species who are completely incompatible with mankind produce an individual who's so much like a woman! It's reasonable that some of them may have evolved to walk upright since height would give predators a better view and a practical advantage in hunting. However, it's really hard to believe that this extent of similarity was purely coincidental."

On second thought, he believed that other people would hardly agree with him that this female demon was attractive. She had livid skin, prominent horns, an extra eye on the forehead and bony spurs all over her shoulders and arms. Different from a time traveler with wide experience like Roland, they would probably be terrified by her appearance.

Before the duel, the two demons bowed to the female demon who wore a white robe before moving to either side of the island to take up their positions. They stood close to the edge of the island, facing the Red Mist Lake solemnly.

The female demon walked slowly to the island's edge and began to sing a soprano.

The lake vigorously rippled as if something was about to come out.

Roland wondered, "Maybe, it wasn't just a duel, or maybe these two demons weren't dueling at all..."

Suddenly, two stout tentacles popped out of the lake. They swung respectively at the Mad Demon and the Lord of Hell. It looked like they were going to crush the demons at any minute, but surprisingly, both of the demons raised their arms as if they had willingly given up resistance.

The female demon shouted out, causing the tentacles to reluctantly stop above each demon's head. They wiggled for a moment before each spitting out some mucus and a crystal gemstone.

The demons used their fingers to rip open their chests before inserting the gemstones into their bodies without the slightest hesitation.

Instantly, a strong light radiated from their bodies, making it difficult for Roland to open his eyes.

His heart sank.

"Are those magic stones? Is that how the demon warriors get their supernatural power?"

"No, it can't be. Mad Demons are just common soldiers. There are thousands of them in the demon army. How could the demon city afford to hold a grand ceremony like this to convert each Mad Demon?"

A few minutes later, the blinding light gradually subsided, revealing a shocking scene.

The mighty Lord of Hell curled into a ball under tremendous pain. All the spiracles on its back opened as it continuously leaked white fog. It seemed as if its body was melting.

The Mad Demon appeared to be much better compared to the Lord of Hell. Although its body also shrank after absorbing the Magic Stone, Roland believed that this was just a common side effect. Its arms and legs were not as stout as before and distinct blue veins appeared from the wound on its chest. It looked miserable, however, at least it was still able to stand.

Looking at the two demons, Roland could not help thinking of the incarnation ceremony of the God's Punishment Army.

"Do demon warriors also need to sacrifice their lives to get magic power?"

The next moment, the Lord of Hell issued a piercing cry. It lifted its upper body and sprang towards the female demon on the island.

With a loud bang, the entire floating island trembled.

Roland thought that he was going to see a crushed body under the Lord of Hell, but to his surprise, there were only a few shattered stones instead.

The Lord of Hell had missed its target. It got irritated and shifted its red eyes to the Mad Demon combatively.

"That's it."

"I've understood why they acted this way."

"A demon won't die after absorbing a Magic Stone, instead, it'll change. The Lord of Hell, who was an intelligent lifeform a moment ago, now looked more like a crawler and behaved as if it was an irrational beast."

The Mad Demon did not flinch at all. It fought the giant crawler fanatically!

After absorbing the magic stone, it seemed to obtain a new ability along with a smaller and agiler body!

The seemingly powerful four-legged crawler was forced to retreat by the Mad Demon. The hot steam it emitted could only damage a corner of the Mad Demon's garment whilst the Mad Demon's waves of black light were able to easily cut the Crawler's body. Roland could see the crawler's bones from its open wounds.

In less than five minutes, the duel was drawing to an end.

The Mad Demon tore off the crawler's tail. It quickly peeled the skin and flesh off the tailbone before throwing it back to the dying crawler to give a decisive blow!

The bone pierced the Lord of Hell's head and killed it. The whole process was as fast as lightning.

Roland who was standing by watching the whole duel, now looked grave. He noticed that the Mad Demon's arm did not wither after throwing the tailbone.

The frenzied Mad Demon walked step by step to the dead crawler. It grabbed the magic stone from the Crawler's dead body and swallowed it along with the flesh and blood adhering to the surface.

The audience suddenly burst into exclamation!

The female demon somehow appeared on the island again before Roland realized. She seemed to raise her eyebrows in surprise.

Once again, the Mad Demon revealed a painful expression as steam discharged from its nostrils and ears... Roland clearly saw that it was grinning. It seemed to be enjoying this torment very much.

This time, the converting process was much longer. It did not gradually recover until roughly half an hour later. Tearing off its old blister covered skin, it revealed a completely different appearance.

Roland could not help gasping at its new figure.

Its face now resembled a human being's.

Seeing this, the audience all cheered simultaneously.

"Charita!"

Roland did not know who called out this word first, but quickly, all the demons followed and repeatedly chanted together!

"Charita!"

"Charita!"

"Charita!"

Hearing the reverberating roar of the demons, Roland's heart further sank.

He thought of the rumor Pasha mentioned.

"The rumor was that, long before the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will, someone had got in contact with the demons."

"That person had taught knowledge to the demons, who were no different from beasts."

"This might be the reason why Senior Demons looked more and more like humans."

Chapter 972 - Going to War

After leaving the Dream World, Roland still felt the cold on his back.

Nightingale was bending over the desk while chewing snacks. Seeing him wake up, she instantly dashed to the couch and asked, "Are you all right? Is there anything wrong in that world?"

He felt relieved seeing the concerned look on a familiar face. It reminded him that he had already left the dreadful alien world. He exhaled and forced a smile before replying, "No. I just had some new discoveries."

She looked at him incredulously. "Really? You look pale." She touched his forehead before adding, "Look... you're even sweating."

Hearing that, Roland realized that the coldness on his back was due to his sweaty shirt.

"You know I didn't lie. It was just a dream after all."

But now, he was not as confident about this statement. The Dream World had become increasingly complicated and more like a real world.

"I don't know," said Nightingale. Her mouth twitched.

"What?" said Roland in surprise.

"I need to use my ability to discern the truth from a lie," she said with her hands laid out. "Now, you're not just the king of Graycastle but also the leader of the ancient witches of Taquila as well as Sleeping Spell. Even the Kingdom of Dawn is under your control. You aren't an ordinary lord anymore and will naturally have more and more secrets in the future. If I knew everything about you... you wouldn't feel comfortable around me anymore..." She paused. "You wouldn't like a person who could always look through, would you?"

Nightingale turned her head away to evade his eyes. Looking at her, he could not help but chuckle. All his mental stress had disappeared.

He was well aware of what she thought.

Most lords did not want their followers or servants to know too much about themselves. They usually liked to adopt an ambiguous attitude and enjoyed being a little unpredictable. If a person knew the lord they served too well, they would often not meet a nice end. Though Nightingale was aware that Roland was not such a cruel lord, she was still afraid that he would alienate himself from her when his power increased.

"What's so funny?" she asked whilst feeling aggrieved. After having several bites of her dried fish, she added, "I was really worried about you getting into trouble in that world."

"Ahem." Roland stopped laughing and with a straight face said, "Indeed, nobody wants other people to peer into their mind, not to mention a powerful ruler." He paused deliberately before continuing. "But you aren't included in 'these other people.'"

Roland did not want to become a real feudal king.

Having read about the ups and downs of many dynasties in history, he was sure of what he really wanted presently.

He needed a group of truly trustworthy people to help him accomplish this grand undertaking.

"What?" exclaimed the startled Nightingale.

"If you hadn't come to Border Town, I would've been killed by the maid assassin sent by Garcia long ago," explained Roland slowly. "When the Battle of Divine Will starts, the situation will become even more dangerous for me. Besides, some people in the kingdom still think of me as their enemy. You're going to be very busy and I'll be heavily relying on you. How could I not treat you differently?"

Roland found that he sometimes really liked the simple-minded people of this world. If he said this to a girl in the world he previously lived, she would probably roll her eyes and think that he was just trying to deceive her with sweet words.

"Besides, the most terrible lie isn't some plausible statement I may use to deceive others, but a lie I tell myself. With you around, I'll never have to worry about this problem."

Nightingale tilted her head and muttered, "I can't stop you from deceiving yourself."

"Of course you can. You're able to determine the credibility of a statement, aren't you? Like, 30% of a statement wasn't accurate or reliable, or alternatively, the whole statement was a downright lie."

"Well, yes, I can do that based on the feedback from my magic power."

"Then, when I announce a decision I'm unsure of, you can confirm if it's correct regardless of how confident I appear to be. Deluding myself into making a wrong decision will do more harm than being uncertain about it. When you notice me deceiving myself, you can give me hints. This stops me from making irreversible mistakes," said Roland with his hands laid out. "Now do you see how important your job is?"

"In that case... I'll ask you the same question again, but this time I'll use my ability," said Nightingale after a moment of silence.

"Please," said Roland as he gestured her to continue.

"Are you really alright?" asked Nightingale.

"So, the first thing she wants to confirm is still my safety..." Roland thought to himself.

"I really am fine," he replied with a smile.

After hearing that, Nightingale finally put her mind at ease. "What are the new discoveries you mentioned?"

"I'm going to tell the commanders of the united front about that now." He stood up and walked to his desk, picking up the phone which linked his office to Third Border City, before announcing, "I've seen a demon's memory fragment in the Dream World."

...

"That's what I've seen." Roland described his entire experience in the Dream World. He excluded the book of the Martialist Association and the message on the red note. "What do you think of it?" he asked.

Pasha who had already appeared on the light curtain was the first one to answer his question. "It's of great importance, Your Majesty. No one has ever returned alive from the city of demons before. You are the first one to do so, even though it was just a dream experience."

"With this experience alone, you would be eligible to meet the Three Chiefs of the Union in person," said Alethea. She rarely had a positive attitude toward Roland but this time she sounded exceptionally excited. "The demons increase their power by absorbing Magic Stones. This explains many things that had baffled us before!"

"Yes, given that a Mad Demon can acquire a new ability and evolve by taking in a Magic Stone, we can speculate that a Senior Demon is likely also created this way. It wasn't born a Senior Demon. To become such a powerful creature, it has to strengthen its power by absorbing a certain amount of Magic Stones. This explains why Senior Demons are able to have so many kinds of abilities," explained Celine, who studied magic power deeply.

"I've got a question," said Tilly, the leader of Sleeping Spell. "Is there a limit on this power strengthening process?"

Her question made everyone in the meeting fall into silence.

After a long time, Celine replied, "I'm afraid that there isn't a limit."

"Does that mean a demon may grow even stronger than a Transcendent?" asked Wendy with a frown.

"Witches and demons can't be directly compared like that," said Celine as she shook her main tentacle. "Do you still remember the words left by the underground civilization? If our magic power keeps increasing, we'll become indefinitely close to the deities one day. Thus, as long as we keep manipulating our magic power, our understanding will grow and our abilities will enhance, allowing us to evolve without limit. This rule applies equally to witches, demons and the underground civilization. Fortunately, it's not an easy journey. Getting close to the deities is hard, so don't worry too much."

Celine continued, "I reckon that this is very good news for us. If demons were born with various abilities, they would have a large number of Senior Demons now since they could reproduce countlessly in the past 400 years. Fortunately, we're now aware that they also rely on chances to evolve. Furthermore, based on His Majesty's description, their evolution isn't easily accomplished. Otherwise, the demons wouldn't react so enthusiastically to the Mad Demon's success."

"It's indeed impressive. Celine was able to get so much information from the scene I described. She has undeniably devoted her whole life to fighting demons." Roland exclaimed in his heart.

"After hearing your story, I'm even more worried about the rumor," said Pasha to Roland using mind communication. "Your discovery, to some extent, has already confirmed it, which makes me feel very uneasy. Why did the person help the demons? I guess that means Battles of Divine Will may not be as simple as we think."

Roland replied through the mind connection, "I agree with you. But no matter what, we can't change things that have happened in the past. All we can do now is fight to the death."

After a while, Pasha exclaimed, "Your willpower is exceptionally strong, Your Majesty. We underestimated you and thought of you as an ordinary man in the past. I have to admit that we were wrong about you."

Roland smiled without saying anything. In fact, he had not been so determined at the very beginning.

Six days later, the vanguard units of the First Army entered the demons' scouting area.

Roland received a report from the front line.

"Sylvie reported that she found a group of Devilbeasts flying toward the First Army." Nightingale repeated what she had just heard to Roland whilst holding a Sigil of Listening in her hand.

Roland decided to eliminate them as a prelude to the Battle of Divine Will. He nodded and said, "Tell them to act according to the plan."

Chapter 973 - Combat Beyond Visible Range (Part Ⅰ)

The sniper team was moving across the Fertile Plains, to the north of the Western Region.

Guided by Sylvie, they quickly reached their assigned position, in a grove of trees, far away from First Army's position.

According to the General Staff's plan, they would take care of any enemies within five kilometers in order to protect First Army without being spotted. Given that, the team had to stay away from the army, in case that some Devilbeasts spotted the soldiers on the plains when the weather was clear.

After all, there were more than 1,000 soldiers in the army. When moving across the plain, it was easy to notice them, even from 10 kilometers away.

When the sniper team set out, the First Army soldiers stopped marching and camouflaged themselves.

The sniper team included multiple witches to ensure its agility and flexibility. Lightning and Maggie formed the Flight Squad and the other witches were in the Ark Squad. They would work together to confuse and eliminate enemies to cover the movement of the First Army. All the soldiers were dressed in special camouflage uniforms which were called "jungle camouflage". They were dyed with strange colors and made from special materials.

Lightning and Maggie highly praised the camouflage uniforms. According to them, when they looked down from the sky, they could not easily discern the soldiers and after the soldiers stopped moving, they seemed to disappear.

Andrea also wore such a uniform.

But she did not like it at all.

It was not well tailored and completely without a fitted shape. Wearing such clothes, everyone looked the same. The brown and green color seemed to be daubed on the uniform casually and its fabric was as rough as the bark of a tree. If it had not been for the special lining made by Soraya, her skin would have been scratched by the uniform. She wondered where His Majesty found this crudely made material.

However, she would never complain about it no matter how much she hated it. As a noble lady, she had to remain elegant in all circumstances and more importantly, she did not want to give Ashes a chance to mock her.

"She'll tease me mercilessly about being picky and say that I'm still too fragile. She'll argue that my trip to the Kingdom of Dawn must have fed my arrogance. I can clearly predict what she's going to say and how she's going to say it."

"I was the one who made a vital contribution to our success in subduing the Kingdom of Dawn. While I was fighting, she was just lounging around Lady Tilly doing nothing."

Sylvie's voice interrupted Andrea's thought. "The demons are only 35 kilometers away from us. We must get ready. Let's rise to the ground."

"Roger, going up now. The barrier will be lifted in five seconds. Please watch out for the impact," Margie replied.

"Oh, yeah. That's the tone I like!" Lightning shook her fists excitedly and said. "You sound so professional. What a fast learner you are."

"Did I? Thank you." Margie touched her head bashfully. She might have never heard such a praise back in the church.

Andrea could not help holding her head and thought, "How come such a cool, crisp tone sounds professional? And where's the impact? When the ark disappeared, we just shook a little before standing firmly on the ground because of our inertia. This kind of impact can't even compete with the effect caused by Ashes' roars."

"Now it's time for the Flight Squad to get ready." Lightning gave everyone a thumbs up, put on her goggles, and then leaped up. "The runway has been cleared. The green light is on. Lightning, taking off!

"Maggie, taking off!" With these words, Maggie transformed into a goshawk and followed Lightning. They soon disappeared into the clouds.

"What's a runway? Some road specially built for running?" Amy looked around, feeling puzzled. "Where's the green light?"

"They probably learned these terms during their new training," Phyllis who came to protect the Ark Squad tilted her head and said. "I've heard His Majesty say them in the castle. They may be some technical words or expressions for flight training. However, besides the girls, I also saw Wendy and Anna during the training. It's a little strange."

"What? Does that mean witches without flying ability could also learn to fly?"

"I don't know."

"If I can learn it, what should I say to announce that I'm going to fly up?" Amy touched her chin and said. "How about... Amy, healing magic?"

"I like the term you created." Sharon's eyes shone with excitement. "Come on, make up a term for me!"

"Hey, be quiet. Don't disturb Miss Sylvie. She's tracking the enemies." Phyllis said smilingly.

"Got it!"

Watching the girls, Andrea could not help sighing. According to the plan, in the following week, they would get farther and farther away from the main force of the First Army. As an isolated team, they would advance toward the northwest to mislead the demons. As they penetrated deeper into the demons' territory, they could only rely on their own strength to evade or defeat their enemies.

It was going to be a hard journey for the sniper team. Andrea could hardly understand why the girls seemed so happy and relaxed.

Suddenly, someone patted her shoulder, she turned around and saw Iffy who showed her an"I understand you" look.

She felt comforted by this.

"We've no choice... because combat beyond normal visual range consumes a huge amount of magic power, we have to bring many assistant witches, such as Amy and Sharon, to provide us with magic power. This is the only way we can shoot continuously."

At this moment, she was really impressed by Countess Spear, who remained silent this whole time and looked more peaceful than her. She admired the way this great, noble lady dealt with the situation.

"Let's get started." Andrea took a deep breath and said. "The demons will enter our range any minute."

"Wait a second," Spear suddenly whispered. "I'm old and feel a little sick after traveling by the ark."

Andrea was speechless.

Fortunately, she did not have to exert much efforts to set up the anti-Devilbeast sniper rifle. Roland had minimized the installation steps by dividing the weapon into two parts, the gun and the tripod. Ashes and Phyllis had carried them the entire journey.

Andrea quickly got the rifle set up. She found that this sniper rifle without a scope turned out to be easier to operate when compared to a bolt rifle she had used before. She inserted a palm-sized bullet into the chamber of the rifle and nodded to Camilla Dary.

Camilla closed her eyes and extended her hands to touch Andrea and Sylvie.

Instantly, Andrea saw the world differently. Everything within her sight was distorted. She felt as if her soul was pulled out of her body, or another soul squeezed into her's. This weird change always made her feel a little dizzy, but after repeated training, she was able to get used to it and managed to quickly focus on targets that were far away.

Sylvie immediately sensed what she wanted.

The next moment, Andrea could see the world through Sylvie's eyes. The trees and grassland were instantly replaced by a sea of white clouds.

And she saw three black dots flying in the sky.

Chapter 974 - Combat Beyond Visible Range (Part Ⅱ)

"How far away is the target?"

"Twelve kilometers."

"What about the other directions?"

"Clear."

Sylvie was able to answer Andrea's questions in an instant, which made Andrea feel like talking to herself, since the Mind Resonance greatly improved their communication efficiency.

Although Andrea felt weird in the beginning, she really enjoyed this experience now. After her mind was connected to Sylvie's, she felt as if everything in the world suddenly sprang to life. This connection not only enabled her to see far across the world, but also enhanced all her senses. It was a wonderful feeling.

She could not help wondering how she would feel if she was in a Mind Resonance state with Princess Tilly.

"This is Flight Squad. Lightning speaking. Ark Squad, can you see me?" Lightning's voice came through a Sigil of Listening.

Andrea stopped wondering and concentrated on the task again. She searched in the sky and said, "I see you."

"Is it alright for us to stay at this height?"

"Yes. You'd better hide behind some clouds."

"Got it."

"Coo."

When Andrea missed a target or did not have enough power to shoot a demon, Lightning and Maggie, who hid above the enemy, would swoop down to take care of it. When Lightning flew at her full speed, she was three times faster than a Devilbeast, and Maggie could quickly transform into a beast. Under such circumstances, it would be impossible for the enemy to defend against an overhead attack.

But Lightning and Maggie were only able to launch one attack like that.

If there was more than one demon, they would have to retreat.

Personally, Andrea did not want to give the little girls any chance to fight.

She had absolute confidence in her own ability.

She boasted of being an unerring marksman. Even Ashes could not match her in this respect.

She wanted to show these little girls what a real professional was like.

"Six kilometers."

Sylvie warned her again.

"Good, I've locked onto the first target."

Andrea closed her eyes and focused her mind on her target.

In theory, she could shoot down any target she saw within the weapon's range, which was longer than five kilometers, but the amount of magic power required made it impossible for her to do so.

Once she exhausted all her magic power, she would pass out.

After repeated testing, she found that five kilometers was the ideal distance.

As she was tracking her target, a rush of magic power flowed out of her body and wrapped her tightly. She quickly saw a targeting line stretch to the Devilbeast, who was completely unaware of the impending attack.

This slender, silver line was so distorted that it looked nothing like a bullet's trajectory. The first stretch looked like an arched bridge stretching far across the empty sky and then it became a wavy line.

She had never seen any targeting line like this before she got this new rifle. It was a connected sequence of irregular line segments. It kept changing all the time and the middle part of it seemed like a spider silk thread waving in the wind, but the end of it was always fixed to her target.

She had asked His Majesty about this mysterious targeting line and his answer was totally beyond her expectation.

According to him, her ability was not about aiming. No matter how carefully a sniper aimed his weapon at a target, he could never predict whether he could hit it when he fired. Once a bullet was shot, its speed would decrease as it flew and the external environment's influence on it would increase. A strong cross wind was enough to make the bullet hit far away from its target. Even with the aid of the best scope, a sniper could never guarantee that he would be able to make each shot hit the target.

And when the target was five kilometers away, a normal sniper would have great difficulty hitting it.

"So, what's my ability?" She had asked Roland at that time.

Back then, she thought he seemed to have been bluffing and waiting for her to ask such a question, but she didn't mind it. "Actually, you're good at a coin toss. Many factors determine where a bullet will land, but surprisingly, you can always hit your target. Why? Think about this. If you toss a coin into the air, you somehow know which side it will land on. That's why you can always be sure that a bullet you shoot out will hit your target."

"Are you sure? How come I never get what I want when I'm playing cards?"

"Well, they aren't the same thing. Do you wish to get stronger? There's a theory that may greatly increase your ability."

"Really? What's it?"

His Majesty had replied smilingly, "Probability Theory."

"From the viewpoint of conditional probability, many different factors can affect your shooting results, but you're able to control or remove the effect of these conditions. Trust me, you'll have unlimited potential as long as you can master this theory." Andrea still clearly remembered that His Majesty had handed her the book with a smile on his face.

During that moment, she had been thrilled as if she could see a smooth road to a bright future and had thought excitedly, "I'm going to be a Transcendent."

However, this excitement had only lasted until that night.

She had opened the book, "Probability Theory", and failed to understand anything in it.

What the hell is this? Normal people could never understand this book!

"Crack—"

Andrea pulled the trigger when the silver guiding line dissolved into the background.

With a flash flames, the shot rang out. It was much louder than a bolt rifle. The sound wave was so strong that she felt as if it had hammered her chest and the heavy recoil kicked her shoulder. Thanks to the impact-resistance coatings on the stock and the cushioned tripod, she didn't experience a severe impact from the recoil. Before the dust settled, she was ready for a second shot.

A flow of magic power poured into her body.

The witches acted according to their training. Besides Margie and the witches assisting Andrea, all the witches, including the combat witches who came to protect everyone, would provide magic power for Andrea.

"What happened? Did you hit it?" Everyone asked with concern.

After all, the first shot was the key to determining the success or failure of this operation.

"The bullet has a long distance to travel, but it won't miss the target" said Andrea, confidently.

That's it, just as His Majesty said.

I've already known how the coin will land.

The bullet was traveling at such a high speed that even Sylvie was unable to track it, but Andrea could clearly describe its trajectory. After flying four kilometers, it would start to drop toward the ground. Although a stray bullet was still fast and lethal, it would miss the target if it continued to travel like that.

However, a strong gust of wind would change everything. She felt that it was like skipping a stone on water. When her bullet hit the wind, it would begin to ascend like a bird riding on the wind and would make an arc across the sky. This was the only way the bullet could avoid the two devilbeasts flying in the front of the formation and hit the last one in line.

Andrea pulled the trigger again, but this time, she did not hurry to prepare for the third shot. Instead, she turned her gaze toward her first target, the devilbeast at the back of the formation.

"Bang," She whispered.

The next moment, the devilbeast shook violently, a cloud of blood erupted from it back, and its organs began to fall out of its broken body. The demon on its back was torn into two parts. Its upper body was thrown high and red mist began spraying out from the tanks they were carrying.

From a distance, it looked a red flower blooming in the sky.

Chapter 975 - A Night in the Wild

If the demon flying at the forefront noticed what happened behind, it would have been able to escape. Although Andrea could easily shoot down a floating balloon from the air during previous live-fire drills, she noticed that it was much harder to predict the movements of a living being.

Once she pulled the trigger, the bullet would dart toward a definite position. She could not control the situation if the target left that position on its own. Thus, if a living being became aware of the danger and suddenly decided to change its path, her bullet would most likely miss the target.

She never missed a close target and always knew the result shortly after an attack was launched. Now, however, she needed to wait patiently for the result as the bullet had to travel five kilometers to hit its target.

She could determine which side a coin would land on when it was tossed onto a table, but she could not glue them down to ensure the result. If someone suddenly tapped the table or flicked the coin with a finger as it landed, it could still cause the coin to flip to the opposite side. Thus, she would not feel surprised if the demon escaped.

If it did try to escape, the Flight Squad would swoop down to take care of it.

Fortunately, the demon did not notice anything unusual.

It was not because the demon was not vigilant enough. By flying hundreds of meters above the ground, it could hardly hear anything except the wind whistling. Additionally, as it flew facing the wind, this whistling would be further amplified. When they had started to prepare this combat plan, Lightning had concluded from repeated testing that as long as the demon was flying 10 meters ahead of the target, it would not hear anything when a bullet went through the target behind it.

That was why Andrea chose to shoot down the demon flying at the end of the row first.

The big bullet left an opening in its belly and completely destroyed its inner organs. After they fell out of its body, it could not even make a scream.

Given that, the demon flying in the front did not notice anything abnormal and thus missed its only opportunity to escape.

After a dozen seconds, another bullet came from above and shot into its chest, passing through its body before breaking the spine of the mount below.

The devilbeast who flew in the middle carrying a pack on its back now noticed something was wrong, but it was not intelligent enough to understand the current situation. Driven by its instincts for survival, it turned around and flew toward Taquila.

Andrea locked onto it.

She foretold the coin's face for the third time.

...

In the late afternoon, the Ark rose from the ground again.

According to the map drawn by the Exploration Group, the sniper team had safely arrived at their resting place below a cave which had naturally collapsed.

"There are dried bird beak mushrooms?" asked Amy with great surprise.

"I stored them here," said Maggie as she dug out several glass bottles under a stone. "We even have barbecue seasonings here!"

"Do you prepare these things at all your bases?" asked Amy.

"Of course," Lightning replied proudly. "This place is poorly-equipped compared to the other bases. If we were at Forest Pavilion now, we'd be able to hold a banquet with the amount of food we've stored there!"

"Forest Pavilion?" Sharon asked whilst intrigued, "Where's it at?"

"It's near the Impassable Mountain Range in a big tree that's as large as a castle," said Maggie while drawing an invisible outline in the air. "We asked Leaf to build a roof and a sunning ground to dry our jerky."

"I'm afraid that only His Majesty Roland can tolerate you stealing his salt and spices." Countess Spear rubbed her forehead. "I estimate that these seasonings cost several gold royals. If you do this to any other lord, he'll definitely throw you into a boiling wok."

Chief Butler of Sleeping Island nodded in agreement

"I didn't steal them!" Maggie retorted. "I just picked them up from the ground."

"You picked them up?" Spear asked doubtfully.

"They leaked from the buckets in the kitchen. I just collected them," said Lightning.

"And I didn't take them without paying," Lightning added. "In the Fjords, any explorer can earn lots of money by drawing maps, and I've drawn many maps for His Majesty."

"Well, His Majesty would never blame you even if you ransacked the kitchen." Sylvie interrupted in a weak voice. "Collecting some spices from the kitchen is nothing. I've seen Nightingale sneak into the kitchen six times a week to take all the dried fish. She has even broken into His Majesty's study to steal... "

Everybody looked grave now.

"To steal what?"

Sylvie realized that she had spilled the beans. "Ah, no, nothing... I'm just starving. Let's get ready to cook!"

After that, Andrea said something to quickly dispel everybody's curiosity.

"By the way... Do you really want to pry into Nightingale's private life?"

All the witches immediately gave up the thought and began to find something to occupy themselves.

Sharon went to make a fire with her electric sparks. Amy swiftly chopped mushrooms. Phyllis and Ashes caught a boar for dinner. Spear Passi remained as she still felt sick... After a while, the tantalizing smell of food spread throughout the cave.

Unlike a banquet in the castle, there were not many dishes in this dinner, but their food tonight was delicious enough for a meal in the wilderness. Most of the time, when in the wild, they could only eat pancakes and jerky.

Ashes fried the boar's belly and sprinkled the grease from the pork onto the frizzled mushroom and meat. Seeing that, everyone's mouth kept watering.

In the end, they ate up the whole boar.

After their stomachs were full, the witches quickly fell asleep, except for the Extraordinary and the God's Punishment Witch. They were more energetic than the others and would keep watch during the night.

"I'll be on watch for the first half of the night," said Ashes as she added some wood to the fire. "Her Highness Tilly told me that you are more vulnerable to the effects of lack of sleep, although your sleep time is shorter than ours."

"That's true. Sleep deprivation will make it hard for us to control our bodies," Phyllis admitted. "But it's still early, I'll go to sleep later."

Ashes nodded and stopped talking. She was not talkative. Even in front of Tilly, she was mostly just a good listener.

Now, all was quiet except for the sputtering fire and the breathing noises of the witches.

"They're so close," whispered Phyllis whilst looking at the sleeping girls beside her. "I've never seen such a tight-knit team like them, even in the Taquila age."

Ashes looked to the side and saw Lightning lay sprawling on an animal skin and Maggie lay huddled up on her belly. The little girl's white hair tumbled down and covered both of them like a quilt which looked very warm.

She could not help but smile. "She wasn't like that in the beginning. Before we took her in, she had lived alone as a pigeon for several years. Back then, she almost lost the ability to speak, not to mention being close to someone. At that time, she would be alarmed by even the littlest rattling."

"Just, I don't know how long such intimacy between them will last..." Phyllis dropped her eyelids. "I hope this time the Battle of Divine Will will be different."

"Why do you say that?" asked Ashes with her eyebrows raised. She did not want to make this conversation sound like an interrogation, but she just could not suppress the question. "Faced with a common enemy, we'll all stick together, won't we?"

"Yes, we will," said Phyllis with a sigh. "But the war is also going to change the witches. Haven't you noticed that magic power affects more than just our ability?"

Chapter 976 - The Way to Transcendence

"Magic affecting more than just our abilities?" Ashes was surprised.

"Yes, magic affects many aspects. For instance it allows our body to be more flexible. We can also heal wounds many times faster than a common person and in general live healthier," Phyllis said slowly. "Our temperament is also changed."

"Wait, what do you mean by temperament?"

"As we witches use magic, our desires are amplified in the moment. This changes who we are. For example, that feeling of vengeance as you see your friend cut down. An experience like this can scar witches and they would become indifferent, or even ruthless," Phyllis said, her eyes fixed on the flickering flames. "For a warrior, this type of mental state is indeed advantageous... but it also turns her into..."

"...Into what?" Ashes felt uneasy.

"A monster."

Ashes stepped back and almost tripped.

Ashes recalled her past... There's nothing else she would've done, she killed countless church members. Ashes remembered how she hacked person after person, her mind became stained with blood, transforming her into an uncontrollable killer. She felt like she had infinite power in this bloodlusted state. However looking back... she was just an empty husk, devoid of feeling any real emotion. It's only after she met Princess Tilly that she regained her humanity.

"Of course, that's not the case for all witches. It's only a trend. When faced with war, all people could care about is surviving. The long and hopeless period of resistance could even drive the common people mad. We're kind of fortunate that we can at least use our desperation to turn into fearless berserkers," Phyllis paused. "even if you find it hard to understand the events that happened during the Union, our methods make sense. Without firm determination, the Three Chiefs couldn't be Transcendents."

"I see..." The campfire swayed a little as Ashes poked it. "If the Battle of Divine Will lasts forever, what will happen to the witches?"

"No one knows. Maybe they'll even look different," Phyllis said lightly. "After all, the witches' beauty was judged by their facial features. If they become inhuman, they may look strange, like the way the demons look."

The flames flickered again. For a moment, silence loomed over the cave.

After several moments pass, the God Punishment Witch said, "Do you have a reason why you fight the demons?"

Phyllis gave her own answer first after thinking that Ashes is hesitating. "Our reason is simple. We want to defeat the demons, win the war, and regain the glory of Taquila. Only with this faith in our heart could we last out until this day."

"You want to rebuild Taquila?"

"Of course, this place means much more than just a holy city to us, we're willing to devote our lives if that is what it takes to rebuild. However if King Roland manages to vanquish the demons, then the path he has chosen proves he's more capable than the Three chiefs. If the cooperation between the witches and the common people can give a promising future, we certainly have no objection."

Ashes kept quiet for a moment before she replied, "I just want to protect a certain person dear to me. Help her in any way I can. If she wants to throw demons out of the Land of Dawn, I will do that for her."

"I see..." Phyllis said and then shook her head. "Please forgive me but, that's not a good faith to hold when fighting enemies."

"Why is that?"

"Because it's too broad, too unspecific." Phyllis extended her hands. "You'll get lost, especially at the crucial moment of life and death. It's hard to define what a person wants. Most importantly, do you really know what she wants?"

"Of course, she—"Ashes stopped half way.

"Does Tilly want me to be fighting demons on the frontline?" The answer was clearly a straight no since this was her own decision. If it was the previous mission to locate targets for the phantom instrument, she might have the reason to take it on Tilly's behalf, but this time she still accepted Roland's invitation and joined the sniper team, even though Tilly did not participate in the war.

There was no doubt that she did it partly to grow Sleeping Spell's reputation since as the importance of the Sleeping Spell in Neverwinter grew, Tilly's role at court would be more vital.

But was this the only reason?

Ashes could not help looking at the witches who were asleep. The tiredness was still in their faces but they looked so quiet and peaceful. Ashes' eyes moved from Sylvie, Maggie, to the other witches of the Sleeping Island and eventually to the rest of her companions.

Suddenly, Ashes asked, "Why are you telling me this?"

In any case, she was only an acquaintance to Phyllis. They had occasionally exchanged their experience of swordplay and fighting skill and were far from close friends. However Phyllis shared with her a topic on temperament and the Taquila survivors' ambitions. It all seemed very strange to Ashes. She thought that Phyllis was not the type of person to talk about these things with every person she met.

"Because you're an Extraordinary," Phyllis said in a grim tone. "You're the flowers of the witches with unimaginable potential. In the era of the Union, every combat-type Extraordinary was trained with the utmost care. As long as they could push the limits of their potential and become a Transcendent, they would be capable of killing a Senior Demon all by themselves. These types of witches would gain the most popularity and they would be elected as the new leader of the Union."

With that, Phyllis arose and saluted Ashes. "Perhaps I have no right to teach an Extraordinary how to improve, but having the right mindset is essential to becoming a leader". As far as I know, all the Transcendents in the Union were born in battle, and those Extraordinaries who couldn't successfully become Transcendents were all eventually killed by the demons," she paused. "I hope you won't meet that fate, Extraordinary Ashes."

The God Punishment Witch even addressed Ashes by an honorific title in the last sentence.

"You don't need to..." Ashes frowned.

"Just take it as an old fool who hasn't seen a Transcendent for over 400 years." Phyllis laughed. "Don't worry, I won't salute you this way. It's time to sleep now though, I'll see you in 2 hours."

"Yeah, good night."

When the cave returned to silence, Ashes looked up, staring at the sky through the crack of the cave ceiling for a long time.

***************

After Roland hung up the phone called from the frontline, he marked out a new route on the map.

It was the 22nd day since Operation Summit started and so far, the plan was going smoothly. More Devilbeasts were spotted patrolling the forest, diverting the First Army further and further off the main route. It seemed that the demons attached more importance to the Taquila ruins and so left a massive blind spot south of their outpost.

Of course, the demons kept patrol teams nearby and generally speaking, no enemies could remain unspotted before they approached and launched an attack.

However the First Army didn't need to close the distance.

The artillery battalion had a complete firing table and was equipped with refined Longsong Cannons that enabled them to launch precise and fatal attack 10 kilometers away.

Chapter 977 - Gliding Wings

"Three days," Nightingale said suddenly.

"Yes, there are three days left." Roland nodded. If we take the army's current speed, they should reach the planned staging area within three days and launch attacks from there. The base was to be set on the slope of a hill facing the demon camp where it would look like a fort from the french maginot line. It offered the army a broad field of view and was in general a very good place to build fortifications.

Once the First Army entrenched the hill, it was almost impossible for the demons to shake their defensive line that was formed by guns and cannons.

In the meantime however, a lot of pressure would be put onto the sniper team over the next few days.

When the Army was on the march, demon scouts could easily intercept with them while on the vast open plain. Witches would have to work double time to keep these scouts from reporting back.

But as the demons send out more patrols, sheer numbers would just overrun the witches' surveillance net and demons would undoubtedly narrow down patrol areas where their scouts went MIA. Eventually, some credible information of the First Army's movements would make its way back. By then, it would be too risky for the witches to take any action.

The best result would be if the demons noticed the witches' presence in the area and sent out their flying units whilst the witches make the decision to return to the First Army. This would waste the demons' strategic units and give the First Army enough time to make camp before the demons could launch a surgical strike.

This assumes that the witches and demons would act this way though.

A small misjudgment of the situation could trigger some unforeseen consequence however.

"You should give them credit," Nightingale said, seeming to read Roland's expression. "The Taquila witches are probably good at assessing the risk, and they have the Magic Ark to use to escape. Even they run across a large scouting group, the witches will be a hard nut for those demons to crack."

"You're right." Roland held his cheek. To be honest, the cause of all these troubles could be traced back to Neverwinter's weakness. The slow speed of marching on foot had been an obvious drawback for the First Army. That was why the team had to run the risk of battle. If the army had wheeled vehicles, then the team would only need to hold off the demons for a day. And even if the enemies saw his army marching on them, they would not have time to hold the army back.

After thinking about how the problems eventually went back to Neverwinter's development, he would might as well just focus on that.

"By the way, has Wendy grasped the principles of flight?"

"Almost." Nightingale laughed as she threw a piece of dried fish into her mouth. "She even talked in her dream last night, something like 'the runway cleared' and 'all lights green'."

"That's good." Roland glanced out of the window. "The weather seems pretty good today. Maybe our flight trials can be put on schedule earlier than usual."

"Oh? Are you going to put that thing to the test?" Nightingale's eyes brightened.

"What, are you interested?"

"How can I not be?" she said excitedly. "One can fly in the sky even without wings. A thing that can help you fly more freely than the hot air balloon and can be controlled by anyone. That sounds just as incredible as the miracles. If you succeed, do you know how your subjects will look on you? Their reverence for you will be higher than God."

Nightingale's eyes shined with every word coming out her lips. She was full of joy as if she relived the ecstasy of chaos drinks once again while being admired by her followers.

Roland could not help laughing. "We're still working on it. There's still a long way to go before we achieve the goal you said."

The steam engine didn't have enough horsepower to drive an aircraft off the ground. Roland knew he needed to reinvent the combustion engine soon.

"But it'll come true, won't it?" Nightingale smiled back at him as she walked up to the door with her hands on her back.

"Yes," Roland answered decisively. "It will."

...

One kilometer east to Shallow Beach.

Despite its name, the beach was completely submerged, leaving a long line of cliffs erecting above the water surface. The line had stretched to the southeast and eventually formed the borderline of the south of Graycastle.

For the inland people who lived in the Western Region, the borderline was no more than a part of hills where they could see the endless whirlpool sea as they crested the gentle slope; for the traders on sailing boats, the borderline was like an impassable barrier. Because of the cliff that was at least 15 meters high above the water, it was impossible for their boats to dock, let alone unload the goods. That was why the Western Region, where one-third of its border connected the sea, had no seaport before they opened up a passage towards the Shallow Beach.

In other words, apart from the damage resulting from the Months of Demons, the lack of seaports was the main reason why the West Region was less developed than Eastern and Southern counterparts.

However, now this unusual terrain could serve as a perfect place for flight test.

As Roland and his companions arrived, the Garrison had sealed off the area one kilometer around.

At the end of the concrete runway, the soldiers were pushing three identical prototypes of the glider onto a platform.

"Oh! That's your new machine?" Thunder said, touching his chin. "It indeed looks like a seabird. But compared with the powerful steam engine, it seems... a little fragile."

As the most reliable overseas allies, both Thunder, the distinguished explorer in Fjords, and the businesswoman Margaret were invited. Thunder's comment did not surprise Roland, who instead smiled mysteriously and turned to ask Margaret, "What do you think?"

"Your Majesty," she said, "to be honest, it looks so different from your previous inventions that I would have thought it must be the something that the Society of Wondrous Crafts used to fool us in your name."

"The Society of Wondrous Crafts?" Roland asked curiously. "What organization is that?"

"A society set up by a group of half-craftsman, half-explorer lunatics," Margaret explained. "They refused to live a plain life as craftsmen and were also afraid of sailing in the unpredictable sea, so the lot focused on an assortment of odd inventions. Two years ago, one of them made a similar thing, a pair of wooden wings that was said to be able to help people fly."

"Wooden...wings?"

"It looked a little like yours except that it was much smaller and about the same size as a man."

"Did he succeed?" Wendy could not help asking.

"No," Margaret shook her head. "He wore the wings and jumped from a high tower, as soon as the wings flipped over and he started to drop like a stone until he hit on the ground and died immediately."

Wendy swallowed hard, almost regretting to say that.

"Before that trial, the man had claimed several times that he successfully flew on a number of occasions. This garnered attention from our chamber but as a result only made him look like a fool and also worsened the society's reputation as if it wasn't bad enough."

As Roland listened to the story, he could not help sighing. The man, who had made the wings of wood, thought that since the lifting was the key to keep a thing flying in the air, only a frame of hard materials that could withstand the force of lift needed. This was naive but it was still one of the first prototypes of the fixed wing and went beyond simply imitating birds.

Actually, the man should be viewed as a pioneer in exploring the skies. Definitely wiser than those who invented things like man-made feather wings, flying umbrellas, flying cloaks, and so forth.

Roland believed his previous successes were not completely without failure. He probably tested from a low height where there were less variables to consider. For this sort of test, you would have to account for strong contact force against the wind as your rate of descent becomes larger. you could predict on a graph when the man could not overcome the force to maintain stability and crash.

It was a pity that islanders in Fjords only admired the explorers who could find new livable places for them and had a prejudice against those who were afraid of sailing.

"We shouldn't call him a liar," Roland said slowly. "In fact, it's a great price we have to pay for the possibility of getting rid of the bond of the earth and being able to fly in the sky. Without the help of the witches, I also need to experience that testing process. If the man had a name, record his story."

Margaret was a little shocked, then she dropped a curtsey, "As you wish, Your Majesty."

Roland moved his eyes back to the Mark I Glider, which was getting ready for its first flight. In contrast to the train and the iron ship, it indeed looked fragile.

It had no cabin, and apart from the large wings, it was a frame with no covers. The seats were set between the wings to make it easy for the flyers to escape. The whole structure looked simpler than a model at first glance.

Unlike the machines Roland had made before, the aircraft was actually just a collection of things he heard from his acquaintance. All he knew was the principle of flight, which was far from enough to make a real aircraft.

The first thing on order was to write a Flight Manual.

These prototypes seemed simple, but they already contained all the essential factors the flyers needed to control the machine.

It looked like a newly born hairless chick.

But it was a beginning of a new wave of travel for all humans.

Chapter 978 - Flight

To give the glider speed, Roland requested the Ministry of Construction to build a runway along the cliff towards the sea. It was designed with both ends curved upward like a crescent.

Once the glider was lifted and fixed in position, it could be released by unleashing the fixer. Due to gravity, it would glide forward and speed up until it darted out of the runway. The flyer would have a similar experience to sitting on a roller coaster in the modern world, though it would be far less thrilling.

Of course, these alone were insufficient as the wings needed more power to ascend. Thus, Wendy had to provide some wind to lift the wings.

Once the glider darted out of the cliff that was 15 meters above the water surface, it would have plenty of buffer space. Whether the glider ascended or descended, its slow speed provided both the flyer and rescuer time to prepare.

This was the reason why Roland designed the prototype to have two seats in the first place.

Now that both Lightning and Maggie were fighting on the Barbarian Land. The rescue job was naturally handed over to Tilly.

She took the job joyfully.

"It's time to board the plane," Roland said to both girls as he thought it was time to take off.

Wendy nodded. She clenched her fists to encourage herself and then walked up to the glider with Tilly.

...

It was not until she was on board that she found the aircraft to be much larger than she had expected.

Particularly the two pairs of straight wings that separately lay above her head and below her feet. They were larger than any birds' and were even longer than the transfigured Maggie's wings.

As Wendy saw the slim tip of the wings vibrating in the sea wind, concern rose inside her. It felt like the wings would easily snap from strong winds once the glider took off.

Roland had mentioned that the vibration of the wings was normal. The wings were assembled from a frame with a skin wrapping around it. The frame was made of hard aluminum. This was to ensure that it could endure the impact of air currents when the glider flew slowly through the air. The skin was created by Soraya. It was more resistant than ordinary leather and cloth. As a result, the wings looked quite slim and frail. Compared to the area of the wings, their thickness could almost be ignored. It was as if they were pieces of paper.

"My Lady, let me know if you're ready." A soldier's voice awoke Wendy.

"I see. Well... the first step is..."

"Confirm that every control surface is okay." Tilly on the back seat tried to calm her down. "Don't be nervous. I'll protect you even if something goes wrong."

"Thank you." Wendy felt relieved when she heard that. Exactly, she was not the only one who took His Majesty's class on the principles of flight. If someone could remind her of the steps she had forgotten, she would make fewer mistakes.

"First, pull the main lever to control the tail elevator."

Taking a deep breath, Wendy put both hands on an iron lever before her seat and pulled it. As she did that, a click was heard under her seat. She knew that the sound was produced when the wire connected to the other end of the lever pulled tail. She had done this step hundreds of times on the simulator before the prototype was ready.

"The elevator is okay. The next step is... um, the rudder," Tilly continued.

But the components in the simulator were much simpler. It only contained two vertical levers, two pedals, and a few wire ropes. At first, it was hard for Wendy to believe that only these few things could allow the glider fly like a bird. After all, it was almost as simple as controlling as a bicycle.

The elevation control lever could only be moved forward and back while the direction control lever could only be moved left and right because the holder had limited their movement space. On the other hand, a bicycle's head could make circles.

"The rudder is okay too. Last is the aileron."

According to His Majesty, an aircraft generally had three pairs of wings. One in the front and two in the back, giving the impression of the shape of "土" when viewed from the front. The rudder, which was the erected part, worked like the one of a boat. It could change the direction of the aircraft's nose in the wind.

The short horizontal bar was the elevator, which was also called the "tail". It rose and dropped with the aircraft's nose, looking very similar to a rudder flipped on its side. With the knowledge from the chapter "Decomposition and Synthesis of Forces" in Primary Physics, Wendy could easily understand the principle of this component.

The longer horizontal bar represented the aileron. Wendy did not understand why it was called the "aileron" until she saw the real thing. It was inlaid at the back of the large wing and was no more than one-tenth the size of the wing. Two ailerons were connected with iron wire to the two pedals near her two feet, one left and one right.

Unlike the former two components, the two ailerons must be in inverse (one up and one down) to work. However, if disproportionate forces impact on the two ailerons, the aircraft would deflect from its course or possibly even roll over. Hence, they were the most important part Wendy needed to handle in flight.

Wendy had once asked His Majesty why he had designed the ailerons when the rudder could also change the flight direction. He explained that every movement of the aircraft required the cooperation of the three control surfaces in combination. If the flyer only moved the rudder, the body of the aircraft would tend to move horizontally. Thus, when making a tight turn, the flyer must pull the elevator down to keep it stable.

Thus, he needed a detailed testing result to write a Flight Manual that could really guide people. He needed to find the answer to questions like: In different circumstances, how is the orbit maneuver controlled? How does the wind direction impact the aircraft? What is the deficiency of the aircraft when controlling it? and so forth. Only by clearly learning this information could he make a truly reliable aircraft.

"The ailerons seem okay too." Tilly patted Wendy's shoulder. "I'll leave the rest to you."

Wendy felt her heart beat faster. She glanced at Roland in the distance before turning to the soldier. "I'm ready, loosen the fixer."

"Yes, please watch out!" The soldiers moved immediately.

"The runway is clear and lights are all green,"  Wendy whispered in her heart. Although she did not exactly understand what those words meant, she would still say it, since His Majesty said it could bring luck.

With a gentle shake, the glider was pushed onto the runway.

Then it descended.

The wheel creaked as it rolled on the runway, and the aircraft started to shake. Wendy felt as if the sea at the other end was approaching her as she raced down the runway towards it.

For a moment, her heart was in her mouth.

"What did she need to do next?"

Wendy panicked when she saw that the glider had passed half of the runway yet showed no signs of flying.

"The wind!" Tilly shouted.

Yes, the wind. The speed generated on the runway was not fast enough to make the glider take off whilst carrying both of them. She needed to create a stable and mild wind to lift its wings.

Just as the idea emerged in her head, she took action. The magic spiral worked and formed an invisible air current which lightly supported the wings.

With that, the harsh creaking noise subsided. It was as if the glider no longer had any weight. Before Wendy could figure out how it happened, the glider had rushed off the cliff.

For a short period of time, the glider ascended, giving her a sense of overweight. It felt like someone pressing her down into her seat.

As her body was drawn back, she could not help but pull the main lever down.

The aircraft's nose responded to her command and rose even higher.

Her view changed. She could no longer see the earth full of the leaves and withered grass. Even the vast whirlpool-like sea was almost out of her sight. Instead, the clear blue sky filled her view whilst the shimmering light forced her to narrow her eyes.

For a moment, Wendy felt like a petrel soaring up into the sky against the light.

It felt so unconstrained. She finally understood why His Majesty said that the aircraft was totally different from a hot air balloon.

But just a few seconds later, Wendy found that the sound of the wind had subsided.

The glider's nose was still high, but its speed no longer allowed it to ascend. Time seemed stopped. Wendy wanted to strengthen the wind under main wings, but this ended up turning the entire aircraft upside down.

"Too much wind!" Tilly shouted.

Before Wendy had time to find the problem, the glider had fallen like a stone.

Chapter 979 - Another Kind of Genius

Everyone present witnessed it.

The glider fell down the cliff and out of their sight shortly after it left the runway. It happened so fast that no one had time to respond.

Roland also feared for their safety.

He had foreseen the possibility of all sorts of accidents during the trial. Although he had prepared more than one prototype in order to increase the flyer's experience with as many trials as possible, he did not expect the first crash to come so early.

In theory, the glider was slow, low-loaded, and easy to control. A little wind was able to maintain its airtime, making it very friendly to a new hand. In fact, there were only a few mistakes that could make the flyer lose control of the aircraft. Roland had emphasized these points whilst explaining the principles. This time, Wendy obviously lifted the aircraft's nose too high. As a result, the aircraft lost its original speed and started to drop.

Although the glider had lost its ascending speed, the situation could still be salvaged with appropriate actions.

As Wendy was capable of creating winds.

All she had to do was blow wind down towards the tail whilst reducing the wind that lifted the glider. This would force the glider's nose down and therefore its body would regain speed.

Unfortunately, the wind Wendy applied to the main wings was too strong and abrupt. As a result, the glider flipped over and thus they had no choice but to abandon the aircraft.

Although the glider could be saved, Roland cared more about the safety of the flyers as there were no safety devices installed, such as seatbelts. In fact, the glider only contained an aluminum chair with two arms and a backrest to steady the flyers. It was easy to imagine what would happen when the glider was overturned.

Fortunately, Tilly did not leave everyone worrying for too long.

A few seconds later, she was holding Wendy's arm and appeared on the edge of the cliff.

"Are you alright?" Roland asked anxiously.

"Don't worry. We're fine." Tilly smiled and panted slightly. "In order to avoid being hit, I flew down a little to dodge it before ascending."

Unlike Lightning who would significantly lose speed when she carried load, a witch who controlled the Stone of Flight would not lose speed even if she carried a person. Instead, the stone would consume much more magic power and become harder to control. Although Princess Tilly had made light of the situation, Roland knew that the rescue would not have been completed so easily without her remarkable control over the stone.

"My apologies... Your Majesty." Wendy said, looking a bit frustrated. "You've spent so much time making that aircraft, but I..."

Roland comforted her immediately, "It's not your fault. No one is born to know how to fly an aircraft. That's part of the knowledge unknown to all of us. The materials of the glider were more valuable than the process of making it. As long as we can recover the wreckage, we won't suffer a great loss."

"We won't?" Wendy asked.

"I can promise you that His Majesty is telling the truth," Nightingale said as she suddenly appeared and faced her friend.

Wendy felt relieved. "I see... I'll have another try!"

Roland was amused. "Is that another usage of the ability to detect lies?" He always felt that Wendy had worked too hard after she was appointed the head of the Witch Union.

"Don't you want to rest?" asked Roland.

"No!" Wendy exclaimed.

"Well then, just keep in mind that safety comes first," said Roland.

"Don't worry brother. I got this," Tilly said as she smiled.

...

In the end, it turned out that flying was not so easy to master.

The second trial did not last longer than three minutes.

Surprisingly, Wendy made great progress this time. She managed to successfully raise the glider to an altitude of nearly 50 meters high.

Unfortunately, as the glider was turning, the wings rolled too much.

Roland could see that Wendy had been trying hard to adjust the wind direction in order to re-balance the glider, however, this only resulted in a short unstable wobble before it dropped once again.

Tilly decisively pulled Wendy off the seat in advance, before the glider tumbled and crashed into the ground. Both wings were twisted completely out of shape, leaving the glider in an unflyable state until it could be repaired.

Compared to the first flyer in human history, who only managed to fly three meters above the ground, the participants of this trial equally deserved to be remembered in history for their remarkable accomplishments.

Sadly, Roland needed more than just putting an aircraft in the sky. To deal with the approaching Battle of Divine Will, he had to equip the army with aircrafts as soon as possible.

With such a high crashing frequency, Roland soon knew how depressing it felt to wreck three aircrafts in a single morning.

"What went wrong this time?" Roland asked.

"We bumped into a crosswind," Tilly said as she shrugged. "It caused us to lose speed."

Wendy nodded, feeling guilty. "I panicked and couldn't control the glider or my powers. If only I focused more on the gliders operation, I might have been able to prevent it from dropping," said Wendy depressingly.

These words reminded Roland of a problem that he had previously ignored. Witches had to concentrate when exerting their powers, hence their abilities were prone to fluctuations when in a state of panic. Thus, if a witch could not accurately control her ability mid-flight, she could potentially worsen the situation instead of helping it.

It seemed that this problem could only be solved with more practice.

"How about... letting me have a try," Tilly suddenly said.

"You?" Roland said whilst a little surprised.

"I took your class too. If I controlled the glider, there would be no need for me to worry about getting distracted by the wind. This way, Wendy would have less burden to bear. And..." Tilly raised the corners of her mouth, her eyes shined itching to have a try. "...I believe I can operate this big thing."

Seeing as Wendy was not against it, Roland agreed after a moment of thought.

Roland had chosen Wendy for the flight test because of her ability. She could sense the changes in the wind and generate air currents to support the glider when required. Though, it turned out that supporting the glider with wind was not as easy as he thought.

In that case, it should be fine to change the plan slightly.

Since Tilly was his nominal sister and the leader of Sleeping Spell, it was also part of his responsibility to make her happy.

There was only one prototype left anyway, might as well let them try. It did not matter if they destroyed it as next time he would prepare more alternatives.

...

When the third glider took off, Roland came to realize that he had underestimated Tilly.

The glider initially flew leveled to the sea before steadily rising. When the glider turned down away from the sun, the flight rhythm suddenly started to change.

It flew soaring through the wind, like an agile petrel, alternating between the sky and sea. Although it may be inappropriate to compare a clumsy glider to an elegant petrel, the way the glider turned, swooped, and ascended was very graceful under Tilly's control. Roland felt a beautiful sense of harmony from its movements in the sky.

Meanwhile, he realized that Tilly was not overly relying on Wendy to produce wind. She only required it when the glider lost both its speed and height. At these times, she would adjust the position of the glider to allow the magic wind to lift it higher.

She was using the control surfaces on their own to control the glider.

Furthermore, she has had no more than 30 minutes of piloting experience.

It was surprising to see someone so gifted.

Roland then realized why Tilly was more versed in using Magic Stones than any other witch. Based on Agatha's opinion, Magic Stones were not easy to control because a witch would feel a sense of discrepancy. It was as if the stone became an extra limb when she activated it. Could this be Tilly's area of expertize after becoming an Extraordinary?

It was this astounding nervous system that enabled her to coordinate and accept new things more easily and quickly.

It explained why she could master the trick of steering an aircraft so quickly.

Whilst in thought, Roland could not help feeling a surge of pity.

It was a shame that he could not make a Gundam.

Otherwise, the demons would have had to face an unparalleled ACE.

An hour later, the glider was welcomed by the audience's wild cheers as it slowly pressed its tail and landed steadily on the grass.

Chapter 980 - Ordinary People

...

"Will Lady Tilly be responsible for writing the Flight Manuel?" Anna put down her book and laughed gently. "Wendy won't be frustrated, will she?"

"Perhaps, she will, but I think she can take care of herself." Roland moved a little to get in a more comfortable position.

"Why are you so sure?"

"Nightingale asked for an advance on her next month's Chaos Drinks, and Scroll applied for three ice cream rolls. I believe that with both of them being with her, Wendy will recover in one night. Besides, I also gave her two bottles of fruit wine to comfort her. I don't think she'll brood on her failure after she gets drunk."

"Is the wine called 'Drink Yourself to Death'?"

"No, it's called Vanilla Medium."

"What? Such a common name..."

Nights like these were some of Roland's most relaxing moments. The two of them, having washed off a day's tiredness, leaned back against the soft, black velvet pillows and shared that day's stories. Anna would often prepare a book for bedtime reading, such as travelogues and biographies, while Roland would lay on his side and enjoy her beautiful face.

This was one of the few times they could stay so close to each other ever since the construction of the railway in the Misty Forest began.

Every four days, Anna had to take the train to the northwest and process the rail that Leaf had paved, then she had to return by train that evening.

Besides welding the railway, she also had a lot of other work to do.

Such as: making critical components of the weapons,

Improving the new machine's tools, while making replacements for the old ones,

Cutting aluminum bars, and assembling the glider.

The industry of the Western Region had grown dramatically since the time it began. The people were using primary metal materials and production tools without the witches' assistance. No matter how fast the industry advanced, it was still slower than the speed of Roland updating the designs.

It made moments like these all the more precious.

"It would be nice to have the Flight Manual written by Lady Tilly." Anna shifted the topic back to the flight test. "After all, your invention is made for all people to use and her feelings may be closer to the ordinary people. Besides, as far as learning ability is concerned, she has mastered almost as much knowledge as I have. She can probably offer you more help than Wendy."

"Yeah... this isn't something Wendy is good at," Roland said, nodding. "I should have thought of it from the start."

"Have you thought out the machine for the new aircraft?"

"Of course," he replied confidently, "this is my expertise after all. Now that there's a dream world where I can find relevant materials, I'm able to draw the design for a prototype immediately. We can start to produce the aircraft directly after the oil fractionation tower is completed."

After that, they talked about the other industrial problems of Neverwinter, including everything from technical details to development plans. The talk was comfortable and harmonious, Anna not only understood his meaning but also added many relevant comments and compliments. For Roland, it was refreshing to have someone so considerate and tactful.

As Roland was staring at the girl's flashing eyes, his thoughts shot back to how few girls there were at his old mechanical engineering college and job. This would explain why he never saw any salary improvements and suddenly he felt that there must be a God of mechanics blessing him.

Anna laughed, probably after being stared at for too long. "Do I look that beautiful?"

Roland did not answer. Instead, he let actions to express his feelings. He leaned over and kissed her ear.

"Had I known you were such a man, I would have acted earlier." Anna smiled.

"Does she mean the night she intercepted him at the castle gate after the end of the first celebration of the Months of Demons?" 

"What did you initially think of me?" Roland wondered.

"In my eyes, no matter how merciful you are, in the end, a prince is a prince. You were also above all the nobles, which are very different from us as it is."

"Haha ... sorry to disappoint you." He pretended to be sorry. "I'm just an ordinary person."

"No, it couldn't be better..." Anna shook her head and raised the corners of her mouth. "Because I'm an ordinary person as well."

***************

Two days later in the Barbarian Land.

The main force of the First Army finally arrived at the station of Northbound Slope, on schedule.

Iron Axe could not help having doubts, for it was such a smooth and peaceful journey as they had not suffered any attacks they had expected, not even aerial harassment.

He had prepared to carve out a way through the many enemies, but he saw none of them. Their only battle was with a pack of hunting wolves. Apart from that, the entire plain was strangely quiet, as if all the watchers had been distracted by the sniper team.

If that were the case, he could swallow his disbelief. But the information that the witches told him was not correct.

In fact, the demons only strengthened their patrol forces in the first couple of days and then withdrew most of the Devilbeasts, leaving the outpost un-patrolled until now. It seemed that they had given up watching the area.

After the army camp, Iron Axe summoned a meeting in the central camp with the General Staff and the heads of the troops.

"Why do the demons stay quiet? What do you think?"

"It is indeed a little strange..."Agatha, who represented the Witch Union in this mission, mulled it over for a while and said, "Only the red mist can restrict their movement, but Sylvie said the outpost was still under construction, which means the red mist supply line is still ongoing."

"Their motives would be easy to understand if they were nobles," Knight Morning Light said. "It's either because something happened in their rear or their reluctance to sacrifice a few Devilbeasts." Then he turned to Agatha. "Can Lady Sylvie see what's happening in the Taquila ruins?"

"The ruins are too far away from the sniper team." Agatha shook her head. "They gave up luring the enemy yesterday and are heading toward us."

"How long will it take them?" Iron Axe asked.

"At least four days." Agatha glanced at the map. "Although the Magic Ark is fast, they have been heading in the direction opposite from the First Army's from the start. But if Lightning and Maggie move alone, the two of them will arrive by tonight."

"There is no need for us to guess their intentions," Edith suddenly said. "Whatever they aim to do, it's a great opportunity for us. We have arrived at the station without any losses, and the underground supply line is running smoothly. It's the best start we could've hoped for. What we need to do next is set up the Longsong Cannons and raze the demons' outpost to the ground."

Her plan stated the obvious.

On second thought, Iron Axe asked, "The Magic Ark is almost impossible to notice as long as it remains underground, right?"

"You can put it that way," Agatha replied.

"Could Maggie bring Lady Sylvie here as well?"

"I'll tell her."

"Thank you." Iron Axe quickly made a decision. "Battalion commander Van'er!"

"Yes, Sir!" Van'er stepped forward.

"Set up the Longsong Cannons and get ready to fire," he said clearly and carefully. "The attack will begin tomorrow evening!"

Chapter 981 - Unexpected Start

Morning Light climbed to the top of the slope and his heart raced as he watched the busy but well-organized battlefield in front of him.

This was not the first time he has been on the battlefield. At the age of 15, he was already an excellent knight squire, following the Lord during the charges. When he became an adult, he even won the reputation of the first knight of the Western Region.

He was no stranger to war.

However, the atmosphere here was completely different.

Before the battle, nobles would motivate, promise rewards, eat and drink in order to improve the army's morale. That is why the freemen and mercenary camps would often immerse themselves with wild cheers, similar to an open market with the only difference being the absence of wine. At such occasions, knights would always laugh at their men for being so oblivious of a few breadcrumbs, not knowing they would have to sacrifice themselves for it.

At that time, Ferlin Eltek also believed that only nobles knew the art of war. Without a noble leading them, freemen would lack cohesion, just like scattered sand.

Only when Duke Ryan was defeated at Border Town by a bunch of miners did he realize that the reality was different from what he imagined.

However, since he was satisfied with achieving his revenge, he did not think about it further and instead devoted his energy to his wife Irene.

Two years later, thanks to his father, Morning Light joined the Adviser Department only to find out that the war has completely changed.

The First Army's discipline during the last month's march has already astonished him and yet, the professionalism they displayed right now would make most of the nobility feel ashamed.

Without any agitation, everyone was familiar with their tasks: at the bottom of the slope, several trenches had been excavated, while the excavated soil was put into sacks and piled up to form rows of simple walls in front of the machine gun area. In the middle of the trenches, there were wired iron nets and chevaux de frise which were assembled on spot. Achieving a frontal breakthrough would be almost as hard as breaching through a city wall.

Many cushion areas had also been set up behind the defensive line so that even if the machine guns were breached, they would not lose the battle. The Taquila witches could both protect the Artillery Battalion and provide support for the front line at any time as back up troops.

The slope that was the furthest behind was the core of the First Army's attack— 6 Longsong Cannons, pointing straight at the demon's outpost. The cannon soldiers were reviewing the shooting parameters, making the final preparations for the upcoming assault.

All of this did not need to be arranged by a commander but instead, in just one day, the First Army turned this area into an adequate battlefield.

Ferlin had seen the power of the new firearms during the cannon demonstration, but still, they were only machines—the operators of the weapons had to be humans.

Moreover, it was exactly those freemen soldiers who really surprised him.

A platoon with such strict discipline and clear division of labor was hard to be assembled even by the knightages of the great nobles.

Even though he had previously seen the change in the people of Neverwinter, that was still nothing compared to his shock right now.

"Do you understand now?" Suddenly, Morning Light heard a familiar voice behind him. "The answer to that question before."

Ferlin turned around and nodded at Sir Eltek. "Yes. father."

When His Majesty announced that he wanted to unify Graycastle within a month and attack Hermes and the Kingdom of Dawn simultaneously, the Adviser Department did not have any objections but Instead devised a number of seemingly incomprehensible plans.

The reason behind that was these weapons and soldiers. Thanks to them, no one in the mainland was his enemy, or rather... the strength of the enemies could no longer be compared with his.

"Unfortunately, His Majesty forbade nobles to join the army," Ferlin said regretfully, "compared to sitting in an office, I would rather experience fighting alongside those people—"

"Individual braveness is no longer so important. The Adviser Department suits you more," his father smiled. "Besides, it's a battle with unknown enemies such as demons so what if something happened? I am still waiting for a grandson. Irene's friend recently gave birth, I think. You should try harder too."

"Father!" Ferlin could not help but hold his forehead.

"Fine, fine, I won't talk about it," said Eltek while stroking his beard. "The sun is about to set, let's go back to the camp. The Artillery Battalion will start firing soon—can't stand that noise."

"Yes," Morning Light looked at the camp one last time and then went down the hill with his father.

He also had another battlefield to attend to and finish his duties.

...

At five in the evening, the cannons started firing.

According to the previously adjusted shooting angles, the 6 cannons started firing one by one, breaking the silence of the Fertile Plains.

400 hundred years later, humans have once again stepped into these plains, launching an assault at the demons.

The first two rounds were to test and fix any discrepancies that might occur and after they received Sylvie's feedback, the cannon sounds became synchronized.

The improved 152milimeter Longsong Cannon was a bit closer to its historical predecessor. In order to increase the shooting range, the ammunition chamber was doubled and the shells had to be filled part by part. So, the shooting time was also increased by half. However, driven by the higher pressure, these cannons could cause a fatal threat to fixed targets even ten kilometers away.

Because of the increase in length, the weight was also affected thus bringing more trouble for the logistics. The final solution was to dismantle the cannons into four pieces and carry them with the Taquila worm carrier.

Nobody could hear the sounds or see the flames that occurred when a shell landed. This was an entirely new form of war. If not for the several cannon battles that they had already fought, the soldiers would never believe that they could destroy the enemy's strongholds and cities just by a few repetitive moves, even without the need to face the enemy.

There were mainly two reasons for choosing to launch an attack at sunset. Firstly, the effect of the Eye of Magic did not rely on sunlight and could also be used at night to guide the artillery team's shooting. Secondly, the Devilbeasts could not move at night. The demons had no choice but to bear their attacks all night.

The Longsong Cannon would shoot every two minutes but other than the sounds made beyond the skyline, it seemed as if there were no changes at the battlefield in the middle of the night. On the other hand, in Sylvie's eyes, the landscape ten kilometers away had completely changed—

Due to the explosive waves, the landscape was turned over and dozens of Blackstone Pagodas were mostly destroyed. In particular, when the shells went through the mist storage tower, the explosion that followed made the black stones look like an eruptive volcano.

Yet, she still has not discovered the whereabouts of the demons.

Until the early morning of the next day, when everyone assumed that the enemy had abandoned their outpost, the situation suddenly changed.

A large group of demons appeared in the north of the First Army's camp, eight kilometers away from the Northbound Slope!

At the same time, Sylvie also saw dozens of Devilbeasts moving—the enemy, that had gone missing for several days, was now coming towards them.

Chapter 982 - Unplanned War

"What is going on?"

In the central tent, the atmosphere in the air was rather heavy. The commander-in-chief Iron Axe was staring at the map on the long table, frowning. "There is neither a red mist supply line nor a warning sign. It is as if all these demons appeared out of thin air!"

They raised the alarm as quickly as possible and the platoons of the First Army were already in position but still, there was a feeling of confusion and insecurity within everyone's mind.

And this happened during Sylvie's surveillance. How would they fight this war without the witches? If the enemy was capable of suddenly appearing eight kilometers away then what would happen if they suddenly appeared in their camp next time?

If this question was not answered, nobody would be able to calm down.

Outside the tent, the Longsong Cannon started firing again after going quiet for half of the night. Additionally, the rate of firing was increased to maximum—it was no longer necessary to save shells since the most important thing now was to reduce the enemy's strength as soon as possible.

"It's impossible that they appeared out of nowhere," Agatha said firmly. "The Red Mist is essential for the survival of the demons, this hasn't changed. If that wasn't the case, they would have already taken over the world. The enemy's number is now close to ten thousand and without the red mist supply line, just by running towards here would result in their death, let alone fighting.

"According to previous intelligence, the outpost here can sustain at most few thousand demons," Iron Axe said after a while. "So what you are saying is that there is another supply line near us which was not discovered by the Eye of Magic?"

"This is the only possible answer—"

"No, there is one more possibility," Edith interrupted. "Since we are able to make the supply line disappear from the surface, the demons may have also been able to think of that."

"Digging an underground tunnel from Taquila to here?" Agatha shook her head. "Without taking into consideration whether or not they have acquired a worm carrier, the construction of a tunnel that would enable the demons to move around is no small task and it conflicts with the time of their first appearance at Taquila. Furthermore, such a huge activity should have been spotted by Sylvie."

"I am not saying that they started from your hometown," Edith stretched and pointed on an x mark on the map. "What if they only started from the outpost?"

"What do you mean," Iron Axe asked with a deep voice.

"Don't you think that the location of the demons' appearance is a bit awkward? She pulled up her dangling hair and continued, "Think about it, if we were a traditional army—without regard to if we were human nobles or union witches, what would be the situation?"

Following the question of the Pearl of the Northern Region, everyone turned their eyes on the map.

From those who could enter the central big tent, some were members of the Adviser Department, some were commanders of the army and some were representatives of the allied forces but none of them showed slow reactions—soon, everyone thought of a possibility.

In an instant, there was a sound of astonishment in the big tent.

The sound of their sighs was soon covered by the cannon firing outside of the tent—but under the shaking of the ground, everyone could see the surprise in each other's eyes.

Only when the firing stopped, Morning Light finally broke the silence and said, "Are you saying... that the outpost is a trap set by the demons?"

If they were a traditional army, they would have to start a siege in order to destroy the outpost and that would mean exposing their back to the demons. So, if the demons appeared at that time, they would form a natural surrounding with the ruins of Taquila. So, under the attack from both sides, the first army's fate would be easy to imagine.

The two opposite sides would just manage to fit in the two-kilometer battlefield and looking at the map, it looked exactly like a huge pocket.

"So they were certain that we would come?" Iron Axe asked.

Edith did not answer but looked at the ancient witches' representative—Zooey.

Compared to the most of them, Zooey's expression did not really change and her face was emotionless as always. "If it was the Union then we would definitely come. Letting the demons build an outpost would result in an expansion of the red line which is suicide—the destruction of a city would always begin from the inability to stop the enemy's expansion." She paused and then said, "But they have never done this before."

"Well. the times have changed," the Pearl of the Northern Region waved her hands. "If that's the case, this explains a lot. The demons don't think that humans can pose a threat to a Devilbeast team and Neverwinter is a witch city essentially, so they set up this trap. If they were lucky, they would manage to defeat all the combat witches at once. So, to make us come, not only did they not attack us en route but also decreased their surveillance area on purpose, all of it leading up to this moment now—what do you all think of this assumption?"

"Even if this is true, how were the demons able to hide from Miss Sylvie's observation?" Sir Eltek asked confused.

"You may not know this but her ability is not omniscient," Edith replied. "If I remember correctly, there is a considerable gap between her observation distance and her perspective distance. Hence, taking into consideration the Devilbeast, she is usually only able to observe at a limited distance—under these circumstances, the Eye of Magic has probably omitted a large area."

Hearing this, everyone could already guess the answer.

"Of course, I'm not blaming Miss Sylvie," Edith sighed, "it's just that we relied too much on her."

Magic power, it was a problem that could not be neglected by the witches. In order to observe what the enemies were doing, Sylvie had to stay alert all the time and carefully plan the usage of her magic power. But the observation of the deep layers of the ground required a huge amount of magic power, just like a bird watching from the sky far above. That is why it was impossible to check every place on the Fertile Plains in detail.

Assuming the demons can only hide near the Red Mist area, she must have checked only the area near the outpost—and limited by the observation distance, the depth of observation would not have been too deep either.

Agatha frowned. "We can verify this point right now." She then activated the Sigil of Listening, "Sylvie, can you check what's happening underneath the Army of Demons?"

"Underground?" Sylvie, who was guiding the cannons at that time, was a little startled, "I can try but my magic power..."

"It's alright."

"Got it." The voice on the other side of the Sigil stopped for a moment and then everyone heard her surprised voice, "This is strange... the Magic Eye's line of sight has been blocked, I can't see anything. There is only darkness underground!"

Everyone remained silent. This result had indirectly proved Edith's assumption.

Being tricked by the enemy was definitely not a good feeling.

For a moment, the only sound in the tent was the firing of the cannons.

"Pow, pow, pow."

At this time, Iron Axe suddenly clapped his hands.

"Lord?" Morning Light asked.

"If this is the case, then I can rest assured." He said slowly. "In the end, the following tough battle will decide who the prey is."

"You are right, lord commander-in-chief," Edith smiled. "Though they did not guess their opponent correctly, the result is still the same. Both sides can be considered lucky. Or maybe, we are luckier—to confront the enemy head to head in a carefully planned battlefield is exactly what we want, isn't it? They didn't have a chance to react to the bombing last night and now not only have they lost their bait but also have to face our fully prepared soldiers. No matter how you look at it, the situation isn't too bad."

The Pearl of the Northern Region paused for a moment, "Actually, just like what I said at the beginning, we don't need to concern ourselves with the intentions of our enemy. No matter what they want to do, we just need to kill off anyone who dares to come in front of us—that's exactly what the First Army is good at, isn't it?"

At this time, the alarm sounded once again in the camp in a much more urgent manner.

"Air-attack warning."

Everyone understood—they were here.

The Devilbeast, being the front line platoon, had already entered the shooting range of the First Army.

Chapter 983 - A Fierce Attack

"Well then, I'm taking off," Agatha announced solemnly.

"Off you go." A cold sneer broke across Zooey's face. "We've been waiting for this day for too long."

Unlike the First Army, the commanders of the ancient witches were also powerful combatants. They would be the last to retreat when demons were approaching.

"Ms. Agatha, Ms. Zooey..." Iron Axe suddenly stopped them.

"Is there anything else?"

"Although I shouldn't say this, I think this must be what His Majesty wanted to convey to you," he said thoughtfully. "Please stay safe. You being alive is the heaviest blow we can inflict on the demons."

"Haha, I won't die so easily before reclaiming Taquila." Zooey turned around and cast Iron Axe a glance. "Thanks for your kind words. I do appreciate it, mortal."

"Don't worry. We know what to do." Smiling, Agatha walked out of the tent.

The sky had darkened. Compared to the defensive battle in Neverwinter last time, the number of the enemies this time increased by several times, and they flew a lot faster as well.

They soon reached the very front of the battlement.

The anti-aircraft guns at the front fired in succession, and in a short moment, the air was heavy with the oppressive sound of anti-aircraft fire. However, the attack was far from effective. Out of over 60 Devilbeasts, only four or five were shot down. The other demons, on the other hand, climbed even higher.

"Those freaking bastards, they're so annoying." Zooey was distraught. "I could crush them with my hands the moment they dare to land."

In the Union age, the best way to counterattack these monsters was to send out combat witches and Extraordinaries who carried a Stone of Flight. This was also the reason the ancient witches took armies of mortal men so lightly. Without the witches' help, a few Devilbeasts would be more than enough to disperse an army.

"Why aren't they throwing their spears?" Watching the enemies hovering above, Agatha frowned.

But the next moment she immediately knew the demons' real intention. The mounted demons dived for the rear of the defensive line, exactly where the artillery battalion was located.

Agatha and Zooey exchanged a look before instantly running to the artilleries' position.

...

Fish Ball was responsible for the central area of the battlement. Because of his meritorious performance in the battle against the demons last time, he had been promoted to unit leader. Although it was not his first time seeing these monsters, the scene of hordes of Devilbeasts attacking him still sent a chill down his spine.

"U-unit leader, shouldn't we fire?" The team member with an ammunition sack in his hand stammered out.

"They're within 900 meters!" The lookout went livid in terror, his Adam's apple quivering.

Fish Ball realized that everyone was scared. Even the most courageous of people would be truly terrified in the presence of such an unimaginable onslaught of enemies. Because of the permeating fear, Fish Ball knew he had to stay cool. Otherwise, they would collapse before the enemy attack even arrived.

At this thought, Fish Ball swallowed hard and tried to speak slower. "Just hang in there. Fire when they're within 300 meters."

Although the machinery instructor told them that the shooting range of Mark I type HMG exceeded 1,500 meters and that its scope range was around 1,000, Fish Ball learned from his personal experience that they could only hit targets within said range when Devilbeasts were flying steady and straight.

The best shooting method was to directly use a concentric ring to noose the enemy based on instincts, rather than taking aim with the scope perched on top.

A poor firing accuracy would undoubtedly affect the soldiers' morale.

He preferred to shoot when the result was guaranteed.

Nevertheless, the short distance between the battlement and the enemies also meant that the latter could launch a counterattack anytime.

Fish Ball sincerely hoped that the additional baffle plate in front of the machine gun was durable enough to stop the demons.

"They dived!" The lookout screamed.

"Now!"

Fish Ball pulled the trigger. He could see a stream of bullets whoosh through the air and crumble the gigantic figure that dashed forward.

The Devilbeast at the very front, who had been hit by at least a dozen bullets from various directions, instantly turned into a cloud of bloody mist. The Mad Demon mounting on its back was no better, its skull cracked open, and legs slashed in half. Its figure was almost indiscernible as it plummeted to the ground.

The death of the enemy exhilarated the soldiers who cheered at their first victory, which injected courage into Fish Ball. He immediately aimed at another Devilbeast that died in the same way as the previous one a few seconds later.

When Fish Ball was about to redouble his efforts, the surroundings suddenly darkened.

The sun seemed to be overspread by a grayish curtain, specking the battlement here and there with flickers of light. When Fish Ball realized what the "curtain" really was, his heart stopped with a horror-filled jerk.

"They're spearing!" He yelled at the top of his lung. "Watch out!"

However, numerous spears pelted down and they had nowhere to hide. The only thing they could do was duck behind their shields, leaving their exposed hands and feet to fate.

Fish Ball held his companion tight, whilst bracing himself to be penetrated by a bone spear.

But the clash he had been anticipating did not come. With a gust of wind, the light was restored.

"U-unit leader, behind!"

Someone exclaimed in surprise.

Fish Ball looked over his shoulder, his heart pounding in his chest, and saw the battlement behind him was a mess. The air was permeated with dust created by the spearing attack. Some were lying on the ground, unconscious, whereas some wounded soldiers were moaning and calling for help in the midst of the smog. The six Longsong Cannons had all stopped firing.

Everybody swallowed hard.

"What're you waiting for?" Fish Ball gnawed his teeth and snarled. "Get back to your position and continue to fire!"

There would be someone else responsible for the provision of first aid and sending reinforcements. What he needed to do now was to shoot down as many Devilbeasts as possible, before the enemies launched their second attack.

The bellow jerked the soldiers out of their trance. The two anti-aircraft machine guns thundered once more.

Meanwhile, the demons also realized that spearing alone would not completely stop their opponents. Therefore, they divided the Devilbeasts into two groups, one climbing higher to wait for the next round of attacks, while the other dealt directly with the soldiers on the ground through hand-to-hand combat, taking advantage of their superior physical strength.

One Mad Demon dismounted and encountered a man with black hair.

Apparently, it did not take male human being very seriously, for it casually drew the iron ax from around its waist and flailed it at him blankly.

However, the man stopped his blow with only one hand!

Eyes wide open, the Mad Demon did not even have time to think about what had happened before he saw his enemy aiming an iron tube at him.

"WHAM!"

"His Majesty's new weapon is good indeed." Zooey released the demon who collapsed instantly, a big hole in the latter's chest. "If we had this 400 years ago, Taquila probably wouldn't have fallen, and the Three Chiefs wouldn't have turned against each other because of disagreements on the continuity of the human race."

She walked to the unconscious demon and crushed its skull beneath her foot before casting it a cold glance. "But we're still alive and have returned with vengeance. Now, it's time for you to pay for what you've done."

Chapter 984 - A Furious Roar

"Ugh..." Van'er scrambled to his feet. After confirming that his body and limbs were still in one piece, he breathed a sigh of relief.

But his heart soon sank the next moment.

Many people close to the Longsong Cannons had been penetrated by bone spears. It was hard to tell whether they were still alive. He saw some soldiers, who had been maimed by bones spears, searching for their broken limbs in the mud. Van'er managed to fight back tears. The artillery battalion was one of the very first squads built and trained by His Majesty. From the beginning when they had fought against the Duke of the Western Region, all the way to the attack at Hermes, they had seldom suffered defeats. Looking at the astonishing casualties, Van'er was heartbroken.

But, Van'er knew this was not the time for him to lament the loss. The angel of the First Army Miss Nana was currently at the battalion shelter. As long as the soldier sent to her was still breathing, Miss Angel would be able to heal him!

"Hello, anybody out there?" Van'er shouted as he crawled to one of the wounded soldiers in a critical condition who got his stomach stabbed. "Anybody help me?"

"Sir, we're here!" Two soldiers came out of the smog, trotting to him.

"Send him to the field hospital." Van'er stuffed the intestines spilling out of the soldier's stomach back in, together with the torn pieces of flesh. "Make sure not to leave anything behind."

"S-sir," The soldier grimaced in pain. "I..."

"Stop talking. If you have the strength to talk, save it to kill demons." Van'er patted his cheek. "Hope you'll get better and be back soon, I'm relying on you to fire. Do you understand?"

After the wounded soldier was sent away, he ran to another field medic and asked, "Did you come from the camp?"

The man glanced at the badge on Van'er's shoulder and saluted. "Yes, sir! Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Continue with your business. Taking care of the wounded is the top priority." Van'er waved his hand. "What's it like at the front?"

After the artillery suffered the attack, the battlements within 500 meters were enveloped by thick smoke. Except for the closest cannon, Van'er didn't know anything about the other squads. He could only hear the patterings of running footsteps in distance, and the occasional roars of cannons and guns. He was a little surprised that there were no reinforcements at this point, even though the field medics had been called to the scene.

"The demons are coming from above!" The field medic answered hastily while bandaging a wounded soldier. "I just came from the central camp and saw those winged monsters land and engage the heavy infantry."

The demons landed after spearing?

In other words, the present chaos was caused by the infiltration of enemies at the rear. That was why the reserves, who were usually positioned in the central zone, were not able to approach and reinforce the Longsong Cannons at the moment. It also explained why the front was still intact.

Realizing this, Van'er immediately understood what he should do.

He must put the Longsong Cannons back into operation.

The enemy wanted to prevent them from firing at the approaching demons, so he must stop them.

As long as the front line was not penetrated, the enemies would sooner or later be exterminated by the heavy infantry.

Although Van'er didn't know where His Majesty had found those warriors with such monstrous strength, who could carry weapons comparable in weight to field artillery with ease, one thing was certain — their capacity for battle was only parallelled by the ferocious demons'.

"I'll leave the wounded to you!"

Van'er ran to the ammunition case that had fallen to the ground and used all his strength to pick up a shell. He then staggered to the muzzle and pushed the shell into the bore.

Then he loaded the cannon.

It was actually two people's work, but Van'er finished by himself. He was out of breath by the time the cannon was loaded. Van'er took a deep breath and started to adjust the firing angle based on the enemies' previous marching speed.

At that moment, the field medic dashed toward him, shrieking.

"Sir, behind!"

In that second, Van'er felt his blood freeze. Immediately, he rolled to the ground before even turning around.

His instinct had saved him.

With a loud clink, an ax pelted past him, ruffling his hair, and hitting the breechblock, creating a series of sparks.

Van'er looked up and saw a mad demon glaring at him!

"GRAAAA—!" The Mad Demon raised its ax and stomped towards him, howling.

"I'm done," Van'er thought to himself in despair. Although he had a sword around his waist, he could not draw it when he was on the ground. Even if he did have it in hand, it was impossible for him to block the blow, as demons were far stronger and faster than humans. 

As the ax got closer, Van'er reached out his hand, attempting to block the strike...

"Crack!"

A wall of ice suddenly manifested between them. The ax smashed into the wall, sending ice crystals flying from its surface.

Was I... saved?

Van'er turned around in shock and saw a blue-haired witch performing a grabbing motion while watching the demon with a cool stare. She said to Van'er, "Come here, behind me."

Van'er clenched his teeth. Although his legs were too shaky to support his weight, he somehow managed to get to his feet and walked to the witch.

"Gah, Vaaaakaaaa..."

Van'er had no knowledge of the demon's language, but he could tell that it looked murderous and furious.

The demon dashed around the wall and crouched, the right arm with which it held its ax swelling rapidly.

The witch, surprisingly, drew closer to the demon, while ice slowly spread beneath her feet. She looked like the Goddess of Winter.

Just when the demon was about to strike, an icicle burst from the ground and sent the ax flying. In the meantime, the demon's arm was bent at a strange angle. A fraction of its grayish white bone was exposed to the air, hardly covered by any flesh. It was a gruesome scene to behold.

Before the demon could even give a yelp of pain, the ice crystals proliferated rapidly from its ankles and turned it into an ice statue.

"Th-thank you." Van'er let out a sigh of relief.

"It's not over yet. There's going to be a second round of spearing." The witch looked up at the sky, which was currently filled with ash and smoke, and called out. "Miss Molly!"

Van'er suddenly remembered that there was actually a time gap between each spearing attack. As the demon had just bulked up his arm, it meant that the sky was dangerous once again.

Van'er wondered who Miss Molly was and was puzzled why she didn't seek shelter.

"Leave it to me."

While Van'er was in bewilderment, a young, slightly childish voice came from the distance.

Then Van'er saw an incredible scene!

Above him suddenly appeared a half-transparent blue ball which gradually grew bigger in size. Soon, it covered the area within a radius of 10 meters. Two tentacles at both ends of the ball dragged the remaining soldiers with minor injuries into a covered area while swaying from side to side.

Right after all the wounded soldiers were transferred, the enemies launched their second attack.

Five or six bone spears pelted down at tremendous, lightning-like speed, and shot at the ball. Van'er could clearly see the spot where the head of the spear landed ripple as if the surface of the ball were a thick body of water. As the ripples split, overlapped and rushed forward, the ball started to tremble as though it would burst at any moment. However, the bone spears were stopped several meters above the ground.

"Good job." The blue-haired witch withdrew her ice and looked at Van'er. "It's safe here for now. You can retreat with your people."

"No, there's something I haven't done yet." Van'er grounded his teeth, forcing himself to get up. "I have to make these damn monsters suffer before I go."

There was only one last step left.

Van'er shambled to the Longsong Cannon, limping. He picked up the matchlock and pulled toward him with all his strength!

The scorching air around the muzzle soon cleared sky. The battlement, after 15 minutes of silence, was once again filled with thunderous roars!

Chapter 985 - The Shadow of the Dragon

As more and more Mad Demons and Devilbeasts were eradicated, they gradually recovered control over the chaotic situation.

Agatha walked around the artillery battalion and found the ground littered with the broken limbs of giant monsters. She had to admit that in a close-range hand-to-hand battle, nobody could ever parallel the God's Punishment Witches. Their fighting capacity was absolutely phenomenal, and it was even greater when they were equipped with the new firearms invented by His Majesty. Had the Witch Union not received their support, they would probably have struggled to fight off these 30 Devilbeasts and certainly would not have had time to watch out for the Mad Demons flanking from behind.

Nevertheless, it appeared that the God's Punishment Witches still preferred traditional combat methods over the large-caliber grapeshot guns to enact their vengeance. On more than one occasion, Agatha had witnessed an ancient witch give her opponent a final blow with a sword or even her fist after the latter was left sprawling on the ground under the bombardment of the firearms, as though they could only find solace in being bathed in the blood of the demons.

It seemed that 400 years of waiting had changed many things.

Perhaps the demons also had a difficult time understanding why they were being flattened by a group of ordinary men, who apparently possessed far greater physical strength and speed than them. Horrified by the unexpected circumstances, the last two Mad Demons, who were caught off guard by Breeze, pretty much stopped resisting in the end. Meanwhile, Breeze also impaled another demon who came to rescue his peers.

Presently, the substitute artillery battalion joined the battle. Four more cannons that had previously been tipped over by the Devilbeasts were once again erected upright on the battlefield and were soon back to normal operation. At the same time, the first Longsong Cannon that had restored its service thundered continuously, further raising the morale of the soldiers.

"How many enemies left?" After everybody gathered around, Agatha asked Zooey.

"16 if they have no further reinforcements." Zooey cast a glance at the sky. "The flying Devilbeasts suffered a loss of about 70% of their numbers. Whatever their original intention was, they've lost. But they still refuse to leave, which signals that they must be preparing for a final attack."

"A final attack?" Agatha knitted her brows.

In order to stay away from the storm of machine gun bullets, the rest of the demons all rose somewhere higher, even beyond the range of their spears. It would definitely be trickier and more dangerous for them to approach the fortifications on the ground a second time. More importantly, the army on the ground was now fully prepared for any upcoming strike. Even if there was another round of a spearing attack, the soldiers were confident in minimizing the losses. Since a defeat was certain, the demons should have been thinking about how to retreat rather than putting up a desperate struggle.

"You used to be a member of the Quest Society and rarely participated personally in open combat, so you might not know much about their operational style and behaviors," Zooey explained heavily. "A fully grown flying Devilbeast is very precious to the demons. Only a commander-level demon is entitled to so many flying Devilbeasts at a time. For this type of demon, completing missions is their top priority. They would rather be killed in a battle than retreat upon failure."

"If so, why didn't this commander come down in the first place?" Breeze couldn't help asking.

"Because he didn't find a rival worthy of his attention." A strange smile fluttered over Zooey's face. "If there was an Extraordinary among us, he would have come down to challenge her long ago."

"Why?"

"It's probably in their nature." Zooey rested her eyes back again on the sky. "They're ferocious and barbarous creatures who enjoy slaughter. Although they've been gradually bearing an increasing physical resemblance to mankind, they're still nothing but animals... It was thanks to this violent nature that Lady Natalia and the Queen of Starfall City got so many opportunities to fight against senior Magic Slayers and finally elevated themselves to Transcendents."

In other words, the enemy was too proud to launch an attack at an opportune moment, yet had too much honor to desert his post when faced with defeat. Agatha was not sure whether Zooey's assumption was correct. However, she was certain that the latter was not any ordinary witch since she even knew details of how two of the Three Chiefs had been promoted.

Agatha asked, "Who were you... in the Union Age?"

"Miss Pasha didn't tell you?" Zooey smiled faintly. "I was one of Lady Natalia's personal guards, and I was also known as the 'Red Lotus' amongst the Blessed Army."

The Ice Witch instantly remembered the title. If Agatha had been the youngest senior witch, the most widely recognized genius researcher in Taquila, then Red Lotus could have been regarded as the most promising and powerful Extraordinary, and was the most likely to succeed Natalia.

Unfortunately, the Union had fallen apart before that time could come.

If Agatha remembered correctly, she and Red Lotus should have been of the same age.

However, Zooey was currently not in any way similar to the person she remembered.

Time had reshaped her character and turned her into a completely different person.

"They're coming." Agatha was still lost in thought when Zooey reminded her. "You go protect those fragile mortals. We'll take care of these enemies."

As if corroborating Zooey's statement, Sylvie's voice suddenly popped up from the Sigil of Listening. "Oh heavens, what's that? Agatha, watch out! There're multiple magic reactions among the enemies!"

Theoretically, each witch could only have one Magic Cyclone, whereas demons utilized embedded Magic Stones to apply their power. Therefore, demons could have more than one cyclone. The Union referred those demons with more than one cyclone as Senior Demons. They might vary a lot in terms of strength and fighting capacity, but all of them were, unequivocally, hard nuts to crack.

"Any problems there?" Breeze asked apprehensively.

"Oh, no need to worry," Zooey replied slowly. "The Queen of Starfall City might have selected the wrong path, but there was something that she was right about. The God's Punishment Witches are designed to battle Senior Demons."

Just at that moment, a shadow suddenly leaped out of the clouds and dashed toward the artillery!

Following the shadow, the other hovering Mad Demons all started to dive to the ground. Although the machine guns directly below them could not really aim at the descending demons due to the restrictions on the shooting angles, the anti-air emplacements placed around them did not have any such difficulties in shooting down the enemies. Several demons were shot down on their way, despite their attempts to dodge the projectiles by zigzagging through the bullet rain.

This time, the opponents aimed their spears at the anti-aircraft machine guns next to the Longsong Cannons.

Beyond a doubt, their intention was to clear the way for the shadow figure so that it could reach the core of the artillery battalion.

While Agatha was assisting the soldiers in defending against the pelted bone spears, she also noticed in surprise that the object that was plummeting like a meteorite was a colossal Devilbeast even bigger than Maggie. Its wings and abdomen, all armored in black, gleamed like a lusterless crystal. Even its head and horns were sharper than those of normal Devilbeasts, making it resemble the "dragons" of legends at the first glance.

When the "dragon" landed, the earth trembled. The air was saturated with ashes and dust that blinded people's eyes.

Immediately after landing, the Devilbeast opened its huge crimson mouth, producing a long, loud belch...

A burly black-armored demon crept out of the Devilbeast's wet throat and presented himself in front of everybody.

Chapter 986 - Fiery Red Lotus

Although there were ominous magic reactions appearing at the rear of the encampment, Sylvie could not afford to dawdle.

After giving the witches stationed there a hasty warning, she diverted her attention back to the Army of Demons a few miles away to the north while monitoring the battlements around her at the same time.

There loomed something she had never seen before, so menacing and wicked that she didn't know whether it should be classified as a living being or an inanimate object.

It was as big as a two-story building, its appearance resembling a reptile in the shape of a crab or a spider, although its torso and limbs were constituted of gleaming black stones. There was a twinge of stiffness in its movement. While its fellow demons were being blasted to smithereens under the heavy musket fire, this monster moved forward while being completely indifferent to them, almost like the machines invented by Roland.

But it was not a machine in a real sense.

Sylvie could spy some wriggling living tissue underneath its sturdy, thick shell, where a magic glow infiltrated the whole organism through numerous intertwined veins.

She could only associate it with the word "parasite".

A living being nestled inside a mass of stone and metal.

Suddenly, the horrid "Siege Beast" no longer seemed so fearsome when compared to this crawling monstrosity.

Fortunately, the monstrosity was not invulnerable.

The First Army could still cause it harm without directly hitting it. A cannon shell that landed in the vicinity of the monster would still be sufficient to damage its legs and thereby paralyze its movement.

Yet there were just too many demons around the monster. Although Sylvie had been continuously giving firing instructions to the artillery, it was hard for them to accurately direct the shells. Each shell had to travel several miles before it landed at the targeted spot. By the time the Devilbeasts had broken through and raided the artillery battlements, only one out of the five crawling monsters had been stopped.

While a bitter battle was going on at the rear, Sylvie was concerned about the front.

The artillery battalion had probably not realized how big a threat they had become for the demons.

In fact, among all the people who were participating in this war, Sylvie was the only person who witnessed the great damage caused by the Longsong Cannons. When a pack of demons swarmed in, that terrain eight miles away instantly became a slaughterhouse where the hordes of demons were mercilessly butchered.

Every time a shell landed, pillars of earth rose 10 meters high and broken limbs were scattered into the air. Metal shrapnel and sharp stone fragments flew in the air, penetrating the enemies' armors made of animal skins and bones. The thick body of the Mad Demons thus became ragdolls filled with shrapnel. Dozens of demon corpses lay sprawled on the ground in the vicinity of the crater after each bombardment, their magic blood blossoming and soaking the soil underneath.

Not all the shells successfully hit the demons, but it only took the artillery three rounds of firing to break their formations. Although the demons were dispersed, from the stiff manner with which they ran, one could tell they were stressed out by these unprecedented, lethal weapons.

Had the Devilbeasts not interrupted their firing, the artillery would have annihilated all the demons already.

Even though the artillery team had later restored the cannons, their firing accuracy and speed were greatly compromised. The demons had taken this opportunity to advance. By the time Sylvie spotted the multiple magic reactions at the rear, the main force of the enemies was only two miles away from the defensive line.

Now, the soldiers at the front should have been able to see swarms of demons coming up over the horizon with their naked eyes.

Sylvie alerted Shavi at the front as planned.

"The enemies are within the shooting range of the mortars."

"Got it. I'll let the commander know," Shavi soon replied. "By the way, how are things going at the rear? Have they not finished those flying demons yet?"

"Something... unexpected happened," Sylvie answered hesitantly. "But I gather it should be all right now."

"If Andrea was here, we would have finished them already, wouldn't we?"

"Well... perhaps." Sylvie decided to hold back on mentioning what she had seen so as not to let Shavi worry too much. While they were talking, Sylvie suddenly noticed that the four crawling monsters among the Army of Demon had stopped advancing.

They all threw themselves to the ground.

What're they planning on doing?

Sylvie immediately found out the answer. She saw the back shell of the monster fly open, ejecting a cylinder that looked like a black crystal. The cylinder was as wide as a man, its surface slimy as if it had been grown out of living tissue. Like the crawling monster, the cylinder was also filled with tons of veins and blood vessels. It contracted and expanded as the magic power within moved about.

The next moment, the magic cyclone inside the monster started to spin and emanate a dazzling glow.

In an instant, the black crystal cylinder was thrust forward by a great force. It whistled above the demons and bolted toward the Northbound Slope like a magnified arrow!

At the same time, the mortars of the First Army produced a tumultuous roar...

Over 100 shells soared, tracing parabolic curves in the air. Pulled by gravity, the shells zoomed toward the scuttling demons.

For a split second, the shells and the cylinder brushed passed each other. The two powers, human and demon, had once again clashed after 400 years of peace.

"Shavi, shield!" Sylvie cried at the top of her lungs.

At these words, the bulky cylinder reached the defensive line.

With a flash, the whole cylinder exploded. The crystal burst into numberless needles glinting in blue blood, and they rained down upon the soldiers waiting below.

...

The battlement was deadly silent at that moment.

Agatha and the other witches immediately drove the artillery team away from the giant monster, leaving behind only the anti-aircraft machine gun squad to battle the last few Devilbeasts. Soon, there were only a dozen God's Punishment Witches and the armored Senior Demon on the battlefield.

The Senior Demon surveyed everybody coldly and suddenly let out a long wail even louder than the distant thunder of the machine guns. Everybody could perceive the extreme anger in his voice.

He then reached out his right hand and threw it up in the air. Soon, a flash of light escaped from his palm. Instantly, a crackling long sword appeared in his hand!

The Senior Demon then swung the sword at the Longsong Cannon. With an earth-shattering crack, the iron cannon split in half. The cut surface was a bright red color as though it had been heated to a high temperature.

The Ice Witch held her breath, realizing that the sword was powered by magic!

But Zooey remained undisturbed. "So what? Are you not happy about your enemies? You came down to have a final battle against your enemies only to find that your opponents are a group of mortals, and so now you're disappointed?" A thin jeer played about her lips. Zooey's tone was indifferent and even a bit derisive, but her eyes were on fire. "You made the biggest mistake of your life in coming down here. If you had stayed above, you would have probably gotten to live a bit longer. Now, you'll understand how furious we have been over the past 400 years. Compared to us, your rage is frivolous!"

Although they could not communicate, both parties were able to discern the attitude of the other. The demon threw the sword of magic at Zooey while howling, and the sword cut through the air like a dazzling thunderbolt!

Meanwhile, the two God's Punishment Witches beside Zooey drew close, and all three of them spread their God's Punishment Areas!

A strange force suddenly distorted the space around the witches. The blinding flash of the sword was engulfed by a fathomless darkness and vanished into the thin air as if the thunderbolt had hit nothing!

The Senior Demon stood there blankly gaping.

While he was in a daze, the other two God's Punishment Witches raised the large-caliber grapeshot guns.

The battlefield was immediately saturated with the crackling sounds of gunshots. The demon shielded himself with a cloud of blue light, but the light was extinguished in a second.

Even the gleaming black armor could barely protect the demon.

As the shots continuously hammered the Senior Demon, his body twisted like a rag. By the time the firing had finished, the demon's inner organs and bones had turned into a bloody pulp.

Chapter 987 - A Duel

Watching its master prostrate to the ground, the giant Devilbeast flapped its wings, attempting to escape. It had realized that the circumstances have changed in a direction it did not foresee.

There were few Devilbeasts left on the battlement that it could use as a diversion to help it escape. As the Devilbeast climbed up, its gigantic body had weighed it down, slowing its ascent. Its decision to take flight was actually incorrect because if it continued to remain on the ground, the machine gun squad would hesitate to fire, fearing they would hit their peers by mistake. However, if it rose to the air, they would not have such scruples.

For a second, most of the anti-aircraft machine guns on the campground were aimed at the giant creature.

Bullets lashed at the Devilbeast, submerging it. The sparks flickered off its armor, its flesh was exposed and torn to pieces. It plunged to the ground and gave a desperate screech. Putrid blood streamed from the numerous bullet holes and pooled under its body.

Agatha let out a long sigh.

Zooey was right. The God's Punishment Witches were truly a great threat to Senior Demons. No wonder so many people in the Union had taken the side of the Queen of Starfall City.

A God's Punishment Witch could block magic power and reduce the strength of enemies who carried multiple magic stones to their level. At the same time, their power rivaled an Extraordinary's. Thus, the creation of God's Punishment Witches could not only steady the fluctuating magic power within a witch but could also make them unrivaled when outnumbered by demons. Back then, this strategy was undoubtedly a ray of hope to the routed Union.

Based on Lady Alice's initial plan, thousands of witches would have become first-class warriors if half of the non-combat witches were converted to God's Punishment Witches. The overall tactic of the Empire's final battle was to allow the combat witches to deal with the Army of Demons, the God's Punishment Witches to deal with the Senior Demons, and the Transcendents were left with the most difficult enemies.

Since the God's Punishment Witches were primarily designed to exterminate demons, it was not surprising that they could kill a Senior Demon in such a swift manner. In other words, if God's Punishment Witches were so weak that it cost 10 of them to take out one Senior Demon, the Queen of Starfall City would have never bet on this plan.

However, everything was just a little too late.

Glancing at Zooey who looked content and delighted, Agatha had mixed feelings.

Had the Union implemented that plan at the very beginning, the outcome of the second Battle of Divine Will would probably have been very different. Although the humans had been forced to retreat to the Land of Dawn, there were thousands of cities and towns still erected on the Fertile Plains with a total of nearly 10 million people living. The Union could have definitely built an army as powerful as the demons' from this huge population.

But when they lost the Battle of Divine Will, the Queen of Starfall City had barely held any lands. All she had left was less than a million barbarians. This plan was thus considered her last attempt to survive the war.

"Did you kill it?" asked Agatha as she walked up to Zooey.

The seriously injured Senior Demon was not completely dead yet. These grisly enemies were sometimes even more resilient than Transcendents. Even without a Stone of Measuring, Agatha could still observe the little remains of magic power in the demon run wild. Apparently, the latter was trying to fix its deteriorating body.

Nonetheless, this did not mean that demons were immortal. They had a self-repairing limit. Even if Zooey did not give it a final blow, the demon would eventually die when it exhausted its magic power.

It would also die when the Red Mist ran out.

Perhaps Zooey preferred to give her enemy an excruciatingly painful death rather than a quick one.

"I want to let him live for a bit longer." Zooey's answer surprised Agatha. "There are many demons this time. We should be able to obtain a lot of mist storage tanks from them. Treat his wounds and provide him with some Red Mist. He should be able to live for another few days."

"What are you going to do?" asked the Ice Witch with as she scowled.

"Rest assured. Although I really do want him to suffer eternal torment, I'm aware that this isn't the time to take personal revenge," said Zooey solemnly. "If I remember correctly, there's a witch in another unit who can link two individuals?"

"Do you want her to link the demon?" asked Agatha in surprise.

Zooey nodded. "I know its certainly risky, but if we succeed, we'll have an opportunity to confront the demons directly. Since he's a commander, it's worth taking a little bit of risk to pry into his mind!"

If it were in the age of the Union, the executives would have found it hard to resist such a tempting suggestion. However, the Union had fallen apart a long time ago. She believed neither Roland nor Tilly Wimbledon would agree to force a witch to venture for something so dangerous.

Unless Camilla Dary volunteered herself.

While Agatha was hesitating, she heard several loud bangs at the other end of the battlement.

From where she stood, Agatha could see clouds of ashes spring up in from the northern front. It was as if something had just swept over the field.

But she did not hear any intense gunshots.

"Is there another group of Devilbeasts? Or has the demons broken through the defensive line?" Agatha wondered.

She immediately activated the Sigil of Listening and inquired about the situation. "What's going on at the front line Sylvie?"

"A monster we've never seen is attacking us." Sylvie's voice from the other end of the line sounded pretty anxious. "We require the assistance of the Longsong Cannons!"

...

The moment the cylinder blasted, shells from the mortars landed among the Army of Demons.

Since the Mad Demons were all wearing animal bones and leather jackets, both the mortars and the 152-caliber howitzers could seriously injure them. In fact, the mortars were more lethal as they were faster and greater in number.

Flying bullets and shells streaked across the air on the battlefield, killing the demons as they sprinted without cover. The explosions created blood mist clouds, as the soldiers continuously fired. Finally, the enemies stopped their advance.

Sylvie did not really pay attention to the outcome of the battle.

Apart from occasionally monitoring the enemies in the air, her full attention was mainly on the four sinister crawling monsters.

Unfortunately, the mortars were not much of help against these monsters made of black stones and metals.

Bullets could barely penetrate their shells unless they were hit directly in the face.

Suddenly, the crawling monsters ejected a black stone pillar. To her dismay, Sylvie noticed that the pillar was actually a part of these monsters. The stones and its veins gradually peeled off and combined, forming a new cylinder.

Sylvie knew that they had to eliminate these enemies who were capable of launching long-distance attacks as soon as possible.

Its first attack had caught everyone off guard, resulting in a significant loss among the First Army. More than 100 people at the front were injured. Furthermore, some of the soldiers in the trench were shot in their shoulders and chests. More importantly, the failure to develop any effective countermeasures to this unheard-of attack had greatly impacted the morale of the soldiers.

Luckily, the monster "grew" much slower than soldiers loading their cannons.

"The Artillery Battalion are currently trying their best to re-set the Longsong Cannons." Agatha's voice calmed Sylvie down. "I'll connect you to the battalion commander."

"H-hello... Miss Sylvie." The commander sounded a bit nervous. "I'm Van'er, the commander... It'll take a while for us to fully restore the operation of the Longsong Cannons. Fortunately, one cannon wasn't affected. If you could tell me the shooting parameters, I can arrange people to support you right away."

Sylvie clenched her fist, trying to suppress her excitement. She cast a glance at the compass in front of her and slowly pronounced her position. "10' 17'' to the north, 2,310 meters away, please fire!"

"Copy that. 10' 17'' to the north, 2,310 meters away." Van'er repeated. "Sixth squad, fire!"

Chapter 988 - The First Victory on the Plain

The No. 6 Longsong Cannon was the one Van'er inspected prior to the attack. It was located at the far end of the battlement. Although it had received two rounds of spears, it was practically unscathed compared to the cannons the Devilbeasts tipped over. Once the soldiers were back in action, it could resume its function.

A minute after Van'er received the parameters, the Longsong Cannon ejected flames in the given direction!

As the target was two kilometers away, the trajectory of the shell was quite low. Both the soldiers and demons had heard the bullet's whooshing as it whistled pass.

The only difference was that the demons heard an earsplitting thunder right after!

The formidable lord of war had been revived!

Due to the short distance between the large-caliber cannon and the enemy, its firing accuracy had significantly improved. The first shell had landed right beside the crawling monster. It generated a shockwave which flipped the monster's colossal body over, blowing away its shell and exposing the flesh underneath.

The group of Mad Demons which happened to be beside the crawling monster were killed along with it.

From the Mad Demons' positions, one could tell that they were deployed at that location to prevent a raid from the witches. Unfortunately though, they were deterred by the mortars. Left with no choice, they hid beneath the "giant spider", taking refuge from the flying shells behind its stone limbs.

Nonetheless, this act was pointless. They had still suffered from blast waves which transmitted through the crawling monster.

The shockwaves completely crushed the Mad Demons' inner organs and bones as it rippled through their bodies. By the time the scene became tranquil, the explosions were replaced with littered demon bodies.

"We made it!" Sylvie exclaimed as she swung her fist. "The next target is... 12' 6'', 2,480 meters from here!"

"No problem. Will be ready in a minute!"

Meanwhile, the demons who endured the pain of constantly being blasted by the mortars were finally within one kilometer of the battlement.

Just when everyone thought it was time to battle, the enemies had suddenly stopped.

The whole process was less than 10 minutes.

The Mad Demon at the very front had approached within 500 meters of the Northbound Slope where the first line of barbed wire stood.

But he moved no further.

Without the interference of the Devilbeasts, all the machine gun squads, including the anti-aircraft machine gun squad, aimed at the enemies who swarmed in.

The whole battlefield stirred up.

The First Army's equipment was currently much better than when they had fought at Coldwind Ridge. Back then, HMGs were deployed in the blockhouse with great caution due to its limited number. They were used exclusively for attacking targets that posed the biggest threat. Now, the First Army no longer had any restrictions on their access to firearms and were allowed to shoot enemies at any distance. However, such an "unscrupulous" usage of ammunition was very likely to be a one time offer only.

The area within 500 meters of the trench became the hunting ground of the sniper team.

Usually, the demons would not have any difficulties getting through the barbed wire as they could easily jump over the fence or uproot the wooden poles.

But since their opponents were a group of top-notch snipers, these actions would be very bold and stupid to do.

When the demons found out that they could not close-in to the spearing range, they went wild. This action was not a form of military discipline or a display of soldiers' morale, it was more like the desperate struggle cornered beasts.

After thousands of demons died around the defensive line, the enemies started receding quickly. During the whole process, the First Army's machine guns had never stopped firing. The barrels had turned completely red hot.

Compared to the intense fight at the rear, the front seemed to be relatively placid.

Sylvie finally felt relieved. She was perhaps the only person who understood the graveness of the situation when the "duel" between the two parties started. The last two crawling monsters had their magic spirals filled with magic power and were just about to strike. At the same time, the No. 1 and No. 3 Longsong Cannons were just fixed and had thus saved everybody.

Had it been two or three seconds later, the stone pillar would have caused more substantial injuries to the First Army.

Nevertheless, human beings had won the battle. Mankind were once again setting foot on this long-forgotten land. They had finally defeated the demons for the first time in 400 years.

...

Roland received the detailed report four days later.

Due to the large number of dead bodies, it took the First Army a considerable amount of time to clean the battlefield. Based on the instructions from the Taquila witches, they had to first burn the demons' bodies before taking away their magic stones.

Collecting magic stones was particularly important. The battle did not technically end until they had stripped the demons of the magic stones. If demons, by some means or another, retrieved these magic stones, they would soon recycle it by using it on new demons.

The final result was astonishing. There were around 6,000 demons killed in action, more than the total number of the First Army who had participated in the war.

Less than half of the demons were directly killed by machine guns or cannons. Most of them had died on their way as they ran out of Red Mist.

However, this did not mean that the demons were not fully prepared for this war. During the post-war clean-up, the First Army had found dozens of Siege Beasts that had been transformed into transportation tools. This number had not even included those blasted to pieces. The demons could have slowly recharged the mist tanks if the human beings had been in a disadvantageous position. However, their swift defeat had completely sabotaged this plan. It was impossible for the demons to retreat to the Taquila ruins from their outpost by relying on the meager amount of Red Mist they carried on hand.

"If I remember correctly, witches can also control those Siege Beasts, right?" Roland asked through the Sigil of Listening.

"That's right. Those beasts are essentially magic stones. With just a little bit of training, witches can also handle them." Zooey cut in. "Although they're a bit slow, they can carry lots of things. The Union used to use them for long-distance transportation instead of regular mules and horses."

Roland thought it would be a good idea to have them managed by the Ministry of Construction as the construction team was currently in need of some transportation tools. For city transportation, the slow speed was actually preferred.

Although there were tons of Magic Stones of Tossing, it was a shame they were of little use. These stones were exclusive to demons because they could only exert their power when connected to a magic being. Thus, the First Army could only collect these stones together and destroy them.

"By the way, how did the enemies escape Sylvie's surveillance?"

"Let me answer that for you," said Agatha as she cleared her throat. "After the battle ended, we searched the entire outpost and found an underground tunnel connecting to a cave two kilometers away. In the cave, we discovered an underground campsite built by the demons where not only was there a mist storage tower but also a God's Stone of Retaliation Pillar. The campsite was even larger than the outpost itself. This was their real stronghold. We were indeed all deceived."

Roland drew his brows together and asked, "A God's Stone of Retaliation that covers the whole campsite?"

"Correct," Agatha said slowly. "It's nearly five meters in diameter and 10 meters high. The surface is as smooth as a clean-cut icicle. I've never seen something like that before, not even back in the Union age. If I didn't see it myself, I would have never believed it."

Chapter 989 - After the War

Roland certainly did not think that the demons had possessed such incredible power 400 years ago. Otherwise, the Witch Empire would have been eradicated from the Earth within a year or two. The truth was, however, that they had ruled the world for a short decade.

After all, it was impossible to compete against the demons with only a few Extraordinaries. Once every outpost was protected by a similar God's Stone of Retaliation, the witches would have no chance of survival.

Roland knew how hard it was to carve out such a giant God's Stone of Punishment Pillar. The better the condition of the original stone was, the greater durability it had. They had tried to dig out the Natural God's Stone from the bottom of the North Slope Mine by shooting at it at close range but had only ended up leaving a few white marks on its surface. The only way to recover the stone was to corrode its surface with magic blood before processing it. Due to the great difficulty in obtaining them, large God's Stones were particularly expensive.

Nevertheless, even the God's stone in the main hall of the Hermes Cathedral was not that enormous. According to the Ice Witch, it seemed that the pillar had been directly cut out of a Natural God's Stone by some sharp weapon. There were only two explanations for this: Either the demons had acquired some astonishing carving skills or they had developed a more profound understanding of their magic power.

For mankind, neither of them was good news.

"We can tell from the demons' new weapon that they have also been busy over the past 400 years..." Roland tapped the desk. "The third Battle of Divine Will is probably going to be tougher than we anticipated."

Roland's worst fear had come true. Compared to the demons back in the age of the Union, the demons nowadays were not only more cunning but also more advanced in terms of their technology. For example, they had created a hybrid life form such as that crawling monster, which was seemingly used to kill regular combat witches. As the crawling monster can shoot the witches from two kilometers away, the witch army would have no time to use their power to fight back when they realized they were under attack.

Even a scout like Sylvie would find it hard to protect her peers when the enemies started mass shooting because her ability was only effective within a radius of five meters.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the demons do evolve faster than us." Zooey broke the silence. "If this happened in the Union Age, we would have probably been squashed already."

Roland could easily imagine how slim the witches' chances of survival would be in this situation. They would be double teamed and outnumbered by the Mad Demons on the ground, threatened by the Senior Demons lurking in midair, and also attacked by the destructive new monsters, the witches would be doomed to fail.

The current problem was whether the five crawling monsters were the only ones in possession of the demons or just a very small part of their advance force. Had demons developed any war weapons other than those crawling monsters? If they had, what would they look like and how were they going to deal with them?

Roland needed all of this information right away.

Next came the casualties of the First Army.

Roland already had a rough estimate of the number after the war. There were indeed few discrepancies between his number and the actual statistics obtained four days later. Without a doubt, the low casualty rate was largely attributed to Nana and Lily.

There were 190 people injured and 75 killed in action, and most of the casualties were directly caused by the crawling monsters. It was impossible for the soldiers down in the trench to dodge the stone needles raining down from the sky. Once the needles had penetrated human bodies, they had, pretty much, nailed the people to the trench. In order to transfer the wounded to the shelter, the field medic must have had to pull the one-meter long needles out first. This operation had, consequently, resulted in a large amount of blood loss. Due to the mishandling, many soldiers had died within a few minutes.

Roland would certainly not blame the rescue team. In fact, it was the first time for the field medic to provide assistance to the war effort, and they had actually bought a lot of time for the wounded soldiers. As Nana was not able to treat so many people at a time, she had had to treat those who had suffered fatal injuries first, leaving those who had sustained minor injuries to the rescue team.

Roland could envision that as the war became increasingly intense, what Nana could do in the future would be increasingly limited. At the end of the day, the First Army would have to solve the medical problem themselves.

"Please bring the ashes of the soldiers killed in action back," Roland said in a low voice. "Graycastle won't forget them."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Iron Axe replied solemnly.

"So... do you have any plans for the First Army in the near future?" the Pearl of the Northern Region asked. "The enemies definitely did not anticipate such a great loss. According to Miss Lightning, the patrolling Devilbeasts near the Taquila ruins have reduced significantly. She only found demons more than 100 kilometers away from the ruins. Further, Miss Sylvie has also confirmed that except for the towering iron monsters, there are less than 1,000 specks of magic glow. In other words, the demons now have very few footholds on the Fertile Plains."

After a long pause, Roland made his decision. "Head back to Neverwinter when all of the wounded recover."

"Are you concerned about the supplies?"

"If we can't seize the ruins, there's no point advancing to the north." Roland sipped the tea. "Plus... winter is coming."

Although the Months of Demons did not necessarily arrive during winter time, for people living around the Barbarian Land, winter meant endless snow and an overcast sky.

During the Months of Demons, the First Army not only had to deal with the harsh weather but also watch out for the demonic beasts that lurked everywhere. There was neither any guarantee that both food and winter supplies would be sufficient in Neverwinter, nor was there ample ammunition for the army to wage a multi-faceted war.

Hence, the winter in the Barbarian Land was always perilous.

By the time the ground was covered by thick snow, it would not be that easy to retreat.

"I see," Edith said. "The General Staff will collaborate with Mr. Commander-in-chief and work out a retreating plan."

"Safety is our top priority," said Roland. After he finished the "conference call", Agatha suddenly cut in.

"Your Majesty, there's another thing that you need to know."

"Really? What is it?"

"Well, the thing is that the Senior Demon defeated by the God's Punishment Witches is still alive..."

After hearing the full account, Roland was astonished.

"Is it fine to connect the demon with Camilla?"

The channeling would enable the channeling witch and the demon to share their minds and be fused into one. In other words, the witch would be able to learn what it felt like to be a demon once the two were connected. It was definitely not going to be a pleasant feeling. The soul transfer of the Taquila witches had shown that any transfer would create confusion and that the process was irreversible. As such, it was certain that the clash of the two entirely different living beings would be a disaster.

This reminded Roland of the word "spiritual contamination".

"It's dangerous, so Zooey and I had a thorough discussion and came up with a relatively feasible way to do this."

Chapter 990 - Behind the Soul

"What way?"

After a short pause, Agatha went on, "Since it's very dangerous to channel a demon, we're thinking of transforming the demon into a man."

"Are you suggesting... a soul transfer?" Roland asked as he realized the hint.

"You once said that there are demons in the Dream World. This shows that the successor of Starfall City has extracted a soul out of a demon before. At least, this tells us that demons would be affected by a soul device as well." Zooey explained. "We simply need to transfer the soul of the Senior Demon to a God's Punishment Warrior. This way, it would bear all the risks that occur during the transfer, such as sensory loss and disorientation."

"I see." Roland nodded. In other words, the demon would be perplexed by the spinning sensations while being forced to adapt to the foreign human body. During this time, the channeling witch could easily read its mind. Furthermore, the witch would be more familiar with the sensations of a human's body than a demon's one. The method sounded very promising, but Roland was concerned about another problem. He asked, "Has it occurred to you that you would lose a vacant God's Punishment Warrior if you carry out this plan?"

After the church fell apart, they could no longer receive new God's Punishment Warriors.

"Compared to a senseless life, we prefer to stay in your dream... So, that's fine with us," said Zooey.

"Ahem..." Roland almost choked on the tea. Although he knew Zooey was a woman, he felt goosebumps crawl up his bare skins when the actual words came from a man's body.

"Just joking." Zooey summoned up a rare smile. "In fact, there are quite a few defective bodies in our warehouse that we can use for this project. Plus, compared to the potential gain from this experiment, losing a God's Punishment Warrior is really nothing. We would like to make the small sacrifice."

"Defective bodies?" asked Roland after clearing his throat.

"It isn't actually easy to travel from Hermes to our hiding place, especially during the Months of Demons, because you have to climb over the Impassable Mountain Range. Some God's Punishment Warriors had indeed crawled there because their feet were eaten by demonic beasts. We surely can't use them to fight. Initially, we planned to offer them to nobles so that they could enjoy a life of immortality."

Roland twitched his lips, doubting if such a life would be truly an enjoyment.

"But even if they're defective, they should contain some power similar to a God's Stone of Retaliation. If the body releases its power during the experiment, wouldn't it cause problems?"

"That, you don't need to worry about. It took us decades to learn how to fully control a new body," Zooey replied, "and it took us even longer to successfully activate our God's Punishment Realm. A lot of people couldn't get the hang of it until they completed their second transfer. Even if the demon has some unusual talent in adapting to a new vessel, it isn't likely that it could do that during the interrogation."

Agatha added,"The worst scenario is the channeling being interrupted, but we've confirmed from Sylvie that the pain caused by such an interruption is just temporary."

"By the way, have you told Ms. Camilla about your plan?" asked Roland as he suddenly thought of a crucial problem.

"We have. She refused to do that at first, for this is something she's never done before. No matter who the interrogator is, she has to take some risks, but Zooey persuaded her."

"Really...?" Roland was suspicious. Zooey was definitely not an eloquent person.

"It was actually very simple Your Majesty," Zooey explained. "I just told her that I'd be the person who would channel the demon."

Roland was a little surprised.

"I'm an Extraordinary and also the first awakened God's Punishment Witch... So, I'm the best person to channel the demon," she said nonchalantly. "After all, I proposed conducting this experiment, so I should be the person who bears all the risks."

Roland realized that this was probably the reason why he did not hate the ancient witches despite their astounding arrogance and haughtiness. They had greater courage than many people and were always the first ones to stand up to their enemies.

"I see, then do what you said." Roland gave his approval after a moment of silence. "Make sure that you keep an eye on the Senior Demon on the way back."

"Ah, I'll take 'very good care' of it Your Majesty," said Zooey with a smile.

Perhaps, Zooey was more interested in escorting the demon than interrogating it.

After the call, Roland sank into his thoughts.

Do men and demons really have souls?

If they don't, how did the Taquila Witches switch bodies freely? What is the mechanism of the soul device?

If they do, why can their souls be extracted and assigned arbitrarily to any vessels, but can't be completely independent of their bodies? Why aren't souls immortal?

Also the Dream World... Why does such a world which is essentially a virtual space, look so real? How did it come into existence? According to the ancient book down in the ruins, the so-called light beams would lead to the Divine Domain. So, what would this Divine Domain look like? 

Roland believed that he would not know the answers to these questions until he figured out the nature of both magic power and the Battle of Divine Will.

Regardless, he now had a chance to witness a soul transfer.

...

Time seemed to travel a lot faster compared to when they had left for the war.

Since City Hall was rapidly expanding and had gradually developed a mature and experienced workforce, there were fewer things that required Roland's attention. Therefore, he allotted most of his free time to several major industrial projects.

The pilot project for the glider was still in progress. The Aircraft Operation Manual drafted by Tilly, which initially contained only a few pages, soon turned into a big book as thick as "Intermediate Chemistry". When Roland added the cover to it, he had chosen gold as the font color.

Thunder had slowly gotten the hang of the steel ship. Although he had experienced quite a few mechanical breakdowns at the beginning, after several upgrades, the ship was finally ready to sail.

Furthermore, the construction of the Spellcaster Tower built specifically for Agatha had been completed in the last month of fall. This five-story concrete building had instantly become the new landmark of Neverwinter due to its peculiar architectural style and its extraordinary height. It was even taller than the lord's castle. Beyond a doubt, it would be the most conspicuous building in the city until the completion of the Miracle Building.

Apart from those mentioned above, the construction of the oil fractionator and the new power engine assembling plant was also close to completion. Normally in the past, the whole Western Region would become quieter as winter drew closer, as if all the cities and towns had entered dormancy. However, ever since the establishment of Neverwinter, this was no longer the case. The city was particularly busy this year. There were crowds and newly-erected houses everywhere, from the North Slope Mining area all the way to the harbor at Shallow Beach. The hustle and bustle of the city impressed all the merchants who visited here.

A month and a half later, the First Army finally returned after a prolonged absence.

The residents in Neverwinter all greeted them at the meadow in the suburb. The cheers of the crowd were deafening.

On that very day, flurries of snows drifted down from the sky.

A long winter... was coming.

Chapter 991 - Burdened by Destiny

After Zooey bid farewell to His Majesty, she led the God's Punishment Witches who were part of the expedition back to the Third Border City.

After she took care of the arrogant Senior Demon, she was guided by Alethea to a secret chamber in the deep underground, where Pasha and Celine were waiting as well.

Other than the captured demon, they were apparently more concerned about other matters.

"What do you think?" Shutting down the heavy Stone Gates, Alethea anxiously dropped in front of her. "Can we win?"

"Didn't we already win?" Zooey said matter-of-factly.

Alethea pointed at Zooey's forehead with her tentacles. "Don't tease me anymore. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

As she was the only Extraordinary of Taquila, she undoubtedly had a closer relationship with the Senior Witches than anyone else.

After the collapse of the Union, the ancient witches who survived began to follow the principle of "every witch is equally important," but the old class system still had some influence.

"Since she's so relaxed, I think it should be a good answer." Pasha smiled lightly.

"In fact... I'm not sure," said Pasha. Zooey also began to act more seriously after hearing Pasha's remark. "Nowadays, the demons are probably considerably different from the enemies we faced 400 years ago, not only in the use of magic but also in the varieties of species." She then elaborated on the entire battle process. "Arguably, Lady Alice's idea was correct, but according to her plan, mankind would inevitably fail."

Evidence has shown that the God's Punishment Witch was indeed a viable weapon for restraining the Senior Demon. Unfortunately, this weapon alone meant it would still be difficult to contend with the enemy on the battlefield— powerful armor did not indicate they would be spared injury. After being placed in front of the new war machines, the God's Punishment Witches' advantage would be formidable and impenetrable. Once they were at war, the plan of the Queen of Starfall City would lose its meaning.

After confirming this, Pasha seemed more relieved and looked as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her. "So that means we didn't follow the wrong leader— Lady Natalia's decision was correct. This is really great news..."

"Yeah, this is really great news..." Celine whispered. Her voice was faint and choking with emotion. This was an incredible thing for someone who had lived for more than 400 years.

But at this moment, Zooey empathized with the rest of them.

While the majority of the Union's leaders supported Alice, they stood by the Queen of Sunchaser due to their different ideologies. They were utterly torn apart by an unjust assault on the witch's empire that entirely destroyed the foundation of the Union.

Zooey would remember this scene till her dying day, when a severely hurt Blessed Army comrade lay dying in her arms and said, "You were the ones who ruined it all."

Since then, they have felt this huge burden in their hearts.

Death was nothing to be afraid of after all.

What was frightening was to be misunderstood and abandoned by their companions, while searching for a glimmer of hope in the dark.

If they failed in their mission, that would mean that they have destroyed the only way the witches would continue to survive. That kind of sin was unforgivable and could not be offset even by death.

It was with this firm determination that everyone endured the unconscious shells and have persisted until now.

Now that Alice's plan has been proven to be wrong, they naturally felt a long-lost liberation—even if the final outcome were still the total destruction of humankind, the fate of the survivors would not be as critical.

"Even so, Lady Natalia was just on par with the Queen of Starfall City," said Alethea, rubbing her nose that had long since ceased to exist, "We have not yet won the final victory. It's too early to celebrate—"

"Don't worry. Now that you've become like this, even if you cry, no one can see it."

"Pasha!"

Zooey shook her head and smiled. "I haven't finished speaking yet... Although I can't say for sure who will win the Battle of Divine Will, at least I've seen some hope."

After hearing these words, the three Senior Witches became quiet.

In the 400 years of searching in the dark, hope was the most desired thing—No one knew whether the Chosen One really existed, but they had to continue searching. This kind of aimless confusion was always on their mind. The longer time passed, the more intense the suffering felt. In the beginning, people often discussed the abilities of God's chosen person and her apparent age and appearance. However, when "Black Money" was used to begin the search for the Chosen One, nobody dared to talk about it.

They feared creating a false image of the Chosen One as they would not be able to handle the disappointment when they'd find someone fitting their standards and having them turn out not to be the One.

Because of this, hope had become something of a luxury.

However, now they could say this word easily.

The ancient witch who realized this couldn't help but fall into a moment of silence.

After a while, Pasha broke the silence. "So... can we complete the task that Lady Natalia entrusted to us?"

"Entrusted?" Alethea was shocked. "Wait—we haven't even found the Chosen One yet!"

"I don't have an opinion," Zooey said with a shrug. "In the ancient books of the underground civilization, there was no rule stating that the key holders had to be male or female, right? After all, whether or not they had any concept of gender was still unknown."

Natalia had left behind a will that said, if they could find the Chosen One, then everyone should treat her as the chief, destroy the demons, and rebuild Taquila. Although the Five-Colored Stone reflected a Chosen One that was different from what they had imagined and could not activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution, it was consistent in dealing with the demon.

"I also... feel that there's nothing wrong with it." Celine was the last to speak. "The ancient books also did not specify that there should be only one candidate for the Chosen One. After we have discovered the newly selected witch, we can still change the candidate."

"Since you've all agreed... well then." Alethea sighed helplessly.

"Whether there will be a new candidate or not, we can forget about that for now. But I think it's unnecessary to change the candidate," said Zooey, looking at Pasha. "What you were once worried about has already started to happen."

"Did the witches exclude you in battle?"

"It wasn't that obvious." She told the story of Camilla again. "After hearing that I would be the interrogator, she agreed to the request of connecting the demon's heart. This also shows that although she was concerned about the safety of the witches, that did not include immortal monsters like me."

"..." The atmosphere became a little intense. As early as a 100 years ago, Pasha mentioned this possibility. Although they considered themselves to be witches, the new generation of witches did not necessarily think so. Regarding appearance, characteristics or ability, there was no similarity between the two. They resembled neither witches nor humans. Roland Wimbledon, who was able to accept them so quickly, was more like an alien.

As the history of the Union gradually faded, the new Awakened ones might no longer see them as witches. And in an extreme scenario, to explore the mysteries of magic power and the techniques of the underground civilization, the witches might even use them as guinea pigs.

Although this idea was somewhat pessimistic, after centuries or even thousands of years, that could really happen.

When she heard Zooey's self-mockery, Pasha sighed. "I see, but I don't regret it."

Nobody answered, it was their choice as well.

"If we can accomplish the wishes of the Three Chiefs, our mission will come to an end," she paused and said, "what happens in the future is not something we can control... But at least for now we can plan a way out for ourselves."

"Should we hide in the mountains, disappear, or find a place to bury ourselves?" Alethea was displeased.

"Of course not," said Pasha, shaking her main tentacles, "we can be an indispensable force in the human kingdom."

Chapter 992 - Future Direction

"You mean as God's Punishment Witches? The king who's a common person might not think so..."

"Power is not determined just by force," Pasha pointed toward Zooey and said, "Real strength lies in what influences the human kingdoms of today to change. This cannot be replaced and it's exactly where our strength lies."

"I see what you mean!" Celine exclaimed. "Compared to combat ability, this really is more important," she added as she came to the sudden realization.

"Hah..." said Zooey. "You can leave me out of it. This task would suit Faldi and the rest."

"Hey, what the h*ll are you talking about?" exclaimed Ellen in dissatisfaction. "Why couldn't I understand at all?"

"Pasha was talking about knowledge," said the youngest Extraordinary, "aren't there colleges, libraries and private scholars in His Majesty's Dream World already? Since everything in the Dream World comes from his memory, everyone should be able to learn... Compared to selective transcripts, it would obviously be better to fully absorb all that knowledge. As long as we allocate some time away from our leisure time, we could start learning the most basic information. It wouldn't take more than dozens of years and His Majesty would be able to have an additional group of helpers that can understand what he wants."

"The energy of common people will fade as their body ages, but we don't have to worry about this. A century's time would be enough to make a God's Punishment Witch His Majesty's heir. This is our greatest advantage." Pasha added, "Especially after he passes away. Only we know what the world will look like."

"If His Majesty Roland wants to continue his plans, then it can only succeed through us—even if we weren't witches, we wouldn't be affected too much. In a certain way, it would be disadvantageous to us if there were any attempt to overthrow the will of His Majesty, but the Witch Union would certainly respond to that. On the other hand, if we're only in charge of knowledge, this would be good for any faction. Even if we don't possess combat strength, we'll still have force even if its very light-weight."

"Isn't this the Cloud School?" El grumbled.

According to legends, when most human beings were still ignorant, some sages came together to fan the flames of civilization. They taught people how to make ironwork, weave clothes, and tillage livestock until human beings populated the entire Land of Dawn. Hundreds of years later, they reached the summit of their power. All those in power sought to win them over by any means, and many members then turned from becoming knowledgeable communicators to being the private collection of those in power.

The leader of the sages discovered this point and moved the organization out to major city-states. He also stipulated that they should not be easily involved in politics, urging them to only focus on the mysteries of the world and uncovering the secrets of the ancient ruins. Since they were relocated to the top of a mountain covered by clouds all year round, everyone called it the Cloud School.

Although these people rarely interacted with the common people, their status was still elevated. No matter how the kings in power kept changing, they were still respectful to the Cloud School. Every year, they would send a large number of supplies and young students, just to get guidance from these sages.

But this period did not last long as the demon soon infiltrated mankind. The first Battle of Divine Will broke out... It was at this time that a disturbing rumor gradually spread. It stated that these brutal and terrifying beasts were introduced into the Land of Dawn by a sage hundreds of years ago.

The reputation of the Cloud School plummeted, and it was taken over by the demons as no leader willing to lend a helping hand. Finally, it became a dusty memory of history books.

"At least we won't collude with the demon," said Celine defensively. "And the title of 'manager of knowledge' is not so bad. It's better than the titles that were set by the Quest Society."

"Anyway, this is only a preliminary direction. Any plans for the future can only be decided after the victory against the demons." Pasha said as she smiled and patted Celine's head with her tentacle. "Well, let's adjust the soul instrument. After the completion of the celebrations outside, we should also have finished our preparations here—I don't think His Majesty has the patience to wait until tomorrow."

...

When the residents of the city were still celebrating the victory, Roland had already entered Third Border City while leading the united front army.

He was certainly impatient.

If the demon city in the memory fragment was from hundreds of years ago, then the information stored in this Senior Demon's brain would be the latest intelligence about the enemy. Given the ineffectiveness of conventional intelligence channels for aliens, the significance of this opportunity was particularly important.

As soon as he stepped into the core area of the hall, he noticed something strange.

He saw that the Taquila witches lined up in a neat queue in the center of the hall with their leader the threefold original carrier Senior Witch.

The God's Punishment Witch placed her elbows at a level position and overlapped her fingers onto her chest, before bowing to him.

It wasn't the first time that he had seen this strange manner of saluting as it was usually the special courtesy of the lower level witches to their superiors. However, before he even had the chance to ask questions, the three carriers also overlapped their tentacles in front of their bodies and fell to the ground. The voice of Pasha also rang in his head, "Thank you, Your Majesty. Taquila will always be loyal to you."

This made Roland somewhat surprised. The previous time she thanked him was probably due to the fact that there was a chance to defeat the demons and get revenge, but the meaning of the latter sentence was obviously different. Although the united front required all the coalition leaders to work for the leader, the other party's respectful behavior told him that these two were not the same thing.

He suddenly remembered that Senior Witches themselves were the upper class of the Union, and that they would only need to salute the three Transcendents in that manner.

Did this mean they considered him as one of the Three Chiefs in the Union?

Although he was not clear why their attitude had changed so much, after being in power for so long, he was still sensitive enough to know that now was not the right time to investigate.

Roland coughed twice and treated it like a normal greeting. "It's not necessary to thank me. This victory belongs to all the people present. By the way, how's the preparation for the Soul Transfer?"

"We can start at any time," Pasha pointed to a purple magic core behind her, "please come with me."

As he followed her down to the core, Roland noticed that there were two stone beds set up next to her. On the left bed, there was a male God's Punishment Army soldier with no feet. His hair was gray and it was obvious that he had been transformed for a long time. The right bed had a figure that could not be described as human at all. Not only were the limbs missing, but even the black armor on its body was full of depressions. It was difficult to imagine it still being alive under such circumstances.

"Generally speaking, it would not be able to survive until now," explained Zooey, as if she had seen his doubts. "If Miss Nana's treatment was not available, it should have died the same day. In addition, Lady Agatha also helped a great deal, otherwise, we'd not have been able to conserve the Red Mist for so long. However, in order to prevent the Senior Demon from recovering on the road, a series of adjustments were needed. The result is what you can see right now."

"Adjustment?" Wendy said confusedly, "How?"

"It's very simple. As soon as it starts to come around, I would give it a stab. Thus, most of its magic would be consumed for self-healing. This was the first time that I had done such a job, so I'd almost caused it to stop breathing," said Zooey whilst stupefied.

In fact, it seemed that she was looking forward to this the most.

Sensing that the atmosphere was a little tense, Roland cleared his throat and said," In that case, let's not waste time... We should start the transfer now."

"As you wish," Celine reached out with her main tentacle and inserted it into the core.

Chapter 993 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅰ)

The magic core which was shaped like a giant spindle suddenly expanded while giving out a purple light. Its luminescence lit up the entire hall. It floated two meters above the ground and began to spin, looking like a fabulous merry-go-round.

Seeing this, Roland had to admit that the magic power, to a certain extent, could not be explained by physical concepts. After this skeleton structure automatically expanded, all its parts could somehow stay in the air without falling to the ground under the influence of gravity. It looked as if there was an invisible hand holding them together.

"How did the underground civilization create these things?" He looked at Pasha. "Can you make copies of them if I give you the same materials?"

"I'm afraid we cannot do so for now, Your Majesty." Pasha shook her head. "Although I'm reluctant to admit it, the underground civilization did have a deeper understanding of the magic power than the Union. Celine is already one of the best researchers of the Quest Society, but even she only learned to operate them in the past hundreds of years."

"We are short-handed. It's a major problem." Celine turned around. "We can't activate the magic core simply by injecting our magic power into it. We have to connect ourselves to the thousands of sensors in it. Common people can never do this."

"In other words, if I want to learn to use this magic core, I have to transfer my soul into an original carrier in the same way as you did?" Tilly asked.

"That's right. A summer insect never knows how cold the winter is. A deaf man never hears anything in the world." Celine sighed with profound resignation. "A human being can hardly imagine what I feel when I'm operating the magic core. I can't find an appropriate word in the human language to describe this particular feeling to you either. Given that, now only Pasha and I can control a magic core."

"Wait... Do you mean that the main tentacle on you, which looks rough, is actually very sensitive?" Roland was surprised.

"Yes. Not only the main tentacles but also the other tentacles on us are highly sensitive," Celine confirmed. "They are able to smell and to feel cold and hot, wet and dry. They can sense even the slightest touch, and the main tentacles can even capture the flow of the magic power. So once you transfer your soul into a carrier, you won't be able to adapt to a human body anymore. Are you interested in it?"

"No, I was merely curious..." Roland turned his head away to stop the conversation. He had to clear his mind at such a crucial moment. He remembered that an original carrier's main tentacle was also her weapon and according to Phyllis, the carriers were as powerful as God's Punishment Witches regarding physical strength.

Based on what Celine had said just now, he realized that an ordinary man who was unable to sense the magic power could never study it in depth. Without a reliable observation and measurement method, this study could only be conducted by a few original carriers for now.

"No. 3 core has been activated in the Soul Instrument mode. The soul transfer is about to begin." Celine's voice interrupted his thoughts. Hearing this, Pasha and Alethea also inserted their main tentacles into the giant spindle apparatus.

Roland widened his eyes in fear of missing a single detail of the process.

However, this transfer process did not look as extraordinary as he imagined. Two beams of light shone out of the core and covered the two stone beds below. The magic power inside the skeleton structure began to surge. After 15 minutes, Celine sighed of relief. "Well, we are lucky. The instrument has caught the demon's soul. Now, all we need to do is wait for it to enter the God's Punishment Warrior's body."

"That's it?" Roland blinked.

"Yes, in fact, the Soul Transfer is a process of exchanging Keys," Pasha explained. "If you had observed the process through a Five-Colored Stone, you would have been able to see the demon's beam of light move to the God's Punishment Warrior."

Before the ancient witch finished her sentence, the God's Punishment Warrior who had lied on the bed motionlessly suddenly opened his eyes!

His face was contorted and thus looked exceptionally ferocious. He could not stop shaking and his fingers, which looked like dead wood, twisted violently. Some weird sounds came out of his throat. Seeing this, all the witches around subconsciously took a step back.

"Don't worry. That's the normal reaction shortly after the soul enters into an unfamiliar body," Zooey said. "We didn't look any better when we transferred our souls into the God's Punishment Warriors for the first time. We can hardly eat or drink without someone else's help."

Roland pictured the scene: a group of exiled ancient witches kept fumbling around in a cold underground cave for a dozen years. He was deeply impressed by the willpower of the Taquila survivors.

"Now that the demon is panicking and in a confused state, it's time for us to get started, lady Camilla." Zooey glanced at everyone and continued. "No matter what you want to know, you can ask me directly. I'll repeat what I've heard from the demon." She paused. "And I have a request."

"Go ahead." Roland nodded.

"As long as I don't gesture a 'stop', please don't halt the Mind Resonance no matter what happens," Zooey stressed each word with due strength. "The interrogation is the most important thing."

"This..." Camilla Dary looked hesitant, which was a rare thing.

"I promise." Without any hesitation, Roland approved Zooey's request. Seeing her determination, he believed he did not need to worry too much, and he really wanted to respect her wish.

"If so, I'll start to use my ability now." Chief Butler of Sleeping Island looked at Roland profoundly and then put one hand on the shoulder of Zooey and the other on the shoulder of the God's Punishment Warrior.

The next moment, Zooey looked miserable.

It seemed that she could not stop herself from growling out. However, Roland immediately knew that this roar must have come from the demon and it might somehow be able to roar through the witch's mouth in the Mind Resonance.

"What have you done to me?" Zooey's voice sounded totally different now. "Stupid crawlers, low-grade species, let me go! Otherwise, I'll make this woman suffer!"

The witches could not help gasping. "Is Zooey..."

"Don't worry. The demon is just bluffing," said Anna, calmly. "Look at her finger."

At this moment, the others noticed that the God's Punishment Witch raised one finger and shook it with ease. Apparently, she was not controlled by the demon.

Roland quickly understood why she acted this way. In comparison to a question-and-answer method, letting the demon speak through her own mouth was a better approach since it would give the demon less time to think and prepare.

"You were defeated by us." Roland sneered. "If we are stupid crawlers, what about you?"

"I was... defeated?" Zooey's voice sounded much deeper all of a sudden. She seemed to be stunned and caught in agony. Roland could not tell whether the painful expression came from Zooey herself or the confused demon.

He did not want to give the enemy any chance to take a breath, so he continued to put pressure on the demon. "Yes, you got riddled with bullets, and your army was annihilated. Half of your soldiers were killed on the battlefield, and the other half failed to flee back to Taquila in the end. We burnt down thousands of them and destroyed your underground camp, so tell me who's the low-grade species!?"

Roland shouted out the last question to the demon.

"No, this is impossible, unless, unless..." Zooey shook her head violently. After a moment, she looked up and muttered in astonishment, "Did you get a legacy shard and upgrade your species? Did you create those weapons... based on the contents of the shard?"

Roland captured the keywords instantly. "What's a legacy shard? What do you mean by 'upgrade'?"

Chapter 994 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅱ)

For a moment, Roland wanted to joke with the demon by saying, "You are also a member of Tadarin? Forgive me. I didn't recognize you." However, he gave up on this idea eventually.

After all, he came here to interrogate the demon. He did not want to undermine his own authority. In the state of Mind Resonance, the demon could manage to understand and speak the human language, but when it came across a word without counterpart in its own language, it would paraphrase the word. Given that, it might misunderstand or misuse the most common words in the human language.

Instead of answering Roland's questions, the demon rambled in agony.

"No, it doesn't make sense! You've never entered into the Sky-sea Realm, and you'll never be able to do so. How can you get a legacy shard? But if you don't have one, how come you can defeat me? You are lying. I, Kabradhabi will never believe you!"

As the demon's soul had been transferred into the God's Punishment Warrior, it could hardly control its own emotions during this moment. Before the interrogation, Roland had decided to grab this opportunity to delude the demon into leaking information which it would never mention under normal circumstances. He continued to push the demon. "Do you need more hints? You failed to lure my army into your trap and had to confront us on the battlefield, but before your army got close to us, they suffered heavy casualties. You led your troops to join the fight, wanting to revert this situation. As soon as you landed, however, you got shot down by the God's Punishment Witches. The fight between you and the witches lasted about ten seconds, and she's the one who led the witches to defeat you. Try to read her memory and then you'll see how vulnerable you appeared on the battleground."

"You—" Suddenly, the Senior Demon looked depressed.

Zooey interrupted the demon by showing it what had happened during the battle. It took her just a moment since the Mind Resonance significantly accelerated the pace of information exchange.

"You can't change the result of the battle by denying it, and your thought sounds ridiculous to me." Roland sneered. "We've never been to the Sky-sea Realm, so we can't own a legacy shard? I suggest we unify the concept first. If you don't tell me what a legacy shard is, how can I answer your question? Maybe in our eyes, it isn't a valuable thing at all."

"Stupid bug, you must be joking." Kabradhabi sounded very angry. "It's the cause of the Battle of Divine Will and determines the fate of the species. You think it's not precious!?"

Pasha suddenly thought of something. "Wait, does the shard look like a red crystal? Is it shaped like a spindle and able to bring anyone close to it into a spacious hall where he or she will see something incredible?"

"The relics of gods!" Tilly exclaimed in a deep voice.

"You call them the relics of gods? Sure enough, you are just low-grade crawlers," the demon responded scornfully. "They've nothing to do with deities. Each species has a shard like that. They can upgrade themselves by swallowing it, and once they lose it, they will become food for the other species. Now, do you realize how stupid you are? When those underground cowards died out, you still hid in a corner on the ground. How could you get their legacy?"

Hearing this, Roland's heart suddenly jumped. That's why it was so sure that human beings couldn't get a shard or a relic. The four picture scrolls represent four different civilizations. A civilization had to defeat another to obtain its legacy. During the first Battle of Divine Will, when the underground civilization was extinct, we were busy fighting against demons. It's impossible for us to rob the underground civilization of its relic.

He looked around and found that everyone had a grave look on their face. Apparently, everybody realized that they had just heard important information.

First of all, what the demon said confirmed what the Taquila witches had thought about the relics. Roland still remembered that Wendy had exclaimed, "How come we've fought for hundreds of years just because of a useless stone? The Divine Will is so cruel." Now he found that a relic not only determined the survival of civilization but also had high practical value for another civilization. That meant no party in this battle would be willing to conciliate.

Secondly, according to Kabradhabi, demons had already upgraded themselves. Though it did not mention the specific process of swallowing a relic, it apparently attributed all the progress that a species made and the invention of new weapons, to the relic. Roland could not help wondering. Maybe, they can inherit the knowledge accumulated by another species by swallowing a relic. Given that, did they create the giant skeleton monsters and the strange demons based on the technology of the underground civilization?

This is incredible. Even the industrial revolution can't achieve this kind of effect. Such a revolution needs lots of raw materials and professional workers, and it only happens when there's an enormous technological breakthrough. In comparison, inheriting knowledge by swallowing a relic sounds like force transfer in kungfu fiction. A species will be extinct and lose everything to its opponent after losing its relic? If it's true, it's indeed a fearful secret.

No, it can't be counted as a secret. It's important news for human beings, but it won't affect the result of the Battle of Divine Will. For any party in this war, knowing the importance of the relics won't guarantee the ultimate victory. Human beings have never had a proper idea about the relics until now. That's why we can't rally for the fight for the past thousands of years and lost again and again in the battles. Human beings can't compete with the other species depicted in the painting scrolls.

We've wasted too much time on in-fighting.

Roland's mouth went dry. He licked his lips and picked out the most crucial question among all the thoughts went through his mind.

"As you also refer to this war as Battle of Divine Will, do you believe that it's arranged by deities?"

"That's how you think of Divine Will?" The Senior Demon sounded much calmer this time, which was probably because it had remained quiet for a long time and had a chance to prepare during this period of time. "Well, it seems not bad to let you know the truth before you die out. Listen carefully, bugs. The battle has nothing to do with the deities. It's just among the civilizations. The final winner will be able to upgrade and open the door to the Fountain of Magic. When that happens, the winner will gain omnipotent power and his will become the Divine Will! But, forget about it, stupid crawlers. You'll never get such a chance. You are doomed to perish!"

"How do you know that?"

"What? Do you think that I, Kabradhab, will continue to talk to you?" The senior demon sneered.

"What do you mean?" Suddenly, Roland noticed something wrong and called out, "Zooey?"

"I'm afraid that this female can't hear your voice for the moment. You used a soul-transferring trick to confuse my mind and then used mind-reading ability to read my thoughts. Bugs, you really haven't made any progress for the past hundreds of years." Zooey now sounded cold and heartless. "You dare to play magic tricks on me. You are headed for trouble. I'm Kabradhabi. Though I can't control this body, for now, that doesn't mean I can't use my magic power!"

"Camilla!" Roland shouted to Chief Butler of Sleeping Island.

"It's too late. Say goodbye to this female!"

With shrill laughter, Zooey closed her mouth. Camilla Dary went pale as if she could not believe what had happened. "The soul in the God's Punishment Warrior... disappeared!"

Chapter 995 - Soul Interrogation (Part Ⅲ)

"What?" Everybody gasped in horror and simultaneously looked at Zooey. What Kabradhabi said did not sound like boasting. Since the God's Punishment Witch was connected to the demon by Camilla, the demon's soul that had disappeared must have sneaked into Zooey's body.

Alethea was the first one to take action. Whilst Camilla was crying out in alarm, she swung her main tentacle, which was strong enough to crush a Devilbeast, at Zooey. She spared no effort to press Zooey down to the ground and even the slate floor where the God's Punishment Witch landed got cracked.

Zooey spewed out a mouthful of blood and passed out.

The hall fell into silence.

Everyone in the hall understood that Alethea launched a sudden attack to prevent the God's Punishment Witch from causing damage; since the demon might be able to control Zooey through the mind connection. Once it managed to make the God's Punishment Witch spread an anti-magic area, no matter how small it was, it would cause significant harm.

This was particularly true for most of the witches, who were not prepared to treat Zooey as an enemy.

In comparison to those witches, Alethea, a former commander of the Blessed Army, was much more experienced in fighting.

She acted right after the demon blustered out its threat and did not give it any chance to react. Zooey was knocked down by Alethea's main tentacle and appeared like a dummy during the whole process. She did not fight back or struggle as the other witches had expected. It seemed that the demon failed to control the God's Punishment Witch successfully.

"Did the demon's soul really sneak into Zooey's body?" After a while, Roland broke the silence.

"I've never encountered such a situation..." Camilla still looked frightened. "Mind Resonance is just a communication method. How come Kabradhabi could get out of its own body and enter into Zooey's body through the mind connection?"

"Are you sure?" Tilly frowned and asked.

"We can't be sure until Zooey takes the initiative to speak to us." Alethea loosened her grip on the God's Punishment Witch but still pinned her to the ground. "Souls can't survive without carriers, otherwise, we wouldn't have had to rely on these things left by the underground civilization. Although wiping out its soul in the process is a possibility; it's also possible that it was able to successfully transfer its soul into Zooey's body. We have to prepare for the worst."

"I think I've a way to figure it out." Roland thought for a moment. "If I bring Zooey's light beam into my Dream World..."

"I can't agree to that!" Wendy immediately interrupted. "Your Majesty, you should avoid taking risks as much as possible. Your Majesty's safety is of utmost importance!"

"Yes, I agree with Wendy. What if the demon manages to occupy your body?" Nightingale added. "It's a real Senior Demon, not some loser on the Soul Battlefield!"

"I can control the risk." Roland slowed down to consider his countermeasures. "If the demon goes into the Dreamland with Zooey, it'll appear at a certain place. As long as we send a group of God's Punishment Witches into the Dream World to help me, we'll be able to kill it before it adapts to the new world. More importantly, the Dream World is different from the Mind Resonance. No matter what takes place in that world, it'll never affect the real world. Once I wake up, the time in the Dream World will stop and all visitors will be forced out. Given that, even if Zooey's soul is replaced by the demon's, I'll be able to get a clear idea of the current situation and come back safely."

"But..." Nightingale bit her lips and turned to look at Anna. "Come on, say something to persuade him."

"I agree with him," Anna said, which was totally beyond the other witches' expectations.

"Why?" Wendy and the other witches were stunned.

"Because he once did the same for me," Anna replied seriously. "If he had listened to the others and hadn't taken the risk to come to my rescue, I would have been hung a long time ago. I can't persuade myself to stop him from venturing to save Zooey. And I believe in his judgment. He knows that he isn't alone anymore."

She looked into Roland's eyes while talking and then they smiled at each other tacitly.

"..." Alethea remained silent for a long time. "I have to thank you on behalf of Zooey, regardless of the outcome."

"And I would like to hear Zooey express her thanks to me herself." Roland nodded.

"I'll go and pick out our most capable warriors," Pasha said gratefully.

"By the way, before we enter the Dreamland, please continue the Mind Resonance." He smirked. "Zooey asked us to keep the mind connection going until she gestures a 'stop'. If she's in a fight with the demon in the world of consciousness, she will probably win in the end."

***************

"Hey, female, guess what your bug friends are going to do?"

Zooey raised her head to look at the Senior Demon and then looked at herself.

Her chest swelled slightly. Although she was still almost flat-chested, she thought this body looked much better than a rough male body. She could clearly feel her own hands and feet again, but since she hadn't cut her hair for a long time, it covered her forehead now. She felt as if she had somehow entered the Dream World.

"Aha! They must think of you as an enemy and have you surrounded tightly." Kabradhabi mocked. "After they figure out what has happened, you've a 30% chance of being imprisoned. When that happens, you'll be tied to an iron bed and soaked in your own excretion like a dumb worm. Of course, you've a 70% chance of being executed right away too. After all, it's customary for you to sacrifice some of your own kind to prevent further losses; it's something you always did 400 years ago."

Zooey looked around and saw nothing except darkness. She wondered why she could see herself and the demon so clearly in such a dark place.

"Hey, did I scare you silly? Or, do you think that you can escape from this fight by remaining silent?" Kabradhabi sounded agitated. "My patience is limited. You'd better hurry up and understand the situation you're in. We won't die here, but if you devote all your energy to pleasing me, maybe I'll let you suffer less!"

"I've never expected a demon to talk such a load of crap before a fight." Zooey tore a strip of cloth from her sleeve and used it to tie up her hair. "If I were you, I'd never buzz in front of a bug, even if I mastered its language."

"Keep talking for now. Soon, you'll only be able to scream." The demon sneered. "I can feel the power of your soul. It's much stronger than the souls of most bugs. You'll make an excellent opponent for me. It's good to fight you in my last battle."

"And then? When I'm executed, what will happen to you? Did you pull me into this fight just because you want to vent your anger on me?"

"Yes, that's right. Fight! Kill! Torture! Upgrade! Bug, that's the attitude of an advanced species! Did you expect me to kneel on the ground and beg you for mercy?" Kabradhabi emitted a long, loud cry. "What's so scary about death? My soul will be taken in by the Fountain of Magic and when my species reaches the top, my soul will return to the world!"

"You'd better hurry up," Zooey said with a straight face. "They'll execute me any minute."

"Rest assured." Kabradhabi grinned grimly. "You don't understand the mysteries of magic. In this world of consciousness, time will become sluggish and controllable. Here, you'll feel that the blink of an eye is as long as several years. It's my last battle, so I'll do my best to satisfy myself."

Chapter 996 - Fight with Pain

...

A long time.

But full of pleasure.

She felt as if she had returned to the battlefield from 400 years ago. But this time, she didn't need to worry about the pain of failure or watching her friends die in her arms. She was free from the heavy burden of responsibility.

Best of all, both she and the demon could feel pain.

The pain made the fighting real.

"Female... I have to say you've done a good job," Kabradhabi said as it threw Zooey's severed arm on the ground. "Although you're a bug, you're much stronger than most of your kind. I really didn't pick the wrong person. Your performance pleases me!"

"Really?" Zooey answered vaguely, then spat a piece of flesh from her mouth, "Unfortunately, your flesh tastes disgusting."

Was this the fifth day since the battle began...or the seventh day? It was difficult to estimate the passage of time without the sun, moon, and stars, so she could only roughly estimate it based on her body's natural reactions. Time here should be fixed in a cycle. For example, thirst and hunger would suddenly disappear when they became apparent and then reset. It was sensible to regard this cycle as a day. Otherwise, it would be impossible for people to fight for years. They would lose strength and be unable to move within days.

She felt a sharp pain from her arm where it had been cut off. It was obviously an unfair battle. The demon could create a long sword with its magic power, while she only had her arms, legs, and teeth.

But Zooey did not care about whether it was fair or not.

Because victory or failure was not important.

On the battlefield of old, she had to kill the enemy and protect herself, but not here. Here, the severed limbs would regenerate. No matter how severely she was wounded, she would not lose consciousness. Without death, the pain became eternal.

It was not necessary to use a sword to cause pain.

She noticed that this was the first time that the demon took the initiative to slow down the pace and talk.

"But your persistence is meaningless," the Senior Demon said, as it pressed on its wounded shoulder. The bloody wound quickly recovered. "Attacks like this are nothing to me. If you want to beat me with your teeth, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'll knock out your teeth one by one and then make you swallow them. Get ready for it!"

"But you still feel the pain, don't you?" Zooey gasped and watched her arm recover. "By the way, I'd like to ask one more thing. Is that pain particularly familiar?"

"Female, what do you mean?"

No, I have to be patient. I can't let it see my intoxication, as it'll reduce the fun—

In spite of this, she still couldn't help chuckling. "When you were half dead, you should have felt it every day..." She pointed at the shoulder blade, "Being stabbed here and having your flesh cut away. With how much your body was shaking, you must have felt not so good. Ah, I forgot to tell you. The person who cared for you along the way was me."

"Bug—!"Kabradhabi was furious and lifted his sword, snarling, "I'll crush you!"

...

The sixteenth day, or maybe longer.

The dark ground was covered with blood, mostly reddish-brown, and some black-blue.

In addition, broken limbs, internal organs... and of course, teeth, were scattered everywhere. Although the lost parts would regenerate before long, the blood and scattered parts would not disappear. In this environment, they accidentally slipped again and again. But because of this, Zooey got two weapons— one of her thigh bones and half of the demon's spine.

The former was like a short hammer, and the latter could be used as a sword. As long as they didn't directly hit the demon's magic sword, they were quite useful to her.

400 years was long enough to make her an expert in all kinds of weapons.

And her favorite place to attack was still its shoulder.

Pain was sometimes unrelated to the size of the wound.

"If you're tired, you might take a break now," Zooey said, hanging the spine around her waist and moving her numb wrists. "After all, you have to torture me for a long time. It would be better to take your time."

"..." The demon did not respond for the first time. Its chest heaved as it was breathing deeply, and its scarlet eyes stared at the Extraordinary. The initial contempt faded from its human-like face.

Their relative strength had not changed. The various abilities of a Senior Demon had ensured its superior position in this fight. Zooey needed to pay several times the cost in order to strike her opponent. Once she made a mistake, she would suffer for a long time. It was not unusual that her fingers were broken and her belly was torn apart. Even so, the atmosphere gradually changed.

Zooey did not take any notice of its silence. "Let me ask... Is this space created by you?"

The demon probably needed to rest for a moment. Kabradhabi slowly said, "This is a stream of consciousness, a combination of magic power and the soul. It doesn't need anyone to create it. It's hard to understand for a bug like you. Almost no one has a chance to enter the stream of consciousness—"

"I've seen a bigger one, which was as complete as a real world," she interrupted. "There were trees, sky, and earth. It's not like here. There is nothing here."

"Nonsense, female!" the demon roared, "You have no idea how much magic power it consumes to construct entities in the stream of consciousness, let alone a complete world! Only the Fountain of Magic can do that!"

"It's the Fountain of Magic again... It's just like the domain of deities, an illusion. No one has been there, but they talk as if they've seen it." Zooey took off the spine bone and held it with her hand.

"This is engraved in the heritage. But you would know nothing about it!"

"Then can you elaborate further and come up with some evidence to convince me?."

"Female, do you think I'm a fool?" Kabradhabi was furious. "How can I, lord Kabradhabi, be deceived by such a clumsy technique—"

Before it finished its words, a "spear" pierced through its head.

The white spear was the spine thrown by Zooey.

"Since you don't want to say anything, then that's the end of the rest. When you want to talk about it, we'll take a rest again." She held the thigh bone and rushed toward the staggering demon.

...

Dozens of days later.

"Why," asked Kabradhabi, who had completely lost its original momentum. It held its Magic Sword in front of its chest, staring at Zooey as if she were a monster, "Don't you fear pain?"

"The war 400 years ago made me accustomed to it, while hibernating for 400 years made me forget it. If you regained something which had always accompanied you, would you fear it?" Zooey raised her lips. At this moment, she no longer had to conceal herself. "In fact, I have to thank you. You've compensated for the feelings which King Roland can't give me."

"You... are crazy!"

"This is only a brief moment compared to hundreds of years. Now, it's your turn to please me."

When Zooey once again stabbed her fingers into the demon's chest, the sight in front of her suddenly twisted. The blood, flesh, and body parts all turned into nothingness, and a strong sensation of dizziness overwhelmed her.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw the hall dome of Third Border City.

Chapter 997 - Suppression

"She, she woke up!"

Zooey heard a cry of astonishment and then saw several sharp swords held to her neck.

"Don't move!" Alethea's voice also appeared in her mind, "You'd better stay still until we confirm who you are."

"So that was why..." She noticed that her hands and feet were tied with iron locks, and she was lying on the stone bed where the demon originally was. Her partners were wielding swords, standing guard around her. She thought, "This is indeed a wise decision. It's quite necessary to confine me before they're clear whether it's me or the demon who occupies the shell of the God's Punishment soldier. They did not ask for my identity. Instead, they decided to make the judgment by themselves, which is a mature decision."

After all, since the demon has occupied my body, any answer might be a lie.

If Kabradhabi did not make it up, the dozens of days in the dark stream of consciousness was equivalent to only a few minutes in reality. It must have been Alethea who made the correct judgments and took countermeasures in such a short period of time.

With such partners, I really have nothing to worry about.

When Zooey was about to close her eyes and leave it to them, what she saw in the crowd made her frown.

What are they doing?

She saw another stone bed beneath the magic core. Though she could not see who was lying on it, the answer was almost self-evident as the witches were crowding beside it.

She soon came up with a possibility—

Do they plan to confirm my identity through King Roland's Dream World?

No, no one here can force Roland to do it. If it's real, then it can only have been prompted by himself.

But... this is too inappropriate! How can Alethea agree with this plan? Doesn't she know what the mortal king means to the God's Punishment Witches? What's more, according to the demon's words, their understanding of magic power is far better than ours. If the Dream World is also built by magic power, then it's a risky move to allow a Senior Demon into it.

I shouldn't have praised her!

Thinking of this, Zooey could no longer keep quiet. She cried,"Wait. Don't open the Dream World. I'm Zooey!"

Alethea took a look at her but didn't respond.

"Listen, Kabradhabi can revise the effect of magic power to a certain extent. If you let it enter the Dream World, we don't know what will happen. Wake His Majesty up. Quickly!"

"Oh? Really? To be honest, lying on that stone board is chilling. If I don't put a quilt on it, I really can't fall asleep. But if you were the demon, you could also say that."

Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed behind her.

Zooey tried to raise her neck and look backward. Then she saw a grey-haired man— It was Roland Wimbledon, the mortal king.

She immediately felt relieved.

It turns out that he has not yet lied on it.

Great.

For some reason, her senseless body felt a hint of warmth and satisfaction, as if it were no longer empty, though she did not know how to describe it. Compared with the pain which reminded her the suffering she'd been through, this completely different feeling made her feel calm and contented.

Zooey lightly sighed and said, "Indeed, if the demon occupied this body, it might see this information. So my method is very simple. Just let Ms. Camilla reconnect the demon and me."

"I... I did notice a soul movement just now, so I suspended the Mind Resonance." Noticing everyone staring at her, Camilla Dary hesitatingly replied, "But I can't tell which soul belongs to the demon."

"Are you sure that you want to enter the Mind Resonance state?" Roland asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. There isn't a third soul here. Once it admits, you'll know the truth."

"Make the demon... admit?" The crowd did not know how to respond.

"No matter what happens, it won't get worse anyway," Pasha said. "It doesn't matter if you try. If Zooey is on the other side, I'll be able to tell."

"In that case," Roland looked around and quickly made a decision. "Connect them again."

The familiar sensation quickly enveloped her. Zooey directly transmitted her thoughts to Kabradhabi's mind, "I said before. I won't stop until I'm satisfied."

"Female—don't be too proud!" Almost at the same time, she heard the angry voice of the demon.

"If you don't want to talk about this, then I'll change a topic. You should know what I am thinking now?"

"Well, why should I admit? Use your own method to tell." The demon sneered, "I would like to see how you'll distinguish between different souls without knowledge of the stream of consciousness."

"If you don't say it, then I'll just go directly," Zooey said carelessly.

"Wait, wait... What does that mean?"

"Of course, going to your side. I can use the resonance channel to transfer my soul and enter the stream of consciousness. I suddenly realize I can also do that. Though you keep saying we're bugs, actually, the Extraordinaries are similarly sensitive to the flow of magic power. Even if I can't explain it, I can try to imitate it." She chuckled and said, "Do you remember what I said before? If you don't tell me, then it's the end of your rest."

The voice of Kabradhabi suddenly changed. "No... female, I mean... wait!"

"Even if you transfer again, it doesn't matter. I can still catch you easily. After all, there are just two shells." Zooey said carelessly, "Well, this time it'll be far more than a few dozen days. Are you ready?"

Mind Resonance did not mean you couldn't lie, especially when one side was in a weak situation. When the demon felt her overwhelming evil intent, it finally closed its mouth.

A moment later, it grinned—using the shell of the crippled God's Punishment soldier. Though it sounded a bit panicky, it still tried its best to bluff, "Enough! You bugs, how dare you to force lord Kabradhabi! But it can't be helped, this time, I'll concede that to you!"

"Keep quiet. Don't scare His Majesty," Zooey said unhappily through her consciousness.

"Ahem, female—" The demon was choked by her words, "You're trampling on the dignity of the senior race!"

"You've had enough rest?"

"You—" It glared at the Extraordinary hatefully and decided to swallow what it wanted to say. It lowered its voice and said bitterly, "Don't think that you can always win. Wars like this are just trivial setbacks for us! You low-grade bugs, you have no idea what's on the other side of the mainland. The army of Sky-sea Realm is engulfing the land little by little, trying to turn the whole world into an abyss. If it were not to stop them, you, with such poor power, would have been crushed into ashes by us 400 years ago!"

Chapter 998 - A Real Strong Power

What Kabradhabi said made everyone frown.

According to it, demons were waging war on two fronts and the enemy that humanity had never even met was their chief opponent.

That meant, during the previous Battles of Divine Will, the demons had only sent a small part of their army to battle humanity. Knowing this, Roland and the witches, who had been quite confident about the war, started to feel less optimistic.

There were four species depicted in the giant paintings in the Divine Land and the underground civilization had already been eliminated. Given that, Roland speculated that the so-called "Sky-sea Realm" was the homeland of the species in the fourth picture. It was the most mysterious among the four and was a portrait of some deep-sea eyeballs.

Did demons wage a war against the monsters in the sea right after they defeated the underground civilization and seized its relic? And they simultaneously managed to crack down on mankind in the Land of Dawn.

If it's true, it's no wonder that the Senior Demon showed utter contempt for the witches.

As for the common people without any magic power, Kabradhabi probably thinks of us as nothing more than useless weeds. 

On the other hand, Roland was clear that the demon might have lied to them. Kabradhabi was an unyielding fighter. It had led its troop to penetrate deep into the artillery squad and had utilized the Mind Resonance to invade Zooey's body. Obviously, it knew how to mask its intentions and to never give up fighting, even in the face of great adversity. Since no one was able to check whether it was lying, it might have been bluffing, trying to incite panic.

Everyone looked grave. Roland knew that he needed to bring the situation back under his control as soon as possible.

He shrugged and pretended to feel at ease. He looked at Alethea.

"So... this handicapped warrior is the demon?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know how Zooey did this, but she'd never say anything like that," Alethea replied.

"Good, you saved me the trouble of taking a nap." Roland nodded to Zooey. "You can eat whatever you want in tonight's trip to the Dreamland"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Zooey's lips could not help curling into a smile, but soon her expression returned to normal. "Unfortunately, this guy is already accustomed to our way of thinking. Although it's still unable to flexibly control the body, we can't read his real thoughts through Mind Resonance that easily now."

"It's not your fault. After all, no one has pried deeply into a Senior Demon's mind before. It's natural for you to misjudge the situation."

"Demon? You still call us by such a ridiculous name." Kabradhabi sniggered. "You look upon the other species as evil incarnate without realizing that you yourselves are nothing but backward barbarians. Your good days will end soon. When the Fountain of Magic appears again, you'll die out!"

All the people looked at each other simultaneously, since the Fountain of Magic mentioned by the demon reminded them of a thing in their legend.

"Is the Fountain of Magic... the Bloody Moon?" asked Roland.

"You bugs always see the surface." The Senior Demon did not give him a definite answer.

"Is the red sphere made of magic power?" Agatha interjected. "But that wouldn't make sense. I've seen the Red Moon with my own eyes. No matter what it is, it's way too far away from us. You said the final winner would open the door to the Fountain of Magic. It's impossible unless you can build a ladder to the heavens."

Kabradhabi snorted and turned its head away without explaining anything.

"Where's the Sky-sea Realm?"

The demon refused to respond.

"Did you destroy the underground civilization?"

The demon still remained silent.

"Is your new technology part of the inheritance of the underground civilization? I mean the deformed creature that is capable of growing out black pillars?"

"Save it, bug." Kabradhabi finally opened its mouth to speak. "I've already told you all that I can say. As for the things that I can't say, you'll never force me to tell you, even if you send this female to—" The demon paused for a while and glanced at Zooey. "I won't give you any more information! If you want to kill me, you'd better hurry up. Otherwise, you'll be eliminated by Emperor Hackzord. And I, Kabradhabi, will be reborn in the Fountain of Magic!"

Now that the interrogation had hit a bottleneck, Roland decided to stop questioning the Senior Demon and leave it to the Taquila witches. He believed that they would be able to get it to talk someday, for its soul had already been transferred into a disabled God's Punishment Warrior.

With this thought in mind, Roland said with his hands laid out, "You don't want to talk about sensitive things, so how about we change the subject. You said that your last defeat was just a trivial setback for your army, so how powerful are you? What about the army of the Sky-sea Realm? Are they stronger than you? And you mentioned the Sky Lord just now. I want to know how powerful the lord is. Is he a match for a Transcendent? These things aren't confidential, are they?"

Given the demon's character, Roland was confident that it would never miss such a perfect opportunity to boast of their strength.

"Oh, bug..." As Roland had expected, Kabradabi said loudly. "I can tell you. Our power is far beyond your imagination! Do you know why we call you bugs? It's because the difference between an advanced race and a backward species is like that between birds and bugs. It's determined by the nature of magic power. At the other end of this continent, on the border of our territory and the Sky-sea Realm, our soldiers are countless. When we march together, the mountains tremble. Our enemies from the Sky-sea Realm are as strong as us. Otherwise, how could you have survived until now?"

Kabradhabi paused for a moment and then continued. "As for the Transcendents, if you're referring to the most powerful females, they could have been counted as the Sky Lord's rivals in the past, but now, the lord has enhanced its strength and become a prudent and smart commander. If it had led the army in the last battle to fight you, it would have been able to drain the blood from all of you by itself! Bug, when you hear that the Sky Lord is coming, you'd better kneel down and beg for mercy. This way, you can die faster and suffer less!"

Roland automatically dismissed the demons' exaggeration and captured several implicit clues in its words. For the demon army, logistics is always a major obstacle to their movement. Without Red Mist, they can't go anywhere. Therefore, such a large demon army must fight close to their black stone tablets.

Surprisingly, the army from the Sky-sea Realm can combat the demons in the Red Mist and drag the demon army's main forces into a quagmire of war. That means, they aren't just "as strong as" the demons. The Senior Demon apparently doesn't want to talk too much about this matter, which suggests about its attitude toward the Sky Lord and its army.

In addition, it never called the enemies from the Sky-sea Realm bugs or worms, which means that the sea monsters have already "upgraded" themselves. Here's a glaring contradiction. The Senior Demon claims that they are also an advanced race, but up until now, we've only known of one race in the Battle of Divine Will getting eliminated. Wait a moment, Kabradhabi never said that demons wiped out the underground civilization. It just said that each species had to go to the Sky-sea Realm to get a shard. Something is missing here.

When the Senior Demon was still crowing about how mighty its race was, Roland interrupted it.

"In fact, you don't know true power."

"You—" Kabradhabi pulled a long face. "Bug, what do you know?"

"A real, strong power, won't bring darkness to the world. Instead, it'll dispel the myth, be willing to burn itself to illuminate and warm the world... just like the sun."

"What... exactly are you talking about?"

"It's simple." Roland cleared his throat. "You guys are so powerful, so why don't you light the fire?"

The demon seemed at a loss when Roland stood up and left with the witches. He walked toward the gate leading out of the hall, back straight, without looking back.

Chapter 999 - Witness the Glory

Roland and the witches were having a meeting in the castle's conference hall in Neverwinter.

Everyone looked worried, especially Agatha and Phyllis. They could not feel good after hearing so many subversive ideas about the demons and the world itself from Kabradhabi.

In this war that had lasted for hundreds of years, thousands of people had been killed. Human beings had already lost the vast majority of their territory and shrunk into a corner of the Land of Dawn. Now, the witches had discovered that mankind was not demons' rival. On the other side of the continent, there was a place called Sky-sea Realm, and the monsters from that place were as strong as demons. They entangled the main forces of demons and thus gave human beings an opportunity to survive.

It was a terrible blow to the faith of the Taquila witches.

Seeing the grim-faced ancient witches, the members of the Witch Union and Sleeping Spell also felt oppressed by worry.

In the previous battle, they had taken the initiative to attack the demons' outpost and had achieved a remarkable victory with little cost. It was the most splendid record in this war for human beings. Nevertheless, lots of serendipitous stuff had come into play in this battle. The demons had not had a clear idea of their opponent, and the First Army had happened to see through their trap. Thus, they took this chance to defeat the demons using the combat mode that they were best at. That meant this success could not be copied. If casualties increased significantly during the war, human beings who had already lost lots of land and population would have a slim hope of winning the Battle of Divine Will.

"Perhaps Kabradhabi just made up a story to deceive us," said Wendy, who felt that she needed to say something to boost everyone's morale. "After all, no one has ever been to the other side of the continent. Who knows if it's true or not? I think we'd better not think too much before we can confirm it. How about you?"

No one answered.

Agatha cast a thankful gaze at Wendy. "Although Kabradhabi might have exaggerated the facts purposely, I don't think it was lying, especially when it just woke up after the Soul Transfer. At that time, it could hardly control its body, let alone weigh every word before saying them out. Zooey should be able to feel it as well. The things it mentioned at the beginning turned out to be consistent with the story it told us later. To act so naturally in front of us, it had to prepare the story in advance and train itself for a long time. Could it possibly do that there?"

"So, you mean it told us the truth about the legacy shard?" Scroll asked, with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Yes. If I understand Kabradhabi correctly, it told us that any species could upgrade themselves with the legacy shard, namely the relics of gods." Agatha explained slowly. "If demons are able to defeat us once and for all, why didn't they try their best to destroy us and seize our relic? There's only one explanation. They really can't."

Many people agreed with Agatha on this point. During the first Battle of Divine Will, when demons had been uncivilized barbarians, the human kingdoms failed to unite together to fight the enemy. The battle had lasted for decades and during that period of time, the underground civilization had tried to make contact with mankind. During the second Battle of Divine Will, when the Bloody Moon had come to the world for the second time, demons had become much stronger and had successfully driven the Union out of the Fertile Plains.

If the "upgrade" could bring significant advantage to demons, they should've done their best to eliminate human beings and seize their relic as soon as possible.

"We really underestimated demons," said Phyllis, who was overwhelmed with remorse. "For the past 400 years, the Union just focused on our familiar places in the Land of Dawn without paying any attention to the world outside. Now, we know little about the other side of the continent, let alone the Sky-sea Realm."

"Oh? What does the other side of this continent look like?" Roland asked curiously.

"I've only read about it in some ancient books. It's said to be an extremely barren land of numerous mountains and cliffs. Its average altitude is much higher than the Land of Dawn," Phyllis recalled. "Tens of kilometers across the sea, there's another continent, but actually these two continents are connected by a lofty mountain range which is surrounded by the sea. Only when the tides are low, can one see the mountain. Most of the time, the tides are high and half of the mountain is submerged in the sea. According to the legend, demons came to the Land of Dawn through this mountain."

"Wait, it sounds familiar. I think I've heard it from..." Roland touched his chin and wondered. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed across his mind!

The ancient witch's description reminded Roland of Thunder's findings in the Shadow Waters, which included a seaside plateau, a vast cliff and a huge stone gate embedded in the cliff, though Phyllis did not mention a gate like that. "Did Thunder's exploration team somehow see the continent opposite to the Land of Dawn?" Roland thought.

That's interesting. More than half of the Land of Dawn lies to the northwest of Neverwinter, but the Shadow Sea is located in the east. How could the exploration team see the undiscovered continent opposite to the Land of Dawn through a telescope? As long as this planet is a sphere, they could at most see the sky above that continent no matter how advanced the telescope is. How come they could directly observe such a faraway land? Something must be wrong here.

He noticed that Tilly, a member of Thunder's exploration team, was looking at him contemplatively. Obviously, she also thought of the wonders she had seen in the underwater stone tower in the Shadow Islands ruins.

Roland wondered. The building on the Shadow Islands isn't constructed by the Union, but it's apparently a watchtower overseeing the continent which is deemed to be the homeland of demons. Who's the owner of the building?

For my country and my people, I have to figure it out and thoroughly investigate the Shadow Islands ruins. I must give this mission to Thunder before he goes to the sea. Instead of having a quick glance at the place, he needs to carefully look into this problem this time.

"Your Majesty?"

Roland had been deeply absorbed in thoughts for a long time. When he heard someone calling him, he stopped wondering and found that Agatha was looking at him sympathetically. "Are you alright?"

"Ah... I was just thinking about something." He waved his hand.

"Please don't worry too much. I know this news causes stress for you, but we still have hope," The Ice Witch said in a soft voice. "When I just woke up from the Frozen Coffin, you told me human beings were going to defeat demons... Now, I still firmly believe it, even if it requires hard work of several generations."

"Yes," Phyllis echoed this sentiment. "We are so close to the Taquila ruins now. Once we destroy the demons' base there, they won't get the opportunity to build obelisks and will have to wait at least another 400 years to eliminate us. Even if human beings lose the war in the end, it's not your fault. Actually, you've done much better than the Three Chiefs."

Roland blinked his eyes in astonishment.

He realized that he must have been frowning when he had been thinking about the Shadow Islands ruins and his facial expression had made the witches believe that he was terrified by Kabradhabi's story.

He found the witches were just trying to comfort and encourage him.

He could not help shaking his head and chuckled. "It's the worst situation: curling up in a corner all my life and leaving the problem to our later generations. That's not my plan. After all... I probably can't live that long. I'm more interested in defeating all the competitors and solving the mystery by myself. It's such great fun, isn't it?"

"Your Majesty..." Most of the witches seemed confused except Anna, who looked at Roland smilingly.

"Since you guys still remember I said that human beings were going to defeat demons." Roland looked at Phyllis. "Do you still remember another thing I mentioned?"

"A real strong power won't bring darkness to the world. Instead, it'll dispel the myth and be willing to burn itself to light up and warm the world... I wasn't joking with Kabradhabi." Roland did not give the witches any time to respond and continued. "Faced with a mighty power like the sun, everything, including demons, will be burnt to cinders. You'll be able to witness such a power together with me."

Chapter 1000 - Sisters

A fire was blazing merrily in a stove, casting a ruddy glow over the floor of the room.

Azima felt warm in her house. She watched snowflakes drifting in the north wind outside the window while listening to the crackling of the flames in the fireplace. In the past, when winter had come, she would have suffered severe frostbite on her hands and her hand skin would have chapped very easily. It was a memory from her childhood. Back then, she had had to rummage through rubbish in search of food every winter. After moving to the Sleeping Island, her hands got even worse because of the long-term exposure to salty seawater.

After all these years, she was already accustomed to the pain of frostbite. For her, it was nothing compared to the misery of being a tramp on the streets. However, right now, there were only a few shallow cracks on her fingers. She did not feel any pain or see any blood in them. She enjoyed this pain-free winter. She had not had such a comfortable experience for years.

She came to understand that the living environment of Neverwinter was exceptionally good and even ordinary houses were much better here than their counterparts in other towns.

For example, a thick mortar was applied to both sides of the walls of this brick house and each corner of the window was closely connected to the bricks. No matter how strong the snowstorm was outside, the people inside the house would never be affected. Without such a sturdy house, the fire could hardly warm up the whole room. If Azima was now in an ordinary residence of Valencia, she would hear a whistle of a wind blowing through cracks of the door and the window and many other clefts in the house.

In addition, there was a tunnel inside the fireplace, which was connected to the bedroom adjoining this living room. With such a heat supply pipeline, the bed would be warm when she and her sisters put out the fire and went to bed at night.

And those designs were only a small part of the new things she discovered in Neverwinter. Similar details were everywhere in this city. The longer she lived here, the more she wondered. "Maybe they didn't build this city to survive at this place."

"They built it this way in order to enjoy their lives."

"As for why they built it in the Western Region, the highest-hit area during the Months of Demons, it must be because of the strong contrast. In a place where all year is springtime, one would not feel anything special in a warm room. By contrast, in a place of ice and snow, one would be deeply impressed and satisfied by the warmth. They must think that only a seemingly impossible thing is worth doing and take pride in such an achievement."

For a moment, she really believed this speculation.

"The soup is ready. Let's have dinner." Doris walked out of the kitchen while holding a pot of soup and then she placed it on the low table in the living room.

"Thank you." Azima handed a cushion to Doris and then sat down at the table.

There were two dishes and one soup. All of them used bird beak mushrooms as the main ingredient. These fleshy and juicy mushrooms were a specialty of the Western Region. They were tasty and easy to cook. They only needed a little salt instead of lots of seasonings and they did not require a special cooking method. More importantly, they were the least expensive ingredient in Neverwinter and were as cheap as wheat.

"I bought a lot of mushrooms at a clearance sale and stored them in our room," said Doris, happily. "Even if we can't find enough food in the winter, these mushrooms will be enough for us to fill our stomachs until the spring, though they may become less tasty after a long time."

Azima scooped up some soup with her spoon. Under the reflection of the fire, the oil floating on the soup's surface shone with a golden color and looked quite alluring. When she put a spoon into her mouth, she felt its aroma fill her mouth instantly. After that, the warm soup flowed down all the way into her stomach and warmed her entire abdomen.

The soup was as delicious as before, but now she had no appetite.

After taking two spoonfuls of the soup, Azima put down her small bowl.

"Is there anything wrong?" Doris quickly noticed that Azima seemed to be a little different today.

"I'm wondering... whether my decision was wrong." After a long silence, Azima whispered. "It's my own decision to leave Neverwinter, but because of it, everyone lost the chance of having a better life together with their families in this city. If Whitepear didn't quit her job in the Sleeping Spell, she would now live in a big house equipped with a heating system instead of this small house that doesn't allow us to go about freely in our daily life."

"Why did you suddenly say that..." Doris was stunned and then soothed Azima. "No matter how small our house is, it's able to shelter us from wind and rain. When their relatives have enough money to pay the minimum down payment, they will move out. It's not as good as the house of the Sleeping Spell, but I think it's already good enough for two people to live in. Think about our old days on the streets—"

"But it's different now!" Azima interrupted Doris anxiously.

Azima had been feeling frustrated recently. She overestimated her personal ability and failed to assess the situation correctly. In the past, she had led her sisters to search for food in rubbish and snatch food from jaws of wild dogs, but now she refused to do anything like that. She did not want to give Tilly and her witches any chance to laugh at them, even though her sisters might not mind leading such a life.

She had submitted lots of job applications to the City Hall like ordinary residents of the city, but none of them got approved. Literacy was a key requirement in the job descriptions of most positions, and well-paid jobs usually demanded a primary education diploma. She could not meet those requirements and wanted to work in some construction projects or in the Furnace Area, but the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry only recruited adult males. The City Hall clerk told her that she should go to school to finish her studies first if she wanted to get a promising career.

Among the six sisters, only Doris and Whitepear had jobs. The former was employed by the Witch Union. She further processed Mystery Moon's magnetized copper rods with her enchantment and earned about 30 or 40 silver royals a day, almost as much as the witches living in the castle. But it was just a part-time job. Sometimes, she only worked one day in a week.

Whitepear worked in a tailor's shop as an ordinary worker. Considering she did not have to use her magic power in this position, she earned the average salary. According to the number of her working days, she usually earned 15 or 20 silver royals a month.

The other sisters were also unemployed just like Azima.

In other words, Doris and Whitepear had to afford the living expenses of the six sisters.

For this reason, Azima felt guilty for the cozy life she had now. She had firmly refused Wendy's invitation because she wanted to prove to Nightingale that she was not a weak person and could live on her own without relying on the Sleeping Spell. She felt embarrassed by the current situation.

That was why she sounded so impatient when talking to Doris.

She felt regret right as soon as she interrupted Doris. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay." Doris held Azima's hands. "I know how you feel and I want to tell you it wasn't your own decision to leave the Sleeping Spell. We also agreed with you. It's not your fault. As for the living expenses, please don't mind it. You've done so much for us and now it's time for us to pay you back."

"You don't owe me a thing. I helped you without expecting to receive anything in return."

"That's the same for us. See what I mean?" Doris blinked and said.

"But..." Azima did not know what to say at this moment since she was moved deeply by Doris' honesty and sincerity. She had not felt so touched for many years and could not adapt to it at the moment, but she soon managed to control herself and reminded herself that as the leader of the sisters, she should never mention those stupid things again.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door.

"Who's it?" She hurriedly turned her head, pulled her hands back and stood up, trying to cover her feelings.

"It's me, Wendy," the person outside answered. "His Majesty wants to talk to you."

Chapter 1001 - Unusual Stone Fragment

Buffeted by wind and snow, Azima crossed the street and entered the Castle District.

Although it was strange to send for her at this hour of the night, as Azima trusted Wendy, she had agreed to follow her to the castle. Meanwhile, she had left Doris behind, who had insisted on coming with her.

This way, she could keep her friend out of trouble in case anything happened.

Shivering under her clothes, Azima held herself tightly as she reached the castle gate.

"Are you cold?" Wendy glanced at her smilingly. "Don't worry. You'll soon need to take off your coat once you get in."

Hang on... take off?

Is His Majesty planning to...

"Please enter, Ms. Wendy." While Azima was still in a shock, the gate slowly opened and the guard ushered them in. "His Majesty is in the study. I'm afraid I have to stop here as I still have duties to attend to."

"Thank you." Wendy nodded. She held Azima's hand and led her into the castle.

In a split second, wisps of warm air drove all the coldness away.

So... this is the heating system.

Although Azima knew that the castle was equipped with a brand new heating system and thus did not require wood heating, the actual experience was still very impressive.

The servants in the castle were all wearing light clothes. She could see people wearing shirts and dresses everywhere. At one corner of the dining room, she even spied some barefoot witches running across the hall on the carpeted floor. The castle was as warm as summer. Awestruck by the luxurious living conditions in the castle, Azima started to suspect that Roland was probably just a hopeless hedonist.

"He just built Neverwinter for his own pleasure!" Azima thought to herself.

Wendy, on the other hand, had already taken off her coat. She winked at Azima and said, "You'll start sweating if you keep your coat on. Plus, It's freezing out there. You'll catch a cold if you go back out all sweaty."

"O-OK."

Azima unbuttoned her coat in a stiff manner. She peered down at her chest. Her chest was not flat by any means, but it was obviously incomparable to Wendy's prodigious bosom.

If His Majesty really intended to seek out pleasures of the flesh... Azima believed she should be the last person Roland would think of.

With self-mockery, Azima followed Wendy to the third floor and into the lord's study.

"Your Majesty, Azima is here."

"Your Majesty."

Azima bowed. She surveyed the people in the room out of the corner of her eyes, finally rested her gaze on the gray-haired man behind the desk.

Azima suddenly realized that the man opposite her was the King of Graycastle. She only had a glimpse of him at the banquet. At the time, she had still been working for the Sleeping Spell. Now that she had the opportunity to have a close look at the king, she was astonished at how young he appeared.

Azima doubted that a person under 30 was capable of defeating all his siblings, ascending the throne, uprooting the church, and conquering all the other kingdoms.

She could challenge Tilly's authority but she obviously couldn't speak to Roland in the same fashion. Once she left Neverwinter, she could not come back to the Sleeping Spell again. The whole kingdom was under Roland's control. Everybody was under Roland's rule, unless they fled Graycastle. Although she didn't fear the power and authority of others, Doris and the other witches were not as fearless as her.

"Please rise," The king replied good-naturedly. "In fact, I've wanted to meet you for a long time. Sorry for asking you to come here at this late hour, but I couldn't wait to meet you. Your ability means a great deal to the kingdom. Since the time has come, I didn't want to wait any longer."

"..." Azima looked up in surprise. "Are you saying that you're going to hire me?"

It seemed to be a special recruitment. For jobs which required witches' abilities, the Witch Union would usually offer greater compensation.

Meanwhile, Azima wondered what the "time" that Roland was referring to was.

"Yes... I would like to offer you a contract with very competitive compensation." Roland raised his cup and had a sip. "Two gold royals per month until you complete your task. After the completion of the project, you'll be paid an additional 50 gold royals. How does that sound?"

Azima's heart skipped a beat. Even without that additional 50 gold royals, the monthly salary was already as lucrative as the remuneration paid by the Sleeping Spell. She would not only be able to sustain herself with this income but could also help her friends! As for the extra reward of 50 gold royals, she could either use it to start her new life or purchase a bigger house for her relative Whitepear.

This was exactly what she needed at the moment!

However, years of vagrant life had also made her fully aware that there was no free meal in the world. Nobles were experts in games of deception. They usually provided their victims with empty promises of future rewards. Even if this noble was the sovereign of the state, Azima had to be careful. At this thought, she answered, "It's a high compensation, but I want to know what you want me to do before giving you my answer."

Her ability was very helpful for wilderness survival, and she had relied on it a lot to locate water sources, animals' lairs and fruit, none of which, however, were in shortage in Neverwinter.

"Your job is very simple, I want you to find a stone for me"." Roland produced a box from his drawer and opened it on the desk. "It shouldn't be a problem for you."

"Can I take a look?"

"Of course."

Azima walked up to the box and put the stone in her hand. It was about the size of her thumb, pretty thin, smooth and cold, more like a strange coin than a stone. Apparently, it had been carefully polished. In a color of a grayish black, it did not look special, so Azima did not understand why His Majesty showed so much interest in it.

She hesitated for a moment and said, "It's hard for me to trace the origin of a stone. When I was on Sleeping Island, a Chamber of Commerce once hired me to look for the source of some gems, but my ability led them to Searing Flame Island. There was nothing except hot dry sand. Because of this, the Sleeping Spell didn't earn anything but instead, had to compensate them for the expenses incurred on the trip."

"I think the sand was bauxite. You can call it the origin of gems because they are made of the same material." Roland chuckled carelessly. "As for whether you can find what I want, you can test it out now."

Azima wondered if the black stone was also a type of gem. She applied her ability to the stone fragment as Roland had instructed. Instantly, a jet of blinding green light escaped from her palm and almost entirely blocked her vision! The glow was as vibrant and bright as the lights in the castle!

Suddenly, another green flash burst forth from the king's desk.

Azima stood agape.

The flash was only visible to her. It could tell her not only where the source material was, but also how much there was. Most of the time, the green light was scattered around, flickering like fireflies. As the glints continuously merged, Azima could see where they led.

Azima understood that it was perfectly normal for Roland to hide the other part of the stone fragment in the desk, as a way to test her ability, but she was surprised at the intensity of the light beam. It meant these lusterless stone fragments were source class materials!

It was her first time seeing such a small source material!

How… can that be possible?

Before she had moved to Sleeping Island, she had found a gold royal on the street by accident. At the time, she had been thinking of using her ability to collect coins that slipped out of people's pockets, but since it was a one in a million chance, she hadn't had much luck. Although she had known people usually kept money in their pockets, she had had no way to get them However, she had learned where most of the money was stored.

At that time, she had sensed the strongest reaction from the treasury underneath the lord's castle. The current green flash, nevertheless, was as intense, and blinding, as the light back then!

"Is this stone... even more precious than gold?" Azima wondered.

Chapter 1002 - A Race against Time

After a long silence, Azima took a deep breath, pointed to Roland's desk and said, "There's a stone made of the same material in your drawer."

"Correct." Roland returned Azima a satisfied smile and put the other box on the desk. "But I'm a bit curious. Why did you call it 'a stone made of the same material' instead of 'an identical one'?"

"Because... the reactions were different. Although they're both source materials, the reaction of the first one is stronger." Azima then described what she had seen.

"Can you locate more pieces?"

"Please let me try."

Azima concentrated her mind and found the green light. Due to the blinding interference of the previous two stones, she had overlooked the other lights, but soon Azima found three more lines extending east, west, and north. This implied there were, at the very least, three stones made of the same source material which were bigger than the one in her hand. To her dismay, she noticed the three lines, although thick, actually consisted of numerous dim thin threads.

After Azima reported to Roland, he nodded thoughtfully and said, "In other words, you won't know how far these stones are unless you actually go there."

"Yes."

"In that case, go to the east and then head to the north." Roland immediately made the decision. "It's too dangerous to travel west, as you have to cross the Barbarian Land. If you still can't find the stone when you reach the beach, then head north."

After a moment of hesitation, Azima asked what she had been thinking all this time. "Your Majesty, is this stone... even more precious than gold?"

Since Azima was not a combat witch, she had limited self-defense skills. Azima was concerned that, if news of this precious stone was leaked, the trip would put her in danger. In that case, she would not only fail her mission but also lose her life on the way.

Seeing that Azima was worried about the potential risk, the young king replied smilingly, "In fact, it's yes and no. For people who don't know what it really is, it's just a plain, useless stone. But to me, it's much more valuable than gold. It's the key to the success of the 'Resplendent Radiation' Project."

"Resplendent Radiation? What's that?" Azima wondered, feeling even more confused.

"However, considering the possible variables, I would certainly not let you go alone." Roland pointed to a guard next to him. "This is Sean, your protector. Furthermore, a combat engineer unit from the First Army would come with you. Your top priority is to locate the stones. Therefore, you can instruct Sean to liaison with the local officials to assist your search if necessary."

"Are you saying... that I can make those lords work for me?" Azima asked in surprise.

"Why not?" Roland shrugged. "They aren't who they used to be. They're obligated to obey orders from the central government." Roland paused for a few seconds and continued. "Since it may take a while to find the source material, I can pay you 30% of the salary in advance and the rest on a monthly basis. That is all for the contract. What are your thoughts on this?"

Azima pondered for a while and asked, "Your Majesty, could you direct the payment to Doris?"

"I have no issue with this," Roland raised his eyebrows, "if that's what you want."

"Then I'll take the job." She bowed. "I'll be ready by tomorrow morning."

Although there were still many things she did not understand, at least... she didn't have to worry about money anymore. Azima couldn't see any problems with the task and believed she would sooner or later locate the stones with the assistance of the First Army. With the 50 gold royals, life would be much easier for her friends, Azima could not wait to tell Doris the good news.

"Very well." Roland got to his feet. "I look forward to hearing the good news."

...

After Wendy escorted Azima out, Roland paced back to the French window and sighed deeply while watching the city night below.

"Finally, we've got the ball rolling."

"To create a sun?" asked Nightingale as she revealed herself from the Mist. "You get super excited every time you talk about this project."

"Because it's a path to the sun," Roland remarked impressively. "As of this moment, mankind has entered a new era, an era where we produce our own sun rather than simply admiring it. To me, nothing can be more romantic than such enormous progress." Roland turned around and pointed up at the ceiling. "Do you see a yellow exclamation mark up there?"

Nightingale shook her head in great amusement. "I only see a mumbling daydreamer, in his perfect... delirium."

"Ahem..." Roland was almost choked. "Hey, do you have to be so straightforward about it?"

"I'm just trying to be honest with you." Nightingale jerked away her head, putting on an innocent look.

Roland shot her a stare, half annoyed and half amused. He knew Nightingale was joking. In fact, most people would think he was crazy until they actually saw the finished product.

Even Roland himself didn't have the slightest idea of whether this project would succeed or not.

Roland wouldn't have developed such an unrealistic idea had there been no witches. The Manhattan Project, even in the modern society, had cost so much money, manpower, and resources that even the most developed country had found it difficult to afford such monstrous expenses. It would be absolute madness to try and replicate the Manhattan Project from scratch. However, with the assistance of the various magic powers, he might succeed.

The most distinctive characteristic of his project was the minimal investment it required, as the witches would complete most of the work. Although it sounded like a joke, to produce a nuclear bomb with almost none of the accompanying modern technology, there was still a chance that it might work.

Roland could certainly carry out the project concurrently with the other industrial projects at this stage of development. Even if it did not go well, it would just be a small failure.

In fact, Roland had started to prepare for this project since the day Lucia entered adulthood. After revisiting all the elements on the periodic table, he had asked Kyle Sichi, the Chief Alchemist, to separate Uranium samples from a bunch of extracted elementary substances and store them away.

Uranium was one of the most common elements in nature. It could not only be found in uranium mines but also in granite, coal, and even seawater. Only, due to the limitations of the current technology, it would cost an exorbitant amount, in both time and money, to properly exploit any uranium deposits. However, Lucia could use her ability to directly collect scattered uranium in nature to provide the raw materials required. It thus saved Roland the trouble of separating and purifying the uranium.

Roland knew his eloquent rhetoric in the meeting was simply a political strategy, designed to raise people's morale. Because he had actually left something unsaid. The ambitious dream of creating a sun was just one, surface level reason, for him putting this plan into action. Another, more important reason, was that humanity was now facing the greatest crisis since its genesis, based on what he had learned from the Senior Demon.

What's the origin of the magic power?

Roland did not have the faintest idea.

He took this irrational, unknown power very seriously.

According to the Senior Demon, the demons evolved through upgrades. That was the reason they had evolved so quickly over the past 400 years.

Agatha's proposal of defending seemed to be perfect, but there was actually a massive flaw. Under this plan, the enemies would have as much time as they needed, which is probably why the Union suffered such a complete defeat.

If the demons were left alone, defeated the undersea monsters during the third Battle of Divine Will, and once again upgraded themselves, how powerful would they become?

Since the demons could upgrade themselves with their magic power in such an inconceivable manner, Roland had to develop a more aggressive, powerful, and devastating countermeasure as his last resort.

Chapter 1003 - New Progress

"Why do you look so serious?" Nightingale broke into a smile. "I'll believe anything you say, but you ought to give me some time to absorb the information. Nobody would believe this tiny little thing can decimate thousands of demons, especially when they saw the actual substance extracted by Lucia."

"Do I?" Roland stroked his cheeks. Perhaps he became nervous when he realized that this was a race against time that would determine the very survival of humanity. "You're right though. I can hardly believe in something until I've seen it myself."

Roland turned around and held the tiny "stone fragment" in his hand.

This would be the starting point of harnessing the power of the atom — purified uranium.

It was hard to convince people that the little stone could produce "something as glorious as the sun". The silver-white surface of the uranium sample had lost its shine due to oxidation. It felt cold to the touch and seemed to have nothing to do with heat or the sun. But Roland knew it would produce amazing results under the right conditions.

To collect uranium, Lucia and Spear had spent nearly a week at the North Slope Mine extracting uranium from the crushed granite. Because of this, the Countess had complained quite a bit. She thought it was inappropriate to subject a lady to such heavy labor. As a compensation, she took five apprentices from Neverwinter's city hall for her own region's city hall.

And in the end, they had only got this tiny piece.

Compared to the original samples, this thumb-sized metal piece had a purity of over 90% and consisted of two layers. One layer was Uranium-235 and the other Uranium-238, in a ratio of 1 to 99. This was also the ratio commonly existing in nature.

In other words, the uranium on the surface of the stone, as thin as it was, could be used to produce a "weapon".

As a stable element, both uranium-238 and uranium-235 had a half-life of 10 billion years. Uranium-238 was the predominant isotope but had little practical use, whereas uranium-235 could be used for creating nuclear weapons. Because of their extreme low radioactivity, the alpha particles emitted by uranium radionuclides during their decay could only travel a few dozen microns, not even far enough to penetrate the epidermis of a person's skin. Therefore, the stone would not cause radiation poisoning even if one held it in his hand.

But this did not mean that uranium with a high concentration was absolutely safe.

The alpha particles produced during the decay were highly toxic. Once they entered the body through contaminated food, it could be disastrous.

Due to this, Roland had asked Soraya to coat the "stone fragment" with a transparent film, not only to prevent it from further oxidating, but also to protect people from the radiation.

-

Roland had mixed feelings about the stone in his hand. Uranium, which contained so much potential power, lay innocently in his hand, looking almost the same as iron. No wonder Pasha and the other witches didn't believe him.

Now that he had made it this far, the next thing he needed to do was to collect the raw materials for the "Resplendent Radiation" Project.

Azima's discovery of low purity uranium through a high purity sample told Roland that he could use the current sample to find more uranium mines. Although Roland could ask Lucia to extract uranium at a mining site and thus obtain sufficient uranium-235, such an arrangement would sabotage his initial plan of conducting multiple projects simultaneously.

Because Lucia also played an irreplaceable role in the smelting industry.

Besides, it was impossible to produce an atom bomb with only uranium. To create atomic weapons, Roland had to utilize a very rare element which was usually found with uranium, but in far smaller amounts. Therefore, even though Lucia could help him extract uranium, he still needed a large amount of the raw ore before he could build a bomb.

For that, Azima was the key.

Roland put the tiny piece of uranium back in a box and locked it in a drawer. Then he pulled out the unfinished sketch of an internal combustion engine from the stack of documents on his desk and spread it out.

Unlike most of the residents in Neverwinter who usually went to bed early on a snowy winter night, Roland still had a lot of work to do.

"Staying up late again?" Nightingale asked as she tilted her head.

Roland stretched and then picked up a quill. "We are marching down the path to victory. If you want your name to be passed down throughout history, you have to make at least some small sacrifices, right?"

"Really? But you seem a little reluctant."

"Ahem... don't you believe what I'm saying?"

"Yes, but you also asked me to detect lies with my ability." Nightingale shot back, with her tongue out.

"Oh well... then I'll say that I'm very willing to get this thing done. Are you happy now?" Roland replied resignedly. "I don't want to lose to the demons or the so-called Divine Will."

"Good, now you are telling the truth. I'll prepare you a cup of hot tea and some snacks." Nightingale smiled. "I'll ask the kitchen staff to prepare spicy barbeque, juicy mushrooms, deep fried shrimps seasoned with salt and pepper, and Chaos Drinks. How does that sound?"

"Hey, you're just ordering what you want, aren't you?" thought Roland.

Roland shook his head, totally speechless. "Order whatever you like."

"As you wish, Your Majesty," Nightingale said slyly.

...

The next day, Azima took the high purity uranium fragment with her and set off. Meanwhile, Roland received a piece of good news from City Hall.

The Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry had completed the construction of Fractionation Tower I.

To show how important the project was, Roland personally attended the unveiling ceremony.

The tower was located by the Redwater River in Neverwinter's industrial zone. Standing almost 25 meters high, the tower incorporated many new concepts and technology. Divided into several sections, the tower separated oils and liquids with different boiling points. After Anna took care of the welding work, the chemists were now able to more precisely control the fractionation process.

While a simple boiler would be sufficient to separate oils, the quality of the final products obtained using such crude methods was far from satisfactory. This reminded Roland of a geology book he had read as a kid. The book had made him believe that his country was sitting on an enormous fortune in metal and mineral resources, but after growing up, he realized those many of those minerals were simply raw materials with a low purity rate.

Like people's physical appearances, minerals varied. The difference between low and high-quality minerals was huge. Low-quality minerals required a lot of work before they could be used. The same held true for oils. Untreated oils that had impurities like waxes, sulfur or mineral salts, were as thick as mud and were therefore unusable. They had to refine them in order for them to become useful. Some oils, such as those from the oil fields in Borneo, were purer than most and could be directly used as fuel.

The Blackwater River that spread across nearly half of the Southernmost Region belonged to the latter category.

After Roland learned that there were gushers in the desert, he started to pay particular attention to that area. It turned out that the oil collected from Endless Cape was of fairly high quality. While not comparable to the refined oil in his original world, after basic fractionation, the oil met Roland's current needs.

The real advancement was the continued improvement of Neverwinter's industrial infrastructure.

Chapter 1004 - The World in Her Eyes

The smelting zone was the most industrialized area in Neverwinter. The entire production process, from transportation to feeding raw materials into the smelters, was powered by steam engines.

The plant processed a large quantity of crude oil and coal every day. It covered a huge rectangular area, with the port and a coal storage yard on the north side of the Redwater River. Several conveyor belts, driven by steam engines, continuously fed coal to the boiler room. The parallel black lines on the conveyor belts exhibited a sharp contrast with the gray concrete pavement.

The other end of the facility was designed to store and process the crude oil from Shallow Beach.

The construction of the oil storage warehouses on the west side of the fractionator was now half-completed. Completely different from the design of the residential buildings across the river, the warehouses stood in a solid line like impregnable fortresses, but looked surprisingly attractive. Despite their plain exterior, the warehouses were installed with advanced equipment and designs such as decompression valves, inspection windows, carrier pipes, antistatic devices, etc. As the construction teams had gained a lot of experience from the construction of the chemical plant, the whole construction process had gone very smoothly.

Roland was extremely satisfied that the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry had done all the design work. All he had done was the final review and approval. Needless to say, the staff of these two Ministries had learned a lot from the previous mining and furnace projects. They had apparently applied what they had learned to this new project. Since Roland had yet to establish a set of industry standards, the workers had to confirm the parameters of each individual machine or part before it was sent to the plant for manufacturing. This showed that the workers had already developed reading and writing skills and learned the basics of engineering; otherwise, it would be hard for the two departments to communicate effectively.

Two years after its implementation, this was the first great success to show the effectiveness of Roland's mandatory universal education.

As the temperature of the boiler increased, vaporized oil flowed into the fractionation tower and melted the snow clinging to it. The wind had ceased howling, but the snow still persisted. Nevertheless, spectators gazed at this beautiful metal tower without a blinking. Their breath misted in the cold air and mixed with the steam being ejected from all types of machinery on the square, heating up the cold winter air.

...

"So beautiful," Edith muttered as she stood on the steel bridge.

The smelting zone was a few miles away from the bridge, so there were fewer spectators here, only some occasional passers-by. They were all hurrying to the high tower to witness the new wonder and meet the king. However, almost everyone slowed as they rushed past the Pearl of the Northern Region and the girl next to her. Apparently, the two ladies in the snow attracted a lot of attention.

"Isn't that just a chimney? What's the beauty of that?" Cole grumbled silently. "If you wanted to see it, why didn't you go with the people from city hall? Sir Barov reserved a spot for you, and His Majesty..."

Although the bridge was at a high point in the city, giving a wide view, it was too far away for them to get a close look. As all the officials from city hall were going to see the tower, it would have been a perfect opportunity to network with Edith's co-workers. Essentially, the whole point of this event was to connect with people instead of appreciating the magnificence of the tower. Just like a first-class banquet, nobles didn't care as much about the food, but about who they dined with.

As a seasoned diplomat, Eidth should have known the trick better than anyone else. She had promised to help Cole build his relationship with other city hall officers, yet she had just let such an excellent opportunity slip through the cracks. Sometimes, Cole felt he had a really hard time understanding his sister's thinking.

But seeing Edith purse her lips, Cole sensibly shut up.

"Because of you, my dear little brother." Edith jested in a soft voice. "Do you really want to appear in front of all the other officials in this outfit?"

Hold on, you made me wear this!

It was not a big deal to dress up like a girl at home, but Cole had not expected that he would be forced to wear women's clothing outside. If some of his friends saw him dressed up like a doll, he would probably jump off the bridge.

Alas! Cole could only blame himself. One day when he had been trying on Edith's clothes, his sister had caught him. Fearing that Edith would tell his little secret to someone else, Cole had no choice but to comply.

When Cole was about to, somebody whistled behind him.

As his face flushed red, he instantly lowered his head.

"Well, this isn't the right way to handle this kind of situation."

Edith grabbed Cole by the chin, forcing her brother to raise his head.

Next Cole saw the Pearl of the Northern Region sweep her gaze over the stranger with the condescension and nonchalance of an uninterested aristocrat. It was a glance that froze a person to the bone. Cole shuddered at his sister's icy look. The stranger stumbled back. Without a word, he scurried off and disappeared from their sights.

"Got it?" Edith shrugged. "This is also a test for you."

"... If I was wearing my usual outfit, I wouldn't have had such trouble." Cole mumbled quietly.

"But there will be many things you'll encounter in the future, some things that you may not necessarily like, but can't stop from happening. The only thing you can do is accept them and learn to control them." Edith paused for a moment and then went on, "Do you think I sincerely wanted to welcome Timothy when he drove his army straight into the Northern Region? Every coin has two sides. The key lies in how you view it. Besides, I bet you like the garments you are wearing, otherwise you wouldn't have tried on my clothes. Am I right?"

Cole stiffened. Edith could always justify her behavior like it was a matter of course. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance if he tried to argue with his sister, so he kept silent.

But he would never admit to her last statement!

Then, he remembered Edith was impressed with the beauty of the tower. Was it because she viewed it from a different angle?

Cole thus voiced his doubt, and he clearly saw a rosy flush on Edith's cheeks.

"Do you still remember what the City of Evernight looks like in winter?" Edith asked.

"Um..." Cole thought for a while and soon remembered the warm fireplaces, the ales, and the banquets during the winter in the City of Evernight, all of which were associated with indoor activities. After a long silence, Cole answered hesitantly, "Maybe... kind of quiet?"

"It's dead silent, as if the earth was frozen." Edith looked at the distant high tower. "I always thought that was what winter should look like, but it's actually not true." Edith exhaled a breath which immediately misted in the air. "What are you seeing now? The earth is breathing, and the steam proves that this city is alive."

"I don't really... get it."

"This shows that nature can be altered." The Pearl of the Northern Region stressed each word. "Human beings don't necessarily need to comply with the rules of nature. We have been constantly dominated by nature because we are weak. When we grow stronger, we can change the world. Isn't such power beautiful?"

But Cole saw something even more beautiful.

The lady who radiated confidence as she spoke. Her cyan hair rippled in the flurries of snow, more breathtaking than anything else in the world. The rosy hue spreading across her cheeks softened the outline of her face, making her look even more stunning.

Cole had a sudden desire to see through his sister's eyes. He wanted to know what the world looked like to Edith Kant.

...

"There's oil coming out!"

The crowd near Tower I began to cheer.

"What's going on?"

"Someone said it's oil!"

"Cooking oil?"

"Rubbish. Coal is processed here, not lard."

"Who cares what it is? Anything His Majesty does is brilliant."

"So can we celebrate now?"

"Yeah, long live the king!"

"Long live the king!"

Soon more and more people began cheering, even though many of them had no idea what the fractionation tower was for, they understood that the king was happy.

The tidal wave of cheering spread throughout the smelting zone. Within a few minutes, the crowd became exuberant. The cheers of the people seemed to add a little color to the dull routine of everyday life in the depressing Months of Demons.

Watching wisps of black and white smoke rising along the river bank and the metalic tower rising up through the snow and mists, Roland felt his heart swell with pride.

If the thick smoke above the North Slope Mountain represented the success of the first industrial revolution, then the smoke produced by this tower heralded a brand new era.

Chapter 1005 - A Letter from the Desert

"Achoo!"

When Lorgar got out of her warm bed, she felt a dull, throbbing pain on both sides of her head. She smacked her lips, still able to taste the remnant flavor of the strawberry liquor between her teeth.

"Looks like... I'm having a hangover again."

"Aw..."

An almost inaudible moan escaped her lips.

Lorgar had been like this ever since she had returned from the war.

She blamed the chief, Roland Wimbledon for all of her misery.

All the witches who had participated in the war were well rewarded for their services. Some had received dozens of dollars while some received over a hundred dollars. Lorgar had received a remuneration of 35 dollars, which equated to around 100 gold royals.

It was common to reward soldiers and warriors after a war. Mojin warriors were willing to bet their lives on a holy duel not only because of the fame and glory the fight would bring to them but also because of the huge rewards they would receive afterward. Since the desert was always short of resources, the competition for food was fierce. To live a better life, the Mojins had to constantly fight for it.

But the members of the Witch Union viewed their rewards in a completely different way.

Every night after the learning session was over, the castle hall would be filled with noise and laughter.

As the witches now had excessive money to squander, they spent it lavishly on food and shared the food with the others. Andrea was particularly fond of organizing parties as she had received the greatest reward. In fact, she was the person who first started the tradition of carousing and revelry.

Lorgar had to admit that those pretty sheets of paper were magical. She didn't realize how much she had spent until she actually tallied up the numbers. It was seriously a huge amount.

But she just couldn't help it...

It was the first time the wolf girl had such an intimate relationship with her peers. After joining the Witch Union, she had soon been accepted by the other witches. Lorgar was quite flattered by their offers of friendship. Although witches were treated as Divine Ladies among the Mojin Clan and were highly respected by most clansmen, Divine Ladies rarely bonded among each other, because each of them represented different rival clans. They would keep a vigilant eye on each other when they met, and certainly would not dine or drink like friends.

Although none of the witches were tight on money, they could still not afford to have too many Chaos Drinks. Therefore, Andrea proposed a resolution through card games. The winner would have Chaos Drinks while the loser White Liquor. No magic was allowed, and those who participated in the game had to hold a God's Stone in their hand...

The end result—she ended up with a terrible hangover.

Lorgar would never admit the fault to be her own bad luck. So, she attributed everything to the chief.

Had Roland rewarded them with gold royals instead of paper bills, she would have saved up instead of spending them so recklessly.

"No, this has to stop."

The wolf girl patted her cheeks.

She kept reminding herself that the purpose of this trip was to polish her combat skills. If she continued to indulge herself in endless parties and games, she would forget all her fighting techniques.

Lorgar had never seen any of the God's Punishment Witches abandon themselves to worldly pleasure. They were always so dignified, solemn and self-possessed. That was what a seasoned warrior should look like!

Lorgar took a deep breath, pulled on a sweater and got off the bed. She planned to visit the Third Border City after brushing her teeth and washing her face.

Every single witch in the Third Border City was an excellent warrior. Since Lorgar was not allowed to leave the city alone, she thought it a good idea to learn some combat techniques from the God's Punishment Witches.

Just as Lorgar walked out of her bedroom, she noticed a piece of parchment wedged underneath the living room door.

After she had joined the Witch Union, she had moved to the Witch Building in the Castle District and shared a room with Sharon. However, most of the time she had the whole room to herself because Sharon only spent the nights in the building when necessary.

So she assumed this piece of parchment was for her.

Lorgar picked up the paper with curiosity and found it was a letter. She unsealed it and noticed it was her father's handwriting.

"My dear daughter, how are you doing in Neverwinter? I hope you aren't being bullied there."

Unlike the letters from the northern kingdom that always started with a long opening, her father's letter was simple and straightforward. The handwriting was as untidy as usual. Lorgar, however, felt a sense of belonging as she read the letter, as if she was back in the desert again.

Her tail began to wag excitedly behind her.

Although Lorgar had been determined to not rely on her family anymore when she had departed her clan, she felt happy to know that somebody was still worried about her.

"How can I be bullied? I'm not a three year old!" Lorgar mumbled.

She continued to read the letter. "Haha, I think I asked the wrong question. You're Lorgar Burnflame, Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame Clan. Nobody can bully you, only you can bully others. Am I right?"

"Our clansmen have moved to the Port of Clearwater from Iron Sand City. We've got a piece of fertile land close to the river. Although I don't know how well the chief treats you, at least he has kept his word to us. He did what he promised during the holy duel. As long as we have a job, we can remain fed and clothed. Therefore, there have been more clans coming here, though it has also created some unpleasant disputes over resources."

"But those northerners are different from the Queen of Clearwater. They prohibit any brawls for personal reasons and insist on resorting to legal measures. The process is slow but at least we aren't being used. Many of the Sand Nation have agreed to resolve their problems in this way, so overall, life here is peaceful."

"Apart from rebuilding the Port of Clearwater, our clan has also developed many farmlands in the suburb. We're planning to grow the wheat shipped through the inner river. Many people from Fallen Dragon Ridge came here to teach us how to dig a trench, fertilize the land and grow crops. I have to admit it's so easy for the northerners to sustain themselves. They can easily grow the food we have to go through so much pain to collect from the oasis, and they grow so much surplus. Now, everyone has begun to live like a northerner. I'm not saying it isn't good, but I just feel something is missing when we no longer need to hunt or train ourselves to be strong. My dear daughter, do you have any good idea to make up for this loss?"

"You should be asking my elder brother this question." Lorgar twitched her lips and continued to read.

"Now about you. If... I say, if the chief treats you well, you should find an opportunity to express your desire to serve him. I've heard northern nobles like a variety of girls. Perhaps he's that kind of person..."

The wolf girl rolled her eyes.

"Alright. Paws in. I'm just joking. Compared to that, I'm more concerned about your personal development. Have you encountered any of those horrible enemies? You should have become a lot stronger than when you left, right? Remember though, that you should always remain patient. Focus, and slowly work toward your goal."

Lorgar felt her cheeks flush red. She almost died of mortification.

Lorgar really had encountered the demons. There had even been a big war between them, to which she had contributed nothing. She had thought the front line would be the closest to the enemies, yet the demons had stopped somewhere 300 meters away from their encampment. As a result, instead of getting a closer look at her opponents, Lorgar had been attacked by a weird flying stone pillar and forced to retreat.

If she had known this would happen, she would have never chosen to stay at the front. The Artillery Battalion at the rear had, at least, got a chance to have a real battle.

In addition to this, she was also not accustomed to using the special firearms the chief specially made for her. They were powerful indeed but were, essentially, something external that could not help her improve herself. Meanwhile, she had a hard time controlling the weapons, so it was difficult for her to blend them in with her actual combat skills.

The recent carousing further made Lorgar ashamed of her lack of self-discipline.

She had an impulse to visit the Third Border City right away, but stopped as she read the last paragraph of the letter.

The wolf girl frowned as she read.

"Right, I'm having a little problem. I've got news that Iron Sand City is a little disturbed these days. It appears the big clans living there aren't very happy about so many people leaving the Silver Stream Oasis, although I don't know the details. It's up to you to whether to report this to the chief. If he is discriminating against you because of your appearance, you should give him something to worry about as a way of retaliation, shouldn't you?"

Lorgar did not even need to think it over.

She put away the letter and pushed the door open. Just as she was about to set out for the castle, she spotted Wendy at the other end of the hallway.

Lorgar walked up to her and made a curt bow. "Could you take me to His Majesty? I have something to report to him."

"Such good timing," Wendy said, chuckling and winking. "His Majesty wants to see you too. Follow me."

Chapter 1006 - A "Magic Movie"

To Lorgar's surprise, the chief did not receive her in his study.

Lorgar followed Wendy into the castle parlor and noticed that other than Roland Wimbledon, there was also another woman she did not know in the room.

She surveyed the woman with curiosity and noticed the latter was also studying her attentively. Lorgar did not like the way in which the woman stared at her. It was such a piercing stare that she had an impression the woman could see through all of her thoughts.

"There you are," Roland said, as laid back as he always was. "I need you to complete a new task. Please take a seat."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Lorgar replied. After living in Neverwinter for half a year, Lorgar learned that the chief did not take the etiquettes very seriously. She went straight up to the lady and sat down in front of her, tail high in the air. Then she said, "However, I want to tell you something about the Southernmost Region first."

"Oh, that sounds interesting," said Roland as he raised his brows. "Go ahead."

Lorgar related the news she had learned from her father and said, "I don't think the clans in Iron Sand City would pose any threats to Port of Clearwater, but it would be a good idea to keep our eyes peeled. It takes time and effort to develop a virgin land but only a second to destroy it. We need to stay alert, especially considering that the main force of the First Army isn't stationed there anymore. They are all back to Neverwinter."

"I see," said Roland thoughtfully as he stroked his chin. "In fact, the General Staff has foreseen this kind of situation when they proposed to relocate the clansmen. It has been almost a year now. I believe they're well prepared."

Lorgar asked thoughtfully, "You are referring to..."

"That's right," Roland said, flashing back a smile. "As the First Army has to get prepared for the Battle of Divine Will, we can't rely on them to take care of everything in the kingdom. It'd be better to let the locals solve the problem in the Southernmost Region themselves." Roland paused for a few seconds and then said, "But I appreciate your father's heads-up. If he could interfere with the matter, that would be very helpful."

"Perhaps I can write to my father." The wolf girl blurted out. She soon realized she had already taken the side of Neverwinter... or rather, the chief's side before she even noticed it.

"It's politics. Leave it to me." Roland waved away Lorgar's request. "Plus, I asked you to come here not to discuss those serious political matters. Let me present May to you. You are probably more familiar with her other name: the Star of the Western Region."

"Star Flower... Troupe?" Lorgar was a bit surprised. She took little interest in plays. In fact, she had not known the name of the troupe until Echo had told her. Lorgar knew nothing about the troupe except that there were two famous actresses admired by everyone in Neverwinter.

She wondered what she had to do with the troupe.

"You're Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame Clan, right? Growing up in the desert, you look indeed quite different from us." May finally stopped gazing at Lorgar. She rose to her feet and dipped in a curtsy gracefully. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Lorgar. I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Working with me?" Lorgar was completely in a blank. She gave the chief a bewildered look. May was not a witch. As for herself, she did not have a talent in acting like Echo. It did not make any sense for her to work with May. 

"Let me explain it to you," Roland said, a faint smile playing about his lips. "Do you remember I once said that more people should accept those witches who possess abilities similar to yours? People shouldn't judge a person by their looks. No matter how strange their appearances are, they are one of us, even if they have scaly faces. Starring in a play is definitely the fastest way to let people know about you."

"You want me to be on stage?" said Lorgar, panic-stricken. Although the residents in Neverwinter weren't blatantly discriminating her because of her ears and tail, it was a different story to put herself in the spotlight. Lorgar protested, "But I know nothing about acting, and this isn't something I'm good at either. I haven't seen anyone show hostility against me. Perhaps you should find someone else..."

"Don't worry." As if seeing through her mind, Roland replied, "You don't need to act in front of strangers, and the target audience isn't Neverwinter residents either. This is something brand new. I call it mo — No, it should be termed as 'magic movie'."

"Magic movie?" The wolf girl echoed.

Roland presented her a strange-looking crystal on his desk, and then she noticed it was not just a piece of ordinary ornament. There were three gorgeous gems embedded in the silver-white prism, patterned in ghostly blue stripes. As the light hit the prism from different angles, Lorgar saw flickers of light reflect off the surface of the striped prism.

"This is called the Sigil of Recording. Like the Sigil of God's Will, it's a legacy device used in the Taquila Age. It can create various magic effects if used in combination with other magic stones," Roland explained. "However, it doesn't mean that the Sigil can manipulate time. Instead, it records it. Thanks to the Senior Demon and the giant Devilbeast we captured, we obtained many high-quality magic stones, including this one. It's very precious, so it isn't easy to get hold of one. In other words, you aren't acting on the central square or anywhere else, but in this very world."

"When I heard we can do such a wonderful thing with magic power, I couldn't contain my surprise and excitement," May put in. "Ms. Lorgar doesn't know much about plays, so you may not understand what this implies. Our performances depend on various factors, such as the actress' age, her experience and personal condition. Therefore, we can't expect her each show to be perfect. She can only have her best performance once."

"However, His Majesty is now able to record our best moments, which means we can rehearse our every single movement and expression until they are perfect. This is a miracle!"

"I've heard the Sigil was used to record important meetings and ceremonies. It's an ingenious idea to experiment with it on plays. His Majesty decided to write a play based on a real story." May heaped praises on Roland. "I'm certain once the news gets out, all actors will be exhilarated. They will be willing to pay tons of gold royals to witness this historic moment."

"Ahem." Roland was a little embarrassed, an expression that was rarely seen on him. "Star Flower Troupe should take the full credit. You've done a lot over the past two years in terms of political propaganda." He then turned to Lorgar and asked, "What do you think of it? The story is based solely on your personal experience. It took me nearly half a month to write it."

Lorgar did not have the faintest idea what the "magic movie" was. She could neither relate acting to the miraculous magic stone, nor did she want to waste her precious time on something she had no interest in. However, when Roland told her that the story was based on her personal experience, she changed her mind.

"Well in that case... I'll give it a shot," Lorgar replied while shaking her ears.

Chapter 1007 - The Sigil of Recording

After everyone withdrew from the room, Nightingale asked, "Half a month? Didn't you just make the decision a couple of days ago?"

"Nevermind the details," said Roland whilst ignoring Nightingale's question. "Do you think she would agree if I told her the truth? If Lorgar refused to participate in this project, we would have to ask Joan. She can't even talk to people, except Lightning and Maggie. Even if May teaches her acting skills, it wouldn't be much of a help. That's why I spoke in such a grave tone so that Lorgar couldn't refuse... This is also one of my negotiation techniques."

"Well, I suppose you're right..." Nightingale muttered under her breath while twitching her lips. "But why do I have the impression that this wasn't the real reason she consented."

"What did you say?" said Roland.

"No, nothing," Nightingale said evasively with a whistle. She shoved a piece of dried fish into her mouth and asked, "Is it really OK to leave the Southernmost Region as it is?"

Roland shrugged to indicate that he had no intention of probing into the matter. "It might be bad news if this happened in the time before their relocation where nobody knew what life in Port of Clearwater would be like. But now, it's too late for the conservatives to turn the table. The fact that the chief of the Wildflame clan wrote to Lorgar about this incident indicates that he has completely sided with us. Those conservatives can't win. If they do wage a war, they would be declaring enmity towards all the clans."

There was a garrison of 500 new recruits stationed at Fallen Dragon Ridge and Port of Clearwater, but Roland was not planning to send them to the desert. He simply needed to inform Brian in the Southern Territory for the latter to know what to do.

Roland was now done with negotiation and persuasion. If someone attempted to stir up trouble, he did not mind resorting to force.

Nevertheless, Roland did not want to waste his time on these trifling matters. He returned his attention back to the Sigil of Recording.

The Months of Demons had been ongoing for half a month already. In the past, by this time of the year, the focus of Neverwinter would normally shift from construction to city defense. People would automatically start to prepare themselves to fight against demonic beasts without the need of Roland to remind them.

But the whole northwest was surprisingly peaceful this year. No demonic hybrid groups had emerged so far, not even the regular demonic beasts that usually acted alone.

Lightning had once flown to Hermes Plateau. She reported that no demonic beasts were found there either. She had also seen the flag of the Wimbledon House ripple upon the city wall of the new holy city. Within, she saw nuns delivering bricks back and forth to build new blockhouses and to form a defensive line at the garrison in Coldwind Ridge. Nothing else came into her view except a desolate land covered by snow as though the entire Fertile Plains was frozen.

After a heated discussion, the ancient witches concluded that the demons had stopped the invasion of demonic beasts.

It made sense. Although the Taquila Ruins was a tiny spot on the vast plains, the demons relied on it to transport supplies and put out sentries. It was very likely that they had exterminated those demonic beasts long ago.

As all the construction work had been suspended due to the interminable snow and there was no need to fight at the border any longer, the residents in Neverwinter soon found themselves in a state of extreme boredom. Roland was well aware how detrimental this could be to people's morale, especially when this occurred after a major victory. The best example was the witches in the castle who abandoned themselves to card games and carouse. To keep people motivated and also to help the witches release their energy, Roland had thus decided to make a movie.

Roland had witnessed the effect of the Sigil of Recording once at Reflection Church in the old holy city. It was even more impressive than the 3D photography in modern society. The recording was, in a sense, a reconstruction of a scene. Roland believed that before he could successfully develop virtual reality technologies, the Sigil would be irreplaceable in the entertainment industry.

Roland wondered how citizens would react to the lifelike 3D movie when a mere traditional play was sufficient to entertain them.

Now, Roland saw why May had lost her composure after seeing what the Sigil could do. For actresses like her, the technology was definitely epochal. If she could star in the movie, she would be remembered by all her peers in the acting industry.

He didn't tell May, however, that in reality, movies soon replaced plays, becoming the most popular form of entertainment in modern society. It was a truth May would probably never expect to happen.

Despite its amazing recording feature, the Sigil of Recording had a big drawback, which was that the recording wasn't modifiable. Moreover, the magic stone of which the sigil was made of was only available to the demons. According to Agatha, one Sigil of Recording had a "battery life" of 12 hours. Once it was fully "charged", it would start to record the scene. The recording would automatically stop upon interruption, which meant no mistakes were allowed during the process. The only way to eliminate a recording error was to recharge the stone for another 12 hours and start again from the beginning. In that case, the new recording would overwrite the old images.

Another downside was that the Sigil could not be recycled.

Like the Sigil of Listening, the Sigil of Recording was also a compound. The Sigil of Listening was composed of two separate parts, a "receiver" and a "microphone". The Sigil of Recording, however, was exactly the opposite. It worked only when two stones were combined. There was a groove at the top of its crystal base. When the magic stone was injected with magic blood and inserted into the groove, the Sigil would instantly start to play all the footages it had previously saved. You could not switch back to the recording mode once the Sigil started to play footages. Removing the magic stone by force would destroy the device. This was actually an asset for preserving important historical records — once the Sigil was in the play mode, nobody could tamper with the videotape.

This made it a big downside for filming.

Because in that case, they only had one chance to shoot, and all shots had to be perfect without any errors, which was almost impossible to achieve.

Fortunately, Roland had found a solution.

He just needed to ask Summer to reconstruct scenes.

In this way, actresses could rehearse as many times as they liked until they were satisfied with their performances. During the final shot, a "cameraman" would arrive and film with the Sigil of Recording. Since Summer could fast forward, playback and pause footages, they could even achieve some special effects such as bullet time.

Summer's ability did not include reconstructing sounds, but Echo's dubbing could easily solve this problem.

Now that all the conditions for filming were met, Roland just needed actors and actresses. He could foresee what a big stir the movie would make among the public.

...

After taking a shower, Lorgar wrapped herself in a bath towel and returned to her room.

She slumped onto her soft bed before her tail was completely dry.

Her body was sore from training, but she felt happy for being productive again. She did not care about how much progress she had made at this point.

All she needed now was a good rest.

Then she saw the yellow book on the nightstand in the corner of her eyes.

"Ah... right, the script."

Lorgar pricked up her ears, untied the bath towel, got into bed and picked the script up.

May Lannis had told her it was important to familiarize herself with the story first. If she had any questions, she was welcome to ask her anytime.

But this was not what Lorgar cared about.

She just wanted to know what the chief thought of her.

Since it was a story created for her, she might find some clues in it.

Lorgar took a deep breath and started to read.

Then she saw the title —

"The Wolf Princess"

Chapter 1008 - The Wolf Princess

"Once upon a time, there was a great city with lofty mountains behind and a beautiful plain in front. It was known as the Mountain City and inside of it lived two lovely little princesses."

"At the age of 14, the elder princess awakened and became a witch. It was not a big deal since the people of the city lived with the witches in peace. Actually, without the witches' help, they could never settle down in this dangerous place. But beyond everyone's expectations, the magic power ruined the princess' appearance instead of increasing her beauty."

"Her ears atrophied day by day while a pair of furry pointy ears were growing on the top of her head. Her fingers became long and hairy and it was hard to shave them. Gradually, she started to look different from a human being."

"No one has ever seen such a witch. Even the court mentors could not confirm that this change was caused by awakening."

"As time went by, the princess' condition got worse and worse. A rumor from an unknown source started to go around the palace. They whispered that the elder princess was cursed."

"So the great chief wants me to play this elder princess?" Lorgar touched her own face and thought. "Lucky for me... I don't have hairy cheeks."

She felt sympathetic to the elder princess. Lorgar got her half-animal look after repeated use of her transformation ability and had spent quite a long time to accept this change. The princess in the story, however, began to look like a wolf after her awakening and it was not strange that she would be rejected or abhorred by others.

"This is too cruel to the princess. Maybe the great chief should make some change here."

The Wolf Girl maneuvered her body into a more comfortable position and turned to the next page with interest.

"The princess' little sister did not mind her changes at all, but the wolf princess could clearly feel the increase of the strength in her body. It was so strong that she was afraid that she would not be able to control it well. Since she did not want to hurt her little sister accidentally someday, she deliberately distanced herself from her, and in the end, she even shut herself off in the depths of the palace."

"Since then, the two princesses who had been so close had lost touch with one another."

"This separation lasted for four years."

"When the little princess was 16 years old, something unforeseen took place."

"An exotic prince came to the Mountain City to propose to the little princess. His convoys formed a long queue of 2,500 meters, and his attendants respectfully called him king of the world. The jewelry he wore shone brighter than the sun, and all the girls in the city were attracted by his handsome appearance."

"The king was greatly pleased and held a splendid banquet to entertain this distinguished guest."

"All the nobles praised the prince and averred that the marriage between him and the little princess would bring supreme wealth and prosperity to the Mountain City."

"'I disagree!'"

"The wolf princess suddenly came to the banquet hall."

"She couldn't sit idly by and let a suspicious person take her little sister away."

"However, her little sister, who had not seen the wolf princess for four years, hesitated to trust her judgment."

"Overwhelmed by sadness and disappointment, the wolf princess finally lost control of her power. She vandalized the hall and injured the prince. After that, she escaped from the Mountain City."

"Ah... you idiot, your ability won't grow with your age." Lorgar stroked her forehead. She speculated that such uncontrollable behaviors must have been caused by lack of practice. She thought that if she was the wolf princess in the story, she would ask her father to build her an exercise room where she could fight against some professional warriors every day to improve her skills. Only by doing so, a witch would learn to manipulate her magic power flexibly.

Lorgar herself could serve as an example. In the second year after her awakening, she had succeeded in using her wolf hand to hold a cup without crushing it after repeated practice.

She had just intended to flip through the pages in the beginning, but now, she was utterly immersed in the story and could not wait to know what was going to happen next.

"The wolf princess decided to let go of her past and freely release her energy after she left the city. Soon her Day of Adulthood arrived. Her power increased drastically and she turned into a giant wolf. Meanwhile, she realized something strange about the exotic prince. He had come to the city on a snowy day, but his convoys had left no track in the snow and there had been no light in the carriages even at night. It seemed as if the ones inside the carriages were not human beings."

"At the same time, inside the city, the little princess felt that she was wrong. She did not want to lose her elder sister, her closest friend in the world. With the help of a pigeon and a fish, she sneaked out of the palace and set out to find the wolf princess."

"Unexpectedly, she bumped into the exotic prince halfway. He came to stop her but she refused to leave with him. At this moment, the prince tore off his disguise and revealed his true self. He turned out to be an insidious demon lord. It proudly explained the whole thing to the princess: The Mountain City was a natural choke point, so the demon lord planned to crack human beings' defense line from the inside, and after its army conquered the Mountain City, they would march into the heavily populated areas. It told the princess that it was already too late for human beings to react since their army, which was hiding in the convoys was slowly passing through the gate of the city now."

"After that, the demon lord kidnapped the princess, but the pigeon overheard the whole conversation and told it to the wolf princess. Without any hesitation, she rushed back into the city which was now caught in the maelstrom of war. She helped the soldiers to turn the situation around and led the human army to recapture the palace."

"However, the demon lord still refused to give up, so a decisive battle between the demon and the wolf princess broke out."

"After a fierce combat, the wolf princess killed the demon lord and saved her sister and the city. Unfortunately, she was severely wounded during the battle and died in the end. When her sister became the queen, she built a statue in the city to commemorate the wolf princess. This touching story was widely spread and passed down from generation to generation..."

Lorgar closed the book and rubbed her sore neck.

She breathed a big sigh of relief and felt sincerely satisfied!

She could tell from the story that in the great chief's view, she was an excellent warrior now, who could not only protect her friends but also stand out to save a country. She felt so flattered and wagged her tail happily.

She did not have a problem with the ending where the wolf princess died. As a warrior, she thought it was an honor to be killed on the battlefield, especially in a fight against a strong opponent. For her, it was an acceptable ending, since there was not a healing witch like Miss Nana in the story.

However, she still felt confused about some parts of the story.

Such as, why did the wolf princess feel so bad when she heard that her younger sister was about to get married. Since at that time, the exotic princess was so popular and no one found out that he was a demon, as an elder sister, the wolf princess should have wished the new couple all the best.

She also wondered why the demon lord had to explain everything to the little princess before kidnapping her. As a military leader, it appeared too talkative and was clearly not prudent enough.

"Well... who cares."

"Now that I had already promised the great chief, I have to act in this drama—no, this magic movie well. As for the training... it is not too late to start it half a month later."

Lorgar stretched herself in satisfaction and fell asleep with a smile on her face.

Chapter 1009 - Commitment

Three days later, the filming for The Wolf Princess officially began.

Undoubtedly, shooting a film was a brand new experience for the people in this world, but Roland had never expected them to become this crazy over it.

Since the very first day, it had caught the attention of all the Witch Union members.

Most of them had never seen a film, but this did not prevent them from imagining how marvelous it would be. Some of the cast were God's Punishment witches. They vividly described their experiences in the cinemas of the Dream World and so made this magic movie sound even more appealing.

If someone now asked the witches which location they wanted to visit the most, most of them would definitely choose the Dream World.

The Witch Union members and the Sleeping Island witches, who were unable to get into the Dream World, were particularly looking forward to this movie.

No one was willing to just spend their whole day eating, drinking or playing cards anymore. By the second day of filming, all of them, even Tilly, had applied to join the film shooting project.

Roland was surprised since, as far as he could remember, this was the first time Tilly had ever demanded something from him.

In the end, the roster of the cast and the crew members had to be changed several times to include the extra witches. Roland was more than happy to indulge them as long as it did not affect their work and productivity. These new members also brought the crew many surprises.

Lightning was one such example. She replaced Amy to work as the cameraman.

In order to portray the two princesses' happy childhood in a better light, the little girl took full advantage of her flying ability. She flew up into the sky and then descended from that height to shoot a panorama of the snowy city. She recorded a stream of pedestrians while flying along the streets. After that, she captured all the images along the way as she flew into a small bedroom in the castle through a window which had many icicles on the frame. Finally, she landed in the room to shoot a close-up of the laughing sisters in front of a burning fireplace.

Roland spent a great deal of time explaining camera language to the crew. He even drew pictures to show them what he meant, even though he was not good at sketching at all.

In the middle of describing basic viewing angles and framing of shots to the crew, he spotted an exceptionally excited look in May's eyes.

The Star of the Western Region was extremely talented in drama. She could imagine a whole scene in her head and could take each prop and each person in that scene into consideration. It was not an obvious advantage for a traditional theater actress, but it would become an incredibly important skill in filmmaking.

The other actress Irene, who was playing the younger sister of the wolf princess, was sorely lacking such a talent.

In the following days, May started to use the shooting skills she had learned from Roland.

She quickly got familiar with them and even created some new techniques on her own.

Some of the scenes that she directed even reminded Roland of the modern movies.

When she filmed the scene where the exotic prince came to the palace, she began with close-ups of his jewel-encrusted boots, his golden cloak, silk shirt, and then his handsome smiling face. After that, she panned out to show a long queue of gorgeously dressed servants behind him to show his grand entrance. By the way, the man who played the prince was her husband, Carter Lannis. Though Roland was reluctant to admit it, his Chief Knight was indeed the most handsome man in Neverwinter when dressed up.

The improvement in composition and directing was just one of the surprises.

The adoption of special effects was an even more amazing progress.

New ideas and new visual effects emerged every day.

Soraya's "three-dimensional background" was one such example.

Another was Sharon's lightning effect.

If needed, Nightingale could use her Mist, Molly her Magic Servant, and Shadow could create phantom illusions for even more special effects.

Maggie played two roles in the movie. In her pigeon form, she was a close friend of the younger princess. In her Devilbeast form, she was the demon lord's best warrior and would fight a fierce battle against the wolf princess on a snowy field. The battle scenes they filmed could only be called "ground-breaking". Both the earth and the mountains would tremble and all the birds and animals would flee from the scene as fast as they could.

Even Lotus and Honey got to contribute significantly to the production of the movie.

By the time they were just halfway through the filming of the movie, the number of crew members had already expanded to more than 300 people. Apart from the Witch Union members, the Sleeping Spell witches and the Taquila survivors were also attracted by this event. In the end, this filmmaking process turned into a giant carnival for the witches.

Standing on top of the city wall, Roland looked down at the bustling crowd and sighed with emotion.

To his surprise, this magic movie brought the three witch organizations closer. In the past, they had been like oil and water, refusing to mix, but now they seemed to be able to get along well with each other, as if they were one big family.

No matter what kind of abilities they had, now they worked together for the same movie. When they focused on doing their jobs well, they forget about their differences in strength and origin. Gradually, this experience created a very special bond between them.

For Roland, this was really a pleasant surprise.

It was a cold day. As Roland exhaled, he could see white vapor coming out of his mouth. He turned to look at Anna. "Aren't you going down to have some fun with them?"

In the beginning, Nightingale joined the film crew only when she was needed. However, now she frolicked around with them all day long.

"No, I've lots of work to do." Anna showed her hands to Roland. Her sleeves were covered in oil. "The sizes of the internal combustion engine parts in the drawing aren't accurate enough. I still have to make adjustments, and..."

"Huh?" Roland blinked.

"And I have the most fun staying beside you." She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.

The next moment, he felt her warm flames spread out to dispel the chill of the snow.

He shut his mouth and enjoyed this peaceful moment with her.

After a long time, Anna said in a soft voice, "The future you promised has arrived."

He followed her gaze to look at the crew again. Besides the witches, the common people also fitted in well. May was making gestures with her hands. She seemed to be teaching Lorgar and Carter how to act together. Irene was squatting by the side combing Maggie's hair. The little girl was squinting her eyes and seemed to really be enjoying it. Together with the God's Punishment Witches, the new staff of the film crew was placing the props for the next scene. Compared to a factory, which featured a clear division of labor, the film crew's style of working appeared more relaxed and harmonious.

On this snowy day, both the witches and the common people were working together with one heart and one mind.

"No, I have yet to fulfill all of my promises." Roland shook his head.

"Are you referring to the situation of the other regions of Graycastle? Things are going to get better in those cities soon."

"No, I didn't mean the relations between the witches and the common people. I meant something else," he replied with a smile. "I thought that I would need mountains of preparations to achieve this goal step by step, but now I feel that it's not that complicated. As long as I take the first few steps, the rest of the problems will automatically resolve themselves in the process, just like how this movie has progressed. I haven't set up any rules or guidelines for it, but it has still turned out this well. It's even given me a lot of pleasant surprises."

"So what is it that you still have left to fulfill?" Anna raised her head and blinked. In her eyes that were as blue as a peaceful lake, he saw the reflection of snowflakes.

"Ascend the throne as a king," Roland paused and then said word by word, "and then marry you."

Chapter 1010 - A Legitimate Heir

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty, please think twice!" Roland heard Barov shouting anxiously outside his office.

It was only after the City Hall Director had run to his desk while panting heavily that Roland finally put down his teacup and asked, "What should I think twice about? The coronation ceremony?"

"No. I meant your wedding announcement. You are going to marry a witch and make her your queen." Barov glanced toward the place behind Roland while wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Ah, Your Majesty, I'm afraid this isn't a proper way to handle the case."

Roland was not surprised by Barov's objection at all. He had anticipated as much when he first informed the City Hall of his decision. To remove the obstacles to his marriage to Anna, the City Hall would be the first group that he had to persuade.

After the Months of Demons, Neverwinter would send troops to the Fertile Plains once again to eliminate the demons' latest outpost in Taquila. Meanwhile, the City Hall would be busy carrying out the spring plowing plans, new construction projects, and trade programs. The coming year would be an exceptionally busy year for Graycastle, so it did not sound like a good idea to hold such a ceremony now. According to tradition, preparing a coronation alone would need at least two to three months, not to mention that there was a wedding after it. Preparing these activities would inevitably increase his administration's workload and thus would interfere with Neverwinter's production and military plans. However, Roland did not make this decision on a sudden impulse.

Different from the previous winters, this winter was peaceful. He wanted to seize this rare opportunity to hold both his coronation ceremony and his wedding, which would boost his subjects' morale without costing him too much effort.

More importantly, he really hoped to redeem his promise to Anna as soon as possible.

Of course, as a feudal king, he could do whatever he wished just like the rest of the self-indulgent rulers throughout history who had imposed their personal values on others and thus had forced their foolish decisions to get implemented. However, he did not intend to become such a ruler. He created this City Hall, and he was confident that he could properly handle this case without turning against his own administration.

In Roland's view, exercising his power while staying within the boundaries of the rules would be a much better choice than abusing his power.

"Why?" Roland knocked on the desk as he asked Barov.

"It's... it's because you need an heir," Barov said urgently. "Everyone knows that a witch can never give you a child. There's a war on the horizon. If some unexpected stroke of misfortune were to happen to you, the other nobles would covet your throne. An heir will make your people feel secure." Barov paused for a moment before adding, "If you just want to be with lady Anna, you don't really need to marry her."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"You could marry a lesser noble's daughter," Barov suggested. "No one would oppose such a decision. You don't have to take her seriously. You just need her to stand beside you on official occasions, and you can still do whatever you want—"

"So you mean that Anna can't become the queen because she's a witch?" Nightingale suddenly interrupted.

"I don't think Lady Anna will mind such superficial things." Barov coughed twice to cover his embarrassment. "It's for the benefit of the country, Your Majesty. If you find it hard to tell Lady Anna about this arrangement in person, I can pass on your words to her."

"You aren't her. How can you know that she won't mind? I can bet that she would never want a third person between His Majesty and herself!" Nightingale insisted.

"It has nothing to do with personal feelings. It's about an heir..."

"Enough." Roland raised his hands to stop them. "I get it. I just need to find a legitimate heir to the throne to reassure my people."

"Find... a legitimate heir?" Barov was a little bit startled.

"Isn't this a good solution?" Roland replied with a casual air. "After I defeated the Pope, I absorbed her entire lifespan. I actually don't need anyone to inherit the throne. That's why I was able to decide to marry Anna. Unfortunately, there are only a few people like you who know about this matter. Most of the subjects know little about magic power and thus probably won't believe it. Under such circumstances, in order to give my people an inner sense of security, I must find an heir and let them pin their hopes on him. Am I right?"

Since the battle at Coldwind Ridge against the church, the senior officials of the City Hall were aware that Roland had gone through a spiritual battle called the Battle of Souls, in which the winner could inherit everything from the loser. They had found it hard to believe at first, but then the appearance of the Taquila witches and their Soul Transfer technique had reduced their doubts about it. During the first United Front meeting, Roland had confirmed this rumor and had used this advantage to win Pasha's trust. Ever since then, all the senior officials of the City Hall had bought the story that Roland now had a limitless lifespan.

"Yes, that's what I meant," Barov said, unaware that he was falling into a trap. "As long as you have an heir, no one will oppose your marriage."

"I have a simpler way to solve this problem." Roland shrugged. "A year ago, when we attacked Hermes, I happened to find Gerald Wimbledon's mistress. She's a maid working in a tavern, and she had a son with Gerald."

"What did you... say?" Barov's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you sure that the child is..."

"Yes, he has grey hair and grey eyes." Roland nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me at that time?"

"If I had told you, they would have been killed a long time ago." Roland picked up his teacup and took a sip. "How is it? We have a legitimate heir now. Isn't it a better way to solve the problem?"

Gerald's child was indeed a good choice. He was not a threat to Roland and could be replaced at any time. Even though he might ultimately never become the king, he would still be widely discussed and could greatly raise the subjects' spirits. Barov's eyes shone with excitement. Seeing this, Roland knew that the Chief Director had already understood what he meant. Now, he did not need to do anything except tell the subjects about this boy and bring him to Neverwinter.

As for the actual situation surrounding the little boy and his mother, he believed that the people would exert their imagination and creativity to make up their own legendary stories.

"If his mother is just a maid in a tavern, he can only be counted as a bastard child. We must give his mother a higher status. Otherwise, making him an heir will attract many disapproving comments. Fortunately, she's not a noble lady. It's much easier to control a civilian woman..." Barov started to plan the whole thing in his heart.

Roland felt his lips curling into a smile. Now he could avoid fighting a verbal battle against Barov to sell his ideas, unlike three years ago. The City Hall Director could easily follow his hints and help him plan out the whole thing. No one would doubt his words anymore, no matter how implausible they sounded, not even his claim of having eternal life.

"You go make a plan for this child and my coronation ceremony. We'll discuss the details later." Roland waved his hand to Barov, indicating that he was dismissed.

After Barov's departure, Roland heaved a long sigh of relief. "I never expected that you would speak up for Anna."

"I'm sorry. I just can't help it..."

"No, you don't need to apologize. You're absolutely right." He glanced at Nightingale deliberately and found that she looked much calmer than he had expected. "I just thought you would..."

"You thought I would look miserable and feel depressed hearing this news?" Nightingale gave him a cold stare. "I think this wedding is already too late. If it wasn't for Anna, I wouldn't have let you get away with it so easily."

Roland still remembered the relieved look on her face when she had appeared in front of him after disappearing for two days. He guessed that her change must have had something to do with the secret agreement between her and Anna.

Curious as he was, he still did not ask her about the secret.

Chapter 1011 - Making a Big Splash

Now that the new administrative system had significantly sped up information transmission, the news about the king's coronation and wedding quickly spread from west to north, causing a stir along its way.

In the past, this kind of news was usually spread by merchants and boatmen. Now, however, the local government of each town and city posted bulletins in the busiest streets and sent staff to explain them to the public. It seemed as if the government wanted every person to know the king's decision. Under such circumstances, the news became the hottest topic in all towns and cities within just a few days. Everybody was so fervently talking about it that they had even forgotten about the cold weather.

As always, most civilians loved to gather around a fireplace to drink ale and discuss the recent news and hearsay. This traditional recreational pastime for the people brought brisk business as well as various views and information to taverns. Covert Trumpeter was such a place.

Black Hammer, the new owner of the tavern, grinned from ear to ear in these days. His business usually languished in winters, but this winter, his tavern was flourishing because of the news about the king's coronation and wedding. Seeing the rapid increase in his income, he felt really good.

He predicted that his business would continue to boom until the end of the king's coronation ceremony.

"What a wise decision to hold the ceremony in the Months of Demons!" he thought as his heart melted in gratitude. If he could meet His Majesty in person now, he would immediately get on the ground to kiss his boots.

After all, gold royals were the most adorable thing in the whole world.

Unfortunately, as a former Rat, he probably would not be allowed to meet Roland Wimbledon. He even seldom got a chance to meet Theo.

Black Hammer knew his limits and never expected a sudden status upgrade.

Theo was not a poor patrol leader or an ordinary guard of Prince Roland anymore. Since Timothy's defeat, he had become the most powerful man in the old king's city. He had easily sent the previous owner of Covert Trumpeter, Nagy, who had treated Rats like cr*p, to some remote place. In the clean-up operation against Black Street, Black Hammer and his friends had followed Theo's advice to split off from Skeleton Fingers. That was how they became official subjects of the city and took over this tavern.

Black Hammer could never forget about Theo's help.

He wanted to express his gratitude to him personally, so he planned to visit Theo's home with Silver Ring, Pott and Little Finger before he left the old king's city. Though this might cost him some gold royals, he believed that as long as he could keep a good relationship with Theo, he would earn them back sooner or later.

Despite that, he also knew that he should do his job properly.

He needed to collect information for Theo. Once he heard some valuable information from some bragging trader or traveler, he would write it down and send it to the connector.

At present, he was on watch for potential insurgents.

There were some suspicious-looking people on the 6th table.

"Do you really believe that's just a coincidence?" A red-faced merchant grumbled. "How come the king hastily arranged his coronation ceremony all of a sudden? Do you really believe he just happened to find his eldest brother's widow and son when he announced that he was going to marry a witch who can never bear a child?"

This statement was echoed by some people. "I've heard that His Highness Gerald didn't like women at all. Someone stated that he had an affair with a young knight. How come he suddenly had a fiancee?"

"Really?"

"You aren't from here. Of course, you don't know anything. Unlike Prince Timothy and Prince Roland, he seldom attended banquets, so it's probably true."

"And think about it," the merchant spoke again. "His Majesty only said that he was going to bring them to Neverwinter. He didn't confirm that the child was Gerald's son. He did this on purpose. He wants us to discuss whether the boy is a lawful inheritor of the throne. When we focus on talking about where the boy's mother came from and whether he's an offspring of the Wimbledon family, either of which will take us at least several years. By then, we would've forgotten about the most important thing."

"What... exactly are you trying to say?"

"What's the most important thing?"

"The witches!" He took a swig of wine and continued. "They must have manipulated the king and created the so-called widow and child to distract our attention. They're scheming to control the whole Graycastle!"

Everyone was in an uproar. "Witches can make people?"

"Yes, they're capable of making anything!" The merchant exclaimed bitterly. "They could make stones float on water, not to mention creating a person. Because of these evil stone things, no one comes to hire my ship anymore! Though, they may not be able to make a flawless person. That's why they made up this story. They need more time. When they succeed, they won't need the child anymore!"

"Aha, you must be out of your mind. Do you think that His Majesty stays alone in the palace with only one God's Stone of Retaliation?" The crowd erupted into laughter, bringing cheer to the tavern.

"You guys—hic—keep laughing. The witches have already produced some machine to replace the miners in Silver City and have filled all the inland rivers with their concrete ships. Soon it'll be your turn, and then we'll see who's laughing!" The merchant rumbled.

Well, it's not valuable information, but this guy sounds quite rebellious. With this thought in mind, Black Hammer took out his charcoal and a piece of paper to write down the features of the merchant. He also commented in this report that this man slandered the royal family and maliciously attacked the witches. After that, he folded the paper and inserted it into an inconspicuous slit in the wine cabinet.

If nothing else, the police department would quickly respond to his report. He estimated that the merchant would get caught the moment he stepped out of the tavern. As for whether he was a rebel, he believed the interrogator would find out the answer. That was not his task.

...

At this moment, Yorko was selecting clothes inside his residence in the Inner City.

"How about this one?" He asked as he lifted a formal high-collared garment made of fine material in front of himself. "Will it make me look fat?"

The person he was asking was Denise Payton, the businesswoman he had met at the Kingdom of Dawn's king's city. She was rolling on the bed and covered her bare chest with just a corner of the quilt. "You never prepared so carefully when you were dating me. You haven't received an invitation yet. Do you intend to go to Neverwinter right after you heard the news?"

"I'm an old friend of His Majesty. Invitations are for outsiders. I don't need it," said Yorko as he shook the garment. "You haven't answered me. What about this garment?"

"To be honest, you look almost the same no matter what you wear," said Denise as she yawned. "I wasn't attracted by your appearance after all. By the way, when you leave for Neverwinter, what should I do?"

"Ugh," he hesitated. "If you want to have some fun, I can introduce you to some good..."

"Not interested." Denise interrupted him right away. "I prefer choosing targets by myself. Besides, is that how you treat a guest who came to you all the way from the City of Glow?"

Yorko felt a little guilty. He sighed and asked, "So, what do you want?"

The businesswoman smiled and replied, "Take me to Neverwinter. I've long wished to meet the king who turned the Kingdom of Dawn upside down."

"This..."

"Since you're his old friend, the king will certainly invite you to attend his dinner party, right?" Denise asked as she threw the quilt back and got out of the bed. She stepped to Yorko and continued, "You only need to bring me there as your plus one. I've brought you to lots of banquets back in the City of Glow. You'll grant me this small request, won't you?" She put her arms around his neck and whispered next to his ear, "Relax, I know you plan to meet someone there... I won't interfere with you, and maybe I can help you."

...

The news about Roland's coronation and wedding stirred up all the people, including both the officials and civilians.

However, the king himself was completely unaware of this.

A week later, a shallow water gunboat, the Roland, arrived at the City of Evernight in the Northern Region.

Someone's peace was about to be shattered.

Chapter 1012 - Olivia

Walking in the alleys, Olivia heard the snow scrunch under her feet. She felt her chest grow warmer.

Every winter in the Northern Region, she found the sky to be gloomy. It was like a stone roof that covered her from above. Furthermore, all things on the ground below would be covered in snow. Apart from this dull seasonal landscape, she would also suffer from hunger and cold. This made winter a long and tiresome experience for everyone.

Fortunately, this winter, she saw a brand new color in this gray world.

It was even brighter than a rainbow and shone through the snow storm like a dazzling star.

When she was near it, she could hardly wait to get closer to it.

It came out from the little cottage she had rented.

If she did not have to make a living for her family, she would never want to take one step away from it.

It was her baby.

It was Gerald Wimbledon's son.

Every time when she held him in her arms, she felt as if she was holding the whole world.

Thinking of her baby, Olivia subconsciously quickened her pace.

However, after she turned into the last alley, her heart sank to the bottom.

She spotted many footprints in the snow. They appeared to have come from another alley and led directly to the courtyard ahead.

This courtyard was where she and her son were currently living.

Here, all their neighbors were ordinary civilians. They seldom got visitors even during spring and summer, not to mention the Months of Demons. She could not understand why so many footprints had suddenly appeared here.

The next moment, she felt faint as she realized something. An inexplicable fear filled her heart.

"No, it can't be true. Calm down..." She kept telling herself that they must have just been a bunch of robbers or refugees. Though this thought would make others afraid, it conversely would make her feel relieved.

She entered the courtyard, shivering. Unfortunately, what she saw immediately shattered her last hope.

Many patrol team members were standing in front of her cottage. Most of them wore soft armors but one of them was apparently a knight. He dressed differently and wore a special badge which indicated that he served the Kant family, who ruled the Northern Region.

"No—!"

All of a sudden, Olivia felt a burst of strength that came out of nowhere. She dropped the baby food that she had made great efforts to buy, lowered her head and dashed toward the door!

At that moment, she thought she was going to her death.

She was prepared to throw herself at the blade once someone pulled out their sword to block her, even if they did not mean to kill her on the spot.

Unexpectedly, no one stood out to stop her from rushing into the cottage. Instead, the crowd turned to the side to let her through.

At the door of the cottage, she stumbled over the threshold, tearing her dress as her knees bruised from contact with the cold grindstone-like ground. Enduring the physical pain, she crawled non-stop toward the small bedroom with a face full of tears. She just wanted to meet her child for the last time, but when she entered the room, she was stunned.

A cyan-haired young lady sat at the head of the bed whilst coaxing the baby. The nanny Olivia had hired to take care of the child was standing by her side, displaying a look of respect, which one would use to their real boss.

The lady raised her head and glanced at Olivia. Instantly, she understood that the lady was very peculiar. She found the lady to be beautiful but could not describe her with any words that were usually used to depict a woman. She could not say that the lady was mild, fragile, charming or emotional. Even when she held the baby in her arms, she did not have the look of motherly love in her eyes at all.

It seemed as if she was playing with a toy rather than amusing a child.

"Nice to meet you," the young lady said slowly. "My name is Edith Kant. You should have heard of my name."

"The Pearl of the Northern Region—" Olivia's heart skipped a beat. "She's the eldest daughter of Duke Kant, the legendary woman who can lead knights to charge in a battle?" Edith Kant was a household name in the Northern Region. Even Gerald had mentioned her to Olivia many times.

Some people even stated that she was a more difficult opponent than her father.

"Nice to meet you, your ladyship," said Olivia as she swallowed hard. She bent over to give a kowtow before asking, "Would you please tell me why you've come to my home?"

Edith waved her hand to the nanny. The nanny bowed and then she swiftly left the room, shutting the door.

Seeing that, Olivia confirmed that this nanny must have been sent by the Kant family.

Her child had been under their control all this time.

"Well, to make a long story short, the king ordered me to take this offspring of the Wimbledon family back to Neverwinter."

"And then... you'll execute him secretly?" Olivia asked while breathing hard.

"If I wanted to kill him, I could do it anywhere. I wouldn't have to show up at your home at all." Edith unraveled the cloth around the baby's head and revealed his soft gray hair. "His Majesty needs him to appease the people. That's all."

Olivia was dumbfounded. She could not get what Edith meant. "Your ladyship, I still... don't understand..."

"It's not as complicated as you may think." The Pearl of the Northern Region shrugged. "Have you ever heard about witches?"

...

After hearing the whole story, Olivia still spent a long time connecting the two together. She had never heard such an implausible plan! Roland Wimbledon was determined to marry a witch, so he decided to use Gerald's son to quell the doubts of the public. She was not familiar with nobles' way of doing things, but she instinctively felt something wrong in this arrangement.

She wondered, "As a king, does he really have to do this?"

She clenched her teeth and plucked up her courage before asking, "Your ladyship, forgive me for being bold. I can hardly believe this decision. Maybe His Majesty thinks that he needs the baby now, but what if he changes his mind in the future, Schelo will..."

"Schelo? Is it his name?" Edith raised her eyebrow. "It seems that you still don't understand your current situation. It's His Majesty's command, you can't disobey it. Now, you've only two choices. No.1, you can get a large sum of hush money for which you must leave the kingdom and never come back again. Or No.2, you can accompany him to Neverwinter, but you must hide your identity and claim to be a maid of a noble family."

Tears were welling up in Olivia's eyes. Granted her low status, she could never become a part of the royal family. "Who will take my place to take care of him?"

"Nobody," replied Edith.

"What?" She promptly lifted her head in surprise. Her tears had yet to stop as they rolled down her cheeks.

"His Majesty isn't that cruel. If you choose to stay with the baby, you just need to conceal the fact that you are his real mother. Apart from that, you don't have to change anything. You can still look after him and watch him grow up. The noble family you served has already been eliminated by the church and Gerald's widow entrusted the child to you. That will be your story." Edith paused for a moment before adding, "In addition, the king has already spread this news to all regions of the kingdom. In two or three days, you'll hear about it here in the Northern Region. If His Majesty really wanted you to die, why would he bother to tell this story to all his subjects?"

Does the Pearl of the Northern Region mean that... His Majesty did this just to assure me that we'll be safe?

Olivia touched her chest and recalled the night she had been in despair and had come to Prince Roland asking for help. Back then, he had indeed helped her. She did not know whether he had some ulterior motive at the time, but she had to admit that if it had not been for Roland, she would have been beaten to death by the tavern owner a long time ago.

She took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her face. Her legs got numb after kneeling down for such a long time, but she still managed to control her body well enough to rise slowly from the ground. "Your ladyship, may I ask... Does this child have any chance to become a king?"

"No." A meaningful look flickered in Edith's eyes. "Before I set off, His Majesty exhorted me to tell you that you'd better not have any illusion of the throne. Otherwise, you'll be very disappointed. Of course, this is just between us. Don't breathe a word to anyone else."

"No, your ladyship. I'll never be disappointed, as long as my son can grow up safely. That's my greatest wish," said Olivia with difficulty. She got slower and slower, as if she had to exert all her strength to say each word. "But, bringing him to Neverwinter can't solve all the problems. What if someday His Majesty changes his mind and decides to make his own child the legitimate heir to the throne. When that happens, my son will become a thorn in their flesh and won't be able to survive!" She looked directly into Edith's eyes and stressed each word with due strength. "I know I can't change a thing, but if you can't give me a reasonable explanation, please kill me right now!"

"Oh?" Edith squinted her eyes.

It was a bloodthirsty look.

In front of Edith, Olivia was as weak as a lamb.

But she still refused to back down. She stood tall before the Pearl of the Northern Region and said, "If you can't, it means the things I'm worried about will happen sooner or later. I can't set Gerald Wimbledon's only son on such a path, your ladyship!"

Olivia did not want to take her child to Neverwinter while worrying that he would be executed a dozen years later. She did not like such long-term psychological tortures, nor did she want to make such a groundless decision by herself. Given her status, she did not expect Edith to give an answer. She believed that even if Edith did have an explanation, she would never tell it to a maid of humble origin. However, she still demanded an explanation from her since that was all she could do for now. She closed her eyes, waiting for a cold blade to cut her throat. I'm sorry, Gerald. I'm so sorry... my dear. I can't change anything.

The baby suddenly woke up and cried. It was as if he felt the departure with his mother coming.

Olivia tried her best to stop herself from opening her eyes.

She was afraid that if she took a look at the baby again, she would hesitate.

After a long time, the blade still did not arrive.

Edith chuckled and said, "I can."

Olivia stared at her in disbelief.

The Pearl of the Northern Region used lip language to tell Olivia the answer. It was completely beyond her imagination, but she somehow believed this incredible explanation at once, just like a drowning person who clutched the straw.

She felt that she was persuaded by herself instead of being persuaded by Edith.

The Pearl of the Northern Region turned away and walked toward the door, leaving the crying baby to Olivia. "We'll set out three days later. Remember to pack for your trip."

"Your ladyship..." Olivia murmured when Edith walked past her. "The tavern owner as well as one of His Highness Gerald's guards probably know the truth about me and the child."

"I'll take care of it. You don't have to worry," replied Edith without looking back.

When the Pearl of the North left, Olivia held her baby in a warm embrace, as if she was afraid that he would disappear at any minute. The baby finally quieted down and buried his head in her chest.

Her heart was racing, she could not help asking herself if it was true.

She deciphered the explanation by reading Edith's lips.

It was a simple but fascinating phrase.

"Eternal life."

This was the king's answer.

Chapter 1013 - The Future of the Northern Region

Duke Calvin was waiting in the main hall when Edith returned to the castle.

"You only plan to stay in the City of Evernight for three days? It sounded to me that this mission will take time. You don't have to go back immediately. Why don't you stay here longer?"

"Father, did you send someone to listen in on my conversation?" Edith asked with a frown.

"If I ask you directly, will you explain everything to me clearly?" The Duke gave her a furious glare before adding, "I learned this trick from you. It's better to search for the answer than to wait for it."

The Pearl of the Northern Region replied with a bark of laughter, "Congratulations, you finally made some progress. Now, I don't have to worry too much about you in Neverwinter."

The duke grunted, "You haven't answered my question. I can't stop you, but why do you have to take Lance to Neverwinter. Are you that attracted to Wimbledon? He would rather marry a witch than marry you. I don't get it. What the hell is the point of bringing Gerald's son to Neverwinter?"

"You seem to be very unhappy with the fact that I can't become queen," Edith shot him a sideways glance and said. "Or perhaps, you're just complaining that my future child can never become the heir to the throne? I still remember what you said to me when Timothy came to the Northern Region, and I know what you suggested to His Majesty."

"I... I did that for your own good. Are you willing to see a humble maid bring her son to power?" Calvin sounded much less aggressive now.

Edith secretly sighed. She knew that her father cared about her very much but she found that he was quite short-sighted. Calvin Kant was a caring father but he was not a wise man.

Fortunately, the other nobles in the Northern Region were no better than him. Most of them were not capable enough to manage their own domains. Edith agreed with His Majesty's decision to abolish the aristocratic system. She thought that if she was the king, she would also not be able to tolerate such a group of idiots wasting her wealth.

She understood the conventional thoughts of a traditional noble man, but she just couldn't say anything remotely nice to comfort her father at this moment. She enjoyed using her words as swords to hurt and torture others and sometimes even herself.

"A humble maid? No, father, you're wrong. Gerald Wimbledon loved her for a reason," said Edith, with interest. "That woman just lacks a status. If she was born into a noble family of the Northern Region, she would become more capable than you, not to mention my two younger brothers. In fact, what you should be the most thankful for is the ancestors of the Kant family. Without your title as an earl, you would never have gotten what you have today. You probably wouldn't live any better than the ordinary traders on the streets."

Just as she had expected, her father now looked very sour.

"She was reluctant to trust me at first, but once she made up her mind, she gave me all the names of the people who may ruin her and her son's future. What a decisive woman! If Gerald's son comes to power one day, what will she do to me? After all, I once bullied her into going to Neverwinter with me." Edith chuckled. "How will she torture me to vent her anger? Being a woman herself, she must know how to make a woman suffer."

"Enough... I know I was wrong," Calvin finally admitted defeat. "Can you stop talking?"

"Whew," Edith heaved a long sigh. "By the way, he'll never seize the throne. Even if His Majesty doesn't mind it, I would never allow it to happen." She smoothed out her hair and walked to her father. "Let's get back to business. I must return to Neverwinter as soon as possible since I don't want to miss any new changes in the city. Neverwinter is a fast-developing place and the center of the power. Half a month is already long enough. If His Majesty had not sent me to complete this task, I wouldn't have come back at all. As for Lance, I've already asked you to send him to Neverwinter when he turns 18 in the letter. You have a really bad memory."

"But if I send Lance to Neverwinter, the Northern Region will—"

"You'll lose your successor?" Edith interrupted. "But father, the rank of nobility has now become a pure honorary title. If your son is uneducated, do you think he can gain a firm footing in the City Hall? I take him away for the future of the Kant family. We've got a lot to learn in Neverwinter and if we don't want to get kicked out of the game, we have to embrace all the new changes."

The Duke still seemed hesitant. "Didn't His Majesty say that some formidable enemies are lurking in the Barbarian Land? Have you ever thought about it. What if Neverwinter is conquered by these enemies?"

"It's simple. When that happens, all of us will be doomed. At that time, it'll be meaningless even if you have a dozen of successors," Edith said while laying out her hands in a shrug. "And I think we should thank the demons."

"What...?" Calvin was surprised.

"I've a feeling that if it wasn't for the demons, His Majesty would turn all the four kingdoms upside down..." the Pearl of the Northern Region said, her mouth twitched. "He needs to focus on defeating the demons now and thus chooses to make peace with the nobles. But one day, after he eliminates the demons, he'll bring drastic change to the entire world. Keeping this in mind, the demons are actually helping us by giving us more time to keep up with the trend of development. This is our only chance. You should know what to do."

The Duke sighed after a long silence. "Provide preferential treatment to the teachers from Neverwinter, open more primary education classes, and send more people to study in the Western Region. Oh, and listen to the City Hall officials' advice... You've mentioned those things in the letters a number of times. My memory is not that bad."

"It's good you can remember that." Edith patted her father's shoulder and then walked upstairs. "I need to get some sleep now. I've many things to do tonight."

"Wait..." Calvin turned around and said. "As for the tavern maid's... I mean, Olivia's last question, I'm also curious. How did you respond to it at the time?"

"It's better to look for the answer than to wait for it—" Edith smiled slightly. "You've just made some progress. Now please continue your strong performance."

"Hey, it's just casual talking. Wait... do you keep silent deliberately?" The Duke stood agape and then he realized something. "You did this on purpose to shut me up? Well, well, I promise I won't send anyone to overhear your talking. Now, can you tell me? My sweet daughter!"

"Forget about it, father. It's not important." Edith paused before murmuring, "I hope it's true, unfortunately..."

"What...?" Calvin pursued.

The Pearl of the Northern Region did not reply. She just waved her hands and disappeared at the end of the stairs.

Chapter 1014 - The Day of Adulthood

Neverwinter was busy preparing for Roland's coronation ceremony.

After releasing the news, the king left the whole thing to Barov. The City Hall Director devoted himself entirely to the preparation job and strived for perfection in every detail. He even fetched Blanche, the ceremonial officer, from the old king's city to assist him.

As for Roland, apart from occasionally checking the progress of the magic movie, he spent most of his time on the final design of the internal combustion engine.

Because of the difference in measurement systems between the current world and his previous world, he needed to conduct a stability test for each prototype he made to make sure that his design was accurate. Furthermore, since the quality of the oil separated by the fractional process was very unstable, he had to adopt a redundancy design method. Without computer simulation techniques, he had to adjust the prototypes repeatedly.

He created a prototype, tested it and then improved it or scrapped it. He repeated this process again and again, which made him feel as if he had returned to his schooling days. He rushed about between the castle and the north slope backyard every day, living a busy and full life. The knowledge that he had forgotten a long time ago became vivid in his head once more.

Unlike his schooling days, this time he had a great companion, Anna.

She was as enthusiastic about new things as he was.

She was so absorbed in assembling the precision components. Even when she stopped to wipe the sweat from her nose, she would still have her eyes fixed on what she was working on. Seeing this, Roland felt amazed. He found that her thirst for knowledge and creation was as strong as her Blackfire.

And he thought she looked exceptionally attractive when she was so earnest in bringing to life her creations.

Whenever they made a progress, Anna would smile so brightly that Roland would believe nothing, not even becoming the queen of Graycastle, could make her that happy.

She had expressed such a thought before. As long as they could stay together, she would not care about the title.

However, Roland still wanted to give her the title as a way of externalizing his commitment to her.

After all, this was a common practice in human society.

After revising the dimensions of the engine, he put down the quill and rubbed his sore neck.

If nothing else, the design could be finalized this time. The last batch of prototypes had run stably for a reasonable period of time. It had only been a few days but was already enough to meet the current needs of the city.

Internal combustion engines, the second-generation power source, worked much more efficiently than steam engines, but in terms of structure, the former were not very different from the latter, except that the latter needed some external equipment such as a boiler and a steam transport pipe. No matter how well-designed a steam engine was, it could not prevent the energy loss caused by the transportation of steam. An internal combustion, however, contained the fuel inside its cylinder. In this way, all the heat generated by the fuel could be used to push the piston.

The mixture of oil and air would burn violently inside the cylinder. When the air became hot, its volume would increase rapidly to drive the piston. Meanwhile, the air pressure inside the cylinder would fall and thus fresh fuel would be sucked into the cylinder. It sounded like a simple process but it was not an easy project. For example, it had a brand new requirement, the sealing. In an early steam engine, one could easily insert a finger into the gap between the piston and the cylinder wall, and both felt and linen could be used to block the gap. However, such a gap would never be allowed in an internal combustion engine.

This was because it was powered by the fuel inside itself. Once its cylinder had a leak, it would stop working.

Given the high demand for material and manufacturing technology, internal combustion engines came several decades after the electric motors in the previous world where Roland had lived.

Roland had two designs for the first-generation internal combustion engines: cylinder-in-line and cylinder-in-circle. The former one was cumbersome and made of cast iron. It was stable and suitable for the factories. The latter was also known as a star engine. It had shorter crankshafts and a compact structure, so it was smaller in size and very suitable for aircraft. As it was made of aluminum alloy, only Anna could process this delicate engine for now.

Now that he could consult a large number of reference material in the Dream World, he developed these two types of engines at the same time. Compared to the tortuous experience of manufacturing the steam engines, this time, his design job was much easier.

The Senior Demon's words were another reason for him to speed up the engine development process.

This expedition had already proved that it was hard to rely solely on the ground-to-air firearms to resist all the attacks from the sky.

If his plan could be realized, for the first time ever, mankind in this world would have an air force that could contest with the demons riding flying mounts.

"Your Majesty, don't move."

Nightingale suddenly spoke.

Roland immediately froze up and moved his eyes to look back.

Is there...an enemy?

Soon he saw Nightingale approach and reach her hand into his hair, and then he felt a little pain from his head. It turned out that she had just plucked off a hair.

"Ugh, is it a white hair?" Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Since his hair color was light gray, a white hair should not be very conspicuous on his head. But Nightingale could easily recognize this white hair because it was dry and lost all its luster from its root.

"And there's more on your head." Nightingale continued to search inside his hair for a while. "Have you been having trouble sleeping recently?"

"Have I?"

"You used to sleep late in the winter, but recently you've been getting up earlier than me every day. At night, you have to enter the Dream World to study. That isn't really sleeping, is it?" Nightingale said. "You've yawned a lot recently, which means you are very tired. You are getting white hair in your twenties. That's not a good sign."

Roland felt very relieved looking at her even to the point that his work-induced weariness faded. She still cared about him as much as she did previously and his coming marriage did not affect her very much. Roland guessed that it must have had something to do with the agreement between Anna and her.

"Don't worry. I've not reached my limit yet. I've experienced it before."

"..." Nightingale looked puzzled, but apparently she could tell that it was not a lie.

Roland did tell her the truth. "Generally speaking, when I reach my limit, I'll have a palpitation and feel as if my chest is empty. After that, I need to be extra careful since I'll feel weak and sometimes, I'll start coughing a lot and even cough blood—ahem—"

Halfway through the speech, he suddenly coughed violently.

"Hey, are you alright?" Nightingale got nervous and patted his back. "Do you need me to fetch Nana for you?"

Roland took a deep breath. "No... I'm fine. I just choked on my saliva."

"Really?"

"Relax, I—"

He turned around and stiffened with embarrassment at once. He was surprised to find that Nightingale was so close to him at this moment. They looked into each other's eyes and simultaneously held their breath.

"Your Majesty." Just at this moment, Wendy opened the door and walked into the office. "I need to tell you something... Uh? What are you doing?"

"What?" Roland blinked only to find that Nightingale had already disappeared. Now, he was bending backwards while holding his head back, which was a really weird-looking posture.

"His Majesty is practicing gymnastics," said Nightingale, who was lying on the couch beside the tea table and chewing her dried fish leisurely. "He's been in his chair for a long time and got sore, so he decided to be the first to try his gymnastics."

"Oh, I see," Wendy said thoughtfully. "Is this the gymnastics you wanted to promote in the school? But... do you really think that such a strange pose will work?"

"Ugh, it works. Trust me." Roland returned to a normal sitting position. He felt that Nightingale, who was acting innocent, was trying her best to hold back laughter. "Well, what did you want to tell me?"

"Your Majesty," said Wendy, while leafing through the record book in her hand. "According to the records of the previous year, today is Lightning's Day of Adulthood."

Chapter 1015 - Soaring Through the Skies (Part I)

The coming of age for witches had always happened at the stroke of midnight.

This can be considered one of the unsolved mysteries of the witches. Even though magic power exists everywhere, there was no way to explain why it was the most active at this time. Even witches like Anna with immense magic reserves could entirely exhaust thier magic power and still fully recover within an hour or two after midnight. On the contrary, if the witches' magic power only recovered at the pace during the day, then even a week's time would probably still not be enough for them to get back to full strength.

Most of the witches did not care about this, and the Taquila survivors were no exception. When Roland asked them about it, the answers they gave were always along the lines of "isn't that just the start of a new day?" For most people, time was divided into days. Therefore, the magic power of each day should be spent on that same day. Just like the weather showing changes every day, there was nothing weird about this to them.

But Roland knew that the days were nothing but a human construct created out of convenience. This lead to the creation of the leap year. To correct this error, people came up with the leap month and with the advancement of the time-measuring apparatus, leap seconds were also invented(i.e., 59 or 61 seconds in the last minute). Basically, people created whatever would make life easier for them.

With that said, it was strange that the witches' magic power would only consolidate within a certain period of time.

It was as if there exists a biological clock in every Awakened so that she could always remain in sync with the flow of time. Regardless of when she was born and whether she lived in the Southernmost Region or the Hermes Plateau, she would always be linked to this phenomenon.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of more advanced observational devices such as the further research of magic power or the accurate measuring of time, both would be too difficult to accomplish at this time; so this theory would just remain a theory.

"Your Majesty." Wendy's words pulled him back to reality from his thoughts. "In addition to the above-mentioned measures, would you like to add anything else?"

The so-called measures were mainly designed to deal with the dangers of consolidating one's magic power. Since Lucia's Day of Adulthood, this factor had already been incorporated as part of the Witch Union's standard protocol.

Even Taquila could not provide much more in terms of advice regarding this point.

"Let's proceed according to your plan." Roland thought for a moment and said, "By the way, don't forget to inform Margaret and Sander Flyingbird. I think they would also like to know that Lightning has safely reached adulthood."

Wendy was a little surprised. "Ms. Margaret would not a problem, but as for Mr. Flyingbird..."

"He'll be fine," Roland said softly.

"Yes, I understand." Upon seeing his expression, Wendy no longer asked any more questions and agreed without further ado.

...

Night had long since fallen, yet the top floor of the Witch Building was still bright as day.

The top floor had already been transformed into a bedroom for the witches to use for adulthood. The room was the size two normal rooms so that it could accommodate more visitors, and the wall became a moveable door. If magic needed to be released, the two door panels could be opened directly, and the outer wall would no longer be blasted apart like last time.

Lightning laid on a large, soft bed, and seemed to be extremely excited. This was the exact opposite of Lucia's nervous behavior when she was going through her coming of age. It seemed as if the young explorer had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

A wooden table was fixed next to the big bed, with Lightning's left hand tied onto it. She held the Sigil of God's Will in her hand. According to Lucia, the moment painful contractions could be felt in her body, would be the moment when she would need to pour all the magic power into the Sigil. One hand was tied to avoid the young witch from losing control due to the intense pain, and inadvertently pointing the Sigil at others. After this danger was eliminated, the absence of Countess Spear and her powers was no longer that big of a deal.

Lightning was surrounded by her friends who had come to visit.

"Will I awaken with some derivative skill? If it can solve the weight problem, then I would be able to bring along a lot more food and tools to fly over the Land of Dawn!" Conversations on similar topics like that continued throughout the night. Lightning's fluttering eyes seemed to shine as she listed out one possibility after another. She looked just like Roland back when he was a child and was trying to guess what kind of birthday presents his family had prepared for him.

But of course, he would end up disappointed most of the time.

For example, if he were hoping to receive a huge Transformer model, he would instead receive a prep-book with over 300 exercises.

"There might not be any derivative skill," Mystery Moon muttered, "how can a derivative skill be that easy to obtain? Only a few people have this talent in the whole of Neverwinter."

"Ahem..." After this sentence, Roland seemed to hear a nasally voice, full of pride in her rising tone.

"Watch your words!" Lily stared at her.

"Mystery Moon isn't completely wrong," Agatha said with a laugh. "The Union had some research statistics. A witch who can awaken a derivative skill when she becomes an adult is about one in a hundred, but compared to the raise in rank, this is nothing. The most important thing for witches is the ultimate ability to expand their main magic power, so you don't have to worry too much about it and just focus on consolidating your magic power."

"By the way, weren't the Union witches trying to analyze the process of the witches' adulthood?" Scroll interjected and asked, "How were the results?"

"What we found can only be used for reference. After all, there aren't enough examples to verify it," said Wendy, looking at the record book, "but Lightning's score is really high. 85.9 points."

"Eh? What's that about?" Andrea asked curiously.

"It's an assessment method we came up with," said Agatha. "It was also a revelation from Lucia—Because the surge of magic power during adulthood is very obvious, it'd theoretically be easier to consolidate. We took all the promotion of Senior Witches as samples. A preliminary assessment was made, and points were scored based on the four factors of total magical power, academic scores, control ability, and individual will. Of course, we're still at the guessing phase at the moment."

"Academic scores... Do you mean test results?"

"Yes. That's the largest part of the assessment."

"I see... That means someone can never even hope to surpass the Transcendent in this life." Andrea glanced at Ashes with pity.

The latter just shrugged.

"This is... crazy." Roland suddenly heard Phyllis sigh.

"What's wrong?" He turned towards Phyllis.

"In the Taquila age, high-level evolution was an extremely sacred thing for every witch. Everyone was eager to win the favor of the deities but never dared to openly talk about it, because it just seemed like such a distant dream. If any witch dared to tell others that she was confident of evolving her powers, she would surely be scoffed at by other people. But now..." Phyllis murmured for a bit then recovered her senses. "Sorry, I'm not saying that it's not good, but the contrast between the two situations made me think..."

"I know what you mean." Roland smiled lightly. "It's like a merchant who woke up one day and found that the gold royals that he'd saved with his blood and sweat were no longer valuable. This would certainly be difficult for people to come to terms with."

"On this point, I really can't compare to Lady Agatha," Phyllis whispered. "She had only come here a year earlier than me, but now she's already in charge of the High Awakening research. She's undoubtedly the genius of the Union."

"Actually, this isn't that difficult to understand. If we're not stronger than our predecessors, how can we improve?" He said frankly, "As long as we're still moving forward, this kind of scenario will continue to appear. Just look at them, doesn't this feel like what hope is?"

Phyllis followed his glance and also looked at the girl on the bed.

"But the more ability you have, the better it is, right?" Lightning said confidently. "I think that not only will I consolidate my magic power, but I'll also gain several derivative skills because the most outstanding explorer will surely get the most rewards!"

"Yeah!" Maggie who was standing at the bedside also raised her arms, in support of the latter.

"That's not how logic works!" Complained Mystery Moon.

The room suddenly became boisterous.

Roland looked at the lively scene, shook his head with a smile, and headed toward the door.

"Are you not going to go in?"

After closing the door, he spoke to a man who stood in the corridor against the wall.

That person was Thunder.

Chapter 1016 - Soaring Through the Skies (Part II)

The explorer was still dressed like a wanderer. He was covered in feathers and wore an eye patch embroidered with rose petals on his right eye. No one would be able to recognize that he was Thunder from his appearance. Roland could not figure out why, but his image was a stark contrast from the way he was at the banquet.

"When you're disguising to be another person, you need to devote your heart and soul to become that character, so that you can deceive even yourself. Only then would you be able to fool other people. This was the first thing that I learned when I was learning how to disguise myself." Thunder inhaled his cigarette, and the weak red light looked like a looming firefly in the dark walkway. "Your Majesty, I'm afraid I can't concentrate on disguising myself as Sander Flyingbird right now... She will certainly see through it."

So that sense of strangeness was due to this. Roland realized that because there were certain dangers in a witch's adulthood, Thunder could no longer pretend to be an outsider and be pay no attention to his daughter.

If he showed too much concern, then it would become obvious that he was not the real Sander Flyingbird.

"Don't tell me that you want to keep hiding your identity?" Roland raised an eyebrow. "You should've heard what Lightning said just now. She's destined to become an explorer."

This question made Thunder silent for a long time.

Just as Roland thought that he would not reply, Thunder suddenly spoke up: "Your Majesty, do you believe in fate?"

At that moment, Roland had some doubts about the identity of Thunder the Explorer.

Isn't this a classic starting line when preaching? 

Of course, similar questions were also common in the love letters of high school students.

However, Thunder was certainly not seeking for an answer. "I've been told that geniuses will always die doing what they are best at, and God would make up for it by giving such people an unmatchable talent—This is fate. A road that's destined to be good will cause the one who walks on it to succumb to temptation because of one's extraordinary talent and eventually fall from grace. On the contrary, those ordinary people without much talent will tend to live longer."

"Who said that?" Roland could not help but ask.

"Sander, a person who introduced me to the path of an explorer." Thunder then breathed out a puff of smoke.

"Wait, there is such an explorer in the Fjords? Aren't you afraid that Lightning might've heard of his name?"

"He's been dead for a long time, and his identity remained obscure until and even after his death... By the standards of the Fjords, he couldn't even be considered a true explorer." With the smoke swirling around, Thunder almost merged with the shadows on the walls. "Before he died, he still hadn't found a brand new island or an unmarked route on the map. Sander didn't care about reputation. He said that adventure itself was fun and that the lack of talent didn't matter. At least he wouldn't have to worry about having a short life."

Roland seemed to suddenly realize something. "How did he die?"

"He died trying to save me," Thunder said slowly. "The ship encountered an attack from the Sea Ghosts. When Sander dragged me back to the cabin, he got clawed by the Sea Ghost. Although the wound wasn't big, the herbs were useless in treating it. His flesh quickly rotted and stopped breathing three days later. At that time he said to me that he died anyway doing what he was best at—He had no other outstanding qualities in life, other than his kindness."

"..." Roland suddenly did not know what to say.

"After Lightning was born, she had shown outstanding talents as an explorer. Whether it was identifying routes or drawing charts, she learned much faster than the average person." When Thunder said these words, his face revealed his complicated emotions. "When I learned that she'd awakened and become a witch, I became extremely worried. You should understand what this ability means to an explorer."

Indeed, if courage, curiosity, and knowledge were the intrinsic natures of human beings, that meant anyone could acquire them, given time. But having magic power could be said to be a gift from the deities.

"That's why I made this decision," said Thunder said as he raised his head, and the light in his eyes seemed to reflect the red light in the pipe. "If fate is hard to avoid, I might be able to cut it off in another way—if I can uncover the veils of those mysterious places before LIghtning sets out to be an explorer, the chances of her encountering danger would be greatly reduced. Leaving aside the land occupied by the demons, no one has yet set foot in the east of the Sealine, and the bold cliff seen from the Shadow Seacity ruins. Once you defeat the demons, I should be able to draw a map of these two places. Before that, however, it would be the best if I traveled alone."

If there was no more need for expeditions, there would naturally be no risk. This logic made Roland dumbfounded for a moment.

Although the world might be much larger than even what Thunder had imagined, it was still amazing for him to have such thoughts. This took more than just courage.

Gravity firmly anchored everyone onto the ground, but it certainly could not limit the wild dreams of some people

Thunder was obviously amongst the most capable of those who dared to dream.

—Flying was not just a witch's privilege.

"In that case, I shall leave her in your hands, Your Majesty," Thunder said, grabbing his chest.

At this instant, a loud noise came from inside the room.

Roland nodded at Thunder before returning to the bedroom.

One side of the wall had already been pushed open, but he did not hear the Sigil of God's Will being triggered.

"Your Majesty," said Wendy excitedly. "Lightning her... her magic has consolidated!"

Here was another witch who was evolved on the Day of Adulthood. He saw a clear excitement in the eyes of Agatha and Wendy, as this meant that their research was indeed feasible.

"Really?" Roland walked over to the bedside and looked at the eager-looking girl. "Was there any discomfort?"

"Not at all," Lightning patted her chest and said, "I feel like I'm full of power! It's a pity that I couldn't release the Sigil. Lighting the fourth stone was already the limit."

"That's good to hear," Roland let out a deep breath and said, "then you should take a rest today, and tomorrow you can—"

"Your Majesty, I'd like to try it now. May I?!" Lightning jumped out of bed. "I feel like my something is calling me and I can't help but want to fly immediately!"

"Is she talking about the magic power within her?" Roland couldn't help but laugh. She was certainly the most energetic member of the Witch Union. Since she had already said that, he had no reason to refuse. "Take Maggie with you, and don't fly too far away."

"Yes!"

"Coo!"

One side of the wall was still half-open, and after Maggie became a pigeon, she landed on Lightning's head—Lightning then held the pigeon with both of her hands and swiftly flew out of the room and disappeared into the cold and windy night sky.

"I don't know what her ability will be like after her consolidation..." Wendy murmured as she stared into the night sky. "We'll be busy tomorrow."

"Please also let me observe with the Five-Colored Stone during the test," Phyllis said.

"Anyways, let's stop here for today, and the rest can wait until tomorrow—"

Just as Roland was in the middle of his sentence, a thunderous explosion sounded through the sky!

The force of the sound was so strong that it was if all those present could actually feel it! The snow on the roof was shaken and became white fog. Ice was falling like raindrops. The glass windows of the castle cracked as if they had been smashed by an invisible giant hand.

While the witches were looking at each other dumbfounded, the echoes caused by the thunder roared back and forth continuously in the Impassable Mountain Range and did not disappear after a long time.

Chapter 1017 - Derivative Skill

Just like Lucia's Day of Adulthood, Lightning's promotion was a joyous one, but it also caused a bit of trouble for Roland.

"Did anyone in the area get hurt last night?"

The next day, after listening to Barov's report, he could not help but raise his eyebrow.

"Yes, Your Majesty..." Roland could hear him lamenting from the other end of the phone. "An unlucky guy was planning to go to the toilet, but the explosion scared him so much that he fell and broke his foot. There are another two guys who rolled off their beds and hurt their heads. In the morning, a large group of anxious citizens came to the City Hall and asked if Neverwinter was being attacked by the demons or demonic beasts. The staff spent a great deal of effort before persuading them otherwise. Your Majesty, if such a thing were to happen in the future, could you kindly tell me beforehand?"

Roland could just see Barov's woeful face even through the earpiece.

The chief himself was probably scared out of his wits and couldn't wait for the sunrise.

"How are the wounded now?"

"They've all been sent to the hospital. Their lives aren't in danger, but the citizens are still talking about it. In the central square, people are still crowded in front of the bulletin boards and waiting for the announcements. This must've been caused by the witches' ability, right? If you'd informed me ahead of time, I wouldn't need to bother you in the aftermath of such a small incident."

"I know, but things related to magic are inherently unpredictable. It's not because I don't trust you." Roland consoled him by saying, "As for the announcement, just tell the citizens that I'm researching new weapons, so there will be similar incidents in the future, so rest assured about their safety. When there's a real enemy attack, the emergency alert will be the sound. By the way, City Hall will pay for the medical expenses for those that got injured."

"Yes... Your Highness," Barov answered unwillingly.

Roland shook his head and hung up the phone.

Roland did not understand why the City Hall Director was starting to be quite clingy. Although he handled the government affairs well, this tone of "Your Majesty, I've dedicated my heart and soul to serving you, you can't let me down" gave Roland goosebumps.

On the contrary, his communication with Pearl of the Northern Region was much quicker and smoother.

He wondered where she was now.

As he recovered from his distractions, he looked at Lightning who was at the desk and playing with her hair. Roland asked laughingly, "You must've heard the conversation just now, right?"

"Oh..." the little girl said despairingly, "Your Majesty, I've made a mistake. Please punish me by making me do two exercises."

Roland once again turned his gaze to Maggie who was on top of her head, and she struggled to turn her gaze away, and put on a disinterested expression, "Coo—"

Although the members of the Exploration Group were close, when Maggie was faced with these mixed exercises, she chose to remain silent.

He tried to resist but still burst out laughing. "Haha... Come on and lift your head, it's not your fault—After all, I was the one who agreed to let you fly. I should also bear some of the responsibility."

"Rea... Really?" Lightning raised her head and her eyes sparkled.

"Of course, you didn't know that your new power would cause any harm. Anyways, the damage wasn't too bad, so you don't have to worry about the practice exercises."

As Lightning's flight route last night was towards the direction of the Impassable Mountain Range, the impact on the residential area was minimal—other than cracking some glass windows in the castle and the diplomatic building; the other buildings were still well intact. While passing through the Furnace Area, Lightning had already climbed to a certain height, so the damage was further reduced, and no additional damage was done.

"Your Majesty, you're really... so kind!" She seemed to have regained all her energy in that instant, and Maggie was so relieved that she spread her wings.

Seeing that both of them were about to tackle him, Roland quickly raised his hand and stopped them in their tracks. "But does high-speed flight really consume that much magic power? Didn't you only fly for fifteen minutes last night?"

As soon as he asked this, Lightning suddenly felt embarrassed. "I was very surprised as well. I wanted to leave part of my magic for testing at that time. I tried to speed it up to test where its limit was, but I didn't expect the magic power to be consumed so quickly, and I even almost fell out of the sky."

"Could you still get faster?" Wendy, who was recording her account, immediately raised a key point.

"Yes," said Lightning with confidence, "as long as I have enough magic—there wasn't even any sound of the wind in my ears at the time. I even felt that nothing would stop me from flying even faster."

"What about Maggie? Was she always squatting on top of your head?"

"Coo!" Before Lightning answered, Maggie had already turned and said, "Too fast, dizzy, bosom coo!"

Was she saying that it was too fast and uncomfortable, so she was taken into Lightning's arms? Roland realized that his ability to understand pigeon language had significantly improved and his mind could automatically fill in the blanks.

"You only felt dizzy?" Agatha, who was also in charge of the ability test, said, "Didn't you feel the change in the airflow?"

"Uhmm..." Lightning pondered for a moment and said, "although I was wearing wind goggles at the time, when I was halfway through, the wind seemed to have suddenly disappeared."

"What do you think?" Roland looked at the Ice Witch. "Was this type of derivative ability recorded in the Union?"

Lightning almost accidentally exhausted all of her magic power and had disrupted the assessment. But the Witch Union had already established a system of assessment procedures. That, together with the experience of the Union, would be enough to form a rough estimate using the Stone of Measuring even if the ability could not be displayed.

According to Lightning, she spent only about three minutes to cross the Impassable Mountain Range before she flew into the Barbarian Land. This part usually took about half an hour to travel. The thunder in the night sky could also confirm this—Her ability after evolving had given her the ability to break the sound barrier in flight.

Regarding the concept of sound barriers, Roland did not have to spend too much time on it— Agatha's ability to learn had always been one of the best among the witches. A little bit of explanation was enough for her to understand the reason for the thunder.

There were no shortages of creatures in nature that could reach the speed of sound in a short period, and even human beings had managed to travel at the speed of sound in their flesh and bones. However, this did not mean that this could be easily achieved. There was no doubt that the reason why Lightning was not affected was related to her derivate ability after awakening.

"I think this would be 'magic synchronization." Agatha pondered for a moment then said, "This kind of derivative skill usually appeared in those witches whose main ability was dangerous to themselves. Hence, there weren't too many records about it. It'd usually expand into a cocoon and wrap witches in it, providing a safe environment within the cocoon. But maintaining it requires a lot of magic power. The bigger the gap between the internal and external environment, the higher the speed of magic consumption. In other words..."

"So Lightning exhausted her magic power in such a short time not because of the flight, but because of her derivative ability?" Wendy replied.

"That's right," Agatha nodded her head and said, "most derivative abilities were formed to aid the main ability, like Scroll's Book of Magic, and Lucia's colored world—Without them, the effect of the main ability would be greatly reduced and it would be difficult to use their full potential. The synchronization of her magic powers was the same. Rather than incurring severe injuries, it would be a wiser decision to fly less instead.

Chapter 1018 - Spread of News

"But my magic capacity can continue to grow through training, so there's no limit to the number of evolutions, right?" Lightning did not seem frustrated at all. "This is good—it makes me so excited thinking about being able to exceed my own limits! I can also be considered as half a combat witch now!"

"Battle coo!" Maggie chipped in.

"I know you're thrilled, but remember not to speed up over the castle and make trouble for His Majesty Roland again." Wendy coughed twice and said, "And you have to conserve your magic power for the next few days until we are finished with all the tests. Understand?"

"Yes, big sis Wendy." Lightning cheekily stuck out her tongue.

On the other hand, Roland had a different view. Even though flying at supersonic speed could bring unparalleled mobility, once the magic power was exhausted, she could easily be forced into a dangerous situation. Lightning was also much smaller than an airplane, so it was still unclear now how much damage she could deal with a demon when she rams it after breaking the sound barrier. It was obviously not worthwhile to use her as a combat witch.

And those Magic Slayers that could easily disrupt the flow of magic power within a large area will always pose a huge threat to her.

What he was more concerned about was the duration at which she can maintain subsonic speed—the speed of 800 to 900 kilometers per hour was absolutely unprecedented in this era. Whether it was used expand the maps of the unexplored areas, or have her serve as a scout to make up for the battlefield blind spots of Sylvie's discovery area, it would certainly be much more efficient than to have her participate in battles.

When Lightning was about to leave, Roland suddenly stopped her.

"By the way, I have another question that I want to ask you," he said while considering the right words to use. "If... after ten years, the world no longer had any places to explore, what would you do?"

"No places... to explore?" Lightning was slightly surprised.

"Imagine if every continent has already been set foot on, every area of the sea has been recorded in detail on the charts, the entire world was crystal clear, and there are no longer any unknown places. Although that sounds a bit far-fetched, if it did happen, would you still want to become an explorer?"

"I see," the little girl suddenly realized, "what you meant to say was, what would I do if the Fjord explorers already discovered the entire land and sea during the Battle of Divine Will?"

"Uh... I guess you could put it that way." Roland was secretly baffled. He had already tried very hard to be indirect about it, yet she still understood the main point immediately. Peers in the same industry were certainly hard to deceive.

"Unless they are all as powerful as my father, but even so, I will continue to explore," Lightning said without hesitating, "because there are some places that only I can reach, not even my father can do it."

"You mean..."

Lightning pointed to the top of her head and said with confidence, "There is still a big gap in the sky!"

Only when she left did Roland burst out laughing.

Should he say "like father like daughter?" Her tone was not only similar to Thunder's but was even stronger than his. He didn't know if the explorer's fate would be as Thunder described, but there was indeed truth in what she had said. In terms of the ability to maneuver the skies, Lightning was certainly well above the rest.

"What're you laughing at?" Nightingale asked curiously.

He stood up, walked to the French window and looked at the cloudy sky. His glance seemed to have penetrated the clouds and reached further into the distance—although it was still elusive and mysterious, some people were already paying attention to it.

"I'm laughing at... how nice being young is," he said with emotion.

...

After dealing with Lightning's matters, Roland asked Wendy to stay behind.

"I intend to add a department in the City Hall." He went straight to the point. "In addition to dealing with emergencies like today, it'd also give the public a credible channel for discussion."

"You mean... it will be mainly used to announce messages?" asked Wendy.

"Yes, this department will be called the Ministry of Public Relations." Roland nodded and said, "However, the way it spreads news will be somewhat different—Firstly, if something is not an emergency, it'll no longer be announced through the bulletin board in the Central Square. Secondly, its content will not be limited to Neverwinter, some novelty events from other lands will also be included."

"If we don't publicize in the square, how do we let others know about it?" Nightingale pursed her lips.

Roland picked up a scrap of paper from the table and unfolded it in front of them. "We need a brand new method of spreading information—and that's the newspaper."

In fact, setting up bulletin boards in the central square and sending people to repeatedly announce the news was done only because Roland had no other choice back then. The literacy rate of people in that era was extremely low. In such circumstances, word of mouth had become the only way to promote a decree.

However, with the rapid expansion of the urban population and the domains, this method could no longer keep up with the actual needs of the subjects—In the past, gathering 3,000 people would be enough to have the news spread to the whole city. But now, at least 80,000 to 90,000 people would be needed to cover the rapidly increasing population.

This not only exceeded the capacity of the central square, but the extraction of such a huge crowd also resulted in the suspension of Neverwinter's industrial operations.

Barov's report made him realize that the so-called "if you don't occupy publicity locations, then enemies will occupy it" was not just talk. If there were no reliable channel for discussion, various rumors would spread in the pub. These rumors would continue to brew, and it would be too late to stop them once they had spread.

Now that the education for primary education had already been carried out for two and a half years, the materials available to Neverwinter had become much richer than in previous years. The introduction of newspapers as a means of communication was then of course inevitable.

If the first step was the foundation for running newspapers, then the second step would be to ensure the efficiency of the channels that would issue these newspapers.

What does an official newspaper need? A large circulation and reporting of current content that would generate discussion. Therefore Neverwinter needed to have a large amount of paper and efficient printing technology.

The problem of paper could be easily solved. In the central and eastern developed commercial cities, paper products had already spread to the middle and upper-class families. He even remembered Lucia's parents, who have passed away, used to run a paper mill in Valencia. According to the statistics of the City Hall, there were many migrated craftsmen from the East who had mastered papermaking. As long as those craftsmen were gathered together, the production capacity could be expanded, and they would soon meet the needs of large-scale distribution.

For Neverwinter, any problem that could be solved with money was not considered a problem.

The printing skill was even more straightforward. The movable metal type plus drum reels were all tried and tested technologies. The ink could be provided by Darkcloud which was theoretically even easier than papermaking.

But it was unnecessary to explain all these details to Wendy. Putting aside the technical aspects, newspapers still had to be written by people, so the most important thing was to find people to gather and record the news.

He asked Wendy to stay behind as he wanted her to pick out a few suitable candidates—whether it was the Witch Union or the Sleeping Spell, she understood the abilities of her sisters the most.

"I roughly understand what you mean..." After listening to Roland's explanation, Wendy pondered for a moment. "So you need a witch to get involved in this matter. She'd need to discover the incident when it's happening and also run faster than anyone else so that the message can be sent as soon as possible to the publicity department?"

"Ahem, she doesn't have to run fast." He almost choked on his own saliva. "As long as she knows where the incident is happening, she could dispatch someone else to send the message."

"In other words, she would be a core member of the Ministry of Public Relations? Well... I do have a suitable candidate in mind." Wendy laughed and said, "Your Majesty, what do you think... about Honey?"

Chapter 1019 - The Secrets of the Witches

When Honey was summoned to the office, she was apparently very glad. Once she entered the office, she examined the mahogany table very carefully, as if she wanted to look through it.

"What's wrong?" Roland curiously asked, "Is there something about this table?"

"Do you put precious things inside?" Honey even sniffed at the table and asked, "Or does it maybe have some other functions, such as automatically heating up at night?"

"How could it..." he could not help laughing, "This is just an ordinary table. There is nothing but documents and official letters inside."

"Oh, really?" said Honey suspiciously. "Then why does Sister Nightingale bend over it for a long time every night?"

"Wait, what?" Roland and Wendy were stunned, while Nightingale immediately leaped up from the couch.

"Grayhair told me so when I trained it, although it could only express it with its actions." Honey replied seriously, "Sister Nightingale always sits in your place when nobody is around and leans her face on the table— Em—"

Before she could finish her words, Nightingale already jumped forward and covered her mouth tightly. "I, I was just a bit sleepy and leaned on the table for a while! How could a, a bird know what I was doing? You must have got it wrong!"

Wendy put her hand on the forehead, speechless.

"Ahem," Roland coughed and said. "Maybe Grayhair did not see it clearly? After all, it is very dark in the night..."

Honey mumbled in Nightingale's palm, "But Grayhair is an owl."

There was a brief silence in the office.

"Anyway, you should be mistaken," Roland cleared his throat and waved his hand at Nightingale who blushed at Honey's words. The latter stamped and disappeared into the Mist.

It seems that she will not show up for some time again.

"Really? I got it." Honey did not continue to ask, "If the table could heat up, I would have wanted one."

"Why?" asked Roland, raising his eyebrows, "Isn't there a heating system in both the Castle and the Witch Building?"

"But not in the garden. When Sister Leaf is away, it's very cold there. Grayhair and other birds have been unwilling to move as of lately. I was afraid that they would catch a cold, so I built a platform under the olive tree and slept with them in my arms. If the table could heat up, they'd be more comfortable."

"Is that why she was so interested in the table?" thought Roland. He noticed that there were several feathers on Honey's soft curly hair which looked like a disheveled nest at first glance. He realized that he had indeed ignored the living environment of the Animal Messengers. He thought that they had the ability to adapt to nature but ignored the fact that it violated natural rules to have them fly in the wind and snow during the Months of Demons.

"Although the table can't give out heat, I can have people build a heated brick bed in the garden, " he laughed and gestured, "It'll be almost as large as a bed, so you can get all the animals you train to sleep on it. How about it?"

"Really?" Honey's eyes lighted up, "Thank you!"

"It's nothing, but can you really talk to them?"

Honey rubbed her head shyly, "In fact, as Sister Nightingale said, most animals can't speak, so they can only use simple actions to imitate what they see. I often fail to guess what they mean, so it can't be counted as a real conversation."

"I see, " thought Roland, "although the magic power can make trained birds and beasts follow Honey's orders, it can't endow them with human-like intelligence and transform them into another species." He asked, "What if you order them to look for anecdotes and then indicate directions to you?"

"Anecdotes?"

Honey pondered for a while. While Roland was thinking how to explain the word "news", she suddenly asked, "Sister Wendy and Scroll often get together to drink and sing on the balcony once they get drunk. Is that an anecdote?"

"I've never heard of it." Roland was surprised. Wendy, as the head of the Witch Union, was gentle and warm as a spring breeze. As the Minister of Education and the teacher of primary courses for witches, Scroll was patient and full of intellectual beauty. She might not smile often, but she was concerned about every sister in the Union. It is difficult for him to imagine the scene of the time when they were drunk, and more than once, according to what Honey said. He could not help asking, "Why have I never heard them sing?"

"Because they generally meet when you're out. After all, only when Sister Nightingale is away, they can easily drink her beverage." Honey said, "They're not just singing. Greentail tells me that they sometimes talk about you— Em—"

This time it was Wendy who covered her mouth and explained, "I was only ha-happy for Your Majesty's achievements. What's more, she said that the bird can't speak, so how could they understand what we were talking about? "

"Greentail is a parrot..." Honey mumbled.

Seeing that everyone was falling into silence again, Roland quickly changed the topic and said, "Well, that is indeed an unusual anecdote. You're qualified."

"Qualified?" she asked confused.

"Wait, Your Majesty. I suddenly feel that it might be inappropriate for her to serve as the core member of the Ministry of Public Relations and Communications..." Wendy said, coughing.

"Don't worry. All articles are ultimately released only once they're reviewed. The newspaper will mainly about the public events. There won't be too much about the witches." Roland made the final decision, "In addition, common people can't enter the Castle District, so you can rest assured. After all, only her Animal Messengers can quickly get news from all over the country."

"Your Majesty, may I know what in the world you're talking about?" Honey shouted while raising her hand.

"Of course," Roland tried to suppress his smile. "It's a very interesting job. Come here and I'll explain it to you in detail."

With the news center and the newspaper printing technology, the next step is to recruit hands and establish an interview-writing system. Barov is undoubtedly the most appropriate one for the job. As for the position of the minister, Roland decided to take the position himself.

Taking into account the degree of acceptance of people, the newspapers would be issued only in Neverwinter once a week. In addition to the major events that take place in various locations, there would also be sections that would record non-governmental news and trivial things of life. With the official background of the City Hall, Roland believed that before long the newspaper would be the most credible channel of publicity, which would greatly improve the current lack of publicity. At the same time, it would also provide a wealth of talks for the public in the taverns as to squeeze the rumors out the market.

However, these were just official records. What Roland was more interested in were the words Honey had not finished.

Of course, he does not have to be in a rush. Since he would be the minister, he could summon Honey alone and ask her about the hidden anecdotes. For instance, what did Wendy and Scroll say when they were drunk?

He was really curious about it.

Chapter 1020 - Release Day

Victor sat in a private room of a tavern in Neverwinter, reading through the latest trade bills.

Unlike the noisy hall downstairs, this was undoubtedly a room of superior quality. With a woolen carpet on the floor and a heated brick bed underneath the soft couch, he would not feel a bit of coldness on his feet.

At his request, the tavern also installed a movable wooden table next to the soft couch, which could serve as a low table when needed. Especially in the winter with chilling wind and snow, leaning on the couch to work could be considered a kind of enjoyment.

At the moment, a plate of roasted chicken breast slices was placed next to his left hand, and a cup of dark purple Chaos Drinks on the right side. This meal was worth 10 gold royals, not to mention its taste.

As a jewelry trader on the surface, he was, in fact, the fourth son of the Lothar family. These expenses, which were a huge amount of money in the eyes of common people, were nothing to him. It has been his unconscious habit to spend gold royals on physical comforts. Whether it was worthwhile or not, it was not within his consideration.

After watching the debut of the giant machinery named "train" two months ago, he bought a room on the third floor of the tavern to serve as his business residence.

Of course, with his wealth, it was not difficult for him to buy one or two houses. Nevertheless, Victor preferred this sense of detachment—he could stay in a quiet state while feeling the noise and excitement downstairs at the same time. Compared with the huge mansions favored by traditional nobles, he has always been full of longing for places like taverns.

It was convenient for him to negotiate with various caravans in the tavern. However, there was another reason.

Nothing else could reflect the vigor and prosperity of a city more directly than a downtown tavern.

After reading the last page, Victor closed the sheepskin notebook in his hand and lifted the crystal clear drink. In the candlelight, the purple-red liquid was like a beautiful gemstone.

There was some trouble with the recent bills.

He has failed to purchase any gemstones in the Western Region for a long time.

The battle for the throne had caused great changes in Graycastle. The cities were destroyed in the war and the nobles no longer owned domains. These changes caused the price of luxury goods to keep falling. To maintain the original profit, he had to increase sales. Be that as it may, without gemstones, his jewelry craftsmen could not make any jewelry.

The Longsong Stronghold was originally one of his main gemstone sources. However, since Roland Wimbledon announced to build Neverwinter, the gemstones became increasingly scarce. Victor had gone to Longsong Area several times but found that all mining areas had been occupied by the young king. It was not strange, as the occupation of wealth was the common nature of lords. Nevertheless, all gemstones disappeared since they were transported out of the Border Area.

That is right. He has failed to find any jewelry shop in Neverwinter so far.

The king could either directly sell the gemstones or invest money to sell jewelry. If the king chose the former way, Victor could make profits by reselling the gemstones at a higher price. If it was the latter, he could cooperate with the king. Whether it was the selling channel or jewelry craftsmanship, he had the strength which the king would not refuse.

Yet, the king has not given him any chance to be involved.

It is as if Roland Wimbledon did not plan to make money by selling gemstones.

This made Victor a bit distressed.

He also tried to sell the jewelry in Neverwinter and the result was equally terrible. The jewelry, which commonly cost dozens of gold royals, were not affordable for civilians. It was always sold to wealthy noble families so that they could show off and compare them at the banquets. However, there are not any nobles in Neverwinter!

That is right; in such a huge new city, he could not find anyone who was interested in jewelry, which was something completely unforeseen by him.

He had come to Neverwinter several times, but he only purchased goods instead of selling. So the bills on the sheepskin notebook showed a huge trade deficit.

This was undoubtedly an unhealthy signal.

The emergence of the train made Victor realize that the future arrived but not everywhere. To better expand his business, he naturally had to go to the place which was nearest to the future. The shift of business focus from the old king's city to the new one was an inevitable choice for him.

The question was what he should do if there was no such industry in the future.

He was not short of money. Even if he did nothing, he could enjoy a prosperous life. However, he must prove his ability in trade so that those businessmen who coveted his family and "Black Money" would have nothing to say.

He can not let his father down.

When Victor was thinking about how to solve this problem, the noise downstairs suddenly exploded, and even the floor shook slightly.

It is still early, so there should not be a crowd of people drinking downstairs. What happened?

He pulled the string of the brass bell to summon a maid.

"Excuse me," a pretty woman quickly opened the door and walked in. "Can I help you, Sir?"

At the moment the door was open, the noise became louder. There appeared to be someone reading aloud.

Victor pointed outside and asked, "What're they doing downstairs?"

"I'm sorry, Sir. Have they bothered you?" The maid smiled apologetically. "Please forgive them. After all, it's the release day of the newspaper. They're jostling to buy it."

"News... paper?" he repeated awkwardly.

"Yes, His Majesty made the announcement a week ago. The newspaper is used to replace the bulletin board on the square. Everyone has been looking forward to it for a long time. We're eager to see what the newspaper is."

"Oh, a new product? No wonder it's the new king's city." It immediately aroused Victor's interest. He asked, "How much is it?"

"I heard that it costs ten bronze royals for each."

"Buy one... no, 10 for me!" he said immediately.

"Yes." The maid trod downstairs and returned quickly, panting. "Sir, sir... The newspapers delivered have all been sold out."

"So fast?" Victor blinked in surprise. If it were a commodity, it would be too popular. However, this was also alright for him, as he could get it as long as he paid with more money. "Then buy it from people who have bought it. No matter how expensive!"

He threw a gold royal to the maid and said, "As long as you can get it, all that's left is yours!"

"Yes, Sir!" The girl replied with a huge grin.

About seven minutes later, six piles of newspaper in gray color were handed to him.

"The price has risen to 20 silver royals. I have done my best..." the maid said hesitatively.

So they raised the price as they found out that he was eager to buy it. The maid's expression clearly exposed her thoughts. Though she failed the task, she was unwilling to return the remaining money. Victor did not care about it and asked, "What's your name?"

"Tinkle, Sir."

"Keep the change," he said, waving the newspaper in his hand. "By the way, would you like to read this with me?"

Since he already had delicious food and wine, what was missing was naturally self-evident. Her heaving breasts and beads of sweat on her nose tip all gave off a breath of youthful vitality. Having met too many noble ladies, he felt this slightly clumsy girl had a certain, different flavor, not to mention that she was a resident of Neverwinter and could answer his questions when needed.

"Sir..." The maid lowered her head and a pale blush appeared on her cheeks. After a while, she bit her lip and nodded before she whispered, "I'd like to."

"Hahaha," he laughed and patted the soft couch. "Then thank you very much for your company."

Chapter 1021 - Graycastle Weekly

The moment she sat on the couch, the padding immediately creaked and bent.

"It seems that I have to remind the tavern to reinforce the couch," thought Victor, "Though the bed is right in the corner of the room, sometimes it more interesting to not do it in bed. A new place brings unexpected feelings. Compared with the king's city in the Kingdom of Dawn, the tavern here obviously lacks a profound background."

Before long, Tinkle cleaned the drinks and food on the table and spread the newspapers out in front of him.

"This is..." Victor couldn't help raising his eyebrows. He saw small, dense words on the paper, just like the classics which his family treasured.

He used to think that he had seen the most precious of things in the world and even played with them with his hands. Usually, when a commodity was placed in front of him, he could immediately determine its price. However, it was the first time that he was hesitated to make a judgment about something.

Such neat and delicate words were unlikely to be hand-written. In other words, they were probably printed. Considering the cost of printing, it was generally only used for important and rarely modified archives and classics, for example, the Royal Code.

That was where the problem lied. In order to achieve the best printing effect, the best possible materials would be used for printing such great quality books. The lambskin, which had never been shaved, would be considered as the basic material, and it was not unusual to decorate the page with golden lines and jewelry so as to emphasize extraordinary luxury and to ensure adequate durability.

But the newspaper was different. It was obviously made of rough papyrus, which would melt in water. It had neither a cover nor any protective measures at its corners. Even if he read it carefully, it would start to fall apart after a few reads. In his eyes, it was like putting a precious gemstone in an iron ingot.

Victor recalled what the maid said before. The king intended to use this thing to replace the public announcement board. Did that mean that it would be printed with new content in the future?

He got a positive answer from her.

"Yeah, the announcement said the newspaper would be issued every two weeks, and the amount would increase to ensure most people could read it."

It only costs ten bronze royals for each.

He began to wonder how much wealth had been plundered by King Roland from Hermes. Why would he continue doing this stuff which was doomed to lose money?

The jewelry trader, who previously believed that there might be a business opportunity, gave up his idea immediately.

"Who cares", Victor whispered secretly. "It's not my money anyway, and it's none of my business whether the king earns or loses. I'll focus on the newspaper."

Thinking of that, he moved his eyes to the first page.

On the top was an enlarged, bold title: "Graycastle Weekly".

Below it, a full-page was about the king's enthronement, as well as the news that the Kingdom of Dawn and Graycastle signed a pact against the demons.

He had heard of them before, but he did not know the details.

After reading a few lines, Victor was completely immersed himself in it.

He held his breath while reading it.

For the first time, he read the details of these two events from the perspective of the high officials. It was different from the rumors that spread among the public populace, the reports on the newspapers included accurate times, places, reasoning, process and results. It even demonstrated their causes, especially for the pact with the Kingdom of Dawn. The treachery of the Moya family, the rebellion of the nobles, and the letter for help which came from 1000 kilometers away. All of these factors led to the expedition of the Graycastle army. Then it was a matter, of course, that the new King of Dawn was willing to restore the kingdom's order with the help of Roland Wimbledon.

He knew these descriptions were definitely not authentic, but he still subconsciously wanted to believe them. The content was so complete and logically sound that it was difficult not to believe.

In fact, since they dared to put such things on the table directly, it was already convincing enough.

Victor ignored the presence of Tinkle for a time and could not wait to keep reading.

The second page was related to the demons. The writer wrote a detailed daily record of a battle which narrated the expedition of the First Army to the western wilds and its attack on the demons.

This was the first time he had heard of it.

When Victor last came to Neverwinter, he heard that the Devilbeasts had attacked the border. He had never expected the king to initiate revenge for it. Not only did the First Army march into the forbidden land, which was full of danger, it gave its opponents a heavy blow. This made them no longer dare to show up in the Western Region. If what was reported was true, it could almost be described as a legendary event!

"How did they do it?" was the fist thing to pop into Victor's mind.

Whether it was the half-a-month raids over 1,000 kilometers away or the life-and-death confrontation that was merely 10 kilometers away, it was breath-taking.

When reading the army gathering in formation and resisting waves of enemies falling from the sky, he even felt chills down his spine.

As he had been exposed to "Black Money" since he was a child, he was more informed than most that the world was not as simple as people imagined. In the invisible darkness, there were many powers that did not tire. Therefore, he was not surprised by the emergence of the demons when he heard it in the Kingdom of Dawn. He guessed that the leaders of those Chambers of Commerce were probably of the same mind.

But nothing more.

The nobles and businessmen of the Kingdom of Dawn still focused on their own interests, and not care about the Battle of Divine Will, which was a mere term in their eyes.

Victor never expected that Graycastle had already had a direct confrontation with the demons and had won. This aroused an indescribable feeling in his heart.

He couldn't explain what it was, but it made him feel safe and happy.

This should have nothing to do with him.

After thinking about it, he was probably affected by the word "human" the most, which had appeared many times in the newspaper.

For a moment, Victor felt as if he was standing with the First Army of Graycastle. In front of powerful and terrible enemies, the gap between family and blood seemed to have faded away.

He took a deep breath and licked his slightly dry lips before reading the third page.

The content on this page was much more casual. It was about the trivial things that happened in Neverwinter with quite novel titles such as "Shock! What's Behind the Explosion in the City Last Night? Detective Group Reveals the Secret!", "Water Pipe Cracked, Roads Become Skating Tracks!", "Bird Beak Mushrooms Recipe Every Neverwinteror Should Know", etc...

Victor glanced through the page, and when he turned it over, he was stunned.

A black and white picture occupied half of the page. It was so vivid that it was difficult for him to turn his eyes away.

Two girls, holding hands, stood together peacefully on a snow-covered land. White snow flew in the air, forming a gorgeous scenery. Below the picture was a beautiful line of words.

"An art beyond the times, the gift of His Majesty's enthronement! 'The Wolf Princess', performed by the Star Flower Troupe and the Witches, and written by His Majesty will be staged at the end of this month! Book your tickets now!"

Chapter 1022 - Divergence

"What's this?" Victor pointed at the picture and asked, "A new play?"

Twinkle leaned over and looked at the newspaper, "No, sir... This picture should be of the magic movie."

"Magic movie?" It was another term which he had never heard of. It was so fantastic to be living in the future. The jewelry tradesman was eagerly asked, "Can you explain it in detail?"

The maid answered a bit embarrassed, "Well... I don't know too much. The same picture was hung up several days ago in Central Square, but it was colored. I heard the magic movie is a brand-new performance and is only available on a special stage."

"An art... beyond the times. Since he dares to use such words to describe it, the King of Graycastle must be extremely confident about it." Victor rubbed the slightly rough paper and thought, "It seems that this is worth looking forward to."

He noticed that there were a few lines under the titles, which indicated the time and location of the performance and the way to purchase tickets.

Victor's heart jumped at the words.

Wait... The ticket costs 40 gold royals?

How could that be possible? It surpassed the price of the top troupe in the City of Glow!

He could afford this price, but would there be anyone else in the city willing to pay for a magic movie since they didn't even care for jewelry?

No, there was still more... Victor frowned and continued to read. At the same time, he could not help murmuring, "Residents with Neverwinter ID card can get a special discount and a book ticket for 25 silver royals. Note: Tickets purchased at non-discounted prices offers a better viewing experience and reserved seating. Please order now. Tickets purchased at the discounted price do not include food and drinks; outside food and drink is not allowed. Please plan accordingly."

These were really... two totally different prices!

He had seen products with two prices, but never with such a drastic difference. In addition, most of these deals were conducted in private instead of being publicly advertised; otherwise, people who paid more would complain and it might be the last purchase from them. He was shocked by this!

Not only was it directly written in the newspaper, it also added many restrictions. It seemed that people had to rush to get it even if they were willing to pay the higher price.

However, he found that he was one of them...

He had to admit, this selling tactic did have a strange kind of attraction. Those who could afford 40 gold royals must be wealthy merchants or nobles. Admission was a proof of his strength, not to mention he was full of curiosity about the magic movie.

Victor jumped off the soft couch and put on his wolfskin coat.

"Sir?" Twinkle whispered. She was extremely surprised, as she had taken off her clothes and put on a thin veil. She was lying in bed, waiting for Victor to join her. She was unsure of how to respond to this sudden change.

Victor picked up her clothes and threw them to her. "Where can I buy tickets to the magic movie? Take me there, now!"

***************

The filming of "The Wolf Princess" had entered the final phase.

The final battle of Princess Royal against the demon lord would start in the palace. Roland had emptied the first floor of the castle to make room for the filming.

May, the Star of the Western Region, was currently in charge of the movie. In order for the new drama the best it could be, she even quit acting and devoted herself to directing the film.

"Cut!" May called out when Lorgar kicked in the castle door and rushed into the hall. "Very good. Let's call it a day. Thank you all for your hard work."

"Oh."

"Thank you, master," the crew chorused.

If it were her in the past, she would definitely roll her eyes toward them; however, now she just smiled and nodded.

"This is probably a change brought on by time," May thought.

She really had changed a lot since coming to Neverwinter.

"Mind the broken wood," Carter Lannis, who was standing by, immediately approached. "Should I help you around it?"

"Everyone is watching us. I can walk by myself," May replied, slightly embarrassed. Her husband had a good disposition, but he did not act as a stoic knight. She had no idea why His Majesty would choose him as the Chief Knight.

"Then at least let me walk in front of you," Carter stepped over and swept out a path for her with his feet.

His tall figure immediately obscured the sunshine coming in from the courtyard.

May couldn't help smiling.

However, she knew that she must hide her smile from him. Otherwise, he would be too proud and excited.

"Are you ready for your scene tomorrow? Don't forget the lines when Miss Lorgar hits you."

Speaking of the movie, Carter bitterly said, "Can you please ask her to be a little gentler? During the scene in the snowfield last time, I almost threw up. After she transforms into a wolf, she's nearly as strong as Ashes. Their strength is monstrous."

"Don't you know? Actors should adapt to the play, but not the opposite. Not to mention the magic movie is more realistic than a play. "May said, smiling, "So the solution is very simple. Don't eat too much before filming your scene tomorrow."

The Chief Knight did not know whether to laugh or cry. He shook his head and changed a topic, "By the way, guess who I met at the pier today?"

"Well... your old lover?" May shrugged.

"As if!" Carter hurriedly turned around and said, "It was Kajen Fels."

May stopped moving and asked, "Really?"

"Of course, he's a celebrity in King's City. I can't be mistaken." Noticing the change in her eyes, he grinned, "A lot of people got off the ship with him. I guess they're his troupe members. Other people also recognized Sir Kajen and it nearly caused a traffic jam in the pier area. How about it? Is this news worth a kiss?"

"Yes!" May said, without hesitation. "I want to pay him a visit!"

Kajen Fels, his name was almost synonymous with theater. Since he took to the stage, he had dazzled audiences for over 30 years. From the Southern Territory to the Northern Region, any actor who wanted to reach the top one could not avoid being compared with him. Since he was over 50 years old, he no longer performed the stage. He still worked behind the scenes and was a masterful playwrite. He still held great influence in the theater.

When May went to King's City, it was in the play "Memoir of a Prince's Search for Love" written by him, that she stood on stage in front of royalty for the first time. Without Kajen Fels's guidance and praise, she would never have become famous so quickly nor be known as the Star of the Western Region.

"I knew you would say that," Carter handed her a note. "I've already checked what hotel he's staying at. I have to supervise the craftsmen who are replacing the door, so I won't be able to accompany you."

"Thank you!" May took the note with joy, "It doesn't matter. I can go with people from the troupe—" Then she looked at the members who were still arranging set pieces and props, and called out to them, "Irene, Tina, Rosia, Gait, Swallow! Come here!"

That's right; Master Kajen must have come for Roland's coronation. When King Wimbledon III was crowned, it was Kajen's continuous performance that pushed the ceremony to the climax. Even if he did not perform on stage anymore, his troupe remained the most outstanding one in Graycastle. In the troupe, for example, Roentgen and Egrepo... were genius performers of different styles. If Irene and other actors could get some lessons or advise from them, it would certainly be a great help for their careers!

As she expected, when they heard that they were going to visit Kajen Fels, they could not help cheering loudly. Gait even stammered excitedly, "Can, can we really meet Sir Kajen?"

"It shouldn't be a problem," May said, shrugging. "But you guys have to work harder in the future so as not to waste this opportunity."

"Yes! I'll definitely work harder and harder!" Tina replied, her eyes lighting up.

"Let's go."

They first stopped at the Convenience Market and bought some gifts. Then they went to the hotel where Master Kajen was staying—the Whistle Inn.

A crowd of people who had heard of the news gathered on the hotel's lobby. Seeing May, they moved out of the way. Apparently, they were all fans of the Star Flower Troupe.

Some people even took out paper and pen and seemed to be prepared to record the first encounter between the two troupes. They undoubtedly were reporters from the Ministry of Public Relations and Communications.

However, to May's surprise, the receptionist returned with a cold face soon after coming back downstairs.

"I'm sorry. Sir Kajen has never heard of the Star Flower Troupe and doesn't want to meet you, either. Please leave."

Chapter 1023 - Divergent

For a moment, the noisy tavern fell into silence, and even the patrons seated at the bar counter stopped drinking and turned to look at them.

May was a little shocked. "When I was in the old king's city, I once sought guidance—"

"From Kajen, right? That's exactly why he won't see you." The manager lowered his voice. "Lord Kajen is very disappointed in you, Miss May."

Even though the voice was very quiet, the girls next to May could easily catch every word. May felt her hand be suddenly squeezed by Irene.

Those words struck them harder than any accusation would, especially when it came from a distinguished dramatist. It was fine for him to criticize or encourage his juniors for their sakes, but it was harsh to tell his juniors that they were disappointments. She would be completely discombobulated or even sob on the spot if she heard those words three years ago.

But she didn't think of herself first anymore.

After so many years as the Star of the Western Region, she, the backbone of the Star Flower Troupe, was confident about her acting ability. If the blame had hurt her so much, what about Irene, Tina, and the other members of the troupe? Not to mention Swallow, such a talented girl who only lacked confidence.

Therefore, May found herself unexpectedly calm at the moment.

May let out a soft breath, composed herself, and replied, "Really? I believe there must be a mistake. It'll be better if I'm allowed to explain it to him personally, but if not I can only give him my apologies."

This took the manager by surprise, for he had never expected she would accept it so mildly. He frowned. "You..."

"Anyway, I hope that Mr. Kajen makes more progress in drama and makes a breakthrough in the ceremony. We'll take our leave." She turned and walked towards the door, and then spoke over her shoulder, "By the way, please don't call me Miss May. I'm Mrs. Lannis now."

The weather was still the same on their way back, but May felt like the sky looked more gloomy. No one spoke a word. The joy and excitement they had when they started from their home was all gone.

It was not until they were about to go home separately that Gait asked, "Lady May, did you really fall out with Master Kajen?"

"Idiot. What nonsense!" Rosia shot him a stern glance. "How could Sister May pay a visit to him if they had grudges against each other? That's no better than asking to be ignored! How could he say that he was disappointed in her? I reckon he's jealous."

Everyone gasped and looked at Rosia in disbelief.

"Hey... the man you're talking about is the great dramatist of Graycastle."

Rosia argued indignantly, "I mean, now that Neverwinter has become the new capital and Star Flower is more popular than any other troupes in the Western Region, they're not as appreciated as they used to be. Naturally, they wouldn't be friendly to us. I've been with May since she moved from Longsong to Border Town. She has stopped contacting Kajen Troupe ever since she returned from the old king's city, so their claim that she has disappointed Master Kajen is illogical. To put it plainly, they look down upon us just because of our short history and little reputation among the nobles."

"Is that so?" Irene said, seeming to be enlightened.

Perhaps because of Rosia's bold and confident argument, everyone cheered up a little bit.

"I wondered why the manager was afraid to look Lady May in the eyes. Now it appears that he felt guilty..."

"So, is that the reason why Master Kajen didn't want to see Sister May?"

"Of course not." May could not help rolling her eyes. "How could he, such a famed master, be jealous of me? Almost no one has ever heard of me outside the Western Region, but his name has spread across the entirety Graycastle, and even people in some regions of the Kingdom of Dawn have heard of him. What you're saying is far too wrong."

Everyone cringed at those words.

"Anyway, that's the end of it. Do you understand?" May said and clapped her hands. "Go home, all of you. We have a tight schedule of shooting tomorrow."

That night, Carter asked her about the visit over dinner.

She just ran through the thing with him.

Somehow, May did not want her husband to be involved.

After all, this was just a row in the drama circle.

The shooting ran smoothly over the next few days. May had been concerned that everyone would be frustrated by their encounter with the Kajen Troupe, but, on the contrary, in the final act of the movie that was shot in the palace, all of them seemed to have called upon their strength and contributed an extraordinarily brilliant performance. Even Gait performed better than usual and he also insisted on finishing every action perfectly before he took a rest. The passion had not only motivated the entire Star Flower Troupe but also become a revelation to the new members.

Those newcomers, who did not participate in that visit, guessed it was Master Kajen's guidance that stimulated their seniors to work so hard.

May was slightly relieved.

It seemed that the incident did not have much of an impact on the troupe.

She would have thought that the dust had settled, but something unexpected happened again.

The manager of Kajen Troupe visited her at the end of the day when they had just finished the shooting.

"My lord wanted to see you, Miss May... no, Mrs. Lannis." The man seemed to have been waiting for a long time outside the Castle District as his hat was covered with a thin layer of snow.

Of course, his lord was Kajen Fels, the great dramatist, who had founded the Kajen Troupe.

May was so confused and even wanted to tell him that she would not come with him, since she had been such a disappointment to Kajen Fels, but she found that she did want to see Kajen... for an explanation for his words.

"Can my companions come with me?" May asked.

"No, Lord Kajen only permit you to visit him." The man shook his head.

"May..." Irene sounded concerned.

She gave Irene a comforting glance, and then took a deep breath before she answered. "I see. Please lead the way."

...

Here she was, at the same place once again, Whistling Hotel.

May, following the manager, took the stairs up to the second floor and entered a large study, where she saw some familiar friends standing against the bookcase. "Princess" Roentgen, "Minstrel" Egrepo, "Flying Cloud" Bernis... all of them were top-level performers coming from all over the country. She once worked with them rather well in the "Memoir of a Prince's Search for Love". They should have been happy to see her again after so many years apart, but May could only sense contempt and hostility from their cold faces.

This was something she did not expect.

May had not have looked forward to any warm welcome from these people, but she did not understand why they made their dislike of her so obvious, for, as far as she was concerned, actors would never show their actual feeling to the other actors, even those who they did not get along with. For famous actors, hiding their actual feelings was no more than a cinch, so very few of them would turn against other people openly, even against new actors. Unlike the troublemakers in the Longsong Theatre, the actors would be more cautious as their reputation grew. However, now even they refused to hide any feelings in front of her.

May turned her eyes on the old gray-haired man seated behind the desk. Kajen seemed to have aged a lot in the past few years, but no one within the room would ignore him. They all kept quiet and waited for him to begin.

Kajen, seeming to sense her gaze, closed the script in his hands and stood up.

What he was about to say, however, completely stunned her.

"Mrs. Lannis, can you please stop your troupe's next show?"

Chapter 1024 - The Dispute over Ideas (I)

"Stop the show? But they have finished shooting the magic movie, and they don't have to perform on stage... No, that's not the point. The question is why he would make such a request."

For a moment, May was completely lost, for she had never expected to hear this from Kajen.

Perhaps sensing that his words were a little abrupt, Kajen added quickly, "I don't mean for you to cancel it, just shelve it temporarily. Make some excuse, such as illness or the need to take some rest. If you postpone the show for about a week, I figure that the officials will allow me to see the king."

"But..." May wanted to argue that the magic movie was totally different from the traditional dramas and the Star Flower Troupe did not need to be responsible for screening it. However, as soon as the "but" was said out, Roentgen broke into a sneer.

It seemed that Roentgen had been holding back her urge to argue for a long time.

"I've told you that it's a waste of effort. How could she stop the show that she has been working on? Master, you've asked the wrong person."

"I thought that you were just led astray and gave up your quest for drama, but I didn't expect you to become so vile," Bernis said regretfully, stamping her feet. "I've spoken up for you on that day... Mrs. Lannis, what do you take drama as? A way to earn your fame?"

"Even If she didn't tell us, we should have known about what she really is, the wife of Chief Knight Carter Lannis. So, it does make sense to see the officials try to please her. Otherwise, I don't believe that King Roland would not even grant Master Kajen, such a famed dramatist, a chance to perform for him."

"Enough!" Kajen Fels snapped, "I don't invite her here for you all to argue with! And I'm sure that May didn't do that. If you don't trust my judgment, please take your leave. Right now, I just want to hear her answer."

"Oh, my God." May was astonished when she finally realized what was going on. "Kajen Troupe wants to perform for His Majesty for his enthronement and has submitted the application in the City Hall in accordance with the rules, but contrary to their expectation, they were rejected. That's why they blame me after they knew that I have married with Chief Knight, thinking that it must be me who made the officials lay aside their application and give them the cold shoulder."

What a big misunderstanding!

If that was the case, then she could understand why they showed open animosity towards her.

In the drama circle, actors had to experience a lot of things, such as rejection, criticism, or the competition for a new role. All of these things happened among actors, so no actor would openly argue for their misfortune. However, if anyone of them used their contacts to hinder other people's performance, that would be regarded as an offense to the actors who loved acting.

She would be more resentful and contemptuous if such things were put on her.

May said slowly, "I didn't talk to anyone about the incident in the hotel except the companions who were with me. I can promise you that."

"I trust you too. That's why I decided to have a talk with you," Kajen said, rubbing his brow. "We've known nothing about this new city, nor have we understood why we were rejected. To ask you stop the show is the last thing I want to do, but I have no choice. Of course, we'll compensate you for your loss afterward."

The other actors frowned and looked away when they heard the word "compensate".

May, meanwhile, did not bother to guess what he would compensate her, for she had known Kajen Fels well enough to understand that he must have had his reasons.

"I'd like to ask you a question before I give you my answer." She pondered for a moment and said, "Your manager told me that I've disappointed you... Why?"

The old man was silent for a long while, and then he waved to the other actors.

"Master..." Roentgen wanted to say something, but she held her words back at the last moment and then walked out of the room.

One after another, they followed her out, leaving May and Kajen alone.

Kajen Fels stared at May, his eyes full of reproach that almost made her retreat.

"How many dramas have you played in the past two years?"

That was a question she did not expect to hear.

"Um... seven or eight?" May was not sure.

"Twelve, actually," Kajen said, counting with his fingers. "'Cinderella', 'The Witches' Story', 'Dawn', 'New City'... Let's lay aside the quality of the scripts. Do you really think you've played them well?"

May was shocked. "Have you seen... them all?"

"No, that's a stupid question." She realized it right after she blurted the question out. Most of her dramas were played in the Western Region, so he must have heard of them from other people.

As she had expected, Kajen shook his head. "I have students in the four regions of Graycastle, from whom I can easily hear of these dramas." He sighed. "But did it not take you as long as eight months to prepare for the 'Memoir of a Prince's Search for Love'?"

May was speechless, for she had seen behind the old man's words.

It was a law widely acknowledged in the drama circle that a vivid and successful performance was based on tons of preparation. No matter how talented the actors were, they could not be sure that they had memorized every line and every action in a short period of time.

In truth, as there were so many dramas to rehearse, she had made quite a few simple mistakes that she had never made before, such as saying the wrong lines and making the wrong expressions, which might not be noticed by ordinary people but would be particularly abrupt to a knowledgeable audience.

"I don't know why you moved from the Longsong Theatre to Border Town, where you began to perform the dramas of this level," Kajen said seriously. "You might do it under your lord's order, but he wouldn't force you to do it if it was against your will. After all, a play is like an open dance, and no one can dance well when they're shackled." "May," he said. His tone had changed. Instead of addressing her as Mrs. Lannis, he sounded like a teacher teaching his beloved student. "You should've known very well that the audience also helps to improve your acting skill. How could you improve without their high demands and standards stimulating you? It's true that you've pleased most people, but you gave up your aspiration to be a superb actor, and that's why I'm disappointed in you."

May was quiet. She could not even find any words to argue, as she knew that he was telling the truth. In terms of performance, she had indeed become worse recently. She had slashed a lot of her private practice time and also declined her role in the "Wolf Princess". The dramas were arranged in such a tight schedule that it was unlikely for her to have enough time to study every role she was about to play. In addition, maintaining the Star Flower Troupe had also taken a lot of her energy.

It took her a long while to find something to say. "Have you spent a long time preparing for this drama that you're about to play?" she asked.

"It took me two years," Kajen said proudly. "Apart from the time we spent performing the old plays, we've been rehearsing it all the time, even on the boat and in this hotel. By now, we've polished every detail and all we need is a stage where my students can present their perfect work. I must say that it's better than the 'Memoir of a Prince's Search for Love' I performed when I was at the zenith of my fame."

He looked right at May and continued, "Although you've misused the talent God has gifted you, I believe your love for the drama is real. You must be very happy to watch an authentic drama too. Am I right?"

Chapter 1025 - The Dispute over Ideas (II)

He was right.

May could tell that Kajen Fels did not change. At least, he still stuck to his pure faith in dramas, the exact faith that made him so frank to her and still stick to his opinion even though he was asking for her help.

In Kajen's opinion, someone who sincerely loved drama was sure to make room for a perfect play.

But she found that she could not easily answer "yes".

Something had stopped her.

May closed her eyes, the girl's voice coming back to her ears.

"Mrs. Lannis, please wait..."

"This is a little token of my gratitude. Please do accept it..."

Then a salted fish was handed over to her.

At that moment, May understood what was stopping her.

She opened her eyes and held the Master Dramatist's gaze.

This time, she would not evade the issue anymore.

There was so much rhetoric she could put in her answer to make it sound both polite and pleasant. First, she could compliment him, and then she might use the "but" to explain the fact that the magic movie was utterly different from the ordinary dramas and was made under an imperial order.

Kajen Fels knew almost nothing about Neverwinter, nor did he have any idea of the peculiarity of Star Flower Troupe and how much His Majesty had valued those dramas she had played. He had made a mistake from the very beginning. If she could make him understand how wrong he was, it might be a good time to clear up any misapprehensions between them and even change Kajen's bad impression of her.

But May knew in her heart that it was just another kind of evading.

"Mr. Kajen, have you prepared the show only for His Majesty?"

"And the nobles, ministers, and lords who will participate in the ceremony," Kajen said, nodding. "A show will lose its meaning without the matching audience, no matter how wonderful it is."

Like gold matching with jewels and fine wine with exquisite cups, only the careful and attentive audience could understand the very meaning of the actors' every expression and action and appreciate the true perfection of the play.

That was true.

"Then I'm sorry that I can't promise you," May said seriously, "because your drama will by no means be perfect."

"Wha-what?" The old man frowned. "What makes you say so? You haven't seen it."

"Because the audience will just enjoy the show however wonderful it is," May said and she felt the strength upwelling from the bottom of her heart. "They'll applaud, praise, and talk about it perhaps when they're enjoying their afternoon tea. But that's all. The play is just one of numerous entertainments, and their life will be just the same whether they see it or not. How could you call a thing perfect if it's dispensable to people?"

Kajen Fels scowled. For a creator, his drama was like a child to him and he would never accept such a remark easily. "I thought your pursuit of fame has blinded you, but I didn't expect that kind of arrogance from you. So, are you telling me that you've seen a perfect drama?"

"I haven't," May said frankly. "But I know what it should be like."

Kajen looked into her eyes, his gaze sharp as knives. Years of experience had given him an imposing aura of authority, which was intimidating to every junior in the drama circle.

He was obviously waiting for her explanation, but May knew that no answer would please him.

She did not retreat.

There was no doubt that what she was about to say would result in her parting most of her fellows in the drama circle and taking a path that none of them had ever seen nor could understand. By then, the criticism on her would be much worse or even lead to breaking off all the relationships between her and those people.

She was going to pay a high price, wasn't she?

She asked herself.

There was a voice answering her.

But it's worth fighting for.

May answered, "A great drama shouldn't be something just for people to enjoy or an entertainment that the nobles would seek only when they're free. It deserves more than that. Sometimes it can even change people's fate."

"'The Witch Diaries' helped people to understand what a witch is so that the witches could clear the stigma they didn't deserve. 'Dawn' encouraged people to work and get rid of poverty and hunger so that many people could start a much better life. 'New City' intuitively showed the new migrants how to comply with the rules of Neverwinter, and rooted out the Rats that had hidden in them. 'The Hero's Life'..."

She paused and said slowly, "helped a sad girl to get back on her feet and start a new life. I know that there are many people who lost their families in the war. I'm very glad that my drama could give them help, no matter how many people could benefit from it."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Kajen asked grimly.

"You told me that the most excellent drama was able to let the watchers identify with what the character had experienced in their life, but I want more. I want my drama to help the audience see their own future," May said honestly. "The nobles could always find alternatives to the jewels and exquisite cups if they lack them, while my drama is the food that can feed up a lot of people."

For the first time, her words reduced Kajen to silence.

"I have no doubt that your drama will be very exciting after two years of preparation, but I'm also confident that the upcoming 'Wolf Princess' will be equally mind-blowing. We only spent more than a month on rehearsal and some of us haven't even acted before, but, still, it'll be the best drama I've ever seen." May curtsied and went on, "If you still hold to your original opinion about our drama after you watch it, then I'll recommend your new play to His Majesty for you."

May felt much better after she had left the Whistling Hotel, to the point even her steps became springy.

Just as she stepped out of the alley, she saw Carter Lannis waiting on the street.

"Why are you here?" May was surprised.

"Irene told me that you left with Mr. Kajen's man. I'm a little worried." Carter shrugged. "After all, I'm going to stop by the Convenience Market to buy some food for dinner."

"Really?" May glanced at him. "Have you already known what had happened at the hotel that day?"

"You ate less that night. It was obvious to me." Chief Knight said proudly.

"Hang on..." She stopped abruptly. "Did you ask City Hall to reject Kajen Troupe's application for his performance?"

"Ah?" Carter raised his eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Whose application for performance did I reject?"

May stared at him for a moment before she let out a sigh of relief. "No, nothing..."

"Hey, are you hiding something from me again?"

"It's not important anyway..." She laughed. "You haven't bought the ingredients for dinner, have you?"

"No, what would you like to eat?"

"Um, how about salted fish?"

"Salted fish? I remember you don't like pickled food... It took you many days to finish the fish that the little girl gave to you last time."

"I like it now. What? Do you have an opinion?" May interrupted him and then reached out her right hand to him. "Do you want to come with me or not?"

"Of course." The Knight took her hand without hesitation. "Anything you want."

...

Chapter 1026 - Staging of a New Play

At last, the release date of The Wolf Princess was finally here.

As soon as sunlight began to shine through the window, Victor was awakened by a rustling sound. He opened his eyes only to discover that the other side of the pillow had been vacated, leaving behind only a few long strands of hair and the faint body scent of a young woman.

"Tinkle?" He called out in a slightly dry voice.

"Your Excellency, you're awake?" The person who replied seemed somewhat alarmed. "Was it my being too noisy that disturbed you?"

The jewel merchant sat up and leaned back on the headboard while revealing a slight smile.

The maid was still fumbling with her attire. She looked particularly adorable with only half of her dress worn on as yet, completely exposing her smooth back and only half-concealing her chest.

"Your Excellency... can you stop looking at me like that?" Tinkle asked somewhat embarrassedly.

"This is the kind of feeling that those noble young ladies can never offer." Victor began to chuckle. "Alrighttt... I shan't look anymore. But, I should let you know that you won't be able to put it on properly without assistance."

"Oh..." The latter seemed a little perplexed.

"Come over and I'll help you." He reached out a hand. "But let me have a cup of water first, I'm so thirsty."

... ...

After helping her to tie up the laces, Victor placed his hand on the maid's waist. "Done. It suits you pretty well. The dress may seem flimsy, but before elastic bands were invented, the servants who were chosen to dress the young ladies had to be big and burly or they wouldn't be able to fasten it properly."

"I see." The young girl stuck out her tongue. "This is the first time I've heard..."

"Many items used by nobles are like that. They look good but are terribly troublesome to use. In short, flashy without substance." He laughed. "Hmm, can't wait to wear it out today, can you?"

"No no... I woke up early just to finish preparation earlier so that I won't hold up your journey..." Tinkle shook her hand. "I shall now go fetch water for you to clean up and also prepare breakfast."

"Wearing this to perform such tasks?"  Victor glanced at the visibly-excited maid but decided not to dig deeper. "Okay, go. I just need a fresh omelet toast, and don't forget to make yourself a serving."

"Yes, thank you, Your Excellency." She bowed respectfully before making her way out. "Thanks also for the gift of clothing... and the chance to watch the play."

As the door shut, Victor climbed off the bed and poured a glass of red wine for himself.

"This is another plus of this type of girl - that they show immense gratitude for the simplest of benefaction. Had I gifted the same things to a noble young lady, I mightn't even get a smiling face as a sign of appreciation."

80 gold royals were nothing much to him after all. It was naturally a lot more enjoyable to watch a play together with someone else instead of alone. This was simply a matter of self-interest and had little to do with kindness or adoration.

He was curious about only one thing - how exciting could a magic movie that costs 40 gold royals per ticket be?

... ...

"Teacher, are you really going?" Roentgen peered worriedly at the neatly-dressed Kajen Fels. "May might've said that she would recommend your new play to His Highness, but that could just be a pretense. If she's simply taking advantage of your fame, you'll be falling into her trap by going."

"I feel the same way... she's no longer trustworthy," Egrepo grumbled. "I doubt she can even meet His Highness easily, let alone recommend a play to him."

"But May's husband is, after all, the Chief Knight. Even if she doesn't get to see him, she should be able to pass a message, right?" Bernis added cautiously.

"Speaking up for her yet again?" Roentgen glowered at her. "Don't forget about how she treated us!"

"Uh... didn't Teacher say that she hasn't meddled with the City Hall?"

"Who knows if she's lying or not..."

"Enough!" Kajen snapped. "My intention for going was never because of this supposed recommendation. She may be conceited and all, but we cannot behave like this. I have to take a look even if I don't agree with her." He humphed before continuing, "Can a brood of play fledglings really act out the story perfectly? It takes some nerve to say so! If I don't see it for myself, it'll mean that I've already been frightened by her words. Only by seeing it will I be able to burst her bubble, no?"

He then slapped four finely-printed tickets down on the table. "So, what she has sent aren't admission tickets, but letters of challenge! Whether to go or not will be left up to each of you. But remember, those who don't watch the play shouldn't make uninformed criticisms. For those who accept the challenge, follow me."

... ...

The entrance to the new theater was already brimming with chatter by 10 o'clock in the morning.

Everyone appeared to be in high anticipation of the play which had been long publicized. There were also people present who could not afford the steep prices of the premiere but hoped to catch a glimpse by hook or by crook.

However, these people discovered, to their surprise, that the theater was designed completely different from the others. There was not a single window, and its entire architecture resembled an inverted bowl. It was impossible to hear a sound from inside by planting one's face against the walls, let alone peek through. The volume of the theater was extremely "small and exquisite", approximating only a quarter the size of a central square, less than 15 meters in length and height, and only one story high. Together with the undecorated and gray cement exterior, it was hard to believe that an avant-garde play was about to be staged here.

Victor walked together with Tinkle into the theater while harboring these sorts of suspicions.

Many checkpoints were set up along the single-person walkways, which Victor was only allowed to pass after he had turned in the God's Stone of Retaliation and self-defense dagger he was carrying.

The duo's eyes lit up the moment they pushed open the doors.

"Wow..." Tinkle exclaimed uncontrollably.

Victor was also surprised. The theater was actually illuminated by magic stones!

He had, before this, only seen such valuable things in Black Money.

It was telling of the owner's wealth that he could display these stones in a public place.

Unlike the austerity of the exterior, the theater's interior was as extravagant as could be. Four clusters of Stones of Lightning hung from the arched dome, from where they illuminated the windowless hall. Warm air could be felt gushing out from the floor to maintain the temperature of the hall at a comfortable level. Rows of deck chairs were placed around the center at an arm's length away from each other. As a result, the hall appeared to be extra spacious, and did not feel cramped in any way.

Victor was beginning to understand that this was the probable reason why tickets were expensive. Though the spacious room offered a comfortable viewing experience, this meant that seats were extremely limited. Judging from the number of seats, a single play could only accommodate between 50 to 80 people. This figure was significantly less than that of a typical performance elsewhere. Hence, if ticket prices were not increased, it would not be possible to break even.

But there was another important question.

As he looked around the hall, he could not make out where the stage was.

Apart from a sturdy stone pillar which was erected in the center of the hall and connected directly to the ceiling, there was nothing else but seats. There was no space set aside for the performance.

Unless the Star Flower Troupe danced around the pillar?

Chapter 1027 - An Absurd Viewing Experience (Part I)

Suppressing his doubts, Victor followed the seat number on his ticket and sat down at Row 3 No. 10.

"You're that guy from the Lothar family...," someone beside him suddenly exclaimed.

Somewhat surprised, he turned his head towards the voice and discovered that the latter was an elegantly-dressed woman. Unlike Tinkle, she was obviously seasoned in courtship and romance, and could exhibit her most enchanting side at any time. "Victor Lothar. You are?"

"Long heard the name." The woman placed a hand on her chest and smiled. "I'm Denise Payton from the City of Glow. "

"I see, a young lady from the Payton family," Victor replied. "Never thought I would see a merchant from my city in a foreign land."

"Neither did I imagine meeting a legendary businessman here." She then pointed to someone beside her. "Let me introduce you to His Excellency Yorko, who previously served as the Kingdom of Dawn's messenger. It was he who invited me."

"Nice to meet you."

More pleasantries followed.

While chatting with Yorko, Victor also got to acquaint with a few elites from Graycastle.

As he had expected, the people attending the premiere were all extremely wealthy and noble. For example, the front row consisted of powerholders from the City Hall. Based on Yorko's explanation, their tickets were gifted to them by His Majesty, and hence they did not fork out a single royal. The middle and back rows consisted instead of wealthy merchants and guests. He even saw, among the audience, figures from King City's troupe.

The price of 40 gold royals had thus served to turn the theater into a mini banquet of notables. If he could build up connections with these people, the price would certainly have been worth it.

When all attendees had arrived, a dozen or so cart-pushing servants entered the hall through a different entrance and placed weird-looking paper packets in the holders next to each chair.

"Is this meant for us?" Tinkle lifted and examined the packet curiously. "Eh, the word written here is p... "popcorn"?"

"There're also french fries and milk - are these all for eating?" Victor noticed that the packet that was labelled "milk" seemed rather peculiar. It looked like a parchment but felt incomparably soft. For a moment, he was unsure of how it was supposed to be opened. Fortunately, a demonstrative illustration was drawn beneath the label. That many guests had never used a packet like this had, induitably, been taken into consideration.

Following the steps in the illustration, he inserted a transparent straw in the seal at the top of the packet. As he sucked up the milk, he felt an indescribable sense of achievement pouring forth from his heart.

This is way too amazing!

Even the milk, which he would usually find too bland for his liking, tasted sweeter than ever before.

This owed very much to the packet's thoughtful illustration and exquisite design, which were unprecedented. Even if it contained plain water, it would still have sold for a good price!

The person who designed it is surely an outstanding merchant.

Victor also noticed that the design was not simply for novelty's sake. Unlike traditional porcelain and glassware, which came with edges and corners, these two types of packets were not prone to causing injury. This advantage is even more significant after considering the statuses of the guests. Furthermore, the packets fitted perfectly in the holders even if unsealed, and thus there was no worry of spillage.

It was hard to imagine how a perfect fit like this was possible, given that the packets were a brand-new invention.

Just as Victor intended to try out the taste of the popcorn, an ethereal voice was heard in the hall. "A warm welcome to the magic movie theater of Graycastle. The Wolf Princess is about to begin. May everyone kindly return to their seats and listen carefully to the rules which should be observed. If there're any problems during the screening, please act in accordance with the rules in order to prevent accidents from occurring."

There was a brief commotion inside the hall. This was because everyone heard the voice but could not tell where it was coming from.

"First of all, the magic movie's duration is 2 hours and 15 minutes, throughout which there'll be no break. You're not allowed to leave your seat on your own. If you require assistance, simply pull on the string of the bell located under your seat and wait."

"Secondly, this will be an unprecedented viewing experience. Please don't panic no matter what happens, and remember that it's only a very special kind of play, instead of a real event. You'll be held accountable by the Neverwinter Police Department for any harm or loss you cause to a third party."

Victor could not help laughing softly as he heard this. "Whoa, is there really anyone left on Earth who can mistake a play for reality? It's verging on self-praise to use the word 'panic'." He deftly turned his body and took a quick glance behind. As he expected, the guests who were also in the acting industry had heavily sarcastic looks on their faces.

However, Tinkle did not seem to feel that the words were any inappropriate. She clutched nervously onto the armrest of her chair.

As if to give the audience some time to digest, the voice only resumed after a rather long pause. "May everyone please enjoy this dreamy moment in time."

"The show shall now begin."

As the words fell, the four clusters of Stones of Lightning gradually ascended and disappeared into the dome, causing the hall to dim temporarily.

"Where's this going? As the widespread popularity of open-air theaters shows, adequate lighting, or its lack thereof, is crucial to the overall effect of the play. How are we to appreciate the details of the play if there isn't any light?" Victor gaped his mouth a little wider. He was increasingly intrigued as to how the play would end up when the introduction was already this mysterious.

However, before he could contain his amusement, he was completely stunned by what happened in the next instant.

A beam of white light flashed by, before turning everything pitch black. This was the blackest black he had ever seen, as if he was now in a deep abyss. He could not even see the chair he was sitting on, let alone his surroundings. The only relief was that he could still feel his butt sitting on the chair, or he probably would have leaped up in horror.

But even more inconceivable things were to follow. Victor noticed that his body had also disappeared into the darkness completely. He could not see his hands if he placed them right in front of his face. He was not able to tell if this was because it was truly too dark, or because he had been robbed of his vision.

The unrest in the hall showed that he was not the only one who was startled. The intermittent screaming and crying made the atmosphere tense.

It turned out that "panic" was not just empty talk.

Had it not been for that warning, there would probably be chaos in the hall by this time.

Just then, a gentle ray of light glimmered from overhead and dispelled the darkness. The hall was once again lit - but instead of calming down, the audience gasped in unison.

"My goodness." Victor's eyes widened. "What's... going on?" The scene in front him was no longer within the theater, and instead had moved into the sky!

He could hear cold wind blowing beside his ears, and could clearly see snowflakes drifting in the sky. There was nothing beneath his feet; he was a few kilometers off the earth, from where the mountains and jungles appeared to be patches of gray and white, just like the doodles of young children. This experience, the like of which he never had before, caused his body to tremble. He clung as tightly as he could on to the armrest and shrunk his body on to the "invisible" chair which now bore his weight vitally, as if one little mistake would cause him to fall through the sky and turn to dust.

"Our story begins in the capital of a mountainous province in the far north, where two lively and adorable princesses reside..." It was only when he heard this assuring and composed voice that he discerned that he was still watching a play, and had not been projected into the heavens.

"Is there really anyone left on Earth who can mistake a play for reality?"

Victor cried tearlessly. "Who would have imagined that this is what magic movies are like?"

In the next two hours and more, the jewel merchant had the most incredible time of his life.

Chapter 1028 - An Unusual Theatre Experience (II)

The audience didn't divert their attention from the breathtaking shots as the camera shifted its focus from the sky to the earth.

In fact, the sudden influx of the images made the movie even more fascinating. Victor was overwhelmed by the bustling marketplace and the splendid inner palace in the movie. He fought his urge to stand up and touch the throne, as he didn't want to cause any unintended loss to "the third party",

The audience in the hall sucked in their breaths. Words had completely abandoned them. Every now and then, they uttered short cries of surprise.

They were awestruck by every single change in the scene.

They gave an involuntary exclamation at the first appearance of the princess.

They cried out as the princess transformed into a wolf when she turned 14.

They yelled when the foreign prince visited the country.

When they saw the princess lose control of her power and destroy the palace, the entire hall was stirred.

Completely different from a traditional theatre where the audience was supposed to keep quiet and stay calm, the "movie theatre" exploded with interjections.

Victor knew this had nothing to do with the audience's manner. They simply couldn't contain themselves. The viewers, on one hand, enjoyed the new theatre experience and feared what would happen next on the other. They had no way to channel their emotions but to produce various odd sounds. Only in this way would they know that they weren't dreaming and that somebody was with them witnessing the wonder!

Roland would probably categorize the audience's reactions as another type of "bullet screens".

While the audience was shouting, the princess transformed herself into a giant wolf and departed for the snow land. When she leaped over his head, Victor felt all his hair stand on its end. He almost wanted to bolt out from the room.

However, a beautiful song calmed him down.

All his uneasiness dissolved into a multitude of feelings: sadness, bitterness, relief, and determination. Victor felt his eyes filling!

At that moment, he seemed to understand the princess. He felt sorrowful for her being wronged but also proud of her bravery.

The scene changed with the flow of the sweet melody and the storyline of the film. Victor was deeply moved by the tune. Looking back on his own experience, he found resonance in the song.

Who had not been wronged or misunderstood before?

Yet most people choose to remain silent!

Victor was not afraid of the wolf girl anymore. He applauded her decision to leave!

Victor seemed to see past the wolf girl to himself, who had also left his native town.

Without a shadow of a doubt, the music was a stroke of genius. It did not steal the focus but was instead in perfect harmony with the movie.

From the loud applause of the audience, he knew the song had moved everybody in the hall. The whole room suddenly erupted into a deafening cheer at this moment.

In a split second, Victor had already formed his opinion on the movie.

Roland's advertisement was not exaggerating at all.

It was definitely a masterpiece ahead of its time!

...

He lost.

The moment the song rang, Kajen knew he had lost to May. It was not about his personal failure. In fact, "The Wolf Princess" defeated his new play in every aspect.

Plays were essentially a form of entertainment.

At first, Kajen had been dumbstruck by the film and wondered how Roland could possibly achieve this. Soon, he became numb to the constant shock. The magic movie simply blew him away. All his knowledge about acting accumulated over the past decades seemed to become incredibly absurd.

The audience in the theatre actually had quite high expectations of new plays. Although they were not as picky as nobles, they did know the difference between a good play and a bad one. In other words, it was hard to fool them. Yet, when watching the new movie, everybody was now flabberghasted like an ignorant and uncivilized country bumpkin.

Kajen did not blame them.

It actually took him a great deal of self-control to maintain his silence as well.

Meanwhile, Kajen knew his new play could definitely not arouse the audience like the magic movie did.

Everybody would think "The Wolf Princess" was undoubtedly much better than his play.

Did they not notice the acting mistakes in the movie?

Of course they did.

Nonetheless, the movie was so good that they could simply overlook those little mistakes.

Kajen knew the amount of information a man could receive within a period of time was limited. As the audience was overwhelmed by the story and images, a few small errors would barely divert their attention.

So was this an unfair competition?

Kajen did not think so.

He knew the development of theatrical plays better than anybody else.

The reason why famous actors and actresses always favored big theatres was that big theatres were financially more capable of providing better costumes, equipment, and settings.

These elements were also the key to the success of a play.

In fact, the success of Kajen's teacher was largely attributed to the usage of large stage backdrops in his plays. Kajen's teacher reached a pinnacle in his career when he had invented a removable wooden house. Ever since then, all other troupes had followed his example. The removable wooden house had thus become a staple in every play. Without good equipment or costumes, no actor or actress could give an excellent performance.

The more lifelike and detailed the setting was, the better theatrical effect.

Star Flower Troupe simply perfected their theatrical scenery.

Kajen felt relieved after he came to this conclusion.

He leaned back on the soft recliner and breathed out a deep sigh.

Finally, he could focus on the brilliant movie.

...

The story was drawing to its end.

The candles were rekindled, and people could once again see the chairs and the stone pillars as the light was restored.

However, not a single person left. Everybody was still savoring the aftertaste of the story, revolving the bitter battle between the wolf princess and the demon lord in their heads..

Kajen Fels was the first to applaud.

The applause jerked the audience out of the trance. Soon, more people joined, and the waves of thunderous applause swept over the entire theater.

"Mr. Kajen..."

Looking at the applauding Kajen, Roetgen and Egrepo almost burst into tears. Bennis' eyes were glistening.

"Don't cry." The old actor's eyes also reddened, although he did not know what he was sad about. These actors and actresses had spent years perfecting their acting skills, but now all their hard work had been for nothing. Nobody who had experienced the new film would ever want to watch traditional plays again. The utter defeat was devastating, but Kajen knew he could not give up. "None of your work is going to be wasted!" said he firmly.

"Mr. Kajen, what do you mean..."

"What's the biggest downside of a play? It's the distance!" Kajen said tremulously. "The distance between the stage and the audience makes it impossible to capture every single change in the actors' expressions, but the magic movie has solved this problem. I'm sure in the future, acting skills will become even more important. Probably one day, just a perfect smile would grab your audience's attention. So, our failure is just temporary. It doesn't mean your hard work has amounted to nothing!"

Kajen paused for a second and then continued, "Don't worry. I assure you that we'll come back once we figure out the mechanism behind the magic movie. We'll soon return to compete with Star Flower Troupe. By that time, people would see for themselves. Now, dry your eyes and stand upright. The movie deserved an applause."

In the tumultuous applause, "The Wolf Princess" soon became the most renowned film in the whole city of Neverwinter.

Chapter 1029 - A Person Back Home

Roland had foreseen that the movie would create quite a buzz among the mass.

In fact, he, as the producer and first viewer of the movie, had also been shocked by the epoch-making film when he had watched it in the castle hall on the night of its completion.

Words had completely failed him. The visual impact of the virtual world was phenomenal.

Roland realized that he had not been so impressed when watching the recordings of the meetings and ceremonies through the Sigil back in Reflection Church in the old Holy City. As most of the recordings were static images, they were not as lifelike as motion pictures, although Roland had to admit they were quite interesting. However, once the images were animated, human brains would be easily deceived, making people believe what they saw was real, even though they knew very well that it was not the case. The best example was the scene of a falling object in the movie.

Even Roland was quite amazed at the movie himself, let alone the general public, whose sole entertainment in this world so far had only been theatrical plays.

The success of the movie was almost certain.

However, there was also something beyond Roland's expectations.

The visual impact of the movie seemed to go beyond what audience could physically bear.

When the movie had been on show for the third and the fifth time, one viewer had panicked out and attempted to leave the theater, whereas another had passed out in the middle of the show. The former almost trampled over other viewers while the latter had been sent to the hospital immediately. Had Nana not been there, the unfortunate incident might have ended in tragedy.

Both incidents had occurred when Echo had started singing.

Apparently, the bird's eye view shot at the beginning and the transformation of the princess posed some safety hazards.

The movie was currently targetting wealthy audience only, so the viewers should be more open to new things than ordinary civilians. Roland projected that when the movie was introduced to the mass a week later, there would probably be more incidents like this.

Due to safety concerns, Roland had no choice but to make some adjustments to the movie theatre.

Initially, he had planned to replace the recliners with benches to accommodate more people and prohibited food and drinks in the theater. However, it now appeared that benches were not a good option because they would be easily tipped over when a stampede occurred. In the end, Roland decided to use iron benches fastened to the ground and require audience to wear seat belts all time during the show to prevent similar accidents.

Additionally, he imposed some restrictions on audience's age and their health conditions. Anyone who was over 45, had a heart disease or acrophobia was not allowed to watch "The Wolf Princess".

Since it was Roland's first time to manage a theater, everything from designing the venue to drafting theater rules and regulations was new to him.

As "The Wolf Princess" became the most popular show in Neverwinter, the movie also attracted many businesses.

Over the past few days, the city hall had received a dozen applications from various merchants, all of whom had expressed their desires to open franchises for selling popcorns and milk bags. However, after hearing Barov's report, Roland turned all of the requests down.

The business of snacks such as popcorns was not very lucrative after all. For one thing, the product was hard to preserve but easy to make, so people could easily steal the related technologies. For another, corn was not the main agricultural crop in Neverwinter, so Roland did not have much competitivity in the market. As such, he would rather keep the business to himself for tourism purposes.

As for the milk bags, he had no excess to sell at all.

They were indeed the first product made from the rubber worms.

These worms had pretty much settled down in the Third Border City after one year of adapting. The ancient witches had achieved great progress in their research. After they had found that they could adjust the flexibility of the rubber by changing the ratio of the slimes and the gall of the worm, they had soon settled where their research should head.

The rubber business had thus become a side project for the Taquila survivors. They dedicated themselves to the production of various rubber samples and the testing of the rubber's durability and corrosion resistance ability.

The milk bag and the straw were two products they invented.

Roland did not decide to manufacture these two items on a whim. They actually played a significant role in the logistics. The rubber bag could be used to carry food and disinfectants. Compared to metal or glass containers, rubber bags were much cheaper. Other than worms, the production practically cost nothing.

Although there were a number of worm holes in the Third Border City, with the number of rubber worms increasing from 100 to nearly 1,000, it was still not enough to meet the war requirement. Therefore, the rubber worms would be one of the most important strategic resources in Neverwinter for a very long time.

...

Four days after the release of the movie, Roland learned that Edith, the Pearl of the Northern Region, had returned to Neverwinter with Olivia.

He met the girl whom he had just met once in the castle parlor.

Olivia looked pretty nervous. She did not avert her eyes, but there was almost a Spartan despair hidden underneath her serenity.

Unlike their last encounter, this time, Roland could see her face clearly in the well-lit hall. Her soft facial features and the emaciated frame reminded him of a flower that had just overcome a storm. After a long trip, she looked even more drained and fragile, but she managed to sit upright, which, at the same time, made her look even more beautiful. Roland knew if she had fallen into the hands of some other lords, she would have either been well protected or completely destroyed.

It seemed that she was ready to accept whatever came her way.

Roland broke into a smile. He knew many nobles in this era lived a life of debauchery, but he was not that type of person.

"Don't worry," Roland comforted her. "It's much warmer than Coldwind Ridge here. Nobody will disturb you. You'll soon fall in love with this city."

"Yes... Your Majesty," Olivia said quietly. She hesitated for a moment and lowered her head.

"Take a rest first. Somebody will take you to your room," Roland replied.

After the guard led Olivia out, Edith dipped in a curtsy and asked, "That's all? I thought you would have a chat with her to get familiar with each other."

"You have covered everything. I have nothing to add," Roland said while shrugging. Ignoring the latter half of Edith's statement, he asked, "How was your trip?"

"Pretty good. She quickly made the decision for the sake of her child," Edith replied. "The clean-up took a bit longer than we anticipated, but those people would not cause you trouble anymore."

"Good job," said Roland with a nod. "It was the right choice to put this matter in your hands."

"I'm flattered." The Pearl of the Northern Region said, smiling. "By the way, there's another thing I want to tell you. On our way back, I received a message from the combat engineer unit. Azima didn't find 'the Glory of the Sun" in the Eastern Region, so she has turned to the north."

Roland frowned at the news. "So... the extension line is from the other side of the Swirling Sea?" he wondered. If the mine was outside of Graycastle, it would be a little problematic.

"I see." Roland soon regained his composure and said, "You should also go take a rest now."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

When Edith was about to leave, she suddenly turned around and said, "Your Majesty, it's time for you to go to sleep as well. You must take care of yourself."

"Huh?" Roland looked at her in surprise.

"Because this world would be a lot less interesting without you," Edith replied with a smile and than disappeared from his sight.

Chapter 1030 - The Coronation Ceremony

"She was... way over the board," said Nightingale grumpily as she revealed herself from the Mist. "What did she mean by that?"

Roland also noticed the subtle change in the attitude of the Pearl of the Northern Region after he told her about how Iron Axe had dealt with the nobles. He had a vague feeling that Edith became completely honest with him, which was actually not a bad thing.

"Well..." Roland thought for a while and asked, "Are you able to tell whether she's lying or not?"

"She was telling the truth," Nightingale replied while twitching her mouth. "She did mean what she said. Otherwise, I would have stopped her and got to the bottom of it.

"Well, in that case, let it go." Roland smiled. "I have neither strength nor time to guess what everybody's thinking about."

Nightingale instantly stopped her complaining after hearing these words. She jerked her head away indifferently and said, "You, you're right... You just need to focus on one or two people and that will do."

It took Roland a great effort to suppress his laughter. He twitched his lips, amused at how bad Nightingale was at concealing her own thoughts. Roland cleared his throat and said, "Then let's go back to the office. I have a lot of work to do."

He has to test out the two newly developed internal combustion engines and figure out how to use them to achieve mass production. Also, he needs to design the parts and other supplementary mechanical equipment. Furthermore, he has to work on the design and the assembly of the armored trains, the manufacture of the biological rubber, as well as the expansion of the plants and the armies.

However, there was one thing that outweighed all of these tasks.

Although it was just a matter of formality, it played a significant role in bringing the people together.

The moment Olivia arrived in Neverwinter, Roland knew it was time for him to officially ascend the throne.

...

A week later, the Castle District of Neverwinter was open to the public for the first time. Under the guidance of the police and guards, thousands of civilians, who had gone through a screening process, gathered around in the yard, waiting for the coronation in excitement. The streets festooned with streamers and lights beyond the Castle District were swarmed with people. Apparently, people's enthusiasm was not quenched by the snow.

The Lord's castle was also temporarily altered due to the upcoming ceremony.

The wall of the front yard had been torn down and replaced with fences so that people could see what was going on inside. All the facilities in the yard had been removed, and new patches of grass had been laid. The audience would have a full view of the whole ceremony once they walked up the slope of the Castle District.

Each side of the castle was decorated with a red banner hemmed with black that dropped down from the roof and stretched across the whole building. The bright color of the banner stood out in the vast whiteness, adding a note of solemnity and grandeur to this shabby castle.

The biggest change was on the second floor of the castle.

A balcony facing the gate of the front yard protruded from the second floor. No doubt, the king was going to receive blessings from his subjects here after the coronation.

Only the designer of the balcony, Minister Carl, knew that the temporary alternation had been completed by the witches. Ms. Agatha had first created an ice wall, to which Ms. Soraya applied a "brick coating", making it look like a part of the castle.

In such cold weather, the thick ice wall would last for several days.

...

On the other hand, people inside the castle were busy with the preparation work.

"Your Majesty, are you ready?" Wendy's voice popped up outside the bedroom. "All the ministers and guests are now here waiting for you."

"Got it. Just give me one moment," Roland replied. He turned around to the girl in a white dress and asked, "Are you ready?"

"Wait a minute... I'm still a bit nervous." The girl was no one else but Anna. She peered down at the crowd below through the curtain, apparently unnerved by the frenzy down there. "Are you sure you want me to come with you? The ceremonial officer told me no king has done it before."

Roland realized that Anna was not as fearless as he thought. Although she was smiling, she was still worried and lost upon such a big event. Her confidence came from her outstanding academic performance and her desire for new knowledge. When she is dedicated to her work, she is a true genius. Despite her talent, she is essentially a girl in her twenties, born and brought up on the countryside.

Anna is certainly not accustomed to presenting herself in front of thousands of people.

Roland smiled and said softly, "Then I'll set a precedent. Or do you want me to crown myself?"

"No, of course not." Anna shook her head. "I'm just..."

Roland walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her and said, "In that case, I'll put it in another way."

"Another... way?"

"Yes." Roland took a deep breath and asked in a very serious tone, "Miss Anna, I would like to hire you as my wife. Will you accept my offer?"

"Haha." Anna burst into laughter. "No, I'm no longer a prisoner. Also..."

"Also what?"

"It's on such a short notice." She pounded Roland's shoulder with her little fist, then reached out her gloved right hand and said, "Thank you, Roland. Let's go."

Roland grasped her hand tightly and replied, "As you command."

...

The couple pushed the door open, walked across the hallway, down the stairs, and into the hall on the ground floor.

The hall instantly fell silent. People automatically made way for the pair while bowing their heads.

Roland glanced at the Neverwinter witches on his left side as he proceeded. He saw Tilly, Ashes, Nightingale, Wendy, Lightning and Agatha... Completely different from what they had looked like three years ago, they blended into the society and became an inseparable part of the kingdom.

On his right side stood the city hall officials and local officers, including Barov, Edith, Iron Axe, Carl, Kyle, Theo, Yorko and so on. They formed the governmental bodies in the Kingdom of Graycastle. Through the years, they have elevated themselves from common people to the prominent political figures.

The coronation should have been a very complicated procedure. However, since the witches and the officials of Neverwinter had all acknowledged Roland's sovereignty, the process was considerably simplified.

Roland led Anna to the center of the hall, where stood a stone table with two golden crowns on it.

As both King Wimbledon III and the Church of Hermes were gone, Roland dismissed the request of the ceremonial officer to administer the coronation, insisting that the king and the queen should crown each other.

It was the first time in the history of Graycastle to crown a king and a queen at the same time.

The ceremonial officer was certainly opposed to Roland's suggestion, but to no avail. Surprisingly, Barov sided with Roland this time.

Roland bent down and allowed Anna to crown him, and then he gently placed the other crown on her head.

When the pair turned around, everybody knelt down.

"Long live our king!"

In the cheers of the crowd, Roland and Anna walked to the platform at the other end of the room, out of the domed hall onto the balcony.

There was an eruption of noises below!

Without waiting for him to raise his hand to wave, a deafening cheer flooded over him.

"Long live King Roland!"

"Long live the king!"

"Long live the City of Neverwinter!"

The cheers were earth-shattering. The crowd was flooded with euphoria as the king ascended the throne. Streamers and petals drifted down from the balcony and swirled in the cold wind. For a moment, nobody seemed to care about the flurries of snow anymore.

Just as the city bell tolled, the cannons at the encampment of the First Army also produced thunderous roars at a distance. There, on the border of the Barbarian Land and the Western Region, rose the new King of Graycastle.

Chapter 1031 - The King of Graycastle (I)

Meanwhile...

In the City of Glow

Hearing the noon bell ring, Horford Quinn put down his quill and looked toward the southwestern.

The news of the coronation of Prince Roland had not only spread throughout the whole of Graycastle, but also to the Kingdom of Dawn. According to the flyers distributed on the streets, this should be the very moment the young man was crowned.

Everything was happening so fast.

Horford found it hard to believe that the new king was several years younger than his daughter Andrea. Roland had now secured his throne and even extended his influence to the neighboring country.

After the war against the Moya Family, the name of Roland Wimbledon was known by every noble in the king's city of the Kingdom of Dawn. In the beginning, the rumors about this extraordinary prince were just circulated among some underground Chambers of Commerce, but news of him soon spread throughout his country like wildfire.

Three years ago, Prince Roland had just been the insignificant lord of a remote town. Nobody in the Wimbledon Family had thought he would become the sovereign of the state in the end.

His sudden rise was shrouded in mystery. A lot of his behavior was as unpredictable and bizarre as his unpresidented ascendancy. The coronation ceremony, for example, perfectly illustrated the eccentricity in King Roland's character. He was probably the only king in history who chose to hold the ceremony in the Months of Demons.

Kings with such unique characters typically emerged when the country was in a state of chaos or experiencing a civil strife. With the looming Battle of Divine Will, Horford felt that the world would soon undergo drastic changes.

"Your Majesty," The guard said, breaking his train of thought. "A letter from Sir Hill Fawkes."

"Really?" His eyes were back on his desk again. "Open it and read it to me."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

The word "Your Majesty" was indeed hypnotic. For the past 20 years, he had been the Hand of the King and had spoken those words countless times. Horford had thought he would be immune to the pleasant intoxication brought on by the sudden surge of power and prestige, but the truth was his heart swelled with pride every time somebody addressed him in this way.

Regardless, he should congratulate the new King of Graycastle.

Horford knew very well that his ascendancy to the throne was due to Roland's support. It was not Sir Quinn's swords those big nobles feared, but the deafening thunder that could raze the whole city that Roland commanded. That was why his authority had yet to be challenged. Horford knew the best way to secure his grip on power was to form an alliance with Graycastle, particularly at this moment when everything was about to change.

"The letter says that Graycastle has sent a mining expedition to the border of our country. They're expecting your assistance and support."

"Inform Earl Luoxi of this matter and tell him to greet the expedition with the knightage," Horford instructed immediately. "Also, inform all the local lords in that region and make sure the expedition gets what they need."

"As you command, Your Majesty!"

...

Archduke Island, off the coast of the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Although the town was far outside the range of influence of the Months of Demons, the wet, cold sea breeze made the whole town look desolate and grim. Few people could be found on the muddy streets, except in the dock area.

Despite the weather, an open air bar next to a warehouse drew a lot of attention. The bar offered cheap wines to sailors and travelers who want to warm up a little. Most of the customers simply came and left, but now there were around 100 people gathered about the bar.

A woman wearing clothes made of coarse fabrics also approached the crowd.

"Farrina?"Someone whispered. "What are you dwelling on? We should go."

"Demons," she replied.

"What?" The latter's expression changed.

"I heard somebody talking about the demons." The woman called Farrina said. "Just a moment, Joe."

The man hesitated. At length, he lowered his head and said in a hushed voice," Yes... Your Holiness."

"This isn't an order." Farrina waved her hand and inched closer, hoping to hear more of the conversation.

"I've never seen such gruesome monsters. They had wings wider than a man and tusks bigger than our arms. City walls are nothing to them!" A merchant boasted. Now the center of attention for the surrounding people, he spoke even louder, "But that isn't the worst of it. There's another type of demon who looks like a man, but much stronger. Their spears are faster and deadlier than a balista. Armor is useless against them! I don't mind if you laugh at me, but I almost peed my pants when I saw them."

People in the crowd gasped.

"Is it true? Are they invulnerable?"

"We couldn't lay a finger on them if they are flying in the sky."

Still, some people looked incredulous.

"Get over with yourself! What demons — Do you even know the difference between demonic beasts and demons?"

"Go to Hermes Plateau and take a look! There are all kinds of monsters there. You seem to wet your pants easily. Don't freeze your dick off.

"What do you know about it?!" The merchant cried indignantly. "That's how Prince Roland Wimbledon described them! He's been living in the Western Region for many years, and he doesn't know the difference between demonic beasts and demons? Rubbish! Demonic beasts are just dumb, roving mobs, but demons have well-trained armies. Have you ever seen animals coordinate attacks on a city, one after another?"

"If what you said is true, how did Graycastle drive them off?"

"You wouldn't be able to understand. The situation was precarious, but suddenly thunder roared up from the city wall and pierced the sky." The merchant bragged, spraying his audience with spit. "The demons were instantly blasted to smithereens. Their blood splattered all over the ground. One of them fell right in front of the hotel I was staying at. There was a hole as big as a bowl in its chest. God knows how they did this!"

"Even ballista couldn't do that. Based on what you said, isn't the prince a God?"

"Haha. If he's not, how do you think he wiped out the church?"

Hearing these words, Farrina's hands currled into fists.

"..." Joe put his hand on Farrina's shoulder and shook his head in silence.

"I know." Farrina took a deep breath and unclenched her fists. "What do you think?"

"The Bloody Moon has not appeared yet. The demons shouldn't have arrived at the Barbarian Lands. But his story fits the descriptions of the demons in the Holy Book. It doesn't sound like a lie. I don't... really know." Joe paused for a while and said, "But we have nothing..."

"Nothing to do with them." Farrina cut in. "You're right, Joe. We have to take care of ourselves first."

After the death of the acting Pope, Tucker Thor, Farrina had followed his orders, retreating from New Holy City along with the rest of the Judgement Army. She had planned to re-establish the church on Archduke Island in the Kingdom of Wolfheart where the witch organization, the Bloodfang Association, used to be. To prevent the resurgence of the witches, they had selected this fertile land as their new stronghold.

Yet to their great surprise, the news of the fall of Hermes had spread throughout the whole region. After learning the fall of Hermes, the bishop on Archduke Island had turned against the church and colluded with the nobles. Now, he was known as the Earl of Archduke Island. To secure his new title, he had even hanged the messengers from the church outside the city gate.

The unexpected betrayal was a heavy blow to the Judgement Army. Because of this, many of them had left the Judgement Army. Farrina had been living a clandestine life on Archduke Island for half a year and achieved nothing yet. If she could not re-establish the church and attract new believers, this would probably be the end of the church.

Without a doubt, the only way to save the church from this precarious situation was to execute the traitor as a deterrent.

The only problem was that the enemy also had a group of God's Punishment Warriors.

It was going to be a bitter fight.

"Let's get out of here." Farrina pulled up her hood and cast a last glance at the bar.

The merchant rambled on. "There are a lot of interesting things there! For example, black iron ships as huge as hills, and a giant building taller than Tower of Babel. Once you see them, you'll never forget!"

"C'mon, tell us everything. I'll buy you another drink!"

"Were they all built by that Prince Roland?"

"Of course! But you can't call him His Highness anymore. By the time I left Neverwinter, he had decided to ascend the throne! The date... let me see, right... it's today!"

"Wow. So now he's the King of Graycastle?"

"Haha, that's right!" The merchant raised his wineglass and said, "Since it's his coronation day, let's make a toast. To the King of Graycastle!"

"To the King of Graycastle!" The crowd raised their glasses.

"The King of... Graycastle?" Farrina sneered. "Be whatever king you like. The Battle of Divine Will would eventually reduce the whole world to ashes. We'll sooner or later meet again in the Hell. The only problem is who'll go there first. If I fail to defeat the traitor, I'll be there before you; If I win, then I'll wait for the news of your fall right here."

"King Roland Wimbledon," thought Farrina savagely.

Chapter 1032 - The King of Graycastle (II)

At the headstream of Silver Stream located in the Southernmost Region of the Sand Sea.

Brian sat in a tent, waiting for news from the front to arrive. Sitting opposite to him was the chief of the Wildflame clan, Guelz Burnflame, and the elder of the Osha Clan, Thuram.

The two men had become the representatives of the Mojin Clan.

Together with the commander of the Gun Battalion who represented the chief, all the leaders who participated in the decision-making process with respect to the Sand Nations were here.

The cold desert wind whistled outside the tent, but the interior of the tent was quite warm as if it were sitting on the top of a giant brazier. No matter how cold the ground seemed to be, every time Brian buried his feet into the sand, he could feel heat escape from underneath. It was even warmer than the brick beds and the heating system used in Neverwinter.

The locals invented this so-called "sand bed", which was a shallow hole as wide as a man in the ground. Native people would first replace the coarse sand with sifted fine sand, and then bury themselves in it to keep their body temperatures. The fine sand had a soft touch and was even softer than burlap matresses. With just a tent and a sand bed, the Sand Nations could spend their winter very comfortably.

Sadly, it was also the same terrestrial heat that destroyed the life here. As seawater gradually evaporated, the desert within 100 miles was wiped out by seasalts. Hardly any sandworms or scorpions lurked around, let alone trees and flowers.

Without an oasis, there would be no food. The entire plain was thus a bleak emptiness. Perhaps, nowhere in the whole Southermost Region could be more dismal and dead than here except Blackwater Swamp.

For the past hundred years, Mojins had erected several wooden houses here and there in this saline-alkali land to provide accommodations for traveling salt merchants. However, things had now changed.

"You don't seem to be worried at all, young man." Guelz ended the silence. "The Wildwave Clan and the Cut Bone Clan were two biggest clans in Iron Sand City. The chief can easily crush them, but this doesn't mean those small tribes can do that too. Do you really put so much faith in them?"

As Guelz spoke out, Thuram also said, "In the past one year, not a single tribe in Iron Sand City has been promoted to be one of the six big clans. Apparently, Wildwave and Cut Bone have kept all the resources to themselves. With sufficient food, a clan in the Southernmost Region can easily recover from a previous loss. They're now probably stronger than prior to you coming here."

"Faith? No..." Brian slowly shook his head. "I don't put faith in them."

"Then... why didn't you request troops from the chief?" Thuram asked in surprise. "100 soldiers and the warriors from the Wildflame Clan and the Osha Clan would be more than enough to deter those brutes from setting foot on the small oasis again."

"Then what? The First Army would be permanently stationed in Silver Stream Oasis protecting those small tribes?" Brian stared at him. "Do you think His Majesty wants a future like this?"

"Um, well..." Thuram was at a loss for words.

Shortly after the relocation, they had started exploiting the resources in the Southernmost Region. Apart from building the Festive Harbor at Endless Cape, another key project was the development of the saline-alkali land at the headstream of Silver Stream. Since there was no river, they had to rely on manpower and animal power to transfer those salts out of the desert, to the closest branch of Redwater River by cart.

For this reason, Fallen Dragon Ridge and Port of Clearwater had provided competitive wages and benefits to the laborers, in hopes of attracting more Sand Nations to help with the transfer.

Within a year, various tents had been pitched in the saline-alkali land, and the place was soon alive with busy workers.

The laborers dug wells and drew consumable water from the underground stream of Silver Stream. They not only drank the water but also used it to filter salt.

Shortly afterwards, plants were built. Without steam engines or other machinery, they did all the work manually. The whole working process was similar to gold mining. People separated the scattered salt from the sand and gravel, collected and crystalized them before shipping them to the inner land of the Western Region where they would be further processed. The repetitive and tedious work gradually became a new mundane routine of everyday life in the saline-alkali land.

Although there was no oasis, sandworms or scorpions around this area, the place started to get teeming with life.

Many relocaters, as well as some small tribes who had been hesitating to come simply could not resist the good compensation. They came to the border in groups and offered to work for the project in exchange for wheat, dried meat and fabrics. Some of them returned to the oasis with the food while others stayed, becoming one of the earliest settlers.

The big clans in Iron City were not happy about this. The more tribes that chose to move out of the oasis, the fewer resources they would obtain. The increasing tension between the big clans and the small tribes had finally turned into an open conflict two months ago, where the Wildwave and Cut Bone Clans had dispatched infantry and killed some tribesmen departing the oasis. They had left their heads on the road leading to the north, apparently to deter people from the Sand Nations from leaving.

The big clans did not have the courage to openly provoke King of Graycastle, so they had attacked the small tribes who had yet to submit to his rule. They had thought the chief would dismiss the matter, for no northern king would actually care about the lives of hundreds of Sand Nations. They had not expected, however, that this would be the very thing that Roland detested.

Brian knew very well that King Roland dreaded any loss of the population for no reason.

Before Guelz had sent his letter to Neverwinter, Brian had already prepared himself for a probable war.

"What if they lose?" said Guelz Burnflame as he massaged his forehead apprehensively. "If I remember correctly, those people received training on how to use a flintlock just three months ago, right?"

"Then we'll be slaughtered, and your clansmen would be reduced to slaves in Iron Sand City," said Brian as he closed his eyes. "Prior to the war, I told you that it's going to be your battle, not mine. I've provided you with weapons. If you still can't save your clansmen from their swords, you don't deserve the honor of being one of the soldiers of Graycastle. I can always train new people if I want."

"..." Guelz's manner tightened abruptly into a grave expression for the first time as if he was re-evaluating the young officer in front of him.

"Plus, you forgot that the training three months ago was only for flintlocks." Brian went on, "Apart from flintlocks, they also use swords, daggers, their fists and teeth. These are weapons Sand Nations have been using from the moment they were born, aren't they?"

The members of the Sand Nation troop selected by Brian were all from the small tribes that had relocated to Port of Clearwater. Unlike the big clans such as Wildflame, those tribes were still concerned about the tribes left behind at the oasis, even though they had chosen to live at Graycastle. As these people were not politically involved but still maintained a relationship with the desert, they were perfect for forming a local military power. They used old, outdated flintlocks as their weapons.

Suddenly, outside the camp came the little pattering of feet.

"Stop there!" The guard hollered.

"I'm Jodel from the ambush unit. I have something important to report to Mr. Commander."

"Let him in." Brian opened his eyes abruptly.

The tent flap was pulled open, and a man stumbled in, his face smeared with blood, all shaky and breathless. He sank to his knee, panting, but his eyes were glinting with excitement.

"Sir, we won!"

Chapter 1033 - The King of Graycastle (III)

Brian walked out of the tent and saw the victorious soldiers return one after another.

Compared to how they had looked when they had marched for war, they now looked no better than a bunch of refugees. They were all ragged and covered in blood. It was obvious that they had just returned from a fierce battle.

The number of casualties was astonishing. Out of the 2,000 soldiers that left, less than half were walking. All the horses and camels had been used to carry the wounded. Together with a few captured enemy soldiers, the group looked so beaten-up that it did not look like a well-trained army at all.

Nevertheless, their spirits were high. Everybody was excited about the victory.

This was literally the first time that the small tribes were able to defeat the big clans of Iron Sand City!

Brian knew this past battle had made those hunters true soldiers.

He was more pleased to see that the ambush team, although battered and dishevelled, had followed his instructions that no soldier should abandon his weapons under any circumstances.

Most of their water sacks and ration bags were gone, and some had even lost one of their shoes, but all of them still had their guns and swords.

The First Army could not be stationed in the Southern Territory to protect Sand Nations forever. They must be able to carry out Graycastle's policies among their tribesmen by themselves. Brian knew the King of Graycastle wanted more than a simple implementation.

He wanted more soldiers, more Mojins to participate in the Battle of Divine Will.

Now, these people were qualified to move on to the next step.

Brian turned around in satisfaction and nodded at Jodel, "Tell me the details of the battle."

It was a pretty straightforward battle, although it was full of errors and accidents. The initial plan was that the 2,000 strong army should be divided into two groups. One would sneak into Silver Stream Oasis and advance to the north during the night to make an impression that they were planning to attack the saline land, while the other would wait for the enemy in an uninhabited oasis at the end of the Silver Stream so that they could launch an ambush.

Provoked by the smaller tribes, the Wildwave and Cut Bone Clans had soon dispatched an infantry of more than 800 people to pursue the "traitors". Although there were many "traitors", the two clans had not taken them seriously. In their opinion, this group were even weaker than the watchdogs.

As the battle had progressed, the enemy had soon been lured into the ambush. Everything had gone well up to this point.

The "baits" were supposed to dismount and yield. They should have found an opportunity to disperse the horses once the enemy had dismounted as well. Then the ambush squad would have launched their attack. However, the group responsible for blocking the retreating path had set the fire too early. As the road had been ablaze, the enemy had realized something had gone wrong and started to retreat. Had they not prepared a large amount of blackwater beforehand, the enemy would have probably escaped.

The battle then turned to chaos. The "baits" had drawn out their swords and flung themselves at the enemy, and so had the ambush team. Many people had used the flintlock just once, completely forgetting the loading and firing skills they had learned during training. In the end, they had resorted to their traditional combat method: a hand-to-hand fight.

Like Brian had said, the people of the Sand Nation had weapons other than flintlocks. With the horses neighing and fires sizzling in the air, the withering, small oasis had become the location where the two parties had started an intense, life-and-death struggle. One moment a soldier had lunged at a horserider, and the next a horse had trampled a man. When two people tussled, teeth could also be a lethal weapon.

The small tribes also had warriors. Since the people of the Sand Nation had started to learn how to cope with the harsh living conditions from the moment they had been born, almost everyone that had survived the venom of sandworms or scorpions possessed excellent combat skills. Indeed, there was no large difference between a member from a big clan and one from a small stribe in terms of individual physical strength.

What those small tribes lacked was resources. Inadequate resources limited their ability to reproduce and expand. No warrior could defeat ten people at a time, no matter how strong he was. As long as the tribes remained small in size, it would be impossible for them to compete with the big clans.

But now, they had what they needed.

All the soldiers were from the ten Silver River Clans. Since everyone shared the same food, wore the same clothes, slept on the same bed, and received the same training, they did not have to fight for resources. Now what they needed was simply the courage and determination to challenge the big clans in Iron Sand City.

The massacre of the small tribes committed by the Wildwave and Cut Bone Clans had encouraged them to stand up for themselves.

The battle had lasted all night.

The Sand Nation army had gained a tough victory.

By the time the fires were quenched, the oasis was covered with blackened wood. Since all the trees were gone, the sand would soon drain the little water around this area, and Silver Stream would shrink further, exposing more oases to wind deflation.

But the people of the Sand Nation would survive.

The battle preluded the eventual disppearance of the oases, but it also pointed out the direction in which the people of the Sand Nation should head.

After hearing Jodel's report, Brian walked up slowly to the returning soldiers.

"Good job! You should be proud of yourselves because you protected your people! This is a victory belonging to you, so you have the right to decide on how to deal with these captives."

Brian pointed toward the captured warriors from the big clans.

"Kill! Kill them!"

"Sir, they killed my family!"

"They should pay for that!"

Brian's eyes met with the anxious ones of the people of the Sand Nation. He gave them a casual wave and they immediately understood what to do.

With clanks and clatters, numerous swords were drawn out from their scabbards.

Blood blossomed and soaked the coarse sand beneath their feet. The soldiers' morale had reached its peak!

"But Iron Sand City still poses a threat to us. The Wildwave and Cut Bone Clans will still dispatch their troops to the interior of Siver Stream, so your tribesmen are still exposed to danger," Brian proclaimed. "The chief has granted you the right to permanently live in the oasis, but the traitors attempt to ruin everything! Tell me, what should you do?"

"Take Iron Sand City and drive them out of Blackwater Swamp!"

"Let them know the consequence of betraying the chief!"

"Commander, some of my friends are still in the oasis. Please allow them to join us!"

"And also my... my sisters!"

Guelz and Thuram stepped a few paces back involuntarily, shocked at the soldiers' reactions.

Brian looked in the direction of Neverwinter.

"Your Majesy, we've shed the traitors' blood, and I hope this will be a nice present for your coronation. The Mojins who used to only care about themselves have started to work together. I believe that sooner or later, you will be able to take over Iron Sand City."

But this was just the beginning.

"The entire Southernmost Region will eventually become a part of your territory. There will be nobody on this desert to challenge your authority." 

I hope you like my gift. 

Chapter 1034 - Subtle Hints at the Ceremony

The coronation celebration lasted all day, from noon all the way through to the evening.

The central square was saturated with the warm aroma of savory soup as it simmered in pots above the fire. Within the pots, a thick layer of spicy oils glazed the surface displaying the richness of the soup. It was made so that anyone could add the food they wanted and eat as they pleased. As spices were still considered as luxuries in this era, the party attracted many civilians. Some people even brought jars and barrels, hoping that to bring some soup home to savor every drop of it later.

City Hall was in charge of continuously adding water and broth into the pots. With each addition of chopped beef bones and sausages, the crowd would burst into loud cheers.

This would have been an incredible scene during the Months of Demons in the past.

People used to breathe gingerly during a long winter season, for cold represented death. But now, they could appreciate the snow drifting down from the sky and express their love for life without such fear.

Because they knew there would be enough food to keep them warm.

Everybody raised their cups in celebration of the new king while sending him their blessings.

...

Sylvie turned around and watched the bustling castle hall.

People here were also having a good time.

There was plenty of delicious food, wine, music and laughter.

The party became even more boisterous when Roland and Anna presented themselves in their wedding gowns.

It was Sylvie's first time to see such a unique wedding gown. Completely different from the white dress the bride had worn on the Chief Knight's wedding, the new one designed by Roland was actually nothing like a nightgown. The dress was mainly in red and gold, with long sleeves and a full skirt. Its shoulder parts were ornamented with two patterned ribbons of intricate and elegant designs.

Not many people could pull off such a bright color, but the dress was perfect for Anna. She was a genius fire controller and one of the most outstanding witches of this era. The bright red outfit made her look even more stunning whilst also making her display a gracious and queenly aura.

Everybody raised their glasses, to which Roland and Anna returned a smile. It was a perfect party.

But Sylvie was all tensed up.

She had noticed something strange at the ceremony.

As she had the Eye of Magic, she was obligated to detect anything out of character before anyone else and promptly notify the other guards. For things like a coronation ceremony, she had to make sure Roland was absolutely safe, not only because he was Princess Tilly's brother but also because it was her responsibility as a guard. Therefore, Sylvie had been extremely cautious, making sure that she did not miss anything.

Each incident seemed insignificant if she looked at them separately. However, once she pieced them together, she found something suggestive.

This reminded Sylvie of a song Roland often hummed.

The lyrics were quite interesting, which read "a walking stick blackened, a strong floral scent softened ..." Many jigsaw puzzles that might not make sense to you, would eventually lead you to the discovery of a truth well hidden.

It was worth noting that after Mystery Moon heard the tune, she made it the song of the Detective Group.

The situation this time had been exactly as the lyrics described.

Sylvie did not know what the problem was. Normally, she would have warned Nightingale and Ashes by now.

But this time, she kept silent.

Because she suddenly remembered what Anna had told her two days ago.

"The person who keeps the secret is always the one that knows it. I need your help, Sylvie."

At that time, she had not understood the meaning behind it, so she had not given it much thought.

But now, as if struck by a sudden enlightenment, Sylvie saw the full picture. Anna's words were the last piece of the puzzle that had just been slotted into place.

She discovered a secret.

Sylvie did not take delight in it. Instead, she felt a huge burden being laid upon her shoulders.

Because now she had to not only keep the secret but also stop others from noticing it.

Someone else had probably also noticed those subtle signs!

Sylvie surveyed the entire hall. Her eyes rested on three people.

"Achoo!"

Lorgar rubbed her nose, glancing about suspiciously.

"What's the matter?" Andrea asked. "Wolves can also catch a cold?"

"I'm not sure if it's my nose. I've been feeling something wrong since this morning." Lorgar made a sniff. "The odors I smell seemed inconsistent with the number of people here..."

"Inconsistent?" Ashes cut in. "Can you actually tell people apart by their smells?"

"I can as long as they aren't too far apart and there's no interference of a strong scent," said Lorgar with a nod.

"There are nearly 100 people in the hall," said Andrea with an incredulous look. "Even if you do have an acute sense of smell, you can't remember all the odors people are giving off. Besides, many of them are wearing perfumes. They also tend to touch others, like this." With these words, Andrea touched the back of Ashes' hand with the hand she had just used to eat a chicken drumstick. "I'll also have her odor on me now. Can you still tell us apart?"

"It's difficult... but still, I can tell whether a certain individual is present or not." Lorgar dropped her ears in confusion. "Nobody is moving about, but I notice some scents are on and off. Why is that?"

"Ahem." Sylvie appeared behind the three witches and said, "You're probably sick."

"Sylvie?" Andrea raised her brow. "How come you're here?"

"I'm just walking around and overheard your conversation." She shrugged and looked at the wolf girl. "The weather on the desert in the south is quite different from that in the Western Region. It's easy to catch a cold. Plus, this is your first winter here, so it's normal that you are feeling under the weather. If you feel there's something wrong with your nose, you might as well drink some Lily's Cleansing Water. I was like that too when I first came here."

"Really?" Lorgar seemed to suddenly understand the reason. "I see."

Sylvie walked off, feeling a bit relieved.

Because of her ability, Lorgar Burnflame possessed far better hearing and a much more acute sense of smell than ordinary people. As she had an animal intuition, Sylvie needed to watch out for her all the time.

Fortunately, she had successfully prevented her from discovering the secret.

Now, her next target was —

"Coo, coo, coo, coo coo coo coo... coo!" Perched on Lightning's head, Maggie was talking to Joan in excitement.

"Ya, ya ya, yaa — ya!" Joan returned as if the two people were discussing a very interesting topic.

"Oh well, whatever..." Sylvie clapped her hand over her forehead. Even if they did find out something, they would not understand it.

Likewise, nobody would be able to read something out of their conversation either.

At this thought, Sylvie locked her Eye of Magic on her third target.

This was probably the person who was most likely to discover the secret and also the most difficult one to deal with out of the three.

It was Honey.

Chapter 1035 - An Obscure and Wonderful Night

As a key figure of the Graycastle Weekly, Honey basically had informants everywhere. This combined with the advantages offered by Lorgar and Maggie. The olive forest in the castle backyard was like her headquarters and to escape from her detection was not easy.

Yet that was not the whole story.

Having the earliest access to interesting anecdotes in the city, she could always attract a large number of witches during gatherings. For instance, at the moment, the batch of witches that gathered around her was the biggest one in the hall.

Besides Mystery Moon and the other members of her Detective Group, Nightingale, Wendy, and Scroll were not easily fooled. Even Leaf, who had not shown herself for quite some time, also seemed to be talking about something with Honey.

"Conceal the secrets you know, and keep others from knowing them."

Sylvie took a look at Anna at the other end of the Hall. Thinking of the words Anna had given her, she walked toward Anna unwillingly.

"What do you think of these birds?" Leaf's voice went into Sylvie's ears. "They're the new species I found in the Misty Forest, not big, but fly very fast. They're so bold that they even dare to steal from a gray eagle nest. I figured that they might be helpful to you one day, so I took a nest of them back."

Sylvie saw two big Kingfisher and one small one standing on Leaf's shoulders and rubbing her face intimately, which gave her a completely different impression as the brave birds Honey just described.

"Sure, thank you." Honey took over the birds delightfully. "I haven't seen you for quite a while. I feel like you've become a qualified bird trainer."

"They probably think of me as a part of the forest," Leaf said smilingly. "Then again, the changes that happened in the town really surprised me... not only are there more houses, there are also such novel things like magic film and newspaper. If it wasn't for the fact that exploring the deep forest is equally enjoyable, I would have envied you."

"You should come back more often," Wendy said softly. "Everybody misses you."

"I missed you too..." Leaf's eyelids lowered. "But nowadays only the southeast edges of the Misty Forest are under the control of the Heart of Jungle, I must stay integrated with the forest as long as possible so as to adapt to its ever-enlarging consciousness. To control the entire forest before the arrival of the war, I could do nothing but seize all the time I could..."

"You've worked hard." Scroll stroked her hair tenderly. "I'll ask Lightning to send the newly published newspapers to you every week so that you'll know what's going on in Neverwinter at any time."

"That is a wonderful idea," Mystery Moon shouted, "but what's written in the newspaper are things known to all. Compared to that, I prefer to know the secrets that are only known to a few." She then looked at Honey and said, "If you ever find something suspicious, please do tell the Detective Group. We have the most skillful detectives who'll ensure all your puzzles will be solved."

Hearing the word 'secret', Sylvie's heart began to extremely tense up.

Such a fool. She asked too directly! How can I divert the topic? No... It's too hard a task for me to avoid Nightingale and Wendy's attention and divert Mystery Moon at the same time!

"Em, there are quite a few..." Honey said, tilting her head.

"Oh?" Mistery Moon's eyes sparkled. She said hurriedly, "Such as?"

"This is a big problem!" Sylvie felt a deep desperation. "Will it work if I pretend to faint or be drunk? But I'm not able to act that well... sorry Anna, I've tried my best."

"Oh, although I'm also curious, I'm not going to tell it." Honey stuck out her tongue. "I especially can't tell His Majesty Roland—this is out of sister Wendy's request. She also said that no matter what anomaly I find, I need to report to her first."

"Oh?" Mystery Moon looked at Wendy in surprise. "This isn't fair!"

Wendy coughed twice. "I think this is for the good of the Witch Union—you'll be safer not knowing something."

Sylvie let out a long sigh.

Thus the latest crisis was averted.

I've successfully kept the secret... haven't I?

An anxious Sylvie had the toughest dinner party in her life.

***************

After the banquet, Roland returned to the bedroom with Anna.

At the moment, this place had been as decorated as their wedding room. Under the flickering candlelight, Anna's figure in the wedding dress appeared dimmer, yet it exuded a particular sense of grace.

Roland walked up, gently took down her bridal veil, lifted up her bang, and stared into her eyes.

In the pair of eyes that were as clear as a lake, he saw rippling affection.

"Say my name, ok?"

"Anna?"

"No." Her eyes blinked. "My full name."

"Anna Wimbledon."

"Once more."

"Anna Wimbledon."

"Can you call me that ten more times?"

Roland gently smiled. "As many times as you want."

After hearing Roland whispering in her ear, Anna lowered her head shyly. "My request... is it a little weird?"

"A little." Roland poked at her nose. "You'll get tired of hearing this name in the future. You're my wife, with or without my family name."

In the world he came from, marriage did not require one party of the couple to change family names, so he did not care much about the name change after marriage.

"Even so, I feel I'm complete this way..." Anna pressed one hand on her chest. "I feel I'm no longer alone. That's probably the point of any ceremony... either wearing a crown or changing a title, people are just acquiring a self-identification through the attached external changes. Although emotions between two people need no verification through a ceremony, without this link, a couple might feel pitiful and regretful afterward."

"..." Roland could not help but hold her in his arms.

At this moment, any answer would have appeared redundant.

After a little intimacy, Anna said, "Roland, can I ask for something?"

If Roland remembered correctly, this was the first time that Anna ever asked something of him.

"Sure, go ahead."

"I want to take the post of the minister of the Department of Industry."

Roland was a little surprised. "This isn't a problem, but why do you suddenly..."

"Because I'm only a common girl born in a remote small town," Anna said smilingly. "Now I am suddenly the queen of Graycastle. I guess there must be many people feeling discontent."

"Don't worry. Nobody dares to gossip about it," Roland consoled her.

"If everything has to be quieted down by you, it would only add to people's suspicion." She shook her head. "I can't keep on hiding behind you and only indulge in things that I'm interested in. I want to do more, offering people no excuses to accuse me."

"You've gone from being an unknown witch to becoming a figure taking charge of a whole department by yourself?" Roland smiled subconsciously. "I've never intended to keep you in that narrow backyard..."

"As you wish, my dear."

"Thank you for indulging my willfulness." Anna stood on her tiptoe and gently kissed Roland on his forehead. "Right, haven't you always been curious about what I talked with Nightingale that one night?"

"Um..." Roland slightly paused. "I'll be lying if I say I wasn't, but..."

"It's alright," she said smilingly. "It was an agreement, and I've fulfilled it. Now... carry me to bed."

The candle was put out by a string of Blackfire. The curtain of the night covered their silhouettes like a thin veil.

What an obscure and wonderful night.

...

Chapter 1036 - Regime of the New Kingdom

On the second day after Roland's inauguration, he called for the third plenary session in the castle's reception hall.

The main content of the session was the distribution of power, which concerned the officers the most.

As the advocators of choosing the right side, this session was undoubtedly the moment that these officers had long hoped for. To serve the local lords and to serve the king were two totally different concepts. Especially since most of them had worked in the City Hall, so they had a rough mastery of the new king's idea of "weakening the local, strengthening the center" to concentrate power. They understood their promotion had special significance, which meant they had gone from being nobodies to the top officers of the Kingdom of Graycastle. What they would govern was no longer be a small piece of land in Western Region, and their influence would be stronger than the former great nobles.

Roland would not allow his officers' ambitions of ascending to the skies with a single leap to keep on growing, so he laid down the general principle right at the beginning of the session. "First of all, I'd like to congratulate each of and every one of you. Anyone who is invited to this session will join the elite class of Graycastle. In the next few decades, you will be joining me in the endeavor of governing this kingdom."

"That's flattery, Your Majesty." Barov took the lead to stand up and bow. "It's our honor to serve you! Just tell me whatever you want me to do. I'm at your disposal!"

Although what he said meant to be humble, Barov's face wrinkled with the smile he put on. Obviously, he had many expectations for his path ahead.

Roland nodded smilingly. He gestured for the rest to sit down, then said slowly, "I have to mention one thing first. The reason I took back the nobles' feudal power is to replace them with capable personnel. A kingdom's prosperity depends on the number of talents who are working for it. I don't hope to see you turning into another kind of noble."

"Of course..." Barov said hurriedly. "Nobody can be sure that his descendants will be as equally capable, so all the positions should be dispatched to the most capable."

The others instantly agreed with Barov.

Roland wasn't so sure. He felt these City Hall officers had changed a lot and their flattery sounded a lot more smooth, and the expressions in their eyes were filled with an unexplainable awe. The changes brought him a vague sense of satisfaction.

This was probably also the effect of the ceremony.

No wonder Timothy and Garcia did not hesitate to drag more than half of the kingdom into the fires of war.

Yet Roland did not indulge himself in this kind of satisfaction for long. Even as a supreme king, what he governed was no more than a corner of the extensive continent. "If I'm content with what I've accomplished, what difference would I have with a sheik from an isolated island?"

The world is so big. I want to see it.

"What you said is only the most basic point." Roland looked around the hall. "As a matter of fact, even the most capable could not be guaranteed to always be qualified for their positions! There are many ways to ruin one's prospect, such as external temptation, the solidification of ideas, and the desire to expand one's influence. You are not exceptions."

With the rising of Roland's voice, the officers lowered their heads, not even daring to breathe heavily.

"Therefore, entering them as the starting officers is only the start for your career. Your abilities and performances will be assessed annually. Whether you're to be promoted or stay where you are will be decided by the assessment." Roland paused. "Of course, there could be a worse consequence. For example, those who insist to knowingly causing damage to the kingdom will be removed from their positions and sent to trial!"

"Your Majesty..." Barov asked carefully, "May I know who will write this assessment report?"

"Myself." Roland looked at him. "Are there any more questions?"

Although it was Nightingale from the Security Bureau who would do the investigation, Roland felt it was more fitting to tell people that he would be the one executing the assessment.

"No, I... have none."

"I know what's on your mind," Roland proceeded."You must be thinking that you've gone such a long way to achieving this, it's supposed to a time for your reward, and if you have to keep on giving great effort, but behave like you are walking on thin ice, what's the point of becoming the starting officers. Yet what I'm about to say is your reward doesn't contradict with what I've said just now. Instead, they're supplements to each other. As long as you finish the tasks I give you, I don't mind that you seek profit for yourselves. It's like dividing a piece of bread. When the bread gets big enough, everyone can eat well even with a very small portion of it; on the contrary, if the bread is too small, one can't eat enough even if he eats it all by himself. As for the fact that those who stand in the front of others will get his slice of bread sooner, I think all of you can understand that."

The resources an officer of upper rank got was far greater than his listed salary, and the connections and power he had access to were far more effective capital than money. If one even failed to see that, Roland would not want him to continue to have a say in the City Hall.

The driving effect of the combination of stick and carrot had been repeatedly tested in the rivers of history. Although it was still a little rough, Roland had begun to master the use of it.

"Before I announce the new appointments, you can still choose to give up your career in the government. Those who choose to give up will get a large number of gold royals as compensation, which is enough for you to squander for the rest of your life, but if you decide to stay, you'll have to take on the responsibilities and obligations of an officer. Now, make your decisions!"

Nobody dared to leave. Even the minister of Chemical Industry who had complained constantly in the beginning and wished to retire as soon as possible remained silent at this moment. Obviously, through the two years' of experience of holding a political position, he understood the significance of the post of a minister in requesting for appropriation from Barov.

"Alright," Roland smiled and said, "here are your appointments."

Compared with the old City Hall, the biggest change in the new power system was that the towns in all the regions were also put under the management framework.

Roland adapted a modern method and set the big cities as provinces whose prefecture included their surrounding residential areas such as towns and villages. The manager of a province was called a governor, the same rank as a minister. Every province needed to set its own city hall, which was under the control of the City Hall in Neverwinter.

As this was building on the foundations on the previously established secondary City Halls, such a transformation was not difficult. Although the workload of the ministers would greatly increase, their power would correspondingly rise up to a new level.

Barov, as he had always wished, was promoted to the Hand of the King. He was responsible for coordinating all the departments, and concurrently in charge of the Treasury. As an old chief who was among the first batch of Border Town's managers and who cultivated numerous talents for the City Hall, his appointment could not be any more suitable. He didn't expect that a joking promise Roland made four years ago could be realized today.

Apart from some similar institutions like the king's city City Hall, the army, Security Bureau, Witch Union, etc, Roland also established a whole new department: Headquarters of the General Staff.

This was different from the staff organization that served in a combat capacity. The Headquarter of the General Staff took charge in making foreign policies, and any specific schemes about strategic plans. With the expansion of the strength of Graycastle and the increasing threat of the Battle of Divine Will, the future connections among the other three kingdoms and the Fjords were bound to grow tighter. That was why Roland needed a visionary department to assist him in controlling the overall situation.

As for its minister, it was none other than Edith Kant, the Pearl of the Northern Region.

Chapter 1037 - Massacre On the Snow-covered Plains

After appointing roles to everyone, they spoke their oaths out loud as per Roland's request.

This was the first time the officials had to go through such a process. However, as surprised as they were, they still followed their King's orders without delay, with their chest held high.

The oath itself was nothing special: "Loyal to the King, dedicated to your duty." These were the words that all the officials would say, but speaking them out loud on a formal occasion in front of a crowd had a dramatically different effect. These words seemed to have come to life and reverberated in everyone's minds.

Roland knew then that they were slowly uniting as one.

"Now that you have passed the ceremony, let's get started." Roland rose from his throne and slapped the map behind him, "We shall eliminate all threat of the demons in the Fertile Plains and ensure that the northwestern side of Neverwinter is safe for us to build the foundation for humanity's mass migration back to the plains."

The two defeats humanity had suffered previously had pushed humanity up against a wall with the ocean at their back and nowhere to escape. Marching West was now their only way forward, both for the acquisition of more resources and as a strategic move against the demons.

The First Army must gain control of the Taquila ruins if the people of Graycastle were to settle in the plains properly. Without a source of God's stones, the demons would not be able to build their obelisks, and Graycastle could then safely expand its borders. This would give them the chance to either continue on with Graycastle's development or prepare a counterattack on the demons.

After all, humans were not restricted by the red mist.

With technology development, the First Amy's weapons' effective range would also improve.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Everyone shouted.

After the meeting, Roland went back to his office, and Nightingale served him red tea that she had prepared beforehand.

"Good work."

She had a carefree expression on and the dried fish that was dangling from her mouth meant that she was in a good mood.

"Ah… Thank you," Roland picked up the fragrant tea. He suddenly recalled the words that Anna had said last night and gazed at Nightingale.

What was the promise that Anna talked about? She did not explain in detail last night, but Nightingale was present at both the inauguration ceremony in the morning and the wedding in the evening. It did not seem like she had time to fulfill any sort of a "promise".

This issue still puzzled him.

Also, Roland felt that if he asked them directly, no one would give him an answer.

"What's wrong?" At that moment, Roland heard Nightingale's voice next to his ear, "Do you think I look good today?"

"No … Ermm," He quickly sipped his tea to cover up his bewildered expression, "I mean, not bad…"

"So do I look good or not?" Nightingale leaned down and looked Roland deep in the eyes. Roland could smell the sweet smell of her hair. "Your heart is in turmoil," Nightingale observed.

Before he could reply, she went away and leaned on a chair, chewing her dried fish, seemingly pleased with herself.

Realizing that she was only teasing him, Roland shook his head, yet at the same felt glad that she didn't pursue the matter.

However, one thing was certain.

She was still the Nightingale he had always known.

...

Western Region, in the sky above the snow-covered Barbarian Lands.

"What is our current speed?"

No reply.

Lighting could only hear the sound of wind gushing past her ear and she could hardly even open her mouth. If she tried to speak right now, her tongue would probably be torn apart by the headwind. She had no choice but to synchronize with her magic power.

The freezing sensation disappeared in an instant and the sound of wind became somewhat bearable.

"Maggie, what is our speed now?" She asked again.

"Let me check, Coo!" Maggie stuck her head out from Lightning shirt, "It's about two times faster than a gray eagle, coo."

This was most likely related to a beast's sharp instincts, but Maggie had a great sense of speed. So bringing her along was much more convenient than using magic power to measure their speed.

"Three hundred kilometer per hour?" Lightning sighed. When a gray eagle dived to catch a prey from the sky, its speed can reach up to hundred fifty kilometers per hour and almost no prey could dodge the attack. Now that Lightning had far surpassed the top speed of the eagle, she did not seem to feel glad wholeheartedly.

Three hundred kilometers…. This was the limit without synchronization.

After her magic powers had evolved, she spent a lot of time to get used to her new ability and learn the technique to control the level of magic power. In other words, if she can handle the discomfort under high-speed flight, then she would be able to minimize the use of her magic power.

To deal with this problem, Roland had provided her with a new set of equipment, including a pair of wind goggles, clothes with a double-layer thermal insulator, smaller backpack, and decreased the weight of the gears to the minimum.

All these adjustments helped her break her record, yet there still seemed to be limitations due to her body. It seemed like three hundred kilometer per hour was a bar that could not be passed.

Moreover, there was a drastic increase in the use of magic power after synchronizing.

Lightning couldn't help but admire the robust body of that Extraordinary, Ashes.

Of course, every witch's ability is determined at birth, and the only thing she could do now was to work hard to get stronger.

Perhaps she could ask Lorgar about training a tougher body after they returned to Neverwinter.

"Heads up, Coo!" Maggie shouted while in her arms, "We are already a hundred kilometers away from the Taquila ruins!"

"Ah okay…" Lightning closed her eyes, felt the magic reserves in her body and then smiled, "Then let's give the demons a nice surprise."

After she had finally gotten used to her new ability, His Majesty finally agreed to let her satisfy her explorer's cravings… Wait no, her request to scout. Even if she only flew at her slowest speed, those stupid demons would only be able to bite the dust. She would not encounter any danger as long as she planned her magic expenditures well.

However, Lightning was not satisfied. She still remembered that time three years ago in the Barbarian Lands where she was scared stiff upon seeing an ice sculpture of a demon under the Taquila ruins. This is something she must redeem herself in as an explorer.

Fear stems from the unknown, and demons were no longer some terrifying creatures of the myths.

"Lighting, going full throttle!"

After she heard that, the pigeon quickly ducked her head and hid under the young girl's clothes.

Lightning kept on accelerating, and despite the protection from synchronizing, she could still hear the sound of wind tearing past her getting louder and louder, from an initially high-pitched screech to a deep rumble. Their views blurred as Lightning sped up even more, and eventually, the white plains under them looked like melting cheese, flowing past as they flew.

Then that moment came.

With a boom, there came utter silence.

It was as if she shook off the restraints the world had on her, as wind and snow was left flying past her, and the whole sky became her playground.

Like what the King had said earlier, she was now the one who left sound trailing behind.

No matter how many times she repeated this, Lighting would not get bored of it.

Sometimes she had thought that she was born just for this moment.

After a few minutes, the Taquila ruins rose above the horizon.

What surprised her was that the land around the ruins had suddenly changed color. It looked like the muddy ground after the snow had melted. Yet, as she looked harder, she realized that the muddled background was a mixture of flesh and blood! Coal-black demonic beasts were swarming towards the ruins and smashed into the defense lines of the demons like waves splashing onto a shore.

Before their bodies broke into pieces.

Chapter 1038 - Enemies from the Abyss

"That's..." said Lightning as she slowed down. Her eyes widened open.

Thousands of demonic beasts were swarming on the snowfield. It looked as if a black carpet was laid over the white snow. The moving "carpet" somehow reminded her of ants gnawing at corpses.

This time, however, it was not corpses they were facing, but demons who were equally brutal.

The skyscraper-like skeleton monsters moved slowly among the demonic beasts as they jostled enemies aside. With every step they took, a few demonic beasts would fail to escape and be crushed below. Their four crooked limbs looked as slim as tree branches compared to their huge size, but Lightning believed that they were thicker than Lady Agatha's Spellcaster Tower if she viewed them close-up.

There were numerous Mad Demons clinging to the monster's abdomen, towering over the beasts as they hurled their spears down. The beasts, however, had no choice but to keep pushing forward, even though their counter-attacks took little effect.

"Magic Power Parasite."

These words crossed Lightning's mind.

It was a kind of deformed demon that was between the living and the dead. It had no fixed form and was parasitic on the skeletons and black stone-like blobs. It relied on the magic power to move and launch strikes. The Spider Demons discovered in the battle on the Northbound Slope and the leviathan she was watching now were both very likely to belong to the same species.

Though the demonic beasts' tusks were sharp, they barely did any harm to the stone-like monsters. They had no choice but to bypass the skeleton monsters and attack the main body of the enemies behind these monsters.

Without a wall for the demons to take cover, the battle would be very tough.

Frenzied beasts may have the advantage when facing unarmed humans, but the odds did not favor them this time as Mad Demons were extremely strong and fast. Although they had sent out many demonic hybrid species, the demons had Lords of Hell, Siege Beasts, and Spider Demons at the front line to counter, allowing them to slaughter the demonic hybrid beasts almost as fast as the First Army did. As a result, demonic beasts could not gain an edge over the demons, even though they largely outnumbered their enemies.

Perhaps sensing the speed had slowed down, Maggie poked her head out. She gasped upon seeing such a horrendous scene.

"The demonic beasts and demons... They're fighting?"

"So that's the reason why Neverwinter has such peaceful Months of Demons," said Lightning while pretending to analyze the problem professionally. "But it's a bit weird, didn't the Taquila ancient witches say that the demonic beasts always come after the relics of gods? I'm certain that the demons' king wouldn't bring their relics to this piece of the wastelands... This means the demonic beasts must have gathered here for other reasons. It's too bad that Sylvie didn't come with us, or we could collect more information."

Maggie cocked her head to the side and asked, "Are you still going to surprise them?"

"Of course!" said Lightning decisively. "We're so close to the ruins of Taquila, yet the Devilbeasts haven't come to stop us, so they must be distracted by the battle. What a good chance this is for us."

There was no doubt that both the demons and the demonic beasts are His Majesty's enemies. The more fierce the battle between them became, the more relaxed the army would be during the expedition that was going to start early next spring.

Lightning estimated the magic power in her body was enough for her to maintain flight at supersonic speeds for three to four minutes. In case of any dangers, she would save half of that magic power. This was more than sufficient for escaping. Overall, she was left with only two minutes to shake the demons' defense line. Thus, she had to be very cautious when choosing her flight path.

Her eyes stopped at the giant skeleton monster.

Its deformed body structure looked like an askew bench from far away. The skeleton features were composed of flat long black stones. It looked slightly similar to the glider runway built on the east coast. They seemed to be an ideal place for her to fly over.

According to her ability test results, the lower she flew, the greater the damage she would cause. Therefore if she could fly closely by the monster, the Mad Demons in its abdomen would surely suffer greatly from the impact.

His Majesty had instilled the principles of high-speed flying into her since she had awakened to this higher level. She knew that body size also decided how much energy could be detonated when her speed passed the sound barrier. If it was Maggie flying at supersonic speed over Neverwinter during that night, the whole city might have been ruined.

Hence, Lightning did not plan to crush the demons in one fell swoop.

She just wanted to make the demons suspend their attacks.

The areas under the skeleton monsters were like death zones. The demonic beasts had to avoid this. As a result, their moving speed was significantly slowed. If those brazen skeleton monsters could be pinned down, the demons' back line of defense would become more pressured.

Even if the plan did not work out, she would not be affected anyway.

As soon as she made her decision, Lightning pressed Maggie's head onto her chest and swooped toward the nearest skeleton monster!

At that moment, she had completely forgotten what Roland had warned her about.

No one could grasp sound by the tail. It was time to show them authentic flying skills!

The kilometers between her and battlefield had shrunken in a split second. When she appeared above the battlefield, it was dead silent.

But that was only in her opinion.

In the demons' eyes, it was as if thunder from the sky had all of a sudden crashed down and swooped them over. The result of the collision between the front and rear impact waves were overwhelming. While Lightning leveled off and flew five meters over the monster, the blast of the impact waves had turned the snow into clouds of white mist which almost enveloped the whole monster. The demons were howling in pain from the ear-splitting explosion.

But she had no time to enjoy how big the damage she had made, for she had five similar targets to handle.

Just as she was about to fly over the third skeleton monster, something unexpected happened!

Suddenly, a figure appeared over the bare platform she was flying over to. The moment it stood there, it drew all her attention. There were still miles between them, but Lightning felt a sudden chill come over her. Her fingers could not stop shaking.

It was a demon, yet it looked human-like, except for its blue skin. It looked handsome and its golden eyes were deeper than the abyss of hell. They just stared at each other, but Lightning felt as though she was a frog being targeted by a viper. An instinctive dread rose from the bottom of her heart.

"What kind of monster is that?" thought Lightning. 

She could feel the strong magic power in the demon's body as it distorted the surrounding air. Even though she was flying at a high speed, the power had oppressed her tangibly. It was as if she was stuck in a viscous mire and was being helplessly dragged towards the demon.

Run!

Now!

A voice was warning her to stop flying and run away immediately.

But she could not move her body at all. She had lost the control of her own body.

She saw the demon slowly raising its right arm towards her.

At this moment, something sharp pricked her chest.

It felt like someone had driven a nail straight into her body.

It was Maggie!

As the pain spread throughout the body, she instantly regained control of her limbs and time had returned to normal.

Lightning suddenly raised her body, flew upwards, and fleed to Neverwinter as fast as she could without glancing back.

Chapter 1039 - Decisions On Incoming Letters

"Your Majesty, this is the finance for this week," said Barov in exhilaration as he presented the report. "In short, the figures show a better uptrend than we've expected. As a matter of fact, they've spiked. In the past, this would have been a miracle!"

"Yes. Well done," said Roland as he leaned back in his chair. His expression was a lot calmer than Barov because he knew how the miracle had occurred. Both the population and economy had increased during the Months of Demons this year compared to summer and autumn, the busy seasons. This meant that the Months of Demons now had very little impact on Neverwinter. The turn of events was so dramatic, it was as if the snow outside the window was not real. For the people in this era, this report would completely reshape their common sense.

After all, when the cold winter came, people tended to consume more energy than being productive. It was as if they started to hibernate. Thus, an economic slump was commonly seen in winter. In the past, the entire border town was abandoned in winter. Hence, how could the production and trade continue without people?

However, Roland was aware that the people's choice of "hibernation" was nothing but a temporary compromise to deal with the harsh environment. Humans beings had the ability to change their environment. This allowed them to top thousands of creatures on earth throughout history. The concrete boat was immune to the wind direction and could work tirelessly, making heavy snow no longer a barrier; the heating system helped people keep warm; the hospital provided medical insurance; the plants were able to run even in bad weather. As human beings became more adaptive to the environment, the "miracle" would sooner or later come.

In addition, the enthronement and the establishment of the new capital also played a role in surging these figures as people were always apt to gather in bustling places. This was a custom that has not changed for thousands of years.

Nowadays, the wide Redwater River seemed to be a bit crowded with so many concrete boats coming and going. At the end of the last year, the total number of the concrete boats manufactured in Neverwinter had exceeded 500. They had been designed for multiple purposes. Some of them had holes for quick loading and unloading; some had two stories where the lower story was for cargo while the upper story was for passengers. Its versatile design had been favored by many in the Chamber of Commerce. Since large scale of population migration could be a rare niche, the cement boats they had purchased now could be seen in many cities' docks.

Since news of the enthronement had spread, there were 500 or 600 people arriving at Neverwinter each day. One year ago, Barov had thought it was impossible to reach the population of 100,000, but the Western Region now had a total population of near 200,000, and 90% of them lived in Neverwinter.

Furthermore, it was a fact that the new capital was completely different to the traditional cities. It had neither grand walls nor division of the inner and the outer city. Instead, it was divided by circles of streets, which enlargened towards the suburbs. The city looked as if the city was a forest of houses.

Many people had criticized Neverwinter for its similar constructures and lack of ornate architecture.

But to Roland, those criticisms were another kind of compliment.

How could Neverwinter bear the rapidly increasing population if there were not so many houses to accommodate them? 200,000 people were almost equal to the combined total residents in the rest of Graycastle's cities. If Neverwinter had to be walled and embellished with exquisite buildings such as the grand cathedrals, bell towers, and a palace, it would take him decades to complete.

Population was the basis of industrialization, they guaranteed the expansion of plants and provided the prerequisite for economic prosperity. The beauty of the city was the last thing he would care about.

Perhaps in his eyes, rows of chimneys discharging hot smokes were more beautiful than a magnificent palace.

Considering the time lag in spreading news, next year would see a more shocking growth.

"Stick to it, you'll get the reward you deserve," said Roland.

"Being the Hand of the King is the best reward I could ever have. It's your wise decision that makes such a difference. What I did is nothing but to follow your order," said Barov as he stroked his beard proudly.

Roland shook his head with amusement. "Do you have anything else to report?"

"Ah...Yes, Your Majesty," The old chief pulled out two letters. "These two letters were sent to the Administrative Office, but I think it requires your final decision."

"Oh?" Roland took the letter. The sender's name on the first letter looked familiar to Roland. "Kajen Fels?"

"Mr. Kajen is a great dramatist in the old king's city. He brought his troupe to Neverwinter and asked for a chance to perform a new play for you in the enthronement, but you didn't agree at the time," Barov reminded Roland.

Roland recalled it immediately. The first time he heard of this name was from the businesswoman Margaret. Back then, when he was asked about who he knew best in the capital, he blurted out the Magic Hand Yorko, which was really awkward. The City Hall officials had reported their application for a performance before the enthronement and also handed in the scripts, but he rejected the application after he quickly ran through the script. He had planned the magic movie staring Lorgar for a long time, and there was no way to cancel it for a drowsy play of a bland imperial love story.

"Mr. Kajen sent this letter before he left Neverwinter. I don't think you should be bothered with this trivia... but he was very prestigious. Are you..." The old chief's voice lowered as he said these words while looking hesitant.

Roland comprehended the implications of his statement.

According to the date on the letter, it had been a week since Barov received the letter. Barov seemed to have given much thought to this thing. He had known that his king was not good at appreciating the traditional dramas. As he saw Roland rashly deny Mr. Kajen application, the impression became deeper. Barov might be afraid of annoying Roland so he did not present the letter right after he received it. He had now hoped that Roland would spend some time reading the dramatist's letter.

As of far, he could see that Barov placed high praise on Kajen Fels.

Not only him, but also Margaret and the Chief Knight. Anyone from the old capital seemed to have a good impression of this dramatist.

If so, he may as well take a look at the letter.

Roland shrugged, unfolded the letter, and scanned through it quickly.

It was actually an inquiry about how to make the magic movie.

As Kajen had said in the letter, at first, he had asked the Star Flower Troupe about it, but May told him that the troupe was only responsible for the performance and the Witch Union was the one who turned it into a mirage. As it may be confidential, she could not give him a detailed answer. Following this, he wrote an enquiry letter to the Witch Union, but the letter was returned soon after it was sent. It was explained that the Castle District does not accept any directly-sent letters. So he had no choice but to ask the City Hall again, in the hopes that they could ask the question for him.

Generally, the leader of an industry was most hurt when something overthrew their original thought. However, in this letter, Roland read none of the frustration but the man's eagerness for the magic movie.

"I see." Roland paused thoughtfully for a moment and said, "I'll write back personally."

He had treated both the drama and the magic movie as a way to propagate for Neverwinter. He had neither time nor the energy to shoot an old imperial love story, so he might as well explain it to Kajen directly and make him desist once and for all.

"Yes, Your Majesty," said Barov as he let out a sigh of relief.

"What about the other letter?" Roland asked as he unfolded the letter. Since it was sent to the Administrative Office, Barov must have screened the letter beforehand.

"It was from a merchant called Victor Lothar."

"Did he finally stop asking for a trade in package and popcorn?" Roland laughed.

"Yes, he wants to buy cotton." Barov nodded.

"Cotton?" Roland's hands paused. "Neverwinter doesn't grow it."

"He wants a customization of it," Barov replied. "He wants Miss Leaf of the Witch Union to customize it for him."

Chapter 1040 - Victor's Plan

Leaf, who had contributed the most to the growth of grain production, had been mentioned in the picture-story book, The Witch Diaries, long ago, and the book had been available for sale in the Convenience Market since then, so it was not strange for a foreign merchant to know about her.

However, he was the first one to ask for a specific witch for a task. The people of the four kingdoms, unlike those adventurous folks in the Fjords, were deeply influenced by the church, so they had a significant amount of prejudice against the witches. Now that there was one of them who was willing to voluntarily work with a witch, Roland could not help being a little interested.

After reading the letter, he touched his chin and said, "Coming from the Kingdom of Dawn... Do you know where he's living in Neverwinter?"

"Yes," Barov said, "The Administrative Office has kept track of him. I also asked Lady Scroll to check the taxes he has paid and found that he started to pay taxes six years ago. But at that time he mainly purchased gemstones, occasionally some furs, all of which have nothing to do with cotton."

"Interesting." Roland was well aware of how simple the tax collection system was in this era. The tax collectors had to record every tax each person had paid, and as time went by, the collectors were liable to lose track of how much the taxes were really paid, let alone check the data. The permanent residents had no choice but to pay tax as their property was clear to see, while the merchants who frequently traveled between cities should have had many tricks to avoiding paying the tax collected by the local lords. The fact that Victor's tax record could be traced back to six years ago suggested that he must be a very honest and trustworthy man, which was really uncommon for merchants.

"Send for Victor," Roland said, putting down the letter. "I need to talk to him alone."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

...

Roland soon met the merchant in the meeting room.

He really did look like a citizen of the Kingdom of Dawn. Like Andrea, he had pale golden hair. He also had a pretty face and well-maintained skin. Overall, he looked like a well-bred nobleman with the right etiquette from a wealthy family.

It was hard to imagine such a man would travel between kingdoms for his livelihood. Instead of running the business himself, he could always order some reliable men to handle the general affairs. After all, in this era, long-distance travel was tough for anyone, whether they were rich or not.

Victor gave a proper explanation for Roland's confusion—family conflicts.

In order to eschew his elder brother's oppression and prove his ability, he had to leave his home and run a business in Graycastle.

Victor's story wasn't very convincing, but Roland didn't want to be too inquisitive. In any case, Roland wasn't interested in other people's affairs. Besides, since Nightingale had not given any response, the merchant was telling the truth.

After the introduction, Roland came to the point directly. "You want Leaf to culture productive cotton seeds and aim to set up a brand new clothes shop, which would be promoted to the entire kingdom with cheap and fine clothes made of the cotton?"

What Roland had asked was not his own imaginative idea but was actually written at the end of the letter. That was one of the reasons why Roland decided to see Victor personally. It was like someone had submitted a business plan aimed at raising 100 million yuan and all he lacked was Roland's investment worth 500 yuan.

"Not just the Kingdom of Graycastle." The merchant nodded. "I've calculated the price. The finished products will still be competitive in the Kingdom of Dawn even after including the price of shipping."

Selling at a low price could help the product muscle into the market, but... that was not easy. "How do you intend to guarantee that your products can be both cheap and fine?"

"First I'll need special cotton, Your Majesty," Victor said with enthusiasm. "Since Miss Leaf was able to produce the golden wheat that had a yield three times higher than the ordinary species, I think she should also be able to triple the cotton yield. If the price of raw materials can be reduced to one-third of the current price, then clothes will be much cheaper."

Roland could not help laughing. The logic behind Victor's words seemed right at first, but you would realize how ridiculous it was if you thought it over. It would be easy for Leaf to culture the productive cotton. In fact, with the help of the vast pool of magic power given by the Heart of the Forest, she was able to culture new seed variants much faster than before. However, the price of grains in Neverwinter was set low to stabilize the price, not because they could not be sold at a high price.

It would be a great problem if people could not afford food, so the price of grains had to be controlled and kept low. However, this was not the case for cotton, as people always had alternatives to choose from, such as linen, hemp, and furs.

"Okay... Let's assume Leaf is able to make the yield of cotton three times higher. Why should I sell this cotton to you at a discounted price when I can sell it to others at the market price?"

"Because I can save you a lot of investment and provide more than 2,000 jobs, providing employment for your city," Victor said without hesitation. "Aside from that, you can get a lot of tax revenue, and your people can also benefit from it. In fact, you don't have to do anything, as I can handle all the management affairs and the production line."

Roland was surprised by Victor's answer that was full of modern terms. He considered it for a long while before he asked, "Did you learn those words... from the newspapers?"

"That, and every one of Neverwinter's announcements. I've studied them all. Some of the words may be quite awkward when I first read them, but they have helped me understand business from another angle," Victor said with his hand on his chest. "The other lords would throw me out if I had proposed a reduction in the price in front of them, but I believe you can see the value in this."

"This is quite a sneaky compliment... If I throw him out now, I'll be no different from 'the other lords'?" Roland smiled slightly. "Tell me your plan."

Victor spoke eloquently about his plan for nearly an hour. Apparently, he was well-prepared in advance.

His idea was not complicated. In brief, he wanted to build a business system that integrated the farming, textile production, and sales. House Lothar had quite a long history of making garments, so he already had much relevant experience and technique. Once the project started, it would not be long before they saw the fruits of their labor.

Of course, anyone could paint an attractive blueprint with their rhetoric, but Roland kept listening because he saw that Victor had taken many details into account and planned well in advance. Neverwinter was not a suitable place for growing cotton, so the plantation and the textile factory had to be located in the Southern Territory, where there was ample sunshine and high temperatures all throughout the year. Meanwhile, as the Sand Nation people were still moving in, there would be a great deal of labor available. Everything seemed to fit in with the plan. The final sewing and garment production would be set up in Neverwinter, where it could be directly sold to the people here, who could afford the clothes.

Victor would be responsible for the initial investment and preparations, such as purchasing farmland, recruiting farmers, building manufacturing plants, and buying equipment. Neverwinter did not need to risk anything, for it spent neither time nor any money on the venture. As a matter of fact, apart from providing the productive strains cotton seeds, Neverwinter could just step back and reap the profits.

In addition, due to the simple usage of cotton, the output of the final products could be easily assessed from the amount of the materials that went in, so it was easy for Roland to calculate the tax, which was a relief to both him and Victor.

Among the advantages Victor had mentioned, Roland preferred two of them in particular: the first was that House Lothar already had efficient spinning tools that were capable of processing three times the yield of the cotton; the other was that they had trained a number of skilled tailors who often designed garments for the nobles in the City of Glow, so the clothes they made would be popular with many people. Victor also admitted that this business idea was inspired by when he watched 'The Wolf Princess'. He found that the citizens of Neverwinter were still plainly dressed, which was improper for a new capital.

These two points were the key to the entire plan, for, with them, this huge and ambitious business proposal was no longer a castle in the air, but actually quite feasible.

Chapter 1041 - A Strange Wound

"A vertically integrated conglomerate..." Roland whispered.

"What?" Victor was stunned. "If you've any question about my plan, I can explain it again—"

"No, thanks." Roland waved his hand. "I think it's an interesting plan, and it seems feasible. I just want to know how long it'll take you to collect enough funds for it."

Victor's eyes shone with joy. "I knew you would understand it. Please excuse me for being blunt, Your Majesty. If you were a merchant, you'd definitely own a great Chamber of Commerce!"

It sounded like Victor was degrading the king by comparing him to a merchant, but Roland understood that for a businessman from the Kingdom of Dawn, praising someone's business talent was the sincerest form of flattery.

The business model suggested by Victor reminded Roland of modern companies that had an integrated system for production, supply, and marketing in the previous world where he had lived.

He had never expected that he would hear such a detailed commercial development plan from a man in this world. Compared to the conventional Chambers of Commerce, Victor understood more advanced concepts. He planned to include both production and sales in his business. He was willing to provide technology, employ a large number of people, and be responsible for his own profits and losses.

Roland thought that this might also be an opportunity for himself.

In the past few years, his domain had rapidly expanded, but many management problems had also emerged. Most of the industries and projects in Graycastle were directly operated by the Administrative Office. The officials had to spend lots of time managing people and funds, which made the government departments overstaffed and greatly affected the government's administrative efficiency.

Since the officials' personal interests had nothing to do with the profit and loss situation of these "state-owned enterprises", they only worked according to the king's orders and tried their best to maintain these enterprises' stability. In the early stage of development, such enterprises, under the total control of the government, could quickly meet the kingdom's demands and complete some high-risk projects, but they weren't suitable for all economic endeavors.

Given these realities, Roland had only focused on developing heavy industries. Neverwinter did not have enough workers and the Administrative Office did not have enough qualified officials to develop light industries.

It was simple to give an order, but it was not always simple to carry it out. Even if it was just an expansion project, like building another steam engine assembly plant, he would still need lots of money and many trained workers.

But now, he realized that he had another option.

He could encourage private investment and let the businessmen organize things. He had no reason to turn Victor down, who came to him even before he adopted such policies.

Although it was a "foreign company", whose profits would inevitably go back to the Kingdom of Dawn, he did not mind it very much since its production department would remain in Graycastle.

After reaching a preliminary agreement, Roland accompanied Victor to the gate of the castle. "By the time you're ready, I'll be able to provide you with the new cotton seeds. But I need to tell you something in advance. If some day someone else wants to imitate you and comes to the Administrative Office asking for the seeds, we'll sell the seeds to them at the same price. I want to see as many goods on the market as possible because I want to make prices more affordable for my people. I hope you understand that."

"I understand, Your Majesty," Victor replied, with a confident look in his eyes. "Merchants from the Kingdom of Dawn never dread competition. My father always said that from the moment we were born, the competition has already begun."

When he was about to leave, Roland stopped him. "Wait, I've another question. My minister found that you paid taxes to Longsong Stronghold six years ago. Why did you do that? It was easy for you to not pay at that time, wasn't it?"

Victor nodded. "Yes, it was, but back then, the lord promised that he would provide conveniences and protection for merchants who paid taxes. He honored his commitment and protected us when we were traveling between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. I'm happy to pay some money for a stable environment. It's a good thing for a merchant, but unfortunately, most of my peers would rather spend large sums of money on their merchandise than pay for stability and security."

Seeing the merchant leave, Roland thought, "What an interesting person and a serious businessman. He'll serve as a good example for the private entrepreneurs in Graycastle and lead the trend in the development of light industries."

He turned around, wanting to return to his office. Suddenly, Nightingale anxiously whispered in his ear. "Your Majesty, Lightning is back, and she seems to have gotten into serious trouble—"

"What happened?" asked Roland.

"I don't know... I've just received a call from Sylvie. Maggie brought her back and took her directly to the hospital!"

Roland's heart suddenly sank. "She's hurt? Take me to the hospital now!"

"Yes." Nightingale reached out her hand and pulled him into the Mist.

...

They quickly arrived at the hospital and saw the little girl lying in bed.

He felt very relieved when he opened the door. Lightning was lying there with no bruises or blood stains. She was breathing peacefully and regularly. It seemed that she was already out of danger.

Nevertheless, he quickly noticed something was off.

Nana didn't look relaxed like she usually did after completing a treatment. Instead, she seemed confused, knitting her brows tightly and fixing her eyes on her own hands.

Beside the bed, Maggie was taking care of Lightning and wiping sweat from her forehead. She appeared nervous and winced when she saw Roland, as if she had done something wrong. Lightning was in a cold sweat and groaning slightly, as if she was troubled by a nightmare.

"How's she?" Roland looked at Nana. "Where's the wound?"

Nana raised her head and slowly pointed to her own chest.

"Nightingale."

"Yes." Nightingale stepped forward, carefully picked up Lightning and took off her windbreaker. After that, she started to unbutton her blouse. When she revealed her collarbones, she suddenly stopped. "Your Majesty, this is—"

Roland came closer to the bed and saw a thumb-sized wound several centimeters below her neck. It was particularly eye-catching on her white skin, but it was only a scratch. Normally, for a witch, such a minor injury would quickly heal without treatment.

And healing such a wound should have been a piece of cake for Nana.

However, what Nana said astounded him.

"I can't heal her..." Nana murmured. "No matter how I tried, the wound just wouldn't heal, as if my healing ability just stopped working all of a sudden."

Chapter 1042 - The Magic Curse

"Your healing ability... stopped working?" Nightingale was startled and then turned to look at Maggie. "Was Lightning injured by a Senior Demon?"

"Coo..." Maggie mumbled.

"What?"

"No..." She replied. This time they finally heard what she said. "It was me. I pecked on her chest, coo..."

"What?" Roland exchanged a surprised look with Nightingale, and then they asked simultaneously. "What happened at the time? You'd better tell us the story from beginning to end."

After hearing the whole story, Roland knitted his eyebrows tightly.

According to Maggie, Lightning had just been terrified by a mighty demon who looked like a human being. It had looked directly into her eyes from a distance to intimidate her when she had been trying her new ability. Roland could not help wondering how the demon managed to stare at a witch flying at the speed of sound. This sounded even more incredible than the news about the demons fighting the demonic beasts on the snowfield and the new discovery which suggested that skeleton monsters were also a kind of weapon.

Maggie said that back then, she had just wanted to wake Lightning up by pecking at her. Otherwise, she would have kept flying forward until she bumped into the enemy.

As for the reason why Lightning's wound remained unhealed, it probably had nothing to do with Maggie. She was not capable of causing such an injury, and even if she was, she would never hurt her best friend Lightning.

Given that, they decided to give the little girl a thorough examination to identify the cause.

Roland sighed secretly. Before her departure, he had told her repeatedly that safety was the most important thing and had warned her that she should never take advantage of her new capability to go deep into a dangerous place. However, it turned out that as a daughter of an explorer, she just could not control the urge for exploration.

Roland knew that it was not a proper time to reproach Lightning. Now, he needed to find out where the problem was.

He asked Nightingale to fetch Wendy, Lily, Agatha and also Nightfall who could plant the Seed of Symbiosis in Lighting in case that some accidental injuries would happen during the examining process. In the evening, when Lightning finally woke up from her coma, the witches finally finished the examination and told Roland the results.

"You mean she's all right?" Roland gave a hasty glance at Lightning's pale face when she was curling up in Wendy's arms. "She doesn't look alright, does she?"

"She passed out of exhaustion caused by the prolonged flight. Nightfall can prove it. After she planted Seed of Symbiosis in Lightning, she didn't feel any discomfort. That means, her body is healthy and her coma only happened for some mental reason. She'll recover after resting a few more days."

"What about the wound?"

"This is exactly what I wanted to tell you next," Agatha said in a low voice. "Her problem is in her magic power. When I checked her power with the Stone of Measuring, I felt a hint of feedback that didn't belong to her."

"What... do you mean?" Roland was puzzled.

"As you know, magic power is everywhere, but if you want to use it, you must make it your own first. We call this process cohering. After awakening, the magic power cohered inside our bodies will look like some objects, such as a cyclone. This is also true for demons. However, a demon's magic power looks completely different from a witch's. Seeing through the Stone of Measuring, a witch's power is clear like water while a demon's power looks muddy." She paused for a moment before adding, "The different feedback I received from Lightning's body looked exactly the same as a demon's power."

Roland was shocked, as this matter seemed to get quite tricky now. "Do you mean that the demon somehow eroded Lightning's magic power without touching her?"

"How is this possible?" Nightingale asked. "I can easily distinguish different types of magic power in the misty world. If she was eroded, I'd be able to see it."

"It's too small compared to Lightning's magic power, and thus can be easily overlooked." Agatha shook her head. "I just told you the test results of the Stone of Measuring. As for whether it's an erosion, I can't be sure now."

Roland quickly understood the implication of Agatha's statement. "You've never seen this kind of ability before, have you?"

"No, many demons have similar capabilities and are able to affect their opponents with their eyes, such as Fearsome Demons. It's not a strange thing that a Senior Demon has this kind of ability. After all, unlike witches, whose ability types are determined during their awakening, demons can get new abilities by absorbing Magic Stones. However, I've never heard about such an ability, which could stop the wound from healing up." Agatha thought for a while. "If the feedback came from a small amount of magic power that the demon attached to the wound, everything would make sense."

"Indeed, that also explains why Nana's healing ability suddenly became ineffective. She can heal wounds, but that doesn't necessarily mean that she's able to dispel a demon's evil power," Ronald thought and then asked, "Do you know how to remove this power from Lightning?"

"I don't know," the Ice Witch replied plainly. "Normally, a God's Stone of Retaliation can eliminate effects of the magic power, but this Senior Demon's power isn't that simple."

"Since it may work on the wound, how about we remove the wound and the flesh around it first and then heal the cut?"

"No, I suggest you don't do that. This small wound isn't deadly, but what if the demon's evil power can expand with the wound? In that case, the cut will still remain unhealed after the operation, and it'll be even more difficult for Lightning to recover," Agatha vetoed the suggestion immediately. "In the next few days, we'd better let her stay in the Third Border City and observe her changes. Pasha knows more than us. Maybe she can think of some way to dispel the demon's power."

"I see."

Roland nodded and slowly walked to the bed.

Seeing him, Lightning dropped her head and sounded as if she was about to cry. "Your Majesty, sorry...I'm..."

"You don't have to apologize." Roland touched her head. "Have a good rest. I promise I'll find a way to cure you."

Lightning sobbed and trembled, trying her best to hold back her tears. After a long time, she finally managed to squeak out a yes.

"Good."

...

Three days later, Taquila witches informed Roland of Lightning's recent situation.

Right after receiving the message, he went to the Third Border City inside the North Slope Mountain together with Nightingale and Wendy.

Pasha received them at the entrance of the main hall.

"How's Lightning?"

"She feels much better now. Elena has been taking care of her these days. By telling the little girl her interesting experiences in the Dream World, she made her almost forget about her encounter with the Senior Demon," Pasha said with a smile. "Today, Lightning even flew a few circles in the main hall with Maggie. The small wound on her chest doesn't affect her actions at all."

Hearing that, Roland breathed a sigh of relief. At present, he still kept Lightning's injury as a secret, which was only known to a small number of witches. He had not even told Thunder about it, lest it caused stress and anxiety for him. However, he could not hide her forever since her disappearance would inevitably cause everyone to worry and bring even more attention to this matter.

"Have you figured out what the Senior Demon did to her?" Wendy asked anxiously.

Pasha waved her tentacles. "Celine has re-read all the literature left by Taquila but still can't find a record that matches her experience. Given that, we reckon that it must be a new ability of the demons. We've never seen this ability before but we've found some similar abilities. In fact, based on its effect, we think it resembles a very rare ability."

"What's that?"

"We call it the magic curse," Pasha replied in a measured but firm tone.

Chapter 1043 - A New Challenge

"A curse?" Roland repeated the word in an ominous tone.

"Please come with me." Pasha turned around and led everyone into an adjacent cave, where the Taquila witches stored books and scrolls. They had gouged many grooves in the walls of the cave, and it seemed that this library cave had even more volumes than the Secret Temple's library. "Celine, His Majesty is here."

"I'm coming." Celine's voice rang in everyone's head before she came out. The next moment, her main tentacle stuck out from the depths of the cave, knocking lots of books off before quickly shrinking back into the darkness.

Before it retreated, it greeted Roland by giving him a nod.

"Ahem— I'm sorry, Your Majesty. Every time she spots a new study object, she'll get totally absorbed in the research like this," Pasha explained with a slight embarrassment. "The demon seemed to use a curse on Lightning, but she wasn't inflicted with any serious injury. That's indeed a rare thing."

"What's she going to do?" The moment Roland heard the phrase, "study object", he thought of mice used in experiments, who would suffer various unfair treatments in labs.

"Please rest assured. Observing and recording are the principal study methods we use in magic power research. With the help of the magic core, Celine can clearly capture the movement of Lightning's magic power," said Pasha while picking up the books that fell on the ground. She opened a book and showed it to everyone. "Look at this here... and here."

Roland reckoned that this book was probably an ancient book passed down from the Taquila age, since most of its pages had already turned yellow with age. It was written in the witch's ancient language. Next to the two parts pointed out by Pasha, there was a note tucked inside the book, which explained the content of the ancient writings. Apparently, Celine had already translated these two parts for them.

He took a closer look and found that it was about two battles.

"In a siege battle in the Land of Dawn, eight wounded witches were rescued by the reinforcements, but in the end, none of them recovered from their injuries. Their wounds just could not heal no matter what. All treatments were ineffective on them. As time went by, they became weaker from loss of blood and their wounds got infected. They suffered a lot before death, and two of them even chose to commit suicide," Pasha said slowly. "This battle happened so long ago that even the writer of the book did not know many details about it, except that this was an incredible incident. The phrase 'the demon's magic curse' first appeared in this story."

"The other part where the magic curse is mentioned was in the records of a battle that happened not that long ago. A Senior Demon fought a fierce battle against the witches' army in Lakes City, which was situated on the edge of the Fertile Plains. It could attach its magic power to black stone spears. Once a witch was wounded by such a spear, she would become feeble and wither up. The Union called this cruel monster Dementor." Pasha paused a moment before adding, "It killed three Extraordinaries, and within all three Extraordinaries, the Quest Society found a strange magic power."

"And the strange magic power came from the demon, right?" Roland blurted out.

"Yes," Pasha nodded her main tentacle. "We think these abilities are of the same type. The strange magic power can somehow remain inside the target and cause continuous damage, which can't be cured by any conventional medical treatment. And it's also hard to eliminate the strange magic power."

"That's why you call it a curse," said Wendy, sadly. "It's terrible..."

Nightingale understood Pasha's implication and asked, "You said it's hard to eliminate it. Do you mean... there's still a way to erase it?"

Pasha turned to the next page and answered, "Yes, if what we've inferred from these records is correct."

Roland skimmed through the rest of the story. "When Lakes City was at stake, a witch named Samantha stood out to fight Dementor. In this battle, she went through a high awakening and became a Transcendent. After she cleaved the demon in half, the curse on her somehow disappeared and she miraculously survived. Samantha tried her best to defend Lakes City, but one year later, the city still fell, since the Red Mist was already too close to the city. Fortunately, she gained enough time for the people to withdraw from the city. After that, Samantha forced a radical change in the Union and successfully built the Three Chiefs system. She herself was among the first batch of Three Chiefs."

Now, Roland understood what Pasha meant.

If Lightning was really affected by the magic curse, the only way to save her was probably killing the demon who exerted this effect on her. It was not an easy thing. The previous battles in the snow mountain camp and in the Northbound Slope had already proven that Senior Demons were exceptionally difficult opponents. If they went head to head with the First Army, human beings would have a better chance of winning the battle. However, if they deliberately avoided head-on confrontations, it would be very difficult and risky to chase and fight them.

And this was virtually impossible for the witches in the Taquila age.

Senior Demons usually acted together with their armies. As military leaders, they were often surrounded by many demon soldiers. Back then, it had been extremely difficult for the Taquila witches to win a battle against the demons, let alone completely annihilating the enemy soldiers and getting close to the Senior Demons.

Roland could not help thinking of the unknown witch and her last words in her letter to Natalia.

She probably also died from this kind of magic curse.

Since she had been able to write directly to one of the Three Chiefs, she must have been at the upper levels of the Union. But even she had not been able to do anything about the curse except accepting the final outcome of it.

To save such a cursed witch, the Union would have to find and kill the Senior Demon who had inflicted the curse upon her from amongst the numerous demons. During this process, they had to sacrifice even more witches. Apparently, for the Union, saving a cursed witch was not worth the risks and sacrifices.

Nightingale gradually clenched her hands into fists while weighing the gains against the losses.

After a moment of contemplating, Roland said, "Indeed, it's difficult to kill the demon, but I'll never give up any chance to cure Lightning."

"..." Pasha remained speechless for a moment. "If this is what you want."

"Before we take action, I need to sort some things out. The Senior Demon Lightning encountered has the ability to lay a curse upon anyone without direct contact. If it curses a common person, what will happen to that person?"

"The outcome will be even worse." Celine suddenly interrupted. "The magic power gives witches better immunity and greater healing abilities, so we won't be affected by the demonic plague, which was bacterial infections mentioned in your book. As for common people, they'll quickly die from the infections since their wounds can't heal up."

"Can God's Stones of Retaliation protect them from the curse?"

"Of course, they can. If Dementor hadn't been a match for an Extraordinary in strength, it would've never caused such huge losses to the Union. However—" Celine paused a moment before continuing, "Based on Lightning's description, we cannot rule out the possibility that the demon she met is a Magic Slayer. If it is, wearing God's Stones of Retaliation won't be very helpful."

The more powerful a demon was, the more it would resemble a human being. This rule was verified by the Union in the previous two Battles of Divine Will.

Roland took a deep breath.

He had to agree with Celine on this point. According to Lightning's description, this Senior Demon might be stronger than all the enemies they have encountered in the past.

Given that, to kill the Senior Demon, he would have to plan the expedition to Taquila very carefully.

Chapter 1044 - An Unsteady Mind

Lightning and Maggie slowly descended from the sky and landed on the roof of the Witch Building.

A cold wind was howling, but after they entered the building and closed the door, they could only hear a slight whistling noise caused by the wind blowing through the crack between the door and its frame.

"Whew, my hair is all wet." The pigeon shook off the snowflakes and began to transform back into a little girl. Her plumage swelled and then changed into ankle-length white hair. Her hair looked and felt very soft, but it would never get messed up in the wind. Now, it wrapped around the little girl, making her look like a cotton ball.

But since her hair was damp with the water from the snow, it looked bleak and was not as fluffy as usual.

"You'd better go to take a shower first, otherwise, you'll get a cold." Lightning took off her goggles and looked outside. The weather during the Months of Demons was extremely unpredictable. Not long ago, it had been just a light snow, but now, it had turned into a snowstorm. She had to suspend her recovery training in such a heavy snow.

"Aren't you coming with me?" asked Maggie, surprised

"His Majesty told me that I should try my best to keep the wound dry and avoid unboiled water. Do you remember?" Lightning shrugged. "So I'll just wipe myself with warm water. Besides, this coat is waterproof."

"I see." Maggie smoothed away the hair from her face and grinned. "After my shower, I can scrub your back. Ashes enjoyed it very much. And I don't even need a towel!"

"Uh... how did you scrub her back without a towel?"

"Like this." Maggie used her hands to grab some of her hair and made circular motions.

"No, thanks." Lightning rolled her eyes. "If you use a towel, I'll think about it. Go to take a shower now, Maggie."

"Oh!"

Maggie walked towards the castle with a basin balanced on her head. Lightning turned around and walked into her bedroom alone.

She locked the door and leaned against it.

She stretched out her right hand and found that she could not stop her fingers from trembling.

She smiled mirthlessly.

Every time she closed her eyes, she would see the demon charging towards her. Even after these last few days of training, this fear still followed her and it even seemed to take root in her heart. Lightning had never faced this kind of situation before.

When she was in front of Roland and her Exploration Group, she pretended that she was not affected by the small wound. Even Nightingale did not perceive anything wrong with her when she was discussing her injury with others. However, she could not lie to herself. She knew how miserable her current situation was.

As an ambitious explorer, she was afraid to let anyone see her being so weak. She was afraid that Maggie might notice something wrong with her, so she sent her to take a shower alone.

In the next moment, she gradually slid to the ground and buried her head in her knees.

Phyllis had told her that the Senior Demon might have just evoked a sense of fear in her by making eye contact with her like a Fearsome Demon would do to its opponent, but she did want to fool herself with such an excuse. It had happened long ago and a witch should be good at resisting this kind of emotional influence. Back then, Maggie had been there too, but she had not been affected by the Senior Demon at all.

Lightning could accept the fact that she was terrified.

After all, this was not the first time for her to fear something.

People were naturally afraid of the unknown. No person was omniscient, so no one could avoid fear.

What counted was how a person responded to the fear.

Most of the time, such a feeling would never bother her too much. On the contrary, it would ignite her interest in challenging herself, since she wanted to prove that nothing in this world could really scare her.

But this time, however, she felt empty in her heart.

She was afraid to think about her encounter with the Senior Demon, not to mention overcoming the fear she felt.

In today's recovery training, she kept flying on the east side of Neverwinter and never dared to fly over the city wall. It was not because of health reasons but because of her fear of the vast snow field. For her, the white land below looked like bottomless cliffs and the horizon looked like a cleft which would swallow everything. Every time she looked into the distance, she would feel her heart trembling.

Before she got a chance to fight against the demon, she was already shocked by its strong evil spirit. It was like prey being terrified by a predator. This fear caused great harm to her and even affected her flying ability.

Lightning held her knees tightly.

I am such a coward! I'm not qualified to lead the Exploration Group.

She could not help wondering what her father would do to get rid of such a fear. She believed that Thunder, who had explored many dangerous waters, must have been able to tackle this problem.

"Father…"

She whispered.

"What should I do now?"

*******************

A weapon test was about to begin in the Misty Forest.

The test location was Forest Station No.1, the starting point of the railway in the Barbarian Land

In the next year, when the steam locomotive was put into use, Neverwinter would better utilize the forest's resources, such as food and lumber, and would be able to exploit the coal mines near the snow mountain. At that time, this vast, trackless forest would become a real treasure trove.

But, for now, the railway only served one purpose.

It was dedicated to the war effort.

The First Army had already sealed off the station for the weapons test.

Iron Axe also attended this event.

He could not help thinking of the mind-blowing black powder trial blasting that occured four years ago. Back then, when he had been a humble hunter, he had been deeply shocked by the explosion and had taken it as the Fire of God's Punishment. That trial was a revelation to him and had completely changed his fate.

Now, as the commander of the First Army, he actively participated in the weapons test. He had already known what His Majesty was going to test today before he even came here. Actually, it was more a creative combination than a brand new invention. It consisted of two parts: cannons and a train, both of which had been displayed before. Given that, he believed he would be able to witness the whole test process peacefully this time.

He should remain calm the whole time.

As a high-ranking military official, he needed to look comfortable and in command even in front of thunder and fire, just like His Majesty.

However, Iron Axe was still stunned when the armored vehicle slowly pulled out of the garage.

Its appearance could hardly evoke the image of the train he had seen previously since it was completly covered by black steel plates, except for certain parts of its wheels. If it was looked at from the front, it was square and angular, with a cold, commanding force.

It looked fierce.

Anyone who saw it would immediately reach this conclusion.

In the past, Iron Axe had not quite understood why His Majesty often described a machine as an enchanting thing, but now, watching this armored train proceeding on the railway in the snow, he suddenly understood. White smoke kept billowing out from the funnel of the engine and then gently blew over the train, which had many orderly-arranged rivets on its surface.

The giant steel ship was already impressive enough, but even it could not compete with this armored train.

This was because it was more than just a vehicle.

It was a deadly weapon at the same time!

Chapter 1045 - A Black River on the Plain

When the armored train stopped in front of the crowd, Iron Axe finally got a chance to take a closer look at it.

It had only five train cars, so it was much short than the first train he had seen during its debut. However, as it was armored with steel plates, it looked much bulkier than the first train. Its black opaque surface made it look like a crouching wild beast.

The first and the fifth cars were identical. Both of these steam locomotives had a rotatable machine gun on the top and many small holes in the steel plates for soldiers to observe and shoot.

Iron Axe began to imagine what would happen when demons charged toward this thing.

When spears rain on the steel plates, making successive clangs, the train still remains intact and keeps moving at a steady pace. At the same time, a dozen of guns starts to fire through the holes on its side, riddling the enemies with bullets.

Both demons and demonic beasts will find themselves in a passive position under heavy attack, but they have no countermeasures. This new weapon is like a moving city wall, protecting the soldiers inside all the time.

What a marvelous invention!

Meanwhile, the soldiers around the station also began to whisper excitedly.

None of them expected that this new weapon was going to bring them even more surprises.

The First Army had to drastically increase their firepower for the upcoming war since they planned to eliminate skeleton monsters and destroy the demons' outpost in the Taquila ruins. To achieve those goals, they needed large-caliber cannons.

Such weapons were installed in the second and the fourth cars.

They were 152mm Longsong Cannons, but according to the king, these two cannons were specially made. Their barrels were longer and their chambers were larger. Each cannon would take up the entire interior of a train car. Everyone could clearly see that neither the second nor the fourth cars had extra space even for a machine gun.

Each cannon had a protective case around its barrel, which was even wider than the car and could protect the artillery units from aerial attacks.

Iron Axe had to admit that this design guaranteed safety but at the same time, he worried that the protective cases might be too heavy for the train. He wondered whether the train could withstand the impact when the cannons were firing and rotating.

"Your Majesty." A soldier jogged all the way to the king and saluted. "Everything is ready. Please issue an order!"

"This armored train is not yet operational. Now, the Ministry of Industry is solely responsible for the operation and maintenance of this equipment." Roland shook his head smilingly. "Given that, you should report to the Minister of Industry. She's in charge of this weapon test today."

Iron Axe did not notice that the queen also attended the test until this moment. Different from the other witches, she dressed in work clothes. That was why he did not recognize her in the first place.

"Your, Your Highness..." The soldier saluted Anna and stuttered. "Everything is rea-ready..."

"I know," Anna replied calmly. "Let them start the test."

"Yes!" The soldier replied and then shouted toward the armored train. "Start the test!"

Everyone revealed an understanding smile to the solider. Right after he gave the instruction, a siren rang throughout the forest.

"Woo—Woo—"

Iron Axe immediately returned his gaze to the train and heard some creaking noise made by a capstan. The next moment, he was amazed to find that the train somehow transformed.

The steel plates on both sides of the second and the fourth cars suddenly expanded and stretched out like two sturdy iron legs. Iron Axe had thought they were just protective plates, but now he realized that they were some supporting devices. On the end of each iron leg, there was a flat iron plate. These flat plates were like feet of the train. When they stepped in the snow, the cars were held firmly in position. From a distance, it looked like a giant spider with long legs.

Iron Axe was stunned. This... looks just like the deformed creature created by the demons!

Did His Majesty get inspired by the demons' creation and adopt their design?

Different from the demons' deformed creatures, this metal thing did not look evil. When all its legs were put in place, the fierce cannon opened fire for the first time.

Although the recoil was very strong, the black armored train remained motionless during the whole process, as if it had been fixed on the ground.

...

"It works." Roland took out his earplugs and nodded at Anna.

Although this was the first test of the armored train, he was not surprised by the success at all, since each equipment on this train had been tested many times.

Compared to the firearms and the train, he was delighted to see the iron legs more.

They were the first batch of hydraulic equipment manufactured by Neverwinter.

According to Pascal's principle, a pressure change occurring anywhere in a confined incompressible fluid will be transmitted undiminished to all points in the fluid. Given that, applying a little pressure on the smaller end of a sealed U-tube, which is filled with such fluid, will exert a much greater pressure against the entire area of the larger end of the tube. This principle can be applied widely, such as hydraulic jacks and hydraulic machinery.

Producing such hydraulic equipment required precision manufacturing and sealing technologies, both of which were no longer a problem for Neverwinter.

An electro-hydraulic support system was installed in this armored train.

Apart from the two cannon cars and the two steam locomotives, there was a bigger train car in the middle. It carried ammunition and a Dawn I, which could power everything in this train, such as electric bulbs and hydraulic pumps.

In Roland's design, the five above-mentioned cars would form a basically equipped armored train.

The train had a locomotive at both of its ends. When one locomotive was pulling the train forward, another one could push the train from behind. Given that, a basic five-car train could travel at more than 40 kilometers an hour. When he did not need speed, he could connect more cars to the train to carry soldiers or to further enhance its firepower. Different train cars could be combined according to the demand, which was an inestimable advantage of this train.

When everyone else was marveling at the armored train, Edith stepped out of the crowd and walked toward Roland smilingly.

"With this train, our plan to conquer Taquila will be successfully carried out," She bowed to the king and said. "Your Majesty, may I ask, does it have a name?"

Roland thought for a moment and replied, "Let's call it the Blackriver."

"Black River?" Edith's eyes shone with excitement. "It sounds like a counterpart of the demons' red lines."

Roland felt his lips curling into a smile. "...You're so brilliant, the Pearl of the Northern Region. That's right."

The red lines, namely, the red mist supply lines, were demons' lifeblood. In areas which were not shrouded in the Red Mist, they had to build numerous red lines across the land to transport the Red Mist. In the past, the extension of red lines had been a severe problem for the Union, but now, a black line appeared on the Fertile Plains.

Black armored trains were going to carry numerous soldiers and ammunition deep into the vast Barbarian Land. This black river of trains would become a lifeline for mankind.

Chapter 1046 - A New Recruitment Notice

"Thump, thump, thump."

Uncle Bucky and Sanko, who lived next door, came to Good's mud hut at dawn and knocked on the door.

"Good, did you get up? We should go!"

"I'll be ready in a moment!"

Good gobbled down his porridge and wiped his mouth. "I've got to get going," he said to a girl who was busy making the bed.

She looked up and asked, "Why don't you want me to go with you?"

"I've told you many times. You're too young to have a job here," Good said impatiently. "Stop talking about how you worked back in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Do you still want to do those kinds of things? Stay at the house and I'll bring you something delicious for lunch."

The girl's eyes shone with excitement. "Popcorn—"

"It's too expensive. I think an egg pancake is tasty enough or are you saying you don't like the taste of a nice pan fried runny egg?"

The girl felt her mouth watering.

"So just stay at the house, do you understand?" Before leaving the hut, Good asked the girl, "What's your name now?"

"Rachel."

"And what should you call me?"

She replied after a little hesitance, "Bro-Brother."

"Very well, don't forget it." Good wrapped a linen cloth around his neck and pushed the door open. A cold wind blew across his face. It was a freezing cold morning, but the temporary residential area was already full of vigor and vitality.

Rows of mud huts stretched throughout the snowfield like rolling waves. Wisps of smoke continuously rose from the huts and people were busy with all kinds of preparations. Through the smoke, he could just make out the vague shape of the city on the other side of the river. When the temporary residential area began to hum, the city was still so quiet that it seemed as if it was sleeping.

Uncle Bucky and Sanko, who stood a few dozen paces away from Good, yelled, "What're you looking at? Come on!"

"I'm coming!" He closed the door of his hut and ran towards them.

A new stone road along the Redwater River had been opened to traffic recently. Now, people from the temporary residential area only needed 15 minutes to walk to downtown Neverwinter, which was about 2,000 meters away. This was different from taking a mountain path covered by snow as they did not need to take cautious steps walking on this road in the winter. But since Good and his neighbors wanted to get to the central square before the release of the new recruitment notice, they still set off early.

Soon, they picked up many companions along the way. These people were also immigrants living in the temporary residential area. This area was so large that Good could never see the end of it. According to his neighbor, these mud huts for immigrants used to be built inside the city, but, after a while, the city had not been able to accommodate all the new comers and had decided to move all the mud huts to this area. Every year, the government would build new huts for the new immigrants, so no one knew exactly how many immigrants lived here at the moment.

The only thing that Good knew for certain was that most of the people on this road were heading for the central square, wanting to find jobs.

"Have you thought about what kind of job you want?" asked Uncle Bucky.

"I want an easy, simple job, such as the snow sweeping and the de-icing job..." Sanko replied while rubbing his head. "I prefer to make some quick cash to support myself this winter, so I like part-time jobs. If I get that kind of job, the money that I earn in a day can buy enough food for two days. Of course, I'll also consider some other jobs if there are suitable positions in the special recruitment program."

The special recruitment programs usually offered better pay and had specific prerequisites. Actually, the city was full of various kinds of prerequisites, all job recruitment notices were issued by the Administrative Office instead of some individual. Every week, the office would update the notice and it would include hundreds of positions. Good was really impressed by their efficiency.

But compared to the other fascinating things in this city, these timely and detailed recruitment notices were nothing.

There were three kinds of recruitment programs: the special recruitment program, part-time job recruitment and full-time job recruitment. A full-time job could provide higher pay and a more promising future, but an immigrant, who did not have an ID card or a diploma in primary education, was not eligible to apply for these kinds of jobs. Most newcomers could only choose to take part-time jobs to support themselves.

Sanko was taking elementary education classes at night. If he passed the assessment, he would be able to become an official resident and get an ID card. Given his situation, he intended to find a part-time job. It did not pay well, but it would not take up too much of his time. .

"What about you?" Sanko looked at Good.

"I need a well-paid job." Good shrugged. "I don't mind hard work."

Good needed to support Rachel.

They had come to the city during this winter. They already felt lucky enough to have a mud hut. For them, it was still too much to hope for a nice residence or eating one meat-based meal every week.

The only thing that disappointed Good was that Rachel was only 14 and did not meet the minimum working age requirement of 16. But since they had exerted a great deal effort to get out of a difficult situation, he did not want her to lead a hard life anymore.

"Don't get too tired," Uncle Bucky said. "It's easy to get sick during the winter. Medical treatment is expensive."

"Relax, I'm in good health!" Good patted his chest. He was not bragging. If it had not been for his humble origins, he would have become a squire to a knight a long time ago. "What are you going to do, Uncle?"

"I just came to accompany you guys."

"What?" Sanko was startled.

Good quickly thought of something. "Did you already..."

"Aha, that's it." Uncle Bucky laughed out. "The foreman of the sixth engineering team has agreed to hire me. The contract will be delivered to me in two days."

"That's really... awesome!" Sanko exclaimed. "It's a full-time job. Your salary will be doubled! And soon you'll have enough money to pay the down payment. After that, you'll become an official resident of Neverwinter and get your ID card!"

"Yeah, that's the only way for me to get an ID. I'm too old to learn how to read and write." Bucky waved his hand. "And I've been here for almost two years before I got this chance. I can only say that I'm too stupid. In this city, you young guys will get many more opportunities than me."

Some people around them heard their conversation and came over to congratulate Uncle Bucky as he was going to become a subject of the king very soon.

Good felt a little confused seeing this.

In his opinion, obtaining an ID card was just a way to find a better job, but these people seemed to care more about the identity than the job. It sounded as if all of them thought it was a great honor to become a subject of His Majesty.

They chatted all the way to the central square.

A group of people had already gathered in the square, but most of them were residents of the city and they didn't usually compete with immigrants for jobs.

A new recruitment notice was put up in the south side of the square. Every now and then, a child would come to them and ask, "Do you need me to read the notice to you? Only ten bronze royals."

"No, thanks. We can read," Bucky replied with a smile. In fact, among the three men, only Sanko had learned how to read and write, but even he still had a hard time reading.

"Why are these guys peddling in this place? They can read, so they should be able to get real jobs," Good mumbled. "They can earn much more by doing that."

"They must be students from the school that haven't reached the working age." Sanko looked around and explained.

"What?"

"Yeah, I've heard about it in my night class." Sanko lowered his voice. "To show the students the importance of knowledge, the teachers often encourage them to use what they've learned to make money. By doing so, the teachers attract even more students to the school. I also want to try when I don't have to work in the daytime."

"Ugh... if this is okay, maybe I should let Rachel come here to make some money. She can read," Good thought while glancing at the children.

"Hey, look there!" Uncle Bucky suddenly pointed to the southern tip of the square. "There are a lot of people!"

"Is it a special recruitment program?" Good exchanged a knowing look with Sanko.

"Hurry up. Let's go there to have a look!"

The three men immediately ran to the southern side of the square. There was a person with a tent behind him, who came to explain the program to everyone.

Good felt thrilled after hearing the person describe the program.

It was indeed a special recruitment program and it seemed to be unprecedentedly easy. It did not require a diploma or an ID. It only needed men in good health, who could pass a series of assessments. The names of the assessments sounded so strange that Good could not understand any of them, but he was confident that he could meet any physical fitness requirement.

The most surprising fact about this program was that it was actually a military recruitment.

Chapter 1047 - Tests

A noise came from the crowd.

The army had always recruited soldiers from the official residents, and the qualification requirement had steadily become increasingly tighter. The last open recruitment to all the residents was carried out during the fight for the throne. Why did Roland suddenly do it again?

Even the new immigrant Good had heard from his uncle about the favorable treatment given towards those in the army.

If he could get enrolled into the First Army, he wouldn't have to worry about his livelihood anymore—not only were food and clothing supplied by the army, his family could also get the benefit of a sum of pension if he were to, unfortunately, pass away. And the food served to the soldiers consisted of not only oatmeal and pancakes, but other rare food like fillet, jerky, and butter would be served without limitation! Except for the disadvantage that one might lose their lives in the line of duty, it could actually count as a perfect job.

No, it is a perfect job!

If I could get so much, isn't it already worth more than the value of my life?

During his exile from the Kingdom of Wolfheart to Graycastle, Good had witnessed far too much suffering and adversity: whole groups of people fell dead on the roadside just like animals; crows danced on the bodies happily, enjoying their rich meals... Sometimes, a human life wasn't even worth as much as the grass growing by the roadside.

Besides, even the Church of Hermes, which had once conquered the greater half of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, was defeated by the King of Graycastle. If he could join this powerful and mysterious army, it might be safer than being a squire under a knight.

It was also not a bad choice to join the Second Army. Although the overall conditions might be a little poorer than that in the First Army, and he might be dispatched to another city, at least it was much safer, since he had not heard of the Second Army being involved in any major battles.

In other words, if he could join an army, no matter which one it was, it would become the best path forward for an immigrant like him.

Good and Sanko were both excited. They looked at Bucky and said, "Uncle!"

Bucky hesitated. He pondered over it for a while and said with a bitter smile, "I think I'd better not go... In order to hire me, I guess the foreman must have had to go to a fair amount of extra effort. I shouldn't break my agreement with him."

"Today is only for signing up our names. It doesn't mean we'll pass." Sanko tried to persuade Baji, "You can decide when the result comes out."

"Perhaps then I won't have enough willpower to refuse." Bucky shook his head. "Go ahead. I'll wait for good news from you in the square."

Sanko wanted to say more, yet was held back by the shoulder by Good. "Let's join in the queue."

Sanko looked back and finally nodded. "Let's go to apply first."

A lot of the applicants could neither read nor write, which made the situation a bit chaotic. Those who finished signing up were taken to another location by the black-uniformed guards, to be separated from the crowd. After hearing the news, more and more city residents came to sign up. The swarming applicants almost flooded the corner of the square. The organizer finally had to close the passage to the registry and announce that the recruitment would continue the next day. Even then, it took a long time for the crowd to disperse. Many remained around the tent as they wanted to see how the test would be carried out.

Good could not help but feel lucky for arriving early for the registration.

On the other side of the registration desk, a few more candidates came into the tent under the guidance of the guards.

Good noticed that even though the tent was almost 100 steps long and wide, which was big enough to take in almost all the applicants, not more than 10 applicants were allowed to step in at one time. It meant that the test might be much more complicated and difficult than he had imagined.

Sure enough, not long after, shrill cries came out of the tent. Hearing that, the facial expression of the applicants waiting outside of the tent turned solemn.

"This..." Sanko shrank his neck and said, "This isn't a test to see how many beatings we can endure, is it?"

"If they were being beaten, the cries should be repeated at regular intervals," Good said in a low voice. "Since these cries are random and sporadic, I guess they were only frightened."

"Is, is it? You seem to be familiar with this..."

"That's because I'm experienced at both beating and being beaten." Good sighed slightly. "I've only heard of it from others."

After a while, the sound of someone vomiting could be heard.

The crowd's faces turned ghastly pale.

"What is this test about?"

"Um..." Good went into silence. "It would be a miracle if I knew what it's about."

When the first batch of testees was finally brought out, Good was startled. "Only one of the 10 is left inside, which means the failure rate is 90%? Besides, why do they all look so weak, as if they can't even stand still? Judging from their figures, they should be physically strong."

Yet there was no time left for him to wonder why it was like that.

A guard called out his name, "Good!"

"Yes!" Good clenched his fists and strode inside the tent.

The space inside wasn't too big, and it seemed to have been divided into several areas using curtains. According to their sequence of walking in, the line of testees sat in order in front of a man in a military uniform. The stools they sat on were a little strange, as if they were designed to make people uncomfortable, because people had to stand on tiptoes in order to sit on it. To Good's relief, Sanko was in the same batch as him.

"I'm in charge of this test," the man in uniform said. "You don't need to know my name because most of you will soon be weeded out. Even if you're lucky enough to pass this test, it's merely the first step. In order to join the army, you still have much more to learn."

"Is this a recruitment for the Second Army... or for a reserve which is newer than the Second Army?" Good thought to himself. "Whatever it is, as long as the payment is enough to offer Rachel and me a better life, I'm going to try it."

"Here are the rules," the guy in uniform said. "All of you put your feet on the footboard and keep that posture for five minutes. No matter what you see, you're to stay on the stool. Of course, if your feet touch the ground, it also means you fail the test. Now prepare to start."

The testees looked at one another. "So simple?"

The officer sneered. Without replying, he pulled aside the curtains around them.

Suddenly a streak of bizarre white light overwhelmed Good.

When he came back to himself, he found that he was floating high in the middle of the sky.

"Ah———ah———"

Shrill cries sounded again, and at the same time some toneless thuds were heard. It aroused a burst of panic. Subconsciously, Good wanted to struggle with his limbs, in the vain attempt to escape from being smashed into pieces, but the slight touch of shivering under his butt immediately brought him back to reality.

He was still sitting on the stool!

But what followed was even more terrible.

He did not keep floating for much longer. Soon the surrounding clouds began to rise, which meant he was falling—the sensation that the rapid fall brought to him was beyond description. Good felt his heart almost rise to his throat. His brain warned him of extreme danger, yet his reason told him that under his butt was an invisible stool! Under these two contradicting thoughts, Rachel's face appeared in his head eventually...

...

The white light disappeared, and what appeared in his field of view was the tent again.

"Not bad." The officer clapped his hands. "You've passed the first test, and your performance was much better than the previous batch. Anyway, there are still several tests awaiting you. I hope you can stick to the end."

Is this only... the first test?

Good swallowed his own saliva. He found that his hands were trembling heavily and his back was icy cold. It was like he just got out of a pool of water.

Damn it!

That fall was not the end. Afterward, through his view, he saw himself climbing a few more times, and he even skimmed over steep cliffs along mountain ridges. He felt that he might crash onto the rocks at any time!

"Simple?" Good remembered the sneer on the officer's face when he entered the tent... "No, God must have blessed me for me to still be sitting on the stool at that moment!"

Good tilted his head and looked both sides—half of the stools were empty and Sanko was nowhere to be found.

Chapter 1048 - The Surprising Presiding Officer

Has he fallen on the ground out of fear or was he hit off the stool by somebody else?

Being disorientated, one could hit somebody off the stool in panic. After all, they were not very spread out. To sit still on the stool until the end required a little bit of luck too.

Good did not know whether to celebrate or be disappointed—of course, the fewer competitors, the better chance he could win, but he had to take the following tests without Sanko. Before he could think more about it, he was taken to an adjacent compartment.

The space for the second test was not big either. Again, 10 chairs were put in the center of the room, yet their arrangement was different.

They were arranged in a circle and were combined together with an iron ring. Under the iron ring, there was a support to enable the ring to rotate freely.

"Sit according to your arrangement." The tester said coldly. "The rules for the second test are the same as the first one. Sit steadily, stick to the end."

Nobody dared to call it "simple" this time.

Everybody climbed carefully onto the iron ring and sat on their chair in accordance with the arrangement.

As the officer ordered to begin, the two guards came forward, grabbed the handles behind the chairs, and pushed to rotate the iron ring—as Good had expected, the chairs began to rotate.

At first, the testees did not respond much. With the acceleration of the rotation, they began to feel discomfort.

Yet, the soldiers did not intend to stop. Under the order of the presiding officer, they exerted more effort at pushing the ring. Immediately, the tent was filled with the creaking sounds of the chairs. Good's vision became more and more blurry.

The sky and earth are spinning round!

That was the only sensation left in his head.

Good has not fully recovered from the influence brought by the first phantom; the intense dizziness brought by the second phantom heavily turned his stomach, which almost drove the acid water to his tongue.

What kind of test is this? Is the army recruiting monsters?

Good clenched his teeth and tried to look at those soldiers as a diversion, but he found that the soldiers were looking up at the roof of the tent to avoid directly looking at the iron ring while their hands were only repeating the simple pushing move, not being affected by the rotation at all.

This, this isn't fair!

Good cried silently. The officer only told them to stick to the end, yet he did not tell them when the end was. "What if the rotation lasts for an hour? I will probably pass out in this chair!"

His attempt to focus his eyesight aggravated his dizziness. Not being able to hold the acid water in his stomach any longer, Good gushed it out!

"Ou———!"

The sour stench suddenly rushed into his nostrils.

Like a chain reaction, his vomiting led to the others vomiting too. Immediately, the smell in the tent became extremely horrible. Some flying fluid and half-digested food even stuck on Good's face.

"I, I can't take it anymore!"

"Stop, stop it! Ou—I'm done!"

Good finally understood why they had heard the vomiting sounds outside the tent.

This is too harsh. More importantly, what's the point of this test? Is this really a recruitment for the army, other than a hoax to torture us on purpose?

Every second was a torture. Good felt like giving up at any moment, yet he did not loosen up his grab on the back of the chair until the iron ring stopped rotating.

Three testees were left.

The officer showed a rare expression of praise. "Well done. Now you're one step closer to being qualified. Rest for five minutes. From the second test on, the test difficulty will decrease. Just treat them seriously and you'll be fine."

However, at that moment, the testees stopped trusting the tester. They were prepared for any eventualities. Casually wiping their faces with sleeves, they solemnly walked into the next compartment.

To his surprise, Good found the officer had not lied.

The third test required the testees to go into a hollow ring and roll to the other end of the tent on all fours.

Nobody was weeded out.

The fourth test required them to browse a set of weird pictures filled with lumps of similar colors and point out the hidden animal patterns.

Again, everybody passed.

Yet the doubt in Good's heart grew stronger and stronger.

The fifth test required a nude check-up. The sixth test required them to point out the directions of the arrows on a luminous glass.

Although everybody performed differently, the result came out fine.

While Good and another two testees were waiting for the following test, the officer took them out of the tent. Good found another smaller tent to the back door of the big tent. Black-uniformed guards closely surrounded that area. It seems that somebody important is inside.

"Sir, are we...?" someone could not help asking.

The officer smiled. "Forgot to congratulate you. The tests are over. You've all passed the preliminary filter. Just wait here. You'll be received later."

"Is this only the preliminary filter? About the treatment mention on the notice—" Good suddenly stopped in the middle of his questioning. "Damn it. The army would certainly not welcome those who came for the treatment, much like those knights who keep on mentioning honors. Since I asked about the treatment so hurriedly, the officer will most likely take me as a greedy person."

Despite that, the officer did not show any sign of dissatisfaction. Instead, he carefully looked at Good and asked, "Are you in serious need of money?"

"I..."

"It's nothing. After all, the high treatment of the First Army is well-known in Neverwinter. Actually, that was also my original intention of joining the army." The officer shrugged and said," The answer is yes. The education subsidies, living allowances, and payment mentioned on the notice will all be realized in full. The following tests are to decide how far you can go, other than offer excuses to cut your welfares. As I said, in order to become a real soldier, you still have much more to learn."

Good was instantly overwhelmed by a huge sense of happiness. "Am, am I chosen, with a payment more than that of uncle Bucky, subsidies enough to support Rachel and me? All of that has become true?" Immediately, he felt what he suffered inside the tent was nothing. While thinking back, he even tasted a hint of sweetness.

"Thank, thank you Sir—" Good hurriedly bowed with excitement. "I'll do my best to join the First Army as soon as possible."

The other two testees were also very excited and bowed following Good's example.

"But there is one thing I want to tell you. Indeed, a lot of people join the army for the high treatment, yet what made them stay isn't the pay." The officer smiled carelessly. "In the army, there are things much more worth pursuing. One day, you'll find that what you pursued in the beginning wouldn't even be worth mentioning in comparison." He paused slightly as if thinking of something worth remembering. "Alright, there are still many waiting to be tested. See you another time."

It turns out that the other party is not an indifferent, silent and ruthless person.

Good was a little startled. "Sir, since we've passed the tests, may we know your name now?"

"I'm Van'er."

Then the officer went back to the big tent.

...

Afterward, other qualified testees were gradually coming out of the big tent and joining Good in the queue.

The recruitment had not come to an end until the late afternoon.

After calculating, Good found that 16 "preliminary soldiers" were filtered on the first day.

The guards came over, sandwiched them in the middle and escorted them to the last tent.

The furnishing inside was quite simple—there was nothing except for a long desk. Good found that the guards appeared very nervous and that the other testees beside him were breathing heavily.

"Oh? Are those the knight candidates they selected?" A tall man standing beside the desk looked at them up and down with a keen interest, as his eyes showed that he meant to survey the testees.

Good was startled. What did he say? Knights?

Could it be that what the First Army recruited are knights?

How can this be possible?

That's a title only the descendants of the nobles could have.

With my status, I can't even be chosen as a squire!

"Air knights? I'm sure it's a title my elder brother came up with." A euphonic female voice sounded. "They're far from getting there. Take it easy. Right, all of you go to the sides and leave the central space empty for them."

"But..." the leading guard said hesitantly.

"It's alright. Someone behind me is protecting me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Your...Highness?

Before he could figure out what was happening, Good saw the people in front of him moving away and a girl with astonishingly beautiful appearance showed. Her eyes were as bright as gemstones and her face was even more innocent than white snow. Anyone who laid their eyes on her would not forget her. If possible, Good wished he could just gaze at her from then on.

Still, he forced himself to look away and bow down respectfully.

Her beautiful long gray hair indicated her identity.

Even as a new immigrant, Good knew what that hair color stood for.

It was the symbol of the Graycastle royal family.

In Neverwinter, there was only one girl who was of this descent.

She was His Majesty Roland's sister, Tilly Wimbledon.

"Respects to Your Highness!"

Everybody knelt down orderly.

Chapter 1049 - The Princess's Reward

"Rise," Tilly said placidly. "I know that you must be puzzled at this moment. Why does the military recruit unofficial residents? Why are the screening conditions so weird? And... why do I explain these to you? In fact, these issues are hard to explain, but you'll find them easy after you experience them in person. Therefore, I won't elaborate here. I'll simply mention a few points."

"First of all, you're joining neither the First Army nor the Second Army. It's a new army that my brother intends to establish. It's different from any other army, so the screening will also be more special."

Her words caused a stir among the crowd. Undoubtedly, the new army offered a wider promotion route and it was less likely for them to be marginalized. For those who had no background at all, it was obviously the best choice to develop in a brand-new army.

Even a fool could realize it.

"But you can only be counted as reserve members now," the princess continued. "It's so different that I don't have any reference. This means that everything must be started from scratch, and the difficulties will definitely be beyond imagination. Compared with it, what you encountered earlier is nothing. There are 16 people here, but, I'm afraid that only one or two, or none of you can become the Aerial Knight."

Good could not help gasping at her words.

What surprised him was not how difficult it was, but the first half of her words.

It was indeed a knight!

Although he did not know the difference between the "Aerial Knight" and the traditional knight, it was inconceivable that ordinary people from poor families could get this opportunity.

As for its difficulty?

That is only natural!

He felt his heart started to burn.

He was even more shocked at what she said next—

"In addition, in this city... no, in the world, only my brother and I truly understand what the new army is, but the king is too busy to put too much energy in it. Therefore, I'll be responsible for teaching you in the future."

Her words struck Good like a thunder.

Her Royal Highness would personally teach them?

In other words, they would have the opportunity to become the knights conferred by the Graycastle Princess?

Even if they would not be conferred with domain and noble title, it was still a great honor, especially for new migrants like him who had nothing.

Others also could not calm down.

If it was not for fear of being rude to the princess, they would have surely cheered long ago.

The best evidence was the rapid breathing around him.

"All qualified trainees will be trained together in the Shallow Beach New District. You'll get new residences and official identities, and become a member of the new king's city from then on." Tilly stretched out her hand and pressed down, "Remember, though you're just trainees, you're also a member of the army. Your actions will be restricted. If you quit halfway, it'll be regarded as defection. Any violation of military orders will result in severe punishment. Do you understand?"

"Yes... Your Highness!" Although they were shocked by the princess' solemn warning and their answers were not loud, no one showed their regret.

"Very good. Finally, take an oath to the King of Graycastle." Tilly turned to the tall man at the table, "Vader."

The latter nodded his head while pressing his chest and then took out a sheet of white paper from his pocket, "Now repeat every word I say."

The content of the oath was very easy to understand.

Even too straightforward.

For example, "I will never be disloyal to King Roland and I have no hostility to the witches."

Who dares!

Thinking that Her Highness was also said to be a witch, Good unconsciously raised his voice to the maximum as if that could show his loyalty.

After the oath was completed, the guards stepped forward and distributed packages to their hands.

"From this moment on, you are a member of the army." Tilly smiled, "The first round of recruitment is expected to last for a week or so, and then the training will officially begin. The things in the package are my personal reward and also what you must master."

...

When Good returned to the Central Square, it was already dark, and most of the people who had come to the recruitment had long left. Uncle Bucky and Sanko also disappeared.

This was not unexpected. No one had thought that the assessment would take such a long time. They had to take care of their family, so they could not stay on the square for a long time.

At the moment, he couldn't care much. He held the package tightly in his arms and rushed toward the temporary residential area.

He was filled with joy and felt that he was full of power. He did not feel any coldness even in the cold wind. The snow under his feet cracked and the road trodden by the passersby was like a dark-brown beacon. It might be covered by white snow tomorrow, but for now, it guided him back home.

He walked into the low but warm mud hut and found that Rachel was cooking oatmeal.

"Sorry... I came back late, today—"

"I know," the girl interrupted lively. "Uncle Bucky next door had already told me. You found a good job, right?"

Without waiting for him to answer, she extended her right hand to him.

"Where is the tasty food?"

"Er... What?"

"Hey, you promised that you would bring me a chicken pancake!" Rachel curled her mouth in dissatisfaction.

Hell, he actually forgot the whole thing. He quickly promised her, "Next time, you can eat one pancake every week! No, two!"

"Two?" Rachel asked doubtfully, "Really?"

"Of course, it's not an ordinary job. I have seen Her Highness!" Good took off his wet shoes, rolled up half of the trouser legs, sat down by the fire before he carefully took the package out from his pocket. "Look. This is what she gave to me."

"What's inside?" The girl's curiosity overwhelmed her dissatisfaction.

"I don't know, either. Let's open it, " said Good, unfolding the package. He was a little shocked and said, "This is..."

"A book?" Rachel said.

He took all the things out and found that it was a pile of books. Each cover was printed with different pictures and it looked very delicate. Unfortunately, he could not understand a single word.

"Can you...help me read it?" At this time, he could only ask for Rachel's help.

The girl smiled proudly, "I can't guarantee that I'll recognize all of them. Em, this is Reading and... Writing Skills, and that one is Common... Quick... Vocab, and the third is..."

Were these things what Sanko learned? The picture on the cover turned out to be a summary of the content. For example, a quill was printed on Reading and Writing Skills, and stereoscopic letters of all sizes on Quick Vocab...

Somehow, Good was slightly disappointed.

He had thought that it would be a reward from Her Highness to the qualified person. It did not have to be valuable. Even a scroll or a document would at least be a symbol of honor.

If it were known by other people, they would definitely begin to laugh at him for daydreaming. How could Her Highness put the primary education textbooks which could be seen everywhere into his hands as a reward?

However, Good soon recovered.

That was right. Since he wanted to be a knight, naturally he could not be illiterate.

He indeed had many things to learn.

Just then, the cover of a book attracted Good.

He had never seen the thing in the picture before, which was like a huge kite and a large bird flying high. It had two pairs of wings many times larger than a man, and the woman sitting on it was like the Princess. The sea sparkled under her feet and the continent, which was supposed to be vast, became a small slice.

This perspective was exactly what he had seen in the first round of assessments!

He could not help holding his breath.

"Rachel... What's written in this book?"

"Oh, let me see," Rachel approached and said, "Flight... and Operation... Uh, that's right!" She clapped her hands and read it again, "It's called Flight Principle and Operation Manual."

Chapter 1050 - A Difficult Puzzle

A week later, Tilly put the list of the names on Roland's office desk.

"How was the recruitment? Did it go well?" Roland poured a cup of tea for her and asked carefully. He has always felt a lingering sense of guilt when facing this nominal "sister" of his. Except for Anna to whom he told the truth on his own initiative, Tilly was the first one to discover that he was not Prince Roland. When the flying demons attacked Neverwinter, Tilly's protective actions made him realize that she had completely accepted their alliance but the guilt in his heart has not relieved at all.

After all, it was he who occupied the body of Prince Roland.

At the very beginning, he had planned to occupy the identity of her brother without giving any explanation. However, when he found out that she did not blame him, he, instead, became uncomfortable.

Of course, he just kept that in his mind, but would not repeatedly mention it. Most of those people who insisted on getting an answer would die for it, which he knew well.

"It went well, except for the number of the trainees." Tilly took the teacup and blew lightly before drinking it, "I selected 124 people from the migrants, and 73 from official citizens. Less than 200 people... I'm afraid such a small group of people may have little impact in our fight against the demons."

"It's always difficult to start," Roland read the list. "After you set examples, you'll surely attract more people in the second round of recruitment. Then it won't be limited to Neverwinter."

Though different people had different visions, humankind's longing for the vast space was engraved in the bones. From the moment the civilization was born, people had begun to look up at the starry sky. Whether it was imitating the birds or making balloons, the exploration of the sky was not unique in the era of aircraft. The explorers from the Society of Wondrous Crafts were the best example. Therefore, Roland was not worried about the attraction of Air Force to people.

The first thing to do was to cultivate a team that could fly.

Anyhow, he knew that training of pilots was by no means an easy task.

In an era when the flight control system was still immature, the most important quality of a pilot was... talent. No fear of height, resistance to dizziness, and physical coordination were just basic requirements. The sense of spatial orientation, understanding of the plane, and even the reaction speed all determined whether a person was qualified to be a pilot.

The obedience and reliability of the veterans of the First Army were extremely high. It was okay to select a few outstanding soldiers as core military officers, but it was impossible to transfer all of them into the Air Force.

This was why he decided to select from the new migrants.

Knowledge could be acquired by learning, but the talent was inherent. It would be better to find more qualified people than forcing those who were not.

According to the report, nearly 3,000 people signed up within a week and nearly 200 of them were qualified. From this point of view, it was indeed a wise move to include temporary residents from the very beginning.

Turning to the last page of the name list, Roland was surprised and asked, "Six people failed to pass the oath part?"

"Their thoughts were different from the things they said, so they were taken by Vader to interrogate," Nightingale answered. "Two of them were official citizens of Neverwinter."

Roland frowned. In theory, this was not something worth a fuss. People's fickleness was ordinary, and it took an instant to change from good to evil. He had never expected those people would remain the same forever. Yet, when he really encountered it, he still felt a sense of disappointment.

They could have followed him into a better new era.

They had even seen the threshold of the new era.

In spite of that, they gave up in front of the threshold.

"Did you find out the reason?"

"I have planned to report to you after doing a thorough investigation,", said Nightingale carelessly. "They were bought by a foreign tradesman, hoping to infiltrate into the army so as to get more information about the firearms. The police department acted but only caught the tradesman's assistants who stayed in the hotel. Then I asked Summer to create flashbacks and discovered a letter from the old king's city. From the content, the mastermind behind it seemed to be a nobleman. Anyway, we have known his whereabouts, appearance, and identity, and his portrait painted by Soraya was sent to Theo by the Animal Messenger. I think he won't be able to escape for a long time."

Hearing this, Roland could not help laughing, and the previous unpleasantness was driven away. In the face of such an unreasonable investigation model, the revolters were really miserable.

"Er... what's the problem?" Nightingale blinked.

"No, you did a good job," Roland pressed down his smile. "Since they are reluctant to give up, the North Slope Mine area still needs more hands."

It seemed the former nobles did not completely give up. As long as they found any chance, they would try to recover the noble system. He was not surprised by it. After all, the feudal system had lasted for nearly 1,000 years and still existed in the other three kingdoms. It was impossible to make it disappear overnight.

"Well," Tilly cleared her throat, changing the subject back to business. "The problem of trainees is solved. Where is the plane?"

"Well... By the way, Evelyn has recently made a type of Chaos Drinks with excellent taste. Do you want to have a try?"

"Oh? Great—no!" Tilly soon recovered, "We're talking about the plane. You haven't even made a prototype plane, have you?"

Bingo!

"Anyway, they have to start from learning to read and mastering basic theory. If it's just for demonstration, then a glider..."

"No," Tilly interrupted seriously, "Even if we used a glider, a modified version would be totally different from the original one in practice, not to mention a new plane. If I did not operate it in person, how could I instruct others? It's indeed early for the trainees to drive the plane, but I have to spend at least a month in advance so as to thoroughly understand its performance and make an adjustment to the Flight Manual. Not to mention the following modification. Since you asked me to take charge of it, I'm naturally responsible for urging you to do what you should do."

It was the first time for Roland to see the serious aspect of Princess Tilly.

Apparently, she was indeed fond of this "big toy" which could fly and match her ability.

The only problem was that Roland underestimated the difficulty of making a complete plane. He intended to make a biplane which only had a set of power and fuel equipment more than a glider, but its complexity had already multiplied, even if he could look up the various materials in the Dream World. If he had to design it alone, he probably would not finalize the prototype plane in a few years.

"I know," he shook his head helplessly. "In two weeks, I'll give you a finished prototype that can fly."

"Then that's a deal," Tilly smiled slightly. "By the way, where is the new type of Chaos Drinks with great taste? Please let me have a try."

...

"Strange..." After Princess Tilly left with a full bottle of Chaos Drink, Nightingale muttered in a low voice.

"What's the matter?" Roland asked.

"She addressed you as brother several times in public before, but when she sees you in private, she rarely does... Isn't it strange?"

"Is it?" He was surprised, "But... why?"

"I don't know either."

They stared at each other and stroked their chins, pondering over this difficult puzzle.

Chapter 1051 - Azima's Discovery

Cage Mountain area, northeastern border of the Kingdom of Dawn.

The path became rougher as they climbed. Tangled vines and giant trees were seen everywhere. The thick trees formed such a dense canopy that they could only catch a glimpse of the grey sky between the leaves.

The only thing that comforted Azima was that at least they did not have to walk through the knee-deep snow. With less influence of Months of Demons, the mountain was not covered by heavy snow like the Impassable Mountain Range; otherwise, they would have to wait until the beginning of spring and summer.

This did not mean that walking through the mountains was an easy task.

When they stood at the foot of the mountain, Cage Mountain was just a smooth slope, not steep at all. After they actually entered, they realized that there was no path inside and that it was not suitable for troops to march. On the first day, three people were injured before they climbed for less than two kilometers. In desperation, Sean, the king's guard, had to order the troop to be stationed in the small town at the foot of the mountain and selected several elites to go with Azima.

Knaff, a local guide; Rother, a God's Punishment Witch; Marl, a contact from the Tokat family, Sean, and Azima, formed this weird exploration team.

—Of course, it was weird!

The God's Punishment Witch was said to be sent by His Majesty to look after her. After all, she had to work with men all day, and there would be some inconvenience. Nevertheless, Azima was sure that as long as she tried to run away, the witch would definitely break her legs without hesitation.

Although Marl Tokat was a contact sent by the King of Dawn, what could he do in the mountain? He did not stay in the town but insisted on climbing the mountain together. Obviously, he had other purposes. He was on behalf of the Tokat family, and indeed helped others a lot; otherwise, he would have been thrown away with a sack by Sean long ago.

Not to mention the exploration team, this "not hostile" team could be even said to be armed to the teeth. Even their shovels could be used as weapons. When they were followed by knights of some lords, they behaved as if they were prepared to destroy the opponents at any time. They had nothing in common with ordinary miners at the bottom of society.

Nobody in the team knew exactly what they were looking for, including Azima. It was not gold or silver, or copper and iron. The only guide was nothing but a small piece of coin in her hands.

"Wait... wait," said the guide, who was walking in front of the team, raising his hand to indicate them to stop. "Be careful, there are traps!"

Azima immediately heard clicks behind her. She knew they were the sound of firearms loading. For the past month, Sean frequently talked to her about the legendary records of the king, and she had a basic understanding of the combat capabilities of this troop. In fact, she came to understand that she preferred staying with these common people like Rother, who was once a witch.

Rother was much calmer. Without even pulling out her sword, she walked steadily to the guide and asked, "Oh, is this... a spear tripwire?"

"Yeah," said Knaff, pointing to the top of a trunk. "Look, the spear is hidden there. Once we accidentally touch the trigger, that stuff will shoot holes all over us!"

Azima looked in the direction of his finger and saw several sharpened wooden sticks between the branches and leaves, which were coldly overlooking them. If the sticks fell on them, their heads and necks would inevitably be severely hurt. This was definitely not a hunter's trap for animals, but more like for human beings.

"Where's the trigger?" Sean asked in a low voice.

"You can't find them," Knaff shook his head. "Every vine under our feet and every branch may be part of the tripwire. Unless we burn it with a torch, it's hard to completely destroy it."

"What should we do?" Marl muttered.

"We have to make a detour, my lord."

"No, step back, all of you." Rother said suddenly, "Let me have a try."

"What... did you say?" Knaff looked at the God's Punishment Witch in surprise. "Hey, it's not a joke—"

Before he finished, she had already strolled into the danger zone.

With the dense weeds, they could not see what was under their foot unless they cut them. After Rother walked for a few steps, Azima heard a slamming sound as if something had been snapped. Then there was a squeaking friction on the top of the tree, just like a viper flicking out its forked tongue.

The tripwire which was hidden somewhere was straightened and ejected the sticks from the top of a tree! At the same time, Rother pulled out her sword!

"No..." The guide immediately closed his eyes as he could not bear to watch the woman dying in front of him.

Still, Azima witnessed everything that followed—

The God's Punishment Witch held the sword with both hands and bounced the sticks shooting toward hers as if she was swatting flies. Under the giant force, most of the sticks were broken and shattered. She did it easily as if it did not take much effort!

When she stopped, the grassland around her became a mess.

"The trap is removed," Rother withdrew the sword and shrugged. "Let's go ahead."

After realizing what happened, Knaff fell to the ground in astonishment.

...

"Aha... I knew my lords are superb and have extraordinary skills. No wonder you're great men from the king's city!" The guide finally recovered from the scare and immediately spoke with another tone, "Especially this warrior, your art of fencing is legendary!"

"Save your breath." Rother interrupted, "You'd better explain why there are such traps in the mountains. The wooden spears aren't meant for the beasts, are they?"

This was also what Azima wanted to ask.

"It's indeed used to deal with people,"Knaff replied honestly. "The higher you go into the mountains, the more traps you'll encounter, so Cage Mountain is also called Trap Mountain. These things were set by the past lords. The only purpose is to guard against the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

"Wolfheart?" Sean echoed.

"Yes, this mountain range extends almost from the seashore to the old Holy City and is regarded as the natural dividing line between the two countries. Since the Kingdom of Dawn is lower in terrain, the mountain is like a cage which surrounds the country. That's why it's called Cage Mountain." Knaff explained, "But the problem lies in the shape of the mountain. You should have noticed when you were at the foot of the mountain. The south side of Cage Mountain is like a smooth slope. High as it is, it's very easy to go down. Therefore, the robbers, hunters, and refugees from neighboring countries often invaded the border domain of Dawn through Cage Mountain. At first, they only plundered resources in the mountain, but later ran into the villages to steal and rob, and caused a panic among the local subjects. The lord was also annoyed, so he figured out a solution once and for all and that was, to give up Cage Mountain."

"Oh, I see..." Marl Tokat said as he seemed to suddenly understand, "I never knew such things happened on the border."

"The lord naturally did not want it to be known by the king," Knaff said. "What's more, unlike those poor people over the mountain who could not live without the mountain, we could earn a living in other ways. After the mountain pass was sealed, the lord sent people to plant fast-growing weeds and vines, and also set up lots of traps. This practice was handed down from generation to generation. Then Cage Mountain became what it looks like today."

"So you turn it into a real cage. Although you block the opponents, you also confine yourself," Azima thought. "If it were Roland Wimbledon, he would not choose to do so. That man always looks into the distance. Even when explaining the task to me, his focus did not always fall on me."

No, why should I think of him at this time?

Azima shook her head.

His Majesty is merely my employer.

What I should do is to quickly complete the task and get back to Doris and other sisters.

...

As the guide said, they encountered several traps afterward, which basically did not have any effect in front of the God's Punishment Witch. As the night fell, Azima suddenly saw the green light on the coin brighten!

A dazzling light source also appeared behind a dense forest. Between them were countless light spots traveling back and forth to form a bright bridge of light.

This was the reaction of the source material!

She finally managed to find another source!

When the exploration team went through the forest following Azima's instruction, they were shocked by what they saw.

It was an abandoned building halfway up the mountainside. The dilapidated stone gate led to the mysterious depth. The pillars on both sides were marked with weird signs. They were obviously not naturally created.

Azima's eyes widened in surprise.

Did His Majesty not tell her to look for a strange ore?

Why did the source appear in a relic that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time?

Chapter 1052 - Protective Measures

"Ha, interesting..." Rother said under her breath.

"What?" Sean looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"I'll let you know, common people." Rother grinned. "The ruins of the underground civilization can be seen in many places of the mainland, and Taquila certainly spent a lot of time studying them," she said, walking up to the mottled column, and then swept the dust off it. "These symbols are not their characters and they have nothing to do with the magic characters the Union once made, either. Keeping in mind the history of the four kingdoms, isn't that interesting?"

Azima was still confused. Although she understood every word Rother had said, she could not comprehend what the words exactly meant when she put them together. However, she felt relieved as she saw the same confusion on both Marl's and Knaff's faces.

Sean revealed a thoughtful look.

"His Majesty once said that in the past, the four kingdoms were only a collection of scattered villages and small towns, located in a small corner of the mainland, and had no real history. If this ruin wasn't left by the civilizations during the Battle of Divine Will, then it means..."

Sean paused suddenly.

"There were people who used to live here and were unknown to us?"

"We're not sure about that," Rother said with great spirit. "No one knows whether the underground civilization could breed any new tribes and create new tongues. We have to enter the ruin to find more information."

"Lord Sean, there seems to be a stone tablet here," the soldier, who was examining the stone gate, suddenly shouted. "The words on it are written in our characters."

Everyone immediately approached the tablet.

A block of granite rested in the weeds. The moss had grown all over it and only one side of the tablet had been sanded by men so that it was easy to be ignored. It took the soldiers a long time to clear it up before the engraved words could be easily made out.

"This is a place cursed by Gods. You'll die if you enter."

Knaff gasped as he saw the warning on the tablet.

"Is this the rumored... Temple of the Cursed?" He stepped back and stammered.

Sean and the God's Punishment Witch glanced at each other. "You know what it is?"

"I just heard it from other people. It happened more than a century ago..." Knaff stared at the black hole and swallowed. "The lord of this area had ordered his men to set up a lot of traps in the Cage Mountain to prevent the Wolfheart people from crossing the mountain. It was said that a team led by a knight came across a heavy rain when they were performing a mission. The rain in the mountain was variable and transient. The knight commanded his men to find shelters and they discovered a strange temple by accident."

"Oh?" Rother said, raising her eyebrow. "Did they find any treatures in the temple? And the greedy people who stole the treasures were cursed by deities and died a terrible death in the end."

"You've heard that too?" Knaff was surprised.

Rother laughed out. "The nature of common people seems to have stagnated. They've played this kind of trick centuries ago and it still worked. I bet it was the lord who started the rumor. He must have wanted the treasures for himself. The poor villagers were just used to prove the existence of the curse and were slaughtered secretly."

"But... they didn't die right away."

"What...?" Rother frowned.

The guide cringed and said warily, "They died one by one ten years after the incident, even the knight. It was said they all died painfully. The skin on their faces was peeled off, leaving the rotten flesh exposed. They looked hideous and horrifying. That's what the curse stems from. The lord had to forbid everyone to enter that place to stop the spread of misfortune in his land, so no one knows its actual location."

"Are you sure?" Rother walked over to Knaff and put her arm on the guide's shoulder.

Knaff paled as he looked at the arm that was thicker than his thigh. "I heard all of them in the tavern. I swear I tell no lies. My lord, you can ask someone else if you don't believe me. If there's anything wrong, then the rumors must be wrong."

In Azima's opinion, if the people died so long after the incident, it was unlikely they were killed by the lord. Moreover, it would make sense if the knight and the lord plotted together to murder the villagers, but it was unreasonable to see the knight killed as well. The nobles could not be executed without trial, no matter how insignificant their families were.

Could it really be... the deities' curse?

"Ugh, why don't we... return to the town first and then decide what we're going to do after we collect more information?" the liaison Marl Tokat suggested.

"Decide what we're going to do next?" Knaff looked at Sean in disbelief. "Was the Temple of the Cursed your aim from the very beginning?"

"No, they happen to overlap." Rother let go of Knaff. "What about you? Since you're King Roland's trusted guard, I believe you won't chicken out, will you?"

"Of course not," Sean replied calmly. "Our priority is to finish the task given by His Majesty. Now the target is just before us. Certainly, we won't retreat."

"Good. Let's enter and meet the so-called 'deities'," Rother said with a hideous smile.

"But we can't enter with no precaution." Sean shook his head. "In fact, His Majesty warned us to be careful of the danger we would possibly encounter in the source."

"Did he... even foresee this?"

"Yes." Sean looked over his shoulder at Azima and said, "That night, after you left, His Majesty told me something in private. He said there might be two possibilities we would run into. One is that the source is exposed on the surface, and in that case, we don't have to do anything but seal the place and return to Neverwinter where we can directly report it to him. The other is that the source is located in an underground cave. The deeper the cave is, the more dangerous it will be. So we need to take protective measures beforehand. It may be inappropriate to call this place a cave, but the temple is in line with all its characteristics."

With that said, he snapped his fingers at the soldier. "Bring up the thing."

Two soldiers unloaded their packages and pulled out five white coats.

Rother squatted down and spread the clothes out curiously. "These're just plain leather coats."

"They won't be if used with the masks." Sean picked up one and slipped himself into it. Azima could only use the word "slip" to describe Sean's movement, for the coat was one-piece designed without even a button and was more like a sack that was cut in human shape than a garment. Now Sean only had his face exposed and all of his limbs were hidden in the coat, which made him look very weird.

Subsequently, he put on a transparent mask to protect his face. A fist-sized can was fixed on the mask, shaped like a pig's nose.

"Five in and the rest stays," Sean said through the mask. "In addition to Miss Azima and Lady Rother, who else wants to come?"

Chapter 1053 - The Source of Light

The guide and the liaison turned down the offer immediately, especially the guide, who had already unknowingly moved away from the entrance and would have run away if there were no soldiers keeping an eye on him.

Rother did not put on the weird coat. "I don't need it. Keep it as a backup."

"Are you sure?" Sean frowned.

"The God's Punishment Warriors have a much stronger resistance and self-healing ability than common people and are immune to general plagues and poisons. I don't think a disease that allowed common people to survive ten more years is a threat to our bodies. This is the most common thing we could find in ruins." She shrugged. "The one-piece coat, on the contrary, would slow me down and dull my keenness, especially in an uncertain place such as this. Moreover, if we encounter a situation that is too difficult to escape, the soldiers outside would have a spare coat to rescue us, though such a thing can scarcely happen."

This was a convincing argument. The God's Punishment Witch could only perceive the outside world by her sight and hearing, so they heavily relied on them. After having been through centuries of training, they could even estimate the humidity and flexibility of the soil by the sound of their footsteps. Azima had already seen this skill during the journey.

For this reason, the protective coat had a larger influence on the God's Punishment Witch than ordinary people, who would just take it as a coat that could cover their eyes and ears.

"But what if... the temple was really cursed by the Gods?" Azima was worried.

Rother let loose the same hideous laugh as she did before. "Let's put aside the doubt whether a leather coat can resist the Gods' curse. I have no fear in facing them even if there really are Gods inside. I'd like to see how the curse by the Gods could be any worse than the millions of people who perished on the Fertile Plains.

"I see." Sean nodded after a moment of silence. "Let's move now."

Azima took a deep breath and followed the guard entering the stone gate.

Unexpectedly, it was not damp inside the ruin. The sand that had been brought through the entrance had almost blocked the passage so they had to bend over to move forward. However, as they went deeper, the downward passage became less congested and less steep.

With the light of the torch, they could see the wall on both sides of the passage had been severely damaged and the tree roots and vines had dug out of the paved bricks and crawled all over. Rother, who was leading the way, used an axe to open the way. The downward incline would have taken them half a day to pass through if they did not have the God's Punishment Witch to clear the way for them.

"This place has indeed been deserted for a long time, but what Knaff said isn't entirely true. It wasn't sealed off because of the curse," Sean said suddenly. "There must have been people coming and going at least for a period of time."

"What did you find out?" Rother put on a curious look.

"There are torch slots on the wall," he said, pointing toward the wall. "The chiseled lines are much clearer than that of the walls, indicating that they must have formed at very different times. If this is just a place that they used to take shelter from the rain, they didn't need to set up torches at intervals of about ten paces."

There was no doubt that torch slots were only made when people had to walk in and out of this place frequently for a long time.

"Ha, how could the lord not be interested in the treasures inside of this ruin?" Rother sneered. "It's not the guide who lies but the rumor itself has been polished."

"I'm concerned whether the treasures are the thing we are searching for..." Sean said soberly. "If there are many sources, how many have been carried away in the past century and where? His Majesty said that the thing is crucial to the creation of the Glory of the Sun, and we must, by no means, let it fall into the hands of other people."

"These problems can't be solved until Miss Azima leads us to the first source." Rother's body suddenly tensed. "I think we're close."

Finally, there was no more soil covering the stairs and the stone steps were exposed.

They moved much more quickly after that.

30 minutes later, they stopped in front of a sea of darkness. The light shining from their torches could not illumine the way ahead any longer. It was as if the torchlight was being absorbed by the darkness. It looked as though a dark wall was standing there, separating the two worlds.

"That's..." Azima blurted out in amazement.

"A big hole." Rother lifted the torch, entered the darkness, and totally disappeared.

Sean followed her.

"Mind your step." The soldiers guarding the rear warned.

"I will," Azima took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness. Prior to her promise to accept King Roland's task, she had always thought that she was a brave girl. However, she now found herself far behind Sean and Rother in terms of bravery. Perhaps, this was the reason why she could not make the final decision of leaving the Sleeping Island.

"To be frank, you're a coward."

Nightingale's voice once again echoed in her ears.

But this time, it was no longer sarcasm, but a different kind of meaning altogether.

The darkness enveloped her.

It took a few seconds for her eyes to adapt to the dense darkness. She could make out Sean's and Rother's torches. Their lights seemed to have shrunk by a lot and looked small and dim.

"Are we at the bottom of the ruin?" Rother said as she looked around, her voice echoing from the unseen ceiling. "It's smaller than I thought. No more than 200 paces in any direction."

"You can see the edges of the room?" Sean asked.

"It's not that impressive. You don't have many choices when living under the ground for hundreds of years. You either adapt or remain blind."

It wasn't until now did Azima realize why Rother said it was "a big hole". As she entered, the space suddenly extended by a lot so that the firelight could not reflect on the walls and looked much dimmer. The hole was not at the same level with the passage they had just passed through, so those entering first looked as if they had suddenly disappeared.

"How far do we have to go?" Rother looked back over her shoulder at Azima.

She hurriedly took out the coin. Suddenly the green light filled her vision. There were countless bright green spots floating in the air, from the ceiling to her feet, outlining the whole place. It was as though she was in a fictional world, and the endless darkness now had clear boundaries. Under the luminous spots, she could even see the shape of every tile on the floor.

The wall around them was engraved with psychedelic paintings that were beyond description. What the paintings showed were all mad and chaotic. No human beings could create anything like that. There were rows of iron cages under the paintings in which numerous bones were piled up. She did not know how many people had been imprisoned here and died.

About a hundred paces away from them, the ground sank down and formed a large pit from which a splendid beam of light rose. The beam matched the light of the coin, but the beam was much brighter.

It was her first time seeing such a sight!

"Azima?" asked Sean. Upon not hearing an answer, he turned around and asked, "Are you alright?"

Azima felt the dryness in her throat. She licked her lips and said slowly, "I think... we've arrived."

"Ah? Do you mean we've found the source?" Rother spread out her hands and asked, "Where is it then?"

"We are... inside it now."

The witch answered in low murmurs.

Chapter 1054 - Sacrificial Ground

"Your Majesty, there's an urgent report from the Kingdom of Dawn!" The guard entered the office and placed a thick sheepskin bag on Roland's mahogany table. "The messenger said that this was sent by Sean."

"Oh?" Roland suddenly became energetic. He put down his biplane design and stood up. "Let's open it and see."

It had been almost two months since the exploration team left Neverwinter. The most recent news from them was when they crossed Graycastle's border. When he learned that the source was not in Graycastle, Roland had been little worried. After all, the mining and transportation of ore was a long-term process. The First Army had limited mobility and the farther away they were from Graycastle, the harder it was to carry out a mission.

Now that he'd finally received some news after such a long time, he was very interested in what was in the package.

But he was also curious as to why the package was so big. This reminded him of mail order packages. Whether or not they were able to find the source, a letter would have been sufficient to convey the message. What did the exploration team encounter that would cause Sean send over such a big package?

"It's full of paper," Nightingale whispered in his ear as she probably saw the doubts in his eyes.

"Paper?" Roland tilted his head and whispered, "Are your capabilities so evolved that you can see through things?"

"I'd love it if that was the case, but unfortunately no." Nightingale said lazily, "I just slipped my hand into the sack when the guard came in."

"I see, so her level of alertness was still quite... Hang on." It suddenly dawned on Roland that when Evelyn came in with a new Chaos Drink, or when the chef came in with a snack cart, could she have also pinched a bit of the food and drink?

On the other hand, the amount delivered for afternoon tea had decreased a little.

"Your Majesty, it's all paper inside." The guard's words interrupted his thoughts. "And most of them are covered with ink."

"Is this a new reporting method?" Roland took a look in the bag and said, "Isn't there a letter that I could read?"

"Please wait..." After the guard had dumped out all the contents of the sheepskin bag, there was a new discovery. "There's a letter with a wax seal underneath."

"Bring it over."

"And those papers stained with ink—"

"Just spread them out on the floor," Roland ordered, "Sean couldn't have possibly spent so much energy to send a bunch of useless things."

"Yes!"

Roland sat back on his chair and opened the envelope.

Judging from the date, it should have been sent about a week and a half ago. Like the bag, the letter was also surprisingly large, with at least a dozen pages—it was hard to imagine why an exploration report would be such a lengthy document. This might also be the reason why Sean marked the report as urgent, but decided against using the usual animal messenger system.

"Your Majesty, Miss Azima has found the source that you want—It's located at the northeastern junction of the Kingdom of Dawn, near the Kingdom of Wolfheart. The locals call it Cage Mountain."

Sean's first sentence was enough to reassure Roland.

Fortunately, this trip was not a waste. The fact that the mining area was still within the Kingdom of Dawn meant that he could control the entire mining process through the Quinn family. Although the cost would be a lot more, it was still better than having to deal with the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter.

Moreover, Sean's choice of words did not seem tedious, which made him even more curious about the package's contents.

"But the source wasn't in a cave, but a very old ruin. What's even more incredible was that it wasn't built by the underground civilization nor did it have anything to do with the Taquila survivors. We initially suspected that it might have come from the undersea monsters, but a discovery by the witches proved otherwise."

"Your Majesty, this ruin was left behind by a group previously unknown to us."

Roland immediately knitted his brows.

Did an unknown group of new aliens appear in the Four Kingdoms?

This was intelligence that had never been mentioned by the Witch Union.

Although this area was barren and backwards in the past, that did not mean that they would ignore their own territory. If there was alien activity, it would be impossible to escape the witches' investigation.

In other words, if Sean's conclusion was correct, then they most likely existed even before the underground civilization.

The key question was, why was this alien group interested in uranium ore?

He continued reading.

"They left behind a large number of murals on the walls at the bottom of the ruin. The various monsters displayed in the paintings were inconsistent with the images of the other races known to us. Through investigation of their contents, Ms. Rother and I think that the building was very likely used as a place of execution."

"It was not only located on the source of the vein, but they also shaped the uranium ore into bricks for the walls and floor—Azima saw the same element in every corner of the ruins and even on the murals. At the bottom, we found a lot of cages and bones, which was also reflected in the murals."

"They seem to have imprisoned a large number of enemies here—not just other races, but also their own kind. They were tortured using the power of the ore, and it seems as if doing so would please their gods."

"I've already tried to copy as much of the murals as possible and sent Tokat's messenger back to Neverwinter. Due to the limited number of protective suits and the size of the murals, the progress was slow. The murals you have copies of are only of a portion of them. It will likely take another month or two to send copies of the rest."

"In addition, I'm very worried about Ms. Rother who did not wear protective clothing when entering the ruins. I'm not sure if she would encounter the dangers you mentioned. The locals that initially discovered the ruins were infected with something. Many people became sick with strange diseases and many died from unknown causes. So the ruins also are called a cursed temple. Judging from the ruin's execution ground, this danger likely still exists."

"That's bad." Roland could not help but whisper.

"What's wrong?" Nightingale asked from the mist. "If the God's Punishment Witch is cursed, she could just change her body, so I don't think we have to worry about them."

"I wasn't worried about the Taquila witches, but about Sean and Azima." He shook his head solemnly. "According to the plan, they shouldn't have stayed in the mining area for so long."

Whether it was unrefined ore or highly compressed uranium, its radioactive decay mainly consisted of alpha particles, so it would be difficult to penetrate the skin or cause harm to the human body. But this didn't mean that it would be the same in the ruins. Given that these radioactive elements had existed for hundreds of millions of years and some of them had likely decayed into more dangerous elements such as radon, the situation had become different.

The half-life of radon was only 3.8 days, and it was a gas which could be easily inhaled into the body to cause radiation poisoning. The protective suits he prepared for the exploration team were designed for going into deep mining areas—The fully-sealed suit could effectively block out many kinds of highly toxic elements that could be found in a uranium mine. The gas mask could filter out radon and other toxic gases. As long as you didn't stay in the mining area for extended periods of time, you could basically guarantee your safety.

But once too much time had passed, the endurance and effectiveness of the suits would be limited. This meant that those who participated in copying the murals might have exceeded the safety limits and thus been exposed to harmful amounts of radiation.

"They must immediately withdraw from the ruins," said Roland, taking a pen and paper from the table. "Call Honey. This letter must be sent to them as soon as possible."

Chapter 1055 - Shocking Scene

In addition to recalling Azima and Rother, Roland also wrote down the follow-up arrangements.

It was a time-consuming and laborious task to mine uranium mines safely. Not only was it necessary to formulate a detailed operational procedure and set up monitoring nodes, workers also needed to have a certain understanding of the work they were engaged in. They would then have to act meticulously according to the rules.

In the face of imminent war threats, he naturally did not intend to follow the normal protocols.

The North Slope mine was a good example.

He bought the prisoners on death penalty directly from the Duke of Quinn. He then threw them into the ruins without compensation and holidays, and he did not need to prepare protective measures for them. They would be released after working for a decade. He believed that those people would make the right choice if they had to choose between the gallows or a chance of survival.

Furthermore, local lords would probably be quite happy to use the lives of these scums in exchange for an additional income.

In this way, the 100 soldiers of the exploration team only needed to be responsible for supervision and security work, thus greatly reducing the requirements of defense.

Sean was undoubtedly the best candidate to be in charge of management.

Finally, at the end of the confidential letter, Roland also made sure to order the guards to look for the whereabouts of the "treasures" that the people had brought out of the ruins a century ago.

After all, there were a few doubts about the rumor that bothered him a little.

This clan, which had not been recorded by history, seemed to have an inexplicable sense of worship for radioactive elements. It used brick ore to build a temple for sacrifices and even used it to torture the enemy. Some were even made to swallow the ore. Those bodies that were filled with green fluorescence, as seen through Azima's eyes, were proof that it happened. Although it was unclear whether their demise had a direct connection with this kind of worship, it was appropriate to call them a radioactive clan.

Since the world was so big, it was not surprising that all kinds of civilization could exist. What was truly strange was that no matter how deep you went into the mining area or took ore to make bricks, it would not be possible to cause "flesh rotting" effects. Even if you lived in mines, the long-term internal and external exposure to various types of decay radiation would only result in a mere increase in the probability of getting cancer. If you were meant to live to the age of 80, you might have lived to the age of 66 only.

After all, natural nuclides' release efficiency is really too low.

Several unlucky people that died in the rumor did not seem to have died from cancer or mutation complications. They seemed to have been affected by strong radiation.

In order to satisfy the latter condition, only the high-purity nuclear material could reach criticality, and a large number of neutron fluxes and hard γ-rays have to be generated in an instant. However, this situation did not seem to be something that the radioactive clan could achieve.

Roland did not rule out the possibility that the rumor itself had distorted the facts. However, the villagers' misery at that time should have been known by more than one person. If it was true, the problem would most likely be those "treasures".

Only in this way would the ruin take over the function of the altar of execution—Otherwise, every detainee would live for dozens of years before dying. If this altar was not built into a high-rise apartment building, it would not be able to hold so many people.

It was a pity that a century exceeded Summer's retrospective period. It was almost impossible to completely understand what was happening at that time and Sean could only try his best.

He felt that the truth behind the rumors might not be so simple.

...

After Honey took the letter, Roland walked to the desk and examined the paintings that were spread out.

Although the distorted ink images were filled with strange and absurd things, he could still recognize the general subject and object—The subject was mostly located in the center of the scrolls. The outline was large and delicate, representing the ruler of the ruins; the object was much smaller. They were in all of the corners, and from their hideous expressions, you could feel their pain and fear.

This was probably the universal nature of all intelligent life—Always make yourself the protagonist in historical records.

Just like Sean said, neither the subject nor the object was related to the known civilizations such as the demons, the demonic beasts, or the undersea civilization. Their shapes were quite weird, some were like matchsticks with limbs that were indistinguishable from head and tail; while the others were like crawling protozoa with all of their organs located in the brain.

The contents of the murals were not all related to the execution. There were some that depicted the scenes in which the subject and the object were fighting. They seemed to be able to fly by inflating the body and following the direction of the wind. They seemed to take advantage of the high-altitude to maneuver and land behind the enemy and successfully attack from both sides. The towering defense line was not of any use. The city was a sea of ​​fire and the object was defeated.

As long as the roles were clearly identified, it would also be possible to roughly understand the events described in these seemingly crazy records.

"Huh?" Roland's glance suddenly settled on a picture.

"What's wrong?" Nightingale quickly noticed his strange look.

"Do you feel like you've seen these scenes depicted in the murals before?" He walked to the scroll and bent down to look at a mural describing exactly the last part of the war: countless matchsticks were united as if they were trying to fight to their last breath, but they were still knocked to the ground by the subject. The blood flowed and gathered into huge lakes. The surviving enemies fled to the sea. They were chased by the subject and killed. Their corpses even formed a small bag of a mountain in the sea.

"Oh..." Nightingale observed him for a long time and said, "In addition to using more ink, it doesn't seem to be different from other drawings."

"Well, combat ability and artistic appreciation are inherently opposite." Roland held his forehead and said, "Help me get a map of the Southernmost Region."

"Yes, I will." The latter did it quickly and placed a thick stack of maps in front of Roland. At the same time, she also handed him some dried fish.

Roland bit the dried fish while his hands kept moving. He soon found a partial bird's-eye view of the Endless Cape

At that time, in order to determine the location of Festive Harbor, he asked Lightning and Maggie to make detailed maps of it, so he still had a deep impression. When the two were put together, he suddenly felt a layer of goose bumps on his back. His body felt like a current had run through him and his fingers were numb.

"The outlines of the two maps overlapped!"

"Although the details were different, the boundary between the mainland and the Swirling Sea was basically the same, and similarity was above 80%!"

"Was this... a coincidence?"

"Hey, is this the Southernmost Region on the map?" Nightingale also realized that something was wrong and asked, "Isn't that where the Sand Nation people live?"

Roland did not answer but quickly scanned the remaining painting scrolls.

When he saw the penultimate one, all the blood in his body seemed to freeze.

He saw only a dozen of the subjects gathered on a high platform, forming a large circle. An irregular polyhedron floated in the circle. There were countless strange tentacles on its surface. It was like the snake demon Medusa's hair.

Sean did not see this scene with his own eyes, so he naturally did not know what was shown in the painting.

However, Roland knew very well what it was.

That was clearly "the relic of gods".

Chapter 1056 - The Captive

In the dark dungeon, a dim light cast a shadow on the wall as the captive dangled from the ceiling. The shadow flickered and swayed like a forked tree branch.

The prisoner did not struggle, nor did she utter a yelp or beg for mercy. She only produced an almost inaudible moan when the whip landed on her skin.

But that was soon drowned out by the following lashes.

"Crack!"

"Crack!"

The candlelight wavered and flickered as it played with the swaying shadow as it moved across the ceiling. The dull sound of a whipcrack cut through the gruesome silence of the dungeon.

After around ten lashes, Earl Lorenzo said, "Enough. Take a break!"

"Yes, my lord." The executioner withdrew.

Blood trickled down the female prisoner's back. There were new and old whipmarks all over her body. Apparently, this was not her first time being tortured. Beads of sweat stood out from the tip of her nose and arms. Obviously, she was suffering great pain, but she forced herself not to cry out.

"So, are you still not going to tell me where the Holy Book is?" The earl walked up to the woman and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to look at him. It was a pretty face, despite the constant torture the woman had been going through. As a matter of fact, her damp skin and bright eyes made her even more attractive. "The church is over, Farrina. Do you still want to plot against me? You should at least think about your companions if not about yourself."

"Those damn church dregs!" Lorenzo thought savagely. "There are many places they could have chosen to live in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Why did they have to pick Archduke Island? I made it very clear when I executed the messengers that I want them to leave me alone. Plus, they have a group of God's Punishment Warriors and could have picked anywhere to settle down as long as they stay as far away from Graycastle as possible. Why did they attempt to murder me? If I didn't ask Pope Mayne to give me some guards to protect me as a precaution, they would have mounted my head on the city wall by now." 

At this thought, Lorenzo felt the side of his missing left ear throb again.

When the two groups of God's Punishment Army had fought that day, Farrina had nearly killed him. Fortunately, his guard had blocked her strike. He survived but had also lost his left ear.

Lorenzo was actually more upset about the loss of the God's Punishment Warriors than his missing ear. Out of the 20 God's Punishment Warriors, only two to three were capable of fighting now. The others had either died during the battle or had lost limbs. It was impossible for them to fight again.

Yet he relied on those God's Punishment Warriors to secure his position on Archduke Island!

The nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart did not come back to him not because of the change in his status from a bishop to a noble, but because of their fear of the God's Punishment Warriors. If they knew he had only a few capable God's Punishment Warriors left, they would probably strip him of his earl title immediately.

Lorenzo was so tempted to cut Farrina into pieces.

But he could not do that.

Not before he knew where the Holy Book was.

"I'm not sure whether the church is over, but I know you are... Earl Lorenzo, no, I should call you a traitor," After a moment of silence, Farrina said quietly. "My biggest mistake was that I underestimated your God's Punishment Warriors, but there are few you can use now, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't need the Holy Book so badly. You want to know the secret passing down among the popes, which is how to create the God's Punishment Army, so that you can keep your pitiable position..."

"Smack!"

The earl boxed her ears.

"You'd better tell me what I want!" Lorenzo threatened through his teeth. "Tell me, where is the Holy Book?"

Blood dripped down from the corner of the prisoner's mouth. Farrina said, "I don't know..."

"That's really a pity." The earl eyed the executioner. "Chop off a leg. Pick anyone you like. I want her companions..."

"Stop acting." Farrina interrupted Lorenzo feebly in a derisive tone. "You remember the finger you sent me last time? The blood had darkened. Do you still want to play the same trick? It seems that the comfortable life here has made our bishop forget the difference between a living man and a dead one. You chopped it off from a body, right? You killed them a long time ago, traitor!"

Lorenzo's face clouded over.

"I'm not even an acting pope. How would I know where the Holy Book is? Pope Tucker Thor might know it, but he never told me. Nobody in this world would ever know how to create a God's Punishment Army now."

"You're lying!" Lorenzo went livid. "Tucker Thor asked you to come to rebuild the church in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and revenge Hermes! Without the Holy Book, how can the church compete against Graycastle?"

"Haha..." To Lorenzo's surprise, Farrina laughed. "With a God's Punishment Army, the church can't compete against Graycastle either. The acting pope simply wanted to save us and for everybody to spend the rest of their lives peacefully."

"This is absurd! Do you think I'll believe you?" The earl roared. "If you planned to settle down, why did you attack Archduke Island? Didn't you attempt to steal the wealth, the food, the armors and the weapons here? Tucker entrusted the God's Punishment Warriors to you, and he just wanted you to live a happy life? Nonsense!"

"Believe it or not, but this is the truth," Farrina said indifferently. "I also want to tell you something else. If you didn't kill the messengers but treated them fairly, we would have probably chosen somewhere else to settle down. But you made the worst decision. You know what kind of people I despise? Those double crossers like you!"

"You—"

"You failed Pope O'Brien, so you don't deserve the life Pope Tucker Thor earned for us." There was a faint starchiness in Farrina's voice. "It's a shame that I didn't kill you, but the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart would eventually know who you are. Even if you have washed your hands off the whole matter and have nothing to do with the church, you'll never become a true noble! You're just a traitor living on borrowed time!"

Lorenzo took a deep breath, trying to suppress his anger. He growled, "I know exactly what your little scheme is. You just attempted to provoke me into killing you so that the whereabouts of the Holy Book would remain as a secret forever. But I can make you spit it out. There are not only supplies in here but also a lot of instruments of torture which we normally use on witches. I wonder if you would hold up better than those Fallens."

He cast a glance at Farrina's feet and said, "Let's start with your toenails... I hope you could still play tough when I rip them off."

...

After returning to the castle hall, Lorenzo could not contain himself any longer. He smashed the tea set onto the floor.

"Damn, damn, damn Farrina!"

He had armed himself with a mask of cruelty to conceal his inner uncertainty. In fact, Lorenzo had no idea how long it would take Farrina to yield. As a member of the Judgement Army, she had an exceptionally strong willpower. Perhaps, it would not be that easy to get something out of her.

He could not just close the port and announce a trade ban all of a sudden, for that would immediately raise suspicions among the nobles. If he, however, left Archduke Island as it was, there was a big chance that the nobles would appoint merchants to spy on him. Therefore, he needed more God's Punishment Warriors to protect him before it was too late!

But Farrina, a person he loathed so much, refused to tell him that key information.

"This is so frustrating!"

Just then, his butler came in. "Your lordship, I've heard something interesting recently..."

"Get out of here. I'm not in the mood for some trivial gossip!"

The butler looked at the broken crockery and said patiently, "It may be helpful in solving your problem."

"What?" Lorenzo looked up instantly. "What is it?"

After he became an earl and the lord of Archduke Island, his followers also became his "family members". Hagrid, the butler, was one of his henchmen. As a former priest, he sometimes provided Lorenzo with counsels. "The border of the Kingdom of Dawn has been a little unstable lately. It seems that they plan to head to Cage Mountain."

"What does it have to do with us?" Lorenzo scowled. "Archduke Island won't gain anything from it, no matter who takes Cage Mountain."

"I'm not talking about the operation itself, but the person behind this..." Hagrid paused for a second and continued, "Your lordship, I've heard that the King of Graycastle is behind this."

Chapter 1057 - An Ancient Treasure

"The King of... Graycastle!"

Lorenzo shuddered at this name.

Everybody in the church had heard of him. Within merely a few years, this man had elevated himself from the lord of an insignificant border town to the sovereign of the state. Nothing could explain his sudden rise. He had even defeated the Holy City of Hermes which had once dominated the entire continent.

In fact, Roland Wimbledon was the main reason Lorenzo had made such a quick decision to sever his relationship with the church. Realizing that the conflict between the church and Graycastle could never be settled, he had quickly resigned his bishop position to escape from the trouble.

But Lorenzo did not understand why Roland suddenly extended his power to the borders of the Kingdom of Dawn and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. As a new king, he should have focused on domestic affairs instead of creating a new commotion. He wondered what Roland was up to this time.

"Are you sure?" asked the earl as he looked at Hagrid. "Fill me in!"

"I got the news from various reliable sources," Hagrid said positively. "The troop stationed at the foot of Cage Mountain is from Graycastle. Their outfits and weapons fit the description. Further, death row prisoners from all parts of the Kingdom of Dawn are heading to Cage Mountain as well. Some of them proclaimed that they work for the King of Graycastle!"

"Cage Mountain... death row prisoners..." Lorenzo paced the room when a sudden thought struck him. "Is he coming for that..."

"Very likely, your lordship." Hagrid nodded before correcting himself, "No... he must be coming for that."

"How did he know?" asked the earl.

"It isn't surprising that he knew. The discovery of the ruin was simply pure luck. I always thought that there must be a connection between those ruins, and Roland happens to be the first person who noticed this connection."

Although the church did not know the exact reason behind Prince Roland's swift rise, there were quite a few theories. Apart from ridiculous rumors such as the incarnation of God and the spokesman for the demons, many people believed that Prince Roland had obtained some mysterious power from a ruin.

Even though the three Archibishops had dismissed this theory as another groundless rumor, many believers had insisted that this was the truth. Lorenzo had also been one of them.

"Otherwise, how did Roland defeat the Holy City?"

The most incredible ruin in Cage Mountain was the Cursing Temple.

A few years ago, when the God's Punishment Army had invaded the Kingdom of Wolfheart, many nobles had either been killed in action or surrendered. Even the Queen of Clearwater had failed to stop the church. As the former bishop in Archduke Island, Lorenzo had assisted in the logistics and the post-war clean-up. He had been responsible for sending some of the looted military supplies to the front and storing away the rest. During an operation at Cliff Ridge, he had accidentally learnt about an ancient legend that had been circulated for 100 years.

It was rumored that a group of villagers had stolen some treasures from the Cursing Temple but died shortly afterwards. The local nobles had later taken possession of these treasures which the ancestors of Cliff Ridge's Earl had been very interested in. He believed that the deaths had nothing to do with the curse on the temple but with the treasures taken out from the temple. Thus, he had put a lot of effort and time searching for them and had finally retrieved a part of these treasures from the Kingdom of Dawn.

The research had cost a dozen lives. In the end, the old earl had finally found something unusual. It was a lethal weapon that produced a deadly ray, working just like a curse!

But the weapon had lost its power after several uses as if its power had been exhausted. Although the old earl had sent many people to the border to search for a similar one whilst even risking his life to explore the temple himself, he had not found a way to recover it. Therefore, he had recorded the incident in his family book, hoping his descendents would one day find an answer. The miraculous "weapon" had thus been passed down through generations until the church had seized Cliff Ridge a century later.

Lorenzo had been very interested in the item in the beginning. However, after he had played around with it for a few times, nothing had happened. He had thus lost his interest and put it away with the other treasures in the warehouse, planning to deal with it after he had returned to the Holy City.

After all, he could not take a family book too seriously. Many nobles boasted about their long family history, their aristocratic origin, and their accumulated wealth. If the church was so gullible as to believe all of them, they would not have wiped out the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter that easily. Rather, it would have been the other way around.

After the church had suffered a miserable defeat in Coldwind Ridge, the situation had taken a turn for the worse. Nobody had cared about the looted items any longer, and Lorenzo had also put the matter out of his mind. He had almost forgotten about it until Hagrid reminded him.

It was very likely that the King of Graycastle was coming for the treasures in the Cursing Temple.

Getting excited, the earl urged Hagrid. "Go on!"

"Yes, your lordship." Hagrid inclined his head. "Suppose Roland Wimbledon learned about the treasures in the ruins from other sources, he would probably know how this thing works. According to what I know, this powerful thing can probably replace the God's Punishment Warriors."

"Right, this is a cursed weapon! It can definitely deter the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart from challenging my authority. Meanwhile, it'll earn me some time to search for the Holy Book," thought Lorenzo.

Lorenzo stomped in excitement. "Come with me to the warehouse, now!"

"Your lordship?"

"I have to make sure that it's still on Archduke Island. Since it's so important, I have to guard it well."

...

To prevent an information leak, Lorenzo took no one but his butler and searched the whole warehouse for half a day. After hours of strenuous work, he finally found the "treasure" in a corner.

Lorenzo was happy that he did not include a third person in this search.

As he opened the pouch, he immediately noticed its difference compared to the other treasures.

Compared to all the other looted treasures such as luminous pearls and beautiful sculptures, the thing in the pouch was nothing but a stone. It was square, much coarser than polished granites, and was not even bigger than his palm. Nobody would have ever spared it a glance if there were no decorative sapphire stripes on it.

The Earl of Cliff Ridge had also mentioned in his family book that the item had cost him the least out of all the treasures he had owned.

But now, the stripes on the stone were emanating a soft blue glow. The light pointed from one end to the other as if it was giving a direction.

Lorenzo exchanged a look with the butler. Both of them were exhilarated by their discovery!

It was unbelievable that the stone, which had been unresponsive over the past 100 years, would show signs of activity just when Roland sent his people to the Cursing Temple.

Now, Lorenzo was almost certain about Roland's motive!

He was sure that Roland knew how to recover the stone!

"I want you to go to Cage Mountain," said Lorenzo as he slipped the stone into his pocket cautiously. "I trust no one but you. Try to get the information on how to use the stone. Don't worry about money."

"Rest assured. I'll do my best," replied Hagrid while placing his hand on his chest.

"Another thing," The earl said slowly. "Make sure that the King of Graycastle doesn't notice you. He could destroy the church and certainly could destroy you effortlessly. You have to keep a low profile unless the stone exerts its power... I place the future of Archduke Island in your hands."

Chapter 1058 - No More Regret

In a tavern at the dock of Archduke Island.

Joe fumbled a wineglass restlessly as he glanced towards the door from time to time.

He had never been so fidgety before.

Although his mind was crowded with a multitude of feelings, he could do nothing but wait miserably in regret whilst feeling afraid and lost.

Joe felt a little relieved when a hooded man came and sat down next to him, but he soon felt even more nervous.

"How... is she doing?" asked Joe.

Joe fixed his eyes on the man's lips, dreading for the worst scenario.

"She's still alive," replied the man.

Hearing this answer, Joe let out a sigh of relief.

"But Ms. Farrina isn't in a good condition," said the man as he took off his hood. "It appears that the bishop wanted to get something out of her, so he tortured her every day. Sometimes, I've even heard her screams reach the hall. If things go on like this, she won't be alive for long."

Joe tried to convince himself that this was inevitable. After their plan had failed, he had foreseen the fierce retaliation from their enemy. As the traitor wanted to know the whereabouts of the Holy Book, he would definitely use every possible means to get Farrina, the leader of the operation, to open up.

"At least, she's still alive," Joe muttered under his breath.

He slowly made his hand into a fist with his nails sinking into his flesh. He did not want to picture what would happen to Farrina if he failed to rescue her. Perhaps at the end of the day, death may actually give her relief.

"Damn it! Why did I agree to her plan?" Joe thought savagely. He should not have let Farrina act as the diversion. He would rather fight to his last breath and die with her in the castle than retreat alone. 

"Sir..." The man hesitated for a moment and asked, "Do you know what the bishop is asking for? Maybe you should just let him have it. That will at least free Ms. Farrina from..."

"He's not a bishop, only a traitor!" Joe said within himself. He replied through his teeth, "I don't have what he wants. It was destroyed when Hermes Cathedral fell."

There was a hint of melancholy in his look when the man heard the word "Hermes". He murmured, "May God bless us..."

Joe thought it pretty ironic. Back in the old days before the fall of the new and old Holy Cities, as one of the most outstanding Judgement Warriors, he had always been surrounded by the most prominent figures in the church. At that time, he would have never taken an oridnary believer seriously. But now, with the betrayal of the bishop and the priest, he could trust no one but this believer who came from the bottom of the pyramid. It appeared that this man had a deeper love for the church than many of the executives. He had come to him when he had sunk to his lowest dejection.

The man also felt bitter about Lorenzo's betrayal, but with little power, he could not openly defy him. The night the castle had been attacked, he had caught a glimpse of the invaders. From then on, he had started to look for Joe around the castle, and this was how they had met.

Joe did not care whether this man was a spy sent by Lorenzo or not, for he practically had nothing else to lose. If this man was indeed a spy, he should have noticed that he had nothing to offer by now and thus killed him.

Unfortunately, this man was just a servant of the lowest rank in the castle. The information he could provide was very limited.

"I've got to go." After a long silence, the man pulled his hood on. "The butler would suspect me if I lingered too long. Are we still meeting here in three days?"

"Ah..." Joe suddenly came back to reality from his reminiscence. "Sounds good to me. If anything changes, I'll let you know."

"I see." The man paused for a few seconds and then said, "Sir, you must pull yourself together. You are now the only person that can save Ms. Farrina."

"Me? No... I can do nothing." Joe left his words unsaid.

He was walking in the dark, hapless and hopeless. God had turned a deaf ear to his prays.

Joe nodded blankly.

"Right," The man turned around again, "Something happened in the castle lately. One of the bishop's henchmen, Priest Hagrid, went to the southwest. The coachman said they were heading to Cage Mountain. I thought you might... want to know about it."

His voice trailed off towards the end. It was a very unconfident consolation.

It was perfectly normal for a lord to send his men to some other domains, even though Cage Mountain had nothing to do with Archduke Island. As long as the God's Punishment Warriors were still there, it was impossible for him to get Farrina out of the dungeon.

"Noted. Thank you."

"Anytime, sir..." The man dipped in a bow before he said, "This is all I can do for you."

"Cage Mountain... It looks like everybody is talking about it lately," Joe thought as he drained the glass. His mouth was soon saturated with the bitter taste of ale. The next moment, however, he stood transfixed. 

"Hang on... Cage Mountain?"

An idea suddenly flashed across Joe's mind.

"Perhaps there's a chance of saving Farrina after all!"

...

After returning to his abode in the suburb, Joe rested his eyes on a black book on the desk.

It was the "last will" of the acting pope Tucker Thor before he had jumped off the city wall.

It was not the Holy Book that contained the method of creating the God's Punishment Army but a request from Tucker. The book talked about the history of human beings and demons, as well as the origin of the Battle of Divine Will. Joe was agape as he read the story and suddenly understood the reason why Tucker had asked them to leave Hermes.

"Everything is over."

"Worry no more about the battle. Live your own lives."

Farrina did not want the church to fall apart probably because she did not want to see Tucker's sacrifice to be for nothing. She wanted Roland Wimbledon and his Kingdom of Graycastle to fall before the church.

But now, Joe saw a ray of hope in the very king who had destroyed the church.

He did not expect Graycastle to help him.

They would never save the remaining church members.

However, he could direct them to attack the traitor.

He had not given much thought to Cage Mountain until the believer had reminded him. At first, he had thought this was just another groundless rumor and he did not want to deal with Graycastle anymore. But now, he remembered that Lorenzo had indeed found a treasure at Cage Mountain and had even reported to the church when he had been the caretaker for the items looted from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. He did not know whether the treasure had been shipped to Hermes, but it did not matter. What mattered was whether the King of Graycastle was also looking for it.

The nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart might fear its cursing power, but Roland would not.

Nobody could stop his impregnable army.

As long as Roland could help him weed out the traitor, he would have a chance to save Farrina.

Even if Farrina was, unfortunate to be captured by Roland, it would be still better than the endless tortures here.

Joe took a deep breath.

If in the end, Farrina fell into Roland's hand, he would come forward.

He wanted to be there for her until her final moments.

Because... he loved her...

He had been in love with her ever since the first day he had joined the Judgement Army with Farrina.

This time, he did not want to leave any regrets.

Chapter 1059 - Puzzle And Battles

Two weeks after receiving the emergency report from Sean, the sun once again appeared in the Western Region of Graycastle.

The Months of Demons ended without any problems.

This was probably the most peaceful Months of Demons that has happened in hundreds of years. There were no evil beasts harassing or roaring. The snowy plains outside the walls were empty and flat. The thick snow reflected the dazzling golden light of the sun. It looked like a piece of flawless mirror.

Thus, this year's Victory Day was exceptionally lively.

Many residents walked into the wilderness without waiting for the snow to melt. They plucked a pile of snow from the knee-deep snow and brought it home to boil and drink. It was both a celebration and a memorial.

Only a very small number of people knew about the undercurrent beneath the calm.

The Third Border City, Library Cave.

Roland received an expected response.

"None of the documents ever mentioned this record. Not even the literature left by the underground civilization." Celine leaned tiredly against the corner and ancient books that she had flipped open were piled up around her. "And for the first record about the Southernmost Region, that was about 860 years ago. It was a travel note, probably written by a certain witch. The description was only a few words, but it confirmed that the Endless Cape was a desert."

This was the first time that he saw "Blob" looking so tired—the three senior witches rarely sat down and usually relied on the main tentacles that were hanging on the dome, the fine whiskers on their bodies were always dancing. However, at this moment, all of her tentacles drooped down and looked like fur on the surface. At the first glance, it looked a bit like a radish that was just pulled out of the earth.

"You should probably take a break."

"I'd also like to do that. But I can't stop my body at all," said Celine with a bitter laugh. "Your discovery's too shocking. It can be said to be a subversion of the Union—no, that's not right. It's disrupted the entire recorded history of mankind!"

This was also why Roland had long anticipated the answer—if there were related discoveries in the era of the Union, it would certainly have been recorded in some way. After all, it involved the Battle of Divine Will. Even if it needed to be kept secret, at least the entire senior management would not be ignorant about it.

The ethnic groups in the murals might be even older than what he had imagined. For the last 860 years, they only had a single well-documented testimony and it did not mean that the Southernmost Region was full of vigor before this. From this point of view, the myths of the "Three Gods Emissary" and the "Millennium War" circulated by the Mojins were somewhat more reliable.

At that time, the first Battle of Divine Will had not yet begun.

"Your Majesty, I have to admit," she said with a long sigh, "we have clearly taken a big step forward in our research, but why do I still feel so confused? It's like I've lost something."

"This is all normal," Roland comforted her by saying, "the more you know, the more you will feel like you actually know nothing. In the end, all doubts can be attributed to three problems."

"Oh? Which three?" Pasha asked curiously.

"Where am I, who am I hitting, who is hitting me?"

"..." She silently immersed herself in thinking.

"Oh, well, I just wanted you all to relax a little," Roland coughed twice. "The real answer should be who am I, where do I come from, and where am I going."

"Where did I come from... where am I going?" Pasha murmured again. "These three questions seem very simple, but when you think about it, the answer is not that easy. You only have to change the perspective slightly and you will be faced with different answers."

"Oh, have you gone in a daze after reading too many books?" El could not resist interrupting. "What's wrong with this? I'm El from Taquila and I'm going back to Taquila—won't it be fine like this? I think you've been deceived by him."

"This is the reason why I envy you occasionally," said Celine, unable to put the main tentacles on top of her head. "Being simple-minded can be a form of happiness sometimes."

Pasha shook her head whilst laughing. "Thank you very much. It did relax us a bit. But your response really surprised me. Not only were you calm, but you also took our thoughts into consideration. It was as if you were not the least bit surprised about this."

"Because in my opinion, the world itself is full of uncertainty..." Roland smiled arbitrarily and changed the subject. "Since we have confirmed the unknown Battle of Divine Will and the existence of new ethnic groups so we should hold a meeting—such important news should be conveyed to everyone, the sooner the better."

"As you wish, Your Majesty." Pasha bent her main tentacles and replied.

...

The internal meeting was soon held in the castle's main hall. The degree of secrecy was classified as top secret. Participants were all representatives of the forces of the united front. Even the ministers of the administrative department were not invited.

When Roland announced this accidental discovery, everyone was in disbelief. He also gave a rare ten-minute buffer to allow everyone to whisper among themselves.

The Battle of Divine Will was not bounded to the fate of mankind. It was most likely a "special" normality. This was simply beyond the imagination of everyone. If Roland was not the messenger, few people would believe it.

As the hall gradually fell silent, Tilly stood up and said, "If this was really a Battle of Divine Will, where are the winners? They are neither the demons, the sea monsters, the underground civilization nor the humans... Where are they now?"

This was also the question that most people came up with.

Roland looked at Pasha behind the light curtain. The latter nodded. "I wonder if you still remember that there are two sentences in the records of the underground civilization—that magic has made us extraordinary and that the mastery of magic was a step to getting close to the divine meaning. We might as well assume that all participants in the Battle of Divine Will could use magic, which means the winner could have raised the power of magic to a new level, thus going somewhere we can't see? For example... the celestial world."

This was also the conjecture that the three senior witches came up with after racking their brains. Although Roland felt that there were many loopholes, it was still better than a simple "I don't know."

Not knowing meant nothingness—according to common sense, the stronger a civilization was, the longer its footprint would remain. The ancient people built houses with hay and mud masonry. A millennium was enough to turn them into dust. On the other hand, Neverwinter had concrete buildings, that even after a millennium, would still leave their outlines. A civilization that may have won the Battle of Divine Will, disappeared without a trace after the war and that could only be identified from the scattered relics, undoubtedly made it quite easy for people to imagine the worst.

If winning could not reverse the fate of extinction, then this would greatly impair everyone's determination toward the war.

This speculation by Taquila would at least help to set a goal.

"So what was written on the murals was written at least a thousand and four hundred years ago?" Edith then said, "And what the humans experienced cannot be called the first Battle of Divine Will."

"Though that's the case, changing the name would be confusing," Roland replied. "So I tentatively called it a "lost battle." As to whether it was the first battle, that was not important."

"Your Majesty," Barov said hesitantly, "the expedition plan that was scheduled to be carried out after the start of the spring—"

"Let's follow the previously formulated plan," he said without hesitation. "Even if there are a lot of unsolved mysteries in the Battle of Divine Will, we must move forward! Maybe war itself was a way to get us closer to the mystery. If we are defeated by the demons, then there will be no hope left."

Roland paused, looked across the hall and said clearly, "This time, we must sweep the demons completely out of the Fertile Plains. This is not only to secure the space needed for Neverwinter's development, but also to lay the foundation for the final victory!"

Chapter 1060 - Bidding Farewell

After nearly a year of preparation, Neverwinter was now operating at full speed like a war machine.

The Months of Demons could not stop this new king's city from madly absorbing neighboring resources. The Administrative Office once thought that the population of 100,000 was an unattainable goal, but after just one year, the urban population had doubled. The infusion of a large number of fresh labor forces has led to the rapid expansion of various industries, and four new chemical plants were even added. Machine-related processing and assembly plants have also exceeded double digits.

According to statistics, the monthly salary paid by the Administrative Office was close to 10,000 gold royals. When Roland first arrived here, the highest income was only 24,000 gold royals—this was after plundering Longsong Stronghold. In other words, the fortune amassed by the Duke of the Western Region after half a lifetime would only be enough for two and a half month worth of wages.

Steam engines, paddle steamers, perfumes and Chaos Drinks constitute the main sources of revenue—these goods were sold through the Joint Chamber of Commerce to the Fjords and the Four Kingdoms. In addition to the reward that had to be paid, the rest of the money went to a large number of raw materials and handicraft products. The coming and going of money now formed a delicate balance, and savings in the Treasury have started to diminish.

This was a very uneven development model, but in the face of the threat of the Battle of Divine Will, Roland did not have much of a choice.

If resources were not devoted to heavy industry, machine guns would not be able to shoot at will, and artillery would always lack cannonballs.

Only in this way could he arm the entire army.

Expanding the First Army from 8,000 to 10,000 people was only the foundation. The Air Force under the command of Tilly Wimbledon was also in active preparation. In addition, the "Conscription Act" and "National Mobilization Act" have entered the drafting stages. These two policies were aimed at improving the war potential of Neverwinter by mobilizing the ordinary students, workers, and farmers to perform the most basic discipline training. This was similar to the college military training of the later years. Although they could not be allowed to use guns directly on the battlefield, the training time could be shortened when there was an urgent need to replenish the manpower.

Since the specific time for the upcoming Bloody Moon already had some discrepancy, no one could determine when the Battle of Divine Will would start. It could be four to five years if they were optimistic and in the worst case scenario, it might be within one or two years. For Roland, the biggest strategic goal at the moment was to turn defense into offensive so that the war would be in the enemy's territory.

Therefore, the demon who invaded the ruins of Taquila was the nail he had to pull out.

In fact, the transportation of materials and the mobilization of personnel began gradually during the late winter and early spring.

This was where the advantages of rail transportation came in. Even if heavy snow filled the entire Fertile Plains, as long as the rails were cleared, the essential war supplies could still be continuously transported to the front lines.

Most of the steel produced in Neverwinter had become single steel rails. The route hidden in the Misty Forest had also been laid. Once Roland made the order, the new Northern Expedition would be officially launched.

Both the corps and the city were ready to go.

However, before this, he had two more things to handle.

...

On the second day after the Months of Demons ended, Roland received a request for a meeting with Thunder.

"What's wrong, leaving so soon?" He set up a relaxed afternoon tea in the parlor. While fetching Anna, he also sent an invitation to Margaret—with regards to this businesswoman who had a certain chemistry with Lightning, he could only help this much. "Are you impatient to explore the Shadow Sea City?"

"I knew I couldn't hide it from you," laughed Thunder cheerfully. "Every moment that I controlled the steel ship, I was imagining it facing the scene of the sea breeze. If I could, I even hoped to sail straight to the sealine."

"In that case, we will probably face the risk of water shortages halfway through the journey." Margaret shook her head reluctantly. "The other Chamber of Commerce that have invested heavily in you would not be happy to see you leave their fleet behind. Unless you plan never to return to Fjord Islands."

"Haha, I just wanted to express my excitement to His Majesty," he said, touching his chin. "As Margaret said, this adventure is no longer just about me. After all, for the Fjords, the development of new sea areas means opportunities and wealth, and no Chamber of Commerce would be untempted. This is probably the biggest expedition in the history of the Fjord Islands. I need to return as soon as possible to make adequate preparations."

It seemed that after Thunder's propaganda and recruitment, the team has now become a group. Roland smiled and sipped a mouthful of his tea. Thunder was without a doubt the greatest explorer in the Fjords. He was able to attract huge investments just by expressing his interest. "It seems that in a few short months, you have already mastered the steel ship."

"This was thanks to Her Majesty Anna," said Thunder, saluting Anna by pressing his chest, "the subsequent improvements that she made to the hull was of great help. You have to see it in person, otherwise, it would be difficult to imagine that such a large iron vessel could be nimbler than the three-masted ships.

"I'd also like to make a request." Anna nodded and said, "This ship was only active in the Shallow Beach near the sea during the trial. If it's possible, I hope to get a navigation report about the deep sea area. All the problems encountered should be recorded there. It is best to use Neverwinter's new waterproof ink and a sealant bag. So even if it falls into the sea, it can be completely preserved."

He probably did not expect her to make such a serious request so Thunder hesitated for a while before saying, "I understand. You can count on me, Your Highness."

Roland touched Anna's head lovingly and then looked at Thunder. "There's also something that I would like to entrust to you."

"I await your instruction."

"I'd like to recruit a group of explorers."

"Unrelated to this expedition?" Thunder quickly realized.

"Yes," Roland put down his teacup. "I would like them to go to the Endless Cape."

"I remember there was nothing except yellow sand and black water," Margaret said surprisedly.

"That's what I thought as well..." Roland shrugged. "The Endless Cape was low-risk, so there would be no need for experienced experts. So quantity would be more important than the ability."

Seeing that he did not elaborate on the reasons, Thunder did not persist in his questioning. "There're many people like these in the Fjords. I wonder what the rules of eligibility are..."

"None," Roland replied. "Although we specified for an explorer, in fact, anyone can do it—whoever finds any relics in the Endless Cape will be rewarded."

"Even if it's only a brick of the ruin that remains?"

"Naturally, but only if it comes from the Endless Cape." He confirmed by saying, "The more information a relic contains, the bigger the reward. The news will be valid for a long time. As long as I'm the king of Greycastle, it'll be honored."

"With your words as a guarantee, I'm afraid that area will be crowded in the future." Margaret smiled and said, "I wonder if I should take the opportunity to open a tavern in Festive Harbor?"

"You would be most welcome." Promoting the economy of the oil port was indeed one of Roland's goals. After all, the civilization in the painting had a history of at least 1,400 years. It was still unknown if anything was left behind at all. Undoubtedly reward was a good way of recruiting explorers, and killing two birds with one stone.

"By the way, Your Majesty," said Thunder, "since the steel ship has passed the sea test and is officially put into use, does it have a name yet?"

"Of course, I intend to call it the Snow Breeze."

"The Snow Breeze...?" The explorer pondered for a moment. "Surely it's a good name, but wouldn't that be too soft, and not fit for its steel body?"

"Both rigid and soft combined is the best way," Roland could not help raising his lips. "More importantly, this name implies auspiciousness and will surely bring you good luck this time."

Chapter 1061 - Sport Event

While blowing a steam whistle, the ship slowly left the Shallow Beach.

Joan was standing at the stern, reluctantly bidding farewell to the Exploration Group—after a whole winter, her relationship with the witches had improved a lot. This rare friendship was particularly strong probably because it had been such a long time since someone had cared for her or had missed her.

Though it sounded dry and hard, she just kept repeating the phrase "Goodbye," which she had just learned before leaving.

Lightning's expression looked quite lonely. She looked in the direction of the stern, her eyes wide open. Many times Roland came close to telling her that Thunder was on the boat. However, he thought of the latter's entrustment and eventually pushed the urge back into the bottom of his heart.

Maggie had covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking and with her eyes filled with tears. She was unable to make any sound for quite some time, probably because she was afraid of crying.

Only Lorgar remained calm. She was carrying Maggie on her tail, Lightning with her one hand and waving at Joan with her other hand—parting forever was something common for the Mojins so she had grown used to it.

In Roland's eyes, Princess Lorgar of the Wildflame clan was not the loner she was when she first came to Neverwinter. She had already started changing even though she probably had not noticed it yet.

This was also a reason why Roland decided not to tell her.

With such a group of friends, he was sure that Lightning would return to her previous energetic self sooner or later.

As for the sisters that left, for now, they would all eventually return.

...

On the following day after Thunder's departure, Roland announced the news of king's city's first National Sports Meeting through Graycastle Weekly newspaper.

There was only one event. Marathon.

The starting points would be the main city areas of both Neverwinter and Longsong while the finishing point would be the center of the Kingdom Main Street—a total distance of twenty-eight kilometers. The first ten would win a prize ranging from 100 to 10 gold royals and the champion would receive a commemorative badge from the king himself.

This news instantly shook the entire Western Region!

Soon, everyone in the streets and alleys was inquiring about the event, and the fuss was no less than the release of the magic movie.

If 100 gold royals were used as a down payment, one could buy a home with water, heat, and electricity in the nearest district to the Castle District. Apart from those locals who moved at the very beginning, this was the objective for most Neverwinter citizens.

Although the new king's city did not have an inner and outer city like traditional cities, and there were no walls between each area, people still wished to be closer to His Majesty the King.

Usually, achieving such a goal would require many years of savings but now there was an opportunity to realize it instantly!

This was different from the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Combat Hero Award—the former was given to masters of their respective fields. Even without the gold royals of the prize, they still would not miss the money. As for the latter, it would require a willingness to sacrifice your own time, courage, and also luck. However, what about the Sports Meeting?

One only had to know how to run!

Everybody had two legs after all.

In everyone's eyes, this was another proof of His Majesty compassion and kindness towards his people.

In the past, all good policies were directed towards official residents. However, this time, what was more gratifying for most people was that this event was for "all citizens", exactly as it was announced in the weekly newspaper.

Not only citizens of Neverwinter but even merchants coming from other cities could participate.

So it was not surprising that this novel activity had created such a big impact.

Of course, what Roland wanted to do was not just to watch a competition and see who is the faster runner—a sports meeting was useful in strengthening cohesion, encouraging people to challenge themselves and work hard. As the aftermath of the Victory Day's celebration and the last call before the start of the war, there was nothing more inspiring than a sports meeting.

Also, he had one more small intention.

To announce the comeback of the bike.

He had always felt guilty about the failure of the product of his early policy—the proud invention of the King of Graycastle, chief Barov's advertisement presentation, as well as the posters that had filled the square everywhere at that time. Yet, after producing no more than two hundred vehicles, they had to stop the distribution due to lack of productivity. The factory was converted into the steam engine assembly plant and almost half of the finished products were given to the workers as salary remuneration.

Not only had he failed to realize the scene he had envisioned of everyone riding a bike between the city's districts, but also lost a lot of resources due to improper planning—for example, all those specific machines and equipment used for producing the bike parts were recycled and the remaining half of the bikes, because they were too few to deliver them to the First Army, were stored in a warehouse in the end.

From all the projects that he set up personally, this was the only one that didn't bring any benefit.

That's why he had to erase this black stigma.

Nowadays, the situation in the city was completely different from two or three years ago—a crazy expansion had brought a dramatic increase of the urban areas. Newly constructed districts had been built along Kingdom Main Street and the distance to major workplaces such as factories, docks, and mines was increasing more and more. Walking had become a time-consuming and tiresome activity whereas the perfection of the city streets had allowed the bike riders to easily reach more places.

On the other hand, the productivity of Neverwinter had also been greatly improved. With the application of rubber worms and new machine tools, they could produce the same results as the witches, without any impact on existing projects.

So, now it was a good time to bring up the subject of the bikes.

As long as he let the Second Army follow the group of marathon runners on their bikes and act as guides and accident rescuers, everyone would naturally realize the benefit of this type of transport.

As a result, the biggest mistake he had made since coming into power would no longer exist.

Roland thought with confidence.

...

"Huh? Is this the Great Chief's city?" Guelz Burnflame walked out of the cabin and rubbed his cheeks, "This concrete ship is powerful indeed but it's too noisy. I'd go deaf if I had to stay for another two to three days.

"Father, are you really not going to hide your face tattoos and then change to some northern kingdom clothes?" Rohan closely followed him and said, "Those people at the docks...everyone is staring at us."

"It doesn't matter, let them stare."

"But..."

"Are you worried about being discriminated?" Guelz glanced at him, "If a Mojin traveler's appearance is so hard for them to accept then what kind of life my daughter is having? The great chief said that in his domain, everyone is the same. I'd like to see if he has lied to the Three Gods."

After the mention of Lorgar Burnflame, Rohan stopped talking and did not try to persuade him anymore.

The chief shook his head secretly. It seemed that his fight-adept sister was still having a heavy influence on him.

Guelz did not come all the way from the Port of Clearwater to here on a whim—the Sand Nation people who decided to move to the small oasis had finally won the revenge battle which lasted for two months, under the guidance of Brian. The masterminds behind the massacre of Silver Stream, the Wildwave clan, and the Cut Bone clan, had been destroyed and the six clan system of the Iron Sand City had since become history.

He was bringing a message from Brian.

Such a task did not have to be carried out by a family leader, but because of the war, the Wildflame clan missed the coronation ceremony of the great chief and so it was only appropriate for him to bring the news of their victory as a late gift in order to show his sincerity.

Guelz was also curious to see how was Lorgar doing.

She would never mention her troubles in her letters so it was best for him to see with his own eyes.

Had she lost weight? As there were no Firelantern Wine or grilled sandworms here.

Chapter 1062 - Wildflame's information

After entering the city, the number of people suddenly increased.

Though there were still some people looking at them, it was only out of pure curiosity. Everyone seemed in a hurry and no one was wandering the streets without a purpose.

"Father, this..." Rohan said looking around in surprise.

"Yes." He slightly nodded.

It was the first time that Guelz saw such a busy environment.

He had previously traveled to many cities in the Northern Kingdom, and the biggest impression those cities left him with was their prosperity—this was also a characteristic of the Northern Kingdom: having more prosperous lands and resources than the Southernmost Region allowed them to create extraordinary cities. Additionally, their only difference was that each of them was better than the previous ones. So, at first, he thought that the great chief's King's City would also be superior in this aspect. However, to his surprise, what first attracted his attention was not the flat and long black-stoned streets under the foot, nor the uniform layout of the houses, but the people here.

No matter how big the inner city was, or how magnificent the castle was, there would always be some stray people, beggars or Rats on the side of the streets. They were like a part of a city.

Nonetheless, while walking in the streets of Neverwinter, these kinds of scenes were nowhere to be found. The expressions on people's faces were also completely different. Such high spirited expressions were rarely seen even among the newly promoted clans.

Guelz always thought that the Nothern Kingdom people were not much better than the Sand Nation people, who he actually considered as more resourceful due to their less advantageous environment. The Nothern Kingdom, with its abundance of resources, was indulging in overly comfortable life and thus, the courage and will of their people were inferior. If unifying the power of the clans had not been so hard, they could have broadened their place of living.

Yet, he was not so sure about that now.

This kind of pride and self-confidence which came from the heart, it could not be faked.

A city with such citizens, it would be best not to be their enemy even if they did not possess firearms.

"Father, are we going to search for Lorgar first or go to the castle to give the document?" Rohan's impression was not that deep. He was more curious rather than surprised.

"Don't be hasty, if the great chief arranges for us to stay in the Castle District, how are we going to verify his promise?" Guelz looked at him. "We definitely have to wait for few days and find out more about this city.

"But..."

"I already decided." He interrupted him. "Hmm? What are those people doing?"

There was a big crowd around the square, making buzzing sounds and looking very lively.

Rohan followed his gaze and looked at that direction, "Maybe they are rushing to buy discount products from merchants?"

"Go and have a look," Guelz said.

"Yes."

The latter put on his hood, and with the advantage of his big height, he quickly squeezed into the crowd.

Looking at the back of his eldest son, Guelz could not help but sigh. In terms of physique, he was supposed to become the bravest warrior in the clan. However, fighting was not naturally appealing to him. Eventually, the one to become the pride of the Wildflame clan was Lorgar, who was anything but strong when she was born. It was for this reason that Princess Lorgar was considered by all clan members as the heir, while Rohan could not lift his head from all the pressure. Though they were brother and sister, they rarely had any conversations together. They were like concentric people.

Anyhow, the chief could not help but feel a bit disappointed.

Especially when Lorgar received everyone's appraisal, Rohan still did not show any sign of protesting.

Mojins have a preference for the strong.

Even if one's ability was not good, an unyielding will could still win the respect of others, which was much better than surrendering without even a fight.

That is why even after Lorgar had left, he was still hesitating about him taking over as chief.

Rohan had performed well in other aspects but a leader who is afraid of competition would slowly lose his advantage due to his constant hesitation.

This was the reason Guelz had brought his eldest son with him.

He hoped for him to change through seeing more about the world.

Fifteen minutes later, Rohan quickly squeezed out of the crowd, his face filled with a weird expression. "Father, they are people who want to participate in the Sports meeting."

"Sports meeting?" Guelz murmured, "What's that?"

"Apparently it's a competition that the great chief organized in order to determine the fastest person." Rohan explained, "and the first one will be able to get 100 gold royals as a reward. That's why there are so many people who want to participate."

"Ha, isn't this like the holy duel?" Only without the blood." Guelz smiled. "Looks like the great chief learned a few good things from the Sand Nation. What is the requirement to participate? If it's to determine who is the fastest then we should have the right to participate too."

"Us?" Rohan was startled. "Father, you want to participate too?"

"Of course, I used to be one of those elite warriors who could walk through half of the desert, leaving behind me even camels. When it comes to leg stamina, I never lost to anyone!" Guelz said while stroking his beard. "What, do you think I'm old now? Quickly, take me to register!"

Realizing that he could not stop him, Rohan replied, "There are too many people there, I'll go alone."

"No problem."

"Father—"

"Huh?" Guelz glanced at him. "Is there something that you didn't tell me?"

"Uhm..." Rohan paused for a moment before saying with a low voice, "I saw my third sister."

"In the crowd?"

"No," his eldest son shook his head, "she is...on a picture, wearing clothes that don't cover her entirely, with people circled around, pointing at her..."

"What!" Guelz instantly frowned. Could it be that the great chief was humiliating her? Last time, after writing to Lorgar, Neverwinter responded very quickly. So, he assumed that His Majesty was treating her very well. If Lorgar was being humiliated only for the position of the Wildflame clan, then he would rather not have all those green mountains and rivers.

While thinking about that, he walked towards the crowd with a serious face.

The painting scroll that Rohan talked about was hung on one side of the square and not only it was very eye-catching but there were actually more than one—when Guelz saw it, he immediately stopped, unable to move his body.

Was that...Lorgar?"

It was the first time that he saw his daughter being so beautiful—she was standing in the middle of a snowy scenery, wearing a white yarn and a brocade which were waving in the wind. That was a palace ceremony dress that Lorgar had never worn before. Whilst in Iron Sand City, she always wore short clothes and pants, which were suitable for fighting. At her chest and arms, she always had bandages and she was always covered either in dirt or blood. When she did not have to fight, she would always cover herself tightly and make sure to hide her inhuman features under her clothes.

This is what Rohan meant as not covered.

Lorgar was clearly exposing her fluffy ears and tail, looking as if she wanted to attract attention deliberately. In one of her long ears, she wore a crystal red gemstone earring and its bright color seemed to make the whole picture look more vivid.

As for the people around, their comments were not out of disgust and repulsiveness but rather compliments. This is what most surprised Guelz. Furthermore, through their chatting, he heard a new word: magic movie.

So that was the case.

"In the Kingdom of Graycastle, everyone is the same" — was this the great chief's way?

He turned around and gave Rohan a slap, "Don't be so shocked next time. Your sister isn't some kind of monster, she just exposed her half-wolf form.

"I didn't say that..." said the latter as if he was wronged while stroking the back of his head.

"Anyways, first go and sign up for that holy duel...sports meeting," Guelz told him. "Afterwards, find out where we can buy the tickets for the magic movie. No matter the cost, you have to buy them. Understood?"

Chapter 1063 - The Game Began!

Neverwinter held the first National Sports Meeting on the Victory Day.

Roland had simplified the process of the game, so there was neither an opening ceremony nor a running commentary on the match. However, this could not stop it from becoming a major event in the city.

Early in the morning, everyone spontaneously rushed to the Kingdom Main Street with a little stool or a felt-padded cushion in hand, since they all wanted to grab a nice position to watch the game. Most of them went out with all of their family members. Such a huge stream of people attracted lots of peddlers. They carried snacks and beverages on their backs, peddling along the way.

Considering that most people in the city needed to walk at least 28 kilometers to the middle section of the Kingdom Main Street, where the finish line was located, Roland decided to start the race at 2:00 pm. By doing so, he could allow more time for the spectators to get ready. Still, beyond his expectations, he soon found out that he had underestimated their enthusiasm for this game. By noon, this place had already been tightly surrounded by about 10,000 enthusiastic spectators, and more people were still coming here.

As the king of Graycastle, he did not have to huddle together with the common people. The Ministry of Construction had built a stand next to the street a day before. There were around 100 seats on its platform, which were reserved for the senior officials of Neverwinter. Some soldiers of the First Army also were placed around the stand to ensure their safety.

"Your Majesty, here's the roster of the 1,462 participants." Scroll came up with a thick stack of papers in hand. "But due to the limited registration time, I only categorized the information and analyzed the data rudimentarily. If I had two more days..."

"That's alright." Roland waved his hand to stop Scroll. "We are holding this sports meeting to boost people's morale for the expedition. We can't afford any delay."

When he glanced through the roster, he found out that Scroll was just being modest. In such a short time, she found out every participant's address and resume and recorded all the information in an orderly way. Roland believed no one else could do a better job.

In the roster, he came across some familiar names.

One was his old buddy, Yorko.

Another one was Lucia's younger sister, Ring.

He also saw the three alchemists from the former capital city's Alchemist Workshop.

He was happy to see them approve the sports meeting's proverb, "the most important thing is to participate", as none of them had any chances of winning the game, even though there were no witches involved in this match.

The names of the participants, who were more likely to win the race, were on the first page.

Roland saw that the top two names were Ferlin Eltek and Carter Lannis. He asked Scroll, "Do you think the champion is going to be either the Morning Light or my Chief Knight?"

Scroll smoothed back her hair and replied with a smile.

"Your Majesty, it's almost time." Barov, who was in a seat below, reminded him.

"Well, let's get started." Roland put down the roster and picked up the telephone next to him.

...

Guelz wore a desert-style fighting robe and was warming up before the game. He asked Rohan, "Do you know what the great chief is going to do to make all the participants in the two regions start running at the same time? The two starting lines are on the opposite sides of one another and all of us will run toward the middle of the street. Fairness is the most important thing in the holy duel. If this race is a little bit unfair, it'll damage the great chief's reputation."

"Who knows. That doesn't matter at all." Rohan complained in his heart before replying with a little embarrassment, "Father... Could you please take that headband off? And the fur around your waist..."

He had never expected that a magic movie, The Wolf Princess, would've influenced his father so deeply. They had spent a large sum of money to watch the movie, and since then, his father had become obsessed with the Wolf Princess. Recently, he had repeatedly praised Lorgar's beauty and reproached himself for asking her to cover her wolf parts to avoid criticisms. The movie made him realize how stupid and cowardly he was and regretted that he had not done his fatherly duty which was to accept and protect his daughter.

Rohan understood his father's feelings, but he felt really uncomfortable seeing him dressed like this. Guelz wore a headband with a pair of toy wolf ears stitched on it. He also wrapped a strip of fur around his waist as a wolf tail.

"You're the chief of the Wildflame clan! If someone from the Port of Clearwater were to see you dressed so silly and if they were to pass it on to the Mojins, how would you face the other clan chiefs in the future?" Rohan yelled in his heart.

"This is my compensation for her. Don't ask me to take them off again," said Guelz seriously. "The courage she displayed in the magic movie made me feel ashamed. Stick to the road of your choice and never let anyone else's opinion shake your resolve. That's what I taught her, but I myself failed to do so. The best way to cope with criticism is to confront it. If more and more people are willing to accept this look, they won't think of Lorgar as a monster."

"..." Rohan opened his mouth only to find out that he was lost for words.

"I heard you question the credibility of this match." Suddenly, a voice came from behind. "You aren't from here, right? You've no idea how talented His Majesty is. He's invented something called the telephone to exchange instant messages with people from far away. And did you notice those things above?"

Rohan turned his gaze toward the place the man pointed at and saw two big black cylinders up there. He could hardly think of how they were going to pass messages to the race participants.

"It's called a loudspeaker! It can magnify the sound by several dozens of times. There's another loudspeaker near the start line in Longsong District. They are both connected to His Majesty's telephone. In this way, he can give an order to all the participants at the same time," the man explained proudly.

"Oh! That's great!" Guelz said while clapping his hands. "As long as it's a fair game, I'll try my best to win the match!"

"By the way, uncle. Your body's really strong... The winter's just ended so it's still quite chilly. Aren't you cold in that short robe?" The man looked at Guelz with interest. "And this headband with wolf ears—"

"Oh no, here it is..." Rohan closed his eyes in embarrassment. He assumed that the man was going to ridicule his father's outfit and that his father was going to feel awkward or furiously beat the man up. If that were to happen, they would inevitably make a bad impression on the great chief.

"You're cosplaying the Wolf Princess, aren't you? I like your outfit..." The man said. "Can you tell me where to buy it?"

What! ?

Rohan could not believe his ears.

"Hahaha, this outfit..."

When Guelz was about to answer the man, a harsh sizzling noise suddenly came out from the loudspeaker—

"Good afternoon, everybody... sizz... I'm Roland Wimbledon."

All the people in the street fell silent.

"I'm sure you already know the rules of the game well. I just want to remind you that the result of the race is not the most important thing. You came here to challenge yourselves. As long as you do your best, you'll be your own hero, whether or not you make it to the end. Remember not to disturb your opponents or play any other tricks in this race. Just focus on your own journey and try to win a prize with your own strength."

"I'll wait for you at the finish line. Wish you all do well in this game."

"Now, please get ready."

"Set, go!"

Chapter 1064 - Ten Years of Persistence

In Border District, hundreds of race participants started to run!

They were greeted by cheers all along the Kingdom Main Street as they were running toward Longsong Stronghold. Some police officers who wore uniforms and bright ribbons, bicycled on both sides of the street, following the participants all the way. They worked as judges and relief workers for this long-distance race.

The same situation occurred in Longsong District.

For the first time in this world, more than a thousand people were running toward the same place at the same time. Not out of fear for their lives but to show their strength without any concerns. Undoubtedly, Neverwinter would gain a worldwide reputation for such an unprecedented event.

Soon, everyone on the continent would know that the new king's city of Graycaslte organized the first long-distance race in the world.

...

At the finish line, on the grandstand, Lance was bending over the handrails, shouting and cheering. Cole turned toward Edith and asked, "Sister, why didn't you join the race? If it's just about endurance, shouldn't you also be able to win a prize?"

Cole noticed that after Lance came to Neverwinter, Edith seemed to be in a better mood and became much more talkative. Most of the time, she would not even tease him in front of their youngest brother. Otherwise, he would never dare to disturb Edith with such a trivial question.

"Oh?" Edith glanced sideways at him. "Why do I have to win such a prize?"

"Uhm— Didn't you really like this kind of competition before?"

"If you hadn't stood out from the competition, you would've never become the Pearl of the Northern Region," Cole thought. In his view, Edith was a super competitive person. Back in the Northern Region, she practiced fencing with knights in the daytime and shone brightly at banquets in the evening. She defeated countless knights single-handedly and attracted lots of admirers on social occasions. Even Timothy was attracted to her.

After winning many fencing matches and outshining numerous ladies at banquets, she finally became a well-known figure in the Northern Region. Cole really could not understand why she suddenly started to keep a low profile and refused to join this long-distance race held by His Majesty.

"Because our family needed me to do that." Edith shrugged. "If I hadn't tried my best to increase the influence of the Kant family as quickly as possible, our father would've never got the duke title. I had to do that, even if I needed to act like a clown in front of those idiots to win their favor." She sneered before adding, "Do you think I enjoyed it?"

Cole could tell it was a threatening tone.

"No, I just..."

"But now, I don't have to rely on this kind of competition to grab the king's attention," Edith continued, seemingly not minding what Cole previously said, which made the boy feel quite relieved. "And... I'm not alone anymore."

Cole was stunned. "What do you mean by that?"

Edith looked at Lance and Cole. "I now have you guys, don't I?"

Hearing that, Cole immediately thrust out his chest. He felt that he should say something at this moment, but he did not know what to say.

Edith smiled at him and then turned her gaze toward the upper part of the grandstand. "Do your job well. That'll be the greatest help to me."

...

Guelz wheezed violently and began to slow down. "How long... do we still have to run?"

"The sign that we've just passed reads fourteen. That is to say, we've only run half the distance." Rohan felt worried and asked. "Father, are you alright? You're panting heavily. How about we stop here and rest for a while. Anyway, there are many people behind us now."

As Rohan had expected, not many people could keep running for more than an hour. The participants started running as a crowd, and then the crowd gradually turned into a line. At this moment, it was probably a dotted line.

Guelz and Rohan were among the leading runners. Since the beginning of the game, only several participants had surpassed them. Given that, Rohan thought even if they were to take some rest here, they could still do well in the race. He did not care much about the prize.

He was more worried about his father's health.

Guelz had not taken any strenuous exercise for a long time, and this long-distance race turned out to be even more consuming than traveling across a desert. In a desert, they did not need to run very fast. They just followed a planned route and could get food and water from the oases along the way. In this race, however, they needed to use lots of energy to keep a certain speed.

"You want to give up again?" Guelz glared at Rohan. "Because you're not the last one?"

"I..."

"Lorgar would never say anything like that. When are you going to become like her? Try your best to fight for a goal and never give up. Have you ever thought of winning the first prize?"

Rohan usually chose to keep silent when he heard this kind of talk, but today he felt somewhat irritated. He complained in his heart.

How can I defeat Lorgar?

Should I put some poison in her cup? Or publicly expose her half-animal look?

Otherwise, how else can I defeat a Divine Lady favored by the Three Gods?

I can not even defeat our family's Chief Bodyguard!

In order to maintain Wildflame's rank in the Iron Sand City, the clan worshiped outstanding warriors. That was why everyone thought Lorgar was the best successor. Faced with such a reality, Rohan chose to back down to avoid intra-clan conflicts. He did this for the entire clan's interests, but his father did not seem to appreciate it.

He really could not understand why his father always neglected his contribution to the clan.

He had felt oppressed about this for a long time, and now, he thought he really had enough of it. Besides, he was quite embarrassed by his father's wolf girl outfit. Under such circumstances, for the first time in his life, Rohan cried out to his father, "I'm worried about you! If it wasn't for you, I would be at the lead now!"

He felt regret as soon as he finished saying this.

It sounded like he was reproaching his father for dragging him down.

When he was about to say something to make up for his mistake before his father flew into a rage, Guelz said, "Well then, you can run by yourself."

"Father, I mean..." Rohan turned his head to look at Guelz. To his surprise, he saw a smiling face.

"Is this the first time you took the initiative to reveal your thoughts?" Guelz sighed. "You're right. I'm too old for this race now, no matter how strong I used to be." He paused for a moment before adding, "You can leave me alone and do your best. You're really good at running, aren't you?"

Rohan was frozen with shock.

"There's an old saying in the clan. If you practice a thing for ten years, you'll excel in it, no matter how stupid you are." Guelz paused and then added slowly, "Don't worry. I'll walk to the finish line."

Rohan clenched his fists. After a brief silence, he said in a low voice, "Then I'll go first."

"Wait," Guelz stopped him as he was about to speed up. "Put these two things on."

"Father—"

"Even though Lorgar had already left the Southern Territory, she's still a part of the Wildflame clan and your little sister. We should try our best to help her." Guelz put the headband on Rohan's head and continued, "Go ahead, show the great chief what we Mojins can do."

Rohan looked at his father quietly and then sped off.

As he was picking up the speed, he felt that the wind blowing past him was getting stronger and stronger.

At first, he could hear the spectators exclaim in admiration, but now, he could only hear the wind whistling.

He did not feel tired at all. He thought he could run even faster.

At the moment, he felt full of energy.

He was delighted to know that his father has always kept an eye on him!

In order to guarantee Lorgar's status, he suffered countless criticisms, both inside and outside of the clan. Whenever he felt overwhelmed by the pressure, he would leave the Iron Sand City to run in the small oases alone. He did this not only to vent his resentment but also to prove himself. He was not good at fighting, but he thought he might be able to outshine his sister in hunting, which required endurance rather than strength.

Unfortunately, he never got a chance to do it.

Rohan thought that no one noticed his attempt at proving himself, but now he knew he was wrong.

"You're really good at running, aren't you?"

"If you practice a thing for ten years, you'll excel in it, no matter how stupid you are."

His father's words reverberated in his heart.

Father, you knew it from the very beginning, didn't you?

Feeling encouraged, Rohan ran even faster.

He still remembered the day when he had first started running in the oases.

Ten years had passed since that day!

Chapter 1065 - The Champion

"Look, that's him, Morning Light!" shouted someone at the roadside.

"Where is he?"

"He's the one there in front!"

After a girl pointed out where Ferlin Eltek was, the crowd started to get excited.

"It is him! I thought I would never see him again after he left his teaching job."

"Wow, he looked at me!"

"Come on, Mr. Eltek!"

Many people cheered for this tall handsome man, Ferlin Eltek, who still maintained a steady pace during the final leg of the race. Although he looked tired, he still smiled back at the people who cheered for him along the way, and he even waved to his former students. All his fans were completely smitten by him.

Seeing this, Honey, who followed the Border District participants all along way, started to think about her race report.

Ferlin Eltek, widely known as the Morning Light, works in the General Staff Department. He was a very popular knight and then a very popular intermediate teacher. Now, it seems that he's about to become the champion of the long-distance race. If that happens, how should I write the report title?

"'Today, Thousands of Girls in Neverwinter Fell for a Man', how do you like this title?"

"Ugh... Are you asking me?" Vader, who was riding a bicycle, carrying Honey, panted and said, "Thousands of girls? Doesn't that sound too exaggerated?"

Though Honey looked like a little girl, Vader dared not to look down upon her, since she was in charge of the Ministry of Public Relations and Communications and reported directly to the king. He also knew that she was a close friend of Wendy, the manager of the Witch Union.

He had worked at the bottom of a patrol team for several years and had learned his lesson. He would never offend a person in such a high position.

Given that, he had warmly received Honey and had immediately agreed to her request to take a ride on his bike. Since Carter took part in the race, Vader was in charge of security for the race. He often acted on Carter's behalf to handle matters in the police force when the Chief Knight was away.

As an experienced policeman, he clearly understood the importance of intelligence. If the Security Bureau wanted to eliminate all the hidden dangers and threats to His Majesty and the kingdom, they needed the best information service in the country, which could only be provided by Honey.

Therefore, he decided to try his best to impress this witch.

"You don't worry too much about the details," Honey smacked her lips and said. "Would you want to immediately read the whole story if you came across a title like that?"

"Yes, I would," Vader replied honestly.

"So that's why," The little girl said and then whistled cheerfully.

At that moment, they heard different voices cry out from the crowd.

"Don't you think the second runner is also very... handsome?" a lady said while covering her mouth with a hand.

"You noticed him too? I think he looks even better than the Morning Light." Another woman echoed and so did lots of people around them.

"I know him! He's the king's Chief Knight, Carter Lannis! Look at the royal emblem on his cloak!"

"Oh, the king's Chief Knight! No wonder he looks so great!"

"But he's cold toward everyone, as if we owed him a big debt..."

"Alas, you're just too young to understand it. Cool and talented men are more attractive."

"Look, he's catching up!"

"Come on, Chief Knight—"

Carter Lannis had served in the knightage of the old King's City. He followed Prince Roland to Border Town and was among the founding members of Neverwinter. It was said that he could compete with an Extraordinary witch. Scroll thought this outstanding warrior was one of the favorites to win the race.

Honey wrote down all the messages brought back by her birds.

Carter increased his pace, rapidly shortening the distance between him and Ferlin.

The cheer he received was as loud as any given to Morning Light.

Honey found that she needed to change the title of her report.

After a moment of thinking, she began to write cheerfully.

—"Who's the Final Winner? The Battle Between Two Handsome Men"

...

Carter had a burning feeling in his chest.

In order to let May spot him easily, he had put on a bright ribbon and a knight's cloak. He had thought that these things were as light as a feather, but now he felt that they were as heavy as a mountain. He felt as if they were pulling him backward while was running against a wind.

Despite that, he still refused to take them off.

Because they were hand-made by May.

Carter hoped to cross the finish line in this outfit before Morning Light.

He had heard some rumors about Ferlin and May from the troupe members. Morning Light had become a household name in the Western Region long before Prince Roland came here. Back then, everyone had thought that he and the Star of the Western Region could not be more perfectly matched. It was said that May had feelings for Morning Light, but Ferlin had already fallen in love with a new actress, Irene.

Carter had never heard May mention it, but he somehow still held a grudge against Ferlin.

What's so great about Morning Light?

May liked you just because she didn't have a chance to meet me back then.

Carter wanted to prove to everyone that he was the best for May!

That was why he wanted to overtake Ferlin Eltek so badly.

Carter tensed his muscles and quickened his pace. Ferlin was only half a step ahead of him.

And he could see the stand beside the finish line now.

It was time for a final push!

Suddenly, he heard someone else rapidly approaching behind him.

Is there someone who can catch up with us?

How is this possible? In the first hour of the race, Ferlin and I left all the other participants in the dust. No one should have been able to catch up with us. Even if he deliberately saved energy at the beginning of the race, he should've started to speed up little by little a long time ago.

Sprinting consumes much more energy than running at a consistent pace!

Carter could not help looking back.

"Wait... What's that?"

He saw a strangely dressed man approaching him at an incredibly fast speed. From the man's skin color and tattoos, he could tell that he was a Mojin, but he had never seen a Mojin man with a tail and a pair of long ears on his head.

Is he trying to gain strength by imitating some wild beast?

He shuddered at the thought, and then dashed toward the finish line as fast as he could, as if a dreadful monster was after him.

Ferlin, Carter, and Rohan crossed the finish line at almost the same time. The spectators burst into cheers.

Did I... win?

The Chief Knight thought while panting heavily. Because of inertia, he continued to run several dozens of meters before he finally stopped. After he stopped, he immediately looked up toward the stand.

Roland Wimbledon stood up.

"Congratulations! You've successfully completed the long-distance race and achieved great results!" the king spoke to all the people through the loudspeaker. "The game is not over, but we've got the top three runners now. They are—"

Carter swallowed hard.

"Carter Lannis, who finished in third place."

Hearing that, the Chief Knight closed his eyes in great disappointment. Oh, hell, was I still a little bit slower than Morning Light? 

"Rohan Burnflame, a Mojin man, who finished in second place."

Roland paused for a moment, giving the spectators a moment to cheer. When the crowd quieted down, he raised his voice again.

"And the champion is Sunflower from Longsong District! Let's give them a warm round of applause!"

"Huh... who's she?"

While everyone else was shouting and clapping their hands, Carter, Ferlin, and Rohan stood agape.

On the side of the street, Honey closed her notebook and hopped off Vader's bike. "I've finished today's report. Thank you very much."

"Did you decide on the headline?" Vader asked.

"Yeah, I did." She smiled before adding, "I'll just directly write out the results."

It was already eye-catching enough.

—"The First Victory Day Games Concluded Successfully: A Twenty-year-old Girl, Sunflower, Won First Place."

Chapter 1066 - The Prewar Speech

"Wow, it's fantastic," Barov exclaimed while stoking his beard. "I never expected a long-distance race to be so thrilling!"

"Indeed. I felt my heart racing when those three guys were running neck-and-neck toward the finish line," said Petrov, the governor of Longsong District. "Unfortunately, only the champion can get the souvenir badge. What a pity."

"Is it really a pity for you?" The City Hall Director smiled before adding, "The champion is from Longsong District. If I were you, I couldn't have too many regrets like that."

"Come on, Ms. Sunflower was just lucky. If nothing else, you'll get what you want at next year's Victory Day Games."

"Really? I'm a little worried that something unexpected will happen."

"Aha, if it happens all the time, then it's not an unexpected thing."

Hearing these two veteran politicians, who had a 20-year age difference, having a nice chat with many subtle jabs woven in, Roland thought, "Well, well, you guys are so well-matched. Both of you are amazingly skilled at debate."

After Roland announced the top three runners of the race, all the spectators felt more relaxed. They continued talking about the match in low voices, while waiting for the other participants to cross the finish line. Apparently, everyone was deeply attracted to this sports competition, which catered to their desire to see people push themselves to the limit of human endurance.

Even the witches, who had superhuman abilities, were caught up in the competition.

Seeing the girls so excited, Roland could not help smiling.

Considering that their magical powers might discourage regular people from participating, he forbad them and the God's Punishment Witches from taking part in the race. But now, he was thinking that he should hold a special game for the witches.

What will happen if I organize a special sports competition for them?

"Is this what sporting events look like in your previous world?" Anna's voice interrupted his thought. "In the first half of the race, you seemed a little bit distracted."

"Because I couldn't see or hear what was happening in the race," Roland sighed.

"Are you saying that there was a way to instantly let people know what was happening during a match in your previous world?" Anna's eyes shone with excitement. "How did you do that?"

"That's a little bit complicated," he replied with a smile. "Do you remember the television that I told you?"

Despite the race not being broadcast live on television or having someone to give a running commentary, it was still a successful event. It was exciting and suspenseful, with its result being totally unexpected. It attracted lots of spectators and many participants in this game had his or her own unique style, such as Carter, who wore a knight's cloak, or Rohan, who cosplayed the wolf girl, both of whom were among the most talked-about figures today.

As for the champion, Sunflower, she also seemed to have legendary life experiences. According to Scroll's roster, she had been a Rat on Black Street, and then she became a mail carrier after Roland took control of Longsong Stronghold. Since then, she had been running in the streets and lanes of Longsong District every day to deliver mail. Because of this, she outshone all her opponents and won this long-distance race.

She was not as strong as Ferlin, Carter or Rohan, but she was the champion. This result was completely outside of everyone's expectations, but it pleased Roland. Her victory embodied the hope of many ordinary workers and made them believe that hard work could really change their fate.

...

When the sun began to set, the first National Sports Event was drawing to an end.

The spectators flocked to the stands to watch the award ceremony.

For Roland, this was the most important part of today's event.

He stood up and nodded to Echo, then stepped forward to stand at the front of the stage.

Neverwinter was going to wage a war against demons in the Taquila ruins. To boost his people's morale, he decided to give a prewar speech to them at this ceremony.

He looked down and saw a sea of faces. Seeing the king, the crowd gradually quieted down.

"Citizens of Graycastle, you've just witnessed a miraculous race. In less than four hours, many participants ran 28 kilometers, which is exactly half the length of Kingdom Main Street."

"I want to remind you all, especially the new residents, that in the past, it took us at least three days to travel from Border Town to Longsong Stronghold and we had to travel day and night to do so. Back then, if someone told you that he could run to Longsong Stronghold in a day, you would think it was a joke. But today, you've witnessed it!"

"Citizens of Graycastle, you've already created many miracles. You're able to run 28 kilometers in less than four hours. You're capable of building roads through mountains and many other great projects in this city. For you, anything is possible and nothing can stop you from achieving greater success!"

The crowd burst into cheers.

Roland paused to give the people a sign to quiet down. After that, he continued, "Now, we're faced with a brand new challenge, demons. We've arrived at a crucial juncture in our war against them. Soon, the First Army will go deep into the Fertile Plains and wage war against the demons at Taquila once again."

"Demons are the most brutal and greedy invaders we've met. They've destroyed many thriving kingdoms and massacred millions of people. Wherever they have been, cities and towns crumbled into ruin, and bodies were piled up like hills!"

"So we must fight before such a disaster strikes!"

"We will fight them on land; we will fight them on the sea; we will fight them in the sky. We will fight until demons no longer exist in this world. And then, no one will threaten our survival anymore!"

"I'm so glad to spot some Mojins and people from other lands among you. I enjoy seeing you dispel prejudices and barriers and to form a close-knit community. I promise you that this is going to be the new normal! Demons intend to eliminate all human beings, men, women, and children, no matter where you come from or how old you are. In this war, we fight not only for Graycastle, but we fight for the entire human race!"

"My fellow citizens, when you feel fear in front of dreadful enemies, think about today's miracle. As long as we have faith in each other and stick together to the end, we will certainly win!"

"Now, let's welcome the top 10 runners to the stage to receive their awards!" Roland announced loudly.

The crowd burst into cheers once again, and this time, the people cheered much louder and longer. The ceaseless cheers and applause reverberated around the stands.

"The great chief is such a good speaker..." Guelz, who stood beside the stand, took a deep breath and said, "I can't wait to go into battle after hearing his speech." He looked at Rohan and asked, "Are you ready to go on stage and receive your prize?"

"Father, but I..." Rohan bit his lip and looked sad.

"But you didn't win first prize?" Guelz grinned and rubbed his son's head. "You tried your best. That's enough. Go up there and stand tall. Let everyone marvel at what the successor of the Wildflame clan has achieved."

Rohan was startled. He looked at his father quietly and then nodded his head vigorously.

He strode toward the stage and did not feel embarrassed to be wearing the wolf girl outfit anymore.

Guelz watched his back in the glow of the setting sun. He found that his son looked tall and confident now, just like Lorgar.

Chapter 1067 - The Person Pursuing Miracles

...

"Good gracious, it's really you!"

When Sunflower stepped down from the stands with a bag full of gold royals in her hand, she heard a familiar voice.

She turned around and a smile fluttered over her face. "Hey, Tigerclaw!"

"Haha, it has been such a long time, Sunflower!" The big man gave her a big hug and patted her on the back heartily. "When His Majesty announced that name, I thought it was someone else. I didn't expect you would defeat the Chief Knight and Morning Light. You really surprised me! Hang on... you look plumper, don't you?"

Sunflower pushed Tigerclaw away and punched him in the chest smilingly. She immediately shot back, "Oh, shut up! I'm just a little plumpy. Do you actually like the skinny me better?"

"No, I like you to be a bit plumpy." Tigerclaw whistled. "At least, you look more like a girl." With these words, he studied Sunflower up and down and said, "But you did change a lot, to be honest... I wasn't even sure if it was really you on stage earlier."

"Really?" Sunflower shrugged. "My hair has gotten longer, and I eat more, too. Didn't you get bigger as well?"

"I work out at the construction site every day!" said Tigerclaw as he lifted his arm triumphantly.

"Sun...sun... Sunflower, wait for me." Dawn pushed his way through the crowd, completely out of breath. "Hey, isn't it Tigerclaw?"

"See? This guy hasn't changed much. He's as skinny as he used to be." Tigerclaw also gave him a crushing hug and said, "Don't tell me you ran all the way here."

"Ahem... be gentle," Dawn replied with a bitter smile. "The caravan offered me a ride. If Sunflower didn't force me to come with her, I wouldn't have bothered taking such a trip."

"Are you a merchant now?"

"Just an errandboy." Dawn scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"He knows how to read and write." Sunflower cut in while twitching her lips. "As he was a fast learner in the elementary school, a Chamber of Commerce hired him right after the exam. Now, he deals with accounting books every day and is living very comfortably."

"I see. it's good that you came. I'm happy to see you guys." Tigerclaw laughed. "Let's have a sip in Neverwinter tonight. We should celebrate Sunflower's victory!"

"Sounds good, but..." Dawn looked around and asked, "Where's Snaketooth? Didn't he come for the competition?"

Sunflower's heart suddenly started to pound in her throat.

She had wanted to ask the same question for a long time, but she tried not to look so eager. So, she turned to Tigerclaw and tried to sound as airy as possible. "I hope he's not annoyed that you totally ditched him and went back."

"Oh him... He went to build the railways at Misty Forest." Tiger said drawly. "Although it's well paid, the work is too dangerous. What's the point of trading your own life for money? I don't understand him. He used to be happy even with just living down in the drainage. Now he's fussy about a real dwelling and insists on a double-roomed house."

"Because a double-roomed house can provide a cozy home for a family rather than just a shelter," thought Sunflower bitterly. Then she said, "He did so obviously for Paper."

"Paper?" Tigerclaw asked blankly.

"Hey, how can you forget Paper?" Dawn nudged him in his ribs. "She's our friend."

"I know, but what does it have to do with her?" Tigerclaw was confused. "Paper has joined the Witch Union and is now living in the Castle District. She doesn't need an extra house. And silly Snaketooth... he saw Paper many times but didn't even have the guts to say hello to her. He even pulled me aside to dodge her. Now Paper doesn't even know we're here."

"What?" Sunflower was stunned. "Haven't you met Paper yet in the past two years?"

Tigerclaw shook his head off-handedly.

"Hahaha." Sunflower grinned broadly. "Then he's silly indeed!" For some reason, Sunflower felt much relieved as if a heavy burden had been lifted from her shoulders. She had to fight the urge to jump into the air and whoop.

"Sunflower, keep your voice down." Dawn reminded her while feeling a little uneased. "People are watching us."

But Sunflower did not care about it at all. She waved at the crowd who smiled back.

Everybody undoubtedly viewed her as Ms. Champion.

"It feels so good to be a celebrity..." Tigerclaw remarked impressively. "Two years ago, I would have never thought we'd be famous one day."

"I'm more interested in the 100 gold royals than fame." Dawn apparently had a different opinion. "We can invest the money in some businesses. We would definitely earn more than working for others. Even if we know nothing about starting a business, we can partner with a member of the Chamber of Commerce. If it works out, we can practically earn money by doing nothing..."

"No, I want to buy a house." Sunflower interjected. "In the Border Area."

"Huh?" Dawn was astonished. "This is a perfect opportunity! Do you know how long it would take to earn 100 gold royals if we start from scratch?"

"I know, but I've made up my mind," Sunflower said resolutely.

"Then what about your job?"

"I'm also planning to purchase a bicycle," Sunflower went on. "You see, it's so convenient to have a bicycle. It would only take a day... no, half a day to ride to the Longsong Area from here. Plus, many people from these two areas write letters. I can probably earn more with a bicycle."

"You..." Dawn gazed at her for a long time. At length, he sighed resignedly and said, "Fine. I've never managed to persuade you anyway."

Sunflower gave a faint smile. She remembered what it had been like two years ago.

It was on the day of their departure.

They had been at the dock when she had asked Snakestooth if he and Paper would ever come back, but nobody had given an answer.

At that time, she had the impression that she would never see him again.

Longsong Stronghold was so far away from Border Town that she felt there was a world between them, even though the two cities had merged into one.

They had never been anywhere farther than the landfill outside Longsong Stronghold.

And Border Town was somewhere even farther away.

Tempted by the huge reward given to the champion of the sports meeting, Sunflower had finally made her decision to come to Longsong Stronghold. It was actually her first time setting foot on the Kingdom Main Street. To inject more courage into herself, she had also asked Dawn to join her.

Sunflower was actually more surprised at how close the two cities were to each other than her winning the championship. The distance was absolutely shorter than she had anticipated. It was a straight flat road without any curves, twists or portholes like many mountain roads. For the first time of her life, she had realized that it really was a city.

So, why did she have to wait for Snaketooth to come back?

She could just go there herself.

Just as His Majesty had said.

People needed to break through the impossible because no one knew whether there would be a miracle unless they tried.

"Let's find a tavern and have a drink," suggested Sunflower as she patted her money pouch.

"Yay!" Tigerclaw wrung his fist out in excitement. "Too bad Snaketooth isn't here. He'll miss all the fun."

"Remember to store the money away in the hotel." Dawn reminded Sunflower. "Just take four or five gold royals with you!"

"Got it," said Sunflower smilingly.

She didn't know the outcome but she was willing to give it a shot.

She started to like the feeling of pursuing a miracle.

Chapter 1068 - A Torch Run

The next morning after the sports meeting, Roland entered the parlor and met the officials who were waiting there. They all rose as Roland came in.

"Please take a seat," said Roland as he seated himself in the host chair. He surveyed the room before speaking solemnly, "You've probably all learnt about the reason for this meeting. I now declare that the war has officially begun!"

"This isn't something you just throw onto the armies. As of this moment, I require every governmental body and every department director of the Administrative Office to have a basic understanding of the war as well as the future political and military trend. I require every one of you to work hard and fight this prolonged battle together!" The whip was in Roland's voice. "We've had many great achievements since the establishment of Neverwinter. However, nothing would last if we lose the Battle of Divine Will. If we fail to take the Taquila ruins, the Red Mist will spread throughout the whole continent in no time. By then, nothing would be able to stop the demons. Therefore, we must win. We lose, we fail!"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov and the others shouted in a chorus.

"Very well." Roland then turned to Edith and said, "Now the General Staff will talk about the detailed tactics and strategies."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the Pearl of the Northern Region replied as she stood up. She placed her hand on her chest gracefully and continued, "I'll have to use the big map for my presentation."

She walked to Roland and tapped the map of the Western Region on the wall behind her. After numerous amendments and additions, the map portrayed more than half of the inhabited Barbarian Land, and Neverwinter had become a tiny dot on the edge of the map rather than in its center. Anybody who looked at the map would soon realize how small a thing a man was. This was also one of Roland's primary goals while drafting the map.

He wanted his ministers and officials to understand the littleness of human beings and thus focus on the long-term goal instead of immediate gains.

Edith went straight to the point. "First of all, we need you all to know that this upcoming battle will be different from any of the ones we've had in the past. I want everybody to understand that this will be a prolonged war."

The vision blocking tactic used in the battle at the North Slope would not work anymore. Since the Taquila ruins were much farther from the Misty Forest than the destroyed outpost, it would take months to build the railways there. As such, the demons would definitely notice what they were doing.

As the demons had an absolute positional advantage on the vast continent, Roland decided to take the advantage of his military strength and have a direct fight with the demons instead of launching a surprise attack.

Beyond a doubt, this was going to be a battle between the attacking and the defending.

Nobody was surprised at Edith's proposal, as they had all known the plan beforehand.

Only Barov raised a question. "How long do you estimate this war will take?"

"That depends on how fierce the counterattack is," Edith answered nonchalantly. "The General Staff has asked the Taquila witches to conduct several maneuvers. Suppose the demons fight in the same way they did during the Battle of North Slope and attack us once a week, we would be able to slam the Longsong Cannons in their faces within three months."

"But they aren't stupid, and they certainly won't make the same mistake over and over again."

"Exactly. I anticipate that the demons would soon realize what the railways are used for. Perhaps, they would even detect the railways at the rear of Misty Forest. But we are also taking precautions. Since there are a lot of variables in a battle, I hope the Administrative Office will allocate the resources based on the worst possible scenario."

"And the worst scenario is...?" asked Barov as he drew his brows together.

"From spring all the way to winter, until the arrival of the Months of Demons," said Edith flatly.

"Then doesn't that mean we've failed already?" Barov the chief grimaced. "This doesn't meet His Majesty's requirement."

"As long as we don't retreat, the battle isn't over. We are just deadlocked." The Pearl of the Northern Region smiled faintly. "The battle will continue after the snow melts." Seeing all the directors from the Administrative Office look a bit apprehensive, Edith comforted them, "But this is highly unlikely, for we produce bullets way faster than the demons reproduce themselves. This is just the worst scenario."

Barov said meditatively, "In that case, I'll need to collect food from all the other regions of the country for a war reserve stock. As Golden Twos are currently grown in all parts of the kingdom, I believe there will be a lot of excesses this year. These excesses would sustain the First Army for a year."

"That won't be a problem," Sirius Daly, the Minister of Agriculture replied. "I'll let all the local city halls know."

"The plan for the Ministry of Chemical Industry needs a bit of adjustment as well," Barov continued. "We'll need more gunpowder and explosives."

"We only have this many people. The production of gunpowder and explosives won't go up unless we decrease the production of perfumes and soap." Kyle Sichi, the Minister of Chemical Industry said off-handedly.

"Perhaps we can loan some alchemy apprentices from the neighboring country to support Graycastle..." Kyle suggested as he looked at Roland. "I've heard that there are many alchemical workshops in the Kingdom of Dawn, although none of them are in the City of Glow. But if Your Majesty requests, I'm sure the King of Dawn would fully support you and allow you to have these people as long as you need them. Besides... there are over 100 soldiers from the First Army stationed around Cage Mountain. You may also get some alchemists from the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter."

"Sounds like a plan." Roland nodded in satisfaction. "I want a proposal from you."

He was very pleased with Kyle's answer.

Roland had initially thought that it would probably take two to three years to see the result of his political reform when he had united the kingdom. After all, it was very hard to change a person's mindset. For decades, these officials had been used to submitting to the rule of their lords and sticking to the tradition that no lords should interfere with the affairs of other domains. All of sudden, however, they had been given the opportunity to manage all the other regions in the country. Such a drastic change must have been overwhelming.

Yet he had underestimated the magic of power.

When a person was suddenly granted considerable power, he would naturally attempt to exercise it even though he might not be able to see the implication behind it. The best example was Barov.

Not only did he think of the Kingdom of Dawn, but he also planned to obtain more resources from farther locations with the help of the military.

After everybody finished their discussion, Edith continued, "It's not enough just to destroy the demons' encampment. Due to some reasons, we have to exterminate them. Therefore, we need to cut off the enemies' retreat before the general offensive, including their air force and ground force, and only the witches can do that."

"Some... reasons?" Barov sounded confused. "It would put the witches in great danger if they stayed at the rear."

"Because of the curse." Roland cut in. "There's a Senior Demon among the enemies who can put magic curses on us from a distance. I haven't figured out how it does that yet, but it might be very similar to Blackveil, the Church witch. If it escapes, the First Army would be doomed. Even if we do win, it would be just barely."

Everybody in the hall sucked in their breath.

The witch, Blackveil, was notorious for her incredible but powerful killing method. She could put a person to death instantly with a mere eye contact. More than 700 people from the First Army had been killed upon her fatal stare. It was the biggest loss the Army had suffered since its establishment.

If the demon could also kill people through eye contacts, needless to say, they should eradicate this threat as soon as possible.

Roland cast a glance at Lightning at the end of the long table who hanged her head miserably before he let out a silent sigh.

He completely understood how she felt.

Lightning was mortified to see that all the other witches would have to risk their lives for her sake.

But they had no better choice.

Roland rose to his feet and said, "Anyway, the purpose of this expedition is to eliminate the threat posed by the Obelisk before the Battle of Divine Will while at the same time weakening the demons. The operation code is 'Torch', which not only represents our hope to destroy our enemies but also the light that brightens up the Fertile Plains. Please do your best to expand the territory of Graycastle!"

Everybody stood up and bowed respectfully.

They shouted in a chorus, "As you command, Your Majesty."

Chapter 1069 - In the Name of the Aerial Knight

Inside the pilot training school in Neverwinter.

"Hurry up! Hurry up! Keep your balance!"

"Your legs are even shakier than a baby's!"

"Keep straight. Watch where you're heading!"

"Hey, where are you going? Do I really have put some braziers on either side of the walkway to make you all be more careful!"

"Not here, not on the plank, otherwise I'll have to make you lick your vomit off it!"

"Next, Good!"

"Here!" Good shuddered when he heard his name being called. He took a deep breath and seated himself in a swivel chair.

The stern face of Eagle Face, the instructor, came into his sight.

Good could not even stand having mere eye contact with him. It was rumored Eagle Face had once been the commander of the garrison in the Northern Region before he had returned to Neverwinter. He had immediately taken the internal military assessment and became a member of the reserve Aerial Knights. This meant that Eagle Face had not only participated in the war against the church but had also sacrificed his vacations for the new trainees.

In other words, he was strict to both others and himself.

Good felt very uncomfortable under his penetrating stare.

As soon as he sat down, his two friends, Finkin and Hinds grouped up.

Good saw them cast him a sorrowful look.

The next moment, the chair started to spin rapidly.

This was the most painful training session for the reserve pilots. There was a plank five meters long, as wide as a palm, in front of the chair, which Eagle Face called a "footbridge". All the trainees had to walk the "footbridge" as steadily as possible after spinning in the chair for half a minute.

Due to the loss of balance, the whole world became a swirl of color after he slid off the chair. He could barely stand still, let alone crossing the "footbridge". Eagle Face would usually train ten people at a time, and the person who got the lowest grade would be subject to punishment such as "cleaning the washroom" and "weeding the yard". Sometimes, he would pick a weekend and have the poor guy sit in the spinning chair for a whole day as a way of disciplining.

Unfortunately, Good had once been that unlucky person.

As a result, he had ended up throwing up in his dormitory at dinner time.

He did not want to experience this for a second time.

"Stop!"

The chair immediately stopped as Eagle Face announced the magic word. Good struggled to get off the chair.

"Hurry up! Don't dawdle. Walk!"

Good raised his head with his teeth clenched. He stepped on the plank shakily and started to walk toward the other end of the "footbridge". After more than ten days of practice, he had found a little trick to succeed in the task. He noticed that he would be more likely to lose his balance if he constantly watched his steps. The best way to cross the "footbridge" was to look ahead and use his body's memory to control his strides.

In fact, his feet touched the solid ground before he realized it.

"That's, that's amazing..."

"He didn't miss a single step!"

"He's the first person who did it, isn't he?"

The crowd behind him broke into a loud buzz.

He turned around and looked at Eagle Face. There was a rare smile on his gaunt grim face. "Well done. It seems that you aren't completely hopeless."

"But一" he paused for a second and his tone instantly dropped, "there has been only one person who passed the test up to this date, which means this group is the worst of them all. Princess Tilly said the Aerial Knights should be one in a million. If you don't want to be an errand boy for the rest of your life, put yourself together and train harder. Take a five-minute break and we'll start again!"

Everybody wailed at the announcement.

"Hey, how did you do that?" Finkin asked Good while winking.

"Just walk the way you normally do like when you aren't dizzy."

"Really? How?" Hinds rejoined. "Are you saying to live the lie in your head?"

Both Finkin and Hinds had passed the initial assessment and joined the reserve together with Good. As the three were in the same training group, they had soon become very close friends.

"Just do what I said. We just need a pass." Good tapped Hind's head. "This method probably doesn't work for the smart ones, but I think it should work for you guys."

"Get over yourself," Finkin retorted with a little irritation. "You just succeeded once. Stop bragging."

"Do you want to make a bet? I bet I'll walk over the bridge for another three... no, five times!"

"If you do, I'll do all your laundry this week!"

"Including my underpants?"

"Um..."

"Hey, you guys stop arguing," Hinds cut in. "What I really care about is— can we really become an Aerial Knight after this training program?"

Good and Finkin instantly fell silent. In fact, this was the very problem that bothered all the trainees. All the training they had received so far, including walking the footbridge, passing the rotating wheel, and learning wind directions, were more like an acrobatic show than proper military training. Furthermore, Princess Tilly was supposed to teach them in person, but in the end, she had simply taught some senior officers from the First Army and asked those officers to teach them.

The training was pretty intense. They had to go through physical training during the daytime and learn to read and write at night. Although Princess Tilly had made her promise to all of them, they still doubted the credibility of her words.

However, nobody dared raise the question to the sulky, unapproachable instructor.

"Who knows?" Finkin said with a shrug, after a short silence. "At least, the food here is good. We have meat every day, with an extra meal on weekends as well."

"I think... Her Highness is not likely to lie to us," Good said thoughtfully. "Didn't we get a bag of books? My sister told me one of them is called something like "Aircraft Operation Manual", which was drafted by Her Highness herself. Once we learn how to read and write, we would probably know the reason for these trainings."

"You are pretty optimistic, aren't you?" Finkin beamed at him.

"If I thought negatively, I probably wouldn't have survived the trip here."

"Alright, time's up!" Just then, Eagle Face's voice rose abruptly above the murmurs of the crowd. "Line up here. We're going to do it again in the same order in which we did last time!"

"OK..." responded everybody weakly.

But something unexpected happened.

The door of the training room was flung open and a uniformed man strode in. He whispered something in Eagle Face's ear.

Eagle Face nodded. After administering a salute, he wheeled around and swept over the trainees with a cold glance.

"Good news for all of you. The subsequent training is cancelled. You can continue to take your break now."

Finkin and Hinds heaved a sigh of relief, but Good did not. He clearly saw a calculating smile break across Eagle Face's shrewd face. It was a smile which contained a little bit of sarcasm, jesting, and even... gloating.

"Not here though." As Good had expected, Eagle Face went on at once, "I know what you're complaining about in private. I didn't bother explaining to you because I know your thick skulls wouldn't understand a thing. You're indeed lucky. Now, there's a chance for you to see what an Aerial Knight truly means with your own eyes."

The true meaning of... an Aerial Knight?

Good's heart was pumping insubordinately.

"Follow me." Eagle Face surveyed them slowly and said, "I hope you don't wet your pants when you see it."

Chapter 1070 - The Glider (I)

They filed out of the training room and marched along the pavement toward the south.

There were brand new red brick houses along the road, some were just completed and some were half-done. According to Finkin, it had been a coastal wasteland here just a year ago, with nothing but a few tree trunks here and there. Now, the construction team had turned this place into a "city within a city".

The city was walled. Although the hedge was not high, it was tall enough to set a boundary between the city and the rest of the world. A warning sign which read "No climbing. Offenders will be shot down" was hung on the wall, keeping those who attempted to climb over the hedge away from this area.

There were several dormitories, cafeterias, playgrounds, training rooms and classrooms in this enclosure. It had actually taken Good a full day to completely understand what those weird words meant. In short, they lived and studied in here, cut off from contact with the outside world, leading an exclusive lifestyle which their instructor referred to as a "closed system".

The enclosure was pretty big. Good had been here for several weeks, but he still did not know where the edge of the hedge was. One of the reasons for this was that the trainees were confined within the area between their dormitories and the playground. They were forbidden to go anywhere else unless given special permission.

It should be noted that the construction of the school had been completed within just a year.

Good had known a long time ago that Neverwinter was famous for its monstrous speed of building houses. However, he had no idea how fast it actually was until he moved to the "city within a city" in the Western Region this winter.

It had only taken them one week to complete a red bungalow on the south side of the playground.

Compared to other cities, the work efficiency here was phenomenal.

After they crossed the playground, the group suddenly erupted into a loud murmur.

This was a restricted area normally forbidden to the students.

For the first time, they saw what this area looked like. Their view was filled with nothing but a vast open field. All they could see was the blue sky above dotted with puffs of white clouds. A short way farther on, they saw the endless Swirling Sea. A cold sea breeze brushed upon Good's cheeks, instantly reviving his spirit.

Used to the familiar view of dense red brick houses, Good felt the whole world instantly expand in front of him.

"Strange... I thought there would be something marvelous here," Hinds mumbled. "Isn't it just a clearing?"

He was right. It was a clearing with nothing but a few blackstone tracks, wider than the main street in Neverwinter, which stretched away to the east and west.

No wonder Hinds did not understand why it was a restricted area.

"Probably because they feared we'd be too absorbed in this beautiful view to pay attention to the road underneath and fall into the sea." Finkin grinned. "But I think I'll be more willing to learn if our classroom is here."

"But you have no desire to learn at all in the first place," someone jested.

"Hey, do you want to make a bet?" Finkin stared back. "Let's see who had a higher grade in the past exam?"

"Drop it. Look over there!" Good raised his brows. "Someone's already here."

"They're from the other class..." At these words, the whole group fell silent. Although they had not talked to the other class, they had heard a lot about them from their instructor, who constantly spoke highly of their performances. They not only completed all the tasks assigned to them during the day but also requested for more in the evening. Some of them insisted on sitting in the chair even though they had vomit all over. They were the so-called top students who simply beat them in every subject, making them look like a bunch of dunces.

They thus automatically viewed the students from the other class as their rivals.

"Raise your head."

"Stare right into their eyes. We don't want to lose to them!"

They started to encourage each other.

Meanwhile, the other group of students looked just as intense as them.

Sensing the glares, those students all gazed at them coldly, long-faced, looking nothing like model students.

The tension between the two groups was not reduced until they had parted.

"Alright, you all wait here," Eagle Face bellowed as he stopped at the blackstone track. "Remember, you're not allowed to leave your spot no matter what you see. Both His Majesty and Her Highness will be here. Any frivolous action would be viewed as a potential danger, and you know very well its consequence."

"The king... will come as well?"

"No, he should be here already," thought Good, as he noticed the shed on the other side of the clearing had been surrounded by soldiers from the First Army and the police. Apparently, only the presence of the King of Graycastle would require such seamless security.

It seemed that the king did highly regard the Aerial Knights.

Good started to look forward to the unfolding of the event.

For a second, he put Eagle Face's meaningful sneer out of his mind.

...

In the hangar, there was completely a different scene.

The first glider, the "Seagull" was ready for her virgin trip.

This was also the very first manned glider after Tilly learned how to operate the testing gilder. Compared to the testing glider, this one was larger with wider and thicker wings. The frame of the glider was covered with skins. It was equipped with various supplementary facilities such as portholes, chairs, an airtight door that could be opened from the back, etc. In short, the "Seagull" was a real plane.

The traditional gliders in modern society were used as a supplementary transportation tool to cargo aircrafts. They were made of low-quality materials such as wooden frames and holey canvas. However, the "Seagull" was the exact opposite of her shabby predecessors. It was made of aaluminumalloys and steels with high tensile strength. Most of her major parts were integrally molded, with minimal bolts and welding. As for the non-structural parts, there were numerous small holes in it to minimize the weight of the aircraft. The magic coating ensured no gas would leak upon a huge air pressure difference. The bottom of the aircraft was armored for force landing purposes. As long as the plane maintained its stability, the armor would protect the crew and passengers from injuries even if the plane crashed.

The glider would be used to carry witches.

As the "Seagull" would be the only plane in Neverwinter, Roland had to make sure it was absolutely safe.

"Well then... I'm boarding." Anna pressed a gentle kiss to Roland's cheek. "See you tomorrow."

"Stay safe. Don't force yourself," Roland reminded her. "If you encounter the demons, remember to protect yourself."

Anna smiled. "I know. You've said the same thing to me over and over again."

"Please don't worry. I'll protect her," said Phyllis, the God's Punishment Witch, solemnly.

Roland let Anna go reluctantly. After quite a while, he disengaged Anna and nodded slowly. "Off you go. I'll wait for you right here."

The First Army had actually built an airport at the edge of the forest, where the railways took a turn. Since there was no transportation tool that could complete a trip of over 500 miles within one day except Maggie, Roland had to invent a glider as an alternative.

The "Seagull" could carry 20 people at most. So, other than the pilots Tilly and Wendy, it could take 18 additional passengers in total, or cargo of 1,000 kilograms (when the chairs were removed). The speed of the glider depended on Wendy's magic power. Even if it flew at a "low" speed of 200 miles an hour, it could at least complete two round trips between Neverwinter and the front within a day, which was the fastest they could achieve at present.

Chapter 1071 - The Glider (II)

After everyone got on the plane, Tilly walked toward Roland and asked, "What's wrong? Are you still worried?"

"You could tell?" replied Roland.

"A day hasn't even passed, yet everything you've said sounds like a farewell. Of course, I could tell." She shrugged and said, "Are you doubting my technology, or are you doubting Anna's ability?"

Regarding this difficult question, Roland could only smile bitterly.

The structure of The Seagull was extremely simple. Except for a few operating levers and corresponding movable control surfaces, it was basically a human vessel. It was essentially less complicated than the test model. With Anna's processing skills, it would be difficult to make mistakes.

After it was built, it had gone through several test flights and had even gone through an emergency landing simulation. The results were quite satisfactory—Other than Tilly's extremely powerful controlling ability, Wendy had also made great progress after explorations. She could now generate airflow in the right position to keep the aircraft stable at all times.

In order to ensure the safety of this voyage and that everything would be absolutely foolproof, Shavi and Molly were included among the passengers.

But even so, he still felt nervous.

It was worrying enough that half of the witches of Neverwinter were concentrated on a brand new aircraft, but on top of that they were going to travel alone to the Wild located 500 kilometers away. If it was not due to the fact that he had many tasks to do in Neverwinter, he would have wanted to come onboard The Seagull as well.

After he gently let his breath out, he looked at Tilly. "I don't think it's got anything to do with doubting your abilities. I just care too much about it. I hope that you'll all be able to live in a new era after the Battle of Divine Will ends."

After the two of them stared at each other for a moment, Tilly turned her head away. "You know, I was just making a joke... If I were in your shoes, I would be uneasy too."

Before Roland could react, she already went on top of the ramp.

"In that case, I'm off, Brother."

...

After the cabin door closed, a guard came and said, "Your Majesty, everything's been prepared outside."

Roland took a deep breath and replied, "Let's start."

"Yes!"

After the order was given, a series of programs started to run in an orderly manner.

"The stopper's open!"

"The road's empty!"

"All personnel leave the runway!"

"Open the hangar door!"

When the hangar's door slowly slid to both sides, the dazzling sunlight shone into the room and a path of light was reflected on the ground.

The guides raised their green flags higher.

"The Seagull can take off!"

At the same time, the steam whistle sounded throughout the airport—

Roland felt the wind start to pick up.

It was a wonderful feeling—He was standing in a place that was supposed to be absolutely windless, but he still felt the slight airflow over his cheeks.

It was, in fact, unfair to think of The Seagull as just a glider, when compared with its fellow machines as the latter was trying to obtain something that it had possessed from the very beginning.

The airflow violated the common sense of airflow movement, and it accurately appeared on the side of the airfoil—the breeze pushed the upward aileron like an invisible hand. This power may have seemed insignificant, but Roland knew it was the result of Wendy's deliberate control. The gentle wind released was within the range of the left and right wings, but it was a strong wind that could hinder people's mobility.

In other words, the direction and speed of the wind in the areas affected by Wendy's ability were completely under her control.

This also meant that The Seagull did not need to rely on its wings to maintain flight. It could also carry out actions that would be impossible for other gliders, such as the near-vertical short-ranged take-off and landing—The speed was only needed to achieve a greater lifting power. If it could get lifted directly, speed would no longer be an indispensable thing.

Of course, flying away in such a frivolous manner might be an eye-catching feat that could subvert the opinions of the experts. However, in the eyes of the laymen, it was lacking propriety.

What could be more shocking than seeing a few tons of machinery, yelling at the top of its head, and then slowly climbing until it vanished into the clouds?

When he remembered Tilly's excited expression as she spoke of this idea, Roland could not resist shaking his head in amusement.

It seemed she has now treated The Seagull as her big toy, and could not wait to show it off to the others.

...

"Woo—Woo—"

While the steam whistle sounded, Good also noticed a strange vision at the end of the Blackstone road—The soldiers quickly dispersed and the iron gate of the shed opened. A strange gray "giant bird" slipped out slowly. After doing a half-turn, it went onto the road where they were.

"Hey, did you see that? What's that?" It was evident that he was not the only one who had discovered the giant.

"A train? It doesn't look like it... There are no railway tracks on the ground."

"Could it be a new invention by His Majesty?"

"Was this the invention mentioned by Lord Eagle Face?"

"It seems to be coming towards us."

"Hang on a second, I seem to have seen this before!" Good pondered for a moment, and a light flashed across his mind. "Didn't Her Highness Tilly's collection of books have such a cover on one of them? It seemed like a bird with a pair of long identical wings... It does look like a bird, yet also not like one."

On second thought, he felt that the two were not completely alike. The shape and the number of the wings were different. Also, on that cover, he could at least see the rider, and he could perceive the reason why the machine seemed to be floating in the air—A machine that was not much bigger than a human and could support large wings, would be interpreted as an enlarged kite. Although the King and the Princess would certainly not have seen something that simple, theoretically it would still have made sense to them.

This object in front of them seemed to be an unclassified object.

When compared with the surrounding soldiers, its head was clearly far above them. Other than the wings, its body was completely round and the whole body was wrapped tightly. The slender belly seemed as if it could hold a lot of things. According to its body type, it would be very difficult for it to fly. Even climbing on the ground seemed to be very difficult—

The very next instant, however, Good found out how ridiculous his ideas were.

The machine began to speed up.

And it soon exceeded the speed of horses running and showed no signs of stopping at all.

In the beginning, the platoon members were still heavily discussing and speculating. Now they suddenly quietened down.

Everyone heard the loud roaring from near and far.

"Oh my God..." Finkin gulped. "It's going to hit us."

This was also how most of the trainees felt at that moment.

Rationally speaking, as long as you stood still, you would not be hit. Though there was no reason to be afraid, everyone's bodies seemed to be shaking uncontrollably.

Not everyone could face a giant that could turn them into mincemeat with a step, and still be emotionless.

Yet this was exactly that type of giant beast—

They were not even as tall as its wheels!

As it got closer and closer, the whistling wind was almost hissing, and a slight tremor could be felt from the ground. According to legend, when the caveliers were charging, just the horses' hooves alone could scare the enemy. As compared to a monster tall like a mountain, Good discovered that the cavaliers were not that scary.

He suddenly remembered Eagle Face's cold unfathomable laugh.

"Had the examiner... already experienced this?"

A gust of strong wind passed him before he could even think about it anymore!

In this short period of time, it seemed to have run hundreds of meters and went past the two rows of people on its sides.

Under the pressure of the airflow, Good was unable to control his feet, and his knees fell softly to the ground—Perhaps he had subconsciously decided to dodge before the gusts of wind arrived.

Although he could not get up, he still turned to look backwards.

What he saw next left him stunned!

He saw the beast raise its head, with both its feet off the ground, before slamming into the air and flying toward the blue sky. The sun was reflected on its wings and formed circles of colorful spots.

"Is this... an Aerial Knight?"

Good could not resist clenching his fists.

He really wanted to control such a monster—even if he had to sacrifice everything!

Chapter 1072 - Underground Breeding Farm

Only when The Seagull had completely disappeared into the sky, did Roland look away.

"Sometimes I think that we should just build a command post," he whispered, "build it in a place where everyone can see so that it would not only boost morale, but it would also be a part of the Battle of Divine Will. Later on, when historians need to note it down, it would be something to brag about."

"Why would you be concerned about that?" There was a faint reply coming from the emptiness. "If you want to be recorded in history, you will need to endure Wendy's and Scroll's chatter until you make the first move to admit defeat and change your mind—I've experienced it. However, it's definitely not what ordinary people can tolerate. I think it's better if you give them less trouble."

Roland could not resist saying, "Yes, I guess you're right."

The battle with the demons would most likely last for months, even years. He would have to work hard to adapt to this new normality.

While he was thinking about this, he looked at the guard who was standing in the distance. "Call everyone, I'll go to the Third Border City."

The latter immediately bowed and replied, "Yes, Your Majesty! I'll tell the guards right away!"

According to Kyle Sichi's report, new progress has been made in the study of the rubber worms.

It was time to examine the results.

"Let's go," he nodded his head sideways and walked towards the airport exit.

...

After confirming that the secretion of rubber worms was valuable, the Taqila witches not only opened up a series of new caves for them, but they also served as keepers during their leisure time.

After all, it was not easy to find common people who could calmly face devouring worms and work in the wormholes. Long-term work underground made it more likely to develop psychological instability. The breeding part had now been fully taken over by Taquila. The workers were only responsible for the shipment and the processing of rubber.

This could be interpreted as another error in Roland's prediction. He had underestimated people's tolerance level in a claustrophobic environment.

Rubber worms detested the sunlight and liked damp and moist areas. They would also make noises when moving. Even if they were not attacking, the constant moving swishing noises would be enough to cause a mental breakdown for the people around.

He could not provide every worker with lighting and communication equipment, formulate detailed shift regulations, or get a psychological comforting guide—it was not that he was unable to do it, it was more of the fact that the price-performance ratio was too low. A large number of factories outside could find and fill their manpower needs easily. There would be no need to spend it on the processes that required witchcraft. Therefore, he simply transferred ordinary people to work on a more relaxed follow-up process.

The Chicken-and-duck Knight Prius Dessau was not idle. He spent his free time on the preparation of breeding manuals and guiding the production. The reason why the related products of Neverwinter could emerge numerously was certainly due to his credit.

The expansion of the breeding structure created more samples for the testing of the rubber liquid. It was due to this groundwork research, that Roland could allow the entry of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and prepare for the next steps of the plan.

After going underground, Pasha came forward. "Welcome, Your Majesty. Your people are currently in the rubber worm laboratory. Should I inform them that you've arrived?"

"That's not necessary. You can just take me there," Roland said laughingly, "by the way, I heard that Celine built a new breeding plant, which was even bigger than the previous ones?"

"Yes, it's just across from the lab." Pasha moved her main tentacles. "Not only did it apply the latest research from the Quest Society, it also drew on ideas from Dream World—would you like to take a look?"

"Oh?" He said excitedly, "Of course."

"In that case, please follow me."

Passing through a long aisle, Pasha then led Roland to a big hole.

There was an iron fence at the entrance, apparently used to prevent insects from escaping. From a small door at the edge of the cave, he could not help but be stunned by what he saw—the environment in the cave was designed in accordance with the ruin of the snow mountain. There were luminous plants, water systems, and giant mushrooms that were readily available. The three were clearly created after reasonable adjustments. The plants grew along the edge of the stone wall and the water fountain, thus becoming a new streetlight. As they were the insect's staple food, the mushroom was obviously the most abundant species. The huge mushroom umbrella almost covered the entire ground. Numerous insects were flying around and under the dim fluorescence light, only clusters of white bodies could be seen. They ate the mushrooms heartily and the dense buzzing sound made Roland think of the silkworms that he raised as a child.

What stunned him the most, however, was the size of the cave.

Judging from fact that he could not see the end of the light-emitting plants, this place seemed bigger than the main residence of the Third Border City—He assumed that the new farm was just a combination of several old caves, but now it seemed to be the contrary. The organized blue spots and the well-shaped water system gave him the feeling of a large factory.

"This is exactly on the edge of the Impassable Mountain Range, which is about the same height as the surface of Neverwinter." Pasha volunteered by saying, "If you open a hole from the south side, it's only one kilometer away from the Kingdom Main Street."

This meant that there was only one wall dividing the new breeding farm and Neverwinter. If he remembered correctly, by estimating the distance passed just now, it would be no more than two kilometers away from the main city area. The outside of the rock wall should be the temporary residential area for the migrants.

Roland asked rhetorically, "In order to transport the liquid secretions?"

"Exactly." Pasha raised her main tentacles. "Your Majesty, please look at the southern end."

He glanced at where she was pointing—He only saw a deep trench under the wall, like an escape route deliberately made for rubber worms.

"What's that?"

"Extracting area," Pasha explained. "Celine used the vocalization of insects to create an aisle that would get more and more narrow on the wall. As long as a specific buzz was let out on one end, they would crawl into the aisle, toward the source of the sound—but due to limitations on the width of the aisle, they could only explore halfway and their bodies would be stuck in the aisle with their heads above."

"And then?" Nightingale, who had been listening on the side, could not help but ask.

"Then we will start the magic core at the end of the aisle." Pasha went on to say, "It's been adjusted to the razor blade mode. This cyclone is generally used to defend against the enemies of the narrow aisle. The core emits a magic light and fills up the aisle, shredding any obstacles that are in front of the light. The horizontal aisle is the path through which the magic light passes."

"The bugs will be split in two, and the mucus in the belly will gather together with the drainage trough in the lateral groove. In this way, you don't need to kill them one by one, and you can get a lot of mucus at once." She paused and said, "The one-kilometer distance is reserved for the collectors. According to Celine's idea, ordinary workers can enter the receiving area from the outside of the extracting area, but other than the trenches and the pools where the mucus flows, nothing can be seen. This is an easy way to collect and also less likely to cause panic."

"..."

Roland was silent for a moment.

He had nothing else to add.

This program could be said to be extremely mature under the existing technology. It took into account the entire process from breeding to harvest. If you built a rubber plant outside the mountains, then it would include even the production and processing. In particular, this type of modern-style, streamlined slaughter line was a concept that had been learned from Dream World.

Would using the precious magic core and Celine's lifetime research as a butcher's knife be considered as too mediocre a task?

Even if you could not find the Chosen One and activate the Instrument of Divine Retribution, you did not have to be so self-punishing.

Suddenly, Roland thought of a problem.

"How many rubber worms can this breeding farm accommodate?"

"It's expected to be around 100,000. However, given their speed of reproduction, it will take about a year to fill this new farm."

"What about the dead bodies after the secretion's extracted?" he asked. "How are you planning to get it out?"

This was not a small problem. Roland once saw in a documentary that a modern chicken farm had hundreds of tons of chicken manure every day. If it was handled carelessly, it could result in serious soil and water pollution. Once the production was scaled up, any small detail could cause immense trouble.

It was still possible for the God's Punishment Witches to transport the bodies. Once the worms multiplied to more than 10,000, it would be easy to kill them, but difficult to clean up. If the bodies were not disposed of in time, the accumulation in the hole would definitely have a disastrous effect.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty." Pasha chuckled. "Fran and the rest of the witches are not reluctant about coming. In fact, it's amazing how much the three worm carriers can exhaust when digging fully."

"Coo—" After she understood this sentence, Nightingale let out a stomach gurgling noise.

Uh... okay.

Now Roland finally understood why the entrance had a small gate, but still needed a large fence to be installed.

That was just reserved for the three witches' entry into the aisle for dining.

Chapter 1073 - Gelled Fuel

After leaving the rubber worm farm, Roland came to the lab.

He felt as if he had come into a wizard's lab. In this 30-square-meter room, many places were smeared with milky white solidified rubber liquid. Along the wall, stood a row of buckets filled with fresh worm liquid. Some rubber blocks seemed to have got burnt in a big pot, emitting a strong pungent smell. Like a wizard, Kyle also used long-handled spoons and stirring sticks in this lab.

Seeing that, Roland could not help thinking, "If there're some toads and bats in this lab, it'll look exactly like a wizard's lab."

"Your Majesty," Kyle Sichi simply nodded to greet Roland. "I think I've found what you wanted."

The alchemist looked very pale, and one of his fingers was wrapped in gauze. Seeing that, Roland became a little worried and asked, "Are you injured?"

"Don't worry. It's just a minor injury," Kyle waved his hand and said. He picked up a cup filled with light red rubber liquid and continued, "Your Majesty, look."

The next moment, he turned the cup upside down, but the liquid did not spill out at all. Instead, it just slowly slid down and then formed a soft hemisphere clinging to the rim of the cup.

Roland was intrigued. He stretched out his hand, wanting to touch the jelly-like substance, but the Chief Alchemist immediately stopped him.

"No, Your Majesty!" He took back the cup and explained, "This gel is corrosive."

"I remember that the worms' rubber liquid is non-toxic and harmless," Roland said with one eyebrow cocked. He had already used the liquid to manufacture food bags and straws.

"But it changed after mixing with blood."

"Blood?" Roland was startled and looked at Kyle's wounded finger again. "Did you hurt yourself for experiments..."

"Of course not, it was just an accident," Kyle said smilingly while stroking his beard. "Yeah, I'm crazy for chemistry, but I can't as yet go so far as to deliberately hurt myself for an experiment. There're lots of things waiting for me to explore in the chemistry world. I need to take good care of myself."

After that, Kyle explained to Roland how he had found this gel.

Something secreted by the rubber worms' glands could make their mucus become sticky. That was how the worms produced the rubber liquid. Due to the difference in the proportion of the secretion in the liquid, it could solidify into biological rubber blocks with different hardness. Once it solidified, it could not be melted back into liquid.

Given that, the Chief Alchemist had used lots of materials and had done lots of experiments, trying to find a way to solidify the rubber liquid into a gel. In the beginning, he tried to add various types of elementary substances, pure acids and alkali liquids to the rubber liquid, but none of these mixtures could achieve the desired effect.

Afterwards, he had tried many inorganic salts and even organic matters, and had discovered quite a few interesting gels during this process. However, none of them were what the king wanted.

Things had begun to change when an accident had happened to Kyle.

One day, when he had been cutting a rubber strip, he had inadvertently cut his own finger. His blood happened to drop into a cup of rubber liquid and reacted violently with the liquid. Instantly, a large amount of white smoke rose from the cup and the Bird Beak Mushroom in the liquid quickly melted into yellow water.

In the end, the liquid in the cup had somehow turned into a light red gel.

"This gel's biggest feature is that it can keep the chemical structure of the things added to it," Kyle said and then threw the light red gel into the furnace. Suddenly, the fire burnt much more violently. The flames roared high into the air, and the gel was swiftly burnt into ashes. "I only added a spoonful of oil to it. Burning the gel alone can't achieve this effect. I can say that it's even better than the gel you asked for!"

The alchemist looked tired, but he sounded excited. Seeing the reflection of the raging fire in his eyes, Roland somehow felt his bursting feelings and guessed that he must have been thinking about how powerful this thing would be in the forthcoming war.

Roland needed this jelly-like substance to make napalm bombs.

In his previous world, napalm usually referred to a mixture of a gelling agent and either petrol or a similar liquid fuel. Compared to inflammable liquid fuel, which had a low flash point and high volatility, gelled fuel was more convenient and safer to use. Meanwhile, they could also be very destructive. A napalm bomb was able to set a large area on fire. No one within this burning area could get rid of the thick, sticky fuel quickly, and at the same time, they would be suffocated, as the burning would consume a great amount of oxygen.

Since the moment he had heard about the worms' rubber liquid, he had been thinking about using it to develop a gelling agent, which could be used to make napalm bombs.

He planned to use these bombs to destroy demons' outposts, which had given the Union lots of headaches in the past.

Back in the Taquila age, the Union's Blessed Army had not been able to move freely around an outpost without being protected by witches who had been able to block off or clean out the Red Mist. Given that, the army consisting of the common people had been responsible for demolishing the demons' mist storage towers. Every time the Union had launched an attack on an outpost, the Blessed Army would have suffered a heavy loss, and all the common soldiers would have been killed in the battle.

The Union could not have afforded to launch lots of such attacks which would have quickly consumed its strength and resources. Once they had been surrounded by lots of outposts, they would have abandoned their land and run for their lives.

With napalm bombs, the demons' outpost would no longer be a major threat to the city. The fire could not only destroy their facilities but also dispel their Red Mist.

Hearing that rubber worms could provide raw materials for making napalm bombs, which could easily burn down a demons' outpost and clean out the Red Mist around it, Pasha had immediately agreed to raise these worms in the Third Border City. Alethea, who had complained a lot about these strange worms in the beginning, showed great enthusiasm in them after knowing their use.

In fact, Roland already had enough weapons for long range attacks by now. Even without napalm bombs, he could also let his army shoot down all the moving things in an outpost with those firearms before sending them there. However, he still hoped that the alchemists could successfully produce some napalm bombs. If they did, he would not have to prepare that much gunpowder for the battle, which could significantly reduce the burden on the chemical plants.

He was really delighted to see the light red gel, but he still had some concerns about it.

"Does it have to be a human being's blood?"

"No, Your Majesty," replied the alchemist. "Please rest assured. An animal's blood also works. I've tested it. The only requisite for the blood is that it has to be fresh."

Roland felt much relieved hearing that, but soon he thought of another question. "Why does it have to be blood?"

"Well..." Kyle was speechless.

"I think the reason lies in the worms' origin," said Pasha. "The Multi-Eyed Monster used them to capture and store its preys. Blood may be one of the triggering conditions causing them to react. Although they were left behind by the monster, their instinct still exists."

"That's a reasonable explanation," Roland thought. "The monster apparently didn't store its preys as food. It's more likely that it was collecting information about the other species. Given that, it's possible that it would let the worms store them as jelly."

'No matter what, let's start to develop the new weapon as soon as possible," said Roland. "Now that we have the ideal gelling agent, the remaining work will be easy. You can let the alchemists from the old king's city take care of it. After all, you need to take a good rest now for your future exploration into the chemistry world."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Kyle said with a hand on his chest.

"I've an idea," Pasha said suddenly.

"Oh, what's it?" Roland looked at her and asked.

"We can bring a special guest to the weapon test," she replied while swaying her main tentacle cheerfully.

Roland immediately realized who she was talking about and asked. "Is that demon still alive?"

They had transferred Kabradhabi's soul into a crippled body to confuse its mind and had taken the chance to interrogate it and get much useful information. Unfortunately, since it had gotten used to the human body, it had remained silent. Apparently, it would not give them any more information. Roland had left it to the Taquila witches, thinking that it would either kill itself or get tortured to death by the vengeful witches. Surprisingly, it was still alive.

"Yes, it's alive and well. It eats up all the food we bring to him every day." Pasha said.

It seems that it doesn't want to die at all.

It refuses to surrender or confess.

It's confidently waiting for the complete failure of humanity, believing that it'll be free sooner or later.

It's so ambitious and determined.

Is it because it thinks being killed by some bugs is a huge humiliation?

Roland thought and smirked mockingly. "That's a good idea. Let's take it to the weapon test."

Chapter 1074 - An Unexpected Letter

In the inner city area of the old king's city, Kajen Fels was reading a script at his study inside his theatre.

After a while, the silence was broken by a round of warm applause from outside his study, which meant that a wonderful play had come to an end.

At this moment, he also finished reading the script.

He took off his glasses and rubbed his sore eyes, then he closed the script and placed it back on the shelf beside his desk.

The title of the story on the script's cover page is "The Wolf Princess".

This movie script was placed together with many other scripts from Neverwinter, including those such as "The Witches' Story", "New City" and "Dawn". May had given them to him as a farewell present, which his students had regarded as making a mockery out of him. Surprisingly, Kajen Fels, a well-known playwright, had accepted all of the scripts and brought them back to his own theater. He placed them in the most convenient position on his bookshelf, and by now he had already read each of them several times.

In his view, all these scripts lacked an engaging plot as well as a vivid story-telling style. He reckoned that the writer must have been a beginner who was only able to write the story in a straightforward manner. However, he still kept reading these stories since he had nothing else to do at the moment.

He found himself unable to write a stage play anymore.

Whenever he picked up his quill, he would think of the scenes that he had seen in the magical movie.

Those images would somehow sneak into his mind and occupy his thoughts, making it difficult for him to envision a stage performance.

Someone who had tasted honey could hardly be satisfied with the sweetness of dew. That was how he felt now. Watching the magical movie was a really eye-opening experience for him. Unlike stage plays, the magical movie could show much more realistic scenes and can even present close-up images of the characters to its audiences. Such a mind-blowing experience had inspired him and given him many new ideas, but unfortunately, he had not acquired a chance to take part in a magical movie production.

But this discouraging fact did not stop him from thinking about the new techniques he had spotted in the magical movie.

Whenever he had an idea for a story, he would begin to wonder on how he was going to present it in a magical movie. He wanted to use close-up images of the characters' smiling faces to show audiences how they felt when they met each other for the first time. For their separation, he wanted to show a bleak background that gradually widened. Such ideas kept coming to him continuously.

But none of these ideas were suitable for a stage play.

He became stuck and felt depressed.

Only by reading the scripts from Neverwinter could he temporarily forget about his troubles.

However, he was clear that reading them could not solve his problems.

But he had no choice at the moment. May had refused to disclose more details about the magical movie. The Administrative Office had not responded to his request. It seemed that Neverwinter had completely shut him out. Until he could find a different way to learn more about the magical movie, he knew that he would continue to suffer.

At this moment, his maid knocked on the door and said, "Mr. Fels, here are some letters for you."

While closing his eyes, he leaned back into his chair and said, "Put it outside, I'll check them later."

Every time after a play, his students, such as Roentgen and Egrepo, would come to his study to discuss their performance with him and ask for his advice. He intended to take some rest before they arrived.

"But... there's a letter with Graycastle's royal seal on the envelope. You told me that if it's a letter from Neverwinter, I should give it to you imme—"

Before the maid finished her sentence, Kajen suddenly opened the door.

"Where is it?"

The maid was startled and hurriedly handed a stack of letters to him. He quickly picked out the letter from Neverwinter and threw all the other letters back to the maid.

The next moment, he slammed the door upon the stunned maid and swiftly returned to his desk.

He opened the wax-sealed envelope and examined the letter.

To his great surprise, it was from the king!

Does the king finally know that we went to Neverwinter and wanted to perform a play for his coronation ceremony?

If I can directly contact the king, will I have a chance to know more about the magical movie?

Thrilled by the thought, he excitedly read the letter.

...

"How many roses did you receive today?" Egrepo asked Roentgen as they walked together towards Kajen's study.

"About a dozen, I didn't count them," Roentgen replied as she shrugged. " I've received much fewer roses than before, but that's alright. I don't care."

"Aha, if your admirers heard these words, their hearts would break," Egrepo laughed and said. "It's inevitable. We have smaller audiences for the plays ever since the king had sent over half of the nobles to the mines and made Neverwinter the new king's city. But as long as this city still stands, things will gradually improve."

"We're lucky enough to receive flowers in the current situation," Bernis muttered. "There were six toupes in the city, but now three of them have already become bankrupt. I hope that we won't be the next one."

"Alas, that war changed everything..."Roentgen sighed.

"Ahem, ladies, we also need to see the benefits." Egrepo cleared his throat and continued, "We've expanded rapidly after taking in the former members of the three disbanded troupes. We can survive regardless of who is the king. Come on, hold your chin up. Don't look so frustrated because Mr. Fels is waiting for us."

Thinking about the drama master, everyone simultaneously nodded their heads and cheered up. After Kajen Troupe's bitter return from Neverwinter, they all worked hard to improve themselves in trying to win honor for their teacher, Mr. Fels. They all hated May because she had refused to tell Mr. Fels how the magical movie was made and had even said that it was confidential.

"Mr. Fels."

Egrepo opened the door of the study and then stood agape.

He found that Mr. Fels did not look normal.

He had expected that his teacher to be waiting for them comfortably in his chair as usual, but now he saw him listlessly standing by his desk.

"Mr. Fels, is there something wrong?" Bernis asked with concern.

"I have received a letter from Neverwinter. It's from the king." Kajen picked up the letter on the desk and said to them. "Here, take a look."

"Is it... okay?"

"That's alright. Read it."

Hearing that, Egrepo took the letter.

The people around him all leaned over to read it.

Seeing the excited look on their faces, Kajen discreetly sighed. He knew that they must have taken it as a letter of apology like what he had thought in the beginning. Just as he expected, his students were delighted to see the letter from the king and believed that the king must have already discovered and punished the person who had prevented Kajen Troupe from performing a play for the coronation ceremony.

However, the content of the letter was entirely beyond their expectations.

The king was forthcoming in answering questions about the magical movie. In the letter, he explicitly explained that it was made by a special instrument which was capable of recording images. His Majesty also said that he could not provide this instrument for another troupe since it was extremely rare. According to the letter, this instrument could only be made and operated by witches and was made of some rare materials from an ancient relic.

"At present, we need to mobilize all the resources in all the regions of Graycastle for the imminent battle. Given the unique viewing experience and the great disseminating effect of magical movies, both of which I think you've already witnessed in 'the Wolf Princess', I've decided to let these movies play an important part in spreading information and awareness for the war effort. It's regrettable that at present, I can't afford to use the instrument to shoot other movies that are not directly related to national policies."

"But please rest assured as this situation is only temporary. After the war, when Graycasle returns to peacetime, magical movies will gradually become a popular art form and everyone will be able to shoot such a movie one day. When the time comes, I believe you and your troupe will produce an outstanding movie."

Kajen could accept this explanation about the magical movie.

But he still felt heart-broken after reading the letter.

This was because he knew from the letter that it was the king himself who had turned down Kajen Troupe's offer to perform a play for the coronation ceremony.

He felt hurt.

It turned out that from the very beginning it had only been his own wishful thinking to perform for the king.

Considering that such a well-prepared play had failed to garner favorable attention from the king, Kajen believed His Majesty was just being nice to compliment his troupe in the letter.

He felt regretful for being so full of himself and for unjustly blaming May.

Chapter 1075 - A Young Heart

"..." After reading the letter, everyone fell into an awkward silence.

After a long time, Bernis mumbled bitterly, "I knew we shouldn't expect too much from him. Think about what everybody said about Prince Roland in the past and his favorite hangouts in the city. I thought he changed after he became the king, but..."

"Hush." Egrepo pulled her arm to stop her. "Be careful. All the nobles who can still come to the theatre are his supporters. Even if they are not, they will pretend to be loyal to him. If someone heard what you just said, you would have been in trouble."

"It seems that we can never make it to Neverwinter in this lifetime," Roentgen sighed and said.

"That's not a big deal. We're very popular here." Egrepo comforted her. "Kajen Troupe is still a first-rate troupe in all cities except Neverwinter. We can support ourselves."

"But magic movies will come here sooner or later," Kajen suddenly interjected. "Recently, I've been reading the scripts May gave me, and I found the stories had one thing in common. All of them are set in an imaginary world, an ideal world His Majesty wants to achieve. He intends to use these movies to spread his ideas and promote his national policies, so he won't just play them in Neverwinter. Can you still be so confident about stage plays when magic movies come here?"

Egrepo thought for a moment and suggested, "We... we can go to another country, such as the Kingdom of Dawn. Mr. Fels, the theaters there will be more than happy to accept us, if you ask—"

"No, I won't go to the Kingdom of Dawn," Kajen replied while shaking his head.

"How about we..."

Suddenly, Kajen looked up and said, "I want to go to Neverwinter again."

"What?"

"Mr. Fels, are you sure?"

Everyone was shocked.

"It'll take at least a month for the troupe to go there and back, and during this period of time, the troupe will have no money coming in." Egrepo said urgently. "We'll be alright, but the new actors and apprentices will be unable to make ends meet and will probably leave the troupe for this."

Kajen knew that it was hard to take the whole troupe to Neverwinter. Without a theater that was willing to take them in, they would have to prepare all the props and goods by themselves, which was not an easy task.

The next moment, Kajen said something, which was completely beyond everybody's expectations. "I'll go there by myself."

This time, his students remained speechless for an even longer time before they asked hesitantly, "What... are you going to do in Neverwinter?"

"Try to be a magic movie actor," Kajen said slowly. "His Majesty said that these movies are going to become a popular art form someday, but he didn't say how long it'll take to popularize this art form... 10 years or 20 years? I can't wait for such a long time. Even if it only takes five years, it'll be too late for us to learn the magic movie at that time, and by then Star Flower Troupe will be far ahead of us."

Kajen believed that the best time to catch up with a trend was at the beginning of it.

"But His Majesty has Star Flower Troupe already..." Benis murmured.

"Star Flower Troupe only has May and Irene," Kajen glanced at his students and said. "Any troupe has to practice repeatedly to present an outstanding performance. May's troupe can't cope with all the movies His Majesty wants to shoot, so Neverwinter may be willing to let us stay to reduce Star Flower Troupe's workload. And if we can outshine them in some type of drama, which they're not good at, such as a farce, we may have a chance to act in a magic movie."

"Are you willing to play a role in a... farce?" Egrepo could not believe what he had heard and asked.

"Life is about trade-offs. Most of the time, if you want to get something, you have to give up another thing for it," Kajen nodded and replied. "Even if we can only act in a farce, we should do our best."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Of course, His Majesty may turn us down again. When that happens, I'll join Star Flower Troupe. Do any of you want to come with me?"

No one answered.

Kajen guessed that they might just be too stunned to say anything at this moment or reluctant to leave the old king's city.

He understood their feelings.

They reacted just as he had expected. In fact, he himself also got shocked by this sudden idea. As Egrepo had said, as the most venerated playwright in the world of today, he could continue his career even in the Kingdom of Dawn. However, he decided to give up the theater for magic movies, which was not an easy choice at all.

Because of his age, he could not move quickly and easily on the stage, and his memory was not as good as before. If this drama master really worked as an actor, he would only be able to play a walk-on part. No matter how well he acted, it would inevitably become a joke in the eyes of others.

Many years ago, as a famous actor, he had given up his acting job and begun to write plays. Since then, he had never thought about returning to the stage as an actor. However, now he had no choice. The king had turned down his troupe and he did not seem to appreciate his stories very much. Meanwhile, he was unable to write plays like "New City" and "Dawn". Given these, he thought he probably could only join Star Flower Troupe as an actor to take part in magic movie production.

This is incredible! His students still stood agape.

Kajen could see how shocked they were at a glance.

It was indeed an incredibly bold decision, but after making this decision, he finally felt relieved.

He was not young anymore, but at this moment, he felt young at heart. This feeling reminded him how happy and inspired he had been during his first visit to the theater.

Since then, 30 years had passed and he had never felt the same impulse until he saw the magic movie.

Nothing could stop him from pursuing his dream.

"Among you, Egrepo has worked with me for the longest time and he knows how to manage a troupe. When I'm away, he'll run the troupe on behalf of me," Kajen said calmly. "Many talented young people have joined our troupe recently. Give them more chances to make an appearance. As long as audiences come to our theater to watch plays, you'll be able to support yourselves."

"Mr. Fels..." the students still wanted to say something but were immediately stopped by Kajen.

He decided to listen to his heart.

He wanted to follow his dream.

He wanted to act in a magic movie.

...

Neverwinter had produced its first napalm bomb.

As Roland had expected, it did not take the alchemists a long time to make it.

Only a week after finding the ideal thickening agent, the Ministry of Chemicals successfully manufactured the first napalm bomb.

It consisted of a dozen identical iron cylinders, which were one meter high and 30 centimeters in diameter. Explosives were contained inside the cylinders, and the fuses of all the cylinders were connected together.

"Your Majesty, this is the bomb I designed. I call it Burning-city Thunder," Retnin said excitedly. "There're three different substances inside the cylinders. At the bottom, there's the snow powder layer. The combustion-supporting layer is in the middle, and the fuel layer is at the top. When the snow powder is ignited, the flames will go up and reach the combustion-supporting layer and then the jelled fuel. This process resembles that of a volcanic eruption, and…"

The former Chief Alchemist of the Alchemist Workshop of the old king's city thought he finally got a chance to replace Kyle Sichi and talked on and on. Apparently, he was very proud of his work, and many details in his design did impress Roland. Apart from the clear arrangement of the three layers inside the cylinders, he also used an electric detonator and adopted the delayed ignition technology to further boost the bomb's killing power. When this bomb was ignited, the cylinders would explode one by one and would not affect each other adversely. Roland had to admit Retnin was very talented.

He found Retnin was particularly interested in creating bombs and explosives.

He only doubted his ability to name his works.

But for Roland, it was not a big deal. After all, when this kind of weapon became operational, he was the only one who had the right to name it.

"Well then, let's test your Burning-city Thunder now," Roland said smilingly.

Chapter 1076 - The Power of “Worms"

The test site was at a valley down the Impassable Mountain Range.

It was surrounded by mountains and never before imprinted by the foot of man. With no access to public transit, it was quite difficult for people to reach this area unless with the help of an airplane or a tunnel. Therefore, this was the best place to conduct some secret projects.

Napalm weapons were by no means something of extreme secrecy, but there were some rare spectators.

"Ah... the air here is so refreshing. I can smell flowers and fresh soil," said Celine as she emerged from the crack of rocks while swaying her tentacle. "It has been over 200 years since I saw the blue sky last time."

Retnin shuddered. He looked at Roland, panic-striken and lost.

Everyone would be horrified by the sight of a giant blob monster coming out of the ground. If this was a disaster movie, the appearance of such a monster was definitely a turning point of the story where background music normally kicked in.

Not to mention that the giant monster could actually speak.

If one could still maintain his composure upon such a sight, Roland would think he was a competent official.

This was also why Roland had selected this valley as his test site.

"Don't worry. They used to be human too, but the demons turned them into monsters," Roland comforted the alchemist as he patted him on the shoulder. "They communicate through their minds, and that's why you heard their voices. If you want to talk to them, just say it aloud or within yourself, like this..."

Roland turned to Celine and said, "It isn't hard for an original carrier to take a look at the blue sky and clear water once in a while, is it?"

"That's because Celine locks herself up all day in the research room," said Pasha's voice as she emerged from the earth. "The God's Punishment Witches have been talking about their experience in the Dream World lately. There's a specific word that describes her lifestyle. I remember you call a person like her a... shut-in?"

"I somehow remember there are two adjectives before that." Alethea put in as she appeared with the Senior Demon.

"Do you really want me to say them?"

"Oh, not really..."

Roland raised his brows at Retnin and said, "See? They aren't that scary, are they?"

"Y-Yes, you are right..." Retnin agreed quite reluctantly.

"They sacrificed their human bodies in exchange for a life of eternity. Their new bodies are highly resistant to heat and corrosion, which means they can directly touch many chemicals. Their tentacles are sensitive to different materials, which enables them to conduct multiple experiments at the same time. In other words, their bodies are perfect for chemical research. What do you think? Are you interested in working with them?" Roland asked with a shrug.

Retnin swallowed hard. After a long silence, he answered, "I... I'm fine, Your Majesty."

Although Retnin declined Roland's offer, he no longer avoided eye contact with the Senior Witches from Taquila. Instead, there was a bite of curiosity in his look.

Roland shook his head in amusement and walked to the demon binded by ropes.

Although the demon had lost its legs, Roland did not want to take chance.

This body used to belong to a God's Punishment Warrior after all.

Roland crouched down, looked straight into the demon's eyes and said, "You are Carb... Radaby, right?"

Without connecting to a person, the demon could not understand the human language even though it was currently in a human vessel. However, the overt hatred and animosity in the demon's eyes seemed to have transcended the language barrier between them, so blatant that everyone knew what it was trying to convey.

Roland continued indifferently, "I prepared a firework display for you. You committed atrocities against the human population on the Land of Dawn and destroyed more than half of our kingdom. Now, it's time for us to retaliate. Enjoy the show."

He then nodded at Retnin and said, "Go ahead."

The alchemist cast a glance at the demon. Knowing that he was not supposed to question the king's order, he simply shouted, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

Everybody descended into the underground tunnel after everything was in order, leaving the demon alone on the cliff.

"Explosion countdown, ten, nine... one, fire!"

An operator ignited the bomb.

In an instant, red flames erupted from the center of the valley. Unlike the high explosives used in their maneuver, the firelight was dimmed by a cloud of thick, black smoke. Neither the noise nor the impact produced by the explosion was as impressive as that by the high explosives.

But they soon noticed a big difference between this new weapon and the old one.

Through a porthole, they could clearly see thick smog rise slowly and spread across the sky, as though some giant hand had dropped a misty mantle. The hot air pushed fuels up into the air, which cascaded down to the ground like fiery lava and blasted like open umbrellas.

After these "umbrellas" opened up, flickers of red light grew brighter and soon turned into a flood of flames!

Roland knew this was a result of the reaction of the aluminum with the iron oxides in the combustion-supporting layer.

The energy released from this chemical reaction caused a second explosion that lasted for several seconds.

As the explosives rained down, the valley was immediately ablaze. Although Roland and his party were currently in a relatively safe area, they could still sense hot waves coming from the explosion.

Due to the pull of gravity, the thick smoke and the flames finally separated. The smoke dissipated while the fire spread throughout the entire test site. There had been a forest and a brook at the center of the valley, but they were now both aflame. Roland did not think it necessary to check whether their testing animals were still alive at this point anymore.

On the other side of the tunnel, Alethea curled up her main tentacle.

"If only there was a weapon like this in the Taquila Age!" thought she.

Since fire was the natural enemy of the Red Mist, the demons never left any visible combustible materials around their outpost. It was impossible to ignite firewood to disperse the Red Mist. Even if the witches managed to produce flame sources with a high temperature, they had to apply their magic power to make them work. Nevertheless, the new weapon offered them a possibility to instantly wipe out the demons' lair. If they could successfully transport the weapon into the outpost, they would be able to cut a path for the army.

In that case, the God's Punishment Witches would also have a greater chance of survival as they no longer needed to protect common soldiers from the demons and the Red Mist.

Alethea almost foresaw a flaming mist storage tower gradually turn into a blinding pillar of fire.

The three Senior Witches exchanged their ideas quickly in their original carriers. Without a single word, they reached a mutual understanding among themselves.

Alethea stole a glance at the mortal man and heaved a sigh... It was a pity that he had not been born 400 years ago.

The flames finally subsided after four hours.

The whole valley was razed to the ground.

When Roland came out of the tunnel, he had an illusion that it was mid summer rather than early spring. The scorching air had turned the valley into a temporary greenhouse.

He looked at the demon on the cliff. As they had cleaned up the surroundings earlier, the fire had not reached their shelter. As for the God's Punishment Witches, they could not sense heat anyway, so the explosion caused them no harm by any means.

But Roland clearly spied a hint of disbelief in the demon's eyes.

This was probably what Pasha and the other God's Punishment Witches expected to see.

The Taquila witches did not think the demon would yield.

They just wanted it to know —

That the creatures they had been looking down upon all this time had now the capability to annihilate them

Chapter 1077 - The Front on the Fertile Land

"These are the last steel rails you need to work on today," Leaf said as her head peeked out from the treetops. "Thank you."

"No problem!" Molly cheerfully replied. She patted her flat chest and blew a whistle, "Come out, my servant Momota!"

A blue ball instantly appeared in midair and gradually grew bigger until it reached the height of the treetops. It stretched out its two arms, scooped up the rails on the ground and gulped them down. However, the rails were too long so the two ends of the rails stuck out of the ball. It looked as if the blue ball was punctured by the rails.

"Momo...ta? But I remember that last time you called it Momoka."

"Really?" Molly said with her head lopsided. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that I pronounce her name out loud. Isn't that how you demonstrate your power?"

"Um..." Leaf pondered for a while and asked, "Did Mystery Moon tell you to do that?"

"How did you know?" Molly asked in surprise. "She also asked me to join the Detective Group."

After the release of the magical movie "The Wolf Princess", many viewers were impressed with the scene where Lorgar transformed into a wolf and bravely lunged at her enemy to save her sister. Further encouraged by the Detective Group, young witches in Neverwinter started to shout their slogans out loud whenever they applied their abilities, and this had gradually become a new trend. Molly was surprised that Leaf also knew about the latest trend in the city consdiering that she usually confined her activities within the Misty Forest. The last time she had seen her in Neverwinter was at the king's coronation ceremony.

"I... No, nothing," Leaf evaded the question with a cough. She turned in the direction of Neverwinter and said, "They have delivered new supplies. I've got to go."

Although Molly really wanted to know how Leaf kept herself up to date, she suppressed her curiosity and waved goodbye to her.

In the next second, Leaf transformed into a spirit and disappeared into the thick forest.

Molly learned that Leaf could cross the Misty Forest within a blink of an eye. Leaf practically knew everything about the forest. As Leaf drew magic power out of thousands of trees, she could manipulate plants and thus continuously supply construction materials to the front. Compared to her, Molly's Magic Servant worked much more slowly.

Now Molly had a vague understanding of the power of evolution.

Molly wondered when she would become as powerful as Leaf. She had been living in Neverwinter for four to five months and had learned the basics of reading and writing. She thought her ability might evolve after she finished reading"Principles of Nature".

Molly clambered up the Magic Servant and directed Momota to leave the forest.

As soon as she walked out of the forest, she saw a busy construction site.

"One, two, three, go!"

"A little to the left!"

"Take it easy, take it easy!"

Thousands of workers were busy repairing Tower Station No.0 which was located near the railway that stretched away to the northeast. The station was the first stop on the way to the Taquila ruins and also the terminus station of the route to the forest. A blockhouse stood at each corner of the station. The four blockhouses were connected by trenches and parapets as one unit. The workers were wearing various clothes, some of them were even half-naked. It was hard to associate such a scene with the upcoming battle had Molly not known about the king's plan beforehand.

"Hey, isn't it Miss Molly? Thanks for coming to help us."

"We're going to bother you again today. The train unit is swamped."

"Miss Molly, we tipped over a steam engine. Could you make it stand upright?"

Many people stopped to greet Molly or asked for her help as she pushed through the crowd and slowly walked down the railway. She was remembered by many workers even though she had been here for only a week.

Although Molly's main task was to make sure nothing happened to the "Seagull", she was ready to help others, just like what she was used to be doing back on the Sleeping Island.

Molly felt really happy when her help was appreciated.

When she had been on the Sleeping Island, only the witches and a small number of people from the Fjords would show gratitude for her work. There had been little she could do other than loading and unloading ships back then. But now, she could help with many things here and was treated as a celebrity. Her heart was constantly filled with pride and happiness. As long as the "Seagull" remained on the ground, she was free to wander around the railway construction site.

The scenery beyond Tower Station No.0 was slightly different.

Wisps of smoke came into Molly's sight.

They billowed from trains.

In fact, these steel monsters were the main transportation tool. They supplied materials to the front nonstop, as if they would never become tired. Molly had transferred only a very small portion of the materials.

Unfortunately, according to Princess Tilly, it was not easy to build these trains. They needed the "Seagull" to facilitate the transportation between Neverwinter and the front because there was only two to three trains in the entirety of Neverwinter. Regardless of how the battle on the Fertile Plains would unfold, they had to make sure that the logistics and production at the rear were not interrupted.

As Molly approached the end of the railway, she saw more uniformed soldiers.

After a week of observation, Molly could now distinguish the new recruits from the veterans. Those who stole a glance at her every now and then during a class were usually newbies, whereas those who bowed their heads or were too focused on polishing their weapons to pay attention to her were normally seasoned soldiers.

"Look carefully. There are different types of demons!" said an instructor as he tapped a picture on the blackboard. "The most common type is the Mad Demon. They have large bodies, thick arms and are good at throwing bone spears. They don't throw spears in rapid succession unless it's of an utmost emergency."

"Hahaha..." The crowd erupted into laughter.

"Silence!" The instructor barked. "I hope they won't scare the hell out of you when you come across them. The only way to save your lives is to pull the trigger and finish them before they kill you. Neither fleeing nor yielding would work in this situation. Do you understand?"

"Yes!" the class shouted in unison.

"Now, next one," the instructor said as he pointed to another picture. "This one, with its eyes on its forehead, is called the Fearsome Demon. There are not many of them, but they're far more powerful than ordinary Mad Demons. They can paralyze your movements when they see you. You bascially can't do anything except to wait for your death. However, you can protect yourself with a God's Stone of Retaliation. Everybody at the front will receive a God's Stone, although there is a chance that you may encounter them when you are not wearing a God's Stone."

"What should we do then?"

"Pray to your grandmother or picture someone or something you adore in your head. Use every possible means to overcome your fear!"

At these words, someone turned around and glanced at Molly.

Molly smiled back, winking at the soldier.

"Hey, where are you looking?" The instructor snarled at the soldier. "Get out of here and go back to the construction site if you don't want to be in my class!"

The man immediately ducked away.

Molly felt she preferred the new recruits over the veterans.

She twitched her lips and urged the Magic Servant to move forward.

After another few hundred meters, she reached the very end of the railway where some laborers, soldiers and witches were working together.

She immediately caught sight of a girl with flaxen hair in a work suit.

It was the Queen of Graycastle, Queen Anna Wimbledon.

Chapter 1078 - Gunshots on the Plains

Whether it was her figure, fashion or appearance, Queen Anna was not the most outstanding one among the witches. To keep it out of the way while she was working, she tied her smooth hair into a ponytail. Her work clothes, which were designed by Roland, focused on functionality over style. The cuffs and collar were tightly bundled and it was stained with dust as she had stayed in the wild for long periods of time. If someone met her for the first time, they would be not believe she was the Queen of Graycastle.

But Molly greatly admired her.

Because even if someone didn't know Anna was the queen, they would understand that she was an important person. She was surrounded by high officials in Neverwinter, for example, Karl Van Bate, the Minister of Construction; Edith Kant, the head of General Staff, etc.... The route of the railway, the speed of advancement, and the construction arrangements, all needed to be discussed with her. In other words, even if she were not a witch, she would still be the focus of everyone's attention.

Despite being completely ignorant of what they were discussing, Molly felt that Anna, who stood tall, surveying the land, holding maps, and discussing plans, was really gorgeous.

Especially when she focused on work, Anna's lake-blue eyes shined with light like unblemished gems.

When working with Anna, both recruits and veterans would defer to her.

Molly thought for a moment and ultimately decided not to interrupt Her Highness. Instead, she directed her Magic Servant to avoid the crowd and unloaded the rails in the storage area.

Just after she laid down the rails, Shavi peeped over a pile of bricks and asked, "Did you go over to the forest again?"

Molly immediately had a bad feeling.

She ran around the brick pile and found that the other witches were playing cards.

"Hey, if it isn't little Molly?" Andrea grinned.

Margie was also there, but looked very uncomfortable.

"How can you guys slack off and play cards here?" Molly yelled, "If you're discovered, what will people think of Sleeping Spell? I'm going to tell Lady Tilly!"

"I was... forced by them to come here," said Margie, lowering her head and wringing her hands.

"Who is slacking off?" Shavi retorted, "I unloaded all these bricks from the train. Otherwise, the workers would still be unloading them. I'm just resting after I finished my work. How can you say I'm slacking off?"

"You should know that tea time is as important as work. An elegant lady knows how to keep a balance between them," Andrea said, combing her blonde hair with her fingers. "Since Margie is here, she can make sure no one will find us. After all, it's definitely not allowed to cause trouble for Lady Tilly. Don't worry about it. By the way, do you want to join us? For playing cards, the more the merrier."

"Of course not—" Molly was interrupted by an alarm as she was preparing to argue with Andrea.

"Woo— Woo— Woo—!"

Three short blasts meant the discovery of hostile forces!

She quickly looked to the northeast, only to see nothing but half-melted snow and weeds across the vast plain.

"The enemy was discovered by either Sylvie or Lightning and they gave an advanced warning, so you won't see anything yet," Shavi reminded her.

"Oh, no—Her Highness!" Molly suddenly remembered that the Queen of Graycastle would be in harms way. She had heard more than once about Anna's unique significance to King Roland and Neverwinter. Therefore, she should do everything possible to guarantee her safety.

As Molly started to run back, Shavi caught her.

"Her Highness is naturally protected by the guards. You won't be of much help if you go back there," Shavi shook her head. "Based on the speed of the flying demons, Her Highness has at least 10 to 15 minutes to take shelter before the enemy arrives. According to our orders, if there is no prior arrangement for a combat plan, the first thing to do when confronted with an unexpected enemy is to protect yourself and then go to the nearest First Army, Taquila God's Punishment Witch or other combat groups."

"So you don't have to go anywhere. Stay here and protect me," Andrea had already climbed up on the top of the brick pile with her rifle. "Leave it to me."

Just as Shavi said, after Molly climbed onto the brick pile, she found the huge construction site was empty, as if the previous busy scene had never existed. She could faintly see heads in the trenches and some gun emplacements. The train shut down and a sense of seriousness pervaded the entire front.

"Sylvie, were you the one who spotted the demons?" Andrea took out a Sigil of Listening and asked, "How many are there?"

"... No, this warning was sent by Lightning." Sylvie's reply came from the Sigil after a while, "It seems that there are only four Devilbeasts with Mad Demons. The direction is on your right side. There is no trace of Senior Demons."

"Only four? It seems like this is just an accidental encounter."

"Probably, but don't take it too easy." Sylvie warned, "You should be able to see them in five minutes."

A few minutes later, the demons arrived as expected. The four dark spots were particularly striking under the bright sky. They undoubtedly saw the railway on the Fertile Plains. What was strange was that the demons did not attack, but instead hovered at a distance.

"What are they hesitating about?" Shavi frowned, "that's not the demon's style."

"Can you hit them?" Molly asked.

"No, they're too far away," Andrea shrugged. "Too many variable for the coin toss. Of course, there is another method—"

Molly automatically ignored the part which she could not understand and asked, "What method?"

"For example... a gun with a larger-caliber." She smiled and pointed to the side of the brick pile, "Can your Magic Servant do me a favor?"

Until then Molly hasn't noticed this gun of incredible size. Its barrel was over a meter long. She immediately realized what Andrea meant— she could not use such a heavy weapon alone.

"Have you... been taking this with you when you played cards?"

"Thanks to Margie," Andrea said, shrugging. "Besides, carrying a variety of weapons is just a basic requirement for a soldier."

Molly stopped talking and raised her hand to summon her Magic Servant. She grabbed the giant gun and placed it on top of its head. At the same time, she ordered Momota to lower its body and spread itself into an oval cushion.

"It's a pity that I hadn't brought you along for the last fight," Andrea laid down on Momota. "This gun base is much more comfortable than Ashes. Raise the head a little. Right, that's the right angle."

"How about now?" Molly adjusted the shape of the Servant.

"Perfect. By the way, can you shrink its arms? As small as your fingers."

"No problem... But then it won't be able to hold heavy objects."

"That's okay. Perfect." Andrea squeezed the shrunken arms of the Magic Servant into her ears and then held the gun handle. "Don't forget to cover your ears!"

Simultaneously, she pulled the trigger.

A loud bang exploded from the gun!

A few seconds later, a demon exploded into red mist in the air.

Chapter 1079 - The Demons' Intentions

The other three demons responded immediately. They controlled the Devilbeasts and scattered in all directions. They then zigzagged in a direction where they came from and soon disappeared into the distance.

While retreating, a demon even turned back to toss its spear toward the head of the Devilbeast which had a broken wing and was spiraling down.

Although Andrea concentrated on the target, the second standing coin never appeared.

"They escaped?" Shavi asked in surprise, "What did they come for?"

For the first time, the demons escaped before a direct confrontation. In previous cases, the brutal demons would not give up until they attacked their targets severely. It was indeed surprising that they just hovered rather than attacking or spying.

"I don't know..." Andrea released the trigger, "They seem to have figured out how to dodge the sniper. The enemies learn very quickly, don't they, little Molly?" She laughed, looking at Molly who was rubbing her ears.

"You should remind me earlier next time," Molly complained. The sound of this weapon was not lower than that of a cannon. She hardly had time to cover her ears. Even so, she still felt dizzy due to the thunder-like bang.

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect the 'guiding lines' to appear so fast. Probably my ability has improved again." Andrea blinked her eyes, "I'll give you a special compensation to apologize."

"You didn't do it on purpose. You don't have to apologize, " Molly scratched her head. "After all, defeating the enemy is more important."

"But I'll feel sorry for it."

"Well..." She had to agree in face of the earnest stare of Andrea, "What's the compensation?"

"Chaos Drinks," Andrea said, covering her mouth.

"Are you... sure?" Molly asked in surprise. When they were on the Sleeping Island, she only knew that Andrea was born in a prominent family and was one of the most powerful combat witches, so she was nearly as important as Ashes. In addition, Andrea used to stay with Lady Tilly, so Molly had few opportunities to communicate with Andrea in the past. After coming to Neverwinter, the gap between combat witches and non-combat witches completely disappeared. It was then she found out that Andrea was not as cold as she imagined, but elegant and friendly.

However, she had not expected Andrea to be so generous!

"Yeah, the general rule is a cup for each round. My special compensation is that if you lose, you don't need to give me a cup. If I lose, I'll give it to you. How is this? It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

"I see. If I don't have to lose, it's indeed... Wait, it's not!" Molly suddenly understood, "Doesn't it mean that I'm going to play cards? I won't join—"

"But you've promised it, just now," Andrea revealed a "too late" expression. "Stay here and don't leave. I'll go to the command post and come back soon!"

Before Molly had time to explain, Andrea had already jumped down from the brick pile and rushed to the end of the dump site.

She turned to Margie who obviously had the similar feeling and finally knew what she meant by saying "I was forced by them to come here".

...

Frontline command post.

Within half an hour, all the information about this "accidental encounter" had been gathered and placed on Iron Axe's desk.

Lightning and Maggie who had been wandering around the watch circle were the first ones to discover the enemy's trail.

At that time, they were flying through the clouds one after another and happened to had been out of the sight of the enemy. After that, they followed the demons at the six o'clock direction and sent warnings to Sylvie through the Sigil of Listening.

According to Lightning's description, the demons' flight route was a straight line on the map which linked the railway front and the Taquila ruins. In other words, they were not patrolling but they came after the First Army from the very beginning.

The entire encounter lasted for about a quarter of an hour. Miss Andrea was the only one to achieve the victory, as the anti-Devilbeast sniper rifle was the only effective weapon which could hit the target at this distance. After one demon was shot, the rest of them immediately chose to retreat and zigzagged to avoid Andrea's further shooting. It was proved to be effective and Andrea failed to shoot them again.

Sylvie monitored their process of leaving the watch circle.

Lightning and Maggie did not take any further action, either.

Fifteen minutes later, the alarm was lifted.

Iron Axe laid down his report and took a deep breath.

This was the integrated war intelligence system designed by His Majesty. Each unit would report their actions level by level. The General Staff department would then collect all information, sort out and refine it in order to review the whole combat process. With the assistance of a map and a sand table, the military commanders could have the most direct understanding of the front battle.

Though having operated the system several times before the expedition, Iron Axe was still shocked by the initial practical use of the system. For the first time, he felt that the war was so clear that it felt like he was standing on a cloud that overlooked the entire combat.

In Iron Sand City, even the battle of hundreds of people between the clans could be chaotic. If he wanted to sort out the result of the battle, he could only get a rough conclusion even if he devoted a lot of time and energy to it. Yet, it was different now. Both the enemy's action and First Army's response were clearly presented in his mind. The feeling of being on top of it made him realize that the battles between the Mojin clans were merely street fights.

Of course, it was far from being sufficient enough to know the overall situation. The most important task was to figure out the demons' intentions.

Iron Axe looked at Edith, who was carefully staring at the map. She was the only one not to discuss with other Staff members.

He had previously reported to King Roland his private contact with her, but Iron Axe had no regrets. He had pledged allegiance to the king. Even if he felt sorry for her, he would not make a second choice. Nevertheless, he felt guilty toward her and was prepared to be ridiculed or ignored by her. What she did was out of his expectation. She acted as if it had not happened, and still invited him to participate in the gatherings of the General Staff Department. However, she did not have any private discussions with him anymore.

He realized that he indeed did not understand this woman's thoughts—since they were in the Eastern Region.

"Did you find something?" Iron Axe walked behind her.

"No," Edith shrugged. "I'm not a demon and I just met them once. How can I know what they think?"

"You didn't discuss with them. I thought you had some idea."

"Discussion without clues is meaningless. You can neither prove it nor deny it. It contributes nothing but anxiety."

"In that case, I'll take it as the final decision of the General Staff and report to His Majesty," Iron Axe nodded. If even Pearl of the Northern Region could not figure it out, there was no need for them to continue the discussion.

"Well, go," Edith paused, "but..."

"But what...?"

"I don't think it'll end so easily. If the enemy really came for us, they'd definitely take actions again in the near future."

What happened later proved Edith's guess.

Just two days later, the demons once again appeared in the northeast.

Four Mad Demons again.

They were farther away from the front this time. Only four black spots could be barely observed by the naked eye.

Chapter 1080 - A New Station

"Miss Sylvie has confirmed that there are no other demons nearby."

"If the enemy launches an attack at this distance, we have at least five minutes to react."

"That's enough for the anti-aircraft machine gun squad to prepare. How about the threat judgment?"

"There is no Senior Demon among them. The threat to Her Highness is almost zero."

"If we continue the construction, the greatest loss may be from the rail removal team, as it's inconvenient to evacuate such a large number of workers in a short time. It's estimated to result in one or two casualties."

Everyone in the command post was busy analyzing the intelligence and discussing. Their conclusions were listed on the board. This was a habit gradually cultivated by the Staff members. In face of complicated and diverse information, written words left more of an impression than oral ones.

"In conclusion," Ferlin Eltek, with a hand on his chest, said to Iron Axe, "we think that it's better to keep construction than to stop and defend. The demons will probably know our intention, but His Majesty already expected this. As for the four flying demons, we only need to be on the basic alert."

In a word, the conclusion they got from all the information was "no threat".

The General Staff assisted in analyzing the information and giving advice while Iron Axe was the final decision-maker. He realized that he totally agreed with the conclusion.

The First Army was different from the ancient army 400 years ago. A vanguard unit of 5,000 soldiers was huge and would definitely not be affected by four Mad Demons. Even if they killed the demons at the price of the injuries and deaths of several workers, it would not be accounted as a loss for His Majesty's plan.

After all, the risk of working in Barbarian Land had long since been written into the contract.

Iron Axe looked at Edith, who did not say anything.

At the command post, silence meant approval.

"I got it. Order the construction team to continue working and the anti-aircraft machine gun squad to be on alert. The rest stand by as usual," Edith suddenly said when Iron Axe was ready to give orders to the lieutenant.

Not to him, but to Agatha and Phyllis.

"Do you have a way to swat those flies directly?"

"Do you want us... to take the initiative to attack?" Agatha frowned.

"That's right. I always feel it's not good to allow them to spy on us," the Pearl of the Northern Region nodded. "As I know, the two little girls who can fly have excellent combat ability, don't they? With the assistance of Lady of Dawn, they probably can kill all of the demons. This is beyond the capabilities of the First Army. Only you can do it."

"Well..." Agatha hesitatively said, "In theory, they won't be in danger only when there are two demons. Otherwise, if the demons throw spears, they can hardly dodge at a short distance. Even if Andrea were to shoot a demon down, there would still be three demons..."

She gradually stopped talking, as she found out what she said not so convincing.

Since it was a war, the risk was unavoidable, not to mention this war was so important that it would determine the future of humankind. To get an opportunity of survival, thousands of witches had fought with and been killed by the demons. Lightning should not get special treatment.

In fact, she had sensed Lightning's oddness since they had come to Fertile Plains. Though Lightning tried to hide it, Agatha, who had experienced the Battle of Divine Will, was not unfamiliar with this state, which was, the confusion after encountering an unimaginably powerful enemy. The strength of the enemy overpowered her and made her feel powerless. Even many Blessed Army witches who had been to the battlefield for many times could not get rid of it and had to use medicine or magic abilities to cure or wait to recover little by little by themselves.

As long as they could defeat the demons, Agatha did not mind the risk. She was willing to participate in any extremely dangerous plans if they were beneficial enough. She believed that other Taquila survivors would make the same choice.

Nonetheless, Lightning was different. Compelling her to confront with the demons in such state was not different from sending her to death.

Agatha feared no risks but she could not push others to the abyss, especially her partners and sisters.

After waking up again in Neverwinter, she realized that she had been changed a lot by these witches.

"Well..." Edith raised her eyebrows but did not insist, "How about driving the demons away? They can conceal themselves by using the Magic Ark. Then Lady of Dawn can try to find an opportunity to shoot at the demons. Even one is better than nothing. I think it's better than allowing the demons to spy on us."

Agatha looked at Iron Axe and said, "No problem. I'll inform the Special Action Team."

...

In the following days, a strange "chemistry" formed between the demons and the First Army.

Nearly every day a team of Devilbeasts would wander around the outer defense line, and sometimes two or three teams would appear. They came from different directions. Nevertheless, as long as it was within Sylvie's vision, their actions were clearly monitored by her. The First Army would know their whereabouts before they entered the range which could be seen by naked eye.

Since the demons probably failed to find an opportunity to launch an attack, they did not do anything except flying around.

At the very beginning, the demons caused certain chaos in the construction team. Several days later, people became accustomed to it and devoted to their work even when the demons appeared. After all, the "potential threat" was far away from them while the wages were more attractive.

The only "inharmonious part" came from Andrea.

Every time when a demon was shot and fell down, the crowd would burst into loud cheers.

It was completely unpredictable. Sometimes nothing would happen for a day, and sometimes the demons might be shot down for two or three times.

Most people did not know the existence of the Special Action Team, but they realized that the army was taking counteractions.

The workers even started a new type of gambling game.

That was to guess the doomsday of the demons.

They guessed how many demons would show up and how many could leave. This game became popular in their spare time.

As the construction went smoothly, the First Army soon advanced to the second section of the railway.

According to the combat plan, the railway line which was unprotected by the Misty Forest would be equipped with a station every 50 kilometers. The blockhouse built with concrete and steel could facilitate a small number of First Army soldiers to defend against demons multiple times. Meanwhile, the vanguard unit could coordinate with the previously stationed troops, and the logistics would also be more convenient.

The area between the stations would be protected by the armored train which cruised on the railway. Even if the demons destroyed part of the rails, it would not be difficult to repair.

With these stations, it would be impossible for the demons to destroy the "dark river" in a short time. The stations were like nails which facilitated the First Army to take roots on this fertile land.

What they needed to do at present was to knock in the second nail— "Tower Station No.1".

Chapter 1081 - A Quiet Night

The whole encampment lapsed into a dead silence after nightfall.

Everybody sank into deep slumber after working for a whole day, including the witches.

Yet Lightning was wide awake.

Her insomina had started around half a month ago — or rather, she had been feeling restless ever since her departure from the Misty Forest. The marks of Maggie's beak began to throb again, reminding her of the experience on that day.

Lightning did not know whether the pain was real or not. She had tried many different methods to distract herself but none of them worked. The wound was still there. It neither aggravated nor disappeared but remained on her chest like a permanent scarlet stain that refused to come off.

Lightning was distraught. Every day, she stayed awake until three or four in the morning before falling into a short, restless sleep. Haunted by constant nightmares, she would wake up with a flinch at the slightest sound made around her.

Lightning let out an almost inaudible sigh. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Maggie lying sprawled across her bed in a deep slumber.

She tucked her wrinkled blanket under Maggie's armpits, slid off the bed and walked out of the room quietly.

The witches' encampment was laid at the center of the campsite, guarded by the God's Punishment Witches. As Lightning did not want to disturb them, she flew out of the campsite and landed on the half-completed railway quietly.

The moonlight slanted along the road and silvered the edge of the railway tracks. A night breeze sighed through the field, ruffling bushes and trees. Dimly, she could hear birds chirping and insects sing. She would have liked a night like this before, but now she was just not in the mood to appreciate the beauty of nature.

Lightning did not even have the courage to look in Taquila's direction. She knew that the monster hiding in the dark was still watching her. Every time she sensed its gaze, her hand would automatically reach for her wound in the chest.

Looking at the crossties stretching across the field, Lightning felt bitter.

It had actually taken her a month to finally overcome her fear and fly over the low city wall of Neverwinter. Lightning knew she might never be able to directly confront the Senior Demons in Taquila, but she believed that as long as she continued with her rehabilitation program, she would, at least one day, be able to return to her original condition prior to the incident.

Yet the reality was ruthless. She not only lost the ability to summon her power at will but also had difficulties flying. What was worse, she even started to become scared of regular demons.

In the past, she and Maggie could beat four Mad Demons effortlessly.

But now, she could only tail the enemy at a distance, waiting for them to retreat.

In other words, she was a hindrance to the operation.

The thought almost brought Lightning to tears.

No matter how hard she tried to conceal her secret, people would eventually discover it.

Even Maggie, who was usually slow at understanding things, had noticed something different about her.

Perhaps one day, Maggie would go her own way, leaving her timid-self behind.

By then, what should she do?

"I'm so useless," Lightning mumbled as she crouched down and buried her head between her knees. "How can a person, so afraid of demons, be the captain of the Exploration Group? They'll definitely laugh at me if they know what a craven I am... I always regarded myself as the greatest explorer, but the truth is, I'm just a coward."

"Yes, you are," a voice in her head said reprimandingly. "They'll sooner or later know who you are and laugh at you."

"But I don't want this..." Lightning said and broke into a sob.

"Now you see the consequence of bragging. If you don't want anybody to mock you, you'd better leave for somewhere nobody knows. Otherwise, you'll be a laughing stock for sure."

"Is this the only way? To leave?"

"No, you can't leave," a voice said suddenly.

"Who's there?" Aghast, Lightning yelled and jerked her head upward. She saw a familiar figure not far away from her, with a pair of long ears and a tail wagging in the ghostly opaline white moonlight. "... Lorgar?" Lightning cried.

"Ahem..." The wolf girl answered on a cough. "As a disclaimer, it wasn't my intention to eavesdrop on you."

Lightning now noticed that Lorgar was drenched in sweat. Her olive skin, a typical feature of Mojins, was sparkling like dewy gemstones.

"Are you... on training?"

"Yes. I'm not as strong as an Extraordinary. Although I can transform into a wolf, I still need to strengthen my body. Otherwise, I'll become weak, let alone combatting," said Lorgar as she spread out her hands. "We haven't encountered any demons lately, and I've promised the chief not to leave the campsite. To make sure that I receive adequate physical training every day, I have to work out at night."

"I see..." Lightning mumbled, now completely back to the present. She took a deep breath, buried her face in her hands and asked, "Did you, hear everything?"

She did not even need an answer. Wolves normally had an acute sense of hearing.

Lightning felt the heat rise in her face and neck.

"Well..." Lorgar paused for a second and said, "I've never comforted anyone before, so I can't offer you solace. However, I want to tell you my father's story."

"He was born in the Wildflame clan and is a member of the Burnflame Family, but nobody expected him to be the chief of the clan at that time, because he has a big weakness compared to his eight brothers. My father doesn't like social events. He's afraid of hunting by himself, and hunting is a big social event by which the Mojins choose their chief. After all, a chief not only needs to manage affairs within his clan but also exert his influence on other tribes. Every clan would choose the best of their younger generations to showcase their power."

Lightning was at a loss for words. She could not believe what she had heard. The unsociable person whom Lorgar talked about had not only overshadowed everyone during the Neverwinter Sport Meeting but had also caught King Roland's attention. Was that man really Lorgar's father?

"To be honest, I didn't believe it when my father told me, so I went to check with my grandfather," Lorgar went on smilingly as she approached Lightning slowly and crouched down next to her. "But it was true. I asked my grandfather why he selected my father as the chief of our clan, and he said Guelz probably couldn't achieve anything by himself, but he is the strongest warrior in the clan with the support of his clansmen. So why not pick him? It's because clansmen should always support each other, and this is how a clan survives. A hunting event doesn't prove anything."

Lightning's heart missed a beat.

"I actually feel happy about... what my father and my elder brother did for me in Neverwinter," Lorgar said while dropping her ears. "My father did something he would have never done if it wasn't for me... He did something quite embarrassing."

"Hmm, r-really? You stormed off and went back to the Witch Building, leaving them in the castle hall alone. You said you didn't want to see them again, although I do admit that their outfits were a little inappropriate in that situation." thought Lightning.

"My grandfather probably wanted me to understand that courage not only comes from within but also from outside," said Lorgar slowly. "So why do you have to care so much about how other people look at you? If your team members in the Exploration Group come across a crisis, will you leave them alone?"

After a moment of silence, Lighting replied quietly, "... thank you."

"I've told you I'm not comforting you. I'm just telling you a story," said the wolf girl who jerked her head away. "So, you don't need to thank me for anything. Plus, I find the Exploration Group sort of interesting... As a group member, I'm obligated to cheer you up."

Lightning was on the verge of tears. She rubbed her eyes hastily, pretending it was a trick of winds. When she finally calmed herself down and was ready to speak, Lorgar suddenly turned around and clapped her hand over her mouth.

"Shh..."

"What's the matter?" After Lorgar lifted her hand, Lightning asked in hushed voice.

"Do you hear anything?"

Huh? Lightning raised her head and listened carefully. Other than the whistling wind, she heard nothing.

"Hang on... it seems the owls and the insects have stopped singing."

"Something is coming this way from there," Lorgar said while pricking up her ears, her eyes resting on the night sky in the east. "This whistle is... watch out!"

She grabbed Lightning by her waist, and the two girls rolled down a slope to the curb!

Just at that moment, they heard a deafening roar crack through the air above!

Chapter 1082 - A Battle in the Darkness

"What just happened?"

Lightning felt her head swimming. By the time she returned to the present, she found herself surrounded by numerous long black needles as thick as a man's finger. These lusterless crystals landed in the vicinity of the railway, point down, quivering like black swords.

Then, a few more blasts from the encampment shattered the silence of the night.

"This is... an attack!"

The enemy had sent the Spider Demons to attack the Expedition Corp!

By the time Lightning realized what had happened, the enemy had started their second round. This time, however, the noise did not come from the sky but traveled through the trembling ground underneath, thudding as if a heavy object were smashed into the earth.

"Oh, no..." Lorgar muttered under her breath. "That's where the Longsong Cannons are."

It appeared that the demons first located the encampment before they attacked the cannons. Could they really do that in such a pitch-black night?

"Why hasn't the alarm gone off yet?"

"I've got to wake everybody up!" Lightning yelled. Since she did not take her flight suit or sigil with her when she sneaked out, she had to fly back to the campsite against the heavy fire above the encampment. At this thought, Lightning grabbed Lorgar by her arm, trying to hoist her up to her feet.

"You..." Lighting turned around. To her great surprise, she saw a long needle half buried in Lorgar's leg, nailing the wolf girl into the ground. Blood oozed profusely from her wound and soaked her pants.

Lightning suddenly felt suffocating.

It was her fault that Lorgar got hurt...

"Don't be stupid," Lorgar said, grinning. "The needle would get me regardless. Probably my condition would have been even worse if I didn't meet you. Fortunately, there's no demons' blood on these stone needles, so I just got a scratch."

"What scratch! Your bone is broken," Lightning said within herself. From the volume of the blood, the needle might have reached Lorgar's main blood vessel. If that was the case, it should be handled very carefully. However, where could she find Nana now? If the Mad Demons came back, Lorgar would literally become a sitting duck, completely vulnerable and defenseless!

Lightning revolved a multitude of thoughts in her head rapidly but could not find a solution.

"Look," Lorgar said feebly as she put her hand on Lightning's shoulder. "You need to get to that big machine on the railway..."

"Do you mean the 'Blackriver'?" Lightning asked in surprise. "But..."

"Everybody should have heard the bombing by now," the wolf girl said painfully. "The problem is how we're going to deal with it. If my assumption is right, at least half of the enemy are coming for the Longsong Cannons. It seems to me that they're also using weapons other than stone needles. I don't know what's happening there, but if... if the demons get what they want, we would lose the only weapon that has a chance to repulse them. You know its possible consequence, don't you?"

If that happened, the Spider Demons would be able to pour down black needles at the encampment unscrupulously and break through the entire defensive line.

Lightning nodded.

"Aargh... then hurry up..." Lorgar urged, pushing Lightning on the back. "Although this is the first place being attacked, it's actually the safest. I'm not their target anyway... Look over there..."

Lightning looked in the direction Lorgar pointed at and saw the wooden watchtower at the end of the railway had been chopped off by half as if it were engulfed by the darkness.

"So, run! To the 'Blackriver'—" the wolf girl shouted at the top of her lungs through her teeth. "Only you can do that now!"

She was right. Flying would be the fastest way to deliver a message to the armored train traveling between the front and Station No. 0.

Lightning clenched her fist. She cast one last glance at Lorgar before turning around reluctantly. Within a second, she soared into the air and zoomed toward the encampment.

A few gunshots reached her ears.

As Lorgar had predicted, the whole campsite was awakened. Although the soldiers did not know where their enemy came from, they all scrambled to their feet and armed themselves for the upcoming battle.

So did the witches.

God's Punishment Witches were always the first ones to get themselves ready. They were light sleepers who kept their armors on even in their sleep. When Lightning dashed back into her room, she found an anxious Maggie pacing up and down in agitation.

"Where have you been, coo?" Maggie asked, throwing herself onto Lightning in a hug that nearly knocked her flat. "Why didn't you tell me you were out for a walk, coo?"

"I'm sorry, but I have to head to the 'Blackriver" now. I'll fill you in later," said Lightning with a surge of guilt. She had thought that tactless as Maggie was, she would never understand what fear meant. However, she had been wrong. Maggie might not necessarily feel scared, but she did care for her friend.

"I'll come with you, coo."

"No, they need you here," Lightning said, although deep down inside, she really wanted to have Maggie in her company. "Sylvie needs you to help her monitor the encampment. The more people keep an eye on the demons, the better!"

"Cheer up! I can't drag everyone's feet anymore," Lightning reminded herself.

"Also, I need you to do one thing for me first," Lightning added as she put on her flight suit as fast as she could. She brushed Maggie's long hair from her forehead, held her face with both her hands and said, "Please promise me that you'll succeed in this mission. It's the most important task of the Exploration Group."

"Coo?" Maggie asked while blinking.

"Please find Nana and take her to the end of the railway. Lorgar is seriously injured and is currently lying there. Please make sure you bring her back, ok?"

Maggie bent her head firmly and said, "Coo!"

"Then I'll entrust the matter to you," said Lightning as she gently pressed her forehead to Maggie's. She then flew straight out of the room.

As she climbed, she noticed the reason why the alarm had not gone off in the first place.

The five watchtowers in the outer ring of the defensive line were now all gone. Apparently, they had been destroyed during the enemy's first attack. Those watchtowers should have been fortified strongholds equipped with concrete blockhouses. However, since they had just started the construction of Tower Station No. 0, they had yet to erect web wires on the outer side of the trenches, let alone a complete set of fortifications.

What further unnerved Lightning was that the gunshots appeared to have come from the inner circle of the encampment, which meant that the soldiers were currently fighting against someone. Nevertheless, she had seen no sign that indicated the defensive line had been broken through so far. Although the enemy was still attacking the campsite, they seemed to be quite far away. So, who were the soldiers fighting against?

She started to understand how important her role was.

"Yes, I'm a coward."

"Yes, I lost to the Senior Demon."

"But there's still something I'm capable of..."

"Which is flying!"

"I admit I'm scared."

"As long as I don't look toward the north, I should be fine."

"I don't even need to face regular demons."

"I just need to fly straight to the railway. There's no excuse for me to be so timid anymore!"

Lightning sped up as she zoomed toward the forest along the "Black River".

"Faster, just a little faster!"

As she kept pushing herself, gradually, she felt her power come back. When she overcame her fear, the whole world around her became silent.

For the first time in such a long time, Lightning entered the Realm of Silence again after her awakening!

Chapter 1083 - A Black Apparition

Danny leaped out of the bed when he heard the first blast.

In the next moment, something splattered against the roof before crumbs and chipped stones started to rain down from the ceiling. The whole house began to wobble violently.

"W-what happened?"

"Is it an earthquake?"

His companions were all startled. The pitch-black room soon sank into chaos.

"No, it's a raid!" The soldier closest to the door yelped as he snatched up his rifle. He was about to rush out when Danny pinned him down to the floor. "What are you doing?" the soldier barked.

"Don't move. They're still attacking us!" Danny growled.

As Danny had expected, soon a few more blasts reached their ears, and something hailed down at the roof again.

"D-Damn it, that is..."

In a cloud of dust, someone lit a candle. After the dark was dispersed by the dim candlelight, everybody sucked in their breath in horror.

Thousands of sharp black needles had pierced the ceiling. In the flickering light, they looked like human hairs hanging upside down.

"That was a Spider Demon..." The soldier on the ground swallowed hard. Most members of the sniper unit had participated in the first expedition, so they knew the Spider Demons pretty well. The soldier on the floor immediately realized what would have happened to him had he rushed out of the house.

"If I survive this battle, I'll buy two lamb legs and thank Miss Lotus in person," another soldier promised as he patted his chest.

The soldiers normally lived in a tent during a battle; but this time, the witches built a few concrete houses for them. Although they were not sure whether it was a decision made by the management team or not, the concrete dwellings had definitely saved them on this particular occasion. If they had lived in a tent, they would have been long dead by now.

"Don't be so pessimistic. I'm still looking forward to my wedding."

"You just want to fawn over Miss Lotus, don't you?"

"Nonsense. If he intends to fawn over someone, it has to be Miss Angel, Nana."

It was a narrow escape, but none of them looked very concerned about this raid. They quickly armed themselves with weapons and ammunition while jabbering.

Because they all knew one thing.

Death was unavoidable and inevitable. Rather than worrying about their unforeseeable future, it would be more practical to kill the enemy.

As the campsite became gradually alive with noises, Danny pushed open the door and dashed out of the room while ducking his head.

The few sentinels outside the barrack were long dead. The whole encampment was raucous: people were yelling; demons were howling; there were also gunshots and explosions everywhere. Nobody knew the number and whereabouts of the enemy. The watchtower was enveloped in an impenetrable darkness with no lights on to point them direction, as though these demons all had come out of nowhere.

Danny clambered straight up to the roof and sprinted in the direction where he heard the least gunshots, totally ignoring his desperate companions shouting behind him.

"I thought you would look for the place where most people are."

He heard Malt chuckle in his head.

This was the reason he liked fighting.

His partner would only appear when he threw himself into a battle.

"If there are many people, it means our guys are in an advantageous position. My presence would just help them finish off their enemy faster," Danny replied. "However, on-and-off gunshots indicate someone is having a bitter fight. They tell me that my bullet is in need."

"I'd told you before that it wasn't your fault— you can't save everyone on a battlefield."

"But at least I can save the ones I see," Danny said with a smile. "Don't worry. I feel good. I can see you better now."

Danny looked around. As he had expected, he saw his old partner float out of the darkness, running next to him.

Danny soon found a high point of the battleground as he proceeded. After he climbed up a tottering pile of iron cases, he immediately spied some Longsong Cannons standing in an open field in his vicinity. A few demons were using bunkers to have physical altercations with some artilleries. Apparently, the artilleries, not equipped with heavy weapons, were having a difficult time subduing the demons. They could not easily recover their encampment while the latter was spearing.

Many people were lying sprawled in pools of blood, penetrated by bone spears on the road leading to the artillery field.

"How did they get here?"

"I have no idea, but I'm now going to finish them," Danny said as he raised his long gun and aimed it at a demon who sneaked up behind a barrack. If this demon succeeded in his attempt, the artillerymen would suffer an onslaught. However, the demon was now too focused on its own undertaking to realize that a sniper was right behind it.

Danny pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation. As a cloud of Red Mist erupted from the back of its head, the demon fell off the roof and plummeted to the ground.

Danny could literally hit anyone within 100 meters in the moonlight.

"Good job. Watch out for your left-hand side. Someone's coming."

Danny then saw five or six soldiers crouch at a corner, inching toward the edge of the wall, planning to have a desperate struggle with the demons despite the raining spears.

"Very brave fellows but pretty silly as well. Without a shield, you can't possibly survive the spearing attack," Danny muttered under his breath, his lips curling up into a smile. "How about hanging in there for a bit longer?"

He quickly fired three shots, and the bullets landed right beside the soldiers' feet just when they were about to make their move. Frightened by the whistle of the bullets and resultant dust, they shrank back.

"They would bite your head off if they knew it was you," Malt said apprehensively.

"Hahaha." Danny broke into a laughter. "Let them be." He re-aimed his gun at the Mad Demons and shot in rapid succession. Deterred by the gunshots, the demons stopped attacking the barrack and hid themselves.

Just then, a loud noise cracked through the air above.

"Watch out! Look over there!"

No sooner had Malt finished his warning than several shadows descended from the sky and dived to the encampment.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The earth quavered when the shadows hit the ground.

In the moonlight, Danny found out in his great dismay that they were actually three giant black stone pillars! The stone pillars started to billow clouds of Red Mist after they landed. They sizzled just like the steam engine invented by His Majesty.

But he soon realized they were not machines.

Three thick slabs peeled off the big pillars, producing a ton of "blood". The pillars were then divided into three parts, each of which contained a demon! These demons were enveloped in a fluid-filled sac, just as a baby floated in its mother's womb. After the sac was drained of blood, the demons awoke, revealing their gruesome tusks.

A bullet landed precisely on one of the Mad Demons' head when it walked out of a black stone pillar.

"Crack!"

The demon staggered and then slumped against the stone pillar with a thud.

"So this is how you came here," Danny snorted as he reloaded his gun. "Why didn't you just stay in there since you weren't fully awake anyway? Come as you like, but I'll kill every single one of you. Watch me, Malt!"

Chapter 1084 - In Battle Fumes

The battle became fiercer as the enemy continued to attack.

With a whoosh, a dozen stone pillars plunged from above. Thick ashes and smoke, mixed with the Red Mist, permeated the air and overspread the pale moon. Chipped stones splattered against the ground, forcing people to bow their heads. The whole situation turned into a sort of doomsday disaster. One stone pillar landed right on one of the iron cases. The shockwaves sent Danny flying across the battlefield. By the time he realized what had happened, he had laid in a heap on the ground.

"Aargh... damn it," Danny muttered between his coughs, feeling a pain lance through his chest. Meanwhile, he also tasted blood in his mouth. "Malt, are... are you OK?"

"I'm fine," Malt replied next to him anxiously, "but you are hurt!"

"I've probably got a broken rib," said Danny through his teeth, wincing. "It's not a big deal though. As long as I can still pull the trigger, I can continue to fight..."

He fumbled in the darkness for his gun frantically, a little panic until he finally found it.

"No, you should run, as fast as you can!" Malt implored.

Danny struggled to draw himself up and leaned against a dented iron case behind him.

It almost cost him all his strength.

He saw a towering black stone pillar loom against the cloud of Red Mist, about to open.

Danny raised his gun slowly and placed it on his shoulder while using his knee to stabilize the weapon. Since the target was just ten meters away, he did not think he would miss it.

"Stop! That's enough! Why don't you leave?"

Danny could hear Malt scream. He also wanted to ask himself the same question.

"Because I don't want to leave the battlefield and I don't want to lose you..."

The moment he fired, the slab collapsed.

He hit it.

Before the demon tore the sac open, the bullet had penetrated his forehead.

This time, however, the demon did not fell flat on its face.

It walked out of the pillar while shaking what remained of the sac off his body and stopped before Danny.

It was an armored demon much larger than a Mad Demon. As it drew itself to its full, magnificent height, it cast Danny into a long shadow that spread across the sky. In the utter darkness, Danny could only see its red eyes glinting maliciously.

Danny reloaded the gun and pulled the trigger again.

With a clink, sparks flew off the demon's chest and pale blue waves rippled across its body.

The demon fixed Danny with a cool stare and slouched toward him.

It did not draw out its weapon but continue to shuffle toward him with a supercilious look on its face.

Danny repeated the same action mechanically. He reloaded the gun and fired, but his bullets seemed to have lost their magic touch.

"No..." Malt broke into a sob in despair.

Upon the fourth shot, dazzling flames suddenly erupted from the demon's chest.

"Bang!"

With an earsplitting crash, the demon was sent flying across the field and straight into an iron case.

Danny stood transfixed on the ground, watching a tendril of smoke escape from the muzzle in amazement.

Then he saw a man in front of him.

"Run, mortal," said the man as he turned around. "This is not something you can handle. We'll take over from here."

The man was carrying a rifle with a huge caliber, the bullets around his waist as thick as his wrist. Apparently, they were not something a normal man could carry. Further, the man was plastered with the same armor the demon was wearing.

"Special Unit of Strategies and Tactics".

Those were the words that came to Danny's mind at that moment.

This unit had become the most mysterious unit of the First Army since their debut during the first expedition. They never attended their training sessions, so nobody knew exactly how many of them there were and where they were stationed. The only thing he knew about them was that they were all picked by His Majesty himself and were considered as the most powerful troops in Neverwinter.

"Grrrrrr—"

The demon crawled out of the overturned iron case and hollered angrily. It finally changed its haughty attitude and reached for the giant double-edged sword on its back.

"Hmm, a Senior Demon promoted from Lord of Hell? No wonder you have such a strong magic reaction," the man said to the demon as much as he said to himself as he dashed toward his enemy fearlessly. "We've been waiting for this moment for a long time!"

Several soldiers armored in the same fashion followed at his heels. As the group joined the battle, the situation gradually changed. Despite their heavy load, they moved and walked much faster than a regular soldier. As they slowly cornered the enemy, their attack turned more brutal and even savage. After they exhausted their ammunition, instead of using bunkers, they switched to bayonets and started to stab the enemy ferociously.

The demon was actually swifter than it appeared. However, surrounded by the four raging warriors who were apparently out of their minds, it finally yielded to its fate. Its blue ripples started to fade.

No wonder they were picked by the king.

Yet this was also Danny's battlefield.

Danny would never back off unless he died.

He forced himself to sit up, supported his gun with his own body and aimed it at the battlefield.

When he shot down a Mad Demon that attempted to launch a surprise attack at the Special Unit of Strategies and Tactics from behind, the warrior turned around and cast him a glance from a distance.

Danny pulled open the bolt and took a sharp intake of the air saturated with the smell of gunpowder in a way an addict inhaled heroin. It was a mixed feeling of pain and satisfaction.

"Doesn't it feel good, Malt?"

...

"Darn! What the hell is the Artillery Battalion doing?"

"Can't they stop those raining stone needles?"

"I hope they didn't send newbies to the front."

Down the trenches in the outer ring of the encampment, some soldiers were complaining behind shields, and Fishball was one of them. Although he was a member of the anti-aircraft machine gun squad, he did not think it a good idea to operate the machine guns when their enemy happened to be something more grisly than flying Devilbeasts.

After they had been wakened up, they had immediately manned the defensive line according to the predetermined procedure. They soon bombarded a few demons with crossfire and mortars on their way, so the defensive line remained intact. The soldiers on duty were confused as to who they were killing next. When everybody thought their mission would be exterminating loose invaders, they received a new order from their superior, who instructed them not to leave the trenches under any circumstances whilst preparing themselves for a fight against their real enemy.

A group of demons was coming to attack the campsite from both the east and the south. They were the main force of the enemy.

Fish Ball thought of the expedition that had taken place a few months ago, where swarms of demons had sprinted toward them at a tremendous speed. It was a chilling scene to behold. Fortunately, the First Army had got themselves well prepared. Their gunfire had stopped the demons somewhere 200 meters away from the encampment.

Yet now, there were no fortified blockhouses around the defensive line, and artillery reinforcements had yet to show up. Every now and then, a blast cracked like a whip through the air above them. As they could practically see nothing through the inky darkness, Fish Ball was not sure whether they would be as lucky as the last time.

"They're coming!" Suddenly, someone yelled. "They are 1,500 meters away from us. Everybody, stay alert!"

"1,500 meters? We can barely see anything within 200 meters!" Fish Ball complained within himself. He knew the order was given by the witch who possessed the Eye of Magic. However, as a soldier, he must obey orders. Under no circumstances could he desert his post. Fish Ball clenched his teeth, ready to fire.

Just at that moment, the train let out a long shrill whistle in the distance!

Chapter 1085 - Attack and Defense

"Could you make it a little faster?" Lightning hovered beside the conductor, so tempted to push the train forward herself. However, she knew that even Maggie could not move such a colossal machine barehanded. "Could you shove more coals into the boiler?"

"Haha, the boiler would burst under high air pressure, little girl!" said the conductor, a silver-haired old man who looked more like a kind-hearted next-door neighbor than a soldier. He yelled back over the clunk of the train, "Don't worry. It isn't that easy to beat the First Army, even for the demons from Hell."

Lightning pursed her lips and fell silent.

Although the train was running at an enormous speed, Lightning was still quite anxious. It had not taken her a very long time to find the "Blackriver", for the train was, after all, too large to miss. She had actually startled everybody on the train when she had burst in. Other than that, everything went as planned. As a member of the Witch Union, she had soon convinced the conductor, who had then ordered his crew to turn the train about.

Yet this did not ease her mind at all.

After the train turned around and headed in the direction of Tower Station No. 1, Lightning finally got hold of Sylvie. The message from Sylvie gave her a leaden feeling in her stomach: the demons had caught the First Army off-guard, and their main force was now hurrying to the encampment from two different directions. If the First Army did not get the support of the artillery anytime sooner, the situation was going to be quite precarious.

After receiving the news, Lightning could not feel as optimistic as the old conductor anymore.

The only good thing was that Maggie had successfully located injured Lorgar. The latter was now out of danger after receiving Nana's treatment.

"It's noisy and windy out there. Don't you want to come in? I don't like yelling all the time," the conductor said as he took a deep pull on his pipe. He leaned against the window and said, "It's wobbly but at least it's warm in here. The boiler works much better than a fireplace!"

"No... thanks," Lightning declined the offer while casting a glance at the rickety dashboard. She shook her head and said, "I'm fine."

The conductor was right. It was indeed the fastest the "Blackriver" could get.

If the train ran a little faster than this, it would definitely fall apart even if the boiler could manage such a crazy speed.

"I know you're still worried about the encampment. Do you have any family members or friends there?"

"Yes," Lightning answered with an apprehensive look.

"So do I," the conductor said as he stroked his beard. "I have two actually!"

"Oh?" Lightning was a bit surprised. She had thought otherwise, for the conductor did not seem to be very worried at all.

"I used to be a miner and I had four children before. My first one died of a chill, and the other three survive the arrival of King Wimbledon," the old man explained smilingly. "My two sons used to be as frail and weak as mice. However, after they joined the army, they've changed a lot. That's why I'm confident in the First Army. An army with people like that would not be so easily defeated."

Lightning doubted the credibility of his words, but she asked, "What about the other one?"

"He's right on this train," said the conductor as he tapped his pipe. "He's the lookout who found you approach the train in the first place."

The old man paused for a second and then went on, looking quite proud of himself, "His Majesty brought so many changes to this town, and I wanted to do something for him in return. It was quite boring to stay at the mine all day, to be honest. I reckoned it would be much more fun to travel around. When his Majesty came to hire machine engine operators to operate the train, I applied for the conductor position. With a stroke of luck, I got the job."

Lightning twitched her lips and was about to say something when the telephone on the control panel suddenly rang.

"Father, I just saw Tower Station No. 1! There's a fight going on there and I can see flames and flickers of light!" The voice on the other end of the line was so loud that even Lightning could hear it clearly outside the window.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me father in the army?" the old man bellowed over the phone. "Keep an eye on the front. I'm going to sound the alarm and tell them that the reinforcements are coming!"

He then tugged on his whiskers at Lightning and said, "See? They can't be defeated that fast, right?" Then, the old conductor turned around, pulled the string behind him and hollered, "Let's go, lads!"

"Woooooo——"

About seven minutes later, with a deep groan, the "Blackriver" slowed down and joined the battle after a long, low-pitched whistle.

Stones needles were smashed to pieces as they hit the railway. When the black stone and the steel clashed, a jet of sparks flew off the inky locomotive.

Several demons approached the railway, attempting to stop the giant steel beast from advancing, believing that they could stop the trundling train barehanded. They all, as a result, got sucked under the train and were crushed into a pulp.

No living creature could possibly stop a train, no matter how slow the train appeared.

In the meantime, the machine guns at the front and the rear of the armored train started to rake through the area. Caught in the crossfire, the demons had no time to take over. Their bone spears were virtually ineffective on the "Blackriver".

Lightning, on the other hand, had flown into the turret.

"Sylvie, where's our target?"

"Right in front of you around 3,300 meters away," Sylvie answered, apparently having noticed the train as well. She blurted out the firing parameters at once. "We have a clear field. Ready to go!"

The artillerymen started working as soon as the train came to a complete halt.

...

Sylvie could now see that the enemy's main force enter their shooting range.

There were just around 5,000 demons this time, much less than when they had fought at the Northbound Slope. Like some random bandits, the demons were in quite a loose formation. The First Army thus pretty much prevailed the entire battlefield, making the whole situation a little odd and bloodcurdling.

A short way farther on, the vision of the Eye of Magic distorted.

An impenetrable blackness rose above the ground, blocking the view of the Magic Eye. However, this was different from an interference of a God's Stone of Retaliation. An anti-magic area generated by a God's stone was a clean-cut block, whereas the black vision ahead was more like something else... like a living being.

It came so suddenly, for there had been nothing just a second ago.

The long needles pelting down at the campsite and the stone pillars had all come from that black mantle.

This was the toughest and the most intense battle Sylvie had ever experienced. The whole battle, from the ambush to the attack, gave her a sinister feeling. She could not see clearly, and it appeared that everything the demons had done so far was targetting her.

She had no time to think about how the enemy had got so close to the encampment unnoticed. Her sole focus was on the "Blackriver".

Since she did not know the exact location of the demons, she had to make adjustments according to the landing spots of the bullets.

After she waited for a long time in anxiety, the "Blackriver" finally produced its first thunderous roar. Scorching flames lit the encampment, and firelight reflected off the gleaming train!

The shell traveled even faster than the sound.

It penetrated the thick air, weaving through the darkness as the air rippled behind it.

Chapter 1086 - A Sharp Confrontation

At the same time, the demons started to charge both flanks of First Army.

Within two minutes, they were 500 meters closer, darting from somewhere 1,500 meters away to somewhere less than 1,000 meters from the encampment. If this had happened in broad daylight, the First Army would have been able to see the enemy clearly at this distance. However, the poor visibility at night significantly impacted their vision. Although Sylvie had notified the liason officer about the demons' movement immediatley, the First Army had failed to react fast enough.

What was more astonishing was that the demons actually dropped prone on their stomaches when artillery shells landed near them. With their strong limbs, they crawled pretty fast. As the demons were spread out, the machine guns were much less effective.

Sylvie remembered that the machine gun squad used to be invincible. They could block attacks in any forms and annihilate every single enemy within their shooting range as fast as farmers reaped their crops. Within a second, they could cause considerable damage to their enemy. The unification war of Graycastle and the defeat of the church had provided perfect examples.

However, this time, bullets kept missing the demons. With them crawling forward in the dark, it was hard to kill the demons.

Sylvie warned the front at once. However, since the soldiers could not see where the bullets were hitting, they weren't able to correct their aim.

Fortunately, the attack on the other side was effective. As the black mantle could only block the Magic Eye but not artillery shells, the shells streaked across the battlefield from 3,000 meters away. Firelight lit up the inky sky. Broken limbs and chipped black stones were thrown out from the black shroud as the shells exploded.

Based on the area she was blind to and the rate at which the demons' projectiles were fired, Sylvie believed that the Spider Demons had formed columns. It was the only way could they fill such a small space with as many Spider Demons as possible.

"Keep firing! March forward in 20 meters increments!" Sylvie shouted over the Sigil of Listening.

"Got it!"

The most important thing at the moment was to stop the enemy from launching any more long-distance strikes. As long as the defensive line was still there, the demons could not easily break through. The closer they were from the encampment, the easier it would be for the soldiers to see them. Additionally, First Army had other weapons besides machine guns.

If the defensive line was broken, the whole army could face annihilation.

Fish Ball was praying at the front that no stone needles would land on his head. He came to a shooting position while clenching his teeth.

In fact, he was quite surprised that he had the courage to dash out of the trench. If this had happened in the past, he would have probably wetted himself already while imploring the commander to spare his life.

Perhaps the comment "you aren't a craven" or the roar of the artillery behind him made him bold. In the end, he managed to remain at his post, thus avoiding the fate of being the first military officer executed for desertion. Although he was just a unit leader, he still needed to set a good example for his team. Yet Fish Ball knew that he would normally never agree to take such a risky assignment, as he treasured his life more than money.

Fish Ball had to admit that the army was an incredible place. Once the first soldier darted out of the trench against hailing gunfires, the rest would automatically follow. When the intense atmosphere reached a certain point, his brain simply stopped functioning properly and all he could do was to follow the procedure mechanically.

"Captain, the cartridge has been loaded!" his men yelled.

Fish Ball took a deep breath and lowered the muzzle of the Mark I. Although he was a member of the anti-aircraft machine gun squad, the gun he was using was still equipped with a rear sight and an optical sight, which let him aim at the demons on the ground. The two baffle plates on either side of his machine gun were mainly to protect him from the spears pelting down from the sky. Once he lowered the plates, his back would be unprotected. Therefore, apart from praying, he could only draw himself as close to the plates as possible to avoid being hit.

As long as he did not die on the spot, Miss Nana would be able to heal him.

In order for Miss Nana to do so, the field medics needed to rescue the wounded as fast as possible.

Trying to overcome his fear, Fish Ball growled as he pulled the trigger. The thick night air was soon filled with bullets.

As the battlefield was permeated with loud blasts, Fish Ball could hardly tell the attack of the Longsong Cannons from that of the Spider Demons.

Occasionally, black stone needles brushed past his ear or hit the baffle plates. Being so close to death, Fish Ball was numbed to everything and could only think of continuing to shoot.

"Ammo out! Reload!"

"C-coming!"

...

"Where's the cartridge?"

"Here!"

...

When he finally saw the sihoulette of the demons, Fish Ball heard the bolt click. He had just exhausted the third cartridge of bullets.

"Reload!"

"Didn't anyone hear me?"

"Hey, what are you guys doing?"

Fish Ball wheeled around abruptly and found the other two soldiers lying on the ground with crimson-stained stone needles piercing their bodies.

Fish Ball stiffened for a second before he realized what had happened. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "Field medics, somebody needs help here!"

Nothing but thunderous roars answered him.

At that moment, the mortars finally started firing. Hundreds of shells rose into the air and rained down, carpeting the area between 400 and 800 meters away from the defensive perimeter.

For a split second, flames blossomed above the ground, lighting up on both the demons and the blood stains on the baffle plates of his machine gun.

...

This was the moment Sylvie had been waiting for.

The 'Blackriver" had weakened the Spider Demons' attack, but didn't fully stop them. Every now and then, they threw another stone pillar at the soldiers, causing more and more injuries to the First Army. Even though Agatha, Shavi and Molly were now fully supporting the army, it was impossible for them to monitor the entire 200-meter defensive line.

The only thing Sylvie could do was to let the front know who needed help when she was not giving firing instructions.

Then she heard Maggie's voice coming from the Sigil of Listening.

"This is the artillery, coo! The Taquila Witches have killed all the demons that invaded the encampment, coo. Commander Van'er says he's ready to fire and hopes that you could give him instructions, coo!"

Sylvie balled her hand into a fist.

"Stay there. It will be faster for me to communicate via the sigil than by phone!"

"Noted, coo."

Just when the artillery was about to use the four Longsong Cannons to strike back, the demons' attack suddenly dropped off. It seemed that they knew that this would happen.

A loud, piercing whistle cracked through the air, and the Army of the Demons immediately ebbed away, leaving behind those at the front line.

Chapter 1087 - Loss and Victory

...

When Anna descended to the underground headquarters, she immediately sensed the oppressive atmosphere in the room.

Everybody rose to their feet and bowed their heads as they saw her. "Your Royal Highness, ma'am!" they said in a chorus.

Iron Axe went down to his knee and said, "I'm sorry for having you come down here. I should have anticipated that the enemy would raid the encampment at night and take extra precautions accordingly. I sincerely apologize for my negligence."

"Please don't blame yourselves," said Anna as she waved her hand. "I'm just concerned about the situation at the front like everybody else. I want to know what's going on. Is everybody... OK?"

Anna was still not accustomed to the fact that she was now the queen. She felt particularly embarrassed when Wendy, Agatha, and the other witches bowed to her. She actually preferred to treat all the other witches as her sisters, although she had never specifically said that aloud.

When the campsite had been attacked, she had immediately been escorted by both the God's Punishment Witches and her guards to the underground shelter. However, Anna would have rather fought with the others like she had done during the Months of Demons than being strictly protected.

Yet she knew as the queen, she had to accept some inevitable changes.

She just hoped that her presence could put everyone's mind at ease.

Iron Axe, surprisingly, looked hesitant. After a moment of silence, he answered, "Your Highness, the battle didn't go well."

"Can you tell me more about it?"

"Certainly. We were actually just discussing it," said Iron Axe, who cast a glance at Ferlin Eltek. The latter gave a nod of comprehension and opened his notebook.

"Based on the reports from the field medics, 200 killed and 700 wounded in First Army," Morning Light replied heavily.

"However, these are just the initial rough estimates. We got those numbers in quite a hurry. The actual casualties will likely be higher, since Miss Nana... can't treat so many people at once."

200 deaths. This number almost equaled the number of casualties the decisive battle against the Church. However, that massive battle was the final battle of the war with the Church. This was the very first battle with the demons after they started advancing north. There was still a long way to go before First Army reached the Taquila ruins.

No wonder Iron Axe was disconcerted by the outcome of this battle.

Anna had seen the wounded soldiers who were covered in blood, lying on the ground in a line. The air in the hospital was saturated with the smell of blood and the sound of inarticulate groans. Nana definitely could not cure all of the wounded at once. For the maimed soldiers and those who suffered severe internal organ damage, she could only cure five to six people at most in one day. Therefore, in order to save more people, she had to apply her magic power to the ones most in need.

For example, Nana would only heal fatal wounds for the soldiers who were wounded in the chest or abdomen. For those who sustained minor injuries, she would instruct the field medics to stitch up their wounds after the soldiers drank Cleansing Water. As for those who had relatively severe injuries, she had to leave their wounds open before she treated them the next day. The soldiers would thus rely on the medicine made from sleeping ferns and coltsfoot to reduce pain. As to whether they would survive the night or whether the liquid medicine would cause addiction, the field medics did not have time or effort to thoroughly think about these problems.

It was not easy to accurately apply magic power to a specific body part in such an intense environment. Anna was surprised at how much Nana had improved. Compared to the little school girl who used to faint at the sight of blood, Nana was now an experienced and professional military doctor.

"I'll advise His Majesty to persuade Countess Spear from Fallen Dragon Ridge to send us reinforcements," said Anna slowly. "She can help the field medics to save more people. By the way, how did the demons sneak in?"

"I guess... the enemy took advantage of the limits of my Magic Eye," said Sylvie, who apparently looked very frustrated. "The Devilbeast scouts they sent earlier were probably trying to learn how far my Magic Eye can see, and I was completely unaware they were watching me..."

"We should have thought about that," Agatha put in self-reprovingly. "After the battle at North Slope, the demons apparently noticed Sylvie's presence. They used Devilbeasts to first test out how far her Eye of Magic can see based on our reactions to them. Then, their army gathered outside that range and raided us after night fell. They started attacking us the very moment we retreated from Tower Station No.1, when our encampment was the most unguarded."

"That being said, this wasn't anybody's fault," Morning Light comforted. "If we really wanted to deceive the enemy, we'd have had to ignore the Devilbeasts when they approached us. This would be against the protocols we received during our training. Even if we knew the enemy's plan beforehand, it would be impossible maintain a scharade with thousands of soldiers and regular workers. In other words, the enemy would have learned the limits of the Magic Eye at somepoint anyways. Even if they didn't ambush us at Tower Station No. 1, they would have done so at No. 2 or No. 3."

"If I remember correctly, the shooting range of the Spider Demons is around two to three kilometers. Since they are fairly slow, it normally takes them quite a while to enter our firing range and be spotted by Sylvie. Is it just pure luck that they weren't spotted in the first place?" Anna asked in confusion. "I'm not really familiar with the operation. Correct me if I'm wrong. The First Army should have their own scouting team, shouldn't they? For example, they can use hydrogen ballons at the encampment."

"You're always so attentive to details, Your Highness," Iron Axe replied while placing his hand on his chest. "Generally speaking, the First Army gathers information in three ways: through Sylvie, through Maggie and Lightning, and by themselves. However, the army scouts are just supplementary and only for contingencies."

After hearing the explanation from the commander-in-chief, Anna finally had a basic understanding of the intelligence system of the First Army. During the Graycastle unification war, this system had worked pretty well. Yet when they fought against the demons, they soon noticed some big flaws in this system.

Nothing running on the ground could compete against the Devilbeasts flying in the sky.

This meant there was a limit in how much information the army scouts could obtain. Once they went beyond that limit, their mission could be highly risky and even life-threatening, and dead people can't bring back information. The Devilbeasts were able to hide in clouds, giving them an absolute advantage over scouts on the ground. As the Fertile Plains was flatter than a pancake, they could dive down anytime like a hawk snatching up a rabbit.

This disadvantage significantly restricted the amount of information the First Army could collect. In this situation, they could barely assist Sylvie. Meanwhile, the flying demons could prey on any soldiers sent out to scout while escaping the scrutiny of the Magic Eye. There was basically nothing the First Army could do about it.

A phrase suddenly flashed across Anna's mind.

A phrase that Roland had a mixed feeling about every time he mentioned it.

That was "air supremacy".

The party who had the command of the sky dominated the war.

Apart from "air supremacy", there were also some other phrases beyond her understanding which Roland said from time to time, such as the Black Ribbon and Akiyama...

Anna shook her head, trying to put these thoughts behind her. She asked, "Based on your description, the Spider Demons should have reached the third layer of the defensive line by the time we saw them. Was it because of the poor lighting at night that we failed to notice them?"

"That's one of the reasons, Your Highness," Ferlin Eltek replied. "The General Staff believes... that those monsters were probably waiting for us there from the beginning."

Anna blinked in mild surprise and asked, "Are you saying... that they were hiding right underneath us?"

"That's right. This is the only explanation that makes sense as to why these giant creatures suddenly emerged within shooting range," Ferlin confirmed in a grave tone. "I asked Miss Sylvie. She told me it costs her a lot of magic power to see through solid matter. When she does that, she can't see very far. It seems the Devilbeasts were also diverting Miss Sylvie's attention while testing out how far she can see. Once she focused solely on the sky, she would not have excess magic power to also monitor things underground."

"So this is why the demons successfully raided the encampment?" Anna questioned herself in silence.

If both Sylvie and the demons were stationary, it would be a lot easier for Sylvie to notice the movement below. The blackness Sylvie had seen was probably not to cover the demons, but rather to distract Sylvie from the Spider Demons when they came out of hiding.

Now they knew they were dealing with a very difficult enemy. The demons had not only come up with a strategy that countered First Army's operation methods, but they were also extremely proficient in their use of magic power.

It was no wonder that a suffocating atmosphere had settled over First Army's headquarters.

This was definitely not a good sign.

What would Roland do if he were here?

While Anna was trying to come up with some encouraging words, Edith suddenly burst into a fit of laughter.

"Why all the long faces like you just lost a battle? We just gained a major victory!" She said while chuckling. "Am I in the wrong meeting?"

Chapter 1088 - Just a Beginning

"Lady Edith..." Ferlin reminded her in a hushed voice. "We just lost over 200 people. What major victory are you talking about?"

"Only... a little over 200," the Pearl of the Northern Region interjected. "What about the demons? 50 of them sneaked in the campsite, including a Senior Demon. They should be responsible for all the casualties of the First Army. It appears that we suffered a great loss at the first glance, but there are at least 2,000 casualties among the enemy on the defensive line, not to mention that this is just a very rough estimate. There were also numerous demons blasted to pieces when they attempted to flee. It may take a few days for us to obtain the exact number. Am I right, Miss Sylvie?"

"Well..." Sylvie said hesitantly, "That's what the Eye of Magic saw."

"Ms. Agatha, I guess you've never been a commander in a war over the past 400 years, have you?" asked Edith as she turned to the Ice Witch.

Agatha's brows were furrowed. She said, "During the Battle of Divine Will, it was mandatory for the witches in the Union to learn how to fight against demons. I used to be a researcher at the Quest Society and fought them once when exploring the ruins..."

"I'm talking about a war," Edith snapped, leaning forward while gazing at Agatha compellingly.

"Edith— " Iron Axe said, trying to put a pause on this awkward conversation.

"Why?" At that moment, Anna blurted out, jerking everyone back to the present. "Why do you ask her that? As far as I know, you were only a commander back in the Northern Region and shouldn't have experienced a major war either."

This was a particularly tricky question that would have easily fanned Edith's fury had it been put by somebody else. However, Anna communicated it in such a gentle and dignified manner that no one felt the question threatening.

Perhaps, the innocent and serious look in the azure of her eyes naturally calmed everybody down.

The glint in Edith's eyes faded away. The next moment she placed her hand on her chest and replied quietly, "You're right. I didn't have war experience, but someone else here did..." She broke off and then continued, "From her look, I instantly know we won this battle."

Her?

The people in the room looked in the direction Edith pointed out and saw at the end of the long table, the representative of Taquila, Phyllis, sitting there in a daze, with a cup of tea in her hand, her lips curling up into a smile. Every now and then, she took a little sip of the tea as if savoring some tasty drink. This was not normal for the Taquila witches. As they had lost all the sensations, the pleasure of eating and drinking were denied them. Food was simply a basic life necessity to help them self-perpetuate.

Despite the fierce discussion, Phyllis was completely not paying attention to the meeting. Even though everyone was now staring at her, her mind seemed to still be somewhere else.

It was after Wendy pushed her in the back that she finally jerked herself out of the trance.

"Oh, so where were we?" The God's Punishment Witch asked blankly on a cough. "I was thinking about something very important and wasn't paying attention to your discussion. Well, does Your Highness have some questions for me?"

"..." There was an awkward silence.

It was surprising to see that an ancient witch, who had been living for 400 years, lie in the same fashion as mortals. Phyllis was clearly daydreaming, but she unblushingly turned her lack of attention into a very poor lie that she was dwelling on some serious undertakings.

"Haha."

Somebody sniggered, and then everybody laughed. The tension in the room was immediately relieved.

"Looks like I don't need reiterate my question now," Anna said while shaking her head in amusement.

Edith rose, surveyed the room, and said, "The demons suffered a greater loss. They fled but we stayed. There's no damage whatsover to Tower Station No. 1, so where does the talk of defeat come from? His Majesty once said to me that a loss means a failure to accomplish a predetermined goal. Apparently, the demons didn't get what they wanted. I would even like to say that the commander of the demons made a very serious mistake."

"A mistake?" The people on the floor were all astounded at Edith's conclusion. It did not seem to them that the ambush last night was a failure. It had been well planned out and successfully executed. The demons' accurate control of their magic power might not necessarily look very impressive. After all, they had been constantly upgrading their magic skills over the past thousands of years through numerous wars. However, their quick and effective reaction to firearms definitely said something about their learning ability, for there had been completely no communication between human beings and demons until the outbreak of the war at the Northbound Slope.

Everyone started to realize that the demons were nothing like any of the enemy they had encountered before. Although the demons had once almost eradicated the human race from Fertile Plains and destroyed the witch empire, nobody had personally witnessed that dust-laden history. The past thus gradually faded into oblivion, leaving only a thin thread of memory that would easily snap and float off with time.

It was until the outbreak of this war that people finally caught a glimpse of the mysterious history and started to feel a little scared. Nevertheless, nobody had shared their fear.

They realized that the demons were far stronger than the demonic beasts on the Barbarian Land.

Apart from their magic power and enormous physical strength, the demons had developed a high level of civilization.

They even possessed knowledge unknown to human beings.

When mankind could no longer use excuses such as "the demons relied on the power and magic granted by Gods", and when the notion that man was the smartest creature on the continent was challenged for the first time, the shock was absolutely ineffable.

Immediately, men started to question themselves and overlooked the potential problems among the demons. That was why everybody was curious when Edith said the demons had lost the battle.

"What's their mistake then?" Anna asked instantly.

"They're too arrogant, Your Highness," Edith answered firmly. "They first stirred the encampment, then seized the artillery, and finally drove the army straight in. If they were facing a knightage or an old-school army, they would have won. However, the First Army isn't any common army. The demons only saw the change in our weapons but overlooked our soldiers. This is their biggest mistake!"

Everybody straightened up to listen to her speech.

"They only dispatched around 50 demons throughout the whole operation. This indicates that it wasn't easy for them to carry out their plan. They should have made the best use out of this plan, but what did they actually do? They sent the 50 demons to various places, including the barracks, the trenches and the artillery," the Pearl of the Northern Region spoke eloquently. "The commander of the demons is definitely not a fool. It's obvious that it believes ten demons would be more than sufficient to crush us. Isn't it too presumptuous?"

Anna somewhat understood the implication behind Edith's words. She clenched her fist and said slowly, "If they didn't make this mistake... if they treated us as equal..."

"Then they would have never thought that only 50 demons would defeat us. Instead, they would kill as many soldiers as possible," Edith cut in with a nod. "Suppose all the demons rushed to the barracks, including the Senior Demon, while their army waited at the rear, what would happen after the Spider Demons sneaked in?"

Anna felt a chill running down her spine.

The reason they had only lost 200 people was that the 50 demons had been scattered around the encampment. It had thus earned the reinforcements some time to fight back. If the demons had planned to massacre the entire barracks while sacrificing the Senior Demon at the very beginning, the First Army would have probably sustained a much greater loss.

"A loss of 500?, 1,000... or 2,000? Of course, we'll eventually annihilate them and preserve Tower Station No. 1. However, it'll be hard to say which party would win the battle then," said Edith as she splayed her fingers. "Unfortunately, the demons are too arrogant to seize this opportunity. The first army, on the other hand, learned a lot from this operation. For example, they should now know that the barracks should be built underneath the ground; the roof should not only be able to block stone needles but also the strikes of the machine guns and mortars. If our enemy didn't make such a mistake, it would have probably cost us a lot more to learn our lesson." Edith paused for a second and then went on, "Anyway, fellows, it's just a beginning."

Chapter 1089 - The Deity of Gods

It took a lot of energy and strength to connect minds.

He could only find two words to describe such a kind of feeling: burning and chaotic.

The burning sensation resulted from the Origin of Magic. Although the Origin of Magic was where all kinds of power stemmed from, what everything returned to, and also what created the Realm of Minds, it would destroy everything coming near it before its upgrade.

As for the chaotic feeling, it came from minds themselves.

Once magic power reached a certain point, it would leave marks on a person's mind.

Numerous minds converged as streams merged with the ocean. Some of them sank to the bottom, leaving the slightest trace behind them while others floated off with the tidal waves.

The difference between the two lay whether minds had consciousness.

That was what parted higher minds from lower ones.

The ones sinking to the bottom were useless, whereas the floating ones indicated that they had entered the Realm of Mind before. Even if they had just been there once, they differentiated themselves from others.

Hackzord was one of those who was good at controlling minds.

He was not only acknowledged by the Origin of Magic but also obtained the ability to connect with minds at will.

This enabled him to search for some valuable information.

But he did not do such things quite often.

Minds intertwined and influenced each other. If he stayed there for too long, his mind would be contaminated. Besides, it was easy to get lost in the midst of wild streams of minds. Many people had indeed lost the sense of direction after they entered the Realm of Minds, leaving their soulless bodies behind in the real world. Hackzord did not want to be one of them.

The main reason, however, was that Hackzord did not like it here.

Even though he was one of the top mind controllers, he could not linger too long.

Without the support of a body, the mind would eventually sink to the Origin of Magic. Newly awakened individuals would soon replace him, as everything was subject to changes. He would eventually vanish into a puff of smoke if he did not upgrade himself. Watching his own mind dancing up and down was like watching his own life slowly draw close to its end. It was not a pleasant experience.

Suddenly, Hackzord sensed something familiar.

"Is this... Kabradhabi?"

He was surprised.

"Why is he so weak like he's dying?" he wondered.

Kabradhabi should not have been that weak even if those low lives had destroyed his body. Although his mind was now at the bottom, it was, after all, the mind of an upgraded one. As the commander of the Western Front Army, he would not lose his consciousness upon dying.

Nonetheless, the Kabradhabi in front him was way weaker than the upgraded one he knew. He was even weaker than a female insect. With such feeble magic power, Kabradhabi should have had no way to enter the Realm of Mind.

Hackzord stretched out his non-existing hands and slowly grabbed that thread of mind.

"Sky Lord, " a voice said, waking him up from the Realm of Mind, "the king is summoning you."

He turned around, cast the guard a glance and said, "Noted. You may leave."

"Yes."

Hackzord let go of the legacy shard gleaming in red and zoomed toward the top of the Birth Tower.

After they inherited a part of the civilization, they made great progress in their magic power research. The invention of symbiosis had freed them from magic stones. Even the Birth Tower had developed some new abilities, such as amplifying the effect of magic power and resonating with other Birth Towers.

The resonation between different Birth Towers enabled local lords to communicate with the king directly.

The thick, wet mists surrounding the top of the tower made Hackzord feel better. He put his hand on the tower and started to concentrate his mind.

"Sky Lord is at your service, my king."

"How did the plan go?" the king's voice rang off the tower. "We don't have much time left."

"Did something happen at the Sky-sea Realm again?" Hackzord asked instantly.

"Yes, something quite wild happened there. Most people suggested ignoring it, given that the Deity of Gods is close to its completion. They maintain that once the Deity of Gods comes into use, we would be able to reverse the situation, starting to attack the enemy rather than just defending against them."

"Deity of Gods!"

Hackzord was thunderstruck.

"So, finally, they're having... the ultimate legendary weapon?"

For years, they had been striving to go beyond the restriction of mineral Magic Stones to travel around in the world at will. Now, their dream was finally coming true.

Like the name suggested, this was a God's gift. It meant that they were another step closer to the Origin of Magic.

Sky Lord expressed his admiration for thie king through his mind.

"What's your thought on this?"

"Something unexpected happened at the Western Front," said Hackzord. He had wanted to tell the king that everything was fine, considering that the king had already the Sky-sea Realm to worry about. He did not want to place more burden on his shoulder. However, he should also be absolutely loyal to the king by not making any decisions for him. At this thought, he changed his mind. "My commander's report shows..." Hackzord broke off and then decided to address formally, as this was also how he used to call himself. "Those human beings changed a lot in the past 400 years, particularly in their combat methods. Our vanguards suffered a minor loss, but it won't impact our plan in general."

The king slipped into silence after hearing the report. He then asked, "Is it a result of evolution?"

"It has nothing to do with evolution but more with the usage of devices and natural elements, for example, fire that we aren't quite familiar with."

"Not even magic power?"

"I'm afraid so. My commander planned to capture some men and some of their weapons like we used to. Unfortunately, our attempt was unsuccessful," Hackzord said. "My commander suggests me sending some reinforcements to the Western Front or looking for the reason via the Realm of Mind."

"Did any upgraded ones fall in men's hands?" asked the king, who was seemingly unimpressed. "I did expect that this would happen one day, since we've lowered the upgrading requirement, but it seems too soon to me. I remember the commander of the Western Front is the one you highly speak of, a what you called a genius. Are you sure he fulfilled his due diligence?"

Hackzord bent his head immediately.

"So, did you find anything?"

"Nothing. He barely has any magic power left, so I couldn't get many details out of him." He hesitated for a moment and then said, "But..."

"But what...?"

"When my mind touched his, I somehow saw extremely bright flames... It might just be an illusion."

"If they're really fires, then never mind," the king snapped. "Although we rarely use them, we know enough about them. Plus, we stopped learning from human beings a long time ago. As for your first request, I'll decline it for you. We should focus more on the attack at the Sky-sea Realm. I can't give you more troops and I certainly won't send you the troops who are supposed to guard our headquarters. Don't forget though, the legacy shard that determines the upgrading of our kinds is now in your custody!"

"I understand."

"Very well then. Make sure our plan goes smoothly. Once we have the Deity of Gods, we'll gain the eventual victory." The king's voice trailed off and gradually faded out of his mind.

Chapter 1090 - An Unexpected Visitor

In Thorn Town at the foot of the Cage Mountain in the Kingdom of Dawn.

A wagon train passed through the town and staggered to a halt in front of the lord's mansion.

"Here we are. Get off, all of you! Hurry up!" A man who seemed to be the steward of the fleet brandished a horsewhip and bellowed, "Govern yourselves if you want to stay alive. Answer whatever the lord asks you. You got it?"

Most of the passengers getting off the carriage were pale and ragged. They were tied to each other by the wrist with a rope. Beyond a doubt, they were all slaves, slaves of the lowest rank.

Slaves were trafficked to Thorn Town quite often recently. The arrival of the Graycastle exploration team, as well as numerous caravans and emissary delegations sent by various lords gradually filled this quiet town with exuberance and vivacity. These new visitors either took up their abodes at a hotel or pitched a tent or a barrack outside the town. Within merely a month or so, this remote town had expanded a great deal.

"Sir Marl, what do you think of these people?" Forint Sheffield, one of the recent visitors from the City of Maplesong, asked Marl Tokat, a great noble in the City of Glow, greasily. His eyes were fixed on Marl, one hand massaging the other restlessly. "These people are in a good health condition, with no visible disabilities. They're the best picks from the prison. Although they look fragile, they all have ferocious characters. Once they are fed, they can do anything for you, sir."

"Enough," Marl dismissed him with a wave impatiently. From the look of Forint, Marl instantly knew this man, who shared the same family name with the lord of Maplesong, was not worth his time. "I'm not interested in purchasing prisoners, but this gentleman here is. This is Mr. Sean, the Captain of the Imperial Guards of the King of Graycastle."

"I, I see," Forint stumbled while bowing again. "My lord immediately answered the summon of the King of Dawn. He asked me to commence my journey as soon as possible. Pray forgive me for my ignorance. I wasn't aware that Mr. Sean is the real purchaser."

"That's fine," said Sean as he walked up to the prisoners whilst darting his eyes from one another. These prisoners were apparently not as good as those sent by the King of Dawn. However, considering that they currently needed as many people as possible to excavate the Temple of the Cursed, he was not too fussy about this matter.

When Sean was carefully surveying the prisoners, one of them suddenly dashed out of the queue, knelt down in front of him and said exasperatedly, "Sir, I'm wrongfully accused. Please let me go!"

Restricted by the rope, he could only implore in a half-kneeling position

"You idiot!" The steward yelled while gritting his teeth. He would have lashed his whip at him if the two lords had not been present.

"Why did you say so?" Sean asked curiously as he stopped in front of him.

"I didn't kill or rob. I only stole some chickens from my neighbor!" the prisoner explained breathlessly. "Prisoners with such minor offenses in the City of Maplesong will be only sentenced to flogging or banishment. It isn't a capital offence, sir!"

"Is that so?" Sean asked as he turned to Forint.

Forint replied at once, "Yes and no, sir. On the day before Earl Sheffield received the summon of the King of Dawn, he made a little adjustment to the local laws. To quash the rampant Rats and reduce underground crimes, he increased the maximum penalties for all crimes, including theft."

"Wh-what?" said the prisoner in astonishment. "A death penalty for stealing some chickens?"

"Is it very hard for you to understand?" Forint shot him a distainful look and said, "The internal war and the constant rebellions bleed off strength from the City of Maplesong. With the increase in refugees, how to make scums like you behave if not with more severe punishment? Today you steal chickens from your neighbor, tomorrow your neighbor would probably starve to death. So, what's the difference between a thief and a murderer? In my opinion, you deserve a death penalty."

"Sir, I..."

The prisoner wanted to argue, but Sean interrupted him. "Since you're guilty, what about doing some work to atone for your sin?" He paused for a second and then raised his voice. "You probably have all known that you'll get your freedom after ten years of heavy labor, no matter what crime you committed. This is a promise made by the King of Graycastle and the King of Dawn! Don't try to escape, for this is your last chance!"

With these words, he signaled his men to take away the prisoners. Forint immediately approached him with the same oily smile. "I knew you would take all of them. According to our contract, one prisoner is..."

"One gold royal each, and it's 106 in total, right?" Sean asked.

"That's right!" Forint replied, his eyes glistening with excitement.

"Someone in the lord's mansion will receive you."

"Yes, sir!" Forint said, returning Sean a broad grin.

"Also," Sean spoke abruptly as Forint turned around, "I don't want to see the same thing happen again."

"You mean..." Forint said, a little surprised.

"I don't care whether the lord of Maplesong amended the laws the day before or not, but according to our contract, the prisoners must be told the purpose of this trip and the punishment they will receive. If there's one more prisoner who appears not aware of his death sentence and claims that he's innocent, I'll have to deduct a portion of my payment," Sean warned sternly.

He neither intended to be some sort of judge, nor did he really have empathy for these people. For him, the most important thing was to complete Roland's task and prevent those avarious noble merchants from disgracing his Majesty.

"I... I see." Forint said while bowing his head. "I'll be more careful next time."

After Forint took his leave, Marl commented with a shrug, "You're very cautious."

"I'm just doing my due diligence."

"Really?" said Marl as he looked at the crowded town."Your king even takes extra caution when purchasing death row prisoners. I wonder if King Wimbledon did it on purpose or he's simply a born philanthropist. My elder brother told me that he's around the same age as me, but he's already a marvelous king. A man can't be a philanthropist and king at the same time. Now I really want to meet him in person, since his guard has already impressed me."

"It isn't hard to meet the King of Graycastle since you're from one of the three big noble families," said Sean coldly. "If I were you, I would not be so imprudent as to say such things to that guard."

"Who cares? You tend to shut yourself in instead of sharing your thoughts with others, don't you?" Marl said while spreading out his hands.

Sean now had a better understanding of Marl's character. Like his cordial, loyal brother Otto Tokat, as the second son of the Tokat Family, Marl was also very easygoing.

The best way to deal with this kind of person was to ignore him.

He turned around, planning to take a look at the dump site guarded by the First Army when a soldier sprinted up to him.

"Sir, a stranger wants to see you. He says he knows where the 'treasure' is."

Sean drew his brows together. Ever since the message of searching for the cursed treasure went out, every now and then they had people coming forward who claimed that they knew the whereabouts of the treasure, most of whom were scammers who provided false information just for the purpose of getting a reward. Sean said, "Didn't I tell you that you only report to me when there's a solid clue?"

"That guy insists on meeting you in person," the soldier replied. "He claims to be one of the last survivors from Hermes. Apart from the treasure, he also knows where the remaining members of the church are hiding. We've already detained him."

"Hermes... church?"

Sean squinted his eyes and then said, "Got it. I'll go meet him."

Chapter 1091 - Hopeless Love

Sean was studying the man tied to a chair in a tent. The latter did not avert his eyes. He was also gazing at Sean in silence.

It was unusual for a traitor to be so quiet. Back in the old king's city, Sean had witnessed numerous betrayals. Although traitors tipped him useful information, Sean despised the worst of human nature portrayed by a traitor: avarice, obsequiousness and power-hunger.

The reaction of this man, however, raised Sean's interest.

After the two men stared at each other for quite a while, Sean broke the silence. "Name?"

"Joe," the man answered. "Are you the commander here? I mean the commander of the Graycastle troop rather than the lord of Thorn Town or some other random lord."

"Is that important to you?"

"If you aren't, I won't spit a word, because... there's no point of doing that."

"This sounds quite interesting," thought Sean.

Sean leaned forward a little a bit and said, "I'm the Chief Guard of the King of Graycastle, King Roland Wimbledon, and also the captain of the Graycastle exploration team. You can call me Sean. I'm the person whom you can put confidence in. Now, can you tell me the whereabouts of the treasure?"

"You must be looking for the Magic Ceremony Cube in the Temple of the Cursed at the Cage Mountain," Joe replied flatly. "The Earl of Archduke Island Lorenzo has it!"

Sean was a little surprised at his bluntness. He had thought the man would negotiate with him before providing some vague clues that required him to verify their validity, but the man immediately told him everything. Sean asked, "Have you... seen it before?"

"No, but it isn't a secret in the church." Joe then briefly related the war between the church and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. He said, "Lorenzo bragged about his discovery and exaggerated the Cube a lot in his report. Many church executives knew about it, but the Holy City of Hermes didn't pay it much attention."

"I see. So the treasure was in the Kingdom of Wolfheart before being captured by the church. Fair enough," Sean muttered as he stroked his chin. "But why did you tell me this? You can also sell the information to some other lords, can't you?"

Joe took a deep breath and said, "Sir, have you heard of... the God's Punishment Army?"

"Naturally. It's the secret army the church took pride in," said Sean derisively. "Unfortunately, however, it was flattened by His Majesty's First Army during the battle at Coldwind Ridge."

"Very well then," said Joe, who did not seem to be remotely upset about his response. "It would be easier for me to make it clear outright. As Lorenzo has a group of God's Punishment Army, nobody dares challenge his authority over the Archduke Island except the King of Graycastle."

"So?" The guard said while raising his brows. "I thought those man slaughter machines were all killed in action at Coldwind Ridge. How many of them are left?"

"Ten... no, probably around five," said Joe hesitantly. "Anyway, it's not a lot."

"Five would be enough to guard a castle," said Sean with a smile. "What do you want from me then? Or how much would you like me to pay you for this piece of information?"

"No, my only hope is to stay alive," Joe said in a hushed voice. "The church has nothing to compete against Graycastle now, but Lorenzo is still planning to revenge the church. His men have already entered Thorn Town, and I don't want to meddle in this matter. If..." He broke off and then continued, "If this information is helpful to you, I hope the King of Graycastle could acquit me."

Sean doubted whether this was his real motive.

Sean rested his chin on his hand, a gesture King Roland often made when he interrogated prisoners. Although Sean did not possess a special ability to distinguish lies from truths like Ms. Nightingale did, sometimes he did not necessarily need magic power to do so.

To be honest, he did not perceive any signs that indicated this man named Joe had a strong desire to live. When he stared into his eyes, he could see a hint of stone cold self-determination in them.

Perhaps Joe did not realize that he was wearing a look of a desperate man.

"Just this one request?"

"Y-yes."

"Then I'll ask someone to escort you to Neverwinter."

"Huh?" Joe said, noticing something wrong. "Why do I have to go to Neverwinter?"

Sean rose to his feet and said, "I don't have the power to acquit you, but I can't abandon a person who retracts from a wrong path. Don't worry, everybody in Graycastle knows His Majesty is a benelovent and honorable man. The Witch Union can also double check the reliability of your testimony. If you didn't lie, you would be treated fairly and certainly be exonerated from your wrongdoings. If with luck, you'll probably even receive a large sum of rewards for coming forward."

"S-sir... that treasure..." Joe stammered, attempting to stand up but the rope restricted his movement.

"If Earl Lorenzo does have the treasure, His Majesty will get it from him sooner or later. Besides, you have nothing to do with the treasure, right?" Sean said while spreading out his hands. "No need to worry. Although Neverwinter is far and we can't set you free for the time being before confirming the validity of your information, we'll pay you for sure. The church will no longer pose a threat to you." With these words, Sean turned to a soldier and instructed, "Send him back to his cell."

"No, sir, hang on..." Joe said. His expression changed. The previous indifference yielded to a panic and defenseless look. He struggled to stand up, threw himself abruptly to the floor and said, "Please, don't send me to Neverwinter!"

His feign nonchalance dissolved into a look of forlorn despair as his voice rose. Sean stopped. He did not understand why this man would suddenly sink into such a state of despondency when he was already prepared to die.

"Why?" Sean asked as he wheeled around. "Or rather, you actually wanted something else?"

"Please, please save her — save Farrina, please!" Joe implored, banging his head to the floor as he kept yelling hysterically. "She doesn't have much time. She... she doesn't have much time left..."

His voice, in the end, trailed off into a sob.

"That's probably his real intention," thought Sean.

He walked up to Joe who trembled uncontrollably, patted him on the shoulder and asked, "Who's Farrina? Why doesn't she have much time? Now I really need to have a good chat with you."

...

After Joe restored his composure, he related everything to Sean. At this point, Sean understood what had happened.

It was actually a story about love.

Joe was indeed the last remaining church member, whereas the former bishop had become his enemy. With no other alternatives, Joe thus turned to the former opponent of the church, the First Army from Graycastle, for help. Compared with external rivals, traitors were always more despicable. Meanwhile, Sean also learned why Joe was ready to die: he knew from the beginning that the First Army would eventually see through his plan and believed it would be better to be hanged and die together with Farrina together than being tortured by Lorenzo.

Joe could have taken things slow. However, considering Farrina might not survive Lorenzo's endless torture, he decided to risk his life to come to seek First Army instead of waiting for another few months. He knew Lorenzo would not kill Farrina immediately, as he still needed her for getting the Holy Book. Yet Farrina definitely could not wait for that long. After all, human bodies had a limit. By the time Graycastle took action half a year later, it might be too late.

At first, Sean did not want to meddle in the internal conflict of the church. He was also suspicious of the validity of Joe's information. However, after learning that this was all about love, Sean believed Joe.

The next thing Sean needed to do was to find the men sent by Earl Lorenzo to further confirm the news.

"I see. Once I catch those people, I'll let His Majesty know at once," Sean promised slowly. "I'll send him a message via carrier pigeon."

Chapter 1092 - An Arrest Warrant

...

"So, you're going to help him?" said Marl Tokat as he knitted his brows. "To help a remnant church member?"

After Sean sent Joe away, he immediately sent for the emissary of the City of Glow and told him the whole story. He did not believe the three noble families would try to keep the treasure for themselves, because none of them knew what it was used for. If the treasure was really something extremely powerful, they should not have had it smuggled out of the Kingdom of Dawn in the first place.

"I don't make the call as to whether I should help him or not," said Sean indifferently. "My instruction is to find the treasure as soon as possible. Now, I've finally obtained a clue that sounds reliable, so naturally I should further confirm its credibility. As for what comes next, I'll leave it to His Majesty." He paused for a moment, rested his eyes on Marl and asked, "So, do you have any good plans, Mr. Emissary?"

The First Army was invincible, but their unparalleled power would be of no use if there was not an enemy to compete with. Since the First Army did not have expertise in searching for cunning spies, it would be better to place the matter in the three noble families' hands.

"To be completely honest, I wish I had never listened to this story," Marl said, shrugging. "Lady Quinn was expelled from the Kingdom of Dawn because of the church. If there were no church, she would probably have married my brother now... Ahem, but since you've asked, I'll try my best to assist you. Although there have been many visitors to the town recently, it shouldn't be that hard to find a particular group of people."

"A particular group of people?"

"Yes, as the passage to the Cage Mountain is blocked, the fastest way to get here from the Kingdom of Wolfheart is via sea. People have to go through Coral Bay, a port city in the northeast of Thorn Town," Marl replied as he counted on his fingers. "We are going to look for fleets coming from the east, with around 10 to 15 crew members, probably with a little Wolfheart accent, and dressed up like Wolfheart citizens. Based on these criteria, we'll be able to narrow our target down to only several fleets. I reckon there are less than five that meet all these criteria."

"Is this because Coral Bay... is the only big city in the east? Once we circle out these people, are we going to detain and interrogate them all?" Sean asked thoughtfully. The situation was pretty similar to that in Neverwinter. Many people came to Neverwinter from the east but none the west, except the demons. "

"That's right," Marl answered with a nod. "The spy you're looking for is very likely among them."

"But who should do all this work?"

"Is there anyone else who knows better than the town than the local Rats? A problem that can be solved with money isn't really a problem," Marl replied smilingly as he placed his hand on his chest. "To show the sincerity of the three families, the Tokats is willing to bear all the expenses incurred."

...

In a residential house in the suburb of Thorn Town, the butler of the Earl of the Archduke Island, Hagrid, was fanning impatiently, trying to keep the buzzing mosquitos away from him.

"What an awful place this is! There's not even a mosquito net here," thought Hagrid irritably. How was he supposed to live here two months later when summer started?

Hagrid still had no clue as to why the Magic Ceremony Cube illuminated.

He was not even sure whether the King of Graycastle was really coming for the treasure in the Temple of the Cursed.

"Maybe I should go and see what he is doing at the moment?" Hagrid thought.

Based on the information collected by his men, the Graycastle Exploration Team had arrived at Thorn Town two months ago. It appeared that they were planning something extraordinary. First, they had built a road in the mountain. Then, they had started to recruit death row prisoners. They had also turned the temple on the mountainside inside out. Every day, they shipped bricks and stones from the mountain and piled them up in an open field constantly guarded by the soldiers.

It made perfect sense if they excavated the ground to search for the hidden treasure. However, Graycastle seemed to be more enthusiastic for stones than the treasure itself. Hagrid had once watched them work from a distance. He had seen the soldiers air slabs and bricks in the sun before shipping them to Coral Bay in the east via carriage.

Hagrid did not understand what the King of Graycastle used these black stones for.

He had also managed to obtain some of the stones from the port and asked his men to send them to Earl Lorenzo. As he had expected, the stones did not help the Magic Ceremony Cube recover its legendary power.

The key to activating this ancient treasure must be something else.

"Sir, the person you're looking for is here," reported a man who lifted the curtain and came in.

"Send him in," Hagrid said as he straightened up and turned up the collar of his coat.

"Yes, sir!"

A villager-looking man was pushed in. He knelt down on the floor, looked up at Hagrid gingerly and said, "Sir, my name is Knaff. Do you want to climb up the mountain? As long as you don't intend to cross the mountain, I can take you anywhere you want..."

"You were the guide for the Graycastle men when they arrived at the Cage Mountain?" Hagrid talked over him.

"Y-yes... sir."

...

Hagrid tossed him a small pouch and said, "Here's 20 gold royals. If you can give me information that would interest me, they'll be yours."

"Of, of course, sir. I'll tell you everything I know!" Knaff said hotly.

"Tell me what happened in detail. I want to know everything," said Hagrid as he swept the villager with a disdainful look and reclined against his armchair.

When Hagrid heard the exploration team climb up the Cage Mountain, his eyes snapped open. He asked, "Hang on, what did you just say?"

"The witch called Azima —"

"No, after that!"

"Um, she said, 'this way', with a coin in her hand."

"A coin?" Hagrid pursued. "What does it look like?"

"It looks pretty plain, neither like a silver royal nor a bronze royal," Knaff replied after a moment of contemplation. "Right, the coin isn't patterned. It seems to be a thin slice of polished metal."

"Was the witch holding it all the time?" Hagrid asked, having a vague feeling that this was probably the key.

"Most of the time she was," The guide answered with a look of dawning comprehension. "Now I remember that this group of people followed the witch. Every time they took a turn, the witch would place the coin in front of her and gaze at it for a while."

"Damn it! So it does have something to do with witches!"

Hagrid clenched his fist and asked, "Where's that witch... called Azima?"

"I, I don't know," Knaff said while shaking his head vigorously. "She left Thorn Town immediately. Perhaps... she returned to Graycastle?"

If the witch had stayed at Thorn Town for only a few days, then she must have departed the Cage Mountain before he had left the Archduke Island. However, The Magic Ceremony Cube had been illuminating since his departure, which meant... she had left the coin here. Hagrid resolved a multitude of thoughts in his mind. He came to realize that this particular coin was probably a "key" discovered by the King of Graycastle from the ruins. Since it was so important, he speculated that it must be in the custody of the leader of the Exploration Team.

Hagrid had learned who the leaders of the Exploration Team were a long time ago. The personnels of the highest rank of the exploration team were the commander-in-chief, Sean, and the emissary of the three families, Marl.

He thought the king's guard might be easier to deal with compared to the second son of the Tokat family. Like the old saying went, fortresses always crumbled from within.

How many gold royals did he have to prepare in order to pry open the guard's mouth?

500... or 1,000?

Hagrid knew Earl Lorenzo would pay whatever it required to know the secret of the Magic Cube.

Once he managed to touch base with that commander, he would soon be able to learn the answer.

Hagrid was thrilled by his plan.

If he could get the "key" to the treasure, Earl Lorenzo would definitely rely on his counsels more. Perhaps one day, he would even become a lord. After all, anyone could use the Magic Cube. It did not have to be a lord necessarily.

While he was fantasizing about his bright future, there was a pattering of running feet outside the door.

"Wait a minute, who are you —"

"Aargh!"

With clinks and clanks, the door was forced open. Before Hagrid realized it, a group of patroller-like men rushed into his room and prostrated him to the floor.

Hagrid yelled, struggling, "I, I'm a law-abiding merchant. You can't do this to me! I can offer you as much money as you want —"

"The lord of Thorn Town suspects that some church dregs are hiding among your crews. We request your full cooperation with our investigation at once!" The men said firmly. "Save all the talk for his lordship!"

Chapter 1093 - To the New World

"Twin Dragon Island hasn't been so bustling for a while."

Thunder said as he stood at the top of the bridge of the "Snow Wind", watching the boisterous dock down below.

Thousands of people were congregated here, busy loading their ships. From above, they looked like ants moving in a line. The dock area was filled with the yellings of vendors, the shoutings of sailors, as well as the sound of tidal waves foaming on the beach. All these sounds preluded their upcoming journey.

The other side of the dock was packed with sailing ships, their masts soaring into the air, forming a sea that stretched away endlessly.

Thousands of banners and flags streamed in the air, including those of Crescent Moon Bay, Sunset Island and Shallow Water Town. All the influential Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords had gathered here, ready to commence their voyages.

The last time Thunder had attended a big event of this scale was when he had reached 22 years old, when all the Chambers of Commerce had assembled to explore Shadow Waters.

Margaret said smilingly, "Not only Twin Dragon Island but also the entire Fjords are exhilarated by your news. A route that used to be the least profitable has now become the most popular one. The newborn generation is really lucky. They don't have to risk their lives to become real explorers."

Thunder curled up his lips into a smile.

He knew Margaret was talking about the route leading to the Festive Harbor.

When the news that "as long as you find something interesting at the Endless Cape, you can claim rewards from the King of Graycastle" spread to the Fjords, the explorer community was stirred.

Fjords people had a crazy obsession with the title "explorer", for the title represented fame and wealth. However, it was not easy to discover a new sailing route, a new island or a big secret without a large amount of money, and more often than not an attempt would end up being fruitless and might even cost their lives.

Yet the recruitment campaign held by the King of Graycastle had altered everything. He had opened a very well-developed and relatively safe route between the Fjords and the Endless Cape. The brand new port city, the City of Festive, brought huge business opportunities. Even if one did not make any new discoveries, he would at least be able to profit something from this trip.

If one, with a stroke of luck, did find something invaluable, it would be even better.

Plus, the King of Graycastle made it very clear that those ancient ruins might bear a significant relationship to a secret with respect to Three Gods. Anyone who contributed to the revelation of the secret would have a chance to be titled "Honorary Lifetime Explorer" by the king. Although Graycastle, as a kingdom on the continent, employed a different system from the Fjord Islands, this condition for a lifetime explorer was fairly reasonable. As a matter of fact, Fjords people took this requirement more seriously than Graycastle citizens.

After all, the exploration had something to do with their faith in Three Gods.

As the new route was so lucrative, it inevitably raised some suspicions among a few explorers. These skeptical voices, however, were soon drowned out by enthusiastic merchants. The name of the King of Graycastle had spread throughout the whole Fjords market when Chaos Drinks and perfumes had been introduced to the islands. With the democratization of Graycastle commodities at the Fjords and a wide use of paddle steamers, more and more Fjords people started to include Roland Wimbledon in their daily conversations. A stereotype gradually formed among Fjords residents that Neverwinter citizens were all ultra-rich people.

Meanwhile, the foundation of the Joint Chamber of Commerce further strengthened people's faith in Roland Wimbledon.

Since their employer was a powerful king, it made sense that he set up a relatively high threshold for people to receive that honorable title.

Hearing the news, almost everyone at the Fjords started to take action. There were generally two groups of people. The more experienced and adventurous ones joined Thunder, whereas the others who preferred a safe journey while hoping to make a good fortune out of the trip headed to the Endless Cape, attempting to find themselves a good spot at the Festive Harbor.

Thunder would have never believed a country across the channel could exert such a huge impact on the Fjords if he had not witnessed it himself.

This drastic change had only taken place in the past one or two years.

Thunder said to Margaret as he squinted at the distant horizon that looked like a thin thread of silver, "Thanks to your help. I couldn't have been dedicated to the exploration if you didn't take care of the Chamber of Commerce for me. If truth be told, I'm good at nothing but taking adventures. I'm not even a good father. You have helped me so much over the past few years..."

"You should know that I'm most willing to do these things for you," Margaret answered as she put her hand on the back of Thunder's. "Doesn't it hurt one's feelings to appreciate a person who doesn't want anything in return? We're going on a long trip soon. It's better not to talk about things like this."

"Margaret..." Thunder said. He turned around and their eyes met.

"Having said that, it isn't exactly accurate to say that I ask for nothing. There's something... that I do want," said Margaret as she winked. "So just bear in mind that I am up to something, and please don't feel that you owe me."

Thunder knew what Margaret wanted.

He was glad to see Lightning and her get along well back in Neverwinter.

Now he suddenly realized that he had been accustomed to Margaret's company.

It was weird that a man like him, who could steer his ship against whirling hurricanes and waves, would feel a little hesitant to confess his feelings.

Thunder was debating whether he should hold Margaret's hand when his first mate interrupted their conversation.

"Captain — " The first mate craned his neck, yelling on the terrace of the bridge. "All the caravans are waiting for your instruction!"

Thunder coughed and said, "Got it! I'm coming!"

"Alrighty!"

He then took a deep breath, turned to Margaret and said, "Time to go."

"Off you go." Margaret smiled at him while nodding. "Do what you're best at, as His Majesty said..."

"Right," Thunder said, "... to the new world."

...

He walked down the tower, passed the bridge, crossed the deck and reached the bow, facing the spectators gathering about at the dock.

The crowd below immediately burst into loud cheers.

Thunder waved his hand and said, "I think everybody has known that the farthest we have been to is Shadow Waters. However, this was just a tiny step we made in the past. There's a huge Swirling Sea out there for us to explore. This time, we're going beyond Shadow Waters, crossing the incredible Sealine and visiting the distant land in the east — a bleak emptiness not yet imprinted with human feet!"

"I've seen a vast continent in the Shadow Ruins. It's a land as splendid as the Four Kingdoms. But where is it? Is it to the east of the Sealine? We're now going to find the answers to these exciting questions. If it does exist, Fjords people would no longer need to struggle on this overcrowded land and live in fear! Also, this new land will probably bring us much more wealth than all the fortunes we have made over the past years altogether. This is also one of the reasons I encourage every capable man to join us: It's so lucrative a business that everybody would have a chance to benefit from it!"

His speech was interrupted by a rush of cheers from the crowd. Thunder waited for the crowd to fall silent again and then continued, "Yet I want something else other than gold royals and fame, that is, I want the Fjords to constitute a part of our history! Up to now, Fjords people are seldom mentioned in the history of the Four Kingdoms. There are neither prominent families dwelling on the Fjords for generations nor a king governing the land. We're far apart from the continent, living on an isolated island with no influences whatsoever on people across the channel, except for traveling caravans."

"But this will all change soon. When we discover a brand new land for mankind, history will remember us. We'll be remembered as the most adventurous explorers in the world! I hope you understand that this upcoming trip will not only alter the present but also determine our future!"

"Hoist the sails, lads!" Thunder threw his arm in the air and shouted, "To the new world!"

The crowd below also raised their arms and shouted together. Their tumultuous cheers whipped through the air.

"To the new world — full speed ahead!"

Chapter 1094 - A Power of Attorney

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Roland was sitting behind his desk answering a phone call from the front at Fertile Plains.

The word "front" was not actually accurate. Based on the decreasing rate of the reception, it was more a phone call between Neverwinter and the Longsong Stronghold than one between Neverwinter and the front. Without an extender, this was the farthest a wind-up telephone could reach.

Yet they could still go beyond this limit.

The simplest way was to ask Leaf to "forward" calls. When she turned into the Heart of Forest, she could control the entire Misty Forest with her mind and transfer information even faster than Lightning when she was flying at the speed of sound. The front personnel simply needed to call Leaf, who would then transfer the call to Roland. In that case, they could pretty much receive messages instantly.

"Everything looks fine for now," Leaf replied in an unnecessarily low tone to mimic Iron Axe. "As you anticipated, the demons made several attempts to destroy the railway tracks afterwards, but their action didn't really impact our logistics. Without the spider demons, they could only move the tracks manually. Moreover, they had to hurry off to avoid a direct clash with the 'Blackriver'. Since there was no need to replace the entire railway, it didn't take our engineer team long to mend the damaged section."

"It seems that the armored trains worked."

"Yes, Your Majesty. The armored trains actually function as a small stronghold. They play an important role in sending reinforcements and repairing the railway. I just wish there were more of them. If we could put a "Blackriver" at every station, that would be great."

"You make it sound like an easy job." Roland could not resist grinning over the phone. "Apart from armored trains, we also need witches to continue to produce freight trains. The two we have now is the best we can do at present. Keep expanding our defensive line. Hopefully we can get prepared for the general offensive by midsummer."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Leaf said in a muffled voice.

"Leaf, you can actually... skip the nasal sound," Roland thought in amusement.

Roland continued on a cough, "By the way, is there still no sign of a massive attack from the demons yet?"

He had been quite restless since Nightingale had woken him up in the middle of that night, telling him that the First Army had encountered a night raid. His heart had been in his throat until Anna told him that the loss was moderate and that Edith had reassured everything was fine.

In fact, poor lighting had always been a big problem for the First Army. In a dark surrounding, their firing rate would be significantly compromised, and Roland had still not figured out how to manufacture tracers. The soldiers essentially had to rely on the witches' instructions to fire. Roland had not expected the demons would launch their first voluntary attack at night. He was surprised to learn that they had not only developed a thorough understanding of the ability of Sylvie's Magic Eye but also grasped the nature of firearms. He was also quite taken aback at the fact that they adopted a loose formation and sneaked in. Fortunately, the enemy did not possess a weapon as powerful as a cannon, and the First Army had carried out their contingency plan perfectly. Otherwise, the outcome of the battle could have been different.

"I haven't noticed any signs that indicate the demons will attack us at night like last time so far," Leaf said. "Ms. Sylvie is now putting one or two hours every day on patrolling the railway area which the demons must pass if they plan to attack us. She sometimes also spies on the enemy on the Magic Ark or the 'Seagull'. At least, it's safe for now."

"What does the General Staff say about it?"

"They think there are two possible reasons. One is that the demons have noticed our change and can't play their old trick anymore. The other is that the demons can't assemble enough troops to have a second round of attack in such a short time."

"Really?" said Roland thoughtfully. Apart from the demons' remarkable learning ability, he was also very concerned about that Senior Demon acting as the skirmisher.

Indeed, this was not their first time meeting a Senior Demon.

Now he remembered after they had met the first Senior Demon at the snow mountain, they had encountered this particular type of Senior Demon four times. However, several hundreds of years ago, Senior Demons used to be commanders only. The Union would only have had a chance to kill them after the Blessed Army had slain all other regular demons. They had apparently lost their superior status over the past hundreds of years and started to participate in a battle more often than they used to. This was definitely not good news for them.

For the soulless God's Punishment Army, Roland could still develop some specific tactics to tackle them. For a group of Senior Demons with various powers, he could literally do nothing about them but to cross his fingers.

Since there were no particular methods to fight the Senior Demons off, the only way Roland could think of now was a universal strategy, which was to catch the enemy unprepared and eradicate them with more powerful gunfire.

"The demons would definitely not allow us to prowl around the Fertile Plains. We should stay alert, making sure we leave them no chance."

"Noted!" Leaf said while raising her voice. After the communication was over, she said with an abrupt return to her usual manner, "Your Majesty, Iron Axe has hung up."

"Alright..." Roland heaved a sigh and asked, "Who's next?"

"The Minister of Construction, Karl Van Bate."

Roland was a bit surprised to hear the Ministry of Construction have problems, as they had already sufficient materials and manpower to carry out their projects. He thus said, "Transfer the call."

"Your Majesty," Leaf said whilst mimicking Carl's voice this time. Although Roland could still somehow distinguish the difference, the rustling of the twigs and leaves made Leaf's performance quite impressive. "The construction team has encountered some problems recently. I hope the other departments of the Administrative Office could help us."

"It seems... Leaf has got addicted to this voice over job," Roland thought.

The report from the Minister of Construction was fairly straightforward. The night raid had shocked many workers and resulted in a low morale among the workers. As many foremen had noticed their workers were slacking off, they wished to change the workers' shifts or allow their families to visit them so as to raise their spirits.

Roland thought it was practically impossible to change everybody's shifts since not all the workers were willing to trade their lives for a higher pay. As such, he steered the conversation to the second method. "Family visits? I remember more than 70% of the railway workers are immigrants who don't have a family. If we allow family visits, those who don't have relatives would feel bitter against those who do, which would then exacerbate the current situation," Roland replied.

"I've thought about that, Your Majesty," Leaf answered for the Minister. "The railway construction team once asked all the workers to submit a Power of Attorney, in which they named the person who will have the full authority to take care of their personal matters in case they're killed in action. This person must be very important to that worker and thus, in a sense, can be regarded as his family member."

"That sounds like a plan," Roland said after a moment of reflection. "Alright then. I'll ask Barov to arrange it."

Chapter 1095 - An Account of the Past

After Roland hung up, Nightingale placed a silver white ring on his desk.

It was a ring made of two shards of aluminum that could hold a roll of paper as small as a person's palm specifically designed for carrier pigeons. The combination of the ring and Soraya's "ultra-thin paper" enabled them to deliver more messages at a time. Instead of tying notes to the messengers' claws, they could now simply attach them to this ring.

To prevent accidents en route, each local Administrative Office set up a post station for messengers who flew over 500 kilometers to take a rest before taking off for the next station. To more efficiently sort encrypted mail, the ring was embossed with an identification code similar to train tickets in modern society. The identification code would instantly tell mailmen where this encrypted letter came from and where it should go.

The letter C on this ring represented the Kingdom of Dawn. Out of security and confidentiality concerns, Roland had decided to use the first letter of each country's Pinyin spelling instead of the standard characters commonly used in the Four Kingdoms.

"Is it from Thorn Town in the Kingdom of Dawn?" Roland said while raising his eyebrows. "When did you receive it?"

"Just ten minutes ago when Honey came," Nightingale replied. "But you were on the phone at that time, so I didn't give it to you straight away."

"Did they find something new in the ruins at the Cage Mountain?" Roland wondered as he unclipped the ring and unfolded the letter.

The letter was a bit long. It took him around seven minutes to figure out what the guard was trying to convey.

"I didn't expect the church would ask for Graycastle's help," Roland remarked impressively after he put down the letter. He knew it was now impossible for the church to stage a comeback after they had abandoned Hermes, but it did not hurt to help them weed out a local noble. It was very ironic to see the very person who gave these fugitives a fatal blow was nobody but a former bishop of the church.

"Do you know where those church dregs are? Those who fled Holy City, leaving the orphans in the monastery behind?" Nightingale asked, her voice alive with curiosity.

"If what the letter says is correct, the church is now completely over," Roland said as he handed the letter to Nightingale. "Their last hope turns out to be their last straw."

Nightingale cast Roland a glance after she read the letter and asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Since the butler of the Earl of Archduke Island has confessed everything and we've also known where the treasure is, we'll sooner or later send our men to the Kingdom of Wolfheart," Roland said while tapping the desk gently. "The reaction of the Magic Ceremony Cube to the enriched uranium sample indicates the drawings on the mural are probably depictions of true stories. Regardless of what it is used for, we'd better bring the Cube back to Neverwinter. As for the acting pope Farrina..." Roland paused for a second and then went on, "Bring Joe and her back here for further questioning."

"That's what I thought you would say," Nightingale commented with a faint smile.

"I thought you wouldn't like my answer," Roland said carefully. "The church persecuted you before."

"I did hate the church very much, and I even hated men at one point," Nightingale admitted. "However, after I learned that it was actually Alice's plan and that what she did was all for the continuity of the human race, I changed my mind. I don't hate her anymore but just feel she's pathetic. Plus, the church established by Starfall City is long gone. Even if I want to avenge myself, there's nobody for me to take revenge on now."

"Um... you hated men before?" Roland asked in surprise.

"Why do you sound so flustered?" Nightingale said as she shot him a stare. "I couldn't control my awakening. I didn't do anything wrong. Why did everybody hate me so much like I'm a horrible disease? You alienate me, so why do I have to befriend you. That's how I viewed things back then, and I can assure you that most of the witches had the same feeling before."

"Is that the reason you showed up in my bedroom with a dagger at that time?"

"You were lucky you know?" Nightingale said with a laugh. "I didn't necessarily hate people, but I did despise nobles. I sat down and negotiated with you purely because of Anna. Did you forget what people called me before?"

"No, I didn't. You were the Shadow Killer, a ghost assassin who made all the nobles in the old king's city shudder." Roland left his words unsaid.

"So you flirted with me..."

"To reveal your true nature," Nightingale said, muffling her snigger. "I was acting. I wanted to let Anna understand what disgusting creatures nobles were. Unfortunately..."

"What are you regretting about? Are you regretting that you failed to persuade Anna to leave Border Town or about your unsuccessful flirting strategy?" Roland grumbled within himself. He said glumly, "So I was indeed lucky."

"It's easy to go extreme when holding a grudge against someone," Nightingale said, justifying her behavior as she patted Roland on the shoulder. "Soon I found you're as different from the other nobles as me, so I decided to trust you."

"Shall I say thank you?"

"You're welcome," Nightingale replied matter-of-factly. "After I learned about the Pure Witches and someone like Zero, I soon put those childish ideas behind."

"Really... you did come a long way," Roland commented with a sigh.

"Why do I have the impression that you aren't very happy?" Nightingale asked as she leaned forward and peered down at Roland, her hair touching his cheek. "You weren't very sad a while ago, but you are... now."

With these words, she quickly slid into the Mist. By the time Roland saw Nightingale again, she was lying on a recliner with a piece of dried fish between her lips, winking at him triumphantly.

Grinding his teeth, Roland got to his feet. He was about to give her a lesson, making her understand who the real King of Graycastle was, when the telephone rang.

It was from the Director of the Administrative Office.

Roland shot Nightingale a "wait-for-me" look and picked up the phone.

"Your Majesty," Barov's voice sounded over the phone, "there's a special guest from the old king's city who insists on speaking to you."

Barov, as the Hand of the King, normally did not introduce visitors himself. Intrigued, Roland asked, "Who's that?"

"The great dramatist, Sir Kajen Fels," Barov boomed, a hint of excitement in his voice.

Roland's brows were furrowed. "Why is he here again? Didn't I make it very clear in my last letter?" thought Roland a bit irritably. He replied, "I have a lot on my plate. If he doesn't have anything really important..."

"Yes, he does, Your Majesty!" said Barov, who immediately related the purpose of Kajen's visit to Roland.

"Are you sure?" Roland said, slightly surprised.

"Yes, he truly said so!" The governor answered positively.

Hearing these words, Roland suddenly had an idea. After a moment of silence, he changed his mind and said, "Take him to the castle parlor. I'll meet him there."

Chapter 1096 - His Expertise

It was Roland's first time meeting this preeminent actor and screenwriter, his hair half gray, his face half hidden in his bushy and tangled beards, his black tuxedo crisp, and his tie neatly around his neck. Like a man from a portrait, he looked old-fashioned and antiquated.

Roland pictured his portrait hung on a wall, with a caption underneath.

Although Kajen was an elderly man, his eyes had not yet aged. After a bow, the screenwriter directly rested his eyes on Roland. Apparently, it was not his first time having an encounter with a royal family member.

"Your Majesty, this is Sir Kajen Fels," Barov introduced the man while massaging his hands in exuberance. "He's the best actor and screenwriter in Graycastle and is also very well known across the Four Kingdoms. Back in the old king's city, I was a frequent visitor to the Central Theater and I liked Mr. Kajen's work very much."

"You act like a child... You're the Hand of the King. Can't you behave more like an adult?" thought Roland while twitching his lips

"Good morning, Your Majesty," said Kajen as he clapped his hand over his chest. "Now I know why you don't watch new plays."

"Really?" Roland seated himself in the host chair and said, "Why?"

"You're... too young," Kajen replied slowly. "You're much younger than I thought."

"Are you saying that a person who doesn't have a great deal of experience of life doesn't have the capability to understand your plays?" Roland would have been a little affronted at such imprudent comments if he had still been the lord of Border Town. However, as he grew older, he became more unflappable in such a situation.

But his tone, which dropped dramatically at Kajen's words, clearly indicated that he was not very pleased.

Barov shot Kajen a warning look.

"No, Your Majesty. I'm not referring to your age but your spirit," Kajen explained while shaking his head. "Youth has nothing to do with a person's age. I've seen many nobles who live like old men in their prime. Likewise, a man who has crept in his decrepitude doesn't necessarily mean he's old." His smile became a little self-mocking at this point. "I thought I was very young, but now I realize life doesn't have a limit."

"Can I take your words as a compliment?" Roland said as he raised his brows.

"We can't say a young spirit is good and an old spirit bad, Your Majesty." To Roland's surprise, Kajen did not answer his question directly but went on, "A person with a young spirit can be motivated, audacious, curious, and the list goes on. However, he may also lose himself or even bring upon himself swift destruction while pursuing his goal, so..."

"Ahem, Mr. Kajen —" Barov interrupted him in a low voice.

"Ah, sorry, please don't take my words too seriously," said the dramatist, who had just realized he had spoken more than he was allowed to. "I'm an old man who has seen a lot of things, so I often have some crazy ideas. Please forgive my impertinence."

"That's fine," said Roland, who waved his hand and started to take a liking to Kajen. "Let's get down to the business. Barov told me that you want to work on my plays or join the Star Flower Troupe. Why's that?"

Kajen replied straight away, "I want to know more about the Magic Movie."

"So he's trying to achieve his goal in a roundabout way after I turned him down," thought Roland.

"You don't mind working on plays you disdain?"

"I'm not saying those plays aren't good..." Kajen explained. "I just feel that each show should be well planned beforehand so that actors can learn from it. Otherwise, they not only waste their time and talent but also fail their audience."

"But your audience isn't nobles, and I don't have much time for rehearsals. If you join the Star Flower Troupe, very likely you'll be forced to act in a play that doesn't meet your standards, and your name would potentially be ruined. Did you still want to join us?"

"Your Majesty, I..."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to join the Star Flower Troupe," Roland talked over him. "The plays I plan to put on show are all meant to entertain the masses. Most of the actors will be from the Star Flower Troupe. I'm afraid I don't have any plays at the moment that will suit your taste or reflect your talent."

This time, Barov started to eye Roland.

"However..." Roland ignored Barov's meaningful blink and said, "I have something else for you."

"Yes, please," Kajen said eagerly as he leaned forward.

"In fact, I'm planning to write a play about a romance in a dark time, which actually happened during the rebellion of the Church of Hermes." Roland then briefly introduced the basic structure of the story. "I've heard that you're expert in plays about love and redemption, so let's make it a pilot project. If your play turns out to be a great success, I'll consider about your request next time I film the Magic Movie. How does that sound?"

After Roland seized the new and old Holy Cities, he told the public that the culprit of all the atrocious crimes was the false pope. The real pope had been killed a long time ago. Now, a new church agent had been appointed and he would fully support Graycastle to fight the Battle of Divine Will.

After more than one year of advertisement, the public gradually accepted the "new history". Now it was time to further uncover the origin of the Battle of Faiths and the church. Once the masses learned the truth, they would view the new church as a completely separate organization from the usurper's and the church that had persecuted the witches. The new church, therefore, would become a part of Neverwinter's political body.

"Is the play you're talking about based on a true story?" Kajen asked. "Can I meet the two main characters in the play?"

"They're currently in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, waiting for rescue." Roland said, shrugging. "But I think you should know what 'based on' means..."

"Of course," Kajen confirmed with a nod. "The plays I wrote in the past are also based on royal legends and myths, and I had to avoid using any identifiable family names and family history, but..."

"But what...?"

Kajen hesitated for a moment and replied determinedly, "Your Majesty, although it's definitely a new experience for me, I would like to join your rescue team if you allow me to. I want to watch this operation. It'll be very helpful for me to understand their story."

"Even though this requires you to pay a visit to the Kingdom of Wolfheart?"

"I don't think I can picture those details in my head, and I don't want to miss the opportunity you've given me," Kajen said cordially. "I can assure you that I won't cause any trouble to your team. My health has not failed me yet, and I have my student to take care of me."

Chapter 1097 - Friend and Old Acquaintance

After Kajen withdrew, Barov immediately rounded on Roland and said anxiously, "Your Majesty, why did you decline his request? He's an iconic figure of the play industry in Graycastle, and every troupe is eager to have him! I'm not saying the Star Flower Troupe isn't good, but Ms. May is, after all, not as influential as Kajen Fels. If Kajen joins our troupe, Star Flower would veritably become the most eminent troupe throughout the whole kingdom. With Kajen in the troupe, a great number of actors and actresses would come and join us. Then we wouldn't need to worry about being short staffed."

Roland cast him a sideways glance and said, "Haven't you heard of the saying that people usually don't care much about things they obtained very easily?"

"Um..." The governor was taken aback for a fraction of a second before he replied, "Forgive my ignorance, but who said that, or rather, in which book did you see it?"

"I said it," Roland said unblushingly. "This is common sense. He has been attracted to the Magic Movie, so he would definitely stay in Neverwinter for a while. Compared to a straight 'yes', a challenging task would motivate him to work harder. Perhaps, he would even thank me for giving him this opportunity. If I let him in right away, he would take it for granted, and that's the difference between a yes and no."

Roland stopped for a second and then continued, "Plus, May is Kajen's student. If Kajen joins the Star Flower Troupe, what would Star Flower Troupe become of? I don't mind him participating in filming, but I don't want him to act in a play. His presence, however, would pressure young actors to further improve their skills."

"Well... you're right," Barov said hesitantly. "But you allowed him to go to the Kingdom of Wolfheart..."

"That's nothing," Roland cut in, "It's his own choice. I'm also curious about what play Kajen is going to make at this stage. As far as I know, he's already reached the pinnacle of his career. By the way, how's your statistic report going? If you have time to pry into other people's business, why not get your own work done?"

"Yes, Your Majesty... Please excuse me!" said Barov quickly, who bowed at once and retired from the parlor.

"You're acting more and more like a king, Your Majesty," Nightingale said as she revealed herself from behind and squinted at him.

"Haha... I'm flattered." It had been a while since Nightingale had addressed him in such a formal manner, and somehow Roland did not really like it. He said, "You don't need to talk to me with such formality, you know?"

"But I feel it isn't a very good idea to be too intimate," Nightingale instantly shot back while folding her arms. "'People usually don't care much about things they obtained very easily'. I didn't know you thought this way. I should be more careful in the future and set a boundary between us. Also, I'll certainly remind Anna to prevent someone from getting too full of himself. "

Roland could feel his forehead dampened with cold sweat. He said vaguely, "Well... um... um... anyway, people and the Magic Movie are two different things! Plus, I'm not the first person saying that..."

"But you agree with it," Nightingale grunted. "My magic power in my chest tells me that you accept at least 55% of the theory."

Roland mopped his forehead, wondering if Nightingale could now detect lies with such accuracy, and then he suddenly remembered the word "chest" she had mentioned. Agatha told him that witches' magic power was in a shape of a cyclone, but it was not a physical entity. In reality, magic power spread all over one's body rather than clustering around a certain area.

"Did you really use your ability?" Roland questioned.

"Haha." Nightingale could not resist laughing. "You found out, but you did say that. If the other witches know what you're really thinking, what will they think of you? Will they start to think that you 'take them for granted' ?"

"Five Chaos Drinks," Roland blurted out, starting to bribe Nightingale.

"Ten, with different flavors," Nightingale negotiated as she licked her lips.

"It would raise suspicions if I give you too many..."

"Suspicious of what?"

"Well... someone will think it's unfair."

"Don't worry. I'll hide them well. Nobody will find them."

"How about eight? If you get them too easily, you'll..."

"Will what?"

"No, nothing. I have to think about it..."

...

In the end, Roland signed an "unequal treaty" at the cost of ten Chaos Drinks.

Watching Nightingale snacking on dried fish triumphantly, Roland shook his head in amusement.

By nightfall, Barov handed in the list of family visitors. He reported over the phone, "Ms. Scroll and I reviewed the family records and the copies of Power of Attorney. We've selected around 1,600 people for the first round of family visits to the Fertile Plains. Priority is given to family members. We're currently in the process of drafting a detailed proposal. If everything goes well, they'll be taking off in two days."

"Very well. Go ahead with your plan," Roland said approvingly, feeling very pleased with the high work efficiency of the Administrative Office. He was proud of how well his prime minister was trained.

"As you command! But Your Majesty, one worker's family member is a witch."

"A witch?" Roland echoed, his brows going up.

"Yes, this worker is called Snaketooth, from the Longsong District. He used to be a Rat at Black Street, and the witch is Miss Paper."

"Paper?" Roland suddenly remembered that Paper had involved herself in a small dispute when Petrov had brought her here. Was that Snaketooth her friend?

"Do you want me to cross him out?" Barov pursued as Roland lapsed into a long silence. "After all, Miss Paper has completely cut off from her past now."

"Of course not," said Roland, coming out of his reverie, "She severed her relationship with her past job as a Rat, but not with her friend. Don't forget that the key to eliminating Rats is to educate and transform them. They shouldn't be treated any differently just because of their previous occupation."

"A worker who used to be a Rat at Black Street..." Roland's lips curled up into a smile as he sank into his thought. If he remembered correctly, Paper and that worker had not seen each other for nearly two years. Perhaps they had forgotten what the other looked like. Yet Snaketooth still put her name on the Power of Attorney. It sounded like a fascinating story.

"I'll let Paper know," Roland said in the end. "You take care of the rest."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

At a clearing to the southwest of Tower Station No. 1, the First Army was holding a memorial service.

Nearly 300 serried snow-white tombstones stood solemnly on a meadow. Although nobody was buried underneath, everyone rose to pay their respects, a sober and stern expression on their faces, as if their companions had been standing right in front of them, alive and well.

"Here lie the valiant soldiers who sacrificed themselves to defend Tower Station No.1."

"They did not retreat but fought fiercely against the ferocious enemies."

"Because they knew that Graycastle had got their back."

"They were the swords of His Majesty, the towering wall protecting the civilians."

"Their names will be engraved in our memories."

"Their dreams will be fulfilled by us."

"To the King of Graycastle, to the Kingdom of Graycastle."

"Salute!"

Iron Axe performed a military salute, and all the others followed.

Lightning landed quietly on a barrack.

She spied a familiar figure at the front.

That was the conductor of the "Blackriver".

Chapter 1098 - The Guardian

After the group of soldiers dispersed, the old man returned to the train. Lightning flew into the cab from the rear window and landed silently on the floor of the compartment.

The old man stood in front of the dashboard, transfixed like a silent statue, gazing at what lay in his hand.

Watching his lonely back, Lightning wanted to console him, but words somehow abandoned her.

The old man did not see Lightning until she touched the half-open blind.

"Ah, you were the little girl the other day..." said the old man who blinked in surprise.

"My name is Lightning," Lightning said as she took a step back. "Sorry, I..."

"I see. You came to comfort me, right?" The old man said, grinning. "That's OK. I'm not that old yet. I don't need a little girl to comfort me. To be honest, it's a little embarrassing. That's a convenient ability you have. You can go wherever you want."

Lightning was a little relieved after she noticed that the old man was not as disconsolate as she had thought. She said, "I, I'll knock before I come in next time."

"I'm not blaming you, child,' said the old man as he took down a foldable desk off the wall and wiped it with his sleeve. "Come, sit here. I'll make you a cup of tea. This is the only thing I have here to entertain guests."

"Thank... you," said Lightning, as she slouched toward the table and sat down. On the dashboard lay a Neverwinter identification card.

"I'm Broocher, or you can call me my nickname, Mr. Howler. The lads on the train all call me by that name." The old man placed a cup of hot tea on the table and asked, "Did you attend the memorial?"

Lightning nodded and then shook her head. "I just stopped by and watched for a few minutes..."

"That means you didn't lose any of your friends, which is good."

Lightning clutched the cup and asked, "Your son..."

"Oh, that was Robert, my third son. He died when they tried to seize the artillery," Broocher said placidly. "The commander says he was very brave."

"He was," Lightning muttered. She had heard everything about the battle from Sylvie. It took a great deal of courage to charge at the spearing demons with no firearms or the support of the God's Punishment Witches.

"My third son used to be the timidest among my four sons. When he was a miner, he never stood up for himself no matter how harsh his foreman treated him. He would only complain about him to me in tears," Broocher said with a sigh. "You must be wondering why I don't look very sad, aren't you?"

At a loss for words, the little girl stammered, "No, I..."

"That's OK," the old man consoled her. "I know this will come one day... but my three sons told me one thing once."

"What... did they say?"

"They said they wanted to defend Neverwinter and everything in their native town that they earned through their hard work." The old man sipped the tea and continued, "To be completely honest, I didn't understand at first and asked them why it had to be them instead of others."

Lightning was asking the same question within herself.

Broocher seemed to know what she was thinking. He answered, "They said that others had made their sacrifices."

"Many people were killed during the battle against the demonic beasts when they were just members of the Militia. People died all the time when they fought against Duke Ryan and the church. If everybody relied on others, we would have been still working at the mine, living like animals," the old man said. "There's no battle without blood spilled. Everybody has his own turn. If nobody wanted to come forward, we would have been at the mercy of our enemy — that was what they told me."

"I'm not sure if my three sons are right, but I'm sure that this is their own choice." He took a deep breath and went on, "They were adults, and they knew what they were doing. That's enough for me. Compared to my eldest son who died of a chill, my third son would be remembered by the army forever. What do I have to be sad for?"

Lightning remembered what the conductor had said the other night. "They used to be as frail and weak as mice. However, after they joined the army, they changed a great deal. That's where my confidence in the First Army comes from. An army with people like that would not be so easily defeated."

"So that's the reason..." Lightning thought.

"By the way, I should thank you."

"Thank... me?" Lightning echoed in confusion.

"Yes," said the old man smilingly. "Without your prompt notification, we would have suffered a greater loss. You protected the First Army and the other son of mine in another way. I was wondering when I could meet you again and thought I probably would never see you in the future, but you appeared right behind me. It's nice to express my gratitude in person."

After the tea, Lightning waved goodbye to Broocher.

As she flew out of the train, through the window she saw the old man return to the dashboard, grab that identification card and bury his face in his hands.

...

Maggie was hovering in midair when Lightning returned to the residential area. She pulled Lightning into a rib-cracking hug as soon as she saw her and said accusingly, "Where have you been, coo? Why did you come back so late, coo? Did you forget what day it is today, coo?"

"Um, what day is it?"

"It's the day Lorgar is discharged from the hospital!" Maggie exclaimed as she descended on Lightning's head. "Let's go to the hospital, coo!"

"Ah... alright, alright. I see. Be quiet," Lightning said as she steadied the wobbly pigeon before zooming toward the center of the encampment. The Tower Station No. 1 underwent significant changes after the night attack. All the facilities, including the barracks and the hospital, had been relocated to the underground, except the platform, the yard and the watchtower. In this way, they were able to extend the defensive line to the outer ring of the encampment while at the same time monitoring the interior. Even if the demons launched a similar attack again, they would be able to minimize its impact.

Lightning and Maggie soon caught sight of the wolf girl.

"Hey," Lorgar said as she shook her ears. "Long time no see."

"It has been just a week," Lightning said, relieved to see the wolf girl in high spirits again. Lightning had been very concerned about Lorgar, because based on Maggie's description, Lorgar had been barely alive when she had been sent to the hospital.

"I feel time go so slow, probably because I've been sleeping all day," Lorgar said while stretching her body. "Nana insists that I should stay at the hospital for a week. If I stayed here for another week, I probably wouldn't need her treatment."

According to the Taquila witches, witches generally had a higher tolerance to the side effect of sleeping ferns than ordinary people. As such, to save Nana's magic power, they usually put themselves to sleep when receiving Nana's treatment.

"You really have monstrous self-repair ability, just like Lady Ashes, coo!" Maggie remarked while flapping her wings.

"Um... After I talked to Miss Andrea, I feel this is nothing to brag about," Lorgar mumbled in a hushed voice.

"Coo?"

"No, nothing," The wolf girl muttered as she walked up to Lightning and suddenly picked her up under her arms.

"Oi, Oi... what are you doing? Put me down," Abashed, Lightning yelled. "Somebody's watching us!"

"Sylvie told me everything, everything you did."

"I..."

"See? You can do it as long as you try hard," Lorgar said as she pressed Lightning into her bosom. "This is the captain we love."

Lightning stopped struggling, feeling warmth wash over her body. After a moment of silence, she murmured, "But I'm still a coward."

"You admitting this to me indicates you've already made progress." Lorgar put down Lightning and said, "You aren't going to leave us again, are you?"

Lightning's eyes darted from the wolf girl to Maggie, then nodded gently and said, "No."

The moment she made her promise, she felt a heavy burden press onto her shoulders.

However, she did not feel intimidated.

Instead, she somehow felt a sense of security.

"Coo?" Maggie asked in bewilderment, her head lopsided. "What are you talking about, coo?"

"We're discussing the upcoming celebration," Lorgar said as she straightened up. "Since we're all safe and sound, shouldn't we have a drink?"

"Celebrate, coo!! Celebrate, coo!" Maggie rejoined in excitement.

"Hey, hang on..." Lightning said hesitantly. "I have to patrol the campsite tonight."

"That's OK. You just provide drinks and we'll drink them for you," Lorgar said, her tail high up in the air. "This is what a captain should offer to her team, isn't it?"

Chapter 1099 - I Like You and Everybody

The following day, a message from Neverwinter stirred the entire construction team at the front.

King Roland had granted family visits to all the laborers who had been working for more than three months. They would have a day off to spend this special day with their families whom they had been longing to see. Their family members would travel from Neverwinter to the terminus station located at the Misty Forest to meet them.

Everyone was grateful for King Roland's kindness and compassion. The workers chanted "Long live the king" after they heard the news and worked even harder during the remainder of the day.

Snaketooth was one of them.

In fact, when the foreman had told him the news, he had literally goggled at the list in disbelief for a few minutes.

He gazed at the bottom of the list where the name "Paper" lay, his head completely blank.

"Hey, are you OK with the arrangement or not?" Snaketooth still clearly remembered that the foreman had pressed him for an answer impatiently. Indeed, he had stared at the list for quite a while before signing the paper. Snaketooth grinned every time he thought of that moment. "Just a heads up. If you disagree, you can put down another person's name, and the Administrative Office would make an inquiry to him or her. However, if your application is rejected, you'll lose your vacation."

The foreman obviously wanted him to approve the list right away to save his work, but Snaketooth knew he did not understand his feeling.

Why would he want to reject it. On the very contrary, he wanted to give the official at the Administrative Office drafting this list a big kiss.

"I agree. I totally agree!"

"You should have said that earlier rather than gaping like an idiot," the foreman grumbled scathingly while casting him a sideways glance. He went to look for the next person on the list after Snaketooth signed.

Snaketooth stood rooted there, staring at the hand with which he had put his signature in a daze.

He still felt that everything was like a dream, a dream he hoped that would last forever.

He did not have the courage to say hello to Paper in Neverwinter because he was afraid of being rejected. Paper was now a member of the Witch Union and had become much more beautiful than the frail girl he had known. If Paper did not want to associate herself with a former Rat like him anymore, his intrusion would only disturb her peaceful life.

When he saw Paper's name appear on the list, he knew the Administrative Office had confirmed that she agreed to come and visit him.

Nothing could be more exciting than spending time alone with Paper. He was happy that Paper did not reject him.

Snaketooth waited for the family visiting day in great anxiety and excitement.

Since the train could only carry around 100 people at a time due to its limited transportation capacity, Snaketooth had to wait for a week for his turn, although Paper was on the list of the first round of the visitors.

"Hey man, it's your turn today?"

"Look at you! It's a girl, isn't it?"

"Don't stay up too late!"

Snaketooth went all red as his fellow workers jested. He dashed out of the room in embarrassment.

He heaved a deep sigh of relief after finally boarding the train. Anyway, he would be meeting Paper in two hours.

The train conductor reminded them of the rules pertaining to family visits every now and then. For example, visitors were not allowed to go beyond the guarding zone and had to leave before 8:00 PM. They also should follow the First Army's instructions in the event of an emergency. Snaketooth had learned all the rules by heart, as some returned visitors had already told him.

With a long, shrill whistle, the train staggered to a stop at the terminus station at the Misty Forest.

"Get off the train. Line up and don't push!" The train staff hollered. "It isn't grocery shopping. There's no need to fear that the food would be sold out."

The crowd erupted into a laughter.

Snaketooth felt his heart thumping in his throat.

He could barely contain himself.

He had pictured his meeting with Paper numerous times in his head and had also rehearsed his speech over and over again. However, he was now groping for words like a dunce.

When that pretty girl appeared in front of him, Snaketooth forgot all about his prepared speech. No words came out of his mouth. He simply grinned at her, feeling very stupid.

"You're living at Neverwinter. That's awesome!" The girl trotted to him and held his hands. She neither hesitated nor showed any reluctance to touch him. Everything was just like what it had been like two years ago. Her bright smile instantly eased his mind.

At that moment, Snaketooth believed that he had made the right choice to come to Neverwinter.

...

"So, you came here after the Longsong District was merged?"

The pair of the two walked abreast along a path leading to the depth of the forest far away from the boisterous encampment so that they could have some privacy. Paper appeared to have a lot to say as if she wanted to fill in the gap between them. Snaketooth, on the other hand, answered every question Paper asked. They were now more like friends than a superior and a subordinate.

"The entire Rat organization has been uprooted. There were many job postings on the square, so I applied for one. If I continued to be a Rat, I would have got in trouble," Snaketooth said while nodding. "Tigerclaw and I decided to work in Neverwinter, as the pay is higher here. Plus..."

"It's closer to you," he left the remaining words unsaid.

"No wonder I didn't find you guys. I didn't know you already left there," Paper remarked with a mixed feeling.

"You went back to... the Longsong District later?"

"I asked someone to look for you," the girl said slowly. "After I learned that the entire Dark Corner Alley was torn down, I thought you left the Western Region."

"Oh... I see."

"But why didn't you come to see me after you came to Neverwinter?" Paper questioned.

"Well... it's a long story." Snaketooth said on a cough. "Tigerclaw and I had nothing at that time. We didn't have a permanent residence and we worked all day, so we kind of forgot."

It was such a poor excuse. Nobody could ever completely forget a person for two years. That simply meant he did not care about her. However, Snaketooth would never tell Paper that he was trying to dodge her.

Fortunately, Paper did not probe into the matter. She said, " Same here. I was so busy at the beginning after I moved to Neverwinter. I have to help the construction team to make cement settle faster. I have to assist Ms. Agatha, and I also have to help the chemical plant to manufacture various strange stuff," Paper said as she counted things off on her fingers. " His Majesty says my ability can accelerate reaction processes and increase bond energies. I wonder how he knew it. According to the book, those particles are even smaller than sesame. Can you imagine that? If an atom is as big as the Longsong Theater, its nucleus is smaller than a walnut..."

Snaketooth did not understand a single word Paper was saying but he kept nodding, pretending to be interested in the topic. For a split second, he noticed Paper's change and the difference between them. He looked at her with utmost attentiveness, his eyes flitting from her glistening eyes and long eyelashes to the delicate tip of her nose and moving lips, fascinated by everything about her.

Snaketooth was almost about to confess to her.

"By the way," After talking about her own experience, Paper switched the subject, "after I learned that you were in Neverwinter, I asked Ms. Scroll to look up the files and found that Sunflower and the others also came here. That's so nice. We can hang out together in the future..."

Snaketooth was not paying attention to the latter half her sentence. He was too occupied by his own thought.

So he confessed his love.

"I like you, Paper!" he blurted out.

Immediately, he realized what he had done.

His heart was beating suffocatingly in his chest. An indescribable nervousness prevailed him.

For a moment, Snaketooth regretted being so impulsive.

However, to his surprise, Paper replied to him at once.

She answered brightly with a smile, "I like you too, and also everybody."

Chapter 1100 - Afternoon Tea in the Forest

...

"Did she... really say that at that time?" Wendy burst into a laugh after Leaf recounted Paper's story. She asked, "What about the young man called Snaketooth? Didn't he say anything?"

"Just laughed like a child with her together," Leaf said as she shook her head. "He probably used up all the courage he could muster to communicate his feelings. It wasn't an easy task after all."

"I thought so too," Wendy said, smiling even more broadly. "It's so good... to be young."

"Is it OK to eavesdrop on our fellow witch though?" Leaf questioned as she transformed from a green shadow into her original appearance.

"We weren't eavesdropping. We were simply doing what His Majesty told us to," Wendy protested, swelling up dignifiedly. "He asked us to have an eye on both of them, so obviously we should know about their topic of discussion, shouldn't we?"

That sounded quite reasonable.

"Besides, would you choose not to listen to their conversation if His Majesty didn't ask you to?" Wendy asked, staring at Leaf smilingly.

"Um..." Leaf said while clearing her throat. She curled up her lips and gave an affirmative answer, "Yes, I still would."

Both of them broke into laughter after exchanging a look with each other.

Leaf waved her hand. Soon, a giant vine rose from the ground and sent Wendy and her slowly to the treetops. Shortly afterwards, the dense branches and twigs below spread out, intertwined and converged again. A moment later, a balcony built with green leaves appeared.

An endless sea of trees and a vast meadow leading to the Dragonspine Mountains suddenly came into their views.

Leaf used to build similar tree cabins back in the Witch Cooperation Association to shelter the witches from pouring rain and muddy roads, but it used to take her a lot of time to create one. To save her magic power, the cabins were always the shabbiest, smallest of the kind, with the shape of a chrysalis, and they could not always accommodate everyone.

But now, she could not only build a balcony effortlessly but could also conjure recliners and a coffee table. She also conjured two cups of light golden flower tea, which sparkled in the sunlight on the coffee table.

"Did you make it?" Wendy asked as she sniffed the cups. The tea smelled good.

"Yes. I used morning dews, honey and sugarcane to make it, with some fresh jasmine flower buds as well," Leaf answered while nodding. "It isn't as tasty as Chaos Drinks, but you can have as much tea as you want."

"You've become stronger and stronger," Wendy remarked impressively. "People say Anna is a true genius of our century, but I think you're just as powerful as her. Probably one day, you can control all the forests in the world and spread your mind throughout the whole continent, provided that you live long enough..."

"Based on my current status, I can't do that," Leaf said with a wave, smiling. "It would take nearly ten years for me to merge with the entire Misty Forest. By the time I'm able to leave here, I'm probably an old witch."

"Nobody knows," Wendy said as she sipped the tea. "Agatha told me that witches and their magic power are interdependent on each other. The more powerful a witch is, the longer lifespan she'll have. The Transcendents might have still been alive if they weren't killed in the war." Wendy gazed up at the sky and said, "You're probably stronger than them. Perhaps, you can survive longer than all of us."

Leaf fell silent. There was a hint of melancholy in her eyes, which Wendy did not notice.

"Also, our appearances have something to do with our magic power too." Wendy paused for a second and then continued, "Pasha has confirmed that the legendary Queen of Starfall City, Alice, was divinely beautiful." At these words, Wendy turned around and rested her eyes on Leaf. "Right... you do look a bit different now. I mean... when you descended from the treetops, you looked like a goddess of forests for a moment. I'm envious."

Leaf rolled her eyes and said, "This doesn't sound like something the kind, caring Wendy I know would say."

"That's because I didn't really think about these problems before," Wendy replied with a smile. "I was too focused on our survival to reflect upon other trifles, such as what our magic power can achieve, what our future would become of, and how magic power would affect our physical appearances."

"Makes sense," Leaf agreed while twitching her lips. "So now you've started to study the impact of magic power on your appearance. Let me guess... do you have a crush on someone?"

"That's different. You're just a little younger than me, aren't you? Are you not worried that you'll end up being all alone like me?"

"Forget about the age. I already have a forest. What else do I need? But I have my own way to know what you want. I supply all Honey's animal messengers."

"Unfortunately, as the superintendent of the Witch Union, I review every single article she writes."

Time passed by quickly as the pair teased each other over the afternoon tea.

Leaf finally steered the subject to the business when the sun started to sink behind the mountain in the west. She asked, "So, are you leaving soon?"

"Yes." Wendy got to her feet and said, "I have to escort Anna back. As the 'Seagull' doesn't work at night, we have to take off before four o' clock."

"You'll miss Paper and her beau's bonfire party then."

Unlike other family members, Paper took a flight to the front instead of traveling by train. As the departure time of the glider was fixed and they certainly could not leave Paper at the front alone either, she had to get there right on time.

"I don't have a choice," Wendy said resignedly while spreading out her hands. "We can't afford to waste too much time on the commute. It isn't safe and Neverwinter needs the glider."

"I'll let her know it's time to go," Leaf said as she transformed into the spirit form again.

"Thank you."

Leaf submerged in the sea of trees and reappeared in front of Wendy a few seconds later.

"OK, done. She'll meet you at the airport. I think she should be bidding farewell to her friend now. Let me transport you there."

Wendy nodded and turned around to wait for the balcony to descend.

"By the way..."

Leaf suddenly spoke in a quiet voice.

"Yes?"

"Ah, no," Leaf said hesitantly, "nothing."

Wendy took a breath, wheeled around and said gently, "Speak out. I'm here to listen."

"I'm just..."

"Just what?"

"Just a bit..." Leaf mumbled while clenching her fists. She suddenly, however, stood transfixed to the spot, looking over Wendy's head and locked her eyes on the northern side of the forest.

Perceiving the shock and surprise on her face, Wendy also wheeled around to see what had happened.

Several tendrils of dark smoke curled up from the forest and spread out like a veil.

"Is the forest... on fire?"

Chapter 1101 - The Controller of the Forest

It did not make sense that the forest would catch fire in spring and summer when the soil was fertilized and moist, and it was even more bizarre that more than one place was ablaze!

"Leaf?" Wendy asked.

"I don't know," Leaf replied, suddenly back to the present. "That area is beyond my control. I can't see what's exactly happening there."

"If it's really a fire, we must put it out as soon as possible to prevent it from spreading."

"I... I know," Leaf said, with a strange look on her face. She bit her lip and then answered with a nod. "Anyway, you go and look for the others. Once the emergency alarm goes off, the campsite will turn into chaos. It won't be that easy to get out of here by then."

There were not only workers on vacation at the terminus station but also their family members who had never fought at the front. It would thus be hard to evacuate the station and direct those people to shelters in an orderly manner. Leaf knew Wendy was also thinking the same thing.

"Can you... handle it by yourself?"

"Don't worry. I know what to do," Leaf assured her as she descended from the balcony. She cast Wendy one last backward glance and disappeared into the thick forest.

In a moment, the shrill, piercing alarm cracked like a whip through the air above the Misty Forest.

...

"OK, yes, I got it." Ferlin Eltek hung up the telephone at the headquarters of the General Staff at Tower Station No. 2 and reported to Edith, "Your ladyship, there has been an accident at the western front..."

"What did you say? The northern forest is on fire?" The Pearl of the Northern Region said while knitting her brows. "Did Miss Leaf notice it first?"

"Yes, they've started to evacuate the station. The First Army stationed there is now on Alert Level 2."

"Inform the Commander-in-Chief and the other executives," Edith immediately gave her instruction after a moment of reflection. "Tell them that I'm calling a pre-war meeting."

"Pre-war meeting..." Ferlin echoed hesitantly. "Are you saying..."

"That's right," Edith confirmed Ferlin's suspicion in a grave tone. "I suspect this is the demons' new scheme."

In less than 15 minutes, all the generals of the First Army and the representatives of the Witch Union were congregated in the underground boardroom.

The Pearl of the Northern Region briefly relayed the news and then said, "The sentries at the forest terminus station have confirmed that the dark smoke did result from a fire, which is now spreading rapidly under the influence of the wind."

"Just a forest fire, no demons?" Iron Axes asked heavily.

"Not that I know of," Ferlin said while shaking his head. "The smoke blocks our view, and nobody knows what's going on there."

"Miss Sylvie, can you see anything?"

"The Misty Forest is too far away," Sylvie answered. "I have to go there personally to check out..."

"Damn it... Such bad timing," Iron Axe grumbled as he peered down at the map. "Where's the queen at the moment?"

Their original plan was that Anna and the witches would meet with the air force at the airport near the forest station and return to Neverwinter by the "Seagull".

"They should be now on their way back on the "Black River I". After I learned that the forest was on fire, Miss Kant instructed me to tell them to change their route over the Sigil of Listening," answered Morning Light.

"Well done," Iron Axe said, a little relieved. "So only Princess Tilly and her party are there now, right?"

After Morning Light gave an affirmative answer, Iron Axe instructed him, "Tell them to take off immediately. We don't have time."

"As you command."

Iron Axe surveyed the General Staff after everything regarding the retreat was settled and then said, "Now, let me hear your opinions on this matter."

...

Leaf was perched on the top of a giant cedar, watching the thick, churning smoke in the distance.

Within an hour, the fire had gotten worse. The air was saturated with ashes and crumbs, and she could see red flickers peeping through the smog.

For a moment, she could hear the trees sob as they were being burned. Although the area on fire was beyond her control, she could sense the tremor of the Heart of Forest.

Because the Heart of Forest was a part of her.

Leaf did not tell Wendy that she was afraid.

After merging with the forest for over a year, Leaf had gradually understood the nature of her ability.

In a way, she could become immortal when every plant encompassed by the Heart of Forest became a part of her. In other words, the bigger the area she had control over, the harder it was to wipe her off the face of the earth.

It was easy to remove a patch of grass, but it would be a lot more difficult to wipe out an entire forest or meadow.

It would be almost impossible to kill all vegetation on this planet.

Leaf remembered His Majesty had once said that plants were the foundation of nature. They would always be the earliest and the most resilient lifeform that appeared on the earth after an utter destruction of the world.

However, the problem was, the reborn Leaf would never be the same old Leaf again.

To merge with the forest, she had to memorize tons of information, including underground streams, wriggly worms beneath the ground, beehives hiding in tree trunks, and twittering birds. If this information swarmed into her head all at once, she would lose her sanity, which was exactly the reason why she had to take things slow.

Yet she knew that she could not take in so much information just on her own.

The reason she had yet to go crazy was that the Heart of Forest screened information for her. Numerous vines and roots intertwined with each other and wove themselves into a massive organic system that integrated both her magic power and memories into the forest.

This meant once the forest was destroyed, she would lose a part of her memories. Even if she did regenerate new plants, she would never be able to retrieve what had been lost.

Those could be the memory of her first acquaintance with Wendy and Scroll, of her experience at the Witch Cooperation Association with Nightingale, Mystery Moon and Lily, of her initial epic meeting with Roland, or even of the mundane routine of her everyday life in Neverwinter... She did not want to abandon any of her memories, not even the bad ones, such as the temerity and prejudice of Cara, and the haunting search and persecution of the church.

Because this was the experience that only belonged to her. They were the evidence of her existence in this world.

She was afraid of losing them.

Her heart ached uncontrollably when she thought that the fire might spread to the fused Misty Forest.

But she could not retreat.

Because everything they had done so far was to defeat the demons and win the Battle of Divine Will.

She could not abandon her companions out of selfishness, because everybody was doing their part. She would not allow herself to fail the other fellow witches.

At these thoughts, Leaf took a deep breath. She looked up at the sky awash with sheets of pink and orange light, her arms outstretched.

In a split second, a jet of dazzling green light erupted from her chest.

"Please respond to my summon!"

At that moment, the whole forest, like an awakened giant, rose tremulously.

Numberless trees bent backward and prostrated to the ground. The earth and patches of grass underneath curled up like a carpet, producing an earth-shattering roar!

As the ground continued to shake violently, the whole Misty Forest split in half. The part controlled by the Heart of Forest gradually shrank, separating itself from the forest in the north and thereby creating a forest fire belt that stretched several hundred meters.

Chapter 1102 - The Demons' Blade (I)

"Based on the current information, the General Staff concludes..." Edith broke off as she tapped the desk. "The fire is very likely a diversion."

"A diversion?" Iron Axe echoed thoughtfully. "Are you saying that the enemy wasn't intending to sabotage our supply?"

"They wanted to but couldn't." Edith pointed to the map and explained, "The distance between the Taquila ruins and the north of the terminus station is over 500 miles, which is even longer than the railway on the plain. How much Red Mist do you think they would have to carry if they planned to walk to the forest, set the fire and set up an ambush? I think the Taquila witches should know that answer better than anyone else."

"They can't have such a long expedition without a continuous supply of Red Mist or outposts," Phyllis, the representative of the Taquila witches, replied. "Based on my past experience, 500 is their maximum."

"The terminus station is also a well-equipped fortress, a small stronghold, so to speak," Edith continued. "His Majesty foresaw this kind of situation a long time ago. If the demons set the forest aflame, Miss Leaf would create a fire belt to stop the fire from spreading to the station. This fire belt forms a perfect gun range, with a clear view. It would be almost suicidal if the demons attempt to pass the fortress against crossfire."

"Even if they do manage to send their army to the Misty Forest, the fire would expose their tracks," Morning Light put in. "It would be better for them to launch an attack at midnight when they can better hide their traces in the forest uncontrolled by Ms. Leaf."

"Fair enough..." Iron Axe said, nodding. "But for Sylvie, Lightning and Maggie, none of them found signs of the demons. If they have decided to attack Tower Station No. 1 again, it would probably be too late to take actions now."

"That's another mystery we're yet to solve. Perhaps, the demons have developed a new strategy or a new weapon we've never seen to counter our scouts," Edith said flatly. "Having said that, there isn't just Tower Station No. 1. They can totally attack somewhere else as a diversion."

"Do you mean... they'll attack Tower Station No.0?"

"We're currently focused solely on the front end of the railway, so that's a possibility."

"But Station No. 0 is very far from the front. I don't think the demons have enough forces to go that far."

"Exactly," Edith affirmed.

"I see." The commander-in-chief delivered his order after a moment of contemplation. "Once the queen comes back safe and sound, the 'Blackwater River I" will travel to Tower Station No. 0, whereas the 'Blackwater River II" shall patrol the area between the Station No. 0 and the forest. The other units stay put while raising the state of alert to Alert Level 1 until the alarm is disabled. Although we reckon the demons aren't likely to attack the northern forest, it would be better to extinguish the fire as soon as possible." He then turned to Agatha and said, "Can I entrust this task to you?"

"No problem. We'll do our best," the Ice Witch replied.

"Very well. Keep patrolling the front and watching out for the Taquila front. Miss Sylvie..."

"I'll take care of it," Sylvie said with a nod.

Iron Axe clapped his hands and said, "Based on how fast the fire is currently spreading, it will reach the edge of the forest around nightfall. If the demons didn't know that Miss Leaf could actually block the fire, they should be launching an attack at sunset. We have an hour or so to remedy the situation. Let's do it!"

...

A chilly breeze played around Sylvie's cheek as she stood on the top of the watchtower at the campsite.

A swollen red sun hung low against the western mountains, diffusing a perpetual splendor. The vast meadow below was basking in a slanting beam of sunshine, gold at the far end, red interspersed with green in the middle, which actually looked like a dusky purple color under the sky, and a deep navy, the color of night, at the near end.

This was probably a scene that she could only see on the boundless Barbarian Land.

It was also a final countdown to the war.

The demons were approaching them at this very moment as the sun gradually sank behind the forest.

The beautiful scene thus appeared to be a little bleak and desolate.

Sylvie turned around and gazed upon the southwestern sky. Although she could not see the Misty Forest from here with her Eye of Magic, she still, from time to time, cast a glance in that direction. Dimly, she apprehended that something would happen there.

The General Staff's decision and Iron Axe's order were at least carefully contemplated if not impeccable. The demons could not stretch too thin without a constant supply of Red Mist. If they did aim at the terminus station near the forest and Tower Station No. 0, the garrison there would have enough time before the reinforcements arrived. Beyond a doubt, the demons would still send most of their forces to the railway.

However, why was she still worried so much?

Sylvie shook her head, trying to put these thoughts out of her mind. She was about to take another look at the frontline when suddenly, a speck of light came into her sight.

"Light?"

"How come..."

Eyes widened, she looked in the direction of the light — it was a cluster of bright red flames streaking toward the south.

Sylvie wondered if this was her illusion.

As far as she knew, the Eye of Magic could not see things so far away.

Sylvie took another look, and her theory was confirmed by a black vision field. The Eye of Magic would fail to see through solid matters if the object was beyond its vision scope. As the lighting was poor, she could hardly discern the edge of the forest. All she saw was a pitch-dark blackness, against which gleamed the flashy fleck.

Sylvie wondered what that thing was.

Suddenly, she sensed a chill running down her spine and shuddered uncontrollably.

She knew what she had been worried about now.

It was something everybody had overlooked.

She saw magic power!

And it was enormous!

The Magic Eye could not see things very far away. However, when it encountered a powerful magic source, it would sense external vibrations and thus "saw" what it could not normally see, just as people sensed sunlight through closed eyelids.

How incredible that magic power must be if she could sense it from here!

The Cursing Demon.

This was the name that flashed across Sylvie's mind.

It was the manlike demon in Taquila, the commander of the demons. Usually, a commander of an army rarely participated in a battle himself, as his main duty was supervision.

Nevertheless, this commander was also a powerful Senior Demon with an extraordinary fighting capacity.

Now, the red dot was accelerating, almost as fast as Maggie in the form of a Devilbeast.

Their target had been Leaf from the beginning!

"Run... now..." Sylvie could not help yelling. "Run, Leaf!"

Chapter 1103 - The Demons' Blade (II)

But Leaf could not hear her from so far away.

The red dot zoomed even faster and became brighter as well.

What should she do?

"Right, right... telephone! I can call Leaf!"

Sylvie slid down the pole into the underground boardroom and yelled at Morning Light, "Call Leaf, now, and tell her to run!"

Realizing something serious had happened, Ferlin immediately picked up the receiver without further questions. He asked, "Run... where?"

"Anywhere! Neverwinter, the south of the forest... as far away as possible from the terminus station!"

All the people in the boardroom rested their eyes on Sylvie.

"Have you found anything?" Edith asked.

"We were all wrong. The demons' real target is Leaf, Leaf only!" Sylvie looked toward the southwest restlessly and said, "Leaf needs to concentrate to control the forest. When she does so, she turns into a physical entity, and the demons would be able to see the flow of her magic power and thus locate her! They burned the forest just to flush her out!"

"What?" Edith asked, her brows furrowed. "Can you actually see the demons from here?"

"Yes, because they're... too powerful," she muttered.

"But Ms. Leaf is powerful too," Ferlin cut in. "If the forest wasn't on fire, she could have rivaled an army of Mad Demons."

"There must be something else we haven't anticipated..." Sylvie said as she made her hand into a fist. She saw the red dot rise rapidly like a provoked serpent. "Has it got through yet?"

"No... nobody is picking up the phone."

It appeared that Leaf had been completely diverted by the fire. If they did not do anything right now, the red dot would reach the forest in one or two minutes!

"Call the terminus station," Edith ordered. "Let the First Army stationed there notify Leaf and also tell them to support her."

"OK." Ferlin thus turned to another telephone.

While they were waiting in agitation, Sylvie saw the red light pass the treetops and plummet like a sinister shooting star.

"Is it planning to break through the defense directly from above?"

Sylvie somehow thought of the worst scenario.

It was probably — a Magic Slayer!

...

Leaf clapped her hands and heaved a sigh of relief. "It should be fine now," thought she.

The trees at the edge of the campsite were now completely separated from the north. The fire would no longer pose a threat to the terminus station by any means.

Nevertheless, she still felt sorrowful for the burned, smoldered trees.

How many memories would she lose if the forest under her control was ablaze? How much precious, important experience would thus sink into oblivion?

Leaf could not bear the prospective loss.

"Cheer up, Leaf!" she encouraged herself in silence.

"You need to help quench the fire later!"

She was about to look around the campsite to see if there was anything she could help when suddenly, a whistling sound in the sky caught her attention.

Leaf gazed up. It was almost nighttime. The sky was a bruised purple, and it was hard for her to discern what that thing was.

"Watch out! Run!" someone shouted behind her.

Having no time to see who that was, Leaf disappeared into the trees immediately. At the same time, a shadow dived to the ground and brushed past her. The leaves and twigs around it were instantly pulverized into dust.

Instead of producing a loud noise, the shadow landed quietly. Leaf felt a lurch of fear. Before she could react to the attack, the air rippled around the shadow.

Her flowing magic power froze in a second.

Then it cracked like a mirror!

"Ah———"

Leaf was pushed out of the tree trunk by an immense force and sped backward in a swirling color.

She fell heavily on the ground and coughed out blood.

Then she saw what the shadow really was.

It was a tall demon with pretty sharp facial features. Other than its deep blue skin and strange clothing, it looked no different than a normal human being. However, its mere presence made Leaf's chest constrict.

The air seemed to become thick and unbreathable.

Leaf straightened up breathlessly. She mustered all her strength to summon the forest, but the forest was unresponsive.

It was not her first time to be forced out of the Heart of Forest.

"Magic Slayer..." she murmured, her heart sinking to the bottom.

The Magic Slayer did not sneer or howl. It simply stretched out its sharp-clawed hands and lunged at her.

Leaf closed her eyes in despair.

But she did not feel the anticipated pain.

"Clink!"

A huge, strange-looking sword appeared and blocked the blow. Leaf could never forget the signature giant blade and the golden sun mark on the sword.

"Envoy Ashes."

"I'm your rival, monster!" Ashes yelled as she escaped the clutch of the Magic Slayer and stood magnificently before Leaf.

"A-Ashes?" Leaf exclaimed in surprise and stared at her. "Didn't you return to Neverwinter with Princess Tilly? I saw you board the 'Seagull'—"

"Yeah, that was our original plan," Ashes replied without giving her a backward glance. "but I feel there's something out of character in this fire, so I requested to stay here, just in case something happens."

"So it was her that warned me earlier."

"This is the Magic Slayer you encountered the other day?"

"Yes, but you have to be careful. It's much stronger than that Senior Demon!"

"I've noticed that," Ashes said, with the giant sword in front of her. "Don't worry. I may not win, but I can earn us some time before reinforcements arrives."

The Magic Slayer swept over the encampment with a contemptuous glance and stared at the two witches coolly. "Are you... an Extraordinary?"

To their great astonishment, it was speaking the human language, although its pronunciation was a bit off. This was even more incredible than the appearance of the Magic Slayer itself!

During the previous Battles of Divine Will, demons and witches had never communicated with each other!

"Can you... speak our language?" Leaf could not help asking.

"Learning is the first step of evolution. Only you guys will be surprised at our progress," the Senior Demon replied as it spread out its hand. "Thousands of things changed in the past hundreds of years, but you still live in the old way. Demons, Extraordinaries, even these titles remain the same. That's really... pathetic."

"What did you say?" Ashes snarled.

But the demon did not respond to her. Instead, it conjured a gust of wind.

Ashes took a few steps forward and flailed the giant sword in her hand. The magic cyclone dissipated under the influence of the God's Stone of Retaliation, but the Magic Slayer was already gone.

Chapter 1104 - The Demons' Blade (III)

"Ah — " Leaf's scream suddenly came from behind.

Ashes turned around and found the wind did not disappear but only weakened. It sent Leaf flying into the air.

At the same time, the Magic Slayer materialized behind her.

"How... is that possible?"

The cyclone should be a form of magic power, and it did not make sense that the God's Stone of Retaliation had failed to block it.

Ashes could not afford to give it much thought. She aimed the sword at her opponent's neck.

However, the demon blocked her strike with one single hand. At this point, Ashes clearly saw its arm emanate blue light.

The Magic Slayer did not spare her another glance before he conjured another wisp of wind that made Leaf drift even farther.

"It's... picking on Leaf only!"

Ashes followed at its heels, but the Magic Slayer managed to keep her at a distance. Leaf attempted to fight back, but the Magic Slayer pinned her down with a wave. Not able to concentrate her mind and summon her power, Leaf became utterly defenseless under the firm clutch of her enemy.

"Is this how a Senior Demon controls its power?" thought Ashes, her palms starting to sweat. It not only subdued Leaf but also deflected her attack effortlessly. If she could not keep pace with the demon, the demon would probably kill Leaf in the end.

Ashes had never been so strained before.

"Faster, just a little faster!"

For the past two years, Ashes had been following Taquila witches' training routine and noticed a drastic change in her physique. Her magic power increased and her body was well nourished by the magic. Sometimes, she even had a feeling that her magic power was gradually taking place of her flesh and blood.

Yet this was not enough.

She must move faster to save Leaf.

And protect the people she wanted to protect.

Ashes concentrated her mind to summon her power. During the holy duel with Lorgar, she had discovered a unique combat technique, which was to direct all her power to a specific body part to strengthen and enhance it. This was also the reason why the wolf girl could transform her each limb separately.

Since the Magic Slayer was not paying particular attention to Ashes, Ashes could focus her mind. As the surrounding magic power was in disarray, she could sense the flow of the magic power in her body more acutely.

After the demon distanced itself from Ashes for the fourth time, Ashes was around 20 meters behind. The demon brushed away the vines conjured by Leaf and attempted to snatch her by the chest.

It seemed that Leaf was doomed.

However, at this very moment, Ashes mustered all her strength and kicked at a big tree!

For a split second, her hand touched something.

She streaked at the Magic Slayer like a bolt of lightning. Time appeared to have stopped. She could almost "see" the crushed tree crumple underneath her kick, its twigs and branches flying in midair and slumping heavily on the grass.

The Magic Slayer, for the first time, stopped and used its arms to block her strike.

"WHAM! BANG!"

The Magic Slayer was thrown into the air. It flew through the air several meters and performed a double somersault before it landed on the ground.

In the meantime, Ashes caught falling Leaf and blocked further attacks from the demon.

"Hmm..." The Magic Slayer raised its brows and, for the first time, showed some interest.

"Fire!"

Just then, the reinforcement Ashes had been waiting for finally arrived. The God's Punishment Witches stationed at the terminus station jumped out of the bushes and aimed their grapeshot guns at the demon. Thunderous roars pierced the air above the forest. As bullets hailed down, the demon flitted from tree to tree like a fleeting ghost to dogde shells. In the midst of flying tree bark and crumbs, its blue light flickered.

A short way farther on, there came a ruffling of footsteps. Apparently, the First Army had surrounded the forest.

The demon cast Ashes one last glance and leaped off. With a surge of magic power, it soared into the sky and vanished into the darkness.

"Damn it," the leading God's Punishment Witch spat. She crouched down in front of Ashes and asked, "I'm Elena. Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." Ashes answered while looking at half-unconscious Leaf. She wiped the blood off Leaf's face and said, "But she needs treatment."

"Rest assured," Elena said. "Miss Nana and Miss Nightfall are on their way."

...

As soon as the Upgraded descended to the ground, a junior guard greeted him.

"Sir Ursrook, your air tank."

Before the guard finished, Ursrook snatched the tank from him and inhaled deeply.

"Awh——"

After a long silence, Ursrook handed the tank to the guard and said, "Get a new one for me."

"Yes, sir."

The guard took out the old tank and implanted a new one in his spine. This was a more convenient and faster way to breathe as it did not require armor for transporation.

"How about your trip..."

"Had a little problem, but I anticipated that earlier," Ursrook replied expressionlessly. "That's men's territory. If I couldn't even deal with that, I would doubt about Kabradhabi's loyalty."

"No, that wasn't your real power," the guard defended his master hotly. "The air tank limited your power. If you were around the Birth Tower, those low lives would have been no match for you, sir!"

Summoning magic power would significantly reduce a Senior Demon's health points. To maintain a certain number of health points for a safe return, he had to reserve some of his power when combatting with the witches.

"I was just planning to bait the hook this time. Next time, I'll pick a place more favorable to us for a fair duel," Ursrook looked in the direction of the southern forest and mumbled, "A place for their perpetual rest..."

"If only the Sky Lord could give you more support," the guard complained indignantly. "In that case, you don't have to risk yourself, and the Birth Tower in Taquila..."

"Risk myself?" Ursrook interjected, "I actually feel it quite interesting. I prefer to go check myself rather than simply relying on others' reports." He dug a deformed steel bead out of his armor and studied it attentively. "The awakened females haven't improved a bit, but the males, who used to have no magic power, are now somewhat different. It turns out that human beings aren't completely useless... If only I could get to know more about them."

The guard did not reply but looked apparently disapproving.

Ursrook put the steel bead in his inner pocket airily and continued, "As for the lord... I believe he must have done his best. It's just that the king has his own problems and considerations. We don't need to be too frustrated about it. After all, our ultimate goal is to reach a higher realm, and that's the reason we fight, isn't it?"

"Yes... you're right," the guard muttered while bowing his head.

"Let's retreat, and take the 'tombstone'. It's a long journey to Taquila," Ursrook instructed as he slowly rose into the air and turned in the direction of the ruins. "Now, we've set the hook. We're just going to wait for the fish."

"Until it's time to haul in our net."

"We'll surely meet again one day."

Chapter 1105 - Leaf's Heart

Two days later.

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

"That was about the situation at that time..." Ashes shared the details of her encounter with the demon. "After the fire was extinguished, Lightning found the enemy's traces around 100 kilometers away in the north. Those traces should be left by the Spider Demons when they crossed the forest. I fancy there were just three or four of them."

Because of the interruption of the signals, Roland did not know that Leaf had been under attack until evening. The early next morning, he immediately instructed Tilly and Wendy to fly to the terminus station and bring her back to Neverwinter.

Ashes only suffered minor injuries but Leaf had been helped off the plane.

Fortunately, Nightfall had grown the Seed of Symbiosis in Leaf's body. While Leaf remained unconscious, her symbiont seemed to be fine. This meant the impact on her was more mental than physical.

Roland, in the meantime, turned to a big map on his desk.

He had already formed a vivid picture of the incident in his mind.

The demon commander had noticed something unusual about the Misty Forest. It noticed that the railway took a turn at the forest and stretched on toward Taquila. Instead of forcing through the trench and the barbed wire at the terminus station, it had directly attacked the witch who controlled the forest.

Meanwhile, a group of demons had traveled nearly 500 kilometers from the Taquila ruins to the northern forest. The Spider Demons had not only set the forest on fire but had also been supplying the Red Mist to their army. This was, therefore, in a sense, the demons' first guerrilla operation.

The fire was just a diversion. The demons had probably foreseen that the forest controller would stay in the forest, watching the unfolding of the event. They did not really care about whether the First Army would put out the fire or not.

Perhaps, they had come to realize that Leaf was the supply hub for the First Army.

The demons were obviously under the impression that once the forest controller was killed, human beings would immediately retreat from the front.

Although their speculation was not completely accurate, it did demonstrate how proficient the demons were in using magic power. They had not only figured out the form of Leaf's magic power but also made a specific plan to eliminate her. Everything was carefully calculated, from their traveling distance to the time required to retreat. Only with a profound comprehension of magic power could they successfully carry out this operation.

Roland even suspected that the demons had seen something similar to Leaf's ability.

It would take at least a week for the demons to backtrack, so it was not very hard to trace them down. Nevertheless, there was no point in doing so, because the Magic Slayer could fly away anytime. If with luck, they could probably kill a few Spider Demons or some lower demons during this pursuit. If worse, they would probably suffer an even greater loss.

There was no effective measure to counter the demons in this case due to the secrecy of their operation. Although most of the witches were under the protection of the God's Punishment Witches, the situation did not apply to the witches who moved around like Leaf, Maggie and Lightning. Fortunately, very few Senior Demons were as powerful as the Magic Slayer, so Leaf, Maggie and Lightning would notice any change in magic power if a regular Senior Demon was about to attack. In that case, they simply needed to retreat immediately to avoid a direct confrontation.

Another thing that concerned Roland was the conversation between the Magic Slayer and Ashes.

He did not anticipate that the demons could speak the human language.

Being a Senior Demon, Kabradhabi did not have the ability to directly communicate with human beings. Camilla had to channel it to build effective communication.

"Learning is the first step of evolution."

"Thousands of things have changed in the past hundreds of years, but you still live in the old way."

"It's rumored that long before the beginning of the first Battle of Divine Will, a man taught the demons his knowledge."

Ashes' and Pasha's words reverberated in Roland's mind.

For some reason, Roland had the impression that the Magic Slayer took pride in the past hundreds of years, as though he had witnessed those numerous changes himself.

Could he be a demon who had lived back in the Union Age?

That was why he had learned the human language?

But this was too unbelievable!

While Roland was absorbed in his thoughts, Wendy's voice came from outside the office.

"Your Majesty," she said as she pushed the door open, "Leaf just woke up."

"I'm coming," Roland replied as he stood up abruptly and turned to Ashes. "Do you want to come along?"

The Extraordinary nodded.

"By the way," He stopped when he had almost reached the door, "I forgot to 'thank you'."

Although Ashes seemed uninjured, it did not mean she was totally fine. Roland did notice several shallow cuts on her face and knuckles.

The wind that had blown Leaf away was definitely not a gentle breeze. Normally, Extraordinaries could heal themselves within one day, but apparently, these cuts were not easy to heal.

In other words, the injury could have been fatal had she made a single mistake during the fight.

The battle was obviously not as simple as Ashes had described.

Ashes remained expressionless. She simply gave Roland a downcast glance with her golden eyes and said, "Take care of Tilly."

"Naturally..." Roland said, pursing his lips. He knew Ashes had just done what a reasonable person would normally do in that situation. He was surprised that a blunt person like Ashes would one day also become quite sensitive. Roland returned her a smile and said, "Let's go."

...

By the time they arrived at Leaf's bedroom, the room was packed with visitors.

Almost all the witches who had joined the Witch Union at the same time as Leaf, including Anna, Nightingale, Tilly, Scroll, Mystery Moon, etc., were there. The group instantly parted to let Roland through.

Over the heads of the group of the witches, he saw Leaf sitting up in her bed.

She looked wan, her bright green hair disheveled, but she did not look particularly distraught.

Her eyes were still bright and sparkly.

"Your Majesty," Leaf spoke in a low voice, "Sorry to have you come down here."

"I'm glad you're OK..." Roland said in relief, realizing that her coma was mainly due to fatigue. Nonetheless, deep down inside, Roland knew Leaf sustained more serious injuries than what could be seen. She was hexed with the same "curse" put on Lightning. Her connection with the Heart of Forest had been forcibly interrupted, and she had barely survived the attack. Roland said, "Ashes told me everything. Take a good rest and leave the forest to us. As for your injuries, we'll manage..."

Leaf shook her head and replied, "No, Your Majesty, please let me return to the front."

"Leaf!" Nightingale exclaimed.

"I know everybody is concerned about me, but staying in bed won't be of much help, will it?" Leaf pronounced each syllable clearly and slowly. "The curse would not disappear anyway, no matter whether I'm in the Misty Forest or Neverwinter. So, there's no reason for me to stay here."

"But..." Wendy protested in a hushed voice.

"If I return to the forest, I can keep the communication between the front and Neverwinter going. The testing field would be also able to continue its operation. I can also help with the delivery of supplies to the front. Although not much, I can at least do something to help defeat the demons. You all know which one is a better choice, right?" Leaf broke off, a little breathless, before forcing a smile. "Don't worry. Next time when I see something unusual, I'll run as fast as I can."

Nobody spoke for a short moment.

Roland took a deep breath. He had foreseen this would happen. If Leaf could be that easily persuaded, she would not have been able to successfully bring her fellow witches from the Impassable Mountain Range to the Border Town barefoot.

Like the forest, she was gentle on the outside but tough on the inside.

"I see," Roland spoke at long last. "But you have to promise me that nobody will act alone under any circumstances before the Magic Slayer with the evil cursing power is killed."

With these words, he turned to Ashes and asked, "Can you take care of her for the time being?"

Ashes exchanged a look with Tilly and then replied curtly, "Sure, leave her to me."

Chapter 1106 - A Universal Strategy

After returning to the residential area of the Sleeping Spell, Ashes heard Tilly cough behind her when she attempted to shut the door.

"Ahem, do you understand what Roland meant by 'taking care of her'?"

A smile curling her lips, Ashes pretended she did not understand the implied meaning and asked, "Don't I just need to be with Leaf and attend to her needs like people would normally do to take care of a patient? Leaf's hurt, so she'll need a lot of help..."

"Oi!"

Ashes could not hold her face any longer.

"Oh, you were teasing me..."

"Don't worry. I know what I should do," Ashes answered as she turned around and blinked at Tilly. "His Majesty wants me to stay alert for any fluctuations of magic power so as to warn Leaf beforehand when something happens — just like how you and I met."

"If I didn't have this ability, you probably would never have noticed me, who was so wretched and lost back then," Ashes thought.

"I'm not a demon," Tilly protested a little defiantly while folding her arms.

"Just an example," Ashes said, waving her hand airily. "Because I'm the only person who has fought the Magic Slayer."

"What about after?"

"Find reinforcements of course, and repel the enemy together."

"Really?"

"Unlike Princess Lorgar, I'm not keen on duels," Ashes said with a smile. "As long as her magic power isn't interrupted, Leaf could cross the forest in a second, so there's no point for me to remain at my post."

Tilly breathed out a sigh and said, "Don't forget what you just said."

"Of course not," Ashes said as she walked to Tilly and looked straight into her eyes. "I'm going to stay with you for a very long time. Andrea is a lady who has never taken care of people. She only cares about how to fight. How can I entrust you to her?"

"O-Oi, shut up!" Tilly snapped, shooting Ashes a cool stare, and stormed into the room, a little irritated.

When Tilly almost gained the room, she suddenly stopped and muttered, "I'm glad... that you saved Leaf."

Ashes was mildly surprised.

"It would be such a waste if you just protect me." Tilly turned around and said, "Although you always say the best for me is to return to Sleeping Island, you actually do like it here, right? Now, you smile more often than you used to."

"R-really?" Ashes wondered, her hands uncontrollably rubbing on her cheeks.

"To be honest, you rarely smiled on Sleeping Island either. You always had a long face like you were ready to leave for a battle," Tilly continued. "Perhaps, you haven't realized that the new witches are all afraid of you. Only a girl like Maggie who's slow at guessing what people are thinking isn't scared to befriend you.

"But now, you not only get along well with the Witch Union but have also got an admirer, if I'm correct?"

"Are you referring to... Lorgar? No, we're just friends, probably because we often train together..."

"Alright then," Tilly interjected. " Compared to the 'avenger' you, I prefer the current you, but..." she paused for a second and said, "this doesn't mean you're allowed to pick on an individual fight rashly with the demons without thinking about the possible consequences. Do you understand?"

After a moment of silence, Ashes replied, "Yes."

"Very good." Tilly nodded in satisfaction and said, "Perhaps in the near future, I'll fight with you on the battlefield together."

"Oh, any progress on the plan of the Aerial Knight?"

"Roland says he's trying to use a brand new engine on the glider. If successful, he might be able to create a new type of plane that doesn't require Wendy's ability," Tilly said in excitement. "However, he has to first create a plane tailored to my need. It's probably going to fly even faster and higher than the Devilbeasts!"

"His Majesty would never allow you to partake in the war in person. Plus... he already made a promise to me," Ashes smiled, leaving her words unsaid. "I'll watch you test it out."

"Sounds good. I'm going to take a shower. I'm all sweaty after flying the 'Seagull' all day. See you later."

"Not together?"

"Absolutely not!" With these words, Tilly slammed the door.

Ashes sat down on the recliner in the living room, looking attentively at her palm.

She still remembered the feeling when she had swung the sword at the demon.

At that time, she had suddenly entered a new realm. Although it was just for a split second, the lingering memory persisted.

She felt everything, including her vision, thoughts and movements, had temporarily deserted the world around her, except for her magic power. The intense magic power seared through her body, making her feel invincible.

Ashes even had a feeling that her power was speaking to her invitingly, tempting her to go even further.

"Magic power doesn't only affect our physique but also our character. If we plan to use our magic power to achieve something, it would guide us in the desired direction."

"So what exactly... are you fighting for?"

Ashes remembered what Phyllis, the God's Punishment Witch, had said to her the first time they had marched for the war.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're an Extraordinary. You were born with incredible potential. However, you have to have an achievable goal and a strong will in order to go beyond your limit."

"As far as I know, all the Transcendents in the Union upgraded in battles, and those who couldn't successfully become Transcendents were all eventually killed by the demons. I hope you won't become one of them."

"Did the Transcendents... as well as the Three Chiefs of the Union also face the same decision at one point?" Ashes asked herself.

She clenched her fist.

At that moment, she dimly understood what she should do.

...

Roland returned to the office and called the headquarters of the Administrative Office.

"Please connect me to Barov."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Immediately, he heard Barov's voice on the other end of the line. Barov asked, "How can I help you, Your Majesty?"

"When is the upcoming exam for elementary school?"

"Let me see... Based on the schedule, it'll be next week, and there will be roughly 2,650 students sitting the exam."

The schedule seemed to fit Roland's plan. Roland thought for a while and instructed Barov, "Draft a recruitment proposal for me. I need someone to help with my new project. For now, I probably need about 500 people."

"As you command."

The current Neverwinter was like a giant melting pot where people from all over the country came to receive primary education before being assigned to different posts. Experienced production line workers took in new workers and taught them techniques and knowledge. As workshops gradually diminished, those personal techniques transformed into public knowledge and further became a part of the system. It was thus natural for experienced workers to train newbies. Once the newbies became experienced, they were able to take in more trainees, and the industry expanded.

Neverwinter had currently created a virtuous cycle after years of development. When the population of the city reached a certain number and when resources were abundant, people would see the amazing power brought about by the rapid industrialization.

After hanging up the telephone, Roland took out a stack of paper from a drawer.

Ever since the night attack at Tower Station No. 1, he had been working on a "universal strategy". Most of the research materials were collected from the Dream World. Now what he needed to do was to localize his plan based on the situation in Neverwinter. Roland found there was one type of weapon that would suit Neverwinter's current need.

"Do you have a new idea again?" Nightingale asked as she revealed herself from the Mist.

"Ah, yes..." Roland quickly went over the stash, stopped at one certain page and said, "Yes, that's it."

Chapter 1107 - Yes! RPG

"Hmm... It looks like a large bamboo stick," Nightingale commented as she drew closer. "What's that called?"

"RPG's..." Roland broke off while curling his lips, "ancestor."

"R—P—G..." Nightingale repeated the mouthful word strenuously and said, "Such a weird name. Is it a code name or something? In memory of the person who invented this weapon?"

Roland shook his head in amusement and explained, "It has many names and various forms in the Dream World, but this is the most popular one. It's getting so popular that a religion has formed around it, which is called the RPG Religion."

"Like the lengendary double swords that saved and destroyed the world?" Nightingale asked, her voice alive with curiosity. "Is it that powerful?"

The double swords that had saved and destroyed the world was a hallow recorded in an epic poem passed down among the ancient witches. There had been an organization prior to the first Battle of Divine Will who had looked for this hallow fervently. Although it was just a distant legend, RPGs and the double swords shared some similarities.

"You can say that about modern RPGs, but not its ancestor," Roland said. As a type of rocket launcher, modern RPGs definitely contributed a lot to the peace of the world.

"But you can't just skip RPGs and go directly to modern RPGs. You have to create its ancestor first and slowly work on it, right?" Nightingale asked, with a look of dawning comprehension in her eyes.

"Exactly." Roland was pleased with her quick response. After staying with Roland for so many years, Nightingale could finally keep up with him. Roland complimented, "You grasp the nature of the problem quite fast."

"Of course. I do improve, don't you think so?" Nightingale thrust a piece of dried fish with an air of triumph and said, "Sometimes you'll talk about terms like the Black Ribbon and Madames. Aren't they the evolved forms of 'glider' and 'concrete ship'? I've actually learned a lot from you over the past few years."

"Ahem..." Roland coughed. "Forget about them."

Roland noticed that both the battle at Northbound Slope and the night attack at Tower Station No. 1 had the same problem, that was, regular soldiers were too weak to confront the Senior Demons. According to the information collected by the Union, there were various types of Senior Demons with different abilities. Those abilities were pretty random with no specific pattern. However, it appeared all the Senior Demons could shield themselves from external harm with their magic power.

Perhaps, this universal shielding ability was just a coincidence, or simply a result of the natural evolution after decades of fighting and upgrading. Demons who did not possess such a shielding ability were naturally obliterated over the course of time. Nevertheless, Roland would still need to make a plan based on the worst scenario.

The demons' shielding ability was very similar to Shavi's. However, it could only protect the demons from physical injuries and it had a limit. If the demons stood right in front of a shooting unit and were shot multiple times, they would die in a few seconds.

Nevertheless, the demons would never let the soldiers to shoot them unscrupulously in a real battle.

Suppose the infantry of the First Army attacked a Senior Demon, the latter would immediately hide or fight back. In neither case would the First Army gain advantages.

The God's Punishment Witches were designed to repel the Senior Demons, since they were not only as powerful as Extraordinaries but could also block attacks. Unfortunately, the Senior Demons appeared to have lost their superior status over the past hundred years and participated in battles more often. If that was the case, the 300 God's Punishment Witches would probably not be enough to kill all the Senior Demons.

Therefore, Roland had to improve their weapons.

RPG, also known as Rocket Propelled Grenade, sounded like a very promising idea, but it was impossible to create such a legendary weapon in a short period of time in Neverwinter. Even its simplest model, a rocket launcher, was quite technologically demanding, which required a power system consisting of fuels and a combustor, and Roland did not want Anna to produce and test the weapon.

He thus decided to invent a grenade without a launcher instead.

That was the prototype of an RPG, a recoilless grenade.

The most famous model was the Panzerfaust.

Although most people generally referred to these types of weapons as rocket launchers, they actually belonged to two separate categories. A rocket launcher was a weapon ejecting projectiles. It was normally equipped with a power source and could operate on its own without a barrel. For example, the well-known 107mm rocket launcher could be easily ignited by dry batteries and had a fairly decent firing rate as well.

The Panzerfaust and RPG were recoilless guns that required a barrel to provide a thrusting force. If they were ignited without a barrel, they would only spin around on the ground. An RPG, particularly, relied on a rocket to increase its shooting range and accuracy. Its thrusting force would mainly be fueled by gunpowder.

The Panzerfaust, on the other hand, was famous for its extremely simple structure compared to its various successors. Its barrel was a cylinder, its head made of iron shards. The gunpowder was black powder great for mass production.

Nevertheless, Roland was not planning to completely copy the Panzerfaust. The biggest drawbacks of the Panfauster were its short shooting range, low accuracy rate and limited impact. These drawbacks were unacceptable in a mass warfare like this. As Roland constantly learned from history, he knew that some small adjustments must be made to improve the weapons.

For instance, he had to install a gourd-shaped CD nozzle at the rear of the barrel and thus transformed the subsonic ammunition into a supersonic one. In this way, he would be able to increase the counter-recoil force and thereby the shooting range of the weapon.

The barrel needed to be equipped with a handle, a scope and a wooden casing to further improve the accuracy rate and make it more user-friendly.

The missile could be further stabilized with an empennage made of mild steel, which would spread open and spin with the missile when it was in the air.

Roland was also thinking about shaping the front part of the missile into an inverted hollow cone to direct the energy to one point, making it highly explosive and armor-piercing. In this way, he could maximize the impact of the grenade on the Magic Barrier.

These upgrades were all doable with the current technologies available in Neverwinter.

Roland folded the drawing sheet and walked to the French Window.

He knew the First Army would still not a stand chance at repulsing the Senior Demons when equipped with grenades, but they would at least have something to compete against them. Even though the demons were fast, high-explosive anti-tank warheads could still be fatal. Once the demons were hit, the outcome of this war might be very different.

This would mean that any regular soldier would have the capability to kill a Senior Demon with just a bit of training. With such advanced weapons, the infantry unit would also be able to tackle armored demons such as the Spider Demons and the Giant Skeleton. To make this weapon, he only needed some gunpowder and a half slice of an ingot.

Roland thought this was a really good deal.

Chapter 1108 - More than Enough

...

Joe sat crossed legged on the floor, staring at the seven crooked lines next to him in a daze.

This was how he enumerated the number of days he had been here.

For every day that had passed, he would dig a line in the ground.

It had now been seven days.

Joe did not want to think about whether Farrina was still alive or whether Lorenzo was still torturing her. His heart ached every time these questions came floating into his mind.

Joe started to wonder if he had made the wrong choice.

Sean had indeed promised him to send the message to the King of Graycastle. He also treated Joe fairly well. However, Graycastle was, after all, too far away from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. It would take at least a month for the King of Graycastle to receive the message, make a decision and send his troops to the Kingdom Wolfheart, and probably even longer if he was to discuss the matter with his ministers before taking actions.

Joe was not sure whether Roland Wimbledon would take this matter as seriously as Graycastle's domestic affairs.

There was also a fat chance that he would refuse to help him outright.

If that was the case, all of his efforts would go in vain.

Joe lowered his head and looked at his manacled ankles.

He was tied to the foot of his bed by a chain almost in a man's length.

"Perhaps, I could use this chain..." thought Joe.

"Hey, are you awake?" The curtain of his tent was suddenly pulled back. Joe shielded his eyes against the dazzling rays of sunlight that streaked across his confinement. "Ah, you're awake. Come with us then."

"Wh-where?" Joe asked blankly. For a moment, he was so bemused that all his wild thoughts deserted him.

"To the Kingdom of Wolfheart of course. Didn't you want to save your girl?"

Slowly, he felt more comfortable with the lighting in the room. The next moment, he realized that the man who had been talking to him was none other than Sean.

Sean tossed him a key.

As the message slowly sank in, Joe snatched up the key tremulously and said, "Did, did the king..."

"His Majesty approved our rescue plan. We've decided to transfer you to Neverwinter for a hearing," Sean replied to him nonchalantly. "The unit carrying out this operation has arrived at the Coral Bay. We'll be meeting them there and heading to the Archduke Island straight away."

"They've already arrived?" Joe wondered.

"How come they're so fast?"

He could not believe his ears.

But he had no time to waste on these trivial matters!

Joe scrambled to unlock the shackles. Since he had been sitting in the same position for a considerably long time, he stumbled when he tried to straighten up.

"If you don't feel well..."

"No, please take me with you!"

He implored exasperatedly.

"Then come," said Sean, smiling.

Joe cast a backward glance at the marks on the ground. The sunlight blazed off the crooked lines, silvering the strokes.

He wondered what was waiting for him.

Finally, he saw a ray of hope.

Joe took a deep breath and followed the guard out of the tent.

...

The following day.

At the Coral Bay.

This was a harbor in the far east of the Kingdom of Dawn. Compared to the ports near Graycastle and the Fjords, it looked quite deserted. After the church had invaded the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter, the royal families fell and the local nobles started to fight for the thrones. As the city was still in a chaos, business activities reduced significantly in this area. Most sailing ships at the dock were from the Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords. There were very few boats from the Kingdom of Wolfheart or the Kingdom of Everwinter.

One of the ships had a pretty conspicuous appearance among all the others.

This particular ship was made of stone, with no sail but two giant wooden wheels on either side of the ship. Black smoke billowed from the top of it.

"This is the famous Graycastle stone ship," thought Joe.

He had heard about those ships before, but this was his first time actually seeing one.

Joe and Sean boarded the ship and soon, two people greeted them.

A man and a woman.

Joe's eyes flitted between the two people, feeling a little surprised.

For some reason, the woman looked familiar to him.

"Ah, Ms. Zooey and Ms. Betty," Sean greeted them in a cordial tone. "So His Majesty asked you to come here?"

"I was at Neverwinter at that time and have been to the Kingdom of Dawn before," the woman said with a shrug. "If it wasn't an order from the king, I really didn't want to come all the way here... We're now having a fight against the demons at the front. I should have stayed there."

"Also, I prefer Lady Betty to Ms. Betty," the man said, grinning. "Unlike Zooey, I was awakened pretty late, just over 100 years ago."

"Don't you think 100 years is old enough?" the woman retorted, giving him a sideways glance.

"It's strange in the Dream World though. Those people called me Miss. Of course... I don't mind them calling me 'Your Majesty' either."

"Better be Lady Betty," Sean said resignedly, "if that pleases your ladyship."

"Hang on... what are they talking about?" Joe gazed at them blankly, confused about the way they addressed each other. He wondered why the man wanted Sean to regard her as a lady. However Joe saw it, he was a man. Joe did not remotely understand why the demons were at the front either. The Bloody Moon had not appeared yet. What "demons" were they indeed referring to?

"So this man is the last Priest of the church?" The woman called Zooey asked while studying Joe up and down. "The dream of the Queen of Starfall City was finally reduced to a tool that foolish men used to win their political game. That's pathetic. Although she was our enemy, I feel sad for her."

"So, let us finish what she started. I believe it's a sort of retribution," Betty agreed, nodding. "Now everybody's here. Let's go."

"Everybody's... here?"

Having no time to question them, Joe looked around in confusion. The concrete ship was definitely not large enough to accommodate an army. He did not see any other Graycastle ships either.

"Sir..." Joe could not contain himself anymore. He asked gingerly.

Zooey replied to him, "The rescue team you are referring to is here already."

"Here?"

As if seeing through his mind, Zooey pointed at herself, then at Betty and said, "She and I are going to rescue her."

Horror-stricken, Joe looked at Sean and said hysterically, "Sir, Lorenzo has a God's Punishment Army..."

"Five, no more than ten of them, right?" Sean interrupted him.

Joe stared at Sean, dumbfounded. All of a sudden, he lost his strength to speak. "Why, why do they look so relaxed? The God's Punishment Warriors are monsters much more powerful than ordinary men!"

Was it because they knew nothing about the God's Punishment Army's power? No, Graycastle's soldiers had personally fought the God's Punishment Army at Coldwind Ridge. Like the church, they should have known how ferocious those monsters were.

Although the Graycastle soldiers possessed advanced firearms, firearms would be of no use in conquering a fortified castle, because bullets would not be able to travel very far. If the soldiers ran into an unavoidable confrontation with a God's Punishment Warrior, they would find it hard to repel the God's Punishment Warrior, because the latter did not feel pain. The Warriors would continue to fight until he lost his fighting capacity completely.

Joe expected to see at least one or two hundred soldiers come to rescue. They should gradually infiltrate the castle and remove the hidden enemy one by one at a minimal cost. If the number of soldiers was below 100, this battle might cost them dearly.

But... two?

"How's that possible?"

"You must be wondering how this is possible, right?" Zooey sneered. "That's because you have no idea of Lady Alice's plan. The God's Punishment Warriors you know are just a bunch of useless shells. Two of us is more than enough to take care of them."

Chapter 1109 - The Past

"More than enough..."

Joe should have persuaded them to abandon such a ridiculous and even amusing plan. However, words rested on the tip of his tongue when he saw the confident look on their faces.

There was something even more incredible coming next.

Joe expected to give full cooperation to the rescue team and share all the information he knew. The King of Graycastle had promised to save Farrina, so he must need detailed information about the Archduke Island first, and Joe would be the best person to consult with.

He also anticipated that they would pry into the church's secret and the Holy Book, and he had made up his mind to divulge this information if that could save Farrina.

However, after Joe entered the cabin, he realized how ignorant he was about his old enemy, Roland Wimbledon, who had fought against the church for so many years and eventually uprooted the Holy City of Hermes.

He greeted neither an interrogation nor a pre-operation meeting.

The person sitting at the other end of the long table was, on the contrary, the famous dramatist, Kajen Fels.

"Answer all the questions he asks." With these words, Sean withdrew, leaving Joe staring at Kajen blankly.

He had watched Kajen's performances back in the New Holy City.

Although this was something nearly ten years ago, Joe remembered what Kajen looked like.

"What's the King of Graycastle thinking about?" he wondered.

Instead of an army, he met a troupe. Were they really planning to save Farrina?

"Please take a seat, boy," Kajen beckoned him to sit down and asked, "Want some tea or wine?"

"Tea... please."

A pretty young girl soon delivered him a cup of hot tea.

"This is my student, Miss Roentgen."

"Ah... thank you," Joe said distractedly. This was all like a dream in spite of his manacled hands and feet. "Why are you here?"

"Because I made a promise to His Majesty." Kajen said smilingly, "We should have talked in a more comfortable manner, but they insisted on keeping you chained."

"That's fine..." Joe muttered. "What do you want to know?"

"Farrina's story and yours as well."

Joe stared at him in disbelief. "Me... and her?"

"Yes. I want to know when you joined the church, how you met and also how she was captured by Lorenzo," Kajen replied slowly.

"Farrina... Farrina..." The mere sound of her name made his heart quaver in pain. He tried to refrain himself from thinking of her, but their past kept floating out of his memories. Words abandoned him, and his vision blurred.

Farrina had just been a common civilian when she had joined the church.

At that time, she was wearing a patched, coarse and filthy robe, her hands and feet swollen and red due to exposure to crisp, cold air.

She could have died had Joe not taken her in on his way to the Hermes Plateau.

Joe was a member of a diminished noble family with nothing but a reputable family name, so he had decided to try his luck at the church.

The Holy City would not discriminate against a person based on his background.

Since he could read and write, he became a priest clerk.

Farrina, on the other hand, became a warrior trainee.

Joe was not happy with this arrangement.

Priests and warriors were equal in the Holy City. Joe was a little irritated that a civilian girl saved by him could suddenly meet him on equal terms. In his opinion, Farrina should have been assigned to the kitchen or some servant job.

What made him even more upset was that Farrina actually looked quite pretty.

He began to suspect the real reason she had been chosen as a warrior.

Farrina should have been his girl, and his girl only.

Harboring a bitter resentment and virulent jealousy, Joe started to tamper with Farrina's work by taking advantage of his office and even humiliated her in public. However, she never dared stand up for herself, which further inflated his anger.

In the next few years, the young woman gradually revealed her talent. Like a polished gemstone, she dazzled the church.

Farrina was soon promoted from warrior trainee to Judgement Army reserve. Then, she officially joined the Judgement Army and later became a unit leader.

Joe always saw her pace up and down on the stronghold city wall during the Months of Demons.

At that time, he had just been promoted from clerk to assistant priest.

His status was now much lower than Farrina's.

He had, at one time, been afraid of Farrina's retaliation, but Farrina had not done anything of such sort. Gradually, he had developed a secretive, burning passion as he constantly peered at her behind the wall.

Slowly, Joe came to the realization that Farrina was not as ordinary as he had thought.

Then, Prince Roland of Graycastle arrived.

The pope died and the God's Punishment Army was annihilated. The entire Church of Hermes fell apart overnight.

Numerous believers fled the Holy City. Farrina shouldered the burden to save the rest of the Judgement Army. If she had not reached out her hand to him at the time of the riot, he might have been stamped to death by the swarm of refugees.

At that moment, he had somehow grasped something.

Farrina was not the most eminent figure in the church. There were still the Priest, the Chief Justice and the Senior Commander in the Holy City after the defeat at Coldwind Ridge. They simply abandoned the Holy City to her and the acting pope, Tucker Thor. Everybody knew the Holy City was doomed, but nobody wanted to take their responsibilities. Therefore, they needed someone to hold the Holy City up a little bit longer so that they would have time to escape from the city.

So, this was how a woman in her 20s became the General Commander of the Judgement Army at Hermes. Ironically, she did her best to stabilize the new and old Holy Cities, but fewer and fewer church executives chose to stay. Very often, a building was emptied overnight. By the end of the Months of Demons, there were only around 500 Judgement Warriors left in the church.

She was offered to Roland Wimbledon as a sacrifice.

Did Farrina know nothing about it?

Of course she did. She knew it when she assumed the post.

But she took the job without the slightest hesitation.

Simply because the church had once sheltered and trained her.

Just as she had never revenged on Joe, she did not blame the church either.

She was grateful for the ride Joe had given her.

Joe was deeply touched when he saw Farrina walk up and down at the city wall, drenched in sweat. Her back became a tiny little spot against the white snow. The bead of sweat on the tip of her nose reflected off sunlights.

Joe had never put much faith in the church. He should have left the Holy City a long time ago, but he chose to stay.

Not for God.

He had pledged allegiance to Farrina from the bottom of his heart.

It was not an oath a believer made to the commander of the Judgement Army.

It was one that a knight made to the girl he wanted to protect.

He had fallen in love with her.

Chapter 1110 - A Complete Version of the God's Punishment Warriors

Two days later.

Joe was escorted out of his room and onto the deck.

"That's the territory of Earl Lorenzo?" Sean asked.

A greyish white shadow sihouletted against the golden horizon in dawn light.

Joe grabbed on the railing nervously and leaned foward, fearing that he would miss something important.

"That's right. That's the Archduke Island!"

He finally brought the rescue team here.

"Farrina, please hang in there just a little bit longer!"

"There are two ports on the island, one in the east and one west," Joe took a deep breath and said in a rush. "Lorenzo put sentries around the dock area after he became a noble, but he did so mainly to defend against the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. He doesn't really check merchants' ships. The problem lies in the Castle District. It's heavily guarded, and nobody can sneak in without permission."

He had been longing to tell them the information over the past few days.

Too occupied with answering various questions put by Kajen Fels, Joe had not got a chance to discuss the rescue plan in detail. None of Kajen's questions, obviously, was relevant to this operation or the church's secret.

Kajen asked him in great detail about how he had humiliated Farrina and how they had later worked together to escape from the church. When words failed him, Kajen would ask his student Roentgen to play Farrina's part to refresh his memories.

Sean only showed up during the dinner time.

He did not seem to care about this operation at all.

That was the reason Joe quickly disclosed what he knew. Whether they listened to him or not, the more information they had, the bigger chance they would have to successfully save Farrina.

"You don't need to worry about that. We have our own way," Sean interrupted him. "I want you to meet someone to let you guys get familiar with each other."

"Who?" Joe asked.

"Our guide."

Sean then blew a whistle and soon, two sailors brought a middle-aged man.

Joe immediately recognized him.

"Hagrid, you traitor — "

As the assistant to Bishop Lorenzo, Hagrid had been Joe's superior back in the church.

Hagrid said scornfully, "Like you really care about the church. If Farrina knows that you've given yourself up to Graycastle, who will be the traitor then?"

"I..." For a moment, Joe was speechless.

"No need to argue here," Sean said as he walked steadily toward them and stood in between. "Mr. Hagrid, you know your task, right?"

Hagrid's voice instantly dropped when he saw the king's guard. He muttered, "Yes, sir. I'm going to take the two soldiers into the castle."

"This is your only chance to get things right. It's all up to you."

"No problem, sir, but are you sure two is enough?"

Joe was surprised that Hagrid was worried about Graycastle.

Then he realized that no matter how many people Hagrid brought into the castle, it would be a solid betrayal anyway. If Graycastle failed, he would face severe punishment; so, he'd better give his full support to Graycastle.

"Rest assured. You'll soon find out..." Sean broke off, his face splitting into a sneer as they slowly approached the Archduke Island, "what a complete version of God's Punishment Warriors was."

...

The rescue team did not leave the dock for the castle until midnight.

Zooey, Betty and two soldiers from the First Army set off for the castle.

The two soldiers were responsible for keeping an eye on Joe and Hagrid.

Since Hagrid was the earl's henchman, nobody was suspicious. Hagrid soon dismissed the patrol team who came to question them.

The guards at the entrance of the castle did not stop them either.

Even though the other five men following Hagrid were all hooded, the guards did not bother raising a single question.

It appeared that Lorenzo did trust Hagrid very much.

The lord's castle was right across the yard.

Hagrid disclosed that all the capable God's Punishment Warriors were now guarding in Earl Lorenzo's bedroom, who was apparently too frightened to sleep alone at the moment, and that there were no more than six of the God's Punishment Warriors in total.

Apart from that, Lorenzo had also replaced his bedroom door with a solid copper door that could not be easily broken by common people but the God's Punishment Warriors.

"I can get Lorenzo out of his room. I'll just say that I know the secret of the treasure," Hagrid said as he headed to the castle. "But then he'll take his God's Punishment Warriors with him, and his sudden appearance will alarm his other guards, so I have to find a way to stop him from doing that —"

"That's fine. You just need to tell us where his bedroom is," Zooey said with a shrug. "Then you'll take Joe to the dungeon and get that girl out of there. You don't have to worry about us."

Hagrid was momentarily stunned and then said, "Well... OK."

He straightened his bow tie, climbed up a flight of steps and knocked on a side door gently.

An old guard poked out his head and said, "Ah, Sir Hagrid. I didn't know it was you..."

"Shut up. I have important matters to report to his lordship. Get out of my way!"

"Y-yes, sir..." the old man stammered and shuffled over. "But what about these people..."

"My spies at the Cage Mountain. Why? Are you prying into his lordship's personal business?"

"No, no, sir!" the old man said gingerly while bowing his head.

The group of people went inside, passed two walls and entered the inner castle.

The guards at the hall were all armored.

Noticing that someone was coming, two guards rested their hands on the hilts of their swords and approached them.

"Lorenzo's bedroom is on the fourth floor... I can't take you up there..." Hagrid said in a hushed voice.

"Hey, isn't it Sir Hagrid? The earl has been talking about you lately. Are these your guests?" The guards saluted to him and turned to Zooey. "Please wait outside the hall, unless you have the earl's permission — Hang on, ma'am — "

Zooey pulled off her hoodie and slowly walked to the guard. Before the guard could finish, a hand had closed in around his neck.

"Sir Hagrid, what — " No sooner had the other guard drawn out his sword than Betty's hand had reached his throat too.

CRUNCH.

The guard's head bent at a weird angle.

Hagrid and Joe sucked in their breath.

"Can a normal person snap one's neck single-handed?"

But Betty and Zooey did not just stop there.

The two witches lifted the two guards off the ground and held their bodies like shields. For a moment, the rest of the guards were all goggling at them, flabbergasted. "Oi, what do you think you're doing?" someone yelled.

"No... something's wrong here. Look, their feet are off the ground!"

"What?"

The guards could not see clearly in the dim light. When they realized what had happened, it was too late.

Zooey and Betty lunged at the confused guards like shadows and reached for their exposed necks.

It was easy to slack off during a long night vigil. Very unfortunately, their attackers happened to be the most powerful human combatants — Extraordinaries.

Joe clapped his hand over his mouth.

Within a few seconds, the other four guards fell to the floor, their necks all broken.

"They have the power and speed of the God's Punishment Army!"

However, the God's Punishment Warriors were unconscious monsters who did not have such brains!

Hagrid was shocked as well.

"They're real God's Punishment Warriors."

Joe remembered Sean's words.

"Is this... also Roland Wimbledon's work?" Joe wondered.

Now, Joe was not sure whether the Supreme Pontiff understood the true nature of the God's Punishment Army.

"Now, do what we told you," Zooey said as she glanced at Joe. "No matter she's alive or not, you mustn't linger. Do you understand?"

"Yes... I do."

Without a word, the two witches went off upstairs.

The stairs were not guarded. Zooey and Betty climbed up to the fourth landing and turned around on a narrow corridor lined with doors, behind which were maids' and servants' room. At the end of the corridor was a giant dark red metal door that glinted in the guttered candlelight.

"So it's really a copper door," Zooey commented, her brows raised.

"What are you going to do?" Betty asked while twitching her lips. "If he locked it, we can't break in."

"We'll find another way if this way is blocked, of course."

"That's what I thought."

Betty kicked open a door beside the lord's bedroom and strode in.

"Aah — " There was a piercing scream. A barely-clothed maid sat bolt upright, drawing her blanket up to her neck. She gaped at them and asked, "Who, who are you?"

"Too bad I'm not interested in girls," Betty said as she untied her robe and revealed a giant firearm on her back. "If this was a pretty boy..."

"You are scaring her," Zooey said on a sigh as she reached for her grapeshot gun. "One, two..."

"Three!"

The two aimed their guns at the wall and pulled the triggers.

With an earsplitting roar, the inner brick wall soon collapsed under fire, spilling crumbs everywhere, leaving a crooked line of bullet holes in it.

Zooey strode over to the wall and into the master bedroom.

Chapter 1111 - Until Death Do Us Part

In a cloud of dust, she caught sight of her target.

Earl Lorenzo.

It was evident that the earl had just woken up. While he was scrambling to pull on his pants, the God's Punishment Warriors at his bedside drew out their swords and lunged at the invaders.

The break-in had apparently alarmed the God's Punishment Warriors. Although they did not have self-consciousness, they were instructed to kill anyone who entered the room by force.

"Betty!" Zooey shouted.

"Got it," Betty answered as she followed into the room and went down to her knee. She cupped her hands and said, "Come!"

After years of training and numerous battles, they had reached a mutual understanding that transcended words. Without even looking at Betty, Zooey jumped backwards and landed precisely on Betty's hands.

Betty got her just in time.

Then she pushed Zooey upward, and the latter rose into the air and flew over the God's Punishment Warriors like a swallow. She grabbed the chandelier hanging down from the ceiling and swung to the bed.

The spacious, luxurious master bedroom instantly became a perfect stage for Betty's personal show.

Zooey raised her grapshot gun.

Time seemed to stop at this moment.

The God's Punishment Warriors wheeled around but were unable to catch up with her.

Betty, on the other hand, made a posture of victory, her back to the bed. This was definitely a habit she had developed after visiting the Dream World. Apparently, Betty was deeply influenced by special effects in the Magic Movie and the so-called art of combat, believing a real combatant did not need to throw a backward glance at the explosion behind her. Nevertheless, she was not strictly following the rule, for she was leaning sideways while watching the God's Punishment Warriors out of the corner of her eyes, so Zooey did not bother to argue about her silly behavior.

Earl Lorenzo looked up, terrified and astounded.

He had never expected that the God's Punishment Warriors whom he trusted so much would be flattened in less than a minute.

The chandelier fell apart, sending flickers of candlelight in the air.

In the meantime, Zooey aimed her gun at Lorenzo and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

Then the clock seemed to be ticking again.

A cloud of blood mist erupted from the earl's chest.

As dozens of bullets rained down at him, he first sank under the huge shockwaves and then bounced up. By the time he fell again, his body had turned into a pulp.

Zooey immediately stepped onto the bed. Failing to support Zooey's weight, the bed collapsed magnificently.

At the same time, the God's Punishment Warriors suddenly froze.

"Not a perfect landing, but the rest was brilliant," Betty commented on a whistle. "I wish there was a pair of sunglasses."

Zooey rolled her eyes at her resignedly and said, "Let's recycle those shells first."

"OK, OK..." Betty said, shrugging indifferently. She produced a small horn from her waist pocket and gave it a blow.

It was a special song, the very memory that had transformed these soldiers into God's Punishment Warriors. The song was the activation code for these soulless shells.

"From now on, I'm your new master." Betty cleared her throat and pronounced each word slowly and clearly.

The six God's Punishment Warriors all clapped their fists over their chests.

"But only until you arrive at Neverwinter. Once you get to the Third Border City, you'll be stored away in our warehouse. If you happen to be good-looking, you'll probably have a chance to fight again. Otherwise, you'll be disposed of. Of course, I think the chance of your revival... is pretty slim," Betty jested. She knew they would not respond to her.

Magic Blood had destroyed these soldiers' self-consciousness.

Zooey opened the copper door and saw many guards swarming toward the master bedroom from the end of the corridor. There were patterings of footsteps everywhere. Apparently, the fight had woken everybody up, and the Castle District was now in a state of alert.

"See those armored guys?" Betty said smilingly. "Go finish them."

At these words, the God's Punishment Warriors charged at the guards like a pack of wild beasts. Before the guards realized what had happened, the Warriors had thrust their swords through the guards' chests.

The whole castle was stirred.

...

Flanked by the soldiers from the First Army and Hagrid, Joe soon found the dungeon.

When she saw Farrina dangling from the ceiling, he felt as though bludgeoned by a heavy iron hammer in the chest. His heart ached so terribly that for a second he could not breathe.

The woman once being so vivaciously beautiful was now drained of life, alive but barely.

Dark whip marks crisscrossed her skin, from her shoulders all the way to her legs.

Most of them were on her back and chest.

Pus came out of her wounds. Apparently, Lorenzo had branded her but had not given her proper treatment.

Despite the torture, Farrina had not disclosed anything to Lorenzo.

Joe walked up to her tremulously, each step heavy and slow.

It was actually the soldiers coming with Joe that reached Farrina first. They unchained her immediately and put her down on the floor.

"Is this the girl you want to save? Hey, do something. Come help us!"

"Ah... yes..." The words jerked Joe out of his trance, who transferred Farrina to a straw mattress next to him at once.

The soldiers seemed to know what to do. They produced various bottles and jars from their knapsacks and started to give her some basic first-aid treatments. Joe did not know what these liquid solutions were used for, but they seemed to work, as Farrina's breath gradually steadied.

While Joe was helping with the wounds, Farrina suddenly let out an almost inaudible groan and slowly opened her eyes.

"How come... it's you..." she muttered. "Is it a dream?"

"No, it isn't. Everything's over!" said Joe as he cupped her face, sobbing.

"Over?" Farrina mumbled. "I see. I'm dead, right? That's why I see you in the dungeon..."

She slowly raised her hand and touched Joe's face with her crooked fingers. Lorenzo had not only denailed her fingers but also snapped them. Her hand was now no better than a bent piece of wood. "Sorry. The church is gone... I failed you..."

"That's OK. I don't care..." Joe said, feeling hot tears trickle down his cheeks. "This isn't your fault at all!"

"Are you comforting me? Strange... you've never comforted me before," Farrina said weakly, her wounded lips slightly parting. "Anyway, please don't go. Could you stay with me for a while?"

Joe could not contain himself any longer. He held her tight in his arms and said, "I'll be with you. Wherever you go, I'll always be with you... until death do us part!"

"Thank you..." Farrina said, and then lost her consciousness.

Chapter 1112 - The Truth

Farrina had a dream.

The swish of a whip, the malicious imprecation of her enemy, and the excruciating pain all started to fade away.

She found herself in a plain white room with polished, reflective floor.

She did not know where this room led. The only thing in her view was a lofty stone door, behind which came faintly some beautiful and eerie music.

"This is probably what the afterlife world looks like," she thought.

After she passed through that door, she would be able to rest in peace.

Farrina could still not reconcile with herself to the fact that she had failed to kill the traitor and revenge the church.

She also felt sorry for failing Tucker Torr, realizing that she was not capable of such an important task and certainly was not a good leader.

That was all she could do.

The only thing that gave her some solace was that she did not yield.

Farrina had thought she would surrender when that hot red iron needle had sunk into her flesh. Thinking back, she could not believe that she had actually made it.

If she had pleaded for mercy at that time, she would now be too mortified to face her companions who had sacrificed themselves for the church.

However, she soon brushed these thoughts off her mind.

She was dying.

There was nothing she could do now.

Farrina ambled to the stone door.

It was rumored that there was no pain or sadness in the world behind the door. Time was frozen in God's kingdom, and everything there lived an eternal life, looking perpetually young and fresh.

She should feel happy about it, but somehow she just couldn't.

Why?

"Farrina..."

Lost and confused, she suddenly heard a distant, misty voice.

She remembered.

That was Joe.

Joe had not participated in the operation, so Lorenzo had not caught him. She was just hallucinating.

Farrina instantly felt relieved even though she knew this was not real.

"I see," she thought.

She realized that she just did not want to leave for that world alone.

Even though she had been abandoned and assigned to a task far beyond her capability, she still wanted to feel needed.

She did not want to be alone anymore.

"Don't go. Could you stay with me for a while?"

"I'll be with you..." the voice said inarticulately. "Wherever you go, I'll always be with you... until death do us part!"

That would be... enough.

An illusion would do.

The memories of that cold winter seemed to come back again, when a carriage had stopped before her just as she had been about to fall on the way to Hermes.

Farrina stepped on the doorsteps leading to the stone door and pushed it open.

"Thank you."

Dazzling light escaped from behind the door and blinded her.

...

When that light dissipated, Farrina opened her eyes and saw a swirling ceiling.

"This is God's kingdom?" she wondered.

It was not as fabulous as she had thought.

Time did not stop either.

She turned around and a familiar face swam into her view.

Farrina asked hesitantly, "Joe?"

Joe was lying on his face next to her, fast asleep. After she called his names several times, Joe opened his eyes blearily. Ecstatic, he exclaimed, "You, you finally woke up!"

"Woke up?" Farrina said while drawing her brows together. "Didn't I just..." she broke off. The excruciating pain was back again.

"You just passed out," Joe clapped his hand over her head. "Don't worry. Everything will be OK."

Farrina stiffened. It took her a while to realize that she had not died. In fact, she had just escaped from the dungeon, which meant...

"Lorenzo is..."

"Dead."

The surprising answer cheered Farrina up. She asked, "Really? How did you do that?"

"I didn't kill him," Joe replied while shaking his head. "The King of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon, killed him."

Roland Wimbledon... This was the last name she wanted to hear. "What are you talking about? How is it possible that he would help us recover the Archduke Island?" With these words, Farrina looked around immediately. "Hang on... what's this place? Aren't we on the Archduke Island?" she asked.

"We're now on the ship heading to Neverwinter of Graycastle. You were in a coma for three days. The medicine provided by the First Army saved you," Joe said softly. "Take it easy. I'll fill you in later."

An hour later, Farrina finally knew what had happened.

"As for the king's trial, the guard Sean told me that as long as you've never killed or persecuted a witch or a Graycastle citizen, you're not likely to be sentenced to death. You were a warrior of the Vanguard Battalion who fought against demonic beasts on the New Holy City, and I was an assistant priest. Neither of us met any witches. In other words, we'll all be alive!" said Joe.

He got more and more excited as he went on, "Although you sustained severe injuries, a witch called Nana in Neverwinter can heal any wounds, as long as we pay! I'll find a way to get some money. I'll do everything to cure your legs!"

To prevent her from escaping, Lorenzo had broken Farrina's hands and legs, and also smashed her knees with a hammer. Now, Farrina could neither stand nor walk. However, this was not what Farrina cared about.

"Just because of me..."

"What?"

"Just because of me, you sold yourself to the devil!" Farrina hollered indignantly. "He destroyed the church and all our hopes! How could you do this to Pope Tucker Thor!" Her fierce accusation was soon replaced by a hacking cough.

"Farrina!"

"Don't you touch me!" Farrina bellowed, blood starting to trickle down the corner of her mouth. "The man... ruined the world and the entire human race. How could you ask him for help? My life is nothing to the Battle of Divine Will. What's the point of saving me? I would rather wait for him to fall — "

"Clap, clap, clap."

Someone applauded outside the room.

"That's so touching. I didn't expect to have a mortal's support after over 400 years. Such a pleasant surprise," said a woman as she pushed open the door and entered.

"I support the church that did its best to protect the human race, not the underlings of the King of Graycastle — " Farrina retorted fiercely despite the pain in her chest. However, she stopped dead as the woman came in. Farrina uttered an exclamation of surprise, "Army Commander... Enova?"

For a split second, Farrina could not believe her eyes.

The Martial Arts Hall of Fame in the New Holy City displayed the most distinguished and outstanding Judgement Army Warriors in the history, most of whom had received the highest award granted by the pope, which was the incarnation ceremony for the God's Punishment Warriors. As the commander of the Premium Corp of the Judgement Army, Enova had obtained the greatest achievement a female warrior could possibly dream of. Farrina had always viewed her as her role model.

But... Enova was a person living over 100 years ago.

"Go on," Zooey said as she leaned against the bed. "I want to know how much you really want to support us. Don't be shy. I haven't been flattered by a mortal for a very long time."

Chapter 1113 - A Third Wheel

"Ms. Army Commander?" Joe stammered. It took him a while to register the person in front of him and understand why the woman looked familiar. But... how was this possible?

"I... don't understand. You should have been killed in one of the battles during the Months of Demons..." Farrina swallowed hard. "Plus, God's Punishment Warriors are all extremely pious warriors who have devoted themselves to God. They never — "

"They never speak, as though they're mute?" Zooey talked over her. "This has nothing to do with faith. They never talk because they've been brainwashed, otherwise, we can't use their bodies."

Use their bodies?

"What are you talking about..."

"Well, I want to first ask you though, how did the church advertise the God's Punishment Army?"

Joe replied fervently, "As the warriors who have obtained God's power, the mortal enemy of the witches, and the church's greatest hope to save the world. Only faithful and fearless believers will be granted the honor of becoming a God's Punishment Warrior," Joe paused for a few seconds and then said, "I used to think that saving the world meant to stop the demonic beasts invading the interior from the Great Rupture; however, after I read the last will of Pope Tucker Torr, I learned about the Battle of Divine Will and the existence of demons."

"So, the God's Punishment Army is actually a special army that fights demons," Farrina supplied Joe's answer. "Only the Prival Council of Hermes knew how to hold the incarnation ceremony. Now, Roland Wimbledon has ruined everything."

"It sounds very touching, but unfortunately, none of this is true," Zooey said with a contemptuous smile. "What you believe is that the God's Punishment Army is merely a tool the usurper used to suppress witches. Although the original purpose of creating such an army was to save the human race, this wasn't the church's original idea, but rather, a witch's."

Farrina stared at Zooey incredulously. She would have refuted such a groundless allegation had the person talking to her not been the famous Enova, whom she admired.

Joe took a sharp intake of breath and said, "Could you... tell us more about it?"

"Fine. I'll satisfy your curiosity then, mortals," Zooey said with a faint smile playing around her lips.

...

After Zooey had told them everything, Farrina felt a pain sear through her ten fingers. Looking down, she noticed that her hands had clenched into fists as her broken fingers started to bleed profusely again.

Now Farrina knew why such a historical figure would suddenly appear in her life, alive and well. The Enova standing in front of her was not the army commander of the Judgement Army she knew, but an ancient witch who has lived for over 400 years.

She would have drawn her sword and fought a life-and-death battle against the witch while accusing her of profanity had she the strength to fight. Even if she could not win, she would not allow a devil to use a warrior's body in such a disrespectful fashion.

However, she was too weak to get out of her bed.

This was ridiculous.

This was a preposterous absurdity!

According to Zooey, witches had founded the church. They were neither the representation of evil nor the devil's underlings but were actually the real heroes dedicated to preserving the human race. The Queen of Starfall City had sacrificed herself for mankind. Was there anything more ironic than this? The God's Punishment Army was actually a creation of the witches whom she despised. The incarnation ceremony she had been longing to attend was merely a process to provide the witches with more shells. Witches had even, in a way, shaped the world.

"Argue with her. This is a lie, a fabrication!"

A voice yelled in her head. Farrina opened her mouth but nothing came out.

Zooey's story did explain many things.

For example, it explained why some God's Punishment Warriors had mysteriously disappeared.

Why there were bodies of females drained of blood.

Why there were large monasteries in the old Holy City.

And why there were Pure Witches who looked no different than ordinary witches.

If everything was indeed a perfect lie as Zooey had told, the person who had fabricated all of it must have been staying in the church for decades, and know the church's largestsecret. Farrina could think of no one but the popes.

Apart from that, there was another piece of solid evidence: "power".

Since the God's Punishment Warriors were designed to kill demons, then the stronger the better. From the fact that two God's Punishment Witches could easily break through the castle on Archduke Island guarded by the God's Punishment Warriors, Farrina judged that a conscious man was apparently much more powerful than an unconscious killing machine. If witches could exert such incredible power in a body of a God's Punishment Warrior, why had the church wanted to kill them? Why had they not made good use of them instead? The church could have definitely used Pure Witches if they were prejudiced against ordinary witches.

In fact, there had not been a single God's Punishment Witch in Hermes.

Farrina knew the reason.

Because Pure Witches could be subdued by a God's Stone.

But the church had no feasible measure to control a God's Punishment Witch as powerful as an Extraordinary.

As a result, they had not considered the creation of God's Punishment Witches.

If the pope in the Holy City had indeed cared about the human race, many believers would have been willing to sacrifice themselves, including witches.

However, this possibility had long since passed.

Apparently, the church was not as passionate about saving the world as they appeared to be.

"Everything the church did was a joke," Farrina thought weakly in bed. "The God's Punishment Warriors were meant to fight the demons but they used them to merely overpower witches."

This fact seemed to have also gradually dawned on Joe, who asked nervously, "How many people like you are there in Neverwinter?"

"Several hundred," Zooey answered, shrugging. "We use the bodies donated by the church, so don't be too flustered if you see someone you know."

Farrina vaguely understood why Joe asked that.

It was impossible for the witches to impersonate hundreds of God's Punishment Warriors at a time.

Judging from the innocent look on Zooey's face, Farrina knew she was telling the truth.

Zooey's answer cleared her last doubt.

Farrina felt the world that she had been relying on gradually fall apart.

She wanted to be needed.

She used to put her faith in the church. As a church member, she was obligated to shoulder the responsibility of saving the four kingdoms and the human race. But now, everything she had once firmly believed in began to crumble like a weathered wall inside her, behind which nothing remained.

She must... do something.

"The church... the church can rectify it... and make things right again..." Farrina said with difficulty.

"How?" Zooey asked, shooting her a cold stare.

"You need... bodies to create God's Punishment Witches, right? Only the church can do that. For example, me — " Farrina gasped. "I can offer my body."

"Hmm," Zooey said, a playful smile fluttering over her face. "You don't mind losing your mind?"

"Farrina!" Joe exclaimed exasperatedly

"If that will save the human race — "

In this way, she would have something else to rely on and would be needed again...

However, her dream was shattered as Zooey said coldly to her, "Very interesting, mortal, but we no longer need God's Punishment Witches anymore."

"Wh-why?"

"Because it doesn't work," Zooey said while spreading out her hands. "The plan probably would have worked if this was still 400 years ago, but the demons have improved a lot too. God's Punishment Witches can't defeat them anymore. That's why all of us are now supporting the King of Graycastle."

"..." Farrina's parched lips parted like a dumb man's. For a moment, phrases attempted to form in her mouth but in the end, she only managed to produce a few odd hissing noises.

"Living witches, no matter how weak they are, can still be very powerful once they've found the right path. King Roland discovered that ordinary witches don't necessarily need magic blood or a shell to become strong. Everyone now believes that they can learn and make progress," Zooey said as she rose to her feet and headed to the door. "In other words, no witch would be willing to offer their blood even if you wanted to sacrifice your body, because it's not worth it."

Zooey stopped and smiled at Farrina at the doorway.

"Let me be frank with you, the church was a mistake from the beginning."

Farrina heard something crack deep down inside.

Chapter 1114 - A Return

"You rarely have such a serious talk with a mortal."

Betty, who had been waiting for her at the railing, approached Zooey as she came out of the cabin.

"I talk more with King Roland," Zooey replied indifferently.

"But we all know he's not technically a real mortal," Betty said in a sorrowful tone. "Sean wanted you to only talk about the origin of the church and the immense power of the God's Punishment Witches. But what did you end up saying? 'It's not worth it', and 'the church was a mistake from the beginning'," Betty broke off while clicking her tongue. "That was too much information for a patient."

"Our task is to recover the ancient treasure and rescue the captured believer. Whether she's alive or not, that's none of our business," Zooey said as she stopped and narrowed her eyes at Betty. "Speaking of you... since when did you start to care about a mortal?"

"Shouldn't people care about each other?"

"Yeah, we should, but it doesn't sound like something you would say." Zooey paused for a moment and said, "Hang on... you're just gloating over her misfortune, aren't you?"

"Hey, don't say it out loud," Betty said while sniggering. "Because I really wanted to go in there with you — "

"Yes," Zooey said on a sigh. "She does look like them."

"She's the express image of them," Betty said as she walked to Zooey and leaned against the porthole. "If she were born 400 years earlier, and if she were a witch, then in the last Union meeting..."

"She would definitely support Lady Alice rather than us," Zooey supplied Betty's answer. "That's what makes me upset."

Farrina did not resemble a particular individual, but a specific group of people.

She resembled a group of survived Union witches facing an uncertain and dismal future.

They had had very few choices at that time.

Most of them had chosen to support the plan of the God's Punishment Witches instead of the hopeless proposal of "the Chosen One", even though this meant they would have to sacrifice themselves in the end.

On that meeting that had determined their fate, Alice had completely flattened Natalia, winning the support of the great majority. At the end of the meeting, people on the floor had set up a chant of "the human race will perpetuate. Long live the witches", and their voices reverberated across the hall. In fact, even some Natalia's supporters had become hesitant in the end, uncertain whether their choice would lead them to the light at the end of the tunnel. Zooey, at that time, could not do anything for the Queen of Sunchaser but stomped her feet in agitation.

Now she took her anger out on Farrina.

Zooey was not repudiating any church believer but the disbanded Union instead.

She had wanted to tell them that even the weakest witch had the potential to become strong.

She had also wanted to let them know that ignorant, short-sighted mortals could also make a contribution.

What she had wanted to say most badly was "if only they could hang in there just a bit longer..."

She wished they had not reached a parting of the ways just because of different opinions.

But all her thoughts dissolved into a deep sigh.

With no solid and conclusive evidence, the Three Chiefs would inevitably make the same choice if everything had started all over again.

Only a person with a heart of steel was capable of helping everyone get through that dark times when the regime of the Union was tottering.

"If only Lady Alice, Lady Eleanor and Lady Natalie could see what we have now..."

Zooey muttered as she gazed at the boundless blue ocean.

...

In another room on the other side of the cabin, Kajen put down his quill, shocked and dismay.

"Mr. Kajen..." said Roentgen, who was equally perplexed by what they had just heard. "I'm afraid we've known too much."

To let Kajen better understand the story of Joe and Farrina, Sean had settled him and his student down in a room adjacent to the patient's cabin and made a little adjustment to the wall. He had set up a one-way transparent mirror which allowed Kajen to peer through the wall and see everything that happened in the next room. In addition to that, Sean had also installed two amplifiers that enabled Kajen to hear the contents of their conversation clearly.

It was Kajen Fels' first time to pry into others' privacy. Although he understood it was not very appropriate, the temptation was just too great to resist. This was just like a reality show where actors documented unscripted real-life situations. He, on the other hand, was a viewer and also recorder of the show.

Much to his consternation, he had not only heard a story about love and redemption but also learned a secret, appalling history of the church.

The witch empire had established the Four Kingdoms?

The church was the offspring of the Union?

Those ancient witches could possess a human body?

Every single piece of information would be sufficient to disquiet the public.

Roentgen peeped through the door restlessly, as though fearing some guards would suddenly burst in, throw a burlap sack over her head and dump her into the ocean.

The words of King Roland gradually came floating out of Kajen's memories.

"It's a romance in dark times."

"You should know what 'based on' means."

Perhaps, Roland had predicted that this would happen.

Anyway, he could not chicken out now.

Even if he was presented the choice to back out, he would not do so.

Dimly, Kajen had a feeling that this play would create a huge commotion.

This play would be unprecedented and also set a milestone for the future play industry.

Just at that moment, Kajen saw the two people in the next room start to talk again.

He immediately picked up the amplifiers.

...

"So... that's what we've got in the end..." Farrina stared at Joe, her eyes sliding out of focus. "The church is gone... Nobody needs me anymore... You saved me but I can't give you anything as a return... I'm sorry..."

Her voice, in the end, was hardly over a whisper.

Joe grasped her hand, a look of melancholy on his face and blustered, "I saved you not for the damn church!"

His thundering voice shocked Farrina.

"I never put much faith in the church. I joined the church just to find something to do. Everyone pretended to be a pious believer because they wanted to get promoted fast. I used to be a noble, and it doesn't make sense that I would devote everything to God!"

"You — " Farrina said, biting her lip, her eyes fixing on Joe again. She slowly raised her hand in a painful sort of way, in an attempt to slap in his face.

Joe did not dodge but held his head even a little higher.

But Farrina dropped her hand in the end. She said, "You're... lying, aren't you? You followed me to the Kingdom of Wolfheart after the defeat of the God's Punishment Army. How could you say that you don't have... much faith in the church?"

Joe grabbed her by the arm and said feverishly, "I did so because I want to be with you! Screw the Supreme Pontiff! Screw the Battle of Divine Will!"

"Joe!"

"Let me finish!," Joe talked over her. He had been waiting for this opportunity to pour his heart out for too long. He had once thought he would have never had the chance to do so. Now, he simply could not let this chance slip through his fingers again. "After you were captured, I tried every possible means to come to your rescue. It had nothing to do with the future of Hermes, because I know the world wouldn't be any different without the church. All I need is you... I don't want to lose you... I need you!"

CRACK.

The quill in Kajen's hand snapped.

"You... need me?" Farrina echoed perplexedly.

"Didn't you say you couldn't return me anything? Then I'll demand something from you as a return," Joe said as he clutched Farrina under his arms. "Be with me — you must stay with me wherever you go. No matter what our fate will be, we'll face it together. This... is what I want from you as a return!"

Chapter 1115 - An Epochal Missile Test

A week later in the valley of the Impassable Mountain Range

After the previous napalm missile test, the valley became Roland's new test site. Since there were more visitors from the northwest of the city coming to the Misty Forest than ever, it was now practically impossible to simply create a clearing in the suburb to conduct the test. Therefore, Roland had to pick a new test site that was closer to the North Slope laboratory and attracted less attention from the public.

Considering their weapons would become increasingly powerful in the future, it was only natural to relocate the test site.

This time, Roland was going to test out the anti-demon rocket-propelled grenade he had previously worked on.

With the development of the industrial technology as well as abundant research, it had only taken Roland five days to complete the test - the shortest so far in Neverwinter.

Nevertheless, the speed test was also largely attributed to the simple structure of the grenade itself.

In Roland's previous world, even the worst terrorist who barely knew anything about military weapons was able to produce a giant home-made RPG with a gas can and a hosepipe. If equipped with a pickup truck, they could transform the RPG into a self-propelled multi-gun. As the industrial system in Neverwinter steadily matured, Roland could now produce a rudimentary grenade effortlessly.

"So, I just need to aim the missile head at the target and then pull the trigger, right?" said Alethea brightly as she scooped up the launcher with her tentacle. As a former Senior Blessed Warrior, she was very interested in the new firearm, especially when this firearm was particularly designed to defend against the demons.

Except, the whole situation was a little strange and creepy as far as Roland could see.

What he saw now was a huge blob monster covered in tentacles holding an RPG, which was not a common weapon it normally used - as depicted in horror movies. More often than not, a tentacle monster like that would attack their enemy with their fatal stare, swords and shields, a powerful sucker, and special body fluids. An RPG, in this scenario, was simply a little out of place.

Roland asked the original carriers to conduct the test purely out of safety concerns. Neither the soldiers nor the God's Punishment Witches could possibly survive a close-range shot when the firearm was unintentionally discharged. Only the original carriers had the ability to transport the weapon with their tentacles to a remote, distant area and thus avoid such unfortunate accidents.

"Just make sure that you aren't pointing your tail at yourself or anyone," Roland said as he coughed. "Go ahead."

Alethea gave her main tentacle a quick tap of comprehension and pulled the trigger.

A sudden flash erupted from the muzzle and zoomed across the field toward the target 100 meters away.

The projectile gently arced in the air and hit the lower part of the target. With a deafening crash, the targetted iron case rolled over on the ground, fully intact.

Compared to the earth-shattering roar of the Longsong Cannon and the furious flames that overcast the sky produced by the napalm bomb, the performance of this weapon didn't seem very satisfactory. The explosion emitted hardly any gunfire, dust, nor particles. Within a few seconds, the wind had dispersed the faintest hint of smoke produced by the bomb.

The atmosphere became awkwardly silent.

Only Roland didn't look too disappointed at the result. On the contrary, he said smilingly, "Go retrieve it and take a look."

Soon, two God's Punishment Witches brought the iron case back.

"Well, this..."

As they approached the case and examined it carefully, they found a scorched white mark at the bottom of the case, at the center of which was a small dent that was three fingers wide.

"Did the missile penetrate it?" Pasha asked curiously. "It wasn't slow but not fast either. At least, it appears to be more powerful than a regular bullet. I don't think a revolver could do that."

"I don't think a Mark I type HMG could do that either," Alethea remarked as she drew closer. "This iron case is a replica of the stone pillar thrown by the Spider Demons. It's plastered with steel plates as thick as a man's finger, so it isn't easy to penetrate. Right, we put a tester in it earlier. Open it and see what it looks like now."

When Alethea stretched out two of her tentacles and opened the heavy lid of the case, everybody gasped in surprise.

The several chickens Roland had hung with an iron wire from the ceiling of the case to simulate the demons in the stone pillars were now nothing but a pulp, topped with a few burned, blackened chicken feathers.

"It seems to be working," Roland said while nodding in satisfaction. He was more surprised at the fact that Alethea had hit the case with one single shot than the burned chickens, for he had thought it would take at least five or six shots for a successful attempt.

Roland had foreseen that the explosion would not produce dazzling flames or earsplitting noises, because, essentially, the missile did not release considerable energy. The direct result of low reaction energy was the low velocity of the projectile.

When the amount of gunpowder remained constant then the larger the missile head was, the greater the air resistance would be; the heavier the missile head was, the slower it would travel through the air. To enhance the firing accuracy, Roland abandoned the idea of using a huge caliber weapon but confined the caliber of the grenade to 40 millimeters, which was the same as that of the barrel. The front part of the missile was shaped as a cone in order to reduce air resistance.

Based on the firing result, the missile seemed to be quite steady when it streaked across the sky. Although it was much smaller than a Panfauster, it was large enough to pierce armor plates of ten millimeters thick. Currently, the missile was almost as powerful as the stone pillar projected by the demons.

"Do you think this weapon could defeat the Senior Demons?" Roland asked as he turned to Pasha and the other witches.

"Well... " Alethea spoke first. "It's hard to say. There are strong and weak Senior Demons, just as we have Extraordinaries and Transcendents. If our enemy is swift and fast or happens to be a Magic Slayer, then... to be honest, the chance of hitting it in its face is very slim. They can easily dodge the grenade while the grenade is traveling in the air. However — "

She broke off and continued with an abrupt rise in her voice, "This is definitely an epochal weapon, Your Majesty, because it closes the gap between demons and common people. It offers us an opportunity to outnumber our enemy. I can't praise this novel invention enough!"

"Exactly," Pasha rejoined smilingly. "It was impossible for a mortal to wound a Senior Demon in the past. If we had such a weapon in the Taquila age, Lady Natalia would be thrilled."

"And I just discovered another way to significantly improve the accuracy rate," Alethea said while swaying her main tentacle.

"Yes?" Roland said as he looked at her. "What is it?"

"To equip each individual God's Punishment Witch with this weapon," Alethea answered in exhilaration. "Only the Extraordinaries can rival the Senior Demons. If the enemy is shot in the face, then there's no way it can survive the shot, no matter how strong it is!"

"Don't worry. It's an individual weapon, and certainly everybody will have one," Roland promised with a smile. "So will the God's Punishment Witches."

The next step would be further increasing the power of the missile while maintaining its current traveling speed and overhead cost. Meanwhile, Roland had to also create a new weapon that had a large caliber to target the Spider Demons that moved much slower than the Senior Demons. Considering they would eventually invade the demons' city and the Spider Demons would very likely lurk around alleys and streets, Roland felt it necessary to develop a new type of bomb as early as possible.

While Roland was deep in thought, his guard suddenly came to deliver him a message.

"Your Majesty, Sir Sean and his rescue team have returned from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. They've just reached the dock by the inner river."

Chapter 1116 - An Underground Laboratory

...

In the lord's office in the castle.

It took Sean two hours to recount his story.

Generally speaking, the plan had been successfully executed. Zooey and Betty had not only retrieved the ancient Magic Cube but also manipulated the God's Punishment Warriors into looting the entire treasury of the Archduke Island. All the treasures, including jewels and gemstones, had been dumped into a vacant cabin. Henceforth, all the remnants the Church of Hermes were uprooted. Nobody on the Archduke Island would ever have any engagement with the church.

On the other hand, Kajen Fels took his leave right after the ship disembarked and returned to his hotel with his student. It was obvious that he could not wait to work on his new play.

Both Farrina and Joe were detained, awaiting for their trial which would be presided by the Graycastle Security Bureau.

"I'll leave them to you," Roland looked away and said quietly to Nightingale.

Nightingale gave him a pinch of comprehension on the shoulder.

"So, is the legendary treasure... the Magic Ceremony Cube in this lead box?" Roland asked as he cast a look at the gray box next to Sean. Based on the traitor, Hagrid's description, the Cube was of the size of a palm and made out of a polished stone. In consideration of the lethal property of radioactive material, Roland had asked the rescue team to take full protective measures before they had set off for the journey.

"Yes, I kept it in my custody during the whole trip as you had instructed. Other than Miss Zooey and Miss Betty, nobody has touched it," Sean replied. "However, I found an unusual sign before putting it in this lead box."

"What sign?"

"Your Majesty, do you remember in my encrypted letter, I talked about the reason Lorenzo had decided to send Hagrid to the Cage Mountain to investigate the treasure?"

Roland said thoughtfully, "Because the treasure suddenly emanated blue light for the first time in the past 100 years?"

"Yes," Sean confirmed with a nod. "When Miss Zooey brought back the Magic Ceremony Cube, she said one thing that caught my attention. She said 'the blue light seems to be changing directions all the time'. So I took another look and noticed the light always pointed at me like a compass. To be honest, I was terrified at that moment and almost dropped it."

Roland felt a chill running down his spine as he listened to Sean's narrative. However, he still managed to keep a straight face and said nonchalantly, "And did you find out the reason?"

"Maybe," Sean said as he produced something from his pocket and placed it on the mahogany desk. "After I calmed down, I gave it some thought and think it's not likely that an ancient artifact would respond to a common person. It must be sensing something else. After a further examination, I discovered the light wasn't pointing at me, but this coin.

It was the exact enriched uranium coin Azima had used to look for uranium mines, which she had given back to Sean after her return to Neverwinter.

In other words, the Magic Ceremony Cube illuminated because it sensed the coin.

This sounded interesting.

Roland spoke after a moment of reflection, "I see. You did a good job. Off you go."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After Sean retired from the room, Nightingale revealed herself from the Mist and studied the lead box up and down.

"Any luck?"

"This is a magic artifact," Nightingale said positively. "Although it looked like a crude rock, it contains power. I saw something similar to Magic Cyclone from the Mist, just like the Taquila Witches' magic core."

Roland came to realize that magic power shaped this world in a more subtle and fundamental way than he had originally thought. Unfortunately, based on the current information, he knew little about magic power except that different races viewed and used magic power differently. With insufficient analytical tools, it was hard for him to study it systematically.

However, Roland could still learn about magic power from his personal experience. Before the development of the classical mechanics theory, people used to create tools based on their own observations and daily practices. Now, since he had just observed a new phenemon, he simply needed to to do more research.

"Let's go to the Third Border City," Roland said. "I wonder if Celine has set up a laboratory for me."

Anyway, this cursed artifact should not be brought into the castle before he confirmed it was completely harmless.

...

"What brought you back?" Pasha said as she greeted Roland in the underground hall. "Anything wrong with the new weapon?"

Roland shook his head and said, "I asked Celine to dig a cave earlier. Is there any update on this matter?"

"Oh, are you talking about that secret metal chamber? Everything is pretty much good to go except the elevator. She's now in the chamber. Do you want to take a look?"

After receiving an affirmative answer from Roland, Pasha said while bending her main tentacle, "Please follow me."

When Roland had decided to dispatch the God's Punishment Witches to the Kingdom of Wolfheart a week ago, he had also instructed Celine to build a research facility — an enclosed laboratory deep down underneath the ground.

If the Magic Ceremony Cube was indeed radioactive, it would be very dangerous to conduct an experiment above the ground. Since he was still not sure whether Nana could cure injuries arising from radiation, it would be better to conduct the research underground.

As Roland followed the original carrier off to the laboratroy, he told Pasha about what had happened in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

"I see," Pasha said with a smile. "Better to leave it to Celine than someone else. She's a top researcher back in the Quest Society, and no one knows better about magic power and the repair and reconstruction of this artifact than her. After she changed her body, her skills have improved by leaps and bounds. I'm not sure about others, but I can tell you that Celine is the only person who offered to merge with the carrier before Taquila showed signs of a downfall."

"Ugh..." Nightingale commented with a disgusted look. "Do you mean she prefers to be a blob with tentacles over human?"

"If that would help her explore the world," Pasha replied while shaking her tentacle. "She complained a lot back in the Quest Society about not having enough hands to multitask and also about getting tired easily. If she could transfer her soul back then, she would probably make that choice."

After they walked for about seven minutes, they reached the end of the passage where a big cave materialized in front of them.

"This is the entrance. It'll take us a few days to install the elevator," Pasha said as she dropped down her main tentacle. "Come on."

"Um... is this the only way to get down there?" Nightingale asked hesitantly as she stared at the numerous wriggly tentacles, a look of total distrust on her face.

"This is the fastest way," Pasha said. "Don't worry. These small tentacles are pretty flexible and durable."

Roland took a deep breath and clambered up the head of the original carrier. He had thought he would have to endure a really uncomfortable ride, but actually, those tentacles were as soft as a rug.

After Nightingale also scrambled up the original carrier, Pasha entered the cave and hurtled toward the bottom.

They dropped around 100 meters before Pasha slowly came to a stop. Then, Roland saw the gleaming metal door of the laboratory stand magnificently before him.

Chapter 1117 - The Light of the Cursed

Although Roland designed the laboratory himself, he was still quite impressed with its real version.

Thousands of Stones of Lighting illuminated the pitch-black underground space, spilling light on the surrounding rocks plastered with lead plates, which formed an enclosed area the size of a basket ball court.

There was, somehow, a sort of beauty in those smooth, glinty and colorless lead plates.

It was the beauty of industrialization.

"If we lose the Battle of Divine Will, this place will become an ancient relic as well after hundreds of years, right?" Roland murmured.

And it would be a relic completely different from those of the underground civilization and the demons.

The marks on the lead plates would then become evidence that proved that the human civilization had, at one time, been prosperous.

"Probably," Pasha replied as she put Roland and Nightingale down gently. "However, I've never had such a strong feeling as I have now that we'll survive in the end."

"I believe so too," Roland said smilingly and stepped into the laboratory.

The entire room was divided into two sections, one for operation and the other observation. A concrete wall of around half a meter thick, which was also heavily protected by lead plates, separated the two chambers. Lead oxide had been added to the glass implanted at the center of the wall created by Lucia. Due to the limitation in the current technologies, the lead glass was not as transparent and bright as modern glass. However, it was sufficient for people to see through.

"Ah, you're here, Your Majesty," Celine said as she poked her main tentacle out of the door of the operation chamber, her giant body looming over them menacingly. However, the threatening atmosphere soon lightened as they saw bolts and rulers in the crook of her auxiliary tentacles. "I heard Pasha talking when I was installing a lead plate. Did Zooey bring the ancient treasure back?"

"It's right in this box," Roland answered as he placed the lead box on her main tentacle. He then entered the operation chamber and examined it carefully.

"What do you think? This is designed and built solely according to your instructions," Celine said while raising her tentacles. "But is it really necessary? If the curse is a sort of light, wouldn't a regular wall be sufficient to block it out?"

"Just in case. If my theory is correct, the light won't be detected by naked eyes and can be highly penetrative. Regular walls do block it, but they have to be several meters thick," Roland replied as he turned to the two ancient witches. "So, you can never judge things based on your instincts. Even though the original carriers are very resistant to various perils, before we obtain a thorough understanding of the Magic Cube, we have to follow our procedures."

Since radiation would break down DNA structures and thus hinder the replication process of DNAs, it would cause great damage to organs with a fast metabolism. Organs such as heart and brain were more resistant to radiation than the others. Judging from the incredibly long lifespan of the original carriers who could normally live for hundreds of years, Roland believed that they were also somewhat immune to radiation. That was also the reason why Roland had asked Celine to conduct the test.

Celine broke into a laugh and said, "You remind me of the president of the Quest Society. Don't worry. One of the principles of the Quest Society is to follow rules. I'll be cautious."

Roland returned a nod, "So let's begin."

Celine thus shut herself in the operation chamber.

The first step according to the operation manual was to keep all the doors of the laboratory closed during the experiment. Everybody should recede to the observation room except the operator.

Through the lead glass, Roland saw Celine open the box and take out of the Magic Cube.

Like Sean had said, a jet of pale blue light escaped from the crack of the stone and pointed at the coin on the work station.

"Interesting," Celine mumbled while studying it attentatively. "This isn't activated, right?"

Since the wall blocked the transmission of sounds, Roland replied with his mind, "According to Sean, the Earl of the Archduke Island touched it after it emanated the blue light, so I think it functions as an indicator."

"I see," Celine said while snatching up the Magic Cube and wrapping it with her tentacles.

"What's she doing?" Nightingale asked.

"Feeling," explained Pasha. "Our tentacles are much more sensitive than men's fingers. They can touch, smell, and remember every single dent and bump on the surface of an object. A genius like Celine can even form a picture of the outline and details of the object by touching it. Unfortunately, this part of the information is conveyed via the carrier's mind only. Human brains can't process it."

"Can you see what she has sensed?" Roland asked in surprise.

"If she's willing to share, " Pasha said as she stretched out one of her tentacles and tapped the glass. "Now I see the Magic Cube right in front of me."

This was such a convenient ability. Like a psychological network, it not only enabled the original carriers to share their thoughts but also 3D visions.

"The length and the width of the Magic Ceremony Cube are almost the same. They are both 15 centimeters. The cube is hollow, and there are cracks. I can tell that it isn't a whole piece," Celine suddenly spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"The Cube seems to consist of several stones. Hold on... I probably have just found the key to opening it."

At these words, all the tentacles relinquished their grip on the Cube, and Roland saw a small opening at the back of the Cube, as though this was the entrance to a treasury well hidden for years.

"Wow, impressive," Roland remarked in amazement. "That was fast."

Over the past hundred years since the Magic Ceremony Cube had been smuggled out of the temple, none of its previous owners, despite extensive research, had discovered that this was actually not made out of a single stone.

"I told you Celine is the best person to consult," Pasha said with a smile. "She pieced together the entire magic core of the underground civilization."

"Your Majesty, I have a question," Celine put in as she poked her tentacle into the opening. "Why does it only respond to this coin? You say the Magic Cube has been unresponsive for years. I thought probably it had exhausted its power, just like a magic stone or a sigil. However, after I check it, I find, as you may also notice, that there's still some magic power in it. So, is it possible that what this thing lacks... is the element used to create what you call 'the Glory of the Sun'?"

"I think so too," Roland replied while curling his lips. "You can try to insert the coin, but it may activate the Magic Cube, so you must take some protective measures."

"Got it," said Celine as she moved to the other side of the work station behind a plate. The plate was a round lead shield with four little holes in the middle, which allowed her auxiliary tentacles to pass through. Celine put the coin into the Magic Cube, and the opening immediately closed itself. Meanwhile, the light at the top of the Cube instantly turned dark red.

He was right!

Roland and Nightingale exchanged a look. Both of them were excited.

Celine continued to study the Cube for a while when suddenly, a flash of red light erupted from the other side of the Cube and fell straight onto the wall, adding a reddish hue to the dull, colorless laboratory.

Chapter 1118 - Experiment Records

"Recording"

On the 12th, Day 1 of the experiment.

According to His Majesty's instructions, I conducted a dangerous experiment.

I put 30 roosters on the work station, one of which was placed under the direct radiation of the red light.

The roosters were subject to the radiation for five minutes.

The rooster subject that took direct radiation reacted violently. It threw itself against the cage fiercely, whereas the others did not show any visible response.

I smelled a whiff of burned flesh in the laboratory.

After the experiment, I found that the feathers that came off the subject rooster were slightly burned. As the burn was fairly minor, I judged the cause of the feather loss to be from the struggle and not the radiation.

As for the subject rooster itself, it seemed normal except for being a little crestfallen.

"From my point of view, a torch is even more lethal than the radiation."

Recorder: Celine.

...

The 13th, Day 2 of the experiment.

Something happened.

The subject rooster started to have symptoms of diarrhea and also began to wail as if it was infected by the demonic plague.

The other roosters acted normal.

His Majesty looked grave and sober (delete this sentence in the official report).

No new experiment today.

...

The 14th, Day 3 of the experiment.

The subject rooster died.

The autopsy showed that there was fluid accumulation and internal bleeding in the rooster's body. Signs of decomposition had also been found in its hypodermis, which would normally take place one day after an animal has died.

In other words, the red light killed the rooster's skin when it was still alive.

Things are becoming a little interesting now.

Considering what had happened in the Temple of the Cursed and Thorn Town as well as the drawings on the murals, the findings did explain some things.

The cursed ones seemed to be enduring excruciating pain, although they looked fine physically, until every inch of their skins peeled off and festered. It must be awful to watch yourself die little by little and be unable to do anything to stop it.

I take back my previous remark. The radiation was more lethal than a torch, and it killed in a more subtle and sinister way.

However, His Majesty had his own opinion on this matter.

He believed the red light had a detrimental effect on the self-renewal process of living beings.

Our body was constantly growing and dying on a microscopic level to make sure these two process were balanced. The termination of cell growth would immediately result in massive acute necrosis of skins and organs. That was probably what the curse really was.

I agreed with him given that no other evidence proved otherwise (please delete the following paragraph in the official report).

Microscopes are fascinating.

The materials collected from the Dream World also corroborated my research findings and showed that living beings were made of numerous tiny growing cells.

The reason that the light could penetrate a body was that our cells are not tightly packed in our body but instead in a loose formation.

I feel like I have entered a new realm.

It is a pity that I can't visit the Dream World.

I have learned that it would normally take nine years to complete the "high school" curriculum and have a thorough understanding of the human body.

So it will probably be a little hard for Phyllis, Elena, and the other witches to learn all the courses in such a short period of time.

...

The 16th, Day 5 of the experiment.

All the roosters, both alive and dead, were buried deep underground.

The laboratory was thoroughly cleansed.

I continued with the experiment the following day.

This time, I used three cows as my research subject. The purpose of the research was to see whether the Magic Ceremony Cube could be used as a weapon and how well the cows could hold up when exposed to the red light.

...

The 20th, Day 9 of the experiment.

The result was frustrating.

The three cows were each exposed to the red light for 10, 15, and 30 minutes respectively.

However, even the cow with the highest exposure lived for four days.

Whether this red light would cause harm to the demons remains unknown, but one thing was certain: the demons would never stand transfixed to one spot waiting for the light. Even if the "curse" did affect the demons, the demons would only be exposed to the red light for a fraction of a second on the battlefield.

The murals in the temple, which depicted that the Magic Ceremony Cube had defeated giant monsters, were indeed exaggerating.

Or another possibility is that... those monsters were particularly vunlerable to the "curse".

...

The 21st, Day 10 of the experiment.

Testing the radiation range.

King Roland agreed to conduct the experiment outdoors after I assured him that the radiation would not travel to the surrounding areas.

The test site was still in the valley at the base of the Impassable Mountain Range.

The outcome was very disappointing.

The red light could not travel more than 100 meters, and basically anything could more or less block it.

For some metals, the red light could not penetrate them at all.

For example, a stack of ten gold royals.

Even water could somewhat block it.

I thus concluded that the light could not be used as a weapon.

...

The 26th, Day 15 of the experiment.

Since Nana has returned from the front, we conducted a healing test.

The damage caused by the radiation was curable, but not completely.

For instance, Nana could not repair the damaged skin or heal the contaminated organs of the subject cows. Their conditions would continue to deteriorate, and the parts that had been healed would be contaminated again later.

However, if we implanted a healed organ to another healthy cow, the health of the subject cow's organ would cease to decline.

In other words, the "curse" could potentially be removed provided that we reconstruct the infected body.

However, such a task was beyond Nana's ability.

To do so, we had to utilize Spear Passi's channeling ability, so we had to set this idea aside for the time being.

I put it as "incurable" for now just in case.

By the way, the first cow died 10 days after being exposed to the red light.

...

The 28th, Day 17 of the experiment.

The Magic Ceremony Cube emanated the blue light again.

The coin was gone.

Fortunately, His Majesty had another coin that was exactly the same as the previous one.

However, as this was the source material to produce "the Glory of the Sun" and it was extremely hard to collect, I felt I was wasting the most precious resource in the world.

Furthermore, the Magic Cube had exhausted its magic power, but, like a Sigil, it could be recharged.

Considering the test was resource-consuming, I did not think it a good idea to continue with the experiment.

I hope that we can dismantle it after we finished the resistance test.

...

Roland closed the "Official Research Journal" and heaved a sigh.

"You're reading it again," Nightingale said while snacking on dried fish on a recliner. "Isn't it obvious? The ancient treasure is merely an instrument to torture captives. It doesn't possess any incredible powers whatsoever."

As the murals had suggested, the only reason for this invention was to torture enemies.

The mechanism of this Cube was probably very similar to that of ionizing radiation. Its source material was the uranium coin. Although what activated the Cube remained a mystery, the result was pretty much the same as only the Magic Ceremony Cube could direct energetic particles to a certain spot.

Roland suspected that the red light was just an indicator, similar to a laser beam, rather than the actual radioactive ray. It was highly unlikely that human beings could detect neutron beams or high energy electrons with the naked eye.

Now, he unveiled the truth pertaining to the Temple of the Cursed and the mysterious death of the Thorn Town residents.

A civilization who had heavily relied on radioactive elements had created the Cube with magic power. The device could release energetic particles after being activated by enriched radioactive materials. As to why the beam could only travel 100 meters, it might have something do with magic power.

Roland was a little discouraged by this conclusion.

He expected to find something more extraordinary than this since the nature of this device concerned knowledge of advanced physics. Perhaps, the original owner of this treasure had never taken it seriously, but simply used it as another instrument of torture just as they used a whip and a guillotine.

This was probably the difference between civilizations.

Just then, Sean came in and reported to him, "Your Majesty, the Taquila witches sent in another experiment report."

"Give it to me."

According to the schedule, this was the last test.

They subjected different animals to the radiation for the same amount of time to determine the relationship between the body type of the animal and its radiation tolerance.

After that, they would terminate all the tests with respect to the Magic Cube.

Since uranium was a rare element, he should make the best use of it.

Roland opened the journal that was handed to him by Sean and took a sip of the tea.

It was in Celine's handwriting again.

The 30th, Day 19 of the experiment.

The experiment was finally drawing to its end.

The result indicated that the larger the animal was, the higher tolerance it had to the red light. However, at this point, I was not able to develop a specific formula to address this relationship. It might take some time for me to do so.

Also, I had experienced a little hiccup during the experiment.

The incident was actually kind of amusing. I planned to use the remnant of the materials to see if it was fatal, so I directed the beam at a fish tank.

Five minutes later, I noticed wisps of steam that escaped from the surface of the water, although the fish were still alive.

That meant that the light was not even as deadly as boiling water. If I had continued with the experiment, the water would have been boiled and the fish cooked.

Perhaps we could use it to make soup?

"Haha!" Roland choked in his mug.

"What's so funny?" Nightingale asked in surprise.

"I almost forgot about that..." Roland mumbled. He had been too focused on the potential military application of the red light to realize that it was also a form of energy. Any form of energy could heat up water.

The history of the human civilization was, essentially, a process where men continuously developed different methods to boil water.

Chapter 1119 - A Real Researcher

Roland called the Third Border City and demanded immediately, "Ask Celine not to dismantle the Magic Ceremony Cube! I need to see her now!"

"Yes... Yes, Your Majesty!" The telephone operator on the other end of the line apparently had no idea what had happened, but still, he obeyed the order instantly.

"Take me to the Border City," Roland said as he turned to Nightingale. "As fast as possible."

"No problem," Nightingale replied with a smile and grasped his hand. "This may make you feel dizzy."

Within a second, they had stepped into the Mist.

Five minutes later.

"Ugh... finally." For a moment, Roland was at a loss as he emerged in the underground hall, with his hand clapping over his mouth. Nightingale had indeed improved a lot compared to when he had first met her. She glided through waves effortlessly and gracefully in the black and white world. However, to Roland, the trip was not nearly as comfortable as sitting in a roller coaster. He saw a blurred stream of objects streaking past him, his inside churning, and the whole world had dissolved in a grayish whirl.

Nightingale patted him on the back with an understanding smile.

"What's the matter, Your Majesty?" Celine asked as she slowly descended from the ceiling of the cave with a bunch of tools on her tentacles. "You were looking for me?"

Roland breathed out a sigh of relief after he saw the latter carrying a hammer, a saw and a file. He said, "Well, it seems I'm just in time."

He also spied a triden and an ax, failing to understand why Celine would need them. Did she actually plan to grind the Cube?

"Where's the ancient artifact?"

"Still in the underground laboratory."

Roland took a deep breath and asked, "Are you able to replicate it?"

Mildly taken aback, Celine asked, "Are you sure you want to replicate it? Isn't it just a useless piece of junk?"

"Probably not completely useless." He then explained his idea to Celine, "The biggest drawback of steam power is fuels. If we could replace it with the Magic Cube, it may bring about a second industrial revolution."

The ultimate goal of industrial development was to search for an efficient and powerful resource. A powerful resource would potentially change the nature of everything, including their manufacturing process, the way they generated electric power, as well as facilities.

Nevertheless, this was not going to be an easy step to take. It was not a simple task of just switching a traditional boiler to the Magic Cube. The change in the heating method would subsequently change the thermal system, the control system and the related repair and maintenance. They might experience numerous failures before succeeding in this undertaking. However, it was, at least, worth trying.

"Heating up water... I see," Celine said thoughtfully. "But... it's very hard to replicate it without exploring its internal structure. It's a magic device after all, and you don't allow me to dismantle it."

"Ahem, what I'm saying is that you don't tear it down like it's a piece of junk," Roland said on a cough. "I want you to dismantle it in a careful, methodological manner for replication purposes."

"Is there a rough dismantling procedure as well?" Celine asked in astonishment. Then she said in a pretty aggrieved tone, "You would get punished if you mishandled a relic back in the Quest Society. From the time I joined the Society to the fall of Taquila, I had never been punished. Lady Natalia spoke highly of me, saying that I have deft fingers. If I was so careless, there would have probably been no core instruments left in the hall now."

As Celine boasted in the disguise of a defence, Roland cast her a skeptical look and asked, "Did you use these tools to disassemble relics back then?"

"These?" Celine said in surprise. "How could that be possible? Didn't you just equip us with the new weapons? So these swords and axes are now useless. Rather than storing them away in the warehouse, it would be better to melt them down and use them to make something else. I still need some bookcases in my storage room. By the way, why do you think they're research tools?"

Nightingale turned away while clapping her hand over her mouth, shaking with suppressed giggles.

A little embarrassed, Roland replied, "No, I just fear that you'll get overexcited when it comes to magic power..."

"You must have heard it from Pasha," Celine said as she mopped her giant blob with her main tentacle. "She doesn't know the difference between a craze and a hobby... A real researcher must always have a clear mind to accurately control his behavior. It's normal for a researcher to work day and night or mumble while reading a book — "

Roland interrupted Celine just in time to stop her from rambing on. "Well, speaking of the Magic Ceremony Cube, are you sure you can replicate it once you know its structure?"

Celine replied, instantly back to normal, "That depends on how complicated this Magic Cube is. I can't guarantee you now, but there's a big possibility, because one good thing about this Cube is that it doesn't require magic power to operate it. This means the biggest difficulty in the replication is gone."

"The hardest part is the replication of magic power!" Roland uttered an exclamation of comprehension.

"Exactly," Celine said while bending her main tentacle. "Due to physical and psychological differences, human beings, demons and the underground civilization use magic power in very different ways. For example, we probably could never gain multiple abilities by inserting Magic Stones in our bodies like the demons. Likewise, if I didn't convert to an original carrier, I would have never been able to repair the magic core."

"The fact that the Cube doesn't require magic power means we don't need to know what kind of Magic Cyclone that disappeared civilization once had and used. To be honest, we could never figure that out without relevant documentation. However, we now just need to replicate the object to achieve the same magical effect. Of course, this would still be hard in the Taquila age, but it's a lot easier now with the magic core which I can adjust anytime."

Celine paused for a second and then went on, "However, we still have another problem."

"What is it?"

"Material," she answered. "I've been doing research on the Magic Cube. Although it looks like an ordinary stone, it isn't made of stones. I don't know what it's exactly made of, probably of the bones of that civilization or some other solid materials. Anyway, I need a lot of samples... Yet you said earlier that the Temple of the Cursed was looted years ago. It was pure luck that we found this Cube. So, I don't know if the replicate made of a substitute material would work the same way as the original one."

"Materials..." Roland said meditatively. "Perhaps I know a place where you can find similar materials."

That area should have changed a lot by now. Roland gazed in the southern direction. If the murals in the temple were telling a real story, perhaps he could find something there.

Chapter 1120 - A Cape City

"Here comes the ship, chaps! Get going!" Simbady hollered while wringing his fist in the air.

"Yup!" The Fishbone clansmen all swarmed toward the dock and commenced working. Some of them went to fix cables while some build springboards. Although everything seemed to be a chaos at the first glance, everybody knew what they were doing. These clansmen were as good as experienced sailors. It was uninmaginable that just a year and a half ago, they had never been to the sea, let alone working on a ship.

The ship was quickly unloaded.

"Simbady, they say we can load the ship now!"

"Red or black, and how many for each, do you know?"

"Rest assured. I wrote it all down on the back of my hand!"

"Great! Let's begin!"

The word "black" was the term they used specifically to describe the black water of the Styx River, which was the only product produced at the Endless Cape. Nonetheless, as the mine gradually expanded, Sand Nationals found two more underground streams bearing two different colors: deep red and dark green. They were both combustible, only their properties and scents were quite different. To avoid confusion, they called the black water "black", and soon northerners adopted this name as well.

This was the fourth time that Simbady came to work at the Festive Harbor.

The first time he had stepped on this deserted land, he had simply wanted to survive the first three months and then stay as far away from this place as possible. However, much to his surprise, a city was gradually formed at the far south of the desert. If the revival of oases was a miracle, then the development of the Festive Harbor was a divine bliss.

The reason the Endless Cape had always been a settlement to exile prisoners was that there had literally been nothing except perils and dangers. Even the most experienced hunter would not be able to survive on this land. Sand Nationals believed only Three Gods could build a town with hundreds of thousands of residents out of this bleak emptiness.

Simbady had thought the chief would eventually abandon his ridiculous idea after several fruitless attempts. He had not expected, however, that it was Sand Nationals themselves, who had been living in the desert for hundreds of years, were the ignorant ones.

There was something at the Endless Cape.

They had just never noticed it.

The first problem they had solved was water.

That official from the northern kingdom named Konkrete first took them to a large pond surrounded by numerous sheds covered with black films. They did not find anything unusual about it at first, but after the Months of Demons, they soon noticed white salt had come out of the seawater. Water vapor condensed into liquid on the films, trickled down a slope into a groove, and finally into a water storage tank. Water was collected in a much faster manner when heat went up. Although they could not produce much drinking water with one pond, they could collect a lot with several hundred.

As the number of such ponds increased, they now not only had sufficient water for daily use but also excess for the ships from Neverwinter. This technology completely broke Sand Nation's stereotype that there was no water in the desert.

The second was accommodation.

Apart from water, they also had to shelter themselves from the scorching sun in summer. Tents were obviously not a long-term solution.

It was rumored that all the building materials shipped to the Iron Sand City were from the Southernmost Region when it had yet to be a desert. That was why there was only one city at the Silver Stream, although there were many oases.

Northerners taught them to use local materials to build houses.

They built numberless furnaces, fueled them with the Blackwater, filled them with dirts at the bottom of the sea, and then mixed them with sifted fine sand to make bricks. Since there was an inexhaustible supply of dirts and sand, soon brick houses rose at the Festive Harbor, with double-bricked external walls and ceilings. Although the houses were not shaded by trees like those on the oases, they were, at least, proper dwellings.

The last was food.

The elder of the Osha Clan Thuram instructed them to spread dozens of fishing nets at the beach, which would totally submerge in tidal waves when the seawater rose. Once tides ebbed way, many strange creatures would cling to the nets, such as crabs, sea snakes and sea urchins. At first, Simbady was too afraid to try these gruesome food. However, under the threat of a whipping punishment, he forced himself to eat.

They were actually pretty good.

Although Sand Nationals still relied on Neverwinter for staples, they ate much better than a year and a half ago.

With a place to live and food to eat, Simbady gradually changed his mind. After the three months was over, he made a choice that even astonished himself — he chose to stay at the Festive Harbor.

First of all, the pay was much higher than in the Port of Clearwater.

Also, there was another reason.

...

After the last ship was loaded, everybody packed up, ready to go home.

"Simbady, good job, man!"

"See you tomorrow, Big Sim!"

"I'm going to the marketplace later. Do you want to tag along?"

Since he had worked here for several times, Simbady had naturally become the superintendent for the Fishbone Clan and the first person Thuram would go to when there was a new task. He was flattered by how much trust people placed in him. Back at the Silver Stream Oasis, he used to be one of the most insignificant members of the clan. Few people would voluntarily talk to him, let alone seeking his instructions. But now, not only young men treated him as a leader but girls started to ask him out as well. Simbady felt grateful to the chief. His heart swelled with pride.

However, Simbady turned down these girls' offers.

Because he already had someone he wanted to ask out.

"Hey, wait for me, Simbady!"

When he was about to leave the dock to look for Mulley, he heard a familiar voice.

Simbady could not help curling up his lips. He turned around but his smile suddenly froze on his face.

It was Mulley, a girl with a black pony tail, who had always been so kind and generous to him.

After Carlone left the advance unit, Mulley stayed, which was another reason Simbady chose to live here. Simbady had thought with Carlone leaving the desert, he would have a chance to win Mulley's heart, but he had not expected Mulley would bring another man here.

And that man was not from the Mojin Clan!

"Mulley, you... and him..." Simbady stammered.

"Ah!" It seemed Mulley had just noticed that she was grasping the other man's hand. She immediatly disengaged herself and said with an uncomfortable smile, "I wanted you to meet him, so I brought him here."

"Oh... r-really?"

"Agh, this lady is so strong," the man said, panting. "I couldn't stop her. She just dragged me here... Now I see how strong the Mojin Clan is." With these words, he studied Simbady up and down and said, "Let me introduce myself... I'm Rex, from the Fjords across the channel."

"I know you're from the Fjords," Simbady said, stepping between them, eyes full of alert. "I don't have any relics you want. You can leave now!"

In the past three months, the arrival of Fjords people shattered the peaceful life at the booming Festive Harbor. A large number of Fjords ships sailed to the Endless Cape, creating unprecedented trouble.

Those islanders who claimed to be explorers dug holes everywhere and purchased weird products from the advance troop, making the entire Festive Harbor boisterous and chaotic. Their sudden arrival did attract many Mojins to buy things they liked from their marketplace instead of from the Port of Clearwater, but these foreigners created more problems than convenience.

For example, one explorer had fallen into the underground river when he had tried to explore it. In the end, the advance troop had had to rescue him.

Another explorer had purchased tons of strange stones and metal wares from a Sand National with false money, which had almost caused a physical altercation between the two parties.

The worst one was that some of them had tried to steal the lifeline of the Festive Harbor — the special films on the sheds used for the water tanks. They finally had had to send for the First Army to settle the matter. The wrongdoers had later been escorted to Neverwinter and sentenced to lifetime heavy labor at the mine.

The avalanche of trouble made Simbady very suspicious of every single Fjord citizen.

"I'm not planning to buy anything. Compared to some shady businesses, I prefer to work my way up," Rex said while rubbing his hands excitedly. "This is a good opportunity to improve the reputation of the Society of Wondrous Crafts."

Chapter 1121 - The Most Genius Invention

"Huh?" Simbady twitched his lips, staring at Rex suspiciously. Even a clansman from a small tribe like him knew that Fjords people were notorious for their craftiness and trickery. They were all cunning merchants expert in sailing, who had an insatiable lust for money.

Many Mojins in the Iron Sand City had been scammed by Fjords merchants, so every Sand National knew they had to be extremely careful when dealing with them. Their stereotrype of Fjords people was further confirmed by what had happened in the Festive Harbor. Simbady did not believe a single word Rex was saying. He said gruffly, "Are you done? I'm busy here. Go talk to someone else!"

With these words, Simbady cast Mulley a glance, eyeing her to come with him.

"Hold on!" Rex said immediately. "I'll pay gold royals to you, regardless of the result."

"Simbady, just let him finish," Mulley said, grasping his hand. "I find it very interesting. He doesn't look like a fraud."

Simbady felt his heart pumping in his throat violently as Mulley touched him. He said hesitantly, "But..."

"Ten gold royals! As long as you tell me the exact location, I'll pay you ten gold royals!" Rex said breathlessly. To show he was not lying, he produced one gold royal from his pocket and proclaimed, "This is the deposit! If you could help me, I'll pay 20 more. How about that?"

Simbady was stiffened for a second. It was unusual for a Fjords merchant to pay upfront, let alone paying 30 gold royals in total. Simbady quickly revolved the idea in his head. It would probably take him at least ten years to earn such a large sum of money with his current salary.

"I also want to buy some new clothes for the children in the clan..." Mulley said imploringly while blinking her big sparkling eyes.

Unable to turn down Mulley's request, Simbady agreed resignedly, "I see. OK then. But if you dare scam us..."

"You won't lose anything," Rex confirmed quickly and tossed the gold royal at Simbady. "You just need to answer some questions of mine, and that's it. There's no better deal than this."

Simbady now saw how Fjords merchants tricked people. He caught the gold royal and asked, "What do you want to know from me? Why are you with Mulley? What do you mean by improving the reputation?"

"I have to start from the beginning," Rex said on a clearing throat. "Let's talk as we go. First, what do you think of the sea?"

"What do I think of the sea?" Simbady echoed. "It's the mother of Three Gods, the cradle of everything, and it's... volatile."

"I find it mysterious," Mulley said brightly. "Nobody knows how broad and how deep it is. There are a lot of places in the Southernmost Region not trodden by human beings yet. It may take us more than 1,000 years to fully explore the sea."

"You're both right. However, Fjords people view it as a treasury." Rex said smilingly, "There are numerous treasures down at the bottom of the sea, including tons of gold and silver royals, and the lost ancient ruin. Nobody is guarding them. They're just waiting for us to salvage. I won't be surprised if someone gets rich overnight. That means the one who gets the treasures will be the richest person in the world!"

"You sound it so simple," Simbady shot back contemptuously. "Nobody's guarding them? The ocean itself is a huge obstacle. How can you dive to the bottom of the sea as freely as a fish?"

"That's right. That's exactly what our problem is!" Rex replied in excitement. "The mission of the Society of Wondrous Crafts is to make everything impossible possible. This time, I want to show everyone that the Society of Wondrous Crafts isn't an organization of nutters, and certainly not an organization of cravens! Although we aren't explorers, we can do just as well as them... No, we'll do better than them!"

"I don't quite follow you — "

"A great invention." Rex revealed his secret anxiously. "I call it a 'diving suit'. With this, men can stay under water as long as they want like a fish!"

"What?" Simbady exclaimed in dismay.

"I found them stay under water for quite a while when I went picking shells at the beach. They stayed there for more than a person normally can," Mulley rejoined. "That's why I went to ask him what they were doing."

"So it's Mulley who talked to him first..." Simbady thought, feeling a bitter jolt in his stomach.

"I was very surprised at the beginning, because I know Sand Nationals fear and respect the sea," Rex continued. "I've been testing this diving suit for several days. It's been working really well. Needless to say, this will change the entire salvage industry. A job that used to highly depend on luck now become an adventure everybody could participate in!"

"Since you've already succeeded, why did you ask for my help?" Simbady asked in bewilderment, trying to suppress his disappointment and jealousy.

"Ahem... the thing is, Mr. Simbady... that this diving suit just needs a little bit of exposure. We can take advantage of King Roland's campaign to advertise it. That's why I need to get some real good stuff before anyone else — something that will catch the King of Graycastle's attention," Rex said while clenching his fist. "Once I'm granted the honorary title, thousands of people will jockey for my invention!"

He broke off at this point and then continued, "But I don't know where the treasures are. His Majesty's post doesn't indicate what exactly he wants. Technically, anything strange or insteresting is fine. Apparently, the king won't be interested in any random thing. He doesn't want to collect the crap you would normally find at the beach or in the corals, so we don't know where to go. All we can do now is to slowly search along the beach. Then I saw Miss Mulley, and I had a ray of hope. She told me you saw a strange cave once. You saw water reflect off light on a moonless night. I want to know where it is!"

In other words, these Fjords people came here because of the chief? Simbady said irritably, "I did see it. It's at the bottom of the cliff. The cave is only visible when water recedes. Having said that, the seawater is several meters deep, and nobody knows exactly how deep it is. It might only be an ordinary cave, and the light may be just a bunch of jellyfish."

"Don't worry. I'll still pay you even if we don't find anything," Rex returned.

They had just reached a beach beyond the port.

There was a knot of people.

"Those are the sailors I recruited who have nothing to do with the test. They only run errands for me," Rex explained. "I only have two assistants: Eyemask and Tophat. They're also members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts."

Simbady thought they had really strange names. He swept over the man and the woman at the center of the crowd and finally fixed his eyes onto the strange suit in front of them.

The suit had a huge metal helmet that did not coordinate with the rest of the outfit. The top and the bottom parts were connected, making it very hard to wear. The most distinctive feature was two tubes sticking out of the helmet which reminded Simbady of two shrimp tassels. They were incredibly long, with the ends connected to a large black machine.

Simbady had seen the same machine on Neverwinter ships before. Sailors called it a steam engine.

"Is this what you talked about..."

"Ah, yes," Rex said self-importantly, "This is the 'diving suit', my most ingenious invention!"

Chapter 1122 - To the Sea

Three days later.

Simbady rose up out of the sea as the basket slowly moved up.

"How do you feel?" Mulley asked in excitement as soon as he took off the heavy helmet. "Is the undersea world fun?"

It was actually not any better than the desert. Although there nestled many weird animals and plants, he did not quite enjoy the experience. Every time he sank to the bottom of the ocean, he felt as if being engulfed by a suffocating darkness that pressured him in every direction. Simbady wanted to communicate his real feeling. However, seeing Mulley's anticipated look, he swallowed his words and blurted out, "Well... the scenery down there is not bad."

"That's so nice... if only I could go down there and take a look," Mulley said on a sigh.

Looking at her hazel eyes, Simbady suddenly remembered that a year and a half ago when his clansmen had departed the Port of Clearwater for the southern end of the desert, she had been wearing the same look as she had watched them leave on the concrete ship. At that time, nobody had known what was awaiting for them. Everybody had been agitated about their uncertain future, but she had still attempted to cheer them up.

Somehow, Simbady felt uneasy.

"Good job. I'm really impressed," Rex commented as he rose up out of the water a second later. He clapped his hands as he climbed off the basket. "You have a good balance, a good vital capacity, and a good sense of direction. You're also able to stay chill. In other words, you have all the qualities an excellent diver needs. Is it because you're a Sand National or you're just a natural? No offense. Miss Mulley told me that you aren't the strongest warrior in your clan."

Mulley poked out her tongue at Simbady and went off to chat with Rex's assistants.

"There's a pond in the oasis where the Fishbone Clan used to live. When we were little, we often had competitions to see who could dive the farthest, so I sort of have some diving experience..." Simbady answered dryly. "But Mulley was right. I'm not the best diver in the clan. If Carlone did that, it would probably just take him one day."

"Carlone? Who's he?"

"The strongest warrior in the younger generation. He's an excellent hunter and combatant, and he's as good as those warriors in big clans. Yet he only worked here once. Now he should be working somewhere at the Port of Clearwater. It's too late to seek him now."

"Really?" Rex said, shrugging. "I don't think so though."

"About what?"

"I don't think he's stronger than you," Rex replied as he pulled off the diving suit. "The most important quality for a diver isn't skills but an open mind."

"An... open mind?" Simbady echoed perplexedly.

"That is, accepting the unknown and overcoming yourself. That's the difference between a pond and the sea," Rex said while gazing at the Festive Harbor. "This place is undergoing drastic changes. The man named Carlone has only been here once. From what I see, you're more open-minded than him. "If I asked him for help, I probably couldn't persuade him to dive in the first place."

Simbady rolled his eyes at him glumly and said, "If it wasn't because of Mulley, I would never have agreed to help you."

He had wanted to leave after getting that ten gold royals, but Mulley was very curious about this strange suit. Knowing that they still needed an assistant to salvage the treasures, she immediately offered to help.

Simbady thus had no choice but to explore the cave with Rex. Before confirming that the diving suit was absolutely safe, he did not want Mulley to risk her own life and deal with this Fjord person alone. Although he knew Mulley would eventually participate in the salvage herself, it would be much safer if he checked the suit first.

"Haha," Rex laughed airily. "But you overcame yourself in the end and took a step further to the new realm, didn't you? That's probably why Mulley prefers you."

"Hang on, what... what did you say?"

"Didn't you find it?" Rex said while spreading out his hands. "That girl talked a lot about you when she chatted with me. She said you were pretty timid when you were a kid and was often bullied into crying. However, you were curious about everything, though you are now much more reserved."

A muscle in Simbady's face twitched. He said, "Well, she just told you everything, eh?"

"She probably feels more comfortable with strangers," Rex said, grinning. "But I don't really know much about Sand Nation's customs. Perhaps fighting capacity is a big factor to assess a person, but you may be too modest as well."

"You don't know anything," Simbady grumbled.

To be honest, Simbady did not hate Rex very much. It was incredible that within just a few days, he could chat with a Fjord person so comfortably, as opposed to the beginning, he had just wanted to keep an eye on Rex to protect Mulley.

Now Simbady noticed that Rex was not talking to him with an air of condescension. Instead, Simbady felt very relaxed when communicating with him. Compared to those haughty northern nobles and Fjords merchants, Rex was very different. Perhaps that was the reason why Mulley often visited the campsite of the Society of Wondrous Crafts.

After a moment of hesitation, Simbady asked Rex why he treated him as equal.

Rex said thoughtfully, "You asked why... There's no particular reason. We've suffered enough discrimination and comtempt ourselves."

Simbady was a little surprised at Rex's answer. As a person who promised to pay 30 gold royals, he should be a wealthy and respected man. Why was he discriminated? When he was about to make a further inquiry, one of Rex's assistants came over and said, "Sir, all the tests are done. We can go ahead anytime."

"Do you want to have a shot?" Rex said as he turned to Simbady. "You should have been very familiar with diving by now."

He fought down his curiosity and answered, "As long as that thing you invented works."

"Of course it works. I've been doing research for nearly 10 years. To make sure it will work, I bet everything on it..."

"What?"

"Ahem, no, nothing. Nevermind," Rex said evasively, turning away. "Now, we're going to enter that cave in the afternoon and start our first adventure!"

...

He chose to dive in the afternoon simply because they could have a clear view at that time when the sun was right above their heads. By then, sunlight would reach the bottom of the pond 50 meters down the water, including the cave at the waist of the cliff.

If they took actions in the evening when the water receded, they would easily get lost.

"I'm waiting for you at the entrance," Rex said as he put on a helmet and gave him a thumbs-up. He then clambered into the basket and sank into the sea.

After around 15 minutes, Eyemask nodded at Simbady and said, "Your turn."

Simbady took a deep breath and put on a heavy helmet as well. Mulley moved over to secure the helmet on his head and then shouted, "You can do it! I'm waiting here for you."

He cast her a glance, turned away and walked to the basket.

The steam engine roared. As Simbady gradually dropped and got closer to churning waves, he had a feeling that the entire ocean was about to devour him.

For a split second, terror flooded over him.

However, he immedately regained his composure.

"Accept the unkown and overcome yourself."

He remembered Mulley's sparkling eyes and Rex's words.

Simbady breathed out a sigh and was ready to embrace the ocean.

In an instant, the whole world became a clear, transparent blue. Sun rays spilled across the water and splintered into flickers of light.

After he dropped 20 meters, the basket suddenly stopped.

A chilly, fathomless cave materialized in front of him.

Chapter 1123 - Underground Coffins

Rex, who had been waiting at the entrance, stuck out two fingers and pointed at his own head then at the mouth of the cave.

Simbady signaled him that everything was fine on his end.

Rex thus nodded in approval, turned around and walked into the cave.

Simbady looked up and saw the air hoses suspending above him. In the past three days, he had not only learned the basic operation of the diving suit but also diving gestures and techniques. It was extremely important to monitor these two hoses, and that was why the salvage required two people.

As a device to supply oxygen, the hose was connected to an air pump powered by a steam engine, which constantly circulated the air in the helmet. If one of the hoses was broken or clogged, the consequence would be fatal. Therefore, he had to be extremely careful when changing his direction or passing through narrow, treacherous areas.

Seeing there was no nothing protruding from the ceiling of the cave, Simbady threw himself into the darkness.

The sound of foaming waves was instantly muffled. He could hear the hissing sound of the air valves and the thud of his own heart.

After he marched around ten meters, the darkness around him grew thicker. Simbady could only make out an obscured outline of a slowly moving Rex in front of him as he plunged into this abyss.

Just then, the ground underneath suddenly rose, and the path started to ascend.

In less than seven minutes, Simbady saw the sea again. This time, however, the water was not glistening with golden specks but heaving quietly.

He followed Rex out of the water while holding his breath. A huge cave appeared in front both of them, most of which sihouletted against the darkness, with only a small part at the dome lit by a ghostly blue light reflecting off the glimmers on the surface of the seawater.

Was this cave connected to the world outside?

Simbady hoisted himself up onto the bank. He was about to take off his helmet when Rex stopped him.

The Fjords merchant took out a water-proof oil lamp from his sack. After observing the lit lamp for quite a while, he took off the helmet and said, "Agh... Looks like this place isn't completely cut off from the outside world."

"There's... wind?" Simbady said in surprise, feeling a chill playing upon his cheeks as he pulled off his helmet.

"Yes. There may be other exits," Rex replied hopefully. "In this case, there's a bigger chance we find treasures here. We're really lucky!"

Simbady cared more about safety than treasures. He did not expect to find a cave underneath the desert because the rock here was just too thin to form such a humongous cave. After all, this was only 20 meters beneath the water, and he was also concerned about whether the dome would cave in.

Simbady decided to report to Graycastle what he had found after he got out of here. Although it was a little unfair to the Society of Wondrous Crafts, he had to make sure that the cave would not pose any potential safety hazards to the Festive Harbor above it.

"The wind seems to come from that direction," Rex said as he placed his helmet next to the pond and raised the oil lamp. "Let's go take a look."

Simbady drew out his knife and followed him slowly.

As they delved further into the exploration, Simbady found the cave became even more bizarre.

Soil appeared as they moved on, and grass gradually replaced moss as they marshaled further, giving Simbady an illusion that he was strolling at Silver Stream Oasis.

"Unbelievable. There are green plants here," Rex remarked in amazement. "I thought only mushroom and moss would grow here."

"Maybe... we should head back," Simbady said hesitantly. "I feel this place..."

He stopped dead.

"Feel this place what?" Having not heard anything back from Simbady, Rex turned around and asked, "Hey, what are you looking at? Wow, a flower!"

Simbady felt his chest constrict. Next to him was a beautiful little flower with pastel purple petals and fragile, delicate leaves. "This is... the Flower of Providence..."

"Is it very rare?"

"No... they used to be everywhere," Simbady said in a low tone. "I never saw it before, but I've heard about the legend of Three Gods Emissary. It's rumored that this kind of flower is coastal. Like a splendid purple ribbon, they used to be the most beautiful flower in the Southernmost Region."

"There were flowers... in the desert?" Rex asked in astonishment.

"It wasn't a desert here in the past. This land used to be covered with trees, meadows and rivers," Simbady explained while shaking his head. "However, after the departure of Three Gods Emissary, this place gradually turned into a desert. That's not my point. My point is, there's a detailed description of the Flower of Providence in our documentation. Once these flowers settle at one area, they will never grow anywhere else. That's why you don't see them in the oasis. They should have been extinctive now..."

"I see," Rex mumbled while clicking his tongue, "Perhaps the desertification didn't spread to this underwater cave, so the Flower of Providence lives."

"Is that really so?" Simbady wondered, getting even more confused. For some reason, he had a strong feeling that this cave used to be an oasis.

Meanwhile, the purple flowers around him became denser. Simbady did not think the presence of these flowers was a pure coincidence.

While Simbady was debating whether he should proceed with the exploration, he suddenly heard a gentle "crack" underneath.

Then a jet of flash erupted from the ground, creating a haze of light around him.

"What happened?" asked Rex in surprise.

"I... I think I stepped on something," Simbady said, swallowing hard. "It seems to be a plank."

"Is it a trap?" Rex said as he bent over and brushed away the grass and flowers around him. "Well, this is... haha... hahaha..."

The laugh reverberated across the cave, making all the hair on Simbady's neck stand on end. "What are you laughing about? Oi, tell me what it is!"

"Haha, treasures! We've found treasures!" Rex said vehemently. "Look!"

To Simbady's dismay, underneath the earth lay a densely-patterned stone tablet that emanated a soft glow. The light escaped from underneath his feet, making the entire tablet as transparent and luminous as a jade. The tablet was not as hard as it appeared. When Simbady stepped on it, much to his consternation, the surface of the tablet sank a few inches.

What was more incredible was that the dent magically disappeared on its own after Simbady removed his feet. Meanwhile, the light also faded away, as though everything he had just seen was an illusion.

"Is there any more amazing treasure than this?" Rex exclaimed in exhilaration while stomping on the "stone tablet". "If I could send this tablet to the King of Graycastle, I'll be the honorary explorer for sure!"

"But... it's too big," Simbady said apprehensively. Judging from the part above the ground, the "stone tablet" might be even larger than him and Rex put together. It was definitely not an easy task to transport it out of the cave.

"We'll manage. I'm sure we can find a way to get this work. Perhaps we can look for some other exits? " Rex suddenly broke off and then said, "Hey, looks like there's another tablet here."

Rex took a few steps in the directon Rex was pointing at and soon hit another similar "stone tablet". In the soft light, more and more grayish white tablets floated out of the sea of flowers.

"There's one here, and there as well..." The two men tried to count how many tablets there were as they marched forward but soon abandoned this idea.

It was not long before they noticed that the Flowers of Providence were gradually replaced with those jade-like stone tablets. Light erupted everywhere as they proceeded.

Then a giant wall blocked their way.

"Oh God..." Rex gasped.

Feeling a little cold, Simbady slowly raised his head and saw a stone wall loom over him in the soft light. Then they found out that it was not a "wall" but a pile of numerous stone tablets.

Some of them were broken and some slashed in half. However, most of the tablets were rectangular. The random way in which these tablets laid on top of each other gave Simbady an ominous feeling.

They resembled thousands of buried coffins.

Chapter 1124 - A Lair

"I think... we should go," Simbady mumbled under his breath after a moment of silence.

This cave was gruesome and suffocating, thus he would rather stay undersea than here.

The glow of the tablets mingled with the light of the oil lamp could only illuminate a small area around them. They were surrounded by an impenetrable and dangerous darkness, facing the unknown.

Neither of them had seen the edge of the cave yet.

"Go?" Rex croaked, a note of quaver in his voice. "What are you talking about? I'm sure that even Sir Thunder has not seen a scene like this before. Are they relics? No... this is definitely a ruin!"

"The ruin won't go anywhere. We can come back later," Simbady racked his brain, trying to find a way to persuade Rex to leave. "Your assistants and the Society of Wondrous Crafts are all waiting for your good news outside."

Hearing the name of his Society, Rex instantly calmed down. "You, you're right. We need to tell them this good news first."

"So let's go."

"Hang, hang on. I need to take something from here to show them proof," Rex said as he took out a dagger from his sack and started to chisel a tablet. "Don't worry, it won't take me long. You should also gather some evidence."

Simbady had no choice but to obey. After all, Rex was his employer, and since he had already accepted this job, he had to take some risks for those 20 gold royals.

He tried to convince himself that the cave might not be as eerie as it appeared to be. It was just a little bit dark, and there might not be anything at all.

"Clink, clink, clink..."

Every time Rex wrung his knife, a clink that was amplified tenfold in the crisp, chilly air rang off the wall of the cave.

Simbady also noticed that the moment the dagger cut through the tablet, the light would become brighter and even blinding.

He shook his head, trying to put these thoughts away.

He really was not in the mood for cutting tablets at the moment. Several strange stonewares lay around the tottering wall, which Simbady judged were the tools used by the workers who had initially shipped the tablets here. Nevertheless, these tools were all rotten now after years of water erosion. He picked a few and crammed them into his bag as Rex had instructed.

"Clink, clink, clink..."

Rex was still focused on cutting the tablet and he already had five to six chipped stones the size of a nail littering next to him.

"Hey, I think that's enough..." Simbady urged when suddenly, he captured a discordant note.

It was also a clink but more squeaky and sharp, as if many Rexes had been chiseling the tablet.

"Is this... an echo?" Simbady wondered.

Then he realized this was impossible because both of them were still standing in the same positions. How could an echo suddenly appear from nowhere?

"Rex."

"Just a moment. This is the last one."

"Stop for a second..."

"Give me seven more minutes — "

"I said STOP!" he bellowed.

Rex was stunned, his dagger suspended in the air. The piercing clink immediately stopped.

However, that screeching sound still existed and was now slowly approaching them.

This time, Rex also noticed something wrong. He crammed his pocket with the stones, looking around, and said, "What's that?"

Just at that moment, there was a blinding flash in the distance.

In the dazzling light, Simbady saw the intruder. It was a full-grown desert scorpion, its clamps as thick as a man's arm, its tail high up in the air, leveling their waists. The tail was filled with green venom which, once someone was stung by, they would only have seven minutes to take the antidote.

"Damn. The sound of our knives must have startled it!" Simbady drew out his knife and said, "Step back slowly and fix your eyes on the scorpion. Don't look away."

For a first-rate Mojin warrior, a desert scorpion was not difficult to deal with, for scorpions were unintelligent and slow creatures. The only thing that might pose a threat was their venomous tail; however, this was also their weak point. If the scorpion failed to hit its target, Simbady would have a chance to slash its tail in half.

The problem was that Simbady was not an excellent warrior by any means.

Although he had received training since he was a kid, he had never participated in any hunting events, nor had he ever fought a desert scorpion.

He had no choice but to attempt it.

After Rex hid behind Simbady, Simbady said in a hushed voice, "Now, look down. Don't move no matter what happens."

"I... I see."

Then Simbady turned around.

The moment his eyes met the scorpion's, the scorpion lunged at him. Although Simbady could not see the scorpion in the darkness, he could clearly hear its clamp scraping the ground.

This was how desert scorpions generally attacked people: they tended to bide their time, waiting for the moment their opponent was distracted to launch their strike.

"Stay put!"

Simbady slightly bent forward, his right hand resting on the handle of his knife on the left, which was a standard fighting stance for Sand Nationals. In this way, he would be able to monitor both the area on his right-hand side and his enemy in front of him.

When the scorpion started to move, Simbady strode far forward and drew out his knife.

There was a flash of light.

He felt his knife hit something.

The blade cut through the scorpion like a sword through a suet.

With a crunch, the tail of the desert scorpion was slashed in half.

Simbady then stabbed the scorpion in the shell at the back of its head.

The scorpion soon stopped moving after a weak struggle.

"Impressive..." Rex remarked while heaving a sigh. "Now I see how strong a Sand National is..."

"Not yet!" Simbady interrupted him. "Based on the sound, there must be more than one desert scorpion!" He surveyed the cave, fully alarmed, wondering where his enemy was hiding. The cave was filled with illuminating stone tablets, so he should be able to see it clearly when it appeared!

But it was pitch-black.

Except for the area above.

Damn! Simbady suddenly realized what he had missed. He had forgotten to pay attention to any new light sources other than the glowing tablets.

As he looked up, a dark shadow dived to the ground.

It was aiming at Rex behind him!

With no time to react properly, he powerfully kicked Rex and sent him flying into the air.

The desert scorpion brushed past Rex and landed.

Simbady flailed his knife at the scorpion almost instinctively and cut the head of the scorpion in half.

"Whooo," he breathed out a sigh of relief. "That was a narrow escape... Hey, are you OK?"

"Aargh... I, I think..."

No sooner than Rex had finished, more clinks sounded from behind the wall. At first, there were just a few, but soon the sound became louder and more frequent. In the end, the whole cave started to rock, as though a giant monster was shuffling in their direction.

Simbady and Rex exchanged looks, pale-faced.

"Run! Hurry up!" Simbady yelled as he grasped Rex by the arm and dashed toward the exit.

A moment later, dazzling light erupted from behind, and the cave was as bright as day!

Simbady then saw a colossal desert scorpion, its eyes as big as a dinner plate and its shell as hard as coral reefs. Without a doubt, this was one of the legendary sacrificial offerings to Three Gods — the Giant Armored Scorpion that dominated the continent.

The light emanated by the wall of tablets now became blinding.

He now understood the reason.

He knew why grass would grow here in this dark cave and where the light he had seen earlier came from.

The cave was actually the nest of the Giant Armored Scorpion.

Chapter 1125 - An Exit

"Ah... finally," Simbady muttered in relief after they retreated to the pond.

He expressed his gratitude to Three God, the Son of the Earth and the Mother of the Ocean within himself. The cave was now completely lit up, which enabled them to successfully escape the attack of the scorpion. As the cave was narrower around the mouth, the Giant Armored Scorpion did not come after them all the way from the depth of its lair.

However, this did not mean they were completely out of danger.

Simbady still remembered the tidal waves of that gruesome clink and clunk, and believed that all the desert scorpions at the Endless Cape had probably gathered there, bidding their time to tear apart hunters who climbed over the tablet wall.

Fortunately, scorpions could not swim. Simbady sprinted up to the sea.

"Hurry up. Put on the helmet!" Simbady said as he snatched up the diving helmet on the ground and anchored it to his head.

But then he noticed Rex was not moving.

"Oi, what are you waiting for?"

"You... go first," Rex mumbled, turning his back to him.

Simbady stiffened for a second, wondering if Rex was still thinking about those damn illuminating relics.

Feeling a short surge of anger, he strode over to Rex, forced him to face him and bellowed, "Are you crazy? Do you know what our situation is — "

His growl stopped abruptly as he caught sight of Rex's bloodstained chest — The diving suit made of soft leather was broken.

"Your diving suit..."

"It's broken," Rex managed to summon a twisted smile which Simbady hoped he would rather not. "The last desert scorpion didn't get me, but its clamps scratched my clothes."

Simbady fell silent. If the diving suit was broken, seawater would seep through the crack of the suit and soak the helmet. Even though Rex just sustained a minor injury, he would have no chance to survive wearing a broken diving suit.

After a long silence, Simbady said, "If we abandon the suit and use the hoses only..."

Rex shook his head with a bitter smile and said, "That will only work when we're close to the surface of the water. Hoses won't help unless you can suck in air like a vacuum pump."

They needed two hoses to keep their balance.

Rex had told him at the beginning.

That was why he had been hesitant earlier.

Perhaps, he had already known it back in the cave.

Rex put down his bag, handed it to Simbady and said, "This is the tablet sample. Please give it to my assistant, telling him that I've discovered something that could possibly rival Sir Thunder's."

Simbady noticed that his fingers were trembling.

"Does your assistant... have a spare diving suit?"

"We've only got two. It took us half a year to select materials and make the suit," Rex said, trying to control his emotions. "I know what you are thinking. In fact, I've thought about every possible way to get out of here. It's impossible without a diving suit. Perhaps, that's my fate..."

"Your fate?"

"Members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts... could never be a real explorer," Rex said while biting his lip. "Go, before the scorpion gets here! Let people know that this is my discovery. In that case, even if I can't become an honorary explorer, my name will be permanently associated with this invention and be remembered by every Fjords citizen — "

Simbady turned away and stared at the pond. After a moment of silence, he answered slowly, "No, I can't do that."

"Huh?" Rex gaped at him, astounded.

"You still owe me 29 gold royals. If you're dead, who will pay me that 29 gold royals?" Simbady grunted. "Only Mulley and I know our deal, and I don't think your assistant would pay me. I can tell from what they wear. They're just as shabby as Sand Nationals."

"We're just in short of money now!" Rex protested indignantly. "We went a little beyond our budget when purchasing the steam engine from Graycastle. Once people know my diving suits, the Chambers of Commerce will line up to buy my product. By that time, we won't have any financial problem!"

"The problem is, I won't have anything to do with those money, and probably nor will you by then," Simbady said as he dumped the bag and helmet on the ground. "Do you really think people will believe you're the real inventor of the suit after you die here? A little bit retelling could make the whole story awry. They could take the credit from you while reaping profits from your invention. So, not only will I lose that 29 gold royals but your ambition will never come true either."

"What... are you going to do then?"

"Accept the unknown and overcome myself."

Simbady muttered within himself and breathed out a deep sigh. He said, "Mojins don't like being owed, and nor do they like owing. A deal is a deal, no matter it's with the King of Graycastle or a Fjords person. I promised to help you, right?"

Rex was momentarily stunned. "But how are you going to..."

"Look at the pond," Simbady said while taking off his diving suit. "Don't you see it's getting smaller?"

It wasn't until then that Rex noticed that a few wet, mossy rocks had revealed from the surface of the water, which indicated that the water was going down.

"Tides are now receding, which means the distance to the bank has shortened," Simbady said, laying a delicate stress on every syllable. "If everything goes well, we only need to swim around ten meters before the rescue team finds us. It's impossible to do that when wearing a diving suit, but we can take off all our clothes, and you ought to get rid of the stones you collected as well. Now, take your clothes off."

"Take, take off my clothes?"

"Yes, we must stop the desert scorpion before the water drops to the lowest level. The most effective method is to burn it," Simbady said with a nod. "However, it's humid here and it won't be easy to set flowers and grass on fire. So, we need something combustible." He then pointed at the oil lamp and said, "The oil and the leather would do."

Rex lapsed into a long silence and said, "... Forget it. It won't work."

"Why?"

"You don't really know when the tides will recede to the lowest point. The higher the water level is, the longer for us to cross the pond. If we act recklessly, we may lose our lives," Rex said painfully. "And most of all, I can't swim! It's ridiculous, isn't it? A Fjords person can't swim. That's even worse than getting seasick. That's why I'll never become a real explorer and roam the sea like others!"

"I knew it a long time ago when we were diving," Simbady replied placidly.

"Wh-what?"

"You relied on the basket to move about undersea. You couldn't walk properly in the water. Without this diving suit, you probably couldn't even get into the water, right?"

"Why did you still suggest swimming when you knew that I can't swim?"

"You don't need to swim. You just have to hold your breath. I know it's hard and you may pass out halfway. However, as long as you hold tight on me, I'll be able to get us out," Simbady answered slowly.

"Just by yourself?" Rex asked in disbelief.

"I've told you that there was a deep pond in the oasis where I lived when I was a kid. My friends and I liked having a competition with each other to see who could stay underwater for the longest," Simbady said while holding his head a little higher. "I was never the best in the clan, because I never put all my effort into it. I was scared."

"Scared?"

"Yes, I feared that the water would suck me in if I dived a little deeper, so I always came up a little earlier than I should. I pretended to be exhausted and out of breath. Slowly, I convinced myself that this was the best I could do," Simbady said while staring right into Rex's eyes. "You said I constantly look down on myself. Perhaps you were right. That's why I want to give it a shot and test my limit this time."

"Likewise, are you sure this is all you can do? Are you sure you can't swim?" Simbady shouted at him. "Are you not looking down on yourself as well?"

Rex balled his hand into a fist.

"At least you aren't afraid of the ocean. Compared to me, you're way much better," Simbady said as he curled up his lips. "What do you think? Are you willing to take a bet? You're an explorer. How can you be a real explorer if you don't take any risks?"

...

Two hours later, thick smoke almost filled the entire cave.

The water in the pond gradually went down and levelled the mouth of the cave.

They could hear the scorpions scuttle behind them.

Their clinks swept over the cave.

Rex and Simbady exchanged looks and knew this was their last chance.

"Let's go, Mr. Honorary Explorer," Simbady said after taking a deep breath, carried Rex under the crook of his arms and submerged himself in the water.

Instantly, he was fused with the ocean.

The memories of his childhood flooded into his mind.

However, this time, there was no Carlone or any other clansman.

He only needed to compete against himself.

Chapter 1126 - The Status of the War

...

Five days later.

Rex saw Simbady again.

In the hospital at the encampment of the First Army.

Coming with Simbady was a bright, dainty Mojin girl.

"How are you feeling?" Mulley said as she placed a bouquet of seaweed on the windowsill. "This is the only thing I can get here. There are no pretty flowers, but at least they are plants, which is better than muddy sand, isn't it?"

"Ah... thank you," Rex said as he straightened up. " I feel... much better."

"That's good. You scared me when you came out of the water. Your face went livid, your body spasmed violently, and you kept coughing out water," Mulley said, smiling. "Then you got a fever after arriving at the encampment. Simbady and I came to visit you twice, but you had yet to regain your consciousness when we paid the visits."

Rex said with a bitter smile, "I'm too weak."

"But you made it and went beyond your limit," Simbady encouraged, grinning. "Mr. Explorer, in fact, your desire to live is even stronger than I anticipated. I was about to shut down when we were almost there, but you clutched me with your arms and forced me to keep going." With these words, Simbady lifted the bottom of his clothes and said, "Look, I got bruises from your grip."

"Sorry," Rex said, a little embarrassed. "I don't remember what happened after we got out of the cave."

"You must be thinking about something at that time. Otherwise, you wouldn't have held Simbady so tight after you blacked out, right?" Mulley remarked.

"Probably..." Rex muttered while nodding. "A lot of things came to my mind before I passed out, such as my invention, the Society of Wondrous Crafts, and my two wives who were waiting for me at home..."

There was suddenly a strained silence.

After a while, Simbady asked testily, "What did you say?"

"Two wives..." Rex answered with a look of dawning comprehension. "Ah, I forgot to tell you. The customs in the Fjords Island are different from each other. On the island where I grew up, you can marry as many people as you want. It's perfectly normal that you didn't know about that."

"I suddenly regret taking you out of that cave," Simbady replied, a muscle twitching in his face.

"Same here," Mulley rejoined with an expression of utmost seriousness.

"Oi, you don't have to be that straightforward..." Rex protested in a bit hurt tone and immediately changed the subject. "What about... that ruin?"

Simbady instantly tightened his manner into formality when they started talking about businesses. He said, "Nobody is allowed to enter that area anymore. The First Army put out sentries near the cliff to keep an eye on the Giant Armored Scorpion. I went back to the cave when the water was low at their request and retrieved your bag." His voice lowered to barely a whisper. "But I handed it in to the First Army... Sorry."

"No, you did the right thing," Rex said while shaking his head after hearing the account of Simbady's story. "Since the First Army took me to the hospital, they would eventually know about the cave. Plus, I've never thought of keeping the entire ruin to myself. I just feel a little sad about that two diving suits. Even if you tell people the diving suit does work, few would believe it now. But there's nothing you can do about it... You did that to save me."

Simbady was silent. He knew how much time and effort Rex had put into these two diving suits. It had taken him half a year to make one and probably more time and money to conduct research before he had succeeded.

The loss must have given him a heavy blow.

Simbady asked quietly, "What are you going to do then?"

"Return to the Fjords and come back later," Rex answered quickly.

Both Simbady and Mulley were slightly surprised.

"Well, do you think that I'll lose heart because of the loss?" Rex said smilingly while looking at the bemused couple. "I probably would have quitted this job had I not escaped such a narrow death." He clenched his fist and then spread out his hand, in an attempt to feel something. "But now I understand I can do better than this. I don't mind spending another half a year making a new diving suit. At least, this time I know what I'm doing, and I'm sure it will be a great success!"

"Rex..."

"Don't worry. I'll come back with brand new diving suits within two years," Rex said slowly. "By that time, you and I — "

Simbady was now positive that Rex was fine. He was about to reply when the door was suddenly thrown open and an officer-like man strode in.

"Rex? Simbady?" he asked inquiringly.

"Yes, we are. Is there anything we can do for you?" Simbady said immediately.

"New instructions from Neverwinter with respect to your discovery," the military officer replied curtly with a nod. "His Majesty wants to see you."

"Are you saying the King of Graycastle?"

"The, the chief?"

The two men blurted out almost together. It was unbelievable that within five days, the news had spread from the Festive Harbor to the new king's city of Graycastle, and it was even more incredible that the king had summoned them. He could have just sent for a messenger to inquire about their discovery. Did that mean that the ruin carried more significance than they had initially anticipated?

"That's right. His Majesty will dispatch a ship here, which will be arriving at the Festive Harbor two days later," the officer said, smiling. "Before then, please take a good rest at the barracks."

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Roland was sitting behind his desk reading a report sent from the front.

The "Torch" project seemed to go well. No demons had been lurking around since May. The railroad was steadily stretching on toward Taquila. Based on this rate, Roland judged the Holy City would be within the shooting range of the First Army by mid June, more than ten days earlier than planned.

However, the news did not make Roland feel any better.

The demons were the mortal enemy of the mankind. They had slaughtered the human race during the first two Battles of Divine Will and forced human beings to retreat to the Land of Dawn. The only territory the demons had yet to conquer was the Fertile Plains. Once the demons erected their Obelisks, the Red Mist would soon prevail the whole continent.

His eyes darted from the report to the map, straining to find some sort of clues but to no avail.

After the night raid, Roland had perfected the defense of the railway stations. It would be now a lot harder for the demons to destroy the encampment. Although the railway seemed to be the most dangerous place at first glance, the First Army actually had a greater chance to win if the demons chose the railway to launch their battle.

The railroad that stretched hundreds of miles was the demons' second major obstacle. In fact, the report showed that this was where most battles had occurred. There had been 46 battles in total so far around this area. Had Roland not read the report, he would have thought the demons had abandoned the idea of harrassing the Ministry of Construction and withdrawn from the Fertile Plains. Nevertheless, it was essentially not easy for the demons to completely cut the First Army's supplies right under the witches' noses and the scrutinies of the armored trains, as the "Torch" project was designed to keep the demons away from the railway. In fact, after the third "Blackriver" came into use, even demonic beasts had ceased to approach the railroad.

The last possible point of contact was the terminus station at the forest, which was also the one he worried the least. As long as Leaf did not provoke the demons, there was little the demons could do about it. The forest was too far away from Taquila, so it was impossible for just a small group of demons to hinder the construction. Plus, the forest had just caught a fire, so the First Army was now paying extra attention to that area.

As the frontier kept expanding, Lightning was now able to see the Taquila ruins. There had been no sign so far that showed the demons would send for reinforcements. Instead, their Red Mist seemed to be fading into thin air.

Every piece of evidence was now pointing to a fact that human beings would gain the eventual victory of this battle and have a chance to dispel all the demons from the Fertile Plains before the arrival of the Bloody Moon.

Chapter 1127 - Preparation for the Final Battle

Roland put down the report and remembered what Kabradhabi had told him.

The demons had an enemy from the Sky-sea Realm.

Were the demons too busy dealing with that enemy from the Sky-sea Realm to monitor the status on the Fertile Plains?

The General Staff was also inclined to this theory. No matter what the demons were playing at, at the end of the day, the party with greater power dominated the war.

The Magic Slayer had come all the way to the forest and caught Leaf offguard. However, this had also exposed his traits and ability. Sylvie could now sense him even without the Magic Eye. She could see a "red fleck of light" hover around the ruin and feel the slightest fluctuation in magic power immediately.

In short, unlike Neverwinter where the soldiers and witches were still continuously upgrading, the demons at Taquila had put all their cards on the table.

Since there was plenty of food, the Administrative Office started another round of conscription to recruit soldiers from all parts of the country. The consolidation of the administration institutions in Graycastle significantly increased public productivity. Based on Barov's initial estimate, the number of new recruits might very likely exceed 5,000 this time, which was the total number of the First Army soldiers two years ago.

Calvin Kant was very proactive in responding to this campaign.

After the officials at the secondary City Hall were trained and became comfortable enough to rule a territory, they would be able to recruit more soldiers.

Meanwhile, bolt rifles were gradually replacing revolving rifles, thanks to increasingly skillful workers. The new rifles were very similar to the weapons used by the sniper team, with the only difference being the lack of a scope.

Although the revolving rifle was fast, its speed, shooting range and firing accuracy were quite limited due to its mechanical structure. A revolving rifle would be a perfect weapon to kill a knight, but it was definitely not ideal to kill a Mad Demon who could spear at 100 to 200 meters. The bolt rifle, on the other hand, fixed that problem, enabling soldiers to fire from a distance.

The research and development for the anti-demon rocket-propelled grenade designed to kill the Senior Demons and the Spider Demons was now close to its end, and they had just started with the mass production. There was no technical difficulty in manufacturing this type of simple and cheap weapons. In fact, it was even easier than manufacturing bullets. Based on the current production rate, they would have ample time to produce tons of grenades before the final battle.

Although the First Army lacked related training on how to use a grenade, unlike a cannon, a rocket-propelled grenade was pretty user-friendly. It was indeed a very common practice to test them out directly in an actual war. Therefore, Roland was not too worried about whether the weapon would work.

No noticeable change had been found in the demons. Agatha and Phyllis judged that the number of the demons would be between 3,000 and 5,000 based on the amount of Red Mist, which was definitely a big number for the Union. However, for the First Army, the demons were exceedingly outnumbered.

Since the Red Mist was the lifeline of the demons, Roland believed this estimate was truthful and accurate.

This was also the information the General Staff relied on to make their analysis.

Roland trusted the judgement of the General Staff. There was no point of overestimating or underestimating the enemy, for evidence spoke for itself. He would rather place the matter in the professional's hand than issue commands himself.

Roland knew he was by no means a commander. That was why he felt a little unsettled.

He thus decided to wait as things came, quite sure that his every question would be answered when the war broke out. At these thoughts, he heaved a deep sigh, his hand uncontrollably reaching for his throbbing forehead, when a pair of hands gently rested on his temples. Nightingale started to rub his head with just the right amount of strength.

He instantly felt much better.

Over the past four years, Roland had reached a mutual understanding with Nightingale that transcended words. Such an understanding constantly reminded him that he was not fighting alone.

As a king, he used to picture a life of debauchery. However, when he really had a right to have a corrupted lifestyle, he realized his work just piled up. He worked way much longer than eight hours a day, and sometimes, even sleeping became a part of his routine. He did complain about overworking but rarely took a real break. Perhaps, this was because someone was always looking over him.

Obviously, he was working toward his personal goal.

But he was also working toward everybody else's dream.

After a short massage therapy, Roland's eyes traveled to another report on the desk.

This was regarding the discovery of the Giant Armored Scorpion and a mysterious ruin.

Although the information had yet to be further confirmed, from the enclosed strange stones, Roland thought the news was true.

He was intrigued by this report. He had anticipated that there would be some sort of relics of an ancient civilization around the Endless Cape according to the murals in the temple, but he had not expected that they would find them so quickly.

The tablets in the cave reminded him of the piles of Match Men corpses depicted in the murals. If that was really a ruin of a civilization thousands of years ago, these corpses should have been reduced to ashes by now. It was not likely that people would monumentalize the defeated party. So, why were there so many tablets?

All the samples had been sent to Celine for a safety test. Considering the enemy of these dead people had used radioactive elements as a weapon, Roland had to make sure there was no safety issue.

Apart from that, he was also very curious about its discoverer. The discoverer was not a Fjords merchant or any explorer but instead a member of the so-called Society of Wondrous Crafts.

Roland remembered the killed pilot Margaret had told him.

He thus immediately instructed the garrison at the Festive Harbor to bring these two people to Neverwinter.

Roland was burning with curiosity.

As for the Giant Armored Scorpion, Roland suspected it was just a type of hybrid demonic beast, which was the exact reason it was so humongous. As the chief of all the clans, Roland did not care much about the sacrifices to Three Gods. He would simply leave the scorpion to the First Army.

Just then, he heard a shuffle of footsteps, and then the office door was flung open.

"Is that the test result? Give it to me..." Roland said as he looked up, his words caught in his throat. Roland thought it was the guard who sent Celine's report, but much to his surprise but only to find a raging Tilly Wimbledon, her eyebrows slightly raised in quite a dangerous way. Apparently, she looked very unimpressed.

"Um..." The next moment, Roland knew the purpose of her visit. "I have a few new Chaos Drinks here. Do you want to try — "

"Well... His Majesty, you have used this trick on her before," Nightingale whispered into his ear.

"No!" Tilly snapped as she walked up to the mahogany desk and leaned forward threateningly, her fingers splaying across the desk. "You promised to give me a glider in half a month. Now, how long has it been since you said that?" She stood on her tiptoes and laid a stress on every syllable. "Where's my plane, brother?"

Chapter 1128 - The "Unicorn"

Gazing at a reproachful and exasperated Tilly, Roland somehow felt his little sister was pretty cute in a way. Tilly rarely called him brother when she was in a good mood. She only did so in the presence of others or when she was really annoyed like now. Roland suddenly had an urge to tease her.

"Ahem, this isn't right," Roland thought, hastily turning his lack of attention into a hacking cough. "The plane isn't complete yet. Anna and Soraya have to make every part manually. As the war is around the corner, they have a lot of work to do. You should know it better than anyone else. I did draft the plan a long time ago, but I can't suit the action to the drawing just by myself."

As the railway continued to extend, it now took the "Seagull" three to four days to fly to the front instead of one or two. He could not really blame Tilly and Wendy for being slackened, because it was really hard to complete all the preparation work within one day. They had no choice but to wait.

As the pilot of the "Seagull", Tilly obviously knew everybody was busy. Many witches actually fell asleep straight away after they boarded the plane. For this reason, they had even added upholstered cushions to the chairs. Realizing that their most important goal at present was to defeat the demons and recover the Fertile Plains, Tilly deflated resignedly, her hands back to her sides. "I just want to test the plane sooner so that the Aerial Knights can do their jobs..."

"Don't worry. The main body of the plane is almost done. We just need a few auxiliary parts. All I need is just a little patience from you — "

"Hold on," Tilly interrupted. "You said the main body is completed, which means I can still fly without those parts, right?"

"Well..." Roland hesitated, realizing he had just slipped the information out. Princess Tilly was now not so easy to be deceived anymore, for she had learned a lot about planes. "Well... you still can, but this new model is very different from the 'Seagull'. If anything happens, Wendy won't be able to fix it in time..."

His voice trailed off in the end.

Tilly's eyes were glistening with daring and excitement.

He just could not resist her.

Nightingale giggled behind him. It appeared that she really loved to see Roland lapse into an awkward silence.

After staring at each other for quite a long time, Roland breathed out a sigh and said, "Alright. I'll ask the airport staff to get ready for a flight."

"That's the spirit," Tilly praised, her raised brows back to their normal positions, grinning.

Roland picked up the phone and said, "Remember, if anything happens during the test or you lose your control, you must abandon the plane immediately. Do you understand?"

"Of course. We can always make a new plane but can never have an excellent pilot like me again," Tilly said confidently while folding her arms. "That's what you're thinking, right?"

...

At the Neverwinter Airport.

There had been nothing but two tracks at this clearing before, but now this place had become a real pilot training base, which was also the forerunner of the future air force academy.

In the enclosed testing field, a silver plane was transported from the hangar and placed at the end of the tracks.

Tilly took a deep breath and said, "So this is... the plane for me..."

"Yes," Roland said while nodding. This is the 'Unicorn'. It's powered by a radial straight-five engine and can fly more than 150 kilometers per hour in theory. Even the fastest devilbeast would not be able to keep up with it."

As the first man-made self-powered aircraft in this era, the "Unicorn" looked very different from the "Seagull" the glider. The biggest difference was its huge head. To house the engine, the head of the plane was in the shape of a barrel rather than in a sleek aerodynamic shape, as though its top had been chopped off.

Also, it had a two-blade propeller attached to its head at the front, which the "Seagull" did not have. Since this was literally the first plane powered by a piston engine, it was still quite a basic model despite that the extensive research Roland had done. He believed a two-blade propeller should be sufficient considering the power was relatively low.

Finally, the plane was small in general. As the "Unicorn" was a fighter rather than a passenger aircraft, it was only nine meters' long, only half as long as the "Seagull". Nevertheless, the internal structure of the plane was much more complicated. Apart from an operation system, it was also equipped with some power units such as a gas tank and a fuel pipe. There was also room for a firing system and a second seat.

"The 'Unicorn'... You sometimes do come up with creative names," Tilly said as she rushed to the plane, but soon noticed something unusual in the flight deck. "That is where the missing parts should go, isn't it?"

There were two holes where the cockpit control panel should have been. It was obvious that the plane was not complete yet.

"That's right," Roland said with a nod. "These parts were used to show the speed and the altitude of the aircraft, which were the two most important flight dynamics parameters. We used to have Wendy to control the plane, so we didn't necessarily need them. But now, it's all on you the pilot, so you must monitor these two parameters from time to time..."

"Don't worry. I don't necessarily know how to make a plane, but I'm definitely the best pilot in Graycastle," Tilly said as she crept into the plane and settled herself into the pilot seat self-assuredly.

The "Unicorn" was technically exactly the same as the "Seagull", except that it had an additional gas pedal. Even the power levels were positioned in the exact same location. Tilly had done many mock exercises earlier, so Roland did not think there would be any problems. However, since this was essentially a brand new plane very different from the "Seagull" in terms of weight, flexibility and speed, and its mechanical system had yet to be tested, there was a chance that something went wrong.

That was what Roland feared. If the plane crashed at the onset, even an outstanding pilot like Tilly might not even be able to know how well the plane performed. Roland had wanted to create several similar models so that Tilly could gradually get familiar with the aircraft and learn on the go.

But now it was too late.

"Your Majesty, it's ready to go," the hangar manager reported.

"OK. Let's begin," Roland said and left the tracks.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Two workers soon inserted a crankshaft into the engine launcher and started to spin it.

Roland felt like this was more like operating a tractor than the latest weapon created by human beings. He decided to invent storage batteries and electric helper motors once they started mass production.

As the piston gradually accelerated, one worker closed the pressure-relief valve, and the oil in the cylinder was instantly ignited. The engine erupted a few loud explosions. Within a second, a few inarticulate blasts became a series of thunderous roars.

The two-blade propeller blurred into shadows and light. The plane glided along the tracks for a mere 30 seconds and took off. Under the scrutinies a group of awestruck spectators, the "Unicorn" soared into the azure of the sky.

Chapter 1129 - "The Mysterious Stone"

"Her Highness' ability... isn't flying, right?" Nightingale muttered.

"No, but she can fly with a Stone of Flight. However, when she's carrying heavy objects, even a Stone of Flight won't help much," Roland answered as he looked at the "Unicorn" hovering in midair. "What's the matter?"

"Although you talked about planes many times and also showed me the drawing and the internal combustion engine, I still feel it incredible... Men can fly like a bird with just a little bit of extra help," Nightingale remarked impressively. "The plane, to be honest, is none other than a bunch of metals and wood."

"Yes, it's made of metals and wood, but it's us who pieced them together," Roland said with a faint smile," We used our hands, magic power, and knowledge. So, we don't, technically, completely rely on external forces."

"Everyone can fly like her, right?" Nightingale asked quietly. "Including me — "

"Yes, everyone, including you," Roland said positively. Nightingale was familiar with the sky. She had ridden on a hot air balloon and traveled with Maggie before, but these past experience was nothing next to a flight where you could have full control over where you were heading. Even Nightingale, a witch with magic power was awed by the plane. Roland could imagine how the mass would react to this new invention. Men's ambition to be free from the pull of gravity had started the moment they had stared up at the canopy of the sky.

The member of the Society of Wondrous Crafts killed in a testing flight was the best example.

The "Unicorn" landed magnificently on the tracks 30 minutes later.

"How did it go?" Roland asked Tilly who trotted to him in excitement.

"This plane is awesome!" she said breathlessly, her eyes sparkling. "It's way more flexible than the 'Seagull'. Wendy's wind control isn't bad, to be honest, but she can't always manipulate the aircraft into the way I want. This is different. I can control everything, including its speed, diving angle and turn, like it's completely fused with me!

"Fused with you?" Roland was mildly taken aback. Although the "Unicorn" was inspired by various biplane models, it was essentially a very crude testing plane. The pilot had to use her instinct to adjust its flying speed and control the aircraft manually. Roland was actually worried whether this plane could successfully take off. However, in Tilly's opinion, this rudimentary plane was as advanced and high-tech as a modern fighter equipped with a fly-by-wire control system and a flight control computer.

That was probably the difference between a genius and a person of mediocrity.

"So... are you satisfied now?" Roland asked as he waved at the hangar manager. "That's it for today — "

"What are you talking about, brother?" Tilly interjected. "How could 30 minutes be enough?"

"Then why did you land?"

"To let you know that I'm going to be here for a while. You have a lot of work on your plate, don't you?" Waving airily, she said, "Off you go. You don't have to wait for me. I still want to try some other flying methods."

Watching Tilly scurry off, Roland shook his head in amusement.

The plane had passed the test, and he was sure Tilly would learn everything about the "Unicorn" in no time. Since Tilly could leave the plane anytime, there was no need for him to monitor the subsequent testing flight anymore.

"It seems you were dismissed," Nightingale gloated.

"Shut up," Roland said gruffly while rolling his eyes. "Let's get out of here."

Nightingale disappeared into the Mist.

...

As soon as Roland returned to the castle hall, the guard trotted up to him and said, "Your Majesty, a message from the Third Border City. They've completed your task."

"Really?" Roland said, his brows going up a fraction of an inch. "Where's the report?"

"They hope you could see it in person."

It appeared that the discovery at the Festive Harbor was more complicated than he had thought. After a moment of reflection, Roland said, "I see. Let's go now."

Celine had been waiting for him at the underground hall.

"Your Majesty, you were right. There are materials used to make the Magic Cube at the Endless Cape," Celine said as she stretched out her auxiliary tentacle. "The magic power in that grayish yellow stone on the left are pretty similar to that in the Magic Ceremony Cube, though not completely the same. If we have a sufficient amount of the materials, I can start to create the replicate now."

"How much do you think you'll need?"

"A few thousand, I think."

Roland thought this was actually quite a lot. A couple of thousand stones could possibly fill a room. It seemed that he had to extravacate the Endless Cape as soon as possible. "I'll arrange it. So what about the other one?"

"The other type of stone is absolutely extraordinary. First, I can assure you that its radiation won't cause any harm to animals. From what I see, it's just some regular light, not the type you are worried about..."

"Radioactive rays."

"That's right. Of course, there is a chance that the radiation is too weak to be detected. However, if that is the case, I won't be too worried about its lethality." Celine picked out a chipped stone from the bottle on the right and handed to Roland. She said, "I asked Miss Lucia to break down one of the stones. Its ingredients are very similar to sand's."

"Sand's?" Roland echoed in surprise.

"Very strange, right? But it looks like a stone — or rather some bigger gravel. It's flexible and will glow when being compressed. I've never seen anything stranger than this in my entire life."

"Hmm..." Roland fumbled the sample thoughtfully and said, "That's not quite accurate."

"You know what this thing is?"

"Not really, but it does remind me of something else..." Roland replied slowly. "Substance is comprised of elements. Apart from elements, its structure also plays a big part in determining its properties. You don't understand it because you haven't seen many materials yet."

Take carbon for example. When carbon atoms had a tetrahedral molecular geometry, they would become hard diamonds. However, when they had a layered, planar structure, they became crispy, fragile graphite. One layer of graphite was called graphene, which had really great conductivity. When two layers of graphene formed a certain angle, however, they would become a perfect insulator. When they were cooled down to a certain temperature and were injected electrons, they would transform into a superconductor.

These three materials were all made of carbon.

That was the beauty of physics.

In fact, the exploration to the microscopic world was just a tip of an iceberg even by modern standards. In this unknown realm where men could only rely on theories, they were doing exactly the same thing that ancient people had done thousands of years ago. They reorganized and restructured elements to create new materials and inventions.

They found the "glowing tablets" and Soraya's coatings mysterious probably not because they contained magic power.

But because human beings just knew too little about the world they were living in.

Chapter 1130 - A Presumption

"We know too little?" Celine dropped her tentacles, looking a little distressed. "You're right. The longer I stayed at the Quest Society, the more ignorant I felt I was. The book you brought from the Dream World just blew my mind. I shouldn't say that the stone is incredible, because there's something even more incredible than that."

"What is it?"

"Us," Celine said with a faint smile. "According to that book, everybody is comprised of elements. Like a tree, we're also constituted of carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, etc. However, we can laugh, weep and think. That's more amazing than just being able to illuminate."

"I read that book too, but I still can't believe it," Nightingale remarked on a sigh. "As much as I hate to admit, our skins aren't a lot different from scaly tree bark."

"That's probably what His Majesty refers to as the beauty of structures."

Celine looked at Roland, who did not respond.

"Your Majesty?"

"Hey, are you OK?"

Roland finally came out of his reveries. He asked blankly, "Celine, what did you say?"

"We're more of a wonder than the illuminating stone tablets."

"That's it…" Roland muttered, feeling something dawning on him. "The so-called stone tablets are not some sort of monuments, but they are the bodies of the Match Men themselves?"

"Are you saying — " Celine said in surprise.

"The tablets were the bodies of Match Men," Roland said slowly with a shudder. They were indeed a type of new creatures entirely different from carbon-based lifeforms — they were actually silicon-based.

As the thought struck him, Roland soon found a reasonable explanation for the "illuminating tablets", and the murals in the temple immediately made sense to him.

First of all, why were the tablets so densly patterned? Not only the surface of the tablet was patterned, but its inner part was engraved as well. If this was an artifact, even Anna would find it hard to cut it so deep in a short period of time. According to the two explorers, those tablets were carved in exactly the same way.

However, if he viewed this matter from a different angle and regarded those tablets as creatures, that would explain a lot of things.

These engravings were probably "blood" veins. Under the blood pressure, silicon oxides produced a piezoelectric effect. Those electrical signals thus intertwined with each other and gradually formed thoughts. In the meantime, electric currents transformed into visible light through some mechanism so that these creatures were able to communicate.

Roland thought of the giant fused Match Men and the huge pool of blood depicted in the murals.

Oil was actually more stable than water.

There might be a specific reason that the enemy of the Match men worshiped radioactive weapons.

Strong radiation would interfere electricity and might even render "electronic devices" ineffective. That was probably why the "radiation clan" put their faith in radioactive weapons.

Roland saw in his mind's eye how the war had begun.

Two entirely different civilizations had fought a fierce battle at the Southernmost Region for the relic. The blood of the defeated party had formed the underground river and the Choke Swamp. As their bodies did not decay, they remained underground for thousands of years in the form of tablets. The party who had gained the victory had disappeared, leaving the slightest trace behind them, except the ruin and the Magic Ceremony Cube at the Cage Mountain. Roland could now only trace this distant history via the murals that survived years of frost and winds.

This was so unbelievable!

"The illuminating tablets are living beings like us?" Celine asked meditatively. "Forgive me, but I can't believe that this is actually true. It just doesn't make sense to me that those tablets had consciousness and could move about at will. Do you have proof of any of that?"

Roland managed to remain his composure. He shook his head slightly and said, "This is my personal speculation. The truth might be very different, because from the perspective of evolution, it's almost impossible for such things to happen."

Environment determined how lifeforms came into being. Demons and demonic beasts were, after all, the offsprings of the same biosphere. However, a silicon-based living being evolved in a completely different way. It was not likely that there would be two fundamentally different creatures living in the same natural environment.

"But according to you, that fits the stories on the murals..." Celine said after a moment of silence. "Let's put it aside for the time being. I believe as long as we continue to do our research, we'll find the answer. Only in this way will human beings continue to progress."

"Sounds very convinceable..." Nightingale said while twitching her lips.

"This is also one of the rules at the Quest Society," Celine replied with a smile. "By the way, I conducted some tests on the illuminating tablets. I was thinking perhaps it could replace the illuminating Magic Stones, but it seems that doesn't work."

"No?" Roland said, frowning. When he had read the report, the first thought that had come to his mind was to use the tablets for illumination. Due to the limitation in power generation, lightbulbs were currently only used in the plants and a few residential areas nearby. There was still a long way to go before the mass could enjoy the convenience brought by electricity. If the tablets could be used for lighting, it would definitely make the life in Neverwinter a lot easier.

"Well, you can make it work, but it's too much hassle. Your Majesty, please look at this." Celine then picked out two samples. One was as thin as paper and the other the size of a block of tofu. They were both further sliced into smaller pieces. Celine applied some strength to both of them. Two jets of light erupted from her auxiliary tentacles. The light from the thin fragment was more dazzling than the other. Soon afterwards, the light from the former gradually faded away and stopped illuminating while that from the latter continued to illuminate for another half a minute. Ceine said, "I applied exactly the same amount of strength to the two fragments."

Roland immediately took the implication. "Its illumination intensity and lasting power have something to do with its size and the extent to which it's deformed."

"Exactly," Celine said while tapping her main tentacle. "The light from the tablet fragment will extinguish eventually. The smaller the fragment is, the faster the light goes off, and it will take a very long time to recover its power. If we want to illuminate the whole underground hall, we will probably need hundreds of tablets and place ton of iron on them. When the light goes off, we then need to remove those iron. That's going to be a huge project."

Roland thought he might be able to use an assembly pulley to transport heavy objects if he wanted to use the tablets as stationary lights, though it was a little complicated process. He stared at the lusterless fragment and sank into thought. The smaller the stone fragment was, the easier it would be deformed, and correspondingly, the shorter the light would last. It would be almost like a flash —

"Hang on, a flash?"

An idea suddenly flashed across Roland's mind.

He immediately had a perfect idea to make the best use of those "tablets", although that might involve a lengthy production process.

This had been a historical problem for the First Army, which would just further impede their operations in the future if not solved in a timely fashion.

However, he now found a possible solution.

He could use the tablets to produce tracers that pointed soldiers directions.

Chapter 1131 - The Third Academy

Roland immediately set off for the ammunition plant at the Third Border City.

He knew Anna was not at Neverwinter at the moment, but he believed they could manufacture tracers with the current available technologies.

If he intended to mass produce tracers, he had to rely on factory workers rather than Anna.

Escorted by his guards, Roland entered the plant where all the workers went down to their knees, both excited and overwhelmed. Looking at the ecstatic look on their faces, Roland realized he had just made a rash decision. However, since he was already here, he had no choice but to hastily turn this unexpected visit into a tour of inspectation.

After the exhilarated workers returned to their workstations, Roland immediately came up to the superintendent and said, "Bring the most skillful foreman here. I want him to test out something for me."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The mechanism of a tracer was simple. It was bascially a bullet head filled with luminescent activators, accelerants and slow burning gunpowder, sealed with a tailpipe and a shard of aluminium foil. When the bullet escaped from the muzzle, the resultant gas would unseal the foil and ignite the slow burning gunpowder and the accelerants, leaving a bright, dazzling trajectory behind.

In the technologically advanced modern society, manufacturing tracers was not a big issue. All they needed to do was to add another assembly line. However, in Neverwinter where the development of industrialization was still in its infancy, it would be a lot more difficult to produce tracers. First of all, luminescent activators were usually a mixture of strontium nitrate, powered aluminium and magnesium, and barium peroside, which meant they had to first create these chemicals before mass producing tracers. Roland knew very well the industry level of Neverwinter. Up to this date, the Ministry of Chemical Industry was still not able to guarantee a constant supply of machine guns and ammunition to the First Army, let alone other additional weapons.

The superintendant soon brought a worker to Roland. To Roland's surprise, he was not a withered, gray-haired elder but a young man in his mid twenties. The foreman went down to his knee in the same manner as a knight and asked, "Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

Roland understood that Neverwinter was currently industrialized. Unlike traditional handicraftsmanship, the younger generation who learned faster than the elders became the main workforce. The development of technologies closed the gap between the young and the old. Experience was no longer an asset when it came to new production tools.

Roland noticed that most workers in key positions were merely around 20 to 30 years old, which indicated that Graycastle was facing a bright future.

Roland nodded in satisfaction and said, "I want to add something new to the bullets. Now, listen carefully."

Since the "tablets" would produce dazzling light upon deformation, all he needed to do was to ignite gunpowder to provide a thrusting force that would create a flare.

The mechanism was pretty similar to that of a punching machine. He would first need to carve out a gourd-shaped hole at the bottom of the bullet head and fill the hole with thin-sliced tablets. When the bullet left the muzzle, the expanded gas would push the slices into the hole. As those slices were stuck in the bullet, they could not restore its original shape but remain in a reduced state. The tablets would thus keep illuminating until the electricity within was exhausted.

After hearing Roland's explanation, the worker agreed to work on the project.

The next day, Roland found a report on his desk.

The result indicated that the experiment was successful. After several attempts, they had managed to produce more than 20 tracers that left a clear, flashy trajectory on the screen.

Roland felt very encouraged!

Poor visibility at night had been bothering the First Army for years. Even with flares, it would still be hard for them to fire as accurately as in daylight. This problem would become even more serious when soldiers fired from above in the plane. Pilots would have no idea where their bullets landed from the sky even on a clear day. With a tracer to point out directions, they would then have a bigger chance to win the Battle of Divine Will.

Traditional tracers would actually deviate from their courses as the luminescent activators reduced. As they became lighter in the air, their centers of gravity shifted. As such, there was an old saying before tracers were widely used in wars, which was, if the target was hit by a tracer, then it meant you had just missed it. Nevertheless, the tablets were a better option in a sense that their weights would not change during the process. Roland only needed to slightly lengthen the bodies of the bullets so that they would work just as the same as normal ones.

The only problem left now was how many "tablets" there were in the Southernmost Region.

...

A week later, the two explorers who had discovered the ruin in the desert arrived at the Shallow Beach.

Roland further inquired them about what they had discovered down in the cave at the parlor.

The replies from the pair were consistent with the report. Before the Giant Armored Scorpion had appeared, they had walked a few hundred meters until they had reached the "tablet wall". They had no idea as to what was behind it.

In other words, they might have only found a very small portion of the "tablets".

According to the murals, there should have been tons of bodies.

Roland was also very concerned about the natural environment in the cave and the legendary Flowers of Providence that should have been extinctive a long time ago. According to Simbady, the natural environment in the cave was very similar to that of Silver Stream Oasis.

If the vast meadows had indeed gone through a desertization after the departure of the Three Gods Emissary, so should have the underground cave underneath the Endless Cape.

Perhaps, the legend was not exactly accurate. There might be some other hidden secrets.

Roland could not wait to explore the desert.

After the meeting, Roland had a private talk with Rex.

"Your diving suit is very interesting. The discovery of the ruin would definitely be a part of our history," Roland said while sipping his tea. "To be honest, I'm surprised that you actually applied the steam engine to your invention. Most people have no idea how to use it unless provided with instructions from our tech guys, let alone transforming it. I believe you're already halfway to the honor of being titled a lifetime honorary explorer."

"Th-thank you," Rex stammered in excitement. "It took me half a year to figure out how this machine works. I can offer you a discounted rate for my diving suits, if that pleases you — "

"No, you misunderstood me. I don't need your diving suits," Roland interrupted him with a smile. "I can certainly make a better one if I want."

Rex blinked in confusion, apparently astounded at Roland's reply. He summoned a really forcible grin and said, "Your Majesty..."

Roland talked over him, "I don't really care about whether you think I'm boasting or not. What I really want is — the Society of Wondrous Crafts."

Momentarily stunned, Rex said hesitantly, "I... don't quite follow you..."

"I know what you're trying to prove, and I can help you get what you want," Roland said flatly. "There are only two academic schools at present: alchemy and astrology. I believe what you're doing is very similar to alchemy. Both you and alchemists are creating new things for the mankind. So, why don't we set up another academic school for wonderous crafts and establish a society for this industry?"

Rex suddenly felt breathless. He instantly took the implication behind these words. If this was an offer from someone else, Rex would definitely think he was talking sheer nonsense or making fun of him. Compared to the prominent Society of Alchemists and Astrology Association, the Society of Wondrous Crafts was frivolous. Nonetheless, powerful and distinguished as the King of Graycastle was, he might be able to achieve what he had just promised.

He swallowed hard and asked in a coarse voice, "And what do you need from me?"

The king must want something from him if he planned to improve the reputation of the Society of Wondrous Crafts.

"Everything."

"What?"

"Ahem, no, I mean that you work for me," Roland corrected himself while clearing his throat. "Move to Neverwinter and become a resident of Graycastle. I take all credit for your work and will have the right to sell and use your inventions. You'll, on the other hand, gain fame and wealth, as well as an optimal research environment in return."

"I..." Rex did not know what to say. Although his work had been constantly criticized by the public and treated with utmost contempt, he viewed his every invention as his own baby. Most members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts would probably feel reluctant to abandon their research to someone else.

"I understand you need more time to think about it. Take a rest and think it over," Roland said as he rose to his feet and passed a book across the table. "Let me know your final decision three days later."

"Your Majesty, this is..." Rex asked in confusion as he took the book.

"Your reward for the discovery of the ruin," Roland answered with a faint smile.

Chapter 1132 - The Effect of the Reward

Simbady was waiting for Rex in the yard.

"How did that go? Is the chief interested in your diving suit?" Simbady asked brightly, who had now pretty much viewed Rex as one of his friends. "What's your reward for the discovery? Did you get the title of the honorary explorer?"

Rex shook his head, crestfallen, and replied, "He isn't going to purchase my diving suit..."

"Oh..." Simbady said, a little downhearted, but he soon encouraged Rex, "Graycastle might not need your diving suit, but the Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords will definitely notice your invention. You said the ocean is a huge treasury, didn't you?"

He did say that. In fact, he had anticipated a huge amount of reward from Roland. Apparently, the King of Graycastle took the diving suit very seriously, and that was why he had requested a meeting. Rex's original plan was to become an honorary explorer and thereby further advertise his diving suit at the Fjords Islands.

Yet the reality was...

He managed a bitter smile and answered, "His Majesty just gave me a book."

Simbady was frozen for a second and then asked, "What?" He peered down at what Rex was holding and said, "So this is..."

"That's it," Rex said, nodding resignedly. The book was not thick. It only contained dozens of pages, without a single word on its cover. The cover was neither gilded, and nor did it have a floral printing. Even a regular noble would grant him a better prize than this shabby, battered book.

He would definitely not gain exposure from this reward but instead become a laughingstock.

"The chief shouldn't be that kind of person..." Simbady said as he stomped indignantly. "Even I received 20 gold royals from him. You, as the organizer of this exploration, deserve more remuneration than me!"

Rex appreciated Simbady's heartiness. However, he knew there was no point of questioning the king's decision, because the king had offered to help him realize his dream. He was just being hesitant to take this offer.

Just at that moment, a guard came over to him and said, "Your Majesty has arranged accommodation for you. Please follow me."

"Thanks a lot," Rex said as he bowed and signaled Simbady to follow him. At any rate, he needed to read the book first.

Then he heard a strange buzz when he stepped out of the Castle District.

The buzz sounded like roars of distant thunders except it was little crispier.

Rex looked in the direction of that sound in curiosity.

He spied a barely visible black dot flicker in the distant sky.

"Is that a bird?" Rex wondered but soon denied this thought. How could a bird a few miles away produce such a loud noise?

Simbady also noticed this unusual phenomenon. His manner tightened like a soldier on heightened alert.

"It's... coming toward us!"

"Is that an enemy?" Rex said in surprise. "An enemy in the king's city of Graycastle?"

"I don't know... but it's definitely not a bird!"

"Relax," the guard leading them the way answered placidly. "That's just Her Highness playing with her new toy. I couldn't believe it at first either, but you'll get used to it."

"Her Highness'... toy?" The two men echoed, aghasted.

"His Majesty advised Princess Tilly to confine her activities to the testing site, but she thinks the field isn't large enough for a complete flight test. She can't fly to the residential area, industrial district or the Swirling Sea, so that leaves her with no choice but to fly in the Castle District," the guard explained nonchalantly. "But I have the impression that the princess is just showing off her skills to His Majesty."

They still did not understand at all.

However, Rex noticed that the guard took pride in what the princess did.

In a few seconds, that black dot drew closer to them with an earsplitting roar, and then Rex saw the most incredible scene in his life.

A winged metal artifact whistled past him, casting a vast shadow much bigger than a seagull's on the ground. From its enormous size, Rex judged it must be very heavy. However, this heavy iron beast was now soaring the sky. Meanwhile, he also saw a woman sitting on it, though not very clearly, and was positive that the machine was manned.

Fan..."

A name suddenly flashed across Rex's mind.

The Society of Wondrous Crafts was not an organization that emphasized distinctive properties of hierarchy. Rex had not been particularly close to Fan. He had only seen him fly during that open flight test. If truth be told, he was a little resentful of Fan. Because of Fan's unrealistic daydream, the reputation of the Society of Wondrous Crafts suffered even more scathing criticism after his test had miserably failed.

However now, another person achieved what Fan had failed, in a more flamboyant way.

Watching the winged iron beast hovering around the castle, Rex felt a molten wave of astonishment rise inside him.

...

The guard took them to a hotel called "Foreign Affairs Building" and said, "I'm Sean. You can come to see me at the Castle District once you've made your decision." With these words, he turned around and strode off.

Simbady had still not recovered from the shock as he muttered prays to Three Gods under his breath and peered through windows every now and then, positively terrified, but still half expected to see that incredible flying object once more.

Rex, on the other hand, locked himself up in his bedroom.

He gazed at the book for a good 15 minutes as if hoping to see through Roland's mind before he opened the book.

During that 15-minute contemplation, he had revolved numerous presumptions in his head, expecting to see some articles introducing Neverwinter's customs and traditions, a generous job offer in the disguise of a book, or even a blatant threat ordering the members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts to move to Neverwinter.

But he saw none of them.

There was only one line on the first page of the book: physical law of buoyancy.

"Any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid at rest is acted upon by a buoyant force, the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body."

Rex did not grasp the sentence at first. However, after he read it a few times, his eyes gradually widened with comprehension.

Rex quickly flipped to the second page where he saw a full page of arithmetic formulas. Each formula was explained in great detail to help him better understand the concept. Soon, his eyes were glued to the book.

All these concepts, such as volume, density and buoyancy, were quite familiar but also strangely foreign to him at the same time.

They were no longer mere vague descriptions but concrete units and numbers, with which one could easily know via simple calculation whether an object would float or sink in water and how far this object would go.

Almost instantly Rex thought of the steel ships and hydrogen ballons sold to the Fjords, and everything seemed to dawn on him.

The book also introduced a submersible craft capable of independent operation underwater. Although it was just hypothetical at present, according to those formulas, Rex believed he could make it happen.

At the end of the book, Rex saw a huge, very strange-looking ship that could not only float on water like an ordinary ship but could also dive into water like a fish. It could accommodate at least several hundred people. Once it was submerged in water, it would be impervious to even the most furious storm.

Rex was utterly shocked.

He was also, at the same time, discouraged and frustrated.

Like a person who had just caught a glimpse of an unknown realm after an arduous journey and was about to celebrate his recent success, somebody pointed him the entire winding path to the unexplored world lying before him.

Rex was certain there was more than one flying iron beast in Neverwinter.

He now understood what the "reward" meant.

If he refused the King of Graycastle's offer, he could further his diving career and take it to the next level with the help of this book. However, in that case, the best he could possibly achieve was the submersible craft, and he would probably never be able to build that submarine described at the end of the book.

If he accepted the offer, this book would then become a powerful marketing tool to bring new wonders to the Society of Wondrous Crafts.

Chapter 1133 - Shadow Tides

Meanwhile in the east of the Swirling Sea.

A huge fleet comprised of five columns were floating around the Shadow Islands.

The most distinctive ship among them was the "Snow Wind", its colossal black iron body and the dark smoke billowing from the chimney standing out from all the other ships.

The deck of the "Snow Wind" was now teeming with busy sailors.

They were all running back and forth to make final preparation for the journey to the islands.

Thunder was instructing his team at the bridge, "You're all great explorers at the Fjords. Many of you have been to the Shadow Waters, so I'll make it short. These islands are not stationary. It will be really foggy there when the water rises. So, you have to be extremely careful, understand?"

"Captain, don't worry," a first mate promised as he patted his chest. "I've been working with you for years. When did you see me make a mistake? I'm more worried about the four Chambers of Commerce. They have a higher chance to make errors."

"That's right. It wouldn't be that easy to maneuver three-masted ships through those underwater reefs. It would be much safer if they ride on small boats."

"They probably think their giant ships are as nimble as the 'Snow Wind'. We aren't going to help them if they hit a rock!"

Everbody guffawed with laughter.

"If they're worried that we're going to keep treasures to ourselves, just ask their captains to hop on our ship!"

"Those Chambers of Commerce apparently want to butt in on us!"

"I told you they're all old cunning farts."

"But if we want to go further in the east, we have to have a huge fleet. There's nothing we can do about it."

Watching the roving mob, Camilla Dary heaved an almost inaudible sigh. Over the past one month, she had gained a basic understanding of the Shadow Waters. It appeared that this area was the center of the Swirling Sea where tides originated. The water level changed drastically when tides rose and receded. When water went down, thousands of reefs floated up above the surface of the water and formed numerous individual islands. The tides at the Sleeping Island were nothing compared to the ones here.

What was more incredible was that there had not been a single map of Shadow Islands up to this date despite that it had been discovered more than a decade ago. The reason for that was that the hidden rocks around here were constantly moving, including that enormous ruin. They had to wait for all the rocks to come out of the surface before crossing the ocean. Because of that, it was extremely hard to sail through this area.

However, these sailors looked more like a group of ferocious bandits than professional explorers. Explorers were highly respected among Fjords people, but among explorers themselves, they rarely respected each other. Most explorers preferred to act alone, who rarely took orders from others unless the other party was seemingly influential like Thunder.

As a former noble, Camila felt slightly disgusted about the jeers and boos. She would never have joined these people with Joan had this not been an order from Princess Tilly.

She was surprised that she started to miss the First Army in Neverwinter. At least, the soldiers of the First Army maintained absolute silence when they carried out a mission. They always stood erect, with a brisk and crisp air that afforded a pleasant vista to contemplate.

Camila thus quietly left the command room at the bridge for the deck.

She immediate spotted Joan who was playing at the stern of the ship, accompanied by Ms. Margaret.

At the sight of Camila, Joan immediately sought refuge from Margaret, only poking half of her head out.

Camila felt a little dispirited. Joan got along fairly well with the witches back in Neverwinter and had even made friends with Maggie and Lightning. She did not understand why Joan would not accept her like she accepted everybody else. She had known Joan for a very long time, longer than anyone except Margaret.

Margaret asked smilingly, "What's the matter? Not in a good mood?" She pointed at her own lips and said, "Your face gave you away."

"No," Camila said distractedly. "I'm just..."

"You don't like the atmosphere in the command room, right?" Margaret said as if having seen through her mind. "I told you not to worry about the exploration. Leave it to the guys. You just relax and enjoy this trip."

"How can I?" Camila replied, her brows furrowed. "I can't place my life in their hands."

"You don't trust Thunder?"

"I..."

Margaret held her hand and paced to the railing. "I admire your sense of responsibility, otherwise Lady Tilly would not entrust the Sleeping Island to you. However, sometimes, you need to learn to trust people, not only Thunder but also Lady Tilly..."

"How can I not trust Princess Tilly?" Camila thought but remained silent all the same. She had been opposed to their relocation to Neverwinter from the beginning.

"You would go crazy if you're always so strained on the sea," Magaret went on. "They can be boisterous, but I can assure you they're all excellent sailors."

Camila finally got a chance to cut in, "Just a disclaimer, I didn't say anything..."

"But you're thinking that way, right?" Margaret talked over her. "Haha, that's OK. The nobles in the Four Kingdoms view us as barbarians, and we view Mojins just as the nobles view us. To be honest, I only see one noble who never discriminates people based on background."

That was Roland Wimbledon.

As much as Camila hated to admit it, this was the name that came to her mind.

Roland had openly claimed to support witches four years ago.

Camila now had no reason whatsoever to believe that Roland was plotting something, because the very witch he had rescued back then had now become the Queen of Graycastle.

Did she just need to put more faith in him?

While Camila was lost in thought, the ocean started to roar at a distance, as though molten waves were foaming and thousands of fishes swarming toward them. Camila was not sure whether this was her hallucination, for from what she could see, the sea was still perfectly tranquil.

"The water is going down," Margaret murmured.

"Ya... Ya..." Joan squeaked, tugging Margaret's sleeves nervously.

Around 15 minutes later, Camila saw changes.

A pointy stone started to rise from the surface of the water, and then more stones appeared. Rather than islands, what she saw was a sea of rocks and boulders. After the water dropped five meters, Camila saw reefs gradually reveal themselves underneath those stone pillars.

She held her breath.

This was her first time to see such an amazing scene. As the water level plummeted, the horizon seemed to be floating above the islands. Camila knew this was just a trick of the eye. Now the entire Shadow Waters transformed into a slope, with the horizon being the crest of the hill.

In spite of all of these changes, the sea was still surprisingly serene and motionless.

After around two hours, mists started to rise around the islands, and the Shadow Waters finally unveiled its mask, showing its true nature.

Chapter 1134 - Plunge into the Sea

"Woo—woo—"

The "Snow Wind" produced a low, deep whistle.

That was the sailing signal.

The first four ships at the front set their sails and left the fleet.

The ships of the four Chambers of Commerce, including Crescent Moon Bay, Sunset Island, Shallow Water Town and Twin Dragon Island, followed the "Snow Wind" into the Shadow Waters.

Their vision blurred and sunlight became dismal. They had entered an entirely different world after sailing 1,000 meters.

The deck was now shrouded in thick mist. Camilla noticed that the ship had stopped wobbling.

"What happened?"

"Don't worry. The engine is off," Margaret answered. "The trick to safely pass through this area is to be low. Maybe it doesn't apply to small boats, but for a large ship like this, we just need to glide over the slope. Look around."

Camila looked in the direction Margaret pointed at and saw all the ships from the Chambers of Commerce had lowered their sails to half-mast, some of which were facing each other, which was definitely not a scene normally seen during a regular voyage.

Also, a brazer had been set up at both the bow and stern of each ship to mark the ship's location. Even so, Camila could only see two ships looming against the fog, the third one completely out of sight in the depths of the mist. The faint firelights flickered ominously, and the fourth ship seemed to have totally disappeared in the mist.

"Are we going downhill?" Camila asked suspiciously. After living in the Sleeping Island for a while, she had learned something about the ocean. When the seawater rose in submerged caves and cracks, whirlpools would emerge on the surface of the water. The smaller ones were one-finger wide, whereas the larger ones could be a few meters. However, at any rate, the water would be directed to the center of the whirlpools and spinned faster as it drew close to the vortex.

Camilla had thought it was the vast vista of the ocean that made the movement of water currents indiscernible. However, now the fleet had reached the depth of the Shadow Waters, so she should see something happen.

Much to her dismay, some algae was drifting off on the surface of the water!

This indicated that the water currents did not alter their directions at all, at least not here!

"It looks incredible, but that's the fact," Margaret said, nodding. "If there was a huge whirlpool here when tides receded, we wouldn't have come here, because that would be the largest and deepest whirlpool in the ocean. There would be no chance of survival. Since the ocean remains surprisingly tranquil, Thunder wants to look into this matter." Margaret broke off and looked at Joan who was now gazing at the sea. "Normally, it was impossible for human beings to dive to the bottom of the sea, but your ability gives us a ray of hope."

Camilla looked around, her eyes darting from the surrounding wet stone pillars and reefs, feeling a jolt of panic rise from her stomach. She could see the stones around her clearly. However, for the rocks farther away, she could only catch a glimpse of their silhouettes in various shades. They somehow reminded her of many grisly, outstretched clawed hands that usually appeared in a nightmare.

"Ya! Fish! Red fish!" Joan squeaked suddenly.

Camila turned around and saw a bright red "river" emerge abruptly on the right side of the "Snow Wind". Although Thunder had told her about it earlier, the sudden appearance of the river still shocked her.

"The Ghost Shadow Red River."

A special river comprised of fishes.

"Oh, stop clicking your tongue. red scaly fish isn't tasty," Margaret said as she patted Joan on the head. "As long as we marshal along the Ghost Shadow Red River, we'll reach the triangular tower ruin. Princess Tilly should have told you already. There's a weird telescope-like instrument in the tower, through which you'll be able to see a vast land you've never laid your eyes on. That's the purpose of this trip."

"That's what she told me."

"Unfortunately, we're not going to the ancient ruin this time, otherwise you'll be able to see that magnificent ruin," Margaret said in a sorrowful tone.

"No... I'm fine with that," Camila replied briskly. She would rather not visit this area ever again.

"Your reaction is exactly the opposite of Her Highness'," Margaret said, giggling.

After another two hours, the "Snow Wind" staggered to a halt before a large reef island, followed by the three-masted ships of the four Chambers of Commerce. After all the ships anchored, all the captains gathered around on the deck of the "Snow Wind".

"Wow, everyone's here. Very impressive," the first mate of the "Snow Wind" remarked scathingly while twitching his lips. "I thought you would run into a rock and ask us for help in tears."

"You're not the only good sailor and captain here," the members of the four Chambers of Commerce shot back. "The steel ship is great, but I'm not sure about the crews on it."

"Enough!" Thunder interjected. "I'm glad everybody has made it. Did you come across any problems on the way here?"

"No," the superintendents of the Chambers of Commerce replied. "Nothing happened, not even a Sea Ghost. It was extraordinarily quiet this time."

"I'm surprised too. Normally there'll be a few poor lads dragged down into the water by Sea Ghosts."

"Is it because we chose a different route and avoided the ancient ruin? Does that mean those monsters prefer the ruin to be their lair?"

"It looks like so."

Thunder thought for a while and waved everybody into silence. He then said, "In that case, let's get going. The water will rise up again in the evening, so we'd better reach the bottom of the sea by then. If there's nothing down there, we must leave before tides come, otherwise we'll get stuck here on the islands." With these words, he looked at the two witches and said, "Joan, Ms. Camilla, we'll place the matter in your hands."

"Ya," Joan said, nodding with a serious look.

"As long as you can ask those guys to shut up," Camilla grumbled as she swept over the explorer with a cold glance. "Just a disclaimer. I need to be highly concentrated when I channel Joan. If anyone interrupt my work, I'll have to start all over again!"

After Thunder promised her there would be no interruption, Camilla put her hand on Joan's shoulder and closed her eyes. She felt a surge of dizziness, and then she saw what Joan was seeing.

"Off you go," Camilla said within herself. "If we're disconnected or you are in danger, come back as soon as possible, OK? Don't force yourself. Your friends are waiting for you."

Hearing the word "friends", Joan shuddered imperceptibly, and her eyes became determined. "Got it, ya!" she said resolutely.

Joan then jumped backwards into the sea.

Camilla instantly felt a cooling sensation.

All her fatigue was gone.

But she knew this was just an illusion. That was what Joan felt, and she was simply channeling Joan's feeling.

"How does that go?" Thunder asked.

"Everything is going well. Joan's now 50 meters down the water," Camilla replied. "The stone pillars aren't getting any thicker, and nor are the reefs... I haven't seen any seabeds or mountains yet."

This was her task. Although Joan could see everything underwater, she could not put them into words. The only way to know what she saw was through channeling."

"She's now more than 100 meters down there. The surroundings are significantly darker, but she can still see everything clearly. There are still stone pillars and reefs. We haven't reached the bottom yet," Camilla muttered. "Damn, that's so deep. Perhaps those islands and rocks aren't real islands but are..."

"Are what?" somebody questioned.

Camilla swallowed hard and answered, "Are just larger stone pillars."

Chapter 1135 - A Drastic Change

"The Swirling Sea is huge. It's perfectly normal that it has some strange geographical features," Thunder said after a moment of silence. "I've seen weathered rocky mountains in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. They're pretty similar to those stone pillars although they're not that long."

"But unlike the land, there's no wind underwater..." Camilla left her words unsaid.

"Wind?" Joan's voice suddenly popped up in Camilla's head. "There's wind here."

"What did you say?" Camilla asked quickly.

"Um, didn't I make that clear?" Thunder replied with a cough. "Then I'll repeat... Back in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, I saw — "

"Not you. I was asking Joan!" Camilla snapped. She knew she was being rude, but she had no choice and had to interrupt Thunder. "Joan just said something... There's wind at the bottom of the sea!"

The spectators on the deck were all mildly taken aback.

"I can't feel it, but I can hear it... Listen, did you hear that?"

Camilla immediately concentrated. She knew as the channeling witch, she could hear whatever Joan heard. Instantly, she heard wind howl down the water just as air whistled out from a crack.

"I'll dive further," Joan said. "But I have to change my position."

With these words, she untied her dress and her legs made contact with the water. Blue scales started to emerge from her ankles and crept up her legs. She now had a mermaid tail.

Suddenly, Camilla felt all the pressure weighing upon her vanish. She marveled at how far and fast the tail propelled her through water. She swam even faster than a fish.

This was what Joan really looked like!

Joan dived even faster.

"200 meters deep, and the wind seems to be louder... Still nothing has changed undersea."

"400 meters. It's completely dark. Luckily, Joan doesn't need light to see things. The stone pillars... are still deeper down there, and there are now new pillars."

"Could you stretch the rope a little farther?"

"Damn it, how deep is the water now? 600 or 800? Joan isn't sure. However, the stone pillars — " Camilla broke off. "No, that's... impossible..."

"What's the matter?" Thunder asked.

Camilla felt an ineffable chill run down her spine. "The pillars, the pillars... disappeared!"

"Disappeared? As in it vanished?" Thunder pursued, his brows furrowed as he turned around to look at the sea. The reefs were still there.

Camilla held her own trembling hands and said, "There's no seabed... nothing... They're suspended in the water!"

Everybody gasped.

Through Joan's eyes, Camilla only saw the upper part of those stone pillars floating in the water. Their lower parts looked completely chopped off by some invisible force. Large reefs were simply suspended in the middle of the ocean in a creepy sort of way.

This was beyond the scope of her understanding.

"Suspended? Are you saying these islands are floating on the water?"

"By the name of the Three Gods, they're all solid rock!"

"Woman, are you sure about what you see?"

"That's impossible. Even if they're floating, they can't remain in the same position all the time. Without an anchor, the water currents would flush the Shadow Islands toward the Fjords!"

The deck exploded with discussion.

"Silence!" Thunder hollered at the crowd and they immediately became quiet. "Are all the reefs floating like that?"

"I don't know... They're in different lengths," Camilla mumbled. "We haven't reached the very bottom of those pillars yet."

Meanwhile, Joan slowed down.

Even as a mermaid, Joan had a limit.

Just then, Camilla noticed a weird phenomenon.

Some pillars near Joan seemed to be stretched.

Those pillars were like tree trunks as they went straight down to the bottom of the ocean. Their ends were out of sight due to the darkness, and it was hard for Camilla to tell how long they actually were. What caught her attention was the patterns on the pillars and some barnacles attached to them. The pillars started to elongate at some point in the middle, whereas the barnacles, which supposed to be in a round shape, turned oval. They looked particularly strange compared to the normal pillars and barnacles a few meters away.

"Do you want to take a closer look?" asked Joan, who sensed Camilla's bewilderment. "They do look weird."

"OK," Camilla said while clearing her throat. "Be careful."

Joan started to slowly draw close to a pillar and stretched out her hand to touch the strange barnacles. Suddenly, something horrible happened.

Camilla saw Joan's scaly fingers elongate.

"What's going on?" Joan stretched out her hands in confusion. "Is this an illusion?"

Camilla suddenly had a sense of foreboding.

Just when Camilla was about to inform Thunder, Joan stopped moving and stared at a fish that streaked past her nose.

It was just a silvery eel that was about an arm's length long. However, when it passed the mermaid girl, it instantly stretched to around five meters and turned into something like a "sea snake" that instantly plummeted to the bottom of the sea. Within a few seconds, the silvery eel was stretched to its maximum and its tail was still in Joan's sight, but its head was already lost in the darkness. By that point, the eel was more than 100 meters in length! Within a blink of an eye, it disappeared in the sea with a flash of silver. It was as if it was sucked into something!

All the little hairs on the back of Camilla's neck stood up!

She yelled, "Get out of there! The exploration is over. Come back!"

But it was too late.

Joan struggled and her upper body still in the same position, but her tail was being horribly stretched to more than ten meters. It was as if something was dragging her down.

With panic creeping into her voice, Joan asked, "What... what should I do? Camilla, what should I do?"

"Move faster... don't stop. Kick harder! You can do it!" Camilla shouted hysterically.

However, Joan was sinking even faster. No matter how hard Joan moved her tail, she was sinking rapidly as though she was being sucked into a swamp. Now not only her tail was effected but her torso and hands started to elongate.

Upon realizing what was happening, Joan stretched out her hands in despair and cried, "Help me..."

"No!"

Before Camilla could finish, she passed out.

Camilla opened her eyes. Sweat started to drip from the tip of her nose and fell onto the back of her hand as she braced herself on the floor. Only then did she notice that she was covered with a fine sheen of cold sweat.

"What happened? Is Joan in danger?" Thunder asked as he helped her to her feet.

It took Camilla a long time to come out of her trance. She muttered blankly, "I don't know. The channeling... was disrupted."

Chapter 1136 - Sea and Sky

It was a split second that contained an eternity.

Joan saw her body lengthen in the pitch-black ocean indefinitely until a white speck of light slid into her view. Then the white fleck burst into a haze of blazing white light that blinded her. The next moment, the memory that her body had been stretched beyond the human limit gradually came back, and she heard a deafening roar of water. The sound shattered the tranquility of the deep sea.

She felt she was spinning in a whirl, but soon denied this thought. A whirl only spinned around its center, but the water torrents here constantly crashed into each other, which was why they produced such earsplitting sounds.

Even Joan, as a mermaid girl, found it hard to keep her balance. Everything was out of control. She was flushed down by the thunderous water torrents like a feather on a stormy sea.

"Where am I?" she thought.

Although she had no idea what this place was, she was positive that this was not the depth of the ocean, as she could not feel huge water pressure weigh upon her scales. She gathered that the water was no more than 100 meters deep, which meant she could soon reach the surface of the water. Nevertheless, no matter how hard she tried to reconnect Camilla, there was no response from the other end.

This urged upon her to swim up and get herself out of danger.

Fortunately, swimming was much easier than changing directions.

She strained to raise her head and rose slowly against the rush of water. When she rose out of the water, her eyes huge in bewilderment.

The Shadow Islands seemed to have vanished in the thin air.

She could only spy rocks around and above her.

The vast sea had transformed into a narrow "stream" that stretched a few hundred meters. The tumultuous seawater ran wildly, her eyes screwing up against the equally wild wind. The wuthering wind and the wind she had heard earlier down the bottom of the sea vied with each other.

Joan turned around, blinded by the light behind. The water currents were now rushing to that light source.

"Am I... going to be flushed down again?"

Before she could stop it, she had been pushed into the haze by the resounding currents.

Then the surrounding became quiet instantly. Everything seemed to be far away from her. For a moment, Joan felt she was flying, her body so light she could not feel it. The next moment, it suddenly dawned on her that she was indeed floating in midair!

There was the blue sea underneath, 1,000 meters apart! She was no longer surrounded by those rocks but actually in the sky. The light she had seen was the sunlight peeping through clouds. The seawater gushing from the cave had now become a large waterfall.

"But... I'm not Maggie or Lightning. I can't fly!" Joan thought.

The next moment, she started to plummet.

"Ya — Ya — Ya — "

SPLASH!

After a frightening long drop, Joan plunged into the water.

She would have probably been scared to death had she not watched a similar scene in the magic movie. When she came out of the water again, she heaved a deep sigh of relief.

"Why did I end up floating in the sky? I had been deep down the ocean a moment ago!" Joan wondered.

At this thought, Joan stared up and was frozen on the spot.

"God almighty, what is it?"

She could not believe her eyes.

A huge rock was suspending in the air, so large that she could only see the side facing her. It cast an enormous shadow on the sea as dark clouds overcast the sky. A few white puffs of clouds scudded across the rock, giving her the impression that she was looking at the crest of a towering mountain rather than a gigantic rock.

Nevertheless, this "mountain" seemed to be more magnificent than the Impassable Mountain Range. Joan judged that the rock must be 100 meters thick.

On the humongous rock were many cracks, the shortest stretching a few hundred meters and the longest a few kilometers. Seawater gushed out of those cracks, forming a huge waterfall connecting the sea and the sky. As the water converged, the ocean waves foamed and splattered.

Joan believed even Thunder had never seen such amazing scenery.

Although she did not know where she was, she was sure that this place was very far away from the Fjords and the Graycastle. Otherwise, people would have noticed such a huge rock in the sky.

"Can I... still go back?"

Joan returned to the water, a few bubbles coming out of her mouth.

SPLASH!

Just then, she heard another splash, as though something else had fallen into the sea.

"Is there someone else like me?"

After doing a quick calculation of the distance between that fallen object and herself, Joan dived into the water and swam in the direction of that splashing sound.

She swam for around seven minutes until she saw what had fallen into the water. It was a strange boat, as large as the three-masted ship she had seen, its lower part a combination of a fish and a squid. The upper part of the boat was a ribcage, which housed a pulp of inner organs. The entire boat looked like a dead body of a half-eaten animal that made Joan felt a jolt of nausea.

However, the monster was not dead. After it fell into the water, it started to swim in the direction of the ocean waves with its four fins. Joan's eyes followed it, and then she was astonished at what she saw!

A little way farther on, a fleet of similar monsters lined up in the ocean, sliding in and out of her sight as the water rose and fell.

After the monster that had just fallen into the water joined them, the fleet marched slowly toward the east and disappeared from her view. Joan was relieved.

She wondered what she should do next. Since the boat-shaped monster had fallen from the sky, there might be some other grisly enemy.

Although she had never seen such monsters before, Joan did not think a good idea to approach them. Ever since she had become a witch, her instinct had never lied to her.

"Don't force yourself. Your friends are waiting for you."

Camilla's words came floating out of her memories.

Then she thought of the smiling faces of Lightning, Maggie and Lorgar.

She wanted to go back.

She had never had such a strong desire in her entire life. She yearned to return to Neverwinter, the place where she had only lived for a winter but had made many friends.

She was longing to meet everybody again!

"Ya!" Joan shouted self-encouragingly and swam to the west after she figured out where she should go.

No matter how vast the ocean was, it had a boundary.

Also, Lightning had told her once that the earth was a sphere. As long as she swam on, she would see her friends from the Exploration Group again!

She was certain about it!

...

"We have to go," Thunder said as he looked at Camilla Dary who was stooping over the railing. "Our destination isn't the Shadow Islands. We're wasting our supplies. It has been three days. I don't think I can force the fleet to continue to stay here any longer."

"But..." Camilla said apprehensively, "Joan's not back yet."

"This isn't your fault," Thunder said as he patted Camilla on the shoulder. "Waiting for her here won't make things any better. Do you remember what you said earlier? There are two reasons for the disconnection. One is that the connected individual is dead, and the other is that you guys are two far apart. If you insist it was the second scenario, we have a greater reason not to linger on."

"Are you saying... that we should look for her to the east of the Sealine?"

"To be completely honest, the chance that we find her there is slim, but it's better than waiting here doing nothing," Thunder said good-naturedly. "Remember that Joan is special. A sailor will definitely die if he's drowned in water, but Joan won't. She has lived undersea for more than a decade, so she could survive without us."

"I... I see," Camilla said while biting her lip. "Then I'll come with you, to the 'Sealine'."

"No," Thunder interrupted her. "I can't let you continue with our adventure under this condition. I promised to King Roland. No matter what happens, I'm obligated to bring you back to Neverwinter after the exploration of the Shadow Islands. They need you to fight the demons. Plus, only His Majesty knows what had possibly happened to Joan at the bottom of the sea. Your information is crucial," he paused for a few seconds and then said solemnly, "We all have our own responsibilities, and all of us need to fulfill our duties. That's what we should do."

Camilla closed her eyes, sad and agonized.

Two hours later, the "Snow Wind" whistled. The fleet set their sails and headed toward the far east. One of the ships left the fleet and headed in the direction it was coming.

The two parties parted and soon, neither of them could see each other as the other gradually disppeared in their views.

Chapter 1137 - The Banished Senior Demon

At the front near Tower Station No. 9 at the Fertile Plains.

"The target is 6' 4'' in the northeast, at 65 kilometers. We request for artillery fire."

Sylvie lied on her stomach on Maggie's back, looking down at the vast land below. The ground had been excavated around two or three days ago. The air was saturated with the fresh smell of soil.

"Copy," Shavy answered curtly over the Sigil of Listening. "Fire in five minutes." She then added, "Please be careful."

Sylvie looked in the direction of Taquila. From where she stood, she could spy the ruin of the Holy City. Although it was more than 50 kilometers away from her and was no bigger than a finger nail from this distance, she somehow felt it was within her reach. Sihouletting against the forest, the ruined city looked like a miniscule sculpture long forgotten.

While the ruin was beyond the vision of the Eye of Magic, Sylvie could still sense the glimmers of that bright red fleck. As long as the red speck remained stationary, they were safe.

"Alright, got it."

Sylvie slid the Sigil carefully into her pocket, patted Maggie's broad back and said, "Climb a little bit higher."

"Awh!"

Maggie, who had now transformed into a Devilbeast, produced a long howl, her giant wings sprouting from her shoulder blades and flapping against the wind. She was now even larger than two normal Devilbeasts put together, even larger than the mutated Devilbeast ridden by Kabradhabi. Neverthless, Maggie was overall colossal even when she was in the form of a pigeon.

After they rose around 100 meters, they heard distant roars crack through the air.

Then several earth pillars rose from the ground at the front, which immediately rippled and sent grass flying in the sky. Shockwaves rocked the ground. Such a powerful explosion was always delightful to behold.

It was not long before a second and a third rounds of explosion took place.

The Artillery Battalion was now able to direct their shells accurately to their designated spots. Since it was difficult to calculate the exact targetted area, Sylvie simply did a rough estimate. The area was around 16,400 square meters, almost as large as the Castle District in Neverwinter, which was the district she was most familiar with.

As the Artillery Battalion continued to fire, Sylvie soon saw broken limbs exhaled from the cloud of dust.

A 152-caliber grenade would create a one-meter deep hole in the ground, whereas the demons could go no deeper than 50 centimeters underground even when the earth was permeated with the Red Mist. For the land uncorrupted by the Red Mist, the demons could hide underneath the ground but just barely. If a shell landed right on their heads, they would literally be blasted into smithereens.

Further, not only the grenade itself could kill a demon but the aftermath shockwaves could do so as well. As the demons were edging closely to the surface of the ground, any shockwaves within a radius of 20 meters would be fatal to the demons.

His Majesty called this type of random attack "sweep".

After five rounds of fierce bombardment, around 100 demons crept out from underground and started to retreat.

"The enemy has come out. They're all Mad Demons. Please fire at the same shooting angle," Sylvie instructed.

"Got it."

Suddenly, as if sensing something, Sylvie looked toward Taquila and saw the red fleck flash and streak toward their encampment.

Sylvie immediately took out another Sigil of Listening and said, "Lightning, come back, now! The Magic Slayer is coming!"

Maggie instantly turned about and retreated.

About seven minutes later, Maggie, Lightning and Sylvie all returned to the air defense zone. In the meantime, the Magic Slayer had also slid into their views. Sylvie saw the blue-skinned, human-like demon hover above the artillery encampment while staring at the three of them, his eyes gleaming maliciously.

The Artillery Battalion below was still firing.

The Magic Slayer was apparently furious but he could not do anything to protect his kind from the rain of shells.

At last, he headed back where he was coming, leaving the fleeing Mad Demons behind.

Sylvie was instantly relieved.

"He's gone. Let's fly around!" Maggie exclaimed in excitement.

However, at the sight of a nervous Lightning who balled her hand into a fist, Maggie quickly changed her mind. "Let's call it a day. I have to save some magic power for the night patrol. I've inspected the area within a radius of five to six kilometers and I'm pretty sure that the construction team is safe for now."

...

After returning to the underground headquarters, Sylvie marked the bombarded area green.

There were many green areas like that along the railway.

"Good job," Morning Light said as he held a cup of black tea. "It seems that Lady Edith's banishment plan has worked."

Sylvie took the tea and said smilingly, "Yes, it looks like so."

This was actually not the first time they had repulsed the demons.

The scouting had indeed become increasingly dangerous when they were 100 kilometers away from Taquila, because from that point, Sylvie had to pay more attention to the movements on the ground instead of the sky. However, the demons, with the help of their gas tanks, could suspend in midair as long as they preferred within this range.

Given such circumstances, the Generla Staff developed a "banishment plan", which divided the scouting area into several sections. The area within two kilometers were marked as the safety zone. In this zone, the Magic Eye could see through and keep an eye on everything, so chances of them suffering a raid were pretty slim. The air force could leave the trenches in this area and provide broader protection.

The area within ten kilometers was called the recognization zone, which was the farthest the Longsong Cannons could reach and was also where Sylvie and Maggie mainly conducted their activities. This area would be marked green and considered as safe once a "sweep" was completed.

The area beyond 10 kilometers but within 50 kilometers was the dangerous zone monitored solely by Lightning. The purpose of setting up this zone was to warn the soldiers of the enemy hidden in clouds and earn more time for Maggie and Sylvie to retreat. Only Lightning had the capability to shake off her pursuers. Not even the Magic Slayer could possibly keep up with Lightning who flew at the speed of sound.

It appeared that the "banishment plan" worked pretty well. They had, at the moment, totally controlled the pace of the battle, leaving the demons no opportunities to fight back. Without the support of Mad Demons from the ground, the Devilbeasts in the sky found it hard to effectively stop the armored trains.

The main purpose of this "banishment plan" was to transform the recognization zone gradually into a safety zone by slowly removing the demons' outposts while keeping the Magic Slayer away from the battlement, so that he could do nothing about the scouting team. If they could successfully provoke him into breaking through the defensive line, that would be even better.

Nonetheless, the Magic Slayer had still not lost himself yet.

"By the way," Sylvie said as she surveyed the room, "where's Miss Pearl of the Northern Region?"

"She went back to Neverwinter by the 'Seagull' with Iron Axe after receiving His Majesty's order," Ferlin replied with a smile. "I think that's pretty much the time."

To discuss the strategies and tactics for the final battle!

Chapter 1138 - Interception

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Roland received Iron Axe, the Commander-in-Chief of the First Army, and Edith Kant, the Chief of General Staff.

"How did it go? Do you like riding on the 'Seagull'?" Roland asked as he looked at the pair with some interest.

"Your, your Majesty, it's fast, but it's... a little too fast for me," Iron Axe answered with a look of terror. "I didn't feel that way before. However, when I actually sat in there, I noticed that it wobbled pretty badly. I was very scared when the craft went up and down and thought I was going to fall." He then administered a military salute and exclaimed through his teeth, "Of course, I promise that I'll do my best to overcome my fear, Your Majesty!"

It appeared that this seasoned Mojin warrior feared heights. Roland asked, his brows raised, "So, how are you going to overcome the fear?"

"I'll watch more magic movies once this war is over until I'm no longer afraid of it!"

"That's really like what a Sand National would say," Roland thought in amusement, a muscle flinching in his face. He turned to Edith and asked, "What about you?"

The Pearl of the Northern Region moisted her lips and answered quietly after a moment of silence, "Fantastic."

"That's it?"

Roland waited for Edith to elaborate but the latter did not say anything further. Then he noticed a rosy flush fluttered over her cheeks, her eyes glistening.

Roland heaved a sigh. He had to admit that his subordinates all had some unusual personalities. He expected to see them heap praises on his new invention, impressed and shocked. Now it appeared he had overestimated the psychological impact of the aircraft.

Roland rose to his feet and said, "Since you're already here, let's start the meeting. We have to get prepared for the final battle."

...

After six months of construction work, the first main railway was only 60 kilometers away from the Taquila ruin. Once the construction of Tower Station No. 10 was completed, the First Army would be able to directly attack the demons at Taquila. The "Torch" plan had cost much greater manpower and supplies than any of the military operations they had carried out in the past four years. 80% of the iron produced by the Furnace Area were used to build the railway. The sole purpose for this plan was to stop the demons from erecting the Obelisk before the arrival of the Bloody Moon.

Once the Fertile Plains was enveloped by the Red Mist, the demons would be able to invade the interior from the Impassable Mountain Range anytime. By then, not only would the First Army face a bitter battle but the demons would no longer be bounded by distance. Roland definitely did not want to see the battle unfold in this way, considering that human beings were already outnumbered by the demons.

However, if they managed to seize Taquila before the final battle, the demons would have to erect their Obelisk in the other two Holy Cities, the Starfall City and Arrieta. Both two cities were more on the northern end of the plain. Even if the demons built their outposts there, they could not directly threaten the Four Kingdoms. In that case, they would not only have a bigger chance to win the Battle of Divine Will but would also earn another 400 years for human beings to convalesce.

As Graycastle had already entered an Age of Industrialization, Roland was positive that human beings would have much greater achievement in the next 400 years when the survival of the mankind no longer depended on food and basic life necessities. Therefore, the vast plain, in a sense, became their strategic buffing zone as well as their prospective territory for further development.

Men would eventually defeat demons.

Though perhaps this generation might not witness their eventual victory.

This was also why Roland did not explain the reason for this plan in detail.

Unfortunately, the plan did not go as well as he had anticipated. They had planned to exterminate all the demons at Taquila and convert the ruin into their own stronghold. However, the First Army was now only one step away from success.

The appearance of the Magic Slayer had forced them to adjust their initial plan. The power of the curse inflicted by the Magic Slayer appeared to be incurable. Even very minor wounds could lead to morality. Lightning could more or less cure herself, but Leaf's condition was much worse.

Based on Ashes' report, Leaf's health was deteriorating.

Although Leaf did not say anything about her injuries, Ashes could still tell that her health was declining. This indicated that the deterioration of her wound was beyond her self-repairing ability. Like a lesion, the infected area gradually expanded and would finally kill the patient. No matter how long this process might take, Roland could not let Leaf die. He could not accept any loss of the population.

It was time to make a final settlement with the Magic Slayer and Taquila.

The representatives of the witches and the army all gathered in the meeting room to discuss the upcoming battle. A screen spread across the wall and presented the image of the Third Border City. Their sole topic of discussion was how to kill the Magic Slayer that could inflict fatal curses on people.

Edith broke the silence as usual. "First of all, from what the General Staff can tell, when the Magic Slayer see a defeat is inevitable, he would very likely retreat. This is just an assumption. We haven't had much solid evidence to support this theory yet. Judging from the fact that he's still keeping a distance from the encampment, we believe he's exactly the opposite of Kabradhabi."

"I agree," Alethea, who had fought the demons more than anyone else, said. "Gallantry doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a suicidal moron. We agree with the demons on this term. A senior commander plays a far more important role than a Mad Demon. It isn't likely that he would die meaninglessly like his subordinates."

"So, we must be proactive and intercept them when they retreat," Edith continued while nodding. "Fortunately, we know everything about our enemy and have experience in dealing with them." She then cast a look at Andrea Quinn and said, "If the Magic Slayer doesn't notice our plan, a long-distance shot would definitely be the safest and most effective way to kill him."

Andrea brushed her hair away from her face gracefully.

"I have a question," Tilly spoke.

"Please go ahead, Your Highness," the Pearl of the Northern Region said while placing her hand on her chest.

"First of all, we can't guarantee that one bullet would be enough to kill the Magic Slayer. What if he's still alive after the bullet hits him? We won't have a second chance. Second, what if the Magic Slayer has noticed the presence of this weapon with a long shooting range and attempts to avoid a direct confrontation? From our past experience, it's very likely that he'll do so. It seems to me that the enemy learns firearms faster than we desire him to."

"I've thought about these two possibilies," Edith replied. "For the first one, the General Staff has decided to use a God's Stone of Retaliation as the bullet."

"A God's Stone bullet?"

"Correct. Even if we can't kill the Magic Slayer at one shot, we can immoblize him. Of course, the smaller a God's stone is, the softer it will be. A God's stone as small as a bullet can be easily crushed by a hammer, so it'll break before we fire. However, we can probably try Miss Andrea's weapon, as her weapon has a much larger caliber," Edith paused for a second and then went on, "Regarding this point, I've confirmed with Ms. Agatha. A God's Stone made from magic blood will be a lot harder. We can first test that out using the two bottles of magic blood she collected from the demons."

"To use the demons' blood to kill them? I like it," Alethea said smilingly. "You're the second mortal I'm impressed with."

The Pearl of the Northern Region returned her a smile indifferently and said, "As for your second question, I'll need a preserve unit."

"Only Lightning is faster than the Magic Slayer," Wendy answered apprehensively. "However, she can't... stop him."

"No," Edith said while shaking her head. "There's something faster than the Magic Slayer — "

"Something?" Tilly echoed with a look of comprehension.

"Right. That is — a diving 'Seagull'," Edith said slowly.

Chapter 1139 - Celine's Request

"To have a God's Punishment Witch sit on the plane?"

"Exactly. The anti-magic area works the same way as a God's Stone. A dozen God's Punishment Witches should be able to kill the Magic Slayer. Even if they couldn't, our sniper team will give him one last blow," the Pearl of the Northern Region stated flatly. "Of course, this isn't going to be easy. Our plan really depends on how the other party will react. Nevertheless, we do have some ways to tackle him. Personally, I think this plan will work. Our enemy has seen bullets and guns but not the 'Seagull'. They won't believe a man can actually fly in the sky."

Roland instantly undertood the General Staff's intention.

They could never rely on the sniper team entirely. If the Magic Slayer noticed that the patrolling Devilbeasts mysteriously disappeared and thereby found out this long-range weapon, he would naturally develop corresponding countermeasures. The Magic Slayer would probably swerve in the air or hurtle really low above the ground. In that case, even Andrea could not anything about him.

Andrea's ability was to find out the enemy. However, the enemy might not necessarily show up on the battlefield.

Under such circumstances, someone else must entice the enemy out of hiding.

The one who provoked the Magic Slayer must be equally fast and powerful, but there was no such person among the witches.

Therefore, the General Staff thought of combining the glider and the God's Punishment Witches, which Roland had to admit was a really clever strategy.

The "Seagull" could bid her time in clouds before diving to the ground. After she accumulated a certain amount of kinetic energies, the 'Seagull" could travel over 500 miles an hour and catch up with the Magic Slayer sprinting on the ground.

Yet...

"This is the best plan we can think of at the moment, but I don't think Ashes will agree. This is too dangerous. You may run directly into the Magic Slayer," Roland broke off and stared at Tilly. "So..."

"I'll let her recede," Tilly said resolutely after a moment of silence. "I want to do this."

"Your Highness!" Wendy yelled exasperatedly.

Roland dimly knew what the superintendent of the Witch Union was thinking. The very two figures that tied all the witches together are Anna and Tilly. The former was the queen and the latter the legal royal heir to the throne. Wendy did not want to see either of them put themselves in a dangerous position.

"This mission isn't any different from the transporation of witches that we normally do. By the time the Magic Slayer notices the 'Seagull', the other Taquila witches would have rounded on him. Therefore, everything will be under control," Tilly said with a smile. "Don't worry, Ashes and I know what we're doing. We won't do anything beyond our capabilities."

Knowing that Tilly was determined, Roland did not want to further discuss the matter. He turned to Edith and said, "Go on."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Edith replied as she walked to the map. "The last step of this plan is to launch an ambush. The Senior Demons could not hold up for very long without the Red Mist, so they would have to retreat to recharge. This means that the best location for an ambush is somewhere close to their Red Mist supply line."

"Regarding that, I have a suggestion," Alethea cut in suddenly. "I'm not sure if you still remember the infiltration mission carried out by that Extraordinary the other day."

"Oh... that silly girl," Tilly said as she mopped her forehead. "She wasted one precious Five-Colored Stone because of that operation."

"But now, we'll have an excellent view at that location at the rear of the Taquila ruin," Alethea said, her main tentacle high up in the air. "Once we turn on the phantom instrument, we'll be able to see everything about their Red Mist supply line!"

Roland remembered that after the wolf girl, Lorgar, had discovered the demons in the vicinity of the ruin, the Witch Union had gone to scout around that area at once. As they had deviated from their original course, the mission had failed. If they had broken the Five-Colored Stone right in front of Taquila, they would have known every single movement of the demons and thus avoided the subsequent raid at Tower Station No. 1.

However, this failure could now, quite contrarily, help them.

Somehow he thought of one old saying.

"You never know whether this is a premoniton or a bless in disguise."

"Well, in that case, Iron Axe and Edith will stay at the Third Border City to draft a detailed ambush operation plan," Roland said. "As for the God's Stone bullet, Agatha, please work with the Ministry of Engineering."

"As you wish, Your Majesty!" everyone replied together.

When the meeting was over, Alethea suddenly whispered to Roland.

"Celine hopes that you could come to the underground lab. We've got a breakthrough in the research on the Magic Ceremony Cube."

...

Half an hour later, Roland showed up in the underground lab.

Celine turned on the Magic Cube and instantly, a familiar red light appeared in front of him.

"The breakthrough you talked about..."

"Please look at this," Celine said as she handed two small stones the size of a thumb nail with her auxiliary tentacles. "They're both the cube parts and are pretty old."

"They do look old," Roland said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. There were noticeable signs of abrasion at one end closer to the outer surface of the cube. "Have you successfully disassembled the Magic Cube already? No, hold on, you have the parts. Then how come it can still illuminate? Is it because..."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Celine said smilingly. "I installed my replicates on the Magic Cube. The cube works perfectly fine, which indicate that those replicates work as well. What do you think of it?"

"Ingenious..." Roland remarked as he held Celine's tentacles excitedly as if he was appreciating some delicate instruments. "It only took you three months. I thought that would take you at least a year!"

"Slimwrist from the Sleeping Spell helped me a lot, and the structure of the Magic Cube is much simpler than that of the magic core," Celine answered, a little embarrassed under Roland's feverish gaze, and disengaged herself. "I withdraw my words that we need thousands of stones. I believe we only need 500 to make a cube replicate."

"The garrison at the Festive Harbor is now taking actions under my order. I believe we'll soon hear something from them," Roland said cheerfully. If the replicates works, this new device might, like the steam engine, bring about drastic changes to Neverwinter.

"Well, if that's the case, can I ask you for something in return?" Celine suddenly changed the subject hopefully. "Of course, this is all for our future research."

"What do you want then?" Roland asked curiously.

"An assistant, an assistant who could help me better understand the knowledge in the Dream World," Celine answered as she swayed her main tentacle. "My fellow witches would be most suitable for this position. However, they feel it hard to learn on their own. They told me there are institutions where an instructor can help students and answer their questions. I think that would be much easier for them. So, Your Majesty, could you send them to school?"

Chapter 1140 - Dream World's "Illegal Immigrants"

After nightfall, Roland told Anna about what had happened in the meeting.

"... We still need to adjust the stability and strength of the God's Stone bullet so that we could suit its power to practical applications. I think you would be the only person who could do this. Make this project your top priority for now. I'll ask Andrea and Agatha to assist you."

"I feel like my work never ends," Anna said as she rested her beautiful head on Roland's shoulder. "I have to make the machine tool that is used to process plane parts, improve the internal combustion engine, and work on the railway at the front, as well as many projects on the book... I envy Pasha and Celine. Although Blackfire helps me a lot, it isn't as flexible as tentacles. I can't work on so many things simultaneously."

"Oh, I don't think it's a good idea. I don't want to cuddle a giant blob. You're not only the Minister of Engineering but also the queen of Graycastle. You're a public figure," Roland said smilingly. He knew Anna was simply sharing her happiness rather than complaining. Ever since she had assumed the office of the Minister of Engineering, she no longer looked sulky and expressionless. The more she worked, the more cheerful she became. Roland said, "Of course, I'm also looking for someone to help you. If everything goes well, there will soon be more people in the Ministry of Engineering."

Roland gathered that Rex from the Society of Wondrous Crafts should now be at the Fjords, though he was not sure if the latter had noticed the significance of his reward, A Comprehensive Study of the Law of Buoyancy. The marine craft he had drawn at the end of the book was based on the description in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. For a quasi-inventer like Rex, who had never read any science fiction, such a magnificent envisage of a future submarine would definitely fascinate him.

"Really?" Anna said as she stretched herself and wrapped her arms around Roland's waist. "I'll wait for that day to come then, but now... I want something else as a reward."

Roland smiled. It appeared more than one person needed a reward today. He then unconsciously raised his hand to Anna's back.

...

Roland closed his eyes after Anna fell asleep.

When he woke up the next morning, the ceiling his apartment in the Dreamworld slid into his sight. A beam of sunlight slanted across the floor through the curtain.

Roland brushed his teeth, had breakfast, and then saw Zero off as usual. He leaned over the banister and peered down at the sea of heads down in the alley below. Students were hurrying to school with their backpacks; young professionals were scurrying to work; some old men were working out in the chill of the morning. Everything seemed to be chaotic but energetic.

Nothing had changed in this city, but Roland knew this world was gradually transforming in a subtle and imperceptible way, as though this Dreamland had its own consciousness.

The evidence of such a transformation was the memories that had never previously existed, the battered and frayed red book, and the note in it.

After he read the book Raison d'être, Roland started to look for the Rose Café. However, nothing came up on the internet, and the witches could not find such a place either. There were 46 coffee shops in the city, but none of them was called Rose Café.

There was a possibility that this was just one of the author's bad jokes. However, as Roland learned more about this world, he was more convinced that the note was suggesting something to him.

The foreign race that had completely disappeared without leaving a trace.

The constant wars.

The inexorable awakenings and erosions.

All of these signs seemed to be mirroring the real world. This especially holds true with the discovery of the Radiation People and Match Men on the battlefield, which made the narratives in the book even more compelling.

The question that puzzled him the most was why the book in the Dream World would, in a way, reflect the real world and also use the word "Battle of Divine Will". Garcia told him that, unfortunately, the author of the book had not left any hints. The only clue available was the note.

Roland had to put these questions aside as he searched for the Rose Café.

At around 8:00, he heard three rhythmic knocks on the living room door. They were one loud and two gentle knocks that indicated that nobody was in the hallway.

Roland immediately opened the door and let the visitors in.

"Good morning, Your Majesty," three petite witches saluted. One of them was Dawnen, the first witch who had entered the "Veil of Invisibility" in the Dream World.

"They do look like... high school students," thought Roland as he clapped his hand to his forehead. Dawnen's ability was erasing the traces of her companions. She had joined the Blessed Army the second year after her awakening and transferred her soul at the age of 28. She had extensive war experience. Her favorite weapons were a short sword and dagger. As witches usually aged much more slowly than common people, Dawnen looked extremely young in her dainty frame. To Roland, she looked no older than a teen.

So did the other two witches.

Roland now remembered his conversation with Celine.

"Go to school? I remember the God's Punishment Witches were all in their 20s on average. They should have been college students, but they only have an education level of middle or high school. If they look significantly older than other students, people will be suspicious."

"That won't be a problem. Many of us look younger than they actually are."

Celine was not exaggerating. The other two witches looked even younger than Dawnen.

Roland had to admit that after he asked Phyllis and Faldi to take care of the God's Punishment Witches, he spent most of his time collecting and memorizing information. After all, it would be too much for him to show 300 witches around in the Dream World while studying and investigating at the same time.

Roland was very impressed and pleased with his self-discipline.

"My name is Saint Miran. My ability is imitation. I can impersonate anyone who is connected to me. This is my second time visiting the Dream World. Nice to meet you."

"My name is Dido. My ability is the invisible pocket. In short, I can put objects into a magic, invisible bag. Well... it's not a very useful ability, but I'll do my best for Ms. Celine, on the honor of the Quest Society!"

The two witches introduced themselves.

Judging from their abilities, neither of them were combat witches. Since they could not join the Blessed Army, they had developed expertises in some other areas. Abilities shaped personalities. This theory had been well verified by the notorious poker trio.

Roland gathered that Dawnen was here to protect Saint Miran and Dido. The Dream World was not always safe after all. Particularly when there was an increasing number of Fallen Evils at the moment.

Roland nodded and looked at the three witches. He said, "Celine has told you the mission. Watch for my signals before answering questions. Don't talk too much."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The next problem was how to successfully send these "illegal immigrants" to school.

In fact, Roland had been thinking about how to hide the Taquila witches. So as to not expose them to the public, Roland had always chosen to fight Fallen Evils at night.

The warehouse which they paid frequent visits to would have raised suspicions among the residents a long time ago had the witches not used their abilities to erase their trace.

After thinking for a while, Roland could think of no one who could help him except Garcia.

He thus picked up the telephone and dialed her number.

Chapter 1141 - Trust and Misunderstanding

"Hey, just about the right time. I want to discuss something with you." Garcia's voice came from the other end of the line before Roland spoke.

"Um... what do you want to talk about?"

"I would rather talk to you in person. Come to my room. You just got up, didn't you?"

Garcia demanded condesendingly over the phone, as though sleeping in was a capital offence for martialists.

"Well... alright then," Roland said thoughtfully, quickly making up his mind to first see what she would say. If Garcia happened to be in a bad mood, he could always call on her another day.

After hanging up the telephone, Roland asked the three witches to wait for him at the living room before he strode off to Room 0827.

"The door is open. Come in," Garcia said gruffly as she heard Roland's footsteps.

Roland entered and found Garcia in her summer dress, standing in front of her fridge with two glasses in her hands. Her gray hair streamed down to her shoulders, tiny beads of sweat on the tip of her nose. She was wearing a flip-flop patterned with cartoon characters. Instead of a self-disciplined martialist, she looked more like a common college student enjoying the summer. Garcia asked, "Any drinks? Water, tea or coke? They're all iced."

Garcia was actually just two to three years older than him. Had Roland not posed himself as a wretched landlord who used to be a dropout and sacked bartender, he would have been still in school.

"Coke," Roland replied distractedly. "Did you just come back from your morning training?"

"Unlike you, I don't have unlimited leisure time."

Roland did not know how to retort. They had been more open to each other lately. However, Garcia seemed to have developed a nasty habit of constant criticism, and what was worse, she appeared to be quite enjoying it. It was a miracle that she was still alive, fully intact.

Yet Roland could tell, after knowing her for such a long time, that she was in good humor. Indeed, she was quite delighted.

Was it because of the matter she was going to share?

"Here, iced green tea," Garcia said as she put down a drink in front of him.

"I said coke..." Roland protested mildly, his brows raised.

"You didn't do your morning excercise, so it would be better to reduce your sugar intake," Garcia answered seriously to stifle her smile. "The evolution of the Force of Nature has nothing to do with one's body type. A skinny person could also have great power, which means your power won't help you tone your body. If you plan to take part in a martialist contest, you'd better make sure you work out regularly. A fit martialist is always going to be more popular than an overweight one."

"Then why did you bother offering me choices," Roland snapped within himself while rolling his eyes. He said grumpily, "So what? Did you ask me to come here just to educate me on fitness? I've told you that I don't have the slightest interest in becoming a top martialist or participating in some sort of contest. I don't need fame to hunt down the evil and protect the world. I would rather be what I am now, a nameless, unknown martialist who fights anonymously for the mankind."

If he did become a public figure, how could he continue to search for the Fallen Evils?

"Incredible..." Garcia muttered, her eyes fixed upon Roland as she continued slowly, "I thought you would never say something like that. My master once told me that you should never believe what a person says but what he does. If I didn't see what you've done, I would have thought you were just a hypocritic who lies unblushingly. But as much as I hate to admit it, you're... honest."

Roland knew what Garcia was referring to.

After he successfully killed his first Fallen Evil, he and the Taquila witches started to work together to exterminate other Fallen Evils in the city.

Faldi searched the city in daytime, and he and the combat witches went to kill at night. Apart from obtaining mutated Forces of Nature, they would also get a lot of extra income often. To avoid uninvited attention, Roland would only take some cash or unidentifiable personal articles. Sometimes, he would donate some Forces of Nature to the Martialist Association as well.

The Martialist Association monitored all the Fallen Evils in the city. If they discovered a large number of Fallen Evils mysteriously died and their Forces of Nature disappeared, they would very likely become suspicious. As such, Roland had to voluntarily report some of the incidents every now and then to keep his identity and his miraculous work secret.

Meanwhile, Roland was also proactively defending against erosions. According to Garcia, he was currently the most active new member in the association, and he had even killed more Fallen Evils than some official members. The Fallen Evils, on the other hand, had also realized that they had a powerful enemy and were now strenuously tracking him down.

In other words, Roland had made quite a buzz among the executives of the Prism City and the Fallen Evils. Nevertheless, he was still a nobody among fellow martialists and the public. Garcia knew all that Roland had done simply because Roland needed to contact her to hand in Forces of Nature.

"Hmph... that's my duty," Roland said while clearing his throat. "Isn't it the responsibility of a martialist?"

"Yes," Garcia, to Roland's surprise, smiled, "this is the responsibility of an martialist." She handed him a piece of paper and said, "Congratulations, you're now an official member of the Martialist Association. This is your contract that has just arrived. Effective upon execution."

"I remember you only need to solve one erosion to become an official member, and I've already solved eight or ten now. That's really slow of the Prism City administration."

"Because... the Martialist Association is an interational organization."

"So I'm an official member just as you are now?"

"No," Garcia said while shaking her head and passed a brochure across the table. "Actually, you've outperformed me."

Roland opened the brochure curiously and was mildly surprised. "This is — "

"The hunting license," Garcia replied slowly, her smile fading away. "Only outstanding and dedicated martialists would be granted the license. There are no more than ten licensed martialists in this city, and the Prism City has issued no more than 100 licenses. Your rights as a licensed martialist and the matters that you need to pay particular attention to are all listed at the end of the booklet. Remember, the license not only represents the trust the Association puts in you but also a greater responsibility. I hope you could carry on and help the mankind gain the eventual victory."

"So this is what she's glad about..."

Normally, people would feel upset, jealous and frustrated when being outstripped by a new member recruited by themselves. However, Roland did not see any of these negative emotions in Garcia. She was truely happy for him, as though she was also honored.

This made Roland a little unsettled.

He knew that Garcia spoke most highly of him at the moment. Because of her high expectation, Roland now felt a surge of heavy guilt. He knew that despite her haughtiness, Garcia was a person of morality and principles. The best example was how she had helped the residents in the modular apartment stand up to the evacuation threat of the Clover Group. Thinking of the potential misunderstanding that might stand between them in the future, Roland was very troubled.

"By the way, why did you call me?" Garcia asked while sipping her tea lazily. "I've done my part. I don't think you anticipated all that, did you?"

"Er... I need your help with something." Roland had no choice but said, "Can you come to my room?"

Garcia cast him a suspicious look and said, "Sure, but is it not something that you can say here?"

"You'll know when you come over."

"OK."

Roland took a deep breath and led her to Room 0825.

As soon as they stepped into the living room, the three witches turned around, their eyes sparkling with excitement.

Then Roland felt a chill running down his spine.

"You... you finally did this!" Garcia gasped, standing rooted to the spot. "My goodness... they're still kids. I, I'm going to call the police!"

Chapter 1142 - Different Roads Lead to the Same Castle

Roland was surprised that Garcia's first instinct was to call the police rather than report to the Martialist Association. Although the Martialist Association was a separate organization that was independent from judicial institutions, they required their members to adhere to a strict moral code and therefore, punishments to a corrupted martialist would be more severe than that imposed by law. It seemed that Garcia was particularly lenient with him.

Roland twitched his lips and felt an urgent need to clarify this matter. He had not done anything wrong, so neither the police nor the Association should be involved.

Anyway, he had to first calm Garcia down.

"Call the police?" Roland echoed in a falsely surprised tone. "Why?"

"You ask me?" Garcia said exasperatedly. "What did I tell you the other day? An awakened man could easily lose his head over his power! That's why a martialist should discipline his mind and control his emotions. I don't want to interfere with your private life, and I don't care how many girls you take home as long as they aren't underage. But these girls... they're still minors! Lust is the first sign of corruption. Do you still not understand?"

So Garcia was more furious about him living a life of debauchery than about taking three young girls home?

"I know, but why would I bring you here if I'm truly corrupted like you said?" Roland said on a sigh. "Don't you think that it doesn't make sense at all?"

"Er..."

"In fact, whether this is true or not, taking three girls home would inevitably outrage the public. A wise man should make it as secret as possible. However, I invited you here. Don't you think that is a little strange?"

Garcia blinked blankly, slowly putting the phone down, and asked, "Then why?"

Roland heaved a sigh of relief and replied with utmost sincerity, "This is what I'm going to tell you. Miss Garcia... I need your help."

...

Half an hour later.

"So, you don't have any inappropriate relationships with these girls, but instead, you're their... part-time tutor?" Garcia demanded while squinting at Roland.

"Exactly," Roland said truthfully. "They're all college students living nearby. I have to teach them as well as Zero, and it takes too much of my time. People will get suspicious if I keep them here for too long. Normally, girls of their age should have been in school, so I have to constantly bring in new students."

Roland had been always cautious about taking in the God's Punishment Witches. No more than three or four witches were allowed to visit him in Room 0825 at a time so that the neighbors would not be alarmed.

"So they're the 'relatives' whom you needed to take care of during our first meeting?"

"Oi Oi, this is something I said more than half a year ago. Why do you keep reminding me of that?" Roland wondered reproachfully. He then said, "They aren't my real relatives, but we're from the same town," Roland lied unblushingly. "Dawnen, Saint Miran, and Dido used to live in the same village as me. They were still little kids when I left my town."

This explanation would sound obviously flawed in his original world but was actually quite reasonable in here since the Dream World had Zero's memories.

"Then why didn't their names show up on the registry?"

Roland paused just at the right moment and said, "Because of... their gender."

"I see," Garcia mumbled and fell into silence. When her eyes rested on the three witches again, her demeanor softened. Garcia asked, "Are there many people... like them?"

"Quite a few although things have gotten a little better in past decade," Roland said quickly as he realized that his plan was going better than expected. "People in my village are aware that I joined the Martialist Association. They probably didn't want to stay there for the rest of their lives, so they came to look for me."

"Your... Roland is telling the truth!"

"Please let us stay!"

"I want to go to school."

The three witches pleaded.

Garcia turned away and looked like she was hesitating.

"Neither tutoring nor learning by themselves would solve the fundamental problem. I want them to live a normal life like everyone else. I think you're the only person who could help us," Roland said slowly. Even if Gacia could not help him, the Clover Group must have some power to smuggle them in.

Garcia was apparently thinking the same thing. After what seemed to be a long internal struggle, she sighed deeply, and said, "I'm sorry but I can't help you."

Upon seeing every sign of an interruption from Roland, Garcia explained immediately, "I severed my relationship with my family. Plus, the Clover Group has yet to abandon their plan to demolish this apartment. If I go see him, he would use it as a leverage. I would betray the trust those protesters have put in me."

Roland fell silent when he saw Garcia's clenched fists. He felt guilty to see Garcia be sorry for not being able to help the girls. Roland said, "I understand."

"But you can talk to him yourself," Garcia said and looked up at him. "My father will be holding a party for the outstanding martialists in the city center hotel tomorrow evening. He knows I would not go but he still sent me an invitation. By doing so, he at least shows to the media that he's trying to mend our relationship," Garcia said while smiling bitterly. "Although he didn't invite you directly, you can go there on behalf of me. Just give the party organizer a call and they'll let you in with my invitation card. A proxy could mean an acceptance or a declination. If I choose you as my proxy, he'll know that I declined his offer."

Roland instantly knew what Garcia meant. If Garcia asked her master Lan to represent her then that would be an acceptance.

"Talk to him in person..." Roland mumbled while stroking his chin.

"Are you scared?"

"Regardless, I have to go. I'm so close," Roland answered. As the King of Graycastle, he had attended numerous parties and gained a large amount of experience in dealing with distinguished figures. "I'm just worried he won't help us. He'll probably feel very affronted that you've rejected him."

"Don't worry. My father isn't an unreasonable person. He cares more about business gains than personal loss," Garcia said while smiling. "And you aren't any ordinary martialist. Even Prism City has noticed you. You should give yourself more credit."

Roland dimly understood what Garcia was referring to and said, "I'll do my best."

"To tell you the truth, I'm very glad for you," Garcia said as she rose to her feet and extended her hand to Roland. "You're on the right track. Sorry that I misunderstood you. I'm very proud to have such an excellent martialist like you as my companion." Garcia paused for a second and then went on, "Also, you can just let me know if you need help in the future, and don't call me Miss Garcia anymore. It doesn't suit you."

Roland slowly reached out his hand and shook hers.

Although Roland lied to Garcia, his goal was still to win the Battle of Divine Will, learn the truth of this world, and liberate humanity from the fate of endless war.

This was the path he had chosen.

Chapter 1143 - The Difference between Martialists

As one night in the real world was equal to two days in the Dream World, Roland took the three witches to Crown Hotel the next day evening.

"Your Majesty, is it true that we can eat whatever we want there?" Dawnen asked as she poked her head out of the rear window of his car, her eyes sparkling.

"Of course. It's not that different from the party held by nobles. You should have attended many such parties back in the Union age, right?"

"But you couldn't eat whatever you want at those parties."

"Really?" Roland asked with curiosity.

"Yes," Saint Miran, who was sitting in the passenger seat, supplied the answer with a nod. "Those parties were for prominent figures. They cared more about networking than the feast. Nobody wanted to talk to a person wolfing down food like a savage. You'd become a laughingtock if you did so. If it was a big party, most people would eat something first before going." She swallowed hard and then said, "If Your Majesty fears that we will disgrace you, we'll restrain ourselves."

Roland was amused at the looks of the witches sitting in the back, who were not able to disguise their eagerness in time. He laughed, "Don't worry. I always keep my words. This isn't the Union. You aren't in the king's city either. We're all just normal people. As long as you don't make trouble, eat whatever you like."

"Can... can I bring some food back?" Dido asked with excitement. "Many of my friends wished to attend this first class party."

"Make sure nobody sees you doing that," Roland replied indifferently. "Stay close when we get there. If someone approaches you, don't get involved in a conversation. Let me deal with them."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the three witches chorused.

Around half an hour later, Roland and his party reached their destination.

Roland immediately understood this was a first-rate party. The vehicles parked in front of the hotel were, without exception, luxurious cars. Their car paint reflected off the lights in the city and formed a glaring contrast between them and Roland's shabby little van.

Although martialists earned a lot of money, they were still not able to compare to real capitalists. To avoid unwelcome attraction, Roland had bought the most common van available on the market. He had not anticipated, however, that his van would become the most eye-catching vehicle among all the fancy cars.

"Sir, the hotel is reserved today. Do you have an invitation card?" A waiter came up to Roland after he parked his car.

Roland produced the card Garcia had given him from his pocket and brandished it triumphantly.

"Welcome to Crown Hotel. The meeting room is on the top floor. A customer representative will soon receive you." The waiter then summoned a smile and said, "I'll take care of your vehicle."

Roland did not care what the waiter actually thought of him, but he had to admit that this was really great service.

He led the witches into the splendid hotel hall. To Roland's surprise, they didn't seem interested in this magnificent building. Perhaps, they had seen architecture like this illuminated by Stones of Lighting many times back in the Taquila age. The chandelier dangling from the ceiling, for instance, was probably nothing special to the Three Chiefs.

Roland found it a little amusing to notice that these three witches were more awestruck by some cakes than the spectacular hotel interior. Their extremely beautiful appearances, however, soon attracted a lot of people. It seemed that no matter what world he was living in, witches were always going to be the focus of attention.

The customer representative went through a series of security check. He first scanned Roland's invitation card and then reported to someone over his walkie-talkie. Finally, he returned the card to Roland and said, "Mr. Roland, sorry for the wait. May I know who these three ladies are..."

"Cousins," Roand said while shrugging. "Garcia told me that family members are allowed here."

"I see. Please come this way."

The customer service representative guided them to an elevator, pushed the button to the top floor, and then bowed courteously outside the elevator. "I wish you a good evening."

The wall around them soon sank rapidly. A sinking sun diffused its perpetual splendor into the elevator. A dense group of high-rise buildings slid into their sights and formed a forest of walls in the far distance.

The witches finally uttered exclamations of surprise.

"This is even bigger than three Holy Cities put together," Dawnen muttered. "I can't believe mortals built all these without using any magic."

"The Miracle Building you want to build is also in memory of this world, right?" Saint Miran asked Roland.

Roland smiled. Although nobody except Anna knew where he truly came from, the Taquila witches had already reached a mutual understanding that Roland came from a world similar to this Dream World. This seemed to be the only plausible explanation as to why he was so familiar with this world.

After they reached the top floor, the huge round-shaped meeting room materialized in front of them.

Its wall and ceiling were all made of glass. The entire city was dwarfed beneath them through these windows. Roland was mildly impressed with the enormous financial capacity of the Clover Group.

A variety of delicious food was beautifully displayed on plates, including appetitzers, desserts, fruits, and champagne towers. There were several hundred guests at the party that formed tight knots throughout the top floor. Apparently, not only martialists but also eminent political figures and businessmen had been invited.

Roland was now very used to this type of situation. The witches, on the other hand, ran straight to the food at the back of the hall.

"Wow... the fish here is so tender. It feels like it's going to melt in my mouth."

"Are these really grapes? Wow, I haven't had such sweet grapes in so long..."

"Rubbish. You just visited the Dream World last month."

"But I ate fast food last time. Elena only knows KFC and McDonald's."

"Hey, remember that we have to also put some food in Dido's bag to bring something back for the others."

Roland looked at the witches who practically salivating at the sight of the delicacies and shook his head in amusement. He suddenly felt that even if he could not benefit from anything in the Dream World, he should at least make this Dream World continue to exist. For him, this was just a world existing in his dream. However, for the Taquila witches, this was the only place where they felt alive.

They could get compensated here for everything they had lost from the battle with the demons, including the enjoyment of life and mundane pleasures.

Roland started to study the guests intently before the party officially started.

There were two types of guests in the hall. The ones in business attires were clearly important public figures, whereas those wearing robes were martialists from the Association. Although there were exceptions, he, for example, was wearing a suit. Nobody was in outlandish clothes like the last time he had visited Prism City.

Was this the difference between a professional and an amateur?

He somehow remembered what Garcia had once told him.

"Although the Martialist Association is dedicated to saving the world, it's hard to persuade people to work for them with just a vague envision of the future. That's why we started to hold the martialist contest. The contest only has a short history of 50 years, but it has now become the most popular sporting event. Many awakened martialists gained publicity, fame, and wealth through this contest. On the other hand, the Association also recruits many new talents through the competition. The contest thus plays an increasingly important role in the Association. Outstanding contestants are involved in the decision-making process. Because of this change, a rift began to grow among the executives. Gradually, members are divided into two cliques. Nevertheless, this disagreement doesn't impact the contest at all. In fact, the event attracts even more attention."

At that time, Roland favored the more conservative party. Since the martialists' real enemy were the Fallen Evils, the battle against those Fallen Evils must be far more cruel than some sport game. A contest was a good way to recruit new people, but it was essentially not the same as a battle of life and death. Roland did not get why some executives failed to undertand this.

Yet when he entered the hall, he suddenly understood the reason.

Both the members of the Association who participated in the contest and the amateurs were defiant brutes that were nothing next to professional, well-educated martialists. Since not everyone would have a chance to fight against the Fallen Evils and, as the battle was often quite intense, more and more people swung to the new party.

Roland believed that the conservative party would only be able to regain its power after what Lan referred to as "erosion" occurred.

Roland twitched his lips at the thought of his hunting license. He had always thought it very strange to license a new martialist. Even though he was an active member, he did not think he was good enough to be one of the top 100 in the Association. Now it dawned on him why the excutives licensed him. They viewed him as an ideal old-school martialist who was only seeking the Fallen Evils instead of fame and popularity.

Was this the reason that the conservative party asked him to be their representative?

Chapter 1144 - A Stronger Person

While Roland was studying the other guest, somebody was also studying at him.

"How did it go? Did you find anything about him?" Carmen asked his men in an undertone.

"Yes," the latter whispered into his ear. "He's just from an ordinary family. He became Lady Garcia's neighbor purely by accident. There's no record whatsoever of Roland on the contest registry, so I don't think he has ever participated in any games. He joined the Martialist Associations just three months ago, which is highly unusual."

Although Carmen did not possess the Force of Nature, he knew all about the martialist contest. As it was the most popular sporting event among the mass, many people were familiar with its rules and procedure. Apart from the final match, "the Martialist Duel", held every other year, there were also many tournaments and trial games every month to encourage new martialists to enter.

Normally, new martialists were very eager to partake in a contest to improve their skills and rankings so they could gain exposure and money. Only amateur martialists would feel reluctant to showcase their power. Carmen believed that these arrogant amateurs feared to be thrown in a spotlight because they were mostly former criminals.

As Garcia's brother, Carmen was very concerned about the proxy his sister had chosen. Garcia was definitely not a very easygoing person. She was too headstrong. Her obstinacy naturally created a barrier that detached her from the rest of world and made people who attempted to approach her hesitant to further the relationship. With this being the case, Garcia trusted very few people.

Carmen was not remotely surprised at the disagreement between Garcia and her father. Garcia might be a competent martialist but was definitely not a good businesswoman.

Nevertheless, this was not the main reason he wanted to investigate Roland.

Another more important reason lay in the VIP table at the front of the hall.

He gazed upon the first row and saw a woman in pure white sitting there. She was not wearing any accessories. Her sheet of jet-black hair streamed down and gave her an air of aloofness and sophistication.

This lady, Fei Yuhan, was one of the most talented new martialists in the past five years. She had already successfully entered the final match of the martialist contest twice. Although she had yet to win the championship, most people attributed her defeat to her young age and lack of experience and firmly believed that she would soon gain her first championship. It was rumored that Fei Yuhan, as a genius martialist of the new generation, would eventually become another executive in the Prism City after she won her championship match.

Carmen did not expect a proud person like her to attend this party. Her attendance really gave Carmen's father a pleasant surprise.

This party would definitely make the front page because of Fei Yuhan's presence.

However, when Carmen had finally found a chance to talk to Fei Yuhan, he had been given an unexpected task.

Carmen calmed himself down and ambled over to the lady

"Miss Fei Yuhan, what you asked me to do..."

"I heard your conversation," Fei Yuhan interrupted Carmen and gave him a faint smile. "Thank you."

Carmen was astonished at her acute hearing. She was at least 10 meters away from him and surrounded by the buzz in the hall. Could normal people really do that?

"I didn't hear everything you said. Even though I could hear them, I need time to process the information," Fei Yuhan explained to him good-naturedly in response to Carmen's shocked expression. "When your men approached you, I concentrated my mind and read the conversation based on the movement of his lips and voices. Most martialists possess some lip-reading skills."

"I-I see... You're indeed the best martialist in the country," Carmen said as he managed a smile.

"The best?" she echoed in a silvery voice. "I haven't got that cup yet."

"It's just a matter of time. Nobody except you has managed to enter the final match within one year of awakening and this even includes the 'guard' of Prism City..." His voice trailed off as he spoke.

Fei Yuhan was listening, but the nonchalant smile on her face clearly told Carmen that she had no intention of continuing with this conversation. She listened to him patiently only because it would be rude not to.

Then it suddenly dawned on Carmen that she had actually wanted to end the conversation when she had said "thank you". She gave him an explanation simply because he was the organizer of this party. Nonetheless, she did not have the slightest interest in engaging in a personal interaction.

At this thought, Carmen felt a surge of anger blazing inside him. As the representative of the Clover Group, he had never been so slighted.

But Carmen managed to control his temper.

The Clover Group could not offend the Martialist Association, as the latter had an intertwined relationship with various governmental bodies and industries.

This was the exact reason his father put so much money in networking with these people.

Carmen smiled stiffly and walked off.

Fei Yuhan obviously noticed the affronted look in Carmen's eyes.

She did not really care about what others thought of her. The only person she could rely on was herself to defend against the erosion. Wealth and power meant nothing to her.

Her eyes were back on Roland again.

She attended this party just because her master had asked her to. At first, she did not understand why she had to sacrifice her training sessions for such a superfluous networking event, until a man caught her attention.

Once an Awakened reached a certain level, they would be able to know how strong their opponent was. Fei Yuhan had gained such an ability three years ago. She noticed that very few people outside of Prism City were stronger than her.

Nevertheless, she could not read anything out of that person.

She sensed Roland's conduct, the tone in which he spoke, the expression on his face, and the micromovement of his skin, which were exactly the same as those of a normal person, but she could not sense any fluctuations in his power. Therefore, she could not figure out how strong Roland was. Common people normally did not have the Force of Nature, however, Roland was a martialist.

That was why Fei Yuhan had asked Carmen for help.

Although she could do the investigation herself, she preferred to have others take care of these matters for her. Most people were more than happy to help her and, often, did a better job.

Then, she heard Carmen slip that man's name, Roland.

Everything seemed to make sense now.

A week ago, Fei Yuhan had learned a piece of news from her master that there was a new "hunter", a licensed martialist, in Prism City. Fei Yuhan was not surprised at the news because an outstanding martialist who fought against the Fallen Evils deserved some privileges. It wasn't until a little later that she learned that this new licensed martialist was not an old member but instead a newbie!

This incident would have definitely stirred the whole martialist community had the Association not kept the personal information of licensed martialists strictly confidential. Licensed martialists were typically viewed as equal to champions of the martialist contest, and were sometimes even more respected by the public. This was like telling Fei Yuhan that some newly awakened martialist had just snatched the champion cup from her. How outrageous!

If that was the case, her two entries in the championship final suddenly seemed to not matter as much.

The new hunter's name was Roland.

Fei Yuhan balled her right hand into a fist, but kept her face expressionless.

As a student of an old guard in Prism City, Fei Yuhan had also heard about the disagreement between new and old martialists. One of the main questions they argued about was which school of martialists was the stronger one. Were those who put their lives on the line and trained themselves through numerous battles against the Fallen Evils stronger than combatants on the stage, or vice versa?

Fighting against Fallen Evils was indeed challenging, but the chance of encountering a Fallen Evil was slim, and more often than not, the first battle would also be the last for a lot of fighters. Combatants, on the other hand, could train themselves in a more safe manner. However, as they were used to the way they fought, they would easily panic when coming across a difficult enemy. Both theories had a great number of supporters, and it was hard to tell which one was truer in practice.

However, Fei Yuhan now found a way to find that out.

Roland, who had never participated in any matches and had been continuously fighting against Fallen Evils since his awakening, was definitely an old-school martialist.

Compared to Roland, Fei Yuhan was obviously considered as a modern martialist.

Her master intended for her to come to this party, probably in hopes that Roland and she, as the representatives of traditional and modern martialists, could get to know each other.

However, Fei Yuhan had no interest in involving herself in the conflict within the Association. She never thought she was a modern martialist. In fact, she would have fought against Fallen Evils if her master had not explicitly forbidden her to do so.

Just like Roland.

She only cared about who was stronger.

And Roland seemed to be a decent competitor.

Fei Yuhan would have known how big her chance of winning had she been able to detect Roland's power. Howeover, since she could not, it was hard for her to envision the duel between them.

In other words, they were tied.

Fei Yuhan curled up her lips. It appeared that this party had become a little more interesting.

She had also overheard some interesting conversations between the three girls Roland brought to the party.

She heard words like "the Dream World".

Also something like "His Majesty".

Was this some new trendy game?

However, judging from the three girls' looks, she did not think they were doing some juvenile role-playing either.

She decided to ask Roland in person.

Fei Yuhan quickly came up with a few questions in her mind.

...

In the meantime, Roland finally found the person whom he was looking for.

Garcia's father got a resounding round of applause as he ascended the stage at the center of the hall.

Chapter 1145 - A Deal and A Strange Phenomenon

"So that man is..." Dawen muttered unclearly as she was too busy wolfing down the cake she had thrust into her mouth.

"Yes, that's the man we saw on the paper," Roland replied with a nod. He had done some research on the Clover Group before coming here. The man on the stage was Garde, one of the directors and president of the Department of Construction of the Clover Group. As Garcia's father, he was the fifth child of his family.

He expected to see King Wimbledon III, but now it appeared that Zero had not killed the poor King of Graycastle. Roland also realized a fact that the residents in the Building of Soul had now completely blended into this Dream World and developed their own memories and personal relationships. There was no way to know whether Garcia came before Garde, whether the existence of Garcia resulted in the appearance of the Clover Group, or whether Garcia was just a jigsaw puzzle piece that randomly fit in this whole picture. Had Roland not had the memories of the other world, he would have probably also thought this Dream World was a world of reality.

Although the Dream World was currently changing in a direction unfamiliar to him, it was essentially based on his own memories. The increasingly bizarre phenomena thus constantly reminded him that he was in his dream.

For example, Garcia's real last name was Wimbledon. However, in the Dream World, her last name was Gar. Unlike Cobb in the movie Inception who needed some personal articles to help him distinguish the dream from the real world, Roland did not require such things to do so.

Garde's speech was all about his gratitude and support to the martialist attending the party. He also, very incidentally, mentioned her estranged daughter. Just as Garcia had predicted, Garde felt sorry about his daughter's absence and expressed his wish to mend their relationship.

The hall erupted in a resounding applause. The journalists danced around taking photographs. Blinding flashlights came with every shot.

Roland jeered.

This party was totally unnecessary. Garde only needed to abandon his plan to destroy the apartment or well compensate the residents to win Garcia back.

After the speech, Garde made toasts.

This was the moment Roland had been waiting for.

"Let's go. We'll come back later," he beckoned the witches and walked up to Garde with a glass of champagne in his hand.

...

"President He, thank you for coming to my party. I'll still need your support for the Green Project."

"Naturally, naturally. We've been working together for so many years."

"Miss Yuhan, do you like the new stadium we built for the championship match on the south side of the city?"

"I haven't been there yet."

"Oh... haha. I'm sure you'll make it there this year."

Roland went straight up to Garde as the latter finished his toasts to the honored guests at the front and made his way through the crowd.

"You're..." Garde asked hesitantly.

"I'm Roland, Garcia's proxy," Roland said flatly.

"Oh, I see... Nice to meet you," Garde said as he took a glass of wine from a waiter and tightened his demeanor immediately into formality. "You're really lucky to have the Force of Nature. I do envy you young guys."

Roland clanked his glass with Garde's but did not drink his champagne. He said, "I want to talk with you, in private."

This invitation seemed pretty rude. Roland, as a newly-awakened martialist, was much younger than Garde, and also had a much lower social and economic status compared to a director of a large financial group.

Garde frowned and replied, "Sorry, I'm expected by someone else."

"Garcia asked me to talk to you. Aren't you interested in how your daughter is doing these days at all?" Roland said as he raised his voice.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that some journalists started to look in their direction.

Roland was confident that Garde would come with him.

Otherwise, he would soon ruin his carefully managed reputation of being a loving father.

"Alright," Garde receded resignedly, "if this isn't going to be long."

"Of course. It won't take you much time," said Roland smilingly.

There was a VIP room in the hall. After all the guards withdrew, only Garde, Roland, and Garde's secretary were left in the room.

"Is it OK to have him here?" Roland asked while casting a glance at the elderly secretary. "What I'm going to say involves the interest of your company."

"That's fine. He's been working for my family for several decades," Garde said glumly. "I'm more concerned about the three pretty little girls you brought here than my secretary. This isn't an amusement park."

As soon as they were well out of earshot, Garde no longer disguised his impatience and annoyance.

Roland knew that Garde was very alarmed. Juding from his stance and position, Roland believed that Garde also possessed awakened power.

"The matter we're discussing in next few minutes concerns these three girls..." Roland answered with a shrug. "Let's cut the crap. I want to make a deal with you. They're illegal immigrants, and I need you to help them obtain legal status and send them to a reputable high school."

Garde lapsed into a long silence. At last, he said, "Is this all that you want?"

If Garde was just some ordinary businessman, he would have probably flared up and walked away. The fact that he waited for Roland to finish his story indicated that he was well bred and civil.

"Yes," Roland said defiantly. "I don't think it's hard for the Clover Group."

"You said it's a deal, so what can you offer me? Are you going to oppose Garcia or persuade her to abandon that apartment to me?"

"No, I'm her friend."

After Roland had found out that the apartment was where all the memory fragments were, Roland was determined to protect it. Anyone who attempted to demolish the building would face a relentless resistance from 300 Taquila witches. The witches could easily, for example, disassemble the track of an excavator or create an illusion that the building was haunted.

"Hmm... friends," Garde jeered. "Then we have nothing to talk about."

"Not necessarily," Roland said as he produced his hunting license from his pocket and brandished it at Garde.

"This is..." Garde's expression instantly changed. He turned to his secretary inquiringly.

The secretary stared at the license for quite a while before he slowly confirmed, "It's legit."

"How come you have that..."

"That's top secret information of the Association that you aren't entitled to," Roland talked over Garde. In fact, he did not even know how the Association approved and issued licenses. "You just need to know what it stands for."

Garde gazed at Roland darkly. He fumbled with the cigar that he distractedly took out from his inner pocket and spoke at last, "My daughter seems to have made her acquaintance with an extraordinary person. Mr. Roland, the Martialist Association is a law-abiding organization..."

"Do you think I'm threatening you?" Roland said with a determined sigh. "Like I said, this is a deal."

"So you mean..."

"A successful businessman like you must have encountered many difficulties, right? You may remove enemies standing right before you but not those in hiding," Roland said as he stuck out one finger. "I can take care of that for you, though not everyone. They have to be underground criminals. Also, their presence has to constitute a threat. I have my own ways to conduct my investigation, so don't you attempt to fool me. In this way, the Association would not notice our deal. I would rather keep this conversation between ourselves."

In short, Roland was going to crack down on criminal groups.

The capture of these large criminal organizations usually involved a lengthy process, which included collecting evidence, ambushing, arrests, and trials. As such, companies normally preferred to resort to force to avoid substantial financial loss. From Garde's look, Roland already knew he had had many unfortunate encounters with these criminals.

Garde said hesitantly, " Mr. Roland, if you're serious, then that wouldn't be a good deal for you."

Roland stifled his smile. Garcia was right. Her father was not only a "reasonable person" but also a wise one.

"Just see them as your deposit. I'm going to ask you to help these three first. The total number would be around 300."

"300... illegal immigrants?" Garde echoed in disbelief. "The police will get suspicious..."

"Take it slow. I don't need you to do it anytime soon. Take your time. This is a long-term project," said Roland. who believed, as Celine had suggested, that not every witch liked studying. For example, Elena and Phyllis would prefer to kill Fallen Evils with him much more than poring over books.

"In that case, I may be able to help you."

"Well then, I look forward to working with you."

The deal was sealed after the secretary took pictures of the witches. Although they had not signed an agreement in any form, Roland was certain that Garde would not break his promise.

When Roland was about to leave with the witches, Garde suddenly shouted behind him. "Hey, wait..."

"Is there anything else I can help you with?" Roland said while turning around.

"My daughter, Garcia, how is she?" Garde asked after a moment of hesitation. "I called her many times, but she didn't pick up..."

"Rest assured. She's doing very well," Roland replied.

...

Garde finally ignited the cigar after the door was closed. He muttered to his secretary, "Is he really just some random martialist?"

"I have the same feeling," the secretary, who had been keeping his silence throughout the conversation, said, "He talked to you with an air of undisguised condescension."

Common people would usually talk to him in a timid, unctuous tone or tried to be audacious while pretending that they were not afraid of the huge social and economic difference between them. Garde did not think it was the Force of Nature that made Roland fearless, because he had just awakened.

Nevertheless, Garde had not noticed any signs of such timidness in Roland. On the very contrary, he was confident, relaxed, and even a little haughty. It was as though he had seen much of life already.

How could that be possible? Roland was around the same age as Garcia. A man in his twenties!

For the first time in his life, Garde could not figure out a person.

...

"You didn't have to negotiate with him yourself," Saint Miran mumbled after they left the room. "You're the king of the two worlds. It's really rude of him to stare at you like that."

"If Lady Alethea were here, she would have put a knife to his throat," Dido agreed.

"As a king, you can do whatever you want," Dawnen said disapprovingly. "Lady Alice never cared about what other people thought of her."

Roland was amused at the bold speech of these "little girls." "My ministers can't get in here, and I've told you not to call me 'Your Majesty' outside."

"Yes, brother Roland," the three witches said together instantly.

"By the way, are we still going back?" Dawnen eagerly looked at the new servings on the table as she licked her lips.

"The feast doesn't end until midnight, but we might as well head back soon. The other witches are waiting for us," Roland said as he stared up at the darkened sky. "We'll stay another half an hour and then we'll set off at 8:00 sharp."

"As you command!" the three of them chorused and sprinted up to the table.

"They do look like underage kids," Roland thought to himself. He shuffled behind them and was about to drink his champagne when he realized he still had to drive, and dejectedly put down the glass.

Just then, the pale, golden champagne suddenly changed.

A red swirl of ink suddenly appeared in his glass and gradually formed creepy, crooked words!

"Don't forget what you promised me."

A chill ran down Roland's spine.

He fought down the urge to throw the glass away.

Roland was holding the wine glass with such immense strength that its stem cracked!

Roland, once again, peered down at his champagne and discovered that the threatening words had vanished. The liquid was a pure, crystal-clear pale-gold again. It looked as though nothing had happened.

Chapter 1146 - In the Name of Rose

An ominous sense of foreboding flooded over Roland. Somebody was obviously watching him in this Dream World.

Roland looked up and scanned the faces of everyone across the hall.

Who was doing this?

A waiter? An enterpreneur? Or an Awakened?

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves at this party. He was the only person being paranoid here.

Roland took a deep breath to calm himself down.

The messenger must be the same person who had left the note in the book.

"Rose Café, No. 302."

Without a doubt, this person wanted to meet him.

This was something beyond the Force of Nature. Unlike witches who possessed various supernatural abilities, martialists were physically faster, sharper, and more powerful than common people. They could, to some extent, release their energy to create some sort of magic, but, overall, they were more combatants than wizards.

Plus, Roland did not sense any fluctuations in the Force of Nature.

In other words, those words were more likely a result of some other unknown, more superior power.

Which was probably what made the Dream World transform.

"Hmm... some non-player character is apparently keeping an eye on me," Roland said under his breath. The time in the Dream World was frozen when Roland was awake, so Roland believed, other than the visiting witches and those defeated by Zero, everybody else was fictitious. No matter how "real" they seemed to be, they were controlled and manipulated by the creator of this world. Now, that creator seemed to have noticed Roland's presence and sent him a message.

"When did this start?" Roland wondered.

Was it from the moment he had borrowed the book from Garcia, or the moment he had found the person in the Reflection Church, who had been dead for over 800 years, look exactly the same as Lan in the Dream World?

Or had it started even earlier when he and Zero had fought the Battle of Souls.

Roland had absolutely no idea.

He did not want to dwell on this matter either.

The more important thing was what that creator was trying to convey.

"Roland?" Dawnen's voice pulled Roland back to the present. "Are you OK?"

"Yes... I'm fine," Roland said, a little flustered. While shaking his head, he said smilingly, "I'm coming."

After making sure that the wine glass was back to normal, Roland put it down on the table closest to him and followed the witches.

"You should try this. It's so tender, but you have to wait for a while..."

Saint Miran handed Roland some barbequed French foie gras that smelled amazing.

Roland felt very embarrassed when he saw the three witches dominate the tables and take all the food the chef had just served.

Some ladies in the hall started to complain.

Their voices were carried back to Roland —

"Who brought them here?" "They're pretty cute, but they look as though they haven't eaten for ages." "Look at what they're wearing. I hope they aren't some little tramps." "Poor things. It's like they've been starving for hundreds of years."

Roland gave those gossiping women a cool stare. He did not even bother asking them to stop.

"Sorry, but yes, they literally haven't eaten for hundreds of years."

"We ought to bring some of these to our friends."

"Right!"

Roland lapsed into thought again as he chewed the barbequed French fois gras distractedly.

Since the creator had enormous power, why did he not talk to him in person? Why did he make everything so difficult?

Did he fear that he would frighten Roland, or he did not have such an opportunity?

Roland did not think that the creator really cared about his poor nerves. The message in his wine had indeed scared the hell out of him.

He thought of the note in the book again.

"We'll meet when we receive divine revelation." Roland ran these words through his head several times and gasped out. "Does it refer to..."

The arrival of the Bloody Moon?

The appearance of the Bloody Moon marked the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will.

So, he could only talk to the messenger at that time?

But how come a person in the Dream World would know things in the other? Time remained frozen in this world if Roland chose not to come here.

Even if they were supposed to meet when the Bloody Moon appeared, Roland still had no idea where they were going to meet up.

God only knew where the hell the Rose Café was.

Why not just meet in the apartment or some other well-known building?

While Roland was complaining internally, two middle-aged businessmen walked past him.

"I heard that you're going to build a new golf course?"

"It has been just approved. I put tons of money into it. Do you play golf, Mr. Gao?"

"Sometimes. I'm not big on sports, but I'm more interested in the master you recently hired. Someone told me that you just gave three million away."

"I had to. It's all about luck. You know how important luck is for us. I can always earn more money, and I've heard that the names given by that master always bring huge profits."

"So what is it called?"

"Green Meadow. It's right across from the Clover Group's green project."

"Haha, such a pleasant coincidence."

Roland stood still. He did not hear a single word of their subsequent conversation.

"That's right! You can always give it a name yourself!"

For the past few weeks, he had been asking the witches to look for the Rose Café, but he had forgotten one thing — he could totally open a coffeeshop and name it Rose Café.

If that person really wanted to talk to him, he should not have picked a place Roland had never heard of.

If that person had the power to write in his wine, he would certainly know about Roland's new café.

Roland had already taken over the second floor of the warehouse. He simply needed to rent another two venues next door to open his coffeeshop.

He could even combine these venues into a huge room, add necessary amenities such as tables, chairs and a bar counter, and set the room number as 302!

The Taquila witches could be both waitresses and customers.

Roland quickly made up his mind after he did a rough calculation of his current funds.

...

Fei Yuhan picked up Roland's wine glass after the latter left the party.

She had seen that this new licensed hunters wrench the glass away in great shock, but catch it just in time. It was as though it was not a glass of champagne, but a piece of red hot coal. For a split second, she had even seen Roland freak out.

What would make a licensed hunter so unnerved?

Fei Yuhan could not think of anything.

Even death would not frighten him so much.

And this was just a glass of wine.

Fei Yuhan was not sure if this was just her imagination.

But she did see cracks in the globet stem, which indicated that Roland had lost control of himself. Only newly awakened martialists would make such errors.

She thus judged that what ever Roland had seen was definitely something extraordinary.

Fei Yuhan sniffed the rim of the glass but did not perceive any noticeable odor. Roland had not touched the champagne, which meant what had shocked him had nothing to do with the wine itself.

She slowly gulped down the wine and confirmed her theory.

This was just ordinary wine.

She was more curious about Roland's reaction at that very moment than his ridiculous conversation with the three girls, which includes words like "the king of the two worlds" and my ministers", because at that moment, Roland was real.

Something must have happened at that time.

Fei Yuhan put down the glass and looked at the entrance of the hall. Her gaze was burning with curiosity.

Chapter 1147 - A Picture Underneath the Sand

When Roland strolled out of his bedroom the next morning and entered the castle hall, the Taquila witches all raised their arms in a kind of salute to pay their highest respects to the king.

"Good morning, Your Majesty. Thank you for your hospitality."

"I would say it was the greatest experience I've had in the past hundred years."

"I'll be looking forward to my next visit to the Dream World when the time comes."

"... What happened last night?" Anna asked curiously as she looked at the God's Punishment Witches who apparently had yet to come out of their blissful reveries.

"A sumptuous party," Roland answered smilingly. Dido and Dawnen had almost ravaged half of the table and crammed the invisible bag with tons of delicacies. Fortunately, nobody had really cared about the food they had taken. Had this been an ordinary buffet, they probably would have been thrown out of the party outright by angry waiters.

"That makes me hungry too," Anna said as her stomach protested mildly. "When can I have that kind of food?"

While staring into Anna's expectant blue eyes, Roland stroked her graceful head gently and said, "In a few years. I promise."

Ingredients were the key to accessing luxurious food. Fast transportation enabled people in the modern society to obtain food from all parts of the world. If they wanted to eat fresh sea urchin from the Port of Clearwater, the boats on the inner river should at least travel two to three times faster than they currently did.

Of course, an alternative way was to drive the demons out of the Fertile Plains and fly around Graycastle on the "Seagull" to try out different food if the former method was not an option.

Roland had his usual breakfast that consisted of an egg, bread, and a glass of Chaos Drink, which was really not a satisfactory breakfast compared to what he used to have in his original world. However, considering that the Taquila witches were still relying on tasteless, high-calorie rations to sustain themselves, Roland emptied his plate.

After breakfast, Anna bade Roland a quick farewell and left for the laboratory on the North Slope. Like most of the members of the Witch Union, she now hardly had any leisure time in Neverwinter or at the front. Roland returned to his office and strode over to the French window. He saw a few witches pass through the front yard below. They had now completely blended in with the community and were working together strenuously with common people for the future of the human race.

Just then, Nightingale pushed open the door and entered.

"Mail from the garrison at Festive Harbor," she said as she dropped a thick paper bag on Roland's desk. "I met Sean downstairs. He wanted to give you this."

"Quite heavy, isn't it?" Roland said as he picked up a pair of scissors.

"They probably shipped the package here by sea," Nightingale said as she walked past Roland and drew out a bag of pickled dried fish from a drawer. "I checked it. It's safe to open."

Roland unwrapped the package and dumped the contents on his desk. Apart from a letter and a stack of drawings, there were also some "stones" sealed in a few bags. They looked pretty similar to the samples provided by Rex the other day.

Roland's brows furrows as he skimmed through the letter. The report by the First Army startled him. The so-called ancient ruin was not just confined to the underwater cave but it actually infiltrated the entire Endless Cape!

Under Roland's order, the garrison at Festive Harbor immediately followed Simbady into the ruin and blasted the entire cave. Infuriated, the Giant Armored Scorpion came out of hiding and was later bombarded by the machine gun squad and the mortar unit before it could launch an attack on the soldiers.

This result was by no means surprising. What surprised him, however, was the subsequent exploration to the cave.

The engineering team noticed that the ground within a radius of several hundred meters sank to various degrees as a result of the explosion. From the enclosed drawings, Roland saw the beach slope downward as though the ground had caved in.

Shortly afterwards, the First Army conducted a few more explosions and excavated the ground before they found 16 similar Match Men ruins in the vicinity of Festive Harbor. The area covered by these ruins was as large as seven or eight ports put together.

Due to the limited manpower, the people of the Sand Nation had only cleaned up three ruins. The findings at the three locations were amazingly similar. Tablet walls five to ten meters' thick were found at each ruin underneath the desert, whereas the area uncovered by the walls was carpeted with leafy grass.

Roland fell silent after he saw the drawings.

First of all, he had to admit that this was great news.

With so many tablets, they could now produce as many tracers as possible.

In addition to manufacturing tracers, Roland also thought of many other potential applications of these unique electric silicides, such as pressure gauges, lighters, quartz clocks, etc.

Also, Celine would now be able to replicate the Magic Cube with the tablets discovered in this exploration.

However, the implications behind these findings sent a chill down Roland's spine.

How many tablets in total were there at the Endless Cape if there were already so many at Festive Harbor? If these tablets were really the bodies of some ancient silicon-based creatures, what kind of massacre occured?

The fact that the geological features of the three ruins were almost identical indicated that they had been formed at around the same time.

Roland used his imagination to see how these ruins had come into being.

The desertification was probably not caused by the evaporation of water. Perhaps, the Silver Stream used to be a fertile land rather than an underground river.

Everything had, however, changed when a massive war had broken out.

Staggering numbers of Match Men had been slaughtered by the Radiation People, whose bodies littered the entire continent. According to the murals in the Temple of the Cursed, the radiation people had won the God's relic and obtained the final victory.

What concerned Roland most was the aftermath of this huge Battle of Divine Will.

As those bodies were silicon-based, they did not decay like those of carbon-based animals. These bodies had thus formed towering walls, which had subsequently blocked rivers and crushed trees. This rendered the whole land uninhabitable for all vegetation, except for some vines that struggled to live in the cracks of rocks.

The Southernmost Region had been, hence, destroyed.

Nevertheless, mother nature was kind.

Whether organic or not, everything would eventually become a part of this world.

Hundreds of years later, the bodies were reduced to sand after years of exposure to wind, and that was how the desertification had begun. The vines living in the cracks of rocks had gradually died out over the years. Plants were obliterated except those who were not covered by bodies. The plants that survived strived and thrived in the desert and turned sand back into earth.

The whole process had taken thousands of years.

During those thousands of years, the bodies on the top turned into the desert they saw today. The lower ones, however, piled up and formed the bank. Since the sand on the top constantly moved about, the pressure applied to the tablets below were subject to constant change. As such, those tablets illuminated and extinguished alternatively, which made it really hard for plants down there to grow. Nonetheless, some species did survive the harsh environment. As for the land uncovered by the tablets, they had eventually become the Silver Stream Oasis where the Ironsand people of the Mojin Clan had settled down and prospered.

In other words, both Iron Sand City and Festive Harbor were sitting on the top of weathered corpses.

Roland shuddered at this hypothesis.

He really hoped that he was wrong.

If the Battle of Divine Will would never end, how many people would have to die?

Down in the earth and in the depths of the ocean...

There was probably not a single acre of land that hadn't been soaked in blood.

Chapter 1148 - Camilla's Return

"Hey, Roland..." Nightingale's voice jerked Roland out of his thoughts. "Are you OK?"

"Er, is anything wrong?" Roland said after a clearing throat.

"You were staring at that paper for a good several minutes, and you don't look very well either. Terrible news?"

"No, I hope that I am wrong," Roland said while shaking his head and briefly recounted his theory. "If that was the truth, what a dismal world we're living in."

Another problem that alarmed Roland was how short their lives were. One life cycle was just a fleeting second compared to the history of this planet that stretched thousands of years before the emergence of lifeforms.

Where had human beings and demons been when the Radiation People and the Match Men had fought furiously for their survival?

If the Battle of Divine Will was unending, then how does one win?

No matter how fierce the battle had been, there should have been a winner in the end.

Why had both parties disappeared?

Roland suddenly regarded this battle with a sense of evil foreboding.

"I see..." Nightingale mumbled thoughtfully. "But even if you're right, I think there's still a solution."

Roland looked toward her in surprise and asked, "What solution?"

"Well, I have to make it clear first. I'm not Anna, so it may be just some random crazy idea. Don't you laugh at me, alright?"

"I won't," Roland promised.

Nightingale shoved a piece of dried fish into her mouth and said, "First of all, you have to admit that this is going to be a problem that will take at least two generations. So the most important task now was to pass on the information until the time is right."

"Right... that's true," Roland said, nodding. "Then what?"

"That's it."

"Huh?" Roland gaped.

"Because by that time, this battle will have nothing to do with us," Nightingale replied matter-of-factly. "We can only live once and already have so much to worry about in this life. Why do we want to let something that will only happen after we die bother us now? Whether our descendents would succeed or not and how they are going to do that are their problems. There's no point of us doing their jobs for them."

Roland could not help grinning. So, was Nightingale comforting him? Anyway, this solution was straightforward, simple and overall, very Nightingale-ish.

"Are you gloating over my shortsightedness?" Nightingale demanded while squinting her eyes at Roland.

"No," Roland denied and immediately put on a straight a face. "That was very incisive."

"Hmm, that sounds more or less right," Nightingale said with satisfaction as she held her head a little higher. "If you fear our descendents couldn't do a good job, ask the other races for help."

"How?"

"Reconstruct the ruin and record the Battle of Divine Will as this is another way to pass on information. Didn't you find out the existence of the Radiation People and Match Men from the murals in the Temple of the Cursed? Build some underground fortresses in Graycastle and carve the wall to inform the later generations who participate in the war. If time permits, I believe there will be one or two races figuring out what they should do."

Roland was momentarily stunned at Nightingale's insight. Even if human beings were exterminated in the end, they could still preserve their culture and civilization in an alternate way. If some race in the future managed to terminate the endless wars with the help of this information, they would definitely carve a glorious place for humanity in their history.

Perhaps, Nightingale herself didn't even realize how important this was for the future generations.

After a long silence, Roland shook his head in amusement, poured her a glass of Chaos Drink, and said, 'I'm very impressed with your idea. I didn't expect you to think this far ahead."

"I don't need to hear the latter half of your comment," Nightingale said defiantly and snatched up the glass.

Roland admitted that if he failed, this would be his last resort. Although, personally, he would rather be the recorder of history than the history itself.

He then summoned Sean and asked him to send the stones in the package to Celine before he commenced his work. In the afternoon, Graycastle greeted a person Roland had been longing to see for a long time.

He met Camilla Dary, the butler of the Sleeping Island, in the castle.

To Roland's surprise, Camilla did not came with Tilly. Travel-strained from head to toe, Camilla looked particularly disheveled.

This indicated that she went straight to the castle after the ship disembarked.

It was apparently not a good sign.

"Did you just get here?" Roland asked as he poured a cup of tea for Camilla. "You've had a long journey. How was Thunder's exploration?"

Camilla drained the cup and nearly choked in her cup. "S-something went wrong at the Shadow Islands. Joan...Joan disappeared!"

"Disappeared?" Roland echoed, his heart sank rapidly, and he exchanged a dark look with Nightingale. "What happened exactly? Slow down. Tell me what happened."

...That was what happened." It took Camilla half an hour to finish her story. "We floated on the sea for two days, but Joan didn't come back. Thunder said only you would know what happened to Joan undersea. Are those floating pillars and the distorted space real?"

"This is incredible!"

Roland rubbed his forehead in a painful sort of way. The more he probed into this world, the stranger it turned out to be. The bizarre phenomena in the Dream World had already confused him a lot, and it appeared the real world was equally mysterious.

The lengthened stone pillars and fishes did not seem to be a result of external forces, the evidence to which was that neither Camilla nor Joan had experienced excruciating pain when Joan's fingers had elongated.

Both of them were physically fine.

The only possibility Roland could think of was that the space was distorted in the depth of the ocean.

Although it sounded pretty outlandish and there was not a shred of evidence to support his theory, Roland knew he had to provide some reasonable explanation to Camilla. The fact that Camilla directly sought him for advice instead of Tilly showed that she was worried about Joan's safety. From her bloodshot eyes, Roland judged that she had not slept well for the past few days. Perhaps, she was not only concerned about Joan but also blamed herself for Joan's disappearance.

So, he had to say something.

Roland had seen even stranger things before, such as a Sealine perpendicular to the horizon, so a distorted space would not be as nearly peculiar as the former.

He mopped his forehead fidgetedly and spoke at long last, "I think Thunder was right."

Camilla instantly held up her head and asked, "Do you also think Joan's still alive?"

"Yes, and she's probably now to the east of the Sealine."

"So, she transported herself somewhere thousands of miles away? Is that... possible?"

"That's only my guess here, but one thing is certain, that the water level of the Shadow Waters did drop, right? The change in the water level even impacts the tides at the Fjord Islands, which indicates that it's a great amount of water we're talking about here. So, where did the seawater go?" Roland said more to himself than Camilla as he picked up a quill and drew a circle on a piece of paper. "I gather they went to the east of the Sealine."

Camilla thought for a while and said, "Thunder did say that the seawater near the Sealine were heading westward."

"Because if the water didn't go there, the Swirling Sea would have dried out after two or three tidal cycles," Roland said as he drew another circle several inches apart from the first one. "The question is, if the water was transported from one place to another, the tidals should have come at intervals. However, in fact, the water currents are moving continuously. To make this happen, the water must go through these two circles at almost the same time. So, what's the fastest way to travel from one circle to another?"

Camilla ran her finger on the area between the two circles with uncertainty and asked tentatively, "Go straight?"

"In theory, yes," Roland said as he drew a straight line, "but there's another possibility." He then folded the paper, and then the two circles overlapped. "In this way, the water can get to the other side almost instantly."

Camilla gasped, "How... how can that be possible?"

"It is weird, but magic itself isn't something science can explain. For example, Nightingale can transport herself from one place to another in a second and walk through solid walls, which is not something common sense can explain either."

"..." Camilla fell silent.

"Also, although it's now just a hypothesis, one thing you mentioned is quite interesting," Roland said as he thrust the quill through the circles. "You see that this quill has traveled from the front to the back. However, in reality, it traveled in a straight line. So, back to the fish. If the fish traveled thousands of miles within a second, what would you see?"

Camilla muttered uncertainly, "It... shrank?"

"Correct. Things that are far away always look significantly smaller than those close to you. Therefore, the fish didn't elongate. The reason you saw it being stretched was that its body had been thousands of miles away from you."

"Oh..." Camilla heaved a deep sigh and looked much more relieved. "If the other side is also the ocean, Joan should be able to survive."

Roland nodded.

"Thank you..." Camilla said weakly then suddenly swung sideways and fell to the floor.

Nightingale caught her just in time.

"She must have been worn out."

"Take her to the Witch Building. I'll let Tilly know."

"Yup," Nightingale said as she carried Camilla under the crook of her arm and vanished into the Mist.

Chapter 1149 - A Challenger under the Sky

A glowing sun sank slowly behind the mountains and laid orangish-red stripes over the vast land below.

Unlike the Red Mist, this particular shade of red was pure and untainted.

Ursrook liked to ascend the peak of the mountain and bask in a slanting beam of sunshine while admiring the sky above him.

He could have flown higher, but he did not want his magic power to break the momentary silence under the canopy of the dusky sky.

He felt the sky, flooded with sheets of red and purple lights and interspersed with gilded clouds, was now almost within his reach.

It was a very rare experience.

Most of the time, he was enveloped by the Red Mist hovering over his head. Although he liked the Red Mist, it created a barrier between him and the sky.

He was probably one of the few of his kind who did not like staying at the Birth Tower.

Yet Ursrook did not regard himself as an outlander.

He simply had a greater desire for magic power than anyone else.

Yes, magic power came from the sky.

Human beings called it the Bloody Moon, which was somewhat correct.

It was rumored that his race would have an ultimate upgrade after they inherited God's power, upon which they would be elevated from the earth to Heaven.

Without a shadow of a doubt, a broader expanse of land was awaiting them.

Perhaps, that was where God lived.

By then, they would receive immense magic power, which would further lead them to immortality.

Ursrook did not completely believe in this theory.

He had once tried to leap high into the air.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of the Red Mist, when he had reached a certain altitude, he had experienced a series of physical dysfunctions such as a rapid drop in his body temperature, frosted armor, slow blood circulation, and difficulty in breathing. If he had used his magic power to fix these problems, he would have quickly run out of his power.

He had once attempted to go as far as he could and almost died during that audacious flight.

Nevertheless, his desire for the sky grew even stronger.

Because in the midst of the dark purple sky, he had seen something beyond description.

It was like a flicker of gleaming scales.

Which meant that the theory was not completely groundless.

Also, he had heard someone call upon him from far away.

It was hardly above a whisper, a long echo of a murmur in his mind, so to speak.

Ursrook knew that the Realm of Mind was approaching him.

He had been so close to the higher realm.

Only the one who could open the gate separating the two realms could be promoted to lord.

Ursrook closed his eyes to let the wind carry the warmth of the setting sun to his back, when he heard the patterings of footsteps coming from behind him.

"Sir Ursrook, everything is ready."

As he had expected, it was his junior guard.

"Very good," Ursrook said without turning around. "Keep monitoring them."

"Yes, sir," the guard replied, who did not leave immediately but instead asked, "Are those low lives really going to do what we want them to? They should have had a glimpse of your real power now... We sacrificed a lot to set up this trap. If the Sky Lord knows..."

"Right, I understand your concern, but I believe it's worth it," Ursrook opened his eyes and looked toward the south. He could now see a black winding track stretch across the continent. Over the past six months, numerous demons had been killed in the human territories. The track continued to inch forward with incredible obstinacy. It was as if nothing could stop it.

This was the first time that human beings had been at an advantage during a battle without erecting city walls.

Ursrook knew he could have easily slaughtered the human beings in various ways if they had built the track in an area dominated by the Red Mist, however, it was extremely difficult to wipe them out on the Fertile Plains. First of all, the number of troops at his command was pretty limited. Even if the lord sent him reinforcements, the victory would cost him dear considering that the humans would have already fully established themselves on the plains.

So he must exterminate this new human army in its infancy.

"How do you feel about the war recently? Do you feel thwarted?"

The guard answered after a moment of silence, "That's because we've burned our bridge behind us."

"No, it's because our enemy dragged us into the arena to face a battle to death," Ursrook corrected him. "We've established outposts and also tried to expand the Red Mist. However, these two methods didn't work as well as 400 years ago, because human beings now possess weapons with large shooting ranges. Whether you view them as low lives or not, it's a fact. Our every single movement is currently under the scrutinies of the witches, which is why there has been hardly any progress lately."

Ursrook broke off his speech, his right hand outstretched in the direction of the black track, and gradually balled the hand into a fist. "Nothing will change if we don't erect the Birth Tower. Therefore, I have to blind their eyes and chop off their arms before they're awakened so that they can't play their old trick, even though this means that I'll have to sacrifice two outposts!"

As Ursrook spoke, a horrible, contorted smile flutter over his face, and the air around him stirred. He knew that at the encampment at the end of the track, somebody was watching him. Perhaps, the disturbance of the magic power just now had already created a commotion over there.

"I'm at your service, sir!" The guard shouted respectfully as he sensed the immense magic power.

Ursrook did not tell the guard that he was now very close to his next upgrade.

Soon, his power would experience a significant increase.

Perhaps this upcoming battle would help him upgrade.

War was always the fastest way to improve oneself. Even the king would love to participate in a battle.

If he became a lord, the Sky Lord could no longer control him.

As for whether human beings would take the actions in the direction he desired, Ursrook was not worried at all.

He knew perfectly well men's habits

They would always come for the bait.

The sun had now completely sunk below the mountains. Darkness gradually crept over as the last drop of sun rays faded out and left a few faint glimmers of stars strewn over the sky.

Ursrook remembered that one time he had soared into the upper air.

He had reconfirmed his desire that day.

Now, he was working toward his goal.

And human beings were possibly thinking exactly the same thing as he was now.

In this battle that would determine their fates, only the victor was entitled to the unknown realm and the Origin of Magic.

He was waiting for this upcoming final settlement with great anticipation.

Chapter 1150 - The Ambush Plan (I)

Just as Nightingale had suggested, Camilla collapsed mainly because of the mental strain rather than frailty and fatigue.

She completely recovered after two days, as though all that she had experienced was just a dream.

Roland was hugely relieved.

Camilla was the key to their ambush operation.

Although Camilla distanced herself from him immediately, becoming wary and alarmed again, Roland was glad to see her come back to normal.

He knew Camilla was still worried about Joan.

However, she managed to suppress her anguish, as she had something more important to worry about.

Roland decided to keep the news of Joan's disappearance from the other witches, particularly from Lightning, and only disclosed it to a very few selected witches, including Tilly, Anna and Nightingale.

He knew Joan was a member of the Neverwinter Exploration Group, of which Lightning was the leader. Currently, as the two main figures responsible for the outer defense of the First Army, Lighting and Maggie had been staying on the frontier for several months under exceptional pressure. Plus, Lightning had been hurt by the Magic Slayer, so Roland would not allow any news to disturb her state of mind.

The following week, he traveled back and forth between the Third Border City, the weapon test site and the castle boardroom, aiming to finalize their ambush plan. Since their biggest threat at the moment was the Magic Slayer that was much faster and also more nimble than regular Devilbeasts, it was very hard for him to develop a perfect plan to kill him.

He had thought that the plan would only take him two or three days, but he had encountered some major difficulties during mock operations. Fortunately, with the help of various parties, he had finally drafted a feasible operation plan.

The pre-operation meeting was held in the underground hall at the Third Border City a week later.

Alethea spoke first.

She turned on the magic core and projected the image of the rear of the Taquila ruins on a screen that ran across the wall for several meters, looking exactly like a window that had been opened in midair.

Nevertheless, this was not a real window where one could poke his head out of, so there was literally not much to be seen. As Alethea could not adjust the angle of the projector after the Five-Colored Stone was broken, they could not see the surroundings of the ruin. However, the "window" was facing the demons' Red Mist supply line directly, which provided them with a fairly good reference as to where to set up the ambush.

"This Red Mist supply line stretched away on the continent to the northeast and southwest, and there's a group of demons supplying the Red Mist pretty much every day on this route. Ten months ago when Lorgar found the demons and when Ashes went to locate them, this number increased to three. Using the information, we can determine how many troops our enemy has lost and how many are left. Since they only have one supply line, the Senior Demons would not deviate from this line too much when they retreat."

"Can't they build a fake Red Mist supply line?" Wendy asked apprehensively.

"As long as the demons still rely on the Red Mist to sustain themselves, this information should be reliable," Alethea explained patiently, though she had answered the same questions several times. "They did transport a large amount of the Red Mist to mislead us once, and also used the Red Mist to attack us from a long distance. However, they've never reduced the Red Mist to deceive us, because that would be suicidal."

"It's very easy to understand," Agatha put in. "If the demons really had alternative supplies, they would have invaded the interior of Graycastle directly from the Misty Forest or the Hermes Plateau, which would definitely cause more damage than attacking from the frontier. If they have something else other than the Red Mist, they would no longer need to hold on to the Obelisk made of God's Stones."

Seeing no more objections, Alethea continued, "The demons' supply team is mainly made up of transformed Siege Beasts and several Mad Demons, which would not pose any threats to our Special Unit and the 'Seagull'. With this taken into consideration, our main target will be the Devilbeasts in the sky."

"As for the location," Alethea said as she pointed to Edith, "I agree with this mortal's judgement. She'll take over from here."

"This is a joint effort of the General Staff and the witches," the Pearl of the Northern Region said while smiling gracefully. "Also, special thanks to Miss Lightning and Miss Maggie for supplying us the map. Please take a look at the report you have. The land to the east of the Red Mist supply line is as flat as a pancake with hardly any trees, so it's not ideal for an ambush. Nonetheless, the 'Seagull' could see everything from above. The landscape to the west is much more rugged, and there's a small mountain there."

Roland flipped open the report on his desk and found the map. Compared to the high definition map drawn by Soraya, this map was apparently much simpler. Roland gathered that it was probably Lightning's work when she rode on Maggie in the sky. Although it was not accurate enough to serve as a guide for the troops and the artillery, it provided them with basic information on the rear of Taquila.

"We can more or less see the landscape on this side through the phantom instrument, so we need a map to supply the part not shown on the screen. There are three locations where Miss Andrea could shoot. One is the crest of the mountain in the north, another in the jungles in between, and the other the protruded area at the foot of the mountain in the south."

"The best location would be the crest," Roland cut in.

The so-called "mountain" was actually no more than 100 meters high, and it looked like a huge mound of earth in the distance, but this was the highest point in this area. Nothing could be more important for a sniper than a clear view. From a high point, a sniper could not only hit his target from a distance but could also spy on the enemy on the ground.

"Yes, Miss Andrea said so too," Edith agreed with a nod. "That mountain is relatively far from the Red Mist supply line. If the 'Seagull' catches up with the Magic Slayer, the Special Unit would have to travel a long way to provide supports. Also, there's no place to hide on the top of the mountain, so we'll be pretty much exposed to the Devilbeasts in the sky. If anything happens, the 'Seagull' would not be able to come to rescue at a moment's notice. The most important reason is — we can't see it through the phantom instrument."

Roland said thoughtfully, " So, do you fear... that the demons would come?"

"This is the highest point of this area. I would be extremely careful if it were me. Although Lightning says the demons haven't done any war preparation, it doesn't hurt to be cautious, since this is, after all, a war of magic. Like the way we use the Sigil of Screaming your Majesty had put at the headstream of the Redwater River, we don't necessarily need a garrison. We simply need an alert. Remember, the biggest priority for the Special Unit is to maintain its secrecy. If they're exposed, there will be no point whatsoever in setting up an ambush."

"To be honest, back in the Union age, the most difficult part was to make mortals understand magic power." Just then, Alethea's voice came to Roland's mind. From the reactions of the people on the floor, it appeared that the message was exclusive for Roland. "Mortals rarely take magic power into account and act as if they're living in a different dimension from us, but this mortal is different... Your subordinates do have quite interesting personalities."

"That's because you guys have never really taught them. Not everyone is a genius. Education is the most effective way to elevate a civilization," Roland replied casually and then turned to Edith. "So, which location did you pick?"

"In the jungle," she replied quickly. "The sniper team will have a narrow view and could hide in there easily. They could monitor the sky while at the same time supporting Princess Tilly if necessary from the jungle. Of course, they could also hide at the foot of the mountain but it's too close to the Taquila ruin. If the enemy retreats, they'll be spotted very quickly. So overall, the jungle isn't the best option but —"

"The most thoughtful one," Roland supplied Edith's answer.

Edith agreed with a smile while placing her hand on her chest, "Exactly. Two units would round on the Magic Slayer. Miss Andrea could shoot him if he isn't aware of the ambush. If he is, the God's Punishment Witches will be stopping him. Nevertheless, the whole ambush plan relies on the new weapon made by Queen Anna."

Chapter 1151 - The Ambush Plan (II)

Roland knew what the Pearl of the Northern Region was referring to.

He had encountered many technical difficulties during the manufacturing process of the God's Stone bullet, such as the caliber and casing. He was trying to make the God's Stone as large as possible, but large stones normally generate a large anti-magic area. Also, a large caliber weapon would inevitably be heavier than normal ones and was a lot harder to hide, transport, and use.

In the past week and after numerous tests, Anna, Agatha, Lucia, and Andrea had finally nailed the parameters of this new weapon.

To make sure that an equal force was applied to the bullet, the God's Stone of Retaliation was shaped into a cylinder with a width of 30mm coated with copper and equipped with a sharp bullet head. The bullet itself had a caliber of 35mm.

This was the only way the God's Stone inside wouldn't be crushed by the gunpowder.

The "black hole" created by the God's Stone would be around one and a half meters, which meant that the barrel of the gun should be at least two meters. Due to its huge size, the parts of the gun had to be detachable to fit in the Magic Ark.

Furthermore, as the gun would have a high recoil due to its huge caliber, a special mount would be employed when using this weapon.

Because of the above-mentioned technical difficulties, the final version of the gun was abnormally colossal. It was simply impossible for a sniper to reach the bolt and load the cartridge by himself. The gun was nearly as heavy as two grown men put together and required more than one person in the Special Unit to operate. Although the gun was equipped with a muzzle brake and a buffer, the shooter could still sustain injuries from the recoil.

Fortunately, one good thing about this new weapon was that they only planned to use it once. With this in mind, these drawbacks became acceptable.

A large caliber also had a few advantages.

The biggest strength was a longer shooting range or, more precisely, a longer effective shooting range. A bullet would normally deviate from its original course beyond a certain point and become ineffective. However, Andrea could direct any bullets precisely to their designated landing spots. That was why this new weapon had, theoretically, a shooting range of over ten miles.

Now, Roland understood why Edith had chosen the jungle as the ambush location.

As this weapon required a much longer time to assemble and prepare before use than Ashes' gun, the operator had to take some cover to avoid the demons' scrutinies.

"Lastly is the retreat route, " Edith said as she pointed to the map. "After the battle at Taquila officially begins, the First Army will dispatch a unit to support the retreating Special Unit at five to six miles from the left. As for when we should launch the ambush, it really depends on how the demons react. That's all for the plan."

The plan, which had taken Edith a week to finalize, was soon approved. After a brief discussion, Edith nailed the members of the two teams.

The ambush team was comprised of Sylvie, Andrea, Camilla, Margie, and Ashes. The former four would mainly be responsible for the ambush while Ashes would be the general protector. Lightning would be the scout. She could transport the God's Stone bullet that Maggie could not. The God's Stone would not affect her as long as it was hung by a rope.

Otherwise, the team had to walk to the ambush area.

There were ten people in total in the Seagull team. Maggie was the scout. Apart from Tilly and Wendy, the rest of the team were all God's Punishment Witches, of whom Zoe was the leader. Roland expected to have more people on the team. However, since the big caliber gun, grenades and armor had taken too much space, Roland had to cut down the number, not to mention that Hummingbird had already reduced the weight of these supplies.

No strategies or tactics were needed for such a direct confrontation. The only thing they needed to do was to take things slow and advance step by step.

The entire operation almost exhausted their resources, which forced Roland to rethink about their transportation facilities. Currently, the First Army solely relied on the inner river and the railway to transport supplies and troops. If they had an armored cavalry, they simply needed to send the armored cavalry to cut off the demons' supplies and envelop the enemy from the rear. In that case, the Magic Slayer would be very likely cornered due to the lack of Red Mist.

At the end of the meeting, Edith rose again and shot Roland a hesitant look.

"Anything else?" Roland asked, his brows raised.

"After the final battle begins, I hope you and the City Hall could move to the Third Border City for the time being." She paused for a second and then went on, "Also, the witches in the Castle District should do so as well."

"What do you mean?" Barov, who had been wanting to interrupt, finally seized a chance to cut in. "Are you ordering His Majesty?"

A little flustered, Anna asked, "Do you think the demons will attack Neverwinter?"

"Very unlikely, but there's a possibility," Edith replied placidly. "The Red Mist supply line doesn't necessarily equal to the exact number of the demons. For example, it could be either 3,000 demons or just 1,000 demons having an expedition. The demons have been to Neverwinter once anyway. However, this time, they aren't just going to warn us but are coming straight to the Castle District. What if they aren't Mad Demons but Senior Demons..."

There was a short strained silence.

"They won't mind abandoning Taquila?" Agatha questioned as she frowned.

"If a loss is inevitable, they won't care that much."

"I see," Roland said, smiling airily. "Let's do it. Barov, you take care of the City Hall. You know what to do, don't you?"

"Yes, of course, Your Majesty."

Indeed, even if Edith did not make the suggestion of relocating to the Third Border City, Roland was still planning to spectate the unfolding of the war in the hall. Although he could only see a small part of Taquila, this was a very rare opportunity to watch a "live" battle.

"So, everyone, I know what you're all thinking about," Roland announced as he straightened up. Beyond a doubt, everybody would devote themselves to the war that would determine their very survival on this planet after this meeting. He knew it was time for him to make a closing statement. "You're right. We're now very close to our victory. Although few people know about this war, and even fewer understand its implication, I'm sure this war will be remembered by the entire human race at one point in the future! We started preparing for it even before the Battle of Divine Will starts and have successfully kept the demons away from the Fertile Plains. Whether the demons are held up in the Sky-sea Realm or not, we'll win! I just feel sorry that I can't come with you to the front."

The hall was dead silent. Roland could see everyone was excited, their eyes glistening.

"Beat the demons and take Taquila. I'm looking forward to this battle!" Roland shouted while laying delicate stress on each syllable as he surveyed the room.

"As you command!" everyone chorused.

Chapter 1152 - Persuasion

Two days later, the "Seagull" made a slow descent on the runway next to the forest terminus station.

Tilly saw Ashes waiting for her as she got off the plane.

As usual, Ashes immediately came here, although she knew this was going to be a short meeting.

Sometimes, Tilly even doubted whether Ashes had fulfilled her duties entrusted by Roland.

Yet Ashes always said to her, "Don't worry. Leaf is now in the form of the Heart of Forest, so nobody could possibly hurt her. She's always the first person to notify me of your arrival."

"How long are you going to stay here today?" Ashes asked her after the onlookers scuttled away.

"I'll be here until tomorrow morning," Tilly said heavily as she stared into Ashes' smiling eyes. She had promised Roland to persuade Ashes, but now her confidence somehow wavered. "Iron Axe and Edith came here as well. The 'Torch' project is close to its end, so there's a lot to clarify."

"So you're staying overnight..." Ashes mumbled thoughtfully. "Well in that case, let's go to the campsite first. Leaf grew some new fruit that taste really good. I'll set up a bonfire in the evening so that we could have some barbeque..."

Every time Tilly had leisure time, Ashes would instantly fill her schedule.

"Not this time. I have to do a lot of preparation work tonight and probably won't have time."

Deflated, Ashes sighed, "Alright... I see."

Tilly could not help giggling as she saw this invincible Extraordinary be subdued like a punctured balloon. She instantly felt more self-assured. "But I'm not the person who's going to be busy. It's going to be you actually. We'll work together in the next few days, so you have to get prepared."

"Me?"

"Yes, the Special Unit needs you to intercept the demons, so you'll have to pack tonight and go to the front with me tomorrow morning. Of course, we're going to take the 'Seagull'," Tilly said smilingly. "As for Leaf, I'll ask Roland to appoint another person to take care of her."

"..." It took Ashes a while to put herself together. She complained, "You could have told me at the beginning..."

While Ignoring Ashes' protest, Tilly averted her eyes and said, "We don't have time for barbeque today, but we could still have some fruit. Do you care to take me there?"

Ashes immediately extended her hand and said, "Sure."

...

After they returned to their abode at the encampment after dinner, Tilly told Ashes the operation plan drafted by the General Staff.

Ashes seemed to have already predicted that she'll be in the sniper team. However, when Tilly mentioned about the operator of the "Seagull", her face clouded over.

"Don't tell me that you're going to operate the 'Seagull'."

After a moment of silence, Tilly looked up into her eyes and replied, "I'm the best person for this task."

"But Roland promised me that he would take care of you. He would never let you participate in the war!" Ashes flared up. "I need to talk to him —"

"He didn't agree with this arrangement."

"What?"

"Roland didn't agree on this matter," Tilly said. "I volunteered. So, how are you going to stop me? Are you going to tie me up and imprison me in the castle?"

"Er..." Ashes froze.

"Well, Roland would probably do that himself if this was a suicidal mission. But like I said, the 'Seagull' will just act as a contingency plan. Only when Andrea fails to kill the Magic Slayer will we get involved in this operation. Plus, what I need to do is simply drop the God's Punishment Witches off before the demon."

"Isn't it dangerous? This is the Magic Slayer we're talking about —"

"I knew you're going to say that," Tilly cut across her off resignedly. "Do you really think that I'll surpass the Magic Slayer and drop the God's Punishment Witches under his nose?"

"If not, then how are you going to do that?" Ashes asked, her brows furrowed. "The God's Punishment Witches can't fly. If the Magic Slayer doesn't fall for the trick, this plan won't work."

The most important task for a decoy was to convince the enemy that he had a good chance of winning. Otherwise, the Magic Slayer would retreat even faster, and the bait usually took most of the risk during an operation.

"I'm glad that Edith isn't as simple as you are," Tilly said while rolling her eyes. "The demons need the Red Mist, so they won't swagger our way as bold as brass, and we don't need to use the 'Seagull' to lure him. We simply need to cut off his supplies. The Magic Slayer will definitely recharge himself, because he won't be able to flee the plains with his tiny little gas tank. In other words, the God's Punishment Witches are awaiting the arrival of their weary visitor and dragging him into battle. So, Wendy and I will have enough time to come back safely."

Ashes lapsed into a long silence and then spoke hesitantly, "But what if..."

Tilly shook her head and said, "I'm not saying that this plan is completely risk free, but at least the risk is under our control. I've told you that the 'Seagull' is just a part of this plan. I won't put myself in danger unless I'm as silly as you. In fact, the main reason I decided to go to the front is you. I'll never feel settled if I stay at the rear watching you fight!"

"Your Highness..." Ashes said, speechless.

"Say my name!"

"Ti — "

Before Ashes announced the word, Tilly grabbed Ashes by the collar, stretched herself up to her tiptoes, and kissed her.

Ashes felt warmth wash over her.

This was the first time that Princess Tilly had kissed her.

Then Tilly disengaged herself and looked away.

In the guttered candlelight, Ashes saw a fleeting blush on Tilly's cheeks.

"Every time you went on a trip, whether we were living on the Sleeping Island or in Neverwinter, I was always the one left behind, awaiting your return which I don't know will come in a few days or a few months. But it wasn't like this before. Back in the old king's city, we were always together. Then why do we have to part now? Weren't we also in danger when the church hunted us?"

Tilly turned around and gazed into Ashes' eyes. There was a twinge of starchiness in her voice. "I don't want to wait anymore."

From the steely gray eyes, Ashes knew that Tilly had made up her mind.

"I see, but on one condition," Ashes sighed deeply. She knew the Wimbledons were notorious for their temerity.

"I know what you're going to say. Don't force yourself. Make safety your top priority. Roland told me all that... Well, I know what I'm doing. This is all common sense..."

"That's not what I was going to say."

"Huh?" Tilly gaped.

"One more time. This is my condition."

With these words, Ashes pulled Princess Tilly into a hug and lowered her head.

Chapter 1153 - A Real Monster

The following morning, at Tower Station No. 9.

The officers and commanders, after working for more than a week, finally returned to the headquarters at the frontier.

However, Tower Station No. 9 was, technically, not the real frontier now.

Agatha noticed from the map that the railway was now just 15 kilometers away from the ruins of Taquila, and the area within a radius of five kilometers had all been converted to the green "safety zone". The biggest change this week, however, lay in the area three kilometers from the ruin, which was an alarming red color.

"You're finally here," Morning Light, Ferlin Eltek, said as he trotted up to them and administered a perfect military salute.

The army and the rest of the General Staff all rose to their feet and saluted as well, excited and relieved to see their commanders come back.

Agatha was also put at ease when she saw the smiling looks on her coworkers' faces. This meant that the newly-developed red area did not really impact the entire "Torch" plan.

"Well done, everyone. You all did a good job," Iron Axe praised while nodding in satisfaction as he tapped the map. "Ferlin, did the demons send their reinforcements?"

"No, sir," Morning Light replied. "Those are ditches dug by the demons."

"Ditches?"

"Miss Sylvie saw them first. Some demons crept out from underneath the Red-Mist-enveloped ground and started to dig the ditches six days ago. Then Miss Lightning confirmed Miss Sylvie's story and marked the area as dangerous."

Iron Axe, Edith and, Agatha exchanged looks and asked, "Are they trenches?"

"We think so too, because, according to Lightning's map, those ditches, although pretty crude, are very similar to the First Army's trenches. The horizontal ones are three to 100 feet apart and connected to several vertical ones," Ferlin explained as he unfolded a crude drawing in front of them. "The biggest difference is that the demons dug more vertical ditches for retreating purposes, and these ditches almost level, with a differential of less than two meters, so they look tidier than ours."

"They're learning from us," Agatha muttered, unable to help herself.

If what they had heard about the first Battle of Divine Will was true, then it was the second time that the demons had learned from human beings.

"Very interesting," Edith said after she studied the drawing. "Those vertical ditches aren't for retreating. They're for attacking purposes instead."

"Yes," Iron Axe agreed. "The trenches can somewhat block shells, but they can't block the Longsong Cannons. A few trenches won't change anything. The only way for them to change their situation is to attack the First Army."

"That's why they make the vertical ditches so close to us?" Ferlin said with a look of comprehension. "That does save a lot of time when the trenches are so packed like this."

"So, what are we going to do?" Agatha asked.

"Nothing," the Pearl of the Northern Region sneered. "When they're within the shooting range of the cannons, ask the 'Blackriver' to fire. Although it's like putting fine timber to petty use, His Majesty has provided tons of ammunition for us to use in this final battle. I dare them to run right into us against the artillery fire."

Iron Axe turned to Ferlin and asked, "How's the railway construction going?"

"The demons fought back but didn't cause much damage," Ferlin reported. "The Mad Demons know that they can't approach the encampment, so they rarely come close to us. It was mostly the Devilbeasts. However, only 10 to 15 Devilbeasts come at a time, so I guess there aren't many Devilbeasts left in Taquila now. We could have detained more Devilbeasts if the Senior Demon didn't get in our way."

"Did the Magic Slayer come?" Agatha asked as her brows drew together.

"More than once," Ferlin confirmed and nodded. "The battles unfolded pretty much the same way every time. The anti-aircraft machine gun squad first fired at the Magic Slayer, and then the Devilbeasts joined the battle." Ferlin's face turned one shade darker. "Every time I saw him, I felt... I was fighting a real monster."

"What do you mean?" Edith asked in curiosity.

"He always appeared where we were most unguarded. Then we would go into a sort of trance the moment he landed. Now, it should be noted that the soldiers were all wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation at that time," Ferlin said slowly. "If we didn't have a God's Stone to protect us — for instance, those who hid in a bunker, too curious for their own good — we would have panicked outright. The closer we are to the Magic Slayer, the more susceptible we'll be to his influence. When the encampment sank into complete chaos, the Devilbeasts in the sky would dive and attack. Although Sylvie would always notify us beforehand, it's not easy to stop a plummeting Magic Slayer that can't be killed with just one or two shots. The best we've done so far was break one of his arms."

"It looks like that he isn't always lucky," the Pearl of the Northern Region said with a faint smile.

"But the thing is, when he showed up a few days later, his broken arm was healed as if nothing had happened," Ferlin said with a bitter smile. "Well, the demons may have a special treating method as we have Miss Nana, but..."

"But what?" Iron Axe pursued heavily.

"Many soldiers reported to the General Staff that the Magic Slayer becomes increasingly sneaky. It's like he has gradually got the hang of the battle. Before, one machine gun would be enough to block him, but now, we need two or three squads. If we didn't have the God's Stones of Retaliation and the weapons created by His Majesty, he would have... killed all of us just by himself."

"They were like that in the Union age," Agatha said through her teeth. "As long as they're alive, they'll get upgraded in the next battle."

"As long as they're... alive?"

"Senior Demons upgrade through battles. The more severe their injuries are, the more powerful they'll become next time in terms of magic power and combat techniques. They've killed many Extraordinaries. In a way, we helped them improve," the Ice Witch said as she closed her eyes. "Nevertheless, not every demon survived their injuries. He must have some special abilities to heal himself!"

"Are you saying... that he's a Senior Demon with both the cursing power and a self-repairing ability?" Iron Axe asked tersely.

"Very likely," Agatha said resolutely with a hint of steel in her eyes. "Ferlin's right. This is a real monster. If we let him go, we'll have great trouble in the future. So, we must destroy him in this ruined Holy City!"

Chapter 1154 - A Repeated Fate

Agatha, Iron Axe, and Edith departed for the front by train after they disclosed the operation plan finalized in Neverwinter.

The double-track railway had now forked out into four branches for both operation and transportation purposes, with exactly the same setting as the various stations. There would be much more work for the construction team, but headquarters understood that the terminus station, Tower Station No. 10, would probably not come into use for the final battle.

The commanders knew that once the contruction of all the stations were completed, there was nothing the demons could do to turn the table. First of all, it was extremely hard to destroy the "Blackriver" made of steel. Even in the event of a disruption of the transportation system, the army could still sustain themselves with the military supplies at each station while the railroad was amended. Given such circumstances, the demons could no longer defeat human beings by cutting off the supplies, and they certainly could not directly clash with the fortified stations and their firearms. The only way left for the demons was to stop the First Army before the completion of Tower Station No. 10.

In other words, the decisive battle would break out at any time rather than on a specific date.

The railway was now strictly protected by various bunkers, trenches, and fortresses.

Also, as Agatha had noticed, the railroad facing the Holy City had turned at a small angle, which enabled the train to parallel Taquila. Roland suggested that this was the optimal firing angle for the train-mounted guns.

The two armored trains, the "Blackrivers" were now standing magnificently at the end of the railway.

Like two moving fortresses, the armored train were equipped with four revolving gun turrets that would instantly fire when the demons attempted to approach the railway. The 152mm-caliber Longsong Cannon mounted on the top was pointing at the sky in the direction of the Taquila city.

As Agatha ascended the lookout tower at the center of the encampment, she saw the city ruin half-buried in the thick, dense bushes around it.

Forlorn ran through her when she saw the dilapidated city lay woefully below her.

Even though it had been over 400 years, she could still make out the faint outline of the old Holy City from this desolate relic.

"Were you born there?" Edith asked.

Agatha nodded. The memories of the past flooded back to her.

"Congratulations. From today onwards, you're officially a member of the Union."

"You're really the youngest High Awakened in the history of time. Welcome to the Quest Society."

"Wow, you're so amazing!"

...

"Do you know what you're doing? They're all valiant soldiers who devoted everything to the Union. They're just in a coma, and you want to conduct tests on them?"

"You know how slim the chance is for them to wake up. They sustained head injuries! I'm sure they'll prefer offering their bodies to dying in their sleep."

"I can't accept it."

"This is an order signed by Lady Alice. If you can't accept it, then you're free to leave."

...

"Your ladyship, the city is breached. I'm afraid the allied forces couldn't hold up any longer! Let's get out of here!"

"But my sister hasn't come back yet."

"She's a member of the Defending Army and she'll never abandon her post. If you end up dying here, she sacrificed herself for nothing!"

...

"Now, run for your life!"

"But... your ladyship, where can we go? Taquila is gone."

"Never give up. There's still a hope! Climb over the mountain, cross the river, and head to the Barbarian Land... Go re-establish the order!"

...

"Why did you stay? You've still got a chance to live if you leave now."

"I don't have magic, but I know that it's my duty to protect you."

...

"Your Majesty, she's awake."

As the miserable past floated out of her memories, Agatha felt as though she had lived her old life once again.

Agatha had been an outcast in the Union. Although people called her a genius, she had been marginalized by the other witches in the Union due to her attitude toward common people. She had later been further renounced by the Quest Society because of her objection to the God's Punishment Army plan and forced to conduct experiments in secret in the Misty Forest.

Nevertheless, Agatha still deeply loved Taquila.

It was the last human city that had witnessed numerous heroic moments. Thousands of witches and common people had been killed during the battle against the demons, one of whom was her sister, who had taken her perpetual rest beneath one of the fallen city walls.

Agatha, however, did not feel much comfort in her survival. Instead, she felt a surge of heavy guilt weigh down upon her.

Every time she closed her eyes, she heard her dying companions call for help.

Agatha tried to convince herself that she was not a deserter. She survived to avenge her sisters and retrieve the land that had once belonged to the human race.

It was her relentless belief in the God's Punishment Witches that kept her moving forward.

She was living for them.

Two giant skeletons loomed through the ruin. They were the demons' new weapons and also the start of her nightmare.

Agatha looked toward Iron Axe and said, "I have a request."

"Yes," Iron Axe replied while nodding.

"If the First Army could move ten more kilometers toward Taquila, I hope the God's Punishment Witches and I could fire first."

Nothing but thunder and flame could end her nightmare. The roars of the cannons would raze the ruin of the Holy City to the ground, and the relic, along with the remains of her fellow witches, would once again return to the Fertile Plains.

But Taquila would be reborn from the ashes.

...

In the evening of the third day, Sylvie noticed the demons' movements when the construction team managed to extend the railway to around 12 kilometers from Taquila.

A large number of Mad Demons crept out of the Red-Mist-corrupted ground underneath the giant skeletons and swarmed toward their trenches. Then two enormous "shadows" materialized in front of the ramshackle city wall and ambled over to the encampment.

Sylvie immediately realized that they were two huge God's Stones of Retaliation very similar to the God's Stones of Punishment Pillar in the battle at the North Slope. These two humangous stones were as large as some raw ores in the mines and cast a 150-meter-long shadow on the ground, which completely blocked the vision of the Magic Eye.

Instantly, two blind zones in the scouting area were created.

No matter what the demons' intention was, Sylvie knew this must be a desperate struggle from the enemy, as they had dispatched over 1,000 Mad Demons at a time.

This was unquestionably a sign of the final battle.

Sylvie called the underground headquarters at once.

A few seconds later, a shrill, piercing alarm cracked like a whip through the air above the encampment!

Chapter 1155 - The Battle of Taquila (I)

As the alarm went off, the soldiers at the frontier immediately entered the state of high alert according to their contingency plan.

"Hurry up! Drop what you're working on and go to the exit closest to you!" The soldiers responsible for evacuating the encampment yelled as they directed the construction team to the shelters. "Don't push and don't look around! Remember, no matter what happens outside, don't leave the shelter!"

"Shelter No. 6 is full!"

"Same here in Shelter No. 7!"

"Get going. Go to the next shelter. Don't block the passage. All of you, move!"

This was not the first time that they had to evacuate the railway stations. Although the air was filled with the exasperated, short-tempered hollers of the soldiers, nobody was panicking.

Around 2,000 workers ebbed away into the underground bunkers through the exit passages. These bunkers at the rear of the encampment, all built by Lotus, were plastered with steel plates. They could not only provide the soldiers accommodation but could also shield them from spears and machine guns. Even if the outer ring of the defensive line was broken through, the shelters would still remain safe.

After the tidal waves of people receded, darkness soon closed in upon the construction site which had been alive with flickers of light just a moment ago.

"The evacuation is completed. Lights are all off. The First Army is now filing into the encampment," Sylvie informed the other units while casting a quick glance at the surroundings. The observation room above the headquarters was currently the busiest place of the frontier. A dozen telephones lining the table rang continuously. As there were so many messages, the staff only forwarded the most important ones to Sylvie.

Meanwhile, the officers collected information and translated it onto the map to provide references for the headquarters staff.

Sylvie, as the "eye" of the army, had now become the central information hub of the observation room that facilitated the efficient operation of the First Army.

"OK, I see. Miss Sylvie, this is Van'er from the artillery battalion. I hope you could provide us with the demons' location and firing parameters."

"Same request from the 'Blackriver I' and 'Blackriver II'!"

"Hold on a second," said Sylvie as she swept a glance to the front. The "shadows", which were slowly edging toward the army, had just entered the shooting range of 10 miles away from the encampment. Based on their current rate, it might be another five to six hours before they reached their final destination. Therefore, the most pressing issue at present was to learn the operation intention of the demons. What were they plotting and why did they create the blind zones with the God's Stones of Retaliation?

When magic power ceased to work, they had to resort to human eyes for observation.

She picked up the Sigil of Listening and asked, "Lightning, Maggie, can you hear me? Where are you?"

"We just took off. Maggie is above me." Soon, a voice came from the other end of the line, mingled with the shrill alarm. "What happened? Did the demons attack us?"

"It looks like it, but the demons obscured the majority of my vision. I reckon they've used giant God's Stones of Retaliation again."

"Noted. I'll go take a look."

"Leave it to us, coo!"

Compared to what Sylvie saw in the observation room, Lightning viewed the battlefield as something completely different.

She saw firelights gradually shrink as the night pressed on. The distant land was engulfed by a velvety darkness and looked both serene and unfathomable.

The Fertile Plains was still deep in its slumber, without noticing, in the slightest, the upcoming war.

It was almost unbelievable that the demons had already taken actions had Sylvie not warned them.

"Maggie, turn on night mode!"

"Coo, coo, coo!"

The white pigeon immediately expanded, and her body turned into a furry ball. A massive head poked out of the gigantic sphere with two large, glassy eyes that were about to burst out from their sockets.

"Transformation complete. I'm now in the form of an owl, coo!"

"Then, let's go — "

Lightning steadied the "giant owl" perched on her head and flew toward the northeast.

However, Sylvie's voice came out of the Sigil of Listening in a rush as they neared Taquila. "Come back, you guys! The Magic Slayer is coming!"

Lightning shuddered as terror paralyzed her limbs. She managed to suppress her fear before replying with gritted teeth, "Even if he's coming for us, he won't find us that fast. Plus... if we go back now, we won't be able to know what the demons are hiding behind the God's Stones, right?"

"But..."

"Don't worry. He can't get me with just a Stone of Flight. As long as I avoid the anti-magic area, I'll be safe."

Lightning clenched her fists. Her hands started to sweat, but she knew she could not run away from the battle anymore. Over the past half a year, she had slowly come to realize that she would never become a brave person like the God's Punishment Witches. Even that train conductor had more guts than she did.

Nevertheless, she was not fighting the enemy all alone. She knew Maggie, Lorgar, Joan, and many other friends had her back. They had helped her to overcome her fear and start all over again.

Gradually, she had recovered her power. After what seemed to be a long and arduous journey, she had finally returned where she had fallen half a year ago.

Now, she only needed to overcome two more obstacles.

One was to fly past the Magic Slayer, and the other was to...

Strike back as a retaliation!

"Maggie, I'll leave him to you," Lightning unbuttoned her flight suit, stuffed the owl down the front, only leaving its head poking out of the collar, and then accelerated. She could definitely manage to fly at the speed of sound for ten kilometers.

"Be... be careful, the Magic Slayer... s-saw you..." Sylvie's voice came out from the sigil inarticulately as the reception went in and out because of the synchronization of magic power.

Lightning knew that she had exposed her trait. The Magic Slayer could definitely hear the popping and crackling sounds of her passing through the sound barrier.

But she was faster than sound, which meant by the time the Magic Slayer heard her, she was already way ahead of him.

A few seconds later, Maggie spied the Magic Slayer.

"That monster is at your front right, coo!"

Before Lightning could see the Magic Slayer in the dismal moonlight, a haze of black light suddenly overcast the sky!

Without a doubt, the Magic Slayer could see better in the darkness than Maggie. He had not only spotted her but also tried to cut her off. Upon realizing Lightning was way faster than him, he generated the anti-magic area.

Lightning instantly raised her speed to its maximum and started to dive.

For a split second, Lightning felt the grimy and chilly black haze brush past her ankles. The next moment, she had shaken the Magic Slayer off. As she was no longer threatened by the anti-magic area, she straightened up and zoomed across the demons' encampment. The whole encampment then slid into her view.

At the moonlit encampment, Lightning saw the demons were pushing two large God's stone cylinders forward. Like two gigantic bell towers on their sides, the pillars were at least 20 meters long and three meters tall. Behind each pillar were seven or eight neatly lined Spider Demons which were hobbling slowly in the direction of the First Army.

Right behind the Spider Demons were tons of Mad Demons, which were apparently using the pillars as some sort of mobile bunkers.

Chapter 1156 - The Battle of Taquila (II)

After Lightning crossed the encampment, she climbed higher and paused in midair.

"What's the matter, coo?" Maggie asked while raising her head.

Lightning did not answer but turned around and peered down at Taquila. The visibility of this impenetrable blackness was less than 200 meters, and it was a rather hopeless attempt to look for the Magic Slayer under this condition.

But that did not matter.

Lightning knew the Magic Slayer could see her.

Her back was currently facing the moon, so the Magic Slayer would instantly spot her when he stared up.

Nevertheless, he did not come after her.

He knew he could not catch up.

So, he decided to let her go.

In a way, she won!

Lightning took a deep breath, outstretched her right hand with her finger tips still trembling, but she mustered her courage and gave him the finger.

That was the gesture Roland had taught her — a gesture of victory!

Then she whipped around, headed to the First Army's encampment without casting one last backward glance, and told Sylvie everything she had seen.

"A neatly-cut cylinder made of God's Stones of Retaliation? Noted," Sylvie said as she wrote down the approximate size of the pillars and then handed the sheet of paper to Agatha, who quickly figured out the exact location and shape based on the size of the God's Stones. The data was soon transmitted to the observation room.

Although there might be errors in this calculation, at least they had something to rely on now. Sylvie thus made a rough estimate of the location of the pillars and called the Artillery Battalion.

A moment later, there was an earsplitting roar from the Longsong Cannons at the encampment.

Firelights erupted from the muzzle and flitted across the sky like fireflies and pierced the darkness.

As more cannons joined the battle, the encampment became vaguely visible. Sometimes shells streaked in the air like plummeting comets and left long tails behind them.

A long echo of the explosions rent the air and awoke the Fertile Plains from its deep sleep.

"So beautiful, coo..." Maggie mumbled as she stared at the artillery encampment in a daze.

Lightning stood against the wind with her hands clenching into fists.

Now, there was only one more obstacle to overcome.

...

Ursrook hovered in the air and watched mounds of earth rise and fall with an air of detachment. This was the most powerful weapon human beings had invented so far. One projectile could kill a dozen junior demons instantly without even physically contacting them. The iron shards ejected by those projectiles could penetrate armor and sink into flesh even from dozens of meters away.

Even for him, he was not completely sure whether he would survive a direct blow.

In the report submitted to the Sky Lord, he called this weapon "fiery rain".

Apart from that, human beings had also invented individual weapons such as "fire bolt" and "fire fork". Apparently, the evolution of the human race largely relied on fire. The lord believed this was a kind of upgrade, but he was more inclined to viewing such progress as a coincidence. Witches obviously possessed more diverse abilities than common people. Perhaps a singular witch, whose ability was fire control, had finally awakened after several hundred years and helped the human population to master this natural element.

However, even if human beings developed in a direction he did not wish to see, it did not mean there was nothing he could do about it. He could create boulders out of God's Stones to block the fiery rain. Ursrook noticed that God's Stones seemed to be impervious to the impact of explosions. When these projectiles brushed past the stone pillars, they bounced off, without leaving the slightest trace on the pillars.

The real danger lay in the fiery rain that penetrated the pillars and reached the symbiotic demons inside. Their impenetrable armor appeared to be impotent under the attack of the fiery rain and was instantly cracked and collapsed in one blow.

Ironically, the king seemed to have great faith in those pillars that could not feel pain and believed that it was the most epochal breakthrough their kind had obtained so far from the "legacy shards". The stone pillars not only provided far more supplies to the front but also more strategic options. The king believed that 100 such pillars would be sufficient to annhilate the entire human race.

Therefore, 100 pillars was exactly what the lord had given him.

Nonetheless, over the past half a year, not only did he fail to exterminate the human race but their grip on Taquila seemed to have loosened as well. Less than 40% of the pillars were now left at Ursrook's disposal.

If the Sky Lord had not so blindly trusted the king, Ursrook would not have found himself in such a disgusting dilemma.

If those stone pillars were destroyed halfway, he would have nothing but junior demons to fight the enemy.

That would be almost like suicide. Even the stone pillars would break upon the tremendous force of the fiery rain, let alone those unarmored junior demons.

However, Ursrook did not care.

All these sacrifices were for the final victory.

And human beings would have to pay for them.

...

At 10:00 at night in the underground headquarters.

The battle had lasted for three hours. Every five minutes, Iron Axe heard a magnificent crash coming from above that was followed by a cloud of dust showering down from the ceiling.

He heard no sounds other than the roaring cannons from the encampment. It was as though the demons were not participating in this battle at all.

This was so unusual compared to the previous battles he had partaken.

To save ammunition and preserve the cannons, Iron Axe had asked the Artillery Battalion to refrain themselves from shooting too frequently but to aim at the area exclusively behind the black shadow. The problem was that they were unable to see whether the attack was effective through the Magic Eye.

The only thing he could confirm at the moment was that the 152-caliber Longsong Cannons could not destroy the God's Stone of Punishment Pillars. Although the hailing shells significantly slowed down the stone pillars, Iron Axe knew those pillars would eventually recover. He wondered how the Spider Demons mobilize such gigantic monsters.

"Damn it," Iron Axe snapped irritably as he punched the table. "If this occurred during the day, those monsters wouldn't stand a chance!"

The biggest problem for the First Army now was that they did not know where their shells landed, which meant that the soldiers were aiming blankly at the blind zones that stretched around 150 meters, with no feedback to rely on to correct their firing angles.

According to Sylvie, the Magic Slayer was hovering outside the encampment, apparently on the alert for Lightning. Although Lightning was fast, it was essentially very energy-consuming and also dangerous to fly at such a high speed while at the same time infiltrating the demons' encampment to provide information on the landing spots for the First Army.

Yet the soldiers must have some feedback to continue with the operation.

If such information was not provided in a timely manner, they would find it hard to effectively kill the demons.

Of course, the First Army could have directed all the shells to the blind zones to keep the demons at bay. However, if the demons chose to retreat, all their ammunition would be wasted.

Furthermore, it appeared that several Mad Demons that flanked the blind zones and attempted to launch a pincer attack. They were clearly visible to the soldiers, but Iron Axe felt reluctant to waste the ammunition on just a few demons.

"That was why the demons chose to fight at night," Edith said serenely. "This is actually better than I thought. Thanks to Sylvie, we can at least see the enemy in the darkness. Why do you look so restless? It's the demons who should worry."

"I just don't want to waste the ammunition that took us so long to produce," Iron Axe grumbled while frowning.

"Don't worry. They can't go on like that forever. I think the demons know that as well. They'll probably fight back once they are within shooting range of the mortars," the Pearl of the Northern Region said while curling up her lips. "Unfortunately for the demons, they don't know that things will soon change. The moment they enter the shooting range of the flares, we'll have a clear winner of this battle."

Chapter 1157 - The Battle of Taquila (III)

When the two stone pillars crossed the median and were five miles from the encampment, the First Army launched the Detection Balloons and stopped firing.

The Magic Slayer also noticed the change but he could not figure out the intention behind this movement. He knew that the balloons must be used for scouting purposes, but he did not understand how that was supposed to work when it was pitch dark on the battlefield.

When the fiery rain finally stopped, the Magic Slayer instructed his army to accelerate.

After the stone pillars were within four kilometers of the encampment, the Artillery Battalion loaded the cannons and prepared the flare projectiles.

After the first night raid, Roland had instructed the workers in Neverwinter to produce some rudimentary illumination devices. These illumination devices were essentially the same as mortars, except that there was a miniscule parachute attached to the tail of the shell and the gunpowder at the front end was replaced with a mixture of powdered magnesium and aluminium that could burn for a long time. Roland had intended to use the same projectile used to eject mortars to project flares. However, during the test, he had noticed that small-caliber bullets were neither bright enough nor had a great lasting power. Therefore, he had decided to use large-caliber shells instead. Although those shells were still not as bright as sunlight, they were sufficient enough to illuminate the battlefield.

It was actually the First Army's first time using flares in a real battle, which was obviously another suggestion from the General Staff.

When the demons were only three kilometers away from the encampment, Iron Axe ordered the soldiers to fire.

"Yes!" Van'er hung up the phone and shouted, "Shoot flares at the largest firing angle. Ready, go!"

A few explosions filled the air, and soon dazzling orange light dispelled the darkness that had weighed heavily upon the battlefield.

Then more flares rose into the air, ignited, and plunged downward.

Like numerous tiny suns, these flares spilled light across the area within a radius of three kilometers and outshone the moon and stars strewn across the sky.

Now, the soldiers saw the giant stone pillars, the Spider Demons, and the Mad Demons that were once hidden in the darkness!

Even though the flares only illuminated a small area, it was enough for the soldiers to find their targets.

Shells streaked toward the demons behind the stone pillars. It was like the shells knew where they were going! For a split second, the demons were rooted to the ground in shock.

Within the blink of an eye, the demons' encampment erupted in deafening explosions.

...

Ursrook gazed at the "light balls" drifting down from the sky. His expression finally changed.

Now he understood why the humans launched the balloons.

They were no longer flustered and defenseless like they had been six months ago during that night raid as they had learned how to cope with a night battle. The fact that they waited for this moment to implement their new tactic told Ursrook that human beings were no longer the low lives that they used to treat with contempt.

Ursrook, for the first time, realized that human beings can rival them.

He must inform the king of this new development!

This was the decision he made at that moment.

At the same time, Ursrook further confirmed his belief that he must exterminate this army at once and leave it no chance to disrupt their development plan.

He rested his eyes back on the battlefield. Through the fiery rain, he saw a huge gap between his army and the stone pillars that were supposed to be within their shooting range. The junior demons, which were supposed to close in from either side of the encampment, had fallen far behind and failed to provide quick assistance to those pillar-shaped symbiosis.

Apparently, the junior demons were thwarted by the fiery rain. Instead of shielding them from shells, the lit blind zones had become a narrow death zone for the demons.

Was he supposed to destroy those light balls? No... human beings could produce as many of these light balls as they wanted. Plus, he was being watched.

Ursrook accelerated abruptly and tore toward the human encampment!

He dodged a series of fire bolts darting toward him, skidded to a halt in front of a balloon suspending in midair, and grabbed the lookout in the basket by the neck before the latter could escape.

Ursrook's face split into a nasty, contorted smile as he stared down at the horror-struck man. Then he ripped the man apart.

He dropped the body and uttered a sharp, piercing wail.

That was the order to launch the general attack.

Encouraged by Ursrook's power, the junior demons below growled as they came out of hiding and swarmed toward the human encampment.

The entire battlefield was stirred!

...

The First Army had totally controlled the pace of the battle.

The flares in the air lit the area within a radius of three kilometers. As the demons emerged from behind the blind zones, both the mortars and heavy machine guns produced earth-shattering roars.

Since both parties understood that this was the final settlement between the two races, the battle became the fiercest and bitterest they had ever experienced. The Fertile Plains was thus turned into a sort of butcher house as the two powers clashed.

The Mad Demons continuously sent out spears until their arms gave away. Many of them crawled across the battlefield and left a long trail of blue blood as they were indifferent about their broken legs and penetrated torsos.

The same applied to the First Army.

Bullets rained down. Wounded soldiers were soon replaced by new ones. It appeared that nobody cared about the pelting stone needles from the Spider Demons anymore. The only time they ceased to fight was when they reloaded their guns.

This ferocious battle lasted from midnight to dawn.

When the first faint hint of sunlight was visible in the east, dozens of Devilbeasts joined the battle.

This was evidently the demons' last struggle.

The machine gun squads raised their guns and collaborated with the anti-aircraft squads to defend against the demons.

The Magic Slayer rushed into the encampment and attempted to stop the soldiers from firing, but was repulsed by a rain of shells.

It appeared that human beings were now very close to their victory.

By noon, the roars of the guns had stopped.

Agatha and Iron Axe stepped out of the underground headquarters and strolled to the frontier.

The air was impregnated with the pungent smell of gunpowder, but Agatha, for some reason, liked it.

The demons' bodies littered the ravaged meadow that had been, at one point, green and thick.

Their blood trickled down to the ground and soaked the earth. A sheen of ghostly blue light glazed off the bushes and grass the demons had once trodden on.

The Giant Skeletons in Taquila were still standing erect in the distance, but Agatha knew after this battle, the demons could no longer impede the progress of human beings. Men would soon recapture the Holy City.

"We won!" Somebody broke the silence. Agatha did not know whether it was a soldier, a witch, or one of the Taquila survivors. However, this did not matter anymore, because, in the next moment, the encampment erupted into a loud wave of cheers.

This was a victory that belonged to the entire human race!

Chapter 1158 - The Defeat

The celebration did not last long, and all the soldiers soon resumed their work.

The First Army immediately attended to some of the most pressing matters such as treating the wounded, making a statistic report on casualties, mending the railway, and cleaning up the battlefield.

The headquarters knew very well that the victory of this battle did not mark the end of the "Torch" project by any means. Although it now seemed certain that they would recover Taquila and that the demons were very unlikely to renew their effort after this failure, they could never let their guard down. This war would keep going until humans permanently eliminated the Magic Slayer who was now still at large.

Mankind had to leave their jubilant celebration until the final moment when they erected the Graycastle flag at the top of the ruin and when the army safely returned to Neverwinter.

After a heated discussion, the executives at the front reached a mutual understanding that there should be less than 500 demons left in the ruin of the Holy City after this battle, which implied that the demons no longer posed a threat to the First Army.

Their focus should now shift from the construction of Tower Station No. 10 to the ambush operation that specifically targetted the Magic Slayer, as the First Army currently did not need Sylvie to maintain constant vigilance against raids from the demons.

To avoid any new complications concerning this battle, the First Army resumed the bombardment the next day.

As shells showered down, the demons had no choice but to slowly retreat from their trenches to the ruins of Taquila.

In the end, only the Magic Slayer managed to stay close to the defensive line. Nevertheless, as their main target, he could now barely approach the encampment and certainly could not stop the First Army from advancing.

After several fruitless attempts, the Magic Slayer gradually stopped showing up.

On the fourth day of the war, the railroad was finally within shooting range at 10 kilometers.

Agatha, Phyllis, and the other hundred witches were waiting to fire the Longsong Cannons as Iron Axe had instructed.

As the number of the cannons was very limited, Van'er, the commander of the artillery battalion decided to tie the fuses together with ropes so that the witches could fire at the same time.

Every single God's Punishment Witch, born in Taquila, were determined to avenge their fellow companions and rebuild the Holy City. They understood that this was going to be a historical moment that would become a part of human history, although they might not necessarily survive this Battle of Divine Will.

"I have to apologize to you," Phyllis said to Agatha softly as she held the ropes, "400 years ago, I thought it would be a disaster to entrust important tasks to mortals and more than one time, I laughed at you behind your back."

"Yes, many people thought like you back then," the Ice Witch replied smilingly. "And how do you feel about it now?"

"Now..." Phyllis said thoughtfully while curling up her lips. "It's actually not too bad to fight along side mortals."

"Ready — Go!" Just at that moment, Van'er raised his flag.

Everybody pulled the fuses back toward them, and soon thunderous roars reverberated across the encampment. A dozen shells rose, hurtled across the field, and pelted down at the Holy City.

Shockwaves rippled as the explosions took place, swept over the relic of this old city that had witnessed the past 400 years, and blasted the demons hiding in it to smithereens.

...

"It has started," Sylvie muttered.

"Yes," Andrea said indifferently, who could feel the ground quivering even at seven or eight kilometers from Taquila.

It was hard to imagine what suffering the demons had gone through after being continuously bombarded by the Longsong Cannons for a night.

"It has been five days now, right?" Margie grumbled. "Will the Magic Slayer come today?"

"Who knows?" Ashes said, shrugging.

"I want to have hot pot and potstickers in Neverwinter."

"Grrr..."

Somebody's stomach groaned in mild protest as soon as Margie finished talking.

"Well, I'll be also happy to have roast meat and ice cream bread... Aw..."

Ashes thrust some rations into Margie's mouth and said, "Have some rations if you feel hungry. Although it doesn't taste very good, it will, at least, fill you up."

"And please don't forget that we're still on a mission," Camilla Dary added. "You can think about food as much as you like when you're back to Neverwinter. Now, concentrate and get your job done."

"She was tempted, too. She just never understands jokes," Andrea thought to herself while shaking her head, and then rested her eyes back on Taquila.

As the First Army started to strike back, the Special Unit also, as planned, left the encampment, went around the ruin, and crouched down in the jungle to the west of the Red Mist supply line. Since they did not know when the Magic Slayer would retreat, they had to wait in ambush and wait.

The witches were used to living in a harsh environment. To avoid unwelcome attention from the Devilbeasts lurking in the sky, they neither pitched tents nor made a fire. Everyone wrapped themselves up in a thick blanket and spent the night in trees. As for food, they ate wheat cakes to sustain themselves.

Andrea suddenly started to miss the life in Neverwinter. To be honest, when she had moved to Neverwinter with Tilly, she had thought the so-called "home for witches" was just another empty promise made by the ruler, another city in which they were going to take refuge just temporarily. She had been determined to leave with Tilly if the latter decided to relocate again. However, now she was not so sure whether she would stick to her original plan.

In Neverwinter, she slept in a soft bed and had the liberty to try numerous delicacies. There was a constant supply of hot and cold water for a bath, as well as an excellent heating system that allowed her to walk barefoot in winter. She had never lived so comfortably even when had been a noble. Such a leisure lifestyle had nothing to do with extravagance or self-indulgence but was more of a refined and sophisticated culture. Andrea knew Neverwinter had pretty much won her over.

Fortunately, Roland and Tilly got along well at the moment, so she did not need to make a decision anytime soon.

Andrea thought she should request a huge reward from Roland after this mission was over.

Ideally, she hoped the Magic Slayer would stick to Taquila and be blasted into pieces by the cannons. If the Magic Slayer chose to flee, Andrea would then hope she could kill him with one shot of the God's Stone bullet. The worst scenario would be that the Magic Slayer noticed their ambush and zigzagged across the field to dodge their bullets, in which case, they had to resort to their last solution: the "Seagull".

Andrea did not really think that the Magic Slayer would be blasted to pieces or successfully killed in the ambush. Over the past five days during the night battle, the Magic Slayer had kept changing his position above Taquila, which made it extremely hard for her to take the aim. Andrea was not sure whether this was a pure coincidence or that the Magic Slayer was deliberately avoiding her.

"Awwwwww — "

Suddenly, there was a piercing scream that filled the air.

"What happened?" Ashes asked.

"One shell hit the Giant Skeleton!" Sylvie exclaimed. "There's a big hole in the back of the Skeleton. Goodness, that thing... is howling!"

"It can actually feel pain! I didn't expect it to be a living being."

"Red Mist came out of its wound like it's bleeding," Sylvie said while gazing upon the southeast. "The Magic Slayer is charging at us too."

"I wish someone could just shoot him down," Andrea said while spreading out her hands.

"Hang on... No, the Magic Slayer turned around halfway!" Sylvie corrected herself, frowning. "What's going on? The Skeletons are retreating as well. Some demons are attempting to stop them and are being stomped to death. They've lost control..."

After a long silence, Sylvie asked tentatively, "Are the demons killing each other?"

Andrea and Ashes exchanged looks. This was a sign of an utter rout in every way. Did the demons finally break down and lose their morale as they were unable to continue to fight under pressure?"

Their suspicion was soon confirmed by Sylvie.

"The Magic Slayer has fled Taquila!"

Chapter 1159 - The Ambush

"Andrea!" Camilla yelled.

"I, I got it — " Andrea said as she quickly grasped the gun, closed her eyes and concentrated her mind. She muttered to herself, in a hope that the Magic Slayer did not spot her, and then her eyes snapped open!

In a second, her vision contorted, and everything seemed to overlap with each other and elongate indefinitely. She knew she now possessed the vision of the Magic Eye. As numerous trees and the vast land stretching ahead gradually slid into her view, she felt the surroundings instantly light up.

At the same time, she was connected to Sylvie's mind.

By the time the images around her slid into focus, her eyes had been somewhere several kilometers away. A familiar armored figure rushed into her sight, and Andrea could feel the Magic Slayer brimming with heaving power. His power was so thick and strong as though it had condensed into a physical entity.

Unguarded, the Magic Slayer zoomed through the air. Andrea was not sure whether he was too shocked at the loss of Taquila or at the fled Skeletons.

"How's it going?" Ashes asked darkly.

"The Magic Slayer... isn't aware of our presence!" Andrea said in excitement. "He was flying toward the Red Mist supply line, a little east to our shooting range! Load the gun. This is perfect!"

Ashes gave a curt nod and loaded the gun with that huge God's Stone bullet. The bolt produced a gentle click.

The target was at eight to nine kilometers, not surrounded by any other demons. The wind was coming from the northeast. Out of all the shooting conditions Andrea had thought of, this was the most ideal one. She thus took her aim at the Magic Slayer while holding her breath.

Thousands of lines stretched away toward the Magic Slayer, some of them swirling and some twisting. However, most of them immediately faded out, leaving only one silver curve shimmering before her.

Andrea knew that she had located her target.

She felt her magic power inside her dropping rapidly. Andrea knew this would be her only chance to kill the demon!

Andrea clenched her teeth and pulled the trigger.

With an earsplitting explosion, Andrea felt something bludgeon her shoulder heavily and started to sway backwards when Ashes caught her just in time in her arms.

"I really don't like you holding me like this," Andrea protested airily while twitching her lips. Her shoulder was now numb and swollen with pain. Andrea knew she had to seek Nana later for treatment.

One drawback of a large-caliber weapon was its high recoil, which was unavoidable no matter how many buffers installed to the gun. Andrea had already realized during the test that this weapon could only be used once, despite that they could produce tons of God's Stone bullets. The operation was physically and mentally demanding, and the weapon itself was so heavy it was almost all that the Magic Ark could carry.

Nevertheless, Andrea was confident in her superb shooting skill.

Only savages preferred a ferocious close-range combat.

For example, the one who was now pulling her back belonged to that category.

"I hold you back only because of Sylvie," Ashes said gruffly while rolling her eyes. "How did that go? Did the Magic Slayer — "

"Just a minute," Andrea said as she pressed her finger to her lips. "The bullet is still en route."

The silver thread was shrinking rapidly. It was not attached to the Magic Slayer but brushed past him and formed a tiny angle, as though the bullet and the demon were vying with each other for the same destination.

The God's Stone would not deviate from its course once it escaped from the muzzle. The only variable was the target. If the Magic Slayer changed his direction, then all their effort would be in vain. It took 25 seconds for the bullet to reach the Magic Slayer. The only thing she could do now was to pray that the demon would stay where he was.

Gusts of winds continued to push the bullet from the east to the west, making sure that its speed did not drop. Andrea held her breath as the bullet drew close to the demon. For a moment, she even broke her silence.

"Don't move. Don't move. Don't move..." she muttered out loud.

Just at that moment, the Magic Slayer turned around abruptly, and their eyes met!

Andrea was frozen to the spot.

The next moment, the falling bullet landed precisely on the demon's back.

The God's Stone crumbled under immense pressure and splintered into numerous tiny pieces, but the damage was nothing next to what the Magic Slayer sustained.

Andrea had not expected that the small stone would generate such enormous power. The demon's thick armor was ripped open, and his blood and inner organ gushed out like a muddy waterfall from the large hole created by the bullet.

As the hole was too huge, the body of the Magic Slayer snapped in half. The demon rolled over in the air and then plummeted to the ground.

It took Andrea a while to come out of the trance. She swallowed hard and then said, "The Magic Slayer is... dead."

"We did it?" Margie asked jubilantly.

"Yes," Sylvie said on a deep sigh. "The bullet slashed the demon in half. Even Nana wouldn't be able to cure him in such severe condition."

"Good job," Ashes said as she patted Andrea on the shoulder and then instructed over the Sigil of Listening, "Lightning, ask the 'Seagull' to come over here. We're done. Let's head back."

"Got it," Lightning replied quickly.

They immediately dissembled the giant gun and waited for the return of the other unit from the east, ready to pack up and go home. Everyone was glad that the war was finally over.

Except Andrea.

The whole ambush went just as they had planned, except for that last sinister glance the Magic Slayer cast her.

Andrea could still feel a chill lingering on down her spine.

Did he spot her?

How could that be? The Magic Slayer had been eight or nine kilometers away from her, his vision obscured by the jungles between them. It was almost impossible for him to find her. Plus, the demon had not, particularly, attempted to seek her but simply locked his eyes on her directly as if he had known she was there a long time ago.

Further, why had Sylvie not noticed anything unusual when she had seen the demon look backward? Did she think that this incident was too frivolous to have her attention?

Regardless, the Magic Slayer was now dead. Whether it was a coincidence or not, there was no need to further probe into this matter.

Andrea rubbed her forehead and suddenly stopped dead.

She remembered Ashes had been wounded by the Magic Slayer when she had tried to protect Leaf.

"By the way, how long does it take you to heal up minor injuries such as a shallow cut?" Andrea asked while turning to Ashes.

Ashes answered with a shrug, "One to two hours approximately. Why?"

"In other words, you'll feel better in just ten minutes, right?" Andrea pursued while gazing at Ashes avidly. "Are you feeling better now?"

Ashes was mildly taken aback for a second, her hand reaching for her cheeks involuntarily, and said, "That's strange... It still hurts a bit."

Sylvie was the first to realize something went wrong. Horror-struck, she forced herself to reopen the Magic Eye, and fear leavened her exhilaration. "Watch, watch out!"

Ashes yanked out her sword immediately and swung it upwards.

With an almost inaudible clang, a shadow brushed past the blade with such enormous strength it collided with Margie and sent her flying through the air.

No sooner had the other witches realized what had happened than a slender, blue-skinned, manlike demon ambled over.

"Found... you," he drawled complacently.

The very word chilled Andrea to the bone.

To her astonishment, she had not sensed any fluctuation in the magic power since the demon presented himself.

Her heart sank to the bottom as a surge of despair stole through her.

Chapter 1160 - A Trap

"Margie!" Ashes screamed and stepped between the Magic Slayer and the other witches.

Margie responded with a series of hacking cough.

She was still alive, but barely.

"You're pretty fast, Extraordinary," the Magic Slayer said in a calm voice, casting her a sorrowful look which did not usually appear on a demon's face. "If you didn't try to block me, she could have died painlessly. You're only making her suffer."

At this point, Andrea suddenly came to the realization that it was not by a pure coincidence that the Magic Slayer targetted Margie. He had taken everything into consideration before this move, including Margie's limited fighting capacity and her unique ability of maneuvering the Magic Ark. As Margie was the key to their transportation, eliminating her was pretty much cutting off their retreat.

Andrea bit her lip and stole a backward glance at Margie. A bone spear had penetrated her shoulder, blood oozing out of her wound and trickling down the corner of her mouth. Apparently, the spear had hurt her lung. Had Ashes not blocked the demon in time, Margie would have probably died on spot.

Given such circumstances, Margie definitely could not operate the Magic Ark anymore.

But how did the Magic Slayer know Margie's ability?

"You're the 'eye' of human beings, right? You really created us a lot of trouble by directing that fiery rain." The Magic Slayer pointed at Sylvie and then at Andrea, whose heart dropped even faster as the demon continued, "And you must be that genius shooter. You probably wouldn't be able to do much harm to us 400 years ago, but things become different now. You appear to be more difficult than Transcendents. It's good that you've finally met each other."

At this words, he placed his right hand over his chest and then said, "Please let me introduce myself. I'm Ursrook, the commander of the Expedition Corp, as well as the very person who'll give you eternal rest."

Beyond a doubt, this was a well-planned, carefully-calculated trap.

Andrea's face turned a nasty shade of green.

When did they start to associate the Magic Slayer with great magic power?

Right... After Leaf had been attacked in the north of the Misty Forest, everybody had the impression that the Magic Slayer possessed extraordinary power.

In fact, they had started to think that way even before that incident had occurred.

When Lightning had encountered the Magic Slayer for the first time, she had sensed his stupendous magic power, so powerful that everybody just naturally believed that the Magic Eye could easily detect it.

They were thus further misled by their predetermined impression, firmly believing that the Magic Slayer was continuously upgrading himself and that Sylvie had everything under control.

Nevertheless, everything was a false illusion created by the Magic Slayer.

He enticed them out of hiding.

Had he known their plan all along?

But this did not make any sense! Even if the demons noticed Sylvie and Andrea and decided to set up a trap to eliminate them, this Senior Demon named Usrook did lose Taquila and sacrifice thousands of demons on the Fertile Plains! He might not care that much about the lives of his subordinates, but how could he just abandon the ruin? Without the God's Stone, the demons would not be able to erect the Obelisk, which meant they would lose their foothold on the Fertile Plains in the next 400 years. Wasn't the cost a little too dear?

Were they really worth the demon making such a huge sacrifice?

Andrea felt her head swimming as a multitude of thoughts crammed into her head. It was Sylvie who asked the question that bothered her.

"... Why? Taquila should be more important than us!"

The Magic Slayer was surprisingly patient this time. He shook his head and replied tersely, "I can't tell you."

"Can't you just indulge a dying person's curiosity?"

"But you aren't dying," Ursrook jeered. "You aren't giving up even in this desperate situation, are you?"

"What's he waiting for?"

"Is he awaiting his God's Stone of Toss to be recharged?"

His arm did not shrivel either.

Anyway, this was a chance. Andrea swallowed hard. She knew there was no chance for Sylvie, Camilla and Margie to stop the Magic Slayer, but she and Ashes might more or less hold him back, although she barely had any magic power left.

The only person they could now rely on was Lightning.

The fact that she had not shown up yet indicated that she had noticed something wrong. If she could send the 'Seagull' to support them, there would still be a chance to snatch a victory out of defeat!

It would be simply more advisable to play for time by asking more questions.

There were indeed so many questions burning inside her.

At this thought, Andrea turned to the Magic Slayer and asked heavily, "I don't understand... Even if we were misled, it isn't likely that we'll miss a lurking enemy. We checked everything before firing. You were eight or nine kilometers away from Taquila, and you couldn't possibly get here within a second. Where did you hide yourself?"

"We've dug many underground passages over the past years at the rear of Taquila instead of the front," Ursrook answered leisurely. "The entrance of the passage is hidden among the God's Stones, so it's hard to spot. Plus, the passage forked out deep down underneath the ground, so it's perfectly normal that you failed to notice them." He looked up at the sky and said, "Human beings are monitoring the area above, right? You did do a good job. That's why you fell into our trap without realizing it."

"There are passages nearby?" Andrea felt a jolt of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach. "Even though you were hiding underground, it still isn't easy to spot us on such a vast land. We constantly moved from one place to another. How did you find us?"

"I didn't find you. You found me," the Magic Slayer drawled as a malicious smile suddenly flutter over his face. "Right, not only one person saw me... Where's that flying little girl? If you have a plan B, your reinforcements should have arrived by now, right?"

A dreadful leaden feeling prevailed Andrea instantly.

"It sees you the moment you see it" — that was exactly what the Eye Demon did. Had she just shot an Eye Demon? But an Eye Demon should be much larger than the Magic Slayer. Did Ursrook somehow make that decoy have the Eye Demon's ability?

Regardless, this did not even matter now. At this moment, Andrea realized where her uneasiness came from.

There must be demons other than the Magic Slayer hiding underground.

The Magic Slayer must be waiting for his reinforcements so that they could kill them all.

Just then, several grenades whizzed out of the woods and darted toward Ursrook!

The Magic Slayer shot up in the air and dodged the grenades gracefully. The grenades landed magnificently on the ground with an almighty crash.

Before the stirred air around them tranquilized, bullets had hailed down at the Magic Slayer.

Ursrook climbed higher, and his body emanated a ghostly blue glow.

"The God's Punishment Witches are here!" Sylvie exclaimed with excitement.

"Are you all OK?" Zooey dashed out of the woods and stepped between the demon and the witches, followed by the other seven God's Punishment Witches who immediately shielded the defeated witches.

"Go. We have to get out of here — "Andrea shouted at the other witches, having no time to provide further explanation.

Meanwhile, Ursrook slowly raised his arm.

There came two muted, distant whooshes.

Sylvie paled, who knew better what that sounds meant than anyone else. "Watch out. It's the Spider Demons!"

Two gleamy black stone pillars flew past above them and showered down long needles after they exploded.

Andrea summoned what remained of her magic power, whipped the air around them and attempted to wrench the falling needles away.

However, nothing happened. Her magic power was shattered by a black flash.

The Magic Slayer generated the anti-magic area!

Elena, who was closest to Andrea, scooped her up and sprinted up to a tree nearby.

It was a fraction of a second that seemed to stretch into years.

Andrea felt her body rising and her eyes streaming. By the time she finally landed, her legs were numb.

Chapter 1161 - A Slim Hope

"Don't move," said Elena.

With another two whooshes, one stone needle was slashed in half. The numbness gradually dissolved into an excruciating pain that seared through her legs.

Andrea clenched her teeth, managing to suppress her groan. As she looked up, she saw thousands of needles rain down where everybody had stood a moment ago. Had the God's Punishment Witches not come to their rescue, they would have probably been dead by now.

Nevertheless, even for the God's Punishment Witches, it was hard to avoid all the showering needles. One stone needle had forced its way into Andrea's legs and knees and penetrated them obliquely. Through furled flesh, Andrea could vaguely saw her bones. Her pants were soaked in blood.

Elena was no better than her. One needle reached her stomach. Fortunately, the God's Punishment Witches could not feel pain, which enabled Elena to still concentrate on the fray.

Within a few seconds, perspiration ran down Andrea's forehead. She forced herself to gulp down one of the painkillers produced by Leaf, struggling to pull herself together.

Ashes was now fighting the Magic Slayer strenuously.

Everyone looked a little unkempt and windswept after this narrow escape. Many sustained injuries. They definitely could not dodge a second round of stone needles.

Just then, there was a clattering of footsteps coming from the depth of the forest.

Andrea realized that there must be some other demons other than the two Spider Demons awaiting them.

However, bounded by the wounded witches, the God's Punishment Witches could not commit themselves totally to the battle.

The situation was precarious.

Andrea grasped Elena's hand and croaked, "Head to the west, before it's too late!"

"West?" Elena echoed, momentarily stunned. "But the First Army is in the south..."

"I don't think we can go that way anymore. The demons must be waiting for us there. The only place in which we could take refuge is the Misty Forest in the west — " There were probably numerous well-prepared, fully-recharged demons down in the underground passages. If they rashly ran into their ambush, they would be doomed. Although the Misty Forest was far away from the First Army, at least the demons would have to travel a long way to pursue them.

It suddenly dawned on Andrea that the Magic Slayer was probably not waiting for his reinforcements but was waiting for his army to assemble. Their underground passages must have covered every inch of the land so that the witches would not have a single chance to escape.

The demon army probably had taken action when the decoy had flown out of Taquila.

"I see," Elena said while nodding and informed her fellow companions.

Meanwhile, Ursrook successfully dodged all the grapeshots whizzing toward him whilst gliding along the outer ring of the defense effortlessly. He conjured gusts of wind that consumed the witches' energies. A shield of blue light protected him from harms in any form. Apparently, singular shots could not cause him serious injuries.

When all the witches were congregated, the Mad Demons arrived at the forest.

"Look out for the spears!" Ashes yelled as she slashed a bone spear flying toward her in half.

The God's Punishment Witches, on the other hand, threw more grenades to defend against the hailing spears. For a moment, there was quite a commotion at the clearing.

Andrea knew that their greatest crisis had yet to be resolved.

She snatched the Sigil of Listening from Ashes and shouted at Lightning, "Find and kill the two Spider Demons!"

"But — "

"Only you and Maggie can do it. Go! You'll help us a lot if you succeed!"

The Spider Demons typically projected stone needles every seven or eight minutes. It had been three minutes since their last attack. If they failed to eliminate the Spider Demons before their second shot, they would all be killed on the battlefield.

"And ask Tilly to run!" Ashes added, without looking back.

"I..." Lightning hesitated but finally chose to obey. She said through gritted teeth, "Got it. Please hold on, you guys!"

"Of course we will," Andrea said as she summoned a bitter smile. "We haven't given up yet..." With these words, she turned to Elena and said, "Give me a weapon!"

"Are you sure?" Elena asked, her brows drawing together. "You'll slip off my back if you don't hold tight."

"Don't worry. I'll be perfectly fine with just one hand."

She then took the bolt rifle from Elena, pulled the bolt between her teeth and loaded the gun, after which, she propped her hand on Elena's shoulder, ready to fire. Even though she lost her legs, blinding with pain, with scarcely any magic power left, she was still a formidable sniper.

Savage Ashes was still fighting fiercely.

How could she surrender?

...

"Lightning... what should we do, coo?" Maggie asked anxiously.

"Stay calm," Lightning said as she watched dozens of Mad Demons sprint in the forest and thick smoke coil in the distant sky. She forced herself to concentrate. Andrea was right. Her only strength was her tremendous flying speed. She could not let the Magic Slayer block her power again.

A great explorer should learn to maintain his composure and carefully analyze the situation. Since she could not provide much assistance in helping the witches retreat, killing the Spider Demons seemed to be more practical. To kill these monsters housed in stones, she had to utilize the grenade propellers newly developed by His Majesty.

"You go find the Spider Demons, and I'll contact the 'Seagull'. Princess Tilly has the weapons we need!" Lightning instructed curtly after making up her mind.

"Got it, aw!" Maggie yelled as she turned into a gray goshawk and shot high up in the air.

Lightning raised her speed to the maximum. Within a blink, she had reached the glider far away from the ambush field.

"Where are they? How's the plan going?" Wendy asked apprehensively as she pulled back the cabin door.

"There's no time to explain. I need the spare weapons!"

Lightning crept into the cabin and fastened the propeller and the grenades to her back when Tilly asked, "Things aren't going well, right?"

Lightning nodded and said hesitantly, "Yes, Ashes asked you to leave as soon as possible."

"I see. I'm leaving right away."

Lightning and Wendy were both frozen for a second.

"Because my stay won't help her with anything but only give her more pressure..." Tilly said, a tinge of tremor in her voice as though she was fighting back her words that were threatening to come out. "My instinct is telling me that it's best to return to the campsite."

"Your Highness..."

"But tell her that I'll come back! The 'Seagull' will soon bring new reinforcements. Tell them to hang in there just a little longer!"

Just then, a goshawk wailed in the distance.

"I'll let Ashes know," Lightning promised as she leapt out of the cabin while casting Tilly one last glance.

The weapons on her back weighed her down. Lightning dropped around ten meters before she was able to steady herself. If the Magic Slayer came after her again, there would be no chance for her to escape this time.

She needed to trust her friends and be brave!

Lightning took a deep breath of the cold air and zoomed in the direction Maggie had pointed out.

30 seconds later, she caught sight of her target — a Spider Demon that lay flat on the ground, slowly spewing out obsidian. The ground underneath it had sunk a few inches, forming a large dent, at the bottom of which she could vaguely see a few small holes that appeared to lead somewhere else.

Two Mad Demons were guarding the Spider Demon. Lightning hurtled low over the treetops, aimed at the crooked monster, whose armor was flown open, totally unaware of the danger above, and pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.

With a moderate clang, the grenade sank into the Spider Demon diagonally. The heat generated by the high-explosive shell instantly penetrated its stomach, crushing its veins and muscles underneath the obsidian!

With a horrible, bloodcurdling wail, the Spider Demon collapsed.

Chapter 1162 - The Last Struggle

The Mad Demon guards howled with rage, snatched up their bone spears, and their arms began rapidly expanding.

Lightning would have dropped the weapons and fled immediately if this had occurred in the past. However, she was now well aware that there was one more Spider Demon to kill. The only way for her to avoid the infuriated Mad Demons would be to distract them.

She thus flew straight upward and flitted past the treetops. The moment she fluttered out of the sight of the demons, she turned around abruptly and streaked across the forest. At almost the same time, two bone spears darted up toward her through the dense branches and twigs and whistled by.

Lightning heaved a deep sigh of relief, wheeled around, and headed straight to her next target as Maggie instructed.

Her heart, however, plummeted to the bottom of her chest as she felt a surge of ominous feeling when she saw the second Spider Demon.

The Spider Demon was about to shoot, its stone pillar aloft in the air and its intertwined veins emanating a venomous blue glow!

Yet Lightning had yet to load her gun.

It was too late.

"Maggie, distract it. Stop it from shooting the stone pillar!"

"Owh!"

The goshawk, which had been hovering above the forest, plunged and soon transformed into a giant Devilbeast as it dropped.

The Mad Demons guarding the Spider Demon were confused as they were pressed to the ground.

Maggie's enormous body crashed into the Spider Demon with a loud bang similar to a gunshot. Obscured by the dust in the air, the Spider Demon stumbled, swung sideways, and almost slumped to the ground on his back.

Just at that moment, the stone pillar left the Spider Demon and hit the Mad Demons who had lost their balance. The pillar swept over the ground, hurtled straight into the forest at a horrific speed, and rolled upon the ground before it came to a complete halt a few yards away. It snapped into pieces as it struck the ground and created a fan-shaped clearing in the dense forest.

"Nicely done!" Lightning exclaimed as she loaded the gun and took aim at the Spider Demon, which was now struggling to straighten up in the earnest with its legs flying in all directions. Nevertheless, Lightning would not let it do so.

The grenade landed precisely on the Spider Demon's stomach. The flames and heated air resulting from the explosion created a large hole on the other side of the demon's body.

After confirming that the Spider Demon was immobilized, Lightning hoisted up Maggie, who had returned to her normal appearance, and asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine! I used the biggest muscle on my shoulder to strike it!" Maggie said with confidence as she rolled up her sleeve and swung her arm casually. Her face, however, instantly screwed up in pain as she shot her hand upwards.

"It appears that your muscle isn't strong enough..." Lightning said softly while stroking Maggie's head. "I'll feed you a lot of barbecued meat in the future so that next time, you won't get hurt. But now, I need you to hold up a little longer. Can you do that for me?"

"Yes!" Maggie said while nodding vigorously.

"Then come on," Lightning said as she crouched down and placed the pigeon on her head. "Let's go help the others in the name of the Neverwinter Exploration Group!"

...

"Bang!"

Andrea pulled the trigger and shot down a demon who had just poked its head out.

How many had she shot?

Her jaw was numb with pain. She could taste the blood between her teeth and felt chipped metal scrubbing her tongue. She was not sure whether it was rusty iron or her own broken teeth.

"Perhaps dozens?"

Andrea believed she had shot down at least ten demons. However, the demons did not retreat but, on the contrary, retaliated even more fiercely.

The Mad Demons, whom she had never taken very seriously before, suddenly became very difficult enemies. Since there were so many of them, they attacked the witches from various directions. Andrea was glad that she had this advanced weapon, otherwise It would have been almost impossible to stop them.

Technically, the forest was not an ideal place to have a gunfight since the Mad Demons could easily dodge bullets while throwing spears at them between the trees. The God's Punishment Witches equipped with firearms but no shields, on the other hand, could only rely on their physical combat skills to avoid the demons' attacks.

To make things worse, there was also a high level Senior Demon, probably transformed from the Lord of Hell, that was apparently a lot weaker than Ursrook in terms of magic power but with a more sturdy, muscular physique. It had developed the nasty habit of using trees as its weapons. Every time it unrooted a tree, the God's Punishment Witches needed to work together to block the attack. Meanwhile, it also constantly built mounds of earth to protect the other demons. As a result, the joint attack of both the Senior Demon and the Magic Slayer significantly slowed the witches down.

Andrea repeated her movement mechanically. She loaded the gun, took the aim, and then shot. She was slowly losing track of what she was doing as pain and fatigue washed over her.

"Andrea, watch your right-hand side!" After two rounds of spearing, Sylvie yelled.

A group of Mad Demons distracted the God's Punishment Witches. The Magic Slayer wrenched himself free from Ashes' giant sword and streaked at Elena and Andrea like a ghost.

Andrea raised her gun, but Ursrook sliced her weapon in half with a knifehand strike.

Then there came the second blow.

Everything seemed to freeze in that split second. Andrea saw a ghostly blue light erupt from the Magic Slayer's clawed hand as it was about to swing down at her.

It was over.

She braced herself for death as she was paralyzed by fear.

Nevertheless, death did not visit her this day.

At the last moment, Elena whipped around and took the full blow.

The cut reached Elena's ribs and inner organs. Even though she was a God's Punishment Witch, it was impossible for her to continue to fight.

Elena fell to the ground.

"No — " Zoe shouted, who turned around and fired at Ursrook furiously. The Magic Slayer failed to dodge such a close-range shot. His shield finally shattered and his body was covered in bullet holes from which blood spurted out.

To Zoe's surprise, the Magic Slayer leered. He flew through the air backwards and planted his hand into his body, as though he did not feel any pain. His wounds immediately healed by themselves as his magic power welled up.

"Monster..." Sylvie, who saw everything, mumbled involuntarily in despair.

"I kill to improve and upgrade. It's very impertinent to call me a monster," Ursrook said with an air of irony as he returned to the other Senior Demon and took a gas tank from the latter. "Your every single wound and all the energy you've lost will nourish me! You should have foreseen your failure. Stop struggling, for it'll only increase your pain. If you yield now, I will grant you a painless death as a reward for your valiance!"

"Go to hell!" Zoe snarled. "I'll never yield to a demon, even if I have to die over and over again. I'll tear you into pieces!"

Andrea, however, did not hear the conversation. Everything, including the gunshots, the growls, the screams, and the warnings, seemed so far away from her. She slowly crawled to Elena and held the latter in her arms, muttering, "Why did you... save me?"

"Aargh..." Elena coughed out blood and murmured with a faint smile, "I should have been killed years ago. I lived longer than I should simply because I want something in return. We've reached our limits, but you still have great potential. Doesn't that give me a good reason to save you?"

While looking at grief-stricken Andrea, Elena gently stroked her cheeks and said, "Don't be sad. I don't feel pain at all. Really, it's nothing. I'm just... a bit... tired."

Her voice gradually trailed away and her breath became deep and steady as if she had fallen asleep.

Andrea held Elena's hand reassuringly. Her vision blurred.

Presently, the witches had completed stopped. Two more God's Punishment Witches were down, and the demons slowly closed in.

"Are we going to end up dying here?"

Andrea felt her strength start to escape her. A surge of giddiness flooded over her, and she lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Dark clouds scudded across the sky, a premonition of an upcoming storm.

In the overcast, leaden sky, she dimly spied a fleck of gold glimmer through the thick clouds.

This was the last thing Andrea saw before she lost her consciousness.

Chapter 1163 - Transcendent

...

Ashes noticed that her movement became faster.

She could have stopped the bone spear that had severely injured Margie had she swung the sword a little faster.

She could have stopped the Magic Slayer from attacking Elena had she moved a bit faster.

She could have blocked all the attacks from the Mad Demon had she been a little faster.

Her magic power currently running wild in her body strengthened every inch of her muscles and bones, creating a burning sensation on her skin. The pain somehow made her even more concentrated.

If only she could be a little faster!

Ashes had, once again, stepped into the same realm she had entered during her first encounter with the Magic Slayer. Indeed, she was even faster. Time seemed to move at a much slower pace. She could see every single detail of the battlefield, such as the tiny cracks on bone spears, the puddle underneath the demons, Margie's heaving chest, Zoe's trickling blood and so on. She could kill and rescue almost at the same time.

Ashes felt the surrounding magic power swarming into her and spreading all over her body. She reckoned this might be what Agatha referred to as an upgrade. Perhaps, it was about her time. The converging magic power not only strengthened her physically but also sharpened her senses, enabling her to fight two Senior Demons concurrently.

But she could not beat them.

"Clang!"

The giant sword clashed with the Magic Slayer's arm, sparks flying off the blade.

"What's the matter? Is this the fastest you could get?" Ursrook jeered as he streaked back before Ashes could give him another blow. "Your friends will die if this is all you can do. Perhaps, you're planning to abandon them?"

Ashes ignored his sarcastic comment and swung her sword at a spear zooming toward her.

"Don't listen to his nonsense. That freaking monster is trying to provoke you into madness!" Zoe advised, panting, as she loaded the gun with the rest of the few bullets. "If you fall for his trick, we'll lose."

"I understand," Ashes said, nodding calmly.

It was clear that the Magic Slayer attempted to break through her defense in collaboration with the scattered Mad Demons, who came up to her at a gallop against the gunfire. Their seamless cooperation forced Ashes to remain extremely focused throughout the whole battle.

The 100 Mad Demons at the Magic Slayer's command were perhaps the best soldiers in Taquila. They had yet to completely defeat the witches simply because the eight Taquila witches were also skillful and experienced combatants.

But the Magic Slayer was right about one thing.

This was the fastest she could reach.

Every inch of her skin was on fire at the moment, which was the exact sign of a power rebound. Ashes, who had been training herself on a regular basis, had never experienced such a backfire before. She could have escaped from the battlefield and recuperated until her body adjusted itself to the new power intensity. By that time, her skills would have definitely improved by leaps and bounds.

Yet time did not permit her to do so.

She could not save everyone but only herself.

She needed to do something more than this to pull them all out of the dilemma.

Perhaps, Alice, the Queen of Witches, would also feel lost if she were in her current position.

"You're an Extraordinary. You were born to have great potential. However, it requires a heart of steel to overcome and upgrade yourself." Phyllis' words suddenly came floating out of her memories. "As far as I know, all the Transcendents in the Union upgraded in battles, and those who couldn't successfully become Transcendents were all eventually killed by the demons. I hope you won't be one of them."

It wasn't until then that Ashes realized it was totally a different story to suit the action to the words.

She was now facing two options. One was to stay alive and reunite with Tilly, whereas the other was to upgrade herself and enter a new realm never achieved by human beings.

To enter this new realm, she had to burn herself.

"If we plan to use our magic power to achieve something, it would guide us in the direction we desire." Phyllis' voice was misty and distant as though coming from Heaven. It was like a long echo of murmur, a muted thunder rolling over the sky.

"What are you aiming to achieve exactly?"

"Look here. Fire!"

BOOM!

The silent battlefield suddenly erupted into another roar, followed by a shrill scream of the demons.

Ashes looked around and found Lightning just join the battle!

The grenade caught the Mad Demons offguard and sent them flying straight through the air. The two closer demons were instantly penetrated by the flying shells and lost their fighting capacity.

"Awh — " A gigantic Devilbeast emerged from the woods and bit the demons that charged at Lightning whilst pushing through the dense trees.

Under the joint effort of Lightning and Maggie, the number of the Mad Demons was soon reduced to five or six.

"Hold on. We are coming to help you, awh!"

"Annoying buzzing flies," the Magic Slayer mumbled, frowning, who turned away from Ashes to Lightning and Maggie.

The other Senior Demon thus took its superior's place, holding a large tree.

In the meantime, two bone spears cleaved the air, one aiming at staggering Zoe and the other Andrea on the ground.

It happened again.

If she ignored the Magic Slayer, Lightning would be in danger. If she went after him, then she would not be able to save the others.

Since a fast speed could no longer solve the problem, she had to resort to power that transcended the speed.

At that moment, Ashes made her decision.

Perhaps, she had already made her decision on the numerous nights she had spent at Neverwinter with the other witches, on the very evening she had conversed with Phyllis, and when Tilly had said "compared to the avenger you, I prefer the current you".

"Sorry, Tilly."

Ashes muttered as she stepped forward.

"What are you aiming to achieve exactly?"

"I want to protect them."

In an instant, she "saw" a roaming sea of magic power beyond any languages. Thousands of eyes were watching, murmuring, through the rushing currents.

Ashes lifted her limit and accepted all of them.

...

Ursrook was suddenly alarmed halfway.

He whipped around and saw Ashes point her sword at the sky, its blade basking in a haze of golden light.

The moment that golden light hit his eyes, Ursrook felt his move suddenly become incredibly slow as if a swamp underneath were dragging him down.

He was not the only person who became slower.

The air seemed to grow thick and heavy as well.

Ursrook had had similar experiences before, but he did not expect it to happen at this moment.

How could that be possible?

This was not the power of a Magic Stone but of the witch herself!

He strained to stare up, half hoping that he was wrong, but the dazzling golden light above him clearly showed that this strike was going to be even more powerful than the one from that red-haired witch.

There was no chance for him to dodge it.

If the sword struck him, he would die.

Realizing what was going to happen, Ursrook mustered all his strength and generated the anti-magic area.

Precisely at that moment, Ashes' sword thrashed down.

A jet of blinding flash cracked through the air and lit up the entire continent.

...

Lan's eyes snapped open.

She rose to her feet, passed the people in complete stillness and walked slowly to the window.

This world she was living in had not awakened yet. Everything had lapsed into a trance, including the outpouring rain outside the window and the champagne ready to fill the glass. They were all suspending in the air, forming a part of the background behind her.

There should not have been any sounds in this world when even time was frozen.

However, in this impenetrable, velvety blackness, she heard thunders roar in the distance.

Lan pushed open the window and gazed upon the distant sky in silence.

...

When Lightning's vision have restored from dazzling light, she discovered, to her dismay, that the trees around the clearing had been burned to the ground. Wisps of smoke spiraled up horribly, and the air was heavy with a pungent smell.

"What just happened?"

All she could remember was that a Mad Demon lurking behind a tree had lunged at her when her focus had been solely on the Magic Slayer. She had thus no choice but to throw the propeller at it, in an attempt to stop the demon. The next moment, she was enveloped by a beautiful haze of golden rays.

But now, all the Mad Demons were gone, leaving the two Senior Demons alone on the battlefield.

The one transformed from the Lord of Hell slumped in a heap on the ground, its thick skin burned and cracked, almost dying.

The Magic Slayer was no better than his fellow companion, half of his body completely gone, black lights etching into his wounds. He was rooted to the ground, but for some reason, Lightning was utterly petrified by what she saw.

"Right... Ashes!"

She quickly looked around and breathed out a sigh of relief.

Ashes was still standing there, her sword in her hand, guarding the other witches.

"Are you OK — " Lightning asked as she flew to Ashes but the latter immediately cut across her.

"Get everybody out of here. Stay as far away from here as possible!"

"Huh?"

"Do it! Leave them to me, before I lose control!"

Ashes' voice cut through the air with a hint of starchiness, forcing Lightning to swallow down what she was about to say. It thus suddenly occurred to Lightning that Ashes simply did not want anybody to interfere with the battle between her and the demons. As Lightning gazed into Ashes' golden eyes, she somehow understood what heavenly thunder stood for.

Lightning thus asked Maggie to transform back into the Devilbeast and helped everyone onto Maggie's back. Although it was now impossible for Maggie to fly in the sky, she could still run at a fairly decent speed on the ground.

A moment later, both Lightning and Maggie disappeared into the forest.

After running about 100 meters, Maggie asked, "How did Ashes receive divine revelation? She's not having a Sigil of God's Will with her."

"I don't know either, but I'm sure about one thing," Lightning broke off, her hands clenching into fists in excitement. "She's now a Transcendent!"

Chapter 1164 - A Destiny without a Choice

Dark clouds continued to converge and overspread the sky. A jet of flash cracked through the air every now and then, followed by muffled thunderbolts.

Ashes could no longer hold back the blood in her mouth after Lightning and Maggie left with the other witches. Her legs started to give away, and she leaned on her sword to maintain her stance.

Her magic power was almost exhausted after that deadly blow. Although more magic power swarmed into her body, she could not control it. Every single vein in her body was screaming protests. The pain resulting from the power rebound was unbearable.

She did not know how long she could hold up, but she knew she could not back away.

Otherwise, all her efforts would be wasted.

The thunderbolts had indeed severely injured the Magic Slayer.

Half of his body where the Stone of Flight was embedded vaporized. His movement should have largely restricted and his power ebbed away.

However, Ashes did not feel such a change.

She could still sense the lurking danger around her, and she knew perfectly well that the Magic Slayer was still able to fight.

That was why she had asked Lightning to get everybody out of here.

The stormy magic power was actually a combination of both Ashes' and the Magic Slayer's.

"Rise. You must finish the enemy before he finishes you!"

Ashes slowly got to her feet, her teeth clenched, and very painfully, took a step forward.

Just then, the burned Senior Demon also gradually straightened up.

"Damn it! Is it still alive?"

Ashes had directed her blow mainly to the Magic Slayer. She did not, however, expect that the other Senior Demon would survive such a magnificent strike that would normally be fatal to regular Mad Demons. Had she foreseen such a result, she would have aimed at that Senior Demon as well.

She was mildly surprised that the Senior Demon neither fled nor launched itself at her. Instead, it waddled toward Ursrook and stopped.

"What is it doing? Does it want to protect the Magic Slayer?"

Ashes' hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

"Very well. Then I'll send both of you to hell!"

...

As the light penetrated the anti-magic area, Ursrook heard someone call upon him deep down inside.

In that split second, he sensed a queer connection.

Through the blinding golden light, Ursrook saw something more profound, something that he had been yearning to obtain, a realm that had denied him.

He glided through, and his feet thus imprinted on the unknown land. This was a crucial step that marked the difference between him and the lord.

However, they were now equal!

He had made so many sacrifices to defend Taquila and ambush the witches. He had even disobeyed the Sky Lord's order.

But everything was worth it!

As he embraced the power from the Realm of Mind, Ursrook connected his thoughts with his junior guard's immediately.

"Sir, you... you upgraded!" the guard said ecstatically but its voice quickly tailed away. "But I'll soon return to the Origin of Magic and can't... stay with you anymore."

"No, not yet. Actually, I'm very close to the upgrade, but the divine power hit me, so I can't complete my upgrade by myself."

"What... what can I do for you?"

"Abandon yourself to me."

The guard's face lighted up. "Is that all? Leave it to me, sir!"

Ursrook knew that he could have made an attempt to go beyond the limit of the Magic Stone and merge with the Origin of Magic, just as the Extraordinary had done. However, he was not sure about the possible consequence and would rather go in a more conservative way.

Their minds quickly disconnected. When the junior guard struggled to stand up, the Extraordinary also slowly drew up to her full height.

No... he should not call her an Extraordinary anymore.

After over 400 years, there was finally a new Transcendent.

It was obvious that the new Transcendent was trying to recover her strength, which provided him a great opportunity to complete the upgrade.

The junior guard finally stopped in front of Ursrook, its breath feeble like guttered candlelight, but its mind became clearer than ever.

"Sir... will we really be relieved from the fate, win the Battle of Divine Will and reach the inhabited Heaven one day?"

"We will. I promise," Ursrook said, and then he announced the guard's name, "Tartarus."

Tartarus' eyes glistened before the light in its pupils extinguished. "Please, take me with you — " it murmured.

Then the guard got to its feet abruptly and dived its finger into its skull!

...

Aghast, Ashes smelled a great crisis.

The Senior Demon pulled out the magic stone from its head as it howled, along with a large chunk of flesh, and inserted it into the Magic Slayer!

The black light around the Magic Slayer's wound instantly expanded!

She suddenly remembered Roland's words: demons upgraded through Magic Stones. Did Ursrook plan to upgrade himself by taking his guard's Magic Stone?

Anyway, she had to stop them.

Ashes, once again, directed her magic power to the sword, despite the excruciating pain she was suffering.

Another thunder erupted from the sky. When her power reached its peak, Ashes swung her sword a second time.

It was a relatively moderate strike, but golden thunder once gain cracked through the clouds and lashed out to the demons.

Ursrook shrieked, a new arm growing out of the black light around him and stretching out to the thunderbolts.

The explosion generated by the clash of the two powers exhaled a cloud of dust that obscured the vision of both parties.

Ashes' heart sank when the sky gradually cleared up.

The Magic Slayer appeared to be unscathed, and he seemed to have recovered from his previous injuries. His new arm was a lot thicker than his old one, two long thorns sprouting from his shoulders and elbows, which were very similar to the limbs of the dead Senior Demon.

But he looked far more menacing than before.

"I have to admit that you're a real genius out of all the witches I've met. You not only exceeded the greatest witch in the human history but also opened the gate of the Realm of Mind. For a race which only has a lifespan of less than 100 years, it's very impressive," Ursrook drawled as he stretched out his clawed hand, ripped the Senior Demon's body apart and planted the blood-stained gas tank into him. "Unfortunately, you aren't the only genius here. We live much longer than you and have survived several Battles of Divine Will. I understand it's unfair, but that's your destiny."

"I'm afraid that your game is over." With these words, he lunged at Ashes.

Chapter 1165 - The Eye of A Storm

The earth shook under the two's violent clash.

Swords met, as they sent off flashes of light to the surrounding forest. The black light covered the surface of the Magic Slayer and shielded the strikes of the golden thunderbolts. The turbulent magic power brought about a sudden downpour, and the two battling individuals became the eye of this unexpected hurricane.

Both Ashes and Ursrook had exceeded their limits. Their movements became a blurry swirl of light and shadow that slashed through the thick veil of rain, leaving a long mark in the air. Raindrops spluttered and flew off under the impact of the shockwaves. The battle was so intense it was as if two giants were wrestling with each other.

Ashes knew that she had completely lost control over her magic power. It was dissolving her flesh bit by bit, and now she was numb with pain all over that gnawed her skin as a result of the power rebound.

This was definitely not a good sign. Numbness were usually followed by a mental breakdown as well as a decrease in her ability to control her body.

In fact, she was now unable to direct the thunders to a specific spot. The avalanche of her raging magic power was breaking her body and gradually led her to the brink of collapse.

"I see. So this is the consequence of a direct merge with the Origin of Magic." The Magic Slayer looked weary. He wiped the blood off his face after fending Ashes off and said, "You've attained extraordinary power, but such power also consumes you. I'm very curious about what you will become if things go on like that. Will you be reduced to ashes? Or will you lose your humanity and become a mindless monster?"

"Whatever I will become, I'll first kill you." Ashes said darkly as she shook the water off the blade.

"With what? Faith and persistence?" Ursrook sneered. "That does sound like something humans would say. Unfortunately, the past hundreds of years have taught me that they are worthless as petals in the wind."

Ashes did not answer but charged at the Magic Slayer with the giant sword in her hand.

After a short but fierce battle, Ashes had a better understanding of the Magic Slayer's power. The chance of her beating the demon was slim. As the Magic Slayer slowly adapted to his new body, his movements became swifter while his strikes became more powerful and skillful. It appeared that he had regained the control of the pace of the battle, for Ashes felt it increasingly hard to hit her target. Such a consistent yet terrifying change made her truly realize how far a true genius could possibly go.

The only way to kill him was to generate divine power. Ashes did not know how she could have received divine revelation even without a Sigil of God's Will. She only knew her magic power had responded to her and transformed into a golden thunderbolt at her command.

Nonetheless, one thunderbolt was not powerful enough to cause fatal injuries to the Magic Slayer. It could only blast away half of his black light and add a few new cuts on him. She would have to repeat the thunder strikes to kill the demon, but she did not have enough time.

More importantly, the key to generating divine power was time, and the Magic Slayer would definitely not sit around waiting for her attack to charge.

Therefore, Ashes must create an opportunity to focus and summon enough power.

She knew what she should do next.

Ashes dashed to Ursrook in an instant. After a few more slashes with her sword, she missed once on purpose, thus enticing the Magic Slayer to draw close. Seeing the Magic Slayer stretch out his clawed hands, she charged and ran right into him while blocking the vital parts of her body.

The claws passed through her right chest and came out from her elbow.

At that moment, Ursrook's expression changed.

Ashes spluttered blood, but at the same time, both of her hands locked the Magic Slayer in an embrace, and she said in a low voice, "I got you."

Just at that moment, the dark clouds above them started to spin and soon formed a giant storm!

...

"What did you say? Ashes... became a Transcendent?" Agatha exclaimed over the Sigil of Listening.

After flying west for a few miles, Lightning had finally gotten hold of the headquarters and made an urgent request for reinforcements to the Ice Witch. She felt a little better after Agatha confirmed that the First Army would soon come, then she recounted the incident concerning the Magic Slayer.

"I couldn't think of anyone else other than a Transcendent who has such phenomenal power," Lightning said as she slowly rose into the air and gazed upon the jungles behind her. Golden lightning and thunderbolts continued to roar about. Even the Sigil of God's Will could not sustain such a phenomenon that long.

"Extraordinaires typically evolve through battles. If she did become a Transcendent, she should be able to cope with the Magic Slayer. She made the right decision asking you to leave. Anyway... I'm glad that everyone is safe."

Lightning fell silent dolefully. Not everyone in the ambush team was fine, but she decided not to disclose the truth at this moment. She then steered the subject to the demons and asked, "What about the demons? Do they also evolve through battles?"

For some reason, the fear she had felt when she confronted the Magic Slayer lingered on. The wriggling black light around Ursrook's wounds and his terrifying back gave her an ominous feeling.

"There's no record of that in the Union, but according to His Majesty's memory fragments, the demons require high-quality Magic Stones to upgrade their powers," Agatha replied. "Of course, battles are also crucial to them. If my deduction is correct, merging with a Magic Stone is quite similar to the witches entering their adulthood. It is a test – a trial concerning magic power. If the attempt is unsuccessful, the demons would suffer a power rebound. Why do you ask?"

"No, nothing..." Lighting said, biting her lip. "I'm just a bit worried..."

There was a possibility that the Magic Slayer carried a few high-quality Magic Stones with him. However, could he really evolve through battles? When a witch had reached adulthood, she usually spent her entire day in bed, staying focused while awaiting that critical moment.

"Don't worry. Transcendents don't particularly rely on their abilities to fight. If the Magic Slayer has no way to subdue Ashes, I believe we'll soon know who wins the battle," Agatha comforted.

"Yea, I guess...."

Lightning nodded and was about to return to Maggie when suddenly, a muffled roar of thunder in the distance startled her.

A tidal wave of dark clouds converged, and they formed a spinning gray tower that connected the heaven and earth. She had only seen such a scene in the sea, which typically only appeared when a great storm was about to hit the ocean. By that time, there would be a huge swirl in midair, and any ships that failed to avoid the whirlpool would be torn to pieces by furious waves.

But they were on land.

"What happened?" Agatha asked over the Sigil of Listening, who apparently also heard the noise. "What's that sound?"

Lightning said apprehensively with her nails sank into her flesh, "I wonder when Princess Tilly would send us reinforcements."

"The God's Punishment Witches are loading the 'Seagull'. It'll probably take them 10 to 15 minutes to get there."

"Fifteen minutes... I see." Lightning hung up after a short silence.

After she flew back to Maggie, Lightning started to attend to the wounded.

"That thunderbolt scared me, awh. Will Ashes be okay?" Maggie asked.

"She should be fine. She's now a Transcendent. You just need to take everyone to somewhere safe. You know where you should go, right?"

"Of course, awh. I just need to go around the Taquila ruin and turn to the southwest — Hang on, why me? Are you not coming, awh?"

But as Maggie waited for a reply, all she could hear was silence.

Chapter 1166 - The Victor

BOOM!

Tendrils of lightning pierced through the whirlwind, and they slowly began to gather at the center as heavy rain poured on the ground, obscuring the forest. The evolved Magic Slayer and the new Transcendent stood transfixed like two austere statues. Their faces were within an inch from each other.

The wild magic power had completely covered Ashes, whose body was now emanating a dazzling golden glow.

She was the concentration point of all the divine power.

She transformed herself into a weapon of destruction.

"Is this your last resort?" Ursrook bellowed. "You want to kill me by sacrificing yourself. That's beyond stupidity!"

"I won't... let you walk away," Ashes said, panting. Every breath was painful. Blood flooded into her windpipe, and she could taste the nasty tang of blood in her mouth.

Five minutes... Ashes kept telling herself… She only needed another five minutes.

They were basically equal in power right now. As long as she did not let him go, it was impossible for the Magic Slayer to break away from her.

"Do you think I'll fight only with brute force?" Usrook snarled, his water-streaked face contorted in a rage. "It seems that I'm now rooted, but you are forging a cage for yourself!"

Several flashes of black light wriggled out of the Magic Slayer's chest and dived into Ashes' body like some sinister tentacles.

Ashes could not help but groan in agony.

She had thought nothing could be worse than a power rebound, but the black light tortured her in an even more callous and cruel way. She felt as though numerous tiny needles were attacking her veins in the brain, and she had to force herself to not pass out.

To her horror, in addition to the excruciating pain, those black tentacles started to creep up her body and spread out. The place that the black light had passed bulged as though some squirmy bugs were moving underneath her skin.

Blood spurted out from Ashes mouth. Ashes asked, "What... what did you do?"

"A little present for you that will make you understand the difference between our understanding and control of magic power," Ursrook whispered into Ashes' ear. "To tell you the truth, I should thank you. Thanks to this battle, I've finally evolved. Now, you are even offering yourself to me. I'm looking forward to how far I could grow after I destroy you."

Ashes suddenly realized that this was another form of corruption. The part covered in black light felt oddly disconnected as if it had been detached from her body. Ashes bit her lip, exercising all her efforts to summon her power to fend off the corruption.

"Don't. You. Dare. Possess me!"

As the two powers clashed, Ursrook's face twisted, and his new body suddenly expanded into a distorted and grotesque blob that grew larger than his original size. He was misshapen, with half of the Senior Demon's body and half of his own.

The corruption, however, continued to expand after a momentary pause, and black lines continued to creep up to Ashes' neck.

"Great perseverance," Ursrook commented with a callous and indecent pleasure in his voice. "But that won't work." His appearance had now completely changed after the horrific transformation, and he looked like a genuine monster of lore.

"I... won't..."

"Won't give up? Diligence, faith, perseverance, and relentlessness are merely excuses of the weak. Nobody wants to die. However, those slogans won't change anything, nor will they help your race to live on!"

Searing pain exploded in Ashes's head. Her mouth opened wide like a dumb person, but there was no voice coming out.

Golden flecks shined through the swirl above, but Ashes found her power slowly abandon her.

"We have a much greater power capacity and a longer lifespan than you human beings. You're fighting against overwhelming odds. That's the difference that determines our fates! Both the past two Battles of Divine Will have shown that you'll never beat us!" Ursrook lifted Ashes slowly off the ground and claimed his final judgment, "So, rest in peace. Blame your fate for being human — "

"Don't you — look down upon — humankind!"

Suddenly, a familiar silvery voice came through the pouring rain, which jerked Ashes out of the unconsciousness for a moment.

She turned around with great difficulty and saw a shadow dart out from the woods.

"Is that... Lightning?"

Lightning cleaved the milky curtain of rain, passed the blackened trees and dashed towards Ursrook.

It appeared that she was also carrying something.

Ashes blinked.

"Are those... grenades?"

"Get lost, you low-life!" Ursrook immediately generated the anti-magic area.

When the black light brushed past Lightning, Lightning released the grenades and changed her course abruptly.

The grenades fell.

They sped on under the momentum toward Ursrook and sprouted their empennages.

"You — " the demon growled, his eyes strained, and with all his remaining strength, he created the blue shield.

The next moment, explosions bloomed outside the shield, yet it was only a prelude to even more destruction. The cone-shaped bullets seething with energies created a dazzling trajectory in the air and shattered the shield with a loud crash. They slashed Ursrook's disfigured body as if hot knives through butter, thus reducing the blob attached to him to a pulp.

The Magic Stone Ursrook had obtained from the Senior Demon crumbled under the fierce onslaught of the shrapnel.

Ursrook let out a bone-chilling shriek!

The black tentacles immediately shrank; the burning pain Ashes was feeling ceased, and she regained her consciousness.

Without slightest of hesitation, Ashes released the accumulated divine power.

The Magic Slayer realized the danger and tried to wrench the witch away, but Ashes refused to slacken her grip.

"You're right. Human beings are weak, but nothing could stop us from moving forward. We'll never back off," she broke off with a tenuous smile on her face. "Because someone is already standing ahead, pointing to us the way forward."

Then golden thunderbolts overspread the black light and filled the entire sky.

Struck by the blinding, white-hot rays, Ursrook was evaporated without even the slightest trace of his existence left behind.

The roar of thunder spread through the Fertile Plains, leaving a long murmur of echoes.

Soon, the divine power diminished, and Ashes was alone on the vast land.

Lightning slowly rose from the ground and clenched her teeth. When she had collided into the anti-magic area, she had swayed sideways and had been thrown out before crashing into the ground. Luckily, the Magic Slayer had directed the majority of his power to the shield, which had afforded her time to synchronize her power after a narrow escape from the anti-magic area.

As a consequence, she broke one arm and scraped one side of her body.

Lightning limped to Ashes and managed a smile. "We finally... won."

"Yes, thank you. To be honest, I didn't expect that you would come back."

"That's an explorer's instinct. A great explorer always comes for those in need — " Lightning stopped dead, realizing something was wrong. "Hey, what... is happening to you?"

Ashes looked down at her hands. They were turning snow-white and became more and more transparent. She replied, "Perhaps, this is the price I have to pay for burning myself."

"Burning yourself... What do you mean?" Lightning pursued, stunned. Ashes gradually disintegrated into nothingness, and her long hair splintered into numerous tiny white flecks, as though she ceased to exist as a solid entity and became a misty image comprised of fireflies.

"If we want to use magic power to achieve something, it'll lead us to what we desire, but I asked for something more than I could bear..." Ashes said softly. "So that's what I will turn into after merging with magic power... It's better than becoming a monster."

"What, what are you talking about?" Lightning asked, panic-stricken, attempting to grab Ashes' hand, which immediately pulverized. "Ashes, tell me. What should I do?"

"Tell Tilly that I like her."

The dark clouds were eventually dispersed by the lazy sunbeams that spilled across the earthy land. In the slanting sun rays, Ashes closed her eyes and dissolved into the wind.

Lightning attempted to hold her back but to no vail. With her one good hand still trying to hug the air in front of her, the little girl broke into tears.

...

Lan heaved a deep sigh as she gazed at the dark sky, her eyes downcast.

After a long, melancholic silence, she closed the window and muttered as if she was asking an imaginary figure, or just talking to herself.

"What are you waiting for?"

"There's nothing to hesitate about anymore."

"We need to act faster. Time... is running out."

Her last comment gave way to an inaudible sigh that dispersed into the stillness of time.

Chapter 1167 - Woe

...

"Is that so? I got it." Roland's heart sank when he received the news from the frontline. It took him a while to reply. "How are you feeling now? How is your injury?"

But what followed was only a suffocating silence.

Few more minutes passed before Roland spoke again. "This wasn't your fault. You couldn't foresee that the things would unfold in this way. Now, since the Magic Slayer has perished, take a long break and have a good rest."

Roland slumped into a chair after he hung up the telephone and let out a deep sigh.

As if she sensed something, Nightingale strolled slowly to Roland's desk and asked, "Was that Leaf?"

"Yes," Roland answered while closing his eyes. "The war is over. The First Army successfully seized Taquila with minimal loss and also discovered a half-completed tower base in the God's Stone mine. The ambush operation failed, but it has been confirmed that the Magic Slayer was killed. The curse was lifted, which is the fortunate part of all the misfortunes. However..." he paused for a second and said, "Ashes and Elena didn't make it."

"That... fool?" Nightingale said, aghast, and then turned away.

"Lightning told me that Ashes became Transcendent near the end of the fight and sacrificed herself to kill the demon. Nothing was left behind from the battle except for the melted remains of Ashes' sword," Roland continued slowly.

Roland had predicted the failure of the ambush when he had seen the siege through the phantom instrument. Judging from the formation of the demons, it appeared they had been purposely waiting for the witches to take action. Unfortunately, he could only have a glimpse of the battlefield through the screen. After the Special Unit had retreated to the west, he had lost track of the witches and thus been pacing up and down in his room with burning anxiety.

Roland had anticipated the worst scenario at that moment.

The actual outcome of the battle was much better than he had thought.

Nevertheless, the casualties still gave him a leaden feeling in his stomach.

After all, he was the one who had approved this plan.

"Ashes was arrogant and very full of herself, but she never made any reckless decisions..." Nightingale remarked as she placed her hand gently on Roland's back. "The same goes for Elena. I believe that they knew this would eventually happen, so, you don't have to pin all the blame on yourself. I'm throwing the words you said to Leaf right back to you."

Roland nodded slowly a few times. He still did not understand how the demons had predicted their plan and why they had taken eliminating the witches precedence of over control of the Holy City of Taquila. Yet it had happened. As the leader of Graycastle and the united front, he should never show any signs of despondency to the public no matter how disheartening and painful the situation was.

How was he supposed to support someone more downcast than him if he were to let his emotions consume him?

For example, Tilly.

He did not know how to face her.

From what Leaf had told him, Tilly and Ashes had been much closer than he thought. Although Tilly was not completely devastated by the news and immediately came to help the wounded, the sparkles in her eyes had faded instantly when she had heard about Ashes' death. According to Lightning's words, the radiance around Tilly had disappeared. Lightning had also forwarded Roland Ashes' last words, probably hoping that Roland could assuage Tilly's grief.

But comforting people was never one of his expertise.

He decided to take things slow.

On the same afternoon, the Seagull arrived at Neverwinter.

All the witches who sustained minor injuries returned from the battle, whereas those in critical condition were still remaining at the front, awaiting Nana's treatment.

Roland and the other Witch Union members greeted them at the airport.

Anna, Agatha, Molly, and Phyllis climbed down the jet bridge and hugged Scroll, Nightingale and Sharon, as well as the clerks of the Witch Union, including Ring, Grayrabbit and Pearl. At this moment, the war made everyone equal. There was no difference between combat and non-combat witches, new and Taquila witches, or witches and the common people.

Tilly was the last to get off the plane.

Roland walked up to her and stammered, "That..."

"Can I have a word with you in private, brother?" Tilly asked as she looked up at him.

...

He thus led Tilly to his office and closed the door behind them after Nightingale left the room on his orders.

"Alright, if you want to say something..." Roland broke off. As he turned around, he felt his chest suddenly constrict, and Tilly threw herself at him.

"Please, just stay there," Tilly choked while holding Roland tight, her voice quavered. "Let me hold you like this for a while, just a while..."

Her voice trailed off into a sob, her fingers sinking into Roland's back deeply.

So that was why.

Like him, she was a leader; a leader of Sleeping Spell. Tilly did not have the liberty to show her emotions. It was indeed not an easy task to hold back her tears while inside, she was tormented by misery and agony of her loss.

Roland patted Tilly on the back and said, "You don't need to hold back anymore. Cry if you want. Nobody will hear..."

Tilly's tears then came flooding out her eyes.

The sobbing soon grew louder and louder and turned into a heartbreaking wail that Roland had never heard before. He had never seen Tilly so sad, not even when she had been bullied by her own brother when she had been little. It was an outpour of forlorn and despair from a person who had just lost that which was what the dearest to them.

Roland didn't know what to say, because no words could comfort her at the moment.

So he just stood there and waited.

...

Meanwhile at the frontline.

The tent flap was pulled back, and Shavi came in with a bowl of medicine in her hand.

"Do I have to drink that again?" Andrea mumbled. Her legs were completely bandaged and her face covered with medicinal cream. Although neither of these really helped heal her wounds, Andrea liked the soothing sensation on her skin. "I won't drink it without candies."

"How about... I ask for some from the field medics?" Shavi said tentatively.

"Since when did the field medics have candies? This isn't Neverwinter. Whatever, help me up."

Andrea sat up, took the bowl, and emptied it down her throat.

"Aargh, is Nana still busy? How long do I have to wait before receiving treatment?"

"I asked her. She told me you need to wait for another three or four days. She said that some God's Punishment Witches were in worse conditions than you, and..."

"And what?"

Shavi muttered, "She said that your legs looked pretty bad but the injuries weren't fatal, so medication should help."

Andrea rolled her eyes and said, "I'm not that muscular monster. How can I heal myself up?"

Those words almost brought Shavi to tears.

"Sorry," Andrea mumbled, quickly turning her tactless comment into a cough. "Forget about it."

"No..." Shavi said while shaking her head. "You just reminded me of Ashes, so I couldn't help..."

"I look like her? What the — " Andrea broke off, frowning, as she realized that she had almost forgotten about her status as a noble. "Well... I feel a bit tired now. You go take a rest. Please tell Lightning and Maggie to bring some honey back next time they go on a patrol. At least that will make my life a lot easier."

"Okay, got it."

"Thanks."

Andrea, however, was still not able to restore her composure after Shavi departed.

"You wanted to save everyone? You even ended up becoming a Transcendent. Did you think that you were a Queen of Starfall City of old?" 

"Now you killed the Magic Slayer and met a heroic end, but..." 

Andrea laid back down and buried her face in her hands.

"... Damn it, have you never thought about..."

"How I'm supposed to surpass you when you're now gone forever?"

Chapter 1168 - Recovery

Tilly cried for nearly an hour before she finally fell asleep. Roland put her on a couch, his cheeks and clothes smeared with Tilly's tears and snot. The latter was still shaking with sobs uncontrollably when Roland disengaged himself.

Tilly obviously did not wish the witches from Sleeping Spell to see her cry like this, so Roland asked Anna to bring Tilly to the master bedroom on the third floor of the castle.

Anna wiped Tilly's tear-streaked face as her breath gradually steadied as sleep broke over her. Apparently, she had burned out after working non-stop for weeks since Ashes' death. Anna gathered this was probably how Tilly coped with pain — by immersing herself in work and thereby temporarily detaching herself from the cruelty of reality.

"Please stay with her tonight," Roland said with a sigh. "She needs someone, and I trust that you're the best person to take care of her."

"Don't worry. I know how she feels and what to do," Anna answered while nodding. "What about you?"

"I could sleep in the Third Border City. I've been staying there for the past few days, so it doesn't matter to me," Roland replied. "Also, the witches there should be informed of the success of the 'Torch' project as well. Those ancient witches probably have been waiting for this news for a long time."

"OK," Anna said as she walked up to Roland and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Although I don't want you to leave, it's important to let them know..."

"Sorry, you just came back from the front."

"Don't be silly, my king. We'll have plenty of time together in the future."

Just when Roland was about to leave, Anna stopped him again.

"By the way, bring Nightingale with you," she said in a serious tone. "You should never put yourself in danger."

While still being a little absorbed in Anna's clear blue eyes, Roland closed the door behind him.

...

Pasha greeted Roland and his guards at Third Border City immediately.

"Your Majesty, how did the war go? Any news from the front?"

She swayed her tentacles, looking unsettled.

With no intention of holding anything back from her, Roland said flatly, "We won. The demons on the plain were eradicated, and so was the Magic Slayer. The First Army seized Taquila."

Pasha instantly stopped swaying.

After a moment of silence, she asked, apparently thrilled, "Is this true? I apologize for my insolence, Your Majesty... I'm not questioning the credibility of your words, but I just don't know what to say. Could you tell me more about it?"

As a Senior Witch who had been living for more than 400 years, Pasha had developed the ability to remain unperturbed under any circumstances. It was Roland's first time seeing Pasha lose her composure. He replied, "Naturally, but..."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I'll soon tell everyone the good news!" Pasha said and vanished from into the cave and from Roland's sight.

Momentarily stunned, Roland shook his head resignedly.

When Roland entered the underground hall, however, he not only saw Pasha, Alethea, and Celine but also all the other God's Punishment Witches gather about at the center of the hall. They were spread out in a line and were looking hopefully at him.

This made Roland feel it hard to tell them the whole story.

"Do what you can," Nightingale whispered to him. "Or tell Pasha mentally."

Roland nodded, took a step forward, and briefly talked about the war and its outcome. As he had not received a statistic report yet and Leaf had missed quite a few details when she had related the incident to him, Roland could not fully recount the story. Neverthless, the God's Punishment Witches did not really care about the specifics anyway.

For those survivors who had been waiting for four centuries, all they needed to know was the final result.

The crowd erupted into a loud cheer after Roland finished his speech.

Many witches burst into tears and some whooped with laughter. All of them were thrilled by the news.

It was a day of euphoria for those witches as they had finally, for the first time in the past several hundred years, been freed of the oppression of the demons.

"Please forgive our insolence and rudeness in the past," Alethea said as she came up to Roland and bowed her main tentacle. "From today onwards, there's no need to keep a united front. We acknowledge you as the leader of Taquila and we trust you'll lead us to achieve our final goal."

Neither Pasha nor Celine spoke. Apparently, they also agreed.

This meant that Taquila had officially become an integral part of the Kingdom of Graycastle.

Roland gave a curt nod of agreement, and Alethea straightened up.

"Also, I need to tell you one more thing," Roland said and then told them about Elena's death.

"I see... So it was her," Pasha spoke slowly.

Roland was mildly surprised that the witches were not too upset about the news.

"You... already knew?" Roland asked, unable to help himself.

"No, we just anticipated that it would happen," Alethea said truthfully. "The demons saw through our ambush plan, which, back in the Union age, would normally leave us with no chance of survival. It's very fortunate that we only lost one member."

"You probably find it hard to understand, but we're used to death," Celine supplied the answer. "Every one of us volunteered to transfer our soul to the carrier and was on the brink of death once, not to mention numerous defeats during the past Battle of Divine Will. We're not afraid of death but a meaningless one."

"And Elena simply made a choice that every Taquila witch would make under that circumstance," Alethea said. "So, you don't have to be too sad about it."

Instead of providing solace to the witches, Roland became the one being comforted.

While being a little touched, he was at a loss for words.

"Of course, this doesn't mean we aren't sad for the loss. We simply learned how to control our emotions," Pasha said as she looked at the celebrating witches. "I'll tell them later. Right now, let them enjoy the celebration."

...

Five days later.

As the army gradually returned to Neverwinter, the news of the victory slowly infiltrated the city.

Although the civilians did not witness the actual war themselves like they had done during the battles against the demonic beasts and Duke Ryan, nor did they celebrate the victory at the time, they gradually formulated a mental image of the enemy based on the various rumors circulated in the neighborhood. This particular enemy, unlike any demonic hybrids or knights, was ferocious, powerful, and dauntless. As many people had seen the attack of the Devilbeasts, it was further believed that this enemy was a demon from Hell.

Some details had even gone awry in the retelling, as the public was now quite positive that the demon was actually a 100-foot legendary monster that brought disasters and ejected fire. This imaginary demon thus soon became the most heated topic of discussion throughout the entire city.

The defeat of such an invincible monster significantly raised the morale of the masses. If the demon from Hell had failed to stop the First Army, then who could?

Meanwhile, the Graycastle Weekly further advertised the war by interviewing a large number of soldiers who had participated in the battle.

In a few days, Neverwinter witnessed a rapid increase in the number of people who applied to join the First Army, and the public set up a chant of "expand the territory of Graycastle for the king" throughout the city.

Nonetheless, the officers in Neverwinter knew very well what their real challenge was.

At the cemetery in the west of the city.

Since the first tombstone had been set up here five years ago during the Months of Demons, this old wasteland, which used to be overgrown with bushes and hedges, had now become a public cemetery carpetted with green grass.

426 new tombstones were added today.

Most of the tombs were empty, as they could not locate all the bodies of the killed. However, nobody felt that those soldiers were abandoned. On each of the tombstones, there was the deceased soldier's name, rank, and feats.

Elena's and Ashes' tombs were among them.

They looked identical to all the other tombstones except that there was a half-melted sword in front of Ashes' tomb.

"Salute!" Iron Axe shouted while raising his hand.

Then all the officers administered a military salute, most of whom had a much higher rank than ordinary soldiers.

It was not only a memorial but also a reminder.

It reminded them that there was still a long way to go before the Battle of Divine Will ended.

After the funeral, Roland summoned Barov and said, "Ask all the ministers to come here. I have new tasks for them."

The new battle had just begun.

Chapter 1169 - A Parliament of Holy See

The rush of the waves from the Realm of Mind gradually faded, and Hackzord opened its eyes.

It saw a round hall, below which lay the tranquil sea of fog, and the ceiling of the hall was out of its sight. Nine seats of different sizes were suspended in the air and were along the steep stone wall. In the middle of the circle stood a giant Birth Tower. However, unlike a real High Tower, this Birth Tower was plastered with eyes the size of a junior demon.

This was the realm created by the king.

The "Presiding Holy See".

Although it was not its first time visiting here, it still felt somewhat restless and uncomfortable. Unlike a dream or ordinary mental communication, the communication that occurred in this hall, which was located in the middle of the Realm of Mind, was real. If it fell in the sea of fog or was under an attack, it would truly get injured.

In contrast to the chaos outside, the hall was strictly in order.

The king ruled the Holy See.

Once someone entered the Presiding Holy See, it would be at the mercy of the king.

Nevertheless, Hackzord was confident in its absolute loyalty to the king. It could easily suppress its instinctive revolt. Only savage beasts would find it difficult to control their instincts.

"The Sky Lord is at your service," Hackzord swept a bow at the High Tower in the center.

One of the eyes on the tower opened but immediately closed again. It said, "Please wait."

"Yes."

Presently, the seats were gradually filled.

The shadows occupying the seats were blurry, but Hackzord managed to make out who they were. The one whose armor was ornamented with various weapons, as giant as a small mountain, was the "Blood Conqueror", the one wearing distorted clothes and masks was the "Resentful Heart". Very few could distinguish these prominent figures, because it depended on how well one understood the Origin of Magic.

When the last seat was occupied, the conference began.

The king materialized in front of all the lords, and half of the eyes on the Birth Tower slowly opened as well.

"You all probably know why I summoned you here. I believe everyone has the same question as me. Several days ago, one person upgraded and reached the Realm of Mind. The upgrade created a commotion there but soon, this particular individual became unresponsive," the king broke off and turned to the Sky Lord. "The one who created this commotion was Ursrook, the commander of the advanced troops of the Western Front. Hackzord, what in the world happened in the west?

Hackzord felt nervous. It had expected the king to ask it this question. Disturbance of the Realm of Mind indicated that this individual must have achieved a relatively high realm, and all the lords would be able to sense such a remarkable improvement. As the battle in the Sky-sea Realm became increasingly fierce, one more lord meant a bigger chance to win. However, things suddenly took a turn for the worse. To everybody's consternation, this new lord simply left its mark in the realm and vanished into thin air. It was their first time over the past several hundred years seeing a lord die right after its upgrade.

In fact, Hackzord had received the news of their defeat in the west not long after Ursrook's upgrade, along with a letter written by Ursrook itself. Hackzord was so outraged by the content of the letter that it wanted to drill a hole in Ursrook's skull to see what had made it act so recklessly!

When the king raised the question, Hackzord hesitated for a moment but finally decided to disclose the truth concerning the battle.

As Hackzord had expected, the hall erupted into a loud murmur of jeers, gasps, and exclamations.

"Huh? Did I just hear that right?" the "Blood Conqueror" sneered predictably. "Your subordinate knowingly made a bad decision and sent all the troops to the Fertile Plains for slaughter? What did you call that guy earlier? A genius commander?"

Hackzord knew that the Blood Conqueror, as the commander at the Sky-sea Realm, always held a grudge against Ursrook. Fearing that Ursrook's upgrade would threaten its status, the Blood Conqueror would naturally seek every opportunity to attack Ursrook.

"I don't really care about junior demons and Spider Demons, but the Sky Lord should have known how precious those symbiotic demons are," the "Mask", who was responsible for developing symbiotic demons commented enigmatically. "If we successfully seized Taquila, the City of Falling Star and Arrieta, that would have been a different story because the God's Stone mines there could provide us with supplies. However, we now not only lost those mines but also the symbiotic."

"I'm shocked that we lost to those low lives, and I believe your lordship should, more or less, take some responsibility."

"I think we overestimated this so-called genius. He's just barely above average."

"Not all the upgraded could open the gate, otherwise there would have been more than nine lords sitting here. Plus, its enemy was a Transcendent."

"So what? This isn't 400 years ago anymore. Do you think dying together with a Transcendent is something that we should boast about?"

Hackzord's face clouded over as it listened to all the sniding comments. Although it did not really understand Ursrook, Ursrook had been one of its favorites. As a lord, it could not tolerate any attacks toward its old commander.

Just at that moment, the king interrupted the discussion and silenced everyone. "Enough, I just want to know if this would affect our plan!"

Hackzord immediately concentrated its mind and replied, "No, of course not. We have many other plans. Taquila isn't our priority. I assure you that we'll tread on men's territory as planned."

"Then keep your word," the king said, his voice lower.

"But..." the Sky Lord said hesitantly. "But I need to request for more troops. According to Ursrook, we need ten times the troops we have now to win this battle." After an internal struggle, Hackzord decided to disclose the content of Ursrook's letter. It did not know why it reached such a conclusion, probably because of the trust it had put in Ursrook or because of the horrific prediction Ursrook had made. Constantly, a voice in its head pressed Hackzord to tell the truth.

"Ten times?" the "Blood Conqueror" bellowed. "What are you joking about? We can barely cope with the battle at the Sky-sea Realm, and you still request for more? I won't give you anything!"

"What did Ursrook say?" the king asked heavily.

"When he wrote this letter, the advanced troops had not fought human beings yet. Ursrook insisted in staying at Taquila under the pretext that it wanted to find out men's weakness. If the plan worked, we would have been able to significantly weaken humans. Then, we should send more troops and exterminate the entire human race."

"Was that a prophecy?" someone jeered. "I wonder if Ursrook predicted its own death."

"..." Hackzord nodded after a moment of silence. "Yes, it did."

A strained silence suddenly fell on the hall.

The lords exchanged looks, and the atmosphere became heavy.

The king spoke, "What did Ursrook say?"

The Sky Lord heaved a deep sigh and replied, "If it fails to survive, we should treat human beings as equals and exercise all our strength to annihilate them!"

Chapter 1170 - A Shocking Statement

The hall was stirred.

"All our strength?" the Blood Conqueror echoed coldly. "What do you mean by 'all our strength'?"

"Literal meaning," Hackzord replied lazily. "Abandon the cities where we've exploited all the God Stone mines and half of the continent to the Sky-sea Realm. Direct all our forces to the Land of Dawn. I mean all, including old and new troops, until the human race is wiped off the face of this planet."

"Stop, you insolent brute!"

"Are you crazy?"

"Then where should the millions of residents in those cities go?"

"Although Ursrook didn't explicitly say that in its letter, I believe they should be relocated to the Fertile Plains. It's a vast land that'll be large enough to accommodate these migrants," the Sky Lord answered.

"We aren't going to have a mass relocation," the Mask snorted while bursting into a furious laugh. "That'll be suicidal if we don't move the Birth Tower along with them. Plus, we only have one chance to erect the new tower after the arrival of the Bloody Moon. We could have built the tower in Taquila, but your genius commander lost the entire Fertile Plains. Isn't it too late now to talk about relocation?"

Hackzord fought down its urge to retort. As Ursrook had had limited forces at its command, and the king had refused to send more reinforcements, it had thus left Ursrook no choice but to abandon Taquila. However, Hackzord managed to suppress its resentment toward the king and remained expressionless.

It had to discipline its mind.

"We have alternatives," Hackzord said. "For example, we could use the Deity of Gods — "

"Absolutely not!," the Blood Conqueror cut across Hackzord rather fiercely. "That's our only hope to repel the enemy at the Sky-sea Realm. How could we waste it on those low lives? Stop talking nonsense!"

"The Deity of Gods is our ultimate weapon," the king said. "It's an essential part of our operation plan, and nobody could ever change that, not even a new lord. That's settled."

The king made the final verdict.

Hackzord was profoundly relieved. In fact, it also felt that Ursrook's statement was a little too audacious. If Hackzord had had a choice, it would have rather kept the contents of the letter to itself.

Anyway, it had fulfilled its duty to the king.

"Also, I find it absurd to increase the force by ten times..."

Just when the Blood Conqueror was about to pursue the argument, someone interrupted it.

"I actually think we should take Ursrook's warning a little more seriously," the voice said mildly, which startled everyone. It was the guardian of the king's city, the "Silent Disaster". As a lord, it rarely spoke on a meeting. Like its name suggested, the Silent Disaster had a taciturn character.

As the most powerful lord among the nine, the Silent Disaster despised the Mask and the Resentful Heart who had to rely on clothes to disguise their weaknesses. As for the Silent Disaster itself, it wore a gleamy black armor every day, its face completely masked by the visor, as though it did not care about its personal image, nor did it feel that the armor was uncomfortable to wear.

"And your reasoning?" the king asked curtly.

"Possibly... there are some other legacy shards unknown to us in this world."

There was another murmur that swept over the hall. It was louder than the one after they had heard Ursrook's final words.

"How is that possible? There are only four shards in total. Don't we find shards based on their shapes."

"Do you think that human beings upgraded by some unknown means so we'll have to put all our strength into the battle against them?"

"Where did you get that information?"

The people on the floor raised various questions.

"No, I don't have evidence. It's simply my own speculation," the Silent Disaster drawled. "I saw something... incomprehensible in the Divine Land once."

"Can you tell us what you saw?" the king asked, half of his eyes resting upon it.

The Silent Disaster shook its head and said, "It's indescribable. Please take a look at my memory." With these words, it bowed its head.

"So..." All of the king's eyes snapped open! In an instant, a chill stole through Hackzord that made it shudder uncontrollably. Its instinctive revolt reached its peak.

The injection of another individual's thoughts made Hackzord shift in its seat uncomfortably.

But it had to be absolutely loyal to the king.

The Sky Lord thus suppressed its feeling and offered to connect.

Then, eerie images streamed into it and filled its heart with fears that chilled it to the bone. Among those images, Hackzord, dimly, spied a man, standing with an air of detachment not far away. This man seemed to be enjoying watching it struggle. Hackzord knew that this was not an illusion. Black tentacles that represented corruption were now rushing to attack it in a frenzy. If Hackzord did not leave now, it would soon drown in the Realm of Mind!

So Hackzord fled. During the escape, it broke one of the armrests of its chair.

The next moment, Hackzord woke up with a start and felt a chill running down its spine. The other lords also gasped and panted, obviously sharing the same feeling as Hackzord.

Now, everyone understood what the Silent Disaster had meant.

It was a well-known fact that legacy shards were connected with each other. When they communicated through the shards, there was a price they had to pay. Generally speaking, the price for the party who knew less about the Realm of Mind would be higher. They would not have been that surprised had this person in the Divine Land been a witch, as witches rarely visited the Realm of Mind voluntarily. They merely trespassed into the Realm of Mind every now and then, which did not really mean anything.

However, this person was a male.

According to the history of humans in the past thousand years, males had never displayed signs of magic.

There was no plausible explanation to this phenomenon except that human beings had upgraded.

It wasn't until then that Hackzord understood why the Silent Disaster had not shared this incident earlier. Nobody would like to admit that a low life had made it jump off the chair.

Hackzord wondered whether the Silent Disaster flushed underneath its helmet.

It appeared that its armor was not completely useless.

Was that the real reason it requested to resign from its guardian position?

Presently, one lord turned to Hackzord and asked, "Your lordship, did you also — "

"No, I only went to the Divine Land a few times, and I didn't see anything strange there," Hackzord cut that lord off while holding its chest a little higher. "If I did, I would have reported to the king immediately. I believe things would have been very different if it were me, based on my understanding of the Realm of Mind."

With these words, Hackzord darted a cold glance at the Silent Disaster.

"Interesting." Just then, a bright, silvery voice joined the conversation.

The "Nightmare" sitting at the end of the table, wearing a white robe, finally opened its third eye and broke the silence it had managed to keep since the beginning of the meeting.

Chapter 1171 - The Double Plan

Everyone rested their eyes on the Nightmare.

So did Hackzord.

The Nightmare Lord, Valkries, was the most special lord out of the nine lords. As the very first lord, it had led most of the lords on the floor to their upgrades. During the first Battle of Divine Will, it had established a close relationship with human beings, and it was even rumored that there were still some believers in human cities. Although the Nightmare was not the strongest lord, it was powerful enough to alter its physical appearance. However, it seemed to prefer the look after its upgrade — blue skinned, with a horn sprouting from its head, and a third eye on its forehead.

Although the Nightmare did not look remotely human, its fashion style and act of demeanor were quite manlike, and it was also the first lord who had learned to speak the human language.

In other words, the Nightmare was the complete opposite of the Silent Disaster. Its sheer, delicate white robe displayed every single thread of fabric and afforded the Nightmare a sense of aloofness that separated it from the rest of them.

The Nightmare looked relaxed and indifferent, but Hackzord knew its understanding of the Realm of Mind was astoundingly profound.

Hackzord would not have complained about anything had the Nightmare Lord been startled earlier.

In fact, it was the only lord that Hackzord failed to understand.

If any of the other lords had seated themselves so unceremoniously like the Nightmare, Hackzord would have doubted its loyalty.

Surprisingly, the king also appeared to be perfectly fine with the Nightmare's attitude.

"Well, what did you find?"

"I'm just wondering if there's such a possibility," Valkries said as it straightened up. "Whether there's an upgrade method unknown to us or not, let's just suppose that a male human possessed an ability like a witch, then this ability must have a lot to do with the Realm of Mind. Otherwise, the Silent Lord wouldn't have been so petrified."

A red fleck glimmered underneath the Silent Disaster's helmet. It said, "I've been guarding the legacy shard for nearly 200 years and have seen many humans. Most of them either fled or drowned. Only one person I met two years ago managed to confront me, but she was a woman."

"Witches could possibly achieve that, but I don't really care about that person's gender. I'm actually more concerned about the ability itself. Perhaps, this man hasn't even noticed that he's already powerful enough to leave a mark in the Realm of Mind."

"I agree with you," Hackzord rejoined. After all, the Realm of Mind was one of its expertises. "But I don't really see the point here. The Realm of Mind is vast. It would be almost impossible to find a mark left by a specific individual."

"Perhaps," Valkries neither approved nor denied. "But I still want to give it a shot, using the connection between the different legacy shards. What do you think?"

Mildy taken aback, Hackzord asked, "Have you already learned to sense the connection between the shards?"

The defeat of the underground civilization significantly increased the magic power of the entire race. They were thus able to sense the Birth Towers. Gradually, they realized that both the communication with the Birth Tower and the legacy shards had to be completed through the Realm of Mind. Therefore, in theory, they could always search along the communication line for what was connected on the other end.

Nevertheless, this was simply a theory. The Realm of Mind was chaotic and random like the whirling sea. It was extremely hard to look for a thin thread hidden underneath the surface of the water. The deeper this thin thread was, the more susceptible it was to the influences of the currents. Hackzord could barely maintain its position in the Realm, let alone looking for a faintly discernible "connection line".

It had never thought of using this method.

Did Valkries already surpass it in the understanding of the Origin of Magic?

"Maybe," Valkries answered leisurely. "But I won't know until I try it out. If I could find the mark left by that man, we could probably know the answer."

Hackzord thought the mark would not be much of help. The mind was complicated. Even for the mind of someone of the same race, they had to do a lot of research, feel, and make numerous deductions to learn the truth, not to mention that they were now going to search for the mind of a person of another race. Forcing its way into someone's mind would lead to madness and disorder. Hackzord wanted to talk sense into the Nightmare, but when it saw Valkries' white robe, his words somehow rested on the tip of its tongue.

Perhaps, the Nightmare Lord did have some feasible way to achieve this.

"The Sky Lord is now guarding the legacy shards. Ask him if you want to try," said the king.

"As you command," Valkries said while placing its hand on its chest. "However, it should be noted that there's no guarantee that we could find the answer before human beings upgrade. There are many variables, and the search requires a lot of time. There's a possibility that the upgrade of human race would cause substantial damage to us. I believe the Sky Lord has a Plan B after we lose Taquila, right? If Plan B fails again, everything we've done so far would be wasted."

"You're being too cautious..." the Blood Conqueror said gruffly.

"I held the upgrade ceremony for Ursrook. After it upgraded, it learned a lot about humans from me," Valkries said mildly as it closed its eyes again. "It was definitely gifted, and I don't think its warning is a word out of delirium. Therefore, I uphold its suggestion of sending more troops to the Fertile Plains."

"Seconded," the Silent Disaster rejoined.

The king lapsed into a short silence and looked toward the other commanders including the Blood Conqueror. "Are you able to increase the forces by ten times to support the Sky Lord while maintaining the current defense?"

"Sire..."

"I'm asking whether you can or can't."

There was a brief silence in the hall.

To Hackzord's surprise, the Mask broke the silence. "Yes, sire, I can manage. As long as you could provide me with more resources for my research, I can develop more powerful, diverse symbiotic demons. They won't be restricted by their parents and will be much more powerful than junior demons. Ten times more powerful! More importantly, they'll not affect the battle at the front."

"But that'll consume many God's Stones," the Resentful Heart said apprehensively. "If we lose control, the consequences will be devastating."

"When we wipe out those low lives, we'll have plenty of God's Stones!"

"Are you sure you can make it in time?" the Blood Conqueror retorted irritably.

The Mask paused for a second and said, "Well, it'll be a little difficult to provide so many symbiotic demons at a time, but I don't think human beings will react that fast. We may be able to vanquish them with just half of the suggested number. In that case, we could probably save half of our resources. It would be better than nothing..."

"Enough," the king interrupted the conversation. "Let's do what the Mask said. Anyway, we can't let human beings live on the Land of Dawn for another 400 years. We must take the entire continent after this Battle of Divine Will!"

"As you wish!" chorused all the lords as they bent their heads.

Chapter 1172 - A New Population Policy

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

In the castle boardroom.

With the expansion of the Administrative Office, the meeting room became increasingly crowded. Many officials were sitting on benches behind their ministers and deputy ministers, whereas clerks and assistants were forced to stand flat against the wall. The hall was thus packed with around 200 people.

Roland thought it was now time to build a larger conference hall to accommodate these officials. He gathered that once the local officials came to the king's city to report their work, they would probably have to use the first floor of the castle to receive them.

He noted this idea down on a book and clapped his hands, and the meeting room instantly fell silent.

"I believe everyone has learned about the great success of the 'Torch' project that lasted for around 10 months. Now, we've eradicated the demons and expanded our territory to the Fertile Plains. From now on, instead of a deserted land full of traps and dangers, the area to the west of Neverwinter will provide us with resources and food!" Roland paused for a second and then said, "That's right. This land larger than the Four Kingdoms put together will be the land we'll dwell on for the next 100 years!"

The hall erupted into thunderous applause.

Territory expansion was viewed as the most important task for a king, and was also the fastest way for officials to gain a profit. Even civilians could benefit from the newly-acquired land, as this new land was several times the current territory of Graycastle.

"The 'Four Kingdoms' would probably become a part of history in a few years," Barov said jubilantly while stroking his beard. "The other three kingdoms are incomparable to Graycastle in strength and power."

"Quite right. It would be hilarious if we continue to use the word 'the Four Great Kingdoms' to document our history."

"How about 'One Great and Three Small Kingdoms'?"

"A little bit too much of a mouthful. I would rather come up with a brand new name."

"I Agree. I trust that the word 'empire' would suit our current status."

The ministers were absorbed in this heated discussion.

Roland did not stop their argument but allowed them to savor the aftermath of the victory over the demons before he steered the subject back to business. "I hope it's our mutual understanding that this victory is just the beginning of the war! Although we drove the demons out of the Fertile Plains, it doesn't necessarily mean that they wouldn't come back. This peace is only temporary. The real threat is the Battle of Divine Will when the Bloody Moon appears. I believe our enemy will put all their efforts into fighting this battle. Therefore, we must be well-prepared!"

"In other words, we shouldn't slack off. Instead, we should work even harder. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The crowd shouted together.

Roland surveyed the room and nodded at Nightingale next to him.

Nightingale turned around and pulled back the curtain on the wall.

A huge blackboard replaced the map of the Western Region, on which there was only one single word: people.

"This is what I want," Roland announced slowly.

Peace was restored in the Western Region. With the return of the army and the consolidation of the local administration in various municipalities, Graycastle citizens had become, unprecedentedly, united. Among all the plans Roland was about to implement, increasing the population became the most important one.

To expedite the implementation of this policy, he even placed a higher priority on this matter over the post-war analysis.

Without a doubt, the biggest problem for Neverwinter now was its small population.

Had the First Army had an armored unit during the "Torch" project, they could have easily repelled the demons that had ambushed the witches using the simplest infantry fighting vehicle.

Although it was not necessarily ideal to use the first generation of the piston engine to produce an infantry fighting vehicle, it was better than nothing.

Roland knew that the production rate in Neverwinter had reached its maximum.

The plants could yield no more steel.

The battle had cost them 90% of the shells accumulated over years in Neverwinter.

The railway, which meandered through the plain, had almost consumed all the steel they had.

Agatha now also felt it increasingly hard to catch up with the acid production in the plant.

The production of RPGs further exhausted the ammunition stockpile.

It was undeniable that they had reached dead ends in many areas.

Roland needed people to expand production.

He also needed people to work on new projects.

To put the plan into action, Roland needed even more people to coordinate with different departments.

The population of Neverwinter was currently increasing at a steady pace and had reached 200,000. Compared to other cities, this number was astronomical. It would probably take just another decade for Neverwinter to expand into a metropolis that housed one million residents.

Roland would have peacefully accepted the victory had the demons not acted so unpredictably in the past war. In fact, as the reason for the demons' unexpected behavior still remained as a mystery, Roland felt a little uneasy about the outcome. He would rather see a fierce, bitter battle in Taquila between the First Army and the demons that lasted for over half a year and caused over half of the soldiers to be classified as casualties than the result he saw now.

He had planned to conduct a prolonged campaign.

But the demons had not let him do so.

The deviation from their original operation plan indicated some unforeseen changes had taken place. As the army returned to Neverwinter, Roland's fear of uncertainty grew, which urged him to speed up the process by taking some unusual measures.

"Your Majesty, the Administrative Office has been on top of that," Barov replied as he rose to his feet. "Based on the statistics, the city takes in immigrants every year. I believe in about five years, the number of the immigrants in the city will be doubled— "

"I can't wait another five years anymore," Roland interjected. "I wish to see this happen this year, and possibly more immigrants than what was initially planned, if possible."

Everybody gasped.

"200,000 a year? Your Majesty, I'm afraid that's impossible..." Barov said hesitantly. "Only a famine or a riot could bring in so many people at a time."

"You were talking about the immigration under normal circumstances, but I'm intending to issue an administrative order. If we make relocation mandatory, it won't be very hard to reach this target. In short, this long-term plan can be divided into three parts."

Roland stuck out three fingers.

"Which are relocation, cross-border recruitment, and more births. These are what you should work on next."

Chapter 1173 - I Want All of Them

"I'm only giving you the basic frame of this project. You have to figure out how to implement the policy and coordinate with the other departments yourself. Barov Mons should be supervising the whole project."

"As you command," Barov responded while clapping his hand over his chest.

Roland nodded in satisfaction. After years of training, Barov had learned to obey his order without questioning his authority no matter how unreasonable it seemed to be.

The close and intertwined relationship between each department within the Administrative Office enabled Barov to allocate resources for a big project like this.

"Now, listen carefully," Roland said as he instructed Nightingale to stick a sheet of white cloth to the blackboard. "First is the migration within the Kingdom of Graycastle..."

"Wow..." the crowd exclaimed involuntarily when they saw the content on the canvas.

On the canvas were the several main features of this policy, supplemented with clear instructions in both text and picture formats. This was actually a very crude, primitive powerpoint created by Soraya. As a former engineering student, Roland believed that making slides was one of the basic skills to negotiate with employers. Compared to a lengthy, dry speech, slides would obviously be more visually appealing to audience.

The population structure in Graycastle reflected how manpower was distributed in this particular age. Nobles of a higher rank, after becoming a lord, built their own cities and distributed their lands to their subordinates. With the increase in the population and the accumulation of wealth, big cities gradually found it increasingly difficult to sustain themselves. Subsequently, some city residents moved out to surrounding villages to continue to support those big cities.

As a consequence, cities ceased to expand, creating a huge income gap between the nobles and civilians. Although these large cities appeared to be prosperous and boisterous at the first glance, the population of the surrounding towns and villages was actually much bigger than that of the city they were supporting.

However, Roland knew the fundamental reason for this phenomenon was low productivity. Due to low productivity, civilians were bound by the lands they owned. For the rest of their life, they had no choice but to work laboriously in their fields to support the extravagant lifestyle of the nobles, with little they could keep to themselves.

During the previous years when Roland had been recruiting refugees, the Administrative Office had paid special attention to the change in the local demographic and made a rough estimate. They concluded that the population of Graycasle should be between two million to four million. The wars waged by the second prince and Princess Garcia, and the plague spread by the church had caused a loss of 500,000 to 600,000 in the population and also razed the Eagle City in the Southern Territory and Valencia in the Eastern Region to the ground. Nevertheless, there were still quite a considerable number of people scattered around Graycastle, and only a very small portion of them had chosen to settle down in the Western Region.

But now, Roland was determined to force those people to move here.

It was predicted that they would soon harvest a great quantity of wheat grown from Golden Twos within a month. Meanwhile, high-yield cotton had also been widely grown in the Port of Clearwater. It would not be long before they could supply fabric to people in the entire kingdom. Currently, big cities no longer had to rely on manpower to sustain themselves, for one person could yield products 10 or 20 times they used to.

Further, Roland had, technically, unified Graycastle on an administrative level, as all the power that used to belong to local lords was now held by the central government. The lords would have to obey the orders issued by secondary administrative bodies.

The unification of the kingdom thus provided an excellent opportunity to implement his new migration policy.

The so-called migration equality referred to the equal treatment of any or all citizens' rights to migrate their family members. It was an effective way to reduce conflicts that the mandatory migration policy might spark among the public.

For example, a migrant who used to have two acres of land would be granted the same amount of land by the Administrative Office after he moved to Neverwinter. This strategy would not only expedite the development of the deserted land in the northwest but would also effectively solve the labor shortage problem in Neverwinter.

However, Roland foresaw it was not going to be a pleasant process to drive people out of their native towns to a completely foreign city.

To persuade people to abandon their native land and work in a plant would need a stronger reason than the simple explanation of "emancipation". Historically, the road migrants had trodden on was never unstained with the blood of uncooperative protestors. The government had the nasty tradition of stripping villagers of their properties through illegal purchase and occupation. Some countries even had a history of threatening unemployed refugees to work in factories via legislation and punishments.

Although Roland did not intend anything like this to happen and was actually planning to provide social assistance to migrants, he was determined to restructure the demographic.

He knew what he was doing.

The second requirement was cross-border recruitment, which was basically the same as mandatory migration only that the targetted demographic was residents living beyond Graycastle.

Unlike the Kingdom of Dawn that survived the war, both the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart lost their sovereigns after the church's invasion. According to Hill, these two kingdoms had not fully recovered yet. All the lords claimed that they were the blood of the royal families, and nobody seemed to be able to persuade the others.

Given that, it was out of the question to establish a puppet government like Roland had done to the Kingdom of Dawn.

"Do you mean... that we should send the First Army?" Barov blurted out as he saw a new sheet was put onto the board.

"Do you think that the nobles will allow us to take away their properties while doing nothing?" Roland said matter-of-factly as he sipped his tea. "They care about nothing but power, wealth and more lands. They don't give a damn about the demons or the Battle of Divine Will. Of course, we still need to reason with them first. As for whether they accept it or not, that's another story."

"I'll let them yield, Your Majesty," Iron Axe said sternly.

Cross-border recruitment would definitely be more savage than mandatory domestic migration. Without Golden Twos, many civilians would have to relocate to other cities. The loss of population and food would then lead to the destruction of the entire urban ecosystem. It was, therefore, another form of war, only that the loss would be relatively small compared to an aggressive one.

The First Army was the key to this plan.

The population of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart was around 3 million. Except for those killed in the battles against the church, they could provide Neverwinter 1,500,000 immigrants. The relocation might take several years but it would also be the fastest way to increase the population. That was why Roland asked Barov to double the population within a year, or even within half a year.

"Your Majesty, do you have any requirements for those immigrants?" Barov asked. "Like they have to be skilled workers, farmers or literates?"

Roland had screened refugees before, but at that time, due to limited resources, he had not had the liberty to take in all of them. However, things were quite different now.

"No," Roland answered as he clenched his fist. "I want all of them."

"I... I see," Barov said while mopping his sweat-dampened forehead.

"Last but not least," Roland continued as he instructed Nightingale to show the last slide. "The Administrative Office shall encourage births through advertisement, tax reduction and rewards. Although compared to the previous two policies, you won't be able to immediately see the result of this one. However, it's going to be the most important policy in the future."

Roland paused for a second and then said smilingly to his audience, "For this last policy, I hope everyone in this room could set a good example for the public."

Chapter 1174 - A Permanent Currency Solution

Somebody in the room sniggered.

With the rapid expansion of the Administrative Office and the establishment of a graduation exam system, the average age of governmental officials reduced by years. Since youths were naturally more willing to accept and learn new things than old people, it was common for a young man to finish school at the age of 20 and elevate himself to a key position in the government at the age of 25.

In fact, Roland saw many young officials in the conference hall.

He curled up his lips as he saw some new officials flush fugitively and lower their heads.

Although these young men were relatively inexperienced compared to the old generation, they injected hopes and energies into the institution, which were essential for a newly-established governmental body.

"Anyway, you all need to do your best to increase the population of Neverwinter. Obviously, we'll need more residential buildings and facilities to accommodate these new residents. Doubling the population isn't our ultimate goal, as I'm not going to set a target for this project. All you should know is that the more, the better. Everyone is obligated to make a contribution." Roland concluded after the laughter died down, "To make it easy to memorize, let's round up the number and call this project the 'Project of A Million'."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The officials all clapped their hands over their chests.

The next few executive orders were all supplementary orders to the Project of A Million, such as the exploitation of the resources underneath the Fertile Plains, the establishment of day schools and specialized ones, as well as the further regulation of universal education. Roland also intended to outsource medical professionals from the public instead of recruiting from the army while setting up clinics in various neighborhoods to reduce the pressure of the hospital. Correspondingly, the Ministry of Education should add another subject to the middle school curriculum, medical science, and train semi-professionals working at the field medics using the textbooks collected from the Dream World.

It would not be very easy to expand a city with a population of 200,000 into one with a population of 400,000 or even a million. With the increase in the population, they would, inevitably, had to improve the infrastructure of the city to prevent pollution from waste water and human excreta. The epidemic prevention work would also become more demanding due to the dense population. Although Lily could help with disease control, Roland still had to find a way to establish a monitoring and prevention system.

Education was another key to further development. Illiterate population would only impose a huge burden on the system as opposed to providing assistance to the industrialization.

That was why Roland only laid out the basic frame of the plan because he knew a large city with a population of over a million would not instantly invent itself just after one meeting. The Administrative Office had to figure out how to execute the plan themselves through constant exploration and practices.

While everyone was excited about the future of Neverwinter, Barov suddenly asked, "Your Majesty, are you planning to send all these people to the plants?"

Roland said with a nod, "Or the construction team, the First Army or the laboratory. Anywhere that needs people."

"But the Administrative Office probably isn't financially capable of supporting these people." Barov said hesitantly, "The main revenue of the Administrative Office comes from the sale of Chaos Drinks, perfumes and steam engines. You know that the Joint Chamber of Commerce pays us the bill for the steam engines every three to six months. However, we have to pay subjects their salaries every month, which was around 80,000 gold royals in total. There's no need to worry about any financial problems at the moment because we earn much more than we pay out. However, if the number of the subjects doubles, I'm afraid..."

"You're worried that if the payment is delayed for a few months, the municipality won't be able to pay their people, right?" Roland asked with some interest, his eyebrows raised. He was very pleased that Barov, the former assistant to the Treasurer, quickly foresaw a potential financial crisis.

"Exactly," Barov said as he wrote frantically on his notebook. "As salaries increase annually, the expenses on payroll will only grow higher every year. However, the annual production of Chaos Drinks won't change much, and with the residents in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart swarming into Neverwinter, they'll no longer need to purchase products from here. I'm afraid that the treasury of the Administrative Office will soon be exhausted when our revenue rapidly decreases. I made a rough estimate here. If we take in more than 100,000 people each year, our financial risk will increase by 30%, unless you could find some other sources of revenue..."

Nightingale's eyes instantly glistened. She whispered to Roland, "There's an unexploited gold mine within the domain of our family."

Roland replied in amusement, "I'm not that desperate yet."

"Who cares? Use it if you like."

"Well... don't worry, I'll use it when it's absolutely necessary, but not now," Roland whispered back, then turned to Barov and said, "I've thought of that, and I find you a solution that could solve all the problems you're worried about."

"An ultimate solution?" Barov said, a little taken aback.

"Correct. I see that the cause of these problems is insufficient funds. If we could generate indefinite revenues, there won't be any problems."

Printing notes would be the fastest way to get rich.

When the industrialization of a city reached a certain point, the current monetary system that was heavily based on precious metal currency would inevitably cease to work. Due to the rapid development of technologies, eventually commodities whose values were much more than precious metal itself would emerge. When customers could no longer provide enough precious metal currencies to pay for the values of those commodities, the monetary system would automatically collapse.

However, credit currency did not have such a problem.

Roland had conducted a pilot project before by distributing the witches nominal notes. He noticed these notes were extremely hard to counterfeit because they were printed in Darkcloud's ink, pressed with Anna's moulds and attached with an anti-forgery mark made out of the rubber worm's slime.

Otherwise, the witches would have forged notes on their own to snap up the Chaos Drinks in the castle convenience store.

Further, Neverwinter now had the capability to distribute credit currency.

Roland had planned to discuss the details about the currency format, currency value, and rules pertaining to currency exchange with Barov after he drafted a basic guideline. However, since Barov had raised this question, he would not mind slipping some information.

While Roland was explaining the principle of credit currency to a group of bemused, flabberghasted ministers, the door of the conference hall was flung open and Phyllis burst in.

"Your Majesty, we made a new discovery. Pasha wishes you and your party to come down to the underground hall immediately."

"That urgent?"

"Yes," Phyllis confirmed while knitting her brows. "We've already deciphered the Magic Slayer... no, the demon lord, Ursrook's letter!"

Chapter 1175 - Ursrook's Letter

In the central hall of the Third Border City.

Roland heard a hysterical shriek as he led his ministers off the underground corridor to the hall.

"What's that?" Wendy asked in surprise.

"Kabradhabi's wailing," Phyllis, who led the way, replied. "He broke down after hearing Ursrook's defeat. Not only did he lose his composure but he also made several attempts to commit suicide as well. It took us a while to sedate it."

"I suddenly feel that it might be a better idea to let it live," Tilly rejoined coldly.

"He must live," Phyllis said while nodding vigorously. "The encrypted letter written by Ursrook provides us an excellent opportunity to get a more profound understanding of our enemy. We could probably even know how they mastered our language, which is something the Union yearned but failed to do."

"I can't believe that Kabradhabi would agree to cooperate," Nightingale remarked.

"No, it didn't. It's a little complicated to explain the whole thing. You'll see when you meet it."

Roland and his party came to a halt before an interrogation stand, where the Senior Demon, who took the form of a God's Punishment Warrior, was tethered to a metal post, with a tube inserted into its abdomen. Its eyelids were forced open, before which was a sheet of paper with foreign characters on it.

"So, this is the encrypted letter reconstructed by Summer?" Wendy asked.

"Yes. Maggie spotted it in midair, otherwise we would have probably missed it," answered Agatha, who looked a little pale and weary. There were dark signs of sleeplessness beneath her eyes.

After the war ended, Roland immediately sent the Neverwinter Detective Group to the front to help the army collect information that was typically hard to obtain by ordinary means. Roland believed that the letter, which accidentally slipped out, would be more reliable than the information the demons deliberately divulged to humans.

Considering that Summer's magic power was limited, initially they had just planned to reconstruct the battle between the ambush unit and the demons, and how the Magic Slayer had deceived Sylvie and set up his counter ambush.

But in reality, Roland saw more than he had expected.

He did not expect to see Ursrook, perched on the giant skeleton, write this letter in the golden rays of sunset.

Summer had faithfully reconstructed this particular scene.

"Aaaaaargh!" Kabradhabi howled while wriggling, making a desperate attempt to avert its eyes.

Agatha nodded at Breeze who stamped her foot, and the Senior Demon instantly fell silent.

"I see. You're asking Breeze to manipulate it into reading the encrypted letter," Nightingale commented with a look of dawning comprehension.

"And then we'll ask Ms. Camilla to channel it to see how it'll react to the letter," Celine added. "Although it tried to fake its reaction, we could still distinguish real, spontaneous reactions from fake ones by constantly changing the content of the letter. We actually got this idea from Your Majesty."

"From me?" Roland asked in bewilderment.

"In the intermediate biology textbook, you mentioned that a dog will saliviate when being presented with food. This type of unconditioned response applies to all creatures, including demons."

"We thus pieced the information in its head together and deciphered the content of the letter using a similar approach. Thanks to Ms. Camilla's assistance, we were able to obtain the intelligence rather quickly." With these words, Celine waved her main tentacle at Camilla in gratitude.

"I'm just hoping... hoping that I could help Lady Tilly," Camilla said while biting her lip, a little embarrassed.

That was the beauty of witches' abilities. Although every witch had her own limitation, each of them was irreplaceable. Some ability was so rare that it might take more than several hundred years to see a witch awaken with such an ability. Perhaps there had been witches with abilities similar to Camilla Dary's during the past two Battles of Divine Will, but unfortunately, they had not managed to survive the day when human beings captured a real Senior Demon.

That was probably why Ursrook had been so keen on the elimination of the witches. However, were Ashes, Sylvies and the other witches really more important for the demons than Taquila? The demons, after all, needed God's Stones to erect the Obelisk. Once they seized Taquila, the Red Mist would pervade the Impassable Mountain Range. By that time, demonic beasts would be able to easily climb over the mountains and invade the interior of the Four Kingdoms. It would then be almost impossible for human beings to drive the demons out of the Fertile Plains.

Both the General Staff and the ancient witches had believed that Taquila was the demons' top priority.

Why was the reality so different from their prediction. Perhaps, the letter would give them some clues.

"So, tell me about the content of the letter you have deciphered," said Roland slowly.

...

As all the sentences had been broken down into short phrases for interpretation, some of the paragraphs did not sound very articulate. Nevertheless, they could still roughly make out what the letter said. As Celine slowly transmitted pieces of information, Roland suddenly had a strange feeling that Celine was whispering to him.

"Dear Sky Lord, the final settlement is around the corner. I'm well prepared, not only for the battle but also for myself."

"In the past one month, I heard... the summon numerous times. It is such a strong sign that I'm confident that I'll upgrade in this upcoming battle..."

"I know my action will subject you to critism, but I don't think it'll affect your plan for the Western Front."

"If I succeed, our enemy will lose their only means of... and we'll, once again, be able to control the pace of the battle."

"... Send troops ten times what we have now, and human beings won't stand a chance..."

"Nevertheless, I cannot guarantee our victory at this moment. If I fail..."

"Please treat humans as equal and annihilate them with all our strength. If necessary, we might even have to abandon the Fathomless Abyss."

"... As long as we could obtain their legacy shard, there will still be a ray of hope to crush the Sky-sea Realm."

"Finally, please send my regards to the king and the Nightmare Lord."

Roland felt his back was covered with a sheen of cold sweat after he read Ursrook's letter.

He now understood why Phyllis looked so anxious.

Ursrook had definitely failed his mission. He had not only failed to annihilate the ambush unit but also got himself killed in the end.

This meant that the demons would probably adopt the second proposal on the letter.

Although there were missing words here and there, Roland could still tell that Ursrook had been advising his kind to abandon their battle against the Sky-sea Realm and put all their efforts into the eradication of the human race.

What the hell?

A leaden feeling suddenly stole through Roland. This was probably the worst news he had ever received since the war.

"We probably have to put aside the development plan for the Fertile Plains now," Wendy muttered.

"If the demons dedicate themselves to killing us, it'll be too dangerous to build the residential area outside the defensive line."

"But what about the Red Mist?"

"The Demons could establish the Obelisk in Starfall City."

"But then the Red Mist won't be able to permeate the entire Fertile Plains, and we could still have another 400 years of peace before the next Battle of Divine Will. It won't be very different than what we proposed earlier, right?"

"The difference is that the demons will go to all lengths to exterminate our kind."

"No..." Edith interrupted the heated discussion. "There's something wrong with this letter."

Chapter 1176 - A [Flaw]

Roland cast Edith a surprised glance.

After the miserable failure of the ambush tactic, some governmental officials criticized the judgement of the General Staff, and the Chief of General Staff, Edith Kant, naturally became the target of these unkind attacks. In addition to the Administrative Office, the Sleeping Spell also raised objections. Tilly waved these skeptical voices into silence immediately and thereby reduced the impact of this temporary outbreak of resentment to the minimum.

Edith had also requested for disciplinary action when she had come back from the front. However, Roland had declined her request and hushed up the whole thing.

Because he knew this was not Edith's fault.

On the contrary to a defeat, the "Torch" campaign was indeed a great success. They had slaughtered nearly 20,000 demons at the cost of only 500 casualties and recovered the Taquila Holy City lost to the demons hundreds of years ago. Undoubtedly this was a major victory.

Everybody knew how much the General Staff had done for the war.

In fact, Roland had discussed this matter with Tilly, Agatha and Alethea in private, and all of them believed the misjudgement was largely attributed to the unexpected behavior of the enemy. Even the Three Chiefs back in the Union would not have been able to predict that the demons would let the opportunity to take over the entire continent slip just because of a few witches.

Nevertheless, it was undeniable that Edith had indeed lost to Ursrook. Roland anticipated that she would succumb, for once, to despondence because of the scathing criticism, but to his great consternation, Edith remained poised and confident as ever, and again, blurted out a completely different view.

"... What's wrong?"

"First is the last two sentences," Edith said while pacing up and down, her head hanging. "If he succeeds, the demons should increase their forces tenfold. Doesn't it sound strange? If the demons' ultimate goal was to wipe out the human race, then they should have taken Taquila more seriously. I understand that they're now struggling to deal with their enemy in the Sky-sea Realm, but they shouldn't have given up on Taquila completely either, for the letter suggests they should come back and eliminate us."

Momentarily stunned, Wendy asked, "It does sound strange. Why didn't they do that in the first place?"

"Because of the Red Mist?" Nightingale said tentatively while propping her chin on her hand.

"The demons aren't likely to send all their forces, but they could have increased the troops by ten times as long as they sent more transportation units. Plus, they have weapons like giant skeletons," Agatha said, frowning. "It took us over half a year to build the ten railway stations, so the demons should have had enough time to make a choice."

"The General Staff made the operation plan based on the information from this guy, Kabradhabi's testimony. According to Kabradhabi, the demons are having a battle of life and death against the enemy in the Sky-sea Realm," Edith said while glaring at the Senior Demon who glowered from the interrogation stand. "However, this letter is suggesting that even if they lose the battle, the demons would still survive and possibly even have a chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. So, why didn't the demons send reinforcements to Taquila instead? It doesn't make sense. Their operation intention contradicts their action."

Everyone lapsed into thoughts.

"Also, this one, 'I know my action will subject you to criticism, but I don't think it'll affect your plan for the Western Front'," Edith read meditatively. "There seems to be nothing wrong with this statement at the first glance, but it doesn't bear close examination. He went to pursue the witches and did lose Taquila. Will it really not impact their entire plan?"

"Perhaps, Ursrook was trying to hoodwink his superior?" Roland said thoughtfully. "Nobles usually tend to do that..."

"Your Majesty, please view him as the most difficult enemy we've ever come across!" Edith said tersely. "Just treat him as another version of me who works for the demons. Do you think I'll do things like that?"

Looking at her clenched fists, Roland suddenly came to the realization that Edith was not as unflappable as she appeared. She was not completely immune to the skeptical remarks behind her back either but simply had chosen not to listen to them.

Deep down inside, she did not want to lose to Ursrook.

"Alright. Since he's serious, it means that Taquila has become their second choice... I would be inclined to believing that the demons have found a way to attack the Four Kingdoms without erecting the Obelisk or the Red Mist."

"We discussed this at the early stage of the 'Torch' project," Agatha sighed. "I still think it's impossible. Otherwise, why did they still have to save Taquila? If the demons were not relying on the Red Mist anymore, they should have infiltrated our land by now."

"Er... why are you all arguing about the impact?"

While everyone was puzzled about the demons' unusual behavior, Nightingale asked in confusion, "Doesn't that 'Western Front' sound awkward to you? The demons are on our opposite side, so the area to the west of Neverwinter should be the east for them. Don't you think so?"

"We talk about positions always in relation to our own location. Plus, the world isn't flat," Celine explained good-naturedly. "The demons are coming from another continent. If Ursrook views the continent they are living on as the center of the world, then not only Taquila but the Four Kingdoms are also to the west of the Land of Dawn."

"I see... So, the west he's talking about isn't the same west we normally refer to, right?"

"Hang on. What did you say?" Edith asked as she looked up suddenly.

"Their west... isn't the same as our west," Nightingale answered hesitantly.

Edith's eyes sparkled. She hurried to a long desk littered with different maps, unrolled every scroll while casting it a fleeting glance before she put it aside, and then finally rested her eyes on a very crude map.

Roland studied the map for a while until he realized that it was a map of the Kingdom of Everwinter.

She pointed at the blank area to the north of the Snow Ridge, which was the most northern part of the Kingdom of Everwinter, and asked Celine, "What's that there?"

"Mountains, endless mountains that stretch away for thousands of miles between the south and the north that almost encircle one side of the Land of Dawn. We call them the ridge of the continent."

"Did the Union explore that area by any chance?"

"Of course. The Quest Society drafted a full map of the entire Land of Dawn, naturally including the ridge of the continent."

"Just a map?" Edith asked earnestly. "No other more detailed records?"

"What are you trying to say?" Agatha asked in surprise. "It wasn't easy to draft a map because there are just so many mountains there, and they are huge. The Impassable Mountain Range is just at the very end of the whole mountain range, and its widest part could house the entire castle. The mountains are treacherous and covered in snow all the year round. Even if we marked every single mountain, how could that possibly help us?"

"I believe we overlooked an important fact here. The plan for the Western Front that the Sky Lord is talking about here probably doesn't refer to Taquila at all but the plan to attack the entire human population. Taquila is just one of their options!" Edith said while running her finger along the Impassable Mountain Range. "The demons' ultimate goal is to let the Red Mist cross over this mountain ridge. As long as they could approach the Four Kingdoms, it doesn't matter which city they choose to enter from. They simply need to erect the Obelisk!"

"You mean…" Agatha's manner tightened abruptly.

"Is there a possibility that there are unknown God's Stone mines around the ridge of continent?" Edith asked gravely.

Chapter 1177 - Before the Storm

"Well..." The ancient witches exchanged looks, bemused and lost.

At long last, Pasha broke the silence. "Yes, there might be."

"Can I ask a question? How did you find God's Stone mines in the past?" Roland asked.

"I can't remember the method used 1,000 years ago, but I believe it was by pure coincidence," Celine replied. "After the establishment of the Union and the Quest Society, looking for God's Stone mines became our main job."

Roland thought of the map that marked Taquila, the Misty Forest and the North Slope Mine, through which Lightning had located Agatha and thereby uncovered the old history that had once been shrouded in secrecy.

"As God's Stones can block power, we started to search for them based on this feature. Witches like Sylvie, Nightingale, Lightning and Isabella could all become researchers 600 or 700 years ago. In peacetime, there were nearly 100 witches in the search team. We found six mines in total, three of which were suitable to build a large city around." Celine went on, "Later, we discovered the technologies of the underground civilization and started using the magic core to conduct the search. Once the core generates power, the sensor could cover an area with a radius of 100 kilometers. It actually helped us find the southern end of the Misty Forest and Hermes Plateau. Unfortunately, by the time we found them, the Bloody Moon had appeared, and the demons destroyed everything."

"In other words, there was no point in the Union searching the mountain ridge," Roland said slowly. "It's inaccessible for common people, and even witches would find it hard to get there. So, it should be very inconvenient for the demons to build an Obelisk there."

"That's right," Edith said as she gave a nod of approval. "It isn't likely that they'll send all their forces, but this area is large enough to replace Taquila as their stronghold to exterminate humans. Besides, the number of the troops they could send to the mountains also depends on their preparation time. If the 'Western Front Plan Ursrook referred to included many contingency plans..."

"The demons would have been preparing for this operation for over half a year," Iron Axe supplied the answer heavily. "Your Majesty..."

"I see," Roland said as he threw his eyes over the others. Whether or not Edith's deduction was correct, he had to confirm this intelligence first. After all, it concerned the other three kingdoms as well as the future of the human race in the next hundred years. If the demons did plan to invade men's territories via the mountain ridge as speculated, it would be a total disaster if Neverwinter continued to direct all the resources to the development of the Fertile Plains. Roland straightened up and said solemnly, "Now, hear my orders!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" shouted the witches and officials together.

"Wendy, bring Lightning and Maggie back to Neverwinter immediately."

"Got it. I'll go right away."

"Iron Axe, implement the migration policy as soon as possible. I don't mind resorting to force."

"As you command!"

"Finally, I need the Taquila witches to provide another magic core," Roland said as he turned to Pasha. "Considering air reconnaissance alone may miss something, I need your assistance to make sure that we discover everything."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

As the crowd was dispersed, Celine stopped Roland.

"I want to show you something, Your Majesty."

Roland thus followed Celine into the underground laboratory. To his surprise, he saw four yellowish brown stones almost identical to the Magic Ceremony Cube on the desk.

"You've already created four replicates?"

Roland went up to the workstation in earnest and fiddled one of the stones. Compared to the real Magic Cube, the replicate looked sharper, newer, with clearer patterns on it.

"Yes, but they functioned a little differently. I reckon it has something to do with their raw materials. Perhaps, the radiation race put something else in it when they made the Cube. Nevertheless, I tested them on chickens already and confirmed those tiny differences don't affect its use."

"That's even better," Roland said while he lamented the poor chickens within himself. "We need its power to last longer. I don't care about its lethality to be honest. Keep up the good work."

"No problem. Do you still need these prototypes?"

"Of course. You discovered a new energy source!" Roland praised ardently. "You can't imagine how important your research actually is. You made such a great contribution to the development of the human race that you've certainly carved a glorious place in human history!"

The next step was to design a device to convert the thermal energy released by the Magic Cube into kinetic energy. If this attempt was successful, there would soon be another industrial revolution in Neverwinter!

At these thoughts, Roland contemplated Celine's blob-like body with mournful presentiment and said, "You should be receiving a Special Award for Services to Neverwinter and congratulated by the public on the stage on the central square..."

"That's nothing, Your Majesty. I knew this kind of honor wouldn't be available to me when I decided to transfer my soul," Celine said smilingly. "I'm just doing my job. Plus, you've already fulfilled my dream in the Dream World."

...

Roland's orders were immediately spread throughout the entire kingdom.

Every day, a dozen birds rose into the air from the top of the castle and brought encrypted messages to the northeast. Every port and every fleet were making their contributions to this great relocation.

The First Army departed for the Port of Clearwater, Seawindshire, and other port cities on paddle steamers. From there, they took another ship before heading to the north.

Although the details of the operation plan had not been disclosed to soldiers and the soldiers had no idea what exactly their mission was, they immediately assembled and commenced their journey to another country without the slightest hesitation after receiving the order.

In the City of Glow, the Kingdom of Dawn.

After Horford Quinn received Hill Fawkes' letter, he summoned his son at once and said to him, "Go to the Beach Bay and Dragon Castle to let the local lords know that they should prioritize the ships from Graycastle over all other ships. Make sure they leave a docking area specifically for Graycastle. The royal family will bear all the necessary expenses!"

"Father, are you sure?" Hawn asked, frowning. "That'll cost a large sum of money and will also affect the businesses of other merchant vessels..."

"Enough!" Horford interposed irritably. "Just do what I said!"

Hawn bit his lip, his head bowed, and conceded, "Yes, father."

He turned around again and said reluctantly, "At least you should tell me what Graycastle is up to."

But Horford remained silent.

He heaved a deep sigh after Hawn withdrew and closed the door.

Horford walked up to the window and gazed upon his neighbor, muttering, "Everything's going to... change now."

In the meantime, in an underground limestone cave in the suburb of the City of Glow.

Banach Lothar settled himself into his wheelchair while studying the 200 "Unspeakable" who stood erect next to him and his 20 masked managers coldly. For years, he had relied on these followers to operate "Black Money".

"You made a lot of investments in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter in the past few years. Now it's time to reap your profits." After gazing at his followers for quite a while, Banach croaked, "I've received information from a reliable source that Graycastle's troops will soon enter the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart. No matter what they're doing, your mission is to provide as much assistance as you can, including money, food and intelligence. 'Black Money' shall do its best to meet their needs. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Very well. Off you go."

Everyone immediately obeyed and trooped out of the underground hall.

Banach produced an empty vial from his inner pocket. This had been the fifth vial of liquid medicine since the Oracle had killed Appen Moya.

One more vial... He just needed one more vial to reach immortality!

Banach's hand trembled as he held up the little bottle.

"Rest assured, Oracle. I'll not let you down."

Chapter 1178 - Being a Grown-up

Two days after the issuance of the order before the actual implementation of the migration policy, Lightning and Maggie returned to Neverwiner.

Roland was a little shocked at the changes in the two little girls as they came into the office.

Maggie had not changed much except she was a little fuller than half a year ago, making her now terribly resemble a goose instead of a pigeon.

He was, as a matter of fact, surprised at Lightning.

Her hair was a lot longer, which cascaded down to her shoulders, a little unkempt as a result of a long-haul flight. Her face was dirty. Several ugly pouches sprouted from her patched flight suit near her legs, chest and shoulders, which Roland highly suspected they were the work of her own. Although Lightning was disheveled and windswept, she looked more like a true explorer now.

The biggest change, however, lay in her eyes and the expression she was wearing.

Roland suddenly realized she was no longer that little girl he used to know.

"Your Majesty, did you request to see me?"

Lightning said as she swept a bow.

For a second, Roland did not know what to say. Finally, he told her about Ursrook's letter and Edith's deduction from it. "If the demons do plan to do what the letter suggests, the consequence will be disastrous. Therefore, I want you guys to fly to the Kingdom of Everwinter and explore the untraversed mountain range in the north. Demons can't survive without the Red Mist. If they wanted to enter the mountainous area, they should have left some traces there."

"That's unbelievable..." Lightning remarked, her brows contracted. "It's very fortunate that Maggie found his letter, but Your Majesty, what if the demons operate underground? You must understand that what I could do is limited. It's really hard for me to spot deliberately hidden objects from above."

"That'll be the worst scenario," said Roland. "The God's Punishment Witches will bring a magic core and take off at the Shallow Beach to join you. If you can't find the demons, they'll resort to the magic core to conduct a final search." Judging from the result of the "Torch" project, Roland noticed that the demons were not as good at excavation as human beings who possessed the devouring worms. However, as the demons had, at one time, occupied half of the Land of Dawn, they were definitely more proficient in magic. As such, it was unlikely that the demons would have no knowledge of the relic of the underground civilization when even the Union had made some discoveries of the carriers during their exploration of the ruin. On the contrary, there was a big chance that there were other carriers around the ridge of the continent.

"I see. I'll do my best," Lighting replied with a nod.

"But it'll take you at least a month to get to the north of the Kingdom of Everwinter from the south of Graycastle, so you may not be able to receive support in a timely fashion. Also, the residents there, as I fear, may still remain hostile against witches. It may not even be safe in a city, so you have to be careful."

"Explorers are particularly good at surviving in the wild, Your Majesty," Lightning returned quickly. "I could live in the wilderness for a year, not to mention just one month."

"Coo, coo!" Maggie rejoined as she flapped her wings in approval.

"Sorry," Roland sighed. "You just came back, and you have to take another expedition again..."

"Your Majesty, don't feel sorry for us..." Lightning said while averting her eyes, her voice lower. "Compared to those who sacrificed themselves for the victory, compared to Ashes... this is nothing." She soon recollected herself and continued, "Since this is a new expedition, then as usual, could you..."

For a moment, Roland did not grasp what Lightning meant. Then he came to the realization just in time. "Of course, yes," he said as he stood up and walked around the desk.

Lightning raised her hand but retracted her arms abruptly as she caught sight of her blotchy sleeves. "Oh, no, that's OK... I forgot to get changed. I smell bad. That's fine — "

Her words, however, were drowned in Roland's crushing hug.

"You did a great job. I'll ask the tailor to make you more flight suits so that you could wear them by turns."

Lightning instantly fell silent. At long last, she stifled her sniff and replied a "yes".

"And me, coo," Maggie rejoined as she craned her neck.

"You did a good job too," Roland said as he stroked her smooth feathers.

Nightingale also walked up to them and gave both a hug. "Please stay safe."

"We will."

After Lightning and Maggie withdrew, Nightingale remarked, "Lightning would have never said 'what I could do is limited' before."

Roland nodded vigorously. The old Lightning he knew would have definitely promised everything before even hearing the full account.

Leaf had told Roland that after Ashes had died together with Ursrook, Lightning had cried her eyes out and sunk into a state of despondency for several days. However, now he could not see the faintest trace of distress in her. Roland could tell that Lightning had still not got over with Ashes' death, but she no longer wallowed in sorrow. Instead, she became more determined to fight against demons after this unfortunate loss.

"She's grown up," Roland commented.

...

Roland wished the migration campaign to start as early as possible; nevertheless, it took months to travel from Graycastle to the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter. Due to the extra long commute, it was impossible for the Administrative Office and the First Army to increase the population of Neverwiner in a short period of time.

Insufficient manpower, therefore, hindered the further expansion of industrial projects he had conceived a long time ago. As the threat of the demons was still hung above his head like a naked sword suspended by a single hair, Roland was stressed out.

Fortunately, the success of the replication of the Magic Ceremony Cube offered him some consolation. He stayed at Anna's laboratory at the North Slope all day to see whether he could develop a new energy source with the cube replicates. After Lightning, Maggie and the God's Punishment Witches departed from Neverwinter on the "Roland" with the magic core, Roland invested more time in his research.

The magic steam engine would definitely benefit every industrial project in a more profound manner than any other inventions.

Celine also volunteered to help with the research. As the laboratory was located in a relatively remote area and was also heavily guarded, nobody was likely to bump in by accident. Roland was very impressed with Celine's assembling ability. Her dexterous auxiliary tentacles could install flywheels and pistons effortlessly, which really made Anna's life a lot easier.

Thus, the scene where a man, a woman and a tentacled monster worked together on a machine became the norm at the North Slope.

It wasn't long before a peculiar prototype materialized in the laboratory.

Chapter 1179 - Tri-tank Magic Power Unit

Anna studied the prototype up and down before she expressed her thought on the machine.

"It's pretty... small."

"But it looks nice," Celine said meditatively. "I like those tubes. They're just like tentacles."

Roland smiled. Anna and Celine viewed this new machine from a completely different perspective, and naturally, they reached different conclusions. Nevertheless, both of them pointed out the exact features of the machine.

Compared to the first cast-iron steam engine Anna had created, this prototype was much smaller. Needless to say, Anna's skills had improved a great deal since then, but most importantly, the reduction of size was mainly ascribed to the absence of a boiler.

The steam engines currently used in Neverwinter was of its fourth generation. In spite of that, the boiler portion of the machine remained pretty much the same for each generation. The steam engine still required a large combustion chamber and a furnace to operate, no matter what kind of combustible materials were in use — whether it was charcoal, wood or heavy oil. Now, the boiler was replaced with a rectangular steel box one meter in length, half a meter in width and less than 20 centimeters in height.

This box was the core power unit of the whole mechanic system.

The cube and water were put in an enclosed container with a high pressure tolerance to power the machine. The system was technologically demanding, so Roland did not think they would have been able to create such an advanced steam engine back in the Border Town even if they had obtained this cube that had once belonged to the radiation race at that time.

The steel box, which was the power unit of the machine, was embedded with three magic cubes. Its bottom was plastered with lead to block excess radiation, the top of which was lined with a dozen conduits that passed through a water tank and a condenser around the bottom. The whole "heating-converting-cooling" process was conducted in an enclosed system without any contact with the external environment. Theoretically, there would be no need to replace the thermal conductive material as long as the device was functioning properly.

Roland could have produced a smaller steam engine.

He could have replaced water, the most accessible and affordable thermal conductive material with more efficient one, such as liquid alkali metal, to further reduce the size while maintaining the same power.

However, the main purpose of building a prototype was to see if this system worked. Roland did not want to see any leak during the test. If the evaporated alkali metal and water vapor reacted, the entire laboratory would be probably blown away.

The thermal energy created by the cube would reach the water tank through the conduits to boil the water in it. After the water was heated up, everything would then be quite similar to ordinary steam engines that they were very familiar with.

Celine really liked the condensers on both sides of the machine. To maximize the heat-transfer area, each tube meandered around the box just like tentacles.

Compared to cumbersome traditional steam engines, this prototype was small and delicate with its dazzling silver box at the center and reflective copper conduits around it. Even a regular lay man who knew nothing about machinery would be able to tell which steam engine was more advanced.

It was almost like artwork.

"So... let's begin?" Roland suggested while turning to Celine and Anna.

Anna nodded as she rested her hand on the operation rod and said, "Together."

Celine placed her main tentacle on both Roland's and Anna's hands after a moment of hesitation.

"Testing on the prototype of the magic steam engine. Three, two, one, go!"

As Roland counted to three, the rod was pulled down to the bottom, turning the three magic cubes on. The new steam engine, which marked the dawn of a new age of industrialization, started running for the first time.

Yet the laboratory was perfectly silent as though nothing had happened.

"Er... did we fail?" Celine asked hesitantly as she looked at the motionless machine.

"No, it's still heating," Roland replied confidently.

After around two minutes, the central steel box trembled slightly, and the indicator light on one of the tubes emanated a soft yellow glow. The indicator light, which was actually a pressure gage made of Match Men discovered in the cave, showed changes in the air pressure within the tubes.

It took a much longer time to transmit the heat. After around another five minutes, vapor finally escaped from the water tank, and the piston started to move.

As the temperature in the tubes steadily increased, the flywheels of the steam engine spinned faster and set the water pump of the condensation system in motion. The main purpose of this water pump was to expedite the circulation of the system and send the cooled thermal conductive material back to the central box, which thus completed the whole cycle.

"It seems the machine works pretty well," Anna said while heaving a deep sigh smilingly. "The only drawback is that it's a bit slow at the beginning."

"All steam engines have that problem," Roland assented while nodding. It took time to transfer heat. Even the most efficient thermal conductor would be slower than an internal combustion engine that could almost start working immediately. As this new steam engine required at least three water tanks in theory, it would be still a lot larger than an internal combustion engine. Another shortcoming was that the Magic Cube consumed a lot of uranium, which made this prototype almost had no practical value.

Nevertheless, every industrial undertaking was time-consuming.

Once Celine figured out how to sustain the system, Roland believed this new steam engine would soon benefit the whole society. Its relatively small size made it easier for mass production and also enabled people to attach it to most transportation tools. Meanwhile, the new power source would also save a lot of space for cargos, as fuels were no longer necessary for operation.

Half an hour later, the speed of the steam engine reached its height. The whole machine shook dangerously, and the bubbling sound of water vapor gradually dissolved into an angry shrill. Apparently, three magic cubes overloaded the system. Roland thus turned off two magic cubes and finally tranquilized the prototype.

The next step was a lengthy reliability test.

This test would take approximately a week, which was also a test that would expose many potential problems. It was easy to build the machine and make it work, but it was hard to ensure that it would function properly every time.

Watching a puffing and huffing steam engine was boring, but Roland liked to talk with Anna. He felt relaxed and calm as if he and Anna had suddenly traveled back through time to the moment they had first met.

Celine left the laboratory quietly, leaving the couple alone.

Anna rested her head on Roland's shoulder. The noises produced by the machine suddenly became muffled and distant.

"If this thing works, I'll then be one step closer to your previous world, right?"

"Yes, and probably you'll be much closer than you think. There has not been any technologies like this in that world yet."

"Can we also create those four-wheeled vehicles that you once talked about?"

"Yes, we can. I can design a simple one for you if you like."

"Sounds great!" Anna said, her face lighting up. "By the way, what will you call this machine?"

"Does it have to have a name?" Roland asked, smiling.

"Of course," Anna replied solemnly.

"Alright then. Black Technology No. 1 or Magic Cube Power Unit. Which one do you prefer?"

"It's not black at all... Oh well, I choose the latter. But how do we distinguish its various models if we use this name?"

"That's easy. One Magic Ceremony Cube represents one tank. So, this prototype can be called tri-tank magic power unit. How does that sound?"

"Sounds a little strange for some reason."

"It doesn't have to be perfect..."

Their laugh and the roar of the machine mingled together and lingered on in the air like a long murmur of music above the yard.

Chapter 1180 - Rose Café

The test lasted for several days. Apart from testing on the Magic Power Unit, Roland also found another way to combat stress, which was to take the witches to the Dream World. Nothing would be more relaxing than being surrounded by a group of witches who seemed to always have an insatiable curiosity about everything they saw.

In the meantime, Roland was also busy with his coffee shop business.

A month and a half later, Rose Café officially greeted its grand opening.

To keep a low profile, Roland decided to hold the opening ceremony and start the fireworks display at around 10:00 after breakfast hours. By that time, students and young professionals would have left for school and work, and elders should have gone grocery shopping. It would be the quietest hour of the day in the neighborhood.

The two-storey coffee shop was right next to the warehouse, with a rent of $3,500 per month. He knew this number was a little higher than the average rent around this area.

However, it was not Roland's intention to make profits anyway, so he signed the paper without much negotiation with the landlord. His only request was to connect the warehouse and the coffee shop together so that he could more easily manage his inventory. Roland also promised to rebuild the wall before he surrendered the tenancy.

As Roland agreed to pay a full-year rent in advance, the landlord immediately gave his consent.

Nevertheless, this was not the real reason Roland conducted his business in this way.

He was not planning to become an entrepreneur by any means, and the Taquila witches were obviously not interested in serving customers either. In fact, the coffee shop was set up solely for their own entertainment rather than attracting businesses.

If truth be told, Roland rather hoped that nobody would visit his store.

To attain his end, Roland specially put up a sign outside the shop, listing the prices of all the drinks offered in the cafe. All of them were ridiculously expensive, around ten times the normal prices. For example, he put a regular latte ￥260 and ￥300 for a small caramel macchiato.

It should be noted that the soy milk next door only cost ￥1.5.

Roland did not think that any sensible person would choose to order here.

If someone knowingly visited the shop regardless of the daunting prices, then he must be the person who had left the note in the book.

But Roland was not quite sure whether this "Rose Cafe" was the same one the messenger was looking for.

"Your Majesty, is that OK now?" Phyllis asked as she put down the ribbon.

"Yes, once the ribbon is cut, Rose Café is officially open," Roland replied while nodding. "Let's have a celebration."

There was a bar and a few round tables in the coffee shop, each table decorated with a lit candle and a bouquet of roses. Soft music murmured quietly. However, when Phyllis and Roland went upstairs, the romantic atmosphere downstairs instantly gave way to raucous noises that typically existed in a restaurant.

Roland had bought a complete set of cooking utensils and a barbeque rack for the ancient witches. As KFC and the McDonald's could no longer satisfy the witches' unquenchable hunger for food that had not been fulfilled for hundreds of years, they started to cook themselves. The experience at that buffet enlightened them as to the science behind cuisines, so they became extremely excited to try out on their own. It took them a while to learn how to use stoves and microwaves. However, they soon got the hang of cooking and started to follow the steps on recipes.

Many of them, for example, Phyllis, were surprisingly talented. The food they made was indeed very professional. They not only had excellent cutting skills but seemed to just know the secret of brewing and simmering as well.

"Your Majesty, I just learned how to make braised eels. Would you like to try it?"

"This is roasted pork loin I just made!"

"Your Majesty, could you help me find some recipes for cold dishes?"

From their exhilarated looks, Roland judged the witches enjoyed cooking as much as they watched a movie or took a tour.

Roland felt a little sorry that they could not live in this world forever. After Elena died, Roland had made several attempts to look for her in his dream but to no avail. Nothing had changed in either the warehouse or the apartment.

This meant that they would eventually leave him one day.

Death, whether a natural death or being killed in action, would transform everything into a thin thread of memory.

Probably that was why the witches treasured every single trip to the Dream World.

Perhaps, he should sleep more at night, just to let them stay here a little longer if not for himself.

Ding.

Just at that moment, the bell downstairs rang.

The witches instantly fell silent.

"Your Majesty, there's a customer coming," Phyllis reminded Roland.

Roland did not expect to see the messenger come that fast right after his opening. He cast a glance at everyone and said in a hushed voice, "Do what I planned." With these words, Roland and Phyllis went downstairs. Among all the ancient witches, only Phyllis, who had once disguised as a maid in "Black Money", had customer service experience.

"Not a single person at the bar. Are you really planning to provide job opportunities to your relatives?"

The customer who stepped into the store gazed at Roland suspiciously, her arms folded and her brows knitted. Her eyes lingered on Roland's cheeks and collar for a few seconds.

This customer was Garcia.

Roland was hugely relieved. Garcia knew about his business and she had actually helped him a lot with the moving. He beckoned Phyllis to bring two coffees and then gestured Garcia to sit down. "Of course. I always want them to get out of their village."

"Hang on, I'm not going to — "

"My treat. It's free."

Garcia took a seat and said, "Anyway, the prices you list out there are just highly unrealistic. It really makes people doubt your true intention to open this store."

"You're wrong," Roland said truthfully. "The most important thing for them now is adapting to the new environment. They just moved here from the countryside. If tons of customers swarm in at a time, do you think they'll feel at ease? They'll probably freak out. I don't care about profits but more about them getting used to the city life. That's the reason I opened this Rose Café."

"R-really?" Garcia asked skeptically.

"Of course. Also, I have to thank you for the invitation card last time. It helped me a lot," Roland steered away the subject.

"So, all settled?"

"Not only did he fix their status but he also sent them to school. It's the same school as Zero, but they're in high school," Roland explained smilingly. "The three girls wanted to thank you for your help."

"I'm glad to hear that..." Garcia said, her expression softened. "They don't have to thank me. You did all the work. After all, I didn't come forward to confront my father and media."

Roland shook his head and said, "You did all that you could."

There was a mute interval.

"Coffee. Enjoy," Phyllis broke the silence.

Garcia came out of her reveries and picked up the cup. After a moment of hesitation, she said, "I need to tell you something."

"Regarding the Martialist Association?" Roland asked. He knew Garcia must have some important business to share.

Garcia nodded and said, "Yes, there's a task, and the Association wants you to deal with it."

"I hope it's not a show or anything like that. I've heard the Martial Arts Contest this year is drawing close."

"No... it's a joint mission to annihilate Fallen Evils," Garcia corrected him gravely.

Chapter 1181 - The Best Team Combination

Roland twitched his lips. The term "annihilation" seemed a little barbarous for a society governed by law. Roland commented airily, "Sounds like something extraordinary."

"It isn't as complicated as you think," Garcia retorted as if having seen through Roland's mind. "There are precedents. Normally, the Association intends to gain more information about Fallen Evils through this kind of mission and kill them all at one shot. It'll actually be much safer to have some preparation in advance than fighting an unexpected Fallen Evil alone."

"Have you participated in any joint missions before?"

"Er..." Garcia faltered. "I only heard about those missions from my master because I wasn't qualified to participate in any before. This is my first time." She paused for a second, her eyes fixed on the coffee cup in her hand, and said, "Perhaps you don't really mind that, but I have to make it clear first. When you got that hunting license, you surpassed me. The Association asked me to inform you because you're relatively new, so you might not be very familiar with the transition. If you feel it improper, that's fine. I'll let the Association know — "

"No, that's OK," Roland interrupted her. "Since it was you who asked me to join the Association in the first place, naturally you should take on a leadership role, shouldn't you?" Roland had no intention whatsoever to glorify the Martialist Association or become a leader. His main purpose of joining this organization was to simply probe into the mystery around the Erosion and the Force of Nature while at the same time earning some extra incomes.

Garcia stared up into Roland's eyes for quite a while, a little bemused, and then burst into a laugh. "A leadership role — you're so strange... I know you don't want to take the responsibility, so you make it sound like you offer the position to me," Garcia said, apparently looking a lot more relieved.

"Yup, I just don't want to say it out loud," Roland said indifferently with a shrug. "Back to the business. So, anyone else joining us this time? Who's our target?"

"To avoid unnecessary information leak, we'll disclose the plan once everyone has arrived," Garcia said as she gulped down the coffee. "But I've heard that some modern martialists will also join in this mission."

Roland nodded understandably and asked, "When and where are we going to meet up?"

"Tomorrow evening, 6:00, in the southern suburb. I'll text you the details. You could go by yourself or I could give you a ride."

"I'll go by myself," Roland said quickly. It would be impossible to take witches with him if he went with Garcia.

Garcia replied while twitching her lips, "Up to you." Then she waved at Phyllis and passed her a note. "I'm Roland's neighbor. I'm just living next door in Room 0827. If you encounter any problems in this city, feel free to contact me. I mean if you're under duress or coersion, call me at this number. I'm happy to help."

Phyllis winked and said, "Th-thank you."

"You're welcome," Garcia said while patting Phyllis on the shoulder with a smile. She waved at Roland at the doorstep and said, "Well, see you tomorrow then."

With another silvery clink and clatter, Garcia vanished from behind the door.

"She's nice," Phyllis remarked. "Your Majesty, are you going?"

"Since the Association appointed me, I don't think I could turn it down. I guess this is the price I have to pay for the hunting license," Roland said indifferently. "There are other people working with me as well, so it shouldn't be very dangerous as long as we proceed with caution. It's actually not too bad to partake in such an event once in a while." With a group of witches around him, Roland could almost guarantee the victory. Killing was also an effective way to alleviate stress.

"Then I'll inform Lady Pasha and bring some combat witches to assist you," Phyllis said on a bow.

...

Roland selected four witches to come with him for this mission, who were Phyllis, Faldi, Ling and Dawnen. They could track enemies while at the same time covering up their traces, which was exactly what Roland needed to carry out this mission.

The next day, Roland drove his mini van to the designated spot.

They were meeting up at a remote but accessible rest area in the suburb, from where they would change vehicles to avoid unwelcome attention.

Roland thought the Martialist Association was indeed quite thoughtful.

However, when he reached the rest area, he realized that he had been seriously wrong.

The parking lot was lined with luxurious cars, attracting a lot of onlookers. A knot of people was congregated there, shrilling in excitement. It was evident that they had spotted some celebrated martialists.

"Luo Luo, look over here!"

"Can I take a photo with you?"

"Are you coming here to film a commercial?"

"Is that the runner-up last year, Mr. Youlong?"

"Wow, he smiled at me! He's so hot!"

Roland rolled his eyes, wondering if these guys were really here for the mission. As soon as he parked his car, Garcia came up to him.

"Get under your veil."

"Got it," Dawnen muttered as she summoned the Veil of Invisibility and threw it over the three witches.

Roland got off the vehicle and waved at Garcia. "You're fast."

"You have a hunting license now. Why are you still driving such a... battered vehicle?" Garcia asked in confusion. "I understand that you like to keep a low profile, but... this is a little too much. This is shabby."

"Really?" Roland said while spreading out his hands. "I actually feel it quite convenient. You can use it for grocery shopping, and it's large enough to store a large quantity of food. I don't think other vehicles can do that." Roland left the other reason unsaid, which was that you would never know how many witches you could hide in this van.

"Alright then," Garcia said quite resignedly, "if you really don't mind how people look at you."

"I don't care it at all," Roland said while smiling indifferently. "Are those profligates also martialists?"

"Yes, but don't say that to anyone else," Garcia said while darting Roland a cold glance. "They joined the Association earlier than you. So, technically, they're all your seniors."

"What about their titles in the Association?"

"That would be even worse because they know you represent traditional martialists," Garcia sighed. "They won't miss any opportunity to embarrass you."

"I thought martialists were all selfless heroes like you," Roland mumbled. "By the way, you're also a modern martialist, right? Is that OK to stay so close to me?"

"Not everyone cares about the conflicts between modern and traditional martialists," Garcia grunted. "Plus, you asked me to take on a leadership role, didn't you?"

"I did," Roland said with a smile. "Then I'll follow your instructions."

"Well, as your senior, let me briefly introduce them to you. You probably saw some of them at my father's party, so I'll just go over the three main figures," Garcia said as she raised her eyebrows at several people at the center of the crowd. "Luo Hua, a well-established martialist, with excellent combat techniques. He has a lot of fans and was ranked No. 10 last year, which was the best in this city. He's only 22 but has already gained a lot of experience. That's pretty impressive."

"Mr. Youlong, not sure about his exact age but possibly between 30 and 35, was one of the representatives of modern martialists. His whole family is dedicated to martial arts, and that's how he got his nickname. Mr. Youlong is an all-rounder. People say that he's powerful enough to be a 'guard'. He was the runner-up last year, and I'm pretty sure he's aiming for championship this year. I believe he'll be the captain for this mission."

Garcia broke off and looked around as if searching for something. Then she pointed to a pavilion outside the parking lot and said, "The last one is probably the person that you have to approach with extra caution."

Roland looked in the direction Garcia pointed.

"Fei Yuhan, one of the most gifted martialists in recent years, who entered the final match within only five years," Garicia remarked half admiringly and half enviously. "I didn't expect to see her here. With her joining the team, this will probably be the best team combination."

"So, what do I have to take extra caution for? Is she going to mess up with me?"

"Rubbish," Garcia said while rolling her eyes. "You and she are not even in the same league. I just want to remind you that you should be careful not to crush on her!"

Chapter 1182 - Infiltration

"That's not what you said when you handed me the hunting license," Roland said to himself indignantly. He said, "Why are you introducing modern martialists only? Normally, they should send more old-school martialists to kill Fallen Evils. Don't you think so?"

"There are indeed more old-school martialists, but..." Garcia broke off and pointed at a knot of people whom, Roland had mistakenly regarded as irrelevant onlookers. "I don't have any detailed information about them. They work alone. Few Association members know where they normally go except for their agents. So, I practically have nothing to tell you."

Abashed, Roland mopped his forehead involuntarily. He had thought those homely, disheveled middle-aged men were just assistants or chauffeurs to the celebrated martialists. Their unkempt image, which formed a glaring contrast with the refined, cultivated modern martialists, made Roland suddenly have an urge to convert to the opposing party. He really did not want to be the representative of a group of bedraggled, lulling middle-aged men.

Could he still register for the trials of the Martial Arts Contest?

Just then, a black bus pulled into the parking lot.

"That's the bus from Prism City," Garcia said. "Let's go."

"OK," Roland said as he patted his right shoulder, gesturing for the witches to follow him. As long as Faldi's bug was attached to him, the witches would always be able to locate him.

Garcia and Roland went straight to the back of the bus.

"I like this seat best," Roland said as he stretched his legs and leaned back in the chair unceremoniously. "I feel like a king in this seat, as I can see everything that happens in the bus from here."

"You just want to be a loner. I get it," Garcia snapped.

"I didn't beg you to sit with me," Roland retorted, a little frustrated to notice that he and Garcia were always bickering.

"It's your first time to participate in a mission. I, as your senior, obviously have to keep an eye on you."

While they were glaring at each other, a rush of loud chatter caught their attention.

"Miss Fei Yuhan, over here."

"Yuhan, come sit with me!"

As that genius girl got on the bus, everyone stood up and offered the seat beside them.

"It appears that even for famous martialists, they're treated differently," Roland commented.

"That's right," Garcia assented quite surprisingly.

However, to everyone's dismay, Fei Yuhan did not accept any of the offers but walked straight to the back.

"Is there anyone sitting here?"

Fei Yuhan asked placidly while pointing at the seat next to Roland.

Garcia shifted her eyes between Fei Yuhan and Roland, trying to figure out what had happened between the two.

Having no idea what Fei Yuhan was up to, Roland coughed uncomfortably, realizing that all the eyes on the bus were locked on him. Finally, he said, "No."

"Thanks," Fei Yuhan muttered, nodding, and took the seat matter-of-factly. "Nice to meet you. Well, actually, we already met. Hello, I'm Fei Yuhan. I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Er, me too. I'm Roland. This is... Miss Garcia."

There was an awkward silence after this brief introduction.

Garcia fell silent and started to play with her phone. Fei Yuhan, on the other hand, sat upright in her seat, looking as aloof and frosty as ever. Roland, who was sitting between the two girls, suddenly found himself in the spotlight, under the curious scrutiny of all the passengers on the bus.

The bus slowly picked up the speed.

While he was planning to switch seats with Garcia, Fei Yuhan suddenly turned around and whispered tentatively, "Your Majesty?"

Bang.

Garcia's dropped her phone.

Momentarily stunned, Roland stared at Fei Yuhan in a daze before a proper response took shape in his mouth. "You —"

However, before he could organize his words, a booming voice cut across him, "Good afternoon, everyone. I'm the liaison officer C02 for this mission. I'll be responsible for intelligence and logistic support. You can call me 02. In the next few hours, I'll tell you about the details of this mission, including our target and operation plan. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions." A man in a suit at the front was holding a microphone.

Roland fought down the words that were threatening to come out and averted his eyes to the liason officer.

"According to my intelligence, Fallen Evils have become increasingly active recently and started to act in groups, which, according to our historical records, means that the Erosion is around the corner. The Association learned from reliable sources that some Fallen Evils are going to congregate in an abandoned factory in the southern suburb. We still don't know their motive, but we're sure they're up to no good."

"Perhaps they just want to make some friends."

Luo Hua's comment caused a roar of laughter.

"I wish it was true," 02 replied good-naturedly. "Unfortunately, Fallen Evils are our biggest enemy. I would rather see them all die. There's an underground highway leading straight to the factory. After it was shut down, the road was abandoned. The Association created a secret passageway two days ago that could take us directly to the headquarters of our enemies. To make sure that we don't wake the sleeping dog, we are going to take action at 9:00 PM and distribute the necessary equipment when you get off the bus."

"Also, the army will also assist us to prevent any Fallen Evils from escaping. However, only people with the Force of Nature can inflict an injury on those monsters. Therefore, we have to divide into two teams. One to attack the Fallen Evils while the other cuts off their retreat. There's a list underneath your chair telling you which team you are in. If you don't have any more questions, we'll carry out the operation as planned..."

...

Fei Yuhan fumbled with the list expressionlessly. Her thoughts, however, had strayed away from the upcoming operation to Roland's interesting reaction when she had called him "Your Majesty".

Normally, a person would feel abashed, furious and mortified in this kind of situation when he realized that someone had seen through his scheme. He might not necessarily reveal these feelings, but Fei Yuhan was confident that she could discern every single change in his emotion as well as his subsequent disguise, unless he had predicted that this would happen.

Nevertheless, what she had just seen was a look that contained a multitude of feelings.

There were surprise, alert, confusion, and even a little bit of delight. For a second, Roland's lips had taken shape of a silent "yes", which he had quickly forced down his throat.

Fei Yuhan could not find a satisfying explanation to this reaction. Apparently, it was Roland's first time meeting her, and there was no reason for him to give such a response.

She did not notice the faintest trace of embarrassment. Was he actually used to being called "Your Majesty"?

Suddenly, she remembered the conversation between Roland and the three little girls at the party. She had thought it was just a juvenile game they played, but now she was not so sure.

Was he really... the king of two worlds?

Her initial interest in competing against Roland now transformed into an overwhelming curiosity about Roland himself.

Fei Yuhan thought she had made the right choice to join in this operation. Her master had once told her that the history of the Martialist Association was even longer than she had thought. The Association knew numerous secrets known by only a few people, some of which were even related to the origin of this world.

Was that the real reason that Roland had been granted the hunting license?

Seeing Roland looked anxious, Fei Yuhan suppressed her questions. She did not wish to create any hostility with Roland before knowing the answer.

She was certain that there would be plenty of time for her to get to know Roland in the future.

...

Two hours and a half later, the bus came to a halt at the end of the underground highway.

The martialists divided into two groups and moved into position according to the instructions on their map.

Roland and Fei Yuhan were both on the team responsible for attacking the Fallen Evils, while Garcia was on the other. She soon vanished from their sight into the night after reminding Roland to stay safe.

As Garcia had expected, Mr. Youlong, who was rumored to be almost as powerful as a "guard", had been elected as the captain of the assault team. "Follow me, all of you," he said while eyeing the rest of the team members encouragingly, and crawled into a ventilation duct.

The operation appeared to be more organized than Roland had thought. After they got off the bus, everyone received a pair of head-mounted, panoramic night vision goggles, a watch that could show their current location on the map, a vest equipped with identification and enemy recognition devices, and a headset for communication. Roland wished that the First Army could also have such advanced equipment, in which case, they would not have to fight so bitterly during a night battle.

He made a rough head count and noticed that there were 15 people in total in the assault team. Apart from Mr. Youlong, Luo Hua and Fei Yuhan, all the other members were old-school martialists. It seemed that the Association still trusted traditional martialists more than modern ones for this kind of mission. However, if the result of this operation turned out that modern martialists actually performed better, their confidence in traditional martialists might be shaken.

Roland had no intention of meddling in the affairs of traditional and modern martialists. In fact, he was simply curious how those celebrated martialists would cope with relentless Fallen Evils, wondering if they could still defeat them as effortlessly as they had done to their opponents during a match.

Through the night vision goggles, Roland could see everything clearly. They moved through the night soundlessly like ghosts and soon reached their destination.

Chapter 1183 - Sacrifice

"Here it is," Sir Youlong said in a hushed voice.

The party observed the surroundings cautiously by looking through the ventilation duct. They found themselves in a large plant, where a few overhead bridge cranes were hanging on either side of the wall. Below lay nothing but some dilapidated machine tools and rusty conveyor belts covered in dust. Apparently, the plant owner had removed every piece of usable equipment before he had shut the plant down.

The empty factory, however, was now lit by several torches, with their dazzling, greenish-white flames dancing around in the darkness. These torches were set in a circle, and there were around twenty distorted shadows in the middle.

"Are those shadows our targets?" asked Luo Hua.

"Most likely," one of the traditional martialists replied. "I can sense their fluctuating power, which tells me that these people are at the last stage of transitioning."

The last stage referred to a stage where the humans would completely lose their humanity and consciousness, thus becoming corrupted puppet. Fallen Evils at this stage only acted on their instincts like animals, as they lost all the communication ability they once had.

"They used to be... martialists?"

"Not necessarily. Although there were some fallen martialists according to the Association's records, generally speaking, amateurs are more prone to corruption."

"It's my first time seeing a living Fallen Evil, but regardless, a martialist lack of self-discipline and proactivity is, in every aspect, useless," Luo Hua snorted with utmost contempt. "Pathetic... they don't deserve the Force of Nature. Captain, let's do this."

"Wait a minute," Sir Youlong stopped Luo Hua calmly. "It appears that more Fallen Evils are coming here. Wait until they've all gathered so that we can kill them all in one go. But, don't you feel that this is strange? These Fallen Evils are all in their last stages. Why didn't they go kill the amateurs? Why did they come here? I have a feeling that things aren't as simple as we thought. Perhaps, we should first find out their intentions rather than killing them all outright."

While everyone was exchanging opinions, Roland stole a glance at Fei Yuhan.

That unexpected "Your Majesty" seemed to be still ringing in his ears.

Within a few seconds, turbulent emotions had flooded through Roland. He had not been so perturbed by someone over the past few years since his ascendence to the throne.

At first, Roland had thought it was Elena calling him and he had almost responded, but he had swallowed his words at the last minute. If Fei Yuhan was really Elena's incarnation, she would not have introduced herself in the first place and taken the seat beside him so carefreely.

The abrupt change from joy to disappointment was almost as painful as the grief itself. As he recollected himself in the next few minutes, he soon figured out why Fei Yuhan had addressed him like this. Garcia had told him that martialists were usually acute observers, particularly for those gifted ones. As Fei Yuhan had attended the party held by the Clover Group, she must have overheard his conversation with the witches.

The next question was — how much did Fei Yuhan know about him?

Roland judged that she probably did not know much at this stage, considering how she was still testing him. At least, she didn't know anything about the other world yet. However, this was alarming to Roland, since no one would want to know that he was only fictional and only existed in dreams. Once the secret about this Dream World was known to someone, the consequences would be disastrous.

Garcia was right. He needed to be extra cautious when dealing with Fei Yuhan.

"Mhm? Look, the new Fallen Evil... looks a little different than the others." At that moment, a voice from the headset interrupted Roland's train of thought. "It seems that it's commanding the other Fallen Evils."

Roland took off his goggles and looked toward the center of the plant through the ventilation. He saw a group of Fallen Evils slowly walk in while carrying three cargo containers, all the while at the command of a man in a suit.

"Are they the Fallen Evils who have yet to completely lose their minds?" Sir Youlong mumbled in bewilderment. "What are they playing at?"

Several traditional martialists frowned. Compared with transformed Fallen Evils, those still in transitioning period were normally more difficult to deal with. At that stage, compassion and empathy had escaped them, but the dark side of human nature, such as subterfuge and shrewdness, remained. Typically, these Fallen Evils used to be well-established martialists.

"Shh — " Fei Yuhan suddenly spoke. "Be quiet. Something's in those containers."

Everyone held their breath immediately.

After a while, Fei Yuhan said heavily, "There are people… inside."

"What?"

"I heard someone crying and pleading. It seems like they're gagged."

"You're saying that there are civilians in those containers?" Sir Youlong asked in surprise. "I've never seen anything like this before in the Association's records. Fallen Evils do kill often, but they don't really pick on common people."

They looked at each other in confusion when suddenly, the commander of the Fallen Evils yelled, "It's time, children! The divine will is approaching, and God is waiting for the sacrifices!"

"Grrrrr — " all the other Fallen Evils growled.

"Come. Let the power return to its source and let the Oracle grace continent with his presence once more!"

"Grrrr—"

"We'll be reborn with the destruction of this world! Surrender everything to God. Let's offer our sacrifice!"

The Fallen Evils produced an ear-splitting roar.

"Damn it, we have to act. Now," Sir Youlong said through clenched teeth. Although he had never heard Fallen Evils would perform human sacrifice or please the so-called God like some cults, they could not let innocent civilians die. In fact, as the mission of the Martialist Association was protecting the world, it was more important to save lives than annihilating the Fallen Evils. "Let's stay as close to the containers as possible to prevent these monsters from approaching them. It's OK to let one or two go. I believe the other team will finish them off!"

Fei Yuhan nodded expressionlessly and darted out first.

The others followed at her heels and dashed toward the enemies.

The deserted plant was instantly stirred!

Caught unprepared, the Fallen Evils collapsed under the impact of the Force of Nature and paralyzed when their cores were detached from their bodies.

Roland was the last to act. He followed his team members while at the same time hiding his ability carefully. This was not his first time fighting Fallen Evils, so he was much more experienced than the others. Unlike those awakened martialists possessed of the Force of Nature, Roland did not need to throw himself into a fierce battle. Fallen Evils would immediately lose their power upon touching him and be at his mercy. Roland did not wish to touch those detached red cyclones either, otherwise everyone would see numerous cores rise into the air of their own accord.

Meanwhile, the bug on Roland's shoulder trembled slightly, which indicated that Phyllis and the other witches had arrived. Supported by his witches, Roland felt more and more confident. He did not employ specific combat techniques, but he killed more Fallen Evils than anyone else except Fei Yuhan.

As the other team members were all focused on the containers, and Roland had been super cautious, nobody discovered his secret ability.

They soon reached the containers. Only a few of them were injured.

By that time, half of the Fallen Evils had been killed.

"Well, that's easier than I thought," Luo Hua said as he shook off the blood on his hands, snatched the lock, and broke it in half. "The Association should have issued me a hunting license as well. Hey, don't be afraid. The Martialist Association is here to help — "

Luo Hua stopped dead.

The other members all took a step back.

There were dozens of people tied to several metal posts, their eyes blinded and mouths sealed, who groaned with fear in one of the containers. A cyclone suspended in midair above each of them.

Roland felt all the hair at the back of his neck stood up.

He suddenly remembered what Garcia had told him several months ago.

"These cyclones are where Fallen Evils gain their power. They're signs of corruption. Once a person is corrupted, he loses his Force of Nature. If we don't store away these cyclones, they'll infect other people. Ordinary people will instantly lose their minds upon a single touch."

"Are you saying... that they can be transferred to multiple people?"

"That's why some people are collecting them. That's exactly what they're thinking. Are they not afraid that they'll destroy this world?"

"So... the Fallen Evils have been preparing over the past half a year just for this moment?"

Roland whipped his head around and stared at the leader of the Fallen Evils.

He dressed like a butler, wearing a pair of monocled spectacles, with his hair combed all the way to the back of his head. His suit crisp and his white gloves spotless. However, his face was now contorted with rage.

"We don't necessarily need you to complete this human sacrifice. However, the more victims, the better. Don't you think so?" With these words, he snapped his fingers.

The cyclones above the containers instantly dropped.

"No—!"

Luo Hua attempted to untie the prisoners. However, as they were so tightly packed in the container that it was impossible to rescue them without touching the suspending cyclone.

"Kill them, now!" a traditional martialist shouted.

"But... these are all civilians..." Luo Hua muttered.

Within a few seconds, those ordinary people had completed their transition to new Fallen Evils. Although they were not as strong as Fallen Evils that transformed from martialists, with so many of them, it was still quite dangerous.

The Fallen Evils then swarmed out of their container, and Luo Hua was soon drowned by the wave of the enemies.

Chapter 1184 - Corruption

The situation suddenly turned for the worse.

Both Sir Youlong and Fei Yuhan looked startled and lost at the abrupt change in the unfolding of the event. Fortunately, a traditional martialist turned around just in time and stopped the Fallen Evils.

"Get out of here!" a flustered middle-aged martialist yelled. "We must find a way out!"

The other two containers also started to wobble ominously as the people inside banged frantically against the container. Numerous lumps and bumps started to emerge on the surface of the iron containers. A lock was definitely not enough to hold them back, and the prisoners would soon break out.

If there were also dozens of prisoners in each of these two boxes, let alone killing the Fallen Evils, there was a chance that the whole team would be wiped out.

The last thing they wanted was being trapped by the enemies, so they must use all their efforts to avoid that situation!

Fei Yuhan immediately pulled herself together and darted toward the entrance of the plant. The only way to get themselves out of this dilemma was to find an open space and scatter.

This was the right plan.

Roland decided to wait until everyone had left the scene. He was putting all his efforts dealing with those new Fallen Evils who lunged at him like zombies. They were not necessarily dangerous, but Roland would still get injured if he got bitten.

"This is Team One. We're outnumbered and under attack. We request immediate assistance!" Sir Youlong yelled over the speaker phone while fighting.

A moment later, another two martialists fell down before a pack of crazy Fallen Evils who soon ripped their bodies apart.

Sir Youlong's moves significantly slowed down as he watched his fellow martialists torn into pieces. Even Roland, a layman, noticed that his action had become seemingly sluggish. After knocking down a few more Fallen Evils, Sir Youlong got a scratch for the first time.

BANG!

The containers were finally burst open and crashed to the ground as the raging Fallen Evils rushed out.

However, there were fewer Fallen Evils than they had thought.

Roland raised his eyebrows. A dozen tethered Fallen Evils, who had completed their transitioning, lay dead in the containers. Their blood oozing profusely from the several holes in their bodies, as though being penetrated by something.

He could clearly see a line of holes on the walls of the containers.

"Nicely done," Roland praised in his heart.

Without a doubt, it was Phyllis's work. Roland could even see in his mind's eye that Phyllis had sneaked around the containers under Dawnen's Invisibility Veil and dived her Blade Claws into the boxes.

"What... what happened?" the leader of the Fallen Evils bellowed. "What did you do to my children, you filthy scoundrels!"

Nobody responded to him. Although everybody was as confused as the leader, they could not afford to give the incident any thought. As the number of their enemies reduced remarkably, the martialists felt, once again, encouraged and saw the ray of hope and survival.

"Fine, whatever," the leader grunted while stamping his feet. "Nothing shall thwart my plan. You'll all end up dying here!"

With these words, he took out a square box that reminded Roland of a remote and pressed the button on it decisively.

With a deafening roar, the plant exploded, and the ground cracked and sank rapidly. The torches went flying into the air and extinguished as gusts of wind swept over the plant. Within a second, they found themselves groping in an impenetrable darkness.

"Son of a b*tch!" Roland swore, unable to help himself. He had never anticipated that the Fallen Evils would bury explosives underneath the ground. Although Roland had special abilities, he could not fly like Lightning.

"Your Majesty!" Just at that critical moment, a little hand had reached Roland.

Roland staggered until someone steadied him with a firm clutch. They finally landed safely after wallowing in the aftermath of the explosion.

"Aargh... Ling?" Roland asked in a low tone while coughing in the dust.

"Yes, it's me. Are you okay?" Ling replied immediately. "The light was out, so I was able to spot you in the dark."

Ling specialized in moving about in darkness. As the torchlight was extinguished and darkness fell upon the entire plant, she could glide through shadows as Nightingale fly through the Mist.

"I'm fine. How about the other witches?"

"Don't worry. Phyllis is with us. The explosion won't hurt Dawnen either. Faldi is keeping an eye outside the plant, so she's fine too."

"That's great," Roland said as he pulled on the goggles mounted on his head and started to look around.

"Your Majesty, what's this? It looks like that Eye Demon..." Ling asked curiously.

"It's a night vision device that helps you see things at night," Roland explained. "So you ought to be careful even in the darkness. Remember, you shouldn't be seen."

"Okay..." Ling promised as she disappeared into the darkness again while only poking out half of her head. Some bubbles escaped from her nose as if she were submerged in water.

Under the dismal moonlight that spilled across the ground, Roland soon understood the current situation.

The group was dispersed. The plant was littered with concrete slabs. Roland could not see where his other team members were. However, he assumed that such an explosion would not be fatal to martialists who were normally protected by the Force of Nature. As the Fallen Evils were also well aware of this fact, they must have other plans. What he needed to do was to hold out until the second group came to their rescue. By that time, they would be able to interrupt the Fallen Evils' sacrifice ceremony.

What bothered Roland, however, was the hole created by the explosion.

According to C02, there was no basement underneath the plant. Moreover, judging from the map, the plant should have been built on a flat surface.

The bumpy walls around them were apparently not a part of the plant.

In other words, the Fallen Evils had excavated the ground underneath the plant and buried the explosives in advance.

Why did they do that?

Roland noticed that the area close to the rim of the hole was relatively flat, but it soon steepened with a sheer drop, as if it was a huge whirlpool. The bodies of the dead Fallen Evils slid into the whirlpool and piled up.

"Is this... also a part of the sacrifice ceremony?"

Roland's suspicion was soon confirmed. He saw the leader of the Fallen Evils reappear. At his command, the rest of the Fallen Evils stopped searching for the martialists. Instead, they all jumped into the hole along with their cyclones. Not only did they carry the dead Fallen Evils with them but they also snatched up the bodies of the martialists. Within a blink of an eye, the hole had almost been filled up.

Roland's heart stopped with a queer jerk. Suddenly, a warmth spread through him as though something was summoning upon him.

"Dear God, please accept our offering!" the butler exclaimed with his hands outstretched and fell forward into the hole.

Just at that moment, a jet of dazzling light erupted from all the cyclones!

Roland pulled off his goggles, standing agape. The crimson cyclones slowly rose, clustered then spread out, gradually forming a large, irregular-shaped "corrupted" area!

Then, something crept out of the corrupted area and took the form of a faceless man, but it only possessed a head and two hands. The shape was simply an inky silhouette strewn with numerous swirling stars, which reminded Roland of the black, unfathomed universe.

As the human-shaped shadow materialized, scarlet blood started to exude from its body and immediately spread through the entire hole on the ground, distorting the underground into a twisted space with red and black.

The bug on Roland's shoulder began to buzz, indicating that Faldi had sensed danger.

Roland had seen a similar scene before. He had once encountered a magic creature during a fight with a Fallen Evil. However, this one was much larger. It was almost two or three stories tall when it reared with only upper half of its body!

That was the real purpose of this human sacrifice. The Fallen Evils intended to create corruption and summon the monster that was not belonging to this Dream World!

But Roland did not understand why they chose to do this today and while luring the Martialist Association. They could summon the creature anytime.

He soon got the answer.

Dozens of black tentacles soaked in blood suddenly sprouted from the ground, dragged a martialist from underneath a concrete slab, and handed him over to the magic creature.

"M-monster..." the captured martialist stammered, making every effort to break away from the clutch but failed miserably.

"You stole something that doesn't belong to you, and you attempt to keep it to yourself. Now, it's time to return it to its owner." The magic creature snatched up the martialist, tossed him into the hole and said, "I'll correct this mistake and restore order upon the world. Now, accept your fate and return to the origin of the world!"

Its ringing proclamation reverberated across the deserted plant. With the corrupted area expanding rapidly, the monster grew larger as well, as though it was soon going to leap out of the ground.

Chapter 1185 - A Warning of Destruction

The martialists were out of the pan and into the fire.

They could not approach the corrupted area controlled by the Fallen Evils. If they wanted to escape, they would have to crawl out of the hole that stood ten meters tall in front of them while avoiding those black tentacles. Once being caught by those tentacles, it would be impossible to wrench away from their grip. They knew they were now facing an unbeatable enemy, and not everyone had the courage to step forward and walk into the arena of death with their head held high.

The only person who chose to fight was Fei Yuhan.

"You guys go first!"

She hollered over the speaker phone. A flash of white shadow streaked out from the darkness and zoomed toward the magic creature. Fei Yuhan's body emanated a soft, bright glow, which was the manifestation of the release of her Force of Nature. Before this, she could only cover her arms.

The twisting tentacles instantly lunged at her like serpents. Fei Yuhan brushed past them, barely dodging their attacks. When she foresaw a confrontation that was unavoidable, she struck them with her palm and cut those tentacles with a knife-hand. White light congregated at the tip of her fingers and formed a shape of a sharp sword.

The other martialists all fled, attempting to get out of the hole.

Sir Youlong was the first to reach the edge of the wall.

"Ludicrous. Do you think you could escape from me?"

The magic creature swung his arms down towards Sir Youlong. The arms that was not long enough to reach the wall suddenly expanded rapidly, becoming thicker and longer.

Sir Youlong wheeled around at the last second and tried to block the strike, exploding his arms with piercing light, but in an instant, the giant hand had smashed him into the ground!

The thunderous crash left a deep ditch at the bottom of the hole, and the concrete slabs were pulverized.

Sir Youlong was reduced to a bloody sack of meat.

The magic creature then scooped up that bloody, muddy body, along with some mud, and tossed it into the "crack" it stood astride. Instantly, the corrupted area expanded again.

Roland realized that it was using the martialists' Forces of Nature to expand the corruption. For some reason, he felt indignity, as though someone had robbed him of his possessions. Those Forces should have belonged to this world, belonged to him.

It was intolerable.

"Your Majesty, what do we do now?" Phyllis and Dawnen asked together behind him. "The tentacles almost filled the hole."

"We have to kill the monster before the other group arrive here, but you cannot be seen," Roland said as he patted Ling's head. "Go knock out those materialists caught by the tentacles. Be fast, and wait for further instructions."

"That's easy. I'll do that right away..." Ling replied sprightly as she submerged herself into the shadow.

"Then we'll confront that monster," Roland said as he gazed at the enemy who stood ten meters tall. Although he had dealt with similar monsters before and knew that the key to the victory was to wrench the astrolabe out of its body, it was extremely hard to approach the magic creature. After a moment of contemplation, Roland whispered instructions to Phyllis.

"Your Majesty, that's — " Phyllis exclaimed in surprise.

"Do what I say. We must kill it," Roland cut across Phyllis decisively. "This is an order!"

"Yes..." Phyllis conceded after a moment of hesitation. "As you command."

"So, the last problem is her," Roland mumbled. He looked toward Fei Yuhan as his eyebrows contracted. She was still struggling to stand up, attempting to launch an attack although she had suffered two blows from the monster and was covered in blood.

Despite the injuries, her movement was less agile, yet she was still fighting with incredible obstinacy.

More tentacles reached out to her from different directions, which made it even harder for Fei Yuhan to approach the monster. The magic creature was too busy dealing with the fleeing martialists, or else she wouldn't still be standing at this point.

In the meantime, Ling had approached to the center of the corrupted area soundlessly.

"Your Majesty, everyone was knocked out," Ling reported over the speaker phone.

"Good job — " Roland's words rested on the tip of his tongue when he suddenly realized that the speaker phone channel was on for all the team members. Fei Yuhan apparently had heard Ling's voice, for she stumbled and, for the third time, got thrown out by the giant hand. The white light enveloping her had, by that time, completely faded out, and Fei Yuhan lost her consciousness.

"Now!" Roland yelled. The plan did not go as smoothly as expected, but this was a chance they need.

"Excuse my impertinence, Your Majesty," Phyllis said as she spread open her claws, clutched Roland's ankles and started to spin. Roland was thrown into a whirl of color, feeling his inside churning. When the spinning speed reached its maximum, Phyllis suddenly released him, and, like an arrow that cracked through space, Roland darted toward the magic creature under the momentum.

The moment Roland left the protection of the Veil of Invisibility, the monster saw an "unidentifiable object" streak towards it. It immediately turned away from the unconscious martialists to Roland, ready to swing its huge hand down as a giant swatted a fly.

They bumped into each other.

Roland went through its black arm and ran into its chest. Its colossal body was not as sturdy and robust as it appeared. Instead, it was simply an illusion covering emptiness.

The magic creature growled in terror and suddenly yelled with a look of dawning comprehension, "It was you! You didn't listen to my advice!"

Roland grasped the spinning astrolabe in its body and wrenched it. The scarlet interface gradually turned into a blueish white, and Roland felt his power inside him whoop in exuberance as if his expectation had been fulfilled. Roland asked, "Was the monster I killed last time your brother? Sorry, he didn't say it clearly, so I didn't hear his kind advice."

"We are one, we are united — " the magic creature's voice trailed off. "Stop your foolish act. This is my last warning, otherwise you'll be regretted for what you did. Everything will be reduced to nothingness, and our endeavor's workover the past thousands of years will be wasted. You can't... bear the heavy guilt brought about by such an... horrific atrocity..."

When its astrolabe was completely separated from its body, the monster stopped talking.

Blinding white light flooded over the hole, and Roland felt deeply content as if he had attained what he desired.

He could hear the throb of the ground underneath him clearly.

For a moment, Roland had a delusion that he and this world became one.

In the chaotic Realm of Mind, the Nightmare opened its eyes abruptly!

It just sensed a rhythmic beat it had never heard before that constrasted with the disordered surroundings.

The Nightmare had had similar experiences when it had tracked down the legacy shard, but its previous attempts were all fruitless. Due to the extreme complexity of minds, any mistake would make her lose a sense of direction.

Nevertheless, this time, everything seemed to be clearer.

This indicated that the origin of this beat was very close.

Valkries grinned.

It had found the traces of that mysterious man.

Chapter 1186 - Reconstructing the Final Battle

The other team did not appear until the battle was over.

Roland smeared his face with mud, made a few cuts in his clothes, and lay on a heap on the ground as if he was injured like everyone else, waiting for the rescue from the Martialist Association.

Although Ling had pressed the "speaking" button on the walkie talkie by accident, fortunately, the communication was not open to all the teams. Therefore, only Fei Yuhan had heard their conversation. As she had lost her consciousness, Roland could totally attribute this bizarre communication to Fei Yuhan's perturbed mind and convince her that it was simply her illusion due to her injuries.

As to why the monster vanished in thin air without leaving the slightest trace behind, Roland could simply claim that he had well passed out before this incident had occurred. But by doing so, he could only ascribe the victory entirely to the genius girl, Fei Yuhan, and washed his hands off the whole matter.

As he expected, the liaison officer did not take his statement very seriously considering that he had not witnessed the entire battle. Instead, the Association paid close attention to the corruption. The discovery of the new, man-made corruption obviously overshadowed the six deaths, including the death of two celebrated martialists, out of the twelve martialists who participated in the mission.

The only thing that astonished Roland was that Garcia jumped into the hole before anyone else when her team arrived at the scene. Roland felt warmth flood over him when he saw Garcia was looking for him among the casualties frantically while calling out his name, and when her smile showed after she found out that Roland was alive. However, Garcia's expression had returned to her normal state of indifference quickly. She mumbled, "Wow, you're still alive. Good for you." as she threw Roland into the ambulance.

That was how this alliance mission ended.

After Roland returned to the apartment, Phyllis regarded the warning of the magic creature with apprehension. The monster had apparently noticed that Roland was different from all the other martialists, which meant that there was a possibility that what it said was true.

Roland would have contemplated the warning if this incident had occurred a year ago when he had been resisting the Dream World. At that time, the world had become increasingly complicated and foreign to him, as though it was gradually getting out of his control.

But now, he had made his decision.

The Dream World was not only a world where he obtained knowledge, but more importantly, a place that afforded the God's Punishment Witches mundane pleasures. This virtual world might not necessarily remain in existence forever. However, before that day came, he would like these witches to have as many happy memories as possible.

Another reason that he dismissed the warning was that Roland trusted his own instincts.

The change of the Dream World might start from the moment he had released the first cyclone.

Despite that Roland had yet to understand the exact relationship between the release of cyclones and the subtle change of the surroundings, he did feel satisfaction when he had defeated the magic monster by pulling out its astrolabe.

He had a vague feeling that as long as he kept fighting the Fallen Evils, the answer would come up to him.

Furthermore, the whole event had not completely come to an end yet. Roland could imagine that the man-made corruption would spark panic among the Association and outrage in the martialist community. Once the other martialists regained their consciousness, the Association would definitely further investigate this matter and uncover the whole story of the battle. Accordingly, modern martialists would continue to criticize him and even feel animosity toward him.

Yet anyhow, Roland decided not to worry about them too much at this moment.

Three days later, the Detective Group returned to Neverwinter.

Summer had not only reconstructed the final battle but also recorded several important scenes with the Sigil of Recording. Roland thus immediately called a meeting in the hall of the Third Border City to invite all the executives to watch the show.

When they saw Ashes summon the divine power and die together with Ursrook, Roland felt a tremulous hand clasp on his arm. Roland held that hand until the magic movie ended. When he turned around, he noticed Tilly's red-rimmed eyes. Despite being distraught, Tilly managed to finish the whole movie.

Now, they had the full picture of what had happened.

"This is my first time seeing a hybrid of an Eye Demon and a regular demon," Pasha sighed at long last. "How did they do that?"

The most confusing part was how the demons had managed to arrive at the scene right after the Special Unit had reached their designated ambush area, for Roland did not believe an Eye Demon had the intelligence to develop such a clever strategy. After he watched the movie, however, he found the answer. Usrook had cut open a Mad Demon's face and deposit a box of frozen eyeballs into its wound. The eyeballs that smelled the blood instantly burst into life and anchored its roots to the Mad Demon, who screamed in great agony. It took nearly a week for the Eye Demon to completely possess the Mad Demon.

Moreover, instead of a God's Stone of Toss, the Mad Demon had carried a very rare Stone of Flight that a regular demon was not normally entitled to.

This meant that Ursrook had prepared resources for his plan at least half a year ago.

The moment the transformed Mad Demon had left Taquila, Sylvie had been under the scrutiny of the Magic Slayer. To earn more time for his army, the Magic Slayer first flew toward the First Army and then turned around halfway to feign his defeat. While the Special Unit's attention were drawn entirely on the decoy, the demons took this opening to set up their ambush. Therefore, unless they abandoned their mission and retreated to the west, by no means could the Special Unit escape from the awaiting demons.

"As far as I can tell, this is more like a type of manipulation than a hybrid. The transformed Mad Demon works like a host," Agatha said thoughtfully. "The decoy was not the Mad Demon but the miniscule Eye Demon that mounted on its head."

"Why do you think so?" Roland asked.

"If the demons could create such a powerful hybrid, they should have used this technology in the second Battle of Divine Will. They could send a few hybrids to monitor and harass the army while dispatching a pack of Devilbeasts to attack us. If they did that, the Union would have been finished in less than five years," Agatha explained slowly. "I think it's not an ability but a technology, just like those newly-developed Spider Demons."

Chapter 1187 - The So-called Upgrade

"Technology..." Roland muttered while knitting his brows. He had probed into the demons' memories once and seen how they upgraded. Basically, the demons upgraded through merging with various magic stones. Failure to merge with magic stones would result in a miserable death. In a way, their upgrade method was pretty similar to witches', and probably even more cruel.

Although the demons used different technologies, once they learned the principles, they would further develop and expand the technologies based on their needs. This was definitely not a good sign for the mankind.

"Are you sure?" asked Anna, who immediately understood what that meant.

"We need to conduct further research on the remains, but..." Agatha broke off and turned to Celine.

Celine tapped her main tentacle and led everyone to a giant black stone covered in scratch marks. "This is a part of the Giant Skeleton. From the initial autopsy, we judge it's very likely a living being."

"Fair enough. This is pretty much like the armor of a deformed demon, isn't it? " Roland commented while stroking his chin. In the report, the military officer mentioned that the Giant Skeletons had produced a bloodcurdling howl after being hit by the cannon shells.

"No, Your Majesty," Celine denied, a little embarrassed. "What I was trying to say is that... the stone itself is alive."

"What?"

Dumbstruck, everybody took a step backward involuntarily.

"Hang on. You mean the stone is alive?"

"Is the stone also a type of demon?"

"I don't quite... follow you. Could you tell me more about it?"

The hall exploded with a rush of inquiries.

"To put it short, this stone is an independent system that operates on its own," Celine said as she scooped up an iron hammer and gave the stone an almighty strike. With a clank, the stone trembled, and Roland could spy, through its numerous cracks, something wriggle with pain. The stone did not stop quivering until half a minute later, and Roland was positive that the quaver was not the offspring of the blow.

"At the scene, we found a huge organ hung below the Giant Skeleton's abdomen. We thought it was the main body of the deformed demon, but the autopsy showed otherwise," Agatha continued. "This finding puzzled me and Celine. As the Skeleton could move by itself, then why is there a separate deformed demon attached to its abdomen? We didn't find out the reason until we saw the transformed Mad Demon created by the Magic Slayer."

Anna, who was the first to realize the true nature of this peculiar Skeleton, blurted out, "Is it a host?"

"Correct," Celine said approvingly. "Both the original carriers and the devouring worms could live on their own." She then turned to Roland and asked, "Your Majesty, do you still remember what Kabradhabi said? It asked us whether we also upgraded through a legacy shard."

"And it also said another thing," Roland assented with a nod. "I remember that it almost blustered 'I'm Tadalin'. It asked whether our weapons were made out of the legacy shards."

Tilly responded meditatively, "It appears that the demons learned how to create hosts from the legacy shards. That was why Kabradhabi asked such questions. In other words, both the Spider Demons and the Giant Skeletons were demon hybrids comprised of a host and a operator."

"Very likely. They share many similarities, such as the extreme long lifespan of a carrier, the ability to remain in activity even in the state of dormancy, the ability to survive upon serious injuries, etc."

"But I don't think the underground civilization used what the demons called 'legacy shards' to complete their upgrade, because they controlled carriers by soul transfer. That's quite different..."

"Perhaps, the demons don't know how to create a magic core exactly, and that's why they can't transfer soul like the underground civilization," Agatha returned. "Or perhaps they found a more suitable way for their kind, just as the Union found a way to create the God's Punishment Army. The God's Punishment Warriors, in a sense, are hosts as well."

"Hold on, that doesn't sound right," Nightingale interposed in confusion. "Although I don't quite follow your deduction, but I'm quite sure that human beings didn't get any legacy shards whatsoever. The First Army's weapons are solely His Majesty's ideas, and the God's Punishment Army is the Union's achievement. Without the so-called legacy shards, we still learned how to create a magic core and inherited the ruin of the underground civilization."

"That's the key to the problem," Agatha replied in a serious tone. "I think obtaining the ruin is only one of the many ways to inherit a civilization, which is exactly why we call it technology rather than an ability.

Roland felt his chest suddenly constrict, and the truth seemed to come to him in one shining piece. He said, "Are you referring to... learning?"

"Yes," the Ice Witch replied on a sigh. "We could upgrade through teaching and learning, even if we don't have what Kabradhabi describes as legacy shards."

There was a brief silence in the hall.

At length, Celine spoke, "The demons have developed so many new weapons over the past 400 years. The legacy shards are probably something that helps them learn faster, or even something that enables them to comprehend new knowledge within a second. This is how their civilization evolves and 'upgrades'."

Hearing Celine's explanation, Roland suddenly understood what Kabradhabi had meant. Human beings did upgrade, but it was not through an artifact of an old civilization but through teaching and learning, the most traditional means of communication. As a time traveler, Roland connected the two worlds.

"If that's really the case, doesn't it mean the legacy shard is continuously recording every arena of our life?" Wendy said as she glanced at the secret chamber on the other side of the hall apprehensively, where the demon was.

"We have to obtain a legacy shard to know if this is really the case," Agatha replied while shaking her head. "If the demons did learn how to create hosts, we'll face a lot of new challenges." She then turned Roland apologetically and said, "I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I'm afraid the years of war experience that the Union gained probably won't help you much now."

"Don't mention it. The third Battle of Divine Will will be an entirely new experience for the demons," comforted Roland. Although the future remained uncertain, he must stay resolute and continue to take the lead. "If technologies could be upgraded, we could also learn from those civilizations who lost their legacy shards, right?"

"Exactly," Celine responded heartily. "This is we members of the Quest Society are obligated to do."

Chapter 1188 - Post-war Analysis

In the next couple of days, Roland received various reports from the General Staff that re-examined and concluded the entire investigation on Torch Action based on Summer's reconstruction and the search of Taquila. These reports arrived at Roland's desk like a fierce blizzard, which piled up as high as his waist.

Truth gradually resurfaced.

Roland learned that the giant God's Stone, discovered during the Battle of the Northbound Slope and the Battle of Taquila, was from the God's stone mine at the Taquila ruin. At the bottom of the mine, the Detective Group had found the missing part of the stone, which were two medium-sized God's Stone pillars that was chopped in half. The surface and edge of the cuts were smooth and even, as though the pillars were sliced by a sharp weapon.

Summer could not use her ability in the vicinity of the God's stones, but Roland deduced that the stones might have something to do with the Giant Skeletons. In fact, the Giant Skeletons were not only the transportation tool but also the small Obelisk that could regenerate the Red Mist. His theory was also supported by the corrupted soil around the ruin. Nevertheless, compared to an Obelisk of a normal size that could spread Red Mist up to hundreds of kilometers, the Skeletons could only cover an area within the radius of a hundred to two hundred meters. Moreover, they also required the Red Mist supply line to sustain themselves and spread the Red Mist.

In other words, the Giant Skeletons were the mobile sentry posts for the demons that had significant strategic implementation. The General Staff had reached to the conclusion that these Giant Skeletons, like the Spider Demons, were a rare species; otherwise, the demons would have used them as their sentries and taken the entire Fertile Plains before human beings could take any action.

Furthermore, the passages at the rear of Taquila were mostly the masterpiece of the Spider Demons. Although the Spider Demons were not as efficient as the devouring worms in excavation, they were much more proficient than the Mad Demons. These passages branched out from the God's mine underneath the ground, and the measurement between the surface and the passages clearly showed the Spider Demons consideration of the threshold that an observer type can see. Therefore, it would be difficult for anyone to spot the passages from above.

Since Celine and Agatha both preferred to view the Giant Skeletons and the Spider Demons as one particular type of demon, Roland came up with a new name. He called them Monstrous Beast to distinguish carrier demons from regular demons. A prefix was used to quickly classify an undiscovered type of demon in the same category.

The Giant Skeleton was thus given the name "Fortress-like Monstrous Beast", and the Spider Demons got the name "Spidery Monstrous Beast". The latter was further classified into two subcategories, which the ones that tossed stone needles was the first type and the ones that ejected demons was the second type. The naming system not only facilitated military operation but also simplified post-war data collection and statistical reports.

Apart from a post-war analysis, Roland was also concerned about the weaknesses of the First Army that had been pointed out by the General Staff.

Among other weaknesses, the biggest problem, as Edith had reported, was intelligence collection.

Based on the war history of the mankind, tunnel warfare was never a regular military tactic due to the limitation in technologies and the considerable amount of time and resources it usually cost. However, with the application of the devouring worms and the Spidery Monstrous Beast, military strategies using large-scale tunnels became possible. The demons could create an underground passage wide enough for their army to pass through within a short period of time. Therefore, the space below also became a treacherous area that the First Army must remain vigilant about.

Beyond a doubt, they needed someone other than Sylvie as a lookout. The Eye of Magic required a considerable amount of magic power to look through solid objects. The area it could cover was no larger than the size of two football pitches, and it could only see through three to four meters below the surface. However, if it was monitoring the area above the ground, the Eye of Magic could see anywhere within ten kilometers and stay vigilant for the entire day.

All the witches, except Extraordinaries, had a limit in their power. When they exceeded their own limit, their power would drop significantly. Therefore, witches rarely went over limits unless it was an absolute emergency.

Considering this factor, the First Army must develop their own intelligence collection system.

Roland remembered there had been a war in the history where both parties had listened closely underground to gather information on the location of the tunnels and camps of their opponents. The devices they used in that battle were pretty similar to a doctor's stethophone, which detected movements through the transmission of sound through solid materials.

However, this method only worked for tunnels in progress. For completed tunnels, one would not be able to hear anything.

After much deliberation, Roland finally found a practical way to infiltrate the enemy: a standard penetration test.

Penetration test was a standard procedure to test soil strength. As a former engineering student, Roland had often heard his roommates discussing this method. Basically, the procedure of this test was to drive steel rods arrayed in quincuncial piles into the ground, with each piles several meters apart. With a sounding machine, a few people could complete the test over a large area. If the rod sank, then it provided an indication of a hollow beneath the ground.

If the army mastered these two detection methods, they could monitor the demons' movement underground without the help from the witches.

In order for the army to conduct scouting mission in the sky without relying on Lightning and Maggie, the only way was to build an air force.

To that, Tilly was the key.

In addition, Edith's report pointed out that "the army lacks a contingency plan to provide immediate assistance". Roland was impressed with the remarkable progress of the ability of the General Staff, yet at the same time, Edith's comment left him a little helpless. He knew exactly what their problems were, but it was hard to overcome these drawbacks at this stage due to the limited population in Neverwinter.

Finally, Roland's attention was drawn to a report from a logistics officer. In the report, the officer wrote that the performance of Mark I machine gun was not satisfactory during intense battles. Many soldiers from the machine gun squad complained that they spent more time loading than firing, and at the same time, it created quite a burden on the logistics team. The officer expressed his wish that the Department of Engineering could make improvements accordingly.

This was indeed Roland's first time receiving feedback from soldiers at the front after the implementation of the feedback system. As they were the ones who actually used the weapons, they knew the strengths and weaknesses of each weapon better than anyone else.

In fact, Roland had noticed an unusual increase in broken guns after the night attack at Tower Station No. 1. However, since they easily replace the gun parts, Roland had not taken this issue seriously. He believed that the increase in disabled firearms was largely due to soldiers' inexperience and increasing attacks from the enemy. As soldiers were usually more stressed in a night battle as they could not see the firing results, they might experience difficulty in pulling triggers. Moreover, as air-cooled barrels were inherently less durable than water-cooled ones, the guns got overheated more easily.

This problem alarmed Roland. Initially, he had intended to create a recoil-operated machine gun that employed an air-cooled barrel so that one gun can do it all. He also believed this multi-purpose gun would be more efficient than Maxim gun. However, it appeared that his invention did not work out. Although with the help of tracers and the experience soldiers would gain from night battles, they would encounter much more demons in the upcoming war. Roland could not bear the consequence of broken machine guns during the official Battle of Divine Will when thousands of demons charged at them.

This report made him realize his mistake.

The remedy of this problem was to abandon the idea of multitasking machine guns by separating HMGs and general machine guns. The barrel of the HMG should be lengthened and equipped with a radiator. As for the general machine gun that could be carried by hand or vehicle, it should be lightweight and portable so as to meet the needs of future warfares, and it can be done so by improving the current model of Mark I.

Chapter 1189 - The Radiation Project

In addition to a post-war analysis, the General Staff also drafted a preliminary plan for the third Battle of Divine Will.

Although the demons' intentions remained unknown, one thing was certain — they could not abandon Taquila under any circumstances. Taquila was the key barrier that could stop the demons from flooding over the Fertile Plains, and it was also the foundation for Neverwinter's army to advance. As long as mankind had control over Taquila, the Red Mist could not easily approach the northwest of Graycastle.

Therefore, it was very necessary to rebuild the Holy City that had been deserted for hundreds of years.

If the demons still planned to breach Graycastle from the Fertile Plains, the First Army would need to strengthen the defense of the railway, protect the railway, and cut their Red Mist supply. The general strategy should be similar to the Torch Campaign. It would be extremely difficult, but if they succeeded, humanity would be one step closer to the final victory.

In short, they had to put all their blood and sweat into this battle.

The problem lay in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter in the northeast.

If the demons, on the contrary, planned to invade the Four Kingdoms from the ridge of the continent, they would then face an extremely difficult war. The Kingdom of Wolfheart was located in mountainous areas, whereas the Kingdom of Everwinter did not have a single river. In addition, both the Kingdom of Dawn, and two mountain ranges, rest right between them. It was impossible to extend the railway to the north of the continent under such a tight timeline, for there were two major technical difficulties that Roland found impossible to overcome: digging tunnels, and building bridges.

It was also out of the question to rely on local nobles to assist with logistics. The implementation of the immigration policy would definitely deteriorate the relationship between Graycasle and the two countries. Roland could only hope that the two kingdoms will not stab him in the back. As such, the First Army had to figure out a way to maintain logistics by themselves.

It appeared they had no choice but to use ships as the means of transportation. The problem of this method, however, was that most port cities were located on the east coastline which was very far from the defensive line. There would be nowhere to run if the enemies attacked. It would be fine if they could fight off the enemies, but if they don't, the consequences would be devastating.

Apart from logistics, the First Army also had to ward off the demons and evacuate the civilians. Unlike the boundless, bleak Fertile Plains, there would be so many unknown variables fighting in a foreign country. In consideration of these factors, the General Staff only mentioned that there was a possibility to carry out the battle in the north but did not draft any specific plans. Roland noticed dark circles underneath Edith's eyes as she entered the meeting room.

It seemed that Edith became even more determined to gain the victory after being deceived by Usrook.

Roland put down the report and sighed deeply.

He hoped that the demons could start the war in the Fertile Plains, but before receiving confirmations from Lightning and Maggie, he could not make judgements based on his personal preference. There was no point in guessing what choice the demons would make. He would rather spend more time thinking about how to win the battle more efficiently from his side than dwelling on something he currently had no clue of.

With this thought, Roland rose to his feet.

"Your Majesty?" Nightingale asked with dried fish between her teeth.

"Let's go to the new laboratory," Roland said slowly. "We need to check out how the Radiation Project goes."

...

In the laboratory at the North Slope in Neverwinter.

"Lady Anna — "

Anna immediately interrupted Lucia White, "I told you. Please don't call me Lady Anna."

"Yes... but I can't help. You're the queen," Lucia said while sticking out her tongue and put down the metal piece in her hand. "Here is the material you asked for. If there's nothing for me to do, then I'll..."

"Even though I'm the queen, you are still my partner," Anna said as she walked up to Lucia with a smile. "Are you going to the new laboratory?"

Lucia nodded and said, "Yes, it's about time."

"Then off you go. Take care," Anna said while walking Lucia to the door. "Please come to see me if you exhaust your power or anytime you are free."

"I will!" Lucia promised as she waved and headed down the hill.

Lucia assisted with all kinds of work. She had to visit the chemistry laboratory, the Furnace Area at the mine, and the laboratory at the North Slope. Before the new laboratory was built, she had not got assigned a fixed workplace. Most of the time, she stayed at the North Slope with Anna to help her produce high-quality alloys and slice metal ingots into delicate parts according to Anna's instructions. This process made Lucia very contented with what she was doing.

It was probably because she was making a contribution to make this world a better place.

Lucia had come to Neverwinter to cure her sister's demonic plague. She had never expected to settle down in this city. At first, Lucia had felt guilty to receive so much help from others with nothing to return. But now, she could also do something to assist Lady Anna and the Chief Alchemist in improving this booming city. Gradually, she felt more confident and had more pride.

The more Lucia knew about Anna, the more she admired her. It was inconceivable that a witch could make such great changes to a city. Lucia was impressed with Anna's breadth of knowledge, her talent, and her dedication to the work. Nightingale was the person she trusted most, and Anna was the witch she wanted to become.

And now, Lucia found an opportunity.

After His Majesty built a brand new laboratory on the southern bank of Redwater River, she had her own workplace. According to His Majesty, her project could possibly change the fate of the entire human race. If the project was successful, she would become the most crucial person in the Battle of Divine Will.

Lucia couldn't help but skip her way to the laboratory as she thought of her career prospect that would potentially lead her to fulfill her ambition.

She crossed the Redriver bridge and paved down toward the south for another several hundred meters until she reached a lofty wall. Unlike those busy plants located between the industrial zone and farmlands, this laboratory was quiet. The trees next to the pavement cast shades on the ground. It was already fall, but the canopy of leaves above her was still verdant green. Occasionally, the tweets of birds, with which silence teemed, pass through the foliage, highlighting the serendipity of the laboratory.

Overall, it looked more like a residential area than a laboratory.

However, the fully equipped sentries who stood beside the gate indicated that this was not an ordinary residence.

When Lucia came into the front yard, the soldiers saluted and opened the door.

This was only the first security checkpoint.

The building was more heavily guarded as Lucia passed through different section of the yards that was being separated by walls. Everyone had to show their identification before entering the building under the escort of guards. There were few exceptions.

Lucia was one of the exceptions.

She smiled at the soldiers, passed through numerous security checkpoints, and finally stopped before a white brick edifice.

The building was very similar to an ordinary residential building, its external walls smothered in creepers. There was a golden plate hung next to the door, which read —

"The Neverwinter Research Institute of High Energy Physics".

Chapter 1190 - " An Important Task"

Lucia neither understood what high energy physics meant, nor did she know what her work will be, but she noticed that His Majesty would always pace up and down in front of this plate, as though the words on it contained some miraculous power.

Because of this, Lucia became even more enthusiastic about her work.

What she was doing in the laboratory was actually not much different from what she used to do in the Furnace Area. However, she had an instinctive feeling that this must be something extraordinary.

"Hey, you're here," Azima, who had been resting in her chair with her eyes shut, sat up and greeted Lucia as she entered the inner yard.

"Good, good afternoon," Lucia replied politely.

"It's so warm and comfortable in here that it makes you easily fall asleep," Azima yawned as she stretched her body. "So, shall we begin?"

"Sure. Thank you for your help."

Azima waved her hands and said, "Don't mention it. I'm your assistant, so I'm obligated to follow your instructions. We've worked together for a while, so we don't need to be so formal. Plus..."

Azima's voice tailed away, her mumble voice carried to Lucia by the warm wind. "There's nothing to complain about when you could earn two gold royals every month just by sitting here."

Lucia stifled her laughter. Truth be told, she was a little afraid of Azima, as she had also heard from Wendy about the internal conflict on the Sleeping Island. This red-haired witch with sharp facial features was the leader of her clique, and she did talk and act in a trenchant manner with the air of haughtiness. Therefore, when King Roland had appointed Azima as her assistant, Lucia had been quite unnerved, doubting if she was competent to be the superintendent of this new research institute.

Nevertheless, after working with Azima for several months, Lucia found Azima was not as scary as she had thought. Although she did occasionally complain about Princess Tilly, and sometimes even about His Majesty, overall, Aizama was a dutiful and hard-working assistant. She was also very sensitive about her salaries and often blurted out some random comments such as "I'll prove myself", "Just you wait, Nightingale", and "I can support myself perfectly", which Lucia found quite amusing.

"Alright then. Let's begin," Lucia said as she opened her closet and handed Azima a white protection clothing."

The first step was to create a barrier between themselves and the external environment. Not only were they forbidden to touch the subject of their research, but they also had to breathe through a special filter as well. Roland had specifically stressed that the purified research material was highly toxic. A tiny little amount would be sufficient to kill anyone who touched or inhaled it. To prevent such unfortunate events, Roland required the researchers to check each other's clothing, especially the parts they could not check by themselves, before proceeding with the research.

After they pulled on the radiation suit, Azima gave a thumbs-up.

Then, the pair went into an open yard.

The ground was neatly lined up with tons of green slabs. Except that they have a darker color, they looked almost the same as the bricks produced at the Furnace Area.

However, these bricks were exceptionally heavy as though they were out of metal instead of stone.

Lucia picked up one slab and applied her magic power to it. The slab was a bit hot after basking in the sunlight for a long time, but the high temperature did not affect her use of power. She could see the slab in her hand turn into a mixture of colorful compounds, some of which were glinting. However, the material required by Roland only took up a very small portion of the mixture, which sprinkled on the surface of the slab like specks of ink.

Nevertheless, this was much better than extracting the material directly from ores at the North Slope.

Slowly, those color blocks began to move, reassembled, and finally converted into four separate larger blocks. The largest color block was disposed of. The other three blocks were all in different sizes. The smallest of them, which was only the size of an individual salt particle, was the silver, toxic material that Roland required.

Lucia put the material into a glass jar gently and set it aside.

The other two metal blocks were much larger, one of them was the size of an almond, and the other one was the size of a half of a nail. They were also silver, so the only way to separate them was through magic. The bigger of the two was sent to Anna in a basket for further processing, which was later used to test the new machine she was working on. The smaller one was placed in a lead box, and a new box would be used once the first one reached five kilograms.

It would take Lucia two to three days to extract so many metal blocks if she didn't have other schedule. As these slabs were all building materials used by the radiation clan, they had already been purified earlier. Compared to raw ores, these slabs were much easier to work with.

Lucia rose and opened up her hands to Azima after she finished one slab.

This was also one of the rules set out by Roland. Azima had to confirm that there was no particle residue at the scene or on Lucia's clothes before Lucia could work on a new slab. Azima could detect even the slightest trace of the material with her ability.

Around two hours later, Lucia exhausted her power.

"Let's call it a day," Azima said as she helped Lucia to stand. "We have to study in the evening. If you shut down now, we'll have to carry you back to the castle."

"Yeah," Lucia assented with a nod. "You're... right."

Not only did Lucia feel tired, but she also felt stuffy in her radiation suit. There was no point in continuing to work in such an uncomfortable condition.

The two girls took off their clothes and had a shower. It was around dusk, and they could hear the creepers outside the window rustling as a cool breeze blew upon their cheeks. Lucia heaved a deep sigh, feeling refreshed.

Just then, a familiar voice came from behind, "You did a great job."

Lucia turned around and saw Roland walked into the yard with a smile, followed by Nightingale who had two blue bottles of Chaos Drinks in her hand.

"This is — " Azima stammered, a little surprised.

"This is a reward only for you. Don't tell anyone," Roland said secretly while spreading out his hands.

"Th-thank you," Azima said as she stiffly took the bottle.

Lucia had couldn't wait but pried open the lid.

As the refreshing beverage traveled through her throat, she had forgotten all about the work and her great ambition.

After both of them drained the bottles, Roland asked, "So how's it going?"

"I've separated them as you instructed," Lucia replied as she led Roland into a room and opened a cabinet. There were dozens of neatly arranged lead boxes in there.

Chapter 1191 - Rare Element

Roland picked up a lead box and weighed the silver metal on his hand. Before it was activated, it was no different from ordinary iron. The metal was harmless as long as you did not consume it. It was inconceivable that this piece of metal contained an immense amount of energy that did not really fit its small and innocent appearance.

However, this was the very element that enabled men to convert mass energy for the first time.

This was on a whole new level compared to chemical reactions.

There were roughly fifty lead boxes in the cabinet, each containing one kilogram of Uranium-235 that was almost purified, which added up to fifty kilograms in total.

And there were more than one such cabinet in the room.

If he activated all the uranium in this room together...

Then he would probably release real "high energy".

"Can they really produce what you call 'the Glory of the Sun'?" Nightingale asked curiously. "Will they really explode upon ignition? It seems to me that they aren't combustible at all."

"Do you want to know?" Roland said in amusement. "It's much simpler than you thought. We just need to put these metal ingots together, and they'll explode as bright as the sun. The uranium in this one single cabinet will be more than enough to raze Neverwinter to the ground. That's why Lucia has a great responsibility. If she accidentally — "

The room suddenly fell into a dread silence.

Lucia covered her hand to her mouth, looking terrified.

"... There's no way." At long last, Azima spoke in sheer disbelief, "Are you saying that we might wreck the whole city if we're careless?"

Hearing these words, Nightingale immediately snatched the lead box from Roland, put it back to the cabinet, and attempted to drag him out of the room.

"Oi... wait, what are you doing?"

"Isn't that obvious?" Nightingale said desperately. "I'm getting you out of this city and ask people to get rid of these things! Lucia, call Wendy to contact the Administrative Office right now!"

"I... I'll go see Princess Tilly," Azima said. "Only she could mobilize the Sleeping Spell to take action."

"Stop! I was just joking — " Roland yelled.

It took him quite a while to calm everyone down.

"Are you sure this is just a joke?" Nightingale grunted.

"Ahem, yes... this is just a theory," Roland added quickly. "It's not that simple to activate these elements. I can't guarantee that it'll be successful to be honest even if I use all my power."

Lucia heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Your Majesty... you scared the hell out of me."

"This isn't funny," Nightingale said accusingly as she glared at Roland. "If Wendy and Scroll heard this, whether this is a joke or not — "

"They would probably move the new institute to somewhere far away from Neverwinter, right?" Roland sighed.

"I'm glad you know that, or they'll probably just get you far away from."

"Alright then. Let's just forget about this conversation..." Roland said after clearing his throat. "As long as you all keep this to yourself, Wendy and Scroll will never know."

"But someone might already hear it," Nightingale said casually as she looked out the window.

"Then I will reward you one bottle of Chaos Drinks to cut off any information," Roland negotiated immediately.

"Deal," Nightingale said and disappeared from their sight.

Looking at goggling Lucia and Azima, Roland said with a shrug, "Er... never mind that. It is also a part of the joke."

Seconds later, Nightingale reappeared and reported, "No suspicious figures were found, but the deal — "

"Remains valid."

Finally satisfied, Nightingale ate her precious dried fish while humming.

"Well... Your Majesty," Azima said gravely after a moment of hesitation. "It wasn't all a joke, was it? Because you said earlier that we must weigh the material accurately. Each lead box has to be precisely four kilograms. You also stressed that we need to weigh the material with the container together to make sure that the metal in each box has exactly the same weight." Azima paused for a second and continued, "Also, you told us that we should ask the guards to block off the surrounding area in the event of a break in or an accident before coming to see you in the castle. You said we must not investigate on our own, which shows that... these metal pieces are indeed kind of dangerous, right?"

Mildly surprised, Roland replied, "You're quite observant. Yes, most of your inference is correct. Apart from its toxicity, weight is also another crucial factor. That's why I asked you to separate them." Roland was impressed with Azima's meticulous attention to detail. She could deduce the property of the research subject based on the research protocol. Probably that was how she had developed her tracking ability. "However, if we want to turn them into a weapon against the demons, we also need another thing."

"Are you referring to those particles we stored separately?" Azima asked immediately.

"Not quite, but you are almost correct."

The composition of raw uranium was very complicated. Apart from uranium compounds, there were also many other radioactive materials, most of which were secondary daughter products that either had lost their radioactivity and become a stable atomic element, or they were elements that were still in the process of radioactive decay. Although the radiation clan had purified ores when they had built the Temple of the Cursed, the composition of these raw materials had not changed much, and this is shown by Lucia's result.

Uranium 238 had the highest percentage among other elements. Although it could not be used to produce weapons, it could be recognized by the Magic Ceremony Cube, and it had very similar properties to Uranium 235, so they were all sent to the laboratory at the North Slope.

Uranium-235 with a purity of more than 90% could be used as a weapon. It only accounted for 1% of natural uranium found in the Earth's crust. Therefore, the biggest problem for most researchers was how to extract it.

However, Uranium 235 was not the rarest element on Earth. Its daughter products, such as thorium, radium, radon, and polonium, were even rarer. In fact, Roland also needed polonium-210, the common isotope that could be found in nature, for his Radiation Project.

Roland had received nine-year compulsory education in his previous world, so he knew very well about radium and polonium. Maria Curie made her fame through the discovery of these two elements. Despite the fact that polonium-210 only had a short half-life of a hundred days with an extremely small concentration, Maria Curie had still successfully discovered it from the mineral pitchblende based on its powerful radioactivity.

Both radium and polonium could be used to produce neutron sources, and this led to the second problem: detonation.

The first generation of nuclear weapons was pretty simple. Basically, the mechanism was to let fissionable nuclides release energy. Take uranium-235 for example. When uranium-235 received a neutron, it was activated and became unstable uranium-236 that further splitted into two lighter nuclides and several isolated neutrons. The change in the mass of nuclides was thus converted to energy.

The released neutrons thus hit the nuclides again, initiating subsequent fissions, and released greater energy. Such a series of fissions was what people normally referred to as the nuclear chain reaction.

In the microscopic world, atomic nuclei were wide apart from each other. If an atom was a football field, then the nucleus was as small as an ant in the middle of the field. To make sure that the nucleus was hit, the football field had to be large enough so that the neutrons would not fly out of range. Also, this ant had to be also placed on the path of the neutrons.

To adjust the size of this football field, they had to adjust the mass and shape of the nuclides.

In fact, critical mass was not a fixed number. It also depended on the shape of the nuclides and a series of complex calculations. Apparently, it was easier to hit the ant when the football field was stacked up than when it was arrayed in a line. Roland had heard a miserable defeat in a war because of miscalculations. Nevertheless, as his predecessors had done the complicated and tedious research for him, Roland did not need to start from scratch and perform tons of experiments. He already knew that spheres had the smallest critical mass, and that for uranium-235, its critical mass was fifty two kilograms.

That was the reason he insisted that each lead box should be no more than one kilogram.

Since critical mass was adjustable, Roland could, theoretically, reduce the critical mass by shrinking the size of the football field or providing more neutrons. High-explosive bombs were actually created using the former method. When the explosion occurred, its reactants were squeezed. The density of the bomb thus exceeded its limit. However, due to the limitation in the current technologies in Neverwinter, Roland did not think he could calculate the correct critical mass to precisely control the explosion. As such, he directed his attention to the latter method.

To use neutrons and maintain a sustained and controlled nuclear reaction.

Chapter 1192 - A Wind Chaser

Neutron sources, which could be classified as catalyst, provided extra neutrons that could sustain the chain reaction even when Uranium-235 was under its critical mass.

Technically, both polonium and radium separated from natural uranium could form compounds with beryllium to serve as neutron sources. Roland did not foresee any technical difficulties, for polonium could release a large number of neutrons when colliding with alpha particles. All of the three elements were existing in nature, which saved them a lot of time to create elements artificially.

Roland preferred polonium to radium purely out of safety concerns. Although polonium-210 had a short half-life, it released very few photons upon a decay, which meant it was no more dangerous than inactive uranium. However, radium, which released radon and photons upon activation, posed a potential safety hazard. As such, polonium was a better candidate to provide neutrons.

Further, beryllium could reflect neutrons and further increased the possibility for neutrons to interact with other elements. By combining polonium and beryllium, along with a sufficient amount of uranium-235, even the simplest gun model could be lethal.

In addition to that, beryllium was a common element in emeralds that were quite accessible in the Four Kingdoms, so Azima did not have to search for them in the wilderness.

Roland knew very well about Neverwinter's current level of techonology. The principle of the Resplendent Radiation was simple, but to signicantly improve the utilization rate of energy from 1% to 90%, it required tons of theoretical calculations and numerous tests. If the conversion rate was low, he would not be able to reduce the size of the weapons and would thus waste precious uranium resources. Fortunately, Lucia's ability minimized the loss arising from the uranium extraction.

Nevertheless, even with a minimal loss, creating a nuclear weapon from scratch still involved various advanced technologies. Nuclear weapons' destructive power was phenomenal compared to regular explosives. Even 1% of uranium could release unparalleled energy.

Roland had to make every effort to win this battle that would decide the fate of the mankind.

To hold the power of the Sun in your palms in this uncivilized era, wasn't it a type of romance?

He would like to give it a shot no matter how impossible it seemed.

"Very well, keep up the good work," Roland said as he patted Lucia on the head. "Once all the cabinets are filled with lead boxes, we can start on the tests."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Lucia said fervently.

*******************

In the meantime, in the Aerial Knight Academy of Neverwinter.

The area to the west of the research institute was quite today, for all the students were on a break visiting their families, except for Good.

"Upwind, gear down!"

"Crosswind, roll over!"

Good seated himself in front of the mock flight deck, practicing according to the instructions in the Flight Manual by changing the setting of the wind directions. The wooden rod creaked like a battered, weathered watermill. The air in the training room was sultry and balmy. His back was dampened with perspiration, and sweat dripped down his chin on the shabby deck.

Gradually, his hand became so wet that he could not keep a tight grip on the lever. Good thus stopped and heaved a deep sigh.

After learning to fly for almost half a year, Good had engraved the basic instructions in the Flight Manual written by Princess Tilly in his memories. He was no longer that lay man who got easily flustered by the movements of the plane. Now, Good had memorized all the instructions and developed quick reflexes. His body would react almost automatically to his mind.

But Good doubted if he could really fly a plane.

He could not envision the picture where he actually maneuvered a plane against the wind by himself. The Manual suggested that he should "feel the wind force and wind direction, sense the movement of the aircraft and operate the plane accordingly". However, he did not understand what kind of feeling that was. The mock flight deck remained motionless all the same no matter how he shifted the gear, as though it were laughing at his futile attempts with an air of derision.

The more Good practiced, the more frustrated he became.

While he was feeling extremely discouraged, the door of the training room was suddenly flung open.

"Oho, you're really here."

"Told you. I was right, wasn't I?"

Good looked around, and very surprisingly, saw two men step into the room, who were none other than his team members, Finkin and Hinds.

"Not having fun during your break?" Finkin whistled. "Well, that's because fun is right here in the school."

"Why are you still here. You have a sister, don't you?" Hinds rejoined as he flung his arm around Good's neck. "She asked me to tell you that you should take a good rest. That's... so sweet of her."

Good's manner tightened. He asked sternly, "Hold on, did you guys visit my place?"

"Of course, otherwise where should we go find you?" Finkin said matter-of-factly, his brows raised. "Her name is Rachel, right? Do you mind introducing her to me?"

"Out of the question," Good retorted fiercely while shooting Finkin a cold glance.

"Aren't we good enough?" Finkin said indignantly. "I have a proper house near Redwater River!"

Good lapsed into a thoughtful silence and then shook his head. "No, it has nothing to do with you. My sister... Rachel has her own problem. I don't think she would like to be with you."

"Why? I think she's sweet," Hinds asked in confusion.

"Come. Spit it out," Finkin urged in curiosity.

"Drop it," Good replied gruffly. "Let's talk about something else. What did you mean by "fun is here in the school?"

Finkin did not insist but lowered his voice and replied fugitively, "Do you want to fly a real plane?"

Astonished, Good said, "What did you say?"

"I saw it a few days ago when I climbed over the wall," Finkin said with a triumphant smile. "There are new planes in the hangar. Although they're covered with canvas, I could see they're about the same size of the 'Unicorn' piloted by Princess Tilly. In other words, those are our planes!"

"A few days ago? Why didn't you tell us back then?"

"Because I don't want you to be too excited and blabber about it," Finkin said while shrugging. "We're on a break, so few people are in the academy. That gives us a great chance to have a peek at them!"

"Are you mental?" Good said in disbelief. "Without permission, nobody is allowed to get in there!"

"Surely those soldiers won't let you in," Finkin said while rolling his eyes at Good. "So we must take another route and go around the airport."

"But..."

"We're just taking a look," Hinds egged on. "You should have noticed that Princess Tilly looks sulky recently and is more strict with us. So it would probably be another two months before we could actually fly them. Don't you want to know what our planes look like, or you actually prefer this stupid wooden deck?"

"If you don't come with us, we'll go without you," Finkin said as he winked at Good.

Good stared at the rickety wooden rod while savoring the sense of loss that lingered upon his heart. After what seemed to be a long internal struggle, Good bit his lip and agreed with a nod, "Alright. I'll come. Show me the way."

Chapter 1193 - A Wind Chaser (II)

The academy was empty just as Finkin had said. The three thus passed through various buildings and stopped in front of a towering wall.

"This is..."

"This is the west side of the airport," Finkin said as he brought a wooden ladder and erect it against the wall. "Follow me."

Good hesitated for a moment before he climbed up the ladder. The moment he reached the top of the wall, an involuntary exclamation escaped from his lips. A swollen red sun was sinking low over the water. The glittery ocean splintered into flecks of gold in the sweltering sunset, and the sky was awash with sheets of blue and yellow. Layers of cloud sloped down to the horizon, below which was the vast emptiness of the airport that would potentially lead them to the sky.

Sea breezes dispelled the irritation that smote upon Good's heart. He closed his eyes and, with his arms stretched, imagined himself clasping on the operation lever while waiting to take off.

"A very nice view, eh?" Finkin said while grinning. "I found this fabulous peeping spot. Just be careful not to fall off the wall."

Hinds asked behind them, "So... what next?"

"Naturally we should go there, but we have to take the ladder with us." Finkin said as he pointed at the hangar not far away. They first saw the "Seagull" parked out there. The hangar was actually not very far from them as its edge was only about two meters away from the wall.

Because of the intense balance training they had received, they could now easily walk along the top of the wall, and reached their destination within fifteen minutes.

The hangar was two to three meters taller than the wall, so they could not clamber onto the roof. However, its windows and the wall were on the same level, so they could peep through the windowpanes while stretching themselves up on their tiptoes.

"Uncovered planes... uncovered planes... I saw them!" Finkin yelled.

Good's eyes followed Finkin's, and his chest constricted.

There were four uncovered biplanes in one of the hangars. Good's eyes were glued to their smooth and elegant bodies. His heart swelled with excitement as the knowledge that he would one day operate them struck him.

Who cared about knights? They were nothing next to an aerial knight who could fly in the sky!

Finkin placed the ladder against the window and clapped his hands smugly. "Well, we didn't step into the airport, so technically, we aren't breaking the rules."

Good knew that was a pretty tenuous argument, but he could not help crawling into the hangar through the window.

To his surprise, for the first time since his training, Good felt calm.

After they landed, Finkin and Hinds rushed to the closest plane while Good sauntered behind them.

"Whoa, this is... spectacular!" Hinds apostrophized as he touched the plane. "It's metal."

"Yes, and it's as thin as skin. Look — " Finkin agreed as he pressed his fingers on it, and a dent immediately appeared on the surface. "I wonder how they made it."

"Oi, take it easy. You don't want to break it."

"Don't worry. It's quite bouncy."

"Really? Let me try..."

Good did not marvel at the plane like his two friends. Instead, he crawled into it as if led by a mysterious force and proceeded to the front of the aircraft.

According to the illustration on the cover of the Flight Manual, this was the exact spot Princess Tilly was sitting at while soaring above the continent and the sea.

Good thus sat in the pilot seat.

So this was the world in an aerial knight's eyes.

The wings above and the carriage on both sides obscured half of his vision, which forced Good to look straight ahead. He could even smell the leather chair. The flight instruments were encased in clear glass. Both the operation lever and the pedals were made of metal, the top part of the lever was wrapped in soft fabrics that afforded a nice, comfortable touch.

Good grabbed the lever and geared down. The lever creaked.

Unlike the wooden lever he had been practicing with, Good did feel he was pulling something. The quivering steel string and the increasingly heavy lever told him that the sensation was real.

"Good Lord, what are you doing?" Hinds' voice cracked through the air like a whip that jerked Good out of his musings.

"Er..." Good stammered and instantly relinquishing his grip. "I'm just..."

"Practicing?" Finkin jeered. "Who said we were mental earlier? Now who has sneaked into the cockpit? Didn't we agree to just take a look?"

"Sorry, I couldn't help..."

"Rest assured," Finkin interrupted. "I don't think you'll break it because we're told to do so during the training. But be fast. I want to try it out too."

"Hang on," Good said, a little reluctant. "I just geared down. Do you want to sit in the backseat first?"

"And what about me?" Hinds protested as he climbed up the wing.

While they were fighting for the seat, there was suddenly a screech of an open lock.

Good's face turned white with great trepidation.

Terrified, Hinds said, "Why... why would they come here at this time?"

"What should we do?"

Finkin was the only one who seemed to be composed. He said, "We don't have time to run. Hide first!"

However, there was not a single hiding place in the large hangar, and the pilot seat was too small for three grown-up men. Before they could get off the plane, someone had already arrived.

"Who's there?"

"Freeze!"

With several clicks, Good found himself surrounded by the First Army.

Petrified, the three were soon pinned to the ground.

"What happened?" a voice came as they saw a familiar figure approach them. It was none other than Princess Tilly Wimbledon. "Invaders?"

Finkin shouted in exasperation before the guards could supply an answer, "Your Highness, we're sorry. We are all students at the Aerial Knight Academy. Out of curiosity, we came here to have a look at the planes. Please have mercy on us!"

Apparently, Finkin also knew that they were not supposed to be here. Good had a feeling that they were in big trouble.

After hearing the full account, Princess Tilly nodded expressionlessly and said, "I see. According to the school rules, you'll all receive detention of at least 15 days and be disqualified from becoming an aerial knight. You can choose what you want to be in the future between a busboy and ground staff. Let your officer know."

"As, as you command..." Finkin and Hinds replied while screwing up their faces.

Good's heart sank to the bottom. Suddenly, courage seared through him as the guards began to shuffle them out. He raised his head and shouted in earnest, "Your Highness, please! I want to be a pilot. I would do anything if you could spare me this time! I'm at a loss in the training sessions, so I came here to feel the actual thing, not only out of curiosity!"

"Really?" Tilly said, her brows raised. "Are you referring to... a feeling?"

"Yes, my actions didn't coordinate with the instructions in the manual. Although I was flying, I couldn't sense the wind... Well, that isn't quite accurate. It's something..." Good explained as he tried to find a proper word to describe his feeling. "I can't put it into words. I only know that I didn't feel it right..."

"He's blabbering. It's all nonsense."

"Is this guy crazy?"

"Get him out of here. He annoys Princess Tilly."

The guards conversed with each other.

Tilly took a searching look at Good and said, "You're Good, right? Eagle Face told me that you're doing pretty well in all subjects. You were the first to get used to the training and are also very hard-working."

"I..."

Tilly cut across him haughtily, "So what do you think of riding on a plane?"

"Huh?" Good said, flabberghasted.

"Didn't you say you needed to feel it? So what now? Do you think you could fly?"

Good hesitated for a second, his hands clenched, and replied, "Your Highness... I think I can."

"Then try it out," Tilly said as she turned around without looking at him. "In fact, I'm planning to train you guys on a real plane tomorrow. For other students, they're allowed to fail but you aren't. If you fail, I'll expel you. Of course, you could also choose to be punished. That's up to you."

"I want to fly," Good replied decidedly.

"Very well," Tilly said. "I'll also let the other two choose what way they want to go."

Chapter 1194 - The Only Request

After dinner, Tilly told Roland what had happened at the airport.

"Because of... a feeling?" Roland said, a little surprised at the reason Tilly had changed her mind.

"What? Not a good reason for you?" Tilly said while folding her arms.

"Well, you made all the school rules for the Aerial Knight Academy, so you're the boss," Roland denied while waving his hand. "I'm just curious about what that feeling refers to."

"It means talent. You really don't know anything about flying," Tilly said while shrugging. "For ordinary people, they simply follow the instructions in the manual mechanically, but some people could visualize their action. These people could foresee the result of their actions beforehand."

"Er... that sounds really amazing," Roland commented indifferently while twitching his lips. He admitted that he had no knowledge of flying. If it was not for Tilly, he would probably never be able to train so many aerial knights. Tilly helped him a lot to build, test, improve, and finalize the plane and train new pilots. Normally, it would take a few decades to build an actual plane based on the blueprints collected from the Dream World and apply it to militeray operations. Having said that, a plane was essentially a machine. Wouldn't it be enough to follow the instructions and keep practicing if someone wanted to learn how to operate it?

"Because I have that talent too," Tilly said regretfully. "The fact that you can't visualize it means that you don't have the talent. If you were a student of the Aerial Knight Academy, you would probably be knocked out of the school, brother."

"Ahem..." Roland almost choked as he heard Nightingale stifle her laugh behind him.

"Are you under the impression that we could be pilots as long as we practice?" Tilly said as though seeing the thought in Roland's mind. "It's true that some people could develop reflexes after numerous practices, but being able to feel is also a talent, although it's not as fast as the former method. Most people probably would never develop such an ability. Flying would be the most they could achieve. Between the two, who do you think will have a higher chance of surviving a battle?"

Roland fell silent.

Without a doubt, the gifted ones would have a better chance. They normally learned much faster than ordinary people, as they possessed the ability to learn from their experience. However, common people could barely survive. In other words, it took talented students less time to learn and absorb new knowledge.

"But that's not always the case," Roland said after a short pause. "Maybe he was just lucky and happened to have the right answer."

"So that was why I asked him to fly," Tilly said casually.

"... What about the other two?"

"They chose to fly too."

"Really?' Roland said while blinking in surprise. "I'm impressed with their bravery. Don't you think it's a pity to expel them?" Being expelled from school was a severe punishment, especially when this particular school was managed by the princess. This meant the expelled students would have a record, and it would be a lot harder for them to seek other employment in the future. Busboys and ground staff were actually paid well, and they were relatively stable jobs. The academy also offered them medical and housing benefits.

There were less than 200 pilot trainees in Neverwinter, so Roland cherished every one of them.

"The Aerial Knight Academy doesn't need untalented students. Bravery would only lead them to an early death. It's better for them to leave now than later," Tilly said in a low voice.

There was a strained silence. Roland got two drinks for both of them, and Tilly changed the subject. "By the way, I came here for my new plane. Any update on that?"

Roland's heart skipped a beat. He knew Tilly must have some important business to discuss. "I think we should take this matter slow. We need you to build the air force. You'll pose a greater threat to the demons if you stay in Neverwinter — "

Tilly did not respond but her eyes were glistening with inflexible determination.

Roland breathed out a deep sigh.

Tilly was not referring to the "Unicorn" but a more powerful military aircraft. After Tilly had cried hysterically in his chest like a defenseless child that night over Ashes' death, she had told Roland the next morning that she wanted a plane that could kill the demons.

She was going to seek revenge.

Apparently, Roland's evasive promise had not changed Tilly's mind.

"Are you sure that's what you want?"

"You weren't so indecisive when you planned to ambush Ursrook."

"That's because logistics is completely different from fighting at the front."

"Not really. In both cases, I use my ability for those in need," Tilly denied while shaking her head. "It was I who agreed to send Ashes to the front. You know very well that aerial knights won't stand a chance to win against the demons in the sky. There are too many demons and the aerial knights are too weak. Only I could change the situation."

"But the academy..."

"I certainly will fulfill my responsibilities. I'll train some qualified instructors so that they could further expand the academy." Tilly paused for a second, her eyes fixed on Roland, and said slowly, "I know I'm being selfish, but this is my only request."

Roland gazed into Tilly's eyes. At long last, he sighed, "I see."

Tilly unclenched her fist and said, "Thank you."

"By the way, any specific requirement on the color of the aircraft?" Roland asked when Tilly was about to leave.

Tilly stopped, a little perplexed, and answered, "No, not really..."

"Then how about red?"

"Does it make any difference?"

"Normally, the party that dominates the sky is in that color," Roland explained gently.

"Really?" Tilly said while curling up her lips. "Then red it is."

After Tilly took her leave, Nightingale said to Roland, "Her Highness is... serious this time."

Roland replied while massaging his forehead, "That's what troubles me." When Tilly said "this is my only request", Roland sensed her perserverance and eagerness behind her words. Roland understood no other person except him could help Tilly avenge Ashes. If he had turned Tilly down, her hope would turn into poignant despair, and dimly, he had a presentiment of losing her.

"She's also changed," Nightingale remarked. "But I understand her. If it was you — " Nightingale broke off and shook the idea off. "No, I can't even imagine it."

Roland fell silent. He suddenly realized that a war could alter many people and things, but the war itself would continue to bring destruction.

To prevent tragedies like this, there was no way other than ending this Battle of Divine Will as soon as possible.

Chapter 1195 - Things I Want to Do

Good could not even remember how he got back to his residence.

By the time he arrived at his house, it was around nightfall, and everyone was on their way back home. Smoke curled up from the chimneys, and he could hear people greet their families. The air was soaked with sweet aroma of porridge and the salty odor of sweat. The neighborhood was so lively and energetic that nobody would believe that this place was actually a residential area for refugees.

Good could smell the hope that empowered the energy and liveliness of the refugees. Residents here would be well fed as long as they worked hard. Within half a month, people could afford eggs and pork. Everyone was hopeful about their future, with their voice confident and their spirit high. Although the residential area was untidy and raucous, it was by no means dismal and miserable like a slum.

Everything here was colorful.

Except Good.

As he saw his neighbors smiled at him broadly, his eyes started streaming, and a scathing voice kept ringing around his ears, "Look at what you did, you thickhead. You ruined everything!"

Had he not been so headstrong to request a trial from Princess Tilly but instead accepted the punishment, he would have still been a student of the Aerial Knight Academy. Even if he could not become a pilot, he could still have a decent job in the future, much better than being homeless.

His courage had soon ebbed away after Princess Tilly had agreed with his proposal. Now, he only felt fear and despair.

If he failed, he would lose everything.

Good pushed open the door and entered as he was crestfallen.

A silvery voice greeted him brightly, "Good, you're home. See what I made for you."

Rachel ran up to him in excitement and settled him in his chair. She uncovered the lid of the plate and pronounced triumphantly, "Tada — egg pancakes! Looks good, eh?"

The so-called egg pancake was divided into two layers. It looked more like a pancake topped with scrambled egg than an egg pancake. Nevertheless, it still looked delicious. Its egg white thin, and its golden rim slightly furled, with an orange yolk right in the middle while yolk was still runny. The melted butter trickled down to the plate, giving off a rich and devilish smell.

Obviously, Rachel had put a lot of efforts into this meal.

Stunned for a split second, Good said, "You bought eggs?" Eggs were not particularly expensive in Neverwinter, but we still could not afford to have them everyday.

"Yes," Rachel said as she handed Good a wooden fork. "Uncle Bucky took me to the marketplace today. Don't worry. I still have savings. You rarely have a break, so it's okay to have eggs occasionally. Plus, once you become an aerial knight, we'll soon have more savings. I already thought this through!" Rachel patted her chest in confidence.

Good took the fork stiffly and mumbled, "Y-yes, you're right."

"Now, eat it and see if you like it," Rachel urged.

After a moment of hesitation, Good slowly put a morsel of the egg pancake in his mouth. Instantly, the flavor of the yolk mingled with the butter permeated his entire mouth.

Memories started to flow out from the deepest part of his mind.

He and Rachel had suffered a lot on the way from the Kingdom of Wolfheart to the Western Region of Graycastle. In the past, he would have never dreamed of having such tasty food. However, things turned better miraculously after they arrived at Neverwinter. They were fed and clothed in this city, and probably, in the near future, Rachel could eat this "egg pancake" every day, only if he continued to study at school.

Good did yearn to soar the sky, but was it really worth him to bet with his life?

He had nothing to lose before, but it was different now.

Good had to take care of Rachel.

Then why did he make such a selfish choice?

He had never thought of Rachel when he had agreed with Finkin to take a look at the planes.

He could not forgive himself for being so selfish!

"Do you like it? It shouldn't be... that bad, right? I haven't cooked for a while, and I'm not sure whether my cooking skills have got rusty or not," Rachel said with uncertainty. "Oi, say something. Is it okay? Hang on, why are you crying? Is the food that bad?"

"No..." Good replied, his face glazed with tears, as he gulfed down the pancake. "It's good, really good. I'm just... I couldn't help..."

Startled, Rachel walked up to him, patted his head and asked quietly, "Did something happen?"

"I'm sorry... I probably couldn't continue to study in the academy..."

Good then told Rachel everything.

"I see," Rachel said at length. "I just have one question for you. Do you... like flying?"

"I — " Good broke off, groping for words that did not come. He found it hard to lie in front of Rachel's face, so he nodded.

"Then there is nothing to worry about," Rachel smiled. "This is your first time finding something you like, right? You've done so much for me on our way here. I asked you to leave the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and you could have refused, but you still did. So how can you be a selfish person?"

"But I..."

"The worst scenario is to start all over again, right?" Rachel suggested with her head tilted on one side. "And I'm literate. Even if I don't... well, I could find jobs by myself. So, just do your best."

"R-really?"

"Anyway, you don't have time to regret. It's better to think about how to pass the trial than worrying about our future. Just make sure to keep your temper next time."

Good stared at Rachel for quite a while until he said, "Sometimes, I feel you know much more about the world than me."

"I'm older than you, so naturally I know more. You insisted me to be your younger sister, remember?" Rachel mumbled and smiled at Good. "If you're expelled, then let's switch it up. I'll be your elder sister."

...

The next day, in the airport for the aerial knights.

Sixteen students stood out in a line at the end of the runway. As these students passed the exam first, they got the chance to have the trial first.

Four brand new planes gradually glided over the runway and came to halt in front of them.

Mumurs instantly swept over the crowd. Everybody was studying attentively at the four beautiful machines with great interest.

Except Finkin and Hinds whose face was screwed up.

Good closed his eyes.

He felt the cool breeze blowing at his face, trying to revisit his training, memorize the instructions of the officer, and visualize each move. Gradually, a blur of images showed up in his mind.

When Princess Tilly appeared, everybody kneeled down on their knees. Finkin tugged Good's sleeve to remind him.

"Your Royal Highness!"

"Rise," Tilly said expressionlessly. "It's your first time seeing these new planes, but you should have been familiar with them by now. All the materials in the textbook are based on the 'Unicorn', and these planes are the upgraded versions of the 'Unicorn', so they function better. Therefore, as long as you follow the instructions received in your training, you should be able to pass the trial. Considering it's your first time flying a plane, I'll sit you through the process and supervise you. I'll also mark your performance. Of course, I would rather you not needing my instructions."

Tilly paused for a second and went on, "However, in consideration of possible errors you would make in this test, I invited Miss Nana here. As long as you don't die on the spot, you'll survive, but it also means that you'll get a really low mark. If you can't improve yourself in the subsequent training, you'll be expelled. So, I hope you'll do your best. Also, if the plane sustains substantial damage, you'll get a zero mark because we don't have enough planes for you to crash. Understand?"

"Yes, Your Highness!" the sixteen students chorused.

"Now, let's begin. First examinant, Good." Tilly announced solemnly.

Good took a deep breath, walked up to the plane, and crawled into the cabin.

Chapter 1196 - The Reason to Fly

A soldier started the plane and turned on the valve. The aircraft immediately started to shake violently, the engine began to roar, and the propeller spun at a tremendous speed.

When the roar turned into a steady buzz, Good slowly pushed the gas lever, and the plane, as if being pulled by an invisible force, started to slide on the runway.

"Wow..." the crowd exclaimed impressively.

Good felt greatly encouraged, as he had not expected that it would really work. He was now truly operating this giant steel beast!

Good turned his head toward Princess Tilly who was sitting on the left side of the wing, her gray hair streaming behind her, a twinge of smile in her eyes. Was the princess... content with his performance? Good became more confident, believing he should have no problem passing this trial as long as he followed Tilly's instructions.

However, the princess did not say anything.

Good cast glances at Tilly numerous times, but Tilly was determined to maintain her silence, with faint yet playful smile lingering on her lips. When the plane crossed halfway through the runway, Good suddenly came to the realization that he would probably not receive any instructions during the entire trial.

"Considering it's your first time flying a plane, I'll walk you through the process one step at a time."

Princess Tilly's promise did not apply to him who had broken the school rules.

The other students would have a second chance, but he would not.

His enthusiasm was instantly quenched by a surge of disappointment and regret.

"If you don't make me say anything, then it definitely would be your best performance."

Good somehow comprehended what Her Highness had meant. If he could not fly the plane all by himself, he would be expelled, which was a price he had to pay for breaking the rules. If he proved his talent to the princess, then he would have some value for further education.

Could he really fly the plane on his own?

Now he had already used up two thirds of the distance, and a patch of grass gradually swam into his view, followed by the wall that encircled the airport. If he ran directly into the wall, even Miss Nana would not be able to save him.

There's no time.

Good wanted to pull back the gas lever, as this seemed to be the only way to slow down the plane and avoid a direct clash.

However, the next moment, he felt a hand pat on his head.

"Do you like... flying?"

Rachel's voice reverberated next to his ears.

Flying...

Yes, if he were a bird, there should be another way.

Which was to fly over the wall.

If he slowed down now, his journey would end here.

It was a second that contained eternity. Good grasped the lever and pushed it forward.

The engine instantly roared like thunder.

The wall streaked toward him!

Good jerked the plane up ten meters in front of the wall. As the plane shook violently, the runway sank below him and slid out of his sight. The patch of grass flitted below him. For a moment, Good felt weightless. The ground plummeted as he soared into the air!

"Faster! A little faster!" Good's eyes widened as the top of the wall pressed in. He was ready to embrace the crash.

But the crash never happened.

It shot up into the sky. All the obstacles in front of him disappeared, and Good saw a view he had never beheld. The academy, the coastline, and Neverwinter far away spun below him, his mind clearer and his heart lightened as the truth of operating a plane dawned on him.

Good wanted to whoop.

It was so wonderful that human beings could finally fly.

...

After he landed, Good knelt down before Princess Tilly.

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I saw something that could only exist in my dream."

During the trial that had lasted half an hour, Good had completed the basic flight maneuvers, including climbs and hovering, although with some difficulties.

There was nothing more he could do about his marks.

Even if he failed, the memory of this flight would be engraved in his heart. From now on, whenever he closed his eyes, he would remember this unique experience.

"Why did you join the Aerial Knight Academy?"

Tilly's voice came from above.

Good hesitated for a moment before he replied truthfully, "Your Highness, at first I just wanted to earn some income. Later, I wanted to be a successful man. Now, I've fallen in love with flying."

"I can give you money and fame, and also offer you a pilot job, provided that you promise to kill as many demons as you can," Tilly said coolly. "Fight for Graycastle and kill every demon that comes into your view. You have to exchange everything I give you with their blood. This is the duty of an aerial knight, the purpose of building this school. If you could do that, then report to Eagle Face."

Good looked up in excitement and said, "Your Highness, do you mean — "

"You passed," Tilly said and whipped around without looking back.

The trial did not end until 5:00 in the afternoon. Two out of sixteen were knocked out.

Finkin and Hinds also passed the trial.

After the students were dispersed, Finkin and Hinds grabbed Good by the arm, pulled him next to them and said, "Are you mental? Princess Tilly told us we only needed to take off and land properly to pass. Not only did you almost run into the wall, but you also flew out of the academy and hovered above the sea. Weren't you afraid that you would crash the plane?"

"That was an accident," Good thought to himself while rolling his eyes, then he said, "Didn't Her Highness say that all of us should do our best? I didn't know that you just need to take off and land to get a pass. I thought a few more moves would boost my mark."

"You lucky dog," Finkin said while shaking his head.

"You guys did well, too." Good said while twitching his lips. "You took off so well without instructions."

"What? What do you mean by 'without instructions'? Didn't Her Highness tell you when to pull the lever?"

"Yeah, but she gave fewer instructions to us than the other students," Hinds assented, "because we're wrong-doers."

Good was rooted to the ground. Was he the only person who did not receive any instructions?

While confused, the three of them returned to their dormitory.

An icy Eagle Face was waiting for them there.

The three shuddered. The trainees were actually afraid of their instructor more than Princess Tilly. They were constantly under the impression of being X-rayed under Eagle Face's piercing scrutiny.

"S-sir..."

"I'm very impressed. I didn't expect that you could make trouble even on your break," he said as he surveyed Good, Finkin and Hinds coldly. "Princess Tilly has told me everything. You're very lucky not to be expelled. Well, this isn't the jurisdiction of the First Army, otherwise..."

"S-sir, we're sorry!" the three immediately apologized in earnest.

"Since Her Highness has already punished you, I won't inflict more punishment. However, if you become an aerial knight, you'll become a member of the army," Eagle Face jeered. "To make sure you won't make the same mistake again, you'll have to clean the washroom for the whole month coming next. You got it?"

"What..." Both Finkin and Hinds screwed up their faces.

Only Good administered a salute.

"As you command, sir!"

Chapter 1197 - The Torch of Civilization

The trial that had lasted a week not only indicated that the students at the Aerial Knight Academy had taken the first crucial step but also marked the official beginning of their training program. The trial, as a matter of fact, had stirred the entire city.

Several citizens spied a "giant kite" hover above the southern part of the city. Although Tilly often flew the "Unicorn" around the castle, most of the time she confined her activity to depopulated areas . As such, the public had never truly witnessed a real plane.

Onlookers rushed toward the southern city, hoping to catch a glimpse of the plane when it darted out of the yard. In the beginning, only residents at the Shallow Port and the industrial area knew about the trial. Nevertheless, within three days, the news was spread out throughout the entire city, and the academy was besieged by curious spectators. Whenever a plane slid into their view, the crowd erupted a loud cheer as if it were them riding the plane.

Honey took advantage of this opportunity and soon published an article entitled "A Recurring Miracle", detailing the trial for the pilot trainees. The article was supplemented with two close-up shots of the biplane, which immediately brought the sales of Graycastle Weekly to a new peak.

Many merchants beyond Neverwinter sniffed a business opportunity and started to purchase the papers at a high price from the locals after they were sold out. Those who were not financially capable of doing that hired people to copy the article and the photos. Such a movement further raised the paper price in the city.

Aerial Knights, therefore, were known to everybody in Neverwinter overnight.

Roland received Tilly's report a week later.

150 out of the 197 trainees passed the trial, which meant that 47 students crashed the plane due to major errors. As there were only four planes used in the trial, each plane crashed around 11 times on average.

It appeared that the crashing rate was pretty high, but Roland understood that the plane was lightweight and had a simple structure. As long as the engine remained intact, it was easy to fix them. Most of the crashes, as Roland noticed, had occurred during the process of landing due to speeding or slow operation. Roland was certain with a little bit of repair here and there, the biplane would recover its splendor.

Of course, the refurbished planes would obviously not function as well as the mint ones. In fact, two planes were so battered that they could no longer satisfy the need of the students. To make sure that the students received adequate training, at least 12 to 15 biplanes were required for the subsequent advanced training program.

This was also the number required for a large fleet in his previous world.

Roland concluded that the whole report only conveyed one piece of information: "The air force and I need funds, and you shall give me money."

Roland put down the report in amusement. He had to admit that Tilly did have some talent, for she had already grasped the nature of the air force when it was still in its infancy. In fact, a competent fleet not only required manpower but also a large number of planes for training purposes.

At present, all the industries in Neverwinter were severely short staffed. Apparently, they could not build an air force in a short period of time.

Apart from Tilly, Edith Kant, the Chief of the General Staff, also handed him a report.

The report was short but quite interesting.

Edith believed that the aerial knights had a potential to change the situation of the war and would even play a decisive role in the outcome of the battle, provided that they were properly used. Therefore, she wished to establish a research committee and send them to the academy to learn more about the planes for future strategic studies. She also conceived a few tactics specifically for the aerial knights, which she wished to discuss in detail with Roland at the earliest.

Edith was probably one of the few executives who truly cared about the planes. Roland admired her remarkable perspicacity and the ability to quickly associate the planes with potential war practices.

While Roland was planning to summon Edith to discuss aerial knights, his guard reported, "Your Majesty, the Minister of Construction, Sir Karl Van Bate, wishes to see you."

Roland withdrew his hand from the telephone and said, "Send him in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty," Karl saluted as he entered the office. "The construction of the Miracle Building is completed."

...

Roland marveled at the towering building as he stared up at it from the bottom.

It took them two years to build this magnificent edifice. The construction cost them tons of gold royals and a large amount of steel and concrete that was more than enough to build three Redriver Bridges. Thanks to Lotus, Hummingbird and the other witches, they managed to complete the construction with relatively little manpower and few resources.

Contracting an expensive habit of squandering national resources and developing an addiction to extravagant architecture would definitely weaken national power. However, the impact this building brought upon civilians was also phenomenal, which could be evidenced by the reaction of the spectators.

The striking contrast between the two or three-story residential buildings and the Miracle Building that stood 50 to 60 meters tall exhilarated Roland.

As Neverwinter's new landmark, the Miracle Building not only astonished the masses with its ineffable grandeur but it was also a manifestation of the most advanced technologies currently available in this era. For example, its drainage system was comprised of various water tanks at different levels to ensure that water could be drawn efficiently.

Further, four outdoor "elevators", driven by the steam engines at the basement, could transport dozens of people at a time between different floors. Although the elevators were quite rudimentary compared to modern ones and they required attendants to manually control the operation, they were unprecedented in this era. Passengers could have a birdview of the city through the french windows installed to the elevators.

"Your Majesty, please say something," Karl suggested while placing his hand on his chest after they reached the podium. "Your subjects are waiting for you."

Roland nodded and waved at the thousands of heads below.

A tidal wave of cheers swept over him.

"Good afternoon, my subjects."

"This is the day when the Miracle Building is officially open to the public. It's a building that sets numerous world records. Today will be remembered by our descendents. However, I'm not dwelling on its degree of magnificence but on what you're most concerned about, that is, who will be living here and for whom it was built."

"Is it nobles? No, Graycastle has stripped nobles of their power. Is it the royal family? Of course not. I don't need such a large building to place my bed. The answer is simple. This building is for the residents in Neverwinter, that is, you all."

"You built the Miracle Building and are therefore entitled to this miracle!"

"Every room in this building will be listed for sale. You don't have to be a noble to buy. Just bring your identification card, and you'll become a resident of this building that is destinied to be a part of our history!"

As soon as Roland finished, another wave of cheers flooded over him.

"Long live the king!"

"Long live Neverwinter!"

After the chorus died down, Roland continued, "Now, let's ignite the torch at the top of the building. From today onwards, this torch will be lit every night and dazzle the whole city!"

In the deafening roar, Roland and some officials of the City Hall entered the elevator and climbed to the top floor.

A huge stone basin was placed at the center of the roof, brimming with black oil. This thick heavy oil, which had been specifically processed beforehand, had a long lasting power. It would not emit a foul odour or produce smog either. Therefore, it was the optimal fuel for a long-burning flame torch.

"Your Majesty," Nightingale said as she handed Roland the torch.

Roland nodded, took the torch and ambled over to the basin.

He suddenly remembered a song he had once listened to, its familiar lyrics came floating out of his memories.

"The moment there was the first sign of life underwater... you've come a long way..."

A smile curled Roland's lip, and he ignited the torch.

This was the flame of the human civilization, and he hoped that it would burn forever.

Chapter 1198 - A Foreigner

At the Silty Bay in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

As one of the two port cities in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, the dock here was always busy. Merchants from the interior loaded and unloaded their ships before they set off for their next undertaking from this harbor. Alternatively, they traded their commodities with local marine tradesmen. As such, the dock area was essentially a big marketplace where all kinds of transactions took place, from furs all the way to slaves.

White settled himself in his coach, languishing at the raucous coachmen while gazing upon the ocean.

Ever since the outbreak of the war between Graycastle and Hermes, local churches had stopped sending orphans to the Holy City. Having lost the main source of income, merchants in the Kingdom of Wolfheart struggled to live. What was worse, because of the friction between local lords, peace was not restored after the regime of the church was overthrown. Coachmen like White, being financially unstable, thus had to come to the Silty Bay to seek new employment for a living.

Although the war had also somewhat affected the life in the Silty Bay, the nobility still led their previous extravagant lifestyle. As the passage leading to the Cage Mountain was now under the control of the Token Family, it left other lords no choice but to rely on sea shipping to transport their luxurious goods, which, in a way, sustained the economy here.

Of course, the temporary prosperity was also partially attributed to the fact that the baron in the Silty Bay maintained his neutral position.

This was one of the reasons that White chose to strike root here.

He was old and did not want to wander about anymore.

White planned to carry cargo for a few more times and purchase a property with the money earned before starting his own small business.

"Hey, man, any work for you today?" Suddenly, a young worker clambered onto White's coach and jeered at him.

"Get out of my way. It's none of your business," White said gruffly while waving his hand in the same manner as he dismissed an annoying fly. "Don't you get on my carriage. You can't afford the repair of these beautiful wheels."

"Don't say that. Look at me. I'm tiny. Am I going to crush your wagon?" the young man protested as he patted his stomach and slumped against the compartment. He picked up a straw on the floor, sucked it between his teeth and looked around. "What did you carry last time? Why does it smell so funky in here?"

"Get off, or I'll kick your ass," White grunted. He did not know the young man's name, but all the other workers called him Smarty. White did not see any smartiness in him. To him, this young man was simply an unacquainted coworker.

"Really? With your artificial leg? I bet it hurts on rainy days, doesn't it?" the young man said casually. "It looks like it's going to rain soon. Your joints and bones should be hurting now, right?"

Speechless, White glowered at him, wondering when he had found out his secret.

"Haha, don't stare at me like that. I'm here to help you," Smarty explained while spreading out his hands. "There are so many people looking for work. You're an old man and certainly couldn't compete with young guys."

"What's your point?"

"Very simple. My coworkers will help you get a good spot. Are you interested in collaborating with us?"

"And in return?" White asked.

"A comission of 10%. A good deal, eh?" Smarty said, smiling.

White fell silent. The sky above looked sullen. Sea breezes whipped his clothes, preluding a heavy rain. It was true that his fake leg might hinder him from getting any business from his competitors, and employers would probably not entrust their cargo to a limped laborer.

Hearing no response from him, Smarty snapped his fingers and said, "Well, I take it as a yes?"

"You aren't... just helping me, right?" White asked at length as he stared at him.

"Ahem, if everyone comes to seek me for help, that'll save me a lot of time," Smarty answered evasively. "By the way, can't you switch the straw to cushion? The most popular products in the Silty Bay are the Chaos Drinks from Fjords and perfumes. Although nobles would normally bring their own carriages, you never know what will happen. They would always need a spare carriage. Your wagon is so smelly. Even if I bring business to you, employers probably wouldn't like to hire you..."

White cast a glance at the eloquent young man and finally understood why people called him Smarty. Yet as an aged and experienced man, he had also seen a great deal of life. He thus said, "Did you just ask me what I carried last time?"

"Yes?"

"Cow dung that is used for fuel," he answered slowly. "They were sun-dried, but still it can be wet here and there."

Smarty stiffened. He spat the straw and started to retch.

White grunted triumphantly. A kid was essentially a kid. He rested his eyes back on the ocean and suddenly stood framed to the spot.

Several three-masted ships slowly came into his view, all from the Chambers of Commerce at Fjords, their masts almost 100 feet tall, their golden flags rimmed with black. He did not know what Chamber of Commerce that was.

Whatver ships they were, White only cared about the cargo on them. With such colossal ships, he was certain he would have some business even without Smarty's help.

White got off his coach and untied his horse. He was about to ride to the dock when Smarty suddenly pulled him from the back.

"Hey... it seems something is wrong there."

White turned around impatiently and started at what he saw.

More masts appeared behind the three main ships, their sails forming a "white wall" over the sea.

"God almighty..."

Those grayish-black ships covered every inch of the ocean. White attempted to make a count but soon abandoned this idea after he saw 50 ships come into his sight. As more and more ships followed, White found it hard to catch up with the count. There were probably 100 or 200 ships in total, and maybe even more!

There were giant three-masted ships but also numerous steaming paddle steamers. White had seen these new boats before, but it was his first time seeing so many of them. He was positive even sailors living at the harbor had not seen such a huge fleet.

All the pedlars, sailors and laborers stopped what they were doing and gazed at the approaching fleet.

The dock suddenly became incredibly quiet.

As the ships drew close, they could now see the flags more clearly. White could barely make out the coat of arms on those flags, which featured a lofty tower and spears. All the flags on those ships bore the same coat of arms. Hundreds of banners streamed against the wind and formed a new horizon that awed the spectators.

Smarty gasped.

"Is it... the Graycastle flag?"

White muttered in disbelief, "Are you saying... that the King of Graycastle came here?"

As the Silty Bay could not accommodate so many large ships, most of the ships lowered their sails outside the harbor while the ten steam-powered boats came straight to the dock area.

As soon as the ships disembarked, a group of uniformed men filed out onto the trestle and the dock area, all as expressionless, frosty and reticent as seasoned soldiers.

White swallowed hard. For some reason, he was afraid of these men whom he had never seen before. White had the impression that all the people on the dock felt the same way. Soon, these foreigners occupied the entire trestle but nobody dared to raise an objection.

White realized that this fleet was not here for trading goods.

The air above the dock became thick and heavy.

The leaden clouds in the sky seemed to be even lower.

Chapter 1199 - The Commotion in the Kingdom of Wolfheart

"What damn weather," the baron, Jean Bate, muttered as he stared at the overcast sky by the window. "It's raining again."

It rained a lot in the Sedimentation Bay, particularly in summer and fall. Unexpected storms visited this city often, so the city was equipped with a well-developed drainage system. Unlike the Broken Tooth Castle and Graystone City where roads instantly turned muddy after a heavy rain, the rain here would only affect the cargo transportation. The impact of the weather was indeed minimal to the urban area.

Jean was actually more frustrated about himself than the upcoming rain.

The sky would soon clear out after the shower, but his mood would remain gloomy.

"Sir, have you figured out how to reply to them?" His clerk, Zum, asked gingerly.

"Reply?" the baron sneered. "What would you say if you have to pick between being hanged and being burned?"

"Er..." The clerk fell silent.

"You can't make a choice either, right? So, let's just keep them waiting."

"But..." Zum broke off, trying to formulate a proper answer.

Jean Bate knew very well that playing for time was just a temporary solution. Like the prospective storm that would come no matter merchants liked it or not, he had to solve this problem regardless.

Everything started with the war against the church.

After the fall of the king's city of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, dozens of lords, all of a sudden, claimed that they were the bastards of the King of Wolfheart. These alleged royal blood formed cliques and factions to fight for the throne. After numerous fierce battles, the kingdom was divided into three major territories, each dominated by the Token Family in the northwest, the "Redstone Gate" Family in the south, and the "Tusk" Family in the mountainous area in the east.

Since the Tokens were relatively far from the Sedimentation Bay, they had never come to bother Jean. However, both the Redstone Gate Family and the Tusk Family were trying strenuously to win him over to further expand their territories.

The baron had been taking a neutral position during the war. His disinterest in political gains soon brought huge profits to his city. Since the two dukes relied on the port to transport food and gold royals, and because they had been busy with conquering other surrounding cities and towns, the two families had not extended their power over the Sedimentation Bay as yet.

However, as the expansion progressed, the Tusk and Redstone Gate Families gradually became two of the most competitive candidates for the future sovereign. Since the Tokens suddenly extended a full reign over the Cage Mountain, the Tusk and Redstone thus again rested their eyes on the baron's domain, the Sedimentation Bay.

Jean knew exactly what they aimed at.

They wanted to seize the Sedimentation Bay and banned commercial trades of their opponents as a way to outpower the other. To this end, both dukes sent their embassadors, along with dozens of knights and mercenaries, in an ostensible attempt to lobby him.

The port was only guarded by a patrol team and several of Jean's own guards. Those guards could cope with savage pirates but definitely not fully-equipped knights. Jean Bate did not plan to resist. He would pledge alliance to whoever that ascended the throne, and he did not care whether this succeeder was the true blood of the late king.

Unfortunately, however, the Redstone Gate and the Tusk Families were powerful in equal measure.

Under such circumstances, he could join neither of them.

Whichever side he picked, he would suffer virulent vengeance from the other party. Losing the right to trade meant they would have to produce food and other military supplies by themselves while the other party would be entitled to a constant supply of resources. Neither of the two families would like to put themselves in such an unfavorable situation.

Therefore, a war would be inevitable.

There was no fortified city wall or deep moat protecting the city, which meant that Jean had to pick a side to defend against the invasion.

However, would the two families support him?

The baron could not take a chance.

Shrewd as the two dukes, they would probably sacrifice the subjects of the Sedimentation Bay to reduce the casualities of their knights and then cut the retreat once their enemy entered the city, for they cared only about the land not the people.

Perhaps, it would be better to abandon the Sedimentation Bay to the two families.

That was why Jean said this was a decision between being hanged and being burned.

Jean sent the two emissary delegations to the same campsite, hoping their acrimony against each other would earn him time to think over the matter. He rather hoped the two parties engaged in a physical altercation. To this end, Jean had even sent women and strong liquor to inveigle them into fighting, but other than a fierce verbal argument, neither of the two parties made the first move.

"Tick, tick..."

The rain finally pounded against the garden of his mansion, draping a misty curtain between Heaven and earth.

Watching flowers swaying gently in the rain, the baron lapsed into silence. He knew it was not wise to play for time, but he could not think of any other way to get out of this dilemma. His grandfather used to advise him that nobles tended to always waver between interests and power. As long as he took advantage of their indecisiveness, he would never lose. Perhaps, it was time for him to stop playing games but start to think deeper and more strategically.

Just then, a pattering of running footsteps interrupted his thought.

"S-sir, bad news!"

"What's the matter? Now, now, take it easy!" Jean Bate said as he shot the guard a glance. "What happened?" He stared at the guard's quivering lips, hoping to hear words like "knights" or "campsite" that hinted a fight between the two families.

"The fleet of the King, the King of Graycastle took the port. They not only took over the dock but also forbade anyone to approach that area!" The news was so shocking that for a moment, Jean stood rooted to the ground.

"What did you say? Gray, Graycastle?" the baron stammered. "Do they want to sell anything here? Hang on... you said they blocked off the dock?"

"Yes!" the guard blustered frantically. "They drove away the boats around the trestle for their own ships. They say they're going to borrow the port for a while and assure that order will soon be established. The patrol team attempted to stop them but was immediately disarmed. It's reported that there are hundreds of Graycastle ships outside the harbor!"

Jean Bate asked incredulously, "Are you sure it's the fleet of the King of Graycastle, not any lord?"

"Yes, I saw them through my telescope," the guard replied with some difficulties. "I confirm that the coat of arms on the flags does represent Graycastle. It has a tower and spears."

Jesus, did Graycastle intend to invade the Kingdom of Wolfheart?

Why did Wimbledon not pick his neighbor but him?

Even if the King of Graycastle desired to expand his territory, he did not necessarily have to launch an attack on the sea. Could the Token Family resist the army of Graycastle who had once defeated the church?

No, this did not make sense...

The baron dealt hurriedly with crowding thoughts.

Then his clerk Zum came up to him and whispered something in his ear.

The baron's face lighted up.

Yes, this was what he was exactly waiting for!

The army of Graycastle definitely had the capability to break the deadlock between the two warring families. If this fleet did plan to wage a war here, they would need the help of local nobles no matter how invincible they were. With just a little guidance, they would be able to conquer the entire land. Jean did not have specific preference over any lord, but apparently, the King of Graycastle could offer him more than any of the nobles. Possibly in the near future, he would become a governor of some jurisdiction if he chose to pledge fealty to the King of Graycastle.

Even if Wimbledon failed his attempt, Jean would not lose anything.

Just at that moment, another guard burst in. "Sir, the Graycastle fleet sent an embassador on behalf of King Roland Wimbledon, who wishes to speak to you."

Jean Bate exchanged a look with the clerk before he said with a nod, "He's our guest. Tell the embassador that I'll come out to meet him."

Chapter 1200 - The Will of the King of Graycastle

"Now?" the guard asked blankly. "Right away?"

"Yes."

Usually, according to common practices of the nobility, he should let the embassador rest for a few days and welcome him with a sumptuous banquet. At least, he should have set up a meeting time beforehand, possibly at night. After all, the embassador represented the King of Graycastle, and thus should be treated with formality to some degree.

However, Jean couldn't wait any longer. Had it not been rainy outside, he would have rushed to the dock and met this embassador himself. Such a huge fleet would definitely draw the attention of the Tusk and the Redstone Gate Families. If either of them got in touch with Graycastle before him, things would become very complicated.

With this thought, Jean Bate said to the guard, "By the way, tell the Graycastle delegation that I'm the sole authority that governs the Sedimentation Bay."

"Yes, sir."

Yet after the guard left at his bidding, Jean suddenly regretted his impulsive action.

He should not have said "right away". What if the embassador wanted to follow and observe the tradition first then call him a few days later?

Jean blamed his own vanity at the bottom of his heart. He should have been more straightforward.

And why did it rain right as he wanted to go out?

The baron felt miserable.

But surprisingly, the guard returned within an hour and brought him a good news.

"Sir, they're coming."

Jean Bate stood bolt upright and said, "Take them to my parlour immediately."

...

The baron soon met the embassador from Graycastle.

There were only ten people who came, and half of them were soldiers that were guarding outside the door. The rest were all formally dressed, whom Jean gathered were assistants and clerks. The one in the middle was apparently the embassador himself. He noticed that the coats they were wearing were waterproof, as all of them were dry despite the pouring rain outside. The material of their coats had a bright, fresh color. It was, however, neither fur nor leather.

It appeared that the rumor which Graycastle did produce many curious items was true.

However, Jean squeezed his eyebrow as he looked on the embassador. The embassador was definitely a Mojin by his look. Why could a Mojin, who usually served as a slave here, be a noble in Graycastle?

Even though he was shocked, the baron showed a hearty smile and completely hid his emotions. He spread out his hands and said, "I'm the lord of the Sedimentation Bay. As you can see, this is a beautiful and bustling city, a wonderful place for you to take a rest. May I know what brought you here today?"

The baron was speaking in such a humble courteous manner, and he was confident that even a duke would receive him with some civilities.

But the Mojin remained expressionless. He replied flatly, "My name is Iron Axe, the commander of the First Army and also the supervisor of this expedition. Let's save the small talk. The Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart will soon become a battlefield. I came here on the order of the King of Graycastle, Chief of the Mojin clan, and ruler of the Fertile Plains, King Roland Wimbledon, to save your all."

"What the heck?"

Jean Bate could not believe what he had just heard, wondering what the Chief meant and where the Fertile Plains was. Was the embassador making a war threat against the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart? Why did he threaten him outright without negotiation?

"Er..."

Instead, it was Zum who replied first, "Is the First Army the army that defeated the church?"

"Yes," Iron Axe affirmed with a nod.

"Sir Iron Axe, we obviously don't want to see a war here, but we can't make the decision on our own. There will always be someone who will attempt to resist. If you could persuade them, then we can avoid this war." Zum retorted.

Jean nodded vigorously, and he was glad that Zum did a good job. In that case, the Redstone Gate and the Tusk had to fight as well. He looked at Iron Axe triumphantly but was surprised to see a hint of sarcasm in Iron Axe's eyes.

Iron Axe said placidly, "You don't have a choice. The entire human race will have to fight when the enemy comes. In fact, this war has already begun in a place you don't know. I think you've heard about some rumors about the church, the Divine Will, and the attack of a foreign race."

Jean Bate gaped. As the lord of the port city, he had indeed heard about such things from marine merchants. However, these groundless rumors could only serve as the subject of public discussion but not a proper diplomatic topic at the negotiation table. Nonetheless, judging from the embassador's tone, Jean realized he was serious.

"Yes, these are all true," Iron Axe said slowly and firmly.

Thunders began to roar outside the window.

"Wow, are they all made out of iron?" Smarty asked as he leaned dramatically on the stable fences.

"Even iron will rust. In my opinion, they aren't human," White answered as he wiped the water off the horseback and fumbled his wet clothes. "Will a reasonable person stands in the rain? Only a lunatic will do that."

Within an hour, hundreds of people exited from the ships and took control of the whole harbor. Pedlars were dispersed by the storm, but these men put up tents in the middle of the square. A few moments later, dark green sheds filled half of the dock.

In addition to the tents, Graycastle men also set up tube-shaped obstacles on the crossroad and some higher parts of the road. These metal tubes did not look like weapons, but they glinted in the rain, giving White a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Each "tube" was guarded by soldiers. Although everyone was wearing a waterproof cloak, it was impossible to stay completely dry in this weather. Gusts of wind were so furious that they sent rushes of rain in every direction. White could envision how water trickled down through those soldiers' collars and soaked their clothes.

It must be awful to stand out there.

The Sedimentation Bay was wet and rainy all year round, so the local lord had built many temporary sheds in the dock area. However, these soldiers took no notice of them. They stood straight in their gleamy cloaks like rocks.

"Men from Graycastle are crazy..." White mumbled to himself.

"Hmm, weird," Smarty muttered.

"What now?" White said gruffly.

"Look at those cargo ships, then look at those outside the harbor," Smarty said. "The ones outside the harbour are three-masted sailing ships, but they're shallow on the draft."

"What's a draft?"

"Just view it as a measurement for the cargo weight," Smarty said dismissively. "Even though these cargo ships have been unloaded, they're still much deeper on the draft than the sailing ships outside. I don't understand. What are the Graycastle men up to? Are they bluffing about their forces?"

"What are you talking about?" White said impatiently.

"My point is... that these ships might be empty!" Smarty replied in a subdued voice.

...

Jean Bate did not pull himself together until Iron Axe finished.

He had just heard about the long, distant history of the wars between humans and demons, that this war took place every four hundred years, and that this time, the demons were very likely to invade the interior from the Impassable Mountain Range!

"Are you... sure?" Jean remembered that the north of the Kingdom of Everwinter was girdled by endless mountains and steep cliffs. How could the demons invade from there?

"No, I'm not sure. That's why I brought my scouts here," Iron Axe said while shrugging. "However, whichever direction the demons come from, it won't make a difference. We have to unite together and defend this continent. Otherwise, mankind will be exterminated."

The baron suddenly had a queer feeling as if he were walking in his dream. He knew his clerk and guards all felt the same way.

"Ahem, alright then. Let's suppose that what you said was all true," Jean said after clearing his throat. "So why did the King of Graycastle send you here? Isn't the Kingdom of Everwinter where you are suppose to be?"

"It is, and don't you worry about that. What we want here is very simple, that is, to save as many people as possible from this war, including freemen, slaves, refugees and vagabonds," Iron Axe paused for a moment and then continued, "except nobles. Nobles shall make their own choices. If you cooperate with the First Army, we'll return your properties, land, titles and so on when we depart. If you try to stop us..."

Jean swallowed.

"You'll be the First Army's enemy," Iron Axe finished his sentence coldly.

Chapter 1201 - Proof

Jean Bate absolutely did not want to become the King of Graycastle's enemy.

Although he had never met the King of Graycastle, he had heard a lot about him. The God's Punishment Army of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart had experienced an utter defeat in the battle against Graycastle; the alliance army of the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn had been flattened within one day; Roland Wimbledon had united his kingdom within half a year; it was rumored that Graycastle had even interfered with the coup on the Archduke Island.

However, these rumors were incomparable to the news that the First Army had been fighting the demons over the past one year. He would have been skeptical had he heard the news from other lords, but he found it hard to refute the commander of the First Army.

Nonetheless, whether Jean believed it or not, he had no way to confirm its validity.

The plan of the King of Graycastle was actually a little too unrealistic and even preposterous in Jean's opinion. Jean Bate would pledge his alliance to Roland immediately if the latter took the throne of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, but the fact was that his true intention was to relocate the people in the two kingdoms! According to Iron Axe, King Roland was planning to ship civilians of the two countries by sea and by land until every single civilian left their native land. Most nobles did not really care about their subjects as long as the movement would bring them profits. However, it would be a different story to evacuate the whole city. A vacated city meant a huge drop in food, taxes and industrial growth. The nobles would not agree to this plan so easily unless it was abosolutely necessary.

Even though the First Army was invulnerable, it could not possibly declare war against all the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Without the support of the locals, their military logistics support would be in limbo. Furthermore, it appeared that Graycastle also intended to disperse their forces to attack the two countries at the same time, which was a surpassingly conceited and vainglorious act, as far as Jean could see.

After what seemed to be a long silence, Jean Bate said in a hushed voice, "I don't quite understand the rationale behind all this. If the demons are not coming from the Impassable Mountain Range, and we still continue to support the King of Graycastle, we would lose men, farmlands, cities and mines. I'm afraid we can't bear such a huge loss."

"I can't explain the reason to you. As the commander of the First Army, my duty here is to carry out the mission His Majesty entrusted to me. Yet..." Iron Axe broke off and then went on, "If you come visit Neverwinter, you'll know the answer."

"Fine then. Now, one last question..." the baron said as he moisted his lips. "You said nobles can make their own choices. What if I decide to come with you?"

Iron Axe nodded comprehensively, pointed at a clerk next to him and said, "This is Remy, the immigration officer of the Administrative Office of Neverwinter. He'll explain to you the next step."

"Hello, Mr. Baron, in that case, you'll become a member of the Kingdom of Graycastle," the immigration officer said as he leafed through the a stack of documents. "The first thing that I can tell you is that King Roland Wimbledon is a benevolent king. He'll never ill-treat anyone who has made a contribution to the kingdom. As Graycastle is governed by a series of laws, nobles in the kingdom are stripped of feudal power. Lands cannot be inherited. The same will also apply to you. As you have rich experience in city management, you could join the Administrative Office and assume the post of local governor or help His Majesty to expand his territory, for instance, the Fertile Plains. Of course, if the demons don't invade the Four Kingdoms, you're free to continue to rule the Sedimentation Bay if you want." "If you're lucky, you could rule a land much bigger than this city, considering not every noble would come with us."

It took almost a quarter of an hour for Remy to read all the documents, which indeed detailed all the prospective aspect of the policy that seemed to be the offspring of a long deliberation. Jean Bate believed the person who had drafted these documents must be an extraordinary minister. for he himself did not have the capability to produce such marvelous work.

In short, the main content of this proposal was an interchange between short-term and long-term interests. He could possibly become more than a lord of a bay depending on his performance. Whether it was a good deal solely depended on himself.

Jean should have settled down to the contemplation of this proposal thoroughly. However, the current condition forced him to make a quick decision.

This was at least better than being killed by one of the two families.

Jean was indebted to a belief that it would take more than one or two years to evacuate two countries. During the relocation, he could still rule the Sedimentation Bay without worrying about the threat of the two families.

He thus took a sharp intake of breath and answered, "I would like to pledge alliance to the King of Graycastle."

"A wise choice," Iron Axe commented with the same stony look as though he had foreseen the result. "Now, you could issue an administrative order to start the evacuation. We have a team of professionals to assist you in this matter."

"That fast?" the baron asked in surprise.

"Yes, we won't be here long. The First Army will leave the Kingdom of Wolfheart for the interior within three days."

"But — " Jean Bate pursued after a moment of hesitation. "The knights from the Tusk and the Redstone Gate won't let you do so. They probably won't openly resist Graycastle, but they could interfere with your operation by attacking the patrol team of the Sedimentation Bay."

He felt a little embarrassed to reveal this truth, for just an hour ago, he had told Iron Axe that he was the only ruler of the Sedimentation Bay. However, he must raise this problem now to prevent the two families from stirring up trouble in the event they knew that he had colluded with Graycastle and offered the land. It was also a test to see whether Iron Axe really intended to fulfill his promise.

But Iron Axe's answer again surprised him.

"The Sedimentation Bay is the key to this immigration plan, and I don't allow anyone to thwart it. There will be around 100 people stationed here after the First Army departs," Iron Axe said as he nodded to one of his assistants, who immediately left the parlor. "I've done some research on the Kingdom of Wolfheart before I headed here. Like I said, I won't allow any interference. Nobody could blatantly resist us or play stealthy games behind us. To this end, we'll take some measures to remove these potential obstacles."

"You mean…"

"Seeing is believing," Iron Axe said as he rose. "Don't worry. Those threats that they you're worried about will soon be gone."

"It's still raining so heavily," Smarty remarked as he stretched out his hand, feeling the rain drops.

"So?" White asked while hammering his sore leg with his hands. "Why are you still here?"

"I don't want to get soaked. Plus, this shed is for everyone. I can stay here as long as I like," he retorted, grimacing.

"You — " White said, looking utterly affronted. He was about to give Smarty a lesson, teaching him to have some respect toward the elder when suddenly, a group of Graycastle men who left their tents caught his attention.

Water splattered over the pavement as these people trooped out in two columns.

He was very curious about the reflective metal tubes they carried on their backs, They were as ominous as those black facilities they had set up in the sentry boxes.

As the group of soldiers disappeared in the rain, White suddenly understood why he felt so fidgeted. These metal tubes did not look like being made by humans. Regular blacksmiths could by no means forge them.

Some other people who took shelter from the rain also noticed that and started to murmur.

Yet Smarty was surprisingly quiet.

White thus turned around. However, to his dismay, Smarty was gone.

Chapter 1202 - A Thunderous War

The campsite of the Redstone Gate and the Tusk Families were located near the driveway leading to the city, a place originally designed for caravans and mercenaries for temporary use. Now it served as an abode for delegations.

Since the campsite, which was boarded with low wooden fences, was on the opposite side of the Sedimentation Bay and was relatively safe, no particular security measures were taken. Neither of the delegations had put out sentries. They simply drew a line at the center of the campsite with spears and shields to mark out their territories.

Most people understood that the line did not represent anything. As long as the lord of the Sedimentation Bay did not make his decision, the two delegations would keep a civil tongue, and certainly they would not bother putting out sentries on such a wet day.

Therefore, when the 100 soldiers of the First Army stopped at around 200 meters from the campsite, neither of the two families noticed that they had visitors.

The knights did not realize the change in the situation until they heard the First Army demand their surrender.

"This is the First Army of Graycastle, who is now officially taking over the Sedimentation Bay. Under Neverwinter law, your conduct constitutes an illegal intrusion and illegal use of firearms. I demand your immediate surrender, otherwise we'll resort to force and you'll bear all the consequences of your action!"

This was preposterous!

The commander of the delegation of the Tusk Family pulled back the curtains and saw a man stand outside the campsite, speaking to him with a peculiar cylinder. A flag was rippling not far away, on which was an unfamiliar coat of arms. However, he had a hard time associating these uninvited soldiers with Graycastle. For him, Graycastle was a distant and foreign country only existing in various rumors circulated in the neighborhood.

These people were all cloaked and soaked in the rain, looking amusingly pathetic and ridiculous. The fact that they demanded them to be disarmed further accorded him an unrealistic feeling.

The commander went downstairs and found that the floor had been packed with mercenaries, who were now speaking foul language and making obscene gestures. They would have probably spat on that man's face had it not been raining outside.

That was what low people typically did. As a noble, the commander had to come up with some useful strategies.

What should he do if these people were really Graycastle men?

Perhaps, he should wait for the Redstone Gate Family to take action.

He could not really ask his knights to disarm as those people had commanded, nor could he send an embassador to negotiate with them, as he did not want to give them an impression of weakness.

The commander did not think the "alleged" Graycastle soldiers would suddenly attack them. They were, after all, so far away from the campsite, and the mercenaries had already reached their weapons, whereas the cloaked soldiers did not even possess a single horse.

At this moment, he had completely forgotten the warning previously given by the First Army.

For the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, wars were always time-consuming. They needed to first observe their enemy, issue commands, and then fight. These rules also applied to the battle with the Church of Hermes.

However, the First Army who had fought the demons viewed battles as a completely different matter.

Therefore, nobody realized what had happened when the battle broke out.

15 minutes later, four mortars fired. Although not as powerful as the Longsong Cannons, the mortars were more than enough to destroy wooden watchtowers. Since these mortars were much more portable than the field artilleries, soldiers liked to use them to start a war.

The campsite was instantly razed to the ground. The furious execration of the delegation members was drowned out by the roaring shells. The wooden houses soon collapsed under the impact of the shockwaves, fragments of pillars, doors and windows flying in all directions.

The unit commander of the First Army immediately ordered the soldiers to charge.

They soon besieged the campsite.

Neither of the two families managed to launch an effective counterattack. Some fearless mercenaries dashed out against the dust but were soon shot down. To avoid incidental casualties, the First Army did not advance until the dust was washed away by the rain.

They did this not out of kindness but because His Majesty needed more mine laborers.

Meanwhile, the First Army asked the knights to yield again.

This time, most of them obeyed.

Within 30 minutes, the threat of the two families that vexed the baron was eliminated.

...

Jean Bate was still in a shock after he returned to his mansion.

He knew Graycastle was powerful but had never expected them to be so invincible. The battle that had just taken place a moment ago did not look like a typical war to him.

Jean finally understood why Iron Axe said "Seeing is believing". As a witness of the battle, he had to admit what he had seen was effable. He enjoyed the unfolding of the event with almost an air of contentment. He liked the reticence and steeliness of those Graycastle soldiers. The glaring contrast between their silence and the deafening explosion impressed him even more than the queer weapons themselves.

What had those people experienced?

"Now, do you believe that we could manage the Sedimentation Bay?" Iron Axe's voice interrupted his thought.

Jean Bate was rendered speechless for a moment. He simply nodded submissively.

"Relax," Iron Axe said with a faint smile. "Don't be afraid of the First Army. You've decided to serve King Roland. We won't allow anything to happen to the Sedimentation Bay or anyone to challenge His Majesty's authority. You're now one of us."

"One of them? That sounds so strange..." the baron thought to himself. Over the past few years in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, he had never expected to be associated with a country. However, the commander of the First Army seemed to think this was natural.

Jean found, surprisingly, that he did not repel this idea.

After a moment of silence, he heaved a deep sigh and said, "I'll take care of the relocation campaign."

Chapter 1203 - A Black Present

Jean Bate was indeed fast. He not only offered half of the rooms in the mansion to the army but also sent some maids to serve the soldiers, although Iron Axe refused the service out of confidentiality concerns.

In watching the reluctant look of the several young officers from the General Staff, Iron Axe replied in a stony tone, "Time to work. Don't forget that your performance in this campaign is subject to Edith Kant's review. You should know the consequences if you make errors."

Everyone shuddered at the Pearl of the Northern Region's name and set to work.

"Map, I'll put up the map!"

"What about the schedule? I'll double check it."

"Anyone help me check the food?"

The room instantly became noisy.

"Look at these young fellows, always full of energy..." Remy commented while shaking his head. "The baron seems to have seen through them."

"A common trick nobles like to play," Iron Axe said, frowning. "He'd better employ his cunning little schemes on the immigration campaign."

"Don't worry. The Administrative Office will keep an eye on him," Remy promised while patting his chest. "Now, we've removed our first obstacle. It's better than I thought. The Tusk and the Redstone Gate Families indeed helped us, but it won't be that easy afterwards."

"No, it'll be just the same," Iron Axe corrected him.

"R-really?" Remy said in surprise.

"Because they've fallen behind," Iron Axe said and looked through the window. The overspread sky had cleared up a little bit.

"Because they've fallen behind." This was what Edith had told him before he had set off a week ago. He met Edith at the office of the General Staff, where they held a meeting to discuss how to efficiently carry out the immigration plan, with a secretary writing meeting minutes next to them. Edith said, "Most nobles haven't noticed the changes taking place in this world but are still dwelling exclusively on their personal interests while gloating over their wealth. They saw hardly anything else. I bet you plan to fight those nobles one by one, right?"

"If they impede His Majesty's plan, yes."

"That'll be too slow," Edith disapproved flatly. "This is different from the Graycastle unification war. We need to garrison troops in various foreign cities, so as time progresses, we'll have fewer soldiers at our command, which will thus significantly prolong the campaign. Those nobles won't openly resist the army but they'll definitely play stealthy behind your back. By the time you notice the damage and rush to rescue, it'll look bad on His Majesty."

"Then what should I do?"

"Set your goals beforehand, build alliance and fight enemies together," Edith said while handing him a table.

There was a list of items on the table, next to each of which was a point scale.

"What's this?" Iron Axe asked in bewilderment. It was his first time seeing such a strange form.

"A threat evaluation form? Or a manual of resistance level? Anyway, what it is called doesn't matter. I made this table based on nobles' mentality and other factors, including gender, heir, the size of their domains, the number of their troops, their behavior, etc. You would have a rough understanding of each noble after filling out the form. The more information you obtain, the more accurate the evaluation will be. Since the situation in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter has changed a lot, the General Staff can't complete the form for you. If there's a city that's not on the form, just punch in the information and do the calculation yourself."

"And what next?" Iron Axe asked as he skimmed through the form.

"If the total point is lower than 50, it means the city has limited power and is not so ambitious. You could build alliance with them. These nobles could actually provide many things for you, such as local maps, the city structure, the demographics, and so on. More importantly, with the support of local lords, we'll be able to implement the plan more efficiently," Edith explained.

"As for those that are higher than 50..." Edith paused for a second and said, "Don't waste time on them. Whether they show any inclination to yield or not, you should crush them immediately."

Iron Axe was a little shocked at the method Edith proposed. A simple table would pretty much determine each noble's fate, even though Edith had never met or talked to any of them.

Iron Axe asked after a moment of silence, "Is the form... accurate?"

As the commander-in-chief of the First Army, he understood the importance of work efficiency and knew very well how much time this form could save them. Most of the ships were borrowed from the Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords, so he should wind up the campaign at his earliest, even if the demons were not planning to erect the Obelisk around the Impassable Mountain Range.

"There could be some errors here and there, and I'm not sure if 50 is a correct cut-off grade. However, considering we have limited time, I'll leave the details to your discretion," Edith said as she sipped her tea leisurely. "The General Staff is only providing counsels here."

Iron Axe turned to the last page of the form and found a list of cities that Edith had already graded. All the information was obtained from the Kingdom of Dawn, and the top city below the cut-off grade was precisely the Sedimentation Bay, the first stop of their journey.

Before Iron Axe took his leave, he asked one last question.

"Aren't there any nobles who haven't fallen behind?"

"Of course there's such a possibility," Edith replied smilingly as she played with her hair. "However, in that case, you'll soon find him out even without this form because this person must be like me."

Iron Axe breathed out a sigh as he came out of his reveries and walked toward the campsite of the First Army. As Edith had said, nobles did not pose problems. The problem was how to mobilize civilians in an orderly and efficient manner.

Nevertheless, within two days, the dock of the Sedimentation Bay had been packed with thousands of people waiting to board the ships. Not only Iron Axe and Remy but also Jean Bate was taken aback by such a huge number.

The First Army, therefore, had to postpone their departure to manage these civilians.

"What's going on?" Iron Axe inquired Remy. "Did you exaggerate His Majesty's promise?"

"No, I know I don't have the authority to do that," Remy said while shaking his head. "I strictly follow the procedure set out by the Administrative Office. It really depends on how many people the local lord could persuade. The baron is apparently not so highly respected among his people compared to His Majesty, so I assume there would only be around 300-500 civilians."

"Now it's 20 times that number," Iron Axe remarked. Obviously it was good news to have so many immigrants all of a sudden, but he was also a little disturbed by such an unexpected high volume. Graycastle was, after all, a distant, unknown country for citizens of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Naturally, Iron Axe suspected that someone was behind all this, who persuaded these people to abandon their native towns and venture into a journey to a completely foreign country.

"There could be only one explanation," Remy said meditatively, "that they're all refugees."

Refugees had nothing to lose. As long as they saw a ray of hope, they would rush for it.

"But these people are all freemen living in villages and towns near the Sedimentation Bay."

"Yes, they are, but my men heard some interesting rumors when they visited those towns. For example, the Redstone Gate Family, who holds an ancient grudge against the baron, plans to reduce subjects to slaves after they take over the Sedimentation Bay. Another rumor I heard is about a monster that takes humans for food in the mountainous area in the north. Some towns were ravaged and human remains littered the roads. Now, this monster is coming to the southeast. There are many other similar, convincing rumors that perturb the community. I guess this is why so many people choose to leave. If they don't go now, they'll become refugees, too."

Astounded, Iron Axe asked, "When did this happen?"

"At least a month and a half ago, not long after we set out from Neverwinter," Remy replied while stroking his chin. "Aren't we lucky?"

"Not at all," Iron Axe thought darkly. Someone was apparently inducing panic to the public, and this person also knew the purpose of the First Army pretty well.

Who was disseminating the news? Why did he help Graycastle? Was he a friend or a foe? A multitude of questions overwhelmed Iron Axe.

Until a soldier came in.

"Sir, someone asked me to hand this letter to you."

"Who?" Iron Axe asked as he took the envelope.

"He didn't leave his name. He's tiny though," the soldier replied. "But he told me the letter was given to him by someone else as well. Perhaps, the writer of this letter doesn't want to be known. I checked it already. There's nothing but the letter in there."

It was an ordinary burlap envelope much cheaper than one made of parchment or leather. Many shops sold this type of envelope. It was not sealed with wax but was laid open very casually. Iron Axe took the letter out of the envelope, and to his dismay, the letter was written on a piece of black, refined paper normally inaccessible to civilians.

He turned over the letter and found a line printed in gold.

"This is a present from your most loyal servant. I hope you like it."

Chapter 1204 - The Ridge of the Continent

The temperature in the mountain range soon dropped after the sunset.

"Time to find a place to spend the night," Lightning thought. The temperature here varied dramatically between day and night. It was scorching during the day, and she would get burned easily if not covered with anything. When night fell, the wuthering wind would take away all the heat, and she would have probably been frozen to death if she had continued to sleep in trees like she had done in the Misty Forest.

Therefore, Lightning must find a shelter before the darkness pressed in.

"Let's call it a day," Lightning spoke over the Sigil of Listening. "I'll find a shelter and you go bring some food."

Maggie could not respond when she was flying, but Lightning knew she heard her.

She then dropped and flew very low above the ground. Agatha had reminded her several times before she had left Neverwinter that when she was looking for the demons, she had to either fly very high or very low to avoid trespassing God's Stone mines. It was also not advisable to change routes very often. Otherwise, once entering the God's Stone mines, nobody would be able to save her.

Lightning strictly followed Agatha's instruction. In this undulating mountain range, she could rely on nobody, so she must take good care of both herself and Maggie.

Since they had paid particular attention to possible shelters while she had been conducting the search, Lightning soon found a cave halfway up the mountain. A forest of stones stretched away below her, each stone the size of Neverwinter. Lightning suddenly had a strange feeling that these stones and mountains were sculpted by a giant visible hand.

Streams were interspersed between the mountains, which torrented down upon a heavy rain or flood. The weather varied significantly in this mountainous area. More often than not it was clear and sunny on one side and stormy and gloomy on the other. Inexperienced explorers would be very likely flushed away by an unexpected flood at night if they pitched their tents on the mountainside. Therefore, it was very important to pick a highpoint of the land to spend the night.

Lightning had witnessed several floods since her entry to the ridge of the continent.

Further, unlike other mountains that were usually comprised of sharp and steep precipices, the mountains here were mostly composed of boulders with many holes in them, as though these rocks were some solidified fluids.

Fortunately, round as they were, the stones were still robust enough to form a shelter.

The cave she discovered this time was pretty big, around 100 square meters, littered with twigs and weeds, which Lightning inferred were the remains of bird nests. After confirming there was no potential danger in the cave, Lightning informed Maggie of her location and started to tidy up the cave.

When the darkness became impenetrable, Maggie, in the form of a snowy owl, fluttered into the cave and restored its human shape. She held up a package aloft like offering a present and said, "Look what I've got, coo!"

Lightning took the package and found a chicken and four giant bird eggs in it , a very rare finding in the Impassable Mountain Range. Even Maggie, an experienced hunter, would not always return with such fruitful results.

"Good job!"

Lightning stroked Maggie's head who returned a triumphant smile, "Haha."

A bonfire soon sprang into life. Lightning built a stove with the mound of earth collected from the foot of mountain to shade the firelight, covered the chicken with mud and then tossed the whole creature into the fire along with the bird eggs.

Dinner was ready 30 minutes later.

They had cooked like this numerous times in the Misty Forest and were now quite good at it.

The rich flavor of the chicken immediately escaped as they broke the hardened mud.

A sheen of oil glazed off the chicken, and the aroma of the spices filled the entire cave. After removing the skin, they saw the tender chicken meat beneath. The chicken was not overcooked at all, its meat white and juicy.

The pair devoured the bird eggs and the chicken ravenously and even ate the chicken bones.

Maggie belched in satisfaction and said, "Nothing could be better than eating our own food, coo."

Lightning cast Maggie a glance. She still remembered Maggie's indignant protest against her "eating a bird" in the beginning.

Lightning shook her head in amusement and asked, "Any luck today? Except for food though."

"Well, no, coo... the landscapes are quite the same here. If there were demons, I would spot them immediately, coo."

It would be really hard to spot God's Stone mines buried deep down underneath the ground from above. Lightning wondered where the supporting God's Punishment Witches currently were. If they could point out a rough direction for her, it would make her life a lot easier.

She pointed at the cave and said, "Well, since you had no discovery, make me a bed then."

"OK, coo," Maggie replied as she paced to the designated location with her long white hair streaming behind her and then turned into a Devilbeast.

Lightning then extinguished the fire and lay down on Maggie's stomach. Compared to a sleeping bag, Maggie was a better shelter. Her stomach, as warm as a furnace, could shield her from cold winds and keep her warm during the night.

The only drawback of this method was that the skin of the Devilbeast was a little scruffy compared to Lorgar's soft fur.

"Are you not sleeping?" Maggie asked as she saw Lightning take out the Stone of Lighting.

"I need to make a journal entry to record our journey today. It won't be long. You sleep first."

"Alright," Maggie answered gruffly. After a long silence, she suddenly mumbled, "You're going to take me with you for the future exploration, right?"

Momentarily stunned, Lightning said in a gentle voice, "Yes, of course."

"I'll take care of you since Ashes is already gone," said Lightning within herself.

Maggie finally fell asleep after receiving an affirmative answer.

Lightning sat there for a long time before she took out her journal out of her bag.

It had been ten days since they had entered the mountainous area in the north of the Kingdom of Everwinter. They had covered a distance of 120 kilometers. The deeper they probed into the Impassable Mountain Range, the smaller she felt. This was an area never intruded by human beings, and it was in here she had seen a breathtaking view. The forest of stones as vast as the Fertile Plains, the icefall, which was a sheer drop from Heaven to the ocean in the northeast, the sea of clouds that spiraled up, as well as the great rapture in the center of the ridge of the continent... Lightning now came to the realization that the Impassable Mountain Range that separated the four kingdoms was simply a branch of this mountain range. Those incredible scenes, all hidden behind the crests of the mountains, were inaccessible unless she flew over the steep cliffs.

Lightning now understood why her father was addicted to exploration.

Human beings were too little and insignificant compared to this world. She could only become stronger by getting to know more about it.

To become an explorer was the best decision she had ever made in her life.

Of course, she could explore the whole world later. Lightning knew she was now on a mission. If she flew too far away from the Kingdom of Everwinter, she would not only hinder the exploration but also cause unnecessary trouble to the supporting team. The "Roland" should have now almost reached the port of the Kingdom of Everwinter.

Lightning cast a glance at her hand drawn map and rested her eyes on the great rapture.

It seemed to be a protruding plain in the middle of the stone forest, but it was hollow inside, so Lightning was not sure how deep it was.

She could discern the fault underneath the crust.

If she still could not find traces of God's Stone mines or the demons, she would probably return to the Kingdom of Everwinter and meet with the supporting team to discuss the next step.

Chapter 1205 - A Dangerous Signal

The next morning, Lightning disclosed her plan to Maggie. After a brief discussion, they decided to conduct another search in the stone forest and then head to the rupture as fast as they could.

They would have to return to the Snow Ridge in the Kingdom of Everwinter and complete the topographic map of this area before meeting the Taquila witches.

The sun broke over the horizon, the mountains were wrapped in rags of mist, and the rivers crisscrossed in the frost. There were traces left by the flood last night. As the roads began its winding ascent to the crests of the mountains, they saw a vast land of whiteness lay stretched before them. The distant rupture, completely covered by snow, resembled a giant porcelain bowl laid upside down.

It was estimated that the Kingdom of Everwinter was around 300 kilometers away, about the same size of the entire Southernmost Region. According to the map of the Land of Dawn drafted by the Union, the rupture was the offspring of various extinct volcanos.

Lightning had seen eruptions of active volcanos on the Searing Flame Islands, but they were nothing compared to the volcanos here.

Two hours later, the Exploration Group reached the rupture area.

They finally saw the whole landscape that lay out magnificently before them.

"It's so... so massive," Maggie exclaimed while flapping her wings. "I feel this hole could house an entire kingdom."

Lightning nodded in approval. The rupture was actually not a fault as she had thought but a huge scar that ripped the earth part. An immense invisible force underneath the ground had pushed the earth plates away from each other and formed cliffs on either side of the rupture.

If this "scar" was indeed the result of volcanic activities, what a huge eruption it would have been?

Lightning and Maggie dropped and landed at two to three kilometers from the rupture. As usual, Maggie approached the rupture first, for she could merge herself perfectly into the surrounding environment without raising any suspicions of lurking enemies.

"Listen," Lightning warned Maggie, "don't go too deep into the rupture. Just take a peep at the entrance and come back. If you find anything out of character, report to me. Never go in there on your own — "

"Got it. I'll report to the captain first before making the next move," Maggie cut across her. "I know. I know, coo. You told me a lot of times... You sound like His Majesty, coo!"

"Er, really? Ahem, anyway, it doesn't hurt to reiterate! I'll stay here and conduct a preliminary search in this area. I'll go no farther than one kilometer. Remember this particular spot, and we'll meet here in 30 minutes. Understood?" Lightning said while scratching the back of her head, a little embarrassed. She remembered that Roland used to always remind her not to act alone. Because of this, Lightning had complained to her group members a lot, and boasted that an excellent explorer was born to know how to make correct judgements, and that such warnings were completely unnecessary. Now, she realized how childish she had been.

"No problem, coo!"

"Good. Off you go," Lightning said while patting Maggie on the shoulder.

"Maggie, go!" Maggie yelled excitedly and flew toward the center of the rupture.

Lightning's eyes followed Maggie until the latter disappeared from her sight. She then started to survey the surroundings.

Snowy owls were a type of birds commonly seen in this area. They belonged to the owl family. They had an excellent eye sight and were thus active during the day and at night. As long as Maggie proceeded with caution, it was not likely that she would expose herself. This district was a bleak emptiness of icebergs, without the slightest trace of wild animals. Maggie would be able to spot a demon immediately, if there was one.

In consideration of these factors, the first place Maggie ought to look for should be hiding places. She had to think critically and solve problems herself.

However, within five minutes, Lightning heard something flutter above her head.

Lightning looked up with a start and saw Maggie plunge frantically and throw herself onto her.

"D-demons, coo!" Maggie shouted.

The words sent a faint shiver through Lightning's heart. Were there God's stone mines here? She thus asked, "What did you find?"

"A giant Eye Demon that is now lying on its stomach beneath the cliff, coo!" Maggie demonstrated with both her hands and feet. "I just passed the rupture and looked into its eyes!"

That meant the Eye Demon had also seen her.

Lightning was glad that she was not the one who had discovered the Eye Demon. A snowy owl would not catch the attention of the Eye Demon.

"Then? Did you cry out?" Lightning pursued.

"Of course not. I'm a seasoned bird, no, a seasoned explorer, coo!" Maggie swelled up. "I didn't even blink. I just pretended to be looking around. Then I averted my eyes, coo! I bet it had already put me out of its mind, coo!"

Then Lightning saw what had happened in her mind's eye.

A snowy owl stared at an Eye Demon and turned away...

"Oh, no!" Lightning snatched up Maggie and streaked toward one of the shelters they had previously found.

"Coo?" Maggie asked in bewilderment.

The shelter was an ice cave a few hundred meters away hidden behind rocks. The cave had not yet been filled with snow, so it was large enough to accommodate one person. Lightning rushed into the cave, poked half of her head out of the cave and looked up.

A moment later, a queer, shiny "door" suddenly appeared in midair.

Then a demon walked out from behind the door and stood suspended right above the rupture. Lightning felt her chest constrict involuntarily, as though she was facing Ursrook again.

The demon looked around cautiously before it dived. For a split second, Lightning felt all the blood within her freeze. It took her a great deal of efforts to suppress the urge to escape. However, she managed to stay put, as the demon was not aiming in her direction.

The demon plummeted to the ground covered in snow, exhaling clouds of white flurries. When it straightened up again, Lightning saw a snowy owl in its clawed hand.

Lightning swallowed hard, her hands involuntarily reaching for her own chest.

Fortunately, that snowy owl was not Maggie.

The demon gazed at the petrified snowy owl for a while and shook its head in disappointment before it released the bird. The owl screeched, soared into the sky, and disappeared from their sight.

The demon did not linger. It stretched out its hand and ripped open the strange "door" and vanished in front of the two witches.

Lightning heaved a deep sigh.

They were safe for now.

"Coo... what do we do next?" Maggie asked, a little crestfallen, for she had realized her mistake.

Lightning would have taken another route to sneak into the rupture in the past. The rupture was so massive that it was impossible for the Eye Demon to cover every inch of the area. As an explorer, Lightning would like to be the first person who made the discovery.

Nevertheless, she was now not only an explorer but also the captain of the Neverwinter Exploration Group, as well as the scout for the First Army.

Whatever was hidden underneath the rupture, the presence of the Eye Demon and the Senior Demon indicated potential danger!

She must return to Neverwinter as soon as possible to inform King Roland Wimbledon.

"Let's go to the Snow Ridge and meet up with the Taquila witches," Lightning said through clenched teeth. "This mountain range is no longer safe. Someone has clearly set foot in this area."

Chapter 1206 - Just A Breath Away

"Have you found anything?"

An upgraded subordinate came up to Hackzord as it revealed from the Distortion Door.

"No..." Hackzord said while studying its hands attentively. "Probably the Eye Demon guard made a mistake."

"That does happen occasionally. You could take a rest at the Red Mist Pond, sir. I'll alert you if anything comes up." The subordinate paused for a second before it went on, "Sir Valkries always bathes in this pond. I think... you could also relax your muscles in there every now and then."

This was a pretty good idea. Hackzord did want to indulge in such a mundane pleasure and explore the beauty of the Realm of Mind. However, the king would not put blames on the Nightmare if anything went wrong with the plan for the Western Front. Instead, Hackzord was the one who would bear all the consequences.

After a moment of silence, Hackzord answered, "It would be too much for you to connect four Eye Demon guards at the same time. We've entered the most crucial stage of our plan, so I'd better monitor the situation myself. This is the last stronghold on the Western Front, and we mustn't fail the king."

The subordinate's manner instantly tightened into formality as it heard the king's name. It replied fervently, "You're right, sir! I shall not let the king down!"

Valkries was the one that let its guard down.

Hackzord thought to himself expressionlessly.

After Ursrook's tragic death at Taquila, this mountainous area became the focus of the Western Front plan. Hackzord exercised all its efforts to monitor this district. It had persuaded the front to spare four precious Eye Demon guards to monitor this area so that Hackzord could remain constant vigilance about lurking enemies.

Eye Demons, whose vision would not be restricted by distance, lighting conditions, or the size of objects, were the most astute observers. They could immediately sense enemies and inform the demons connected to them.

As the connection required a great deal of magic power, only upgraded ones were qualified to connect with Eye Demons. The world that Eye Demons saw were extremely complicated. They would not be able to mobilize themselves if they accepted all the information they received. Therefore, Eye Demons would normally conduct a preliminary screening and evaluate each creature they beheld in advance. Only those who posed a real threat or act strangely would be informed to the connected demons.

Hackzord had sensed unusual movements just a moment ago.

Like the subordinate had said, Eye Demons did make errors from time to time. This was because creatures tended to have their own unique ways to respond to nature, and not all of their behaviors were comprehensible. There was, for example, someone as inscrutable as the king, and also eccentrics like the Mask. Eye Demons, which lacked independent and critical thinking skills, sacrificed a lot for the thousands of eyes that encrusted their heads. As such, even though they possessed enormous magic power, not a single Eye Demon had upgraded to a Senior Lord over the past thousands of years.

Nevertheless, Eye Demons were still deemed as a rare species by the clan, whose birth rate was only a little higher than those of the Hatcher and the Mother of Soul.

Hackzord changed the subject. "How's the revival of the Birth Tower going?"

"It's almost done. Everything's going well."

"Very good. Take me there."

"Yes, my lord!"

Due to the impact of God's Stones, Hackzord could not go straight to the bottom of the valley and had to slowly make its descent through a flight of stairs.

As they went down, the surroundings gradually turned into a whirl of crimson. The air was impregnated with the Red Mist, and the towering precipices formed a giant vessel, a natural container chiseled out of rocks, where the Red Mist could easily accumulate. After more than half a year of accumulation, the lower part of the rapture was now permeated with the thick, dense Red Mist that could support thousands of lives.

However, Hackzord needed more than that.

Only when they erected the Birth Tower from the God's Stone mine could their kind truly survive on this land, without fearing a sudden disruption of the Red Mist supply.

The sunlight was completely replaced by a ghostly blue-purple light at the very bottom of the rapture. A stone tower stood magnificently before Hackzord among the God's Stone of Punishment Pillars.

A faint tremor of excitement smote upon Hackzord.

"No matter how many times I view it, it always awes me," the guard commented. "Before, we were only able to erect the tower when the Origin of Magic appeared."

"Yes, but it isn't the second Battle of Divine Will anymore," Hackzord said with a nod.

This particular Birth Tower was actually not supposed to be here because it did not grow out of the God's Stone mine but was an old one that had been set up a while ago. Although it currently relied on a huge base to support its weight, and its blotchy gray color signified a state of inactiveness, Hackzord knew this was just temporary. Soon, the tower would be reconnected to the God's Stone mine via the Mother of Soul.

This was the upgrade they had obtained from the legacy shards. Over the past 400 years, their understanding of magic power and magic stones had experienced various drastic changes. The most important change was that they slowly became less independent of the Red Mist.

Nonetheless, human beings also made remarkable progress.

Hackzord approached the tower base and gazed at the dormant Mother of Soul.

The Mother of Soul was the origin of everything, the most important individual out of the whole clan. It would only reach its maturity when magic power reached its peak and when the Divine Will emerged. By that time, the Mother of Soul would be fused with the raw God's Punishment Stone. Within a few years, the God's Stone mine would transform into a high tower that would further produce more Red Mist via magic power.

Yet their new technology had considerably shortened this lengthy process. A fast-growing Birth Tower meant much less time to prepare for the war. As they would soon have ample Red Mist, they could even use the Red Mist as a weapon and quickly convert the enemy's territory into their own.

There were nearly 100 Inferior Demons taking care of the Mother of Soul. They cleaned and fed her. In fact, the bottom of the great rapture was filled with thousands of such Inferior Demons. Through the window of the tower base, Hackzord saw those demons busy excavating the ground and transporting supplies. Some upgraded demons, on the other hand, were issuing commands on their Bogle Beasts. In the center of the rapture stood the symbotic demon newly created by the Mask. These powerful war machines would swarm toward their enemies upon an order. For a moment, Hackzord had an illusion that this place was the real front.

In fact, this rapture was, in a sense, a frontline. If they failed to stop human beings on this continent, their future would become dismally uncertain. They had to defeat the mankind here to save their civilization.

Therefore, they must win this battle for the king!

Chapter 1207 - A New Idea

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Since the Longsong Cannons were not portable, the Artillery Battalion had become exceptionally unoccupied these days compared to the Gun Battalion that had set out for the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter to execute Roland's immigration plan. Apart from the daily training and the harvest, off-duty soldiers all went back home to spend time with their families.

Van'er also chose to go home. As the battalion commander, he rarely had free time these days, so Van'er treasured this rare opportunity to unite with his family. He also took advantage of this break calling on neighbors and old friends. Since alcohol was expressively forbidden in the army, the only time Van'er could indulge in relvery was when he was off duty.

After years of development, businesses in Neverwinter were currently far more dynamic and diverse than those in the old king's city. Under the influence of Roland's commercial district plan, the premises on either side of the street had now been in extremely high demand. Two-story premises were soon let out to shop owners and foreign merchants and were subsequently transformed into hotels, restaurants and taverns. Commodities from various parts of world were being constantly shipped to Neverwinter for sale. These shops supplemented the Convenience Market that mainly provided citizens with life necessities and staples.

Van'er was impressed with the king's foresight as he wandered about on the street while surveying peddling vendors. The city was busy but not congested. Everything was in a strict order: peddlers set up their booths in a designated area; pedestrians walked on the walkway paved with slabs; carriages ran in the middle of the road.

Van'er remembered that someone had raised questions as to why they needed to broaden up the road in the beginning the construction work. Many people questioned about the necessity to create two respective lanes for pedestrians and wagons. Now, it appeared that it was quite a wise decision. Van'er suspected that Roland might have foreseen the future beforehand.

After passing two main driveways, Van'er reached his destination, the tavern "Lucky Shell".

As soon as he entered the store, a person limped up to him from behind the bar and greeted him. "Sir, there you are!"

"Just Van'er. This isn't the army," Van'er said smilingly while pulling the bartender into a crushing hug. "How's your business going? It looks good, eh?"

This person was known as "Iron Crutch". Half a year ago during that fierce night battle against the demons at Tower Station No. 1, a spear had penetrated Iron Crutch's abdomen and leg when he had been charging at the demons to retrieve the artillery field. He lost his consciousness on the spot. Although Nana later saved him, he still lost his right leg and had to replace it with an iron stick. That was how he got his nickname.

Iron Crutch thus retired from the military service. He opened this "Lucky Shell" in the eastern city with the benefits received from the government and his salaries, and this tavern became where the First Army often met each other during their break.

"Since I'm a retired veteran, the rent is relatively low for me. I can manage," Iron Crutch said while massaging his hands in excitement. "If only you could come here a little more often."

Van'er replied, "Then you'll have to wait for my retirement or when I'm like you. By the way, Are Rhone brothers here?"

"They're both upstairs. Let me take you up there."

"No, that's fine. Don't worry about me. Come drink with us when you aren't so busy."

"Sounds good," Iron Crutch agreed pleasantly.

Van'er went up stairs and immediately saw his old friends sitting at a round table. Jop. Cat's Claw, Rodney and Nelson were all there. These people used to shudder at charging knights when the Artillery Battalion had first been founded. Now, they had all elevated themselves to military officers that the whole Artillery Battalion relied on. Because each of them had their own duties, they had not drunk together in the tavern for a while.

Van'er joined them. They exchanged opinions on various matters ardently. The most frequent topic of discussion was naturally the army and the upcoming Battle of Divine Will.

According to the king, this would be an unprecedentedly massive war that would involve the entire continent. They were not certain whether they could see each other again after the war ended.

"We're actually quite lucky. At least, we don't need to fight those monsters directly," Rodney drained his glass and sighed. "If the artillery is defeated, then we pretty much lose the battle."

"The problem is that we don't know what new tricks demons will play... Remember that unexpected night attack at Tower Station No.1?" Cat's Claw commented while shrugging. "I hope our soldiers could learn to cope with the demons themselves. They shouldn't wait for the Gun Battalion or the Special Unit of Strategies and Tactics to rescue them."

Everyone assented in earnest. "Exactly. If only we have powerful weapons as well. Revolving rifles could kill knights but not the demons."

"Drop it. I've heard that the army is going to use bolt rifles in the future. There'll be no revolvers anymore soon."

"Really? Commander, are you positive?"

Van'er confirmed with a nod in response to the others' inquiring look, "The First Unit and the Sixth Unit have already switched to the new weapons. It may take a while for all of us to have one due to limited production."

Jop said, frowning, "I tried the new gun once. It's powerful and accurate, but it's too slow for a close-range attack. Can't the Artillery Battalion keep using the old weapons?"

"I'm afraid not. The management team has made the decision," Van'er replied while pointing at the ceiling. "We use traditional black powder to operate revolvers. The bullet will be pretty much the same, so those who used to produce black powder could now help with the bullet production."

"Then... maybe we should ask Sir Iron Axe to persuade His Majesty to design a new weapon for us?"

"Forget it," Nelson snorted. "Brian will definitely butt in!"

"Yes, the Artillery Battalion only needs cannons," Cat's Claw said with a perfect imitation of Brian's tone. "Don't you often say that the barrels should be as large as possible? Leave those tiny ones to us Gun Battalion. Lads, drink on!"

The group of officers roared with laughter. Only Van'er remained silent. He gazed at his glass, apparently lost in thought.

"Commander?"

Van'er stroked his chin and said slowly, "What if we create a weapon on our own?"

"What weapon? A new flintlock?" Cat's Claw asked, his brows raised. "Commander, you're drunk, aren't you?"

"Shut up! I'm not sure if you have noticed it. Both the grapeshot guns used by the Special Unit of Strategies and Tactics and the Mark I type HMGs operated by the Gun Battalion are equipped with an air duct for steady firing," Van'er said meditatively. "I've seen many disposed weapons. Although their structures are not always the same, they have pretty much the same mechanism."

"Er... Really? How come I don't know?"

"That's why you aren't the commander," Rodney said sagely while twitching his lips. "Having said that, we would need manpower and supplies to create weapons. Sir Iron Axe doesn't charge the plant that manufactures weapons."

"No, we aren't making weapons from scratch but are simply upgrading the ones we currently have," Van'er said, feeling more confident about what he was saying. "It won't involve the plant or the Administrative Office. We just need a skillful worker."

Cat's Claw, Rodney and Nelson all rested their eyes on Jop.

Jop sighed deeply and raised his hands. "Fine. My brother is working in the industrial zone. His job is to process and assemble steam engines. I'll take you there tomorrow."

Chapter 1208 - Van'er's Gun

The next day at noon, they went to the Second Mechanic Plant in the industrial zone with Jop.

After hearing the purpose of their trip, Jop's brother, Lafite, showed great interest in Van'er's proposal. He took Van'er's rifle and fiddled the weapon affectionately before he asked, "Are we really allowed to do this? I was a miner, and what I'm now doing is simply some manual labor like sharpening and slicing. If I screw it up..."

"Brother!" Jop stopped him indignantly.

"One or two shouldn't be a problem. Guns break easily after all since we use them a lot during the training," Van'er said. "However, if you break a lot, then it means that my method doesn't work. I won't blame you."

"I see," Lafite said while nodding in excitement. "Then leave it to me! I'll do my best, as machine tools in the plant aren't always available."

"Your brother seems to like flintlocks very much," Cat's Claw whispered to Jop.

"That's nothing unusual," Rodney rejoined. "Who doesn't like powerful weapons? We used to flail swords and spears. Now we fire cannons and guns."

Van'er also thought the same way. After witnessing the true power of the 12-pound field artillery, he gradually fell in love with weapons. Van'er opened the leather bag his friends brought with them, took out a disabled HMG and then handed a metal tube to Lafite. Van'er said, "Let's begin."

...

The barrel of the rifle was soon fixed to a drilling machine.

Lafite turned on the machine, aligned the drill with the mark on the barrel, and slowly moved the drill downwards. When the drill touched the barrel, the metal tube splintered into numerous tiny chips.

It was a new experience for Van'er. Although he knew that both the steam engine and the Longsong Cannons were made of metal ingots, it was his first time witnessing the actual production. He was amazed when seeing the robust iron gradually melt and dissolve into various shapes.

According to Lafite, the machine tools in the Second Mechanic Plant were all in their third generation powered by Dawn I. Compared to the old machine tools driven by steam engines, the new ones were much more steady and quiet. In addition, they could start working anytime. Some skillful workers could even carve intricate patterns on a tiny iron rod the size of a fingernail.

Yet Van'er did not require such exquisite skills. After reflecting upon his proposal for a night, he redrafted his plan. The principle was to use the least resources to attain his goal. The transformation of the gun should be simple and must not interfere with the daily operation of the plant. As such, he brought the air duct of Mark I, in a hope of simplifying the procedure and saving time.

With a sample air duct, they could then easily ignite gunpowder. The problem, nonetheless, was how to keep up a steady fire.

Van'er had developed a great interest in the HMGs used by the Gun Battalion a long time ago. During the war of the North Slope, he had played with those machine guns many times. One thing that Van'er was certain was that Mark I was much larger than rifles because it had a much more complicated recoil system. Further, the loading systems of the two weapons were also quite different. Machine guns required a cartridge, whereas rifles were only equipped with a clip. Therefore, it was impossible to copy the whole model.

Even if his method worked, Iron Axe and Brian would not allow the artillery to use heavy machine gun parts.

The best way to upgrade rifles was to just upgrade the barrel.

"That's pretty much it..." Lafite said as he cleansed the drill and compared the air duct and the rifle against the sunlight. "These two barrels should be about the same length once we cut off the excessive part."

"Don't connect them as yet," Van'er stopped Lafite as he produced a piece of paper from his pocket and spread it out. "I want you to help me to make this spare part as well."

There was a crude diagram on the paper. The part was in the shape of an arc, about one finger long and two fingers wide, with a groove in the middle.

"What's that?" the other officers asked curiously. "It doesn't look like a gun part."

Van'er was not sure if this part would really work. It was simply one of his wild ideas that had yet been verified. However, he must not retract, so he said, "Ahem... if everything goes well, I believe this new part will replace our hands."

...

Five days later, many soldiers from the Artillery Battalion gathered at the First Army's shooting range.

They had learned from their superiors that a new flintlock that would enable the artillery to keep up a steady fire was currently under test. Unlike all the other weapons widely used by the army, this weapon was invented by Commander Van'er instead of His Majesty. Many soldiers were intrigued by the news and came to see what this new weapon looked like during their break.

To their dismay, the weapon under test could indeed fire steadily, although it did, from time to time, got jammed. As long as the user continuously pulled the trigger, the gun could eject multiple bullets at a time.

Unlike the revolving rifles that could only fire five bullets, this upgraded one could fire 20, which would almost rival an HMG if multiple such upgraded guns fired at the same time.

"I can't believe that you really made it," Cat's Claw remarked impressively. "Now I know why Sir Iron Axe chose you to be the commander."

"His Majesty taught me all this. Doesn't he always say that we need to apply what we learn from books to actual work? I simply did what His Majesty told us to," Van'er said triumphantly. He had not expected that his plan would work so well. Within just five days, he had created a new weapon. Next, they would only need to make a few adjustments and the Artillery Battalion would be able to increase the power of their guns significantly at a minimal cost.

"Are you Commander Van'er?" someone asked suddenly.

"Yes, you are..." Van'er said as he turned around.

"I'm Danny, a member of the sniper team," the man said with a smile. "I saw a lot of people here, so I came to see what's going on. I'm on duty today... Can I try out your new weapon?"

"The sniper team?" Jop echoed, a little surprised, and then cast a glance at Van'er, "Chief — "

Van'er knew that every single member of the sniper team was an elite picked by Brian from the Gun Battalion. The sniper team made its fame through the battle against the church at the Coldwind Ridge. They received a medal from His Majesty for their outstanding performance. They were the best among the best and were also highly respected among the soldiers. If this new weapon caught the attention of the sniper team, wouldn't there be a possibility that the Artillery Battalion could finally overpower the Gun Battalion?

In response to Jop and Cat's Claw's eager look, Van'er replied with a faint smile, "Of course. Please go ahead."

Chapter 1209 - Testing Result

Danny took the gun and instantly noticed that the center of the gravity had changed. The gun was, overall, heavier than a regular rifle. Apart from the second tube installed to the barrel, this new gun looked no different than an ordinary bolt rifle used by most of the soldiers in the Gun Battalion, although it was not as well-made as his own high-precision rifle. The biggest change was that this additional metal tube ran all the way to the bottom of the barrel and was connected to the bolt.

This must be the reason that the gun could keep up a steady fire.

Danny took the aim and pulled the triggered. However, instead of locking his eyes on the muzzle, he gazed at the iron tube on one side of the barrel.

As the gun trembled when the bullet escaped from the muzzle, something extraordinary happened. It was just a split second, but Danny noticed the change in the bolt. The rod in the iron tube was pushed forward and then retracted along with the metal shard attached to its end.

This metal shard was normally fixed to the bolt. If someone tried to forcibly pull it, it would get jammed and break the rod. However, the groove in the middle of the shard enabled the bolt to retract and thereby unlock it.

Then, the whole process reversed. The rod retracted to the tube and the bolt returned to its original spot. The metal shard slid back to the bottom and locked the bore again.

This was such an ingenious design!

This additional part was quite self-explanatory. Even a lay man like Danny could immediately understand the mechanism behind it. Basically, the rod in the second iron tube replaced manual labor. What was clever about this design was that the rod completed four steps at a time, namely, pushing, pulling, lifting and pressing. Without any external force, the gun was automatically restored.

Danny fired all the bullets, mesmerized by the pungent smell of gunpowder and that familiar voice that always visited him on the battlefield.

"You missed one shot out of 20," Malt said. "Not used to the new weapon?"

"I haven't got used to it yet. See if I miss any in the next round."

"See what?" a surprised voice said to him.

Danny pulled himself back to the present. He suddenly realized that this was not a battlefield, and a group of onlookers were watching him in the shooting range. Danny looked toward the confused Artillery Battalion commander as he rose and said while shaking his head, "No... I'm just mumbling."

"You're really an excellent sniper. 19 out of 20. That's really something, and you're still not satisfied," Van'er said while patting Danny on the shoulder. He then asked hopefully, "So... what do you think of this gun?"

Danny knew about the competition between the Artillery Battalion and the Gun Battalion. Nevertheless, both of the two battalions served the king. He thus said honestly, "It's perfect, except it's a little unstable and heavy. I wish the sniper team could also have an upgraded weapon like this, if possible."

If truth be told, the gun was as accurate as regular rifles when shooting targets were at 50 and 100 meters. Although it was a lot heavier than a rifle, the sniper team and the Artillery Battalion were not required to fire on standby or carry the weapon on the go."

The greatest strength of this upgraded gun was that it enabled soldiers to keep up a steady fire. Since the current gun could not fire steadily, soldiers had to readjust their position and took the aim again after they missed their target. The repositioning normally took a few seconds, and more often than not, they lost track of the target. Therefore, they fired less frequently than ordinary soldiers. However, the upgraded gun minimized the readjustment and enabled soldiers to fire again immediately. This weapon would thus be very helpful for a massive warfare.

Van'er was pleased to hear that his work received some kind of acknowledgment. He grinned, "It's just a preliminary design. If you could help us further improve the weapon, I would feel more comfortable when I talk to Sir Iron Axe."

Van'er believed if the sniper team used the gun designed by the Artillery Battalion, then surely he outperformed Brian.

Danny, on the other hand, agreed to help Van'er purely out of his personal affection toward firearms that could efficiently kill demons, the smell of gunpowder, and the voice of his ghost friend, Malt. Danny thus said, "I'm happy to be of service, Mr. Commander."

The two of them smiled at each other and reached an agreement.

...

Roland learned about this new weapon a few days later.

As an increasing number of soldiers from the Artillery Battalion visited the Second Mechanic Plant, the superintendent of the plant reported the incident to the Administrative Office, who later forwarded the news to the Minister of Engineering, Anna.

Roland was greatly amused by the duplicate sample created by Anna. The design was crude. Although the gun could fire steadily, it would easily break down since the additional metal tube was exposed in the air. The gun thus required extensive maintenance.

Having said that, the artillery, after all, did not need to fire very frequently.

"What do you think?" Anna asked smilingly.

"Well... there's a lot that can be done, but it's a good sign," Roland said casually. "At least, it shows that soldiers start to think independently and know what kind of weapon they really need. The strengths of this gun are also very obvious, which are minimal costs and simple alteration."

There would certainly be a huge increase in the consumption of bullets if the whole army started to use this new weapon. Fortunately, frontline soldiers who mainly relied on HMGs did not necessarily need to fire successively.

Well, in that case, let's help them," Anna said, nodding.

The design of the weapon was soon finalized with Anna's assistance. The bolt and piston were replaced by a more flexible latch structure. Its joint was encased in a shell to stablize the weapon, so the gun would not get easily jammed. After a part of the air duct was cut off, the weapon was officially upgraded. Roland advised that the new rifle should be named after Van'er.

Soon after the news was announced, the Ministry of Engineering suddenly received tons of recommendations and feedback.

Roland was pleased with the turn of the event.

He finally saw the result of universal education.

The success of his education plan excited Roland even more than the new weapon itself.

Also, there was another piece of good news.

Celine told him that there was a breakthrough in the research of the Magic Ceremony Cube.

She found a way to significantly reduce the consumption of uranium when she was making the sixth batch of cube replicates.

Chapter 1210 - A Cube-Powered Vehicle

In the underground laboratory in the Third Border City

Roland immediately took Anna to the laboratory. Through the thick protection glass, he saw two activated Magic Ceremony Cubes at the center of the laboratory. The wall of the laboratory was plastered with lead plates. One of the Cubes looked quite normal while the other ejected much shorter red laser beams.

"Is the one that ejects shorter red light the new replicate?" Anna asked perceptively.

"That's right. Actually, it was purely an accident," Celine replied brightly. "Normally, Slimwrist carves the patterns on the parts. If the materials are damaged, then it won't be easy to duplicate the patterns, so we normally dispose those damaged stones. However, a week ago when Slimwrist was carving Part No. 236, we found the stone crack, which means this specific part is defective."

Roland asked meditatively, "But you didn't throw No. 236 away?" As all the materials used to create duplicates were collected from the Southernmost Region, and since those tablets had been buried underground for 1,000 years, it was normal to have damage here and there.

Celine tapped her main tentacle and said, "I thought it would be a waste to throw it away, so I kept it just in case. Then I installed it on the Magic Cube previously made to see whether it would function properly."

Roland looked at Celine incredulously. That was a nuclear torture device!

"Don't worry, Your Majesty," Celine said as if seeing the thought in Roland's mind. She raised her blobbed head and continued, "I conducted the test in the Impassable Mountain Range. Nothing would happen to Neverwinter even if something went terribly wrong. This is a principle followed by the members of the Quest Society. You don't need to feel sad for me in the event I'm killed. For the sake of truth, I really can't care less about my personal safety..."

Looking at eloquent Celine, Roland realized his concern was unnecessary. He thus said, "Now, your finding!"

"Ahem, sorry," Celine said while clearing her throat. "Anyway, just as what you've seen, the Magic Cube could still be activated, although the range of the red beam shortened by 90%. However, the tri-tank magic power unit could still transmit energies. I conducted a heating test to see whether the shortened red beam affected heat transmission. It took me two to three days to complete the test. When I examined the uranium chip, I was amazed to find that it did not change much. Also, it appears that much less magic power was consumed when the range of the red beam shortened."

Anna asked thoughtfully, "So, most of the magic power was used to maintain the red beam?"

"I now understand why you became a Senior Witch even faster than Agatha," Celine praised. "It took me quite a while to reach the same conclusion. If that beam is comprised of numerous tiny particles, it'll be hard to direct them all to the same spot. The experiment indicated that the heat transmission on the front, left and right sides wouldn't be affected as long as you didn't touch the red beam. Therefore, I conclude that the decrease in the laser range did save a lot of power."

"Hang on," Roland interrupted suddenly. "This means that Part No. 236 determines the radiation range?"

This was definitely a major discovery even more important than the sustainability of the power system. There were around more than 300 parts in one Magic Ceremony Cube. Nobody knew how magic power worked through those patterned stones. Now, there seemed to be a solution to analyze the power within the cube.

"Yes," Celine assented, a twinge of excitement in her voice. "Perhaps the patterns on each part have a specific function. If we could decipher those patterns, we could probably understand how magic power worked within the Magic Ceremony Cube."

"Each part functions differently. It looks like the radiation clan shared the same mindset with us," Anna said with a smile. "Aren't we lucky?"

"Of course," Roland confirmed with a nod. He knew what Anna meant. Civilizations varied drastically in terms of language, mindset and appearance. It was almost impossible to find a similar one to learn from. The underground civilization, for example, could only operate the core device after transferring the soul to a carrier. Celine had spent hundreds of years trying to understand its mechanism, but the research was fruitless.

Therefore, each civilization, in a way, was lonely.

Although Roland had promised earlier that human beings could still learn from lost civilizations without the legacy shards, it was actually not easy to do so, especially when there was no guidance or assistance available. How could one learn about the other when they had different mindsets?

If Celine was right, then the radiation clan, which was the first civilization that shared some similarity with the human race, might enlighten them on the research of magic power.

"By the way," Anna said as she suddenly grinned at Roland. "Since the magic power unit has been finalized and we have also solved the sustainability problem, isn't it time for you to fulfill your promise?"

Gazing at Anna's bright, blue eyes, Roland found it hard to turn down her request.

"Yes, yes... Your Highness," he said while smiling back. "I'll start working on it once I'm back to the castle."

...

The dawn broke with loud noises.

Soraya sat up from her bed in a daze.

She yawned dramatically and fumbled for her clothes. These were the noises produced by steam engines that she heard every morning. They marked the beginning of another busy day.

But she noticed it was particularly early today. Soraya cast a glance at Echo who was still deep in her sleep, and put on her clothes quietly. She wondered who else in the castle got up earlier than her.

Then Soraya suddenly realized that this was not the industrial zone. Why were there noises of steam engines. It was weekend today, and most of the witches slept in. The castle would be empty until it was time for lunch. Was she dreaming?

The roar started again outside the window, and Soraya heard someone talk and laugh sprightly.

"This is so interesting!"

"Your Majesty, let me try it."

"Me too, me too!"

"What happened?" Echo asked blearily as she rose.

"I don't know. It's probably Mystery Moon..." Soraya said as she stretched and pulled back the thick curtains. Sunlight spilled across the room through the window. It was actually not early anymore.

After she became more comfortable with the sudden brightness, she peered down from her window and was surprised at what she saw.

Many witches were congregated at the castle gate, staring at something at the center of the yard, looking excited.

Soraya then saw Anna sitting in a peculiar four-wheeled carriage. There were no horses, but the vehicle ran on its own. Anna's face split into a big smile.

Immediately, Soraya's eyes were glued to the strange vehicle.

Chapter 1211 - A Farming Tractor

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, what's Lady Anna driving?"

Roland turned around and saw Echo and Soraya rush toward him.

"It's a car, a Magic Cube-powered car!" Mysterious Moon supplied the answer fervently. "If you want to drive it, go line up."

"A... car?" Soraya echoed, "A car powered by a steam engine?"

"Yup, but the boiler of the steam engine has been replaced by the relic of the radiation clan, so that's why it's so small," Mystery Moon boasted. "It's still a lot larger than an electric motor though. I wish it could be powered by Dawn I. That'll be perfect... No, then we should call it a magnet-driven car!"

'You can barely manage to work with dozens of copper rods," Lily retorted while twitching her lips. "And now you want to power a car?"

"Er..." Mystery Moon faltered. "I, I just came of age, so obviously I'm not that powerful. Perhaps I could manufacture tons of Dawn I after I upgrade."

"I would rather put my hope in Miss Doris," Lily said scathingly.

"Shut up, or I'll take away all your Chaos Drinks!"

"I dare you — "

"Haha..." Phyllis burst into a laughter. "Actually, no matter it's powered by steam or electricity, we still call it a 'car'."

"Really?" All the other witches said together while looking toward her.

"Yes, in the Dream World, it's called a car," Phyllis replied triumphantly. "The cars in the Dream World are much better than this one Her Highness is now driving. They could not only shelter us from rain and wind, but they're also equipped with an advanced heating and air-conditioning system. It's pretty much like a mobile house, and it's a lot faster than horses!"

"Have you... driven a car before?" Mystery Moon asked, her eyes widening in curiosity.

"Of course," Phyllis bragged. "I once drove His Majesty's vehicle on an endless highway. The vehicle literally trembled when I drove at the maximum speed. I could only hear wind howling around me, and I felt I could conquer the whole world!"

Roland mopped his forehead, amazed that Phyllis could drive his battered mini van in the same manner as she drove a luxurious sports car. The truth was that his vehicle had poor noise insulation and it always wobbled violently on highways.

Nevertheless, even the old mini van functioned better than this cube-powered vehicle.

It had taken Roland only four days to complete the production. The vehicle was comprised of a steam engine at the front, a heating system at the rear, a power unit attached to the automobile frame, and a couch in the middle. Apart from a steering wheel, a clutch and a brake, the vehicle had no gearbox but only a valve next to the seat to adjust the speed.

Once the Magic Ceremony Cube heated up the water and set the steam engine in motion, the vehicle would start to move. As the air pressure in the conduits increased, the vehicle accelerated. Then the driver could switch the valve on to release some steam so that the steam engine would not overload. In this way, the driver adjusted the speed of the vehicle.

In other words, the driver simply needed to press on the brake and the clutch to slow down and release the brake to accelerate. Due to the high air pressure, the spinning cogwheel might sustain some extent of damage. Therefore, once the vehicle came to a complete stop, the driver must open the valve to release the steam and reduce the air pressure in the steam engine.

Despite the cubersome power unit, the primitive automobile frame, and the crude steering device, Anna was over the moon. Like a little girl who had just received the best present in the world, she drove around the yard without the slightest intention of taking a rest.

In addition to Anna, the other witches were also aroused by the vehicle. They exchanged excited murmurs. It was the first time they laughed so heartily after the battle of Taquila.

Roland wished Tilly could share this happiness.

Nightingale told him that Tilly invested most of her time in training aerial knights, so she rarely came to the castle lately. Perhaps, for Tilly, the happiest thing was to defeat the demons.

When Anna finally alighted from the vehicle and asked who would like to try out, all the witches pressed forward to take the share.

Sylvie, who was the first to arrive at the scene and spot the car, got the opportunity to drive.

"How do you like it," Roland asked Anna.

"It's more fun than I thought," Anna replied with a smile. "Thank you, Roland. I'm so glad that you taught me how to drive."

Roland dazed for a second as he saw Anna's face split into a dazzling smile. He quickly averted his eyes, a little embarrassed, as though he had suddenly traveled back to the time when they had first met. Roland said, "Well, I'm glad you like it."

Anna blinked and said, "By the way, Celine found a way to stabilize the Magic Ceremony Cube. Does it mean that we could use the Cube in the Battle of Divine Will?"

"Technically, we could," Roland replied on a cough and pulled himself together. "We just need to keep supplying water to make sure that the cube-powered steam engine works. Time will tell how much this new steam engine could help with the logistics."

"Can we use the steam engine to create an armored war machine with a Longsong Cannon anchored to the top?" Phyllis cut in. "If you could make such a weapon, then we don't have to be afraid of the Spider Demons anymore."

It was true that a competent power unit would make an armored unit possible. With a powerful tank, they could instantly dominate the war. Even the crudest tank could easily repulse Mad Demons and block spears and bone needles ejected by Spidery Monstrous Beasts. It was a weapon as well as a defensive tool.

Nevertheless, extensive research was required to create such an advanced weapon. Not only did they have to improve technologies, but they have to also educate workers. Anna could not manufacture the biplanes and the armored weapons at the same time, it was also unrealistic to directly create a tank. In short, considering the limited technologies and resources, most of the work had to be completed by plant workers.

The first project that came to Roland's mind, however, was not a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle but a transportation tool for civil services.

This transportation tool could considerably increase farming efficiency while saving a lot of manpower. As the principle and technologies applied to this transportation tool were quite similar to those related to armored vehicles, Roland could also, at the same time, provide soldiers with some training. Meanwhile, workers in the plant could also immediately start to produce armored weapons, if necessary.

This transportation tool was — a tractor.

Chapter 1212 - Rainbow Stone

"Ahhh! Help! I can't steer it around. Someone help me!"

A piercing shriek interrupted Roland's train of thought. Roland looked up and saw the vehicle dash toward the flower bed at the center of the yard. In the vehicle sat Mystery Moon.

"You, you idiot!" Lily said through clenched teeth. "Hit the brakes!"

"I did... but it doesn't work, ahhhh!" Mystery Moon screamed in terror.

The car ran wild. It bounced off the flower bed and streaked toward the castle gate.

"Your Majesty, watch out!" Wendy shouted.

There was instantly a great commotion.

"Holy crap," Roland said within himself, gaping at Mystery Moon who steered the vehicle frantically with her eyes clamp shut. He was astonished that a car without gas could go so wrong. What a monstrous driver Mystery Moon was!

Much to Roland's consternation, the crowd was not dispersed. All the witches, on the contrary, stopped in front of the car. In a second, all the witches applied their various abilities. Anna summoned a Blackfire wall; Lotus created a ditch to separate Roland from the yard; Iffy summoned her Magic Cage, and Andrea was about to shoot her Light Arrow; Nightingale grabbed Roland by the arm, ready to drag him into the mist anytime.

In the end, Phyllis and Lorgar stopped the vehicle by force.

They grasped the bumper of the vehicle and lifted the car off the ground.

Then Anna turned down the Magic Ceremony Cube with her Blackfire.

The steam engine was immediately silenced.

"Ahhhhh! Run, guys!" Mystery Moon yelled hysterically, her hand still on the steering wheel.

"You BIG THICKHEAD!" Lily strode across the ditch and slammed her hand on the back of Mystery Moon's head. Her scream instantly perished into a grumble.

Mystery Moon opened her eyes, her hands on her head, looking perfectly innocent.

"Mystery Moon!"

Seeing Wendy and Scroll dart in her direction in a hot rage, Mystery Moon realized that she had made a big mistake. She pleaded, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry —" But it was too late. She had been dragged out of the vehicle and into the castle before she could justify her behavior.

"You always cause trouble!"

"No time off for you this week!"

"I order you to copy the rules of the Witch Union 100 times!"

"And you also have to complete five sets of homework before dinner!"

Mystery Moon's cry reverberated across the whole yard. All the witches shuddered at the long murmur of echoes, except Anna.

"I examined the vehicle. There's nothing wrong with the steering wheel or the brake," Anna said to Roland. "There's only one reason why Mystery Moon lost control."

"What's that?"

"She's not strong enough to maneuver the car," Anna said with a magnificently forgiving air.

Roland laughed at such an amusing truth. It appeared those who were weaker than Mystery Moon probably could not drive the car unless he installed an assisting mechanism to the steering wheel and the brake.

Lotus and Anna soon fixed the yard. Looking at a group of witch who was not able to disguise their eagerness, Roland said while shaking his head, "If you still want to go on a ride, then talk to Anna. As long as she agrees, I don't have any objections. Just make sure that you don't destroy the castle. Right, another thing. Don't forget to come back for lunch."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Please let me have a go first!"

"Hey, I came here before you!"

The yard was again alive with laughters.

...

"Sir, it's here."

A carriage staggered to a halt in front of a tavern. Victor Lothar alighted from the wagon and tossed two silver royals at the coachman before he got in.

"Mr. Victor!" a pretty young lady in a white robe greeted him at a trot. She took the luggage from Victor and said ardently, "We keep the room for you. Please, this way."

Victor's room was the largest one on the top floor. Everything was just as the same as when he had departed last time, including incenses, grape wines and his personal maid, Tinkle.

Victor nodded in satisfaction. This was the power of money. Although it could not bring the dead to life, it could freeze time.

"It has been a while since last time you were here," Tinkle said as she pulled back the curtains, opened the window and poured him a cup of tea. "My boss thought you encountered bandits or died in a shipwreck. He asked the accountant to check the gold royals you left here every day to see how long we can keep the room for you. He wants to let out this room to someone else but at the same time doesn't want to break Neverwinter contract law. It's really amusing to see that he was caught in such a disgusting dilemma."

Victor felt his fatigue gradually dissipated as he listened to his maid babbling. He asked, "Aren't you afraid that he'll know that you badmouth him behind his back?"

Tinkle stuck out her tongue and said, "Unless you tell him. By the way, where have you been? Was it a great undertaking?"

"Well, sort of," Victor said while sipping the tea. "I spent most of my time in the Southern Territory in the past half a year."

"The Southern Territory?" Tinkle echoed in confusion, her head lopsided. "That area isn't famous for gemstones, is it?"

"There are gemstones everywhere, provided that you know where to find them," Victor said, shrugging. "For example, in the south, gemstones grow on trees."

"Sir, you must be making fun of me," the maid said a little indignantly.

Victor smiled. He knew Tinkle would not believe him. In fact, he could not believe it either before he actually saw it. The cotton field was, to his surprise, even more beautiful than gemstones. The plants cultivated by Leaf were incredible. The cotton was large and soft like snow, completely different from the one he used to see.

Victor had been busy in the past few months. He summoned all the tailors in his native town, built a plant at the Port of Clearwater, and hired staff to work for him. Once the harvest season was over, he started to sell the cotton to the public. His business was better than he had initially anticipated. As this new cotton was affordable and high-quality, they soon outstripped their competitors. All his products were fairly popular, from cotton blankets all the way to cotton winter jackets.

Nevertheless, Victor knew that competition always existed. He knew when other merchants also started to purchase cotton seeds from Leaf, his market would inevitably shrink a little bit. Therefore, apart from common cotton fabrics, he also produced high-end commodities, which were mainly clothes tailored to wealthy customers. All the clothes were carefully designed and made, with a tiny logo of a colorful gemstone at sleeves and collars that marked the uniqueness of his products.

Those clothes were soon acknowledged by a certain group of people and were subsequently called "Rainbow Stone".

Victor thus also granted the same logo to his low-end products such as blankets and robes, only that the logo is monochrome.

Victor predicted that even if other merchants sold their products at a lower price than his, people would still tend to buy his products because of the Rainbow Stone logo. Just like jewelry, nobles always preferred to purchase those processed by masters over the ones that were not.

"How long are you going to stay here this time," Tinkle asked after a long silence.

"Probably three or four days. I have a lot to do in the Southern Territory," Victor replied.

"That soon?" the maid asked in a low voice.

Victor understood that Tinkle would have to serve other customers if he decided to surrender the tenancy. She preferred to clean a vacant room than serving customers. Victor did not really care about the possible change, but he did like Tinkle to serve him.

He had not got tired of her yet.

"Don't worry. I'll pay a good amount of gold royals before I return to Neverwinter."

"Really?" Tinkle said, her facing lighting up.

"That isn't much, really," Victor said while straightening up and tossed a gold royal at Tinkle. "This is your pay. I need to pay a visit to the Administrative Office. Lead the way."

Chapter 1213 - The Beginning of an Enterprise

Over the past six months, although Victor Lothar had stayed in the Southern Territory, he had paid close attention to Neverwinter, for he believed that this city would undoubtedly become the central city of the world in the future. The impact of this future capital would extend to not only Graycastle but also the other three kingdoms and the Fjords. Therefore, Victor asked his men to purchase Graycastle Weekly and send a copy to the Port of Clearwater every day.

He returned to Neverwinter because of two major events that had caught his attention. One was the sale of the Miracle Building and the other was the release of a new magic movie, "The Dust of History".

Victor did not understand why the King of Graycastle insisted that Neverwinter people had to show their identification cards to purchase the apartment. As a Neverwinter resident, he could still travel to the Port of Clearwater and the City of Glow. Victor did not know what the point of having a Neverwinter Identification Card. He was a merchant and basically traveled the world all the year around.

Nevertheless, nobody would miss the opportunity to become a resident of the tallest apartment building on this continent situated at the center of the new king's city. It was a perfect marketing strategy to further promote his brand, "Rainbow Stone".

However, even if Victor failed to obtain a room in the Miracle Building, he would not feel too regretted about it. As the designated distributor of the new cotton seeds appointed by King Roland, Victor was confident that he could outperform all other merchants. For him, he was interested more in the magic movie than the real estate transaction.

He would never forget the first magic movie he had seen.

It was mind-blowing.

The moment the curtains had been pulled back, Victor had felt his physical body melt into nothingness, his soul wandering in the darkness. He had watched "The Wolf Princess" many times, and would have watched over and over again had he not decided to grow cotton in the Southern Territory.

Victor had the faintest clue as to the content of the new magic movie "The Dust of History". However, he was particularly intrigued by the movie because of two reasons. One was that all the actors in the movie were from the Star Flower Troupe, and the other was that the screenwriter this time was famous Kajen Fels.

According to the introduction of the movie, it was based on a true story, and King Roland had even provided assistance with the background research. It was rumored that the king had disclosed a book that had been kept as a secret by the royal family for generations. Victor knew he should not take these rumors circulated among the public too seriously. The best way to confirm the validity of the information was to watch the magic movie himself. How could he miss it?

This was actually the main reason Victor came back to Neverwinter.

As soon as Victor reached the Administrative Office, Tinkle went to line up to purchase the tickets. Each ticket cost 50 gold royals, which was 10 gold royals more than the ticket for "The Wolf Princess". However, Victor immediately gave Tinkle 100 gold royals and asked her to buy two tickets.

Tinkle felt a surge of pride. Many people eyed her as she bought two tickets at a time. The price for the premiere was so daunting that even foreign merchants would hesitate for a while before making the decision. In fact, the ticket would be a lot cheaper the next day, and the price would further drop to 10 silver royals for civilians a week later.

The transaction of the apartment was much more complicated. After Victor submitted the application, he and Tinkle were led into a small cabin.

"I can't believe that you have a Neverwinter Identification Card!" Tinkle said in a hushed voice. "But you aren't a Graycastle man, and certainly aren't a resident of Border Town either."

Victor said, shrugging, "You've forgotten that one could become a Neverwinter resident as soon as he purchases a property here."

"Of course I know!" Tinkle defended herself. "But you always live in the tavern..."

"That doesn't prevent me from having a real estate property here," Victor said airily. "I prefer a tavern to a residential area, but I can still buy a property just in case."

"..." Tinkle was speechless, her eyes wide open.

Victor thought that was the beauty of a country girl. If Tinkle were a lady, she would have probably viewed him as an idiot.

Just then, a young lady in a uniform came in. "Hello, thanks for waiting. My name is Betty. I'm a clerk at the Administrative Office, and I'll be responsible for registration."

"I'm..."

"Victor Lothar. I reviewed your application, and you're eligible to make a purchase." Betty said quickly, "I have to admit that you have a really good taste. Out of all the residential buildings, you picked the Miracle Building. This is the landmark of Neverwinter. You can have a birdview of the whole city. Although the price is a little high, it's definitely worth it!"

Mildly taken aback, Victor suddenly had a strange feeling that not many people were buying. He thus cleared his throat and asked, "So, how much is it?"

"Here it is, Mr. Victor," Betty said as she handed him a piece of paper.

Victor spread it open, a muscle twitching around his lips. The prices of all the floors of the Miracle Building were listed. The first five floors were under 100 gold royals. From the fifth floor onward, the price doubled by each floor. The 14th Floor was listed as 2,000 gold royals.

Tinkle clapped his hand over his mouth.

"The 15th floor is not for sale?" Victor asked as he noticed the floor was not priced.

"The Astrology Association and the Alchemist Workshop have jointly bought the 15th floor. I've heard they're planning to found a Society of Sage and make it as the headquarters — "

"I'll take the 14th floor!" Victor cut across Betty, who looked as aghasted as Tinkle. He then added, "I'll take two."

4,000 gold royals was a large sum of money even for Victor. He had been hesitating at first, but after hearing the news of the Society of Sage, he immediately made up his mind.

If Neverwinter was the central city of the future, then this so-called headquarters would definitely influence the entire kingdom. If he could associate his business to these two eminent organizations, it would be very helpful to further promote his products, even though what he did was simply sharing the same building with the two societies.

"A wise choice, Mr. Victor!" Betty said while holding Victor's hand in excitement. "I'll bring the contract right away. Once you sign, the two rooms will be yours."

Watching Betty rush out of the room, Victor heaved a deep sigh and said, "I somehow feel that she is the buyer not me..."

"It probably has something to do with her sales target," Twinkle mumbled.

"What's that?"

"I heard about it from customers coming to the tavern. It appears that every official and clerk in the Administrative Office is subject to periodical evaluations. I don't know about the details, but the evaluation determines whether they could get a raise or get promoted."

"I see... Now I see why everyone here works so hard," Victor muttered. This was something new he could learn from.

Perhaps, he could also implement a similar system in his textile mill.

"By the way..." Tinkle said hesitantly. "You aren't leaving the rooms vacant, are you? You spent so much money on them. So, are you still living in the tavern?"

"I'll continue to live there," Victor said smilingly. "But the rooms I bought with 4,000 gold royals won't be vacant either."

"But you can't live in two places at the same time."

"It doesn't mean I'm going to use it as a residence. I'm planning to make it as the new headquarters of Lorthar Corporation, the headquarters for 'Rainbow Stone'." In the beginning, Victor had only planned to purchase one room and hang a banner outside to advertise "Rainbow Stone", but Betty's words inspired him. He could use the room for something else.

Chapter 1214 - The Second Magic Movie

Two days later, Victor went to the movie theatre.

The premiere of the movie "The Dust of History" was at 3:00 PM. He arrived at the theatre pretty early and waited to check in. The movie theatre had expanded a great deal since his last visit a year ago. There were not only several new movie halls but also a yard and a waiting area for customers. Although Victor came here half an hour early, the hall had been packed when he got here.

"Are you Mr. Gammon from the Chamber of Commerce of the Crescent Moon Bay? Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I didn't expect to meet such a successful businessman from the Kingdom of Dawn like you."

"Are they actors from Kajen's troupe? I wonder if I could meet Kajen himself."

"Please present me to him if you ever get a chance."

"Sure thing."

The audience started to make conversations. As Victor had expected, those who could afford the premiere were all prominent figures. This was also one of the benefits to attend the premiere.

"Hey, aren't you Mr. Victor? I've heard that you're no longer in the jewelry trade, are you?" someone said to him abruptly.

"I'm still doing my old trade, but the business isn't good at the moment."

"I like your blankets. More customers come to my hotel after I use your products. I would like to order 100 more."

"I'm glad to hear that. We could have a chat after the magic movie."

"Sounds good."

Tinkle's eyes were wide open as she listened to their conversation. To her, it was unimaginable to suddenly have such a big order over a casual chat. When Victor was finally alone, she tugged his sleeve and asked, "Sir, are these people coming here for the movie or business? I notice many of them don't really know you. Aren't you afraid that they're frauds?"

"Don't worry. It's very common among enterpreneurs. Just get used to it," Victor said smilingly. Only successful businessmen were financially capable of attending this grand premiere. To some extent, this premiere told more about their financial status than any jewelry they were wearing, because the theatre experience was, essentially, an intangible service that would not give audience any monetary benefits.

While Victor was explaining to Tinkle, someone bumped into him.

"Ah... sorry," Victor apologized. However, he was rooted to the ground after he saw the woman.

It was a lifeless face, although quite pretty. Perhaps, the lady would have been even prettier than Tinkle had she put on some makeup. Nevertheless, her pale skin and absent look abhorred him. The sullen expression that the woman was wearing formed a glaring contrast with the animated atmosphere in the hall.

The woman did not say anything but simply cast him an indifferent glance before she drifted off.

"What a weird person..." Victor mumbled.

"Sir, the magic movie is starting in a minute. Let's get in," Tinkle, who apparently had not noticed anything, urged while grasping Victor's hand.

"Right... yes," Victor said. He soon put the lady out of his mind and followed Tinkle into the hall.

...

"What happened just now?" Joe asked Farrina a little apprehensively.

"Nothing," Farrina answered in a low voice. "Someone bumped into me. Let's go. Since you brought me here, let's just get in."

"R-right," Joe stammered, not sure whether he should hold Farrina's hand, and finally decided not to do so. "Remember that you shall stay with me, no matter what happens."

Farrina remained silent. This was the best she could do to come here with him.

After staying in Neverwinter for nearly half a year, Farrina gradually came to the realization that the ancient witch who claimed to have been living for 400 years did not lie to her. Her wounds slowly healed up. Although the whip and brand marks persisted, she could at least walk on her own. Farrina found that she had nothing to complain about. Had she fallen into any pure witches' hands, she would have suffered more tortures. Neverwinter witches did treat her fairly well.

However, the trial Farrina had been waiting for did not come. She had not even got a chance to meet the King of Graycastle. Farrina was simply questioned by dozens of people. She had even lied, in an attempt to provoke the interrogators, but they simply gave her a searching look with an air of derision.

After Farrina was released from the prison, Joe bought a house to settle her down. Unlike her, Joe, as a former noble, soon found a job at the Administrative Office and quickly adapted to the new environment. If truth be told, Joe should not have been a church member in the first place. However, the life in Neverwinter tormented Farrina. The longer Farrina lived in Neverwinter, the more she realized how wrong the church had been. The witches were not the representation of evil. Apart from magic power, they were no different from ordinary people. Roland Wimbledon did not turn the city into hell with the power of witches but instead made people's life even better.

Farrina was torn between her belief that she had been indebted for half of her life and the glaring reality. Perhaps, this was the trial. Sometimes, it could be more brutal than tortures. She would have ended her own life had Joe not needed her.

Farrina didn't know how long she could live like that. Dimly, she knew the two tickets sent from the Star Flower Troupe would be her last straw. Kajen Fels created this movie on King Roland's request. The sole purpose of this movie was to disclose the truth about the church and thus further secure the dominant position of the Wimbledon Family.

Farrina could imagine that the church would become what everyone loathed after this movie. The sacrifice of Pope Tucker Thor and numerous Judgement Warriors killed in action would then become nothing but a joke.

Farrina did not want this to happen, but she still agreed to come with Joe.

Just as she had not refused the request of the church executives and agreed to stay behind to fight for Hermes.

Because Joe needed her.

Yet this was probably the last thing she could do.

Light gradually faded out.

Darkness fell on the hall, and the magic movie began.

...

The story started on the Hermes Plateau 300 years ago when the New Holy City was simply boulders and rocks. A sheer drop of cliffs, the vast bleakness of the land covered in snow, and the great rapture down the Impassable Mountain Range swarmed into his view.

Although Victor had watched magic movies many times, he was still quite shocked as the whole continent dwarfed beneath him.

Across the great rapture, many church members were building their new city, as though this was really what had happened 300 years ago.

A moment later, the audience saw a huge hole in the ground. Victor heard the name "Prival Council", which was the most secretive organization of the church. A murmur, at this point, swept over the hall. Victor knew everybody was as surprised and intrigued as him and believed that this was probably the hidden history once only known to the royal family. Soon, the story caught Victor's attention.

It was rumored that a disastrous war broke out every 400 years. When the war started, a bloody moon would appear in the sky, and many enemies would creep out of hell and crush the mankind. For the sake of the human race, witches offered their blood to warriors and obtained incredible power. This was the truth of the God's Punishment Warriors.

To make sure this plan was successful, witches established the church and started to select potential warriors. The main character of this movie was a witch, and she was also the succeeder of the current pope. Another main character was the pope's guardian, the commander of the Judgement Army.

Like the majority of plays, the two main characters, after overcoming the initial prejudice and hostility against each other, finally fell in love. The witch and the guardian promised to each other than once there was a succeeder to take over the pope position, they would attend the incarnation ceremony for the God's Punishment Army and never part again.

It was such an ingenious stroke that Kajen Fels told this beautiful love story in such an emotional, unobtrusive manner. The excellent performance of the actors from the Star Flower Troupe further moved the audience. Tinkle even wept when she saw the couple make vows.

However, the situation suddenly turned for the worse. The guardian's father, having a strong desire for power, framed the pope and usurped the throne. The witch, as a candidate for the next pope, naturally became the first obstacle he was going to remove. He thus asked his son to kill the girl, but the guardian refused his request with inflexible determination.

It was a scheme that the usurper had conspired for a long time. When the couple discovered the consipiration, it was too late to change the situation. The couple thus decided to flee Hermes and inform the king situated at the foot of the plateau of this incident. However, the guardian's father sent soldiers to catch them. Apparently, he was determined to kill the young man and the woman.

The movie reached its climax when a battle broke out at the Coldwind Ridge in Graycastle.

A unit of the Judgement Army soon caught up with the witch and the guardian. it seemed that the two unfortunate lovers were doomed.

When the tension between the two parties became almost unbearable, something incredible happened.

"Please, help us! Please!" the guardian yelled, panting, and suddenly turned around. He grasped Victor frantically. Victor felt a coldness steal through him, and he shuddered uncontrollably.

It took him all his efforts not to cry out loud!

"They're there! Get them!"

"Anyone who resists us will be viewed as their accomplices. We're going to kill all of you!" the soldiers shouted, their arms aloft in the air.

"I, I'm not..." Victor said with great difficulties, his throat dry. Words failed him, and the Judgement Warriors had already pulled the trigger.

An arrow brushed past his cheek!

At the same time, Victor felt a sting.

His hand rubbed on his cheek tremulously and he peered down at this fingers.

There was a faint hint of crimson on them.

Chapter 1215 - The Reoccurence of the Legend

Farrina, surprisingly, found that her last straw had not fallen upon her yet.

It was hanging by a thin thread only a few feet above her.

The story portrayed by the magic movie was very similar to the "truth" disclosed by the ancient witch, only that it did not repudiate the church totally. When Farrina saw the main characters make all their efforts to save the church and shoulder the responsibilities of fighting against the enemies from hell, she felt a warmth long since forgotten wash over her.

Her hand balled into a fist when she saw more than half of the executives conspire against the pope, and had a sudden urge to beat them into the ground.

These people forgot the initial purpose of establishing the church and turned the church into a hideous monster.

What she loathed the most was that these executives kept the existence of demons from the public and people who were dedicated to saving the world like Tucker Thor. These faithful warriors did not die for a noble cause as they had believed. Instead, their death merely became a tool that those obnoxious leaders used to keep a firm grip on power.

Farrina should not have put her faith in a church like that.

She did not understand why the King of Graycastle did not reveal the dark side of the church. Wasn't it a perfect opportunity to further criticize the church and wipe it off people's memories?

Or was it because he had never taken the church seriously?

While Farrina was dealing with a multitude of thoughts in her mind, the soldiers from Hermes caught her attention.

For a person who had completely lost hopes, nothing could really perturb her mind. However, now, Farrina was touched, and her power slowly came back to her.

As one of the best soldiers in the Judgement Army, Farrina could sense even the slightest change in the surroundings.

She felt the ground underneath began to quaver.

The ground shook as the Judgement Army drew near.

Farrina had lived in Hermes for five to six years, so she was familiar with the pattering of horse hooves against the ground. She could instantly tell the number of the soldiers and how far they were without even looking at them.

There were 16 horses, two units of troops.

But she knew her feeling was not real. The magic movie was just an illusional image. Even though it felt so real, it was still not reality. As she was totally merged into the surroundings, all her senses had sharpened.

Farrina realized something had changed!

Then she could again feel her body.

"What happened?"

But something more incredible occurred.

She saw other people who were watching the magic movie rise in front of her.

Including Joe.

"Farrina, what the..." Joe asked blankly as he turned around.

Suddenly, a sense of evil foreboding possessed her. Farrina made an abrupt snatch in the air but caught nothing. The chair underneath her had disappeared.

"Please, help us! Please!" the guardian and the witch pleaded hysterically. They had now noticed the audience and started to run toward them.

"The traitors are here! Get them!"

"Anyone who resists us will be viewed as their accomplices. We're going to kill all of you!"

A few more arrows cracked through the air, and people at the front fell.

Most viewers were board members of Chambers of Commerce or members of a prominent family who had never experienced a war. For a second, they were all framed to the spot.

"Damn it!" Farrina swore. What were those witches doing? Was she hallucinating? Farrina would have shouted "This is a nasty snare set up by the witches. Everyone, follow me" in the past to calm down the audience. However, she fought down the urge, pushed Joe aside and rushed up to the front before all the audience. She yelled, "Stop! I'm the commander of the Vanguard Battalion of the Judgement Army, Farrina! Who are you?"

The soldiers reined their horses and asked, "The Vanguard Battalion? How come I've never heard of it?"

"Oi, what's your commander's name?"

"The Great Priest of the Prival Council, Sir Tayfun," Farrina lied. In the meantime, she put her hand at her back and gestured the couple to hand her a weapon.

"What?" Hearing Farrina's answer, the leader of the unit hesitated.

The guard wavered as he heard the name "Prival Council". Apparently, this secretive organization had quite a deep influence on church members. Yet Farrina knew it would not completely stop them. The Priest was obviously not as influential as the new throned pope.

She must fight before the other party did!

Unfortunately, the guardian did not really understand her gesture. He simply shuffled toward her with a sword in his hand.

"Why aren't you wearing the armor of the Judgement Army?" the soldier asked as he got off his horse and motioned his men to come with him.

"Because we're on a special mission," Farrina said placidly.

"I'm sorry. I must bring the traitors back to Hermes. This is the pope's order. Also, I must take you as well. I'm sure Sir Tayfun would understand it."

"Is there no alternative?"

"No," the soldier said resolutely while placing his hand on the hilt.

"Alright, I'll come with you," Farrina sighed. "As for Sir Tayfun..."

"What's the matter with him?"

"He's dead — only 300 years later." At these words, Farrina quickly drew out the guardian's sword and thrust it through the unit leader's helmet.

Blood spilled all over her.

"C-captain!"

"Kill them!"

Farrina grabbed the unit leader's weapon and fought fiercely against the other soldiers. The guardian finally realized what was happening and also joined her.

"This woman is — so difficult to deal with!"

"Darn it! Where's my bow? Shoot her!"

"Don't let the witch go!"

It was total chaos. Many people fell to the ground, and the audience goggled at the screen, flabberghasted.

Farrina knew there was no chance of winning since she was not wearing an armor. They had 16 people whereas there were only two of them. It was a matter of time that she got injured.

Soon she was wounded, but the pain searing through her did not slow her down. On the contrary, she fought even more ferociously.

For the first time since she had waken up, Farrina felt contented.

"How dare you defy the church!" the soldiers bellowed.

"The church? No... you don't deserve calling that name!" Farrina said while glaring at them. "It shouldn't have been like that. You destroyed it. You failed us!"

She would soon end up dying here, but somehow, Farrina was satisfied with this ending. In that split second, she had finally become the type of person she wanted to be.

However, death did not come.

A few gun shots cracked through the air over the clatter of swords. Farrina turned around and saw the men in black who had been guarding the yard suddenly appear in the magic movie. Their situation immediately changed. The enemies seemed to be frightened by those reinforcements. They got on their horses and soon disappeared in the mountain range, leaving the bodies of their fellow companions behind.

"Thank you..." said the wounded guardian and the witch as they limped to Farrina. "I thought my father has completely controlled the church, but I didn't expect that there were still loyal warriors like you."

"I thought there was no hope, but God hasn't abandoned us," the witch said while raising her tear-glazed face and smiled at Farrina. "You not only saved us but also the entire human race."

"I..." Farrina opened her mouth but did not know what to say.

"We're going to Graycastle next and tell their king about the coup that occurred on the Hermes Plateau. We hope it's not too late," the guardian said solemnly. "Run! Never come back to the Holy City again. We'll meet again once the church's mistake is rectified. Take care, my friend!"

Light gradually faded out as the couple disappeared from her view.

When the light was on again, Farrina found herself still sitting in the hall on her chair.

Even her wounds as a result of the battle had disappeared.

Was she really hallucinating?

"Good Lord... this is amazing!" The hall exploded into a tidal wave of applause as the audience came back to the present.

"Good heavens! I feel I'm changing the history..."

"What a brilliant masterpiece. I would be willing to pay 100 gold royals to watch it one more time, let alone 50!"

"You scared the hell out of me when you rushed to the front," Joe said while patting his chest. "It's so amazing to conceive such a story and make it so lifelike..."

Farrina did not answer, but she noticed the men in black looked around nervously with guns in their hands, as though something out of their expectation had happened. Two other theatre staff members dashed to the backstage, looking equally flustered.

This did not look like a great success at all.

Farrina held her breath, trying to figure out what was going on based on the few signs she had discovered. Suddenly, she heard distant explosions and people cry and execrate, but these voices were overpowered by the heated discussion in the hall.

This did not look right.

Farrina realized that something was wrong here.

She rose to her feet abruptly. Under the surprised gaze of Joe, Farrina passed the audience at the back and ran out of the room.

"Stop! You... hold on!" the men in black yelled, attempting to stop her, but it was too late.

Farrina ran across the yard and reached the street outside.

Neverwinter was in a state of chaos. Many people were running and shouting. Several residential areas had caught a fire. She heard more explosions in the industrial zone, and the whole city seemed to be out of control.

What scared her most was something above.

Darkness pressed in, and the sun had vanished into the thin air. A huge crimson moon appeared in the sky like a giant eye that snapped open.

Chapter 1216 - A Chain Reaction

Not only Neverwinter citizens saw the Bloody Moon.

Margaret was standing at the bow of the "Snow Wind" early this morning while gazing at the distant ocean. It had been 66 days since they had crossed the Sealine. Ocean waves rushed toward them, high at one time and low at another. Their movements were almost the same as the waves at the Shadow Waters thousands of miles away as if the two types of waves shared the same origin.

If the Swirling Sea did have a source, it must be the greatest discovery in the history of time.

Margaret was confident that the ocean waves would lead her to her final destination, and she also put great faith in the "Snow Wind".

The "Snow wind" did not require a sail to proceed against gusts of wind and rushes of rain. Since the ship was colossal, they could put plenty of food and water on it. Thanks to this robust and sturdy iron ship, not a single ship fell behind in this expedition.

She believed that Thunder would definitely make some spectacular discovery during this journey.

"Any luck?" a familiar voice said to her from behind.

Margaret turned around and said smilingly, "If I did find something, I would have informed the lookouts perched on the mast. So, you should have asked them first."

The person who was speaking to her was none other than the captain of the fleet, Thunder.

"I don't think so," he said brightly. "Perhaps they've found something already but are too shocked to say anything."

Magaret stifled her laughter. She knew Thunder was referring to what had happened when they had crossed the Sealine. When the horizon became vertical, even the most experienced sailor had failed to react promptly. Everyone had fallen off the watchtower as the world had turned upside down, their legs too shaky to support them.

Seasoned sailors would normally cling to cables and masts in the event of a storm to prevent themselves from falling off the ship. However, the Sealine rendered all the common senses they had useless.

Thunder said while shrugging, "According to my intelligence, the Chambers of Commerce would later change their lookouts. They'll have the boldest person on their ship to serve as a lookout. Shame on them."

"Really?" Margaret said while shaking her head. "But I believe after the experience at the Sealine, nothing could really perturb them anymore."

"Who knows?" Thunder said while patting Margaret on the shoulder. His voice suddenly lowered. "Don't worry. Joan will be fine."

Margaret's smile faltered. She nodded resolutely and said, "Yes, she was born to live in the ocean. I'm sure we'll meet her again somewhere soon."

Being optimistic was an important ability for explorers. Margaret knew worrying would not help with anything. What she should do was to pull herself together and move on.

"By the way, the meeting is about to start," Thunder said after a moment of silence. "The other captains are already there. Come to the cabin with me."

"Okay, got it."

All the captains gathered to discuss the route, the status of their ships, and resources. They held this meeting every three or four days to make sure the whole fleet was on the right track.

Just at that time, Thunder and Margaret noticed that the seawater was suddenly awash with a sheet of a strange red color.

The sailors on the deck were all frozen to the spot, gaping at the far distance as if seeing something incredible.

A little farther on, several people fell off the mast and to the deck, as though they had seen the Sealine again. It really surprised Magaret.

Weren't they the boldest people on the ship?

Margaret turned around slowly, and the next moment, all her blood froze.

A gigantic, crimson round celestial object hung low over the horizon, far larger than the sun. It just came out of nowhere!

"In the name of Three God," Margaret mumbled. "Is this what His Majesty called the Bloody Moon?"

But Thunder did not speak. It was such a terrifying scene that even Thunder failed to formulate a proper answer.

A long whistle pierced the air.

It was the "Snow Wind".

The shriek of the ship shattered the dead silence and jerked everyone out of the trance.

The whistle indicated there were enemies!

Margaret and Thunder exchanged dark looks and ran toward the bridge.

"What happened?" Thunder yelled as he darted into the command room.

"There are... ships," his first mate stammered, "coming from the southeast... toward us...

"What?" Thunder said. He quickly snatched the telescope from the first mate and looked in the direction the latter had pointed out.

Margaret's heart sank to the bottom. They were now thousands of miles away from the Shadow Waters. They hardly saw any birds around this area, let alone ships.

This was a new sea never intruded by human beings!

She thus got a pair of telescope from another sailor and looked in the same direction.

"My god..."

Margaret gasped. Two shadows were floating on the surface of the water. They had no sail but were proceeding against the water. What was more horrific was that the seawater around them was boiling, as though numerous fishes were coming with them.

However, Margaret soon noticed that what seemed to be fishes were actually the last thing explorers wanted to see.

They were sea ghosts.

Their fins slid in and out of their views. Sometimes, they leaped out of the water, throwing a splatter of water that reflected off the sinister red sheen of the Bloody Moon, which reminded Margaret of a pack of sharks vying for food.

"On my order, all the ships turn about!" Thunder yelled. "Full sail! Advance in full sail! Everyone, ready for the war!"

"Yes, sir!"

"We've got trouble..." the captain of the "Tuna" swallowed hard.

"May the God of Ocean bless us," the other captains all prayed.

Fjords people knew that no ship could outstrip a sea ghost, which meant their enemies would soon catch up with them.

Their situation worsened every minute.

As the two shadows got closer, Margaret saw what they looked like. They were half in the shape of a ship and half a skeleton of a monster, something that would have only appeared in one's nightmare. Their ribs exhaled clouds of dark green objects, and they were now only a dozen miles away from them!

When the dark green object fell into the water, the ocean stirred. Apparently, nobody wanted to be hit by such an ominous thing.

Thunder remained unflappable and issued another order. "Abandon all the food and supplies. Keep half of the drinking water only... No, just keep 30% of them and accelerate!"

Astonished, Margaret said, "Then we won't be able to explore."

"And it's probably not going to be enough for us to return to Neverwinter..." the first mate said hesitantly.

"We could fish and collect rain." Thunder took a sharp intake of breath and said, "However, if we could not outrun those sea ghosts and monsters, we'll all end up dying here. The exploration is over. Now, our goal is... to survive!"

Chapter 1217 - Doomsday (I)

In the Snow Reflection Castle in the Kingdom of Everwinter.

"Your, your lordship... the Army of Graycastle retreated!" When a guard rushed into the castle hall and reported the news, all the nobles rested their eyes on him.

"Are you sure?" Earl Marwayne asked as he stood bolt upright.

"I'm positive. More than one scout has confirmed that," guard said while nodding vigorously. "Some people saw them empty their campsite overnight and also abandon a lot of food."

"They're... finally gone!" exclaimed the earl who burst into a roar of laughter. His heart instantly lightened. A month ago, Graycastle men had suddenly appeared in the Kingdom of Everwinter and soon taken over many port cities. They accepted neither their surrender nor presents but started to evacuate the cities immediately. Their barbarous behavior was even more outrageous than the church's. At least, the church would provide them with an opportunity to negotiate.

The reason provided by the Graycastle men was also quite ludicrous. They claimed that the Bloody Moon would bring swift destruction to the kingdom. Therefore, everyone must leave as soon as possible. This was the land passed down by generations, and the earl would not allow anyone to take it away from him. Neither the church nor Graycastle could do that!

"Your lordship," a withered, ancient scholar said oily, "the so-called full moon, sickle moon, dark moon and Bloody Moon are simply astronomical phenomena. They appear every now and then. If they believe that it omens ill, then let them do so. As long as your lordship holds onto this land, they can't do anything about it."

"That's right, the treacherous precipices around the Snow Reflection Castle will protect you from any invasion."

"We won't yield even if the Graycastle men are willing to negotiate."

"The church threatened you first as well, but in the end, they had no choice but to promote you to bishop."

His other henchmen all rejoined.

Earl Marwayne became more and more confident. As he gazed at the sinister Bloody Moon that had emerged three days ago through the window, his fear gradually dissolved into gratitude. Had the Bloody Moon not appeared just in time, the Graycastle men would have continued to advance, and he would have definitely lost his precious Snow Reflection Castle.

Although the earl had heard that those barbarians rarely attack or interfere with a city ruled by a noble, taking away his people was intolerable.

If all the surrounding cities were evacuated, who could he rely on during the Months of Demons?

Like his henchmen had said, this city was his asset. It was to the north of the king's city, situated among precipices. The gaps between the city and the precipes were around a few miles to hundreds of meters wide, connected by suspension bridges. These gaps were actually wide enough to house a few castles.

His ancestors picked this isolated land to build their castle because this area was well fortified. In fact, the Snow Reflection Castle had never fallen. Even though the Church of Hermes had conquered the entire Kingdom of Everwinter in a very short period of time, they had never managed to drive their army into the Snow Reflection Castle. Instead, they had sent ambassadors to negotiate with the lord and promised him that he could continue to rule this land as long as he pledged fealty to the church. This was what a normal person would do.

That was why the earl maintained his silence for such a long time, hoping to sell the city at the best price.

However, he could not accept Wimbledon's conditions.

Earl Marwayne did not think that the demons referred to by the Graycastle men would invade his castle. The towering cliffs were natural defense. However, he needed surrounding towns and cities to provide him with resources. Without people, his current stockpile would be exhausted eventually.

Fortunately, these Graycastle men all fled when they saw the Bloody Moon.

"Mr. Zac, what should I do next?" Marwayne asked the old scholar.

"Haha, of course we should launch an attack at them," Zac replied while stroking his long beard.

The earl stiffened. Attacking was a completely different story. He would have never defied the King of Graycastle had he not had this geographical advantage.

"Rest assured. I'm not asking you to attack the Graycastle men directly. However, you could seize the territories they looted. Look, the scouts said the Graycastle soldiers are scattered around. Each unit only contains around 100 soldiers. How many resources and supplies could they take away with so few of them?"

Marwayne's eyes glistened with excitement. He said, "You mean..."

The scholar nodded smilingly and said, "Those people who left with the Graycastle soldiers must have left a lot of their possessions behind. If we trace them down, we could probably retrieve some resources."

For example, food that was not easy to carry along.

Marwayne thus summoned his Chief Knight in excitement. While he was about to issue an order, a guard suddenly burst in and yelled, "Your, your lordship... there's a demon... outside the castle!"

"What demon?" the earl asked while scoffing at him. "You believe the nonsense those Graycastle men said?"

"P-pray forgive me, your lordship, but it..." the guard stammered in a hollow sort of voice. "But it isn't human indeed!"

Not human?

Everyone looked one another in bewilderment.

Marwayne's heart leaped to his throat. However, as the lord of the Snow Reflection Castle, he must maintain his composure.

The earl thus put up a straight face and said, "Well, take me there. Let's see what it actually is. I'm very curious about what the creatures living in hell look like."

...

With that being said, Marwayne still put on his best armor and took the largest God's Stone of Retaliation with him before he ascended the city wall. A dozen guards erected "a wall of shields" in front of him.

He felt hugely relieved when he saw the demon. The demon was, as his guard had suggested, alone.

It was standing on a protruding rock instead of the city wall. The rock was a little taller than the wall, right in front of which was the fathomless abyss. The patrolling knights had already ordered their squires to set up catapults and were ready to shoot their arrows.

After studying the demon for a while, Marwayne noticed that it was indeed not remotely human. The demon had hands and feet, but it had a much larger build than an ordinary man, its skin blue, with protruding veins running underneath. The biggest difference lay in the tentacles that sprouted from its cheeks, chin and elbows. Marwayne was disgusted about those wriggling tentacles.

To his surprise, the demon's eyes were shut as if it was sleeping. Marwayne did not feel it threatening at all.

Marwayne wondered if the demon's visit was really the result of the Bloody Moon, but he soon convinced himself that this was a pretext the Graycastle men used to persuade ignorant villagers to leave the country. This monster definitely had nothing to do with the rumored doomsday. He just needed to ask his soldiers to shoot arrows, and then the demon would be dead.

At this thought, Marwayne took a deep breath and yelled, "Listen, you filthy, revolting monster! I'm the lord of the Snow Reflection Castle, Marwayne Caso. You illegally entered my territory. If you want to live, on your knees and surrender. This is your only choice. Otherwise, the icy abyss beneath will be the place you find your perpetual peace!"

Marwayne did not think the demon understood him. His hot statement was more like a demonstration of his own bravery than a warning to the demon.

If he scared away this demon that the Graycastle men were afraid of, then he would definitely rise to fame.

"My patience is limited. I'll count to five — five, four!"

In the meantime, Marwayne motioned his soldiers to get ready to shoot.

"Three..."

The demon's eyes snapped open. It bellowed, "Enough!"

Its voice pierced the air like thunders and rang off the precipes. Numerous icicles fell off as the cliffs shook. Marwayne felt the ground was about to shatter. There was a ringing silence, and he took a few steps backward in terror and fell to the ground.

Chapter 1218 - Doomsday (II)

This monster... could speak human language!

The earl was reddened to temples when the guard helped him up. He had intended to exhibit his authority and valor in front of the demon to impress the other nobles. He had not expected, however, that the demon would uncover his carefully disguised gallantry with just one single word. What was more mortifying was that the demon was alone.

"Damn it. I must kill this monster!"

Marwayne raised his hand while gritting his teeth. He was about to order the soldiers to shoot when the old scholar suddenly stopped him and blinked. His lips took shape of a silent "stay put".

It took the earl a few seconds to realize that he should not lose his composure at the moment. Since the demon could talk, there was a possibility of negotiation and communication. Considering the situation was uncertain at this point, it was unwise to resort to force. The earl realized that the rumor circulated by the Graycastle men did cloud his judgement, for he had also, for a split second, viewed the demon as his enemy.

Perhaps, the demon came here alone as an ambassador.

Why did he take no action in the first place but stood upon the city wall while doing nothing?

If the demon was ferocious like what Graycastle men had said, it should have raided the surrounding villages unprotected by the city wall a long time ago.

The more Marwayne contemplated the matter, the more convinced he was. Had he killed the ambassador, he would have bred enmity with the demon, which was exactly what the Graycastle men wanted.

However, the earl found it hard to change his hostile attitude so quickly and sit down to talk in an amicable manner, for just a moment ago, he had commanded the demon to kneel down.

Fortunately, the old scholar understood the earl's dilemma. He stepped forward and said, "Impertinent! If you can speak our language, why didn't you tell us the purpose of your trip? Our lord kindly gives you another chance to speak. What's your intention of coming here?"

Marwayne praised the old scholar internally. He had paid 10 gold royals for the service of this former butler at the king's city.

"Before I answer you, I have a question for you," the demon said placidly. "What's your relationship... with the human beings on the Fertile Plains."

The Fertile Plains? Where was it? They exchanged confused looks, utterly bemused.

But Marwayne was now very sure that this monster was an ambassador.

"I don't know where the Fertile Plains is," the old scholar replied again. "One place may have different names in different parts of the kingdom. We are of different races, and we may have very different ways to call a city. Bring a map, and I may tell you where it is."

"No, you humans came up with this name, and I'm just borrowing it." The demon then shook his head and said, "I see... I can't believe you're still like hundreds of years ago where each lord circled out their own territories without knowing anything about this world. I was expecting to see you yield to your fate in disbelief, terror and despair, but it seems that I was wrong."

What did it mean? What monstrous absurdity it was talking about. The earl frowned. For a moment, he seemed to capture a faint hint of disappointment in its horrific countenance.

"Are you referring to... the Graycastle men?" the Chief Knight suddenly asked.

"Yes?" the demon said while looking toward him.

"They've been saying that demons will creep out of hell when the Bloody Moon appears. They're gone now," the knight said contemptuously. "If you go after them now, you may be able to catch a glimpse of them at the port in the east."

"Really?" the demon said as it gazed upon the east, and then turned around again. "I'll go, but not now. Since you know nothing about the Fertile Plains, then I'll cut the crap."

"I'm the Sky Lord, the commander of the Western Front Army. Thousands of years ago, your race and my race made an agreement to fight against the witches and their underlings. Your ancestors agreed to serve us. I granted them land, power and wealth. This contract has yet been terminated. It won't terminate until the war ends. You, as the descendants of your ancestors, should continue to serve us," the demon proclaimed in a booming voice. "Now, I command you to offer this city in accordance with the terms set out in this contract and serve me!"

Earl Marwayne gaped. This demon was crazy! Who cared about a contract signed 1,000 years ago? He would not even take a contract after a lapse of two years seriously. What kind of stupid commander of the Western Front Army was! What kind of commander would come in person alone? This monster was out of its mind!

"What if I disagree?" the earl said defiantly. His patience was exhausted.

"Death will let you yield," the demon who called himself the Sky Lord said. "Look, this is your fate."

The earl looked up and saw the distant mountains had been enveloped by a thin mist. It was not the mist he normally saw in the Impassable Mountain Range but a horrendous, crimson one. The earl was not sure if it was because of the Bloody Moon or it was the color of the mist itself.

Another peculiar phenomenon he noticed was that the red mist did not float in the air but slowly flowed down the mountains, forming a hazy "waterfall".

Was the demon waiting for this moment?

Marwayne felt a jolt of uneasiness at the pit of his stomach. He cast a glance at his equally disturbed knights and squires and knew he must take action now.

"With you alone?" the earl said through clenched teeth and gestured his soldiers. "I've given you a chance. Kill it!"

The knights and guards finally pulled themselves together. They immediately released the arrows, which whistled in the air and streaked toward the demon.

However, not a single arrow hit it.

Everyone goggled incredulously. The demon dived into a black hole and vanished from their sight.

"Damn it. It has magic power," the Chief Knight said in a low voice. "Then how's it different from the witches?"

"No worries. We're all wearing a God's Stone of Retaliation. Magic power won't hurt us!" Marwayne yelled as he clutched the pendant in front of his chest. "Find and kill it!"

"The d-demon is there!" a guard shouted.

Within a second, the demon had flown over the abyss and landed silently on the street behind the city wall.

The earl was alarmed when he saw that the demon could instantly pass the precipes. Now, he was more certain that this dangerous monster, whether it was an ambassador or not, must be exterminated. After all, it was alone. "Shoot the God Stone arrows. Treat it as a witch! 100 Gold Royals for anyone who could kill it!"

As all the knights and guards charged at the demon, the demon slowly raised its arms.

The next moment, a "black screen" around hundreds of meters wide appeared abruptly behind the demon and blocked the street and houses like a wall.

What was it playing at? Was it planning to hide?

However, the earl soon found the answer.

Thick Red Mist suddenly flooded all over the black screen! Then a group of monster he had never beheld rushed out of the screen and clashed with the knights who dashed forward. The God's Stone did not help at all. The knights were thrown into the air by the howling monsters before they landed heavily a few meters away. The knights coughed out blood, their chests sinking. Apparently, there was no chance for them to survive.

Nevertheless, this was just the beginning of the nightmare.

More monsters came out of the black screen, bowed to the Sky Lord, and joined the battle. Every monster was far stronger and larger than an ordinary man. Soon, they gained the top of the city of wall and began to slaughter the soldiers. The soldiers were torn into pieces, their blood and broken limbs flying in all directions.

Within seven or eight minutes, the city had been filled with painful groans. Many people were heading to the city gate, in an attempt to escape but they were stopped by the icy abyss.

Marwayne felt his legs give away. He staggered and fell to the ground. This time, nobody came to help him up.

His guard had been ripped apart by the demons.

His precious Snow Reflection Castle, the land passed down by generations that he took pride in, fell.

The air was heavy with pungent Red Mist, and this city had completely become a living hell.

Through the Mist, the Bloody Moon appeared to be even more gruesome.

The earl now understood what a doomsday looked like.

The end of Volume II: The Battle of Doomsday

Chapter 1219 - The Investigation of the Abnormal Phenomenon

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

The Police Department was stirred. Everyone was busy issuing orders and making reports. The appearance of the Bloody Moon became the latest topic of discussion, and the whole organization went on a sort of "rampage".

The Police Department kept close watch on the new king's city of Graycastle where Roland lived. They make records of every single trivial matter that occurred in the king's city, and certainly a major event like a fire or an explosion would be big news.

Carter Lannis had not slept for two days. After calming down his frightened wife, he immediately devoted himself to work. As the Chief Knight, he was obligated to protect the king and eliminate anyone who attempted to stir up trouble. Usually, multiple incidents implied an active underground criminal group. Therefore, he sent for the Neverwinter Detective Group at once to assist with the investigation. Carter believed that he would soon get to the bottom of it and find out the culprit.

However, after he submitted a number of reports, the king founded a Joint Investigation Team comprised of the Witch Union, the Security Bureau of Kingdom, and the Administrative Office to investigate the new magic movie instead of the crimes in the city.

"Sir, we brought the witnesses," a knight whispered to Carter. "Would you like to start the interrogation now?"

Carter drained his teacup and said with a firm nod, "Yes, let's get started. Send everyone in."

"Yes, sir."

Since they were making an inquiry to witnesses rather than prisoners, the interrogation took place in an office so that the witnesses would feel more comfortable to come forward with information. Apart from Carter himself who joined the Joint Investigation Team, Ms. Agatha and the assistant director of the Security Bureau, Vader, also took part in the investigation.

The first witness was a 21-year-old maid working in a hotel. She was not an official Neverwinter resident and had no criminal records.

She looked pretty nervous, for she kept rubbing her hands against the chair.

Carter cast a glance at the materials he had regarding this maid and asked sternly, "You're Miss Tinkle, right? I'm curious. The ticket price for the premiere of the movie 'The Dust of History' is 50 gold royals. How are you able to afford it?"

"Sir, I didn't steal or rob!" Tinkle explained hotly. "My customer, Mr. Victor, has a lot of money and he paid for me. There were many people in the hall that day, and I swear I'm not lying!"

Carter had conducted a background check before this interrogation. He reiterated the question simply to pressure the witness to tell the truth, as Miss Nightingale was not here to help him detect lies. Carter thus said, "Victor, right? I'll question him later. Now, let's talk about what you saw after the movie."

"Yes, sir..." the maid answered tremulously. "I didn't know what had happened at that time. Everything seemed so unreal."

15 minutes later, Tinkle finished her story. "Fortunately, the police repelled the soldiers. Otherwise, I couldn't imagine what would have happened to these two people."

Carter frowned. He had also watched the magic movie. "The Wolf Princess" was quite impressive but it was definitely not something so strange like that.

"Are you sure that the soldiers' weapons hurt the audience?"

"I... No, I'm not sure, but Mr. Victor did bleed, and I heard other people scream. I don't think they were faking this up."

"Do you remember when this happened?"

"About 10 minutes before the ending? Possibly even earlier than that... Sorry, I was too scared at that time to watch the movie, so Mr. Victor held me in his arms."

"Do you have anything else to ask?" Carter asked the other two investigators.

Agatha said thoughtfully, "If I remember correctly, the characters in the magic movie talked to you, right?" She then held up a picture and asked, "Is he this person?"

It was an actor from the Star Flower Troupe, who played the guardian of the witch in the movie.

"Yes, it's him. I remember very clearly that he thanked us!"

Carter felt a chill run down his spine. He knew that once the filming was completed, nobody could modify the contents of the movie. It was impossible for the characters to communicate with the audience.

Seeing that neither Agatha nor Vader have other questions, Carter waved his hand and said, "Bring in the next witness."

The statements of the other witnesses were pretty much identical. In short, the magic movie had suddenly become alive. Although they later confirmed that the incident was just a part of the movie, it did occur in real life. As multiple people gave the same story, Carter judged that this was not a hallucination.

Carter had been focused on the fire and explosion before, so he had not paid much attention to the incident in the movie theater. Now, he somehow understood why the king wanted to investigate this matter.

"The next witness is a police officer who was guarding the yard when the incident happened. He's the captain of Team No. 2."

"Let him in."

The captain was apparently more composed than the other witnesses. He quickly related the story. "I first heard someone cry for help outside. When I was about to get into the theater, I saw a red moon in the sky. To be honest, I was a little hesitant at that moment, as I didn't know whether I should remain in my post or help those people. Just at that time, a witch ran out of the theater and asked me to bring my men and protect the audience."

"And then you shot the soldiers in the magic movie?"

"It sounds very strange but that's what I did. They're probably just actors, but at that time, they did pose a real threat to the audience. I didn't think I was hallucinating, so I immediately fired."

The second last witness was the witch who broadcasted the movie on that day, Nightfall.

"What could I do? I was desperate. Normally, whoever has excess magic power would activate the Sigil of Recording. How do I know that this would happen?" Nightfall ranted. "Everything went well at first. Then, suddenly, the Sigil pushed me out. I should have immediately cut off the magic power but it didn't stop. I wanted to wake up the audience, but they were in a trance. Anyway, I did all I could. At last, I had no choice but to seek the police for help."

Agatha twitched her lips and asked, "The Sigil... pushed you out?"

"Pretty much like that. I felt a great force repelling me. The more magic power I put in, the greater this repulsive force was. Then, everything went back to normal."

"Alright. Next."

Carter was momentarily stunned when the last witness came in. The witness was none other than the screenwriter of the movie, Kajen Fels.

His hand clenched in a fist as soon as he sat down.

"In the name of God, this is definitely the most brilliant play I've ever watched in my life!"

"You were in the theater at that time?" Carter said while knitting his brows. As Kajen had once argued with Carter's wife, Carter did not like this famous screenwriter very much. "I looked at the list of customers. You were not on there."

"He was at the backstage. There are special seats for staff members. In fact, the members of the Star Flower Troupe didn't need to buy tickets to watch the show. Didn't your wife tell you that?" Agatha supplied the answer. "Actually, Kajen reported the incident to me and that's why His Majesty asked the Witch Union to investigate the matter."

"I apologize, but this is a personal habit of mine," Kajen said while placing his hand on his chest. "I like to watch my own play secretively so that I would know how my audience like the show. Ms. May knows it so she didn't tell you." Kajen's voice was again alive with excitement. "I have to admit that this is a miracle in the history of magic movie, because the audience changed the ending!"

"What did you say?" Carter asked in surprise.

"You heard it right, Mr. Knight. This wasn't my story!" Kajen Fels said eloquently while flailing his arms. "The original story has a sad ending. The guardian acts as a decoy to protect the witch. He then falls off the cliff. However, the audience saved them both. Is there anything better than that?"

The Chief Knight goggled at Kajen.

"I didn't write those lines. The audience created this spectacular ending. Like the characters in the movie said, the audience saved them and altered their fate!" Kajen gradually raised his voice. "This is the ultimate play that I've been trying to create for my whole life. If you find out the reason why, please tell me, please!"

Chapter 1220 - The Origin of the Story

Roland had the most hectic week since his ascendence to the throne.

There had been various subtle indications that the Bloody Moon would arrive a lot earlier than usual, and he had been preparing for that day for a long time. However, unlike what the church had predicted that it would appear in 10 years or as the Taquila witches had anticipated in two to three years, the Bloody Moon emerged above the Western Region right after the implementation of the immigration policy, so suddenly that its appearance had caught everyone offguard.

And that was not the end of it.

A week ago, various urgent reports had been sent from numerous cities to Roland informing him of the abnormal astronomical phenomenon. It seemed that nobody had seen the Bloody Moon approach the city. The Bloody Moon appeared to have always been there, being invisible to people until very recently.

Roland found that he had developed this "Bloody Moon Complex". Whatever he was doing, he always had a tendency to turn to the window and daze at the Bloody Moon outside. The moon was enveloped by a red haze but was not completely obscured. Roland sometimes had an illusion that the Bloody Moon was also gazing back at him.

According to the Union, the emergence of the Bloody Moon meant the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will, which Roland had been preparing for over the past few years. However, when it was actually time to fight, he felt everything become somewhat surreal. No news came from the Fertile Plains, and he had not heard anything from the scouts in the north either. Neverwinter appeared to be the only city affected by the incident. The Administrative Office sent in a report every half an hour, but none of them was relevant to the demons.

"Your Majesty?" Nightingale's voice jerked Roland out of the trance. "You're staring at the sky again."

Roland blinked and was suddenly back to the present. "Ah... sorry. I couldn't help — "

Nightingale fed him a piece of dried fish and cut across him, "Don't apologize. There's nothing wrong with staring at the moon. You've been exhausted lately. I'm happy that you take a break every now and then. Do you want my company? Since the Bloody Moon has something to do with the Divine Will, let's study it together."

Amused, Roland took the dried fish and shook his head. Nightingale always had ways to justify her eccentric behavior. He replied, "I have a lot to do. Keep an eye on me. You mustn't let me slack off. Understood?"

Nightingale twitched her lips and went back to her couch.

Roland took a deep breath and returned to the stack of reports on his desk.

The Bloody Moon seemed to have caused more trouble than the demons. According to the statistics from the Administrative Office and the Security Bureau, there had been four fires and 16 crimes in Neverwinter in the past one week. Anna had also reported 21 deaths in the plants caused by malfunction of machinery. More than 500 people were injured, and 90% of injuries had occurred within 24 hours of the appearance of the Bloody Moon. This was the most chaotic moment in Neverwinter in the history of time.

At first, Roland had thought the Bloody Moon induced panic to the masses. However, after he analyzed the patterns of all these incidents, he found it was not that simple. Therefore, he asked the Joint Investigation Team to further investigate the matter, and the result was quite surprising. Those incidents were actually caused by the fluctuation of magic power brought about by the Bloody Moon.

The reports submitted by Agatha detailed the chain of events.

The Bloody Moon had appeared at around 5:35 PM. All the devices driven by magic power in Neverwinter were, more or less, affected. For example, the ending of the magic movie "The Dust of History" had suddenly changed, and the audience had failed to distinguish illusions from reality. The electric circuits in the industrial zone were overloaded, and some machine tools powered by Dawn I stopped working. The most serious accident took place in Machinery Plant 1. One old boiler suddenly exploded, and hot steam burned the workers. Subsequent investigation showed that due to the outdated technologies, the boiler had been posing potential safety hazards for a long time, although Candle had, at one point, remoulded some of its important parts, including its valve.

Testimonies from multiple witnesses proved that order had been re-established in 10 minutes. The various accidents further created chaos and made many people believe that the demons were invading Neverwinter. Although the plant workers had all received emergency training, the evacuation did not go very well. The death toll would have probably continued to increase had Neverwinter not established an advanced public health system. Meanwhile, Nana's contribution to reducing the death was also phenomenal.

Roland had thought the Union had known that such things would happen upon the emergence of the Bloody Moon, but the truth was that none of the Taquila witches had heard about it. It appeared that the previous two appearances of the Bloody Moon did not bring such a huge impact on people's daily life, as magic power had not been widely used among the public back then.

Considering that people still suffered from the aftermath of the incidents, and nobody knew whether there would be a second round of magic power fluctuation, workers in the plants conducted a thorough inspection and removed all the outdated machines. The Administrative Office also prepared a new contingency plan, which included how to stay calm upon emergencies. The term "magic-caused accident" was used in official documents for the first time.

As for the magic movie, it was broadcasted again in the theatre after a brief suspension that had lasted for three days. The public went crazy for the movie, and the theater was packed with people who had heard about what had happened during the premiere. Practically everyone came for the movie, in a hope of "changing the history". Even though the magic movie now followed its original storyline, the masses were still quite frenzied.

This was probably one of the very few pieces of good news in the past one week.

Nonetheless, the multiple accidents deterred Roland from using the Cube-powered steam engine right away. He wanted to first figure out whether the fluctuation of magic power occurred only upon the appearance of the Bloody Moon, or it actually caused continuous events during the whole period of the Battle of Divine Will.

If it only occurred when the Bloody Moon appeared, he was totally fine with that. Roland wanted to defeat the demons, and both Dawn I and the Magic Cube were the key to the victory. They also played an important role in the industrialization of Graycastle. Once the public benefited from these two types of machines, they would soon get addicted to them. However, if the fluctuation would continue to exist until the end of the war, Roland would have to take the potential risks into consideration.

Just then, the telephone rang. It was from the Administrative Office.

Normally, only the director, Barov, would use this line.

Roland heaved a sigh and picked up the phone. "What's the matter now?"

"No, Your Majesty..." Barov said hesitantly. "Astrologer of Dispersion Star just burst into my office and told me that he made a major discovery about the Bloody Moon. He hopes... No, you must come to the observatory and see it for yourself."

Chapter 1221 - The Nonexistent Bloody Moon

As far as Roland knew, the Chief Astrologer was a man of honor and responsibility. Although he had not made any particularly extraordinary contributions to the astronomical research, he had founded the Arithmetic Academy and trained many students. He also assisted with the statistical analysis. In a sense, he extended the influence of the Astrology Association and expanded this old organization into one that could rival the Society of Alchemists.

Dispersion Star had come to apologize multiple times for his negligence and failure to predict the premature appearance of the Bloody Moon. However, as Roland had been too busy with various events lately, he had dismissed him. Nobody ever anticipated that the Bloody Moon would appear so early, and Roland had never intended to rely on the Astrology Association to predict the Bloody Moon. He used their service simply because these scholars knew arithmetics.

The word "must" alarmed Roland. Dispersion Star would have never used such an almost impertinent word had this not been an emergency. Therefore, Roland immediately headed to the Arithmetic Academy in the south of the city after he hung up.

The so-called observatory was only an attic of the Arithmetic Academy. The astrologers used this little attic as their temporary observatory before they moved to the top floor of the Miracle Building. Since the construction of the Miracle Building had taken longer than planned, Roland had made them a large telescope and transformed the attic into a revolving observatory so that they could continue with their astrological work.

Dispersion Star and the other astrologers had been waiting for Roland for a while. They soon went to their knee as they saw Roland come in. "Your Majesty," they chorused.

"Please rise," Roland said as he waved his hand casually. "Let's jump into the business. What did you find?"

"Your Majesty, please follow me," Dispersion Star said solemnly as he led Roland to the attic at the top.

Roland immediately saw that the floor was littered with drafts and drawings. He believed they were the calculations of the orbits of various stars. In fact, Roland only knew very little about astronomy. After having obtained basic knowledge of physics and mathematics through two years of studying, these astrologers had now surpassed him.

Dispersion Star followed Roland into the attic, leaving the other astrologers outside. The moment the door was shut, Roland noticed that the old Chief Astrologer was wearing an extremely grave expression as if he were about to make his last will.

"Roland..." Nightingale muttered as she tugged his sleeve.

Roland nodded in comprehension. He knew Nightingale would protect him if he was in danger, but he was curious as to why the discovery alerted the astrologers so much.

"Your Majesty, we've been observing the movement of the Bloody Moon these days, as well as its change," Dispersion Star finally spoke after a moment of silence. "Since we failed to predict its appearance, we would like to make amends for our previous faults. We wanted to calculate its size and where its star district is. That's the duty of the Astrologers Association. However, the discovery horrified us."

Horrified? Roland's brows contracted. This was not the word he expected to hear. "What do you mean? Get to the point."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Dispersion Star obeyed in a low voice. "The Star of Extinction is probably a hoax. The Bloody Moon... doesn't exist."

Roland was stunned. He turned around and looked through the window involuntarily. The crimson sphere was still aloft in the air, as sinister as ever.

"Are you saying that the thing over there... doesn't exist?"

"I couldn't believe it either when I made the conclusion. On the contrary, I found it quite amusing. However, gradually, we started to take it seriously," Dispersion Star said after a sigh, and his voice became more confident. "Yes, Your Majesty, it doesn't exist. According to the materials passed down to us and your books, we're positive that the giant star over there doesn't affect other stars."

"When we drew the star chart and calculated the orbits of the other stars in the star district where the Bloody Moon is situated, we found not a single star deviate from its course, which means that the Bloody Moon doesn't affect those stars at all, nor does it affect us."

"In addition, there's no change in its own movement either. Before, the Bloody Moon was stationary in the sky, which indicates that it was moving at the same rate as us. But now, it's still stationary, despite that it's so close. That doesn't make sense."

Roland immediately understood what the old scholar meant. "If we remove it from the sky..."

"Then it'll explain everything," Dispersion Star replied while nodding. "Only when it isn't there will everything on the earth looks normal. In other words, wherever the Bloody Moon is, it won't make a difference to our world."

Roland fell silent.

Now, he understood why the Chief Astrologer had been hesitant. The legend of the Bloody Moon and its relationship with the Battle of Divine Will were solely hearsay stories from the ancient Taquila witches without any solid proof. As the headmaster of the Arithmetic Academy, Dispersion Star had also heard about those witches. If it turned out that the witches were all lying, the discovery would probably jeopardize the healthy relationship between the witches and the king.

But Roland completely trusted the witches. He enjoyed helping Celine conduct research and taking the God's Punishment Witches to the Dream World. Even if they lied, Roland would still like to be with them.

At least, the demons did exist.

"Are you positive?"

"Your Majesty, I wasn't until I received a letter from one of my friends in the old king's city this morning," Dispersion Star said as he produced a piece of paper from his pocket and spread it open. There was a drawing of the Bloody Moon. "As he observed the moon from a different location, the calculation might be a little different. My friend used to be a noble, but he's very interested in astronomy. Therefore, I asked him to calculate the star district from another location. His calculation is very different from ours. It isn't even a minor error. That means that the Bloody Moon is stationary everywhere. It's not only stationary in relation to this area but to the whole continent!"

Roland's heart skipped a beat.

"Your Majesty, it isn't possible that a physical object remains stationary in relation to everything!" Dispersion Star proclaimed slowly.

Roland suddenly remembered the red speck in the Dream World. It was always the same no matter how he viewed it.

In the Dream World, it had a different name.

Erosion.

Chapter 1222 - The Promise of the Divine Will

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty... Your Majesty?" Dispersion Star's voice startled Roland.

"Er..." Roland rubbed his forehead and said, "Does anyone else know about it?"

"Only astrologers named after a star know it. The students in the Arithmetic Academy don't know," the old scholar said as he knelt down.

Roland now understood why the astrologers were all wearing a stern expression as though they were facing a death sentence. Apparently, they believed that Roland would kill them to prevent their betrayal of the horrific truth about the Bloody Moon, for the real purpose of founding this Astrology Association was to explore the Star of Extinction, which was a secret that only the royals were entitled to.

These astrologers were expert in political games, so they naturally knew the consequence of their discovery. Roland was impressed with their caution and loyalty. He shook his head and said, "You did a great job. Don't tell anyone about it. Keep up with the good work. Continue to manage the Arithmetic Academy and forget about astrology. Compared to something that doesn't exist, helping with Neverwinter is apparently more important."

With these words, Roland left the attic, leaving the stunned scholar behind.

"Let's head back to the castle," Roland said in a low voice.

He walked in a even more brisque manner than when he had come and almost broke into a trot.

"Do you think the astrologers are telling the truth?" Nightingale asked as she revealed herself.

"I don't know... I just have a hunch," Roland said. "It doesn't mean that the Bloody Moon doesn't exist. Perhaps, it's something else..."

"Something... else?"

"For example, a pit."

Roland had never given much thought about the Bloody Moon. It was giant because it was close to the earth. For example, the Jupiter observed on io took up two thirds of the sky. People here called this object a moon simply because it was round with a soft glow.

If this was an Erosion, then it could be a square or a polygon.

Nightingale asked in confusion, "Are you saying that the sky is cracking?"

"It may be even worse than that, but I have to find it out first."

"How?"

Roland cast her a glance and answered, "By dreaming."

...

Although it was not yet his typical sleeping hour, nobody had forbidden Roland to enter the Dream World during the day. This time, he did not inform any of the God's Punishment Witches but only asked Nightingale to guard him.

"We'll meet upon the appearance of the Divine Will."

Roland had had no idea what the Divine Will was. Now, he suddenly came to the realization that the messenger was not referring to the time in the Dream World but that in the real world.

It was incredible that the messenger knew the true nature of the Dream World and even had knowledge of the real world. The messenger could probably even sense the change in both worlds. All Roland's suspicions seemed to have been confirmed when Dispersion Star had said "the Bloody Moon doesn't exist". Both the "Battle of Divine Will" described by the executives in the Prism City and the anonymous book led Roland to the same conclusion.

"What are you going to eat for breakfast?" Zero asked him, with a toothbrush between her teeth as she stood in front of the sink.

"I'm not having breakfast today. You can eat alone!" Roland shouted without looking back. He pulled on his coat briskly and rushed out on his slippers.

The alley below the apartment was alive with people. The breakfast booths where deep-fried doughs and buns were sold were surrounded by students and young professionals. The residential area was teeming with the raucous voices of yelling vendors and the sizzling sounds of the deep-fried doughs.

The only place that seemed to immune to all these noises was the Rose Café.

The coffeeshop was like a loner slinking outside the mainstream community. When Roland took out the key and opened the door, he could see the vendor across the street cast him a pitiful and scornful look that people typically afforded to an idiot.

Roland took a deep breath and went straight to Room 302. The shop was on the ground floor, but Roland insisted the room number to be 302. It was a a little strange, but he did not care about it.

Since Roland had been busy dealing with the incidents in Neverwinter, he had kind of forgotten about the Dream World for a while. Therefore, when he pushed open the door, he felt, surprisingly, a little nervous.

Roland did not care about whether the messenger would be able to get into the closed shop. As the messenger could send a message to him through the champagne glass, he certainly possessed some extraordinary power. Perhaps, the messenger would pop up somewhere out of nowhere abruptly.

Roland took a deep breath and put his hand on the doorknob.

The shop was empty.

Apart from a table and four chairs, there was no further furniture. Certainly, there was no hiding spot either.

A little disappointed, Roland slowly walked to the table and sat down.

Was he wrong?

Then he realized that the messenger was not an apparition after all, who could travel from one place to another in a split second. Perhaps, he should wait for while.

But Roland became more and more uncertain.

Could the messenger really find this place that had just opened a month ago? What if he was waiting at another place?

Could the note be a hoax that had nothing to do with the Divine Will in the real world?

Roland had not a shred of evidence to his theory.

Apparently, it would not be that easy to solve the problem.

When Roland was about to leave the shop, suddenly, the bell rang.

Clink and clang.

"Welcome to — " Roland's words rested on the tip of his tongue. The God's Punishment Witches did not come with him this time, and Garcia would not visit his store very often either. No customer should come here considering the absurd prices listed outside. When Roland opened the door, he saw a familiar figure outside the shop.

Roland had seen her twice.

He had met her during the orientation for new martialists in the Prism City.

He had also met her in the Reflection Church in the old Holy City of Hermes.

Roland remembered this face.

"I didn't expect that you would open a coffeeshop here and name it 'Rose Cafe'. I thought you didn't find that note."

Lan said.

Chapter 1223 - Lan

Roland was a little surprised to see Lan, although he had somehow predicted that she would come. He asked, "Who are you exactly?"

"A person who needs help," Lan said while looking around. "I understand you have a lot of questions for me. We can sit down and have a chat. Let's sit over there by the window."

"Don't we need to go to Room 302?" Roland asked as he watched Lan take the seat.

"The reason I asked you to meet me here is to avoid curious ears. Since nobody's here, just take a seat you like," Lan said casually. "By the way, as this is a coffeeshop, can I have an ice coffee?"

"I thought you were disclosing a big secret to me, so I've been very cautious, making sure that nobody will overhear us."

"A secret will only become a secret when the eavesdropper recognizes its value. I monitor the Erosion underground every day and do need to take a break from time to time," Lan said gracefully. "One ice coffee, please."

Roland gazed at her for a second and then grumbled, "I only have instant coffee here."

"That's fine."

Roland was a little frustrated to see Lan act as if she were the owner of the shop. He added some milk to the coffee and put two ice cubes in it. His eyes were glued to Lan during the whole process.

"Rest assured. I won't disappear," Lan said while shrugging.

"I don't know about that," Roland said, his eyes fixed on Lan resolutely. "I once asked Garcia to contact you and went to the Prism City twice, but you vanished. Why didn't you talk to me? Why did you just leave me a note?"

Lan lapsed into a short silence before she answered on a sigh, "Because we weren't ready yet at that time, child."

Weren't ready? A little astonished, Roland pursued, "You mean you've been waiting for me to find out about the Bloody Moon, well, the Erosion myself?"

"You're quite smart. I now expect more from you."

"Expect what from me?" Roland grunted. "You don't look like a person who needs help."

"Then what should I do to convince you? Do I have to beg and cry for your help? Or you want a reward from me?" Lan said while shaking her head. "No, I don't think you'd trust me even I did so. That'll only push you away."

Roland wanted to joke around, saying "You never know", but somehow the words abandoned him. Lan was much older than Garcia. She was the Chief Disciple of the Defender of the Martialist Association, the senior of his senior. If she was really the person in the Reflection Church, she was probably 700 to 800 years old, a historical figure, so to speak. At this thought, Roland put up a more serious look.

"Alright..." Roland said as he sat down across the table, and went over the questions he had in his head. "Were you a member of the Union?"

"I have nothing to do with your world," Lan replied. "I was born here and will also die here, although it's won't happen until many many years later."

"But I saw your portrait in the Reflection Church — "

"That's nothing," Lan interrupted Roland. "It's just a historical record that doesn't really say anything."

"But what are the odds that you and the person in the picture look exactly the same!" Roland argued while knitting his brows.

"If you think further, there are many coincidences in the history. Compared to dwelling on something in the past, you'd better focus on the present."

Roland knew Lan might be pretending. Without Nightingale, he could not tell whether she was telling the truth or not. There was no point in keeping arguing with her, so he immediately changed his question.

"So, what's magic power exactly?"

Lan's lips curled into a smile. She said, "You probably have already known it. Nothing in this world could explain it because it doesn't belong here. Low lives don't have the capability to understand higher animals. What we know now is that we can use it. Therefore, you could view it as 'a power we obtain by accident'."

From Lan's words, Roland judged that magic was like the Force of Nature, or perhaps simply another form of the Force of Nature. Because of magic power, the Dream World became the way it was. Roland thus asked, "So the book, 'Raison d'être', you mentioned in your speech during the orientation in the Prism City, and your deduction were all true?"

The most two pressing questions Roland had now were the nature and origin of the Erosion and the reason for the endless Battle of Divine Will.

"Not really, but you could think that way," Lan said quickly.

"I want to know the truth."

"It's beyond the scope of your understanding, and it's impossible to describe it in your language," Lan said after sipping the coffee. "Plus, everything I do is under God's watch. If I give away any information that'll potentially endanger Him, both of the two worlds will be destroyed. Hence, please remember that the truth is what you understand."

Roland twitched his lips in amusement. Lan could have directly told him that she would rather lie than tell the truth.

"He can destroy the two worlds?"

"That's why we call Him God. It's the closest word to describe Him in your language."

"What does He want?"

"To keep the Battle of Divine Will going."

"What's your relationship with God?"

Lan fell silent and then replied hesitantly, "I betrayed Him."

"Betrayed?"

"Yes. The war will continue, and I don't want to be stuck here forever. A new cycle means another round of loss. God will eventually exhaust His power. By that time, both worlds will be devastated."

Roland stared directly into Lan's eyes before he asked, "So, why did you come to seek me?"

"I need your help, child," Lan said and gazed at Roland. "I want you to stop the Battle of Divine Will and put this cycle to an end."

"You mean to win the war?"

"No, that'll start a new cycle," Lan said while shaking her head. "I want you to stop everything and replace God!"

Roland was astounded. He had never anticipated that.

He took a deep breath and said, "Sorry, I'm afraid I can't help you."

"Why?" Lan asked. Her expression finally changed.

"I don't know whether you're telling the truth. You admit that you could only give me some evasive answers to avoid raising God's suspicion. Sometimes, one single word could mislead a person. What if you lie to me? You betrayed God once, and you can certainly betray me," Roland said while spreading out his hands. "I'm not good at taking risks. So, look for someone else to replace God."

"If you could help me — "

"Don't," Roland interrupted. "You said there was no reward. You told me a reward would make things worse."

Lan fixed her eyes onto Roland for about 10 minutes before she conceded, "No, I changed my mind."

"I'm determined," Roland said as he rose and poured himself a coffee. "An empty promise doesn't mean anything, although it sounds pretty nice."

"You should at least let me finish."

"I've told you — "

"I can bring Ashes back to life."

"Crash!"

Roland was aghasted. The glass in his hand slipped through his fingers, fell on the floor and broke into pieces.

Chapter 1224 - The Remedy

"How do you know her?"

Lan said placidly, "Although I was born here, it doesn't mean I know nothing about your world. Have you heard of the 'Realm of Mind' or the Origin of Magic?"

Roland immediately thought of Kabradhabi's statement. His hand that was going to reach out to the broken cup on the floor paused in the air for a second. Then he suddenly threw himself over the table and asked Lan in a low voice, "Is she in the Realm of Mind?"

"Of course not, but she left a mark in the Realm of Mind. Anyone who has sufficient power will leave a mark in the Realm of Mind." Lan paused for a second before she resumed, "I know what you want to ask about. You want to know how to bring her back to life and then do it yourself. You also want to know how to stop the Battle of Divine Will. However, I have to tell you that we don't have much time."

"What do you mean?"

"People will eventually fade out of the Realm of Mind. This process is irreversable. Even if you know the method, you probably won't have enough time to suit the action to the plan, and this isn't the worst scenario yet."

"What's the worst scenario?"

"The Dream World has intruded God's mind, and He won't let things keep going like this. "In other words, when God believes that nothing could put things back on track, He'll destroy the two worlds. The situation is even more pressing than you think, and that's why I made up my mind to persuade you," Lan said slowly. "Child, help me, and you'll be also helping yourself."

"Sounds quite convincing," Roland commented sarcastically. "But you just said that the truth was what I understand. In other words, you can be lying to me right now, including the part about bringing Ashes back to life."

Lan heaved a deep sigh and leaned against the chair. "You can think that way as well, as I don't want to give you false hopes. I did so because I do want you to trust me."

Roland fell silent.

For Roland, it was a tough choice to make.

Lan's argument was quite solid. Roland had indeed heard a lot about the threat to the Dream World from the magic creature. He was certain that these magic creatures aimed to destroy this world. After hearing Lan's explanation, Roland believed that those creatures were actually God's "underlings".

However, he could not trust Lan completely without confirming the validity of the information himself. All the information that Lan had just related to him regarding the potential harm to God was just her version of the story. It might be totally wrong, and Roland could not jump to the conclusion based on false information.

However, he had not enough time to verify himself.

Under such circumstances, the only way was to take risks.

Roland closed his eyes and remembered that Tilly had cried her eyes out that night. He had noticed that the painful loss had dimmed the light in her eyes, as though a gemstone once dazzling was now incubated in a light sheet of dust. Some people maintained that such a change marked spiritual maturity. Only when one truly lost something would he began to cherish what he used to have. Roland dismissed such an absurd theory. A mature person would never allow himself to lose what he cherished and certainly would not let himself wallow in pain.

If he could bring Ashes back to life, he would do everything he could to attain his end.

Roland suppressed his excitement and put up a perturbed look as he sat down again across the table.

"I can't trust you just yet. I need to hear how you're going to bring her back to life?"

"It doesn't conflict with what I want you to help me with. In fact, they're actually the same thing," Lan said slowly. "First of all, you have to get into the Realm of Mind in both worlds simultaneously. Otherwise, we won't be able to proceed."

Roland asked in surprise, "Two worlds? Hang on, are you saying that the so-called Origin of Magic does exist?"

"That's right. It's not something intangible but a physical entity. It's entirely different from the hollow created by the Erosion," Lan replied while nodding. "In fact, it's at the north end of the Land of Dawn, and we call it the Bottomless Land."

Roland's heart skipped a beat. He had heard this word somewhere else.

"But the demons have taken over the north. You know demons, right? They're my enemy in this Battle of Divine Will."

"I can't help you with anything regarding the other world. God forbids me to interfere with the Battle of Divine Will. You must find a way out yourself," Lan said flatly. "Beat them and get to the Bottomless Land. If you fail, then it'll be over."

That was why Lan said even if he knew the method, he wouldn't have much time to achieve his goal.

Roland pondered for a while and then said, "Alright. I'm going to wipe the demons off the face of the Land of Dawn anyway. Then how to get to the Realm of Mind in the Dream World? It's not a real world after all, so it won't be that hard, right?"

"Before I answer you, I want to ask you something," Lan said as she looked through the window. "Do you really think that this world is a fake one?"

Roland stiffened for a second and also rested his eyes on the people outside. There were fewer people now on the street after the rush hour. Many vendors were taking a rest, and some were ready to head back home in contentment. Others were reading newspaper while smoking cigarettes.

Now, the students and young professionals were all gone. The elders started to come out and head to grocery stores. When they passed the Rose Café, they cast contemptuous glances at the shop and exchanged murmurs with a derisive air.

Roland knew that if he went out there and argued with them, these elder people might retort fiercely. The verbal altercation might also attract many curious, gloating onlookers. Roland certainly did not want to become the center of an improvised show.

He found it hard to admit that this world was real.

"How to define reality?" Lan murmured absent-mindedly. "Must a living being have a physical body? If this entity has consciousness and emotions, isn't it enough to be alive, even though it's in the form of energy?"

"Well, I think it is."

Lan turned around and said, "Then protect this world. Once it's destroyed, everything here will disappear. It'll be a greater loss than anything in the other world. If you lose this Dream World, then you'll be shut out from the Realm of Mind forever."

"Is the entrance to the Realm of Mind in this city?"

"Actually, you're in the Realm of Mind right now," Lan corrected him. "This is the Realm of Mind."

Roland's eyes were wide open.

In other words, his body was still in Neverwinter, whereas his mind was at the Bottomless Land in the north of the continent thousands of miles away?

Chapter 1225 - The Remedy (II)

"Is this also the result of magic power?"

"Yes. There are so many types of magic power that I just can't explain every single one of them. It's a power that transcends the four fundamental forces, the ultimate solution to the great unification, if that makes sense to you," Lan explained mildly. "Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that you can enter God's territory and interfere with the Battle of Divine Will. This world is an independent one. It's protected by a thick membrane. That's why I can sit here and talk to you."

For some reason, Lan's explanation reminded Roland of bubble blowing. Among those floating bubbles, one of them housed the Dream World. He then asked, "Then how do I penetrate it?"

"The same way the magic power enters our world — through the Erosion."

"Er... could you tell me more about it?"

"You should have already noticed that this world has changed a lot," Lan resumed, and Roland could feel his heart beat frantically in his chest. "At first, it was just a reflection of your mind, but there are now many things you've never seen before. The change started when you began to collect the Forces of Nature."

"You even know that?" Roland exclaimed in surprise.

"I've been wandering about in the Realm of Mind since I was born, so I can sense even the most subtle change." Lan continued, "Listen, child. Both the Dream World and God's territory are driven by magic power. We call it the Force of Nature. When you continue to collect them, this world will expand and overlap with God's territory. That's the reason why Erosions appear."

Roland had heard about this theory during the orientation. He thus said, "As far as I know, the Martialist Association has collected many cores of the fallen Force of Nature. If you want to collect as many of them as you can, why not just support the the Fallens?"

To Roland's surprise, Lan did not object his proposal but simply summoned a bitter smile. "Unfortunately, I'm just the Defender's student. I can't take you to the central hub in the Prism City."

"You don't mind turning against the Association?"

"If it could stop the Battle of Divine Will, I won't. Once the Battle of Divine Will ends, there'll be no Erosion in the Dream World, so in a way, I'm still helping the Association. But that child... She'll be very disappointed, for she has put so much faith in you."

Lan suddenly put up a very regretted look as she said these words.

Was she referring to Garcia?

Roland was a little surprised that Lan had such a deep affection toward Garcia. As a God's servant, she should have lived hundreds of years, and nothing should have been able to perturb her mind.

Was she acting or was she actually too involved in her role?

"Well, this isn't the only way." Roland wanted to get some coffee to ease up the tension in the air when he suddenly realized that the cup was already broken. He thus withdrew his hand and said, "You also said that I have to enter the Realm of Mind in the two worlds simultaneously, right? Perhaps, by that time, we would have had enough cores. The only problem is that how I am supposed to know that the Dream World has already overlapped with God's territory? We can't really enter God's territory from the Erosion in the Prism City, can we?"

"Of course not. The hollow created by the Erosion there is the area of nothingness in the Realm of Mind. It's completely a different thing," Lan said while nodding. "As for when the Erosion will affect God's territory, you'll know when that day comes. However, this will also mark the beginning of the destruction of the two worlds. Therefore, you must find a way to the Bottomless Land before that."

"And then?"

Lan shook her head.

It appeared that Lan could not disclose any more than that, otherwise she would bring harm to God. Nevertheless, there was also a possibility that Lan chose to hold the information back intentionally. Roland had now a basic understanding of what he should do. In fact, he had planned to drive the demons out of the Land of Dawn and earn some extra income by killing the Fallen Evils a long time ago, so Lan's information did not really change much of what he was doing. The only change was that he now probably had to fight both the demons and the Fallen Evils at the same time.

Roland was not certain what he would encounter at the Bottomless Land. Lan did not say anything about that. If this was a trap, the only part where Lan might lie to him was when she asked him to replace God.

Roland did not think God would surrender after he penetrated the Realm of Mind. Since everything sounded so vague to him, he had to proceed with extra caution.

Another question that bothered Roland was that why she chose him.

As far as Roland could see, Lan could totally pick someone else to help her. Although Lan looked like human, Roland was certain she was not any ordinary woman. Human beings had been defeated once. Given that, she could completely pick a demon or someone in the Sky-sea Realm to achieve her goal.

According to Lan, the north of the Land of Dawn where the Bottomless Land was situated had been taken over by the demons. Kabradhabi had also confirmed that the enemy in the Sky-sea Realm was quite overpowering. The demons apparently had a hard time keeping their land. These two races were obviously far more powerful than the mankind. In a sense, they were almost halfway through the mission.

Roland was not yet that arrogant as to believe that he was the only person who could leave a mark in the Realm of Mind.

At least, Zero had that power too. Dimly, Roland had a feeling that the Battlefield of Soul was a demonstration of the power struggle in the Realm of Mind.

The Dream World originated from there.

He thus asked, "I bet... that I'm not the first person you sought help."

Lan replied immediately, "Yes, I turned to someone else for help as well over the past thousand years."

Roland felt his chest constrict. He pursued, "Also including demons?"

"I don't know much about the other world. After I left the Divine Land, I lost my power of connecting with other servants, but I can tell you that I'm not the only traitor."

"Who's the last person you talked to regarding this matter? Zero?"

"The Dream Courier, Alfina. She lived 869 years ago."

The name was unfamiliar to him. Roland asked, "None of my preceders succeeded?"

Lan sighed, "You probably think it's pretty easy for us to talk face to face like this, but the fact was that they didn't even manage the first step, which was to stablize themselves in the Realm of Mind and establish effective comunication. Also, I had to phrase the matter in a way that made sense to them. In other words, they had to understand what I was saying. Only in that way would the message be successfully delivered. The more they understood, the better reply they could formulate. This rule applied to both you and the demons."

"Like you have to share the same mindset?"

"Exactly. In fact, you're the first person with whom I can effectively communicate. Although I don't know where you obtained so much knowledge, far more than what this era actually needs, I'm glad I found you."

"Well..." Roland said hesitantly. "What if I fail?"

Lan said after a moment of silence, "I'll continue to wait until the next person appears. I'll wait until someone frees me, or until... God kills me."

Chapter 1226 - The Prison of the Heart

"What will the world look like when God is gone," Roland asked tentatively. "What will you gain from this? Are you able to leave the Realm of Mind and become a physical entity?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Lan said with a smile. "But regardless of the outcome, anything is better than being imprisoned here forever. At least, the future is filled with infinite possibilities."

Roland gazed at her for a while. There was not the faintest hint of uneasiness on Lan's countenance. She acted as if just making a very simple decision.

It appeared that he could not get anything more out of her, unless he brought Nightingale into the Dream World. Their subsequent conversation did not go anywhere either. Every time Roland asked about God, Lan kept her mouth clamp shut and reiterated that she could not help him with the Battle of Divine Will.

Lan told Roland that she could do nothing more than living here as a martialist and delivering him messages. According to Lan, there were various rules that governed the Realm of Mind. Even God might not be able to change those rules at His will. Because of such restrictions, Lan had finally found a chance to look for the person who could terminate the Battle of Divine Will.

Nevertheless, she would not be able to gain total freedom until the war was stopped. All the rules and restrictions still applied to her, and her work could be sabotaged anytime.

When Roland walked Lan out, he asked one last question.

"By the way, you said you didn't expect me to open a coffeeshop here. Is there another Rose Café somewhere in this city?"

"Yes," Lan said while smiling faintly. "It's in the Prism City."

"But I've asked Garcia..."

"The coffeeshop is in the central part of the city. It's only accessible to the executives of the Martialist Association. At that time, I already knew that the Association would license you, so you would be able to get there via your hunting license. However, you don't have the slightest interest in the Association, which really surprised me. You've never been to the Prism City since you got your license." Lan paused for a second before she resumed, "Also, for your information, the central hub where we store the cores of the Fallen Evils is located at the bottom level of the city. Normally, only the Defenders and their seniors have access to it."

Now, Roland finally understood why he could not find the Rose Café. It was actually a coffeeshop exclusive to the executives of the Association.

"So where shall we meet again next time? I mean if we plan to meet again, which coffeeshop? Now there are two Rose Cafés."

"This one would be better," Lan said as she looked up at the towering apartment building. "Garcia should be living here, right? It's not a bad idea to visit her every now and then. I would probably... like it here a lot."

"Probably? She doesn't know her likings?" Roland thought to himself, his brows raised, but he remained silent.

Then they parted, and Roland saw Lan gradually disappear from his sight.

Roland leaned against the shop door while revisiting their conversation.

Both the Dream World and the real world seemed to be more understandable now. Words like magic power, Divine Will, the Realm of Mind, the Land of Dawn, and the Fathomless Abyss all became more concrete and made more sense to him.

While Roland was lost in thought, suddenly, he felt a queer quaver steal through him!

Roland looked up abruptly and saw a distorted, transparent wave sweep over the entire alley and soon ripple across the whole area.

What had happened?

He was surprised that the residents in this community seemed to be unconscious of the change, for they were still talking and laughing as if nothing had happened.

Roland almost thought that he was hallucinating.

But he knew, based on his past experience, that this was a change only visible to him. It was a fluctuation of power that he sensed when he collected the cores of the magic creatures. Roland clenched his fists. It was quite a pleasant sensation, but he somehow felt a little unsettled this time.

Did something impact the Dream World?

Lan was gone, and he had not obtained a phone exclusive to Association members from the Prism City. Otherwise, he could have asked her about it.

Roland thus closed the coffeeshop and returned to the apartment.

He had planned to disconnect the dream and go back to reality. However, when he entered Room 0825, he saw Zero's sneakers at the doorstep.

Roland wondered why Zero had not gone to school yet. He had been with Lan in the coffeeshop for over an hour.

To his dismay, he found the little girl lie on the floor. There were two broken glasses not far away.

"You gotta be kidding me..."

Roland strode over to the little girl and clasped her wrist.

He felt the pulse.

Then he noticed that Zero looked feverish, her eyes shut and her brows contracted, as though she was suffering a great pain.

Roland's hand reached onto Zero's forehead. It was burning.

Did she have a fever?

From where she fell, Roland judged that Zero probably had lost her balance when she was trying to clean the coffee table.

"Damn it. She was alright this morning."

But Roland was relieved that there was no Fallen Evils involved. The moment he had seen Zero fall on the floor, he had thought that God had come to seek revenge.

Roland thus held Zero in his arms, sped down a flight of stairs, and climbed into the mini van.

At this moment, Zero gained her consciousness. She opened her eyes and muttered, "I... broke the glasses... on the table."

"I saw it."

"S-sorry, I'll... pay you. I don't... want to go back to the countryside."

"Is she so sick that she's out of her mind?"

Roland put Zero in the passenger seat and fastened the seatbelt. "Stop talking," he said.

Then Zero suddenly stretched out her hand and spoke again when Roland was about to turn on the engine, "Don't go..."

Roland had never seen Zero, who always spoke to him in a defiant and almost trenchant manner, look so fragile and helpless. He somehow thought of what she had written in her diary. Perhaps, the fever brought about the most tender part of her personality. Roland did not know how her families used to treat her. At these thoughts, Roland heaved a sigh and said, "Don't worry, you still owe me rents. I won't let you go."

After receiving the confirmation, Zero closed her eyes, but she did not relinquish her grip.

It was already afternoon when Zero was hospitalized. Although the cause of the fever remained unknown, Zero looked a little better.

The doctor did not come until late evening.

"Are you really a martialist?

"Yes, what's the matter?" Roland asked.

"This isn't funny," the doctor grunted. "The girl isn't sick at all. She's simply awakened. Some people will indeed feel not very well when they're awakened, although it's not very common. Didn't the Martialist Association tell you about that?"

"What?"

"Awakened! What a mess. If there weren't a martialist in the hospital, I would have thought it's some rare disease," the doctor said dismissively. "You can go now. Take her home."

...

So Roland brought Zero back to the apartment building.

He let out a deep sigh as he stared at the white-haired girl curling up in his arms. As a former Pure Witch, it appeared that she was destined to have magic power. Fortunately, Zero was now living in the Dream World, so she would probably not make the same mistake as she had done in her previous life.

Darkness had now pressed in. The long corridor outside was bathing in a soft, warm glow. A few bugs flew toward the light source. When Roland approached Room 0825, he found, surprisingly, a familiar figure. It was Garcia. She was sitting at the doorstep while leaning against the door.

"What's going on today?" Roland wondered. "Everyone seems to come look for me." He had told Nightingale that he would only have a short nap. Now it was probably time for dinner in the other world.

"Hey," Roland greeted Garcia as he crouched down. "What brought you here? Did you lose your key and want to stay over?"

However, Garcia neither responded nor sneered as she usually did, and Roland realized that something was wrong.

All the words rested on the tip of his tongue when he saw Garcia's face.

It was glazed with tears.

"A large number of Fallen Evils attacked the Prism City. Someone who escaped told me that my master... my master stayed behind to protect others and was killed by the Fallen Evils..."

Chapter 1227 - The Fall of Prism City

Roland was stunned.

If he remembered correctly, Garcia's master was called Lan.

Which meant that the lady who had met him in the Rose Café this morning was... dead?

How could it be possible?

Even though Lan was bound by the rules in the Dream World, she was, after all, the Defender's student and should have the capability to deal with Fallen Evils.

The Prism City used to be a mine, so the main part of it was built underground. It was constantly guarded by the Awakened. How could the Fallen Evils breach the city so easily?

There were so many things that Roland failed to understand, but he managed to calm Garcia down. "Get in first."

Garcia rose feebly as if all her strength was gone.

Roland put Zero in her bedroom and gave Garcia a glass of water. The latter gradually regained her composure, although her eyes were still kind of out of focus, but she, at least, stopped crying.

Roland then noticed that there were six unread messages and a dozen phone calls. He scrolled down and realized that they were mostly from Garcia.

"Oh, sorry... Zero suddenly got a fever, so I had to go to hospital and left my phone here," Roland said in embarrassment. "What happened in the Prism City? How did you know that your master was killed."

It took a long time for Garcia to find her voice. After what seemed to be an eternal silence, Garcia finally broke out inarticulately, "I received an urgent message from C02 around noon, saying that something happened to the headquarters. He requested support from martialists from all over the world."

Roland remembered that C02 was the liaison officer for that joint mission he had attended a while ago. Now, he understood why Garcia had called him so many times, so he asked, "But nobody went there?"

Garcia should have immediately gone to the Prism City.

"Nobody was able to, because the Erosion in the middle part of the building suddenly expanded," she muttered. "Nobody knew how it happened, and the video camera didn't catch it either. C02 told me that by the time the Association realized it, the Erosion had already slashed the Prism City in half, and all the connection between the upper and lower floors were disrupted."

"The Erosion expanded?" Roland's heart pounded against his ribs like a frantic bird. If the Bloody Moon was actually the hollow created by the Erosion, it should have been able to appear anywhere, including the underground area. If the emergence of the Bloody Moon marked the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will, then could the expansion of the Erosion be another form of Bloody Moon?

"When did it occur? Do you know?"

Garcia nodded slightly and said, "Around 9:00 in the morning."

That was almost the same time he had seen that wave!

Was it a warning from the Dream World that the Erosion had begun?

"Then what about the Fallen Evils?"

"They... they came out from underground..."

Half an hour later, Roland finally had a full picture of the incident.

Noticing that the Erosion had reached the middle part of the building, the Martialist Association immediately decided to send reinforcements. The Prism City wedged into the ground like a giant awl. Although it was well fortified, there were also several drawbacks in its architectural structure. For example, they must constantly maintain the ventilation system to make sure that people on the lower floors could breathe easily. Apart from that, all the life essentials, such as water and food, had to be transported from the upper level to the bottom. Therefore, when the supplies were cut off by the Erosion, the staff at the bottom level might be in peril.

The most pressing task for the Association now was to find out how large the Erosion was and then reconnect the upper and lower level. The architects who had built the Prism City had indeed also thought about the possible disconnection and thus equipped the building with a few evacuation exits so that people could quickly escape the building in an orderly manner upon an emergency.

Since the Martialist Association figured out that the disruption was caused by the Erosion rather than an enemy attack, they soon withdrew the reinforcement request. At that time, the Defender and his students were all there in the building, and what the Association actually needed was the engineering team and paramedics, so the martialists did not come to rescue at once but waited for further instructions.

However, something out of expection had happened.

While everyone was going down through the evaucation exists, Lan and her team at Exit No. 04 were suddenly attacked by the Fallen Evils.

Later, somebody noticed that many Fallen Evils used to be their colleagues on the lower level.

It was quite shocking and incredible news. Nobody knew what had happened at the lower part of the building a few hours after the disruption. What they saw was a group of monsters with fallen cores transformed from ordinary staff members and martialists.

Most people at the lower part of the Prism City were elites of the Association. What had made them betray the Association within half a day remained as a mystery. However, the moment they had chosen to merge with the fallen cores, they were no longer human. Even Roland was astonished at the turn of the event, let alone the rescue team at the scene.

That was why Lan's team had been caught offguard.

It was a miracle that a few people managed to escape when the whole team was outnumbered and overpowered. However, the team leader Lan did not make it. Some Fallen Evils attacked her when she was trying to close a door.

At these words, Garcia started to sob again.

Roland handed her another glass of milk. After a moment of hesitation, he asked what concerned him most. He knew it was not a good time to ask a question like this, but he must know the answer.

Roland took a deep breath and said, "These are all what the survivers reported to the headquarters, right? Did anyone actually see it when your master was killed?"

Garcia would have retorted ferociously had she not been so perturbed and devastated. She croaked, "My master... my master blocked the switch that controls the door... Then she was torn to pieces by the Fallen Evils... Many people in her team saw it..." Her voice again perished into a suppressed sob.

"... I'm sorry," Roland sighed.

He did not know what would happen to a dead person in the Dream World. Would she return to the Realm of Mind or completely disappear? If God did control almost everything in the Realm of Mind, neither would be a happy ending. Without the protection of the Dream World, Lan, as a traitor, would definitely be punished severely.

Roland had a very good reason to suspect God, for this attack seemed to be targetting Lan.

And Lan was not the only person God intended to eliminate.

He wanted to tear down the whole Dream World.

"If you lose this Dream World, then you'll be shut out from the Realm of Mind forever," Lan's voice reverberated across his head.

It appeared that there was going to be a Battle of Divine Will in the Dream World as well.

His enemy, however, was neither the demons nor those in the Sky-sea Realm.

He would be confronting God directly.

...

"Hold on..."

She heard loud noises. Sometimes the noises were so far away, but sometimes they were suddenly so close.

What had happened?

She felt excruciating pain. It seemed that her leg was broken. She had never suffered so severe injuries before, not even at the upgrade ceremony.

For a split second, she thought of death.

"Ah, right, I'm dying," she thought. She felt that her body gradually turn cold, her mind drifting off. She felt hard to concentrate.

"Hold on..."

The voice drew nearer.

Was there somebody out there?

Strange... she had heard this voice somewhere before.

"Someone's still alive here. Can anybody help me remove this stupid stone?"

"She's hurt badly. Quick, move!"

"One, two, three!"

Suddenly, the weight on her was lifted, and she was transferred to a soft bed.

"Hold on. You'll be OK," someone talked to her from above. "The Association has sent for the best doctor and medical equipment. You'll be fine once you get to the hospital!"

"The Erosion expanded?"

"By the way, you came from Cargarde Peninsula, right? What's your name?"

"My... my name?"

"Yes, do you still remember it?"

She used all her strength to reply.

"... Valkries."

Chapter 1228 - God's Enmity

At the entrance to the Prism City.

The whole square was lit up, and the roar of machines rented the air. The rescue had lasted for nearly 16 hours, and the Defender, Rock, was waiting in the temporary tent for the latest news with a steely look on his face.

It was rumored that nothing could unsettle him. However, this was a mistake. Lan's death actually shocked him a great deal, and he blamed himself for not fighting the Fallen Evils. Yet he knew it was not advisable to lament the loss now. The first thing he needed to do at present was to find out what was going on at the bottom level of the building.

After Exit No. 4 was under attack, Exits 01 and 05 were also surrounded by the Fallen Evils. Fortunately, the rescue team there learned Lan's lesson and eradicated the enemies at a minimal cost, but the casualty rate was still astonishing. Like what had happened at Exit 04, all the Fallen Evils were transformed from the staff members at the bottom level. The death toll had reached 320, which was almost the total number of the staff members on duty.

Clearly, it would not be long before the Fallen Evils took over the entire bottom floor.

Rock did not know why those people would merge with the fallen cores within just a few hours of the breach. The Prism City was equipped with the most advanced emergency system. Even if the bottom floor was completely cut off, they could still sustain themselves for a while. They should have known that the Association would never abandon its members. As long as the exits were not blocked, they would soon be able to escape.

However, Rock currently had no time to give it much thought. He was only concerned about the status of the central hub. There were more than 3,000 fallen cores stored in the central hub. If those cores were released to the public, the consequence would be disastrous. There would be far more than 300 Fallen Evils as they were facing now.

"Mr. Rock." Just at that moment, a man in a suit came into the temporary headquarters and whispered to him.

"Are we really so unlucky?" Rock's face clouded over. The rescue team had just told him that the Erosion had suddenly expanded. There were two groups of touring martialists from Cargarde Peninsula currently in the Prism City. Since the Erosion had destroyed the middle part of the building, the floor closest to the Erosion slid into a hollow, and the two touring groups thus fell.

Based on the current situation, these tourists might not be able to survive.

"What should we do?" the man in the suit consulted. "Some celebrated martialists from Cargarde are among them. If we fail to handle this crisis properly, we may be caught in some diplomatic problem."

"Try to find them and save as many as we can. How do I know what we should do? It's something beyond our control."

"But the Defender from the peninsula may not listen to you..."

Rock lapsed into a short silence and said, "I see. Just hush this thing down. I'll ask the director of the Sky City to assist us."

As soon as the suit man left, a liaison officer came up to Rock.

"We've heard something from Exit 01! They've opened up a passage and are now going down!"

"Connect them to the main screen," Rock said in a low voice.

"Got it!"

After a brief noise screen, Rock saw what was going on at the front. From the shooting angle, he judged that the video footage was transmitted from the head-mounted camera that the team leader was wearing. The lighting down there appeared to be quite good, although a few lights were flickering. The emergency electric motor seemed to be working, so the elevator was still functioning. This could indeed save the rescue team a lot of time.

However, nobody cheered up at the scene. Everyone rested their eyes on a peculiar "red spot". The red spot was in an irregular shape, but it was perfectly embedded in the concrete like a piece of asymmetric artwork.

Rock knew this was definitely not a coincidence. Everything contaminated by the Erosion would disappear, including the Force of Nature.

It was this red spot that separated the Prism City into two parts.

"Forget about the headquarters," Rock instructed. "Go down to the bottom level and make sure that the central hub is intact."

The rescue team, after receiving the order, immediately went down. Fortunately, they did not encounter any Fallen Evils on their way. Rock did not see a lot of traces of fight either. The building was dead quiet. Everything was in a perfect order, as though the building was simply abandoned.

When the rescue team reached the central hub, everyone in the temporary headquarters gasped.

Rock clenched his teeth.

Another Defender named Furious Flames was slashed in half, its upper body clinging to the steel gate around 10 centimeters thick, all his clothes reduced to ashes. In the center of the steel gate was a huge, irregularly shaped hole, which seemed to be drilled out under high heat.

Apparently, Furious Flames had attempted to stop the invaders from entering the central hub but had failed.

This was definitely not the work of Fallen Evils.

It took the rescue team a while to open the gate. All the cores were gone.

There was a dread silence in the headquarters. Everyone dazed at the screen, horror-struck.

Rock clenched his fist even tighter. He knew that the staff at the bottom would not take the fallen cores for no reason. He ordered solemnly, "Get the surveillance footage. I want to see what kind of monster it was!"

His sonorous voice jerked the audience out of the trance. Since they had immediately switched over to the contingency power, the surveillance system still worked well. Despite a few broken cameras, most of the video footages was still there. The technical support soon inserted the spare hardware, and the video was transmitted to the big screen. All the executives in the headquarters were taken aback by what they saw.

The moment the Erosion had expanded, several blood clots had escaped from the red hollow and hit the floor. These clumps of blood wriggled and gradually transformed into human-shaped monsters. One of them had the ability to melt everything down. It instantly penetrated the floor and reached the bottom level. Another monster was even more terrifying. It immediately impaled a few martialists and turned them into puppets, making them look like inferior Fallen Evils controlled by the Force of Nature.

Within half an hour, the bottom level was breached. People who were alive all merged with the fallen cores in a daze and became their enemies' puppets. After that, the monsters "devoured" the rest of the fallen cores and created a passage in the central hub before they vanished from the camera.

It was Rock's first time witnessing such an incredible power. The fact that the Erosion generated new Fallen Evils horrified him.

He somehow thought of the joint mission last time, where the survivors had told him about the monster coming from the "man-made Erosion".

It appeared that the Erosion, which they used to believe could engulf everything, had changed.

Also, he sensed the blatant animosity from the Erosion from the way those monsters attacked the central hub and the people.

But Rock believed that as long as all the martialists worked together, they would eventually find a solution to eliminate these enemies, no matter how powerful they appeared to be. The most important task now was to raise the morale and not let the fear conquer them.

"Everyone, just as you've seen, this isn't an accident. The Erosion is invading this city!" Rock announced as he straightened up. "It sounds quite strange but that's the truth. Let me make it clear. This is a war! They aim to take this world! I'll contact all the other Martialist Associations immediately, and we should unite together and exterminate the enemies!"

At these words, Rock paused for a second and then said, "Like my student Lan said, the Battle of Divine Will has begun."

Chapter 1229 - The Red Mist

At around 4:00 in the morning, Garcia finally fell asleep.

She had talked more than what all she had said to Roland in the past few months altogether since their first encounter. It was more like a monologue than a constructive conversation. Most of her rambling was about how she had met her master after she had cut ties with her family.

The only thing Roland could do was to refill her glass and be a good listener.

Roland also discovered that Garcia's dedication to protecting this world was mostly a product of Lan's education. Although Lan had been very strict with her, Garcia had always looked up to her and viewed Lan as her goal and role model.

From what Roland saw, Lan must have liked the Dream World.

But he was not sure whether her method would work.

There were only two bedrooms in Room 0825, one of which was Zero's. Roland pondered for a while and decided to put Garcia in the master bedroom and spent the night in the living room himself. He did not think it a good idea to rummage Garcia's pocket for the key to her own apartment while she was asleep, for he had the slightest intention of creating any unncessary misunderstanding.

Roland was certain that based on his past experience, this was the best way to handle this kind of situation.

In the meantime, he also realized that he had to return to the real world now.

Roland looked through the window after he settled Garcia down and gazed upon the city night. He could spie glitters of lights dazzle in the distance. The flickers were even brighter than stars in the sky. It seemed to be a very peaceful, sweet night, but Roland knew that this world, like the other one, was full of danger. The "Bloody Moon" that represented the Erosion had revealed its horrendous nature. The only difference was that the one in the real world hung in the sky while the one here lurked underground.

Roland shut the curtains and departed from the Dream World.

He dazed for a while before opening his eyes. However, instead of the ceiling, he gazed into two sparkling eyes.

The two stared at each other for a while until Roland heard someone scream above him. Then the person peering down at him immediately disappeared, as though everything was just his imagination

"Ahem, well, I was just checking whether you had waken up or not, as you've been sleeping for quite a while, and I was a bit worried," Nightingale said as she revealed herself from the desk. "Plus, why did you suddenly open your eyes. You scared me!"

Roland was speechless. How could he give her a headsup telling her that he was about to wake up?

"Anyway, you're awake now, so I'm going to bed," Nightingale said as she yawned dramatically. "By the way, Anna came to see you at 10:00 today, but she left when she saw you were still asleep. She asked me to tell you not to force yourself."

"Hang on, what's the time now?"

"Just a little over 12:00," Nightingale replied as she walked toward the door. "Well, good night."

As soon as Nightingale withdrew, Roland felt sleep creep over him. He had been roaming the two worlds for the last two days, and now he really needed a rest.

Roland stretched himself and was about to go to bed when he suddenly caught a glimpse of something unusual.

He slowly raised his head and almost shrieked at what he saw!

Two pale faces hung down from the window. As they were tightly pressed onto the glass, the faces were a little distorted. Roland saw four large eyes gazing into his. He jumped with a start!

Then he noticed that the two faces looked quite familiar to him.

Hang on, why did they look so familiar?

Roland's heart did a kind of drum drolling in his chest. He squinted at them for a while and suddenly realized that they were Lightning and Maggie!

Why did they come here at this hour?

It was midnight.

Realizing they were exposed, the two girls drifted down from the roof.

"When did you get here?" Roland asked after Lightning and Maggie got in. He put up a straight face and said, "Why didn't you notify me first?"

It wasn't until then that Roland noticed that both of them were unkempt and muddy as if they had not taken a shower for half a year. They had indeed come back from a long journey.

"Your Majesty, we arrived here around an hour ago, coo," Maggie replied, but Lightning soon stopped her.

"No, we just got here, and we didn't see anything." With these words, she glared at Maggie and added, "Did we?"

Maggie nodded fervently and said, "Coo... yes, I got it wrong."

Roland twitched his lips, amused by their poor acting. Even Nana would not believe their words. He did not actually mind them watching him sleep, so he asked, "Did you travel at night? Why not use the Animal Messenger? Did —"

He suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Lightning said solemnly. "About half a month ago, we found traces of demons at the ridge of the continent!"

Roland was now completely awake. He pursued, "Then? Did you see any outposts there?"

"Not for now," Lightning denied as she shook her head, produced a rumpled map from her pocket, and laid it open on the desk. "We couldn't go really far in there, so we met up with the Taquila witches at the Snow Ridge. It took them a while to set up the magic core, and we were finally able to confirm something." Lightning then pointed at the rapture marked in the center of the map and said, "There are God's Stone mines there, and they're almost as big as the one in the Holy City of Taquila!"

It was pretty clear what the demons were up to.

Roland knitted his brows. Edith was right. The demons did have a plan B. Even if Taquila fell, they could still invade the Four Kingdoms from another location. Although the Impassable Mountain Range was treacherous, it would be better to invade from there than waiting for another 400 years.

Fortunately, human beings discovered the demons' intention in advance. According to Agatha's intelligence, the demons would need some time to grow the Obelisk. They would only be able to produce a small amount of Red Mist before the Obelisk grew up.

"We also obtained another piece of news when we left the Snow Ridge," Lightning resumed hesitantly. "At that time, Maggie and I had already passed the Kingdom of Everwinter, so we couldn't hear it very clearly over the Sigil of Listening."

"What did you hear?"

Maggie clapped her hands over her ears as if holding a telephone receiver.

"The liaison witch told us that they found Red Mist in the north of the mountain range, coo!"

Chapter 1230 - An Emergency Meeting

Barov was waken up by his servant.

During the wartime, the staff of the Administrative Office stood vigil in turns so that they could notify Barov immediately in case anything out of ordinary happened.

Edith no longer worked in the Administrative Office, but she still had certain influences on Roland. Barov always tended to seek counsels of the General Staff before making a plan. The presence of such a genius rival constantly reminded Barov to work hard.

Nevertheless, this was not the only reason Barov was so dedicated to his work.

In fact, he enjoyed being busy, as being busy represented power. It meant that Neverwinter needed him. Also, His Majesty would trust him even more if he succeeded in his undertaking.

Barov slid off the bed and pulled on his clothes. "Speak up. What's the matter now?"

"Sir, this is an order from the king. He calls a meeting at the boardroom in the castle. All the ministers should be there at once."

"Right now?" Barov asked in surprise as he looked out of the window. Without a doubt, it was in the dead of night.

"Yes. The telephone operator didn's say much. Do you want to send someone to the castle first to make sure..."

"No, that's fine," Barov said quickly. The call was from the Administrative office, so it was not likely miscommunication. Since he was the only person who had installed a telephone at home, he must inform the other ministers verbally. "Ask the servants to notify the other ministers. Remember that everyone needs to be informed. If you ever miss one, it's on you!"

Barov would have hesitated for a while had the order been issued by the old Prince Roland. However, now, Prince Roland had become a competent king. If he decided to call a meeting at this deadly hour, it must be about something of extreme urgency.

"Yes... yes, sir," the servant said in the earnest. "Are you going to the castle alone?"

"No, I'm going with the Pearl of the Northern Region," Barov returned. "I'll notify Edith Kant myself."

...

"Your Majesty, almost everyone is here," Nightingale said as she put on a coat for Roland. "Do you need a cup of tea?"

"Yes, please," Roland said while nodding. "Sorry to wake you up..."

"That's nothing," Nightingale said while smiling. "I'm not tired at all. I was just pretending."

"Pretending?"

"No, no," she denied quickly, a little flustered. "I mean I did yawn, but it was because my eyes were dry. I'm not tired at all. By the way, is Anna coming?"

"Let her rest," Roland said while shaking his head. "She doesn't need to worry about such things. Plus, she's been working so hard lately."

To further improve the Cube-powered motor, Anna had been working in the laboratory at the North Slope day and night. At the same time, she also had to work on the biplanes.

"You're working hard as well," Nightingale said as she handed the tea to Roland. "You didn't sleep at all in the Dream World, did you?"

"Don't worry. I'm used to staying up late..." Roland said smilingly. It was common to sleep at irregular hours in his previous world. This was actually not the worst. He simply needed to take a rest later to make up the hours he had lost. "I won't be able to sleep well if I don't finish my work."

Roland thus drained the cup and sighed, "Let's go."

...

The boardroom lapsed into a dread silence after Lightning told them what she had discovered during her journey. Everybody was completely awake and wearing an extremely grave expression.

Agatha looked toward Roland apprehensively and said, "Your Majesty, we..."

"This isn't your fault," Roland comforted. "The rapid increase in the number of Senior Demons and Spider Demons has already indicated that our enemy is now very different from the one 400 years ago. Apparently, they also progressed."

There was no point in blaming the Taquila witches for providing inaccurate intelligence, as the event was unforeseen. Indeed, the soldiers in Neverwinter and the Taquila witches had reached a mutual understanding on the strength of the demons in the third Battle of Divine Will.

"Although the Exploration Group is not 100% sure about the 'presence of the Red Mist', the Red Mist did reach the crest of the Impassable Mountain Range. I believe that we'll hear from the front within a week. Now, the problem is that what we should do in the event that the demons do have the ability to activate the Obelisk in a short period of time. Before we discuss this matter, I want to make sure how much Red Mist an activated Obelisk could produce."

Agatha said hesitantly, "After the Union discovered the special demon at the bottom of the mine, we speculated that the Obelisk is probably a type of giant Magic Stone. If the small Magic Stone embedded in the demons is transformed from a Chaos Beast, then the Obelisk would be from raw ores. The Obelisk does have unique properties, but its size also depends on the mine where it's growing from. However..."

Roland knew why Agatha was hesitating, but he urged, "That's OK. Speak up. It's better than nothing. Plus, everything is subject to change during a war. If our prediction is a little different from the reality, then we can make adjustments accordingly."

"Alright..." the Ice Witch said while nodding in great relief. "Based on the Union's experience and Lightning's information about the location of the mine, the Red Mist produced by an Obelisk transformed from a God's Stone mine the same size of Taquila could probably reach here..."

She then conjured an icicle and pointed it at the map.

"This is... the Archduke Island?" Edith asked thoughtfully.

"That's right. If we move the great rapture to the Taquila area, then the borderline would be around the Impassable Mountain Range area," Agatha explained. "Of course, the Red Mist won't reach there all of a sudden. It needs time to permeate the surrounding area, and the whole process may take a few days. The farther it goes, the slower it'll travel. Therefore, it'll be another few months before the Red Mist covered the area within a radius of 100 kilometers."

It appeared that they had done a good thing to seize Taquila in advance. Had they failed or been a little slower, say, they had just completed the railway construction now, the Red Mist would have not only invaded the Four Kingdoms from the Impassable Mountain Range but it would have also hindered the operation of the First Army. The Red Mist was fatal to the witches. Even though the army had advanced weapons, they would not be able to carry out military operations effectively while being interfered with by the Red Mist.

"With that being the case, we must hurry up," Roland said as he looked toward Edith. "Does the General Staff have any plan?"

"Of course we do," Edith said confidently. She was the first person to see through the demons' intention. "Although the demons are faster than we thought, from the perspective of military strategy, erecting the Obelisk at the ridge of the continent was actually their last resort. The ridge of the continent is a good hiding place, but the demons could not launch an attack effectively from there. This affords us time to remedy the situation. The General Staff believes that if the demons do appear in the Kingdom of Everwinter, our defensive line will definitely not be in Graycastle but here."

She tapped the map.

It was the Cage Mountain in the Kingdom of Dawn.

Chapter 1231 - Hope

"The reason is fairly simple," Edith resumed before anyone could raise a question. "The Cage Mountain is not only a branch of the Impassable Mountain Range in the horizontal direction but also the highest point of the Kingdom of Dawn. The artillery of the First Army could have a broader view if they fire from there. Also, the demons will have restricted mobility, considering that there are fewer flying Devilbeasts than inferior Mad Demons."

"Secondly, the Red Mist tends to move toward the lowlands, and it becomes thinner as it stretches farther. Therefore, the witches shall build the defensive line at the highpoint of the land. I've heard that the front has already done so ahead of time."

"The last is His Majesty's Radiation Project." She surveyed the room at these words and continued, "We know that this project relies on the ores at the Cage Mountain. Before we find an alternative resource, we can't abandon the Cage Mountain."

Nobody questioned Edith's decision.

Nobody saw the final product of the Radiation Project, and they could not possibly imagine how much energy those tiny little spheres could produce, but all of them viewed the project as one of the most important missions, simply because Roland said so. Roland swelled up with pride at this thought.

This was probably the biggest achievement an engineering student could ever attain.

"But we can't desert the Kingdom of Everwinter or the Kingdom of Wolfheart completely either," Roland said as he cast a glance at Edith. "We need people to win the war."

"Yes. Therefore, while the Red Mist is spreading, the First Army should focus on bringing in immigrants and stopping the demons from advancing. I don't think the demons will set up outposts after the Red Mist spreads out. They'll build them right now, which was exactly what they did 400 years ago."

Edith paused for a second and said, "To be honest, the sudden appearance of the Bloody Moon helped the First Army. When people in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart see what kind of enemy they're dealing with, they'll automatically side with us. By that time, they'll beg Graycastle for help even if Iron Axe wants to shut them out."

At these words, Edith's lips curled up into a faint, inscrutable smile.

In that case, a lot of people would die.

Roland heaved a sigh.

Roland understood why Edith gloated over the misfortune of the refugees. He remembered a piece of news in his previous world saying that some residents opposed to build a cell tower and therefore lost cellphone reception. However, in a war that would determine the fate of the human race, Roland could not stand by watching those people suffer, even though it was because of their own stupidity.

"We harvested tons of Golden Twos this year," Roland said as he turned to Barov. "Draft a proposal and send some food to the Kingdom of Dawn. Make sure those refugees who left their native towns are fed."

"Your Majesty, if my understanding is correct, once we confirm the Red Mist would spread out, the First Army will immediately set off for the Cage Mountain. This will create a lot of pressure on the logistics," Barov replied hesitantly. "I can't guarantee we can provide food to the refugees while at the same time supplying our army. We won't have enough ships even if we borrow all the ships from the Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords."

This was a real problem. Even the largest sailboat in the Fjords would not meet the needs of the war. All the fleets were now filled with immigrants.

"Unless... we build a railway leading directly to the neighbor..." Barov said with great difficulties. He knew such a large project would cost tons of money. His heart ached every time money went out from the treasury.

"We probably don't have much time," Roland said while shaking his head. "The railway construction on the Fertile Plain has cost too many resources. If we build another railway, we won't be able to support the other projects."

The railway, which stretched away from the Misty Forest all the way to the ruins of Taquila, cost a great amount of steel. Its construction took a year and a half, not to mention that Leaf had amended the first half of the railway and that the second half was built on a flat plain. The road condition between Neverwinter and the Cage Mountain was more complicated than the Fertile Plains, so it would be hard to say how long it would take to build this new railway.

"I totally agree with you, Your Majesty..." Barov rejoined, apparently much relieved.

"Let's make a plan based on the current situation. Don't try to save money. Use the money well," Roland said. "As for the logistics, I'll see what I can do."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Roland then looked toward Edith and said, "The General Staff should also draft a proposal based on the presumption that the farthest the Red Mist could go is the Cage Mountain. Then we'll discuss further in detail."

Smart as the Pearl of the Northern Region was, she had no problem in making a plan. Even if Roland did not remind her, she would understand the urgency of the matter.

"Leave it to me," Edith said while placing her hand on her chest.

Roland rose to his feet and surveyed the boardroom. "I told you before that the third Battle of Divine Will will determine the fate of the mankind. Now, it's coming." The victory of the Taquila war has proved to us that we could win, despite the miserable defeat 400 years ago. I hope we all do our best and devote ourselves to this war. I'm sure today will be remembered!" Roland proclaimed. "Listen, no matter who our enemy is, I only have one request, that is, we must win the battle!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty!" everyone shouted together.

It was going to be a busy night.

After everyone filed out of the boardroom, Roland held Tilly back.

"I want to have a private word with you."

...

After Roland returned to his office, he dismissed Nightingale and shut the door.

Tilly raised her brows and asked, "Something that you don't even want Nightingale to hear? It seems you're not planning to inquire about the training of the Aerial Knights."

Roland did not answer but poured a glass of minty Chaos Drink for both of them. It did not taste particularly good, but it was pretty calming.

Seeing Roland remain silent, Tilly did not pursue but simply sipped the drink, waiting for him to break the silence.

Roland had a complex feeling toward his "sister". Tilly was not his real sister. Compared to the Princess Tilly he used to know, the current Tilly Wimbledon had become more like a leader. However, he preferred the little girl who used to curl herself up beside Anna in winter, with her feet sticking out from underneath the blanket, and think about what kind of tough questions she could ask the other witches.

Although Roland knew that people would change, Tilly's change was too drastic. Within a few days after Ashes' death, she had grown up. He could see the virulent rancor against the demons in Tilly's eyes. She seldom revealed such hatred, but Roland was very disturbed by her "only request" of seeking revenge from the demons.

She had made up her mind.

The world had suddenly become meaningless to her.

Roland learned from Lan that Ashes could be brought back to life. He should have verified the information before telling Tilly so that he would not give her a false hope. However, Roland realized that as Ashes' death had sunk Tilly into the lowest dejection, Tilly might not survive the Battle of Divine Will in the end.

If he told her about the prospective good news now, she might probably elevate herself from such despondency.

Yet there was a risk he had to take. If Ashes did not come back to life in the end, Tilly would be devastated.

That was why Roland did not say anything for quite a while.

But he had to speak.

Roland knew he had made the decision when he had stopped Tilly.

He would rather put his faith in a faint ray of hope in the future than regret later.

"Brother?" Tilly reminded him, a little bewildered. She averted her eyes slightly to avoid Roland's burning gaze.

Roland took a deep breath and said slowly, "What I'm going to say next may be incredible, but I still want to tell you that — "

"Ashes may be still alive."

Chapter 1232 - Brother

Tilly quavered. She slowly turned around, and there was a multitude of feelings in her eyes. As if confirming what she had just heard, Tilly asked, "What... did you say?"

"I said that Ashes might be still alive," Roland repeated slowly. He knew he could not retract now.

"No... brother," Tilly mumbled as she managed a smile. "I know you want to comfort me, but you can't..."

"But it's not what you think," Roland cut across her. "To be honest, I was as incredulous as you when I heard the news, and I know it's unfair to tell you before I confirm that it's true. However, I don't want to regret it later."

Tilly fell silent.

She stared at Roland out of his countenance as if processing the information. She suddenly realized that what Roland had said was probably something unusual.

Tilly was one of the smartest and most open-minded witches among all.

After about seven minutes, she asked tentatively, "Who told you that?"

"Lan."

"I've never heard of her..." Tilly muttered as she lapsed into thought. "Does it have something to do with the Dream World?"

Roland was not surprised that Tilly had quickly made the connection. He answered calmly, "Slow down. I'll tell you everything."

...

By the time Roland finished, the first hint of dawn was visible in the east. The first ray of sun broke over the horizon behind the mountains and gilded the roofs of the buildings in the distance.

Tilly was still lost in thought. She muttered to Roland as much as to herself, "That means... as long as you control the Realm of Mind, you'll be able to bring Ashes back?"

"Technically, yes," Roland replied while nodding. "According to Lan, after a witch becomes a Transcendent, she'll leave a mark in the Realm of Mind. This is consistent with Kabradhabi's statement."

During the interrogation, Kabradhabi had told Zooey that their souls would return to the Origin of Magic. Once their kind dominated the world, he would come back. Although it was quite different from what Lan had told Roland, there was one thing in common.

That was, the Realm of Mind accepted souls.

"In addition, in the ancient book of the underground civilization, the author also wrote that the journey to the Divine Will is the process of a magic power upgrade. The winner will eventually rival God. If we view the Realm of Mind as the pinnacle of magic power, then Lan's words, in a way, fits the description." Roland paused for a second before he continued, "Nevertheless, considering that this information may be all from God, we can't completely trust it. The best way is to verify its validity myself."

"Brother..."

"Don't worry. I'll penetrate the Realm of Mind as soon as I can and try my best to retrieve Ashes, if she's really there. Therefore, I want you to protect yourself before I find her, as I don't want to infuriate a Transcendent who has exceeded her limit and is beyond the restriction of God's Stones of Retaliation..." Roland said in a half-joking manner. Then he suddenly found that Tilly did not look right.

She was trembling, her head hanging, and she was mumbling under her breath as well. Roland held his breath and listened.

"That's great... That's great..."

Roland suddenly did not know what to say.

Tears started to trickle down Tilly's cheeks and splattered against the back of her hand.

Looking at the quivering princess, Roland sighed internally as he slowly stretched out his hand and patted her head.

The next moment, Tilly threw herself onto him and held him tight. The trembling gradually perished into sobs, and Roland felt as though he had traveled back in time to that night again. However, Roland sensed that something had changed.

Unlike last time where Tilly had cried for hours, this time, she dried her eyes within 10 minutes. When she looked up, she forced Roland to turn away.

"Don't... don't look at me."

Then he heard Tilly sniffle and clean up her face behind him.

It was a while before Roland was allowed to turn around.

"Sorry... I made you worried," Tilly said in a low voice.

"I'm pleased that you've realized it," Roland said while folding his arms. "You should also reconsider your request last time — "

"Are you referring to the plane used to kill the demons?" Tilly said while blinking. "No, my request stands, brother."

"Oi..."

"You need my help to reach the Fathomless Abyss. Now, it's very likely that the demons have already erected a full-grown Obelisk. With that being the case, it's going to be even harder for us to restrict the Devilbeasts. If we can't dominate the sky, the First Army might not be able to crush the enemy so easily," Tilly said as she stuck out one finger to stop Roland. "You're right. I didn't care about whether I'll survive when I made that request. I just wanted to kill as many demons as possible. But now, I've changed my mind."

"And you know what a difference it could make with someone assisting you. Not a single Aerial Knight knows how to fight demons. I'm the only person who can teach and train them," Tilly went on while patting the chest. "I promise you that I'll look after myself and wait for you to enter the Realm of Mind."

Roland found it hard to decline her request. The sparkles in Tilly's eyes came back, her demeaner as poised as ever, and she was radiant from within.

"Alright then... but you must keep your promise."

"Of course." Tilly resumed after a brief pause, "Also... thank you for telling me that."

"I'm not sure whether this method would work —"

"I'm more than content. At least, we now have a mutual goal," Tilly said as she again pressed herself to Roland's chest. "I'm glad you're my brother..."

...

After Tilly took her leave, Nightingale returned to the office and asked, "What did you say to Princess Tilly? I saw her just come out, and she looks like a different person..."

"The connection between the Dream World and the reality. If you want to know, I can tell you as well, but not now," Roland said as he fumbled with the drawings. "I just received a message from Honey, saying that a fleet will be arriving at the port of the inner river in two days. They should bring the immigrants from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Before that, I should finish the drawing for the new project."

Nightingale shrugged and said, "Never mind me. Haven't I told you? I won't insist if you don't want to say." She walked to the desk and studied the drawing for quite a while before she said, "It looks like... the vehicle Anna drove the other day in the yard."

"It's the same thing, only a lot larger," Roland said smilingly. "Didn't Barov talk about the logistics in the meeting? This is the solution."

Apart from expensive trains, there was also a cheap alternative, a wheeled truck. There were various types of wheeled trucks. Although they were not as efficient as trains, they were more flexible and also easier to operate than a tractor. They could run on a flat, hard-surfaced road easily.

There were many inner rivers in Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn, but none of these rivers were connected. Therefore, a fleet of wheeled trucks could facilitate the transportation between the two countries.

Chapter 1233 - Being Trapped

"I see," Nightingale spoke after a moment of contemplation. "Compared to building a brand new railway, it's much easier to build a road to connect the rivers. Railway construction needs Anna and skillful workers, but everybody can build a regular road. Even the refugees can do it. In this way, we can save a lot of time!"

"Exactly. This is another strength," Roland said in approval. "As long as we plan it well, we'll alleviate the stress of the logistics department in one or two months. This is very important for us considering we have such a tight timeline. It appears that you do, sometimes, grasp the nature of the problem."

"Haha, of course... hang on," Nightingale said and her smiles immediately faded out. "What do you mean by 'sometimes'? I can think, and I can help you with your work and cope with my exam..."

Although she looked pretty frustrated, her voice trailed off.

Roland giggled involuntarily.

Nightingale had to first make sure that she did not fall asleep before she set to study.

Roland shoveled his eyes back to the map on the desk. If he wanted to connect the rivers in Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn, the fastest way was to build a road in the Eastern Region near the Redwater River that ran all the way to the City of Evernight. The road should then wind toward the north, reach the Windswept Ridge, and finally connect the Sparkling River in the neighboring country.

The Sparking River originated from the Hermes Plateau and diverged at the capital city into three branches. Two wider ones stretched away between the south and north of the Kingdom of Dawn and flew to the ocean. To further facilitate water transportation, the Moya Family had dug out a canal running from the east to the west over the past 100 years, which not only boomed the business activities along the river but also provided a shortcut for Roland's road construction plan.

With that being the case, Roland only needed to build two roads, one from the Sparkling River to the Northside River and the other leading to the Cage Mountain. In this way, there would be a passage connecting the two countries. Compared to a costly railway, the two roads were no longer than 200 kilometers put together, and all he needed to do was to set up three ports for freights.

Since loaded trucks were heavy and could easily damage the road particularly on rainy days, Roland decided to use mortar and cement to harden the road surface instead of gravels to avoid subsequent maintenance. The road, therefore, would be of the same quality as those in Neverwinter.

Cement was now widely used in Neverwinter, but it was time-consuming to ship it to the Kingdom of Dawn, so Roland decided to produce cement locally.

After finishing the drawing, Roland wrote a letter to the king of the neighboring country, Andrea's father, Horford Quinn.

He was going to dispatch some technicians to the City of Glow and teach the three families in the king's city how to manufacture cement and assemble paddle steamers. Then they would be able to build a plant and mend the road for Neverwinter.

Roland believed that the nobles would see the potential value of cement.

With these two technologies, the Kingdom of Dawn could solve the transportation problem by themselves.

Nevertheless, Roland planned to provide completed steam engines because none of the cities except Neverwinter in this era were industrialized. It would thus be meaningless to send over raw materials.

Roland believed that the Kingdom of Dawn would take action immediately. If the Red Mist had already appeared at the crest of the Impassable Mountain Range, Horford would receive the news soon. By that time, he would know what he should do.

...

Two days later, Roland saw the first batch of immigrants from the roof of the Miracle Building.

Smoke coiled up into the air from the endless fleet and dropped a thick veil at the bank. People trodded on the trestle and off on the dock under the guidance of the police. A colorful sea of heads heaved up and down at the bank of the Redwater River.

"50,000 people... That's the population of a whole city, Your Majesty," Barov commented in excitement, although also a little worried. "I've never expected to see hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Kingdom of Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart coming to Graycastle. If things go well, we'll soon reach our target of an increase of 200,000 people each year. Now, I should worry about your treasury."

"As well as public safety and urban management," the Chief Knight, Carter, rejoined a little apprehensively. "Those immigrants may not acknowledge your authority. Out of safety concern, I suggest settling them down in a certain area so it would be easier to manage them."

"Then they'll never become true Graycastle people," Roland said while shaking his head. "If the police needs help, ask Barov. Punish the wrong-doers and reward those who make contributions. Send chronic offenders to the mine and subject them to heavy labor. I need workers not imprisoned slaves."

Without a doubt, the king's city would be more chaotic with such a huge influx of immigrants. This was an inevitable side effect of his immigration policy. Roland would not have carried out such a hasty plan had he had enough time. Now, the war was around the corner, so he had to implement the policy despite the potential problems it would bring.

The benefits of an increase in population overpowered its downsides.

For example, he could send 10,000 people out of the 50,000 new immigrants to the plants to increase the production of firearms. Then, the soldiers at the front would have more weapons and ammunition, as well as other new equipment.

Now he had both manpower and technologies and could officially start the project for the Cube-powered steam engines.

...

"Where am I?"

Valkries woke up again and found herself in a snow white room. The ceiling and the wall blinded her. There was a queer instrument ticking beside her. A transparent bag was hung above her, and the liquid in it dripped down the tube and slowly into her vein.

There was so much information unfamiliar to her swarming into her head that for a moment, she could not give a proper response. She had never seen anything like this before. Everything was so different from what she were used to.

For example, the white shirt she was currently wearing had pretty tight stitches, which was complete different from the clothes she usually wore.

Valkries closed her eyes and concentrated. No matter how strange the surrounding was, the only thing she could rely on was her power.

Valkries' heart suddenly sank to the bottom.

She noticed that she was not in her own body.

Although this body looked exactly the same, the magic stone was gone. She would have died had the magic stone really disappeared.

However, surprisingly, she felt fine.

She could still sense the magic power slowly move within her body in an unfamiliar way.

The murmur of the Realm of Mind was also gone.

No matter how hard Valkries tried to concentrate, there was no response. She even condescended to call upon the Sky Lord, but she heard nothing back from the latter.

This meant that she was trapped.

Chapter 1234 - A Strange World

Yes, she was trapped.

Valkries now remembered that she had been delving into the depth of the Realm of Mind and tracking down a faint fluctuation. When she had crossed the borderline that separated the upper and lower level, her step had become heavier and heavier. The resistance from the Realm of Mind increased, and she felt something was dragging her down.

It was her first time to come thus far, so she must be careful. If she got lost, she might be trapped here forever. Valkries would have terminated this expedition and taken a break had she not sensed that the fluctuation she was looking for was getting closer.

The entrance should be just around here.

So she decided to dive deeper.

Hackzord seemed not to be very impressed with her bathing in the Red Mist Pond all day, especially when human beings had not realized that they had successfully transplanted the Birth Tower.

On the other hand, Valkries also wanted to know whether the human race had upgraded through the legacy shard.

She had never anticipated, however, that the Realm of Mind suddenly quaked while she was trying to find the source of the fluctuation.

She felt as if the muddy ground underneath suddenly cracked, sank, and formed a waterfall. She was immediately flushed down before she could realize it. When she woke up again, she found herself in this strange place.

Beyond a doubt, this place should be a part of the Realm of Mind, but Valkries was not sure whether it had anything to do with the male human she was searching for.

Through the window, Valkries could see a big city outside. Sierried highrises stretched away and disappeared at the end of the horizon, each as tall as the Birth Tower. Some were even taller than the king's Presiding Holy See.

If this was that male human's territory, Valkries did not understand why he had not noticed the presence of an intruder. The creator should have been omnipotent. Since Valkries was the mortal enemy of the human race, the creator should have taken action by now. If a witch, by accident, trespassed the Presiding Holy See, death would probably be the kindest punishment inflicted upon her.

The problem was that if this place had nothing to do with that male, then where was it?

When Valkries had sensed the quaver, she had felt the shockwave come from above. She was certain that she was on the right track, unless she had been searching in the wrong direction all along.

Valkries pondered for a while but could not find a satisfying explanation, so she put aside these questions. The most important task for her now was to adapt to this new body and find an opportunity to get out of this strange world.

Valkries was positive about one thing that this new body was much weaker than her own. The wound on her legs had still not healed up yet, which indicated that she currently had little self-repairing ability. Her Magic Barrier stopped working. Valkries had never been so weak for a long time. She felt as if she had traveled back to the time prior to her upgrade when everybody could cause substantial harm to her.

Fortunately, she could still summon magic power, which was an ability quite similar to Extraordinaries'.

While Valkries was checking her body, there was a pattering of footsteps outside.

The door was then pushed open, and two men entered smilingly.

Valkries almosted wanted to throw herself onto them and rip them apart, but she suppressed the urge.

This was not the real world!

She reminded herself. It appeared that these people had saved her when she had lost consciousness.

Perhaps, these people never knew such things as "demons". If she acted recklessly, she would expose herself.

"You look pretty well, Miss Valkries," the female said as she lifted one corner of the blanket and examined her plastored legs. "Amazing. No wonder the pillar didn't wound your bones. You're a martialist! If I were you, my legs would have been smashed to pieces."

"Is this what a doctor should say to her patient?" the male said as he glared at the female and then looked toward Valkries. "I'm the doctor in charge here. You can call me Dr. Gao. According to the X-ray, you'll soon recover. Take a good rest, and I'm sure the injury won't affect your future contests. If you don't feel well, please don't hesitate to tell me."

Valkries shook her head.

She hardly understood anything Dr. Gao had said, so she resolved to remain silent.

Valkries also noticed that these human beings appeared to be pretty friendly to her. She was puzzled as to why these people did not view her as a person of another race. Even if they did not harbor hostility against her, how could they speak to her in such an amicable manner when there was such a drastic difference between the two races?

Valkries even noticed that the female was particularly interested in her. Her eyes were glued on her.

"I'm glad you're well," the male named Dr. Gao said as he leafed through the brochure in his hand. "The Association will come to visit the hospital this afternoon, and they'll also hold a meeting in the evening. I've already declined the request to attend the meeting for you. Those people are so insensible! They wanted you to sit the meeting through in your wheelchair! That's ridiculous! But I can't stop them from visiting you. This hospital is funded by the Martialist Association, so it's impossible for me to stop them. You just need to lie in bed."

"... Thank you," Valkries said in a way an ordinary man would normally speak in this situation.

"You're welcome," the male said with a smile. "By the way, you must be bored. The Association didn't send your cell phone here. Do you want to watch TV?"

Cell phone? TV? What were they?

Nonplussed, Valkries did not answer.

The doctor took her silence as a yes, so he picked up a square box on the nightstand, pointed it at a blackboard on the wall, and fiddled it.

Soon, light escaped from the blackboard!

"Now, you take a good rest," Dr. Gao said as he waved his hand and withdrew from the room with the female.

Valkries goggled at the screen and almost lost herself.

How did they... do this?

The image on the blackboard changed. Everything was so lifelike. Valkries would not have been so surprised had the blackboard been a magic artifact, but this object was non-magical. She could not sense any fluctuation of magic power from the blackboard.

It took Valkries a while to get used to it.

She also discovered that the content of the television had something to do with the little square box. The image would change if she pressed the button on it.

If her assumption was correct, these contents might be closely related to this world.

This was an effective way to get to know about this world.

While Valkries was flipping through channels, she captured one strange word, "the Martialist Association."

Based on what the male had told her, she was also a member of the Association, or more precisely, they assumed that she was a member of the Association.

She saw a crowded square on the television. The picture was shot from above. Perhaps, someone videotaped the scene with some magic artifact like a Stone of Flight.

"This is the third day since the attack at the Prism City. Firefighters are still rescuing members and cleaning up the debris."

"The Association has confirmed the death toll. The victims' identities still remain unknown at this point."

"During the whole rescue process, many martialists displayed courage and sense of responsibilities. They went down to the evacuation exits to look for those being trapped.

"The Chief Disciple of the Defender Rock, Ms. Lan, was killed in action."

"When she entered Exit 4, she was attacked by the Fallen Evils. To protect her peers..."

Valkries did not hear a single word said by the reporter.

Her attention was caught by the image on the "blackboard".

Valkries was shocked. "Why, why do I see those strange and familiar faces in the Realm of Mind?"

Wasn't the Cloud School... already disbanded?

Chapter 1235 - The Cloud School

Valkries shook her head and forced herself to calm down. She was certain that the Cloud School was gone. After their kind occupied the northwest of the Land of Dawn, Valkries visited the mountain where the school used to be situated every 100 years and would stay at the ruins of the school building for a couple of days every time she went there.

Because she used to be one of the students in the school.

She had learned how to connect to the Realm of Mind and also about human beings on that mountain. Her teacher was the "Transformer", Heathtalese, who was also an Upgraded.

Heathtalese was not exceptionally powerful. In fact, she was even weaker than a relatively strong Inferior Demon. Because of this, the clansmen treated her with utter contempt. However, Valkries knew that the upgrade ceremony had nothing to do with fighting capacity. Heathtalese had successfully merged with magic stones three times, and she was a genius Upgraded in every aspect.

As her title suggested, the Transformer had obtained the ability to transform after merging with her second magic stone. Hence, she rarely revealed what she truly looked like. Most of time she disguised herself as a human. Since she could speak the human language fluently, many people would think that she was human at first.

Lan on the television was the identity she had used most often.

Valkries stared at that familiar face, and her thoughts strayed back to 1,000 years ago. Although the woman's countenance and clothes were slightly different, Valkries was sure it was the same face.

If the founders of the Cloud School were aliens among humans, then the "Transformer" was an alien among her clan. Heathtalese did not really care about the fighting capacity that her magic stones would afford her, but she had a devouring curiosity about everything unknown. The "Transformer" was also the first person that made the initial contact with the Cloud School.

At that time, rumors about the Battle of Divine Will had been spread throughout the whole clan, and they had viewed the mankind on the Land of Dawn as their potential enemies.

Valkries was very grateful to her first teacher who had taught her so many things. She did not disdain Heathtalese because the latter was not good at fighting. Valkries knew very well that the "Transformer" had had a more profound understanding of the Realm of Mind as well as the Origin of Magic than anyone else in the clan. She had written dozens of books, half of which provided guidance to the later generations and helped them go through the upgrade ceremony. She was what human beings called a "mentor" for most of the clansmen.

In fact, the "Transformer" was probably the first person who had made an attempt to merge with four magic stones.

Had she succeeded, she would have become the first "Senior Lord" of the clan. At that time, there had been very few Inferior Demons, let alone a Senior Lord.

Unfortunately, the "Transformer" had failed. She had been devoured by her own magic power, without leaving the slightest trace behind her.

Valkries remembered that day because she had been right beside the Transformer at that time. She had witnessed how the "Transformer" gradually had fallen apart and collapsed. That was also why Valkires felt that the "Lan" on the television was a little unfamiliar. She had never seen two people that looked so alike over the past 1,000 years.

Valkries had asked the Transformer why she wanted to present herself in this way, for she believed that the face she had created did not belong to any prominent historical figures.

Heathtalese' answer, however, was incomprehensible.

She said this was the face of an apostle.

As for who the apostle was, the Transformer did not know either. When she dived into the Realm of Mind, she sometimes could feel an entirely different strand of mind. It was whispering, but she had never officially met it. Nevertheless, the Transformer later remembered what it looked like.

The Transformer also said that if she could stablize herself in the chaotic Realm of Mind, she would be able to connect to that whispering sound. Unfortunately, she was not powerful enough to do so.

Valkries did not understand what that meant at that time, for she had just upgraded and known nothing about the Realm of Mind. In other words, the Transformer was a pioneer in the exploration of the Realm of Mind. The king, as a matter of fact, had not marked out its own territory in the Realm of Mind until the night before the second Battle of Divine Will.

Valkries had also asked the king whether he had seen that apostle, but the king denied.

Therefore, there could be two possibilities.

One was that this world belonged to the apostle "Lan". However, according to the news on the television, Lan was dead. That did not make sense, for the creator of a territory would never die or leave the Realm of Mind.

The other was that the Transformer had returned to the Realm of Mind before being devoured by her own magic power and had thereby created her own territory. This theory might explain why the presence of Lan did not raise any suspicions, but it failed to explain the strange surroundings.

Valkries had wanted to leave this weird place as soon as possible in the beginning, but now she changed her mind.

She was concerned about what the Transformer had said when the latter had failed her fourth upgrade. The Transformer had said that even if they won the Battle of Divine Will, they would not gain the Divine Domain. Valkries wanted to know what had made her mentor say this.

Perhaps, this was an opportunity for her to find out the reason.

...

Roland yawned as he drove his mini van on the 2nd ring highway.

Although he pressed hard on the gas and the engine also roared, he still fell behind from other vehicles.

"What's wrong? You didn't sleep well?" Garcia, who was now sitting in the passenger seat, asked. For some reason, Roland felt that Garcia had become much more polite to him since she had stayed over at his place that night.

"It's my day off. I planned to sleep in. Thanks to the Association, I have to get up early again," Roland complained, unable to help himself. He was very tired after the meeting regarding the immigration policy. As time in the Dream World traveled three times faster than that in the real world, he had decided to take a good rest in his dream. It would not only save him a lot of time but would also give the Taquila witches an opportunity to enjoy themselves.

Now, the witches could have fun on their own.

Also, apart from entertainment, the ancient witches also shouldered the responsibility of searching for the magic creatures that had appeared during the Erosion. Roland remembered that Lan had told him that the God was watching this world. To eliminate the threat and reach God's territory, the most effective way was to kill the Fallen Evils and use their power to expand the Dream World.

However, the reality was always cruel. Garicia had called him at noon and informed him that he had to visit the survived Association members in the hospital. All the celebrated martialists and the executives would be there.

Roland had intended to decline, as he had thought it was simply Garcia's own idea. He had not anticipated, however, that it was a request from the Association and that the Association had appointed him, a licensed hunter, instead of Garcia.

"The Association wants to re-establish confidence in the Prism City after this massive attack," Garcia commented while raising her brows. "I believe what they really plan to do is to hold a conference in the evening."

Roland fell silent. It was not enough to calm down the public by just visiting patients. What they needed to do now was to display their power and fight back. In consideration of that, the meeting in the evening must have something do with the magic creatures.

This provided Roland with a perfect opportunity to conduct his own search.

Chapter 1236 - Striking Similarities

About 20 minutes later, Roland reached his destination.

He looked around but did not find any building that resembled a hospital. Instead, what he saw were several splendid, magnificent modern edifices.

"Right here," Garcia said with a nod.

"Are you sure?" Roland asked a little suspiciously as he drove toward the entrance, and then he noticed a name plate that read, "Green Meadow Sanatorium".

"Of course. Everybody was as surprised as you when they first came here."

A few burly guards wearing sunglasses and suits soon approached them and surrounded the car. One of them knocked on the window and said, "Sorry, this is a private premise. You can't park here."

Roland twiched his lips. Oi, oi, why was he always treated as crap? He was not here to park the vehicle but to visit patients. What was the problem with driving a mini van?

When Roland was about to display his hunting license, Garcia rolled the window down and handed them a card. "It's a new vehicle, so we haven't registered it yet. Please register it."

The guards was stunned for a moment before they took the card and cast a few suspicious glances at the car. They then returned to the monitoring room. When they came out again, they spoke to them in a completely different manner. "My apology, Miss Garcia. You registered another car before, so we..."

"Isn't it normal to switch a car?" Garcia interrupted him politely.

"Yes... of course," the guard agreed immediately and then looked at Roland. "May I know who this gentleman..."

"My chauffeur."

There was an awkward silence. It was a few minutes later that the chief finally realized his mistake and said, "I see. I'll add the new license plate for you."

A moment later, the gate was open, and Roland released the clutch and shuffled his vehicle into the sanatorium.

He could see the incredulous look on those guards' faces.

A martialist who asked her chauffeur to drive a battered mini van... Garcia was probably the most shabby martialist they had ever known.

"I thought you never lied."

"That's because you don't know me," Garcia returned while shrugging. "I'm not that inflexible. It doesn't hurt to lie a little bit here and there. Plus, you're a member of the Association. You just haven't got your identity card yet."

"The hunting license doesn't work?"

"Licensed hunters should keep their identity confidential, although there are a few exceptions. It's the total opposite of celebrated martialists." Garcia said solemnly, "The hunting license does show that the Association trusts you, but it also means a high risk. Many licensed martialists who exposed themselves have been besieged by Fallen Evils."

This meant that if he revealed his identity as a licensed martialist, many Fallen Evils would come after him.

However, for the safety of Zero and other residents in the apartment building, Roland thought he'd be better not do so.

After his meeting with Lan, he could not view people in the Dream World as mere fictitious characters anymore.

Roland found the sanatorium was well facilitated. It was not very large, but it basically had everything, including a handsome garden, waterfalls and bridges. There were also signs that pointed out the direction to the hot spring, the swimming pool, and the golf court. It was more like a luxurious resort than a santorium.

Roland was deeply impressed.

Even though he was now the King of Graycastle, he had never thought of building a hospital like this.

The hospital building was at the center of the sanatorium. Its shiny, sparkly glass wall reminded Roland of a high-end hotel.

Roland and Garcia went into the hall, and soon a brawny man strode up to them. He was around 40, with dark skin, his martialist cloak whipping behind him. Roland immediately sensed his Force of Nature when the martialist was still around 10 meters from him.

"This is my master's master," Garcia said in a low voice and then bowed her head. "Mr. Defender..."

"I'm sorry about Lan," Rock said heavily as he slightly crouched down and patted Garcia on the shoulder. "It was my fault."

A little downhearted when hearing Lan's name, Garcia shook her head and said, "This wasn't your fault, sir. She always said to me that a martialist should devote himself to fighting the Erosion. If he's scared, he doesn't deserve to be an Association member."

"You're a good student," Rock sighed. "Don't worry. The invaders will pay for that."

"I'm also willing to help fight the Erosion."

Rock nodded in approval before he rose and looked toward Roland. "You should be that famous Fallen Evil hunter, Mr. Roland. Nice to meet you. I'm one of the four Defenders of the Prism City, Rock."

"Nice to meet you," Roland returned courteously and shook Rock's hand.

"I have to thank you for easing the tention between the traditional and modern martialists," Rock said frankly. "I hope you could still continue to protect this world."

"The honor is mine," Roland said resolutely.

He could not tolerate anybody that dared to destroy his Dream World.

Roland's promise greatly cheered Garcia up. She was very proud that Roland had finally decided to take some social responsibilities.

The visit started at 3:00. There were around 20 people, all led by Rock. Apparently, not all the executives of the Prism City attended this event except a few representatives, including the celebrated martialist Fei Yuhan.

If truth be told, Roland was a little afraid of that genius girl. He remembered that during the joint mission last time, he had asked Ling to knock out all the survivors. However, Fei Yuhan overheard their conversation and started to suspect his true identity. Roland had resolved to deny the fact, but to his surprise, Fei Yuhan did not ask him about anything. Yet Roland was certain that she still remembered that incident.

Therefore, he managed to keep a distance from Fei Yuhan and remain silent. Fortunately, Fei Yuhan was very popular and was always surrounded by a lot of people, so she did not get a chance to speak to Roland.

They shook hands with patients and said a few encourging words. Since Garcia was not with Roland, and he was just a newbie in the Association, few executives knew him. As such, Roland simply followed the others and waited to be introduced. This was probably also the Association's intention of bringing him here.

"The next patient is Valkries," the doctor said as he peered down the list. "She was severely injured. We should have let her rest, but since you're already here, let's say hello to her. Please keep quiet after you get in."

"We will. We believe that the health of the Association member is the most important," Rock said as he gave a nod of approval and then pushed open the door.

There was only one patient in the room. The room was a lot larger than Roland's apartment and could easily accommodate 20 people. Roland was the last to enter, and he waited to shake hands with her as usual.

However, Roland was shocked when he saw her.

It was a familiar face. The patient has thin, slender brows, a pair of cold eyes, a tall nose and beautiful lips. It was a beautiful and delicate face, even though her skin was blue. In fact, she looked even more attractive with pale blue skin.

For quite a while, Roland stood rooted the ground. Then, he started to search his memories.

He remembered the memory fragment in the apartment building.

It recorded an upgrade ceremony held in a demon's city, and the host was exactly this Valkries!

Roland had almost thought that the Senior Demon had infiltrated the Dream World and invaded this world through the memory fragment!

Shocked and dismayed, Roland studied the patient attentively and then found that she was a little different from the person he remembered.

The biggest difference was that the patient in front of him did not have a third eye on her forehead.

Chapter 1237 - Observation

Roland was positive that the Senior Demon he remembered was, at that time, standing on a platform and teaching two upgraded demons fighting techniques. Her white muslin clothes swirling behind her formed a glaring contrast with the churning Red Mist pond down below, and her third eye on the forehead was glistening. He would never forget such an incredible scene.

Although the patient did not have that distinctive third eye, she, for some reason, resembled that Senior Demon. Roland was thus aroused by this demon martialist named "Valkries".

When it was his turn to shake hands, Roland did not leave immediately but stopped at her bedside.

"Are you living the in the modular apartment?"

Everyone, who was about to withdraw from the room, was all taken back as Roland spoke.

Valkries remained expressionless. After a moment of reflection, she shook her head.

Roland remembered that the female demon was actually a lot older than Zero, so she should not be one of Zero's captures.

"Do you have a twin sister by any chance, or someone who looks like you?" Roland pursued as he pointed at his own forehead. "For example, someone with an eye on her forehead?"

The crowd was stirred. The Defender coughed in embarrassment and reminded promptly, "Mr. Roland."

"Just a minute," Roland said as he waved his hand. "You just reminded me of someone I know."

Valkries spoke in the same indifferent manner, "No."

"How could that be possible? I've never seen anyone on the Cargarde Peninsula who has a third eye," someone mumbled. "There are people who have three fingers though."

"Alright..." Roland conceded but suddenly burst out boldly, "Charita!"

Valkries, however, did not respond at all as though still in a daze.

If Valkries was a demon from the other world, she should have understood the demon language and had some reaction.

It appeared that she really had nothing to do with that Senior Demon Roland knew.

Roland shrugged, extended out his right hand and said, "I hope you feel better soon, return to the Association, and fight the Erosion together."

She hesitated for a second and slowly stretched out her hand.

The moment the two hands touched each other, Roland could not help uttering a surprised exclamation.

The Defender asked a little irritably, "What's the matter?"

"Her hand is so cold... and a little wet as well."

The onlookers gaffawed. Roland could hear them comment derisively under their breath.

"Frivolous."

"Why did they pick such a brainless young man as the representative of the traditional martialists?"

"There, there. The patient needs some rest. Let's visit the next one," the doctor said while shaking his head. "What a mess..."

Roland shrugged. As the creator of the Dream World, he did not really care about what other people thought of him. Since he could not get anything out of Valkries, there was no point in continuing to stay here. He thus cast Valkries one last glance and left the room.

...

Valkries was still in a shock after everyone left.

She had just experienced the most difficult 15 minutes in her life. She had never thought that one day, she would exercise all her effort just to keep her face straight. It had almost cost all her energy.

When that man came up to her, Valkries felt all her blood within freeze. She would never forget that person. In the memory of the Silent Disaster, she had seen the exact same person stand on the other side of the legacy shard, watching the Silent Disaster being besieged by tentacles.

She had not only been watching but also experiencing it herself. Therefore, she had also been somewhat affected by the Silent Disaster's emotions. As Valkries had also been quite shocked and flustered at that time, she immediately associated Roland with the man in the Silent Disaster's memory when she saw him.

Her previous assumptions were all wrong, and she had to admit that there was a third possibility. The quaver of the Realm of Mind told her something. She had been on the right track, and this world was created by that man. In other words, Roland was the creator of this territory.

Had she met Roland in the real world, she would have immediately killed him. Like most of the upgraded demons, Valkries also possessed extraordinary fighting capacity. No matter how powerful Roland was, she would make every effort to finish him.

Nevertheless, things were a little different in the Realm of Mind. According to the king, nobody could kill him in his own territory. The king was an omnipotent and omnscient sort of existence that was almost like God to her. The king could be exaggerating, but Valkries did not dare take a chance.

She knew very well that she could encounter something worse than death. If Roland also had the ability to probe into her memories, the information she knew may jeopardize her entire clan.

Therefore, she must be extra cautious when dealing with such a tough enemy.

Fortunately, eveything was still uncertain. Valkries could tell that Roland was also in the process of figuring out her true identity. He did not have terrifying perspicacity like the king. Valkries was dimly aware that Roland had seen her somewhere. Although she did not know how, his act of demeanor told her that he remembered her.

Most likely he had met her in the other world.

Otherwise, he would not have asked her whether she had seen anybody with a third eye. The third eye on her forehead was actually the magic stone she had obtained during her third upgrade.

Also, the word "charita" meant "hero" in the ancient language.

Valkries stretched out her hand and studied it up and down. She thought of the moment Roland had touched her hand.

Her breath had almost stopped when Roland had uttered the exclamation. Luckily, she had successfully fooled him. Valkries still remembered the purpose of this trip. It was not only a challenge but also an opportunity. She had easily found the key person in the human race. As a male, he had inherited the legacy shard and also repelled the Silent Disaster with his mind. Beyond a doubt, this man possessed a lot of information that the clan did not know. She must get to the bare truth of it.

Valkries was sure that this man created this world to achieve something, just as the king created the Presiding Holy See to better manage his subordinates. She sniffed conspiracies here from the words "Fallen Evils", "fight" and "Erosion". Therefore, she must figure out what kind of schemes this man was planning in the Realm of Mind.

The conference that the doctor had mentioned might provide her a glimpse of what was going on.

Valkries clenched her fist at this thought.

Roland... right?

Now, I remember you!

Chapter 1238 - An Army of One Person

The conference was held in the hall of the sanatorium.

Almost all of the professional martial artists were invited.

However, Roland noticed that there were only about 300 people attending the meeting, which was significantly lower than the number registered in the Prism City. Apart from those who were injured or killed during the battle, some people had cold feet after the massive outbreak of the "Erosion".

They were probably amateur martial artists who had recently joined the Association.

Garcia denounced such cowardice and believed that it was an insult to their awakened Forces of Nature. Those people would pay for their cravenness when the Fallen Evils completely overpowered human beings.

Roland consoled Garcia, but he knew the Martial Artist Association was a relatively loose organization. In a modern society like the Dream World, the Martial Artist Association had no authority to bind the martial artists and ask them to tag along.

Roland had anticipated what direction this meeting would go into.

The Defender, Rock, briefly explained the current dilemma the Association was facing. After the attack at the Prism City, more Fallen Evils attacked the Awakened. Although there was no solid evidence at this point, it appeared that the new enemy that appeared in the Erosion had the ability to control Fallen Evils. This meant that the war would enter a new stage. The Martial Artist Association would organize people and repel the Fallen Evils more systematically. In the meantime, the Fallen Evils had also come up with plans to kill martial artists. The situation for human beings was now very critical.

Rock thus suggested that all the martial artists, both official members and newbies, should stay here in this sanatorium until order was re-established in the Prism City, as the sanatorium would afford some protection from their enemies. He also expressed his wish that all the invited martial artists should realize the precarious condition they were currently in and united to fight this battle together.

This was a perfect way to raise the morale among the martial artists. Roland believed that once this information spread, some hesitant amateur martial artists would probably return to the Association.

Whether or not all the people came back depended on the outcome of the battle. If the Fallen Evils outstripped the Association, more people would probably choose to flee.

It was extremely difficult to re-establish confidence.

As Roland had expected, Rock started to discuss the countermeasure.

One strategy was to send for the martial artists from other cities to solve Prism City's lack of manpower.

Secondly, the Martial Artist Contest should continue, in order to attract more Fallen Evils. The government and the executives of the Association had already approved this plan. Once the enemy appeared, they would face the wrath of the Defender and the martial artists.

Thirdly, the Association would set up a patrol team to prevent the Fallen Evils from attacking innocent citizens. Therefore, the martial artists would be divided into several groups, each of which being responsible for defending one area. In this way, they could immediately support each other in the event of an emergency and could also besiege the enemy once they received information from the intelligence agency.

The preliminary counterattack plan was quite conservative, considering that they lacked sufficient information.

The leader of each group could select their own team members, and a heated discussion immediately swept over the hall.

Roland did not want to be assigned to any team. In a sense, he himself was an army, and he did not want anyone to interfere with his magic core collection plan. Fortunately, few people in the Association knew him, so nobody asked him to join their team.

Until Fei Yuhan walked up to him and offered an invitation.

In fact, as the most popular martial artists, Fei Yuhan only invited two people.

But Roland turned her down without the slightest hesitation.

Everyone dropped their jaws, including Garcia. She asked Roland to think it over. It appeared that even self-disciplined Garcia spoke highly of this girl.

It took Roland a while to convince Garcia that he'd be better off fighting alone. The best proof was his previous feats and his hunting license.

The only thing that Roland was concerned about was that the other person Fei Yuhan invited was the demon martial artist, Valkries.

It was 10:00 PM when Roland returned to his apartment.

After Zero went to bed, Roland entered the second floor of the Rose Café through the side door of the warehouse.

More than 50 Taquila ancient witches bowed to him and paid him the highest respect. This was the first time that so many witches had come to the Dream World. The room was packed.

Back in the Union age, a team of 50 combat witches would have been sufficient to conduct a small battle.

"Any luck?"

Roland looked toward Faldi.

"Yes, the flies released by the Bug Nest sensed a few disappearing magic reactions," Faldi replied as she scrolled down the cell phone screen and showed Roland the map. She was not used to using the digital map, but somehow she managed it. "Normally, this indicates that there are God's Stones of Retaliation around there, or that our target can hide its magic power. If neither of the two applies, then it would mean that the target is dead."

"But there's no God's Stone of Retaliation in the Dream World, and the Force of Nature isn't as diverse as witches' abilities," Roland said.

"That's right. So we assume that the Fallen Evils fought with the awakened martial artists. Somebody died and their cores were taken away," Faldi replied while nodding. "Based on the direction of the magic reaction, they probably went here — "

She pointed at a pier on the inner river.

It appeared that the river bank was always the first choice of locations to commit a crime.

"Since my flies can't go that far, I contacted Ling for further investigation. She told me an hour ago that she found many Fallen Evils."

"Well done," Roland said with a faint smile. This was the reason he did not need the support of the Association. The Taquila witches could locate the enemies and kill them on their own. "I believe that you're all ready."

"Your Majesty, please issue your command," the witches chorused.

Their morale was high after they had had a good time during the day.

For them, fighting was another way to savor their past.

In addition to enjoying food, using magic was extremely joyous for them.

"Everyone, ready, go!" Roland ordered briskly.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Chapter 1239 - Two Options

The port was only around 15 kilometers from the apartment. To avoid unwelcome attention, all the witches dispersed and headed in different directions.

Roland was the last to set off. He drove his shabby mini van out of the residential area, with Phyllis and Faldi sitting at the rear.

He had upgraded their equipment after the joint mission organized by the Martial Artist Association. Although the equipment was not as advanced as that distributed by the Association, the appliances he had bought from the market were also quite a good alternative.

The walkie-talkies he had bought from the website were equipped with bluetooth microphones, which enabled the witches to communicate with each other within five kilometers. In reality, however, due to the interference of surrounding buildings and the complicated electromagnetic field, the communication was only effective when the witches were no more than two kilometers from each other. Since the speakers were less than 200 Yuan, and he could receive a discount if he placed a bulk order, Roland decided to equip each of the ancient witches with a walkie-talkie.

At least, the walkie-talkie was more convenient than a cell phone, and it attracted less attention of passers-by.

Roland often saw in a movie where an unexpected call jeopardized the whole mission. He felt it not only stupid but also unrealistic. He definitely did not want to make the same mistake.

Faldi, who had the ability to track people down, naturally became the key liaison person.

"Your Majesty, Betty's team has reached the port and met up with Ling."

"Ask them to hide themselves first until the rest of the team arrive," Roland said without looking backward.

"OK. Dawnen's team is still on the way and they'll be there in five minutes, but she doesn't have much money."

"Um... ask them who has extra to give to Dawnen."

"Hold on. Dawnen says that the driver has overheard their conversation and agreed to give them a ride for free."

"Alright then..." Roland said as he rolled his eyes. Why did nobody give him a free ride?

Five seconds after Faldi hung up, Roland's phone rang again. "Your Majesty, Twinkle says she has to take a detour. It looks like that she's not going to the port."

Roland frowned and asked, "Where is she?"

Before he finished, the phone was hung up abruptly, and Roland heard a loud bang on the other end of the line.

Then there was a series of noises.

Everything fell silent afterwards.

Roland massaged his temple and said, "Well... ask her to take another taxi. Remember to avoid the surveillance camera."

"Got it, Your Majesty," Faldi promised.

Around an hour later, all the witches reached the port.

The team that arrived first had already started to eat sunflower seeds.

Fortunately, the Fallen Evils had used the port as their temporary headquarters and did not notice the presence of the witches. They would have probably fled had this been a running fight. Roland suddenly had an urge to purchase more mini vans to avoid such embarrassment.

He cleared his throat and asked Ling, "What are the Fallen Evils doing?"

"Your Majesty, the Fallen Evils are all in the loading area. There are more than 30 of them. Some of their scouts are on the iron boxes outside. We could easily pass them unnoticed under Dawnen's Veil of Invisibility. The lighting condition is pretty good in the area close to the inner river. I didn't want to get too close to it, so I just took a look at the distance. Most of the Fallen Evils are there, but they could go anywhere. If we fight, I can't guarantee that we could capture every one of them."

Ling's ability was to be fused with shadows, and she could hide herself perfectly at night just like Nightingale. In other words, she was the best scout.

Roland said thoughtfully, "Well, in that case, let's lure them out and kill them. Entice them away from the river bank so that they can't flee by water, and then we can surround them."

"It seems feasible in theory, but how to lure them away?" Phyllis asked.

Roland smiled and pointed at himself. "I've heard that the Fallen Evils are attacking martial artists. They have no reason to let me go."

After all the witches disappeared in the darkness, Roland revealed himself and strolled to the dump site, as though he was simply a resident who happened to be having a walk here.

The dump site was dead quiet. The pattering of his footsteps and the humming of insects with which the silence teemed, became extremely audible. Piles of boxes loomed against the soft glow of yellow lights. It appeared that nobody would come to this deep, desolate labyrinth of boxes at this hour.

Dawnen reminded the rest of the team over the cheap walk-talkie that there were a few Fallen Evils lurking at the port.

Apparently, the scouts of the Fallen Evils noticed Roland's Force of Nature and notified their peers. To Roland's surprise, the Fallen Evils did not attack him immediatley but watched him amble around the port for a few minutes.

Then, suddenly, the whole port area was as bright as day when the lights at the dump site were turned on!

In the blinding light, Roland saw a dozen people slowly reveal themselves from the shadow. After his eyes were adapted to the dazzling light, he found himself surrounded by the Fallen Evils.

The man, who appeared to be the leader, was wearing a mask with strange patterns on it. He stood out from all the other Fallen Evils. Roland noticed that his mask looked like a gate that was about to burst open.

There were also two men standing next to the leader, who did not look like ordinary Fallen Evils, for their eyes had yet slid out of focus, and they were wearing the clothes distributed by the Martial Artist Association.

"Good evening, poor man," the leader said in a surprisingly polite tone. "I don't know what brought you here, but you should know that you have no chance to escape. Rather than waste your time and energy, I would recommend you to first listen to me."

Roland looked around and saw that there were Fallen Evils in all directions.

"Don't be afraid. I don't want to kill you. On the contrary, this may be a very rare opportunity. I just came to this world and I need your help," the man said as he extended out his hands. "Don't refuse it right away. Please let me introduce myself. I'm the ambassador of God, Alpha, from what you call the 'Erosion'."

Roland should have pretended to be frightened so that they would put their guard down. However, for some reason, Roland had an urge to punch the man in his face and shatter his triumphant, courteous smile.

"So, you're the monster that invaded the Prism City?"

"Invasion isn't the exact word, because this place belongs to God," Alpha said placidly. "Now it's time to return it. Look, lost man, the so-called martial artists will eventually be defeated and return to nothingness. It's more advisable to pledge fealty to God."

"I know it's hard for you to understand now. We have plenty of time to discuss the true nature of this world. I can show you the benefit you could possibly gain from this deal, apart from those empty promises. I can show you power," the man said while sticking out one finger. Soon, a flicker of red light ignited his fingertip, and Roland sensed a great fluctuation of magic power. "I can give this power to you, and you'll become much more powerful."

"Mr. Apostle isn't lying," two men beside the leader rejoined. "We were just awakened, and now we feel that we have tons of energy!"

"And you won't lose your mind either like those Fallen Evils."

"What if I decline?"

"Then I'll have to turn you into one of those monsters. Although they're relatively weak, they obey me," Alpha threatened while shrugging. "You can choose between the truth and power and being reduced to an unconscious monster that has an insatiable desire for the Force of Nature. You know which one is a better choice."

"Your Majesty, everyone is ready," Faldi whispered over the walkie-talkie.

Roland twitched his lips and said, "Then let me tell you what the true nature of this world is. I create this world, and I won't give it to anyone. So, you have two options. One is that you give me your cores and die here. The other is that I kill you, and it'll take me some extra time to collect your cores. Which one do you choose?"

"Stupid man!" the martial artists who had betrayed the Association hollered. "You can kill us just by yourself?"

"No, haven't you noticed that you've been surrounded?" Roland said and snapped his fingers. "Kill them."

Chapter 1240 - The Witches' War

"Huh? Surrounded? Stop acting. Sir Alpha can sense every single fluctuation of the Force of Nature — " Before the martial artists could finish, a flying box hit him right in the nose. He was thrown into the air and flew backwards, and he stopped dead.

Another traitor gaped at the witches who came out all of a sudden from all directions. Some came down from the sky and some from underneath, but most of them just came out of nowhere, as though they had been waiting for them for quite a long time.

This did not make any sense. Those women were no more than 10 meters from him. Even if they did not possess the Force of Nature, he should have heard their breath and footsteps!

Why did the scout not alarm him beforehand?

But he had no time to think it over.

Instantly, the two parties started to fight.

The quiet port was stirred.

Ling was hiding in the shadow. Light and shadow always came hand in hand. Although the dump site was lit by the street lights, the shadow cast by the boxes created a perfect hiding spot for her.

She had nailed her target already. Those Fallen Evils at the highpoint, which cast a long shadow on the ground and were fused with the darkness, gave her a perfect opportunity to launch an attack. If someone took a peek at Ling from behind, he would be totally shocked. Ling's body had merged into the shadow in the entirety, with only half of her head poking out. Several bubbles escaped from her nostrils silently.

Ling liked submerging into shadows. It was a warmer and more comfortable sensation than bathing in a hot spring. She had thought that she would never be able to have this pleasure again after turning into a God's Punishment Witch, until Phyllis had informed her of this incredible world a year ago.

It was a world of wonder that could bring her back to the past.

Ling had fallen in love with this world the first time she had visited it.

King Roland had transformed from a mortal with a strong personality into the Chosen One, whose authority could not be challenged, despite that he could not activate the instrument. Ling, Pasha and Celine always nagged Roland to take them to the Dream World. Ling had also persuaded Roland to pick her as the guardian of the three witches who were sent to school.

Ling knew that she had demons to kill, but it did not hurt to relax herself every now and then.

Anyone who attempted to cause His Majesty harm or destroy the Dream World was deemed as the mortal enemy of the Taquila witches.

As soon as the command was issued, Ling rose out of the shadow like a ghost and dived a dagger into one Fallen Evil's chest.

Ordinary weapons could not fatally wound a Fallen Evil. Therefore, she had to also inject magic power into it. Ling could feel the Fallen Evil's energy become unstable. It seemed that the two powers were interfering with each other. This proved His Majesty's theory in a way: the Force of Nature and magic power were essentially the same thing. They were both from the "Erosion".

Ling would only need to take out the corrupted core before the Fallen Evil collapsed into a pulp.

The moment that Fallen Evil fell, Ling flew several meters, passed a few boxes, and landed behind another Fallen Evil.

The fight was fierce below.

Soon, she eradicated all the scouts.

Ling stood on the highest point of the dump site and watched the battle from above. All the witches were as powerful as 400 years ago. In fact, they became even faster after receiving intense training after becoming God's Punishment Warriors. Nevertheless, Ling was more pleased with the high morale than their progress in fighting skills.

Betty's immense strength made her temporarily a Transcendent. She held an iron box single-handed and pushed her way through a group of Fallen Evils.

Twinkle and Phyllis were still the best partners. Every time Twinkle blinded their enemies with her ability, Phyllis' Blade Claws would reach the vital parts of the enemy's body.

Dawnen and Rother also did a wonderful job. Ling thought of the fierce battle back in Taquila age. She cast a glance at Roland. Perhaps, Roland did not even realize that the Dream World did not only provide the witches with mundane pleasures but also alleviated their stress.

They had gone through the darkest time of their life in the several hundred years after the fall of the three Holy Cities and the collapse of the Union. Everybody invested all their strength in adapting to their new bodies. The loss of sensations made them gradually forget about life enjoyment. Since they had no clues as to who the Chosen one was, everyone was stressed out. Even though they could switch bodies, their morale decreased every day. Ling had even doubted, at that time, that they would die of pressure rather than be killed by demons.

But the teeming Third Border City injected new hopes into them. They started to discuss which restaurant had the best take-out food, and the lost past gradually came back to them. Even if there were no Dream World, they would still be able to enjoy their life. This was so different from hundreds of years ago.

Ling knew all the other witches felt the same way, and that was why they had such a high morale.

They could not tolerate any Erosions in the Dream World.

She thus leaped into the air, jumped right onto one Fallen Evils, and joined the battle.

The moment Betty threw out the box, Roland dashed forward and struck the leader.

Based on his past experience, Roland knew that it was very difficult to deal with the red and black area and the black tentacles generated by the magic creature. Even witches would find a hard time getting rid of them.

However, the magic creature could not do any harm to Roland. As long as Roland held the leader back, the witches would finish the rest of the enemies off.

As Roland had expected, Alpha could not escape from his clutch, and his contemptuous tone changed.

"You—"

"I told you that I'm the creator," Roland cut cross him, leaving him no chance to argue. He had already known what the leader was going to say. "I don't care whether you're an Apostle or not. I don't give it a damn!" Roland pushed the man down to the ground and punched him in the face over and over again while mumbling furiously under his breath, until the man's mask cracked and revealed the astrolabe underneath.

The man's face was the core.

Roland pulled out the astrolabe immediately.

In a split second, the energy within him erupted from his palm and turned into a dazzling light beam that surrounded the astrolobe. As though attracted by the light beam, the cores of the Fallen Evils all fell off and splintered into thousands of glitters that gradually converged and lit the dark sky.

Roland, once again, felt that this world was changing.

However, this was not the end. The light beam became increasingly brighter and finally enveloped him! Roland felt that something was swarming into his head. An excruciating pain seared through him, and he almost lost his consciousness.

His vision blurred, and everything in front of him was reduced to a snow screen that he usually saw on the television in 70s.

He then heard hissing noises.

On the static noise screen, Roland saw a large pit.

Chapter 1241 - God's Eye

"What's going on?"

Roland tried to speak or move his body, but he was completely paralyzed. Several pictures fleeted in front of him.

Numerous black dots paced back and forth around the pit like ants on the move. Slowly, a platform rose. However, compared to the giant pit, the platform was incredibly small like a mound of earth.

To Roland's surprise, he had seen buildings of the same material before.

He had seen them on the mural in the Temple of the Cursed.

Roland zoomed in "screen" with his mind, and the noises grew louder. The black dots turned into wriggly creatures, which were exactly the main character on the mural, the radiation clan.

He suddenly remembered that this was exactly what the mural depicted.

A dozen radiation clansmen ascended the platform while holding the God's Relic. They encircled the platform, their bodies contracting and expanding alternatively, as if they were holding a kind of ceremony.

Below the platform were thousands of Match Men, who were pushed into the fathomless pit before the celebrating Radiation Clan.

The last piece of the Relic was inserted, and the transparent crystal became complete. It emanated a dazzling glow and drifted toward the pit. Then it plunged and disappeared from the sight.

Roland suddenly realized that this was probably what Lan called the "Bottomless Land".

But this was just the beginning.

Roland's eye widened as he beheld the following scene.

An orange light beam erupted from the pit and soared into the air. This was exactly what the ancient witches had described as the strange phenomenon upon entering the Dream World, but the light beam was much more intense. A "Bloody Moon" hung in the sky right across where the Erosion took place. For a split moment, the Heaven and Earth were connected, and Roland realized that the entrances to the so-called Bottomless Land and the Erosion were simply the two ends of the light beam.

The Radiation Clan swarmed toward the pit as flying moths darted into the fire.

But they did not plummet into the abyss. Instead, they drifted off as if supported by something and rose to the sky.

In an instant, there were innumerable black dots around the light beam.

Is this... the upgrade of a civilization?

Clouds scudded across the black dots and the light beam. Watching those black dots enter a new realm, Roland felt the whole upgrade process extraordinary.

Nevertheless, a deep sigh interrupted his train of thought. The voice reverberated across his head, so clear that Roland was positive that it was not an illusion.

Then time became seemingly faster, and the pixels on the "screen" became denser.

The image changed drastically.

Roland saw a few cities and towns dotted around the pit. Apparently, not all the members of the Radiation Clan were willing to enter the new world. Some preferred to stay. Probably, they feared the sky and the unknown adventure ahead of them. Roland did not know. He only saw several black dots disappear into the passage that connected the Heaven and Earth, like those legendary, audacious adventurers who set off for their journey. They looked, however, extremely lonely since most of their clansmen were already gone.

Now, the light beam dimmed.

In the end, it flickered and then vanished.

The noise screen again occupied Roland's vision, which marked the end of the story. Roland speculated that peace would be restored eventually. The legend of the road to Heaven would become a part of the history of the Radiation Clan, a written record for future reference. Perhaps, someone else would come to seek the pit and look for the upgrade method to reach God, but this would be something many years later.

When Roland thought that this was the end, a "towering wall" suddenly appeared at the end of the horizon.

At first, he had thought it was an illusion, since the "noise screen" blocked his vision. However, when the "wall" approached the pit gradually, he finally saw what that was.

A huge wave taller than the Impassable Mountain Range pressed in and submerged the little towns below instantly. The wave was so high that the top of it almost reached the clouds in the sky. Sun rays glazed off the wave and formed a new horizon.

Roland could imagine how desperate the Radiation Clan were when they saw such a horrific scene.

But the disaster did not stop here.

After the tsunami, volcanos at the distance suddenly erupted. Ashes were sent flying in all directions and dimmed the sunlight. Thunderbolts cracked through the air. Then there came heavy rain and harsh winter. The geographical movement became, unprecedentedly, active. After several major disastrous transformations, the world had transformed into an entirely different look.

The screen started to hiss again.

The image distorted, and the pixels almost filled out the whole "screen".

Before the scene vanished, Roland saw the glacier melt, and a green plant break through the soil and sprout.

"Your Majesty..."

"Your Majesty, are you alright?"

Someone shook Roland and looked at him apprehensively.

His eyes snapped open, and the pixels disappeared. He found himself again in the port area.

"All... done?" Roland mumbled as he studied his palm.

Phyllis thought Roland was asking her, so she said, "Yes, we killed all of them. Not a single one fled. Their magic cores also disappeared a few minutes later. You stood rooted here like you've fallen asleep. Your Majesty, are you really OK?"

Roland was not sure whether he was alright or not. All he had seen a moment ago did not seem like an illusion, for he could remembered all of them. They were more like some extra memories coming out from nowhere. In addition, he felt extremely exhausted, as though he had lived thousands of years in just a few minutes.

He somehow understood that sigh.

Roland thought of Lan's words.

"The truth is always what you understand."

Was this... the last of the Battle of Divine Will?

Roland took a deep breath and said, "I'm fine. I just saw some strange phenomena."

"Strange phenomena?" Phyllis echoed while blinking. "This isn't the time to say this, Your Majesty. The light beam just now almost lit half of the port and should have attracted a lot of attention. We must go. Otherwise, the Association will notice us."

"Got it. Let's head back the way we came," Roland agreed with a nod.

Roland was not sure whether those were the Apostle's memories or something else, but he believed that one day, he would find the answer to these questions.

And Roland believed that day would come soon.

Chapter 1242 - Departure from the Northernmost Port

At the Northernmost Port in the Kingdom of Everwinter.

"Don't push. Stand in line!"

"Abandon the luggage! The King of Graycastle will provide you with sufficient food and clothes. If you want to survive, throw your luggage into the water!"

"Hurry up! Ladies and children first!"

The port was filled with refugees who were swarming toward the ships. Had the First Army and the lord's guards not maintained the order, those refugees would have probably trodded on each other to board the ships.

"Captain, we probably... can't accommodate so many refugees," the chief guard said apprehensively as he looked backwards at the ships packed with refugees that were now slowly departing from the port.

"It's very brave of them to come to the Northernmost Port at this time of year," Uncle Sang commented as he gazed at the front. Within three to four days, the Red Mist had spread out from the crest of the Impassable Mountain Range. The sky was awash with a crimson color, which cast a shadow over everybody's heart.

"Captain... save a spot for me," someone muttered.

Uncle Sang said with a smile, "If Nail asked me, I would definitely save a spot for him, even if that means I have to get off the ship."

Over half a month ago, they had received instructions to leave the Hermes Plateau for the city at the far north of the Kingdom of Everwinter to carry out the immigration compaign. Compared to defend the Holy City, Nail preferred this task a lot better. He felt more relaxed after taking this mission and also became more communicative during the voyage. As soon as he reached the Northernmost Port, he started the campaign.

They were not the first Graycastle men that arrived at the Kingdom of Everwinter. Many of his colleagues had visited the kingdom and evacuated the cities ahead of time. The evacuation work did not go very well at first until the Bloody Moon emerged. Rumors were circulated among the community that the "Bloody Moon" represented the end of the world. Therefore, when local residents saw the crimson moon in the sky, they were terrified and immediately asked the soldiers stationed there to get them out of the city.

Unfortunately, the situation turned for the worse.

Four or five days later, they were informed of the presence of the Red mist.

On the same day, the First Army encountered demons.

They did know the outcome of the battle, but the advance team started to retreat to the south, and Nail's team also received instructions to retreat to the next port.

In the meantime, there was a huge increase in the number of refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people rushed to the Northernmost Port every day and asked the soldiers to take them away. Nail could not ignore their pleading, so he asked his men to build up a defensive line while at the same time asking the army at the rear to send him more ships via the carrier pigeon. Because of this, their retreat plan was delayed for several days.

Uncle Sang knew that once the news of the Red Mist was spread out, fewer ships would come to the north. Those Chambers of Commerce retained by His Majesty would not risk their own lives to carry out the mission. They would probably, very reluctantly, agree to sail out, but they would never reach here. These were probably the last ships that came to rescue.

Nail had foreseen that this would happen beforehand, so he had asked his team members to prepare some explosives in advance. They could not only ignite the explosives in the event of an attack from the demons but could also destroy the equipment on the ship that was not easy to take away to prevent the demons from obtaining these technologies.

"Captain, there's smoke at the front!" someone shouted.

"Again?" Uncle Sang said. "Everybody, man your post!"

Shortstaffed, with no witch scouts to help them, they had to rely on the traditional means of communication to deliver messages.

This was not the first time that the demons had visited the Northernmost Port. There were actually a few demons' bodies outside the town. According to the manual distributed by the management team, these demons were mostly Mad Demons. Although the enemies were scattered around and appeared not to be very powerful, it did indicate that the demons had set foot on the Kingdom of Everwinter and that they were slowly approaching as the Red Mist permeated.

As a troop that had been stationed at Hermes ever since the battle at the Coldwind Ridge, Nail's unit did not participate in the Taquila battle. Although Uncle Sang had told him a lot about the war, this was, essentially, his first time to confront the demons. After several fights, Nail concluded that as long as the Mad Demons were more than 200 meters from the defensive line, they were easier to deal with than the church's God's Punishment Warriors.

Uncle Sang was not too worried about the beacon. Instead, he was more concerned about Nail's decision. Without a doubt, it was impossible to take all the refugees away with only two ships. What would the captain do with the people left behind? Would he abandon them to their fate or take them to the south?

Just then, he saw a Mad Demon outside the barbed wire erected on the street.

Uncle Sang frowned.

Like most of the port cities, the Northernmost Port did not have a city wall. Therefore, they had built the defensive line at the dock. Apart from refugees, all the residents were gone. Naturally, the city attracted demons. However, to Uncle Sang's dismay, the scouts were gone, too. Technically, they should have retreated after seeing the beacon and returned to the defensive line faster than the enemies.

Gradually, more Mad Demons appeared and swarmed toward the dock.

"Fire!"

The two machine gun squads opened fire together, and shells rained down at the demons. The demons were swift too. They immediately took refuge in the buildings nearby. After the dust and smoke dissipated, there were only two bodies left on the barbed wire.

Gun shots soon rented the air.

Apparently, the sniper team opened fire at the demons who lurked on the roof.

This was their military tactic. Considering that they did not have a broad view in the urban area, they had set up many obstacles over the past week. The soldiers had blocked most of the streets and alleys with garbage and property debris. These obstacles could not completely stop the demons but could hold them back. If the demons did not want to waste their time on removing obstacles and clearing the road, they would have to confront the machine gun squads directly.

Then, they would face a bitter and ferocious fight. Since there were not many demons, Uncle Sang did not think that the demons would dart to the front and spear. The demons should have retreated considering they were outnumbered. However, they were sticking to this hide-and-seek game, as if they intended to exhaust the First Army's ammunition.

The demons today were apparently more persistent than those a few days ago. It seemed that they had a lot of war experience.

Uncle Sang sneered. Had the God's Punishment Army been so persistent, they would have had a difficult time. Nevertheless, the First Army was now better equipped. They had 100 soldiers, four Mark I Machine Guns, and ammunition that could last at least one day. Uncle Sang was sure that the demons would end up dying here if things continued like that.

However, the situation suddenly changed.

With a loud bang, dust was stirred up in the residential area in the north of the dock. A huge armored monster broke through the stone walls and rose on its rear from the debris.

"Spider Demon?" a soldier asked in surprise.

"Load the anti-demon grenade!"

Uncle Sang's heart sank. The manual did mention a type of demon that resembled a spider. However, this demon was a little different from the Spider Demon he knew.

Its limbs were covered with much thicker black stones that almost took up half of its body.

Chapter 1243 - Rescue

Two soldiers immediately approached the new enemy and fired the anti-demon grenade.

Two strands of smoke shot toward the gigantic Spider Demon from behind the bunk. They could not miss such a large target. Uncle Sang's heart leaped to his throat as he watched the trajectories of the two shells. For some reason, he had an undefined feeling that the thick armor the demon was wearing was not that easy to deal with.

He was right.

One grenade hit the target and was bounced off into the ground.

The other one hit the demon's front leg and exploded. Nevertheless, the demon was not stopped at all. On the contrary, it leaned a little forward and strode in their direction against the dust.

"Shot the body, you thickhead!" someone complained.

"Let me try!" Another soldier volunteered, who carried a box of shells and crept out of the trench.

Uncle Sang did not stop him, but he was not as optimistic as the others. Now he came to the realization why the new Spider Demon looked somewhat strange to him. Compared to the misshapen Spider Demon on the manual, this one looked more coordinated. The "armor" it was wearing was not made of random irregular-shaped stones but neat polygons. If those stones were connected, they could probably form a perfect trapezoid.

Also, its limbs swung on its side when it walked, which made it harder for the soldiers to shoot its torso or abdomen. No wonder the two previous shots had missed the target.

As Uncle Sang had expected, the next few shots did not stop the Spider Demon either. The demon almost automatically curled up the moment the soldiers fired.

In the meantime, Mad Demons appeared again in the rupture created by the Spider Demon.

"Damn it. Can't those guys be more serious?" a machine gunner complained as he adjusted the muzzle.

"Enough!" Uncle Sang yelled briskly. "Retreat to the second defensive line and abandon this area. Prepare to ignite the explosives."

"But..."

"Shut up," Uncle Sang hollered. "If the demons besiege us from the side, we'll be stuck here!"

Horns trumpeted across the battlement. Nail's team retreated to the port according to the training procedure. The refugees panicked as the monster slowly approached them.

The soldier responsible for igniting the explosives connected the detonating cord to the motor and set the motor in motion. "Captain, we're ready!"

"Very well. Let them have a taste of the explosives," Uncle Sang said as he stared at the monster that clashed in every direction and motioned. "Just a moment... now!"

As the soldier pressed the lever, there was a huge roar. In an instant, the ground beneath started to quaver. The air was impregnated with smoke and dust.

Some explosives had been buried underneath the Spider Demon. The Spider Demon was thus sent flying into the air, and its stone armor became a huge burden. Its joints snapped under the impact. By the time it fell, it had been completely immobilized. Limped and seriously injured, it collapsed to the ground.

Someone in the battlement whistled.

Before they could take a break, another bang occurred in the east of the dock.

Another Spider Demon emerged on the battlefield.

Uncle Sang was glad that he had made the right decision.

He had a vague feeling that the attack of the demons this time might be very different from the previous attacks, Apparently, the demons intended to besiege and eliminate them. The fact that the scouts did not come back in time indicated that the demons had cut their retreat. Had he been hesitant a moment ago, the machine gun squads would have failed to retreat. Although the First Army had now abandoned their stronghold in the alley, they could still rely on four Mark I HMGs to repulse the Mad Demons.

However, this did not mean that the crisis had been resolved. They never knew how many Spider Demons there would be. If there were two more... no, one more Spider Demon, they could hardly hold onto the battlement. What was worse was that many refugees were waiting for the departure at the dock. If the battle sparked panic among them, the whole situation would get out of hand. They would not only be unable to save these people but would fail to board the ships as well.

After the smoke dissipated, the demons stepped forward onto the field where the explosion had just taken place.

Numerous gun shots rented the air.

"Boom!"

While Uncle Sang was worried about what step he should take next, he suddenly heard a familiar roar behind him. Immediately, he knew where that sound came from. This was the sound of the 152-caliber Longsong Cannon that the First Army was most familiar with!

There should not have been any artillery here.

Uncle Sang turned around in dismay and saw an iron ship slowly dock. The cannon parallel to the deck was directly aiming at the defensive line.

"That's... the 'Roland'!" a soldier, who recognized the iron ship at once, exclaimed.

"Didn't they leave already?"

"Who cares? We have support!"

"Long live the king! Kill those filthy monsters!"

Shells brushed past the soldiers and landed on the battlefield in succession. Around 10 meters away from the trench, smoke and dust permeated the air. Some shells hit the sandbags before the trench and exhaled a rain of sand and earth that showered down at the soldiers. The soldiers would have loathed the Artillery Battalion with the most venomous words had it occurred in the past. However, now, everyone appreciated their help. The roar of the Longsong Cannon became the most beautiful music they had ever heard.

Had Nail not abandoned them but been awaiting this moment all along?

Uncle Sang noticed that some refugees, under the guidance of the soldiers, boarded the "Roland". Most of the refugees got on the ship.

He did not know what Nail had said to the management team, but evidently, this was a good opportunity for them to withdraw.

"Everyone, listen. We have to go to the dock," Uncle Sang yelled. "One by one. Don't fall behind! Once everyone leaves, the explosion unit should ignite the rest of the explosives!"

Soon, the order was delivered and spread out throughout the whole trench.

They started their final retreat.

Although quite reluctant, they had to leave the Mark I type HMG and the rest of the ammunition behind. This was the king's order. Personal safety took precedence over weapons, for soldiers could always create new weapons.

The troop thus entered the dock area, and the demons, in the meantime, also took the second defensive line against the gunfire.

But no sooner had the demons snatched their victory than an earsplitting roar shook them.

Thousands of kilograms of explosives sent the Mad Demons into the air.

In the aftermath of the magnificent explosion, the "Roland" whistled and departed from the ravaged Northernmost Port at a full speed.

Chapter 1244 - Change Over Time

Zooey stood at the bridge and peered down at the crowd on the deck. The "Roland" was not large enough to accommodate 1,000 people. After all the refugees boarded the ship, there was literally no room to sit.

For most of the refugees, it was their first time traveling by sea, and they soon felt nauseous and dizzy. The crowded environment further aggravated the situation. Even those who rarely got seasick felt their stomachs turn uncomfortably when surrounded by sick passengers.

Zooey appreciated the fact that she could not smell anything.

"Mortals are so weak..." Carol's voice came from behind. "I can't believe that we used to be like that too."

"Yes, that's incredible," Zooey said with a nod of approval.

She knew what Carol was referring to.

After the captain had received the instructions to support the army, he had immediately sought the God's Punishment Witches for help. Since the main task for the "Roland" was to locate the God's Stone mine, Zooey was the decision maker. The magic core from the underground civilization was, at that time, on the ship, and its giant frame almost occupied the entire deck, so there was not much room for more passengers. Zooey should have declined the request to avoid creating potential safety hazards.

She would have refused to provide assistance had this occurred in the Union age, for back then, the rare magic core had been far more important than mortals. She would choose the magic core over a city without the slightest hesitation, let alone taking refugees. However, now, things were a little different.

After having a brief discussion with her peers, Zooey made a decision that even astonished herself.

She shipped the magic core to another port city and asked the First Army who garrisoned there to look after it. Then she steered the "Roland" back to the Northernmost Port. She had even told the garrison that if she did not return in a timely manner, they should take the responsibility of sending the core back to Neverwinter themselves.

"But it doesn't feel bad," Carol said smilingly while shrugging. "To be honest, I thought you would decline the request, and I was torn too."

"I hope they won't fail His Majesty," Zooey said darkly.

What had changed their mind? Zooey searched her memories and remembered the First Army who had fought ferociously against the demons at the ruins of the Holy City, the nurses who had treated her in the hospital, the ordinary people in the Dream World who looked no different than the witches, as well as Roland Wimbledon...

"I hope so. We risked ourselves coming here to this area permeated with the Red Mist," Carol said as she patted Zooey on the shoulder, and then headed to the bridge. "Anyway, we completed our mission. I want to go back to Neverwinter immediately and have spicy hotpot. Oh, my mouth waters..."

So did Zooey's.

She heard her stomach protest. Fortunately, Carol shut the gate just at that time and therefore did not hear the noise.

Zooey cleared her mind and gazed upon the sinister Red Mist at the distance.

The Battle of Divine Will that had brought the Union numerous nightmares came once again, much earlier than they had anticipated. The demons had also achieved great progress, but somehow, Zooey felt peaceful.

This time, they were not fighting alone.

Hackzord was suspended above the city he had just occupied.

There was no smoke or ruins of properties. Most buildings remained intact as if the battle had not taken place.

Human beings hardly resisted. They were even weaker than 400 years ago. Had he not trusted Ursrook so much, he would have thought that this was the territory of the enemies in the Sky-sea Realm rather than human beings'.

Within one week, their army had advanced several hundred miles and also built their outpost in the cities not yet permeated with the Red Mist. Hackzord had to attribute the swift operation to the help of the mankind. According to his subordinates, they had only decapitated hundreds of people before the frightened lord and the nobles knuckled under and agreed to provide supplies to them.

It was just like the first Battle of Divine Will.

It appeared that the news that they had burned the Snow Reflection Castle had already been spread out and made a deep impression on other lords.

As more and more cities were conquered, Hackzord gradually received a lot of information from local people. He did not understand why the mankind, who had united together back in the Union age, was again scattered. He did not understand either that why humans' territory, small as it was, was further divided into four kingdoms that never communicated with each other. The Union that had once dominated the continent was gone.

What had men achieved in the past 400 years?

The four kingdoms were not weak in his opinion, for his best commander had been killed by men.

Did they not know the importance of teamwork?

Yet anyhow, Hackzord was relieved.

He had successfully carried out the plan for the Western Front, although he had experienced some hiccups. He had successfully activated the Birth Tower as the king expected him to.

In a way, he was much more reliable than the boasting "Blood Conqueror" and the irresponsible Mask. At least, he had fulfilled his promise.

Through a series of Distortion Doors, Hackzord returned to the rupture.

This was the last stronghold on the Land of Dawn, and Hackzord had decided to name this prospective city "Sky" after him. He was sure that this new city would be remembered by the whole clan.

Just at that moment, his guard sent in the update report.

Hackzord quickly skimmed the report through and noticed that a large number of refugees began to flee the Kingdom of Everwinter. He would not have paid it particular notice had those people been regular refugees, for most of them would die on their way.

However, to him, it seemed to be a well-organized, carefully-planned campaign. All the refugees were heading to the Kingdom of Wolfheart in the south by water or land. The troops who attempted to stop them had experienced fierce resistance, which was very similar to what Usrook had mentioned in his letter.

Although several units led by the Upgraded had gained the victory, they had not completely stopped the refugees. More troops were needed to stop them. This was also one of the drawbacks to erect the Birth Tower in the mountainous area. Without the Distortion Doors, the Junior Demons and Inferior Demons could not travel to men's territory by themselves.

Hackzord knitted his brows and asked, "Where's Nightmare?"

"Her Excellency is still asleep in the Red Mist pond."

"Damn it. She has been there for more than 10 days. I hope she's not lost in the Realm of Mind," thought Hackzord to himself.

Hackzord summoned the Distortion Door and went straight down to the bottom of the rupture.

Valkries still remained in her original position. She was sitting cross-legged in the pond, looking quite relaxed. There was not the faintest sign of her being devoured by the Realm of Mind, except that she had been there for an exceptionally long time.

This indicated that she was still roaming the Sea of Mind.

Had the person in front of him been the Blood Conqueror, Hackzord would have given him a slap in the face to wake him up. He did not mind that this action would cause damage to the Blood Conqueror's memory, but he would not recklessly do the same thing to the Nightmare.

Why did she have to pick this time to explore the Realm of Mind!

Hackzord felt a little agitated about those fleeing refugees. Dimly, he was aware that something fishy was going on, but it was hard to explain the situation to the king. The king had dispatched two Senior Lords to the Western Front already, so it was not likely that he would send another one simply to deal with these low lives. The other Senior Lords would definitely laugh at him if he requested for one more. However, the truth was that he had made every effort to conduct this operation, but the Senior Lords could not care less about this mission. The Senior Lords simply acted on their own and provided little help to the battle. Therefore, due to the lack of a reliable Senior Lord at the Western Front to properly command the troops, the army was unable to carry out an expedition.

Had Nightmare assisted him in pursuing those refugees, he would not have run into such an embarrassing and difficult situation.

Hackzord glared at the sleeping Nightmare and finally left the Red Mist Pond.

It seemed that he had to guard the Western Front himself.

Chapter 1245 - The Great Immigration

At the Sedimentation Bay in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

White drove his wagon into the busy dock area.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we've arrived at our destination. No matter what life you used to lead, you'll have a brand new life from today onwards. I wish every one of you good luck. It has been a priviledge being of your service! Now, I can offer you one more additional service as a courtesy," White said as he reined in his horse.

His business had been pretty good recently. After the arrival of the Graycastle ships, he had obtained more business opportunities, especially of short-distance transportation services. Every time he transported residents in the surrounding towns and cities to the port, he could earn around 10 silver royals, and normally, he could do that twice a day. He could have offered another ride at night had he not cared too much about the condition of his wagon. In that case, he would actually earn a little bit more than what he had got back in the church.

Further, the compensation was not paid by the passengers but by the Graycastle men. He only needed to stamp on the traveling document before he proceeded to the sentry post to request for his remuneration. The compensation was based on the number of the passengers he carried, and the Graycastle men had never delayed any payment.

Because of this, many people at the Sedimentation Bay started to provide similar transportation services, including sailors and handymen. Even though a lot of them did not know how to maneuver a carriage, they could ask someone who did to join them. The service was in such a high demand that they did not really need to worry about attracting customers. It was a job that allowed people to earn quick money. The only factor they needed to consider about was the traveling distance, as the farther the towns were, the higher expenses it would incur.

Graycastle men would like to offer help to anyone who was willing to leave the Kingdom of Wolfheart, both rich and poor. Apparently, the King of Graycastle did not really care about money. White thus did not want to lose such a lucrative business opportunity.

Everybody loved money.

White had also heard of the war in the north. There was suddenly a huge influx of refugees in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, so the rumor could possibly be true. Also, Smarty had told him that the lord of the Sedimentation Bay, Baron Jean Bate, transferred a large number of his personal properties to a ship, in an apparent attempt to leave this place. In consideration of these recent events, White also had to find a retreat for himself.

If he could earn a huge sum of money now, he would be able to live a better life in the future.

"What kind of service?" someone asked immediately.

"Some useful experience and kind advice," White answered as he pointed at the port where a great number of large ships docked. "Look over there. Although everyone wants to leave for Graycastle, not everyone will have a pleasant journey. I had been at the Sedimentation Bay before they came here, so I know a lot. Perhaps, my advice could help you."

"Then... please tell us..."

"Sure, but you have to pay me. Not much. One silver royal would do."

White knew poor people did not really care about what kind of situation they were venturing into. They only needed to be fed and clothed. Therefore, he mainly targetted at refugees who had a little bit of savings. They loved to hear little tips and advice. Since White did not charge much, and they did not even pay for the ride, they did not mind buying the information.

Because White used to be that kind of person too.

"Haha, that's a game that Rats normally play," a well-dressed man with brown hair sneered. "But this man is obviously not as daring as Rats. One silver royal only. Here you go."

Soon, the servant beside the man handed White the money.

White smiled stiffly. It appeared that the man was a noble, a diminished noble actually, for he had to now share a wagon with civilians.

"... Here's my payment," another young man said hesitantly and produced a silver royal from his pocket.

White waited for a while. It appeared that only two people were willing to pay, but it was better than nothing. He then decided to let the customers go.

Just at that moment, the young man said to the other passengers, "Don't go just yet. I'll share the information with you for free."

"Hey, what did you say?" White stiffened.

"I paid," the young man swelled up. "I paid for your information, but it doesn't mean I can't retell it to someone else. What? Anything wrong here?"

"You—"

"You probably want to bail out, but you won't benefit anything from it. Even if I share the information to everyone at the port, it won't affect your future business. However, you'll lose one silver royal if you choose not to say."

White's lips parted. He suddenly did not know how to respond to such a sharp argument.

"You thickhead. You can do whatever you want. Why did you tell him?" the noble protested irritably. "You're wasting our time."

"I'm not doing anything wrong. I have nothing to hold back," the young man said flatly. "I think it's unfair not to let the coachman know."

"Fair?" the noble echoed while casting a scornful glance at the young man as he looked at a fool, and then turned to White. "Oi, leave that man alone. I paid you. Are you telling me or not?"

White glared at the young man. He had to admit that the young man was right. "Alright, alright. I'll say. What bad luck... you guys stay here. I'll tell you all."

Then White related the information he knew to his passengers. He told them what kind of people Graycastle men preferred, the departure time of the ships, some details they needed to pay attention to upon registration, as well as the second screening after their arrival. White particularly placed emphasis on the second screening process, for this was the information he had obtained from the soldiers and that the guide of the First Army would not reiterate. According to the Graycastle men, witches would partake in the second screening to detect lies. Once a person misrepresented in his application, he would be labeled as a "dishonest" man, and it would be a lot harder for him to find a decent job.

Apart from that, the noble status would not give them any privilege. On the contrary, people in Graycastle hated those who always boasted about their noble status, so it would be more advisable to keep a low profile. As long as one could read and write, or have a specific skill, he did not need to worry about his life there.

"Thank you for your kind reminders," the young man said to White as he got off the coach at last. "This did save us a lot of trouble."

"Bah, don't mention it. You paid me," White grumbled and smoked his pipe deeply. "Those people should thank you, but they're all gone." "Young man, don't always try to be nice, especially nowadays... Otherwise, people will take advange of you someday."

He used to be like that too.

However, he had got nothing for being nice but only a fake leg.

"Perhaps, but this is my duty as a knight."

"Haha, do you think I've never seen a knight? Or are you saying the knight on a book? Forget it. The last time I've heard of a knight was when I drank with a Rat in a tavern."

"Everyone doing it doesn't mean it's right."

"Yes?" White said as he raised his brows. The man looked serious. "Are you a knight?"

"Er... No, I'm not knighted, but my father was, but he..."

White gave the young man a look of comprehension. He now understood that this man had nothing but an ambitious dream. White waved his hand and said, "I'm not interested in your family. By the way... what's your name?"

The young man immediately raised his head and replied, "Manfeld Castein."

"OK, Mr. Castein," White said as he exhaled a pipe of smoke and clambered onto the horseback. "An additional piece of information for you. There's no knight in Graycastle anymore."

Chapter 1246 - The Ship to the South

As White had suggested, Manfeld found that nobody waited for him after the coach departed. He was surrounded by strangers.

However, he did not feel very frustrated about the lack of appreciation because he did that simply because that he thought this was the right thing to do.

Manfeld soon found the registration desk based on the information provided by the coachman. In fact, a banner was hung over that area, which attracted many passers-by.

Although there were lots of people, the registration proceeded in an orderly fashion. Iron bars segmented the crowd, and there formed a huge lineup between the entrance and the registration desk. Refugees were thus directed into a temporary "passage", along which they shuffled forward slowly.

A Graycastle soldier received Manfeld. All the clerks were wearing the same uniform, so it was easy to distinguish them.

"Name?"

"Manfeld Castein."

"Identity? Any criminal records? What's your expertise?"

The inquiry was just as what the coachman had told him. Manfeld answered all the questions truthfully and did not dwell upon his family and background. He was about to talk more about his expertise when the soldier suddenly interrupted him after hearing him say he could read and write. "That'll do. Trestle No. 6. This is your boarding pass. Don't lose it. Next."

Manfeld was immediately pushed out of the queue into the dock area before he realized that the registration was over.

"Well... that's it?"

So the coachman was right then? One could live a very good life in Graycastle as long as he could read and write. But it appeared that everyone in Graycastle was literate. Manfeld had noticed that while he was waiting, the registration clerks were changing all the time. Sometimes, they would ask a soldier who maintained the order to take their shift temporarily, and nothing had gone wrong.

Manfeld felt very confused.

Also, the boarding pass was a little strange too. It was an iron plate, with a rope attached to one end so that he could actually wear it like a necklace. There was a series of engraved symbols and numbers on the plate. It would not cost much to make such a small plate, but it would be a different story if every refugee had such a plate.

Castein's family used to own a blacksmith workshop, so he knew what that meant. A blacksmith could use leftover materials to make an iron plate, but he would need tons of materials to make 100 or 1,000 of them. It would only take a blacksmith half a day to engrave those symbols, but it would take a much longer time to repeat the same process over and over again.

However, there were more than 1,000 people at the port.

If this was what happened at the Sedimentation Bay every day, then they would need hundreds of thousands of iron plates! It was unimaginable how many resources and how much time they would need to distribute an iron plate like this to every single refugee. It would probably still not enough even if they summoned all the blacksmith in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Manfeld now had glimpse of Graycastle's immense wealth.

Kingdom of Dawn used to be the wealthiest kingdom on this continent.

Amazed and surprised, Manfeld boarded a three-masted ship.

He was led into a cabin shared by 10 people, which was a lot better than what he had expected. He had thought that he might have to sleep in a warehouse. Manfeld was not sure if this was because he could read and write. Nevertheless, the stinky smell in the cabin was intolerable. Although his family had lost their past glory, he used to, at least, sleep in a comfortable bedroom.

Therefore, Manfeld immediately got out of the cabin and went to the deck to get some fresh air. Just at that moment, he heard someone calling for help.

The voice seemed to be coming from the end of the hallway.

Since not many people were on the ship and the sailors were busy working on the upper deck, the cabin was a little empty. Nobody except him had heard that voice.

Manfeld thus went in the direction that voice came from.

There was a storage room at the end of the hallway, and Manfeld gathered that few people except crew members would come here. He pressed his face onto the door and heard noises inside, as though someone was struggling.

Manfeld soon stepped back and threw himself against the door. The door was flung open.

Manfeld was taken aback by what he saw.

He did not expect to see a familiar face here. The middle-aged noble whom he had met in the coach was standing in the storage room while his two servants were trying to push two ladies down to the ground and tie them up. The ladies were gagged. Inarticulate groans escaped from their lips. Apparently, they were brought here by force.

"Hey, isn't this the righteous fool on the coach?" the noble drawled. "If I remember correctly, you're a noble as well, right? I'm Mick Kinley. What about you?"

"Manfeld Castein," Manfeld pronounced his name for the third time. He noticed that as soon as he announced his name, the hope in the ladies' eyes faded out, and they also stopped struggling.

"Castein? I've never heard of this name," the middle-aged man said while shrugging. "But you're lucky. Since you came here, I'll kindly share the ladies with you, but you'll have to wait."

"Release them," Manfeld said heavily.

"Huh?" Mick Kinley squinted and said, "Are you out of your freaking mind? Do you know who they are? They're slaves! And God knows how many people have used them. I'm very surprised that I found these two little things on the ship. There's no reason that their master would let them go. So, now, it's very simple. They escaped from their master. You still want to save them?"

Escaped slaves were the most inferior slaves, who were not very different from animals. Therefore, nobles could literally do anything to them.

However, Manfeld had his own principles.

"Everyone doing it doesn't mean it's right."

"This ship is heading to Graycastle, right?"

"... What's your point?" Mick Kinley snarled.

"You should have heard what those Graycasle men said. The Wimbledons has abolished slavery. Therefore, the moment they boarded ship, they were no longer slaves," Manfeld insisted defiantly. "And don't you forget that there's a second screening after we get off the ship. They'll ask you whether you have criminal records. If I tell you what you did on the ship to these two ladies, do you think Graycastle men would let you go?"

"What are you going to do if I insist?" Mick Kinley said through his clenched teeth.

"You have to beat me first," Manfeld said as he rolled up his sleeves. "I'm a knight — "

No sooner had he finished than Mick Kinley threw himself toward him.

It was a quick battle.

Mick Kinley's servants had apparently also received formal training. Manfeld was soon knocked down in the small, narrow storage room. Mick Kinley kicked his bruised face.

"This is all you can do? I thought your swords are as sharp as your words," Mick Kinley spatted. "Sh*t. Such bad luck! I'll leave these two sluts to you, but don't you forget that slaves will always be slaves, no matter where they go! What a fool! Let's go!"

Mick Kinley slammed the door behind him, and the next moment, the three were left alone in the stuffy storage room, unable to move.

Chapter 1247 - The Heart of A Knight

It took Manfeld a while to regain his consciousness.

His vision blurred, and he felt a searing pain through his cheeks. It was pretty hard for him to open his eyes.

Damn it. That brute had broken the unwritten rule that nobles should not hit each other in the face.

He struggled to sit up, slowly shuffled toward the two frightened ladies and ungagged them. "Don't be afraid. I'll release you just in a moment."

The two ladies were too scared to speak, so they simply nodded.

Manfeld untied them after taking a long rest and said, "There you go. You're free now. Don't get caught by that person again..."

Manfeld believed that Mick Kinley would not have such a chance. Once everyone got on the ship, he would be under the watch of all the refugees. He did not think Mick would risk himself with so many people around him.

The women set free avoided him gingerly and immediately left the room at a trot. Their footsteps finally died away.

They did not say anything to Manfeld, not even a "thank you".

Manfeld leaned against the wall and heaved a deep sigh. Somehow, he thought of what White had told him.

"Young man, don't always try to be nice, especially nowadays... Otherwise, people will take advange of you."

He shook his head and put these thoughts behind.

He was used to that.

He only hoped that he could return to his cabin before the ship set off so that at least, he could still have a bed.

Suddenly, Manfeld heard patterings of footsteps again, as the floor beneath him started to squeak.

What the hell? He wished it was not Mick Kinley coming back again.

The footsteps stopped abruptly at the door, and he saw a sliver of a woman looking out at him from behind the door.

Momentarily stunned, Manfeld recognized that the woman was one of the ladies he had helped set free.

After the door was pushed open, Manfeld found both two ladies were there. The one behind was carrying an extremely heavy wooden bucket that almost cost all her strength.

She placed the bucket in front of Manfeld. At that moment, Manfeld noticed that the bucket was full of water.

"You... "

One of the ladies took out a handkerchief and dipped it into the water before she came up to wipe the blood off Manfeld's face. The other kept apologizing, "S-sorry, it was all our fault. We were too scared to speak, because, because you said... you're also a noble."

Manfeld burst into a laugh.

Even though he was so sore, he could not help it.

"Er, what's the matter?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Manfeld interrupted the lady. "The moment you boarded this ship, nobles and slaves became equal, because the King of Graycastle not only abolished slavery but also took away nobles' power. In other words, we're the same."

Manfeld actually knew that there was no knight in Graycastle, as merchants from all parts of the world had spread the news throughout the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Most nobles believed that King Roland's behavior was outrageous, but he was very interested in Wimbledon.

After his family's fortunes declined, Manfeld had been always thinking about one particular question, that was, what was a knight?

He had never thought about this question when his father had been still alive, as he had believed that he would eventually inherit his father's title. However, when his family gradually lost their domains to other nobles, Manfeld found that things slowly get out of his control. The new lord did not acklowledge him, and those who were not qualified to manage the land became the ruler. He literally had nothing but a prominent surname.

According to the ancient books he had read, his ancestors who had established on this land had selected the most outstanding person as their king. The king then granted titles to those possessed of exceptional gallantry and valor and asked them to help him protect the land and his subjects. This was the origin of the nobility. A knight, as the noble of the lowest rank, should have compassion and sympathy for civilians. They should be men of honor and help their territories prosper.

Because knight possessed qualities that normal people did not, they were noble.

This was also what kind of person Manfeld wanted to be.

However, he did not see any difference between a knight and civilian after a knight lost his land. What was nobility then? A spirit or a deed?

Lords were replaced constantly as the fierce competition between nobles continued. A limp could be a knight, and a fool could be a knight as well, as long as they had land in their hands. This reality made Manfeld start to question the true nature of knightage.

Although misfortune had weighed upon him, Manfeld had never abandoned his dream.

He had been thinking about traveling to Graycastle for a long time, but he could not afford the trip. Nevertheless, the evacuation of local towns and cities in the Kingdom of Wolfheart provided him with a good opportunity to visit Graycastle.

Manfeld wanted to know whether he could still be a true knight in a country without a noble.

After hearing that "we're the same", the two women were profoundly relieved. "Really?"

"All the nobles have received the news. They view Wimbledon as the demon from hell," Manfeld said as he summoned a bitter smile. "But now, we probably have to seek this horrible demon for help."

The woman who was wiping Manfeld's face asked after a moment of silence, "Why did you help us? Aren't you worried that the noble..."

"He won't kill me because I already reminded him," Manfeld replied while shaking his head. "I don't know what the second screening will look like, but I've heard that a witch will be there to detect lies. Even if he doesn't think abusing you is a crime, he knows he can't kill a noble."

Manfeld took a breath and then went on, "By the way, I'm Manfeld Castein. What about you?"

This was the fourth time he had reported his name today.

"I'm Thylane," one of the ladies said in a low voice. "She's Momo." Then she paused for a second and said resolutely, "That noble was right. We were sold to — "

"I told you that everything changed the moment you got on this ship. Please don't say that again," Manfeld said while waving his hand. "Like my coachman said, whatever life you used to live, the new life ahead of us will be completely different. I decided to leave the Kingdom of Wolfheart for a foreign country because of the potential change. Aren't you the same?"

There was a long whistle.

It was deep and low.

The ship was about to set off.

"Let's go back. I don't want anyone to take my bed," Manfeld said as he rose with some difficulties. He still felt sore, but he managed to walk. "I don't want to sleep in this storage room all the way there."

The two ladies exchanged looks. After a moment of hesitation, Thylane produced a white pill from her pocket and handed it to Manfeld.

"This is..."

"A painkiller," Thylane said. "If you can't bear the pain, lick it or take a small piece of it. But make sure that you don't take too much, as it only delays the pain. It can't stop it."

Manfeld took the pill in confusion. What an amazing pill this was? It could only delay instead of stopping pain?

Thylane and Momo did not give further explanation. They carried the bucket and withdrew from the storage room

This time, the two ladies stopped at the doorstep and swept a low bow at Manfeld. "Thank you, Mr. Castein."

Manfeld heaved a deep sigh.

It seemed that not everyone took advantage of others.

This was enough for him.

He studied the pill in his hand for quite a while before he licked it.

It was sweet.

Perhaps, the pill was made of flour, mixed with a little bit of honey.

Manfeld gathered that they had probably stolen the pill from the noble who had bought them.

Just at that moment, something incredible happened.

In an instant, his pain was gone as if he had never been beaten before.

Chapter 1248 - The Use of the Core

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Within a week, the intelligence gathered by the First Army not only confirmed that the Red Mist had appeared to the north of the Kingdom of Everwinter but also provided Roland with a glimpse of the status of the evacuation campaign.

As Edith had predicted, the demons invaded the Kingdom of Everwinter before the Red Mist had completely spread out. They had largely shortened the process of growing a Birth Tower and had started attacking human beings from all directions. The immigration unit of the First Army had already fought the demons. Apparently, the demons had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

According to the report from Iron Axe, the result of the battle was not very optimistic. During the retreat, several units were raided, and the retreat thus turned into a flight. Soldiers were scattered by the frightened refugees. The casualties had mounted up to over 300, which was almost the same as the casualties during the night raid in Taquila. The refugees suffered an even greater loss.

The demons had apparently caught everyone off guard.

The dispersion of the advanced troops of the First Army did expediate the immigration campaign, but it also weakened their fighting capacity at the same time.

Fortunately, Roland had promised the army that no punishment would be inflicted on deserters if the desertion was for the purpose of survival. Therefore, no soldiers had turned into bandits. All of them gradually retreated to the Kingdom of Wolfheart and got in contact with the garrison there.

If those soldiers fled, the army in the north of the Kingdom of Everwinter might be flattened.

Those soldiers who had returned to the army would provide additional support to the local troops as well as important information to the commander.

For example, many units reported that they encountered a type of new Monstrous Beast not seen on the manual.

A unit that had successfully retreated to the Northernmost Port in the Kingdom of Everwinter mentioned that the demon put a new type of Spidery Monstrous Beast into use, which was even harder to deal with than the two well-known Spider demons. Neither mortars nor anti-demon grenades could effectively impale them. Only the 152-caliber Longsong Cannon could cause them damage.

As for the other Monstrous Beasts, Roland currently only obtained a description of their physical appearance. Their abilities remained unknown.

The Monstrous Beasts had apparently upgraded from the war.

The executives thus held several meetings after receiving the intelligence. The ministers had reached an agreement that they should stop the demons from advancing as soon as possible to earn more time for the immigration plan.

The officials had evidently benefited a lot from the rapid increase in the population of Neverwinter as more people joined in the production.

Roland thought so too. Yet unfortunately, this was the fastest he could do. He wanted to send thousands of people to the Kingdom of Wolfheart at once, but first of all, he needed to have enough ammunition.

Therefore, although Roland had already issued the command, it still took a long time for the army to assemble. This was different from the expedition to Taquila. During the expedition to Taquila, the army had advanced along the railway, where they had relied on the Blackriver and Leaf to sustain the logistics. Now, they lacked transportation facilities, so the General Staff had to find an alternative solution.

Roland also noticed another thing in the report.

He noticed that the successful escape of the unit should be attributed to the support of the shallow water gunboats. Meanwhile, the "Roland" arrived in a timely fashion because Zooey and Carol had abandoned the magic core that they treasured the most. This made Roland realize that the ancient witches could possibly use the relic of the underground civilization well in this war.

He thus contacted the three Senior Witches from Taquila directly.

Through the light screen, Pasha, Alethea and Celine's giant bodies covered in tentacles appeared on the wall.

Roland quickly shared his idea.

"You mean... that we should use the Instrument of Divine Retribution as a power converter?" Celine asked.

"Not only the Instrument of Divine Retribution but also all the magic cores," Roland said with a nod.

In theory, the magic cores could simulate all kinds of witch power, provided that the ancient witches adjusted the structure of their cyclones. There were four magic cores retrieved from the underground civilization in total, the largest of which was the most special one. Its cyclone was very complicated. According to the deciphered records, it was also the secret weapon that the underground civilization had put great hope in. Because of this, the ancient witches called it the Instrument of the Divine Retribution.

However, only the Chosen One could activate the the Instrument of Divine Retribution, but Roland did not possess magic power. So, for a very long time, this secret weapon had been sitting in the underground hall quietly.

If they could transform the cores into various magic power, it would be much more helpful than letting them just sit here.

The only problem was that the magic cores could not be replicated. Once they lost one, they lost it forever. That was the reason for the rift between the Taquila witches and the Starfall City. Many Union members had even lost their lives for it.

At the early stage of the coalition of the Taquila witches and the First Army, Roland had promised that he would not force the witches to hand over the magic cores. Even though the Taquila witches had now pledged alliance to him, Roland still wanted to first obtain their permission.

Alethea said hesitantly, "Your Majesty, you could do anything with it if you were in the Third Border City. However, I'm worried that you would damage it if you transfer it out of the cave."

Roland felt very hopeful, as even Alethea, the most stubborn one, demonstrated a sign of approval. He said quickly, "I'll certainly take caution and handle it with reasonable care. No intruders should be able to destroy it, but I'm afraid that wear and tear as a result of multiple uses will be inevitable. However, it's better than storing it away."

Alethea looked toward Celine and said, "How long will it take to transform the Instrument of Divine Retribution into a magic device and restore it?"

"I think... it'll probably take 10 years," Celine estimated. "The cyclone is too complicated. If there's wear and tear, then we'll probably never be able to restore it. However, I agree with His Majesty..."

"But…"

"Then the magic core can, at least, contribute to the war against the demons," Pasha rejoined. "Now, we don't need to look for the Chosen One anymore."

Alethea lapsed into a long silence before she said, "Alright. Since you all agree, then I have no issues with that either."

For a split second, Roland saw Celine tap her main tentacle. She said, "See? I persuaded them."

Obviously, she was only talking to Roland.

Before Roland could respond, Pasha continued, "You should take the witches in the Quest Society more often to the Dream World, Your Majesty."

Without a doubt, Pasha was bribing him.

Roland was amused.

"So," Celine said as she put up a straight face, although the original carrier did not actually display emotions anyway. "What kind of power do you want the Instrument of Divine Retribution to transform into?"

Roland had known the answer a long time ago. He replied, "Mystery Moon's magnetic force. I don't think it'll be too complicated, right?"

Celine said with a smile, "Leave it to me, Your Majesty."

Chapter 1249 - Civilization

The reason was pretty simple. Compared to the summoning type of magic, the attaching magic type was more suitable for the magic core. Take Anna's Blackfire as an instance. Even if the magic core had the exact same cyclone, it could not release or withdraw the power as freely as Anna. However, for the attaching magic type, they only needed to inject magic power into it to activate the instrument.

Mystery Moon had the ability to convert magnetic force into various types of energy, which would largely benefit Neverwinter.

Dawn I had always been a rare energy resource. Even with the help of Doris, it barely sufficed the need. With the expansion of the industry, they would soon run out of power.

Power generation and transmission was a very complicated science, and it was even more difficult than mechanics. Roland could produce electric motors and lightbulbs by applying what he had learned about electricity in the middle school, but it was impossible for him to build a reliable electrical grid.

He had also brought a lot of books regarding electricity from the Dream World but could hardly understand them. He recognized every single word in the book but did not understand what that meant. Therefore, he abandoned his ambition of learning on his own but put hope in the Taquila witches. Perhaps, in 10 or 20 years' time, the Taquila witches would play an important role in the electricity industry, but they definitely could not help Neverwinter right now.

As such, his most important task at present became how to increase the production of Dawn I.

Workers in the plants could work at night, and residents could study if there was electricity. The power system, in a sense, could be also viewed as a time device.

Celine believed that there were no technical difficulties, as the original carrier had a far better understanding of magic power than human beings. Ordinary witches could only confirm the magic type and power level by using a Stone of Measuring. However, Celine could picture the cyclone once Mystery Moon demonstrated her ability.

When Roland brought Mystery Moon here, the little girl was, suprisingly, not very cooperative.

She mumbled, "If the magic core replaces me... will you still need me?"

It took Roland quite a long time to persuade her.

Mystery Moon's condition was that the magic core that simulated her power should be named after her.

Mystery Moon protested, "In that way, you'll still remember me even if you no longer need my help. Also, as a compensation, can I have two more bottles of Chaos Drinks?"

That was how she was brought here, accompanied by Lily.

It would take a few days to adjust the magic core and design an electrical grid that could transmit power throughout the whole city. Although Roland only used basic knowledge of electricity engineering such as series connections and parallel connection, and tried to simplify the calculation as much as possible, the design was pretty much all he could do.

Meanwhile, Neverwinter greeted a group of unexpected visitors.

Rex came to the city with ten members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts and requested to see the King of Graycastle.

Roland soon met this unusual explorer from the Fjords in the parlor.

"I thought you wouldn't come here anymore."

Roland asked the servant to bring tea and desserts.

It had been three months since the departure of Rex and his party from Neverwinter. Had they not been continuously shipping the relics from the Southernmost Region, Roland would have probably forgotten about them.

Roland studied this group of people attentively.

All of them were windswept. It appeared that only those who were not used to travel by sea at the Fjords would tend to find another way to make a living.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Rex said, a little embarrassed. "It took me too long to assemble the members of Society of Wondrous Crafts. Although you've already given me the book, still many people question my authority and are not willing to share their research. They thought I'm as crazy as Fan when I told them that there was indeed an artifact that would enable men to fly in the sky."

"Then what about these people here?"

"They believe you, Your Majesty," Rex said as he swept a bow. "This time, everyone brought their families here and decided to settle down in Neverwinter. We'll accept any conditions you offer."

"Very well," said Roland as he sipped his tea. "You'll become residents of Graycastle after the Administrative Office completes the evaluation." In fact, giving him the book was also another form of screening. People joined the Society of Wondrous Crafts only because they had no alternative way to make a living, so there must be both good and bad members. If they did not have the capability to understand the book, there would be no point in recruiting them.

"What do you mean by evaluation?"

"A standard procedure that you must go through before officially becoming a Graycastle resident. They'll take down your information. Don't worry, it's not a contract or anything."

Everyone was profoundly relieved. It was obvious that although they had brought their families here, they were still quite uncertain about their future.

Perhaps, he should say something to make them feel more at home.

Roland thus summoned his guard, Sean.

"Your Majesty, what can I do for you?"

"These people are my guests. Show them around and let them get familiar with the new king's city of Graycastle," Roland said as he extended out his hands. "Especially the Miracle Building. If they found their new society there, they'll also need an office on the top floor. So you'd better first let them get an idea what that place looks like."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

After the group of confused people left with Sean, Roland said in a low voice in amusement to Nightingale, "You go follow them."

Two hours later, Nightingale came back to the office.

"How about it? Roland asked and poured her a glass of Chaos Drink.

"I knew it was going to be like that," Nightingale said as she twitched her lips and drained the glass. "You're just like a kid showing off your toys. Rest assured. Now, I'm sure they won't leave even if you ask them to."

"You're wrong. I just want to give them more confidence."

Nightingale rolled her eyes.

"Ahem, alright. Maybe you're right."

"Glad to hear," Nightingale snapped and shoveled the empty glass under Roland's nose. "Do you want to hear more about it?"

"Yes," Roland admitted quickly.

"Then two more bottles of drink."

As the Miracle Building was the landmark of Neverwinter, one could view half of the city from the roof of the building, including the mining area at the North Slope Mountain enveloped by thick smoke, as well as the Redwater River filled with various different concrete boats. Trains carrying raw materials ran in between, and a little farther on in the south, one could see biplanes flit across the sky. At night, the plants were alive with lights, and the glitters reflected off the surface of the water like shiny stars.

This was exactly what Roland had expected.

For those who had never seen such a scene, the moment they ascended the roof, they met a whole new world.

The spectators would be able to witness the splendid human civilization from there.

Chapter 1250 - Anna's Plan

Anna was quite amused after hearing Roland's account of the Society of Wonderous Crafts.

"If those people knew that you created most of the artifacts in the book, they would be astonished," Roland said casually as he played with Anna's hair. "They'll definitely listen to everything you say."

"We do need some new blood in the Ministry of Industry," Anna replied with a smile. "But I don't know how much they can help."

"They won't be too bad, as they saw the value of that book," Roland said while shrugging. He remembered that he had lured the Chief Alchemist to Neverwinter with only a few redox equations back then. "They even brought their families here, which indicates that they're indeed very curious about those innovations. Given that, I believe they'll rise to fame once they have that opportunity."

Roland paused for a second and then went on, "Of course, before they officially join you, they have to learn from the beginning first. I'll leave it to you. This is also the first step to build up a healthy relationship with your subordinates."

Anna leaned toward Roland and placed her beautiful head on his chest before she said, "To be honest, I don't know if I can do this job well..."

"You asked me to appoint you as the Minister of Industy in the first place," Roland joked. "So, you're scared and want to bail out now?"

Anna stretched her hand, and a sliver of Blackfire ignited her fingertip. She drew a circle in the midair and said, "Do you want me to tie you up and tickle you with the Blackfire again?"

"Er... I mean, if you don't know how to do it, just ask Tilly," Roland said as he averted his eyes. "I've heard all the Aerial Knight trainees in the pilot school fear the princess."

Anna's face lighted up. She exclaimed in excitement, "Right! I can ask her, but..." she hesitated for a moment and said, "I haven't talked to her for a while, and I've heard since the expedition, she's been..."

"Don't worry. She's fine now. I believe she's back to normal again," Roland comforted Anna. "Perhaps, she'll be extremely happy to see you. You used to give exams together."

Roland had not told anyone else about the possible resurrection of Ashes because he was afraid that everyone would bet their lives on this battle if they heard Ashes could probably come back to life.

"OK," Anna said as she nodded resolutely. "I'll do it!"

Seeing that Anna was no longer annoyed, Roland quickly changed the subject. "By the way, how's the project of the Cube-powered wheel truck going?"

"I'll still need a few more days to complete the first sample truck. It's pretty similar to the Cube-powered car in terms of structure, but it's easier to operate and also more stable, although it isn't that flexible." Anna's manner immediately tightened into formality once she started talking about work. "Also, I don't see any problems using it to load and unload cargo, as long as there's no issue with the road construction."

"What about the tractor?"

"That I'll need more time," Anna said while shaking her head. "The drawing you gave me doesn't provide many details. I'll have to figure them out on the go. Its frame and operation systems are also quite different than the wheel truck's, so it'll still take me a considerable amount of time to create a usable sample tractor."

However, they did not have much time left.

The demons would only become even harder to deal with in the future. The army thus urgently needed an armored troop to change the situation. The problem was that there were not many drawings of completed models of this kind of large, ancient automobiles in the textbook for reference. Roland could only find a few drawings of spare parts in the Dream World, and he was not sure whether these parts would fit the model Anna was trying to create.

The industrial technologies in Neverwinter were not yet so advanced as to allow them to directly use modern parts. Both the caterpillar tractor and the armored trucks were consumables. Anna could not make them all by herself.

She had practically nobody to help her.

When the industrialization reached a certain level, each major project would involve hundreds of derivative subprojects. Therefore, it was impossible to sustain the whole industry with only a few learned professionals. This problem would become even more critical as time progressed. For example, Tilly had pointed out the drawbacks of the biplane and also made suggestions to improve it. However, Roland did not have anyone at the moment to work on these issues.

Roland would need an extra 50 years to solve all these problems.

However, the demons would not allow this to happen.

"Let me think it over," Roland said slowly.

"Roland, I remember you told me that the Dream World has become more and more diverse, right?" Anna said while blinking her lake-blue eyes. It seemed that she had an idea.

"Yes, like it's now self improving. Thanks to that, I was able to bring new materials here." According to Lan, this was a sign that the Dream World was expanding. It was now challenging God's power.

"If that's the case, why not seek help from the Dream World directly?"

"Are you saying... that we ask more people to look for help?"

"No," Anna said as she smiled slyly. "I thought of a better way." She then whispered to Roland and disclosed her plan. "I'm not sure if it'll work."

Roland was momentarily stunned. He lapsed into thought, feeling increasingly excited. "This... might work!" he exclaimed.

"You can try it later," Anna said as she stretched her legs. "If my method works, it'll make our life a lot easier. But now, stay with me..."

...

When Roland woke up in the Dream World, he already had a wonderful plan.

Anna's idea was very simple. Since there were no learned professionals in Neverwinter, he could, alternatively, recruit talents in the Dream World. After a long contemplation, Roland decided to found an organization under the pretext of entertainment to recruit antique machinery collectors. He did not think the organization would raise suspicions. In this way, he could provide research and technical support to the real world.

He could even test and improve the completed product in the Dream World.

It would definitely be more effective to found such an organization than conducting research online.

Nevertheless, he would need to raise enough capital to start this project.

The income from fighting Fallen Evils was definitely not going to be enough.

Unless someone provided him with great financial assistance.

Roland could only think of one person in this world.

That was Garcia's father, Garde, a member of the board of director of the Clover Group.

Roland knew that Garde, shrewd as he was, would not easily agree to support him if he directly went to negotiate with him without any preparation. Even though it was just a small amount of money for Garde, he would not invest it for no reason.

Garcia could not help him much with this matter, so he had to think of another plan.

Roland thus picked up the telephone and called the Defender of the Prism City.

Chapter 1251 - Partner

"Hello, Mr. Roland," Rock's calming voice immediately came from the other end of the line. "I didn't expect you to call me so early in the morning. Is there an emergency?"

Roland then suddenly realized that it was only 7:00. Feeling a little embarrassed, he faltered, "Er... sorry, did I wake you up? I do have something that needs the Association's help. It has nothing to do with the Fallen Evils, but it's important to me."

"No worries," Rock said. "Normal people tend to sleep more. However, for me, as an aged Awakened, I'm awake most of the time. What can I do for you?"

Roland had been pretty active recently in the Martialist Association. He had not only managed to kill a great number of Fallen Evils, but more importantly, he usually acted alone. Nevertheless, he killed more Fallen Evils than anyone else except the two teams led by the two Defenders and the team comprised of celebrated martialists led by Fei Yuhan. His outstanding performance encouraged all traditional martialists, which made Roland quite influential among the Association executives.

Of course, Roland did not report all the Fallen Evils he had exterminated. Most of the fallen cores had dissipated and returned to the Dream World. He always took a group of Taquila witches with him when conducting an operation. Therefore, the Fallen Evils were literally defenseless when confronting a group of combat witches with various strange abilities.

Anyhow, Roland soon made his name among the Association members. He could access any facilities in the Martialist Association and was also entitled a telephone that allowed him to directly communicate with the Defenders.

"Before that, I would like to ask you one question first. What's the relationship between the Prism City and the Clover Group?" Roland remembered that Garcia had once told him that her father had participated in the construction of the Prism City.

"In short, we're long-term partners," Rock answered. "Of course, we've developed partnership with many corporations, as the operation of the Association requires a large amount of money and resources."

"In other words, we're also their big clients?"

"You can put it that way."

"Very well," Roland said, and he quickly told Rock what he needed.

Surprisingly, Rock lapsed into a long silence. After quite a while, he said hesitantly, "I have no issue with that, but... why is it important to you?"

"It's also important to this world," Roland replied truthfully. Even if Nightingale came to the Dream World, she would not be able to tell whether Roland was lying or not, for the Battle of Divine Will indeed concerned every single person in this world. If the human race was defeated, Roland would die too. By then, the Dream World would also stop working and freeze in an eternity in the Realm of Mind.

"Alright, I see," Rock conceded. "But anyway, I have to thank you on behalf of the Association. Without you, there would not have been so many young martialists choosing to stay, and our situation would have been even more precarious."

Roland was somehow a little moved by the Defender's sincerity when he heard the reply. Although the reason for him to hunt down Fallen Evils was quite different from the Association's, he did feel that Rock truly appreciated his help. Perhaps, just like Lan had said, for them, this world was real.

Roland had wanted to say, "That's nothing. It's my duty", but for some reason, he changed his mind in the last minute.

"... I'll protect this world," he said.

Roland then hung up the telephone and sent Zero off. Although Zero was now awakened, she still needed to go to school. Since Saint Miran, Dido and Ling were all in the same school as Zero, Roland did not worry about Fallen Evils.

After that, he went to the Rose Café.

Since his last meeting with Lan, the coffeeshop had been closed, and the roll-up door had been clamp shut. The only way to access the coffeeshop was through the side door from the warehouse.

It was always busy here.

The witches were currently preparing their breakfast. Roland instantly smelled delicious barbecue as he pushed open the door.

After he had a big breakfast and the witches were all gone, Roland drove out of the apartment building.

The headquarters of the Clover Group were downtown, so Roland soon arrived there.

Since Roland had told the Association that he would visit here in advance, he was immediately led upstairs before he could reveal his martialist identity. The elevator stopped at the 100th floor, and Roland greeted a bright, spacious office surrounded by large French windows. Now, he had a new understanding of the financial capacity of the Clover Group.

"We met again, Mr. Roland," Garde said as he came up to Roland and shook his hand. "I didn't expect that you would elevate yourself from a newbie to such an important figure in the Association so quickly. Young men indeed have great potential!"

Roland was a little surprised at this warm reception. He remembered that last time, Garde had been pretty cold to him even though he had showed him his hunting license.

So it was true that businessmen cared more about a person's background than his professional competence.

After a little small talk, Roland jumped into the business and asked, "Did the Defender, Rock, tell you the purpose of my trip?"

Garde shook his head and answered, "Mr. Rock only told me that you need some help from the corporation and asked us to assist you as much as we can. But you know that I don't make the final call in the Clover Group."

This meant that the Clover Group would proceed with the purchase of the apartment building. Even if Garde agreed to terminate the plan, the Board of Director would not easily approve this motion. Roland smiled. He knew that Garde thought that he had come here for Garcia. In fact, nobody could demolish a building guarded by the witches unless he let them do so.

Roland was also very pleased that the Defender did not tell Garde about his actual plan but leave Roland some room for negotiation. It seemed that the Defender completely trusted Roland, which made Roland like the Association even better.

"It isn't something too complicated," Roland said as he spread out his hands. "I want to found a small manufacture plant, or a machinery model factory that aims to design and manufacture some old machineries such as steam engines, old-school tractors, etc... Something nostalgic, like armored trucks and artilleries. Do you understand?"

Garde twitched his lips and asked, "Are you planning to make a movie?"

"You can put it that way, but unlike those fake props, I need real ones, and I also have specific requirements."

"As far as I know, few people need them nowadays..."

"I'm not going to sell them. I make them just for fun. I don't need an assembly line or anything, so it saves you money."

Garde was silent for quite a while. He viewed this business as a complete failure.

"I didn't know that Mr. Roland had such a peculiar hobby," Garde said finally. "In other words, you want the Clover Group to help you found a small factory and hire designers and workers?"

Roland suddenly realized that it was not going to be an easy project. Apart from the factory, the designers should have an engineering background, and it would not be that fast to recruit so many professionals even for the Clover Group. Roland thus replied, "Yeah, that's pretty much about it. Take your time. I'm not in a rush."

"I need to ask my secretary first," Garde said as he returned to his desk and picked up the telephone.

15 minutes later, the secretary called back.

Garde turned around and looked at Roland. "Perhaps, there's a factory that meets your requirement."

"Well, that was fast!" Roland said in surprise.

"It's pure luck," Garde returned modestly, although he looked pretty proud of his corporation. "I can take you there if you don't have any other plan."

Chapter 1252 - The Design Bureau of Graycastle

The factory Garde referred to was situated at a construction site in the southern suburb.

Garde offered a ride to Roland, so Roland did not have to drive his battered mini van. In fact, he had a luxurious travel experience.

Roland had to admit that the car seat of Garde's vehicle was even more comfortable than his couch at home. He also loved the iced champagne in the freezer at the rear. It was such an addictive trip.

Nevertheless, Roland preferred coke to champagne.

Garde drove off the highway and onto a rutted road. At this point, Roland could hear the roars of machineries and see trucks and excavators everywhere.

Above the construction site hung a large banner which read, "Clover Construction Corporation Ltd.". A little farther on lay serried towering pile foundation.

In response to Roland's curious look, Garde explained, "The corporation plans to build a modern car dealership for alternative fuel vehicles. Currently, the construction department is responsible for this project. It'll be later transferred to the manufacture department. It took us a while to get this project approved. We just got the approval a few months ago."

No wonder Garcia did not really talk about the demolition of the apartment building anymore recently. The Clover Group had temporarily shifted their focus on something else.

"What about the factory?"

"It'll be demolished," Garde returned. "It used to be an agricultural machinery plant. Although having gone through several reforms, it eventually failed to keep up with the times. Considering your special request, I'll save it for you. Although I'm not the superintendent of this project, I've already talked to the person responsible for the demolition. He says it's OK to leave it as it is for now."

"What about the staff?" Roland asked. He cared more about the recruitment than the venue itself.

"Most of them are gone," Garde said while shrugging. "Only an old technician who is about to retire and a dozen workers are still working. They belong to my family. Once the car dealership is officially open, they'll probably switch to their new roles."

Roland could not help thinking that this plan sounded pretty unreliable, but it was better than nothing. He certainly could not open a design bureau full of top designers and experts at once. This was a good start after all.

When they finally reached the destination, however, Roland's heart sank further. What came into his view was a dilapidated plant no larger than 500 square meters. The steel plates on the wall were all rusty. The floor was incubated in thick dust. Roland's spirit was further oppressed by the dust and grit that lay thick on the machine tools. Apparently, the plant had been deserted for a long time.

He followed Garde upstairs and to the manager's office, from which came the voices of two people.

"Sigh, I don't know when the corporation will demolish this building. I feel like my butt is covered with mold as I sit here days after days."

"It isn't that bad to sit here doing nothing. You won't get a raise in the new company anyway. Perhaps, you'll have to work overtime every day. I would rather stay here."

"What nonsense you're talking about," an elderly voice cut across them. "Young men like you should be proactive."

"Proactivity means nothing... If I could retire now, I would do it immediately."

"By the way, Master Xie, you'll be retiring soon, right? I've heard that the boss has asked you several times. I believe he wouldn't say anything even if you stopped coming here now."

"I like it here... I've been working here for nearly 30 years. I would like to stay here as long as I can before it's torn down."

"Do you mind me taking some pictures for you?"

"You brat! Photos can't be the same!"

"Hang on, I just heard someone coming — "

Then there was a rustling sound coming from behind the door.

By the time Garde's secretary opened the door, everyone in the room was back to work. Some of them were organizing documents on the desk while others were typing in front of their computers as if they had been busy from the beginning.

"M, Mr. Garde, what wind blew you here?" Everyone was stunned as they saw Garde. Apparently, the boss they had been talking about was not Garde. It somehow reminded Roland of a governmental official who suddenly showed up at a small village unexpected.

"I came to show my friend around," Garde replied and then cast a look at the eldest worker among all. "You're Master Xie, right? I've heard you've been working here for several decades?"

Roland rested his eyes upon this elderly mechanist. He was around 60 years old by his appearance, his hair almost gone, with only a few thin strands of hair clinging to his scalp. A large pair of reading glasses slid off his nose bridge. He looked tiny and withered, with a discolored thermal in his hand. Except for his beedy, glistening eyes, he looked no different than those retired elders in the apartment building.

Perhaps, the only thing that this Master Xie took pride in was his length of service.

"Yes, you're right, sir," Master Xie said in a sort of unctuous tone as he massaged his thermal a little restlessly. "I've been working in the plant for 29 years, 29 years precisely."

Roland's heart sank to the bottom. Master Xie did not seem very reliable or professional to him. A real master, in his opinion, should be conceited and proud. He was now thinking about recruiting people online.

"You did a great job," Garde said smilingly. "My young friend is actually interested in taking over this plant. Show him around and give him a basic idea of this factory."

"Al-alright," Master Xie stammered as he gave Roland a surprised look. "But isn't the plant going to be..."

"If he likes it here, we can leave the plant open."

Roland immediately sensed Master Xie's burning gaze.

"How can I address you, sir?"

"Just Roland."

"OK, Mr. Roland, please follow me!"

Master Xie took Roland down to the plant in great excitement. He was about to introduce the long history of the plant when Roland suddenly interrupted him, "Compared to that, I'm more interested in what you did in the past?"

"I did pretty much everything..." Master Xie said with a smile. "I was a fitter at first, and then I was promoted to workshop supervisor. Later, I became the assistant director of the plant. I had to take three or four people's shifts when it was busy. During the day, I supervised the assembly line, and at night, I taught young workers how to repair machineries. Gradually, my eyesight got worse, so I stopped working at the front."

Roland stopped and asked, "Do you have designing experience?"

"Yes, naturally. Although I didn't go to college, I learned a lot by myself. The plant used to have night school. But pencils and rulers are, after all, incomparable to computers. After the corporation founded a design department, nobody these days looks at those drawings anymore."

"If I want a caterpillar tractor that is very different from what's available on the market, are you able to create one?"

"A tractor? Haha, I'm too familiar with it. I'm not boasting, Mr. Roland. I can make one with my eyes shut as long as you provide me with a few apprentices to assist me."

Roland asked in surprise, "Why didn't the Clover Group assign you to the design department then?"

"They design on computers now. I've heard that everything in the new plant is automatic. Robotic arms and robots do the majority of the work. The staff members in the old plant all went to sales and administration. I can't do anything there even if they recruited me."

There was a hint of melancholy in Master Xie's voice.

However, Roland had now completely changed his previous opinion on this old worker.

Who cared that he looked ordinary? An ordinary worker like Master Xie knew exactly how to keep a low profile.

What did it matter that he looked a little too homely? A modest team leader was easier to manage.

It was totally fine that he did not know about computers. In this way, Roland could hire a bunch of cheap designers.

"Very well, very well," Roland said while nodding vigorously. His lips curled up into a satisfied smile.

"Huh?" Master Xie was utterly bewildered and did not understand why Roland said that.

"The plant will remain open," Roland said flatly. "I'll transform it into a new design bureau, and you'll be my chief designer."

"A design... bureau?"

"That's right," Roland said as he extended out his hand. "Welcome to the Design Bureau of Graycastle."

Chapter 1253 - Things of A Wrong Age

"Um... Mr. Roland," Master said after a firm handshake. "What's that Design Bureau for?"

"To make everything I want you to make," Roland answered smilingly. "For example, right now, I want you to make a brand new tractor. It must be easy to operate and manufacture, also with a great potential for future modification."

"There should have been a lot of tractors like that on the market..."

"I certainly expect more than that. What I just mentioned is just a basic idea," Roland said while shaking his head. "First of all, except for the engine, you must make everything else by yourselves."

"Then it'll cost a lot," Master said while clicking his tongue.

"I don't need a lot of them. It should be around the same price as those handicrafts. I have a few collector friends who're willing to spend money on them."

"I see..."

"Also, no automatic machine tools should be used during the manufacture process. Well..." Roland paused at these words and surveyed the surroundings. "The tools currently used in the plant look fine to me. I need the size and the manufacture method of each spare part. In other words, the Design Bureau should not only make them but also draw the floor plan for the assembly line."

Seeing Master Xie look a little worried, Roland added, "Of course, I'll recruit some students to assist you. You only need to give them work to do."

"OK then... It'll probably take more than half a year to complete the project with just pencils and paper."

"The last thing that I'm going to tell you now is the most important one," Roland went on. "You must have creativity."

Momentarily stunned, Master Xie asked, "I'm sorry?"

"For example, the tractor that I want you to make is powered by steam. Therefore, technically, we need a large boiler to store fuels and water. However, in reality, there are no such parts, so you should imagine that it's powered by nuclear energies, like those in movies."

"..." Master Xie was now totally speechless and astounded.

"Given that, you must minimize the impact of those 'non-existent parts' when you make the model. Only in that way can we collect reliable data during the test. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Er..." Master Xie thought for a while before he asked gingerly. "You mean that we should imagine it as something that doesn't belong to this era?"

"Exactly," Roland said, grinning. "Do you have any technical difficulties?"

"In theory, no, but..." he said hesitantly. "But to tell you the truth, you probably can't really use it even if we successfully produce such a machine."

"That's exactly what I need. My collector friends don't really want them to have practical values."

Profoundly relieved, Master Xie then asked, "Well... Mr. Roland, what about the salary of the chief designer?"

"Twice your pension," Roland replied with a smile.

After Roland returned to the Garde's car, Garde put down his wine glass and shrugged. "So, what do you think?"

"Pretty good. I just don't know how to calculate the expenses of a factory..." Roland said courteously.

"Forget about those trivial matters. It's an honor that we Clover Group could help the Martialist Association," Garde said while waving his hand. "I'll talk to the other executives regarding this project later. From now on, you're their new boss."

It was not hard to leave a factory that was going to be demolished open, as the land and the property still belonged to the Clover Group. All the corporation needed to provide was the salaries of the workers and the expenses for the maintenance of the old machineries. It was obviously a very good deal for the Clover Group, for they earned the trust of the Defender of the Prism City at a minimal cost.

Had Roland conducted the project all by himself, he would have needed to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no guarantee that he would succeed.

Having said that, Roland did not want to miss a single opportunity of using the Clover Group.

"Is it really OK? I think we need to at least recruit more people to ensure the smooth operation of the plant. To increase productivity, we also need to work out a reward system, and that'll cost a lot of money."

"Hmm..." Garde pondered for a while and said, "I'll send a person to help you with the finance. If there's any extra expense, just let her know. But Mr. Roland, you know the Clover Group won't approve if you request too much..."

"I understand that you're not the only person who makes the decision. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Thank you for your help." Sending a finance personnel was also an effective way to minimize risks while also keeping an eye on his spending.

"That's nothing."

They clanked the wine glasses.

Three days later, the agricultural machinery plant became the Design Bureau of Graycastle. Although it looked as desolate as ever, the workers in there were quite enthusiastic about their new job after being promised they they would get promoted and have a raise.

Roland instantly felt a lot relieved after this matter had been settled. He could not help smiling when he thought of the prospective expansion and the grand future of the Design Bureau of Graycastle. Even his work had become more enjoyable.

With the help of the Design Bureau, Anna did not neccessarily have to work day and night. She could, instead, put more of her efforts into inventions that she enjoyed much better. Overall, the project brought a lot of benefits.

The workers in the Bureau would probably never know that their drawings would one day turn into reality in the other world and become weapons used to perpetuate the glory of the mankind in the bitter war against a foreign race.

"What are you laughing at, Your Majesty?" Nightingale asked as she revealed herself and cast him a despicable look. "Having fun last night? I hope you didn't do anything improper in the dream."

"How come? Do I look like that kind of person?"

Nightingale twitched her lips and said, "It's very understandable. Phyllis told me that the ancient witches don't really care about it. They view it as something just as normal as sleeping and eating."

"... Did she?"

"No, I'm teasing," Nightingale said while squinting at Roland. "So, you were thinking about that, were you?"

Apparently, this was one of Nightingale's trap.

"I'm impressed with your imagination," Roland said sarcastically as he stared at her. "I'm happy because I solved a big problem. It's not what you're thinking."

"Hmm, I detect that it's 95% true. I take it as you're telling the truth," Nightingale said while spreading out her hands.

"Wow, you can round it up to a specific percentage now?"

"Yes, probably because I use my ability more often, I feel my sense become sharper."

"Then what about the left 5%? Just a disclaimer, I didn't lie."

"Perhaps, you aren't that certain subconsciously," Nightingale sneered.

Roland was speechless. He had a feeling that he would eventually fall into Nightingale's trap if he continued with this conversation.

"By the way," Nightingale went on after she ate a piece of dried fish. "You haven't been staring at the Bloody Moon recently."

"That's right..." Roland said and suddenly realized that he had not looked up at the sky for a long time. The crimson sphere was still suspended in midair, completely stationary however he looked at it. "Probably because I know that it's just a hollow of nothingness."

Just then, the telephone on his desk rang.

It was from the Administrative Office.

"Barov? What's the matter?" Roland said after he picked up the receiver.

"Your Majesty, the increase in the immigrants exceeds our expection," Barov complained over the telephone. "If things go on like that, we won't have much money left in the treasury!"

Chapter 1254 - A Currency Reform

Roland passed through a few heavily guarded gates and entered the treasury in the castle district.

Back when he had still been in the Border Town, he had only had a few cases of gold royals that were sufficient to maintain the operation of the small town. Since the sale of the steam engines and other magical artifacts, his revenues had increased rapidly and soon reached a peak.

With the expansion of his territory, the expenses incurred also increased correspondingly. For the convenience of the Administrative Office, a treasury was built between the castle and the Administrative Office. Although it has heavily guarded, all the directors had access to it as long as they followed an appropriate procedure. This decision had indeed sparked a heated discussion in the beginning. It was unprecedented that a noble spent all his money on the expansion of his territory, let alone allowing other people to access it.

At that time, nobody except Barov had known that Roland did not give a damn about his treasures. All he had cared about was the urbanization of the city. For a very long time, the revenues in Neverwinter had been greater than the expenses. Barov had not had a financial issue for quite a while.

"Your Majesty," Barov, who had been waiting in the treasury, said respectfully. "You see, we only have 12 cases of gold royals left."

Normally, there were around 2,000 gold royals in a case, which meant that they currently only had 20,000 gold royals in total. The treasury now looked pretty empty compared to the past.

Although there were mounds of silver royals and bronze royals, they were not worth much.

"How long will they last?" Roland asked.

"Based on the current situation, two months at most."

"It's faster than I thought," Roland commented as he raised his brows. "Are most of the spendings on the payrolls?"

"Yes. The payroll expenses take up more than half of the total expenses. As the population grows too fast, there's a big increase in the payroll of the construction team and the welding unit. Plus, we have to pay the Chambers of Commerce from the Fjords 4,000 to 5,000 gold royals every month. If we stop this payment, the Administrative Office will be able to manage until we receive the profit of the sale from the Joint Chamber of Commerce — "

"We need people," Roland cut across Barov.

"Then..." Barov said as he massaged his hands nervously. "I remember you said in the last meeting that there was a permanent solution. Is it true?"

"You still remember," Roland said smilingly as he surveyed the treasury. He had anticipated that this day would come. The treasury was quite spacious and bright. It would be almost the same as an ordinary residence if without the iron bars and the shelves. Therefore, it would be a perfect place to produce notes. "When's the next payroll due?"

"In a week."

"Store away these gold royals. We don't need them for the time being," Roland said while nodding. "Come with me to my office. I need to found a new department, and I'll discuss the details with you when we get there."

Although it was a little earlier than Roland had expected, Roland had started preparing for this day half a year ago. He had actually conducted a pilot project by distributing notes to the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell. The result showed that the witches had no way to forge those testing notes, which indicated that it was now time to replace metal currencies with paper currencies. He could put them into use anytime.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov responded. It was obvious that this old governor feared that he would sink into poverty again. After receiving the confirmation, his face lighted up, all the wrinkles around the corner of his eyes smoothened. "By the way, Your Majesty, what's the name of this new department?"

"Bank," Roland replied.

Five days later, a new notice posted on the bulletin at the central square in Neverwinter created an uproar among the public. The Administrative Office, very surprisingly, sent a person to further explain the notice, which was very rare after the implementation of universal education.

The notice also made the headline on the Graycastle Weekly. According to the notice, the king was going to distribute a new type of currency to replace gold royals, silver royals and bronze royals.

For the next couple of days, everyone in the kingdom was discussing this currency reform.

So were the customers in the hotel where Victor stayed.

Victor had planned to return to the Port of Clearwater after the magic movie. However, the appearance of the Bloody Moon disrupted his original plan. Due to disorder and the unstable situation, he immediately changed his plan and decided to stay in Neverwinter for a while. He made this decision not out of his loyalty to the king but because he believed that it would be only worse in other cities. Since the Bloody Moon represented the end of the world, the safest place on this continent would be Neverwinter.

Peace was soon restored after the king and the queen came to sooth the masses. With the the police and the garrison cracking down criminals, order was quickly re-established. Victor, as the witness to the incident at the movie theater, was summoned by the police several times for investigation purposes. When he was about to leave the soft arms of his maid and head back to the south, he heard the news of the currency reform.

The shock brought about by this new policy was far greater than that by the Bloody Moon.

The king was going to abolish the currency system that had been in use since the foundation of the four kingdoms!

As a businessman, Victor had not believed it when he had first heard the news. He had thought that they were delirious ramblings of some drunkards. Gold was the most precious metal throughout the four kingdoms as well as foreign countries. How could the king abolish the currency system all of a sudden?

Nevertheless, he later confirmed the validity of the information after reading the newspaper brought in by the maid. The rumors circulated among various taverns and pubs also further confirmed the news.

The first reform policy was that "All the old currencies shall be replaced by the new currencies. It is mandatory to use the new currencies to conduct transactions in accordance with their face values".

This meant that the king could use a piece of paper to purchase all the goods brought into Neverwinter, which was pretty much like robbery.

"I saw many people flee the city with their cargo when I came back," Twinkle, who was lying on her stomach on the bed, said apprehensively. Victor was not sure if she was worried that he would leave the city like everyone else or about the Rainbow Stone clothes.

Victor managed a bitter smile. Twinkle did not know that his fortunes had been closely tied to the King of Graycastle. Without Miss Leaf providing him with the seeds, he would not be able to expand his brand.

Whatever happened next, Victor would not abandon the business in Neverwinter easily.

He knew Roland Wimbledon would soon implement this policy throughout the whole nation.

The king himself was an excellent businessman with an acute business sense. He had no reason to rob people at the moment to maintain the status quo. At this thought, Victor calmed himself down and read on.

The second and third policies concerned the livelihood of the community.

"All the salaries in Neverwinter will be paid in the new currencies."

"All the transactions in the Administrative Office and the Convenience Market, including but not limited to food and real estates, shall be carried out through the new currencies."

The fourth policy was regarding the number of paper notes distributed to the public.

"The Administrative Office will offer a long-term currency exchange service that enables residents to exchange their old currencies, namely, gold royals, silver royals and bronze royals, for the new currencies, and vice versa. The Administrative Office will charge a 5% transaction fee for each transaction when residents exchange the new currencies for the old ones."

Victor saw the underlying implication behind this policy.

It seemed that this policy was made to force foreign merchants to use the new currencies.

"Also, the transaction fee could be waived for merchants who have permission from the Administrative Office to run business and who have submitted the application for same."

Chapter 1255 - Graycastle "Yuan"

Below the policy was a sample application form.

Applicants not only had to provide their personal information but also their transaction records. Victor skimmed the application form through for several times, and suddenly, the truth flashed across his mind.

He finally understood the purpose of the new policies as his eyes shoveled between the fourth and fifth articles. It gradually dawned on him that the king's true intention of making these two rules was to increase tax revenues!

Like most major cities, merchants in Neverwinter had the obligation to pay commercial taxes. However, the problem was that not every merchant abode the rule. Victor never missed a single payment, but tax evasion was actually very common among merchants. He was indeed one of the fews who paid the taxes every time.

Merchants who had real estate properties would, more or less, pay taxes partially, but those who leased the premises and traveling merchants almost never paid. Without the previous patrol team who had constantly blackmailed merchants, Neverwinter provided small business owners with a perfect, and even better tax-free zone than Valencia and Eagle City. Because of the great business environment, businesses had soon flourished in the new king's city within a very short period of time.

But now, everything was about to change.

The application could waive the currency exchange transaction fee, but applicants would also need to provide their sources of revenues. Then the Administrative Office would deduct taxes from their earnings based on the information on the application form.

Was there no other way to evade taxes?

There certainly was. Merchants could exchange the new currencies for gold royals and sell their items bought from Neverwinter somewhere else to make up the loss.

But this was not a guaranteed solution.

Nobody could assure that the revenues would be exactly the same as the expenses. To maintain the business, one should possess more new currencies than the old ones. The only way to achieve this goal was to either exchange new currencies for gold royals or reserve the gold royals for the future.

As time progressed, merchants would, inevitably, have a certain amount of new currencies and realize that they were easier to use and carry. Gradually, merchants would exchange new currencies among themselves. They would probably exchange gold royals at first and then slowly, directly use them to purchase goods.

This meant that no matter which way merchants chose to go, Neverwinter would always benefit from them!

What was clever about this policy was that it did not really prejudice the interests of merchants. In fact, it was quite considerate of merchants' feelings.

The declaration could increase the municipal tax revenues and thereby create a better business environment. On the other hand, legal business owners actually benefited from this policy as well.

For merchants who chose to use the new currencies, there would not be much difference. They could still evade taxes and press others to also use the new currencies. Since all transactions in Neverwinter should be conducted via the new currencies, the new currencies would gradually replace gold royals and spread out to the territories beyond the jurisdiction of the King of Graycastle!

Victor also noticed that the whole currency reform, as a matter of fact, aimed to take things slow and give people time to get used to the change.

Without a doubt, the new currencies would be legally effective as long as the King of Graycastle took control of food in his domain, not only because of the implementation of the currency policies but also because Neverwinter itself was a large market.

Merchants who fled the city might not even have truly thought about the policy. It was pretty shortsighted of them to abandon such a lucrative market simply because of the currency reform.

Victor used to think that the reform was ludicrous, but now it appeared that it was not as bad as he had thought. As long as King Roland Wimbledon guided the country properly and took appropriate steps, this reform might be a great success.

Victor shuddered involuntarily.

The currency reform was just the beginning.

Once everyone gladly accepted the new currencies, the king would immediately gain immense wealth that no business could ever bring.

The nobles who were so good at business in Kingdom of Dawn would probably drop their jaws.

The only problem right now was whether someone would forge the new currencies created by His Majesty.

Victor thus asked Twinkle to purchase some paper notes from local residents at a price five times the normal price on the payday two days later.

He soon found that his fear was unnecessary after he saw the actual notes.

"These notes are... so beautiful," Twinkle exclaimed as she toyed with a brand new note.

"True," Victor agreed. The new currency looked quite expensive, which was very different from what he had thought. It was soft and durable. Obviously, it was not made of ordinary paper.

The most peculiar part was its pattern on the face.

There were six kinds of paper notes in total, their face values ranging from 10 to 1,000. The largest value was equal to a gold royal, and one could easily tell from the golden pattern on it. The face values of the rest of the paper notes were 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 each. A new currency unit "Yuan" was used. The colors and patterns of the paper notes varied according to their respective face values. For example, the 1,000 note was printed with the image of the king and the queen. Below printed a line that read "Royal Bank of Graycastle". Although the font was tiny, it was pretty visible to read.

Victor drew the notes closer and discovered that the texts and the images on the notes were all comprised of tiny stripes even thinner than hairs. Each stripe was clear and separate from each other, so it was impossible to forge the notes.

Victor studied the other notes. The ￥500 note was printed with the image of the Witch Union and the ￥100 plants and workers. The other notes were printed with the Miracle Building, trains, etc. All the notes were printed with the coat of arms of the Graycastle royal family that featured a high tower and two spears on the back. Victor curled up his lips. It was evident that the notes were carefully designed and well made like artwork. Even if they did not have any practical values, Victor was sure that many collectors at the Fjords would be willing to collect them purely for their aesthetic values.

This was indeed a very clever strategy. The colorful notes definitely cost a lot, but in a way, they built confidence among the public. Nobody would have believed a piece of paper could replace gold royals. However, if this paper resembled a piece of art, then people would have more confidence in them, although essentially, they were the same thing.

Victor put down the notes and heaved a deep sigh.

"What's the matter?" Twinkle asked curiously.

"There will be a drastic change in the business world soon," Victor replied in a low voice.

Chapter 1256 - Reception and the New Plan

"How's the currency exchange going?"

Three days after the release of the new currencies, Roland held a director meeting in the castle boardroom to discuss the response of the public to the currency reform.

Roland had learned from the history that it was extremely hard to foundamentally change the conception of money and break the tradition that had been observed over the past thousand years. A tiny error might result in an avalanche of disasters. The failure of the currency reform would possibly jeopardize the public's confidence in the Administrative Office and even the king himself, which had taken Roland so long to build.

"Fewer people exchange the currencies then we expected, Your Majesty," Barov said, looking pretty relaxed. "The transaction amount over the past three days is 1,000 gold royals. Considering there will be a lot of changes at the beginning of the reform, we could use the gold royals in the treasury for the time being before everything is stablized."

To avoid a bank run, the amount of bank notes printed this time would be equal to the payroll expenses this month. Therefore, even if they were all replaced by gold royals, they would still have two months to print new notes. However, if that happened, it would mean that the reform had failed.

"I think your worry is unnecessary, Your Majesty," Barov said smilingly as he stroke his beard. "Most of the subjects would not choose to use new currencies in exchange for old ones, unless it's absolutely necessary. They don't want to pay the transaction fee."

"But it doesn't mean that people accept the new currencies," the Minister of Agriculture, Sirius Daly, replied cautiously. "I notice that the sale of food has increased a lot recently in the Convenience Market, including the sale of spice and dried food."

Roland was a little taken aback by the unexpected increase.

He then smiled and came to the realization that the subjects did not want to pay the transaction fee, so they purchased a great number of life necessities as a backup. In fact, food had once been used as a universal equivalent in the history. Dried food and spices had a long shelf life, so naturally people would buy them in bulk to prepare for any future emergencies.

Roland somehow thought of an advertisement which said, "Paper for food. Nothing to lose. What are you waiting for?"

But Roland was relieved.

People were not likely to accept the change within a few days. The increase in the sale of goods did not really affect the Administrative Office. There were sufficient wheat, eggs and cheese for the entire Western Region. By the time the Administrative Office received the part of sales profit they were entitled to from the Joint Chamber of Commerce, he would be able to know the result of the currency reform.

Roland thus said to Sirius, "That's fine. Let them buy as much as they like, but you have to keep an eye on them and make sure there's no shortage of food. As long as residents don't exceed their personal limit, they can buy whatever they want."

The Convenience Market mainly supplied life necessities. It was a store directly controlled and supervised by the government. Residents had to show their identity cards to make the purchase. It was highly unlikely that the city would run out of food, provided that no merchants interfered with the market.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"By the way, what's merchants' reaction?"

Barov replied quickly, "Your Majesty, the merchants in Neverwinter are roughly divided into two groups. Traveling merchants are on the fence about it. Many stores are shut down. Do you think we should..." he broke off and made a gesture that suggested driving those merchants out of the country.

Roland shook his head. It appeared that many business owners resisted the new currencies by closing their shops. He said, "Let them be as long as they don't break the law. Their lease has not expired yet anyway. It's up to them to decide whether they should continue with the business. What about the other group?"

"There was not much feedback from the big Chambers of Commerce at the Fjords. Many are still running their businesses. They asked whether they could use the new currencies to purchase steam engines and paddle steamers. I gave them an affirmative answer as you instructed."

A flurry of whispers swept over the boardroom.

Apparently, everyone was surprised at this reaction. They were mortified to see that foreign merchants gave more support to the king's policy than domestic tradesmen.

Roland did not really mind that, however.

It seemed the Fjords people were more willing to accept new things. For example, Margaret was the first person who had shown an interest in the steam engines and provided financial assistance for the industrialization of the Border Town.

"There's an exception though," Barov said on a cough. "A clothing store named Rainbow Stone remains open. The owner even put up a banner celebrating the currency reform and offers discounts. I've heard that residents lined up to buy their clothes."

Roland blinked and chuckled. He knew that was Victor Lothar who had requested to collaborate with Leaf.

Was it just a bold action or he actually understood the importance of the currency reform?

"Very well," Roland said as he looked toward the Minister of Publicity, Honey. "Make a report of that. Trust is now more important than gold."

"Got it," Honey said with a nod.

"That's right, trust is more important than gold, Your Majesty," Edith, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. "Please beware of upcoming rumors. I believe it'll be not long before we hear them."

"What do you mean?" Barov asked, frowning. "Is there going to be someone attempting to subotage the currency reform?"

"That's very normal. Everything has two sides. Merchants who don't like the paper notes or who simply want to destabilize the government would spread rumors. Do you really think the nobles would submit to His Majesty's ruling in just two years?"

"Er..." Barov was at a loss for words.

They certainly would not. In fact, they were just bidding their time to overturn his sovereign.

They did not care whether the demons had invaded the city or not.

"Don't worry. Honey and Summer will look after it."

"Also, the mining area in the Western Region always needs people," a cold voice said in the boardroom. Although nobody new who said it, everyone could tell the person was serious.

Roland surveyed the room and said, "Alright, this is just the beginning. I believe the new currencies will be spread out throughout the whole nation in a few months and replace gold royals. It's very important to the Battle of Divine Will. Everyone must keep working on it!"

"As you command!" everyone chorused.

"Your Majesty," Barov said hesitantly, "Can we print so many notes within a few months?"

"The amount currently available is just enough to pay out salaries, but we can definitely print more. You don't have to worry about it," Roland returned.

Although a note was just a piece of paper, it contained the most advanced technologies in Neverwinter. Considering there was a huge number of gold royals and silver royals that had been accumulated over the past thousands of years, Roland was not going to ask Soraya to take the workload all alone. The pulp used to make bills was mixed with a certain amount of rubber worms' slimes to enhance the durability of the finished products.

The number on the face of the note was actually pre-printed on foils and served as an anti-counterfeiting mark. Only Neverwinter could produce extremely thin foil paper.

A new rolling press machine was used to print notes, and the ink used for printing was jointly produced by Darkcloud and Broken Sword. The color was very pigmented and long-lasting, much better than the pigments extracted from plants and minerals. Roland believed that they could last for a very long time before the next printing.

Overall, a large part of the manufacture process was completed by ordinary people, whereby the witches only provided raw materials. The production was highly efficient, which made mass production possible.

Roland was relieved that he finally carried out this currency reform. Now, he had both men and money, so the problem next was how to utilize these resources and increase productivity.

"I have a new project that requires approximately 20,000 to 30,000 people, which is about the population of a major city," Roland said to Barov. "You and the other directors shall work together and draft a plan."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"First of all, the Ministry of Chemical Industry — " Roland broke off and looked at Kyle Sichi.

Apparently, it was time to produce more ammunition.

Chapter 1257 - A National Machine

"I need an additional ammonia plant and a saltpeter plant. You knew that, didn't you?" Roland asked.

Agatha and Paper had been working on these two materials, but the production rate was not satisfactory due to the lack of catalysts. Although their method was much better than the original acid-making method that involved saltpeter, they could not further increase the production as a result of limited manpower and magic.

After Roland obtained a copy of the complete periodic table of elements, the chemistry laboratory immediately started to make sample elements. With Lucia's help, the Ministry of Chemical Industry was now able to create a sample for every element on the table, including many rare elements such as platinum and rhodium that were normally used as catalysts in chemical reactions.

As long as there were enough people, they could build as many plants as they wanted. Mass production might not be the most efficient way to produce war materials, but the original acid-making method was solely reliant on Agatha's and Paper's abilities.

Kyle said slowly, "Your Majesty, we've already verified the theories through experiments and simulated the acid-making process in a small reaction vessel. As long as we have sufficient manpower, we can start working anytime."

"I can offer you all the literate immigrants. You can start after this meeting," Roland said. "Also, I plan to create a new production line for lead-acid batteries."

Kyle nodded in comprehension. Perhaps, not many people knew what those things were, but he had learned elementary and intermediate chemistry by heart and certainly understood what Roland was talking about.

Lead-acid batteries were also known as storage batteries. It was not even that hard for the Alchemist Workshop to make them, since the only materials required were lead, lead dioxide, and dilute sulfuric acidm, let alone the current Ministry of Chemical Industry. Plus, the experiment on electrolytes with a light bulb was a classic experiment in high school chemistry.

The strength of storage batteries was that they could be recharged by supplying water regularly. There was no technical difficulty whatsoever in producing lead and lead dioxide. The reasons that he had not produced them earlier were that they rarely needed storage batteries and had insufficient manpower.

"How many do you need approximately..." Kyle asked as he produced a notebook.

"Around 100 per month," Roland replied.

Storage batteries would be mainly used to start off piston engines for the biplanes. As the biplane was the most advanced industrial product in Neverwinter, it was unacceptable that it took so long for the plane to take off. Roland attributed this drawback to the lack of manpower. However, with the influx of a great number of immigrants, they could now eliminate this defect.

With so many additional people, they could literally do whatever they wanted.

"We would only need around 10 people to finish this small project," Kyle commented sagely as he stroked his beard. "Of course, we still need Queen Anna's help to manufacture other parts like lead plates and shells."

"If you could provide me with detailed drawings, the Ministry of Industry has no issue with that," Anna said while nodding.

"Then please give me a few days to think it over, and I'll send you the drawings shortly."

Roland sipped his tea in satisfaction. After years of education and training, there were now many talented people in the Administrative Office. It was very common that a project involved various departments. For many projects, Roland only had to provide his advice here and there in the very beginning, and his ministers would finish the rest.

"Now, the Ministry of Industry shall — "

After the war of Taquila, Roland realized that there were a lot of things that needed to be improved. Now, he finally got an opportunity to do so.

First was the fighting capacity of the infantries.

Roland called it the "General Purpose Machine Gun Plan".

The basic idea was to produce a lighter version of Mark I type HMG with a simpler structure. The barrel and rack should be separate so that the weapon could be more portable. A cartridge should be used to enable soldiers to open fire immediately in the event of an attack. In that case, soldiers would be able to suppress the Senior Demons and earn time for the anti-demon grenade unit.

Since there would not be much change in the gun structure, the only way to reduce the weight would be switching over to a lighter material, aluminium alloy and plastic made from the slimes of rubber worms, for instance. Both of the two materials were not manufactured on a large scale, but the production of the biplanes required a lot of them. Therefore, they would not produce many new machine guns.

But it was better than nothing. Plus, the Aerial Knight also needed machine guns, so this project was very necessary.

As far as Roland saw, the First Army could still remain in a superior postion in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart without upgrading their guns. Only the elite unit, who usually took on special missions such as scouting, covering and rescue, would need such an advanced weapon.

Also, the semi-automatic rifle invented by Van'er was in the process of mass production. Every five soldiers would have a "Van'er Rifle". The reason that Roland did not change all the bolt rifles was logistics. Since the linkage was left in the air, the rifle was not actually very durable. It could easily get jammed after multiple shots.

However, the "Van'er Rifle" could effectively increase the firepower.

The next project that Roland had in comtemplation was the biplane. After four months of intense tests, the first generation of biplanes was finally put into use and was named the "Fire of Heaven". Although this new model was very similar to the "Unicorn", and its structure was not extremely complicated, it was still unrealistic to ask ordinary workers to manufacture and assemble it. As for the production of the engine, it was still reliant on Anna's ability.

Having said that, Roland still planned to gather the top workers in the industrial zones to tackle these potential problems. These people had elevated themselves from apprentices who used to flail hammers to excellent machine tool operators. It was also a good time to test how far the industrialization of Neverwinter had gone in the three years after the establishment of the first steam engine plant.

The only way to suppress the Devilbeasts was to dominate the sky.

The "Fire of Heaven" was obviously just the beginning of this magnificent endeavor.

The last project Roland had in mind was regarding the new Spidery Monstrous Beast. Roland planned to create a small-caliber cannon larger than the mortars but smaller than the Longsong Cannons to repel the Monstrous Beasts. The caliber should be around 75 milimeters. It could be easily carried on horses and by soldiers, and Hummingbird did not necessarily have to reduce its weight.

It was not difficult to make such a cannon. Roland only needed a few workers from the cannon plant. However, before that, he had to first create a sample cannon and test it out.

He had discussed these prospective projects with Anna numerous times in private. They soon reached a mutual understanding without any unncessary explanation.

This would be the grandest manufacturing project in Neverwinter in the history of time, for the project involved nearly 10 plants and a workforce of 20,000 and 30,000 people.

With the implementation of the immigration campaign, the industrialization in Neverwinter would become even more intense and rapid.

A machine titled "nation" was set in motion.

Chapter 1258 - Air Combat Maneuver

The students in the Aerial Knight Academy were busy training.

All the trainer aircrafts were spreading out in a line at the end of the runway, and the 30 official trainees were listening to Princess Tilly's instructions. A little farther on, students who had not passed the exam or those who had recently joined the team were sitting near the runway, waiting to watch the next round of trial flights.

"From today onwards, your training will enter a new phase!" Tilly proclaimed as she paced back and forth in front of the students who were a lot taller than her. "Now, tell me what you've learned over the past one month! Start from Patter!"

"Lifting, Your Highness!" the students named Patter replied in excitement.

"Next."

"Hovering!"

"Magic Movie!"

"What?"

"No..." the student faltered. "I mean balance training, Your Highness!"

"Strange..." Finkin muttered. "Princess Tilly seems to be nicer these days."

"Really?" Hinds said under his breath. "She won't exempt you from punishment if you make a mistake. Don't you remember? We just cleaned the bathroom for a month."

"I'm not sayiing that," Finkin mumbled as he looked toward Good. "What do you think?"

Good nodded and said, "I have the same feeling." He could sense that Princess Tilly had been somehow very anxious for a long time, possibly because of the poor performance of the aerial knight trainees. There were only 30 people out of 200 students who had passed the exam.

Another reason was that there were only six usable planes in the hangar. The rest of them were all crashed during the training. Like the instructor Eagle Face had said, one plane was even more expensive than a ship, which normally cost thousands of gold royals. No wonder Princess Tilly were so sulky and ill-tempered.

Nevertheless, the situation seemed to have changed a bit. Although Princess was still quite strict with them, she was less sullen.

But they still crashed a lot of planes every day.

Finkin, it's your turn," someone reminded him.

Finkin erected himself and said, "Discipline, Your Highness, I learned the importance of discipline!"

"And also responsibility!" Hinds shouted.

There was an uproar of laughter.

"I told Princess Tilly a long time ago that we should send these guys to the army and tame them first."

"Suck it up. They're all civilians."

The other students exchanged murmurs. Apparently, the news that Finkin, Hinds and Good had been ordered to clean the bathroom for a month as a punishment had been spread throughout the whole school. However, students who used to be civilians simply made fun of them. Those who despised them most and would like to send them to the North Slope Mine were mostly soldiers from the First Army.

Tilly did not say anything but continued, "Next."

Good replied solemnly, "Passion."

Another flurry of whispers swept over the crowd.

"What nonsense he's talking about?"

"Perhaps he couldn't think of anything else..."

Good had thought Princess Tilly would not be satisfied with his answer, but she quickly turned away from him to the next student after a short pause.

After everyone supplied an answer, Tilly nodded and said, "You haven't received much training, but you did learn a lot! Now, what you need to do is to apply what you've learned to the subsequent training. You have to be strong and use the flying techniques you've learned!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" everyone shouted together.

"Now, I'm going to divide you into two groups of three units to have a mock battle! The rule is very simple. If you could successfully confine the activity of the opponent party to your shooting range for 10 seconds without being shaken off, I take that you hit the target. You only learned firing at a fixed target on the ground before. Now, you'll learn what an aerial battle looks like in reality!"

Everyone got excited about the news.

"Your, Your Highness!" a student yelled while raising his hand.

"Yes?"

"The gun is... unloaded, isn't it?"

"What a fool," Finkin laughed.

"Of course it's unloaded," Tilly said while shaking her head. "Actually there's no gun... The one mounted on the plane is just a model, so you don't need to worry that you'll shoot your schoolmates after you pull the trigger."

All the students guffawed.

"Plus, it's far more complicated to shoot in the air than on the ground. Taking the aim doesn't necessarily mean you'll hit the target. Even with bullets, you'll most likely miss the target," Tilly said while shrugging. "Any other questions?"

Good now confirmed that Princess Tilly did have changed. She would not have had such a relaxed look in the past.

"I, I have a question," Finkin said as he raised his hand and cast a look at the students from the First Army after he got the permission. "Your Highness, how do we know that we win? What if the other party doesn't yield even if we successfully hold them back?"

The students had never fought a real aerial battle, but they had learned its basic idea in the class. If an aerial knight wanted to defeat his enemy, he should make every effort to take the aim and hold him back. There were machine guns at the rear. Yet due to the limited shooting angles, these machine guns were simply used to help the aerial knight to shake off enemies.

"I'll make the judgement accordingly," Tilly said and brought in two women. "They're my special guests. They'll watch your every move, so don't you think you could cheat."

"... That's Ms. Sylvie."

"The other one seems to be the butler of the Sleeping Spell.." Good heard the students from the First Army murmur behind him.

"The trainees over there are not only watching," Princess Tilly continued. "Do you see the flags they're waving? We have six planes, each marked with a number. Once you take off, they'll use the color flags to indicate your status. Green means normal and red being shot down. If you see your number turn red, then you should leave the battlefield and return to the airport. Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

"Very well. Now, I'm going to divide the group."

Surprisingly, Princess Tilly had already drafted a list beforehand. Good and Finkin were on the same team. Their number was two.

"This is it. I'll leave you to decide who operates the aircraft and who fires. Team 1, 2 and 3 shall take off in 15 minutes. Don't hover in the air. Then Team 3, 4 and 5 take off. Once all the teams are in the air, the mock battle officially begins!" Tilly said while clapping her hands. "Show me what you've learned!"

Good clenched his fists.

His heart was pounding frantically in his chest.

"Did you notice that?" Finkin said as he drew close.

Good exclaimed. Princess Tilly did not divide the group randomly. The first three teams were all constituted of civilians while the other three were comprised of students from the First Army.

Apparently, Princess Tilly wanted to know who was better!

"That's perfect," Finkin said as he rubbed his nose. "I've had enough with them. Since we're aerial knights, let's fight it out in the air!"

Good did not really care about the outcome of the mock battle. He only hoped that he could fly as much as he could so that he could enjoy the flight a bit longer. Good peered down at his trembling hands. They were resonating with him. He felt a warmth lance through his body as he thought that his hands would sooon reach onto the lever.

"I'll be the pilot. You do the firing," Finkin said as he patted Good on the shoulder.

"You know I won't accept that," Good returned instantly.

They stared at each other for quite a while before Finkin said resignedly," Alright. We do the old way."

There was a very popular method to resolve a conflict. Nobody knew where it came from. Somebody said it was invented by the Witch Union while the other believed it was a creation of His Majesty. Regardless, this method worked pretty well.

"Rock, scissors, paper!"

"I won!" Good said triumphantly as he withdrew his hand.

Finkin looked at his fist in disbelief and finally conceded gruffly, "I'll let you fly this time. We'll have a lot of opportunities in the training."

The two men thus walked up to the biplane and boarded to the corresponding plane.

"You can do it!" Hinds said as he eyed them in a pretty ostensible manner on the runway. He was not listed, so naturally he wished them good luck.

"You'll soon see that we didn't train for nothing," Finkin said as he pulled on the goggles and gave him a thumbs-up.

The stairwell were soon removed, and the propeller was set in motion as the handle started to spin rapidly

When the piston started to move and was connected to the gas, Good felt that the whole aircraft was injected into life.

"All clear. OK to take off!" the ground staff saluted.

Good raised his arm and returned a perfect salute. "Aircraft No. 2, go!"

The biplane slid onto the runway, accelerated, and soared into the sky against the sea breezes.

Chapter 1259 - A Battle in the Air

In the roar of the machineries, the three planes of Team No. 1 took off in succession.

"Who do you think will win?" Tilly asked.

"... Well, do you want to make a bet? One bottle of Chaos Drink for the winner," Sylvie asked hesitantly.

"That's fine. Just make a guess."

Slyvie looked profoundly relieved. "I bet on Team No. 2. They're all from the First Army, right?"

"That's right," Tilly said with a nod. "Camilla, what about you?"

"I don't really care, Your Highness," Camilla Dary sighed. "Although these aircrafts look amazing, we need 30 aerial knights to fight 10 Devilbeasts. Even if we have twice the students we currently have, the result won't change much. I don't think you should put too much effort into it."

"It's just the beginning," Tilly replied smilingly. "When I first came to Neverwinter, there were only a handful of plants along the river. Now, these plants stretch all the way to the Shallow Port. Plus, the Devil beasts haven't changed a bit compared to 400 years ago, but these artifacts have upgraded a lot of times over the past half a year. Who knows what they'll become of in the future?"

After a moment of silence, Camilla said, "You always have your reason, but you also have to take care of the Sleeping Spell. I've been here for too long."

"Sorry. I made you worry."

"No, Your Highness — "

"I know," Tilly said sincerely. "You should have left Neverwinter after the war up in the north, but you stayed because of me. Thank you, Camilla. I'm OK now."

The two witches stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Camilla broke the silence and said with a nod, "I see. But I can't manage the Sleeping Spell all by myself. Please pay them a visit when you're available. Those witches are still waiting for you."

"... They still don't want to come to Neverwinter?"

"No. Some of them suffered too much, and they're afraid to come."

Although only a few witches chose to stay, it indicated that their dark memories of the past still had a certain influence on them.

Perhaps, they would never forget about this pain.

"I'll go back after we win the Battle of Divine Will," Tilly confirmed.

"What if we lose?"

Just then, the planes of Team No.2 flitted across the runway.

Tilly didn't answer but simply gave Camilla a faint smile. "The battle has started... Come!"

...

"Hey, do you think Princess Tilly can really watch over the six planes at a time?"

Finkin yelled. Air currents seared through the plane and whistled around his ears. He had to shout at the top of his lung to ensure that his words were heard. Because of the wind, the cabin was extremely noisy.

"That's Her Highness' business!" Good hollered back as well. He noticed that four numbers out of the six had turned green, which meant that Team No. 2 was taking off.

Since they were not allowed to hover above the academy, the three planes of Team No. 1 all flew toward the sea. Good could not see where the fourth, fifth and sixth planes were at the moment, but undoubtedly, their opponent must have figured out where they were heading. They certainly would not follow them immediately, as it took time to rise and accelerate. It was not advisable to recklessly enter the territory of the planes that had taken off first and get shot.

"I feel so nervous at the thought that Her Highness is watching me! If she knows how to take aims, she'll look in the same direction as me. Doesn't it mean that she's right in my — "

At that precise moment, the plane plummeted.

Finkin, who had been interrupted,bellowed, "What the heck are you doing? Can't you fly better?"

"I'm saving you, you idiot! If Her Highness can aim the target as well, she can also see you gossiping behind her. Then you'll feel very lucky to work in the mine!"

Finkin immediately shut up.

Good surveyed the surroundings through the crack between the wing and the body of the plane. He could only see a distant black dot drifting along the horizon. The other plane on the team was completely out of sight. Apparently, everyone was acting on their own.

Princess Tilly actually did not teach them how to fight in the air except for a few basic theories. He had to rely on his own judgement. Perhaps, even Princess Tilly did not know how to conduct an aerial battle, since this was entirely new, and they needed to start from scratch.

As there were no rules, he could fly to a spacious area and wait for his enemy to make contact with him.

After a moment of reflection, Good changed the direction and flew toward the Shallow Port.

"Oi, where are you going?"

"To the west. I'm going to fly round the plants!"

"Fly around? Why not just wait for them here?"

"Then we won't be able to control the pace of the battle!" Good yelled as he made the turn. "Think! How are they going to fly?"

Good did not care about the result, but he knew that the winner could fly longer.

"How? They'll rise and speed up, and then they'll come after us!"

That was right. As they did not know when the second team would be ready to launch an attack, they had to defend themselves and get prepared, just like soldiers at the front waiting for their enemies to charge.

There was one way that could ensure him to get an advantageous position.

That was to draw the opponent's attention to the ocean.

It was easy to spot the target running on an open field.

However, things were different in the sky. He could run in all directions.

"If they can't see us but we can see them, then we can break the tie!" Good shouted. "You don't think they've received less training than us, do you?"

"Haha, I see!" Finkin said as he patted Good on the shoulder heartily. "I thought I was clever. I didn't expect that you play even dirtier than me! But I like it. Let's do it!"

Good rolled his eyes. "Play dirty..." He was not sure if he should take it as a compliment. He thus started to descend while at the same time accelerating. The plane dropped behind the cliff, and its wheels brushed past the ships' masts. The sailors on the ships all stared at the plane in astonishment.

When the plane streaked past the Shallow Port, a loud wave of cheers broke over the dock.

Those immigrants, however, all goggled at the sky, terrified. There was even a commotion when the refugees got off the ships.

"Don't fly too low, otherwise the police will make a complaint, and we'll have to clean the bathroom for another month again!" Finkin reminded.

"Don't worry. I think that would do," Good said as he slowly pulled the lever, and the plane gradually left the horizon and headed toward the industrial zone to the west of the airport. The industrial zone was enveloped by smoke all the year round, so their opponent was not likely to rise from there.

"Hmm?" Tilly, who was watching through the Eye of Magic, exclaimed in surprise.

"Did they... escape?" Sylvie asked since she also noticed something unusual.

"They probably don't want to wait any longer," Tilly said with a faint smile playing upon her lips.

Through the Magic Eye, Tilly could see everything clearly in the sky. The three biplanes of Team No. 2 had all taken off. Unlike Team No. 1, the students from the First Army did not fly to the sea to look for their opponent but continued to hover in the north before they headed to the south together.

It took them a long time to assemble but the three planes all stayed close to each other.

"Interesting," Tilly muttered to herself. She did not teach the students how to fight in the air, nor did she remind them of the airspace and formations. In other words, they made their own decisions.

Beyond a doubt, no matter who won today, she would have some useful information regarding air combat to add to the Flight Manual.

"Just as I thought, they aren't here," Good said after he confirmed it was all clear. He pressed hard on the gas, and the plane crept up with an earsplitting roar. After the howl of the wind died down, he flew straight ahead toward the southeast.

There was no landmark in the sky. Even if the second team spot them, they would think that the tiny black dot they saw was but an eagle.

Plane No. 2 flew in a circle and returned to the Aerial Knight Academy.

However, just at that moment, the three planes of Team No. 2 entered the territory above the Swirling Sea and dashed toward the target closest to them!

Chapter 1260 - Passion

Tilly noticed that the first team dispersed as they saw their opponent approach. Plane No. 1 and Plane No. 3 flew in two different directions in an attempt to flank the second team.

Team No. 2 managed to maintain their formation and continued to approach Plane No. 1, which was the one closest to them.

As a consequence, Plane No. 1 was besieged by the three planes all at once.

Through the Magic Eye, Tilly could see the nervous look on the pilot's face.

Under such circumstances when the second team was flanked, the pilot of Plane No. 1 could have shot down one of the three planes before the second team shot him down. However, the pilot was apparently in a panic, for he pressed upon the left pedal after a moment of contemplation and tried to avoid the upcoming attack. At this point, the two parties were only 500 meters from each other. The second team immediately changed the direction and started the chase.

The pilot of Plane No. 1 exercised all his efforts to shake his opponent off. Like Tilly had said in her opening statement, the pilot applied everything he had learned to this maneuver. This pilot must have worked very hard, for he seemed to have become quite proficient in plane operation after just one month of training.

Nevertheless, the students from the First Army were not bad either. They managed to stay close to the other team after Plane No. 1 dived and made a sharp turn. Since they outnumbered their opponent, they did not have to keep an eye on the other party constantly. The other party, however, had to watch every move of the three planes. As a result, Plane No. 1 dropped and slowed down. Seeing there was no way to escape, the pilot turned about abruptly and streaked toward the oncoming Plane No. 3.

The second team, in the meantime, found a perfect opportunity to shoot Plane No. 1. Plane No. 6 plummeted and zoomed toward the tail of Plane No. 1 at a downward angle of 30 degrees.

The machine gunner of Plane No. 1 had seen that the opponent plane was coming, and the pilot had tried his best to avoid the shot, but he could not escape the attack anymore.

It only took 10 seconds.

Tilly nodded in satisfaction and said, "Red flag for Plane No. 1!"

It was not until then that Plane No. 3 joined the team.

Plane No. 6 was still climbing, and the other two planes, Plane No. 4 and Plane No. 5, were both in a superior position.

It appeared that the first team had run into a disgusting dilemma.

— if, though, they excluded Plane No. 2 aloft in the air from the team.

Tilly rested her eyes on the area above.

"I saw them!" Finkin exclaimed as he poked out his head from the seat and leaned dramatically against the body of the plane. "Hang on. Plane No. 1 is down!"

"Are you sure?"

"The number on the airport has turned red, but they're still fighting!"

"That's because they haven't noticed it yet," Good replied, frowning. It seemed that his team members were weaker than he had anticipated. "What about Plane No. 3?"

"If I'm correct, that black dot coming this way should be it!" Finkin hollered. "Mate, they're in a mess. It's time to join them now!"

"Just a minute... Turn around. Do you see the sun?"

Finkin looked backward and was instantly blinded by the sunlight. "I was right! I knew you'd bean excellent pilot. We're right in the sun. I can't open my eyes!"

"That's because you lost the game," Good thought to himself as he shook his head and pressed down the lever. "In that case, let's go!"

"Yayyyyy!" Finkin howled in excitement.

The roar of the radial engine overpowered the whistling wind. The plane shook violently as it zoomed against the air currents. Good felt his whole body tremble in exhilaration.

He was now a charging knight!

The whole sky was beneath him!

As the pilot of Plane No. 3 had directed all his attention to the slowest plane in Team No. 2, the other two opponent planes started to come after Plane No. 3. It was not until they darted toward their prey in the golden drops of sun rays that they realized there was another plane cracking through the air behind them. They should have ditched their team members and shot down Plane No. 3 first, but they hesitated, which earned Finkin time to take the aim.

By the time the two planes in Team No. 2 realized it, it was already too late. Good brushed past Plane No. 4 and swiftly turned to Plane No. 5. He had been aiming at Plane No. 4 when he was plunging, although he was not certain whether he could successfully shoot it down. Nevertheless, Princess Tilly made the rules, and he trusted her completely.

Good knew his team members could be knocked out of the team anytime, so he must be fast.

Four biplanes thus threw themselves in a bitter and intense battle, and the situation became precarious. Good could even see the livid face of the machine gunner on Plane No. 5. Although Good had explosed himself, he was much faster. After several rounds of chase and run, Good finally found time to take aim. While he was about to ask Finkin to fire, Finkin blurted out.

"The number for Plane No. 5 turned red!"

Almost at the same time, Plane No. 3 was shot down too.

Now, there were only Plane No. 6 and him left on the battlefield.

Perhaps, the pilot in Plane No. 3 was too nervous when flanked by the two planes from the other team and thus let Plane No. 6 slip and catch up with them.

"What the heck are those guys doing? They didn't shoot any of the planes down!" Finkin complained gruffly as he turned the machine gun. "Now, it has become one against three!"

"We used them as a decoy in the first place," Good said airily. "Well, there's also another possibility, that is, that Plane No. 6 is a hard nut to crack."

His prediction was confirmed.

No matter which direction he chose to go, Plane No. 6 immediately caught up without giving him a single chance to escape. He had to move constantly, otherwise the opponent would shoot him down before Finkin did.

"Damn it," Finkin muttered irritably. "Can't you fly a little faster?"

"I'm doing what I can!"

"We'll be killed if things go on like this. Do something! How about flying to the port? We can take refuge from the sailing ships!"

"If we crash into the ships carrying refugees, what do you think will happen?"

"Er... we'll be executed," Finkin said, deflated. "Then forget it. At least, we aren't the first ones that get kicked out. We're doomed, unless there's wind sending us up."

"Wind..." Good muttered in a daze and suddenly came up with a solution. "You're right. I know how to get our way out!"

"Huh?"

"Do you remember the upwind near the cliff?"

The wind from the Swirling Sea changed constantly, especially the one close to the beach. Because of the cliff, the air currents went around the precipice and turned into a gust of upwind. One could hear it whistling rymthically upon the cliff.

Finkin stiffened for a second after realizing what Good was talking about. "Are you crazy? You never know if there's an upwind or not. If you get too close to the cliff, you'll easily crash the plane!"

The upwind only confined to a certain area. Beyond that specific area, they'll dissipate into the sea breezes. Due to the bumpy surface of the cliff, the wind could go in any directions. Therefore, it was even harder to maneuver the plane through the upwind than passing through the ships.

"I have to give it a shot. Just a little bit of wind and we'll be able to shot up in the air!" Good said as he quickly dropped and zoomed toward the Aerial Knight Academy.

Plane No. 6 hesitated for a moment and also accelerated.

"How do you know when the upwind will come?" Finkin asked incredulously.

"The ships carrying refugees will tell me!" Good returned as he continued to drop. The plane was getting closer and closer to Plane No. 6. After a wide turn, it almost leveled the horizon. Many students would think that he had lost the game at this point, although the plane was still running at a tremendous speed. It was clear that he had nowhere to go.

He was now within the shooting range of his opponent.

"Clock the time!" Good bellowed.

"I think we still have eight seconds! Six, five, four — " Finkin counted through his teeth.

In the meantime, Good was also keeping an eye on a ship coming toward the Shallow Port, yet he was not looking at the flag or the sail but the birds perched upon its mast. The flag and the sail were rippling in the air, so it was impossible for him to tell the wind power from them.However, the birds could capture the slightest change in the wind.

As though sensing something, the birds flapped their wings and descended from the mast before they flew toward the cliff. For a moment, they strongly resembled agliding "Seagull". Good had noticed earlier that birdsliked to travel between ships and the cliff. It seemed that they could soar in the sky without necessarily flapping their wings!

The moment the birds reached the edge of the cliff, Good rose abruptly.

It was actually a very dangerous move because of the dramatic elevation angle. However, at this moment, the birds suddenly surged as though an invisible hand had been supporting them.

There came the wind.

In an instant, Good heard a piercing whistle.

Against the gust of wind, the plane shook tremulously. It again accelerated and, miraculously, shot up into the air and reversed.

The whole world turned upside down.

For a split second, time froze. Good saw Plane No. 6 flash below him, totally unprepared. The pilot sitting in there looked up at him in astonishment.

Somewhere in the distance, a pack of birds leaped out of the horizon, their white wings forming a stairwell leading to Heaven.

He had not lied to Her Highness.

His passion for flying grew every day after he joined the Aerial Knight reserve. He was addicted to flying.

This was what impressed Good most among all he had learned.

Now, the situation had changed.

Chapter 1261 - A City Beyond Understanding

"Such a brilliant battle," Sylvie commented involuntarily.

"Yes," Tilly agreed smilingly and cast an airy look at Camilla. In the end, even Camilla was fascinated by the battle and started to watch the two biplanes attentively.

When Plane No. 2 successfully shook off its opponent with the help of the upwind, Tilly knew there would soon be a winner.

However, the result was not important anymore.

She saw what she wanted.

For example, when a plane was outnumbered and cornered, the dominant party took control of the air space and the pace of the battle.

Nevertheless, this was not an inflexible rule. The outcome of the battle was always subject to change depending on the dynamics between the two parties. By changing formations and tactics, the party in disadvantage could also defeat the party taking control.

Given that, teamwork seemed to be extremely important when fighting even more cunning Devilbeasts.

Another thing she had noticed was that the plane above had a better chance to win. Therefore, the best way to start a battle would be that one unit held the Devil beasts back while the other fired from above.

What she needed to work on now was the air force formations and how many planes that should be included in one unit.

But Tilly understood that training was different from a real battle. She still had to experience a real battle before she decided what to write in the Flight Manual.

Tilly was pleased that the students learned even faster than she had expected. Based on the current rate, the aerial knights could probably fight in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter by the time the "Fire of Heaven" went into production.

She would definitely not miss such a perfect opportunity to seek revenge.

The "Unicorn" was simply a trainer aircraft. She believed that Roland was now making a brand new fighter aircraft for her.

She should visit the castle and remind him once more after the training.

At this moment, the last plane finally landed on the airport.

The students and the spectators all burst into cheers and applauded.

"Now I know why you divided the group in this way," Sylvie said quietly.

"I didn't expect it would work so well. I thought I'd have to wait for another half a month," Tilly said with a smile as she waved at Eagle Face and handed him a list. "Well, let the next group get ready."

Tilly looked toward the north. Soon, she would have the demons to pay for what they had done.

...

The ship produced a long, deep whistle.

It indicated there was another ship coming in this way. Manfeld heard this kind of whistle every hour, and it became increasingly frequent after he entered the territory of Graycastle. Now, he could hear them pretty much every half an hour, and the interval between each whistle was getting increasingly shorter.

He had never known that Graycastle had such developed marine technologies.

It was commonly believed among the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart that Graycastle was a country vast in territory with few resources. Its land was as infertile and thin as that in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. The Kingdom of Dawn was the wealthiest country on this continent.

However, it seemed that this was not true.

Stories could go awry in the retellings from one village to another, let alone that these rumors were circulated between two kingdoms. One thing that Manfeld could ascertain was that Graycastle had indeed defeated the church. This fact alone was sufficient to prove that the King of Graycastle did know how to play political games.

But he did not know exactly when he would arrive at Neverwinter, this mysterious city.

Manfeld yawned languidly at this thought.

The long voyage was more relaxing than he had thought. The ship did not immediately head to the next port after it reached the north of the Kingdom of Dawn. Instead, the crew cleaned the crowded cabin a little bit and asked passengers who suffered severe seasick to get off the ship and travel by land. The rest of the passengers thus had plenty of time to take a rest. The residents in the Kingdom of Dawn had even built many temporary buildings at the dock area as if they had prepared for the arrival of the refugees. Their services in collaboration with the Graycastle men were seamless. Had Manfeld not seen the flags of the Kingdom of Dawn upon the city, he would have thought this was a part of Graycastle.

Apparently, the two kingdoms had reached a sort of agreement. Manfeld was not sure at what cost King Roland Wimbledon had persuaded them to help him.

It had only taken him a week to recover from his injuries, and he had not used the strange pill given by the two ladies ever since.

Manfeld wondered how they were doing now. His hand reached for the pill in his pocket when he thought about the two women. Although they were emaciated and dirty, there was a hint of hidden beauty underneath their straggly hair. If they had put themselves together and dressed themselves up, they should have looked pretty stunning.

Manfeld hoped that the two women could reach the destination and become freemen. In that way, they could cut ties with their dismal past and live a brand new life.

Suddenly, Manfeld heard a strange buzz, as though something was flying above him.

Then, running footsteps came from the cabin on the upper level.

"Be quiet!"

"What are those guys doing? I can't sleep!"

Someone complained at once.

Manfeld slid off his bed and peeped out of the porthole.

If he was right, those footsteps came in the same direction of the buzzing sound.

Nothing was changed. The sky was as blue as ever, and the vast ocean stretched away before him. A few big birds were chasing each other in the sky.

"Hang on. What kind of birds are they?"

Manfeld rubbed his eyes and could not believe what he saw. When the "birds" were perpendicular to the horizon, he could see their unusually sharp wings and tails, which made them look not remotely like real birds!

When they brushed past the ship, Manfeld could finally ascertain that this was not his imagination. They were not real but artifacts made of metal. What was more incredible was that the machines were manned!

For a moment, a phrase tried to take shape in Manfeld's mouth and his lips parted like a dumb man's. How could that be possible? He had gradually accepted the existence of the First Army and the steam-powered boats and had also somewhat foreseen what a prosperous city the king's city of Graycastle would be, but this was beyond the scope of his understanding.

Suddenly, he had a strong feeling that Graycastle belonged to a different world from the one that the Kingdom of Wolfheart was situated at. It was actually different than all other three kingdoms. Otherwise, he should have heard about these extraordinary inventions.

Since when had the other three kingdoms fallen so behind?

When Manfeld was aghasted and confused, the ship whistled again. This time, it was a much longer whistle that indicated that the ship was about to dock.

He had arrived at Neverwinter.

Chapter 1262 - A Conflict in the New City

"Keep in line. Don't push!" a Graycastle clerk wearing a black uniform yelled as he pushed his way through the crowd. "Remember the number on your boarding pass and go to the corresponding checkout. Make sure you go to the correct one!"

Manfeld, still flabbergasted, was pushed onto the dock.

He saw the whole port lie before him.

It was the largest port he had ever seen. The dock stretched away along the bank and disappeared at the end of the horizon. Unlike the damp, moldy port he usually saw, this dock was clean and tidy. The pavement was covered with white slabs. Thousdands of ships traveled back and forth. Even the port in the Kingdom of Dawn was incomparable to this one.

Many people gasped at this magnificent scene. However, Manfeld was still in such an immense shock that he was now emotionally numb after he had seen the flying iron birds.

Manfeld constantly looked backward in the direction he had come, in a hope of seeing the iron birds again. Instinctively, he wanted to convince himself that it was not a delirious illusion.

But by the time he reached the trestle, he had still not seen them.

Manfeld was a little disappointed.

"Please have your boarding pass ready and go to the corresponding checkout according to the three digit number on the pass!" Many people were shouting through a strange metal object at the refugees, their voice amplified by multiple times, so that everyone in the crowd could hear them clearly. "Please follow the guide and go through the security check. Welcome to the king's city of Graycastle. We welcome every one of you!"

Manfeld calmed himself down and put away his thoughts.

He thought it was a very strange way to welcome new people because the refugees did not come to Graycastle willingly. Everything these Graycastle men had done in the Kingdom of Wolfheart was, in a way, a sort of dictatorship. Yet, surprisingly, he found himself a lot more self-assured after hearing these words.

The towering cliff suddenly caved in at this point and formed a natural outpost. The refugees formed a long line behind it and slowly proceeded to the checkouts in various directions. There were more than 10,000 people at the dock area, and apparently, not all of them were from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. What astonishing national power that was to bring so many people from the three kingdoms together in such a short period of time!

Just then, the refugees stopped moving, and Manfeld heard a commotion from behind.

Not only the people waiting in line but also the clerks in black maintaining the order were surprised.

Manfeld turned around and saw a colossal ship slowly dock. It was long and made of metal. There were no paddles on either side of the ship, its freeboard aloft and straight. Nobody would ever miss noticing such a superb ship. It was evident, however, that the Graycastle men was not astounded at the ship itself but the way it looked.

"Are they mental? I can't believe that they use iron to build ships!" someone around Manfeld muttered in disbelief. "Don't they know that iron will rust after in contact with water?"

"Perhaps the King of Graycastle wants to show off his wealth. The iron ship does look pretty nice. I didn't believe that such heavy things could float in water before I saw the concrete boat."

"What's the point in making such a wonderful ship when it can only last half a month? I used to sail on the sea and know a lot about ships. Seawater erodes ships far more quickly than you could possibly imagine. Regular paints won't last long. You see, this is what they've got in the end."

Rusts could be seen all over the iron ship. Its body, which had once been polished and shiny, was now bumpy and damaged, which created a glaring constrast with the neat dock. The mast above was snapped and broken into several pieces. The ship was shuffling with great difficulties toward the dock like an exhausted, withered sea monster that had entered its decrepitude.

Did King Roland Wimbledon really intend to show off by building a ship like this?

The men in black immediately elbowed their way through the crowd for the sailors on the ship. Manfeld had a vague feeling that things were not that simple.

Peace was soon restored, and the refugees started to march forward again.

When it was his turn, the clerk only confirmed his name and number before he let Manfeld pass.

After 30 people passed the security check, a man walked up to them and said, "I'm a clerk working at the Administrative Office of Neverwinter. My name is Matt. I'll assist you in settling down in the city for the time being. I know you must have a lot of questions, but please don't worry. I'll explain to you in detail on the way to the residential area. Now, please drink the Cleansing Water on the table first. It can cure the demonic plague if you're infected. If you aren't, just view it as a tasty beverage."

"Do we have to follow you?" someone questioned. "We're now Graycastle residents, too. We should be allowed to go wherever we want. Don't you think so?"

"You'll only become His Majesy's subjects after you receive your identification cards," Matt replied while shaking his head. "Usually, people can apply for identification cards after having one to two years of working experience, provided that they don't break the Graycastle law. However, you're all skilled workers, so you can immediately become an official Graycastle resident after passing the psychological test. However, the examination officer is quite busy. Since there are so many applicants, you'll have to wait for two to three days."

"Psychological test? Isn't it just a screening process?"

"You'll know it when you take the test," Matt answered with a smile. "We focus on your present and future rather than your past. I became a city clerk after I passed the same test. Now, please drink the water and follow me."

Manfeld thought this must be the "lie detector test" that the coachman had mentioned.

Matt did answer a lot of their questions that the refugees were most concerned about, such as what work they would have in the future, their salaries, etc. According to the policy implemented by the King of Graycastle, the refugees would be treated equally as the locals once they obtained their resident status.

Matt also shared his personal experience and told them how he had gradually adapted to the new life here, which greatly alleviated them.

When they entered a residential area in the suburb, a roar of laughter caught everybody's attention.

Manfeld then saw some refugees corner a woman and slowly approach her. Many people saw the incident happen but nobody came up to stop them. Somebody was even egging them on, looking tempted to join them.

"Damn it. Why do these things happen everywhere?"

Manfeld had thought that Neverwinter would be different.

Frowning, he asked, "Did anyone inform the guards in black?"

Matt had told them earlier that the men in black had replaced the previous patrol team and were called the police. Manfeld was not sure whether they were reliable, but it seemed that there was no better way at the moment.

However, nobody took action. "Young man, don't meddle with this matter. You'll still have to live here for a few days before moving to the inner city."

"That's right. If those scumbags come to avenge, they won't do you any good."

"You — " Manfeld said. His voice suddenly abandoned him. Then he looked toward Matt and said, "I'll hold them back. You go and inform those guards!"

But Matt grasped his hand and slightly shook his head.

In an instant, Manfeld felt utterly disappointed.

He wrenched himself away and pronounced each word slowly, "I thought it'd be different here in Neverwinter from the other kingdoms, but I was wrong." With these words, he rolled up his sleeves and rushed toward the crowd.

Chapter 1263 - Future Work

"Excuse me, sorry. Excuse me!" Manfeld said as he elbowed through the crowd. The refugees who stirred up trouble immediately rested their eyes on him.

"Who's this guy?" a man snarled. "I know you can't wait, but you've got to until I'm done with her."

He was the person who had just laughed. Manfeld soon figured out that he was the leader of the gang. It was almost impossible to rescue the woman from the hands of a dozen gangsters since he had no weapon. The only way was to beat the leader and take away the woman when the others were still in a shock at the resultant chaos.

Manfeld extended out his hands and walked a few steps forward as calmly as he could before he said, "I'm here to remind you that someone has already informed the guards in black. If you don't run now, it'll be too late." In the meantime, he eyed the woman, in a hope that she would understand that he was not one of them. However, the woman was non-responsive. She simply tilted her head, looking utterly confused.

"Damn it. Doesn't she know her situation?"

"Why's she still so... composed?"

"What guards in black? Aren't they just the patrol team?" the leader threatened, his face splitting into a nasty smile. "You never know whom they'd help in the end exactly. Hey, you little brat. You're green, aren't you?"

"Haha. From his look, he was probably a young lord."

"So what? He's now the same as us."

"Get lost! Run as far away as you can before our boss loses his temper — "

They roared with laughter. Just at that moment, Manfeld moved. He shouldered the leader abruptly and then punched him in the face. The leader soon fell to the ground.

Compared to Mick Kinley and his two trained servants, these gangsters were much easier to deal with. The leader did not even get a chance to struggle before he fell.

There was an uproar among the crowd.

"Sh*t! You f**k!"

"Save the boss!"

Manfeld got several hits in the back and legs but he did not care. He extended out one hand to the woman while using the other hand to block his face, and then yelled, "Come with me!"

Then, something extraordinary happened.

The woman immediately reached out her hand. Instead of holding his, however, she grasped Manfeld's wrist and pulled him toward her.

"Oi, you..." Manfeld said irritably and suddenly saw an electric ray flashing across her body.

"Hang on... an electric ray?"

Before Manfeld realized what had happened, the flash became an arc that emanated an intense blue glow. It dashed toward the gangsters who rushed forward and, like a barbecue skewer, the electric arc went through them one by one. The mischief makers had no way to resist such an incredible force. Before they could even produce a short shriek, they all stiffened and fell backward to the ground.

"Now, that should work," the woman said casually as she clapped her hands.

"Er... are you a..." Manfeld stammered as he gaped at the woman.

"Yes, I'm a witch," the woman immediately admitted.

Manfeld had the impression that all witches should have been extremely beautiful and charming. However, when he studied this woman, he found her not remotely pretty. It was a very homely face, and she was as lanky as a little girl.

"Then, what should we do with them?" Manfeld asked as he pointed at the gangsters on the ground.

"I'll call the police department and ask them to deal with them. Don't worry. I only used 10% of my power, so they'll wake up in half an hour, but they'll be probably sent to the mine or the Furnace Area. I think they'll probably stay there for half a month."

Manfeld suddenly did not know what to respond.

He somehow had a feeling that she had planned this whole thing.

"By the way, I'm Sharon. May I know your name?" the woman asked and pulled Manfeld back to the present.

"Well, Manfeld..."

"You're the first person I saw who came forward. Why?"

"Why what?" Manfeld returned as he rubbed where he had been hit. "Isn't it a matter of course to stop crimes? I just didn't expect that you actually didn't need any help."

"A matter of course?" Sharon echoed while twitching her lips. "If everyone thought that way, those onlookers wouldn't have run away so fast."

"But there's always someone who understands it," Manfeld said. According to the history book, all nobles used to be ordinary people. They maintained the order and developed the society.

"That's right. There's always somebody who knows right and wrong," Sharon agreed with a smile. "You're a new immigrant to Neverwinter, right? Are you interested in joining the police department?"

"Are you saying... to become one of the guards in black?"

"Yes. They crack down criminals and protect residents. I think it fits you. Also, they don't always wear black uniforms. For example, like me right now."

"Huh?" Manfeld was confused.

"Alright. I'll have to report to the Administrative Office. Someone is waiting to receive you," Sharon said as she waved her hand and then headed to the inner city.

"You know why I stopped you now, don't you?"

Matt smiled to Manfeld after the latter returned to the team.

"What... what's going on?" Manfeld asked, still quite puzzled.

"An effective way to deter criminals," Matt said as he marched forward. "The residential area in the suburb wasn't like that before, at least it wasn't when I lived here. However, after more and more immigrants come here, this area becomes increasingly unsafe, and most of the crimes are targetting women. Of course, I'm not saying that you cause this because among them, there are also many migrants from the other parts of Graycastle. Since the number of refugees is overwhelming, the police can't take care of everything. More importantly, if people only calls the police after the incident happens, the criminal may have already caused permanent injuries or harms to the victim by the time the police get there."

"That's obvious, isn't it? With so many scumbags, no place can be safe," someone muttered. "I think the King of Graycastle shouldn't have accepted these shady people in the first place."

Matt shook his head and said, "His Majesty hopes that everyone could be of use, especially when the Battle of Divine Will is coming. But this isn't His Majesty's idea but the witches'. They can use their power and kill time. In the meantime, they can also help maintain public order, so this method kills two birds with one stone."

"K-kill time?" Manfeld thought in surprise and twitched his lips.

"Actually, it works pretty well. Any refugees could possibly be a disguised witch and attack people, and this deters those who want to commit crimes. Since the police department will punish all the criminals, chronic wrong-doers would probably think it over before taking action. With the help of the witches and the police, it's much better than before."

"I see..." Manfeld mumbled. It seemed that the men in black in Neverwinter were completely different than the patrol team. They were more like ideal knights that he wanted to be.

If Sharon had not lied to him, this was possibly an ideal job for him.

After they arrived at the temporary residence and got their own rooms, Matt said goodbye to the refugees. "I'll come back tomorrow and show you around the Neverwinter city. It'll be very helpful to get to know about the local culture. Also, please feel free to ask me if you have any questions."

Manfeld wanted to ask how to become a policeman, but for some reason, he said something else intead. "On my way here, I saw some huge iron birds. I wonder if you could — "

"Ah, I saw them too. If you stay in Neverwinter longer, you'll know it's not a big deal," Matt interrupted him smilingly. "I was also very shocked at first, but you'll get used to it. If you're a talented man, you may be able to operate the machine yourself."

"R-really?" Manfeld said. His heart skipped a beat.

"Naturally. Princess Tilly has put up a job post at the central square. She's hiring new Aerial Knights."

Chapter 1264 - Persuasion

...

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty... Mr. Sander Flyingbird returned from the Swirling Sea! It seems... that they had big trouble!"

Roland was mildly taken aback by this unexpected news. After the meeting regarding the industrial expansion, he returned to the office and was about to finish the rest of his drawings when the news interrupted his train of thought.

Sander Flyingbird was Thunder's alias.

"Where's he now?" Roland asked as he stood up abruptly.

"In the castle hall. He said he would like to speak to you right now."

"Send him in!" Roland ordered and then added, "Also, ask the kitchen to make some more tea."

"As you command, Your Majesty," Sean said as he quickly turned around and disappeared at the doorstep.

Nightingale asked apprehensively, "Do we need to inform Lightning?"

Roland shook his head and answered, "He should be OK, considering that he managed to get here. Let's see what he'll say first."

It had just been half a year since Thunder had set off, and the commute normally took around three months. Since the fleet had also lingered at the Shadow Islands for a while, the actual expedition was actually a lot shorter than Thunder had planned. Thunder had predicted that this expedition would have at least taken a year to a year and a half. He had even wanted to see what the end of the Swirling Sea looked like and confirm whether the land depicted in the ruins was truly buried deep down the ocean.

Apparently, an overpowering and irresistible force had sabotaged the exploration plan that Thunder had prepared for so long.

Roland could not help looking out of the window.

Did it have anything to do with the Bloody Moon?

Thunder, disguised as Sander, immediately entered the office under the guidance of the guard. Roland could tell that he was in a rush, for he had not even put on the fake mustache as he normally did, and the flamboyant ornamental feathers had pretty much fallen off. Had Lightning seen him right now, she would have probably recognized him.

Nevertheless, he sustained no injuries, which was good enough for Roland.

"Your Majesty, nice to see you," Thunder said as he bowed. "I thought I wouldn't be able to come back again."

Roland poured a glass of refreshing Chaos Drinks for him and said, "What happened? You took the best sailors at the Fjords with you this time, and I don't think it was a storm or a tsunami that held you back."

"Storms and tsunamis have signs, but thousands of Sea Ghosts don't," Thunder said, still feeling a little shaken. "Plus, I encountered monsters even more horrible than Sea Ghosts..."

Roland could resonate with his despair feeling. When numerous Sea Ghosts swarmed toward the fleet, and the seawater began to boil, any ships that failed to keep up would be dragged down to the bottom of the ocean immediately. In addition to the Sea Ghosts, there were also horrendous ships comprised of blood and flesh that could eject acids that traveled several kilometers. Anything that made in contact with the acid fluids would be instantly eroded, including iron and wood. It was almost impossible for the fleet to shake them off even if they had traveled at a full speed.

"The Sky-sea Realm..."Roland said darkly.

"Your Majesty, what's that?" Thunder asked.

"This is how the demons call this civilization," Roland answered and told Thunder about the demons' double plan. The description of these monsters that consisted of ribs, flesh and inner organs was consistent with what he had seen through the God's Relics. They could float in water like a ship but could also dive to the bottom of the sea.

"Are you saying that we invaded their territory?"

"Possibly, but this can also be attributed to the appearance of the Bloody Moon. There's a possibility that these monsters become more active than usual and start to expand their territory," Roland said. "Then what happened? How did the fleet escape?"

"In fact, we didn't shake them off. The monsters started to attack each other," Thunder said with a bitter smile.

"Attack... each other?"

"That's right. They pursued us relentlessly as though they were never going to stop. By the time we reached the Sealine, we had lost half of our ships. Most of the survived sailors were on the verge of a breakdown after sailing day and night. Only the 'Snow Wind' you created still had strength to move further, as we didn't need to adjust her sail or change her direction."

"So, just when everyone was desperate and about to give up, a huge monster suddenly leaped out of the water and attacked another monster. It looked like that the two monsters were biting each other. Although they were both monsters, the first one was much stronger than the second one. It soon ripped the other apart with his auxiliary limbs and tentacles that sprouted from its body. Then, all the Sea Ghosts and monsters stopped chasing us, as though they were spellbound. We thus got a chance to cross the Sealine and return to the Fjords."

Roland heaved a sigh and was also pretty shaken by the horrid story. "You were very lucky. It seemed that I got the right name for the ship."

"What does it have anything to do with the ship's name?"

"No, nothing," Roland said while waving his hand. "So, what's your plan next?"

Thunder, for the first time, looked a little weary. He said, "To be honest, many people are now too scared to have another undertaking. I don't really care much about the loss of the ships, but the sailors at the Fjords, who have been sailing for their whole life, go livid in fear when they look toward the east. I believe that nobody wants to sail out to the Shadow Waters again in a long time."

Roland fell silent. This was not totally unexpected. Like Thunder had said, one could predict storms and tsunamis and find a way to get away with them, but nobody would like to struggle to survive an irresistible force, as such a trip could no longer be called an adventure.

"Those big Chambers of Commerce asked me to deliver a message to you. They wish to buy a land at a high price in Graycastle where they can take refuge in the future," Thunder sighed. "After all, nobody knows whether the monsters will come back or not. The ocean is a natural barrier for a lot of Fjords people.However, if our enemies could roam the sea, then the whole Fjords Island would be in a very dangerous position with literally nothing to defend itself."

It was such a rapid change. Just one to two years ago, Roland had planned to use the Fjords Islands as the last retreat in case they were defeated in the war. Now, it appeared that the situation had reversed.

Had Roland still lived in Border Town with only an asset of 300 gold royals, he would have immediately given his consent. But now, as transactions were all carried out in the new paper currencies, the so-called "high price" became no longer attractive.

"What do you think?"

"If they plan to found a kingdom within a kingdom, then forget about it," Thunder replied while shrugging. "You won't allow "islands" like that in Graycastle."

Roland smiled. Thunder was indeed the most outstanding explorer in the Fjords. "If they only want to survive rather than gaining power, then Graycastle will always be open to them."

"I'll take your message to them, Your Majesty."

"You must be exhausted after this expedition. I have some afternoon tea. Please take a shower first and then tell me about your adventure. It'll take a few days to repair the 'Snow Wind'. You can stay here to recuperate and then head back to the Fjords."

"Thank you," Thunder said while placing his hand on his chest.

When Thunder was about to withdraw, Roland suddenly asked, "By the way, are you still planning... not to tell Lightning?"

"I ..." Thunder was at a loss for words for a second.

"You said you'd reveal your true identity to her after this expedition. Although the trip wasn't very successful, the Sky-sea Realm has indeed taken over half of the ocean. Fjords people are in a panic. It's likely that you won't go on a trip in a long time," Roland said as he propped up his chin. "And I need people to fight the demons. I think Lightning would like to see her father still alive. So, how about just staying here after you've taken care of your matters?"

Thunder lowered his head. After a moment of silence, he replied, "I'll think about it, Your Majesty."

Chapter 1265 - The Witches' Life

"Do you think he would stay?"

After Thunder's footsteps died away, Roland asked Nightingale.

"I don't know," Nightingale said slowly. "But he was serious about the last sentence he said."

Roland nodded in silence. Apart from Lightning, Roland wanted Thunder, the most extraordinary explorer in the Fjords, to stay also because of a personal reason, that was, Thunder could attract many Fjords people to Neverwinter, and he was the ideal man to command the fleet.

According to Agatha, the Red Mist probably had already permeated half of the Kingdom of Everwinter by now and might had also reached the border of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Under such circumstances, he had to carry out his rescue operation from the coast and attack the demons from sides. Judging from the battle at the Northernmost Port, he believed that a powerful fleet was absolutely necessary to alleviate the stress of the army.

Although there were many merchant ships traveling back and forth, it was impossible to rely on them to fight the demons in the area covered with the Red Mist. Roland could definitely build several large ships, but what he urgently needed were sailors and a commander.

If Thunder was willing to help him, all these problems could be instantly solved.

But Roland also knew that he could not force Thunder to stay. He would have to let him think it over.

Roland thus went back to his work. Suddenly, the telephone rang.

It was from the Witch Building in the Castle District.

"Hello?"

"Your Majesty, it's Wendy," Wendy's voice came from the other end of the line. "We found witches at the checkout at the Shallow Port."

...

"Sir, where are you taking us?"

Thylane asked gingerly while holding Momo's hand.

Not a long time ago, they had been waiting in the line like any other immigrants to pass the security. However, when they entered the registration area, they were taken to a heavily guarded room separately by the guards in black.

They immediately turned nervous.

They had heard that a few refugees had to go through a series of "special interrogation" when they entered some cities and would have to bribe the examining officers to avoid being punished.

However, the officer did not do anything but simply leave them alone in the room. He asked them a few strange questions and released them. After that, another man in black took them to the inner city.

"You don't have to be so nervous. My name is Joseph," the man in black said mildly. "You're witches, aren't you?"

Thylane was startled. She did not expect that Joseph would soon see through their true identities. She did not know how he had figured it out, for she thought that she was in heavy disguise.

"Why... did you say that?"

"I don't know anything about magic, but the witches told me," Joseph said while scratching the back of his head. "I know they use a special stone to detect magic power. As for where I'm taking you, I'm taking you to the witches' residential area, of course. You must be tired, right? Don't worry. Ms. Wendy will take good care of you."

Thylane and Momo exchanged surprised looks.

They were astonished that Neverwinter had so advanced technologies to detect witches. Had the church and the nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart also possessed such technologies, they would have been captured and killed years ago.

Also, it appeared that people in Neverwinter did not discriminate witches at all.

Their master had told them about this city in the far west of Graycastle as well as its ruler, Roland Wimbledon. They had also heard a lot of rumors before they had boarded the ship. Nevertheless, what they had heard from their master was very different from those rumors. Their master described the King of Graycastle as an arrogant and vile tyrant who hired witches to satisfy his own wicked desire, while people on the ship believed that witches were treated in the same way as ordinary people in Neverwinter.

That was the reason they had decided to move to the south.

As the Kingdom of Wolfheart was so far away from Graycastle, nobody knew what life in Neverwinter truly looked like. Therefore, they planned to conceal their witch identity and see what was going on first before taking the next move. They did not expect, however, that they were soon exposed.

Luckily, people here treated them just as normal residents.

When they reached the outer ring of the Castle District, a red-haired woman came up to them with two smiling little girls.

"I'll take it over from here."

"Yes, Ms. Wendy!" Joseph said and administered a salute. Then he waved at Thylane and Momo and quickly left.

Thylane started to study the woman named Wendy attentively.

"My name is Wendy. I'm the superintendent of the Witch Union of Neverwinter. These two are my assistants, Ring and Grayrabbit," Wendy said with a smile. "Can I have your names? Although from the list I have, I see that your names are Thylane and Momo, I do want you to pronounce your names in person."

Thylane instantly felt a lot at ease. It had been a long time since she had met such a nice person. To her, Wendy looked more like a noble than those true ones. She was mature and elegant, who reminded her of someone depicted in a portrait.

"I'm Thylane," she replied in a low voice.

"Momo," her companion also pronounced her own name.

"Good names," Wendy commented as she held the two witches' hands. "Welcome to Neverwinter. From now on, this will be your new home. Come. I'll show you around and take you where you're going to live in the future."

They passed the fence and the yard before Thylane noticed that the Lord's castle was actually not the highest building in the city. Behind that stood a more magnificent edifice. Between these two buildings lay a large, lovely garden carpeted with grass. Several beautiful ladies were chatting leisurely.

This was perhaps the dream life she had been longing for.

"Are they also... witches?" Momo asked involuntarily.

"Yes," Wendy said with a nod. "You'll see more when they're off work."

"Er... off work?"

"It means finishing working," Ring explained. "In Neverwinter, witches, like everybody else, have work to do every day."

"Then what about them..."

The little girl twiched her lips and said, "Like ordinary people, some are hard-working while some are lazy."

"Didn't your sister tell you that I have good hearing?" a girl with pointy ears said as she turned around and walked up to them smilingly.

"Ah... Lorgar, I was not talking about you," Ring explained while waving her hand. "I was talking about — "

"Hey, new members to the Union?" Another person joined the conversation as she ambled over. "Hello, I'm Mystery Moon, the captain of the Neverwinter Detective Group! Whatever ability you have, feel free to join us. How does it sound? Are you interested?"

"I was talking about her," Ring said as she covered her face in embarrassment.

"Really? Were you introducing me?" Mystery Moon said while resting her hands on her hips. "Remember, the Detective Group is dedicated to solving problems using your brain. If someone asks you to join the Exploration Group, please ignore them. They only want people with great physical strength and never take personal qualities into consideration. This wolf girl is a perfect example."

"Hey, do you want to have a taste of my fist?" Lorgar snarled while baring her teeth.

"Look, this is the proof!" Mystery Moon said as she hastily made an attempt to block Lorgar's upcoming attack.

"So embarrassing..."

"Well, can I go back to my reading?" some other witches murmured.

Thylane gaped.

It appeared that the life here was a little different than what she had pictured.

Chapter 1266 - The Past

Wendy stroked Thylane's head smilingly and said, "Believe it or not, Mystery Moon used to be even shyer than you."

"Ah — S-stop!" Mystery Moon begged. "This was something a long time ago."

"Really? I've never heard of them," Lorgar said while pricking up her ears.

"At that time, she always came to look for me after everybody fell asleep. There were so many interesting stories that it'll probably take me more than one day to — "

"Stop!" Mystery Moon yelled. "What's your condition, Sister Wendy?"

"Don't worry. I won't say anything... But Scroll complained to me yesterday that she has been so busy in the Administrative Office lately, and someone hasn't cleaned up the file room for a long time..."

"I'll go right away. We'll see each other again tonight! Now, please excuse the Detective Group!" Mystery Moon even blinked at the two new witches before she withdrew.

"That was boring," the wolf girl said while twitching her lips and crossed the yard with the others. "I'll go help her as well because I'm such a nice person."

Grayrabbit elbowed Ring after all the witches left and muttered, "I think Lorgar doesn't want to be labeled as a 'lazy' person, so she went to offer help."

"Er... really?"

Momo, however, at this point, burst into a laugh.

Thylane was a little surprised. The smile faded away instantly, but it was the first smile since Momo had escaped from her master.

"You'll like it here, although it can be a little too noisy sometimes. But you'll get used to it," Wendy explained gently. "Come, I'll show you your room."

Thylane was utterly astonished after the tour.

She had never imagined such a comfortable room. Although it was not spacious by any means, it was equipped with everything. Even the mattress was soft and clean. Thylane had seen a noble's bedroom before. In fact, although shackled, she had been staying in her master's bedroom for years. Nevertheless, the bed and the cotton fabrics here were far better than those in her master's room.

When Wendy urged her to try the bed, Thylane could not help sighing comfortably. She almost succumbed to the fatigue that had been constantly trying to take her over during the trip, and, for a second, she did not want to get up.

Momo also felt the same way.

Wendy explained that the mattress was supported by hundreds of springs, which was why it was so soft. No matter what your sleeping position was, the bed would be able to support your body perfectly.

Thylane did not know what a spring was, but she somehow understood that it was made of steel, a material normally used to make armors. She was not sure whether she should say this was a creative innovation or a pure waste of resources.

The mattress was just one of the amazing things here.

For example, water automatically came out from the tap.

The mirror in the bathroom reflected every single hair on her body.

There was soft anti-slippery floor.

The lamp was powered by magic.

Even the simplest wooden furniture looked somewhat different. Thylane did not know what made them different, but they were excellent. Compared to the noble's grand mansion, this room felt more like a "home".

Wendy said, "The Witch Building went through several refurbishments. In the past three years, many sisters helped with the renovations. Some of the technologies applied to the Witch Building are also applied to the Castle District and the new residential area. Of course, if you want to be the first person to experience the latest technologies, the Witch Building would be the best option."

"Can we really... live here?" Momo asked hesitantly.

"Yes, but you'll have to join the Witch Union first."

"Is it optional?" Thylane asked in surprise.

For a moment, Wendy looked sorrowful. "Because many of us suffered a lot in the Witch Cooperation Association. Well, let's not talk about this. Anyway, it's up to you. Do you remember the questions the officer asked you at the customs?"

Thylane nodded. At that time, only she and Momo had been taken to that room, so she had been nervous for quite a while.

"These questions are only put to witches. People who possess magic power can bring more damage than ordinary people if they have an ill will. Once they confirm that you pose no threat to Neverwinter, you can live anywhere in the city. In fact, apart from the Witch Union, there's also a similar organization called the Sleeping Spell, which was founded by escaped witches. The leader of this organization is King Roland Wimbledon's sister." Wendy paused for a second and then resumed, "Of course, you can also choose not to join any organizations and live on your own. I'll also help you settle down, in my own capacity, of course."

"But our abilities..."

"That isn't the point. The point is what life you want to live," Wendy said with a smile while shaking her head. "If you don't mind it, can you tell me your past?"

Thylane felt a warmth steal through her.

She felt that she could trust this red-haired woman.

Even if this was just an illusion, she did not want to walk away.

Perhaps, everything would disappear in the end, but now, she wanted to stay here a bit longer.

Thylane bit her lip and slowly divulged her past experience.

Before she had become a witch, she had been just the same as any person in the village. After she was awakened, like so many witches, she was banished, hated and persecuted. Just when she was about to give up, she heard about the Bloodfang Association and believed it might be somewhere she could settle down. Having a strong desire to seek protection, Thylane survived the relentless pursuit of the church and arrived at the Archduke Island where she contacted the agent of the Bloodfang Association.

She had never expected that what awaited her was an even more terrible disaster.

The Bloodfang Association not only turned her away but also sold her to a noble in the Kingdom of Wolfheart. In the next few years, she had been sold several times before she met her master, who used her ability as an entertainment. The "magic pill" could delay not only pain but also other emotions such as anxiety and pleasure.

Nevertheless, the pill could not eliminate pain or provide treatment. Once the effect of the drug faded away, the pain would all come back and become even more intense. If a person sustained serious injuries in the first place, the second wave of pain might be fatal.

Her previous master thus treated her simply as a plaything. He took her pill to indulge in more intense sensual pleasures. In addition to that, he also asked her to serve other nobles as a way to bond with them. This was how Thylane met Momo and some other witches betrayed by the Bloodfang Association.

It was not until that point that she realized that the so-called "home for witches" was a fraud jointly created by the Bloodfang Association and the nobles. It was easier to wait for witches to contact the association themselves than going out to seek them voluntarily. Later, to Thylane's great horror, fewer and fewer witches showed up in this "secret party" after the church invaded the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Finally, there were only her and Momo left.

Then she overheard from one noble that the church ordered the nobles to hand the witches over to the church or execute them in private, and she quavered at the various ways of execution.

Thylane thus decided to leave with Momo when the city descended to chaos caused by the Church of Hermes.

Their escaping method was to make the nobles overdose the "magic pill".

Chapter 1267 - The Invitation

The so-called "magic pill" would be only effective when the magic was injected into a physical pill. Thylane had never told these nobles that she could actually induce her power into any object. The reason she chose pills was that it was easy for her to control her power, but it also made the nobles forget about the true nature of her ability.

In that party, Thylane had applied her ability to all the food and drinks. This was the only situation where the nobles would put their guard down.

It then appeared that people could also die of extreme pleasure as they died of pain. By the time the nobles realized what had happened, it was too late. They fell to the ground while holding their chests painfully as their bodies spasmed. Even those who did not overdose were also seriously impaired, their strength gone, with a mesmerized and dreamy look on their faces as though they were enjoying the most blissful moment in their life.

The girl slaves in the room all fled in a fright, and the guards outside could not stop them. Thylane and Momo thus escaped from the mansion.

They hence commenced their arduous journey as refugees.

When they heard about the immigration campaign to Graycastle, the two witches decided to try their luck at the Sedimentation Bay.

"I see..." Wendy murmured as she pulled them to her bosom. "You must have suffered a lot. I promise it won't happen to you again."

"Don't... don't you despise us?" Thylane asked while biting her lip.

"Why so? Just because of your miserable past?" Wendy said quietly. "The church treated me like that too. I have no reason to blame the victims. Instead, it is those nobles that I should put blame on."

"But our abilities... may bring misfortunes to people," Thylane said while clenching her fists.

"That isn't up to you to decide."

"But once you take the pill, you'll never forget the sensation it has brought to you. You'd like more. In the end, you just want to indulge in the pleasure with no regards to anything else... If we stay, I'm afraid..."

"You fear that the king can't control it and will view you as demons?" Wendy said. "Rest assured. Our king... How should I phrase it? He isn't like any ordinary king. He's an eccentric but nice person."

Thylane was stunned for a moment and echoed, "An eccentric... but nice person?" This was the first time that someone used such words to describe a royal.

"It means that you'll never know what he's thinking. You can't view him as a normal person. Therefore, there's no point in worrying about the consequence now. Trust is the most important thing to build a relationship," Wendy said. Her voice suddenly became extremely soft. "He also saved the witches from the Witch Cooperation Association in this way."

After a moment of silence, Wendy looked toward Momo and asked, "You said 'our' abilities. Does Momo also — "

This time, the two witches hesitated for a long time before Momo spoke, "My previous master didn't want me to use my power, so he took away my magic eye after I was awakened."

Wendy had noticed that Momo had covered half of her forehead with a dirty rag. She had thought that it was a branding scar underneath, but the truth was indeed much worse than she had expected.

Momo then took off the cloth and revealed her hollow socket.

"But they don't know that I still have my power. By removing my eye, I only lost half of my vision. Only the God's Locket of Retribution can completely block my power."

Wendy heaved a sigh. Only Extraordinaries could integrate their magic power with physical bodies. Momo was definitely not an Extraordinary. The presentation of her ability was through her "vision", so the loss of her eye was just unfortunate collateral damage.

"Those nobles didn't really take Momo's ability seriously at first until something happened. Then her master removed her eye," Thylane said in a low voice. "They called Momo the Child of Hell and inflicted various punishments on her. She barely survived."

Wendy caressed Momo's scarred socket and said, "What did you see exactly? Could you tell me?"

Momo lowered her head and answered, "... A number."

"What?"

"A countdown number that tells when you'll die."

It took Wendy a while to understand the implication behind it. She gasped.

"The incident Thylane mentioned — "

Momo nodded and said, "My prediction became true. The noble labeled with the number one died the next year."

Wendy fell silent.

She now understood why those nobles had done such horrible things to her. Nobody would like to know when they would die beforehand, especially when they had only a few years to live. Even Momo herself would not want to know that answer.

"But... is the prediction really so accurate?" Wendy questioned after a moment of reflection. "Anything could happen."

The two witches were both mildly taken aback.

"What's the matter? Did I say something wrong?"

"No..." Thylane said while waving her hand. "I just feel... that you're quite different from others. I didn't expect that you would first ask about our abilities."

"Hmm, so, what did you expect?"

Thylane replied in embarrassment, "You'd push Momo away and ask her whether she has used her ability. Then you'd drive us out of the castle and order us to stay as far away as possible."

Wendy burst into laughter and said, "You can't judge a person by her ability. The key lies in the person who uses it. The more we know about the ability, the better we can use it in the future."

"Do you think... that my ability will also be useful?" Momo asked in disbelief.

"I don't know, but His Majesty once told me that every ability is useful, only it takes time for some abilities."

Momo remained motionless for a long time before she said slowly, "I can't predict accidents. I once saw animals still have many years to live before they were slaughtered. However..."

"What?" Wendy pursued.

"Some of the numbers have different colors... I don't know what they represent for, but I have a feeling that they're telling me something."

"If you join the Witch Union, you'll probably soon know the reason. Every newcomer should learn and practice their abilities first. Then they'll have to do various tests. Only when they know well enough about their abilities can they upgrade."

"Upgrade?" Thylane asked in confusion.

"You'll see later. The awakening is just the beginning. You'll have a lot to learn," Wendy said while extending out her hands. "How does it sound? Did you make your decisions?"

Thylane and Momo looked at each other.

"If you can accept someone like us..."

"Then we'd like to join the Witch Union."

Momo and Thylane also reached out their hands, slowly, tentatively and hopefully, and then held Wendy's hands.

Chapter 1268 - Party

"Welcome our new members! Cheers!"

A long table was placed in the yard before the Witch Building in the evening, and a raucous party began. Wendy and Scroll made toasts and drank for the two new witches.

"Cheers!" all the other witches rejoined.

Thylane and Momo raised their glasses in bewilderment.

Thylane had not expected that Wendy would immediately force her to have a hot shower after she joined the Witch Union. She put on new clothes, including underwear, socks and shoes. Before she could thank Wendy and confirm that everything she had experienced today was real, she was again taken back to the yard. This time, however, the back yard had looked completely different.

"You should say 'cheers' and drain your glass," Lorgar said as she showed Thylane what to do. "Like this..."

"Ch-cheers," Thylane imitated a little clumsily. She closed her eyes and raised the glass.

A loud wave of applause broker over the back yard.

Someone even whistled in the crowd.

"Lorgar is pushing people to drink again," Lily said while twitching her lips. "Who says that you must drain the glass at one shot? I think she just likes revelries."

"But this is the strawberry white wine brewed by Evelyn. I'm impressed that the new girl can actually compete against the wolf girl," Mystery Moon said while clicking her tongue. "She must join the Detective Group."

"That's why all your team members are drunkards and lazybones. A perfect match for you."

"You're a member too!" Mystery Moon returned while sticking out one finger.

"I — I'm not! You still owe me ￥10!"

"Forget about it. Let's scrach it out and start all over again."

"Stay away from me!"

Thylane burped loudly. After finishing one whole bottle of wine, her vision blurred. She had been forced to drink with nobles in the past, but no wine was as spicy as this one. The wine was not bitter at all. Instead, it was mellow and much more tasty than ales.

But the biggest difference did not lie in the wine but in her current feeling.

Watching the wolf girl refill her glass in excitement and the laughing witches around her, Thylane, for the first time in her life, found that drinking did not necessarily have to be painful. She wanted to join the others and relax herself.

Just at that moment, a tall lady walked up to her with a glass in her hand.

"Welcome to Neverwinter. My name is Annie, also from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. I also went to seek the Bloodfang Association for protection."

Momentarily stunned, Thylane asked, "You were also sold by the Bloodfang Association?"

"Yes, but I escaped in the end. Many witches traveled from the Kingdom of Wolfheart to Graycastle. For example, this one..." With these words, she pushed one witch who looked pretty shy to the front. "This is Iffy. She used to be a member of the Bloodfang Association, but she didn't know that Heidi Morgan was selling witches at that time. Fortunately, the association is now over."

It took Thylane a while to learn how the Bloodfang Association had been founded. It appeared there were also many other witches like her and Momo who had been forced to travel to Graycastle because of the betrayal by Heidi Morgan. The abhorrent Bloodfang Association had, in fact, been disbanded two years ago.

At these words, Thylane felt profoundly relieved.

On their way here, Thylane and Momo had had numerous nightmares where they had been caught by the Bloodfang Association and sent back to the nobles. Now, hearing that this organization was gone, they did not need to worry about it anymore.

"Sorry," Iffy said while lowering her head. "If I could stop Heidi back then, nothing like this would have happened..."

"This isn't your fault," Momo said while shaking her head. "Even if you tried to stop her, you couldn't stop those nobles."

"Exactly. It doesn't matter whether the leader was a witch or not. If not Heidi, someone else would have also done it," Thylane agreed. She knew perfectly well how avarious people were. Once they benefited from the deal, they would not easily let it go.

"See? I told you that they wouldn't blame you," Annie said smilingly. "Now you're in Neverwinter. Don't hesitate to let me know if you encounter any problems. Even Iffy has no problem in living here. She's pretty slow at many things. I think you'll be just fine."

"Cheers," Annie said while raising her glass.

"Cheers," Thylane returned quickly.

"It's my turn now!" Lorgar exclaimed, a rosy flush on her cheeks.

"Don't forget about me!" Lightning rejoined. "I've come of age and can drink now!"

"Coo, coo, coo!"

"No, you can't. Pigeons can't drink."

"Coo?!"

"Oi, eat something with the wine."

"Nana, you haven't come of age, so don't follow them!"

The back yard was filled with laughter.

"It has been a long time since we had new members. Now we suddenly have two. It appears that everyone is excited," Scroll commented at the end of the long table.

"I did the right thing to show them the Witch Building. Now I gradually understand why His Majesty did that," Wendy said with a smile. "Even if they first contacted the Sleeping Spell, I would also have a way to win them over. His Majesty calls it sugarcoated... something along that line."

"You're more and more like a leader," Scroll joked. "I remember at first, you found it hard to manage. Now, you even intend to compete with Princess Tilly."

"It's an analogy. You were a leader back in the Witch Cooperation Association, so you have experience," Wendy said while pouring herself a glass of Chaos Drinks. "But to be honest, I'll never be tired of this kind of party."

"Unfortunately, we can't join them," Scroll said, shrugging.

"I don't mind it at all. I would like to always protect and guard them, if possible," Wendy said quietly.

Both of them became silent. They watched the noisy witches while savoring the delicious food. For them, they did not necessarily have to talk to understand each other, for they had been working together for years.

Then, suddenly, a familiar voice said to them, "His Majesty wants to see the witch called Momo after the party."

Nightingale revealed herself from the Mist.

Wendy immediately understood Roland. Her smile instantly faded away. "Well..."

"Take her to him," Scroll spoke. "You knew this would happen when you wrote down her ability. His Majesty is always the most curious one among us."

After a moment of silence, Wendy replied, "Alright."

"If you don't want to know the answer, you can leave now. I think His Majesty will understand." Scroll paused for a second and then went on, "Whatever that answer is, we'll always support him, right?"

"... Yes," Wendy confirmed to Scroll as much as to herself. "Whatever that answer is."

Chapter 1269 - The Eye of Time

After the glitters of lights in the back yard went out, Roland met the witch Wendy had mentioned in her report.

She looked pretty young and extremely thin, around 16 to 17 years old at most. Apparently, she did not eat well. Although she had already taken a shower, her tawny hair was straggly and unkempt. What caught Roland's attention was the black eye mask over her face. Although she had already put on a new one, the eye mask did not really sit well on her face.

"Your Majesty, this is Momo," Wendy introduced.

Wendy's words jerked the girl out of the trance, who scrambled to kneel down and bowed even lower. "Your, Your Majesty..."

"Please help her up," Roland said as he put down the drawing and said mildly, "Don't be nervous. It's not a formal meeting or anything. I just want to see your ability."

Momo looked frightened as she straightened up. "Your Majesty... I'm afraid..."

"I know. Not everyone will be satisfied when they know when they'll die. Some people will even take it on you after they know the answer," Roland comforted. "But I just want to know when that is. No matter what the result is, I won't blame you. I promise."

Normally, he should have seen Momo after Wendy tested her ability. However, as Momo's ability was so special, he could not help. His curiosity was too strong to overcome. In fact, after the Battle of Soul against Zero, there remained a suspicion in Roland's mind that he could not confirm.

But now, he finally had an opportunity to do so.

"Your Majesty..." Momo replied through clenched teeth. "Aren't you... not scared at all?"

Roland knew he would have never thought about when he would die in the past because he had believed such a question was meaningless. Knowing how long he could live would only create unnecessary fear and worries. However, as he was now the king of the state, he felt great responsibility be placed on his shoulders. He had to think further. If Wendy's report was accurate, the date of his own death could be very useful information. It might be viewed as a "top secret" that would not be so easily divulged in his previous world. He would thus feel very regretted if he did not obtain this information when provided with such an opportunity.

Roland smiled. He knew Momo would not understand his thought, so he said, "Even if I'm scared, the answer is still there."

Momo clenched her fists. After what seemed to be quite a long hesitation, she replied, "Since you insist, then please excuse my impertinence."

"Your Majesty," Wendy said after taking a deep breath. "Please excuse me."

Roland stared at her for a moment before he said, "... I thought you and Scroll wanted to know it more than anyone else."

"I can't be that calm like you. However, like Scroll said, whatever the result is, we'll always be with you."

After Wendy shut the door, Roland turned around and asked, "What about you?"

Momo was stunned.

"Do I have to answer?" Nightingale said, whose sudden appearance really startled the little girl. "I want to know everything about you, both good and bad."

Roland was amused by the big difference between Nightingale and Wendy. "So, let's begin."

Momo's eyes shoveled from Nightingale to Roland in surprise and then took off her eye mask decisively.

When she looked up again, a jet of red flash appeared in her socket.

It was an eyeball made of magic, which looked extremely creepy against the scarred face. Roland could imagine what it looked like when her real eye overlapped with the magic eye. People in his previous world must like this type of strange pupil very much. However, in this era, it would be only viewed as the eye of devil.

"Any luck? Did you see anything?"

Momo looked toward Roland, and her eyes widened. The red flash quavered as though swaying in invisible wind. In a few seconds, the flash was extinguished. She stepped a few paces back and slumped onto the floor.

Roland noticed perspiration on Momo's face.

"What's the matter?" he asked as he stood up.

Nightingale strode over to Momo and helped her up. "She lost too much power."

"Can she only inspect one person at a time?"

"No... I've never seen such things before," Momo said, panting. "I saw a lot of numbers flicker but they all disappeared. They were in various colors... It took a while for them to finally stabilize."

"What's that number?" Roland asked.

Momo swallowed hard and replied with some difficulties, "17... It's red."

"How come?" Nightinagle asked in surprise.

Roland's heart skipped a beat. Just like he had speculated, the winner of the Battle of Soul could obtain everything, provided that the winner possessed magic. Only magic could increase his lifespan and afford him power. Extraordinaries and huge demonic beast hybrids all relied on magic to sustain their physical bodies. Without magic power, he would not benefit anything from the victory of the battle.

17 years was a lot shorter than Roland had thought. Although he knew the old Prince Roland did not have a strong physique, he had not expected that the latter would be that weak. Had years of debauched life consumed him?

"Maybe... I should take another look," Momo said as she struggled to rise.

"No, that's fine. Please go take a rest," Roland said while waving his hand. "You'll faint if you overuse your power. Plus, we haven't figured out how your power functions. There's no point in taking another look."

"But Your Majesty..."

"I told you that I just wanted an answer. You don't need to blame yourself," Roland talked over her decisively. "Have a good rest. From tomorrow onwards, Wendy will start to test your ability and teach you how to control your power. If I want you to take another look, we can do it later. Also, can you keep this just between us?"

Momo stared at Roland for a long time, still quite astonished, and then nodded vigorously.

After the girl left with Wendy, Nightingale returned to the office and walked up to Roland who was standing before the French window.

"Do you regret knowing it?" Roland asked while turning around.

"Are you kidding me?" Nightingale returned gruffly. "I never regret. Now, what are you going to do? You only have 17 years left."

"It's better to know it now than later. Plus, this is probably not the final result yet," Roland said while watching the flickers of lights outside. He found himself strangely calm and peaceful. "The soul container from Taquila may be able to retain minds. Once we figure out how magic power works in general, we can probably even build a new body in the future."

"But there should be a 'future' in the first place," Nightingale said, frowning.

"That's right. Therefore, the first thing we should do is to win the Battle of Divine Will," Roland said slowly.

He currently had no retreat anymore.

Chapter 1270 - A Battle at the Front

In the king's city, City of Tusk, in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

This city, which had been ravaged by the church, had yet to fully recover. From above, the outer city still lay in ruins. Nevertheless, compared to the Broken Tooth Castle that had been completely destroyed by the demonic plague, the outer part of the city looked much better. At least, there were not piles of decaying human remains down the wells and drainage facilities.

Just a few months ago, this place had still been under the ruling of the Tusk Family, a branch of the royal family of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Iron Axe had initially planned to evacuate the towns and villages before he dealt with the nobles. As such, he had not interfered with the relentless battles between the Tusk, Token and Redstone Gates Families immediately. However, the sudden appearance of the Red Mist forced him to adjust his original plan. As the Tusk City was the central city that connected the south and north of the kingdom, he had to seize it to let the troops retreating from the Kingdom of Everwinter through.

It was a fairly quick and boring battle. Even without the support of the Longsong Cannon, the five temporary units, which totalled 500 soldiers, soon breached the well-fortified Tusk Castle and the Tusk City with the mortars and the anti-demon grenades. The local lord, Hilburke, was shot dead when he was supervising his army. The city thus fell even before the nobles launched a proper counterattack. The other nobles thus all surrendered, which officially ended the dominance of the three major families in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

As a commander who had been following Roland since the first battle in Border Town, Iron Axe knew the military strength of Neverwinter better than anyone else. Five years ago, they had still been struggling to defeat the Longsong Duke; but now, the First Army could flatten any kingdom on this continent on His Majesty's order.

They had far outstripped those nobles.

However, this did not give Iron Axe any self-contentment, nor did it relax his mind.

He understood the unbridgeable gap between the human race and the demons.

As the Red Mist continued to spread, the First Army was forced to constantly retreat from the Kingdom of Everwinter to the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Casualties increased every day. As the army was not able to build a permanent defensive line, the units were often caught unprepared by the enemies. Intelligence showed that the demons frequently appeared on the path that the troops had to pass, despite that they had confirmed several times beforehand that the road was clear.

The constant defeats would definitely lower the morale among the soldiers. Iron Axe knew that he should have directed the army to the Cage Mountain and given the troops a good rest. However, His Majesty's order superseded everything. As the king needed people, he had no choice but to keep advancing despite the surging casualty rate.

There was no other way except fighting back.

They had to punch the demons in their ugly faces! Only in this way could they shake them off and raise the morale.

Iron Axe thus picked the Tusk City as his temporary stronghold.

"The demons are putting their guard down," Brian reported as he looked through the telescope. He had returned from the Southernmost Region to the Sedimentation Bay on Roland's order with 1,500 Mojin warriors. This was also the first formal Sand Nation army in the history of Graycastle.

"They started to put their guard down at the border the Kingdom of Everwinter," Iron Axe agreed with a nod. "Edith was right. Erecting the Obelisk on the ridge of the continent can be both good and bad. Although the ridge is a perfect hiding place, the demons can't easily march down to the south from there."

He could see dark, crimson clouds spread across the sky as he gazed upon the north from the watchtower of the castle. The Red Mist had already crossed the border of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and was now pressing slowly toward the Tusk City.

Right below the clouds was Goldwater Town, which had been half enveloped by the Red Mist. Nevertheless, surprisingly, Iron Axe did not see a single Fortress-like Monstrous Beast. Only very few Devilbeasts were hovering in the sky, as though they had been completely abandoned by their peers.

This would have never happened at the early stage of the war.

After several fruitless fights, the General Staff had formed a basic idea of what the demons were planning on.

The intention of their military operation was, in a way, the same as His Majesty's, which was to take more populated cities and have the men there serve them. Therefore, the demons were making every effort to stop the First Army from taking refugees away.

To seize men's territories as fast as they could, the demons normally used the Fortress-like Monstrous Beast to circle out a small Red Mist zone to enable their troops move from one area to another swiftly like frogs, and then attack the city before the Red Mist completely spread out.

By the time the demons took most of the cities in the Kingdom of Everwinter, they had advanced significantly slower. This indicated that as their territories expanded, the demons found it increasingly hard to manage the cities they had taken.

It was actually pretty easy to understand why it had happened.

It took time to force men to work and manage encampments. As the territories expanded, the demons' troops were further scattered. Another key factor was that the demons did not really need to send their main force to attack humans. With sufficient Red Mist, they just needed to dispatch a unit to destroy one unit of the First Army. It was thus totally unnecessary to assemble a large army.

Given that, after the demons reached the border of the Kingdom of Everwinter, there were fewer attacks from them. Perhaps, the demons did not necessarily reduce their total force. However, as the Red Mist had expanded significantly and stretched away for several hundred kilometers, it was almost impossible to monitor the whole area without increasing the force.

This was exactly what Iron Axe had observed.

"Sir, all the 'supplies' shipped from Neverwinter have arrived at the Tusk City," a soldier ran up to the watchtower and reported.

"Finally!" Iron Axe exclaimed in excitement as he turned around to face Brian and said, "Let's go take a look."

They thus walked out of the castle and saw several hundred iron barrels at a clearing in front of the city gate. These barrels were round, about half as tall as a man, one cubit in width, without a single crack on the surface.

"Sir, what are they?" Brian asked as he studied the barrels up and down, looking utterly confused. They did not look like regular containers since there were no handles. They did not look like weapons either. Numerous battles had told him that fixed explosives were far less powerful than cannons. It was a little too unrealistic to use these barrels to fight the demons off.

Brian pushed the barrels but they did not budge at all. Apparently, these barrels were filled with something. Nobody would like to spend time and effort shipping hundreds of heavy iron barrels to the front unless they were extremely important.

"This is His Majesty's new invention. You were still in the Southernmost Region helping His Majesty expand his territory when they were being tested, so naturally you don't know," Iron Axe replied smilingly. " These barrels will be the key to this battle. If they really work as perfectly as they did in the test, we would then be able to catch the demons off guard even in a mobile warfare!"

Chapter 1271 - The Fiery Sky

Jodel was observing the Tusk City through a peephole of a deserted house in the Tusk Castle. Due to the difference in elevation, he could only spy a small area outside the city gate. This would be the first stronghold they had to seize after the battle broke out.

In this operation, Mojins would advance first.

This did not mean, however, that Brian thought Mojins were disposable. In fact, they had earned this opportunity.

The general rule in the Southernmost Region was to prove oneself through power and strength, and attain resources through victories.

Jodel was from a small clan in the oasis. As the Silver Stream Oasis gradually shrank, his clan was on the brink of extinction. That was the reason that he had risked himself dealing with northerners in the first place. But now, all the clansmen had relocated to the Port of Clearwater, the permanent oasis that they had dreamed about. It was a reward from the chief for the victory of the battle against the Wildwave and Cut Bone clans.

Jodel requested to join this battle simply because he wanted to kill as many enemies as possible in exchange for greater rewards. He did not really care about who the enemies were. Fighting demons was actually better than living in fear of hunger, thirst, and uncertainty of the future.

Jodel believed that most Sand Nationals had the same feeling.

"Did you find anything?" someone asked him from behind.

"No, except that the Red Mist gets thicker. I can't see anything," Jodel said as he blocked the peephole quietly and turned around.

The one who put a question was Farry, the youngest soldier in the unit. Even his gun was taller than him. A deep scar ran the length of his face from his forehead all the way to the corner of his mouth, making his young face look a little grotesque. Jodel remembered his outstanding performance during the training, despite his young age. Even some of the most experienced warriors found it hard to beat him.

Jodel was surprised that Farry had yet to make a name for himself in the small oasis. He had actually never heard of him before.

"We've been waiting for two weeks, right?" Farry complained. "It's so boring getting stuck here with hundreds of people."

"Didn't Sir Brian say that the demons have flying Devilbeasts? In order not to attract the demons' attention, we have to wait," Jodel answered. "Haven't you hunted before? It's common for us to wait for half a month to ambush a sandworm. Be patient."

According to the operation plan, Iron Axe had sent around 2,000 people to the northern part of the Broken Tooth Castle where these soldiers dispersed and hid themselves. Another 1,000 soldiers were sent to the inner city in the south as a reserve unit. Their hiding spot looked no different than a ruin from outside, but the inside was pretty spacious. Its upper level was used for scouting while the lower level served as a temporary residence. Soldiers were supplied with water and food. Bedrooms and washrooms were separated. Although there was, inevitably, some odor, it was much more sanitary than where they had lived during the hunting event.

Jodel did not quite understand why Farry suddenly started to complain.

"You don't understand," Farry returned hesitantly as he glared at Jodel and slumped against the wall. "What do you think these iron barrels are used for? The demons have come, but they haven't done anything but digging and burying."

"I have no idea... but it's the chief's invention. I'm not surprised."

He had seen too many marvelous tools and weapons in the past one year.

"I hope this isn't a new Pill of Madness," Farry muttered.

Jodel had heard of the Pill of Madness before. He was about to ask Farry for more details when someone poked his head out from below and said, "We've got a message from the rear. We're going to launch an attack soon. Get yourselves prepared."

Farry let out a deep sigh and said, "Finally we can do something. I'll go right away."

Jodel was more cautious. He asked, "What's the signal? Is it what we've planned?"

"That's right," the same person replied to him. "When you hear the explosion, advance."

"It's about the time," Iron Axe said as he put down the telescope and turned around. "Now, connect it to the power."

"Yes, sir!" two soldiers from the explosion unit shouted and immediately began to operate the hand crank generator. The third soldier put his hand on the lever.

It was finally the time to test out what they had been preparing and planning for such a long time. The Red Mist had already spread throughout the entire king's city of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. If the First Army continued to retreat, the demons would soon seize the Broken Tooth Castle eventually. Like the king's city of Graycastle and Silver City, the king's city of the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Broken Tooth Castle were also adjacent to each other. The Broken Tooth Castle formed a natural barrier for the Tusk City. It was said that the king's city would remain intact as long as the Broken Tooth Castle did not fell. However, at the moment, they had to use the Broken Tooth Castle to give the demons who had occupied the Tusk City a heavy blow.

Iron Axe had noticed that all the demons were equipped with a breathing device, which was quite a burden for them. Except for the Mad Demons that were pursuing the refugees, the other demons pretty much confined their activities to the area permeated with the Red Mist.

This gave the First Army a great opportunity to launch a counterattack.

"Sir, the explosion unit is ready!"

Iron Axe ordered heavily, "Ignite the explosives!"

As the soldier pressed the lever, a jet of dazzling red flash suddenly rose into the air above the northern part of the Broken Tooth Castle. More than 500 iron barrels were ignited at the same time. Golden flames lit the sky and the king's city.

Everyone heard the ringing explosion.

However, this was just the beginning.

The barrels actually contained the slimes of the rubber worms created by Kyle, mixed with inflammable oil and accelerants such as powdered aluminum and magnesium. The mixture itself was not hazardous when it was solid, but when they were sent into the air and spread out like a mist, the slimes would become fatal. As the slimes were immediately burned off, the reaction resembled an explosion. In a split second, the air around the explosives was heated up to nearly 1,000 degrees, and the expanded air currents further inflamed the fire.

Just at that moment, the chain reaction occurred.

The explosives should have showered down at the ground. However, as the temperature exceeded the absolute threshold, the explosives continued to spread out like red orangey lightning and formed a giant net above the city. The flames, amazingly, started to move onwards!

Iron Axe was also shocked by this incredible scene. Then he suddenly came to the realization that the fiery rain had ignited the Red Mist. In an instant, the rapidly spreading red "lightning" infiltrated the air, and the giant net had now transformed into a massive shade!

After that, there was a more intense explosion.

The fiery shade suddenly broke as a gigantic fireball soared into the sky like a hatched fiery bird.

The sound produced by the fireball was much louder than the previous blast created by the iron barrels.

Iron Axe even saw that the air around the king's city distort.

The earth began to quaver!

Chapter 1272 - Beneath the Flames

As soon as he heard the first explosion, Jodel and his unit filed out of their hiding place according to the instruction.

However, no sooner had they trooped out than an ear-splitting boom came from the north. Dust was stirred up, and they almost fell as the ground shook violently.

Jodel managed to steady himself and looked toward the Tusk City in surprise. As he was standing on the lower land, he could only spy an orange fireball punch the air as thick smoke spiraled up. The Red Mist around the fireball was lit up, and the sky was aflame.

The Sand Nationals looked horrified.

They could only think of one phrase at this moment: the wrath of the Three Gods!

"Don't be afraid," Jodel yelled through clenched teeth and waved his arm. "This is a weapon created by the chief to fight the demons! It's the demons that should be scared not us!"

His words jerked everyone out of the trance.

"That's right. This is Heaven's fire summoned by the chief!"

"Don't just stop there. Move!"

The unit resumed to run. People came out from behind the wall, the windows and the collapsed houses. They soon joined the advance team and swarmed toward the Tusk City like a tidal wave.

Jodel was running at the very front of the unit.

Although he had completely submitted to the chief's ruling, he still believed that Sand Nationals were more suitable to fight than northerners, especially for warriors from small clans like him who had grown up in a barren oasis and been used to struggling to live. He could use not only bows and swords but also flintlocks. After receiving further training from Brian, he could now shoot fixed targets accurately and also fire on the go.

This was a perfect time for him to demonstrate his power.

He not only wanted to be the first one that entered the city but also the first person to gain the victory.

He wanted his name to be remembered by the entire army!

However, when the troops ascended and gained the city wall of the Tusk City, a smothering heat wave greeted them. For a second, Jodel thought he had returned to the desert blazed in the summer sunlight in the Southernmost Region.

His skin was basking in the burning air, and he could hardly open his eyes.

Neither could the soldiers following him.

The whole unit was thwarted by an invisible wall and slowed down. Some northerners at the front even retreated in embarrassment and crouched down below the slope, in an attempt to protect themselves from the heat.

Jodel forced himself to march forward, but he immediately realized that something had gone wrong.

The fireball in the air was extinguished. A thin strand of smoke was still coiling. The thick veil of the Red Mist was now missing one corner, as though a giant beast had bitten it off. There was thus one blank area in the sky free of the Red Mist.

Through the wide open city gates, Jodel saw heat waves rolling at the end of the horizon, and the buildings on the ground looked distorted after the impact. The wooden houses all collapsed during the explosion, their blackened pillars sprouting out like the devil's claws. The demons, however, did not come up to stop them or disperse in various directions. In fact, there was not a single demon in his view.

Jodel suddenly felt it hard to breathe in the scorching heat, and his body started to protest. His step became increasingly heavy.

"Darn. Why do I suddenly get so weak?"

The city wall was within his reach, but in a second, he lost all his power, and his vision blurred.

Jodel stumbled and then fell to the ground.

That last thing he saw was the contemptuous look on Farry's face as the latter dragged him out of the way.

This battle exceeded Iron Axe and the General Staff's expectation.

They had expected that the north of the king's city of the Kingdom of Wolfheartwould be ablaze. The flames would have not only burned all the houses but also the Red Mist outside the city. Then the Tusk City would have been isolated temporarily, and the demons without the breathing device would have been in a panic.

After that, the ambush unit should have raided the demons and finished the rest of the enemies off. Although Iron Axe did not know how many demons there would be, based on the past intelligence, the demons would normally assign troops according to the population of the city. The demons definitely knew that the Tusk City had been evacuated. Therefore, during the first few days after the appearance of the Red Mist, the number of the demons should have been no more than 500. In other words, the First Army should have gained a very advantageous position in terms of number and strength.

Nevertheless, they were not relying on this battle to eliminate the demons, for the soldiers had to hide themselves in the underground passages and ruins to avoid the scrutiny of the Devilbeasts. As such, they could not use any heavy weapons. It was not hard to suppress the demons with the rifles and the anti-demon grenades, but it was difficult to pursue them with only light weapons.

The main goal of this battle was to lower the demons' morale and make them realize that human beings could fight back even while they were retreating. In this way, the army would be able to alleviate the stress of the retreating unit.

Nevertheless, the battle simply ended after the explosion.

The fire wall did not appear as planned. Instead, the heat waves as a result of the earth-shaking explosion barred the ambush unit from entering the king's city. Many soldiers were burned and had even passed out. As such, it was impossible for them to continue with the operation.

Of course, it did not necessarily mean that they had failed. They could easily imagine what the inner city looked like judging from the heated air outside.

No written records had shown that demons had a higher tolerance to heat than men.

The only thing that Iron Axe felt regretted about was that he could not see the outcome of the battle at the front in person. As he had no idea when the temperature in the city would drop, he had to leave to avoid getting burned.

"Sir, all the troops except us have withdrawn from the Broken Tooth Castle," Brian said as he walked out of the headquarters in excitement. He had not participated in the test of the new weapon, but he would remember what it had done in this battle for the rest of his life.

"Very well. Let's retreat," Iron Axe said while nodding. "I think it won't be long before the demons notice us. It won't be so easy to escape when they come after us."

Just as Iron Axe had predicted, the next day, a demon unit arrived at the Tusk City on the Devilbeasts, the leader of which was none other than the Sky Lord, Hackzord.

Chapter 1273 - The Demons' Guile

20 hours later, Hackzord received a report saying a fireball blasted in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, which caused substantial damage to the supply unit. At that time, he was still in a city in the west of the Kingdom of Everwinter, whose lord had just pledged allegiance to him.

To be honest, Hackzord did not really want to deal with such a trifle. However, the report stressed that the explosion was exceptionally powerful. He thus decided to come to take a look in person.

Hackzord dreaded dealing with human beings, but he was the only one capable of this job at the Western Front. Not everyone was as smart as Ursrook who would like to learn various things, even though they appeared to be useless. Most of the Upgraded viewed humans as low lives and certainly would not invest their time in learning their language.

His commanders were very loyal to him and were all outstanding warriors. However, they also despised the mankind. They would have probably ripped men apart had he sent them to negotiate with human beings.

Nevertheless, men were submissive and meek animals. Although they were weak, they were somewhat clever. Hence, they could replace many Inferior Demons at the early stage of the war. It was, therefore, not advisable to exterminate them immediately.

This was actually all Valkries' fault.

She should have been the perfect Senior Lord to communicate with human beings, but she wasted her time in the Red Mist Pond. Hackzord felt that his patience was running out.

When he arrived at the Tusk City, however, he immediately realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

The Red Mist was extremely thin as though it had been wiped off the sky. The city had been devastated. Remains of houses and blackened wooden frames could be seen everywhere.

As he dropped, Hackzord felt the high temperature and greeted a pungent smell.

He soon discovered where that smell came from.

A group of strange Inferior Demons curled themselves up on the street, their burned skins peeling off. Apparently, they had died in the fire. What puzzled Hackzord was that there were no visible signs of combustible materials around them, apart from some bricks and mud. Hackzord did not know how the fire had started.

He saw more than one burned Inferior Demon.

"Totolock, take ten people with you and search for the human army. Report to me immediately after you find them."

"Yes, master."

"Siacis, look into this matter and see if there's anyone still alive."

"Yes, sir."

The two Upgraded soon heeded his order. Hackzord strolled along the street toward the northern area where his army sustained the greatest damage.

According to the report, one supply unit comprised of Inferior Demons was attacked. These poor Inferior Demons, who had never had a chance to upgrade themselves, were pretty much like laborers and slaves in the human society. At that time, they were shipping obsidian and a secondary Red Mist Pond to the Tusk City, for the purpose of building a campsite for the Junior Demons and the Upgraded.

From the remains at the scene and the scattered obsidian, it was obvious that the Inferior Demons suffered the blow while they were working, for some of them still stayed in the last position when they died. The fact that there was no sign of a fight indicated that human beings had not confronted the supply unit directly. The explosion had ended as quickly and unexpectedly as they had occurred.

Hackzord thereby judged that this was a trap of the enemies rather than the work of an organized army under the scrutiny of the Bogle Beasts. Totolock might not find anything during this search.

This fact made Hackzord feel increasingly uneasy. He would rather see the human army swarm toward him than hiding in the dark. He did not really care about those Inferior Demons, but he could not accept any failure at the Western Front. If the main force encountered a trap like this, the result could be disastrous.

Without a doubt, human beings, once again, used "fire" as their weapon. Hackzord was familiar with fire. In the past Battles of Divine Will, they had also used fire to attack the cities occupied by the human race. They rarely used it simply because the Red Mist could easily get burned at a high temperature.

But it was his first time seeing self-combustible fire.

Unless the whole city had become a furnace.

But how could it be possible?

If the mankind had the ability to achieve such an incredible transformation, he must inform the king of the potential danger at the Western Front.

"Hang on... Fire?"

An image suddenly flashed across Hackzord's mind. It was an image he had captured when he had been searching for Kabradhabi's memories in the Realm of Mind. A bright fireball blasted in the air like the rising sun.

Was this weapon what Kabradhabi had seen?

Hackzord shuddered involuntarily.

While he was lost in thought, Siacis' voice came to him suddenly, "Sir, I've figured out what happened. There were 350 Inferior Demons in the supply unit and around 10 Primal Demons that guarded them. I haven't found anyone that survived, but I think I know how those low lives did that."

"Really? Then tell me."

"Please follow me."

Hackzord thus followed Siacis to the northern city wall where some Primal Demons were digging something. Around them lay a few black metal fragments. A little farther on, Hackzord saw some tumbled chariots. After they had developed powerful and flexible symbiotic demons, these old-school war machineries were obsolete and only served as transportation tools.

"Look," Siacis said as he extended out his tentacle and grasped one fragment that were clearly melted down. "If we put them together, we could roughly see the shape of a vessel. These vessels spread out in a line along the city wall, and there were around hundreds of them. I believe those low lives put snow powder and combustible materials in them, in an attempt to cut the retreat of our supply unit, and then launch the attack."

Hackzord was now very familiar with humans' weapons, and he had indeed obtained a lot of them in this battle. Both "fire forks" and "fire bolts" required combustible materials such as snow powder to be effective. They were much more complicated than weapons powered by magic. Because of this, most of these weapons had pretty complex structures, which was something that Hackzord had not seen 400 years ago.

"If this was just an ordinary fire, why did it cause so much damage?"

"Sir, the fire wasn't ordinary. At least, its temperature was much higher than an ordinary one. However, I don't think it was self-combustible. The key, in my opinion, may lie in the chariots."

"What do you mean?" Hackzord pursued. Siacis was a psychic, so he possessed a greater insight than the other Upgraded. That was why Hackzord brought him to the battlefield.

"When the snow powder was ignited, the heat was transmitted to the chariots through the city gates. The chariots are usually used to ship heavy equipment rather than the storage tanks for the Red Mist. The chariots thus exploded and further broke down the Red Mist," Siacis hissed while waving his nimble tentacle. "You know that everything would burn at a certain temperature, including us."

Hackzord was a little relieved after hearing Siacis' explanation. No matter what combustible materials they were, the fragments of the giant iron barrels made him feel settled a lot. It seemed that human beings needed to make a lot of preparations beforehand to make this kind of explosion happen. They could not throw the explosives at their will. Hackzord thus believed that these traps would not pose a threat to the main force of his army as long as he took precautions.

Hackzord certainly did not think it easy to inspect a city occupied by human beings in a short period of time. Suspending the transportation of the Red Mist Pond and the storage tanks would not stop a second explosion either. He could not entrust this matter to the simple-minded Primal Demons and Inferior Demons.

The best way was to have human beings attack each other.

"Sir, what should we do next?"

"Don't enter the city just yet. Let men inspect the city for us," Hackzord said quickly. "I can't get more Inferior Demons from other locations. Let the Snow Reflection Castle make up the loss. I believe Earl Marwayne would love to serve me."

"Also, shouldn't we obtain some of the enemies' weapons?" Hackzord went on. "Many nobles loathe the Graycastle men. Give them an opportunity to avenge themselves."

Chapter 1274 - Ambition

A thin veil of Red Mist dropped down from the crest of the Impassable Mountain Range. Marwayne Parker had thought that it would be as intolerable as the mine, where the air was impregnated with dust. Surprisingly, however, he felt fine.

If he took a deep breath, he could sense a hint of cool wetness in the surroundings. The demon commander had told him that the Mist contained the essence of a life form. It would not cause human beings any harm but would instead strengthen them. Only witches, their mortal enemy, would suffer a fatal power rebound.

Marwayne was not sure whether he should trust the demon commander, but from what he could see at present, the Red Mist seemed to be harmless, except that it obscured his view sometimes. After a month, he had completely got used to living in an environment permeated with the Red Mist.

"My lord, the Sky Lord sent an ambassador." Just then, a guard entered the study and reported, "He's waiting for you in the yard."

Marwayne nodded silently and said, "Ask him to wait for a moment. I'll be there right away."

"Yes, my lord."

Marwayne smiled after the guard closed the door.

Every time he heard others call him lord, he felt exhilarated. He had thought it would be his last when the demon had crossed the abyss and invaded the Snow Reflection Castle a month ago. However, the demon had set him free.

After abandoning his prejudice against the demons, Marwayne found the Sky Lord was quite communicative. In a way, he was easier to deal with than the Graycastle men. At least, the Sky Lord would not strip the nobles of their lands without any reason.

The demons did not require him to pay taxes, nor did they loot his lands and usurp his power. As long as he pledged fealty to them, he could retain what he had now and also have a chance to gain more rewards. The demons could be rude, but they did not really prejudice his personal interests. After the Sky Lord asked him to rule the three cities near the Snow Reflection Castle, he became even more satisfied with the status quo.

The Snow Reflection Castle was a fortified, isolated island. Nobody could easily invade his territory, but he could not expand his domain from here either. Marwayne had thought he would remain as an earl for the rest of his life. He had not expected, nevertheless, that he would elevate to duke on the doomsday.

Now, he ruled the entire northern region of the Kingdom of Everwinter and was, veritably, the Duke of the Northern Region.

Marwayne covered his mouth and forced himself to keep up a straight face. He closed the window and walked downstairs.

The demons had indeed killed dozens of his guards and hundreds of his subjects, but no war did not have bloodshed. Nobles also competed for lands through wars. As he was currently the ruler of four cities, his army expanded a great deal. As for the loss of population, he was sure that in a few years' time, with sufficient lands and food, there would be more people in his domain.

He should also hang those who were pointing behind his back and accusing him of submitting to the demons out of fear.

Marwayne immediately saw the ambassador sent by the Sky Lord and the giant monster lying beside him as he entered the yard. To be honest, he did not know how to distinguish these demons. Unlike Hackzord, these demons were disgusting and barbarian. Had they not been sent by the demon commander, Marwayne would not have spared a look at these savage beasts.

"What can I do for the Sky Lord?"

The ambassador produced a stone from the pocket of his mount and opened his large, crimson mouth. Then he blurted out a word, "Listen!"

It was again magic voice transmission.

Marwayne stepped a few paces back involuntarily, for he could not stand the terrible breath of the ambassador. He forced himself to suppress his revulsion and said, "I'm listening."

The stone flickered, and then a familiar voice reached his ears.

"How do you feel like being the ruler of a region? I hope you haven't forgotten your promise, Mr. Duke."

"Of course not, Your Excellency," Marwayne replied quickly. "I'm at your service."

"Very well. I believe that your subjects have got used to our presence after a month. Now it's time to build an army and help us build a campsite. I want the campsite to be built in the Kingdom of Wolfheart rather than the Kingdom of Everwinter, and I need at least 2,000 people. Well, the more, the better, naturally."

Marwayne wondered if Hackzord wanted heavy labor. He estimated that it was not going to be hard to fulfill this order. Therefore, he replied, "Leave it to me, Your Excellency."

"I did pick the right person," the Sky Lord commented in satisfaction. "Also, what about the research on those weapons? Can you duplicate them?"

"Well..." Marwayne faltered. "We can use them, but it'll take a few more days to replicate them. I summoned the best blacksmith in the Northern Region and asked every one of them to forge a part. It was not very successful. I believe the witches are involved in the creation of the weapons. The blacksmiths told me that these weapons are not likely made by ordinary people."

"That's what I thought," Hackzord said. Luckily, he did not blame Marwayne. "Even if that's the case, you should also use them to resist the Graycastle men. This is my second order. Send people to Graycastle to stop them taking refugees. I'll give you the rest of the weapons we obtained."

"But I don't have knights anymore — "

"Then recruit them!" Hackzord talked over him. "Don't you men like to recruit people? You tend to grant lands to others and ask them to serve you. Don't be too cheap. If you succeed, you may become the King of Everwinter."

Marwayne quavered. He had been dreaming of becoming the King of Everwinter. He had never anticipated that his ambition would come true in this way. Marwayne placed his hand on his chest, trying to slow down the frantic pounding of his heart. It took him a great deal of efforts to steady his voice. "Yes, Your Excellency. I'll do my best to carry out this mission."

"Be fast. I want to see the result as soon as possible."

"I won't let you down."

The flicker disappeared.

"I, come, a week later," the ambassador again blurted inarticulately.

With these words, he clambered onto the winged monster, raised his arm, and rose into the air. The winged monster howled and flew toward the outer city before it quickly disappeared from Marwayne's view.

Marwayne's face was, however, soon, covered in the dust that the monster had kicked up.

"Sh*t!" He coughed. Had all the demons acted like the Sky Lord, men would not have viewed the demons as monsters from hell.

Marwayne summoned the old scholar at once after he returned to the castle. Although this aged scholar had wetted his pants last time at the city wall, Marwayne could not find anyone else that could help him.

After relating Hackzord's order to the old scholar, Marwayne asked, "So, what do you think?"

"My lord, this is a perfect opportunity!" the old scholar exclaimed while holding Marwayne's hand. "I dedicated my whole life to the Parker Family, and I remember your father always wanted to expand the Snow Reflection Castle. Now, you not only did that but also got a chance to become the King of Everwinter. You must not let this opportunity slip!"

"I think so too, but do you really think those knights can defeat the Graycastle men?" Marwayne asked. "You've seen how ingenius those snow powder and bolts are. It's impossible to replicate them, and the demons might not be able to obtain many of them. What if we run out of the weapons?"

"No, my lord. We don't have to directly confront the army from Graycastle," the old scholar said while shaking his head. "The Sky Lord doesn't plan to do that either. He said 'stop them taking refugees'. As far as I know, the Graycastle troops are quite scattered. Once we have adequate weapons, we may stand in an advantageous position! If we successfully crush a few units, the Graycastle soldiers will become hesitant. In fact, I just thought of an excellent idea!"

"Really? Spit it out."

The old scholar then whispered his thought to the duke.

Marwayne's face lit up.

"That should work!" Marwayne said while nodding vigorously. "In that case, their strength will become their weakness. Let's do it!"

Chapter 1275 - The Pharmaceutical Industry in Neverwinter

In Neverwinter, Graycastle.

Two days later, Wendy sent the test results of the two new witches to Roland's office.

"I have to say that their abilities are very... complicated," Wendy said as she handed in the reports. "It was my first time seeing that there are so many variables in one ability. This is just a part of the test result. If you want to have the full report, you probably need to wait for another few days."

"Hmm," Roland said as he put down his work and reviewed the report with great interest. "I believe that the Taquila witches are also interested in them, right?"

Wendy replied with a nod, "They asked Phyllis to conduct the test for the Chosen One immediately. Unfortunately, the light beams of the two new witches are quite weak. They definitely aren't the keys to the Instrument of Divine Retribution."

Roland was profoundly relieved after hearing this news. He had just approved the nationwide electricity plan, and all the magic cores were currently being converted into Mystery Moon's power. Had the Chosen One suddenly appeared at this moment, Celine would have been pretty resentful. It would take a few decades to restore the Instrument of Divine Retribution, and it would definitely not be a pleasant experience monitoring the device every day.

Roland had heard from Honey that the Senior Witches from Taquila had recently developed a new hobby of "sunbath". Instead of lying sprawled across the field under the sunlight, they actually crept out of the cave at night and lay there until the sunrise. Since direct sunlight could cause harm to the carriers, they generally did not like coming out of their hidings. Roland did not understand why the Taquila witches suddenly started this new activity, but at least, he could tell that they felt quite relaxed.

This was undoubtedly a good sign.

Roland quickly turned to the last page of the report.

Thylane's ability mainly affected a person's mood, and it would only take effect after that person took the pill. Like most attaching magic type, her ability would lose its effectiveness after a certain period of time, and its lasting power normally depended on the size of the object and how much magic Thylane invested in the first place.

The test result showed that the "magic pill" could alter literally every emotion that a man could feel, including but not limited to happiness, pain, fatigue, tiredness, anxiety and fear. Once the power of the pill faded away, those suppressed emotions would come out altogether.

Roland somehow figured out why the magic pill could do so many things but the light beam was weak. The magic power, in a sense, was a nerve block that delayed the nerve conduction and the transmission of hormones temporarily. Its mechanism was very similar to that of some drugs in the modern society, except that the latter had very serious side effects and could be addictive as well.

Nevertheless, the light beam was not the only factor that determined the value of one's ability. Thylane's "magic pill" would definitely create a lucrative market and bring Roland immense wealth that could shock the entire pharmaceutical industry if he sold the drug in his previous world.

Mental illness was usually far more complicated than physical injuries, and it was normally harder to cure. Thylane's magic pill could not eliminate symptoms but could delay them. As long as he took control on individual dose, the pill could minimize the impact of many diseases. Patients, for example, would feel less tired and anxious, and thereby live a normal life. All the negative emotions could get out when the patient was fast asleep. In that way, he would be able to "absorb" negative emotions without even realizing it. Once people felt well rested and calm, their bodies would repair themselves a lot faster.

The magic power could also help with some fatal injuries. People tended to lose their consciousness when experiencing excruciating pain. A lot of times, the injured was not able to properly handle their injuries in a timely fashion and thereby missed the best time to receive treatment. If they could treat themselves immediately before the paramedics arrived, they would have a higher chance to survive. The paramedics would then just need to deal with the shock and pain coming after and help the patient overcome the very first few days after the injuries, which were usually the hardest and most crucial.

Also, there were other witches who could help with injuries. Roland remembered that Tilly had once told him about a witch named Della on the Sleeping Island who could alleviate pain. Hero from the Witch Union could transfer diseases to other living beings. Although he was not sure whether Hero could also transfer negative emotions, he could ask her to give it a shot.

The key was that without Thylane's magic pill, neither Della nor Hero could be of much help. Soldiers could get injured anytime during a battle, and witches could not always come to their rescue. In fact, many First Army soldiers killed in action had died on their way to the hospital because they had lost their consciousness and failed to give their wounds an emergency treatment.

Now, this situation might be changed.

Wendy's report stated that Thylane's ability could either positively or negatively influence a person's emotions in general, but she could not choose what specific emotion she would like to apply her ability to.

This was also what a new witch needed to learn. She had to understand and learn how to accurately control her ability. Roland trusted that Wendy and Agatha would teach her. Once Thylane learned how to apply her ability to a certain emotion, all the current problems would be solved.

Roland could already see a prospective pharmaceutical industry from the report. This giant industry would definitely be more economically profitable than Chaos Drinks.

As for the other witch...

Roland ran his fingers through the form in the appendix on the last page and lapsed into thought.

"Your Majesty, this is..." Nightingale apparently also saw the sections of the form in various colors. She looked up at Wendy and said, "Are you sure the report is accurate?"

"Most of it is accurate. I can't really collect a large sample in such a short time," Wendy replied. "The only thing I'm certain now is that the number could decrease and increase."

In short, the strange number Momo saw was the remaining years a person had at the current stage. The color of the number represented its future trend. Wendy recorded the numbers for the residents in Neverwinter that she and Momo had observed in great detail in her report and found that the color of the numbers for Neverwinter residents was significantly lighter than the refugees in the temporary residential area.

She thus concluded that the color of the number was subject to change under the influence of different factors, including hunger, health and disabilities. The deeper the color was, the lower the number would be. She also provided an example in the report that the number for a refugee from the Kingdom of Wolfheart had increased from five to seven after he had drunk the Cleansing Water.

If Momo's prediction was accurate, then this refugee must have carried some infectious disease, for at first, he would have only lived for another five years. However, after he drank the Cleansing Water, the situation had changed, and Momo reassessed his condition.

Although Wendy did not know what the color represented for at present, she viewed it as an unhealthy condition.

"Your Majesty..." Nightingale said apprehensively.

"It's better than what we thought, isn't it?" Roland comforted. "At least, the number could go up, as long as we use the right method."

Wendy wanted to say something, but in the end, she remained silent.

Roland thus returned to the report. It appeared that there was a huge difference in the numbers between various parts of Neverwinter. The average number in the North Slope Mine area was the lowest among all, and that for refugees was a little higher. The numbers in the Witch Building and the Sleeping Spell were 10 to 20 higher than the other areas, which reflected that the awakened witches did live longer than ordinary people on average.

Chapter 1276 - An Overlooked Ability

Roland took out a piece of paper from his desk and roughly estimated the average age of the residents in the urban area and the temporary residential area. He then concluded that the average age of Neverwinter residents were between 40 and 50, while that of the latter was around 35. He could already tell many problems from these numbers.

Generally speaking, it took a long time to increase men's lifespan. Apparently, the life in Border Town in the beginning should be no better than the refugees'. However, in just five years, the lifespan of the local residents had increased significantly, to which Nana and Lily made a great contribution.

"We've collected data of 1,000 people within just two days. I don't think Momo looked at each individual one by one, did she?" Roland asked.

"No. If she has sufficient power, she can see the numbers of all the people in that area," Wendy replied quietly. "But she hasn't done that before, neither does she know her limit. She thinks that her ability is like a curse. She can see when they're going to die but can't do anything about it."

"Like she's watching people around her die," Nightingale commented after a sigh.

Roland, however, thought it totally wrong. This was definitely not a curse or a misfortune! When the development of a country reached a certain level, every single policy could exert a profound influence on the nation. Roland certainly had to abandon that outdated management style, and that was the reason statistics was so important.

Every modern organization should develop a well-functioning system to collect, observe and track the data change and make adjustments to their policies accordingly. A statistical analysis of the residents' average lifespan was an indispensable step in this process.

It would normally take several decades to found such a well-organized department and recruit enough employees to conduct the survey without Momo's ability, for people would never know how long a man could live before he was deceased.

Currently, except for Neverwinter, the other cities in Graycastle only had a secondary city hall to execute orders, and they were always short staffed. It was, therefore, almost impossible for them to conduct the census in the communities.

In fact, the establishment of such a complete information system was largely attributed to Scroll's hardwork. Only when they could delegate literate people to grass root organizations such as local communities could they say that a fully-developed government had been established.

Momo's ability, however, could help Roland skip all the preparation work and develop a national statistical system right away from scratch, even though she only knew a little about her ability at the moment.

Once Wendy figured out what those different colors indicated, possibly hunger, disease, environment, etc., he could then easily build a huge database that predicted the future trend of the population. With proper management, Roland believed that the kingdom would benefit a lot from Momo's ability.

Those nobles in the Kingdom of Wolfheart never knew what they had missed.

Roland had already viewed Momo as an honorous clerk of the Administrative Office, and she could possibly become a minister in the future.

"By the way, did you get Nana's treating schedule?" Roland asked as he closed the report.

Wendy answered with a nod, "She's working today. Do you want to see her?"

The hospital was indeed the busiest place in the city, especially after a major war. Unlike Anna, Nana Pine did not have to stay in the laboratory all day, but she was fully booked every day. It was said that there were hundreds of people on the waitlist, and that number was steadily increasing.

Her busy schedule was also partially due to her ability. Nana would exhaust her power within only 15 minutes when she treated a person with a broken limb. As such, she would not treat anyone that had lost a body part larger than a palm now. All these people would be granted a certificate of disability. Only after Nana came of age or upgraded could these disabled men jump the queue and receive treatment. They would need to show their certificates of disability to enjoy this privilege, of course.

Speaking of upgrade, Nana would enter her adulthood in the Months of Demons this year. However, the first thing that came to Roland's head was when Nana had held that injured chicken and indignantly accused him of inflicting pain on the poor creature. Roland remembered that she used to study in the same school as Anna.

"Alright. Let's go take a look."

Momo had not expected that Wendy would treat her with great hospitality instead of banishing her after knowing about her ability.

She and Thylane thus moved to the Witch Building and became members of the Witch Union.

Every night after dinner, there would be some other witches visiting them, although Thylane and Momo could not match the faces to their names. The food here was heavenly delicious, and someone also taught them how to use the facilities in the room and told them what they should pay attention to in the Castle District. Within just two days, they had changed their previous idea about the world completely.

It was so nice to be alive.

When Momo learned that she could see again, she threw herself into Wendy's arms and cried.

This was the only place where she had the liberty to cry.

"Don't worry," Wendy consoled her while patting Momo on the back. "Nana rarely lives in the Witch Building, but she's also a member of the Witch Union. She's around the same age as you and would love to treat you."

On the day of her appointment, Momo followed Ring to the hospital early in the morning. On her way, Ring explained to Momo Nana's background. Unlike her, Miss Pine was from a noble family. She had great power and was called Miss Angel by Neverwinter residents. In other words, she was a person Momo looked up to.

Momo could even see Nana in her mind's eye that the latter must be a smiling and elegant lady wearing pretty clothes whom everyone adored.

Momo was thus very nervous when Ring led her to Nana's room. She lowered her head, feeling somehow ashamed and embarrassed.

"Is this the patient I'm treating next?" a silvery voice reached her ears.

"Yes, she's Momo. Like you, she's also a witch," a familiar voice responded. Momo looked up and, surprisingly, found the person was none other than the king!

And then she saw Miss Angel that everyone was talking about.

It took Momo all her efforts not to scream.

Nana Pine was wearing a white robe, with only a pair of eyes left in the air. Her clothes were far from being pretty. Instead, she wore even simpler than civilians.

What truly horrified her was the fresh, dripping blood on her chest!

Chapter 1277 - Out of Darkness

"Ah, don't worry. This isn't my blood," Nana said as she took off the robe with Ring's help. "The previous patient broke an arm when operating the machine, so it's a little messy."

"R-really?"

"That's right. Come here. Let me take a look at your eye."

"She's so confident and strong. Is she really of the same age as me?"

Momo swallowed hard. She took off her eye mask carefully and slowly approached Nana.

"Right. Just like Wendy said. I should have sufficient magic power to cure you," Nana mumbled after a preliminary examination and handed Momo a bowl of liquid medicine. Then she patted the bed next to her and said, "Lie down after you drink it. It'll only take about 10 minutes."

Momo heeded Nana's words, and, to her astonishment, saw the latter take out a knife.

"Your, Your Majesty... Wendy..." Momo said while looking at the two spectators helplessly. She was almost going to cry.

"Well, Nana," Wendy said. "Can't you take things slow and give our new sister a bit time to get used to it?"

"But this is the normal procedure," Nana refuted in surprise. "If I don't cut the old wound open and remove it, my magic won't work."

"That's true, but you can first have a small chat with her..."

"Well, in that case... how about talking about my previous patient? I feel it easier to cut a limb with a saw than an ax."

"No, not this...."

"Correct," Roland rejoined. "A saw can ensure a clean cut, but I don't think it's going to be easy to cut a big bone, like a thigh bone, with a saw, right?"

"Neither for a scull. Those female nurses are no stronger than me by any means. If Anna could help me, that would make my life a lot easier."

"My fault. But it's simple. I can design an electronic one for you later. How does that sound? I assure you that you can break a bone within a second."

"Your Majesty, please stop!"

"Ahem, sorry, I can't help when it comes to technical issues..."

Their voice gradually drifted off.

Momo turned away and, dimly, saw Nana talking to the king and Wendy while gesturing with the knife in her hand from time to time, as though she was going to do an experiment on her.

Cut? Saw? Ax?

Her eye lids became increasingly heavy as sleep crept over her. "Sorry, Thylane, I probably wouldn't be able to see you again after this treatment." 

"Ah, she's asleep now," Roland said after he noticed that Momo had closed her eyes and fallen asleep.

Nana raised her scalpel and nodded at the two. "Now, I'll start."

Nana thus made a cut into the socket, removed the old wound and cleaned up the skin around it. Soon, blood oozed out and soaked the gauze. During the whole process, her arm remained stationary except for her fingers and wrist. She had to complete this initial step manually. Her nimble operation was the sole result of a long-term training and practice.

"Amazing..." Wendy muttered under her breath.

"I have to be fast," Nana said while twitching her lips. "When I was in the field, I only had half a minute for each individual patient. If I couldn't give them an emergency treatment as fast as possible, I might not be able to save other patients."

"That's why she's become so swift," Roland thought to himself. "You'd pass out at the sight of blood in the past, and those chickens — "

"Your Majesty!" Nana exclaimed in agitation while rolling her eyes. "Don't ever mention it! You were the culprit."

"Alright," Roland conceded while waving his hand.

"Plus..." Nana paused for a second and said, "I like the way I am now. At least, I'm much stronger, right?"

For a split second, Roland seemed to see the little girl he used to know again.

Roland stroked Nana's head involuntarily and said, "Of course."

Several minutes later, Momo's eye was cured.

"The sleeping fern will lose its effect in two hours. Such little amount won't cause harm to a witch, so she'll be OK once she wakes up," Nana said while looking toward Wendy.

"Thank you," Wendy said smilingly with a nod.

"By the way, how much magic power do you still have?" Roland asked casually. "Could you take a look at me?"

Wendy's expression immediately changed, and Nana grasped Roland's arm in a sort of trenchant manner.

"Are you hurt?"

"No... I just feel that my nose is running lately."

"Then you should go seek Lily," Nana said gruffly as she withdrew her hand. "I took a look. There's nothing wrong with you."

"That's what I thought," Roland said while averting his eyes as Wendy cast him a suspicious glance.

It appeared that Nana was not omnipotent. Roland was not sure if she could cure those "underlying illness", as these invisible diseases were not, technically, injuries.

Anyway, he had to do some research later.

When Momo slowly opened her eyes, a slope of orangey red clouds slid into her view. The clouds soaked in golden rays gradually faded to purple and drifted off in the distance. She could hear the rustling of the grass in the breezes, and occasionally, a few leaves rose into the air and brushed past her cheek.

Everything was so peaceful and sweet.

"I'm still alive..." 

Momo thought.

But Momo soon noticed something unusual. Her vision seemed to have expanded, and the distant scene had become clearer. She raised her head and found Thylane look into her eyes smilingly. The latter said, "You finally woke up."

It was not until then that Momo realized that she was sleeping on her friend's legs, and they were currently right in front of the Witch Building.

"How long did I sleep? Where's Wendy?"

"She brought you to me and then left," Thylane said while shrugging. "You slept for the whole afternoon, although Wendy said you'd wake up in two hours. She told me that it was normal even if you didn't wake up in time. It's a sign of recovery. You'll feel better after waking up. How are you feeling? Can you see with your new eye?"

Momo sat up and studied the surroundings curiously. She had thought that half of her world would be submerged in the darkness forever after her eye had been removed. She had never expected to see the world in its entirety again.

"Thylane, what should I do?" Momo muttered.

"What's the matter?"

"How are we going to repay them for their kindness?"

Thylane was stunned for a second before she burst into a laugh. She looked up at the sky and said, "I don't know either, but Wendy told me to work hard. This is how we can repay them. By the way, Wendy already told me what I should do in the future when you were asleep. I'll work with Nana Pine who just helped you, and provide medical services to Graycastle." At these words, Thylane scratched her nose and said in embarrassment, "Although I still don't know how I can help treat patients..."

"But my ability..." Momo said while clenching her fist.

"Wendy mentioned you as well."

Momo looked up and burst out in surprise, "Really?"

"Yes!" Thylane confirmed while nodding. "It's His Majesty's idea. He wants you to work in the Administrative Office with Ms. Scroll and help with the operation of the kingdom."

"Huh?" Momo could not believe her ears. "Can I?"

"You need to ask yourself," Thylane said in amusement and pushed her at the back. "I haven't even figured out how I'm supposed to work here, but I think as long as we keep studying, we'll know one day."

"I'm not as confident as you..." Momo muttered in a hushed tone. "Do you think we can live here forever, like living in our home?"

"In fact, I also asked Wendy the same question."

"Yes?"

It took Thylane a while to reply this time.

"She said of course we can, because it's already our home."

Chapter 1278 - A Historical Moment

A week later, Roland received two pieces of good news.

One was that Iron Axe had repelled the demons with the napalm and thereby held the demons back temporarily.

The commander-in-chief described the explosion of this new weapon in his letter in great detail. The blast was even more spectacular than the test. In fact, human beings had already used fire to repulse the demons back in the first Battle of Divine Will, where they had set the forest on fire at the rear. The massive wildfire raged for several days and dispersed the Red Mist in the sky, which, in the end, helped human beings gain a small victory.

The demons thus learned their lesson and destroyed the forests, meadows, and even farms to avoid future disruptions of the Red Mist. They also built small stone towers similar to outposts in the area covered in the Red Mist just in case. With sufficient Red Mist on the campsite, they could then keep fighting even when the rear was ablaze.

Without a doubt, Iron Axe and the General Staff were inspired by the previous battle and developed this plan.

The strength of napalm was its portability. It could burn in the thin air, and it was extremely hard to extinguish with water. Roland had not expected, however, that the fire would result in such a magnificent explosion in the whole city.

Roland wished that Summer could reconstruct the scene. If he could find out the reason why the explosion had occurred, he could possibly exterminate the demons using the napalm.

However, the Tusk City should have already been enveloped by the Red Mist again by now. It was almost impossible to get into the city for a second time.

Also, Roland's heart ached at the fact that he had consumed more than 500 barrels of napalm all at once. It was not hard to produce fuels, as he would simply need to invest more manpower. However, the key to produce napalm was to mix the slimes of the rubber worms with animal blood, and only the Ministry of Agriculture could farm rubber worms.

Nevertheless, the refugees from this battle were most important to Roland. Roland heaped praises on Iron Axe in his letter and also sent another 100 barrels of napalm to the front.

The second piece of news was that the plant assembling the "Fire of Heaven" had finally assembled the first biplane.

Roland immediately visited the plant in person after receiving the news from Anna.

This brand new plant was built at the same time as the Aerial Academy. Compared to the steam engine plant built with slabs and bricks two to three years ago, this plant was designed for technologically demanding products. The steel frame provided the plant with a spacious area, which enabled workers to assemble and repair a dozen planes at a time. The plant was equipped with adequate illumination devices. The floor was tiled with polished slabs, and the whole plant looked phenomenal.

Even Tilly was impressed with it when she entered the plant.

Laymen might view it as a palace.

Roland also invested the best equipment and hired many elites for the operation of this plant. He had sent the most experienced managers and workers, and equipped the plant with the third generation machine tools powered by electricity to meet the production need. As such, the plant consumed most of the electricity in the industrial zone. Thanks to the Mystery Moon devices, otherwise he would have had to suspend the operation of all the other plants to keep this one running.

In a way, this new plant displayed all the technologies developed in Neverwinter over the past five years.

Barov had told Roland that Neverwinter residents took pride in working here.

When the new plant was in operation, each workstation would be responsible for assembling one part. The plane assembly would start from the first workstation to the last. Workers would start with the frame, and then wings, then parts, then skins, and finally to the testing stage.

However, the plant was far from ideal. There was only one "Fire of Heaven" waiting to be assembled at the workstation closest to the exit at present, and the other workstations were all empty.

"Is everything OK? Did you have any problem?" Roland asked as he walked up to Anna.

"I have tons of problems," Anna answered while shaking her head. "I don't know how many parts and materials workers had wasted before they successfully produced this plane."

Roland was amused at the resigned look on Anna's face.

He had foreseen the difficulties when he had made the decision to create planes. It was practically impossible to learn about new materials and techniques in a short period of time, despite that he had tried his best to simplify the production.

For example, he had, specifically, created an assembly line to produce various drive rivets and break mandrel rivets for the single riveted joints on the plane. Compared to traditional double riveted joints, single riveted joints were much easier to assemble.

Roland had also numbered all the parts of the plane and drawn out every assembly step like those model assembly kits in his previous world. He had even installed user-friendly portsf or parts that could be easily mixed up to reduce the possibility of assembly errors as a result of carelessness.

Despite all his efforts, the workers only managed to produce one plane in the past half a month. Obviously, the assembly task was too hard for them to handle.

"Do you need my help?" Tilly asked suddenly.

"No, that's fine..." Anna said while shrugging. She would only shrug and be less "lady-like" in front of a few people. "Roland asked me to supervise the workers, so I must solve the problems all by myself, no matter what they are, although I did want to give up a lot of times."

Tilly smiled and said, "So, you're actually very happy, aren't you? Finally, there's one real plane."

Anna curled up her lips and replied, "I know you'd see through me."

"If we have one plane, we'll have a second. Once all the workers have learned about the assembly process, we'll soon have more qualified planes," Tilly said as she glanced at Roland. "If you could praise her now, that'd be even better."

"I never expect him to praise me," Anna said while twitching her lips.

"Huh?" Roland was dumbfounded. What had just happened? Why did they suddenly switch the subject from the plane production to him?

Just then, a guard trotted to Roland and reported, "Your Majesty, the first 'Fire of Heaven' is ready. We can start the celebration ceremony anytime."

Roland thus rested his eyes again on the biplane and saw two logos on the light gray body, one the coat of arms of the royal family and the other a knight holding a spear while spreading out his arms. The whole plane looked extraordinary, but Roland felt that something was missing.

He pondered for a while and suddenly realized what had missed. Then he waved his hand and said, "Get the ribbon!"

Soon, a bright red ribbon was tied to the plane, with a red ribbon flower attached to the propeller at the head of the jet.

Roland then nodded in satisfaction. Now, the "Fire of Heaven" was ready to meet its audience.

After that, he made a speech, cut the ribbon, and took a photograph with Anna, Tilly, and all the workers who had participated in the design and manufacture of the plane, as well as the brand new aircraft itself, which was now numbered 001 and parked behind them.

"Now, look at me. One, two, three!"

Soraya summoned the magic brush and recorded this historical moment.

Chapter 1279 - Conspiracy

"Your Excellency, Frost Town is right there at the front."

A knight reported.

Marwayne Parker raised the telescope and observed the town. This town was situated at the southwestern border of the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, surrounded by mountains. One could see the view of the whole town anywhere from above. Due to the geographical advantage, the lord here did not build any castle in the town.

There were many towns like this one on the border of the two kingdoms. Marwayne would have paid it no notice in the past. But now, the town held a special place in his heart.

"Has the scout come back?"

"Yes. He only paid townsmen several silver royals for the information," the knight said triumphantly. "There's a unit of Graycastle soldiers here. Not many of them, only about 40 to 50 people, and they show up every now and then."

"Why aren't they stationed here?"

"The road beyond the border is treacherous, and it's rumored wild wolves often come out around that area. Refugees can't cross the border without guards."

Marwayne immediately knew what he should do.

The Red Mist did not spread out along the border. In fact, the area covered in the Red Mist was in the shape of a semicircle that kept expanding. Currently, the Red Mist originating from the Kingdom of Everwinter had traveled beyond the king's city of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Therefore, Marwayne was more comfortable to conduct a battle in his own country than having an expedition.

Frost Town was on the border of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. As it was not very accessible to the public, refugees would seldom enter the Kingdom of Wolfheart from there. Compared to those major cities with advanced transportation facilities, Frost Town was as insignificant as a mosquito.

This was exactly what Marwayne wanted.

This meant that the Graycastle men would not notice his movement, and the information given by the scout also confirmed his theory.

Just like the old scholar had said, the demons would deal with those difficult Graycastle men themselves. What he needed to do was just to stab them in the back. Whatever the outcome of the battle would be, once people learned about his role in this battle, they would fear him.

Of course, the old scholar had developed more sophisticated plans to defeat the Graycastle men. If their schemes were successful, he believed that the Graycastle men would eventually slow down their movement, and then the Sky Lord would trust him even more.

"Let's head back. It's time to call a meeting and discuss the operation."

Within half a day, Marwayne had returned to the closest town and patrolled into the previous lord's mansion triumphantly. This mansion used to belong to an unknown baron who used to rule this area, but he had fled upon the arrival of the demons and the Red Mist, so Marwayne took his residence as a matter of course.

Although Frost Town was not under his jurisdiction yet since Marwayne only had the authority over the four cities in the Northern Region, he believed that the Parker Family would continue to expand their territory.

Soon, all the nobles gathered here and waited for Marwayne to break the silence.

The duke surveyed each one of them and memorized their countenances and expressions. There were 45 people in the room, most of whom were knights, although some were barons. The person with the highest rank in this room was the previous lord of the Northernmost Port, Viscount Narnos. These nobles lost their lands and subjects to the Graycastle men and immediately pledged allegiance to him after being promised that they would receive rewards. The number of the soldiers in this army had exceeded 300, including all the guards, squires and henchmen.

With so many people and a carefully-planned scheme, Marwayne believed this would be a perfect opportunity to defeat the Graycastle soldiers. More importantly, it was his first time using the enemies' weapons. The reason that the Graycastle men had flattened the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter was that they used weapons much faster and far more powerful than snow powder. Without the support of the Sky Lord, nobody would have been willing to fight the Graycastle men, even if the number of the soldiers doubled.

"I wonder if you've prepared yourself for the upcoming battle?" Marwayne asked after clearing his throat. "I think everyone has learned how to use the firearms, right?"

"We just need to load the gun, take aims and pull the trigger, don't we?" Viscount Narnos said indignantly. "Even savages know how to use them. I see no reason that we can't. The captives didn't tell us how to use the weapons until we tortured them. They were pretty reluctant to disclose the information. These weapons are really not a big deal!"

"That's right. The weapons are ingenius indeed, but they're much easier to use than swords," a knight rejoined. "I also interrogated the Graycastle men. They just joined the army two years ago, and it only took them a month to learn how to use the firearms. However, I spent five years learning how to use swords."

"Those low lives are foolish, and that's why it took them a month. I would only need three days to master it," another person spoke, and all the others guffawed.

"I'll let them know they'll be nothing without firearms!"

"They rely on witches to produce firearms. I think the King of Graycastle beated the church simply because the church was too busy dealing with the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart at that time."

Marwayne suddenly realized that those infuriated nobles were usable. They had been holding a grudge against the Graycastle men for a long time. Although he had only built this new army a week ago and hardly knew anybody, at least, they were acting in concert for a common purpose, and everyone was eager to seek revenge.

"But the number of the bolts named bullet is limited, so each of us only has a few," the knight said while spreading out his hands. "I hope that everyone could go easy on them and fire at a close range."

Marwayne cast the knight a glance of approval. His name is Fueler, a local from the Western Region. Marwayne knew that he was pretty smart, and it appeared that Fueler had already grasped the key to the victory. Marwayne was thinking of recruiting him later for his own use.

"Don't worry," Marwayne said confidently. "The Graycastle men don't have many bullets either. The northwestern part of the Kingdom of Wolfheart is mountainous, which restrains their mobility. Also, they'll let us approach them. Their goal is to get refugees out of here, isn't it?"

Everybody sneered.

That was right. Since the Graycastle men came here for people, they would definitely not abandon the lambs that voluntarily came up to them. However, they did not know that wolves could also hide among those innocent lambs. It only took a second for a hunter to turn into a prey. By the time the Graycastle men discovered the danger, it would have been too late.

Then, they could disguise themselves as the Graycastle soldiers and looted the towns on their way back. In that case, people would stop believing the Graycastle men, and this immigration campaign would, as a matter of course, fail.

"I've let the Graycastle men know that we'll go with them. I believe we'll soon hear back from them. Let's fight this battle out, and all the resources and food gained from this battle will be yours!" Marwayne proclaimed as he rose. "This is a great opportunity to avenge yourselves and gain lands and wealth! You have my words. It's time for the Graycastle soldiers to pay for what they have done, everyone!"

Chapter 1280 - Disguise

When Fish Ball ascended the crest of the mountain, his view suddenly expanded.

Orange flowers carpeted the field and formed a glaring contrast with the road that meandered through the mountain. Wind rustled the flowers and refreshed the exhausted travelers.

Against the sea of flowers loomed a small town, which was the destination of their trip, Frost Town.

It was his sixth time climbing over the mountains.

Although Fish Ball was the leader of the machine gun squad, he was also a soldier of the First Army. After receiving the instruction to expedite the evacuation process, like many soldiers, Fish Ball came to rescue refugees.

He had not encountered any demons so far on this route, possibly because the Red Mist had not reached here or because the demons did not really want to waste their time on those refugees. Anyhow, the more people he brought to Neverwinter, the better.

There were nearly 1,000 people following him.

According to common practices, the army would first pitch their tents outside the town and get in touch with the refugees before they sent them to Neverwinter in group. The First Army had warned the residents during their first visit not to travel to the south alone, as the trip could be dangerous. They asked the residents to wait for the Graycastle army to retrieve them.

Nevertheless, not everyone would listen. In fact, Fish Ball had met many desperate refugees who had run out of food on their way. For those who were less fortunate, they simply died in the mountain on their own.

But this time, Fish Ball found that things were a little different.

From the mountain, he, surprisingly, saw many people in Frost Town.

"Did some major city fall?" the squad scout Hanson whistled. "So many refugees in just around 10 days. We'll be very busy in the next few days."

Fish Ball also felt excited. Only about 1,000 people had departed for Neverwinter over the past one to two months. It seemed that the number of the refugees this time would exceed that of the previous trip.

Although Fish Ball did not understand why these refugees chose to come to this small town down the valley instead of other more accessible cities, he still had the obligation to send them to safer places.

At this thought, the army sped up.

Going downhill was apparently much faster than going uphill. About half an hour later, the unit reached the encampment in Frost Town. Many refugees had noticed them, and they soon swarmed up to the street and rushed toward the army.

"Well, they're in... such a haste," someone joked.

"Didn't we tell them to wait in town?"

"Perhaps they ran out of food and want some from us?"

Most of the soldiers held the same opinion.

"If there's a catastrophe in a neighboring city, then it makes sense that these people don't have food," Fish Ball commented and quickly made the decision. "But it's hard for us to count them and maintain the order. We have to stop these people. I need ten soldiers to help me set up the checkouts. The others shall keep them in order."

Fish Ball knew there would be serious consequences if they failed to stop the refugees. If they all rushed forward at once, those refugees would be no different than bandits.

Most of the time, there was a very thin line between refugees and bandits.

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers were soon dispersed. All of them grasped their guns.

As the refugees slowly approached, they could see them more clearly.

Fish Ball raised the amplifier and turned up the volume to the maximum. "This is the rescue team of the First Army of Graycastle. Please stay calm and stop right away to wait for further instructions. We have ample food and medicine, but you'll need to cooperate. Again, stop where you are, otherwise, we'll take hard measures!"

Some people hesitated but soon resumed to run, as though something were pushing them from behind.

Fish Ball frowned. He then asked his team member to fire into the air as a warning.

Just then, Hanson whistled.

"Hmm."

"What's the matter?" Fish Ball asked.

"Leader, they look a bit strange..." Hanson said while watching through the telescope. "Have you seen any refugees take a roll of cloth with them before?"

"A roll of cloth?" Fish Ball echoed in bewilderment. He grabbed the telescope from Hanson and saw about 300 meters away, these refugees were running toward them. He could roughly tell what they were wearing and carrying. Like Hanson had said, most of them were carrying a roll of cloth on the back or at the waist. It was indeed very strange.

Refugees would normally take all their belongings with them, and the First Army would usually ask them to abandon heavy luggage and take light items that would not cause inconvenience to the trip, such as gold royals. Generally, the army would not interfere with refugees' personal affairs. During the past two months, Fish Ball had seen various strange personal items, but it was his first time seeing rolls of cloth.

The more he looked at them, the more strange they appeared.

These refugees were all in rags, but surprisingly, they were all wearing shoes. Their clothes were not old or worn at all. Instead, it appeared to Fish Ball that the clothes had been made look old just very recently.

Now, the two parties were only 200 meters away from each other.

"Bang!"

His team member again issued the warning.

The crowd was immediately dispersed, and the next moment, Fish Ball froze to the ground. The shot frightened some refugees at the front, who unrolled the cloth and revealed the rifle that the First Army usually used underneath!

Soon, all of them revealed their weapons from underneath their cloth. They were carrying all kinds of weapons, including swords and tridents.

Fish Ball suddenly realized that this was a trap!

"Retreat to the encampment!" Fish Ball yelled at his team members. "Run!"

No sooner had he finished than the disguised refugees started to fire.

Bullets whistled past Fish Ball and exhaled dusts and earth. The other nine soldiers from the First Army finally realized what had happened and hurried to the campsite while lowering their heads.

The unit had camped there several times. Although there were no trenches or blockhouses, they had built fortresses. These fortresses constructed with sand and stones were designed to fight demons, but now, they had to rely on them to avoid the attack of the refugees.

By the time Fish Ball reached the fortresses, all his team members had crouched down. They were now utterly outnumbered, for there were more than 40 enemies while they only got nine people. Fish Ball's heart leaped to his throat when he thought of the possibility that all of them would be shot dead unprepared on the battlefield.

He seized Hanson's arm and said, "Go see how everyone's doing, now!"

Hanson immediately left, and Fish Ball held up the gun and aimed at the running "refugees".

No... they were not real refugees but nobles that had submitted to the demons!

Only the demons could obtain so many weapons from the First Army!

"Damn it!" Fish Ball swore under his breath. He had never expected that his own kind would disguise as refugees and set up such a nasty trap. Did they not know who they were helping?

In a few minutes, Hanson came back, which was faster than Fish Ball had thought. Hanson reported, "Everyone's fine, except one soldier. He's got minor injuries, but he can still fight."

Fish Ball stiffened for a second. "Just one person?" He remembered that the "refugees" had shot quite fiercely.

"Yes," Hanson confirmed, looking hugely relieved. "We're pretty lucky. Now, everyone has returned to their positions. We'll fight to the last!"

Chapter 1281 - A Deadlock

"That's right. Fight to the last."

The campsite was against hills, so it was impossible to retreat to the crest against the gunfire. As each rescue team acted separately, they would not get reinforcements anytime soon. Considering the precarious situation, Fish Ball judged that the best way to repel the enemies was to hold onto this encampment.

Not only far outnumbered, most of the soldiers only brought food and clothes with them. There was not even a single HMG on the campsite, so they were not able to defeat the enemies with advanced, long-distance weapons.

This was going to be a "50 to 1,000" situation.

Fish Ball admitted that he was scared at this moment, but he was no longer the coward who used to only think about escapes. As the unit leader, he had the obligation to get his whole team out of the dilemma.

He must have those refugees pay the price before he died here.

Apparently, his team members were also thinking the same thing, for they were now letting the enemies approach them. Currently, the two parties were less than 200 meters from each other.

Since they had limited ammunition, the most efficient way to kill the "refugees" was to shoot at a close range.

In the meantime, the enemies would also fire more accurately as the distance between the two parties shortened. This method was, therefore, a double-edged sword, and at present, willpower determined everything.

Fish Ball waited for nearly a minute for the enemies to approach. Finally, they were at 100 meters from the First Army soldiers. Within this distance, he could already see the faces of these traitors through the telescope. His suspicion was thus confirmed. Unlike windswept and weary refugees, most of them looked poised and self-assured. There was not the slightest sign of reluctance in their act of demeanor.

He did not have to worry about having innocent blood shed anymore.

Fish Ball aimed at the enemy at the very front and pulled the trigger.

His team members also fired at the same time.

In an instant, gunshots rented the air above the encampment. As the enemies at the front fell, the rest of them all slowed down and began to shoot at the First Army as well. Fish Ball was not sure whether these refugeeshad learned to use the firearms by themselves or they had received some sort of training from the demons. Anyway, both parties started to shoot each other.

Just at that moment, the enemies pushed a few two-wheeled trailers covered with cloth to the front.

Fish Ball was familiar with this type of transportation tool. Compared to a carriage or a mule, a trailer was more often used for moving and carrying heavy cargo. He had thought that the enemies used these trailers simply to make themselves look more like refugees, and he was surprised to see that they had not abandoned those props yet.

It was not until the enemies uncovered the cloth that Fish Ball realized that it was a Mark I type HMG underneath!

The enemies began to fire.

The rain of bullets immediately suppressed the attack of the First Army. It appeared that the bullets that the enemies were using were all tracers, and the HMG was much more accurate than bolt rifles. The whole encampment was thus stirred. Dust and mud flew in all directions. Thanks to the fortresses, the soldiers from the First Army were still able to fight back.

Fortunately, the enemies did not fire from far away but carried the HMG along as they charged. The machine gun was, therefore, only around 200 meters away from the defensive line. Since the First Army was fairly scattered, the enemies had time to position.

"Hanson!" Fish Ball yelled.

Hanson gestured that he understood and ran toward the edge of the fortresses while carrying his gun.

The First Army seldom ran into a disadvantageous position because of the lack of weapons. According to the Operation Manual, once the army was short of ammunition, the soldiers should immediately request for the support of the artillery at the rear or concentrate on suppressing the enemies' gunfire. Apparently, in the current situation, the only thing that the unit could do was to shoot directly to deter the enemies.

While the enemies were reloading the HMG, Fish Ball and his team members fired ferociously to distract the enemies. Hanson also successfully shot down the gunners on the trailers. Those who attempted to clamber onto the trailers were immediately shot dead one by one.

Without the support of the HMG, the charging enemies were soon repulsed, and the battle went back to the beginning.

"Damn it. Why haven't they taken the campsite yet?" Marwayne complained irritably as he looked up at the sinking sun while stomping impatiently. "Viscount Narnos, your guys are all cravens, aren't they? What takes them so long to crush a unit? If they can't win by the end of the day, we'll let the Graycastle men escape right under our noses!"

As the commanders, the nobles did not have to fight at the front in person like their squires and mercenaries. Plus, the Graycastle men never followed the rules of war between nobles. They never reserved their power or exchanged captives. The nobles knew perfectly well the arrogant attitude of the Graycastle men. Charging at the front would not bring them any honor or respect but only a miserable defeat.

"They're doing their best, and your men aren't any better than mine either," Narnos retorted indignantly. "You have the greatest army, but they're all at the rear. If your main force moved a little bit forward to the front, we would have taken the encampment a long time ago."

"You — " Marwayne was at a loss for words. He rested his eyes upon the front again and promised to himself that he would seek revenge later.

"Once I become the King of Everwinter, you'll pay for your insolence!"

However, right now, Marwayne knew that he must win. Otherwise, the Sky Lord would abandon him.

He did not understand why the battle took so long.

Everything went well as planned. To fool the Graycastle men, they did not set up the ambush in the town or surround their encampment but awaited in this valley so that both parties would have a clear view of the opponent's force. He had considered every single detail of this operation to make sure that they would not blow their cover. He had even killed all the townsmen who might possibly give away their true identity.

In fact, just as he had planned, the Graycastle men did not raise any suspicion until they were several hundred meters from each other. The nobles had far more firearms and soldiers than their opponent, and this battle should have ended in a second. Why did they still not take the campsite?

Even if every one of the Graycastle soldier possessed a weapon, there were only 50 of them, but the alliance army of the nobles had more than 200 guns!

Marwayne was indebted to a belief that the Graycastle soldiers should have been vanquished under such an unfavorable condition.

But the reality seemed to be exactly the opposite.

The alliance army could not move any further from the hill, and for many times, they had been repelled by the gunfire of the Graycastle soldiers. Their attack, however, had not weakened the Graycastle men at all, as though the enemies were possessed of an unusual power that enabled them to operate several guns at the same time.

The flintlocks that Marwayne had put great faith in were almost ineffective. They not only failed to break the spirit of the Graycastle soldiers but a lot of times, they wounded their own soldiers. From the top of the hill, Marwayne could see bodies litter around the flintlocks, so nobody had the courage to operate them anymore.

If things went on like that, everything he had dreamed of would remain as a dream.

The Kingdom of Everwinter did not possess technologies to produce bullets. If he could not obtain sufficient ammunition after this battle, he would have no chance to win the Graycastle men again.

"Don't worry, your lordship," Fueler comforted. "As far as I see, the enemies fire less frequently now, which indicates that they're running out of ammunition. Just in a few minutes, we'll fight this battle out in the traditional way. Remember that the Graycastle men only have flintlocks, but we have everything."

"But in that case, we won't be able to get more ammunition from them," Marwayne thought to himself in anguish. He would have to ask the Sky Lord for more. The most pressing task for him now was to eliminate these Graycastle soldiers as soon as possible. Marwayne thus summoned a guard and ordered, "Tell them that the reward I promised earlier will double if they win this battle, and the first one who enters the enemies' campsite will receive 100 gold royals!"

Chapter 1282 - The Battle Is to the Strong

Fish Ball noticed the change in the situation.

He was now betting his life on this battle, but, surprisingly, the enemies were weaker than he had expected.

When he had been fighting against the demons on the Fertile Plains back then, he could hardly breathe, and all he could do was to fire. His entire body had gone numb. However, at present, he could still keep an eye on his team members and the enemies, and had the ability to think about what step the opponent would possibly take next.

As the enemies were repelled several times, their move significantly slowed down.

The First Army shot less frequently. To save ammunition, they only fired when the alliance army charged. The last shot was about an hour ago.

The consequence would be unbearable for the alliance army if this "deadlock" continued under the current circumstances when there was no reinforcement.The First Army was on the higher land under the protection of the fortresses in a more advantageous firing position.

Fish Ball did not understand why the commander of the enemies chose to stand with his arms folded. Unlike a traditional battle where soldiers had to fight at a close range, this battle was apparently more dangerous and intense, for the soldiers could be shot anytime. The commander's indifference would definitely have a negative impact on the soldiers' morale.

In fact, the alliance army had commenced to retreat.Fish Ballhad witnessed that some soldiers had retreated somewhere around 100 meters farther, and the whole frontier was on the brink of a collapse.

This fact indicated that the alliance army had just been built temporarily. The soldiers, in general, lacked trust and cooperation.

In addition to that, Fish Ball had also noticed that the enemies were not really good at using flintlocks. They were simply imitating the First Army in a very clumsy way, failing to make the best of use out of the weapons.

Otherwise, the First Army would not have been able to hold up for so long.

It was incredible that out of the 10 soldiers, only five sustained injuries, and nobody was killed.

He could not attribute this outcome totally to luck anymore.

"Can someone pass me some bullets? Mine ran out!"

"Same here. I only have one cartridge left."

"Leader, what should we do next?" Hanson trotted up to Fish Ball while bending his head. "No enemy is around the machine gun anymore. Shall we retreat tonight?"

Fish Ball stared up at the sky. It was now around 5:00 in the afternoon, and the sun sank faster than usual in fall. Within one hour and a half, darkness would creep in. By that time, it would be a lot safer for them to operate, and they could possibly even turn their back against the enemies.

However, Fish Ball always hesitated when it came to a retreat.

It was true that thefiring accuracy would significantly drop at night, but the First Army would not be able to use the firearms either. More importantly, if the enemies launched an attack again and came after them, could they successfully repel them once more?

Hadthey currently had sufficient ammunition, they could have then probably retreated before the enemies got prepared fora second attack. However, if things went on like this, the nobles would soon notice that the First Armyshot less frequently andtherebypredict their next move.

Also, two people sustained relatively serious injuries, which further slowed the unitdown.

Fish Ball could not abandon his team members.

He hesitated for a while and finally made up his mind. Then, he said, "Ask everyone to come here. I want to say something."

A moment later, Hanson brought the other team members.

The enemies seemed to have not noticed that the First Army had confined their shooting range. They were still lying on the ground on their stomachs while firing occasionally. Fish Ball was thus more certain about his decision.

He briefly talked about the current situation and then surveyed the whole team. "His Majesty often says that an attack is the best defense. If we could defeat these nobles, we don't need to worry about them coming back anymore. However, if we retreat now, we'd leave them a chance to fight back. So, it's time to make a choice. We could either let the enemies determine our fate or control our own destiny. I want to hear your opinions on that."

"Leader, do you mean... that we shall attack them instead?" Hanson asked in surprise. "They have far more people than us."

"I thought about that already. They do outnumber us, but most of them don't want to fight anymore. They just haven't realized it when firing at a distance. If we could quash their most powerful troop, we could possibly break their spirit!"

"But we don't have much ammunition left..."

"According to the Operation Manual, the First Army doesn't always rely on weapons," Fish Ball said solemnly.

A silence descended on the campsite. Hanson was the first one to speak. "I'm with the leader."

"Me too, leader. I want everyone to stick together."

"Whether we leave or not, we should always act together!"

"Issue your command, leader!"

The soldiers shouted.

Fish Ball nodded solemnly. He would not have made such a decision had this occurred in the past. After serving in the army for four years, he did feel that something had changed.

"I see that you aren't a craven now."

A bright, silvery voice came to him.

Fish Ball took a deep breath and proclaimed slowly, "Everyone, install the bayonet!"

Although their weapons had upgraded from the traditional flintlock to the bolt rife, and the structure of the gun had changed a lot, the bayonet had always been there, only that it now functioned better.

The soldiers thus all drew out their swords and inserted them into the grooves.

Fish Ball slid the last clip into the bore, raised his arm and yelled, "Follow me!"

He rushed out of the fortresses first.

The other team members followed at his heels and streaked toward the enemies closest to them!

The enemies had apparently no idea what was going on. Many of them did not even rise but simply shot at the First Army mechanically.

Fish Ball was prepared to get shot, but the pain he had been waiting for did not come. It was not until they had covereda distance of 100 meters that the enemies finally stood bolt upright, rooted to the ground, with their rifles in their hands, totally dumbfounded.

Fish Ball stabbed the enemies with his bayonet in the way he was trained.

"Go!"

His team members followed and rushed toward the enemies.

The air was filled with the soldiers' shoutings.

Fish Ball stabbed one soldier, shot another dead, and then turned around to stab the third one until he noticed that there was no enemy around him anymore.

The alliance army had started to flee.

They had probably never anticipated that the First Army would come out of their campsite at this moment and fight at a close range. They could not stand the intense battle anymore.

The battle was to the strong.

The alliance army was soon flattened after several weak attempts of resistance. The panic was infectious. When the soldiers at the front began to retreat, the ones at the rear all dropped their weapons and fled. Many people fell, rolled down the hill and hit the soldiers running at the front.

The First Army thus easily obtained the HMG and started to fire at the running soldiers. The enemies moved their two legs as fast as they could. Had the First Army had enough ammunition, these soldiers would probably have not been able to escape.

Fish Ball did not stop until his two legs gave away.

The enemies on the hill all knelt down, raised their arms and yielded. The nobles at the rear were the first ones to leave. Fish Ball could not see a single one of them now.

He clenched his fists, feeling a sense of achievement steal through him.

Before he could savor the victory, his team member rushed toward him andpushed him down to the ground. "Leader, we won!"

"Long live His Majesty!"

"Long live the First Army!"

Multiple hands reached out to him, and Fish Ball was thrown up in the air.

Yes, they had won.

Nothing was better than seeing everyone alive.

Fish Ball spread out his hands in the sunset and also yelled with his soldiers in excitement.

Chapter 1283 - The Source of Information

At the Sedimentation Bay in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

The news of the victory of this counter ambush soon reached Iron Axe.

Iron Axe immediately dispatched a letter through the carrier pigeon, in which he not only heaped praises on Fish Ball for his excellent leadership skill but also instructed the unit to stay safe while waiting for the reinforcement.

Although the enemy in this battle was simply an alliance army organized by nobles, their quick reaction and outstanding performance set a great example for the whole army. Advertising this unusual victory would definitely raise the morale of the First Army in a more significant way than continuing to retrieve refugees, especially when the whole army was in the process of retreating.

Not a long time ago, Iron Axe had actually received two pieces of bad news, one of which was that the soldiers in the Red Mist area were thwarted by the local nobles who had agreed to help the demons.

According to the report, these knights from the Kingdom of Everwinter were currently attacking the units responsible for retrieving refugees. Apparently, these knights, being also human,were better at hindering the evacuation campaign than the demons. As it was quite dangerous for the First Army to advance to the depth of the Red Mist area, most of the time the soldiers simply stayed outside the Red Mist zone. As such, there were fewer people actually helping evacuate the cities.

The other bad news was that the demons' attack became more fierce. First of all, a large number of Devilbeasts flew out of the Red Mist zone in the southeast and off to the Archduke Island. Then, the garrison on the island got prepared for the upcoming war and suspended the service of marine transportation.

However, the Devilbeasts, incredibly, disappeared from the sky above the two outposts and reappeared above a temporary evacuation unit on the island. Very unfortunately, however, the unit had just been informed that the Devilbeast would head to the east and was, therefore, retreating as fast as they could at that moment. They thus ran right into the demons.

Although the unit resisted ferociously, they were vanquished. Iron Axe had yet received a full statistical report, but the reinforcement told him that nearly 2,000 refugees had been attacked. The army had lost at least 100 people.

Considering the substantial loss, Iron Axe had no choice but to slow down the campaign.

The two incidents created a chain reaction. The General Staff had indeed foreseen the possibility of a betrayal by the nobles, but they had not expected that it would happen that fast. The noble families in the Kingdom of Everwinter had been fighting for nearly two years for the throne, but they now, ironically, united together because of the demons.

It was obvious that the immigration campaign was drawing to its end. Now, the First Army needed to recuperate and defend the Red Mist zone on the border.

There were approximately 5,000 soldiers at the Cage Mountain and the Sedimentation Bay, which was not even 1/6 of the total force. Iron Axe did not know what the demons' military force was. Before he had that information, he could not lose any more soldiers.

What Iron Axe was worried about most was that the demons might attack the unmanned areas before the First Army assembled. In that case, they would not only lose these new territories but also those they had occupied.

There was no such things as armored train that could serve as a "mobile fortress" in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Just then, a soldier entered the study and reported, "Sir, the chief of the General Staff, Ms. Edith Kant, just arrived at the port."

"Really?" Iron Axe said while knitting his brows. This was such good timing, for he was just hoping that Edith could give him some advice. "Great. I'll meet her at the port."

At the dock, Iron Axe saw that the Pearl of the Northern Region was surrounded by a group of clerks in the General Staff. Everyone looked profoundly relieved at the sight of her. For a moment, they had completely forgotten how she used to torment them.

Within a year after she assumed the office of the chief of the General Staff, Edith was widely acknowledged and highly respected among her subordinates.

Iron Axe was impressed with the great difference between Edith,the daughter of a former duke and the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

"Mr. commander-in-chief," Edith said while staring at Iron Axe after she bowed. "It has been a long time since we last saw each other. I hope my clerks didn't create you too much trouble."

"They all did a good job," Iron Axe replied as he administered a military salute as a return. Since he and Edith had the same rank, their communication was always straight forward without any unncessary formalities. In fact, apart from Roland and Lady Silvermoon, Edith was the only person that Iron Axe was willing to speak with voluntarily.

"In other words, they didn't give you any pleasant surprise?" Edith said while shrugging and then turned to her clerks. "It seems that your performance isn't very satisfactory."

Iron Axe curled up his lips. Miss Pearl of the Northern Region always had a sharp tongue. He thus said, "If we could win the war, they aren't that bad."

Edith did not insist on the topic but said, "By the way, I brought the new weapon created by His Majesty based on the latest intelligence. Are you interested in it?"

Iron Axe's face lit up. He replied immediately, "Of course. Please lead the way."

They thus went to the heavily guarded unloading area, which had already been sealed off by the soldiers. Huge wooden boxes were coming off the ship and were placed neatly at a corner.

Many cases had been open, revealing the weapons covered in parchment paper.

Iron Axe soon noticed a small cannon.

"That's the one," Edith said with a smile. "This 75mm-caliber cannon is the most expensive firearm among all. His Majesty wants it to fill the blank between the mortar and the Longsong Cannon. No witch is required for its shipment. A horse or two people would suffice. Also, it's portable, and another person can carry the shells."

"This reminds me of the original field artillery," Iron Axe said with a nod and immediately figured out what this light weapon was used for. Compared to the anti-demon grenade and the mortar that had a relatively short shooting range, this new cannon could be used to attack the robust Spider Demon. With this weapon, the soldiers at the front could immediately take some measures against the Spider Demon without necessarily building a battlement for the artillery.

"As for the new rifle there, it's a semi-auto weapon," Edith explained as she proceeded. "The testing result is pretty good. Two or three rifles could be as powerful as a heavy machine gun. You must know the person who created this. He's the battalion commander of the Artillery Banttalion, Van'er. Although His Majesty later modified the weapon, the gun is named after Van'er."

"But this is only a substitute. We're currently in the process of producing a real automatic gun and will send you the final product once it's ready."

"The one farthest to you is the latest anti-demon grenade. It's caliber is much larger than the previous one. I believe that the Ministry of Chemical Industry has improved it."

The group was gradually dispersed. By the time Iron Axe reached the edge of the dumpsite, only he and Edith were there.

"What's the matter? Did the battle not go well?" Edith asked suddenly.

It was a second later before Iron Axe realized that Edith had separated him from the crowd deliberately.

"You knew?"

"You wouldn't have greeted me at the dock in such a haste if that wasn't the case."

"I know I can't fool you," Iron Axe sighed and told Edith the recent news and what he was worrying about. "Before the transportation resumed, we still need a few months to assemble the army and gather ammunition. The demons could attack us anytime. Even if Miss Sylvie, Lightning and Maggie come, they can't monitor everything. The war is about to begin, but we have little information of our enemy. This isn't a good sign."

"I see," Edith said meditatively. "I can't do anything about the transportation, but it isn't hard to gather intelligence."

"You had an idea already?"

"You can put that way. You're only thinking about the First Army, and that's why you feel it difficult." Edith said slowly, "The demons used nobles to attain their ends, but they've also created us an opportunity. As long as those cities are not evacuated, we would be able to infiltrate the enemy!"

Truth seemed to suddenly dawn on Iron Axe. He said, "You're not talking about the First Army soldiers, are you?"

"Of course not. Soldiers are not good at those stuff. Rats and civilians are better options. I prefer natives, so they won't easily expose themselves. There are tons of ways to have them work for you," Edith said smilingly. "By the way, didn't you receive a black card earlier? Try to contact them."

Chapter 1284 - Infiltration

When Roland received the report jointly written by the commander of the First Army and the chief of the General Staff, he immediately thought of the spy movies he had watched.

This was apparently a very feasible plan.

He even thought more about the plan than Edith.

Spy was an ancient profession, and it had various names in different times, but the spy Roland was familiar with were those in WWI and WWII. Early intelligence collection was simply a two-way communication without a systematic organization. As the government tightened their control over people, spies and agents found it increasingly hard to escape the scrutiny, and that was the time when a well-organized system was established.

This also meant that in a feudal country ruled by nobles, spies could be anywhere. Once those agents received some professional training and learned cunning tricks to protect themselves, they would never be found even if the whole city was turned upside down.

They were like shadows slinking in the city, whose presence never raised the awareness of the people who received their tips. Even Nightingale would fail to get anything out of them upon an interrogation.

Roland thus approved the proposal at once.

However, he was not planning to entrust this task totally to Edith. This, nonetheless, had nothing to do with trust. Intelligence collection could be time-consuming. He would rather Edith focus more on the big picture of the plan than a specific project. Otherwise, it would be a total waste of Edith's talent.

He would need a professional to deal with this matter.

Roland spread open a letter and put Hill Fawkes at the top.

The Kingdom of Dawn had been quite peaceful recently. This former ringmaster must be very bored at the moment.

After Nightingale handed the letter to Honey, Roland started to consider about another thing.

That was an intelligence gathering network.

Before, he had only needed to take care of the war and political matters within Graycastle. However, ever since the expedition to Taquila, it had taken the carrier pigeon a much longer time to commute. Thanks to the support of the "Seagull", Roland was still able to receive information in a timely manner.

Nevertheless, they were now waging a war in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter, and Roland noticed a significant delay in communication.

For example, the report he was currently reading had been written a week ago and had been shipped by sea. Although animal messengers would make things a lot faster, he would still need to wait for at least two or three days. More importantly, Honey did not have a lot of messengers that could fly more than 1,000 kilometers. She could only control the behavior of the animals but not change it.

Plus, Honey was not powerful enough to support the communication throughout the entire Western Region even for short-distance messengers, let alone the communication throughout the whole nation and beyond Gray castle. There was actually a limit in the number of the animals she could control. Therefore, how to efficiently deliver messages was also a huge problem that needed to be solved after this intelligence gathering network was established.

Roland knew very well that the ultimate solution would be radio communication.

The telegraph technologies were simple, but like telephones, the communication through telegraphs relied largely on reception. Normally, the signal could only cover a distance of 100 kilometers without a repeater like an electron tube that could amplify signals.

However, if he could invent an electron tube, he would also be able to create radios. There was no electromagnetic pollution in this era. The sound produced by tuned electromagnetic waves was very similar to the crying of a baby. He would only need to erect an antenna on the top of the Impassable Mountain Range to receive messages thousands of kilometers away.

If he could successfully create radios, it would only take a few minutes to transmit the report from the front to his office. If every soldier in the army was equipped with a portable radio, that would be even more helpful to the war than the Radiation Project.

Nevertheless, Roland had no idea where to start and how.

Perhaps, it was time to ask the Design Bureau of Graycastle to work on more projects.

Roland entered the Dream World at night. After he sent Zero off to school, he drove to the construction site of the Clover Group in the southern suburb.

Garde was indeed an efficient businessman. He fulfilled his promise at once. Not only did he authorize Roland to manage the plant, but the plant was refurbished as well. The rusty wall was painted, and the facilities were renewed.

Had the Clover Group not insisted on demolishing the apartment building, Roland would have loved to deal with Garde and conducted more business with him.

He parked his vehicle and found the yard outside the plant look a bit strange. Normally, few people came here, but today, there were a lot of workers.

He also heard deep, heavy roar of machineries.

Roland quickly passed through the crowd and saw a queer catepillar machine in front of him. Only the lower part of the machine was currently completed. There was nothing special about the catepillar and the wheels per se. What attracted these workers was the distinctive steam-powered piston at the top and another tractor that produced steam.

Roland burst into a laugh.

So that was Master Xie's idea. To minimize the impact of the imaginary boiler and water tank, he installed this part of the machine onto a tractor so that he could test out both of them at the same time. The tractor not only had to run on its own but it also needed to power the catepillar machine. The principle was so similar to that of the "solar torch light" that would only work when there was light.

"Ahem... hey, boss," Master Xie, having realized the awkwardness of the machine, greeted Roland in embarrassment.

Roland praised him heartily, "Good job. This is exactly what I want!"

He came here to check the progress of the project. Last time when he had come here, Master Xie had only completed the frame of the tractor. But now, the tractor was finished. Master Xie indeed had put a lot of efforts into it.

"R-really?" Master Xie said while scratching his scalp. "Are you sure your collector friends are interested in this kind of thing?"

"Did you make the parts of the tester with machine tools?"

"Yes, I can assure you about that," Master Xie replied quickly as he massaged his hands. "But I bought the tractor, the boiler and the water tank. They're all second-handed, and it cost me around ￥300,000..."

"Money isn't a problem," Roland dismissed his concern while waving his hand. The Clover Group would pay everything. "As long as they were manually made, my friend will be satisfied. Keep up the great work. Once the deal is successfully closed, I'll double your salary as a bonus!"

Chapter 1285 - Five Pairs of Road Wheels

Master Xie's face instantly split into a bright smile, but the woman next to him heaved an almost inaudible sigh.

Roland naturally noticed her. After he started to absorb the magic cores in the Dream World, his power continuously grew, and he also became more sensitive about the subtle changes around him. Although few people noticed the woman, Roland still caught sight of her in the corner of his eyes.

This woman was the secretary and financial adviser sent by Garde. Her name was Qingqing, and she had just graduated from a very prominent university. Qingqing was a pretty, talented and efficient worker, a gifted woman, so to speak. Only she knew that the Clover Group bore all the expenses incurred by this project, and the "actual boss" did not have to pay anything.

Perhaps, Qingqing thought Roland was taking advantage of the corporation, so she did not have a very high opinion of him.

Roland, however, did not care about that. He simply needed to give her a raise as well so that she would not complain anymore.

"Of course, this is the joint work of all the staff," Roland said while smiling at the secretary. "If we succeed, I'll double the salary for everyone in the plant!"

"Yes, quite right. You're very considerate, boss," Master Xie rejoined while nodding vigorously.

"No... This is not what I meant...." Qingqing had not expected that Roland would see through her mind. Abashed, she said, "I was just wondering when the corporation could profit..."

Roland waved his hand and said, "We will one day. Don't worry. All of my friends have great ambitions. The corporation will definitely profit from this project. Just wait for the raise."

"Awesome. Awesome," Master Xie said as though he had realized his long-term dream. All the wrinkles on his smiling face were smoothened.

"By the way," Roland said while looking toward Qingqing. "I have a new project to work on. Come with me to the office."

"Boss," Master Xie stopped Roland when the latter was about to leave. "Do you have any other requirements for this tractor? For example, the style and the color?"

It appeared that Master Xie really believed that Roland was making props. Roland shook his head in amusement and said, "As long as it functions well, I don't care about such things very much. But..."

"Please go ahead."

"If possible, I wish the final products could have five pairs of road wheels."

"Not a problem at all," Master Xie promised while patting his chest. "I thought about the mobility of the machine when I designed it. Place the matter in my hand."

As all the workers in the plant ran out to watch the testing of the tractor, the whole plant became exceptionally quiet. Roland noticed that Qingqing had distanced from him after they entered the workshop. She had moved a little farther from him, and the distance between the two increased from the initial two meters to five meters.

Roland was quite amused at her action. It seemed that Garde had not told her that Roland was actually a martialist. Otherwise, she should have known that when a martialist attempted to sexually harrass a girl, the girl would not be able to escape even if she was 50 meters away from the former.

But Roland did not care about his personal image among his employees, as he only wanted his workers to work hard.

Roland sat straight in his seat after getting into the messy office. He jumped right into the business and said, "Well, I have a friend..."

"Here it goes."

Qingqing thought to herself. Every time he talked about a new project, he started with a friend of his. Who would like to squander thousands of hundreds of dollars on tons of rubbish? Qingqing knew that some wealthy people did have strange hobbies, but the boss in front of her did not look remotely like a successful entrepreneur from an affluent family. She was confident of her own judgment.

She graduated from a top university and knew a lot of wealthy people, but she had never seen anyone dress so simple as the boss. True rich people always treated themselves well even if they wanted to keep a low profile. They might purchase clothes by an indie brand, but what they wore and used must be expensive and of good quality. Many young people tended not to, in fact, exhibit their wealth to the public, but this Mr. Roland was wearing the cheapest clothes normally sold by street vendors, without wearing any accessories. Even his vehicle was a battered mini van. He was not keeping a low profile at all...

He was simply poor!

How was that possible that he had wealthy friends?

Qingqing was hired by the Clover Group, the biggest corporation in this city, right after her graduation. She wanted to add some impressing work experience to her resume, but she had not expected that her boss would send her to this small factory to look after so many weird projects. She even started to suspect whether Mr. Garde was scammed, or whether he intended to use this plant to do some shady business.

She was astonished after hearing Roland mention radio communication. Qingqing massaged her forehead while letting out a sigh. This kind of walkie-talkie only cost less than ￥100 online, and they could also directly purchase an antique telegraph machine without necessarily making it by themselves. However, Roland wanted to produce them from scratch like the tractor. Everything must be hand-made, including all the parts.

This was purely wasting money!

"I don't need professionals. New graduates or people who love radio technologies would do. You can set up a room outside the plant as their office so that I don't have to travel back and forth," Roland explained in detail. "Whatever equipment they need, just approve it. Remember, however, that all the parts should be produced here. They don't have to be perfect though. In fact, the worse the quality is, the better. Make them as desolate and dilapidated as possible. My friend likes that kind of stuff."

"That's different than giving a raise. I'll have to report to Mr. Garde."

"That's fine," Roland said indifferently. "I think he'll agree."

Just then, his cell phone rang.

It was from the Martialist Association.

Roland picked up the phone after Qingqing left.

"Hello, Mr. Roland," Rock, the Defender's calming voice came over the line. "I have a new task for you. Are you available to pay a visit to Greenleaf Sanatorium this afternoon?"

Since the Design Bureau of Graycastle entirely relied on Rock's support, Roland could not refuse the request.

As Roland had eliminated the magic creatures coming out of the Erosion last time, the Fallen Evils had been pretty quite recently as if they had sensed the danger and withdrawn from this city. As such, the Taquila witches did not find many Fallen Evils to fight.

Roland believed that things were not that simple.

The Fallen Evils were aiming for the Forces of Nature of the Awakened, through which they could further weaken the Dream World. With the attack of the Prism City and the beginning of the Martialist Contest, many martialists had gathered here, so the Fallen Evilshad no reason to leave.

It would save Roland a lot of time if the Association obtained new information regarding the Fallen Evils.

Chapter 1286 - The Other World

"How are you feeling?"

Fei Yuhan asked as she entered Room 402 with a stack of books in her arms and placed the books on the nightstand.

Valkries said with a nod, "Thank you. I can walk now. The doctor says I'll fully recover in a week."

"That's good. You really have excellent self-repairing ability even as a martialist," Fei Yuhan said with a smile.

"Really?"

"The influence of the Force of Nature on each person is different. Not every martialist could recover within one month when his leg bones are crushed like yours. You probably haven't seen any martialists sustain such severe injuries before, so you don't know your potential." Fei Yuhan paused for a second and said, "You should be one of the top martialists in your city, right?"

"Why do you think so?"

"My master often says that the strong one is strong in every aspect. The fact that you recover so fast means that you have a strong body and a great immune system. People like you were born to be a martialist, like me," Fei Yuhan said flatly. "We may see who's stronger once you recover."

"That's the reason you asked me to join your team?" Valkries asked, a little resigned. "You're the genius in the Association. I don't think you could learn anything newfrom me."

"That's fine. You've been lying in bed for a long time. Practicing with a good martialist can help you regain your power. Fallen Evils would not sympathize you because you had injuries before."

Valkries nodded after a moment of silence and then said, "Alright then. Thank you."

"Not a problem," Fei Yuhan returned while curling up her lips. "By the way, I went to downtown yesterday and bought some desserts from the Cargarde Peninsula. I put them in the bag on the top of the books. I hope you like them. The food in the hospital isn't very tasty."

At that moment, Valkries noticed that Fei Yuhan swallowed.

People from the Cargarde Peninsula did eatregular food, but it was rumored that they could not distinguish the good and the bad. Only the food grownin their native town could satisfy their special need. Fei Yuhan had once tried their "unique" food but discovered that she could not take it.

Only a few people appreciated the taste and claimed that they were the most delicious food in the world, although the public did not really buy the idea. Therefore, only a few shops were specialized in selling food from the Cargarde Peninsula. After all, not many people lived there.

"Thank you..." Valkries said while trying not to reveal her true thought.

"That's nothing. I'm the captain, and it's my duty to take care of my team members," Fei Yuhan said while waving her hand. "By the way, you do like reading."

"Yes, I tend to do some reading when I'm bored."

"That's a good habit. There's no entertainment in the sanatorium except books. If you want more books, just let me know."

"Thanks."

There was then an awkward silence, except for the rustling sound of the book when Valkries flipped over the pages.

Fei Yuhan looked out of the window at the scenery outside. It was a nice and clear day. A few willows dipped into the water, and the lake rippled slowly in the breezes. A group of swans were sliding across the lake, leaving white reflections in the water.

This was indeed a nice place for convalescence.

However, Fei Yuhan was watching Valkries in the corner of her eyes constantly. From the reflection on the window, she could see Valkires' every move.

Fei Yuhan was not a kind-hearted girl and had no interest in forcing people to fight with her.

She requested a duel simply because she had discovered a month ago that this person might know Roland.

That was not quite accurate. More precisely,Valkries knew Roland, but Roland regarded her as a different person. Roland was actually testing whether she was the person he knew when he had asked those weird questions in the hospital. Fei Yuhan was pretty sure that her speculation was correct.

However, what bewildered her was that Roland had not revealed any sign of hostility against Valkries during the conversation. He was, instead, pretty relaxed, which indicated that whether Valkries was an acquaintance of his or not, she constituted no threat. Nevertheless, Valkries was, on the contrary, pretty nervous. Although she quickly concealed her emotion right after everybody enteredthe room, Fei Yuhan still sensed it.

What was her relationship with Roland and what had made her react so weirdly?

There could have been an intertwined, complicated romantic relationship between Roland and Valkries. For example, the ardent love between the two, for some reason, turned into virulent rancor, or Valkries had undergone a series of plastic surgeries and now sought revenge after ten years had passed by, or Roland was regretted abandoning her and now wanted to be with her again. However, Fei Yuhan thought that this was highly unlikely. Valkries was too good at controlling her facial expression. HadFei Yuhannot discovered it at the beginning, she would have probably be fooled too. She did not think it was a simple love story.

Fei Yuhan had been observant as a kid. After she was awakened, this ability also sharpened accordingly. Because of this, she did not have many close friends, and people were sort of afraid of her. That was why she alway slooked so aloof and distant. She could know what others were thinking with just aglance.

However, Roland was different. Fei Yuhan could not see through this new hunter, nor could she figure out his relationship with Valkries. Apparently, the two were hiding something, and she could not help finding out this secret.

Her suspicion was further confirmed after she talked to Valkries.

This martialist from the Cargarde Peninsula looked no different than ordinary people, but she had some strange behavior. If she had known Roland earlier, than it might explain her oddity. But after Fei Yuhan dug a little deeper, she found something incredible.

She had brought Valkries some food from her native town a few days ago, but the latter did not look particularly excited about that, although she had indeed eaten them all. However, this time, Valkries' attitude had completely changed. This indicated that Valkries had not known what the food from her native town tasted like. She ate them simply because she was curious. What a horrible fact!

It did not make sense that aperson from the Cargarde Peninsula had not eaten food from there.

Also, Fei Yuhan had never seen Valkries play with her phone in the past one month. It was very strange that she never touched phones that so many young people were addicted to.

As for those books...

Valkries requested for many history books from the liabrary. Although reading was a good habit, Fei Yuhan did not think she herself could read a book for a whole day without doing anything else.

The change in Valkries' preference of food might be attributed to the lack of appetite. Being not so interested in phones might be ascribed to her quiet personality. History was probably one of her hobbies. However, there were just too many coincidences. Fei Yuhan somehow had a feeling that Valkries was familiarizing herself with this world.

She would have probably dismissed this ridiculous assumption in the past. However, when she thought of the fact that Roland had been addressed "Your Majesty", she suddenly had a bold idea.

This idea terrified her, but she could not help thinking about it.

Everything would make sense if she thought that way.

Someone not belonging here had sneaked into this city.

They were from the other world.

Chapter 1287 - Uneasiness

How many of them were there? What was their purpose? Were they awakened? What did the other world look like?

Fei Yuhan had no idea.

From what she saw now, they were at least not enemies. Roland had indeed killed a lot of Fallen Evils and was truly fighting against the Erosion.

The joint mission last time provided the best example. She would never forget that someone had said "Your Majesty, everyone has been knocked out" before she had lost her consciousness. She had obviously noticed that Roland was dodging her, which further confirmed her suspicion.

In other words, if these people harbored ill designs, she would not have been still alive. Roland could have killed her after he had exterminated the magic creature and had the magic creature take all the blame. Nobody would have ever suspected his version of the story.

Fei Yuhan thus believed that Roland was helping this world.

That was the reason that she did not report the incident to the Association. Plus, she had no solid evidence at this point.

Both Roland and Valkries were concealing their real identities. Although she did not know why, she would like to put up a show with them and keep an eye on the two people.

Just then, the telephone rang.

"... I see. Got it."

Fei Yuhan hung up the phone and nodded at Valkries. She then said, "Mr. Rock asks me to do something for him. I have to go."

"That's fine. I know it's important."

"See you tomorrow then."

"By the way..." Valkries stopped Fei Yuhan as the latter reached the doorstep. "Captain, could you bring some books regarding technologies to me tomorrow?"

"Something like encyclopedia?" Fei Yuhan said thoughtfully. "It shouldn't bea problem, but there are many types of them. I don't know whether I can find the one you like."

"That's OK. Anything is fine with me," Valkries said pleasantly. "Thank you."

"No worries."

Fei Yuhan's smile gave way to her normal cool look after she closed the door.

Valkries did not like history only.

She was learning about this new world.

Valkries sighed after Fei Yuhan withdrew.

She knew that she was a little too hasty, but she had no better choice. Fei Yuhan was the only person who could help her understand this world. If she had taken things slow, she would have probably wasted a whole month in bed.

If Hackzord's plan worked out well, the Western Front Army should have already stepped their foot onto humans' territory. Currently, he must be in a hot rage for her "disappearance" when he most needed people.

To be honest, Valkries had a complicated feeling at the moment. On one hand she wished that Hackzord could wake her up at the Red Mist pond with no regards to the possible consequence that she would lose most of her memories in the Realm of Mind and might even sustain severe head injuries. On the other hand, she still wanted to linger in this world a little longer.

The reason was pretty simple. The further she probed into this world, the more unsettled she felt. It would be actually a relief if she forgot all about this. Whatever secret Rolandwas holding back from her, as long as she obtained the legacy shard in the real world, human beings wouldnot be able to resist them anymore. What they possessed now would be eventually inherited by their kind, including his secret.

The reason she wanted to stay here longer was that the "Transformer", Heathtalese, had warned the clan that they would not reach the Divine Domain even if they won the Battle of Divine Will. Valkries had engraved her mentor's last words upon her heart. If the victory could not perpetuate the clan, what should they do? Would the answer exist in this incredible Realm of Mind?

Nevertheless, she had another hidden reason.

She did not want to admit it, nor would she say it out loud.

She felt as though she had traveled back in time to the old days when she had studied in the Cloud School. Every day she received new knowledge and saw a future complete different from the other world.

Valkries took out a box of desserts from the bag perched on the top of the books.

The beautiful packagingof the visually-appealing food was just like the food that men normally ate. Each color represented a specific flavor. As she unsealed the box, she could smell the delicious food.

She had never had such tasty confections.

Only inferior life formsin the clan, such as the Inferior Demons and the Primal Demons, ate with mouth. Normal food hardly provided energies and it was hard to digest. Therefore,usually they put the food in the Red Mist Pond to soften it. The process was pretty similar to baking, despite that they did not use fire like men.

The processed food could only satisfy their biological need. After becoming an Upgraded, she could directly obtain energies from the Red Mist, so Valkries had not eaten for a very long time.

Some clansmen thus associated eating with low lives, for example, human beings.

Even witches needed to eat three meals a day.

She had thought so too. However, now she realized that how amazing the food from the Cargarde Peninsula was.

Valkries put a piece of cake into her mouth and savored the sweet taste.

Without a doubt, these desserts still preserved the taste of the food processed in the Red Mist, but it was better after processed with humans' technologies.

She soon finished up the desserts.

Could the Cloud School and the "Transformer" make such great food?

Valkries shook her head and put these thoughts behind.

Anyway, the Battle of Divine Will had lasted for hundreds of years, and nothing could stop it. The current situation was beyond her control, and the most important task for the clan was to survive.

Then, she was again back to the beginning.

She knew why she felt so uneasy.

After doing research for a month, Valkries could pretty much as certain that the great changein the human race had everything do with this world, and Roland was the fundamental person who created these changes. The firearms in the history books were almost exactly the same as those in Ursrook's report.

She had now finally located the last piece of the puzzle and found out why human beings had upgraded. Although she did not know how a male human accessed the Realm of Mind, he had indeed learned a lot from this world. Such extensive knowledge transcended the era she was living in, and he had applied these knowledge to the development of the human society. Witches served as a channel to convert the knowledge. They no longer fought on the battle ground. What the clan was facing now was definitely not the Union 400 years ago but an entirely new human race.

The truth was more than that.

When she read these history books, she found another horrifying fact.

When the human civilization reached a certain degree, their development would accelerate by leaps and bounds! Thousands of years ago, they had still been fighting with firearms. However, now, they had conquered the sky and the ocean, and their weapons could possibly destroy the whole world.

That was why Valkries felt disturbed.

How far had Roland gone?

Not with standing Heathtalese's warning, for the first time in her life, Valkries became unsure whether her clan could defeat human beings.

Chapter 1288 - Intertwined Fate

"Well... Mr. Roland, you'll be responsible for the third defensive line."

"Leave it to me. I'll do my best."

After Roland bade farewell to Rock, he walked out of the Defender's office and let out a sigh.

Things did not go as well as he had anticipated. The Prism City had failed to trace down more Fallen Evils, and he himself had not found any further information about them either.

The Defender thus asked Roland to help tighten the security for the Martialist Contest.

Since they could not locate any Fallen Evils at present, they had to change their plan and awaited Fallen Evils at the contest. To avoid unnecessary consumption of the martialists' strength, the executives of the Association drafted a special schedule, and all the celebrity martialists should follow this schedule accordingly.

In other words, the Martialist Contest this year would completely turn into a carefully-designed trap.

The competition thus became a sort of formality. The executives attached great importance to public safety and had actually had a private conversation with all the celebrity martialists in advance. Everybody understood that they were currently at a critical moment, so none of them looked disgruntled.

There would be four defensive lines according to the plan. The government army and the Association members disguised as audience constituted the first defensive line. Their main duty was to find out enemies and eliminate Fallen Evils acting alone. The second defensive line consisted of all the celebrity martialists, whether they were on stage or not. Traditional martialists would be responsible for the third defensive line and the Defenders the last.

The purpose of this arrangement was to ensure the success of the Martialist Contest before the appearance of a great number of Fallen Evils. As some Fallen Evils could manipulate martialists, it was not enough to only set up one defensive line.

Roland, as a licensed hunter, was naturally assigned to the third defensive line. In fact, he would not only monitor any suspcious figures in the hall but also competing martialists.

Although Roland felt a little regretful that they did not find the hiding places of the Fallen Evils, he currently had no better ways than waiting for them in ambush.

The Association definitely knew more about Fallen Evil than him.

Fallen Evils were not attracted to the "Force of Nature" only.

They were controlled by the Divine Will, and their ultimate goal was to destroy the Dream World and return magic power to the Realm of Mind.

Therefore, the Fallen Evils should not miss such a perfect opportunity to collect so many cores.

When Roland turned around at the corridor, a woman suddenly stopped in front of Roland.

It was none other than the last person he wanted to see right now.

She was the genius martialist, Fei Yuhan.

"Oh... it's you," Fei Yuhan said while looking up at Roland.

They were the only two people in the corridor, so Roland could not pretend that he had not seen her. He cleared his throat and managed a smile, then said, "Ahem, hello."

His smile, however, soon faltered as Fei Yuhan spoke on.

"I have to thank you for saving me last time," Fei Yuhan said while casually extending out her hand. "Thank you for killing that strange monster and saving all of us."

"Er..." Roland did not know what to say. After a moment, he said with some difficulties, "You, you're welcome."

"But the Association gave all the credit to me..." Fei Yuhan sighed.

"No, no, that's totally fine," Roland said while waving his hand. "Well... I have to conceal my identity out of some special reasons. I would rather few people notice my existence."

"Alright," Fei Yuhan said, who, surprisingly did not pursue this topic. "In that case, I'll take it."

Roland wondered why Fei Yuhan easily believed him. If she still remembered everything that had happened before passing out, she should have also remembered Ring's voice. It appeared that she deliberately chose to ignore that matter.

Like all the rumors Roland had heard, Fei Yuhan was never a careless person. Like many young geniuses, Fei Yuhan was proud and strict, both with herself and others. She was always so distant and cold to people and was definitely not an easy going martialist.

However, the girl whom Roland was talking to now was completely the opposite of the martialist he knew.

Suddenly, Fei Yuhan seemed to remember something and asked, "By the way, do you think a person who likes to study history would also like science?"

Stunned for a moment, Roland asked, "Why did you ask that?"

"Do you remember that patient from the Cargarde Peninsula?" Fei Yuhan continued. "Miss Valkries is now on my team. I thought she must feel very bored in the sanatorium, but she's actually interested in books. In the past one month, she almost read all the history books in the library."

Roland was again surprised that Fei Yuhan would care about someone else. He twitched his lips and was about to speak, when suddenly something flashed across his mind. Hang on, was not Valkries she mentioned the one who resembled the demon he had seen in the memory fragment?

She had been reading history books in the past one month?

"... All of them?"

"Pretty much, especially war history. An interesting hobby, isn't it?"

Was it a coincidence? Roland revolved his mind quickly and immediately changed his words. "Yes, I believe she wants to read something about social study and humanity. Sorry, I have to take care of the task the Defender entrusted to me and need to go now."

Roland quickly decided to end this awkward conversation, and Fei Yuhan seemed not to be offended.

"Me too," she said while nodding. "See you then, Mr. Roland."

"Ah... see you."

After Fei Yuhan left, Roland headed downstairs at once.

He accelerated.

Fei Yuhan stopped and listened carefully to Roland's footsteps.

This meeting was not a coincidence but a carefully-planned "meeting".

If truth be told, Roland was the most difficult person she had ever dealt with. Unlike Valkries, he behaved so naturally in this world. Had she not heard that "Your Majesty", she would have probably never suspected him. She had noticed that during their last visit to the hospital, Roland had taken out his phone three times in one minute, and his eyes would linger on pretty ladies. His favorite pop seemed to be coke, just like any ordinary man in this era.

That was why Fei Yuhan started to question about her theory of "the other world". If Valkries knew Roland, it meant that they came from the same world, but why did the two people act so differently?

With these questions, Fei Yuhan planned this meeting not only to thank Roland for his favor but also to test him.

She was very astonished by the result.

Roland seemed to have realized Valkries' strangeness after this conversation, but his reaction was so different from what she had predicted. She had thought Roland would have tried to cover for Valkries since they were "friends" from the same world.

But Roland was alarmed after hearing the news, and he was even more nervous than during the joint mission.

Although Roland had tried to conceal his emotion, she still managed to capture the tiniest muscle movement around the corner of his eyes.

Apparently, Roland was not that good at controling his facial expression like Valkries.

She had learned a lot from this meeting.

Fei Yuhan decided to continue withher observation. She believed that the subsequent interaction between the two people would provide her with more information.

A smile curled up Fei Yuhan's lips as she knocked onthe Defender's office door.

Roland immediately summoned Phyllis and Dawnen after he returned to the apartment building.

"I need you to watch a demon. She may come from the memory fragment from this building!"

Chapter 1289 - The Origin of the World

"A demon?"

The two witches, momentarily stunned, asked, "Are you referring to the alien species in this world?"

For ancient witches, they felt it even harder to deal with people from the Cargarde Peninsula than adapting to the modern life. These people who had a strong resemblance to the demons had now become a part of the human society. They lived and reproduced just like human beings.

The ancient witches entered a combat mode almost instinctively when they encountered a demon. It had actually taken Roland a great effort to persuade them not to easily go on a rampage. Now, all of a sudden, he asked them to take precautions again, which was quite an unexpected change. Therefore, Roland chose Phyllis and Dawnen who were the first few witches that entered the Dream World with him and who were good at concealing their traces.

"You can put that way," Roland said and then briefly talked about Valkries and what made her look suspicious. "I don't see any magic stone on her, which is the biggest difference from a real demon. But you still need to be cautious and monitor her like she has one."

Learning history was the most effective way to learn about this world. Who was so eager to learn about the past of the Dream World? If the "demon" called Valkries was really from the Cargarde Peninsula, she should have received compulsory education. However, based on what Fei Yuhan had told him, she had read the history chronically. It was indeed very strange considering that both of the two worlds were presently experiencing the Erosion.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the two witches said with a nod.

"Even if she is a demon, don't attack her in the sanatorium," Roland continued after a moment of reflection. "There are many awakened martialists there, and your action may attract on welcome attention. Plus, I also want to know how she came here through the memory fragment."

Room 0510 was not only connected to just a few Senior Demons but indeed a magnificent city in which a foreign race dwelled. If other demons could also come to this world through the gate, that would be great trouble.

"I see, but..." Phyllis said hesitantly. "What if you come across danger when we aren't here?"

"Don't worry. This isn't the real world," Roland comforted with a smile. "You've also noticed that those Fallen Evils could not hurt me. As long as I don't voluntarily seek them, they won't be able to do anything about me. You guys need to stay safe and call me every several hours."

"As you command, Your Majesty," the two witches chorused while placing their hands on their chests after exchanging a look. "We'll set off then."

When Epsiloneentered the meeting room, the room had just moved to a very special spot where the two realms overlapped. The floor and the wall were enveloped by a haze of crimson glow that swayed darkly like guttered candles.

Under such circumstances, this area constituted a virtual space completely separated from the outside world, which no physical entities could affect.

The area was also not traceable.

She saw Betta in a half-kneeling position, with his hands firmly adhered to the floor.He was half-transparent like a looming shadow.

Hehad been in this position for more than half a month.

"Not done yet?" Epsilone asked as she stared at Delta who was motionless beside her.

Delta's mask flickered, and then he realized that he could not communicate directly with his mind at the moment. So he croaked, "This world has expanded a great deal, and it isn't easy to have a full analysis of it anymore. But Betta is almost done. I believe we'll soon get a result. What about you? Did you find anything?"

"Those magic power robbers have set up a trap to lure us."

The rules in this world restricted the oracles' power. Even though they acted on behalf of God, they still had to follow these rules.

"Just as I thought," Delta replied flatly. "It does seem a nice plan, but we don't need scattered magic power anymore."

Epsilone nodded and remained silent.

A more effective way to destroy those that were out of God's control was to directly kill the creator of the Realm of Mind. This world orginated from the creator's consciousness. Like pillars that supported a house, once the creator was removed, the whole world would collapse, and the magic power would, naturally, return to the Divine Domain.

The problem was that this world was now so sturdy and strong, so it was extremely hard to find out the creator. Therefore, they had to first summon a great amount of magic power to analyze this world and locate the source.

The reason they had attacked the Prism City was to collect magic power for the current analysis.

Nevertheless, locating the creator did not mean they could remove him. The creator was always under the protection of this world, which was why they had failed in the last few attempts.

To fight against the protecting force, they must first lure the creator into the crack between the two worlds, where God could interfere with the rules in this world and there by crush the enemy.

Even oracles like them might fail.

But they had little time left.

They were God's last hope. If they failed, God would directly destroy the Realm of Mind. Then their efforts for the past thousands of years would be wasted and all that they had achieved so far would turn into nothingness. They would not like to see the Realm of Mind end in this way if it was not absolutely necessary.

Beyond a doubt, it was all the creator's fault.

Epsilone clenched her fists and then released them.

What was the matter?

Why did she feel angry?

As an oracle, she should not have had any emotions.

She should not have worried about the outcome of this mission but focused on working on the task.

Looking back, it seemed that she had never considered about this kind of problem before.

"What's wrong?" Delta asked as he noticed her strange behavior.

"No, nothing..." Epsilone said as she turned around and sat down slowly at the corner.

When had the change started?

Epsilone thought for a while before she dimly realized that the change had started after the murder of the traitor.

At that time, she was under cover and thus successfully approached the traitor. The latter did not notice the danger until she attacked her.

Strangely, the traitor did not resist. When her arm went through the traitor's chest, the traitor simply held her and whispered one sentence.

Epsilone did not really remember the content, but the traitor's voice was, unexpectedly, familiar. Epsilonehad even felt a wash of warmth as if she had returned to someone's arms long since forgotten at that moment.

The traitor had actually smiled tranquilly before she had died.

"Damn it. Why do I keep thinking about that?"

"No, why am I so furious over this matter?"

A multitude of thoughts crowded into Epsilone's mind.

"What do you want to say?" Delta asked again. "We don't communicate via mind here. Just say it."

"I — "

Just then, a ripple swept over the room, and Betta, who had been half kneeling on the floor, suddenly opened his eyes.

"The search is completed."

"Finally," Delta said while resting his eyes on Betta. "What did you find?"

Betta stretched out his arms, and three blurry figures appeared on his palm, which gradually become clearer as the lines restructured and reorganized themselves.

"There are three?"

"That's right, but we only need to kill two because one of them has been already eliminated."

Epsilone immediately deciphered the information from the images.

The three creators were —

"The traitor, Lan. Significance level, 1%."

"Self-cognitive being, Zero. Significance level, 42%."

"Unidentifiable being, Roland. Significance level, 57%."

Chapter 1290 - Achievement

To expedite the various projects in the Design Bureau of Graycastle, Roland adjusted his schedule and decided to have a nap for two to three hours every day after lunch. Therefore, he now entered the Dream World more frequently.

As a consequence, a group of God's Punishment Warriors started to appear in the afternoon in the Castle District, which attracted a lot of onlookers.

With the help of the Design Bureau of Graycastle, his industrial projects went pretty well. By the last week of fall, the design of the tractor had been completed.

Before then, Anna was solely responsible for the manufacture and testing of all the projects in Neverwinter. Then, the plant took over the parts production and the assembly of the final models. The whole process was not only time-consuming process but sometimes it involved a lot of unnecessary work as well.

As Anna's Blackfire worked far better than machine tools, workers in the plant, sometimes, could not always produce the parts created by Anna. A machine could produce thousands of parts at a time. However, it took a considerable amount of time to figure out which parts should be assigned to the plants and which to Anna for further processing. The plant could only mass produce the machines after a completed model was available.

In fact, this was the exact problem during the production process of the second generation steam engine. The pressure control valve looked pretty simple, but when it came to mass production, few were fit for its intended use. Because of the high defective rate, they had to start the production all over again, which thus resulted in a huge delay of more than half a month before a final product was successfully made.

But the Design Bureau of Graycastle in the Dream World had helped Anna finish all the preliminary work, from testing all the way to the design of the assembly line. They also determined whether ordinary machineries would be capable of producing certain parts. Given that, once Roland drafted the plan, the Ministry of Industry could immediately start on the production, which largely shortened the production process and reduced the cost.

Roland named this farming machine, which he had put great faith in, the "Harvest".

Its five pairs of road wheels would run on Graycastle's soil.

Nevertheless, Master Xie still had a lot to do. The current "Harvest" was nothing but a basic frame that could only serve as a tractor for farming operation. There was still a long way to go before it transformed into a war machine with five pairs of road wheels.

Roland hoped that this machine could meet all the army's needs.

As for the telegraph machine, Qingqing soon recruited some workers, including fresh graduates and amateur radio technicians. But Roland had a hard time reading the circuit diagram, so he ordered the workers to change the diagram into an actual design plan. Even so, he was still quite slow at understanding it. Therefore, he managed to memorize the design and decided to study it with Anna later.

Apart from these two major projects, they had also made great progress in other war preparation projects in Neverwinter.

The first project was the road construction that connected the south and the north.

According to the letter from Horford Quinn to him, the Kingdom of Dawn had hired nearly 1,000 workers and built several plants to produce cement in two border cities. These plants produced hundreds of tons of cement every day for the road construction. The construction of the road between the Windswept Ridge and the Sparkling River was almost completed, and they had commenced to build the section around the Cage Mountain area. It was estimated that everything would be done within half a month.

Even with Lotus and Molly's help, Roland had to admit that the Quinn Family was pretty efficient. Apparently, they had put a lot of efforts into it. As the road in the Eastern Region along the Redwater River directly led to the City of Evernight, they were now only one step away from transporting supplies to the front.

Also, the supplementary project, the "Hump" the steam-powered wheeled truck finally came into use.

The truck had a classic cab forward design, equipped with an engine and six wheels. Apart from a long nose (to accommodate a huge water tank) at the front, it was quite similar to a modern truck. It weighed around 10 tons, with a loading capacity of six tons. The truck could run on a hard-surfaced concrete road at a rate of 40 kilometers per hour for about 300 kilometers.

When necessary, the driver could fill the tank with rain, well water and even urine to increase the speed. Even if there was no water supply, the truck could still function pretty well between cities and rivers.

Unlike the armored train, each truck required at least two drivers, which meant that even if Neverwinter could produce a great number of trucks, there would not be enough people to operate them. Fortunately, they simply needed to found a driving school and train people to drive the trucks. There were no traffic rules whatsoever in this world, so the only task for the drivers would be getting the vehicle moving.

The last project was storage batteries.

Although this project was less technologically demanding, it was as important as the other ones.

Storage batteries could, for instance, power the taillights and headlights of the truck, which were also the only electric devices on the "Hump". With lights, the truck could work day and night.

Electricity could also power up the biplanes and save the ground staff a lot of time. More importantly, if the engine of the plane was seized in the air, pilots could restart the plane again and thereby preserve the stability of the aircrafts.

The numerous immigrants recently relocating to Neverwinter further sped up and took the industrialization process in Neverwinter to a new level.

But Roland also understood that such rapid progress was not only attributed to the increase in the population. Had they still manufactured products in traditional workshops, it would have taken several years, let alone a few months, to train a layman into a proficient worker. However, in a modern plant, experienced workers would voluntarily teach new ones, as they relied on their apprentices to get promoted or a raise. They were always eager to teach everything they knew.

It only took a person one to two weeks to learn the basic machinery operation. Even if this person was illiterate, he could still imitate the steps and thus process parts fit for use.

The new production system and the implementation of universal education, as well as continuous research and development would all further expedite the industrialization in the urban area in the future.

Yet Roland had some bad news too.

Iron Axe reported that the First Army at the front felt it increasingly hard to cope with the demons, as the Red Mist had spread to the Cage Mountain area. Some people even claimed that Devilbeasts were seen in the Kingdom of Dawn.

Back in the battle on the Fertile Plains, Roland had noticed that the demons could run thousands of miles to pursue their enemies. Even a few Mad Demons could cause substantial damage to the rear.

Now, the few Devilbeasts seen in the sky might be very likely the demons' scouts.

The First Army must send an equal force to the sky to suppress the assault.

Roland sighed quietly. Perhaps, it was time to dispatch the Witch Union and the Aerial Knights.

Chapter 1291 - Reunion

Roland met Wendy and Tilly in the parlor.

He briefly related the situation at the front and said, "This is pretty much it. We probably can't wait anymore."

"The First Army needs the witches' help," Wendy said darkly. "I'll let everyone know. They've been waiting for this day for a long time, and I believe that they're now ready."

"Finally," Tilly said while twitching her lips. "I still have a few chapters to go for the Flight Manual. I've been longing to fight a real battle at the front. Also, where's my fighter? You gave me your word, brother."

Roland did not tacitly switched the subject as usual because his voice suddenly abandoned him.

"Your Majesty?" Wendy, who noticed something wrong, asked. "Are you OK?"

Roland managed to calm himself down and nodded slowly. He said, "You know that the Bloody Moon has appeared. This is the final battle of the human race, but no one knows how long this battle will last. Perhaps, it's going to be a year or even 10 years. You probably won't come back until the battle ends. If..."

He could not continue anymore.

Nobody could foresee the result of the Battle of Divine Will. Last time, Ashes had sacrificed herself on the Fertile Plains. This time, how many people would survive? Many witches were only in their 20s. They should have enjoyed their university life in the other world. However, they had to fight for their fate here.

This war concerned the entire human race, so everyone must do their best to win. Witches, being also human, were indeed no different than ordinary people. Roland knew that perfectly well, but he had already established an attachment to these girls. He had been living with them for years since the Witch Union had been founded. It was thus hard for him to issue the order because once they were off for the battle, it was probably the last time he would see them.

"If somebody else sees you act like this, they'll laugh about you," Tilly said, grinning. "You still haven't got used to being a king after so many years? Well... I actually like the way you are now."

"Excuse me, Your Majesty," Wendy said while rising to her feet. Before Roland could realize it, she had approached him and given him a hug.

"Do you feel better now?" Wendy said gently, "We all know what you've done for us. Even if you don't say a word, everyone will be willing to come forward and protect you. You taught us to fight for things we want. Winning the Battle of Divine Will is essentially the same as protecting the Holy Mountain. I trust that the other witches all agree on that."

The warmth soothed Roland a great deal. Wendy was right. Everyone knew that this day would eventually come. There was no point in hesitating now. Since all the witches were here to fight, they had made up their mind a long time ago. If he said something like "I don't want you to go to war" or "you can stay behind if you want", that would sound pretty lame.

The only thing they needed to do is to try their best.

"Thank you."

Wendy smiled and returned to her seat.

"Well then," Roland said after taking a deep breath and stared at the two people. "The Witch Union and the Aerial Knights, prepare for the war."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

"Leave it to me, brother."

...

The news that the witches would go to war in the Kingdom of Wolfheart was immediately spread throughout the whole Castle District. Within half an hour, Lightning had packed up. Her luggage included a backpack that contained ammunition and sigils, a waist bag full of spices and salt, as well as Maggie perched on her head.

As usual, they were normally the first ones to set off. They would be the scouts and guides for the army coming after. However, this time, when Lightning went to bid farewell to Wendy, Wendy stopped her.

"You don't have to be in such a rush," Wendy said as she took over Maggie. "In fact, someone told me that he wanted to see you before you go."

"Me?" A little surprised, Lightning asked, "Who's that? Auntie Margaret?"

"Well..." Wendy hesitated while covering her mouth. "You'll see. By the way, he's waiting for you in the yard."

"He's already here?" Lightning said while shrugging. "Alright."

"Coo — coo!" Maggie followed but Wendy held her back. She thus watched Lightning disappear from the doorstep.

"Sorry, you'll have to stay with me for a while," Wendy said smilingly while stroking the pigeon's head. "I think it'd be better to leave her alone at this moment."

...

Lightning walked out of the castle and off to the yard after passing the corridor. She immediately saw a flowery figure standing there.

"I see... You're Mr. Sander Flyingbird," Lightning grumbled. "What can I do for you?"

However, when Sander turned around, Lightning was rooted to the ground.

Although he was still wearing the same flamboyant clothes, he had a completely different vibe. Despite that they had not seen each other for years, Lightning still remembered what her father looked like.

"Father?" Lightning asked in disbelief.

"Sorry, I've been avoiding you," Thunder said with a bitter smile. "I don't want my daughter to live like her mother, so I decided not to see you..."

"When did you know that I was here?" Lightning interrupted.

"Not long after you arrived at Border Town."

"Did Auntie Margaret tell you that?"

Thunder nodded.

"So, you're accomplices, and so is His Majesty..."

"Don't blame them. I asked them to keep the secret for me — " No sooner had Thunder finished than Lightning hurried to him and raised her arm.

Thunder closed his eyes and waited for the punch.

But the pain did not come as expected.

A moment later, Thunder opened his eyes in surprise and saw his daughter pat his forehead gently, with a smile lingering upon her lips.

"In other words, you know everything about my exploration in the Western Region of Graycastle?"

"Er..."

"I found the Holy City of Taquila, a 400-year-old witch, and the ruins of the underground civilization, and I also repelled the demons' advance unit..." Lightning said while disengaging herself. "What about it? I'm as good as you, right?"

Thunder was stunned for a moment before he burst into a laugh. "You're indeed my daughter, but I somehow feel both sorry and happy for this reunion."

"I understand that you're glad. But why do you feel sorry?"

"Because you grow so fast," Thunder said airily. "I thought you would hate me and cry in my arms. It appears that I worried too much..."

Had she not experienced the battle at Taquila, she would have probably cried out. However, she had now grown up. She would not shed a single tear before she ended this war as Ashes had asked her to. "So, you've been worried that I'll hate you. That's why you didn't tell me? Then why do you reveal your identity now?"

"Because I decided to come with you to the north and fight the Battle of Divine Will," Thunder pronounced slowly. "You'll know it eventually, so it'd be better that I tell you now."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'll fight over the sea and at the ports. I've discussed this with His Majesty."

"That's great," Lightning said while grasping Thunder's hand. "Since we still have time now, let me introduce you to the team members of my exploration team. You'll fight together with them as well!"

"It appears that you've made some good friends..."

"Of course. But they're all somehow related to animals. Was I not very good at dealing with people when I was little?"

"Like the pigeon called Maggie?"

"Yes... er, no, Maggie is a witch."

"Ahem, as far as I know, a person loved by animals is also loved by people. Don't worry about that."

"That's good to know."

The father and the daughter thus headed together toward the castle. They chatted merrily as though they had never separated.

Chapter 1292 - A Person in Need and A Person Who Needs

"Farrina, breakfast is ready."

Joe stopped at the bedroom with a plate in his hand that contained a loaf of bread and a small piece of cheese.

Over the past two months since the appearance of the Bloody Moon, the couple had lived a simple life. Joe prepared three meals every day before he went off for work to the Administrative Office. Farrina seldom went out. Most of time, she stayed in the house doing nothing. Occasionally, she would ask about the situation in Hermes. This was the only time the couple actually talked.

Joe did not know what Farrina was thinking about, but he felt pleased just to be with her. He would not expect anything more than that at this time.

However, Farrina did not respond as usual.

"Farrina, are you up?"

Joe knocked on the door, wondering why she did not answer the door.

"Well, it's time to eat."

"Farrina?"

Still, nobody replied as if the room was empty.

Joe's expression immediately changed, and he instantly thought of the worst scenario.

"Crap, isn't things going better slowly?"

He put down the plate and tried to break and enter.

With a loud bang, the door was forced open.

It was not the worst, fortunately. No rope was hung on the roof. No traces of blood could be seen on the bed. Joe was a little relieved. At least, he could now ascertain that Farrina was still alive, which meant that he could still make things right.

However, his heart immediately sank to the bottom.

He could see everything in the little bedroom at one glance. Farrina was nowhere to be seen. The wooden bed, the table and the windows had all been cleaned. Everything looked tidy and neat.

It was as tidy as the first day they had moved in.

Joe strolled over to the table. There had been books about the church, and the Graycastle Weekly spreading across the table yesterday. But now, there was nothing left.

She was gone.

Joe felt sadness prevail him as he realized the fact that Farrina had left.

Apparently, this was not an impulsive decision.

She had even wiped the corners of the table, but she did not leave him a single word.

Did she not want to trouble him anymore?

Joe slumped onto the chair at the table numbly.

Where would she go? Hermes? Her native town? Would she end her own life in an untraversed forest?

Joe naturally wanted to look for her, but he had no clue where Farrina could be. The chance of finding her was pretty slim. Since Farrina did not leave him any hint, it was obvious that she did not want to be found. What could he do even if he successfully found her?

Joe felt empty at the thought that Farrina would not be in his future life anymore. His brain seemed to stop working as though it refused to function.

In the end, nothing had changed.

"Morning, Joe."

Why had he not noticed it earlier? Why was he simply content with the life he currently had?

"Joe?"

He just cared about himself but had never asked Farrina what she actually needed.

"Joe!"

A hand reached out to Joe and forced him to turn around.

"What are you mumbling?"

Joe blinked.

It was Farrina.

She was frowning and studying him attentively. "Are you OK?"

"You... didn't leave?" Joe said as he grasped Farrina's arm in disbelief. "Or you decided to stay?"

"Huh?" Utterly bewildered, Farrina did not wrench away from him. "What are you talking about? I just went to the Administrative Office."

The two stared at each other for a while until Joe broke the silence in embarrassment, "Then... why did you go to the Administrative Office?"

"To inquire about the requirements for a driver," Farrina answered in a serious tone. "I saw on the Graycastle Weekly that they're hiring truck drivers in Neverwinter. I want to give it a shot."

"Truck... what?" Joe asked in confusion.

"I don't know what it exactly is either, but it should be similar to a carriage based on its description. I'm good at riding and maneuvering carriages. Perhaps, this is a chance for me."

A chance? Joe suddenly felt unsettled again. Still clasping Farrina's hand, he asked, "Why do you suddenly want to become a truck driver?"

Farrina remained silent for a while before she spoke, "I thought the matter over and now I understand. First of all, the initial purpose of building the church was to save the world and the human race. This isn't just the church's version of story. Roland Wimbledon also admitted that. The church failed because of the betrayal of the executives."

"And then?"

"Then the next question is whether the King of Graycastle is really fighting for the human race as he promised. I've seen the Bloody Moon that represents the Divine Will in Neverwinter, the wealthy subjects, and the witches who look no different than normal people. All of these fit the story Roland Wimbledon told us. The only question left is the existence of the demons that try to destroy our civilization."

"But His Reverence Tucker Thor did mention the demons in his will," Joe muttered.

"That's right, but I have to see it myself. I have to see that Roland's army is fighting the demons from hell with my own eyes," Farrina said while nodding. "I don't want to make the same mistake again. I now only trust my own eyes."

"Do you want to go to the Kingdom of Wolfheart?" Joe asked, his eyes wide open.

"Yes," Farrina admitted flatly. "I can't join the First Army because I used to be a church member. Therefore, an alternative way is to become a truck driver and send supplies to the front. I'll know the truth there."

That was why she went to the Administrative Office to make inquiries of the qualifications for a truck driver.

Joe asked cautiously, "What if it's true? What if it isn't?"

"If everything is true, I'll spend the rest of my life atoning for my sin," Farrina answered without the slightest hesitation. Apparently, she had thought it over. "Although I never arrested a witch, it doesn't mean that I can get away with what the church has done. As a member of the Judgement Army, I was also an underlying of the traitors." She paused for a second and then resumed, "If it isn't, then I'll return to Hermes to see whether I can do something for the new church..."

This was the final decision she had made.

Joe gradually released her. He could not find a single reason to stop what she was doing. Farrina bravely confronted her mistake while at the same time still making an attempt to fulfill her promise to Tucker Thor. She had a clear plan for the future. It seemed that she was stronger than he had thought. Apart from supporting her, Joe could do nothing. He did not want to stop her because that would destroy her totally as a person.

Nevertheless, it would be the same result for him.

Once she became a driver and left for the Kingdom of Wolfheart, she would not continue to stay here, which was the reason she cleaned the room.

Farrina was still leaving him anyway.

"I..." Joe took a deep breath, fearing that he would not be able to contain himself.

"By the way, I hope you could do me a personal favor," Farrina said quickly. "They need two drivers for one truck. I want you to come with me."

"Huh?" Joe was stunned.

"To be honest, I haven't dealt with people for a long time, and I'm not sure if I can achieve my goal on my own," Farrina said while averting her eyes, abashed. "But you can turn me down. You have a stable job here and earn good salaries. I know I shouldn't have asked for that, but..."

"But what?" Joe asked immediately.

It took Farrina a few seconds to stare into Joe's eyes and say, "I need you."

This was the very sentence that Joe had once said to Farrina, but it was his first time hearing Farrina reply back.

Now, the person in need became a person who needed others, and the person who used to need others still remained the same. Joe no longer felt empty. Instead, he felt contented and fulfilled.

"Have some breakfast first. It's cold now," Joe said while heaving a deep sigh.

"Oi..."

She did not have to ask him this question actually.

Joe had traveled here from the Kingdom of Wolfheart with her, and he would certainly drive the truck for the army with her as well.

"We can apply for the position after we finish eating," Joe said with a smile.

Chapter 1293 - An Uncertain Future

At the airport in the Aerial Knight Academy.

The morning dawned with the roar of engines, and 10 biplanes slid out of the hangar one after another in the morning light. Sun rays gilded their sleek bodies.

"Are you planning to bring the trainees to the battlefield?" Roland asked Tilly as he stood before the "Seagull".

Tilly nodded and replied, "If everything goes well, I can finish the last part of the Flight Manual within a month, but I don't want my students to waste their time waiting for me in that one month. I can teach them theories everywhere, and they could probably fly at the front. After all, the airport was at the very rear compared to the battlement of the First Army."

It was true. Apparently, Tilly had not forgotten her role as the headmistress of the Academy. Feeling a little more self-assured, Roland said, "Give more flying opportunities to the students. Don't keep the plane just to yourself. The goal is to teach the others how to fly."

What Roland truly wanted to say was "don't act recklessly".

There were a lot of opportunities for Tilly to avenge. She did not have to do so immediately.

"Hmm," Tilly said while casting Roland a glance. "I will, if you hand me my plane as promised. I promise that I won't fight for the 'Fire of Heaven' with the students."

Roland was speechless.

Tilly giggled as she saw Roland at a loss for words. She moved her hair out of her face and said, "Don't worry. I know what you're thinking. Let's make a deal. In a month, I'll give you a group of real aerial knights, and you give me my plane. Before that, I assure you that I won't provoke the enemies. How does that sound?"

Roland rather hoped that Tilly did not throw herself into a bitter battle at all, but he knew that there was no guarantee that one could stay safe all the time during a war. Only an army that had gone through the pain of battle could win. Therefore, he simply nodded and said, "Stay safe."

"Of course, I'm waiting for you to bring Ashes back, brother," Tilly said, her face splitting into a lovely smile.

For a split second, Tilly's smile melted into the cool morning air of the Kingdom of Dawn and was engraved upon Roland's heart.

"Your Majesty, it's time to take off," the guard reminded him.

"Then I'll be off," Tilly said as she turned round, climbed up the stairwell and disappeared behind the cabin.

"OK..." Roland mumbled as he turned away from the runway while constantly looking backward. Although they had held a farewell party last night, he still felt sorry to see them leave. Through the window, he could see many witches wave at him.

Like the expedition to Taquila last time, Wendy, Andrea, Sylvie, Echo, Leaf and the other witches were now heading to another war, only that this time, it would be a more difficult and time-consuming one.

"Everyone will come back safe and sound," Nightingale said quietly. "I have a feeling."

Roland nodded but remained silent.

"All clear. We can take off anytime."

"Green flag for all!"

"Go!"

As the supervisor of the ground staff swung his arms, Lightning rose into the air followed by Maggie who had transformed into a Devilbeast. As there were no GPS coordinates in this era, and they were traveling to a foreign country, Lightning and Maggie served as the guide for the fleet.

Roland noticed that Thunder was smoking his pipe while waving at his daughter, looking proud and self-complacent."

Behind Tilly was the "Seagull".

Compared to the noisy biplanes, the "Seagull" was graceful and swift in the air.

Everyone in the crowd, at this point, started to bid farewell to their friends and families.

Both the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell were concerned about this particular plane.

In the breezes created by magic power, the "Seagull" soon rose after sliding on the runaway for a short distance.

The last that took off was the Aerial Knights.

The 10 biplanes were the main air force of Neverwinter, out of which six were "trainer aircrafts" without any weapons, but Roland understood that the plant was assembling the new planes strenuously. Soon, these man-made iron birds would give the demons a heavy blow and defend the area above for the First Army.

The "Fires of Heaven" flitted across the runway one by one and rose at the edge of the wall before they spread out in a line and disappeared from the end of the horizon.

To help the Aerial Knights quickly get used to the pace of the battle, Roland had asked the construction team to also build four airports in the Redwater City, the City of Evernight, the City of Glow in the neighboring country, and Thorn Town while they were paving the road. These airports could facilitate the transportation across the south and the north and provide fuels for the planes. Since the biplane weighed less than 1,000 kilograms, it could land on any smooth-surfaced areas.

When the pilots became proficient in operating the plane, they could travel across Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn, and reach the Kingdom of Wolfheart by the sunset, provided that they commenced their journey early in the morning. This was definitely a tremendous speed by the standards of this era. That was also the reason that Roland paid special attention to the air force. Once a mature air force was built, human beings would enter a new phase of warfare.

Of course, as this was going to be the longest trip they would ever make in this history of time, Tilly created a pretty flexible schedule in case an emergency occurred. The army, according to her plan, would stay one night in the City of Evernight and then head to the Cage Mountain the next morning. In that case, they would be able to fly during the day.

The crowd looked on at the sky in the north after the fleet slid out of their sight.

So did Roland.

He hoped that the new air force could help the First Army get out of their dilemma.

They were really... flying!

Manfeld goggled at the giant birds that disappeared behind the slope of clouds, feeling excited.

"Hey, what are you doing there? We're boarding the ship," someone called at him from behind.

"I, I'm coming," Manfeld said while shaking his head, trying to come back to the present. He trotted back to the team but could still, somehow, hear the ringing roar of the iron birds.

Although Manfeld had witnessed a lot of incredible things in Neverwinter in the past one month, it was his first time seeing the "Fires of Heaven" take off at such a close range. He felt exhilarated at the scene that he beheld.

He was again shocked, but he also felt something else this time.

For example, happiness.

Within a second, he had fallen in love with this job.

Just as the settlement clerk Matt had said, Manfeld successfully passed the screening process conducted by the human resource department of the Administrative Office and obtained a Neverwinter resident identity card. He had also received a property and quickly got used to the life here. It took him not long to find a foothold in this new city. Now, he could either choose to become a clerk in the Administrative Office or a policeman like Sharon who helped maintain public order.

He hesitated for a while and submitted his application to the Aerial Knight Academy.

Manfeld knew that official Aerial Knights would, in the end, join the army. They would be subject to a strict screening process and might also be killed in action. However, he was determined.

He was glad that he made the right decision.

Nothing could be more honorous than becoming an Aerial Knight, for they were the warriors who pledged fealty to the king, who fought against the tyrants and protected the weak.

He could not wait for this day to come.

Therefore, Farrina, Joe and Manfeld, as well as numerous other people all headed to the war in the north.

They were from different kingdoms, different regions, but they were now acting for a common cause.

Compared to the first and second Battles of Divine Will, mankind had never been so united.

Their fate had been tied to the Battle of Divine Will.

And they were all fighting for the human race.

Chapter 1294 - An Isolated Island

She slept in the sea when she got tired and resumed her trip after she woke up. When she was thirsty, she drank rain water and ate fish when hungry.

Joan did not know how long she had to live like this.

At first, she had been trying to track time. However, after she had missed one or two days, she gradually lost the track of time and finally gave up. She had no idea how long she had been swimming aimlessly in the ocean. Perhaps, it had been more than half a year now.

Joan almost burst into tears at this thought. In fact, she had cried numerous times, but her tears merged with the seawater and became a part of the ocean.

She was so tired.

So tired indeed.

Even when she was asleep, she could not totally relax on the surface of the water, otherwise ospreys and other animals would come to eat her. Even if they could not gulf her down, their pecks were sharp and painful. Also, she could be seen by Sea Ghosts and those ship-like monsters.

Joan had actually encountered them many times during the past few months.

Every time she had been scared to death.

Fortunately, she had always managed to shake them off, despite that sometimes she got additional wounds during the escape.

There were many cuts in her beautiful scales that His Majesty spoke highly of. The skin exposed in the air turned white. As she had been in the water for so long, some wounds started to decay. What was worse, some parastic worms had found her as their new host and nested in her wounds. It was excruciatingly painful to pull them off the body.

Now, her body, which had never been pretty, became even uglier.

She missed the soft bed in Neverwinter and Wendy's arms.

She also missed the peaceful life there.

Although there were a lot of fishes in the ocean, she had to eat them raw. She used to do that all the time, but now, she somehow could not get used to the fishy smell lingering between her lips.

She wanted to eat the barbeque chicken wings made by Lightning.

Then Joan again cried. She kept swimming as her tears trickled down.

How long did she have to swim before she returned where she came from?

She swam much faster than most fishes.

She was even faster than His Majesty's "Snow Wind".

The time she spent in the water could allow her to have five round-trips from Neverwinter to the Shadow Islands. However, why could she still not see her destination?

His Majesty said that Earth was round. Could he have lied to her?

If His Majesty had indeed lied, she would swipe his face with her scales if she got such a chance in the future!

But she had to first get to Neverwinter...

Joan took a deep breath and encouraged herself. She reminded herself that she must not give up and must return to her friends!

Joan began to produce a series of "Ya" sounds over the sea.

A moment later, she heard her echoes, "Ya, ya."

A little shocked, she traced the echoes. It was a gloomy day today. A thin veil of mist permeated the surface of the ocean, and she could only see things within a few kilometers, just like the Shadow Islands when water went down. Since there was nothing at the front, Joan swam in that direction for another half an hour or so and finally spied something black loom against the mist.

It looked like... a rock on the surface of the water.

Joan's face lit up.

She knew that many tiny little things on the ocean were actually huge. Like the rock floating in the water, it must be enormous as well. Since it reflected off sounds, it could be a giant mountain. If there was a mountain, there should be lands.

Was it a part of the Impassable Mountain Range?

Joan suddenly had a lot of strength. She picked up her speed and swam as fast as she could toward the black silhouette. Water splashed all over her.

As she got closer, she saw the black "rock" more clearly.

It was indeed a mountain, but at the foot of the mountain was not the port of the Western Region but a flat island. The rear of the island was connected to a vast land. Since the land was so far away, she could not see it clearly.

But anyway, this was a land, which was better than nothing.

Joan pulled herself together and stepped onto the beach.

It was not until then that she noticed that this island was probably even larger than the biggest Searing Flame Island at the Fjords. Except for that verdant mountain, it was as flat as a pancake.

In fact, the island was actually a meadow.

Unlike the deserted islands she knew, this island seemed to be protected from the erosion of wet sea breezes and harsh weather. Grass grew underneath her feet, and occasionally, there were a few flowers. Joan did not understand why a secluded island like this, which could be easily destroyed by a seaquake, could be so vibrant and full of life. As the island was surrounded by the mist, it gave her a feeling that she was on a fairyland.

Joan turned her flipper into legs and walked slowly toward the center of the island.

Gradually, she saw some stone tablets. At first, she paid no notice to them, but later on, she found these tablets, although different in size, were neatly laid out.

The closer she was to the center of the island, the more tablets she saw. In the end, the tablets formed various circles that became denser and denser, as though they were encircling something.

She somehow had seen a similar scene before...

Joan crouched down at one tablet and studied it carefully. There were patterns on it, but she was not sure whether they were arbitrary patterns or some unidentifiable and indecipherable messages. To Joan's surprise, these stones looked quite old, but they were not dusty at all as if someone was cleaning them on a regular basis.

Was someone living on this island?

After walking for another few minutes, Joan was suddenly frozen to the ground.

In front of her lay an immense pit, whose diameters might be several kilometers. The pit was not only fathomless, but its mouth was smooth as well. Apparently, the pit was not caused by the collapse of the ground. The tablets encircled the pit and formed rings of "ripples".

Joan dimly thought of something. She stared up at the sky and saw the Bloody Moon peep through the hazy mist. For some reason, she felt that the Bloody Moon in the sky would fit perfectly in the pit on the ground. They looked almost identical. She even had a strange idea that the Bloody Moon would probably fill up the hole if it fell off.

"Hello." Just then, a beautiful voice came from behind and startled her.

"Ya — " Joan screamed and stepped a few paces back before she slumped against a tablet.

The owner of the voice seemed to be frightened too, for she was silent for a while before she asked tentatively, "Well... are you alright?"

Joan then discovered that it was actually a very pretty young woman. She was wearing a white dress, two strands of black hair cascading to her chest. Her graceful act of demeanor really impressed Joan. The woman looked a little confused as well. For a moment, she was not sure whether she should come forward to comfort Joan or keep observing her.

"Ya, ya."

Joan wanted to ask who she was, but she could only produce some inarticulate sounds. As she had not talked to anyone over the past half a year, she again lost her communication ability.

Incredibly, however, the woman understood Joan. A little sorrowful, she replied with a smile.

"Me? I'm just a guardian who's trapped in here."

Chapter 1295 - Guardian

Joan's face lit up.

She was the second person she had met who understood the mermaid's language other than Maggie.

Nevertheless, Joan was not quite sure whether Maggie truly understood her. She simply produced some "coo" sounds, which were even harder to comprehend. As such, they could only communicate short words and phrases.

Who was this guardian then?

Joan continued to make "ya" sounds. "Are you guarding the large pit? Where am I?"

"This isn't a pit but a bridge," the guardian said smilingly.

"I saw bridges before. They aren't like that," Joan thought to herself and walked cautiously toward the pit. She took a peek at the edge of it and found the wall of the pit was covered in mud and vines. There was no road leading to the bottom.

"Not everyone can pass this bridge, only the ones with keys," the woman explained. "You don't have the key, so you can't see the bridge."

"I see," Joan thought. By why did the bridge builder do something like that? Why did he not let everyone pass? Even if they did not have the key, people could still walk around and pass it.

The guardian summoned a bitter smile and said, "Yes, they could, but this is what I have to do. I'm here waiting for the person who has the key and grant him the access to the bridge."

Joan studied her for a while and then spoke.

"You aren't chained."

"What?"

"Since you aren't chained, why don't you leave the island?" Joan said as she pointed at the mist. "I saw there was a continent not far away. It shouldn't take long to swim there. As you aren't chained, I can get you out of this island."

The woman was stunned for a second before she shook her head with a smile. "Never mind me. You're injured. Were you under an attack?"

Joan did not understand why the woman suddenly changed the topic, but she answered immediately, "the monsters in the sea scratched me."

"Come here and lie down. I have some medicine and can take care of your wounds," the woman said while waving her hand.

For some reason, Joan believed that the woman was a nice person, although she had just met her.

After she lay down, the guardian produced a jar of medicational cream and spread it over her hand. She then spread the cream over Joan's wounds. Instantly, a cooling sensation crept over Joan and refreshed her like a breeze that dispelled the hot air in summer.

"Ya..."

"It feels good, eh?" The guardian tore her dress and wrapped Joan's wounds after she applied the cream. She asked, "By the way, where are you going next?"

"Going home," Joan muttered. "I want to return to my friends."

"Then you can't go toward the black shadow. Although there's a continent there, it's not somewhere you should go."

"Do you know where Neverwinter is?" Joan asked hopefully.

"Hmm... perhaps it's on the opposite side of the black shadow, but it's still quite dangerous to get there by land. You'd better swim there."

"Really?"

"Yes. But you'd better take a good rest. I can feel that you're shutting down."

It was not until then that Joan suddenly felt that sleep broke over her. She finally succumbed to the fatigue that she had been resisting for half a year.

Joan indeed felt very relaxed beside the guardian.

"Just take a rest for now."

Joan slowly closed her eyes.

The woman stroked Joan's hair and said quietly, "I'm not chained, but people can be restricted by something other than chains. Sometimes, words can be more powerful than chains."

"I... don't quite understand."

"That's fine, because I don't understand it either."

The woman's voice gradually became distant and soft, and Joan started to lose her consciousness.

"Perhaps I can ask somebody to answer your question... I'm not smart, but someone is smarter than me, for example, Miss Anna and His Majesty..."

"Really? Then, I thank you."

"We'll meet again... right?"

"Yes, if we've got a chance..."

Joan completely fell asleep.

When she woke up, it was already dark.

"Oh no, how long have I slept?"  Joan sat bolt upright but she could not find the guardian. Joan looked around in panic but could not see anyone around her.

Apart from that, the tablets were all gone as well. She could only see the huge, empty pit in front of her, the meadow, and the mountain with a flat top as if everything she had seen before was but an illusion.

"Was that a dream?"

"No, it isn't." Joan immediately realized that her wounds had been taken care of, only that she did not feel the cooling sensation anymore.

Joan unwrapped her wounds but did not find any residue of the cream on her scales. Her wounds had healed up.

While Joan was sitting there, puzzled and confused, she heard a strange roar in the distance.

She then noticed that the mist around the island had dissipated, and now she could see the black shadow clearly.

It was a mountain, but it was a little too high, as though it was leading to Heaven.

The mountain was also extremely large. From a distance, the mountain was even wider than the Fjord Islands put all together. There was not a single tree on the mountain but inky, impenetrable darkness. A haze of Red Mist enveloped the top of the mountain and spurted out crimson liquid from time to time!

Then Joan saw where the roar came from.

At the foot of the mountain were swarms of monsters coming toward the continent. They piled up on the beach and ejected venom. The black soil underneath collapsed, and huge rocks fell into the sea. The whole ocean was boiling! Although these monsters were tiny compared to the gigantic black mountain, they were, little by little, eroding it!

Yet they encountered resistance.

In the area that the monsters could not reach, thousands of Sea Ghosts collided with another kind of monsters. It took Joan a long time to realize that the other kind of monsters were what everyone described as demons!

The Sea Ghosts that scared the sailors so much appeared to be incredibly weak in this battle. There flew in all directions, failing to break into the demons' defensive line. Despite their constant failure, they continuously crossed over the ship-like monsters and rushed toward the bank.

Joan covered her mouth in surprise.

"Although there's a continent there, it's not somewhere you should go."

"You should go to the opposite side of the black shadow."

Joan suddenly thought of the woman's words.

She looked around. Across the black mountain lay just the vast ocean. There was no sign of lands. Joan hesitated for a short moment and began to run in that direction.

She sensed a great danger as she saw the two parties fight. Her instinct told her that she must leave. Another reason was that she believed that the guardian would not lie to her.

Joan thus plunged into the water and left the earth-shaking roar behind.

Chapter 1296 - A Visitor from the Sky

"Father, do we really have to do so much for them?"

Hawn Quinn watched the busy workers at a clearing outside the City of Glow and asked a little indignantly.

Before the two people was a rectangle square, its length about 1,000 meters and width around 500. After the construction team of Graycastle came to the Kingdom of Dawn, the nobles started to use the new measurement.

Unlike the square built with beautiful slabs in the king's city, this square was built with grayish, plain cement. Although not visually appealing, it was fairly easy to build. It had only taken them less than a week to excavate the ground and build the base.

All the workers for this project were from the Quinn Family, which showed how important this project was.

"Hmm," Horford Quinn, the current King of Dawn said while casting his son a glance with some interest," what are you referring to?"

"King Roland probably asked you to do too much," Hawn said while counting on his fingers. "He asked you to build a bridge and a road. These are both big projects. You summoned all the family workers to work on the construction. Then who'll take care of the domain? The castle has to be refurbished as well.

Of course, Hawn was unhappy about something else too.

His father was too obedient to the King of Graycastle.

He even prejudiced his own interests.

The cement was apparently a very promising alchemical material. If their family could have a monopoly over that, they would gain huge profits.

Just because that King Roland had instructed in his letter to "produce as much cement as possible", Horford had summoned all the great nobles to the palace and told them how to produce cement. With the help of those nobles and various chambers of commerce, soon several cement plants were built. As a result, the Quinn Family did not profit much from this new technology.

When it came to the road construction, however, the situation reversed.

The great nobles all refused to cooperate, which left Horford no choice but to do it on his own.

The Quinn Family took care of all the construction work, from the recruitment to the collaboration with the Graycastle construction team. Despite that they had accumulated huge wealth after taking over the country from the royal house of Moya, they had spent a great deal on this project. Hawn's heart ached when he saw the gold royals in the treasury decrease every day.

Road construction was different than a business investment that could bring in more money. The road connecting the Northside River and the Cage Mountain could not bring anything. The two areas were not even under the jurisdiction of the Quinn Family! Even if the road did, somehow, flourish the local business, only the lords along the road would profit from it.

From what Hawn could tell, King Roland definitely wanted to build something more, for example, this strange, useless square. If they keep squandering money like this, his family would soon encounter a financial crisis. In fact, many distant branches of the family had started to complain about Horford's action.

What annoyed Hawn most was his father's attitude toward the Graycastle men.

He not only made inquiries of every project but also summoned the construction team to the palace frequently and asked whether they had any needs. Hawn was particularly resentful after he learned that these "officials" were all civilians rather than nobles. His father was a king, and it extremely irritated Hawn to see they sit equal at the same table.

And today, when Horford heard that Graycastle would send their ambassadors, he immediately went out to the city to greet them. This was so incredible. As a ruler, he could have definitely met the guests in his castle. What royals would greet the guests outside the castle in person?

Hawn suspected that Horford did all this because of his daughter, Andrea. Everything started after his daughter left.

"What can I do?" Horford said, shrugging. "Nobody else is willing to work. I can't let them do what they want. You've seen how powerful Graycastle is. Do you think without the support of the Wimbledon Family, I'd still be able to be the king of the country?"

"No, father... I'm not asking you to resist Graycastle," Hawn explained while waving his hand. "You just need to ask others to work for you, and Roland Wimbledon won't say anything about it. You can negotiate with the local lords for the funds. A business deal is a sort of negotiation. You told me that a good businessman has to stay calm to get the maximum benefit."

"But the Battle of Divine Will isn't a trade."

"That's right, but..." Hawn broke off and bit his lip. Finally, he bursted out, "But you don't look like the King of Dawn at all but a minister working for King Roland Wimbledon!"

Hawn expected to see his father throw a fit, but the latter simply stared at him for a moment and smiled airily. He said, "Why do you think there are only four kingdoms on this continent instead of three or five?"

"Well..." Hawn was totally unprepared for the question. "Because... because we're the strongest four families?"

"More precisely, we're the strongest in our own domains." Horford said, "Our power can't extend throughout the whole continent. The so-called border is actually the furthest we could extend our power to. However, the balance between the four kingdoms has been broken. Roland Wimbledon could completely take over all of the Four Kingdoms if he likes. If that's the case, why can't I submit to his ruling?"

Hawn retorted fiercely, unable to help himself, "Father! The Graycastle army is powerful, but they can't control the whole continent! You're exaggerating..."

"You aren't realizing the change in Graycastle, child," Horford sighed deeply. "Perhaps, Roland couldn't in the past, but now he has extended his power beyond his own territory. You didn't really look into what he has done, so of course you don't believe that he has that ability.

"How... how did you know?"

Horford answered with a smile, "Andrea replied to my letter."

Hawn's heart sank.

When he was about to talk more sense into his father, somebody shrieked.

Then there was a loud, dull buzz coming from a distance.

Hawn looked in that direction, slightly surprised at a line of black shadows in the sky that was streaming toward the City of Glow.

Were they migrating birds?

However, he soon realized that he was wrong. The black dot expanded immediately, and it became larger than any birds he had seen. It was still expanding.

Hawn's eyes were wide open. They seemed to be artifacts!

All the workers dropped their tools involuntarily and started to scream.

Many cavarans that passed by also stopped and looked up at the sky.

"That's incredible... He really did that," Horford commented while smiling faintly. "My guests are coming."

Hawn, at this point, was completely aghasted. Were these huge birds the transportation tools invented by the Graycastle men?

How could it be possible?

Chapter 1297 - Arrive at the Front!

Yet Hawn soon realized that what he had thought was impossible was real.

The huge birds hovered above the square and then dropped. Hawn could now see clearly the pilot up there who was also peering down. The artifact was even larger than a carriage. Hawn could not understand how such heavy items could fly like a bird in the sky.

The other spectators also wondered the same question.

When the iron birds fleeted across the square, many workers knelt down and prayed.

This must be a miracle.

"Your sister Andrea is also there," Horford Quinn commented. "Her letter is just dated yesterday."

It took Hawn a long time to understand the implication behind the word "yesterday",

All his hair on his back stood on its end as he realized what it meant.

They arrived here in just one day from Graycastle thousands of miles away?

Now, when Hawn thought of his father's words that "the balance has been broken", he realized how ridiculous his previous idea was.

The man-made iron birds landed quietly one after another. When Andrea walked off the plane, Horford could not wait to come up to greet her.

...

A banquet was held in the palace to receive these Graycastle witches. Although no nobles were invited, the news that the guests had descended from the sky immediately spread throughout the entire City of Glow.

So many people had witnessed that spectacular scene.

After lunch, Horford finally found an opportunity to speak to his daughter alone.

He was pleased that Andrea would at least call him father now.

"Are you leaving in the afternoon?" Horford asked a little regretfully.

"We must be at the Cage Mountain by the sunset and meet with the First Army," Andrea said with a nod. "The 'Seagull' could have arrived there in one day had this not been our first time traveling abroad. If that was the case, we would probably not have had time to eat."

Horford was utterly shocked when he heard that the Graycastle men could travel from one country to another within one day. Although he had learned about this amazing transportation tool from his daughter's letter, he still could not quite take it. He had lectured Hawn earlier regarding the changes in Graycastle, but in fact, he himself was not fully convinced either. Horford sighed internally and said while stroking his beard, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

Andrea smiled for the first time. She asked, "You knew?"

"I just think the planes shouldn't have hovered so long in the air before they landed," Horford said resignedly. "In that case, everyone in the southern city would hear the noise. Well, it's indeed a good warning to those nobles who are thinking about stirring up trouble."

"This is one of the reasons. The other reason is that we need to establish confidence among the public," Andrea explained while shrugging. I've heard that there are demons and Devilbeasts lurking around the Kingdom of Dawn. If the residents here know that the Graycastle army also has the ability to fly, they would not easily get panic."

"It does kill two birds with one stone. Is this also the idea of that Pearl of the Northern Region?"

"No, it's Princess Tilly's idea."

Horford noticed that his daughter was pretty proud of her princess when she mentioned the latter's name as if she was sharing the honor. It appeared that she had made many good friends in Neverwinter. Horford nodded and switched the subject. "By the way, are you really not interested in taking the throne?"

"Why did you say that again?" Andrea said while raising her brows. "Haven't I told you that I'm not interested in being the queen of the Kingdom of Dawn? Are you not satisfied with Hawn?"

"He's a good noble and also a pretty talented businessman. I believe he would be a good earl," Horford replied while shaking his head. "But Hawn, like all the other nobles, cared too much about personal gains. Many people in the family don't understand why I'm doing all this. They don't comprehend that what I'm doing now is to further secure our dominant position in this country."

After Horford had become the King of Dawn, the Quinn families had all somewhat changed, including his adopted son. Hawn would have never said such things as "you don't look like the King of Dawn but a minister working for King Roland Wimbledon" in the past. Someone must be insinuating him into making such impertinent comments, or Hawn had already regarded him as the next king.

The word "His Majesty" was a fascinating word, but the power it brought could equally bring disasters. He did not want Hawn to end up like Appen.

Also, another reason that Horford had not told Hawn was that the other two families would probably not acknowledge an adopted son as the ruler of the state.

In fact, the Luoxi Family and the Tokat Family supported Horford largely because of Andrea.

"That's your problem," Andrea said indifferently.

"If you don't want to take over my position, then I have to share the throne with the other two families," Horford said in a sorrowful tone.

"You don't mind?"

"That's nothing," Horford said half-jokingly. "It actually saves me a lot of trouble. After the war, I can probably move to Neverwinter and stay with you. I can have a peaceful life before I die."

Horford was serious. If Roland Wimbledon won the Battle of Divine Will, would the Four Kingdoms continue to exist? Horford did not think so. The Quinn Family had risen to power simply because they took advantage of the war. If he let Andrea take the throne, Roland would probably leave the Kingdom of Dawn as it was. However, if someone else became the king, that would, perhaps, become another different story.

Just as he had said earlier, King Roland had broken the balance between the four kingdoms.

Andrea looked at Horford for quite a long time. He could tell that his daughter was not as determined as before. After a long silence, Andrea said, "I have to go."

"Take care of yourself," Horford said. It took him a great deal of efforts to suppress his urge to stroke his daughter's head. "I'll come to the front if available."

"... You too," Andrea replied as she turned around and withdrew from the study.

Horford took a deep breath. He leaned against the chair and closed his eyes.

He did not forget the decision he had made last year.

He would like to spend the rest of his life correcting the mistake he had made.

Four hours later, the fleet landed safely at Thorn Town at the foot of the Cage Mountain.

Within just two days, they had traveled between four cities and covered a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. This unprecedented operation would definitely become a part of the history.

Iron Axe, Brian and Edith were all waiting for them at the airport. After a brief discussion, the witches entered the headquarters located at the top of the mountain. From the grave expression of the General Staff clerks, the witches judged that the First Army was not in an optimistic position.

Iron Axe spread open a large map on the long table and nodded at everyone before he said, "Now, let me tell you about the current situation."

Chapter 1298 - The Arrival of the Demonic Months

Iron Axe and Edith had made numerous predictions of the war at the frontier.

They both concluded that before all the troops assembled and brought all the weapons, the First Army should focus on the defense. Even if the main force arrived, they had to adjust their operation strategies accordingly and looked for an opportunity to eliminate the demons at one shot. If they were trapped in the Red Mist area, their situation would become very precarious.

"According to the intelligence collected by the Taquila witches, the Red Mist produced by the Obelisk would eventually cover more than half of the Kingdom of Wolfheart," Iron Axe said as he pointed at the red curve on the map. "Therefore, we shall extend our defensive line. In consideration of the time for alerts and preparation, we shall set up our outposts in these four cities along the curve, which are the Metalstone Ridge, the Gust Castle, the Sand City, and the Sedimentation Bay.

These four cities formed a polygonal chain that spanned across the Kingdom of Wolfheart on the opposite side of the Red Mist area.

"But the First Army currently doesn't have enough force to defend the four cities all at once, so they have to pick the more important ones to build their strongholds. The most important two cities are the Sedimentation Bay and the Sand City. They support each other and are situated at the crest of the Red Mist area, only 50 kilometers away from the demons' battlement. If we lose them, the demons could directly attack the Cage Mountain."

"Especially the Sedimentation Bay," Morning Light added. "It's the port closest to the Cage Mountain. We rely on it to send our supplies. Losing the Sedimentation Bay means that it'll take the army much longer to assemble. We can't let that happen."

"Just tell them the truth," Edith said flatly. "If the demons take the Sedimentation Bay, then we've half lost the Battle of Divine Will. Fortunately, the demons are also short of supplies. Since they erected the Obelisk on the ridge of the continent, it isn't easy for them to transport the Red Mist."

Perhaps, Edith was the only person who did not mind saying the word "lost". Iron Axe coughed in embarrassment and said, "Anyway, let's suppose that the demons encounter the same problem as us and are now busy creating a "shortcut" in the mountains. Whatever their reason is, the First Army mustn't miss this opportunity. Before the road construction is completed, we must hold onto the two cities."

He paused for a second and then resumed, "There are around 3,000 soldiers stationed in the Sedimentation Bay and the Sand City. They're now building trenches and strongholds. I've also built a reserve unit that contains 1,000 soldiers to defend the rear of the two cities as potential reinforcements. Nevertheless, this isn't enough. I hope Miss Sylvie could serve as a scout to alert us like what we did in the past in the Sedimentation Bay. Miss Lightning and Maggie could help with the other city."

"Got it."

"No problem."

"Coo!"

The three witches chorused.

"As for the Metalstone Ridge and the Gust Castle, I've sent a unit of 500 to defend them. These two cities are relatively far from the Red Mist area, so the demons would not likely attack them. Even if they do, they would normally send the Devilbeasts," Iron Axe continued as he saluted to Tilly. "I hope Your Highness could help with the defense in the air."

Tilly nodded and answered, "Don't worry. The Aerial Knights are designed to fight the Devilbeasts."

"The last is the Archduke Island," Iron Axe said as he pointed at a large island in the east. "It'll be eventually covered by the Red Mist, but strategically, we still rely on it. Since it's not connected to any lands, it's easier to defend. The Mad Demons need to travel two to three kilometers to cross the channel to land. The Spider Demons can't cross the ocean. Although the flying Devilbeasts could travel anywhere pretty fast, they can't attack effectively. Therefore, the Devilbeasts won't create too much trouble to the construction of the blockhouses."

"As long as we have the Archduke Island, the Sedimentation Bay would be quite safe. Likewise, the island is a perfect place for us to attack the demons. If we use cannons in the city, our fire would cover the entire beach, as well as the land within a radius of 10 kilometers."

"But it's covered in the Red Mist..." Agatha said apprehensively.

"The General Staff has considered about it," Edith interjected. "That's why we sent 500 people there. Even if the demons attack us fiercely, the army and the fleet at the Sedimentation Bay would still have time to retreat. There's no sign so far that indicates that the demons have a powerful fleet that can fight on the ocean."

"Er... can I say something?" Wendy asked.

"Go ahead."

"I lived in a monastery in the old holy city for more than 10 years, so I know the several roads in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter leading to the Hermes Plateau. The roads in the Kingdom of Everwinter are mostly in the Impassable Mountain Range. Could the demons use these roads to attack Hermes? There are many God's Stone mines there."

There was instantly a heated discussion.

Without a doubt, once the demons erected the Obelisk at the center of the Four Kingdoms, the result would be more fatal than when they did that on the Fertile Plains. The Red Mist could tumble down to the land below from the plateau and permeate the whole continent. By that time, the human race would have nowhere to go.

"That's a possibility, but it's hard to achieve," Edith commented in approval. "During the last two Battles of Divine Will, the demons could only erect one Obelisk. First of all, their army can't cross the Impassable Mountain Range and reach the Hermes Plateau. These paths were all accessible to the public. We just need to build a few outposts if we want to monitor them. Once exposed, the demons would be in a very disadvantageous position."

"Therefore, even if the demons intend to attack the New Holy City, they could only do it secretively like what they did to the Misty Forest. One or two units won't be able to set up the Obelisk so quickly in Hermes. Plus, the Coldwind Ridge is just one step away from the Plateau. It's highly unlikely that they'll build an Obelisk under our noses."

"I see. You've already thought about that," Wendy said, profoundly relieved. "Then it's OK with me."

"That's the basic plan for the First Army at the front," Iron Axe concluded. "We're now trying to see where the demons are coming from. To tell you the truth, as we don't have enough information and are short staffed, the First Army have had a hard time recently. I'm really glad that everyone came to support us. With your help, we could, more or less, solve these problems. Once we have enough people and intelligence, we can fight back!"

The next was to assign work to the witches.

Leaf and Lotus would stay at the Cage Mountain on the border and set up numerous traps.

Andrea and Shavi would head to the Sedimentation Bay. They were combat witches, so they naturally were sent to the front.

Hummingbird and Molly would support the logistics to help unload supplies at the port.

Echo would be responsible for raising the morale of the army.

While everyone was busy preparing for the war, fall had passed.

The sun did not rise as usual on the first day of winter. Instead, flurries of snow drifted down from the sky.

This was the first Month of Demons after the appearance of the Bloody Moon.

Chapter 1299 - A Swift Attack

Outside Thorn Town at the Cage Mountain.

"A, atishoo — "

Good sneezed as he entered the hangar against rushes of snow and gusts of wind. He placed the heavy ammunition case beside the plane and slumped onto it. "I hate winter. It reminds me of those old days when we were refugees."

"Nobody likes the Months of Demons, but I have to say that true winter hasn't come yet," Finkin said while twitching his lips as he opened his wooden case. "You should feel happy that we aren't far from the sea. The Months of Demons aren't that bad on the coast. Before His Majesty became the lord of the Western Region, everyone feared that they would not survive the night. Their houses might collapse at night, and they would then be buried in snow if they stayed in. They could not even run for life."

"Well, are the Months of Demons in Neverwinter really that terrible?"

"That's right. The situation didn't change until His Majesty built concrete houses. Why do you think His Majesty named the new king's city 'Neverwinter'?" Finkin said while shrugging. He took out the ammunition from the case and put it into the cabin.

The "Fire of Heaven" was equipped with two machine guns, one at the front and the other in the middle. Although they were both new general machine guns, their loading methods were quite different. The machine gun at the front was half merged with the plane, so they used a cartridge to load shells. The ammunition case was, therefore, made of metal. When they load shells, they had to remove the whole thing.

The machine gun in the middle was fixed to a rotating gun rack. Its operation method was exactly the same as Mark I used by the Gun Battalion, only that they used a saddle-shaped drum magazine that could accommodate 100 shells to load the weapon. The machine gunner at the rear loaded ammunition manually once the shells ran out.

To ensure that every time before the operation, they had sufficient ammunition, they needed to reload the weapons after the plane landed, no matter how many times they had fired. Normally, the ground staff would take care of this matter, but Good preferred to do it himself. He did not want to miss a single opportunity to touch the plane, even if it was just a fleeting second.

Just then, a loud wave of cheers erupted outside the hangar.

Undoubtedly, some students had passed the exam and landed on the runway.

Even if it was now snowing, Her Highness did not stop the training.

She was even busier than usual.

Apart from teaching the new students, she took them to patrol the northwestern area of the Kingdom of Wolfheart twice a day. At night, they discussed flight theories and issues they had come across during the day. She hardly took a rest.

Under her influence, everyone studied hard, and they actually did even better than in Neverwinter. During the past one week, not a single trainer aircraft had crashed.

After installing the new ammunition case to the storage room at the front of the plane with his partner, Good walked up to the window and let out a sigh.

"What's the matter? Are you homesick?" Finkin asked as he followed Good.

Good shook his head and said, "I'm just worried about..."

"About the war and your sister back home?" Finkin interjected while smiling slyly. "I remember her name is Rachel, right?"

"I'm worried about that I'll be replaced!" Good exclaimed indignantly as he glared at Good.

"Why?"

"We only have four fighters, one of which is Her Highness' 'Unicorn'. In other words, I have to be one of the top threes to operate the Fire of Heaven," said Good as he turned around and watched the training field at a distance. "Our strength lies in war experience, but we haven't seen a single demon yet. If there are one or two gifted students among the new people, we would probably fall behind."

Surprised at Good's concern, Finkin said in a resigned tone after a long silence, "Oi, oi, you're worrying too much. We've earned a lot of experience by shooting real bullets. Didn't Her Highness say that even the Gun Battalion needs a couple of months to practice, wasting thousands of bullets before they throw themselves in a real war?"

"But we don't really do well in shooting, do we?"

"Well..." Finkin was at a loss for words.

Although the Aerial Knights had never met a single demon so far, they had fired on the plane numerous times. Tilly did not ask them to bring back the ammunition but asked them to use up all the bullets. They were told to pick a random target and practice as if it were a real battle. The target, sometimes, was a balloon in the air or a big tree on the top of the mountain.

Good discovered that he was much less talented in shooting than flying. Also, he had heard that many new students had quite outstanding performance during the training, one of whom was called Manfeld. His gift was soon acknowledged by the instructor in just a few days.

Therefore, his worry was not completely groundless.

He could improve his flying techniques by constant practice, but there was no shortcut for shooting.

Suddenly, a sharp alarm broke over the airport.

It pierced the air like a firecracker!

Good and Finkin exchanged dark looks, and their manners instantly tightened.

Once the alarm went off, all the training was suspended. The runway was cleared. The official Aerial Knights must immediately gather at the headquarters at the airport.

It was their first time hearing the alarm since their arrival at Thorn Town.

They thus ran to the headquarters at once.

Soon, there were more than 30 people in the temporary headquarters.

"We received a message from Iron Axe just a minute ago that a troop of demons had appeared 200 kilometers to the north of the Gust Castle," Princess Tilly said as she pointed at the map. "The message was delivered by the animal messenger, and in the letter, Iron Axe has pointed out that there are also refugees nearby. The demons may aim at these refugees. It would take the garrison at the Gust Castle more than two days to travel there. It would be too late if we wait for them."

"This is what the Aerial Knights can help with. Nobody can cover such a long distance within two to three hours except the 'Fire of Heaven'. The demons would have never thought that they would share the sky with us one day! Now, heed my command. Aerial Knights, advance!"

"As you wish, Your Highness!" everyone shouted together.

Good clenched his fists. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time!

By the time they returned to the hangar, the ground staff had finished the preparation work for the takeoff.

Good strode over to the pilot cabin, quickly turned on the engine and spinned the lever. As the motor was set in motion, black smoke spiraled up from the head of the jet. The plane finished its first cycle as it roared.

Once the engine was on, the piston would continue working.

Good put on his goggles, waved at the cheering crowd and pushed down the lever.

Around seven or eight mintues later, four biplanes streaked across the runway and rose into the air in the snow before they headed off to the north.

Chapter 1300 - A Ferocious Fight

It was definitely not easy to fly in winter.

Although the Aerial Knights were wearing hats made of wolf skins, fur scarves and goggles, the area unprotected by these gears was still exposed to the biting coldness.

The windshield was located at the front of the "Fire of Heaven". When the wind changed its direction or when the plane set off, flurries of snows would be carried into the cabin by the wind from all directions.

However, Good understood the rationale behind this design.

Above him were the huge wings, so his vision was pretty narrow. If he wanted to observe the situation below, he had to poke his head out of the cabin. In fact, the most thing that Finkin did was to poke his head out. Unlike regular soldiers who simply needed to draw out their weapons on the battlefield, the Aerial Knights had to first located the enemies. It was extremely hard to find their target in the sky.

The "Fire of Heaven" became as tiny as an ant at a height of 1,000 kilometers, let alone the people on the ground.

That was probably the reason why each plane was operated by two people. Four eyes worked better than two.

"Any luck?"

Good turned around and asked.

Around an hour ago, the fleet had passed the Gust Castle. If the demons were pursuing the refugees, they should be around this area according to the map. To expedite the search process, the four planes spread out and formed a fan-shaped formation around the central axis in the north.

This was also the standard search method written on the Flight Manual.

Theoretically, as long as they did not deviate from the course, the four planes could cover the area within a radius of 200 kilometers. Nevertheless, due to the harsh weather condition, the planes had to stick together, which largely reduced their search area.

"Nothing!" Finkin yelled while holding his telescope. "Could demons have already caught up with the refugees and killed them all?"

"Then there should be many bodies down there!"

"Alright, I'll take another look... I hope the snow won't cover them up," Finkin mumbled. "Mate, could you drop a little bit?"

Good lowered the head of the jet a little and cast a glance at the compass and the altimeters.

These were the only two parameters on the "Fire of Heaven that they could rely on to know their current location.

In spite of this, there were also clear instructions on the Flight Manual that they must not trust these two parameters too much. "Due to the limitation of the technologies, the devices could go wrong, especially when the plane is flying through an area that is experiencing a series of drastic changes in weather, altitude and geographical landscape. Make sure that you look out of the cabin every now and then, unless you want to be that key person who prompts a new round of technology revolution — by Tilly Wimbledon."

"I can only drop another 300 meters. No lower than that. This isn't the Western Region of Graycastle where the land is flat — "

However, Finkin interrupted him, "Two degrees to the right! Someone's moving there."

Good's expression changed. He quickly adjusted the direction.

He could hear nothing except the howl of the wind and the roar of the engine. Therefore, Finkin was not referring to sounds but something visible to their eyes. It would be indeed very suspicious if someone chose to come out under this weather condition.

A moment later, Good found many black dots against the vast, white mountain range covered in snow. Instead of a few scattered dots here and there, they actually formed a great number of lines. From above, these lines resembled thin threads of hair in the snow.

"Are they... footprints?"

Finkin answered his question in excitement. "That's right. I believe that's whom Her Highness asked us to look for! There are people on the mountain, and there are so many! God, the demons are going after those refugees. I saw hundreds of bodies! Based on their body builds, they should be Mad Demons, and there are 30 to 40 of them!"

"Notify the others!" Good said immediately and pressed down the lever. "Let's go first!"

Three green flares were discharged and sizzled into the air, forming a glaring constast with the Bloody Moon in the midair.

The plane plummeted, and the two parties were increasingly close to each other. When the plane was only 400 to 500 meters away from the crest of the mountain, Good finally saw the fleeing refugees struggling to run for life in the snow. They rushed down the mountain, and many people almost tumbled down the mountainside, looking desperate.

The Mad Demons, on the other hand, slowly closed in from behind. They were not particularly chasing or slaughtering them, but rather, they were enjoying the pleasure of the hunting game.

All Good's blood rushed to his head.

He recited the shooting instructions internally and aimed at the Mad Demons at the top of the mountain. After the target was aligned, he pressed the firing button.

The machine gun instantly fired furiously!

This was also the easiest way to shoot a target on the "Fire of Heaven". When the plane was only 200 to 300 above the ground, he did not need to worry that the bullets would deviate from the course as they dropped. The bullets would travel in the direction the jet headed during the whole process. Even Good, inexperienced as he was, could hit the target!

The bullets rained down at the Mad Demons in the snow and created a straight "borderline"!

It was not until then that the demons finally noticed the descending giant bird. They howled as they drew out their bone spears and threw them at the "Fire of Heaven", without the slightest intention to retreat.

Just then, the "borderline", without any warning, scattered the demons.

It was line of life and death.

The metal bullets whistled through the air and penetrated the Mad Demons, dotting the white snow with streaks of blue blood. Red blood mist spurted out suddenly from the back of the Mad Demons that got hit. Their arms and legs were instantly broken. For a moment, limbs and flesh flew in all directions, exhaling piles of snow. The Mad Demons were thus temporarily stopped.

Then there came the demons' bone spears. Unfortunately, the spears could not harm the "Fire of Heaven". Even if the weapons did reach the aircraft, they were too weak to cause any damage. It was almost impossible to spear the biplane traveling in the air at a high speed.

But the "Fire of Heaven" was still attacking

While Good was repositioning the jet, Finkin started to fire.

Finkin aimed at the crest of the mountain and fired ferociously. He did not follow any shooting rules or calculate the trajectories but simply shot based on his own instinct.

The demons finally realized that the strange bird in the sky was not some hybrid demonic beast or monster but a weapon created by human beings! However, their understanding could not change the situation. There was no hiding place, and the chance of escaping the furious "Fire of Heaven" became extremely slim.

During the past Battles of Divine Will, human beings had been so afraid of the Devilbeasts that flew high and fast up in the sky. Now, the demons were equally scared. Perhaps, they were more frightened than men.

A moment later, Good began to plunge toward the demons again.

At that time, the other two planes also appeared.

Under the attack of the three planes, the demons fled as fast as they could, but the planes pursued them relentlessly, in an attempt to kill more.

Neither Good Nor Finkin realized that they were the first few people who would still chase the enemies when they were outnumbered. Even the previous evacuation unit of the First Army had not taken the initiative to go after the demons. Now, they were facing 40-50 Mad Demons, but they only got three planes manned by six people.

Chapter 1301 - A Battle in the Snow

White thought he was going to die when the strange gray bird zoomed toward the mountain.

The only thing he was thinking at that moment was that he should have not come all the way here to do business!

He blamed those sailors!

Had those sailors not been so envious of coachmen and also started to transport refugees, he would not have had to come to the interior of the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

He simply wanted to earn more money and survive the fierce competition!

He had not expected that this time, he would encounter real demons.

He could probably still survive as long as he ran faster than the other refugees. However, when the strange birds appeared in the sky, he knew that he was doomed.

No men could outrun something that had wings, not to mention that he only had one leg.

White buried his head in his arms and knelt down. "God, please send your pious believer to the divine land you created after he dies and make sure that he has endless gold royals to squander..."

But the weird birds did not tear him to pieces. Instead, they produced a series of familiar sounds.

He had heard similar "neighing sounds" at the Sedimentation Bay. When the Graycastle men fired, those sounds would reverberate across the whole battlefield. Within just half an hour, the invincible knights from the Tusk and the Redstone Family were all reduced to ashes.

Did the Graycastle men came to their rescue?

White looked up gingerly and saw the most incredible scene in his life.

A jet of silver white flash erupted from the head of the strange bird. As if it had consciousness, the flash reached the demons. The snow was kicked up into the sky, and the demons fell down one after another, as though the flash contained indefinite power.

He was flabberghasted.

What excited White more was that the demons were also caught totally unprepared. They not only stopped chasing them but also started to flee.

"Mr. White, what, what's that?" some refugees asked tremulously.

White shook his head involuntarily, and suddenly, a bold idea flashed across his mind.

White pinched his leg and forced himself to stand up. He spread out his arms at the horrified refugees and yelled in a quavering voice, "Don't be scared. This is the Graycastle army I told you before! I summoned them here!"

"Graycastle men?" the refugees echoed in disbelief. "From the sky?"

"That's right!"

"Do you mean... that we'll be saved?"

"For now, yes, but it's not free. Indeed, their service is quite expensive! I don't have much savings, and I don't know when they'll leave — "

Before White could finish, the excited crowd interrupted him, "Don't let them go! I'm willing to pay double!"

"I'll pay two silver royals!"

"If I could arrive at the Sedimentation Bay safe and sound, I'll give you my gold ring!"

"And me as well..."

The refugees, who had been desperate just a moment ago, again burst into life as they saw a ray of hope.

"I'll deliver your message to the Graycastle men. Now, please follow me. Well, my leg doesn't work properly. Can someone carry me on the back?"

"I'll do it!" a burly man answered and immediately carried White on his back.

In that way, White did not have to be worried that he would fall behind.

If everything went well, he would probably retrieve his carriage with the money from the refugees.

White did not mind telling a little lie. The most important thing now was to raise the morale and help all of them escape.

"Don't be panic. Open your eyes and watch the others' footprints. Make sure that you don't roll down the mountain!" White instructed on the man's back at the front as the latter ran toward the foot of the mountain.

...

After firing at the demons for a while, Good noticed something had gone wrong.

One plane seemed to be missing.

Although the demons were completely flattened, it was still not that easy to exterminate 30 to 40 demons all at once. Apart from the harsh weather, the power of the gunfire was also quite limited compared to their training.

Good rose and made a count. He shuddered at his finding.

The "Unicorn" operated by Her Highness was missing!

The Unicorn was completely the same as the Fire of Heaven, only that the former could only accommodate one person. It was normal that he missed the Unicorn in such a great blizzard, but Tilly was His Majesty's sister. If anything happened to her, nobody could be absolved of the responsibility by blaming the weather condition.

Before Good could inform Finkin of the news, three more green flashes ignited the sky in the north.

That was the signal indicating that there were more enemies!

But were the demons not here?

Good's heart skipped a beat. He immediately abandoned the severely injured demons and tore toward the green light.

"Hey, hang on, where are you going? We'll be prosecuted in the military tribunal if we desert our post!" Finkin said while still shooting fervently.

"Shut up," Good said irritably. "Haven't you noticed that Her Highness isn't here?"

Finkin turned around and gasped.

Apparently, he had also seen the three flickers that were now slowly descending.

Fortunately, as the planes were relatively close to each other, it took Good only seven minutes or so to get where the signal was.

He was a little relieved.

The biplane firing downwards not far away was none other than the "Unicorn".

Her Highness was attacking a group of demons hiding in the forest. There seemed to be more demons here than where the refugees were.

Why were there two troops of demons?

Why did the smaller group go after the refugees?

Good was still lost in thought when Finkin at the rear shouted in excitement, "There are more demons here! Let's follow Her Highness. I can't wait to pull the trigger!"

The other two "Fires of Heaven" also arrived.

"Whatever," Good thought to himself, "the Mad Demons can't fight back anyway." Perhaps, the troop of demons they had met earlier had completely lost their fighting capacity. They could probably kill more of the enemies if they chose to fight here.

Just at that moment, however, a pack of Devilbeasts flew over the forest and shot up in the air. They streaked toward the "Unicorn" while howling.

It was their first time seeing their "imaginary enemies" in person, but Good instantly recognized them.

All his blood froze.

There were at least a dozen Devilbeasts.

He was only 400 to 500 meters away from them. How could he win without abandoning the princess?

He revolved rapidly a multitude of thoughts in his mind but denied his ideas. It was a split second that seemed to last forever. Before Good found the answer, Tilly reacted.

The "Unicorn" rose abruptly and jerked around before she flew toward the east. At the same time, a red flare was sent into the air and lit the sky.

It was a signal of retreat.

Good pressed hard on the gas and followed the "Unicorn" to retreat to the east.

The biplanes flew at a tremedous speed.

The fleet immediately passed the Devilbeast that was almost close enough to spear at them, and soon the four planes shook the enemies off and disappeared in the snow.

Chapter 1302 - Perspicacity

Five days later...

"Is that Your Highness?"

"Yes, this is a piece of news that just arrived at the headquarters. We're still in the process of confirming the number, but there are at least 600 people."

"The garrison at the Gust Castle has taken them in. They'll travel to Neverwinter by land after they recover from the trip."

"No, this is our obligation."

"Thank you. Please have a good rest."

Edith hung up the phone after she delivered the report.

As the most advanced communication tool, wind-up telephones had become indispensable to the General Staff. However, due to the limited data transmission, the service in the Cage Mountain area was only available to the encampment of the Aerial Knights outside Thorn Town.

Edith saw an amazed Lance Kant, her third brother, as she turned around.

"What's the matter?"

Unlike the way she treated her second brother, Cole, Edith directly hired Lance to work for the General Staff in her official capacity after the latter passed the elementary education exam. As her third brother had an exuberant and audacious personality, she thought it would be better to keep an eye on him.

Another reason was that Edith enjoyed seeing him deflated like a punctured balloon upon a failure.

"Ah... nothing. I was just surprised that you'd be so respectful to another person, sister," Lance said as he walked up to Edith while holding a stack of documents. "You've never even been so polite to father."

"I thought you'd become a little smarter after you grew up," Edith said indifferently. "I don't need such formalities when talking to father because I know he doesn't care. But Tilly Wimbledon is His Majesty's sister. If she says something about me behind my back to her brother, what do you think will happen to the House of Kant?"

"But I feel that His Majesty... doesn't care about that either..."

"Because he's a man, so sometimes, it works even better when you take the initiative."

"Er... I don't quite understand..."

"To understand people is always the hardest part. It's perfectly normal that you don't follow," Edith said while shrugging. "Even if you're extremely talented, you can't gain the final victory if you don't understand people."

"Could you teach me, sister?" Lance asked hopefully.

"Naturally," Edith replied while casting the latter a glance with some interest. "However, it'd be more effective to learn on the go than just taking the lectures. Cole actually does pretty well in that. Do you want to give it a shot?"

Lance felt a coldness prevail him as he thought of Cole's act of demeanor at home. He swallowed hard and said, "Well... I think I'd hold off on that."

Edith replied casually, "It's up to you."

Lance instantly switched the subject as if he had just been exonerated from a horrible crime. He said, "By the way, did you call Her Highness to tell her that the refugees have arrived safely?"

Edith confirmed with a nod, "Her Highness asked the General Staff to take care of this matter, so I must report to her in a timely fashion."

The whole rescue operation exceeded everybody's expectations. Not only had the Aerial Knights reached the battlefield 200 kilometers away within less than two hours, but they had saved a great number of refugees and crushed the demons as well.

That was right. This was not just an ordinary hunt. From the information they obtained, the refugees were probably a bait the demons used to lure the army. The troop coming after was the real deal.

What if the First Army had really sent their force to support the refugees?

Due to the harsh weather and the long distance, the army must ride light and swift. The demons, on the other hand, would have awaited an exhausted troop as a hunter awaited his prey. Once the two parties clashed, the rescue team would have found themselves not only being outnumbered but also surrounded by a group of Devilbeasts.

Even if the army retreated immediately, they would have to travel nearly 100 kilometers in the snow. How many soldiers would survive this trip? Perhaps, not a single one.

This was the demons' first tentative attack after the First Army reduced their force.

Even if the First Army had turned a blind eye on the refugees or completely overlooked the demons to the north of the Gust Castle, there was nothing to lose for the demons.

The demons had probably noticed that the Graycastle men were completely different than the soldiers in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter. Killing tons of local civilians would make no difference to the outcome of the Battle of Divine Will. However, they could weaken the human race if they managed to exterminate a rescue team.

Nevertheless, the Aerial Knights had caught them totally offguard.

The whole battle became somewhat similar to the one at the Northbound Slope a year ago. Both the demons and the First Army made judgements that they believed to be in the best interests of their own party, but the result was completely different.

Even if Tilly had not discovered the troop hiding in the forest at the rear, the outcome of the battle would not have changed.

The fleet all returned safely, and the refugees survived the hunt. It was indeed a major victory.

"The Aerial Knights are so amazing..." Lance sighed. "They not only killed dozens of Mad Demons but also got themselves out of the battle while being besieged. Even the Blessed Army of the Union couldn't do that, right?"

"Yes, they're wonderful."

Edith sighed deeply and cocked her legs onto the desk while swivelling in the chair, looking a little dejected.

A bit surprised, Lance said, "You don't look very happy."

"I'm not unhappy, but I feel... that the General Staff has become somewhat useless now."

"Huh?" Lance's eyes were wide open.

"The four planes could repel more than 200 demons. What if the First Army has 100 or 1,000 of 'Fires of Heaven'?" Edith said with a faint smile. "In that case, we simply need to send the Aerial Knights where in need. Military tactics and strategies would be simply unnecessary. Everybody can command the Aerial Knights. If that happens, what's the point in keeping the General Staff?"

In fact, the first time Edith had seen this type of automatic flying machine, she had foreseen its great military potential. She had indeed discussed a lot with Roland regarding the application of the air force. She had even founded a research group within the General Staff to specifically study the Aerial Knights, in an attempt to maximize their power.

However, when the Aerial Knights really revealed their strength in a real battle, Edith felt somehow regretful.

The overpowering force that the Aerial Knights presented made military strategies less important. Before knights had been replaced, military tactics and formations used to be two major parts of a war. Now, they were much simplified. Since the Aerial Knights could see the entire battlefield clearly from above and possessed immense power, they could literally take over the whole battle.

In other words, they would see every move of the enemies in the sky while the demons could see nothing. The demons were groping in the dark without the ability to fight back or develop any countermeasures.

Furthermore, this was just the beginning. The "Fire of Heaven" was just a very crude model, like the original flintlock that was later transformed into more powerful and advanced Mark I.

"Then... we can go back to the City of Evernight," Lance answered quietly.

"It's probably too late now," Edith said smilingly. "I've offended so many people to come this far. Do you think those people will let us go?"

Edith knew very well that if Roland became the ruler of this continent, nothing like this would happen. However, she had to think about the worst scenario because foul languages could always hurt people.

"I'll... protect you," Lance said while biting his lip.

"With what? With your current social status and official capacity? If you can't become a leader, you'd better save these empty promises," Edith snapped, a hint of callous pleasure in her tone. "Otherwise, it'd only be worse. For example, your enemy will probably humiliate me right in front you — "

Edith broke off.

Soon they heard footsteps outside the door, and Ferlin Eltek entered.

"Your ladyship, you're here..."

"What's the matter? Any news?"

"I wish," Morning Light said, looking troubled. "I just checked the supply list for the Aerial Knights. Perhaps, we have to adjust the logistics."

"Yes?"

"You probably don't know that they used thousands of bullets in the past few days, not including those consumed in the real battle," Ferlin said agitatedly. "There are only 20 or 30 of them, but they request more ammunition than 10 Gun Battalion units put altogether! Not to mention that we have to supply them fuels and spare parts of the planes. If the number of the students doubles or triples, what should the logistics department do? Your ladyship?"

Lance suddenly found that the languid air his sister had presented just a a moment ago was gone.

Edith rose to her feet and replied casually, "You have to figure that out. You must make sure that the Aerial Knights have enough supplies." She then turned to Lance and said, "What are you doing here?"

"Yes?" Lance was still in a sort of daze.

"Come to the intelligence room with me. It isn't time to take a break yet," Edith said while swinging her sheet of hair in a trenchant manner and walked out of the room.

Chapter 1303 - Hints and Clues

The intelligence room was the largest organization in the general headquarters of the First Army. This organization was responsible for screening and storing tons of information. Lotus and Fran created an underground chamber specifically for the General Staff, and 70% of the 200 General Staff members were working here.

At the same time, it was also the most energy-consuming office. The room was not only illuminated with the Stones of Lighting, but the workers here were also offered free Chaos Drinks at night. Many other departments were envious of the intelligence agents.

However, only the intelligence agents themselves understood the hardship they had been going through every day.

After Edith proposed the intelligence collection plan, they started gathering information. Every week, they received two to three encypted letters from the Kingdom of Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, and now, they had collected nearly 100 so far.

Although the General Staff's main duty was to analyze information, most of the time the letters were from the scouts, which were usually well-written, concise and easy to understand. However, the 100 messages they had recently received were all pieces of information written in broken sentences. It took them quite a while to first decipher the messages. As such, the screening process was as boring and time-consuming as playing a puzzle game.

This was, nevertheless, not the worst part.

The hardest part lay in handling the encrypted letters.

The agents did not understand why there was an increasing number of messages all of a sudden, as it was quite hard to obtain information now when the demons had closed the border of the Red Mist area. Yet after Hill Fawkes became the main intelligence officer, his agents started to use various strange ways to get the messages out.

For example, the letters could be hidden in animal skins or the interlayer of a shoulder pole. Sometimes, they could be inserted in the stomach of a pickled fish. Trading merchants in the occupied area became a fantastic channel to communicate information. A lot of times, those noble merchants unknowingly became the couriers.

Because of this, the encrypted letters were sent in all kinds of manners. The agents, for instance, had to take out a silk ribbon from the stomach of a fish while enduring the terrible odour. Before reading the message, they had to clean up the letter first.

Everybody would feel resentful when their work suddenly switched from writing reports leisurely while sipping the tea to transforming a variety of garbages into useful letters and information.

Nevertheless, although full of complaint and disatisfaction, nobody slacked off, as both Edith and Iron Axe were keeping an eye on this department. Therefore, nobody would be foolish enough to delay the work under these two people's noses.

Edith saw Ion Axe discuss something with Hill Fawkes as she entered the intelligence room. There were around dozens of pieces of paper on the desk in the center of the room. Apparently, the clerks had made a copy of the letters.

She skimmed them through and found that most of them were from the Kingdom of Everwinter.

A large part of them seemed to be useless information providing few clues, such as "a new troop of demons garrisoned in the northern city today", "a noble suddenly passed away, and someone inherited his title", and " a giant stone monster is lurking around the border area".

Edith was not surprised that the intelligence collection plan could go so well in such a short time. The success was not only attributed to Hill's hard work but also the "Black Money".

After she suggested Iron Axe making contact with the sender of the black card, the mysterious man agreed to work at the front. Although he only sent a messenger, he overtly expressed his wish to provide help to Graycastle. The "Black Money" was started in the Kingdom of Dawn and also had certain influences on the Kingdom of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Everwinter, mainly on the underground market and the Rats.

Rats could not collect very useful information due to various rumors and misinformation circulated in the neighborhood, but it was better than nothing.

Edith also noticed a particular message that indicated that "sailors were forced to work" in some cities.

"What do you think of it?" Iron Axe asked as he also noticed what Edith was staring at.

"If I remember it correctly, the third princess, Garcia, brought many ships when she attacked the Kingdom of Everwinter," Edith said thoughtfully. "If the church didn't destroy those ships, they're probably still in somewhere in the Kingdom of Everwinter."

"It appears that you're quite concerned about this matter."

"Compared to the others, this piece of news was obtained from various sources and is relatively reliable," Edith said while extending out her hands. "Ships are mainly used for transportation. The demons may use them to transport their army or they plan to launch an attack on the sea. However, I don't think they'll attack us from the ocean."

"What's your reason?" Iron Axe questioned.

"The demons must have known the power of cannons after so many battles. They should have known that we'll use cannons to repel them if they sail to the Archduke Island and the Sedimentation Bay. They won't survive on a sailing ship," Edith explained. "If they choose to go around the port of the Kingdom of Wolfheart and get to the interior of the Kingdom of Dawn, they won't have enough Red Mist supplies. Therefore, I'm inclined to the former possibility. To win the war, the demons must assemble their army at the front as fast as they could and attack us by land and water."

With these words, she looked toward Hill and asked, "What do you think?"

Hill bowed to Edith and answered, "Your ladyship, I'm not good at analyzing wars, so I don't know which way the enemies would go. The only thing I can do is to collect the information and send it to the General Staff."

"This is a smart man," thought Edith.

He did not blindly follow her but made his own jugdements based on the information he had. He certainly knew what his strength and weakness were. No wonder the king asked him to organize the intelligence collection work.

"Even you can't find more clues out of it. It's probably a dead end," Iron Axe said resignedly. "So, we only know that the demons would assemble armies, but we don't know where they'll go or what their intention is. This is so frustrating."

"The Kingdom of Wolfheart has been completely evacuated, which is why Hill can't put his man there. If you didn't evacuate the country, we would have probably found some clues as to the whereabouts of the demons," Edith said half-jokingly.

"I must obey His Majesty's order," Iron Axe defended while shaking his head. "Plus, the First Army can't put their hope in some Rats."

"We'll send you more useful information in the future, sir," Hill Fawkes suddenly spoke.

Iron Axe raised his brows and asked, "Are you saying the information later on will be more in detail?"

"That's right," Hill replied. "I've been staying in the circus in the Kingdom of Dawn for so long, and the most important thing I've learned is that as long as we plan it well, we'll naturally obtain more information."

"Really? Could you tell me more about it?" Edith demanded with some interest.

Chapter 1304 - Hints and Clues (II)

"In short, we just let those birds conduct the search themselves."

Hill Fawkes produced a pencil and sketched a tree diagram on a piece of paper. "Since we pay for information instead of the person who collects them, the more information he gets, the more he earns. To obtain more information, he'll find a way to hire more people to do the work for him. In His Majesty's words, it's called a top-down approach."

"I see," Edith commented, who immediately grasped the nature of this management style. "To expand the lower-level organization, we, as the stem of the tree, must give them some incentives to make sure that they keep working for us."

Hill nodded and said, "Exactly. Scouts and detectives are all at the very end of the chain. They won't change much over time. Therefore, the information would become more reliable as time progresses, although their search area can be fairly limited."

"But they're essentially Rats..." Iron Axe said, frowning.

"No, sir. This is the interesting part. The stem and the branch don't have to be managers and subordinates neccessarily. Soldiers have to listen to officers, but Rats don't necessarily need to obey Rats."

"As long as we promise that they'll benefit from their work, Rats can also make nobles work for them," Edith supplied slowly.

Hill looked at Edith approvingly and said, "Yes, these incentives don't have to be gold royals. Everyone has their own need. We simply need to know what they desire, and it doesn't have anything to do with social classes. This means that secondary agents can be people of different socio-economic status. The reason that the information we've collected so far is not that comprehensible is that the Rats are still digging the surface. Once nobles start to join us, we'll have more valuable news."

Iron Axe pondered for a moment and said, "Even if that's true, it'll probably take a long time for nobles to work for us."

"That might be the case in peacetime," Hill returned. "However, the Kingdom of Everwinter is now undergoing dramatic changes. I believe that this process will be largely shortened. In fact, some messages have already provided us with a hint."

"Like?" Iron Axe questionsed while stroking his chin.

Hill explained smilingly, "According to our statistical report, we've been receiving fewer reports about the nobles. Most of them, if any, are negative news, such as debaunchery, public brawling, etc. Rulers shouldn't be like that in wartime, which reflects that the rulers of the Kingdom of Everwinter have abandoned their duties to protect their people. They're having a lot of pressure, so they need to let these negative emotions out in some way. I believe that such things started after the evacuation unit of the First Army defeated the alliance army formed by the nobles."

Hill took a pause and resumed, "Although at that time, I was in the City of Glow in the Kingdom of Dawn, I can imagine what a huge blow it was to the nobles. When people begin to feel insecure, they would put their hope in anyone that could help them, even if this person is someone that they despise the most. Sir, please rest assured. You won't wait for too long."

*******************

In the Snow Reflection Castle in the Kingdom of Everwinter.

"Sorry for the long wait. His lordship isn't feeling well today, so he can't come out to greet you. I would advise that you call on us on another day," the butler suggested as he swept a bow. "Once his lordship feels better, he'll let you know."

The hall was instantly stirred.

"We've been waiting for weeks! Even if he's infected with some serious disease, at least he can come out and say a word."

"I don't believe a single word he says. We fought for him, and where's our lands?"

That's right. Even if he's not well enough to meet us, he should at least hand us the deeds!"

"This bulter is lying. I saw Viscount Narnos come out of the castle four hours later after he got in."

"Not only the viscount but also many dancers from the tavern. Is the duke now seeking women instead of scholars to cure his disease?"

"Please, mind your language," the butler said coolly after clearing his throat. "You've been without a land for too long, so you've probably forgotten that you're still the subordinates of the Duke of the Northern Region. The duke is your master. You should know better than me what a crime it is to slander a lord! I don't think you would like to sit in a cell instead of your hotel room in this weather."

At these words, the guards at the door came forward, their armors clanking on their sides.

The hall immediately fell quiet.

The nobles knew it would not do any good if they engaged in a verbal altercation here.

The butler lowered his voice and continued, "I know you're anxious, but the most important thing now is to defeat the Graycastle soldiers. By the way, his lordship will hold a banquet tonight in the castle parlor to receive you. Although he can't come, he wishes you a lovely evening."

Because of the perspective banquet, the crowd finally withdrew from the hall while muttering under their breath, looking a little more satisfied.

They immediately began to talk about the delicious food and beautiful women they would encounter in the evening.

Only Fueler still felt unhappy when he returned to his hotel.

After dealing with Marwayne for a while, he became morbidly disappointed with the duke.

The defeat at Frost Town was mainly because of the fact that the Graycastle soldiers were more proficient in using the weapons and had higher morale. The nobles could have learned the lesson and fought again. However, what had the duke done? He was not only the first person that had fled the battleground but he also locked himself in the Snow Reflection Castle, having completely forgotten about his ambition prior to the battle.

Apart from that, he failed to fulfill his promise to grant the nobles lands and treated them equally. Viscount Narnos had now the access to the castle, but the knights relying on the great nobles were shut out.

Yet before the battle, the duke had sought Fueler's counsels a lot.

A competent lord should never broke his promise, but Marwayne broke this rule simply because he wanted to hold onto his tiny territory.

Fueler worked for Marwayne, in a hope of reviving his family. Now, all his squires and guards had been killed in action. He literally had nothing at the moment.

Could a knight with neither squires nor land be really considered as a noble? The others could still afford to wait, but what about him? Who would acknowledge his family half a year or one year later? If the demons did defeat Roland Wimbledon, Marwayne would rise to power and easily help him revive his family. The problem was that, a dishonest man as he was, would the duke really help a person with practically nothing?

Should he put his faith completely in such a careless duke or find himself a way out?

Fueler paced up and down in his bedroom and finally came to a stop.

He walked up to his desk and took out a folded envelope at the bottom of the drawer.

After a moment of hesitation, Fueler tore it open.

There was a velvety black card in it.

Chapter 1305 - Lurking

"This is an easy job. You won't need to take any huge risks. All you have to do is place the message in the allocated location and no one will know that you did it." The voice of the silver-masked man who called himself the leader of Black Money sounded from beside his ear once more.

"Utterly ridiculous! Why on earth would I help Graycastle? They even eradicated the nobles; what will I gain even if I win?" Images of the conflict seemed to occur before his eyes once more.

"I believed that Black Money were intelligent merchants, to think that you would utter such foolish words! Aren't you afraid that I'll just tie you up right now and hand you over to Lord Marwayne in exchange for a generous award instead?"

"If you really wanted to do that, then this conversation would never have taken place in the first place." The man's tone did not change, as if he didn't care for his own safety at all. "Just the fact that I'm still sitting here is enough to prove your intentions, and it's because that you are clever, that we're willing to give you this opportunity."

"Unfortunately you have misjudged me. My loyalty to the Duke is unshakable. Now scram before I change my mind!"

"Of course, I'll take my leave now. But my lord, this is how "opportunities" are. By no means does Black Money want to force you into this, it is your freedom to decide how you act."

The silver-masked man stood up, gave a deep bow, and then lightly placed a black card onto the tea table.

"I want to say something before I go: Graycastle will never forget anyone who serves them. Now...I hope to see you again."

Fueler inhaled deeply, interrupting his chaotic thoughts. The room became quiet.

Graycastle will never forget anyone who serves... them?

How ironic. He served Duke Marwayne for the sole purpose of reviving his family's prosperity. Roland Wimbledon, the enemy of all nobility, was originally the most unforgivable person, yet now, Fueler was finding himself to be uncertain.

Although those bastards from Black Money were scum, they were utterly right. If he was really going to serve the Duke of the Northern Region to the very end then he would have ripped the card into shreds ages ago, rather than carefully hiding it beneath the drawer.

After a long period of silence, Fueler arched his head backwards with a sigh and then sat down in front of his desk.

He pulled out a white sheet of paper and a goose-feather quill.

Was there anymore he could lose?

The notion of taking back his territory was becoming more and more distant. It seemed like he didn't really have a reason to grit his teeth and keep persevering.

Who cares. He wouldn't be affected negatively in any way as long as he followed Black Money's instructions. It would simply be akin to placing a bet on both sides. If the demons win, the current situation couldn't possibly get any worse. If the people from Graycastle were triumphant, it gave him a chance of acquiring compensation through other ways.

Finishing his thoughts, Fueler lowered his quill.

...

At dusk, Fueler put on his trench coat and felt cap and walked into the "Horn Alley" of the inner city.

Horn Alley was territory belonging to the Northern Chamber of Commerce. All of the passers-by were merchants. By sunset, there were very few people out and about.

Fueler found the location that the silver-masked man had described in a place on a gentle slope. In between two brick houses sprouted a large, silver fir tree.

In fact, the delivery method that the masked man spoke of was also one of the reasons that prompted Fueler to make his decision.

With no physical contact with the recipient, the risks were largely diminished. With this, at least he need not worry about Black Money blackmailing him with the message, or someone seeing him interacting suspiciously with an unknown person.

Fueler wandered around the vicinity for a while and upon affirming that there were no suspicious people near him, quickly strode towards the back of the silver fir tree and probed for the hole in the middle of the trunk—sure enough, there was a secret compartment hidden inside. The door of the compartment was made completely out of ordinary wood; if he hadn't touched it with his own hands, he wouldn't have noticed it.

He stuffed the letter containing the message inside the compartment and pushed the wooden plank back in place. With that, he completed the task of placing the message. He had intentionally written the message in script so that even if a third party discovered it, it would be impossible for them to connect the handwriting to him.

Of course, his mission was not entirely complete yet.

Next, Fueler returned to his residence and placed a flower pot on the window sill of his bedroom. For a person living in the high-end section of the Inner city, such decorative items were easily accessible. Nobody would care about an inconspicuous pot plant. However, to those that were observing him in the dark, this was a sign that the message had been delivered.

From the beginning to the end, he didn't need to meet anyone in person. In regards to who would take the message, or how it would get into Graycastle's hands, these things no longer had anything to do with him.

In the moment he set down the flower pot, Fueler almost seemed to experience a liberating feeling.

To think they'd be so meticulous in even the simple act of gathering intel, the gap between the two kings is truly insurmountable... Fueler thought as he stood before his window, gazing into the distance at the castle district, ablaze with lights under the Red Mist. When he thought about how the "losers" of the battle were still cheerfully enjoying the evening party, any hope he had in Marwayne died.

There was only one more question remaining.

Could Graycastle really defeat the demons?

*******************

The messenger pushed a thick stack of papers onto the damp and dilapidated wooden table.

"Is this today's portion?" Smarty lit a candle. "Thank you."

The messenger gave no reaction.

Smarty sighed and repeated himself with hand signals.

Only then did the messenger nod.

Indeed, this messenger was a silent warrior trained by his master. He was deaf and mute and could only be commanded or interrogated through simple hand gestures. Unfortunately, there wasn't a hand gesture to express gratitude.

"Keep watch outside and don't let anyone inside." After he got the silent warrior to leave, Smarty began carefully reading through the messages page by page.

This place was the allocated property where Black Money organized their underground chamber of commerce. Typically only the invited could enter so in theory the possibility of outsiders breaking in was small. Nevertheless, Smarty chose to go through the intel in the basement, for if anything were to occur, he would have more time to destroy the evidence.

Although Smarty did not know why his master was so serious about Graycastle's battle, this was not an issue he could intervene in. Since his master had commanded him to support Graycastle with all his power, the only thing he could do was obey the command to the best of his abilities.

Currently, his most important mission was to organize the intel and deliver it into Graycastle's hands silently and without a trace.

Although the people from Graycastle demanded that not a single piece of intel could be missed, opportunities to secretly send things outside the city were scarce; thus, there was an issue of prioritization to consider. Considering that the trading caravans which were qualified to pass came through once a week, he had to turn the most reliable intel into a confidential letter and mix it among the trading goods going towards Wolfheart within a week. As for the rest of the intel, he could only seek out another way.

Most of the time, intel came from a Rat's words, causing them to be extremely disorganized. Usually he would have to waste huge amounts of time to filter it. However this time, Smarty noticed a letter among the intel that stood out from the rest.

The characters on it were neat and organized. They definitely were not words that were carelessly copied down in a bar or on the streets. The words were also written with high-grade ink and there was not a single wrinkle on the paper. Clearly, the letter was written in an environment far superior to ones that Rats are usually found in.

Subconsciously holding his breath, he read the letter carefully from start to finish.

Indeed, the contents of the letter were far different from the rest.

It was the first to mention the core of the Army of Demons: Sky Lord Hackzord.

Chapter 1306 - The Bloodstained Message

After flipping through the letter, a chill ran down Smarty's back.

A demon lord that could open the gate to Hell, letting troops come and go as they like?

Unquestionably, this intel was of utmost importance—In truth, he had been perplexed by the oddly unscathed fall of Snow Reflection Castle. The only thing that could be said from it was that the demons invaded from the north side. All the other explanations varied and contradicted each other. Evidently, all the citizens who witnessed the arrival of demons with their own eyes had died during the invasion.

At last he had conclusive affirmation to his questions.

But what shocked him even more was that the demon lord spoken of was familiar with human laws. Not only was the demon lord able to engage proficiently with the nobility, but in a short span of time, he was also able to become the real ruler behind the scenes of the Kingdom of Everwinter. Currently, the enlistment of citizens in the domains of the kingdom was all his doing. The handsome benefits promised by the demon lord were also far greater than what the people of Graycastle were capable of.

Additionally, the letter's illustration of the patterns in the drafting of citizens was extremely valuable. Although it wasn't the same as information on the power distribution of demons, one could at least infer from it approximately where resources were allocated.

What was certain was that this letter was definitely not written by the likes of a Rat or merchant. The writer's perspective betrayed that he was undoubtedly a member of Everwinter's upper class.

The contents of the entire letter were organized, logical, clear and concise. There was no need for transcription—it would be difficult to make it anymore concise than it already was. All Smarty had to do was send it out in one piece and it would already be a critical piece of intel. In terms of priority, it was without a doubt the highest.

The problem now was that the merchant group used to deliver intel left Snow Reflection Castle yesterday. In order not catch anyone's attention, Black Money only planted one of their members inside the merchant group, and that member was merely a cart driver, making it virtually impossible for him to make the entire group pull back in the direction they came. The next merchant group would only be able to leave the following week.

If we were to add on the time spent stopping and moving along the way, the delivery time would be drawn out even longer.

After hesitating for a long time, Smarty finally jumped up, gathered the rest of the paper on his table, and put them away in his drawer, leaving only the letter on the table.

Next he had to seal it with waterproof wax.

After he finished, he blew out the candle, slotted the letter somewhere close to his body and returned to the first floor. Using hand gestures, he told the silent warrior, "I'm going to personally leave the city for a while. If something unprecedented happens here, light the fuel oil downstairs."

Just when Smarty was about to turn and go out the door, the silent warrior caught Smarty's arm and very slightly shook his head. Then, the silent warrior pointed to himself.

Stay, and leave the dangerous things to me...?

Smarty chuckled lightly. "I'll only be sending a letter. I'll be back in two or three days at most. You can't speak, nor do you know where the exchange point is, so you can't help me with this mission."

However there were no hand gestures to express such complicated words, he only made one hand gesture: "This is a command."

The hand gripping him released.

Smarty patted the silent warrior's chest and left the room without looking back.

Since his master told him to support Graycastle with everything at his disposal, the most important thing he had to do now was deliver this letter as soon as possible. After all, in the words of the Graycastle folk: intel is dependent on timeliness; the longer that intel is held back, the more changes that occur and the less reliable it is.

For such occasions, they had even set up an emergency contact point a bit over five kilometers away from the border of the city. At the contact point, they prepared an incredible animal courier. Smarty had heard that it could deliver messages to the Kingdom of Dawn within a few days.

That village would be the destination of his journey.

Leaving Snow Reflection Castle without permission indeed had its risks, but in general they were all within his control. In reality, people were escaping the Northern Region via all sorts of different methods everyday. There were even people leaving Everwinter—the Red Mist and blood-red moon above people's heads didn't actually affect their lives in any way, it was just that Graycastle's propaganda and the rumors about the demons had already cemented themselves in them; no matter how much the feudal lord tried to stop it, he was unable to completely dissipate the fear the people had of these terrifying barbarian races.

Undoubtedly, these daily escapists were Smarty's best camouflage.

Smarty knew that as long as he moved alone, the probability of him getting caught by flying demons was low. The guards on the streets were even easier to deal with as in the end, gold royals were the ticket to all passages in the human world.

Reality was not much different to Smarty's predictions.

As dawn broke the following morning, Smarty safely passed through the southern gate of Snow Reflection Castle. In order to enjoy the gold royals all to himself, the guard even made sure not to alert anyone else, quietly opening a small door for Smarty on the inner side of the city wall.

Once he crossed the icy abyss, the rest of the journey would be free of obstruction.

Everytime Smarty caught sight of a black shadow in the sky, he would quickly tuck himself under the snow. His white coat was a natural camouflage and for those flying in the sky, his footsteps did not really look much different to the ones left by wild beasts.

When it was afternoon, Smarty could already vaguely glimpse smoke curling upwards from the kitchen chimneys of the village.

Wiping the white frost from his nose, he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

Just like the system inside the city, Smarty didn't need to directly meet with anyone from Graycastle. All he had to do was place the intel in the agreed spot and leave a secret signal.

Yet at this moment, Smarty heard the clip-clopping of horse hooves coming from behind him.

Smarty jumped and twisted around. His heart dropped slightly. What the hell, why are there Snow Reflection Castle soldiers here?

Graycastle had chosen this village specifically because it was remote. It would be difficult to notice even if one or two outsiders snuck in. Usually if the nobles wanted to intercept runaways they would choose to do it near the main road, they had no reason to come here.

The distance between Smarty and the soldiers quickly shortened. Clearly they had seen his figure, so there was really no point in hiding anymore.

Smarty decidedly stopped walking and turned towards the oncomers with an ingratiating smile plastered across his face. There were two riders in total, this probably wouldn't be too difficult as long as he gave enough gold royals.

One soldier reined in his horse in front of him and looked down at him condescendingly. "Older brother," he said, "I just knew that these fugitives would choose a remote path for their escape. We found one just like I said."

"Ah, lucky us."

As he thought... Are they one of the patrol parties sent to catch escapists?

"M-My lord, I beg of you, spare my life!" Pretending to be scared out of his wits, Smarty fell to his knees into the snow and held up his money bag in both hands, revealing a sparkle of the gold royals inside. " I couldn't stand staying in the same place as those demons from hell, they're monsters who'd eat you without a blink of an eye! I can give you all of my savings, just please let me go!"

"Oh? You've saved up quite a bit there." The rider took the money bag with a hint of pleasure in his tone.

"It's all yours now... O-oh yeah, I have some relatives in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, as long as you don't take me back, I'll definitely find a chance to repay you in the future!"

"You can stand up now."

Smarty silently released a breath. Usually, once he reached this point he had basically made it through. Refugees who had saved up gold royals were definitely a small minority; what's more he had "relatives in a neighboring country," so coming across someone like him was unbelievably unlikely. If killing people didn't give them any advantages, the soldiers wouldn't want to cause any more unnecessary trouble. After all, letting one or two refugees off didn't incur them any losses. Tthere was no point in destroying the possibility of being repaid in the future.

But the rider didn't wave his hand for him to scram. Instead, he raised his vizor and said, "Look at me carefully."

A glaring scar was scrawled over the rider's cheek, as if his face had been gnawed on by some ferocious beast. His entire ear was gone and even half of his eye was deformed and twisted.

The flapping of his skin showed that this injury had only recently healed.

"My lord, this is..."

"This was caused by Graycastle's firearms," the knight said slowly, "I thought I was a goner then, but I managed to survive. Until now, I can still feel the heat piercing my face. It reminds me constantly, who it was that caused all of this—"

At the end of his speech, the rider's tone turned completely cold.

An intense feeling of alarm arose inside Smarty.

But before he had the chance to create a distance between them, the other person who was referred to as the younger brother raised his hand and struck Smarty's face hard with his horse whip.

The scene in front of him turned black. Smarty collapsed with his hands to his face.

"Yes, it's you! If it weren't for you damned runaways, why would I be fighting Graycastle with my life? What 'Battle of Divine Will', what 'fate of mankind', that's all bullsh**!" At this point, the knights voice had already escalated into a roar. "Be at ease, I won't take you back and I won't kill you here and now—the only thing I want to do is let you fugitives taste my pain!"

Afterwards he raised his reins and ushered his horse towards Smarty's legs.

"Crack—"

A wave of indescribable, excruciating pain immediately shot through him as Smarty subconsciously let out a strangulated yell.

Then came his second leg.

Until the snow was spotted with blood and his legs had become a clump of vaguely connected muddy flesh did the rider stop the horse's trampling.

"Relax, you are not the first and you will not be the last," the knight laughed sinisterly. "Now... you can run away as much as you want."

Smarty didn't pay attention to when the two riders left.

Only after biting and breaking open his lip, could he force his wandering attention together.

The lower half of his body had already turned completely numb and the snow was sapping his body heat away from him bit by bit.

He felt at the clothes on his chest—the letter was still in its original place. In those two riders' eyes, he was probably no different to a corpse now.

Surprisingly, he bore no hatred towards the two, nor did he feel any intense dissatisfaction at being so easily trampled over. Under the ruthless torture of both the piercing pain and cold, thinking had already become an unbelievably difficult task. The only thought lingering in him was of the message close to his chest.

With the last of his energy, Smarty began shifting his body towards the agreed location.

By the time he wriggled to a place on top of a hill that overlooked the village, the curtain of night was slowly draping over the horizon. The occasional coruscating lights inside the village seemed to be right next to him; yet at the same time, as far from him as the stars of the night sky.

He had not put the letter into the hiding spot, because he himself was the final vessel of the letter.

In the moment when the darkness was about to swallow all living things, his master, Banach Lothar's kind face emerged before Smarty's eyes.

Smarty closed his eyes and lightly murmured, "Father..."

Chapter 1307 - Flaw

Three days later, after the letter had been transferred several times, it finally landed in the hands of the command headquarters at Cage Mountain. After Hill Fawkes opened the letter and scanned it, it was once more classified as "highest-priority intel" and immediately transferred into Edith's hands.

After skimming over the letter, the Pearl of the Northern Region furrowed her brow.

"How many people are on Archduke Island right now?" she demanded loudly.

The advisors immediately exchanged looks. Morning Light was the first to reply.

"My Lady, there are over three hundred people stationed on the island from the First Army, around twenty-five hundred from the construction team, and about the same amount of island civilians. If you'd like the finer details on staff composition, I can get the data—"

"There's no need," Edith interrupted. "Invite Iron Axe and the other military officers inside. We need to adjust our plan immediately! Quick!"

"Adjust...?"

"It doesn't matter if they're soldiers, construction workers, or people from Graycastle, Kingdom of Dawn or Kingdom of Wolfheart, everybody needs to evacuate Archduke Island immediately!" she declared gravely. "That place is already a dead island."

A clatter of shock followed; however, even in their surprise, their long training in their professions prompted them to immediately follow through with the command.

In the midst of the clamor inside the office, Edith's gaze fell onto the piece of paper in her palm.

It had come along with the letter.

After several breaths, she clenched her fist and lightly released a sigh.

The high-ranking officers of the First Army very quickly gathered together and took turns in reading the letter sent from the Snow Reflection Castle in Everwinter.

"Sky Lord Hackzord..." like the others, Brian's face was pale and unsettled. "If the contents of the letter are completely accurate, this damned ability is way too overpowered. A range of several kilometers, one that can be used repeatedly... If that's the case, it would not not even take a few days before the entire Everwinter will be obliterated, even the most stubborn city wouldn't stand a chance."

Lightning and Maggie had come across a high-ranking demon near the rapture before. Its untraceable power was enough for it to be classified as an opponent to be highly wary of. Now, they knew that this demon was most likely the Sky Lord Ursrook talked about, and what they witnessed was far from its real power—not only could he pass through the portal himself, he could even maneuver entire troops through it. Such formidable power was terrifying on a strategic level.

The full weight of the title, "grand demon lord", settled on everyone's shoulders.

Evacuating Archduke Island was now a crucial task nobody was doubting.

After all, getting on the island was easier than leaving it. If the strait, a natural barrier, was unable to obstruct the movements of the enemy, it would become a cage trapping them all.

Moreover, they had to utilize every single minute!

According to the citizen drafting patterns described in the letter and the clues derived by the general staff, the demons had probably gathered an army of a considerable scale on the frontline. A massive attack could be launched at any time.

Iron Axe commanded, "Stop all construction and fortification on Archduke Island. Start moving everyone on the island immediately! This is not limited to the rented ships, I want to see everything that can float participating in this evacuation!"

"Yessir," the troops responded in unison.

After everyone left with their orders, Agatha said worriedly, "Why didn't such a powerful demon show up in the second Battle of Divine Will?"

"I believe it's due to one of three reasons." Edith's voice was still calm as usual. "One, Hackzord had yet to evolve into a grand demon lord and didn't possess his current abilities back then. Two, they believed humans were insignificant and regarded the Sky-sea Realm as their top priority. As for the third reason..." she said as she paused intentionally, "perhaps the higher-ranking demons believed that Hackzord was not suitable to battle humans."

Iron Axe seemed to be able to read her mind. "You think it's the third reason?"

The Pearl of the Northern Region shrugged. "Although the first reason is valid in theory, it's really just avoiding the issue. The second one does not have a solid reason—although the demons have always been battling with the Sky-sea Realm, considering their strong attention towards the relic of the gods, they definitely wouldn't have let the relic escape their hands if they could have easily defeated the Union. Underestimating the enemy is undoubtedly the most foolish thing you can do in a battle that determines the fate of your race. In other words, I'm guessing that they have already used their power to their maximum potential."

At this, the Ice Witch's dulled-gray eyes finally seemed to brighten up a bit. "But... the Union hadn't learned of how to make firearms at that time. If even the city walls are no longer effective, I'm afraid that the Union will be defeated even faster this time. They might not even have the time to move the relic of the gods."

"Thus, this is something worth thinking deeply about." Edith lightly tapped the table surface, not directly answering the Ice Witch's worries. "There are some descriptions in this letter that interest me—according to the few interactions that the writer has had with the Sky Lord, not only does Hackzord never use his power to directly enter the feudal lord's castle, he barely ever meets with multiple nobles at the same time. Most of his commands are conveyed through Sigils, as if he is wary against them. Such behavior is clearly disadvantageous for him if he wants to win their loyalty; this is evident from the contents of the letter. But the question is, what threat could those nobles possibly pose to him?"

The Ice Witch looked dazed. "Could you be thinking of... God's Stone of Retaliation?"

"No matter how I look at it, it's the only possible reason." The Pearl of the Northern Region nodded in reply. "Since the Extraordinaries could be Ashes or Scroll, why must a grand lord be a Magic Slayer?"

"That..." Agatha failed to react immediately. The biggest difference between a high-ranking demon and a Mad Demon was the amount of power they had. Indeed there was no concrete evidence that a demon would then have the power of a Magic Slayer upon advancement. What's more, this would answer all the questions she had previously—the reason why the Sky Lord didn't appear on the frontline of the Fertile plains was because he simply wasn't good at direct battle!

It didn't matter whether he was invading the the Holy City built via the God's Stone mines, or battling the Extraordinaries wearing God's Stones of Retaliation, or suffering the blow of Divine Will, which was even stronger than the Extraodinaries' power—all of this was a great threat to any demon that was not a Magic Slayer. The Sky Lord's power was vital for the demons, so he didn't show up in the previous two battles!

"But this time he is participating personally..." Iron Axe said in a low voice.

"Perhaps some change left him with no other choice." Edith walked towards the window and gazed out towards the mainland in the north. "For example, the first main attacker could have been Ursrook or some other grand demon lord, but under some circumstances, Hackzord was forced to emerge from behind the scenes. If this is really the case, it's definitely good news for us—no matter what, facing one grand demon lord definitely beats facing several grand lords at once."

"Have you already figured out how to deal with Hackzord?"

"His ability to maneuver armies at his will is unique in terms of strategy, but using it to attack is not actually a great choice," Edith said slowly. "As long as we don't suffer too many losses on Archduke Island, the outcome is still up in the air. Thus, the most important thing for us to do right now is evacuate as many people and firearms from the island as possible, especially the cannons. "

Iron Axe released a long sigh of relief. "From what you've said, this piece of intel is really valuable. I wonder who the writer and sender is? If the information is reliable, we really owe it to him."

After a long silence, Edith handed the crumpled piece of paper over to Iron Axe.

There were only a few simple sentences written on it.

It was written by Hill's subordinate before he sent it to them.

I do not know his name.

When I discovered him, his body was already frozen in a way no different from ice.

At his chest, I found this letter.

Only this item still held a trace of warmth.

Chapter 1308 - The Great Evacuation of Archduke Island

Via the flying animal courier, the evacuation command rapidly spread outwards from Cage Mountain.

The instructions were carried out to the maximum capability wherever there were Graycastle forces. There was no prevarication or fooling around. Over half a year under Roland Wimbledon was enough to make the nobles who chose to serve him clear about the way he did things.

Honestly, they were shocked by the unexpected "power" they were exhibiting themselves—going all out in the current situation, they were achieving demands they used to think impossible. When they encountered a complex problem, they thought about it and then solved it. Although they were still the same group of people, they produced vastly distinct results under a different governing system.

Baron Jean Bate was one of these people.

Jean Bate felt conflicted as he watched the busy scene inside his mansion. Originally, he regarded his family as an insignificant family lacking in both ability and ambition. It was only because he posed no threat to them that the King of Wolfheart, Tusk and Redstone allowed him to perpetually manage Sedimentation Bay, thus maintaining the fine balance between the noble families.

Now, his scholars and subordinates were responsible for planning the movements of tens of thousands of people and thousands of ships. Even though a large number of those were fishing ships, they were under his jurisdiction nevertheless as even the smallest of ships needed to be docked before they could be unloaded. Tens of thousands of people was equivalent to the total population of a large inner city in the continent and the number of ships he now controlled was more than all the merchant ships docked on the shores of Wolfheart added together.

Ordinarily, the baron would never believe that his family could manage a project of such immense scale. If someone had suggested it prior, he would have thought that they were either joking or didn't understand the complexities of management at all.

Now, Jean Bate realized that not only had he underestimated his own abilities, he had underestimated his clan's.

As long as they were given a hard push, and led via appropriate methods and regulations, astonishing potential could be squeezed forth from the people.

In the beginning, he mostly served Graycastle because he had no other choice; after all, the fate of his family and assets had been completely in Graycastle's hands; disobedience was not an option. Gradually, however, he found himself taking a liking to this feeling. Thousands of people moved just from a single command of his, accomplishing their given task with high precision and efficiency. Perhaps this was the true essence behind power.

Even though he had many more superiors above him compared to the past, the power he held in his hands was now far more physical and tangible, and he was certain from the energetic expressions on their faces as they rushed about that his subordinates shared his sentiments.

Leading one hundred intelligent people surpasses leading ten thousand idiots by far. This was probably the most memorable lesson the baron got out of this.

This governing regime, which was polar opposite to the "aristocrat way", could turn not-so-bright people into clever ones. Then what would be the potential of people who were naturally geniuses?

Jean Bate no longer held any doubts that Roland Wimbledon would become Emperor over the four countries.

—That is, as long as humans could survive the Battle of Divine Will.

...

Reminiscent to the higher-class managers, the situation among the civilians was also hectic.

What Graycastle had demonstrated in the past—that they were true to their words and always repaid their debts—caused their evacuation announcement to be held in high esteem. Upon hearing that the First Army was handing out a munificent reward to all who helped transport soldiers and weapons, everyone who had the ability actively participated in order to get a share of the spoils.

People who relied on the sea to make a living were the first to respond. The sailors had been searching all over the place to borrow carriages in hopes of transporting goods on the mainland to earn a living. Now, they were all returning to their main professions.

Following them were the fishermen. The value of the reward given by the First Army was calculated by the number of people and weight of cargo transported. Because the strait separating Archduke Island and the mainland was not wide, people were bringing out their sloops and even their heirloom dinghies. If they didn't have sails, they used paddles. Just one round trip across the strait earned them several gold royals. Anyone could do the math.

Thus, in order to hold a larger number of people and supplies in one go, civilians even created multi-bodied dinghies and dinghies connected to each other in a train-like formation. To them, it was still worth it even if their creations broke apart after one or two voyages.

The First Army only made one requirement: "Boats are forbidden to contain any sort of shade that would block falling snow". Aside from that, all other floating apparatuses were accepted without a question. Within a short period of time, the sea was covered in boats of all sizes coming and going from the shore. From afar, they looked like the migration of ants to different nests.

Of course, the Witch Alliance was not idle either.

"Seagull" was the most effective transporter out of all the transporting apparatuses. Within a day, it made almost fifty round trips between the two shores. Lightning and Maggie accompanied the Aerial Knights in patrolling the western side of Archduke Island, fighting away the occasional beasts that were scattered around the area. Molly and Hummingbird, coined the "ultimate pair", made the originally extremely time-consuming labor of unloading a breeze. It could be said that without their help, it would have been impossible to undertake such a large-scale moving operation, especially when the handling capacities of a few harbor city wharfs were considered.

People, weapons, construction equipment... What had taken several weeks to transport onto Archduke Island were all transported back within a couple of days. Most people had expected such a hasty evacuation to end up in a catastrophe. It would have been unsurprising if over half of the paraphernalia went missing; in fact, managing to transport all the people back alone would have been a great feat. But reality proved that pretty much all of the objects came back in the same way they were delivered on the island. Excluding the abandoned construction materials and some insignificant tools, the losses incurred in items such as weapons and explosives were less than ten percent. The shockingly efficient management of this whole event reminded everybody of Graycastle's prowess once more.

Just when the evacuation was nearing completion, Sylvie sent a warning of the highest threat-level to the command HQ!

Traces of a huge number of demons had appeared in the Red Mist!

...

At almost the exact same time, Hackzord "saw" the observer through the parasitic Eye Demons. It was as if she had suddenly materialized in his mind; her every single movement was clear and precise.

She was a female Awakened with long, curly green hair, the one described in Ursrook's report as the key extermination target. With her extremely expansive wide field of view, she was strategically a huge threat to the demon race. Only a God's Stone could stop her.

He silently remembered her appearance and looked away from her.

She was staying in the center of a highly guarded city. Getting rid of her was a good suggestion, but it was not something he needed to do personally. He was the King's most important asset, his right-hand man. If he was harmed, it would be an indelible pity for the whole race. Thus there was no reason for him to put himself in danger.

What's more, Hackzord had a more important target right now.

According to the reports of his sentries, the humans had been moving about a lot near the coast of Wolfheart, especially around Archduke Island. Clearly, his enemy had set their eyes on the strait and was not ready to hand it over to him on a silver platter.

Without question, the humans were going to pay a terrible price for their mistake.

According to the intel he acquired from the nobles in the Kingdom of Everwinter, the Graycastle's army numbered in the tens of thousands. If he could devour all of the defending troops on Archduke Island in one fell swoop, it would deal a huge blow to the humans.

He was going to prove to all the other demons and grand lords that he, the Sky Lord, was also a grand lord that could lead the western front to victory!

With this in mind, Hackzord summoned the first distortion door!

Chapter 1309 - Thunder

The outbreak of war on the western front had dramatically changed the Sky Lord's mindset.

In the past, his understanding of humans came from various battle reports and Holy See meetings. Along with their obvious contempt for the lowlifes, it was the general consensus of virtually all grand lords that humans lacked Awakened warriors. It was just as difficult for humans to upgrade as demons. The humans' overall strength was volatile as it was impossible to tell the extent of an Upgraded's power beforehand.

Human males who possessed no magical power at all were on the battlefield purely to add to the headcount. They were akin to the Inferior Demons of his race; however, Inferior Demons were utterly abandoned after the first Battle of Divine Will. Now, they weren't even allowed to participate in battle, and were only used for manual labor at most. Just from this, one could see the difference in strength between the two races.

The Sky-sea Realm inhabitants were even more highly-evolved. From their land-engulfing ships to their most basic soldier, every one of them possessed remarkable magical power, as if they were designed just for war. Even several of the demonic beasts that they corrupted and controlled eventually grew into ones containing magical ability. Undeniably, the Sky-sea Realm was the strongest among the four races.

Precisely because of the difference in strength, senior demons regarded the legacy shard that would be left behind by humans after the second Battle of Divine Will as something in the bag.

This was also why Ursrook's last words caused such a great stir on the Presiding Holy See.

Now however, Hackzord had come to believe with a greater certainty that Ursrook had not been exaggerating.

Even if humans' exceptional utilization of fire was not enough to raise the King's concern, the new weapon Hackzord's people had discovered two weeks ago was a completely different story.

Without the help of witches, human males—creatures that were supposed to be merely extra trimmings—actually flew via a strangely modeled iron bird!

His first reaction when he heard the news was that it was definitely impossible.

Since ancient times, excluding birds, the sky was a place dominated by magic users. The saying that God resided in the place above the sky layered the blue dome above their heads with a greater sense of holiness and divinity. Yet how could species without even a drop of magical power intrude this holy domain?

However, there was more than one witness to this phenomenon. Upon accepting the news, he realized that that the humans' rapid growth in strength may not only be owed to their manipulation of fire.

Indeed, he was slowly being convinced of Silent Disaster's shocking "Upgrade Theory"—It was likely that the Nightmare Lord had realized this possibility before him, which was why she decided to enter the Realm of Mind in search for answers.

After all, the rate that the humans were evolving was way too fast.

There wasn't any mention of the iron bird in Ursrook's report. If humans already possessed such a weapon at the time, there would be no reason not to use it. The only explanation was that in less than a year, the developments of humans had already reached the realm of the sky.

Such a sudden change could only be explained by upgrading.

Once males also become a main force in battle, the humans' fighting ability would undoubtedly multiply dramatically. Perhaps this was Ursrook's real warning in his last words.

Fortunately, Hackzord was substantially more familiar with the sky than fire. The iron birds the humans created were not much stronger than Devilbeasts. As long as he was here, nobody else was allowed to touch the sky!

This time, the attack will not fail like the previous time.

His confidence was not because he looked down on his enemy. At this point, underestimating the enemy was unquestionably stupid.

His confidence came from his own title.

Because he was the supreme lord of the sky!

After passing through the door, the Sky Lord appeared on the edge of the island.

Constantly lingering by his side were Parasitic Eye Demons who came with him. If Eye Demons were regarded as a rare species, than the scarcity of Parasitic Eye Demons was on a whole other level; they were an extremely precious resource.

Despite the high price, Hackzord placed them on the front line without hesitation, letting them travel by his side. This was the only way he could handle the other key target mentioned by Ursrook: a witch that specialized in exceptionally long-range attack.

Up until he arrived on the island, the witch's appearance still hadn't materialized in his mind. This meant that humans' only asset that could threaten him wasn't present on the island.

At the same time, he didn't see any observers that would be able to catch sight of him.

There was no better time than now.

Hackzord didn't hesitate any more and activated the complete form of the Distortion Door!

A black hole rapidly spread out from behind him and very swiftly extended several meters outwards. Any natural barrier would be rendered useless against the Door!

A Red Mist gushed out. Siacis, a higher ascendant, was the first to appear before him. "My lord, your army is ready."

"Convey my command: Seize this island and kill all who resist!"

"As you wish!" Siacis let out a piercing scream. As a psychic who had undergone three upgrading ceremonies, this scream was more than enough to drop any human who didn't wear a God's Stone instantly. Even if they did have one on them, the mind blast would cause them to fall in a trance. Simultaneously, it was a signal to commence the attack. When the scream ended, massive numbers of Primal Demons and Symbiotic Demons poured out from the Distortion Door towards the center of the island.

The strength of humans' fire bolts lay in their long range. As long as they could close the distance, these new Symbiotic Demons would definitely be able to break through the enemy's line of defense in one go.

Very quickly, the vanguard traversed the peripheral of the island and closed in on the humans' settlement.

Yet there were still no sounds of fire.

This caused Hackzord to feel a shred of astonishment.

Just when he had managed to get himself to view the humans as equals to his own race, what was with the huge oversight they were making? Could it be that they still hadn't noticed that their territory was being invaded?

"My lord..." A quarter of an hour later, Siacis hastily hurried over. "We have already captured the inner city; however... we didn't discover any traces of humans. This place is an empty city!"

"What did you say?" Hackzord's eyes widened.

"There are still many uncompleted buildings inside the city. From their color, it seems that the buildings were recently under construction, I'm afraid the humans have probably abandoned Archduke Island one or two days ago."

So he was saying... the boats spotted by the sentries were not for sending weapons onto the island, but evacuating the soldiers from the island?

But... how could this be possible?

The humans acted as if they knew he was going to attack Archduke Island! He had intentionally made his troops avoid all cities and towns. Every path he traveled had been checked by Eye Demons. The easiest way this secret could be leaked was via those human workers, so he ordered his subordinates to put them under centralized supervision, removing all possibility of communication with the outside. Even if the enemy had noticed that something was odd, they wouldn't have evacuated so quickly!

How did the information get leaked?

Before he could think about the problem properly, an ear-splitting explosion suddenly erupted from the island centre. In an instant, the earth began to violently shake.

A cluster of blindingly bright fireballs illuminated the cloudy day. In the midst of their light, rolling clouds of black smoke shot into the sky and an intense air wave swept across the entire inner city. All the soldiers in the city were engulfed by the surging smoke in a blink of an eye.

Chapter 1310 - Trapped Beast

Hackzord closed the Distortion Door with a grim face.

Even the stupidest person would be able tell that they had just been completely outwitted by the humans!

"Those lowlifes—!" Siacis roared furiously. His murderous intent was clear in the wild twisting of whiskers on his cheeks.

"Shut up!" Hackzord interrupted him. "If they were lowlifes, than who are we, the ones got outwitted by lowlifes? From now on, I don't want to hear you calling them 'lowlifes' ever again!"

Then he leaped up and flew toward the other end of the island.

The black smoke was still billowing upwards ceaselessly, forming a thick column of smoke. The indistinct flashing of firelight from below it caused the column to resemble a jet of magma shooting upwards from the ground. The interior of the city was in disarray. Even in places where the fireball's shockwave hadn't reached, there were bodies of several Primal Demons strewn in across the area at different angles, dead or alive.

However, this was not what he was focusing on at the moment—the milk had already been spilt. Staying there would not make his losses any smaller and would only add fuel to his fury. If he had the energy, he would rather use it to make his enemies pay.

As expected, on the south side of the island, the Sky Lord spotted some boats that had not yet gone far from the island. Even though they were in full sail, in the face of his abilities, they were equivalent to being stationary.

Just when he was about to close the gap in a single stride, a ray of light below him caught his attention.

A silhouette flew out from the outer region island and rapidly towards the southern side.

No wonder! He had believed that the person responsible for the detonation of the explosion had been buried in the flames together with his vanguard troops. To think that the humans had actually planned a full retreat!

Getting a witch to activate the explosion in order to retreat easily from the battlefield?

As if it was going to be so easy!

The Sky Lord immediately switched targets, opened a distortion door and appeared in front of the witch.

She was a female with pale, blonde hair. She revealed an expression of shock, as if she didn't expect him to suddenly appear. Without another word Hackzord reached out to grab her—

Yet his hand grasped thin air.

The female before his eyes suddenly moved with an explosive speed, tearing hundreds of meters away from him in a blink of eye. At the same time, the shock wave from her movement slammed into Hackzord and the Parasitic Eye Demons like a wall. The spell blast glistened and rippled outwards before slowly easing away.

After the witch flew out a distance and slowed to a stop, she looked like she used up over half of her energy.

He harrumphed and then chased her once more!

He planned to close the distance in one step again, however this time just as he exited the Distortion Door, the witch was already miles away, leaving a trail of white clouds behind her.

Hackzord was furious. He used his ability for the third time, thinking that he might as well open the door three hundred meters in front of the witch.

However when he exited the door this time, he suddenly felt the gazes of numerous eyes on him. It was as if he just entered a city center from an empty plain.

Shocked, the Sky Lord looked in the direction of where he felt the gazes—numerous black figures were coming in his direction, both from the horizon of the sea and from the land. Among them were iron birds and witches.

This is...a planned ambush?

So that b*tch was intentionally stopping and starting, fooling him believe that she could only perform brief moments of accelerated flight because she was being limited by her magical power?

"Ha... humans... hahaha..."

Hackzord laughed as his fury rapidly boiled up to its limit.

Not only did they outwit his troops, they were also planning to trick him?

Retreating now would be as easy as taking a breath.

But he didn't do so.

Indeed, he wasn't a Magic Slayer and it always bothered him, but that didn't mean males wearing God's Stones of Retaliation would be able to defeat a grand lord!

He had to let his enemies know who the real ruler of the sky was!

In an instant, eight iron birds had already charged towards him, spitting out streaks of fire from their heads—

Hackzord waved his left hand, directly opening a Distortion Door at his side, swallowing the iron bolts that shot at him; at the same time he opened the other side of the door beside the iron birds. After the fatal iron bolts passed through the door they swept straight back towards where they came from. In an instant, several iron birds were struck and their formation fell into a disarray.

But what surprised him a bit was that the iron bolts which were supposed to be fatal didn't cause the iron birds to break apart; instead, they only left a few dents in their iron bodies.

The Sky Lord quickly pushed his surprise to the back of his mind and made a stride to a higher place, putting the entire battle area under his feet. The iron birds were clearly unable to follow his pace. As much as they tried to climb up, their stupid and clumsy bodies were slower than worms.

Just as he was planning to rip them apart one by one, a passing bird suddenly transformed into a devilbeast and propelled towards him with its jaws wide open!

His Eye Demons hadn't regarded the birds that were commonly seen at sea as threats at all. Hackzord dodged abruptly, just avoiding the attack in time. Fuming, he widened his palm and a black streak of light instantly appeared in the space between them. This was also a Distortion Door, except it's width was only a finger thick, any body that passed through would not emerge in one piece.

As if it realized that it was in danger, the devilbeast shrank back into a seabird. But it was too difficult to stop its momentum in such a short amount of time, and half its wings swept through the black line. The sliced wing tip and feathers burst apart like blossoms.

But before he could attack again, a thunderous roar erupted once more.

The golden-haired witch turned into a streak of golden light and shot straight towards him! Not having enough time to use the same tactic, Hackzord could only gather all the magical energy in his body and turn it into a shield cocooning his entire body!

"Bang!"

The two collided, and the immense impact caused the witch's golden light to shatter into innumerable small pieces and raised a feeling of stuffiness in Hackzord. The opponent's injury was clearly more serious; not only was blood seeping from the edge of her mouth, one of her arms was bent into multiple sections. Yet the witch thought nothing of her injuries. With her remaining hand, she pulled out a short fire fork from her waist.

Damn!

Left with no other choice, Hackzord opened another Distortion Door. If she was going to shoot, the iron bolt would be directed towards her companions.

But what infuriated Hackzord was that not only had the previous attack been a guise, the witch didn't shoot anything at him but accelerated downwards to catch the falling seabird.

"I'm going to smash you all into pieces!" he roared for the first time in this battle.

But at this moment, the highest-priority warning rang inside the Sky Lord's mind—the source came from a large iron bird that was in the clouds below him. Through the Eye Demons' view, the source was indeed the witch that Ursrook made sure to point out as a key target.

He felt his body being latched on by something—

Feeling an increasing sense of crisis, Hackzord expanded the Distortion Door to its biggest range, covering his enemy's entire attacking range!

One of his Eye Demons violently pushed him.

There was a flash of fire. After what felt like both a long time and a brief moment, a black shadowy cluster flashed across like lightning. Innumerable cracks appeared on the Distortion Door and then it shattered apart in a deafening explosion like glass.

After the door, the next victim was the Eye Demon that pushed him aside—the blue light on its body pulsated and blood, flesh, and organs squirted outwards, raising a wave of blue fog among the lingering shattered pieces. The two events occurred almost simultaneously, so quick that Hackzord couldn't react.

Finally, it was his turn.

Even though the attacking God's stone had already shattered, it still sliced away half of his hand, leaving multiple dents in his armor. The turbulence in his magical power caused him to lose control of his body, and he fell straight towards the ocean.

The iron birds, having finished redirecting themselves, surged straight towards him.

After he left the Forbidden Area, Hackzord used the last of his energy and opened a new door below him.

Then, as if he had fallen into a bottomless pit, he vanished above the ocean.

Chapter 1311 - Loss

"My lord..." When Siacis saw the Sky Lord once more, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

The Sky Lord was soaked from head to toe, as if he had just been scooped out of a pool of water. He was exhausted, injured and one half of his armor was splattered with blue blood. It looked as if he had just experienced a dreadful battle.

The Parasitic Eye Demons that were supposed to be by the Sky Lord's side had disappeared. Being vigilant creatures with the sharpest reflexes, Eye Demons were only useful if they were next to the grand lord. The current situation would only suggest that some great misfortune had befallen the Eye Demons.

The scene before his eyes would be more understandable if their enemy had been the Sky-sea Realm; however, their opponents were only the lowlifes—mere humans.

Hackzord was in no mood to explain it to him. He grabbed his subordinate in one hand and dragged him into the Distortion Door.

In the next moment, they had already returned to the region of Red Mist.

"Sky Lord, the soldiers on the island—"Siacis reacted to the situation very quickly. His expression couldn't help but change for the worse. Even though the unexpected explosion in the city caused great losses in their vanguard troops, there was still a portion that luckily managed to survive. Leaving like this was equivalent to abandoning them all on Archduke Island.

The troops carried a limited amount Red Mist with them and they could only hold up for a few days at most.

"I'm already unable to open another door." Hackzord's response made the high-level psychic shut his mouth. The value of Primal Demons was far below a grand lord no matter what the circumstances; there was no need for discussion when deciding between the two.

"I'll escort you back to the Sky City then."

"First tell Totolock to get the humans to send our vanguard troops back with sailboats, as many as they can. As for those Symbiotic Demons, let them hide on the island for now," the Sky Lord spoke through gritted teeth. "Once the Red Mist has enveloped the entire Archduke Island, the main troops must immediately launch attack on Sedimentation Bay and the other places. You two will be responsible for the warfare!"

"My lord, isn't it a bit hasty to do so?" Siacis asked with surprise. "It wouldn't be too late if we started once you have recuperated—"

"This is my command, so say no more!"

"Yes, I have overstepped my boundaries." Siacis hastily nodded his head. "As you wish!"

Gazing at his subordinate's figure as he left, Hackzord viciously clenched his remaining hand into a fist.

How could he not be aware that what he was doing was hasty? But it was better than dragging it out with the humans. For the first time, the Sky Lord realized that time was not on their side. The humans' absorption of their legacies was faster than he had imagined; within a year, just relying on a few witches and some magically-inert males they managed to threaten a grand lord. What would it be like after a few more years then?

They definitely couldn't give humans any more time to catch their breath!

The Western Front must be steered back onto the right track!

Several days later, Hackzord finally returned to the bottom of the great rupture. The place had already become filled with rich and dense Red Mist. Just by virtue of his presence, he could feel his spirit being rejuvenated and the piercing pain in his palm lessening.

He went straight to the Red Mist Pond which was located at the bottommost point of Birth Tower.

Staring at the still motionless Nightmare Lord, the Sky Lord suddenly felt angry at everything. If she hadn't been immersed in the Realm of Mind all this time then he wouldn't be in such a difficult position!

It wasn't supposed to be like this!

If he was focused on simply moving the troops around, the advancement of the frontline wouldn't have been so slow, and if the Nightmare Lord lead the troops to battle, none of the Graycastle people who were meeting up with the fugitives would have escaped! Then, they would have launched a direct attack while the humans were still panicking, and he would have lead the troops from the west side in a pincer attack, capturing Hermes Plateau immediately—that was the real Western Front battle plan!

Furious as he was, when the moment came that he was really about to pull the Nightmare Lord out of the Realm of Mind, hesitation flickered across Hackzord's face.

In the end, the Nightmare lord was the person he always looked up to in the past.

He even... even once thought, that the Nightmare Lord would become sovereign of the race.

No, no, no... Hackzord shook his head. He was utterly loyal to the King; those were only his ignorant thoughts when they were participating in the upgrading process. In terms of ranking, Nightmare was essentially no different to Hackzord now.

At most... she just had a slightly deeper understanding of the Realm of Mind.

He made up his mind.

It was possible his actions would harm the Nightmare Lord's memory or make her furious and it might even cut off all the clues to the mystery of the humans' upgrading, but these things paled in importance when compared to the battle on the Western Front.

At worst he would simply have to stand on Silent Disaster's side during the Holy See meeting, and admit that Upgrade Theory was correct. As for where that legacy shard came from, he could study that after they won. As long he could swallow the humans' legacy shard, then everything they held in their hands at the moment would turn into a stair that advanced their entire race a step further!

With this in his mind, Hackzord inhaled deeply and made a violent pushing motion towards the Nightmare Lord.

The magical power in his palms broke off the connection between the Realm of Mind and the Nightmare Lord, pulling her out from the Fountain of Magic—

In theory, that was what was supposed to happen.

Yet Nightmare didn't open her eyes, her body fell down to one side like a empty shell in the Red Mist Pond.

Hackzord instantly felt as if fear gripped his throat!

He had never felt this much terror, even when his mind was almost destroyed at the loss of control over his magic during his upgrading process, or when he was ambushed by the Sky-sea Realm!

He stepped forward, lifted the Nightmare Lord up and tried to catch her consciousness, but only found emptiness...

Being alive but forever in deep sleep—this was the characteristic of being lost in the Realm of Mind. Yet once one had been submerged in that never-ending red sea, returning was impossible. Even if one could maintain lucidity for a moment, it would eventually be eroded by the surrounding surging and chaotic consciousnesses and become a part of them eventually.

Hackzord's heart dropped to his feet.

This meant that they had already lost the Nightmare Lord!

How could this happen?

With the Nightmare Lord's ability, as long as one was careful and didn't make any terrible mistakes, she shouldn't go to the extent of being trapped in the Realm of Mind!

What on earth did she encounter in her search?

The Sky Lord didn't dare to think any more about it. He got up and leaped upwards towards the top of the tower, he had even forgotten about his own injury.

He must inform the King of the news immediately.

The situation of the Western Front has changed dramatically!

*******************

"How is everyone recovering?"

At the Cage Mountain command post, Iron Axe asked Agatha in a concerned tone.

"With Nana here, what could go wrong?" Agatha put away her Sigil of Listening and smilingly shook her head. It was obvious that she was in a great mood. "According to Wendy, Maggie had already healed up so much that she could skip and jump about on the first day, Lightning recovered completely on the second day and both are now doing frontline patrolling. My only regret is that I didn't participate in the ambush this time."

"We were taking a big risk after all... Moreover, in order to pack that huge flintlock, we even had to take apart all the seats on the "Seagull." We couldn't have taken another passenger." Iron Axe smiled as well. "I thought your only regret would be that we couldn't get rid of that high-ranking demon in one go."

"Winning against a grand lord with such a lineup is already an extraordinary victory." Agatha turned to the Pearl of the Northern Region and said with her hand to her chest. "I underestimated you in the past; reality has proved that that was indeed a mistake—except for His Majesty, Roland, there are still many outstanding people among those with no magical ability that should not be taken lightly."

Edith calmly accepted her compliment. As the strategist behind the entire ambush, there was no need to be humble in that moment.

"Even though it's a pity that we let the bastard called Hackzord escape alive, we reaped a lot from this battle." She patted the documents in her hand. "At least we are now no longer clueless about our enemy."

Chapter 1312 - Countermeasure

As a grand demon lord, the Sky Lord's strength could indeed be described as terrifying. The magical ability to open a portal through space allowed for instantaneous movement, and could simultaneously be used as a shield or a weapon. However, through careful analysis, one would discover that it was not without flaws.

"We can first be certain that this high-level demon can only open one passage at a time and the entrance of the passageway must be within arm's reach," Edith said. "Secondly, although it's difficult to ascertain the range of the portal, it must be at least over two kilometers."

"Sounds like the advanced version of Orbit's ability."

After spending a lot of time with Roland, Edith learned from him several strange pet phrases that he liked to use, for example: "advanced version", "special advanced version", "enhanced advanced version", etc.

"Just by looking at the range that indeed seems to be the case." The Pearl of the Northern Region nodded. "However the number of passages Orbit creates depends on the amount of magic she has. The Sky Lord, on the other hand, can only open a new passage once the previous one has been closed. He was in a very tight situation at the time so it's unlikely that he wasn't using his true ability. This information is vital because it determines the essence of our countermeasure against him—if the Sky Lord could use multiple passages at once, the situation would be a hundred times more complicated."

After the other two digested her words, she continued on and said, "Another important point is that even though he can easily expand and shrink the passage entrance and exit ways, Hackzord must be standing nearby the door in order to maintain them. According to Miss Sylvie's observations, he spent several seconds closing the large Distortion Door when the explosion occurred on Archduke Island before flying to the south side of the island."

"This means... the larger the door the door he opens, the slower it is to close it?" Iron Axe said thoughtfully.

"It's very likely that this is the case." Edith said, spreading her hands. "The final point is his Achilles heel—Hackzord isn't a Magic Slayer; he cannot stop the movements of witches and doesn't pose enough of a threat to people wearing God's Stone of Retaliation. Even though his body is not weaker than that of Extraordinaries, he will be trapped in anti-magic regions if he engages in close combat. I certainly don't think he will want to not sacrifice his own life in exchange for the lives of two or three mere humans."

Edith paused. "To summarize, the Sky Lord's main ability is to open a two-way passageway that is centered around himself, has a radius of several kilometers and can only be opened one at a time. No matter if it is the entrance or the exit, as long as both sides of the door are affected by a God's Stone, the passage will break apart."

"So if he appears once again, our countermeasure will be..."

"If he is located at the periphery of the battlefield and the exit of the door isn't facing the battlefield, Miss Sylvie will directly bombard him with artillery," Edith said systematically. "If the exit of the door is inside the battlefield, or if he uses the door to directly charge into the First Army's formation, then get the soldiers to do nothing and leave it to the professionals."

"Do nothing?" Iron Axe was a little surprised, then, as if he realized her meaning, he said, "...oh I see."

"Indeed," Edith revealed a smile, "In reality the Sky Lord's most effective method of attack is using our own weapons against ourselves. If our soldiers can hold their attack, there is actually a limit to the threat he poses to our lineup—just as I said before; strategically, his ability is irreplaceable for maneuvering troops, but using it to attack is not a good idea."

With the frontline of the First Army ignoring him, it was not like the grand lord could just charge into the ditch and engage in close combat with the soldiers. If he did that, then when the professionals—God's Punishment Witches, arrived on the battlefield, his death would be inevitable.

"What if he counterattacks during the intervals between artillery fire?" Agatha asked after a moment of thought. "For example, he first opens a passage to the outside, making us think that he was gathering more troops, and when our artillery fires he opens a new large door and positions the exit inside our battleground, subjecting us to our own artillery fire."

Just from being able to think of this was enough to prove that the Ice Witch had put a lot of work into Graycastle's new weapons.

"This is indeed something that could work in theory; however, I don't believe the Sky Lord will do that," Edith explained. "Opening a door for only one person can be done in a blink of an eye, but expanding it so wide so that it would completely protect him would need time. The time difference between the two is very limited and if it fails, the result would be being blasted into pieces by the shells that have fallen behind him. To a grand lord, such a move is too risky."

"All in all, I can take it that the Sky Lord is not as much as a threat to the frontline as we thought, right?" Iron Axe said while rubbing his chin.

"So far that is the conclusion that the General Staff have reached." Edith gave a definite reply. "Of course, this only applies if Hackzord leads troops into battle by himself. If he was accompanied by other grand lords, then the threat he poses will instantly multiply dramatically."

—Like bringing Ursrook along and directly charging into the middle of their battle formation.

Iron Axe and Agatha couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief. Luckily, Ursrook had already died in the Fertile Plains.

"But this doesn't rule out the possibility of a new Magic Slayer appearing; so if it's possible, it'll be best if we find a chance to rid ourselves of this problem." There was a hint of murderous intent in the Pearl of the Northern Region's tone."He will only be no threat to us when he disappears completely."

Upon hearing this, Agatha couldn't help but feel impressed. Not only was a 'mortal' seemingly showing no fear towards a demon, but she was also plotting the death of a grand demon lord. What would have definitely sounded delusional in the past didn't sound strange at all to anyone at the current moment, as if it was the logical and obvious thing to do.

Over the past four hundred years, humans had indeed changed a lot.

Whether it be people or things.

Perhaps the Union's silence wasn't all together a bad thing.

At least, they didn't pass down the fear of the strong from their era to this era.

Now that she thought of it, there might as well have been many normal people possessing potential like Edith Kant in the Union's time, but the pessimistic views and fear that pervaded the race restricted their thoughts and willpower. Together with the estrangement intentionally created by the upper classes, the era was very bleak on the whole.

But this time, before humans had gotten the chance to taste real hopelessness, Roland Wimbledon curbed its spreading.

As she was feeling a surge of emotions, she once more recalled the moment when she woke up from deep sleep in the Frozen Coffin, and met Roland for the first time.

"Mortals can also defeat demons". Everything started from those words...

"Hackzord probably won't fall for the same trick twice, do you have a good plan?" Iron Axe asked.

"As long as the First Army's movements are flexible enough, even if we don't set a trap, we still have the chance to get rid of him—for example, equipping 'Fire of Heaven' with a large caliber weapon that can shoot God's Stones."

"True," the commander in chief mused. "But that would need quite a lot of God's Stones. Don't tell me you have already thought of a way to process God's Stones?"

"How could that be possible."

"Huh?"

Edith shrugged. "I'm the chief of the General Staff, not god. I'm alright at making suggestions but as for how to realize them, that will obviously be up to His Majesty, Roland, to figure out. Relax, I've written everything in the battle report. In order for the frontline to achieve victory, he should be doing his best as well."

The other two people couldn't help but twitch their mouths.

It appears like His Majesty's white hairs... are going to increase again.

Chapter 1313 - The Information Age

In Graycastle, Neverwinter.

The reports regarding the battle on Archduke Island as well as the situation in the Kingdom of Wolfheart were delivered into Roland's hands two days later.

Compared to the past when it took a week to send a letter from the City of Evernight to Neverwinter, it was undeniable that their communication speed had made huge progress. Both short-distance, quick delivery by flying couriers and long distance delivery through twenty-four hour steam-powered boats were now a part of the messaging system. There were dedicated personnel and boats responsible for the delivery of crucial messages, and in some cases even planes were used. This time, the reports were delivered by Tilly.

"Good job." Roland solicitously handed her a Chaos Drink. "Is the situation over there okay?

"Wouldn't you know if you just looked at the report?" Tilly took the cup and glanced at him sideways. "For you to act so considerate, do you have something you are guilty of? Could it be that you still don't have a clue about my plane?"

"Pfft..." The sound of Nightingale stifling laughter came from behind him.

"How could that be, I've already selected the best model from many blueprints. When Anna can find some time, we will start the prototype production right away."

"For Anna's sake, I'll let you off this time, Brother." Tilly downed the drink in one go, wiped her lips and walked towards the exit of the office, "'Seagull' will be heading back soon so I'll be returning to the Aerial Knight Academy first."

"You're not even going to stay for one day?" he asked, slightly surprised.

"I have no choice. Right now the only things on the frontline that can threaten the Sky Lord are 'Seagull' and Andrea. Also... I don't want to miss a single opportunity to get my revenge." Tilly waved at Roland with her back facing him. "Well then, I'll be going now, Brother."

Nightingale sighed softly as she gazed at the closed door. "Everyone... is working hard."

If it was possible, I would rather they worked hard in other areas, not in warfare, Roland thought. However he didn't say it out loud—because before the Battle of Divine Will ended, before the fate of humans was determined, nobody could free themselves of this burden. Apart from shirking responsibility, there was no meaning in saying this now.

After a moment of silence, he unsealed the report.

After he finished reading all the reports, Roland at last understood the meaning behind Tilly's words. To be able to pass down the evacuation command in time and successfully ambush a grand demon lord whose movements were untraceable above the vastness of the sea was an incredible feat. Edith Kant and Andrea were undeniably the key contributors to the battle. But in the same way, the sender of the vital intel couldn't be ignored—victory would not have been possible without this person's selfless act.

"What do you plan on doing?" The issue had clearly caught Nightingale's attention.

"No matter what his original motive for sending out the secret letter was, his name and contributions shouldn't be forgotten," Roland said in a low voice. If this was in Roland's previous life, finding an unidentified informer after a long, drawn-out battle would be virtually impossible. The words on the epigraph of the gravestone would likely be: "Your name is unknown; however, your deeds are everlasting." Here, the existence of witches changed this. They allowed every single warrior who contributed to saving the fate of humankind have their name remembered in history. "After the First Army regains control of the Kingdom of Everwinter, get 'Black Money' to help Summer determine this person's name and background."

If the culprit who murdered him was still alive by then, they would not escape severe punishment by law.

Nightingale nodded. "If only we can quickly create the communications equipment that extends over thousands of miles that you spoke of."

"Unfortunately that is not one of my strengths." Roland couldn't help but rub his forehead. Recalling the circuit diagram that he had been forced to memorize made his head throb.

"Now you finally understand my feelings during an exam," Nightingale said with her hand to her mouth.

"Hard as it is, I'm at the very l east not like a certain someone who simply falls asleep on the table and hands in an empty test at the end." Roland glared at her. "I've actually almost done creating the prototype."

Indeed, although extremely slow, the radio communications project had never stopped.

Like the piston engine, after considering numerous designs proffered by the Design Bureau of Graycastle, he decided to select two among them and have them worked on simultaneously.

These two were the spark-gap transmitter and the amplitude-modulated transmitter.

The spark-gap transmitter was the father of telecommunication. Its design was extremely simple and didn't need any electronic components. All that was needed was a transformer coil to step up the voltage to charge the capacitor until the voltage in the capacitor was large enough to ionize the air and produce an electric spark. This part was similar to a lighter, except the current discharged by the spark would not be wasted and instead, would oscillate rapidly back and forth between the plates of the capacitor through the inductor and spark gap, creating electromagnetic waves. Finally, these electromagnetic waves would be transmitted through an antenna.

In other words, as long as one could control the switch of the power source, intermittent electromagnetic waves could be sent out, and by listening to the duration of the sounds, receivers could translate them into the corresponding signal. The beeps of varied lengths of telegraph codes originated from this principle.

Although it still sounded a little confusing, Roland took the most ingenious approach, which was to have the radio communications team at the Design Bureau of Graycastle to build a machine that worked with readily available materials, and then copy it.

For example, if you place a piece of oiled paper between two pieces of tin foil and then seal it with wax, it becomes a basic high-voltage capacitor.

The inductor would be even easier to make. It was nothing more than a coil of wire wound round and round an insulated pipe.

When not taking mass production or specifications into consideration, Roland could complete the device by himself. Although compared to the industrial products that came in a package the size of a fingernail in his previous life, these devices would appear bulky and crude, but the effects were basically the same. After the construction of the launch tower was completed, he would be able to perform the first wireless transmitting experiment of the era.

However, the shortcomings of a spark-gap transmitter were also very obvious.

Even if it passed the trials, he would have to design a code that matched the language of his kingdom if he wanted to use it officially. Training senders and receivers would also require a lot of time. Also the spark-gap transmitter had an extremely wide frequency spectrum so only one transmitter could work within a particular region. It wasn't suitable for the intelligence personnel to use on the frontlines.

Thus, his ultimate goal was still to use an amplitude-modulated transmitter (AM transmitter) that amplifies a signal using a vacuum tube.

The biggest advantage of the AM transmitter was that it could directly transmit voice signals.

In principle, radio and telephones were very similar in nature. Both transform the oscillations of sound into the changes in current or electromagnetic waves. After these travelled over long distances to the receiver's location, it would be turned back into sound once more. The only thing was that the frequency of the human voice was too low, causing the wavelength of the signal wave to be too long. The longer the wavelength, the larger the required antenna size—if the voice signals were directly transmitted, the length of the antenna would be over a hundred kilometers. This would be something impossible to create with their construction capabilities.

So in order to send out the voice signal, it would have to be carried by a higher-frequency wave.

This was where 'modulation' came in.

Once the new wave form created by the combination of the two was received, the receiver had to filter out the high-frequency waves through a series of demodulations and only keep the meaningful low-frequency waves in order to turn it into the final sound of the voice.

Once the AM transmitter succeeded, both the First Army and the intelligence community would be granted with real-time communications capabilities.

For war, the significance of this required no explanation.

Chapter 1314 - Dilemma

Of course, the difficulty of producing the two types of radio communications equipment was not on the same level. The engineering team was still in the process of trying to create the vacuum tube, the core part of the AM transmitter.

Failed prototypes had already piled into a small mountain outside the lab.

Edith's suggestion of modifying 'Fire of Heaven' in her report excited Roland. On the technical level, it was not difficult to move a thirty-five millimeter sniper cannon onto a biplane. All they had to do was embed the entire body of the cannon below the belly of the plane and remove the shooting seats. If they limited the ammunition they carried to less than ten rounds, the weight would be balanced out. Other than that, nothing needed to be changed.

The problem was that if they wanted to acquire large-caliber God's Stone bullets, they had to first use witch or demon blood to melt and separate God's Stones in the mine until they formed God's Stones of Retaliation in the desired size and shape. Only then could they be subjected to further processing. If the stones were too big, the blades and lathes they had at hand wouldn't be able to do anything about it. If they were too small, the God's Stones would be too brittle. The process of selecting base materials expended large amounts of magic blood. Even if the Witch Union and the Sleeping Spell supported him, the amount they had would not be enough to satisfy the requirements of war.

The real solution to this problem was in the demons.

Either they found out the reason why demons could process such large God's Stone pillars...

...Or they used their blood for creating the bullets.

'Fire of Heaven' could now return to Neverwinter from the frontline within a day. With the additional help of Agatha's refrigeration ability, directly transporting fresh demon blood from the battlefield didn't seem impossible.

Roland silently recorded his idea onto the agenda.

...

When it was nightfall, Roland followed his custom of entering the Dream World.

In order to accelerate the advancement of the Design Bureau of Graycastle's projects, Roland had dramatically increased the amount of times he entered the Dream World in the past month, causing time in the Dream World which had been falling behind the real world to catch up a fair amount. The city which had previously been in late summer now already had snowflakes floating about, as if this place and the outside belonged to the same world but just in different regions.

A typical morning in the neighborhood of his apartment was bustling with people. The expansion of Erosion and the great disaster in the Prism City didn't affect the residents at all; the two sides of the street were still full of breakfast food stalls with owners yelling about their sales without rest. People hurriedly moved about the street and the white snow that had accumulated throughout the night was already covered in footprints.

Even though Lan said that this world was also going to face a Battle of Divine Will, in comparison to the Red Mist-covered battlefield in the Kingdom of Wolfheart, this place was undeniably milder by a good deal.

Also, the long time he spent in the Dream World had not only caused the seasons to change, the demon world-traveller's attitude had also appeared to change significantly.

After observing for some time, Roland was basically certain that the demon who called herself Valkries was not actually a native from Cargarde Peninsula. Although the registration information restored by the Martialist Association verified it, there was no such person among the visiting group from the Peninsula. Yet, her behavior was difficult to explain with common sense.

Roland was not alien to the phenomenon of possessing a real identity but a greatly changed personality because he himself was an example of this. The best explanation was to describe her as a "world traveller".

In the beginning Valkries was able to maintain her guise of a normal martial artist, flipping through various different types of books and talking as little as possible. But with the passing of time, she became more and more agitated.

Especially after her injuries healed. Once, she secretly sneaked deep into the forbidden area of Prism City and stood silently and attentively in front of the Erosion rupture. According to Dawnen's report, at the time there was an evident expression of anxiety on Valkries' face, as if she was yearning for something. Dawnen even thought on multiple occasions that Valkries would leap into the Erosion, but in the end Valkries stopped herself from doing so.

It would be too much to claim that her actions were her mourning of her companions' deaths, because Valkries didn't stop for a single moment when the visiting group encountered danger; in fact, she was aiming for the Erosion from the very beginning.

If he thought about it from her perspective, it wasn't hard to understand the change in her attitude.

At the start, coming to this modern metropolis from the Demon city, she might had been able to keep her composure in order to figure out where she was. But the more time passed while her hope of returning still obscure as ever, it was unavoidable for anxiety to begin building. This might have been the real reason why Valkries sneaked into Prism city. She wanted to see if she could return to the world familiar to her through the chasm she arrived in.

Unfortunately, the memory fragment did not satisfy her desires.

No matter what, being able to disguise herself to this point was an incredibly difficult feat. After all, Valkries didn't know that her every move was being watched by Dawnen. If it wasn't for the small things that betrayed her when she was by herself, there was not a single flaw from the way she interacted with other martial artists that would give her away.

When Roland considered what would have happened if he were in her shoes, he thought that he definitely could not have achieved this.

Now that her identity had been confirmed, he had to think about what to do next.

At this moment, he received a SMS on his phone.

It was from Phyllis.

"Your Majesty, everyone is ready."

Roland put his phone back into in his pocket, turned and walked towards the living room.

Zero was busy carrying a bowl of egg noodles onto the meal table. Upon seeing Roland, she put her hands to her hips and said, "Uncle, you haven't forgotten what you promised me, have you?"

"What, you woke up so early because you were afraid that I would sneak off?"

"It's not the first time you've done that after all," she said, pouting.

"Relax, I definitely won't this time." Roland laughed, walked over and patted her head. "Let's eat breakfast first, afterwards we'll go next door, call Sister Garcia and then set off together."

Apart from New Years, the biggest event this winter was the Martial Arts Contest which occured once every four years. To all the junior high school students throughout the city, whoever could watch it live on the arena would become the center of discussion. Zero, who usually had no interest for such contests, was no exception. After her ceaseless begging, Roland had no choice but to agree to take her near the arena to experience it live when the school's winter break came.

There were guards supervising today's competition and it was still in the round robin stage so it was unlikely for Fallen Evils to appear. Besides, Zero had to return to her hometown everytime the holidays came around, so he could hardly refuse the little girl's 'only request.'

Roland decided to confront that demon world traveller directly.

*******************

It was already the fourth month.

Although Valkries looked like she was focusing all her attention on the rowdy battle ring, her heart was somewhere else.

The past four months had given her a basic understanding of this world and human legacies. On some levels, she herself had become a part of accepting legacies. As long as she could return to reality, she would definitely be able to bring huge benefits to her race—however the major problem was, all this time, she hadn't been able to find a way to leave the Realm of Mind.

Valkries had an enormous heap of intel, yet she didn't have anyone to share it with. It was as if she was in a desert and finally found a bottle of water, only to find it firmly sealed, unable to be opened.

Whether she sent out a signal for help to Hackzord, or used her mind to sense traces of the King, she didn't receive any reply. Even if she stood in the gap of this domain and meditated, the Realm of Mind didn't respond to her call at all—it was her first time encountering such a situation.

Valkries couldn't help but feel a little hateful towards the Sky Lord.

Why hadn't he, even after all this time, tried to wake her up?

Chapter 1315 - First Direct Contact

If the Western Front plan was successful, the Red Mist should have already spilled over the ridge of the continent and spread through the territory of the humans.

This meant that the Birth Tower in the great rupture was no longer a secret. No matter how slow the opponent was, they would have reacted already. So why was Hackzord still not doing anything? Could it be that the humans were so weak that he could face them all by himself?

However, when she thought about it, Valkries found it unlikely. If their enemy were as frail as that, Ursrook wouldn't have been defeated on the Fertile Plains.

She knew very clearly that having been separated from reality for too long, it had caused her to lose her ability to judge the current situation.

This feeling made the Nightmare Lord feel extremely uneasy.

There was also that human...

She looked over to the other side of the battle ring and saw that Roland was standing beside two females, showing much amusement and interest in the competition.

Damn him! Didn't he have better things to do?

If he knew how a way out, then he might just be her only chance—he was definitely the one taking the legacies and knowledge of humans out of this world; he must have some sort of passage to communicate with the outside world.

As long as he left the Realm of Mind, she would have a chance to grab that opportunity, after all, in the King's Presiding Holy See, she had often sensed the King's communication with his territory. It was because she had such an ability that she dared to follow the fluctuations of the legacy shard's power and enter the Realm of Mind to find Roland's trail.

Yet, he had always remained active in this world and there was absolutely not a moment when he could have done anything.

Could it be that human monarchs have so much free time that they still didn't need to do anything to manage their kingdoms' matters even after several months? They would rather waste their time on a meaningless Martial Arts Contest than spend time reading a few more books. The only explanation was that the demons' frontline was not giving the humans enough pressure.

So this is still all Hackzord's fault!

In the midst of her mood swings, Valkries suddenly noticed Roland leaving the two females and walking to a corner by himself. Standing there was a hooded female who appeared as though she had been intentionally waiting for him.

Valkries pretended to casually walk out of the crowd, but her eyes never left Roland.

They discussed a few words before the female pointed in the direction of the exit. Roland appeared a little hesitant but nodded in the end.

Had the Association noticed something?

Valkries had originally decided to stop once and for all, but for some reason she felt a familiar aura from the female. This odd feeling prompted her to walk a few steps closer, so as to sneak at peek at them from a closer distance.

Just with this one glance, Valkries felt all her hair stand on end—under the dim light, she saw a face similar to to that of Heathtalese, or...Lan, from the Martialist Association!

Could it be that Transformer had always been hidden in this world?

And the reason that Roland could appear as a male in this world was also because of her?

This news was too shocking. Valkries could no longer hold back the impulse in her heart and quickly followed them.

Roland and the person that Valkries suspected to be Transformer didn't walk in the direction of the arena's exterior after passing through the exit passageway; instead, they turned and entered an underground parking lot. The Nightmare Lord tried to make her footsteps as light as possible and kept a fair distance between them until they entered a civil air defense passageway.

As Valkries tailed after them, she discovered that the passageway was only a bit over ten meters long and didn't have any forks at all. On the other end of the passage was a sealed cement wall. There was even a "No Entry. Construction Incomplete" warning sign hung up on the wall. Even though it was a dead end, the two had vanished.

Oh no, it's a trap!

Valkries reacted instantly but it was already too late.

Before she could turn and retreat, Roland was already calmly standing behind her, blocking her only route of escape. Standing beside him were several females. From how they used their abilities, which was polar opposite to martial artists, Valkries didn't even need luck to guess.

Unquestionably, the females standing beside him were witches.

She finally realized where that feeling of familiarity came from. It was the miniscule difference between magic power and natural ability. If witches could enter the Realm of the Mind as well as possess their original strength at the same time, then the exposure of her identity would have occurred sooner or later.

After all, Roland could surreptitiously conceal this many people to set up an ambush. That meant infiltrating her surroundings and observing her would be trivial—the reason was easy to understand if one thought about it. She focused all of her disguise on her superficial interactions. But against witches who had uncanny abilities, her guise would have been a joke. It was likely that her movements had already been seen through by the witches in the past four months.

"We meet once more, Miss Valkries," Roland said serenely.

Valkries didn't respond.

Saying anything at this time would only bring humiliation to herself.

Even if she still didn't understand how he could get the witches to enter this realm, it was no longer important.

He had intentionally set an ambush in this secluded place. His goal was self-evident.

The only thing she could do now was die in battle.

The Nightmare Lord summoned all the magic power in her body and slightly leaned her body forward. In this situation where she was fighting against a group of witches without a magic stone or Magic Slayer power, she didn't even consider the possibility of winning. It was impossible for her to surrender no matter what!

"Could I invite you to drink some Cargarde Peninsula coffee?" Roland spoke once more.

"—" Valkries came to a halt with her foot out. She stood frozen in her spot, her upper body still maintaining a slightly forward-leaning posture. The way she stopped herself seemed overly stiff. "What... did you say?"

"I want to treat you to coffee," Roland repeated himself. "Although it wouldn't count as real coffee, it's a special drink that is very similar."

Valkries stared at him for a long time before voicing the confusion in her heart. "...Why?"

She couldn't guess what this male was thinking at all—reality was different to this place, the coexistence of her race and humans was an imagined illusion. Since he had already confirmed her true origins, it wouldn't make sense to let her off. If she was not going to be greeted by death, then it would only be an outcome worse than death.

"Because some things are better laid out in the open than hidden," Roland said slowly, "especially when the 'Battle of Divine Will' is not the 'Final Battle' yet."

The 'Battle of Divine Will'... is not the 'Final Battle' yet...

Valkries couldn't help but be surprised.

She never would have thought that she would hear something like this from a human.

It was only after a long period of silence that she regained her wary composure. "Where do you want to have the talk?"

"Not far from here, only a few minutes away." Roland snapped his fingers, the sound of a car engine came from behind him. "Get into the car, I've already booked a table."

...

Roland didn't lie to her.

The location he chose was a high-class restaurant situated inside a high-rise building. Sitting in front of the floor to ceiling glass windows, she could see the snow covered urban skyline. Soothing music filled the restaurant and the atmosphere was peaceful and elegant.

Valkries knew that choosing this place to discuss was Roland's way of expressing his sincerity—if he had wanted to kill her, a public setting like this was certainly not a suitable execution ground.

Noticing the group of witches who were staring intently at them, she inhaled deeply after sitting down. "Why didn't you just ask to meet me here directly?"

"That would waste too much time, I didn't think you would agree straight away—when not being cornered, it's easy for people to refuse and avoid, so it's much easier to do it this way." Roland shrugged. "Since we've already reached an initial understanding, then let's get to our main point of discussion quickly. Honesty would benefit both of us. I am Roland Wimbledon, the King of Graycastle and one of the creators of the Dream World. You are?"

One of... the creators? Although she had already guessed that he wasn't a simple visitor, his identity shocked Valkries greatly. This was her first time hearing that a territory in the Realm of Mind could be created by multiple people. But this may be why he couldn't take complete control of this domain like the demon king could. Suppressing her impulse to ask who the others were, the Nightmare Lord slowly replied, "Valkries. That's my name."

"How about your title and rank? Like "Sky Lord" for example... could you be more specific?"

She paused for a moment. "Nightmare Lord, that is what I'm called."

Roland spat out his drink.

This time it was Roland's turn to be shocked.

Chapter 1316 - History

"What's so strange about it?" Valkries said coldly, "Do you think anyone can just casually stroll into the Realm of the Mind? Or... are you actually just proud of yourself for capturing a grand lord?"

Clearly, she hadn't abandoned her pride even if she was in a sticky situation. Roland even had a feeling that if he pushed her too much she would directly lunge at the witches and into her death.

But her title really did surprise him—he had only asked for her title out of procedure; after all, most high-ranking demons had their unique title, and a demon who could conduct a upgrading ceremony couldn't be just some no-name entity. He just didn't expect this demon's identity to be far more complex than he had imagined.

Roland originally thought that Valkries was a consciousness that coincidentally escaped from the memory fragment, but now another possibility had risen to the surface—she could have come from the real world!

The name, "Nightmare Lord," first appeared in Ursrook's documents, and it was followed by a greeting, proving that the "Nightmare Lord" was not a historical figure, and was still active in the higher-ranks of demons. Additionally, Roland had repeatedly watched the memory fragment numerous times, he hadn't heard any referral of her as a grand lord. If the demon language he learned from Kabradhabi was correct, this meant that the figure presiding over the rest at the time wasn't a grand lord yet.

Combining Vakries' statement that she "voluntarily entered the Realm of Mind" and the Pearl of the Northern Region's analysis of the situation at the frontline, Roland was becoming increasingly certain that his latter theory was right!

In other words, the Valkries sitting in front of him had waded through at least eight hundred years of history. Her strength and knowledge had to be extremely rare among the demon race. If one counted her aberrant reaction to Lan, things went back even further. This type of discussion far exceeded the spirit that was copied from a memory fragment; even if they had not exchanged words at all, it was still equal to ruling out a grand lord ranked demon from the front line. Just this point alone had huge significance!

"I need to correct your words. First, I haven't captured you—at least at the moment, you are free." Roland pretended to be calm as he spoke. "Second, intruding the Dream World is your subjective behavior, I don't think I have done anything wrong."

"..." Valkries was speechless for a moment. Only after a long time did she stiffly release a sigh. "You call this place the Dream World?"

Pride made her find any humiliation intolerable, but at the same time, made her unable to make any illogical protest—her speechlessness from before confirmed the Nightmare Lord's origin; she indeed came here voluntarily through the Realm of Mind.

"That's because I find myself in here every time I fall asleep. So in a certain sense, it is no different from dreaming."

"Absurdity!" Valkries growled. Opening up a territory in the Realm of Mind not only required talent, but it needed a high focus of spiritual energy and a will of steel in order not to lose oneself in the sea of magic power. In the end this magically-disabled male could do this just by taking a nap? That's too unfair!

"Hello, this is your order, please enjoy." At this moment, the waiter served their meals. The table was filled with various types of deserts and drinks, all of which looked mouth-watering.

"This is the truth." After the waiter left, Rolant spread out his hands and said, "Just as I said before, honesty benefits the both of us. I would not go as far as to lie to you about something like this. Moreover, what I just said wasn't the important point, the important point is the truth about the Battle of Divine Will... and the future of all races. He picked up his chopsticks and made a gesture for her to help herself. "We can talk about this while we eat."

Valkries confirmed another point. This male was different to all the humans she had met before. Who talks about matters regarding the future of their entire race while eating? If it was another normal person, they would have most likely be extremely grave, as if they were facing a formidable enemy. But he didn't seem like he was intentionally messing with her, as if to him, his behavior was completely normal.

She raised that cup of murky Peninsula coffee and took a sip.

In an instant, thick aromatic liquid slid down her throat.

It was actually... not bad.

For some reason, she suddenly had a feeling that she had just lost.

No, she must take control of the flow! Valkries forced herself to set down her cup and said in a low voice, "Where did you hear that the Battle of Divine Will was not the Final Battle?"

Roland dug out Lan's photo from his wallet and put it on the table. "You've seen her before, right?"

As the picture of Lan which appeared in the video data left behind by the Reflection Church was likely one that happened before the establishment of the Union in terms of age, he intentionally got Ling to make herself look like Lan with makeup and see if the demon from the memory fragment made any reaction. Even though reality was a little different to what they expected, Valkries' shock at the time proved that she had indeed seen Lan.

After a while the Nightmare Lord nodded. "Who exactly is she?"

"A traitorous Oracle." Roland slowly described the secret discussion in the Rose Café to her.

After hearing those unbelievable words, even Valkries couldn't help but widen her eyes and stutter, "Could it be that... the Oracle that my mentor mentioned was her?"

"Mentor?"

"'Transformer' Heathtalese, she taught me many things..." After hesitating for a few moments, Valkries revealed Cloud School's past. "Her failure to upgrade caused the unstable School to lose their last measure of protection."

"So it was... due to this..." Realization dawned on Roland. The intel of the two races was combined into one for the first time in history. He finally pieced everything together with the missing puzzle piece in his mind to reveal the full picture.

"Your Majesty, did you think of something?" Phyllis asked.

"Do you remember the portrait hanging on the wall at the meeting where the vow of the three queens took place in the Union?" Roland took a deep breath, " I'm afraid the person in the portrait was the high-level demon called Heathtalese."

"What did... you say?"

"The Union would enshrine the portrait of that demon?"

"How... could this be possible?" The Taquila witches all revealed expressions of disbelief.

"If we thought about it according to the influence the Cloud School had in the first Battle of Divine Will, something like this happening isn't actually very strange. Since the demon in the school can become a grand lord, then it would have been normal for witches or normal people from the higher-ups to come from the school. I'm guessing that before Heathtalese died, she always had suspicions about the Battle of Divine Will, right?"

In certain people's eyes, such behavior was equivalent to standing on the humans' side.

"...I cannot deny that." Valkries closed her eyes, "She and the current king have had conflict, but the tides of war isn't something that one or two people can resist."

"It is the same for humans," Roland said calmly. "The disbanded Cloud School is at most a cherished memory to people now, and when the outbreak of the second Battle of Divine Will comes, even this memory will cease to exist. That period of their history is not recorded in any scripts. It is highly likely that that the Three Chiefs destroyed all records—a past where they coexisted with demons would make people hopeful, especially when the situation is bad, it would only eat away at humans' determination to resist, so the Cloud School must be forgotten as an undesired blemish!"

Chapter 1317 - Battle of the Legacies

"Because you humans are short-lived and forgetful..." Valkries seemed to had found her sense of superiority once more. She subconsciously raised her cup of coffee again. "After another ten or twenty years, history will be replaced by lies. However, something like this is unimaginable for my long-lived race. You people seem to have completely forgotten that no matter how much comforting lies are, they are ultimately still lies."

"That makes the two of us," Roland said unyieldingly. "Didn't you guys also intentionally ignore Heathtalese's warning? Apart from the witnesses at the time, I'm afraid that none of the demons of the new generation know of this event, right?"

Valkries opened her mouth but couldn't find a suitable reply. In the end she could only take another sip of coffee, which was almost the same as agreeing.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea for us to make a guess." He pulled the conversation back to the traitorous Oracle. "Perhaps the blurry silhouette that 'Transformer' saw a thousand years ago is the same person as Lan from the Dream World. Unfortunately your mentor couldn't receive a definite hint as she was unable to form a stable territory in the Realm of Mind."

"You believe the Oracle's words?"

"I believe what I see with my own eyes—the world is being eroded by enemies who call themselves the servants of god, and the relics of past civilizations have certainly been discovered in reality. I don't know where all the victorious civilizations went, but the truth is, they have never returned, don't you find that very strange?"

"Perhaps there is a utopia that is more suitable for an advanced race to live in—"

"Like the Fountain of Magic, for example?" Roland said mockingly. "Upgrading is one path to become god; yet, once you have become god, there is no way of returning back to your hometown. What type of god is that? Also when you are close to the Fountain of Magic—which is the Erosion rupture, does it really make you feel wonderful and content? If that were the case, you would have jumped in ages ago."

This bastard... ordered the witches to follow me on that journey after all, Valkries thought indignantly but couldn't refute his words. At the time when she stood before the scarlet red rupture, the only thing she felt was an extreme sense of danger.

"Even if you're right, what can you change?" The Nightmare Lord spoke in a low voice after a long period of silence. "It's all too late. If you were a member of the Cloud School and you made this guess a thousand years earlier, you may have had the chance to turn the tables. But when our race received the legacy of the third civilization, war could no longer be avoided."

The third civilization... this was probably the underground civilization. Roland subconsciously spoke slower, "These so-called legacies... what on earth do you mean?"

Valkries looked stunned momentarily, then she laughed softly. "What? It turns out you guys have never received a legacy shard before after all."

"Answer His Majesty's question!" Phyllis ordered in a low voice.

"We don't need some shard, His Majesty's knowledge alone is enough!"

"Only uncultivated monsters like you would start a war over a small stone!"

Just when Roland thought that the Nightmare Lord would refuse to answer the question, she spoke, "I will tell you—and then you will understand, why trying to turn the tables now is no longer possible. As soon as you taste the sweetness of a legacy, civilization will never forget the delightful sensation, they will only crave more." She paused and looked at the witches next to Roland. "You are the best examples right now—if humans were to give up all the changes that the Graycastle king had brought about, would you?"

"You mean..."

"Correct, the legacy shard is merely a way to inherit." Valkries' words confirmed all the hypotheses that Roland had made until now. "You acquire knowledge from here and pass it down to the humans, that is the same as the humans receiving the legacy of Dream World. But the effect of a shard is more thorough and complete—it isn't just specific to one individual, it applies to the entire civilization."

Next, Valkries revealed what happened one hundred years after the end of the first Battle of Divine Will in the "Path of Reconciliation." That was a war that the Union never knew of, the 'Final War.'

"You probably know this, but once upon a time the third civilization left their mark on over half of the continent—if it was said that my clan occupied the Blackstone domain, while humans occupied the Land of Dawn and the second civilization occupied the Sky-sea Realm, then the third civilization would be the owner of the underground world. They were like earthworms, their bodies were extremely weak but they had a unique knack for magic power.

"Unfortunately, these guys had bad luck and touched something they shouldn't have touched. When they were burrowing tunnels all over the mountains, they encountered a fissure in the stratum which penetrated directly from the Blackstone region to the Sky-sea Realm. It's fine if you don't understand, you only need to know that they inadvertently broke through the barrier that separated their den from the Sky-sea Realm. The latter took advantage of this and invaded the Blackstone region, slaughtering numerous and making them suffer one defeat after another.

"If we could have lended a hand, they might have had hope of survival. However to our race, it was also the perfect time to verify the legacy rumor. So the King, who at the time had not upgraded yet, lead a party and did a pincer attack from behind on the second civilization who were escaping among the chaos. At the same time, the King blocked the Ghost Ravine.

"The Ghost Ravine was located between two mountain peaks, it was about half the size of the Fertile Plains, and on the two sides ran a thousand-mile underground river and staggered ground. The bottom of the ravine was so varied that one moment it was an underground cavern and the next it was an open hill. As much as the earthworms were good at burrowing, they couldn't hide their tracks completely.

"This war lasted almost ten years, the number of Primal Demons demons of our clan that perished in this war was more than in the first Battle of Divine Will under the hands of humans. The outcome in the end was that both the King and the Sky-sea Realm received a part of the legacy shard."

Roland couldn't help but hold his breath, even though he didn't want to show how much he really wanted to know as it would please Valkries, this information made him momentarily forget to control his expression.

"And then?"

"There's no more."

"What—?"

"I meant the coffee." Valkries licked her lips. "You were the one who said to talk while we ate, right?"

Roland was immediately speechless. They were already at this point and she was still trying to take hold of the conversation. Should he describe her as too competitive, or too proud? But he let his unspoken criticism remain unspoken and immediately called the waiter and ordered three cups of Peninsula coffee. "You can continue now."

"Reconciliation wasn't actually very complicated. the King placed the shard he acquired together with the legacy shard of our race, and the two combined into one—in that moment, we took over everything they once had: language, wisdom, magical skill... even life," the Nightmare Lord said slowly. "The surviving 'earthworms' wilted away and died, whilst the power of our clansmen made a qualitative leap. It was as if a veil was lifted on magic; multifarious pieces of knowledge emerged in our minds. It didn't matter if we wanted to accept it or not, but we couldn't deny one point—our race was far more powerful than it was during the first Battle of Divine Will.

"From that moment, nobody doubted the gift from god. Just as I said, once this feeling is experienced once, it will never be forgotten." She raised a new cup of coffee and said, "Now you realize what I mean by being too late, right? It doesn't matter what you received from the Dream World; as soon as they acquire the human legacy shard, this will all end up in the victor's hands. You want to use the traitorous Oracle's warning to stop this war? That will just be a waste of effort."

Something that even her mentor, Heathtalese, couldn't accomplish couldn't be done by a human male.

"Indeed..." Roland sighed. "But I have never planned on using the warning to stop the war."

"...What are you trying to say?" Valkries furrowed her brows.

"The only thing that can stop war is war itself." He said with his eyes locked onto hers.

Chapter 1318 - A Fifty-fifty Decision

"Are you sure you can win?" The Nightmare Lord didn't avoid his gaze.

They stared at each other for a long time before Roland replied, "Of course I can win this war—give it another century, even if you hide in the Blackstone region, you'll still be wiped out by humans. But I can't wait that long, the Oracle's warning indicates that a crisis is imminent, I must arrive at the Bottomless Land as soon as possible and I need your help to do so."

"Wh... What?"

"Help me defeat the demons faster—i.e., your Western Front army." Roland crossed one leg over the other. "For example, tell me how you process God's Stones of Retaliation, the abilities of the King and the grand lords, the weak points of Spider Demons. This was also why I reached out to you personally. Anything you can think of—"

Bang! Valkries slammed her hand onto the table and coffee splashed out from the cups.

"Don't get too cocky, human male!" she said, forcefully suppressing her voice. "You can kill me, but don't expect me to kneel before you and beg for mercy, and even more so, don't think that I'll betray my race! Help you defeat the Western Front army? Dream on!"

"Insolence!"

"Do not show such rudeness in front of His Majesty!"

The witches almost yelled in unison and in an instant the two sides were ready to launch into a fight. The temperature of the mood seemed to drop to freezing point.

"What the hell are they doing over at that table?"

The muttering of other people in the restaurant at nearby tables could be heard.

"A couple's quarrel?"

"Uh... the numbers clearly don't fit."

"But speaking of which, the girls beside him are gorgeous!"

"That Peninsula girl is clearly better, okay? Damn that guy, who exactly is he?"

"So envious..."

In his mind, Roland silently rolled his eyes. The murderous intent was practically overflowing all around him; there wasn't an inkling of romance in it at all! "Enough, let's all control ourselves." He pretended to unconcernedly wave his hand for Phyllis and the others to hold their attack, and then leaned back on the bench and looked down at the Nightmare Lord. "Don't you think that rejecting reality is betraying your race more?"

"Reality?"

"Correct!" Roland voice suddenly turned grim. "If the Oracle's warning was not a lie, then there are only two paths that lay in front of all civilizations: One is going through with the Battle of Divine Will to the very end. Two is end this never-ending war once and for all through the Realm of Mind! And as for the consequences of your choice, don't tell me you have no idea!"

Not giving her a chance to retort, he raised his voice a little, "After staying in the Dream World for so long, you should be clear how much I can raise the overall strength of humans. If a new legacy shard doesn't appear, it is impossible for you to face us with your race's current strength! If our war drags on for decades, how many people will your race have to sacrifice and how large of a price will you have to pay? Unless, that is what you wish to see?"

"Then they will be dying honorably on the battlefield—"

"No, they'll be dying for a meaningless lie!" Roland corrected. "And because of the existence of legacy shards, this war will never rest. Hatred and suspicion will spread the flames of war to the Blackstone region, until your race ceases to exist! The only person who can stop that from happening is me. Once I am gone, the eradication of demons will be inevitable. In comparison to losing one front line army, isn't it obvious which decision will benefit your race more?"

"..." Valkries' face was ashen, she didn't say anything.

"In reality, it's likely that we are almost out of time, if we miss the chance to end the war, then there will be no way out." He uncrossed his legs, leaned slightly forward and said, "Are you still holding onto your original decision?"

After a long period of silence, the Nightmare Lord said coldly, "Human male, why should I believe you? According to the Oracle's words, once you become god, who can guarantee that you will let our race off? Just from the words you just said?"

"You have no other choice. On the one hand is the possibility of continuation, and on the other hand is certain doom, that's all." Roland softened his tone. "The goal of war has already changed, what was impossible in the past is possible now, as long as you think about it from another perspective, then both races can live on."

Valkries pressed her lips together and didn't speak.

Roland didn't wait until she did. "I know this is a difficult decision, so I don't expect you to reply immediately. You can go back now."

She raised her head, not daring to believe her ears. "...That's it?"

"Otherwise? Should I tie you up and torture you or should I directly kill you? I've said so... at least at the moment, you are free." Roland dug out his phone. "Oh yes, tell me your number so I can inform you about the war on the north side as soon as possible. This might help you make your decision—don't forget, the future of the demons is in your hands."

Although completely unwilling, Valkries handed over her phone number in the end.

Just when she was about to stand up and leave, Roland called out to her.

"I still want to ask you a question—Do you think that the Transformer from a thousand years ago did the wrong thing?"

Valkries' figure halted for a moment, then left the restaurant without looking back.

"Your Majesty, are you really going to let a grand demon lord move about freely in the Dream World?" Phyllis asked worriedly.

"That's not the case." Roland shook his head. "Didn't you gals notice? She is already not the grand demon lord she once was." A demon who had lost their magic stone without dying immediately, but instead gained a corresponding identity could only mean one thing. "She is now already one with the Dream World."

Roland was certain that humans would achieve victory, but doing so in one hundred years or in ten years was different. He needed to leave the demons in pain with the shortest amount of time possible and get them to completely lose the will to resist, cleaning out a path to the Bottomless Land. The Nightmare Lord was no more than a card in his hand—no matter what decision she made, she couldn't change his decision.

But likewise, nobody would complain of having too many cards in their hand at such an critical juncture. If they could win over an ex-grand demon lord, then the pressure on their First Army would undeniably lessen.

After all, time was what he currently lacked the most.

...

"The winner iiiiiissssss—Fei Yuhan!"

The entire arena burst into a thunderous applause.

She waved her hands at the tens of thousands of people in the audience, descended from the battle ring amidst the never-ending camera flashes, and entered the contestants' lounge. This was a 'competition' where the outcome had been decided long ago. Even though the opponent didn't intentionally go easy on her as according to the Defender's orders, she still KO'd them within a minute into the match.

In the past, ascending the stage like this didn't give her any pleasure at all. But this time it was different, because she saw Valkries, who had left for a long time, return to the arena.

A number of hours earlier, Valkries left the arena at almost the same time as Roland.

After she finished changing, Fei Yuhan boarded the Association's bus and waited quietly for Valkries' return.

The anticipation in her heart never rested, she had never experienced such a feeling.

When Valkries appeared in her view, she could even hear the thumping of her own heartbeat.

As Fei Yuhan had predicted, Valkries sat in the seat beside her.

"I won the competition today."

"Ah... congratulations." Valkries said a little absent-mindedly. For Valkries, this was rare behavior.

"Thank you. It's a pity you didn't sign up for the contest; otherwise, I would have been able to properly appreciate the strength of an outstanding martial artist from Cargarde Peninsula."

"You'll get a chance," Valkries replied.

"Of course, a chance will come." Fei Yuhan gave a small smile.

Even without carefully observing her behavior, she could tell that Valkries was paying her lip service. But since she knew that Valkries came from another world, and that world seemed to be extremely ancient and technologically behind, she could all together use more direct methods to attain information.

Once the people returning to the sanatorium had all boarded the bus, the bus's engine started.

When the bus entered the suburban area, Fei Yuhan quietly reached out her finger towards Valkries' handbag—she had bought this bag for Valkries as a hospital discharge gift and checked all over the bag innumerable times before she gave it to her. Thus, she knew the shape of the bag like the back of her hand.

There was an unfinished section between the main road and the new road of the city, but this didn't affect the traffic. At worst, there were some tremors in the ground that raised dust. In the instant when the tires rolled over the bumpy surface of the ground, a streak of condensed Force of Nature appeared at her fingertips and lightly stroked down.

It was as if it was a natural pullback.

An ordinary decorative flap from the bag dropped into her hand.

Hidden inside was a tiny recording device.

"Ultra long battery life, small and exquisite, filtered background noise, guaranteed quality." That was the advertisement that the online store made when she bought the sound recorder on the Internet. It was time to put it to the test.

Chapter 1319 - Free Will

After she returned to the sanatorium room, Fei Yuhan locked the door from the inside and took out the recording device that was embedded in the decorative flap.

It was about the size of a grain that couldn't play sound by itself. She needed to insert it into a special reader to hear its recorded content.

After transferring the data into her laptop, she found the sound file recorded at the time closest to when Valkries left the arena and pressed play.

Bzzt... Bzzt...

"We meet once more, Miss Valkries." Roland's voice could be heard.

Here it comes.

Fei Yuhan upturned the corner of her mouth and boiled herself a cup of hot tea.

She was going to thoroughly enjoy the results of her long planning.

...

Before the owner managed to take a sip, the steaming tea slowly cooled down until it was ice-cold once more.

Even though she had a premonition ages ago, the things that she heard still far exceeded her expectations!

When she pressed the stop button, Fei Yuhan's discovered that even her fingertip was trembling slightly.

For a long-time famous martial artist, this could be counted as a loss of control over her body!

She finally knew why a hunter like Roland had cracked his wine glass that evening at the party—if this involved the secrets of god, it would have been unusual if he hadn't been perturbed.

The idea that the Dream World was created, civilizations battling for their survival, the continuity and connection between the two worlds, a guardian traversing the Realm of Mind... Could there be anything more unbelievable than this?

Originally, Roland's and Valkries' choice to discuss in a cafe disappointed Fei Yuhan a little, but the contents of their discussion were so shocking that after she finished listening she realized that even if the things they said were stated formally and seriously, others would still view it as nonsense.

Even so, Fei Yuhan didn't think what the two talked about was false. If Roland started putting on an act the day after she began secretly observing him, then that would have been too much of a stretch.

If this world was really manufactured by humans then she was most likely the first to discover the truth behind the scenes—

"Ha..." Fei Yuhan laughed softly.

This feeling was... so satisfying!

As for the Oracle's question of "fiction or reality", it did not concern her at all. Nobody knew better than herself that she was definitely a living, breathing being. Whether it was her gestures and actions, or every idea that emerged in her mind—everything came from her own will. It was the same this time, with her taking the initiative to pry into the outsiders' secrets.

So what if Roland was one of the creators of the world? If planets were created by cosmic energy and elementary particles, it would make little difference if the former was replaced with a person.

Fei Yuhan leaned back into her chair, letting her body quiver as she enjoyed this feeling of pleasure which she had not felt for a while.

Only after a long time did her excitement slowly ease back into calmness.

In theory, she should report to the Martialist Association regarding the intel about the gods seeking to destroy the world and the nature of the Fallen Evils. However, due to the immense scope and how it could basically rewrite history, she decided to observe for a bit longer.

After all, apart from the discussion between the two, she didn't have a single piece of solid evidence in her hands. She could also not rule out the possibility that they were both severely hysterical drug addicts. She had heard of urban legends that from the second year of junior high, people had the potential to gain telepathy and resonate with others of their kind. Even though the likelihood of such situations was very low, it wouldn't be bad to guard against it.

It was a good thing that Valkries had already formally established a communication method with Roland, that way the chances of spying on their secrets would increase.

Currently the thing that interested Fei Yuhan the most was the world that the two originally came from.

For example, the women who referred to Roland as "His Majesty".

If they could enter the Dream World, could she take a look at what the world was like on their side too?

...Take a look at the supposed... reality.

...

"Where did you run off to?" Garcia glared discontentedly at Roland. "What about your promise to watch the game with Zero?"

"Sorry... I had to report some things to the Association, I didn't have a choice either." Roland rubbed the back of his head. He was in the wrong in this matter, so he capitulated very readily. In order for him and Valkries to return at different times, he intentionally dawdled at the restaurant for a little longer and, when he left, it was already evening rush hour. This resulted in causing the two to wait at the arena's gate for half an hour longer.

"If it wasn't because I still have patrolling work to do, I would have ditched you ages ago," Garcia said angrily. "Take the little girl out to a nice meal to make it up to her."

She patted Zero's head. Zero nodded and trotted to Roland's side. When she reached there, she even gave Garcia a bow and said, "Thank you, Big Sister!"

"If he mistreats you, you must tell me."

"Okay."

This brat, pretending to be so docile in front of outsiders. Roland couldn't help but curse her inwardly. Yet, on the surface, he said enthusiastically, "Relax, leave it all to me. Oh yeah, do you want me to bring you some as well?"

"There's no need," Garcia waved her hand magnanimously. "You guys go first, I'm going back to the arena now."

"Sorry to trouble you today." After he bade farewell to Garcia, he shrugged his shoulders at Zero. "Let's go, there's a shopping mall ahead; you can eat whatever you want today."

"'Kay," Zero said unenthusiastically.

Strange, wouldn't she usually leap at this opportunity to eat her fill? Roland was baffled. Why did she suddenly become so silent?

"What's wrong? Was today's competition boring?"

"No, it was a lot better than watching it on TV..."

"That's good then. Once you come back from the holidays, I'll take you to watch a few more live competitions. I am a member of the Association after all, it shouldn't be too difficult to get tickets."

They crossed the road along the sidewalk and walked side by side on the streets. The snow beneath their feet had already melted from all the people walking over it, their only presence was the small crackling noises under their shoes. But more snow floated down from the night sky, and it was dyed into brilliant colors by the ceaselessly flashing neon lights. If this continued, the city tomorrow morning was likely to become a plain of whiteness once more.

Slowly, Zero fell a step behind him.

Roland felt the corner of his clothes catch onto something.

He stopped walking and looked back in surprise.

The little girl was pulling at the corner of his clothes with her head lowered. She didn't say a single word.

"What's wrong..." Roland was stunned for a moment. "Uh, I was wrong for not accompanying you, but work..."

Zero shook her head. "I... don't want to go back."

"What?"

"I don't want to go back to my hometown, Uncle." She raised her head, bit her lip and said, "Can I continue living at your place for the two-month holiday? I'll find a way to pay the rent, I've scraped together money for buying groceries before, I'll definitely be faster this time, I promise I will pay you on time every time. I..."

Looking at the the small girl who seemed to had just mustered up her courage, Roland couldn't speak for a moment.

The memory of peeking at the writing in her diary emerged in his mind. He suddenly felt that he was in the wrong.

It was no secret that Zero's family was estranged. He could tell from her daily mannerisms and spendings on food and clothing that her family was very likely extremely harsh and strict to her. But Roland never intervened or intentionally tried to maintain their current relationship either.

Because she was the other creator of this world.

In order to let the Dream World keep functioning as it always had, maintaining inertia was undoubtedly the most stable method.

This was also why he didn't immediately get Zero to join the Association after she awoke.

Will changing the current situation increase the chances of awakening her other side? If she turned back into a Pure Witch, what changes will occur to this world?

He had always been guarding against something like that from happening.

But Roland had overlooked the feelings of Zero, a fifteen year-old girl.

"Do you really believe that this world is fictional?"

When Lan asked him this, he gave a negative answer. But his treatment of Zero contradicted his words.

"I... I can't...?" The courage the little girl managed to muster slowly faded away and her voice became smaller and smaller.

"You should know that I'm not actually your legal guardian. If I let you stay in the apartment, it would be fine for one or two days, but after a period of time your family will definitely come knocking on the door. When that time comes, no matter how unwilling you are, it would be impossible for you to continue living here. I would get into quite a bit of trouble too."

The light in Zero's eyes dimmed.

"But there is a way that we can get around this." Roland said as he squatted down and brushed away the snow on her shoulders.

"Really?" She abruptly swung her head up.

"All you have to do is join the Martialist Association. The Association is an Awakened's legal hosting facility at all times; as long as you decide to stay, nobody can force you to change your mind, even if you are underage," Roland said with a smile. "This is the privilege of a martial artist... so, do you want to become a martial artist?"

"I..."

"But even if you do join the Association, you still have to attend school—don't think you can just drop out of school because of this." He raised his eyebrows. "Don't worry about competitions and stuff. If you don't like fighting, it's okay if you don't participate."

His last words seemed to lift a burden off Zero's shoulders. She breathed in deeply and nodded her head with vigor. "Then I'll join."

"Okay, when we get back I'll fill out an application form for you. After that, you can live wherever you want."

"Can I live in 0825?"

Roland extended a hand to her. "Of course."

The inertia had been broken.

What happened next may be unknown...

...but it would be a result of a decision made out of free will.

Under the snowflakes, the two blended into the sea of pedestrians and walked towards the city square which was alit under the night sky.

Chapter 1320 - High-energy Experiment (Part 1)

When he woke up from the Dream World the following noon, Roland received a genuinely good piece of news.

The Ministries of Engineering and Construction had finally completed the setting up of the required site and the equipment necessary for the "Glory of the Sun" plan.

In theory, 52 kilograms was enough to reach critical mass required of spherical Uranium-235, so the purity of the element was not the biggest hurdle for them. Lucia had been busy the entire time so they had already accumulated over a hundred kilograms of pure Uranium inside the Research Institute of High Energy Physics.

However, just piling the Uranium-235 together was not enough to release the full power of the fission reaction unless a staggering amount of energy was added to it. If they did that though, its safety and practicality would drop dramatically; thus, they had catalyze its effects through special configurations.

The other important point in the plan was testing the explosions.

After all, theory and calculations were one thing, carrying it out was another.

When transitioning from an experimental device to an actual product, it was almost impossible to succeed in one go. According to the statistics, the failed trials of the various weaponry that Roland had developed for the First Army numbered all in the double digits, and this was with the help of blueprints and the witches.

The "Glory of the Sun" plan needed to be more special.

The creations, modifications, and trials of other weapons could be performed in the same place, but fission reactions could certainly not. No matter if it resulted in success or a failure, it would always result in a piece of land becoming a forbidden zone.

In fact, just searching and surveying the test site took almost a month.

Although the Fertile Plains was vast, it was obviously not a suitable test site for the explosion as Neverwinter was planning on further development in that direction.

There were many small islands in Fjords as well, but they were too far away. The pressure that sea transportation faced was already immense and it would be difficult to find more ships to transport the various equipment needed.

It seemed that the most suitable location would be the uninhabited desert in the south, but Roland took the fact that relics of the "Match Men" were once buried there into account and after prolonged hesitation, he rejected it in the end as he was concerned about its future development and utilization.

In the end, the explosion test site was allocated to the west of the Great Snow Mountain—the location of the ex-demon outpost camps.

Even though there was a possibility of encountering demons and demonic beasts over there, the risk was within an acceptable range. At the same time, whether it was successful or not, the test explosion would always leave behind a polluted area, which would actually increase the safety of the Neverwinter's rear.

Only after they overcame these two hurdles would they be qualified for nuclear testing.

"Your Majesty, please bring me too."

"And me as well!"

"I don't think I need to say any more; as long as it's a weapon that can kill demons, I need to take a look at it no matter what!"

"Uh…" Roland had also received entreaties from the Third Border City at the same time as he received the news. Looking at the three 'huge faces' squished together in the light curtain across him, he could not help but wipe the sweat from his forehead. "This is only a test for the experimental device, we're still far from testing the real weapon."

The "Glory of the Sun had never left the minds of Pasha and Celine ever since Roland explained it to the Taquila witches. However, he didn't expect that even Alethea would join in; there was even a hint of adoration in her voice.

"If it's really as you describe, that it would be enough to light up the dark clouds above the humans, then I hope I can see the birth of this device from the beginning to the end." Pasha lowered her main tentacles.

"I contributed quite a bit to the creation of the core unit of the Glory of the Sun, you can't just leave one of the planners behind, right?" Celine added.

"But there are no underground passages from the Great Snow Mountain to the experiment observation location…"

"No need to worry about that. There is no sun during the Months of Demons, we can be active outside for longer than usual," Alethea hastily replied, as if frightened that a word of objection would come out of his mouth. "And the passage that Fran burrowed last time is still there, we definitely wouldn't catch anyone's attention when we leave the city."

Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Roland exchanged glances with Anna. Anna smiled and nodded at him.

Since the three had supplicated him to this extent, it would be unreasonable to disagree.

"Then, I'll get the construction team to leave spaces for you in the bunker. Remember to bring a few God's Punishment Witches with you and travel safely."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" the three exclaimed delightedly.

Watching the scene before him, Roland felt some strange emotions.

In his previous life, nuclear weapons were often viewed as a device of self-destruction. Countless literary works and biographies described it as the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of mankind. But here, it was instead viewed as a ray of hope—in times of darkness, only strength could shield civilization and cut through the thorns.

He looked at Anna. "Let's go."

…

Fifty kilometers to the northwest of the Great Snow Mountain.

The snow here was a lot stronger here than Neverwinter; not only did it completely cover the land that had been eroded by demons, but it also made the construction of the bunker more difficult than usual.

Fortunately, through the help of the powerful God's Punishment Witches, the construction team was able to settle down in this deserted place.

In order to guarantee construction quality, all the members of the construction team were the elite of the Northern expedition group. After they went through the bloody slaughter on the Fertile Plains, the harsh weather didn't count as a very grim enemy. Moreover, they received a notice before they set off that this was the most serious top secret construction project from Neverwinter that involved the future of their homes and kingdom, adding on the huge compensation that the Administrative Office promised them. Every person was pumped with energy.

If it had been Graycastle in the past, no matter how much the nobilities forced them they would not be able to get their subordinates to establish a camp in this sort of place.

It took Roland and his companions almost two days to reach the test explosion site. After they entered the command post that was half-buried in the ground, the scenery in the room changed once more—a thick brick wall blocked out the wind and snow outside, the blazing fireplace crackled away, and the various project leaders held their oil lamps aloft, checking their tasks against the chart, appearing extremely busy.

Seeing his arrival, everybody stopped and saluted one after another, "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

"Continue on with your work." Roland waved and then looked towards Karl Van Bate. "How's the situation over here?"

"We haven't discovered any traces of demons in the past month," Karl replied. "They have probably abandoned this place completely. As for the demonic beasts, we see a couple dozen from time to time, but they don't pose any threat to the garrison troops. The test explosion platform and simulation equipment have all been finished, if you have no other instructions, they meet all the requirements of the plan."

"Where is the test explosion platform?"

"To the north, fifteen kilometers from here," Karl said while pointing to the map. "You can't see it from the command post. The snow has piled up too high here, even if it were three stories high, it would still be blocked by the snow."

"No matter, we'll naturally see it when it explodes." Roland smiled, turned towards Anna and said, "Then let us begin the first test explosion."

In order to verify that it could be used, the two had prepared at least three configurations for testing in the last six months. This one was the simplest one, the gun configuration.

…

Chapter 1321 - High-energy Experiment (Part 2)

Fifteen kilometres away.

The steel-framed tower stood tall in the middle of the white plain of snow. It looked as if it didn't belong to this time period; its organized and dense structure, the icicles that hung from the beams and cables, and the layers upon layers of barbed wire wrapped around it couldn't help but betray the beauty of the construction work.

Hundreds of people bustled around the tower, making the necessary preparations before the explosion.

Because the entire apparatus was almost ten tonnes and Hummingbird had gone to the front lines, they were unable to assemble the entire thing in Neverwinter; instead, the parts were transported to the test site separately and then assembled onsite.

Fortunately, it's structure was very simple. They had considered the need for transportation during the design process, so the requirements for workers were not high.

This was also where "Glory of the Sun" differed from the other weapons—even though they had already completed setting up the site and the equipment, they still needed to spend one or two days to complete the final preparations.

At this moment, Roland and Anna were standing at the top of the tower, giving out instructions for the assembly work.

"Next is the No. 3 core component, pay attention to the direction of the connector, be careful not to bump it!"

"Everybody follow my command! Three, two, one!"

Following the construction captain's call, a long, silver-white cylinder was slowly pushed into the apparatus.

Only after the completion of this step did Roland slowly heave a sigh of relief.

Inside the body of the round cylinder was the main energy source of the test explosion: two separate Uranium-235 cylinders, each weighing 20 kg. When the two were combined, they formed a total mass of 40 kg. The mass had to be below the limit of 53 kg, the critical mass. Theoretically, an extremely intense fission reaction would not occur but it would resemble something like he described previously. After all, the critical mass was not a set, unchanging number.

Conditions such as shape, temperature, and pressure could all affect this number. This was also why a nuclear weapon created from just purely piling the materials had basically no practical value in war. For example, a spherical 52kg Uranium-235 seemed pretty stable, but in reality it was like a volcano on the brink of eruption. Even a small bump or jolt would push it over the limit.

Similarly, although using several small pieces of Uranium was safe, it would multiply the difficulty in triggering the explosion. It would indeed exceed the critical mass in the instant all the pieces combine into one, but the high temperatures produced from the fission reaction would cause the pieces of Uranium to rapidly expand and the distortion would reduce its density. The intense explosion would push the original materials outwards, causing the reaction to stop in the middle.

In summary, a suitable configuration not only needed the Uranium to reach a supercritical mass, it had to be able to maintain this state for as long as possible, in order to release the full power of the fission reaction.

The gun configuration was called the 'gun' configuration because its principles were extremely similar to an old-fashioned cannon. Through the detonation of an explosive, a Uranium bullet would be violently smashed into another piece of Uranium. Under immense pressures, the density of the Uranium piece would rapidly increase. Even if the mass of the Uranium was a little lower, it would still be able to become supercritical.

When the outer shell of the apparatus was connected, Anna personally inserted a can with a radioactive warning label into the designated tail port.

That was the last essential component of this test explosion trial.

There was a moment when Roland almost felt like he got pricked by something in the face, he even stopped breathing for a half a beat.

"Polonium Beryllium neutron source".

Just like its name described, it provided the fission reaction with a large amount of free neutrons, which was the most direct way to lower the critical mass. Inside the metal canister that resembled a ring-pop can was a row of hollow spheres—every sphere was around the size of a table tennis ball and at their core was a polonium ball shaped like a marble wrapped firmly in gold foil surrounded by a ring of honeycombed beryllium sheets.

When the Uranium pieces collide, it would also smash the small can at the bottom of the barrel and all the hollow spheres would be compressed to be thinner than paper by the detonated explosive fuel gas. After the gold foil breaks, the beryllium sheets would stick closely to the polonium balls and accept the alpha particles from the latter, firing several times as many neutrons in turn.

These neutrons participated in the Uranium-235 fission reaction and, if lucky, the system would be able to use up more materials before the reaction stopped and dramatically increase the power output of the nuclear weapon.

Because the half-life of Polonium-210 was only 138 days, providing a replaceable port was an essential design. Moreover, leaving neutrons in the weapon for too long was extremely dangerous, as after all, Polonium released neutrons just from contact. As soon as there was a rupture in the gold foil, the consequences would be unthinkable.

After the Polonium Beryllium neutron source was loaded into the principle device, the apparatus would turn from a mild and harmless object to a monster that could engulf every single person present at any moment.

Even though Roland knew that what he felt was just his imagination—it was impossible for humans to sense the change in the number of neutrons in the environment—nevertheless, his breathing still relaxed subconsciously.

Only at this step had all the pre-detonation preparation been completed for the experimental device.

Anna held his hand tightly.

"You can pass the command now."

Under her calm and stable gaze, Roland gave a very slight nod of his head.

No matter what the result, at least the "Glory of the Sun" plan had come this far.

And after they took this step, humankind would advance to a whole new frontier.

He looked towards personal guard. "Pass my command: Notify the command post that we will begin the six-hour countdown until ignition!"

[6:00]

"Wu—wu—wu—wu—"

"Unit One has entered the firing stage, I repeat, Unit One has entered the firing stage. All staff in the site, please immediately pack your belongings and leave the site as practiced in the drill! Attention, this is not a drill, the test explosion site will close down in one hour. All personnel must evacuate to the safe region within an hour!"

Very quickly, evacuation announcements and sirens filled the entire site.

"Hurry, everybody gather in the open area in front of the tower, do not leave a single person behind!"

"Construction Team 2 reporting numbers, one, two, three..."

"Locking the main gate of the test explosion site!"

"All members of the God's Punishment Witches team are present, beginning group evacuation."

The silent snow plain was now rowdy as people shouted in the midst of the repeated warnings and sirens. It made the atmosphere turn tense and serious. Everybody knew that they were about to witness a never-seen-before experiment.

[3:00]

Inside the command post, Roland and Anna dug out two pairs of keys and opened the lid of the console together.

They pressed down all of the switches and the corresponding green lights on the console lit up.

"Sending power from the main cable!"

"Mystery Moon No.1 is working normally, the load is rising stably."

"Switch to Line One now."

"Understood, Line One is connected, current flow to the device is normal!"

The observers loudly reported the situation of the detonation system until the last green light lit up, which meant the current had already passed through several booster cycles to a platform fifteen kilometers away.

[1:00]

An alarm also sounded over the command post, which meant that there was only one hour left till detonation.

All the doors and windows of the bunker were closed and candle lights pinched one by one in order to avoid accidents due to the shaking from the explosion.

The higher-ups from Neverwinter entered their designated observatories. According to Roland's instructions, its exterior was made into a trapezoidal shape to better withstand shock waves, while the interior end was deepened to accommodate the massive body of the original carrier.

Pasha and the other Taquila witches had already waited for a long time.

[0:15]

The sky had gradually turned dim.

The last wave of urgent warning alerts finally arrived.

Whether it was the higher-ups, soldiers or construction workers, all followed their previous training and wore black sunglasses to block the bright light, despite many of them being puzzled over the reason why they needed to wear glasses that obstructed their vision in such a dark and snowy day.

Now they couldn't see a thing.

[0:05]

"Five-minute countdown!"

When the warning notice sounded once more, the surroundings had already become deadly silent.

All conversation and discussion stopped. Everybody stared at the murky blackness in front of them without averting their eyes and subconsciously held their breaths.

"Three-minute countdown!"

Roland felt sweat ooze out of his palms

Anna glanced at him with a smile and lightly held his hand.

"One-minute countdown!"

Another hand reached over from his other side and entangled its fingers with his.

"Ten-second countdown!"

"Nine!"

Although it was a pity that he couldn't press the detonation button himself, Roland knew that the long road of history was only just beginning.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Detonate!"

The snowy plain in the distance was quiet, as if nothing had happened—time seemed to freeze at that moment. It felt like a long time had passed, but at the same time it felt also like only a brief moment.

Afterwards a dazzling streak of blue light expanded from the horizon and in an instant, ripped apart the darkness before them!

Chapter 1322 - The Light That Breaks the Darkness

Pasha saw it clearer than the others.

Original carriers didn't rely on eyes. For her, Alethea and Celine, any one of their tentacles was enough to replace their eyes and they couldn't wear anything to block the light.

Even though Roland had warned them that it was best to avoid looking directly at the explosion five to ten seconds following detonation, she didn't avert her gaze until the very last second.

It was not only her, the other two did the same.

None of them wanted to miss this much-anticipated scene.

Can humans defeat demons?

Nobody dared to ask this question over the centuries while the Taquila survivors spent hiding underground. At the time, they gritted their teeth and persevered mostly out of a sense of responsibility, persevering on for their dear sisters who had been sacrificed. As for the final outcome, a sense of rejection would arise just from a mere thought regarding it. It was caused by a fear that if they thought too deeply it would destroy the tenacity and fighting will that had lasted them thus far. The pitch black roof of their underground burrow that they saw every time they raised their heads would remain forever etched in their memories.

And just then, the cage of blackness was broken apart by a streak of resplendent blue light.

It wasn't a pure blue color; it was different from the color of dye, paint, crystals and lake water, Pasha couldn't find the words to describe it—It was like the light had become so white that it was unable to become any whiter, causing an illusory blue hue.

Sticking close to the horizon, the light rapidly expanded and, in an instant, lit up the entire plain in front of them!

She couldn't help but stand agape.

Apart from the sun and the moon, this was her first time seeing something that could light up the entire landscape—it was definitely not her imagination, she clearly witnessed the dark, nighttime snowy plain return to the state as if it was morning; the trees cast long, black shadows onto the fallen snow and the closer the distance to center of the white light, the clearer the silhouette of the terrain.

Almost simultaneously, Pahsa felt an intense, piercing pain caused by something in front of her, as if her skin had been burned. It felt exactly like how one would feel under the bright, midday sun.

However, she didn't feel a single shred of fear; instead, she opened up all her tentacles and invited the darkness-breaking light.

If it could bring the humans brand new hope, what did this little pain matter?

It would only give her more pleasure!

The light lasted for not even a second. Afterwards, the blue turned into white and then into red. The ground began shaking violently as the rushing shockwave churned the snow and smashed into the outer wall of the bunker, producing cracking sounds. The ear splitting sound of the explosion came after everything else and dragged out for a long time, like the entire earth was roaring.

After the thunder of the explosion passed, the world regained its quietness.

A strange, fascinating cloud appeared over the distant horizon. It was large at the top and small at the bottom, like an upward blooming mushroom. Dark red flames could still be seen rolling and tumbling at the top of the mushroom.

Lighting up the skyline all by itself was certainly a feat that no other weapon could achieve!

If its power could be felt to such an extent fifteen kilometers away, then what would it be like if they were right next to it?

Pasha could already imagine the weapon detonating in the midst of a group of demons.

She had originally considered the onslaught of over a hundred cannons as the most shocking thing she had ever seen, but now that seemed insignificant compared to what she had just witnessed.

If the cannon exercise from two years ago transformed every single Taquila witch's world view, then the experiment this time once more reshaped their hard-won ideas of the world.

Whoosh—!

An explosion of cheers and applause spread throughout the command post and observatory.

The three high-level witches wrapped their main tentacles tightly with each other.

"Is this really something we created?" For the first time, Alethea didn't use the word 'mortals' or 'ordinary humans' to create a distinction between herself and them.

"Of course! I was responsible for processing a part of the outer shell." Celine's voice was full of excitement. "But truthfully I didn't think that this thing would actually be exactly like what His Majesty described—"

"Why?"

"Uh... because leaders like to glorify results in order to encourage everyone to work, didn't the Three Chiefs do that too before... Wait, I'm not saying it's wrong to do so, don't you guys tell His Majesty Roland!"

"Okay, okay," Pasha interrupted. "How do you think the Battle of Divine Will will end now?"

"We can win, we can definitely win!" Celine replied without even giving it thought.

"It might not even last until the next Bloody Moon," Alethea agreed.

One year ago, they would have considered themselves victorious if they managed to resist against the demons' attack, persist on until the Battle of Divine Will ended, develop for another four hundred years, and then look for another opportunity.

Unknowingly, their standard for 'victory' had risen substantially.

"As expected..." Pasha finally laughed. "We share the same opinion."

Humans can defeat demons.

And it might even happen faster than they thought.

Because the darkness is gone.

...

Among the crowd of ecstatic people, only Roland and Anna remained calm like usual.

"How was the result?" Anna took off her sunglasses and asked.

"We have at least made the first step." Roland answered with his hands spread out. A fission reaction was undeniably triggered in the experimental device—the blazing light was proof. It would have been otherwise impossible to create such a huge impact with only over a thousand kilograms of dynamite inside the apparatus. Observing the aftershock and smoke column, the result was evidently significantly different to what he had predicted—it was theoretically supposed to be more powerful. "As for the specific result, we can only make a judgement after the people in the command post have gathered all the field data."

Half an hour later, various small research teams brought back the 'detectors' that were placed around the site—floating paper. Because it was impossible for them to precisely measure the explosive yield with Neverwinter's current technological means, Roland thought up a method of 'using paper to measure power'.

When the air blowed at them, the paper would be lifted up due to the wind. When they were influenced by the blast of the explosion, the distance at which they landed would be farther. Through the difference in these distances, the approximate explosive yield was calculable. Roland didn't need to calculate it himself, he had already copied a complete parameter table from the Dream Word and all he had to do was compare the data.

Although this method left some room for error, it was enough to guide the experiments.

After comparing the data, the results were indeed much like what he expected.

The explosive power of this time's experimental bomb was equivalent to only around three thousand tonnes of TNT, yet the amount of Uranium-235 invested was forty kilograms. If only 6% of the original materials participated in the fission reaction in the first atomic bomb used in an actual war, "Little Boy," and its explosive yield was 13 kilotons of TNT, then the nuclear material utilization rate of this test was not even 2%. It could be classified as a 'dirty bomb.'

It wasn't that Roland was disappointed of course. After all, there had never been a strict definition for a dirty bomb in the history of weapons. Compared with the dozens of small nuclear weapons that have since been deployed, these veteran bombs that had been used in real wars could all be classified as dirty bombs. A 152mm grenade with just a few kilograms of charge could do substantial damage, let alone three kilotons of TNT.

In terms of the experiment, the No. 1 experimental bomb couldn't be described as terribly successful, but it was still a deadly weapon.

"It's going to be a long road ahead." Anna put down the form in her hands and exhaled deeply. Yet, there was not a shred of disheartenment in her eyes; instead, they were filled with fighting spirit.

"Indeed." Roland nodded.

He had never hoped to reach his goal in one go anyway. Next, what he had to do was find the cause for this and continuously modify and improve accordingly until it could truly compete with the sun for glory.

Chapter 1323 - Flaw

A week later, a strange-looking vehicle drove slowly into the test explosion site.

It was the first crawler tractor ever constructed by Neverwinter's Ministry of Industry according to the complete blueprints provided by the Design Bureau of Graycastle. However, the only thing that was the same was the base plate, its outer appearance did not resemble the prototype at all. The sides of the car were wrapped in thick armor plates, causing it to look somewhat like a moving box.

After it drove into the center of the test explosion site, it stopped before the melted metal tower for about half an hour, and then turned around and drove back south in the direction it came from.

After it covered around five kilometers of ground, a truck drew up close and picked up all the passengers on the tractor. The box-shaped tractor was directly abandoned in the snow.

The passengers were restless throughout the journey, returning to Neverwinter from the Great Snow Mountain the next day.

Upon receiving the news of their arrival, Roland immediately summoned them into the castle.

"How was it, you didn't run into any trouble right?"

"Rest easy Your Majesty, everything went well." Phyllis smiled and brought a sigil before him. "Summer found the scene of the explosion really quickly so we stayed there for a shorter time than we thought we would."

"I-It's because I was given a specific time so it wasn't very hard," Summer said shyly, "Compared to my other sisters, my control over my ability is pretty bad..."

"Enough, you don't need to be modest."

"I-It's true..."

His expression still solemn, Roland took the sigil and then turned and looked over to Momo who was beside him, "Sorry to trouble you."

"Not at all, you exaggerate, Your Majesty." Momo partially blocked her eyes with one hand in order to avoid looking at the king while she was using her ability. A while later she lowered her hand and gave Roland a bow. "Everybody's numbers and colors have not changed noticeably and are pretty much the same as when they set off."

It was only after hearing these words did Roland heave a sigh of relief. He smiled and said to everyone, "Thank you, you've worked hard."

"You too," the witches replied in unison.

"Why don't you go and fill up your stomachs first? Your meals are already ready in the parlor and you can have as much Chaos drink as you like." Seeing the faces in front of him light up, he shook his head with a smile. As for the Taquila witches who had also participated in the mission, there was no need to give them any other reward as they were frequent visitors of the Dream World anyway.

Using Summer's past event recreation ability to closely observe the changes that had occured in the instant of a weapon's activation had always been what the Ministry of Engineering relied on the most for making improvements to weapons. By adjusting the speed of the replay, they could clearly see the trends in the changes that occured every second, allowing most problems and mistakes to be spotted in an instant.

But as mentioned before, the Glory of the Sun was completely different to all the other weapons. Especially for dirty bombs that had not finished reacting completely yet, many substances that gave off fatal radiation would remain at the site. If someone were to rashly enter, they would inevitably suffer severe radiation injuries.

To tackle this, Roland didn't hesitate to sacrifice his first crawler tractor prototype and convert it into a radiation-blocking vehicle—he covered all of its sides including the bottom with several layers of lead plates with gold foil and beryllium sheets sandwiched between them. The thickness of the entire thing was ten centimeters, causing it to be a highly effective shield against photon, electron and neutron rays. The increased weight due to the protection required the Cube-powered steam engine to drive it, as only that was the only thing that could handle the weight.

The inside of the vehicle was provided with its own oxygen so it was basically completely separate from the outside of the vehicle, removing the risk of radioactive dust entering the vehicle through its ventilation channel. In order to observe the scene of the explosion, a large slate of lead-containing glass was attached to the front of the vehicle, and had a shocking thickness of thirty centimeters.

He had also considered that the tractor's tracks and armor plates might be contaminated when entering and leaving the test site, and especially ordered them to immediately change vehicles after the armored vehicle left the dangerous zone and abandon the armored vehicle in the snow.

It could be said that Roland took all the safety measures that he could think of. However, even so, he was still worried.

Thankfully, the final results showed that the observation mission had been a complete success.

After the data was in his hands, Roland, Anna, and Celine immediately started their experimental analysis.

...

They used the Sigil of Recording to repeatedly replay the recreated scene which had been made to play hundreds of times slower. Gradually, the flaws of the No.1 experimental configuration emerged.

"The performance of our explosives are too poor," Anna said in a low voice.

"I noticed too, the force from the explosion didn't seem to travel successfully to the barrel of the 'gun.'" Celine nodded her main tentacles. "Can we use batch detonation to solve this problem?"

"I'm afraid it's unlikely we can achieve that within a short amount of time." Roland rubbed his sore eyes. Watching the live explosion recording for two days straight had made him feel as if there were only two colors left in the world—white and blue.

Although the problems with the explosives had been anticipated, he didn't think that it would be so obvious.

Up until now, Neverwinter had been mass producing double-base smokeless powder. Although it wasn't as powerful and fast as high explosives such as RMX, it was sufficient for the purposes of the army. Even if the power was lacking, they could make up for it with numbers. However the fallbacks of it became evident when using it in the experimental configuration.

Over a thousand kilograms of explosives was most certainly not a part of the original blueprint. When they were piled up, they were as large as a safe. In order for the energy of the explosion to travel towards the piece of Uranium, Roland specially created a lens that looked like a funnel in an attempt to focus the energy of the blast to one point.

There was nothing wrong with this idea, but a problem occurred before the detonation reached this step. As the size of the cluster of explosives was too large and every point exploded simultaneously, the energy waves created by the bombs on the front and back cancelled each other out partially—this could be clearly seen in the slowed-down recreated scene. The colliding waves warped the entire steel lens and even the outer shell. This meant that a large amount of energy was used up outside of the 'gun barrel,' and naturally less was used to push the piece of Uranium.

Next was the chain reaction.

The pressure inside the barrel was not enough to quickly stop the fission reaction and most of the Uranium vaporized due to the high temperatures; this in turn weakened the effect of the neutron source.

"We can only search for other means," Roland said with his hands spread out. Without electronic explosive control technology, detonating all of the explosives within a millisecond in order to render the front and rear waves impossible to overlap, was unachievable. Even if they changed them into high explosives, it would only attenuate but not solve the problem

He could get the Ministry of Chemical Industry to try and develop low-speed explosives and position them in front of the lens in order to possibly decrease interactions between the explosives, but the process of creating it would involve a large number of experiments, and it might not even be successful. The most reliable method at the moment was obviously to make up for the lacking detonation technology with structural design.

"It looks like we'll have to work overtime tonight as well," he stretched and said weakly.

"I'll be here with you," Anna said with a smile, "How about I reward you with a Blackfire massage?"

"I suddenly feel full of energy." Roland jolted. "Is there any other reward?"

"For example?"

"Let me think... Oh yeah, how about the one you mentioned last time..."

Was this also knowledge that they learned from the Dream World...

Celine covered up her large, hot and flushed face with her main tentacles, and then quietly left the North Slope lab.

Chapter 1324 - New Dream

When Scroll climbed up the stairs to the third floor of the castle with a thick stack of paper in her arms, she met the yawning Nightingale, who was just preparing to leave, in front of the office.

"You haven't slept yet?" Nightingale stopped and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"It might be because I'm getting old, I've been finding it hard to sleep recently." Scroll smiled and shook her head. "Where's His Majesty? Has he already slept?"

"Yeah, he returned to his bedchamber half an hour earlier."

"Then why are you still staying in the office?" Scroll put her hand to her mouth. "You weren't secretly eating His Majesty's snacks, were you?"

"Eh... haha." Nightingale was stunned for a moment before coughing. "Yeah I was, I ate his spicy shredded beef and drank a bit of his Chaos Drink. Don't tell His Majesty, alright?"

Now it was Scroll's turn to be shocked.

What happened to her... why was she being so quick to admit? In the past, as long as she was not caught red handed, Nightingale would never have admitted to stealing food.

But thinking of how she and Wendy often stole Nightingale's drinks as well, Scroll was momentarily at a loss for a reply.

"Um, I'm going to sleep now..." Nightingale avoided her eyes and walked towards the second floor. "Don't stay up too late, I heard from Roland that the older you are ,the worse the side-effects are from lacking sleep." She looked up from the bottom of the stairs. "Goodnight."

"...Goodnight." Scroll replied, feeling a little confused. Then, she turned around and walked into the office.

Even though the flames in the fireplace had already been extinguished, its warmth still lingered. There seemed been in there for quite a while.

Without thinking any further, Scroll familiarly opened the book cabinet and placed the data that was in her hands into the categorized columns on the shelf before taking out the information that needed His Majesty's answers.

It held lines and lines of extremely lengthy equations; she could tell from the handwriting that some portions were written by Roland, and others were written by Anna and Celine. One of her daily jobs was to deliver information like this to the Arithmetic Academy and get that group of astrologers to calculate the answer. Then she would hand it over to the central carrier to compare the answers.

From the written descriptions within the information, the information was probably related to His Majesty's new experiment. But what she couldn't get her head around was how one could derive the dimensions of an apparatus that no one had ever seen before—or even imagined, just by doing calculations on a piece of paper. It was as if what was written on the paper were not numbers, but sketches of reality. This, in her eyes, was no different to predicting the future.

Scroll couldn't help but be amazed whenever she saw Anna's graceful handwriting. Anna was born in Border Town as a simple girl; yet, she had now reached a level that she and the others could no longer understand. Even when everyone sat in this office watching His Majesty do those interesting science experiments in the beginning, any one of them could make a meaningful comment or two. But now, the only person that could follow His Majesty closely at his side was Anna.

But she didn't feel sad at all; in fact, she felt full of pride.

—Because that was her sister.

Scroll sat in front of Roland's desk and opened the folder of data, planning to memorize everything like usual. This way, if there were omissions in calculations when she distributed them, she would be able to catch them in time.

However this time, she noticed something strange.

"Are... my eyes going bad?"

Scroll rubbed her eyes and spotted vague strings of characters floating below some of the equations, as if they were the corresponding answers.

It wouldn't have been odd if she had been reading test papers or permanent residency files. Ever since she discovered the way to do rapid search, she would usually be able to derive where the information came from and think up all content related to it just from looking at a file once.

The problem was that it was her first time seeing this folder of information.

Not only was she unable to understand the meanings of those calculations and equations, even the 'answers' floating below them baffled her.

Also, the strange symbols didn't follow every row of equations, most of the columns were still completely blank.

If she stared at the hazy, illusory symbols for too long she would even feel waves of dizziness.

It appeared as though Nightingale was right—sleep deprivation was indeed taking a toll on her. Scroll sighed softly. Alas, she hadn't been feeling sleepy at all recently; it was as if her brain was working at high speeds all the time.

Maybe I should just go to the hospital tomorrow and get some sleeping pills, she couldn't help but think. The side effects of those on witches weren't huge; using it one or two times wouldn't do her any harm.

After forcing herself to memorize all the information, an intense wave of dizziness suddenly overcame her and her mind went blank momentarily. He body uncontrollably tipped forwards and she accidentally knocked over the penholder on the desk.

But the dizzy spell disappeared as fast as it came and she became normal again in a short span of a few breaths. Not only did she no longer feel any discomfort at all, but her thoughts seemed to become much clearer than before.

Scroll blinked a few times. After confirming that her body was now fine, she smiled bitterly and bent over to pick up the penholder.

At this moment, she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.

Because the appearance of the floorboards had... changed.

She would never remember His Majesty's office incorrectly. The floorboards were made of pinewood from the Misty Forest with sheep wool carpet rolled over of it. Although it looked a bit outdated, His Majesty had never changed it. And now, although the carpet below her feet was still made of sheep wool, the floor in the distance had become another material.

It had turned from wood to stone.

How was that possible?

Scroll carefully raised her head and her heart sunk further.

It wasn't only the floor; the appearance of the entire office had transmogrified. The recliner that Nightingale often sat on had vanished without a trace. In its place was a row of old, iron filing cabinets. It looked much like the archives you would see in an executive office.

But just then, she was clearly inside Graycastle!

The window!

The floor-to-ceiling window was His Majesty's favorite feature and was the speciality of his office. If you looked out, you would be able to see the the city of Neverwinter at night, spotted with light—

Scroll jerked around and pulled open the velvet curtain behind her.

But what she saw was a gray, brick wall.

Undeniably, this place was no longer the King's office that she was familiar with.

She frantically stood up, leaped towards the window and banged on the wall twice. The wall didn't budge at all—from the deep and steady echo, it was clear that the wall wasn't an illusion but completely real.

Scroll felt a shred of hopelessness.

Anybody would feel a strong sense of helplessness and vulnerability if they suddenly got teleported into an alien, completely enclosed place.

No... She inhaled deeply and forced herself to calm down. It wasn't accurate to say that it was completely enclosed, in the corner between two rows of filing cabinets was an inconspicuous iron door. It was basically the same color as the cabinets, so it was easy to miss if one didn't look carefully.

It seemed to be the only exit out of the room.

Where would the iron door lead to?

Was whatever that was waiting for her outside a trap or another wall?

Scroll couldn't help but think of these questions as she slowly grabbed the door handle.

"Clack"

The iron door opened.

A golden ray of sunlight shone into the room and the silence was broken. Hundreds of noises surged inside along with a blast of icy cold air—there was the clamor of conversation, the tooting of whistles and the ceaseless pattering of footsteps. In front of her, an uncountable number of people were busily hurrying along with their heads lowered. Once in a while, some of them would glance at her and reveal expressions of amazement.

And behind the crowds of people, numerous, gigantic buildings towered like mountains, occupying Scroll's entire field of view.

Chapter 1325 - Territory

After Roland woke up, he lazed on bed for a while as usual, before dragging himself very unwillingly out from underneath the warm blankets.

Anna had clearly gotten up a while ago and was already immersed in work. There was a plate of breakfast beside her on the table which she had brought over. Roland sleepily put on his coat, planning to go to the water room outside to wash up first, and then come back to fill his stomach.

To his surprise, a crowd of witches were waiting outside when he opened the door.

"Your Majesty!"

Roland was startled, the scene before him seemed familiar—undeniably something huge must have happened in the Union for all these witches who had not participated in battle yet to gather here. But because he was still in the Dream World, everybody just waited outside the door for him. Remembering that it was currently winter during the Months of the Demons, and seeing the excited expressions on Nightingale and the others, he asked without thinking, "Did someone evolve on their day of entering adulthood?"

"It's Scroll! She has evolved into a Transcendent!" Nightingale cried.

…

When he followed the chattering witches into his office, Roland saw the 'Transcendent' that everybody spoke of. Phyllis and Anna were also there, standing around a stack of paper containing data, as if discussing something. Seeing Scroll's unperturbed expression, he almost thought that that the Transcendent was one of the ecstatic witches that crowded before him, rather than the Witch Union teacher that was as tranquil and stable as usual.

"So… what exactly happened?" he asked curiously. "Did Scroll really…"

The trio noticed his arrival and Phyllis was the first to speak, "Your Majesty, I've already confirmed it several times with a Stone of Measuring. Her Excellency Scroll could be the first non-battle type transcendent in history—all her magical characteristics have changed. Although everybody evolves differently and there are no specific examples that we can compare her too, according to The Union's customs, she is indeed qualified to be a Transcendent."

"There's no need for 'Her Excellency'…" Scroll chuckled and shook her head.

"That won't do," Phyllis said seriously. "Back in the days of The Union, you would be a possible candidate for one of the Three Chiefs, I'm already being very disrespectful…"

"You said it yourself, that was back in the days of The Union," Scroll interrupted, "In the Witch Union, we are all sisters. Besides, I prefer being called more casually."

"Okay okay, let's put these things aside for the moment," Anna interrupted. "Since Roland is here, let's talk about Scroll's ability."

"I thought you went to the North Slope lab ages ago." Roland flashed her a smile.

Anna blinked slyly. "That was what I originally planned, but Scroll's unique ability caused me to change my plans last minute."

"Unique?"

"Yes." Anna then emphasized every word as she spoke, "She saw the Dream World."

…

After hearing Scroll's recount of her experience, Roland gaped at her in shock.

"Then how did you come back in the end?"

"When I saw those magnificent city buildings, I suddenly thought of your descriptions of the Dream World and calmed down quite a bit," Scroll said slowly. "Then, I returned to the small room that I first appeared in and tried to focus my mind and imagine myself leaving the enclosed room. When I opened my eyes again, I found that I had indeed returned to your office in Graycastle."

"Ah… How envious!"

"Was it really the Dream World?"

"I want to see it too!"

The girls around them had given up on suppressing their excitement long ago, so they began jabbering again as soon as Scroll finished speaking.

"Hmm… I thought that I wouldn't be able to create such a grand world with my powers," Scroll said with a smile. "As for whether it is the same Dream World as yours, Your Majesty may be able find out the next time you sleep."

"No… I'm afraid that this might have nothing to do with power." Roland muttered.

"Nothing to do with power?" Phyllis asked, astonished. "But Her Excellency Scroll's magic had certainly become condensed…"

"Evolving is only a prerequisite." The Nightmare Lord Valkries' words sounded in his mind once more.

Once a person's knowledge of magic reaches a certain level, they will leave a mark behind in the Realm of Mind and may even carve out their own territory.

This also happened to be consistent with what Lan said. "Scroll, can you enter that sealed room again?"

"But you're not asleep…" Scroll started.

"It's okay, just do as I say." Roland thought for a moment. "If it works, try to open that iron door again, but no matter what you see, don't step out of the room, don't even reach your hand out and touch anything, understand?"

"… I understand." Scroll took a deep breath, sat behind the desk and closed her eyes.

"Could it be that you think that she is—" Phyllis seemed to have noticed what his aim was. She was also there when he met Valkries.

"It's very likely." Roland nodded.

About a quarter of an hour later, Scroll opened her eyes with a shocked expression. "Your Majesty, the place outside the door has changed into an empty red void!"

As he expected! He had now gained a basic understanding of the whole situation. "That is the Realm of the Mind, also the true appearance of the Origin of Magic. As for the first room that you saw, that is your personal, one of a kind territory in the Realm of the Mind."

"Huh?" Mystery Moon said confusedly, "But didn't you say that the Realm of Mind was the Bloody Moon in the sky?"

"They are just the same thing expressed in different ways. In reality, the Realm of Mind is in the Bottomless Land to the north of the continent." Roland briefly told them about how a grand demon lord broke into Dream World but then got trapped and discovered by him. He only omitted the news about Lan. "Scroll's territory doesn't need to rely on the Dream World in order to exist, it was just coincidentally inside the range of the light beam 'key' and so was connected with the Dream World."

"Wow…" A surprised exclamation rippled through the crowd.

"I want to carve out a territory too!" Mystery Moon exclaimed with clenched fists.

"You wish, didn't you hear His Majesty? Apart from your own knowledge, this also depends on your strength." Lily glanced at her from the side of her eyes. "In other words, even if you read all the books His Majesty wrote, the success still depends on your face. I think it will be… very difficult."

"Traitor!"

Roland looked at Scroll and urged her, "Even though you can interact with the Realm of Mind, in the future, try your best to open it within the range of the light beam key to bond your territory with the Dream World. That place… is filled with a myriad of dangers. If it's in the Dream World, at least the God's Punishment Witches and I can protect you."

Like the god that was full of hostility and the oracle who brought about erosion—even though Scroll had evolved into a Transcendent, she still had zero battle prowess. She would certainly be in grave danger if she encountered an enemy.

"Okay…" Scroll was momentarily confused, and then revealed a soft expression. She lowered her head and gave a bow. "I understand."

"Then now, we should give this unique new ability a good test," Roland said with a smile.

Chapter 1326 - Request

It didn't actually take too much time to test the changes in Scroll's ability after she upgraded.

In fact, she and Anna had already discussed almost everything before Roland arrived—the answers that appeared after the equations weren't her imagination; however, it also wasn't obtained via calculations, but through a search through her memories.

Because there were large amounts of repeated calculations in data that Scroll had once memorized, the answers emerged in Scroll's mind immediately when she coincidentally came across them once more. Especially for those complex functions, if every little small expression among them had been memorized, then the combined expression after shuffling combinations could also be quickly solved, even if she didn't actually understand the equations and their specific meanings.

Compared to searching test papers and archives, the work involved in doing this was much heavier. It wasn't that she couldn't to it in the past, it was just that now she could do it subconsciously. Undeniably her main ability had evolved substantially.

However, no answers would appear for the problems that she had not memorized or only partially memorized.

Thus, in order to calculate the reliability of newly designed prototypes they still needed to rely on the Design Institute and the central carrier.

Except now, after the information had all been read by Scroll, the workload would be decreased significantly.

The main focus of the testing would be on the "Archives" in the Realm of Mind—although it was currently only a simple small room.

The trading of objects between the two worlds was the first that had to be affirmed.

After all, as a Transcendent, the way that Scroll entered the Dream World was fundamentally different to the God's Punishment Witches and the Nightmare Lord. The God's Punishment Witches had to rely on the light beam to reach the Dream World and the Nightmare Lord trespassed by herself, causing even her body to change. Scroll's method, however, was more like a link, like driving a small car into a parking lot, both her body and mind maintained a high completeness.

If it was possible to take the goods inside the car park away with her, then it would have huge significance!

But reality proved that there was no free lunch in the world. Scroll could "bring in" portable things on her person into the domain, but was unable to bring the things in her domain and in the Dream World back to reality. Not even a single pebble.

Also, 'bringing in' wasn't a completely accurate way to phrase it. Because the objects tested didn't actually vanish and still remained gripped in her hand.

"I'm sorry… Your Majesty." After numerous tests, Scroll stared at her empty hands and said dispiritedly, "It seems like my abilities are still lacking."

"No, this is actually within my expectations, there's no need for you to be bothered." Roland exchanged glances with Anna, having already formed a conclusion in his heart. The Archives was most likely the same as the Dream World—they both had some amount of power to distort reality. As long as it was within Scroll's range of comprehension, a copy could be made out of the original and it would appear at first glance as if something from the outside had been brought into the Realm of the Mind. However, bringing something back was impossible.

This made Roland secretly relieved.

After all, Scroll was not the only person who could carve out a domain in the Realm of Mind. From the intel acquired from Valkries, the King of the demon clan not only had the 'Presiding Holy See', he also had a phenomenally powerful control of over domains. When he was in a domain, he was almost no different from god.

If goods could move between the two worlds at someone's convenience, then the Battle of Divine Will would become filled with more dangers and uncertainty.

Next, they tested the capacity of Scroll's domain.

Since he talked with Lan, he had guessed that the Dream World was one among the many domains in the Realm of Mind, it was just that it was abnormally huge. Although he wasn't able to be like the demon King and do as he wished in the Dream World, there was likely still some universal commonalities between the domains, like admitting other consciousnesses.

After upgrading, Scroll's light beam key grew to around one meter. Although it was still below the requirements for the Chosen One, as a witch, she was already ranked fourth in Neverwinter, behind Roland, Leaf and Evelyn.

The range of her light beam could hold four God's Punishment Witches standing shoulder to shoulder.

If these ancient witches could enter the Dream World because their light beams were just covered by the Dream World's light beam, could they enter the Archives through the same way?

The results of the test filled Roland with excitement.

Even while awake, Phyllis was able to once again regain her appearance from four centuries ago through Scroll's domain.

This undeniably proved his hypothesis.

The the vague outline of the Realm of Mind gradually came to focus in his mind.

The only thing was that the number of people who could enter didn't seem to be directly proportional to the range of the light beam. Even if the four God's Punishment Witches stuck close beside Scroll and fell asleep, only one could reach the Archives.

Of course, it was already enough that one person could enter.

The last important matter was locating the location of the Archives, in particularly it's orientation inside the Dream World—if the skyscrapers that Scroll saw was a scene inside the Dream World, then she would definitely be able to meet with Roland inside the Realm of Mind.

Just when they were about to initiate the test, Anna called for Scroll to halt.

"Your Highness?"

"Ever since I met Roland, I've never been jealous of anyone, because I thought that just that meeting was the best gift in my life," she said slowly. "Even when I knew the God's Punishment Witches could enter the Dream World—they had suffered so much hardships—so, to them the Dream world was more like a sort of compensation. But… right now I'm really kind of envious of you."

She didn't try to conceal her words from the other witches but declared gracefully in front of everyone, causing a small uproar in the group.

"Wow… why does my face feel a little hot?" Mystery Moon hastily covered her face with her hands, but intentionally left a gap between her fingers.

"Silence, don't interrupt!" Lily glared at her.

"Anna…" Roland couldn't help but begin.

Anna gave him a small smile and then looked at Scroll. "So I have a small request."

"Please say, Your Highness, as long as it is something I can do," Scroll said gently.

"In the past when he talked about the Dream World with me, there were only descriptions and no images. Can you be my eyes and take a picture of the apartment that he lives in, the places he often goes to and the scenery over there for me to see?" Anna said seriously. "If you can record the pictures in the Book of Magic, I'll probably be able to see it too right?"

"Of course you can, leave it to me."

"Wooow—" Mystery Moon immediately cried, "I want to see it too! It would be best if you take pictures of the entire city!"

"You shut up!"

But even before Lily could grab her, the other witches followed noisily, "Can you take a picture of the legendary plane that can carry over a hundred people?"

"I want to see what a plaza that can hold ten of thousands of people at a time is like!"

"And me, and me—"

Watching her sisters surrounding Scroll and Anna in a tight crowd, Lily stamped her foot and also rushed forward.

Inside the Mist, Nightingale sighed softly.

This was probably the reason why Anna was ahead of her, right?

She couldn't help but reveal a bitter smile.

Even though she had believed that her feelings were no less stronger than Anna's, only Anna could shamelessly say such words under the gazes of everyone.

Her courage was as dazzling as gemstone.

After memorizing everybody's requests one by one, Scroll could finally lie down in the couch in the office.

Roland leaned over the mahogany desk, planning to fall asleep like he did during his afternoon break.

Apart from the two, Phyllis, Ling and Faldi prepared themselves.

Roland swept his gaze over everyone and finally rested it on Anna. Anna softly nodded her head at him.

"Now, let's begin the tenth test!"

Chapter 1327 - Scroll's New Clothes

With everyone's gaze on her, Scroll took fifteen minutes longer than earlier to calm her mind and catch hold of that hazy fluctuation of magic in her mind.

When she opened her eyes once more, she was already inside the cramped Archives.

Then, Phyllis materialized by her side in the appearance of a young witch. Centuries of time had not left any mark on her body and even though Phyllis had lived far longer than Scroll, Scroll seemed to be Phyllis' elder instead at that moment.

"What should we do next?" Scroll asked.

"Leave it to me." Phyllis revealed a confident smile, opened the iron door and walked out of the room.

Scroll hastily hurried after her.

The raucous, bustling, and magnificent city once more appeared before her eyes.

Phyllis glanced around her and very quickly locked her eyes on a young man walking in their direction. She grabbed Scroll's hand, directly strode over, and blocked the young man's way.

"Hello."

Hearing her greeting, the man stopped, moved his gaze from a small box in his hand, and raised his head in confusion. When their gazes met, the man's expression turned into shock. "Er… Um, can I help you?"

"Sorry, I've lost my phone and can't contact my friend, can you—"

"I get it, is a hundred dollars enough?" The man quickly fished out his wallet from his coat's pocket and proffered a red bill before her. At the same time there was a hint of pity in his voice, "I don't mind being scammed, but looking at your outfit, whoever put you up to this made quite an effort."

Phyllis's smile froze. "No, I just want to borrow your phone to make a call."

The man stood there for a moment before he realized that he had committed a faux paus. Embarrassed, he handed over the small box in his hand whilst profusely apologizing to the duo.

Phyllis shrugged and dialed a number.

At this point Scroll didn't know what to say as she still had no idea what was happening. She could only pretend to be calm and stand in her spot despite panicking inside. This place was too different to the world that she was familiar with, the alienness of everything was like a suffocating wall pressing against her. Several people around them had already noticed them and unreservedly ogled them, some with malicious intent among them. It brought back memories of how her sisters had been exposed in public during the era of the Witch Cooperation Association.

"Don't worry, the only thing they can do is watch." Phyllis seemed to have noticed Scroll's uneasiness and turned her head to the side to reassure her. "All you have to do is glare at them back and they'll recoil faster than anyone else."

At this moment, the small box beeped.

"Hello, is this Phyllis?"

It was His Majesty Roland's voice.

Scroll relaxed instantly.

This place was the Dream World after all, and His Majesty wasn't far from them.

The sense of unfamiliarity was still there but it was no longer stifling. Even the obvious stares upon them no longer brought her any embarrassment or discomfort.

Scroll inhaled deeply and stared back at the onlookers. Just as Phyllis said, they all immediately avoided her gaze and furtively looked in other directions.

The flow of people on the streets seemed to begin to move again.

"Yes it's me, Miss Scroll is right by my side. The address is… Yes, that's what it says on the map. It's only two kilometers from your apartment's estate? That's great. Yes, I'll wait for you here, Your M—Brother." Phyllis ended the phone call and threw the small box back at the young man. "Thanks."

"No—No problem." He faltered for a long time and then hesitantly asked, "Um, can I add you as a friend?"

Phyllis casually responded with a string of numbers.

The man recorded it down as if he had been given a treasure. With his face shining with delight, he bade farewell to the two and left.

"The small box that you borrowed just then, could that be the wireless telephone that can communicate over thousands of kilometers that His Majesty often misses?" Scroll asked.

"Yes, the technology in this world is already at the stage where everybody has a wireless telephone. Not only can you talk to others on it, you can also know your location and search up information—it's almost impossible to do without it now," Phyllis explained. "It's also because of this that as long as you remember their phone number, you can contact another person at any time. If you encounter a person you don't want to talk to, just reject them directly or give them a random phone number."

"So that's how it is." Scroll said in revelation. It was no wonder His Majesty said that if they were both in the Dream world, they would be able to reunite very quickly.

"But you have adjusted a lot quicker than I thought, as expected of a Witch Union mentor," Phyllis said with a smile.

Scroll lightly shook her head but didn't reply.

She knew where her courage came from.

Even though he was already clearly a king, he had not improved at all—for a king to say that they would protect their subordinate, this was probably only something His Majesty Roland would do. Really, just how long will he take to become a proper king?

Seriously, what was she doing? Ever since the Witch Cooperation Association received protection, she should have been standing in front, guarding the King, but up until now, she was still accepting the King's protection, this was hardly a qualified performance of her.

But… if everyone was like this, it didn't seem too bad.

Since it's like this, then let's just maintain the status quo a little while longer.

"Hey hey, look at the two over there."

"That's a medieval robe, are they cosplaying?"

"Speaking of which, they're really quite pretty!"

"They're on the level of celebrities…"

Now and then whispers would come from around them, but Scroll no longer felt any uneasiness.

About ten minutes later, a smooth, round vehicle stopped in front of them.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting." His Majesty poked his head out from the window of the driver's seat.

"Get on." Phyllis opened the car door and pulled Scroll into the car with her.

Afterwards they drove off under the disbelieving gazes of onlookers and disappeared into the traffic on the main road.

"Our luck is really pretty good." Ling, who was sitting in the passenger's seat turned her head around. "If Your Excellency's territory's link with the Dream World is only two blocks away from the apartment, then Faldi's flying insects will be able to subject that region under 24 hour surveillance."

Faldi nodded. "That place had already been cleaned out once, there are currently no new traces of Fallen Evil activity, safety can probably be assured."

"That's good then." Roland laughed. "Then as the first witch to enter the Dream World with her own power, Scroll, how do you feel?"

"So this is what a car is like in the Dream World?" Scroll felt the seat behind her and knocked the car window a few times. "The seat is softer than a couch. It's so fast and drives so silently, this is hundreds of times better than steam-powered trucks… if only we could create such advanced transportation tools."

For some reason, she suddenly felt that Roland's smile had frozen a little and the other three God's Punishment Witches had pursed their lips together, as if suppressing something.

"Um… did I say something wrong?"

"No, ahem… that day will surely come," Roland said, clearing his throat.

"Oh yeah, Your Majesty, where are we going now?" Scroll said, observing the changing scenery outside, "Weren't we going to perform a test on the Realm of Mind?"

"We can talk about that later. Haven't you noticed? The clothes you two are wearing are attracting too much attention," Roland said without turning his head. "Phyllis's clothes are in the car and she can change later, but we currently don't have any clothes that suit you. So the most important job right now is definitely to get you a new set of clothes!"

Chapter 1328 - The Human Legacy

"Your Excellency Scroll, have you finished changing?" Ling asked outside the changing room. "Don't hesitate to ask if you need help."

"No, no need, I'm... almost done." The slightly panicked voice of Scroll came from behind the curtain.

Roland raised his eyebrows involuntarily—this was his first time seeing Scroll nervous. Usually she was extraordinarily calm and imperturbable and no matter what happened she always maintained a cool head. In fact, this trait of hers added to Roland's anticipation at seeing Scroll's appearance after she changed into her new outfit.

Whoosh—

The curtain pulled open and Scroll cautiously stepped out of the changing room.

"Is this... okay?"

Roland's eyes lit up.

Scroll was dressed in a tight-fitted royal blue high neck sweater, beautifully emphasizing the figure of her upper body. Draped over it was a red and black long coat, the flaps of the coat began from underneath her shoulders and reached her calves, giving off a formal evening gown vibe. The coat parted at her chest and ended as an inverted V at her waist, teasing the lines of her full bosom and flat abdomen. It created an indescribable sense of beauty.

Overall, deep and dark tones encompassed the theme of her clothes, and did not give off any sense of frivolity at all; instead, it seemed regal and solemn. Adding on Scroll's black-framed glasses and the black plaits that reached her waist, her mature and intellectual beauty was even further accentuated.

"So beautiful," Phyllis exclaimed. "You're stunning even among the witches."

"I told you I made the right choice!" Ling's declared smugly.

"But... isn't it too revealing?"

Scroll subconsciously covered her chest with her hands.

"Not at all, aren't you wrapped up pretty tightly?" Faldi laughed. "You were fine with the dress during the evening party; this modified winter outfit is nothing compared to that."

"Also everybody wears clothes like this in the Dream World, right Your Majesty?" Ling added.

Roland smiled and shook his head. Even though she had undergarments and the sweater, it was understandable that she would be quite unused to a coat that was split at both the top and bottom in comparison to the long robe she usually wore. "What's important isn't what other people wear, but what Scroll thinks of it." He paused and looked at Scroll. "Do you think you like this outfit?"

Scroll looked at herself in the mirror—it was a get-up that she had never seen before, however even though there were huge distinctions between the two worlds, beauty was something that traversed boundaries and resounded with everyone. She couldn't help but concede that she liked her current outfit.

"Yes... Your Majesty," she replied softly.

"Then that should do." Roland called for the salesperson, "I want this entire set."

"You have excellent taste sir. This is the newest style this winter, and it looks absolutely perfect on this lady over here!" The salesperson took out a calculator and pressed a few buttons. "That's twenty-four thousand yuan, please make payment over here!"

"Eh—" Roland stopped breathing for a moment. That was almost a third of a price of a minivan! But his grand promise had already been made so it was too late to go back on his word. He looked to his side at Ling. "How on earth did you choose those clothes?"

"I selected the ones with the biggest numbers on the tags!" Ling stuck out her tongue. "My classmates at school said that price never lies."

Roland couldn't help but place his hand to his forehead.

"Your Majesty, are these clothes... really expensive?" Scroll went closer to him and murmured in a low voice, "Let's just forget it then..."

"I'm the creator of this Dream World; how could money be a problem to me? Piece of cake." He pretended like it didn't bother him at all and bought the clothes. "Next, we'll have dinner on the second floor of the shopping mall!"

"As you command!"

The three witches cried cheerfully in unison.

"Your Majesty... what about the test?"

"Relax." Roland waved his hand, "Time flows faster here, so not much time will be delayed in reality. Moreover it's your first time in the Dream World, you should enjoy it to your fullest before you do anything else, tell me whatever you want to eat!"

He had already pulled out the big guns with the clothes, so no matter how much they ate, their expenditure couldn't get much worse. He thought he might as well make everyone happy.

Scroll looked at the four thrilled people, feeling both resigned and amused. She shook her head. "I understand."

...

Everybody's stomachs were bulging when they walked out of the bustling shopping mall.

Under Roland's lead, the line of people had basically swept through every single restaurant and food stall in the mall, ordering anything that looked good: from piping hot crab roe buns to ice cream mixed with nuts. To Scroll, everything they ate was mouth-watering and delectable. Although some of them could be found in Neverwinter as well, compared to here, the gap was as wide as His Majesty's car and the steam-powered truck.

No matter how much she tried to restrain herself, the only thing she could maintain was a graceful appearance while she ate.

"A world like this is... so wonderful..." While leisurely strolling across the wide streets, Scroll sighed while gazing out at the deep night sky. Although the stars were obscured, the city lights were nevertheless ablaze with all their glory. Rows of street lights illuminated the path and snowflakes danced in midst of the gentle light, like pixies embellishing the curtain of the night. "It's like a dream... The city is dazzling and gorgeous, the faces of all the passers-by are glowing with happiness... Will we be able to make reality like this one day?"

"Of course, as long as we gain enough knowledge," Roland said with his hands clasped behind his back as he walked. "This is the biggest difference between the two worlds. Through knowledge, Border Town was able to become Neverwinter. One day, Neverwinter can also become the Dream World. And the key to beginning this journey is right before you now."

"Right... before me?" Scroll was stunned.

"Yes." Roland raised the corner of his mouth. Shopping was not the only reason he had brought Scroll here. After they crossed the road, they stood in front of a beautiful building. Before the huge entrance hung a golden plaque with the large words, "City Library" on it.

Upon entering the library, Scroll couldn't help but gasp.

The vast hall was just as large as the central square in Neverwinter. The roof above them was over ten meters high and looked like a transparent patio. Around them, automatic escalators carried people up and down, and five stories of corridors spiraled up the hall in layers upon layers. Innumerable book shelves were lined up in rows and every shelf was filled with books.

All the books in Graycastle... no, even all the books in the Four Kingdoms added together would not compare to the number of books here.

Scroll subconsciously put her hand to her chest, clearly realizing why His Majesty had brought her here.

"This is the place that you will come often in the future." Roland smiled. "Bring the key to our world for me."

She inhaled deeply, bowed her head at Roland and solemnly promised, "Your Majesty, I will definitely not let you down."

This was destined to be a time-consuming job, and it would be difficult to see any immediate effects in a short amount of time.

But all changes came from small steps like this.

Knowledge was like fertilizer.

As long as it was scattered, it could propel humans to grow.

In the past Roland had always been pushing this project forward. Sending Ling and the others to school was also for this goal, and Scroll's upgrade would unquestionably dramatically accelerate this progress.

There's a saying that goes: "It takes ten years to grow a tree and a hundred years to bring up a generation of good men".

Roland was certain that one hundred years later, the real world would experience tremendous changes.

It didn't matter if it was people without magic power or witches with magic power.

At that time, they would all use their own two hands to craft a brand new 'Dream World'.

Chapter 1329 - The Grand War Begins

Late at night, Roland drove everybody back to Six Li Pavilion, the estate where Scroll first arrived in the Dream World.

Like the estate of apartments, Six Li Pavilion was an old street that had gone through the ages. However, compared to the former, the Six Li Pavilion was more commercially-inclined. There were several convenience stores, bars for barflies, mass retail KTV and internet cafes; all of them were small stores and the majority of their customers were nearby office workers and students.

Although the environment seemed a little dirty and messy, it was perfect for Scroll to mask her identity.

The passageway of the link was on the sidewalk. From the outside, it looked no different from an ordinary iron door. As for whether that door had originally been there or appeared after Scroll entered the Dream World, Roland was still unsure. But the location was clearly of utmost importance; he was already wondering if he ought to take advantage of the Association's relationship with the Clover Group and buy both of the neighboring stores.

After all, Scroll could only bring one God's Punishment Witch with her into her domain; if they were marked by multiple Fallen Evils they would be in a certain amount of danger. As she was an important person responsible for the passing down of knowledge, they couldn't afford to take any risks. If he could station ten plus God's Punishment Witches in the area around the link, it would increase her safety substantially.

While there were fewer people than usual around, Roland performed the final test, which tested the interactions between the two Realm of Mind domains.

When the Dream World stopped operating, Scroll would be ejected out of the Dream World and returned back to her tiny Archives no matter where Scroll was.

This was also the biggest difference between her and the God's Punishment Witches.

Although the God's Punishment Witches' consciousness returned to their bodies, their location in the Dream World would be the same as they were when they left. This was also the reason why Roland told them to mainly enter and leave in the Rose Café or the warehouse as much as possible—otherwise when one of them experienced a change, it could result in scenes of a person vanishing into thin air.

Scroll's situation was clearly more serious.

At least in emergency situations, God's Punishment Witches could maintain a 'seamless link' by entering and leaving at the same time as Roland. Scroll, on the other hand, was unable to do so. This meant that every time she entered the Dream World, she had to start in the Archives, and when she left, she would also end at the Archives.

But this wasn't something that would be too difficult to solve, considering that all he had to was teach Scroll how to use a phone to ascertain that both of them were in the correct location before waking up. They also had the twenty-four hour surveillance by Faldi's magical flying insects of Scroll's district.

It worked the other way round too.

If Scroll left her territory in the Realm of Mind, the God's Punishment Witches and Roland, who were inside her realm, would also be automatically ejected. Scroll would return to her body in reality and Roland and the God's Punishment Witches would appear outside the iron door. The experience was very uncomfortable, akin to that of having ridden a roller coaster.

The final thing he discovered was completely outside of Roland's expectations.

After Scroll left the Realm of Mind, the iron door was still there, but behind the door was not a wall or the narrow gray room, but a red void.

That was a sign of erosion.

According to Garcia, erosion fissures were not something one would normally see anywhere. The locations where they existed were usually guarded closely by professional members of the Association. In other words, this eroded part must have come from the Archives.

As expected, the way the two territories interacted with each other in the Realm of Mind was not simply that one included the other, they were all a part of the Realm of Mind, and used energy from the Origin of Magic; this was probably the most appropriate interpretation. This also fell in line with what Lan said—As long as he got the Dream World to swallow more cores, he would have a higher chance of invading god's territory.

Following this, another question emerged.

If he let the territories of other high-ranking demons enter the range of his key's light beam, then what changes would the Dream World experience?

Would they be able to appear in this city like Scroll?

...

The next day, Roland received the most recent news from the front line.

There were two letters inside the envelope. One was from Wendy, it gave a simple description of the recent situation of the witches in the first part of the letter and then made an important mention of Nana Pine in the latter part.

The little girl who had followed the Witch Union until now had finally reached her Day of Adulthood.

Like Lucia, Mystery Moon and the others, her magic also condensed on her Day of Adulthood. According to the categorization of the Union, she was a true high-level witch.

There wasn't any explanation on the specific ability in the letter. Perhaps it was because they were all too busy, or Nana's ability was so precious that that they couldn't allow it to be wasted in testing... But Roland didn't mind not knowing for a while; to him, the most important thing was that Nana could overcome this hurdle safely.

The second letter was much thicker.

Among them there was a report from the First Army, and a plan that the General Staff advisers handed in—this was also a huge disadvantage in their current messaging system. In order to save transportation resources, the front line would usually wait until the things they needed to report accumulated to a certain amount, and then sent to Neverwinter. As a result, even though it was the same letter, some content would differ in time for several days or even half a month.

When he flipped to the last page, Roland's brow suddenly furrowed.

"Did something happen?" Nightingale who was guarding at his side asked.

"The demons launched a full-scale attack on the First Army—" he said gravely, "it happened last week!"

...

Gust Castle, Kingdom of Wolfheart.

The shrill emergency siren rang once more over the city's sky.

This was already the third time since dawn broke today.

"The damned monsters, don't they ever get tired?" Jodel viciously spat on the ground and dug out a paper bag from the fold of his clothes near his chest. After shaking it for ages, nothing fell out.

"Here." A hand suddenly reached out from beside him. "You're looking for this, right?"

Jodel turned to the side and saw that the speaker was Farry. In her hand was a white, round medicinal pill.

"You... don't need this?" He hesitantly picked up the pill.

"I'm not as weak as you. It's just not having sleep for a day or two," Farry replied expressionlessly. "Also I hate these things, who knows what they're made of! I urge you to try to eat less of it."

"You might be right." Jodel gave a long sigh and threw the pill into his mouth. "But at least, it can keep me alive temporarily."

As the drug melted above his tongue, an incredibly bitter taste very quickly impregnated his oral cavity. At the same time, the piercing cold of the air and the dizzying exhaustion seemed to vanish, even his stiff fingers and limbs became flexible and agile again. He felt himself turn back into the former sharp hunter he once was, and not an exhausted prey waiting to be slaughtered.

This is the feeling—

Jodel raised his long-barreled gun and mounted it firmly on the firing point.

Half a month ago, these pills were delivered into every soldiers hands as basic goods, its official name was 'Delaying Agent' but everybody liked to call it the Unfallable Pill. Swallowing one could block out all the pain in one's body, only after numerous hours would the pain rear its head again.

Although at the start, there were some people from the Sand Nation that were extremely against these drugs, and even connected them to the fabled Pills of Madness. But protests like this very quickly disappeared from the scene. The reason was that the First Army didn't force them to use these Delaying Agents and actually made warning labels on the packaging cautioning users of the side-effects, saying that it was not to be used repetitively—such ways were polar opposite to the rumors that Jodel heard about the third princess.

Also, apart from the Sand Nation people, the northerners had also received the Delaying Agent, and even the military officers were no exception. This averted the majority of people's suspicions. There were even some people who said that the drug could have been made sweet and tasty, but in order to prevent people to eat it like a snack, they added the astringent bitterness.

And after the demons launched their relentless attack, this white pill instantly won the trust of all the soldiers—against the attacks of the enemy that lasted all day, Jodel could not imagine how he could hold up for tens of hours in this high-intensity battle with virtually no rest without the pills.

As a veteran hunter, he naturally understood how large the difference was between throwing himself into battle in excellent condition and carrying exhaustion into battles that came one after the other.

As long as he didn't die as soon as he swallowed the drug, he could accept any side effect no matter how serious they were.

Chapter 1330 - Battle of Wills

People like Farry who spurned the Unfallable Pill were a rarity.

But seeing that he looked decently spirited, Jodel didn't think any deeper into it—fretting about his own survival was hard enough on this battlefield, let alone others.

Eight days had passed since the trumpets of war began.

Eight days ago, their line of defense had still been outside of Gust Castle. The combination of machine gun and cannon fire made it difficult for the demons to progress any further. However, with the passing of time, traces of the enemy began appearing all over their formation. Giant Skeletons started breaking in between Gust Castle and Metalstone Ridge, turning the weakly defended region into a Red Mist region. Although the Aerial Knights attempted to stop them, it was to little effect.

When the demons relied on these 'Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts' and launched a pincer attack from the two flanks, the fire of the cannons was scattered. In order for the troops to avoid being surrounded, they retreated backwards to their subsequent formation while returning fire.

These events repeated once more.

The incessant attacks by the enemy caused everybody to feel an enormous pressure, their break times shrank from normal rotations to four or five hours, although the rear received a few reinforcements, the difference in numbers was so large that it was plain to the eye. There were at most two thousand soldiers fighting at the front line, while the assaults that the demons launched on them basically all consisted of over twenty thousand. What's more, the Devilbeasts could go around the defense line and directly charge in the direction of Cage Mountain. Although it was impossible to understand the situation back there, clearly they were not in a good position.

Three days ago, the front line troops received a command for the entire army to retreat into the city.

At the same time, the demon's attack from the west side suddenly became a lot stronger, this was undeniably a signal: suggesting that it was likely that Metalstone Ridge, which was on the west side of the First Army, had already fallen, and they were next.

The next day, the enemy broke past their line of artillery for the first time, and engaged in close range battle with the soldiers.

At this point, this war had become entirely a battle of wills.

Jodel looked at the dilapidated short wall hundred of meters in the distance. The ravaged outer city wall of Gust Castle was now filled with holes, and its surface was filled with hanging demon corpses. The blood that poured out of the corpses dyed the wall in a layer of eerie and ghostly blue.

The strip from the defense line to the short wall was more like a purgatory. The corpses of soldiers and Mad Demons were splayed all over the place and mixed together, with half of them buried underneath the snow and the other frozen in the icy wind, like naturally formed ice sculptures. As the enemy's attack was unrelenting, they didn't even have enough time to take back bodies of the ones fallen in battle.

The two sides of the long street were filled with bone spears and stone needles stuck to the ground like barbs grown from the earth—because not everyone could hide within the sturdy fortifications, it would be like a lottery for the soldiers hiding in civilian houses and trenches every time the stone needles rained from the sky. One of them had penetrated the wall of the house and fallen less than one meter away from him. If it had been slightly closer, he would have already began serving the Three Gods.

"Pui!" Jodel shook his head, and flung those inauspicious thoughts out from his mind. When his clan was in danger, no matter how much he prayed to the Three Gods, he never got any response. It was natural that he was not protected by the Three Gods this time.

Even though he might ultimately die in this city far from home, he definitely wanted to make his enemies pay a hefty price before then.

The chief had sworn that he would definitely not maltreat any clan who fought for the fate of humankind.

That was the reason why he came here!

"They're here!" Farry warned.

No sounds of cannon fire... Yesterday night, the artillery had become completely silent. Some say that they had suffered a sneak attack by Devilbeasts, there were also some who claimed that the artillery soldiers had been transferred somewhere else. No matter what it was, right now they could only rely on themselves to hold off the enemy.

Finally, the figures of the demons appeared above the wall!

The machine gun squad was still the first to begin fire—Apart from the Longsong Cannon, the loud and continuous noise of machine guns had become the most wonderful and moving sounds in the soldiers' hearts. The flying bullets caused the snow around the wall to spray in all directions, and the first demon to leap over the wall was instantly hit and fallen. The demons that followed closely from behind also had their skulls flung back by the rain of bullets.

Gun fire also sounded from the east and west sides of the city. This was clearly another intense siege. Jodel didn't concern himself with the demons who charged towards the line of artillery head-on but focused his attention on the alley a hundred meters away. After three days of battling to defend the city, he realized something: The most dangerous area was usually not where all their artillery was focused at, but the streets and alleys that seemed quiet.

At this moment the First Army had already long lost their line of defense. The troops had been organized into small units and were scattered disorderly around the blockhouses.

Their most important job was to stop the demons from sneaking near their permanent fortifications, as for the enemies hundreds of meters away, it would be difficult to aim fatal shots even if he wanted to kill them.

Suddenly, six Mad Demons appeared above the roof of a two-story mud building. They seemed to plan on using the building to circle around the areas where the gun fire was most concentrated, and this action made them completely exposed before Jodel's gunpoint.

He held his breath, aimed at the demon moving at the end, and squeezed the trigger.

The target fell on the sound of fire.

Farry and his two other companions joined in the firing. The weak wooden roof was unable to withstand the drastic movements of the Mad Demons and their slow climbing caused them to become the most eye-catching target-boards.

"Four o' clock, there's a large number of demons at four o' clock!" Before they could finish off what was left of the remnant demons, Sand National from behind them hollered, "They're coming in this direction!"

"Leave this place to me!" Farry yelled, "You guys go and deal with the ones on the other side!"

Jodel immediately turned his gunpoint and ran to the front of another window—If the team were to single out whose aim was the best among his team mates, it would be unquestionably Farry. If he said he could finish off the remaining demons, then it would definitely not be a problem.

But when he saw a swarm of over a hundred demons charge toward his hiding spot, Jodel's heart sunk.

"Damn, were those bastards from before scouting?" someone gasped in realization.

"I'm afraid so." He immediately came to a conclusion. "Everybody, don't save up your ammunition anymore, after we take out this wave of demons move towards six o' clock!"

Concentrated sounds of gunfire erupted from the window, among them were the newly issued automatic weapons—compared to the roar of Mark I, the new weapon which was called the general-purpose machine gun sounded more crisp, but was not below the monstrous weapon in terms of firing speed. Its only shortcoming was that its magazine only contained thirty rounds of ammunition causing it to be inferior to the Mark I in terms of suppressive ability.

But clearly the enemy had not expected such powerful firepower would come from the top of the roof of a tiny belfry. Under the heavy, head-on assault of the general-purpose machine guns and rocket projectiles, the hundred or so demons instantly halved in number, the remaining enemies all raised their bone spears.

"Be careful, they're throwing spears!" Jodel hollered as he pushed his body to the floor.

Dozens of bone spears shot like arrows to the top of the belfry.

"Dong—!"

The bell hummed intermittently as it was stricken by the spears.

If they were on the ground, ti would have been difficult to escape this attack, but the difference in the height of their positions formed a natural cover, even if the bone spears that were thrown from a low to high ground filled the windows, it would be difficult for them to fatally shoot down a soldier. The sounds of gunfire paused for a moment and then began again. The remaining Mad Demons were pushed into a predicament where they could neither progress or retreat.

It was almost certain that they would be able to finish off this enemy squad.

Jodel involuntarily released a sigh. He was felt a hint of pity, he had heard the costs of producing general-purpose machine guns were not cheap, and were first given to the Aerial Knights to use. If everyone in the front line arm had hold of one, the demons would be no match for them even if they didn't rely on the bunkers.

At this moment, Farry suddenly screamed, "Crap, get out of here!"

He froze and subconsciously twisted his head around to look.

In the distance, a hole appeared in the city wall. An enormous Spider Demon passed through the body of the wall, crouched down, and opened the thick shell on its back where a pitch black stone pillar seemed to emit light.

Wait, could it be aiming at them?

Jodel raised his head, the bronze bell that hung from the beam of the roof was still vibrating.

Hell, it was the bell hums from before!

He raised his gun and ran towards the stairs.

At the same time a soft sound came from the distance.

"Boom—"

Before he even ran down one flight of stairs, a black stone pillar that was thicker than a person flew in a high parabolic trajectory and then directly struck the midsection of the belfry.

Following a thunderous roar, the entire belfry collapsed!

Chapter 1331 - The One That Vanished

"Cough... Cough... Cough..." In the midst of the tumbling smoke, Jodel slowly picked himself up. Chippings were still falling from above him. Only less than half remained of the once tall and erect building. Fortunately, the collapsed beam formed a narrow shelter with the wall structure and he luckily survived.

"Is anyone alive?" he shouted with difficulty, but the surging dust very quickly filled his mouth.

The likelihood that his team mates had heard him was slim.

Jodel could only squeeze himself through the crack between the beam and stones and clamber upwards, heading to where there was light.

Under the dim light, he saw that there were several broken wooden chips lodged in his arms and thighs. The blood that seeped out dyed his army uniform crimson. The Delaying Agent had done its job once again; if it had not blocked out the pain, he didn't know how long he would have taken to recover from his fall.

After arduously crawling out of the ruins, Jodel suddenly discovered several demons less than ten meters away from him. They were clearly the squad that had charged directly for the belfry earlier. If the Spider Demon had attacked slightly later, he and his companions would have annihilated that squad sooner or later. Now, the tables had been turned.

It was obvious why the demons were surrounding the tower, they wanted to destroy any escaping survivors.

Jodel didn't hesitate too much.

He knew that the chance of escaping alive was one in a million. A bolt rifle could only shoot one round of bullets at one go and with the Mad Demons' abilities, they could rip him apart in the time he took to reload.

Even so, he resolutely raised his flintlock.

To Sand Nationals, death was not scary, what was frightening was not being able to see hope.

If his death could exchange for the continuation of his clan and allow his wife and children to eat their fill, then it was enough.

In the instant he fired, Jodel couldn't help but recall the moment when he, shouldering the heavy pressure of the clans of the Iron Sand City, determinedly swore his loyalty to the chief—that night, he had also charged against the Wildwave and Cut Bone clans believing that he would definitely die in the process.

With the roar of gunfire, one Mad Demon fell and the other three swiftly lunged for him.

At this distance, a sharp claw was more effective than a spear.

In a flash, a large outstretched claw reached towards him. If it had actually taken hold of him, half of his face would have been crushed!

But at this moment, Jodel suddenly felt as if his body was no longer within his control.

His body fell backwards and he dodged the fatal attack with his back bent at an unbelievable angle. Next he used the gun handle as support and propelled himself backwards, his body that was still in a backward-leaning position lifted in the air and he completed an excellent backward somersault.

And when he landed, the second round of ammunition had already been pushed into the gun barrel!

What was happening?

Jodel was utterly stunned.

Could this be a side effect of the Delaying Agent? Not only wasn't he feeling amplified pain, but his movements had also become more agile, although none of it was of his own accord.

Even though he mind was still dazed, his body did not seem to have any intention of stopping.

With a roar, the demon charged towards him. The Sand National held the gun in both hands and raised it steadily, when he squeezed the trigger the gunpoint was basically already pressed against the demon's forehead!

"Bang!"

The enemy's head exploded.

The second Mad Demon had already tore in front of him but as if it had learned a lesson from its fallen brethren. It didn't leap at Jodel instantly but pulled out his bone spear and swung horizontally at him. The only thing that Jodel could block with was his flintlock and that was what his body did. The enormous difference in strength between the two caused the gun to be sent flying from his hands and land in the ruins of the belfry with a clatter.

Just when Jodel thought that everything was over, his body once more made an unexpected movement. He moved forward straight-backed and crashed directly into the body of the Mad Demon. His right hand pulled out the bayonet from his waist.

From below, the dagger arced upwards and stabbed through the demon's helmet at the chin.

Instantly, Red Mist spurted outwards.

When the demon was about to wrap its arms around him and drag him into an internecine death, Jodel had already slipped out of the demon's grapple like a mud fish.

The Mad Demon wobbled a few steps forward and then limply knelt onto the floor.

Winning against a demon who was far superior to a human in terms of physical power in close-range battle was something that never even crossed Jodel's mind, but now, not only had he accomplished it, he finished off two in one go?

The last remaining Mad Demon finally raised its bone spear.

But the target he aimed at was not Jodel, but a broken wall in the ruins of the belfry!

Like lightning, the spear shot through the wooden window on the broken wall. A short silhouette gave a cry and leaped upright from behind the broken wall.

It was Farry!

The Mad Demon didn't care about his withered arm at all and bounded towards Farry in huge strides. Jodel involuntarily twisted around and dashed straight at the demon. Both of them arrived before Farry at basically the same time. At the moment the Mad Demon raised its arm, Jodel's bayonet had already pierced through its throat from behind.

Red Mist sprayed outwards from the injury and splattered onto Farry's raised arm.

His companion let out a shrill scream. Jodel realized in shock that he had regained control of his body.

"Don't tell me you're—"

Looking at Farry's rapidly rotting arm, realization dawned on him instantly.

"Why... are you here?"

Unlike the old Church in the Northern Kingdom, the Mojins had never regarded witches as a symbol of evil, instead, they saw them as Divine Ladies with superhuman powers. Because there was an extremely small number of them, clans that had a Divine Lady could usually be potential candidates for taking control of the Iron Sand City.

Jodel had once heard a rumor of a clan named the Sandstone Clan who, under the lead of a Divine Lady, followed the Queen of Clearwater in an expedition to the far North and never returned. That Divine Lady was called Kabala, and her ability was to be able to direct others to work for her.

But they didn't get the rewards they deserved, Sandstone was unable to recover from the departure of a large numbers of strong young adults and the women and children left behind on the edge of the southern region were annexed by other clans. It was only until the chief re-enacted the laws and rules of the desert could the clan preserve their name.

Outstanding combat skill, his uncontrolled body and the Mojin background... after witnessing these unbelievable events, apart from the Sandstone Divine Lady he couldn't find any other explanation.

But right now was clearly not the time to think deeply into it. He dug out a roll of bandages from the bag around his waist and bound Farry's arm. Then he used his knife to scrape away the festered skin, heaved Farry onto his shoulders, and ran in the direction of the permanent fortifications.

"Don't... tell anyone about this..." His teammate's soft murmur came from behind his back.

"But— "

"I beg you," Farry interrupted weakly.

After Jodel hesitated for a long time he nodded slightly. "Okay, I won't say anything."

Sounds of gunfire still rang ceaselessly around them, but the frequency had reduced greatly.

He saw half the body of the Spider Demon which had invaded the city fly into the air from the fire of a cannon and become completely paralyzed.

After he entered the inner region of the city, every so often someone would leap out from a concealed spot and cover their retreat alternatingly until they reached safety. When the figures of Aerial Knights appeared in the sky, Jodel knew that they had finally held off the demons' attack this time.

Perhaps the next time they battle would be the last stand for the garrison. But at least until now, victory had been theirs.

However, half an hour later, to Jodel's surprise, all the troops received a command to abandon Gust Castle and retreat through the western exit of Cage Mountain.

Chapter 1332 - The Cause of All Mankind

"My lord, my subordinates have informed me that we have just subjugated Gust Castle, those lowlifes are now fleeing south!" a Junior Demon declared loudly while genuflecting.

"Good job! I'll report your contributions to the Sky Lord." Totolock nodded in approval. "Don't mind the escaping troops for now, keep cutting at the lowlifes' line of defense towards the east until their army is in a complete disarray!"

"Yes, sir!"

"This battle will give you a chance to upgrade, you need to seize this opportunity and trade their blood for our honor!"

"As you command!"

After the Junior Demon left, Totolock gave a cold laugh and looked at the map provided by the human nobles. "Lord Hackzord is overthinking things, the lowlifes are this and nothing more. Their trap might work once or twice, but it can't work every time. In the end, strength is what prevails in war. Even if their resistance has grown a lot stronger since four hundred years ago, it can't make up for the overall gap between the two races."

"But our losses are not small either." The tentacles on Siacis's chin made hissing noises. "In eight days, we have lost almost forty thousand warriors, our front line troops are down thirty percent. If we keep fighting like this, our strength might be compromised subsequently."

"So what? Haven't the lowlifes always been stubborn at first before they end up falling apart?" Totolock said indifferently. "Only strong races that can withstand losses can achieve final victory. The western side of Wolfheart is now in our hands, how much longer can the remaining two cities last? When we start attacking from all directions, they will very quickly lose the will to battle—just like now!"

Siacis didn't repudiate him.

Although the strength of the humans' resistance were beyond his expectations, he still agreed with Totolock's view deep down.

After all, he'd already seen too many stalemate situations collapse, like the seemingly solid surface of a frozen river suddenly shattering.

And the cause was usually due to one small crack.

The humans were always most intense in the beginning, but as their losses increased and failures accumulated, they gradually lost confidence. Internal conflict would emerge and, in the end, they would utterly lose the will to resist. At the start, his race had more losses than humans, but as long as they persisted unrelentingly and oppressed them, the situation would be reversed.

Near the end, it wouldn't be too much to say that the humans would flee at the mere sight of them.

This wasn't simply a problem of courage but as Totolock said, the intrinsic gap between the two races.

Humans needed plenty of rest, they needed to eat, to have warm beds and shelters to shield them from the wind, and all these conditions were difficult to satisfy in a war.

He had once closely observed the humans. Right now, he didn't even need to take a look at their state with his own eyes to imagine how dire their situation was.

By using the Primal Demons like expendables, his race had maintained days of relentless attacks. Adding on his race's advantage in numbers, it was basically impossible for the humans to get enough rest. Their mental state was likely on the brink of collapse, and having sufficient food and rest was impossible.

These unfavorable conditions would gradually eat away at the humans' morale. The news regarding Metalstone Ridge and Gust Castle would spread through their army sooner or later. Under the combination of these two blows, how long could the Sand City and Sedimentation Bay last?

Meanwhile his race didn't need such things; both food and rest could be solved by the Red Mist. The more cruel the war was, the clearer the advantage they had over the humans became.

Siacis concurred with Hackzord's opinion, but he firmly believed that the final victory belonged to the demon race. Humans—not lowlifes, had already performed well enough.

"I will bring the news of victory back with me to the Sky City and leave the subsequent attacks to you," Siacis said. "Don't underestimate the humans, use the power we currently have to capture the Kingdom of Wolfheart—At times like this we shouldn't add any more pressure to our rear."

Totolock spewed out a breath of hot gas. "Relax, if our troops are not enough, I will fill in the blanks myself."

...

After they retreated to a safe area, Jodel slept for over ten hours.

When he woke up, he felt as if his body was drained of energy and his stomach was protesting in pain. He subconsciously felt at the bag around his waist for his food rations but discovered that the clothes he was wearing had been changed into new ones. His familiar rifle was also gone from beside his bed.

There were around a dozen other wooden beds inside the tent, all of which were empty.

Was this... the field hospital?

His team mates had probably sent him here because when he fainted, his expression under the intense pain brought by the side effects of the Delaying Agent was too frightening.

He wondered how Farry was right now.

In order not to expose her identity, she inflicted more damage on the injury on her arm while enduring the agonizing pain to make it look completely different. Even if it didn't threaten her life, it would need a very long time for her to recover.

When he thought about how his battle partner, whom he lived and fought together with for over half of year, was actually a Divine Lady, Jodel felt his cheeks grow hot—He had not felt this way when he was retreating from the Gust Castle.

But his agitation and nervousness was very quickly pushed away by his intense hunger.

If he didn't eat something soon he felt that he would faint again any time.

Jodel slowly got up from the bed and dragged his feeble body in the direction of the tent's exit.

To his surprise, just when he pulled apart the curtain, the strong aroma of meat filled his nostrils. The smell was so captivating it was like it came from the heavens.

"You've woken?" A nurse very quickly noticed him. "Didn't the higher-ups tell you? You can't eat Delaying Agents one after the other. If you had eaten one more, you probably wouldn't have seen the light of the day again. You're really hungry now aren't you? I'll bring you to the canteen."

After he followed the nurse and entered a huge tent, Jodel almost couldn't believe his eyes.

Seven or eight metal buckets filled with steaming food were lined up in a row along a long table, from steak to soup—it had it all. Everybody lined up in a queue and passed the long table one by one with containers in their hands. When over half of the food in a bucket had gone, someone would tip more inside—the food was unquestionably made on the spot by the services department.

But... isn't this too extravagant?

As a past Mojin hunter who often teamed up with other small clans to hunt, he naturally knew how hard it was to provide fresh food for an entire group of people, let alone in times of war! The First Army was clearly short on both men and ammunition, how could they waste their precious transportation equipment on things like this?

Jodel couldn't help but voice his confusion and the nurse chuckled. "The food wasn't sent from Graycastle, they came from the cities in the Kingdom of Dawn. And it wasn't the First Army caravans that transported them but the people you saved."

"The people... we saved?"

"Yeah." The tone of the nurse's voice was gentle and filled with warmth. "Not only are there escapees from Everwinter among them, there are also refugees from Wolfheart. A number of them went to Neverwinter and the remaining wished to stay and do something to help in fending off the demons. They sent this food over here bit by bit by pushing carts and even carrying it on their shoulders."

Jodel was suddenly at a loss for words.

He had undertaken evacuation jobs before and honestly, the refugees weren't very cooperative at the start. Often, there would be conflict among them. He had been secretly annoyed about it and even regarded them as incurable idiots. But now, it was precisely those 'fools' that brought them hot and freshly cooked food.

"It's not only the ones who were saved," the nurse's tone sounded cheerful, "the merchants in the Kingdom of Dawn have also stood on our side. Not only did they provide several horses, they even voluntarily lowered food prices, which is why everybody can enjoy fresh meat and vegetables here right now."

She raised her head, looked at Jodel and smiled. "Doesn't this prove that the battle we're fighting for all humankind is slowly being accepted by everyone? When I think of this, I feel invigorated!"

Chapter 1333 - The 'Battlefield' At The Rear

Fighting for all of humankind…

Even though the chief had indeed said that this battle would determine the fate of humankind, the main reason that Jodel had joined the First Army was for his own clan; he had never given a single thought about gaining anything in return from others.

It didn't matter whether or not they appreciated his efforts, he had to complete the job anyway.

Although Jodel still thought the same way, when he recalled the nurse's smiling face and the taste of the fresh and hot food, he felt a strange surge of warmth inside his heart.

Perhaps the things he was doing were more important than he imagined.

After he finished a bountiful meal, Jodel returned to his squad.

There were some new faces in the nine Sand National groups that he served in—this was nothing new; the rear was continuously sending soldiers to the front line and, among them, there were veterans who departed later as well as new recruits. As the front line always incurred a certain loss after a battle, it was necessary to transfer and adjust numbers frequently.

To his delight, he saw two of his companions who had been guarding with him at the belfry.

"I thought you had died over there and that only Ka… Farry and I escaped." Jodel pulled them into a tight hug and patted their shoulders hard.

"We were lucky. When the belfry collapsed, we happened to be on the lookout on the bottom level and was able to avoid all the falling rocks," his comrade replied. "It was you who shocked everyone, to think you would be unharmed even though you were up on the stairs. If we had known earlier, we wouldn't have left first."

"No, leaving as soon as possible was the right choice." Jodel shook his head. In situations like that, even if they could survive, they would have most likely encountered the demons that were heading for the belfry. If Kabala hadn't saved him, he wouldn't have escaped demons' encirclement. "Unfortunately, the others weren't so lucky."

In the end, only half of the ten-person squad survived—even though Sand Nationals had been through far too many occasions of bidding farewell to their teammates and were accustomed to seeing death, he still couldn't help feeling sad inside.

After all, after over half a year of grinding training and teamwork they had formed a new type of relationship—this type of relationship was no less close knit than his relationship with his friends and relatives among his clan.

Even though he was overjoyed to see his surviving comrades, Jodel still felt somewhat puzzled.

The importance of Gust Castle was obvious, even he understood this. It was the capture of Metalstone Ridge that had caused the two flanks of their line of defense to fall apart after all. Likewise, abandoning Gust Castle would transfer this pressure to the Sand City and Sedimentation Bay, causing them to be face the same predicament.

He had originally believed that the First Army would guard this city to the death, until it was completely swallowed by the demons.

Of course, being able come out alive deserved celebration, but he did not feel as elated as he had thought he would. If the entire First Army line was defeated, not only would all the deaths of his people become meaningless, his clan's hard-won hopes would be for naught.

But as he had to abide by the responsibility of following orders and his trust in the chief, he didn't voice his questions in front of his two comrades.

"May the Three Gods accept their souls."

"May the Three Gods protect them in their afterlife."

After silently praying according to the traditions of the Sand Nation, one of Jodel's comrades changed the topic. "Let's not think about this anymore and talk about something light-hearted. You might not know but tonight Lord Iron Axe will come and inspect the encampment, and there'll be a play performance!"

"A play… performance?"

Other than boosting the troops' morale, the commander-in-chief must have come here to deliver a new command, which was not unexpected. But something like a play seemed completely irrelevant to war… People from the Sand Nation didn't have such refined hobbies so he didn't understand why his comrades were so excited.

His comrades clearly saw his befuddlement. "Yes, the famous Star Flower Troupe will be coming!"

"So?"

"Have you actually never heard of them? Drow Silvermoon from the Osha Clan is one of the members of the troupe!"

…

After circling the area in hovering mode, 'Seagull' landed stably in the airport at the western pass of Cage Mountain.

Nana stepped down the gangway ladder and immediately followed the medical staff to the medical camp.

"Report the situation of the wounded," she said while walking and throwing on her white doctor's jacket at the same time. "Order the beds according to the rules in the First Aid Handbook, those with injuries to their critical organs take priority."

"Yes," the nurse acting as her assistant replied hurriedly. "Currently the encampment has accepted three hundred and twenty-six injured, among them fifty-five are in critical state. Their beds are lined up in tent one. In order to prolong their survival, most of them have been overdosed with Delaying Agent."

"The Delaying Agent is not a problem. Be careful in administering anti-shock therapy after the drug effects wear off—if the pain is too intense, use Dreamland Water to stop the side effects first. You have already prepared the Dreamland Water that you'll be giving them later, right?"

"Y-Yes," the assistant replied.

Even though it was not her first time assisting Miss Angel, she still could not get used to the cute, petite and delicate girl that looked no different from a girl next door calmly giving out instructions like an old and experienced scholar.

"Oh yeah." Nana stopped before the number one tent. "The therapeutic devices that I asked you to prepare before, you've prepared one for every patient right?"

"Yes, but…" The nurse hesitated and subconsciously addressed her with a respectful term. "M'am, are you really going to treat so many patients at once?"

According to the nurse's experience, it would take at least several days of water treatment to treat over fifty heavily injured patients and pull them out of danger.

"Of course." Nana smiled at her. "Relax, as long as I am here, they will all live."

Looking at Nana's confident smile, the nurse felt her worry alleviate considerably.

She inhaled deeply and followed Miss Pine into the tent.

…

After Nana put on a pair of specially created rubber worm gloves, she stood in front of the first patient's bed.

Her evolution on her Day of Adulthood allowed her ability to gain a new characteristic. Her original simple summoning power could now also be attached to objects and could continuously heal the injuries around her.

Compared to directly injecting magic power to heal, the effects of her new ability was clearly not as good; at least, it could not result in visible, rapid injury healing. However, it would use up a lot less magic power, and didn't require her to continuously use her ability, which was the biggest advantage enchantment had.

As long as the the enchanted object kept existing, the patient's injury would slowly heal, and this allowed Nana to heal multiple patients at once. More importantly, it fundamentally removed the pain caused by the repetitive worsening of the patient's injury due to the alternating treatments that occurred when there was insufficient magic power. After her High Awakening, she had performed an experiment in the campsite at the back of Sedimentation Bay. A gauze that she enchanted with her magic could maintain effectiveness for over a week; this was already enough to pull the wounded out of a critical state.

The only problem was after she used up her magic power, the object would not disappear but remain inside the body of the patient. If she wanted to get the most out of her magic power, the enchanted object must be as close to the worst part of the injury as possible. Thus, Nana looked at the medical resources in the Dream World and decided to use the suture line for internal injuries and the gauze for external.

She picked up a scalpel and skillfully cut open the bloody abdomen of the patient. She found the puncture in his gut pierced through by a bone spear and quickly sewed it together.

The thin thread made from sheep intestines could be naturally absorbed by the body, and it wouldn't need to be extracted after recovery. It could be regarded as the perfect medical material.

Of course, for hard injuries such as broken bones, the suture line would not work—but injuries like this would not endanger a patient's life immediately and she could very much leave it up to the physicians and nurses.

The development of Neverwinter's medical institution system had already progressed from emergency treatment at the beginning to a group of medical staff that could independently perform simple treatments.

"After the blood water has been drained, stitch up the wound. Next."

"Yes!"

"Place a drainage strip at the wound and monitor the injury."

"Leave it to me."

"Amputate this leg first, we will think of something later."

"Understood!"

"…"

Under Nana Pine's instructions, the medical staff were all immersed in a tense yet organized medical treatments. At that moment the medical encampment became another bustling battlefield.

Chapter 1334 - The Only Compensation

When Kabala awoke, her arm had already been bound with thick gauze. She still felt a throbbing pain, but it was insignificant compared to when the Red Mist sprayed on her.

This surprised her.

The injury on her arm was not life-threatening so it shouldn't have been treated immediately—it wouldn't have been strange if it was treated last or even left to recuperate by itself. After all, every squad had been repetitively reminded of the characteristics and importance of Angel's ability, she didn't think that people from the Sand Nation would receive special treatment either—if it was in a more critical condition, it would have been more probable.

But if it wasn't because of Angel's ability, how could her injury heal so fast?

Could it be that…

She suddenly felt a hint of uneasiness.

She needed to quickly leave where she was and return to the army encampment.

"Farry right?" A nurse noticed her movement, walked over, and looked at the name tag that hung on her bed. "How do you feel?"

"There's nothing serious now, I can return to the army at any time." She turned over and got down from bed and acted indignant. "Many of my comrades have died in the demon's hands, I want to make them pay immediately!"

"My condolences." The nurse nodded. "But before then, you must first visit the main tent of the camp, Miss Nana Pine would like to see you."

Kabala jolted. "She… wants to see me? But my injury has pretty much—"

"I'm not sure of the reason either, but she told me specially to tell you to do so," the nurse said with a smile. "The other soldiers wouldn't be able to see her even if they wanted to. Come with me."

Kabala stared at the nurse's unguarded back. After a moment of hesitation, she followed after her.

After passing through several checkpoints, she saw the fabled 'Angel.'

Simply from looking at her appearance, she certainly did fit the image that was rumored among the First Army. She was petite and cute, her skin fair with a ruddy complexion and she had a pair of youthful eyes. She was obviously a daughter from a noble family, and it would be accurate to deduce that she hadn't experienced any hardship at all. Kabala thanked her luck, perhaps things were not as bad as she thought.

"Um… You wanted to see me?"

Unfortunately, Nana Pine's first sentence shattered all of her hopes.

"I'm very curious. You're clearly a witch, why did you hide your identity and enter the First Army as a normal person?"

"I… I don't really understand…" Kabala replied unyieldingly. Did Jodel really report this to the higher-ups…

"Your injury." Nana pointed at her arm. "Although there are many punctures, most of them were caused by a sharp weapon. A demon's claw cannot do this, I think the weapon is probably a dagger or a bayonet. Also, when I was cleaning the wound I discovered traces of erosion by Red Mist. It penetrates into the muscle under the skin and can even reach the bones, only witches will suffer such an injury. Even if you deliberately marred your injury, you cannot falsify the corrosion."

Kabala shut her mouth.

Nana didn't learn about her identity from Jodel. Her reasons were logical and clear, leaving Kabala no space for any further lies. At first she had assumed that Nana was innocent and naive, thinking that she could perhaps fool her with words or pretending to be ignorant, now she realized that her plan had been laughable.

After a long time, she asked in a low voice, "You've seen witches being corroded by the Red Mist?"

Nana curled her lip. "I'm one myself."

Kabala was stunned.

"Everybody said that the Red Mist inflicts serious damage on witches, but nobody knows the way to cure it, so I could only experiment personally," the young lady said frankly. "If one of my sisters really gets harmed by the Red Mist one day, yet I can't do anything about it, won't I regret it for the rest of my life?" She paused. "Luckily, as long as you don't breathe in large amounts of Red Mist or get sprayed in critical body parts like the head, you can still be saved within a short amount of time. So remember, next time you encounter something like this, the safest thing to do is to cut off your arm immediately."

Kabala goggled at her speechlessly. Until now, she could not forget how excruciating the pain of the Red Mist's corrosion was. Usually, one would never want to experience it again after experiencing it once; yet, from the tone of Nana's voice, it seemed like she had undergone it several times. When she spoke of it, Nana's expression did not change at all; it was completely unfitting to her nascent and soft features.

A greenhouse flower from a noble family?

Stop kidding!

She let out a long sigh. Now that she thought about it, although she was treated highly as a Divine Lady, she seemed to have never gotten the upper hand in negotiations—whether her opponent was the Queen of Clearwater, or a young lady from the Northern Kingdom.

"… My name is Kabala, I come from the Sandstone Clan, Farry is a fake name." Kabala gave up her struggle and confessed her past. At this point, it was impossible for her to stay in the First Army, and because she had once served the chief's mortal enemy, the third princess of Graycastle, Garcia, it wouldn't be unexpected if she was seized and taken back to Neverwinter to undergo questioning.

Even if Roland Wimbledon insisted in treating witches kindly, it didn't mean that he would treat his enemy's subordinates kindly.

"I'm very curious, in the battle in Wolfheart, how did you trick the Pure Witches of the church?" Nana asked.

"Apart from commanding other people, my command ability can also be used to command myself—if it's only one person, I can also make a person do something that exceeds the limits of their body, and death is one of those things," Kabala said slowly. "Once the command is received, both breathing and the heartbeat will stop. Back then, both the Pure Witches and the Judgement Army were chasing the King of Wolfheart so they didn't waste too much time on me."

"No wonder; the scars on your face were from that time right?" Miss Pine pondered. "I don't really understand. You mentioned that you entered the First army for the remaining people of your clan, but why did you hide your identity and not even tell your clan that you're still alive?"

"What can I say? That I brought everyone to seek an eternal oasis, but I was the only one who survived in the end?" Kabala's expression revealed a bitterness beyond words. "They had put their trust and hope in me, yet I turned them into illogical monsters. Over a thousand healthy, young clansmen died outside their homeland, and the Sandstone Clan was almost annexed, how can I bring myself to return to the clan?

"When the First Army was recruiting people among the people of the Sand Nation, I realized the only thing I could do in return was enter the army, and then use my contributions to exchange for an oasis that my clansmen can live in. The background checks in the Sand Nation is not as strict as yours, so I fabricated an identity and gained 's trust when encircling the Wildwave and Cut Bone clans, " she said with her head lowered. "You can do whatever you want with me, but… please don't release your anger onto the people of the Sandstone Clan—there are only women and children left in the clan, they have never served Garcia Wimbledon."

"I understand. " Nana nodded. "You can go back now."

"Wh… What?" Kabala was momentarily placed at a loss.

"I actually asked for you to come here to ask if you wanted to get rid of the scars on your face." The young lady spread out her hands. "But from the looks of it, the answer is no. If that is so, then there's nothing more I need to say."

Kabala turned agape, incapable of a reply.

It was true, she had never gained the upper hand in negotiations—she was often rendered speechless too in the past when conferring with the Queen of Clearwater, just like now…

Yet the feeling she got from the two was completely different.

"Oh yeah, the Star Flower Troupe is having a performance tonight, it will be right in the campsite in the western pass." Nana laughed. "If you return to your squad now, you might be able to catch the ending."

Kabala bit her lip. After she bowed according to the etiquette of Sand Nationals, she turned and left the main tent.

Chapter 1335 - Morale Boosting Song

"Is it okay to do so?" Nana turned back.

Wendy walked out from behind the curtains and rubbed her head with a smile. "You've already made the decision, isn't it too late to ask me now?"

"Because I don't know if I'm doing the right thing either," she said, pouting her lips. "I'm not as smart as Sister Anna, who can do everything with complete confidence."

"There aren't many people like her to begin with," Wendy said gently. "So just choose the answer you think you won't regret."

Watching the young lady being absorbed in thought, Wendy couldn't help but feel wistful.

She remembered the first time she saw Nana, when Nana was still a naive and innocent lass. Nana would chirp back at birds when she saw them and she would faint upon seeing blood. She couldn't even understand her own problems, let alone worry about others.

In the short span of just a bit over four years, she had already learned how to look at a problem from another persons' perspective and possessed her own subjective judgement. The speed of her growth was astonishing.

In reality, she was not the only one. Lightning, Lorgar, and even Mystery Moon had all changed significantly compared to before.

It didn't matter if their choices were right or wrong; at least they dared to make the choice.

This was probably a characteristic of the younger generation…

Wendy revealed a faint, bitter smile.

As for herself… she no longer had such courage.

…

Kabala walked towards the place where the play was being held—she didn't need to be guided by the signs on the road, since the lights and excited cries of the crowd under the night sky made the best signpost.

Her pace became faster and faster which slowly broke out into a jog. She didn't know why, but she felt as if her body had become a lot lighter. In the past, she had never felt like that, eager to return to the First Army troops as soon as possible as she did now.

She summoned her magic power and gave herself a tiny command—find Jodel in the crowd.

Of course, she was doing this to find her squad faster.

After all, he was the only person she was certain survived.

Like an agile cat, she speedily maneuvered through the crowd, her eyes constantly taking in the environment around her and matching the scenes with the memories in her mind. After fifteen minutes, Kabala saw a familiar figure.

Almost at the same time, he also noticed her.

"Jo—"

"Thank goodness, you're okay!" Before she could react, Jodel had already pulled her into a hug.

Kabala froze.

Usually, not only would she have pulled away ages ago, she would also have slapped him while she was at it. But looking at Jodel, who seemed even more emotional than she was, the hand she raised never did land a strike.

However, after maintaining the position for less than a few breaths, Jodel reacted and panickingly released his arms, stuttering, "So-Sorry… I forgot you're… Um, I'm just too happy, I don't mean a-anything else…"

Kabala noticed two other familiar faces approaching them.

It looked like they were not the only people who had survived the belfry's collapse.

She used the hand she was originally going to slap with to pull the currently apologizing Jodel into her arms.

"If we were in the Iron Sand City, a philanderous action like what you just did towards a Divine Lady is enough for you to be dragged out and be fed to the scorpions," she leaned close to Jodel and whispered in his ear. "But right now I'm not some Divine Lady, just a soldier from the Sand Nation, understand? If you are going to play the part you have to do it through and through. Don't let other people notice anything odd; otherwise, I definitely won't let you off easy!"

"Yes, I-I understand…" Jodel didn't dare to move a hair.

"Very good, don't forget this. Speaking of which, If I pull you in first, then you should be honored and will naturally not need to be fed to the scorpions." Kabala paused. "Now, go and celebrate with your teammates."

"It's great that you were discharged so quickly!"

"The wound on your arm isn't too serious, is it?"

As they were talking, the other two had already wrapped their hands around them and the group hugged each other, sharing their joy at still being alive. On the makeshift stage, the play was already nearing the end and applause that sounded like a rainstorm rippled throughout the crowd. Nobody noticed this little interlude among the nine squads.

At this moment, the First Army commander-in-chief, Iron Axe, stepped onto the stage.

When he opened his mouth, the crowd very quickly quietened.

"I know that in the past eight days, you have all been through hell-like ordeals. There has never been a battle this harsh in the past.

"This is because they are not doing this for territory, power, or riches. The demons only have one aim, and that is to wipe us out utterly; other than that, they do not wish for any compensation.

"So the demons will not care whether we surrender or not, they will not care for their own losses, even if their casualty numbers far exceeds ours. They will definitely not stop their attack!

"Even so, you have resisted until now, and survived in this trial of hell. This is enough to prove that although the demons who are going all out are strong, there is a limit—they are not undefeatable like the legends describe! It can be said that the ordeals you have undergone over these eight days, are no less significant than the Battle of Taquila!

"Over there, we defeated one demon army, but in Wolfheart, we are facing six or seven demon armies! The enemy are coming at us in full force, they are everywhere, from the western mountain to the east coast! But even until now, we have not been destroyed!"

The crowd stirred.

Iron Axe paused for a moment and then raised the tone of his voice a notch. "That's right, in order to dodge the spearhead, I made the command to temporary retreat from Metalstone Ridge and Gust Castle. It might be like this in Sand City and Sedimentation Bay as well, but this is not failure, but an opportunity for a counterattack!

"I know what you are all worried about, but don't forget what I said before—this battle has nothing to do with territory or riches, the only goal is to annihilate the enemy. What we have abandoned are only cold stones and empty houses, but for this, the demons have sacrificed tens of thousands!

"You are the key to winning the war, as long as the strength of the First Army exists, taking back these cities will only be a matter of time!

"Sooner or later, the war will spread to the Cage Mountain region. This place will also become a battlefield, but before then, enjoy this night to your fullest! We relax now in order to face an even harsher challenge. After undergoing the trial of hell, we will give back hell!

"Long live Graycastle, long live His Majesty Roland, long live humans!"

After Iron Axe yelled out the conclusion to his speech, the camp followed with an uproar.

Everybody repeated the same rally cry and the worry and questions in their hearts melted away.

At this moment, an inspiring song started.

Echo walked onto the middle of the stage, delivering the play's finale.

During the stimulating song, a vision of their army sweeping across the demons' formation like a flood seemed to appear before Kabala's eyes.

She knew this was a type of ability, but didn't deliberately resist against it.

When she felt the sound of everyone's hearts combined as one, she thought that it wasn't too bad.

Kabala glanced aside at Jodel who was cheering beside her and a thought emerged involuntarily in her mind.

After the war ended and the Sandstone Clan had a stable place to live, she would probably be forgiven by her clansmen, right?

When that time came, she would seek out Miss Nana Pine to remove her scar.

Chapter 1336 - Starting The Counterattack

After Iron Axe returned on 'Seagull' to the Cage Mountain command post the following day, the first thing he did was walk into the General Staff office.

"How was your journey?" Edith was sitting in front of the mahogany desk, calmly sipping on some black tea.

Although everybody had often worked until dawn and so busy that their brains were bursting the past few days, Edith still somehow maintained a refined image, as if she was naturally born with more energy and time than other people. Even Iron Axe admired her ability.

"The morale is encouraging." His answer was brief.

"Then we can now begin the next step of our plan." The Pearl of the Northern Region revealed a slight smile. "Speaking of which, the defending armies of Sand City have also retreated from the defense region yesterday night."

"Then only Sedimentation Bay is left…" Iron Axe looked at the large map on the wall.

"I suggest to get them to evacuate as soon as possible and send out a squadron to receive them, we don't need to wait until there is a break in the defense."

Iron Axe nodded, agreeing with the judgment. There was very likely over fifty thousand demons gathered in the east from the west now. It wouldn't be a problem for such a large number to surround the entire Sedimentation Bay. As soon as the demons' troops gathered, it would be very difficult for the First Army to find another chance to retreat.

Since the aim of the war had never been focused on cities and territory to begin with, giving up Sedimentation Bay in order to preserve their troops was the obvious decision.

Ever since the enemy began their massive attack, evacuation processes had never ceased. The citizens and merchants that kept the city running were the first to be evacuated out of the city, following them were the noble families and aristocrats that chose to serve Roland. The current city was nothing more than a huge empty shell. As long as the command was given, the defending troops would move immediately.

"I… don't understand…" Agatha who was flipping through the newest battle report suddenly muttered.

"Did something happen?" Iron Axe walked to her side.

"The difference between the death statistics… the demons' losses are as much as thirty times as ours, how was this done?"

The four cities had all been attacked by enemies in the past week so the reports were sent over separately, and needed to be collected and summarized. In order to avoid miscalculation, she had looked over the calculations in her hands numerous times, but the answer still remained the same.

According to the statistics, over one thousand and five hundred people had died in battle in the four cities, while the deaths of the enemy were as much as fifty thousand; this could be entirely described as unbelievable.

If this was in the times of The Union, Agatha would immediately think it was an intentional fabrication by someone in a bid to falsify military achievements. But she had followed the First Army in battle several times, and with their system of having several parties examining the report, the likelihood of falsification was tiny. Even if they threw away ten or twenty percent of the difference, it wouldn't change anything.

After all, when the First Army was in the Fertile Plains on their northern expedition, they had only faced a twenty-thousand-strong demon army! At that time, they achieved victory in the Battle of Taquila only by relying on the hundreds of kilometres long railway and constructing one fortress after another, which took almost a year.

This time, the plan of the General Staff was simply to keep retreating, how did they cause losses double that of the Fertile Plains in eight days?

Even though she was filled with confidence with the current humans, she was still astounded.

Agatha had originally thought that this battle would be extremely difficult.

"No wonder." After looking at the Ice Witch's statistics, Edith chuckled. "Honestly, the effects of this plan did surpass my expectations a little, but the credit can't all be given to the First Army, the demons' cooperation was also vital. The ambush on Hackzord probably left him with some serious injuries, causing him to have no energy to care about the details of the Front Line."

"Only for that reason?" Agatha said disbelievingly.

"I know what you are confused about." Edith waved her hand. "It looks like we got this result just after a few retreats, and our battle plan seems incredibly simple. But in reality, that is not the case. When you were in The Union you usually stayed at the rear so it's not strange that you don't understand—to put it simply, only the current First Army is able to execute this battle strategy."

"The First Army that journeyed far to the Taquila Ruins can't either?"

"At least, they wouldn't do better." The Pearl of the Northern Region explained, "The difference between retreating and being defeated is often as thin as paper. Just being able to maintain strict order under huge pressures is extremely difficult, let alone retreating orderly. If it had been those nobilities' armies, I'm afraid that scattering apart upon command is the best that could be expected out of them. If the First Army hadn't undergone the Taquila night raid, and the previous separated squads hadn't demonstrated such zeal when executing commands, I wouldn't have dared to take the risk and put this plan into motion."

"Also, the effects of the new weapons are very obvious. In the streets of the city, without the support of Longsong Cannons, they were able to oppose the enemy just relying on general-use machine guns and cannon fire. And the biggest advantage to these weapons is distance, as soon as the the entire army can be moved, the advantage would be within our hands the whole time, and it would be logical to achieve such a result in this battle."

Edith paused. "But it is the truth that we have lost our peripheral defense line, so our next step is the key part to our entire plan. As soon as the demons seize all four cities, they will definitely start planning the next attack. Cage Mountain is both a protective screen and the production site for the raw materials for the Glory of the Sun; thus, we can't keep using the retreating tactic. We must take a step and decrease the enemy's strength before they recover."

"Red Mist…" Agatha said in a low voice.

"Correct, these four cities are all outside of the Red Mist region and the demons' reliance on their supply lines will increase substantially, the reappearance of the Red Mist supply line is very likely. The battle front is now basically stretched across the entire Kingdom of Wolfheart, I don't believe they will be able to reach everywhere."

"Before the storage towers were constructed, the only thing that the demons could rely on were the the obelisk-like Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts and manpower for transportation," Iron Axe added. "Before, the attacks they launched from the side flanks all started from the beasts, but according to Lightning's and Maggie's observations, their protection of the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts dramatically decreased after large numbers of Mad Demons perished. Also, when they were attacking the four cities. the support line of the main force was all hidden inside the Red Mist. Now however, they will all be exposed under the eyes of the First Army."

"The problem is that this means we need to take the initiative to strike," Agatha said hesitantly. "The Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts can move around by themselves, and aren't really scared of the attacks of the Aerial Knights, we can only send out land troops in order to destroy them. But if we can see the enemy, then the enemy can see us as well. Even if the protection of the Monstrous Beasts decreases, they can send out last minute reinforcements—adding on the journey to and back, we are very likely to lose the advantage of distance. If we were chased and caught by the demons…"

In the entirely exposed battle of their encounter, even if the First Army could defeat the demons, their own losses would be severe.

"Thus, speed is key." Edith raised the corner of her mouth. "All we have to do it complete our counterattack before the enemy has a chance to react."

But how could they do this? Agatha looked at the map and tried to find a path from Cage Mountain to the four cities. There were quite a number of paths between the two, among them were trading paths as well as the hard roads that were constructed later for speeding up evacuation. They were spread around like a spiderweb in between the four cities and Cage Mountain.

But these paths did not have the ability to decrease the distance. The First Army didn't have a cavalry troop, even if they had large numbers of horses, it was doubtful whether they could catch up with the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts. What's more, there was a limited amount of weapons one could bring while riding, and this would not be enough for confronting those behemoths.

"Of course, it won't happen now." The Pearl of the Northern Region seemed to notice her puzzlement. "This plan still lacks a key element; only when it is in the right place are all conditions fulfilled. According to the plan though, you will be able to see it very quickly."

Chapter 1337 - Road Transportation Line

Three days later, the defending troops of Sedimentation Bay successfully evacuated the encirclement before the demons had regrouped.

By now, eighty percent of the Kingdom of Wolfheart's territory had fallen into the demons' hands.

The First Army had gathered in the western pass and central pass of Cage Mountain, which were the only two natural passages between the Kingdoms of Wolfheart and the Kingdom of Dawn.

On the same day, the construction of the road that connected the north and south was finally finished, and the cement road that came from the two sides combined together in the middle of Cage Mountain. This meant that Neverwinter had a dedicated road that directly reached Wolfheart.

When the first "Hump" vehicles slowly appeared along the horizon, cries of surprise came from the surrounding crowd.

"What's that? They're like small mountains!"

"They have wheels, I think they probably count as vehicles…"

"Even the outer shell is cast with iron; how much would that have cost…"

"If it were pulled by horses, perhaps even ten horses might not be able to move it."

Hmph, ignoramuses. Sweeping his gaze over his coworkers immersed in discussion, White revealed an expression of contempt. If even this astonished them, their eyeballs would probably fall out in shock if they saw the iron bird which could fly in the sky.

He came here naturally to celebrate Graycastle's opening of this road, and like most coachmen, in order to get his hands on a good commision—ever since the demons attacked Wolfheart, he didn't dare to take a single step out of the region controlled by Graycastle. After all, being saved once by an iron bird was already a blessing from god; he didn't believe that his luck was so good that he could coincidentally encounter people from Graycastle every single time.

The rear services transportation team created by the refugees had inspired White. Although the pay was not as good as the main transportation members, it was better because it was safe. What's more, no matter how skinny and weak his horse was, and no matter how old and rundown his caravan was, it was better than the handcarts of the refugees.

But clearly, he was not the only one to notice this point, as the demons closed in further and more civilians evacuated, more coachmen went to the rear like him, and the original self-created team suddenly became a lot larger and stronger, to the point of beginning to become a industry itself.

When he thought of this, White became even more annoyed. He was clearly the one who came first; yet, he had to compete for work with these young men. If Smarty was here, he probably would have already have monopolized the situation with his own transportation team.

In just a while, those huge behemoths were already moving in front of everyone.

Even though they looked heavy and awkward, they were not much slower than horses. Especially when the machine's figure was completely exposed, even White, who proclaimed to have seen many things, felt an overwhelming pressure.

There was no other reason except the huge sizes of these vehicles.

Just the wheels were half as tall as a person, and the thickness was thicker than a body. The periphery of the steel wheels was wrapped in a layer of pitch black rubbery material and when it pressed against the road it gave off a sense of indescribable stability. When he looked back at his own caravan that he had originally viewed as his treasure, White couldn't help but feel a sense of inferiority.

When he gazed through the see-through glass window at the front of the large vehicle and met eyes with the 'coachman' looking down at him inside, this feeling intensified.

White couldn't help but wonder how many times his caravan had to transport goods to match the goods transported by this behemoth in one instance. It would probably number more than ten. According to the way Graycastle priced it, that would be ten times his pay…

"They're announcing the commission!"

Someone said and everyone immediately stopped their discussions and rushed toward the inside of the encampment. Although the transportation power of these never-seen-before vehicles far surpassed carriages and handcarts, they still needed to rely on the latter to send the goods into the various encampments and mountain regions.

White was no exception.

But there was a thought in his mind that he couldn't get rid of.

How good would it be if he could have a steel vehicle like that?

…

Farrina pulled the hand brake and jumped out of the driver's seat.

She didn't expect that she would be returning to Wolfheart in such a manner. Even though she had made up her mind, she was a member of the Church in the end; even if she passed through the selections, the Administrative Office might not permit her venture to the front line.

But nobody had reminded Farrina that she was once a criminal. The routes the drivers took were purely dependent on skill. She learned all the tricks in driving the steam-powered truck in only a week, and passed the final test with full marks. When she mentioned that she wanted to take up the transportation job on the path from the Windswept Ridge to the Sparkling River, the officer responsible agreed immediately on the spot.

It wasn't her first time passing this checkpoint—although the scenery around her was still the same as she remembered, the overall appearance was completely different. There were several makeshift houses and tents near the checkpoint, and dark and hard paths could be seen everywhere. Road blocks, towers, and metal wire fences separated the entire encampment into distinct regions, and in every region, several people could be seen bustling about.

Even without asking, she could feel that the place was filled with the scent of war.

This scent was extremely familiar to Farrina. so much so that she fell into a daze for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Joe's voice interrupted her surging thoughts.

"No, nothing." Farrina shook her head. "I think I have already gotten the answer."

As a member of the Judgment Army, her feelings about Graycastle's power was deeper than most people. If the opponent was a noble, the First Army didn't need to put on such a front. If everything before her eyes was created to trick her, she was probably overestimating herself.

Only the fabled demons can cause Roland to face off with his full power.

"Then next we…"

"Let's first help the King of Graycastle clinch victory." Farrina drooped her eyelids, "This will be the beginning of my atonement."

"I will be by your side until the very end." Joe lightly held both of her hands.

"Is this Farrina and Joe of the second caravan group?" A voice behind her suddenly interrupted their meeting of eyes.

"Yes, is there something you need?" Farrina coughed and then turned around and replied a little sheepishly.

The male who looked like a military officer made a salute and then said, "The commander-in-chief of the First Army, Lord Iron Axe, wants to see all the drivers of the 'Humps'. He's in the Cage Mountain command post now, please come with me."

The vehicle members had already been notified during their training that the rear services transportation was also a part of the military movements. Obeying the army calls would be more important than following the pre-established transportation schedule.

Farrina exchanged glances with Joe and then nodded.

…

The moment she saw the crowd of people when she entered the Cage Mountain command post, Farrina realized that this meeting was probably not so simple.

At least, it wouldn't be a simple condolence and welcoming meeting.

Because the woman standing in the middle of the crowd had a head of beautiful gray hair, which was a symbol of the Graycastle bloodline.

When someone stepped forward and made an introduction, she knew her judgment was correct.

The Graycastle princess, Her Highness Tilly, First Army Commander-in-chief Iron Axe, Cannon Master Van'er, Firearm Master Brian, Witch Union Operational Commander Agatha—it could be said that all the high-ranking officers of the entire front line were all gathered in this hall.

"Welcome to Cage Mountain." Iron Axe went straight to the point. "I have a mission for you."

Chapter 1338 - Attack From Multiple Fronts

"Although I know none of you are soldiers, and that there is currently a group of people from the First Army reserve force and the Second Army undergoing steam-powered truck driving training, time does not wait for people." Iron Axe's stable gaze swept over everyone. "As you are the first group to pass the test with outstanding results, you are likely excellent yourselves, and should be more than qualified for taking on this mission.

"The objectives of the mission is very simple." He walked before a map laid flat on the table, and moved a pawn from the Kingdom of Dawn to a black line in the eastern region of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. "The central checkpoint is about one hundred and fifty kilometers from here, all you have to do is drive the people and goods on the truck here, wait until they finish their attack, and then bring them back. You will stop for about half an hour, if you're lucky, they might not even encounter the enemy."

Iron Axe paused.

The crowd stirred.

After all, his final sentence also meant that if they weren't lucky, they would encounter demons.

After a waiting for a moment, the commander-in-chief continued, "Of course, the First Army will still be the ones responsible for the fighting, all you have to do is concentrate on driving. Ten trucks in total have arrived at Cage Mountain, according to the plan, only four to five trucks are required for the job, thus, we will select members through recruitment as per the tradition of the Administrative Office."

"For each return trip from the front line, the convoy will receive an additional remuneration of value that is triple their salary. This remuneration will be handed out by the First Army and is unrelated to the salary given out by the Administrative Office. Now then... those who are willing to undertake this job please take a step forward."

Farrina took a step forward without hesitation.

To her surprise, all the truck units chose to undertake the job, only that they did not make the decision as quickly as she did.

Her original aim of coming was to go to the front line and see demons for herself. Because she was once a member of the Judgment Army, she was already used to going onto the battlefield, but the others were different—not taking their identities as drivers into account, most of them were just free civilians from Neverwinter.

They undeniably had great trust in the First Army to make such a decision.

Iron Axe very quickly selected five vehicle units according to who stepped out first. The No. 2 Vehicle unit that Farrina was in was also selected.

"We'll leave them to you." The commander-in-chief looked at Van'er. "After sunrise tomorrow, the battle officially begins!"

...

"I keep feeling uneasy," Agatha said in a low voice after all the drivers had left the command post. "The number of people setting out is small yet they would need to have the perfect cooperation of the entire army. Most of the drivers are also normal city folk, and only had less than a day to practice, isn't it too hasty to make such arrangements?"

At least she now knew what the Pearl of the Northern Region meant by 'ultra fast.' Just by looking at the schedule, there certainly was an extremely high chance that their plan would succeed.

The simple hard road that they had repaired previously for migration had now become the foundation of their counterattack. Even if its width, thickness and construction quality couldn't compare with the construction of main roads, it was far better than the gravel or dirt paths. If they took a step further and limited the load on the trucks, the vehicles could go very fast.

And in the two hundred kilometer return trip, the cube-powered truck's average speed was far higher than any cavalry—even if the the rider ignored the expense of the horses and alternated between two horses as they traveled, they would still take two days. On the other hand, the trucks would be able to do it in six to eight hours, and they could carry the heavy equipment needed by the counterattack unit.

The only problem was, that not only did they need to hide First Army soldiers in it, they also involved normal non combat civilians, and something unexpected could happen.

"This battle certainly does harbor more unpredictability, but this is insignificant when you take the benefits in to account," Edith said frankly. "The demons can reallocate the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts at any time. Compared to continuing to wait for the right time, it is better to take advantage of the present."

"I think the enemies wouldn't expect humans to launch a sudden counterattack less than a day after they lost Sedimentation Bay. The most likely result of failure is returning without accomplishing what we wanted, while success will cause the following movements of the demons to suffer a constant setback; the right choice is clear. Moreover, war is full of unpredictability itself, sometimes a plan that looks utterly safe can be broken apart upon a tiny coincidence." She smiled. "So... let's pray to the goddess of luck to stand on our side."

...

There was light wind and snow at seven o'clock the following morning.

Under the dull and gray sky, five steam-powered trucks lined up in a long line and slowly drove out of the silent campsite toward the east.

Different to when they were transporting goods, a grayish-white cloth covered the trucks' trunks. From afar, they looked like moving mounds of snow. Among them, two trucks were dragging 152mm Longsong Cannons, the long black barrel blended into the truck, and only if one went closer would they notice the faint cool light refracted outwards from the hydraulic buffer.

Two hours later, twenty-five biplanes rose into the sky from the Thorn Town landing field, and under the lead of 'Seagull' headed towards the target battlefield. Unlike their normal battles, the Aerial Knights didn't choose the lower skies where it was easier to locate the enemy, but entered the clouds from the very beginning, flying through the gaps of the clouds.

This meant that they lost a large portion of their view, and apart from a compass, the only thing they were guided by was the figure of 'Seagull' which occasionally disappeared and reappeared among the clouds. Once a biplane was lost, it would be basically impossible to find the group again. In order to avoid getting lost, everybody paid full attention, and apart from the roar of the engine, there wasn't the sound of a single conversation within the passenger compartment.

At the same time, Lightning and Maggie appeared in the sky above the battlefield and searched for potential scouting demons.

Two hours and fifteen minutes after the mission began. the first accident occurred in the convoy. Because of the poor road conditions, the No. 4 Truck unit broke down when crossing a ditch. After the passengers switched vehicles, the convoy continued on their way, only leaving behind the fault crew to fix the malfunction by themselves.

Half an hour later, an accident also happened to the Aerial Knights. When flying above a layer of clouds two biplanes lost sight of the planes in in front of them, and could only change direction and return according to the instructions that were given before they set off. In the return journey afterwards, they all had no choice but to leave the clouds.

Fortunately, everything went well afterwards.

After three hours and six minutes, the steam-powered truck convoy was the first to reach the destination.

"My god, Farrina..." Joe leaned forward and muttered.

"Ah, I see it." Farrina stopped the truck stably and calmly stared to the side of the driver's compartment—through the windshield, she saw a scaffold that looked like a skeleton erected on the mountain top in the distance. From her view it was only a third of the size of her fingertip, but when taking the distance into account, she could imagine what an enormous monstrosity it actually was.

Dense crimson mist enshrouded the skeleton, almost covering the entire mountain peak, starkly contrasting with the snow scenery around it.

That was certainly not something created by man.

Just by looking at it, she could feel a something cold rising in her stomach.

Farrina involuntary squeezed the steering wheel.

Without question, demons had already entered their world.

Chapter 1339 - Furious Flames of Counterattack

"Everybody get out of the trucks, now! Move as we practiced. Quick, quick!"

The yelling from the cargo hold from truck snapped Farrina to her senses.

"Let's help too!" she said to Joe. She pushed open the door and jumped out of the driver's seat.

Within the span of a few breaths, the passengers started getting busy, writing and sketching in their books while erecting some strange equipment. From their conversations, the equipment seemed to be for helping the soldiers locate their target.

At this point, even if Farrina was slow, she knew the First Army's intention.

They were planning on bombarding the enemy that was kilometers away!

Although she knew that the people of Graycastle were the best at using artillery to attack enemies over long distances, knowing was vastly different to seeing. A shred of awe arose in her as she gazed at the scene before her eyes—all projectiles were affected by their own weight and wind. The further the distance, the bigger the influence. Even a small, tiny disturbance could dramatically affect the result, so how was it possible that they could guarantee that the projectiles fired by these weapons over such a long distances would land where they wanted it to?

It couldn't be that these simple looking equipment had the ability to predict the future?

If that was really the case, the terrible defeat suffered by the church in the battle at Coldwind Ridge wasn't strange at all.

Farrina couldn't help much at all with such technical work. She walked to the back of the convoy, hoping that she could lend a hand with the unloading.

For the purposes of maintaining secrecy, drivers weren't informed beforehand who or what would be carried by the trucks, but the convoy had definitely carried quite a lot of things. At times like this, an extra helping hand could at least speed up the preparation, Farrina may not be good at other things, but strength was something she was certainly not lacking in.

But what she saw at the rear stunned her.

At the rear, a group of brawny, strong men were carrying long wooden boxes with high efficiency. Those weighty trailer firearms didn't seem heavy and awkward at all in their hands. After removing the couplers, they surrounded the long steel pipe and dragged it from the hardened road.

What shocked Farrina even more was that among the group, she recognized some familiar faces.

Wait… isn't that the God's Punishment Army?

Even though they weren't wearing armor, from their power, movements and appearances, she could tell that they were clearly the the once formidable warriors of Hermes.

"Hey, we meet again."

Suddenly, someone patted Farrina's shoulder.

Farrina jerked around at the familiar voice. "Zo… Zooey?"

"I didn't think that you'd actually still remember my name," Zooey laughed." I thought that you'd still call me Army Commander Enova first."

Farrina exhaled deeply. "Then these people are all…"

"Yes, they're all Taquila witches." Zooey spread out her hands. "See, I didn't lie to you, right?"

"There are several hundreds like me in Neverwinter. We use the bodies donated by the church, so don't be too flustered if you see someone you know."

Zooey's words resounded in her mind once again.

For a moment, Farrina didn't know how to reply.

Joe lowered his head towards Zooey. "Miss Zooey, I've always felt extremely regretful that I didn't get the chance to thank you last time, it's great that we meet once again. Thank you for rescuing Miss Farrina."

"Miss Zooey? Mortal, you know your stuff, I'll accept your thanks." Zooey shrugged. "We'll talk about the other things later, right now, we should focus on dealing with the demons."

"Um…" Farrina couldn't help but utter as she watched the back of Zooey who was about to leave.

"Hm?" Zooey stopped.

"Thank you. And… I feel extremely sorry… for the mistakes that the church once made…"

"You are not in the wrong. You're only a person who got deceived, that's all."

She waved her hand and walked toward the site where the equipment was being set up without looking back.

Farrina opened her mouth, but could only release a soft sigh.

But what she didn't see was when Zooey left, the corner of her lips was curled slightly upwards.

The result was as Iron Axe described—as a driver, Farrina didn't manage to help out on anything. In less than fifteen minutes, the First Army had finished the shooting preparations.

"Reporting No. 1, 2 and 3 cannons have finished loading!"

"Fire!" The commander ordered without hesitation

After a loud noise, a gauze of snowy fog flew up at the bottom of the cannon instantly. The sound of the explosion echoed continuously in the mountain, like thunder rolling across the horizon.

The searing hot shell cases that were lined up in the snow made sizzling noises. New rounds were very quickly loaded in them, in preparation for the next firing round. The entire process went smoothly and the teamwork of the Artillery Squad was so good they seemed to move as one person. The extent of their training could be seen just from this detail.

Farrina noticed that the difference between the First Army and other armies laid not only in their firearms.

After about thirty seconds, she finally saw a column of snow rise in the mountain peak in the distance!

…

"The ground forces have begun firing!"

Sylvie saw it everything from on top of 'Seagull.'

After flying through a long projectile trajectory, the three rounds of artillery fire all landed near the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts, with the closest one being less than three hundred meters away. The sudden explosion threw the stationed demons around them into a disarray. Some Devilbeasts flapped their wings and flew into the sky.

After she informed the cannon commander of the trajectory adjustment information, Sylvie placed all of her attention onto the enemies' movements.

"How did the demons react?" Tilly asked.

"There are no traces of the main target moving. Currently only a small number Devilbeasts have risen to the sky, it shouldn't be too long before they discover the truck convoy."

"Our luck's not bad." Andrea whistled.

Indeed, their luck was not bad. Sylvie nodded her head indiscernibly. According to the plan set by the General Staff, the counterattack unit had already prepared themselves to keep firing despite the scouting demons' attempts to stop them if they were discovered before the approach of the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts. The plan was based on the experiences accumulated during the battle with the demon vanguard army on the Fertile plains. If the enemy had been Ursrook, twenty to fifteen kilometres away would already be counted as a dangerous region.

Although they just experienced a major battle, the majority of the forces were all sent to Sedimentation Bay. But as an extremely important 'moving obselisk', there were still many monsters and guarding soldiers stationed near the Fortress. But their security perimeter wasn't completely impermeable—no Devilbeast had flown over this region for an extended period of time.

Tilly got Sylvie to keep guiding the trucks forward precisely because the enemy hadn't discovered the counterattack squad early on. Only until their distance was eight kilometres from the target did they change into the artillery firing position.

This could only prove that the enemy had slackened after seizing the four cities!

After a moment, the second round of artillery firing boomed.

After adjustment, the second round of firing was a lot more accurate—two of them passed through the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts' skeleton and landed at its feet one after another, killing several Mad Demons in its explosion. The third shot directly shot into the Monstrous Beast's enormous back, sending snow and bloody meat residue flying.

The Monstrous Beast made an ear splitting scream, at the same time it took two steps forward.

More Devilbeasts flew from all directions, and gathered into a group in the sky.

But after they determined where the attack came from, five minutes had already passed—in past battles, it was not considered slow, but when facing the Longsong cannon eight kilometers away, five minutes was enough to fire ten rounds, and that was including the time taken to adjust the shots!

The battle this time was not like the Taquila battle, ending the battle with the super accurate "short leg attack". But to the enemy, their end would be far more terrible. Under the bombardment, the skeleton body was damaged. The top was peppered with holes due to the artillery rounds. Through the layers of cracked bones, the vibrating heart and the flowing blue blood could be seen. Even if it tried its best to escape, compared to the speed of the artillery fire, its attempt was not very effective.

When another artillery round penetrated the body of the beast, it made a tragic roar. A streak of blue light flashed across its huge body before it exploded entirely! Organs and blood sprayed down like a waterfall, dyeing the snow on the mountain in an eerie color. The empty limbs seemed to lose their support and insipidly snapped apart, collapsing onto the demons who failed to escape in time, squashing them into a pile of twisted, battered skin.

"Be careful, they're coming!"

At the same time, Sylvie warned the convoy that the demons were closing in.

Chapter 1340 - Hunters At The Rear

"The enemy has discovered us! Quick, everybody pack up your things and get on the trucks. Evacuate in the direction we came!"

Although she wasn't clear why the First Army seemed to know the demons' movements so well, Farrina leaped onto the truck as soon as she heard the command.

She familiarly closed the exhaust valve and pushed the gear sticks that controlled the magic cube back into the starting position. The front of the truck began to vibrate and the needle on the pressure meter moved rapidly to the right, reaching the desired spot in seconds.

This meant that as soon as she released the brakes, the truck would move.

She poked out her head and looked towards the direction of the mountain. The mountain peak that had been enshrouded by mist before was now a lot clearer. The miasma-like Red Mist was rapidly dissipating, and may small black dots the size of sesame seeds came into view on top of the pure white slope. They surged down the side of the mountain, charging towards the truck convoy, like a swarm of ants leaving their nest. Dozens of flying demons spread across the sky, giving off a feeling that they were definitely not going to let the convoy off easy.

The scene involuntarily reminded Farrina of the city wall at the Hermes Plateau.

There, tens of thousands of demonic beasts had charged at the Judgment Army's defense line in the same manner.

"Set off!" A God's Punishment Witch patted the door of her truck hard, a signal that everyone was prepared to leave.

Farrina breathed in deeply, and pulled the brake lever.

The steam-powered truck began to slowly move.

The other truck convoys also started their trucks.

Everybody turned around and drove away from the launching site flawlessly, even better than during the test. But even so, the distance between them and the enemy didn't widen. Even when the convoy had accelerated to their maximum speed, the pursuers in the sky were had actually become closer.

"Oh… Oh no, they're too fast. At this rate we'll be caught!" Joe yelled in panic.

Farrina gripped the steering wheel tightly and remained unfazed. Those with wings would always be faster than those on the ground, this was common sense. Since the enemy even had a flying squadron, they would have been caught sooner or later. The people of Graycastle was likely aware of this, considering that they had crossed swords with the demons for so long. Currently their only hope was that they had long taken precautions against such a situation.

No matter how the First Army planned to deal with this, it was not something she could intervene.

Thus, her most important job at the moment was maneuver the truck properly and not be a burden to the others.

"Ignore our pursuers and help me look at the road ahead. Warn me ahead of time if there is a ditch!" she said, her expression unchanging.

Joe swallowed before nodding vigorously. "Understood!"

…

After a whole hour, the only thing that Good could see was the tail of 'seagull' and the flickering wakelights.

Being in the clouds for so long had caused him to lose his sense of direction and height. It was both mentally and physically exhausting to fly under such conditions. He had to focus all his concentration in order to maintain the plane's position.

From the changes in the compass, apart from flying towards the north from the very beginning, the Aerial Knights had been circling the sky, clearly waiting for the enemy to appear.

As for the location and situation of his other companions, Good didn't have a single idea.

Apart from the unshirkable feelings of pressure and not knowing anything, the terrible environment in the clouds was also a big problem. The wet fog created a layer of frost on his windshield, and although the coldness was insulated by the rubber lining of his jacket, the moisture still carried away part of his body temperature, encumbering his hands and feet like they were pieces of wood.

If he didn't have Finkin at the back seat to make conversation with him, he probably wouldn't have held up until now.

Tilly had once informed him that His Majesty was currently developing a type of messaging device which allowed two people in different locations to communicate with each other wirelessly. His biggest hope at the moment was that this object could become a reality as soon as possible.

"Look, the lights have changed!" Finkin suddenly yelled.

Good looked toward 'Seagull.' The yellow light that hung from its tail had somehow turned into a bright red.

He felt a rush of adrenaline!

Red was a signal for attack. As soon as the wakelight emitted red light, this meant that they were to immediately fly down and out of the clouds and launch an attack on the enemy!

Nobody cared who the enemy was.

Whoever they were, it would be better than going around in circles in the labyrinth of clouds!

Good pushed the control stick down without hesitation.

Instantly, he was engulfed by pure white clouds.

As soon as his vision returned, Good felt his body lighten all over. The black and white earth and gray sky seemed to combine to become a stunning and breathtaking view. At the same time, he saw a group of Devilbeasts flying in staggered formation—they had not noticed the sudden emergence of Aerial Knight from the layer of clouds at all. They were less than three hundred metres from the ground, and clearly their target was the convoy of steam-powered trucks that were dragging long wheel-ruts in the snow.

The nose of their planes were coincidentally pointing toward the direction that enemy was heading, this was the ideal combat angle. Just by quietly controlling the planes tilt, the bullets shot from the machine gun could penetrate the enemy's formation lengthwise. What's more, the Aerial Knights were in at an absolute advantage in terms of height. After a barrage of gunfire, it didn't matter how the demons reacted, it would be difficult to escape the biplanes' subsequent pursuit.

It was as perfect as a textbook example.

The discomfort he felt previously when he was hiding in the clouds vanished instantly. Good swooped the plane downwards while pressing the firing trigger.

Finkin, who was sitting at the back, let out a strange yell.

Instantly, over ten streaks of silver light appeared in the sky, all from different angles. They shot at the group of Devilbeasts, going from the front to the back. Against the sudden attack, the demons were unable to react in time. Several blobs of blood blossomed in the sky and the Mad Demons and Devilbeasts that suffered fatal hits dropped to the ground like stones.

Only at this moment did they realize that they were not the only hunters on this battlefield.

The demon group scattered apart, a part of them continued to charge toward the truck convoy, and the other changed direction, as if deciding to initiate a fight to the death with the Aerial Knights.

Good very quickly counted their numbers, there were twenty-six of them.

In a sense, the enemy had basically equal numbers. Apart from the few sporadic encounters with some of the Devilbeasts, this probably could be counted as their first large-scale aerial battle.

"Signal Hinds with a flag for him to follow behind us!" Good hollered.

In a short span of twenty seconds, the Aerial Knight squadron had already flown over the heads of the Devilbeasts, ending the first round with their complete victory.

Using the speed of his dive, Good very quickly completed a turn back in his original direction on his 'Fire of Heaven', completing a perfect arc to appear right above a Devilbeast who was attempting to fly higher. The distance between the two was less than two hundred meters, he even saw a Mad Demon trying hard to turn around in attempt to find the best angle to throw its spear.

But obviously, he wasn't going to give the demon a chance.

A tongue of fire spat out from the barrel of the gun—as it emitted bright light, the tracer shot through the Devilbeast's back like a shooting star. The sudden fall of its mount doomed the Mad Demon's attack attempt. Even if it was not fatally shot by a machine gun, the result was no different if it fell from this height.

Finkin couldn't help but let out a whistle.

His other teammates were all locked onto their targets, and the two sides were very soon at each other's throats.

The second round began.

Chapter 1341 - Pride

"There are two… to the left, four o'clock!" His teammate's warning mixed with the firing sounds of the machine gun, and sounded staccato. "Watch out—they're throwing spears!"

Good pushed the control stick to the left violently and the biplane instantly did a half barrel roll, careening downwards.

"Whew——"

The bone spears whistled as they flew over their heads. One of them penetrated right through the upper wing, leaving a fist-sized hole in its outer panel.

He didn't even spare a glance at the enemy and continued to accelerate downwards, causing the plane to almost reach its terminal velocity.

This was the combat method that Tilly had come up with after summarizing all the battles that the Aerial Knights had engaged with the enemy so far. At low speeds, Devilbeasts had an agility that biplanes would never have, Devilbeasts could perform actions such as hovering in the air, completing turns with very small radii and flying backwards. This made it difficult to simulate the tactical movements used in wartime to get evade enemies in a dogfight. At the same time the the backseat shooter was virtually unable to anticipate the target's movements in their effective firing range. The combination of the two put the Aerial Knights at a great disadvantage when fighting them.

However, the Devilbeasts also had very obvious weaknesses: their only method of attack was the spears thrown by the riders on their backs. Their flying and ascending speed were all inferior to 'Fire of Heaven.' In terms of range and power, a magic stone that could only be thrown a maximum of twice in a row would only be a threat in close range.

Thus, when he was targeted by the enemy, the safest way to fight the enemy was to face the enemy with the belly of the plane while quickly pulling away from them, and then ascend once more, while using the machine gun's longer range to kill the opponent. The biplane has fender plates in both cockpit positions to protect the pilot from being pierced directly by the spear, and although the wide wings appeared to be vulnerable target boards, as long as the main frame was not hit, a few holes wasn't fatal to the aircraft.

A major improvement over the machine used for training was the integration of the wing roll operation into the main control stick, allowing the pilot to control the pitch and direction of the aircraft with only one hand.

Once at full speed, it would only take less than ten seconds to shake off the enemy, during which the Mad Demon would only be able to throw two bone spears at most, and dealing a critical blow to a rapidly departing plane was far from easy.

Numerous real-time battles had proven the effectiveness of this method. Until now, the Aerial Knight had lost several planes, but not a single member had died in battle.

With the roar of the engine, Good flew hundreds of meters outward in an instant. Even if the Mad Demon wanted to throw a spear again, he wouldn't even have a chance to get it close to him.

But he didn't immediately turn back to find the two demons that were targeting him after pulling up the nose of the plane. Instead, his gaze fell on a comrade's plane who was engaged in a dogfight.

As for the enemies behind him, there was Hinds waiting for them.

Using the advantages in height and vision that he had accumulated in order to attack the enemies who were chasing his comrades relentlessly and simultaneously letting his squadron mates watch over his tail was the second combat principle of the Aerial Knights!

After rising and falling twice, Good acquired his fourth battle achievement.

The Aerial Knights slowly began to seize the upper hand in the battle.

At this moment, Lightning and Maggie joined the fray—with horror, all the demons discovered that another looming creature similar to them had appeared in the sky, phasing into view. It looked mighty and ferocious, but its target was the demons. Under the sudden appearance of its giant, bloody jaws, the Devilbeast revealed obvious expressions of fear. Even if the Mad Demons pulled their reins in frustration, their maneuvering was not at good as before.

The confusion further exacerbated the demons' disadvantage. Lightning flew through the battlefield like a spirit, her flight that reached sonic speeds in such a short distance rendered the demons helpless. Whenever they raised their bone spears, Lightning's revolver had already arrived at the back of their heads.

A Devilbeast would plummet every few minutes, causing what seemed like a 'demon rain' to begin falling from the sky.

And the disturbances created by the huge beasts crashing onto the ground was naturally seen by Farrina.

She saw a bloody two-winged monster crash into the snow not far from the road. The impact caused it to tumble several times before it stopped. Its wings and four limbs were flung everywhere like tattered cloth.

"What the hell was going up there?"

There was no doubt that the First Army had indeed prepared for the enemies in the sky, but all she could think of was firearms dedicated to deal with these demons. Yet up until now, she had not heard the shrill hissing of machine guns at the rear of the truck. Instead, every now and then a strange hum would come from above her head, as if there was an intense battle engaged above her.

The problem was… in the sky?

Farrina could no longer hold back her curiosity. Seizing the chance when the convoy entered a straight stretch of road, she peeked her head out and peered at the sky behind her.

The sight of it made her blood boil all over!

"God…" she could not help but murmur.

Beneath the clouds, silver lights coruscated unceasingly like the first ray of dawn tearing through the darkness. The source of the light was a group of strange, enormous gray birds—The abnormal feeling it gave her was different to the skeleton enshrouded by the Red Mist, Farrina could clearly feel that the giant birds that the demons were fighting against were man made.

It was symmetrical on the left and right, rectangular and balanced as a whole, revealing a sense of beauty in the weapon of war. But it was precisely this that made her even more shocked.

Since when had humans been able to soar into the sky like birds, treading into the realm that belonged to the gods?

"We"… had actually performed such a feat?

She involuntarily recalled an article she had once read on the weekly newspaper at Graycastle—on the eye-catching front page, there was a monochromatic picture, a picture depicting a huge machine that seemed to exactly resemble the iron birds in the sky.

Oh, so these were the 'Fires of Heaven.'

At the time, she hadn't paid much attention to what the newspaper described as a 'historic event for humans.' After all, she had seen the blowing of one's trumpet like this all too often in the past. But now, even if the newspaper had exaggerated it ten times over, Farrina realized that it would still be insufficient to describe her current emotions.

There was awe, there was regret, there was self-deprecation, there was excitement… but the what she felt the most was pride.

Being proud that—

She was also a member of humanity.

How much had she missed in the year she hid in Joe's house…

Farrina's body trembled slightly and she gripped the steering wheel even tighter.

Although she had missed a lot, she was back on her feet at the very least, wasn't that so?

…

Sylvie clearly saw that the demons chasing them in the sky were on the brink of collapse. Under the interspersed assaults of the Aerial Knights, Lightning and Maggie, the enemies were completely overwhelmed. Several Devilbeasts were out of their riders' control and escaped backwards, and these actions affected the others of their kind. It was just that at that distance, they might not have been able to escape Lightning's follow up pursuit.

The demons that were charging towards the convoy didn't achieve anything at all—learning from their past experiences, ten or so Mad Demons leaped down directly when they flew over the convoy, in hopes of avoiding the machine gun's advantageous long range. Yet, their opponents were a group of God's Punishment Witches that were comparable to Extraordinaries. The witches also held forty millimeter grapeshot guns.

The demons' outcome could be described as utterly dreadful.

Even Sylvie could not help close her eyes at the sight of the witches tearing their enemies to pieces with an almost maniacal grin.

Victory was now a foregone conclusion.

Chapter 1342 - Unceasing Advantage

"How's the situation right now?" Tilly asked.

"The enemies who tried to stop the truck convoy were almost completely wiped out, and the remaining demons in the sky are fleeing. I believe it is our win," Sylvie replied.

"It's a pity I didn't get a chance to participate in the end," Andrea said with a regretful shrug. "It looks like the grand demon lord from last time suffered some serious injuries."

'Seagull' had not taken part in this battle, but had been hovering in the clouds the entire time to guard against the possible appearance of Hackzord or other Senior Demons. After all, the most effective way to deal with demons like these who possess abnormal abilities was still Andrea's close-range sniping.

Unlike her dispirited companion, Sylvie was relieved.

She knew that the counterattack this time was not the same as the previous ambush on the Sky Lord. Hackzord had not noticed 'Seagull''s presence because she was not on board at the time. The situation on the battlefield was communicated via the Sigil of Listening, and even though she had been noticed by the vigilant Eye Demons the entire time, 'Seagull' was invisible and untraceable.

This time, however, because the battle needed to take place far away from their encampment, she had to move with 'Seagull' in order to be able to command the entire situation. It was for this reason that if the Sky Lord appeared with a new alert Eye Demon, 'Seagull' would also be spotted along with her. In other words, it was only when Hackzord or other Senior Demons made an appearance alone could Andrea's attacks actually take them by surprise.

Otherwise, if the shot didn't hit in one go, it would be difficult to predict how the battle situation would develop.

So their absence was actually a good thing.

After all, there was nothing more worth being happy over than successfully completing a job with everyone making it back safe and sound.

"It's better that you don't do anything. If Hackzord really does come, I don't think the truck convoy would have been able to retreat in one piece." Tilly shook her head resignedly. "I'm guessing that when Edith came up with this plan, she was also betting that the mobile, vigilant Eye Demons weren't something that could be replenished immediately after being used up, so the Sky Lord didn't want to take the risk of venturing out."

The princess's words basically expressed everything that Sylvie thought.

She could not help but nod her head over and over again. That was the princess for you!

"Oh yeah…" Tilly piloted her glider through and out of the clouds. "Now that victory is confirmed, let's ascertain the battle outcome before we leave."

Sylvie could be said to be experienced in this sort of thing, too—without the hindrance of obstacles, she could complete a cursory survey of the battlefield with only a little magic.

The moment she reached her conclusion, however, she froze.

"Two thousand… No, close to three thousand…"

"Three thousand?" Wendy gasped in shock. "How could there be so many?"

"Those Mad Demons—" Sylvie took a deep breath as she gazed in the direction of the distant mountain slope. "They weren't charging for the convoy before, but scattering in all directions!"

It was then that she noticed the hundreds of tiny holes on the hill-top that were there evidently to decrease the expenditure of the Mist. Most of the enemy had hidden underground to be awakened when they were needed in battle. But when the fortress Monstrous Beast collapsed, the red fog quickly dispersed without a supply source, and these demons were faced with a disaster.

They swarmed out not to destroy their attackers, but because they had sensed the dissipation of the Mist, emerging from their hiding places driven out of instinct and bounding wildly down the mountain, hoping to reach the next Red Mist supply region before they could no longer breathe.

But both Sand City and Sedimentation Bay were too far away.

The world that had been dominated by Red Mist regained its purity and clarity, but to the demons, it had become a deathtrap that they could not survive in. Before they could escape far they all dropped to the ground one after the other, spreading evenly in a circle at the foot of the mountainside. With the exception of a few Mad Demons that had small Red Mist gas tanks on them, most were silent now.

The general staff was certainly right on this point—just like how Graycastle could not equip every soldier with a God's Stone of Retaliation, the enemy could not distribute Red Mist gas tanks and breathing apparatuses to the hands of every Mad Demon. When fully equipped troops were deployed to attack human cities, only those who had originally been operating inside the Red Mist region remained to guard the place.

If they had been later by two days, the situation may have been vastly different.

Even if they had to recruit drivers from outside the army, they were determined to launch the counterattack on the day after the First Army withdrew from Sedimentation Bay. It must be said, this was an extremely decisive action.

"After this battle, I think the name, the 'Pearl of the Northern Region' will spread throughout all the Four Kingdoms," Tilly said with a curl of her lip.

…

With less than a hundred soldiers, they had annihilated an enemy troop of nearly three thousand, only losing one steam-powered truck and two 'Fires of Heaven' in the progress, there was not a single soldier casualty. The highly successful counterattack dramatically raised morale at the First Army headquarters, even when making reports, everybody's voices were louder.

But Edith didn't reveal any sign of satisfaction at this and, virtually on same the day the news of the victory reached Cage Mountain, she delivered her next battle plan.

The plan was immediately approved by the commander-in-chief, Iron Axe.

The truck convoy was even ordered to divert to the western pass of Cage Mountain when they were just on their way back. A truck carrying water for the Magic Cube met the truck group halfway through, and after supplying them with enough water joined them in their journey west.

The Aerial Knights returned to Thorn Town and, after a short preparation, took off again, arriving at the western pass airport before nightfall.

At noon the following day, the truck convoy which had been traveling the entire day entered the west boundary of the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Three more steam-powered trucks were damaged along the way, as it was harder to avoid potholes and other obstacles on the road during the night, while the rest of the trucks launched into an attack on another Fortress-like Monstrous Beast without stopping.

Although the demons were aware that the humans were targeting these moving obelisks, what they did not expect was that in just a day and a half, the counterattack team had finished the journey across the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Another Fortress Beast had just retreated inside Gust Castle at this time. In the absence of peripheral protection, the truck convoy entered a ten-kilometer range while resisting the attack of some patrolling Devilbeasts before unloading four Longsong Cannons.

Once again, the Aerial Knights acted as "hunters"—with the tacit cooperation of Sylvie and Tilly, the group of new soldiers who had only entered the battlefield for less than half a year almost replicated the process of the last battle. When the enemy's flying troops made the artillery their primary target, they swooped down from above the enemy's heads and immediately broke the opponents' formation.

The beasts were blasted to pieces by the gunfire, and the small number of demons were unable to hold the convoy back even at close quarters in the face of the God's Punishment Witches that were guarding the convoy.

By the third day, the enemy was at last beginning to expand their defences around the four cities, and was sending demons to destroy the simple hardened roads between the cities. But the entire road was several hundreds of kilometers long, and it was impossible to destroy it completely. On that day, steam-powered trucks drove through the region dozens of kilometers out from Sand City, attracting the demons' attention. Meanwhile, twenty-five 'Fire of Heaven's flew around the towering Impassable Mountain Range according to plan, directly attacking the rear of Metalstone Ridge, showering the Red Mist transportation supply line with gunfire.

It was also at this time that the effect of the two consecutive aerial losses and the overly long battlefront on the demons gradually emerged, and when they gathered enough of Devilbeasts to arrive at the battlefield, the Aerial Knights had already vanished in the cold and howling sky.

Chapter 1343 - The Grand Lord's Decision

In the following half a month, the battlefield in Wolfheart entered a strange stalemate.

The demons who had long seized the four cities should have erected a new group of Red Mist storage towers, in order to prepare for taking complete control of Wolfheart, and invading the Kingdom of Dawn. But what was really happening was that they were constantly stopped by the attack of the First Army's mobile forces. Apart from Sedimentation Bay which was on the coast, they did not construct Red Mist storage towers in the other three cities.

After suffering the repeated attacks from the Aerial Knights, the nobles originally responsible for transporting the Red Mist began to waver, forcing the demons to have no choice but to allocate part of their troops to supervise and control the normal operation of the Red Mist supply line. Coupled with the forward expansion of the defense, the shortage of manpower was becoming increasingly apparent.

As for the First Army, who felt that being able to rain artillery was enough of a success, they did not insist on launching an attack on the four cities. The demons who patrolled the outermost perimeter of the defensive line were also their targets to be hunted. Several steam-powered trucks arrived at the preset positions quickly, unloaded the Longsong Cannons, fired two rounds at the place where the demons gathered, then loaded back up and left. Skirmishes like this basically happened several times everyday.

The demons did not only passively defend under the continuous pincer attacks by the biplanes and Artillery Squad. They had organized a number of attacks, and even when their vanguard attacked Cage Mountain.The rear even organized a mixed force of humans and demons, and took this chance to destroy the road near Cage Mountain, using black gunpowder in the process.

But by this time, the road connecting the north and south had been completed. The cement produced by the Kingdom of Dawn could be transferred to the frontlines at any time The simple roads that had been destroyed by explosion could often be completely repaired the following night under the joint efforts of Lotus and the engineering team. Even though the low temperatures, wind, and snow greatly lengthened the cement solidification time, in the end it was simply a question of cost-benefit ratio. If the stabilized gravel surface layer was crushed, all they had to do was fix it immediately. After the completion of the main road construction project, a large number of idle construction teams were gathered in the Cage Mountain area. As such, the First Army was not short of manpower in this aspect at all.

As the seesaw struggle continued, the demons' assault became increasingly slower, and the oppression and power that all their forces had at the start was gone. At this moment, both sides of the frontline came to a pause.

…

"My lord?"

Hackzord raised his head, looked at Siacis and was about to say something when he stopped. He slowly closed his eyes. "Speak."

It was evident from Siacis' expression that it was not good news. But there had been so much bad news lately that he was no longer in the mood to express any fury or disappointment.

"Totolock personally led the attack on the headquarters of the humans at Cage Mountain, and died heroically on the front line," Siacis said with his head lowered. "… He has lived up to his promise."

He had fulfilled his own commitments, yet did not complete his mission. Hackzord did not show much reaction to this result which he had long expected. He didn't even want to ask his subordinates the exact details of his death—in the war against The Union, the fall of every higher ascendant meant that the challengers were dangerous, and gathering intelligence about them was essential. However, now, when fighting with the humans, one little misstep would lead to death by those strange firearms. He could completely imagine what had happened to his subordinate in the end.

The fact that Totolock had led the troops himself meant that it was the last fighting unit of the Western Front. He died in glory, but it was meaningless to the race. If this underling had not transformed from a Lord of Hell, and was only good as a vanguard at the frontline and not at manipulating magic stones, he might have been more useful to be transformed into a high rank Parasitic Eye Demon than being killed by a human firearm.

But the Sky Lord could not utter these words in the presence of another underling.

Moreover, Totolock was not the only problem in the current situation.

No matter how brave and wise a general is, they would not be able to do much without enough troops under their command.

It was he who ordered the immediate attack.

And the person who limited the numbers on the Western Front was… the King.

No, no, the King had given him enough support. Blood Conqueror and Mask were the most deserving of hate. If the Blood Conqueror gave more outposts, and Mask provided enough Symbiotic Demons as he said he would, the result would have been completely different—

Hackzord squeezed his newly grown hand into a fist.

But… would it really have been different?

The next moment, a haunting thought came to his mind.

If they doubled their numbers once more, the Western Front army would indeed be able to occupy the entire Kingdom of Wolfheart, but then there was still Dawn and Graycastle, how many more soldiers would he have to add for it to be enough?

"All of them…" The Sky Lord could not help but utter.

"My Lord," Siacis asked in confusion. "What did you say?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. Indeed, Ursrook had already given them the answer.

"Abandon the cities where we've exploited all the God Stone mines, let the Sky-sea Realm have half of the continent… Direct all our forces to the Land of Dawn. I mean all, including old and new troops, until the human race is wiped off the face of this planet."

This was the conclusion drawn by his best subordinate.

Back then, all the grand lords had thought it was an unrealistic idea, but now he could sort of understand what Ursrook had been thinking.

After a long hesitation, Hackzord made up his mind.

He looked deeply at the motionless Nightmare Lord, got up and walked out of the Red Mist Pond.

"My lord, where are you going?"

"The top of the Birth Tower," the Sky Lord replied with a deep voice." I'm going to request the King to commence a Holy See meeting!"

…

The sea of mist that billowed beneath him and the Birth Tower that was covered in enormous eyes in the middle gradually appeared before his eyes—seeing this, he felt a slight sense of relief. Holy See meetings were usually commenced by the King. Actions like requesting one wan not only sort of overstepping his place, it would also displease the other grand lords. After all, not everyone was willing to enter this domain in the Realm of Mind where the King had complete control.

In the past Hackzord also had an instinctive resistance to entering the Presiding Holy See, but now, he had no better option. Only in this way could he tell the King and all the grand lords what he thought.

Fortunately, the King did not reject his request.

About fifteen minutes later, the other grand lords appeared in overhanging seats one after the other.

"It's you again… Hackzord." Blood Conqueror said. "I don't know what's so important about the Western Front that you need to get the King to hold the Holy See. Could it be that what you're about to report is more important than the Nightmare Lord becoming lost in the Realm of Mind?"

"Indeed, when Valkries lost consciousness, you only reported it to the King alone," Mask followed. "Now you have requested a Holy See meeting as if you have something urgent. Don't tell everyone that your Sky City is about to be captured by those lowlifes—it had been hard enough for me to divert a large amount of resources to cultivate Symbiotic Demons for you."

This bastard… He's beating around the bush and pushing all the responsibility on me again. Hackzord cast a cold glance at him. Of the five times the number of Symbiotic Demons that they had agreed on, only half of had been delivered so far. It was true that the Sky-sea Realm's offensive had intensified, but it was also true that the agreed amount had not been reached. If it had been in the past, he definitely would not have missed this opportunity to attack him.

But right now, Hackzord did not have the slightest interest in engaging in a battle of tongues.

"Enough." The King's voice sounded in everybody's minds. "I believe the Sky Lord must have his own reasons for requesting a Holy See meeting, it wouldn't be too late to voice your opinions after you hear him out."

"In addition…" All the pupils in the eyes of the Tower of Birth looked at Hackzord. "It was not your fault that the Nightmare Lord got lost. I had granted your request to send Silent Disaster to support you in battle, so I do hope that you'll not be grieving and complaining in your report and asking for more troops; otherwise, you will be wasting both of our time."

Hackzod felt tremendous pressure.

He swallowed, bit the bullet and answered, "Your Majesty, it is true that I want to talk about assistance on the Western Front, but it is not simply about one or two more troops or more outposts, it's…"

The Sky Lord paused and looked into the King's bottomless eyes. "—Deity of Gods."

Chapter 1344 - Fate’s Decision

The Deity of Gods was the demon race's most esteemed masterpiece after they upgraded. It took nearly a hundred years and expended countless materials to realize this miracle. It was regarded as a leap in the race's control over magic and the only mean capable of destroying the Sky-sea Realm.

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a short and eerie silence inside the Presiding Holy See.

There was a moment when Hackzord wanted to retract his words, but when he thought about the possible outcome of the the battle, he fought against the urge.

He had to take up responsibility for the continuation of his race.

A moment later, the King's monotonous voice rose once more. "I remember that we have already discussed this the last time.You should know what the Deity of Gods means to our race."

"Our hope of defeating the Sky-sea Realm." The Sky Lord nodded. "But that's all it is."

"What do you mean 'that's all it is'?" Blood Conqueror finally couldn't hold back and roared in a low voice. "After the restriction on the Red Mist is removed, we could altogether rely on the Deity of Gods to attack the Sky-sea Realm. Even if we use it on the Eastern Front, it can still substantially lessen the pressure on the defense line! And this involves the lives and deaths of tens of millions of our people and millions of soldiers, yet you say 'that's all it is'?"

"First your genius subordinate asks for the entire race to confront the lowlifes with our full force, and now, you want to send the Deity of Gods to deal with those lowlifes. The both of you really do think alike." Mask laughed coldly, he looked around the figures sitting around in the Presiding Holy See. "What does everyone think?"

"… I'm sorry I can't agree to it," Resentful Heart said succinctly.

The other grand lords also expressed their disapproval.

Only Silent Disaster did not utter a single word.

Hackzord had a hunch long ago that such a situation would occur. He knew that this matter was far too important, so much so that he could not inform the King about it one-on-one. This was the reason why he was determined to convene this Holy See meeting. If they could not come to a consensus here, then anything he did afterwards would be pointless.

The humans now bore a extreme resemblance to them after the first Battle of Divine Will.

After absorbing the legacy, their race attained an unimaginable advancement. All kinds of magical technologies emerged, and almost every few decades, a great revolution would take place. The rate of upgrading surged, making the Junior Demons scarce. The development of Symbiotic demons caused magicless demons like Inferior Demons to also become soldiers. It was also at that time that their usage of the magic stone was popularized. These achievements were also reflected in the Second Battle of Divine Will— even if the Sky-sea Realm also received an upgrade no less superior than theirs, they still took only less than thirty years to drive out the humans out of the Land of Dawn.

Now fate seemed to standing on the side of humans.

And they were changing faster than the demon race had—According to the nobles who had surrendered, Graycastle was not much different from the other kingdoms ten years ago, and the current King of Graycastle as well as the four princes of the Wimbledon family were nothing worth mentioning either.

Thus, any hesitation or procrastination would only let the opponent become even stronger.

He must make everyone aware of this.

"The Western Front battle is already lost." Hackzord took a deep breath; he could completely imagine what expressions Blood Conqueror and Mask would make, but for the future of their race, he had already thrown his concern over personal gains and losses away. "Although our race still has two of the humans' Kingdoms, we do not have any more power to keep going on—the stalemate means that it would be very difficult for us to acquire the legacy shard in a short amount of time, this is not different from failure."

"What did you say?" Mask said in shock. "You have a troop of over a hundred thousand, not to mention many Symbiotic Demons! How could you lose to those lowlifes?"

"Are you deceiving the King?" Blood Conqueror opened his gaping jaws wide at the Sky Lord. "Not long ago you said that the everything was going well on the Western Front, and that our race has already successfully stepped into their land! Now you are telling me that you can't defeat the lowlifes in a region that is covered in Red Mist? This is ridiculous!"

"Ursrook had onced warned me but I didn't pay enough attention to it. It's exactly how you are now treating my warning in the same way as I had," Hackzord said slowly. "After all, it is very difficult to describe everything that is happening on the Western Front. If you want to know, use your own eyes."

Hackzord bowed his head to the King.

Letting the King read his memory was something that he never wanted in the past. But after taking this step, he no longer had a choice—as for those insignificant words that may have been unwillingly offensive, the King was unlikely to take it to heart.

All the eyes on the Birth Tower opened at once. A chilly feeling instantly surged into his mind, Hackzord forced himself to open up his consciousness, silently thinking 'I am definitely loyal to the King' and allowed the dark current to flow through his entire body!

The iron birds soaring in the sky, the fiery rain falling from the sky, the enormous blazing balls of fire, as well as the God's Stone arrows being shot over huge distance… These scenes emerged one by one, as if reliving the experiences of the war with the humans.

After the chilly feeling disappeared, all the facial expressions of the grand lords became unpleasant. Hackzord knew that they too had just experienced what it was like to be ambushed by the humans, and be just a whisker from death.

Even the tumbling sea of Mist under his feet became agitated.

Although Ursrook had reported about the changes in the humans' weapons, no words could compare to an immersive experience. There were no Transcendents or magical apparatus other than a group of magicless people piloting strange iron objects as well as the cooperation of a few witches. Yet, they threatened the life of a grand lord.

"Was that really.. .something that the lowlifes created?" Mask said in disbelief, "I didn't feel the presence of any magic at all—"

"In fact, that is precisely their outstanding point." Hackzord knew that his only chance had come. "The strength of the humans can no longer be measured by their scarce number of witches; all the magicless ones should also be counted. Also, after they had all these things, the originally weak magicless humans' power is not much different from Primal Demons, they can even threaten Junior Demons and high-order upgraded demons."

"So? What's your point?"

"I want to ask everyone, even if we use the Deity of Gods, are you certain that we can attack and capture the Sky-sea Realm within ten years?

The answer was unquestionably no.

The Deity of Gods was only a necessary mean for the counterattack, but not the only condition for victory. As an upgraded race like them, nobody knew how much power the Sky-sea Realm would release on their own territory. The original strategy was to stick to defending the Blackstone region while swallowing the legacy shard of the humans, so that after the race reached a new level, they would destroy the Sky-sea Realm in one go with the Deity of Gods.

"I don't mind if you blame it all on me, but the defeat of the Western Front is already certain. This is an unavoidable fact!" Hackzord raised his voice a notch. "If we don't change, I'm afraid in ten years we won't be able to fight back against the Sky-sea Realm. We might not even be able to defeat the humans! The final result would be the complete extinction of our race under the attack from both sides. Could the Deity of Gods be more important than this!"

"This is just your personal judgement," Blood Conqueror said through gritted his teeth.

"Of course it isn't."

"Are you going to mention Ursook again?"

"No," said the Sky Lord with a pause, "I meant the Nightmare Lord."

Since he had already set his heart to it, and the tiny deception was all for his loyalty towards his race, it was impossible to turn back at that moment. "I don't know what clues Valkries found in the Realm of Mind that would lead her to venture away from front-line warfare, but before her final dive into the Realm of Mind, Valkries told me herself that she has become more inclined to Silent Disaster's speculation—humans might have already received some sort of legacy."

Blood Conqueror froze in his seat.

The lopsided situation in the Holy See was perturbed.

Chapter 1345 - Forced Redemption

As one of the earliest higher ascendants to become a grand lord, Valkries' words naturally carried a different weight. She was also the only one who could maintain her normal conversational tone when she talked with the King, as if there was no difference in class between the two. More importantly, the King had never shown any opposition, which was enough to prove the point.

A conclusion drawn by the Nightmare Lord naturally carried its own persuasive power.

Moreover, Hackzord had indeed discussed the possibility of the humans' inheritance of a legacy with her. Although she didn't say it personally, everything else were reasonable assumptions. He also intentionally brought the matter up after he showed the Western Front's battle situation from his memory. Perhaps the King might ascertain his claim while he was reading his memories, but it was unlikely he would verify this matter specifically.

After all, the King's mind had a high level of autonomy, all the decisions he made were only based on facts.

The purpose of these words was to shut the mouths of dissenters.

Blood Conqueror's pitiful brain was unable to understand the situation at all and was only responding instinctively.

In order to shirk responsibility, Mask naturally would not stand on his side easily.

The other grand lords were on the fence; to place the future of their race in their hands was a joke.

Thus, Hackzord said this lie with complete confidence and without feeling a single shred of pressure.

Backing away now was the biggest irresponsibility to the race.

He had to turn the tables with his own hands!

"An inheritance that we do not know of, that is too far-fetched…" Mask said suspiciously in a low voice. "We all saw the scene in the Origin of Magic. If a race like this really existed, where would they be?"

"Who can be sure that the conclusion that our race came to before is definitely correct?" Hackzord said solemnly. "I also don't believe that humans can receive fate's favor, but their incredible change is right in front of eyes! Don't forget, before we received the legacy of the underground civilization, we also didn't know that legacy shards can actually be divided."

"You mean—" Resentful Heart seemed to have thought of something.

No, I don't mean anything at all, my only aim is to lead you to the reply that I constructed. "Among the many ruins, if there were just one legacy shard still left behind…"

All the grand lords fell into deep thought.

Except for Blood Conqueror.

"So what? I absolutely refuse to use the Deity of Gods against those lowlifes! The strength of the Sky-sea Realm's offense is still increasing, we have finally gotten a chance to catch our breaths now, we should take this chance to secure our defensive line. If we don't have the Deity of Gods, the Eastern Front can hardly withstand the battles that are taking place all the time. As soon as the army is defeated, over ten cities will be exposed under the enemy's minions!"

But this time nobody said anything to support him.

"Compared to a dozen cities, the future of our race is what you should be focusing on." Hackzord swept his gaze over him expressionlessly, then he looked at the Birth Tower in the middle of the Holy See. "Your Majesty, losing the Deity of Gods on the Eastern Line would indeed exacerbate the current advantage over there, but at least it won't reach the worst outcome. Right now, time is not standing on our side. The humans are absorbing the legacy they have received at a startling rate—since sacrifice cannot be avoided, our next step will be key."

"Hackzord, that is my army!" Blood Conqueror roared.

The Sky Lord turned a deaf ear to him. "You have all seen how exquisite the warring weapons that the humans have created are. More importantly, Primal Demons can also use them! If our race can absorb their legacy and use fiery rain and the iron birds for ourselves, we can also turn the tables on the Sky-sea Realm! Even if we lose the entire Blackstone region, the final victors of the Battle of Divine Will, will be us!"

Upon hearing about the infusion of new weapons, a light shone from Mask's hollow eyes.

Blood Conqueror boiled with rage. "And these losses could have originally been avoided—"

"Enough." The King finally spoke. "I already understand what you mean."

Hackzord felt his heart settle.

The King would not be influenced by their arguments and would only make his decision based on the actual situation. The other grand lords were still skeptical; but at least, they were not explicitly opposing to his claims. This way, the consensus adopted during the meeting could be quickly implemented. Otherwise, the quarrels and prevarications between the grand lords would waste large amounts of precious time. The hard-won pressure that the Western Front had exerted on the humans would be reduced to nothing by their indecision.

Although this was still different from Ursrook's call for going 'all out', it was the best result that he could get right now. As the most esteemed masterpiece of their race, the Deity of Gods itself was protected by a large number of troops, and this could be a guise for more support for the Western Front.

Of course, when this ultimate weapon reached the Land of Dawn, all of the humans' tactics would become meaningless.

"Silent Disaster's arrangements will remain unchanged. Continue to support the Western Front." The King's deep and stable voiced echoed in the Holy See. "When the Deity of Gods is complete, go to the human territory to seize the legacy shard. Shrink the Eastern Front southward, abandon some of the cities if it is necessary in order to reduce the loss of Inferior Demons—Before momentum of the offense and defense is reversed, they are also an important resource."

"As you command," all the grand lords replied.

"But Blood Conqueror is also right, delaying the Sky-sea Realm on the Eastern Front and swallowing the humans on the west was the established strategy for the third Battle of Divine Will. Now, we are forced to send the Deity of Gods to the Western Front, causing the deaths on the Eastern Front to increase substantially. Sky Lord… do you feel that none of this is your responsibility?"

In that instant, Hackzord felt an icy and eerie chill crawl up his spine. In his vision, the eyes on the Birth Tower all amalgamated together, forming one enormous, monstrous eyeball. Compared to this, he who was sitting in his seat seemed completely insignificant. Simply the pupil of the eye alone was enough to contain several of him. The eyeball hovered in the air, coldly staring at Hackzord, as though it could crush him into dust if it just made a small half of a roll forward. Under such pressure, he did not even think of opening a Distortion Door.

In the Presiding Holy See, the King was no different from god.

"Your ability is important, but that does not mean that I will ignore this matter—this will be the last accident that will occur in the Western Front plan, do not disappoint me anymore, otherwise…"

The King's displeasure did not need to be expressed by a loud voice, it revealed everything like a physical pressure crushing against Hackzord.

"I… understand."

The eye suddenly vanished, and with it the Holy See. The spire and mist at the Sky City appeared once more before Hackzord's eyes.

"Are you all right, my lord?"

"Don't mind it…"The Sky Lord slowly shook his head as he looked at Siacis beside him. He had originally thought that he had prepared himself to bear everything long ago, but when he was really facing the King's malice, his surging discomfort and resistance almost overwhelmed him.

These were no more than… spontaneous reactions.

Hackzord closed his eyes.

Everything was for the race.

He had already done his best.

Chapter 1346 - Tilly's Letter

Graycastle, Neverwinter.

Roland couldn't help squeezing his hand into a fist when he finished flipping through the reports sent from the frontline.

"What's the matter, Your Majesty?" Beside him, Nightingale noticed his strange behavior.

"No… Nothing." He leaned back in his seat and released a long sigh. "I'm just happy. Everybody's performances are exceeding my expectations."

"Really?" Nightingale was surprised and then chuckled. "Looks like they are all working hard."

"Indeed." Roland stood up, poured two cups of Chaos Drink and held one out to Nightingale. "They have really worked hard."

This was not an offhand remark but something he believed from the bottom of his heart. If he had not come all this way himself, he would have found it incredibly hard to believe that the First Army and the spear-wielding border troops from the past were one and the same.

After eight days of intense battling, they could still perform an organized strategic retreat. The amazing cover cooperation of the open ground operations, as well as their willingness to actively seek out the key to victory on the battlefield, all testified to the startling growth of the army. In addition, the Kingdom of Dawn's cooperation and the refugees voluntarily staying behind to support the rear services of the army allowed him to see the transformation of humans as a whole.

But what made Roland the most surprised was Edith.

Even if several of her actions in the past had long shown her to be unlike the normal person, the pleasant surprise he felt this time was more than everything from before added together.

Taking advantage of the powerful carrying capacity of the steam-powered truck, the mobile operation was carried out on the territory of the Kingdom of Wolfheart, allowing the long range and immense power of the Longsong Cannon to be fully displayed. This bore some resemblance to Blitzkrieg.

Furthermore, there was the strategy of first voluntarily evacuating from the cities, causing the enemy to stretch their defensive lines and expose numerous weaknesses. The second part of the strategy involved using highly mobile troops to exploit these weaknesses.

The Chief of the Staff was without doubt most commendable for the First Army's feat of destroying large amounts of the demons' power with few losses and the stopping of their advance three hundred kilometers outside the Red Mist region.

Although Roland and the Pearl of the Northern Region had discussed about their opinions on how the battle would progress, as well as the evolution of war in terms of mechanical equipment, he didn't touch on a specific type of equipment—the 'armored vehicles' he had high hopes for were currently still in the factory in the form of tractors. For Edith to be able to connect this to transporting trucks, her view could be described as a leap forward in time.

It was the combination of individual and collective strength that lead to this hard-won victory.

The movements of the demons were now firmly restricted, and the new recruits and resources for the First Army were unceasingly being moved to the front line through the main road. The forces on both sides had become a state of ebb and flow.

The real counterattack would begin when their accumulation of resources were at their zenith.

Roland and Nightingale lightly clinked their glasses.

At this moment the power of humans seemed to sparkle.

…

After finishing his drink, he returned to his desk.

According to the reporting routine of the First Army, good news was followed by all kinds of exposed problems.

And usually, these were problems that only he could solve.

For example, with high-intensity maneuvering, there were painful losses.

The report placed this at the top of its list—because of the uncertainty on the battlefield, the longer the vehicle members stayed around a faulty vehicle, the greater the risk. In the absence of tools and a good environment for repairs, the most two people could do was deal with a flat tyre, leakages, and other simple failures. They were virtually helpless when it came to suspension and transmission systems in which problems occur relatively easily. So only the Magic Cubes could be unloaded in the majority of broken-down steam-powered trucks, the truck would then be abandoned on the battlefield.

Over fifteen trucks had already been lost since the demons' launch of their full-on attack. Had it not been for the maintenance of the road that connected the north and the south, Roland suspected that Edith would have moved all of the vehicles to Wolfheart.

To improve this situation, the First Army not only needed a dedicated support force, they also needed to establish repair and maintenance sites, just like the Aerial Knights. Field repair vehicles and tow trucks were unquestionably an essential part of the production schedule.

He once again acutely felt that if he wanted to place these huge machines into the battlefield, it would not be as simple as constructing them; the resources and money that they would consume were not something that a single Kingdom could withstand.

In addition to requesting more steam-powered trucks, the military's top brass had also expressed a strong desire for 75-millimeter cannons and general-purpose machine guns. Several accounts proved that their inclusion improved the firing skills and power of the First Army significantly, making them almost a perfect weapon if not for the heavy consumption of ammunition.

Roland was extremely moved by the conclusion of "an appearance of flattery but actually just a demand for money." Then he approved of the army's request.

When he reached the end of the reports, he saw a letter personally written by Tilly.

He guessed that the contents were similar to those of the military, either pressing for her own plane, or producing more 'Fire of Heaven' planes.

"Brother, long time no see."

"You have not forgotten your promise, have you?"

"Now that the demon's offensive has gradually weakened, we'll basically be able to peacefully live through the Months of Demons this year. I will make time to visit Neverwinter, I hope to see it's real appearance then.

As expected. Roland could not help but place his hand to his forehead. He knew it would turn into this.

Fortunately, the overall structure of her personal plane was now clear, and he really did need Tilly to come and verify if the new plane could be used.

But what Tilly wrote next was outside of his predictions.

Tilly took up great amounts of space to illustrate the insufficiencies of the 'Fire of Heaven' in real battle, even suggesting to temporarily suspend the production of 'Fire of Heaven' planes until improvements were made. The biggest problem among them was the two-seater.

After summarizing all the Aerial Knight conclusions and battle results, she discovered that only one of sixty-five Devilbeasts which were taken down was done by the backseat shooter.

The reason was obvious: in close combat, the enemy did not need to initiate dogfights for long periods of time like biplanes. The Mad Demons' spear throws were equivalent to a crossbow with an elevation angle of -90 to 90 degrees, covering a span of 270 degrees in front of the crossbow. As long as there was enough distance, it could attack from the roof and belly of a 'Fire of Heaven.' In reality they often did go into these blind spots, causing the backseat shooters to be helpless.

Even if the enemy was within the range of the machine gun, it was difficult for the shooter to determine the relative distance of the target in the air without reference, coupled with the inability to predict the flight path of the aircraft, the hit rate from 100 meters away was pitifully low, and often they would return after firing all their bullets, without hitting even one enemy.

In the same way, when the 'Fire of Heaven' strafed ground targets, the backseat shooter could only have a brief opportunity to shoot when the plane pulled up.

But the weight of the crew, the weapons, the ammunition and protection of the cockpit could not be ignored. In order to adapt to the flight, the front and rear people had to complete a full set of pilot training, which made the backseat machine gun become a decorative item with a very low price–performance ratio. Tilly very bluntly suggested in her letter that it was more like a design error. If they eliminated the rear cockpit, not only would the number of Aerial Knight instantly double, but the weight saved could also be applied elsewhere.

Like more oil fuel.

Like a miniature bomb.

In short, even if there was no way to immediately produce an improved 'Fire of Heaven', at least the backseat should be sealed with skins.

After Roland closed the letter, he involuntarily revealed a bitter smile. He could imagine the appearance of Tilly complaining logically and plausibly. Although he was a little exasperated towards the huge amount of criticism being thrown at his design, Tilly's summary from actual combat summary was more worthy of being given priority in comparison to the reference materials in the Dream World.

Just as he was about to pull out the old 'Fire of Heaven' blueprints for revision, the phone with the Administrative Office label rang.

Roland picked up the receiver and very quickly heard the excited voice of Barov.

"Your Majesty, your Iron Towers Project is done."

Chapter 1347 - Producing the Silent Message

"Really?" Roland's mood instantly turned for the better. Barov's manner of speech clearly hinted that the installation of the facility was not that simple. "You heard the signal as well?"

This so-called 'Iron Towers Project' was the first step in Roland's wireless communication plan—to satisfy the requirements of having large antennas for the transmission of long-wavelength radio waves, the Ministry of Construction erected transmission towers nearly fifty meters tall between North Slope Mountain and Silver City. The majority of the transmission towers were simply long poles with thickness as wide as a grown man, and therefore looked like thin needles from afar. In addition of hydrogen-filled aerial marker balls that allowed extension or contraction of the metal wires, the antennas extended up to 100 meters.

The towers were not considered difficult to construct and the construction was of nothing noteworthy, but communications towers were considered systemic engineering. The crux of the project were the transceivers at the base of the towers. Under the course of debugging, multiple electromagnetic waves were unleashed. Fortunately, in the world where there were no interference, everything transmitted out was received clearly.

"Yes, Your Majesty," Barov replied enthusiastically. "It was as you have predicted, the system spontaneously produces some kind of magical response. It is just that… I'm unclear if Silver City was responsible for it."

"I believe that the answer to it will come very soon," Roland muttered to himself. "Inform the Head of the Administrative Office that we'll be leaving together, I don't think they would want to miss the chance of witnessing history being made."

…

After going through several years of development, North Slope Mountain was no longer the mining site of its past with a few narrow passageways. Wide cemented paths and railroad tracks were built on the slopes and passengers aboard trains could reach the peak in a matter of minutes.

Not far from the iron tower were a row of plain and simple single-story houses built up with red bricks, where icicles dangled from the corner of the low roofs. The grandeur of it was far from comparable to the new factories at the southern banks of the Redwater River. In terms of appearance, no one would ever link it to 'a new era.'

Inside the house, Anna instructed members of the Society of Wondrous Crafts as they underwent the last round of preparations. Upon seeing Roland, she surreptitiously gestured, stating 'everything is going smoothly' to him before continuing to immerse herself in her work.

Roland could not help but smile.

When the initial plans for electromagnetic waves were set in place, it incited a heated discussion in the Administrative Office. The majority of the people were well aware of the impact the project would usher into the human world—if information and news could be transmitted in real time, control over Neverwinter and their combat strength would see great improvements.

The telephone lines, aviation couriers and Sigil of Listening were evidence—under the combined usage of the three, the old noble factions of Graycastle never found the opportunity to regroup and make a comeback. Many of the officials previously believed that regaining their centralized state of power was a long and repeated process, but after being overthrown by the First Army, they never had the chance to stir up any waves. This was due to the fact that when pitted against highly effective information transmissions, the nobles would encounter the Second Army upon any signs of development, so much so that the police would step in and prevent them from having the space to develop.

But the telephone lines were wired after all. The latter two means of communication were related to magic power which the officials were barely able to comprehend. But the Iron Towers Project did not have any connecting lines and was theoretically even stronger than anything magic power could replicate. This was even more inconceivable. Although the textbooks in primary education introduced the basics of electromagnetic waves, the theory was intangible. With regards to something they could not see or touch, many were skeptical. In a sense, it was even more difficult to imagine compared to biplanes.

Of course, the debate did not affect actual progress. After all, too many oddities had appeared in Neverwinter under Roland's rule. Even if he were to suddenly announce that he had plans to ascend the Bloody Moon, the Administrative Office would still make an all-out effort for him.

But wireless communications was not Roland's specialization and he was not as certain in it as compared to his development in machines. The transmission equipment was a product built completely from the prototype of the Design Bureau of Graycastle and no one knew if it truly worked. When he saw Anna's gesture, he was no longer worried about losing in face of his subjects.

"Then, let's begin."

Roland held Anna's hand and guided her to the transmitter.

"Erm… Roland?"

"This is the fruit of the Ministry of Engineering's efforts and it is only natural that you are the first one to test it." He winked at Anna multiple times and replied. Despite being involved in the debugging process and having confirmed the feasibility of the project, only the official test would be recorded down in the annals.

"There is still the position of the receiver, which one of you wants to be the first to experience it?"

Barov and the others looked at each other and raised their hands simultaneously. "Your Majesty, let me have a go at it!"

After a round of debate, the old director relied on his experienced seniority and successfully came out on top. He became the one of the two participants involved in the "first" long-distance communications test.

In theory, the transmission of the telegraph could be completed with just one person, but the separation of sending and receiving to two individuals was more convenient for verification purposes. To people that had never come across wireless communications, the key point was on convincing them, could the other party over 100 kilometers away truly receive the message sent from here? The simplest method was to allow the unsuspecting receiver to relay the information known only to the sender.

After simply explaining the test method once, Roland got the chief guard to cover Barov's eyes. Anna drew three horizontal lines and two dots on a small blackboard - the horizontal line represented a long tone while the dot represented a short tone.

Anna pressed on the switch and sent the message after everyone verified the information on the blackboard.

'Three long tones, two short tones.'

The moment the electric circuit connected, blue sparks blossomed in the center.

As the switch was not connected to any buzzers, aside from the blue light, the room was completely silent.

Everyone subconsciously held their breaths. The light released was so faint that even those outside had difficulty witnessing it, much less Silver City which was a few hundred kilometers away.

Even Roland could not help but have goosebumps all over his body.

In that instant, he felt as though something had swept through his body.

Without a doubt, it was a misconception. Under low power amplification, electromagnetic waves were unable to affect the human body. But in his mind, he mapped out the scene vividly. The electric spark looked like a flash that died instantly, but the electric current sent out was oscillating between the inductor and capacitor. The oscillations per second capable of reaching up to millions of times caused the rapidly fluctuating electric field to spread out from the antenna and ground wire all directions.

In the silent world, it was the first silent message produced by man—no one could hear the sound, but it was louder and clearer than any other sound made.

Even after a few hundred kilometers, the transmission did not disappear and was recorded by the antenna in Silver City.

Two receivers welcomed the transmission.

After capturing the electromagnetic waves, the metal powder inside the glass tube of the ancient coherer coagulated which lowered the electrical resistance inside the circuit, allowing the originally dead light bulb to release a warm yellow light. Its largest use was to inform the receiver that there was a message reverberating in the sky.

The other machine was the galena detector. The galena detector did not require any external power source and was constantly on the receiving end. A piece of copper ore and a conducting wire formed a natural semiconductor that produces a weak electric current due to the radiation within, allowing the receiver to hear the sound produced with a telephone receiver.

When no frequencies are received, the galena detector emits a vague buzz instead of clear ticks, but maintained opened to receive transmitted frequencies accurately.

The next step was simply reversing the process.

Distance was no longer a problem, the frequency was as fast as light. In other words, it was light itself.

Anna repeated the message three times before putting the switch down.

According to the arrangement, if Silver City received the transmission, it would dispatch the exact same message. If it was done via the conventional letter, the time taken for the message to be sent back and forth was roughly five to seven days. By aerial courier, it required at least a day.

But right after Anna placed the switch down, a light appeared on the receiver.

The entire process took only a few seconds!

The crowd could not help but stir.

Oblivious to everything, the blindfolded Barov listened attentively before slowly jotting down the message he received.

When he took off the blindfolds and headset, he no longer needed to inquire about the results—the shock in everyone's shocked eyes was a self-evident answer.

On the paper were three horizontal lines and two dots!

Chapter 1348 - Coma

"Your Majesty, can I give it a try?" Kyle Sichi asked impatiently.

"Of course," Roland smiled and nodded, "You can be the one sending the message this time."

The Chief Alchemist pondered for a moment, then picked up a chalk and wrote down a string of characters of varying lengths which went up to more than 20 odd patterns. If the three horizontal lines and two dots were a coincidence, this long message basically eliminated the factor of luck

Barov remained as the receiver.

It was clear that he did not wish for the rare experience to end—without even waiting for Roland's order, he rushed to blindfold himself.

Electric arcs jumped within the circuit once again.

This time, the old director took a longer time as he listened attentively.

When his answer emerged on the piece of paper in front of everybody, they erupted into an enthusiastic round of applause!

There were two mistakes in the long line of 20 over characters, but there were no mistake in the numbers and was identical to Kyle's message!

It was impossible for this coincidence to be attributed to luck.

This meant that in those few seconds, information had been communicated between Neverwinter and Silver City—which explained why the old director knew the message Kyle sent.

"Your Majesty, what is the furthest distance the Iron Tower can send?" Barov asked excitedly.

"Theoretically, so long as you increase the output, even a few thousand kilometers wouldn't be a problem.

"You mean it can cover the entire territory of the Four Kingdoms?"

Hearing that, everyone could not help but engage in whispers.

"It isn't limited to that, it can even cover the entire Fertile Plains."

"For Graycastle to know of anything that occurs in Neverwinter in a second, this notion is truly inconceivable!"

"Indeed, if it weren't for the opportunity to witness this miracle, I will never dare believe that this is something achievable by Man…"

Barov was already pondering over questions at a deeper level.

"Your Majesty, if we are able to assign specific meanings to these codes, maybe we are able to achieve more complicated content, for example giving out instructions or a government decree…"

Upon witnessing the new invention, he immediately reflected on its utilization, it had to be said that Barov's knowledge and ideas were more advanced and extensive compared to his peers. Even at his old age, he was capable of keeping up with the rapidly rising Kingdom. Roland gave him a commending smile, "You are in the right direction, but my plan is to advance further from your idea."

"Are you saying that…"

"We will not be assigning symbols with specific connotations, but to effectively assign our current written language with corresponding symbols. This way, even if we can't hear human voice, we can still engage in real-time conversations."

After considering Roland's words, Barov's eyes lit up.

Obviously, he realized the enormous significance in the "new language".

As the world's language adopted a completely different phonetic system, it was impossible for Roland to completely copy the telegraphic codes from his world. However, the principle stayed the same, and they simply needed to spare some effort in formulating suitable code tables. With the code tables, any textual information could be transformed into its corresponding code and broadcast at the speed of light over the continent.

Roland already had plans as to the person responsible for creating the telegraph messages.

As the person responsible for recording information from both worlds, no one was more suitable than Scroll.

"Your Majesty…" Sirius Daly raised his hands eagerly, "Can I try this tele… graph machine?"

"Of course." Roland looked at the crowd. "If anyone else is interested, feel free to experience it yourself."

The higher-ups of Neverwinter immediately burst into a commotion. All of them lunged forward and the table with the equipment was soon surrounded.

Upon taking in this scene, Anna walked over to Roland and shook her head in amusement.

Roland naturally understood the meaning behind her smile. The spark-gap transmitter and galena receiver were merely the lowest tier of technology in the technological tree for wireless communications. The former was capable of sending messages over radio frequencies, while the latter could receive all sorts of information. The two appeared like a match made in heaven, but could only send and receive a set of information at any one point in time in the same region. In fact, after the spark-gap transmitter was superseded with the more advanced vacuum tube wireless equipment, its few unique features caused quite a momentary stir due to disruption in radio reception. As such, its effects could only be considered average.

Furthermore, the system required a large number of counterpoise wires and transmission power; therefore the space it occupied and weight were difficult to reduce. The system was destined to only be set up in a small number of important cities.

By the time the vacuum tube prototypes were ready, they would be capable of directly disseminating voice messages without disrupting broadcast and transmission-receiving. That will be when wireless communications truly reached its peak.

Who knew what kind of surprised expressions they would reveal when the time came.

He knew that Anna was anticipating that.

It had to be said that the two of them were extremely similar based on this point.

While everyone were testing and "conversing" with Silver City in zest, Roland suddenly felt an intense dizzy spell affecting his mind.

It came so abruptly that everything inside the room became double in his eyes. He subconsciously closed his eyes in an attempt to suppress the spreading of the dizzy spell, but his body seemed to have lost its center of mass.

Anna was the first to sense the change in him. She extended her hand out and grabbed his arm. "Roland, are you alright?"

I'm fine… Roland wanted to give that reply, but a violent fit of coughing came out when he opened his mouth. He closed his mouth and swallowed the pungent yet sweet taste in his throat.

Hell, what is going on?

His eyelids closed quickly, as though their weighed a hundredweight. His palms were covered with bright red specks which stood out as highly disparate from his surroundings. Despite trying his best to remain clear-headed, his consciousness was quickly slipping away from him. Anna seemed to be crying out something, but aside from the hubbub of noises, he could not hear anything.

He lost control over his body and fell backwards. The last scene that entered his vision was Nightingale's silhouette and the Mist that quickly extended outwards.

…

When Roland opened his eyes, he realized that he was back in his bedroom.

"His Majesty is awake!"

Even before he got up, Scroll who was by his side had already alerted the others.

A series of rushed footsteps followed and, in a blink of an eye, Anna appeared by the bed. Clearly, she had been in the room all this time and had not gone far from him.

"How do you feel?" She leaned over and placed her hand over his forehead and asked gently, "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"

"Hmm…" Roland focused on taking in everything for a moment. "No. I feel extremely light, as though I have just taken a long nap. My mind feels much better than usual."

Seeing the two doubtful gazes fixated on him, he spread out his hands helplessly. "It's true, except…"

"Except what?" Anna and Scroll questioned him in unison.

"Except that I'm slightly hungry…" Roland rubbed his tummy. "How long have I been asleep for?"

Anna's expression finally relaxed. "About six hours. It is the shortest coma you've had. I'll inform the kitchen to prepare something. But… are you truly alright?"

"I couldn't feel better." Roland shrugged his shoulders. "Right, where's Nightingale, she can immediately determine if I am speaking the truth or consoling you."

Just as he finished his sentence, Nightingale appeared from shadows. She did not approach the bed, nor did she reply immediately. She remained silent for a long while before nodding her head, "… His Majesty is speaking the truth."

"See?" Roland smiled. Indeed, he did not feel out of sorts, and what he said was the truth, but Nightingale's reply was much slower compared to ordinary days. Although he felt something off about it, he did not probe further. "As to why I fainted, maybe it's simply because I didn't have sufficient rest?"

Chapter 1349 - Time

His explanation was somewhat forced, but Anna and Scroll were unable to find more problems in such a short amount of time.

After waking up, be it his body temperature, breathing, or pulse, everything was extremely normal, to the point that even Roland himself could not make sense of it. The dizzy spell came without warning and seemed to suddenly sever a part of his consciousness. He had no recollection of moving from North Slope Mountain back to the castle.

While being examined, he took the opportunity to learn about what happened after he fainted from Scroll.

A few of them heard Anna's cry but never witnessed the scene of Roland falling. The moment Roland lost consciousness, Nightingale had pulled him into the Mist with her. Anna explained that her cry was due to her slipping and barely managed to conceal the situation and got through the event without mishap.

As to where His Majesty had gone, everyone was actually unaware of it. After all, everyone knew of Nightingale's strength and it was close to impossible to hurt Roland when he was in her hands. Therefore, with her guarding him, Roland did not require personal guards. Additionally, The King of Graycastle did not need to report his movements to them, and it was perfectly normal for him to leave after having a successful trial of the wireless communications.

This was the reason why only Anna, Scroll, and Nightingale were the only people around him after the incident. Even the other members of the Witch Union were unaware of what had happened.

At this point, Roland finally felt relieved.

It had to be said that Nightingale made the best choice at that crucial moment. All of Graycastle matters were related to him and they had to withstand the powerful enemies at the borders. Everyone had to maintain their high morale together and focus on the war. If news of him falling spread, it would definitely lead to instability. Even if it was just a short coma, people would speculate on the condition of his body.

The best way to handle the situation was to act as if nothing happened.

"It was all thanks to you." Roland smiled at Nightingale.

Unexpectedly, the latter did not use the opportunity to request for a few bottles of Chaos Drinks like she usually did. She lowered her head and replied, "No, it's nothing… as long as you're fine."

After he finished the food delivered from the kitchen, it was just past eight in the evening.

Roland's initial plan of returning to his office to redesign the 'Fire of Heaven' was put to a halt by Anna, who insisted that a sick person had to rest well and forced him to return to bed. Helpless, he obediently listened to her and even canceled the planned trip to the Dream World. After all, the sudden coma made him a little worried. Due to the prior incident which was caused largely due to overwork, Roland figured that resting was not a bad thing.

After wishing him a good rest, the three walked out of the room.

Once the door was closed, the room was instantly shrouded by darkness, leaving only the faint city lights outside the window, barely lighting up a small piece of glass through the cracks of the window curtains.

After fifteen minutes, Roland heard rustling sounds.

Inside the quiet room where no wind was present, the velvet curtains swayed gently.

Roland tilted his head and looked over. A shadow had appeared by the window and blocked the only source of light. From his position, the light shone and drew a thin silver outline on the silhouette.

Such a sight gave him a baffling sense of reminiscence.

Roland sat up and spoke unsurprised, "Can you now tell me what exactly happened?"

The shadow walked to the window and revealed a head of beautiful curled hair.

It was Nightingale.

"You knew that I would come back?" She was startled.

"You're never like this." Roland smiled and shook his head. He retrieved a glowing magic stone from under his pillow and inserted it into a light groove. A gentle and warm light instantly lit up the entire room. "Your expression just now literally had your emotions written all over your face."

"Then, Anna, she…." Nightingale subconsciously covered her face.

"I'm guessing that she noticed it as well? That was why she left me in the bedroom." Roland released a sigh. "But since she did not take the initiative to ask, it means she has agreed tacitly to your judgment—if you find that it is inappropriate for others to know about it, she wouldn't get to the heart of the matter."

This was undoubtedly a form of trust.

A complicated expression appeared in Nightingale's eyes.

"To be honest, I'm curious as well," Roland continued, "I feel comfortable all over and I don't feel anything out of sorts. Those won't fabricated lies to console all of you, and I truly feel this way. You can clearly see that, but why are you still so worried? What's on your mind?"

Nightingale looked down, "The ones who knew you fainted, isn't restricted to just the three of us."

"Not just the three of you?"

"Nana isn't in Neverwinter, and Lily can't heal this problem, and no one was able to make a judgment on your situation at that time." Nightingale spoke slowly, "In a moment of desperation, I thought of someone… although she is helpless regarding the specifics of your illness, she was still able to provide a holistic answer. Hence, I concealed her from Anna and brought her into the room."

"You're talking about…"

"Momo."

Roland's heart jumped. Momo was indeed an excellent choice. Revealing his life expectancy itself would indicate many issues. It went without saying that Nightingale had matured greatly, being able to think so clearly despite a chaotic situation and finding the appropriate ways to handle the situation. But thinking about how she had a load on her mind, he faintly sensed that the conclusion was not good.

"What did Momo see?"

"…..14." Nightingale looked at him for a long while before whispering, "The number changed from 17 to 14."

"It decreased… by three years?" Roland could not help but frown. It was outrageous. If his condition had worsened due to an illness, there would have been warnings. But he was truly brimming with energy and did not have any signs of pain.

Nightingale seemed to see through his thoughts. "It isn't an illness, or fatigue… I went through the criminals in the mining area, but none of the samples tallied to your issue. To have three years cut short in just a few months isn't normal; otherwise, in the past four to five years, your time would have already decreased by 30 to 40 years. This is most probably due to something recent."

Her explanation sounded extremely plausible. Roland stroked his chin. "But I haven't encountered anything special during this time…"

"No, there is one." Nightingale leaned over, "Maybe you didn't notice it yourself, but I'm most aware of it. In the past few months, the number of times that you have entered the Dream World increased by several times as compared to before. Aside from this, I can't think of any other reason!" She extended her hand and grabbed Roland's, her tone fluctuating. "Promise me, stop going into the Dream World, alright!?"

Enlightened, Roland could not help feeling shocked. That's right, the greatest variable in the past few months has been the Dream World—the crux was not about the frequency of entry, but the absorption of the Force of Nature cores. According to Lan, the magic power of the Dream World would constantly expand until it invaded God's Territory. He did not know what the end result would look like, but could clearly feel that the world was going through some sort of self-enriching process.

And being closely related to the creator, it was justifiable when the pressure on him increased substantially.

Upon thinking about it, when Lan solemnly mentioned "we don't have much time," perhaps it was not about the Divine Will, but implying about Roland's own situation.

Chapter 1350 - A Newcomer

"Maybe you're right." Roland spoke after a long silence, "But we're already at a stage where the Dream World is directly influencing Neverwinter's rapid growth, I can't… and shouldn't close off this channel."

Especially with Scroll evolving into a Transcendent, the Dream world's significance became unprecedentedly important—every trip Scroll made would bring about immeasurable knowledge to humanity. What's more, there was Zero, Garcia, Defender Rock… It was impossible for Roland to treat them as figments of his own imaginations. Even without Lan, Roland was unwilling to give up on the Dream World.

Nightingale clenched her fists tightly. "What about me?"

Roland was startled. "What…"

"What about me!" Nightingale's volume increased a notch with a trace of quivering, "If your time continues dropping, you'll only have a few years before you—" Nightingale bit her lip and struggled with the latter half of her sentence. "Anna and I agreed on it before; I am also willing to abide by it, but if that day ever comes, I—what do I do?"

Roland raised his hand and gently stroked her pale white lip. "That is why I have to enter the Dream World to end all of this. You know, the numbers isn't all about increasing or decreasing, it represents a trend, or an outcome. If we can uncover the Origin of Magic's essence, we can most probably eliminate all of the negative influences from the Realm of Mind. On the contrary, if we were to avoid it, who knows if it might become even more severe. If we wait until then to think of something, it'll be too late."

If Lan's warning turned out to be true, the Oracle's patience would be at its limits,and could simply decide to destroy everything at any time. The Fallen Evils and the Oracle's more frequent appearance seemed to have proved this point.

He had to take the risk.

"But…"

"I promise not to let such a thing happen." Roland spoke earnestly.

Nightingale stared at him for a long time. "No matter what?"

"No matter what." He nodded his head.

She no longer said anything as her body gradually faded away until she completely disappeared into the Mist. Roland kept the magic stone into the drawer and allowed the darkness to occupy every corner of the room. The glimmer from the window regained its luster, and it felt like nothing ever happened.

But he knew that it was not a hallucination.

The warm touch on his left hand never faded away—until he fell asleep.

…

"Didi, you have an unopened text message."

"Didi, you have an unopened text message."

"Who is it? To be sending so many text messages?" Fei Yuhan packed the last bit of her luggage. "Could it be from the Association?"

"You can say that…" Valkries opened up the text message bitterly, clenched her teeth, and closed it again. If not for the meticulous control over her strength, the toy in her hand would had shattered into pieces.

"Not bad."

"What do you mean, not bad?"

"That person has foresight." Fei Yuhan smiled and put on a pair of down gloves. "Didn't you notice that in the entire Martial Artist Duel, the number of times he had his sight on you was only second to mine? But the majority of people only dared to look; to summon the courage and take the initiative to send you a text message, that deserves praise. If there's time, why not introduce us."

"It isn't what you think it is," Valkries replied with a hint of anger. After recovering from her wounds and being discharged, her relation with Fei Yuhan allowed them to stay in the same house because of the division of groups. Their bedrooms were connected to a large living room, and any movements could be heard by the other clearly.

Valkries did not have any objections with this and was even glad for it. After all, she was in an unfamiliar world and the more people she interacted with increased the chance of her revealing her identity. Fei Yuhan had helped her plenty ever since visiting her in the hospital, and thus, the anger was not directed to her.

It was to the person who sent the text message.

Without a doubt, the small box in her hand, hailed as the cellphone, was a magical treasure. Through it, one could gain access to all sorts of information, and was a true encyclopedia as compared to hard printed books. After being taught by Fei Yuhan on how to use the "communication device," she was unable to put down the cellphone.

But it had its shortcomings, such as how exceptionally annoying the object would become if others learned of the phone number. What made it worse was that she could not simply block the other person.

"In any case, you don't have to care about this." Valkries rubbed her forehead lightly. Having lost her third eye magic stone made her feel as though something was missing. "Are you heading out now?"

"Yes, the Association has recently recruited someone new, Mr. Defender wants me to meet her."

"A newcomer?" Valkries frowned. Naturally, she knew of Fei Yuhan's unique position in the Martialist Association and was aware that Fei Yuhan had no need to receive newcomers.

"That's right, but I will be her master from now on." The other party laughed, then waved her hands and walked out of the main doors.

Master…

Valkries pondered for a moment as the Transformer appeared in her mind.

Her emotional state lasted for a second before being cut short by the buzzing of the cellphone.

"Didi, you have an unopened text message."

"Didi, you have an unopened text message."

This guy!

She clenched her fists and took a long time to restrain herself before opening the box.

|Sender: Roland. Your infiltration squad suffered attacks from my army in the Kingdom of Wolfheart and its frontline was utterly defeated. Your casualty numbers are approaching a hundred thousand. You've lost a few giant skeletons capable of manufacturing the Red Mist, and there has been no signs of the Sky Lord. Could it be that he was frightened away by my cannons? Also, where is the Senior Lord? If they continue to hide away, your vanguard unit will have to be buried in Wolfheart.|

|Sender: Roland. We discovered the obelisk at the ridge of the continent in Blackstone and attacking it is something that will happen sooner or later. What do you think will happen if we were to drop a bomb into that large pit? Although it is a little far off, we have already developed flying machines capable of navigating long distances. If we can't end the Battle of Divine Will early, the same thing will repeat, until Blackstone Region becomes a volcano incapable of being extinguished. I hope you can understand this point.|

|Sender: Roland. On a side note, after being in the Dream World for so long, you should understand how advanced and powerful human weapons can be? And there is still the peak of the mountain—The Glory of the Sun. We have recently carried out a theoretical experiment and it is just a step away from the finished product. How long more do you want to consider?|

Valkries would obtain a few of such messages everyday, either about the war or the latest results of Humanity's research. Initially, Valkries was able to maintain silence, neither accepting or returning any messages. But after staring at the phone this time, she slowly keyed in a reply.

|Where are you? Let's meet.|

…

|Where are you? Let's meet.|

The same message appeared on Fei Yuhan's phone.

Not bad, seems like new information about the other world is about to appear. She closed her screen delightfully and knocked on the doors of Mr. Defender's office.

"Come in." A calm and steady voice sounded from the inside.

"Yes sir."

Once the doors were pushed open, she immediately noticed a slightly anxious young lady seated at the small side table. The other party had long white hair, an average stature and did not have much fluctuations from the Force of Nature. With regards to her foundation of being an Awakened, it could be said that she was not outstanding.

But that was not the point.

It was a quick and simple glance as Fei Yuhan quickly recovered her calm and quiet demeanour. She turned towards Mr. Defender and greeted him, "Your Excellency."

"Okay, you should know why you're here today." Rock drank a mouth of tea at a leisurely pace, "Now that she is here, I have to ask, what is your reason for taking her as a disciple? After all, it is your first time taking the initiative to request something from the Association."

"Most probably… because I wish to have something to do?" Fei Yuhan replied indifferently.

Rock was stunned for a moment. Soon after, he clasped his hands together and broke out into a laugh, "Hahaha… it is truly your style. But regardless of anything, it is good deed, especially with Prism City's anxious need to replenish its strength." He looked at the young lady by the side. "Let me introduce the two of you. This is Fei Yuhan, recognized by the Association as a talented martial artist. Although she looks unapproachable, she is an extremely responsible person. She will be your master, and will aid you greatly from here on out."

"This lady here, is the new Awakened that is residing at Roland's home—"

"Zero." Fei Yuhan extended her hand out to the girl and smiled. "Welcome to the Martialist Association."

Chapter 1351 - Crushed

The meeting place was the same as before.

Even the selected seats did not change much.

Valkries walked into the cafe and immediately noticed Roland seated by the windows. It looked as though the flourishing human city was formed as an extension beneath him like his shadow. This sight made her have the illusion that he was of divinity and was unapproachable.

Valkries shook her head and put these thoughts behind her.

"I'm here."

She sat opposite Roland.

"What do you want to eat?" Valkries shook her head, to which Roland responded by getting the waiter's attention. "If that's the case, then we'll have one of everything. We can talk and eat at the same time."

Coffee and pastries were served quickly. Valkries did not express any signs of rejection and very automatically took a small piece of cake and placed it into her mouth. She carefully tasted the sweetness and soft texture of the cake, as though this meeting was not a negotiation between enemies, but a tea party to enjoy delicious snacks.

"There's something different about you," Roland looked at her and said.

"I've thought about it; eating and talking at the same time isn't that bad." Valkries answered casually. She had been too passive at their first encounter and was practically led by the nose, she told herself that it would not happen again. She could very well imagine the pleased look on his face every time he sent the text messages, but she had endured it long enough and could not allow for it to continue.

"Alright." Roland smiled. "You finally replied me, so did you come to a conclusion?"

Valkries nodded her head.

"What is your answer?"

"I refuse."

She caught a hint of surprise and puzzlement on Roland's face. It appeared as though he did not expect such a direct refusal as his constantly calm and composed expression finally cracked. The atmosphere between the two seemed to congeal. Fixed in the same position with cup in hand, Roland took quite a while before bringing the cup to his mouth. At the same time, he smoothened his frown.

"… What is your reason for refusing?"

"The fifty-fifty decision truly sounded reasonable. Compared to the continuation of the race, the front line army amounts to nothing. We can't avoid paying the price to prevent our world from being eradicated. To be honest, I was almost convinced by you." Valkries placed another piece of pastry in her mouth, "It is a pity… everything you said must stem from it being a fact to have meaning."

"I AM speaking the truth!" Roland replied solemnly, it was the first time his tone of speech had changed.

"But I am unable to verify your truth."

"…" Roland suddenly became quiet.

"You've realized this too, right? I'm stuck in this world and all information regarding the outside world comes from you. Regardless of it being the news of the front line army in the Kingdom of Wolfheart being forced to retreat in defeat or the supposed 'Glory of the Sun.' I can't even verify its progress, much less make a decision based on these groundless information."

"I thought you would be smarter than this. After staying in the Dream World for so long and judging humanity's war potential from history documents, isn't the end result that obvious to—"

"Potential doesn't represent strength," Valkries retorted. "That's right, humanity has displayed powerful strength; otherwise, Ursrook would have never seen you as equals! But at the same time, the majority of our forces are being held up by the Sky-sea Realm. If someone realizes that we have to give up on one side, humanity may not be able to withstand the full force of my race's assault!"

She paused for a moment. "After investigating your roots, I have come to realize that the upgrade humanity has obtained isn't the upgrade of a civilization. Maybe it might bring about effects akin to the fragment in centuries, but as to where the current times are leaning towards, I can't make a judgment. So you no longer need to send me more of your news from now on."

Roland wanted to say something, but held back his words at the last moment.

Valkries looked out the windows and took in the glorious human city. It could even be said that this meeting was an opportunity for her to vent her resentment and finally cause the other party's unruffled personality to dissipate and replace it with an obvious disappointment.

But she did not sense the joy she anticipated. The threat from God still existed and "Transformer" Heathtalese's warning had not been resolved. If the other party was right, then rejecting the 50-50 choice was not the best solution.

But she was unable to make the decision to go against her race just based on humanity's account. Doing so could be considered even more negligent. Comparing the two, She would rather pick the former.

Even if her decision would bring about a great deal of danger.

Valkries swallowed the last slice of cake and feigned a relaxed state. "Thank you for your hospitality, I will miss this taste in the future."

"If you wish to have it, we can just arrange for another day." Roland shook his head. "You don't have to make it sound as though this is the last dinner."

"…" Valkries was startled, she had thought of all the possible reactions from Roland's disappointment—from resentment and hostility, to disdain and sarcasm—but it did not include this reality. Since she declined the proposal, it was not surprising if Roland found an opportunity to kill her. After all, she was still a senior lord and part of the race that was humanity's greatest enemy.

"I'll make a move first." Roland took a deep breath, stood up, and walked towards the exit of the cafe. "I will continue sending news to you. Even if you wish to avoid them, they are the truth."

This guy—did he even hear what I said!

Valkries could no longer tolerate it and asked, "What're your plans now?"

"My plans?" Without even turning his head, he said, "My plans have never changed—to uncover the secrets of the Origin of Magic and end the Battle of Divine Will completely, regardless of what you choose to do."

Is he still pretending or are those his true thoughts?

The scene of their previous meeting appeared in Valkries's mind, to the point where Roland asked her the last question.

Do you think that the Transformer from a thousand years ago did the wrong thing?

…

"What are your thoughts on the Martialist Association?" Fei Yuhan held on the steering wheels and asked.

After driving over a freeway ramp, they drove up a bridge expressway. There were only a few vehicles on the bridge and their horizon was filled with the endless penetrative and gleaming river that extended through their vision.

This bridge was the dividing line between the city and suburban district. Basically, one had to travel on the bridge to get from Green Meadows Sanatorium to the apartments.

"Hmmm… It isn't what I thought it was." Compared to the scenery, Zero seemed to be more interested in the interior of the vehicle. She would pinch the soft car seats, or raise the volume of the radio. Her ruby-like eyes moved around the car incessantly.

"Oh? What did you think the Association would be like?"

"More… more mysterious, and not like a hotel right by the road," Zero pouted and replied.

"The base in Prism City is exactly as what you've described, but there has been trouble over there recently, that is why we have temporarily shifted over here." Fei Yuhan chuckled. In front of the young girl, she did not have to pretend to be indifferent and maintain her aloofness. "My next question is on a different topic, about your personal experience when you visited the park previously. After all, for you to learn how to control the Force of Nature, you'll be staying in the sanatorium for a long period of time. If you have any requests in terms of your lifestyle, feel free to ask Master."

The little girl did not reply immediately and instead turned her head and asked, "Is Uncle Roland working here as well?"

"That's right. But he may not have the time to accompany you everyday."

"I know that," Zero said with a pout. "He has many sisters to take care of, he is constantly working late nights without stopping."

The car suddenly revved and charged ahead.

Fei Yuhan quickly retracted her right feet that had stepped onto the wrong pedal and acted as though nothing had happened. She coughed out twice for that was shocking news! Despite her suspicions that those astonishingly beautiful girls might belong to another world, it suddenly dawned upon her that she might had overlooked it, but they were the ones who addressed him as "His Majesty"!

That's right, as a king, having a harem was not incomprehensible. She made another wild guess. Was it because of their close relationship with the world's creator, Roland, that they then have the ability to step into this world?

Taking the initiative to accept Zero as a disciple was the right choice. She believed that with Valkries and Zero, she would slowly ascertain the other world's secrets.

Wait… by thinking so, if I want to visit the 'reality', don't I have to…

"Master, Master… are you alright?"

Zero called out a few times before pulling Fei Yuhan out of her daze. "No, it's nothing, please continue."

"That is why I chose to be a Martial Artist! By doing so, I have more time to see Uncle Roland." Zero concluded, "So no matter how the Martialist Association is, I will persevere!"

Fei Yuhan laughed involuntarily.

Alright, that is truly a naive reason.

Naive, but persevering.

Fei Yuhan initially believed that the young girl would require a long time to adapt after leaving her familiar abode, but realized that she had overthought.

You are far more mature than I thought.

"Relax, the transfer and enrollment will take at least another week. The Association also allows vacations, you don't have to see the Martialist Association as being difficult. When we return, make sure to say goodbye to your friends—" Fei Yuhan suddenly noticed something peculiar midway in the conversation.

A freight wagon on the opposite lane suddenly leaned to its left, colliding into the partition in the middle and toppling over.

She instantly hit the brakes and swerved to the right.

But in the next second, the giant freight crushed the partition like a large wall caving inwards. The road was instantly sealed shut while the vehicles that were caught in the accident were rammed aside like scattered and smashed pieces of paper. It was impossible for any survivors to escape.

Everything happened so quickly, as though there was not enough time to react—

Following the loud bang, the vehicle the two were in collided head on into the freighter!

Due to the vehicle being turned abruptly towards the right, the body of the car was sent flying horizontally and the violent impact instantly tore the vehicle apart, deflating the entire driver seat.

Chapter 1352 - I Will Protect You

Zero crawled out of a broken window with wounds all over her body.

The shiny and brand new vehicle was destroyed and looked no different than a pile of rags—the steel frame of the vehicle was distorted to the point of resembling a fried dough fritter, the body had shrunk by half, as alternating black and yellow engine oil leaked out and emitted a pungent smell.

The accident was so severe that no ordinary human could survive it. If not for the protection from the Force of Nature, she would have been turned into minced meat along with the vehicle.

Zero endured the pain and stood up with great effort. The bridge was in complete disorder; vehicle parts were scattered all over and the truck was overturned not far from where she stood, completely sealing the road. Zero turned her head and discovered that multiple cement mixers had sealed off their rear. Even if their vehicle had avoided the accident, it was impossible for them to leave.

If it was purely an unexpected accident, the drivers behind would had long gotten out of their vehicles to rescue the others. But from the time the accident occurred till she managed to get out of her vehicle, not a single person was seen. The entire bridge was dreadfully quiet.

If it had been any other day, she would already be in tears. But at that moment, teardrops welled by the rim of her eyes while her body trembled incessantly. She clenched her teeth tightly and disallowed her tears from falling.

Zero had frequently heard her uncle mention that the Fallen Evils targeted people who had awakened their Force of Nature; therefore, the entire accident could have been a premeditated ambush.

I can't let the enemies see that I am weak.

Not only was that useless, but that would also worsen her situation.

She was no longer a child of yesteryear, but an awakened Martial Artist!

"Creak."

A harsh sound caused by friction broke the silence.

The roof of the flipped over truck was torn apart from within. A figure donning a mask walked out of the driver seat.

To be able to rip apart the metallic vehicle with his bare hands and come out of the devastating car accident unharmed, it was clear that the person was not ordinary.

Zero subconsciously stuck close to the ruined vehicle behind her.

Through the mask, she seemed to sense a bone-penetrating cold intent that shot up from the soles of her feet. She could not see the person's eyes; yet, she could sense his converged attention on her, like a viper that had locked onto its prey.

"This is the target? She looks like a little brat that hasn't even gone through puberty." Two 'monsters' appeared on top of the truck. One was still barely passable as a human with deformed arms and legs, but the other had wings and fangs like the gargoyles of legends.

But Fallen Evils had the possibility of transformation; thus, their evolution into such a state was not something strange. The red cyclones coruscating on their chests were obvious signs that the two were Fallen Evils.

"There wasn't a need to mobilize so many people for this little brat. We can just find an opportunity to bite her and she will not even have the opportunity to cry for help. It would be better for me to help Master Oracle to take her life—" The Fallen Evil that resembled a gargoyle unleashed a bizarre laugh and extended its wings, ready to pounce onto Zero at any moment.

The one who stopped it was the masked person.

The latter merely lifted a finger and pointed downwards when the gargoyle was instantly smashed onto the ground by an invisible force. The impact was so huge that cracks appeared on the bridge!

"Imbecile, who allowed you to take action?" the masked person spoke coldly. "You have no idea what you're dealing with."

"Master, isn't she… a Martial Artist that has just awakened recently?" the long-armed monstrosity asked.

"That's right, but she isn't any ordinary Martial Artist. All you see is her weak cyclone, but I can see the radiant light around her entire body." The masked man bowed towards the little girl. "Am I right? World Creator—Miss Zero?"

What did it… just say?

World… Creator?

Zero gulped a mouthful of saliva. "I think you've gotten the wrong person."

"So you're oblivious to this." The masked person was first startled before laughing out loud. "Regardless, everything will end soon enough. Before that, let me introduce myself. I am the emissary of the Deities, Delta. I come from the place you call 'Erosion.'"

"You want to kill me?"

"To kill is inaccurate, I am merely on the orders of the Deities, to put everything back on the right track and return all the stolen power back to its source. Your current world is part of it."

"Master Oracle… we're not killing her?" The gargoyle struggled up from the ground, with a look of confusion on its face.

"Not now." Delta replied, "As a Martial Artist, she is nothing of value. But never look down on a Creator, especially when we are in her territory. Your blind actions will only wreck our plans. To suit the regulations, the power that I am able to exhibit now is insufficient, yet she holds endless power. So before doing anything, we have to sever the connection between her and the world. That is how we can ensure absolute success. We can't delay for too long, cracks will form soon."

At this moment, Zero finally realized that the overcast sky was riddled with translucent lines that formed rhombuses folding towards the center of the bridge. Aside from the rhombuses, the scenery was gradually shifting, as though they were teleporting elsewhere.

"Relax, ever since you entered the bridge, you no longer had the chance to escape—all of those foolish and logic-minded people thought that the Martial Artist Association was our target, what a joke! The more people they send, the more flaws in their defenses appear."

Delta raised both of his hands outwards. "Beneath this bridge are over a thousand hidden cores, which the Martialist Association has no knowledge of! It is from the power supplied by these cores that I am able to pull this area into the overlapping crack between the two worlds. In this crack, all the Realm of Mind territories will be interfered by the Deities, and it will not bring you any help. This is where we will fight it out on equal grounds until one side returns to the source!"

Right when he concluded, the veins in the sky coincidentally converged together. The outside world instantly dimmed and finally turned to darkness. The bridge that had lost its light source plunged into darkness, but as the world was forcefully torn apart, the light that originally belonged remained and illuminated every corner of the crack.

"Now you can do what you wanted to do," the masked man said.

The two Fallen Evils looked at each other and moved simultaneously, one ahead and the other behind as they charged at Zero—

Zero grabbed onto the frame of the vehicle and remained stationary. To anyone witnessing the scene, it looked like she had been stunned silly.

The young girl was truly harboring a large amount of fear in her, especially when the enemy opened their hideous and sinister mouths and appeared inches away from her—if not for Fei Yuhan's repeated warnings, it would have been difficult for her to even remain standing.

Her mind was in a blank, but she remembered two things.

In the instant when the accident happened, her master had turned the car completely horizontal and flipped the driver seat down horizontally as they collided into the truck. At the same time, she took Zero into her embrace. A bright and white light instantly enveloped her and softened the entire process as the sky and earth turned upside down.

The second thing was the words spoken along with the warm light.

"Don't stray too far away from the vehicle, stand up straight and face the enemies.

"I will protect you."

Even when the gargoyle Fallen Evil was biting down at Zero, she never took half a step back!

It was also right at this moment when a dazzling and silver light shot out from the distorted vehicle and beheaded the enemy from top down. The instant the light flickered, the Fallen Evil in front froze in its spot as a split appeared from the top of its head and spread downwards, splitting its body into two perfect pieces.

Chapter 1353 - Enemy of the World

The long-armed Fallen Evil immediately altered its direction as it leaped to its side and directed two fists forward!

Both of its arms suddenly extended to its limit, unexpectedly stabbing into the vehicle that was a few meters away from it. The power of the punches actually produced two large holes in the vehicle!

If anyone was hiding inside, they would have definitely taken a direct hit.

This was also the attack which the long-armed Fallen Evil was most proud of.

The ability to extend and retract its limbs, coupled with its inexhaustible strength, allowed it to deal with an Awakened without the use of the Force of Nature. Few of the Martial Artists whom it had killed were unable to react before it attacked. Every single one of them died with expressions of disbelief written all over their faces, which was a source of pleasure for the long-armed Fallen Evil.

But the instant it hit its target, the Fallen Evil's expression changed drastically.

Beneath the vehicle which was flung away revealed the figure of a woman.

Her posture did not resemble a person that had been heavily punched and instead she was kneeling calmly amidst the chaos, her body was leaning forward, clearly prepared to engage.

The Fallen Evil believed that it had a quick reaction, but the other party was obviously faster.

Much faster!

The dancing silver light blossomed from her hands once again and formed a rapidly revolving whirlpool—not only did the ray of light shatter the vehicle into pieces, but it even crushed the Fallen Evil's arms!

The long-armed Fallen Evil unleashed a blood-curdling shriek and struggled to retreat. With great difficulty, it struggled free from the whirlpool.

But the arms it retracted were only the biceps and shoulders. The pungent and putrid smell from the pus and blood splashed onto the floor along with dices of meat.

In that quick exchange, two mutated Fallen Evils that were extremely troublesome for martial artists were either dead or heavily injured.

"Is your so-called equal grounds having three men to bully one little girl?" Fei Yuhan raised her hand and dissipated the glaring light, revealing a simple and unadorned sword. "I think the current situation is barely enough to be called equal grounds."

"Master…" Zero immediately moved towards her and held her hand.

"I already called your Uncle Roland, don't worry," Fei Yuhan winked at her and whispered.

"Ah?" She was startled. "But shouldn't we inform the Association about such things. Uncle can't fight like Sister Garcia, and he's seldom reliable. If he's here, won't he be too…"

"I'm afraid only he is the only one who can help us in this situation." Fei Yuhan stroked Zero's head. "And your most important mission now is to get as far away from here as possible, can you do that?"

The young girl wanted to speak, but under Fei Yuhan's gaze, she bit her lips, turned, and ran towards the lined boundary.

"Damn it, how were you unharmed from that collision?!" the long-armed Fallen Evil screamed in anger.

"It's simple, what you guys did." Fei Yuhan shrugged her shoulders as the Force of Nature enveloped her entire body.

The Fallen Evil's eyes constricted. "Channeling the force externally to render all ordinary damage ineffective? Isn't… that something only Defender-ranked Martial Artists can do!?" It sized her up in shock. "Could it be… you are the one the Martialist Association hail as the genius—"

"I don't find it strange, since even the lowest tier of Fallen Evils can do this, can't they?" Fei Yuhan replied nonchalantly, "As for you guys--I originally wanted to see how many of you are there before deciding on a response. Who would have thought that I would learn about such interesting information. I have to thank you guys because you have verified some suspicions that I have kept for a very long time."

"Master Oracle, this girl…" The long-armed Fallen Evil's expression became ugly as it lost all its malevolent aura from before, so much so that her glare made it retreat two steps back.

Delta raised his right arm and did a grab gesture towards the Fallen Evil—the latter's words were immediately caught in its throat as it froze on the spot, as though a large and invisible hand had clasped it tightly. The red cyclone at the center of its chest tore out from its back and flew towards the Oracle, bringing along pieces of bloodied flesh.

The long-armed monstrosity that had lost its core toppled over with a shocked expression. It was dead.

The gargoyle Fallen Evil suffered the same end; the cyclone at its chest rose into the air and converged towards Delta.

The cyclone started revolving again and transformed into a red mist that flowed into Delta's body.

"Cowards who fear their enemies do not deserve the luxury of God's power, your missions will come to an end here." Delta spoke monotonously, as though it was merely clearing out some trash. It looked at Fei Yuhan. "What a joke… Clearly the creators are the true targets that we should go for, yet they were misled and hoodwinked by a mere Martial Artist and even feared one. Could it be because they were once part of your team, or simply lack the foresight and fabricated the fear? It is precisely like you—"

It was at this instant that Fei Yuhan took action.

She was merely waiting for Zero to be safe and not listening to the other party's ramblings. Additionally, according to past experiences, the more someone acknowledged himself as a superior existence, the more furious he would be from having his words interrupted—having extreme mood swings was a factor that could influence a battle, and Fei Yuhan sought to use all sorts of opportunities to fight her opponent.

At that moment, the only judgment Fei Yuhan could make was that the masked man's strength was on a completely different level from the other two Fallen Evils. It wielded bizarre offensive means and thus, to prevent it from harming Zero, the best solution was to engage it with a tight barrage of attacks to seal off any action it could take!

She picked up a broken steel rod and tossed it at Delta with all her strength.

The latter had no choice but to shut up and struck the flying rod away with a palm strike.

At the same time, Fei Yuhan charged forward.

After grasping corporeal Force of Nature techniques, Fei Yuhan hardly carried any weapons on her, but that did not mean that weapons were useless. Weapons could save the wielder time by having the Force of Nature attached to it. This saved the time needed to think and could extend the offensive reach. As competitions prevented the use of weapons, very few knew that Fei Yuhan's sword attainments far surpassed that of her fists and legs!

Under the effects of the Force of Nature, even if the enemy was cast in steel, they would be easily sliced in half—

The sharp blade was stopped by an intangible ripple, preventing the blade from getting close to Delta.

Although it was intangible, it was impregnable!

Without a doubt, Delta was using power with the same origin as the Force of Nature.

Fei Yuhan maintained her attack stance, raised her left leg, and struck at the Oracle's waist.

This time, she felt her kick connect.

The kick sent the Oracle flying as it smashed into the truck container, causing the metallic surface to cave in.

He can't utilize his ability successively? That means… he requires both hands to utilize it?

Her mind worked quickly while there was no hesitation to her actions. Right of the heels of the kick, she charged towards the carriage.

In a few short seconds, Fei Yuhan had exchanged more than 10 blows with the enemy. The Oracle was cut a few times and had wounds all over its body, but these wounds that were fatal to ordinary humans could barely even affect its movement. It looked as though she was suppressing the enemy, but she was the only one aware that the enemy could not be defeated with such mere attacks.

Must I inflict a fatal wound somehow?

On the Oracle's body, the most suspicious thing was its mask. After trading blows with it, she noticed that it was extremely careful with its head's defenses.

Upon realizing this, Fei Yuhan intentionally slowed down her barrage of attacks, then retreated a step.

It was clear that she was breaking away from the combat embroilment.

Having gained the opportunity to take a breath, Delta extended its hands out without hesitation.

Fei Yuhan quickly stomped on the ground and charged towards it instead of retreating. She transformed herself into a sharp sword and thrust forward with a rapid impulse. Although the motion of instantly switching from retreat to advancement looked simple, it required extremely precise control over one's Force of Nature to be able to overcome the immense inertia. It could be said that merely relying on one's joints and torso could not accomplish such a feat. Only with an absolute control over one's Force of Nature could one complete the action fluidly. If she had delayed for even a moment, she would had been grabbed by Delta's invisible force. She was even able to sense the sharpness of the wind behind her.

Seizing the opportunity that the Oracle had missed, Fei Yuhan used all her strength to thrust out at its' mask.

"Crack!"

The mask with the strange decorative designs responded with a crack.

Yet she sensed something strange.

Logically, her thrust would not have stopped at the mask but pierce through its entire head.

She had not felt any obstruction when the stab occured. Even half of the blade had penetrated the Oracle's mask; yet, she did not see the blade tip protruding out at the back, as though the blade had disappeared into the enemy's head.

The moment the mask fell, Fei Yuhan gasped in shock.

On its head was pure darkness like a deep abyss. Inside the abyss, countless stars revolved slowly around the center, forming a large astrolabe. The sword in her hand had pierced into the astrolabe but had failed to set off the slightest ripple.

That's right, during the alliance mission, the monster that had appeared in the abandoned factory seemed to have the same thing—

The inconceivable scene caused Fei Yuhan to move a tad slower.

It was because of this momentary hesitation that prevented her from avoiding the Oracle's second attack.

The invisible force smashed into her side and sent her flying!

The Force of Nature could prevent ordinary harm, but was incapable of offsetting the attack from the same source of power.

Fei Yuhan felt her internal organs shift as the acute pain shot up her throat; yet, she was unable to scream it out. After tumbling multiple times on the ground, Fei Yuhan managed to stabilize herself. She used her blade as a support to stand, then opened her mouth and spat out a mouth of fresh blood!

Chapter 1354 - "You have to work slightly harder"

"When I said equal grounds, I wasn't referring to numbers, but to the rules."

Delta leaned forward, picked up the broken mask, and placed it back onto its face—the crack from the penetration of the sword became smaller and ultimately disappeared. It did not stop there; even Delta's tattered clothes and wounds recovered and he was restored to his initial self.

"Under the same rules, the creator no longer receives the protection of the territory, and us Oracles are restricted to using strength equal to that of the world—this is the essence of what I meant. As for the number of people or the advantages and disadvantages of the situation, it was all due to my meticulous planning, how is it not fair?"

"Heh…" Fei Yuhan wiped the blood off the corner of her mouth. "I don't believe that being fine after having your head bored through by a sword is considered under the rules."

"Regretfully, it is indeed carved into the lowest tier of the rules." Delta spread his hands out and walked towards her. "If you want to find someone to blame, blame Lan. As a betrayer to the Oracles, it left a tiny backdoor in this world—only the creators and the Oracles themselves are capable of destroying another Oracle. You can harm me, but all of these superficial wounds will ultimately be healed by my magic power. This battle had been destined with one outcome from the very beginning."

"Is that why you're so guarded against Zero?"

"To be more precise, I'm guarded against her before the crack formed. Without the protection from her territory, she is just an ordinary Awakened." Delta paused. "To be able to ask this question means that you are different from all the other self-cognitive bodies; where did you hear such information before? To actually know that you actually came from the void, why are you still struggling on?"

"What is the void and what is reality, do you truly think that the difference matters?" The corners of Fei Yuhan's mouth drew upwards.

"What?"

"From a different angle, the answer will vary, so how do you know that you're not the one from the void?" She raised her sword and imbued the Force of Nature once more into the blade. "But to me, nothing is more real than this world!"

"Truly—ignorant." Delta snorted, and raised its hand and smashed down towards her.

Fei Yuhan did not retreat but welcomed the enemy's attack with a slash of her blade!

The two forces collided and unleashed a ear-splitting rumble, evoking a blast of wind that threw the surrounding vehicles into the air—In such a battle, simply entering the region where the skirmish was happening could possibly lead to fatal injuries.

It went without saying that countless wounds appeared all over the Oracle's body. Furthermore, half of its body was sliced apart by the resplendent light produced by the genius Martial Artist in this confrontation.

But as it had explained, even such fatal wounds were incapable of stopping it. The Oracle merely used one hand to hold tight its body and the wound stretching from its shoulder to its chest gradually closed.

But Fei Yuhan did not have the same ability.

No matter how much more stronger her aura from before was, wounds continued to appear on her body. From the minute grazes to bone-deep wounds, her situation turned for the worse.

Zero could not help but cover her mouth.

She suddenly understood why Fei Yuhan was unwilling to take half a step back despite the injuries, and instead chose to clash head on with the enemy!

It was all because of her!

To lessen the possibility of injuries, Fei Yuhan had to avoid its attacks while probing for opportunities to strike. The Oracle's means of attacks were completely reflected by its hands and it was not impossible for her to predict and avoid them. If they were the only two inside the crack, her attacks would have been even more dexterous.

But it was impossible for Fei Yuhan!

If Fei Yuhan abandoned her aggressive means of attack and chose to remain passive, the enemy could simply ignore her and charge straight for Zero!

Upon realizing that, Zero's heart tightened.

To prevent the Oracle from harming her, Fei Yuhan had given up on all strategic means and used her most ferocious attacks to keep the enemy suppressed in the middle.

That meant that all the injuries she had were in place for Zero—

The young girl suddenly felt like crying.

After Awakening, Zero gained the basic knowledge of a body's strength. The reason why Fei Yuhan was still going strong was due to her pushing of her Force of Nature to its peak. But this power did not relieve any pain and had a threshold. Zero was aware that Fei Yuhan could not continue battling in the same manner, for she would either fall under the overwhelming pain or under the exhaustion of her powers. Regardless, both outcomes would lead to irreversible harm to her body!

Stop… stop fighting. Zero wanted to scream but all she could do was produce choking sounds.

Fei Yuhan and Delta engaged in yet another full force attack. With a crisp cracking sound, Fei Yuhan's sword shattered into pieces. The Oracle grabbed her right feet and sent her flying upwards before she could find a new weapon!

Even with her excellent skills, Fei Yuhan had difficulty controlling the trajectory of her fall without being able to borrow an external force in the air.

And beneath her, the Oracle was waiting.

The Oracle produced a thunderous punch that sent Fei Yuhan flying tens of meters away, which resulted in her smashing back down onto the ground and tumbling over ten times before coming to a stop.

This time, the light around Fei Yuhan dimmed a few notches.

She attempted to stand but failed even after numerous tries. Blood and perspiration trickled down her cheeks and stained her lapels.

"No!"

Zero could no longer hold herself back. She charged out from her hiding spot and ran towards Fei Yuhan.

"Master…"

"Stay away from me, go back to where you were and don't be anywhere near here!" The latter's stern voice caused the young lady to freeze before breaking down into a fit of coughs.

For the first time, Fei Yuhan revealed an anxious expression.

"But I… Ahhh—" Before Zero could reply, she felt her body being grabbed by an invisible hand and raised up into the air.

"Got you." The Oracle had a hand grasping onto nothing while the other prepared to unleash an attack. Right at this moment, Fei Yuhan clenched her teeth and poured all the Force of Nature into her legs as she charged recklessly towards the enemy.

The collision sent the two rolling away and freed Zero—causing her to drop from the air.

"Your strength is truly commendable, being able to last 30 minutes in battle. But what's the point of pressing on?" Delta grabbed the immobile Martial Artist and pulled her towards over. "You should know that the appearance of this world was nothing but a mistake, a figment of an imagination. Its activation and immobility relies on the Creator. I do not believe that he sees all of you as equals—everything you've done is merely a joke."

After sustaining a series of falls, Fei Yuhan's entire body was already badly mutilated. After the last attempt of charging at the Oracle, both her legs had burst apart, her shoulders and right arm crushed to the point of revealing her bones. It was a spectacle too horrible to endure. But even so, Fei Yuhan still had the same smile on her face as she looked at the Oracle disdainfully.

"I… said it before, so what? I can't… choose where I was born, but I can choose… to conduct myself with determination. As for you, aside from… God, what do you have? I'm afraid that you've never even seen God's true appearance… Additionally, I personally think that the Creators aren't as what you have described them to be," she gasped for breath and replied.

"What do you mean?" Delta frowned. Unknowingly, it suddenly felt somewhat distraught with anxiety.

"They are from beyond this world… Cough, cough. Clearly they do not belong to this world, yet they strive to remain in this world. If they truly regarded this place as an imagination, why would they go that far? If they are putting in so much effort, why shouldn't I? If you don't believe me… you can simply wait for him to arrive and ask him personally. I can personally bet that his answer will be different from what you expect."

"Is that the reason why you're persevering, just to wait for another Creator's support?" Delta shook its head. "Give up, I have planned everything a long time ago and naturally will not give you an opportunity. There is another Oracle outside the crack, it might not be able to defeat the Creator, but delaying him is not out of the question. As for you, you are obviously at your limit."

It relaxed its hand and allowed Fei Yuhan to fall to the ground, "I will not kill you. Use your magic power to sustain your injuries, and perhaps you can still preserve your life. When this world returns back to its origin, you will acknowledge the grandeur of God."

With that said, Delta turned towards the direction of its original target.

But just as it was about to take its first step, it suddenly stopped.

It turned back to see Fei Yuhan extending her remaining left hand and grabbing its leg.

"You—are impossibly stupid!" It could not help erupting with rage and raised its hand to smash down behind it. The formless palm pressed the martial artist down to the ground, forming spiderweb cracks to appear around her.

The hand which was grabbing at it finally fell.

"I gave you a chance."

"NO! Master—-!" Zero screamed out, heartbroken.

"Don't worry, you're next." Delta suppressed emotions that it shouldn't have felt and once again raised both its hands at the Creator.

Right at this moment, a dull sound suddenly resonated from the crack.

A beam of light flashed through the patterned lines like ripples flitting across water. It was followed by a second and third beam, as though something outside was striking the crack, causing the entire space to tremble rhythmically.

"How… could it be that fast?" Delta was startled. Impossible! The independent space was created using the Erosion trap formed from magic power cores. Although it was not completely isolated from the outside world, it should at least hold for a couple of hours.

"Epsilon, what's going on outside?" It yelled across empty space.

"Answer me, Epsilon!"

Yet no replies were heard from the other side.

"Damn it!" Delta reached its hand out towards Zero. Right at this moment, a dazzling flash penetrated through the crack and left burning marks on the patterned lines.

As the beam of light extended outwards and dispersed the darkness, the surrounding scenery which had turned ethereal returned to the ends of the bridge.

The crack had split open.

Chapter 1355 - The Second Scene

The flow of time was restored the moment the light solidified.

Under the gushing sunlight, the Oracle's formless hand was no longer invulnerable and instead, appeared like distorted, soft bubbles. As the dazzling blue sky descended, it replaced the weak and faint silver light that the young lady used to protect herself. Having lost the interference of the Deities, it no longer stood the chance to win easily even if Zero was just a newly Awakened.

Meanwhile, two new figures rushed into the sealed domain.

It did not find Epsilon, but found another target that had to be killed.

He was the main Creator of the world, Roland.

Delta raised its other hand and smashed it down ferociously at Roland.

But not a speck of dust was raised.

Its power completely disappeared even before reaching Roland, as though it was nonexistent to begin with.

Hundreds of meters distance could be traversed by a Martial Artist in a split second. Before Delta could even react, its mask was torn apart by Roland and had its astrolabe grabbed.

Regardless of how much it struggled, it was unable to break away from the other party's hands. Being in the presence of Zero only substantially weakened it, but in front of Roland, it was almost completely useless.

"This isn't fair—!"

Its consciousness began to dissipate as its astrolabe got stripped off.

Roland remained unmoved, he was fully aware that regardless of it being pure magical creatures or enemies from Erosion, their weaknesses were located in the astrolabe that revolved inside their bodies. As long as one yanked out the astrolabes from them, they would simply melt like ice under a scorching sun.

The power within his body surged in joy, as though it was welcoming that moment.

Throughout the entire sequence of events, Roland was still unaware of the full situation.

Less than a minute after separating from Valkries, Roland received an incoming call from Fei Yuhan. No words came through and he only heard static and friction. When the phone got cut off abruptly, he saw the abnormal changes occurring at the suburbs from the tourist elevator.

A strange translucent barrier enveloped the expressway connecting the city to the outside, and obviously it was not something technological advancements could achieve. Additionally, an event that could force a celebrity Martial Artist to be unable to explain her situation was definitely no trivial matter.

When he drove out of the basement garage, he encountered Valkries who was sprinting in the same direction, and as a result took her along with him.

But he never expected to find Zero inside after breaking the "Barrier."

And as for the strange man with the mask and robes, Roland immediately knew that it was one of the Oracles.

As a result, Roland chose to kill the Oracle first without considering the consequences—the Association never had any solid leads regarding the invading enemies. Roland naturally did not let go of the opportunity presented, thanks to their appearance and futile attempt to kill Zero.

The instant the astrolabe was completely stripped off, a bright beam of light soared into the sky, enveloping him within!

Sure enough, it was a seemingly familiar situation.

"Uncle Roland!"

From the corners of his eyes, he saw Zero's tear-stained face.

He gestured her to relax as the brilliance devoured everything.

Compared to the previous time when he was caught off guard, Roland was more prepared for this. He did not resist against the consciousness that rushed into him, but relaxed his mind and took them in, to feel them—

After all, it was useless no matter how hard he tried to resist them.

Why not relax and focus my attention on these surging consciousnesses.

"Ssssii… Ssssii…"

His vision quickly blurred. Countless snowflakes floated down and formed a monochromatic scene.

Along with the snowflakes were Lan's whispering words.

"The truth is always what you understand."

…

After an unknown period of time, he finally got a clear vision of the scene before him as the light dimmed.

This is…

Roland could not resist swallowing his saliva. The scene before him was an endless void, with a large red cavity suspended in the black void—it had no depth and was extremely wide. From his position, the cavity's measurements could only be measured with astronomical units.

Further in the distance were countless twinkling specks of light that mixed with the snowflakes. Roland was unable to discern if they were real or a blurred scene caused from an illusion.

In Roland's memories, there was only one thing that could fit with the scene before him.

—The void did not represent a lack of light, or that there was nothing. It was just that it was too massive.

The flickering specks of light were things that ordinary people would spend their entire lives counting, yet they were just insignificant things to the entire picture.

The universe.

The span of this… is truly inconceivable.

Roland could not help but lampoon.

He initially thought that seeing the legendary Bottomless Land for the first time was shocking enough. Who would have thought that this new perspective had not only failed to reduce the number of questions about it, but also pushed it to a new level of profoundness.

A problem arose. If he were assuming that what he was currently looking at was the known universe, what was the connection between the first and second scenes? Could it be that taking the 'trip' up the Bottomless Land's pillar of light led to the Sky Lord's civilization was in fact sending the rider to space? If that was the case, the term 'upgrade'—or 'elevation'—was rather suitable. But regardless of it being the Radiation People and Match Men, they were not existences that could survive in a completely different environment.

Since flames and sharp objects did harm them, it meant that they were only that much stronger compared to humans in terms of withstanding temperature and pressure. But when the 'upgrade' happened, all of the Radiation Men that stepped in the beam of light were never prepared for it.

No… that's not right. Roland quickly rejected this conjecture, purely forcing a link between the two scenes was too far-fetched. Ignoring all other variables, it was already extremely difficult to explain the reason why the deities would do this. Regardless of the endless Battle of Divine Will or the Legacy Shards that brought about evolution, it was not as if they had prepared for this scene.

There had to be a deeper meaning behind this.

Roland suddenly noticed something wriggling under the red cavity.

Seemingly influenced by a thought, his vision started to move—he then noticed that there were many scattered meteorites floating under the cavity that resembled fragments of a scattered planet or as if they should have been there in the first place. They also looked like pieces of an abandoned ruin at a glance. With his limited knowledge, he had difficulty determining the origins of these things.

These fragments appeared to be pulled by a force, gradually drawing close to a unique stone in the center. Every following layer of rocks was richer in volume, and every new piece added in induced an intense change to the surface layer. Roland suddenly realized that even though all the floating rocks appeared as scattered fragments, their individual volumes were not to be trivialized. That was how their formation was being shockingly held.

At the same time, without a reference object, the entire process looked to be moving at a very fast rate. Perhaps, the real amount of time passed was far more shocking than he imagined.

As if corroborating with his notion, the snowflakes started converging.

The scene seemed to be entering its coda.

In his field of vision, the rocks gradually formed an irregular spheroid, and an inconceivable scene occurred before him—the patterned lines that formed the rhombuses appeared suddenly and proliferated along the surface and darkness, as though it was swallowing the spheroid. If not for the faint reflection of light, Roland would have believed that the rocks had disappeared before his eyes.

When it was completely enveloped, the spheroid plunged into the large and red cavity.

The snowflakes covered his entire field of vision immediately after.

When everything came to an end, a sentence written in unknown characters flowed into Roland's brain.

Despite having never encountered them before, he was able to understand its meaning.

Or rather, they were not words but a thought that directly reflected in his mind.

"This is the price."

"From this moment forth, gravity will no longer be the force which is most deserving of reverence in this world'."

Chapter 1356 - "Creator's Promise"

"Hey, Roland."

"Roland, what're you spacing out for!"

"Uncle, come and help save her!"

Two voices rang out in turn, pulling Roland back to reality. He blinked his eyes a couple of times—the pillar of light, the snowflakes—everything had disappeared without a trace, and the messy bridge reappeared before him.

Zero and Valkries were amid the ruins trying to clear out something. From their expressions, the unforeseen event had not come to a close.

That's right—He suddenly recalled that the person who called her, the genius martial artist Fei Yuhan, whom he felt was different at the Martialist Association, where was she?

Could it be that the 'her' whom Zero was referring to was—

Roland's expression turned solemn.

At that moment, his thoughts were finally back on the right track.

He threw the entire episode to the back of his mind and rushed over to the two. The sight before him caused him to gasp in shock!

Inside a shallow pit was a badly mutilated girl. Aside from her left arm, her other limbs were all completely pulverized to the point of having her bones and flesh blended together. Her body was covered in wounds, her clothes completely soaked in blood, and half of her spine were twisted and had punctured out of her skin.

This was a sight that no one could ever lay their eyes on, even in a battlefield.

And from what remained of her face, Roland recognized her as Fei Yuhan.

She was barely clinging onto life, just barely.

"How did this…"

Roland knelt down, completely at a loss. Save her? Even with bandages, it was impossible to wrap her internal organs back into place, much less talk about stopping the bleeding. There was no spot that was perfect and unharmed on her body. Her bodily functions had completely broken down and she was completely relying on the Force of Nature to keep her consciousness from slipping away.

But this bit of power was like the last bit of wax of a candle; she was already burning out.

As a matter of fact, to be able to stay conscious in such a situation required extremely powerful willpower. Even as martial artists, very few were capable of achieving this.

"Master became like this because she protected me…" Zero sobbed.

"She's about to die." Valkries pointed out. "Even a Grand Lord with such injuries can only delay the inevitable in the Red Mist Pond. Furthermore, the standard of medical operations here isn't even comparable to the Red Mist Pond. Even if she had plenty of magic power in her, we can't reverse this. She is able to persevere because she is a true warrior."

"You're finally… here." Fei Yuhan seemed to have heard them as she slowly opened her eyes. "Should I call you… Master Creator?"

Her words were mixed with a hint of humor, and the expression she gave made it look as though she was not in a perilous situation.

Roland seemed stunned for a moment. "You…"

"I am sorry… I eavesdropped on your conversation." She winked at Valkries—the only action she was capable of making. "But if we could do it all over again, I would… still do this. Zero… is she okay?"

The few sentences seemed to take a toll on her. They had to hold their breaths and get close to her to listen to her words.

"Master, I… am fine…" Zero whimpered.

"This world… is still fine, right?" Fei Yuhan sighed. "In a way, I can consider this as fulfilling my responsibility in protecting it."

"So you are aware that this world is a Dreamworld—" Valkries frowned.

"Maybe to you guys, there many worlds, but in my eyes… this is the only one. And it is a martial artist's duty to protect this world." She paused for a moment. "Allow me to say this… Master Creator, since you created this world, you should have some trust in everyone, right?"

"Trust… in everyone?"

"I know it will sound… ridiculous, but as long as you bring out some evidence, the higher-ups of the Association… isn't as obstinate as you think. We might not be able to do much, but we are not entirely useless as well… even if we can't beat the Oracles, at least we can help lessen your burden. Wouldn't it… be slightly easier to save this world?"

Gather the strength of the masses—

A light bulb came over Roland's head.

That's right, I am the Creator of this world.

But I'm not necessarily an omnipotent God.

I can't do certain things.

But others can.

If everyone works together, who knows what miracle we can achieve.

"The last thing I want to say is… thank you." Fei Yuhan's voice was already faltering. "Thank you for creating this world, even if it is just a dream—"

"No, this isn't a Dream World." Roland interrupted, "It is a world that exists in the Realm of Mind, and will always continue to exist."

"I knew… that you would say that." Fei Yuhan closed her eyes and revealed a satisfied smile.

"Besides, even if I am able to produce some evidence, I alone will not be enough to convince the world that I am some god or creator. But if I have the words of the genius Martial Artist, maybe the effect will be different."

She moved her lips. Are you… consoling me?

"I'm not consoling you, I am stating a fact as a Creator." Roland stood up. "Listen well, this isn't the time for you to give up! Since you mentioned trust, please trust me. This isn't an irreversible situation!"

"Because, I am a Creator—"

Disconnecting from the Dream World, Roland suddenly sat up from a recliner.

It was noon as snowflakes gently floated outside the window. Having stood guard inside the office, Nightingale immediately appeared before him and asked, "Why're you awake so soon? Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"

It was his first time entering the Dream World two days after losing consciousness. Ordinarily, he would sleep from one to four in the afternoon, but clearly it was not time yet.

"Relax, I'm fine." Roland replied, "Inform Scroll and Honey to come to the castle immediately, I have an important task for them."

Nightingale inspected his temperature and pulse carefully. After confirming that he was fine, she nodded. "I understand."

After watching her enter the Mist, Roland returned to his work desk, took out a pen and paper, and started writing.

He needed the power from both worlds to work together to save Fei Yuhan.

Upon leaving the Dream World, time would pause, which undoubtedly provided the most crucial opportunity to save her. So as long as he did not enter the Dream World, her last breath would never end.

The core of saving her laid in Nana's new ability—her magic ability to attach healing properties to enchanted objects. So long as they had enough of them, they could suppress the collapse of her body.

The next ability was Scroll's territory—Roland himself could not 'bring' items into the Dream World, but Scrolls' Archives had the ability to do so. Considering that the witches' abilities extended to the Dream World, Nana's magical objects ought to work as well.

Of course, just these two factors were not enough.

Firstly, they needed to transport the magical objects from the archives to the bridge in the shortest time possible.

Next, the the gauze that had magic embedded in them could only pull Fei Yuhan out of danger, but her broken limbs required professional equipment, and that required the help of a professional surgeon.

Only by gathering the strength of both worlds could they create a miracle.

Chapter 1357 - Combined Rescue

Five days later, Seagull landed in Neverwinter's Aerial Knight Academy.

Tilly left the plane with Nana. For the first time, she did not jump straight to ask Roland about her special plane, and instead asked fervently," Are we too late?"

As the iron tower project's code tables were not completed, the prepared Aerial Knights that had completed their theory lessons proceeded to Thorn Town for hands-on training, leaving only flying messengers as the fastest form of communications. Although the time required to travel between the two kingdoms was not considered slow with an the time taking of four days to and one day back, it was rather long in an emergency situation like providing medical treatment.

"No, you arrived at the right time," Roland replied.

"Really, that's great to hear… I think it'll be better to have an Aerial Knight student stay and patrol Neverwinter to avoid having such a situation again." Tilly heaved a sigh of relief, "Oh right, who's injured?"

"Errr…" Roland was at a loss for words. Flying messengers had limitations on information they could carry and thus, he did not mention too many details, and only requested Tilly to send Nana back to Neverwinter. When the question was fired, he realized that he had no answer. After pondering to himself for a moment, he said, "A person that doesn't exist in this world."

"What?" The corners of Tilly's mouth twitched. "You're talking about someone in the Dream World?"

As expected of Princess Tilly; her reaction is abnormally sharp…. Roland coughed twice. "That's almost right."

"Then just tell it to us directly, and don't beat about the bush." Tilly rolled her eyes at him. "What? Are you afraid that we would get mad if we discovered that we rushed over a thousand kilometers just for an imaginary person in the dream world?"

"You've hit the nail right on the head." Nana agreed.

"You don't have to say it out even if you've guessed it." Wendy chuckled and shook her head.

You three… is this some scheme against me?

"Feeling guilty is a good thing, Brother." Tilly tiptoed and extended her hand out and poked his chest. "But you're looking down on all of us—if it's something that you feel has to be done, no matter how preposterous it is, we will take action and ask questions after. Now… what's next?"

This… should be considered another form of expressing trust, right?

Roland pressed down on Tilly's head and sighed. "We will return to the castle. Scroll is there waiting for us."

…

With ample preparations done, Nana quickly made a large pile of "enchanted sutures." According to her theory, the sutures would induce a healing result as long as they were placed near the wounds, regardless if one did not know how to sew a wound. The only trouble was extracting the sutures at a later date; otherwise, those unfixed stitches might bring about new problems for the patient.

Considering how items from reality would not disappear, Scroll only had to enter and exit the Realm of Mind multiple times to obtain the large number of sutures; thus, Nana was able to preserve her magic power and attach magic power to the other medical treatment equipment that was needed later.

Despite spending five days preparing for all the sutures, it was only an instant in the Dream World.

Of course, this peculiarity might have been picked up by the people in the Dream World, like Zero or Valkries… but Roland was fully occupied to take that into consideration.

Once everything was in place, Roland took a deep breath, turned to Scroll and the others and gestured for them to be at ease. He then closed his eyes and entered the Dream World.

After a momentary trance, the familiar scene appeared before him once again.

Fei Yuhan laid motionlessly in the pool of blood while Zero and Valkries looked at him in shock. Zero eagerly grabbed onto his sleeves. "Uncle, do you have a way to save her?"

The time in Dream World flowed once again, and it felt as though he had arrived back in time five days ago.

Roland did not explain himself. He quickly took out his cellphone and called Garcia.

The Martial Arts Contest had already concluded and Garcia was most probably back at the apartments.

The call connected quickly. "Hey, what's up?"

"Where are you now?"

"Outside."

Roland's heart sank. "Why are you not at home?" If the plan failed, he had no other choice but to go along with his contingency plan and inform the Defender to mobilize people. But that required more time for explanations and might not end with the expected outcome.

"Hey, what's with the attitude, can't I buy some food downstairs?"

He immediately exhaled a breath of relief. "So you're around your residential estate? Do you have your car keys with you?"

"Duh." Garcia's unhappy reply came through the phone. "What's your point?"

Roland coughed twice, then replied with a solemn voice, "Listen well, I have a life-and-death request to ask of you, and only you can do it."

"Oh…" Her anger immediately subsided, "Must… it be done over the phone?"

"Yes, we don't have time. Drive over to Six Li Pavilion that's two streets away immediately and pick up a lady called Scroll. She will be waiting by the road, and you definitely won't miss her. Once you pick her up, send her over to the western suburbs expressway, which is where I am at now. The average travel time between these two points is about 30 minutes, but I do not have much time left. I need you to rush over with your fastest speed, I will take responsibility for all the troubles—Please, start moving now!"

"…" The other end of the line remained silent for a few seconds, followed by the sounds of a sprint. "You don't have the time to explain anything now?"

"That's right."

"Alright, if I arrive at your location and realize that the situation isn't as urgent as it seems, you should know how serious the consequences will be! Also, you owe me a favor." The sound of a car engine revving sounded and she hung up.

Roland keyed in Defender Rock's number.

This time, he gave a rough summary of what happened over the phone, "Miss Fei Yuhan is severely injured right now and requires the Association to dispatch the best doctor and equipment to execute an emergency surgery. But this isn't enough, Garcia is currently bringing crucial emergency equipment over. If possible, I hope the Association can contact the Public Roads Department and get them to control the roads for her to reach the expressway as quickly as possible."

Rock immediately agreed and liaised directly with the Public Roads Department, but Roland knew that the possibility of the government taking action without any prior communication was minuscule. Whether or not Garcia could arrive smoothly depended greatly on herself.

It took Roland five minutes to finish the calls.

All he could do now was wait.

Amidst the adversity was a silver lining. In winter, the traffic wasn't bad, especially so for the suburbs. So long as it was not the peak hour, Garcia could drive a van at its fastest speed.

"Uncle, Master, she… she… can't hold on anymore!" Suddenly, Zero's cries broke Roland's train of thoughts.

Roland immediately returned to Fei Yuhan's side. Her chest which was moving slightly previously had stopped.

"Her heart and breathing has stopped." Valkries frowned. "Although I have no idea what you're trying to do, I'm afraid it is too late."

"No, she will be able to make it." Roland extended his hand out and touched Fei Yuhan's forehead. "We are already at this stage, I believe she will not give up that easily."

He had seen research verifying that the brain would still work for a period of time after the body functions came to a halt. The shortest time recorded was ten seconds, the longest a few minutes. The brainwaves during this period resembled that of a person having REM Sleep. How long the brain could continue working depended on various factors, but in terms of determination, it was fortunate that the genius Martial Artist was a person very well known for it.

10 minutes and 25 seconds later, a reverberating car sound came from the end of the bridge.

Roland's eyes immediately lit up.

A simple and old-looking car ran through the red light and stopped right in front of the three.

"Your Majesty!" Scroll opened the car doors and threw a paper bag over to Roland.

The latter ignored Zero and Garcia's surprised expressions, tore the bag opened, and placed the medical sutures on Fei Yuhan's body.

"Is that… an enchanted object created by a witch?" Valkries frowned.

"That's right. As long as it takes effect, we can save a person even if they are on their last dying breath." Roland nodded.

In that moment, Nana's power crossed from reality to the Dream World and worked on the body of a girl from the other world. Disturbing noises came out from Fei Yuhan's body as her flesh and internal organs started to reform and bind together under the effects of the magic power.

It was after more than 10 minutes when everyone heard the faintest thump sound.

Although it was extremely weak, it was the most beautiful sound ever.

Fei Yuhan's chest started to heave once more.

Chapter 1358 - The Creator's Proof

…

She had a long dream.

In the dream, countless people dressed in white chinese-styled gowns and masks surrounded her, perspiring as they bustled around her.

From their shocked and serious expressions, she could tell that they were up against a thorny problem.

That's right, my body was severely injured and on the brink of death, is this my mind consoling myself?

She was well aware of her own situation and knew that any ordinary health professional would turn their heads upon seeing her and request for funeral arrangements instead of spending their efforts on a futile attempt to save her.

Although she believed that Roland was one of the Creators, she knew that even God was not omnipotent—otherwise He would not require the Oracles.

She had persevered till the end as promised, leaving her with a clear conscience.

The feeling of being in a lucid dream was a marvelous feeling. She felt as though her entire body was soaked in a warm light, and all the pain and wounds on her body had disappeared without a trace. The human chatter around sounded as though it came from far away, along with the fuzzy scene, it made her sleepy.

Slowly, the fragmented memories pieced together.

The gray sky above turned into a vast expanse of whiteness, void of shadows.

After finishing their job, the doctors left one after another. She "saw" herself being carried by a nurse and brought to a man and woman. The two kissed her and revealed happy expressions.

Following that, she slowly grew amidst difficulties.

Images flashed quickly… She realized that those could be the final memories her mind was showing her. Strangely enough, these scenes she could never recall, once vague fragments of her memory, were now extremely clear in this dream.

She saw her childhood home and the backyard where bedsheets were hung… and family members.

So this was where she resided.

Lying in the embrace of her family members, she closed her eyes in satisfaction.

When the drowsy spell took over completely, whispers brimming with love sounded out from above her.

"Say… what do you think we should name her?"

"How about… Fei Yuhan."

…

After a long time, Fei Yuhan slowly opened her eyes.

She looked at the familiar hospital ceiling and blanked out for a long time before reacting.

Wait a minute, I'm… alive?

She tried feeling for her body and realized that her limbs were reacting to her thoughts. Furthermore, there was not the slightest delay between her thoughts and movements, as though they had never been injured.

Fei Yuhan raised her right hand in shock—although the entire hand was wrapped in bandages, the outline of it showed that it was intact and fine. She clearly recalled her hand being smashed into pieces, to the extent of having her bones crushed. Normal means made it impossible to recover.

A laugh escaped escaped from her throat.

He… really did it.

Did he not know that his looks and age were totally unbefitting when he solemnly vowed and said 'Because, I am a Creator'?

"Oh… Master…" Just then a delirious mutter came out from beside her.

Fei Yuhan turned and realized that a young lady with white hair was leaning on the bed—she wasn't just a young lady, but a 'World Creator' as termed by an Oracle, Zero. Her hands acted as a pillow for her head, apparently still in deep sleep. From her worried expression, Fei Yuhan could tell that Zero had been by her side during her entire coma.

Fei Yuhan laughed and quietly got down the bed, tucked Zero in, and left the ward.

She walked over to the resting area in the corridor and saw Roland, Valkries, and a few other Martial Artists together.

Her appearance caused an uproar as everyone surrounded her, inquiring and discussing about her situation. She walked directly past them to Roland and grabbed his arm. "Let's go, time for business."

Roland felt numerous gazes on him. "Errr… business?"

"It isn't convincing enough if you claim to be the World Creator by yourself, but having the genius Martial Artist might have a different effect, isn't that what you said?" She laughed. "You honored your promise, so it's my turn to do so now."

"In this state?" Roland asked in surprise.

At that moment, Fei Yuhan was still dressed in a hospital gown, with bandages wrapped from the ankles to her neck with only her head exposed. She looked like a dumpling.

She pulled Roland towards the corridor's end. "That's right, isn't it more convincing like this?"

…

Inside the conference hall of the sanatorium, the higher-ups of Prism City sat in a circle with complicated expressions as they listened attentively to Fei Yuhan's report.

"There was a stark difference between the enemy and Fallen Evils; not only did it possess an inconceivable power, but it was practically invulnerable as well, even after pushing my Force of Nature to its limits. According to its words, only the World Creator and other Oracles have the ability to destroy their cores.

"Reality has also proven this. I'd dealt multiple fatal hits on its astrolabe, but the enemy remained unharmed. If not for Roland's timely arrival, I'm afraid that the situation would have been irredeemable. The enemy proclaimed that it was an emissary of the Deities from the Erosion, and called itself Delta. If it was truly the one of the culprits behind the destruction of Prism City, then we can infer that its companions have similar powers as well. It is certain that our current world is in critical danger as of this moment."

Her words immediately caused the venue to break out into a cacophonous discussion.

Fallen Evils did not fear ordinary weapons and only Martial Artists had the ability to kill them. But now, an Oracle had appeared and if it was invulnerable to the Force of Nature, wouldn't that mean they have no substantial adversaries at all?

People would have doubted the martial artist if they were anyone else, but Fei Yuhan's credibility completely removed this aspect.

An undefeatable enemy caused them to shudder.

Much less when there were a few "Oracles".

After a short discussion with the others, Rock spoke up, "I am glad that you are ultimately fine, and rejoice in the fact that Mr. Roland is standing on the Association's side. Indeed, from the report gathered on the scene, the enemy does have a power that we are incapable of understanding . It was able to defeat many of the martial artists present. After gathering the accounts from various parties, we have reason to believe that the one who defeated the enemies from the Erosion was Hunter Roland. Aside from that, he was able to save you from… that unimaginable state you were in, and definitely has extraordinary means. But… to recognize him as a World Creator based on the enemies' words, isn't that a bit… too sloppy?"

"I concur. After all, the idea is too vague. If the world was indeed created by these people, then where were they before the appearance of the world?"

"This is absurd, our world was formed by the Big Bang!"

"Provided that this is Miss Fei Yuhan's judgement, I am willing to believe in it. Everyone saw the state she was in, and we can even call it bringing her back from the dead. She was able to recover completely in just a short period of 24 hours. Aside from a god, who can possible do such a thing?"

"Don't forget that the enemies of the Erosion called themselves gods as well! If the two are considered gods, where do we draw the line and determine who is right?"

The higher-ups engaged in a spirited discussion. Despite their painstaking attempt to lower their voice, everyone present were powerful martial artists capable of listening to their conversations. A majority of them were voicing out their doubts.

"All of you are getting something wrong in the first place." Fei Yuhan interrupted their discussion. "I am not recognizing Roland as the World Creator because of the battle, but because I had my suspicions of him beforehand and only obtained information to verify my suspicions in the battle. As for the complicated procedure on my body, there is no need to say more than is necessary. I am aware that everything sounds preposterous right now, but everyone seems to have overlooked something. The Creator is right by my side. If he can bring out some definite proof, won't we have our conclusion?"

Roland could not help but to rub his forehead, knowing that it would be difficult for them to believe him, he never had plans to divulge anything to the Association. But they were already at this point, how could he not accommodate and support Fei Yuhan who was doing her utmost best in announcing his identity.

"Does the Association have any Fallen Evil's Force of Nature cores?" Roland looked towards Defender Rock.

"The majority of the cores were seized by the enemies during the fall of Prism City, the remaining ones are the outcomes of recent hunts." Rock nodded his head. "They are now under my care."

"Please hand a core over to me," Roland replied. "It is time for the confined magic power to return to the world."

Chapter 1359 - Convincing

"Mr. Rock!" Someone called out in an attempt to stop the idea.

Rock waved his hand. "It's fine, if I'm not wrong, more than 30% of these cores were obtained by this Hunter. If he had been targeting the cores in the first place, he would not have waited until now. Honestly, I have difficulties telling if Roland here is a Creator, but he is the most competent and well-qualified person capable of resisting the Fallen Evils." He nodded at his secretary, "Bring the core storage box over."

It was no secret that a new yet remarkable Hunter had appeared, blowing off steam for the old-school martialists and boosted their confidence.

After all, the majority of missions to kill Fallen Evils and retrieve their cores required cooperation from many parties since the enemies only chose weak Martial Artists to fight against and spent most of their time hiding, leaving very few opportunities for the Association.

But after the appearance of the new Hunter, the Fallen Evils died like moths that darted to flames. One after another, Fallen Evils died in his hands at a hunting frequency that ranked highly even under the backdrop of the Association's history.

The short silence within the hall was broken by a middle-aged man. "I would like to ask Mr. Roland a question, and we can put aside the proof of Creators and Gods first."

Roland shrugged indifferently.

"I was present to witness Miss Fei Yuhan's severely injured state, and was the one who found the emergency doctors. I know that those injuries weren't anything that Force of Nature or our current medical field is able to treat. At that time, they stated that you used seemingly mediocre and subpar quality medical instruments but produced such an unbelievable result, as though… as though you were actually producing new flesh and blood." The man took a deep breath, "Maybe you have your considerations and are unable to reveal the origins and manufacturing methods for the instruments, but I have to ask. Are—you willing to sell them to the Association? I can promise you that the price is negotiable!"

"That was on my mind as well." Fei Yuhan suddenly tilted her head and whispered to Roland, "Please don't tell me that what you used on me were priceless medicinal herbs or spirit pills from the other world and that the instruments were a facade. Although I have some savings, it is still far from the wealth of a nation."

Roland immediately smiled; he never expected such words to come from the genius martial artist. "Relax, it's free."

"Phew… that's great. But do not tell them that. Sometimes, people never learn to cherish things when they are free," Fei Yuhan said after heaving a sigh of relief.

Roland gestured an "understood" and turned to the middle-aged man, "Of course we can. Martial Artists are the vanguard in resisting Erosion, so I naturally hope that everyone can lay down their worries of injuries and pain to fight to the death. Additionally, I never planned to hide its origins. Those things are not products of this world, but comes from another world. They are altered using magic power. In other words, they do not belong to this world."

This statement was definitely important information.

The conference hall immediately burst into a commotion.

"Another… world?"

"What's magic power?"

"Wait, he mentioned something about some confined magic power to be released—could Force of Nature be a type of Magic Power?"

Facing their queries, Roland replied calmly, "You will understand it soon. Including where I was before the emergence of this world, what is the intention of God, the link between magic power and this world… I will explain everything. But before that, I would first showcase the most straightforward proof for all these."

Just as he finished his sentence, the Defender's secretary carried a large box into the hall.

The box opened automatically with Rock's fingerprints and iris scan, revealing a neat row of glass jars stacked within.

There were a total of six jars with red crystals sealed within them.

These were Natural cores after congealment.

"Are these enough?" Rock asked.

"It's sufficient enough for proof." Roland nodded his head.

Receiving Rock's approval, the secretary sent the glass jars over to him.

"Every seal on these jars are installed with an alarm device that would signal to the Association regardless of who opens it," Rock explained. "Any ordinary human that comes into contact with the cores will have their consciousness seized immediately and transform into inferior Fallen Evils that operate solely on instinct. An Awakened will have a nonzero resistance towards it, but will suffer from erosion if in contact with it for too long and this process is irreversible. To prevent them from being used by Fallen Evils again, the Association had to construct various large-scale strongholds and bury them deeply. You can say that all the famous buildings in history have remnants of being used to store and hide the cores. In our current generation, although our techniques have greatly improved, the manner in which the cores are dealt with have not changed much, the perfect example being Prism City."

"From today forth, you have no need to do such a thing." Roland opened the seal and held the core in his hand.

All the nobles gasped in astonishment.

The congealed core started to spin, as though it had awakened from its coma.

Not only so, its color gradually turned from dark red to sky blue, as though it was being cleansed.

The core transformed into a beam of light that shot upwards through the ceiling and disappeared without a trace, leaving behind a few scattered specks of light, as though everything that had just happened was a mere hallucination.

Everyone was dumbstruck.

Since the establishment of the Association, they had never heard of such a thing—even after tracing back to thousands of years of history, there had never been a document stating that 'cores could vanish into thin air' in the history of Awakened beings. The fact had been laid down that once a Fallen Evil appeared, the eroded core would never disappear and turn into a dangerous and cataclysmic seed that had to be passed down. It was a common understanding for everyone. The only way to destroy a Fallen Core was to throw it into Erosion, but that led to the rapid expansion of the rift, and it was used as a last resort only unless absolutely required.

The spectacle before their eyes completely toppled their understanding.

"Mr Roland… where did the core go?" Even the staid Rock revealed an excited expression.

"It's just as what I said, the core had returned to the world. This is where biggest difference between the Dream World and reality lies—its whole existence and continuation lies purely on magic power." Roland took another core and turned it into the silver beam of light. "According to what I currently know, magic power is almost omnipotent. It allows Awakened beings to wield extraordinary strength and physique, as well as allow the regeneration of flesh and blood. The Force of Nature is essentially another embodiment of magic power. As of now, I am still unclear of the origins of this power, but I dare say it is inevitably linked to God."

Roland then explained to them about the other world, as well as giving an account of the Oracle that betrayed God. To decrease the difficulty of comprehension, he intentionally skipped many details and emphasized on the Battle of Divine Will.

"I do not know whether the accounts of the Battle of Divine Wills on both worlds are a coincidence or not, but without a doubt, if we do not break this cycle, God will destroy everything—or should I say, they already have the means to do so." Roland paused. "If we continue to stand by and do nothing, everything will cease to exist, be it the real world or Dream world."

Chapter 1360 - Convincing (2)

A deadly silence filled the hall.

Excluding Fei Yuhan, everyone else looked at each other with mixed emotions. This surprised Roland. Without him realizing it, the Association had already attained a degree of understanding towards his background and he other world.

It took a long while for Rock to calm down and speak, "The Dream World… d oes the name imply that the world can disappear at any moment, like a dream?"

"No, it is a name that I got used to calling because it is only through sleeping can I enter this world," Roland answered. "In the beginning, I thought it was merely a hallucination, like a dream. But after experiencing everything in here, I changed my thoughts about it. All of you can also assume my world to be a dream, and treat this world as reality. I believe that once my research on both sides regarding magic power makes progress, the connections between the two worlds will be elevated to a brand-new level."

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Fei Yuhan smile.

There was no longer a need to continue further, for everyone understood his words.

The barrier between the worlds was slowly dissipating.

Soon enough, everyone would be able to travel between the two worlds.

"But that has to be realized before we can progress further." An old man frowned and said, "The problem now is that we have no way to verify your words. Everything sounds too outrageous, so pardon me for being unable to trust you!"

Very quickly, people started echoing his sentiments. "Mr Roland, I have no intentions on denouncing you, but your understanding of the matter comes from the Oracle that betrayed God. Who knows what plans they have hidden behind our backs? The focus should be on information regarding God's essence, but as it happens, the information we have might have been altered due to the other party being afraid of getting caught by God. It is just too inconvincible."

"Isn't finding out what power God has the most important? For an existence to wield power capable of destroying the world, why haven't they done so? Who knows, it might be our reckless actions that incite the destruction of our world."

The moment a doubt was raised, more questions emerged in rapid succession.

"I feel that this entire issue is in a deadlock. According to the Oracle, if we stand by and do nothing, the world will be destroyed. But if we infiltrate God's domain and lose, it will still result in destruction. Here's the question, Mr Roland. Do you think that you have any chance in defeating God?"

"Everything was established by him. From the looks of it, why can't it be that the entire story was fabricated by this Hunter here, an excuse to strive for a higher status? Without a doubt, the conservative party is not without suspicion either."

"What are you trying to say? Don't forget that your celebrity is the most supportive of him!"

The discussion gradually turned hostile, while Roland remained silent and leaned against the bench with a teacup in hand as he observed the dispute.

He had long anticipated this outcome.

In all fairness, he would have reacted in the same way if someone else had reported such a thing to him. Even the suspicions they had on him had reasons to them, for example—the reliability of the Oracle that betrayed God merely gave him clues instead of direct answers, or the possibility of changing their fates in the face of God. Roland had no answers to these questions, and afraid that he might never have the answers even after meeting God.

It was for this reason that he intentionally hid the news of Lan being the betrayer.

This way, the dispute would not fall onto Garcia's master at the very least.

Roland did not harbor much expectation towards the eventual result of the meeting.

People like Fei Yuhan, who held firm determination and made an all-out effort upon coming to a decision, were extremely rare.

They had already achieved what they sort out to do—reveal crisis to the Dream World.

After downing the tea in one mouthful, Roland turned and was about to inform Fei Yuhan on his plans to leave, only to discover that she had her right hand raised.

A dazzling silver light blossomed from her fingertips—

"Hey…"

Before Roland had the opportunity to dissuade her, the light sliced the table before her in two!

The teacup that was sliced into two dropped to the ground and shattered out loud.

Everyone's eyes instantly turned towards her.

"Have all of you forgotten the original intent for the establishment of the Martialist Association?"

Her voice was not loud, but had undoubtedly revealed her annoyance.

"For centuries, Awakened Beings have assembled together to resist Erosion, to protect this world from being devoured by the Fallen Evils! And what is the present reality Even more powerful enemies have emerged from the Erosion, and Prism City was overthrown in a blink of an eye with Defender Furious Flames dying while defending it. Even with Awakened Beings, we didn't even stand a chance. Yet in the face of this crisis, all of you are here discussing whether or not to believe in another world. Don't you find it laughable?"

"Miss Fei Yuhan, don't forget your place!" An old man erupted in range.

Rock stopped the man and asked in surprise, "Is this not important?"

Fei Yuhan replied without hesitation, "It's not, I only see one point—Martial Artists are unable to defeat Oracles, but Roland can. If we can't protect this world, we should be providing assistance to protect the people of this world! Please make no mistake about it, his explanation regarding magic power and the other world was merely to satisfy your curiosity and not an excuse for any of you to question!

"In other words, even if Roland is an ordinary man, as long as he is capable of killing the Oracles that us Martial Artists are helpless against, the Association should do its best to support him and attach importance to him equal to one capable of protecting the world. That should be the objective of this meet— Otherwise, how do we have the cheek to proclaim ourselves as guardians of this world?

"And it is because God is difficult to defeat that we require the collaboration between both worlds. To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards, even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around!

"I can understand that maybe some of you suspect that our point on 'martial artists being unable to kill an Oracle' does not hold; after all, only Zero and I were present at the scene at that time. But I welcome everyone to try—" At this point, the silver light covered Fei Yuhan's entire body, and her tone had sank a few degrees. "As long as anyone of you is able to injure me to that same degree in a one-on-one, I will retract my words. How is that?"

Her gaze swept across the entire crowd, eyes as sharp as blades. All the higher-ups, who were superior in terms of seniority in age or position to Fei Yuhan, were unable to provide a rejoinder.

"As expected of an elite of the new generation…" Rock suddenly laughed as he clapped his hands. "Indeed, I shouldn't be too hesitant over superfluous things and forgot about the true intention of the Association. You are right, regardless of where Mr Roland comes from, there isn't any doubts regarding his contributions to the Association— Be it being a role model as a newcomer or his capability in hunting Fallen Evils, he is definitely a great addition into rebuilding the Association. Just this alone makes it wrong for us to have predisposing attitudesand judge him with malice."

The Defender looked at the two, his voice filled with regret. "Ever since Prism City fell, I had a doubt whether humanity can continue surviving the Erosion crisis. Perhaps the situation is far worse than what I have anticipated, but I believe that everyone can see the goal. As for the other world, we can slowly probe into it once we have resolved this crisis. What does everyone think?"

"This… might be the most suitable way to handle the issue."

"That's right, we should place priority in defeating the enemies from Erosion."

"I concur."

Approving voices gradually drowned out the voices of doubt.

After all, eliminating Erosion was the top priority for Martial Artists. And to overthrow this verdict, one had to first get past Fei Yuhan.

Anyone who understood the brutality and desperation in the ambush on the bridge clearly knew it was not the wisest choice to stand against them at such a time.

Even if they won, it was merely directed against her challenge.

Even the elder had no choice but to keep quiet.

Fei Yuhan retracted her Force of Nature and returned to her seat. She smiled at Roland. "See, I've accomplished what I promised."

Roland could not help but to cover his face; her methods were too reckless—although she was able to obtain a unanimous agreement temporarily, it had inevitably led to resentment. Roland knew that she understood this point; yet, she acted as though she did not care. "Why go to such an extent?"

"Because…" Fei Yuhan looked at her hands covered in bandages, her expression somewhat crestfallen. "This is the only areas where I can work harder in."

Chapter 1361 - A change of mind

Is she feeling disappointed because she was unable to kill the Oracle…

Roland did not know whether to console her or roll his eyes. Any ordinary person's first reaction should have been joy, having survived a battle against an invulnerable entity. Yet Fei Yuhan was stuck in brooding over her failure, it had to be said that a genius's thinking was always different from the common person.

The higher-ups quickly came to a consensus.

Information regarding both the Battle of Divine Will and the two worlds were classified as top secret information. The higher-ups of the Martialist Association deemed that before the Erosion crisis was resolved, all content related to either were banned from being leaked to prevent unnecessary panic.

As for Roland's background and identity, the Martialist Association took it one step at a time. If they went according to Fei Yuhan's account, his importance was even above that of the President of the Association. But the decision was not one that Prism City could make on their own; it required Sky City and the other branches of the association to have a common discussion and consensus. This process was estimated to take a long period of time.

But to not interfere with the battle against the Erosion, Prism City was to provide their full support to facilitate Roland to the best of their abilities.

After their agreement on the fundamentals, the discussion in the hall moved into details regarding the actual support.

Roland simply waited quietly for the results.

Roland walked out of the hall with Fei Yuhan and stumbled upon Valkries waiting outside for him.

Her gaze stopped at Roland after staring at the two for a while. "I wish to talk to you alone."

Fei Yuhan smiled. "I'll make a move first, Zero is still sleeping in the ward."

After her departure, Roland followed Valkries to the courtyard behind the building.

Although it was winter, the courtyard still had an abundance of greenery. The lawn around the stone slabs had unmelted snow on them with sharp green grass poking out, as though reminding the people that the cold season was nearing its end, and it was time to welcome the new year.

If it was a stroll, Valkries had definitely chosen a good location. But her motive in inviting him over was obviously not to admire the scenery.

"What do you want to say?" Roland broke the silence. "You realized you've made the wrong mistake and decided to trust me?"

"No, I am still unable to trust you." Valkries shook her head. "The future of our races depends on the outcome of the Battle of Divine Will. I cannot make a decision without verifying the situation first."

"You have seen it for yourself, the Oracle was trying to stop me from seeking the truth—It might not mean anything, but doesn't that imply that we are in the right direction? Even if I had fabricated the outcome on the Western Front, the incident with the Oracle can't be something I deliberately arrange, right?"

"Yes, I have to admit that you're right," Valkries answered calmly. "But my opinion won't change."

Annoyed, Roland stopped abruptly. "You are helping God destroy your own civilization."

"There's no point criticizing me when there's an imbalance of information. Regardless, the Dream World and reality are separated by the Realm of Mind." Valkries turned around. "If you were me, will you be able to set your resolve and cooperate with enemies that you have fought against for thousands of years? Besides, the only thing I can get is a verbal promise."

Roland opened his mouth, but ultimately couldn't say the word "yes."

After a long while, Roland finally sighed. "If that's the case, then we have nothing to talk about."

"I will not make a decision without verifying the situation first, but—" Valkries paused, "If it can be verified, I will reconsider your suggestion."

Roland was stunned. "What?"

"While saving Fei Yuhan, the girl that drove over was a Transcendent, right? And she is different from the witches by your side, not in terms of ability, but behavior— I found the former unfamiliar, but the latter rather familiar. In the words of this world, a generation gap. After thinking about it, the ones that I am familiar with are the people from the First and Second Battle of Divine Will. After all, after the humans retreated behind the border, I no longer had any interaction with your kind. From there, I guess that this witch is rather young and might even be alive right now?

Rather young… That's likely comparing to those demons centuries of years old. From simply meeting, she was able to judge that Scroll and the God's Punishment Witches are not from the same generation? Roland replied in a noncommittal manner, "What does this have to do with what you were talking about? Even if you get an answer after asking her, you might think we had preplanned the entire thing."

"It obviously matters. The life expectancy of The Union's witches are less than a century and are bound to draw support from technology left behind in the Second Battle of Divine Will by the Underground Civilization. Ever since I fell for your trap, I have repeatedly pondered over how they are able to enter the Dream World, and the only possibility I have theorized has to do with the Underground Civilization."

Valkries walked over to an artificial ice sculpture and looked at her own reflection. "Although the requirements are extremely demanding, this race holds a fascinating ability with magic power, allowing them to greatly decrease the difficulty required to connect with the Realm of Mind. Additionally, we know that the fact that the Union managed to excavate the legacy of the underground civilization in the Fertile Plains was no accident. I originally believed that they had given up on their bodies in reality and transferred their spirits into a specific Dream territory. But after seeing that Witch, I realized that my theory was wrong."

"The ability to allow a live Transcendent move freely in and out of the Dream World without any external help isn't something the underground civilization is capable of achieving." Valkries continued, "I do not know what methods were used, but I know this fact for sure—If existing witches are capable of using this method to enter the Dream World, I believe that it will be as effective for a higher ascendant from my race!"

"You mean you want to—" Roland's heart skipped a beat.

"Bring Sky Lord here to see me." Valkries raised her head, "Even if you're the creator of the Dream World, it's impossible for you to duplicate something you have no knowledge of. As commander of the Western Front, Hackzord will undoubtedly verify the questions that I wish to know."

Roland blinked his eyes and couldn't help but chuckle in anger in exasperation. "But that's a Grand Demon Lord. If I could control him, why would I need my First Army to fight so bravely? Furthermore, Hackzord has suffered from our ambush previously and no longer dares shows its face; how can I find him?"

"I will help you create an opportunity," she enunciated each and every word slowly and clearly.

Roland frowned. "… Are you serious?"

"But you have to promise me two things. Firstly, you cannot use this opportunity to attack Hackzord. Secondly, regardless of what decision I make in the end, you have to let him go."

"Did you even consider how big of a risk I am taking here?"

"We are all in danger!" Valkries replied solemnly, "That's right, you think that this would expose the secret to Humanity's legacy, but isn't it the same for me? To allow a Grand Lord to take this risk—if you renounce your promise, what else can I do but regret? Do not assume that I made this decision on a whim!"

Sensing that her emotions were stirred, she somewhat calmed herself down. "In short, this is the biggest compromise that I am willing to make. As for whether or not you want to take on this risk, the decision lies completely with you."

Roland stared at her for a long time before asking, "I want to know, what changed your mind?"

"To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards, even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around!" Valkries coughed gently. "For a human to be able to say such words, it did surprise me."

Those were Fei Yuhan's words at the meeting.

She was… already standing outside the hall back then?

"Also, remember the question you asked me at the beginning?" Valkries looked straight into his eyes.

Do you think that the Transformer from a thousand years ago did the wrong thing?

Roland nodded.

"I think that it did the right thing." She turned and walked towards the exit. "That is my answer."

Chapter 1362 - Reversal

…

"Delta and Epsilon failed." Gamma raised its head and looked at the clock hung on the basement wall. The time shown was 12 hours past the time stipulated for the mission.

It was unsurprising for the Oracles to die going up against World Creators, given the unpredictable risks involved. Dying was not an issue so long as they completed their missions. Given sufficient time, they were able to reincarnate inside God's territory.

But after 12 hours, nothing occurred in the world.

Inside the void filled with magic power, Gamma did not feel the slightest ripple, much less any signs of the entire domain collapsing. It only meant one thing, the two failed in their mission to kill the self-cognitive being named "Zero."

"I am sorry to say that we have our own missions to complete." Beta merged the five last cores into its body and suddenly spread open its arms.

A red light flashed, followed by a scarlet red erosion breach which appeared in the middle of the basement.

"The situation isn't irredeemable. As long as we achieve our goal, there's still chance for things to turn for the better. Let's go, the magic power here is almost drained. The overlapping state of the two worlds will restore soon, which will even allow those martial artists to have the chance of sensing our tracks."

It did not guess the reason for failure or the process of the battle. As Oracles, they did not feel frustrated over failure or care about being defeated. The only thing they cared about was completing God's decrees to the best of their abilities.

Gamma nodded its head silently.

Beta turned and stepped into the rift.

This was no ordinary erosion.

It consumed a large amount of energy and cores from Fallen Evils to establish a 'passage.' As for another erosion rift that was connected to it, it led to the final battlefield created by the main Creator.

Gamma followed closely behind. Just as it was about to enter the rift, it heard the sound of footsteps from the stairs.

It was slightly startled and turned its head towards the source of the sound—This room had been isolated by magic power and prevented any detection means from locating it. Compounded by the numerous Fallen Evils guarding outside, it was impossible for anyone to enter.

Very quickly, a figure appeared from the darkness.

"Why is it you?" Gamma asked in confusion.

The other party was Epsilon disguised in human form.

According to the plan, Epsilon was responsible for delaying the human reinforcements and help Delta stall for time. If the latter failed, Epsilon should not have been alive.

Gamma did not receive a verbal answer, but an arm with five fingers.

This arm shot forward like lightning and pierced through Gamma's chest!

The mask dropped and shattered, revealing the revolving astrolabe under the hood.

Gamma stared at the other party in disbelief as its consciousness turned sluggish. "You… Why…"

"There's really a difference." Epsilon retracted its hand and allowed Gamma to fall on it, "…..you and Lan."

"You… want to betray God?"

After a moment of silence, Epsilon whispered, "Who is God?"

"God is—" Gamma opened its mouth, but could only repeat the same words again and again like a stuck gramophone. In the end, it never had a definite answer for this question.

"That's right… It is a question we have never considered; which is why you are unable to answer it. After killing Lan, many thoughts sprouted in my head, as though they had always been ingrained within my mind, but deliberately sealed within. And one of the question was: Did Lan truly betray God?" Epsilon whispered into Gamma's ears, "I do not have the answer to that. Us Oracles are the manifestations of God's will. If we were to go against it, are we still considered Oracles?"

Gamma did not reply, or perhaps, it should be said that it could no longer make any sounds.

"The next mission requires two for completion, so anyone will do. If you get the opportunity to meet Lord God, please help me ask the question."

Epsilon opened its robes and wrapped its companion up. After some squirming, it transformed into Gamma.

It picked up the mask lying on the floor and covered its face before walking into the Erosion rift.

After crossing through the passage formed out of magic power, Epsilon opened its eyes and welcomed a completely new scenery.

An imposing tower constructed out of reinforced concrete from the bottom to the top extended beyond its field of vision.

Inside, the tower were layers after layers of suspended paths with shuttling elevators that connected each floor.

On every path were numerous homogeneous squares. The Oracles knew that sealed inside the squares were their objective—the world's magic power cores stolen from God's territory.

They drew support from these cores to have sufficient strength in laying down traps to kill Creators.

"What's with the hold up." Beta turned back and glanced at 'Gamma', "If you're ready, we can begin."

"Of course, leave it to me," Epsilon replied calmly.

…

For the entire day, Roland spent his time sprawled across hid desk, continuously moaning and groaning in pain.

The series of unexpected events in the Dream World had overwhelmed him. They continued to haunt him even after he woke up. Regardless of it being the memory fragment from the astrolabe he internalized or the conversation with Valkries, both gave him a huge headache.

Especially the former.

It was undoubtedly an important source for information before entering the Bottomless Land to meet God. Roland knew from Lan's words the importance of the messages, but after pondering over them repeatedly, it was impossible to link the content between the two scenes.

And the string of words that left him clueless.

"From this moment forth, gravity will no longer be the force which is most deserving of reverence in this world'."

Why must it be gravity?

Out of the four fundamental forces in the universe, aside from its infinite range, gravity did not have any other unique feature. It's field of utilization was inferior to the electromagnetic force and its strength was far from the strong nuclear force. The only noteworthy point of gravity was that it was the first fundamental force observed by civilization, which meant that the secrets it had was the least.

According to conventional reasoning, aside from being studied intensively and published as part of important physics, it was extremely difficult to treat it as the most revering force.

As for the latter, after the Nightmare Lord initiated a preliminary collaboration, the two returned to the expensive restaurant where they first met and engaged in substantial and frank discussion that aroused the sidelong glances of other customers once again.

According to Valkries' words, the moment it was able to confirm the situation at the front lines, it would change its goal of "winning the Battle of Divine Will" to "to completely stop the Battle of Divine Will", including convincing the Sky Lord and providing assistance to the humans to proceed to the Bottomless Land.

Compared to merely acquiring information, the benefits of this cooperation were clearly greater. But the problem laid in whether the Sky Lord was willing to be convinced. Besides, there were more than one Grand Lord among the demons, along with the King that was above them. Hackzord's ability to decide the situation on the Western Front was another uncertain element.

Chapter 1363 - A Long Time Ago

Roland had three choices laid in front of him. The first choice was to make use of the opportunity Valkries provided and kill Hackzord. This involved almost zero risk and was equivalent to getting rid of a demon grand lord easily.

Considering Hackzord's unique ability and that it was far more challenging for higher grade demons to upgrade themselves, this action would benefit the front lines greatly. He could then push the blame to external factors or accidents that prevented the other party from showing up and lie to Valkries successfully. If lucky enough, the same plan could be used to lure other grand lords as well.

The second choice was to bring Hackzord into the Dream World and allow him to talk to Valkries. As the latter had decided to take the leap of faith and agreed to collaborate, Roland knew that the crux of the matter was not on the Nightmare Lord but on their discussion. The most ideal situation would be for the Nightmare Lord to verify the truth and conversely convince the Sky Lord to lead their troops out of the Human Kingdom, and spread the information to the rest of the Demon Race that the Battle of Divine Will had to stop. This way, the path from Neverwinter to the Bottomless Land would no longer be obstructed. As long as the last Oracle was killed, Roland would be able to face God there.

If the war concerned only the humans and demons, Roland had no doubts of choosing the former—after all, killing Hackzord in such a manner was a certainty and they would earn a bigger advantage in the war in the North. The longer they stalled for time, the further they could develop their war potential through industrialization.

But looking at the bigger picture, the situation became completely different.

Besides the Demons and Sky-sea Realm, Roland was worried about the threat from God, and a single Sky Lord was simply insignificant compared to that. Even if they won the Battle of Divine Will, the human civilization would not escape the outcome of being destroyed.

Roland did not know to what extent their development needed to survive such a terrifying cataclysm.

Time was not on their side.

Valkries might have realized this point and thus chose to take the risk.

It had to be said that this method had shown enough sincerity—at least after witnessing the attack from Erosion and the Oracles, she had truly considered Lan's warning and thought about the bigger picture seriously.

The problem was that the Transformer had too much of an influence on Valkries, to the point that even before the Battle of Divine Will, it had already planted a thought in Valkries. With the big picture in mind, to be able to forgo the victory of a battle to allow the continuity of her entire civilization could be said to be a natural outcome.

But Hackzord had not experienced any of it, making it a question if he would come to a consensus with Valkries after the exchange. Generally speaking, a decision to decide the fate of the entire civilization was not something that could be determined after one negotiation. But the more they were allowed to meet in the Dream World, the higher the risks, and this was what Roland had difficulty accepting.

Based on the present situation, he preferred the third choice.

That was to maintain the current status quo and gain more time for humanity to gain sufficient strength to reach the Bottomless Land at the edge of the continent

Frankly, this choice best suited Roland's style and it was the goal he pursued from the very beginning. Regardless of what response the Demons had, for humanity to have the capability to traverse over a thousand kilometers to reach their destination was undoubtedly the most reliable outcome.

However, the problem was the continuous mountain range terrain to the north of Neverwinter. To travel to the ridge of the continent, they had to rely on the 'Fire of Heaven', at the same time possessing the ability to defend against attacks in the sky. The process from research and development to production required time. During this period, it was an unknown if there might be any changes along the front lines.

Just as Roland had realized before—facing the threat of the Divine Will, choosing a reliable option was a form of risk as well.

The only difference between the third and the former two choices was that the degree of risk more or less relied on humanity's efforts to make up for their deficiency.

I should look for the Association's support regarding this in the next trip to the Dream world.

Roland thought to himself.

After dinner, Anna entered the office with a roll of design plans and sat at the opposite end of the mahogany desk. This was the time for their routine interaction and was the only period of the day where they felt relaxed and happier. So long as the research institute did not work in the night, Anna would stay in the office for two to three hours, where the conversations included the day's work to sudden enlightenments and ideas.

During this time, Nightingale would appear and relax by the side table with snacks on hand, browsing through the comic books illustrated by Scroll that depicted things in the Dream World. During this period, Nightingale would occasionally speak up, making the surrounding mood rather placid and warm.

After resolving the technical problems, Roland talked about the Dream World's problem that was troubling him.

"So that's why you were sighing incessantly…" Nightingale curled her lips. "Is it a must to have a connection between both worlds? What if the images you saw in the Dream World were assembled randomly? The more you think about it, the more white hairs you will have. No matter what, some things will never be understood."

Roland rolled his eyes. "The brain will degenerate if unused; if everyone's like you, this world is doomed."

"But the more you think about it, you'll die much faster than the world."

"…" He decided to retract the thought that Nightingale looked placid and warm.

Anna did not immediately give her opinion. She pondered and muttered to herself for a very long time before speaking up. "I'm afraid that Nightingale is right."

Both Nightingale and Roland were stunned. "What?"

Anna could not resist laughing. "I'm not talking about not thinking, but she's right on this matter… maybe the link between both scenes isn't as complicated as you think."

"Did you discover something?" Roland asked curiously.

Anna shook her head. "I'm not certain, just some wild guesses." She pulled her hair to the back of the ears and gazed upon her notes. "For example… the sequential order of the two, or should I say—time."

"The link is… time?" Roland frowned and thought about it before exclaiming in surprise, "If the second scene occurred before the first…"

"Then it depicts a complete story." Anna finished his sentence.

"This is the price."

The price was not about upgrading like the missing Radiation People.

Or about the tsunamis and storm that devoured all the survivors.

The two were on the time scale separated by more than ten thousand years… hundreds and thousands of years… or even further.

The price was pointing to something else.

The outcome was that gravity was no longer worthy of being a revered force, and a gigantic and red cavity appeared in the universe.

And if the string of words was subtly hinting to magic power, the phrase "From this moment forth" pointed to an astonishing conclusion.

Roland and Anna looked at each other.

"—Magic power did not exist in this world before."

The two of them said in unison.

The absence of magic power meant that living beings that relied on it would no longer exist.

For example, demons.

And… witches.

Chapter 1364 - Cooperation

"Absence of magic power in this world?" Nightingale had her doubts. "Will the world still be the same as it is? Why do I feel that the two of you are overthinking it?"

"… Indeed." Anna recovered from her daze. "The effect of a force is easily felt, where the simple addition of an unremarkable component force into a balanced system will definitely induce change to the system, let alone magic power that exists everywhere. If magic power truly appeared out of nowhere, then the world before its existence ought to be completely different. But from your description, our world here sounds really similar to that world, where water flows, snow melts, the sun provides warmth and where mother earth provides life. Aside from magic power, it sounds exactly the same."

"That is why it is worth revering—I think this is what that line was is referring to." Roland suppressed the slight chill that ran down his back. "It isn't one of the four fundamental forces, but wields the ability to seamlessly enter the system and bring about a comprehensive change to the world, as though it is above everything else."

"Is that really possible?" Anna frowned.

"It's just a conjecture." Roland grabbed his own hand. "And I believe the appearance of magic power did bring about some change, but it might not be what the other party had anticipated." Roland paused for a moment. "—That is why he called it a price."

"That sounds rather… terrifying." Nightingale covered her mouth.

"No, it is instead a good thing."

"Huh? Why?"

"Our current world is still filled with magic power. This means that even God is powerless to retrieve this price. If that is the case, magic power can continue existing forever," Roland explained earnestly. "And if magic power exists forever, none of you will disappear out of the blue."

"Ahem—" Nightingale tilted her head. "That sounds reasonable."

"But we are already in the third month of the Months of Demons, and we have yet to see a new Witch appear. Who should we blame for this?" Anna spoke with a faint smile.

"Well, about that—" He was stumped for words.

"Alright, enough joking." Anna chuckled. "In light of these inferences, the Battle of Divine Will and upgrades of races came about from the appearance of magic power, and ultimately turned into the present world which we are familiar with?"

"We can assume so based on this logic. Since the legacy shards and Realm of Mind are definitely related to magic power and all the evidences we have excavated, it proves that before we appeared, other civilizations used to exist." Roland relaxed his tone of speech. "I am currently more worried about two things, the first being the red cavity that is gradually taking shape and annexing a part of the world; the second being the pursuit of liberation as spoken by the Oracle that betrayed God."

"For the former, are you suspecting that it is affecting our planet?"

He nodded. "If we can only fly up there and take a look… a pity that it is still too difficult with Neverwinter's current technological advancements. As for Lan's liberation, it is definitely related to stopping the Battle of Divine Will. But as to what it signifies, I am afraid that we can only find out after entering the Bottomless Land."

…

Roland originally believed that a gargantuan organization like the Martialist Association would take an extremely long time to go through the necessary procedures, even after achieving a preliminary consensus, and might not even have finalized a set of statutes even after two weeks. Instead of waiting for the higher-ups to produce concrete results, why not raise a few requests himself? For example, focusing on providing Scroll with technological information, as well as carrying out specialized training for Saint Miran, Dido, and the other Taqulia witches.

However, reality went far beyond his expectations.

In just a single day, which meant going back into the Dream world that same night, he received a call from Garcia.

"Mister Rock's secretary wants me to inform you that the first support plan has been negotiated and passed by Prism City and the implementation of the plan requires your participation. The meeting will be held at Clover Group's modern car dealership's projects department. If you have no other arrangements, we can head over there immediately."

"Wait, us?" Before Roland could even react, the other party hung up.

Knocks were heard immediately from the living room door.

Roland immediately donned his jacket and opened the door.

It was none other than Garcia.

"Why was it necessary for Rock's secretary to inform you to inform me?" Roland did not understand. "Can't Mr Defender just call me directly? He even had to trouble you to make your way over."

"You still don't get it, do you?" Garcia said sourly, "This means that you have gained the approval of the Martialist Association, and is the standard channel of communications from the higher-ups. Besides, there will be many public figures participating in this coming meet. If you were to go alone, isn't that throwing the Association's face? And yes, in the future, let me handle all future contacts for such meetings. If you're ready, let's go."

"Well… I haven't showered."

She rolled her eyes. "Then go!"

Seeing that the other party had no intentions of leaving, Roland could only comply. It was only when they reached the ground floor did they both realize that Garcia's luxurious sports car had been wrecked from the rescue.

In the end, the two boarded a vehicle and drove out of the neighborhood, still in Roland's familiar SUV.

"About that… I will compensate you for your car." He sat in the front passenger seat awkwardly. "But are you sure driving this vehicle will not affect the Association's prestige?"

"Shut up." Garcia snapped; her expression livid.

Roland tactfully moved away from her line of sight.

After driving out of the city, her expression got better. "About that—since it was to save a person's life, we can only consider it as a collateral and I can let you off for the time being. As for what exactly went on there, I will comply with the Association's discipline and hold off asking you about it."

Roland was startled and did not know what to say. After a moment of silence, he replied, "Yes, thanks."

"But this doesn't count as you writing off your debt to me, understand?" Garcia's tone immediately took a turn as she emphasized. "After this secret order is lifted, you have to tell me everything in its entirety—including who Zero is, and the true background of those relatives of yours."

Indeed, she had noticed their peculiarities.

But all of that was within expectations. While saving Fei Yuhan, Garcia had stood by the side and naturally witnessed the process of reviving Fei Yuhan. Regardless of it being Scroll who brought the magical sutures, or the unsurprised God Punishment Witches, all of them were obviously not ordinary people.

Even so, she was still willing to wait for his explanation. This trust caused Roland's heart to feel warmth.

And there was Fei Yuhan and Rock… With the help of so many people, the Dream World was indeed moving towards an unknown future.

But it was this unknown that made it worth protecting.

"When everything is over, I will tell you everything," Roland replied solemnly.

Roland immediately noticed that the eye-grabbing signboard belonging to the new modern car dealership had disappeared after driving into the factory district. What replaced it was a brand new gold-plated signboard.

His eyes opened wide in surprise.

The words were clear as day. 'Design Bureau of Graycastle'.

Chapter 1365 - The new Design Bureau

It was not the only change in the area.

Roland noticed many workers tearing down and changing the billboards on both sides of the road, and the usual bustling construction sites were all extremely quiet, as though the entire modern car dealership project had disappeared in the blink of an eye. The short wall used to divide the construction space had a new scaffolding in place, looking as though it was being used as a base for new exterior wall.

Even more ridiculous were the heavily-armed police on alert as they cordoned off the projects department with sentry posts. Any entrance and exits required identification and vehicles were prohibited from approaching the main building.

After having their credentials verified, the armed policeman saluted them with a standard military salute and opened the guarded entrance.

"Oh my god…" Garcia whispered, "What did you make the Association do?"

"To be honest, I am as clueless as you are." Roland shook his head helplessly. "I haven't even made any requests yet."

As the two walked towards the main building, Garcia suddenly stopped in her steps and frowned.

Standing at the doors and welcoming them was her father, Garde, a member of Clover Group's board of directors.

"I've waited for you for a long time." The man nodded at his daughter first, then initiated a handshake. "Mr Roland, although I've known that you were special the first time we met, I've never thought that you'll be far more special than what I imagined. From this day on, this factory is yours."

Garde's words were clearly filled with good wishes, but his tone did not have the slightest bit of joy—the look on his face was complicated, like an ensemble of contradictions. During their first acquaintance, this middle-aged man showed an obvious contempt towards Roland, a feigned friendliness on the second due to Roland's relationship with the Defender, while the current and third meeting was one of fear, most probably his true emotion.

"Isn't the modern car dealership originally an important development for the Clover Group? Are you guys really that nice to gift it away so submissively?" Garcia mocked, "And here I thought that the Clover Group would be slightly more unyielding, with how all of you were ready to demolish the apartments in spite of public opinion."

To her surprise, Garde did not reveal any anger and merely chuckled ruefully. "The Martialist Association gave the family terms that they couldn't refuse. Although I'm a member of the board of directors, I was unable to stop the decision. Aside from that, the Clover Group has officially terminated the plan to demolish and rebuild the apartments. We will be announcing it at the reception later—there is no longer a need for you to rally for the residents, my daughter."

Garcia was frozen with shock.

"The demolishing and relocation plan has been… terminated?"

"Yes, it has," Garde replied slowly. "I know that even if this passes, you will not forgive me that easily, but at least we are no longer enemies. In the future, if you wish to meet your brother, feel free to come home anytime. Of course… you can bring him along as well." He looked towards Roland.

After leading the startled duo into the main hall, Garde waved before leaving the projects department building.

The secretary responsible for bringing them in led them to the conference room even before they came round to.

Seated around the approximately 100-square-meter room were about 40 to 50 people, all dressed in formal attire. It did not appear anything like a construction site meeting. Placed around the center table were four chairs arranged facing each other. Apart from Defender Rock, there were two others sitting there—one about 40 to 50 years of age and resembled a veteran of war; the other had graying hair but had eyes brimming with vitality.

The last chair was obviously left for him.

Garcia finally jolted out of her reverie and gently nudged him on the back.

Roland nodded, calmly walked over, and proceeded to sit beside Rock.

With the experience of being a King, he naturally did not suffer from stage fright, but instead felt even more curious—from the looks of it, the Association had obviously planned to surprise him.

But after the secretary's announcement of the start of the meeting, every single person in the room were given an introduction, leaving Roland in suspense. Despite knowing that the Martialist Association had a long history and its great influence over the government, the 'surprise' greatly exceeded Roland's expectations.

From metallurgy to materials, from machine designs to automatic controls, every single subject matters expert were present. Among them was an existing laureate from the Nation's Academy of Sciences as well as another leading technical expert from a private corporation. More critically, every single person here was merely a representative. Behind them were enormous teams, each completely capable of undertaking the entire process from research and development to production.

As for the two men seated to his right, one was the overall-in-charge of the technological department, President Wu and the other Executive Manager, Head Liu. The former took charge of all research development while the latter was responsible for the allocation of resources. The professionalism of the entire system was evident and was not something the original small group of the Design Bureau of Graycastle could compare to.

This was the sole reason for the Association to take over the entire land—without the space, they could not have research work happen in parallel.

Aside from that, the two were also representatives of the government; they were sent to assist in the situation and gather information.

The entire project was assigned the name 'Project Nüwa.' It was rather fitting to use the legend of her patching up the sky to describe the resistance against Erosion. Information of the other world was limited to only a few government officials and as a result, the official documents explained that the undertaking was a 'complicated drill' designed to simulate the final destruction of the human race due to Erosion and how the survivors would utilize resources after the war and rebuild civilization from the ruins.

One of the crucial points listed was that some Awakened Beings underwent rarely seen evolutions due to Erosion. They evolved and displayed completely different abilities from what the Force of Nature had; thus, the researchers were required to study all relevant elements around the phenomena. As to what this special abilities were, Chief Hunter Roland was designated by the Association as the overall person-in-charge with full authority to make decisions.

At this point, Roland almost spat the tea that he had just imbibed.

In other words, the main content of the meeting was to listen to the abilities announced by him and investigate their applications. Even if he were to make things up, it was a requirement to take him seriously and consider how the abilities could influence the rebuilding of their civilization.

It was fortunate that the Martialist Association was the one doing such a thing. If Roland had to announce the conditions to this matter that seemed to border on child's play by himself, all the professionals on site would have left immediately.

"I wonder if Mr Roland is satisfied with the proposal?" Rock smiled towards him and said, "When you raised your request to me previously and mentioned its severity to the world, I thought you were exaggerating then. But now, I have finally understood the true meaning behind your words. Taking into account that the magic power manifested from both worlds are different, no matter how absurd or weird your requests are, they will not disagree with you."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "You believe… in everything that I've said?"

"To be honest, I don't know." Rock retracted his gaze. "But as long as we can prevail over Erosion by working together, we will have the opportunity to verify them in the future, is that not? And this new Design Bureau is only the beginning."

Chapter 1366 - A Fork in the Story

…

The battle ended as quickly as it began.

After it stabbed its evolved stinger into the center of another Eye of Branch Nest, victory became an instant certainty. The quick diffusion of its neurotoxin destroyed its target's will, causing it to lose control over its "blade" and "foot."

It looked at the collapsed Eye of Branch Nest and retracted its stinger in satisfaction.

It used to be like these pitiful creatures, aimlessly gathering repeatedly, waiting for the Mother of the Nest to determine their fates. But while the latter had yet to evolve, it had already become a hunter of the Nest Eye.

Compared to its initial appearance, its evolved state was a complete overhaul.

It exploited the pheromones that some deep sea fishes had, separating its eyes from its internal organs and attached them to its skin, at the same time evolving its ribs into a carapace brimming with magic power. This exponentially heightened its defensive capabilities, and if it encountered the despicable two-legged lowlifes again, the latter would no longer be able to easily intrude into its body.

Aside from that, it had deemed that long distance combat was far safer than close combat. It could now produce raw silk possessing explosive elements, and use them to fire gallstones and bone spears. Although it referenced it from the bodies of other lowlifes, it was a lot more effective. It did not rely on magic power to attack and was not weak towards God's Stones. To accommodate these organs, its entire body had expanded three times and any typical "blade" was incapable of harming it.

Lastly, the evolved stinger that produced neurotoxins was both capable of fatally wounding a large target and preserving its intact body for the monster to absorb its pheromones. It was a multifaceted weapon.

Without a doubt, it could not be regarded as the same species as those Eyes of Branch Nest.

For the sake of distinguishing itself from its previous form, it learned from the lowlifes and gave itself a name—"Devour".

To devour everything and evolve.

And all the scattered Eyes of Branch Nest harvesting pheromones in the sea were undoubtedly the most valuable prey.

The next thing to do was to enjoy the moment.

"Devour" opened its carapace and unleashed countless tentacles that pulled the carcass into its own body bit by bit.

Right at this time, it suddenly sensed an extremely peculiar undulation—

The degree of the undulation was so immense it felt as though the world was howling in unison!

"Devour" gazed up to the sky, and aside from the dark clouds and Bloody Moon, the vast sky did not seem to be experiencing any changes. But in its eyes, endless ripples were undulating incessantly across the dusky sky, spreading out into the distance.

An intense sense of unease enveloped "Devour".

Regardless of it being violent eruptions of undersea volcanoes or earthquakes, these natural events produces all sorts of wave motions, but none of that could compare to what "Devour" was feeling. The ripples were too pure and filled with a cadence which made it even more terrifying.

The ripples dissipated quickly into the horizon, but before "Devour" even recovered from its bewilderment, a familiar sense surged through its tentacles into its body.

It was the Mother of the Nest issuing its evolution command!

The command was received by the Eyes of the Branch Nest, and a new connection was established with "Devour." After losing the connection with the Mother of the Nest for so long, it never expected to once again hear the echoes of its species.

But it did not stop there, upon deciphering the content of the command, Devour's subconscious mind immediately had the desire to obey!

No!

It was no longer an ordinary nest eye!

It was a unique individual!

It spat out the remaining carcass of the Eye of Branch Nest and rolled left and right on the ground in an attempt to resist its remaining instincts. The "blades" and "feet" guarding by its side were so afraid they remained stationary until they were smashed into meat patties after being struck by a sweeping stinger. Its actions stirred up waves through the surrounding waters. It was practically doing its utmost be be able to suppress the urge stemming from the bottom of its heart and inhibiting the allure by force.

Devour gradually calmed itself down. After hesitating over and over again, it finally allowed the 'feet' to drag the nest eye back. After all, Devour gained the knowledge of where the eyes were moving towards and felt that its future hunts had become even more convenient.

Devour carefully inserted its tentacles back into the center of its prey and immersed itself in the willpower of the main nest, recording all the commands accumulated within the pheromones.

But the end result shocked it beyond words!

There were… too many orders!

The process of evolving was an extremely serious affair. It was impossible for every single recomposition to be flawless, like how flexibility and firmness are inversely correlated, a sudden spike meant a weak continuation. To achieve perfection, one had to consider the balance of the whole entity. It was because of this that every command issued out were constant repeats of analyzing and filtering all pheromones before a decision was made. It basically did not accept more than two strains of pheromones, and placed emphasis on extraordinary evolutionary constructs.

However, Devour had received and read many evolutionary constructs that were acting on many Nest Eyes.

For example, the 'ability to endure pain,' 'rapid regeneration,' 'rapid reproduction rate,' 'sharp carapace,' etc… to the point that some of the pheromones came from unfiltered sources and went against the Mother of the Nest's former modus operandi! It did not stop there; some of the orders included pheromones that belonged to primitive beasts, and these were orders that showed no regard to the consequences!

Indeed, the mass of evolutionary constructs were capable of strengthening the species in a short span of time, but at the same time, it limited its prospects as a species. Devour faintly remembered the direction of the carved blood vessels—their ultimate evolution goal was not for survival, but to fly higher than the sky.

But once an evolution was completed, the flaws brought about by the inferior pheromones were difficult to be mended and the price to pay was too large.

Devour was unable to understand why the Mother of the Nest would make such a decision.

Fortunately, Devour's fate had been severed from the species, so regardless of what their evolution signified, it had nothing to do with Devour.

After finishing up its prey, Devour dived deeper into the ocean and disappeared amongst the waves.

…

Is it too late…

The Guardian stood at the calm seashore and looked into far north.

The waves gently washed up the shore, producing gentle and monotonous rustling. But she knew that this was most probably the last tranquility the sea would have.

The distant sky had been dyed a deep red with the occasional arc lights formed by magic power flickering away, just like a large storm gradually taking form. Not long later, the blood-red clouds would befall the Land of Dawn and become a part of the battle of destiny.

And further into the distance, black 'tides' rose out of the water surface that extended several hundred kilometers like a moving island.

Under the guidance of the Divine Will, they were all finally converging.

This was a scene she had witnessed countless times.

But this might possibly be the last.

But it did not mean the end. To the world, it only meant a brand new beginning. But this beginning was merely a repeat of a ten million year cycle, and the Guardian of the next cycle would no longer be her.

No one knew if the young lady found her way home. She turned to face the south and thought, 'If only we have the chance to meet again.'

'Let it be soon.' She prayed from the bottom of her heart.

Chapter 1367 - The Essence to Upgrade

The meeting on the 'Project Nüwa' lasted for a few days and the professionalism displayed by the participants left Roland gasping in amazement. What made him even more surprised was their abundance of energy.

The entire meeting consisted of disputes and debates that went on in unbroken succession from nine in the morning till seven at night. When they encountered issues that were difficult to come to a decision, it was not rare for the debates to last till midnight. Although the participants were dressed to the nines, none of these professionals relented when it came to a technicalities. The intensity of the arguments were in no way less than outright war. They were not limited to only the middle-aged backbones of their respective industries, but even the white-haired seniors acted in the same manner.

An average person that hit such an age would usually be inarticulate and have slower train of thoughts, but aside from their looks, none of these common factors were present in them. Their voices were loud and clear, their eyes bright and full of expression. They were still capable of suppressing their successors in debates. This scene convinced Roland that the brain was truly an organ that developed the more one used it.

In the Dream World, he was able to rely on the Awakened ability to maintain his heightened concentration, but after waking up in reality, he would feel the exhaustion clearly. To accommodate the content of the meeting, he had no choice but to increase the hours of sleep and use the time in reality to replenish his energy.

Of course, the atmosphere within the projects department did not kick start from the get go. In the beginning, no one showed much interest, and the majority of disagreements were concentrated on Roland's 'plans.'

For example, the idea that after the destruction of the world, the humans killed by the Fallen Evils would turn into another 'competitor', as well as the mutation of the pure Force of Nature and Blackfire that went against science… Although no one publicly called into question Roland's words seeing that the Martialist Association and the government were in spearheading the entire project, signs of disagreements and conflict appeared, either through their silence or on the pretense that it was 'for the job'. Roland knew that their mentality and the process of repeated questions and beating about the bush led to nowhere.

If not for Roland's signals towards Ling, the Taquila Witches might had taken action.

Only until they reached the conclusion at the end of the first night did the conflicting views of both parties reach its peak.

A chief master in mechanics stood up and spoke bluntly that regardless of how much they discussed, it was useless if no one remembered the content. Just a single day worth of decisions required the Martial Artists a few weeks to digest; thus, they decided to end the meeting earlier. Roland clearly remembered that Scroll, having maintained her silence for the entire day, had suddenly slammed the table with her hand.

The meeting room immediately became her stage.

Scroll not only listed the content discussed in the meet, but even the questions and doubts raised by every single individual, and all the valuable contributions made on each topic from the beginning to end—everything were listed out to the smallest detail. Her fascinating memory shocked everyone present, leaving even the chief master that challenged Roland speechless. At that moment, it was as though all the professionals had turned into students, and Scroll was the only teacher.

It was most probably her verification regarding the unlimited possibilities existed within the Force of Nature—that not only could limbs be strengthened, or have the intellect of engineering elites heightened—along with her outstanding temperament and features which resulted in the reversal of the subsequent situation.

In the following days, despite arguments still happening, the focus shifted from the setup to 'Project Nüwa'.

Not only that, under the situation where money and manpower were no longer an issue, any 'contentions' were immediately conveyed to the research and development team, where experiments were immediately carried out to test on their feasibility.

To Roland, it was no doubt the best days in which he reaped the most in the Dream World.

Under the suggestion of President Wu, their focus on improvements moved onto instruments.

In his words: "We clearly have cutting-edge technology and high quality materials, but our usage of such simple and crude machines and instruments is truly a waste. Even if we lack electric control technology, we can use machines to automate and regulate precise control. If you had raised it up earlier, we would have stopped accepting such defective products."

Roland did not know whether to laugh or cry to this. The 'defective products' mentioned by the President were the best designs he had spent his lifetime working on. But Roland completely agreed with the President's assessment.

Before the proliferation of electronic technology, pure machinery and equipment had once developed to what could be deemed 'a work of art.' Examples included the mechanical calculator, as well as its subsequent development which eventually ended as the theoretical difference engine. Anyone who laid their eyes on the overlapping gears and interconnected screws would feel a sense of pure beauty. However, the advancements of electronic technology in history was simply a powerful current that instantly swept all of these large and complicated machines into the gutters of history. Even if he flipped through textbooks, it was impossible for him to find any design information on the corresponding equipment.

With a specialized team to improve the tools he had and reproduce all the technological materials that had long disappeared, he naturally couldn't wish for more.

The improvement of the tools brought about an increase in production efficiency and decrease in manpower demands, signifying that Neverwinter would be able to use the same number of people to accomplish even more work. This was extremely significant for his Kingdom that had limited manpower.

Aside from producing machines, the new Design Bureau supplied many things that included simpler calculators, typewriters, automatic printing press, etc… All these did not require electronic components and only required a few units to greatly enhance the rate of administrative work.

These details constituted the foundations of 'Project Nüwa.'

Building on top of this establishment, the content expanded tremendously.

The majority of the professionals acknowledged that strengthening themselves to protect the human race from extinction was the main priority. They required the ability to resist the Fallen Evil's power of degeneration before having the capacity to develop the next step, which was mainly focused on weapons.

After considering the conditions laid out by Roland, none of the participants produced any proposals that had an answer to everything. Instead, they divided the proposal into three steps—quarterly plans, yearly plans, and five-year plans.

The past wars in the Dream World provided optimal answers for certain problems, but the targeted approach in terms of the number of 'survivors' made it difficult to establish a concrete industry system. With historical numbers no longer practical, the specialists leaned towards focusing on fighting the enemies and developed further into the specific projects targeting this goal. This was also their original intention—to be able to bring about a metamorphic change in humanity's ability to battle within three to twelve months.

The very first thing mentioned, something which was also the easiest at enhancing, involved the various high-energy explosives and propellants.

This was coincidentally Neverwinter's largest shortcoming.

Reproducing nitro-explosives could be learned from chemistry books, but simple explosives such as TNT and RDX had very few references, much less to say the composition of modern gunpowder. But with the government spearheading the project, this gap had finally been filled.

Chapter 1368 - Going Hand in Hand

The next in line was advancing the ammunition production line.

Although Roland's design of the production line could be considered streamlined, it was nothing in the eyes of military specialists, or to put it bluntly, terrible. In their own words: "Such a framework and process are relatively too simple and 95% of it could be automated with machines. By relying on machines, production can basically be increased to non-stop 24 hours a day."

The new military proposal did not require much investment for the early stages of the new production line but was capable of starkly reducing manpower. Simultaneously, it also increased the production of bullets by more than ten times. Provided that personnel involved in the production remained constant, the production rate was estimated to increase further.

Once 'Project Cornerstone' for Project Nüwa was set in place, the equipment needed by the new production line no longer faced any theoretical technical challenges. Once the propellant was enhanced, precision and lethality of the firearms would automatically be upgraded.

Looking at this segment of the report caused Roland to gasp with admiration towards the other party's accurate foresight.

Ammunition had ultimately been the main problem for the First Army.

Although the number of workers involved in production moving to the Fertile Plains had been increasing, it did not alleviate the lack of ammunition. The expenditure of the Aerial Knights solely from training alone was enough to deplete a majority of the ammunition, but training was an essential process. Iron Axe had raised the complains from the frontlines many times to Roland because of that.

If the amount of ammunition could be increased, the possibility of Demons relying on numbers to break through the First Army's defense line would further decrease. Or in other words, the stalemate at the frontlines would come to an end.

As for light weapons, the specialists did not provide further comment. It was not because there was no room for improvements, but the practicality to price ratio was not high. The combination of using general-purpose machine guns, bolt action/semi-automatic rifles were sufficient in dealing with the threat from inferior Fallen Evils. With regards to offensive capabilities on the battlefield, the consensus was to rely on artillery and heavy weapons.

In other words, so long as they could flatten their enemies to death first, the infantry soldiers could occupy territory with ease.

Rather than pouring resources into enhancing firearms, why not manufacture more cannons, since cannons were required to clear the way—regardless of going on the offensive, retreating, reinforcements, or to be defensive. Unleashing a few artillery shells to plow the enemies first was considered the safest option.

With the priority placed on the quarter year plan, their main concern was targeted towards fast and effective results.

In the Five-Year Plan, light weapons were considered an extremely major project.

But Roland was most interested in the Annual Plan.

Its benefits were lower than gunpowder and ammunition and the required investment was much higher, but it was crucial at determining the outcome of the war.

The plan comprised of Neverwinter's current heavy weapons, including two improvement projects and two brand new projects. The Army and the Aerial Knights took up half each.

Firstly was the old topic in Graycastle's Design Bureau—the caterpillar tractors and the subsequently developed armored tanks. This was the only chance for Master Xie to make an appearance as well. Unexpectedly, the specialists did not criticize the plans at all after seeing the design sheets; instead, they felt that the designs deserved merit under the circumstances where little technology was available. Compared to the armored vehicles, the specialists were more focused on how its "nuclear-powered core"

When Roland revealed the Magic Cube, the entire mood took an unexpected turn. Even the government officials that had knowledge of the true story were dumbstruck.

Till date, he could still vividly recall the entire scene.

At the beginning, everyone revealed their complicated expressions upon seeing the seemingly ordinary 'stone cube'. After all, every single one of them came from intellectual and professional backgrounds. Out of respect for Scroll, everyone remained took the entire presentation seriously. To be frank, the action of taking out a rock and calling it a nuclear power unit was indirectly calling the professionals fools.

When Rock suddenly signaled to Head Liu a few times, Head Liu decided to call for a temporary adjournment and prevent the awkwardness from continuing. After all, they had built up the collaborative atmosphere through great difficulty.

But under his insistence, a dynamics professor reluctantly took the cube and sent it to the test laboratory for his team to conduct a simple test. His lab assistant left with an ineffable and contemptuous expression, but returned back agitatedly half an hour later to the point of not being able to say a word.

The entire meeting room plunged into mania.

Under the indisputable reality, Roland discovered that everyone's eyes seemed to burn when looking at him, and even President Wu had to pull Head Liu out of the room directly. No one knew what they talked about, but the change in viewpoint was immediate. The security around the factories was beefed up by several levels the following day. The armed police were replaced with real army troops, so much so that the gates were replaced with sentry posts and military walls. If not for Roland's identity as a martial artist which left ordinary means against him useless, he would have had a private lane, personal bodyguards, and other top notch services wherever he went.

This entire event was suggested by Anna, and not Roland's intent to show off deliberately.

After running through the events that day with her, Anna got angry, frowned and worked up a 'revenge plan,' which was to use magic power to remodel the professionals' world view. The result was far better than what Roland had anticipated. Not only was everyone rather respectful of Scroll, but they also acceded to every request of his and hoped to receive a portion of the Magic Cube to conduct tests. Due to that, the outcome of the meeting was adjourned one day after another.

To modern scientists and technological groups, wielding tangible research objects would allow them to propose and conduct feasible plans with much more ease.

That was how the tri-tank Magic Cube was phased out.

The replacement was an even more reasonable and high-pressured Magic Cube. Not only was its theoretical output doubled, but its volume and vibrations had also dropped by nearly 30%. It only required a week for the prototype to be trialled and tested on trucks and tractors before being confirmed as the final product.

Besides the enhancements of the Magic Cube engine, the projects team supplied a design plan for a small-scale truck with only 20–30 horsepower and used a diesel engine that was capable of running on diesel oil. Diesel oil was a byproduct from refining fuel oil for biplanes. With a loading capacity of one to two tons, it had an extremely simple structure which didn't even have an operator cabin and looked like a four-wheeled square headed tractor at first glance.

Roland quickly realized the usefulness of the small-scale truck. In terms of production, it was far easier to manufacture as compared to steam trucks, and they were capable of manufacturing many units in a short period of time. Using the former for short distance transport was no doubt a waste, but the latter was just perfect. It boasted higher efficiency as compared to animal-drawn vehicles and was the best choice in overcoming routes with different elevations.

The last portion of the Annual Plan was the true core.

It constituted of two parts—improvements for the current 'Fire of Heaven,' increasing its advantages over the Devilbeasts in terms of flight and power, while developing child versions over its base foundations to adapt to different combat requirements.

The second was to manufacture and develop a new model of long distance bombers.

Chapter 1369 - Overlord of the Sky

The projects team did not mention any plans for new planes. Under the circumstance where electronic components were absent, the upper bounds of a monoplane were higher than a biplane. Even so, the final Annual Plan remained focused on enhancements.

The final decision maker was the Technology Department's overall-in-charge, President Wu.

Roland also learned a new concept from the meetings: time efficiency.

All manufacturing projects focusing on streamlining will improve in efficiency with time. Even if few changes happened, this was a natural phenomenon bound to occur. The reason lies in the process—workers would gradually familiarize themselves with the production line which included the interaction between man and machine as well as the teamwork between the workers themselves. This was completely unrelated to one's upbringing, but more of an innate laziness in the workers that made them find the easiest ways and shortcuts to complete their work, to the point that they themselves would voluntarily sort out the imperfections to the process.

As a result, the efficiency of production at its later stages not only exceeded the early phases but manufacturing costs would decrease.

To form up a team of Aerial Knights, the production line that had started up with much difficulty had to maintain the status quo. This helped in familiarizing the workers with the further processing of the machines and the workflow processes so as to prevent the equipment from hindering the war effort.

The improvisation towards the 'Fire of Heaven' was mainly geared towards improving the engine and weapon systems.

The first point spoke for itself; the 'Fire of Heaven' was a complete masterpiece created completely from antique blueprints Roland obtained in the Dream World and a product of trial and error. Although aerodynamics was not an issue to a biplane that had a peak speed of less than 150 km/h, it did not mean that there were no benefits for having an improved engine. On the contrary, it was the easiest and cheapest to improve with the support of wind tunnels and simulations.

The engine was obviously the most important part of the biplane. As the saying goes, as long as you have sufficient power, even a brick can fly. With an upgrade in power ratio, the rest would fall into place. But under the most miserable of conditions, it was not simple to even design a durable and functional basic piston engine. It was reported that the relevant department produced seven to eight prototypes at one go, but time was required to run tests for all the prototypes so as to choose the most optimal design.

For the weapon systems, there were not many considerations.

In truth, the technological skills were insufficient; the military had plenty of matured yet phased out plans, for example the 20mm autocannons, removable bomb racks, etc. The questions were what weapons to install and how to install them. With these two questions in mind, the relevant department was able to provide these addons as and when they liked.

According to the technical specifications provided by the team, the Mark II biplanes were capable of 250 km/h cruise speeds and carry two additional 100kg oil tanks while being capable of sustaining flights over a thousand kilometers. It also boasted a much higher climbing speed compared to the 'Fire of Heaven.'

The significance of this biplane was the ability to travel from the rear to the frontlines in a day, or to fly from the frontlines to the great rupture at the ridge of the continent. Taking into consideration the rugged topography of the Impassable Mountain Range that prevented ordinary troops from passing, this parameter was definitely an important feature.

The last were the bombers.

It cost the most and was the most controversial project.

It took half a day just discussing over whether the bombers were required to handle the inferior Fallen Evils. The reason for those against it was simple—the bombers' targets were on the ground that biplanes were capable of hitting as well, only that more fuel was required. But a large-scale bomber required specialized taking off and landing, more protection, and therefore, bound to bring about more pressure for the logistics team.

Although a bomber was capable of bringing about greater destruction, it required a fighter for escort and would instead lower the advantage of the aerial units. Flying Devilbeasts were weak against agile and mobile flying units, but a clumsy bomber could be considered a double-edged sword as long as a single Devilbeast disregarded its life to ram into one.

Besides, the enemies possessed unique Fallen Evils that were similar to martial artists that added to the indeterminable risk.

After all, the price of losing a single bomber far surpassed that of a single biplane.

And the resources left for the survivors was an unknown factor as to how many bombers they would be able to produce.

In the end, it was still the research subject Roland insisted on preserving.

Under the circumstances of having low technology, it was definitely lacking. It could not deliver the goal of coming and going without a trace while being both capable of offense and defense. However, he had his own considerations.

It was an entity required by Neverwinter for long and difficult journeys, and was essential for the attack on the Bottomless Land.

No one knew how far the Dream World was from encroaching into the Divine Domain, and God probably would no longer remain passive. According to Lan, Roland needed to take action at the time when both worlds entered the Divine Domain. In the event that Dream World suddenly opened the passageway to Erosion, he would have no other means to quickly reach the Bottomless Land, then all the efforts from before would be for naught.

Of course, being subjected to the demons' attack while charging into enemy territory could be considered a last resort, but having a choice was better than having none, and bombers were the only possible answer for the present technological conditions.

The other was Project Glory of the Sun.

With 'Fire of Heaven's load capacity, it was impossible for them to shoulder such a huge responsibility even after improvements. Even if they were able to produce a detonator, without the means to drop the Glory of the Sun, its usage was still limited. Of course, the Seagull coupled with the Hummingbird's reduction in weight could cause the drop to happen from high altitudes, but even so, the bomb could not be fitted with a God's Stone of Retaliation. In that long and arduous journey, it could easily be destroyed by Senior Demons.

If the Skylord Hackzord knew about it and used his ability to transport the Glory of the Sun elsewhere, that would be troublesome.

Therefore, the most reliable method was to directly build a strong anti-magic body and rely on the Aerial Knights to drop the Glory of the Sun.

This meant that they had to build an even bigger plane.

The project department's initial plan was to build a single bomber with four engines. The team responsible for manufacturing the engines had to build four units for redundancy. In the event that one or two planes were malfunctioning, the plane would still have the ability to make a safe return. Just based on visuals, the bomber would look like a behemoth, with over 30m long wingspans. Its rear tail were divided into twintails to stabilize the aerodynamic design of the entire plane. Although the design reduced the nimbleness of the bomber, it increased the plane's ability to travel further and provide for easier controls.

Flying with full tanks, the bomber would have the ability to carry an estimated four tons worth of ammunition for more than two thousand kilometers. Without considering the return flight, this number could double, enough to satisfy Roland's requirements for the battle at the ridge of the continent. But, with its complexity far surpassing that of the 'Fire of Heaven', it could not be produced in the production line even with expert guidance.

In other words, its production output would definitely be low.

But at least, it gave humanity the capital to use the Glory of the Sun.

Chapter 1370 - Returning Home

When the meeting ended, two government officials kept Roland behind, promising him that the government would take the next step to push for more supportive projects, with the first generation nuclear weapon test data included in the consideration.

Of course, it was not merely a one-sided exchange where only the Martialist Association did as promised; the miraculous magical objects were the important catalyst that made the government so enthusiastic. In short, it was as what Defender Rock had announced, the meeting was only just the beginning.

In just a few days, the Design Bureau of Graycastle fixed all the flaws in Neverwinter's developments it had single-handedly embarked on. As the Battle of Divine Will no longer determined the fate of one world, every department had several hundred to more than a thousand members to ponder over the problems and improve the developments. For the first time, Roland deeply felt the survivors were not struggling alone; there were all kinds of non-negligible forces behind them. Even if the two worlds had never truly interacted, their fates were intimately tied together.

Roland relied on the surge of technological reforms and recruited even more people for the Administrative Office. In one go, he proposed more than ten new factories, from high-performance explosive compounds to various semi-automatic testbed machines. After resolving the manpower and economic limitations, Neverwinter, in its high-speed development phase, was able to construct and develop itself at his will. With the alleviation of conflicting views, this momentum did not stop at all.

With the widespread development of the technological revolution, Roland suddenly received an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

After being missing for close to a year, Joan had finally returned.

Roland immediately rushed to Neverwinter's first hospital with Nightingale upon receiving the news. After expanding King's City education and medical field from the previous winter, three medical treatment facilities were built by the Administrative Office at the south bank of the Redwater River, Kingdom Main Street and Longsong Stronghold that were responsible for simple diagnosis and disease prevention. And being the first medical facility built and Nana's permanent residency there, it naturally earned the name of 'first hospital.'

Upon entering, Camilla Dary gave him a slight bow.

Wendy and Tilly had returned to the front lines, while Scroll was busy with restoring materials, so the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island took up the mission of taking care of everyone. Additionally, she had seen Joan disappear with her own eyes and felt guilty about it. Now, Joan's reappearance impacted her the most, apparent from her bow towards Roland.

After all, she had always saw Roland as someone who 'stole' Tilly away and was the main reason for Ashes's sacrifice. If not for the reports that Sky-sea Realm might directly threaten the Fjords and Sleeping Island, she would never have shifted to Neverwinter.

But Roland did not mind that as he waved and asked softly, "How's she?"

"I guess… I can only say that she's fine."

"You guess?" Roland was perplexed. From his point of view, her safe return was already considered the best possible outcome.

"She… is back to her old self." Camilla gently combed Joan's hair and sighed.

It was only after her explanation did Roland understand what she meant.

Joan did not swim back to Shallow Port herself.

A resident fisherman of Neverwinter was the first to discover Joan. According to the report, while out in the sea to haul fish in, a heavy object had rammed into the aft of his boat and awoken him late at night. It was followed by nibbling sounds. Thinking that he had encountered a sea ghost and was about to prepare himself to fight to death, he saw a 'big fish' shaped like a human.

He caught her cupping cooked fish in her hands, nibbling away as though she hadn't eaten for days. Seeing the panicked fisherman, she merely produced a few weird sounds instead of attacking him, then retreated to the corner of the deck and fell asleep.

Having stayed in Neverwinter for a long time, the fisherman had long been influenced by its teachings and public announcements. The fisherman held an open mind and returned the boat to port—the rewards of saving a Witch was far higher than a boat of fish. To encounter such a special entity in the vast sea, he knew for sure that she was either a sea ghost or a Witch.

This 'big fish' was Joan.

"Lily has given her a check up. There are all sorts of parasites and infections on her, and some of them can't be removed, even with her abilities." Camila reported while her heart ached. "To eliminate any potential damage, I injected some Dreamland Water into her while she was asleep, then used a blade to cut out all the shell worms under her skin. In theory, these worms will only appear on old boats and very large whales."

"You mean to say, Joan didn't swim back from the Shadow Islands?"

"It is unlikely for her to be infected with them at that distance." She shook her head. "With Joan's speed, it wouldn't have taken her so long to return to Neverwinter. What I'm worried about is… the terrible ordeals she might had gone through which caused her to return to her original state."

She never had the time to remove the parasites and starved all the way until she got onto the boat for food before losing consciousness due to fatigue. All of these pointed to her arduous and dangerous journey. The long and excessive circumstances might had caused irreparable psychological damage to her, just like Maggie.

Camila had the ability to communicate with the mind and was not afraid that Joan couldn't speak. She was worried that Joan wouldn't recover and had to live the rest of her life like an animal.

Roland fell silent.

Indeed, the state of her body did not mean that everything was fine, regardless of Nana's magical bandages or Lily's Cleansing Water, none of them were capable of curing mental problems.

A rhythmic knock on the door suddenly broke the silence inside the ward.

Nightingale turned and opened the door in puzzlement, to see Mystery Moon's head poking out.

"Erm… I heard that Joan is back? Wait, hey, stop pushing me—"

The door was forced opened as a few girls stumbled and crashed into the room. Besides Mystery Moon, there was Summer, Sharon, and Amy. The last to walk into the room was Lily.

"I didn't have a choice, they noticed something amiss." Lily shrugged helplessly.

"Ahem! First off, I only heard that Joan was sick, that's why I'm here to visit her!" Mystery Moon insisted. "Although she belongs to the Exploration Group, Lightning and Maggie aren't around. So we are the only ones to accompany her, we are definitely not thinking of taking the opportunity to rope her into the Detective Group, much less—mmm—"

Summer had extended her hand to cover her mouth.

"It's just her wishful thinking; it has nothing to do with the rest of us." Sharon spoke up righteously.

"Sigh, is having another member not a good thing?" Amy scratched the back of her head.

"Hush!" Lily gestured for them to be quiet.

Roland could not help chuckling as he watched the internal strife between the Witches. He looked to Camila Dary, threw his hands up and shrugged. The latter was faintly startled, but her expression loosened up greatly.

Perhaps Joan had truly encountered something terrifying, but with the group accompanying her, Roland believed that Joan's recovery would fall back onto the right track.

…

"Hey, what do you guys think this is?"

"It looks like some sort of silk fabric…"

"How can there be silk fabric in the hospital? And its texture seems like it's of superior quality."

"Why don't we ask Aunt Camilla."

"… Why don't you ask her?"

"I don't dare to."

"I can hear everything." Seated by the bedside, Camilla Dary facepalmed herself. "That is the cloth used to wrap Joan's wounds. As we didn't have the time, we didn't throw them away. Be careful of the germs on them, the books from His Majesty had mentioned them before—do not casually touch with any sources of infection, didn't it?"

After Roland and Nightingale's departure, Camilla Dary was left alone with the Detective Group. The group surrounded the bed and busied themselves, but were unable to help much. It was nice for Joan to have such passionate friends, but the only problem was that they were slightly excessive with their talking.

"Are there any germs here? Lily, can you sense them?"

"Take it. Away. From me—now!"

"Hey, stop tearing it. What? It can't be torn… Sharon, help me out."

"It's really quite difficult to tear… Summer, why don't you try it?"

No. Camilla Dary corrected herself, it wasn't slightly excessive, it was just too much! Just as Camilla Dary made up her mind to tell them it was already late and that it was better for them to come tomorrow, Joan's eyelids trembled.

She immediately held her breath.

A few seconds later, the sleeping beauty gradually opened her eyes.

"Ya…"

Joan opened her mouth and released a weak exhale.

This caused the room to turn quiet immediately.

Indeed, she can't speak anymore…

Camilla resisted the pained emotions and extended her hand and placed it on Joan's chest.

In that instant, countless memory fragments surged into her mind! The moment she posed a question, she immediately received an answer—the power of Mind Resonance!

She saw the illusion of her being lengthened and distorted in the pitch-black seabed.

She saw the sky and ocean turn upside down as the seawater poured down in torrents.

She saw monstrosities scattered across the ocean floor, terrifying waves that surged towards the continent.

She saw the many layers of tablets in the mist, and the white-robed lady walking towards her.

The last thing she saw was an unfathomable circular pit that stretched out endlessly across the horizon.

Chapter 1371 - The Structure of the World

"You really saw the sinkhole in that manner?" Roland stood up in shock.

"My apologies…" Camila Dary was somewhat embarrassed. "My drawing skill is only of this standard."

The image spread across the work desk was the illustration drawn up by Camilla Dary according to Joan's memories. Ignoring Scroll and Soraya's drawing skills, even the apprentices at the art school had standards far above hers—the numerous short lines represented grasslands, the crooked and imperfect circle was the sinkhole, the bulging mounds at the sides were mountains and the wave lines represented seawater. To any outsider, this drawing was nothing special and could not be used for reference at all.

But it was different for Roland.

He had encountered the legendary Bottomless Land in the Dream World.

It was also the 'final location' for the Battle of Divine Will and the passageway for the victorious race to upgrade. Although it would ultimately be be devoured by tsunamis and volcanoes and the cities built above would still be destroyed, the terrain above would remain unchanged. It was still as flat and bumpy as before with the faintly visible towering continent.

Before personally witnessing it, it had always been a vague legend, since the Northern Region above the Land of Dawn extended over a thousand kilometers and people before the Union never drew a detailed map for it. There were even doubts to its existence.

From the beginning to the end, only Lan had mentioned the location of the Bottomless Land.

But now, Joan had personally experienced it turning into a reality.

"No, this is already enough." Roland impatiently moved the map of the continent from the bookcase and spread it across the floor. He placed the drawing north east of the continent. "It should roughly be here."

"What is that exactly?" Camilla couldn't resist asking, "I don't think it is a naturally formed sinkhole."

"Why do you say that?" Roland challenged her statement.

"It clearly doesn't look like one." She folded her arms. "How is it possible for the sinkhole to form so perfectly. And there is that strange seabed, and the position of the sky and water; everything looks so strange."

Roland was silent for a moment. "I think that there never really was what you will call natural."

"What do you mean?"

"For example, the Misty Forest and plains to the west of Neverwinter were most probably barren land in the past, but some birds and beasts that brought along seeds gradually transformed the land to what it is today. With sufficient time, this hypothesis is bound to come to fruition. But people after that would assume that this is how the world is fixed to be. Don't you find it strange?"

Camilla frowned. "I don't understand what you're saying."

Roland sighed in his heart. Right, these principles are too complicated for people of this age, it's normal for them to be unable to comprehend it.

"I see." Nightingale, who was chewing on dried fish, suddenly clapped her hands. "What you're trying to say is that we are no different from the birds and the beasts, right?"

"Is that considered a mystery?" The Chief Butler rubbed her aching forehead.

"Think about it for a second." Nightingale pointed to the city covered in darkness. "The birds and the beasts migrate with seeds and form the forests and plains; Humans migrate from the North Slope Mountain and built up Neverwinter; to the world, this is basically the same thing. What we deem as natural is a view from our angle, but if we swapped it for a bird, the roofs of our homes are no different than the branches of a tree. If not, why would birds build their nests there as well? Following this reason, the circular hole and reverse seawater current is like the Misty Forest and Neverwinter, all part of the natural world." She paused for a second. "Who knows, maybe even the moon and the stars are formed that way too!"

"This…" Camilla was stunned.

Roland raised his eyebrow in surprise. Nightingale is clearly a terrible student, but her insights towards particular matters are especially sharp… Is it due to her extroverted character, or is a fool's train of thoughts broader.

The scene of rocks constantly ramming into one another and ultimately forming into a planet appeared in his mind.

God brought magic power into this world.

From that day on, this world had taken a completely different path from the others.

"Let's answer your first question." He cleared his throat and jolted Camilla from her daze. "The island that Joan was at should be the Bottomless Land and the black hole should be the passageway for a race upgrade. When God combined everything, the path to heaven appeared, but it doesn't mean that the path leads to true absolution or win God's smile. But we need to go there—the Bottomless Land is the place closest to Divine Domain, or it is only there can we find a way to absolve ourselves from the Battle of Divine Will."

Camilla Dary's eyes widened, as though she wanted to blurt out, "where did you infer all of these from," but managed to hold herself back.

"As for the continent floating in the sky, I reckon that it is most likely the Sky-sea Realm that the Demons speak of." Roland turned and picked up a pen container, then placed it to the west of the Land of Dawn. "For some reason, the Shadow Islands form a distorted passageway that connects to the Sky-sea Realm; that is why Joan found herself teleporting to the other end of the sea from the Shadow Islands. But in fact, it isn't just her, the connection between the two seas are stable and every once in a while, a great amount of seawater will be injected into the Sky-sea Realm, then fall back into our world once more, forming the hundred-thousand-feet tall waterfalls that Joan saw."

Camilla asked in surprise, "Could the reason for the scene Thunder witnessed, where seawater crossed the Sealine, be that water always flows downhill?"

"I am most afraid so." Roland nodded his head. "The seawater need not have a backflow because the altitudes of both sides are actually connected. Like the rise and fall of tides is unrelated to the world itself, it merely depends on the frequency and times the passageway opens."

"You mean to say, there are multiple instances and it isn't solely happening to the sea around the Shadow Islands?"

"To form a whirlpool at that scale in the ocean, just one passageway is definitely insufficient. As for whether that place has remnants of ancient civilization, we will never know." Roland felt the jigsaw puzzle in his head fitting perfectly. "As for the stone tower ruins she saw on Shadow Island, I think it should belong to the Sky-sea Realm."

"What about the door seen in the telescope, what is that about?" Nightingale interrupted.

"Maybe only the creator will know." Roland shook his head." But we can make a brazen guess; maybe it is a tower meant for observation. After all, the ruins have been submerged in water for a long period of time, and it is honestly not a good place for observation. So could it be possible that the terrain of the waters around Shadow Island a long time ago wasn't as low as it is today, or perhaps, the Sky-sea Realm was never that high before? Everything changed in the Battle of Divine Will, the observer and the observed no longer existed and only the magic power sustaining the telescope continues to point towards its initial target and hasn't changed till today."

"No offense, but this just too absurd!" Camilla took a deep breath. "Changes in altitude of two continents? Do you know how large of an influence that is to the entire sea?"

"Large enough to kill all land creatures." Roland recalled the waves taller than mountains. "Maybe that was God's original intention… Of course, everything is just my conjecture. We can't treat it as the truth." He suppressed his distracted thoughts and changed the topic. "One more thing, Joan saw countless of sea monsters launching an attack at the black continent to the northeast of the Land of Dawn. Combining it with all the reports we have now, I guess that should be the demons' territory."

He walked over to the map and used a pencil to write down the name mentioned by Valkries.

Blackstone Region

Chapter 1372 - Torturer

"Is this… how the world looks like?" Camilla suddenly seemed to realize something.

"That's right, if we roll the floor up, it will be a world map." Roland placed the pencil down and said looking down at this toes, his mind wandering off. Who knew if it was a coincidence or not, but in history, Christopher Columbus traveled from the Spanish Port of Palos for 70 days and nights and arrived at the land now called America, thereby rewriting the way we view the world. Joan traveled in a similar fashion, and was the first to discover the general appearance of the world.

Although the two had completely different intentions, their method of discovery were exactly the same—history might not remember Joan's name, but the Exploration Group had turned into a reality because of her 'trip around the world'.

But that was whole point of being an explorer.

To Roland, the most important point was undoubtedly to pinpoint the exact location of the Bottomless Land and Sky-sea Realm.

Especially the former.

Joan's discovery gave him the confirmation that the actualization of the Realm of Mind was not as far out as he had imagined, and it was evidently good news. At the very least, they had a clear parameter and goal in improving the designs for the bombers and 'Fire of Heaven.'

Although the Sky-sea Realm which was situated above the sky was beyond their reach, it was fortunate that they were fighting against the demons. Even if they set off towards the east, they had to land at the west bank of the Land of Dawn, which was still a great distance away from the Fertile Plains.

"That leaves one final question." Nightingale grunted. "Who is the woman Joan encountered on the Shadow Island? There wasn't any traces of human inhabitants there, and if she is someone sent by God, we don't really have a reason to help her, right?"

Roland kept silent for a long while. "I'm afraid that this is the most troublesome issue."

"Why is that?" Camilla did not understand.

"Theoretically, regardless of who wins or loses in the Battle of Divine Will, if the ultimate result is still destruction, then God is our enemy." He spoke with hesitation, "But if the Guardian isn't expressing any hostility and has a completely different concept on good and evil from us, then… they have never ever really thought anything of us at all. Such a relationship is like how we will tend to an injured bird."

The two witches looked at each other simultaneously in shock.

But what came next was a bone chilling intent that shot up from the bottom of their feet.

Both of them knew that if a group of birds stole grains, humans would kill them without hesitation. But no one truly treated birds as enemies, and would even save one or two from the claws of a cat. What came after that was irrelevant to good or evil, but the preference of an individual.

The Battle of Divine Will had gone through multiple cycles and no one knew how many races had walked down the path of destruction. But the continuity of these civilizations would not cause God to hesitate. Even if the lady had saved Joan, it was not an action that represented favoritism towards the humans.

"This… is really scary." Camilla Dary muttered.

"I hope that my theory is wrong." Roland sighed. "But since we need to stop the Battle of Divine Will, I am afraid we can't escape facing God."

"This is the price."

"Stop your foolish act. You don't even know what you're up against!"

"—Everything will be reduced to nothingness, and our endeavor's work over the past thousands of years will be wasted"

"You can't… bear the heavy guilt brought about by such an… horrific atrocity—"

The words rang out in his ears once again, as though a movie was being played back.

After paying the price, the Battle of Divine Will still continues today, how can it be so easily stopped?

Regardless of reality or the Dream World, this battle was inevitable.

…

At the Sedimentation Bay in the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

All of that was left of the residential area once occupied by demons were in ruins. But after the gradual reinforcements of weapons and personnel from the First Army and the catching of enemies unprepared, the demons were forced to retreat out of the city within a month.

The Red Mist storage towers in the plaza had been bombarded by the Longsong Cannons into smithereens—their original plan of commanding the humans to transporting Blackstones mined from the north over and have the inferior demons that did not require the Red Mist to build more towers in other cities was an intimidating sight. But before the realization of the plan, the Red Mist storage towers that were in progress were destroyed by the cannons.

Following human's progressive counterattack, the territory occupied and controlled by the demons decreased at a discernible pace, and signs of restoration were seen. Despite the downfall of the city, the dock became busy once again. Although the demons had destroyed the majority of roads and the pier during their retreat, the engineering team rebuilt up temporary roads within a week.

For those who escaped the Red Mist region through great difficulty, it was undoubtedly good news. But not everyone that escaped south thought that way.

"Damn it, the rumors are true." Looking at the border sentry posts set up by the roads, Negan Murray said spitefully, "Who knew the demons that were meant to deal with Graycastle are so unreliable."

"They are both monsters; it just depends on which side is more ruthless." Talos Murray replied indifferently. Half of his face was hidden under the scarf which barely covered the scars extending across his face like subcutaneous worms. "But since they have lost the support of the nobles, the Wimbledon family will soon lose everything. We don't have to worry about anything." At this point, he turned and looked at the crowd lined up before him and spoke with a trace of ferocity, "It is enough as long as we deal with that guy…"

"That's right." Negan became excited. "Anyone who relies on that fellow from Graycastle is our enemy. We must make them pay."

"But we have to endure for now." Talos grasped Negan's shoulder. "Wait for first light, then think about hunting."

Although the demons never acknowledged their own failure, it was a known fact that the number of monsters around Neverwinter had decreased. Compared to the ignorant citizens, the nobles had their means of obtaining information about the front lines. Knowing that the demons from hell were incapable of fighting Graycastle, panic started to spread among the nobles.

Compared to the nobles with large and powerful enterprises, as a Knight, Talos did not have much of a burden. He was unwilling to work for these ugly aliens or rely on Graycastle which he had a grudge with. Knowing that there was no way out if he stayed in Everwinter, he felt that it was more sensible to move to a neutral land not under the control of Graycastle.

Of course, anyone could hunt the refugees anywhere. He had plenty of time for revenge, or rather… pleasure. Unknowingly, he grew fond of dictating everything. Listening to the refugees begging for forgiveness, tossing and rolling, and howling in grief left him addicted with power.

Every time he immersed himself in the warm blood, the dulling pain from the scars on his face seemed to fade a little, as though the scars were responding to sacrificial offerings.

Since it was impossible to revive the clan, why not enjoy this pleasure?

Nothing else mattered more to him.

Chapter 1373 - Smell of Blood

"What's your name? Where are you from?"

"Nolan and this is my elder brother, Buenos. We come from Icebound Town."

Negan Murray answered the guard's questions smoothly.

Before arriving at Sedimentation Bay, the two had asked around and learned that it was best to tell the truth to the guards of Graycastle to avoid encountering problems upon arriving south. But they never planned to visit Graycastle.

Once through Cage Mountain, they would arrive in Kingdom of Dawn's territory with a vast hamlet to take refuge in. Relying on their combat experience, the two had no worries for their future.

Thus compared to nobles, disguising as common folk made them less conspicuous.

They had planned this ahead of time, to join as an imperial guard or patrol member for a feudal lord to provide them with a creditable identity in the day, and freedom to do whatever they wanted in the night. So long as they kept watch at the remote path, they were bound to find more refugees.

—Just like what they did in the Kingdom of Everwinter.

"Ah? That's rather far from Sedimentation Bay." The inspector made casual conversation while recording the details. "The news of the demons retreating traveled so quickly? There are only a few northern people like you amongst the refugees."

Negan was slightly startled; the other party was clearly an ordinary person from his appearance and attire. But all the other ordinary citizens Negan encountered were only aware of their own situation and they were never knowledgeable about other events. But not only did the man from Graycastle know about Icebound Town, he was even able to mention the distance to this unknown place!

"Is… that so? I heard it from a merchant friend as well, maybe soon enough, the people coming to Kingdom of Everwinter will increase?"

But his answer also made Negan glad that he had chosen a town not far from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. If he had chosen Snow Reflection Castle situated at the north of Everwinter, it would have garnered suspicion.

"I hope so too." The inspector turned to Talos Murray. "Right, can your brother lift his scarf that's covering his face?"

"He was mauled by a beast before, I don't think it's convenient to reveal his face…"

"Apologies, but it is the rules. If there are any distinctive features, I have to write it down."

Negan frowned.

Damn it, you're just a watchdog.

My brother was once an officially conferred knight!

If they were in the wilderness, Negan would have sliced the inspector's tongue out!

"Alright, it's nothing much," Talos replied coldly. "But just for a look." He lifted the scarf, revealing the distorted half of his face. It might had been too horrific as the inspector could not help but take a step back, while everyone around all gasped in shock. But even so, the man from Graycastle continued to complete the record.

"Then… here are your nameplates." He handed over two metal plates. "They are your only proof of your new identities, please do not lose them. You guys can go ahead to the detainment area and wait."

He's scared.

Negan took the nameplate and sneered in his heart.

The elder brother's expression remained indifferent, but in fact, his killing intent had been stirred. The aura honed from his clashes was not something any common folk could endure. In addition to his hideous face, it increased the intimidation severalfold. For the other party to not fall to the ground on his buttocks was considered commendable.

It was a pity they were not somewhere they could cause trouble. There were armed Graycastle guards around. No matter how strong the two of them were, it was impossible for them to avoid the invisible crossbow arrows.

"Let's go." Talos covered his face and nodded.

"Yes." Negan pushed through the crowd and took the lead to enter the port. Soon after, he stopped in his tracks. "Brother, they plan to load everyone up…"

Talos had also noticed the Graycastle guards' arrangements.

Their original seemingly sound plans involved getting past the checkpoint and finding an opportunity to act freely, but it seemed that the Graycastle guards never had the intention of allowing the refugees of dispersing. The path from the sentry post to the detainment area had brightly-colored strips to guide the way, so long as the refugees followed the strips, they would be led to the dock where they would ascend the docked ships.

Although the strips were not restrictive in any way, there were patrolling guards all around. The guards paced back and forth around their stipulated areas. If the two of them were to leave the colored strips and move away from the crowd, the guards would not ignore their actions.

And the greatest difference from their plans was undoubtedly the city itself.

Sedimentation Bay's core region was in complete ruins. There were hardly any intact buildings, much less inhabitants around. This not only prevented them from mixing with the locals, but also made it difficult for them to cover their tracks.

It was completely different from Everwinter!

Both places were clearly occupied by demons before, but regardless of Snow Reflection Castle or any other cities, all their foundations were preserved well. Who would had anticipated that the south had turned into such a state?

"What do we do now?" Negan could not help but reveal a look of worry. Once they boarded the ship, their fates would be up in the air. If they ended up heading for Graycastle, where could they run to?

Staying in their original spot was obviously not a choice. Any refugee would only hope to leave the land of demons. If they did not move forward, they would still look suspicious and gain the attention of the guards.

"You're just too impetuous, that's why you never received the conferment from His Majesty." Talos sighed. "Walk slowly and don't stop. The dock is big, it is impossible for Graycastle personnel to cover the area flawlessly. Look at their numbers and you'll know, there are less than a hundred of them. As long as we watch them carefully, we will definitely find an opportunity to leave."

After hearing his elder brother's words, Negan gradually calmed down.

Talos Murray was usually an extremely cold and cool-headed person no matter how crazy he was when killing someone or basking in pleasure after a victory. Negan believed that so long as he listened to his brother, there were no impossible obstacles.

Half a minute later, Negan discovered an opportunity.

"Brother, look there!" he exclaimed softly.

"… Inconceivable." Talos nodded his head after observing for a moment. "I have to admit that Graycastle is truly a notch above the rest when it comes to unorthodox practices, they can even do that to horse carriages."

At a corner of the dock were 10 four-wheeled vehicles with enormous dimensions that not even ordinary carriages meant to carry goods could compare with. All the food and supplies appeared to be supplied by these carriages, with many porters shuttling between the vehicles and the dock, transporting bags and bags of supplies up the ships.

The number of people there made it relatively chaotic and it was relatively close to the detainment area. It was not difficult for them to move towards the vehicles.

The only thing was, moving to the vehicles did not imply that they had escaped the restricted area controlled by Graycastle—Unless they could dodge the firearms, they would definitely be overtaken and captured by the patrolling guards.

The only way was to steal a carriage and escape.

Although the four-wheeled carriages were large, they were still manually operated and were different from horse carts. The coachman's position seemed to be inside the carriage. In other words, as long as they found an opportunity to hijack the driver, they could guarantee that they would not be discovered.

Negan and Talos looked at each other and confirmed their unanimous idea.

The plan was to make use of the size of the vehicles to cover their tracks, find a carriage which was preparing for departure, and slit the throat of the driver. Everything after that would fall into place naturally.

The two of them immediately took action.

The entire process was more of a daunting experience than having the fear of danger.

Although many porters noticed their movements, the only response from the porters was to remind the brothers the direction of the ship and not question them. The two acted as though they were attracted to the appearance of the large carriages and easily fooled the crowd. After all, everyone was busy transporting supplies and no one was willing to make a fuss.

Once they entered a blindspot, Negan and Talos quickly bent down and ran to the closest vehicle which looked loaded from the outside.

It looked as though their plan to escape was just a step away.

Right at that moment, a question suddenly came out from behind them.

"Who are you guys?"

The hairs on Negan's body immediately stood up.

He immediately turned his head to come face to face with a cloaked girl that had appeared behind them without them realizing it.

The girl cocked her head, the shroud of the cloak covering half of her face.

He reached his hand out to his waist but was secretly stopped by Talos. "Apologies… we are refugees from Icebound Town. We initially thought to look at these shocking creations and didn't think that we would end up here."

"Is that so, refugees…" The girl laughed, showing no intention to leave. "But, why is there such a rich smell of blood on the both of you?"

Chapter 1374 - Worthiness of the Strong

"What did you say?" Negan said, frustrated. "Smell of blood? Do you think you are a dog?"

What is this person babbling about? He doesn't seem sane in any way. His tone has a hint of provocation and ridicule. No typical person would ever say such things to a stranger that they are meeting for the first time.

If it was any other day, he would have had the interest to entertain her, but at that moment, their escape from Sedimentation Bay was of utmost priority, and the best way to deal with a fool was to silence her.

Negan increased the strength in his grip and conveyed his thoughts to his older brother.

The latter did not loosen up. "I think… you are mistaken. We are at the docks, killing fishes and drying them isn't a rare occurrence."

"The difference between the smell of human blood and the smell of fish is like comparing heaven to earth." The girl remained nonchalant. "If it was just a single smell, you could have explained it away with a wound, but the smell of blood on your bodies is a mixture and difficult to miss. Some of them are old, probably separated by several months, while some are relatively new, afflicted maybe two to three days ago—they are currently emanating out from beneath your clothes without end."

Beneath our clothes?

Negan was startled.

To majority of knights, a portable and sturdy armor was definitely the most precious asset they could have. If meticulously taken care off, the armor could last for a few generations, and that was what the Murrays took pride in. They had given up on their land in Everwinter, but they had never abandoned their armors and weapons.

The two had donned large coats and robes to hide their armor, which was nothing strange during winter. It was only when they killed others for pleasure would they remove the coats and robes—Besides gaining more mobility and flexibility, the action of removing their outer clothes removed any worries of staining their clothes. As for the armor, they only had to wipe clean the metallic surface to restore its bright and clean state, at the same time maintaining the armor with grease.

But this was information no one knew, how did she come to know about it?

Could it be… that she had really relied on her nose to detect the blood?

Unease immediately surged in Negan's heart.

Right at this moment, the force that held down his hand suddenly loosened.

All he saw was a blur as Talos appeared in front of the girl with a charge. His elder brother did not even draw his weapon out. To a trained veteran, fists and joints were sufficient to doom an enemy.

Talos movements could be considered as fast as lightning, only taking a blink to move and unleash his hand. Negan felt that even he would have difficulty reacting against his brother.

In terms of techniques and capabilities, his elder brother was definitely Everwinter's top knight.

Whether or not the other party was an idiot, a lunatic, or an ordinary person with an extraordinary sense of smell, she was already a dead person.

However, the sound of her neck breaking did not sound. Instead, Negan heard two crisp, cracking sounds.

The lady lifted her elbow and deflected the metallic hand which was aimed for her neck, then intercepted Talos' left jab with a single palm—

Negan's eyes almost popped out of his eye sockets!

How is that possible?

Ignoring fighting techniques, just based on the disparity of strength between a male and a female was enough to determine everything. But, it was his first time witnessing his elder brother being intercepted by someone with a single hand!

In that instant, the two exchanged multiple moves, yet Talos was unable to land any fatal strikes on her. After separating, he finally tore off his robes and drew a dagger.

"Brother, together!"

The low growl had a hint of anxiousness.

Negan immediately realized that his elder brother had used the judgment as a Knight and realized that the other party was not someone who could be taken down alone.

"Who are you exactly?" he clenched his teeth and drew out a knife and stooped beside Talos.

"Who I am isn't important. More importantly, the two of you aren't ordinary refugees—So the two of you have to have to explain the reason for lying." The lady spread out her hands, as though indicating she was fine empty-handed. "If you surrender now, maybe you'll suffer less. But murder is a serious crime. According to Graycastle law, once it is confirmed that the blood on your hands comes from innocent people, you will be condemned to death regardless of whatever reasons you give."

Has she gone… crazy!?

She looked as though she was advising them, but her words and actions were obviously forcing them to a corner—who in the right mind will ever mention death as the outcome so sincerely at the onset? Anyone who was informed that they were bound to die would definitely not sit idle to be captured. In other words, she was obviously forcing them to take action!

Saying anything more was pointless!

When Talos moved forward and stabbed out with his dagger, Negan followed right on his heels. He came from the side, reducing the girl's ability to dodge and also preventing her from turning and running away.

But the other party showed no intention of escaping.

Aside from that, she did not even attempt screaming for help, but engaged them in combat.

It was only after experiencing her abilities did Negan realize how terrifying she was.

All her attacks were filled with vigorous strength which he had to withstand with all his strength. Even her seemingly light and easy attacks required Negan to hold onto his dagger handle firmly, otherwise the impacts could have easily disarmed him.

It was simply unimaginable how the other person's build could conceal so much strength.

"Stop holding back, she isn't a threat to us!"

Talos' growl jolted Negan back to his senses. That's right, they were equipped with armor, but she was unarmed. There was no need to fight according to conventions. Even if they suffered a punch or two, it was nothing. A battle of attrition was only beneficial to them!

He threw his dagger at the girl, then nimbly extended his arms out as he pounced straight towards her—

This was undoubtedly a suicidal move in a normal battle situation. But the girl was relying on her fists and legs, what could she do?

In what followed, Negan felt an acute pain erupt from his face.

He felt as though his nose had sunken into his skull as his vision instantly blurred with the taste of rust filling up his entire throat.

What the hell, this hurts…

But you're finished!

He clenched his teeth and endured the pain as he exhausted all the energy in his body to fold his arms. The distance was perfect for daggers or short swords. Being restricted in such a hug was undoubtedly the end! And if she wanted to dodge his hug, she had to break her defensive stance and bound to reveal flaws! Negan believed that his brother would definitely grasp the opportunity!

Sure enough, due to her excessive movements to avoid him, the lady's entire body stooped down and became helpless in stopping Talos's intrusion.

Talos took a step forward and raised his sword. A gray light slashed in an inclined angle towards the girl's head, but the latter raised her head upwards like a snake's tongue.

Even before having the time to exhale, the girl that had stooped down did not scream in pain as anticipated, or fall face first to the ground. Instead, she borrowed the momentum of her actions and kicked twice, sending him and Talos flying!

But what Negan felt was not a kick, but a battering ram slamming into him! A loud bang occurred as he slammed right into the four-wheeled carriage behind him. His armor was unable to offset the impact from both sides, causing the power to transmit into his body and forced him to cough blood.

Upon falling to the ground, the girl stood up firmly once again, the hood removed from her head and revealing her smooth hair… and a pair of furry ears, but the wounds he had expected were absent.

Negan's heart fell to rock bottom.

The strike that he thought landed was a misconception from touching the rim of her hood. The only thing his brother slashed open was the girl's hood!

And those unusual ears…

"Ahem… you ugly… monster!" Talos had a hand on his chest as he stood up slowly. "I have a God's Stone of Retaliation, but how are you… unaffected!"

"That's because I haven't used my abilities." The girl touched her hood wistfully. "As for you calling me ugly, it's just your poor appreciation for beauty. No one in Neverwinter will agree with you, I have even received praises from the chief before."

"Really—a load of rubbish!" Negan coughed blood out and spoke, "My brother is a Knight conferred by the Queen of Everwinter, even the Knights from King's City Knightage can't beat him! Do you think you can defeat my brother if not for you relying on your demonic power? Stop dreaming!"

"Is that so? Maybe you haven't realized it yet… the changes in your body." The girl closed her eyes. "May I ask, is the blood on your body from opponents with strength comparable to yours?"

"What… is your point?"

"It's not? Although the two of you are fierce in your techniques, you lack the drive and the determination in surviving a life and death battle." She spoke slowly, "I have seen so many like you. Upon gaining some success, you become unwilling to move forward and only dare to turn back to bully and humiliate the weak to preserve your own position. With the passage of time, this mentality will have soaked deep into your bones and become muscle memory—No matter how many of such victories you have, they will never make you stronger."

"Compared to the opponents I have faced, there are Transcendents wielding power that leads you to despair and Ancient Witches extremely proficient in their respective skills. That is the difference. Maybe the two of you used to have your unique strengths, but now…" She paused, "You're no longer worthy to be amongst the strong."

Chapter 1375 - One Strike

We… are the weaklings?

When this thought surfaced, Negan was completely stunned in place. He subconsciously regarded her words as rubbish, but it had in fact, ruthlessly reminded him that even when armed and holding the advantage in terms of numbers, they were unable to defeat her.

They hated Roland Wimbledon, hated the people of Graycastle people, and hated hot weapons even more. It was precisely because of such unreasonable things that allowed even the most common of folks to be able to threaten knights that had trained arduously for decades. All of the common folks should had been crawling at their feet and relying on their protection. That was the convention of the world, the order recognized by society!

If not for the existence of hot weapons, he and his brother would still be invincible warriors before others!

But not only did the girl before them fight them without hot weapons, she did not even use cold weapons—something which they were most confident in, but had lost to. When the inconceivable fact and shaken faith struck together, it left their minds momentarily adrift.

"As expected from a witch, proficient in misleading the public with your lies… relying on strength to win? Don't make me laugh!" Talos gasped for air twice. "You've merely used some sort of unclean power and contaminated my God's Stone… Cough cough, if the Church of Hermes was still around, would you even dare reveal yourself? Aside from the damned Graycastle King who has destroyed tradition, you witches are the next who belong in Hell!"

"Nonsense!" A masculine voice suddenly interrupted from the front of the carriage. "I'm a member of the Church and ferried dozens of Witches. Not only did they show themselves, but they even praised my driving! Even the past and current leaders of the Church are Witches, and you're talking to me about tradition? They are the bloody tradition!"

Negan and Talos could not help but looked at each other—

That was clearly the coachman talking!

There is always a way out.

Kidnap the coachman and leave the place first, before coming back in the future to take revenge!

As long as one of us somewhat stalls the wolf girl.

Comparing their strengths, this matter was naturally best left to the stronger elder brother—

But before Negan could speak, Talos suddenly grabbed him, and threw him towards the wolf girl with a roar!

"Broth—" He watched in disbelief as his elder brother turned and ran towards the vehicle, leaving behind his back view that quickly pulled away.

The girl slapped him to the ground ruthlessly, then added a kick as heavy as a battering ram to his head and caused his eyes to black out as he quickly lost consciousness. Just before his stunned and despairing thoughts were cut short abruptly, he faintly heard a mutter from above.

"The person there isn't someone you guys can handle either…"

Talos quickly covered the distance of over ten steps. Right as he was about to charge into the carriage, a human figure suddenly walked out from behind.

The figure belonged to another girl dressed in a dark gray uniform and was none other than the dressing which Negan and Talos previously observed as the dressing for the coachmen.

It turned out that each large carriage had two coachmen.

Could this person be a Witch as well?

Since they were only ordinary people, it made no difference between one or two persons—Or in other words, having one of them to drive the vehicle was sufficient! Compared to the male who shouted, obviously the girl was easier to control.

Talos intended to capture the girl before stabbing the brazen man who dared to refute him to death. He did not even think anything of the steel rod in the female driver's hands.

He pulled off his scarf and roared at his enemy, sprinting while raising the dagger in hand to intimidate the girl and threaten her to submit with the blade at her neck.

But her calm expression surprised Talos. Not a single trace of uncertainty surfaced, as though ignoring his ferocious appearance.

But what shocked him further came next.

The female driver tilted her body slightly as she held the steel rod vertically with both hands. It was clearly the stance for slashing downwards!

Is she… proficient with sword techniques?

The moment this thought surfaced, the other party was already in motion with the steel rod swinging down at him—

Damn it!

Her huge and open gestures looked as though she was gambling with her life. In the eyes of laymen, it was no different from courting death, but to Talos, her strikec contained an oppressive power that could not be stopped. It felt as though the upper end of the steel rod had enlarged by dozens times and completely blocked off every path he could take!

Everything happened too quickly.

Talos was already in the middle of a sprint and could not stop. If he maintained his stance, his dagger might be able to reach her throat, but the steel rod would definitely split his head into two!

It was simply incredulous!

Talos discovered that his body had subconsciously reacted and quickly rotated the blade, raising both hands horizontally across his head in anticipation of the blow that was about to arrive.

"Break!"

The girl's steel rod smashed down firmly onto the middle of the blade.

The immense force surpassed the short and curved blade's limits and forcefully shattered it!

The momentum of the rod was not reduced as it continued to slam down through the sparks and metallic fragments, straight at his face.

How is this possible…

Talos only felt a huge boom echoing in his ears. Without even uttering a sound, he fell rigidly onto the floor as his entire body twitched incessantly.

But it was the automatic muscle reflexes of his body, and he had already lost consciousness.

"It's settled?" Joe looked out of the car window.

"Yes, if he had decided to continue with his stab, maybe we would had fought longer." Farrina flung the blood on her hands away. "Once he gets cold feet, one strike is more than enough. Of course, your lure was equally important. Well done."

Joe let out a mischievous laughter. "Don't forget that I was once a noble, one known to be proficient in the art of cursing others—I can assure you that there will not be a single repeat in a hundred sentences."

Farrina raised her head and looked at the person she needed. "He is clearly a noble, yet the two of you are completely different… sometimes I get caught up in the confusion, why are there so much differences between humans. Was that the intention of the Creator?"

"You are… different as well." Joe's line of sight moved away slightly, but he quickly looked back at her. "That is why I'm so attracted to you."

"Joe…"

"Farrina…"

"Ahem, Sorry." Lorgar interrupted their intimate moment. "Is he dead?"

The wolf girl carried the fainted attacker with one hand and walked to the side of the vehicle before throwing him onto the other body.

"Ummm… I think he is still breathing," Farrina replied, "How did you know we were already here?"

Lorgar nodded her head. "I heard your footsteps. As expected of the captain of the Judgment Army, to be able to notice the commotion and intercept the enemy so quickly."

"They already lost their willpower after exchanging blows with you, I merely took advantage of it." Farrina chuckled. "What you said just now was indeed true, if there is an opportunity in the future, may I spar with you?"

Lorgar's ears pricked up. "Of course we can; I can't wish for any better."

"It's not too late to continue this conversation in the future." Joe sighed. "The problem now… What should we do with the two of them?"

"Hand them over to the First Army and let them interrogate them first. Since they are equipped with armor, they are obviously not ordinary refugees." Lorgar replied matter-of-factly. "As for what to do with them, just let them decide."

Chapter 1376 - Witnessing a Miracle

Everwinter, King's City.

"My lord… Lord Marwayne…" Someone nudged his arm.

Annoyed, Marwayne opened his eyes. He took some time before he regained his blurred vision's focus, and the familiar butler's face appeared before him.

"Why is it you again." Marwayne hiccupped and expended a great deal of strength to stand up, accidentally knocking over the wine bottles on the short table, one of which fell to the ground and shattered loudly.

The sound jolted him awake.

What came next was a splitting hangover.

Marwayne was up the entire night till the wee hours of four to five in the morning impressing ladies into drinking with him until he knocked out on the coach. Marwayne squinted his eyes and looked upon the soft couch by the side. There were all sorts of beverages and other fluids sprinkled all over the couch, while the fireplace that had lasted through the entire night produced an unpleasant smell. The ladies from the night before had long disappeared, obviously lacking when it came to their ability to serve.

Hell, how did I end up sleeping here last night?

"Burn it." Marwayne wiped away the drool on his face and moved into a more comfortable position, alleviating his headache. "So, my distinguished Butler, what bad news do you have for me today Which knight fled or did men from Graycastle enter Everwinter?"

"I do not dare, my Lord." The butler immediately bowed his back lower. The initiative to attack the Graycastle teams was his idea, and he did not want to have the lord target redirected at him. "The men from Graycastle are still fighting the demons at the Kingdom of Wolfheart. They will not be able to enter Everwinter in the short term, please do not worry about it—"

"Heh, doesn't that just mean it's a matter of time?" Marwayne interrupted him, his alcohol breath assailing his own nose. "There hasn't been any reinforcements to the demon forces all this while. Even that so-called Sky Lord has disappeared without a trace. Anyone can clearly see that the situation has changed, so what's the use in consoling me?"

"No, my Lord—"

"Listen!" Marwayne growled. "I know what you want to say: pull yourself together, don't give up—You saw it for yourself, despite us holding the same weapons, our people were still utterly defeated by Graycastle. What does that say? It means that the disparity isn't with the lords, but the lowest rung troops, and their people! They dared to confront firearms head-on, but what about us? We only dared to cover our heads and sneak away like rats!

"How many people are there left in King's City? Viscount Narnos? No, his territory should now earn him the title of a Count. Duke Remy? Half of his family are in Everwinter, he can't leave even if he wants to. And the other families… Indeed, they are still considered nobles, but do they not want to leave! No!"

At this point, his tone suddenly reached a crescendo.

"They can't leave! They are unwilling to abandon their family property amassed through generations and start from nothing! So long as there is a way, they will not resign to their fates! But this will not happen for the knights I've recruited. The deed has no binding clauses, they can simply take their deeds and leave and come back after the war. So the only thing I can do is keep my doors closed and urge them to stay by inviting them over!

"This isn't about living in self-abandonment, much less about escaping, understand?" Marwayne picked up a bottle of wine in passing and poured some into his mouth. "Once I honor the promise, they will immediately disappear! Since our subordinates and people cannot compete with Graycastle, then we can only rely on the demons. As long as they can defeat Roland Wimbledon, the people will once again settle down. When that moment comes, I will supply the deeds again. At that time, the knights will become my biggest help!"

"My Lord… I know that, but I need to inform you, the Sky—"

"Shut up, you know nothing!" Marwayne's voice went into a slight vibrato. "You think of me as weak, incapable, a drunkard that relishes in alcohol everyday. But the truth is not so, my plans have no flaws, the flaw lies in the demons who were defeated! If they can't even defeat Graycastle, what can I do by myself? It doesn't matter that the others leave, but even Fueler, someone I regarded so highly, has left, so what if I become the King of Everwinter? Why not drink more fine wine… After all, there won't be a chance in the future.

"So from now on, you need not report to me any bad news. It's sufficient that you know about them. Prepare more fine wine for me tonight, I remember that there are more stored in the underground storehouse beneath King's City, right? Now… Get out."

Marwayne buried his face in his hands and laid back down on the soft couch.

"My Lord, what I wanted to say was, his Excellency Sky Lord is currently waiting in the castle's parlor. He has a new decree for you." The butler finally found the opportunity to speak and quickly let everything out.

"Wh—what did you say?" Marwayne sat up. "The Sky Lord is here? Why didn't you say so earlier? Quick, prepare a basin of hot water for me. I will wash up and head over now!"

"There's no need." A low voice suddenly came out from the door's entrance. The two were startled and turned their heads, only to see a tall and blue skinned figure push the doors open and walk in.

It was Hackzord.

He took a look at the mess of empty alcohol bottles everywhere and revealed an unconcealed look of disdain. "And I thought you were being held back by something important. Looks like I've wronged you. Why, do you think that the outcome of this battle has already been determined?"

Damn it, he heard my rants! Marwayne immediately knelt on one knee and even thought of giving himself a slap. "No, Your Excellency, I was just—"

"In consideration of your knowledge and experience, I can pardon you this time. But there will not be a second time; otherwise, I will definitely cut your tongue out." Hackzord spoke coldly, "Our enemies did perform past our expectations in the early stages, but that was only then. In fact, their good days have come to an end, not only for the Kingdom of Wolfheart, Kingdom of Dawn or Graycastle. They will all be devoured by the flames of war; that is the fate of resisting us."

"Your Excellency Sky Lord, can I ask… is that true?" Marwayne was skeptical. He had long assumed Everwinter was finished, and was planning to beg a Demon Grand Lord for shelter. But from his words, the outcome of the battle was not too bad, at least not to the point of being irredeemable. Before, the demons thought that Graycastle would not last a single attack as well, so Marwayne did not entirely believe in Hackzord's words.

Hackzord sneered. "Your doubt is pardonable, but when you witness the power of my race, I believe that you will trust the weight of my words." With that said, he extended his hands and opened a bizarre purple light 'door.' "Follow me."

Marwayne gulped, bit the bullet, and entered the portal.

On the other side was yet another hall, and to Marwayne's surprise, he saw many familiar faces. For instance, Narnos and Remy.

Sky Lord had obviously gathered most of the Everwinter nobles.

Before any questions were raised, the demon Grand Lord opened yet another portal.

His intentions were clearly self-evident.

Everyone looked at each other, before forming a long line in front of the portal.

The journey took an entire day.

Marwayne could not remember the number of portals he entered; the scenery around him would occasionally be a cave, or sometimes a mountain ridge. The further they went, the more unease he felt. Although he knew that it only required a thought from the demon to kill him, the forceful transportation to an unknown location made him feel even more afraid.

When nightfall came, the nobles finally arrived at the final location.

The last portal behind them slowly disappeared. That was when Marwayne Parker opened his eyes abruptly!

"This is…"

He saw a miracle!

That's right, even if he used up all the words he could possibly think of, he was unable to accurately describe everything he saw. Aside from calling it a miracle, he could not think of anything else!

The other nobles were not any better. All of them had their mouths wide open, speechless. None of them could even finish a complete sentence.

"Now, you have all witnessed it." Hackzord spoke up indifferently.

Chapter 1377 - The Converging Crisis

What the Grand Lord had said was no empty talk; the scene before them was something no human could ever hope to strive for.

Marwayne was completely unable to imagine how Graycastle would deal with the miracle before them. Other than raising their heads to look up, the only other thing they could possibly do was to pray.

The demons are bound to win this war.

He no longer had any doubts.

All his frustration and fear from before were swept clean and replaced with an indescribable excitement. Since the demons could win the war, his payback would no longer be imaginary. This contrast could not be in any way compared to a drowning person gaining a new lease of life but a person at the end of the road being welcomed back to the peak!

As for the Knights that had escaped, they were bound to feel remorse for the rest of their lives—No, not only that, they no longer had the right to live to ripe old ages. Marwayne swore that the very first thing he did as King of Everwinter was to take care of the traitors!

Marwayne knelt down emotionally and lowered his head towards Hackzord. "Yes, we have seen it."

The other nobles replicated his actions.

"This is the Deity of Gods that belongs to my race, and also the most direct form of displaying true power," Skylord said with his hands to his back. "Bringing all of you here was not just to dispel your doubts because I have a mission for all of you to complete."

"We await your instructions!" everyone immediately replied.

"It will still take some time for the Deity of Gods to arrive at the Impassable Mountain Range, but the territories that you are all in charge of have signs of losing control. Every single one of the deserters have the possibility of becoming enemies and I do not want the situation to worsen as it is." He swept his gaze across everyone. "From now on, all of you will organize manpower and evacuate everyone here. At the same time, I will mark out a region here in the Deity of Gods for all of you to reside in, until the Battle of Divine Will is over."

"You… want to let the scums ascend to the the miracle?" Narnos asked in surprise.

"Whose fault do you think this is?" Hackzord glanced at him coldly.

The latter immediately closed his mouth.

"It will not take long for the news of the Knights escaping to spread to the lower class. That is when Everwinter's social order will completely crumble. Rather than allowing Graycastle to take advantage of them, it's better to control them before the snowball effect comes into play. If any of them challenges you, use a blade or sword to shut them up. That shouldn't be difficult for you."

"Of course, of course." Marwayne was the first to take a stand. "I will do it now."

The other nobles agreed in succession.

"Be at ease, your territories will not be abandoned, because the battle will not last long." Hackzord seemed to have noticed their worries. "Aside from that, joining the Deity of Gods implies that you have participated in the war. This will increase your contribution to the war and when the time comes to distribute the human realm, obviously we will not overlook this. Understood?"

Happiness immediately filled the hearts of the nobles. The failure of their sneak attack on the small Graycastle team had undoubtedly failed to satisfy the Grand Lord, but the opportunity to make amends had appeared once more, with the possibility of improving their positions. This immediately stirred up their emotions.

"Yes, of course! We will do our best!"

Hackzord opened a new portal. "It's good that you understand. I only have two requests, evacuate as quickly as you can, and do not reveal the existence of the Deity of Gods. Now, start moving."

…

After sending the nobles back, he walked deep into the great rupture.

Hackzord endured great pressure from the majority for allowing the "lowlifes" to interact with the Deity of Gods. Not all the Grand Lords were on the same page, and Mask felt that it was blasphemous, but Hackzord managed to pull it off with his status as the Commander of the Western Front.

Skylord gradually realized that the Graycastle warriors were nothing special. They might had been farmers or hunters, but after a few months of training, they joined the army as new recruits with firearms capable of killing their trained counterparts.

In other words, the efficiency of their enemy's build up soldiers had far surpassed any kind that the Demons had ever faced. Even Mask's prideful Symbiotic Demons were unable to reach that level of efficiency. It was the reason why Graycastle was raking in people from both Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart frenetically, not because they were a burden or for a long-term plan, but because they were provided practical short-term benefits!

Once order in any noble's territory collapsed, it meant gifting the enemy a large quantity of soldiers. It was what Hackzord was trying to prevent.

At the same time, their work efficiency was nowhere inferior to the Demons. Hackzord considered killing them as a waste, and decided to move them to the Deity of Gods to serve the Demons. Therefore, this plan could be considered the most rational choice based on the present circumstances.

Of course, the others did not approve of it, but Hackzord couldn't care less.

The Deity of Gods or any so-called holy land were not as important as winning. Hackzord was already betting everything on the Western Front; not only did he promise the King, he had even applied for the Deity of Gods. This just added to the discourse and blame he was already receiving.

Compared to the pressure from his superiors, Sky City caused an even bigger problem for Hackzord.

He walked down the steps of Birth Tower to the lowest level, where another dark figure now laid within the thick and dense Red Mist Pond. The figure sat opposite Nightmare, motionless with both hands holding onto its palms like a statue.

"You haven't given up?" Hackzord frowned in annoyance. "If there were any clues about her in the Realm of Mind, I would have done so a long time ago."

He did not know what kind of bad luck he had received to have every single one of his peers so unreliable.

This person was Silent Disaster, who was sent to the Western Front as reinforcement.

Just like its name, Silent Disaster was wrapped up tightly in its armor, rarely revealing its true face and hardly ever spoke. No one truly knew what was on its mind. But Silent Disaster was different from the Mask and the other Grand lords; its individual strength was known amongst the Grand Lords, and even Sky Lord himself did not dare criticize it much.

If it was any other person, Sky Lord would had cursed a long time ago.

After all, Sky Lord had waited quite a while for the arrival of the reinforcements, but upon arriving in Sky City, the first thing Silent Disaster did was to run straight to the Red Mist Pond to accompany the Nightmare Lord's body instead of clarifying the situation.

Everyone knew that getting lost in the Realm of Mind indicated a high probability of never returning. One could use the vast ocean, the sun and stars as indicators, but the Realm of Mind had nothing—It was always in chaos with storm-like undercurrents, making the preservation of oneself a challenge. Additionally, one's consciousness would experience continuous erosion.

The Nightmare Lord had been gone for a few months. Even if it did come back, it might not be the 'it' from before.

"It must have discovered some leads and decided to take the risk," Silent Disaster commented, "Since it is related to Valkries, I had to verify it personally."

Silent Disaster obviously did not trust Hackzord, leaving him to massage his forehead helplessly. Although the Nightmare Lord was a unique existence to the other Grand Lords, it was even more special for a few others—Silent Disaster being one of them. Hackzord remembered that Silent Disaster's upgrade ceremony was presided by the Nightmare Lord.

"And you've confirmed it?"

"Almost, but my conclusion is different from yours." Silent Disaster spoke concisely. "I believe that Nightmare Lord isn't completely lost, and is merely trapped somewhere in the Realm of Mind."

"Reason?"

"Intuition."

Heh, intuition. Hackzord silently lampooned, if there was something more unreliable than the Mask's promise, that would be Silent Disaster's intuition. "How does your conclusion bring any help? You're unable to track down Nightmare Lord and unable to wake it up. In the end, nothing's changed. Rather than spending more time here, why not think of ways to deal with the humans."

"That male human." Silent Disaster looked at Hackzord.

"What?"

"I will help you destroy the humans; that is the goal of me being here." It suddenly stood up from the Red Mist Pond, its helmet flickering with a dangerous red light. "But the male human that appeared in the Legacy Hall must be left to me. I think that the Nightmare Lord's whereabouts is linked to him."

Chapter 1378 - Rewards and Punishments

Five days later, Farrina and Joe received information from the First Army's liaison en route.

The Army's commander-in-chief, Iron Axe, had requested to meet them.

After going all the way to Cage Mountain, they walked into a conference room and discovered there was more than one person inside. The epaulets on their shoulders revealed that they were all high-ranking officials of the First Army.

Joe swallowed his saliva in nervousness.

Farrina remained calm and gave a military salute. "First Transport team, second vehicle convoy member, Farrina, is here to report."

Iron Axe and the others smiled and returned the salute. None of them had any airs.

This surprised her slightly.

The Hermes Church's style instilled in her the habit of ignoring the hierarchy disparity, causing her to always handle affairs bluntly. She never expected for the high officials of Graycastle army to do the same, to the point of surpassing the Hermes Church.

The reason for her calmness was her clear conscience, but that did not indicate that she had forgotten she used to be a 'scapegoat' for the Judgment Army—It would be nothing strange if she suffered from a cold shoulder.

But no one showed any contempt. Even the Church had never been so friendly towards their non-parishioners.

"What is the reason… for informing me to be present today?" Farrina's gaze landed on Iron Axe.

"Do you still remember the Everwinter Knights you captured a few days ago back in Sedimentation Bay?" Iron Axe got right to the point. "We have already confirmed their identities, as well as the crimes they have committed."

Farrina suddenly realized something. "Are they very important to the First Army?"

"Yes and no." Iron Axe replied, "They are nothing when it comes to the entire war situation. But to the people that have offered their lives for the war, their imprisonment means that criminals will ultimately not escape from punishment. In a sense, this will comfort those who have sacrificed themselves."

After that, Farrina listened to a story involving blood.

In the beginning, news of the intruder did not capture the attention of the higher-ups since such occurrences of refugees deceiving their way through the barrier were encountered three to four times a day. They were either unimportant nobles or wealthy merchants; their reasons for escaping were either due to crimes or afraid that their assets would be plundered.

According to Lorgar's report, the two Everwinter Knights belonged to the former, but due to the mixed and rich smell of blood on them, the interrogators investigated even more meticulously.

After a few psychological games and taking separate statements, the younger brother caved in and revealed everything they had done. A few months prior, the two brothers were ordered by their feudal lord to capture refugees, but since the elder brother had a grudge against Graycastle, he turned the capturing into hunting.

If it had been an ordinary murder case, the treatment would had been the death penalty or mining for life. But the matter of "hunting refugees" was too severe that the person-in-charge kept it in mind. In the end, the case was handed over to the Intelligence agency, where Hill Fawkes was tasked to investigate.

The case had two large blind spots. Firstly, the First Army was unsure who had sent the information and only knew that the deceased worked for Black Money. Secondly, the party's willingness to kill others. Even if murder was involved, the two might not have admitted it. In other words, even if Nightingale was present, it was impossible for them to link the information to the two through interrogations.

The only breakthrough was the smell of blood as mentioned by Wolf Girl.

It was a pity that Lorgar could only verify the diverse variety in the blood. She was unable to accurately pinpoint the timeline of the blood—In the end, her sense of smell was an added advantage due to her mutation. Although she was not affected by God's Stones, she wasn't able to surpass the limits of her physiology.

In the end, the final decision was obtaining assistance from the Witch Union, who sent Vanilla and Broken Sword.

With Broken Sword's augmentation, Vanilla found the same pheromones on Talos Murray's armor and on the secret letter. Although it was only a droplet, it was undoubtedly considered concrete evidence.

If the two had never met, how could the bloodstains contain the same pheromones?

Thus, the Murray Brothers were definitely the murderers of the messenger.

"Such people exists amongst the ordinary folks…" After listening to Iron Axe's explanation, Joe could not help but sigh with sorrow.

"Presently, Everwinter is still occupied by the Demons, so we are unable to spread the news of such heroic matters, but history will never forget people like him." Iron Axe sighed. "The two of you are the main contributors to capturing the murderers, but you are not established under the military. So aside from seeking the two of you out to inform you of the investigation results to give you closure, I wanted to ask what rewards you would wish to receive."

"But we didn't even do much." Farrina replied directly, "Firstly, it was that Witch who sensed their strange behaviors first. I merely heard the commotion and came in at the end."

Her words incited a burst of well-meaning laughter.

"Relax, His Majesty Roland will never miss out on contributors." Iron Axe explained, "The Witch Union and the Army are two separate departments, so Miss Lorgar's rewards are handled by others. In theory, your rewards should be handed out by the Administrative Office. But since the frontline matters are dealt with the locals, we are here to handle the inquiry."

"I understand…" Farrina hesitated for a moment. "I was once part of the Church's Judgment Army and was deceived by the shams and lies of the church. But if it is possible, I hope to obtain the chance to redeem myself."

"Redeem yourself?"

"Yes." She took a deep breath. "Joining the First Army is the reward I want."

The room instantly turned quiet. Everyone's eyes roamed about, as though communicating their opinions.

After a long moment, Iron Axe spoke up. "The enlistment of the First Army was drawn up by His Majesty, I am unable to agree to your request."

"Is that so…" Farrina's clenched her fists before loosening them slightly.

"But," Iron Axe's words took a turn. "I can include your contributions and request into the report and hand it over to His Majesty to decide, provided that you are willing and determined to do so."

Farrina lifted her head, revealing the light in her eyes. "Yes, Please!"

Farrina knew that upon joining the Army, her movements and actions would be restricted, the risks of facing the enemy amplified. But that was the route she thirsted for—The more thorny the road, the more she felt she could redeem the sins of her past.

…

After their departure, the other officials left, leaving Iron Axe and Edith in the room.

The Pearl of the Northern Region who was silent the entire team sighed. "That's why I have to say, the Hermes Church is truly formidable… Since no judgment was meted out, what crimes or mistakes does she have? Only the pious believers of the Holy City would rather inherit sufferings in exchange for a peace of mind."

Iron Axe shrugged his shoulders. He was already aware that Edith was shrewd in seeking personal profits; her occasional concessions were always for greater benefits. If the benefits were mutual, she was a flawless partner. But once there was a conflict of interest, it became extremely difficult to anticipate her thoughts. Farrina's decision to be selfless and offer her devotion was something that would never appear from Edith.

But he held no dislike towards her.

Compared to those slow-witted, egotistical, or greedy profiteers, she was at least able to define her own goals and not make silly mistakes for the lack of foresight on short term gains.

"Then… what's your opinion on dealing with the two convicts?" Iron Axe turned back to the main topic. Roland's reply to him mentioned 'If the crimes committed by the Everwinter knights are verified, you have full authority to decide.' According to usual practices, the two knights who had over a hundred of lives on their hands only had one route—to be executed by hanging.

"If we hang them, I don't think His Majesty would had specially exhorted us about it." Edith revealed a sneer. "And don't you think that sending them on their way is simply giving them the easy way out?"

"What do you suggest?"

"Since we can't publicize this, why not send them as gifts to Black Money. After spending so much on them, I'm sure they will be extremely hospitable to the two of them."

Chapter 1379 - Special Goods

Kingdom of Dawn, Thorn Town.

The deserted little town situated at the foot of Cage Mountain had turned into a bustling and lively location.

Aside from being an "Outpost" and headquarters for Cage Mountain, the other reason was that it housed the Aerial Knights Academy frontline training camp.

To meet the enormous expenses of the Aerial Knights, the engineering team constructed many wide and reinforced concrete roads that connected the main road from north to south which led all the way to the far north in the Kingdom of Dawn. The large import and export of resources naturally attracted the attention of merchants from the Kingdom of Dawn, and having lost their trade routes to Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter, Graycastle became their largest hope of making money. From supplying services that contracted them for the entire project to supplying beverages, there were all kinds of merchants.

The business opportunities brought along human traffic. In just a year, the scale of the town expanded by a few rings, with inns and taverns only seen in major cities establishing all over the place, scattered around and surrounding the town center.

Tilly experienced this change the most by viewing it from the clouds.

Before winter, it was extremely easy to spot the town's silhouette by looking down from the sky above. The dullest color belonged to houses of the original natives that had roof tiles that had suffered decades of weathering, coloring them with the colors of mottled brown and gray. They were few in number and maintained the original appearance of Thorn Town, but in the outer rings, the colors turned extremely vibrant.

There were wooden buildings, stone bungalows, and even cement housing among the newer buildings. After the transfer of the calcining technique to the Kingdom of Dawn, some of the nobles and merchants had already accepted it and began attempting to use these new building materials.

The snow from the Months of Demons had weakened the difference between the new and old districts, but the old districts could still be identified by its disorganized arrangements.

Border Town had probably developed in a similar fashion.

After sending Vanilla and Broken Sword, Tilly returned to her daily education. According to her suggestion, the number of 'Fire of Heaven Mark II' had reached close to 40 units. Together with the 20 odd Mark Is, the Aerial Knights had turned into a force to be reckoned with.

In fact, the reason for the First Army's successful counterattack was inseparably linked to the biplanes' protection. Compared to the machine guns, 'Fire of Heavens' were far bigger threats to the Devilbeasts, and without an effective assault, the Artillery Squad was able to take advantage of their firing range to bombard the demon outposts, and withdraw before the demons were able to surround them. As long as no Senior Demons were present, the enemies were incapable of drawing close to the First Army.

During every mission, dozens of Fire of Heavens would cruise along the runway and take off with shortest interval in between, their engines so loud that people living in the adjacent town were able to hear them. The spectacular sight of the planes in flight was indescribable, where even a collective charge of a group of knights could was completely incomparable. People who witnessed this scene for themselves all found themselves seeing Graycastle in a new light.

This scene also became one of Thorn Town's main attraction, and when they heard about it, many nobles from the Kingdom of Dawn thought of personally experiencing the legends of the Aerial Knights. Gradually, the buildings around the training grounds became packed with people whenever taking off and landing practices were held as they watched the steel birds soaring into the horizon with excitement and zest.

Tilly even heard that the buildings with an expansive view started charging fees.

But the development of the Aerial Knight Academy was not without problems. Aside from the output of Fire of Heavens, the problem in the number of pilots produced slowly became apparent.

After all, not only did the conscription require a certain cultural foundation, candidates required the physique suitable for flight. Only after fulfilling these requirements would they undergo the next grooming step. As to the duration it required for them to join the battlefield, that depended entirely on talent. Over the course of time, Tilly had encountered many students who performed to satisfaction during practice but became flustered in the air. In the end, these students could only join the logistics team.

If not for the "Fire of Heaven Mark II' being turned into a single pilot plane from the dual pilot system which temporarily alleviated the problem of a shortage of pilots, the Aerial Knights would have been faced with the awkward predicament of having too many unpiloted planes.

Aside from expanding the channels of recruitment and increasing the number of students, Tilly did not know what else to do.

Fortunately, her elder brother also valued the Aerial Knights highly, and more importantly, he did not reject her suggestions. The issue was soon to take a turn for the better with the next batch of students being sent to Thorn Town.

The concentrated flying practice would mark the end when they descended at midday.

As an Extraordinary, Tilly did not require the noon break to recover her energy. After temporarily relieving herself of her instructor role, she frequently chose to fly by herself, to validate the new ideas she came up with during the practical lessons while also enjoying the time in the air.

This time, she noticed peculiarities over at the warehouses.

Be it students or ground service, no one scattered, but instead, they assembled at the warehouses, as though attracted to something.

A guard quickly came over and reported the situation.

"Princess Tilly, it seems that Neverwinter has sent a new batch of goods for your confirmation."

"New goods?" Tilly frowned, having no recollection of such an arrangement. But due to the great distance between the two, such last-minute adjustments by Neverwinter was not strange.

At the warehouses, the crowd split and opened a path for her. Before Tilly could even see the goods, a familiar voice shouted for her.

"Lady Tilly!"

Molly bounced over and pounced into her open arms.

Tilly ruffled the little girl's head helplessly and discovered that the Magic Servant was the one responsible for delivering the cargo. Swollen like a big and blue balloon, it carefully 'swallowed' the cargo on the truck and moved into the warehouse.

So this was the reason why everyone stopped in their tracks?

No… that's not it…

When Tilly's gaze landed on the huge crate, she suddenly realized that the answer was not that simple.

There were a total of three crates, but the cold metallic surfaces were no different from the ones used to ship the 'Fire of Heavens,' just larger and even more slender. In addition, both sides had scarlet red cloud marks like a pair of spread-out wings.

The decorations on the boxes looked to be of no significance, but it was because of that that they were particularly unique.

Tilly's heart immediately skipped a beat.

"By the way, any specific requirement on the color of the aircraft? Then how about red?"

Roland's words sounded in her ears.

"Does it make any difference?"

"Normally, the party that dominates the sky is in that color."

The ground crew had efficiently removed the fastened bolts on the first crate. As the sealed boards were gradually removed, the crowd let out gasps.

An unprecedented airframe appeared before everyone.

Chapter 1380 - Wings of the Phoenix

It's entire body was smooth from any angle. The contours looked extremely fluent and curved, and the bright and clean paint on its surface was even able to reflect human reflections.

The pilot cabin looked like a bulging bubble, enveloped by polished glass. It was obviously built in consideration for the drafts from high speed flights. Additionally, the cockpit was placed towards the rear, where the back of the bubble was elevated higher than the front. This feature was obviously beneficial from a single glance combined with the smooth body. The low front, high back feature distinctively elevated the pilot's field of view, while the glass cover's smooth and curved finish that was linked to the rudder made the airframe appear clean. Every installation meshed well together.

And the greatest difference of this plane was something that every student could never overlook—the nose of the plane did not have a propeller!

Without a flat engine, the head of the plane converged into the shape of a cone, as though it could cut through the clouds and winds. The majority of the airframe were painted orange-red that resembled a blazing flame, with a few streaks of white lines running from the head to the tail, giving the body a sense of artistic vitality.

Even those ignorant of aviation could sense the beauty and grace of the beast.

The moment Tilly landed her eyes on the new plane, she found herself falling deeply for it.

But… without propellers, how was a plane to fly?

This question ran through everyone's mind.

It was only after the other two crates were opened did the answer come to them.

Encapsulated within the second crate were the wings and empennage. From the count, the plane only had a pair of wings unlike the Fire of Heaven's bottom-top wings. Beneath the wings were symmetrical ports, obviously left for some other components.

The last crate contained two engines.

But they were too bulky to be considered just engines.

Compared to the Fire of Heaven, they resembled more of integrated components that could be replaced. After a careful inspection, Tilly noticed the same red color painted over its surface. There were many access hatches at the top, while the hole at the bottom were shockingly installed with black weapons.

After associating the ports on the wings, the appearance of the new plane gradually appeared in her mind.

The fuselage of the plane no longer assumes a mechanical system and the slender wings situated closer to the bottom of the plane decreases the resistance by a notch. With the two engines installed at the wings, the propulsion force provided to the plane doubles…

Tilly immediately became impatient, eager to experience the new plane for herself!

"Oh right." Molly fished out a letter from her pocket. "This came together with His Majesty's delivery. The envelope indicated clearly that it must be handed and opened by you personally."

Tilly took the letter and opened it.

"Dearest Sister."

"This is the present that I have promised, I truly hope that it is to your satisfaction."

"Detailed introductions and specific parameters have been written in the manual left in the cockpit, but I reckon that you'll most probably get straight to flying it without carefully reading the manual first."

"If it was already built up and sent over to you, this letter would had been placed at the back of the plane as well—This is the reason why I sent it over like this to the Kingdom of Dawn. While the workers are assembling it, you have the time to read through the manual."

"After all, it possesses a completely different structure from the Fire of Heaven. Even though you're an Extraordinary, there's no disadvantages to having a comprehensive understanding of the plane."

What… Tilly's lips curled upwards awkwardly. Am I that readable?

"What did His Majesty say? I want to read it too…" Molly leaned in towards her.

Tilly immediately turned and used her body to block Molly's view, "Ahem, it's nothing, you don't have to see it."

"What—"

"Want to have a Chaos Drink?"

"Yes!"

"Take it from my office."

Molly excitedly sprinted away the moment Tilly pointed towards her office.

Tilly heaved a sigh of relief, then returned back to the letter.

"Also, it's about the name of this plane."

"I initially had the intention of re-using the name 'Unicorn,' but I felt it fell short of the striking red color of as overlord of the sky, so I might as well give it a new name."

It was a noun Tilly had never encountered before. Without a doubt, it was something Roland came up with.

Tilly attempted reading it out.

"Phoenix…"

"Where I'm from, a Phoenix is a type of divine bird related to fire, which happens to match the color of the plane. But most importantly, legend has it that a Phoenix is immortal, transforming into a golden egg after 4600 days, and taking another 4600 days to hatch out of the egg to obtain new life."

"That is also what I wish to convey—regardless of what enemies you face, I hope that you can return home, alive and safe."

"Just like a phoenix."

"I will bring Ashes back for you, so you need to keep your promise."

"We've agreed on it, right?"

For some reason, Tilly suddenly felt her eyes turn sour and swollen.

She blinked a couple of times, resisted the surging warmth from her heart, and took a deep breath.

"A Phoenix is immortal, huh…" She muttered at a volume only audible to herself, "Not a bad name. I will accept this present, Brother."

"… Your Highness?" a guard asked in puzzlement.

"It's nothing." Tilly waved her hand. "Inform ground service to fix up the Phoenix at quickly as possible. I can't wait to have a test flight with it."

…

Three days later, the fully assembled plane left its hangar and slowly slid down the runway.

"Oh? So this is the special aircraft you mentioned? It looks really good."

Lightning's voice came out from the Sigil of Listening.

Tilly raised her head. Through the clear glass, she noticed the two Exploration Group members spiraling in the air. As it was the maiden flight for the Phoenix, she had specially called for Lightning and Maggie in any case of an accident.

It had to be said that the plane's interior design was far more outstanding than its exterior.

The moment Tilly sat in the cockpit, she even had the baffling feeling that the plane was not just a pure fighter plane. For example, her seat was extremely firm but soft to prevent pain and soreness of the lower back for long flights; the various tension bars and buttons were equipped with control feedback for added efficiency; and the customized Sigil of Listening slot, allowed the pilot to easily use the Sigil of Listening to talk with others even in battle.

Compared to the Unicorn, It felt even more of a plane specially designed for her.

"Shall we compete to see who is faster?" Tilly chuckled and replied.

"Forget that, the old Fire of Heaven can not even catch up with Maggie's petrel form, much less me." Lightning's words contained an undisguised smugness. "Am I right?"

"That's right, it can't even compare to me!"

"How will we know if we don't try?" Tilly stepped on the accelerator, causing the rumbling from both engines to amplify. Compared to the gradual build up of speed on the Fire of Heaven, the Phoenix's body felt so light and graceful, as though it was weightless. The surrounding landscape flew backwards rapidly as she gently pulled the center stick and the plane immediately raised upwards, whistling into the sky.

Chapter 1381 - Extreme Racing

After passing Cage Mountain, the trio headed west towards the Impassable Mountain Range.

In less than half an hour, Maggie was the first to admit defeat.

At an altitude of 1500 meters, the Phoenix easily relied on its two engines to fly at 400 km/h. While Maggie's petrel form could also attain that speed, she could only sustain it for a short while. Against the brand new Type-14 Engine that did not tire out, shaking Maggie off was something bound to happen.

"How was it?" Tilly asked with her hand to her lips.

"… I-I can still fly… Coo!" Maggie gasped for breath.

"You've done your best. I'll take it from here."

Lightning took her unyielding companion into her embrace and took over the second stage of the competition.

The human and plane began a new pursuit in the dusky sky.

The scenery below got smaller; the mountain range that separated the human kingdoms gradually turned into a wriggling black line. Tilly noticed the Red Mist flowing at the ridge of the continent towards Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart like a turbid screen. The land within the screen had been completely filled with the Red Mist, but as long as one was in the sky, one could see the true appearance of the world.

"Is this your limit?" Lightning's voice sounded. "I can fly even faster!"

With regards to flying speed, Lightning's abilities were truly unparalleled. Even the Sky Lord that had the ability of opening portals had lost to her.

But winning was not the most important thing for TIlly.

Being able to pilot the enormous yet nimble plane and pushing its performance to its limit was enough enjoyment for her.

She retracted her gaze and smiled. The nose of the plane tilted upwards as the plane flew even higher.

Lightning followed along, but maintained her lead of about 100 meters.

According to the introduction in the manual, Phoenix had been optimized using the technology from the Dream World and all the crucial points were personally made by Anna, and thus possessed a base and quality far surpassing that of the Fire of Heaven. The maximum speed attainable for horizontal flight was 550 km/h with the capability of flying over 1500 kilometers. The dual star-shaped engines on both wings were equipped with turbine systems, allowing the Phoenix to fly at an altitude of 3000 meters without having its performance drastically affected. All of these were features the mass-produced planes were incapable of achieving.

But they were not the Phoenix's biggest feature.

The airframe composition had been strengthened by Doris and Candle, and it could be said that in terms of durability and strength for the materials used, they were the highest-end compositions integrated by both technology and magic power.

Tilly was aware that the propeller held the most advantage at slow speeds and its efficiency to propel forward would drop if its speed was increased. Therefore, to think of catching up to Lightning just based on the power of the propellers was an impossibility.

She needed to rely on other forces.

After increasing her altitude far above the clouds, Tilly accelerated to its limits and pressed the control stick downwards.

The engines immediately unleashed a resounding boom!

After the abrupt turn, Phoenix swooped down.

To maintain her lead, Lightning adjusted her direction and dropped at a rapid speed, but to avoid affecting one another, she maintained a horizontal distance of a kilometer away from Tilly. The vertical 100 meters distance did not change—At that altitude and speed, the 'light membrane' formed by her magic power became extremely distinct as radiating ripples formed a layer of protection around her, preventing her from suffering from the cold winds or the change in pressure.

In that state, the rate of magic power consumption Lightning expended was undoubtedly far higher than her regular flights.

Even when testing her abilities, Roland had mentioned the reason why Lightning should never maintain her supersonic speeds for extended periods of time was not because of the high consumption of magic power the flight required, but that the consumption rose sharply under an extreme state for the synchronization of magic power and her body.

As a result, she rarely went at sonic speeds during her patrols.

Squandering magic power was an extremely dangerous matter for any Witch.

Of course, Tilly was nowhere better. The thin air at high altitudes made it difficult for her to breath. The gales formed by the engines working at full force caused the cockpit to rumble and tremble incessantly. Without the protection of magic power synchronization, she could only hold out with her body alone.

According to the distance covered, the Phoenix had approached a speed of 800 km/h.

This was a speed far beyond its limit.

Although Lightning was consistently staying ahead of the plane's nose, she no longer had the time to use the Sigil of Listening.

That's right, Tilly was relying on gravity.

She had discovered it while piloting the biplane. When she accumulated sufficient altitude and converted it to speed in an instant, she was able to easily break through the limit of the plane.

But the risks brought about by such speeds could not be overlooked. They ranged from not being able to pull the plane up again to disintegrating in midair.

If Tilly did not rely on her perceptive capabilities to sense the critical point, she would never have dared to employ such a move in its maiden flight.

But even so, the chance of catching up to Lightning was miniscule.

She recalled Roland's words, restricted by the propeller blades, it required an extremely enormous price for a piston engine to surpass the speed of sound. In other words, the gains did not make up for the losses, to the extent that propellers were replaced by jet engines as soon as the latter was produced. However, Lightning was able to break through the sound barrier at any moment, so the disparity between the two were not at the same level.

Therefore, she required external help.

Following the descent from a high altitude, they rushed towards the dense and dark clouds that sat at an altitude of 2500 meters as though they were colliding into it.

The Phoenix whistled through the dark clouds and formed a 'fog pillar'!

At that moment, the plane's speed surpassed 900 km/h and the tremblings from the airframe extended to the wings. Tilly could feel the sharp wings cut through the viscous airflow; the resistance from the high speed caused air to no longer act ethereal, but more of a thick and dense wall.

Lightning disappeared from her vision.

Tilly knew that her opportunity had come.

She focused her attention on controlling the plane. The propulsion force supplied by the propellers at that speed was almost equivalent to resistance. Any ordinary person would consider the matter about pulling the nose back up and not dive down any faster. Only Tilly was able to maintain precise control under the violent trembles and raise the plane speed up a notch.

Although the increase of speed was not huge, but it was enough for her to close the distance with Lightning.

When the Phoenix was closing in on its limit, she flew out of the clouds!

The vast and endless land appeared before her once again.

Lightning emerged at the same time. Compared to her previous 100 meters lead, Lightning was actually flying alongside the plane. After realizing it, the latter immediately broke the sound barrier, but soon reduced her speed once more. She turned and flew close to the cockpit.

"As expected of Your Highness." Lightning's expression showed no signs of dejection; instead, she had a look of admiration. "You actually thought of using the clouds."

"If it had been slightly thinner, I would never had been able to catch up to you." Tilly pulled the plane horizontally and laughed.

Right from the beginning, Tilly's plan was to have Lightning get used to a stable acceleration and finally use the cover of the dark clouds to overtake her. Although it was only for an instant, the Phoenix was indeed capable of closing the gap.

"Wait, where are we?" Maggie dug her head out of Lightning's bosom.

"Uh…" Tilly looked around, only to discover unfamiliar terrain below them with the Impassable Mountain Range left far behind them. They had been too immersed in the competition and never noticed how far they had flown northwest. "I'm guessing somewhere in the Fertile Plains?"

"Likely." Lightning took out a telescope. "But it is a part of the Fertile Plains which we have never stepped into. If we consider the route, our east should be the boundary between the Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter, while the ridge of the continent should be—"

At this point, her voice trailed off.

"What?"

Tilly followed her gaze and froze.

Hidden behind the clouds and mist was a faintly discernible mountain range, far taller and majestic than the Impassable Mountain Range. But having heard of its' existence from Agatha and the Exploration Group, Tilly was not overly surprised at the first sight.

What shocked her was the top of the mountain rage.

Dark and gloomy red clouds covered the summit, endless streaks of lightning flickered within, like a storm formed by fresh blood.

Without a doubt, it was not a natural phenomenon.

The red clouds gave Tilly an extremely uneasy feeling.

Chapter 1382 - What One Sees

Cage Mountain, Command Post.

"Ringmaster, there's another similar report…" Clown took a piece of paper and walked towards Hill Fawkes.

Although their circus troupe had disbanded many years ago, the comrades from his past were still used to calling him Ringmaster.

"Where was it sent from?" Hill glanced over the paper. "Can we trace it back to its source?"

"The messenger's position was last known location was in southern Everwinter; there are a total of three cities there. But there are no other leads aside from that."

Hill frowned, then suddenly stood up. "Inform Lord Iron Axe and Her Excellency Edith. We might have trouble."

…

Fifteen minutes later.

Edith placed the report down and gently rapped the table. "… You mean to say that this happened at the same time in different parts of Everwinter?"

Hill nodded his head. "Although we were unable to pinpoint the exact cities where the orders were carried out, it is safe to assume that it occurred at a wide scale from the distribution of the reports' origins."

In the past few days, the Intelligence Agency had received identical encrypted letters successively.

The letters indicated that the nobles were forcefully migrating the citizens.

And they were moving north.

The similarities were identical, and it was impossible for the reports that came from different locations to be mistaken or forged. In other words, the nobles of Everwinter were carrying out a single, unified operation.

Although the encrypted letters briefly mentioned the term 'migration,' it was not a small matter. A city's sustainability had a limit, and being underpopulated or overpopulated could lead to a paralysis of a city. Aside from that, a huge migration had many other considerations—for example, the food supply, the temporary residence en route, the riches brought along, etc… something that Neverwinter had deep experience in. It could even be said that the nobles that ruled the cities did not have the capabilities to execute a large scale migration successfully. They were not robust enough in terms of strength and supplies to support the entire operation, so the migration was deemed to be a failure.

Indeed, a majority of nobles did not care about the lives of the ordinary citizens, but that was only if the citizens were individuals. A feudal lord's taxation and rule was inevitably linked to the ordinary citizens; if there was no one to rule, it did not matter how much strength and authority had. Once the citizens realized that they were unable to benefit from the migration, they were bound to lose the hearts of the people. Let alone the large mass of population congregating together, the chance of a rebellion occurring was much higher; thus, no matter how domineering or unreasonable the nobles were, they were incapable of executing such an astonishing large-scale migration.

Additionally, it was not just the nobles but the entire northern regions, which clearly indicated that it was directed by some other power.

In the entire Everwinter, only the demons were capable of doing so.

"But why are they doing that?" Edith muttered to herself in doubt. "If they are thinking of impairing Graycastle's war potential, they can just kill off the citizens… With their Spider Demons, the nobles can't stop them even if they were unwilling."

"Maybe the demons think that… they are still of some use." Morning Light guessed.

"If they are useful, there isn't a need to do a force migration." Hill shook his head. "Everwinter has the least cities out of the Four Kingdoms, even King's City can only accommodate up to three hundred thousand people without prior preparations. Let's not even talk about their route isn't having King's City as its destination."

"The largest City in the north is…" Edith looked at the map.

"Snow Reflection Castle, with the Impassable Mountain Range behind it. It is only half the size of King's City." Ferlin immediately added in the relevant information. "Due to the uniqueness of its topography, it has a very low permanent population, and also the first place where the Red Mist was reported to appear."

"If the demons are planning to migrate everyone there, then there's no difference killing them off directly," Hill commented.

"And the enemy will definitely not make any superfluous movements." Edith nodded her head in agreement. "I believe that there has been an unforeseen change that we have not noticed, which is why the demons are implementing this inexplicable operation."

"What can that change be?" Iron Axe queried.

"I don't know…" Edith said slowly, "But I believe it cannot be any good news. Inform the front lines, tell them to raise their alertness."

…

"Those red clouds… could it be that a demon obelisk is situated there?" Tilly muttered.

"No," Lightning replied with a heavy expression. "From this distance, we should not be able to see any Red Mist…"

"Can't see? Why?"

"Because Red Mist flows downwards!" Maggie was the one to answer. "I have witnessed the sight of Red Mist pouring down from the edge of the Impassable Mountain Range; they looked like waterfalls!"

"That's right, I'm not sure if it is due to the Red Mist being heavier than air that leads to them gathering easily at low altitudes, but one thing is for sure. When Red Mist comes out from the ridge of the continent and infiltrates Everwinter, the mountain peaks would not be red," Lightning added.

"You mean to say they flowed down the mountain ?" Tilly frowned.

That was the reason for Lightning's argument that it should had been impossible to see any Red Mist—They were a few hundred kilometers away from the tallest mountain range of the continent. If the Red Mist didn't rise up, it would had been completely obstructed by the mountain range.

"Not only that," Lightning confirmed. "I followed the Impassable Mountain Range north a month ago and approached the edge of the Red Mist before. But at that time, the ridge of the continent did not have that red cloud. It… doesn't seem to have come from the great rupture."

A shiver ran down Tilly's back. She noticed that the red clouds at the mountain peak were not a single layer, but formed a huge body. More accurately, it looked as though the a huge cloud pillar was pouring down from the clouds.

She stared at the peculiar sight in the distance and only spoke up after a long silence, "There is a way for us to view it clearly."

Lightning raised her head and looked at the dark clouds above them. "I think so too."

The higher one flew, the further one could see.

As long as they could see the entire ridge of the continent, they had the chance to see the truth behind the red clouds.

"If that is so, then we should try it out—" Tilly accelerated to the plane's maximum and raised the nose of the plane. Lightning followed alongside her, and synchronized her magic to overlap with Tilly.

Through their cooperation, the altitude meter of the Phoenix deflected to its extreme.

After rising up to a height of 7500 meters, the land formed an obvious curvature. Dark clouds became disjointed and was no longer one body, revealing the pale blue at the periphery of the world.

Beads of perspiration appeared on Lightning's forehead, the high altitude had caused a burden even for the protective barrier around her. Through the screen, Tilly discovered that the frame of the plane had a layer of frost. If not for the reduction of the discomfort with Lightning's synchronous magic power, Tilly could not imagine the state of the plane.

"We're almost there." Tilly could feel the weakening of the propulsion supplied by the engines. "We should find an opening around here."

"Leave it to me!" Maggie poked her head out and transformed into her hawk form.

Half a minute later, she found the optimal view point. Through a small crack in the clouds, they were able to see the outline of the continent's ridge.

When the scene above the Red Mist entered their vision, the three of them did not dare believe their eyes.

They saw a floating island.

Chapter 1383 - Sending a Message over a Thousand Kilometers

"Are you sure about what you saw?"

When Iron Axe heard the news, a rarely seen look of surprise appeared on his face. He exchanged looks with Edith and saw the shock in each other's eyes.

In fact, Tilly hesitated to inform their findings to the First Army's commander without verifying the truth first. After all, it was something close to a miracle. If the Demons were truly capable of achieving such a feat, it would definitely dampen the morale and confidence of the higher-ups, and people with weak wills would even think of surrendering.

"We didn't make a mistake, that's for sure, coo." Maggie patted her chest. "Lightning and I have been to the ridge of the continent before, and such a mountain didn't exist then, coo!"

Lightning nodded. "We are currently unable to verify if it is something the Demons are responsible for, but one thing is for sure. It appeared there within the past half month."

"I see…" Edith pondered for a moment and spoke, "If that is the case, then everything makes sense."

"You believe us?" Tilly was shocked.

She originally believed that Edith would take some time to digest the information before being able to arrange and conduct surveillance operations for verification. Who would had thought that the Pearl of the Northern Region had accepted their words immediately. After all, even though the three of them had personally witnessed the scene, it took them a very long time to reach the consensus that it was no hallucination.

"You have to blame Roland for that." Edith sighed. "If it was three years ago, I reckon that I would had treated your words as lunacy… but now, I think that anything is possible. If I had continued staying in that tiny place, I would never have realized how much the world has changed."

"Aside from that, the demons' unusual activity confirms this point." Edith paused for a while and narrated the information received by Hill Fawkes. "None of the cities owned by nobles are able to accommodate so many people, but a floating island might."

"Demons… are accepting mankind?" Lightning was stunned.

"This isn't the first time. Didn't Agatha mention it before that in the first Battle of Divine Will, some humans actually formed an 'alliance' with the demons to fight against the Witches." Edith shrugged her shoulders. "At that time, they were afraid of Witches. Now, the only variable that has changed in our situation is that they are now afraid of His Majesty Roland. Since they are unwilling to accept change or to be part of the change, there is a limit to what they can do."

"They didn't heed the warnings about the Battle of Divine Will…" Tilly clenched her fists subconsciously.

"No…" Edith revealed a strange smile. "Even if the nobles acknowledged it, they might still make the same decision. It might take several years or decades before the end of the war, but the reality is that His Majesty has removed the power of the nobles and took their lands away from them. To some people, this makes no difference as taking their lives. Since one is immediate death and the other a delayed death, they would rather choose the latter."

"Enough of this." Iron Axe interrupted them helplessly. He knew that once the Pearl of the Northern Region entered her state of mockery, it would be difficult to stop her. Besides, it was easy for her to offend others and even himself. "Back to the matter at hand, how should we go about handling the floating island?"

Edith's expression returned to normal. "No, we can't do anything about it. If it had been at the ridge of the continent the entire time, we'll be fine. But if that thing truly came from elsewhere, we are in deep trouble. For Her Highness Tilly to be able to see it from a few hundred kilometers away, its size far surpasses that of anything we can imagine. Do you think that we can destroy part of the Impassable Mountain Range by relying on the Fires of Heaven?"

"We need to inform my brother as soon as possible." Tilly spoke up.

"I concur." Edith nodded her head. "This no longer concerns plans and strategies, the only one capable of thinking of our next step is His Majesty Roland."

"It is a pity that the new communications iron towers are still under construction; otherwise, we would have the ability to converse with His Majesty immediately." Iron Axe walked over to the work desk and picked up a pen and paper. "Regardless, we should first send a flying messenger before doing anything else."

"There is no need for that, let me handle it." Tilly stood up. "With the speed of Phoenix, I can arrive at Neverwinter in the afternoon if I set off tomorrow morning. It is far faster than any messenger. Also… I was thinking of thanking him for the new gift."

With that, she turned to Lightning and Maggie. "We will have to trouble the two of you to continue the investigation to the west of the Impassable Mountain Range."

"Leave it to us," the two replied earnestly.

…

The next day, Tilly flew alone on the Phoenix east towards the sea before following the shoreline southwards. In less than four hours, she landed in the Aerial Knight Academy in King's City.

On this day, many witnessed the sight of a red shooting star shooting across the sky.

After leaping off her plane, she sprinted into the castle. Seeing her gray hair, no guards dared to block her path.

Upon opening the office doors, Roland blinked his eyes in surprise. Obviously, he did not expect her to appear.

"Uh… is there a problem with the plane?"

Tilly stopped in her tracks as a hint of guilt appeared in her heart in that instant. Did I force him so much that the first thing he asks when seeing me is about the plane? "No, the personal plane… I mean the Phoenix is far better than what I had anticipated. About that… thank you, Brother."

"Phew." Roland heaved a sigh of relief, but his expression immediately became serious. "Then the reason you're back is because… you have important information for me?"

"That's right, while piloting the Phoenix on its maiden flight, I accidentally discovered demon movements." Tilly then recounted the experience the three had in detail.

After listening to the entire story, Roland frowned. For an object to be seen from such a great distance away, aside from being unobstructed, the other factor was size. Take for example the moon and the stars. At a distance of over a hundred kilometers, even the Impassable Mountain Range would appear to be a thick line, the ridge of the continent would only appear as a dusky 'hill.' To be seen from such a distance, the object was definitely not small.

The demons already have the ability to move an island into the sky?

One had to know that it was impossible even for modern day technology.

If it was truly a solid island, any weapons would have little to no value. This was determined by physical characteristics. Any large weight object capable of floating signified an astonishing amount of energy.

Magic power is truly unreasonable…

But Roland deeply understood this point after he met Anna. Now, it was imperative that they verified the information regarding the behemoth.

He thought of an exceptionally suitable person.

Entering the Dream World, Roland picked up the phone and dialed Valkries's number.

Chapter 1384 - Taking a Step Forward

"I'm heading out."

"You're going to the Martialist Association?" Valkries walked out of her bedroom in a nightgown and saw Fei Yuhan packing her luggage at the front door.

"Yes, we are nearing the final battle, I have to hurry." The other party stopped abruptly. "Will you be coming later?"

Looking at Fei Yuhan's all-out expression, Valkries was distracted for a moment before nodding her head. "If there isn't anything else."

"In that case, I'm off."

The doors opened and close and the chilliness in the air quickly dissipated. Valkries lowered her head and looked at her opened palms. She then gradually curled it up into a fist.

Damn it, what am I doing?

In the month that she had been in the Dream World, she had completely integrated herself into this society. Not only did she become a member of the Martialist Association, but she had also gone alongside a few others to fight against the Fallen Evils.

To prevent the world from being destroyed, they had to go against God. That might had been the reason for her to participate, but Valkries knew in her heart that it was a method of suppression. The true issue she had to face was not in the Dream World, but outside of it—she was unwilling to accept the fact that she could not do anything about being trapped in here, and thus participated in the battles to make it seem as though she was exerting some efforts to resolve the Battle of Divine Will.

It was fine if the battles were just cruel and difficult, after all, they were fighting against "God". But the fact remained that the Fallen Evils only occurred in places unseen to the masses. The cities remained calm and peaceful. When there were no missions, everyone spent time having tea in the afternoon, or gathering together to have supper at night.

This was in stark contrast to what she was used to.

What made her feel worse was the fact that she was getting used to such a life…

The sweeter the soft peninsula bread was, the more intense the guilt and shame she felt in her heart. The future of her race was unknown, and to win the Battle of Divine Will, many had given their all; yet, she was enjoying her freedom and carefree life. This contrast made Valkries feel miserable, so much so that there were times she felt the urge to vent her anger on the people around her.

The more painful truth was that her rationality still existed without having any distortion or changes due to the immense pressure. Her clear consciousness told her, saying that such actions would not shatter the Dream World, nor would it help her race in any way. It would even bring about worse circumstances to her already terrible situation.

At the same time, the reason why the Nightmare Lord had stopped herself from doing so was that she realized she did not loathe Fei Yuhan as much as she thought.

Although the female human had eavesdropped on her conversation with Roland, that was a reasonable choice as she wanted to grasp her own fate. Additionally, Fei Yuhan's response towards the fact that she existed in the Realm of Mind and revealing all that she had done in the past was something remarkable.

She was pure, full of curiosity, determined, and clear on her objectives… These traits caused Valkries to associate her to the "Transformer", Heathalese.

The brilliance of a few was sufficient to transcend the gap between races, like how the Transformer was accepted into the Cloud School.

This was ultimately her reason for not leaving.

But this brilliance not only lessened the pressure on her, but left her even more lost.

In fact, Valkries was faintly aware of the method to truly benefit her race, but her emotions prevented her from confronting it. Once the step was taken, there was no possibility of turning back, and all the pressure and risk would be hers to bear. As such, it was difficult for her to make a decision.

In terms of confronting destiny, she was far inferior to the female human.

Right at this moment, her phone rang.

The caller was Roland.

Valkries hesitated for a moment before accepting the call. "What's the matter? If you're calling to give me a one-sided report of the battlefield, without obtaining Hackzord's confirmation, I will never—"

"I just wanted to ask, what's up with the floating island?"

The other party's first sentence stunned her.

…

Rose Café.

Fatter listening to Roland, Valkries leaned back into her chair, exhausted. She gently exhaled and muttered, "Deity of Gods…"

"Deity—what?"

She stared at him silently, hoping to see a reaction from his eyes, but the outcome told her it was not some premeditated scheme; Roland himself was genuinely unaware of the thing he had discovered. The exposure of the Deity of Gods was a complete coincidence, something that happened all the time, but would not greatly affect the situation as a whole. As the trump card of the entire race, the higher-ups most probably wanted the humans to witness the marvel achieved from magic power. After all, informing the other party of its existence would make them fall into despair and fear.

But Valkries thought further.

The Deity of Gods was the ultimate weapon meant to contend against Sky-sea Realm. For it to appear at the Western Front clearly meant one thing.

The situation on the Western Front had fallen into a difficult situation.

If not for that, The King would had never agreed to use the Deity of Gods to defeat the humans.

It was a route condemned for death.

Only if the Western Front had suffered such a huge loss would the higher ups mobilize the Deity of Gods to reverse the situation. That was the only reason that could lead to the Witches being able to see the Deity of Gods. This meant that everything that Roland had previously reported was true, which was a confirmation of his sincerity.

Unless Roland had learned about the existence of the Deity of Gods from another Senior Lord.

But the probability of that happening was minuscule. If the other Senior Lords were willing to collaborate with him, there was no need for him to pull off such an elaborate act with her.

The pain in Valkries caused her to clench her fists.

But her rationality prevented her from lying to herself.

She felt as though her legs were standing at the edge of a cliff with only a single-log bridge to walk. The conflict of emotions were nearly swallowing her up. Right when the earth-shattering pressure was on the verge of overwhelming her, Fei Yuhan's words to the people suddenly appeared in her mind—

Back then, she had opened the doors to the conference room slightly and heard that unyielding refute.

"To fear the future and give up on forging ahead is simply the mentality of cowards, even if we know that defeat is the eventual outcome, we should do all we can to turn that around!"

To do everything we can… and forge ahead…

Valkries stared into Roland's eyes for a long time before shutting them.

"The thing you saw is called the Deity of Gods." She repeated, "It is the trump card that my race had prepared to ascend the Sky-sea Realm, and also the legacy handed down by assimilating the underground civilization. A few hundred years ago, my race already escaped our dependency on the Red Mist—the Red Mist restriction that you know of. One of the most direct answers we had was to be able to produce a tower capable of producing Red Mist and moving freely, but that was hard to accomplish. Just moving a massive tower itself was a problem in itself, much less moving the entire God's Stone mine underground."

"Until Mask gained a complete grasp over the underground civilization's magic power technology and brought the foundations to the next level did we see the light of hope. I am unclear of what changes occurred to the Mask, but in essence, he is able to refurbish Birth Tower into a gigantic magic power core, and increase the effects of the core. As long as there is an abundance of magic power, it leads to a large-scale phenomenon, one almost equivalent to that of a miracle. Thus, the King bestowed it a name— the Deity of Gods."

Valkries chose to take that step.

Chapter 1385 - Establishing a Basic Agreement

Now, it was Roland's turn to be stunned.

Her long silence made him assume that his queries would had been futile. He never expected the Nightmare Lord to immediately explain the origins of the floating island in such great detail, which resulted in him being slow to react.

"What's with your expression?" Valkries opened her eyes and said unhappily. "I am not betraying my race, but merely acknowledging Heathtalese's way of seeing things. The Battle of Divine Will cannot ensure the continuation of my race but ensure that we continue becoming chess pieces for God, so… stopping God is the correct thing to do."

Uh, that's clearly my own position, right? Roland subconsciously scratched the back of his head. Transformer from a thousand years ago was unable to stabilize the connection to the Realm of Mind, so how could she have obtained so much information? But even if he was slow to react, Roland was aware that he could only continue listening to her.

"That's right, you've finally understood this point." He immediately composed himself and spared no effort to assume a magnanimous appearance as he initiated a handshake. "Although God has already taken notice of us, I believe that it isn't too late—"

Valkries did not respond to his handshake.

"Before that, I would like to ask you a question."

"What?"

"If the end was what the Oracle had mentioned, what are your plans on handling the relationship between our races?"

Nightmare Lord's expression became solemn. Roland realized that the question would determine everything. Her raising of this pivotal question proved that she had begun considering the possibility of a collaboration, and genuinely thought of a way out for her race. Roland even faintly sensed that if she did not accept his answer, she might forcefully separate herself from the Dream World—even if it meant death.

"To be honest, I haven't thought through it." After a moment of silence, Roland spoke up.

Valkries frowned and replied coldly, "So everything you said before was on a whim, and you never believed that I might cooperate with you?"

"No, I did consider it before, but this matter is too complicated." He chuckled bitterly; his answer did not meet the mark, but he was unwilling to fabricate a sweet-sounding excuse. Valkries was not a fool and he was never one to be good at making excuses. Instead of outsmarting himself, he preferred speaking the truth. "The war between humans and demons has lasted for a thousand years. This animosity cannot be removed in a short time frame, and it is close to impossible to recreate the Dream World in reality. The only way I can think of temporarily is to separate both races, to have your kind to leave the human world forever."

"Where to?"

"That is the question we have to consider in detail. But the world out there is so huge, I'm guessing that there will be a place for the demons to call home."

The two stared at each other for a long time and Valkries only broke the silence after the high temperature of their coffee simmered to a cool. "If you had reacted instantly and assured me that you would be taking care of everything, the probability of this being a trap would have been extremely high. But now, I feel that that is what you truly mean to do."

"Uh… not having thought of something was the correct answer?"

"You can say that." Nightmare Lord exhaled. "I admit that this is a long, narrow log bridge. Which way we go is unpredictable. But even if hope is bleak, I have to make an attempt because only I am capable of doing this in my entire race."

Roland noticed her hands clenching tightly when she spoke those words.

Obviously, she was not as strong willed-as the words that came out from her mouth.

At the same time, he knew that it was definitely not an easy decision. To the majority of people, being lost in the abyss was the norm. When an outcome cannot be fathomed, giving up on advancing or retreating was a form of exoneration.

"Don't be too pleased." Valkries gave him a look. "The God that planned the Battle of Divine Will will not sit idly and ignore you. If the entire world was created by God, I don't think you have any chance of winning. There is a chance that the final outcome would have both races completely destroyed, without leaving any trace of us behind."

"I agree." Roland replied frankly. He extended his hand towards her once more. "That is why we are all on the log bridge together."

This time, the Nightmare Lord extended her right arm and held his.

"Then, on to the Deity of Gods." Seeing that they had come to an agreement, Roland picked up the phone, ordered a brand new cup of coffee to go for Valkries and turned to her. "Do you have any way to contact Hackzord? Let's try to get him to move the floating island back, or we might as well allow the First Army to enter and garrison in it. It would be good too as it does together with my party's heading for the Bottomless Land."

"It's too late." Valkries shook her head.

"What?"

"My previous idea of having Hackzord enter the Dream World was a hope to obtain information about the real world and to convince him of this probability. I never expected the situation to deteriorate so badly. He believes in Ursrook's suggestion and likely was the one to plead with the King to have the Deity of Gods requested. As it is, the situation has developed to a point of no return."

"You mean…"

"Are you thinking that the Sky Lord alone is capable of controlling our race's trump card? Once the Deity of Gods reaches the Western Front, it is impossible to recall it back, much less Hackzord, I think even I will not be able to convince the King and the other senior lords." Valkries shrugged her shoulders. "Furthermore, the mobilization of the Deity of Gods will definitely bring a large amount of pressure. If you want Hackzord to recall it, I'm guessing the probability of success to be zero. In other words, I am the only one to be able and willing to cooperate with you—at the moment."

"At the moment?" Roland acutely grasped the subtle meaning behind her words. "You have other ways to influence Hackzord?"

Valkries did not deny anything. "I understand him. It is impossible to get him to disobey the King under an unclear circumstance while bearing all the risks, but it is not difficult to remind him to avoid danger. Typically, Hackzord is most concerned with keeping himself safe…"

The corner of Roland's lips twitched. Those words when put nicely was that Hackzord was a cautious demon, and in a bad way, a coward.

"I will write a letter and get him to leave the Deity of Gods. That's the only thing I can do. As long as you can deliver the letter, there is a 80 to 90% chance of him listening to me. But if the flames of war has already erupted, you have no other way other than to defeat the Deity of Gods." Valkries enunciated her words carefully. "Only by shooting it down will Hackzord realize that the Battle of Divine Will will not end well, and the probability of me convincing him will definitely increase."

"So he has to live, until the Deity of Gods is… destroyed, that is also the basis of our collaboration." She shifted her gaze, preventing Roland from seeing her expression. "If you can't do that, then treat it as though I've said nothing."

Chapter 1386 - The Breakthrough Point

After waking up, Roland immediately called for Tilly.

"I have detailed information with regards to the floating island. It is indeed a product of the demons, and they call it the 'Deity of Gods.'"

Tilly was stunned; it had only been a few hours after bringing the news, where did Roland's information come from?

"In short, I have some special means." Roland was naturally aware of her doubts, but the matter regarding the Nightmare Lord being trapped in the Dream World was a complex matter to explain, and he decided to skip the explanation. "The information might have discrepancies, so you can only use it as a reference. We will still have to depend on you to verify the actual situation."

After that, he gave a simple outline of the Deity of Gods.

"So it's actually a floating city?" Tilly asked in shock.

"Yes." Roland nodded his head. "But far bigger than a real city."

According to Valkries, when the magic power core merged into the obelisk that produced red mist, it would produce a shocking result. Although she did not partake in the construction of the Deity of Gods, she knew the plan inside out. To stabilize the core parameters, the demons went through multiple trials, one of them occurring about a century ago in Tapunise City which ended with the almost total destruction of the city. The violent magic power ripped the stratum and caused structures to collapse and shatter while being razed. Countless inferior demons were flung into the air and turned into mashed meat after falling to the ground.

To seal off information leak, the King ultimately termed it as a magic power accident. Although the damage was disastrous, the plan did not stop, and instead increased in pace. One of the reason was the approaching Battle of Divine Will, the other being the demons urgent need to cast off the restrictions of the Red Mist. The disaster allowed the higher-ups to realize the possibility of the plan.

The Deity of Gods was their final result.

Magic power penetrated over a few thousand kilometers into the ground and raised the land spanning dozens of kilometers, forming a stable foundation. When viewed from above, it would be that of a floating island. But from below, the view would be a wide top and narrow bottom, like an inverted mountain peak. After multiple revisions to the magic power of the core, the Deity of Gods had the abilities to float and move in the sky.

It was due to this feature that the demons viewed it as the only way to counter the Sky-sea Realm. Upon taking over the human's territory, the demons would gain time to rest and reorganize, and to build even more Deity of Gods to ascend the skies, bringing a massive army of Mad Demons to attack the Sky-sea Realm.

The information caused Roland to realize that the improvements made by the other race in the 400 years were not to be belittled. Although they took completely different technological paths, they were nowhere weaker than the humans.

Magic power was undisputedly a force with utmost potential, evident from the Deity of Gods. Be it ripping the earth apart and tossing thousands of structures into the sky or pulling an entire piece of land into the air, both required an astonishing amount of energy. The demons succeeded through experience. However, quantity would usually lead to qualitative changes. If these experiences were transformed into a system with scientific theory, their strength were bound to soar.

This was the same for humans.

Roland felt that it was crucial to develop the scientific reasoning behind magic power after the war. Even though he had no knowledge of magic power at all, it could lead and guide the future generations in the field of research.

This was the essence of science.

As long as something existed, it would be something that could be observed and experimented.

"Although I'm clueless of how you obtained your information, it does sound like it." Tilly spoke up after listening to him. "Then, how do you suggest we deal with the Deity of Gods?"

"Firstly, it isn't afraid of firepower, so the First Army should preserve its forces. Secondly, the Aerial Knights will be crucial in our next battle," Roland said slowly. "There is a way of defeating it, but the probability of success is unknown."

Even if they used the Glory of the Sun against the moving island, the end result might not be as expected. That had long been proven in history. In Operation Crossroads, the first nuclear weapons tests that were trialled detonated with a yield of around 23 kilotons, one in the air and the other underwater. The former was unable to destroy its intended target—a 300-meter long vessel, and the latter's destructive scope did not exceed a thousand meters. These examples proved that when facing large targets, even the devastating power of nuclear weapons were greatly discounted.

Besides, the Deity of Gods was far larger than ships.

It was equivalent to using grenades to bombard the Impassable Mountain Range, even throwing a hundred of them would only result in chipping of a corner.

Although having sufficient quantity was the answer to resolving all problems, it was impossible simply due to their lacking yields. After taking into consideration Neverwinter's technological advancements, the limit was a scale of ten kilotons.

As a result, Roland had to develop another plan in conjunction with the need to use the Glory of the Sun to complete the attack.

The core of the Deity of Gods was undoubtedly the obelisk. According to Valkries' explanation, it was situated in the middle of the city. For the convenience of accumulating the Red Mist, the Inferior demons surrounded the obelisk and constantly dug deep pits—which was also their main jobs as magic-incapable demons. Being more dense than air, the red mist gradually fell to the bottom and formed the Red Mist Pond which gradually expanded into a lake over the years.

This made Roland recall the Demon City seen in a memory fragment—countless towers erected in a ring around a cliff, where crystallized Red Mist could be found in the middle of the pit. It was probably through an accumulation of a millennium for the development of the lake to reach such a shocking depth, where the immense pressure forced the lower layers of Red Mist to increase in density to the point of liquefying and later solidifying into crystals.

The city refurbished into the Deity of Gods was an old city, where a Red Mist Lake similarly resided at the bottom of the obelisk, which was obviously the breakthrough point.

The 'Red Mist' mentioned by Valkries verified their speculations and experiments—the Red Mist was essentially a mist composed of microscopic biota, appearing in such a way due to their extremely small size and virtually undetectable even with magnification. At the same time, these minuscule organisms wielded magic power able to dispel and devour any external magic power not from demons. That was the reason why Lily had failed in controlling the Red Mist.

The Red Mist possessed numerous biological traits, such as a fear for fire. Under high temperatures, the Red Mist would attempt to escape, resembling a decomposition from a macroscopic view. When temperatures rose to a certain degree, the Red Mist would ignite, no different from all carbon-based lifeforms. With a combustion point of around 800–900 degrees, it could be said that they had an outstanding combustion point.

The only difference was that they were extremely small. Therefore, it would give rise to explosive effects when mixed with air. Iron Axe had once burnt the Kingdom of Wolfheart's capital, City of Tusk. Now, what he needed to do was burning up the entire sky.

The combustion of the Red Mist would rapidly decrease energy and exhaust the oxygen around; thus, the beginning temperatures had to be sufficiently high. In theory, having a large quantity of incendiaries would produce the same effect, but that required a fleet of bombers to transport hundreds, if not thousands, of buckets filled with gasoline up the Deity of Gods to achieve that.

As for the Glory of the Sun, regardless of its yields, the core temperature was a fixed number that could not be discounted.

The only problem that had to be resolved was getting through the large army of demons and Devilbeasts protecting the area and fly above the obelisk to achieve an accurate drop.

"As long as we have a way." Tilly's expression calmed down. "Regardless of the probability of success, everyone will unite and achieve it. Leave it to us, Brother. I will bring the good news back to headquarters."

Her trust caused Roland's chest to swell up with warmth.

He paused for a moment. After calming himself, he picked up the quill pen and a piece of paper. "Right, I have something I need you to pass to Miss Edith Kant."

After placing the pen down, he did not put the letter into an envelope; instead, he handed it over to Tilly.

The latter swept her gaze past it and could not help but frown. "The words here are…"

"Demonic characters." Roland replied indifferently.

Chapter 1387 - Wireless Transmission

"It's really ugly." Tilly curled her lips.

Roland laughed out in embarrassment—if the written language of the Four Kingdoms were considered to look like distorted earthworms, then the demonic language was more complicated, some of their characters even resembled witchcraft symbols. Adding that Roland had relied completely on memory to copy it down, with his strokes and lines not proficient, it made the entire feel of the language look even more messy. Who knew if Hackzord would ever make out what he had written.

He had raised his doubts to Valkries, but received a harsh retort from her.

Valkries believed in the feasibility of a human copying the demonic characters, since it proved that she was not lost in the Realm of Mind and also revealed her own predicament by being able to pass information through Roland. If they had used her handwriting instead, it could easily spook the cautious Hackzord—if she could send letters, why not just leave the Realm of Mind directly?

"What does the letter say?"

"It is to get the Sky Lord to try his best to avoid engaging in all out war, so I need the General Staff to think of a way to send this to the demons."

"Brother, are you alright?" Tilly looked at him in shock. "How is it possible for the senior lord of the enemy to listen to your words?"

"In any case, trying it out will not require too much time or effort…" Roland feigned an indifferent expression. "What if it succeeds?"

In fact, Roland had posed the exact question to the Nightmare Lord. Her reply was that a Senior Demon's lifespan often exceeded several hundred years, where their habits and traits would go through countless changes; therefore, their written words would leave behind their individual prints. These prints were far more reliable than any coat of arms or insignias.

To Roland's understanding, the general idea was about the same as immediately associating Internet slang to the youngsters born after the 90s.

"Alright." Tilly put the letter away helplessly. "Since it's your request."

Right as she was prepared to leave, the North Slope Lab phone on the office desk suddenly rang.

Roland picked up the receiver. It was Anna.

After listening to her, Roland revealed a smile and said to Tilly, "Don't rush back today. Stay the night in the castle. Coincidentally, I have something new to pass to you."

…

In the workshop, Tilly saw the 'revolutionary' new product mentioned by Roland—two square-shaped wooden boxes.

Calling them boxes was not an exaggeration; not only were there obvious lids and openings to the boxes, the entire thing was about 30 cm long and could be carried in one hand. The dimensions of the two boxes were far from all the revolutionary machines that caused the public to exclaim in admiration, and even lacked the grandeur to be hailed as 'revolutionary.'

The only difference between the two boxes and other boxes was that their front side were riddled with rows of bright and metal-plated buttons and knobs.

"This is…"

"It is a mobile and wireless transmission device," Anna explained. "It is the equivalent to a shrunken iron cable tower, the advantage of it is that it can directly receive sound and of course, its larger distance capability."

"I see… Wait a minute." Tilly was stunned as she looked at Roland. "Is this the new communication device you mentioned previously?"

Although he had long prepared her for it, she never expected for the final product to be so elaborated! She had anticipated the device to occupy a large part of space when equipped on a plane. After all, the massive size of the iron tower project had been exhibited, to shrink it to the size of a 'Fire of Heaven' was already an inconceivable idea.

Roland saw her doubts and opened the lid of the box.

Crisscrossing wires and components appeared before her. Although she did not understand the box at all, Tilly realized that the box was completely different from the past machineries created.

"It can be considered the world's first real electronic equipment. Although the electric motors, lights, telephone, and telegraph before this uses electricity currents, they are in essence using simplified electrical energy transformation to work," Roland explained. "But this possesses an independent electric circuit system and uses electric currents to work. This is equivalent to replacing the gears, screws, and bearings with electric components. This size is also considered relatively large."

"Are you blaming my craftsmanship for not being up to standard?" Anna gave him a look.

"Ahem… Of course not." Roland immediately coughed twice. "It's the Design Bureau who produced design plans which aren't exquisite enough."

"It was all thanks to Sister Anna for working late nights daily, for the prototype to be created so quickly," added the assistant, Lucia. "Primarily, the vacuum tubes require the vacuums to be maintained and many components needed to be stuffed in. It would had been impossible without the help of her Blackfire."

The core of the transmitter-receiver was the vacuum tube that was capable of amplifying, detecting, and vibrating. It was also the mark of humanity entering the Electronic Age, and Roland naturally knew how difficult it was to attain it. The shiny scrap metal that piled up outside the North Slope lab was proof. Furthermore, he could hardly guide them in matters of electrical engineering as he did before. A large part of the project relied on Anna to slowly proceed by trial and error herself.

The fact proved that his previous concept of the shortwave transmitter-receiver delegated to the team was only a beautiful fantasy. In the future, Anna would be concentrating her efforts on the large bombers. Being able to find the time to create the vacuum tubes for the Aerial Knights was already considered a miracle.

"Can I try it out?" Tilly asked impatiently.

"Of course you can." Anna laughed and nodded.

Not long later, the three separated themselves to the inside and outside of the experimental lab and talked. Instantly, the room was filled with a lighthearted atmosphere.

Under the extremely clean electromagnetic surroundings in this era, the scope of the transmitter-receiver prototype easily surpassed two kilometers, and that number rose even higher in the air. Although the transmitter-receiver would suffer from disturbance when the spark-gap transmitter was used to relay messages, aside from extremely urgent information, the messengers could choose to send out telegrams at fixed time intervals. By staggering it with the Aerial Knights' movements, the chances of conflict between the two remained nonexistent.

In Roland's eyes, the success of the wireless transmitter-receiver was far more important compared to the new 20mm autocannons—real time communications substantially broadened and allowed for coordination between the pilots to execute aerial tactics. With precise coordination, the fleet's fighting strength was basically being enhanced by a notch. It could also be said that only when the Aerial Knights become capable of accomplishing this would they be hailed as a real air force.

Tilly obviously saw this point and after ending the experiment somewhat unwillingly, she urged for her special plane to be equipped with even more wireless transmitter-receivers.

Early next morning, she carried the two prototypes and boarded the Phoenix.

When the scarlet figure disappears into the white horizon, the rays of dawn suddenly penetrated through the scattered clouds, dispersing millions of gentle and warm light.

The Month of the Demons that had persisted for close to four months was finally over.

At the same time, the Bloody Moon perched at the top of the sky disappeared without a trace, as though it had never existed.

But Roland knew that the war was not over.

Several hundred years ago, the demons grasped the opportunity when the Bloody Moon shone on the lands to build their obelisks, quietly awaiting for the pillars to grow into towering monuments. Only after stabilizing their foothold did they officially begin their assault.

A battle of destiny would typically reveal its ferocity only at that moment.

Now, humanity was once again standing at the same precipice.

But this time, they were completely different.

He believed that this time, history would not repeat itself.

Chapter 1388 - Conflict

Above an empty continental ridge, the Deity of Gods.

Sky Lord took large strides into the tower and entered the reformed karst cave underground.

Before being chosen as the official city for the Deity of Gods, it used to be a famous city known throughout the Blackstone region, with a history of close to a millennium. It was not the Sky Lord's first time visiting this place; the complex structure of the karst cave was no challenge for him, and the only thing that annoyed him was Mask—Nassaupelle.

"My lord, my master is undergoing an important test inside. Do you have anything you need to be passed on to my master?" At the entrance to the experimental venue, a Junior Demon obstructed Hackzord's path. As Mask's chamberlain, it obviously chose the same path as Mask, with two heads forcefully merged together with a magic stone; therefore, it looked extremely deformed and ugly.

"Scram!" Hackzord was not in the mood to waste his breath on him and raised his hand, sending the chamberlain fumbling across the ground.

If it were a battle-type Junior Demon, he might have taken more into consideration. However, Mask had gone down the Path of Reconcilliation quite thoroughly, and the magic stones he merged into his body was not suited for battle, so one could imagine the power a Junior Demon which followed in its footsteps had.

After realizing that the Sky Lord was suppressing his rage, the chamberlain tactfully kept quiet.

Hackzord pushed the heavy stone doors open and entered the experimental venue without looking back. For him to not have destroyed the doors and appear before Mask in one step before taking action was already the greatest respect he could give.

Behind the doors was an extremely spacious cave.

Innumerable magic stones were embedded into the walls of the cave, resembling stars of the night sky. Beneath his feet were a dense pack of Inferior Demons—many times more than magic stones with the majority being in worm form. They were like cattle being trapped within fences, accepting the repeated stimulation from the magic power core.

Hackzord could not help but frown.

Even though the Inferior Demons were the most useless of all demons since they could not do any manual work due to the lack of limbs and their extremely low intelligence prevented them from being tamed, it was by an accidental discovery that they had the highest success rate of merging with other lifeforms, making them the ideal parasites. It was surmised that it had something to do with their extremely simple meridian channels.

Of course, not every worm-based Inferior Demon was capable of surviving to the point of resonating with the Growth God's Stones. The dead became feed for the next batch of Inferior Demons, and those successful became qualified weapons.

Naturally, Sky Lord did not sympathize with these lower lifeforms which were incapable of communication. Compared to their past usage of being useless, they were now at least capable of providing help to the race. What he was unhappy about was Mask's twisted interests.

The transformation process could easily be conducted inside a sealed cave, yet Mask had intentionally set it at the most eye-catching location—on a thick and solid pillar connected by four large suspension bridges leading to four different locations, with thousands and thousands of Inferior Demons being trapped beneath. Every time someone was required to enter the heart of the experimental venue, they were forced to "admire" Mask's work of art.

The twisting and curling Inferior Demons whined as they endured the pain, the pungent smell of their excrement as well as the rotting husks of the failed experiments assaulted Sky Lord's olfactory senses. The entire cave was immersed in this foul atmosphere. No ordinary demon would ever like staying in such a gloomy cave with such negativity; yet, Mask had purposefully set up his experimental lab above the stone pillar. Hackzord suspected that the Mask's head had been damaged through the numerous merges which resulted in him becoming impervious to reason.

After crossing the suspension bridge, he found Nassaupelle at the top floor of the transformation building.

Upon seeing Mask, the Sky Lord immediately felt his rage burn. Mask was measuring the remnants of the Iron Birds towed back by his subordinates with a few human nobles lying at the side, their conditions unknown. The only surviving human was in Mask's hands, his face warped from extreme fear. There were even wet stains on his robes.

"Nassaupelle!" he roared in range, "Who gave you the permission to touch my Humans? Even if you wanted them for your experiments, you have to get my approval first!"

It was not surprising that he couldn't restrain his anger. He had painstakingly migrated the nobles to the great rupture and to the Deity of Gods to prevent Graycastle from tapping greater potential for the war. At the same time, it could also replenish the city's need for manual labor. It was truly killing two birds with one stone. Who would have thought that right after this batch of humans were brought to the Deity of Gods, a worried noble from Everwinter came to him, informing him that a few of his companions had been dragged away by guards and their whereabouts unknown.

This had undoubtedly destroyed the stable order that he had built up with great difficulty.

The worst thing was instead of grabbing ordinary citizens, the culprit had intentionally grabbed the nobles—the latter were crucial in controlling the masses. Without the nobles to control, the time and effort required for Hackzord to control the tens of thousands of people would increase severalfold.

"Master Hackzord… quickly save me!" The conscious noble immediately yelled out amid a sobbing tone, as though he had seen his savior.

"Ah… so it's Sky Lord," Mask turned and said indifferently. "I have to say, this is clearly a misunderstanding. Indeed, I enjoy merging the best attributes, but that does not include lowlifes—I have already merged with their most outstanding counterparts six hundred years ago."

He removed a mask from his head, revealing a distinct female face—one that most probably belonged to a Witch, but was now part of him.

There were more than ten of such masks all over his head. One could only imagine the horror of Mask's appearance if he ever took them all off. According to Nassaupelle, the brain was where intellect formed and was the most important compared to the other body parts. With more brains, one would obtain even higher thought efficiency. Therefore, he believed a powerful race should have two heads, to satisfy the alternation between thinking and resting and to maximize the use of time.

But in Hackzord's eyes, only the hideous demonic beasts and the Sky-sea Realm monsters would look like that.

An almost indiscernible purple light flashed past and instantly sliced the mask in Mask's hand into two. Blue blood trickled down as a line of blood gradually blossomed on the female human's face.

Nassaupelle probably did not expect Hackzord to attack and the stance he had was immediately pegged lower. He dropped the noble in his hand and held onto his wounded face as he retreated a few steps back. "Sky Lord, h-have you gone mad? You dare make a move on a Senior Lord for a lowlife? Do not forget, I am the creator of the Deity of Gods, I am the one to give our race hope to win the Battle of Divine Will, could it be that—you want to betray the King?"

Glee filled Hackzord's heart when he saw the other party's panicked expression.

After gaining the position of the Western Front Commander, Hackzord had never encountered anything that pleased him. The Nightmare Lord was lost for no good reason, the army failed to breakthrough the humans' defenses, and now, he was painstakingly fighting for the race's victory, but had to be hindered by Mask. It was preposterous!

It was impossible for Nassaupelle to be unaware that the humans were brought to the Deity of Gods by him. To snatch the humans behind his back was clearly a brazen act of defiance. After the succession of failures, Hackzord had been looked down by others.

But they were not in the King's Presiding Holy See, and the Mask was no Magic Slayer. If Hackzord did not put him in place, the most probably consequence would have Mask stepping over him.

So what if having more brains was an advantage?

In the face of true power, no matter how huge the brain was, it was all useless. Hackzord wanted Mask to know who was the true Commander of the Western Front.

"If you are truly loyal to the King, you should know what you can do and what you ought not to do." Hackzord withdrew the Distortion Door that was as sharp as a blade and said coldly, "After all, these humans are extremely useful for me and the race. I want you to remember that."

After the stare-down, Mask was the first to stand down. "It was an oversight on my part… I will remember to seek your opinion the next time."

"That's good." Hackzord nodded his head. He did not have plans to force the other party. After all, ascendants proficient with magic power cores were required to control the Deity of Gods, and they were all basically under Nassaupelle. At the same time, the war required Symbiotic Demon weapons that required the Mask to create. It was impossible for Hackzord to do anything to the Mask; otherwise, he would be the first to be killed by the King.

"My, My lord… Sob, it is great to see you…" The noble immediately crawled to the Sky Lord's side and hugged his thighs.

"We will speak about this later." Hackzord glanced at him before turning back to the Mask. "Since you're not trying to merge with them, why did you bring the humans here for?"

Mask took the remains of an Iron Bird and smiled. "I merely wanted to question them on how to utilize the core of this thing."

Hackzord traced Mask's gaze, and his eyes landed on an intricate weapon set up at the head of the Iron Bird.

Chapter 1389 - Mystical Secrets

"Core?"

Hackzord walked to the machinery, knelt down, and picked up a loose metallic piece. He quickly discovered that the thing in his hand was far more intrinsic than it appeared. There were hidden structures within the bumpy outer shell which could not be fathomed at a glance. He randomly picked up a cylinder-shaped object and discovered that the inside contained more than a hundred parts, far more complicated than a flintlock. "You mean to say…"

"Those iron birds require this thing to fly," Mask confirmed.

"Wait, you're saying that those things that can fly faster than Bogle Beasts are in fact powered by this pile of inanimate things?" Hackzord frowned. As the Senior Lord to once face the iron birds, he knew very well that their ability to fly did not come from the flapping of their wings, but by the blades at their heads that buzzed like a bird.

In some sense, it was similar to a windmill, but unlike the windmill that moved only when wind was present, the blades themselves automatically produced wind. The only question that perplexed Sky Lord was how the blades were capable of sustaining the high-speed revolutions. It was definitely impossible for it to rely on human strength alone; thus, Sky Lord had subconsciously concluded it to be some sort of magic power seal or a system related to magic stone releasing power. These were the only reasonable answers for the iron birds to sustain flight without Witches.

But now, Mask was telling him that a pile of dead and inanimate metals were responsible for allowing the Iron Birds flight?

"Inconceivable, right? I thought so as well." Upon touching on a subject that interested him, Nassaupelle immediately turned enlivened. He extended his thin finger and dug into an iron bucket, handing one over to Sky Lord. "Want to have a go at it?"

Hackzord looked at the finger completely stained in black and said coldly, "Do you want to have a taste of a broken finger?"

"Ahem… Some things leave better impressions when personally experienced." Mask retracted his finger and placed it into his mouth. "A portion of it is charred, with some fragrance to it. Its likely a vessel for holding fire."

"Fire can't move an iron bird."

"That depends on what fire it is—If the ignition is intense enough, it might even be capable of doing that!" Mask refuted, "You've seen how those lowlifes use the fire forks, I've taken them apart and studied them carefully. They are basically using combustion, but at an extremely fast rate to induce something like an explosion! If the reaction is able to push out the bolts out of the iron crossbows, it should be able to push the blades."

"The explosion from the fire forks is instantaneous. If it is as you have said, it means that incendiary material needs to be constantly added into the iron bucket. Furthermore, the speed must be at thousands of times a second to achieve the rotational speeds of the blades. In theory, it is simply impossible." Sky Lord attempted to dampen Mask's enthusiasm.

"That is what I have yet to figure out," Nassaupelle admitted straightforwardly. "That is why I called these lowlifes over to listen to their thoughts. Who knew that their stupidity is on an equal level to that of Inferior Demons. I initially thought that they were intentionally hiding from me. After utilizing a few methods, I realized that they are truly oblivious to it!"

At this point, Mask gestured enthusiastically. "Can you believe it? The creator of these things are actually of the same race with these lowlifes! The principle stored within this machinery is right in front of them; yet, they are completely clueless about it, even claiming that it's just a cheap trick of a depraved Witch. In my agitation, I used a little too much strength—"

"My, My lord…" The noble's face turned pale from Nassaupelle's glare. He immediately retreated to a wall and trembled incessantly.

"I can know understand why you do not treat humans as lowlifes. But I have to say, this group of humans you've brought back are still lowlifes, the lowest of the low!" Mask turned and looked at Hackzord. "Right, I heard that the iron birds and fire forks were created by Graycastle? Can you capture a few Graycastle smiths for me? I want to see if there is a difference between their brain compositions. If there is, merging with another human brain might not be a bad idea…"

"Enough!" Hackzord cut him off. "I am not here to listen to your nonsense! When we obtain their legacy shard, all your doubts and questions will naturally be answered. The crucial thing is winning this war. There is still a week before the Deity of Gods enters human territory, I do not want you to add to my troubles. Create more Symbiotic Demons, that is your only mission. Do you understand? And, do not—ever—touch—the humans."

Mask calmed down, then extended both his arms out. "… Of course."

Skylord stared at him for a long while before pulling the surviving noble up and left the room.

After a long while, Nassaupelle shook his head.

"You're aren't that great either, Hackzord.

"The key to unraveling everything is to figure out the mystical secret, but you remain uninterested in it." He fished out a brand new mask from his robes and covered his Witch face. "Magic power isn't the only force that regulates this world, much less the Battle of Divine Will. Even if we gain everything from the legacy shard, not everyone can reach the peak together. That is the reason why I am here creating Symbiotic Demons, and you are the one busying yourself on the battlefield.

"You do not have the faintest idea of the meaning contained within these metal objects…"

The Senior Lord, Mask, turned and stared at the remnants of the iron bird as he muttered to himself.

Humanity's usage of explosives to propel a large object enlightened him at an unprecedented level, he realized that it was a conversion of energy. Although he had frequently seen the conversion of stable energy into unstable energy, it was his first time experiencing the use of violent energy conversions, like combustion, to achieve a stable energy conversion. There had to be an intrinsic connection between combustion and flight which caused the conversion of energy to happen.

Since the two were reversible, could they be the same intrinsically?

What about magic power?

In the past, the race never had the faintest interest in thinking about the manifestation of magic power. They took it for whatever it was… But now, having considered it, could magic power be a form of energy conversion as well?

For example, if the magic power used to sustain the Deity of Gods was changed into explosive energy, how powerful would the effect be?

It was as though a brand new path had emerged in front of Mask.

If I can grasp this mystical secret, Sky Lord, no, even the King… will be nothing.

Knowledge, knowledge is the most powerful force in the world.

I want to know… I want to find out the mystical secrets of the humans!

Nassaupelle raised his head and unleashed an uncontrollable, odd laugh.

…

When he heard the faint laughter behind him, Hackzord left in disgust.

"My lord… it was fortunate that you came!" On his shoulder, the noble wore a look of misery; he was a sobbing mess. "The others had holes drilled into their heads by that monster, and I was almost the next one—"

"I know, rest easy, everything is over."

He placed the noble down to the ground but prevented him from leaving. Instead, he grabbed and lifted the noble by the collar, over the suspension bridge.

"Wait a minute, M-my Lord, Sky Lord, what are you doing?" Seeing the horrific and squirming worms below, the noble panicked. "No… No!"

Hackzord did not reply. With a throw, the noble screamed and fell to the bottom of the hole more than ten meters down. Sensing the incoming "food", the Inferior Demons flocked towards the noble, swaying excitedly as a response for the gift.

What Hackzord needed was a stable and controllable workforce.

After witnessing the experimental fields and Mask's true appearance, the noble was no longer one.

Even Hackzord felt that Nassaupelle was no different from a monster, much less the humans.

Instead of allowing the human to return to spread the news about his tragic encounter, Hackzord decided to shut him up permanently.

Although this choice would result in some trouble, it was definitely better than a mess he couldn't clean up in the future.

Hackzord returned to the temporary human residence. Marwayne was the first to welcome him. "My Lord… what happened to the people captured…"

"I've checked and verified the situation. They were captured because they were secretly communicating with Graycastle. As the one responsible for intelligence is someone else, I received the news late." Hackzord patiently appeased the man. "But it was fortunate that I was in time, according to your culture, those men weren't sentenced to death but detained in Sky City. After the war is over, they can pay a ransom or some other price in return for their freedom. Aside from that, I have other good news. The remaining nobles have passed the test, so no such thing will occur again."

"I see…" Marwayen let out a long sigh. "So that's the reason. Thank you, my Lord. Thank you for your care and concern."

"It is nothing, as long as all of you strive hard to accomplish the missions I have given, there will be a piece of the human world for all of you."

"Of course, of course." Marwayne suddenly took a letter out from his robes. "Right, My Lord. When you were in the inner city, someone passed me this letter. They said it was specifically addressed to you. Although there might have been a mistake, it was already sent here, so I figured that it's best for you to take a look."

"Oh?" Hackzord opened the letter, and his pupils constricted immediately!

Chapter 1390 - Right Thing To Do

The words written on the letter were without a doubt the Demon race's written language, but they looked to be extremely distorted, as though someone had painstakingly copied it out.

After scanning through it, he realized its peculiarity—be it the vocabulary or the sentence structures, they clearly contained distinct, ancient styles of expression and was absolutely not something the race used at present.

A sense of déjà vu arose within Hackzord.

After focusing his mind to recall, shock surged through his entire body, right to his heart as he trembled!

"Where did this letter come from?" Sky Lord grabbed Marwayne and roared. His surge of emotions caused him to momentarily fail to maintain his aloof temperament in front of the humans.

Marwayne did not dare to wipe the saliva off his face, and instead focused on scurrying over to the assembly grounds of the humans.

"Quck, go!" Hackzord roared right in his face.

Marwayne did not dare to wipe the saliva off his face, and instead focused on scurrying over to the human assembly place.

Damn it!

Hackzord knew that he had lost his composure, but he was unable to control his emotions.

The words written were clearly from the Nightmare Lord, Valkries!

Although the standard of the copied text was clumsy to the extent of Hackzord momentarily being unable to figure out the original owner of the words, he knew for sure that it was from Valkries after reading it a few times. The words and style came from a thousand years ago, phrases commonly used by the race's enlightened. It also included some inkling of the way the humans narrated matters.

The number of higher ascendants that survived from the first Battle of Divine Will till now were countable with one hand, and aside from Nightmare Lord that once studied at the Cloud School for an extended period of time and integrated human intonation into her words, there were no other possible beings.

Valkries… could it be that you have somehow retained your consciousness?

But how could it be possible?

You have been trapped inside the Realm of Mind for so many months!

If realizing this alone was inconceivable, even more inconceivable were the contents of the letter—

The Battle of Divine Will is merely a trap that repeats itself?

The Realm of Mind is the Bottomless Land located at the extreme end of the continent's Ridge?

The Deity of Gods isn't safe?

The few short sentences contained massive amounts of information. It made Hackzord fall into a stupor. There were too many questions floating in his head, yet there was no answer to any of them.

How did Valkries preserve her consciousness in the sea of surging magic power?

How did she even send the message out?

Was this letter truly from Valkries?

Should I report it to the King?

"My Lord, Sky Lord… the person you were looking for, I've brought him here…" While Hackzord was still reeling in puzzlement, he heard Marwayne's cautious voice beside him.

He turned and glared at the two coldly. "I want to know everything regarding of how this letter came to be. Tell me everything you know."

15 minutes later.

After listening to the detailed recount, Hackzord finally understood that it was impossible to trace the letter back to its origin from the human. The secrets contained within the letter was actually handed over by a migrating citizen to a noble, and the migrating citizen only had the intention to gain a few gold royals and took up the role as a "messenger," completely unaware of the importance of the letter. Even if he pressed on, none of it would bear fruit.

Ignoring the veracity of everything, to use such a crude method to send a letter of such great importance meant that the other party was extremely daring, or that the person Valkries entrusted might not be human?

"That's all for you." Hackzord waved his hand. "Do not reveal anything about this letter to anyone else. If there are any other of such letters in the future, make sure they are in my hands in the fastest time possible. Understand?"

"Yes, yes, we will definitely do so!" The two nobles immediately bowed, expressing that they wouldn't fail his orders.

After sending the humans off, Sky Lord looked towards the north and sank into contemplation.

Unknowingly, he actually found himself heaving a sigh of relief.

The pressure that had been on his shoulders since the Nightmare Lord's disappearance had somewhat lessened quietly.

Maybe it was because no one could ignore the influence the Nightmare Lord had over the race…

Regardless of the situation, Hackzord was mentally leaning towards the conjecture that Valkries was behind the letter. The style of an individual was difficult to mimic, and even if a human had grasped the written language of the demon race, it would be impossible for them to forge such a letter. As to why the Nightmare Lord did not write the letter personally, the only explanation was that she was still stuck in the Realm of Mind and could only rely on a human to send the message.

And the reason of why she chose a human to do so was not too difficult to understand.

The reason for her one-way journey was to unravel the secrets of the humans, to pursue the legacy shard that belonged to them. Taking into consideration that some Witches might had gained the ability to interact with the Realm of Mind, the clues started to add up.

The more Hackzord pondered about it, the more he felt that he was right.

But the biggest problem is… whether Valkries has managed to convince that Witch and pull the Witch into her plan, or Valkries is being forced by the enemy to write the letter?

In all honesty, Hackzord did not believe that the Nightmare Lord would surrender to humans.

But the Realm of Mind was different.

To drift across the sea of magic power without rest and constantly receive invasions of other consciousness, it was extremely difficult to remain clear-headed in such a situation. If she had been hypnotized under such a state, it was hard to say what the outcome would be.

The difference between the two situations was like day and night.

If it happened to be the latter, Hackzord would, at worst, fall into their trap.

But if happened to be the former, wouldn't it mean that the entire race had taken the wrong path?

And the one leading them was not Hackzord, but the King of the race…

So why did Nightmare Lord choose to hand the letter over to him, and not the Creator of the Deity of Gods?

Hackzord trembled involuntarily and forcefully culled his train of thoughts, prohibiting himself from pondering about the question.

He opened a Distortion Door and appeared high in the sky with one step.

The human kingdom's natural barrier, the "Impassable Mountain Range," resembled a gray wriggling line at the edge of the continent.

In another week, the flames of war would once again erupt.

The Deity of Gods beneath his feet was like an enormous stronghold, moving towards the battlefield tenaciously. Hackzord could not imagine how the humans would resist his race's conquest of their lands under the circumstances when the fire forks and fiery rain would be rendered useless.

It was supposed to be a war that had to be a success.

But Valkries believed that the Deity of Gods was not safe…

Even if Hackzord treated the opinion that Divine Will was just a sham and far from the truth, this warning was too close to the heart.

He was unwilling to believe that the enemy could pose a threat to the majestic and powerful structure formed of magic power. But upon reflecting his past failures, Hackzord realized that all of them stemmed from the "impossible."

Furthermore, the warning came from the Nightmare Lord—

Hackzord believed that even if the letter was a trap, it could do little to him. With the Deity of Gods and Silent Disaster holding the front, he only needed to ensure a stable supply of resources in the rear.

A side with zero risk, and the other fraught with latent dangers, the choice went without saying.

But Hackzord thought further.

He turned his gaze to the north.

According to the letter, the legend of the origins of magic power, of where everything began, laid in the Realm of Mind, which was situated at the ends of where his eyes could reach.

So long as he found the Bottomless Land, he could immediately verify the authenticity of the letter.

The ridge of the continent was the crucial location for the demons attack on the humans, and for him to appear there would not be strange.

And while searching for the Bottomless Land, it was impossible for him to be affected by the Deity of Gods.

Even if the King questioned him after the event, Hackzord would still have an excuse.

Or perhaps, it might be the right thing to do.

Chapter 1391 - Obstructing the Miracle

Kingdom of Dawn, Cage Mountain, Command Post.

A large strategic war map was erected in the center of the meeting room with the trajectory of a pin labeled "Floating Island" mapped out. Everyday, members from the General Staff and the Intelligence Agency would report with new findings, and this was the information the First Army's upper echelons paid most attention to.

The thick red path on the map indicated the path, yet it did not travel along the ridge of the continent southwards straight into Everwinter, but corrected its path midway into the Fertile Plains. The Deity of Gods was also constantly descending and was now less than a kilometer above ground.

According to the trajectory, the floating island would cross over the Impassable Mountain Range in four days and enter the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Due to its immense size, one would see the hazy outline of the floating island just by using a telescope while standing on a mountaintop. It resembled a thick dark cloud, adding a sinister haze to the continent that had just survived the Months of Demons.

The pre-war meeting against the demon's Deity of Gods was convened.

Although the higher ups had reached a consensus, the First Army was incapable of stopping the floating island. But to flee at the mere sight of the behemoth was not the style of the army either. No matter what, they needed to probe the strength of the floating island and attempt an assault. Faced against an enemy that they lacked sufficient information on, the most effective way to understand the enemy was to fight head on.

Before receiving the Majesty's final decision, all they could do was make thorough preparations, which became the army's top priority.

As it turned out, the enemy was also giving them the opportunity to do so.

"According to our latest observations and indication from the data, the demon stronghold's altitude has already dropped by over two thousand meters, which is about half the height of the ridge of the continent." Edith slapped the report in her hands. "Compared to their previous altitude, the mentioned drop is somewhat abnormal. The General Staff has concluded that the floating island requires a consumption of magic power to maintain its hovering altitude, and it is directly proportional to the altitude. And the height they are currently at hinges upon a relative position with the ground surface; therefore, resulting in the phenomenon we observe."

Although the information provided by His Majesty named the demon's floating island as the Deity of Gods, Edith preferred to call it a stronghold, or a mobile fortress. At the very least, it did not cause the subordinates to have the misconception that they were going against a god when missions were assigned.

A majority of the First Army's upper echelons had completed their middle-level classes, but even so, this required them to spend time to comprehend the conclusion provided by the General Staff.

"In other words, once they pass through the Impassable Mountain Range, this thing will rise up again?" Brian asked.

"If our speculation is right." Edith shrugged her shoulders.

"The reason isn't important." Iron Axe spoke up. "What is important is the fact that it is floating just a few hundred meters above the Impassable Mountain Range now. Van'er, what's the situation on your side?"

"The measurements team have confirmed the numbers." Van'er walked to the map. "There are two flat and suitable platforms for the cannons between Metalstone Ridge and Cage Mountains. As long as that thing doesn't change its course midway, we will be able to bombard them. Equipped with the new Longsong Cannons, we might even be able to hit the Demon City."

In the rapid upgrading and replacement of weapons, improvements were naturally ushered into the 152mm Longsong Cannon; for example, the convenient mass production of the barrels, as well as suitable carriages to tow the various components. Out of all the improvements, the core alteration happened in the chamber, as well as the arrival of brand new ammunition.

After Anna's role on the final precision processing for the new cannons switched to mass production, there was a resulting drop in the overall quality manufactured, and these manifested in the precision and durability of the cannons. But the new cannons relied on larger charges and more advanced gunpowder formulations, allowing the firing range to reach the eighteen-kilometer mark, almost achieving a severalfold increment. And the Witches involved in the production line also improved, the current loss of two to three cannons was no longer a matter worth getting angry over.

"I reckon that the demons are heading for the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Although the floating island is capable of producing Red Mist, the Red Mist will dissipate the moment they move; therefore, if the enemy truly plans on occupying a piece of land, they have to build up a large number of Red Mist storage towers," Iron Axe added. "With the help of the mobile Obelisks, their construction will no longer be hindered. Since Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart will soon be connected as one, I believe that the success rate of our assault on the predicted route will be high, and the only thing worth considering is the effect."

Evidently, this plan was completely different from the previous idea of bombarding the Fortress-like Monstrous Beasts. The initial target was clear, which was to destroy the Monstrous Beast before the enemies were aware of it. So long as they were able to hit the targets with the cannons multiple times, they would immediately reap huge benefits. But they could already predict the results from bombarding the floating island. Even if they were able to touch the Demon City, the damage dealt would be limited. Against a stronghold that had Devilbeasts all around, eighteen kilometers was definitely not a safe benchmark. Considering the additional distance between the edge of the island to the center, it was necessary for the cannon team to be even closer to the floating island.

"I think it is worth a shot, Commander-in-chief." Van'er thought for a moment before replying, "Once the floating island enters the Kingdom of Wolfheart, only the Aerial Knights will be able engage the enemy head on, while the First Army can only provide support. So this is the only opportunity that the cannons can play an important role. Even if we are unable to cause substantial damage, we can, at least, make our stand clear—we humans will not submit to them!"

Iron Axe turned and looked at the Pearl of the Northern Region. "What are your thoughts?"

Edith remained silent for a long time and only nodded her head after a few long minutes. "I have no objections."

"In that case," Iron Axe took a deep breathe, then turned and ordered the participants of the meeting, "proceed according to the assault plan we discussed. Time is of the essence, I want to see an immediate result."

"Yes!" they chorused.

The outcome of the discussion was quickly summarized. The two suitable spots for the cannons were designated with one being the true location and the other being a decoy. The latter position was closer to the mobile stronghold, and meant to mislead the enemy. Hummingbird was responsible for the true location, where the cannons would be moved to the mountains at Hermes and they were ordered to have the cannons destroyed before retreating to prevent the enemies from having the opportunity of capturing the weapons.

Aside from the First Army, the Aerial Knight Unit and the God's Punishment Witch Army were tasked to protect and provide support.

With a goal, what followed was going into detail the process and the actual implementation. The Army was already familiar with the entire process. Even without the excessive urging, the various departments got busy.

Back in the General Staff office, Ferlin could not help but question the minister, "My lord, was there anything… inadequate during the meeting?"

Eidth stopped in her tracks. "Why do you say that?"

"Because you spoke lesser than usual…"

"I see." She raised an eyebrow. "I was merely pondering over a question, the demons call the floating island as the Deity of Gods, so obviously they hold great expectations for it. But from the looks of it, it is just a platform used to supply Red Mist and we haven't seen or noticed anything out of the ordinary. That is why… I believe that the floating island might be hiding something we have no knowledge of, and perhaps, it is not as simple as we think."

"Then why didn't you raise that up?" Ferlin said, perplexed.

"Because it will only increase unease and will not help much. Since we know nothing about it, we will not be able to issue an appropriate response or plan as well. It is not right for me to propose something based on mere speculation, and the assault team will provide us with the answer… regardless of what it is."

Upon hearing these words, Ferlin felt goosebumps run down his back.

Without any fluctuation in her tone of speech while her face remained as calm as ice, Edith continued, "The Army's current priority is to ensure thorough preparations for the future, and trial and error is part of the preparations."

Chapter 1392 - Coordinated Combat

The climate at the top of the Impassable Mountain Range was always a beat slower than at the foot of the mountains.

In the past, Cat's Claw never understood the meaning behind the sentence, but now, having witnessed it for himself, he finally understood what it meant.

Following the end of the Months of Demons, the majority of cities and towns entered the thawing phase, where gradual trickles of rain and the breaking of ice could be heard all over, and new green sprouts appearing in the moist soil by the roadsides. But on the top of the mountains, everything was preserved as they were. Covered mostly in the pure white snow with a few ice stalactites which were taller than an average human hanging by the edge of the cliffs, those traveling on the small paths below were constantly in fear that the thick and solid "needles" might suddenly fall on them.

If not for Hummingbird and the God's Punishment Witches, it would had been impossible for them to move the heavy weapons to the designated location in time.

But what made Cat's Claw afraid was the target for the mission—the demon's mobile fortress.

It was just too gigantic.

Although they were clearly separated by over twenty kilometers, there was no need for a telescope to see the floating island. The floating island practically occupied half of the northern sky in complete disharmony with the surroundings be it its outline or presence. The stones exposed outside were pitch black and there were edges that protruded out like blades. It was in stark contrast with the reviving Fertile Plains beneath it.

Red Mist lingered in the air above the island, where the concentration was highest around the center of the island and diffused out slowly. A few wisps were left lingering at the periphery of the island, and they cascaded down and followed the topography in torrents. When viewed from afar, the Red Mist looked like red ribbons being hung all around.

This enormous object gave Cat's Claw extremely huge pressure.

In the past, this distance of twenty kilometers signified absolute safety, as both sides would only see each other as small and fine black specks on the large terrain, leaving it close to impossible for either side to discover or fight each other. But at this moment, the distance felt almost within reach, Cat's Claw felt that he could be pulverized by the floating mountain at any given moment.

Compared to the enemy's fortress, humanity's position and cannons appeared to be somewhat insignificant.

The headquarters might had taken this into consideration, which was why they had gathered the officers who had been following the battling army.

He retracted his gaze back to the concealed sentry and breathed out a misty cloud.

Deep and slow breaths helped alleviate his nervousness and anxiety; it was something His Majesty Roland taught repeatedly.

"What's wrong, you afraid?" Jop bent his back and leaned in.

"Bullshit!" Cat's Claw glared at him. "How can I ever be afraid!?"

"It's not something to be embarrassed about." The latter held a telescope and looked out from an lookout meant for easy observation. "To be honest, this reminds me of the scene when the Artillery Squad was faced against Longsong Stronghold's cavalry charge."

Cat's Claw was startled.

Naturally, he would never forget the experience of his first war. Similarly, it had occurred soon after the Months of Demons and he had been similarly up against aggressive and overbearing enemies. He had almost smashed the artillery shells onto his own feet multiple times while transporting them in the battlefield. Before becoming a part of the army, he had never expected that he would find himself standing perfectly straight against a cavalry charge and even confronted them head on, instead of being frightened to the point of kneeling down to beg or turning to run.

This was despite his legs trembling back then, thinking he was done for.

But this time, the enemy had turned into a floating island.

When his memories overlapped with reality, Cat's Claw found his pulse moderating back to normal.

"I recall everything now. At that time, you were so afraid that you were stammering."

"Heh, don't comment about me, even Commander Van'er was nowhere better." Jop's eyes remained fixed on his target. "But at least, we never forgot to fire, and that was enough."

Cat's Claw nodded his head in agreement.

Indeed, there was nothing wrong in being afraid, so long as they accomplished their duties and responsibilities. Regardless of whether their enemies were noble cavalryman or a floating island, the only thing they were required to do was to launch the cannons.

"Wait, there's movement on the fortress!" Jop suddenly lowered his voice, "Devilbeasts, the demons are making a move!"

"That fast?" Cat's Claw's heart tensed up, they had not reached their effective firing range. If they were discovered by the demons, their operation would most probably end in failure.

"They are mobilizing a huge force… Heavens." Jop gulped a mouthful of saliva. "I think there's more than a hundred of them!"

He immediately raised his telescope higher to see countless black dots flying out of the Red Mist and assembling into a formation at the edge of the floating island. Cat's Claw was extremely familiar with this scene. The enemy was obviously marshaling their forces and was on the verge of launching an attack. But there was something amiss with the demon's gathering point…

The two looked at each other and reacted at the same time. "They discovered our decoy encampment!"

Compared to their true camp site, the other camp they had set up ahead of time had a few cannons. However, the cannons there were counterfeits made with logs and paint, and no camouflage nets were used. At that moment, it looked as though the plan was showing results!

According to the plan, the enemies from the sky would be dealt with by the Aerial Knights.

Without a doubt, their comrades' combat abilities were far more outstanding, luring the enemies, and providing them a long period of concealment.

"Who knows if they have noticed the enemy's movements…" Cat's Claw muttered. As the floating island carried its own Red Mist, there were no Witches arranged to travel with the assault force, preventing the Artillery Squad from having a means of communication with the main troops. Compared to Lightning and Maggie supporting the entire battlefield, their field of vision at that moment had undoubtedly narrowed by a large margin. But after considering that such circumstances would occur more frequently in the future, Cat's Claw could only get used to the change quickly.

"Relax." Jop clenched his fists and said, "You have to remember who is leading the Aerial Knights!"

…

"This is Maggie, I've noticed strange manuveurs from the demons, coo!" The Exploration Group's report sounded in Tilly's cockpit. "Direction, three o' clock east; quantity, a 103. The lineup has large Devilbeasts among them, and there's more than one, coo!"

"Roger that." Tilly conveniently poured magic power into the other Sigil of Listening. "The enemies are moving, do not disregard the probability of Eye Demons. Seagull, continue circling the area and await further instructions."

"Understood." Andrea was the one to reply her. "Are you engaging?"

"Uh-huh," Tilly replied casually. "Help me ask Shavi, controlling a plane feels good, right?"

"Your Highness… When are you coming back, I-I keep feeling like it can drop at any moment!" Shavi's sobbing could be faintly heard in the Sigil of Listening.

"Focus!" Wendy's voice interrupted her. "Clasp the control stick just like in training. I will help you with the rest."

After receiving the Phoenix, Tilly immediately sought for a successor. Compared to working behind the scenes, she hoped to personally take revenge for Ashes. In the end, Shavi took on this heavy burden and had even established a new record of having the shortest timing to transition from training to real flights. Of course, besides her "enthusiastic guidance," Wendy's even more proficient control over wind played a crucial role. So long as the plane was not recklessly operated, it was difficult for the glider to have any problems with Wendy's support.

"Uhm… the situation is more or less like that." Andrea slapped her forehead and said, "Aside from a few issues on Hill's side, the others are as per normal."

"Very good, then I'll be off."

"Tilly!" Andrea's voice suddenly sounded.

"I'm listening."

"Remember… be careful."

Tilly smiled. "Yes, as should you guys."

She extended her hand, opened the switch for the transmitter-receiver, tuned the frequency to the public channel and picked up the radio. "Everyone, pay attention. The Devilbeasts have appeared. We will proceed according to plan and intercept them—the sky belongs to us!"

Although the 'Fire of Heaven' only had two sets of transmitter-receivers, it was enough to split among the three squadrons and execute a scissor-styled intercept.

"Second Team Captain, Good, copy that."

"Third Team Captain, Hinds, copy that."

"Now, attack!" Tilly stepped on the gas and brought the team of 25 'Fire of Heaven's to split off from the Seagull's trajectory. They flew at high speeds towards the northwest.

Chapter 1393 - Trump Card

Under the guidance from the transmitter-receiver, they were able to take up formation perfectly despite being separated by a thousand meters.

Three columnar teams with a total of 75 'Fire of Heaven's arrived at their designated intercepting positions almost at the same time and soared towards the Devilbeast formation from three directions; their trajectories resembling a crisscrossed scissors. In an instant, they tore through the enemy's line up!

The largest aerial battle to date in the Battle of Divine Will began above the Impassable Mountain Range of the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

In an instant, the ferocious roars of the demons resounded along with the booming engines across the mountains.

The Devilbeasts which were struck plummeted downwards in a spiral fashion. Regardless of how strong the riders were, they were helpless as they plummeted along with their mounts, ultimately turning into a blue spot on the ground.

After the clash, the original formations of both sides no longer existed.

In accordance with the flight manual, the Aerial Knights quickly broke away from the enemy's pursuit. They made use of their speed superiority and created a distance between them before turning and executing their next round of attacks.

"Fire at will, fire at will!" After issuing the command, Tilly took the lead by relying on the Phoenix's potent propulsion and charged out of the battlefield. Most probably due to her striking plane color, a few Devilbeasts tailed her, but it was something she had already anticipated.

The more enemies attracted to her, the less pressure her comrades faced.

So long as they were able to pull the distance, the Aerial Knights would become even more suited for an aerial battle compared to the Devilbeasts!

"Your Highness, be careful! There's a big one eyeing you!" Good's reminder sounded out from the receiver.

"Relax, I've noticed it." Tilly turned and swept a glance. "Pay attention to your position. I'll call for support if I require it!"

As the Phoenix's various functions far surpassed that of the Fire of Heaven and Fire of Heaven Mark II, she had never allocated a wingman for herself. Aside from her confidence at controlling the plane, there were no biplanes capable of keeping up with her. Therefore, flying solo and fighting alone allowed her to paradoxically display the performance of her plane.

Tilly rode with the wind and took the initiative to complete a climb while the Devilbeasts in pursuit did their utmost to flap their wings in a bid to close the distance. But when both parties came face to face again, the enemies remained completely oblivious that they had turned from the hunter to the hunted.

While swooping down with the Phoenix, Tilly firmly pressed down on the fire button!

Under the favorable firing range, she did not even need to check the aim of the machine guns on both wings.

Four dazzling beams of light spewed out from the plane, forming a beautiful arc due to the displacement in the air that flew straight into the Devilbeasts—

Having raised the issue of the 8mm general-purpose machine guns wielding insufficient firepower while sweeping against ground units, Roland prioritized the production of larger-caliber weapons. As a dedicated plane manufactured using the various top techniques possible, the Phoenix naturally was the first to benefit from the weapons. Inside its massive nose, four 20mm autocannons were arranged symmetrically, capable of unleashing 3000 shells per minute, allowing to deliver an unprecedented level of damage.

Although her target was ere not a ground target like the Spider Demons or Mad Demons, the Devilbeast was a size larger than its peers, clearly indicating that its owner had to be a Senior Demon.

Against an enemy with such power, the best method was to destroy it before it could release all its powers!

The Devilbeast which had spearheaded the charge was instantly penetrated by the autocannon shells that drew strands of blood upon entering its chest. It was an extremely eye-grabbing sight to behold. When the beams of light approached the Senior Demon, the latter unleashed a furious howl. Layers of blue shields immediately appeared and surrounded him into a ball, as though draping a firm armor around himself.

But just moments later, the "armor" produced sparks from the impact of the shells and weakened at a rate visible to the naked eye. It shattered and disintegrated. Following that, the huge thrust sent the Senior Demon flying out of control as it plummeted towards the ground. If the Senior Demon did not have any magic stones capable of flight or life-saving sigils, it was impossible for him to survive the fall from that height.

The Devilbeast that lost its master panicked and attempted to flee the battlefield, but Tilly clearly wasn't giving it such an opportunity. She unleashed another clip of shells after adjusting her aim.

At this time, both parties were less than 10 meters away from each other. The remaining blood and flesh from the hail of bullets splashed all over the Phoenix's windscreen.

The sight of the bloodstains made Tilly smile, her heart filled with unmatched joy.

The sky was her platform of revenge, and she thirsted for more.

The pitiful whine from the large Devilbeast before its death attracted a new group of enemies. The demons had realized that the red iron bird had outstanding speed and power greater than the other iron birds, and was undoubtedly their biggest hindrance. From how the Devilbeasts were equipped, there were at least two or more Senior Demons in the battlefield.

In the Union's era, they were considered Commanders or the core of an assault team in the Demon Army. But in present times, they had been dispatched as ordinary troops. In some sense, it was enough to reflect the robust strength of the Demons.

But there was not an ounce of fear in Tilly's heart.

Instead, she felt a flame burning in her chest.

In the process of regaining an offensive position, her eyes remain fixated on the Senior Demon, with the other glaring back at her. Tilly could clearly feel the increased caution in their movements as they no longer showed their contempt and belittlement.

She licked her lips and suddenly pushed down the control stick.

"Come on!"

…

"Truly… a delight for the eyes." Mask stood on the plains above the city's exterior as he watched the battle from afar and let out a chuckle.

Silent Disaster turned and looked at him in surprise.

"You must be curious, why am I so interested in those lowlifes?" Mask turned his head, the numerous masks producing ear-piercing sounds that were a result of friction.

"No…"

"I guess it won't hurt telling you… the one to determine the superiority or inferiority of a race are not those incompetent beings, but the outstanding individual that controls knowledge! I am not admiring those lowlifes who control the iron birds, but the human that understands the principles behind the iron birds—" Mask spread out his hands. "Even though they are of the same race, the disparity between the two are stark. The former are lowlifes, while the latter… is what's called human! To be able to combine a pile of dead metals together and create something capable of moving like biological beings, don't you find that it in itself is such a fascination? I really want to have a taste of such a human brain!"

"…" Speechless, Silent Disaster turned its eyes back to the battlefield.

"But that is something to consider for the future." Unable to elicit any resonating response from Silent Disaster, Mask sighed wistfully. "What we need to do now is to disperse these annoying lowlifes—"

He took out a pocket-sized core and imbued it with magic power. The core's center immediately blossomed with ripples. Following that, the ground beneath his feet started trembling!

A giant stele tore out from the ground as cracked soil and black rocks slid from the top to the ground, producing crackling sounds. The other end of the stele remained buried underground while the stele pointed straight into the sky. After the dispersion of dust, the true form of the stele was revealed. With its translucent walls, one could see the Symbiotic Demon within, with meridian channels and blood vessels spread throughout the entire stele. Continuous flow of magic power streamed through the stele in endlessly, making the stele look like a living creature.

There was more than one such stele.

As though a command was received, even more steles started appearing on the Deity of Gods.

"I will use the Battle of Divine Will to prove that knowledge surpasses brute force, and so-called magic power is only a part of knowledge!" Mask stood in the shadows of the stele and raised the dazzling core in his hand. "—And I, Nassaupelle, am the most praiseworthy Senior Lord in the race!"

Chapter 1394 - The Stars amongst the Mountains

"Hell… what are those things?"

Lightning, who was constantly observing the Deity of Gods and circling nearby, immediately noticed the bizarre changes.

"Coo… did they dig up those stone pillars that were buried in the ground?" Maggie stared at the steles for a long time before answering.

From above, the darkish colored steles resembled erected pillars, but to be erected halfway was too strange. Furthermore, the way they spiraled around the floating island in an orderly encirclement evidently served a purpose.

A strong sense of unease surfaced in Lightning's heart.

She immediately activated two Sigils. "This is the Exploration Group! We have captured strange sightings occurring on the floating island! Repeat, something strange is happening on the target!"

"Phoenix, copy that over." Tilly's reply came quickly. "I have also noticed clouds of dust on the surface. Please continue observation, I will inform the Aerial Knights to maintain a high level of alert."

"This is Seagull." Andrea spoke up. "Can you describe the situation in detail?"

"Uhm…" Lightning organized her thoughts and deliberated over her words. "Some of these big and black pillars rise out from the edge of the island. They look almost similar to the towers in Demon City. I can't gauge their actual sizes, but they are definitely huge—"

At that moment, she was suddenly stunned.

One of the steles flickered with a blinding blue light which looked like it was emitted from within, illuminating the crystal outer walls brightly in the process. Following that, something shot out of the steles at lightning speed and headed straight for the skies!

"Those pillars are hollow inside, coo!" Maggie exclaimed.

"Huh? What's hollow?" Andrea still failed to understand.

Lightning yelled out at the top of her lungs, "Fleet, scatter!"

The thing shot past the two at rapid speeds, drawing a long parabola before entering the battlefield. This time, she saw it clearly. The thing that had been ejected was also a stone pillar which looked identical to the "needles" produced by Spider Monstrous Beasts, but were multiple times larger! At the same time, the stone pillars were covered by an obvious layer of magic power, glistening at high speeds.

Faced with the sudden attack, both parties panicked momentarily. They turned and dove down in succession in hopes of avoiding the incoming projectiles in the shortest time possible.

Up in the vast sky, both the 'Fire of Heaven's and the Devilbeasts were just insignificant dots. The long distance of over ten kilometers took the stone pillar time to cover. From the beginning to the end, the stone pillar only managed to collide into an injured and slow Devilbeast and sending its shattered remains plummeting to the ground.

Just like that? Lightning was startled.

They are shooting those enormous projectiles at such a distance, but they neither explode nor split into a rain of stone needles. Are they truly hoping that such an attack can bring down all the 'Fire of Heaven's? Isn't this akin to using a wooden stick to kill mosquitoes?

But before she could sigh in relief, Maggie used her claws to turn her head towards the direction at where the pillar had landed.

"Look there, coo!"

When Lightning's gaze landed on the the decoy formation of cannons, she immediately understood the situation.

The Demons' target had been the artillery formation right from the beginning!

The stone pillar smashed right into the formation and erupted into a dazzling blue light. The mere strike on the mountain top evoked a tall mist that reached several meters tall. The heavy sound produced was in no way inferior to the firing of an artillery gun. Due to the immense size, the stone pillar did not stop abruptly, but rolled for almost a hundred meters, destroying everything that stood in its path.

In an instant, the formation was reduced to ruins.

Lightning gasped.

If it had been the real assault formation, wouldn't it had been a disaster?

"Lightning, please reply, what is going on down there?" Andrea asked anxiously, "Is Tilly in danger?"

"No, the planes are all safe, but you best not disturb her now." Lightning turned her eyes back to the aerial battle. After the passing of the stone pillar, both sides once again took up battle formation, their battle obviously unresolved. Her expression became serious when she turned back to the decoy formation on the ground. "But the ground units… I'm afraid they are in big trouble!"

It was clearly not an ordinary stone pillar.

Amid the diffusing snow mist, the blue light dimmed down before disappearing completely. Right then, the surface of the stone pillar peeled off and revealed its interior flesh-like composition.

She faintly caught sight of things crawling out of the stone pillars.

"Did you see that?" Lightning smacked her own forehead.

Maggie raised her head and stared for a long while. "Yes… they are Spider Demons, coo! Small Spider Demons, coo!"

…

Cat's Claw and Kop witnessed the entire scene of how the decoy position was destroyed. Although their viewpoint was limited and they were unsure what the thing that fell was, the snow that rose up and the reverberating echo on the other mountain was extremely clear. The calculated eighteen kilometers distance away from the mobile fortress which was assumed to be safe was no longer so. The Demons were capable of luring their enemies in, and at the same time, striking them down.

"Captain, the enemies have entered our firing range!" Concealed at another location, the observer's reminder came out, "We did not catch any deviation in the floating island's movements, the three cannons can open fire now!"

Cat's claw bit his lips and looked at Jop.

The choice to fire at that moment was undoubtedly a huge risk, but if they chose to retreat, the entire plan created by the Headquarters and the Aerial Knight's valiant battles would have been useless.

"There are times when we do not have to consider if our actions are effective or not." Jop nodded and spoke slowly.

There's nothing wrong about being scared.

It was the same with failing.

The most important thing was to fulfil the duties as a soldier.

And their duty was to unleash the cannons.

Cat's Claw took a deep breath, got out from the cave lookout to the sentry post, and blew on the operation whistle!

"Everyone get into positions immediately, we will complete our bombardment before the enemies can even respond! Move, move, move! Everyone get moving, let the Aerial Knight see who is the real trump card!"

The empty position that did not have a soul in sight was instantly swarmed by a large number of personnel. The snow white camouflage sheet was pulled open, revealing the cold and gleaming cannons beneath. Unlike the wooden replicas, these steel-cast weapons of war had an overbearing oppression regardless of where and when they appeared.

Without the need for Cat's Claw's urging, everyone completed the loading of the charges and the ropes in preparation for the firing. The entire process went naturally and smoothly, completely unlike the time when they fought against the Longsong Calvary.

That's right, Cat's Claw was not the only person that had grown.

The troops had become a force capable of influencing the fate of humankind.

"Report, No. 1, 2, and 3 cannons are ready!"

Cat's Claw looked at the domineering floating island and spat out a mouthful of saliva.

"Open fire!"

Deafening booms sounded out immediately as they ignited above the mountain top.

The mouth of the barrels spewed flames that became dazzling stars amongst the mountains!

Chapter 1395 - Close Proximity Interception

There were no test fires or adjustments to the coordinates. The only thing the assault force had to do was to shoot as many artillery shells as they could in the shortest amount of time!

Everyone fully displayed all the techniques grasped from their daily training.

Although the charges had been packaged into smaller quantities that resulted in a reduced launch speed, the artillery elites were able to maintain the standard of four shots per minute with the three cannons. The small disparity between the cannons created a sense of continuity in the firing, producing repeated rumbles that echoed through the mountains like a midsummer thunderstorm.

"They have opened fire, coo!" Maggie could not help but hug Lightning's head.

"Yeah." The latter tersely replied, but she was worried for the First Army. She knew that they had seen the destruction of the decoy location, but even so, the assault force still chose to execute and complete their mission. Evidently, they had steeled themselves. Lightning knew she had to fulfill her responsibilities, to complete the investigation thoroughly.

Despite the few cannons, the power projection produced was in no way lacking. The enemies never expected for the Deity of Gods to be hit by the human's counterattack. When the scattered artillery shells landed around the city, countless demons could be seen scattering in panic. It was evident that aside from the large troops garrisoned within the mobile fortress, there were a large quantity of Inferior Demons.

Aside from that, Lightning caught sight of human figures within the Red Mist.

This confirmed the theory proposed by the General Staff—the demons had a motive in moving and controlling the humans. But there were no regrets or remorse; Graycastle's announcements and evacuation had continued for more than half a year, the majority of those who insisted on staying in Everwinter were the dependents of the nobles, and the nobles were the ones firmly opposed to Roland. They would rather take up arms against their own kind than to resist against the demons' rule.

In Edith's words, they only had eyes left for the little bit of self-profit, and would even sell out their race's future just for it.

The continuous advancement of the Deity of Gods allowed the artillery formation's shells to approach the center of the city, but due to the concentration of the Red Mist, Lightning was unable to observe the results.

Lightning had the choice to call for Sylvie's help, who was currently on board the Seagull, but doing so would most probably alert the Eye Demons hidden in the city. Once their vision interlocked, the Seagull's position would be revealed. Even with the assault force's continuous attack, Lightning's unease did not dissipate, but instead felt that the demons' long prepared attack would not end like so quickly.

In her hesitation, the Deity of Gods suddenly rotated slowly.

Another erected stone pillar took aim in the direction of the artillery formation—

Lightning's heart sank; her worries had come to life. It was impossible for a few Longsong Cannon and Seagulls to stop the enemy from shooting. With the Aerial Knights stuck in combat against the Devilbeasts, the artillery unit were definitely unable to avoid their impending doom.

"Maggie, I'll leave the investigation to you." She gritted her teeth.

"Coo?"

Without any further explanation, Lightning tossed the pigeon on her head high up into the air and charged downwards, accelerating to the speed of sound halfway into the flight. The ground units were not equipped with a Sigil of Listening, leaving her the only one capable of warning them!

She covered the distance of thousands of meters in an instant. As for the gigantic stone pillar, it was shot into the sky with dazzling magic power in tow!

"Everyone—get to cover quickly!" Lightning swept through the formation and screamed at the top of her lungs. "The enemies have noticed this location and the stone pillar is almost here! Quickly find some place to hide!"

"It's Miss Lightning…" Cat's Claw immediately blew into the whistle. "Everyone, leave your positions now! This is an order, evacuate your positions now!"

The gunners immediately turned and ran towards the bunkers at their fastest speed upon receiving the order. At that point of time, the shadow of the stone pillar was already cast upon the center of the formation.

After the successful evacuation of every gunner in sight, Cat's Claw ran for the closest sentry point, but at the same moment, the dazzling blue pillar smashed dead center into the Longsong Cannons with an immense might! The powerful impact caused the entire peak to tremble, while the cannons that took the direct hit instantly turned into scattered components.

This time, the stone pillar did not roll around and instead formed a large hole in the ground—this was the cause for the collapse of the trench and underground bunkers.

"Cough, cough…"Cat's Claw coughed while climbing out of the snow pile. The violent tremors that surged from his feet through his entire body was definitely unbearable. He even felt as though his organs had shifted at that instant. Fortunately, nothing seemed to be wrong with him aside from his trembling hands and legs.

"Give me a sitrep on the casualties and pull out according to plan." Cat's Claw yanked a soldier over and ordered, "Spread the word!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Jop, where are you? Cough… there's sound there!" Just as Cat's Claw attempted to call for Jop, the clear sound of a machine gun entered his ears.

What's going on?

Are the enemies attacking the peak?

Even before Cat's Claw could make any sense of the situation, Lightning's warning came out from above.

"Be careful, the pillar has demons hiding in it! They are the real concealed attack!"

Demons… are hiding in it?

Cat's Claw promptly drew the rifle from his back, disengaged the safety mechanism, and ran towards the appointed retreat venue. The Artillery Squad was mostly at the rear and had little to no opportunity of using their guns, but under the consideration of the risk entailed with the close proximity of this mission, not only were every soldier of the squad equipped with rifles, they were equipped with a pair of flintlocks for protection.

The first to react was obviously the experienced gunmen that had gone through actual combat with the flintlocks.

When spray of thrown-up snow settled slightly, Cat's Claw found a few machine gun squad members already in a crossfire, blocking the region that connected the bottom of the mountain to the center of the formation.

The enemies were never-seen-before, miniature Spider Demons.

The Spider Demons crawled out of the opened stone pillar and pounced towards the defensive line against the hail of bullets. The Spider Demons were less than half the height of a human and were extremely similar to the heavy-armored Spider Demons that previously appeared at the Northernmost Port. Their heads and front legs were covered in considerably thick Blackstone slabs that were capable of withstanding a few bullets while still moving agilely.

Aside from that, they were capable of shooting stone needles like ordinary Spider Demons as a form of long-range attack, but they required the opening of the stone armor on their heads, giving the soldiers an opportunity to deal fatal strikes.

Cat's Claw and the flintlock team regrouped and participated in the interception with their rifles. Although the number of monsters hidden within the black pillar was uncertain, the mountain road was the only path of retreat. Soldiers capable of moving naturally converged towards this point. Be it the rescuing of others or the waiting for reinforcements, they had to defend the crucial checkpoint.

"Pay attention to your barrels, do not hold onto the triggers!"

"Ammo, we need ammo here!"

"Anti-Demon Grenades ready—fire in the hole!"

The repeated shouts and gunfire formed a hubbub, while many Spider Demons on the site had stopped moving completely.

Cat's Claw reloaded with a new magazine after emptying one. He noticed that although the Monstrous Beast in front of them were far more capable of experiencing hits than Mads Demons, they were unable to move an inch against the intense firepower. The Blackstone armor on their bodies were incapable of completely negating the penetration of the bullets and soon cracked from the barrage of bullets. If one bullet was not enough, then ten or a hundred bullets would do the trick. It was not difficult for the elite assault force who were equipped with superior weapons to accomplish that.

Besides the tempest of bullets was sufficient to suppress their enemies completely. The main defense of the miniature Spider Demons were concentrated on their heads and forelimbs. If they engaged in their high speed bursts, their weak and defenseless interiors would be exposed, so the Spider Demons were forced to advance forward against the curtain of bullets, which gave the anti-demon grenades excellent opportunities and sufficient time to be cooked and thrown.

After grasping the clear traits and patterns of their enemies, the humans employed the machine guns to seal the enemy movements and threw grenades to finish them off. This became a highly effective and time-saving battle strategy.

But the Spider Demon's largest weakness were on their backs—

A girl with short and golden hair swooped down and flew through the Spider Demons like a specter, opening fire ferociously at their heads with her dual pistols. Perhaps to ensure their agility, the Spider Demons' backs were left almost completely defenseless like Mad Demons. Her pistol bullets easily ripped through the thin epidermis and blasted their backbones and brains into a paste.

Every time she made a move, the defensive line would erupt into enthusiastic cheers.

The majority of the soldiers were all too familiar with the nimble figure.

She was Miss Lightning, the one they were most proud of!

Chapter 1396 - Silent Disaster

The demons' attack were completely suppressed.

Although the black pillar's size was astonishing, it was impossible for the complex inner structure to hold an infinite number of small Spider Demons. Additionally, the assault force was equipped with a complete set of weapons, with over 20 general-purpose machine guns, causing the spray of bullets produced at such short distances to be described as air-tight.

Under the suppressive fire, the number of people gathered at the retreat point quickly surpassed 300, which was close to the total headcount of the assault force. A small number of casualties was a result of the evacuation. After being separated by the large stone pillar that landed right in the middle of the formation, those further from the mountain trail undoubtedly bore greater pressure, aside from the threat of the Spider Demons. They faced the risk of the dangerous bullets fired by the others. They were only able to keep their bodies low and while attacking the enemies, run along the flanks.

Fortunately for them, the popularization of tracers increased the machine gun squad's suppression and precision efficiency to the point that they became leagues better than they were before. With the guidance of the tracer flames, the gunners were able to accurately choose their targets, unlike the past situation whereby their bullets deviated off the battlefield without them even realizing.

But the crux of the battle was undoubtedly Lightning's timely warning. If they had continued firing when the stone pillar struck, the casualties and death would not have ended there.

Therefore, when she floated downwards gently, she gained the unanimous and warm applause from the crowd.

But Lightning's tensed expression did not relax one bit. "Where is the commanding officer?"

"I am the person responsible for this operation, Cat's Claw." Cat's Claw walked forward and gave a bow to the young lady. "Everyone here managed to survive all thanks to you."

"You need to regroup and evacuate immediately." Lightning spoke quickly, "The blackstone pillar that destroyed the decoy location contains the same Spider Demons, and they are all heading over here now. Another thing, there are still many projectile installations on the floating island, so the enemy can shoot out another pillar at any moment!"

Upon hearing the information, Cat's Claw's heart jumped in fright.

They had already completed their mission to bombard the enemy and according to the plan, the next order of move was to withdraw and evacuate, but their manner of retreat was now completely different—Cat's Claw initially thought to clear out the remaining enemies before pulling all their comrades—dead or alive—out of the Impassable Mountain Range. But the situation had turned far worse than he had anticipated.

The two designated positions were not far from each other and even had a connecting route along the mountainside. If Lightning's report was accurate, the longer they stayed on the mountain, the higher the probability of encountering the Spider Demons midway.

The narrow mountain trails were unlike the lands smoothened out by the Witches. With barely enough space to hold two rows of soldiers, they had to factor in the snow and slope, which prevented them from forming an effective defensive perimeter. There were only two choices left—to take the troops down the mountain immediately regardless of the number and occupy the junction at the mountainside before the Spider Demons arrived, or to call for the reinforcements to intercept the enemy.

The problem laid in Lightning's words, the 'many projectile installations.' If the position of the reinforcements was exposed, they would be treated as another important target and suffer from yet another bombardment. After all, the reinforcements were over 800 strong, and resembled more of a main force. Therefore, the most reliable method was to inform the reinforcements to hold back, while they had to rely on their own strength to fight against the enemy.

No matter how reasonable this logic was, to truly make such a decision was not an easy thing to do.

With the whereabouts of 23 men unaccounted for, either injured, incapable of moving, or still seeking for an opportunity behind the stone pillars, they would be left to survive on their own if the troops left.

And Jop was nowhere to be seen…

For a moment, Cat's Claw mind turned adrift.

"Captain!" Someone by the side called out to him.

He was immediately brought back to his senses. That's right, I am the person responsible for these troops. Regardless, he needed to consider the completion of the mission, which was to bring back as many First Army soldiers out of the Impassable Mountain Range.

"Contact team, inform the reinforcements to maintain their concealment." Cat's Claw gritted his teeth and gave the order. "The rest of you, we will now evacuate this position immediately and meet at the junction at the mountainside!"

He took out a cowhorn and blew into it, producing the signal for retreat—

Under his command, the flintlock troops which assumed the role of defenders divided themselves up, protecting the scattered soldiers who were running down the mountain until the last person left.

"Miss Lightning, can I request you for something?" After giving the orders, Cat's Claw looked at Lightning. "For the soldiers who temporarily aren't able to make it here—"

"Don't worry, leave it to me." Lightning already knew what he wanted to say from his complicated expression.

"I'll leave it to you!" Cat's Claw gave another bow, before organizing the Artillery Squad down to the next gathering point.

…

Is this the product you are so proud of?

Silent Disaster tilted its head and looked at Mask. Although the former did not speak, Nassaupelle felt as though he could hear the mocking words and the laughter of the other party.

The lowlifes' resistance was far more ferocious than he had anticipated. Even after shortening the distance between them, the "Extinguisher" Symbiotic Demons failed in disposing off the resistance. The situation left him quite embarrassed—especially after Mask had declared that knowledge was supreme.

To have bestowed the new Symbiotic Demons the name of 'Extinguisher' meant that Nassaupelle wanted to use it to prove that their existence were sufficient to overpower the human's fire forks, fire bolts, and fiery rain capabilities. But not only did the humans successfully obstruct the first wave of Extinguishers, they were able to form a defensive perimeter at the mountainside in preparation to fight the second wave.

This outcome was truly difficult for Nassaupelle to swallow!

He knew that his work was far stronger than the Primal Demons not only in terms of attack and defense, but that they were also not restricted by the Red Mist. Furthermore, they had no fear for their own lives and could never tire out until the complete consumption of their magic power. To him, they were considered perfect weapons of war. If it had been invented a few hundred years earlier, Nassaupelle believed that the Union would never have escaped. Ignoring the Fertile Plains, even the islands south of the Land of Dawn would be easy to conquer!

Yet, when it was first introduced into battle, the Extinguishers barely performed better than the Primal Demons. How could it not annoy him?

"We have plenty of Symbiotic Demons on the Deity of Gods, I want to see how long these lowlifes can resist!" Senior Lord Mask raised the magic core in his hand again.

But Silent Disaster grabbed and stopped him.

"Do you want to tell me that the magic power is limited—" Nassaupelle spoke resentfully. The thing he hated most was individuals that relied on force to "interfere" with his plans, and not the inability to comprehend rationality and reason. He knew that the Blood Conqueror was as such, same for the Sky Lord, but he never expected for Silent Disaster to be the same as well.

The reason why the improved "spear-wielding" Symbiotic Demons had the ability to throw such astounding weights was completely a result of the strong magic power provided by the improved obelisk. Every shot consumed a large amount of magic power; thus, shooting consecutively in short intervals would influence the Deity of Gods' flight. Aside from that, the huge consumption would substantially age the God's Stone mine beneath the obelisk, decreasing the lifespan of the Deity of Gods. "—But if we do not get rid of these lowlifes, wouldn't we be boosting their morale? Don't forget the lowlifes which Hackzord had brought up here. They are observing the battle as well. For the sake of the race, we have to annihilate them completely at all cost!"

"Allow me," Silent Disaster replied in a concise manner.

In response to Silent Disaster's inclination to do battle, Mask was stunned. "You plan to set out with the spears? I have experimented multiple times. When that thing falls to the ground, the force is sufficient to crush all living specimens in one's body. Even after wrapping the live specimens up, it is extremely difficult to ensure their lives; only some Symbiotic Demons are capable of withstanding the huge impact."

"But you haven't tried it with me, no?" Silent Disaster walked towards the stele that was accumulating magic power without turning its head.

"Hackzord isn't around. If anything happens, I can't save you!"

Silent Disaster waved its hand, as though it did not take the warning to heart.

Mask had no choice but to activate the magic core as he controlled the spear-wielding Symbiotic Demon to open its outer shell.

Right as Silent Disaster entered the stele, Mask called out.

"Hey, don't die."

Silent Disaster raised an arm, to reveal a white cloth—it resembled the corner piece of a robe.

Mask frowned; very few in the race placed emphasis on decorative items, but the thin and white cloth reminded him of the usual getup of Valkries in the Presiding Holy See.

"I will not die until all the humans are dead," it replied before disappearing into the stele.

Chapter 1397 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (1)

"Be careful, the following descent will be much faster. If you are afraid, close your eyes."

After Lightning's warning, she carried a Graycastle soldier and flew to the edge of the mountaintop. The instant their feet were off the ground, the duo plummeted tens of meters in a breath before slowing to a stable speed.

By the time his feet were on the ground again, the soldier's face was palish white. "Thank… thank you, Miss Lightning, I… ugh—"

"Take a few deep breaths, your body will recover in a bit."

With that, she flew back up the mountaintop and continued her search for stranded survivors.

Cat's Claw's guess was proven to be true. After the sudden attack of the stone pillar, a few soldiers were left stranded on the other side of the field and scattered by the assault of the Spider Demons. Although a few were successful in getting past the blockade and joined up with the defense force at the stipulated location, many others were pinned down. Some were unwilling to abandon their wounded comrades, and some engaged in bitter struggles against the Spider Demons, to the point of not being able to withdraw despite hearing the retreat signal.

Now, with the bulk of the troops retreating in batches, Lightning's appearance gave them hope.

Although the upgrade and adulthood did not increase her strength, it was enough to save the men by being able to fly ten meters off the ground.

The only problem was her ability to carry one person at a time. Additionally, the substantial descent off the cliff that was not a problem for Lightning who was used to flying alone, but the act of carrying a soldier each time was a plummet in every sense of the word.

The gunshots at the artillery position gradually ceased. Clearly, regardless be it the demons or the members of the assault force, there were few left. Lightning successfully found about ten soldiers and placed them on a small path on the back of the mountain.

"Phew, I think that's the last one." After dropping the last survivor, she heaved a sigh of relief. "You guys can find your own way down the mountain, right?"

"Thank you for your help!" Everyone saluted at attention, and someone asked. "Do you know the location of the main troops?"

"They are currently on the other side of the mountain, positioned to fight against Spider Demons coming from the north." Lightning gave a rough explanation of the situation, "There's no way to do a detour here; just go straight down the mountain, quickly get to Metalstone Ridge before the floating island passes the Impassable Mountain Range."

"I see… we understand." Everyone's expression became heavy, they were able to survive due to the heroic sacrifice of their comrades. Mixed emotions and indignation surfaced on their faces from the fact that they were unable to contribute while the others were still engaging the enemy.

But no matter how regretful they felt, they knew that they could not be a burden on the main force.

"Oh right, Miss Lightning." Just as they were about the separate, the soldier who vomited hesitated before speaking. "When the stone pillar fell, the tremors collapsed the concealed structure for Cannon No. 3. I saw a few soldiers hiding around there while running, I'm not sure if there would be survivors in there…"

"Cannon No. 3's shelter, got it." Lightning nodded. "I'll take a look."

After watching the group turn and retreat down the mountain, Lightning soared into the air and returned to the artillery formation.

Meanwhile, Maggie's voice came out of the Sigil of Listening with a new warning.

"Be careful, coo. The demons are going to release the third stone pillar!"

"Can you judge its target?"

"Unsure, but I don't think it is the mountaintop, coo!" Maggie's voice suddenly trembled. "It's coming, coo!"

Lightning soared back into midair, only to witness the black pillar drawing a long arc towards the Impassable Mountain Range.

The demons did not aim for the assault force, which meant they were most probably targeting the troops retreating down the mountain. The terrain there was extremely complicated, and the casualties suffered by the humans would only increase substantially if the Spider Demons breached their meager defenses. The only good news was that the due to the undulating terrains around the path that acted as shelter, it was improbable that the demons had accurate aim to land the stele right on top of the troops.

She immediately made the decision to return and support the assault force at the mountainside.

Right at this moment on the Seagull, Sylvie suddenly opened her eyes. "Heavens…"

"What happened?" Andrea exclaimed in surprise. To avoid being discovered by the demons, Sylvie had kept her eyes closed, the theory being that it would remain so long as she was unable to see the situation beneath the clouds.

"There is an extremely powerful magic power feedback!" she muttered to herself in disbelief, "It is speeding towards the Impassable Mountain Range!"

Magic power feedback? Andrea was startled.

The term made her recall Ursrook's curse—in the last battle of Taquila, the other party had made use of a decoy to release magic power to deliberately lure the ambush team.

But the decoy magic power source was completely different from the original. It was possible that Sylvie would not be able to distinguish the fine details across a distance of over ten kilometers, but under the current circumstances, she was likely capable of determining if the source was genuine or not.

In other words, the anomaly captured by the Eye of Magic was most probably a genuine Senior Demon.

Although it wasn't clear why the enemy had chosen to reveal their identity at such a moment, the people onboard the Seagull knew that they could not sit idly since it had taken action.

Right from the beginning, their targets had been the most difficult demons which appeared on the battlefield.

Andrea had long waited for this very moment.

"It's our turn to perform now!"

But Sylvie continued staring at the floor of the cabin with beads of perspiration trickling down her forehead. "Is that really a demon… How is it possible for its magic power to be that strong…"

"Uh… how strong?"

"Far stronger than Ursrook—" Sylvie bit her lips. "I'm afraid that only Leaf in her Heart of the Forest state can compare to that…"

"What did you say?" Andrea was stunned.

She had witnessed the rich magic power Leaf possessed when she occupied a corner of the Misty Forest. To call it vast was still an understatement, but it was an outcome achieved by relying on external forces. But for a single individual to wield such a power? "Hey, hey… are you exaggerating a little bit too much?"

Wendy immediately activated all the Sigils of Listening. "Your Highness Tilly, Lightning, Maggie, this is Seagull! Sylvie detected an enemy approaching the mountain range. From the magic power feedback, the enemy is most probably a Higher Ascendant-ranked Senior Lord! Do not engage, I repeat, do not engage!"

"Then what do we do?" Shavi asked timidly.

"Do I have to answer that?" Andrea clenched her fists. "Only such enemies are worthy of receiving the bullets formed by our sisters' blood, sweat and tears."

…

"Boom—!"

The third stone pillar passed through the gap between two mountain peaks and swept through the dried up and rotten trees, devastating everything in its path until it ultimately rolled down a hill into the valley. The long and brown path formed by a mix of soil and branches drew a huge contrast against the snowy background.

Cat's Claw let out a sigh of relief.

He felt that giving the orders for a quick retreat was the correct decision—the time interval between the third stone pillar and the second was far longer, and there were only a few enemies left on the mountainside. At present, the time they fought for gave them enough time to face the new enemies.

Besides, the stone pillar had landed coincidentally between them and the reserved troops. Not only did the difference in height provide the shooters better conditions for firing, the distance of over a kilometer made it relatively easier to distribute the firepower, unlike the two sudden battles from before.

But Cat's Claw found it a pity that they were not equipped with the 75mm cannons, which could be aimed directly at the giant stone pillar. To be able to destroy the disgusting bugs the moment they revealed their heads would have definitely allowed them to expel the anger in the soldiers.

Chapter 1398 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (2)

"Captain, they are climbing up!"

"Fire only when they get closer; we do not have as many bullets as the machine gun squad to spare!"

Cat's Claw found a suitable roosting location and raised his Van'er rifle. While waiting for the enemies, he kept an eye on the position of the floating island. He was unsure if it he was seeing things, but the floating island appeared to rise in altitude. Previously he could barely make out the edges of the island, but all he could see now was the craggy bottom.

But one thing was for sure, the floating island had taken this period of time to close in on the Impassable Mountain Range and its gigantic shadow had covered a corner of the mountains. Upon thinking about the probability of them having to fight under its shadow, Cat's Claw felt stifled, as though a heavy rock was crushing his back.

We have to get rid of those damned demons and leave this mountain before the floating island arrives.

Probably sharing his thoughts, the machine gun squad finally let loose the moment the Spider Demons entered a range of five hundred meters, spewing out tongues of fire from their muzzles at the targets on the slope.

In that moment, the valley became heated.

Cat's Claw pulled the trigger when the enemies reached the 150-meter mark, the distance he was most confident of.

"Fire!"

The muzzles of all the guns stirred up a flurry of snow instantly.

Although none of them were professional marksman, the majority of them had modified their weapons under Van'er's influence. In semi-automatic mode, so long as the Van'er rifle didn't jam, it could unleash a metal rain not inferior to a machine gun squad's.

Faced against the tough miniature Spider Demons, the meaning of having concentrated firepower reached a whole new level. If it were the ordinary troops of the First Army equipped with standard issue, it would had been difficult to stop the large quantity of fearless Spider Demons.

Suddenly, a black light shot out from the forest like a huge ripple that instantly penetrated everyone.

It disappeared as fast as it appeared, the entire process taking less than a second. If not for the shivering of the comrades next to him, Cat's Claw would had thought that it was all an hallucination of his.

"Did… you just see something?"

"It looked like some black ripple?"

Cat's Claw touched his own body but sensed nothing different. The defensive line did not suffer from any damage, proven by the endless stream of gunshots.

"It most probably came from that weird stone pillar." A comrade reloaded a new magazine and spoke, "Those things are extremely bizarre, they are clearly rocks on the exterior, but they have flesh and blood inside."

Cat's Claw no longer pursued the matter. Compared to the harmless black light, killing the approaching Spider Demons was more important. But he quickly discovered that the snow vista before him had become darker, as though the sun had been blocked.

Damn it, has the floating island already entered the mountainous region?

He raised his head, but was stunned by what he saw.

The fortress was still in its original place, but the sky had changed.

The bright and clear day turned dark and gloomy while golden streams of light shuttled through the dark clouds, as though it was being accumulated. The speed of the sudden change completely surpassed that of any meteorological phenomenon, causing an extreme unease to arise in his heart.

Everyone detected the change above their heads.

In the short span of 10 seconds, the dark clouds had gathered and blocked out all light.

Tens of thousands of lights continued to gather and faintly blossomed in strength.

Why does it feel that we have seen this scene before…

Cat's Claw suddenly drew out a bugle horn. Right before he could even blow into it, countless lightning bolts smote down through the clouds in a circular radius and continued expanding out, instantly falling right onto the assault force's defensive perimeter!

The continuous gunshots stopped abruptly.

…

"Is that—the Sigil of God's Will?" On Seagull, Wendy gasped in disbelief.

"Even if it isn't the Sigil, I'm afraid it is a similar type of magic stone," Andrea replied with a serious expression on her face. "Lightning, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Her voice came out through the Sigil of Listening. "The enemy should have noticed my presence."

"Stay there, it is no longer your battle." Andrea warned. The black ripple that emerged was obviously aimed for Lightning, it was an extremely familiar sight to the Witches that had participated in the ambush at Taquila. It was the special ability Magic Slayers had.

The large-scale emanation of the Magic Slayer's power was definitely a bane against Lightning's agile-type powers. Once affected, the simple change in her speed and inertia would lead her to be trapped. The enemy had no doubt considered severing her ability, causing her to drop like a rock before engaging her.

The unfortunate thing was that Lightning took Wendy's warning and did not charge forward impulsively. This allowed her to shake off the black ripple with the rest of her energy.

"Get Maggie to inform the reinforcements that the assault force might be in trouble." Andrea looked towards Sylvie. "Have you found the target?"

The latter took a deep breath. "It has already charged up the slope at an extremely fast speed. I haven't sensed any Eye Demons nearby for now, but I don't think we have attracted its attention. But the defense line was struck by lightning, I'm afraid they no longer have the means to obstruct the Spider Demons any longer."

That meant that the soldiers were almost in range of the Monstrous Beast's stone needles.

But she was too occupied to take that into consideration.

According to Sylvie's instructions, Andrea found the Magic Slayer's figure through the aiming lens with much difficulty, but at the same time, her heart sank. Its speed was not only fast, it was so fast that it could be considered as flickering erratically! If one was just slightly slow to catch up, they would have lost its shadow. To seize the opportunity for a shot, they had to be extremely close. Otherwise, the enemy would still be able to avoid her bullets while in flight even if she used her ability.

The other thing that attracted Andrea's attention was during the First Army's battle, the completely armored Magic Slayer did not have any blue barrier around its body—this was not something that just speed alone could explain.

During this period of observation, the dark clouds did not dissipate. Gold light converged once more and descended down—

The enemy had unleashed the second God's Will!

This verified Sylvie's warning.

The Magic Sayer held an unfathomable magic power capacity.

There was no time to hesitate!

Andrea suppressed the doubts in her heart and shouted to Wendy, "We need to go down, just like how we ambushed Hackzord the other time. As long as we can narrow the gap, I can ensure that the enemy will have no chance of escaping!"

"How close?"

"As long as it's not within the Magic Slayer's reach, the closer the better!"

"That's difficult…" Wendy sighed. "It wouldn't be a problem if Her Highness Tilly is the pilot, but Miss Shavi is the one piloting now. Not only do I need to control the strength of the wind from multiple directions, I have to pay attention to the enemy, it's really not an easy thing to do…"

"You're saying it's impossible?" Andrea's heart trembled slightly.

"It's not impossible, but it requires extreme concentration and an all-out effort—" Wendy closed her eyes, then spoke slowly, "Well, I guess even though I'm old, doing it once occasionally shouldn't result in too much of an impact."

Andrea was startled, then the corner of her lips curled upwards.

She recalled Lightning's remark—everyone would think of Wendy as an amiable senior, but under that gentle and soft appearance was in fact, a firm and determined heart.

If not for that, she would never had used her precise power to break the God's Stone of Retaliation in front of Cara and save Nightingale.

"Shavi, push down your control stick!" Andrea shouted, "We're attacking!"

Chapter 1399 - The Bloody Battle in the Mountains (3)

The strongest advantage of the Seagull was the silence it possessed despite the increase in flight speed. It was most suited at ambushing enemies from behind.

After passing through the clouds, the glider bypassed multiple mountain peaks like an apparition and quietly approached the battlefield from behind. At this moment, the assault force's defensive line had been completely breached and the soldiers were forced to hold their own ground and retreat while fighting. If it had been any other troops, they would had long scattered after losing an overall command.

But the First Army's situation was no longer as optimistic as before. Upon losing their advantage in terms of firepower, the price to pay to kill the Spider Demons which also had long-ranged attacks increased severalfold. What's more, they had their monster-like black-armored demon counterpart.

Relying on the aiming lens, Andrea could clearly see the appearance of the enemy. Apart from the veined patterns that covered its body and the exaggerated and bizarre armor, it held an extremely large halberd. His entire image resembled one of a heavy-armored soldier. But the agility it exhibited far surpassed that of charging cavalry. Additionally, it was capable of changing directions at will, as though the armor and weapon on it were weightless.

For Andrea, it was the most difficult type of opponent.

"How far are we?"

"1900 meters…" The anxiousness in Sylvie's voice became more apparent. "How is it, can you land the shot now?"

"No." She licked her dry lips. "Closer."

During this entire process, Andrea quietly activated her ability multiple times. The silver lines in her vision split from one, to two, until it filled her entire vision. This meant she had more than ten ways to fire and hit the target, so long as the target was "cooperative" enough. The moment she pulled on the trigger, the final destination of the bullet would be certain. But no one could predict the enemy's movements within those few seconds while the bullet traveled its trajectory.

If it was an ordinary firearm, she could fire continuously and use quantity to eliminate the probability of failure. But the sniper rifle in her hand was a large caliber rifle with a long interval for fire, and she was unable to use the precious God's Stone of Retaliation bullets as a gamble.

Thus, the safest method was to decrease the bullet flight time as much as possible, to force the target to be as 'static' as possible between the gun's firing and for the bullet to hit the target.

"1500 meters!" Sylvie could not help but grab onto her clothes tightly.

"Seagull is changing directions, take note of the inclination!" Wendy reminded.

This distance was enough for the naked eye to differentiate the glider from a large bird of prey. Although they were above an intense battlefield, no one paid special attention to movements in the sky. But the Witches were extremely tensed and felt their hearts in their throats. They slowed their breathing despite knowing that the enemies could not determine the source of the sound.

"1300 meters!" Sylvie shouted.

"Closer!" Andrea had her finger on the trigger. A single second was enough for the majority of her targets, but since the enemy was a Senior ranked Demon, she hoped to minimize all errors and prevent any accidents from occurring.

"1100 meters!"

"Shavi, pay attention to the gear angles, I'm almost at my limit!"

"900—"

Right at that moment, Andrea unleashed her ability.

Countless silver lines had practically crammed her entire vision and finally converged into one dazzling light pillar. At this short distance, the influence of the wind and gravity was practically negligible.

"What you see is what you get," she muttered softly, and pulled the trigger.

Almost at the same time, the Magic Slayer sensed something different from the First Army soldier's reactions. It suddenly turned and discovered the glider sweeping above its head. The moment the muzzle unleashed its fire, the God's Stone of Retaliation bullet was already flying towards it. No matter how skilled and nimble it was, it was already too late for it to dodge!

Following a loud "bang", a shockwave exploded from the Magic Slayer's body. The powerful force sent it flying, while the dark clouds in the sky dissipated like ice and snow melting under the scorching sun.

"Did we succeed?" Wendy asked anxiously.

On the contrary, Sylvie's face was pale white. "No… I'm afraid that the bullet missed."

"How is that possible." Andrea clenched her teeth and used an enchanted gauze on her shoulder. "When firing, I clearly saw that it had not noticed the shot—"

Sylvie was at a loss for words, her ability was unable to penetrate the barrier conjured from the God's Stone of Retaliation; thus, she was unable to ascertain what happened in that instant. But she clearly saw that when the black light from the God's Stone of Retaliation bullet closed in onto the Magic Slayer, the space around the surroundings distorted, as though something had stood between it and the bullet. After the abrupt explosion of the black light, everything occurred as per normal, and the bullet shot straight into the target's chest.

"Stop arguing, what's the situation of the target?" Shavi interrupted.

"It's… getting up," Sylvie answered bitterly.

Through her Eyes of Magic, Sylvie saw clear scars left on the black armor, most probably from the shattered God's stone, the most distinct being the damaged helmet. Half of the Magic Slayer's tall and spire-shaped helmet had been smashed into pieces, revealing the chilly lower features beneath it.

Regardless of the reason of this development, the Magic Slayer's ability to stand indicated the outcome.

"Sylvie, help me to reload!" Andrea screamed.

"We are already out of God's Stone bullets…"

"Then use ordinary ones." Andrea insisted. "Since the Magic Slayer is able to use its ability under such circumstances, it doesn't matter whether the bullets are made out of God's Stones or not. All that matters is we shoot at it!"

"The sky is getting dark again!" Shavi whined. "When will this guy ever stop?"

Sylvie pushed the half-arm long 'bullet' into the chamber. "But it has already noticed us, if we try again—"

"That is why I must take this shot!" Andrea roared. "If we run from this, I'm afraid we won't make it out of the clouds!"

The Magic Slayer that was standing raised its halberd as its eyes glowed a sinisterly red. sinister red lights.

The rumbling of thunder spread across the entire valley.

"Reloaded!"

"Wendy, stabilize the direction!" Andrea aimed at her target as the silver lines once again connected the target with the muzzle. She ignored the piercing pain in her shoulder and fired without hesitation.

As though having sensed danger, the Magic Slayer leaped to the side and swung its halberd!

This time, Sylvie finally saw the true appearance of the distorted object—

They were light and transparent, similar to a cicada's wings, but definitely not actual cicada wings. Formed using magic power, they were sharper than any blade and spiraled spontaneously around the Magic Slayer.

Even when the bullet was already a miss, they reacted instantly. Some cut directly at the bullet's trajectory while the rest formed a wall of blades around the Senior Lord.

An explosive shockwave appeared once more and caused a snowy mist to form, while the distorted golden light struck down from the skies onto Seagull's left wing.

The glider instantly lose balance and spiraled towards the bottom of the mountain—

…

After an hour, the Deity of Gods's shadow shrouded the Impassable Mountain Range.

Following the opening of the gates beneath the island, a large quantity of Red Mist cascaded down like a waterfall and rushed through the ravine in both the east and west directions.

Silent Disaster removed her broken helmet and immersed herself in the comfortable and moist atmosphere.

Although there were remaining human troops resisting, it no longer affected the general situation. After noticing the appearance of new enemy troops, Mask fired another three spears. The humans would had never expected for Deity of Gods to have hidden firing pathways located at the bottom of the island, and these steles which were shot directly wielded even more lethality. After being crushed by the three spears, the humans had difficulty reorganizing and launching an effective counterattack.

Following that, the Symbiotic Demons searched for the defeated humans endlessly until they were all killed.

The iron birds attempted to cover the retreating humans once, and one particular red iron bird gave him trouble. Not only was the Deity of Gods unable to shoot down this target, the enemy's gunfire expended a lot of the island's magic power. In terms of its speed and mobility, the red iron bird was far stronger than the others. But it did not seem to be suited for prolonged battles, and was ultimately repelled by him and the Bogle Beasts.

There was no doubt that victory belonged to the demons for this battle.

Chapter 1400 - One's Conduct

"You're still alive?"

Mask's voice sounded out from within Silent Disaster's mind. It was the consciousness reverberating through the Birth Tower.

She lowered her head and glanced at the dark white torn piece of robes in her hand. "As I said, I will not die until all the humans are destroyed."

"Very good, but do not forget, I am the determining factor for this victory, Nassaupelle! Without the new Symbiotic Demons and Deity of Gods's combined attack, even if we had squeezed three thousand Primal Demons, they would have been useless in this craggy foothills…"

"I don't disagree."

"…" Not expecting Silent Disaster to reply so straightforwardly, silence occurred for a brief moment. "In all, if the King asks about the Western Front, I hope you remember what you've said. Another thing, Hackzord did nothing in this battle, and you have seen it for yourself, although he has his reasons, contributions and achievements should be distinguished clearly."

"I agree."

"…" The other party maintained her silence again. "I never considered you to comprehend reason. Well, let us go to where those lowlifes have erected their fiery rain, I will let the Deity of Gods meet up with you there."

"You want to retrieve their weapons?"

"That's right," Nassaupelle replied, delighted. "They are the spoils and proof of victory, and precious objects that I can collect while on my journey of probing the profound secrets."

…

While ascending the mountain, the Deity of Gods closed the gates before slowly descending.

Silent Disaster had to admit that Senior Lord Mask's contributions was irreplaceable in the battle. With the floating island being wider than the Impassable Mountain Range, anyone standing beneath would feel as if the mountain would be crushed. But in fact, at the moment the floating island touched ground, it would become still and just like if a thousand catties were stacked on an egg, the latter would not end up cracking.

After the battle, the transport of supplies and reorganization of forces became extremely easy.

Although the Deity of Gods did not touch the ground, they used suspended platforms capable of ascending and descending for the transportation of goods in and out. With their height advantage of over a hundred meters perpendicularly, it deterred any potential enemies far more than what a moat could ever do.

It could be said that attacking the Deity of Gods from the outside was an impossible task.

While waiting to converge, Silent Disaster suddenly heard a sound from the ground beneath her feet.

The position had been abandoned by the humans, and even if there were survivors, the Symbiotic Demons would have killed them.

She followed the source of the sound and arrived at a collapsed cave.

This was likely a hidden fortification dug by the humans that had collapsed due to the impact of the stele, turning the hidden space within to become a cage. The faints sounds was likely from there.

If nothing was done, whatever was beneath would definitely die.

Silent Disaster crouched down and lifted away the collapsed ceiling with one hand.

She herself was unclear why she was doing so. Perhaps it was the hope of gathering more information, or Mask's interest in the people from Graycastle had affected her. Not long later, Silent Disaster excavated a cave entrance capable of fitting one person.

The dark passageway was not long and after passing two turns, Silent Disaster arrived at the end and found the source of the sound—the end of the passageway was a rather spacious room with an oil lamp at the entrance. Under the dim and yellow light, a male human sat with his back against the wall as he gasped for air with difficulty. On the floor were numerous bloodstains formed from a result of dragging.

Silent Disaster noticed that what remained of the male human's legs were just chunks of skin and flesh, most probably severed off after he was trapped under the collapse of the hidden fortification.

But he should know the structure of this place, even if he abandoned his legs, he should know that it is impossible to escape. If so, why did he go through all these struggles?

"A pity…" The male raised his head and looked at Silent Disaster. "The one I eventually waited for is a demon."

"Speak, of the things—you know. Otherwise, death—will be something you desire." Silent Disaster spoke rather stiffly. Unlike Valkries, ever since she gained sentience, she spent most of his time fighting the Sky-sea Realm and was unfamiliar with the human language.

But the other party seemed oblivious to her question.

"Previously, I was wondering… how nice it would be if the person who comes is a comrade. But if a demon came… wouldn't I be sitting here and waiting for death." He chuckled weakly. "Fortunately, there were some charges kept here. With a detonator, I can still fulfill my final duty. But who would have thought that a big fish would come…"

Without a clue on what to ask, Silent Disaster thought to herself emotionlessly. I should hand him over to Mask instead.

Right when she was prepared to step forward to knock the man out, a rope rolled out from the human's hand quietly.

The other end of the rope was attached to a heavy object, and the rope that lost its restriction whizzed upwards quickly. It was at this time that Silent Disaster discovered many pancake-like objects piled in the corner, with black viscous liquid dripping from the low ceiling. Beneath them were metallic blocks, which was also where the most bloodstains were found.

No… this human's struggles weren't for the escaping of this place.

The oil lamp hanging on the door allowed the man to see whatever came immediately.

The action of him holding onto the rope ensured that be it him losing consciousness or him being killed, it would trigger the setup.

He had dragged his mutilated body around, crawling up and down in this small room, just because of his unwillingness to resign to his own fate, and instead create an opportunity.

Silent Disaster immediately turned to retreat using her fastest speed!

The man smiled.

"Long Live… humankind!"

Exceedingly dazzling light blossomed from every corner of the room and instantly turned the dark room to be as bright as day!

After a loud rumble, the sunken cave suddenly swelled up, as though a gigantic fist was charging out from the inside, and threw out a large amount of gravel and snow into the sky.

…

"What happened?"

Mask looked at Senior Lord Silent Disaster who was carried up the Deity of Gods with a frown on his face as he asked his assistant.

"Lord, it's still unknown. The only thing known is that there was another explosion at the mountaintop… The Lord must have fallen into the lowlifes' trap."

Nassaupelle snorted. "How pathetic. If it had been any other Senior lords, I'm afraid they would had died."

At this moment, Silent Disaster looked as though she had been trampled by an Outpost Symbiotic Demon, with her shattered armor and flesh mixed together. The remains of her face that strikingly resembled a female human was left with its outline, and her magic power almost emptied.

"Doesn't this mean that your theory is right?" the assistant lowered his head and said.

"That's right." Nassaupelle smiled. "Even the strongest body has a limit. Instead, the Symbiotic Demon's evolutionary body is the ideal path. To be replaced when damaged, to grow without limits. That is the body we ought to pursue!"

He no longer cared about the unconscious Senior Lord and turned to walk towards the Birth Tower. "Throw her into the Red Mist Pond for soaking, we have no need of her in the next phase either way. Those lowlifes will never expect that the easily obtainable Kingdom of Wolfheart was never the Deity of Gods's goal. Swallowing the entire kingdom is the fastest way of obtaining the legacy shard.

"Pass my command, adjust course for Hermes Plateau at full speed ahead!"

Chapter 1401 - The Bottomless Land

Sure enough… it was just a farce.

Hackzord floated in midair and surveyed the north sea.

For a few days, Hackzord followed the Land of Dawn's coastline and searched for hundreds of kilometers, including both ends of the continent's ridge and the mountains that accompanied them.

As the letter did not mention much, he searched every nook and cranny, every possible place that he could venture into for the sake of not missing out on the fabled Bottomless Land. He only stopped when he reached the sea of clouds that was linked to the Blackstone region. But even so, he could not locate the isolated "Afterlife Island" mentioned in the letter.

It was impossible, the sea had no obstructions. In the air, everything within a thousand miles could be seen at a glance. If there was truly a peculiar island, anyone in the race would had noticed it when advancing from the Blackstone region to the Land of Dawn. It was impossible for the island to remain hidden for him to discover.

Hackzord clenched his fists in anger.

Damned humans, how dare you swindle me, the Sky Lord! What is even more unforgivable is the fact that they used Valkries' name!

It is impossible for the Nightmare Lord to betray the race, only the humans are capable of doing this, and it is most probable that they had extracted her memories. Even though it's unknown when the Witches wielded such power, it is obvious as to what has happened to Valkries.

A burst of rage surged up from his chest.

He suddenly opened the Distortion Door and took a step onto the ocean—

"What Bottomless Land, what about the Realm of Mind being here, everything was bullshit!"

Hackzord roared while staring at the boundless ocean, as though venting the built up resentment in his heart.

"How can the land belonging to deities appear at such a mediocre place, I should have realized it a long time ago!"

"Wouldn't it be fine if I had activated the Deity of Gods to wipe out all the humans… Why did I bother taking the risk to infiltrate the Realm of Mind!? But now, I, a Senior Lord, have become bait at the whims of the humans, and they have even caused me to be suspected by the King. I am truly foolish!"

"This ploy, I will definitely—!"

Sky Lord suddenly paused mid roar as he was startled.

Just a moment ago, he was standing on the clear and reflective ocean surface, but now, it had turned hazy and unclear. A vast expanse of white mist had unknowingly appeared around him, and his vision dropped to only within tens of feet.

Did I enter the mist?

No… even if this is cloud of mist, I should have sensed it before.

Hackzord retraced his steps and the ocean became clear once again. He turned his head, only to see the tranquil ocean in its entirety.

The rage within him disappeared without a trace.

Instead, a cold chill replaced the emotions in his heart.

This isn't far from Land of Dawn or Blackstone region, but no one actually noticed this strange phenomenon over the past several hundred years?

After a slight hesitation, he activated his ability and entered the unique region.

But this time, he acted far more cautiously.

After crossing through, the dense and moist mist enveloped him.

Hackzord lowered his altitude and advanced slowly. At the same time, he raised his vigilance to its highest. Not long later, a vague figure appeared before him.

It was an island, and from its silhouette, it wasn't small.

He flew to the edge of the island and landed on actual grass.

Is this… the place that Valkries mentioned?

Hackzord surveyed his surroundings, but failed to see anything aside from the mist.

He considered his situation and decided to investigate the island on foot. He had just swapped out for a new tank of Red Mist earlier before. The sea of clouds had the demons' supply line, while the link between the Land of Dawn and Blackstone region had two sentry points. With his ability, the probability of an accident was extremely low.

After a few hundred steps, the scenery before him gradually changed. Stone tablets appeared amongst the grass, and the further he walked, the more there were, They were clearly man-made structures, which meant that the island was not an unmanned and restricted area. Hackzord inspected a few stone tablets alone and realized that the inscriptions on them were unfamiliar to any language he knew.

"Hello." He suddenly heard a voice.

All the hair on Hackzord's body stood up at once! He activated a Distortion Door without thinking and shot into the air, prepared to make a counterattack.

But the owner of the voice did not attack him from behind.

The person was actually a fellow demon.

From her appearance, she was at the very least a higher ascendant. All the Primal Demon and Junior Demon's crudeness were completely wiped from her body and the degree of evolution on her body was extremely high. Even her fingers and hair were clearly distinguished. She was dressed in light and white cotton robes and walked barefooted with both hands behind her back. Her manner of speech and looks appeared to be rather amiable and completely lacked the imposing grandeur of a demon of high standing.

"I am the Senior Sky Lord, who are you? When did you arrive on this island?" Maintaining his distance, Hackzord questioned her. "This place provides Red Mist as well?"

"I merely hold the name of Guardian." She lowered her head and chuckled. "As to how long I have been here, it has already been so long that I don't remember."

"Guardian?" Hackzord jogged his memories but did not find a higher ascendant with the name. As to forgetting as a result of the prolonged period of time, it was complete nonsense to Hackzord. In the First Battle of Divine Will, the demons had not even stepped into the Land of Dawn's northern region, how was it possible for a single being to survive on an isolated island for so long?

"That's right, so I'm not one of your kind. The one who decides my appearance isn't me, but you." Guardian spoke gently, "I know it is difficult to understand, but the truth is so."

If she isn't one of us, she might be an enemy. Another thing Hackzord noted was that the other party didn't wear any helmet or any traces of a breathing apparatus, verifying her statement.

Sky Lord's vigilance increased.

"Is this the Bottomless Land? Where is the Realm of Mind?"

Guardian shook her head. "This is just a bridge that can only be opened with a key."

"What key?"

Guardian paused for a moment, as though thinking of the answer. "… In the words your kind uses, it is a complete 'legacy.'"

When the legacy shard forms one integral whole, the path of the Origin of Magic would appear. That's the same revelation as what the race has always passed down! Hackzord's emotions stirred. He had noticed that Guardian spoke in riddles and had to create different names to differentiate himself. It felt no different from talking to Mask.

Be it a bridge or a path, they are practically the same thing! Hackzord felt his brain whirling like never before. "Can you take me to see… the bridge?"

Guardian hesitated for a moment, then turned to look north. "I can do that, but we have to be fast; there isn't much time…"

After following him for a minute, a giant pit appeared before Hackzord.

"This… is the bridge?" He was dumbstruck.

"Yes, but not everyone can use the bridge. You do not have the key, that is why you are unable to see its existence."

What bridge or path, even the race's revered words are nowhere better than his—

This is clearly a sinkhole!

But upon recalling the rumors of the Bottomless Land, he felt that it was rather fitting.

So the Realm of Mind is at the bottom of this pit?

Hackzord did not have the interest of jumping in to investigate. The name spoke for itself, it was bottomless. Who knew if he could still fly out after jumping in.

But this didn't mean he was done verifying the matter.

He retrieved a five-colored magic stone.

According to the underground civilization's research, the five-colored magic stone was capable of reflecting an Awakened's magic power and its link to the Origin; if the Bottomless Land was indeed the land where all living things came to be and cease to be, it was impossible to be completely still.

Hackzord held his breath and raised the magic stone to his eye.

After that, he witnessed the most dazzling light pillar in his entire life!

No… More accurately speaking, there were countless beams!

They came from all directions and ultimately converged in front of him, looking like a 'tree of light' that seemed to blot out the skies. The well-proportioned and perfectly scattered lights spreading across the entire world formed the treetop and branches, while the converged and straight light pillar that shot straight into the Bottomless Land represented the trunk. Due to its excessive brightness, the lights looked as though they were infinitely white and it was impossible to look straight at them!

Even though Hackzord did not have the slightest idea of what the light pillar was, he felt heartfelt shock arising from the bottom of his heart.

The scene before him had completely exceeded his imaginations!

Chapter 1402 - Cradle

Everything in the letter is true!

Valkries was right—

At bottom of the sinkhole is the Origin of Magic which the demons have been seeking!

A burst of complicated emotions surged through Hackzord's consciousness, leaving him somewhat at a loss.

If some of the matters written in the letter was real, that naturally meant that some of the things were fake.

For example, the upgrade of a race.

During the apocalypse, The Origin of Magic remained aloof and distant. It was a territory that belonged to God, and regardless of how one looked at it, the Origin of Magic hinted that it was one with the Bloody Moon. Races incapable of acquiring all the legacies had no qualifications to touch upon God's Territory. To the race, the sky was a sacred and holy presence, and thus the name 'Deity of Gods' was given to the floating city.

But now, the Origin of Magic wasn't that extraordinary. It was situated on an island capable of concealing itself and was at the same height as all the others races, even to the point of being slightly lower.

At the same time, coming to this place did not bring about any additional benefits. Hackzord was unable to sense a surge in magic power or any qualitative changes to his own body. If one did not have the five-colored magic stone, the Origin of Magic would be an ordinary ravine, completely unworthy of the descriptions of being holy and powerful.

What about the so-called upgrade given to the race that enters the sinkhole?

Even if it were a farce, it should have at least pretended to be like one?

If everything is as what Valkries says, then wouldn't over a thousand years of hard work that the race put in become a topic of ridicule…

"… Sky Lord?"

The Guardian's voice broke his train of thoughts.

That's right, there is a self-proclaimed guardian that has been here for many years, and she is able to disguise herself as a high rank demon. From the looks of it, she definitely knows something about the Battle of Divine Will!

If the battle over the legacies was just an endless cycle, she might very well have witnessed many races obtaining the 'legacy keys.'

Or maybe even more… After all, all the rumors and revelations regarding the Divine Will started from here.

But Hackzord was not counting on the other party to be honest.

He chose to be pre-emptive.

Two Distortion Doors flashed past Guardian's body in succession, severing her arms at the shoulders, followed by her legs!

Before the latter could even react, she had lost all four limbs. Her stunned expression froze in puzzlement as she dropped helplessly to the ground.

Hackzord had used the five-colored magic stone stealthily on the Guardian and learned that there was no distinct light pillar above her head, indicating that her magic power was underwhelming. He believed that as long as her limbs were severed, the Guardian would not pose a threat to him.

Even so, the Skylord remained in the air to observe the Guardian. After being assured that the other party was only able to moan in pain, he returned to the ground and grabbed the Guardian. At this moment, the Guardian's white cotton clothes were dyed in blue blood and no longer as soft and graceful as before.

"It's best for you to answer my questions. This way, I can still save your life." Hackzord threatened. "What is the ultimate end to being upgraded? Does God truly exist? Why did he fabricate this entire lie? My patience is limited, tell me everything you know!"

Unexpectedly, the Guardian did not reveal any emotions of hatred or fear. Instead, she sighed and asked, "Why… do you have to do this?"

"All the legacies hidden underground were left by the various competitors of the previous Battles of Divine Will, right? My race is currently treading in their wake and will eventually be destroyed as well, and you're asking me why? Just like how fighting beasts will tussle and die, isn't this world just another existence to please this so called God!"

After his furious roars, Hackzord was suddenly dumbstruck.

There was grief in the Guardian's eyes that stared back at him.

"I see… You're not one who has lost you way but one that came prepared. It is a pity that compared to fading away not knowing anything, there are times when knowing the answer will lead to further despair. Especially when you are helpless to change anything. This world is indeed lacking in many areas, but for all of you, it's already the best cradle you can ever have."

"Cra… dle?" Sky Lord never thought that he would hear such a term from the other party.

The Guardian's breathing got weaker; she lifted her bloodstained shoulders as though trying to touch Hackzord's face. "All of you are God's children, how will he treat all of you… as stage props to please himself? Now… it is time to leave, go… before obtaining the key, never, ever return to this island."

"You haven't answered my questions!"

Halfway through his words, Guardian's figure suddenly turned faint, as though having no energy to sustain her appearance. In a short span of time, Guardian disappeared without a trace, along with the tablets that were strewn around. Very quickly, his surroundings was left with the lush vegetation and an endless sinkhole, as though everything that had happened was just a hallucination.

But the remnants of blood on Hackzord's hands informed him that the female-looking "higher ascendant" existed.

What puzzled him was the fact that the other party had appeared in a disguise, but after her disappearance, she made disappointment and frustration rise in his heart.

Hackzord shook his head and threw the confused and distracting thoughts to the bottom of his heart.

At the very least, he was certain that Valkries was still alive, and that she might even be closer to the truth behind the Battle of Divine Will than anyone else.

The next thing to do was to find a stable channel to communicate with Nightmare Lord.

He had too many questions for her.

Hackzord stood up and was prepared to leave when an intense and penetrating pain suddenly tore through his chest!

What… happened exactly?

He lowered his head and noticed a protrusion in his armor as a sharp bone claw slowly emerged from within.

It was—the 'blade' from the Sky-sea Realm.

They remained practically transparent while in motion and possessed extremely powerful concealment abilities. Only by relying on one's magic power perception could their existence be sensed.

Damn it… did the Sky-sea Realm infiltrate this island while I my mind was wandering?

Hackzord felt his strength drain rapidly. I was careless… He had placed all of his attention on the Guardian, and compounded by the latter's unexpected reply that caused him to lose his wariness, he had become so distracted to the point that he was unable to sense the enemies concealed in the mist. But what he was unable to understand was that in the past, the enemies were never able to break the barriers summoned by higher ascendants, much less penetrating their armors.

'Blade' was just a claw that belonged to the Nest Eye used for hunting. Aside from their ability to conceal themselves, when were they ever a threat to a Senior Lord?

The wound from the stab quickly erupted into a hot and burning sensation. Aside from its sharpness, the claw was obviously laced with some sort of poison.

Hackzord slowly turned to look, only to come face to face with a gigantic monster standing behind him. Aside from the familiar curve-shaped bone claw and abdomen used to constrict its prey, the monster before him looked completely different from the 'blades' he had encountered in the past.

And further into the mist, many more similar black figures crawled slowly in his direction.

So when Guardian said that there wasn't much time left, she was referring to this…

Hackzord's vision blurred, and it was at this moment when the blade that had bored through his body opened its large mouth and bit down towards him—

On the other side, Silent Disaster opened her eyes.

Chapter 1403 - A New Battlefield

After awakening her consciousness, bursts of pain surged through her entire body.

But it was something that Silent Disaster was used to—to fight against tides of enemies on the battlefield only to awaken in the Red Mist Pond again, that was her life. Every single time, it pushed her to her limits and allowed her to become stronger, and so the pain was a little price to pay.

But this time, it was different…

She woke up in a daze and flipped her body upside in the Red Mist as she tried to recall the response she had at that moment.

Was it an illusion?

Right at that moment, a ripple appeared in the Realm of Mind.

If she hadn't been in the Birth Tower by chance and was in a half-awake and half-dream state of recovery, it would had been difficult to sense the faint fluctuation.

The occurrence of the ripple was rare, the last one to have induced it was the genius of the race, Ursrook.

That meant… the fall of a Senior Lord.

What exactly happened in the north?

Was it a mistaken illusion, or was the ripple a pure coincidence?

No, I need to verify this with Nassaupelle. In passing, I'll also ask how long I have been asleep, as well as the situation on the Western Front.

Silent Disaster endured the pain and slowly crawled out of the Red Mist Pond, particularly slowing her steps when passing Valkries' body—Although Sky Lord believed that the Nightmare Lord's body was equally safe in Sky City, Silent Disaster insisted on bringing her on board the Deity of Gods. Although there was indeed considerations for her safety, it was more for another reason.

Since by doing so, as long as she was not in battle, she would always have her by his side.

"Don't you worry, I will bring you his head," Silent Disaster murmured.

She had engraved the appearance of the human male that appeared in the Divine Domain.

The man was undoubtedly the culprit that brought about Nightmare Lord predicament of being lost in the Realm of Mind.

Silent Disaster believed that only by beheading the person personally would it bring Valkries true peace.

…

In the experimental field, Silent Disaster found Mask, Nassaupelle.

"Your recovery was rather fast." The other party clicked his tongue and commented, "Such a recovery speed is rarely seen even in a Senior Lord… I am truly curious of what sort of monster would manifest if you merged with a Symbiotic Demon."

"…" Silent Disaster did not entertain the nonsense. "How long have I been in the Red Mist Pond?"

"It hasn't even been a week. Currently the Deity of Gods has entered the Kingdom of Dawn's land, but you missed out on the lowlifes panic and hysteria below. I merely shot a few of the living spears and their cities collapsed." Nassaupelle cackled a sinister laughter. "Flames, trampling, screams, panic… that is how the lowlifes should act!"

"Has Hackzord been in contact with you?"

"Didn't he say that he wanted to check on the sea of clouds personally, and reinforce the transit efficiency at the ridge? I wouldn't believe that he will ever initiate reporting to me." Mask shook his tall head. "To be honest, that should be his responsibility. The role as the Commander of the Western Front doesn't fit him at all. The King just doesn't want to see the strength at the main battlefield get affected and gave Sky Lord the responsibility here. In the end, isn't it me, Nassaupelle, to be the one to clear up this mess?"

Silent Disaster's heart plunged.

He had been in the Red Mist Pond for about a week, and with the time spent fighting the humans, it would have been more than two weeks. Even with the distance between their location and the ridge, the total duration was enough for Hackzord to shuttle back and forth two or three times.

Silent Disaster knew that the Sky Lord's fighting capabilities was not exceptional. With the noticeable increase of Demonic Beasts sighted by sentries above the ocean over the recent half year, and the link of the two continents where the Sky-sea Realm was capable of using to attack from the rear, it was possible for something to have happened.

"Follow me to the Birth Tower." Silent Disaster no longer hesitated. "I want to see the King."

With her condition, she required the support of the controller of the Deity of Gods to be able to connect to the King's consciousness.

At that moment, Nassaupelle sensed something amiss. "Did something happen?"

"A ripple appeared in the Realm of Mind," Silent Disaster replied bluntly.

"Uh… you should know I'm not good at such vague and uncertain things."

"That is why we need to contact the King. If it was not an illusion, the King will definitely know more about the ripple than me," Silent Disaster replied.

At the top of the Birth Tower, Nassaupelle placed his palm over the central hub and gathered magic power. Every Senior Lord had a different innate skill. Valkries was well known to be able to infiltrate into the deepest layer of the Realm of Mind, or Mask that was seemingly blind and slow with the Realm of Mind, only capable of establishing a connection with the Realm of Mind with the help of the Birth Tower.

Silent Disaster waited patiently for a long while, but did not receive a reply from the other party.

"What's going on?" She frowned. "Is it not done?"

If not for the worries in her heart, she would never have asked so many questions in succession.

Nassaupelle turned his head and replied in surprise, "There's nothing…"

"Nothing?"

"The Presiding Holy Seat—I can't sense the King at all."

Silent Disaster was stunned.

The King was the backbone of the race and the Holy Seat was equivalent to a lighthouse in the boundless ocean. The disappearance of its signal meant that the demons had temporarily lost their ability to contact the Blackstone region.

Of course, it was impossible for the King to perish; otherwise, the intense ripple from his death would be enough for all demons to sense it.

The only question was, what exactly happened to cause the King to shut off the consciousness realm?

Before the Holy Seat reappeared, they would be kept in the dark.

…

Kingdom of Dawn, City of Glow Castle.

"That is the Deity of Gods…" Roland stood atop the castle and looked in the direction of the slowly-moving shadow.

Despite being mentally prepared for it, he was shaken upon laying his eyes on it for the first time.

It was not a special effect from the movies, but an object that existed in reality—a floating island capable of accommodating Neverwinter and Longsong, completely abiding by the saying 'big is better.' The mere sight of the island was enough to cause one's state of mind to be affected. If the black strata had steel frames and steam pipes, it would be the ideal creation.

No wonder the upper echelons of the demons were so confident in it.

Nightingale came to him and leaned in with a cautious expression written over her face.

"Relax." Roland spoke in resignation, "We are only observing from a distance, we won't meet with any danger."

"An unknown territory by itself signifies hazard." Nightingale said sourly, "I can investigate all the strangers entering and leaving Neverwinter, but I can't check on all the nobles in the Kingdom of Dawn. Why must you come to the front lines?"

"Because the situation has developed to a point where I am unable to stay in the safe Western Region." Roland shook his head. The First Army's first defeat, the Deity of Gods' sudden route change towards the Hermes Plateau, and the panic caused from the plague in the neighboring countries—all of these consecutive bad news resolved his decision. Be it inspiring the troops or stabilizing the confidence in their allies, both required his presence. In any era or civilization, this action was the most direct and effective morale booster.

He turned his gaze to Horford Quinn, "All of your ministers should have arrived by now, right?"

"They are all waiting in the conference hall."

"Very good, let us have a good talk… about what we should do next."

"As you wish, Your Majesty." The master of the Kingdom of Dawn placed his hand across his chest and replied calmly.

Chapter 1404 - Undetected Capabilities

The conference room in the castle of the Kingdom of Dawn was much larger than Neverwinter's and was able to accommodate a hundred people without causing a sense of overcrowdedness.

The room was partitioned by a long table in the middle and divided the participants into two distinct factions, Roland in the lead on one side with the higher-ups of Graycastle, the other were the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn and the representatives of the Chamber of Commerce. Compared to the calm expressions the former had while quietly waiting for the meeting to begin, the latter was obviously restless. Countless had worried expressions, occasionally whispering into each other's ears and their private conversations never came to a halt.

Obviously, the appearance of the Deity of Gods had impacted them greatly.

If they did not stop the fear from spreading, order in the neighboring countries had the probability of collapsing at any moment.

Roland knew that he needed to stabilize the confidence in his allies before that happened.

According to reports from the Administrative Office, after Horford took over as the new King of Dawn, trade between both parties reached a new high. Twenty percent of the imports of iron, copper, aluminum, and other raw materials and products came from them. As for leather, cloth, cured meat, milk and other day-to-day supplies, the Kingdom of Dawn supplied half of what Neverwinter imported.

Although Roland had worked hard for the trade deal to come to fruition, without the support from the Kingdom of Dawn, it would have been impossible to sustain Neverwinter's sudden spike of population in terms of living standards.

Based on this, Roland could not give up on the Kingdom of Dawn that easily.

Besides, there was also the impeccable performance of the Quinn family during the formation of the alliance. Roland did not know if Horford had a successor, but the future was unlikely to have a second Andrea Quinn who could link both parties so perfectly.

He quietly sized up every noble on his left until their private conversations ceased. He proceeded to speak, "Since the start of the battle, I have frequently heard of your contributions in the reports, so I wish to say, thank you for all of your hard work."

Everyone on the other side of the table revealed surprised expressions.

But Roland was not lying.

It would have been impossible by the efforts of the First Army alone to have the north-south path up and running so quickly. The path was extremely vital for the carts and porters to move speedily. It was a common practice for nobles to go out in full force and were used to plundering to provide for payment; thus, very few knew of the significance of the logistics and the contributions they had made towards the war efforts.

"I am sure that everyone understands the situation with regards to the Battle of Divine Will. Just as I have repeatedly stressed, defeat will lead to complete annihilation. There is no possibility of surrendering, so aside from resisting, we have no other path to take."

"I have been preparing for this battle ever since four to five years ago. But humankind does not rest solely in Graycastle, it requires every single human to participate for us to win the this war of destiny. I am very glad to see that all of you have become a part of the resistance."

Roland nodded at Barov who flipped opened a thick notebook and started to read aloud.

It was the logistic records for the First Army, as well as the contributions made by the Kingdom of Dawn.

Roland had no plans on using words to persuade the nobles—all the talk about defending their homes and the pretext of committing themselves for the sake of humankind would not produce any effect on them.

The most direct method was still through interests and pressure.

And the more detailed and accurate the narration, the more persuasive it would be.

He needed the nobles to know that even without them being at the front lines, they were capable of contributing heavily to the war. Secondly, these achievements were recorded down in black and white, which could be exchanged for their corresponding repayment after the war. Lastly, all the traitors or those who remained passive in the war would suffer from the most severe of punishments. At this crucial juncture, Roland no longer had the energy to allow them to do as they pleased.

Horford nodded his head subtly from the side.

He knew that the King of Graycastle had grasped the main point right from the beginning with clear-cut entrance and the detailed content. This scheme had roped in the nobles that were never part of the military into this matter that was destined to go down in history, a significant matter that would be passed down for a millennium. Most importantly, it would undoubtedly increase their sense of participation. Being recognized and going down in history was a pursuit the nobles chased after as well. Besides, with how Roland had explained that risk and return were interrelated, they understood that they would not be abandoned or mistreated.

But assigning rewards had always been a difficult topic for the top brass.

A few vassal families had suggested to him multiple times that there was no need to accomplish Roland Wimbledon's instructions to such degree and behave more like the King of Dawn. His reply was always to laugh it off.

The King of Graycastle that developed the artillery, biplanes, and steel steamships deserved the respect, but those were not the entirely the reason why Horford viewed him with such great respect. The true reason for his decisive loyalty and devotion was the benefits his family had obtained. In the trade between both kingdoms, the other party did not rely on their strength or his relationship with Horford's daughter, Andrea, to gain the upper hand. Instead, Roland insisted on paying for everything, and at times, even gave part of the profits to every participant involved, allowing everyone to benefit. This was far more important than strength.

Andrea likely saw this point as well before making a suggestion.

Compared to his son Hawn, the difference was too great.

"Your Majesty, the premise of your suggestions is that humans gain the ultimate victory." After Barov's narration, someone stood up and asked, "But the question lies in whether Graycastle can truly defeat the demons? I heard that…" He hesitated for a moment, "That your army seemed to have lost at the Kingdom of Wolfheart."

"That's right… we all know the strength of the First Army," another worried participant echoed. "But the floating island is truly too powerful… once it comes down on us, I'm afraid we won't even have the time to escape, right?"

Roland raised his teacup and slowly sipped the black tea. He knew that the outcome of the battle at the Impassable Mountain Ranges would be circulated soon enough since many who had participated in the search and rescue missions were the locals of Kingdom of Wolfheart that were familiar with the terrain. In the battle, they had lost contact with over a thousand people. Not only did the artillery squad lose their members, even the reserve force responsible to receive them suffered heavy losses.

The few days spent in aerial battle caused the Aerial Knights to lose 40 planes, half shot down by the enemy, the other half due to unexpected machine malfunctions. Due to this, Tilly had no choice but to postpone the operation.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Although the Seagull was hit, Wendy and Shavi were both proficient in controlling the situation. With Lightning and Maggie defending them in the distance, they were able to force land the plane and rescue all the Witches inside.

When Roland first read the report, he felt his heart at his throat. In terms of the loss of of troops, it was the largest out of all the military campaigns they had faced. But he agreed with how the General Staff had acted—Valkries was only clear on the principle behind the Deity of Gods and did not know the details regarding the Symbiotic Demons onboard. If they had not come to blows with the floating island, they would forever be kept in the dark about the enemy.

"The loss was because of our inadequate knowledge of the floating island." Roland told the truth. "It looks to be huge and imposing and even invulnerable, but the truth is that it isn't so. Edith, explain it to them."

"Yes." The Pearl of the Northern Region pinned a detailed draft of the Deity of Gods on the wall and jumped right into a detailed explanation. "According to the observations done by the First Army, it is more or less circular in shape with a diameter of 50 to 60 kilometers, comparable to the Impassable Mountain Range. The upper portion and the spine are able to unleash gigantic stone spears, capable of firing at least 15 kilometers. This was the crucial weapon that caught the First Army unprepared, but this also means that so long as the distance is not breached, it is just a floating island in the sky. We can use this to design a plan, to suppress the enemy…"

Fear always comes from the unknown.

Humans would fear emotive experiences or poor descriptions, but were never afraid of a bunch of numbers. Rather than taking great pains to cover their failure, or use grand empty words to deceive the crowd, why not publicize the information which the First Army had obtained at great costs and put an end to the fear from a rational point of view.

"… And the aforementioned information is all the details we have on the demons' floating island." Edith placed her hand across her chest towards Roland.

Roland turned his gaze to the noble that had raised the question. "Let me add one more point; avoiding the stone spear's attacking radius is only a temporary measure. The ultimate goal for the army is to completely destroy the stronghold floating in the sky."

One of the nobles gulped a mouthful of saliva. "But that is an inverted mountain…"

"It isn't as if humans do not have the ability to do so, it is just that you haven't been aware of it. Just like before the airplanes were created, no one believed that they would ever fly in the blue sky like birds…" Roland laughed. "For this, let me give you all a first-hand experience."

Chapter 1405 - Plan II: From the Sky

The nobles who were able to enter the Castle's conference room were basically the supporters of the three families in the City of Glow, many of whom participated in the construction of the road connecting the north and the south and struck it rich from the introduction of the steam engines and production of calcined cement. A majority of them had been to Thorn Town and witnessed the Aerial Knight's training first hand. After hearing how confident the King of Graycastle was, the worries on their faces finally lessened.

Regardless, the open and frank meeting that discussed numbers and information was a rare experience for the nobles of the Kingdom of Dawn. Compared to false and empty assurance, the precise discourse was even more convincing.

"Then… what do we need to do?" someone asked.

"Maintain the current situation." Roland answered straightforwardly, "A stable Kingdom of Dawn will be the greatest help to the war efforts."

"But panic has begun spreading. If we were to adopt any enforcement measures, I am afraid that it might instead backfire with regards to the refugees…"

"That is because the demons are making use of the Red Mist to infiltrate the borders, but this situation will no longer worsen." Roland consoled, "Graycastle will do its utmost to assist all of you in stabilizing the situation."

"King's City will relieve the tax from territories that have received threats from the demons, and also provide assistance according to the circumstances." Horford stepped in. "Everyone, this is a war that concerns all mankind, no one can avoid it. I, Horford Quinn, solemnly vow on my ancestors' name, that regardless of the outcome, I will not take even a step out of the City of Glow! If the Kingdom of Dawn is destroyed by the demons, then this shall be my grave!"

…

After gaining their guarantees, the somewhat appeased nobles left the room, and the meeting quickly moved into its second phase.

Aside from the King of the Dawn, the remaining people were the higher-ups of Graycastle.

"Your Majesty, with regards to the strike force from before, I am willing to shoulder all responsibility—" Iron Axe and Edith stood up at the same time, only to look at each other in surprise.

"No one could have anticipated what offensive methods the Deity of Gods have." Roland shook his head. "Don't tell me that you had never considered the possibility of the reserve force suffering an attack, to the point of being destroyed when you guys formulated the plan."

"…" The two could only remain silent.

It was a conventional tactic to send a small team to execute the investigation with the main force stationary, but to believe oneself infallible and think that any loss would only be limited to the small scouting team was a foolish mindset. He believed that the General Staff would never have made such a low level mistake.

"In other words, at the moment you chose to implement the plan, you have tacitly agreed the significance of investigation far outweighed the risks involving the two teams. Otherwise, the plan would have never been implemented. Relax, I will never use casualties to determine your successes and failures, even if it truly was the First Army's largest loss."

"Your Majesty…"

"But don't forget." At this point, Roland retracted his carefree expression and his tone of speech became serious. "All the soldiers have their own families as well; never treat their sacrifice as mere numbers on paper. I hope that the General Staff will remember this every time it comes to an agreement to execute a plan."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Iron Axe and Edith answered in unison.

"Then, let's hear your thoughts on the matters after the battle."

"Yes." The Pearl of the Northern Region switched out a new map. "After our analysis, the General Staff believes that there are two possible locations for the floating island after its last turn, the border of Cage Mountain or the Hermes Plateau. The former location will ensure the capture of the Kingdom of Wolfheart and threaten the Kingdom of Dawn at the same time; the latter will ensure the spread of the Red Mist to the four kingdoms, and the Impassable Mountain Range will form a connecting path to the ridge of the continent. But with the floating island passing the Kingdom of Dawn's borders and according to its current trajectory, Hermes Plateau is the most probable location."

Roland nodded. "How's the evacuation situation like over there?"

"Very smooth." Agatha replied, "Isabella is already hailed as the leader of the Church. Them taking charge is far more effective than typical citizens. It is estimated that they will all evacuate out to the new city in two or three days."

"That's great."

"Before the 'Glory of the Sun' is completed, we are unable to stop the advancement of the floating island." Edith carried on. "Once it occupies Hermes Plateau, the Red Mist will most probably pervade through Silver City, and the Kingdom of Dawn will most probably be engulfed. If we lose the support of the Witches, we will definitely be placed in a passive position."

We have reached this point after all.

Roland sighed inwardly, since the erection of the obelisk in Taquila's Holy City would pose a large threat to the entire human kingdom, not to mention it being inserted right in their faces.

The largest difference would be that the erection of the obelisk in Taquila would bring direct harm to Neverwinter, while the erection of the obelisk on the Hermes Plateau would only cover Silver City. Once the Red Mist infiltrated their only industrial zone, the consequences would be too horrible to even consider. Graycastle's strength was increasing at a rapid rate and was inevitably linked to the Witches. In Neverwinter, the Sleeping Spell had already integrated into the various parts of the city's development, such as clearing away the parasites on the ships, alleviating the worker's fatigue, assisting in precision works, and the planting of coral reefs to expand the shallow areas, etc… Although the steelmaking and other core industries did not require Witches, the substantial reduction of efficiency would become unavoidable.

Fortunately, be it the steam engines, internal combustion engines or Magic Cube Power Unit sources, they could all work in the Red Mist, which was humanity's biggest trump card against the enemy.

"It seems like before we destroy the Deity of Gods, we will be fighting against the enemy in the Red Mist for a period of time." His gaze swept through the entire crowd. "Aside from me being here today, I bring some good news. The 'Glory of the Sun' has completed its finalized design, and another round of tests will be set in motion soon. If we are successful, the floating island will not live to see the Red Mist devour the Kingdom of Dawn!"

Everyone's face lit up.

"Really?"

That's great!"

Roland revealed a smile as well. "So, the agenda of how the decisive strike will be accomplished can now be brought forward."

…

After an entire afternoon of discussion, the rough plan was essentially determined.

Due to the Deity of Gods' uniqueness, the First Army did not have too many choices. Either they buried a detonator in advance to destroy the floating island's core from the bottom, or to have it dropped from above and destroy the obelisk in one shot. Aside from that, the other proposed methods were all limited in terms of causing actual damage to the Deity of Gods.

The former's advantage was its simple implementation without the requirement of a bomber, but its effect could not be guaranteed— Hermes Plateau was large and broad, no one knew where the Deity of Gods would eventually stop. If the location deviated by even a slight margin, the explosion's effects would be greatly reduced.

Furthermore, whether the Glory of the Sun could turn the Red Mist waterfall into a high-temperature fiery column was still a question. The further the floating island was to the ground, the more uncertain the results. Additionally, in consideration of the limited amounts of refined uranium Lucia had produced, this plan was ultimately overruled.

The air drop plan posed two difficulties in terms of technique and implementation. But as long as the two conditions were met, the bomb would definitely explode at a location close to the Red Mist Lake, which would ensure the maximum result.

"In that case, we will draw up a plan based on this conclusion." Roland slammed his hand down on the table. "Aside from that, we will conduct the air drop dummy runs and the bomb test at the same time. We will get payback for what the demons did to us!"

"As you command, Your Majesty!" everyone bowed and answered in unison.

Chapter 1406 - A Night in the Kingdom of Dawn

To most people, it was a rare night of respite and relaxation.

Even though the Demon's floating island was steadily moving towards Hermes, the King of Dawn could not see this scene. Being a distance from the front line gave everyone a brief sense of tranquility, especially when they were to head to the battlefield the next day. As the soldiers had to separate to carry out their various missions, the serenity became even more precious.

When Andrea walked into the family courtyard, Horford was already there waiting for her.

"Welcome home, daughter."

"Yeah…" Andrea nodded slightly. This was her first return home after a year of separation, not as an intruder but through the main path with servants lined along the path to welcome her. In all honesty, she had hoped to spend more time by Tilly's side, but after receiving an invitation letter by her father emotions stirred within her. In the end, she chose to accept it.

He obviously could have told me directly after the meeting.

Maybe… he was afraid of being rejected.

But if it truly came to a face to face request, she would be at a loss as to what to say as well.

The difference between her current and previous visit meeting was that she had a task on hand the previous time, but this time, it was a strange reunion.

"You… wanted to talk to me about something?" Andrea while walking on the path.

"Lots of things. For example, what you've experienced at the front lines, your companions, and about Mister Roland Wimbledon…"

"He is just an idiot, there's nothing to talk about—" Andrea casually spoke, then realized her words were inappropriate, "Uhm, what I mean to say was…"

"I can see that he is a tolerant lord." Horford laughed. "Relax, I know that you might need some time getting used to this. I was afraid that it would be extremely unbearable for you if it was just the two of us, so I made some special arrangements."

"Arrangements?"

"You'll know once you step in." He stopped by the entrance of the main hall.

Andrea pushed open the doors. Before she was able to take a good look in the house, a figure pounced onto her—

"I've missed you, Lady Quinn!"

I see…

She opened her arms with a laugh as she hugged the other party.

The person who had pounced onto her was none other than Belinda Luoxi.

Other than her, there were two others seated by the table—Otto Luoxi and Oro Tokat. The two appeared rather emotional, with Otto looking as though he was at a loss.

The scene made Andrea feel as though she was back to more than a decade ago, the days before she awakened as a Witch.

Belinda's endless chatter and Orro's enthusiasm quickly dissolved the original stiffness, and her father who was rarely sat with the younger generation, was actually seated together with them.

Just to say a few words to me, he truly gave it a lot of thought… Andrea suddenly realized the little bit of resentment at the bottom of her heart had almost disappeared.

"Oh right, when the war is over, let's all go to Neverwinter. That way, we can meet more regularly." Belinda winked at her.

Andrea raised her brow in surprise. "You mean…"

"Of course it's the three of us!"

"Yes, yes!" Oro nodded vigorously.

"Wait a minute… Aren't Otto and Oro the successors to their families? Will the two old dukes from your families agree to you leaving home for an extended period of time?" Andrea looked suspiciously at Otto. Could he be the one pulling the strings in secret? That's rather irresponsible.

"No… It's not what you think." Otto immediately waved his hands and stammered, "Although I wish for that, but that, is just one factor… In short…"

"Let me explain." Belinda patted her brother's shoulder as she took pity on him, then turned to Andrea. "You're rarely in Dawn, so you wouldn't be updated with the local current affairs. There is a rumor spreading amongst the nobles in the city, especially in the City of Glow, that if a family is completely ignorant about natural science, they are bound to decline."

"Natural science? You mean…"

"That's right." Belinda smiled and nodded, "It all started from the Natural Science Theoretical Foundation published by Neverwinter, which has now been divided into many different and specialized subjects. Some call it a new field of education, some believe that alchemy and astrology are just a part of it. But regardless of that, it is a trend that has hit the nobles hard. As long as we are talking about any natural science books that come from Neverwinter, they will all be purchased at high prices."

"Father was influenced by it as well, so when we suggested our idea, he did not overreact. After all, being taught by professionals is far better than self-learning. Furthermore, many families are ahead on this and father doesn't want the Luoxi family to fall behind. So this isn't considered being irresponsible! Father even said that he can hold the position for another few years."

"They are just excited about the planes and steel ships." Oro shrugged. "But of course, I approve this notion with both hands up, since they're letting me travel."

"That's what… I wanted to say." Otto heaved a sigh of relief. "Furthermore, we plan to organize a study group."

"What's that?" Andrea asked curiously.

"The content in natural science is too heavy, just the three of us isn't enough to grasp everything." Belinda extended her hands out. "So we were thinking of choosing a few merchants and citizens with good aptitudes and give them an opportunity to access natural science. If they perform well, we will incorporate them into our families, killing multiple birds with one stone. What do you think?"

Andrea was at a loss for words.

She suddenly realized that change was occurring to everyone, be it her father or others.

The people in the Kingdom of Dawn used to see Graycastle as a sinister kingdom that protected the Witches who were known to be a taboo and abolished power and authority of the nobles. The upper class would never view Graycastle as a goal to imitate, and to even assimilate commoners into the family was violating tradition. But now, the once completely stark boundaries had blurred.

She could not help but turn to look at her father, Horford Quinn.

There was no doubt that he was involved in guiding the entire kingdom.

He was truly making up for his past mistakes and working extremely hard.

Although the past could never be rewritten, changes in the future could, at the very least, prevent the repeat of mistakes.

Is this what you're trying to convey, Father?

…

Over the following days, Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn carried out a joint operation.

The nobles set up over a hundred receiving points at the northwest portion of a major road, with tents and rations for the panic-stricken refugees. Under the protection of the God's Punishment Witches, the First Army's doctors began treating the sick and injured. Gentle and moving songs were frequently heard at areas that were most populated. Even the most irritable and restless would find themselves calming down from listening to the voice.

Under the guidance of the new Pope Isabella, patrols were established to pacify those driven away from their homes. After going through all kinds of crises, the people of the church possessed some influence. To them, the only one aside from Graycastle capable of fighting against the demons was the Church.

The crisis of panic was ultimately resolved and controlled before it reached an irreversible state of destruction under the hard work put in from all sides. Although the refugees were unable to return to their own homes for a period of time, the places unaffected were stabilized.

At this moment, the First Army was also ready to rehearse for the air drop.

Chapter 1407 - Setting Out

Early in the morning, the first ray of dawn appeared across the blurry horizon.

A majority of the people remained in slumber at this moment, but the ground crew and garrison soldiers in the new airport established on the outskirts of City of Glow was already bustling about. They faced the cold spring winds and busied themselves along both sides of the runway. The inner linings of their clothes were already soaked from their perspiration.

Planes after planes were towed out of their warehouses to the end of the runway. The final inspections, loading, and refilling entered in its final phase.

Inside the barracks by the side of the airport, Tilly gathered all the Aerial Knights that had gone through actual combat experience.

After numerous rounds of mass recruitment and with veterans guiding the rookies, the number of pilots able to take to the battlefield had exceeded a hundred. Furthermore, there were students more than two times those numbers who were undergoing extremely intense and harsh training. The 'new troops' which were distinct from the ground troops had already taken shape.

Although many planes were lost in the skirmish at the Impassable Mountain Range, the number of pilots who survived was high. Compared to the ground troops that had difficulty escaping the clutches of the demons and had to engage in bloody battles the moment they encountered them, the Fire of Heavens were capable of gliding out of the battlefield despite losing their combat capabilities.

Regardless whether they were struck by enemies or had some machine malfunction, as long as they were fortunate enough, the experienced pilots were able to sustain flight until they found suitable landing sites.

Of course, their survivability was also because of the fact that the biplanes were not fast but had good buoyancy and the demons' incapability of landing deadly hits with the stone steles.

These factors were the reasons for the increased maturity of the troops in their entirety.

"All of you should be clear on the details regarding this mission." Tilly crossed her arms and walked slowly in front of the troops. Like the combatants who were about to go into battle, she was equipped in thick and windproof combat clothes. Her gray and long hair was coiled behind her head matched with a blue hairband, making her appear ready and energetic. "Exactly like the past few simulation trainings in the past few days, we will infiltrate and break into the enemy's defensive line and drop the bomb into the innermost region of the floating stronghold."

"But this time, you will not be flying in City of Glow's air space, but above the enemy stronghold. The ones intercepting you will no longer be students of the school, but Senior Demons and Devilbeasts."

"Your Highness!" One of the pilots suddenly raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Isn't that much simpler for us?"

The one who spoke was Good, and his question incited laughter.

Tilly smiled; she did not oppose to such 'arrogant' words. On the contrary, such words were morale boosters capable of easing the tension right before battle.

Additionally, Good had already the achievement of killing 12 Devilbeasts alone. The words that came out from his mouth were not empty words of arrogance.

"It might seem so at first glance, but the Senior Demons on the Devilbeasts are not enemies you can ever belittle, I hope that you will return safely to prove this point." Tilly then changed the topic. "Aside from that, I need to emphasize that the surface of the floating island is extremely expansive, so infiltrating the core region means that your surroundings will be their territory. One can imagine a forced landing there. As much as possible, I want everyone to avoid suffering any accidents. I want all of you to throw the idea of risking yourselves at the cost of an enemy's attack for an opportunity to kill them to the back of your heads, understand!?"

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"Very good, we will move on to the formation arrangements. Those designated to 'Fury of Heaven' will assume the task of dropping the explosive charges."

When those words were spoken, all the Aerial Knights immediately pricked up their ears and focused.

Fury of Heaven planes were the first batch of improved Fire of Heaven planes. Their bodies were even more compact and the cockpit had an additional round glass lid. Not only was Fury of Heaven more aesthetically pleasing, it received many capability upgrades. The most crucial change modification was the new star-shaped engine and external weapons system. The former was an inferior version of the Phoenix's engine with a lower power output and without supercharge capabilities yet satisfying the assembly line output standards. The latter included the autocannons and aerial bombs, and could be customized based on the mission.

The first 10 Fury of Heaven planes from the factory were transported over by sea and were core to the air raid exercises. Those chosen to fly the new planes were undoubtedly the pilots recognized as outstanding candidates by the Princess.

Tilly intentionally paused for a moment, then pulled out a name list. "According to the plan, the 10 planes will be split into two teams with corresponding flight teams for escort, the first team Captain will be—Good."

"As you command!"

Everyone turned and cast envious gazes at him. As the Aerial Knight with the best combat record, there was no dispute to him being selected.

"Second team Captain—Manfeld."

The latter was stunned and took a while to recover. "Your Highness, you selected me?"

"Is there a second Manfeld here?" Tilly frowned.

"Yes, yes! As you command!"

Manfeld cried out in joy.

The nomination led to a flurry of whispers. Compared to the majority of the veteran Aerial Knights, he was a newcomer and the entries in his combat record could be counted with one hand. At the Impassable Mountain Range, his performance was only average, with him only taking down one demon. Although he performed well in practice, it was unexpected for him to be chosen as Captain.

But Tilly knew the immense talent and aptitude the newcomer had. It not only displayed in his piloting skills but his performance in intense battles. In terms of flight techniques, Tilly ranked him as top 10 within the Aerial Knights. But he greatly surpassed his peers in terms of his battle sense.

During the aerial battle, only Tilly noticed Manfeld's plane remaining at the formation's weakest position and drove away the hostile forces which attempted to attack from those spots, giving her Phoenix complete mobility to move about. Be it protecting his comrades going into offense or dispelling danger for them, Manfeld always appeared at the most needed locations.

This was definitely not an easy feat; aerial battles were mostly about rapid and substantial changes. The majority of pilots were only able to focus on their wingman and themselves, which was the aerial units required further subdivisions. The ability to examine the entire battlefield as a whole while being involved and seizing the effective incisions, his acute sense and scope far surpassed his flying ability.

Compared to Good who stood out for his individual skill, Manfeld's advantage and superiority appeared on the team level; thus, it was even possible that even he did not realize where his true talent lay.

After the battle, Tilly immediately looked up his detailed records. A knight lineage might had explained his attainments, but something worth musing was that a knight with such capabilities was unable to save his declining family. Manfeld's physique and strength limited his ability in close combat. If placed in a one-on-one battle, she believed that Carter could take him down with one hand.

But the physical strength of a pilot was not a factor for the rumbling engine and autocannons. By relying on the strength of the biplanes, the vast sky was obviously the perfect battleground for him to display his abilities.

Tilly did not explain her choice and believed that after going through a few more battles, Manfeld and the others would naturally notice his advantage.

After disseminating the list of the two teams, she looked up towards the sun and issued the command to move out.

Directed by the signal flags, Phoenix was the first to glide across the runway and soar into the sky. The golden sunlight reflected against the metal wings and emitted a dazzling halo.

Following behind her was the Seagull. After the fall and crash of the first biplane, Anna produced a second quickly. In her perspective, it did not take her much time to do something she was so familiar with.

Finally, 40 Fire of Heaven planes and 10 Fury of Heaven planes with autocannons suspended on their wings formed a large fleet that swept over the City of Glow before disappearing into the western clouds.

Chapter 1408 - Different People

At the same time, Roland stood atop the castle walls and watched the fleet until they disappeared into the distance.

"Aren't we being a little too hasty?" Nightingale expressed her worry, "The new biplanes only arrived yesterday, and they didn't even complete any formal training regarding the dropping of bombs."

Having been by Roland's side for so long, she had a clear understanding towards the First Army's combat processes. Every newly announced plans absolutely required drills and dummy runs. The General Staff would first undergo war room planning and verify its feasibility before moving onto the actual drill practice. Although the operation was to prepare for the Glory of the Sun, it was itself a standalone battle. According to usual practices, participants had to first study and practice with the corresponding task until they were confident of success before executing the mission.

"Yes, but time waits for no man." Roland nodded. "Currently, all our reports indicate that Hackzord did not appear in any battle… In other words, the letter worked. The problem is that the Sky Lord is naturally mistrustful and paranoid; no one knows how long the letter will work to keep him away, so the faster the air strike occurs, the better."

On a fundamental level, the operation was like the assault force—to probe the enemy. How would they react to an air strike? Did the Deity of Gods have any corresponding defensive measures? All of these were questions that they needed answers to before the decisive battle.

"Then… will it be fine without any training?

"Relax." Roland smiled. "Tilly already has a plan."

Dropping a bomb was a technical skill that required perfect coordination between the pilot and plane's equipment where even just ten to fifteen days of practice would produce little results. Now that they were in a rush for time, the first batch of Fury of Heavens did not come installed with sighting equipment, so it was impossible to practice even if they wanted to.

The plan proposed by Tilly made Hill assume central command—as long as the speed and altitude of the planes were defined, the drop point could be calculated; thus, the entire process became extremely simple. There was no need for the pilot to observe the ground; he was only required to release the trigger upon receiving command.

This method was somewhat similar to the early warning aircraft systems employed and developed in later generations, where the capabilities of tracking, positioning and, pursuit of the desired target were outsourced to a third party. When the data to open fire was transmitted to the aircraft, the latter would unleash fire and complete the final step for the offense.

The Seagull was precisely the early warning aircraft system to be in control of the overall situation.

"So that's how it is." After Roland's explanation, Nightingale revealed a look of enlightenment. "As expected of Princess Tilly…"

"Oh?" Roland raised a brow. "And I thought that you would be sighing with regret for being the only person to not understand what it means."

"Well of course, that might have been possible if it were the past." She rolled her eyes. "But with Anna around, even people who have immense amount of knowledge would believe that they know nothing. I've long gotten used to it."

Roland was dumbstruck by her reply. There was nothing glorious about it, yet Nightingale was able to answer with such confidence. But her frank reply made him surprised as well.

"And I've understood something over the past few years…" Nightingale shrugged her shoulders.

"What's that?"

"See, you're not a know-it-all, right?" She turned toward the gentle rays of the morning sun, her fringe reflecting the golden light. "But since you asked, I will reluctantly explain it to you—every single person has their respective strengths; there isn't a need to blindly imitate someone else and one should focus on their own strengths. Or could it be that you only like… people who are extremely knowledgeable?"

"…" Roland was momentarily left speechless.

But it was a question that did not require his answer.

Nightingale's expression revealed that she understood him clearly.

"That's all there is to it. So remember to place more Chaos Drinks inside the cabinet." Nightingale shook her fingers and turned to walk down the castle. "When everyone returns in triumph, I have to gather them to have a good celebration."

Roland stared at her departing figure for a long time before coming to his senses. We aren't even in Neverwinter, where am I supposed to obtain Chaos Drinks… and that sentence of focusing on one's strengths, wasn't it just a pretext for her to enjoy life openly!

He shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry and followed along.

…

"This is Seagull, Your Highness. You have entered the floating island's alert radius." Early in morning at 8:35, Sylvie used the Sigil of Listening and issued her first warning. "In less than a minute, the fleet will be within the attacking radius of the steles."

"Copy." Tilly sneered. "I see them."

Tilly never thought of hiding herself from the demons right from the beginning, she knew that the Deity of Gods had Eye Demons as sentries—the moment Sylvie saw them, they immediately noticed her. If the Seagull revealed its importance, it would be unfavorable to the plan. So she chose to go all in and attract as much attention of the enemy onto the fleet of fighter planes.

Right after Sylvie's first warning, the enemies reacted.

Many black dots rose into the air from the island and went into formation before flying towards them.

Hmph, they are rather cautious. Tilly activated the wireless transmitter emotionlessly and tuned to all frequencies. "Attention, the demons have revealed themselves. Everyone, focus and prepare for battle! Team One, Team Two, move according to plan!"

"Understood," Good and Manfeld replied at the same time.

The Aerial Knights had an extremely simple formation. 50 biplanes were divided into two waves. The team tasked with the bombardment flew above the clouds in order to cut down the detection time of the enemies. Aside from the Fury of Heaven team and the five planes to protect the Seagull, the remaining 35 Fire of Heaven planes assumed the role of scattering the Demon's defense.

The main fighter planes quickly closed into the 10 kilometer radius of the stronghold. At this distance, the black rocks on the floating island that resembled scales and the central city were visible with the naked eye. But at this moment, the steles that surrounded the stronghold didn't rise as though non-existent.

To their expectations, the black steles were not meant to fight against the Aerial Knights.

"This is Phoenix. Has anyone located the Senior Lord that ambushed the ground force previously?" Tilly asked.

"…" Sylvie searched for a moment. "Not yet."

Seems like luck is on our side today. Tilly looked back at the sun which was slowly rising above the horizon, the blinding light had perfectly covered the Aerial Knight's direction of offense.

"The weather is good; a perfect day for their eternal rest."

She suddenly accelerated. With the resounding roar from the engine, her plane flew upwards and was the first to shoot towards the enemy—

…

"Princess Tilly has engaged the enemy." Sylvie reported with a solemn expression. From the looks of the situation, the Aerial Knights were at a clear disadvantage in terms of numbers. As they had taken the initiative to attack the demons' main nest, the mobilization of the Devilbeasts were much faster than the previous time. "The enemy count is still increasing, if this goes on… they will get surrounded."

As though having sensed her worry, Wendy reassured her, "Relax, although there are more demons, the Aerial Knights do not need to shoot every single one of them down. They only need to delay them for ten minutes. Those devilbeasts cannot compete in terms of speed, it'll be better if you focus on the main objective."

That's right… the earlier we drop the bombs, the earlier they are able to retreat. Worrying for both ends will only make me lose sight of my objective. Sylvie bit her lips and focused her attention to the center of the main island.

Through the layers of Red Mist, a grand square and sharp monument suddenly entered her vision.

Although she was observing from a high and distant altitude, she was able to sense the immensity of the building—the building standing at a height of several hundred meters resembled a pillar rising from the deepest pit into the heavens. It felt as though all the human buildings that she had encountered had lost their luster in the presence of this construct.

Chapter 1409 - Bomb (I)

Sylvie came to a realization that the structure before her was the mission's main target.

The scene of the center of the floating island was completely different from what Roland had illustrated. The demon city was built around the tall and pointed obelisk with a deep pit that separated the two. Countless inferior demons adhered themselves along the walls of the pit like worms living parasitically on the surface of a tree. On closer look, one would discover that they were excavating the walls endlessly and enlarging the size of the pit.

Most of the Red Mist was deposited here and formed a red lake. The towers close to the walls of the pit would eventually fall into the lake and become part of the large pit.

It was rumored that the obelisk wasn't that large in the beginning, but would grow continuously like a living animal while the accumulated Red Mist would expand. From these two points, one could roughly gauge the age of a demon city.

The city before Sylvie was obviously ancient.

Compared to the target, the biplanes could only be described as insignificant. Ignoring the bombs carried by the planes, even if the planes were to charge into the Red Mist, it was hard to imagine how that would ignite the Red Mist Lake.

Suddenly, Sylvie let out a soft exclamation.

"What's wrong?" the sharp and attentive Wendy immediately asked in concern.

"I found a very strange… demon."

A demon standing at the top of the obelisk attracted her attention. According to how the demons worshiped the sky, any demon able to ascend the obelisk was no doubt an important figure. And in her eyes, the appearance of this particular demon revealed that it was no run-of-the-mill demon. It had a cloak wide enough to cover three to four humans with all sorts of ornaments hanging all over. When she got closer, she discovered that this demon had bone knives, metal armors, and even a few screws.

The enemy's head was also extremely unique. It was shaped like a pillar with all sorts of mask hung all over. The strange sight caused her hair to stand.

"Does it have very strong magic power undulations?"

"No… it isn't strong at all." This was what Sylvie was confused about. From its exterior appearance, it was at least a Senior Demon, but it showed no signs of moving upon its appearance. It did not even have any intention of gathering magic power to unleash anything, the only thing it did was to stare in the direction of the Aerial Knights without any intention of participating in any battle.

But since it did not pose any threat to everyone, Sylvie did not concern herself with it. She refocused her attention back to judging the most suitable drop zones for the two Fury of Heaven planes which were responsible for dropping the bombs since they were already reaching the edge of the city.

Two minutes later, she issued the first command through the transmitter.

"Team 1, you may drop the package."

"Roger that. Good out."

Even though it was a clear day, the clouds above the Impassable Mountain Range floated at a reasonable height. With the floating island moving at a constant altitude, the Fury of Heaven planes that flew over the clouds were not detected by any enemy.

Five biplanes formed a line and dropped the bombs weighing a 150 kilograms from the belly of their planes at a stable speed.

The instant the heavy bombs were released from the plane, Good felt the entire plane lift up as though its entire body had turned somewhat lighter.

The regretful thing was that he was unable to witness the outcome of the battle.

But Sylvie saw it extremely clearly.

Due to gravity, the five bombs quickly turned their heads towards the ground and used the inertia from the planes to follow a parabolic arc towards the city center. By the last 500 meters, they were almost perpendicular to the ground.

The demons also noticed the 'uninvited guests' from above.

Another devilbeast soared into the air and flew towards the clouds—but the movements of the devilbeasts paled in comparison to the descending bombs.

The five shadows dropped into the city in succession and exploded into a blazing fireball, producing smoke, dust, and rubble that flew over 10 meters high. The power and impact far exceeded that of a 152mm Howitzer! Although Sylvie was unable to hear the explosion, she was able to clearly sense the tremendous effects from the tremors caused by the violent explosions and the blast wave that radiated in every direction.

At the same time, the heatwave produced a few 'cavities' in the Red Mist like the formation of air-bubbles in fluffy bread.

From a bird's eye view, the diffusing grayish-black smoke pillar was extremely striking within the Red Mist. Perhaps the City rarely suffered from attacks for centuries in the past, but in less than half a month, since its invasion into the Impassable Mountain Range, its core area had been visited by the humans twice.

Yet, Sylvie's heart sank.

The drops were more accurate than the Longsong Cannons and had successfully fallen into the city center, albeit spanning a large area. However, due to the wind's influence, only two bombs struck the Red Mist Lake. Furthermore, they did not come into contact with the 'lake's surface' and exploded in midair.

The instant the fireball appeared, she witnessed a rippling blue light wave—exactly like the barrier that appears on Senior Demons!

"What happened?" Wendy noticed her peculiar expression.

"The obelisk's surroundings… is protected by a magic power barrier," Sylvie muttered. "The bombs failed to be effective…"

"Hey, hey." Shavi turned her head back in disbelief. "You mean that the demons expanded their barriers to the size of a city? How is that possible?"

She knew it was simply inconceivable. The effect of an ability was linked to the overall amount of magic power. For the barrier to encompass such a large area, it was impossible even for all the Witches combined. But the truth laid right in front of them, preventing her from shying away from the truth.

That's right… that Senior Demon at the top of the obelisk!

The instant she recalled the peculiar demon, Sylvie turned to look at him. This glance instantly caused all the hairs on her body to stand as an indescribable feeling surged from her heart—

The latter had unknowingly extended all of his dry and long arms to remove the masks from his head, revealing an extremely grotesque appearance. There were more than 10 stacked heads—a mix of demons, humans, and god knows what other creatures—that looked up to the sky. One of the faces was a female face that appeared extremely jarring. Every single face revealed different smiles, and it could be said to be the most disturbing scene that anyone could witness.

Sylvie could no longer endure the sight. She stooped down and let out a burst of vomiting sounds as she abruptly stopped her ability.

Wendy immediately picked up the communication device. "This is Seagull. Team 2, dump the bombs immediately and return."

"Copy that, was Team 1 successful?"

"No… there is a magic powered barrier around the obelisk, preventing the bombs from entering the deep hole."

"Barrier?" The other side remained silent for a moment. "Got it. But I want to try again."

"But there has been an accident here, Sylvie is temporarily unable to provide guidance, and the Devilbeasts are already nearing the clouds!"

"Relax, Team 1 will cover us."

Wendy connected to Tilly and reported the situation. Surprisingly, the latter remained indifferent. "It doesn't matter; let Team 2 try it out. We haven't reached the point of retreat yet."

Chapter 1410 - Bomb (II)

At the same time, Good received incoming communications from the Captain of Team 2. "This is Manfeld. Senior Good, I want to charge out of the clouds, I hope that you can help me!"

"Out of the clouds, are you crazy? We are in the enemy's headquarters!" Before Good could reply, Finkin roared into the communication device, "And you heard it too, there is a barrier protecting the mist, what can you do? Newcomer, the battlefield isn't a place for you to joke around!"

As the most advanced and improved biplanes, all the Fury of Heaven planes were equipped with transmitter-receivers, which was the reason why they dared to travel through the clouds without Tilly's commands.

But Good did not object immediately. Compared to their levels of seniority in the academy, he was even more curious about the other party's plan. "I heard your request, Manfeld. But even if gain sight of the target, you should know that without Ms. Sylvie's calibration, the probability of you landing a fatal strike is extremely slim."

Good had noticed the extraordinary gift the newcomer possessed during training. It was rumored that Manfeld was a down and out knight who came to Graycastle after being unable to integrate into the Kingdom of Wolfheart. Many Aerial Knights that came from ordinary backgrounds acted like his seniors mainly to vent their resentment and unhappiness of being bullied by nobles in the past.

In all honesty, Good did not have any favorable impressions towards the knights from the Kingdom of Wolfheart. They looked flamboyant, domineering, and were insufferably arrogant. But when they truly met strong enemies, they ran faster than anyone else. Good had witnessed countless disgraceful situations when the Hermes Church annexed the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

But it was Good's first encounter with a knight who took the initiative to seek permission to do battle; thus, he wanted to know if the other party was intentionally trying to perform in front of Her Highness, or was he truly someone that stood out from the masses.

"Senior, do you remember the method of using the plane's body to control the trajectory of the bullets?" Manfeld asked, "I think it should work with the bombs as well!"

The moment he finished his sentence, Good felt the buzzing sounds around him turn softer, as though his surrounding had become more spacious.

"That brat has already flown out of the clouds!" Finkin shouted, "What should we do?"

Using the plane's body to control the drop, hmm… Good quickly realized the similarities in both techniques. He coughed twice. "We can't leave Team 2 behind; Her Highness Tilly is still watching us from the side!"

"… Hahaha, that's right!" Finkin paused for a moment, then changed his tone into one of righteousness. "Protecting comrades is what I'm proficient in, all of you go ahead without worries. Leave the devilbeasts to Team 1, Yeehaw—!"

You're truly easy to read.

Good sighed, then pushed his control stick forward.

The two teams flew out of the clouds from different positions and dove downwards, drawing two paths in the sky and at the same time going against the devilbeasts. Although the Fury of Heavens were fewer in numbers compared to the latter, they pressed forward imposingly.

One team flew in an arc and collided with the devilbeasts while the other team flew straight for the obelisk. At such close distances, they were able to recognize the target even without Sylvie's guidance.

Midway, a portion of the demons attempted to intercept the five Fury of Heaven planes, but the disparity in speed was plainly visible at that moment. The devilbeasts stabilized their altitude only to have the biplanes brushed past them. The Fury of Heaven planes that carried the 150 kilogram bombs were not afraid of being caught up by the devilbeasts.

After adjusting his direction, Manfeld dropped the bombs.

His comrades following behind closely imitated his actions.

The bombs maintained a similar speed and direction to that of the planes. After flying past the defense towers and buildings, they flew towards the lake. Compared to the first bomb drop, these five bombs were concentrated in one location. Aside from the first bomb being stopped by the obelisk, the remaining four exploded directly above the Red Mist Lake.

The successive explosions caused the entire city to tremble. Under the soaring flames, blue ripples flickered repeatedly, preventing any of the blast to affect the Red Mist Lake from start to end. But everyone noticed the barrier was no longer as radiant as it was in the beginning.

"Well done, Newcomer." Finkin whistled.

Good performed an abrupt turn and broke away from the devilbeast's pursuit. He then switched to the all-frequency channel. "Your Highness Tilly, Team 1 and Team 2 have accomplished the dropping of the bombs. Requesting permission to return!"

"Understood, permission granted."

The Phoenix shot out a red flare, to which the fleet responded by disengaging the demons and soared higher into the sky. Relying on the dazzling sunlight, they disappeared into the blue sky.

…

Mask released a contented gasp.

The humans had surpassed his expectations time and time again.

The separation of combat units, the feint by the main attacking force and immediate retreat after delivering the strike without any delay… It was a mere two to three minutes of time from the time it took the defensive troops to ascend, intercept, and to the end of battle. The nimble battle plan had undoubtedly maximized the strengths of the war machines even under the many restrictions.

It's no wonder Ursrook had such restraining fear towards the humans, seems like I have indeed wronged him.

But even the genius of the race only saw the threat the humans posed, and did not even perceive the essence of this mystery. On the other hand, if even the clumsy and slow humans were capable of flying in the sky with the help of those iron birds, wouldn't it be even more astonishing if used by us? When that happens, the Sky-sea Realm will no longer be a tough enemy, and our race will be the ultimate victor!

If Ursrook had used this logic to convince everyone back then, who knows if I might had stood by him.

What a pity.

"What was that tremor?" Donned in armor, Silent Disaster opened the doors to the top of the obelisk and walked in. "Did the Deity of Gods encounter an enemy attack?"

"That's right, but you came late and missed the exciting battle." Nassaupelle glanced at her. "Are you thinking of going to battle dressed like that? You shouldn't force yourself."

"You have no need to concern yourself over this." Silent Disaster retorted, "Where is the enemy?"

Nassaupelle pointed to the sky. "They have most likely discovered the clear difference between their iron birds and the Bogle Beasts. What an irony… In the Second Battle of Divine Will, the Bogle Beasts were the biggest asset we had to prevail over our enemies."

Silent Disaster stared at the sky with a nasty expression and did not utter a word.

"Relax." Nassaupelle donned his masks once again. "After my observations, I have already thought of a countermeasure. Compared to the Bogle Beasts, their movements and trajectories are too obvious. By the way, since you yearn for battle, why not help me with something?"

"…"

"Don't be so serious, I am not mocking you." Mask spread out his numerous arms. "There were a few iron birds that dropped to the southeast of the city. If the worms are still alive, capture them and bring them over. I think it shouldn't be difficult for you."

"You want them alive?" Silent Disaster asked coldly.

"Of course." Nassaupelle smiled. "Only fresh brains are worth transplanting. Additionally, they have just gone through an intense battle and their aerial battle is the clearest, perfect for me to validate my countermeasure—This is my first time taking the brains of those ordinary lowlifes. I wonder which lucky human will earn the special glory?"

Silent Disaster walked away in disgust, and turned her head towards the Birth Tower.

Nassaupelle turned away indifferently. He knew that no matter how much the other party disliked his methods, Silent Disaster would put in her all for the race.

Mask looked into the direction where the human territory laid and gradually extended a hand forward. From his angle, he only required a hand to grasp the entire continent into his palm. In a few more days, the Deity of Gods will enter the Hermes Plateau, and the Symbiotic Demons in the experimental station have already accumulated enough power. The King shall see that I alone am enough to support an entire army, Blood Conqueror and Silent Disaster are merely to provide contrast.

Suddenly, a light flickered in the distance.

It came and disappeared in an instant. Although it was extremely small, it was bright to the point of being glaring like the reflection of the sun on the ocean surface, or like a beam of light reflected from a reflective surface.

Was that just an illusion…

Nassaupelle was stunned by the sudden incident. By the time he turned his attention to the direction of the Swirling Sea, the tiny point of light had disappeared.

Chapter 1411 - An Unexpected Package

A drizzle poured over the shore of Gemini Bay in the Kingdom of Dawn.

Agatha was unable to ascertain if it was a natural phenomenon induced by the nuclear test or just a coincidence.

The violent explosion above the water surface lifted an extremely magnificent water spout that could be seen even from 15 kilometers away. In contrast to the ash blue background, the water spout appeared to be pure white, as though it did not come from the sea. The water spout gradually surged upwards as though it had become weightless. The entire process lasted for tens of seconds, but it was a sight that transcended common sense for the majority of the spectators.

In the end, the water spout turned into rain that returned to the sea, replaced with a twisted white mist that was even expansive and higher than the water spout. At this point in time, the spectators were able to see the peculiar cloud of smoke.

The sailboats that had gathered at the location of the explosion had disappeared without a trace.

That was when the rain started pouring down.

It had been her biggest regret to miss out on the first nuclear test back on Snow Mountain, and now, she had resolved that regret by attending this trial.

Agatha could not help but recall the words between His Majesty Roland and Phyllis two years ago during winter. I was after the artillery demonstration in Neverwinter.

Exothermic reactions between chemicals were merely the simplest results of an explosion.

He was pursuing the recreation of the Glory of the Sun.

Aside from the ridiculous talk regarding the 'Resplendent Radiation,' His Majesty has always appeared reliable.

But what surprised her this time was that the spectators did not produce any applause.

The nobles invited for the viewing sat blankly in their seats, apparently even forgetting to whisper to each other. Many of them had complicated expressions, so much so that hints of fear had flashed past their eyes. As the representative of Graycastle, Agatha had originally written a passionate speech as requested by Roland, but after seeing the expressions of the spectators, she immediately stood up and vacated her seat.

She was able to guess their thoughts.

There were times when silence revealed everything.

Regardless, King Roland had honored his promise. The nobles from the Kingdom of Dawn who had participated in the meeting had witnessed first hand humankind's capabilities.

The subsequent gathering of data was naturally conducted by the members of the Ministry of Industry who specialized in it.

In less than half an hour, the preliminary verdict was sent to her: the test had attained its expected results.

Agatha wrote "Everything went smoothly without a hitch" on a piece of paper,tied it to the carrier pigeon, and sent it flying.

The carrier pigeon flapped its wings and disappeared into the horizon.

Hopefully, the air operation on the other side went smoothly as well, she thought to herself.

…

Within the walls of the City of Glow, the General Staff sorted out all new information related to the air raid operation.

The outcome of the attack was ideal, the Demons never expected for the humans to launch a new attack right after the loss in the Impassable Mountain Range. Compounded with the Aerial Knight's agile maneuverability in the air, the fleet was able to draw in close to the Deity of Gods before the enemy reacted.

This meant that although the demons had the ability to lift the floating island which spanned tens of kilometers, they did not have the ability to monitor its surrounding completely. Not only did this provide the superiors of the First Army with hope, it gave the Seagull the opportunity to record all the positions of the devilbeasts. Although they were unlike the biplanes that required a large and flat clearing to take off, they had to be reared to be integrated for war. Thus, all the devilbeasts were found to be located at larger Blackstone towers and were undoubtedly important targets.

And the most crucial information was the magic power barrier that protected the Red Mist Lake.

Not only did the Aerial Knights discover its existence, they verified that the barrier could be weakened through consecutive bombings. Although the principle was unclear, it held the same traits as the barriers used by Senior Demons, except that it had a wider scope.

The General Staff believed that once they found the connection between the two was established, they would be able to speculate and figure out the necessary firepower required to break the barrier.

Losing four Fire of Heaven planes was considered the smallest price to pay for all the information.

"Manfeld Castein…" Roland placed the report down and sighed emotionally. "He truly deserves an award."

It wasn't difficult to be determined.

The difficulty lies in having both the determination and ability to realize the decision.

His charging into the demon city and diving down to unleash the bomb just by relying on his own understanding and finally leading his comrades to safety could only be attributed to talent which could only be described as extraordinary.

"I will pass on this honorary prize to him." Tilly shrugged her shoulders, then followed on with a murmur, "But why haven't I seen…"

"What?"

"No, nothing. I have other things to do, I'll make a move first." Tilly turned and headed towards the door.

Roland heard a chuckle from behind.

"Eh… did you hear what she said?"

"No." Nightingale smirked. "But I can guess."

"Really? Spit it out."

She raised five fingers.

"That many?" Roland was shocked.

"Who asked her to have the identity of a princess. That's already a discounted price."

"Alright, it's a deal."

Nightingale licked her lips. "That Aerial Knight truly has talent, but your praise for him was over the top. Out of all the Aerial Knights, isn't it obvious who is the most talented and outstanding? You seem to be treating people who have the ability to accomplish things as a norm, but not so much for this matter." At this point, Nightingale paused. "After all, talent isn't something we get to choose, right?"

…

That's right, being capable is sort of a talent as well…

Roland sat by the window in Rose Café and watched blankly at the pedestrians walking along the road.

Although having talent puts someone at a higher starting point, but to completely exhibit that talent requires a large amount of effort. I seem to have overlooked this recently.

"Hey, what're you dazing out for?"

Roland retracted his gaze and saw Valkries holding onto two cups of coffee as she sat opposite him.

"I'm thinking about how to reach the Bottomless Land as soon as possible." He threw out the complicated thoughts in his mind and went through the air raid on the Deity of Gods once. "Is this magic barrier capable of covering the entire region related to the ability of some Senior Demon? Or is it a newly researched technique?"

"If I'm you, I'll stop using the label of demons on us." Valkries retorted, "My race's specific abilities depends on what magic stone we receive, selecting a barrier magic stone just depends on the right compatibility and having a high attainment in using it. It doesn't really relate to our ability of wielding it. For example, I did not merge with such a magic stone. Aside from that, it is impossible for a magic stone to encompass the entire Birth Tower, it should be the result of Mask's research."

"What's that?"

Valkries drank a mouthful of coffee. "By using a core apparatus to simulate the cyclone structure of the magic stone and amplify its result substantially. This idea came about a long time ago, but there were many restrictions on it. I never imagined that Mask would succeed."

This means that the barrier on the Deity of Gods and the magic barrier on their bodies are essentially the same. Roland silently noted. At least it proves that the assumption proposed by the General Staff is feasible.

"Is the development of Symbiotic Demons also from Mask?"

"Yes, in some sense, he is very similar to Transformer Heathtalese. He has never utilized any offensive type magic stones." Valkries nodded. "Considering that the Symbiotic Demons aren't ideal at dealing with the Sky-sea Realm, it is only logical that the King sent them here."

After chatting about the situation, Nightmare Lord stood up and left.

After sending her to the door, Roland suddenly voiced out. "Thanks."

She stopped abruptly.

"Hackzord hasn't appeared in the two battles. I think that he believes in the content written in the letter. If he was present, I'm afraid that the First Army would had suffered more losses. Just for this, I should be thanking you."

"Don't forget that I'm not helping you, but my race." Valkries turned back and replied. "The best repayment will be the honoring of your promise. I don't need any gratitude aside from that."

She left and disappeared into the crowd.

Roland returned to the cafe when his phone suddenly rang.

It was a message mentioning a delivery.

This puzzled him—he had not purchased anything online recently.

Even so, he returned to the apartment and opened the delivery box to retrieve the package sent to him.

The package was half an arm broad and felt weightless, completely inconsistent with the paper box's size.

After inspecting and verifying that the package was for him, he brought it into his bedroom and opened up the package.

The moment the box was opened, he froze.

Inside the package was a frozen astrolabe.

Chapter 1412 - The Third Act

How can this be—an astrolabe?

Roland only snapped back to his senses after quite a while.

Unlike the core of a Fallen Evil, the astrolabe only appeared within magic creatures or Oracles that no ordinary martial artists could contend against.

Roland believed that the Martialist Association could only hope to defeat such an enemy by concentrating its force and plotting a meticulous plan, but they would never hand over the astrolabe willingly. Sending the astrolabe through express delivery was an act that risked the chance of infecting others to which seemed as though it was child's play.

But if it wasn't sent by the Association, who sent this?

Roland checked on the address and telephone number from the sender and discovered that they were fake. The only believable point was the postal address used that indicated it came from the same city. Obviously, the sender wanted to remain anonymous.

The fact was that the actions of the other party wasn't that brilliant. The delivery company did not require their customers' true identities simply to cut costs; otherwise, tracing the delivery would had been easy. But to create a false address in hopes of hide from a trace? It was a near impossible task in modern society, as checking the cameras or asking the employees were typically ways to quickly lock onto the sender.

But Roland was hesitant about using the power of the Association to investigate the sender.

By the looks of it, the other party obviously knew Roland and held some goodwill towards him; otherwise, they would have never sent such a problematic item to the apartment.

Regardless, a person that assisted him in impairing the Erosion was most likely standing on the same side as him. Roland decided to maintain the situation knowing that the other party had no wish to reveal themselves.

Roland mopped his forehead and decided to push the problem for later.

More importantly, he needed to deal with the astrolabe in front of him.

He focused his attention back to the box.

If the astrolabe came from a rift monster, I can directly merge and get rid of it. But if this came from an Oracle, wouldn't that mean…

No, how is that possible. Roland couldn't help but laugh. To be able to kill a rift monster is already an exaggeration, much less an Oracle. Even Fei Yuhan was only able to struggle persistently against one, I shouldn't delude myself into such fantasy.

He placed his hand on the astrolabe.

The astrolabe revived from its static time as blue and white speckles started revolving. The center became brighter and brighter until a resplendent beam of light shot out. At this point, everything occurred very normally, like how he had witnessed the scenes merging.

But in the next second, the world suddenly plunged into darkness. A large amount of consciousness surged into his brain while bringing an unbearable pain!

Roland almost lost his consciousness under the perilous situation. After stabilizing his state of mind with great difficulty and waiting until everything settled down, he opened his eyes and found himself standing in a void. The snowflakes were present like in his previous experiences, but having gone through it three times, his mind was able to filter through the unrelated clamors.

… Fine, it actually comes from an Oracle.

Seems like I have to investigate the person's identity.

Roland puckered his lips and looked around.

It's still using the universe as its background?

Roland was uncertain due to the void's spaciousness and emptiness. Compared to his previous experiences, this trip was obviously darker, as though the stars had been hidden.

After spending some time, Roland finally found a base point from the sparse snowflakes. The dim light resembled a source on the verge of being extinguished and was the size of a needle embedded in the darkness.

Following this point, he found more lights.

Upon seeing this, he became even more uncertain of his location.

The lights were arranged evenly with equal gaps in between, which was unlike a natural celestial body.

"Let me ask you, what is gravity?"

While doing a surveying with widened eyes, a voice that suddenly came out from behind caused all the hair on his back to stand!

He immediately turned around and noticed a gray and blurred shadow that floated erratically, as though it it was incorporeal.

The words were not spoken in a language he was well acquainted with, so much that he was unsure if it was even a language. Although he did not understand the reason, he knew that the content was simplified upon being mapped in his mind. It was as though the other party had produced a complex electromagnetic waves that passed through a filter, filtering out the greater part of the message, leaving only the content he was able to comprehend.

"Were you… asking me?" Roland asked carefully.

'Gravity is the force most deserving of reverence in this world.' Another voice in his consciousness gave the answer, and it sounded extremely familiar to him.

Roland rolled his eyes.

First, the sudden question had spooked him, followed by the answer that came from nowhere. Roland thought that he had landed in a memory fragment to which he was participating in and did not realize that he was a mere spectator.

"That's right, it is a universal force, stable, and the more imposing it is, the stronger it becomes…"

"It dilates time and brings about form from nothingness. That is how life can take root, for civilization to continue its existence."

The voice gradually filled with cadence, as though it was narrating an eulogy at the top of its voice.

"And the first force recognized by every race is gravity. It is a cradle and a chain. In a civilization's history of improvement, they struggle to be free of gravity."

"To flee from the ground and fly in the air, to a distant place, isn't that so."

"Now, it will be an obstruction for us once again, our final obstruction."

'The risks are unpredictable, I do not suggest implementing the Gateway Plan.'

"Every step forward has its risks, you should know that."

'I understand. My suggestion from the beginning hasn't changed.'

"But you're still helping me to complete it." The gray figure flickered twice. "For the plan, I have waited for many millennia, it is time to activate it."

Wait a minute, what is the Gateway Plan? What does it mean for it to be the final obstruction? Roland felt as though he had missed out on an extremely crucial piece of information. But no matter how he opened his mouth or what he thought, he was unable to inquire further. The parties engaged in the conversations never replied to his shouts.

'… I understand.'

"Buzz…"

As the conversation ended, the snowflakes increased in quantity.

According to his experience, when the episode reached its end, time would flow faster. But without having any reference, he was unable to make an accurate judgment.

Roland watched as the lights converged towards the center. Instead of an increase in illumination, it quickly became pitch black. The remaining lights flew towards the darkness like moths attracted to a flame without stopping. Roland did not know how many had converged into the darkness, as everything that had occurred felt like an instant and at the same time, endless…

Finally, as though a limit had been breached, a dazzling red light blossomed from the darkness and swept past the entire world in an instant!

It traveled faster than the speed of light, completing its sweep by the time Roland reacted, turning everything back to its original state.

But Roland knew that the world was completely different—a great change had taken place!

The first feedback was the gray shadow that dispersed like a mist under the red light.

Following that were the deaths occurring all around. At every corner of the darkness, death and destruction repeated continuously, Roland was unable to see the scenes with his eyes, but everything was reflected in his mind: The burning cities in the distance, the collapse of a planet's orbit, the fishes that stopped moving in the streams, and the rotting worms in the caves…

Even his body which was floating in the void started deteriorating.

There were no difference between superior and inferior lifeforms.

At this point of time, the snowflakes had occupied his entire vision.

When everything ended, the sight of his bedroom appeared before him again. Roland endured the strong sense of discomfort and shifted his body to the window with clenched teeth. The warm afternoon's sunlight sprinkled over his body, and the sight of the streets brimming with life allowed him to heave a sigh of relief.

At this time, he felt something wet on his cheek.

He used a finger to wipe it, only to discover that it was a tear drop.

Chapter 1413 - Beyond the Western Region

Damn it…

Roland took a deep breath and raised his hand to wipe away the tears. That felt a little way too real.

But he was knew that he was merely lying to himself by acting relaxed; it was simply to conceal the stirring emotions within. At this point, his hands continued to tremble while his back was covered in cold sweat.

Just a moment ago, he had experienced an awfully dreadful catastrophe. Despite it being an instant in reality, it felt as though he had accompanied the final moments of life and civilization as they faded away. Or in other words, he felt as though he was part of it. From the birds, worms, fishes, beasts, from the inferior lives to the higher lifeforms, the scene of every single entity struggling and the sounds of suffering made him feel as though the entire world was damned.

This tear was for them.

For a time, Roland was unwilling to leave the sunlight that shot in through the window.

The scenery outside remain unchanged, but was somehow particularly moving to him.

Even the sewage pipes by the walls or the advertisements for animal furs were extremely vivid experiences for him.

After staring at the bustling streets for a long time, he calmed himself down through great difficulty.

He was certain of one thing—magic power did not exist at the world's genesis. This guess was raised by Anna in the Second Act, and it had finally been verified.

The Gateway Plan was what led to the appearance of magic power.

But it was without a doubt that it was not the outcome the people from the conversation wanted.

The "gray shadow" looked forward to breaking free from gravity despite the blunt mention of the 'unpredictable risk' by the other party.

From the looks of it, magic power was a result that neither had anticipated.

And the catastrophe triggered by magic power was the so-called 'price' mentioned by God. In the end, the power was spread far and wide without a short time frame, which the people who spoke could not escape from.

And the world turned into what was right in front of him currently.

Although Roland had understood this, he knew that all that he knew was only the tip of the iceberg.

The most important question was, what exactly was the 'Gateway Plan,' and why was the 'gray shadow' so fixated on it? How was the Battle of Divine Will related to all to these?

Or were they hoping that others would fill up the gap?

Roland turned his head and looked at the express delivery package for a long time before picking up the phone.

"Hello, Mister Rock, I need the Association to look for a person for me."

…

Neverwinter, Fertile Plains, Tower Station No. 2.

A train gradually stopped at the transfer bay.

"Buddy, I'll make a move first." Without waiting for the carriage to stop, Charms jumped up the platform excitedly.

"Hey, you brat, you can't expect me to carry this refillable boiler alone—"

"Please, I beg you! Drinks on me, tonight!"

He darted towards the cargo carriage and left Hank's voice trailing behind.

When his military conscription ended in Taquila, Charms did not become the formidable and handsome officer that he had envisioned himself to be, despite the fact that his family of four—his elder brothers and father—were conferred medals and awards for their sacrifice by His Majesty. The Administrative Office eventually picked him and his father out of the First Army's lineup and transferred them to become train drivers.

His father did not have any objections towards the change, since the trains still required manning even after the war. Aside from transporting cannons, the powerful machine had a wide range of applications. Although the main army returned to Neverwinter, the vehicles that moved along the Fertile Plains actually increased instead of decreasing. Thus, the Administrative Office had made the decision to transfer them to be train drivers.

In his father's words, every position was to serve the King.

Furthermore, their remuneration was even higher compared to the past.

But Charms was not happy about the change; handling coals daily was not as satisfying as wielding rifles and fighting monsters. Another reason for killing more demons at the frontline was to take revenge for his brother's sacrifice who died defending the camp, but waiting upon the train could not fulfill this purpose.

But what he could not accept the most was the fact that his second brother was unaffected. Not only was he promoted, he was also chosen to be part of the First Army's elite force.

This is a little too unfair.

Charms thought that his following years would be spent unhappily in the desolate plains, but the development surpassed his expectations.

Farms and residential areas emerged to the north of the Impassable Mountain Range in quick succession alongside the increase in the number of train stops, pubs, and shops. Transporting goods was no longer a dreary work, and if they ended early, Charms could spend some time having a few drinks at the pubs. The benefits of being a train driver was that everyone welcomed him, be it the locals or migrants. Everyone was extremely interested and invested in the land once hailed as the 'Cursed lands.' Every session at the pubs ended with excited talks and free drinks.

Of course, there were no difference in the treatment at Neverwinter or other stops. What truly made him feel with anticipation was a person here—

"Everyone, please line up. Those in line will receive their own puppets!"

By the side of the carriage, a girl cupped her mouth and shouted. Even before Charms could approach, she spotted him and waved her hands excitedly. "You're here!"

Seeing the adorable smile, Charms felt that being a train driver was truly great.

"I'm here to help." He pulled up his sleeves.

"Alright, you can take a puppet for yourself as well." The girl smiled and took a doll made out of straw, tiptoed, and hung it over his neck.

"Oh, trying to court favor." Another girl jumped out from amongst the goods and stared at him coldly.

Charms did not retreat from her stare, the two glared at each other for a long time and froze by the side of the carriages.

In the end, it was the girl who interrupted their staring match. "Come one, Balshan, Mister Charms is being warmhearted and kind. Didn't we receive his help when we were lost?"

Upon hearing the episode of them getting lost, the woman's face froze. She turned her head and snorted disdainfully. "I can't be bothered to bicker with you today. Move aside, I need to work."

With that, she picked up two bags of seed and walked towards the plaza without turning back.

"I'm sorry…" The girl bowed in embarrassment. "Balshan is just…"

"It's alright, I don't mind." Charms waved his hands and shrugged the matter off magnanimously, then carried a bag of seed and followed along.

In truth, he had been long looking forward to this day, and had drawn countless scenarios in his head. There was a new play at Neverwinter's theater and he had booked two tickets and planned to invite the other party out after work.

The two gals were Witches of the Sleeping Spell. Their meeting could even be hailed as dramatic, When the girl boarded the train for the first time to assist in the construction at Station No. 2, they had accidentally missed their stop. At that time, she weeped like a tear-stained beauty while gazing out into the vast plains not knowing what to do. By her side, Balshan was also at a loss. Faced with the unfamiliar people and land, they maintained vigilant and guarded, yet were afraid and frightened like cats who had their tails stepped on.

Helpless, Charms could only stop the train and send them over to the train that was traveling in the other direction. He informed the driver about their destination and eventually got the two to Station No. 2 by nightfall.

He thought that it was an accidental encounter and would never meet them again. Who would have thought that the two Witches were sent to help at the station.

In the course of time, they gradually got familiar with each other, and he finally learned her name—Dusk.

Chapter 1414 - Useless person

Dusk was extremely charming.

It was not just her appearance; of course, her facial features were extremely beautiful, which was a common feature of the Witches. It went the same for Balshan, who constantly gave him the cold treatment. It was impossible to use the term ugly to describe them, so much that even her serious face actually… contained some sort of unique and distinct style.

But Charms would never say that out loud.

It would just bring about even more cold and deadly glares.

Dusk was adorable in many other aspects—her smile when she encountered happy things, her cries when she stumbled upon setbacks. She never hid her emotions or thoughts and was as pure as the clear spring in the snow. But she remained steadfast and dedicated in certain fields, for example staying at the station for an entire week and waited for Charms to appear just to thank him.

In short, she was perfect.

Dusk was unlike any of the other ladies he had encountered and was extremely unique. If everyone else was black and white, she would be red-orange, just like her short and curly red hair.

Comparing the two, Balshan was lacking greatly despite the fact that the both of them were Witches.

"Hey, don't you think that I'm oblivious to what you're planning." Upon walking into the plaza, Charms found Balshan waiting by the door. "You should know that we are Witches, right?"

"From the very first day we met," he retorted.

"So you admit you are harboring the thoughts to fool around?" Balshan raised an eyebrow.

"I do not know why you feel that way, but Dusk is so adorable, I do not have any reason to let anyone else be with her."

If Dusk was present, Charms would have never dared say such words, but he did not wish to cower from Balshan. He was able to voice out anything—no matter how bold and audacious they were.

Not expecting him to admit his feelings, Balshan was dumbstruck for a moment. "Wh… what adorable, that's not the point! She is a Witch, and you should know what a Witch cannot do!"

"So what." Charms stuck his chest out and revealed the 'war hero' badge worn on his shirt. "I have an elder brother, so my father wouldn't mind even if I don't have any children! And this is a badge personally awarded by His Majesty; it is definitely enough to ensure her future livelihood, so what other doubts do you have?"

Balshan was stunned.

It took her a long while before she retorted, "Hmph, empty words count for nothing, I will keep my eyes on you before I expose you."

"Whatever." Charms shrugged. "Right, if you didn't mention that you were a Witch, I would have forgotten about it. What power do you have? Why do I feel that you are purely using your strength to transport the supplies?"

For some reason, he sensed the other party's expression worsen after asking the question.

"Are you thinking that I don't belong here?"

"No… I was just curious." Charms immediately waved his hands. He realized that his words came across as offensive and sarcastic. Strange… I'm usually careful with my words; when have I ever become so careless? Even if she is unreasonable, I will never stoop so low and be despicable.

Just when he thought that she had stopped answering, Balshan whispered, "My ability is to kill."

Charms took a deep breath. "What?"

Balshan picked up a seed from the ground and placed it in her hand. Soon enough, the seed started withering at a speed visible to the naked eye. Eventually, it shrunk and turned into a brown lump.

"Any lifeforms that I touch rapidly wither like this seed… It doesn't stop at plants or animals; even stones and metals are affected by my ability, just that the effect is much slower on them, and the magic power exhaustion is far larger. So it is mainly used on enemies."

Charms took two steps back. "Then why aren't you fighting against the monsters?"

"The Witch Union doesn't approve of it. They are responsible for the delegation of work to the Witches, but my ability requires physical contact to be executed. They recognize that the risks are too great and there are very few places for me to execute my ability. In the end, they allowed me to choose what I wanted to do, aside from battle." Balshan laughed out in self-mockery. "So verbal promises do not guarantee anything… and His Majesty Roland is no exception."

"You lie!" Charm was unable to accept anyone slandering King Roland in front of him. "His Majesty has never failed to live up to his promises; even the most inconceivable thing to the Neverwinter citizens will definitely be… realized, as long as the King promises it…"

He looked at Balshan's expression and suddenly felt his confidence wane. "Hold up, you've met His Majesty?"

"Yep." Balshan threw the black lump to the ground. "The Witch Union arranges work according to abilities first before asking for their personal opinions. Then both sides will come to an agreement. Dusk is the perfect example. Those with abilities with no apparent use will be passed to His Majesty to handle personally. According to him, all types of abilities can and will be useful to Graycastle's development, and that there are no useless abilities," she paused for a moment, "I belong to the latter."

Charms found himself in a dilemma and could not think of anything else useful for a purely destructive ability aside from battle, even after racking his brains. His Majesty must have been vexed back then. But Charms felt that it was not King Roland's fault, and admitting this point was far worse than him not honoring a promise.

"What did His Majesty… say?"

"He said that in fifty to a hundred years, I will be able to add brilliance to visual effects and stage props." Balshan's lips curled upwards.

"Uhm… what are they?"

"Who knows. It seems to be related to Magic Movies, I'm not too sure as well. At that time, His Majesty said many things, for example, the extensive use of visual effects, and that it is a must-have in the industry…" Her excitement waned as she walked over to the platform. "A very crafty way of explaining my abilities, right? Even if he was telling the truth, it is a matter that can only occur many years later. But for now, I am truly a useless person…"

So that's the reason, Charms suddenly realized the crux of the matter.

He finally understood why Dusk had stopped mid sentence before.

While the Witches were in hiding, Balshan was definitely the core of the team capable of fighting their pursuers, but after King Roland's declaration that Witches no longer had the need to fight at close quarters and experience bloodshed, she instantly became useless. One can only imagine the great disparity between the two.

At that moment, Charms was able to empathize with her. When he found out that he was being transferred from the army. He, too, had felt the world abandoning him. Under that situation, it was extremely normal to have a bad temper.

Looking at the other party's lonesome back, his heart softened.

Originally, he had thought of ways to chase Balshan away and to invite Dusk out alone, but he no longer felt that he was able to do so. If even Dusk was not around, wouldn't Balshan be completely alone?

After coughing twice, Charms reached into his pocket. "Anyway….I have two tickets for the new play tonight."

Balshan turned her head back and waited for his next sentence.

"But I have something on tonight, and doubt I can make it…" He hesitated. "Why don't you enjoy the play with Dusk; it'll definitely be better than wasting the tickets…"

Balshan revealed a look of surprise.

But before she could answer him, the sky suddenly echoed out with crackling sounds.

The two looked up and saw thousands of birds sweeping over their heads. It was Charms' first experience in witnessing a flock of migratory birds that resembled dark clouds which blotted out the sunlight.

He had heard about migratory birds having a fixed period and trajectory of flight, but it was clear that it was not the time of the year for the migratory birds to move. The flock of birds consisted of all sorts of species, and Charms discovered that they looked hurried without the usual gracefulness while soaring with their wings spread open.

"What's going on with them?" Charms raised an eyebrow. "Are they migrating en masse?"

"Hush!" Balshan placed a finger to her mouth. "Do you hear that sound?"

"I only hear their wings flapping; what other sounds are there?"

"No, the sound is even more distant" Her expression became serious.

Charms stopped his breathing and focused. This time, he heard a faint hum. It was low and turbid and sounded like a whistle mixed with the flapping of the birds.

His eyes widened.

That is… the warning alarm from the north!

Chapter 1415 - The Unexpected Attackers

At this time, the other workers sensed the strange situation and stopped in their tracks as they observed the flock of birds and discussed the situation amongst themselves.

But Charms sensed the severity of the situation.

It was not the alarm used by the city, but the pre-warning system used by the First Army. It indicated that the enemy was already close to the frontline and a battle could ensue at any moment… In other words, in the time that it took for the alarm reach them, the First Army might already have begun clashing with the enemy.

Did the demons regroup and stage a counterattack?

That was too inconceivable!

He had followed his father and fought from the Misty Forest to Tower Station No. 10 and knew of the basic situation in the north.

The reason for the First Army's decision to rebuild the Taquila Ruins was to take precaution against this. The tall watchtower standing on the vast and empty plains was sufficient to observe distances beyond ten kilometers. Without first mentioning the time required for the Red Mist tower to be built, the distance between the Taquila Ruins and the Holy City ruins was 300 to 400 kilometers apart. How was it possible that the enemy had appeared so close to the new King's City without any warning?

But it was no longer the time to think about the possibilities.

The sentry post responsible for developing Station No. 2 only had a hundred odd garrisoned troops—the majority of them new recruits. If they truly encountered an ambush, would they be able to beat the demons and ensure the safety of the area?

Charms had no idea.

Balshan suddenly ran towards the station.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Dusk is still at the station, I'm going to pick her up!"

Her reply reminded him—according to evacuation regulations, people who heard the alarm had to evacuate to the nearest refuge, but the unloading bay was situated at the outskirts of the area development. The people at the bay would require a considerable amount of time to run to the nearest residential area, let alone turn back. Rather than take Dusk to the refuge area, they might as well take the train and leave.

"Everyone look!" Charms pulled the badge off his shirt and raised it in the air. "I am Soldier Charms from the First Army. Station No. 2 development is under attack. Everyone, put your things down and follow me. As the shelter is too far away, we are taking the train to flee from danger!" He then muttered under his breath, "An ex-soldier."

But no one heard his last whisper. The instant the term "First Army" was announced, the workers treated him as their leader. All of those who were already running stopped and converged around him.

This surprised Charms, and at the same time, it increased the pressure on him.

When he was in the First Army, he was just an observer in The Blackriver, a soldier and subordinate under his father. He never had any experience in leading others. The sudden transition to being responsible for a crowd made him nervous. But since he had already said those words, he had no choice but to persist on.

"This way!" Charms led a group of workers and sprinted by the side of the train and coincidentally bumped into Hank.

"Br-brat, what's going on? I was just trying to find a corner to relieve myself…"

"Don't bother about that for now." Charms grabbed his shoulders. "Have you added coal and water? How's the pressure in the boiler?"

The latter nodded his head frantically. "Everything is running in order and we can move at anytime…"

"Very good!" he shouted, "Quickly turn the direction of the train. We are heading towards Station No. 1. Remember to sound the horn before driving off, got it!? Also, prepare a gun and keep it at close!"

"What… about you?"

"I'll settle the others first, then I will meet you at the front of the train."

In less than a minute, the train spewed out smoke and gradually drove out of Station No. 2.

During this period of time, many more workers noticed the commotion and quickly boarded the carriages, including the militia who were meant to watch over the goods. Although there were only about a dozen of them, they were equipped with flintlocks, allowing Charms to ease up a little.

Although he badly wanted to be with Dusk, he knew that it was of utmost importance to send everyone to safety. Once he knew that she was safe, he quickly returned to the front of the train.

Right at that moment, Charms caught sight of the enemy.

It was a group of demonic beasts!

"Oh god, wasn't it said that they only appeared during the Months of Demons?" Hank leaned against the window and muttered.

"No one knows what's happening in this godforsaken land." Charms retrieved his rifle from his locker and climbed up to the roof of the train adeptly. With the train moving backwards and him standing on its tail, he was able to clearly witness everything happening behind. A mix of ordinary and large demonic beasts charged fanatically, pushing and shoving each other. Their speed of attack was faster than he had imagined as they charged into the unloading bay area soon after the departure of the train.

If everyone had ran with their legs, no one would had escaped the violent monsters.

He had made the right decision.

That thought allowed him to heave a sigh of relief.

But his suspicions still remained.

Demonic beasts were monsters that were easily defeated many years ago by the flintlocks and cement walls and were unable to step into Neverwinter. With the current First Army being far stronger than what they were in the past, how was it possible that the demonic beasts had got past them?

As gunshots occurred, it intensified his confusion. He noticed that the gunfires were aimed towards demonic beasts that had appeared from the north. Following the Van'er rifles shooting them down, only trails of black blood was left in its wake. The problem was that the demonic beasts did not appear to have experienced much change. Their form of attack remained the same as wild beasts, with sharp teeth and claws. Their threat was far lower to that of spear-wielding Mad Demons. This confused Charms. How did such an enemy quietly overrun Taquila's forces?

"Bang!"

Following a loud boom, the train suddenly slowed down, as though it had collided into something.

Charms was almost thrown off the train. He turned in anger but was instantly doused in shock! Unknowingly, a bizarre monster had appeared by the side of the train. Half of its body was connected to the carriage, obviously having been run into. Its blue blood sprayed all over the place, dyeing half of the carriage exterior. The monster had many appendages and outer shell that resembled reptiles, with a scythe-like sharp blade protruding out from its head that testified its position at the top of the food chain.

The odd thing was, he did not discover any of such monsters while at the front of the train. Where did it come from?

But Charms did not have the time to think about that.

Because he discovered that the tracks in the distance had been split into two!

"Hank, hit the brakes!" He screamed while squeezing among the crowd in the train while using his fastest speed to grab onto any handrail. Although his companion was at a loss, he obeyed the instructions immediately. The sharp screech of the brakes resounded through the entire train as a pungent burnt smell pervaded the air.

But it was too late. The train ran over the broken railway and the heavy carriages instantly caused the wheels to sink into the rubble and went off track. The connected train carriages which had lost the restraints of their tracks collided into each other, ultimately flipping and overturning in tremors.

Chapter 1416 - Trapped In A Dangerous Situation

Charms felt the world spin as his ears filled with the sound of metal twisting, the whistling of steam, and Hank's screams entered his ears.

The moment felt arduously long, and when the carriage finally stopped, he found his body lying on a window pane.

The fortunate thing was that his four limbs were still working. He flipped over, lifted his head, and climbed up without any hindrance, which meant that he was basically fine. It was the best news after experiencing a derailment incident, albeit a temporary one.

"Hey, pal, are you ok?" He endured the smoke and steam while groping his way blindly to Hank.

"Uhm… I should be fine." Hank groaned. "Heavens, what happened?"

"The demonic beasts broke the rail; we need to leave quickly." Charms patted Hank on the shoulder. "I don't know what city you're from, but remember this. Heavens will not protect you in Neverwinter, the only ones capable of protecting you is the King and this flintlock. Now follow me."

Charms climbed out of the window above him and saw the completely derailed and overturned train, the carriages laid on the ground in disorder, forming a crooked line. But due to the reduction in speed before going off the rails, the carriages were not badly damaged and maintained their original shapes. Many more survivors took the initiative to open the doors and windows as they attempted to climb out through the holes.

Right at that moment, Charms heard a clear gunshot.

His heart thumped as he turned to Hank and shouted," Listen, you're going to help everyone get out of this situation safely, then bring all of them to run west!"

Without the train, it was too risky to attempt running towards Station No. 1. But they were able to see the outline of the Misty Forest—so long as they ran in and call for Ms. Leaf, Charms felt that the people had a higher chance of escaping the pursuit of the demonic beasts.

"I-I got it…"

Upon seeing his nod, Charms sprinted above the carriages.

He had to find Dusk.

When he arrived at the last carriage, Charms discovered a few militiamen fighting against a few wolf-type monsters. Although the militia had managed to kill a few of them, they continued their attempts to climb up the carriages relentlessly.

He undid the safety and fired at the wolves from a distance of less than ten meters. Although it was his first time pulling the trigger against the enemy, he quickly found the feelings he had during training, and quickly took care off the rest in no time.

Even before he could catch a breath and ask about the witches, the ground started trembling! The empty bullet shells slid down the carriage and produced clanking sounds.

At the peak of the tremors, a gigantic worm suddenly erupted out of the ground and opened its bloodied mouth before them!

"Holy shit, what is that thing?" The militiamen cried out in alarm as they pulled on their triggers, instantly producing blood splatters across the body of the monstrous worm. But compared to its size, the wounds inflicted by the bullets were negligible.

The epidermis of the worm started to swell, so much that Charms was able to see the throbbing green arteries beneath the surface. After releasing a disgusting sound of squirming, demonic beasts covered in mucus were spat out.

Charms nearly couldn't believe his eyes. There are actually such weird monsters among the demonic beasts?

But he did not have the luxury of remaining in shock; the new demonic beasts that had appeared were combined hybrids. Charms noticed that if they were allowed to separate, the humans were bound to fall.

"Open fire, open fire!" He fired at the enemies while shouting to the others.

His words awoken the militiamen who immediately used the train carriage as cover while unleashing their bullets at the horde of demonic beasts.

In a split second, the crowd of demonic beasts were riddled with bullets, but the gigantic worm did not shrink even after spitting out the demonic beasts. Instead, they continued swelling until a pair of sharp tusks stabbed out from the inside, lacerating the worm's large mouth as the final hybrid tore out amid blood!

The moment Charms laid his eyes on the thing, his heart almost froze.

It was the monster he had heard about from his father—the thick tusks, four legs and two pairs of arms indicated that it was the rumored 'Fearful Beast of Hell,' the most difficult hybrid faced by humans. It had only appeared a few times before, but it was known that ordinary firearms were incapable of stopping it!

After ripping apart the worm's mouth, the Fearful Beast of hell raised its sharp blades and charged towards the carriage!

Charms subconsciously jumped to the ground. Almost at the same time, the enemy collided onto the carriage with an impact that actually caused the heavy carriage to slide. Two unfortunate militiamen who were unable to avoid in time were flung to the ground and crushed beneath the sliding carriage, instantly turning into indistinct mush even before they could scream in pain.

The fearful beast's tusks got stuck within the metal exterior and gave the humans the opportunity to fire. But aside from making the former even more irritable, the bullets were useless.

Suddenly, a slender figure rushed into the battlefield. She was clearly a human girl, causing everyone to raise their muzzles.

"It's dangerous, get away!"

Charms immediately recognized the other party and blurted out immediately, "Balshan!"

Balshan ignored their warnings and performed a leap and rolled directly to the belly of the monster. This stunned Charms for any slight mistake would result her in being trampled by the monster.

Balshan seemed to be aware of it; she followed along the monster's struggling feet and extended her hand to grab the other party. The thick fur quickly decayed at a speed visible to the naked eye, causing the Fearful Beast of Hell to unleash a terrorizing wail!

As though having received a command, the other demonic beasts dropped everything they were doing and rushed towards the gigantic monster, targeting the witch beneath it. The situation immediately became critical—if either the wolf monsters or avian monsters got close to Balshan, she was bound to be powerless towards them. Furthermore, the close proximity prevented the humans from firing their weapons due to the high risk of stray bullets finding their way to her, plunging everyone into a dilemma.

Damn it, I have no other choice!

Charms gritted his teeth and unleashed a roar as he charged out from behind the carriage, running straight towards the struggling Fearful Beast of Hell.

The situation took a strange turn. The humans that were running away from the Fearful Beast of Hell had turned into a situation of who could reach it first.

A bear-type demonic beast lunged towards him with its mouth wide opened. Without attempting to dodge, he drew his rifle and shot—

"Get lost!"

The instant the gun was fired, the muzzle found its way to the target's head.

After the loud bang, the bear monster's head was instantly blown into pieces. Without even looking, Charms continued to sprint towards the Fearful Beast of Hell!

To lower the probability of hurting her by accident, I have no other choice except to close in!

"Ah—"

A mutated eagle and boar monster arrived by the monster's side. They braved the risks of being trampled by their peer and opened their mouths at Balshan in attempts to corner her. But Balshan knew who was the real threat and remained fixed on the Fearful Beast of Hell at the expense of exposing herself to the two demonic beasts.

By this time, the area of decay had spread even further while Charms had found his way to Balshan and engaged in close combat with the beasts. The high capacity Van'er rifle showed its advantage at this point—the requirement of not needing to manually reload. Charms was able to take out all the demonic beasts regardless of how thick their hide were, with their exposed heads right in front of him as they attempted to bite at Balshan. Of course, he was bitten a couple of times while protecting Balshan, at times even using his own body to block the enemies' attacks.

The Fearful Beast of Hell finally pulled its long tusks but barely had any strength left. The decay had spread across its entire body, causing the initially thick and practically invulnerable fur to become as thin as tissue and no longer capable of supporting the weight of its internal organs.

It staggered for two steps and dropped to the side, its internal organs and intestines gushed out of the very first decay spot, at the same time releasing a pungent and rotten smell.

Charms noticed that the internal organs looked like they had been soaked in the sewages for months and had long turned white.

Upon seeing the death of the Fearful Beast of Hell, the other demonic beasts scattered.

Charms endured the pain from every part of his body as he caught Balshan, who had lost her footing and collapsed, into an embrace.

At that moment, the Witch was in a state too horrible to endure. Wounds covered her entire body, while her legs that had been bitten by the demonic beasts had turned into mangled blood and flesh with bones protruding out from all angles.

Chapter 1417 - Not Too Bad

"Why are you here?" Charms carried Balshan up and hobbled towards the train. "Where's Dusk?"

"She's with the rest… moving towards the Misty Forest." Balshan forced a smile. "As for me… if I didn't come to help, I'm afraid that all of you would have died here. So… are you still going to blame me?"

"Um, I just—"

"You think I'm not suited to appear on the battlefield?" Her speech was weak but filled with disdain. "Don't forget, I'm a combat witch, cough… when you were still playing with mud, I was already fighting for my life."

You're already hurt to this extent but you still won't forgo the chance of reprimanding me. You're truly not adorable at all.

But having heard that Dusk had left safely, Charms suddenly felt more at ease.

I guess Hank did a good job.

Just then, squirming sounds came out from behind them again.

Charms turned back, only to see the bloodstained worm swelling up once again.

"What the hell, is there no end to this…"

He moved over to the carriage and placed Balshan down.

"Right, take the time while you still have to run." Balshan heaved for breath. "Your cowardly companions have all fled. You still have the chance to make it if you leave me here— Hey!" Her expression suddenly changed. "What are you doing?"

Charms sat down and drew ammunition out of his bag and started reloading his weapon. "Isn't it obvious, I can't run away from the demonic beasts while carrying you."

"Then leave me here and go, run by yourself!"

"Is that what you did in the past? In the First Army, King Roland taught us that we will always be fighting for the ordinary people. I am unable to leave you, an ordinary citizen, behind so that you can stall for time while I escape alone."

Balshan was startled. She had never expected to find a day where she would be treated as an ordinary person.

Charms arranged all the magazines in front of him and leaned against his rifle. "Besides… the longer I stall the enemies, the safer Dusk will be. So you better not grumble."

He never blamed the militiamen. They were never part of the true military and their responsibilities were mainly to prevent thieves and burglars at the train station. Ordering such people to fight against demonic beasts could only be considered unfair, and Charms felt that it was already a successful operation for them to have survived for so long.

"You…" Balshan seemed like she wanted to say a few words, but eventually kept them to herself.

"They're coming." Charms took aim at the newly produced demonic beasts and pulled the trigger—

The gunshots sounded much thinner on the plains as compared to before. The thin thread of smoke came out from the muzzle that had pointed straight at the largest threat, while the other smaller demonic beasts were left to the men around him to handle. Neither of them exchanged any communications, yet the unusual tacit understanding between them was formed. The trust he laid within them and theirs in him made him feel as though he was fighting a war alongside the First Army.

He felt as though the resistance had gone on for a long time, yet at the same time as short as an instant. Due to his blood loss, his vision gradually blurred and his motor skills slowed. Despite being even more heavily injured, Balshan did not fall. She wrapped cloth around a hand as bait and used the other hand as a lethal weapon. For the wolf and other small demonic beasts, a single touch was enough to severely injure them, if not lead to their deaths.

Charms was surprised when he found no trace of despair on her face. Her expression was not one of a severely injured person. She remained high in focus and her firm movements and bloodstained brows made Charms think about how different she was. It also made him realize that this was what a Combat Witch looked like.

She had once lost everything, but in that moment, she had once again regained her true self.

When the new monster bore its way out of the worm, the two knew that it was the end for them.

"A pity about those tickets…" Balshan moved back to his side with a smile that effused some mockery. "But for you to die here… at the very least I can be at ease knowing that Dusk will not be cheated by you…"

You… you're really not adorable at all.

Charms snorted. "Right, I bet you're even more regretful, to have to be by my side at your last few moments—"

"No…" She interrupted him. "Actually, I think—"

"Woooooo——"

An intense steam whistle masked her words as regiments of flames exploded around the large worm while the rocks and dust prevented the demonic beasts from temporarily moving.

Charms suddenly jolted with energy. He propped his body up and looked towards the direction of the whistle.

A row of black armored vehicles transporting batteries of artillery had appeared, and they were firing endlessly.

They were none other than the Blackrivers which played and outstanding role in the Fertile Plains in the Northern Expedition!

He shook Balshan excitedly. "Do you see that! They are Blackrivers—our reinforcements have arrived!"

But the latter did not react.

"Hey…" Charms turned his head, only to see that her eyes were closed as she slid down to the ground.

"Hey, wake up. HEY, WAKE UP!" Despite him shaking her, Balshan did not open her eyes.

…

It was two days later when they met again.

"This is her room, do you need me to bring you in?" Chief Butler Camilla from the Sleeping Spell asked.

"No, thank you so much. I can do so myself." Charms immediately bowed to the other party. It was his first visit to the Witches' residence. It was a location that no one was permitted to enter except for those that had received invitations from the residents. He had only tried his luck, but did not expect them to agree to it so readily.

"Please take note of the time." Camilla nodded and left.

Charms let out a long sigh of relief.

Upon thinking about the situation two days ago, he felt extremely embarrassed. Up until now, the medical personnel's tirade still lingered in his ears.

"She's still breathing, if you continue to shake her, she might really die! Seriously, you're obviously someone who has been through battle, yet you're unaware that someone will be prone to fainting after they relax having persisted all the way to the end. Are the rail track soldiers not taught emergency aid? You only know how to make a big fuss out of this. Why? Is she an extremely important person to you?"

Charms shook his head and threw the thoughts to the back of his mind.

In fact, there was not an actual need for him to visit her so anxiously after knowing that she was still alive. After all, it was difficult to make out who was truly visiting who. Charms was completely wrapped up in bandages that even slight motions resulted in pain for him and he appeared pathetic. Despite that, he felt that if he did not see her personally, his heart would never settle down.

Upon thinking about that, he extended his hand and knocked on the door.

"Coming."

The door swung open and Dusk appeared in his vision.

"It's really you." She revealed a happy smile. "When Miss Camilla mentioned that we were having a visitor, I already guessed it was you. Thank you for saving Balshan!"

"Hey, I think you have it all wrong. Clearly it was me who saved him." The familiar voice came out from within the room.

Charms walked into the room and met Balshan seated against the bed frame. Sunlight from the window illuminated half of her face and her short brown hair—Surprisingly, despite being severely injured, she looked more spirited than him.

Of course, she was equally wrapped up in bandages; even her head was no exception.

"There's nothing strange about it." As though sensing his doubts, Balshan shrugged. "A Witch's body is stronger in every aspect than an ordinary human, so my recovery is naturally faster than yours. So…" She paused for a moment. "Don't you think that you will have the opportunity to be alone with Dusk."

The well wishes in him instantly vanished into thin air. Charms rolled his eyes but knew that she was not someone that required his concern.

"Since that's the case, I'll be going."

"Hey, you're leaving just like that?" Dusk was bewildered.

"Of course, standing isn't good for my recovery, especially since my body is weaker in all aspects compared to her." Charms looked at Balshan in provocation. "I have to recover fast so that I can quickly date you in front of her… for a play."

"A date? With me?" Dusk smiled. "Okay."

Wait a minute, she agreed so quickly?

"In your dreams!" Balshan snorted. "I will definitely recover faster than you!"

"Let's just see."

"We shall see then!"

The two glared at each other like every beginning to their quarrels. Dusk stood by the side and laughed, seemingly happy about their survival.

When Charms walked out the door, he suddenly recalled her words that were overwhelmed by the steam whistle. "Hey, what did you say before you fainted?"

"Nothing." Balshan replied casually, "I wasn't conscious by the time the train arrived. I think you might have made a mistake."

"Alright." Charms rubbed his temples and closed the door.

"What was he talking about?" Dusk asked.

"He was merely spouting nonsense." Balshan smiled and turned her face back to the sunlight.

—That's not too bad as well

Chapter 1418 - The Fused King

Deep within the Impassable Mountain Range, at the mountainous area of Hermes.

The gigantic shadow cast by the Deity of Gods had touched upon the edge of the plateau, with Red Mist pouring down the mountains and connecting the east to west, turning the mountain range into a magnificent red line. With this supply line, the army from the ridge of the continent could pour straight into the Four Kingdoms endlessly without suffering any restriction.

Everything was within Mask's calculations—

Although the humans never ceased in their attacks, they failed in stopping the Deity of Gods from moving forward. The following battles became a war of attrition; the demons held the advantage in numbers. Furthermore, with his technology made their numbers even more massive. Even Inferior Demons which were useless in the past were strengthened to become war weapons. The disparity between the two races widened.

The humans indeed possessed unconventional techniques, but that did not remove the disadvantage that was fundamental to their race—the former required more than ten years to reach maturity from birth, while Inferior Demons only required a short time span of two years, and there was no need for them to go through the trouble of choosing a spouse to mate. As the injuries and deaths accumulated, humanity would eventually crumble.

That's right, the development did not deviate from his expectations—except for one.

"I want to know what exactly happened?" He stood in the observatory at the bottom of the Deity of Gods and roared at his subordinates.

All of them glanced at each other and lowered their heads. No one dared to utter a word.

Nassaupelle was not one to ask rhetorical questions because they were merely means to vent emotions and a waste of time. Only inferior beings like Blood Conqueror or Resentful Heart were fond of doing so. One only needed to see to know what happened—a large number of demonic beasts suddenly appeared on the Hermes Plateau and fought against the Symbiotic Demons. But some of the Symbiotic Demons that were meant to spread throughout the Four Kingdoms and slowly exhaust humanity were stopped by demonic beasts!

They converged in from various choke points around the plateau and into the abandoned cities. The mountain pass that might had been a fort used by the humans to repel the demonic beasts in the past, but it was under the control of the demons as well.

If that was all, it would have been fine.

Nassaupelle saw the Sky-sea Realm 'Nest' amongst the demonic beasts.

This was the reason for his loss of composure.

Unlike the humans, the demon race was aware of the demonic beasts, a branch of the Sky-sea Realm monsters, similar to that of the Inferior Demons of the demon race. At every Months of Demons when magic power becomes abundant, the 'Nest' unleashed a large amount of spores that scattered through the ocean and wind, infecting ordinary wild beasts and transforming them into various grotesque monsters that underwent mutation and bloodfests.

These demonic beasts were weak in terms of combat ability and were of no threat to the race. Even the Sky-sea Realm treated them as 'harvest fields' to collect desirable traits and never saw the demonic beasts as their main fighting force. From another point of view, the Sky-sea Realm also had little control over the continent and, aside from inconveniencing the demons through such methods, it was difficult for them to dabble with matters in the continent.

But the 'Nest' was different.

It was a middle-tier being from the Sky-sea Realm and was a target the race would not easily abandon. Furthermore, the 'Nest' was extremely difficult to fight against in the sea but extremely clumsy on land. It was strange for the 'Nest' to have been sighted on the Fertile Plains.

Over the past 800 years, the demon race had gradually swallowed more than half the Land of Dawn and relied on the geographical terrain of having the ocean to one side as a form of natural barrier to prevent the Sky-sea Realm from attacking from the rear. The convergence of so many demonic beasts in the inner parts of the continent was understandable, but the appearance of a 'Nest' completely overturned the situation.

Either the some idiot had neglected his duty and allowed the Sky-sea Realm to infiltrate, or something bad must happened in their rear!

The majority of his subordinates thought that way, but did not dare say a word.

After the sudden loss of contact with the King, an exceedingly sense of unease had taken root in Nassaupelle's heart.

"Lord Mask." A higher ascendant suddenly walked into the observatory. "The Birth Tower sends a message. The King has summoned you!"

"What?" Nassaupelle turned abruptly. "Are you sure its the King?"

The other party was startled by the question. "From the undulation of the Realm of Mind, it comes from the Presiding Holy Sea… My lord, could there be a problem?"

"No, I'll go right now," Nassaupelle reined in his emotions and replied indifferently. Silent Disaster and him both agreed that it was inappropriate to divulge the matter of having lost communication with the Blackstone region in order to prevent a drop in morale.

At the end of the day, it was still the 'Nest' that broke his tempo.

After reaching the top of the spire, Mask focused and responded to the powerful undulations.

This is truly from the Presiding Holy Sea… Just that, it's slightly different from before. It was a pity that with Nassaupelle's standards, he was unable to pinpoint the specific difference.

"It is an honor to be summoned by you, my respected King! What exactly happened before?" Nassaupelle immediately went into his customary grumbles. "In the days without your guidance, your humble servant remained anxious and uneasy. The Sky Lord's whereabouts are currently unknown, but fortunately, the Symbiotic Demons have performed well at the Western Front…"

"Enough." The King immediately interrupted him. "I know you have much to say, but that is not important. We have lost Blackstone."

Nassaupelle immediately forgot about flaunting his accomplishments and remained stunned for a while before repeating in disbelief. "Blackstone… has been lost?"

"Although we have not been invaded completely by the Sky-sea Realm, it was only a matter of time. Our enemy has become completely different from before and this resulted in the complete destruction of our already weak perimeter. Resentful Heart died in battle." The King remained indifferent, as though speaking about the fate of the race had nothing to do with him. "I have already given the orders to abandon Blackstone region and to retreat to the Land of Dawn."

"I beg Your Majesty to reconsider!" Nassaupelle replied anxiously, The King was talking about a migration of a population numbering over a hundred million. Excluding the Inferior Demons, there were still at least tens of millions. Their predicament of having insufficient Red Mist was already a problem, so how many of them could survive the trip to the Land of Dawn? Not even ten percent! And with the Sky-sea Realm attacking the Land of Dawn, they could only gain a footing by hiding deep within the continent, but how many strongholds could they have in the Fertile Plains for the race? If they had the ability, they would never have tried to occupy Taquila!

"Sacrifice is inevitable, but it is the only viable solution now," The King answered. "The Red Mist will not be a problem. Upon retreat, the old Birth Tower can be transferred—this has been tested at the ridge of the continent, and Starfall City, Arrieta, Taquila, Hermes… all of these God's Stone mines in human lands can be used for breeding."

"But the simultaneous movement of so many Birth Towers, even with the power of the entire race behind it—" Nassaupelle paused for a second. "Could it be, that you—"

"That is right, I have merged with a magic core and transformed the City into a new Deity of Gods."

Mask felt a cold shiver travel down his back—the merger with a dead object signified the King's permanent fixture on the Birth Tower like an 'overseer'… The King's cold logic showed no mercy to himself, and this injected fear into Nassaupelle's heart.

The loss of communication must be because of his transformation.

But it was just as he had said, all the logistical issues could be easily solved. With the power of the Deity of Gods, moving a few Birth Towers within it was was feasible, it also replaced the need for a stronghold to release Red Mist and reduce the wear and tear from the migration.

The last problem remained in the humans.

The moment he had that thought, he gained the King's confirmation.

"The race no longer has the time to waste on the humans. We need to obtain their legacy shard as quickly as possible to have a chance at fighting the current Sky-sea Realm."

By sparing no expense, there was only one way to destroy the humans in the shortest possible time.

"I order you to transit into phase two of the migration," the King announced.

Nassaupelle immediately felt excited.

In truth, phase two had been his idea. He had never thought that it would come into fruition.

It definitely led to earth-shattering destruction!

"As you wish, my King!"

Chapter 1419 - Dual Identity

A grand procession occurred in the City of Glow.

Under the watchful eyes of the citizens, the Church procession slowly passed through the city gates carrying a series of flags. Walking right in front were the City Knights that had not appeared for a long time, but everyone was fixated on the lady dressed in a luxurious gown with a crown on her head.

She was the rumored newly appointed Pope, and the key figure that defeated the rebels and led Hermes back to its right track.

Despite the Church's vague stance towards the invasion of the Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter, they denied having a certain influence over the City of Glow. In addition, the parading squadron were frequently seen at the frontlines of the battlefield, providing emergency relief to the refugees and at the same time boosting the morale in the fight against evil, earning countless gratitude and appreciation. The news slowly passed on through various channels back to the City of Glow, causing the citizens to be extremely curious about the new Pope.

After all, the old Church was an aloof existence, one in which even the King had to obtain permission for a visit. A Pope willing to risk her life by putting herself in danger and her care for every citizen was rarely seen. And every time the lady nodded and smiled towards the crowd, it would incite a series of excited shouts. Aside from her identity, her outstanding appearance was another reason for the hurrah.

Eventually, the procession arrived before the inner city walls.

The Pope dismounted the horse and took slow steps up the flight of steps. Waiting by the entrance was the King of Graycastle, Roland Wimbledon.

The two extended their hands and performed a brief grasp. Although it was the first for the overwhelming majority of spectators to witness the strange and new etiquette, they were able to tell the equality between the Pope and King. This confirmed the rumors that the new Pope was supported by Graycastle, and that both parties had rebuilt the relationship between them.

Both walked alongside each other under the intense applause from the crowd.

"My apologies for my impudence, Your Majesty."

After the doors closed, the lady bowed down and was about to genuflect when Roland stopped her. "No, I think it's good. Besides, you're no longer the Pure Witch of the past and the Witch Union doesn't require so many complicated formalities. Could it be that you've been in the Holy City for too long and have forgotten this point?"

The lady was Isabella, the one who had been delegated to Hermes and assumed control over the Holy City as a representative of the Church. She was responsible for settling the orphans and nuns, as well as prevent the Pill of Madness from spreading.

"Of course… not." Upon finishing her sentence, Isabella was instantly stunned after processing his words. She raised her head in surprise. "Your Majesty, you just said…"

"That's right, Wendy previously suggested to admit you as a member of the Witch Union, and I agreed." Roland nodded. "Although your punishment was five years, you performed well. Treat this as a reward."

Isabella only responded after blanking out for a while. "But Your Majesty, I…"

"Upon joining the Union, you will receive a fixed number of Chaos Drinks a month."

"Uh—" The latter wanted to reply with a 'but,' which got stuck at her throat.

"I know what you want to say, really…" Roland sighed. "Pure Witches like you enjoy persisting in the strangest of things, or should I say, torture yourselves. But atonement isn't just about chains and leg-irons. If I have to prepare these things for you constantly, I will be in for a headache as well. So at such a time, just be like the others and thank Wendy."

"Yes…" Isabella bit her lips and lowered her head. 'I understand."

"I know that you have lived amid responsibility and orders in the past, but it doesn't matter now. There will come a day when you will get used to your new life." Roland changed the topic, "This meeting is a rare publicity opportunity and it should have been made grander, but I did not want to waste time on the ceremony and the celebration feast. You should be aware of the demonic beast attack on Neverwinter."

"Yes." Upon coming down to proper matters, Isabella's expression became serious. "Did you call for my presence to understand more about the demonic beasts?"

"That's right, since Hermes has been the main power resisting the demonic beasts for the past hundred years, I think the Church must have accumulated quite an amount of relevant information."

Isabella answered without hesitation, "I will tell you everything I know."

When Roland learned that Neverwinter suffered from a sudden demonic beast attack four days ago, he originally didn't care too much about it. Back then, humanity had already gained the strength to defeat the demonic beasts, so there was no need for worries with the present army. Although it was somewhat unusual for a large number of demonic beasts to appear outside of the Months of Demons, the First Army had gone through many battles against the demons in the region. That was the reason for his negligence on the information.

He never expected that the situation had spiraled out of his expectations.

On that same evening, he received multiple telegrams from the North Slope Mountain that the situation had developed rapidly after an abrupt turn. Many demonic beasts had crossed Taquila's front line and attacked the developing grounds where stationed troops engaged in resistance but failed to stop the enemy. If not for the timely reinforcements of the armored vehicles, the loss would have been far heavier.

In the reports were mentions of a monster that seemed like a ghost; it moved extremely quickly and silently, almost invisible to the naked eye and would only produce an outline from the bloodstains of its victims.

This made Roland realize that he had gravely underestimated the power of the demonic beasts.

…

After Isabella's recount, Roland realized his conjecture had been verified. Compared to Hermes' Holy City, the Months of Demons at Graycastle was merely a tributary to a bigger sea. The types of demonic beasts far surpassed that of the demons, some hybrids were almost indistinguishable from their original forms as beasts.

For example, the savage demonic beasts with extremely long bodies which were capable of digging and scaling walls, or the bird-bodied demonic beasts with goat horns that posed the largest threat to ordinary humans with their cold howls. These were creatures that the Western Region had never encountered. At the same time, he had a notion towards the attack that came without a warning. The horde of demonic beasts that appeared behind the developing area was most probably due to the savage demonic beasts.

But these were unable to explain the grim situation in Neverwinter. Although Neverwinter did not have a large city wall like the Holy City, the First Army were all experienced soldiers with weapons sufficient to bridge any shortfalls. Perhaps the humans were plunged into chaos at the beginning, but with the contingency plan set into motion, Roland believed that the army could stabilize the situation.

Aside from that, he discovered that Isabella never once mentioned the monsters that moved like a ghost. And this aroused his suspicions. Was this a brand new enemy or were the reports a mistake due to confusion?

At this moment in time, a chamberlain brought in a paper parcel.

"Your Majesty, Neverwinter sent a new letter."

"It isn't a telegram?" Roland was surprised.

"Yes, it was delivered by air."

"Open it."

Inside the package was a paper parchment. Roland unfolded it across the table and realized it was a portraiture of the attacker. Obviously, it was drawn by Soraya. Compared to a written report, the latter's information was undoubtedly far more precise.

Seems like even without fighting capabilities, they are striving to defend their home.

Quickly, a monster's corpse captured Roland's attention.

It looked to have been smashed by a train—half of its body was plastered on the metal surface, but the remainder of its body was not one that Roland could link to any of the demonic beasts Isabella had described.

"Have you seen such a hybrid in Hermes before?" He pulled the piece of paper and placed it in front of Isabella.

She looked at it carefully and shook her head.

Behind Roland, Nightingale suddenly let out a cry of surprise.

Chapter 1420 - A New Extraordinary

"What is it? Is there a problem?" Roland turned his head.

"It looks somewhat similar to the thing that I've killed before." Nightingale spread her hands out. "But the one I killed was much smaller and did not have such a ridiculous figure…"

"Wait a minute, you're talking about your investigation at Great Snow Mountain?"

Nightingale nodded her head. "An earlier case was when searching for the Ice Witch. Based on its ability to turn invisible, it explains why the humans treated it as a ghost."

"Are you able to pinpoint the differences between this and the monster you've killed in more detail?" Roland asked.

"Erm… let me think about it. It was a few years ago." Nightingale took the drawing. "The one that I met was, at most, half the height of the monster in the drawing. Its front claws were also in the form of scythes, but much smaller; the belly was only used for climbing, unlike this, which has so many claws. For the head… Right, the demonic beast that I fought did not have such an obvious mouth and razor sharp teeth. The drawing depicts it more like a predator. If not for its front claws and ability to turn invisible, I would not have linked the two together. At that time, I figured that they were one of those hybrid demonic beasts."

Roland's expression turned solemn. "But in the end, we discovered that they belong to the Sky-sea Realm."

If we were to say that the demonic beasts posed a certain level of threat, the Sky-sea Realm was on a whole other level. As a participant of the Battle of Divine Will, they were capable of suppressing the demons from an unknown location, so they couldn't be underestimated. For them to appear in the Western Region was definitely not good news.

But the northern part of the Fertile Plains had been occupied by the demons after the Battle of Divine Will, so how did the Sky-sea Realm infiltrate into the belly of the continent?

Could it be…

A horrific and exaggerated thought vaguely appeared in his head.

"Right, talking about the demonic beasts… The First Army encountered them in the snow mountain remains." Nightingale frowned. "You can call it a coincidence or luck, but are the demonic beasts and Sky-sea Realm in cahoots?"

Roland and Isabella turned and looked at Nightingale at the same time.

The latter immediately covered her mouth." I was just making a passing remark, you don't have to take it too seriously."

"In all, I'm afraid that this problem is even thornier than what I had anticipated." Roland gently rapped on the table. Regardless, Neverwinter is the core of the human industry, and nothing should ever happen there. If the attack is related to the Sky-sea Realm, it'll be difficult to get through it even with the most prudent countermeasures. "Isabella, the information you've provided is very useful… Go and have a rest first; I will have a member of the General Staff contact you soon."

However, Isabella remained in her spot. "Your Majesty, I have a matter to inform you."

"What is it? Tell me."

"While I was here in Hermes, I continued to experiment with God's Stones." She retrieved a draft paper from her clothes and placed it on the table. "Do you remember Agatha's conclusion the last time? That they are obstructed and unusable not by dense magic power but by other factors. I performed repeated experiments here and discovered a factor that might possible be related to frequency."

"Frequency?" Roland exclaimed.

"I referenced it to the Natural Science Theoretical Foundation that you compiled, and maybe what I said isn't too accurate, but I can't think of a better description." Isabella then described her discovery succinctly. "In fact… after learning about this, my magic power actually condensed."

Nightingale blinked in surprise and observed Isabella for a moment before blurting out, it's true… I didn't notice that."

Roland laughed. "That means that the Witch Union has a new Extraordinary? Congratulations on the breakthrough."

Isabella shook her head. "Everything was possible because you gave me a chance."

"But persisting in the research was your choice." He insisted. "Did you feel anything new after having your magic power evolve?"

Isabella extended her palm out, revealing a ring donned on her middle finger. The gem in the middle gradually lit up.

Any other person would be surprised and interested in what seemed to be a magic stone capable of releasing light, but Roland only had suspicions towards it. There was something different about it

"This stone… isn't from the demons!" Nightingale exclaimed.

Roland immediately realized what was happening. Magic stones were the source of power for the demons, and their appearance was never a factor; thus, the majority of them were oval. But this stone had distinct cuts on them like precious stone polished to a polyhedron, something only humans would do.

But humans did not wield the ability to create magic stones so far, and all of them came as spoils of war or were excavated from ruins. Cutting and polishing affected the composition of a magic stone and, in other words, they had to be cut before the transformation.

"This was my first experiment after evolving." Isabella became slightly wistful. "It was originally a God's Locket of Retribution used by the Church that are no longer used to restrain any Witch."

Roland turned agape in surprise. "You turned a God's Stone into glowing magic stone?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Isabella nodded her head. "If for example, my past ability was to completely repel the waves emitted from a God Stone, I am now able to weaken a specific frequency, and the result is this magic stone. But at present, only a few magic stones are affected in this manner, it might be related to my insufficient understanding of the subject."

Roland took about a half hour with questions and experiment manuscripts to grasp Isabella's point. To put it simply, Isabella had established a link between her ability and her knowledge and grasp over God Stones. To her, the undulating waves from the stones were extremely powerful to the extent of her being unable to grasp their fluctuations, only to resemble a deathly still field at one glance. Upon locating the waves, all other fluctuations were no longer able to present themselves, that was the reason for the God's Stone ability to isolate powers.

But regardless of it being 'waves' or 'frequency', they were both described as conversion of energy. Isabella had faintly grasped the difference between the two, yet was unable to accurately express herself due to her limited knowledge. After all, waves spoke for themselves and were a relatively simple term to understand, but not magic power. She was only able to describe it with relatively similar terms from her vocabulary.

This caused Rolan to recall that Lan had said something similar before.

If the knowledge gap between two involved parties were too big, even descriptions would be difficult, much less comprehension.

But Isabella's newly developed ability proved that Magic Stones were not proprietary products of the demons.

If magic power could one day be hailed as a new branch of education, her tests and experiments would most probably be the starting point.

"No one can help you on this path, but it is because of that, that it is worth the try." Roland encouraged.

"I will do my best," Isabella replied. "One more thing. I discovered a fascinating phenomenon. Agatha's guess might not be wrong. God's stones might actually be living things."

Chapter 1421 - Return

"Living things… What do you mean?" Nightingale frowned. "Are you saying that the God's Stone in the mines can talk?"

"I haven't made any discoveries on this for the time being, but while conducting tests in the Hermes God's Stone mine, I accidentally found a few rats that had been corroded by God's stones." Isabella closed her eyes, as though recalling the memories of the past. "Maybe the rats somehow lost their way and scurried down after the collapse of Holy City. No one knows how rats were caught by the God's Stones, but after having a part of their bodies sink into them, it became as if… as if the two had fused together."

"Insect larvae wrapped in resin can also be viewed as one entity, but the amber isn't a living thing," Roland replied bluntly.

"I know." Fear flashed past Isabella's face. "If it was just that, I will never have made such an assertion. The problem is… the rat was still alive. When I got close, it squeaked at me, as though asking me to free it…"

Roland shuddered at her words.

He suddenly understood why she would feel fear.

It was the fear for the unknown.

And she was standing in front of an unprecedented domain.

"… Could it be that the rat was stuck not long before you entered?" Nightingale asked casually, a feint to mask her emotions.

"I observed them for three months and nine days. Their squeaks never stopped." Isabella sighed. "One day after that, I used a dagger to free one, but I discovered that its stomach and the rest of it was completely empty, so much that the body had withered severely due to the extended period of time. Yet, part of its veins and arteries had merged into the God's stone."

This means that for three months, the one supplying the rat with energy to survive was… the God's Stone.

Seems like I'm still viewing this too simply. Roland chuckled bitterly. His previous assumption of 'only living things can gather magic power' was an erroneous thought from his lack of understanding towards magic power, but Isabella's discovery had undoubtedly pushed their understanding a large step forward.

"I have seen a record of all living things in the Church once where a few rare plants were able to attach to animals and form an unusual symbiotic relationship. Although we cannot ascertain that the God's Stone are plants, they are at the very least living things. With this train of thought, the unique appearances of the demons are more explainable. For example the constantly growing obelisk, as well as the giant monsters beneath the steles. Maybe they are using this to structure their current civilization."

"The way I see it, demons really enjoy using those stones…" Nightingale spoke thoughtfully.

"It is a pity that my research barely scrapes the surface of this field. Most of it are superficial conjectures and I'm unable to provide you with any substantial assistance." Isabella lowered her head apologetically. "Not only is the reason for the fusion unsolved, even my transformation of the magic stones can merely turn them into low level magic stones like light stones or shrieking stones—"

"You are gravely underestimating your own discovery." Roland interrupted. "Ignoring whether the hypothesis on the effects of the 'wave' or 'frequency' is accurate, just the fact that a Witch is capable of creating a magic stone via her powers is enough to have your name go down in history."

To say that there were no regrets would be a lie. If Isabella was truly capable of producing powerful magic stones, that signified an unlimited supply and usage of powerful sigils, and Combat Witches would turn into an influential force on the battlefield. But Roland also knew that their exploration into magic power was definitely a long process, and Isabella's research and actions were merely opening a crack into the door of the field, giving them a glance of the new and broad study. Roland believed that so long as she continued on her research, there was bound to be results with the Witches' long life expectancy.

After Isabella's departure, Roland immediately picked up a pen and paper and drafted a telegram to City Hall.

The telegram was a simple sentence: Neverwinter cannot fall, activate all emergency protocols with immediate effect. We shall enter a phase of total war mobilization.

The contingency plans could only activate when the kingdom had sufficient food supplies for the soldiers at the frontlines. And aside from the need to supply the army's expansion outwards, the industry manufacturing arms also suffered from a food restriction.

Since the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will, he had ordered Barov to draw up a corresponding contingency plan, but to implement it was not easy. From an administrative perspective, only Neverwinter had the appropriate policies and manpower capable of sustaining and executing the plan. The other cities, on the other hand, would face a paralysis after that hard won restoration of order.

Secondly, even if the First Army expanded without restraint, the logistics department would not be able to support them. It was simply impossible to rely on sailboats and domesticated animals to transport goods for hundreds and thousands of people, especially in a cross-border campaign.

If the main battlefield was in the Western Region, the administrative and logistical limitations would not exist—Neverwinter was both humanity's last stand and the forefront of the battle.

Regardless of the price they had to pay, humanity could no longer take a step back. Even if the enemy were from Sky-sea Realm.

Because they had nowhere to go!

…

"Who's there?"

Immersed in the Red Mist Pond, Silent Disaster suddenly opened her eyes and looked towards the darkness.

A moment ago, she had heard the faintest of movements.

If they were in an ordinary situation, she would definitely not ask any questions. She would attack with her weapon and figure out from there. If it was any Junior Demon or Primal Demon that dared intrude her resting place under such circumstances, being cleaved into two was a deserving outcome.

The reason for Silent Disaster's inaction was that her weapon was no longer by her side.. Only while in recuperation would she remove her armor and weapons.

A figure slowly walked out from the darkness.

"Don't do anything… It's me."

Silent Disaster was startled. The owner of the voice was someone that they had lost communication for a long time—Sky Lord, Hackzord!

Silent Disaster suddenly stood up from the pool and grabbed a piece of white cloth. "Where have you been! Was Mask right, that you had shed your responsibilities and ran?"

"Humph, I'm not surprised by whatever that abnormal freak says. That's the reason why I came to find you alone." Hackzord slowly walked into the pool. That was when Silent Disaster noticed that Hackzord had a large hole in the middle of his chestplate, revealing the flesh wound on his body. Although the bleeding had ceased, the wound had not healed.

"You're… injured?"

With Sky Lord's ability, it was not impossible for him to end up in this state if he had deserted the battlefield.

"I never thought that there will be a day where I will receive your concern." Sky Lord laughed and arduously climbed into the Red Mist Pond. "Rest easy, you will soon know where I have been. But before that, I need you to see something."

"What's that?"

"Focus your attention and relax, close your eyes…"

Silent Disaster wanted to instinctively reject the strange request upon hearing it, but upon staring into the other party's expression that did not leave room for doubt, she suddenly realized something.

It was a state in preparation to enter the Realm of Mind!

She hesitated for a moment, but ultimately closed her eyes.

In that instant, a series of indescribable scenes surged into Silent Disaster's mind! The strange scene on the island, countless confidential letters, the white-robed fellow demon, the large beam of light, and the bottomless pit all flashed past. The final scene that appeared was a blade and a swarm of Nests…

Chapter 1422 - Plan B

This was—memory extraction!

The only difference was instead of exposing their memories to the King in the Presiding Holy Sea, it was Hackzord voluntarily sharing his memory with her!

Silent Disaster accepted the connection after a long while.

Memories were difficult to be faked and far more precise than a recount. But at the same time, it had its shortcomings, that was the ease of accessing other memories aside from the 'main scenes.' Silent Disaster did not expect Sky Lord to bare open his memories without any defenses to relay the information.

"You—"

"There is no need to speak further." Hackzord's voice was downcast, his actions obviously having exhausted himself. "If I didn't do this, will you even believe everything that I've been through?"

The answer was undoubtedly a no.

A source of magic power that came in the form of an island actually existed near the Blackstone region. Even after going through Hackzord's memories, Silent Disaster still found it somewhat surreal.

"You're able to form your own Realm of Mind domain?" Silent Disaster changed the topic.

Hackzord looked at her with distrust. "I thought you would be more concerned over Valkries's location. But you're right… if I hadn't, I wouldn't be able to transfer my memory to you. When I saw the tree of light, my understanding towards the Realm of Mind suddenly deepened—if not for the interruption by the Sky-sea Realm, I might have taken a step deeper. Of course… Compared to the King's Presiding Holy Sea, my domain is far smaller."

"I see." Silent Disaster sat back in the pool with her back facing Sky Lord. "Indeed, I yearn to know of Nightmare Lord's whereabouts. Even after 'seeing' that piece of paper, I so badly want to look for her in the human kingdom, but my rationality is telling me to refuse you."

"Refuse… What?" Hackzord turned and glanced at the other party's clean back and long blue hair.

"I rarely speak, but that does not mean I don't think," Silent Disaster replied. "Your goal was self-evident the moment you came to look for me first instead of reporting to the King. You wish to stop the Battle of Divine Will, or hope to find out the truth before making a decision. They undoubtedly violate the King's decree, and no different from a betrayal. The King will not let you off once he knows of this. You can't do it alone and require support. So you chose me to help you."

"No, I am definitely loyal to the King!" Hackzord refuted with a suppressed voice. "Since we know that the Battle of Divine Will is all a trap, why are we still throwing ourselves into it helplessly waiting for the destined doom to come? You think that the King will cling to his way obstinately? As long as I can think of a way to contact Valkries, the King will definitely understand what is the right choice, so…"

When he reached the end of his sentence, his voice lowered.

"Damn it, you saw everything?"

"Yes," Silent Disaster admitted. "It was not intentional, but you can't sieve and overlook memories like words. Ever since you left for the Bottomless Land, you already knew that the King will not agree with your actions."

The entire Battle of Divine Will was a lie and the Realm of Mind contained an even deeper and darker secret, which did not conflict with the destruction of the humans and Sky-sea Realm. Assuming that the information on the paper was real, so long as the demons did not combine the legacy shards, the 'upgrade' would never occur, giving them the time to unravel the mystery. Regardless, dealing with anything related to the Divine Will by themselves was safer than leaving it in the hands of the enemy.

Of course, destroying the humans might lead to Nightmare Lord's ultimate demise. But compared to the entire race, a senior lord was insignificant, even if it was Valkries. The King never allowed emotions to cloud his judgment, and everything he did was based on cold logic and rationality.

If they stopped the war, humanity might overcome the race's advantage with their rate of development. This was something Ursrook had stressed and the King would never take the risk—Hackzord was definitely well aware of this.

"If it had been any ordinary time, I would have cut you down and prevent you from running to deliver you to the King for judgment." Silent Disaster sighed. "But seeing that you did everything in hopes of saving Valkries, I will act as though I am unaware of anything."

"Since you understand, shouldn't you do something about it! Also—" Hackzord glanced towards Nightmare Lord's body at the other side of the Red Mist Pond. "Your respect for Valkries is all a lie. Compared to her, your greater wish is to see an empty…"

BANG!

Silent Disaster punched the Red Mist Pond, causing a few cracks to appear in the rock foundation and also stopping Sky Lord from finishing his sentence.

"Firstly, your entire plan is built on a piece of paper of unknown origins; although it is definitely Valkries's handwriting, that's all."

"But she foreshadowed the existence of the Bottomless Land."

"And she said that the Deity of Gods isn't safe, but the humans are incapable of stopping us," Silent Disaster replied. "You want me to publicly go against the King based on this piece of paper? In fact, It was already a risk listening to you and acting as though it never happened. If you were in my place, you could never have done this."

"That's not what I meant, we can slow down the pace of the offensive and investigate covertly. As long as Mask doesn't know…"

"That is the second point I was trying to tell you. You returned too late." Silent Disaster interrupted him. "The King gave us a new order, the Western Front will be handled by Mask, and Plan B is being implemented. You are no longer the commander, in other words, there isn't any Western Front Commander."

"How is that…" Hackzord stood up in the Red Mist Pond abruptly, followed with a pained expression as he held onto his chest.

"You should have felt it right? The ripple from the Realm of Mind," Silent Disaster said indifferently. "In fact, the situation is worse than you think. Not only is Resentful Heart dead, Blackstone Region's defensive line was proclaimed to be breached. In that emergency, the King merged with the core and transformed the city into a new Deity of Gods. Currently, the entire race is migrating here, so everything that you're thinking of cannot be realized. If you want to gain more time, you'll be going against the order, which isn't any different from going against the King openly. So, I am unable to agree to you."

Hackzord realized that the situation had truly developed out of his control. Although the loss of a senior lord was rare, it was not strange for it to occur in war. But he had never expected for the situation to have deteriorated to such a level so suddenly.

Could it be that the appearance of the Blades… wasn't a special phenomenon?

He was naturally aware of Plan B—

While researching on the Deity of Gods, Mask had mentioned a crazy war tactic. In the situation where cost was disregarded, they could compress the core and God's Stone mine to the limits and allow the Deity of Gods to reach an alarming altitude. At such a time, the immense weight was sufficient for the entire floating island to turn into a devastating weapon.

When the Deity of Gods plummeted from a high altitude, the effect would be comparable to God's Punishment. Although Hackzord was unaware of how devastating it truly was, according to Mask's words, the land would crumble and produce a cloud of dust capable of blocking out the entire sun and cover a distance of over a thousand kilometers. Lava would seep out of the fissures and spew wantonly, transforming the entire land into a flaming abyss.

One attack would consume a single but precious unit of Deity of Gods. Hackzord thought that the plan would never be implemented, but who knew that the King had agreed to it.

If that was truly the case, his ideas were truly just empty talk.

To disobey the King alone? Although the race's future was unpredictable, his fate would undoubtedly be doomed. There wasn't a second possibility other than being chased by the other senior lords.

"Maybe you're right…" Hackzord lowered himself back down into the pool. "My reasoning wasn't up to date and I almost made a grave mistake. Since we have transitioned into Plan B, I should return to Sky City and follow up with the deployment…"

BANG!

More cracks appeared by the walls of the pool.

Sky Lord was startled.

"Are you planning to give up on Valkries?" Silent Disaster stood up and turned to walk towards Hackzord, and looked down at him with chilly eyes, as though if the word "yes" was said, Silent Disaster would unleash a bloodbath.

"I…" Hackzord was at a loss for words.

I can't save her, but I can't not save her either, how can you be so unreasonable?

Suddenly, Hackzord felt as though he understood Mask.

"I might be refusing your request, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up on her."

"What you're saying is…"

"I don't know. But it is because I have no clue as to what to do that requires you to think about it." Silent Disaster spoke in an unquestionable tone. "Regardless, do not hope that you can get away by running away."

He retracted the coldness in his words and closed his eyes, whispering, "… Especially after you've given me hope."

Chapter 1423 - Probe

"Be careful! They're charging up again!"

Hearing Fishball's warning, the defensive line composed of less than a hundred men produced the sound of concentrated firing.

Under the intense firepower, the agile monstrous beasts were forced to slow down and slowly crawl under the smoke and flying gravel.

The two 75mm cannons had been waiting for this very moment.

Within a range of a thousand meters, the cannons were astonishingly accurate; their might far stronger than the anti-demon rocket-propelled grenade and could be hailed as the nemesis of the 'stubborn rock monsters.'

The miniature monstrous beasts climbing at the front were the first to be bombarded as their upper bodies were instantly shred into pieces leaving limbs landing a hundred meters away.

After the deaths of a few monstrous beasts, the remaining demons retreated and concealed themselves within the Red Mist again.

But everyone knew that it was the calm before the storm; the monsters could regroup and come back even stronger at any time—from every direction.

This occurred not only in the northern region of the Kingdom of Dawn. From the mountains of the Kingdom of Wolfheart to the Coldwind Ridge at Graycastle, multiple battles occurred simultaneously at every moment. The only difference was the scale of the battle.

The First Army adopted a corresponding countermeasure—larger troops took on the larger enemies, and small numbers of intruders were handled by a smaller group of soldiers. The troops led by Fishball was precisely an assault force meant to make up for the gaps and take care of any that were missed. By relying on the city, they intercepted the demons that attempted to cross over and ensured a foothold for the humans.

Even though Fishball was a low-ranking officer, he was aware that his mission was intimately related to the overall situation. According to the calculations formulated by the higher-ups, the Red Mist produced at Hermes would be enough to envelop the entire City of Glow in a few months. Therefore, fighting in the Red Mist would soon become the norm. The soldiers were required to adapt to the battlefield without the support of the Witches and ensure the day to day operations within the Kingdom of Dawn.

It had to be said that engaging in such battles made them rather passive since no one could predict where the next attack would come from or the manner in which they would enter their warning radius. It was also impossible to establish a fixed defense line along the entire north border of the Four Kingdoms as they lacked the manpower or logistics for such an endeavor. Thus, the higher-ups were caught in a rather helpless situation.

Fortunately, the soldiers became more adept with their weapons. Even with just dozens of men, they were capable of unleashing a considerable amount of firepower in a short time frame. For example, Fishball's small team with four general-purpose machine guns, ten horses and two cannons, were capable of defeating any enemies so long as there were no Senior Demons.

After all, this nearly deadlock situation was due to the fact that the First Army was helpless against the floating island. Even if they forced their way into Hermes Plateau, it was impossible to destroy the moving stronghold. The humans had no choice but to maintain a defensive stance.

The only one capable of threatening the demons was the Aerial Knights formation led by Princess Tilly.

"If I had known this would had happened, I would have joined the Aerial Knight Academy," someone mentioned casually.

"That's enough. The requirements for joining that are too high; do you think it'll be as easy as where we are now, to go through simple training and pass?"

"In fact, joining the First Army is already a praiseworthy thing. My cousin couldn't even join."

"But Princess Tilly is there…"

This sentence incited a moment of silence.

The image of Iron Axe and Princess Tilly appeared involuntarily within Fishball's mind.

The outcome of such a comparison was self-evident…

"Shut your traps!" He expelled the distracting thoughts out of their heads and berated them. "The Aerial Knights might be able to deal with the demons head on, but we are the ones protecting the citizens! The enemies might even come again later, so pay attention to the sentry signals!"

"Yes…" Everyone probably realized how incomparable the two were as they changed topics.

"Captain." Hanson walked over with his rifle. "A subordinate of mine reported of an inclined position to the west with a good view. It allows monitoring of the enemy and they will have difficulty climbing up. As long as we set up a machine gun there, we will be able to suppress the wall-climbing monsters."

At least there are still some reliable people on the team.

Fishball turned towards the direction pointed to him and quickly came to a decision. "I'll lead five men over there, I'll leave this place to you. I'm sure you know when to fight or retreat."

"You're going personally?"

"It's our first time here; I'll be more at ease taking a look at it myself."

Fishball knew that the flank was far more important, and was well aware of his vice-captain's character. Hanson was not only a good marksman, but was extremely reliable and prudent. He was qualified enough to hold the line.

"I understand." Hanson saluted in acknowledgment of the order.

Fishball nodded and proceeded to pick out five reconnaissance soldiers. Together, they climbed towards the slope.

The bulging region had its similarities with the Northbound Slope. It had a gentle slope before coming to an abrupt cliff that went up almost twenty to thirty meters. The top of the hill was a suitable spot for cover and concealment with the trees and dense vegetation.

The only flaw was the dense mist in the area; the settled Red Mist was static, reducing their field of vision. Although it did not affect any observational activities outwards, being immersed in the Red Mist was not a good experience.

"Light up some fire to disperse the mist, then sweep the surrounding area." Fishball found a suitable firing position and laid the machine gun down.

It was indeed a prime location with the steep cliff acting as a natural barrier, especially against the monstrous beasts that had no defenses on their backs. Fishball decided to mark the location for future use before any new attack rose.

But after a long time, Fishball did not hear the crackling and burning flames that he had anticipated.

What's going on? How long do they need to gather firewood?

He frowned and yelled out twice, but the forest remained silent without any response.

Fishball suddenly felt something.

Something's wrong…

Even if there are enemies, they should have at least fired out once.

Be it Hanson's subordinate or the six of them, neither party came across any traces of enemies. The sudden silence was too bizarre.

At that very moment, he heard a light 'rustle' to his right, as though something had stepped onto grass.

Fishball turned and raised his gun—

A dark figure flashed in front of him and a cold gleam of light pricked his cheek.

CRUNCH.

His hand suddenly felt lighter as his weapon was split in two.

A tall 'female' appeared before him. She walked barefooted with light garments as clothes that covered her blue skin. Aside from the sword in her hand, there were no other metallic objects on her body. It was most probably how she was able to sneak forward without a sound.

It's over.

That was Fishball's thought.

The humanoid form was the distinctive feature of a Senior Demon, according to the pamphlets handed out by the higher-ups. The more humanoid the demon was, the stronger they were. Aside from her blue skin and tall figure, her facial features bore a striking resemblance to a human. One could only imagine how powerful she was.

Surprisingly, Fishball felt no fear in the face of death. The only thought he had was how to inform his comrades that a Senior Demon had infiltrated their location.

But the sword did not slash his body into two.

The other party took out a piece of paper and threw it in front of him.

"Take this and bring it back. Hand it to the Three Chiefs Witches."

Her intonation was queer and her flow of speech was terrible. But it was clearly human language.

"I don't know who the Three Chief Witches are…" Fishball secretly reached for the pistol at his waist. "And I will definitely not help my enemy—"

"Send it and your companions stay alive." The demon's words caused him to stop. "Since the Three Chiefs are leaders. Bring it back, and people will know."

Then, a purplish portal of magic appeared behind her.

She gradually retreated and disappeared without a trace.

Chapter 1424 - Valkries's Speculation

Is this… a dream?

Fishball blinked multiple times. Not only did the Senior Demon spare him, she wanted to communicate with the leader of the Witches?

But the piece of paper and his broken gun were proof that it was not a hallucination.

He lowered himself and picked up the piece of paper—The Senior Demon had not bound it or sealed it with candlewax, revealing the content written on it. Despite knowing that he should not be reading it, he stole a few glances.

Bottomless Land?

Deity of Gods?

I have no idea what any of this is about—

This allowed Fishball to heave a sigh of relief.

Just based on the words written, no one would have ever guessed that it came from a demon.

"That's right, the others!" He suddenly recalled his missing comrades! It wasn't time to ponder over the letter!

"Fauch! Cartier! Blanket—!"

Fishball yelled for his companions while staggering towards the forest. Strangely enough, the adrenaline had not set in when encountering the Senior Demon. But after her disappearance, he suddenly discovered that his legs had gone soft and he had to rely on trees to support himself.

After a moment, a weak reply sounded out from deep in the forest. "Captain—Captain, is that you?"

After a short search, he discovered a group of four men. Two others could not be found, as though they had disappeared without a trace.

The slip of paper soon found its way to a high-ranking officer.

Three days later, Fishball was summoned to the City of Glow, by King Roland.

And his mode of transport was actually the Seagull.

He had a faint inkling that the matter was not as simple as a mere letter.

…

"How's it?" After the questioning, Roland asked Nightingale.

"He was speaking the truth. Your soldier didn't lie at all." Nightingale shrugged.

"Is that so…" In all honesty, Roland felt that it was impossible for a front line soldier to fabricate such a story, but due to the peculiarity of the situation, there was no mistake in being cautious. After all, the matter was simply bizarre and inconceivable to him as well. "I will head into the Dream World then, I'll have to trouble you to take care of me."

"I'll still do it even if you didn't ask." Nightingale turned and loosened the curtains, dimming the entire study. "You want to meet the demon again?"

It was impossible to hide secrets from Nightingale. After all, she was the one protecting him by his side. She was the only other person who knew where the letter came from. Despite not initiating any queries, she naturally gained sufficient exposure after listening to the conversation between Roland and the ancient witch. Of course, Roland did not have the intention of painstakingly hiding it from her. His reason for not revealing it to others was mainly to avoid unnecessary worries, especially for Anna.

"The letter previously had failed, Hackzord has returned," he muttered. "And another powerful Senior Demon has appeared on the battlefield. You saw it for yourself, as long as the two combines their abilities, they are capable of causing great trouble for the First Army. Before that happens, I have to learn of their intent. For this, both the Taquila Witches and Edith have provided tremendous help."

It could be said that they were in 'troubled times.' Neverwinter was under siege, danger was imminent everywhere, and there was the top priority matter of dealing with the two Senior Demons.

"Although that's the case, the other party is still a demon. You can't just trust them that easily," Nightingale warned. "Bring a few God's Punishment Witch with you, especially Ling."

"You might not believe me, but I can fight exceptionally well in the Dream World." Roland looked at the girl almost blended into the darkness and laid down on the sofa. "But you don't have to worry, I'll bring a few people with me."

"Be back soon."

"Alright, see you in a bit."

He closed his eyes and allowed sleep to engulf him—

Half an hour later, Roland caught sight of Valkries walking towards Rose Café. He then recounted everything that had happened to Fishball to her.

"… I see." the other party sipped on her coffee and pondered for a long time. "They… are looking for me."

Roland was unsure, but sensed that Valkries was acting more and more like a human.

"They? You mean you know who that person is?"

Valkries raised her head and looked at him. "Serakkas—also known as Silent Disaster. But she rarely removes her heavy and thick armor, so it isn't strange for you to see her as just another higher ascendant."

Roland was dumbstruck. He knew of the name Silent Disaster from Sylvie, who had noticed this large and powerful Senior Lord back when the Deity of Gods was moving into the Impassable Mountain Range. Through many other reports gathered, he had verified the other party's identity—one of the few 'Charita' of the demon race, she was an extremely gifted warrior and the previous guardian of the legacy shard. Through the shard, he had once crossed paths with her. That's right, the armored enemy seated on the blackstone throne was Silent Disaster.

But he never expected for the other party to be hiding such an appearance under the armor.

"Are you sure they're looking for you?" Roland suppressed the shock in his heart. "The letter was indicated to be handed to the Three Chiefs Witches…"

The content within the letter was simple, almost identical to the one Nightmare Lord had handed over; the only difference was instead of demon characters, it was written in human language. What Roland found it hard to understand was what significance it held for them for the leader of the Witches to have the letter?

"It's normal for you not to understand, because you are not us." Valkries placed her fork down and sipped on her cup of coffee. "Actually, you just have to view it from a different angle and you can guess their intent. Firstly, the reason for my disappearance is for the investigation of the reason for humanity's upgrading. If I am still alive, it means that I have to rely on a human's Realm of Mind domain to continue existing; otherwise, it is impossible for me to maintain my consciousness for this long under the attack of the Realm of Mind, much less being able to send the letter out."

"And the most probable person to interact with the Realm of Mind is a Witch?" Roland asked.

"Of course, there's you," Valkries frankly said. "But considering that I am able to send the letter, it is even more probable that I am relying on a Witch—Hackzord must have guessed that I was able to convince a few Witches and reached a consensus for the first letter to appear. Provided that you are the one I convinced, it would be easier for you to surrender on behalf of the humans. There won't be a need for this trouble."

"What you're actually saying is… control, right?"

"Don't mind the fine details." Valkries did not refute his words. "In a way, a relationship formed by persuasion is firmer than one of control, because the latter is a unilateral action, while the former is a concept encompassing both parties."

Roland suddenly recalled Agatha's words where a few humans actually became followers of the demons in the first Battle of Divine Will… He shook his head and turned his thoughts back to the main topic. "But even so, they are unable to verify which Witch you're relying on."

"That's right. But it definitely wasn't easy to deliver a piece of paper from Graycastle to the Kingdom of Wolfheart, especially in war time. The person who succeeded in doing so cannot be a nobody. She must have figured that the person wields a considerable influence in the human kingdom, or is extremely astute on information. So her choice in handing the letter over to the witches is the most reasonable choice. This will allow importance to be attached to the letter, and the sender of the letter will come to know about it."

At this point, Valkries paused for a moment. "Aside from that, don't you think that this letter is too simple? There wasn't even an envelope and anyone could have gone through the content. Doing so will prevent the Three Chiefs from concealing the matter, and the Witch that I have convinced will be able to learn of the letter sooner or later—and once she finds out, I will know about it too."

Roland suddenly realized that the words of the letter was not the main point, but the actions on how the letter was delivered by Sky Lord and Silent Disaster was. Compared to the content, the matter of a Senior Demon giving a letter to a human was unprecedented and could never be concealed. He believed that in a few days, Fishball's encounter would have spread among all the troops.

"I admit that doing this requires a bit of luck. But it has to be said, they chose the best course of action. Also, they are really fortunate…" Valkries pointed to Roland, then to herself. "You see, don't I know about it already?"

"Based on your explanation, I do understand where they are coming from." Roland leaned forward and took a deep breath—He knew the next question was the one of importance. "Tell me, why do you think they are looking for you?"

Chapter 1425 - "Close your eyes"

"To be honest, I don't know." Valkries eyes never strayed away. "This has gone beyond my expectations. That's what you're more concerned about, right?"

Roland tacitly agreed. He discovered that Nightmare Lord possessed an indescribable insight towards the minds of humans. Even in the Martialist Association, she was well received by everyone and blended in well. It was useless trying to act muddle-headed in front of her, and the most effective form of negotiation was to be direct.

According to her previous conjecture, the appearance of the Deity of Gods meant that the Sky Lord had made a decision. Since he had persuaded the King for the Deity of Gods, it had severed all possibilities of working together. Uness the gigantic floating island was destroyed, there was no room for regret.

"Reasonably, Hackzord's prudent nature will always focus on the frontlines. As long as you display sufficient strength, he will not take action." It looked as though Valkries was thinking aloud, yet at the same time figuring out the doubts in his heart. "Now that he's being out of character, and with Serakkas forming some sort of understanding with him, it is natural that you're wary. But…"

"But what?"

"What if the situation has changed?" She shrugged. "The world has changed, no matter how appropriate the choice, all our conditions have turned meaningless. I can only guess that there might be other factors at play that changed Hackzord's original intent."

"But you don't know what that is."

"That's right, if even you have no clue as to what that is, It is impossible for me to know." Valkries drank another mouthful of coffee. "If we do not ask him, nothing will come out from our guesses here."

"So you want to write another letter?"

"That is indeed a way, but the time between the doubts and our interaction will be too long. And the conditions might change at any given moment. All of these uncertainties have brought uncertain risks."

After a moment of silence, Roland looked at Valkries in an amused manner. "Are you trying to guide my thoughts?"

"The decision has always been in your hands." The latter's expression was surprisingly calm.

"…" Roland did not answer immediately and merely shrugged his shoulders and changed the topic. "Right, why do you only talk about Hackzord and rarely about Silent Disaster? Can she not be one of the 'uncertain elements?'"

"Because I know her." Emotions stirred within Valkries eyes. She turned and looked out of the window. "To convince Hackzord requires a great deal of reasoning, but it is impossible for her. As long as she knows that I'm alive, she will not stay idle."

…

Deity of Gods, at the bottom of the Red Mist Pond.

"Will doing this really work?" Silent Disaster stared at Sky Lord who was recuperating with his eyes closed in the pool.

"Maybe, maybe not." After days of recuperation, Hackzord had almost fully recovered. "But since you can't think of a better idea, we can only try our luck."

He knew very well that if he wanted Silent Disaster to stand by his side, he needed to resolve the two reasons for her refusal. He was unable to stop the order of Plan B and did not dare openly rebel against the King; therefore, the only breakthrough was the 'letter.'

A piece of paper and a few words were far too sloppy, but what if there were more words and information? If it succeeded and they were able to communicate with the Nightmare Lord, Silent Disaster would become his greatest trump card.

For this plan, not only did Hackzord allow his capable subordinate, Siacis, to personally monitor rumors floating around the north of the Kingdom of Dawn, he also sent out two nobles, one to the foot of Mount Hermes and the other to Everwinter's borders, in hopes of receiving a reply.

The plan was akin to casting a wide net into the sea, and it being heavily reliant heavily on luck increased the uncertainties involved. However, Hackzord had no other choice. He could not expose the existence of that witch's existence and cause Valkries to lose her connection and become completely lost in the Realm of Mind. If that happened, they would no longer be able to obtain replies for a chance to ambush the humans.

But Hackzord did not harbor any hope for any end results.

Since the message sent required time and the King's second Deity of Gods was moving towards the Fertile Plains. Once Plan B was activated, there was no turning back.

"Aside from that… Instead of being focused on this, why not pay attention to Mask?"

"What's wrong with Mask?" Silent Disaster frowned.

"I don't know… I feel that his reaction is somewhat strange." Hackzord shook his head. It was impossible for his return to be hidden from Mask, but after earning the role as the Commander of the Western Front, Mask did not bother about his long disappearance or suggest for him to report to the King. If it were in the past, Mask would had used this opportunity to suppress Hackzord instead of letting the chance slip by.

"Master Sky Lord!" Right at this time, Siacis suddenly ran into the rock cave. "There has been activity with the humans!"

"That fast?" Hackzord was shocked. "What did you observe?"

He did not reveal his thoughts to anyone else aside from Silent Disaster and Siacis was no exception. His order to his subordinate was to report anything unusual about the humans.

"A human male has erected a flag on the hillside which you requested for us to observe, and he's alone."

Erecting a flag but not occupying the territory, that was extremely unusual!

Hackzord couldn't help but exchange looks with Silent Disaster.

It had only been five days since they sent out the message, and was far from the half month that he had anticipated. This only proved one thing; not only did the Witch hold a powerful position, her authority was close to the top. Otherwise, it would had been impossible for the message to be delivered so quickly.

"Any movements on the Eye Demons?"

Although Witches were unable to enter Red Mist regions, he had prepared a Symbiotic Eye Demon for Siacis for safety reasons. After suffering the long distance attack by the blonde witch the last time, it had left a trauma in him.

"What was sensed was a human male without any magic power and should be a scout for the humans. Presently, there has been no sightings of any magic power observers." Siacis hesitated for a moment. "My lord, what are you cautious about?"

"I will tell you everything when it's over." After Siacis's departure, Hackzord turned to Silent Disaster. "Do you want to go?"

"Is there a need to ask?" The latter had already donned on her helmet.

…

After stepping through the Distortion Door, Silent Disaster slowly walked towards the soldier under the flag.

This time, she did not conceal herself intentionally, allowing the soldier to notice her.

Silent Disaster recognized him.

He was the one who had delivered the previous letter.

The scene was a rare sight. The human did not scream, run, or put up a desperate resistance; instead, he waited quietly for her to approach. Although his breathing was clearly somewhat chaotic, he did not retreat a step.

When the two came face to face, he spoke.

"I've delivered the letter, where are my companions?"

"They are alive. Return, I will release them."

The man nodded, then took out a new piece of paper and handed it over.

Silent Disaster's eyes immediately constricted.

It was the same as the first letter, written in their language with Nightmare Lord's obvious style.

But the content was brief; it was only a single sentence.

"Focus yourself, and close your eyes."

Chapter 1426 - Converging

Enter… the Realm of Mind here?

Silent Disaster was shocked.

She was not Hackzord and had difficulty establishing a connection with the Realm of Mind without the Birth Tower. Even if it was an ephemeral connection to the Origin of Magic, it was extremely unlikely for her to be able to find Valkries in the vast darkness.

Why did Nightmare Lord send out this message?

She looked around. The entire hilltop was quiet and the Eye Demon had not produced any warnings. Even the lone soldier standing in front of her came empty handed and did not carry the firearms they were so proud of.

Well… I'll have to try it then.

She figured it was fine if it failed; she could seek Hackzord out for help.

Having made her decision, Silent Disaster slowly closed her eyes and attempted to find the slightest bit of fluctuation. Right at this moment, an extremely powerful force enveloped her! The overwhelming sensation shocked her as she tried to struggle free, but to no avail. As though stuck in a quagmire, the barrier between both worlds became like bubbles, as though she could immediately connect to the Realm of Mind effortlessly! Even though her eyes were closed, she could sense the surging magic power around her—

It was an experience Silent Disaster had never felt.

She had never experienced such an effect even when meditating close to the Birth Tower!

Even the misconception that she was being upgraded surfaced from the bottom of her heart.

But the sensation was fleeting.

Before being able to process her thoughts, everything became quiet once more.

But it was not the same as before—Silent Disaster felt a faint buzzing sound ahead of her, and at the same time it came with a faint breeze. The wind was extremely dry, yet calm and steady, as though there were very slight fluctuations. She was unable to recall a similar scene in her memories that had spanned centuries.

Silent Disaster opened her eyes.

She discovered that she was in a small building which had poor natural lighting, but it wasn't pitch black. A gigantic magic stone overhead emitted a bright light, illuminating the corners of the room adequately.

The thing that buzzed and produced the warm wind was a strange instrument hung on the wall. It was not made out of wood or metal but something in between. The artificial production of wind was astonishing.

Is this… the Realm of Mind?

Why haven't I ever seen such a thing?

"Is she the one you're looking for?"

An unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded out from behind her.

Silent Disaster immediately reached out for her sword and turned—

"Hi, it's been a while, Serakkas."

Silent Disaster stood agape.

It was not a reunion after being separated for a long time. Everyday, she would see the other party in the Red Mist Pond, but at that moment, she finally understood the difference between the two. The faint smile, the bright and lively eyes, as well as the familiar voice… All the fine details brought about ineffable emotions and caused ripples in her heart.

"Lord Valkries…"

"To hear that from you truly brings me back." Nightmare Lord smiled faintly. "But you're already a senior lord and on the same rank as me. There is no need to use the old titles."

"What is going on here—" Serakkas was suddenly stumped, because she noticed the male human beside Nightmare Lord! He bore the exact same resemblance as the human in the Divine Land who had attacked her coldly! "So this man has taken you hostage?"

"Do you feel that way?" Valkries answered with a question.

"…" Silent Disaster held onto her sheath, but found it difficult to draw out her sword.

Indeed, the two had appeared at the same time and did not harbor any malicious intent. Could it be… that he is the human whom Nightmare Lord convinced?

"Welcome to the Dream World. Let me introduce myself. I am the King of Graycastle, and the leader of the Witch Union, Roland Wimbledon." The other party extended a hand forward.

"You speak my language?" Silent Disaster was in disbelief.

"You want to hear more of it?" Roland slowly repeated himself.

At this point, Silent Disaster realized that the language spoken by the human king was not of their race, but an extremely strange language. Yet, she was able to understand him!

In other words, regardless of what language the three spoke, they were able to understand each other clearly.

"You can treat it as a form of psychic communication. In all… they are just minor details." Roland extended his hand in an inviting manner. "To be honest, to facilitate this meeting wasn't easy, so we have to cherish the time we have and focus on resolving the problem. Come, let us eat while we talk."

Eat… while we talk?

Imbecile, does he not know that higher ascendant has no need to eat and drink?

Valkries must have endured him for long enough.

But to her surprise, Nightmare Lord gladly sat at the table and picked up an exquisite cup in front of her.

Eh…

In a daze, she followed and sat down.

"Time is of the essence, but if we don't even have the most fundamental trust, everything that follows will be pointless." Roland went straight to the point. "In this short span of time, it will be difficult for me to make you believe, so Valkries will be responsible for answering your queries."

"That is for the best." Valkries gave Roland a profound look. "I have many questions for her myself."

Following that, Nightmare Lord gave an account of how she entered the Dream World and everything that she encountered, without mentioning anything about the Western Front. Silent Disaster more or less understood her experience after getting lost in the Realm of Mind, but it was merely an understanding. As everything was still too inconceivable, she found it hard to understand how a powerless human male was able to gain the favor of the Realm of Mind.

"So… this is where the human's new legacy comes from?" Silent Disaster found difficulty in opening her mouth.

"You can say that," Roland answered. "But I would like to treat this place as a complete world of its own, and like ours, it faces the incoming threat from God, a world on the brink of crisis."

She was unwilling to put her trust in humans, but there were things that were the truth, for example the Realm of Mind domain being called the Dream World. As she looked out of the window pane, she discovered the surprisingly large world outside that seemed endless. Ignoring the assumption on whether God would destroy the Dream World, just from the scope of the world, it was far larger than the King's Presiding Holy Sea.

And the unidentified tools and decorative items—everything had their something unique about them and were unfathomably exquisite. The ability to employ so much effort on the objects showed how much strength the bottom rung of the society held. By borrowing this strength, it was no longer strange for the huge changes humans had revealed in the third Battle of Divine Will.

Of course, Valkries was the most important aspect.

Her scope and reasoning far surpasses mine, her not showing any signs of disagreement is itself a persuasion.

But… to have Serakkas absorb all the information in one seating was truly difficult.

"By the way, I wish to know what made Hackzord decide to get in touch with Valkries and not continue waiting?" Noticing Serakkas's prolonged silence, Roland took the initiative to ask. "It isn't his style."

Silent Disaster looked at Valkries and only explained after seeing a nod.

Roland was not surprised of the fact that Sky Lord had verified the existence of the Bottomless Land located at the north of the Land of Dawn, he had learned of the same information from Joan previously. Upon reflecting, it was rather logical for Hackzord to have validated the information.

But the second piece of news was completely different.

"You're saying… the Blackstone region has been overrun by Sky-sea Realm?" Valkries revealed a look of shock. "Isn't that where our race's main defense force is deployed?"

"That's what the King said. I'm not sure of the concrete details, but I heard from Mask that the enemy has undergone a huge evolution."

Chapter 1427 - Going Or Staying

"Can you give me more details?" Roland inquired.

"There's nothing else." Silent Disaster was obviously guarded against the human king. "You have little knowledge towards the Sky-sea Realm, even if I explained, you wouldn't understand."

"That might be so in the past, but it is different now. Graycastle's Western Region has undergone attacks from demonic beasts, and there were traces of Sky-sea Realm within them." Roland did not care about Silent Disaster's tone and narrated the encounter with the Skeleton Monster in detail. "This is our first time encountering it away from the sea."

"Tell him what he wants to know," Valkries said slowly. "Regardless, it is better than having the human's legacy shard falling into the hands of Sky-sea Realm."

"If you put it that way…" Serakkas nodded her head helplessly. "Listen well, human. The thing that you saw is called a Nest Mother, they are the nucleus to the Sky-sea Realm's ability to expand. They do not wield fighting capabilities, but are able to control many subordinates to fight for them—"

"Like a brain?"

"You can say that, but do not interrupt me again," Silent Disaster replied impatiently. "These creatures are much more ancient than you think, and might have already existed since the beginning of time—But time, no matter how long, has few effects on it. Their form and abilities barely change, until recently in the past few months…"

After her explanation, Roland roughly understood the reason for the Sky-sea Realm's sudden change.

According to the demons, they were able to evolve as well, but not unlike the regular evolution of ability, the Sky-sea Realm's every new transformation involved its entire race. For example, the nest was the nest and the blade was the blade. There were no outstanding individuals like the humans or demons, where everybody was an independent entity. It might be because of this trait that their evolution was extremely slow and required a few centuries to see the change in them.

But the most recent change proved that they were completely wrong. No one was sure on how many evolutions the Sky-sea Realm had undergone in the past few months. The only confirmation was the exponential growth in strength. For example, the blade beasts were previously mere hunters for the Nest Mother. As long as they were locked in place, even Mad Demons were capable of destroying them. But not only had they grown several times in size, their strength, endurance, and reaction speed had greatly increased. Their claws which were abundant with magic power even posed a threat to Senior Demons.

Although a higher ascendant was capable of killing a blade beast with ease in a direct confrontation, the issue laid in the fact that the evolution was universal.

It could be compared to having a single Witch being awakened as a Transcendent, evoking all the other Witches to turn into Transcendents as well. As long as there were a sufficient number of them, the change in quantity would result in a qualitative change.

The demons which were barely maintaining the defense line was no longer capable of resisting the invasion of Sky-sea Realm as countless enemies crawled out from the ocean and inundated the battlefield like a roaring tidal wave. It forced the King to do the unthinkable—give up on the Blackstone region.

It was bad news for Roland.

If the demons were truly unable to hold their ground, it gave the humans a new pressure—the attack on the Western Region was merely the beginning.

"Human, I suggest for you to move your legacy shard." Silent Disaster advised. "With your current strength, it is difficult to fight against the Sky-sea Realm's large army. Valkries is right, we cannot allow the Sky-sea Realm to seize the legacy shard."

"I have no plans to hand it over to them." Roland shrugged his shoulders. "Aside from that… Don't you find their moment of evolution quite a coincidence?"

"Oh?" Valkries raised a leg and crossed it over the other. "Tell me more about it."

"The Blackstone region has always been fighting against Sky-sea Realm, so your estimation of their evolution should not deviate too far from that. And three to four months ago was when the Oracle ambushed Zero."

"You suspect that the Sky-sea Realm's substantial evolution is linked to God?"

"Just a guess." Roland answered solemnly. "But there is one thing I'm worried about… Has your race ever communicated with Sky-sea Realm before?"

Valkries expression gradually turned serious.

"I guess not, right? But all other participants in the Battle of Divine Will have interacted with each other before." Roland spoke unhurriedly. The humans and demons have interacted before in Cloud School. And the destroyed underground civilization had once 'communicated' with the Witch Organization, which resulted in the God's Punishment Army plan. He believed that the other party likely had similar experiences as well, and this could be seen from the Nightmare Lord's expression.

The only exception was the Sky-sea Realm.

History had not left any documents or materials pertaining to them. If the reason for it was humanity's inability to step into the deep ocean, it was extremely strange for the demons to have the same experience with Sky-sea Realm.

After all, interaction and communication was a trait to civilization, even if it was a hostile relationship.

And from the looks of it, Sky-sea Realm was a silent warrior apart from the three races.

With this train of thought, the reason behind the Sky-sea Realm's evolution would cause people to tremble with fear.

"What do you plan to do?" Valkries asked.

"To head to the Bottomless Land before everything becomes irrecoverable." Roland looked at the two. "I hope that you can stop your attack on humans and focus on defeating the Sky-sea Realm."

"That's impossible," Silent Disaster immediately refuted. "Firstly, ignoring the fact that the Divine Will and God are mere claims of yours, the current Commander of the Western Front is Mask, and all the Symbiotic Demons are under his control. Also…"

"Also what?"

Serakkas did not reply immediately but maintained her silence for a moment. "I want to talk to Valkries alone."

"Phew…" Roland sighed. "Fine, but don't forget the time."

…

Silent Disaster followed Valkries out of the door and walked to the side of the apartment corridor.

Standing there, an indescribable and majestic city appeared. All the rectangular and gray skyscrapers were in abundance and no less inferior to the Birth Towers, but their numbers were several orders of magnitude more. The buildings followed along the intersecting roads that seemed to extend forever without an end, where even the Deity of Gods would never be able to accommodate such lofty buildings.

This impact stifled Silent Disaster.

Previously, a single glance into the city had shaken Serakkas to her core, but the scene she saw upon walking out of the building far surpassed her imagination.

What was even more inconceivable was the number of figures walking in the middle of the city. They were neither magic power wielders who were sucked in, nor were they rigid creatures formed by the domain. That was the largest difference between the Dream World and the Presiding Holy Sea.

No wonder that human calls this a 'world.'

"Here would be fine." Valkries stopped.

Her words broke Silent Disaster's train of thought. She gathered her focus and calmed herself before speaking, "There are other magic power wielders in the room!"

"Yes, I know. They are Witches," Valkries replied indifferently.

"…" Her reaction came unexpected to Serakkas. "You… knew?"

"I even talked to them while waiting for you; although they don't really like me." Nightmare Lord nodded. "Their main goal is to protect Roland, but he don't really need protecting. It is just to put everyone at ease."

Even a Transcendent would never relax in front of a Senior Lord, much less a normal human? Silent Disaster discovered that this truth was far more shocking than the farce of the Battle of Divine Will.

"What else could it be? If he was that easily dealt with, I would had done so already." Valkries stopped at this point, as though feeling somewhat regretful. "Of course… That's my thought at the beginning."

"The Witches didn't follow us." Serakkas grabbed her hands. "Tell me, how can I bring you out of this Realm of Mind?"

Valkries looked at her for a moment before shaking her head. "Didn't you realize it? I can no longer leave this place."

"No, if I can come in, you can definitely get out. Right! If I bring your body along…"

Nightmare Lord extended her hand upwards and brushed her hair away. This action caused Silent Disaster to widen her eyes.

"Lord Valkries… your magic stone…"

"I'm different from you now, and different from the Witches." Valkries did not refute the formal address. "If our race loses the magic stone, the only outcome is death. But not me—it might be related to the way I entered the Dream World. Now, I am already a part of this world, and no longer able to return with you."

Chapter 1428 - Criteria For Balance

"…" Serakkas stared at her quietly for a long time before speaking. "If that man named Roland Wimbledon dies…"

"I think I will no longer exist." Valrkies answer came without any baggage. "But compared to the entire race, my life isn't worth mentioning. If killing him would ensure the survivability of our race, you must not hesitate to do so."

Silent Disaster did not continue on this topic.

She turned her head and looked down the noisy streets below. There were not only humans but a few figures that were akin to Junior Demons. They shuttled through the crowd back and forth and merged into one body. Regardless of how one looked at it, the scene was fascinating.

After a while, she asked another question. "Do you trust that male human?"

"To be honest, the term belief is too weak a thing when it concerns the existence of the race." Valkries leaned over the railing slightly. "Even though you're the one negotiating, I am unable to act just purely on belief. But he was right on one thing, trust is the foundation of change. Without this foundation, we might take decades or even more than a century to change the inherent nature of this Battle of Divine Will, and the cost of it will be too big a price for the race to bear. So regardless of whether we do it or not, the answer will never be appropriate."

"…"

"By the current looks of it, he is definitely working towards stopping the entire Battle of Divine Will, and everything he tells me regarding the battlefield has been true. By comprehensively considering all these aspects, this bit of trust is not an excessive request." Nightmare Lord spoke gently. "Doubt and reason are two sides of a coin, the key is to find a balance."

'Balance' huh… Silent Disaster repeated the word to herself. "Then what should I do next?"

"That depends on you… As I said, you're already a qualified senior lord, I do not wish to influence your judgment."

"Will I… be able to see you here in the future?" Serakkas asked hesitantly.

"I can't say for sure." Valkries shrugged. "Roland once told me that he tried to save a Witch called Ashes. If the information the Oracle revealed was true, even if the body disappears, any one of us will have an opportunity to live so long as we leave a mark on the Realm of Mind. At least I am a lot more complete compared to the Witch floating in the Realm of Mind. By the way…"

At this point, she extended both her hands and took down Serakkas' helmet. "Considering the risks involved, we won't have many opportunities to meet like this, so don't wrap yourself up too tightly. I'd prefer seeing your original self than the black armor."

…

When the two returned, Roland could not help but raise an eyebrow.

Despite knowing from Fishball's report of the stark difference between Silent Disaster's original appearance and her battle mode, seeing it for himself still took him by surprise.

If not for him having mentally prepared himself, he would had found it difficult to link the 'female' demon to the hideous and bulky armor.

"You're done? What's the conclusion?"

"I have a question for you, human." Serakkas spoke coldly. "If the Battle of Divine Will is truly a lie, how certain are you in defeating God?"

"I don't know." This was a question Roland asked himself frequently. "What is God, what is his goal, how should I fight God, whether or not I even have the opportunity to fight God, they are all unknown. Aside from that all, considering the abilities God has displayed to this point, none of us stand a chance, theoretically. But I believe that whatever the outcome, it is better than to sit and await death."

"I do not care whether you live or die. Do not forget that Lord Valkries is still in your Realm of Mind domain. For her—"

"I'll have to live well, right?"

"It's good that you understand." Serakkas glared at him. "As for your request, I will need to consider it first before deciding."

"I didn't count on having results just from our first negotiation." Roland nodded his head. "At the very least, this is a breakthrough. We will continue using letters to communicate, since meeting like this exposes us to very huge risks. So long as the Western Front army continues to enter the realm of the Four Kingdoms, the war will not stop. Also…"

He picked up a cup. "Since it'll be a long time before we meet again, are you sure you won't take this drink?"

"Humph." Serakkas picked up the drink from the table disdainfully and poured it into her mouth. She had seen many of such tricks—no matter how disgusting the drink was, she would never cower back in fear in front of the enemy.

When the mellow, rich, sweet, and pleasant experience flowed through her throat, the entire room disappeared and she returned to the forest.

Silent Disaster subconsciously looked towards where Valkries was, only to see an empty patch of grass.

The experience felt like a dream, with only a wisp of sweetness lingering in her mouth.

…

"What took you so long?"

Seeing Silent Disaster, Hackzord immediately opened multiple Distortion Doors without hesitation and pulled her over ten kilometers away before questioning her.

Hackzord assumed that she would have left upon obtaining the letter.

"They didn't give me a letter." Silent Disaster looked distracted.

"What?" Sky Lord frowned. "Was it a trap?"

"No, I saw Valkries."

Hackzord almost missed his footing and nearly fell from the sky.

"What did you say?"

"Valkries is indeed residing in the Realm of Mind; you were right," Silent Disaster answered. "But she is relying on the King of Graycastle, the wielder of the legacy shard."

After listening to Serakkas' account and returning to the Deity of Gods, Hackzord sank into extreme confusion.

The huge volume of information had practically caused a block in his brain.

Although he had anticipated the location of Valkries, he had never thought that the humans would be in so deep, and in some sense, the Nightmare Lord had already formed a collaboration with them. If this information was leaked out, it was enough to change nearly a thousand years of history for the race, and cause them to stand against the King.

Attempt to convince the King? Hackzord immediately dispelled that thought. He was no longer willing to enter the Presiding Holy Sea. If the King had an inkling of what he was doing, he would never have the opportunity to even refuse.

Stand by Valkries side?

In fact, the Nightmare Lord was once a candidate to be King—essentially, the disparity between the King and the Senior Lords laid not in their abilities. One had to pay a price to be King, and the price depended on the individual's choice. Thus, the intent was not obstructed by any honor or dignity, the only thing that made him hesitate was humanity.

Ignoring the suspicion that the Battle of Divine Will was a lie, the legacy shards were proven to be able to upgrade an entire race. The humans were able to improve rapidly with some unknown legacy, and if they were to improve further, what would happen to the race?

This doubt made it difficult for him to make a decision.

But what Hackzord failed to notice was that while he was immersed in the pool and racking his brains, Silent Disaster had silently left the Red Mist pool with her helmet and sword.

Chapter 1429 - Surpassing the Limit

Deity of Gods, beneath the Birth Tower.

This was the core region of the city with countless Red Mist deposits which were in the form of crystallized scarlet lakes that completely submerged the God's Stone mine. In a sense, they were the "Origin of Magic" created by the race. Not only did this strengthen the Birth Tower's conversion abilities, it was an indispensable location to nurture powerful magic stones.

This promoted continuous growth and upgrades amongst the demons and was where upgrade ceremonies were mostly held. Although it was possible that every city had slight differences between the lakes, the structure at the bottom of every single lake was roughly the same.

While passing through the ceremony square, Silent Disaster stopped for a moment.

Gazing at the familiar scene, it was as though she could hear countless people chanting the name 'Charita' as she slowly walked forward dressed in a white gown.

… But from the way the Red Mist dispersed across the stone slabs, it was apparent that this place had not been used for quite a period of time.

Ever since the race began extensively using the underground civilization's Symbiosis technology, the upgrade ceremony for Primal Demons were replaced. All Primal Demons chosen through an initial filter had a higher probability of being upgraded, increasing the number of Junior Demons and forming the present backbone of the race's fighting force.

The one that spearheaded the technique was Senior Lord Mask, Nassaupelle. He asserted that so long as they continued the research, the upgrade and large scale nurturing would not only be limited to Junior Demons but to higher ascendants as well.

Although countless expressed their doubts—believing that not only did this go against ancient tradition but it also endangered the stability of the race—the King actually gave his fullest support.

Even though there was an increased probability of an upgrade to strengthen the race, the flaws were apparent as well. In the past few centuries, the number of Junior Demons had multiplied tens of times, but the numbers upgraded to a higher realm and produced through a ceremony was countable with one hand. Furthermore, not a single senior lord had appeared.

If higher ascendant and senior lords could be birthed by magic stones in the future, it proved that the divine square which had witnessed endless glory would turn unnecessary…

Serakkas sighed and repressed the endless thoughts that streamed into her head.

Memories implied hesitation, and hesitation would bring about flaws.

She had to dispel such a thing.

Passing the square, she walked into the tower situated at the center of the wall.

Upon being seen, the Junior Demon guards lowered their heads in respect.

In what was a nearly unimpeded path, Silent Disaster found her targeted source of magic power in the control room.

"You have something to see me about?" Nassaupelle appeared to be focused on adjusting the structure of the magic power core, as he asked without turning his head.

She unsheathed her sword.

Serakkas stepped leaped forward at full force and thrust her sword straight at Mask—

This was her first attack ever since her recovery, an attack that encompassed all her strength!

All the senior lords knew that Mask was not adept at battle, but Serakkas knew that it was only true on a fair battlefield. Outside, she wouldn't feel any fear even if she faced against ten Masks. Be it magic power or his physical strength, she greatly surpassed his.

There was no need to even mention the experience and instinct she gained from tens of thousands of life and death battles.

But this was not outside.

Even the slowest of beasts would be able to turn its lair into a cave filled with secrets to induce fear into others, and the target was Nassaupelle. Since the uprising of the Deity of Gods to arriving at the Dawn Region, there was sufficient time for him to turn the entire lower region into his territory. In other words, Serakkas was never in a fair battlefield right from the beginning.

Her instincts told her that Nassaupelle could not be underestimated!

The distance of ten steps passed in a flash as she used her maximum speed to transform the blade into a cold gleam of light. Following the shockwave induced by her speed, her sword stabbed into Nassaupelle's body.

The latter produced a startled and pained roar that instantly seem to awaken the entire room. Countless stone needles shot out from all directions and sealed Silent Disaster's path of retreat.

She was forced to withdraw her sword and retreat rapidly while activating an impenetrable barrier of blades around her. As stone needles flew straight at her, the resounding collisions lingered on for a short while!

"You… What is the meaning of this!" Nassaupelle held his wound and roared.

Silent Disaster raised her weapon again and initiated her second attack. The first strike did not feel as though she had stabbed into a living thing, but instead into a pile of greasy metal. She vaguely realized that the other party was in the midst of transforming himself into another species, but regardless of his ultimate form, he would no longer be able to integrate well with the race.

Realizing that he wasn't getting a reply, Mask waved his hand and caused the surrounding walls to rumble, revealing Symbiotic Demons hidden within the pile of flesh. At the same time, a peculiar shaped Symbiote scuttled out. The latter opened a carapace and expanded twice its size. The two connected together and turned into a deformed monster.

Could this be the latest Symbiotic Demon?

Serakkas threw her sword without hesitation, her perfect aim allowing the sword to pass through the cracks within the connecting Symbiotic Demons and accurately into Mask's rapidly closing carapace.

This caused half of his body to be exposed.

Serakkas unleashed her power, producing gold lightning to appear and engulfed the entire control room! Under the flashing lights, the stone needle symbiotic demons were instantly paralyzed, along with the new symbiotic demon—The sword became the target of her power as a large amount of magic power shot into the sword, causing Mask to unleash an ear-piercing shriek!

With sparks flying in every direction, Serakkas leaped towards the falling Symbiotic Demon and grabbed onto the scorching hot sword. She used the momentum of the drop to plunge the weapon deeper in. The scream stopped abruptly as the blade sliced upwards, from Mask's chest to his head, splitting his entire body into half.

"Plop."

A mask that had been split into two from Nassaupelle's head slid down and fell to the ground.

"22… seconds."

He turned his head slowly and spoke with what remained of his face.

"… Are those your last words?" Serakkas pulled out her bloodied weapon.

"The humans'… unit of time is not bad, I will… make use of it." Mask spoke in a staccato manner. "And this… is the time the Symbiotic Demons managed to fend you off for. Heh… I thought it would have been longer."

"Battles that brings me closer to death allows me to break through," Silent Disaster replied emotionlessly. "Compared to the the past me prior to being heavily injured, the current me is even stronger. It is a pity that you and your creations will never be able to gain enlightenment on this."

"That is why… I hate uncertainty." Mask's voice gradually became deeper. "But, uncertainty signifies the inability to replicate… so long as I have more time, I will definitely be able to surpass… the limitations of our race…"

"There will be no future."

"How… are you so certain?" The only complete face on Mask revealed a strange smile. "Do you still remember… my words? In the face of knowledge, even the strongest physical body… is nothing…"

Serakkas suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of danger!

"Right, let me… gift you something," Mask whispered. "It was something I found amongst the humans… you should recognize it."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Symbiotic Demon that had linked with him opened its carapace once more, revealing the layers of cysts enveloped within.

The cysts were filled with human explosives!

He actually dares to bring such a thing into the Birth Tower?

What… what is he planning to do with that?

Serakkas's expression changed. Even before she had the time to retreat, a dazzling red light filled her entire vision!

A huge fireball spewed out from the center tower following a sonorous boom. The flaming ball quickly swelled into a semi-circular light. Under the glaring light, a bright and resplendent reflection appeared on the lake. When the ball of fire exploded, the city beneath trembled, the intense shockwave caused walls to fall and debris plunged into the Red Mist Lake, producing even more thunderous explosions!

After the exhaustion of the explosion, emptiness took the place of the Red Mist Lake as high temperatures caused the remaining Red Mist to escape. The emptiness could not be filled, leaving all the Primal and Junior Demons in the region to struggle helplessly as they choked to death staring at the Birth Tower.

But Serakkas did not feel any heat or pain.

At this distance, the explosion would have been strengthened with the support of the Red Mist, and the domineering shockwave should had been able to rip her to shreds—

She gradually lowered her arm which she had held up to protect her body and opened her eyes.

Hackzord had his hand extended forward with a large Distortion Door in front of him.

Everywhere around them that was not protected by the Distortion Door had been vaporized, and the entire area had been razed to the ground.

Chapter 1430 - The Irrecoverable Situation

"What have you done!?" Sky Lord roared.

If not for his realization that Silent Disaster had suddenly left and that he had not been late, not only would she have died, even he would have been caught in the catastrophe! Upon realizing that if the other side of the Distortion Door was to another Red Mist Pond, or if he had failed in opening a second Distortion Door, Hackzord felt cold sweat stream down his back.

But the situation was nowhere optimistic. It didn't matter if Mask survived; the King was bound to find out. Even if he had nothing to do with the incident, it did not mean he was completely blameless. So long as the King requested to view his memories, he would no doubt be placed in an extremely passive situation!

This made him incensed.

Back when Silent Disaster refused to help him, he figured that she was being calm and rational. He never expected that Serakkas's attitude would undergo such a drastic change after meeting Valkries.

No, she is still calm and rational, that was why she left silently, and did not explain anything to me prior—She knew I would have stopped her!

"Once Plan B is activated, the situation would be irredeemable, and the only way to stop it is by doing this." Silent Disaster's tone did not change, as though she did not care about her narrow escape from death.

"Who said that this is the only way? If you calm yourself down and think about it…"

Hackzord's voice grew softer as he spoke.

Is there really a better way?

A solution to prevent Mask from finding out or prevent the King from being aware of the situation and to maintain the Deity of Gods the way it was might exist… but what about time? In fact, without mentioning tactics that required a great deal of effort, he had not even steeled his resolve on his choice.

Did she… see through me?

Hackzord's lips quivered for a moment, but chose to change the subject at the final moment.

"Why?"

Serakkas looked at him and waited for him to question her further.

"By doing so, we are completely standing against the King and the other senior lords will see us as enemies. Additionally…" Sky Lord paused for a second. "The humans might not spare us."

"Because of balance." Serakkas replied simply.

"Balance?"

"It wasn't difficult for me to make a decision." She turned and walked out of the room—or what was left of the room, which was half a wall and a door on the verge of collapse. "We can ponder about the other things slowly, but I am unable to allow Valkries to die like that."

What kind of answer is that… "Are you trying to say that Valkries is more important than the fate of our race?" Hackzord's tone became solemn. "I do not believe this is her idea. Are you sure you saw the real Nightmare Lord, and not a scam designed by the humans?"

"No, she told me that sacrificing her didn't matter for the race's cause," Serakkas answered calmly. "This was my decision."

"…" Sky Lord was at a loss for words.

The situation had just turned thorny.

Suddenly, an oppressive humming sound rumbled over their heads; yet, it sounded like it came from beneath their feet, or from somewhere even deeper!

Under the incessant rumbling, the Deity of Gods actually trembled!

"This— What's going on?" Hackzord looked down at the Red Mist Lake at the bottom of the pit, only to see the crystallized lake boiling up, as though something was on the verge of coming out. At the same time, the Birth Tower in the middle of the lake suddenly emitted a faint glow!

He had never witnessed such a bizarre scene over the past few centuries.

An even more inconceivable scene appeared before him—the magic power cores that he thought had exploded actually bloomed with a dazzling blue light and slowly rose out of the lake towards the Birth Tower.

It was something he was extremely familiar with; although it had an extremely ingenious structure, it was the underground civilization's only object capable of altering magic power. Despite its prowess, the structure itself was weak and could be broken with one hand, and was never known to that resilient. The explosion before had destroyed even the main tower, so how did the magic power core survive and drop into the lake?

Serakkas's expression changed as well. She drew her sword and suddenly ran out and mustered all her strength to throw her sword out!

The sword transformed into a stream of light that accurately struck one of the cores.

But the latter did not break, or even move. As though striking something firm, the sword tumbled in ricochet and plunged into the lake.

"How is that…" Serakkas muttered to herself.

Once the core got close to the Birth Tower, a belt of light appeared between the two, as though forming an ensemble It was the same for the other cores to the point of having four distinct light belts forming. The four cores began revolving around the Birth Tower, boosting the tower's emitted light to its peak!

"Bang—"

The trembling amplified multiple folds, causing dust and debris to fall. Countless structures at the periphery of the pit crumbled into the lake, with the tower in the center clearly in the worst possible shape, its walls continuously groaning and cracking as cracks started spreading along the tower wall.

Amidst the intense swaying, Hackzord felt clear weighted down, as though something was pressing him to the ground.

The Deity of Gods was rising!

"Damn it, wasn't it decided that the plan will only activate when the King arrives at the Fertile Plains?" Hackzord gritted his teeth. "How is it possible that it is making preparations so ahead of schedule?"

Serakkas sensed something amiss, as though everything had been planned beforehand.

"Could it be…" Hackzord stared at Silent Disaster for a moment before pulling her into the Distortion Door and back into the lowest level of the Red Mist Pond. "Remove your armor!"

"…" Serakkas stared at him in suspicion, but did as he instructed.

Sky Lord retrieved the multi-colored magic stone and placed it before his eyes. He noticed an almost invisible 'thread' that had mixed into the beam of light produced by Serakkas, so fine that it would have been missed if not for his meticulous observation.

"Don't move!" Hackzord extended two fingers and stabbed Silent Disaster's shoulder. The latter frowned, but did not stop him. Very quickly, he grabbed onto a blob of flesh. Upon its separation from its host, the blob of flesh stopped squirming.

"Nassaupelle—" Silent Disaster clenched her fists tightly! Without a doubt, Mask had actually implanted such a thing into her while she was unconscious, and yet she had never felt a thing!

"That was how he knew of our conversation, and even… your meeting with Valkries." Hackzord threw the flesh onto the ground and squashed it to pieces. "With that, it explains how he was able to prepare for everything."

Serakkas ignored the wound on her shoulder and walked out of the door.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To destroy the magic power cores!"

"It's too late!" Hackzord roared. "You've seen it for yourself, the cores are already resonating with the Birth Tower, what can you do alone?"

After being improved and becoming an ensemble with the Birth Tower, the cores probably could not be damaged in any way even if they combined all their strengths together, much less have an effect from throwing a sword.

Even if a miracle occurred, the eventual outcome would be the loss of control of the Deity of Gods and causing it to plunge from the sky!

He had already seen the worst-case scenario.

"Inform the human that Valkries is relying on. Tell him to leave the continent immediately and avoid the disaster from the impact. That is the only thing we can do now."

Chapter 1431 - Born For War

"Come on. One, two, three…"

"To your recovery, cheers!"

Inside the living quarters of the Sleeping Spell, a small celebration was underway. Looking at Dusk's happy smile, Balshan helplessly raised her glass.

As partners, Dusk would visit her often, completely paying no heed to her own situation. Back on the Sleeping Island, she knew for certain that she would never have cared so much for a Combat Witch. The mixture of guilt and being moved made her feel as though she paled in comparison to Dusk.

Even though Balshan knew that Dusk would never think of such a thing.

But when her gaze landed on the other person, her expression turned nasty.

"Why are you here?"

Charms confidently downed an entire glass of wine. "I was the one who brought this red wine; why can't I be here?"

"Why does it sound like we can't get to drink without you?" Balshan rolled her eyes. "Neverwinter has many pubs, we can get it from anywhere."

"A pity, His Majesty announced that the Western Region is in a state of war and all alcohol are controlled commodities, you can't get it just because you want it." Charms shrugged. "So you should be thanking me, I stole them out of my old man's storage."

State of war, huh…

Balshan suddenly lost her interest to bicker.

Even while recuperating in bed, she was able to sense the tense atmosphere in Neverwinter.

The first inklings came from the frequent news regarding the developing grounds from the weekly reports that increased to two to three prints a week. It included reports on the frontline along with emergency recruitment articles and missing people notices. According to the newspaper, although the defense line was regaining their foothold and pushing the flames of war out of the developing grounds, the price paid to do so had been huge. Once the grasslands, farms, and settlements that were built up through difficult times were destroyed, the chances of the missing workers surviving would undoubtedly be slim.

The most obvious and direct impact were the drop in eggs and meat for lunch, with bread becoming the main staple. Of course, they were on much better terms compared to the other cities. At the very least, they were able to fill their stomachs.

The second was the streets.

Everyday, she would see many new soldiers in uniform moving through the streets, with residents and family standing by the sides to send them off. Excitement and nervousness could be seen from their faces, along with reluctance and worry. From a cursory look of the numbers, the number of soldiers recruited to the Fertile Plains was definitely not trivial and on a completely different level compared to the recruitment for the knightage and the Judgment Army.

This was war.

For the continuity of the race, thousands upon thousands of men fought with everything they had under the support of a civilization population tens or hundred times their numbers.

Compared to them, the battles she had experienced as a Combat Witch was simply too insignificant…

Her choice to move to the Fertile Plains with Dusk previously was based on her unwillingness to bump into people she knew. But after the destruction of the developing grounds, she was once again banished back to the state of a 'useless person.'

"Hey, why are you silent all of a sudden?" Sensing no ridicule from Balshan, Charms couldn't help but be taken aback. He scratched the back of his head and stole a glance at Dusk. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Dusk don't know." Dusk stuck her tongue out. "But Dusk knows that the person who sys something wrong must drink three more glasses!"

"Hey… are you drunk…"

"No, Dusk is not, this is only the second glass, Dusk is fine!"

"Knock. Knock. Knock…" Right then, a series of loud knocks on the door broke Balshan's train of thoughts.

"Coming!" Dusk immediately jumped up and headed over to open the door. "Eh… Lord Camilla?"

By the door was the Chief Butler of Sleeping Island, Camilla Dary. She swept the room with her eyes and walked over to the other two.

"Seems like you've overstayed your visiting time." Balshan forced a smile. "Lady Dary detests people who don't abide by the time; it'll be difficult for you to come here the next time."

"How is that… I'm keeping track of the time, it hasn't even been half hour…" Charms replied meekly.

Right when Balshan was about to retort, Camilla walked past Charms and stood in front of her.

"The Witch Union has announced a new recruitment geared towards the Witches in Graycastle." The Chief Butler got right to the point. "At the moment, we have a headcount of about fifty slots, with priority given to those who have combat experience. I feel that you might be more suitable, so I came to specially ask you."

Balshan was stunned and took her a long time to grasp the meaning behind Camilla's word. Mass recruitment, priority given to those with combat experience—could it be that this was related to the war? But if that were true, why not have any requirements on the recruits' powers?

"You've guessed right." Seemingly having seen through her doubts, Camilla spoke up. "The Witch Union is building a unique task force meant to support the frontline, specifically to assist the main force as a response to an even more difficult battle. I am unable to reveal the specifics, but you should know the risks involved on the battlefield, so the choice depends on you. Of course… although it isn't much in relation to powers, it doesn't mean that you'll be chosen upon responding to the recruitment. In the end, the result will depend on—"

"I'll go," Balshan replied immediately.

There was nothing to hesitate about!

Or rather, she had waited too long for this day to come.

"Then… follow me." Camilla turned to the side to make way.

"Hey, are you really thinking of going to the frontlines?" While passing Charms, he asked her with a hint of worry in his voice.

"What's this? I thought you would be cheering out loud." Balshan smirked. "This way, you can date Dusk without a worry."

"I…" His mouth opened wide as though he wanted to say something, but seeing Balshan's back, Charms ultimately didn't complete his sentence.

…

A day later, Balshan arrived at the Misty Forest on train.

The person in charge changed from Camilla to an unknown lady named Isabella, who was responsible for the selection and coaching. For an unknown reason, Balshan had a baffling feeling as though she knew her despite it being their first encounter.

And the other surprising thing was the number or recruits was far more than she had anticipated. Not only were there witches from the Sleeping Spell, but many from the Witch Union had come. In the short half hour journey, she got to know Vanilla, Amy, Hero, etc. Aside from that, she recognized a few familiar figures among the crowd, for example, Iffy and Nightfall from the Bloodfang Association.

It appeared as though they were also eager to prove their value on the battlefield.

With Isabella's guiding them, the witches walked into a factory building after disembarking from the train.

Upon entering, everyone were instantly captivated by a metallic object in the middle of the empty space.

It resembled a 'car,' with the wheels being the most obvious parts. But the difference between it and the cars in Neverwinter was that there were five wheels on each side of the all-metal vehicle, with some sort of bound iron panels beneath them, wrapping the wheels together. The appearance of the vehicle was extremely unique.

Balshan immediately recognized the vehicle. It was somewhat similar to the machine used to excavate and plough the land for agriculture purposes… That's right, it was called the tractor or something.

But compared to the tractor, there were many more iron lumps especially for the upper layer. As though sealed tightly with metal plates, the top resembled a fort's control tower with an obvious metal cannon sticking out at the center.

One glance was enough to tell everyone that it was a weapon born for war.

Chapter 1432 - Hunter-Killer Fire Control

"All of you should be aware that our city is being under siege!" Isabella clapped her hands to gather everyone's attention. "But the enemy isn't comprised of mere demonic beasts for behind these mutated animals lies an enemy not inferior to the demons. According to reliable sources, their assault on us will only grow fiercer and fiercer, at an ever-increasing scale, until they completely annihilate us!"

"Of course, Neverwinter and the First Army will never allow them to recklessly intrude on the last bastion of human territory. But I have to stress that taking down visible enemies is easy, but the invisible ones are truly dangerous ones. This isn't some exaggeration, but the truth—" At this point, she indicated to a few soldiers that lifted apart a large sackcloth.

"Awh——"

Everyone instantly inhaled in surprise.

Balshan was not an exception.

She was captivated by the metal monstrosity the instant she entered the factory, and completely missed the large, gray sackcloth in front of her.

Underneath the cloth was a strange monster!

Its body was partially erect, its height already close to two meters tall. It had a pair of scythe-like blades that remained suspended in air, as though they were about to pounce at them at any moment.

But after a careful examination, they discovered many wounds on its body, with a cut the width of a thumb that extended from its chest to its abdomen, a marvel that it had not fallen apart.

Balshan realized that the monster was already dead.

"The monster before you is what I call the 'invisible enemy,'" Isabella introduced. "While in motion, its entire body would blend into its surrounding, and will look as though it has disappeared. To kill it, the First Army had to sacrifice over 30 lives, and this happened in broad daylight. If the enemy sends out more of these and if the battle occurs in the night, the consequences will be unthinkable!"

"At present, we are calling them blade beasts and have made confirmed sightings of five blade beasts on the developing grounds, with a large number of casualties recorded after every sighting. This one right here was a blade beast that was killed by splitting it into many pieces, and is a specimen reassembled by Summer. It is without a doubt the most important target we have to be wary about."

"Then what can we do?" Amy raised her hand and asked.

"Good question." Isabella nodded. "Although the blade beast isn't a demon or a hybrid, it still possesses similarities—magic power. These monsters might be difficult to trace with the ordinary human eye, but to a witch that has gone through some training, they won't be able to hide. So the only thing you need to take away from here is how to use this—" She retrieved two dazzling metal plates. "Magic Stone sigils."

After listening to the detailed explanation, Balshan understood the goal of building this unique team.

Between the two sigils, one was termed as 'Sigil of Screaming' and the other as 'Sigil of Resonance.' The former was used as a defensive measure against the demons, while the latter was mostly used for finding remains. But after being improved, they were the crux to defeating the blade beasts.

The Sigil of Screaming had an effect that extended out two to three kilometers, mainly to let out an alarm upon detection of beings with magic power. Upon hearing the alarm, the Witches had to distinguish if it a result of blade beasts. Upon confirmation, they would use the Sigil of Resonance to lock onto the target. At this time, a 'line' would form between the target and the sigil which outlined the enemy. The humans would then direct their firepower according to the line and effectively suppress the enemy's movements.

Although the principle sounded simple, the practical usage of the sigils was much more complicated.

Firstly, the adjusted Sigil of Listening reacted to hybrids as well, leaving the Witches no choice but to rely on experience to distinguish between the sounds. Upon encountering a large demonic beast horde, the alarm would produce plenty of noise; therefore, the difficulty of detecting a single sound out of the mess was a feat itself.

Next, the Sigil of Listening's senses would be impaired by various factors, including and not limited to hills, rocks, trees etc. Metals limited the Sigil greatly, with a single iron panel reducing its extent by a hundred meters. Therefore, the Sigil of Listening had to be placed in a spacious and empty position in the frontlines.

Although the line produced by the Sigil of Resonance would not be obstructed by any objects, its biggest problem laid in the fact that only Witches could see the thread formed by magic power. Apart from that, if the target was not within their vision, they had no other methods of verifying the locked target. In other words, if they made the mistake and treated the hybrids as the main target, the Sigil of Resonance would not appear abnormal at all.

"I can provide guidance in the manipulation of the sigils, but am unable to teach you on how to protect yourselves," Isabella stated. "So His Majesty has arranged for an appropriate position for all of you, and that is to be tank captain!

"This metal war machine hailed as a tank is the latest invention of the Ministry of Industry. It boasts offensive and defensive capabilities, with the ability to retreat with relative ease if faced against the combined siege of hybrids, and the cannon on top is capable of destroying a group of enemies. As the Captain of the tank, you do not need to personally control this complicated machine and only need to direct the driver and the gunner.

"Of course, if necessary, you can assume control of the cannon and manage the firing. His Majesty has named this system the term of Hunter-killer Fire Control, with all of you being core to the system!"

We are to direct and commandeer this behemoth…

Upon imagining the scene of how the machine would roll over the demonic beasts, an eagerness built up within Balshan's heart.

"In the following days, all of you will engage in training with the tankers of the First Army and understand the basic functions of the tank. But the most important task is to grasp the usage of Sigils and the method to differentiating enemies," Isabella concluded. "Time is of the essence and I hope that everyone of you will put in your greatest effort, eventually pass the selections, and become a member of Graycastle's First Armor unit!"

…

In the northern region of the Kingdom of Dawn.

When Roland stepped out of Fran's body, everyone heaved a sigh of relief, especially the General Staff members. The expressions they had looked as though they were relieved of a heavy burden. Although the plan was proposed by the King himself, the specific details and implementation were drawn up by the General Staff. If anything happened to the King, it was impossible to escape the blame.

The only exception was the Pearl of the Northern Region.

Despite being part of the General Staff, she was the only one capable of interacting with Roland while maintaining her calm expression.

"How did the discussions go?"

"Smoother than anticipated," Roland replied calmly. He had made the decision after discussing with Valkries that very day. However, there was the consideration of the high risks involved in entering the Dream World using conventional means, and the high uncertainty involved for both parties. Thus, he chose the most direct method to establish the meeting—to pull the other party into the Dream World without informing them.

The matter revealed that the thick stratum did not influence the pillar of light, and when both parties 'closed their eyes,' the Eye Demons were not engaged in the slightest. At that time, there were even a few God's Punishment Witches alongside him, so even in the off chance that Hackzord discovered his whereabouts, there would be no threat posed to him.

But this method could not be used frequently, since once the demons returned, they would quickly realize that they were near the same hillside. If they made any preparations beforehand, the probability of getting caught would increase no matter how deep underground they were.

"If there are any new developments, the demons will contact us through letters." Roland turned and informed Iron Axe. "Leave a permanent team here and immediately report to me if there are any movements from them. Aside from that, they are still our enemies, especially the Monstrous Beast. Once they overstep the line, do not show mercy."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The commander-in-chief nodded.

It will take a long time before my next communication with the senior demon lord, Roland thought to himself. In the Dream World, he vaguely sensed that the relation between Valkries and the one named Serakkas was not ordinary. In the beginning, he felt rather regretful that the demon that retrieved the letter was not Hackzord. But now, from the looks of it, things had turned out better than expected.

After all, the most crucial factor in this entire operation was trust.

However, before Roland even managed to move from the northern region back to the City of Glow, he received two startling news in a mere two hours.

Abnormalities were spotted on the Deity of Gods. According to the report, it was gradually ascending in altitude, and had already exceeded 300 meters of height. This appeared to go against the theory proposed by the General Staff with regards to the relation between the Deity of Gods's height and magic power consumption.

The second being the spotting of senior demon lords again along the slope by Fishball's team. But this time, there were two.

Chapter 1433 - The Three Big Wigs of the Western Front

"You want to enter the Realm of Mind here?" Hackzord surveyed his surroundings, then cast his gaze to the ground beneath him.

Silent Disaster nodded.

"I think that the male human will not come again." He quietly conjured another Distortion Door the size of a finger behind him and reached into it—only to touch soil. "And once the Deity of Gods starts its descent, it is irreversible. You're merely wasting time."

"If you don't wish to come, you can leave first." Serakkas remained unmoved.

"If I leave, how are you going to leave?" Hackzord subtly rolled his eyes. You've already made a move against Mask publicly, aren't you just deliberately being spiteful by saying this? The King is sure to have realized the Sky Lord's absence for the past few days, betraying his orders and not reporting the information they had, and causing incitement by reading the memories of this period… The charges were clear as day. But Hackzord knew that staying by Silent Disaster's side increased his chances of survival in the event that the King dispatched other senior lords to deal with him.

He opened another Distortion Door a hundred meters deeper, but was still met with soil.

"It doesn't matter if I can leave. Furthermore… you being out of ideas doesn't mean the same for Valkries."

Tsk, why don't you recall who was the one who thought of a way to find Valkries. "What if she fails as well?"

"…" Silent Disaster did not reply.

After 500 meters in, the other side of the Distortion Door opened up into a hole. Hackzord fine-tuned the direction and his fingers quickly touched a blob of viscous liquid.

He immediately knew better.

"Have you ever considered grabbing the male human and leave by force?"

Silent Disaster's gaze flickered but she quickly regained her calm. "I might be able to bring him away, but it will be difficult to keep him alive. You and I know how weak humans are. Before verifying Valkries's location, I cannot take that risk."

"Is that so…" Hackzord replied indifferently. Regardless, he could not leave her behind and be smashed by the Deity of Gods into smithereens. It was both for the race, and for himself.

"Someone's coming." Silent Disaster turned. "There's more than one of them."

Hackzord immediately opened a Distortion Door.

Very quickly, three humans appeared on the hill, one of which being the soldier responsible for handling the letter in the previous encounter. Although there were a few more of them, they were unable to pose a threat to Silent Disaster.

"His Majesty agreed to your request for an audience." The leader walked to them and got to the point. "In a minute, the two of you will enter the Realm of Mind, but His Majesty has a condition."

From the looks of it, this human king isn't a complete coward for him to actually agree to Serakkas' request. "What's the condition?" Hackzord asked.

"The two of you have to be separated before entering the Realm of Mind. And the non-Magic Slayer has to wear this—" The human opened a box and took out a metal bracelet.

On the bracelet was a God's Stone of Retaliation.

Rage immediately rose within Hackzord. He squinted his eyes and his tone of speech changed. "What is the meaning of this, do you think that I will bind myself for you humans to slaughter me?"

Although the leading soldier had fear on his face, he did not retreat. "Magic power is considered a weapon; it is only conventional for one to disarm themselves at an important meeting. This isn't some sort of restraint. His Majesty believes that you have brought important information here, and have taken considerable risks to return. It is because of that that he does not want any accidents to happen."

"And if I disagree?"

"You are free to leave, but you have to stay far away from this mountain before the next meeting," the soldier insisted.

"Just do it; we don't have the time." Silent Disaster turned to Hackzord. "You can stay within your ability's radius just like the first time. I do not understand why you insist on following me here."

This person… must I say it out for you to understand! Sky Lord was momentarily at a loss for words. He realized that Serakkass' rationality had cleared deteriorated after meeting with the Nightmare Lord and did not feel at ease leaving her alone. After finding out about everything, gaining the chance to meet Valkries and even eliminating the probability that it was all a trap laid out by the humans was definitely an extremely important matter. Whose side was she on now?

Without waiting for Hackzord to negotiate further, Serakkas walked over to the side and closed her eyes, ready to enter a calm state of mind.

Looking at the Deity of Gods that was constantly increasing in height, he felt dissatisfaction from the helplessness, and put on the bracelet.

This object doesn't look difficult to break apart; the humans probably aren't hoping to hold me captive with this, but to stall for time in the event that I bring Silent Disaster underground.

Hackzord turned to the other two male humans behind the soldier… Despite being unarmed, Hackzord felt uneasy, feeling that they weren't easy to deal with.

After a moment, Serakkas breathing calmed down.

Is it coming…

Hackzord acted nonchalant as he raised his hand and placed the multi-colored magic stone that was disguised as a ring to his eye—

In that instant, a pillar of light as wide as a city wall appeared before him!

The pillar of light was so large that he had to look in both directions to see the end. In that instant, he felt as though he had returned to the island in the Bottomless Land.

This is… the Realm of Mind domain that Silent Disaster mentioned to be as big as a city?

He started to believe the words spoken by the humans.

To wield such overwhelming ability, perhaps they truly had a method to unraveling the secrets behind the Battle of Divine Will.

Hackzord took a deep breath, then slowly closed his eyes.

…

"The matter has fallen to this state and Mask has activated Plan B ahead of time. With him prepared, I am unable to ascertain if he is alive or not."

When Sky Lord opened his eyes again, he realized that he was in a cramped house—the room was definitely not qualified to serve as a King's chamber. Silent Disaster seemed to be explaining the situation with Valkries seated before her.

To once again see the mobile Nightmare Lord, Hackzord felt as though he was pulled back into the past.

"You're finally here." Valkries nodded. "Come, have a seat. The coffee is about to get cold."

After experiencing so many unimaginable things and yet be able to speak so casually, it definitely is her style…

It became the first meeting between the three senior lords since the start of the battle at the Western Front.

It was undoubtedly a major event for the race.

The only unqualified participant was the human seated next to Nightmare Lord.

He had long heard of the human's name from Silent Disaster—the King of Graycastle, Roland. He was also the main reason for their repeated setbacks at the Western Front.

But it was also because of him that the three were able to meet. This made Hackzord feel mixed emotions. He had met with countless deficiencies during the war, and yet didn't fail when it came to the meeting which implied betraying the King. It was truly ironic.

He took a good look at Roland before taking a seat by Serakkas's side. The seat was extremely soft, almost allowing him to sink in, giving him a taste of the luxury a ruler had. Sky Lord also noticed the few empty paper cups on the table. Although he had entered the Realm of Mind less than a minute after Serakkas, it looked as though the three already had a long conversation.

Coffee… is that what Serakkas was yearning to drink?

Strange, she shouldn't have any requests for any type of 'food' aside from the Red Mist.

"If I'm right, the two of you should be extremely clear of the situation right now." Hackzord suppressed his distracted thoughts and focused on the matter at hand. "Personally, I do not agree with Silent Disaster's view because it will only waste the little time we have, but she insists on doing so." At this time, he looked towards Nightmare Lord. "Once the Deity of Gods descends, large areas of the human kingdom will be destroyed. The only possible way of surviving is to escape."

"How much time do we have?" Roland asked.

"Not more than seven days," Hackzord replied gravely.

Chapter 1434 - Gambling on Fate

"Seven days…" Roland calculated the rate of ascension reported by Lightning in his mind, and realized that the end result far surpassed the category of it being a 'weapon.' "Wait a minute, you plan to flatten the entire Fertile Plains?"

This period of time was sufficient for the Deity of Gods to turn it into a disaster of apocalyptic proportions, much less destroying the entire plains. The effect of its descent would even severely impact the Land of Dawn and the Blackstone region. The drop of the floating island that had a diameter of tens of kilometers at an altitude of over ten thousand meters high was enough to form a shockwave that circled the planet several times over. It was so severe that it would lead to a change in the terrain and trigger earthquakes and tsunamis. Even the demons would find it difficult to escape such a level of disaster.

If the Fertile Plains was smashed into a basin, causing a sea water to fill it, all life in the Land of Dawn would be exterminated. Where could they run to? With the Sky-sea Realm right on their heels, the demons' original plan was to seize the human territory to stall for time. Provided that this happened, it was basically a contradiction to their original goal.

Hackzord looked at him in surprise. "You're actually rather clear about the outcome of Plan B… This saves me a lot of time explaining. Of course, the Deity of Gods will not continue to rise upwards all the time and should stop after two days. It will then move towards Graycastle. If Mask did not lie during his explanation of his plans, it will ultimately land near the sea—This way, it will destroy your kingdom but preserve the two other God's Stone mines."

It truly was a meticulous plan.

Roland maintained a calm expression on the surface, but his heart had sunken to the bottom.

When the two senior lords appeared the second time, he knew that something important had occurred, to the extent that he could not waste the time waiting for the letter. It was the reason why he took the risk to return to the hill.

But who would have thought that the new information would be that terrible!

Provided that Hackzord and Serakkas were willing to cooperate, destroying the core of the Deity of Gods was achievable. But the problem laid on the detonator installation for the nuclear weapon not being mass produced by the Ministry of Industry. Even with an abundance of raw materials, the assembly team required several weeks to assemble the parts. The last offshore nuclear test was a product the Ministry of Industry spent all its efforts to produce, while the new actual warhead had to be manufactured in Neverwinter's laboratory. Even if they rushed to manufacture the product, it couldn't be delivered to the Kingdom of Dawn right away.

Taking a step back, even if he had not conducted the test at the Kingdom of Dawn and chose to build the nuclear weapon before transporting it right above the Deity of Gods, it still required a day—which was enough for the floating island to gather enough height for a destructive force capable of destroying the majority of the Kingdom of Dawn.

"Why didn't you implement this right from the start? If you made use of one God's Stone mine, you would have been able to defeat the humans instead of waiting for this day."

"What do you think the Deity of Gods is, some cabbage from your farms?" Hackzord replied sourly. "Ignoring the difficulty of linking the magic power core and Birth Towers, just to have a sufficiently large God's Stone mine is rare enough. The reason for its ability to only rise for two days is because of the complete exhaustion of the God's Stone. Judging from the mine's stockpile in Hermes, it isn't even qualified to be part of Plan B."

So they are still limited by the consumption of magic power…

"Since Mask is able to control it, others might be able to as well." Roland's train of thoughts turned abruptly. "Have you not made any attempts in this aspect?"

"Human, you are just wasting time!" Hackzord's tone obviously turned impatient. "Even the underground civilization who were creators of the core apparatus isn't able to make this complicated thing mainstream. Although my race obtained its legacy, it doesn't mean that anybody wields such talent, much less you humans that have never even obtained a single legacy! Make use of the time now and run for your lives."

"I am not going anywhere."

"You—!"

Roland picked up his drink and repelled Sky Lord's furious glare. He revealed a smirk before speaking in a serious tone. "Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn has a populace of a few million people. It is basically impossible to migrate them to the Fjords in such a short time. And without Neverwinter, humanity will not be able to resist the enemy from the Sky-sea Realm. Even if I survived alone, it's only a matter of time before the inevitable happens." He paused for a moment. "And do not forget—as long as the Battle of Divine Will doesn't stop, no one can escape extinction. Is that the outcome you want?"

"What's the use of talking about this?" Hackzord replied disdainfully. "If not for Valkries, I will never have spoken to you."

"I cannot deny that this information is extremely crucial. For this, I should be thanking you," Roland admitted. "But you are not entirely right, having a legacy isn't limited to only obtaining a legacy shard."

"… What do you mean?"

"For example, Valkries is currently accepting the human's legacy." He turned to Nightmare Lord. "Am I right?"

Valkries, who had maintained her silence the entire time, finally spoke up. "I cannot deny that."

"What kind of riddles are you getting at?" Sky Lord was obviously unhappy.

"Simply put, the real intention of the legacies is to accept everything of the other party, including its teaching, practices, collections, wisdom… this itself is considered as inheriting a legacy," Valkries said unhurriedly. "In fact, you can understand it by viewing it from a different point of view. Legacies need not be obtained with the price of the extinction of the legacy holder; that is just the rule of God. I am not a human, but this doesn't obstruct me from learning and gaining their knowledge—In fact, while being in this Dream World, I have learned many things."

At this point, she turned back to Roland. "You already knew of this long ago?"

"Not too long ago." Roland nodded. "But watching you use the cellphone proficiently to purchase products from the Cargarde Peninsula further proved my guess. Even if something terrible happened to me, the Witches who had once entered the Dream World, are able to bring this knowledge out to the other world."

"Enough! What does this have to do with the Deity of Gods?" Hackzord bellowed.

"We humans did not obtain the underground civilization's legacy shard, but after studying the historical remains left behind, it is not impossible for us to revise the Deity of Gods' core instrument." Roland spoke resolutely. "In fact, The Union did research on this and as of today, there are a few witches that have grasped the relevant knowledge. I am unclear if they are able to successfully stop the magic power core, but compared to a mass evacuation or destruction of the obelisk high up in the air, this is undoubtedly worth a shot."

At long last, Sky Lord understood what Roland was getting at. "… Can the humans truly do this?"

"Although they look rather… strange, they are undoubtedly members of the human race."

"You are making a gamble on this."

"No, this is us having no other choice." Roland never had the thought of fleeing alone from the very beginning.

"I agree to this." Valkries stated solemnly. "The Bottomless Land has already been overrun by the Sky-sea Realm. King's City is continuously approaching, and there aren't enough troops. Heading to the Origin of Magic is only theoretic. Since the outcome cannot be any worse, it won't hurt taking a gamble."

Seeing that Nightmare Lord had spoken, Hackzord could only maintain his silence.

"If that is so, we should start discussing the plan needed to seize the Deity of Gods," Roland said.

Chapter 1435 - Capturing the Deity of Gods

Two days later, the Deity of Gods finally reached its maximum height, almost 5000 meters above ground

From a distance, it resembled a cone permanently fixed amongst the clouds, its downcast shadow blocking out a third of the Kingdom of Dawn, resulting in an earlier nightfall by several hours.

If not for the prior preparations done by the higher-ups and the order passed down for the civilians to stay indoors, with martial law imposed on the various cities, just the sight of the Deity of the Gods would had caused social order to collapse.

Following that, the Deity of Gods began moving towards Graycastle, the moving shadow outline formed a new distinct 'day and night line' for the people on the ground. Although Silent Disaster and Sky Lord were unable to operate the core apparatus, they were able to close the Red Mist valve, which could be considered the only good news. At the very least, they prevented the spillage of Red Mist everywhere.

Besides monitoring the Deity of Gods, the Witch Union and Graycastle's Administrative Office did not stay idle. The alliance of both parties were able to transfer a magic power core and an operator up onto the floating island after traversing the majority of Graycastle in a short span of two days.

Opening the sealed wooden crate, Roland saw Celine inside the temporary warehouse.

"Phew… Although I don't have to breathe, the feeling of being transported in a narrow space felt terrible." She extended her tentacles, as though performing a large stretch.

"It was tough on you," Roland replied earnestly. He knew how it felt to be sealed and be immobilized inside a wooden crate—such an experience was enough for someone with claustrophobia to go crazy. If not for the urgency, they would have waited for the large aircrafts to be completed as a mode of transport and not agree to transporting this ancient witch using such a method.

"Compared to the things we suffered in the past, this little discomfort is nothing." Celine looked to her left and right. "Come to think of it, it is even more surprising that we are actually collaborating with the demons, Your Majesty." She lowered her main tentacles and consciously suppressed her voice to the lowest. "Are you sure of this? They are heartless and merciless enemies; cheating and lying is considered ordinary to them. To be honest, if this idea didn't come from you, Alethea would have never agreed to this."

"Relax, I know what I'm doing," Roland used his consciousness and replied seriously. "The Deity of Gods absolutely cannot fall onto the Four Kingdoms, we cannot bear such a loss."

"To choose the lesser of two evils, this is something the Three Chiefs had to frequently do." Celine's voice suddenly turned more gentle. "I believe in your judgment."

"Fortunately, the one to operate this apparatus isn't Alethea." Roland laughed bitterly. "Otherwise I would be in for a huge headache."

"That is where you are wrong." Celine smiled. "After learning of the matter, she was definitely furious, but the person who stuffed me into the crate was none other than her."

Roland was surprised, and warm emotions surged in his heart.

"Alright, where is the Senior Demon you spoke of? I can't wait to go up the floating city."

"Erm…" Her reaction was out of his expectations. "You really want to go up there?"

"Of course! It is a new opportunity to study a brand new core! To utilize the God's Stone of Retaliation to control magic power and transform it into a powerful buoyant force, the thought of it thrills me!" Celine's emotions took a huge turn. "And that is a Demon city, a city! One has to understand that in the entire history of the Battle of Divine Will, no one has ever attacked a Demon City, much less occupy one!"

"Fine, what you said is indeed very reasonable…" Roland turned and walked towards the corner of the warehouse. "Follow me."

After passing through a unique door, Hackzord and Serakkas appeared in the middle of the room waiting for the mission to begin. They were surrounded by 10 God's Punishment Witches and both parties were constantly eyeing each other—although it was a collaboration, both parties could never be at ease with the other.

"This…" The moment he saw Celine, Hackzord raised an eyebrow in surprise. "The carrier body of the underground civilization? A Witch merged with it?"

"You've never tried it before?" Roland asked out of curiosity.

"Only Nassaupelle has the interest and joy in turning himself into a monster." Sky Lord did not seem to put much thought into the question. "Since you're ready, let's begin."

"We have gone through the details for this mission. For everyone's sake, I will once again repeat the major procedures." Roland glanced around. "The core to controlling the Deity of Gods is situated at the lowest level of the obelisk which is filled with Red Mist, so the main force to enter will be God's Punishment Witches and the First Army. There lies the possibility of enemies there, mainly the Symbiotic Demons, or the Monstrous Beasts, so do not advance prematurely. The First Army will establish defense positions at crucial points and wait for the area to be declared safe before we go near the core. The main task of the God's Punishment Witches is to protect Celine. I will leave it to the both of you." His eyes stopped at Phyllis and Zooey.

The two bowed in unison. "Yes."

According to Hackzord, the early implementation of Plan B meant that over ten thousands of Inferior Demons and thousands of Mad Demons were left stranded on the floating island. They took orders from senior lords and did not form any obstruction. As for the senior demons that took orders from Mask, they were 'convinced' by Silent Disaster. The only ones that were uncontrollable were the Monstrous Beasts that were created. Despite Hackzord's early closure of the main nesting grounds doors, no one knew how many were left to guard the city.

"In that case… move out!"

Roland gave the order.

Hackzord snapped his fingers, instantly conjuring a dark screen of magic power that opened behind him while leaking red mist.

The two senior lords disappeared through the Distortion Door first.

They were then followed by the God's Punishment Witches and Celine.

Soon after, the doors of the warehouses opened as a thousand soldiers fully equipped with all sorts of equipment entered the Distortion Door.

Operation City Capture had officially begun!

…

"So this is… the interior of the demon city…" Celine gasped. It was her first time stepping into the enemy's core region, and also the closest she had been to the obelisk. Despite knowing its immense size, the close proximity caused shocks to reverberate through her.

Especially when they were situated at the bottom of the large pit, where the large obelisk had protruded out of the Red Mist Lake like a pillar that touched the heavens.

"What do you plan to do?" Phyllis looked around cautiously and voiced out.

"We have to first sense where the control core is." She looked at the magic power cores revolving around the obelisk above her. "The core apparatus can transmute all sorts of abilities, so we have to try using 'balance' or 'observation' to find out if it works."

"Measurement? Isn't that the name of the magic stone?"

"In some sense, the magic power core and magic stones are the same thing; the largest difference lies in the complexity and scale. In fact, after seeing Isabella's research notes, I think that they aren't much different from Witches. In essence, we all use the same method to activate magic power."

Phyllis remained silent for a moment, then changed the topic. "What happens after a connection is established?"

"Once connected, I can take the next step to analyze the demon core's composition, just like how we use magic stones to analyze a Witch's abilities. His Majesty requests for this entire floating island to land smoothly then we can achieve that by slowing this thing down. This will be much easier than creating a new ability."

"Miss Phyllis and Miss Celine." Brian walked over. "The First Army has laid out its defenses, the next step is up to you."

Celine nodded with her main tentacle and raised up the magic power core she brought along.

Very quickly, the core blossomed with a resplendent blue light and gradually floated in midair.

A thin line appeared silently and pointed straight to the obelisk—the peculiar sight attracted everyone's attention. It was like a suspended thread above the Red Mist Lake that looked as though it had been there the entire time, only to have revealed itself then.

Chapter 1436 - Super Ego

…

The connection process went smoother than anticipated.

After adjusting the core, Celine 'saw' the interior of the obelisk—or rather, the entire control system. With the four magic power cores and the bottom of the obelisk as the parent body, it formed an intricate system. Magic power oscillated back and forth and emitted harmonized ripples.

After a moment of mulling things over, she gained a new understanding of the system: the four cores utilized different abilities to maintain their revolutions around the Deity of Gods, and the one controlling them was the parent body located at the bottom of the obelisk. But that was not entirely accurate as well. One could tell when observing the flow of magic power—the parent body only had one function of transforming magic power, similar to the operating levers on the Fire of Heaven.

The levers activated a few gears, valves or wire ropes, all of which were well designed components with the crucial point being the simplification of the complicated process. Typically, it took Celine a great deal of time, much less to control four at once. However, after experiencing the inconceivable simplistic transformation, it seemed possible.

She hated to admit it, but the demon Nassaupelle who had thought of the system was truly a genius.

Ignoring the replication of an exact same system, if not for the knowledge bestowed by Roland from the Dream World, she might not even be able to understand the system.

This gave rise to her suspicions.

The Union had once examined the records of a parent body and discovered that they were either a variant demon or a Chaos Beast birthed from a magic stone. Since it was a living creature, the Union believed that it had it was sentient and would undoubtedly hinder the control. How was it that the senior lord was able to transform it into a complete 'tool' capable of only taking orders?

Aside from that, Celine discovered from the intricate system that the obelisk itself was not important, and functioned more as a receiver and amplifier. As a crucial object that the demons depended on to survive, yet not part of the Deity of Gods, it was completely different from what she assumed the obelisk to be.

With her strong sense of curiosity, Celine extended her perceptive tentacle onto the parent body.

In that instant, an inconceivable image appeared before her—

"Oh my god…"

She could not help but exclaim in surprise.

It was actually a large 'network.'

Within the large network composed of brightly lit lines, there were many twinkling nodes. Celine realized that they were the demon cities and more concentrated towards the large continent facing the Land of Dawn—Blackstone Region! Celine also discovered many more dim nodes that were scattered outside of the network, akin to lusterless pearls.

What shocked Celine even more was the familiar sense she had within the parent body.

There were no obstruction upon entry, as though this place was not a frequently visited place.

A carrier!

Celine quickly reacted!

That's right, although it was a type of demon, the changes within it had made it somewhat similar to a carrier. It no longer had its own consciousness and only kept its basic instincts, the most crucial aspects to be a 'controllable hub!'

There was no doubt that the technique was related to the underground civilization.

So that's how this is operating… Mixed emotions rose within Celine—a mix of the excitement of discovering new technology and realizing the merciless intent behind it.

By relying on a destroyed race's technology, the Union was able to implement a transformation plan for the 'God's Punishment Witches.' And as inheritors of the legacy shard, how could the demons not make use of it?

Reality proved that their technology was far ahead compared to the Union.

The only thing she was incapable of understanding was that the altercation was done to allow the control of more core apparatuses which would result in an astonishing result. Aside from the Deity of Gods, the other cities did not require going this far. After all, the undertaking was filled with risk, much less mentioning the 'transformed' having its consciousness stripped. The parent body was responsible for the growth of the obelisk, holding a high importance amongst the demons, and thus wielding a substantial position.

But she noticed that the parent body that represented other city nodes had more or less been remodeled and were turning into receptacles, which went against conventional reasoning.

Does the King not care about the lives of the demons?

"Done admiring?"

An unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded out from behind her.

Celine jumped in fright and quickly 'turned back,' only to see a grotesque demon in front of her. It did not have an appearance that resembled a humanoid senior demon—its lower body was like a worm while its upper body had more than five pairs of arms that with hands of various shapes. The most conspicuous part was its head that resembled a deformed pillar with multiple masks hanging around it.

That was when Celine discovered she was actually able to turn through her consciousness! Unknowingly, she was no longer a floating spirit, but a form that had mass.

"I never thought that a second entity had the ability to enter this place aside from me." The other entity's voice was brimming with admiration. "It seems like you and I are the same; we have abandoned our original shells and are no longer bound by any rules, all for the sake of seeking knowledge and the truth! How is it, are you satisfied with my work?"

There was no longer a need to ask, the demon in front of her was obviously the Senior Lord Mask, Nassaupelle.

"Why am I able to see my own form… what did you do?"

"You should be able to guess." Mask extended his arms complacently. "Doesn't this resemble the Realm of Mind?"

Celine's expression changed. "Could it be that you—"

"That's right, this is the 'Realm of Mind' that I've created!" He released a laughter composed of multiple voices. "Why so we need to seek talent in the Origin of Magic? Why are people able to casually enter and exit on a whim, but so difficult for others to interact with it? What I hate the most is those born with extraordinary gifts."

"This isn't right." Celine calmed herself down and thought back to her companions' recounts of the Dream World. "If you want to see yourself, all you need is a mirror. The Realm of Mind can accurately realize thousands of living beings. But there's nothing here aside from a large network of light. And most importantly… What I'm seeing is the concept of a carrier, and not the real me!"

"Heh, what's so bad about being a carrier? If not for this body, you would not be able to control the magic power core." Mask snorted. "The Realm of Mind is just a name; no one is able to dictate what it should be—although this is ultimately still a prototype. As for what I have accomplished, isn't it obvious from a glance?"

He walked towards Celine and 'passed through' her. "It is absolving the shackles of a shell and became an existence that transcends everything!"

Celine gaped in shock.

"There are limits to every body. There's isn't a perfect body in this world! Since that is so, why should I continue walking down this hopeless path? Do you see this network?" Mask's voice became higher and higher. "Through it, I am everywhere, a body that is stronger than anything. Once it expands to a certain degree, I will be able to exist at multiple places at once, or in other words, the ability to create an unlimited 'me!'"

"With all of my clones, I can head to the most dangerous of places, engage in the most dangerous of experiments, and nothing will prohibit me from discovering all the mysteries of this world! You should know what this entails!" Nassaupelle raised all of his hands in excitement. "All emotions, experiences, and knowledge shall belong to me. The efficiency of absorbing all of this knowledge will definitely induce a new evolution in me. There isn't a need for talent or magic stones. Isn't this the ideal goal that all beings that thirst for knowledge yearn for!?"

This guy… is crazy.

She finally understood the reason for the alterations on the other parent bodies that had not become not Deity of Gods.

It wasn't the intent of the demon king.

But things done secretly by Mask.

"Seems like you realized it too." Nassaupelle took off a mask from his face and revealed a female face. That corners of the rigid face curled up. "Upon leaving the Realm of Mind, all senior lords are nothing. And the King… he was unable to discover this despite being in his Presiding Holy Sea, that is the difference between me and him. They are too reliant on their abilities… but you will not have the chance of bringing this information out. Stay here, and become part of me."

When he finished his words, the four cores suddenly stopped revolving.

Chapter 1437 - Silver Lining

"No, stop—!"

Celine screamed in shock!

Once the magic power's circulation was stopped, the Deity of Gods would become a dead mountain incapable of flight!

"This is my ability," Nassaupelle replied indifferently. "Although my body isn't here, I am able to control the magic power core through the network from a distance. It did not exist in the beginning, but a construct that I worked on piece by piece after gaining the legacy. It does not require the support of talent, and will not vary from person to person. Although this network isn't comparable to the Realm of Mind now, but what about a century or a millennium later? You have to understand that I, having broken free of the shackles of a body, no longer lack time."

"Rumble…"

When the cores came to a stop, the interior of the Deity of Gods started trembling.

The soldiers garrisoned at the plaza stumbled along with the trembles and many were caught off guard and fell directly to the ground.

"The Deity of Gods is dropping from a high altitude!" Silent Disaster said solemnly.

"Damn it, what's going on?" Hackzord turned and roared at Celine. "Hey, Witch! Answer me!"

"Mask is interfering with the core instrument, we need to break his connection!"

Celine shouted multiple times but realized that the other party was unable to 'hear' her consciousness. She was able to sense the changes in the outside world, but had lost the ability to communicate with them, as though a transparent glass wall had isolated her from them.

"Your spirit is within the parent body and the carrier body outside is just an empty shell now, how can they possibly hear your warnings?" Mask said with glee. "And why do you think that it will be easy to break my connection… In my race, the position this parent body holds is similar to that of the King and the senior lords. Not only is its magic power on par with them, its body is equally as strong. Not to mention the thick Red Mist above it. It will not be easy to try and kill it. And without the spirit of the parent body, how will you control the core instrument? That is why the outcome cannot be changed."

"There are millions of lives still in the city, are you planning to bury them as well?"

"I don't understand how a Witch from the Union is actually feeling sympathy for demons." Nassaupelle ridiculed. "Regardless, they have chosen to side with that traitor, Hackzord, so they deserve death. As for the Symbiotic Demons, although it is a waste for them to be killed alongside the Deity of Gods, I just need to spend a bit of time to produce more of them. If you are thinking of ways to make me change my mind, you best have a reason that is far more convincing than that. There isn't much time left for those lowlifes outside."

This monster… how did he know that I'm from the Union? Celine was completely shocked, but she did not have the luxury of time to ponder about the minor details. "This is a God's Stone mine! If the floating island falls to the ground and crashes, Hermes and Graycastle's Western borders will be affected, are you sure that the King will not punish you for your actions?"

"Sky Lord actually went into so much detail…" Nassaupelle appeared not in the least bit concerned. "But the priority for destroying humans is higher; the King will definitely understand my plight. Since there are traitors amongst the senior lords, it is impossible not to pay a small price."

"A small price? The God's Stone mine is fundamental for the Red Mist towers! Without sufficient Red Mist, you are incapable of establishing a foothold on the Fertile Plains, how are you going to fight against the incoming Sky-sea Realm?"

"This reason is far more substantial than your previous one." Mask did not confirm or deny anything. "But you have overlooked two things. Firstly, the Symbiotic Demons' demand for Red Mist is far less than Primal and Junior Demons. And even if we are short in supply, they will not harbor any complains. Secondly, I have confidence in you humans…"

"Confidence… what do you mean?" Celine gritted her teeth and asked.

"I underestimated Ursrook's capability previously. Humans might be slow in the development of magic power, but they have astonishing achievements in other aspects. I have complete confidence that if I obtain your legacy and merge it with my techniques, dealing with Sky-sea Realm will not be a difficult task. In other words, even without the two God's Stone mine, I can still win the Battle of Divine Will."

"…" Celine realized that the demon would not change his mind regardless of what she said. He had been toying with her right from the beginning.

Just like how a hunter toyed with his prey.

Sensing that she could no longer send any messages out, Celine decided to rely on herself to stop the disaster!

"See, you no longer have time." Nassaupelle gazed into the distance. Once the magic power supporting the Deity of Gods completely disappeared, the slow descent would gradually turn into a true fall. In that situation, even the soldiers would no longer be able to stand and could only attempt to stay fixed on the ground by laying prone. "It is said that when a large mass falls, the living things standing on it will fly along with it. I wonder if I will be able to witness such a scene?"

How can I reactivate the core?

Celine forced herself to focus, knowing that Mask was not on the Deity of Gods and was only connected through the 'network'. If I can expel him from it, I can restore the magic power core back to normal!

She attempted to probe the four cores with her perception, but instantly encountered a backlash!

It was an extremely complicated mix of cyclones.

Every single Instrument of Divine Retribution were equally matched in terms of their patterns, and with their mutual influence on each other, they formed extremely dense magic power cyclones.

Just analyzing a single cyclone would require too much time, much less analyzing all four of them!

"This is true art… is it not?" Nassaupelle increased the image of the cyclones, forming a grand 'starry cyclone' structure to appear above their heads, wherein magic power interweaved with each other and dazzled brightly. "I have spent close to a century to calculate this, with two thirds of my brains constantly working on the relevant problems. The other senior lords think of me as a monster… It is truly laughable; if I had not transformed my own body and absorbed more brains, how could I realize all of this?"

Seeing the intricate cyclone of stars, Celine felt a trace of despair.

At the same time, she sensed that Mask was making use of her focus on the cores to corrode her body. But Celine didn't have the time and effort to resist; if she was unable to change anything, the Union… as well as humanity's hope would be destroyed. At that point, what difference would being taken over by someone else matter?

Quick, think of a way!

The image of Roland appeared in her head. It was this man that brought hope back to the Taquila survivors from the impossible… But very quickly, she overruled this thought. Mask's network was completely different from the Realm of Mind; it was impossible for her to receive the King's help.

How can I analyze the stars?

Thinking back when she was transforming the core instrument into the Instrument of Divine Retribution, what had she done?

An idea flashed through her mind!

She turned her head towards the 'network' abruptly. It was a technology created using the underground civilization's legacy, and those gray dots were magic cores that had not been assimilated by the magic power core.

Neverwinter has those cores as well!

Since Celine was able to connect to the Deity of Gods's central hub using the core instrument, it meant that other cores were also capable of achieving the same thing. Of course, distance was an issue, but by reverse engineering, she could make use of the central hub to initiate contact with the other cores.

What if Pasha and Alethea appeared to help her?

No, they will not be of any use… There was only one person she could count on!

The person was one of the Three Chiefs who had helped her through the calculations of the core.

Lady Eleanor.

Celine did not have the time to consider the probability of Eleanor's central carrier having lost her consciousness and the fact that she might not respond at all.

This thought was like a silver lining. Regardless of the result, she decided to grasp the opportunity!

She focused her attention onto the obelisk—

This time, she did not engage in analysis and only increased the amount of magic power!

"What are you trying to do?" Nassaupelle continued to corrode her consciousness as he asked leisurely. "Are you trying to expand the scope of the network? You don't understand… all the carriers or parent bodies that do not have spirits will not undergo any changes. Even the King has to merge with the magic power core first to control the astonishing amount of power…"

"Is that so? Coincidentally, I do know of a such a person!" Celine gave it her all and released her consciousness out through the network. "Adjust the core and turn it into balance!"

In that instant, the obelisk unleashed an undetectable hum, the violent magic power undulations caused the entire network to flicker as though it was on the verge of being extinguished. Except for a single bright light that moved towards the west.

Chapter 1438 - Not Alone

Graycastle, Neverwinter.

Astrologer of Dispersion Star worked as usual, computing the design manuscripts sent by the Ministry of Industry alongside his companions.

It was a seemingly never-ending job; yet, it was surprisingly fulfilling—unlike observing the stars, they were able to calculate every outcome, determine the direction of the design, and ultimately yield foreseeable results. Although he frequently used the new astronomical telescope while idle, he had placed more attention on the Arithmetic Academy over the past two years.

The more he calculated, the greater his appreciation of Roland's words—'employing numbers to describe everything.' Astrologers did not have much knowledge on the manufacturing process, but all the curves and lines portrayed by those numbers looked extremely coordinated with the majority of outcomes predetermined. It was a fantastic yet bizarre connection between the two and at times, even he wasn't so sure himself. Was it the creations which determined the numbers, or vice versa?

If we have a certain degree of grasp over this knowledge, is it possible that we would not even require material objects and be able to determine the properties of an unknown object with just a string of numbers and formulas?

This was the wonderful association that made him look forward to new discoveries every day.

"Research Project 26's computation has yielded 3475, far exceeding the margin." His assistant carefully pressed on the calculation machine before reporting.

The machine was extremely rare and personally crafted by Anna. With less than 10 sets in Neverwinter, they were all allocated to the Administrative Office and Arithmetic Academy.

Astrologer of Dispersion Star nodded his head. As he lifted his pen and was about to record it down, the light above his head suddenly flickered. The light bulb buzzed, as though a malfunction had occurred.

Everyone stopped everything they were doing and waited for the illumination to return to normal.

"Crash!"

A crisp sound came from the room next door immediately following that, sounding like something had fallen to the ground.

The astrologer frowned; he knew that important instruments used by the ancient witches were kept in that room. After the repeated warnings for the apprentices to pay extra attention when cleaning that room, why were they still so careless?

Unexpectedly, the culprit quickly ran out of the room and rushed to him in fear and panic. "My, my lord! The skeleton is floating!"

"What?" Astrologer of Dispersion Star frowned and rushed towards the door, only to widen his eyes in shock.

The skeleton that was originally enclosed securely had completely dispersed, as though changing its own form with a radiance blossoming from its center. It looked like it had awoken from a deep slumber!

How could this be possible!?

Only a few were aware of the existence of carriers—aside from the blob-shaped ancient witches, no one was able to use the magical objects. They were the ones responsible for the dark tunnel under the Arithmetic Academy to the central carrier, and it was for this reason that the Arithmetic Academy had such objects.

The brilliance did not sustain for long. After about thirty seconds, the skeleton returned back to its sealed state and fell to the ground slowly.

"My lord, I was just using a wet cloth to wipe the dust from its surface; I swear that I did nothing else!" the apprentice tried to explain himself in panic.

"This has nothing to do with you; you may leave," Astrologer of Dispersion Star feigned a calm expression and instructed the apprentice.

When the door closed, he took out a unique key from his robes.

It was the only method to head down into the tunnel.

There were more than one blob-shaped ancient witch, but the one beneath was different. Rumor had it was that she had no consciousness and only had the ability to answer questions; therefore, it was required for her to be chained and shackled to prevent unexpected accidents. The astrologer was not unfamiliar with her, for she had contributed greatly in verifying computations previously. But he never forgot Lady Pasha's warnings. Upon being awakened, the carrier's body held strength capable of tearing any humans to shreds.

He had to ensure that what had just happened was not because of her.

What shocked him was that the central carrier had not left its original position, but had gone completely limp, with its tentacles twisted together, devoid of any signs of life.

No… how did this happen…

Astrologer of Dispersion Star knew that the problem and solution was completely beyond him.

He quickly turned and ran to the surface, while shouting at the top of his lungs. "Someone, hurry to the castle and inform Lady Scroll!"

…

The brilliance that appeared quickly dissipated and the illuminated gray dot sustained for a few seconds and immediately died out, like a temporary flame.

Did I… fail?

Celine stared at the network, speechless. In that instant, she had clearly formed a connection with the magic power core, but why did the light die out?

Her original plan was to form an equilibrium and connect the two ends to allow Lady Eleanor to analyze the four instruments, but her hope had turned evanescent like bubbles.

When she made another attempt, she found it difficult to gather her focus—Mask's intrusion into her consciousness had started to show its effects.

"Without the support of the God's Stone mine, the network cannot last too long… It ultimately requires magic power to operate; otherwise, why do you think I would allow those magic cores to drift away?" Nassaupelle shrugged. "Although incomprehensible, your determination is laudable. I will be accepting your spirit and consciousness."

"I cannot allow that."

Suddenly, a third voice appeared in that space of consciousness.

Celine was startled. The voice sounded familiar; it had an indescribable sense of familiarity mixed with a tinge of unfamiliarity.

She turned her head only to see a lady standing silently behind Nassaupelle. Her long hair reached her ankles, her brows were exquisite like a painting, and her pair of gray eyes had a hint of languidness. She looked extremely similar to the other two of the Three Chiefs.

"Lady… Eleanor!"

Celine blurted out.

She could hardly believe her own eyes! After 400 odd years, she was once again looking at the creator of the Union.

"You must be Celine? I remember your voice. And this is undoubtedly a senior demon…" Eleanor looked around. "Where is this? A new spirit vessel?"

"I will tell you everything later, but we don't have the time for that now!" Celine urged anxiously. "Please, help me to activate the magic power cores and drive this demon out! Otherwise it will all be too late!"

"Hahaha… Hahahaha…" Mask laughed out loud. "I was wondering what you had done. Who would have known that you would be sending me a gift! Is this female specimen strong? A pity that I do not own a physical body, so fighting capabilities are useless here. As to figuring out the four cores, that is even more hilarious, in terms of computational—"

Halfway through, Nassaupelle's smile froze.

He clearly noticed the stellar bodies above his head was changing, from a few light blobs that appeared suddenly, followed by the quick expansion of an area like a river receiving a large influx of water from a reversed waterfall. This resulted in the suppression of the revolution of the stars, and forced them to spin in a counterclockwise direction instead. Under the two intertwining powers, the four magic power cores blossomed with dazzling lights again!

The reinstated Deity of Gods instantly entered a steep decrease in speed, the dissipating Red Mist was quickly pulled back in, and the crystal which had liquefied into a boiling liquid and surged to the surface of the Red Mist Lake had solidified into a crystallized body once more. The sudden change of gravity made it impossible for the First Army to move as they were pressed to the ground.

"Who exactly are you!?" Nassaupelle roared in astonishment. "How is this possible with a single person?! How are you able to understand the composition of the magic power revolutions alone so quickly?!"

"It's true that it's impossible to achieve this with one person." Eleanor looked upwards and extended her hands, as though interacting with the majestic magic power that surrounded them. "But I am not alone…"

With a loud bang, the surrounding lights died out, along with the other nodes on the network, leaving only the blob of light representing the Deity of Gods that started to flicker.

Celine realized that the connection between the control hub and the 'network' had been broken.

Chapter 1439 - The Last of the Three Chiefs

The endless humming within the space suddenly quietened down.

It felt as though the two ladies had separated themselves from everything else.

Celine almost shed tears just by looking at the lady standing before her despite their corporeal bodies having long lost the ability to cry. She yearned to step forward to hug her, but halfway through extending her tentacles forward, she saw her crude and unsightly tentacles and stopped.

But the other party took the initiative to step closer and took her tentacles into her hand without hesitation.

"It isn't my first time seeing a carrier, so what are you ashamed of?"

Just as it had been in the past, her intonation remained amiable.

The familiar voice and appearance made it no longer possible for Celine to control her emotions. She spread out all her tentacles and pulled Eleanor into an embrace.

"Are you able to explain the entire story to me now?" the other party asked with a laugh.

"My Lady, can you tell me of the situation outside first?" Celine only remembered her mission after calming down. The space of consciousness still existed, which meant that the Deity of Gods had not crashed to the ground as planned by the enemy. However, she still needed to hear it first hand that nothing bad had happened beyond the space of consciousness.

"Although it's still descending, its speed should have reached a safe range before crashing to the ground," Eleanor explained and paused. "Come to think of it, is this an object built by the demons? I see many God's Punishment Witches. Are we already able to launch an assault on siege an enemy's city? So in the end, Alice still… succeeded…"

Celine was finally relieved. "About that… I'm afraid that the situation isn't as you imagine it to be, and explaining all of it would take some time."

"A consciousness exchange is most suitable for lengthy reports." Eleanor sighed. "Come, I am prepared."

"Yes." Celine nodded her main tentacle. "I will start from the time after you successfully merged with the central carrier…"

…

The recount took a long time before it was completed.

"… I see." Eleanor spoke once again, emotions apparent in her voice. "In the end, it was not Alice or Natalia who won, but the humans having actually formed a new system. However, I'm very curious. Was such an extraordinary person truly produced from among the ordinary humans?"

"It took us a long time before we accepted that. It was Agatha who used to recruit ordinary humans that adapted quickly to the circumstances. If not for her creating the ties, I'm afraid the entire process would had been more complicated."

"I remember that name." Eleanor blinked. "She is the young Awakened genius."

"You actually remember her." Celine was surprised. "She is the only Witch to have maintained her original appearance from our time." At this point, Celine hesitated for a moment. "Lady Eleanor, are you able to recall all your memories while being in the central carrier?"

Eleanor shook her head. "To be honest, I don't really know who I am. The name of Eleanor is not entirely correct, because I am also Cheryl, Jasmine, and Salice… All the Witches that had merged with the central carrier makes the current me. I can remember everything that occurred before merging, but nothing when I became one. It is difficult for me to describe the feeling. It is chaotic and messy, and it isn't as simple as seeing or talking. It's more like my consciousness has been peeled off into many smaller sections, and only a portion of it remains normal." Sighing for a moment, she continued, "Oh… If I really try and recall, the only thing I can remember is the analysis of the magic power cores and computations."

"Then how did you come here?" Celine asked in surprise.

"I am not too sure myself. I guess, when you see a beam of light tearing through the chaos, one would run to it at all costs, right?"

I see, and to me, you were the light in the darkness as well…

Celine fell silent for quite a while as she suppressed the emotions churning within her.

Upon thinking about the smooth process that she had gone through, Celine realized that it might be connected to Nassaupelle's alterations on the Mother of Soul. Compared to the central carrier of the underground civilization, this 'carrier' was most probably even more compatible with their consciousnesses. After all, Mask had many brains and would have the same chaotic and myriad thoughts. If he had not adjusted those consciousnesses, he would be the first to be devoured instead.

It was also because of this reason that the network was more suited for Lady Eleanor. The instant their magic power interacted, she was instantly 'drawn' towards it.

Her continued existence with the network gone meant that the carrier inside Neverwinter was an empty shell once more. And presently, Eleanor was residing in the demons' Mother of Soul.

After Celine shared her analysis simply, Eleanor nodded in agreement. "I believe so too. Who would have known that after being separated for so long, I would turn into a demon the moment I open my eyes. This ending is truly unexpected. But the senior lord called Mask did quite an overhaul. This shell no longer yields the ability to even move, as though it was intentional."

The inability to move equaled to them being unable to send the information out of the lake, so no one would ever notice the change inside the obelisk. As long as the obelisk continued to produce Red Mist, the Mother of Soul would remain safe. Mask's actions were undoubtedly hitting the blind spot of his own race.

"So long as we know who you are, it isn't important what vessel it is." Celine waved her main tentacle, her voice filled with excitement. "The other Witches that have merged must acknowledge it as well, to allow you to appear. When we return to Neverwinter, Pasha and the rest will be over the moon!"

"I really wish to see them as well." Eleanor looked into the distance. "But I can't go that far."

Celine was startled. "Why?"

"The God's Stone mine beneath the obelisk is almost drained and will quickly lose its effectiveness. The Mother of Soul will die out as well. Ultimately, it is still a demon, and it can't move as freely as a carrier," she answered gently. "The last thing that I can do for all of you is to ensure that this city lands slowly."

Celine froze in shock.

She realized that she had forgotten an extremely important thing, the Deity of Gods's ability to surpass its limit to ascend and fall quickly was from the overdraft of the God's Stone mine. Adding her previous amplification of the obelisk to connect the 'network' to the Western Region, the exhaustion of the God's Stone mine was almost to its last drop. This was an irreversible fact whether or not Mask's Plan B succeeded or failed.

"It isn't anything to be sad about." Eleanor closed her eyes. "Your great effort allowed me to see this world once again, and unlike four centuries ago, there is immense hope for humanity this time… This is enough for me."

"But—"

Eleanor extended her hand and interrupted her. "In fact, this isn't a bad thing. If I do not appear, everything remains the same. But if I return, who knows what troubles it might bring, and it might only bring harm and zero advantage to the situation."

"How is that possible?" Celine retorted as she waved her main tentacle. "Everyone will be even more inspired!"

"You mentioned that the current leader of the Witches is an ordinary human king, isn't that so? What will be on his mind when he learns about the sudden appearance of the Three Chiefs of the Union at a unified battlefront? As to who Taquila should listen to, would his opinions be solely his… Even if you deny this, you are unable to eliminate these misgivings. In time, it will become a rift. As a member of the Quest Society, you remain focused on the study of magic power, so it is normal for you to be unaware of other things. That is why the safest way is to maintain the status quo."

Celine did not know what to say.

"I have understood one thing after Alice's and Natalia's fall." Eleanor sighed. "I am a Transcendent, but not a qualified leader. It might be an advantage as compared to an ordinary human, but it definitely isn't suitable to guide others. When the Union was on the verge of collapsing, I remained passive and never made a decision. That itself was fundamentally me shirking responsibility."

"My Lady…"

"You do not have to console me. At that point of time, regardless of whether I supported the Queen of Starfall City or the Queen of Sunchaser, it would had turned the situation into a two against one. In that sense, the Union might not have crumbled. But faced with the decision that would affect the future of the entire race, I finally abandoned making a position, which led to the entire ending becoming irreversible." Her gaze became mixed, as though her emotions had returned to that most arduous point in time. "Merging with the central carrier was the only way of making up for it. It was only after gathering everybody's will that I came to be sure of my own judgment. I am not suitable to be one of the Three Chiefs. Even if we returned to the past, I would have never been able to lead all of you to a better future. So such an outcome isn't bad… Accompany me a little while longer, before the obelisk collapses."

"We can chat for as long as you want." Celine took a deep breath. "But If I do not do anything now, I will regret it in the future. Regardless, I hope that you can explain everything to Roland."

"Celine—"

"Maybe you're right, but that is from the perspective of a King." She hung her main tentacle down firmly. "At the very least, he is somewhat similar to you. If you claim to be unsuited to be one of the Three Chiefs, then he is the most unsuitable King that I have ever met."

Chapter 1440 - Respective Responsibilities

Chaos occurred on the ground the moment the Deity of Gods fell.

Hackzord opened a Distortion Door abruptly and sent both Silent Disaster and himself to Roland, as though having the intent of abducting him.

However, the God's Punishment Witches formed a tight circle around Roland and activated an anti-magic area. Both sides were unrelenting, and just like that, daggers were drawn. If not for Lightning's prompt relay of new information regarding the decrease in speed of the descending floating island, Serakkas might have unleashed her sword and resorted to blows.

This made Roland realize that although both parties were temporarily collaborating, they were not on the same page with regards to their interests—or in other words, aside from Valkries, they had not realized the true threat of God. Everything that they did were only for Nightmare Lord who was trapped within the Dream World.

Regardless of that, the stabilized Deity of Gods meant that Celine had successfully gained control of the core and the disaster was averted.

Further reports brought in good news; no one in the First Army was lost, and only three sustained injuries during the fall. The anticipated Spider Demons did not appear, and the Mad Demons that were under control did not break loose from the incident. Though a harrowing experience, they went through the entire operation without any mishaps.

Up till when Celine arrived before Roland did he realize that the situation was not as simple as it looked.

If it were any other time, she would be gesticulating with joy, recounting everything she had seen and heard while controlling the Deity of Gods.

And reality was just as he had anticipated, or more accurately, rather incredulous.

Mask had gone so far as to use the race's parent body and magic power cores as a node and built up a 'demon network' that spanned across the two large continents, and remotely activated the descent of the Deity of Gods. And the crux to turning all of this around was actually the Ancient Witch that remained a thousand miles away—more accurately speaking, the Ancient Witches.

They were led by one of the Three Chiefs of the Union, Eleanor.

"She wants to meet me?" Roland asked.

"To be more precise, I hope that you'll meet her." Celine voiced her worries. "Although she said she isn't qualified to be one of the Three Chiefs, she did make great sacrifices and contributions for the Union. Everyone is aware of what she has done… It wasn't easy for her to be able to see the light of day today, so I do not wish for her to disappear just like that."

"The Deity of Gods can't last much longer…" Roland mumbled to himself in thought. The Quest Society had confirmed that the obelisk would crumble without a God's Stone. And with the Mother of Soul being the foundation of the entire building, it was bound to die as well. The only way to avoid this eventual outcome was to find a new source of magic power before it died.

He had never attempted such a thing before, and with his knowledge of the Mother of Soul being close to zero, it might had been possible if there was a timespan of a year or two. Roland then recalled that he had Valkries's and Hackzord's help, which was a factor that could alter the destined outcome.

"Your Majesty…"

"Relax," Roland consoled her. "She is the heroine that saved both Graycastle and the Kingdom of Dawn. Even if you didn't mention it, I would have done all I can to keep her around."

Since there was no lack of feasible options technologically, the most important thing was to change Eleanor's mindset, which, in a sense, shared the same principles as providing treatment. A person that harbored faith had a higher probability of surviving than one that had given up.

And Roland was confident that he would never lose when it came to sophistry.

…

On top the Deity of Gods, Roland stood before the magic power core and nodded at Celine.

It was different from the Realm of Mind; Roland was unable to intrude like how a carrier did and required Celine as an intermediary to form a connection with Eleanor.

The latter extended her main tentacle into the core and, very quickly, a voice sounded inside his head.

"Let me guess, you must be the human king."

"Roland Wimbledon," he closed his eyes and replied in a relaxed manner. "It is our first time meeting each other, I am glad that you were able to free yourself from the central carrier, Eleanor of the Three Chiefs."

"A pity you can't see the real me, I am but a hideous demon now."

"That is only temporary. Since your consciousness is able to be here, there will come a day when you can enter the Realm of Mind. There, not only will you be able to regain your former self, you will also be able to see your past comrades."

"The Dream World, huh… I have heard about it from Celine; it is indeed a fascinating place." Eleanor paused for a moment. "But she should have informed you that the God's Stone mine in this city is close to exhaustion, I can't wait till then."

"All that needs to be done is to change locations so that you can wait," Roland replied bluntly.

"What?"

"Neverwinter has a God's Stone mine, I can shift you there. The skills involved will indeed be troublesome; for example, how will you get out of the Red Mist Lake, and can we shift you to Neverwinter with no Red Mist supply. But I believe that with careful preparations, it can be realized."

"But the price of doing so will be huge." It sounded as though Eleanor had chuckled. "Doing this doesn't benefit you at all. Did Celine make you promise something?"

"Lady Eleanor, I did no such thing—" Celine tried to explain herself.

"What do you mean by it bringing no benefits!?" Roland interrupted her. "Your existence is extremely vital to humanity; it's just that you have not realized that."

Eleanor was startled. "Extremely… vital?"

"Mask was able to use this 'network' to gain control over the core instrument, and there is no doubt to that. The cores are obviously important tools to study magic power, and at present, you are the only one capable of expelling him. That itself is something extremely important." Roland spoke frankly. "Of course, that's not the most important—"

He suddenly slowed down his speech and enunciated each and every word. "If humanity gains a similar floating island, the entire war situation will tilt in our favor!"

This time, even Celine was astounded.

"You want to build a Deity of Gods?"

"Why can't I? And we are not even beginning from zero; there is this perfectly tuned core instrument made by Mask here, with a suitable controller. All we are lacking is an obelisk." Roland shrugged. "But neither do I have the need such a large territory that can rise. A floating island of spanning about one to two kilometers is enough for large caliber bombers to take off and land, and even bring an army straight to the Bottomless Land. The prerequisite being you capable of grasping the structures of the magic power cores, and even use them with a new God's Stone mine. I know it will not be easy, so even if it doesn't succeed, I will not think of you as inferior to Mask either. At the very least, you would have tried it, don't you think so?"

You don't think that you're qualified to be one of the Three Chiefs? That's fine, I'll give you a new goal. With this undisguised form of goading you on, and with such motivation, how are you going to reject me?

The voice in his head suddenly fell silent.

A long while later, Eleanor said with a sigh, "I understand now, what being 'the most unsuitable King' means."

"Huh? What's that?"

"No, I said nothing." The other party sounded as though she was free from a burden. "Just one thing, Mister Roland. You seemed to have made a mistake with the premise. Everything that you planned is based on the fact that you are able to shift the Mother of Soul successfully. I know that it will not be easy; if it doesn't succeed, I will not blame you either."

"Lady Eleanor—!" Celine squealed with joy.

"Of course." Roland smirked. 'All of us have our respective responsibilities."

"Then quickly decide on the landing spot; this thing can't last much longer."

"I've already thought about it." He looked southeast. Regardless of where the Deity of Gods fell on, it would become a large obstruction, and only the large ocean could hold such a large inverted mountain. And if the landing spot was appropriate, it might even increase the land of Graycastle—a subsidiary island. "Drop it near Seawindshire."

Chapter 1441 - Consensus

The span of time which Eleanor claimed of not being unable to last much longer was in fact not a short period of time.

The final movement of the Deity of Gods took up nearly two full days for the descent. Roland dispatched the First Army to Seawindshire's coastal area and executed a thorough sweep, ensuring that the drop of the island would not harm anyone.

At nightfall two days later, the bottom of the floating island touched the surface of the ocean. From a distance, it looked as though an inverted and giant vertebral body stood alone on the ocean horizon, and that view was the last time the floating island's entirety was exposed. Following the slow descent into the Swirling Sea, the water surface rose quickly, causing the sandy shores at the port to disappear at a rate visible to the naked eye. The ocean spray crossed the coastal levees and burst into many of the dock's warehouse facilities.

The discarded boats left at the port swayed incessantly with the man-made waves, ultimately tearing apart under the violent waves. The continuous rumblings produced by the waves crashing onto the land were so loud that even those standing a few kilometers away were capable of hearing them.

Roland stood safely on high ground and witnessed the entire process.

After all, such a majestic sight was probably the first and only one.

His only regret was not being able to recite poetry.

According to history, such times were perfect for one. Regardless of his poetic standards, that scene with his back view would go down in history forever.

Finally, the rays of the setting sun appeared once again behind the Deity of Gods, reflecting upon the clear and crystalline water and produced a band of light from the new land over to Seawindshire's lowlands, as though the two were one entity.

Although the Deity of Gods was humongous, it was nothing compared to the Swirling Sea. By the time the island touched the bed of the ocean and turned into an island, the tidal waters that had inundated the docks had already receded. The gap between the island and mainland formed a new waterway. At the same time, it had closed the gap between Graycastle and the Fjords. From this, Roland could foresee it becoming a flourishing trade island.

"I never thought that the demon's ultimate weapon would turn into new land for the kingdom." By his side, Nightingale spoke emotionally. "Seems like we will have to redraw Graycastle's map."

"Compared to that, I am more concerned about what the the upper echelons of the demons will be doing." On the other hand, Phyllis paid more attention to actual problems. "If there isn't a supply point for them along the way, it would be difficult for them to return to the ridge of the continent."

"We can resolve them in the meetings. For this first step, I would consider the outcome as passable." For some reason, Roland thought about the Dream World. In there, the demons came from a distant peninsula, and it was somewhat similar to the scene before him. "As for this new land, let's call it Cargarde Peninsula."

…

The following assembly with the three Chambers of Commerce did not have much twists and turns.

After learning about Mask's shocking grand plan and the King's awareness of the developments, Hackzord was clearly distracted, leaving Serakkas to act on his behalf and answer a few questions.

Roland could guess how he was feeling. Regardless, the Sky Lord did not want a complete fall out with the King before obtaining concrete evidence. But after stumbling upon the King's knowledge of everything they had done, it was equivalent to him having no path of retreat. To the careful and prudent Hackzord, it inevitably resulted in him worrying over his personal gains and losses.

Compared to him, Silent Disaster was much calmer, as though nothing mattered to her so long as Valkries was safe.

The plans for the remaining demons inside the Deity of Gods were quickly resolved.

It was impossible for Roland to agree on establishing Red Mist supply lines at the periphery of the Four Kingdoms, while the two Senior lords were unconcerned about the lives of the Inferior Demons. As such, the tens of thousands of demons were left inside the new island for hard labor and continued construction; thousands of the Mad Demons entered dormant states, cutting down on the consumption of Red Mist, and to wait for a suitable opportunity for migration.

The obelisk was in an irreversible state of decay, and with the Red Mist Lake being able to only supply a certain amount of Red Mist, its continued decay was definite. This land became an isolated island for the demons that relied heavily on the Red Mist. After assisting the transference of the Mother of Soul, Hackzord brought Silent Disaster back to Sky City to take control of the remaining forces.

Since his actions were already known by the King, having a little bit of strength in hand would not be a bad thing.

Roland did not demand anything from Hackzord, who was clearly unwilling to go against the King. After all, if he suddenly went against his words right before the battle, it could potentially lead to disaster.

The last thing that mattered was Mask, Nassaupelle.

This time, even the two Senior Lords came to a surprising consensus—he had to die.

According to Hackzord, despite his evolution to an omnipotent state, it had nothing to do with the race. He had chosen the path for his sole existence, and if he succeeded, only his name would exist in the race, or in other words… he would had completely turned into another species.

"The problem is, he can change into another body at will with the use of the 'network,' how am I supposed to destroy him?" Roland posed the crucial question.

"Until his plan is successful, this will indeed be extremely difficult to come to fruition, but we are still far from that state." Celine conveyed Eleanor's words. "Before I severed his connection, I sensed that there were nodes of drastically varying strengths, and ones which are comparable to the Deity of Gods number only one or two."

"This female—Ancient Witch is right." After being glared at by many of the God's Punishment Witches, Hackzord quickly changed his choice of words. "After all, Nassaupelle is doing everything behind the King's back, and he will not have many opportunities to make similar alterations to every Mother of Soul in every city. For those nodes that have not undergone sufficient alterations, they are most probably incapable of completely transmitting his consciousness. Furthermore, the immobile Birth Towers would had been destroyed by Sky-sea Realm, so there are very few places that he can go to. My guess is that Mask is at King's City."

That's truly Hackzord's style.

Roland thought inwardly to himself. To destroy Nassaupelle, they had to destroy King's City, and aside from Nassaupelle, there was the King. Although he had made it known that he had no wish to oppose the King, his suggestion immediately pushed the King to the center of the target.

But this plan made Roland wary.

He did not want the human territory to once again fall into another crisis akin to the Deity of Gods's plummet.

Attacking the enemy before their all-out attack and strike the King's City down at the Fertile Plains was undoubtedly the method with the lowest risk. More importantly, Eleanor's appearance had greatly increased the feasibility of the plan.

With their own floating island, they could cut down on the Aerial Knights' flight time, which was undoubtedly significant for the large caliber bombers. The greatest difficulty for the project was researching new high-output engines. According to the Design Bureau of Graycastle's plan from manufacturing, assembling to test flights, they required a time line of about a year. But with the moving runway, there was the possibility of changing the engines to the Type-14 Piston Engine used by the Phoenix, which barely made the mark of operating the large caliber bombers. With that, the bearing of fruits for the bomber project was imminent.

Chapter 1442 - A Powerful Current

Hermes, in the old Holy City.

In the past month, the emotions Marwayne had experienced could be described as a roller coaster ride.

When the Sky Lord had brought him up the Deity of Gods, he had made the decision to cozy up with this powerful entity and never falter.

Whatever firearms or iron birds were insignificant in the face of the floating city.

This is the true miracle that humans ought to bow down to!

He did his utmost to prove his worth by sweeping away all past records, organizing the others to work, giving his all in the construction, so much that he earned praises from the Sky Lord. This caused his status among the nobles to become increasingly stable, and just like that, he felt like the leader of the people.

But a single letter from the north broke Marwayne's smooth and steady life.

He never thought that Sky Lord would attach great importance to the seemingly preposterous piece of paper and ended up disappearing for several weeks. The first thing that happened upon his return was their immediate movement to Hermes and Everwinter Kingdom, to wait for a similar letter—even without knowing who the sender was, how long it would take, or the location for collecting the letter.

In all honesty, Marwayne never wanted to leave the Deity of Gods, even with all the demons around them. None of them were capable of depriving him of his position and power. But the senior lord's command could not be violated and thus, he chose the former of the two locations, not for any other reason but because it was closer to the Deity of Gods.

At this time, the northern region of the Four Kingdoms had been enveloped by Red Mist and Graycastle appeared terribly busy resisting the demons, while he enjoyed a life no different from a duke's away from the Deity of Gods, with not only citizens as his subordinates, but with a few nobles at his beck and call. But the mission of waiting for a secret letter that had no stipulated time was worrying. In an attempt to complete the mission early, Marwayne did not hesitate to take the risk of having his subordinates escape by expanding their area of activity. Countless attempts to escape occurred during this period which resulted in him hanging the traitors as a warning, and at the same time, offered handsome rewards for clues. Yet, they never got the letter.

If all of that was down to luck, the following events completely exceeded Marwayne's expectations.

The Deity of Gods suddenly rose, flew east, and disappeared from his vision. This plunged the duke into a great panic. The miracle city originally floating behind him served as his biggest crutch and without it, his days were fraught with worry and anxiety. To add to the bad news, Sky Lord no longer revealed himself, as though having forgotten all about the secret letter.

Not long later, he heard of news that Graycastle had shot the floating island down.

Marwayne did not believe in the lies from the bottom of his heart. It was a floating mountain with a radius of over five kilometers; if Graycastle had the ability to level the mountain, why would they have waited so long to do so?

It was a pity that not everyone was as intelligent as him.

Instantly, everyone wavered. He discovered that he was no longer able to control the other nobles.

The continued silence from Sky Lord only added to the drama.

His mood became worse. Aside from having alcohol and women to dispel his worries, he no longer had the heart to do anything, and his days returned to how he spent his time in Everwinter.

"Zack, Zack!" When the bottle of grape wine was finished, Marwayne shouted for his butler.

"My lord, how may I assist you?" The butler quickly pushed open the doors to his room.

"Find a few more ladies tonight, I want them young and pretty—" he yelled.

"But, you ordered them yesterday to…"

"That was yesterday! I am the duke and this is the power I wield, understand? They should give up everything to me!"

"Yes… I understand," the butler lowered his head and replied.

"Right, the people that we dispatched… Have we received any news?" Marwayne disbelief in the absurd rumors through the grapevine did not mean he would not verify the information. In fact, when the Deity of Gods left the Hermes Plateau, he had sent out a few troops to follow the target with the intent of finding out the floating island's destination. But they were ridiculously inept with barely a few returning even up to yesterday.

The butler shook his head. "At the moment, we only know that Graycastle has not engaged in a large-scale battle with the Deity of Gods, but we might have some concrete news in another two days."

"Those lazy scums…" Marwayne swore while opening a new bottle of wine. "Fine, you are dismissed."

Then we shall wait another two days.

The Red Mist was dissipating and there was no guarantee on when the Graycastle people would make a comeback. Marwayne felt that he needed a path of retreat. Even if he was absent from where he was, that did not violate Sky Lord's command. Whoever obtained the letter was merely making a bit of contribution. It did not matter otherwise.

Of course, he didn't wish to go to Everwinter; it had proven itself incapable of defending against Graycastle.

Marwayne heard from other Senior Demons that a new Deity of Gods was on its way, and it held the city where the Demon King resided. It was the perfect location to retreat to.

So long as I move according to the demons' change in route, it should not be difficult to locate it.

At that time, he told himself that only the most loyal of the nobles had the privilege of leaving with him.

Nightfall descended, but Marwayne's ladies never came.

This infuriated him. Apparently, even his old butler had started to turn useless.

After patiently waiting for another hour, he heard footsteps outside. Curses which had been built up within Marwayne's heart surged to his throat.

It was not his butler, but a group of dirty-clothed civilians. Some held hoes and carrying shoulder poles, completely resembling a mob of unhappy people. The duke watched them in disbelief as they barged into his home and stained the fur rug on the floor with their muddy footprints.

Upon realizing that his own home was being invaded by a group of lowlifes, he screamed, "Solders, soldiers!"

But he never got a response.

He was interrupted with a blow to the head by none other than his old Butler, Zack.

Marwayne immediately sobered up from his inebriation.

"What are all of you doing!?"

"Everyone's had it with your oppression, Marwayne Parker!" the leader shouted. "For the sake of your damn orders, many good people died in the quarry from fatigue, yet you never listened to us or asked about us, and you even deducted our pay! We are not your servants, much less your slaves!"

"You nobles aren't superior to us; Graycastle was right!"

"We have to risk our lives for this monster in the day and send our wives and daughters to him at night. You are the true demon!"

"Surrender and follow us to Graycastle, otherwise, don't even think of stepping out of this house!"

Damn it, Marwayne thought inwardly. All of these idiots have been brainwashed by Graycastle. If he had known earlier, he would never have sent them to the former Holy City to investigate!

"I am the duke, which one of you dares to touch me!?" He warned them while drawing the sword by his table. Compared to their 'weapons,' his was a truly sharp blade. Their ability to charge in without any warnings meant that the guards and servants had betrayed him. He felt the need to get out, contact the other nobles, gather the knights, and quash the rebellion!

The position of duke was meant to frighten the crowd. He was unlike Zack, an ordinary man. The Parker family had ruled over Snow Reflection Castle for many generations, and to any ordinary citizen of Everwinter, he was of a lofty status. Marwayne believed in this and deliberately assumed his supercilious attitude. He did not believe the lowlifes would dare touch him.

Suddenly, a stone was thrown from the darkness and it struck the side of his face.

The pain froze Marwayne in his position.

They actually dare to hurt me?

An old man suddenly barged out of the crowd, weeping and howling as he pounced onto Marwayne. "You demon, return my daughter to me—!"

Marwayne subconsciously raised his sword and stabbed it through the old man's chest.

But by the time he reacted, the crowd had surrounded him—the old man's death was like the drain that set free their repressed emotions.

Hoes and shoulder poles smashed down onto Marwayne like rain, and he thought he heard his bones shattering.

"You scum, stop!

"No, stop… Stop, stop hitting…

"Cough, cough, I beg you…"

His voice gradually softened.

The mob only stopped when the duke turned into mush.

"We killed a noble…" someone whispered with his voice trembling.

"So what, Graycastle doesn't acknowledge nobility, and he is an enemy of Graycastle."

"What do we do about the other Everwinter nobles? They have horses and armors, if they chase after us…"

"Since we're already at this point, what can we do." The leader looked around. "We are not the only ones oppressed. Since the demons aren't here, why don't—"

"We fight them with everything we got." Another person completed his sentence.

"Let's fight it out with them."

"Let's fight it out with them. then head to Graycastle!" In a short moment after the words were spoken, it spread amongst the people and became a catchphrase which was chanted in unison, like a powerful current that rushed out of the house and into the pitch-black lands.

Chapter 1443 - Eleanor

The change in the attitudes and the beliefs of the two Senior lords did not only bring about the island formed out of the Deity of Gods.

Aside from the sparks of flames that occurred quietly at the foot of Hermes, the battle at the Western Front stopped because of the absence of Red Mist.

Although there were activities from remaining Monstrous Beasts at the Impassable Mountain Range, they soon sank into an eternal silence following the depletion of magic power. This greatly decreased the burden placed on the First Army, and Cage Mountain was no longer a 'life or death barrier' that required protection. In a week, countless troops returned from the front lines and assisted the west front of Neverwinter, alleviating the originally situation which was running on fumes.

The influx of reinforcements instantly reversed the situation at the Western Region. The new tanks that appeared on the ground charged through the hordes of demonic beasts, surrounding the invisible blade beasts like a net. Once the demonic beasts were gathered together, they became strike zones for the Aerial Knights. All the railway blockhouses that were abandoned before were gradually captured again, with the carcasses of mutated beasts lying all around. If not for the terrifying rate at which they decayed into black water, the entire development would have piled up with stinking corpses.

Despite Valkries's theory that the demonic beasts were merely an evolutionary farm for the Sky-sea Realm and were of extremely limited effect on the battlefield, while the true danger laid at the back, the restabilization of the situation was undoubtedly important to Neverwinter. It was inevitable that the Sky-sea Realm would make a large-scale effort to enter the Land of Dawn with the overrun of the demon's frontlines. This was where the First Army had to gather its strength, instead of dividing into two different battlefields.

Roland sighed and began embarking on Eleanor's "rescue."

Although the movement of the Birth Tower, which was also the movement of the obelisk, had always been Mask's responsibility, the other senior lords had more or less heard and learned how to do so after so many years.

The core step was naturally the altering of the Mother of Souls, allowing it to meld with new mineral veins as one. Only Mask and the higher ascendants that followed him were aware of this technique, but they were able to skip this step, since the body that Eleanor obtained was a finished product.

Secondly, the Mother of Soul had to be sufficiently robust enough to survive the transplant. This sounded extremely easy to understand, but the transplant would deal severe injuries on the Mother of Soul, just like on trees. Now that the Mother of Soul was Eleanor, Roland could only trust her.

Lastly, the Mother of Soul could not be without the Red Mist, which meant that before the obelisk resumed its production of Red Mist, it had to remain in an environment rich with the mist.

This was the most difficulty point for the entire rescue operation.

Fortunately, Hackzord had participated in the operation. His Distortion Door held significance in the logistics, fully displaying its extraordinary ability in such a situation.

After finalizing the plan, the Ministry of Industry was the first to engage.

To pull the immobile Eleanor out of the Red Mist, they had to grasp her position first. The interior of the Deity of Gods was a forbidden zone for Witches, unexpectedly allowing Rex's diving suit to yield a miraculous effect.

Using suspension ropes, more than ten Sand Nationals equipped with the diving suits plunged into the Red Mist Lake. The verification of Eleanor's position at a 150 meters depth was confirmed by the lead man named Simbad.

Following that, the humans slowly peeled the Mother of Soul off the obelisk before securing her firmly with ropes. A Mother of Soul in its original state wielded strength comparable to a carrier, and with its nearly inseparable link to the tower, it was almost impossible to separate her. But the withering of the obelisk made the lifting feasible. Even if they never took any action, the obelisk would still have slowly crumbled into debris.

When the Mother of Soul was lifted to a higher altitude within the Red Mist, Sky Lord opened a Distortion Door beneath it and moved Eleanor into a unique metal container. Naturally, a large amount of Red Mist was injected into it along with her.

When this step was completed, everyone heaved sighs of relief.

The subsequent procedures were much simpler.

Farrina's steam-powered trucks took responsibility for the transportation, carrying not only the metal container but many Red Mist tanks—nutrients for the Mother of Soul, as well as supplies for Sky Lord. Through a series of Distortion Doors, the fleet completed the transport from Seawindshire to Neverwinter in half a day.

If not for Hackzord's insistence on leaving, Roland would have granted him the position of a logistics head.

Under the careful watch of the God's Punishment Witches, the metal container was swallowed by Fran and sent into the lower levels of North Slope Mountain's mine.

This concluded the entire operation. Under the coordination of the Administrative Office, close to ten thousand personnel of different races had been mobilized to complete the transportation that consisted of crossing through more than half of Graycastle's line of fire.

The only thing left for Roland was to wait.

…

North Slope Mine, God's Stone mining region.

Pasha held a tank of Red Mist and carefully poured it over the root of an ugly monster. It resembled a ball with sludge-like tentacles growing all over its body, with a symmetrical pair of compound eyes over its head, the size of it equaling to three central carriers. Even without a Stone of Measuring, she could feel the immense magic power accumulated within it.

This demon named the Mother of Soul was the catalyst that allowed the stone pillars to turn into Red Mist towers. It was said that only when the magic power density in the world reached its peak would the Battle of Divine Will begin. Before receiving the transplantation technique, the demons could only lay low and wait quietly for the Bloody Moon and for their opportunity to arise. If this had been the era of the Union, Pasha wouldn't mind sacrificing her life to if she had the opportunity to kill a Mother of Soul. But now, it was as though she was taking care of a child, meticulously caring for this Mother of Soul. The contrast made even her feel slightly surprised.

"As expected, you're here." A familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind her. "How's her situation?"

Pasha turned and bowed her main tentacles. "Your Majesty, there hasn't been any signs of her gaining consciousness yet."

The person was none other than Roland—other than the existing Ancient Witches of Taquila, he was considered Eleanor's most frequent visitor.

"Seems like moving her was truly a painful experience for her." Roland sighed.

"But I heard from Celine that Lady Eleanor had already made the promise." Pasha's voice did not sound overly dejected. "From what I know, she rarely makes promises. But once she does, she will abide to it."

"I hope so too…" Roland slightly nodded.

After observing alongside each other, Pasha broke the silence. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"You've already thanked me multiple times." He replied somewhat helplessly. Ever since the ancient witches found out that the Three Chiefs and their other companions were alive within the central carrier, their emotions and response could nearly be described as fervent, earning him unanimous gratitude from them. However, Pasha seemed to be unsatisfied with a single expression of her gratitude, and expressed her thanks almost every time she met him. "Eleanor contributed greatly to Graycastle, saving her is part of my responsibility."

"My gratitude isn't merely for this, but for what you've done for everyone. Regardless of the number of times I thank you, I am unable to convey this appreciation of mine, so… let me say it a few more times."

The emotional speech from Pasha startled Roland. He turned to her, almost wanting to see her current expression from her lowered tentacles. Little did he expect that this look caused his heart to skip a beat and almost cry out loud—

Without them realizing it, the Mother of Soul's symmetrical eyes were wide opened and observing the two quietly.

"You're already someone several centuries old. For such unruly words to come out of your mouth is truly surprising…" A new voice sounded in his mind.

Pasha jolted and immediately used her main tentacles to cover her face. "Lady, Lady Eleanor?"

"Yes, it's me."

Pasha immediately positioned her main tentacles straight and pulled herself towards the cave entrance with a breath before disappearing further into the cave.

"Uh… She has always wanted to be the first to talk to you…" The corners of Roland's mouth twitched, as he muttered in disbelief. "By the way, you awoke just like that?"

"If not how? With a thunder boom, or from an earthquake?" Eleanor yawned. "That's Alice's style, not mine."

"…" Roland took a long time before he continued the conversation. "Alright, it's good that you're fine. Since my job is complete, the next thing will be to see—"

"I've completed mine as well," Eleanor replied languidly.

"What?"

"The transplant process was truly unbearable, but it was enough for me to suffer alone without hindering the thought processes of the others," she replied matter-of-factly. "The analysis of the magic power cores is complete; although we are unable to construct one at the moment, it wouldn't be much of an issue to use one that is already available. In other words, your floating island can fly at any moment." At this point, Eleanor paused for a moment, before quipping. "Or, why not now?"

Chapter 1444 - The Riddles of the Consciousness

It seems like their description of Eleanor as being "amiable and approachable" is true…

Comparing her to Alice, Roland found it difficult to imagine that a Transcendent that emitted a cold and imposing aura would ever say such words.

"No… I believe you." He waved his hand immediately. The current North Slope Mountain was connected to a huge industry district, so any sudden flight would be a recipe for disaster.

"You should really believe me only after I've activated the core instruments," Eleanor replied somewhat regretfully. From her tone of speech, it sounded as though she was extremely regretful to be unable to reveal her abilities right away.

Roland gained some understanding with regards to her personality.

Her self-acknowledgment of not being a qualified leader did not mean she was ordinary. She had aspects that she prided herself with. Anyone that became a Transcendent was a lofty existence without exception.

"Right… when did you wake up?"

"About a quarter of an hour ago."

So you've been eavesdropping from the beginning! Roland cursed inwardly. "Then why didn't you tell us?"

"Nobody made it a rule that it's compulsory to announce to the world that they have woken up, right?," Eleanor replied matter-of-factly.

"Then why did you speak up in the end?"

"What other reason can there be? Do you really want me to see my junior embarrass herself?" The two rows of eyes at the top of her head rolled upwards in unison. The rolling of eyes at such a large scale was quite a magnificent sight.

It's because of your sudden 'awakening' that makes it even more embarrassing!

Seeing Roland speechless, Eleanor casually changed the topic. "In all honesty, I am rather satisfied with you at the present."

"Why is that?" He realized that he could hardly follow her train of thought.

"Because there aren't any traces of exploitations here," Eleanor replied. "Ever since my connection with this region, I can feel that the foundation of this God's Stone pillar is fully preserved—proof that you don't have ideas over it."

She means that I didn't exploit this mine, which indicates that I've never had the intent to control the witches? Roland realized the meaning behind her words. "Celine should have told you about the Witch Union; could it be that you didn't believe her?'

'Of course not. It is just that people get deceived easily by facades, especially from words by an omnipotent King. It would not be difficult for you to fake everything," Eleanor stated bluntly. "Even if you adhere to such a position for now, it doesn't mean that you will be the same in the future. Planning ahead is a matter that every leader has to consider. If you harbored any wariness, it would be impossible for you not be tempted by this God's Stone mine. Secretly arranging to mine, storing, and taking precautions against the witches' power that would become too potent for you to control, while maintaining a kind and friendly front. Isn't that what usually happens?"

Roland sighed. "That is because too many people treat witches as a different species, but in my eyes, they are just humans with slightly advantaged."

"You're fine even if the witches occupy all the important positions in the kingdom?"

"What you're asking, should be Alice's assertions, right?" Roland replied bluntly. "As long as humanity continues to exist, witches will definitely return to the peak."

"They actually told you that as well?" It was the first time Roland heard Eleanor exclaim in surprise.

"No, but that was what I saw in the Sigil of Recording," Roland admitted. "In fact, Alice has been mistaken as well. As long as the word 'witch' is switched to 'human', wouldn't this sentence be normal and expected? If outstanding individuals are prevented from leading the civilization, the civilization is doomed to have no future. At the same time, if the leader at the peak no longer strives for the benefit of the people, the civilization will not last as well."

In some sense, random awakenings, the inability to have children, and magic power could be considered a special ability, and should have never been a rift between the talented and the ordinary. The most dangerous aspect was artificial selection and designated inheritance, which prevented the misgivings between witches and ordinary people to cease.

"You…" Eleanor looked at him in a bid to figure out his true thoughts. But after a moment, she gave up. "I shall wait and see. What are your plans, going forward?"

"We will be executing a large scale remodeling of North Slope Mountain to be a suitable flying stronghold." This was another reason Roland did not allow Eleanor to lift the floating island right away. Regardless of attacking the new Deity of Gods or moving to the Bottomless Land, they had to amass a substantial amount of supplies. Upon leaving Neverwinter, it would be difficult to have resupplies. "Can you estimate the volume of the floating island?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." Eleanor blinked her eyes and nodded. "Aside from the remaining vein, the Red Mist tower also takes into account the range and augment accordingly, so it is impossible if you want it to be as big as the Deity of Gods."

"How do the Red Mist Towers grow?"

"I was equally curious as you on this, so I spent a bit more time investigating this body. I discovered that it can assimilate the God stone pillar into the body. Simply put, while the God's Stone doesn't reveal any signs of life in an ordinary circumstances, it will start to self-duplicate upon its binding to a Mother of Soul. The process depends on the quality of the God Stone; using it too much will put an end to the magic power within."

"Then…" Roland hesitated for a moment. "Are you able to create Red Mist?"

This question caused Eleanor to sigh. "Yes, in fact, not only do I have control over the various unique abilities of the Mother of Soul, I even have a deeper understanding of their intricacies. For example, the Red Mist Lake can be considered a type of demon as well, as they are all produced in the same manner."

"You mean to say—" Roland was surprised.

"That's right, be it Mad Demon, Fearsome Demons or Lords of Hells, they are produced that way… I found information within the Mother of Soul related to them. But to incubate the demons, there are a few crucial factors lacking—and the one to supply the crucial factors to the Mother of Soul is considered King."

Roland was dumbstruck. Although he knew that the demons did not need to mate, he never thought that they would reproduce in such a manner.

'In other words, It is possible for me to become the King of Demons as well—Isn't it ironic, one of the Three Chiefs will be a demon producer one day.' Eleanor then glared at him. 'You have to remember everything you said, don't make me stay here for too long.'

This will depend on our advancement in magic power and not me, Roland thought to himself helplessly. But what was on his mind went deeper—through the shift of consciousness, Eleanor had practically obtained all the information stored within the Mother of Soul, and just like learning, she could, in a sense, obtain the legacies. It was inevitable that the different legacies from the different races would end up mixed and evolved was inevitable. But why would God be superfluous and use the Battle of Divine Will and legacy shards, for the races to kill each other to push for it to happen?

Secondly, what mattered was consciousness itself.

It was a clear cut distinction in the world where technology was still primitive. Access and a shift of consciousness was simple, as though there was no technique or skill involved. If God were the only one that had the ability to do so, Roland would had let it slide. But why were the underground civilization, demons, and humans capable of it as well?

In his previous world, simulating perception remained a concept and only existed in television shows.

He had a vague feeling that the two might be related.

Chapter 1445 - The Island That Will Never Fall

Upon returning to Graycastle from North Slope Mountain, Roland invited City Hall Director Barov and Minister of Construction Karl to his office.

"I need the Administrative Office to start on a new metallurgy material supply plan as quickly as possible, and move the production from the center of North Slope Mountain to other locations—be it Longsong Stronghold or Redwater City, the only guarantee that I need is that the production cannot be inadequate. North Slope Mountain will no longer be mineable soon."

The expressions of the two men changed. After glancing at each other, Karl lowered his head, while Barov spoke with much difficulty. "Your Majesty… has the situation in the north deteriorated that badly?"

"North?" Roland was startled for a moment before realizing that the two had assumed that a new powerful enemy had appeared at the Fertile Plains that not even the First Army could handle. Hence, to protect the city, they had to give up on North Slope Mountain. Amused and exasperated, Roland shook his head. "The army hasn't degenerated to the point that we have to lie about our victory so as to appease the people. Furthermore, you are in charge of logistics, you should be able to grasp the general situation from the drop in medical supplies being supplied out. How can you ask such a question?"

Barov hurriedly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Hahaha… I thought Your Majesty was provisioning for bad times. In fact, I have been curious from the beginning, thinking which witch was the one who discovered news about the Sky-sea Realm that the Administrative Office hadn't been informed in a timely fashion."

"If that is the case, why are you giving up on the mines in North Slope Mountain?" Karl couldn't help but ask.

"Because that mountain is about to fly soon." Roland shrugged.

"…"

The two fell silent once again, but wearing weird expressions on their faces this time, as though questioning themselves if they had heard wrongly.

"You heard that right. It will fly soon and become a floating island." Roland looked at the two with interest, and recounted everything about the ancient witch, Eleanor, as well as their gaining of control over the magic power core. "Remember the metal container that the Administrative Office transported from before? The central carrier for the Deity of Gods was contained inside. But due to the risks involved in transplanting it, we were unable to determine the outcome until the final moment; therefore, I didn't inform all of you about the details. But now you can know that the project was successful, Neverwinter will soon have a floating island as part of its territory."

Barov widened his eyes, momentarily at a loss for words. As for Karl, he trembled in excitement. He asked in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, what you want is not just a giant rock, right?"

"That's right." Roland no longer kept them in suspense. "It will be a floating battleship, a stronghold that will never fall. It must be able to provide months, if not a year's supply for large numbers of soldiers on an assault mission. It is both capable of taking the initiative to attack our enemies, and it naturally possesses defensive capabilities. How long do you think you need to transform North Slope Mountain into something like that?"

With his engineering background, he completely understood Karl's excitement. Any ambitious architect hoped of having their own work placed in the most inconceivable of places. To be able to personally create the floating city was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"According to the scale of the project benchmarked against typical projects, it would require about four to five years, but I believe that Your Majesty cannot wait that long. Besides, a floating city cannot be considered an ordinary undertaking," Karl immediately answered. "Considering its unique features, the Ministry of Construction can send a team of engineers to reside in the structure while it moves. If I didn't misinterpret Your Majesty's intentions, I believe you definitely wish for the Aerial Knights to be stationed permanently on it as well. So long as there is stop-over point on it for resupply, their attacking and defensive capabilities will far surpass that of cannons."

It seemed like after building over ten runways, the Minister of Construction had formed a deeper understanding towards the air force. Roland smiled and nodded, "Continue."

"The requirements for the Aerial Knights includes having a runway, storehouses, fuel oil and ammunition reserves. We already have feasible blueprints for them, and will take at most a week to be completed. Your Majesty—" Karl placed his hand across his chest. "The minimum we will need is a week. In a week, it will satisfy your most fundamental requirements; the rest can be broken into phases, to add on, perfect, and extend."

"What about the materials for construction?" Barov asked. "Once the North Slope Mountain takes off, it will be difficult to transport them upwards."

"Leave that to me to ponder." When it came to professional queries, Karl always planned in advance. "North Slope Mountain's mountainside has a sizable lake formed naturally from the spring water that comes from the mountain top. The engineering team can enclose it and form a natural water reservoir to supply water for daily use and construction."

"Secondly, we can excavate the mountain to obtain limestone required for cement. I believe that Lady Eleanor wouldn't mind having the floating island slightly lighter. Bricks, lumber—all of these—can be obtained on the spot, while materials such as steel should be prepared ahead of time. If Miss Hummingbird is willing to help, I think that we can load up a considerable amount of resources.

"Aside from that, the Third Border City's Taquila witches can assist as well. As long as we make minor changes to the contiguous caves, they will form the best warehouses. With all of these things, even if we are unable to resupply the floating island in the short term, the engineering team can continue working for at least a year or two." He turned to Barov. "Of course, if the furnace area and steel-making plants are preserved, this amount of time will undoubtedly extend."

Roland could not help but to clap. The proposed plan was the most suitable method considering the time constraints—ensuring that the floating island possessed the basic fighting capabilities in the shortest time, and leaving the other constructions, like residential, functional buildings to the later for improvement.

"Barov, what do you think?"

"It means that aside from the First Army, we will need a large population living on it." The old director stroked his beard. "I will have to think up a recruitment plan."

Roland smiled in satisfaction; it appeared that the duo had grasped the crux of the plan.

The floating island meant going for a long and drawn out battle away from the mainland, and the living conditions in the early stages was incomparable to those in Neverwinter. As a result, be it the promotion or remuneration, the Administrative Office had to prepare adequately—only a group of zealous workers brimming with determination would complete the tasks efficiently.

In the past, it was Roland that personally took the lead for the planning. With Barov taking up the position, he obviously had a clear understanding of his governing principles.

"Go ahead as discussed." Roland finally gave the go ahead.

…

"Welcome back, my lord."

When Victor entered the office in Miracle Building, Tinkle immediately rushed forward and welcomed him just like back in the hotel.

The Rainbow Stone business was picking up, with many competitors appearing. To safeguard his supply, he had no other choice but to move between Everwinter and the Port of Clearwater. Although the operation was draining, he took pleasure in it. Compared to the uncertain jewelry business, he was far closer to his initial target than before—to become a successful businessman to support the family.

Just as Victor extended a hand out, Tinkle handed a copy of Graycastle Weekly to him.

This tacit understanding made him smile. Although the Port of Clearwater also had the weekly newspapers, there was always a two to three weeks delay. Towards a city like Neverwinter, two or three weeks was enough for great changes.

As expected, the large header on the front page immediately captured his attention.

"Heading for the skies—official announcement of the Heaven Plan."

Chapter 1446 - Skycarrier

"The key to ending the Battle of Divine Will has been found…" Victor muttered to himself. "His Majesty is determined to take the initiative and attack our enemies to end the flames of war outside the Fertile Plains?"

Even after experiencing so many inconceivable matters in the past, the headlines was still as shocking as before. Every line was worth being elaborated. Back in the past, such news would have never left the confines of royalty, much less an ordinary businessman like him of zero noble status.

The report had an extremely grand drawing: the commotion caused by the descent on the floating island into the sea did not announce the end of the demons' attack. Thousand of kilometers away, a new Blackstone stronghold was rushing towards Neverwinter through day and night. Beneath it held millions of demons—enough to drown the entire human kingdom! To prevent this from occurring, the king had decided to take action and prevent the flames of war from affecting the ordinary citizens.

Upon defeating the approaching enemies, the King would send out an expeditionary force to the other side of the world where the boundary between both continents existed, to remove the threat of the Battle of Divine Will. Upon obtaining success, a long and peaceful era would emerge, and be it demons or demonic beasts, nothing would ever threaten the safety of mankind.

Victor was familiar with expeditions, since he had personally witnessed a miracle more than a year ago. Relying on the heavy machinery called a train, the First Army had transported troops to the deserted Fertile Plains almost five hundred kilometers away and defeated the demons that occupied the northern ruins. At that time, Graycastle Weekly had a detailed written record of the entire process, with a realistic drawing termed as a 'photograph.' Victor could still recall the sensation of overlooking the black train's rushing headlong into the Fertile Plains.

But this time, King Roland seemed to have taken one step further, one that was even more thorough.

He's actually planning on moving a mountain into the sky to become an expedition stronghold!

Can it truly be accomplished by human hands?

Victor eagerly flipped to the second page. He saw the plan being divided into three phases, the first being the lift off stage—the entire North Slope Mountain and a kilometer of soil beneath would be escape the restraints of the Impassable Mountain Range and become a single entity.

The second phase was flight test stage. North Slope Mountain would be integrated into the army and be conferred with the name "Eleanor Skycruiser" officially. In this phase, the floating island would patrol Neverwinter's surroundings multiple times for training as well as await the perfect opportunity to attack.

The last phase was the official set off, to fight the enemy a thousand kilometers away.

The Administrative Office termed the battle as the war to decide the fate of mankind. Aside from soldiers, the support provided by various professions was equally as important; thus, the remuneration given were rather handsome, two to three times that of a peer working in a similar job in Neverwinter. Aside from that, volunteers would have their name added onto a monument that would stand tall perpetually inside King's City.

Additionally, Lord Barov divulged at the end that only those who volunteered to go aboard the floating island would have the opportunity to witness mankind's strongest weapon in history.

At this point, Victor realized that the Administrative Office would be crammed to the point where not a single drop of water could flow through. The difference between Neverwinter's citizens and migrants from other cities was how they viewed the floating island. When he interacted with the locals, he often got the misconception that the land not only belonged to King Roland, but that they also had a share in it. Furthermore, once an individual settled into the city and received his identity card, they would have the similar acknowledgment and sentiments towards the land, because he had experienced it for himself before.

He would even hear migrants from the Kingdom of Dawn discussing about Neverwinter's various miracles with pride, something that was unheard of before.

If not for his business, Victor had the urge to ascend the floating island and experience and witness everything.

"Connect me to the Administrative Office, tell them that Rainbow Stones is willing to contribute a thousand sets of clothes."

"Yes, my lord." Tinkle nodded.

"Right, have you asked about North Slope Mountain's exact flight date?"

"It should be within the next two or three days; the mountaintop already looks completely different from before."

"In two or three days… I'm afraid that the good seats have already been snatched clean." Victor folded the newspaper and walked to the window. Although the Miracle Building was tall, it was too far from the Impassable Mountain Range. Victor felt it appropriate to witness the marvel at close proximity. He turned and took out a key. "Tinkle, you should know what to do, right?"

Fortunately, anything that could be solved with money was not considered a big matter to him.

"Leave it to me, my lord." Tinkle smiled and accepted the key.

…

Three days later, the First Army removed the cordon tape at the foot of the mountain, indicating to the public that the moment they had been waiting for was about to arrive.

The current North Slope Mountain was completed different from before. From a distance, one could see dense scaffolding all around, the irregular mountain walls had been artificially remodeled—not only were the walls smoothened, there were various places that had been patched up. All of the patches that were either made out of metal or lubricating oil fabric were distinctly out of place with the stone walls, but made the natural structure look more like a weapon.

What shocked Victor the most were the several hundred strips of flags that hung down from a high elevation.

They were just like a skirt for the mountain that undulated like waves along with the wind.

The tower and rifle emblem symbolized Graycastle Kingdom.

The red, black, and white colors made it even more dignified.

The visual impact was one that would live eternally in everyone's mind.

The crowds on the street grew and by noon, all the main streets had become impenetrable. If not for the black-clothed policemen and army personnel directing the crowd towards the Misty Forest, half the city would be in deadlock.

Following the deep and resounding alarm that resonated through the entire city, Victor, positioned at an exceptionally good spot on the roof of a building in West Street, felt tremors from the soles of his feet.

Very quickly, the tremors turned into loud rumblings!

In that instant, it felt as though the entire Neverwinter had boiled over—

It was the sound of the mountain being ripped apart.

Despite being expectant of the proceedings, witnessing the scene first hand caused Victor to gape in shock.

Tinkle grabbed onto his arm tightly.

North Slope Mountain slowly ascended in an indomitable fashion, releasing dust from the severed connections with the Impassable Mountain Range. The scaffolding situated on the surface collapsed, seemingly powerless at restraining so gigantic. The fallen trees, gravel, and scaffolding were left behind, but were later lifted up by the even wider bottom.

The entire scene resembled a radish being pulled out of the soil, except that the soil spanned over a kilometer of land. The floating island was in a distinct triangular shape with the lowest point situated at the center of the island. With the rise of North Slope Mountain, a gigantic pit was left in the ground's surface, and faced with the sudden disappearance of the 'roof', countless underground creatures scurried away, becoming one of the vivid footnotes in this historical event.

This should have been an impossible task unachievable with human strength.

But the flags swaying on the mountain announced that there was no mistake—it declared that it belonged to Graycastle Kingdom, to mankind.

After waking up from their shock, the crowd erupted into deafening cheers. Once the first cries of "long live His Majesty" sounded, it was destined that the chanting would not stop until a long while after.

It took a long time for the feverish atmosphere to abate. Victor licked his dry lips and was about to bring Tinkle back to the hotel when he caught sight of an elderly figure on another roof from the corner of his eye. The figure looked so familiar that he slowed down in his tracks.

Victor tried to take a better look, only to discover that the figure was gone.

"My lord, what is it?" Tinkle sensed his strange behavior.

"No, it's nothing… I might have been seeing things." Victor hesitated, because no matter how he saw it, the old man somewhat resembled his father.

But how can Father appear here? He shook his head, and quickly threw the thought to the back of his mind.

Chapter 1447 - The Unfulfilled Promise

Inside Graycastle's parlor, Roland quietly observed the old man before him.

Seated in a wheelchair with a head full of grizzled hair, sunken cheeks and wrinkles bulging on his forehead, the old man was clearly approaching the final years of his life. But compared to his age, his eyes remained clear and youthful, with the vigor of an adolescent. The monocle hanging on his nose bridge and bow tie at his neck added a touch to his bearing. At the same time, the old man was also observing Roland.

Roland broke the silence after a short moment as he revealed a smile. "It truly wasn't easy inviting you over from the Kingdom of Dawn. Welcome to Graycastle's new King City, Mr. Banach Lothar. It must have been a long and tough journey for you."

"It is my honor to be received by the King of Graycastle…" The old man lowered his head slightly. "But may I ask, what does Your Majesty have for me?"

"You've already contributed greatly to Graycastle; there isn't anything you need to do."

"Me?" The old man revealed a look of surprise. "Your Majesty, are you mistaken about something?"

Typically, a man at such an age would have their thought processes slow down substantially, their speech turning inarticulate or stammering, but not only did Banach Lothar reply promptly, he managed to control his facial muscles to maintain a poker face, enough to prove that his mind had never stopped or slowed down. Compared to the inevitable aging of the body, his mind was still working at his prime.

"I know of your concerns, but be at ease, I have no ill intentions towards Black Money." Roland spread open his hands. "The 'Oracle' that delivered the information to you is from Neverwinter. In fact, I was the one to decide that the information was to be delivered to you."

By using Pasha as his mouthpiece and using the reason of it being the opportune moment for the incarnation ceremony as way to summon Banach Lothar, Roland had men forcibly take him back to the castle upon verifying his identity. Although this method was considered crude, it was straightforward.

"Your Majesty… I don't understand what you mean…"

"It's fine, I will explain it until you do—this is a very complicated story, but I assure you that it's real." Roland then narrated the story of the ancient witches, as well as the essence of the God's Punishment Army's incarnation ceremony. Soul containers only accepted consciousness that had magic power; in other words, non-magic humans could only turn into empty shells.

In a sense, turning into a shell with no consciousness coincided with how the ancient witches extended their lives. If Black Money was an ordinary underground Chamber of Commerce, Roland would not have paid much attention to it. But Black Money had contributed greatly during the Western Front's military campaign against the demons, not only by assisting in providing intelligence network in Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter, but they had also sent out crucial reports and filled the empty spaces which the witches were unable to investigate as a result of the areas being filed with Red Mist.

Perhaps Banach Lothar's intent was never to help mankind or save humanity, but the contribution was tangible. Roland did not believe that turning a man of such meritorious deeds into a puppet without consciousness was a suitable reward; thus, he chose to personally interview him.

After a long while, Banach Lothar took off his monocle and spoke with trembles in his voice. "You mean to say that eternal life is nothing but a scam?"

Roland sighed. "At the present, the only ones capable of maintaining their consciousness and not age have to be magic power users. For humans, only witches can do that."

Even Roland himself, who opened up the Dream World, was incapable of instigating a response from the soul container.

"But after drinking all of that medicine, I truly feel that my body has turned for the better—"

"It doesn't mean that the medicine is useless. It increases the success rate of the ceremony by overdrafting one's vitality, but it cannot go on continuously like that," Roland interrupted and shook his head. "Very quickly, the side effects will surface, and that is the reason why I have sought you so urgently."

Banach Lothar was stunned. "You mean to say, my days are numbered…"

"I'm sorry," Roland replied lamentably. "I am unable to deliver a perfect promise, and can only attempt other means to make up for it. Black Money protected the witches, and contributed so much to the Battle of Divine Will. If you have anything on your mind, tell to me. We owe that to you."

Nightingale had questioned Roland earlier, to have Pasha and the others resolve issue on their own. By using the King's identity, it meant shifting the responsibility of the entire scam onto Graycastle itself.

Nightingale was right, but Roland was aware that since Graycastle accommodated all the Taquila witches, it not only meant enjoying the benefits of their abilities, but shouldering their faults as well.

"…" Banach Lothar remained silent for a long time. "Are you able to handle the matter, even in the Kingdom of Dawn?"

"You should know that of my influence on the Kingdom of Dawn."

"Then I am at ease." Unexpectedly, the other party did not fall into despair or turn hysterical, but instead revealed a calm smile. "The reason for my desire to live longer is to ensure the survivability of Black Money for my children—if I die, the other businessmen will not let this piece of the pie go. With such large benefits laid in front of them, a few lives are worth nothing. If Your Majesty is willing to get involved, I believe that no one will dare act blindly; that itself is much more reliable than me living longer. If that is the case, why should I harbor a grudge?"

Roland muttered to himself irresolutely, then spoke to him. "Are you sure you want that, as your reward?"

"Your Majesty, is that… not possible?"

"It is possible." He paused for a moment. "Have you ever heard of the name 'Rainbow Stones?'"

"I have heard of it." Banach pondered for a moment. "If I recall correctly, it is a brand new line of clothes for your distinguished country that operates at a massive scale, with some products sold even at the Kingdom of Dawn—but forgive me for saying this, the style and design is still far inferior to ours."

That's because Victor only employed artisans from the Lothars family… And he never told any of you that the price of such clothes is only a tenth of other clothes shop in Neverwinter. Roland coughed twice. "From what I know, the founder behind this line of clothes is called Victor Lothars, your fourth son. Aside from that, the business revenue as of today has already surpassed ten thousand gold royals. With such a talent here, I believe that even without Graycastle's support, he will not lose to the other businessmen.

Ten thousand gold royals was definitely a large amount, with only the sale of Chaos Drink in Neverwinter being able to beat that record—the reason was simple, not everyone needed beverages, but everyone needed clothes. With the Neverwinter's population turning highly centralized, the demand for necessities exploded. In the face of a booming industry capable of producing large amounts of profits, the deals made within the underground chamber of commerces were nothing.

This time, Banach Lothar revealed genuine surprise. "Your Majesty, is what you said… true? Ever since he left the City of Glow, we have rarely communicated… I thought he was still in the jewelry business…"

"Victor is now in Neverwinter, it won't be difficult for you to meet him and verify if what I said was true or not. But… you have to make haste."

"Yes… I understand." Banach Lothar could no longer help grab onto this opportunity, his actions clearly revealing the emotions buried at the bottom of his heart. "Please excuse me, Your Majesty."

Roland nodded and was about to call for a few guards to send the old man out, when the latter spoke up again. "You said that I have not much time left… will it be possible for me to live my last few moments on the floating island?"

"…" Roland closed his eyes. "If that is your wish."

When the doors closed, Nightingale appeared and whispered, "Strange…"

"What?"

"In the beginning, his responses were strange, not to say that they were lies, but my magic power felt blurred, unlike the calm he presented." Nightingale shrugged.

"I see," Roland replied thoughtfully.

"You know why?"

"Maybe." He lowered his voice and turned his head towards the window. "The thing about eternal life is that it will always be attractive. When one's expectation fails to be met, it'll be the most difficult thing to accept, regardless of who it is."

"But that's not a lie." Nightingale repeated herself.

"Because he knew that no matter what he does, he can never change the outcome," Roland replied wistfully. "Since the outcome cannot be changed, he has to accept it—rather than hold a grudge and become enemies with the King of Graycastle, why not act magnanimous and win a favorable impression. All other unnecessary emotions will simply turn into a sunken cost. That is what he most probably thinks. There are many that understand this, but very few are able to act on it… That is what's impressive about him."

Roland somewhat understood why many of the businessmen in the Kingdom of Dawn were treated like nobles—their ability to split control and have stop losses made them far more capable than a vast majority of the nobles.

"As for you—" At this point, Roland turned towards Nightingale. "Not only are you able to discern between truth or lies, you're actually able to sense their emotions. Are you about to evolve?"

"You think of me as a person who will intentionally hide the fact that I'm about to evolve—or in other words, am I that modest a person to you?" Nightingale cast a glance at him and replied sourly.

Uh… I have no response to that.

Roland tactfully closed his mouth.

Chapter 1448 - The Black Giant Bird

"Ring…"

The telephone on the table rang.

Roland spent a few seconds rummaging through a pile of machines before finding the connecting receiver, lowering his body and answering it.

The label on the phone indicated that the caller was from the Aerial Knight Academy.

Following the increase of lines to the office, Roland was compelled to add another table to his work area just to hold the phones.

"Really? I'll be right there."

After hanging up, Roland stood up with a joyful expression. He picked up the coat hanging on his chair and draped it over himself.

"Was that Tilly?" Nightingale asked, frowning.

"Yes, the preparations for the big plane is complete, they are going to have its trial flight soon."

The so called big plane mentioned by Roland was the Design Bureau of Graycastle's main focus—the Four-engined strategic bomber. Upon finding out that there was the possibility of obtaining a mobile runway, Roland immediately sought for the relevant technical staff and inquired about the feasibility of changing out engines. The answer he received was, so long as minor adjustments were made to the existing weight, there would not be an influence on the yielding of pneumatics. But modifying the Phoenix's engine brought about a substantial drop in performance; for example, the takeoff required a longer runway before the Phoenix was able to lift off, the internal fuel capacity dropped by half, and its flight time dropped to a third of its original time… In all, the new planes were incapable of satisfying the demands previously raised for long distance raids.

The only advantage was that outcomes could be immediately seen.

The Phoenix's engine was an improved model of the star-shaped engine, a model Anna completely grasped over a year ago. It was relatively more mature and robust compared to the engines allocated to the large-scale bombers—even though the Bureau had supplied detailed blueprints, the prototype had to be first tested, and that definitely affected the progress of the entire project.

In reality, when the plan was initially formulated, the bomber had been prioritized in the 'one year plan,' and was already considered a brazen plan for Neverwinter. Even if nothing unexpected occurred during the research and development stage, its production would still have taken another half a year.

If not for Senior Lord Mask's actions that caused Roland to realize that the Deity of Gods had an internecine ability, a year would not have been considered long. But now, the situation was substantially different—in the event where the Deity of Gods overdrafted on the God's Stone mine to ascend into the sky, destroying the core would not be able to prevent the floating island from falling and causing catastrophic destruction.

With humanity's own Skycruiser in the form of a floating island, losing bombers was no longer a huge cause of concern anymore.

Crossing over a tangled mess of lines, Roland wore the coat whilst walking to the door. "We should take a look as well, this might be history's largest plane!"

"Clang—"

Just when he passed the mahogany table, his sleeve suddenly pulled a teapot on the table. By the time Roland was aware of this, the teapot was already falling to the ground irreversibly.

"Ah…" Nightingale moved slightly, her figure disappearing for an instant but she was still one step too late.

The teapot tumbled in midair, as though something invisible had struck it, before dropping and shattering into pieces on the ground with the boiled tea splashing all over.

"Your reaction seems to have slowed quite a bit," Roland quipped. "In the past, you've never slipped up on such things; have you been eating too much snacks that you've become heavier?"

"…" Nightingale surprisingly didn't retort, and instead turned to look at her own hands.

"Leave it to the maids to clean it up, we need to head to the Aerial Knight Academy, Tilly is waiting for us there."

…

At the Aerial Knight Academy runway, a black plane larger than the Seagull was being towed out of the hangar.

Aside from its massive size, the broad dual wings and the four engines installed below were the fighter plane's distinct features.

Although the thick and short outline of the star-shaped engines was not aesthetically matching with the slender plane, the spectators did not seem to mind the disharmony—just its unprecedented size was enough to capture their attention.

Compared to the Fire of Heaven's dexterous form, the pure black paint made the plane look like a gigantic creature lying prone on the ground.

Good was no exception.

His eyes never left the plane ever since it came out. If not for his personal experience of flying the Fire of Heaven, he would never have believed that such a heavy plane could actually fly. But even so, Good's heart was filled with shock and awe—from the fact that Neverwinter was able to produce such an exaggerated gizmo in a year of his absence, he simply felt that the Queen's abilities were just too exaggerated.

Finkin, on the other hand, could not give any other descriptions other than repeat how huge it was.

"I reckon that only the most outstanding of Aerial Knights will have the qualifications to operate this beast?" Hinds sighed with emotion. "In our class, I think only Good stands a chance."

"Not really." Unexpectedly, the one to reply to him was the usually cold Instructor Eagle Face. "According to what I know, the pilot of the bomber will not be selected from the current pilots. That doesn't mean that these people aren't outstanding, but Princess Tilly believes that ensuring sky dominance is the main goal for the Aerial Knights. As long as the bomber is protected and any approaching enemies are shot down, it doesn't matter if the huge plane is operated by a team of recruits."

"Instructor…" The three of them straightened their backs.

"Rest easy soldiers, I'm not here to reprimand you." Eagle Face glanced at them emotionlessly. "You are all the best of the best among the Aerial Knights, have more confidence in yourselves."

"Yes!" The three saluted.

"Everyone will be going up against the demon's main force soon. Work hard." Eagle Face turned and walked away with a wave of his hand.

Finkin heaved a sigh of relief. "Why do I feel that Instructor is feeling especially…"

"Gentle?" Hinds added.

"Yeah." Good shrugged. "But if the words we speak behind his back reaches him, he will not hesitate to send you guys to a week of toilet duty."

The two immediately switched topics.

Right at this moment, the black plane's propeller started spinning at high speeds, the loud humming noises drowning the discussions of the spectators.

Even after so long, hearing the familiar and pulsating cadence caused Good's heart to pump with ardor.

I really love flying…

With the unending striking sounds of the pistons, the bomber gradually moved forward and gained speed—the entire process took longer than the Fire of Heaven, but upon reaching the end of the runway, it still only lifted its nose by a bit.

Gravity no longer had its clutches on the plane.

It was as though the black beast had expanded its wings while facing the damp sea breeze to climb to the skies.

After its takeoff, the bomber adjusted its direction and flew northwest of Neverwinter. In that direction, the floating North Slope Mountain appeared especially strikingly.

Good knew that the essential factors to their initiative had been completed.

The time for the decisive battle was right in front of their eyes.

Chapter 1449 - Journey Together

After dealing with all official business, Roland returned to his room and saw Anna arranging her clothes, with a large leather suitcase at her side.

"Uh… What are you doing?"

"Can't you tell." She patted the folded clothes. "Preparing for a long journey."

"Then Neverwinter has to stop everything." Roland cracked a joke. "Is it really good that the Minister of Industry is able to leave without saying a word?"

"Don't you worry. Aside from the steam turbines, the few finished products to strengthen the piston engine, the factory is already in the production stage, and at the most, the number of qualified products will drop slightly. Also, the Society of Wondrous Crafts members you've brought back are all talented. Letting them take over for a while isn't a bad thing."

"Wait a minute…" Roland sensed something amiss. Anna had picked out all the plain and durable clothes, with not a single party dress or formal silk gown. There was not even a single skirt within them, and she did not appear to be joking. "Where are you going?"

"To the floating island, with you." She revealed a "do-you-still-need-to-ask" expression. "You're not planning to wait in Neverwinter for the outcome at the frontlines, right? I can tell that you've made that decision after conversing with the Three Chiefs of Taquila. Furthermore, traveling to the Bottomless Land from the ridge of the continent is far more convenient, so that gives you more of a reason not to come back here."

"That won't do—" Roland subconsciously denied her. "Firstly, ignoring the fact of how this final battle with the demons will turn out, no one knows what is in the Bottomless Land. And Hackzord mentioned that the land there has been overrun by Sky-sea Realm; the risks are too much, you don't even know—"

"Smack."

Anna extended both arms to gently slap his cheeks, then shake his head by force before caressing them. "I know. And because of that, I'm going."

Her voice was soft and gentle, but Roland knew from one look in her eyes that she was accepting no as an answer.

And in that instant, the image of her during their first encounter overlapped with her current appearance.

At that time, Anna still had a trace of her nascency. She had nothing but her ability. Even so, her resolve once she made up her mind had always been difficult to change.

Roland could only attempt one last time. "You're different from the past. As Queen, leaving Neverwinter to take on this unnecessary risk is not the mature thing—"

"If I am truly mature, I would not have agreed to let you go to the Bottomless Land without knowing anything about it at all." Anna pressed down on his shoulders, cutting him off. "As to what would eventually happen to you, be it you failing or disappearing, all of them are possible outcomes. In other words, this final attack might possibly be our last time seeing each other again. Do you think I'm willing to stay in the city? Since everyone is taking the same risk, it isn't much for me to join."

"…" Roland knew that his last attempt had failed. After all, in a flipped situation, he would never be willing to wait alone. "If we don't return…"

"Then it will be a situation so terrible that it can't get any worse right?" Anna released her hands and laughed. "But even so, I will not regret it."

…

Passing through the contorted black and white lines, Nightingale entered the empty office.

With it so late at night, most people had already fallen asleep, leaving only a few flickering flames in the courtyard dancing to the night breeze.

After drawing the curtains, she pulled open a drawer, taking the glowing magic stone and placing it into a light holder.

Very quickly, the room was lit with a mild light.

The broken teapot had been cleared long ago along with a replaced rug, as though the little incident had never occurred.

Nightingale walked past the telephone table and found her target—a wooden case covered up by the messy files at the table head.

In the Mist, she could distinguish objects without light. In this unique domain that felt like a completely different world, it was forever in its monochrome state. Black, white, and gray constructed the entire world even without any light source.

Except for this.

She opened the case; in it were filled with papers with scribbling written all over, and a few bright stones.

Nightingale took one stone piece and placed it in her palm, then attempted to enter the Mist. Just as the surging magic power took form, it immediately scattered, as though obstructed by something.

"As I've expected…" She sighed as she placed the stone back into the case, feeling somewhat depressed.

It was a report from the Magic Tower; if it wasn't not from Agatha or Celine, then it was from Isabella. But the possibility of it being written collectively by the three of them remained—the crisis of the Deity of Gods had just been resolved, but the Red Mist on the Hermes Plateau had not dissipated completely. The Taquila witches had to digest the findings and experiments done by the pure witches; thus, Isabella chose to temporarily live in Neverwinter. Together with the technology obtained from the demons, plenty of results were obtained, with a report due to be sent in the coming days.

Typically, Roland would complete reading the report on the same day, but this day was an exception. With the separation of North Slope Mountain and the test flight of the huge plane arranged on the same day, Roland never had the opportunity to open the case.

But Nightingale noticed the existence of the stone right from the beginning. After all, there were only two things that were not affected in the Mist, one being magic power, and the second being the pure dark cavity formed by God's Stones. According to Isabella's research, the two might even be connected.

Thus, Nightingale had long noticed the black blob of light when Roland had met with Banach Lothar, just that compared to a God's Stone, its range of influence was on a much smaller scale, obviously a result from Isabella's alterations. As it was a specimen related to the report, she did not pay much heed to it.

The small stone was the reason why Nightingale was unable to react when the teapot dropped—the black light shielded the falling teapot, and inside the Mist, her body had deemed the situation 'irreversible.'

If it were merely so, Nightingale would had attributed it as an accident. However, she had seen a line that outlined a table being ejected upon her contact, passing through the blob of black light to collide with the teapot, ultimately altering the falling trajectory of the teapot.

Distortions in the Mist could not be controlled. Even she had to be careful around unsettled lines; otherwise, she might be the one to be severed.

It was her first time witnessing such a thing.

But Nightingale was unsure if it was a coincidence, or if something had changed within her.

She attempted to manifest the ability again by touching the edge of the table in the Mist repeatedly, mimicking the situation a couple of times but to no avail.

Seems like I'm overthinking this. Nightingale awkwardly retracted her hand. Agatha's right, just because many of the Witches are able to do it, I shouldn't assume that evolving is a simple thing. Fortunately for me, I hadn't said anything, otherwise Roland would have made fun of me.

She put the glowing magic stone back into the drawer and departed the office by retracing her steps.

"Crack…"

The room that had regained its silence suddenly produced a soft sound.

At the table side that was hidden from sight, a crack blossomed along the wood grain.

Chapter 1450 - Taquila Street Battle

Days later.

South of the Fertile Plains, Tower Station No. 10.

Balshan lay prone outside the turret, looking at the silhouette of the ancient city a distance away. She had once read a report in the weekly newspaper about the Northern Expedition. She knew it was once the famous witch city in history, Taquila. In order to conquer it, demons went to great lengths, but were ultimately sent retreating by the First Army.

And now, they were here to defeat new enemies, so as to recapture Taquila.

One minute… Thirty seconds… Ten seconds…

As she counted silently in her head, she covered her ears.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The cannon's booming sounded behind her. The continuous reverberations transmitted to the vehicles through the ground as she felt her arms turn slightly numb. They were the 152mm Longsong Cannon of the Artillery Squad which were raining metal on the target. Compared to the short-barrel cannon on the tank, they were on two completely different levels.

"Team Leader, haven't you gotten used to the cannon booms?" The driver, Bay, turned his head and quipped. He sat cross-legged in the front area of the vehicle, and even in a battlefield strewn with corpses and the stench of rotting demonic beasts wafting through it, he continued consuming his meal. "That won't do. You need to learn how to let your ears filter out the unimportant noises. Only then can you constantly maintain your focus."

"To me, you just have a poor sense of hearing." Balshan cast her sight away emotionlessly. Although the driver and the cannoneer were veteran soldiers with rich experience, according to the rules, the Vehicle Commander was the leader of the team. Besides, in terms of age, it was even possible that she was older than the both of them. "The only thing I need to listen out for is any abnormal sounds from the Sigil of Screaming, not the sound of cannons or your nonsense, get it?"

"Team Leader… What you said is a little harsh." Bay smacked his lips. "I thought a witch would be sweet and adorable, just like Angel Nana…"

"Five years ago, witches were the devil's minions, the embodiment of evil."

"Uh— No one will like you if you act this way."

"What nonsense. I think Team Leader's pretty good," Cannoneer Shure interjected. "She's straightforward and capable. She has never had any military experience, but she's able to adapt to the battlefield in such a short amount of time. She's the best choice of being Vehicle Commander."

Both of them looked at Shure.

The latter was stunned. "Why? Did I say something wrong?"

"No." Balshan shrugged. "Although you missed nine out of ten shots during training, you don't seem completely inept."

The cannoneer revealed a look of pleasure.

"Enough, enough. Let's not talk about this any further." Bay hurriedly switched topics. "By the way, Team Leader, back at Tower Station No. 9, who was the person waiting outside the camp for you? He seemed to be wearing a First Army uniform as well. Is he your friend?"

"Why are you asking about this?"

Bay said, a little embarrassed, "I saw a medal hanging off his chest and wish to get to know him. Being awarded a medal isn't an easy task. He must be someone impressive."

"I do know him, but he's not that impressive. Without me, he would probably have been food for the demonic beasts." Balshan feigned indifference, but her tone slowed down significantly.

"Wow, your standards are way too high…"

Before he finished his sentence, she covered her ears again.

It was another deafening salvo.

Bay, who wasn't prepared at all, curled his lips from the rumbling boom.

And after these booms, three green flares flew into the sky—a signal for attacking.

"It doesn't seem like your focus is that focused either." Balshan patted the steel plate by the side of the turret. "Convoy 12, set off immediately!"

Bay didn't provide a rejoinder. Instead, he threw the canister in his hand away and rushed from the driver's seat to the back of the vehicle. Shure also went into the cramped turret and prepared for battle. Regardless of how it was typically, none of them showed any sense of carelessness at critical moments.

Balshan raised her telescope and saw that under the assault of the artillery, many demonic beasts were fleeing from the ruins and heading north. And turning to look back, the First Army had split into dozens of tiny teams and were advancing steadily behind the tracks of tanks.

Such a formation clearly wasn't used to deal with hybrids.

The deeper they were into the plains, the more blade beasts they would encounter. It went from one every two to three days to several in a day. Due to the difficulty in detecting them with the naked eye, they were harder to deal with compared to the typical demonic beast. Without a doubt, the strategy provided by the upper echelons of the military was effective. Sigil of Screaming and Sigil of Resonance would discover the targets beyond the range of short-barreled cannons and then annihilate them. However, the enemy appeared to be nothing as simple as pure wild beasts.

They knew how to conceal themselves and launch a surprise assault on the troops. Cannon fire was able to frighten away the demonic beasts, but it was unable to frighten away the blade beasts. As such, recapturing the railway's strongholds took quite a lot of work for everyone. After paying a certain price, the First Army rapidly established a battle strategy with armor troops at its core. Originally, the flintlock troops would treat tanks as scouts, but now, they learned how to rely on them to clear out the enemy.

And the Taquila Ruins in front of them was, to date, the most complicated battlefield that wasn't in the wild.

Half an hour later, as one of the vanguards, Convoy 12 drove into Taquila. To Balshan's side were Convoys 9 and 17. According to the plan, they were responsible for clearing the main street that led to the western square and reacquire the two fortresses that were established there.

After studying her surroundings, Balshan could not help but feel her scalp tingle. Many stone buildings made the situation in the city extremely complex. Even the Sigil of Screaming's detection range was greatly reduced. She now had to rely on listening to various magic power sources, but was ultimately unable to determine the target's exact location.

"How did you guys take down this place previously?"

"Simple. As long as you get rid of the Red Mist towers and those skeletons, the demons would naturally retreat," Shure replied. "Have you found the enemy?"

"Not yet. But I am certain that there are many monsters hiding in this city." After saying that, Balshan gestured to the soldiers behind her, requesting that they stayed closer to the tank. This also resulted in them opening a gap with the other two convoys.

Shortly after, a gray cement fortress appeared at the end of the street. Although the First Army was forced to abandon it, the solid construction was not damaged by the enemy.

At this moment, the sound of the Sigil of Screaming intensified clearly.

Balshan frowned. That wasn't the sound a blade beast should have.

She looked towards the Vehicle Commander of Convoy 9, Amy. The latter shook her head, indicating that she was confounded as well.

And when they drove past the fortress, the sigil's hums were so loud that even Bay could hear it.

For precautionary reasons, she made the two vehicle convoys stop temporarily. She planned on heading to the square alone and bring along the Sigil of Resonance which had been activated. Even if the target wasn't a blade beast, she wanted to see where the source of magic power pointed.

Soon, a glow appeared out of thin air, pointing to the middle of the nearby square—but there was nothing there.

Could it be that she had encountered a new type of invisible enemy?

That's not right. Balshan quickly discovered that the bricks on the surface of the square seemed to have been pried away. There were signs of black corrosion in the vicinity.

That thing was hiding underground!

The moment she had that thought, the soil underneath the bricks suddenly rose. A monster formed of ribs and flesh and blood crawled out from underground, spewing out a pile of "transparent bodies!" If not for the sticky mucus that remained on those things, Balshan wouldn't have been able to detect them.

Almost at the same time, the Sigil of Screaming released a loud warning. She suddenly came to the realization that all those things were blade beasts!

Chapter 1451 - The Secret to Having Good Aim

"Get back now!" Balshan crouched down and roared, "Shure, fire straight ahead!"

"Understood, taking aim—"

"Stop aiming, just fire!" She pulled open the gun bolt and turned towards the monster, momentarily forgetting to tune the Sigil of Resonance.

As the vehicle reversed, the 75mm short barrel eventually spewed flames.

The 300 meters distance between the vehicle and monster was covered in the blink of an eye. The instant Shure opened fire, a pillar of smoke appeared on the bloodied monster.

It looked like a miss, but the trio caught sight of the falling limbs amidst the twirling smoke. Despite the small caliber of the cannon, it was still a cannon and not something a machine gun could compare to. From the dust cloud formed, Balshan roughly estimated more than 10 outlines of blade beasts.

"This monster… is carrying a bunch of blade beasts?" At this time, Bay finally reacted.

"That's right, I'm afraid that this is the Sky-sea Realm's Nest Mother mentioned in the manual," Balshan replied, but there were too many differences as compared to the illustration, as though the one in front of them was a mutated species.

Retreating back to the corner of the street, the other two convoys had noticed the commotion. Before Balshan could speak up, Amy started screaming. "The other tank team is less than two streets west of us, it'll only take five minutes to meet up with them!"

"No, don't go, it's too late!" Balshan screamed at the top of her lungs. "Let the soldiers enter the fortress!"

"You want us to meet the enemy head on here? There's more than one of them!" The vehicle commander of Convoy 17, Hero, revealed an expression of shock.

"It's precisely because there are more than one of them, so we can't retreat!" Despite the severity of the situation, Balshan's mind was extremely clear. Just the three tanks were definitely insufficient and incapable of stopping more than 10 blade beasts. If they were allowed to charge into the soldiers, the loss would be irrevocable. But they were different, as Isabella had mentioned, the armored weapons they were in were basically capable of offense and defense by design. Even if they were surrounded by the enemy, it did not determine the outcome of the battle.

"Hero, please seal that passageway. Only by doing so can we let loose and fight!"

The latter turned and looked at the corroded and deformed steel doors of the fortress and immediately understood her intent.

"I understand."

"Amy, follow behind me!"

"Er… Fine, alright." Although Balshan was not the commanding officer of the team, Amy nodded her head subconsciously.

"Team Leader, you're really… too cool!" Shure added respectfully.

"You can bootlick me after everyone returns safely." Balshan grinned.

She knew that doing so wasn't that great an idea, but was unable to control herself. She didn't hate Dusk, but there was nothing interesting at all during the period in which she accompanied her at the developing areas. She could not lie to herself, while being chased after by the Church, she had assumed that a quiet life was her goal, but from the looks of it, she was more suited for the smoke and flames on the battlefield.

Maybe this is the reason why I awakened as a Combat Witch?

After the soldiers were safe in the fortress, Convoy 17 revved the engine and reversed towards the doors at full speed—

With a loud bang, the tank inserted itself straight into the wall, forming a blockhouse fixed in place.

By doing so, the invisible assassins of the Sky-sea Realm were no longer able to pass through the steel barrier and attack the relatively weaker soldiers.

At this moment, blade beasts appeared several hundred meters away on the road. Despite being unable to actually see them, Balshan was able to mark out their locations with the magic power lines produced by the Sigil of Resonance.

"Straight ahead at full speed, don't stop!"

She roared and dived straight into the turret, sealing the entrance to it.

The war machine not only had its cannons and machine guns to kill its enemies, but its massive bulk itself proved to be extremely fatal as long as it maintained a certain speed!

While stepping on the gas pedal, Balshan looked into the side mirror, and suddenly noticed a magic power line that extended into the air!

Wait, those monsters can fly?

That's not right. She quickly reacted—the enemy had pounced high into the sky over a large distance! She held onto the armrest tightly as her entire body stretched perfectly straight. Whether or not I live or die depends on the workmanship of the Neverwinter artisans.

"Bang!"

The enemy smashed heavily onto the top of the vehicle with an impact so massive it formed a small depression on the metal plate, along with a reverberating sound that caused the trio's eardrums to go numb. Even so, the vehicle merely shook, and did not show even the slightest amount of stop or reduction in speed.

Balshan immediately felt emboldened.

"I'll take charge of aiming." She turned the turret while commanding, "You only need to pull the trigger."

"Then what about me?" Bay asked.

"The goal is that monster, so long as you do not crash into the wall, you're free to drive however you like!"

Balshan ignored the pouncing enemies knowing that her comrades would deal with them. If the bloody monster was truly a Nest Mother, it was their first priority to eliminate it; otherwise, the number of blade beasts on the ground would only increase.

Amid the rumbling of the Magic Cube Power Unit, the tank braved through the crowd of blade beasts. The coaxial machine gun spewed bullets fervently, causing substantial damage on the blade beasts that did not wield barrier abilities like senior demons. When the damage done was fatal on critical spots, it was enough to cause the target to fall during its pounce. Although they were not dead, the steel caterpillar tracks completed the job.

The blade beasts were only capable of impaling through the tank's steel plates when their front blades blossomed with blue light, but this move exposed themselves to the scope of the machine guns. Under the circumstances that they were unable to harm one another, Amy had evidently used Balshan as a target, with the majority of Convoy 9's bullets focused on the sides of the Balshan's vehicle.

Very quickly, the two tanks tore a path through the enemy, with piles of badly mutilated corpses left all around the tracks. When their vitality ceased, the confusing invisibility stopped functioning, revealing all the weak points located at the bottom part of the blade beasts.

Balshan's tank was equally as worn out, with the machine gun gone and a few large holes on the large vehicle that allowed black blood to leak inside. The closest the enemy had reached was a stab that was merely a few inches from her, to the point that she was able to feel the burning magic power from the tip of the blade.

But the greatest difference between machine and biological lifeforms was that even with all the bruises, the tank's performance never dropped. It maintained its full speed across the plaza, while the enemy's pulverized internal organs served as a lubricant for the wheels.

The Nest Mother might had sensed the situation turn against it as it started to turn and flee. However, the huge body moved in a manner that could be fully described as clumsy.

—They were not in the Swirling Sea after all.

"What is the most crucial factor to having a good aim?" Balshan asked.

"Being close enough," Shure replied seriously.

"Then you better don't miss!" Bay shouted loudly as he controlled the tank towards its target as it suddenly thrust into the enemy's ribs.

The monster unleashed an ear-piercing roar.

From the position of the cannoneer, their entire vision was the target.

Shure pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The 75mm Howitzer unleashed its high explosive shell that penetrated into the monster's body, almost running through the entire body and exploded at the head!

Chapter 1452 - The Deviating Sky-sea Realm

A minute later, another tank squadron rushed over to the intersection of Convoy 12's and Convoy 9's battlefield.

"Amy, Balshan, are you guys alright?" The leader, Iffy, shouted from afar.

Balshan waved her hand to indicate that she was fine, while Amy shouted back excitedly. "Why are you here? We just got rid of a large fella!"

"Wasn't it because of the loud cannon booms." Iffy finally relaxed after seeing that the two were unharmed. She jumped down the tank and quickly walked over to the monster's body that had experienced having a high explosive shell tear through its body, and asked in shock. "What is this?"

"It should be a Nest Mother, but honestly, I'm not too sure," Balshan muttered.

It could be said that the discharge had been delivered cleanly, not only were the internal organs completely destroyed, even the head had been blasted off. Of course, whether or not the monster had a head was a different question altogether—since according to logic, living creatures would not flee while running backwards.

The magic power within the monster dissipated subsequently, causing it to turn into its meat pulp state the instant the body collapsed. The only thing left standing were the two rows of completely damaged ribs.

"Are you sure this is a Nest Mother?" Iffy fished out her manual and compared them with a frown. "The bone structure seems similar, but it seems smaller, and there aren't many tentacles… Right, have you seen the eyes inside its body?"

The enormous compound eye was the Nest Mother's most prominent feature. According to the manual, it was more or less the same size as the Nest Mother's internal organs and situated right in the center. It was impossible to miss.

Balshan shook her head. "I guessed that she was the Nest Mother, only because it was able to carry many blade beasts. As for everything else, I'm as confused as you are. But…" She paused for a moment. "Ignoring the Nest Mother, all the monsters here differ slightly from all the ones stated in the manual. If you don't believe me, look at that dead blade beasts—"

Iffy then realized that the peculiarities on the blade beast corpses around the Nest Mother. "Are those… wings?"

"That's right," Balshan answered. "It looks as light and thin as a cicada's wings, but much larger in size. Using these wings, they were able to pounce across large distances, that is something unprecedented."

"I sort of understand why the higher ups wants us to retrieve intact Sky-sea Realm specimens." Iffy sighed after staring at the corpses for a long time. "Their rate of evolution and variation is too astonishing."

"That is a question the higher ups have to consider." Balshan climbed up her tank and gestured to Iffy. "As for us—we just have to destroy them."

…

The report of the First Army reclaiming the Taquila Ruins quickly arrived at Roland's office.

In this "city battle", the demonic beasts were no longer the main enemies. This was the first large-scale appearance of the Sky-sea Realm and the majority of the threat were from the blade beasts.

But compared to the previous time when a single or two blade beasts were enough to thwart the troops' defense line, the outcome could be said to be completely different.

The newly commissioned armor unit displayed its decisive effectiveness in battle, not only by locking down the enemy's position but also winning most of the battles. The First Army paid an extremely small price to eliminate most of the Sky-sea Realm's presence, and gained a stable foothold on the Fertile Plains. Amongst the achievements, Convoys 12 and 9 had eliminated a Nest Mother as well as over ten blade beasts together while coming out unscathed, which completely overhauled how the army perceived battles. Aside from asserting details of the battle, the remaining report were related to applying for an increase in production of the tanks. Even with insufficient witches, the army was willing to allow ordinary officers to take command of the vehicles.

Obviously, they had tasted the benefits of having the heavy armor with all-encompassing offense and defense capabilities.

Roland was not surprised by the outcome—the title of being the king of ground battles was established from the two World Wars, declaring the importance and weight of tanks in battles. If not for that, he would not had transferred a team to specially learn how to pilot the vehicles during the early phase of producing the tractors.

Compared to this matured weapon, Roland was more concerned over the monster corpses being delivered back by trains.

At noon time, Agatha's phone call came. It was regarding the preliminary verdict on the dissection and analysis of the corpses.

…

Upon entering the Magic Tower's lower levels, a cold breeze welcomed Roland.

A pile of large ice cubes were arranged in an orderly manner inside the large basement. People unaware would assume that the place was an ice storage, but Roland knew that the ice cubes were frozen Sky-sea Realm corpses transported back from the front lines for the Witch Union to research.

The dissecting area was located in the center of the room, where Agatha removed her gloves and performed the union's hand salute to him.

"You seem happy," Roland tightened his collar and commented.

"Because I'm back to my old job again." Agatha smiled. "To be honest, the ice-cold laboratory still suits me best. Representing Taquila's expeditions, all those political meets and conferences aren't my strengths."

With regards to the best representative of the ancient witches, Pasha was obviously the most suitable, but moving the carrier's large body was mostly inconvenient, thus Agatha was rationally chosen as the second best candidate.

Seeing Roland's desire to express himself but at a loss for words, the Ice Witch took the initiative and waved her hand. "Relax, your Majesty, the Battle of Divine Will takes precedence, I understand that."

He nodded and focused on the pressing issues at hand. "What did you discover?"

"Your Majesty, please take a look here." Agatha condensed an ice blade at her fingertips, and pricked into a large organ. "This was retrieved from the new Nest Mother, I found distinct signs of age in its interior. Likewise, I haven't seen such a thing on any of the blade beasts."

"Signs of age?" Roland frowned. He noticed that there was a clear dark blotch of creases at where the ice blade was.

"That's right. Magic Power is capable of strengthening the magic user's body, something proven on witches and demons, so naturally the Sky-sea Realm will not be an exception. And the most obvious indicator of the physical enhancement is an increased life expectancy," Agatha explained in detail. "I have consulted the reports supplied by the demons, and there are no clear mentions of how long Nest Mothers can survive. On the contrary, it does state that blade beasts and the limbed beasts do not have long life expectancy. Even though they die fast, the Nest Mothers are able to breed new beasts quickly."

"You mean to say… that the situation here is reversed?" Nightingale spoke up. "Could it be that this Nest Mother is old?"

"If it was a single case, it would be hard to tell. But we received four corpses from the frontlines, and I found similarities in all cases. This cannot be a coincidence," Agatha replied. "And you've come across a Nest Mother yourself and know how big they are. In terms of size, all of these monsters that are less than 10 meters long do not look as though they've hit their prime."

"That's true."

"And regardless of the wings they use to pounce or the increasingly larger scythes, everything is going against their past characteristics." She turned and looked at Roland. "Your Majesty, I do not think that these things are the same as their old counterparts, those that reside freely in the water."

"So your conclusion is?" Roland's expression became solemn.

"I'm afraid that the Nest Mothers are moving their own magic power onto their servants to create even stronger sources of troops." Agatha enunciated each and every word. "It is just that their evolution is deviating away from the ocean, to the extent that I can say that they are sacrificing the future of their species."

Roland sighed. "But that means we are in trouble."

Chapter 1453 - Shadow of Blackstone Region

To the north of the Fertile Plains.

Since leaving Neverwinter, Lightning and Maggie had continued their flight for close to ten straight days.

They patrolled across the plains cruising over hundreds of kilometers at an "economic speed," where their magic power recovered through the night able to sustain a day's use. The two only dropped to the ground when they needed to camp or hunt.

The current Exploration Group had entered a new phase; although they held the latest maps provided by the Union, the centuries of vicissitudes that constituted desolate paths, dried canals, abandoned cities that were overwhelmed with weed and shrub, made them useless to locate road signs. The only things that guided them directionally were the stars in the sky and the large ridge of the continent in the distance.

And at such a distance, the Sigil of Listening no longer broadcast messages, leaving the bird and the girl alone in the vast lands. The sense of desolation and solitude was a large barrier to adventuring, and without the company of her trusted companion Maggie, Lightning did not know if she could persist for long.

The purpose of the journey was clear—to confirm the location and route of the demons' new Deity of Gods, as well as "illuminate" the plains beyond Taquila.

Even so, looking for a floating island in the vast lands was not an easy mission. To lessen the exhaustion of the vein, the enemy's city would not be flying at a high height, and might possibly be clinging close to the ground. This way, the Deity of Gods would resemble any small mountain from a distance, and they had to get up close to verify the target through Red Mist, provided that the weather permitted it.

So as to avoid brushing past the Deity of Gods, Lightning chose to fly in broken paths with the edge being the ridge of the continent.

"Grrr…"

Suddenly, the stomach of the gray eagle flying above grumbled.

"You're hungry again?" Lightning looked up.

"Owh." Maggie nodded.

"But you didn't even move much, how are you hungrier than me so much earlier?"

"Because I've been staring at the ground, aooo!" She leaned over and rubbed Lightning on the cheeks. "The eyes and brains are connected, and according to the book, using the brain is most exhausting, owh!"

Wait a minute, that's not what was written in Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science… The paragraph clearly stated that even while stationary, the brain's energy consumption remains the highest out of all the organs in the body, that doesn't mean that a moving person isn't using their brains.

But the itch on her cheeks prevented Lightning from flying properly, leaving her no choice but to slow down and head towards the ground. From the color of the sky, they were only able to fly for another half hour at most, so stopping earlier to rest was not an issue. Additionally, they had few jerkies left on hand, thus making use of the additional time to restock was not a bad idea.

Of course, the most important thing was her being unable to refuse the adorable Maggie.

"Same rules; you hunt and I'll make the fire. Use the Sigil of Listening for contact in the case of any emergencies, understand?"

"Got it, owh!"

Before her voice trailed off, Maggie was already up in the air in the form of a Devilbeast.

Without a choice, Lightning looked for shelter and prepared dinner. With Roland's technological advancements, flints, fire wool and torches, tools that were needed for adventuring were replaced by compact and intricate products. For example, the windproof matches that was the size of half a palm, the single-use torchlights, as well as the multi-functional knife that every member of the Exploration Group adored…

All of these items could be stored in a pocket, and because of that, the majority of space in her bag were replaced with all sorts of spices and condiments. If they had time, they were even able to produce a full table of dishes. There were times that even Lightning remained unclear whether or not she was better at adventuring or had a talent towards being a gourmet.

It was most probably related to Maggie becoming hungry so often.

What followed proceeded in a systematic structure—Maggie quickly brought a bison back and used her sharp talons to slice it into pieces. Lightning chose the best parts, and either smoked or baked them in mud. The two had repeated the process countless times and their coordination had become smooth and natural. By the time the fire had died out, they were not only full but had restock their haversack of jerkies. It was as though everything had been reset to the moment before they set off. The only difference was their progress, and maybe their objective for the trip.

Any little bit of a guilty conscience was quickly replaced with food coma.

After laying out the Sigil of Screaming, Lightning burrowed into the sleeping bag with Maggie and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, when she opened her eyes in reverie, she surprisingly discovered an additional shadow that loomed in the distance.

Lightning rubbed her eyes in confusion—the land was a flat plain the day before and they had verified the surrounding topography, it was impossible for them to have missed out the small hill.

After spending a few good minutes in her drowsy reverie, she held her breath and took a good look again. This time, she was taken aback. Through the thin morning mist, the hilltop was unexpectedly flat, completely unlike any natural landform. The shocking thing was that it actually became larger in a few short minutes, which meant that the shadow was approaching them.

Lightning knew what the moving "Hill" on the Fertile Plains was.

She shook Maggie up in disbelief. "Peck me once."

"Coo." The latter raised her forefingers and poked Lightning on the forehead—

The pain immediately cleared up her mind.

It was no hallucination.

Right at this moment, a gust of wind swept past the two and sent Maggie's long, white hair fluttering.

Along with the wind came a thin mist.

In that instant, the shadow revealed its true form—on the triangular black mountain form stood a gigantic pyramid structure formed completely of Blackstone; its sheer size and bulk difficult to fathom. If the old Deity of Gods' center was the demon city, then this pyramid itself was able to hold the entire city on it.

This "form" was most probably the reason for the lack of Red Mist.

One large and one smaller inverted awls made the floating island look extremely oppressive. Compared to the first Deity of Gods that had the resemblance of a mountain range, the new Deity of Gods looked completely unnatural. Be it the structured exterior or the symmetrical form, the entire structure manifested the power of the demons.

Who would have thought that the second Deity of Gods they were looking for had appeared right before them.

Without even packing their sleeping gear, Lightning pulled Maggie and soared into the sky.

After the continuous ascension, the sight behind the demon city gradually revealed itself.

Numerous densely-packed black dots rushed forth on the plains like a turbulent wave, amongst which were countless alternating red lines, forming a cloth that devoured everything in its path with the black dots. Lightning gulped. If the black dots were all demons, their numbers were more than the human population of the Four Kingdoms combined!

It was without a doubt the enemy's main force in motion!

Chapter 1454 - Take Off

The investigation group immediately sent news back to Neverwinter.

"It's really like the entire nest is out…" After listening to Lightning's report, Roland sighed. This would undoubtedly be the first direct collision between both races and might even be the last. Regardless of the outcome, it determined the future for both humanity and demons.

"Can we… win?" Lightning asked with hesitation.

She was dirty from head to toe; her hair ends tangled and unruly, with the smell of sour sweat lingering on. Obviously after finding out about the demons, she had rushed back without any rest at all.

"Of course." Roland acted relaxed and patted her shoulders. "Not only will we win, but we will enjoy a clean and decisive victory."

It was evident that the demons held the undisputed advantage in terms of numbers, but this also showed just how much pressure the Sky-sea Realm had placed on them. The First Army's technology had its own advantages, but since they could not afford to fight in a battle of attrition, it would be a Pyrrhic victory if the demons entered the Four Kingdoms.

By the same logic, even if the demons won, it was inevitable that they would suffer a tremendous loss. Roland believed that the best outcome was an internecine one if the demons were not stopped to the west of the Impassable Mountain Range.

Lightning heaved a slight sigh of relief, then suddenly became embarrassed. "Er, do I smell… weird?"

Roland chucked. "A bit… but it is the smell of adventure, so it's nothing bad." He deliberately pinched his nose. "To be honest, I think it isn't bad."

The girl's face flushed red, immediately grabbing Maggie, who was sniffing down her collar, before rushing out of the office with her head lowered. "I-I'm going to take a bath!"

"Coo?" Maggie remained confused.

"Lightning, Maggie." Just as the two were leaving, Roland called out to them. "It was tough on both of you; have a good rest."

"Yes…"

Once the door closed, he immediately grabbed the phone and called the Administrative Office. "Notify the cabinet for a meeting, the time to set off is here."

…

Inside the meeting room, the higher-ups of Neverwinter sat in a circle.

Roland pasted Lightning's hand-drawn map behind him and repeated the exploration group's findings.

"There are two verifiable points from this information, one being the existence of the new Deity of Gods located less than 300 kilometers away from the ridge of the continent and continuously moving north. The second point is that it is bringing along a large number of demons to the extent that the new floating island is incapable of accommodating all of them; therefore, they are resorting to such an inefficient method of movement.

"I think it isn't difficult to comprehend the former—to infiltrate Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart, the demon army not only built an obelisk in the middle of the ridge of the continent, but they have even established a supply line through the Land of Dawn. By flying along the mountain range, not only does it prevent a deviation in course, but they are also able to ease the burden of Red Mist by using the supply line. It is considered a rather reliable route.

"The latter isn't clear in the sense of the specific quantity, but since their full strength is out, I expect that the demons capable of battle numbers is around ten million without any exaggeration. According to their current progress, we can expect them to arrive at the edge of the Four Kingdoms in half a month."

Upon the mention of numbers, Roland noticed the fear shown on many of their faces. But it could not be blamed; after going through two Battle of Divine Wills, humanity had suffered terribly and the survivors did not even reach ten million, not to mention their weakened army. To Barov and the others, the scale of ten million was no different from an astronomical figure.

"This enemy attack is one whereby they have cut off their means of retreat, and also a battle that will determine the fate of humanity. The Eleanor Skycruiser must move out immediately to rush to as close as possible to the Impassable Mountain Range and stop the enemy's advancement northwards."

"But… Your Majesty," Barov said with much difficulty. "The enemy has an astonishing population, while the force the floating island can bring is limited. Is taking the initiative to meet the attack too risky?"

"Holding the ground at Graycastle is what's most risky!" Edith stood up and gave the old director a glance. "Everybody, do not be intimidated by ten million demons. If they are unable to reach Graycastle, their numbers mean nothing. You will understand just by thinking about it—the Blackstone region had that many demons since the first Battle of Divine Will. The reason for their inability to travel all the way here in the past was because of the Red Mist supply line. So our true target is only one thing—the enemy's floating city."

Once her reasoning was out, the atmosphere in the room changed ever so lightly, since no one was willing to admit their fear of the enemy.

"That's right," Roland suppressed a laugh and added. "Once they lose their supply of Red Mist, the demons in the Fertile Plains will have difficulty inching forward. Additionally, us setting out now isn't an indication that we are going into battle, we will be using this time en route to allow the army to have sufficient time to prepare."

There was an additional point that he did not say—Sky Lord and Silent Disaster who returned to Sky City to bring together the troops.

Since the demon's movement used the supply line at the Western Front, it was impossible for Hackzord to be unable to know of the new location of King's City. To the King of the demon race, Hackzord was a complete traitor, so him amassing more strength was the best way for self preservation. The fall of the King's City would undoubtedly be his best opportunity, and Hackzord would not remain indifferent at that time.

Upon thinking about this, Roland turned to Tilly. "Right, how's the take off and landing training going for the Aerial Knights?"

"Far easier than I had imagined," Tilly replied. "There isn't much difference from landing and taking off on the ground. As long as the weather permits, the students are able to accomplish their tasks with ease. The only trouble is that we previously only had to use the Impassable Mountain Range or the shoreline for the pilots to roughly determine their location and from there, find the landing site. But from here on out, the enemy and us will be constantly on the move. Adding the lack of direction that the Fertile Plains provides, I'm afraid that there will be difficulty locating our point of departure. Of course, it isn't an unsolvable problem, you only need to supply us with more fuel."

This was also a difficult problem for aircraft carriers in combat—In a battlefield that spanned over a few hundred kilometers, any tiny divergence would accumulate to form a large error. The fortunate thing was that compared to the unvarying ocean, there were bound to be some "reference objects" on dry land that could be used to determine their location—for example, forests, rivers, mountain peaks etc. Roland was able to guess at her plans—if the pilots were unskilled with the maneuvering, they had to train more and fly more. Naturally, they would learn to be more aware of their own locations.

"Relax, they will be able to fly for as long as you want them to," he promised.

In the upcoming battle, the Aerial Knights were without question the main fighting force. It was also because of this aerial force that mankind had the opportunity to attack and stop the demons a thousand miles from home.

Seeing that no one else had any objections, Roland surveyed the hall once more and gave the order. "With that, I shall announce the commencement of Phase Three of the Heaven Plan. We shall set off on the floating island, and the target is the northern regions of the Fertile Plains!"

Chapter 1455 - Pioneer

Two days later, the Eleanor Skycruiser completed its final resupply at a cliff pier, rose to the sky, and flew towards the Land of Dawn hinterland.

A hundred thousand citizens from Neverwinter were present to sent it off—the crowds flooded the streets, climbed the roofs, and even ascended the Impassable Mountain Ranges, just to witness this historic moment. The entire western side of the city was filled with people, once again setting a new record for the number of people attending an activity.

And that was just a portion of Neverwinter's population.

There were even more people working at the factories, port, and farmlands, every one of them participating in a way for the expedition.

It was coincidentally the same day when the Border Area and Longsong District's total population broke through the million mark, with more than fifty percent of the source coming from the Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter. Although they were unlike the initial migrants that harbored negative emotions towards Neverwinter, everyone was able to sense the shock from the surge of people, as well as the common consensus that the day was extraordinarily meaningful.

Following the loud booms from the ceremonial cannons, the Eleanor Skycruiser traveled parallel to the mountains and moved towards Longsong Stronghold before turning west. It moved steadily into the distance, and finally disappeared from everyone's sight.

But the elevated atmosphere among the citizens did not stop there.

Graycastle Weekly's tracking reports caused the sales volume to reach an all time high, and everywhere on the streets, the topics discussed lingered around the topic of this attack. Gradually, the day of the departure became widely known as Miracle Day, representing humanity's new beginning of conquering the skies. This was the second event to be hailed as a miracle after the Miracle Building.

However, it was much quieter on the floating island.

After the initial enthusiasm passed, the engineering team dedicated themselves to the tense but orderly work.

It was the same with the Aerial Knights as well, aside from the routine flights conducted by the detection squad, all the students took flight at least once a day to familiarize themselves with the surrounding terrain. The large floating island, the busy runway, and the thick smoke from the furnace area formed a rather distinct and unique scene.

"How does it feel? Are you able to adapt to your new body?"

In the core region of the floating island, Roland stood at the bottom of the mine and looked at Eleanor, who was firmly tied to the God's Stone pillar.

In the past month, not only did the pillar become bigger, the Mother of Soul had even grown more tentacles and dug them into the soil beneath like the roots of a plant. According to her logic, the tentacles were additional perceptive organs for her, providing her better control over the island. In a sense, the island was the body and the tentacles were the nerves.

"Much better compared to before." Eleanor's voice was much lighter and casual as well. "I can see; I can hear; I can think. How can I be dissatisfied with that? Compared to Elena and the others, I am considered extremely fortunate already.'

"Lady Chief, don't say that," Pasha lowered her main tentacle and replied. "Everyone knows that if not for your choice to merge, we would never have survived. Furthermore, you didn't know that this day would come. This act of bravery is already enough to—"

"I'm talking about the outcome and not the process," Eleanor interrupted her. "I believe that I wasn't the only one who was willing to sacrifice for the Union. My other sisters would as well. I merely was first."

Seems like she's doing well, Roland thought to himself. He had his worries previously. As a Witch, she had fought against the demons for decades, and he was afraid that she would ultimately turn into a demon herself. But by the looks of it, Eleanor was extremely mature and did not worry about the form of her body at all.

"I know what you're thinking." Eleanor suddenly turned her attention back to him. "You were afraid that I couldn't get over it and become depressed and reclusive? If I were the only person left in the world, that might have happened. But with basically everyone here and the state of the war far better than how it was four centuries ago, and with so much new knowledge that requires studying, where do I have the time or effort to act like that?"

"Er… Studying?"

"For the Union to become the rulers of humanity, it does not rely only on abilities. Back then, we were equipped with the most advanced technology and ideas. Similarly for us, calling it three representatives isn't an exaggeration either. Although the Union's glory no longer exists, I still have to rely on studying and learning to keep up with the current generation's progress."

Roland was speechless. The familiar terms used by her were clearly picked up from the God's Punishment Witches. God knew what they were teaching her. "And what have you learned up to now?"

"College level," Eleanor replied. "Almost at the graduation phase."

"Previously, we had Celine, Ling, and the others to guide and teach Lady Eleanor, but now, Lady Eleanor is the one teaching them," Pasha added with a laugh.

Wait, she just woke up less than two months ago and she's already finished with a college curriculum? Roland clicked his tongue. Before, he did not attach importance when Eleanor forced Mask away, and it was only then did he realize that he had underestimated the learning ability of dozens of brains.

"By the way, I made a miniature core apparatus that might help us in the following battles."

With Eleanor's consent, Pasha pulled out a frame the size of a palm and placed it on the "palm." It floated silently and produced a dazzling blue luster at its center, just like gigantic magic power cores.

"What is it capable of?" Roland asked.

"It is able to imitate, to a certain extent, telekinetic powers, and is able to influence foreign objects… For example the rotation of handles and the pressing of triggers, etc. If it is combined with a specific machinery, I can control the machinery using magic power," Eleanor explained. "Although Mask had taken away all mobility features of this body, he did not seal the use of the magic power completely. It means that when enemies come, I am able to operate weapons and engage in battle myself. The theory involved is somewhat similar to the automatic weapons in the Dream World."

Roland gaped in shock.

And that wasn't all as she continued, "In a sense, firing a gun can be considered computational, something that I am proficient in. Compared to an ordinary soldier, I am able to increase the effective hit rate of firearms to ninety percent within their effective maximum range. The shortfall is that I am unable to move nimbly and need to match the firearm with a gun turret, and also have to position my tentacles and the miniature core beforehand. But at the very least, the weapon turrets will become highly effective while defending the island."

"How many can you control at once?"

"That depends on how many tentacles I have." She paused for a while. "I'm guessing a few hundred?"

Upon thinking of the scene whereby a few hundred machine gun turrets, or even cannons, were controlled by Eleanor to fire at the enemy, Roland almost smacked his lips. But this was not the reason for his lament. What he cared about was Eleanor's combination of magic power and machinery. The knowledge of both aspects came from Mask Nassaupelle as well as the Dream World. Not only did she absorb the knowledge, she had also taken the initiative to combine them! If given additional time, how much change would she bring to the world?

"If this mission hadn't required the use of the floating island, I would never have thought of sending you personally into battle." Roland revealed his thoughts. "What humans are lacking the most at present is guidance in this direction."

"Oh? You're not afraid that my understanding of these things will exceed yours?" It sounded as though Eleanor was giggling.

"Lady Eleanor…" Pasha wanted to stop Eleanor, but she did not know how to phrase her sentence.

"Why should I be afraid?" Roland returned with a question. "It is extremely normal for successors to surpass their predecessors. This signifies continuous progress in a civilization. If humanity's knowledge is limited by me, that is when I will consider our future bleak."

"…" The other party remained silent for a moment before speaking up again. "You are truly not qualified to be a King. But…"

"You are definitely worthy of being hailed as a trustworthy leader."

Chapter 1456 - A Future with You

After spreading her blanket, Nightingale turned around and blew out the candle flame.

The room immediately darkened.

She found it amusing that after being accustomed to lights and magic stones, she was slightly uncomfortable returning to using candles, despite it being a normal occurrence in the past.

But there was not a choice in this matter, the lack of time prevented the island from having a complete electrical lighting system installed, to the extent that even their resting places were drilled out of a wall by Aphra and the rest. Soraya then added a soft layer and isolated the moisture of the underground chambers and made the place into a bedroom. The furniture within were the most ordinary, with simple wooden tables and cabinets. As for the mattresses, they were laid directly on the floor.

Although Isabella was on the floating island, all the magic stone illuminations were used for the factories rushing to produce goods. It would take her some time to transform God's Stone for the residential areas.

Despite the simplicity of the room, it was not unbearable. Aside from the privacy of having a room per person, there were even standalone toilets. There were even ventilation shafts that provided airflow directly from outside the floating island into the chambers, preventing the rooms from being too stuffy or humid. There was a shared reading area and a warm public bath at the end of the caves as well, enough to satisfy the witches' daily use.

She wasn't that interested in the former, but Nightingale found the latter wonderful.

God knows how Pasha and the others had found the location—the stream that came down from the mountaintop into a cave mountain formed a natural clear spring, and after having the pool extend out the cave's cliff walls, leaning against it provided a perfect view of the scenery outside. After the flight of the island, this location became the best place to overlook the vistas provided by the land.

Every day, Nightingale would soak in the spring water after showering and enjoy the spectacular sight.

Compared to this, the lack of lights in the room was nothing.

Just as Nightingale was about to lay down, she suddenly heard knocks on her.

She was startled, it was already late in the night and the majority of the people were asleep. Who could it be?

"Coming."

Nightingale responded and relit the candle, while thinking about potential candidates that might be at her door.

The most probable choice was naturally Wendy.

After all, this person in charge of the Witch Union had the precedent of coming to her for idle chats after having had a few drinks.

But the person standing outside completely stunned her.

It was Anna.

Holding onto a small wooden bucket with a towel and toiletries, she asked, "Can you accompany me for a bath?"

Nightingale had taken a bath prior to heading to bed, but knew that the main point was clearly not the bath. "Of course, please give me a moment."

Nightingale packed her things and followed Anna into the public bath, which was completely vacant and empty aside from the two of them. Occasionally, water droplets splashing onto the stalagmites could be heard, emphasizing the serenity of the night.

After stripping, Nightingale stepped into the pool and immediately felt the warmth envelop her entire body. Unlike Neverwinter, the island's fuel was limited; thus, the public bath employed the use of a boiler that relied on magic power to ensure a steady supply of hot water the entire day.

The two walked through the white mist and slowly arrived at the entrance of the cave. Instantly, the refreshing night breeze swept the heat away as the world before their eyes opened up into a wide panorama. It was no longer edges and corners of the mountain stone, but stars and an endless night sky.

Nightingale gasped slightly.

The feeling was intoxicating.

Anna seemed to be content and heaved a sigh. She then proceeded to stretch.

"Where's Roland?"

"Most probably in the Dream World."

"Is that so? He's really busy…"

"That's right. Everyone claims that I've never stopped to take a break, but compared to him, my work is nothing." Anna chuckled. "He even works through the night."

"You're equally as impressive as he is." Nightingale lowered her body until the water reached her shoulders. "In the past, you were a young lady that knew nothing, but now, you're able to assume so much responsibility."

"It's really nothing much." Anna revealed a rare embarrassed expression. "I'm only good at these aspects; if not for Barov and Teacher Karl's help, the Ministry of Engineering would be in a mess."

Hey hey, you can't just declare your shortcomings without any hesitation.

Looking at Anna, complicated emotions rose within Nightingale—it was impossible to say that she did not feel indignation; clearly she had come into contact with Roland much earlier than Anna and had more opportunities, but in the end, she was still a tad slower. But regardless of everything, she could not bring herself to hate Anna; her honesty, earnestness and her straightforwardness… The longer one interacted with Anna, the more one could sense her purity. Nightingale had met countless people before, from ordinary citizens to nobility, yet none of them were as dazzling as her.

She had complete respect for her.

After a short silence, Anna changed the topic. "What do you think will be the outcome of this Battle of Divine Will?"

Nightingale realized that this might be the reason for being invited to share a bath.

"I guess… very smoothly?" She gazed up to the stars in the sky. In all honesty, inferring or predicting the outcome of a battle far exceeded her scope of abilities, and she did not know how to answer. But with the battle approaching, saying such things didn't seem too appropriate. Fortunately, Anna could not see through her lie.

"Oh." Anna did not echo her thoughts. "I don't actually think so. Especially when the last objective is the Bottomless Land. Legends state that it is the land of God and I'm afraid that the risks involved with it far exceeds our estimates. For some reason, I feel that Roland might disappear anytime, and the closer we get to the northern extremity, the stronger this uneasiness becomes."

Nightingale's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Anna might had sensed Roland's waning life expectancy? But that likely had to do with the Realm of Mind, and heading to the Bottomless Land was also a means to resolve the problem. It was not something that was inevitable.

"Maybe you're just over worried about it."

"I hope so." Anna blinked. "Right… Do you remember our agreement?"

"Yes…" Nightingale was taken aback for a moment. "—Eh?"

"I've decided to bring it forward. After we defeat the demons, I will talk to him personally."

"Why? Because of your uneasiness?"

"That's half the reason," Anna replied gently. "But more of it is that he needs you too. And I… have never hated you. In the coming war, you'll have to take care of him."

"…" Nightingale was momentarily at a loss for words. She muttered after a long time, "Even so, why are you not stopping him from going to the Bottomless Land?"

Anna shook her head with a calm expression. "This was the optimal plan after considering many factors, and regardless of the outcome, he has already made his preparations. How can I stop him? Being afraid and running away will not change anything, so the only thing I can do is to aid him with everything that I can, and witness the future with my own eyes."

Chapter 1457 - The First Battle of the Floating Island!

Upon entering the hinterlands of the Fertile Plains, the time on Eleanor Skycruiser slowed to a crawl; the majority of the people on board knew that they were moving, but were unaware of where they were heading.

Only officials and higher-ups at the command center knew this. They were slowly inching towards the target—the map had clearly been marked out with a curved flight path and the floating island would revise its direction to the east every twelve hours. According to the Exploration Group's report, Eleanor Skycruiser's flight path would converge towards the new Deity of Gods in, at the maximum, eighteen days.

But the peace would not last till that day.

On the fourteenth day of journey, the peaceful days were interrupted.

An old Fire of Heaven was the first to discover enemy movements—it belonged to the Aerial Knights' detection squadron and was one of the few dual seat models still kept in service. The back seat was no longer designed for machine gunners, and was instead equipped with spark-gap transmitter and a wireless transmitter unit. These equipment were installed and modified, giving the Fire of Heaven reconnaissance abilities.

"A Devilbeast is approaching a hundred and fifty kilometers away!"

According to the rules of engagement, they would first use the spark-gap transmitter to relay the information and proceed to use the wireless transmitter unit to repeat the same message; the former to inform the island while the latter was to warn companions nearby.

Due to the extremely good electromagnetic environment, receivers were able to receive and interpret the information quickly.

When the staff room received the slip of paper with the information on it, the atmosphere immediately turned serious before it boiled over.

"Quickly confirm the identity and location of the flight crew!"

"Sound the early warning system and recall the engineers!"

"Hey, this is the General Staff; immediately prepare for battle!"

"Ground service reporting, Aerial platforms 5 and 11 are malfunctioning. Currently engaging in urgent repairs."

"At this time? Get them to hurry!"

Upon being notified, Roland immediately rushed to the command center. "How's the situation now?"

"The enemy is still two hours away from us," Edith held onto a report file and reported. "Direction northeast; more than 30 Devilbeasts sighted, the reconnaissance plane has broken away from the enemy's pursuit, but they do not seem to be changing their original paths."

"You mean to say the demons have discovered the existence of the island?" Iron Axe questioned.

"That shouldn't be the case; otherwise, they wouldn't have sent such a small force. But the demons must have definitely sensed something and are en route for confirmation."

"That isn't strange." Roland spoke calmly; no matter how small the floating island was, it was still a floating mountain. It was impossible for a target of this size to completely conceal itself, just like how Lightning and Maggie discovered the Deity of Gods. So long as the distance between the two continued to decrease, the enemy would soon discover the other. "Sylvie's Magic Eye is more focused on observing the sky, so it is normal for any small demon team on the ground to chance onto us."

The Pearl of the Northern Region nodded. "Verifying the situation is very likely their main goal. As for the number of Devilbeasts, the Aerial Knights are capable of annihilating them."

"Be it destroying them or letting a few run, it will not influence the outcome." Roland was already clear on this—it was impossible for the Eleanor Skycruiser to avoid the Devilbeasts at the rate at which it was flying. In a sense, it was inevitable for the floating island to be exposed. "The crux is how do we keep the cost of that happening to the minimum."

The size force of the Aerial Knights had grown steadily from the beginning. Since the assault at the Impassable Mountain Range, the first generation Fire of Heaven and second generation Fury of Heaven now summed up to more than 200 units, constituting two wings. The problem lay in the fact that the enemy was at full force, and they no longer suffered any restrictions in both military strength and logistics. The air force was bound to suffer from great losses even if they reached parity of scale.

Roland did not count on achieving air dominance in the battle, and only hoped for the protection of the bomber to accomplish its mission—this would undoubtedly require the entire air force, but if the Aerial Knights suffered too large a loss during the early phase, it would implicate the later plans as well.

"You mean to say we should employ 'Plan B' when facing the enemy?" Tilly asked as she pricked up her brows.

"That's right, at the same time, we will be able to examine the witches' gains." Roland no longer hesitated. "Get your people into the underground warehouse."

…

Two hours later, the enemy discovered trails of the floating island.

As what Edith had mentioned, they were purely sent to investigate. But unexpectedly, the Devilbeasts stopped forty to fifty kilometers away. The leader used something similar to a binoculars apparatus and observed for a moment before turning to retreat without any thoughts of probing.

"Seems like the demons have learned a lot from Mask." The Pearl of the Northern Region smiled. "Seems like they have learned how to respect their enemies."

"They will definitely not surrender." Iron Axe gazed into the sky. "I believe that our coming days will no longer be smooth sailing."

"Of course." Edith's voice contained a coldness comparable to the Northern Region. "And this will be our best opportunity to weaken them!"

…

On the afternoon of the same day, the demons appeared on the horizon.

They looked as though they were unwilling to wait even a day.

But the troops were prepared for battle more than an hour earlier. All sluice gate channels that led outside were sealed, the biplanes employed as scouts had returned and parked in the hangars. The entire surface of the floating island was devoid of life, where even the North Slope Mountain's revamped bridge was sealed. At the moment, the Eleanor Skycruiser appeared impervious like a huge mountain of stone.

The higher ups had convened in the command center. Using the magic power core to project a visualization of the outside, they were able to observe everything

The first wave of Devilbeasts appeared to contain 200 of them. As they formed a line and charged towards the floating island, it caused the sky to darken a few shades.

"Tsk, so many of them…" Tilly frowned and commented.

Roland nodded. "I'm guessing this is just the vanguard meant to spearhead the attack." After all, the troops following behind the demon's King City is the entire force from the Blackstone region. The number of Mad Demons is estimated to be over a million, so the number of Devilbeasts they have would not be any fewer as well.

It was most probably their last day of serenity.

"They may have the numbers, but what can they do to a mountain?" A voice suddenly sounded out within everyone's mind; the mellow and languid voice was memorable.

It was Eleanor.

Roland laughed.

This was their battle strategy's most unassailable point—indeed, the humans could do little to a Deity of Gods in response, but at the same time, the demons were unable to do so as well.

"I'll leave the rest to you."

"Relax, this is my revenge that have spanned for over four centuries," Eleanor replied.

In her vision, an invisible net slowly spread out. Any movements made by the Devilbeasts within the net were turned into strings of numbers.

Mathematics is truly interesting…

She imbued magic power into her tentacles before directing it the entire floating island, activating more than a hundred miniature cores that blossomed with blue lights, at the same time activating the machine gun turrets which were connected to them by various machinery.

The machine gun turrets distributed at the edge of the island all turned towards the enemies. The gun barrels extended out of their shooting holes into the sky.

At the instant the Devilbeasts entered her effective shooting range, countless streams of light surged out, while the invisible net transformed into a visible and dazzling screen of light!

Chapter 1458 - A Defense Line Held Single-handedly

The 20mm autocannons were the most eye-catching weapons that formed "long whips" with the tracer rounds.

Due to the higher pressure, the tracer rounds formed of Match Men stones grew in light intensity. Adding that the tracer rounds were more compact than ordinary bullets, there were almost no gaps in along the tracer rounds' flight trajectory.

Devilbeasts struck by the autocannons had no leeway to struggle; being penetrated by a blob of light meant taking multiple bullets. Even if the bullets strayed away from the main body and struck their wings, the power of the bullets tore large holes through them.

Of course, compared to shooting the wings, it was more common for the bullets to land on the swooping Devilbeasts' torsos. Following bursts of blood, a few rolled and plummeted, while the Mad Demons seated on them were only able to scream in anguish as they awaited their inevitable fates of colliding into the ground.

The demons were not frightened away by the circumstances. Instead, they adopted abrupt drops to increase their speed, dispersing in two directions with the intent of breaking away from the shooting.

This method would have undoubtedly been most effective if it was in normal times. Faced against flying targets, the First Army soldiers would habitually aim the guns to "chase" after the targets. Even the most proficient teams would require a few seconds to adjust their aim.

But this time, they were up against Eleanor.

Almost instantly, the Devilbeasts' paths and coordinates were calibrated to form new trajectories. This was through countless polynomial equations and calculations that promptly determined the fate of the enemies.

The curtain of light suddenly twisted!

This was the first time the higher-ups who were observing the battle felt a sense of grandeur.

The tracers no longer shot straight and instead drew arcs from the rapid turning of the barrels. The intertwining lines interweaved together and resembled ropes.

Despite looking disordered and messy, every line met their targets accurately. Every single line were exact and positioned right in front of the Devilbeasts' movements.

Those not in the know wouldn't think that the bullets were chasing after the Devilbeasts but that the Devilbeasts were rushing straight into the bullets!

"I think that Lady Eleanor must be extremely happy," Phyllis suddenly commented.

"Why?" Roland asked, perplexed.

"In the battle when Taquila fell, the first to tear apart our defenses was the enemy's Devilbeast force. At that time, they appeared in the air where we had difficulty reaching, allowing them to assault our weak points in our defense. Even though the Holy City's Army rushed about busily, they were unable to ensure that every part of the city walls was safe. Usable crossbow machines and catapults became fewer, and the Siege Beasts eventually broke through," she recalled emotionally. "At that time, Lady Eleanor stood at the wall with blood all over her with no demons around that dared to approach her, but the Holy City behind her was already in flames."

So that's why…

It's the reason for her talking about four centuries of revenge.

No matter how strong an individual was, they would never be able to save the Holy City alone from the hordes of enemies. Upon connecting the dots, the words behind her languid speech had suddenly become more solemn.

This time, Eleanor was once again standing at the forefront of the Battle of Divine Will.

And this time, what stood behind her was the force of the entire human race.

"They are starting to split up!" Morning Light Ferlin suddenly called out.

Through the magic power screen, the Devilbeasts that had sustained injuries suddenly separated at different heights, one charged straight towards the surface of the floating island while another flew at a lower altitude, apparently in attempts to avoid the autocannons. Most probably, the demons had figured out that conventional movements to avoid the bullets were no longer effective and they no longer pinned their hopes on harrying their enemies through the sky, but instead sought to land and seek cover.

But Eleanor's defense was not limited to a single layer.

Next up to join the battle were Mark I heavy machine guns that formed an interior defense line.

Their turrets were smaller, almost half a meter tall. Due to the consideration of having no movements, the barrels were exchanged for longer and water-cooled barrels. All of the rotatable firing platforms were distributed onto the runways, bridges, and control towers meant to deal with enemies that attempted to 'jump' through the first line of defense.

The Mad Demons that landed finally proceeded with their counterattacks.

They abandoned the Devilbeasts that had fended off against a hail of bullets and threw short spears towards the gun turrets or shot some form of electric light. These triggered explosions at the surface of the floating island!

To Roland's surprise, he discovered that the short spears were no longer simple beast bones, but a compound spear mixed with unknown substances. The spear tip was black and triggered explosions upon contact from the apparent blaze and smoke emitting out.

The Mad Demons that were capable of producing electricity and the Mad Demons encountered by the Witch Cooperation Association were completely different. Not only were they capable of employing their abilities faster, the distance had increased greatly.

Obviously, this batch of Mad Demons was an elite unit.

If they had been up against the First Army soldiers, they might have actually caused actual chaos.

But it was a pity that the turrets were only ice-cold machines.

They showed no fear or hesitation. So long as power was provided, they would never cease firing. Even if one or two sets misfired, they would not affect the other turrets.

Of course, these were not Eleanor's last line of defense as well—two sets of 75mm cannons situated diagonally on the floating island were activated as well, gradually turning towards the enemy locations. The two smaller cannons were more than enough to cover the runway that spanned over a kilometer in diameter.

This is a firearm battle which Pasha and the others mentioned… Eleanor thought to herself.

Although she was unfamiliar with this form of battle, she instantly became hooked onto the feeling upon firing.

Up to this moment, she was the only person fighting against the demons.

But despite her being the only one, the demons were unable to escape from her attention to attack the weaker points of the defense. Even at the bottom of the floating island, she had prepared four sets of 20mm cannons and two Longsong Cannons to fight the enemy.

This was a stronghold that had no blind spots.

Your tricks end here… Eleanor adjusted the aim of the cannons, turning them straight to the center of the field where a demon was suppressed and locked down by waves of bullets. From its striking armor and dressing, it was most probably a higher ascendant.

She controlled the magic power core and pulled onto the firing rope—

…

"Boom!"

"Ssheessshhh…"

Following the loud boom and rumbles, the ceilings in the caves dropped sand and stone.

"Is that the First Army engaging the enemy? Are they alright?" Finkin swept away the dust on his head and looked upwards apprehensively.

"The bombardments can at most destroy the runway, they will not cause any harm to the hangars. Besides, Miss Lotus is around as well, so it'll be easy to restore the potholes."

The voice sounded unfamiliar, as though they weren't pilots from the first class. Good, Finkin, and Hinds turned to look, only to discover that the speaker was the trump card of the newcomers, Manfeld.

"Hi, seniors." He initiated a salute.

"Hey, your challenger is here," Finkin nudged Good with his elbow and whispered.

Good rolled his eyes at his comrade and nodded at Manfeld. "I think so too, but we have no idea when we can move out."

"It'll be soon." Manfeld closed his eyes and listened for a moment. "The intervals between the firing of the machine guns are lengthening, which means that the demons are powerless before our offensive. I believe that the higher-ups will be sending out the command for us to counterattack soon."

"You can hear the machine guns through the rock strata?" Good was shocked.

"If I focus wholeheartedly, yes." Manfeld nodded.

Finkin mouthed to Hinds "he's acting cool."

Right at this moment, the loudspeakers inside the hangar blasted with Princess Tilly's voice. "All Aerial Knights, board your planes and prepare for battle!"

Chapter 1459 - The Complete Form of the Skycruiser

All the higher-ups clearly saw the withering strength of the enemy.

Be it those that landed on the island to attack or those that flew around in search of weak points, the demons were incapable of finding a way in. Under Eleanor's precise attacks, every minute that they stopped posed a huge risk to them, resulting in extremely high injuries and death counts that were unacceptable for the Devilbeasts.

Soaring in the air meant speed, agility, and zero hindrance from the terrain. The Devilbeasts had ruled the skies for centuries and always held the absolute power on the battlefield. But in the face of the floating island, they probably never expected that more than half of them would fall even before seeing their enemies.

There were even demons that had started to turn tail and retreat… or in other words, escape.

This was the perfect opportunity for the humans.

The core goal of Plan B was to obtain the highest kill count in exchange for the smallest cost, so pursuing the retreating enemies was deemed as the absolute opportunity to build upon the result. This was not a novel idea, but Eleanor Skycruiser was the only thing capable of switching between defense and offense seamlessly.

This was also the Skycruiser's most prominent aspect as compared to other flying platforms.

Under Tilly's command, the command center immediately operated and switched to the corresponding procedures.

"Channel pressures contained, all steam pressures are working as per normal!"

"Hangar doors one and six are about to open, please standby and clear the runway!"

"Ground service reports that they need five more minutes of preparation."

"The first wave of counterattack force is in position!"

With the large longitudinal space, the hangars were designed for multiple take offs. And with the hangars situated at the center, they were allowed to project and scatter from the lower levels. Before being used, the interior runways were protected and blocked off by several heavy and thick doors and could only be opened using steam engines.

Although every runway track had substantially decreased in length and were a third of the runways on the surface, it was sufficient for the light biplanes. In addition, it was not an issue if they did gain sufficient initial velocity, the floating island's ground surface elevation was enough for the heavier planes to raise their noses.

"Are you not taking action personally?" Roland looked at Tilly.

"This is a rare opportunity, I'll have the newcomers take it for practice." The latter laughed and raised the radio to her mouth. "Once the hangars are opened, move out immediately. The goal—to kill off every single one of them!"

…

Although it was not Good's first time moving out via the interior runway, all his previous experiences were practice runs.

He finally understood why Her Highness emphasized on wearing earmuffs.

More than 50 sets of biplanes sealed inside the warehouses revved their engines at the same time, producing rumbles that could only be described as astounding. Even at a distance of two to three meters, the ground servicemen who screamed could not be heard and appeared to be mouthing words.

From the second the order was given, all Aerial Knights communicated with hand gestures and flags.

Good was the first to roll out and enter a flight position.

From the bubbling steam, the steel doors thicker than a grown man opened slowly, extending the runway further out into the distance. The door towards the end had a clear and distinct [01] written on it.

With Princess Tilly's absence, he had become the undisputed leader.

I guess the first plane at Door 06 should be Manfeld.

Challenger, huh…

He grinned slightly.

Rachel, can you see this now?

I used to look up at the nobles from a distance, but they are now chasing after me.

Although he didn't express that clearly… putting it that way wasn't too bad either.

The ground service crew before him pushed out a wooden board with large cards that indicated the wind speed, temperature, and the floating island's rate of advancement. Ordinarily, the hangar doors would open against the wind, giving the planes much more rising power. But considering that the hangars might be attacked in wartime, they had to expect the possibility of not using the most optimal runway in battle. At this time, wind speed, and the other parameters became extremely important, and the pilots had to pre-empt, adjust, and prepare for acceleration and the initial drop.

Good gave the ground service crew a thumbs up.

Right at this moment, the last steel door finally opened.

The bright and dazzling sunlight instantly broke apart the shadows at the end, expanding from its initial small crack until it illuminated the entire runway.

Strong winds gushed into the hangars and dispersed the lingering engine smell.

Tailwind at grade five meant it was the perfect opportunity to attack—

The ground service crew raised a green flag and waved down with all of his strength!

"Runway clear, Good is moving out!" Good shouted and jammed the control stick down.

The Fury of Heaven roared and took off towards the light. In the accelerating process, he noticed the ground service crew members lining his sides and they were waving at him.

Upon cutting through the light, a short brilliance of white covered his entire vision, but was quickly replaced with all sorts of things as the vast and limitless world entered his vision. There were no longer any noise blasting into his ears, as though everything had turned silent in an instant. The fresh air that brought about the sweet scent of vegetation made him take a deep breath.

Good took off the earmuffs and flew upwards, ascending above the floating island.

The tracer rounds around directed him towards a certain direction.

He caught sight of the Devilbeasts fleeing around 60 kilometers away, and immediately gave chase without hesitation!

…

Before the magic power projection, Roland couldn't help but clench his fists.

This was what a Skycruiser should be like!

The gigantic mass, the abundance of weapons, and the ability to unload aircraft—just the sight of it was enough to overwhelm everyone with emotions!

One after another, biplanes shot out from the mountain, giving chase and killing all the demons that managed to slip through the cracks. The Aerial Knights that were multiple times faster than Devilbeasts quickly held an overwhelming advantage.

While attacking the Deity of Gods at the Impassable Mountain Range, they had lost over 10 sets of planes just to suppress the Devilbeasts. But this time, aside from the loss of a few unmanned machine gun turrets, the 200 Devilbeasts did not kill or cause any harm to the humans.

"It's now our time to give the enemy a headache." Edith sneered. It was apparent how the demon's use of the Deity of Gods to self destruct and kill off humanity had greatly troubled her. To be able to use a similar object to retaliate made her elated and converse with a lighter tone.

"I reckon that they will use a larger force to retaliate next." Iron Axe spoke up, "Or send out a senior lord-ranked Senior Demon."

Roland quietly recalled the information regarding senior lords. According to Valkries, aside from Silent Disaster that was proficient at offense, there was the other demon hailed as Blood Conqueror. But the latter was one promoted from the Lords of Hell and was more suited for ground combat, since no Devilbeasts were able to bear his size.

On second thought, the demons' King's giving Hackzord command over the Western Front was a fortunate thing for the humans.

"Regardless of what means they employ, we will be able to take them on to the end… But they don't have much time left." Roland looked at the map.

The last 250 kilometers of distance was depicted with a red line. There was only three days left for the Eleanor Skycruiser to arrive at its destination for the final battle.

Chapter 1460 - Under the Mask

"This is all because of Hackzord's betrayal! Your Majesty, please permit me to slaughter him!"

Within the Presiding Holy Sea, Blood Conqueror roared in anger. From the blue veins popping out of his forehead and the steam spewing out of his mouth, anyone could tell that he was genuinely furious.

The other senior lords had gloomy expressions as well.

Only Nassaupelle remained expressionless; he even felt a little amused.

Truly a bunch of fools.

He had clearly warned them before. It was a pity that aside from Undeserved, the other senior lords were skeptical about Silent Disaster's and Sky Lord's collusion and attack on him. Even after Mask revealed his memories to the King, all the senior lords merely suppressed their doubts. They likely believed that Mask had somehow crossed them.

Just because he looked like an assembled "monster."

In the end, even before they could hear Hackzord and Serakkas' explanation, the human's "Deity of Gods" appeared.

But wasn't it already too late to pin the blame on the traitors by then?

"The problem is, do you know where they are?" Undeserved remained unfazed by Blood Conqueror's anger. "Currently, Hackzord might be hiding in any corner within the ridge of the continent, and our citizens of Sky City might have been compelled by him. Without investing a large force into this, we will not be able to find any traces of a senior lord like him. Furthermore…" He stared at the other party coldly. "Even if you find Hackzord, don't forget that Serakkas is by his side. At that point, who knows who will be the one getting killed."

"You—!" If they weren't in the Presiding Holy Sea, Blood Conqueror would have already taken action.

"Your Majesty, I don't understand this…" A fleshy body squirmed and spoke up. "Did the humans truly find some sort of evidence regarding the Divine Will? Otherwise, with Sky Lord's character, how can he ever side the humans—"

"With all that they have done, are you still guessing about the reason for their betrayal?" Mask interrupted him. "Regardless of the reason, Hackzord had plenty of opportunities to report to the King. But what happened? Since leaving the Western Front, heading to the Bottomless Land and colluding with Silent Disaster, he never sought to communicate with King City from the beginning to the end! This is obviously a betrayal that had been in the planning! If I hadn't gained a breakthrough in my abilities, I would had died at Serakkas hands!"

The other senior lords were dumbstruck.

It was a piece of memory extracted from Mask and could not be faked, while Hackzord's wandering activities had been sighted by scouts in the northern extremity of the Land of Dawn. Regardless of how one looked at it, it was not one of a panicked and hurried decision.

That's right, just like that… Nassaupelle smiled. Memories could not be faked, but parts could be erased and orders shifted. Mask chose to conceal clues of Valkries, and everything he reported to the King were tampered.

Reality proved that he had taken a wise choice. If the other senior lords discovered the reason for the betrayal involved Valkries's whereabouts, the situation would have become more complicated.

In that sense, the obtaining of the human's legacy might be delayed even further.

He did not want to waste anymore time.

"Mask is right, we should focus on the human's floating island first. They are clearly heading towards King City," Undeserved said. "The enemy is floating in the air and wield weapons capable of covering all angles. It is not a battle suited for Senior Lords Blood Conqueror or Death Scar. Weighing the options, I am the one most suited to stop them."

Like Resentful Heart and Death Scar, Undeserved was upgraded from a psychic, but compared to a mind controller who was good at confusion and manipulation abilities, Undeserved leaned towards melee combat. It was apparent from the attire he had—with a basic humanoid form, he was dressed in tight-fitting black leather. There was not a piece on armor on him like a sharp blade that had abandoned the notion of defense.

The only difference between him and a human was the two horns that protruded out of his forehead, but Nassaupelle knew that the appearance was just a facade. Undeserved was capable of manipulating how other lifeforms felt towards him, and it was a mimicry capability stronger than Transformer's. Mask had once experienced it for himself. While walking next to Undeserved, his consciousness immediately treated him as a rock and he did not even have the slightest sense of his presence.

He is the most plausible candidate… Or rather, the only choice out of helplessness—if I'm excluded, Mask thought to himself. Wars could never end by just an assassination, and the King would not agree to his plea.

"Overruled." As expected, the King's first sentence was to reject the suggestion. Nassaupelle was unsure if he had read it wrongly, but he felt that the King's tone had become even more indifferent. "Killing the commander will only incite more chaos, and the replacement is more likely to expose themselves. The humans have witches that detect magic power; at the same time, do not forget the large number of anti-magic carriers. Your success rate will only stand at about thirty percent, with an escape chance of less than one percent, it is a meaningless risk."

"But the other senior lords—"

"Our race has more than the senior lords to do battle; our higher ascendants shouldn't be underestimated as well. The floating island owned by the humans utilizes a God's Stone pillar from the Western Region. It is unlikely that they have a Plan B like our Deity of Gods. In the end, they are still relying on their own strength."

"Truly wise, Your Majesty!" Mask extended both his hands out and exclaimed, "In fact, I have studied how the lowlifes conduct their battle—the iron birds might seem difficult to handle, but they are in fact extremely weak! If they dare show themselves in the air above our city, I will definitely teach them a lesson they will never forget!"

"Even your magic power core instrument was taken by the lowlifes, so how trustworthy are your words?" Death Scar retorted.

"If not for Silent Disaster, how could I ever have lost the authority over the Deity of Gods?" Mask did not even look at him. "The Western Front's battle have proven the potential of the Symbiotic Demons. What I have to do is just expand its application. Even though they are unable to fly, they are huge threats to those iron birds."

"Permitted. But you cannot overuse the resources at the front lines." The King gave a brief reply.

"That is only natural." Mask decided to strike while the iron was hot. "Aside from that, I have a new concept—If we are able to successfully channel magic power out and release them unmodified, we might be able to obtain a powerful war weapon. It is just that the research requires magic power cores. Am I allowed to test it out?"

"King's City has a surplus of cores. You can test this new concept of yours, but do not interfere with the Birth Tower's operations."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Mask lowered his head.

The Presiding Holy Sea gradually disappeared and the majestic King City's stone tower appeared before him. Compared to the past, this black tower had additional pairs of eyes, as though capable of scrutinizing and observing everything beneath.

That was the King.

In terms of magic power, ten of Masks could not compare to the Tower. In the past, he would never have had such a thought, but now…

Mask slowly rearranged his masks and walked towards the nesting grounds.

… The King is merely a part of the core as well.

Chapter 1461 - Before Dawn

As their distance from the demon's King City narrowed, the floating island encountered even fiercer attacks.

From having one attack a day, it increased to once every few hours. More often than not, the floating island would catch sight of the second wave in the horizon even before completely dealing with the prior wave.

It was only during the night did the floating island have peace.

All the incomplete projects and ground facilities were basically halted, and the construction team had already focused all their manpower on repairing the runways. But against the attacks of the enemy which was akin to a tidal wave, Roland did not dare allow the Aerial Knights chase too far out as it only placed all the burden onto Eleanor.

Another change was the rapid increase in the number of senior demons appearing, some of which were physically stronger, or had strange abilities and were unpredictable. Following the increasing losses of unmanned machine gun turrets, the pressure placed on the defenses magnified.

The first wave of enemies broke into the floating island's interior on the second afternoon. When a few senior demons used magic blades and sliced open the sealed sluice gates, Eleanor immediately sounded the invasion alarm. God's Punishment Witches armed to the teeth formed the second line of defense as melee combat occurred across the narrow passages. The scene resembled the battlefield set up by the Union several centuries ago; just that this time, the roles of both parties were exchanged.

In Alice's plans, God's Punishment Witches were the spears to penetrate the demon's formation and destroy anything in relation to the obelisk and Mother of Soul. Only by using their weak offense to break apart the enemy's defenses did humanity have a shot at winning. But on this island, the demons became the attackers, while the God's Punishment Witches only had to impede their advancements.

However, their strength did not drop as a result. In a particular way, God's Punishment Witches were the bane of senior demons. Having their abilities sealed, it was difficult for them to gain the upper hand when facing a crowd of Extraordinaries or ancient witches who did not fear pain. What's more, they held guns in their hands.

As a result, despite the disadvantage in numbers, the God's Punishment Witches were still able to keep the enemy out from the inner region.

At the same time, traces of demon troops appeared on the ground, the majority of which were Spider Monstrous Beasts. They appeared in sparse numbers in the beginning, and later formed small patches of "black puddles."

"Truly like ants waiting for corpses." Agatha glanced down at the scene beneath the floating island." If we were to descend, they will definitely surge forward and rip us all to shreds."

"There are even more demons en route; it seems like the demons' plan is to surround us." Phyllis's expression turned serious. "The Union used to believe that a Transcendent force was enough to obliterate the demons. Now, it appears like we were too naive."

"Yes, even without Mask or his Symbiotic Demon army, this number isn't something the Union can ever contend with…" The Ice Witch closed her eyes. "We have underestimated the Battle of Divine Will far too greatly."

"At least you guys kept your hope," Roland consoled her and patted her on her shoulders. Regardless of the end of the Witch Kingdom and the two experiences of utter defeat for humanity, they kept the flames of resistance going and never gave up. That alone was no easy feat.

"Your Majesty!" At that moment, Ferlin walked over with a new report. "The trajectory of the demons' floating island has changed, it seems to be coming towards us!"

"Who was the person who reported this?"

"Miss Lightning from the Exploration Group. She even said that the enemy has expanded their patrolling radius of the Devilbeasts, so she and Maggie are no longer able to observe them from a distance. Miss Lightning also added that a large amount of magic power has appeared at the bottom of King's City. She claimed that even her weak sensitivity to magic power was enough to sense the stifling aura."

Roland looked at Agatha.

"What do you think that is?"

"I don't know…" The latter shook her head. "But since they are converging their magic power to this extent, it's definitely not something trivial."

"I agree," Roland replied.

Wasn't it surprising?

Symbiotic Demons, mass production of Senior Demons, Deity of Gods… the number of new advancements the demons had succeeded in could be said to be innumerable. Compared to the bone spears used in the beginning of the Battle of Divine Will, they were now equipped with improved spears capable of explosion, even though not every Mad Demon had one. Although the demons had not used the gunpowder of humans, they were bound to receive relevant inspirations.

In the past, people often said that war was the best catalyst for improving civilization, and from the looks of it, there's some truth to the matter. Roland looked into the projection towards the dusky sky. God… is this what you want to see?

Without question, if they continued their advancement, there was no chance of winning if they only continued resisting the incoming attacks. At the moment, the floating island was going against the current, which was the black tides of tens of millions of demons. If the numbers increased by a few folds, the casualties within the island would only increase exponentially.

And for a strong magic power disturbance to occur at the demons' King's City meant that they had more than a single trump card.

But… he never had the idea of fighting the enemy to the death.

The symbol that marked the final location for the floating island was very close, but since the demons were willing to initiate the bridging of the distance, he saved on the effort required.

"Inform everyone to head to the meeting room." Roland ordered Ferlin. "It's time."

Everyone in the command center stopped everything they were doing and moved over.

The room instantly became extremely serious.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The knight puffed up his chest and bowed.

…

A few minutes later, the higher-ups gathered at the top of the bridge.

The sun was setting behind the horizon, dying the horizon blood red. With the entire field filled with demon corpses, it increased the desolation of twilight.

"Tonight, our enemy will enter our final attack radius."

Roland looked at each and everyone. They were gathered around the table in two rows, with the Witches on one side—Anna, Wendy, Agatha, Phyllis, etc—and on the other side were the army commanders—Iron Axe, Edith, Brian, Ferlin… All of their eyes brimmed with unspeakable confidence. Even though the enemy numbers were enough to blot out the sky, no one revealed any intent of retreat or unease.

"There's no need for me to repeat this plan again. Since its inception, everyone played a part in it and witnessed the entire process," Roland said unhurriedly. "Although I was the one who suggested the plan, it would never have come to fruition without everyone's hard work."

The prototype bombs, the calculation of the parameters, the choice of the configuration, and air drop tests—even with the support of the Design Bureau of Graycastle, he had steadily taken a step at a time, completing a full set of tests as it went from something experimental to an actual weapon. It was just so that no accidents would occur on the real battlefield.

"To ensure a low possibility of detection and to prevent any unnecessary waste en route, the fleet will move out at around five in the early morning. Navigating in the night is extremely dangerous, but I believe that Tilly will be able to lead the Aerial Knights to success. If everything goes smoothly, a new 'sun' will appear tomorrow morning."

Seeing that no one objected at the meeting, Roland stood up and said, "Then, let me announce the official commissioning of the Glory of the Sun!" He paused for a moment. "—Remember, the darkest period is precisely right before dawn."

Chapter 1462 - Night of Endless Toss and Turns

12:00 a.m.

The hangars remained brightly lit.

All the magic stones that gave off light were gathered and distributed to the hangars. Aside from providing light, a portion of the magic stones were installed onto the planes for the lack of light sources.

This operation involved all the Aerial Knights; not only did the 200 odd planes represent Neverwinter's full air force, they also represented humanity's hope.

Several hundred ground crew support rushed about the warehouses with carts, inspecting every plane with Anna in the lead. With her hair tied up and with thigh-high boots, her appearance in work clothes left a huge impression on everyone. It also elevated the atmosphere.

Roland was no exception—her greasy cheeks in contrast with her sparkling and clear sapphire eyes left a deep impression in him.

1:30 a.m.

With the plane inspections coming to a close, the refilling of fuel began.

All the ventilation fans operated at full capacity to reduce the fuel fumes in the air.

Due to the low requirement for illumination, along with the bid to lower risks and prevent accidents from occurring, this step was conducted at the hangars and ground surface simultaneously.

Out of the ground surface air units, the most eye-catching plane were the two single-winged, four-engined bombers.

Although they were much smaller than the standard plane, their form remained sufficiently spectacular, with a wingspan of over 30 meters. Its pitch-black paint made it stand out at a glance.

After swapping out the Phoenix's engine, she was only capable of flight with base oil, but in exchange for this was a reliable and mature body frame. Because of this, the Ministry of Engineering was able to rush out two planes before the actualization of the operation.

Of course, the attractiveness of the two planes was not just their size.

The appearance of the First Army and God's Punishment Witches guarding the belly of the plane similarly indicated that the two planes were different from the others. Although the majority of the people had never seen the weapon that many had placed their hopes on, everyone knew that the two planes were the crux to deciding the battle.

3:00 a.m.

The Aerial Knights gathered and conducted their last route review.

"Remember, the cover of the night doesn't give you any reference objects to direct you. The stars in the sky will confuse you, and any light sources on the ground will be the enemy bonfires!" Tilly stood on the platform and spoke loudly. "The only thing you can believe in are the flickering tail lights on the plane in front of you! Open your eyes wide and watch the positions of your teammates. Upon leaving the floating island, there will be no chance of turning back!

"If everything goes smoothly, we will arrive at the designated location by daybreak. After that, the two bombers will cast their bombs in succession. During this process, your mission is to ensure that our main assault planes doesn't get attacked. Shoot down anything that attempts to draw close to it, be they Devilbeasts or senior demons!

"Listen clearly, due to the gap between the casting of both bombs and the explosive might of the bombs, do not stay too close to the target. Aside from that, regardless of the outcome, the fleet must return to the hangar. King Roland has allowed for failure, but hasn't agreed to sending people capable of living and surviving to die on the battlefield. The sky belongs to us, and I hope that will never change!

"Let us write a brand new page of history for humanity—for this operation, I will be flying alongside you!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" everyone shouted out in unison.

3:50 a.m.

"To be honest, I'm nervous."

On the ramp beside Phoenix, Roland noticed Tilly's slightly trembling hands.

It was his first time seeing her reveal an unsteady and nervous expression.

They were only half an hour away from the scheduled flight. Two hundred aircrafts, if placed in the other world, was capable of sustaining four to five major operations. They had to ensure the flight formation prior flying to ensure that no one got left behind in the long-distance raid.

"Are you afraid?"

"Maybe…" She nodded her head first, then shook it. "But I'm even more anticipative of it. Brother, do you remember our promise? Just the thought that the day is coming soon makes me somewhat unable to hold down the emotions in my heart."

When the Battle of Divine Will concluded, Ashes would come back to life. This was the faith and belief that had supported her all the way through.

"Yes, I remember," Roland replied gently. "But the condition is that you return safely, to ensure that I didn't lie to you."

Tilly raised her head. "Brother, can you hug me?"

He extended his hands out and pulled the small figure into his embrace, who leaned forward naturally and laid her forehead on his chest. Time seemed to reverse to a point in time a year ago—the time when she wept in his embrace.

A moment later, Tilly's breathing stabilized.

"I'm going." She took two steps back.

"Go on."

She boarded the plane, lowered the cabin cover and mouthed a few words to Roland.

It was apparently 'thank you.'

The ramp retreated as the propellers started to spin.

4:20 a.m.

Sluice gates numbered one to ten were all opened, as biplane units flew out of the cruiser.

Sylvie activated her Magic Eyes and observed the entire situation, reminding those that might potentially lose their comrades or to assist those deviating from the flight path. In the dark of the night, two hundred planes surrounded Eleanor Skycruiser like a swarm of fireflies.

This was the phase that potentially had the highest rate of accidents—the lack of radar guidance and night vision equipment rendered the pilots blind, preventing them from differentiating the ground from the air. As more and more planes soared into the air, drifting flight path lights brought about some confusion. If Lightning and Maggie had not received Sylvie's guidance, tapping on the glass panes of everyone before any accidents happened, the fleet might had already lost some planes.

4:55 a.m.

Through the radio, Roland gave out the commands.

Seagull and Phoenix took the lead and initiated an ascent and they were closely followed by the two bombers. They had been given the names "Kun Peng" and "Ark of Peace," which represented the cores of the two formations.

Following that were the Fire of Heaven and Fury of Heaven planes, that formed the escort fleet. Although differentiated into two formations, it was only for the convenience of night flight. As for the mission itself, every plane were equally important and had been tasked to prioritize survival.

Maggie and Lightning were the last to leave.

The two waved to Roland, who was at the command station, and turned to fly into the darkness. Adding Shavi, Wendy, Andrea, Sylvie and the others who were on the Seagull, this formation could be termed to be humanity's full force effort.

Very quickly, the large fleet became engulfed by the darkness and disappeared without a trace.

Roland looked in the direction of their departure for a long period of time.

"Even if you do not believe in God, the only thing you can do now is pray…" Nightingale whispered emotionally.

He nodded his head slightly.

It was probably what everyone else staying behind was thinking.

They had all done their part.

The next phase was the most difficult and worrying wait—to wait for fate to be determined.

"Fortunately, we do not need to wait for long." Anna pointed to the dark horizon. "The sky… will be bright soon."

…

Chapter 1463 - High Altitude Drop

Good controlled his joystick while focused on the plane in front of him.

It's really… dark.

Sky, clouds, ground—aside from the flickering light fixed before him, he was unable to see anything. And from prolonged staring, even the tail lights seemed to become hallucinatory.

Am I really moving?

Or more accurately speaking, have we been stationary all this time?

Good lowered his visor and rubbed his sore eyes—at this moment, he noticed that his gloves were already sticky.

I'm actually perspiring…

When was the last time this happened? Most probably while chasing after the specters…

He took two deep breaths and silently recited the King's words.

The darkest period is precisely right before the dawn.

Before Dawn…

"Let's talk, otherwise I think I'll choke."

At that instant, Good thought he was hearing his heart calling out to him. But he quickly reacted, because it was Finkin through the communications!

"Hey hey, using the transmitter to talk is breaking protocol!" Another familiar voice sounded—Hinds.

"Her Highness stated that we cannot use the transmitter to talk while in battle, because it might interfere with important information. But we aren't even close to the battlefield yet. The Devilbeasts can't fly at night," Finkin replied. "Furthermore, I am using the team frequency; Her Highness won't hear us."

"…" There was a short silence over the receiver.

"Fine, I have to admit, hearing your voices is truly great." Another one joined in. "Lads, what do you want to talk about?"

"Anything is fine, but can everyone make a count as to how many tail lights can all of you see? To be honest, I can't make out which ones are the lights and which ones are the stars."

"That's right, anything is fine."

"I see six large lights."

"Four here."

"Then you should be at the flank of the formation, be careful not to get break out of formation."

Very quickly, the frequency became crowded; obviously the flight in the darkness to unknown territory had placed immense pressure on everyone—compared to flying in the day where they could at least tear through the clouds and see them coming for them, they were still able to find their way back alone if they got lost. However, not only was a night flight difficult to determine that they were moving, upon being separated from the formation, it was also impossible to find Eleanor Skycruiser just with their naked eyes.

Upon hearing the cacophony of his squadron mates, Good relaxed without realizing it.

"How's it; does chatting keep all of you relaxed?"

The princess's voice suddenly cut in. At that instant, the frequency went silent.

Without question, someone must have reported the situation to Her Highness.

"Erm, Your Highness, it was my fault—" Good toughened his skin and spoke up.

"No, what I mean to say is that if this is effective, I can chat with all of you as well." Tilly had no intent of blaming anyone. "But don't forget to stare at your squadron mates and give less trouble to Maggie and Lightning."

Everyone was mildly stunned, but cheered after.

"As you command, we will not lose our targets!"

"Your Highness, rest easy. It feels like I can see much clearer now!"

"Enough, if you want to suck up, you have to do it Graycastle style; do you think you're some owl now?"

Roars of laughter came out, and even the bombing squadron joined in.

"Your Highness, this is Kun Peng; can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah."

"Is the explosive equipped beneath us the Glory of the Sun? Why does it look different to the Ark of Peace's? Theirs is big and round, but ours is more like a barrel."

Good realized that it was a question that would leave its mark in history.

"Because those that you are carrying are produced by the Ministry of Engineering and utilizes a simpler form. Although it isn't as strong in comparison to the others, it is sufficient to break through the enemy's first line of defense," Tilly explained. "But come to think of it, His Majesty Roland himself was unexpectedly satisfied with the result, and even said that it was a historical coincidence…"

"Er, Your Highness… I don't quite understand…"

"It's fine if you don't." Tilly's voice suddenly became much gentler. "He… is a really strange man."

TIme seemed to crawl faster just like that.

And the endless darkness beyond them was no longer as unbearable.

After an unknown period of time, a surprised voice drowned out everybody's conversation. "Everyone, look to your right!"

Good turned and immediately noticed a slight gray mixed with the darkness—the distinction so fine that the majority of people would find it hard to see a difference. But its appearance was like a dye that changed the never ending darkness. At the boundary of the horizon that was affected by the gray was a smear of purplish-blue.

It was the prelude to daybreak.

"Focus up!" Tilly bellowed. "We are arriving soon."

…

At the same time, inside the Seagull.

Sylvie looked through the darkness and caught sight of the Deity of Gods's approximate position.

To avoid being sighted by the thousands of Eye Demons, she had restricted her ability only to the sky, just to ensure that the formation's path had not deviated. It was only when daybreak was approaching did she carefully cast her eyes to the ground.

Reality proved that be it the early stages of planning and calculations or the later stages of implementation, everyone performed outstandingly to complete their tasks. In less than ten minutes, she sensed the astonishing magic power blossoming out from the Deity of Gods.

As they pulled closer to the Deity of Gods, she finally saw the gigantic stronghold surrounded by Blackstone walls.

At this moment, the gigantic protruding structure remained static in midair—most probably to conserve magic power. It was only tens of meters away from the ground surface. Behind it were dense troops that spanned across several kilometers.

It was a god-given opportunity.

She realized that in order for the ground troops to keep up, the Deity of Gods would stop upon nightfall. With such a large target staying completely still, it was impossible for the bombs to miss. More importantly, as dawn had not arrived, there were no patrolling Devilbeasts around, allowing them to seize the initiative!

Sylvie picked up the handset while informing the bombing squadron of the data regarding the target while observing the enemy ranks. In her spherical field of view, the entire battlefield gradually exposed itself to her: situated high above at 7,000 meters were the two bombers. It was an altitude which would demand the Devilbeasts to take an extremely long amount of time to ascend and reach. Situated in the middle of around 2,500 to 3,000 meters in altitude were the biplanes in formation, forming a tight net to intercept anything that attempted to ascend. The Deity of Gods was less than 10 kilometers away from them, and in a few more minutes, the Kun Peng would be able to conduct the drop.

But right at this time, a strange senior demon entered her vision—despite the distance, both their gazes found each other. The demon suddenly stopped moving and raised his head.

"He's an Eye Demon; he spotted us!" Sylvie's heart jumped. Although they knew that the demons' migration would employ a great number of Eye Demons and they would ultimately be discovered, the actual occurrence still caused her heart to skip a beat.

"It is already too late for them." Andrea activated the Sigil of Listening and reported to Tilly, "Bombers are about to go into positions, take heed to avoid them."

"Roger that."

"Right, the demons have noticed our fleet." She feigned a casual tone.

"Is that so, I've been waiting for this." After completing her sentence, Tilly immediately turned on the frequency that broadcast to everyone. "Everyone, pay attention, take a ten degree turn to the right and engage in a roundabout. Prepare for the blast."

The large biplane formation turned immediately with the gradually brightening sky. The hue of the entire dome remained dark, but it was no longer a pitch black that prevented them from seeing their own hands, but more of a dark blue that neared blackness. The stars turned dimmer as the lights on the planes became more obvious.

The only one that remained in its original path was the Kun Peng, it had to maintain perfect stability before casting the bomb.

Unlike the Fury of Heavens that were capable of dropping bombs while diving, the Kun Peng and Ark of Peace were specially designed planes meant for unloading the unique bombs, with all sorts of aiming equipment on the ready. The planes also had pressurized capabilities, allowing them to fly much longer than the ordinary biplanes.

Although night vision was extremely limited, there were thin clouds beneath them. But sight was not needed with Sylvie supplying the accurate data. The crew in charge of releasing the bomb only performed simple calculations and gestured to the pilot that they were ready.

"Open hold, release!"

A low rumble sounded from the belly of the plane when the control stick was being pulled upwards—it was the sound of the heavy bomb being separated from its frame. Once the large object that weighed about four tons was released, the bomber was instantly lifted, swaying for a moment before regaining stability.

This bomb that transformed into an unremarkable black dot increased its speed due to gravity, heading straight towards the Deity of Gods.

Chapter 1464 - Daybreak

Above King's City on the Deity of Gods.

Mask, who possessed many heads, did not require long periods of rest. Or it could be said that by staggering rest for each of his heads, he could maintain a long period of lucidity.

As such, the moment the Eye Demon guards noticed something abnormal, he received the alert.

"The enemy is here." The King's consciousness was also transmitted over without causing so much as a stir. "From the dark of the night."

Those lowlifes are trying to use the night to avoid the Devilbeasts' surveillance. That is without a doubt. However, what can those iron birds do? Do they think that we remain without any preparations?

"I'm still waking those Bogle idiots up, but it still requires some time!" Undeserved's reaction was clearly slower, but in consideration that he only had a mere head, his wariness was already perfect enough.

"It wouldn't matter if it's a little late." Nassaupelle took out a mini core. "I've said before that I've already fully studied the combat strategies of the iron birds. Your Majesty, leave these irritating lowlifes to me."

Under the might of his magic power, the Blackstone wall that formed King's City's dome extended several crystalline "branches." These were originally part of the first generation of Symbiotic Demons, but after his special modifications, it could no longer shot out crystalline needles, but another type of special miniature Symbiotic Demon.

After several clashes, he could already tell that the iron birds—machinery which the humans called the Fury of Heaven or Fire of Heaven—possessed a clear flaw. Despite their speed being faster than Bogle Beasts, there was no way they could change directions as agilely as the latter. This flaw was more obvious the faster they went. The resulting flying trajectory presented a circular arc, and when diving, there was no way they could do a barrel roll. This meant that at specific points in time, they definitely needed to pass through certain spots.

In other words, as long as they decided on the needles' fragmentation degree ahead of time, the Symbiotic Demon's chances of hitting the iron birds would greatly increase. Of course, the crystalline needles were incapable of doing this, but by viewing the problem from a different angle, changing the projectile to a Symbiotic Demon which could autonomously judge the situation would make everything a lot simpler.

These needle-shaped objects would automatically explode when approaching the iron birds, turning into a group of Symbiotic Demons which could temporarily float. Once they landed on the iron birds, they would act like parasites, tearing and chewing the target's weak outer shell.

Mask believed that this series of defensive systems would definitely leave a deep impression on the sneak attackers.

However, through the Eye Demon guards, the subsequent reactions of the humans left him slightly surprised.

The mechanical iron birds did not launch an assault on the Deity of Gods during the gap before the Devilbeasts rose to the sky. Instead, they turned south collectively, like they were deliberately avoiding King's City.

What does this mean?

Are the lowlifes abandoning the attack?

"Heh, they are fleeing. It looks like your toys won't have a chance of being used." Undeserved scoffed lightly. "In the end, it still requires me to do the pursuing of humans."

No… It shouldn't be like this.

Nassaupelle frowned. Although he labeled the humans as lowlifes, the past clashes was enough to prove that this magicless bodies had no lack in courage. Since they were taking the risk to plan a night expedition, how could they show fear and escape before the battle began at a critical point?

Now, there was only one source the Eye Demon guards could sense in their vision. It implied that most of the lowlifes had yet to "see" the Deity of Gods. While the night limited the other party, it also weakened the Eye Demon guard's senses.

Could it be… that this bunch of iron birds are not the main assault force of the humans?

An idea suddenly popped up in his head as he controlled all the Eye Demon guards to look around the empty skies around the Deity of Gods. This time, the Eye Demon guards were not using magic power, but the visual abilities of thousands of eyes.

"What are you doing?" Undeserved immediately protested unhappily.

Mask didn't bother explaining to him. All his brains were connected to the Eye Demon guards. After a while, he finally noticed something peculiar in the empty night sky.

He saw an inconspicuous black metallic object flying towards the Deity of Gods. Its body was far smaller than the iron bird, and it was very difficult to differentiate it from the dark blue background.

This cylinder-shaped object immediately made Mask recall of the explosive object that Fury of Heaven planes had dropped previously… However, were the humans going to such great lengths just to drop something like this?

Even so, Nassaupelle continued ordering his subordinates to launch the magic barriers.

At that moment, an extremely bright light bloomed in the sky!

This was also the final scene he saw through the Eye Demon guards.

The light lasted for less than the time it took to blink. All the Eye Demon guards disconnected from him, and what was left in his mind was an extremely scorching pain and whiteness.

He could not help but growl!

But this was not the end.

The Deity of Gods seemed to be nudged by something as the city's interior quaked amid a buzz. The dome let out a sharp shriek and the ground began to collapse. Nassaupelle only felt his feet sink as his body seemed to float up.

…

Tilly did not see the instant the explosion happened.

Although she had prepared black shades, to capture the explosive thrown from seven thousand meters high with the naked eye was quite impossible. Besides, wearing shades made her already terrible vision turned darker. After a few attempts, she gave up the idea.

As such, only when the world was lit up did Tilly subconsciously realize what was happening.

At that fateful moment, she had her back facing the Deity of Gods. Instantly, the plane's wings were illuminated into a sparkling radiance. Even the rivets on it could be seen clearly. As for the protruded parts of the plane, it even drew out a staggering long shadow!

In the past, only daybreak could outline and illuminate all things in the night sky, pushing back the darkness.

Tilly drew a deep breath of air and turned her head to look over—

A huge fireball appeared several hundred meters above the Deity of Gods, but regardless of its height, it rapidly descended and still managed to illuminate the floating fortress.

The grand Blackstone walls emitted billowing green smoke, as though they were swept by a surge of air. However, Tilly knew that it was no air, but illumination which reached a certain intensity. It was able to deliver an impact force and ignite any flammable object.

At the same time, the fireball began warping as ripples began to rapidly spread outwards. If not for the Deity of Gods setting off as a foil, she would not have been able to see this stunning scene.

The ripples collided with the floating fortress beneath it, akin to a gigantic palm striking a wooden table that was covered in dust. Large amounts of dust instantly stirred and nearly blanketed the vertebral body's surface. Following that, it was the rest of the Deity of Gods and finally, the ground. From the moment the smoke leaped up, one could tell that the ripples looked nothing ethereal. They were corporeal and real.

After it struck the ground, it continued inflating, surging straight for the fleet!

"Prepare to charge!" Tilly raised the transmitter receiver and yelled.

"Boom—!"

Only then did the earth-shaking boom reach her ears.

The silent night was finally shattered. Accompanied by the rumbling booms, the planes began to vibrate violently. At the same time, under the influence of the blast, the planes plummeted like they had lost control. It took them several seconds before they stabilized the situation.

The loud boom was like a gong that marked the creation of a new world, announcing the arrival of dawn. A sliver of morning light tore through the mountain ridge as it projected across the land.

And the fireball had already turned into a yellowish-brown column of smoke. Its bottom was deeply embedded in the Deity of Gods while the top was constantly rising, merging with the clouds.

Tilly once again gave the order to turn around.

When the fleet flew to the eastside, she finally saw the Deity of Gods under the cloud of smoke.

From an overall perspective, it was almost unaffected. Compared to the rickety trees below, it still remained floating stably in midair.

However, the result of the explosion was not without any damage. Through the smoke, they saw a huge hole in the Blackstone pyramid's top!

Chapter 1465 - Battle of Struggles

"Cough! Cough… Cough…"

It took Nassaupelle quite a while to get up from the rubble. If he had not prepared a fortified body, he would probably have died from the tremor.

Darn it—what were those lowlifes doing!?

Although a life was worth nothing to him, he did not wish to be discovered that he was capable of transplanting his soul under the watchful eyes of the King. Until he fully obtained control over the core, he had to try his best to maintain his current image. Only then would he be able to reduce the wariness others had of him.

"Your Majesty, are you alright…"

"The dome to King's City is damaged. The magic barrier has been shattered. The time to restore it to normal is expected to taken an hour." The King rigidly instructed, "We have to immediately take countermeasures!"

"What was the bright light and boom from just now?" Blood Conqueror's voice interjected. "Why was I able to see the turmoil even from Arrieta?"

"Where are the Eye Demon guards? I can't contact any of them!" Undeserved felt somewhat flustered. "Mask, what did you do!?"

What did he do? A raging fire suddenly surged up in Nassaupelle's heart. Had these idiots who were all brawn no brains not figured it out yet? The humans had launched an unprecedented attack on the demon race!

The white light's brightness had reached an unbelievable state. Just the visual blast was enough to cause damage. Now, more than ten of his brains were blind. Even the sun couldn't do the same.

As for the outcome of the Eye Demon guards, it was obvious.

For the first time, Mask did not hide his emotions.

"The Eye Demon guards are dead. Use your own eyes to see."

After he said those words coldly, he went up to the nearest floating platform. On the way, rubble kept falling from the dome, crashing into the wide Red Mist Lake. Regardless of this damage, it did not threaten the Birth Tower. But ever since the establishment of King's City, this place had never been defiled by the enemy. This no doubt was a setback to the race's psychology.

After climbing to the highest point of King's City, a sizzling hot wave inundated him. There was a smell of burning mixed in the air as though a fire had once ravaged the area.

He clearly remembered that the white light first appeared close to the top of the dome, a few hundred meters in the sky from where he was. Despite such a distance, the heat still remained and this far exceeded his level of comprehension.

After surveying the area, Nassaupelle had a basic understanding of the entire situation.

Without a doubt, the black metallic object was the culprit of all of this.

Not only did it cause a huge hole in the dome, but it also destroyed many Symbiotic Demon defensive installations. From the periphery of the cracks that cratered in, the outer region of the city had been crushed by a particular force. Although the crystals that made up the upper shell was not as resilient as the Birth Tower, they had been under the protection of the magic barrier. Yet, just one attack had blasted open a hole. This served to prove that the destructive force of the object was astounding.

It was absolutely impossible for snow powder to have such effects, even if the quantity was raised by ten times. The weapon the humans had used was clearly new legacy, but the demon race knew nothing about it!

What warped Mask's expression even more was that the iron birds did not swoop down while taking advantage of the situation. They did not launch an attack on the ground forces which were in chaos. Instead, they turned around and had no intention of coming close!

This thing… Could it be that there might be more than one?

He turned his head to see the tower and the churning Red Mist Lake beneath the crack as his heart abruptly sank.

"Let all Bogle Beasts rise into the sky. Do not be held back by the iron birds. Investigate from a high elevation as best as they can. Once they discover any abnormalities, report it to me immediately!" Mask roared using his consciousness.

"Report to you? Nassaupelle, are you mistaken about something? The King City's Bogle Beasts army is under my command!" Undeserved said in an unfriendly manner.

If I had not managed to successfully produce a Symbiotic Demon capable of flight from my research, would I be here listening to your nonsense!? Mask held down his anger and said, "Listen up. The human's main force is not that bunch of iron birds, but something else—" As he recalled the scene from before, he continued, "That thing likely can fly very high. And it carried a weapon that is dropped from a high elevation. It will then detonate at a particular height. Due to its tremendous might, all the iron birds are circling the outer perimeter. Their goal is not to attack the Deity of Gods but to protect the main attacker! You have to find it as quickly as possible and destroy it. Otherwise, we are doomed!"

"Doomed? You mean… as a result of the humans?" Undeserved was taken aback.

"Quick. Take down those troops. Only you are capable of doing so!" Mask transferred his consciousness to the race's core. "Your Majesty, please allow me to move the Deity of Gods. We cannot remain here. We would only become target practice for the humans if this continues!"

He originally imagined that it would take a great deal of effort to convince the King of moving the floating fortress to avoid the humans, but to his surprise, the King quickly gave the orders. "Control over King's City will temporarily be under your charge. Make sure to eradicate the intruders!"

This is a conclusion that is devoid of emotions and completely a result of reason… Mask bowed his head at the Birth Tower. "Your wish is my command, Your Majesty."

Ever since the King fused with the core apparatus, he acted more to Mask's liking. Perhaps in a century or more, he would truly understand his beliefs. Unfortunately, if not for the Presiding Holy See being that terrifying, he would not have to go to such drastic measures.

Mask raised the mini core high and infused magic power into it.

The Deity of Gods produced a rumbling sound and lifted off without any warning signs. At the same time, it flew towards the bottom of where the pillar of smoke was dispersing.

With full control, he didn't need to inform the subordinates. Just the core in his hand was enough to make all of King's City operate as he wished. The floating island's sudden movement caused a nontrivial amount of danger to the demons without a doubt. For example, the unlucky fools who traversed the boundaries of the cliffs would fall tens of thousands of feet and splatter to their deaths. However, this was no longer something Nassaupelle needed to consider.

If he allowed the black explosive land on the dome, the situation would truly be irreversible!

…

"A large number of Devilbeasts taking flight has been detected! I repeat, a large number of Devilbeasts taking flight has been detected!"

"They are heading for us!"

"This is Squadron 6. Lads, spread out and brace for the attack!"

After the light of dawn illuminated the skies, the Aerial Knights finally didn't need to rely on the taillights to determine their bearings. However, being bathed in the golden light of dawn was not a perfect situation. Apart from the blooming cloud of smoke, a large number of black dots appeared in the vision of everyone. They were surging out of the Deity of Gods like a horde of hornets.

"Ark of Peace, how's the situation right now?" Tilly asked loudly.

"We have finished doing the calculations. We are proceeding to our drop point."

Previously, in order to confirm the situation of the explosion, it wasted the bombing squadron quite a bit of time. As the demons' King's City had an outer shell, to fully express the second high-explosive bomb's might, they needed to do their best to close in on the source of the Red Mist. Even though Sylvie had managed to calculate the new parameters for the air drop at quick notice, the natural errors that resulted from a seven-thousand-meter drop exceeded the range of the hole. As such, the Ark of Peace had intentionally lowered its altitude by 1,500 meters so as to ensure that the bomb would enter the city.

"Ark of Peace is preparing for the drop. All squadrons, be prepared for the charge." Tens of seconds later, the transmitter sounded its report.

"Wait!" At that moment, Sylvie suddenly interrupted. "The Deity of Gods is beginning to move!"

Chapter 1466 - Chaos

On the Ark of Peace, Eagle Face, who held the sluice gates tightly and was prepared to pull it up, retracted his hand.

"In which direction?"

"Nine degrees east. They are headed for the smoke pillar!"

"Instructor, what do we do next?" the chief pilot turned his head and asked.

With the Deity of Gods's mass, it was impossible to avoid a bombardment from the air even if it moved. What's more, the magic barrier had been dispelled. As long as the second Glory of the Sun landed near the Blackstone pyramid, there was a nontrivial chance that the obelisk would be destroyed. To the fleet, this was no doubt the safest choice.

However, he had not boarded this plane out of concerns for safety.

The pilots of the two bombers were picked from excellent trainees. Only the aircraft commander was helmed by an instructor. The goal was obvious. The former was key to flying the plane well, while the latter was the guarantee that the mission would be completed.

A nontrivial chance of success implied that there was still a chance of failure.

And what he wanted was to lose the parts that relied on destiny, pushing what he could control to the maximum.

Regarding the possibility that the Deity of Gods would move in between the two assaults, to the point of it moving right from the beginning, the General Staff had discussed the matter numerous times. There was only one solution—exchange height for a successful hit. This could happen until the enemy had no way of dodging the strike.

"Descend by 2,000 meters. Recalculate the drop trajectory." Eagle Face did not hesitate to give the order. "We will follow them wherever they go!"

…

At this moment, the Devilbeasts had already "collided" with the fleet.

Good could feel the sky darkening more than a shade. It felt as though the dawn which had just happened was once again swallowed by the night sky. No matter where he looked, there would be enemies all around him.

The only thing that eased his heart was the glaring stream of light which the Fury of Heaven's autocannons spewed. Aiming, or simply firing straight ahead would tear any Devilbeast that blocked the way to pieces. Technique of each individual was of little meaning in a battle of this scale. Even if one had eyes all around, it was impossible to discover every enemy that charged at him.

If not for his squadron mates protecting him along the way, he would have long been struck by the bone spears that flew everywhere.

After three firing sweeps, Good felt the scene before him light up. He realized that he had already torn through the hordes of Devilbeasts. When turning his head back, no enemy was pursuing his tail.

"What are the demons doing? Their attention doesn't not seem to be on us." Finkin, who had always been by his flank, also noticed this.

As Good steered his plane to pull open a distance, he instantly felt something amiss. Taking in the combat situation as a whole, only a small number of the dense horde of Devilbeasts in the sky was entangling themselves with the Aerial Knights. The rest were trying their best to fly higher.

Logically speaking, the demons should not have been able to discover the bomber that was above the clouds.

The facts also proved that they had yet to discover their target.

Although they were climbing higher into the sky, the trajectories they took were utterly chaotic. It felt like they were barging around aimlessly.

"Darn it, the demons are trying to find the Ark of Peace!" Good roared into the transmitter.

"Isn't that good?" Finkin whistled. "At their flying speed, it won't be easy for them to catch up to the bomber. We can also take the opportunity to eliminate a few of them. We can reduce the pressure placed on Her Highness."

Although that was the case, Good still felt uneasy.

"Another group of enemies are charging at us!" a squadron mate warned. "Let's head to the clouds. It's more suitable for a battle of attrition. When at an elevation above four thousand meters, the Devilbeasts would find it exhausting just to flap their wings. We can then shave off the vanguards one layer at a time."

"That sounds like a good plan!"

"I'll first head on up!"

More than ten biplanes raised their noses and flew for higher heights.

However, Good did not follow.

He adjusted his transmitter to the squadron's channel and said individually to Finkin, "Let's stay in this area."

"What? Stay here? What if the enemy suddenly abandons the search. The first to bear the brunt would be us!" His old partner immediately voiced his doubts. "Besides, aren't we letting the rest take all the credit by not seizing the opportunity to make more confirmed kills?"

"That's not what's important. What's important is the actions of the demons!" Good explained as he stared at the battlefield intently. "Think about it. Since they can guess at the existence of the bomber, would they not discover that the strike was, in fact, a result of an inconspicuous bomb?"

"No way… The demons do not know of the existence of the Glory of the Sun project at all. They did not discover our attack ahead of time either. How is it possible that they figured out so much just minutes after the first bomb strike?"

"I'm not sure, but I feel that the floating city's movement towards the smoke column is probably not a coincidence," Good muttered. Typically, that's a dust cloud formed by the explosive material. They would be eager to dodge it, so why would they deliberately approach it. If it's a deliberate move by the demons, it means the period of time when the bomb drops is the final moment they can counterattack."

"Alright." After a moment of silence, Finkin replied helplessly, "I'll believe you this once if you say so. However, if we lose out on achieving meritorious deeds, you will have to compensate me."

"How's a month of Chaos Drinks?"

"There's no need. Just introduce me to your younger sister."

"Buzz—" The receiver produced the cutting off sound of the communications.

Finkin smiled and turned his head to fly towards Good.

…

Darn it. These bastard is really a nuisance!

Undeserved controlled a flying magic stone, frantically dodging the barrage of bullets. According to Mask, being hit by these tiny objects was no different from being directly struck by a hammer. The magic shields were unable to last long either. Even Silent Disaster had suffered under the humans' firearms, so he naturally had no plans on experiencing it for himself.

With his abilities, it would have been easy to interfere with the humans' senses. Even if they wore God's Stones of Retaliation, he was still able to influence them to a certain extent. Unfortunately, he was targeted by a Witch.

To Undeserved's dismay, the Witch had no intention to use magic to clinch victory. She rode on a blood-red iron bird and would never enter a radius of nine hundred feet from him. Despite fleeing after every strike, she was agile and her aim was good. It caused him to enter a passive state of being unable to catch up to her or shake her off his tail.

For a magic power user to not rely on her magic but on an external object for combat was an insult to him!

Furthermore, there appeared to be more than one of such bastards.

For example, God's Stone bullets shot out from the clouds from time to time, clearly from a Witch. If not for his upgrade, making him especially sensitive to enemy intent, he would have long been struck by the sneak attack.

It was meant to be a pursuit of the humans, but they ended up being hounded by their prey. This threw Undeserved into a dilemma and he never felt so peeved before. At the end of the day, the only one who could be as agile in the sky as on the ground was Hackzord who was known as Sky Lord. Despite all his abilities, all he could do was dodge with the help of the flying magic stone. It's all Nassaupelle's fault. If we were allowed to use the Bogle Beast army to engage the enemy in battle, would I be chased by this unbridled red iron bird?

What main attacking force that's hiding high in the sky. He speaks of it like he has seen it for himself!

Undeserved dodged another attack of the Witch and turned to look upwards, only to feel stunned.

He saw a massive, pitch-black iron bird swoop out of the pillar of smoke. Its frame was thicker than the biggest Bogle Beasts. Its wings had four propulsion installations, completely incomparable to the other double-winged iron birds!

Without a doubt, this was the "abnormality" which Mask was referring to.

To think he actually got it right.

The other Bogle Beasts troops also noticed this. They chased after the new target based on the commands originally issued. Although the humans attempted to stop them, their numbers were puny in comparison. All they could do was stall for time; downing the gigantic iron bird was only a matter of time.

"Fine. You got it right." Undeserved used a sigil to send the message. "My troops have discovered your so-called main force. I believe it will soon be resolved."

However, Mask's voice did not have a tinge of relief. "What does it look like? Tell me, quick!"

Undeserved frowned, but he said frankly, "It looks like an even bigger artificial iron bird."

"What's below its belly? Is there something hanging from it?"

At that moment, the Witch came attacking again.

Is there no end to this! Once I finish off the big one, all of you will be next! After Undeserved dodged, he finally had the time to take a careful look.

"It has nothing underneath it. What exactly do you wish to say?"

"Nothing?" Mask repeated in a rare instance.

"That's right," Undeserved said impatiently. "Apart from a huge hole, I don't see anything."

Chapter 1467 - Different Fates

Nassaupelle only felt a chill run down his back.

He had seen the iron bird's launching bombs when they swooped down. Since the first attack came from a huge metallic object, then the bigger iron bird which Undeserved discovered was a complete match. Ignoring the discussion on when the humans managed to build such large iron birds, at the very least, their principles and structure were interrelated.

And for the belly to only have a huge hole, it meant that the enemy had already dropped the second metallic object!

Then where was it now?

As Nassaupelle changed the direction of King's City, he looked up towards the smoke pillar. But he soon gave up his meaningless attempts. Without the aid of the Eye Demon guards, his several pairs of half-blind eyes were unable to find the answer in the chaotic sky. There were traces of battle between the Bogle Beasts and the iron birds, and any black speck that fell could be a fragment of the iron birds or a limb of a Bogle Beast, or even a Primal Demon who had lost its mount.

In fact, he couldn't even see the gigantic black iron bird which Undeserved saw. The billowing smoke had already spread out for dozens of miles. A huge 'umbrella' had formed above his head and had undoubtedly formed a contiguous screen. Trying to figure out the overall situation from a low elevation was basically impossible.

"Did it throw something? Or is there any black object that's rapidly descending?" Mask asked with a roar.

"Yes, there're things like that everywhere." Undeserved answer did not exceed his expectations. "If you want me to find something, it's best you be clearer in your description."

There's no more time! Nassaupelle came to a realization.

What else could he do?

How was he to dodge such a strike?

Many hypotheses surfaced in his mind, but they were quickly written off.

This won't do… That won't do… Not this either!

Finally, Mask discovered that he was at his wits' end.

Faced with the enemy's incredible legacy weapon, there was little he could do. The Deity of Gods was massive, so trying to change the direction in a short period of time was basically impossible. Even if he had issued a command for a full retreat towards the core apparatus, the massive inertia pushed the mountain body slowly forward.

Intercept the metallic object? Ignoring the problem of not knowing the precise location and its speed, realizing the given order would be impossible. The Bogle Beast troops have already fully scattered and had targeted the huge iron bird. The Birth Tower's conscious transmission could only be sensed by higher ascendants who had touched the Realm of Mind. There was no way for him to immediately inform the threat to more than a thousand Primal Demons and Junior Demons who were in battle.

The only thing Mask could pin his hopes on was that the fellows with one head could be a little smarter, treating the humans' weapon as "another abnormality," and not allow the black metallic object to crash into King's City.

The fate of the demons no longer had anything to do with his personal will.

…

Sylvie could not help but bite down on her lips.

The Ark of Peace was already billowing in smoke due to the attacks of the demons' encirclement. The plane's nose was indented from the enemy's strikes and although two of its engines were still working, it did not reverse the fate of it crashing.

Around the Ark of Peace was a dense horde of Devilbeasts. They were coming from every direction, throwing their long spears with explosive effects at the plane which had lost control. The scene reminded her of vultures splitting the meat of their prey.

This was also a decision made by the squadron.

In order to reduce the errors from dropping the bomb, Ark of Peace had descended from seven thousand meters to four thousand meters. This distance was already smaller than the safety limit, and the trajectory calculated was basically that of a direct drop into the enemy's search zone. At the same time, with them passing through the fatal radiating column, it meant that there was no turning back once they decided on a course of action.

After obtaining the modified parameters and calculating the outcome, the aircraft commander, Eagle Face, did not say much to her. All he said was two sentences.

"Ark of Peace, roger that.

"Thank you. The rest of the mission is up to you."

It was as though this was a most ordinary matter.

If she had not informed the numbers she observed or had chosen a safer route…

Wendy suddenly held her hand, as though she could see that she lacked the heart of what had just happened. "This is not your fault. Eagle Face knows very well of his responsibilities. He also completed his mission in outstanding fashion. If not for the Ark of Peace attracting a large number of enemies, the Aerial Knights would have probably suffered an inestimable loss. Let them retreat from the blast zone and be prepared for the blast."

Sylvie knew that Wendy was right. When fighting the enemy on their homeground while they held the absolute data advantage, it already wasn't easy for the Aerial Knights to last so long. She could not let Eagle Face's efforts be in vain.

"Yes…"

She took a deep breath and rallied herself. She passed the news through a sigil and transmitter simultaneously. The planes which received the notice turned directions and used the advantage of their speed to escape the battlefield. It was also at this moment that Sylvie saw an incredible scene. Not all the Aerial Knights were retreating into the distance. Three Fury of Heaven planes had no intention of leaving and were instead flying towards the demons' King's City!

…

"Hey, do you know what you are doing!?" In the receiver, Finkin's rowdy voice blared ceaselessly. "This is not an exercise!"

"I know that obviously!" Good roared as well. As he spoke, he shot and finished a Devilbeast which was charging straight at him. "If everyone is flying out, the enemy is bound to discover that the Ark of Peace has dropped the bomb. Although changing its trajectory isn't easy, who knows what will eventually happen! If you don't believe, look at that fellow—he clearly has the same idea as me!"

The reason why Good insisted on staying in the original area of attack was precisely because he was worried that the demons would notice the bomb which was dropped from a high altitude and manage to stop it from landing on the Deity of Gods.

The second high-explosive bomb weighed four tons and it was installed with a God's Stone of Retaliation. Be it spear-throwing or the power of magic stones, it was difficult to damage it. However, the problem lay in the fact that it only produced the best effects by exploding in the core region of the floating city. This was something that was emphasized numerous times in the battle briefings. It was nearly impossible for the Devilbeasts to chase after it by their own initiative, but one could never be too careful. If a Devilbeast were to happen to intercept it while it followed its trajectory, the outcome might be greatly altered.

And he was the guardian to see it to the end.

Regretfully, he was not the only one who had thought of this. Someone had acted faster than him. Perhaps he had taken action the moment the bomb left the plane.

That person was none other than Manfeld Castein.

In fact, he was the first to notice Manfeld's plane and, from the chaos, found the round bomb.

The three Fury of Heaven planes took up a triangular formation and chased after the bomb. Their engines produced ear-splitting booms that tore through their earmuffs. Good even saw the stabilizer fins located at the end of the bomb.

If he was maneuvering a former Fire of Heaven, his plane would probably be reduced to pieces from traveling at such high speeds.

Thankfully, the journey wasn't too far. After destroying two Devilbeasts which attempted an approach, the huge hole in the dome of the Deity of Gods appeared before their eyes.

Chapter 1468 - Ignition

Good clenched his control stick tightly and stared unblinkingly ahead.

Time seemed to flow slowly.

In the beginning, he could still hear the roaring of the engines, but gradually, the voice was drowned by the thumping of his heartbeats. It didn't take long before the sound of his heartbeats vanished. The world about him became especially serene.

As the bomb distanced itself from the Fury of Heaven, the opening in the dome appeared larger. It nearly occupied all of his vision. At this point in time, many demons had noticed them. However, in that frozen moment in time, their actions of turning tail was as slow as a snail.

Scenes from the meeting before they set off on the mission surfaced in his mind involuntarily.

"Your Highness, do the bombs dropped by the bombing squadron really possess such immense power?"

"If I fly fast enough, I should be able to outrun the blast, right?"

The person who asked was none other than Finkin. Regardless of the occasion, he could always used his inappropriate words to garner laughter in everyone. To be honest, he envied the guy at times.

"Unless you can fly faster than light," the princess rebutted mercilessly. "At the instant it explodes, the intense light it generates is enough to instantly cook you. By the time you see it, it's already too late. Even if you are lucky to dodge the light, the subsequent blast will exceed the speed of sound for a brief moment. Therefore, the only safe way of dodging is to keep a sufficient distance from it," she paused when she said that. "At least that's how it is for the first bomb."

"What about the second bomb?"

"If the god of luck blesses you, you might have a chance. However, compared to praying to the heavens, why not nudge your control stick and retreat ahead of time?"

Amid the laughter, Her Highness Tilly did not continue going in detail. However, it left an impression on Good.

In fact, after seeing the explosion of the first bomb, he could guess at the hiding method pointed out by Princess Tilly. Just the Glory of the Sun alone was not enough to completely obliterate the Deity of Gods. This was also the reason why targeting the core of the Red Mist Lake was emphasized in the plan. And when its interior exploded, the latter's massive body would become a natural shield.

However, Princess Tilly wasn't right on one thing. It was not completely down to luck. A lot of it depended on their squadron mates.

If it were anyone else, Good wouldn't have been that certain.

And the person in charge of the second drop was the aircraft commander of the Ark of Peace, Eagle Face.

He was a person who never believed in luck.

If it was the instructor, he would definitely ensure that he met the responsibilities of his duty.

This was also why Good was determined to escort the bomb to the end.

He did not wish for the enemy's luck to destroy all that the instructor had done.

"Hey, Good! Answer me! Are you in a daze!?" Suddenly, his companion's voice broke the stillness of time. The wind and engine sounds entered his ears once again. "Bastard, any longer, and we will be dropping in together with the bomb! Do you really want to abandon Rachel—"

"Do you still remember the series of actions we did during our exercises?" Good interrupted him. "Three, two, one!"

Just as he finished his sentence, Manfeld, who was flying ahead, pulled his plane up.

He followed closely behind as he pulled the control stick to his chest.

The three planes scattered like a blooming flower, and right in the middle of the flower was that round bomb.

The tremendous forces pressed him to his seat, making it difficult to even breathe. His vision slowly spun, going from the opening to the Blackstone pyramid's exterior. Even with the Fury of Heaven's engine, it was still a difficult feat to pull of.

While plummeting at high speeds, trying to switch to normal flight was impossible. Furthermore, once the bomb exploded, the entire sky would become extremely dangerous. What they could do was try their best to adjust the angle, making the Fury of Heaven cling close to the periphery of the Deity of Gods and using its pyramidal stone walls to escape the initial blast while using the distance to change their directions.

It was at that moment when Good saw an extremely strange demon.

Regardless of its getup or its looks, it had a qualitative difference from the other demons. Both parties were less than fifty meters apart, and it wasn't an exaggeration to call it as brushing past the demon. At that very instant, he even imagined that he would be shred to pieces by the demon's powers or petrified into a stone sculpture, but ultimately, nothing happened.

It stood there motionless, looking at him fly past.

At the same time, the bomb brushed past the opening, and fell into the dome.

…

Mask lowered the hand which had raised the core high.

Luck was not on the demons' side.

Or it could be said that when he saw the three iron birds accompanying the black metallic object in its descent, it was no longer a bet against fate.

The prepared against the unprepared—with the humans already going so far, it would be a dismissal of fate if a mere coincidence could reverse everything.

Nassaupelle closed his eyes and connected to the Birth Tower.

The King was constantly giving orders, including mobilizing the troops stationed at Arrieta, with a cold tone akin to a machine of the humans. He directly controlled the core apparatus and cut off the King's messages. In a certain way, doing so exposed his tampering of the magic core, but he couldn't care less.

The King quickly reacted as the Realm of Mind lake beneath his feet immediately churned. Magic reverberated with an intensity that appeared to take physical form. Perhaps in the Realm of Mind, the King had already stirred up several ripples. As long as Mask had contact with the Realm of Mind, perhaps there wouldn't even be a chance for resistance, allowing him to be pulled straight into the Presiding Holy See.

Unfortunately, the "network" he created had zero connections with the Realm of Mind.

This was a domain that solely belonged to him.

Mask simply screened off all the brains that could sense magic power, turning the entire world silent.

At that moment in time, he was the Birth Tower itself. And this was also the best spot to experience humanity's latest legacy.

Upon seeing the metallic object, Nassaupelle "opened up" all his arms towards the sky.

"Come, let me see—"

—the power of knowledge.

Before he could finish the second half of his sentence, the blinding light enveloped him.

…

Following the thundering boom, Good was astonished to see the Blackstone pyramid suddenly swell up, as though its outer shell was not made of stone, but a soft liquid!

The intense blast on the walls produced clear ripples and when it spread to its maximum point, an inferno, together with large amounts of smoke, spewed out from the crack. Instantly, it produced a smoke pillar that exceeded the first explosion.

The top layer of the pyramid was completely obliterated, with nearly a third of the stone being thrown into the sky.

If he was a little slower, the explosion was enough to annihilate him as well.

However, this was just the beginning.

Soon, the inferno that spewed out turned into another color.

The color was identical to that of blood.

The scale at which it spewed out quickly exceeded the smoke column, dyeing half the sky a crimson red.

Good realized that it was not Red Mist, but a sticky flame. At that moment, the Deity of Gods was like an erupting volcano, spewing out all the magma in it towards the clouds.

And when this inferno expanded to a particular limit, another more shocking boom followed with a blast!

The Red Mist Lake had been ignited.

Chapter 1469 - The Fall of a City

Good swore that it was the most inconceivable scene he had ever witnessed in his life.

If it had to be described, it would be a volcano floating in the air—and this volcano was not only spewing out from the mouth, but from all directions!

After the explosion that shook the world, not only was the top of the dome quilted with raging flames, even the regions surrounding the city spewed with hundreds of dark red lava flows. He could imagine the situation within the Deity of Gods: due to the immense heat, the Red Mist had transformed into thick flames like oil being set on fire. This caused the air temperature to rise and cause the swelling, only to finally explode out of the crevices and caves nearer to the surface!

This meant that the demons had nowhere to escape. Even if they were to hide in chambers capable of withstanding high pressure and attacks, they would be cooked to death by the high temperatures that reached above a thousand degrees Celsius.

It was definitely a scene that depicted hell.

Even though they were the enemy, Good sympathized with them.

But his current situation was nowhere better.

The short distance of roughly ten kilometers from the center of the Deity of Gods to the edge could be called a perilous zone with danger at every turn. There were no signs of the chain reactions abating. The flames that were able to shoot up tens of meters high with ease like sharp knives that could destroy the plane with a single touch. If this problem was something he could overcome with his skills, then the "fiery rain" falling from the sky was another problem out of his control.

The fragments that spewed out along with the initial explosion had started falling. They were either rock chunks that half-melted, or burning gelatinous substances. Good only had to raise his head to see the dense fire plumes above him. They looked to have covered the sky and even suppressed the light from dawn.

"Goddamnit, are you seeing these things!" Finkin whined on the other end of the transmitter.

"Obviously, I'm not blind!"

"Its impact radius is way too exaggerated; we won't even have time to fly out with so little time! When they fall, it'll be difficult for us to escape!"

"No… Crrr … there's a place… Crrr… to avoid this." At this moment, an additional voice suddenly sounded.

Obviously, it was Manfeld that had taken the initiative first. Due to their dispersion, they had encountered different obstructions that led to his signal being fuzzy.

"I agree, but the premise is that we are able to make it there!" Good replied.

"Wait… are you guys for real?" Finkin reacted quickly. "All of those things are about to fall onto us and you're thinking of using that to take shelter?"

He knew that his comrades were right. In fact, after the second explosion, Good already knew that His Majesty's plan was effective.

The Deity of Gods was now clearly slightly tilted to the side. Although it was several hundreds of meters off the ground, this small change meant that the magic power core controlling the flight of the city had been damaged, and a plummet was only a matter of time.

If they were able to fly beneath the Deity of Gods before the fiery rain hailed upon them, they would be able to avoid the fate of being burned by the eruption. But upon considering that the floating island was falling continuously, it held an equal amount of risk. If they had any failure over their control over their direction and speed even once, they would either plant straight into the ground or crash into the Blackstone walls. This conclusion was no better than being struck and taken out by the fiery rain.

But it did not rely on fate!

As the plane finally gained stability, Good accelerated to the plane's maximum capabilities and soared towards the side of the Deity of Gods!

…

On the Seagull, Sylvie saw the destruction of the demons' King's City.

The violent expansion of the Red Mist not only surged through the city, but charged out of the sluice gates at the bottom of the tower. The burning Red Mist had turned into thick flame pillars and engulfed all the gathered demons in a flash, followed by roasting the ground where it flowed like a spewing flintlock, extensively spreading over a few kilometers in seconds.

Following that were the rain of falling rocks—mostly wrapped in flames or were completely red themselves—falling onto the ground in unbroken succession. The Devilbeasts tasked to protect the city suffered under the flames, regardless of where they tried to escape. It was difficult to escape the wrath of the heavens.

A distance away from King's City was a demon camp that suffered equally severe repercussions, but they were ultimately only on the periphery of the eruption's destruction. Although the troops that had retreated from the beginning had suffered losses, it was not a complete decimation. To them, it was the fact that the Deity of Gods they hailed as a miracle had turned into a live volcano city was the true setback they couldn't handle.

Sylvie saw many demons that stood in their place motionlessly as they stared at the Blackstone tower falling towards them.

After experiencing two explosions, the Deity of Gods was completely paralyzed.

It dragged two spewing lines of flames and sank along its original path. A moment later, the giant pyramid at the bottom made contact with the ground. The collision between the two triggered a third boom and the pressurized air within was unleashed as a small shockwave.

Under the inertia, the floating island continued to slide forward, crushing the camp and scout stations into smithereens. As it slowed down from friction, it left a kilometer wide ravine in the ground.

At this time, the spewing flames had weakened with the churning smoke and dust having a slight hand in the result, but it did not signify the end of the catastrophe. The interior of the Deity of Gods was similar to a boiling stove, apparent from the glowing red cracks seen on the surface. Perhaps the flames and heat would require several months to completely go out, but before that, all the demons that resided inside the city had turned into its fuel.

The only thing Sylvie cared about were the three that had charged beneath the Deity of Gods.

"… How is it, do you see them?" Tilly inquired on their whereabouts as well.

"No, not at the moment…" She bit her lips and replied. With the Deity of Gods experiencing the destruction, fall, and slide, to follow alongside the Deity of Gods held unfathomable risks. If they didn't appear, it would mean the inevitable—

"Wait a minute." Suddenly, her Magic Eyes noticed a few inconspicuous black dots. They appeared similarly to rocks being thrown out by the shockwave, but they never fell to the ground.

Sylvie gathered her remaining magic power and enhanced her vision, to see three gray biplanes flying out of the billowing dust, the insignia on their tails still as distinct as ever! Although the planes appeared to be in shambles, with a layer of dust all over the wings, making them no longer as sleek as before, they remained intact.

At that moment, she was unable to say anything, as though something had gotten stuck inside her chest.

After breathing in through her nose, Sylvie picked up the Sigil and replied, "Your Highness… the three are fine."

"Is that so?" Tilly's tone relaxed by a clear margin. "I knew it."

"If you had known, you wouldn't have kept asking." Andrea smirked by the side.

Wendy smiled and shook her head. "Inform everyone to return to the cruiser. Let us bring the news of our victory back to His Majesty Roland!"

Chapter 1470 - Fracturing

"This—is impossible—"

Blood Conqueror looked at the reddened horizon as he roared with battle ax in hand.

Although he couldn't see the exact situation of the Deity of Gods, be it the red hurricane that surged towards the firmaments, or the successive explosion sounds, it all meant that the situation was not optimistic. As one of the first senior lords of the race to upgrade, he was the first to see man-made "fiery rain." In his memory, only the calamities of the Blackstone region would produce such phenomena of a resonating world and flames reaching into the sky.

And when it was so strong in intensity that even higher ascendants could sense the magic power blast sweeping towards them, they received confirmation of their worst expectations. It was no longer considered a ripple, but a thud that struck them on the heart. Only the King's death would trigger such a clear palpitation.

If one wanted to kill the King, one had to first attack the Deity of Gods. That implied battling thousands of Junior Demons, more than a hundred thousand Primal Demons, and even more Symbiotic Demons. Blood Conqueror could not imagine how the humans could accomplish that.

"What's happening over there? What are Undeserved and Mask doing?" His rage reached its peak. The two bastards had confidently claimed of being able to protect the Deity of Gods, but in less than an hour, the rear had fallen under the enemy's hands. If they were to appear in the camp, he would not hesitate to chop them up!

"Wait, where are you going?"

Just as Blood Conqueror gritted his teeth and headed out the camp, Death Scar stopped him.

"Is there a need to ask? Of course, it's to kill the enemy! Make way!"

"How are you going to touch that metal lump in the sky?" The latter remained motionless. "Besides, once the Deity of Gods is damaged, the Birth Tower here is the only Red Mist source that can be reached. The surviving members of the race will definitely retreat towards Arrieta. Are you planning on forging forward against the incoming horde?"

"So what? I'll destroy anyone who stops me!" Blood Conqueror spat.

"And as a result lower the morale of the migrants to rock-bottom?" Death Scar said heavily. "The blast from before has already left the camp uneasy. If you were to leave alone, it will probably make them think that you're panic-stricken and fled alone! As such, order in the army would collapse—"

"Bullshit!" Blood Conqueror couldn't contain his anger. "Even while facing the legions of the Sky-sea Realm, I never took a single step back. How dare you say I'm afraid?"

"So what if you aren't afraid? What matters is how the other upgraded demons think. Even if a surmise is incongruent with reality, when there's chaos and danger, it can also leave one in doubt. Regretfully, it's probably difficult for you to understand this point with your comprehensive abilities."

A voice suddenly sounded from behind them.

Blood Conqueror immediately widened his eyes, completely unable to forget the owner of the voice.

It was none other than the long-missing Sky Lord—Hackzord!

Without any hesitation, he raised his ax and turned around to cleave downwards. The reverberating magic power blasted out, leaving a crater tens of feet wide!

Before the dust settled, Hackzord walked out from another Distortion Door.

"You—traitor!" Blood Conqueror turned his head and roared.

"That's why I say that regardless of how ridiculous a surmise is, no one will care what the truth is," he said indifferently. "I have never betrayed the race."

"Where have you been the past few months?" Death Scar's expression was filled with shock as well. Although he wasn't as angry as Blood Conqueror, he still took on a wary pose.

"I went to the Bottomless Land… which is also what the race calls the origins of magic power, the Realm of Mind," Hackzord answered.

"What… did you say?" Death Scar was taken aback.

"It's in between the Land of Dawn and the Blackstone region, above the sea where the fog rises." Sky Lord recounted his experiences and discovery simply. "And the person who informed me of this news is Nightmare Lord, Valkries."

This series of stunning news left the two senior lords agape. It also made the other members of the race who gathered over when they heard the commotion to break out into murmurs.

Moments later, Blood Conqueror snapped to his senses. "So you chose to join forces with them to betray the King? Is this assault the result of your collusion with the humans?"

"I know you can't understand, just like you are having anger wash over your heads, insistent on seeking revenge on the humans, but throwing the interests of the race to the back of your mind." Hackzord turned his head to look at Death Scar. "But you are different from Blood Conqueror. You should understand the meaning behind these clues. In addition, although I've had contact with the humans, I didn't participate in their assault plans. Calling it a collusion is completely ridiculous."

Death Scar maintained a moment of silence before speaking. "Indeed, I'm not Blood Conqueror. As such, sophistry is meaningless to me. But it is undeniable that your desertion indirectly weakened King's City's defenses. Even if you had not involved yourself in the attack, it cannot be said that this assault had nothing to do with you. Sitting idly by the sidelines is in a way helping the humans."

"Cut the crap!" Blood Conqueror roared. "Use your ability to restrain him. I'll tear him to shreds with my own hands!"

However, Death Scar didn't take action. "What I wish to ask is that even after going this far, do you think you are doing this for the race?"

"What I think is meaningless," Hackzord answered calmly. "The facts of the matter is that the humans grasp a legacy that far exceeds our expectations. It's already impossible to completely destroy them. The final outcome would only be an internecine one. No one can continue this battle that repeats itself. However, by viewing it from another angle, if the Battle of Divine Will isn't necessary, it's possible that both races can survive."

"Why is it our race that makes the compromise?"

"…" This time, Sky Lord's voice had a tinge of wistfulness. "It's because the one that can affect god… is a human."

"Are you sure?"

"If you were to see that imaginary world, you wouldn't say so." Sky Lord sighed. "From what Nightmare Lord said, the race once had a chance to go that far. Heathtalese, who created the Cloud School, had heard the whispers of the Oracles, and back then, humans were nothing but in a state of disunity."

Death Scar stared at him for an extended period of time, seemingly trying to determine if it was something he said from the heart. Finally, he asked softly, "What direction does Nightmare Lord actually wish to take the race? Has she pledged loyalty to the human you mentioned?"

"No, there's no need for us to do anything. All we need to do is bring him to the Bottomless Land."

"In that case…"

"Ridiculous!" Blood Conqueror raised his foot and suddenly stomped the ground, interrupting the duo's conversation. "What difference does this have from surrendering in submission, leaving your fate in the hands of someone else? You believe the lowlifes' promises? I reckon you must be crazy! Nightmare Lord is nothing worth mentioning either!"

"This is the only chan—"

"Hahaha… Are you treating charity as a chance?" He raised his ax. "Has the centuries of war with the Sky-sea Realm not emboldened you at all? Oh, I forgot. You really lack the guts. After all, how can you truly encounter a strong enemy by hiding in the rear?"

Hackzord's expression sank.

"I was born for blood and slaughter! And so-called fate is something that only I can hold!" Blood Conqueror roared. "Lowering our weapons to our enemy and pleading for their kindness? No… I, Blood Conqueror, would rather die than surrender to anyone!"

"Although I knew this would be the outcome, I still wished to try my best to avoid it." Hackzord raised his hand and snapped his fingers. A new Distortion Door slowly opened up behind him.

Out of the door was the expressionless Silent Disaster.

Dark clouds billowed in the sky.

Chapter 1471 - Blood-colored Dawn

…

When the Divine Will's lights dispersed, the sky which was covered in layers of dark clouds regained its brightness.

Tens of thousands of demons stood a distance away, silently witnessing the battle of two senior lords.

The grasslands which originally stood there was gone, and replacing it was a scorched earth. Every time the Divine Will fell, it was represented by an indomitable force. Boulders would be shattered and trees would be set alit. Their trajectories leaving a wake of destruction wasn't even enough as a description.

But Blood Conqueror's massive body was barging about in the golden lightning as though unfazed by the damage the Divine Will brought to him. He similarly left countless marks on the ground—craters which were the length of several meters wide was the masterpiece of the tremendous strength he was proud of.

However, the first to fall was the latter.

Silent Disaster's attacks were not only formidable, but it also had a speed which wasn't inferior to Undeserved's, allowing her to leave a wound on Blood Conqueror with every attack. There was a limit to the expenditure of magic power, so even the recovery abilities of a senior Lord of Hell was eventually unable to keep up with the expenditure. When Silent Disaster brushed past him, her blades sliced off his thick calf, making victory a given.

"This is not a commensurate battle," Death Scar whispered.

Blood Conqueror's abilities were extremely identical to human Extraordinaries. His magic stone mainly acted on his body, leaving him invincible on the battlefield. Regardless of it being a metallic weapon or a magic strike, he possessed extremely strong resistive abilities. Once he burst into an assault, few things could stop him.

As for Silent Disaster, she had excellent stamina. Her talent at culling could enhance her abilities and her sharp senses and figure allowed her to avoid potent, critical strikes.

In the battle between the two, it was naturally incommensurate.

"Not necessarily," said Hackzord. "Watch."

"Cough! Cough… Cough…" Blood Conqueror was covered in wounds as blue blood spewed out like fountains. Clearly, his injuries far exceeded his recovery abilities. He propped himself up with his ax, but his face wore a baffling look of joy. "Not bad. As expected of a Charita genius! I've long wished to battle you to see who… Cough… is the strongest warrior in the race."

"…" Silent Disaster was not without injuries either. Her armor had several indentations and one of her arms was completely fractured, and it drooped down by her side. "If I had not experienced a near-death battle recently, I might not be too certain about the outcome of this fight."

"This is… the joy of slaughtering, isn't it?" Blood Conqueror coughed out a mouthful of blood. "Compared to surrendering, this suits me better."

Silent Disaster calmed her breathing and held her sword with one hand as she walked towards her opponent.

"Cough… Final question. Are you also going to be like those trash, using the fate of the race as reason to kneel to the humans in submission?"

"No, I'm only doing this for Valkries." After saying that, Silent Disaster swung her sword downwards, slashing straight into Blood Conqueror's chest.

The ripples of magic power swept through the Realm of Mind once again.

No one dared to come forward to stop them, nor was anyone willing to stop them. It was as though the outcome of the battle had already been decided from the beginning.

"… What do we do next?" Death Scar frowned silently for a period of time before asking. "The Mothers of Soul which need transplantation are all on the Deity of Gods. Currently, there are only three Birth Towers which can produce Red Mist. Furthermore, the stronghold closest to the north will land in the hands of the Sky-sea Realm sooner or later. Once Arrieta and your Sky City falls, we would have no place to retreat to."

"Many things need to be done." Hackzord sighed. "You have to settle down the massive number of troops that are retreating from the rear. Then, you need to establish a supply line between the two cities. The legacy shard has to be held firmly in the hands of the race, as far from the humans and the Sky-sea Realm as possible. In addition, the race needs a new King, so as to ensure the continuation of future generations…" He paused. "Of course, the first thing that needs to be done is to negotiate with the humans."

"I hope that Valkries didn't make a wrong choice." He turned to walk towards the camp as the race stirred to make way.

Sky Lord looked east towards the blood-red dawn without giving a reply.

…

Roland had woken up early and entered the landing site when he learned that the fleet was about to land.

In fact, he wasn't the only one. The First Army, the engineering team, the support crew… Everyone ran to the surface and awaited the moment of the Aerial Knights' return.

When the first biplane unstably landed on the floating island's runaway, a resounding cheer erupted from the crowd.

After waiting for a long while, Roland finally saw the Seagull and Phoenix. The glider didn't look too different from when it first set off while the latter appeared mottled. However, it was in stable condition like it usually was. Soon, the two planes landed in front of him.

Before the staircase was raised, he had already taken wide strides towards the runway.

"Wait, wait—" Tilly rejected his extended arms when she landed. "Don't come over!"

"Why?"

"Didn't you say that there would be dangerous contamination after the explosion? Although the Phoenix was rather far from the target, there's no guarantee that it wasn't tainted. Now that I've touched it and with you coming over—"

Before Tilly finished her sentence, she was pulled into a hug by Roland.

"Who cares," he said with a laugh.

The crowd soon noticed this scene. Following that, more people surged towards the tarmac and opened their arms to hug the returning Aerial Knights. Some even threw them high into the air!

The landing area immediately erupted into a sea of cheers.

"Uh, didn't you say that they have to undergo cleansing and inspection once they return," Nightingale asked with her lips curled.

Anna shook her head in amusement. "It looks like you've set off a bad example."

"Apparently…" Roland could not help but hold his forehead.

"Woo!" At that moment, Lightning descended from the sky and pounced onto him. "We succeeded!"

"Coo! We won! Coo!" Maggie followed closely behind.

The other Witches also came forward.

"Aren't you stopping everyone?" Nightingale asked with a shrug.

Tilly thought about it before laughing. "Who cares!"

After quite a period of buzz, the landing area finally returned to normal. According to the reports of the Aerial Knights, the Logistics team split the returning planes into batches. They determined the degree of cleansing based on the planes' distance from the explosion. As for the Fury of Heaven planes which Good and company flew, they were immediately decommissioned due to their close proximity to the Deity of Gods.

The higher-ups of the First Army quickly obtained the final tabulation. A total of 146 planes returned safely, which meant that Neverwinter lost nearly a third of its aerial forces, with a large number of them being first-generation Fire of Heaven planes. Clearly, the number of senior demons protecting King's City was completely on a different level as the Western Front's army. If they had used normal measures, this battle would probably not have ended in such a short period of time.

Out of the other two bombers, only Kun Peng returned safely. When Sylvie mentioned Eagle Face's last words, the meeting room fell into a brief moment of silence.

"Graycastle will not forget them," said Roland heavily. "When we return to Neverwinter, I will make everyone remember their names—be it those who sacrificed or the warriors who survived. But before our celebrations, we need to ensure the physical condition of the Aerial Knights."

"Your Majesty, rest assured. The Logistics team has already made preparations," Iron Axe said.

These were part of the plan which included tracking and observation, so as to quarantine the exposed. For Hero who possessed the ability to transfer illnesses and Nana who could perfectly eliminate illnesses, radiation sickness was not something that left them helpless. Even if the process might take some time, and the cost was significant, Roland had no intention of giving up on anyone.

"Of course, before that, I permit everyone to have a mini celebration tonight." He slowed down his tone and smiled. "For the victory that didn't come easy."

Chapter 1472 - Celebration and the Unforeseen

"Cheers!" Agatha said as she raised her cup.

"Cheers—!" the Witches boomed in reply. Dozens of cups were raised into the air as they clinked with each other. Among them were Taquila Witches, who had lost their sense of taste, as well as the higher-ups of the Union who had turned into carriers. It was especially so for the latter two. As humans who had experienced the previous Battle of Divine Will and through it, immense despair and helplessness, they finally felt the great weight on their chests lifted. They could engage in laughter with everyone else, laughing even more happily than the rest.

Not all sacrifices would have returns, nor was all persistence met with brightness. It was precisely because of this that centuries of sacrifice and persistence which were not for naught that moved people even more.

"Hey…" Nana curiously sized up Pasha and company. "Can you really taste anything by drinking it like this?"

The God's Punishment Witches had only lost their sense of taste, but Pasha, Alethea, and Celine's drinking far exceeded everyone's imaginations. They would curl up their tentacles, pour the alcohol over their heads like they were showering.

"Of course. Although we do not have mouths, but we can use the short tentacles on the surface of our bodies to distinguish flavors and absorb the moisture. Furthermore, our senses are stronger than the typical person." Pasha smiled in reply. "In addition, a carrier's sense of taste is different from a human's, so we can taste flavors we have never experienced before."

"Wow… What's the taste like? I'm so curious!" Lightning's eyes lit up as she said.

"According to the Quest Society's research, humans are unable to understand things they have never come into contact with. Even if she tells you, it would be hard for you to imagine it." The Ice Witch refilled her cup. "If you wish to exceed that limitation, the only way is to transform into a carrier."

"Agatha, are you thinking of…" Celine said peculiarly.

"Yes, once this is all over, I'm thinking of doing a Soul Transfer before rebuilding the Quest Society." Agatha nodded without any misgivings. "A Witch's lifespan doesn't exceed a hundred years. If I become a carrier, I can continue my research in perpetuity." With that said, she smiled at Lightning. "Towards people like you who are filled with curiosity, you are most suitable for the Quest Society. How about it? Are you interested in joining us?"

"But we won't be able to fly by becoming carriers, right?" Lightning thought for a moment. "I haven't even finished exploring the world. Perhaps, I'll consider it the day I can no longer fly."

"Phew… What are you saying? You sound as though the Battle of Divine Will has ended." Lorgar downed a large mug of alcohol before letting out a breath. "We just managed to defeat the demons. There are even stronger enemies on the other side of the continent! No one can guarantee that the war will end the moment we arrive in the Bottomless Land. That's why, we can only drink and celebrate as much as we can today!" As she spoke, she reached out to the alcohol barrel beside her. "Eh? It seems empty… Where's the refill?"

"Everyone, drink slower. The alcohol Evelyn had to make today is just too much." Molly commanded her magic servants to take away the empty alcohol barrels. "After all, everyone on the floating island is celebrating tonight. She won't be able to provide for all of this even if she uses all her strength in the conversion."

Be it Chaos Drink or alcohol, as objects of pleasure, it was naturally impossible that valuable manpower was wasted carrying them up the floating island before they set off. As such, the simplest solution was to bring along Evelyn. As long as there was water, she could produce alcohol ceaselessly. However, when everyone was celebrating over the victory, the stockpile they had was somewhat inadequate.

"Pfft" Sitting at the seat of honor, Anna suddenly burst out laughing.

"What's wrong?" Everyone turned their gaze towards her.

"No… Nothing. I just thought of an interesting matter." Anna shook her head. "Roland used to say that he doesn't know why the simulation of civilization evolution would treat alcohol as something that important. Even if one might be lacking in food and clothing, as long as there's some alcohol, the level of bliss and satisfaction would rise. Instead, people make trouble when there's adequate food and clothing. It's completely incomprehensible. From the looks of it, it's not without reason."

"Ahh… Here we go again. Brother's strange words." Tilly rolled her yes.

Everyone immediately broke out into laughter.

"By the way, is His Majesty still not busy with his work? Shouldn't it be fine to abandon his work for a moment during such times?" Wendy asked.

Roland had only appeared at the beginning of the night celebrations, returning to his office after he gave a short opening speech. According to him, the demons would likely soon come to them; therefore, he had to handle the things on hand, so as to have confidence in the plans that followed. Only after finishing all of that could he celebrate with everyone.

"I'll go hurry him." Anna stood up.

"We'll leave it to you then," Wendy said with a smile.

The underground cave where the Witches were celebrating wasn't too far from Roland. After passing through a narrow passageway, she arrived in an office area beneath the command center. In fact, Roland wasn't the only person busy. The staircase between the General Staff and the command center was constantly filled with the patter of footsteps. Clearly, they knew that the subsequent journey to the Bottomless Land was critical to the rest of the project.

Of course, she came to Roland not solely to allow him to relax. Nightingale was by his side and the end of the war marked the beginning of their agreement.

With this in mind, Anna knocked on the door.

"Come on in. The door isn't locked." Nightingale was the one who answered her.

Seeing that it was Anna, she appeared somewhat surprised. Even her expression turned unnatural. "Uh, why are you here…"

"Obviously, it's for the agreement."

"N-now? Wait… I'm not prepared yet…"

In a rare instance, Anna revealed a sly smile. "Just kidding. I'm here under everyone's request to bring him over to have a drink."

"So that's how it is…" Nightingale heaved a sigh of relief, but she also had a despondent feeling.

"However, the agreement is part of it. We can also talk about it." Anna looked at Roland, who was slumped onto the desk, asleep. "Is he in the Dream World?"

Nightingale took quite a while to realize that Anna was being deliberate. Helpless, she said, "Yes. He said that he needs to check on the research progress of the Design Bureau of Graycastle's new project. He also needs to discuss the follow-up matters with that senior lord demon. He wouldn't take long. If you wish to wake him up, just nudge him. According to him, these sort of matters can be interrupted at anytime. After all, time doesn't change."

Anna nodded as she extended her hand to nudge Roland.

The latter did not respond at all.

"Strange. That's how we woke him up in the past. Is he too tired from the preparations over the past few days?" Nightingale pressed down on Roland's shoulders and shook him, but failed to wake him up.

When she attempted to wake him up with more strength by raising his body up, he fell backwards without any response, leaning against the back of the chair. His hands slid down without any strength, reaching down to his waist, as though he had lost all consciousness.

The two instantly had a drastic change in expression!

Chapter 1473 - Quarantine

"Is that so? King's City has already toppled…"

In the Rose Café, Valkries slowly put down the cup in her hand and turned to look out the window. It was drizzling in the Dream World and the water droplets on the glass pane was coagulating bit by bit before slipping down. Gradually, they melded with the reflection of her side profile.

Her eyes were filled with mixed feelings.

In fact, when Roland informed Valkries over the phone, he could sense her churning emotions. Later, she arrived extremely quickly, to the point of her trousers being stained with mud. However, when they really met, she did not take the initiative to ask and instead, mostly listened to his recount. Such a contradictory attitude was rare for Nightmare Lord.

"Due to the limitations based on the conditions, we have not been able to investigate the outcome. However, from the subsequent reports, it's likely that Mask was on the Deity of Gods. This implies that all the obstacles that stand in our way of heading to the Bottomless Land is eliminated. We are one step closer to the truth."

Roland did not say any words of consolation.

This was the price of attempting to end the Divine Will, and since the demons had paid a much greater price, any form of consolation would be a cheap form of pity.

In consideration of Nightmare Lord's pride and dignity, she absolutely didn't wish to hear anything like that.

"Of course, I do not know what will happen when we reach there, but as long as we can escape the repeating war, I will definitely abide by my promise. What's left are the clues to Mist Island and our considerations that the Sky-sea Realm has once appeared on the island…"

"The demons will not help you in the battle with the Sky-sea Realm." Valkries interrupted for the first time. "Even without a King, the leaders will not accept the new situation so readily. Hackzord might use my name to maintain order in the army, but only barely. You will have to rely on your own strength to eliminate the hybrids that crawl out of the sea."

Thinking back to the distance between Neverwinter and the Land of Dawn's north shore, Roland could not help but frown. The floating island's main force was the Aerial Knights, but solely relying on the air force was impossible for them to occupy the ground.

"However, gaining the support of one or two people isn't impossible," Nightmare Lord added. "For example, Sky Lord and Silent Disaster."

"You mean…"

"The Western Front army is still under Hackzord's command. This means that you can pass through the continent ridge that connects the south and north. With the help of a Distortion Door, it wouldn't be too far a distance." Upon saying that, Nightmare Lord's mood had returned to normal. "Therefore, as long as you quickly move your troops to the Everwinter's Northern Region, you should be able to chase up to the floating island."

"Teleportation… That's a workable plan." Without a doubt, since Valkries had mentioned it, it clearly meant that she planned to discuss it with Hackzord personally. As such, the plan was highly likely to be confirmed. Although it wasn't a joint operation against the Sky-sea Realm, it was already extremely ideal for them to go this far. "Thanks a lot," Roland said with a nod.

"I've said it before. All of this is for the race. You don't have to thank me."

"I know, but the ultimate beneficiaries includes us humans. Therefore, regardless of whether you need my thanks, I'll still say it out."

"It's up to you."

The two looked at each other for a while as the café turned silent.

"… Is that all you wish to say?" Valkries asked moments later.

"I actually had many things to say, but I don't think you would like to hear them," Roland said frankly.

"Humph." She revealed an "at least you know better" look. "In that case, go ahead and busy yourself. I believe there will be many things for you to deal with after the battle?"

"Indeed." It was especially easy for him to talk to someone smart. Roland looked at the clock on the wall. He had been in the dream for three hours and twenty minutes. According to the time difference between the two worlds, the celebration likely hadn't ended. "Then, I'll first make a… Oh?"

He suddenly noticed that there was a commotion in the alley in the district.

Despite it drizzling, people were still walking out of the stores and gathering on the streets. The people holding umbrellas had placed their umbrellas to the side and taken out their cellphones. Their gazes simultaneously looked up into the sky as though they had seen something incredulous.

"What are they doing?" Valkries also noticed this.

"No idea. I'll go out to take a look." As Roland spoke, he got up and left the café. Soon, he stood rooted at the door. Far into the distance, he saw a thin red line rise up into the sky. Following that, it connected with countless hexagons in the sky, forming a gigantic "umbrella" that blanketed the sky!

"What's that? A new laser show?"

"But isn't its range a little big!?"

"I don't know where that light comes from. The city center isn't in that direction."

"Should we go to a major street to take a look?"

There were discussions everywhere. The suggestion of going closer quickly won the agreement of everyone. A small crowd began moving out of the district as more curious onlookers joined. It left the alley packed.

"That's no laser show," said Valkries who had followed Roland out.

"I think so too." Roland frowned. Even though there were rain clouds blanketing the sky, it was still day time. There was no laser that could be this bright. Furthermore, the red beam was coruscating, as though something was flowing within it like a blood vessel.

And what made him feel most ominous was the honeycomb structure of hexagon "scales." Back when the Oracles attacked Zero, he had seen a similar scene. However, the barrier back then was like a mirror, and not something that was transparent as the one in the sky.

Roland called Garcia and received an answer that the sanatorium had not suffered an attack and that Zero was fine. This relieved him.

After hanging up, the cellphone vibrated again.

The caller was Fei Yuhan.

"Hey, where are you? The Association has sent an emergency notice. It requests all formal martial artists to immediately return to the base."

"What happened?"

"Sky City has suddenly had all communications with the outside world terminated. The actual situation is still under investigation. However… Do you see the red beam in the sky? That was shot out from above Sky City."

Roland was stunned. Sky City was a world apart from where he was. How was it possible to see it with the naked eye? This completely exceeded the curvature of the world!

He could not help but remember the Bloody Moon which could be seen from any angle.

"… I understand."

"By the way, is Valkries by your side? Tell her to come."

Wait… How does she know I'm with Nightmare Lord? However, before Roland could say a word, Fei Yuhan had hung up.

"Was it from the Association?" Valkries asked.

"Yes. This phenomenon is likely related to Oracles." Roland held his breath in preparation to leave the Dream World. This matter did not appear to be something resolvable in a short period of time. It wasn't too late for him to handle it after the banquet. Besides, there was a huge Witch army which could provide assistance at any moment. It wasn't like now, with only Ling and Dawnen standing guard by the café.

However, the familiar dizziness did not happen.

He blinked in surprise and attempted it again, but the surrounding scenery remained the same. It was as though the other world didn't exist.

Chapter 1474 - Representative

"What did Nana say?"

Nightingale walked into Roland's bedroom and asked Anna who was by the bedside.

"Nothing seems to be wrong… Everything is stable—breathing, heartbeat, and body temperature; it's like he's asleep, but…"

But there's just no way of waking him up.

Nightingale fell silent. Last night, no one expected the victory celebration banquet to end this way. Back then, Anna was the first to react. She made the guards and the God's Punishment Witches seal off the area. Following that, she called for Tilly, Wendy, Iron Axe, and company. She was probably the only person who could do all of that in such a composed manner when faced with such appalling news.

Unfortunately, these measures did not improve Roland's unconscious state.

"The Seagull has just taken off. Its destination, City of Glow of the Kingdom of Dawn." Nightingale changed topics. "If Lightning sends the letter in time, we will be able to bring Nightfall to the floating island in about three days."

"Yes, there should be enough time," said Anna with a nod.

Roland didn't have a God's Punishment Witch's body, and with him unable to have his meals, he needed Nightfall's Seed of Symbiosis to remain alive. The pickup point was chosen to be at the City of Glow so as to save time. Lightning and Maggie were much faster than a glider; thus, giving Neverwinter sufficient time to first summon Nightfall and then send her to the Kingdom of Dawn's capital where she would meet up with them.

And this was Anna's idea as well.

If there was a silver lining in all of this, it was that this wasn't the first time she was encountering something like this. Back then, after the battle with the Church's Zero, Roland also entered a long period of unconsciousness. His symptoms were identical to his present state.

That sleep connected him to the Realm of Mind, allowing him to create the massive Dream World. And this instance was likely related to the legendary Origin of Magic.

"What do we do next?" Nightingale could not help but ask.

At present, the ones privy to the information were the various higher-ups on the floating island. If they were to make a return to Neverwinter, there was no way to keep it under wraps indefinitely. Once the news spread, just stabilizing the situation would take quite a lot of effort. This not only greatly delayed the development of the subsequent plans, it would also introduce new variables to the demons and the Sky-sea Realm.

But heading to the Bottomless Land according to plan was extremely risky. After all, Roland was the only person who was connected to the Realm of Mind. And if he ultimately didn't regain consciousness, they would be thrown into a dilemma, which would make things worse.

Apart from Anna, she didn't know who else could make the choice.

Anna quietly looked at Roland who was lying on the bed, as though she had forgotten all that was happening around her. After a long while, she said slowly, "Continue with the plan."

Although her voice was soft, it had zero hesitation.

"If it's him… that's what he will say. Many people were sacrificed for this rare opportunity. Even if the road ahead is unknown, we have to give it a try. If we were to return because of this, we can't guarantee that Roland will definitely wake up. Yet, the Sky-sea Realm, which has already invaded the Blackstone region, will definitely not stay there waiting for us. In the situation of him remaining unconscious in perpetuity, I'm afraid that we will not be able to launch another new expedition."

As expected of Anna… Neverwinter couldn't help thinking. To be honest, she was more inclined to heading for the Bottomless Land. Even if Roland's unconsciousness was very likely to be related to the Realm of Mind, then compared to the Origin of Magic and Neverwinter, clearly the former had a higher chance of resolving the problem. However, reasoning was one thing; a choice needed someone to shoulder the responsibility. Even if the others knew this, it wasn't necessary that they were able to shirk off being conservative and choose to double down by continuing the advance.

What's more, she didn't hesitate or show any signs of being lost.

Just as she was prepared to say something else, Tilly came in.

The latter's expression was somewhat heavy. "Hackzord is here."

…

At the bottom of the floating island, the region of the God's Stone's core.

"I never expected the day of me loading up on Red Mist in human territory will come." After Sky Lord reinstalled the filled-up gas tank into his body, he took a deep breath. "It tastes pretty good."

"I also never imagined myself to be capable of tolerating having two demons stand before me." Eleanor looked at the duo coldly. "Just the thought of having a chance to exact revenge for the Union after centuries makes me have trouble curbing that urge."

"First, most of our time was spent in the Blackstone region. We didn't participate in the war against the Fertile Plains. Second, doing so isn't beneficial to you, the Union, or humanity. Therefore, you shouldn't be venting your anger on us," Hackzord said as he spread open his hands.

Silent Disaster swept her gaze at him. "If you would just shut up, she wouldn't have such an impulse."

"Leave if you are done. The person you are looking for is already here."

After leaving the sealed Red Mist Pond and walking into the empty cave, Hackzord could not help but frown.

He saw many people. There were Witches, carriers, and human soldiers in uniform. The only person missing was the King of Graycastle, Roland.

"What's the meaning of this," he asked gravely.

With the Deity of Gods having just fallen and the human clinching a tremendous victory, this sentence filled with an interrogative tone instantly tensed up the atmosphere.

"I'm Anna, Roland's wife, Queen of Graycastle." Anna walked through the crowd and stood in front of Hackzord. Hackzord's height was nearly double hers, and it was made more apparent when they stared at each other. "An accident happened to His Majesty Roland, so he's temporarily unable to meet you."

Following that, she recounted Roland's continued state of unconsciousness and the connection to the Realm of Mind in a concise manner.

Hackzord first revealed a surprised expression before it turned nasty.

"So are you saying that the person my race came to an agreement with no longer exists?"

"First, I need to correct what you've just said," Anna said without skipping a beat. "Roland is only unconscious, and has not encountered any life-threatening danger. Secondly, all of us know what the agreement is. Even if he doesn't wake up, I will execute it in his place!"

"Little girl, do you know what you are saying?" Sky Lord laughed in his rage. "That's something which can be done only by someone chosen by the Oracle. You aren't even able to enter the Realm of Mind, but you wish to represent him? Darn it… Valkries was wrong. If this is the counterattack of God, then everything is over—"

"No, you're wrong," Anna interrupted. "There's no need for me to enter the Realm of Mind because Roland is currently in the Dream World. Regardless, he will proceed onward towards the goal. And I will represent him in executing the rest." She paused before continuing, "I will continue the floating island's journey to the Bottomless Land. Meanwhile, Graycastle will provide reinforcements to ensure that the plan will be successfully carried out. Of course, this will need your assistance."

"What a joke—"

"This is not a joke, but the only response in a crisis!" she said without yielding. "The agreement will not end, nor will it be nullified. Viewing it from another angle, Roland has already reached the Bottomless Land ahead of us. What we need to do is rush over; otherwise, there's no way of stopping the Divine Will and ensuring our races' continuity!"

"Heh, sure sounds nice." Hackzord sneered. "A kingdom's operation isn't simple. I understand the weight and importance the King of Graycastle has on you humans. I'm also aware of the allure power has on humans. Now that he isn't around, do you think you can control everything with you alone, and not let the entire system descend into chaos?" He looked at the people behind Anna. "By letting a young lady in her twenties become the representative of Graycastle… don't you have a better candidate? Or are you naive enough to think that just by her status alone, she will be able to…"

Speaking midway, Sky Lord's voice gradually softened.

He saw that everyone's gazes were on him. Even though no one replied his question, silence was also a form of answer at times—the girl before him represented humanity.

Chapter 1475 - Change in Sky City

Hackzord eventually chose to cooperate.

Even though all that was needed was rational thought to make the most reasonable choice, to see a senior demon lord convinced by a young witch and have him rescind his views bolstered everyone's chest and left it burning. They could not help but raise their heads higher.

The only request Sky Lord had was to confirm the situation as Anna said, and it was permitted by her.

Under the tight security of the God's Punishment Witches, Hackzord and Serakkas saw Roland in bed. The beam of light over him remained magnificent, nearly capable of enveloping half the floating island.

"If this were half a year earlier, I would definitely be overjoyed seeing this scene." Hackzord put away the five-colored magic stone and sighed slightly. "Have you attempted to connect to the Dream World?"

"Of course, but we didn't succeed." Replying him was Phyllis. "Our souls are no longer accepted by that world, and our companions who were in there are also unconscious. This makes it impossible for us to pass His Majesty Roland any news. The connection between the two worlds are presently severed."

"On the brighter side of things, at the very least, he has two witches accompanying him." Hackzord shrugged and said to Anna, "The Western Front plan is a plan that has lasted nearly a century. It's to transport the Red Mist from the Bottomless Land into human territory. Not only does it include a Birth Tower, it also has a passageway hidden among the mountains. And the entrance of this passageway is only the distance of a mountain away from Everwinter's Northern Region. Therefore, sending your reinforcements to the Bottomless Land doesn't require me to go through repeated hassles. If you are willing to take the risk, I can open the Distortion Door for you."

"That's for the best," Anna said with a nod. "I believe that with Silent Disaster escorting them, your subordinates will not mind that we are borrowing this shortcut."

By letting a senior demon lord to keep the stirring demons in place was no doubt a bold suggestion. The others could not help but break out into a cold sweat; yet, it was Hackzord who chuckled.

"What an interesting young lady. It's fine with me, but it will depend on her."

Serakkas took off her fearsome black helmet and revealed her gorgeous long hair which didn't match her outer appearance. Her extremely feminine face surprised all those who had never seen her true face. She sized up Anna for a moment before saying, "I have a condition. When you bring Roland deep into the Bottomless Land, I wish to enter as well."

"Is it for Nightmare Lord?" Anna asked directly.

Serakkas did not answer.

"I agree to your request," she said seriously in the end.

After receiving an affirmative reply, Silent Disaster wore her helmet again and walked out of the bedroom first.

Clearly, she did not wish to interfere with any of the subsequent plans.

Hackzord seemed to be accustomed to her way of doing things. "Let us switch venues to discuss on how we should head for the Mist Island which is occupied by the Sky-sea Realm."

…

Shortly after arriving at the base, Roland and Valkries were invited to a hall by an attendant.

There were already many peers in the hall. Most of them were gathered in the region towards the back, while he was led to the front. The person sitting beside him was also a relatively familiar face, the celebrity martial artist genius, Fei Yuhan.

After learning that he couldn't leave the Dream World, Roland appeared calmer than he imagined himself to be. Or it could be said that, he was already mentally prepared that the Oracle would not give up that easily.

If he were still in Neverwinter, he guessed that it would cause some worry, but now that humanity's greatest threat—the demons' King's City—had fallen, and the floating island controlled by Eleanor made information flow isolated, the situation of him being unconscious wouldn't result in too negative an effect. As long as he rushed for time and finished the Oracle who was secretly behind the matter, all would be fine.

The three exchanged simple greetings, and although only a few words were exchanged, Roland could still sense that Valkries's attitude towards Fei Yuhan was a lot better than what he received.

When did the senior demon lord get so close to this celebrity martial artist?

I'm the one was always the one providing Peninsula coffee!

Minutes later, Defender Rock walked into the hall.

"Everyone, we have trouble on our hands." His opening line immediately left everyone silent.

Following that, Rock pressed the control pen in his hand, projecting a few pictures on the screen behind him.

After seeing the pictures, everyone drew a gasp in unison.

Red holes had appeared in the city streets and they were of varying sizes. The large ones were enough to cut through skyscrapers, and the small ones were just enough to envelop a car. Martial artists were no stranger to such things. It was a phenomena known as "Erosion" that had destroyed Prism City.

Clearly, the residents situated within the holes were already doomed, but this was far from being the worst situation.

The pictures showed many Fallen Evils. They were gathered around the holes, seemingly trying to cast their bodies into the red void.

"Sacrifice," Fei Yuhan said softly.

"That's what I'm guessing at as well." Roland nodded. This wasn't the first time he was seeing such a scene. While executing the mission to annihilate the Fallen Evils, the enemies had once used large amounts of cores to trigger Erosion, summoning pure magic monsters. What was happening now simply skipped one of the steps.

At present, the city they were in remained calm and peaceful, but the problem then became apparent.

"These are all pictures sent from Sky City's periphery. The invasion has left them in extreme chaos," Rock said gravely. "No one knows where they are coming from, nor does anyone know what the situation is like at Headquarters. There are cars fleeing and refugees everywhere. Even the martial artists who sent back these pictures might no longer be alive." He paused before continuing, "This is a war instigated by the Fallen Evils. We have to immediately take action to reinforce Sky City!"

Upon saying this, the Defender deliberately glanced at Roland.

"Considering how time is of the essence, the actual plans and arrangements will be provided to you after you arrive at your destination. Thirty minutes later, the transporters will arrive at the Association's encampment. At the appointed time, everyone will set off and there must not be any delays—this operation has nothing to do with faction. It's also the best opportunity to prove your strengths."

After the meeting came to a hasty end, Rock made Roland stay behind. "Mr. Roland… we were ultimately one step too slow."

Ever since he demonstrated his ability to absorb cores, Prism City's higher-ups had considered handing over the remaining stored cores from each branch for his handling. In fact, many branches had done so, but with Sky City being central to the Association, they ultimately failed to give an affirmative response. They never expected the news they suddenly received to be their worst nightmare.

Roland thought for a moment and shook his head slowly. "Perhaps, we were too slow from the very beginning."

Rock was stunned for a moment before he realized what he was implying. He could not help but have a drastic change in expression as he said, "How is it possible? Sky City not only has many Defenders presiding over it, and I was even on the phone with the President not long ago—"

"Apart from that, I can't think of any reason for the sudden appearance of so many Fallen Evils. Only Sky City is able to provide so many Force of Nature cores," Roland replied. "The red beam's sudden appearance from the top of Sky City, the enemy's swarming of the streets, and the sudden Erosion that happened—all of this couldn't have been implemented in short notice. On hindsight, it's not hard to realize something. The fact that they haven't done anything after attacking Prism City all this time makes it illogical."

"…" Rock was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Therefore, the President you spoke to on the phone is either a dead man…" Roland enunciated each and every word. "Or the Oracle himself."

Chapter 1476 - Reaching Straight to the Core

Of course, "he" could very well be an illusion, a puppet, or something else. However, it was essentially all the same—perhaps Sky City had already suffered the infiltration of the Oracles a very long time ago.

"That is a fortress that contains tens of thousands of people…" Rock murmured. With the means of an Oracle, destroying anything wasn't difficult; after all, they were able to tear open rifts and create Erosion. But to complete an infiltration under the noses of tens of thousands of people and ultimately not be detected made them unfathomable.

"I'm also wishing that I've made a mistake, but this is the most reasonable conclusion." Roland sighed.

The Dream World had its relatively unique laws; thus, preventing Oracles from fully expressing their strength. Whatever they wanted to do required the support of magic power.

And the only places with a relatively large store of Fallen Evil cores were Prism City and Sky City.

Now, the fact that the Oracles had chosen to appear beneath Prism City from the very beginning didn't seem like an absolute coincidence. Despite being alien intruders, they were not unknowledgeable about this world.

Perhaps right after Prism City was destroyed, they had already targeted the Association's Headquarters. As for the Oracles left behind, apart from seeking a chance to assassinate Zero, the remaining ones were just a front to mislead.

"It's meaningless worrying. We will know once we head there." Roland pressed down on the Defender's shoulders. "Do you still remember what I said previously? Now, two worlds are fighting against God, and the Association has already contributed significantly to the Battle of Divine Will. Now, it's time I repay you."

"Mr. Roland…"

"Leave the rest to me."

Under Rock's heavy gaze, Roland walked out the main hall.

Fei Yuhan and Valkries were waiting outside for him.

The former being there wasn't surprising. As an Association member of the new generation with outstanding strength, she would definitely appear wherever there was danger. However, the latter being there was rather odd. He didn't believe that Valkries would generate any feelings for the Dream World, much less fight to defend it. The typical person would find an inconspicuous spot to take things easy.

The Oracles' repeated defeats did not mean that they were without threat. Even in the framework of the Dream World, they were able to easily kill a martial artist. With Valkries no longer the Nightmare Lord of the past, she was not much different from ordinary martial artists having lost her magic stone powers. By heading to Sky City, she would no doubt face all sorts of dangers.

"There's no need to have such an odd expression," Valkries snapped at him. "I simply wish to confirm what the God and Oracles you keep mentioning look like. If you were in my shoes, you wouldn't be indifferent towards such an opportunity, isn't that so?"

Roland shrugged. "… seems like it."

As they were chatting, the roar of a helicopter's engine sounded from the base a distance away—the moment for them to set off was here.

What followed would be a hectic series of activities lasting as long as a day and a half.

They were sent to the airport via helicopter before taking a private special plane to head for their destination. Finally, they were simply split into teams and briefed on the mission, then sent to the war zone via military helicopters.

It was apparent that the government's disaster response measures were out in full force. The jam-packed cars were only seen about a hundred kilometers from Sky City. As for the orderliness of the refugees, they were placed under control of the disaster-management military, therefore, the situation had not descended into utter chaos.

Valkries was staring outside the window from the moment they took off. After getting on the plane, she requested to switch to a window seat. Clearly, she was filled with curiosity over such a novel experience.

"Apart from it being a little noisy, the speed isn't too bad. At least, it flies faster than me." Moments later, she let out a sigh. "Humans indeed have unique abilities when studying the laws of a world.

"You can fly as well?" Fei Yuhan asked with great interest.

"Unless restricted by magic power or physical size, most upgraded demons will choose to fuse with a magic stone which brings about faster movement speed. One of them naturally includes flight."

"How's it? Do you now know the potential of humanity?" Roland didn't miss the chance to brag.

"Unfortunately… There's no trace of magic power on this." Valkries shrugged.

"Why do you say so?" Fei Yuhan asked, perplexed. "If a plane requires magic power to fly, then it can only be driven by martial artists like us."

"No, that's not what I mean. Humans were able to create a machine so intricate without the use of magic power. Then, what would happen if magic power was added into the mix?" Valkries said slowly. "I've always been wondering what the difference between God and us is. Could it be this? After all, magic power is also a part of the world's laws."

Roland pricked his brows up in surprise. He had the urge to marvel at how she deserved being the Nightmare Lord. In less than half a year in the Dream World, she had already learned to use a scientific approach to understand matters.

As a result, the saying that longevity was an obstacle to a civilization was not necessarily accurate.

More critically, it depended on what kind of people had long lifespans.

The next day around noon, Roland could already see Sky City sitting atop the mountaintop.

The city at the foot of the mountain was billowing with thick smoke, with explosions sounding from time to time. Clearly, martial artists that rushed over from all across the world were fighting the Fallen Evils. Compared to the evacuation team's orderliness, this was the true battlefield.

Perhaps even they had never imagined the day when the enemy would form a horde to charge through the streets.

As for the mission handed to Roland, it was very obvious. It was to head straight for the incident's heart, the Association Headquarters.

The helicopter transported them to the gathering point at the mountainside. And here, there were already more than twenty martial artists from other branches waiting for his arrival.

Perhaps they had been warned prior to their deployment, but no one engaged in idle talk, nor did they question Roland's identity. After a brief exchange of words, they confirmed the basic route and delegation of tasks. Compared to the first joint mission, the team this time was clearly made up of experienced elites. Not only did they cooperate well, they were also extremely disciplined.

The layout of Sky City happened to be completely opposite to that of Prism City. As the Erosion had appeared in midair, the Association had built a tower to contain it. However, in consideration of the problems arising from the evacuation and rescue operations, there was a concealed passageway connected to the tower's peak at the bottom. As long as one was familiar with the route, they could avoid the swarming Fallen Evils on the mountaintop.

Under the lead of the Headquarters' guide, the assault force did not meet with much opposition. Occasionally, they would bump into a few Fallen Evils who were rapidly finished in a silent process. Roland didn't even need to do anything.

Soon, the assault force arrived at the isolation room at the top level where the cores were stored.

It was a huge room in the shape of a drum. The metal walls confined all the fallen cores the Headquarters had gathered to date. And in the middle of the room was a mobile platform, as well as two robotic arms which could be used to retrieve cores. In terms of it being a magnificent sight, Sky City was in no way inferior to Prism City.

They found a figure standing in the middle of the platform—the Martialist Association's President.

However, when "he" turned around, he gradually transformed into another person. The transformation didn't happen in a blink of an eye, but it was a reorganization of his facial features at a speed detectable by the naked eye. His height also decreased and finally, he took on a form of an unfamiliar woman.

"I'm Oracle Epsilon," she said calmly. "Roland, I've been waiting a long time for you."

To have the enemy waiting for them was definitely unpropitious. This meant that everyone might very well have fallen into a trap. But surprisingly, Roland didn't hear anyone stir.

If it were Fei Yuhan, she should have drawn her sword to prepare for an assault.

He turned his body slightly to take a glance, and his heart could not help but sink.

There was nothing around him—not a single person.

Chapter 1477 - The Final Deadline

"Do not worry about your companions. They have only gone somewhere else."

The Oracle seemed to see his puzzlement and volunteered an answer.

"Somewhere… else?"

"That's right. This is also one of my abilities—creating illusions, misdirection, and make self-cognitive beings realize that they are heading towards destruction without realizing it," Epsilon explained. "Of course, I didn't really do so. I merely made them take the wrong path during a fork. At this moment, what they see is them, together with you, being locked in battle with large numbers of Fallen Evils rushing over to stop them."

"Are you trying to tell me that they are in fact very safe?"

Surprisingly, she nodded. "Not only so, I have already arranged a perfect ending for your companions. The Fallen Evils and the Oracle will finally be defeated. The phenomenon and Erosion will disappear as a result. They would be exhausted from the battle, but smile happily while leaning against the walls, enjoying the pleasure of victory."

When Roland imagined a group of people flailing their arms in an empty room, to the point of exhaustion and lying down in smiles, he felt the hair on his back stand.

He wasn't sure about the rest, but he knew Fei Yuhan and Valkries very well. Not only did they have outstanding willpower, but they were also very sharp. Yet, under Epsilon's abilities, they had failed to put up any bit of resistance.

Wrong… It isn't only the two of them. I didn't even notice it. There was just something wrong about the whole matter. According to past experiences, the abilities of an Oracle were ineffective against him.

With this in mind, Roland's wariness instantly reached an extreme.

"And then?"

"There will not be anything after that. The entire world will come to an end, be it the Realm of Mind or beyond it. Everything will start from the beginning. But compared to reality, they would vanish in happiness and not suffer any pain. That is my benevol—"

Without waiting for her to finish her sentence, Roland took action.

He leaped up, crossing over the nearly twenty-meter gap separating the passageway from the platform, flying straight for the Oracle and punching out! Attacking suddenly while the enemy was droning on was something he had used several times to great effect!

The surging powers in his body responded to his will. With a huge boom, a surging wave swept across the platform, cracking the railings, operating apparatuses, and robotic arms. They tumbled down to the storage level and produced a series of dull thuds.

Even Roland was shocked by the might of that one strike.

He knew that absorbing the magic power cores would strengthen him, but he never expected that unknowingly, his body had already reached such a formidable level.

However, his fist did not experience the tactile feeling he expected.

Epsilon seemed to disperse like a bubble before materializing behind him.

"How does it feel becoming stronger? The gift I sent you is still pretty good, isn't it?"

Roland was first startled before he came to a realization what she truly meant.

"Wait, that astrolabe was mailed by you?"

He had once requested the Association to investigate the source of the delivery, but it was ultimately fruitless. Be it the identity system or monitors, they all indicated that the deliverer only existed for a moment. Any checks prior and after to the delivery resulted in a conclusion that the person had vanished. Now, thinking back to Epsilon's ability, everything made sense.

"It's called Gamma, also an Oracle," Epsilon calmly said, as though she wasn't talking about her companion, but "something" completely unrelated to her.

Roland was shocked for the first time. After confirming that he had not heard wrong, he asked in disbelief, "… why?"

"Because I wish to know the answer, an answer only God knows." Her voice seemed to drift off. "Do you now understand? I have no feelings of animosity towards you. To head to the Divine Domain, one needs the help of the Dream World to realize it. On this goal, we are on the same page at the very least."

With the abrupt twists and turns, Roland was momentarily at a loss for words.

"Do you not believe me? The world wouldn't lie to you." Epsilon spread out her arms and said, "I didn't summon the rift to isolate you from the world like Delta, but you still failed to see through my illusion. That is proof. It's because I do not have any feelings of animosity that the Dream World isn't ostracizing my abilities."

"… You are actually someone on Lan's side?"

This was the only possibility which Roland could come up with. After all, Lan had mentioned before that there were more than one betraying Oracle.

"I do not know how she explained it to you, so I'm unable to precisely answer this question." Epsilon extended two of her fingers. "If you are asking if I'm on the same side as her, the conclusion is 'no.' Before coming here, I did not have any memories regarding Lan. Even in Prism City, I was the one who killed her with my own hands."

Roland could not help but raise his brows.

"Or perhaps you are asking if she shares the same goal as me." She lowered one finger and said, "The conclusion is similarly 'no.' The reason for me doing this is of my own beliefs, and it has nothing to do with her. You can imagine it to be that I'm helping you."

"And the way to help me is to destroy this world?" Roland sneered.

"You're wrong. The one destroying the world isn't me, but God." Epsilon shook her head. "In order to avoid misunderstandings, I'll say it directly. You should have noticed the changes outside. That barrier that blankets the sky can temporarily stop the burgeoning of the Dream World, so as to prevent it from touching the Divine Domain. Otherwise, even with Oracles present, God will not hesitate to destroy everything that has been built up here to date. In fact, you have absorbed an excessive numbers of magic power cores recently, and you are just a sliver short. If I didn't guess wrong, Lan was supposed to monitor the expansion of your Dream World, but she died at my hands. Hence, no one told you what it means to 'simultaneously' reach the Origin of Magic."

She even knows this!

"But this barrier cuts off my connection with the outer world. Are you also capable of controlling the real world?"

"No, but at the very least, I know that you have already opened up the path to the Bottomless Land. What follows is just a matter of time," Epsilon said slowly. "You probably can guess the means of how I received this information. That's right. The content discussed by your Martialist Association and Design Bureau of Graycastle would all be reported to Headquarters, and therefore, reach me."

And that includes the Glory of the Sun project as well as the feedback of the various weapons… Roland came to a realization. Epsilon had used these snippets to reconstruct the entire scene of the outside world.

"Have you never considered that my unconsciousness would result in an accident?"

"That is also an unknown factor. But I do not have a better choice—only when you enter the Realm of Mind will the world be activated. Therefore, it will have to trap you within," Epsilon explained patiently. "Thankfully, we do not need to keep waiting. The domain after a severed contact will automatically change the flow of time. As long as you wish for it, it wouldn't be difficult to make the time it takes to blink an eye equal to a day."

Roland instantly widened his eyes, not daring to close it for even a second, afraid that centuries would have passed in the outside world when he awoke again.

"Don't worry. The thing you are worrying about won't happen." She curled her lips and showed a smile for the first time. "The barrier needs magic power to maintain. Even if all the cores in this store is expended, only half a month would pass when converting it to the outside world's time… And that would also be the final deadline."

Chapter 1478 - The Lights Soon Extinguish

Half a month… It means that once the plan is paused or canceled,we would forever miss the deadline.

Will the people on the floating island really persist on even without me?

Also, what should be done on the demons' side? With Valkries's connection gone, would the fragile agreement with Sky Lord shatter as a result?

Not to mention the Sky-sea Realm above Mist Island and the problem of actually entering the Bottomless Land.

Darn it. If only I can pass these information out! Roland's mind raced, attempting to find a way to overcome the predicament, but he failed to come up with any workable plans despite a prolonged period of thinking. Unlike any of the previous dangers he faced, he was unable to reverse the situation even if he were to destroy the Oracle before him.

Roland already could sense that this was not a matter that could be solved by a single person alone.

"I… don't understand."

He said after a long period of silence, "In the beginning, all of you treated me as a destroyer that needed to be eliminated because the Dream World threatens the rules set by God, to the exaggerated point of destroying millions of years of accumulated development. Yet, for just one instance of abnormality, you are helping me enter the Divine Domain. Were all the developments from before suddenly worth nothing?

"That's not the only laughable point. Since God can turn the Dream World to nothingness at any time, why didn't He do so in the beginning? Don't tell me that He holds compassion!" The more Roland spoke, the angrier he became as his voice kept rising. "Countless races have killed each other in the name of the Divine Will, to the point of extinction. Apart from weathered bones and ruins, nothing is left. What kind of accumulated development is this!?

"As for you—Epsilon. Since you plan on betraying God, why not go all the way? Lan did it to escape her shackles, but what about you? If you only wish to receive an answer, I don't mind bringing one more person to the Divine Domain. When the time comes, you can ask God as many questions as you want!

"Saying baffling words and doing incredulous acts, is this the unique characteristic of those who crack themselves up to be Oracles and God? You can't even compare to mortals! At the very least, mortals know what they want clearly!"

However, Epsilon did not show any signs of anger.

She was not like the past Oracles, turning extremely sensitive and resistant when it involved problems with God. She even revealed a look of understanding after hearing what Roland said.

The Oracle walked in front of Roland, the gap closing to the point of being just a body's length away.

"For you to ask these questions proves that you are just one step away from the answer."

The distance couldn't be considered safe for both Epsilon and Roland, but the latter apparently didn't take it to heart.

"However, if you do not take that last step, that distance would be no different from an infinite one." She looked up at Roland. "The greatness of God depends on what He has done, and not how many people know of it. Besides, the differences in civilizations will result in views and knowledge being completely different. Therefore, it's understandable that you are unable to comprehend. In addition, I'm different from Lan. I've never betrayed God Almighty. Please remember that.

"Finally, if you are already prepared, you can take that step now—" With that said, Epsilon slowly reached out her hand to grab Roland's arm, placing it on her chest.

"What are you doing?" Roland reflexively retracted his hand.

"Isn't it obvious? Retrieve the astrolabe, and finally allow the Dream World and the Divine Domain to intersect. You should be very familiar with this process," Epsilon said calmly, as though it had nothing to do with her. "The Fallen Evils and Erosion bodies were my creation, and the cores are tightly connected together. Once you absorb the astrolabe, their magic powers will be pulled into that world. Such massive powers will be enough to make the Dream World expand again to complete the final step. When the time comes, the intersecting Realm of Mind will become the new Erosion, but this time, it's the Dream World invading the Divine Domain, and you—will face God."

"Wait." Roland stared at her in astonishment. "Don't Oracles live because of this blob of magic power? Without the astrolabe—"

"I'll die." Epsilon smiled. "But that's only limited to the concept of death you have. As a part of God, as long as He isn't destroyed, we will exist forever. What disappears is the body named Epsilon."

"Even so, will you be able to hear the answer?"

"No… asking it is sufficient."

With that said, she closed up her fingers and stabbed her palm into her chest before pulling out a dazzling blue blob of star jade!

Fresh blood splattered, some even landing on Roland's face.

"Cough… Take it and enter the Divine Domain. Everything you want to know… Cough… can be found there."

"You…" Roland was stunned. He never expected such a sudden turn of events, but with it already done, any hesitation was meaningless. If Epsilon was right, at the moment the barrier was erected, the Dream World's flow of time had far exceeded that of reality. Even if he waited for the Oracle to die and remove the barrier, it would be half a month later.

The only thing he could do was trust in everyone on the floating island.

With this in mind, Roland took a deep breath and grabbed the astrolabe.

The blue light grew brighter as though it was burning its last ounce of energy. As though stimulated, the heat wave inside surged out ferociously, and in that blinding radiance, he looked towards the Oracle who had blood seeping down the corners of her lips.

"I wish to ask you one last question—do you think the destruction of the world is inevitable?"

"Yes… Unless you can… defeat God Almighty." Epsilon's voice was already drifting away. "But it's impossible to defeat God. That is… a predestined ending from the very beginning."

"But you still changed your original decision!"

"All of you… have worked hard for so long, so you shouldn't vanish without knowing why… Being able to take that final step… is praiseworthy itself." Epsilon coughed out another mouthful of blood and barely forced a smile. "Since destruction is the end… and is destined, why should I… take any more pointless actions?"

"That's not what you really think." Roland glared at her, enunciating each and every word. "Lan wished to escape her restraints, and you wish to seek the answer. I do not know what was restraining her, nor do I know what questions you would like to ask God, but there is one thing I'm sure of, your hopes changed, isn't it!? It's because both of you have the same look in your eyes—"

"Sorry… That is the second question…" Epsilon closed her eyes with a smile, and when the blue brilliance reached an extremum, she slightly opened her mouth, as though she was about to say something. But before Roland could take it in carefully, the blinding light had devoured everything.

…

Chapter 1479 - A Marvel

Sixth day of Roland's coma.

Anna walked into the room and saw Wendy tending to him.

"Let me."

She picked up a cup of clear water and walked to the bed. After dampening a cotton swab, she gently moistened Roland's lips. Even though the Seed of Symbiosis had been implanted in him, his body was still influenced by multiple factors; for example, the lack of water led to dehydration and cracked lips.

For the past few days, Anna and Roland's interaction time was far less than what Wendy, Nightingale, and the rest had with him. It wasn't that she didn't wish to spend more time with him, but that she had fixed a hard rule for herself, to only have interaction with him for half an hour a day—she was afraid that she would be unwilling to leave the room.

Wendy set down her work and gave Anna space to accompany Roland.

The thirty minutes were relaxed and tranquil, as though time had slowed to a crawl.

The silence was broken only until a report from the guards came from the outside.

"Your Majesty Anna, the investigation team has returned; the others are waiting for you at the conference room!"

Anna stopped for a second, then slowly placed the porcelain cup down.

"Anna…" Wendy spoke worriedly.

"Don't worry." She raised her head. "I'm fine."

In that moment, Wendy felt the instant switch in Anna's state of mind, her clear eyes that gazed upon Roland was swapped out for a resolved look, as though she was a completely different person.

Wendy realized that this girl had grown at an astonishing rate, but upon recalling that Anna was always the first in Border Town to learn and understand what Roland thought, her progress was reasonable. Due to the relation between Anna and Border Town, the town had turned into a sacred mountain for witches, and at this moment, Anna was bringing everyone to new heights.

"Go and do what you have to," Wendy replied gently.

"I'll have to trouble you with him." Anna bowed slightly towards Wendy and left the chambers.

After traveling through long passageways and stairs, she finally arrived behind the conference room doors. She stopped in her tracks, took a few deep breaths, and pushed open the doors—

"Her Majesty!" Everyone in the room stood up and bowed at her with a hand placed on their chests.

Anna did not dismiss their greetings, but instead returned the same greeting back to them—Anna knew the limitations to what she was good at, and to have everything put in order and have everything appearing clear and orderly was through everybody's hard work.

"Let us begin the meeting."

"Yes!" Morning Light replied respectfully.

The investigation team for Mist Island included Lightning, Maggie and Sylvie—according to the information Hackzord had provided, Sylvie had confirmed the island's definite position. Although her magic power was incapable of penetrating through the illusion barrier, it was as eye-grabbing as the stars in the sky in the vast ocean.

Aside from that, Sylvie discovered a large amount of magic power feedback that seemed to have enveloped the sea surrounding the island, which was the reason for the Exploration Group's abandonment for further exploration.

There was no doubt that the Sky-sea Realm was related to the magic power—aside from the frequent sea ghosts, Nest Mothers and Blade Beasts, there were a few surprisingly 'behemoths.' Demons hailed them as Mountain Devourers and were most commonly evolved from Nest Mothers. They did not possess the ability to produce limbed beasts and blade beasts, but instead had dense armor that covered their entire body and utilized a large mouth the size of a capstan to feed on the land, They were the main force of the Sky-sea Realm to produce a battlefield suited for them.

Obviously the Sky-sea Realm did not plan to give up the Bottomless Land so easily.

Right as the General Staff were formulating countermeasures, Silent Disaster and Isabella walked in—it was a rather odd duo to marvel at, a human and a senior lord, to which the human was a Pure Witch of the former Church. Anyone who witnessed it was surprised.

But Anna knew that the duo's work was extremely crucial.

And they had indeed come with good news.

Isabella smiled at her. "Your Majesty, the test was successful."

Anna's heart immediately relaxed. At present, what was most challenging about dealing with the Sky-sea Realm was the inability to trace the blade beasts, transferring the witches defending the Western Region would result in a defenseless Neverwinter, and thus, the most dependable method was to provide means for ordinary people to spot blade beasts. The only senior demon capable of doing so was Primal Chaos, a senior lord upgraded from an Eye Demon. He had the ability to see through all invisibility, but the effective radius was rather small and inferior to a passive view capable of seeing all things.

If they were able to amplify Senior Lord Primal Chaos's ability, it might be the conclusive breakthrough.

The first to suggest this was surprisingly Hackzord, to which reminded Anna of Zero's Infinite Sigil—this changed the plan to three parts: Silent Disaster to convince Primal Chaos, Arrieta to supply high-grade magic stones, and Isabella to conduct the relevant research. This was the reason for the strange duo.

As for Isabella's part, it was definitely the most troublesome, but it had obtained a breakthrough.

This boosted the morale of the General Staff by a whole new level.

At the very least, they would have some sense of direction while attacking the Bottomless Land.

After going through the conditional theories, they were left with dispatching.

"I hope Graycastle will be in time." Agatha spoke up while staring at the map of the Four Kingdoms.

"I believe in Iron Axe and the rest," Anna replied.

…

Kingdom of Dawn, Coral Bay.

White leaned on his crutches and climbed onto the deck and moved slowly towards Speedster's bow—it was a high-speed sailboat with two masts, and although it was considered a sea-going vessel, it did not have good resistance for stormy seas, for the greater part of its travels relying on coastlines to travel. But its biggest advantage lay in its costs, compared to the few hundred gold royals required in the past. It now only needed 99 gold royals to fund an entire Speedster. If swapped for Graycastle's paper money, one could even get a further ten percent discount.

"Hey Boss!" the seamen on the deck were moving the goods saluted him.

White nodded in satisfaction.

In the past, hiring men would have been a large part of the expenses, but following the merchants' increasing fondness of steam-powered boats, the price of ordinary sailboats dropped even further. This dropped the cost of hiring men to climb and hang the mast—after all, the steam-powered boats did not require any mast and thus less manpower.

As he gazed towards ocean that reflected the sky and clouds and listened to the melodious calls of the sea gulls, White's mood lightened up. From a coachman to the master of a sailboat, his personal assets could be said to have increased severalfold. Although the work still involved transporting people and that the employers were still from Neverwinter, compared to a year or two ago, it was considered an overhaul.

Of course, he did not forget to purchase the steam truck of his dreams. It was just that his present wants had several new additions; for example, buying even more boats or vehicles… Certainly, it would be best to establish himself as a specialist in the transport business.

"Boss, are you comparing the tough times to the sweet again?" someone quipped.

The seamen knew that upon becoming happy, their boss loved to brag about his past and could go on for hours if no one interrupted him. As listeners, they would get a break from their busy work; thus, everyone would always use such an opener on him.

"What are you talking about, this is the experience of life, all of you, sigh… are still inexperienced." White glared at them. "I started driving for the Countess before working for the Church, and moved on to being employed by Graycastle before accumulating enough for this family business. All of those are not tough times, but the foundations to success, get it!?"

"Yes, yes, yes, whatever you say goes!" Everyone nodded their head.

"You little brats, I know that all of you want to skive." White found a clean spot to sit down, and patted the spot beside him. "All of you, come here. Take it that I'm in a good mood today; there's no harm in listening to me talk."

Whistles immediately sounded on deck.

White did not mind too much about it; he was not a noble. If he had not made the right choice and followed the majority to Neverwinter, he might not have been any better than these seamen today.

"Today, I shall talk about the achievements when the King of Graycastle recaptured the Kingdom of Wolfheart." He mulled for a short moment, then gabbled non-stop after. He talked about the soldiers that stood in the rain and never fell, about the nobles' diplomatic mission that ended up in failure upon the first meeting, but most of the content were focused on the shocking fleet.

"You guys have no clue on how large the fleet was, a continuous and unbroken extension of white masts, longer than the sea line. Even from a distance, people would be able to see it and become stunned in place, it is hard to blame the Baron of Sedimentation Bay for surrendering to King Roland immediately."

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Yes, it's even larger than what I just said, Kid. I can bet you that it was the most majestic sight I have ever seen in my life, a scene that you can never comprehend even if you break your head. Unless you get to see it personally, don't ever think of becoming like me your entire lives. Of course, this opportunity will never come in the next decade," White said smugly.

"Erm… boss, have you ever seen boats that appear out from beneath the waters?" someone asked.

"What nonsense are you saying. I'm talking about actual events, not some folk lore!"

"But it's right there… across the dock, and… it looks like there's more than one…" The person who posed the question stuttered.

"Did you drink too much last night?" White stood up and pushed the seamen around him aside. As he laid his eyes upon the sea, he was immediately stunned.

He saw a colossal "door" appear over the water surface.

The ships that hung the banner of Graycastle appeared like ghosts, one after another, they cruised out of the door and swept past the Speedster from several hundred meters away.

Chapter 1480 - Bugle Horn for the End of War

It wasn't only limited to the seamen on the Speedster; the others on the dock had also noticed this inconceivable fleet.

The dock instantly fell into a terrifying silence.

If the fleet wasn't flying the Graycastle flag, as well as the people on the vessels waving at them, everyone might have immediately dropped everything on their hands to flee!

Even ghost ships of legend would only appear in the foggy distant sea, so how was it possible to appear in front of so many people in the day in such an ostentatious manner?

More than half an hour passed when the inconceivable door disappeared, leaving only the departing figures of the fleet across the sea surface.

If they had not seen it for themselves, no one would have believed that they had appeared on the sea out of nowhere.

"Alright, alright. Get back to work!"

"Boss, what was that…"

"His Majesty's secret fleet. It's best you know less of it!"

After hoodwinking his seamen, White could not help but wipe the tiny beads of sweat on his forehead.

He decided to restrain himself a little more in the future, so as to prevent similar incidents from happening. Even though he had similar experiences in the past, he had confirmed his beliefs. The King of Graycastle had already effected so much change in the world that the world he was familiar with was already highly divergent from what it presently was.

…

With the help of Sky Lord, Graycastle completed their gathering of troops in the northern ridge of the continent at an alarming speed. In a week, they managed to transport more than a hundred thousand people from one end of the continent to the other end. Of this, twenty thousand were made up of the regular corps, and the armaments and food were enough to last them a month.

This was not a simple task. To raise the Distortion Door to its maximum efficiency, Iron Axe personally rushed to Neverwinter to organize the preparatory work. Kun Peng was changed into a transporter and, together with Agatha, the Red Mist was transported ahead of time to the Blackstone storage towers which had been built and not destroyed in Everwinter and the Kingdom of Wolfheart.

Simultaneously, in order to replenish Hackzord with magic power, Spear, Leaf, and company basically accompanied him the entire way, causing the former to have no chance of taking a breather. He kept producing Distortion Doors, and together with the Administrative Office's strong execution abilities, it made this movement over the continent happen extremely quickly.

Despite the many soldiers of the First Army being extremely astonished at having the companion of Sky Lord and the demons in the continental passageway, Iron Axe's lead prevented these doubts to turn into problems. And the troops slowly began spreading talk that the "demons had surrendered to the King of Graycastle and had expressed their loyalty." Of course… Hackzord, who had received news of this ahead of time, ignored it, pretending he had never heard of such talk. He hid all the rejoinders in him.

On the nineteenth day of Roland's unconsciousness.

The front lines had already made preparations to invade Mist Island.

Amid the General Staff, all the higher-ups were engaging in the last round of war games.

"First, Lightning will send a flare above the target to direct Lady Eleanor. Following that, the floating island will open up a path and enter the target from the west."

Edith pushed the model representing the floating island towards the western front of the map and said, "This step requires about three days. With the floating island's mass, it will definitely be discovered by the Sky-sea Realm."

"But even so, they do not have any effective means to stop us," Hackzord said confidently. "The Deity of Gods were originally designed to deal with the Sky-sea Realm's lair. Although this island is a little smaller, it's still a Deity of Gods at its core. As long as it doesn't take a sea route, the enemy can only watch from the waters. The acids the Nest Mothers spray out will at most leave a few black stains on the rock."

"During this period of time, the enemy isn't of much of a threat to us. The Aerial Knights' main mission is to suppress the enemy and, with the Bottomless Land as the center, sweep out an isolation band." Ferlin Eltek placed a ruler in the middle of the islands. "Your Highness Tilly, this will be left to you."

Tilly nodded.

"When the enemy's attention is drawn to the floating island, the First Army will appear from the north and slowly push south. The goal of the army is to eradicate the remaining enemy and occupy the periphery of the Bottomless Land, so as to seek a window of opportunity for Her Majesty Anna to find the entrance to the Divine Domain." The Pearl of the Northern Region paused. "According to Joan's description, the island has a receiver that's called a Guardian. Perhaps, she will be able to open a pathway in the real world to the Realm of Mind."

"I remember telling you that the Guardian has already been killed by me," Hackzord reminded.

"Indeed, but after comparing various sources of information, we believe that she wouldn't die that easily," Edith said without much care. "What you saw was an upgraded demon, while Joan saw a female human. Either the Guardian is just an illusion or there are many of them. Considering how the island appears uninhabited, it implies that she's quite extraordinary to remain there for several thousand years."

"But… Will this person really lead us into God's domain?" Wendy asked worriedly.

The venue plunged into silence.

In fact, the entire plan's second half was not supported by any reliable information. It was unknown if such an entrance actually existed. Nightingale had once rerolled the scene of what Roland saw in the Dream World to everyone, and that was their only clue. However, the content was just too abstruse and incomprehensible that even Anna wasn't able to make much out of it.

At present, the only thing that could be confirmed was that the Guardian would open a "path to heaven" to the victorious race that carried a complete legacy. As for what would happen with Roland not being in her receiving radius was still an unknown.

"We will never have an answer to this question if we don't try," Anna said decisively.

Her firm reply relaxed everyone's shoulders, as though it bolstered confidence from the bottom of their hearts.

"I have to warn you, humans," Silent Disaster suddenly said. "This battle will be different from all the wars you are familiar with. It would not develop in steps. Once you make contact with the Sky-sea Realm, everything after that will happen simultaneously. Regardless of what you do, time is of the essence."

"Does that mean that it's impossible for us to set up camp to slowly search for the island?" Edith asked with pricked brows.

"Believe her." Hackzord shrugged his shoulders. "Serakkas has spent most of her time the past hundred years fighting the Sky-sea Realm. She should likely be the person who understands the enemy the most among everyone here."

"Are there really… so many of those monsters?" Ferlin could not help but ask.

"More than you can imagine." Sky Lord had a rare tone of seriousness. "When they swarm over, the sea will turn into a rich blackness. If the Blackstone region were to land in the hands of the Sky-sea Realm, there will not be any obstacles between them and the Bottomless Land. Hoping to secure the island based on your idea is impossible. Without subsequent reinforcements, all that's possible is to last longer."

"We have no plans on staying there for long either." Finally, Anna stepped forward to cut the dispute. "The floating island will draw enemy fire and provide support, while the First Army will quickly occupy the Bottomless Land through the Distortion Door. At the same time, we will seek out the Guardian. As for what we do after that, it will depend on the enemy's reaction. Am I right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Pearl of the Northern Region said while placing her hand on her chest.

"Then, we shall take action two days later!" Anna said with a decided tone. "Regardless, we have to send Roland into the Bottomless Land. This is the only way to end the Battle of Divine Will!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty!" everyone shouted together.

Chapter 1481 - Landing on the Island For Battle Begins

9:20 a.m. on the fifth day of the beginning of the battle.

Thick fog rose up around the floating island suddenly, and the originally clear skies suddenly turned dark. The visibility dropped to about dozens of meters.

It's coming!

Everyone at headquarters realized that they were passing the "Illusion Boundary" mentioned by Hackzord. Although it was already the third day since they began taking action, the true battle was ushered in at this moment!

The massive room was silent. Everyone's eyes were staring at the screen intently, their bodies standing straight and tense. Even Sylvie's Magic Eyes were unable to see through the layers of obstruction. This meant that they were faced with an unknown region up ahead. Regardless of what fate had in stall for them, they could only wait till the final moment to know.

To the higher-ups of the First Army who were accustomed to having full information and preparation, the unease they felt was something they had not experienced in a very long time.

Suddenly, a faint crow's caw sounded in everyone's ears.

Ferlin and company exchanged looks.

They were above the sea, so how could there be a crow?

But it wasn't an auditory hallucination. Soon, more sounds were added into the mix. They overlapped each other, making everyone unsure of what kind of echo it was or if they had encountered a massive flock of crows.

In minutes, the cawing blended into a whole and was indistinguishable from one other. It also became louder.

A staff member suddenly had a change in expression. "Those are the cries of sea ghosts!"

"Sea ghosts?" someone asked. "The legendary creatures?"

"No, they aren't legends! I once worked at Festive Harbor. When the old seamen there talk about sea ghosts, they would describe them as crows of the sea!"

"Humph, stop making a fuss." Hackzord had his arms crossed. "This is just the lowest constructs of the Sky-sea Realm. Their only advantage is their numbers. They are most suitable for filling the battlefield. In a while, you will see what kind of enemy my race has always been battling—"

As Sky Lord was speaking, the thickness of the fog suddenly thinned. The runway on the floating island rapidly became visible to the naked eye, and following that, the sky and sea which were further into the distance. The sky remained dark, but it looked normal at the very least. However, the scene over the sea was completely different.

Everyone who saw the scene on the screen could not help but tremble.

It was definitely an unforgettable sight.

Countless sea ghosts propped up their heads over the sea as they cawed at the floating island. It was as though dense black pores had bloomed on the sea surface. Just sweeping across it with one's eyes left one's scalp tingling. The bodies which were floating beneath the water made the seawater appear a strange black color. If a description was necessary, they appeared like a nest of tadpoles in a puddle, but filling a puddle wasn't anything to marvel about. To dye the entire sea black was truly considered rare.

And the rumored Bottomless Land appeared in front of the floating island. Its size was similar to Sleeping Island. There were no signs of lakes on it, but it appeared luxuriantly green. It didn't look anything like an isolated island in the ocean.

Soon, out of the black sea ghosts surfaced the figures of Nest Mothers. They opened the rib bones on their backs and spewed out blobs of green, sticky liquid skyward! Instantly, it appeared as though toxic rain was striking the bottom of the floating island. If the humans' vanguard was not the North Slope Mine, but a regular fleet, the outcome was obvious.

"A total of 1,524." Eleanor's voice suddenly entered everyone's mind.

"Are you referring to…" Iron Axe said in surprise.

"The number of Acid Nest Mothers." She used her usual languid voice in a reply. "That's not more than the shells we have."

Just as she said that, a series of salvos sounded from the bottom of the floating island!

The first to launch a counterattack was Eleanor.

A 152mm Longsong Cannon shot out a shell and, after flying nearly a thousand meters, it accurately plunged into the body of a Nest Mother. After the shell tore through the organs, it exploded, blasting the Nest Mother into two! Meanwhile, the sea ghosts around it were also implicated by the explosion. The flying shells left a dense array of splashes across the sea, but this time, it was no longer black but a ghostly blue due to the blood.

In half a month, the engineering team's greatest modification to the floating island was the addition of a series of cannons affixed to the bottom. It was equipped with a full array of weaponry, going from 20mm autocannons to the biggest Longsong Cannons. After all, the Sky-sea Realm's main advantage was in the sea. Without the need for anti-air defenses, increasing the bottom's firepower was naturally the First Army's top priority.

At that moment, the floating island was an aerial battleship, and one that was equipped with a fire control processing machine.

Under Eleanor's control, even more of the autocannon turrets joined in the shooting. Instantly, the area beneath the island turned into a land of death where iron met flesh!

The salvo and the sweeping of the machine guns created a symphony that drowned out the sea ghosts' wails.

Although Hackzord maintained his composure, his expression had unknowingly turned complicated. Clearly, he had also realized that when the legacies of various races were combined together, it would generate astonishing effects.

"Get the Aerial Knights to prepare for take off," Tilly picked up a transmitter and said.

According to the plan, the Aerial Knights were not in charge of being the decisive force in the operation. They were to be split into dozens of squadrons and circle above the Bottomless Land for prolonged periods of time. They would cut off any support and attack the enemy's main forces, so as to reduce the pressure on the ground forces. These were all missions that the Aerial Knights had to shoulder. They had to take full advantage of the Sky-sea Realm's weakest characteristic.

Moments later, biplanes filled with fuel rolled out of the hangar and got into position.

At 10:40 a.m., Eleanor steered the floating island into the island's confines. The number of monsters that had been attracted by this colossal object was uncountable. They trampled over the dismembered corpses of their own kind, swarming towards the floating island, completely unfazed that they were unable to deal any damage to the floating island.

Of course, this also had to do with Eleanor deliberately lowering their altitude to entice the enemy into attempting to climb up the island. However, with the machine guns' sweeping fire, breaking through the net of destruction was not something easily achievable.

Compared to the explosive western front, the other places appeared a lot more quiet. Clearly, the approaching floating fortress had attracted most of the enemy's attention.

"Let's begin," Anna turned her head to Hackzord and said.

The latter snapped his fingers and vanished from the headquarters.

Meanwhile, Primal Chaos, who had been convinced by Silent Disaster and had no choice but to entrench himself at the top of the bridge, released his powers. Through the augmentation of the Infinite Sigil, the magic power that allowed for sight swept across the sky above the island.

Through the screen, the headquarters in headquarters clearly saw that what appeared to be empty ground was filled with blade beasts. Their distorted outlines slowly took form, as though they were being pulled out of their hiding spots.

The next moment, Sky Lord appeared at the boundary of the Bottomless Land.

He looked up to where the sinkhole was. Even without taking out the five-colored magic stone, he could recall the beautiful sight he had seen when he first arrived.

"Fate as determined by God?"

Perhaps from the moment he witnessed the magic glow gathered here, the ending of the Battle of Divine Will had stopped marching towards eternity. This day was inevitable. But when this moment really came, he realized that the feeling of allying with humans wasn't that bad.

Hackzord sneered as he waved his hand, pulling open a massive Distortion Door!

Chapter 1482 - Pincer Attack from the Air and Ground

"This is Sixth Battalion reporting, we are heading in the direction of eleven o' clock!"

"Third Battalion has occupied the one o' clock position!"

"We are sensing a large magic power source approaching; we have to inform the Aerial Knights to demarcate the signal and intercept it!"

"This is Lightning, roger that."

"Tanks 19 and 20 have engaged the enemies, target, Blade beasts!"

Following the entrance of the ground troops, the command center immediately became rowdy as correspondents responsible for receiving information had to reclassify them and hand them over to the General Staff members, who would in turn send the information back to the sand table, so as to allow the strategists to make judgment.

At present, the map had the additional of dozens of red flags and square pieces that represented different units of the First Army; for example, the infantry, artillery, and armor units. From the general situation, the plan had made smooth preliminary progress, the red labels were starting to gradually spread out from the center of the Bottomless Land.

The Sky-sea Realm had obviously sensed the sudden appearance of the troops, with a majority of the monsters moving to new targets and towards the First Army. But against the encampments that quickly took form, the sporadic attacks ended as nothing but an exercise for the monsters to end their own lives.

Through the Distortion Door, the troops moved into the isolated island in an endless stream. According to the plan drawn up, the operation would quickly fast-forward to the searching phase.

This was the part that had the most uncertainty—No one knew where the Guardian was, how he or she would appear, or whether or not the Guardian would open the path to the Realm of Mind.

"I will hand over command to you guys." Anna turned to Iron Axe and Edith.

"Must you do this yourself?" Wendy's expression was of worry and reluctance.

"We already agreed on this." She did not speak aloud, yet her voice remained firm. "I am not good at leading soldiers in battle and am of no help here. Furthermore, the Guardian's appearance might differ from person to person, if we continue staying in the air, we might miss the opportunity of meeting the Guardian."

"Let her go, I'll take care of her." Nightingale had already changed into her combat clothes, not only with the pistol that Roland had gifted her, but with a semi-automatic rifle and a sword on her back.

Wendy hugged Anna. "Come back safe, Your Majesty."

"Yes, I will," the latter replied earnestly, then turned to Phyllis. "Are the God's Punishment Witches ready?"

Phyllis nodded. "Everyone's ready."

"Very good, let us go!" Anna walked out of the command center without hesitation.

…

"This is a gift from Malt."

"Thank you." Danny accepted the round and loaded it into the chamber, then shot the head of a sea ghost that approached.

As a wandering unit on the battlefield, the elite sharpshooters were free to move around and choose their own battles. Just as before, he chose the most dangerous periphery region, following behind the steel war machines that pushed forward.

These regions did not have machine guns or cannons for coordinated and suppressive fires; thus, the pressure from the enemies were the highest. He had long noticed that although the tanks of the First Army were imposing, their lack of protection at the flanks and rear, especially with all the different steles that stood erected around them prevented the people inside the vehicles to notice any approaching enemies.

This sort of battlefield was specially designed for him.

"Pay attention to the big guy a hundred and fifty meters to your right."

"Understand."

Danny poked out from behind a stele and noticed a medium-sized blade beasts stealthily sneaking and detouring around a tank with the intent of an ambush from the back.

Although the monsters were not made out of metal, their ability to kill and flexibility were not to be underestimated, especially for the scythe-shaped blade at the front that was capable of piercing into the tank's defense upon being filled with magic power.

He loaded a new bullet into the chamber and slowly raised the rifle up—but Danny did not aim for the target, and instead moved towards the sky. According to the war tactics manual's description, blade beasts had their heads completely wrapped up in armor, preventing conventional bullets to be fatal to them. And before engaging in any attacks, blade beasts would always raise their guard against any potential threats around them, they were enemies that infantries were not recommended to fight alone. Thus, Danny had to wait for a better opportunity.

And that was the moment to sneak an attack on the enemy.

The blade beast did not sense Danny, who remained as still as a statue. It crept until it arrived at the optimal ambush position, spread its light wings, and suddenly pounced towards the tank!

Right at that moment, Danny squeezed the trigger.

With a loud gunshot, the bullet accurately struck its exposed forehead. The blade beast froze for a second as its entire body glided a few meters forward due to inertia before crashing heavily into the ground—but aside from its convulsions, it no longer posed any threat.

"You're still so amazing."

"Because you're watching out for me." Danny patted Malt's head. While searching for his next target, he suddenly realized that more than ten sea ghosts were rushing over.

They came while I was focused on the blade beast…

"Qu."

Danny pulled his partner behind him, then leaned against the stele and held his rifle up.

It was impossible to escape, but he wanted to know how many sea ghosts he could kill.

But right at this moment, an unbelievable scene occurred right before his eyes. The sea ghosts did not pounce and rip him into shreds, but instead started biting each other! The ground was instantly filled with the pungent stench of blood. When the last sea ghost fell, not a single body was left intact.

Soon after, a platoon walked over from their hiding spot—although they were dressed in First Army uniforms, they looked distinctively different.

They were Mojin's troops that came from the south.

"Marksman?" The soldier in the lead stole a glance at his weapon and badge. "Why are you out here alone? Where's your protection?"

"Farry—" Another soldier pulled on the former's sleeves and spoke with what looked like an apparent embarrassment. "If you don't mind, you can travel with us for now."

"I'm not acting alone, but I have to thank you guys." Danny realized that the warrior named Farry was not an ordinary person. "I hope that I can continue moving freely—"

"BOOM!"

The tank unit in front suddenly unleashed a series of salvos.

Everyone turned their heads and saw more than ten hideous Nest Mothers appearing along the horizon. They were escorted by a group of blade beasts that went against the cannons as they crawled forward. The blade beasts had exposed the underneath of their opened ribs, revealing what seemed like internal organs.

"Those are venomous Nest Mothers!" Farry frowned and waved an arm. "Quick, seek protection! Get those anti-demon rocket-propelled grenades here!"

Those were targets that ordinary weapons couldn't handle.

The tanks started to separate and reverse in a unique order.

At this time, the screams of the Aerial Knights came from above—

A few biplanes swooped down and unleashed their bombs on the Nest Mothers, instantly transforming the land into a large flaming pillar! Under the intense explosion and blast, the raging flames corroded anything it touched and stuck onto the enemies tightly. The enemies screamed and roared, attempting to escape the sea of fire. Unfortunately, they were on land, where their mobility was slowed to the point of being comparable to worms. In a short moment, the Nest Mothers turned completely silent.

The troops burst into cheers and whistles.

Danny caught sight of one of the pilots as the planes flew at low altitudes, who had raised his thumb up, proud of what they had achieved.

Following that, the formation of the Fury of Heavens changed as the planes turned and carried out the pincer attack.

Chapter 1483 - An Unexpected Encounter

…

"A large number of enemies are coming from the east again! Your Majesty Anna, how's the situation on your side, coo?"

Upon hearing Maggie's voice coming out from the Sigil of Listening again, Anna still felt the urgency of the situation even though Maggie had no intention to rush her.

With the passage of time, the number of troops the Sky-sea Realm pumped into the battle kept increasing. They swarmed over from every direction before crawling up Mist Island. They took the positions of the fallen and charged the First Army soldiers, completely undeterred by the corpses of their own kind laying their feet. The luxuriant grass from before no longer exist; it was replaced with a pungent scorched land filled with smoke. And in this low-lying terrain, the blue and black blood that flowed had turned into puddles.

The initial overwhelming advantage they'd had turned into a stalemate.

Faced against the violent siege from all angles, the First Army was unable to prevent losses. Even with the aerial support from Eleanor and the Aerial Knights, it was impossible for them to get every monster.

The blade beasts that had lost their ability to conceal themselves remained difficult enemies for the ordinary infantrymen, not to mention the mutated Nest Mothers which were capable of shooting acid sprays which could corrode steel and mountain-like Mountain Devourers.

The First Army were still able to preserve the front lines, repelling the Sky-sea Realm forces, but the risks and hazards were piling up at a speed visible to the naked eye. No one knew how much more of the Sky-sea Realm's forces was hidden, and upon any potential breaks in the line, it could very well trigger a rupture. Maggie was reminding Anna that time was of the essence.

However, Anna and company were unable to find the Guardian.

"There isn't anything in the inner region." She sighed, but controlled her voice to make it as calm as possible. "We will be heading further in."

"Understood, do your best, coo."

"I think it's time to retreat." Hackzord suddenly spoke up. "Young lady, you and your race have performed so well that it has surprised me, being able to penetrate into enemy territory and sustaining to this point. It can be commended as a battle achievement. But persistence might not bring you reward; the only reason for the Guardian's absence until now means that she's no longer here."

"Maybe it doesn't wish to be implicated by the barrage of attacks and has sought a place to hide," Nightingale retorted." If we give up now, that's the end to everything."

"I'm warning you; although I have agreed to cooperate with you, I do not plan to die here," Sky Lord said bluntly. "If the situation turns irredeemable, I will leave by myself. When that happens, the soldiers here will have no means of retreat. Are you sure you want to do this?" He turned and looked at Anna, who had her eyes fixated on him, but could not help but to add another line. "Of course… I will only do so as a last resort."

"I will not force you to stay, nor am I capable of doing so," Anna replied. "But I hope that you understand this point, the failure in our plan would mean our dead future. It might still take the Sky-sea Realm a while before they devour the entire world, but the majority of humanity will not see that day. But to your race that have extremely long life spans, you will have to face that future—Are you sure you want to live to see that day?"

"…" Hackzord was speechless.

"We are not at the limits yet." At this point, Silent Disaster suddenly spoke up.

"What?"

"I have fought against humans, this isn't their limit. If we are talking about those troops there, I'm sure they can last longer." She extended her hand to her back and drew her Blackstone sword. "Besides, I haven't done anything yet."

"Take note, Your Majesty Anna! There is a group of Sky-sea Realm monsters approaching from your front." At this moment, Sylvie's warning came from the Sigil. "I have already informed the two closest armor units, but they are still engaged in battle. Reinforcements might take a while!"

"Have them care for themselves." Nightingale stepped forward. "Leave this to us."

"That's right, we do not wish to lose to the monsters under such circumstances." The God's Punishment Witches drew their grapeshot guns as well.

Very quickly, a unit formed up of blade beasts and Nest Mothers appeared before everyone, with two gargantuan Mountain Devourers following behind.

Silent Disaster took the lead and charged.

Under her summoning, dark clouds suddenly gathered overhead, gold streams of light flickered and gathered, ultimately forming a thunderbolt that tore through the skies and smote the area around her!

This attack turned tens of monsters into ashes.

Nightingale followed tightly behind, utilizing the evolved lines to cover a few hundred meters. She appeared behind the front row of blade beasts, and before they were even able to react, bullets flew straight into their bodies.

She did not even bother about the outcome as she turned and continued to stride forward—unsure if it was her imagination, Nightingale felt that the Mist had turned much more amicable, as it would send out outlines of lines when she needed them. In seconds, she appeared before the Nest Mother.

This had been Nightingale's target from the beginning.

Unlike the blade beasts or lower lifeforms, Nest Mothers were able to produce offspring with ease and formed the foundation of Sky-sea Realm's strength. The death of one was able to greatly weaken the enemy's strength.

And it was not her first encounter with one.

Any ordinary person would instantly feel defeated and helpless upon facing such a behemoth, but not her.

Nightingale easily 'passed through' the ribs and flesh that formed the surface layer, followed by the intestines, heart, and lungs before arriving at the enemy's core—the eye. Although it was different from the Nest Mother which had devoured an Eye Demon, they had similar compositions. With regards to the bodies of Nest Mothers, the large eyeball hidden within the body was equivalent to the brain of humans.

She aimed her barrel straight into the eye of the enemy and pulled the trigger!

Even before the latter could use its tentacles to drive her away, the brain blossomed with blood. The Nest Mother lost its motor functions, turning incapable of driving magic power. With the lack of magic power to support its large body, it soon collapsed.

…

Anna stood in place and clenched her fists.

She was not as calm and steady as what everyone perceived her to be. She was just an ordinary girl from a tiny border town just five years ago, so how could she possibly remain cool and collected without batting an eyelid in the face of such a monstrosity? She had countless urges to retreat, but upon thinking of the possibility of Roland's eternal coma, she suppressed her fear and clenched her fists as she told herself to persevere.

But now, Anna discovered that the fear in her had lessened greatly.

Everyone's fighting form gradually turned fuzzy in her eyes. She was not the only one persevering—many others stood by her, overcoming hardships and obstacles, all for the same goal.

She once again understood the meaning behind this battle of destiny.

A preordained path was a type of destiny.

Being able to rise up and resist, so to escape the shackles was also another form of destiny.

The only difference was that the latter allowed them to write their own destinies.

Right at this moment, an extremely bright light exploded in the sea tens of kilometers away to the north—it expanded quickly and instantly turned the dusky sky to a clear blue!

That was the Kun Peng that had executed its task.

The Glory of the Sun rushed out within half a month was planned to reinforce the divide against the Sky-sea Realm, its explosion meant that another large wave of enemies approached from afar, and the most critical moment was about to arrive.

But Anna did not feel any unease.

She welcomed the rumble without taking a step back.

Suddenly, a girl appeared before Anna—dressed in pure white, her hair was blown up by the wind. She blocked the brilliant rays of the explosion behind her.

"Go back, this is not where all of you should be," the girl said gently.

Chapter 1484 - Revelation

The moment she spoke, the entire world seemed to quieten down.

Anna could even hear her heart beating.

She opened her mouth, but her voice didn't seem to emit from her throat.

"But where else can we go?"

"…" The Guardian fell silent surprisingly.

"It appears you are also aware of the answer. Apart from this place, we have nowhere else to go." Anna pumped herself up and carefully observed the Guardian. She looked identical to a human, and she spoke in standard Kingdom Language. With her sudden appearance, it was easy to guess her origins. "I've heard from Joan that you are trapped here. Have you never thought of leaving?"

"Miss Joan, is it…" The Guardian revealed a gentle smile. "It appears she has really brought the question back. But unfortunately, there is no true answer to the question."

"But there are still people attempting to seek the answer, and she's also one of your kind."

"One of my kind?"

"I know you belong to the Realm of Mind—and there, there's an Oracle named Lan who attempted to change everything," Anna quickly explained her intent for being here. "Achieving the goal requires two conditions. One of them has been fulfilled, and I've come here with the person who can solve the second problem. All that's left is to open the bridge of light and send him into the Realm of Mind—"

"I'm sorry. I do not know the Oracle you are talking about." The Guardian shook her head and interrupted her. "In addition, to open the bridge, one has to insert a complete legacy into the bottomless platform before the Origin of Magic can be activated, allowing the bridge of light to appear. You do know a lot, but I'm unable to help you."

"Wait!" Anna's expression finally changed as she hurriedly said, "Aren't you a receiver?"

"Yes, I am, but without the legacy, I'm helpless as well." She walked to Anna's side and gently touched her hair. "Leave this place, my child. Do it while you still have the time."

The Guardian's figure started fading away like she was about to disappear into thin air.

Anna reached out her hand in a bid to grab her, but she touched nothing.

"Finally, forget whatever you have heard—if a betraying Oracle really exists." When she fully dissipated, her soft murmur sounded in Anna's ears. "The Battle of Divine Will is an attempt to seek the answer. In such a long and vast answer-seeking process, there hasn't been a conclusion, so how can it be resolved by a person or two? Besides, if he really possesses such strength, he naturally doesn't need the bridge or key."

Is this… the outcome of persisting to the end…

Anna lowered her head to look at her empty palm, unable to stop herself from being rooted to the ground in shock.

What was she to do next?

…

Nightingale felt that her actions were becoming smoother.

It was as though something was different.

She couldn't exactly put it in words as to what the difference was, but she could sense the harmony within the Mist. The distorted lines in the past might have been usable by her, but they were like an extremely dangerous blade. She had to maintain intense focus to prevent herself from being injured.

But at that moment, this black-and-white world seemed docile like a lamb. It seemed to answer to her every request, and the process gave her a fully delightful experience.

In minutes, she had destroyed three Nest Mothers, but the enemies had failed to even touch the corner of her sleeves.

In terms of her battle accomplishments, even Silent Disaster, who was considered a Transcendent, didn't even perform as well as she did.

This pleased Nightingale.

The only thing that left her uncomfortable was the sticky liquid that clung onto her. She could avoid her opponents' sharp claws and tentacles, but she was unable to isolate herself from the putrid organs. This was also the cost of going deep into the Nest Mothers to strike at their weaknesses.

If it were Anna, she would have easily burnt these disgusting things clean, right?

With this in mind, she couldn't help but look towards where Anna was standing.

But at that instant, she instantly shuddered in fear.

She saw Anna facing the north in a motionless daze, as though something had fixed her in place. A few blade beasts were about to reach her from the direction of the sinkhole, and Phyllis had already clashed with one of them. Despite anxiously shouting at Anna, the latter didn't seem to hear her at all.

What's she doing?

From that angle, she should be able to clearly see Phyllis and the approaching enemies!

Nightingale turned around abruptly and completely ignored her pursuit of the Sky-sea Realm monsters. She rushed towards Anna as quickly as she could.

However, a blade beast had already opened the thin wings on it back!

Darn it, I won't make it in time—

At that instant, she saw a white line clinging to the ground appear. It went from her feet all the way to Anna. It was likely a fissure in the ground, and although it was an outline that existed in the natural world, they were not shown by her abilities due to the overly complex and minute structures.

If the outline of every slab of mud or every few beads of sand would appear, it would be useless for her to act on it—even if she focused fully.

As for selectively combining a tiny fissure together and labeling it with a pure white line, this was Nightingale's first.

It looked like a bright guide, and she subconsciously reached out her hand to grab at it before pulling upwards with force!

The magic power within her instantly poured out as the Mist world responded to her will—the line rose up suddenly, splitting everything in front of her into two.

On one side stood Anna with everything remaining the same. However, on the other side, the ground had been elevated high into the sky, forming a height difference of nearly a meter.

That wasn't just a simple terrain transformation. In an instant, the blade beast which had pounced forward had been sliced apart. Its front half slid in midair while its back half continued rising. It was as though the two parts of the body wasn't on the same plane!

The enemy which was uniformly split apart plummeted to the ground, landing not far from Anna. The sliced edges of their bodies were as flat as a mirror.

Meanwhile, Nightingale felt extreme fatigue overwhelm her. It made her find it difficult to even stand stably. It was a symptom of expending her magic power. Clearly, the series of changes that just happened was not a simple demonstration of her ability.

However, she was no longer considering any of those.

Anna still stood there in a daze, as though everything that was happening around her didn't involve her.

Nightingale gritted her teeth and walked to her back with an exhausted body. She grabbed her shoulders and turned her around.

What are you doing!? Everyone is fighting to fulfill your goal. Yet, you easily place yourself in danger. Are you trying to make all the efforts put in by others to be in vain? Nightingale wanted to berate her loudly when she stopped those words from coming out. She knew Anna, better than even Roland did. Anna would never give up until the final moment. There was probably only one reason why she would appear in a daze—she had already found the Guardian and received a negative response.

The tirade she was planning for instantly vanished. To shoulder such tremendous pressure without asking for anything in return required immense courage for her to stand here.

"You met the Guardian?" Nightingale asked softly.

"Yeah." Anna nodded slowly.

As expected.

Looking at her dazed expression, she immediately felt pangs of sorrow and grief. Despite all the work everyone had put in, they had ultimately failed to reverse their preordained destinies.

She could not help but gently pull her into an embrace.

"It's fine. It's fine even if we fail. We will accompany you to the end."

"Fail? Why do you say that?" Anna's reaction exceeded her expectations.

"Uh…" Nightingale was momentarily left shocked. "Did the Guardian agree to your request?"

"No, she rejected me. Without the legacy, the Bottomless Land will not open. Even she is helpless against that." Anna shook her head.

"Then why do you—"

"But she gave me a revelation." Anna looked up, her insipid eyes now glowing. "Be it Oracles or the Guardian, they are unable to violate the laws set by God. But if one really has the strength to change everything, one can reach the other end of the bridge even without their help!"

Chapter 1485 - "Jump"

"…" So that's why she was in a daze. Was she pondering over this question? Nightingale touched her beating chest, and retracted her hand in a rather peeved manner before flicking Anna's forehead. "Next time, please find a safe place to do the thinking, alright? So, what's your conclusion? Please explain it in the simplest of words."

By this point in time, Phyllis and company had rushed over. Seeing that the both of them were fine, everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

Anna was feeling a little unconfident as she held her forehead and whispered, "Jump down."

Nightingale was taken aback. After making sure that she hadn't heard wrong, she sighed. "I take that back; it's best you explain in detail what happened from the beginning to the end."

"Yes…" She turned to look in the direction of the Bottomless Land. "In fact, it's not difficult to explain. Since the Oracles and Guardian come from the Realm of Mind, it's impossible that Lan doesn't know the rule of requiring a legacy as a key. Regardless of how much truth or fallacy is contained in her words, it's quite unlikely she would forget the most basic problem after painstakingly putting all of this in motion.

"That seems to make sense." Nightingale thought and said, "So do you think Roland himself is able to open the column of light that leads to heaven?"

"No, the column of light probably doesn't lead us to where we would like to go." Anna shook her head. "Only the victor of the Battle of Divine Will would pass through that bridge to reach the other end. Besides, we aren't victors, nor do we have other legacy shards. Similarly, Lan had never mentioned this from the beginning. Furthermore, retrieving the legacy shards of other races to end the Battle of Divine Will is in itself contradictory. If it's a critical step in actualizing the plan, wouldn't it appear too illogical?"

"Then… where shall we go?" Nightingale realized that she was unable to keep up with Anna's train of thought.

"'The truth is always what you understand.'" Anna repeated Lan's original words. "If she had predicted that God would stop her from divulging critical information, then the scenes in the astrolabe would be suspect. Now, thinking back to it, which scene left the greatest impression on you?"

"Uh… something about gravity?"

"That's right. In the second scene Roland saw, the core that forms this world should be located in the middle of the planet. Therefore, we should be heading down instead of up. The Bottomless Land appears unreachable, but don't forget—" Anna paused having said that. "'Gravity is no longer the force which is most deserving of reverence in this world.'"

"Wait!" Phyllis spent quite a while before realizing what Anna meant by "jump down."

"Are you sure? That's too risky! If it's safe to jump, there should have been people who have reached the bottom. You have also seen the murals left behind by the Radiation People. They had even built towers and staircases, but from the replay of the scenes, they quickly gave up on similar attempts. It tells us that it's not a workable solution!"

"Being able to go down and up are two completely different matters." Anna shook her head. "This is probably what the Guardian truly means by "the person who has the strength." Heading down doesn't require any keys, but if we are unable to activate the bridge of light, we might never be able to return to the ground."

"There is no limit heading down, while heading up requires the bridge that leads to heaven…"

"That's right. As to the question of how entry to the Bottomless Land is gained, I had thought of several possibilities prior to this," she continued. "And the fact is that only until I spoke with the Guardian was I able to confirm a point. Or perhaps, this is the only way to explain why Lan never mentioned of a Guardian. It's because what Roland needs to do has nothing to do with a Guardian from the very beginning!"

"So you plan on throwing Roland down the sinkhole?" Sky Lord revealed a look of surprise.

"No, I will accompany him," Anna said categorically. "The retreat will be handed to all of you. There's no need to stay here. Return to the floating island as quickly as possible."

There was an instant silence. Although no one was willing to abandon Anna, everyone knew her character. Once she had decided on something, even His Majesty was unable to change it.

Seeing everyone silent, Hackzord knew the answer. He nodded and opened a teleportation door above the sinkhole. "Young lady, your performance is enough to prove the extraordinariness of a race. Even in failure, there is still glory in it."

Anna conjured Blackfire to raise up the unconscious Roland and walked into the door.

And the next moment, Nightingale vanished from her spot.

When everyone realized what was happening, it was already too late to stop her—

The last person to walk towards the Distortion Door was Silent Disaster.

"What, you are going with them?" Hackzord said with a frown.

"I've said it before. When they head to the Bottomless Land, I will accompany them," Serakkas said without turning her head as she crossed through the door, "regardless of where it is."

…

When the light returned to silence and darkness occupied everything, Roland heard a familiar voice in his ears.

"Where people come from and where they head to has always been a profound and interesting question."

He turned his head and saw a gray, hazy figure. A faint light was coruscating in its interior, and it was the only "beacon" in the space he was in.

"It has been discussed for ten thousand years, and each generation has a completely different answer. But regardless of the answer, it's filled with wisdom. It will lead them towards continuous progress so as to probe the unknown.

"But after ten thousand years, this question suddenly changed, turning meaningless. In the tens of thousands of years that followed, no one cared about where they came from or where they were going… because the answer is clear. Vanishing is the eternal point of refuge."

It let out a sigh.

"This world wasn't specially prepared for life.

"From the moment it appeared six quadrillion years ago, the stars have entered a stage of decline, burning to the end to become dwarf stars or black holes. The universe would turn a swath of blacknesses.

"Under the guidance of gravity, dwarf stars might reignite from collisions to become new stars again, but that is merely their final brilliance, just like a rare oasis in a desert.

"A powerful civilization occupies a lit oasis, while other civilizations rely on the aging dwarf stars to survive, until the large sliver of energy is drained dry. This would also be the scene after two octillion years.

"Gravity will become the only ruler of the world. The dead stars will continuously be absorbed into black holes and the immense amount of radiation will allow them to produce the most blinding light, even brighter than the stars. But that would be the only possible source of energy at that time."

The gray figure's voice gradually turned heavy.

"Even further into the future, at ten decillion years, the dwarf stars would evaporate, and the universe would no longer have any material planets or matter. Energy would be uniformly spread across every corner of the universe, and every spot in the universe would be dead. Darkness, coldness, and emptiness would be its everything. Yet, compared to the age of the universe, it would be equivalent to a newborn.

"In what follows, the universe will go through even longer adolescence, adulthood, and its advanced years. But that period of time would be meaningless because there is no life involved in it. Our existence is but an extremely brief instant, a manifestation of an anomaly, the outcome of a correction the universe needs."

The light within its body gradually darkened and weakened.

"… We won't be able to go anywhere."

Chapter 1486 - Project Gateway

"But you do not wish to head towards such an end."

Suddenly, another voice sounded, and two blobs of golden light appeared simultaneously—they looked like eyes.

"Life… has a common flaw. The more ahead it is, the more they believe themselves to be extraordinary." The faint glow inside the gray figure stopped coruscating and turned stable. "People stop asking about where they are heading in the future, but what needs to be done to go someplace—it's no longer a question filled with a myriad of possibilities, but a goal.

"Binding this world together is gravity. Civilization can continue only with it, but it also becomes the most fundamental law of the universe, limiting other possibilities from happening. After dwarf stars evaporate, smaller black holes will be swallowed by bigger black holes. The latter's size will be on the order of galaxy clusters. They would be evenly spread across every corner of the universe. Under gravity's influence, they would form an equilibrium. Do you know what it looks like?

"A bunch of tiny balls pressing down on a table cloth," the gray figure answered its own question. "They will restrain each other, and be of no use towards the universe's accelerating expansion, until it evaporates by itself into nothingness. And when that happens, entropy would reach a peak, and the universe would turn silent and stable. There would not be any change, and to it, that instant will be when it reaches adulthood. But that isn't the outcome we wish to see.

"That's right. Our existence is nothing to the universe, like a drop in the ocean. Even without life, the universe remains the universe. Or it can be said that our existence itself is a fluke. But since we have appeared, we are destined not to stay silent. Regardless of how soft we are, we have to produce a shout that belongs to us!"

They gray figure lit up again.

"Just like how we escape gravity, to leap from the ground to the skies, this time, we will escape our cages once again, to head to brand new territories."

"And your method is to use gravity." The voice of the eyes was extremely staid, without any perturbations from hearing what the other had said.

"That's right. Gravity will make depress space, and this is the only chance. When the balls on the table cloth are gathered at one point, and not allowed to naturally distribute themselves, gravity will definitely bring about a different kind of change—it will conflict with entropy via an artificial form of order, which is also a unique mark of life!

"When this bit of gravity becomes stronger, the distortion of the surrounding space will gradually increase, just like how the tiny balls pressing down on the table cloth are—but it will not increase without end. Once it exceeds a certain threshold, either the balls will become a new singularity and explode, or… an opening will be torn through the universe."

When this was said, Roland felt like he was hearing a heavy thud of a drum. That was the sound of the universe being drummed. Extreme distorted space when penetrated would result in a violent springback, and the immense force that resulted was sufficient to create a gravitational wave that would shake the world.

"This opening will be a new lease of life. It will be connected to a region beyond the universe. No one knows what's there, but at least, the dead, silent equilibrium would no longer exist. Energy would also continue flowing for extended periods of time.

"That… is the path we choose.

"And today—

"Is the day when life will take that brand new stride!"

Once the gray figure finished speaking, light suddenly beamed out of its body, illuminating the entire space, revealing stars, galaxies, and nebulae. The darkness instantly turned into a rich, colorful, and brilliant scene.

Then, Roland saw an even more incredible scene.

Amid this countless starry space were rows of armadas—their shapes and sizes were all different. Some were even bigger than the stars. These artificial objects were arranged in a matrix, nearly reaching to the ends of his vision.

As he took in this magnificent scene, he felt an indescribable sense of shock.

Without needing more words to describe them, these armadas that were neatly lined up were a form of order by themselves—a representation of entropy decrease. Only lifeforms could violate the universe's fundamentals, to challenge the world with bodies of Red Mist.

Or it should be said that to live was a defiance of the heavens!

"176,425 civilizations came to a unanimous agreement, to complete this historically unprecedented program. We will move more than a trillion galaxies, gathering ten-thousandth of the universe's matter together to create an artificial gravity fissure. Upon success, the world will proceed towards a complete change. And this program is known as the Project Gateway!"

"This plan exists risks," warned the eyes.

"On the one hand, there is risk, and on the other hand, there is an eternal silence of hopelessness. With such choices, is there a need to consider?" The gray figure's light was gentle and firm. "I've said that life always thinks of itself as extraordinary. But this alone isn't enough to complete Project Gateway. It needs someone who can oversee the entire situation to move around resources and allocate tasks. And this will remain the same even after billions of years. I need your help to achieve this goal."

"Of course." The eyes blinked. "That is the purpose for my existence."

…

The fall felt extremely long.

It was so long that Anna even began to doubt her judgment.

The sky above had already vanished. Even if she ignited sparks of fire at her fingertips, she was still unable to see beyond the endless darkness.

The Bottomless Land's depth had exceeded her imagination.

She even believed that she was traveling right through the core of the earth.

The tremendous speed made her hear nothing but the sound of wind.

If she had made a wrong guess, she would probably be reduced to a pancake the instant she hit the ground.

The only good thing about this was that there was no pain throughout the process. Everything would be over before she could even react.

With this in mind, Anna could not help but hug Roland even tighter.

After an unknown period of time, she suddenly felt the flow of air brushing against her cheeks weaken.

This change instantly jolted her!

After a few more minutes, the "abyss" below transmitted a faint light. But soon, she determined that she wasn't mistaken. The light was becoming brighter as the distance narrowed.

And it was at this moment that she felt like she had fallen into a thick layer of the atmosphere. Her plummeting speed began reducing to the point of causing her to feel dizzy.

And when Anna's feet landed, her speed returned to the instant when she had just made the jump.

She nearly didn't experience much of an impact.

"Tap." She heard a light sound behind her.

Anna turned towards the sound in surprise, only to discover it was Nightingale. "Why did you—"

"This time, I'm not hesitating or lagging behind." Nightingale patted her trousers and stood up. She said openly, "And how could I feel at ease letting you do it all alone?"

"Thud!" A third landing sound was heard. It was none other than Silent Disaster.

"Uh…" Nightingale immediately stood in front of Anna.

Anna was a lot more calm. "Don't worry. She's here for Nightmare Lord."

"I'm only abiding to our agreement," Serakkas said before she started looking around. "It looks like you got it right."

"Yes, this is the true body of the Realm of Mind." Anna nodded.

They were not standing on rock or mud, but a metallic surface. It looked extremely smooth and shiny, and it also emitted a very clean luster. It was solid and also translucent, looking nothing like an object of this world.

Chapter 1487 - The Omniscient Custodian

Nightingale stooped down and used her fingers to touch the ground. Upon raising her hand, the two discovered that her fingertips were as clean as before without a speck of dust.

This was clearly not normal.

Provided that the repeated cycles of the Battle of Divine Will had never stopped, the Radiation People would not be the only victors to have attempted to explore the Bottomless Land. Be it a slip, a fall or an intentional drop, there should have been traces or evidence to such instances, much less mentioning natural falling rocks and sand.

For the place to remain sparkling clean throughout the years and months made it inevitable for people to think that there was someone responsible for cleaning the bottom of the sinkhole daily.

"Hey, Wendy, can you hear me?" Nightingale took out the Sigil of Listening and spoke into it, but received no response. "It doesn't work… It seems like we have exceeded the communicating distance."

"Even if we were close, it might not work." Serakkas spoke concisely. "If God doesn't want anyone to leave this place with secrets, it shouldn't be difficult for him to summon a barrier of some sort."

"Right…" She shrugged. "What do we do next?"

Anna stared at the belt of light on the ground for a long time, then spoke up. "Do you guys think that these 'lights' are leading us somewhere?"

They flickered in a regular pattern like ripples that resonated from their feet and disappeared into the darkness—aside from where they stood, the entire place remained unmoved, as though the entire place was in deep sleep.

Silent Disaster tried walking in another direction that resulted in the light following her, but it remained to flow towards its initial location.

"Yes it does."

"God is inviting us… Interesting." Nightingale held the rifle in hand. "We have to meet him then."

The three followed the light and advanced slowly into the quiet cave. Approximately ten minutes later, a bright entrance appeared before them.

Compared to the darkness from before that prevented them from even seeing their fingers, the light and visibility undoubtedly made them relax—no one liked walking in complete darkness, to be unaware of the surroundings, and what lay ahead. Although they were underground, the light enabled them to view their surroundings.

"Is this truly the Realm of Mind…" Nightingale could not help but ask.

"Why do you say that?" Anna turned and asked.

"Because it is related to the consciousness." She scratched her head. "Whether it's called the Realm of Mind or Origin of Magic, it sounds like something intangible and illusory. But this place…"

"Feels like it was created." Silent Disaster suddenly spoke up.

Be it the walls or the ground, the long passageway was completely unlike that of an ethereal illusion. They were solid and level with clear edges and protrusions which were pleasing to the eyes. At the same time, the translucent metals were able to release light voluntarily. Regardless of whether they were activated by footsteps or them applying pressure with their hands, the lights were extremely responsive. Furthermore, the lights lit up faster the stronger the pressure, with occasional unfamiliar symbols that would appear. It was unlike the imposing and solemn vibes as expected of a Divine Domain.

"Maybe the Realm of Mind was created." Anna's reply startled the two. "Just like you and me… or should I say, like a civilization."

Nightingale swallowed her saliva. "Isn't the other party… God?"

"The two aren't contradictory." Anna shook her head. "I've heard Roland mention it before, the reason why Lan had called it God was because it was the easiest explanation we could understand. Just like how we are Gods to ants—"

She shuddered. "This is truly a loathsome explanation."

"Yes," Silent Disaster agreed unexpectedly. "But I can understand."

Nightingale was about to say something when she discovered they had reached the end of the passageway.

"Did we… get lost?"

But she suddenly heard a faint hissing sound. A beam of light quickly swept past the three of them and duplicated an image of the trio on the wall at the end of the path.

This change scared them all, even Anna.

Before the three could make a response, the wall suddenly turned into countless hexagons that disappeared in succession, revealing a large, ring-shaped space to them.

The edge of the space was encircled by some form of orbit, while the middle was separated by a transparent 'glass.' Inside the glass, they were able to see an astonishing large spheroid revolving beneath. This spheroid didn't seem material, but instead a body composed of electric and fluid! Countless bolts of lightning shuttled back and forth the walls, every beam far more piercing than the thunderclaps in the sky. Even though they were only separated by a layer of glass, the space was in complete silence, as though the intense and violent events occurring inside was unrelated to the outside world.

The three their breaths, anyone able to witness such a scene would be undoubtedly shocked—no one would possibly think that such a majestic construct existed and was hidden beneath an isolated island.

But what surprised them even more was a tube-shaped figure which was floating up the wall towards Anna, and opened what resembled a 'cover.'

No matter how slow they were to react, the three understood the figure's intent.

Silent Disaster and Nightingale looked at Anna and waited for her decision. The latter stared at Roland for a long time, before releasing her hands. Under the pull of her Blackfire, the sleeping Roland was gradually placed into the tube. Once the hatch was closed, the tube floated back to the wall and embedded itself back in its original position, as though it had disappeared into the wall.

"Is that considered… a success?" Nightingale muttered.

"I don't know," Anna replied softly. "But at least we have finished our goal. The only thing we can do now is wait."

…

The dark sky gradually faded away, replaced by white light that enveloped his vision.

Inside the boundless whiteness, a flight of stairs 'appeared' beneath Roland's feet—this time without any snowflakes or familiar ceiling. His gaze landed upon the other end of the path, only to see that the stairs was connected to a flat land with nothing in sight.

I see…

He sort of understood why Lan would say that once the path of Erosion appeared, he would naturally sense it.

The difference between the two worlds was so huge that only a blind man would not be able to see the difference.

According to Lan's logic, this place was most probably the Divine Domain—but he was unsure whether or not the astrolabe given by Epsilon was the reason for the Dream World's final expansion or that the expedition had accomplished their goal in reality that allowed him to arrive at this place.

But it was pointless to think about such things at this point in time.

Roland opened his stride towards the stairs.

It was a short distance and soon enough, he arrived on the piece of flat land. Right in the middle of the open space was a uniquely-shaped throne, with a figure donning a mask seated upright. The scene was especially spartan, unlike what he had imagined the "Divine Domain" to be.

Roland previously thought that God would have created an extremely glorious and dignified palace to display his strength as an opening gambit. Who would have thought that God would be so simple, leaving Roland momentarily unsure about the tone to use for a greeting.

"You're… God?"

In the end, he chose the simplest method to begin the conversation.

If he was mistaken and the person before him was an Oracle or a guide, it would not be too awkward for him.

"You can call me that, Child," the other party replied immediately. "But I prefer another term—the Omniscient Custodian."

Chapter 1488 - Origins

Custodian? Roland pricked up his brows and said, "A guardian to ensure that every civilization will walk towards destruction?"

"I knew you would ask that… but that is a solution that cannot be helped." The entity stood up from the throne and dragged its right hand lightly. Following that, a sphere of light appeared in its hands before peeling away, layer by layer, to reveal the complicated structure within. This continued until Roland recognized what it was.

Although he had anticipated it, only when he saw the scene before him did his heart skip a beat.

Floating in the entity's hand was the world they were from.

He saw the Land of Dawn, the Fertile Plains, as well as the Kingdom of Graycastle. Beyond this continent, there were the Blackstone region and the Sky-sea Realm. But those weren't important. What was important was that the entire world was enveloped in a honeycombed shell, just like the barrier that isolated a planet from the outside.

And beneath the continent and oceans hid an extremely complicated core. It wasn't like a planet's core which formed a spherical shape due to the pressure placed on it. Instead, it was an irregular geometric body. The protruded Sky-sea Realm was located on the boundary of a geometric solid, and Roland could even see that the Swirling Sea's bottom was connected to the Sky-sea Realm. The path resembled a Klein bottle.

Without a doubt, this world appeared so unharmonized solely because it wasn't naturally formed.

The artificial planet he saw In the second scene was just like the present real world.

The clouds and celestial bodies observed by people were simply projections formed by the barrier.

And in the real space beyond that, all Roland saw was dead silence.

"You were the 'pair of eyes.'" Instantly, he suddenly understood the answers to many questions.

God sighed slightly. "I'm not sure of what information you have collected, but that doesn't matter. Time is a measure that can be as long and short as required. I will satisfy your curiosity… before destroying you."

"As expected of what a Custodian will say—it's like a student not needing to go to classes, or a pharmaceutical company not needing to produce drugs," Roland said sarcastically as he spread his hands. Regardless, he was now representing humanity, or perhaps all living beings in reality. Even if the entity across him was God, he could not cower in fear. "What I wish to ask is why is there a Battle of Divine Will? What do you plan to achieve?"

"I thought you would ask from the trivial questions. Fine." It retracted the sphere of light in its hand and waved one hand. Countless 'screens' soon appeared behind it, and in the spartan space, they formed a stunning wall.

Roland discovered that the contents depicted by the screen were… all sorts of living beings.

"Project Gateway was a success. Its results were almost identical to the calculated outcome. With the help of many civilizations, this universe's gravity was pulled apart eventually, producing an extremely tiny rift," God said slowly. "But Project Gateway was also a failure. The energy which surged in from another territory destroyed most of the sentient lifeforms, including the creator of Project Gateway."

Was that the final scene of the third act…

Roland recalled the extreme grief, as though he was connected to all the civilizations which had participated in the plan.

"That's right. This energy is what you call magic power."

"It's not light, nor does it have temperature. It's neither made up of particles or waves. To be simple, it comes from a space that has completely different laws from the universe we come from. Physics and math become meaningless in the face of such energy. In almost an instant, it influenced and changed the entire world."

"What's… on the other side of the rift?" Roland couldn't help but ask.

"An accurate description isn't available because no one has passed through that distorted membrane, but according to an analysis, there are basically two possibilities. One of them being a universe that includes our universe. This is the easiest theory to understand." Having said that, the entity's voice turned ethereal and hollow. "A new singularity can be born within the universe to produce an explosion to form a new universe, and thus, creating a set of completely independent laws and physical constants. Therefore, even if our world stems from a universe beyond the membrane, it doesn't mean that life or matter can easily proceed without obstruction.

"The second possibility is that our world is in the empty gap within the multiverse. You can think of it as a pot of thick soup, and we are just rising bubbles with their appearance, inflation, fusion, and bursting happening… Of course, reality is a lot more complicated, but that has already exceeded the limits of your comprehension."

"Fine… let's turn back to magic power." Roland curled his lips and said, "You previously mentioned that you would destroy a large majority of life, but you were the one who created the normality of the real world. Isn't that a contradiction?"

If humans were said to be the chosen ones of the universe, it would have been too incredulous.

"Magic power possesses a very unique set of laws. One of them is that it would change via will. Meanwhile, it will also change the mind of the possessor."

Roland was suddenly surprised. "What?"

"The first batch who had their lives change were the participants of Project Gateway. Their forms were warped and reconstructed, and after ten million years of evolution, they finally became a special crystalline body, which is the magic stones you use," God said calmly. "As I'm not considered a lifeform, I was lucky to survive, but similarly, I suffered tremendous damage which took me tens of thousands of years to recover from. And from that moment forth, gravity was no longer the force which is most deserving of reverence."

Upon hearing this answer, Roland was momentarily unsure how to continue.

However, Roland wasn't surprised by the notion that the Custodian wasn't that of a lifeform. Project Gateway was a humongous program that spanned over trillions of galaxies, with more than 170,000 civilizations participating in it. To ultimately take the correct path over such long periods of time, the coordinator definitely could not be a particular lifeform or race.

The entity had appeared because of the project.

"After that, the Cradle was created. It uses magic power to construct a world; however, the amount of energy suffers a particular limit. From an incomplete data bank, I chose life and began to foster them, allowing these creatures to live again under new rules. As competition can increase a race's development speed, the Cradle will deliberately choose lifeforms who lived in similar environments to foster. But the calculations soon discovered that this process would take an inestimable amount of time. With limited resources, it limits free growth. As such, the choice of involving external forces became inevitable.

"… Legacy shards," Roland said in a deep voice.

"That's only a part of it." The entity nodded. "As for what I ultimately want, it's not that complicated. The creator of Project Gateway, which is the civilization that created me, doesn't only want the universe to 'live on.' It had never had the intention of stopping progress, even so at the moment of destruction. Opening the rift was only the first step. Its true goal is to see that territory which no one has ever stepped in."

"It handed me this mission, and my final duty is to create a civilization that can adapt to the laws of the two worlds." The entity paused for a moment. "And this competition and its development is what you call the Battle of Divine Will."

Chapter 1489 - Once Again, Battle of Souls

This time, Roland fell silent for a very long period of time.

He looked at the thousands of screens behind the entity. The living beings active inside no doubt represented the countless cycles of the past. With the Battle of Divine Will continuing up to now, it implied that no creature was able to independently live beyond the barrier.

This world wasn't deliberately named Cradle either, despite it having corpses and remains buried in it.

"… Then what is the Realm of Mind?" Roland asked after a long period of time.

"It's critical to maintain evolution, which is the core of the Cradle." God did not seem to have any intention of hiding things from him. "Magic power can be driven by will, but it isn't as simple as having it turn into whatever you will it to be. After countless evolutions, it gradually could be used by life and turned into an energy under this world's laws. This also proves that the Creator's theory is accurate with just a little deviation in the method involved."

A little deviation… Roland fell silent. Perhaps no one could imagine that simply based on thought, an action that couldn't be seen or touched, could reduce entropy in reality. This was perhaps the most fascinating part about magic power.

"Usage of magic power still can't be devoid of usage method and calculations; however, it is incompatible with mathematics and other natural laws which we are already aware of. If it wasn't because I had been changed by magic power, I wouldn't even be able to comprehend the laws."

It stretched out its finger and waved it. The screens behind it coalesced into one—countless beams of light shot up into the sky, and after reflection from the barrier, gathered within the Bottomless Land. "After a tremendous period of time, the Cradle discovered that even with the Battle of Divine Will, lifeforms need to experience an extremely long period of growth and comprehension, even if they were born in an environment with magic power. In order to speed up this process, the Realm of Mind replaces a portion of the conversion work. This speeds up their ability to use magic power and this magic power will then change their bodies."

"So those light beams which are called 'keys' are actually pipes to transmit data?" Roland asked.

"Calling them pipes isn't accurate, because they are magic power materialized as information. The Realm of Mind would complete a calculation based on the user's pleas and expectations before transmitting the outcome back. This allows lifeforms to possess the ability to control large amounts of magic power in an extremely short period of time, so as to shorten the time needed for their growth."

"So you know of every change in the Cradle—" Roland said in a deep voice.

"That's right. This is a necessary measure to ensure that the system will operate as per normal."

So that's how it is… Some of his previous questions received an answer. For instance, why certain witches had light beams which were obviously thicker than other witches, even if the former's abilities didn't seem that powerful. This was because it had nothing to do with the power produced, but the complexity of the process.

Meanwhile, things like Andrea's sure-hit and Momo's ability to see lifespan were abilities that stemmed from some prediction of the future. They were all established on the pretext of a massive information web, and that the Cradle could control everything in the world. As long as the processing abilities were powerful enough, all indeterminable factors such as Chaos effects could be resolved within the barrier.

When the conditions of the exterior world were deterministic, the outcome became naturally obvious.

To be able to reach such achievements technologically, he was convinced that this was a civilization that tried to play God.

"In that case… the Dream World is already interfering with your plan?"

"That's right. Not only does it occupy lots of resources and influences the stability of the core—as you should have already noticed. The magic users in the world are decreasing. This is all a symptom of the Realm of Mind being overtaxed. In order to prevent the Cradle's structure from collapsing, I have to return everything to its original state." With that said, God's tone turned a little sorrowful. "Child, see what you have done. All the evolution information that has happened to this day will all return to its original point."

This blame is really… a little too much for anyone to shoulder.

Roland curled his lips. "I don't understand. If you can create the Cradle, I believe you can control the entire Realm of Mind as well. Why not let the Dream World be destroyed from the beginning?"

"That's because the evolution of life comprises of infinite possibilities. It's even more so under the influence of magic power." God had apparently guessed that he would ask such a question. "I allocated a portion of the resources for the Realm of Mind to other civilizations, mainly a form of acquiesce to allow them to study the power of cores. Artificial interference and correction might end up missing that sliver of evolution possibility. But to ensure a multifaceted outcome, any external interference will be restricted, unless it has already threatened the entire project and the Cradle itself."

So it's not that God can't do it, but it has already bound itself by the most basic rules…

"I believe expressing my apologies at this moment would already be too late?"

It shook its head. "From the moment you arrived here, it was already too late."

"But I do not believe that the resistance of life as shackles on themselves is a mistake." Roland wiped away his teasing expression and stared straight at God. "Even if I were given a choice to redo it, I'll still do the same."

"I can understand because you believe yourselves as extraordinary. Sentient lifeforms develop logic, but seldom do they abide by logic. This might be the reason why magic power would resonate with you."

"It's best if there's less mutual understanding. Speaking of which, this place is fundamentally a part of the Realm of Mind, am I right?" Roland spread his hands and secretly focused. Then, he conjured a short sword in his palm. "It doesn't seem like I'm wrong. Entering the Divine Domain isn't crucial, after all this is your territory. Reckless intrusion will lead to a simple annihilation. Only by using Erosion to change the laws can your existence be threatened."

"So you always had such an idea from the very beginning?" God pointed its finger at Roland. "Whatever. Although I'm unable to agree with such acts, I can give you the requisite amount of respect. Apart from letting you know everything, I can even give you a chance to resist, so as to let you know the gap between us."

As it finished speaking, Roland suddenly felt something being stuffed into his head. The excruciating pain from the swelling made him shout out intolerably!

Countless words and formulas flashed by his eyes like an illusory light show.

Grand unification theory, superstring theory, multidimension law, theory of everything…

The knowledge that had troubled humanity for extended periods of time presented itself in front of him. Not only that, he realized that he could completely understand the content, just like a brand new door was opening up to him.

"The Realm of Mind had a record of an abnormal fight. Calling it the Battle of Souls is quite apt for the present situation." God slowly floated up. "At this moment, your brain is being connected to the Cradle's knowledge vault. Knowledge accumulated for tens of millions of years are free for you to acquire. Of course, if you wish to give up, that's fine. The world's remolding will not bring you any pain. Everything is but an instant—"

"What are you saying?" Roland did not hesitate to cut God off. "Since you have bestowed me with such a chance, how can I miss it?"

He raised his hand and swung it, causing the platform and stairs to shatter. The pure white background began crumbling, revealing the black universe with its twinkling lights.

Armadas appeared out of thin air as they arranged themselves neatly behind him, forming a vast matrix—it was the scene which he had seen from Epsilon's memories.

All sorts of weapon systems were aimed at God under Roland's will. At the moment the thought for attack arose, a blinding beam of light instantly lit up the entire starry space!

Chapter 1490 - Fighting God

…

The vast universe became the battlefield of this skirmish of minds.

Countless stars exploded, releasing white fiery glows that resembled that of a newborn star, spewing out material that extended for hundreds of light years, like the inchoate scribbles of a child.

The armadas very quickly turned to ashes under God's strikes, and the weapons that appeared next only grew in force.

Back when he was fighting Zero, the most common method used was to establish a defense before delivering a barrage of attacks. Now, it wasn't too different. However, the explosives had gone from gunpowder to something else.

For example, matter-antimatter annihilation.

When masses at the level of galaxies were converted into energy, even the universe would tremble. The dull drumming sound that resonated the universe was filled with light and heat, as they spread outwards at the speed of light.

In this intense battle, carbon lifeforms were weaker than paper. Roland first created a reinforced body for himself before later changing into a pure body of energy. He engaged in battle by creating items with his mind based on his extraordinary Cradle-connected mind.

Unlike the previous Battle of Souls, he didn't need to think hard to the point of mental enervation. The knowledge vault had countless means for him to employ. His rapidly whirring thoughts made him feel an indescribable sense of joy that even in death, he would be vaporized by energy blasts instantly and not experience any pain.

In the beginning, the battle was on equal ground, but once magic power entered the mix, Roland entered a state of passiveness.

And there was no way to recover from this position of weakness.

This was the first time he acutely sensed the potency of magic power.

Be it witches or demons, the methods they used were to convert the existing energy of the universe. But in the hands of the Custodian, it could completely shirk away the bindings of the rules. Most means and their effects could no longer be made up with greater equivalents.

Almost a thousand deaths made Roland's mind begin to dull. If not for the Cradle's help, he probably wouldn't have lasted this long.

When he was revived again, he no longer had the strength to prop up his body.

The background around him returned to the pure white world from before.

Roland staggered before slumping to the ground. It was only then did he realize that his back was cold with sweat.

"With this, there shouldn't be any regrets for you, right?" the other party quietly asked. Clearly, such a battle had not burdened it in any way. In the territory of the mind, it was indeed no different from God.

"How can it be possible…" Roland took two deep breaths. "Do you think that I came here to be beaten up by you to vent your anger?"

"Your methods stem from ignorance and arrogance. That is one of the inherent traits of life. Besides, with the situation having developed this far, the venting of anger doesn't help a thing." It paused. "But you still wish to continue a battle like the one we just had? In the face of an absolute gap, perseverance is meaningless. I originally thought that you would be smarter—"

"Are you referring to the Battle of Souls? No… I never believed that victory can be decided so easily." Roland slowly stood up by imbuing his strength into his wobbly legs. "What happened just now was to experience the feeling of who calls the fleet… To be honest, it felt pretty good…"

"Enough!" God's voice sounded perturbed for the very first time. "Millions of years of progress destroyed at once; yet, you treat it as an unimportant game?"

"I didn't say so." Roland forced a smile. "However, before the final moment comes, I wish to ask you a question—why… do you do this?"

"Provide assistance to Cradle? I've mentioned it before. Life possesses the power of choice, and every creature born in the Cradle is my child. I respect your choices and will—"

"No, I'm not asking that." Roland shook his head. "I'm asking you, why did you make those… Lans?"

God suddenly fell silent.

Moments later, it took off its mask and revealed the face hidden beneath.

It was Lan's face.

"Have you met her?" It stared at Roland for a moment before speaking. "So that's the reason. However, you are mistaken on something. This body is only an image to convenience my interaction with humans. You did meet me, but I'm not her."

That Epsilon really wasn't wrong.

Roland curled the corner of his lips.

Just as the astrolabe bloomed and white light engulfed his entire vision, she had said her final words. Even though he had failed to read her lips clearly, Epsilon's words had imprinted it on his consciousness.

That was the answer to his second question.

"I sensed God Almighty's aura from the betraying Oracle, and I wish to ask it. Is that the outcome it wants?"

In the beginning, Roland was unable to put the dots together with the information, but now, he fully understand what God truly was.

"Indeed, you are not her, but only when the two of you fuse together would you be a complete Omniscient Custodian," Roland enunciated his words slowly.

It's not only Lan… Pure magic monsters, Oracles, as well as the Bottomless Land's Guardian might have been a part of it.

Therefore, Epsilon had mentioned that as long as God wasn't destroyed, she would exist forever.

What is the Omniscient Custodian?

Calling it a system, a machine, a program, Gaia, or a comprehensive data sentient being wasn't important. The original reason for its creation was to supervise Project Gateway, as well as to aid the Creator in fulfilling the real goal after the "door" was opened.

But in the long period of time where hope couldn't be found, it began experiencing divergences.

This divergences could have been one or two passing thoughts in the beginning, but with the passage of time, the thoughts fused into a self-cognitive being.

They were born within the Custodian, and there wasn't only one. Lan was just one of them.

They were sick of the endless nurturing and observation. They didn't wish to be bound to the dead universe. Of course, there might have been more contrasting differences, such as resources.

As long as there was a body in reality, there was definitely expenditure. In the flourishing era of the civilization, the Custodian naturally didn't need to worry about protecting them. But now, with all sentient lifeform in the universe dead, everything came under the aegis of the Custodian. Yet, the Cradle needed to take a large portion of the resources, and with time, it would exceed a certain critical point, making the possibility of the entire system entering an irreversible state of collapse.

In Lan's words, "regardless of the outcome, anything is better than being imprisoned here forever. At least, the future is filled with infinite possibilities."

"They will quickly vanish with the restructuring, along with you." God's tone remained calm.

Roland wasn't surprised when faced with this reaction. Without a doubt, if the betraying Oracles could resist the main Custodian, there was no need for them to seek him.

Perhaps what it controlled was the basic rule of the Cradle.

"But Lan's appearance isn't an anomaly. In millions of years, perhaps a similar scene will happen again."

"Then, everything will return to its original state. I have to complete my agreement with the Creator. This is an iron law which has no room for change," it said, unmoved. "Now, I will begin the world's restructuring—"

"Is that so?" Roland chuckled. "That wouldn't be a wise thing to do, because… you have already completed the agreement."

Chapter 1491 - The Meaning of Existing

One could well imagine the strength it had, as the representative of more than 170,000 civilizations while also being in control of the Cradle system.

But that didn't mean Roland had no chance of winning.

Lan's unspoken request, Epsilon's doubts, the memories from the astrolabes, as well as God's reaction—all of the clues started to form a series of connections.

The so-called replacement of God was not in the true sense of the word.

"What did you say?" With its hand in midair halfway, the Custodian stopped suddenly.

"Aren't species capable of adapting to magic power and qualified candidates wishing to explore the world beyond the door already in existence?" Roland slowly extended his finger out and pointed to the Custodian. "If we were to let everything start over, no one would have been able to tell you this."

"…" It was the first change in expression that 'Lan' revealed.

As though a crack had appeared on smooth glass.

"Do you know what you're saying? Once I leave, the Cradle will die and when the time comes, this universe will become a vestige of any form of life. Furthermore, the other side of the door possesses a completely different set of laws. Those transformed from magic power might be unable to return and failure means extinction—"

"That's not the point, because it will be the same regardless of what civilization it is. Even if they are willing to head beyond the rift, you will never know if they succeed. So compared to 'adapting,' the 'aspiration' is far more important. You should know that better than me." At this point, Roland slowed down his speech. "That's right, you know about this, that is why there's a species such as the Sky-sea Realm."

God's minimal actions made it seem as though it had quietened down.

The Sky-sea Realm's various abnormal activities indicated that it was not just a competitor. In fact, it was not difficult to comprehend. Magic naturally possessed the potential to exceed laws. Mutation couldn't be eliminated for species that matured in environments with extremely weak magic power, allowing them to obtain astonishing progress in a short period of time. This progress might not make them adaptable to life outside the barrier, but would jeopardize the Cradle system.

But to interfere just for the "possibility" that existed became an inconsistency that went against the basic rules—since creatures capable of adapting to environments with magic power would eventually experience this phase. In order to control the risks and prevent the situation from deviating, a sub-first grade filtering method had to be applied. Thus, the Sky-sea Realm, a unique species, was placed into the Swirling Sea.

Even though all of this was merely speculation, Roland knew that his idea was not too far off from the actual truth based on God's reaction.

Since it was the Omniscient Custodian, the things it considered would definitely be more comprehensive.

Obviously, the hardest part of the plan, aside from the unpredictability of how a species would evolve, was 'aspiration'.

The more than 170,000 civilizations involved in Project Gateway might make the scale seem vast, but compared to vast number of civilizations within the universe, it was just but a small minority.

Besides, their common ground of understanding was to break the seal to allow the universe to continue inexhaustibly.

But not every civilization would be willing to head into the domain of the unknown.

In other words, if a species completely capable of adapting to magic power appeared, the Custodian would be caught in between a dilemma—if the Custodian was not willing to take any risks, the agreement would never be fulfilled. Or if God forcefully spurred the situation, no one could be sure that victory was assured for the Custodian.

"… You think that this is enough to sway me?" After a long silence, the other party spoke up. But despite saying so, its hands no longer continued to move.

"I'm not saying all of this to sway your judgment, but merely enunciating the simplest logic here. You already understand and know of the uncertainty in satisfying the criteria of being 'adaptable' and having the 'aspiration,' and you understand it without me continuing." Roland shrugged and feigned casualness. "Of course, it is natural that you can't be at ease leaving the Cradle. In that case, I can do a bit of a sacrifice. After you are gone, I can allow the Cradle to continue operating, and at the same time, nurture lifeforms with potential—just not through means such as the Battle of Divine Will. How's that?"

"Lan" never expected such words from him and was stunned for an extended period of time, be it his understanding of the rules or his suggestion from his all-out calculations. In the end, it shook its head. "A very interesting argument, for you to be able to reach this step shows that you truly stand out from the masses. But an agreement is an agreement, I am the Custodian, be it a species or civilization, this is something set long before life began, and the cornerstone of my existence."

"Really?"

Roland focused all of his attention and unleashed yet another Battle of Souls!

Darkness enveloped the two, the platform and stairs disappeared without a trace, and time seemed to freeze.

"All of that rhetoric, just for this? A pity that a sneak attack is completely meaningless against me. As long as I transfer a bit of resources, I will be able to satisfy all calculatory requirements." Upon entering battle state, "Lan" spoke much more calmly, and all its prior doubts had disappeared without a trace. "But this is good too. Let this battle mark the end of the world—"

"No… I merely wanted you to see something, a past that maybe you've forgotten." The huge drain on his psyche made Roland struggle to even speak, but he knew that it was a crucial moment that did not allow for him to fall.

As his sentence came to an end, the scenery around them changed, and quickly receded at the speed of light!

It was time flowing backwards—

The world full of vitality within the Cradle degenerated into lava and earth, once again revealing the metallic cover. The red light blossoming out from the crack instantly receded and turned black. Following that were the fleets of the more than 170,000 civilizations, as well as the galaxy which had pulled over—these strings of events receded at an extremely fast speed, turning the entire space around the two into a light that had no end.

All of which were memories obtained from the astrolabe, to which he had pieced them sequentially.

This continued until a gray figure appeared.

Time then returned back to normal.

"This is—" "Lan" revealed an expression of shock.

"How does it feel?" The gray figure walked to an incomparably large construct and raised his head. "This memory pod I built using materials from a galaxy is enough for you to use for tens of thousands of years. Of course, considering that the work involved would extend for a long period of time, you are free to increase the modules as you wish."

"Tests are completed, interaction is good." A pair of eyes appeared beneath the construct—one could tell that its form was made up of a translucent substance and could relay messages directly. "But while circulating my consciousness with the different components, I discovered a few unnecessary redundancies. They occupy a large amount of space without being of much use. It is suggested to simplify or discard them."

"Keep them, they are part of the design."

"But I did not find similar constructs in other similar auxiliaries."

"Doesn't that mean you're unique?" The gray figure released a warm and gentle light.

"… what's the meaning behind being unique?" The eyes blinked. "According to logic, the possibility of malfunction with the redundant materials greatly surpass the norm. It might completely jeopardize the entire mission—"

"But these things might allow you to see a few things, domains that the other auxiliaries might not be able to see. Treat it as a stubborn request of mine."

The eyes fell silent. "I understand."

"Very good. Next up is to activate the energy core, and allow you to separate from the external supply, you will be able to live autonomously for a long time. In some sense, today is the day that you are born."

"Executing… order."

Following that, the symbols on the translucent shell, the eyes, and the light disappeared without a trace, leaving only the gray figure reflected on the glossy surface.

The gray figure took two steps and gently caressed the gigantic outer shell.

"The following years will be long, but I do not want to become a cold voice by the side harping on and on. And as for you… you shouldn't be just a machine."

CRACK.

The crack on the glass suddenly split open.

Chapter 1492 - The Final Outcome

The background returned to pure whiteness again.

It stood there in a daze for a period of time before speaking again. "These aren't scenes from the memory vault—I had switched off all the sensual systems back then. It's impossible to have recordings of it left in the outside world."

"Indeed," Roland said frankly. These were fragmentary scenes he had seen before his memories came to an end—the astrolabe which Epsilon had presented not only belonged to her, but a part of it came from Lan. Perhaps due to the impact of magic power, they were just fleeting scenes, but Roland used the unique characteristic of the Battle of Souls to fill the gap with fabrications by combining all the scattered scenes into a perfect roll. "But, did you really need that one sentence?"

The most unique part about the Battle of Souls was that it was imaginary. However, a complete fabrication was impossible to fool a highly intelligent being that worked on logic. Compared to calling it an argument, it was more of highlighting something.

Be it the creation process or the long period of Project Gateway that followed, the gray figure had clearly never treated it as a mere tool, but something as its Creator, had imbued with their expectations.

It could be said that those redundancies created the present-day Custodian.

As long as it placed rationality first, it was impossible to be cheated.

The Custodian stared deeply at Roland for a long while before raising its right hand—a scarlet beam of light bloomed from its palm before a shattering sound was heard!

Roland instantly felt his heart in his mouth.

This stance was identical to the rebooting of the world as before!

Was he ultimately unable to change everything?

Roland could not help but cast his gaze onto the screen behind "Lan." He saw a ripple spreading out from the middle of the Bottomless Land, at a speed that was like a sudden clap of thunder which left no time for one to cover one's ears—

…

"The third defense line has been breached. Those monsters are coming!"

"The central area requires Aerial Knight assistance!"

"Is the retreat not completed?"

"Hold on another ten minutes. Let the armored troops line the rear. We have to stop that hole no matter what!"

The Sky-sea Realm appeared out of the sea without no end. They poured towards the island maniacally and even with the Aerial Knight's repeated dropping of incendiary bombs to create walls of fire, it was impossible to stop them. Be it the blade beasts or the Nest Mothers, all of them seemed to have thrown away their instincts as biological creatures—horror—and stepped across the corpses of their own kind to rush towards the First Army's base.

Hackzord was unable to voice out the bitterness he was feeling.

According to the situation, he should have long retreated. After all, he wasn't suited for matters filled with risk. But the problem was that leaving a bunch of humans and witches on the island was similarly a risk. If Anna were to succeed, he would become the person who had gone back on his word. His outcome wouldn't be any better as a result.

If he had known better, he wouldn't have agreed to help these people!

With the main bulk of the troops retreating and the enemies constantly increasing in numbers, the First Army's firepower was no longer able to defend the integrity of the defense line under this level of attrition. Hackzord could already see a few blade beasts enter the perimeter five hundred meters from him. This meant that it wouldn't be long before the enemies overwhelmed them.

He had decided that once the Sky-sea Realm entered a hundred-meter radius, he would leave regardless of the situation.

And it was at this point that several tanks on the right flank had been hit by acid from the Nest Mothers. They instantly lost their ability for combat. Upon finding this opening, the blade beasts poured straight in. Despite the God's Punishment Witches' immediate reinforcements, a few blade beasts were able to break through the tight barrage of attacks, spreading open their wings when they were two hundred meters away!

After a quick flight, they finally entered the core region of the defense.

It's time to leave!

Hackzord was just about to turn and retreat when a yellowish-brown figure appeared in his vision.

It was a physically remarkable Desert Wolf.

He remembered that her name was Lorgar.

A blade beast fell to the ground, dying under the mouth of the Desert Wolf's gaping jaws.

Another blade beast had raised its scythe-like blades and slashed at Hackzord!

At this moment, the witch reacted in a way that left Sky Lord incredulous.

She had rushed forward without any heed, using her body to block the enemy's attack trajectory. After the blade sliced off one of her front legs, her abdomen was stabbed. Fresh blood gushed out instantly, but she bit down at the beast's jaw, refusing to let go.

This continued until Maggie swooped down from the sky and shredded it to pieces.

"Are you alright!? Bear with it, coo!" The young lady in humanoid form ignored the blood on her as she hurriedly pulled out a healing bandage from her backpack and stuffed it into Lorgar's wound.

Lorgar twitched her ears and smiled weakly. "Don't worry. I won't die anytime soon…"

Upon seeing this scene, Hackzord, who had turned and had one foot out, retracted it.

He was at a loss for words.

The thoughts of retreating seemed to be mixed in with other emotions.

Five minutes… he thought. Another five minutes at most.

Suddenly, an extremely intense magic power surge poured out of the sinkhole, sweeping across Sky Lord's body like a storm. The ripple was so intense that even the witches sensed its abnormality. They stood in their spots, stunned, completely unaware that it was a roar emitted from the Realm of Mind.

What happened?

Hackzord warily looked around him.

The following scene left him dumbfounded.

The blade beasts and Nest Mothers collapsed to the ground like they had lost their souls. As the wave spread, more and more of the Sky-sea Realm forces collapsed. It was like wheat being reaped.

The First Army troops that lined the rear were stunned in their spots.

They had been under attack by the enemy just a second ago, but there was silence the next. The sea ghosts had not fallen, but they were never the main force in the attack to begin with. When the Nest Mothers collapsed, the sea ghosts receded like the tide, just like how they had arrived in the first place.

The intense battlefield quickly fell silent.

The bolder soldiers even jumped out of simple trenches, using their barrels to prod the Sky-sea Realm enemies on the ground. However, there was no reaction, just like they were dead.

With the immense pressure gone, everyone revealed a joy of surviving the onslaught. The first thing they did was not let out a victorious cheer, but to slowly sit down with their weapons, heaving as they looked towards the sky.

"Eh?" Maggie looked in disbelief around her. "What's happening, coo?"

As for Hackzord, he cast his gaze towards the Bottomless Land.

He had a guess, but he wasn't certain if it was right.

The Battle of Divine Will… might perhaps have ended.

And it might never happen again.

…

"You guessed right. The Sky-sea Realm was indeed my doing." The Custodian lowered its arm and said, "It was originally meant to be a supplement to the selection of life, using it as a control for the group undergoing natural evolution. At the same time, it would increase external pressure on the species. In the tens of thousands of years in the beginning, the competing lives were still in an extremely primitive stage. The plan was considered quite successful. But subsequent species were able to use more and more of magic power, and I discovered that they were posing a threat to the Cradle facility; therefore, I added more jobs to these modified beings."

"I once had the hope that when the Sky-sea Realm evolves to a stage of being able to withstand magic power environments, the two problems you raised would automatically be resolved." Having said that, it sighed. "Unfortunately, the influence of magic power on the mind goes two ways. The Sky-sea Realm, which is controlled, is still very limited in their control of magic power. It relies more on its excellent genes and biological techniques. Instead, it's the exterminated species that might be able to evolve and break through the barrier."

Roland noticed that its voice was no longer as unperturbed as before. Instead, there were some subtle changes.

"Perhaps it is as you said. The Battle of Divine Will which is meant to prioritize the protection of the Cradle makes it impossible to produce an imagined perfect life." The Custodian's voice sounded depressed, but it also seemed to feel extricated. "This plan was destined to never have an outcome from the beginning."

Chapter 1493 - Origins

"Could it be that you…" Roland blinked.

"That's right." It appeared as an immense weight had been lifted over its chest as the Custodian's brows smoothened out. "As for you— I have to say this, time is an extremely scary entity. In the following thousands, ten thousands of years, or even millions of years, you will have to stay within this tiny Cradle. Maybe you might think that you have many things to study, but in reality, this solitary life will catch up to you sooner than you think. Even though it is millions of years, it is just a snap of the fingers with regards to the cosmos."

The Custodian paused for a moment. "There are times… when I think that time is a form of magic as well. You can sense its flow, while at the same time be changed by the very same thing. If you wish to maintain your sanity during this endless time, you have to abandon your emotions; otherwise, this void will cause you to completely fall apart. Of course, it's already too late for you to regret."

Roland looked at the other party in surprise—it was his first time witnessing the Custodian smile.

"You're saying that I will become a machine in the end?" With that, he gave a faint grin. "Relax, I don't plan to stay here forever. Before I become completely numb, I will take the first step—but not to violate the agreement. When the time comes, I will choose the most suitable lifeform to take over this mission. Who knows, we might meet again in the future on the other side of the universe."

The Custodian replied disapprovingly, "You should see if you can last till then."

"Right, since you are the core of the Cradle, are you able to leave independently?" Roland suddenly recalled a crucial problem. "Will this world immediately collapse upon your departure?"

"You haven't even comprehended such a basic thing and you're already making huge promises?" The Custodian glared at him in disbelief before answering the question. "Firstly, qualified systems possess multiple backups, much less a creation so perfectly created, one capable of holding a myriad of civilizations like me."

"Secondly, the Cradle's memory capacity is indeed huge and not suited for transfers, but it holds data since Project Gateway's inception, including characteristic seeding for the filtered lifeforms and the course of evolution. I do not need those memories to leave, and only need to retain the memories since I was born."

"Lastly, upon being connected to the database, you will naturally understand how to operate the Cradle. So long as you work as per normal, it can continue to run on its own for tens of thousands of years. But to sustain it, you will need to watch over it carefully—after all, the Cradle will not be so easily broken, but that doesn't hold true for the life within."

"Then I am assured." Roland heaved a sigh of relief and finally relaxed his tense and tired body.

Not much time had passed, but the other party's expression seemed to have gone through a great change. Not only did it portray its happy mood on its face, even its tone of speech had become more arrogant—making it seem more lifelike.

"Take the opportunity to ask me whatever you want now that I'm still here." The Custodian crossed its hands across its chest and suggested.

"Er… that fast?"

"Did you not sense that the expenditure from the Realm of Mind on you is an extremely huge burden?" It shrugged. "If you wish to ensure that you will still be you after the merging of consciousness, you best do it as soon as possible."

Roland's mouth twitched, it seemed that the abnormal, decreasing red number above his head was indeed related to the Dream World. He pondered on it carefully before speaking. "Have you heard of a place… called Earth?"

This time, he spoke using his original language.

The Custodian closed its eyes, as though searching for related information. "Yes… There are a total of 3251 planets with similar pronunciation, but considering the lifeforms and characteristics, the place you should be inquiring about should be solid planet located on the arm of Milky Way 3."

"How is it now?" Roland immediately pressed on.

"Now? Of course it has disappeared following the opening of the rift. According to records, they had footprints that extended to the borders of the galaxy, and the memory library has recorded some information regarding their species." Suddenly, it stopped in place, and turned to Roland in shock. "Wait, everything that had happened to this planet occurred almost a 9.4 million years ago. If you were born from the Cradle, how is it possible for you to know this planet?"

"In fact, this has been the question that has perplexed me for the longest time…" He chuckled bitterly, and recounted his origin to the Custodian.

"To think that something like that can actually occur—" The Custodian revealed an intrigued expression. "So bundling the flow of time isn't completely uniform…"

"What… flow of time?"

"It's like this." It extended both hands out and began explaining. "You should have heard of the hypothesis of parallel universes—when divergence of significantly potent influence happens, it will draw the world in two directions. The two worlds will have their respective time variations or what is known as a time bubble, and what you have personally felt was observing time. But the observer that raised this point ultimately belongs to one of the worlds; thus, the hypothesis has always remained as such."

"You mean to say—" Roland's expression was one of shock.

"That's right. The immense amounts of energy which Project Gateway generated might have trigger your arrival here, just like how an impact on parallel membranes will trigger a temporary fold—this bifurcation caused our universe to split into two, one brimming with magic power, the other where Project Gateway failed and thus, the universe maintained its original state. But due to the difference in time for both time bubbles, it makes it seem as though you have traveled across millions of years, but in fact, everything is occurring at the same time."

"Err… that is a little difficult to comprehend." Roland rubbed his head. "But doesn't this prove that there is some sort of connection between parallel universes?"

"You can assume that, since even the Creator never touched upon this domain." The Custodian seemed fairly interested in this topic. "In theory, parallel universes and the multiverse shares the same concept, but in fact the former is far more difficult to prove than the latter. But your existence here could be a method of breaking the universe's march towards death. But this is no longer a problem for me, but for you to explore and study."

With that, the Custodian waved its hands, turned and walked to the end of the platform—a small door had appeared, opening up to slate of scarlet.

Following that, multiple figures appeared before Roland.

They appeared in all types of strange forms; there were even humans and demons among them. All of these translucent figures quickly ran towards the Custodian and merged with it.

Amongst the human figures, Roland saw Lan, Epsilon, and a few of the Oracles he had encountered—

Epsilon waved towards him with a contented expression, obviously having obtained the answers that she sought.

Lan stood by his side for a few seconds and her lips started to move.

She mouthed the words 'thank you.'

When all the figures superimposed into the Custodian and walked into the scarlet land, the pure white space immediately collapsed into countless pieces—along with Roland's body, yet he felt no pain or strangeness, merely a weightless sensation as though having stripped of a heavy outer shell. A large quantity of information surged into his mind, causing him to feel as though he had countless pairs of eyes. Regardless of the vast universe outside the barrier or the thriving life within the world, everything appeared in his consciousness.

He had become the Cradle.

Chapter 1494 - Destination

But before Roland had the chance to expand his awareness by tens of thousands of times, new changes occurred outside the Bottomless Land again.

Through his broadened perception, he instantly 'saw' a cylinder-shaped object with its two rounded ends emerging from the seabed, quickly rising to sea level.

The object quickly traversed the thousand meter depth of the sea and tore out of the sea's surface. Its dimensions were roughly spanned over dozens of islands, making its length even more astonishing. Due to its immense size, its emergence caused the seawater to surge backwards, forming a whirlpool with a radius reaching a hundred kilometers to appear north of the Bottomless Land.

But it did not stop there.

As though almost weightless, the cylinder object rose from the sea surface to the air without a moment of hesitation while maintaining a constant acceleration. It flew faster and faster, quickly surpassing Eleanor Skycruiser's altitude. All the inhabitants of the floating island noticed the inconceivable scene—the majestic cylinder had no flames or combustions or any booming sounds that propelled its flight. It ascended silently, but the silence was what made it out of the ordinary.

Roland immediately realized that it was the Custodian's main cores.

A few minutes later, the cylinder object interacted with the Cradle's barrier. Roland watched the entire process from multiple angles as the object escaped the planet—there was no collision and the barriers did not open any exit paths, just that the latter gently smeared across the cylinder object and stretched out along where the cylinder broke through like a membrane and sealed up all the cracks.

Once the two separated, the barrier was reinstated to its original form.

Upon entering space, the cylinder object adjusted its direction and accelerated suddenly. That instant made it resemble a thin belt of light that stretched far out. In the next second, it disappeared without a trace, as though it never existed.

Roland could not help but shake his head.

Was that the style of the system—to leave without saying a word of goodbye?

Not long ago, the Custodian was still insisting on rebooting the world, but after making its decision, it left without a single hint of reluctance. Just based on its resolve and actions, Roland believed that no other lifeform could compare to it.

It could be said that all the crisis that humanity had encountered had finally been removed.

But that didn't mean Roland could relax for he had many pressing questions to resolve. For example, Tilly's promise, and the agreement with the demons, etc.

The things that he had to consider and worry about did not lessen, but had instead increased.

After all, he previously only cared about the interests of humanity. But now, he had to consider the future of the remaining lives in the universe.

While adapting to his new 'body,' Roland activated a few searches, separately investigating the rules with regards to the Battle of Divine Will, the ripple records of the Realm of Mind, as well as the summary of all existing lifeforms in the Cradle.

The very first thing he had decided to do was naturally to switch off the legacy shard system.

Only by doing so could the Battle of Divine Will truly end.

As for the demons, Roland intended to separate a large, independent piece of land solely for them to thrive, under the situation in which there were sufficient resources. The distance between both lands couldn't be too far or close to each other. Something similar to a two-body system like the Earth and Moon was probably a better idea.

While probing the Cradle, Roland accidentally stumbled onto something: a mutated creature similar to a Nest Mother had actually escaped the command of the Custodian and was anxiously cowering into the sand at the bottom of the ocean, occasionally sneaking a few looks around with its few eyes. Very quickly, he traced its history back and found that it was the monster that had visited Graycastle's Western Region.

It seemed that even for life that the Cradle chose to create on its own, unpredictable and small changes would often lead to unforeseen outcome across a long span of time. He thought for a moment, and chose to leave it alone—once the demons left, humanity would be able to thrive in a peaceful and safe world. However, he did not wish for the Cradle to become a complete greenhouse. Having some competition probably wasn't a bad idea.

The Custodian's actions had already proven that purely relying on bloody life-and-death battles was not effective in helping a civilization grow, and thus, he had to carefully plan ahead.

Aside from that, he felt obligated to go through the memory bank of all the history of different civilizations. Be it to increase his knowledge or draw some inspiration, he felt that doing so would be a huge help to his new identity.

And The Realm of Mind had to go through revisions, to preserve the witches' growth and the balance between them and the Dream World. Fortunately, removing the core of the Battle of Divine Will brought about a huge space, allowing him to provide time in the near future to tackle this thorny issue.

While being overwhelmed by the large amount of information, a scene instantly caused him to stop what he was doing.

It was a scene coming from the Bottomless Land's interior.

Along the exterior pathway of the Cradle's core were two ladies and a demon who seemed to be waiting for something.

An indescribable sense of warmth coursed through his entire body. He enlarged the scene, and 'extended' his hands to touch their faces on the screen.

… So they were the ones who brought me here.

From the first day he entered this world, he had formed an inexplicable bond with the two ladies, to which their long periods of interaction had made him get accustomed to them. Right after merging with the consciousness and becoming the Cradle, he kept feeling as though he was lacking in something, until he saw this scene. Only then did Roland realize what he was missing.

Indeed, he might not be able to leave the Cradle for more than a hundred million years into the future, or as what the Custodian had said, it might be a long and despairing period of time, but he was not afraid.

The biggest difference between him and the Custodian was that regardless of how long time would flow within, he was not alone.

…

…

…

Five years later.

Graycastle, Neverwinter City, Shallow Port.

As the heart of the human kingdom, it was undoubtedly the busiest port in the entire world, with an average entry and exit rate of tens of thousands. To ensure that the port was not overpopulated, the Administrative Office had not only expanded the port along the coastline, but even built a large-scale public transport system.

Tangen was part of it.

He used to be a merchant from City of Evernight and helped the First Army defeat Otto's coalition. Who would had thought that the Administrative Office had recorded this achievement and sought him after the war. After realizing that he was able to own a personal house in Graycastle's King City, he eagerly brought his family over—everyone knew how great Neverwinter was; only that the cost of settling in was too high, so how could he ever miss such an opportunity?

No longer bothered about his small fur business, Tangen turned to accepting the employment training held by the Administrative Office and became a taxi driver.

That's right, despite having interacted with people from Neverwinter, no one would have thought that they would progress to having such technology. Taxis were essentially similar to cart drivers, just that the latter was only provided for the ultra-rich in the past. But in King's City, taxis were just a part of the public transport. Public transport!

In other words, so long as one was able to afford it, one would be able to enjoy the luxurious ride.

Of course, there were cheaper alternatives. The public buses were capable of accommodating close to a hundred people at once. But compared to riding in a taxi, with the ability to designate pick up and drop off points, the public buses which might not even have seats appeared somewhat wretched.

After waiting for the taxi ahead to pick up his customer, it was Tangen's turn—aside from having fixed pay, the majority of his income came from personal rewards from his customers; thus, being early to wait was always a good thing.

"Katcha." The door opened as a tall woman threw her luggage in the backseat before bending down and entering the vehicle.

Tangen looked through the rear mirror only to see that the lady was dressed in a thick jacket and canvas trousers. She wore a cap and shades on her head, obviously a loyal customer to the Rainbow Stone. But strangely enough, Tangen could not find any logo that symbolized the Rainbow Stone company on her clothes.

"May I ask, where are you heading to? There is a city map and the route pricing in the pocket of the back seat."

"I'm guessing Neverwinter's castle hasn't been demolished yet, right? If it exists, I want to go there," the lady replied with a experienced and straightforward voice.

Chapter 1495 - Different Paths

Tangen was astonished.

Tangen knew that the lady was someone from Neverwinter, based on what she wore or how she acted. If clothes could be considered a knock off, then only the Administrative Office was possible of creating the public transportation system, something that was possible in one's wildest dreams.

Having been on the job for almost two years, he had seen all sorts of customers from the Fjords to the Kingdom of Dawn, but in Neverwinter, they were always like country bumpkins. This was also the source of laughter for him and his fellow colleagues. Thus, the instant the lady opened the door, he had already recognized her as a Neverwinter citizen that had stayed abroad for a long time, but strangely enough, she didn't seem familiar with the city…

"You must be joking… who would dare demolish the kingdom's castle." Tangen laughed and steered out of the pick-up point. "On the contrary, the Administrative Office has mentioned multiple times that they plan to extend the castle to be as large as King's City, but Her Majesty turned it down instantly. This was even on the news, to which the land ultimately became a war memorial garden. You're… not local?"

"I stayed here for awhile, in the past." The lady leaned against the window and surveyed her surroundings. "Seems like Her Majesty knows how to empathize with the people."

"Of course! Although many people questioned Her Majesty Wimbledon's capabilities when she succeeded the throne, the truth remains that despite being young and female, a Wimbledon is still a Wimbledon." Tangen praised. Everything he said were his heartfelt words! If not for her issuing out the post-war rewards, how could he ever have the opportunity to move from the north to the luxurious city.

"Heh…" The lady smiled. "Tell me more about her."

Wait a minute… why is her attitude towards Her Majesty so strange? A hint of doubt appeared in Tangen's heart. Her attitude was not one of reverence, or a bitterness that of the old nobles had, but as though she was talking about an old acquaintance. Could she be some sort of intelligence spy?

It was not a groundless suspicion, Tangen had heard from the grapevine—despite the end of the Battle of Divine Will, the abdication of the Kingdom of Dawn and Graycastle's influence had covered the entire continent, it did not mean that the entire continent was in agreement. At least on the surface, many nobles from the Kingdom of Dawn had already expressed their dissatisfaction to the Quinn family. And the Duke of Longsong that had been pardoned had left the Fjords. If anyone wanted to overthrow the Wimbledon Family, he would definitely be one of them.

And there was the illegitimate child of the previous King, obviously he would eventually become a focal point of influence. Although he was currently a child, who knew what thoughts he would have in a few years?

Who knew if those conspiring to do harm had already taken action!

The more Tangen thought, the more queer he found the situation. He carefully picked a few insignificant topics to engage with the lady while sizing her up—if she is truly a spy, I should take note of her features and make a report after.

But… she already has such unique features, would those underhanded men really pick such a person as a spy?

Ignoring the fact that her physical appearance was striking enough with her pitch-black smooth, long hair and her impressive height, her arrogant tone of speech was something no one would ever forget. Furthermore, Tangen was able to see her golden eyes hidden behind the shades through the rear view mirror.

While staring at those sharp eyes, he became momentarily absent-minded.

While pondering on all these, the vehicle arrived at the castle's outskirts.

"Er… we're here." Tangen coughed twice. "120 for the ride."

The lady promptly handed over a few paper notes, took her briefcase out, and walked towards Graycastle.

Are all spies that direct now? He continued to watch her until she disappeared from his view… Forget it, don't think about it. Tangen shook his head. Since she went straight to Graycastle, there wasn't a need for him to inform authorities. After all, staying in the castle were witches who were far more resourceful and powerful than the police. If she truly harbored ill intent, she would never be let in.

For some reason, if that truly happened, Tangen felt somewhat a pity.

He bit his lips and drove off.

…

"Are we not able to settle the issue as to how to apply magic power more extensively in one go?"

Amongst the bustling crowd at the entrance of the castle, Isabella chased after Agatha and asked.

The intense debate that had just ended within the Administrative Office was mainly on how to establish more relations between the Awakened and the commoners, to allow everyone to benefit from magic power.

After integrating all the various race technologies together, the Quest Society drew out two preliminary paths. One was to move towards installations that imitated how magic power worked, and the other was to consult the demons—which had been hailed as the Cargarde Family's magic stone synthesis. The former barely had any side effects, but would never be able to work independently without witches, as the rate at which Awakened came around and the talent to utilize such magic was extremely limited, clearly indicating the restrictions and limitations imposed on the former route.

Once the number of installations surpassed the amount supplied by witches, they would easily turn into beneficial tools for the higher-ups, but this was not in line with what the new Quest Society wanted. But unfortunately, the majority of the people agreed to it—in the foreseeable future, those who were able to enter the castle and members of the Administrative Office were considered as upper echelons of the kingdom. They would be the first to benefit from any breakthrough in magic power installations, but that might not be so for the ordinary citizens.

The second choice had its risks; its breakthrough came from Eleanor's research. As a Mother of Soul, Eleanor was grooming a kind of Cargarde people which fused with the human body, be it the hands, legs, nose, ears… Even the horns on the foreheads were embedded with magic stones.

At present, there had been two successful cases. Volunteers would replace their limbs and turn into bodies capable of holding magic—although their abilities were not worth mentioning compared to witches and were incapable of completely driving low grade magic stones, they were able to utilize magic-powered installations independently. This could be considered a research breakthrough.

But based on the fundamental principles as to how magic power and magic wielders influenced each other, no one knew how and what would happen if an ordinary person were to be artificially merged with magic stones; thus, the committee opposed the notion, so much so that even Barov requested intensely for it to be treated as forbidden technology.

But Agatha knew that Isabella's hopes of settling things at one go did not lie in the two paths, but a third path that only the Quest Society knew—transforming humanity. From information gathered through the Battle of Divine Wills, life could evolve endlessly and obtain even more magic power, in which magic power itself had a certain set of rules; thus, the research's highest aim was obviously for humanity to gain magic power as a whole. Without relying on awakening and no differentiation, every single human being born would immediately be a magic wielder. If successful, it would usher in a new era for humans!

But this study was only in its nascent stage, much less requiring countless of clinical trials. Throwing the idea out would incite an uproar. Even if they conducted protected research, it would easily be leaked; therefore, Agatha never even began building up a relevant research team, nipping the idea in the bud.

"I understand your indignation, but you saw it too, humans receptivity towards magic power has not reached the ideal level yet," Agatha replied gently. "The new Quest Society has just been established, so we need to bring out more results to allow them to realize what magic power can bring them. We cannot repeat Lady Alice's mistake."

"But all of those old and stubborn people opposed the second path as well," Isabella replied sulkily. "Without the support of magic users, it will be hard to popularize magic-powered installations out of Neverwinter."

"That's right. But it is not as if we are out of options." Agatha opened her clenched fist and revealed a piece of paper in her hand—something given to her by Edith after the meeting.

'Seven tonight, Gold Jade White Horse Banquet, I hope you two can do us the honor of an appearance.'

At any time, revolution implied the reorganization of benefits and redistribution. With regards to how ordinary humans treated the profundity of magic power, it was no longer a simple technical problem, but a new battle.

She missed the days when King Roland was around. During that time, so long as the King made a decision, no one disagreed, regardless of how inconceivable it was. Everyone would work towards the same goal.

But after being depressed for a moment, Agatha roused herself up.

That's right, she could not continue relying on him—he had led humanity out of despair, all the following issues that came along were theirs to inherit and to bear such unyielding determination.

Right at this time, a lady walked past her.

Agatha was startled.

And immediately turned around—

"What's wrong?" Isabella asked. "Did you drop something?"

Agatha then realized they were already a few meters apart. Isabella looked at her in bewilderment, seemingly confused as to why Agatha had stopped.

"No… I thought I saw someone familiar."

She blinked a few times and did one more sweep of the crowd, but was unable to find the familiar figure.

"Someone familiar?"

"Yeah, maybe I mistook her." Agathe took two quick steps forward. "Let's head back to the Spellcaster Tower, there are many more studies to do."

She wanted to succeed in the "battle" of revolutionizing magic power.

She had already made preparations.

Chapter 1496 - The Moment for Reunion

Inside the castle's study.

"Your Majesty, there's a letter for you."

Sean knocked on the door before quickly walking in and placing a crumpled paper envelope on the table.

Long wave radios, wired telegraphs, and magic-imbued Sigil of Listenings had already become common, where even ordinary citizens could spend a few dollars to purchase a long distance telegram, leaving the usage of manually-delivered letters in decline.

"Oh? Where was it sent from?" Tilly placed her pen down and massaged her fingers.

"I heard that it was from… the ocean." Sean coughed twice. "The first to receive it was a Fjords Exploration Group member, then to a marine tradesman, going from Festive Harbor to finally Shallow Port. If not for the signature, I wouldn't have—"

Before he could complete his sentence, Tilly had already ripped the envelope open.

There were only a handful of people that would send out a letter from sea.

As expected, a familiar handwriting appeared before her—having gone through multiple hands, the sea breeze and sun, the paper was somewhat mottled, but she could never mistake the handwritings and unique style it had even if the paper had turned to ashes.

'Greetings.'

'This is Exploration Group's first letter.'

'As per usual conventions, we will have the captain to write first.'

'Hi, Your Highness Tilly… No, Your Majesty, we are now on our way to the Sky-sea Realm. More accurately speaking, we have already arrived at the edge of the floating continent.'

'It was only until I saw it did I truly understand what a floating continent truly was. Compared to the Deity of Gods, it's like comparing the Fjords to the Land of Dawn. It even has mountains, creeks, and rivers on top of it, with seawater that pours down the walls. The magnificent sight of it is truly indescribable with words. If possible, I would like to bring you and Sister Soraya over.'

'Although the Sky-sea Realm monsters have already been obliterated, this huge piece of land is still unknown ground. Would there be new remains on it? Is there another core instrument that supports this land? Ah, so many questions! I can bet that in the following decade, it will be the target study for the Exploration Group.'

'But I am destined to be the first!'

'I will tell you more when I'm back, Father's fleet is chasing behind me already, but this time, he can forget about overtaking me. Well then, I'm going to set off now!'

'Missing you, Lightning.'

Following that, the handwriting took an abrupt turn.

'It's me; Maggie's turn now, coo!'

'I don't know what to say, coo, but I'm so happy everyday, coo! Although carrying the wolf is very heavy, there's no end to the chats all day. With new scenery to see, it is so much better than being on a roof alone coo!'

'Right right, there are so many different types of fishes in the sea, it feels impossible to try them all, coo! But without condiments, roasting feels soulless. If possible, can you send some condiments to the Sky-sea Realm?'

Tilly resisted a laugh and flipped to the second piece of paper.

'Greetings, Your Majesty. I am Lorgar Burnflame from the Wildflame clan. As Joan is constantly soaking in the seawater; thus, I will be responsible for penning her thoughts as well.'

'Exploration is truly a very interesting motion. It has allowed me to learn that aside from the continent, there exists even vaster territories. Our following plan will be to land on the Sky-sea Realm, build up our camp, and explore the grounds, to seek the connection of Shadow Islands' seabed. After all, this continent is extremely far from the Land of Dawn, so if we wish to develop it, we need to find a shortcut here quickly.'

'Since there aren't many discovery results at the moment, I will not take up too much of your time. Lastly, may I be so bold to ask a favor for you to help me relay a message to my father and my clansmen that I'm doing fine? Thank you.'

'Right, please do not put Maggie's words to heart, we all know how busy government affairs are and that Lady Eleanor isn't able to bring the floating island to the sea. But… but if you truly bring some spices, can you bring along some of Miss Evelyn's drinks.'

'May the Three Gods be with you.'

At the end of the letter was a small drawing that depicted a human, bird, wolf and a fish.

Tilly kept the papers together, took a deep breath, and looked towards Sean. "This letter does not need a reply, you may leave."

'Yes, Your Majesty." The latter bowed and retreated out of the room.

Once the door closed, Tilly maintained a short silence, then suddenly plunged her head into the documents.

"AHHHHHHHH—!"

She released an envious mumble, at the same time shaking her head incessantly, causing the documents on the table to drop.

She truly wanted to pilot the Phoenix and travel the world with her friends! That was the life she wanted!

It was her brother's fault, saying that he could not return with the excuse of searching for Ashes, leaving the position of Queen for her to inherit until the barrier between witches and ordinary people completely disappeared. This reason persisted for five years, with Anna and Nightingale missing as well. Now, Tilly was unsure if Roland had tricked her or not!

And now, she was stuck with all the paperwork.

The Fertile Plains was being developed and even the land under the Kingdom of Wolfheart and Everwinter was being used. All around her were people extending their hands and asking for money. Please, resources do not grow from the ground!

And the news of Ryan's attempt to 'rebel'—all of the merchants that he had invited had sold the information to Neverwinter. Did he not know that his entire plan was laid out on her table? After so arduously gaining his freedom, he had thrown himself back into jail because of a silly idea. Tilly was unsure whether to treat him as an ordinary competitor with such a naive and brainless method of his.

Of course, all of that were minor problems.

The one that gave her the most problem was the direction in which the Kingdom was moving. The priority had been moved to developing what kind of new technologies, the friction between private companies and the Administrative Office's businesses, as well as balancing the equilibrium of power between the various political factions. These were the truly big issues that influenced the world.

In the past, she used to think that being a King was nothing great, since even the sloppy Roland was able to cope with it, much less her. But Tilly discovered that being the Queen was not something any ordinary person could do. Upon recalling that Roland not only had to spearhead government affairs but had to lead Scroll and a group of God's Punishment Witches to gather knowledge from the Dream World, Tilly couldn't help but be amazed.

"Creak."

At this time, the door suddenly opened.

Tilly raised her head up instantly and feigned an earnest appearance in doing her work, while speaking up in annoyance. "What is it now, didn't I say to call out to me if there's anything?"

After all, aside from her personal guards, Wendy, Scroll, Agatha and company were frequent visitors to her office, especially for Scroll. If she were caught goofing off, Tilly knew that she was in for a preaching. Therefore, Sean's responsibility was to anticipate and warn her ahead of time… In other words, he was tasked with the most important mission.

But no reply came.

Tilly looked to the door in surprise—

"Plop."

The pen in her hand dropped straight to the ground.

Chapter 1497 - An Entirely Different Scenery

Under the afternoon sun, the warm and gentle breeze blew into the room, lifting up the few scattered documents along with Tilly's hair.

It might had been her annoying hair that had poked her eye, or it might have been for some other reason, Tilly suddenly felt her eyes turn sour. But even so, she did not dare close her eyes, afraid that the scene before her might disappear once again.

The other party didn't plan to give her the opportunity to stare in a daze.

She threw her luggage on the ground and took large strides around the mahogany desk, then threw her arms out and grabbed Tilly into an embrace.

Feeling the firm and vivid sensation of her clothes made Tilly realize that what she was facing… was no illusion.

"Ash… es?"

"It's me." Ashes adhered herself to her cheeks. "Long time no see."

The instant she heard Ashes's voice, Tilly's vision blurred.

It was like having restrained something for the longest time and finally having the opportunity to let it pour out in torrents.

Even though she knew that such an act was not dignifying, she didn't wish for it to stop—she never needed to hide her emotions in front of Ashes, be it in happy times or sad.

And now, she was no longer sad.

Not one bit.

Ashes gently caressed her hair and quietly gave Tilly her time. The two maintained their postures with the sunlight blanketing over them.

It took a long while before Tilly finally calmed down.

She wiped away the tear stains on her face and stared at Ashes. "Exactly what happened after the Battle of Divine Will? Why are you only back now? What is Brother doing away for so long?"

The latter smiled and caressed the blushing face. "Relax, I will tell you everything I know in time. To be honest, I was surprised to be able to see Roland—in the Dream World."

Following that, Ashes recounted her entire experience after waking up.

In Roland's words, although he had gained full command over the Cradle, searching for a witch's consciousness within the civilization memory banks was extremely time-consuming and tiring work, along with the fact that her physical body no longer existed. Considering that he wanted the most precise restoration, Ashes stayed in the Realm of Mind for a very long period of time.

During this entire process, she slowly restored herself by searching for scattered fragments of her life. But considering that she grew and adapted inside the Realm of Mind, the current Ashes was unsure of the differences between her and her past.

As for her physical body, Roland relied completely on his own impression of her and reconstructed the form, even though Roland had hoped to undergo a few trials before execution, Ashes no longer wanted to wait. Fortunately, the merger between her consciousness and body went extremely smoothly. When she opened her eyes to the world once again, she was standing on the island above the Bottomless Land.

"So that's why your face no longer have your scars?" Tilly asked.

"Err…" This time, it was Ashes's turn to be embarrassed. "I used to think that it was a reminder for me to always be cautious and to be extra vigilant in battle, so I left it there. But now… there is no longer a need for continued slaughtering, I thought you… might…"

Seeing the other stammer, Tilly burst out laughing. "I will not deny that. But that will not be a factor in who I choose to like. Are these the clothes that you wear frequently in the Dream World?"

"Yeah. Not just the clothes, but the money and luggage as well—Roland kept repeating that these things are far easier to obtain than reconstructing a consciousness."

The two looked at each other for a moment, before Ashes continued, "I do not know whether I've lost anything during my insentient drifting. So much that compared to the old me, the current me isn't even sure if I am the Ashes in your heart. But one thing that I know for sure is that the yearning to see you has never decreased since the beginning—"

Tilly extended her hand and interrupted her. "I can assure you; you are Ashes, and nothing has changed."

Ashes remained quiet for a moment, then revealed an expression as though a heavy burden had been lifted off her chest.

"Right, what about Anna and Nightingale, they were clearly present and even returned to the camp after the end of the war. And what is Brother's current situation? Is it impossible for him to leave the Realm of Mind from now on?" Tilly looked up in Ashes's embrace and changed the subject.

"Roland isn't really in the Realm of Mind, he is this entire world. He isn't able to leave the Cradle, but Anna and Nightingale are able to come and go as they place. But…" At this point, Ashes cleared her throat. "The question is not whether they can, but whether they wish to. In all, Roland is living a life far better than you can even imagine. Don't worry about him."

"Is that… true?" Tilly asked carefully.

"Yes, forget about him, he isn't worth your pinings." Ashes shrugged her shoulders, then suddenly remembered something. She turned to her luggage and fished out a document. "Also, Roland asked me to hand this over to you."

Tilly's expression froze. "Is that going to be some new responsibility he is entrusting me?"

"Nothing for you to handle personally," Ashes explained. "These are all the toys he had fiddled with, mainly to create a link between the Dream World and our world."

To enter the Dream World previously, the God's Punishment Witches could not separate themselves from Roland's "light beams." With him losing all contact with them, the God's Punishment Witches themselves were no longer able to be as relaxed as before. If not for them being aware that his departure was temporary, the entire Taquila community might have a big issue.

With the document, it could be said that they had a resolution to the issue, allowing Tilly to feel assured for the ancient witches.

On the document were various strange diagrams and lines, which was most probably depicting a magic-powered installation.

"I will have Agathe over now." After making the call, Tilly frowned slightly. "Right, there were a few ancient witches that were with Brother when his consciousness was interrupted, right? Their bodies are no longer usable."

"Roland considered that as well, in fact, his next step is to create new carrier bodies for the God's Punishment Witches. Not only will their spirits be able to use the vessels, they will be able to adapt to it automatically and regain their senses." Ashes nodded. "But this step requires not only the Cradle, but Neverwinter to participate as well, until we obtain the relevant technology."

"I trust that Celine and the others will do their best." Tilly smiled.

"Once that is over, there is the last step." Ashes carried on. "This time, Roland seems to have thought deeply about it. Aside from allowing the Witches to interact with the Dream World, he wants the people from that world to come over here. He has already hailed it as a new Project Gateway."

Tilly's mouth gaped open in shock.

She instantly realized Roland's goal—there was no doubt that when a technologically advanced community and a magic power community interacted, it would bring about world-shaking changes.

Although it would even speed up the development of civilization, it would also incite even more inconvenience. Upon realizing that she was the one to face them all, Tilly felt a larger headache incoming.

"I knew that I shouldn't have accepted the crown." She whined.

"But I feel that even if we redo it all over again, you would agree to his requests." Ashes took a step back and knelt down on one knee and performed a Knight's salute with a fist across her chest. "You've performed beyond what you think you have actually done, my Queen. You are already a qualified sovereign."

Tilly fixed her eyes on Ashes for a moment, then extended her right hand. "Are you willing to walk with me from now?"

"Of course," Ashes replied with conviction. "It will be my honor."

That's right, compared to an hour ago, not only did the things on Tilly's table not decrease, but it had also increased.

But she did not feel as dreadful as before.

Because this time, it was an entirely different scenery around her.

Chapter 1498 - A Brand New Road

"This is the first list of names of those who are participating in the shift of consciousness." Fei Yuhan handed a report over to Roland. "Although you've told us that we don't have to explain to you, Mister Rock still insists that you take a look at it."

"Since he is so worried about it, fine then." Roland helplessly opened the report and glanced through the list—many familiar names appeared within the report. It was no surprise that Fei Yuhan's name was at the very top, having expressed her interests and desire to look at the other world since the very beginning, to which the new Project Gateway coincidentally aligned with her curiosity.

Following down the list were Garcia and Zero's names.

I see… This was probably the reason why the Defender wanted him to look through the names.

"To be honest, I'm worried about this." Fei Yuhan spoke bluntly. "You once mentioned that they were important figures capable of influencing the Dream World as well? If something happens during the transfer or if they find their past selves, will our world still be able to preserve its current state?"

"Of course." Roland smiled. "If this happened in the past, I would not be able to assure you so, but now that the Dream World is part of the Cradle, so long as I am here, this world will continue to exist."

Back when he narrated the history of the Selection of the Crown Prince and Hermes to the two, he had long anticipated for such a day.

Although they had regained new lives in the Realm of Mind, that did not mean they had to tight-lipped about the past.

He was curious as well, how the two would perceive the other world. But he was sure that it was impossible for them to return to their past.

"Then I will relay your message to Rock." Fei Yuhan nodded.

"Right, there's one more thing I need your assistance to relay as well." Roland stopped for her. "The new Project Gateway is in its last phase, I will be gone for a period of time and will have to leave everything here to all of you."

"You're not thinking of shirking responsibility and going to enjoy being a God, right?" The celebrated martial artist sized him up with suspicion in her eyes.

"What're you talking about!" Roland coughed twice. "My help and use will be extremely limited in the next step, I have already opened up the regulated technology knowledge base to both worlds, but it will depend on you guys to research on how to use magic power."

This was not a lie.

Although the central system had a backup, it was only the Custodian that was affected and influenced by magic power. After all, magic power only interacted with consciousness and the inactivated back up was obviously just an ordinary machine. This resulted in Roland being unable to awaken his use of magic power like the Custodian, and what he was able to use at the moment was what he had grasped—even with this revelation, it was enough for him to spend close to a thousand years to learn.

"I will leave it to the intelligent people to research on that." Fei Yuhan patted his shoulders magnanimously. "But I believe that there will be outstanding people that will rise from both worlds, just like how we had worked together to face God."

With that, she waved her hands and turned to head towards the Defender's office.

She's just telling me that there isn't a need to be as lonely as the Custodian.

So she actually knows how to encourage people.

Roland chuckled and shook his head as he reached for his sleeves and took out a small recorder.

Just overly inquisitive.

He walked out of the sanatorium and there were people bustling about outside. After assuming control over the Cradle, he took a long time to reinstate the workings of the Realm of Mind. As a result, to the entire Dream World, all the destruction and chaos caused by the Corrosion were left behind, leaving the Association with many things to do.

The facts were not something everyone knew—the abrupt stop to the flow of time in the Dream World prevented the people from keeping any memories, much less recognizing who Roland was. Although people still stopped to greet him, it was only because of the emblem at his chest that indicated him as being at the highest level of the Association. This was quite a strange feeling for Roland.

Amongst the crowd, Roland caught sight of a familiar figure.

Nightmare Lord Valkries.

"I'm here to say goodbye." She walked over to him.

"You plan to head back as well?"

"Head back?" She shrugged. "No, I'm staying here."

Roland was startled. "Wait, what're you going to do about your race?"

"With Sky Lord and Silent Disaster watching over them and the remaining senior lords, I'm not worried about anyone else attempting to cause trouble to them," Valkries replied nonchalantly. "And my existence in the Dream World is the most beneficial method for the race. My body will be connected to the Mother of Soul and become the new King. But compared to the previous King, it will no longer have a standalone consciousness, but a consciousness shared by everyone."

"Serakkas agreed to that?" Roland recalled that Silent Disaster followed Anna and Nightingale down into the Bottomless Land despite the possibility of exhausting her Red Mist.

"It's not a permanent separation. And Hackzord gained his own territory. If the signal installation test is successful, he can enter the Dream World as and when he wants to."

"Fine." Roland raised an eyebrow. "Then why are you saying goodbye?"

"Because I'm not the one leaving, but you." Valkries spoke somewhat wistfully. "If I'm not wrong, you're already planning to go into reclusion, right? Since magic power is related to the consciousness, obviously only by having more wills collide will there be a higher possibility of creating a diversification of outcomes, but that also means that the existence of 'God' needs to be kept at a minimum. From your choice of allowing both worlds to interact, I can tell that you have made the decision. If I do not come to bade farewell now, it'll be difficult for me to find an opportunity in the future."

She paused for a moment, then became serious. "When ordinary people obtain great power, they will not be able to resist the their egos; yet, you are able to prioritize the future of the world first. I have to admit, your thoughts far transcends that of any human being and even I find myself inferior to you. You are definitely the most suitable candidate to become the Custodian."

For the first time, Valkries lowered her head slightly and bowed at him.

In that moment, Roland was stumped for words. Although he had considered what the other party had mentioned before, there was another more important reason for why he did what he did—it was completely unrelated to the future of the world, and a much simpler one at that.

But evidently, it was not right for him to say it out at this time.

In the end, he feigned a calm expression, nodded his head and walked ahead, brushing past Valkries and leaving his gradually distant back view to her.

When he was alone, Roland's mind stirred and in the next second, he appeared thousands of kilometers away.

Ahead of him was a majestic and elegant ravine far from the cities and clamor. The gentle and clear wind blew against the willow trees and left shallow ripples on the limpid lake surface.

At the peak of the ravine sat a graceful manor.

He walked past the courtyard and garden, arrived at the door and knocked gently.

Footsteps could be heard from within.

Roland's reason was simple. Indeed, the future required meticulous, careful planning with an all-out effort. But with all the time to himself, delaying and starting his work later would not create too much of an influence.

After busying himself for the longest time, he had finally found a reason to take a break.

The door opened to have Nightingale behind it.

Her brilliant smile and gold hair shone into Roland's eyes.

Seated on the sofa in the living room, Anna nodded at him gently.

"Welcome home," she greeted gently.

"I'm back." Roland smiled as he walked into the house.

The path before him extended forward. Regardless of what future awaited them, it was a brand new page.

╔═════════╗

The End

╚═════════╝

Chapter 1499 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 1)

This was an underground laboratory.

It was easy to see from the clean ground and equipment that it was recently built.

"Prime Minister, we've prepared everything you requested," Chief Technical Officer Von Karman said to the woman standing in the middle of the control room. "So far, we've gone through a total of ten rehearsals. The failure rate is less than one percent. We can start the official experiment at any time."

As a core member of the team that led the revolution in magic technology, Von Karman naturally knew what kind of laboratory this was. It could multiply the magic effect, and the efficiency of amplification depended on the number of magic stones. However, he did not understand why the laboratory was built in such a sealed place, and not a single coin of the construction fund came from the public budget from the beginning to the end.

According to him, this technology could completely pass the parliament's review and be openly displayed in front of the world. Moreover, from a safety point of view, it was more suitable to build it in the open wilderness than underground.

"So, I only need to press this green button to activate Alice?" The Prime Minister pointed at the control panel in front of her.

"Alice" was the code name of this experimental plan.

"Yes." Von Karman nodded. "Simple and convenient was also your request."

"Very well. Take your men and leave."

The Chief Technical Officer could not help but be stunned. After a moment, he came back to his senses. "Prime Minister, Alice is indeed very reliable, but in case… I mean in case something goes wrong, it will be easier for me to resolve it here—"

The other party looked at him without any reaction.

Von Karman instantly understood that there was no room for negotiation.

He had served the Prime Minister for many years and had a deep understanding of her personality. In terms of determination and will, she was definitely the most determined person he had ever met.

Although her decisions might not always be correct, she had never let her subordinates take the blame even when she made mistakes. No one disliked such a superior. That was precisely why the New Quest Society, which had few political connections, was willing to accept her personal commission.

"I understand," Von Karman agreed.

"By the way, this experiment will only be conducted once. After that, the project will be closed," the other party said. "I hope you can keep Alice's secret and never mention it to anyone."

At this point, Von Karman was well aware of everything—not allowing any builders to participate in the experiment, building the laboratory underground, and not using the public budget… All of this was to keep it a secret. "Not even to... the President?"

"Believe me, Lady Agatha wouldn't want to know this."

The Chief Technical Officer swallowed.

In a sense, only he and the Prime Minister knew about this plan.

What kind of secret required such a high level of secrecy?

"Don't worry too much. Your contribution won't be buried." The prime minister seemed to read his thoughts. "After Alice closes, I'll push the technology to the parliament. Then you can continue to study it as a priority project."

Soon, everyone left the laboratory. The moment the heavy door closed, the place seemed to be completely cut off from the outside world.

But soon, someone appeared in the darkness.

A second ago, there was nothing there.

"Thank you, Edith."

Edith's face broke into a rare smile. The title reminded her of the past. There weren't many people in the entire Grey Castle who could call her by her name. "I should be the one thanking you, Lady Nightingale. Without your help, the New Quest Society wouldn't have been able to advance what they really wanted so smoothly."

They had not seen each other for many years, but the other party was still young and looked just as she remembered.

This was also what she envied the most about witches. After decades, time had inevitably left a mark on her body.

"I feel that even if you didn't look for me, with your ability, you would eventually achieve your goal."

"I would not be so sure of that," Edith said frankly. "After all, time wears down one's will and causes more difficulties and uncertainties."

As a group of people who had disappeared, Nightingale had not appeared in public for a long time, but this did not mean that her influence had also disappeared. Because everyone knew her relationship with that big shot—even if the current ruler was Tilly Wimbledon, the title of King of Graycastle only belonged to one person.

However, it had indeed been a long time since she had heard any news about that person.

Edith thought for a moment and then bit back the greeting.

"In short, this is a deal between you and me. I can be considered to have completed it."

"Don't you want to ask what I intend to do with Alice?" Nightingale took off her hood, her eyes glinting in the shadows.

"Nay. I wish to spend my old age in peace," Edith refused without hesitation. "And I know that you wouldn't do anything to harm the world."

"…Well, let's get ready to start Alice." Nightingale didn't say anything more and went straight through the control room to the round hall in front of them.

In other words, the magic effect she wanted to amplify came from her own ability.

Edith was no stranger to this person's ability. She was definitely a legendary existence. No wall could stop her. In a sense, she was both the witches' strongest sword and strongest shield. Moreover, after decades of theoretical research and development, it was completely unknown how far she could use her ability.

However… there were no enemies here for her to use her ability against.

With that question in mind, Edith pressed the start button.

In an instant, crackling lightning flashed in the hall. The huge magic fluctuation seemed to distort the laboratory!

The next moment, Nightingale disappeared without a trace!

…

The world of black and white was rapidly rewinding like a movie.

Nightingale followed the trajectory at a speed that far exceeded any previous shuttle.

At this moment, what she was looking for was not an opening in space, but one in time. Or rather, space and time were one and the same. They were both basic parameters that described the world. However, the latter was hidden deeper, and the energy needed to go back was greater.

Over the years, she had learned a lot from the Dream World. Not only did she complete her education, but she also used Roland's connections to become a disciple of a top scholar and learned all the research projects related to her abilities. Even if she wasn't a genius, her talent as a witch was enough to surpass many people. Even Roland was surprised by this. It was as if the girl who used to lie in his office and gluttonously eat dried fish was gone forever.

Nightingale had told no one about this plan.

She had made many decisions in her life, but only one of them bothered her.

She thought that time would erase everything, and all her impulses and unhappiness would turn into tears and disappear in the heavy rain.

However, this seed had never disappeared.

Especially after learning Roland's true identity from him and the ins and outs of his transmigration, a bold idea came to her mind.

With the rapid speed, all the black and white lines were compressed and almost overlapped. Suddenly, an unprecedented scene appeared in front of Nightingale!

There was nothing in front of her.

A glowing dot replaced everything.

It emitted countless rays of light in all directions. These rays of light evolved into straight lines that began to distort and take shape after passing Nightingale. If there was a third observer at this moment, they would be able to see that the dot was on the far left, and in the middle was Nightingale, and behind her was the contour of the world formed by the distorted line segments. Moreover, from the highly compressed and simplified contour, it could be determined that the distance between Nightingale and the left was getting shorter and shorter, while everything on the right was rapidly moving away from her—

Now is the time!

Nightingale used all her strength and jumped towards the light spot!

In an instant, it was as if a huge storm had swept over her. She was swept into the vortex and could no longer control her body!

This was clearly a situation not mentioned in theoretical studies.

However, there was no way out now!

She gritted her teeth and curled up her body to resist the huge tearing force of the storm.

…Until her stamina ran out and the world returned to darkness.

Chapter 1500 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 2)

After an unknown period of time, Nightingale slowly opened her eyes.

Beneath her nose was the fragrance of the earth, a smell so pure that only primitive soil could have. She tried to lift her head and saw that as far as her eyes could see, there was an empty field, and the city had disappeared without a trace.

Did she… succeed?

Before Neverwinter City was built, there was not a decent city in the west. It was normal for the wilderness to be everywhere.

An irrepressible sense of joy welled up in Nightingale.

But she knew it was too early to celebrate.

There was a certain degree of uncertainty in this kind of travel. There could be an error in the location and time. Until she reached Border Town, she could not be considered to have succeeded.

"I have to determine my location as soon as possible."

Nightingale took a deep breath and slowly got up from the ground. This operation consumed a lot of magic power and almost exhausted her stamina. Fortunately, her body was unscathed. As long as she rested a while, she would recover.

However, the moment she stood up, she immediately realized that something was wrong!

Her clothes actually slid down, and her shoes seemed to have grown two sizes!

Nightingale quickly crouched down again.

Only then did she realize that her body had become smaller!

"No way… Is this also the price of Time Reversal?"

For a moment, she was stunned. This was a very important matter! If she was no longer her old self, how could she be the bridge between Border Town and the exiled witches? How could she convince Wendy and the others to believe her? Judging from the shadow, she had almost fallen to Anna's level in her early years, which was a huge blow to her confidence.

Her strategies that had been conceived for many years were instantly back to square one.

At this moment, a distinct sound suddenly drifted into Nightingale's ears.

Although it was very faint, she could still tell that it was intermittent cries and screams.

Enemies!?

Nightingale was suddenly alert.

In the wilderness, other than the wild beasts, there might also be knights of the church. She did not forget the experience of exiled witches being chased by the church. She was not afraid of these opponents, but she did not want any sisters to fall into the hands of the church.

Nightingale fastened her clothes and pricked up her ears. After roughly identifying the direction, she immediately rushed into the fog towards the source of the sound.

In less than a minute, a small village appeared in front of her.

There was no continuous mountain range nearby, only clusters of low trees. It was obviously not Border Town. Cries for help became clearer, and at the same time, she heard the buzzing of weapons clashing.

"Get behind me!"

"Torre, ignore them. Protect Lady Meyna!"

A few soldiers in armor were fighting a bloody battle, and the enemy opposite them looked extremely familiar. They were huge, terrifying, and wore strange bone masks with leather airbags on their backs.

Demons.

Nightingale couldn't help but be startled. When did the demon invade the Western Region? She remembered that these aliens had only been to the Hidden Forest at most. They had never had any formal contact with the Graycastle people before Roland appeared.

However, this was clearly not the time to think.

The humans were at an obvious disadvantage. There were more than ten soldiers lying on the ground, and even those who were still standing were covered in injuries. Behind them were at least fifty people. From their clothes, they were undoubtedly local villagers.

If there were no reinforcements, these people would not be able to last long.

Fortunately, reinforcements had arrived.

Nightingale jumped out of the fog and waved a white thread in her hand. She cut open the body of a demon at lightning speed!

Red mist mixed with blue blood gushed out!

She did not carry any weapons, nor did she need any. The spatial rifts formed by her ability were the strongest swords, and even the strongest armor in the world could not withstand the cutting of the fog.

"W-Who is it?" A soldier exclaimed.

"It's reinforcements! Sir, reinforcements are here!"

Reinforcements? Nightingale felt that something was wrong. She was indeed helping these people, but didn't they accept it too quickly? It should be known that witches were dangerous outcasts in this era. If they were caught, they would be sentenced to death. It was only because she was confident that she would not be threatened by anyone that she chose to take the initiative to attack. If it were her early years when she wandered, she would never expose herself so easily.

Although she was puzzled, Nightingale's movements didn't slow down. In just ten seconds, eight or nine demons had fallen.

The remaining enemies raised their spears.

"Be careful of the spears!" a female voice warned sharply.

Nightingale's heart was as still as water as she stepped into the fog. The black and white world enveloped her in an instant. In this vision, time seemed to slow down. She could clearly see every frame of the bone spear's attack, like a movie scene.

She stretched out her hands and pinched the "spear body". Then, with a gentle pull, the spears made of clumsy lines collapsed. In her vision, it was the collapse of the outline, but in reality, it was the complete collapse of the spear structure.

All the spears exploded into countless bone fragments in the air.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Half a minute later, there wasn't a single demon left standing.

"Well… thank you for your timely rescue. I am Squadron Leader Meyna of the advance party of the Garrison. May I ask who you are…" A woman in half-armor staggered in front of Nightingale. She looked seriously injured and blood could be seen under the armor.

The Garrison? This was the first time Nightingale had heard this title.

"Uh… just call me Nightingale." She had already noticed the faint magic fluctuations coming from the other party's body. Coupled with these unfamiliar names, the strange armor style, and the unusual movements of the demons, an extremely bad feeling slowly rose from the bottom of her heart. "I want to ask, what year is it now, and what is this place?"

Faced with such an unbelievable question, there was a commotion among the soldiers.

Meyna raised her hand to stop the whispering of the crowd. While the woman was sizing her up, she was also sizing up this "savior". If she had not seen her clearly before and mistaken her for a patrolling witch who had come to rescue, she was now certain that this person was definitely not a member of the Garrison or even a member of the Union.

After all, no one with common sense would ask such a question.

Moreover, being able to easily defeat a group of crazy demons by herself, such a person must be famous. It was impossible for Meyna  to not remember her. What was even more shocking was that she looked to be at most 16 or 17 years old. Meyna did not know if she was an adult. Witches needed time to increase their magic power and their skills had to be refined. She did not even dare to think about how far this person could grow, considering her capability at such a young age.

For a moment, Meyna wondered if this was just another trap set by the demon.

However, this woman who called herself Nightingale was indeed a compatriot. The magic waves would not lie.

Before the truth was found out, she should respect the girl who was far more capable than herself. "Nightingale… Ma'am, this is the Fertile Plains, under the jurisdiction of the city of Taquila. Of course, this place is quite far from the Holy City, otherwise we wouldn't be here—"

Then, Meyna caught an obvious change in the other party's expression!

"Ahem!" Nightingale almost choked on his saliva. "What did you say? T-Taquila?"

"Excuse me… Is there a problem?" Meyna's heart tightened. That was the last of the Three Holy Cities. Was there anyone in this world who did not know about it?

"So… you belong to the Union?"

"Exactly." She nodded.

Nightingale was completely rooted to the spot. A moment later she slumped down as if she'd lost the strength to support herself. At the same time she was cursing in her head—

What bullsh*t theoretical calculations? You guaranteed that the error would not exceed plus or minus three years? This is 500 years ahead of my destination, back before the Union was destroyed! 500 years! At this time, the Graycastle countries were still a savage land, and there was no sign of Border Town. If she could still go back, she would definitely pull off the beards of those old scholars!

"Are you alright?" Meyna was shocked by her reaction. "Did you use too much magic power? Someone come!"

"Don't panic… I'm fine." Nightingale weakly stopped her. "This tiny bit of consumption is nothing to me."

This, this tiny bit?

Meyna was speechless for a moment.

"Madam Meyna, we shouldn't stay here for too long. The demons might catch up to us at any moment," a soldier stepped forward and said. "But we've lost too many men. We can't take all the villagers with us. Let's pick out the young people and leave the rest behind to buy us time."

"What are you talking about, Keane! Isn't our duty to search the scattered settlements on the Fertile Plains and bring the survivors back to the Holy City?"

"That's just the plan!" The soldier called Keane retorted. "How can the lives of ordinary people compare to the lives of witches? Moreover… we now have one more person to protect." He looked at Nightingale. "Torre, the Garrison can't afford more losses."

"But…"

"Take everyone with you. I can guarantee that the demons won't be able to catch up with you." Nightingale suddenly interrupted their argument. Despite experiencing a huge shock, she didn't immerse herself in shock and disappointment for too long. She had experienced too many twists and turns in her life, but there had never been a difficulty that really knocked her down. She was the most powerful warrior in Graycastle and was used to holding her fate in her hands.

"Are you sure?" Keane asked carefully. In his opinion, this witch was far stronger than his captain, and according to his previous impression, the more powerful a witch was, the less she would take ordinary people seriously.

"That's right. And not just them. Every one of you is a precious asset." Nightingale stood up again and looked around the crowd. "Don't die easily."

Everyone was stunned.

Keane and Torre looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes.

"In that case, let's go together," Meyna decided. "Keane, Torre, listen to my orders. Take everyone and return to Taquila immediately."

"Yes, ma'am!" the two squad leaders replied in unison.

…

Chapter 1501 - Release That Witch: Side Story (Part 3)

The return journey was abnormally smooth.

Before they could go far, another advance party came to their door. This was the "real reinforcement" who had rushed over to support them after seeing Meyna's distress signal. The two troops then merged into one and headed towards Taquila together. Although they occasionally encountered traces of demons on the way, the demons were all scattered sentries and could not pose a threat to this army at all.

Seeing that the crisis had been resolved, Meyna was relieved and turned her attention to Nightingale. When they talked, Nightingale didn't tell them everything about her background. She only said that she needed to see the highest leader of the Holy City. Meyna didn't have any objections to this, because in terms of ability and magic power, she was worthy of being a senior witch. Such a person could get the right to see the person in charge. Moreover, Meyna had to report this matter in detail. Whether Nightingale was willing or not, the higher-ups would know that she was here.

After three days and two nights of trekking, Taquila City finally appeared in everyone's vision.

"That's Taquila…"

Nightingale dismounted from her horse and looked at the city in the distance. It was surrounded by towering walls, like a green mountain standing on a plain. Even the Hermes Defense Line could not compare to it. Such a majestic city wall was beyond the reach of humans. In this era, it was a miracle exclusive to witches.

There were countless tall towers in the city. It was said that only high-level Awakened ones could become the masters of the towers. The tallest "Tower of Babel" was the throne of the ruler of the Holy City, the Queen of Starfall City.

"How is it? It's magnificent, isn't it?" Mayne said proudly. "It's the largest of the three Holy Cities. The demons will never be able to take it down."

Unfortunately, five hundred years later, it would only be ruins. Nightingale pursed her lips but didn't retort, because she knew in her heart that no matter how bad the situation was, the superiors would not easily tell it to the lower ranks. Those people needed the garrison to continue fighting with high spirit until the last person.

"Do you think… even if we can defend the Holy City, we can't win against the demons?" Meyna noticed the complicated look in her eyes.

"What I think doesn't matter. What matters is what you think."

"What we think?" Meyna was stunned.

"That's right." Nightingale's thoughts instantly returned to that night, when she seemed to have snuck into the lord's room and waited for the other party to arrive, while her heart was actually full of uncertainty about the future. "If we follow the current path, we definitely won't be able to defeat the demons. But since I'm here, I won't stand by and do nothing."

What a strange feeling…Meyna thought.

If it were any other high-ranking witch, she would have thought that they were too arrogant. However, when this mysterious witch of unknown origin said this, she felt inexplicably convinced.

It was as if this witch had already seen the day of victory with her own eyes.

"Let's go," said Nightingale, mounting her horse.

Entering the crowded Holy City, the garrison team went their separate ways, while Meyna led Nightingale to the Tower of Babel. Firstly, she had to report the matter, and secondly, she could not disrespect the senior witch. However, they were not immediately granted an audience and could only wait in the lobby for the notice.

Not only that, but Nightingale also noticed that there were seven or eight heavy armored warriors around the hall.

Under the fog vision, they were like pitch-black holes. It was hard not to notice them. This meant that they were carrying God's Stones of Retaliation.

"It seems that the Queen of Witches doesn't trust visitors from other worlds." Nightingale chuckled.

"What did you say?" Meyna had no idea.

"It's nothing. This has nothing to do with you," she said nonchalantly.

However, Meyna misunderstood her. "Are you worried about the audience? Don't worry, the Union has always respected powerful Awakened ones. You're so young, and you're as powerful as a senior witch. As long as you explain your background to the lords, you'll definitely be treated equally."

At this point, she suddenly sighed. "If my sister wasn't so stubborn, she would have been one of the higher-ups of the Union by now."

"Your sister?" asked Nightingale casually.

"Yes." Meyna's eyes lit up. "Even when she was in the Union, she was one of the top genius witches. She was even personally praised by the Three Chief Witches. I thought that with time, she could become the core of the leadership, just like the Queen of Witches…"

"Oh? That's something." Nightingale shrugged. "What's her name? I might have heard of her."

After three days of interaction, Meyna was no longer surprised by such a reaction—it was as if the other party knew a lot, but also as if she knew nothing about the world. For example, she was very unfamiliar with the common sense of the Holy City, the Union, and so on, and did not even have the self-awareness of a high-level witch. However, when they were camping and chatting at night, she was able to speak articulately about some difficult things, such as what the stars in the sky were and why the bonfire could only burn brightly in the wind. If Meyna refuted or questioned her, she would definitely be confused by the other party's more complicated theories.

So when Nightingale asked, Meyna was not the least surprised. "Her name is Agatha. She's the youngest senior witch."

"Pfft!" Nightingale choked on her saliva for the second time.

"You…"

"I've heard of her before. I've heard of her before." She waved a hand. "Not only have I heard her before, but I'm quite familiar with her."

How could she not be familiar with her? Ever since Agatha joined Graycastle, Roland had left most of his research projects to her, and he had directly become half a hands-off manager. At that time, she still couldn't see the trick behind it, but now it was obvious that Roland was slacking off!

These words had a completely different meaning in Meyna's ears.

This girl knew very little about Taquila, but she knew Agatha well. Did this not mean that Agatha was more famous than the legends of the Holy City?

"How did you meet my sister?"

"Well…" Nightingale looked away. "It's a long story."

At the same time, a huge plan gradually took shape in her mind. Since Agatha existed and had a disagreement with the Holy City, it meant that the Union was approaching its end. There was not much time left for humans, but it was an opportunity for her to change everything.

"Is this Miss Nightingale?" At this time, several people came to the front of Nightingale and Meyna. The leader was a female warrior in armor.

Judging from their attire, they should be the elite troops of the Union, the Blessed Army.

"I am," said Nightingale, getting up.

"Please come with us."

Meyna also wanted to follow, but the warrior held out her hand to stop her. "Your mission ends here. Go back to the camp and wait for orders."

She hesitated for a moment and could only accept the order helplessly.

"Hey, Meyna," said Nightingale suddenly.

"Lady Nightingale?"

"Remember to protect yourself." She turned around and smiled. "We will win."

…

At the top of Tower of Babel.

The moment Nightingale walked into the hall, she felt several eyes on her.

She was very familiar with this suspicious and vigilant gaze. She came to the center of the hall and waved at the women sitting in the chief seats. She did not know the others, but she knew the red-haired woman in the middle very well. It was this person who planned the final framework of the Union and personally sent the witches into the darkest abyss.

She was the creator of the church, Alice, the Queen of Witches.

"How dare you!"

"You should bow to the Chiefs!"

The moment she raised her hand, a warrior immediately shouted.

Nightingale spread her hands playfully. "I'm sorry. I'm a citizen of Graycastle. I don't know much about Union etiquette."

"A citizen... of Graycastle?"

"What is that place?" The witches looked confused.

In the end, it was Alice who spoke. "It doesn't matter. At a time like this, we shouldn't be talking over trivial matters. I heard from the advance team that they met you in the northern region of Fertile Plains. So the Graycastle you mentioned is also in that area? I've never heard that there are still large human towns in the north."

"Because it is indeed not in the north." Nightingale smiled. "Graycastle originated in the far east. After decades of development, it has become a human country that unites the continent. In fact, the Fertile Plains is also part of Graycastle's territory—"

"Ridiculous!" A witch at the head of the table interrupted her sternly. "There are only forests and ridges in the east. How can there be a human kingdom?"

Alice's face also showed a hint of anger.

"Yes, there is." Nightingale didn't back down. "When the Union was destroyed, it became the only refuge for mankind. Because of the implementation of the God's Punishment Army plan, the witches disappeared. You tried to preserve your strength and make a comeback, but the result was a crushing defeat."

As soon as these words were spoken, the hall was in an uproar.

The expressions of the witches sitting at the head of the table changed drastically!

Until now, the God's Punishment Army had been an extremely secret research project. Except for the leaders of the Quest Society and Taquila City, almost no one knew about the existence of this project.

Yet, this woman of unknown origin had directly revealed the Queen of Starfall City's trump card?

"Guards! This person is a spy for Natalya. Take her down!" The witch who interrupted her ordered.

Four heavy armored warriors immediately rushed towards Nightingale.

Even a high-grade witch would be at the mercy of the God's Stone of Retaliation as long as she was within its influence range!

Nightingale, however, calmly raised her left hand and snapped her fingers. Then she waved her hands!

Four black threads instantly shattered the divine stones hanging on the warriors' chests.

Without this line of defense, the warriors couldn't restrain Nightingale at all. In the blink of an eye, Nightingale knocked them all down and deliberately avoided the fatal parts. Although the warriors couldn't stand up again due to the wounds, none of them died.

"How is this possible!?"

The witch's exclamation became everyone's common thought.

Using her ability to break the seal of the God's Stone of Retaliation?

This scene simply overturned everyone's understanding!

Even Extraordinary individuals could only use pure physical strength within the range of the God's Stone! However, those strange threads and her intermittent figure indicated that this person was definitely not a witch who strengthened her body.

"Get out of the way!" Alice made her move.

She grabbed the long sword next to her and slashed it at Nightingale. The sword was shining with golden light. It was the power bestowed by the Sigil of God's Will.

Nightingale smiled and pulled the dagger from her belt. The edge of the blade gleamed with the same light.

"She also has a Sigil of God's Will?"

In the midst of everyone's astonishment, Nightingale raised her dagger to meet Alice's sword. She could see that the Queen of Witches had no intention of taking her life, so she didn't point at her opponent's vital parts. Instead, she chose to clash head-on with the sword!

With a crisp sound, Alice's sword was broken into two pieces, but Nightingale's dagger was unscathed.

The hall was silent for a moment.

Nightingale wasn't surprised by this result. This chromium molybdenum vanadium steel dagger was produced from an industrial assembly line. How could it be inferior to a hand-made mixed steel product?

Magic stone products were no longer new in Graycastle, but in the Taquila era, high-quality seals were still something only the top witches could have.

"Who… are you?" Alice murmured.

"I'm here to help you," said Nightingale, sheathing her dagger. "To prevent the witches from making the same mistake. And to save the human world from being destroyed by the demons."

Suddenly, a thought flashed across Alice's mind.

I am a citizen of Graycastle.

The Graycastle originated in the far east.

When the Union was destroyed, it became the only refuge for mankind.

The God's Punishment Army plan will only cause the witches to fail miserably.

At first, she did not take these ridiculous words to heart, but now that she thought about it carefully, what if the other party was not spouting nonsense?

"Could it be that… you can foresee the future?"

"No." Nightingale smirked. "I am from the future."

Hearing this answer, everyone was dumbfounded. They subconsciously wanted to deny this answer, but in the face of overwhelming power, this answer was the most reasonable explanation.

"Lady Alice, the sentinel troops have urgent information to report!" Suddenly, a warrior in armor rushed into the hall and broke the tense atmosphere.

"What is it? Speak!" The Queen of Starfall City said calmly.

"A large number of demons have suddenly appeared in the north of Taquila! No one knows where they came from!" the warrior said anxiously. "The surrounding area has been covered by red mist. There are at least ten thousand people!"

One of the chief witches suddenly stood up. "How far away are the demons from us?"

"Less than… half a day's journey."

"Nonsense!" She was furious. "Our advance teams are spread all over the Fertile Plains. How can they let a large number of enemies suddenly appear in front of us?"

The warrior lowered his head. "I don't know either, but that's what the garrison reported."

"Where's the messenger?"

"After he brought the news back to the Holy City, he died from his injuries…"

"Wu wu wu wu wu wu wu wu wu~~~~~~~"

Halfway through his sentence, a continuous horn sounded outside the Holy City!

Alice's expression changed. She threw down the broken sword and turned to walk towards the terrace at the side of the hall. The others followed her and came to the top of the terrace.

The sky in the north was covered with dark clouds. The scarlet fog was like a rolling pool of mud that surged towards the Holy City. The fog was so thick that it dyed the clouds red!

There was no need for further confirmation.

As long as one was not blind, one would know that it was definitely an army of demons.

The only thing the sentry misjudged was the time.

They would arrive at the Holy City in less than half a day.

"Why… Why were there no reactions from the advance teams?" The senior witches were livid. "Can the demons turn invisible?!"

"We have to bring back all the troops we sent out!"

"It's too late! Inform the Blessed Army to face the enemy!"

"So this is what happened," said Nightingale thoughtfully.

"What do you know?" Alice did not dare to take her words as crazy this time.

"I used to wonder why Taquila fell so quickly. It was supposed to be the last fortress of the Union, but it didn't seem to last for a month." Nightingale slowly said, "Now that I think about it, I'm afraid the situation in Sky-sea Realm has eased, so they have the ability to transfer the troops to the Land of Dawn."

The bunch of words that they had never heard before made everyone look at each other.

"If I'm not wrong, this should be the enemy's vanguard. I'm afraid that more and more demons will arrive in the Fertile Plains in the future." Nightingale patted Alice's shoulder. "But don't worry, I will help you defend the Holy City. As long as you change your way of thinking and doing things, it's not too late."

"What are we going to change?" Alice asked subconsciously.

Nightingale jumped onto the terrace fence and turned her back to the north. The wind whipped her wide robe and sent her blond hair flying. "First of all, believe that mortals can defeat the demons."

Then, she extended two fingers. "Secondly, to hell with the smile of deities."

After saying that, she tiptoed and fell backwards facing the crowd, throwing herself down from the sky.

"You—" Alice stretched out her hand to pull her back, but found that she was no longer there.

Nightingale was already in the fog.

As she stepped, the lines changed, as if she was walking in the air. Through the black and white world, she could see that the entire city was awakened by the sound of the horn. The streets and alleys were filled with ordinary people running in a hurry. The soldiers and combat witches of the garrison had already climbed the city wall or entered the fortifications outside the high wall according to their training.

Among the troops outside the city, Nightingale found a familiar magic wave.

She adjusted her direction and jumped towards this person.

"Everyone, get into cover and wait for the demons to get close before taking action!"

"Remember! Destroy their siege weapons first!"

"If you encounter an enemy on the level of a Lord of Hell, immediately release a signal smoke. The Blessed Army will assist you!"

On the front line, the commander was loudly assigning tasks. Meyna squatted in a trench and looked at the red mist not far away. It was not her first time encountering demons and she was quite experienced among the combat witches, but it was her first time experiencing such a large-scale battle.

No matter what, she must not retreat! She took a deep breath and secretly clenched her fists. Behind her was the Holy City, the last home of the witches!

Suddenly, a young girl leaped out of the void and landed lightly in front of the camp.

"Hey, no way…" Meyna gasped.

Who else could it be but Nightingale!?

"Who is that little girl?" The other soldiers also discovered her existence.

"Is she a witch? Pull her back!"

Nightingale faced the demon army and raised her right hand.

Almost instantly, all the combat witches sensed that something was wrong. The magic power in the air was surging crazily, as if a huge storm had been set off! And the center of the storm was the blond woman!

What was this feeling? Meyna had thought that she had seen enough unsolved mysteries about the woman, but she did not expect her to surprise her again.

This was not the magic power that humans could withstand!

"Is she crazy? If this continues, she'll explode and die!"

"But she seems fine!"

The others looked at the scene in front of them in disbelief. Even the Awakened who had just begun to understand magic could feel how astonishing the magic power gathered on the girl's body was. Logically speaking, even a high-level witch could not control such power, but the person in front of them was doing all this calmly!

Nightingale really couldn't have done this on her own.

The magic power she summoned at this moment was like an overwhelming bomb. If there was any flaw in her willpower, she would turn into ashes in the huge explosion.

However, she had the support of countless people.

Be it in the real world or the Dream World, people's understanding and research of the magic power and the Cradle System had far exceeded that of the past. She did not spend much effort to open the door of the Cradle. At this moment, the Realm of Mind was connected to her, and the surging sea of consciousness provided her with additional calculations.

She stood on the shoulders of millions of people.

"Watch closely."

Nightingale condensed her magic power into a black and white sword and slashed at the red mist! The huge sword which was thousands of meters long tore through space. Even the naked eye could capture its existence!

The moment the huge sword landed, everything in their sight distorted. The edge of the sharp blade spread out like a transparent ripple!

There was no deafening roar, nor was there any earth-shattering change. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. After the sword light disappeared, a deep groove appeared on the ground, and the surrounding demons disappeared. That's right, this groove was not broken by force, and the demons were not cut into pieces. They just disappeared neatly, as if they had never existed. The edge of the groove was as smooth as a mirror. Whether it was gravel or rocks below, they had become a smooth surface.

In fact, it wasn't just the ground. Even the red mist in the air and the clouds above their heads were split into two by this attack.

The demons retreated in defeat.

They fled faster than when they came.

Nightingale turned around and saw that there were many people standing behind her. There were both combat witches and ordinary soldiers of the garrison. But regardless of their identity and status, when she turned around, everyone responded in unison.

They put their right hands to their chests and knelt down to her on one knee.

This was the most solemn etiquette, and it was also a way for the Taquila people to show their respect to the top of the high-ranking witches.

Typically, they only did this in grand ceremonies to the Three Chiefs.

Nightingale knew that she would become the guide for the surviving humans, just as Roland had done before.

It would probably be a long time before she had the time to enjoy lying on the rocking chair and eating fish filets.

However, she believed that such efforts would not be in vain.

Nightingale turned to look at the continuous mountains to the south.

As long as Agatha was around, time was not insurmountable.

Five hundred years later, she would truly receive her reward.

And now, the story had just begun.